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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43633 ***
+
+Transcriber's Note: Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold
+text by =equal signs=.
+
+
+
+
+PRICE, 25 CENTS.                                                 No. 81.
+
+                           THE SUNSET SERIES.
+
+      By Subscription, per Year, Nine Dollars.      March 1, 1894.
+      Entered at the New York Post Office as second-class matter.
+
+                   Copyright 1891, by J. S. OGILVIE.
+
+
+
+
+                                  THE
+                           ROYAL LIFE GUARD.
+
+                                   BY
+                              Alex. Dumas.
+
+
+
+
+                               NEW YORK:
+                   J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY,
+                            57 ROSE STREET.
+
+
+
+
+A GREAT OFFER!
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The price of Each One of these books bound in cloth is 75 cents, but we
+will send you the FIVE BOOKS bound in paper for 75 cents!
+
+2269 Pages for 75 Cents.
+
+     Remarkable but True. We will, for 75 cents, send the Leather
+     Stocking Tales, by J. Fenimore Cooper, comprising the five separate
+     books, The Deerslayer, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie,
+     The Last of the Mohicans, set in large long primer type, and each
+     bound in heavy lithograph covers. Sent by mail, postpaid, for 75
+     cents, and money refunded if you are not satisfied. Address,
+
+          _J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY,
+                      57 Rose Street, New York._
+
+
+
+
+HOW TO GET MARRIED
+
+     Although a Woman, or The Art of Pleasing Men. By a YOUNG
+     WIDOW. The following is the table of contents: Girls and Matrimony.
+     The Girls Whom Men Like. The Girl Who Wins and How She Does It.
+     The Girl Who Fails. Some Unfailing Methods. A Word of Warning. The
+     Secret of the Widow's Power. Lady Beauty. The Loved Wife. Every
+     woman, married or single, should read this book. It will be sent
+     by mail, postpaid, _securely sealed_, on receipt of only 25 cents.
+     Address,
+
+          _J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY,
+                      57 Rose Street, New York._
+
+
+
+
+                         THE ROYAL LIFE-GUARD;
+                                   OR
+                    THE FLIGHT OF THE ROYAL FAMILY.
+
+
+                A HISTORICAL ROMANCE OF THE SUPPRESSION
+                        OF THE FRENCH MONARCHY.
+
+
+                          BY ALEXANDER DUMAS.
+
+     Author of "Balsamo the Magician," "Monte Cristo," "The Queen's
+        Necklace," "The Three Musketeers," "Chicot the Jester,"
+                "The Countess of Charny," "The Knight of
+                            Redcastle," etc.
+
+
+               TRANSLATED FROM THE LATEST PARIS EDITION.
+                                   BY
+                       HENRY LLEWELLYN WILLIAMS.
+
+
+                               NEW YORK:
+                   J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY,
+                            57 ROSE STREET.
+
+
+_Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1892, by A. E. Smith &
+     Co., in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington._
+
+
+
+
+THE ROYAL LIFE-GUARD.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A NEW LEASE OF LIFE.
+
+
+France had been changed to a limited monarchy from an absolute one, and
+King Louis XVI. had solemnly sworn to defend the new Constitution. But
+it had been remarked by shrewd observers that he had not attended the Te
+Deum at the Paris Cathedral, with the members of the National Assembly:
+that is, he would tell a lie but not commit perjury.
+
+The people were therefore on their guard against him, while they felt
+that his Queen, Marie Antoinette, the daughter of Austria, was ever
+their foe.
+
+But the murders by the rabble had frightened all property holders and
+when the court bought Mirabeau, the popular orator, over to its cause
+by paying his debts and a monthly salary the majority of the better
+classes, who had not fled from France in terror, thought the Royal
+Family would yet regain their own.
+
+In point of fact, Mirabeau had obtained from the House of
+Representatives that the King should have the right to rule the army
+and direct it and propose war, which the Assembly would only have the
+sanction of. He would have obtained more in the reaction after the
+Taking of the Bastile but for an unknown hand having distributed full
+particulars of his purchase by the royalists in a broadside given away
+by thousands in the streets.
+
+Hence he retired from the senate broken by his victory, though carrying
+himself proudly.
+
+In face of danger the strong athlete thought of the antagonist, not of
+his powers.
+
+On going home, he flung himself on the floor, rolling on flowers. He had
+two passionate loves: for the fair sex, because he was an ugly though
+robust man, and for flowers.
+
+This time he felt so exhausted that he resisted his attendant feebly,
+who wanted to send for a doctor, when "Dr. Gilbert" was announced.
+
+A man still young though with a grave expression like one tried in
+the furnace of personal and political heats, entered the room. He was
+clothed in the wholly black suit which he introduced from America, where
+it was popular among Republicans, for he was a friend of Washington and
+Marquis Lafayette, who like him had returned to make a sister Republic
+of France to that of the Thirteen United States.
+
+Dr. Gilbert was a friend of Mirabeau, for he wished to preserve the King
+at the head of the State though he knew it was but the gilded figurehead
+without which, if knocked off in the tempest, the Ship rights itself and
+lives through all without feeling the loss.
+
+Nevertheless, Gilbert, who was one of the Invisibles, that Secret
+Society which worked for years to bring about the downfall of monarchy
+in Europe, had been warned by its Chief, the Grand Copt Cagliostro,
+_alias_ Balsamo the Mesmerist, _alias_ Baron Zannone--since he had
+escaped from the Papal dungeons under cover of his being supposed dead
+and buried there--that the Queen cajoled him and that royalty was
+doomed.
+
+"I have come to congratulate you, my dear count," said the doctor to the
+orator, "you promised us a victory, and you have borne away a triumph."
+
+"A Pyrrhic one--another such and we are lost. I am very ill of it. Oh,
+doctor, tell me of something, not to keep me alive but to give me force
+while I do live."
+
+"How can I advise for a constitution like yours," said the physician,
+after feeling the nobleman's pulse: "you do not heed my advice. I told
+you not to have flowers in the room as they spoil the air, and you are
+smothered in them. As for the ladies, I bade you beware and you answer
+that you would rather die than be reft of their society."
+
+"Never mind that. I suffer too much to think of aught but myself. I
+sometimes think that as I am slandered so that the Queen hesitated to
+trust me, so have I been physically done to death. Do you believe in the
+famous poisons which slay without knowing they are used until too late?"
+
+"Yes; I believe," for Gilbert frowned as he remembered that his secret
+brotherhood was allowed to use the Aqua Tofana where an enemy could not
+be otherwise reached: "but in your case it is the sword wearing out its
+sheath. The electric spark will explode the crystal chamber in which it
+is confined. Still I can help you."
+
+He drew from his pocket a phial holding about a couple of thimblefuls of
+a green liquid.
+
+"One of my friends--whom I would were yours--deeply versed in natural
+and occult sciences, gave me the recipe of this brew as a sovereign
+elixir of life. I have often taken it to cure what the English call
+the blue devils. And I am bound to say that the effect was instant and
+salutary. Will you taste it?"
+
+"I will take anything from your hand, my dear doctor."
+
+A servant was rung up, who brought a spoon and a little brandy in a
+glass.
+
+"Brandy to mollify it," said Mirabeau: "it must be liquid fire, then!"
+
+Gilbert added the same quantity of his elixir to the half-dozen drops of
+eau-de-vie and the two fluids mixed to the color of wormwood bitters,
+which the exhausted man drank off.
+
+Immediately he was invigorated and sprang up, saying:
+
+"Doctor, I will pay a diamond a drop for that liquor, for it would make
+me feel invincible."
+
+"Count, promise me that you will take it only each three days, and I
+will leave you a phial every week."
+
+"Give it, and I promise everything."
+
+"Now, I have come for another matter. I want you to come out of town
+for carriage exercise and at the same time to select a residence there."
+
+"It chances that I was looking for one, and my man found a nice house at
+Argenteuil, recommended by a fellow countryman of his, one Fritz, whose
+master, a foreign banker, had lived in it. It is delightful and being
+vacant could be moved into at once. My father had a house out there,
+whence he drove me with his cane."
+
+"Let us go to Argenteuil, then," said Gilbert; "your health is so
+valuable that we must study everything bearing upon it."
+
+Mirabeau had no establishment and a hack had to be called for the
+gentlemen. In this they proceeded to the village where, a hundred paces
+on the Besons Road, they saw a house buried in the trees. It was called
+the Marsh House.
+
+On the right of the road was a humble cottage, in front of which sat a
+woman on a stool, holding a child in her arms who seemed devoured with
+fever.
+
+"Doctor," said the orator, fixing his eyes on the sad sight, "I am as
+superstitious as an ancient. If that child dies, I would not live in
+this house. Just see what you think of the case."
+
+Gilbert got down while the carriage went on.
+
+A gardener was keeping the house which he showed to the inquirer.
+It belonged to St. Denis Abbey and was for sale under the decree
+confiscating Church property. Over against the gardener's lodge was
+another, a summerhouse simply overgrown with flowers. Mirabeau's passion
+for them made this sufficient lure; for this alone he would have taken
+the house.
+
+"Is this little cottage, this Temple of Flora, on the property?" he
+asked.
+
+"Yes, sir: it belongs to the big house but it is at present occupied by
+a lady with her child, a pretty lady, but of course she will have to go
+if the house and estate are bought."
+
+"A lovely neighbor does no harm," said the count: "Let me see the
+interior of the house."
+
+The rooms were lofty and elegant, the furniture fine and stylish. In
+the main room Mirabeau opened a window to look out and it commanded a
+view of the summerhouse. What was more, he had a view of a lady, sewing,
+half reclining, while a child of five or six played on the lawn among
+flowering shrubs.
+
+It was the lady tenant.
+
+It was not only such a pretty woman as one might imagine a Queen among
+the roses, but it was the living likeness of Queen Marie Antoinette and
+to accentuate the resemblance the boy was about the age of the Prince
+Royal.
+
+Suddenly the beautiful stranger perceived that she was under observation
+for she uttered a faint scream of surprise, rose, called her son, and
+drew him inside by the hand, but not without looking back two or three
+times.
+
+At this same moment Mirabeau started, for a hand was laid on his
+shoulder. It was the doctor who reported that the peasant's child had
+caught swamp fever from being set down beside a stagnant pool while the
+mother reaped the grass. The disease was deadly but the doctor hoped to
+save the sufferer by Jesuit's Bark, as quinine was still styled at this
+date.
+
+But he warned his friend against this House in the Marsh, where the
+air might be as fatal to him as that of the senate house, where bad
+ventilation made the atmosphere mephitic.
+
+"I am sorry the air is not good, for the house suits me wonderfully."
+
+"What an eternal enemy you are to yourself? If you mean to obey the
+orders of the Faculty, begin by renouncing the idea of taking this
+residence. You will find fifty around Paris better placed."
+
+Perhaps Mirabeau, yielding to Reason's voice, would have promised; but
+suddenly, in the first shades of evening, behind a screen of flowers,
+appeared the head of a woman in white and pink flounces: he fancied that
+she smiled on him. He had no time to assure himself as Gilbert dragged
+him away, suspecting something was going on.
+
+"My dear doctor," said the orator, "remember that I said to the Queen
+when she gave me her hand to kiss on our interview for reconciliation:
+'By this token, the Monarchy is saved.' I took a heavy engagement that
+time, especially if they whom I defend plot against me; but I shall hold
+to it, though suicide may be the only way for me to get honorably out of
+it."
+
+In a day Mirabeau bought the Marsh House.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE FEDERATION OF FRANCE.
+
+
+All the realm had bound itself together in the girdle of Federation, one
+which preceded the United Europe of later utopists.
+
+Mirabeau had favored the movement, thinking that the King would gain
+by the country people coming to Paris, where they might overpower the
+citizens. He deluded himself into the belief that the sight of royalty
+would result in an alliance which no plot could break.
+
+Men of genius sometimes have these sublime but foolish ideas at which
+the tyros in politics may well laugh.
+
+There was a great stir in the Congress when the proposition was brought
+forward for this Federation ceremony at Paris which the provinces
+demanded. It was disapproved by the two parties dividing the House, the
+Jacobins (So called from the old Monastery of Jacobins where they met)
+and the royalists. The former dreaded the union more than their foes
+from not knowing the effect Louis XVI. might have on the masses.
+
+The King's-men feared that a great riot would destroy the royal family
+as one had destroyed the Bastile.
+
+But there was no means to oppose the movement which had not its like
+since the Crusades.
+
+The Assembly did its utmost to impede it, particularly by resolving
+that the delegates must come at their own expense; this was aimed
+at the distant provinces. But the politicians had no conception of
+the extent of the desire: all doors opened along the roads for these
+pilgrims of liberty and the guides of the long procession were all the
+discontented--soldiers and under-officers who had been kept down that
+aristocrats should have all the high offices; seamen who had won the
+Indies and were left poor: shattered waifs to whom the storms had left
+stranded. They found the strength of their youth to lead their friends
+to the capitol.
+
+Hope marched before them.
+
+All the pilgrims sang the same song: "It must go on!" that is, the
+Revolution. The Angel of Renovation had taught it to all as it hovered
+over the country.
+
+To receive the five hundred thousand of the city and country, a gigantic
+area was required: the field of Mars did for that, while the surrounding
+hills would hold the spectators; but as it was flat it had to be
+excavated.
+
+Fifteen thousand regular workmen, that is, of the kind who loudly
+complain that they have no work to do and under their breath thank
+heaven when they do not find it--started in on the task converting the
+flat into the pit of an amphitheatre. At the rate they worked they would
+be three months at it, while it was promised for the Fourteenth of July,
+the Anniversary of the Taking of the Bastile.
+
+Thereupon a miracle occurred by which one may judge the enthusiasm of
+the masses.
+
+Paris volunteered to work the night after the regular excavators had
+gone off. Each brought his own tools: some rolled casks of refreshing
+drink, others food; all ages and both sexes, all conditions from the
+scholar to the carter; children carried torches; musicians played all
+kinds of instruments to cheer the multitude, and from one hundred
+thousand workers sounded the song "It shall go on!"
+
+Among the most enfevered toilers might be remarked two who had been
+among the first to arrive; they were in National Guards uniform. One was
+a gloomy-faced man of forty, with robust and thickset frame; the other a
+youth of twenty.
+
+The former did not sing and spoke seldom.
+
+The latter had blue eyes in a frank and open countenance, with white
+teeth and light hair; he stood solidly on long legs and large feet. With
+his full-sized hands he lifted heavy weights, rolling dirt carts and
+pulling hurdles without rest. He was always singing, while watching his
+comrade out of the corner of the eye, saying joking words to which he
+did not reply, bringing him a glass of wine which he refused, returning
+to his place with sorrow, but falling to work again like ten men, and
+singing like twenty.
+
+These two men, newly elected Representatives by the Aisne District, ten
+miles from Paris, having heard that hands were wanted, ran in hot haste
+to offer one his silent co-operation, the other his merry and noisy
+assistance.
+
+Their names were François Billet and Ange Pitou. The first was a wealthy
+farmer, whose land was owned by Dr. Gilbert, and the second a boy of the
+district who had been the schoolmate of Gilbert's son Sebastian.
+
+Thanks to their help, with that of others as energetic and patriotically
+inspired, the enormous works were finished on the Thirteenth of July
+1790.
+
+To make sure of having places next day, many workers slept on the
+battlefield.
+
+Billet and Pitou were to officiate in the ceremonies and they went to
+join their companions on the main street. Hotel-keepers had lowered
+their prices and many houses were open to their brothers from the
+country. The farther they came the more kindly they were treated, if any
+distinction was made.
+
+On its part the Assembly had received a portion of the shock. A few days
+before, it had abolished hereditary nobility, on the motion of Marquis
+Lafayette.
+
+Contrarily, the influence of Mirabeau was felt daily. A place was
+assigned in the Federation to him as Orator. Thanks to so mighty a
+champion, the court won partisans in the opposition ranks. The Assembly
+had voted liberal sums to the King for his civil list and for the Queen,
+so that they lost nothing by pensioning Mirabeau.
+
+The fact was, he seemed quite right in appealing to the rustics; the
+Federalists whom the King welcomed seemed to bring love for royalty
+along with enthusiasm for the National Assembly.
+
+Unhappily the King, dull and neither poetical nor chivalric, met the
+cheers coolly.
+
+Unfortunately, also, the Queen, too much of a Lorrainer to love the
+French and too proud to greet common people, did not properly value
+these outbursts of the heart.
+
+Besides, poor woman, she had a spot on her sun: one of those gloomy fits
+which clouded her mind.
+
+She had long loved Count Charny, lieutenant of the Royal Lifeguards, but
+his loyalty to the King, who had treated him like a brother in times of
+danger, had rendered him invulnerable to the woman's wiles.
+
+Marie Antoinette was no longer a young woman and sorrow had touched her
+head with her wing, which was making the threads of silver appear in the
+blonde tresses--but she was fair enough to bewitch a Mirabeau and might
+have enthralled George Charny.
+
+But, married to save the Queen's reputation to a lady of the court,
+Andrea de Taverney, he was falling in love with her, she having loved
+him at first sight, and this love naturally fortified his tacit pledge
+never to wrong his sovereign.
+
+Hence the Queen was miserable, and all the more as Charny had departed
+on some errand for the King of which he had not told her the nature.
+
+Probably this was why she had played the flirt with Mirabeau. The genius
+had flattered her by kneeling at her feet. But she too soon compared the
+bloated, heavy, leonine man with Charny.
+
+George Charny was elegance itself, the noble and the courtier and yet
+more a seaman, who had saved a war-ship by nailing the colors to the
+mast and bidding the crew fight on.
+
+In his brilliant uniform he looked like a prince of battles, while
+Mirabeau, in his black suit, resembled a canon of the church.
+
+The fourteenth of July came impassibly, draped in clouds and promising
+rain and a gale when it ought to have illumined a splendid day.
+
+But the French laugh even on a rainy day.
+
+Though drenched with rain and dying of hunger, the country delegates
+and National Guards, ranked along the main street, made merry and sang.
+But the population, while unable to keep the wet off them, were not
+going to let them starve. Food and drink were lowered by ropes out of
+the windows. Similar offerings were made in all the thoroughfares they
+passed through.
+
+During their march, a hundred and fifty thousand people took places on
+the edges of the Field of Mars, and as many stood behind them. It was
+not possible to estimate the number on the surrounding hills.
+
+Never had such a sight struck the eye of man.
+
+The Field was changed in a twinkling of the plain into a pit, with the
+auditorium holding three hundred thousand.
+
+In the midst was the Altar of the Country, to which led four staircases,
+corresponding with the faces of the obelisk which overtowered it.
+
+At each corner smoked incense dishes--incense being decreed henceforth
+to be used only in offerings to God.
+
+Inscriptions heralded that the French People were free, and invited all
+nations to the feast of Freedom.
+
+One grand stand was reserved for the Queen, the court and the Assembly.
+It was draped with the Red, White and Blue which she abhorred, since she
+had seen it flaunt above her own, the Austrian black.
+
+For this day only the King was appointed Commander-in-chief, but he had
+transferred his command to Lafayette who ruled six millions of armed men
+in the National Guards of France.
+
+The tricolor surmounted everything--even to the distinctive banners of
+each body of delegates.
+
+At the same time as the President of the Assembly took his seat, the
+King and the Queen took theirs.
+
+Alas, poor Queen! her court was meager: her best friends had fled
+in fright: perhaps some would have returned if they knew what money
+Mirabeau had obtained for her; but they were ignorant.
+
+She knew that Charny, whom she vainly looked for, would not be attracted
+by the power or by gold.
+
+She looked for his younger brother, Isidore, wondering why all the
+Queen's defenders seemed absent from their post.
+
+Nobody knew where he was. At this hour he was conducting his sweetheart,
+Catherine, daughter of the gloomy farmer Billet, to a house in Bellevue,
+Paris, for refuge from the contumely of her sisters in the village and
+the wrath of her father.
+
+Who knows, though, but that the heiress to the throne of the Caesars
+would have consented to be an obscure peasant girl to be loved by George
+again as Isidore loved the farmer's daughter.
+
+She was no doubt revolving such ideas when Mirabeau, who saw her with
+glances, half thunderous weather, half sunshine, and could not help
+exclaiming:
+
+"Of what is the royal enchantress thinking?"
+
+She was brooding over the absence of Charny and his love died out.
+
+The mass was said by Talleyrand, the French "Vicar of Bray," who swore
+allegiance to all manner of Constitutions himself. It must have been of
+evil augury. The storm redoubled as though protesting against the false
+priest who burlesqued the service.
+
+Here followed the ceremony of taking the oath. Lafayette was the first,
+binding the National Guards. The Assembly Speaker swore for France; and
+the King in his own name.
+
+When the vows were made in deep silence, a hundred pieces of artillery
+burst into flame at once and bellowed the signal to the surrounding
+country.
+
+From every fortified place an immense flame issued, followed by the
+menacing thunder invented by man and eclipsing that of heaven if
+superiority is to be measured by disasters. So the circle enlarged until
+the warning reached the frontier and surpassed it.
+
+When the King rose to declare his purpose the clouds parted and the sun
+peered out like the Eye of God.
+
+"I, King of the French," he said, "swear to employ all the power
+delegated to me by the Constitutional Law of the State to maintain the
+Constitution."
+
+Why had he not eluded the solemn pledge as before; for his next step,
+flight from the kingdom, was to be the key to the enigma set that day.
+But, true or false, the cannon-fire none the less roared the oath to the
+confines. It took the warning to the monarchs:
+
+"Take heed! France is afoot, wishing to be free, and she is ready like
+the Roman envoy to shake peace or war, as you like it, from the folds of
+her dress."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+WHERE THE BASTILE STOOD.
+
+
+Night came: the morning festival had been on the great parade ground;
+the night rejoicing was to be on the site where the Bastile had stood.
+
+Eighty-three trees, one for each department of France, were stuck up
+to show the space occupied by the infamous states-prison, on whose
+foundation these trees of liberty were planted. Strings of lamps ran
+from tree to tree. In the midst rose a large pole, with a flag lettered:
+"Freedom!"
+
+Near the moats, in a grave left open on purpose were flung the old
+chains, fetters, instruments of torture found in it, and its clock with
+chained captives the supporters. The dungeons were left open and lighted
+ghastly, where so many tears and groans had been vainly expanded.
+
+Lastly, in the inmost courtyard, a ballroom had been set up and as the
+music pealed, the couples could be seen promenading. The prediction
+of Cagliostro was fulfilled that the Bastile should be a public
+strolling-ground.
+
+At one of the thousand tables set up around the Bastile, under the
+shadow of the trees outlining the site of the old fortress, two men were
+repairing their strength exhausted by the day's marching, and other
+military manoeuvres. Before them was a huge sausage, a four-pound loaf,
+and two bottles of wine.
+
+"By all that is blue," said the younger, who wore the National Guards
+captain's uniform, "it is a fine thing to eat when you are hungry and
+drink when a-thirst." He paused. "But you do not seem to be hungry or
+thirsty, Father Billet."
+
+"I have had all I want, and only thirst for one thing----"
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"I will tell you Pitou, when the time for me to sit at my feast shall
+come."
+
+Pitou did not see the drift of the reply.
+
+Pitou was a lover of Catherine Billet, but he self-acknowledged that he
+could have no chance against the young nobleman who had captivated the
+rustic maid. When her father tried to shoot the gallant, he had--while
+not shielding her or her lover, helped her to conceal herself from
+Billet.
+
+It was not he, however, but Isidore who had brought the girl to Paris,
+after she had given birth to a boy. This occurred in the absence of
+Billet and Pitou, both of whom were ignorant of the removal.
+
+Pitou had housed her in a quiet corner, and he went to Paris without
+anything arising to cause him sadness.
+
+He had found Dr. Gilbert, to whom he had to report that with money he
+had given, Captain Pitou had equipped his Guards at Haramont in uniform
+which was the admiration of the county.
+
+The doctor gave him five-and-twenty more gold pieces to be applied to
+maintaining the company at its present state of efficiency.
+
+"While I am talking with Billet," said Gilbert, "who has much to tell
+me, would you not like to see Sebastian?"
+
+"I should think I do," answered the peasant, "but I did not like to ask
+your permission."
+
+After meditating a few instants, Gilbert wrote several words on a paper
+which he folded up like a letter and addressed to his son.
+
+"Take a hack and go find him," he said. "Probably from what I have
+written, he will want to pay a visit; take him thither and wait at the
+door. He may keep you an hour or so, but I know how obliging you are;
+you will not find the time hang heavy when you know you are doing me a
+kindness."
+
+"Do not bother about that," responded the honest fellow; "I never feel
+dull; besides, I will get in a supply of something to feed on and I will
+kill time by eating."
+
+"A good method," laughed Gilbert; "only you must not eat dry bread as a
+matter of health, but wash it down with good wine."
+
+"I will get a bottle, and some head cheese, too," replied Pitou.
+
+"Brav0!" exclaimed the physician.
+
+Pitou found Sebastian in the Louis-the-Great College, in the gardens.
+He was a winsome young man of eighteen, or less, with handsome chestnut
+curls enframing his melancholy and thoughtful face and blue eyes darting
+juvenile glances like a Spring sun.
+
+In him were combined the lofty aspirations of two aristocracies: that of
+the intellect, as embodied in his father, and of race, personified in
+Andrea Countess of Charny, who had become his mother while unconscious
+in a mesmeric sleep, induced by Balsamo-Cagliostro, but perceived by
+Gilbert, who had not in his wild passion for the beauty been able to
+shrink from profiting by the trance.
+
+It was to the countess's that Gilbert had suggested his son should go.
+
+On the way Pitou laid in the provisions to fill up time if he had to
+wait any great while in the hack for the youth to come out of his
+mother's.
+
+As the countess was at home, the janitor made no opposition to a
+well-dressed young gentleman entering.
+
+Five minutes after, while Pitou was slicing up his loaf and sausage and
+taking a pull at his wine, a footman came out to say:
+
+"Her ladyship, the countess of Charny, prays Captain Pitou to do her the
+honor to step inside instead of awaiting Master Sebastian in a hired
+conveyance."
+
+The Assembly had abolished titles but the servants of the titled had not
+yet obeyed.
+
+Pitou had to wipe his mouth, pack up in paper the uneaten comestibles,
+with a sigh, and follow the man in a maze. His astonishment doubled when
+he saw a lovely lady who held Sebastian in her arms and who said, as she
+put out her hand to the new-comer:
+
+"Captain Pitou, you give me such great and unhoped-for joy in bringing
+Sebastian to me that I wanted to thank you myself."
+
+Pitou stared, and stammered, but let the hand remain untaken.
+
+"Take and kiss the lady's hand," prompted Sebastian: "it is my mother."
+
+"Your mother? oh, Gemini!" exclaimed the peasant, while the other young
+man nodded.
+
+"Yes, his mother," said Andrea with her glance beaming with delight:
+"you bring him to me after nine months' parting, and then I had only
+seen him once before: in the hope you will again bring him, I wish to
+have no secrets from you, though it would be my ruin if revealed."
+
+Every time the heart and trust of our rural friend was appealed to, one
+might be sure that he would lose his hesitation and dismay.
+
+"Oh, my lady, be you easy, your secret is here," he responded, grasping
+her hand and kissing it, before laying his own with some dignity on his
+heart.
+
+"My son tells me, Captain Pitou, that you have not breakfasted," went on
+the countess; "pray step into the dining-room, and you can make up for
+lost time while I speak with my boy."
+
+Soon, on the board were arrayed two cutlets, a cold fowl, and a pot of
+preserves, near a bottle of Bordeaux, a fine Venice glass and a pile of
+china plates. But for all the elegance of the set out edibles, Pitou
+rather deplored the head cheese, bread and common wine in the cab.
+
+As he was attacking the chicken after having put away the cutlets, the
+door opened and a young gentleman appeared, meaning to cross the room.
+But as Pitou lifted his head, they both recognized each other, and
+uttered a simultaneous cry:
+
+"Viscount Charny!"
+
+"Ange Pitou!"
+
+The peasant sprang up; his heart was violently throbbing; the sight of
+the patrician aroused his most painful memories.
+
+Not only was this his rival but his successful rival and the man who had
+wronged Catherine Billet and caused her to lose her father's respect and
+her place at her mother's side in the farmhouse. Isidore only knew that
+Catherine was under obligations to this country lad; he had no idea of
+the latter's profound love for his mistress: love out of which Pitou
+drew his devotedness.
+
+Consequently he walked right up to the other, in whom, spite of the
+uniform, he only saw still the poacher and farm boy of Haramont.
+
+"Oh, you here, Pitou," said he: "delighted to meet you to thank you for
+all the services you have done us."
+
+"My lord viscount, I did all for Miss Catherine alone," returned the
+young man, in a firm voice though all his frame thrilled.
+
+"That was all well up to your knowing that I loved her; then, I was
+bound to take my share in the gratitude and as you must have gone to
+some outlay, say for the letters transmitted to her----"
+
+He clapped his hand to his pocket to prick Pitou's conscience. But the
+other stopped him, saying, with the dignity sometimes astonishing to
+appear in him:
+
+"My lord, I do services when I can but not for pay. Besides, I repeat,
+these were for Miss Catherine solely. She is my friend; if she believes
+she is in any way indebted to me, she will regulate the account. But
+you, my lord, owe me nothing; for I did all for her, and not a stroke
+for you. So you have to offer me nothing."
+
+These words, but especially the tone, struck the hearer; perhaps it was
+only then that he noticed that the speaker was dressed as a captain in
+the new army.
+
+"Excuse me, Captain Pitou," said Isidore, slightly bowing: "I do owe you
+something, and that is my thanks, and I offer you my hand; I hope you
+will do me the pleasure of accepting one and the honor of accepting the
+other."
+
+There was such grandeur in the speech and the gesture in company with
+it, that vanquished Pitou held out his hand and with the fingers' ends
+touched Isidore's.
+
+At this juncture Countess Charny appeared on the threshold.
+
+"You asked for me, my lord," she said; "I am here."
+
+Isidore saluted the peasant and walked into the next room; he swung the
+door to behind him but the countess caught it and checked it so that it
+remained ajar. Pitou understood that he was allowed, nay, invited to
+hear what was spoken. He remarked that on the other side of the sitting
+room was another door, leading into a bedroom; if Sebastian was there,
+he could hear on that side as well as the captain on this other.
+
+"My lady," began Isidore, "I had news yesterday from my brother George;
+as in other letters, he begs me to ask you to remember him. He does not
+yet know when he is to return, and will be happy to have news from you
+either by letter or by your charging me."
+
+"I could not answer the letter he sent me from want of an address; but I
+will profit by your intermediation to have the duty of a submissive and
+respectful wife presented him. If you will take charge of a letter for
+my lord, one shall be ready on the morrow."
+
+"Have it ready," said Isidore; "but I cannot call for it till some five
+or six days as I have a mission to carry out, a journey of necessity,
+of unknown duration, but I will come here at once on my return and take
+your message."
+
+As he passed through the dining-room he saw that Pitou was spooning
+deeply into the preserves. He had finished when the countess came in,
+with Sebastian.
+
+It was difficult to recognize the grave Countess Charny in this radiant
+young mother whom two hours of chat with her son had transformed. The
+hand which she gave to Pitou seemed to be of marble still, but mollified
+and warmed.
+
+Sebastian embraced his mother with the ardor he infused in all he did.
+
+Pitou took leave without putting a question, and was silent on the way
+to the college, absorbing the rest of his head cheese, bread and wine.
+There was nothing in this incident to spoil his appetite.
+
+But he was chilled to see how gloomy Farmer Billet was.
+
+He resolved to dissipate this sadness.
+
+"I say, Father Billet," he resumed, after preparing his stock of words
+as a sharpshooter makes a provision of cartridges, "who the devil could
+have guessed, in a year and two days, that since Miss Catherine received
+me on the farm, so many events should have taken place."
+
+"Nobody," rejoined Billet whose terrible glance at the mention of
+Catherine had not been remarked.
+
+"The idea of the pair of us taking the Bastile," continued he, like the
+sharpshooter having reloaded his gun.
+
+"Nobody," replied the farmer mechanically.
+
+"Plague on it, he has made up his mind not to talk," thought the
+younger man. "Who would think that I should become a captain and you a
+Federalist, and we both be taking supper under an arbor in the very spot
+where the old prison stood?"
+
+"Nobody," said Billet for the third time, with a more sombre look than
+before.
+
+The younger man saw that there was no inducing the other to speak but he
+found comfort in the thought that this ought not to alienate his right.
+So he continued, leaving Billet the right to speak if he chose.
+
+"I suppose, like the Bastile, all whom we knew, have become dust, as
+the Scriptures foretold. To think that we stormed the Bastile, on your
+saying so, as if it were a chicken-house, and that here we sit where
+it used to be, drinking merrily! oh, the racket we kicked up that day.
+Talking of racket," he interrupted himself, "what is this rumpus all
+about?"
+
+The uproar was caused by the passing of a man who had the rare privilege
+of creating noise wherever he walked: it was Mirabeau, who, with a lady
+on his arm, was visiting the Bastile site.
+
+Another than he would have shrank from the cheers in which were mingled
+some sullen murmurs; but he was the bird of the storm and he smiled amid
+the thunderous tempest, while supporting the woman, who shivered under
+her veil at the simoon of such dreadful popularity.
+
+Pitou jumped upon a chair and waved his cocked hat on the tip of his
+sword as he shouted:
+
+"Long live Mirabeau!"
+
+Billet let escape no token of feelings either way; he folded his arms on
+his burly chest and muttered in a hollow voice:
+
+"It is said he betrays the people."
+
+"Pooh, that has been said of all great men, from antiquity down,"
+replied his friend.
+
+In his excitement he only now noticed that a third chair, drawn up to
+their table, was occupied by a stranger who seemed about to accost them.
+
+To be sure it was a day of fraternity, and familiarity was allowable
+among fellow-citizens, but Pitou, who had not finished his repast,
+thought it going too far. The stranger did not apologize but eyed the
+pair with a jeering manner apparently habitual to him.
+
+Billet was no doubt in no mood to support being "quizzed," as the
+current word ran, for he turned on the new-comer; but the latter made a
+sign before he was addressed which drew another from Billet.
+
+The two did not know each other, but they were brothers.
+
+Like Billet, he was clad like one of the delegates to the Federation.
+But he had a change of attire which reminded Billet that so were dressed
+the party with Anacharsis Clootz, the German anarchist, representing
+Mankind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE LODGE OF THE INVISIBLES.
+
+
+"You do not know me, brothers," said the stranger, when Billet had
+nodded and Pitou smiled condescendingly, "but I know you both. You are
+Captain Pitou, and you, Farmer Billet. Why are you so gloomy? because,
+though you were the first to enter the Bastile, they have forgotten to
+hang at your buttonhole the medal for the Conquerors of the Bastile and
+to do you the honors accorded to others this day?"
+
+"Did you really know me, brother," replied the farmer with scorn, "you
+would know that such trifles do not affect a heart like mine."
+
+"Is it because you found your fields unproductive when you returned home
+in October?"
+
+"I am rich--a harvest lost little worries me."
+
+"Then, it must be," said the stranger, looking him hard in the face,
+"that something has happened to your daughter Catherine----"
+
+"Silence," said the farmer, clutching the speaker's arm, "let us not
+speak of that matter."
+
+"Why not if I speak in order that you may be revenged?"
+
+"Then that is another thing--speak of it," said the other, turning pale
+but smiling at the same time.
+
+Pitou thought no more of eating or drinking, but stared at their new
+acquaintance as at a wizard.
+
+"But what do you understand by revenge?" went on he with a smile: "tell
+me. In a paltry manner, by killing one individual, as you tried to do?"
+
+Billet blanched like a corpse: Pitou shuddered all over.
+
+"Or by pursuing a whole class?"
+
+"By hunting down a whole caste," said Billet, "for of such are the
+crimes of all his like. When I mourned before my friend Dr. Gilbert,
+he said: 'Poor Billet, what has befallen you has already happened to a
+hundred thousand fathers; what would the young noblemen have in the way
+of pastime if they did not steal away the poor man's daughter, and the
+old ones steal away the King's money?'"
+
+"Oh, Gilbert said that, did he?"
+
+"Do you know him?"
+
+"I know all men," replied the stranger, smiling: "as I know you two, and
+Viscount Charny, Isidore, Lord of Boursonnes; as I know Catherine, the
+prettiest girl of the county."
+
+"I bade you not speak her name, for she is no more--she is dead."
+
+"Why, no, Father Billet," broke in Pitou, "for she----"
+
+He was no doubt going to say that he saw her daily, but the farmer
+repeated in a voice admitting of no reply,
+
+"She is dead."
+
+Pitou hung his head for he understood.
+
+"Ha, ha," said the stranger: "if I were my friend Diogenes, I should
+put out my lantern, for I believe I have found an honest man." Rising,
+he offered his arms to Billet, saying: "Brother, come and take a stroll
+with me, while this good fellow finishes the eatables."
+
+"Willingly," returned Billet, "for I begin to understand to what feast
+you invite me. Wait for me here," he added to his friend; "I shall
+return."
+
+The stranger seemed to know the gastronomical taste of Pitou for he sent
+by the waiter some more delicacies, which he was still discussing, while
+wondering, when Billet reappeared. His brow was illumined with something
+like pleasure.
+
+"Anything new, Father Billet?" asked the captain.
+
+"Only that you will start for home to-morrow while I remain."
+
+This is what Billet remained for.
+
+A week after, he might have been seen, in the dress of a well-to-do
+farmer, in Plastriere Street. Two thirds up the thoroughfare was blocked
+by a crowd around a ballad singer with a fiddler to accompany him, who
+was singing a lampoon at the characters of the day.
+
+Billet paused only an instant to listen to the strain, in which, from
+the Assembly being on the site of the old Horse-training ground, the
+attributes of horses were given to the members, as "the Roarer," to
+Mirabeau, etc.
+
+Slipping in at an alleyway at the back of the throng, he came to a low
+doorway, over which was scrawled in red chalk--symbols effaced each time
+of usage:
+
+"L. P. D."
+
+This was the way down into a subterranean passage. Billet could not read
+but he may have understood that these letters were a token, He took the
+underground road with boldness.
+
+At its end a pale light glimmered, by which a seated man was reading or
+pretending to read a newspaper, as is the custom of the Paris janitor of
+an evening.
+
+At the sound of steps he got up and with a finger touching his breast
+waited. Billet presented his forefinger bent and laid it like the ring
+of a padlock on his lips. This was probably the sign of recognition
+expected by the door-guard, for he opened a door on his right which was
+wholly invisible when shut, and pointed out to the adventurer a narrow
+and steep flight of steps going down into the earth.
+
+When Billet entered, the door shut behind him swiftly and silently. He
+counted seventeen steps, and though he was not talkative could not help
+saying: "Good, I am going right."
+
+Before a door floated tapestry: he went straight to it, lifted it and
+was within a large circular hall where some fifty persons were gathered.
+The walls were hung with red and white cloth, on which were traced the
+Square, the Compass and the Level. A single lamp, hung from the center
+of the ceiling, cast a wan light insufficient to define those who
+preferred to stand out of its direct beams.
+
+A rostrum up which four steps led, awaited orators or new members, and
+on this platform, next the wall, a desk and chair stood for the
+chairman.
+
+In a few minutes the hall filled so that there was no moving about.
+The men were of all conditions and sorts from the peasant to the
+prince, arriving like Billet solitarily, and standing wherever they
+liked, without knowing or being known to each other. Each wore under
+his overcoat the masonic apron if only a mason, or the scarf of the
+Illuminati, if affiliated to the Grand Mystery. Only three restricted
+themselves to the masonic apron.
+
+One was Billet; another a young man, and the third a man of forty-two
+who appeared by his bearing to belong to the highest upper class.
+
+Some seconds after he had arrived, though no more noticed than the
+meanest, a second panel opened and the chairman appeared, wearing the
+insignia of the Grand Orient and the Grand Copt.
+
+Billet uttered faintly his astonishment, for the Master was the man who
+had accosted him at the Bastile.
+
+He mounted the dais and turning to the assembly, said:
+
+"Brothers, we have two pieces of business to do this day: I have to
+receive three new candidates; and I have to render account of how the
+Work has gone on: for as it grows harder and harder, it is meet that
+you should know if I am ever worthy of your trust and that I should
+know if I still deserve it. It is only by receiving light from you and
+imparting it that I can walk in the dark way. Let the chiefs alone stay
+in the lodge to receive or reject the applicants. They dealt with, all
+are to return into session, from the first to the last, for it is in the
+presence of all and not only within the Supreme Circle, I wish to lay
+bare my conduct and receive censure or ask for recompense."
+
+At these words a door flew open opposite that he had come in by; vast
+vaulted depths were beheld, as the crypt of an ancient basilica.
+
+The arcades were feebly lighted by brass lamps hung so as to make
+darkness visible.
+
+Only three remained, the novices. Chance fixed it that they should be
+standing up by the wall at nearly regular distances. They looked at each
+other with astonishment, only thus and now learning that they were the
+heroes of the occasion.
+
+At this instant the door by which the chairman had come, opened to admit
+six masked men who came to place themselves beside the Master, three on
+each hand.
+
+"Let Numbers Two and Three disappear for the time," said the Master;
+"none but the supreme chiefs must know the secrets of the reception or
+refusal of a would-be mason in the Order of the Illuminated."
+
+The young man and the high-born one retired by the lobby by which they
+had come, leaving Billet alone.
+
+"Draw nearer," said the chairman. "What is your name among the profane?"
+he demanded when obeyed.
+
+"François Billet, and it is Strength, among the elect."
+
+"Where did you first see the Light?"
+
+"In the lodge of the Soissons Friends of Truth."
+
+"How old are you?"
+
+"Seven years," replied Billet, making the sign to show what rank he had
+attained in the order.
+
+"Why do you want to rise a step and be received among us?"
+
+"Because I am told that it is a step nearer the Universal Light."
+
+"Have you supporters?"
+
+"I have no one to speak for me save him who came to me and offered to
+have me welcomed." He looked fixedly at the chairman.
+
+"With what feelings would you walk in the way which we may open unto
+you?"
+
+"With hate of the powerful and love for equality."
+
+"What answers for these feelings?"
+
+"The pledge of a man who has never broken his word."
+
+"What inspired your wish for equality?"
+
+"The inferior condition in which I was born."
+
+"What the hatred of those above you?"
+
+"That is my secret; yet it is known to you; why do you want me to say
+aloud what I hesitate to say in a whisper to myself?"
+
+"Will you walk in the way to Equality and with you lead all those whom
+you can control?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"As far as your will and strength can go, will you overthrow all
+obstacles opposing the freedom of France and the emancipation of the
+world?"
+
+"I will."
+
+"Are you free from any anterior engagement or if made will you break it
+if contrary to this new pledge?"
+
+"I am ready."
+
+Turning to the chiefs, the Master said:
+
+"Brothers, this man speaks the truth. I invited him to be one of ours. A
+great grief binds him to our cause by the ties of hatred. He has already
+done much for the Revolution and may do more. I propose him, and answer
+for him in the past, the present and the future."
+
+"Receive him," said all the six.
+
+The presiding officer raised his hand and said in a slow and solemn
+voice:
+
+"In the name of the Architect of the Universe, swear to break all carnal
+bonds still binding you to parents, sister, brother, wife, kinsmen,
+mistress, kings, benefactors, and to whomsoever you have promised faith,
+obedience, service or gratitude."
+
+Billet repeated in a voice as firm as the speaker's.
+
+"Good! henceforth you are freed from the so-called oath of allegiance
+made to the country and the laws. Swear therefore to reveal to your new
+chief what you see and do, hear or learn, read or divine, and moreover
+to seek out and find which is not offered to the sight."
+
+"I swear," said Billet.
+
+"Swear to honor and respect steel, fire and poison as sure and prompt
+means necessary to purge the world by the death of those who try to
+lessen truth or snatch it from our hands.
+
+"Swear to avoid Naples, Rome, Spain and all accursed places. To shun the
+temptation of revealing anything seen and heard in our meetings, for the
+lightning is not swifter to strike than our invisible and inevitable
+knife, wherever you may hide. And now, live in the Name of the Three!"
+
+A brother hidden in the crypt, opened the door where the inferior
+members were strolling till the initiation was over. The Master waved
+Billet to go there, and, bowing, he went to join those whom the dreadful
+words he had uttered made his associates.
+
+The second candidate was the famous St. Just, the Revolutionist whom
+Robespierre sent to the guillotine. He was initiated in the same terms
+as Billet and similarly joined the band.
+
+The third candidate was Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans whom hatred
+of his relatives had induced to take this step to have the aid of
+powerful partners in his attempt to seize the throne. He was already
+at the degree of Rose-Croix. He took the oath which was administered
+in a different order from before in order to test him at the outset,
+and instead of saying, Yes, he repeated the very words of the section
+binding him to break all ties, of affection or allegiance to royalty.
+
+When he darted into the crypt he exclaimed:
+
+"At last I shall have my revenge!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE CONSPIRATORS ACCOUNT.
+
+
+On being left together, the six masked men and the chairman whispered
+among themselves.
+
+"Let all come in," said Cagliostro, for he was the Master; "I am ready
+to make the report I promised."
+
+The door was instantly opened: the members of the league walked in; to
+crowd the hall once more.
+
+Hardly was the door closed behind the last before the Master said
+holding up his hand quickly like one who knew the value of time, and
+wished not to lose a second:
+
+"Brothers, there may be some here who were present at a meeting held
+just twenty years ago, a couple of miles from Danenfels, in a cavern of
+Thunder Mountain, five miles from the Rhine; if so, let the venerable
+upholders of the Great Cause which we have embraced, signify the same by
+holding up the hand, saying: 'I was there!'"
+
+Five or six hands were held above the throng and as many voices cried:
+"I was there."
+
+"So far good," continued the speaker; "the others are in the Temple
+above, or scattered over the earth, working at the common and holy work,
+for it is that of all mankind. Twenty years ago, this work which we have
+pursued in its different periods was scarce commenced. The light was
+at its dawning and the steadiest eyes beheld the future only through
+the cloud which none but the eyes of the chosen could pierce. At that
+meeting, I explained by what miracle death did not exist for me, it
+being merely for man forgetfulness of the past, or rather how, during
+twenty centuries, I had dwelt in succeeding bodies for my immortal soul.
+Slowly I saw peoples pass from slavery to serfdom, from serfdom to the
+state of those aspirations for freedom which precede it. Like the stars
+of the night hinting what a sun can be, we have seen the republics try
+their rules, at Genoa, Venice, Switzerland; but this is not what we
+needed.
+
+"A great country was wanted to give the impetus, a wheel in which should
+be cogged all the others, a planet which should illumine the world."
+
+A cheering murmur ran through the audience and Cagliostro proceeded with
+an inspired air:
+
+"Heaven indicated to me, France. Indeed, having tried all systems, she
+appeared likely to suit our purpose, and we decided on her being first
+freed. But look back on France twenty years ago, and grant that it was
+great boldness or rather sublime faith to undertake such a task. In
+Louis XV.'s hands so weakly, it was still the realm of Louis XIV., an
+aristocratic kingdom, where the nobles had all the rights and the rich
+all the privileges. At the head was a man who represented at once the
+lowest and the loftiest, the grandest and the paltriest, heaven and the
+masses. With a word he could make you wealthy or a beggar, happy or
+miserable, free or captive, keep you living or send you to death.
+
+"He had three grandsons, young princes called to succeed him. Chance had
+it that he whom nature designated was also the choice of the people, if
+the people had any choice at the epoch. He was accounted kind, just,
+honest, learned, almost a lover of wisdom. In order to quench the wars
+which the fatal succession of Charles II. enkindled, the daughter of
+Maria Theresa was chosen for his wife: the two nations were to be
+indissolubly united which are the counterbalances west and east of
+Europe, France and Austria. So calculated Maria Theresa the foremost
+politician of Europe.
+
+"It was at this period, none the less, when France, supported on
+Austria, Spain and Italy, was to enter on a new and desired reign that
+we determined--not that she should be the chief of kingdoms but that the
+French should be the first people free.
+
+"It was demanded who would be the new Theseus to rush into the den of
+this Minotaur, thread the innumerable turnings of the maze while guided
+by the light of Truth, and face the royal monster. I replied it should
+be me. Some eager spirits, uneasy characters, wanted to know how long
+a time it would take to accomplish the first period of my enterprise,
+divided into three portions, and I required twenty years. They cried out
+against that. Can you understand this? man had been serf or slave for
+twenty centuries, and he mocked at me because I wanted twenty years to
+make him free!"
+
+He looked upon the meeting, where his last words had provoked ironical
+smiles.
+
+"In short, I obtained the twenty years. I gave my brothers the famous
+device: 'Lilia Pedibus Destrue--the Lilies shall be trodden underfoot!'
+and I set to work, urging all to do likewise. I entered France under
+arches of triumph; the rose and the laurel made the road from Strasburg
+to Paris one trellis garlanded with flowers. Everybody was shouting:
+'Long live the Dauphiness! our future Queen!' Now, far from me to take
+credit to myself for the initiative or the merit of events; the Builder
+had planned all this and He laid each stone well and truly. He allowed
+this humble mason who officiates in this fane to see the Hand divinely
+wielding the Line and the Level and, praise unto Him! I have done some
+levelling: the rocks have been removed off the way, the bridge has been
+thrown over the flood, and the gulfs have been filled up so that the
+car has rolled smoothly. List brothers, to what has been performed in a
+score of years.
+
+"Parliaments broken up: Louis XV., called once the Well-Beloved, dies
+amid general scorn! The Queen, after seven years, unfruitful wedlock,
+gives birth to children whose paternity is contested, so that she is
+defamed as mother of the Crown Prince, and dishonored as a woman in the
+case of the Diamond Necklace.
+
+"The new King consecrated under the name of Louis the Desired, impotent
+in politics as in love, tries one utopia after another, until he reaches
+national bankruptcy, and has all kinds of ministers down to a Calonne.
+The Assembly of Worthies decrees the States General Congress, which
+appointed by universal suffrage, declares itself the National Assembly.
+The clergy and nobility are overcome by the other classes; the Bastile
+is stormed and the foreign troops driven out of the capital; the night
+of Aug. 4th, 1789, shows the aristocracy that they are reduced to
+nothing; on the 5th and 6th October, the King and Queen are shown that
+royalty is nothing; on the 14th of July, 1790, the unity of France is
+shown to the world.
+
+"The princes are deprived of popularity by their absconding; the
+King's brother loses his hold by the Favras conspiracy showing that he
+casts off his friends to save his neck. Lastly, the Constitution is
+sworn unto, on the Altar of the Country; the Speaker of the House of
+Representatives sits on a chair on the level with the King's; it is the
+Law and the Nation sitting side by side; attentive Europe leans towards
+us, silently watching--all who do not applaud are trembling. Now, is not
+France the cornerstone on which Free Europe shall be laid, the wheel
+which turns all the machine, the sun which shall illuminate the Old
+World?"
+
+"Yea, yea, yea!" shouted all voices.
+
+"But, brothers," continued the magician, "do you believe the work is
+so far advanced that we may leave it to get on by itself? Although the
+Constitution has been sworn to, can we trust to the royal vow?"
+
+"Nay, nay, nay," cried every voice.
+
+"Then we begin the second stage of the revolutionary work," pursued
+Cagliostro. "As your eyes see, I perceive with delight that the
+Federation of 1790 is not the goal but a halting-place: after the
+repose the court will recommence the task of counter-revolution: let
+us also gird up our loins and start afresh. No doubt for timid hearts
+there will be hours of weakening and of distrust; often the beam from
+the All-seeing Eye will seem to be eclipsed--the Hand that beckons us
+will cease to be seen. More than once during the second period, the
+cause will appear injured, even lost, by some unforeseen and fortuitous
+accident; all will seem to show that we are wrong; circumstances
+will look as if unfavorable; our enemies will have some triumph, our
+fellow-citizens will be ungrateful. After many real fatigues and
+apparent uselessness, many will ask themselves if they have not gone
+astray on the bad path.
+
+"No, brothers, no; I tell you at this hour for the words to ring
+everlastingly in your ears, in victory as a blast of trumpets, in
+defeat as the rallying cry--No! leading races have their providential
+mission which must be unerringly accomplished. The Arch-Designer laid
+down the road and found it true and straight; His mysterious goal
+cannot be revealed until it is attained in its full splendor; the cloud
+may obscure it and we think it gone; an idea may recoil but, like the
+old-time knights, it is but to set the lance in rest and rush forward to
+hurl over the dragon.
+
+"Brothers, brothers, our goal is the bonfire on the high mount, believed
+extinct because the ridge concealed it as we sank in the vale: then the
+weaklings muttered as they halted and whined: 'We have no beacon--we are
+blundering in the dark: let us stay where we are; what is the good of
+getting lost?' But the strong hearts keep right on confidently smiling,
+and soon will the light on the height reappear, albeit it may disappear
+again, but each time it is brighter and clearer because it is more near!
+
+"Thus will it be with the chosen band who, struggling, pressing on,
+persevering and above all believing in the Republic to be, arrive
+at the foot of the lighthouse of which the radiance will join that
+cast across the Atlantic by the Republic which we have also helped to
+throw off the tyrant's yoke. Let us swear, brothers, for ourselves
+and our descendants, since the eternal idea and principle serves many
+a generation, never to stop until we establish on this temple of the
+Architect the holy device of which we have conquered one portion:
+'Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.'"
+
+The speech was hailed with uproarious approbation.
+
+"But do not confine it to France solely: inscribe it on the banner of
+mankind as the whole world's motto. And now, brothers, go out upon your
+task, which is great, so great that, through whatever vale of tears and
+of the shadow of death you must pass, your descendants will envy the
+holy errand you shall have accomplished, and like the crusaders who
+became more and more numerous and eager as their foregoers were slain,
+they march over the road whitened by the bones of their fathers. Be of
+good cheer, apostles; courage, pilgrims of freedom; courage, soldiers,
+Apostles, converts! pilgrims, march on! soldiers, fight!"
+
+Cagliostro stopped, but that would have happened from the applause.
+Three times the cheering rose and was extinguished in the gloomy vaults
+like an earthquake's rumbling. Then the six masked men bowed to him one
+after another, kissed his hand and retired. Each of the brothers, bowing
+unto the platform where the new Peter the Hermit preached the renewal of
+the political crusade, passed out, repeating the motto:
+
+"We shall Trample the Lilies under."
+
+As the last went forth, the lamps were extinguished.
+
+Alone remained the Arch-Revolutionist, buried in the bowels of the
+earth, lost in silence and darkness like those divinities of the Indies,
+into whose mysteries he asserted himself to have been initiated two
+thousand years before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+WOMEN AND FLOWERS.
+
+
+Some months after recorded events, about the end of March, 1791, Dr.
+Gilbert was hurriedly called to his friend Mirabeau, by the latter's
+faithful servant Deutsch, who had been alarmed.
+
+Mirabeau had spoken in the House on the question of Mines, the interests
+of owners and of the State not being very clearly defined. To celebrate
+his victory, he gave a supper to some friends and was prostrated by
+internal pains.
+
+Gilbert was too skillful a physician not to see how grave the invalid
+was. He bled him and the black blood relieved the sufferer.
+
+"You are a downright great man," said he.
+
+"And you a great blockhead to risk a life so precious to your friends
+for a few hours of fictitious pleasure," retorted his deliverer.
+
+The orator smiled almost ironically, in melancholy.
+
+"I think you exaggerate and that my friends and France do not hold me so
+dear."
+
+"Upon my honor," replied Gilbert laughing, "great men complain of
+ingratitude and they are really the ungrateful ones. If it were a most
+serious malady of yours, all Paris would flock under your window; were
+you to die, all France would come to your obsequies."
+
+"What you say is very consoling, let me tell you," said the other,
+merrily.
+
+"It is just because you can see one without risking the other that I
+say it, and indeed, you need a great public demonstration to restore
+your morale. Let me take you to Paris within a couple of hours, my dear
+count; let me tell the first man on the street corner that you are
+ailing and you will see the excitement."
+
+"I would go if you put off the departure till this evening, and let me
+meet you at my house in Paris at eleven."
+
+Gilbert looked at his patient and the latter saw that he was seen
+through.
+
+"My dear count, I noticed flowers on the Dining-room table," said he:
+"it was not merely a supper to friends."
+
+"You know that I cannot do without flowers; they are my craze."
+
+"But they were not alone."
+
+"If they are a necessity I must suffer from the consequences they
+entail."
+
+"Count, the consequences will kill you."
+
+"Confess, doctor, that it will be a delightful kind of suicide."
+
+"I will not leave you this day."
+
+"Doctor, I have pledged my word and you would not make me fail in that."
+
+"I shall see you this night, though?"
+
+"Yes, really I feel better."
+
+"You mean you drive me away?"
+
+"The idea of such a thing."
+
+"I shall be in town; I am on duty at the palace."
+
+"Then you will see the Queen," said Mirabeau, becoming gloomy once more.
+
+"Probably; have you any message for her?"
+
+Mirabeau smiled bitterly.
+
+"I should not take such a liberty, doctor; do not even say that you have
+seen me: for she will ask if I have saved the monarchy, as I promised,
+and you will be obliged to answer No! It is true," he added with a
+nervous laugh, "that the fault is as much hers as mine."
+
+"You do not want me to tell her that your excess of exertions in the
+tribune is killing you."
+
+"Nay, you may tell her that," he replied after brief meditation: "you
+may make me out as worse than I am, to test her feelings."
+
+"I promise you that, and to repeat her own words."
+
+"It is well: I thank you, doctor--adieu!"
+
+"What are you prescribing?"
+
+"Warm drinks, soothing, strict diet and--no nurse-woman less than
+fifty----"
+
+"Rather than infringe the regulation I would take two of twenty-five!"
+
+At the door Gilbert met Deutsch, who was in tears.
+
+"All this through a woman--just because she looks like the Queen," said
+the man; "how stupid of a genius, as they say he is."
+
+He let out Gilbert who stepped into his carriage, muttering:
+
+"What does he mean by a woman like the Queen?"
+
+He thought of asking Deutsch, but it was the count's secret, and he
+ordered his coachman to drive to town.
+
+On the way he met Camille Desmoulins, the living newspaper of the day,
+to whom he told the truth of the illness because it was the truth.
+
+When he announced the news to the King, the latter inquired if the count
+had lost his appetite.
+
+"Yes, Sire," was the doctor's reply.
+
+"Then it is a bad case," sighed the monarch, shifting the subject.
+
+When the same words were repeated to the daughter of Maria Theresa, her
+forehead darkened.
+
+"Why was he not so stricken on the day of his panegyric on the tricolor
+flag?" she sneered. "Never mind," she went on, as if repenting the
+expression of her hatred before a Frenchman, "it would be very
+unfortunate for France if this malady makes progress. Doctor, I rely on
+your keeping me informed about it."
+
+At the appointed hour, Gilbert called on his patient at his town house.
+His eyes caught sight of a lady's scarf on a chair.
+
+"Glad to see you," said Mirabeau, quickly as though to divert his
+attention from it, "I have learnt that you kept half your promise.
+Deutsch has been busy answering friendly inquiries from our arrival. Are
+you true to the second part? have you been to the palace and seen the
+King and Queen?"
+
+"Yes; and told them you were unwell. The King sincerely condoled when he
+heard that you had lost your appetite. The Queen was sorry and bade me
+keep her informed."
+
+"But I want the words she used."
+
+"Well, she said that it was a pity you were not ill when you praised the
+new flag of the country."
+
+He wished to judge of the Queen's influence over the orator.
+
+He started on the easy chair as if receiving the discharge of a galvanic
+battery.
+
+"Ingratitude of monarchs," he muttered. "That speech of mine blotted
+out remembrance of the rich Civil List and the dower I obtained for
+her. This Queen must be ignorant that I was compelled to regain the
+popularity I lost for her sake; but she no more remembers it than my
+proposing the adjournment of the annexation of Avignon to France in
+order to please the King's religious scruples. But these and other
+faults of mine I have dearly paid for," continued Mirabeau. "Not that
+these faults will ruin them, but there are times when ruin must come,
+whether faults help them forward or not. The Queen does not wish to be
+saved but to be revenged; hence she relishes no reasonable ideas.
+
+"I have tried to save liberty and royalty at the same time; but I am
+not fighting against men, or tigers, but an element--it is submerging
+me like the sea: yesterday up to the knee, today up to the waist,
+to-morrow I shall be struggling with it up to my neck. I must be open
+with you, doctor; I felt chagrin first, then disgust. I dreamt of being
+the arbiter between the Revolution and monarchy. I believed I should
+have an ascendancy over the Queen as a man, and some day when she was
+going under the flood, I meant to leap in and rescue her. But, no! they
+would not honestly take me; they try to destroy my popularity, ruin me,
+annihilate me, and make me powerless to do either good or evil. So,
+now that I have done my best, I tell you, doctor, that the best thing
+I can do is die in the nick of time; fall artistically like the Dying
+Gladiator, and offer my throat to be cut with gracefulness; yield up the
+ghost with decency."
+
+He sank back on the reclining chair and bit the pillow savagely. Gilbert
+knew what he sought, on what Mirabeau's life depended.
+
+"What will you say if the King or the Queen should send to inquire after
+your health?" he asked.
+
+"The Queen will not do it--she will not stoop so low."
+
+"I do not believe, but I suppose, I presume----"
+
+"I will wait till to-morrow night."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"If she sends a confidential man I will say you are right and I wrong.
+But if on the contrary none come, then it will be the other way."
+
+"Keep tranquil till then. But this scarf?"
+
+"I shall not see her, on my honor," he said, smiling.
+
+"Good, try to get a good quiet night, and I will answer for you," said
+Gilbert, going out.
+
+"Your master is better, my honest Deutsch," said he to the attendant at
+the door.
+
+The old valet shook his head sadly.
+
+"Do you doubt my word?"
+
+"I doubt everything since his bad angel will be beside him."
+
+He sighed as he left the doctor on the gloomy stairs. At the landing
+corner Gilbert saw a veiled shadow which seemed waiting: on perceiving
+him, it uttered a low scream and disappeared so quickly by a partly
+opened door that it resembled a flight.
+
+"Who is that woman?" questioned the doctor.
+
+"The one who looks like the Queen," responded Deutsch.
+
+For the second time Gilbert was struck by the same idea on hearing this
+phrase: he took a couple of steps as though to chase the phantom, but he
+checked himself, saying,
+
+"It cannot be."
+
+He continued his way, leaving the old domestic in despair that this
+learned man could not conjure away the demon whom he believed the agent
+of the Inferno.
+
+Next day all Paris called to inquire after the invalid orator. The crowd
+in the street would not believe Deutsch's encouraging report but forced
+all vehicles to turn into the side streets so that their idol should not
+be disturbed by their noise.
+
+Mirabeau got up and went to the window to wave a greeting to these
+worshipers, who shouted their wishes for his long life.
+
+But he was thinking of the haughty woman who did not trouble her head
+about him, and his eyes wandered over the mob to see if any servants in
+the royal blue livery were not trying to make their way through the
+mass. By evening his impatience changed into gloomy bitterness.
+
+Still he waited for the almost promised token of interest, and still it
+did not come.
+
+At eleven, Gilbert came; he had written his best wishes during the day:
+he came in smiling, but he was daunted by the expression on Mirabeau's
+face, faithful mirror of his soul's perturbations.
+
+"Nobody has come," said he. "Will you tell me what you have done this
+day?"
+
+"Why, the same as usual----"
+
+"No, doctor and I saw what happened and will tell you the same as though
+present. You called on the Queen and told her how ill I was: she said
+she would send to ask the latest news, and you went away, happy and
+satisfied, relying on the royal word. She was left laughing, bitter and
+haughty, ignorant that a royal word must not be broken--mocking at your
+credulity."
+
+"Truly, had you been there, you could not have seen and heard more
+clearly," said Gilbert.
+
+"What numbskulls they are," exclaimed Mirabeau. "I told you they never
+did a thing at the right time. Men in the royal livery coming to my door
+would have wrung shouts of 'Long live the King!' from the multitude and
+given them popularity for a year."
+
+He shook his head with grief.
+
+"What is the matter, count?" asked Gilbert.
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"Have you had anything to eat?"
+
+"Not since two o'clock."
+
+"Then take a bath and have a meal."
+
+"A capital idea!"
+
+Mirabeau listened in the bath until he heard the street door close after
+the doctor.
+
+Then he rang for his servant, not Deutsch but another, to have the table
+in his room decked with flowers, and "Madam Oliva" invited to sup with
+him.
+
+He closed all the doors of the supper-room except that to the rooms of
+the strange woman whom the old German called his bad angel.
+
+At about four in the morning, Deutsch who sat up, heard a violent ring
+of the room bell. He and another servant rushed to the supper-room, but
+all the doors were fastened so that they had to go round by the strange
+lady's rooms. There they found her in the arms of their master, who had
+tried to prevent her giving the alarm. She had rung the table-bell from
+inability to get at the bell pull.
+
+She was screaming as much for her own relief as her lover's, as he was
+suffocating her in his convulsive embrace.
+
+It seemed to be Death trying to drag her into the grave.
+
+Jean ran to rouse Dr. Gilbert while Deutsch got his master to a couch.
+In ten minutes the doctor drove up.
+
+"What is it now?" he asked of Deutsch, in the hall.
+
+"That woman again and the cursed flowers! Come and see."
+
+At this moment something like a sob was heard; Gilbert, ran up the
+stairs at the top step of which a door opened, and a woman in a white
+wrapper ran out suddenly and fell at the doctor's feet.
+
+"Oh, Gilbert," she screamed, "save him!"
+
+"Nicole Legay," cried the doctor; "was it you, wretch, who have killed
+him?" A dreadful thought overwhelmed him. "I saw her bully Beausire
+selling broadsides against Mirabeau, and she became his mistress. He is
+undoubtedly lost, for Cagliostro set himself against him."
+
+He turned back into his patient's room, fully aware that no time was
+to be lost. Indeed, he was too versed in secrets of his craft still to
+hope, far less to preserve any doubt. In the body before his eyes, it
+was impossible to see the living Mirabeau. From that time, his face
+assumed the solemn cast of great men dying.
+
+Meanwhile the news had spread that there was a relapse and that the doom
+impended. Then could it be judged what a gigantic place one man may fill
+among his fellows. The entire city was stirred as on great calamities.
+The door was besieged by persons of all opinions as though everybody
+knew they had something to lose by his loss.
+
+He caused the window to be opened that he might be soothed by the hum of
+the multitude beneath.
+
+"Oh, good people," he murmured: "slandered, despised and insulted like
+me, it is right that those Royals should forget me and the Plebes bear
+me in mind."
+
+Night drew near.
+
+"My dear doctor," he said to him who would not leave him, "this is my
+dying day. At this point nothing is to be done but embalm my corpse and
+strew flowers roundabout."
+
+Scarcely had Jean, to whom everybody rushed at the door for news, said
+he wanted flowers for his master, than all the windows opened, and
+flowers were offered from conservatories and gardens of the rarest
+sorts. By nine in the morning the room was transformed into a bower of
+bloom.
+
+"My dear doctor, I beg a quarter of an hour to say good-bye to a person
+who ought to quit the house before I go. I ask you to protect her in
+case they hoot her."
+
+"I leave you alone," said Gilbert, understanding.
+
+"Before going, kindly hand me the little casket in the secretary."
+
+Gilbert did as requested; the money-box was heavy enough to be full of
+gold.
+
+At the end of half an hour, spent by Gilbert in giving news to the
+inquirers, Jean ushered a veiled lady out to a hackney-carriage at the
+door.
+
+Gilbert ran to his patient.
+
+"Put the casket back," said he in a faint voice. "Odd, is it not?" he
+continued, seeing how astonished the doctor looked at its being as heavy
+as before, "but where the deuce will disinterestedness next have a
+nest?"
+
+Near the bed, Gilbert picked up a lace handkerchief wet with tears.
+
+"Ah, she would take nothing away--but she left something," remarked
+Mirabeau.
+
+Feeling it was damp he pressed it to his forehead.
+
+"Tears? is she the only one who has a heart?" he murmured.
+
+He fell back on the bed, with closed eyes; he might have been believed
+dead or swooning but for the death-rattle in his breast.
+
+How came it that this man of athletic, herculean build should die?
+
+Was it not because he had held out his hand to stay the tumbling throne
+from toppling over? Was it not because he had offered his arm to that
+woman of misfortune known as Marie Antoinette?
+
+Had not Cagliostro predicted some such fate to Gilbert for Mirabeau? and
+the two strange creatures--one, Beausire, blasting the reputation, the
+other, Nicole, blasting the health of the great orator who had become
+the supporter of the monarchy--were they not for him, Gilbert, a proof
+that all things which were obstacles to this man--or rather the idea he
+stood for--must go down before him as the Bastile had done?
+
+Nevertheless he was going to try upon him the elixir of life which he
+owed to Cagliostro; it was irony to save his victim with his own remedy.
+
+The patient had opened his eyes.
+
+"Nay," said he, "a few drops will be vain. You must give me the whole
+phial. I had the stuff analyzed and found it was Indian hemp; I had some
+compounded for myself and I have been taking it copiously not to live
+but to dream."
+
+"Unhappy man that I am," sighed Gilbert; "he has led to my dealing out
+poison to my friend."
+
+"A sweet poison, by which I have lengthened out the last moments of my
+life a hundredfold. In my dream I have enjoyed what has really escaped
+me, riches, power, and love. I do not know whether I ought to thank God
+for my life, but I thank you, doctor, for your drug. Fill up the glass
+and let me have it."
+
+Gilbert presented the extract which the patient absorbed with gusto.
+
+"Ah, doctor," he said after a short pause, as if the veil of the future
+were raised at the approach of eternity; "blessed are those who die
+in this year, 1791! for they will have seen the sunny side of the
+Revolution. Never has a great one cost so little bloodshed up to now,
+because it is the mind that was conquered: but on the morrow the war
+will be upon facts and in things. Perhaps you believe that the tenants
+of the Tuileries will mourn for me? not at all. My death rids them of
+an engagement. With me, they had to rule in a certain way: I was less
+support than hindrance. _She_ excused herself for leaning on me, to her
+brother: 'Mirabeau believes that he is advising me--I am only amusing
+myself with him.' That is why I wished that woman, her likeness, to be
+my mistress, and not my Queen.
+
+"What a fine part he shall play in History who undertook to sustain the
+young nation with one hand and the old monarchy in the other, forcing
+them to tread the same goal--the happiness of the governed and the
+respect of the governors. It might have been possible and might be but
+a dream; but I am convinced that I alone could have realized the dream.
+My sorrow is not in dying, but in dying with work unfinished. Who will
+glorify my idea left mangled, an abortion? What will be known of me will
+be the part that should be buried in oblivion--my wild, reckless, rakish
+life and my obscene writings.
+
+"I shall be blamed for having made a bond with the court out of which
+comes gain for no man; I shall be judged, dying at forty-two, like one
+who lived man's full age. They will take me to task as if instead of
+trying to walk on the waters in a storm, I had trodden a broad way paved
+with laws, statutes, and regulations. To whom shall I league my memory
+to be cleansed and be an honor to my country?
+
+"But I could do nothing without her, and she would not take my helping
+hand. I pledged myself like a fool, while she remained unfettered. But
+it is so--all is for the best; and if you will promise one thing, no
+regret will trouble my last breath."
+
+"Good God, what would I not promise?"
+
+"If my passing from life is tedious, make it easy? I ask the aid not
+only of the doctor but of the man and the philosopher--promise to aid
+me. I do not wish to die dead,--but living, and the last step will not
+be hard to take."
+
+The doctor bent his head towards the speaker.
+
+"I promised not to leave you, my friend; if heaven hath condemned
+you--though I hope we have not come to that point--leave to my affection
+at the supreme instant the care of accomplishing what I ought to do. If
+death comes, I shall be at hand also."
+
+"Thanks," said the dying one as if this were all he awaited.
+
+The abundant dose of cannabis indicus had restored speech to the doomed
+one: but this vitality of the mind vanished and for three hours the cold
+hand remained in the doctor's without a throb. Suddenly he felt a start:
+the awakening had come.
+
+"It will be a dreadful struggle," he thought.
+
+Such was the agony in which the strong frame wrestled that Gilbert
+forgot that he had promised to second death, not to oppose it. But,
+reminded of his pledge, he seized the pen to write a prescription for
+an opiate. Scarcely had he written the last words than Mirabeau rose on
+the pillow and asked for the pen. With his hand clenched by death he
+scrawled:
+
+"Flee, flee, flee!"
+
+He tried to sign but could only trace four letters of his name.
+
+"For her," he gasped, holding out his convulsed arm towards his
+companion.
+
+He fell back without breath, movement or look--he was dead.
+
+Gilbert turned to the spectators of this scene and said:
+
+"Mirabeau is no more."
+
+Taking the paper whose destination he alone might divine, he rapidly
+departed from the death chamber.
+
+Some seconds after the doctor's going, a great clamor arose in the
+street and was prolonged throughout Paris.
+
+The grief was intense and wide. The Assembly voted a public funeral, and
+the Pantheon, formerly Church of St. Genevieve, was selected for the
+great man's resting-place. Three years subsequently the Convention sent
+the coffin to the Clamart Cemetery to be bundled among the corpses of
+the publicly executed.
+
+Petion claimed to have discovered a contra-revolutionary plot written in
+the hand of Mirabeau, and Congress reversed its previous judgment and
+declared that genius could not condone corruption.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE KING'S MESSENGER.
+
+
+On the morning of the second of April, an hour before Mirabeau yielded
+up his last breath, a superior officer of the navy, wearing his full
+dress uniform of captain, entered the Tuileries Palace like one to whom
+the ways were familiar.
+
+He took the private stairs to the King's apartments, where, by the
+study, a valet saw him and uttered a cry of surprise.
+
+"Hue," he said, laying a finger on his lips, "can the King receive me?"
+
+"His Majesty gave word that you were to be shown in whenever you
+arrived."
+
+He opened a door and as a proof that the King was alone, he called out:
+
+"The Count of Charny!"
+
+"Let him enter," said the King; "I have been expecting him since
+yesterday."
+
+Charny entered quickly and said as he went up to his royal master with
+respectful eagerness:
+
+"Sire, I am a few hours behindhand, but I hope to be forgiven when your
+Majesty hears the reasons for the delay."
+
+"Come, come, my lord; I awaited you with impatience, it is true; but I
+was of your opinion beforehand that an important cause alone could delay
+your journey. You have come, and you are welcome."
+
+He held out his hand which the courier kissed with reverence.
+
+"Sire, I received your order early the day before yesterday and I
+started at three A. M. yesterday from Montmedy by the post."
+
+"That explains the few hours delay," observed the sovereign, smiling.
+
+"Sire," went on the count, "I might have dashed on and made better speed
+but I wanted to study the road as it is generally used so as to remark
+the posting-houses where the work is well or ill done; I wished to jot
+the time down by the minute. I have noted everything and am consequently
+in a position to answer on any point."
+
+"Bravo, my lord," cried the King. "You are a first-rate servitor; but
+let me begin by showing how we stand here; you can give me the news of
+the position out there afterwards."
+
+"Things are going badly, if I may guess by what I have heard," observed
+Charny.
+
+"To such a degree that I am a prisoner in the place, my dear count. I
+was just saying to General Lafayette that I would rather be King at Metz
+than over France; but never mind, you have returned. You know my aunts
+have taken to flight? it is very plain why. You know the Assembly will
+allow no priests to officiate at the altar unless they take oaths to the
+country. The poor souls became frightened as Easter came near, thinking
+they risked damnation by confessing to a priest who had sworn to the
+Constitution, and I must confess, it was on my advice that they went to
+Rome. No law opposes their journey and no one can think two poor women
+will much strengthen the party of the fugitive nobility. They charged
+Narbonne with getting them off; but I do not know how the movement was
+guessed. A visit of the same nature as we experienced at Versailles in
+October was projected upon them, but they happily got out by one door
+while the mob rushed in by another. Just think of the crosses! not a
+vehicle was at hand though three had been ordered to be ready. They had
+to go to Meudon from Bellevue on foot.
+
+"They found carriages there and made the start. Three hours afterwards,
+tremendous uproar in Paris: those who went to stop the flight found the
+nest warm but empty. Next day the press fairly howled: Marat said that
+they were carrying away millions; Desmoulins that they were taking the
+Dauphin. Nothing of the sort: the two poor ladies had a few hundred
+thousand francs in their purses, and had enough to take care of without
+burdening themselves with a boy who might bring about their recognition.
+The proof was that they were recognized, without him, first at a place
+where they were let go through, and then at Arnay, where they were
+arrested. I had to write to the Assembly to get them passed, and spite
+of my letter the Assembly debated all day. However, they were authorized
+to continue their journey but on condition that the committee of the
+House should present a bill against quitting the kingdom."
+
+"Yes," said Charny, "but I understood, that, in spite of a magnificent
+speech from Mirabeau, the Assembly rejected the proposition."
+
+"True, it was thrown out: but beside this slight triumph was great
+humiliation for me. When the excitement was noticed over the departure
+of the two ladies, a few devoted friends, more than you may believe
+being left to me, count--some hundreds of noblemen hastened to the
+Tuileries and offered me their lives. The report was immediately spread
+that a conspiracy was discovered to spirit me away. Lafayette, who had
+been gulled into going to the Bastile under a story that an attempt
+to rebuild it was under way, came back here furious at the hoax, and
+entered with sword and bayonet!--my poor friends were seized and
+disarmed. Pistols were found on some, stilettos on others, each having
+snatched up at home any weapon handy. But the day is written down in
+history as that of the Knights of the Dagger!"
+
+"Oh, Sire, in what dreadful times do we live," said Charny, shaking his
+head.
+
+"Yes, and Mirabeau perhaps dying, maybe dead at present speaking."
+
+"The more reason to hasten out of this cauldron."
+
+"Just what we have decided on. Have you arranged with Bouille? I hope
+he is strong enough now. The opportunity was presented and I reinforced
+him."
+
+"Yes, Sire: but the War Minister has crossed your orders; the Saxon
+Hussars have drawn from him, and the Swiss regiments refused. He had
+trouble to keep the Bouillon Foot at Montmedy Fort."
+
+"Does he doubt now?"
+
+"No Sire, but there are so many chances less. What matters? in these
+dashes one must reckon on luck, and we still have ninety per cent of
+chances. The question is if your Majesty holds to the Chalons Route
+although the posting at Varennes is doubtful?"
+
+"Bouille already knows my reasons for the preference."
+
+"That is why I have minutely mapped out the route."
+
+"The route-chart is a marvel of clearness, my dear count. I know the
+road as though I had myself travelled it."
+
+"I have the following directions to add----"
+
+"Let me look at them by the map." And he unfolded on the table a map
+drawn by hand with every natural feature laid in. It was a work of eight
+months. The two stooped over the paper.
+
+"Sire, the real danger begins at St. Menehould and ceases at Stenay. On
+those eighteen leagues must be stationed the soldiers."
+
+"Could they not be brought nearer Paris--say, up to Chalons?"
+
+"It is difficult," was the response. "Chalons is too strong a place for
+even a hundred men to do anything efficacious to your safety if menaced.
+Besides, Bouille does not answer for anything beyond St. Menehould. All
+he can do is set his first troops at Sommevelle Bridge. That is the
+first post beyond Chalons."
+
+"What time will it take?"
+
+"The King can go from Paris to Montmedy in thirty-six hours."
+
+"What have you decided about the relay of horses at Varennes? where we
+must be certain not to want for them; it is most important."
+
+"I have investigated the spot and decided to place the horses on the
+other side of the little town. It will be better to dash through, coming
+full speed from Clermont, and change horses five hundred paces from the
+bridge, guarded and defended if signalled by three or four men."
+
+Charny gave the King a paper.
+
+It was Bouille's arrangement of the stations of the troops along the
+road for the royal escape. The cover would be that the soldiers were
+waiting to convoy some money sent by the War Minister.
+
+"Everything has been foreseen," said the King delightedly. "But talking
+of money, do you know whether Bouille has received the million I sent
+him?"
+
+"Yes, but as assignats are below par, he would lose twenty per cent
+on the gross amount, only for a faithful subject of your Majesty who
+cashed, as if gold, a hundred thousand crowns' worth."
+
+"And the rest?" inquired the King, eyeing the speaker.
+
+"Count Bouille got his banker to take it; so that there will be no lack
+of the sinews of war."
+
+"I thank you, my lord count," said the sovereign. "I should like to
+know the name of the faithful servitor who perhaps lessened his cash by
+giving the sum to Bouille."
+
+"He is rich and consequently there was no merit in what he did. The only
+condition he put in doing the act was to have his name kept back."
+
+"Still you know him?"
+
+"Yes, I know who it is."
+
+"Then, Lord Charny," said the monarch with the hearty dignity which he
+sometimes showed, as he took a ring off his finger, "here is a jewel
+very dear to me. I took it off the finger of my dying father when his
+hand was chill in death. Its value is therefore that which I attach to
+it; it has no other; but for a soul which understands me, it will be
+more precious than the finest diamond. Repeat to the faithful servitor
+what I say, my lord, and give him this gem from me."
+
+Charny's bosom heaved as he dropped on one knee to receive the ring from
+the royal hand.
+
+At this juncture the door opened. The King turned sharply, for a door to
+open thus was worse than infraction of etiquette; it was an insult only
+to be excused by great necessity.
+
+It was the Queen, pale and holding a paper. She let it drop with a cry
+of astonishment at seeing Count Charny at the feet of her consort. The
+noble rose and saluted the lady, who faltered:
+
+"Charny here, in the King's rooms, in the Tuileries!" And she said to
+herself: "Without my knowing it!"
+
+There was such sorrow in the tone that Charny guessed the reason and
+took two steps towards her.
+
+"I have just arrived and I was going to crave the King's permission for
+me to pay my respects to your Majesty," he said.
+
+The blood reappeared on her cheeks; she had not heard that voice for a
+long while and the sweet tone charmed her ears. She held out both hands
+towards him but brought back one upon her heart from its beating too
+violently. Charny noticed all this although in the short space required
+for the King to pick up the paper, which the draft from the door had
+floated to the side of the room.
+
+The King read without understanding.
+
+"What is the meaning of the word 'Flee' three times written, and the
+fragment of a signature?" inquired he.
+
+"Sire, it seems that Mirabeau died ten minutes ago, and that is the
+advice he sends you."
+
+"It is good advice," returned the King, "and this time the instant to
+put it into execution has come."
+
+The Queen looked at them both, and said to the count:
+
+"Follow me, my lord."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE HUSBAND'S PROMISE.
+
+
+The Queen sank upon a divan when she had arrived within her own
+apartments, making a sign for Charny to close the door.
+
+Scarcely was she seated before her heart overflowed and she burst into
+sobs. They were so sincere and forcible that they went down into the
+depths of Charny's heart and sought for his former love. Such passions
+burning in a man never completely die out unless from one of those
+dreadful shocks which turn love to loathing.
+
+He was in that strange dilemma which they will appreciate who have stood
+in the same: between old love and the new.
+
+He loved his wife with all the pity in his bosom and he pitied the Queen
+with all his soul. He could not help feeling regret and giving words of
+consolation.
+
+But he saw that reproach pierced through this sobbing; that
+recrimination came to light among the tears, reminding him of the
+exactions of this love, the absolute will, the regal despotism mingled
+with the expressions of tenderness and proofs of passion; he steeled
+himself against the exactions and took up arms against the despotism,
+entering into the strife against the will. He compared all this with
+Andrea's sweet, unalterable countenance, and preferred the statue,
+though he believed it to be of snow, to this glowing bronze, heated from
+the furnace, ever ready to dart from its eyes the lightnings of love,
+pride and jealousy.
+
+This time the Queen wept without saying anything.
+
+It was more than eight months since she had seen him. Before this, for
+two or three years she had believed that they could not separate without
+their hearts breaking. Her only consolation had been that he was working
+for her sake in doing some deed for the King.
+
+But it was a weak consolation.
+
+She wept for the sake of relief, for her pent-up tears would have choked
+her if she had not poured them forth. Was it joy or pain that held her
+silent? both, perhaps, for many mighty emotions dissolve in tears.
+
+With more love even than respect, Charny went up to her, took one of her
+hands away from her face and said as he applied his lips to it:
+
+"Madam, I am proud and happy to say that not an hour has been without
+toil for you since I went hence."
+
+"Oh, Charny," retorted the Queen, "there was a time when you might have
+been less busy on my account but you would have thought the more of me."
+
+"I was charged by the King with grave responsibility, which imposed the
+more strict silence until the business was accomplished. It is done
+at present. I can see and speak with you now, but I might not write a
+letter up to this period."
+
+"It is a fine sample of loyalty, and I regret that it should be
+performed at the expense of another sentiment, George," she said with
+melancholy.
+
+She pressed his hand tenderly, while eyeing him with that gaze for
+which once he would have flung away the life still at her service.
+
+She noticed that he was not the courier dusty and bloody from spurring,
+but the courtier spic and span according to the rules of the Royal
+Household. This complete attire visibly fretted the woman while it must
+have satisfied the exacting Queen.
+
+"Where do you come from?" she asked.
+
+"Montmedy, in postchaise."
+
+"Half across the kingdom, and you are spruce, brushed and dandified
+like one of Lafayette's aid-de-camps. Were the news you brought so
+unimportant as to let you dally at the toilet table?"
+
+"Very important; but I feared that if I stepped out of the mud
+be-splattered postchaise in the palace yard, all disordered with travel,
+suspicion would be roused; the King had told me that you are closely
+guarded, and that made me congratulate myself on walking in, clad in my
+naval uniform like an officer coming to present his devoirs after a week
+or two on leave."
+
+She squeezed his hand convulsively, having a question to put the harder
+to frame as it appeared so far from important.
+
+"I forgot that you had a Paris house. Of course you dropped in at
+Coq-Heron Street, where the countess is keeping house?"
+
+Charny was ready to spring away like a high-mettled steed spurred in
+the raw; but there was so much hesitation and pain in her words that he
+had to pity one so haughty for suffering so much and for showing her
+feelings though she was so strong-minded.
+
+"Madam," he replied, with profound sadness not wholly caused by her
+pain, "I thought I had stated before my departure that the Countess of
+Charny's residence is not mine. I stopped at my brother Isidore's to
+change my dress."
+
+The Queen uttered a cry of joy and slid down on her knees, carrying his
+hand to her lips, but he caught her up in both arms and exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, what are you doing?"
+
+"I thank you--ask me not for what! do you ask me for what? for the only
+moment of thorough delight I have felt since your departure. God knows
+this is folly, and foolish jealousy, but it is most worthy of pity. You
+were jealous once, though you forget it. Oh, you men are happy when
+you are jealous, because you can fight with your rivals and kill or be
+slain; but we women can only weep, though we perceive that our tears are
+useless if not dangerous. For our tears part us from our beloved rather
+than wash us nearer; our grief is the vertigo of love--it hurls us
+towards the abyss which we see without avail. I thank you again, George;
+you see that I am happy anew and weep no more."
+
+She tried to laugh; but in her repining she had forgotten how to be
+merry, and the tone was so sad and doleful that the count shuddered.
+
+"Be blessed, O God!" she said, "for he would not have the power to love
+me from the day when he pities me."
+
+Charny felt he was dragged down a steep where in time he would be in the
+impossibility of checking himself. He made an effort to stop, like those
+skaters who lean back on their heels at the risk of breaking through the
+ice.
+
+"Will you not permit me to offer the fruit of my long absence by
+explaining what I have been happy to do for your sake?" he said.
+
+"Oh, Charny, I like better to have things as I said just now; but you
+are right: the woman must not too long forget she is a Queen. Speak,
+ambassador, the woman has obtained all she had a right to claim--the
+Queen listens."
+
+The count related how he had surveyed the way for the flight of the
+Royal Family, and how all was ready. She listened with deep attention
+and fervent gratitude. It seemed to her that mere devotion could not
+go so far; that it must be ardent and unquiet love to foresee such
+obstacles and invent the means to cope with and overcome them.
+
+"So you are quite happy to save me?" she asked at the end, regarding him
+with supreme affection.
+
+"Oh, can you ask me that? it is the dream of my ambition, and it will be
+the glory of my life if I attain it."
+
+"I would rather it were simply the reward of your love," replied Marie
+Antoinette with melancholy. "But let that pass! you ardently desire this
+great deed of the rescue of the Royal Family to be performed by you?"
+
+"I await but your consent to set aside my life to it."
+
+"I understand it, my dear one," said the sovereign: "your dedication
+ought to be free from all alien sentiment, and material affection. It is
+impossible that my husband and our children should be saved by a hand
+which would not dare to be stretched out towards them if they slipped on
+the road we are to travel in company. I place their lives and mine in
+your custody, as to a brother: but you will feel some pity for me?"
+
+"Pity?"
+
+"You cannot wish that in one of those crises when one needs all courage,
+patience and coolness, a mad idea of mine--for in the night one may see
+the specters which would not frighten in the day--you cannot wish that
+all should fail because I had not your promise that you loved me?"
+
+"Lady," interrupted Charny, "above all I aim at your Majesty's bliss:
+that of France; the glory of achieving the task I have begun; and I
+confess that I am sorry the sacrifice I make is so slight; but I swear
+not to see the Countess of Charny without your Majesty's permission."
+
+Coldly and respectfully saluting the monarch's consort, he retired
+without her trying to detain him, so chilled was she by his tone.
+
+Hardly had he shut the door after him, than she wrung her hands and
+ruefully moaned:
+
+"Oh, rather that he made the vow not to see me, but loved me as he loves
+her!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+OFF AND AWAY.
+
+
+Spite of all precautions, or perhaps because they necessitated changes
+in the usual order of things, suspicion was engendered in Paris by the
+plot at the palace.
+
+Lafayette went straight to the King, who mocked at his
+half-accusations: Bailly sent a denunciatory letter to the Queen, having
+become quite courteous, not to say a courtier.
+
+About nine in the night of the 20th of June, two persons were conversing
+in the sitting-room of the Countess of Charny, in Coq-Heron Street.
+
+She was apparently calm but was deeply moved, as she spoke with Isidore,
+who wore a courier's dress. It was composed of a buff leather riding
+jacket, tight breeches of buckskin and top-boots, and he carried a
+hunting-sword. His round laced hat was held in his hand.
+
+"But in short, viscount, since your brother has been two months and a
+half in town, why has he not come here?" she persisted.
+
+"He has sent me very often for news of your health."
+
+"I know that, and I am grateful to both of you; but it seems to me that
+he ought to come to say good-bye if he is going on another journey."
+
+"Of course, my lady, but it is impossible; so he has charged me to do
+that."
+
+"Is the journey to be a long one?"
+
+"I am ignorant."
+
+"I said 'yours' because it looks from your equipment that you are going
+too."
+
+"I shall probably leave town this midnight."
+
+"Do you accompany your brother or go by another route?"
+
+"I believe we take the same."
+
+"Will you tell him you have seen me?"
+
+"Yes, my lady: for he would not forgive me omitting to perform the
+errand of asking after you, judging by the solicitude he put in charging
+me, and the reiterated instructions he gave me."
+
+She ran her hands over her eyes, sighed, and said after short
+meditation:
+
+"Viscount, as a nobleman, you will comprehend the reach of the question
+I am putting; answer as you would were I really your sister; as you
+would to heaven. In the journey he undertakes, does my Lord Charny run
+any serious danger?"
+
+"Who can tell where no danger is or is not in these times?" evasively
+responded young Charny. "On the morning of the day when my brother
+Valence was struck down, he would have surely answered No, if he had
+been asked if he stood in peril. Yet he was laid low in death by the
+morrow. At present, danger leaps up from the ground, and we face death
+without knowing whence it came and without calling it."
+
+Andrea turned pale and said,
+
+"There is danger of death, then? You think so if you do not say it."
+
+"I think, lady, that if you have something important to tell my brother,
+the enterprise we are committed to is serious enough to make you
+charge me by word of mouth or writing with your wish or thought to be
+transmitted to him."
+
+"It is well: viscount, I ask five minutes," said the countess, rising.
+
+With the mechanical, slow step habitual to her, she went into her room,
+of which she shut the door.
+
+The young gentleman looked at his watch with uneasiness.
+
+"A quarter past nine, and the King expects me at half after," he
+muttered: "luckily it is but a step to the palace."
+
+But the countess did not take the time she had stated; in a few seconds
+she returned with a sealed letter, and said with solemnity,
+
+"Viscount, I entrust this to your honor."
+
+Isidore stretched out his hand to take it.
+
+"Stay, and clearly understand what I am telling you," said Andrea: "if
+your brother count fulfills the undertaking, there is nothing to be said
+to him beyond what I stated--sympathy for his loyalty, respect for his
+devotion and admiration for his character. If he be wounded"--here her
+voice faltered--"badly hurt, you will ask the favor for me to join him,
+whereupon you will send a messenger who can conduct me straight to him
+for I shall start directly. If he be mortally injured--" here emotion
+checked her voice: "Hand him this note; if he cannot read it, read it
+to him, for I want him to know this before he dies. Your pledge as a
+nobleman to do this, my lord?"
+
+"On my honor," replied Isidore, as much affected as the speaker.
+
+He kissed her hand and went out.
+
+"Oh, if he should die, I must have him know that I love him!"
+
+At the same time as he quitted his sister-in-law's and thrust the letter
+in his breast, beside another of which he had read the address by the
+light of a street lamp, two men, dressed just like himself, were ushered
+into the Queen's boudoir, but by different ways.
+
+These two did not know each other but judging that the same business
+thus arrayed them they bowed to one another.
+
+Immediately another door still opened and in walked Viscount Charny, the
+third outrider, who was as unknown to the other two, Malden and Valory,
+Royal Lifeguardsmen, as they, it happened, to each other. Isidore alone
+knew the aim of their being brought together, and the common design. No
+doubt he would have replied to the inquiries they were going to put but
+the door opened and Louis XVI. appeared.
+
+"Gentlemen," said he to Malden and Valory, "excuse me disposing of you
+without your permission but you belonged to my guards and I hold you
+to be faithful servitors of the crown; so I suggested your going to a
+certain tailor's and trying one courier's costume which you would find
+there and be at the palace at half-past nine this evening. Your presence
+proves that you accept the errand with which I have to charge you."
+
+The two guardsmen bowed.
+
+"Sire," said Valory, "your Majesty was fully aware that he had no need
+to consult his gentlemen about laying down their lives on his behalf."
+
+"Sire, my brother-soldier answers for me in answering for himself, and I
+presume for our third companion," said Malden.
+
+"Your third companion, gentlemen, is an acquaintance good to form, being
+Viscount Charny, whose brother was slain defending the Queen's door at
+Versailles; we are habituated to the devotion of members of his family,
+so that we do not thank them for it."
+
+"According to this," went on Valory, "my Lord of Charny would know the
+motive of our gathering, while we are ignorant and eager to learn."
+
+"Gentlemen," said the King, "you know that I am a prisoner to the
+National Guard, the Assembly, the Mayor of Paris, the mob, to anybody
+who is for the time being the master. I rely on you to help me shake off
+this humiliation, and recover my liberty. My fate, that of the Queen and
+of our children, rests in your hands: all is ready for me to make away
+to-night; will you undertake to get me out of this place?"
+
+"Give the orders, my lord," said the three young men.
+
+"You will understand that we cannot go forth together. We are to meet
+at the corner of St. Nicaise Street, where Count Charny awaits us with
+a hired carriage. You, viscount, will take care of the Queen, and use
+the name of Melchior; you, Malden, under the name of Jean, escort Lady
+Elizabeth and the Princess Royal; you, Valory, guard Lady Tourzel and
+the Dauphin; they will call you François. Do not forget your new names
+and await further instructions."
+
+He gave his hand all round to them and went out, leaving three men ready
+to die for him.
+
+He went to dress, while the Queen and the others were also attiring
+themselves plainly, with large hats to conceal their faces.
+
+Louis put on a plain grey suit with short breeches, grey stockings and
+buckled shoes. For the week past his valet Hue had gone in and out in
+a similar dress so as to get the sentinels used to the sight. He went
+out by the private door of Lord Villequier, who had fled the country six
+months before.
+
+In provision of this flight, a room of his quarters had been set aside
+on the eleventh of the month. Here were the Queen and the others
+assembled. This flat was believed uninhabited; the King had the keys:
+and the sentries at about eleven were accustomed to see a number of the
+servants, who did not sleep on the premises, quit the palace in a flock.
+
+Isidore Charny, who had been over the road with his brother, would ride
+on ahead; he would get the postboys ready so that no delay would be
+incurred.
+
+Malden and Valory, on the driver's box, were to pay the postillions, who
+were given extra money as the carriage for the journey was a specially
+built one and very heavy from having to carry so many persons. Count
+Charny was to ride inside, ready for all emergencies; he would be well
+armed, like the three outriders; a pair of pistols for each were to be
+in the vehicle.
+
+At a fair pace they reckoned to be at Chalons in thirteen hours.
+
+All promised to obey the instructions settled between Charny and the
+Count of Choiseul.
+
+Lights were blown out and all groped their way at midnight into
+Villequier's rooms. But the door by which they ought to have passed
+straightway, was locked. The King had to go to his smithy for keys and a
+pick-lock.
+
+When he opened the door, he looked round triumphantly in the light of a
+little night-lamp.
+
+"I will not say that a locksmith's art is not good sometimes," said the
+Queen; "but it is also well to be the King at others."
+
+They had to regulate the order of the sallying forth.
+
+Lady Elizabeth led, with the Princess Royal. At twenty paces she was
+followed by Lady Tourzel and the Dauphin. Malden came on behind to run
+to their succor.
+
+The children stepped on tiptoe and trembling, with love before and
+behind them, to enter the ring of glare from the lamps with reflector,
+lighting the palace doors at the courtyard, but they passed before the
+sentinel without his appearing to trouble about them.
+
+At the Carrousel Gate, the sentinel turned his back and they could
+easily pass. Had he recognized the illustrious fugitives? They believed
+so, and sent him a thousand blessings.
+
+On the farther side of the wicket they perceived Charny's uneasy face.
+He was wearing a large blue coat with cape, called a Garrick from the
+English actor having made it popular, and his head was covered with a
+tarpaulin hat.
+
+"Thank God, you have got through," he said, "what about the King, and
+the Queen?"
+
+"They follow us," said Lady Elizabeth.
+
+"Come," said he, leading them to the hack in St. Nicaise Street.
+
+Another was beside theirs, and its driver might be a spy; so Malden
+jumped into it and ordered the man to drive him to the Opera-house as if
+he were a servant going to join his master there.
+
+Scarcely had he driven off before the others saw a plain sort of fellow
+in a gray suit, with his hat cocked over his nose and his hands in
+his pocket, saunter out of the same gate as had given passage to Lady
+Elizabeth, like a clerk who was strolling home after his work was over.
+
+This was the King, attended by Valory.
+
+Charny went up to meet them; for he had recognized Valory, and not the
+King. He was one of those who always wish to see a king kinglike. He
+sighed with pain, almost with shame, as he murmured:
+
+"Come, Sire, come. Where is the Queen?" he asked of Valory.
+
+"Coming with your brother."
+
+"Good; take the shortest road and wait for us at St. Martin's Gate; I
+will go by the longer way round; we meet at the coach."
+
+Both arrived at the rendezvous and waited half an hour for the Queen.
+
+We shall not try to paint the fugitives' anxiety; Charny, on whom the
+whole responsibility fell, was like a maniac. He wanted to go back and
+make inquiries, but the King restrained him. The little prince wept and
+cried for his mother. His sister and the two ladies could not console
+him.
+
+Their terror doubled when they saw Lafayette's carriage dash by,
+surrounded by soldiers, some bearing torches.
+
+When at the palace gates, Viscount Charny wanted to turn to the left;
+the Queen, on his arm, stopped him and said that the count was waiting
+at the waterside gate of the Tuileries. She was so sure of what she
+asserted that doubt entered his mind.
+
+"Be very careful, lady, for any error may be deadly to us," he said.
+
+"I heard him say by the waterside," she repeated.
+
+So he let her drag him through three courtyards, separated by thick
+walls and with chains at each opening, which should have been guarded
+by sentinels. They had to scramble through the gaps and clamber over the
+chains. Not one of the watchers had the idea of saying anything to them.
+How could they believe that a buxom woman in such dress as a housemaid
+would wear and climbing over the chains on the arm of a strapping young
+chap in livery, was the Queen of the French?
+
+On arriving at the water's edge they found it deserted.
+
+"He must mean the other side of the river," said the crazed Queen.
+
+Isidore wanted to return but he said as if in a vertigo:
+
+"No, no, there it is!"
+
+She drew him upon the Royal Bridge which they crossed to find the other
+shore as blank as the nigher one.
+
+"Let us look up this street," said she.
+
+She forced Isidore to go up the Ferry Street a little. At the end of a
+hundred paces she owned she was wrong, but she stopped, panting; her
+powers almost fled her.
+
+"Now, take me where you will," she said.
+
+"Courage, my lady," said Isidore.
+
+"It is not courage I lack so much as strength. Oh, heaven, will I never
+get my breath again," she gasped.
+
+Isidore paused, for he knew that the second wind she panted was
+necessary to her as to the hunted deer.
+
+"Take breath, madam," he said: "we have time, for my brother would wait
+till daylight for your sake."
+
+"Then you believe that he loves me?" she exclaimed rashly as quickly
+while pressing his arm against her breast.
+
+"I believe that his life is yours as mine is, and that the feeling in
+others which is love and respect becomes adoration in him."
+
+"Thanks," she said, "that does me good! I breathe again. On, on!"
+
+With a feverish step, she retraced the path they had gone and they went
+out by the small gate of the Carrousel. The large open space was till
+midnight covered with stalls and prowling cabs. But it was now deserted
+and gloomy.
+
+Suddenly they heard a great din of carriages and horses. They saw a
+light: no doubt the flambeaux accompanying the vehicles.
+
+Isidore wanted to keep in the dark but the Queen pressed forward. He
+dragged her into the depths of the gateway but the torchlight flooded
+this cave with its beams.
+
+In the middle of the escort of cavalry, half reclining in a carriage, in
+his costume of General of the National Guards, was Marquis Lafayette.
+
+As it whizzed by, Isidore felt an arm, strong with will if not real
+power, elbow him aside. It was the Queen's left arm, while with a cane
+in her right hand she struck the carriage wheels.
+
+"A fig for you, Jailer!" she said. "I am out of your prison!"
+
+"What are you doing, and what are you risking?" ejaculated the Viscount.
+
+"I am taking my revenge," said the silly victim of spite, "and one may
+risk a good deal for that."
+
+Behind the last torch-bearer she bounded along, radiant as a goddess,
+and gleeful as a child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ON THE HIGHWAY.
+
+
+The Queen had not taken ten paces beyond the gateway before a man in a
+blue garrick and with his face hidden by a tarpaulin hat, caught her
+convulsively by the arm and dragged her to a hackney coach stationed at
+the St. Nicaise corner: it was Count Charny.
+
+They expected to see the Queen come up, after this half hour of delay,
+dying, downcast and prostrated, but they saw her merry and gladsome; the
+cut of the cane which she had given a carriage-wheel and fancied was on
+the rider, had made her forget her fatigue, her blunder, her obstinacy,
+the lost time and the consequences of the delay.
+
+Charny pointed out a saddled horse which a servant was holding at a
+little distance to his brother who mounted and dashed ahead to pioneer
+the way. He would have to get the horses ready at Bondy.
+
+Seeing him go, the Queen uttered some words of thanks which he did not
+hear.
+
+"Let us be off, madam; we have not one second to lose," said Charny,
+with that firmness of will mixed with respect which great men take for
+grand occasions.
+
+The Queen entered the hackney-coach, where were five already, the King,
+Lady Elizabeth, the Princess Royal, her brother and Lady Tourzel. She
+had to sit at the back with her son on her lap, with the King beside
+her: the two ladies and the girl were on the front seat. Fortunately the
+hackney carriages, old family coaches, were roomy in those days.
+
+Charny got upon the box and to avert suspicion, turned the horses round
+and had them driven to the gate circuitously.
+
+Their special conveyance was waiting for them there, on the side-road
+leading to the ditch. This part was lonesome. The traveling carriage had
+the door open, and Malden and Valory were on the steps.
+
+In an instant the six travelers were out on the road. Charny drove the
+hack to the ditch and upset it in it, before returning to the party.
+
+They were inside; Malden got up behind; Valory joined Charny on the box.
+The four horses went off at a rattling good pace as a quarter past one
+sounded from the church clock.
+
+In an hour they were at Bondy, where Isidore had better teams ready. He
+saw the royal coach come up.
+
+Charny got down to get inside as had been settled; but Lady Tourzel, who
+was to be sent back to town alone, had not been consulted.
+
+With all her profound devotion to the Royal Family, she was unalterable
+on points of court etiquette. She stated that her duty was to look after
+the royal children, whom she was bound not to quit for a single instant
+unless by the King's express order, or the Queen's; but there being no
+precedent of a Queen having ordered the royal governess away from her
+charges, she would not go.
+
+The Queen quivered with impatience, for she doubly wished Charny in the
+vehicle, as a lover who would make it pleasanter and as a Queen, as he
+would guard her.
+
+Louis did not dare pronounce on the grave question. He tried to get out
+of the dilemma by a side-issue. Lady Tourzel stood ready to yield to the
+King's command but he dared not command her, so strong are the minutest
+regulations in the courtly-bred.
+
+"Arrange anyway you like, count," said the fretful Queen, "only you must
+be with us."
+
+"I will follow close to the carriage, like a simple servant," he
+replied: "I will return to town to get a horse by the one my brother
+came therefrom, and changing my dress I will join you at full speed."
+
+"Is there no other means?" said Marie Antoinette in despair.
+
+"I see none," remarked the King.
+
+Lady Tourzel took her seat triumphantly and the stage-coach started off.
+
+The importance of this discussion had made them forget to serve out the
+firearms which went back to Paris in the hack.
+
+By daybreak, which was three o'clock, they changed horses at Meaux where
+the King was hungry. They brought their own provisions in the boot of
+the coach, cold veal and bread and wine, which Charny had seen to. But
+there were no knives and forks and the King had to carve with "Jean,"
+that is, Malden's hunting-knife.
+
+During this, the Queen leaned out to see if Charny were returning.
+
+"What are you thinking of, madam?" inquired the King, who had found the
+two guards would not take refreshment.
+
+"That Lafayette is in a way at this hour," replied the lady.
+
+But nothing showed that their departure had been seen.
+
+Valory said that all would go well.
+
+"Cheer up!" he said, as he got upon the box with Malden and off they
+rolled again.
+
+At eight o'clock they reached the foot of a long slope where the King
+had all get out to walk up. Scattered over the road, the pretty children
+romping and playing, the sister resting on her brother's arm and
+smiling: the pensive women looking backward, and all lit up by the June
+sun while the forest flung a transparent shade upon the highway--they
+seemed a family going home to an old manor to resume a regular and
+peaceful life and not a King and Queen of France fleeing from the throne
+which would be converted into their scaffold.
+
+An accident was soon to stir up the dormant passions in the bosoms of
+the party.
+
+The Queen suddenly stopped as though her feet had struck root.
+
+A horseman appeared a quarter-league away, wrapped in the cloud of dust
+which his horse's hoofs threw up.
+
+Marie Antoinette dared not say: "It is Count Charny!" but she did
+exclaim, "News from Paris!"
+
+Everybody turned round except the Dauphin who was chasing a
+butterfly--compared with its capture the news from the capital little
+mattered.
+
+Being shortsighted, the King drew a small spy-glass from his pocket.
+
+"I believe it is only Lord Charny," he said.
+
+"Yes, it is he," said the Queen.
+
+"Go on," said the other: "he will catch up to us and we have no time to
+lose."
+
+The Queen dared not suggest that the news might be of value.
+
+It was only a few seconds at stake anyhow, for the rider galloped up as
+fast as his horse could go.
+
+He stared as he came up for he could not understand why the party should
+be scattered all over the road.
+
+He arrived as the huge vehicle stopped at the top of the ridge to take
+up the passengers.
+
+It was indeed Charny as the Queen's heart and the King's eyes had
+told them. He was now wearing a green riding coat with flap collar, a
+broad brimmed hat with steel buckle, white waistcoat, tight buckskin
+breeches, and high boots reaching above the knee. His usually dead white
+complexion was animated by the ride and sparks of the same flame which
+reddened his cheeks shot from his eyes.
+
+He looked like a conqueror as he rushed along; the Queen thought she had
+never seen him look handsomer. She heaved a deep sigh as the horseman
+leaped off his horse and saluted the King.
+
+Turning, he bowed to the Queen. All grouped themselves round him, except
+two guardsmen who stood aloof in respect.
+
+"Come near, gentlemen," said the King: "what news Count Charny brings
+concerns us all."
+
+"To begin with, all goes well," said Charny: "At two in the morning none
+suspected our flight."
+
+They breathed easier: the questions were multiplied. He related that
+he had entered the town and been stopped by a patrol of volunteers who
+however became convinced that the King was still in the palace. He
+entered his own room and changed his dress: the aid of Lafayette who
+first had a doubt, had become calm and dismissed extra guards.
+
+He had returned on the same horse from the difficulty of getting a fresh
+one so early. It almost foundered, poor beast, but he reached Bondy
+upon it. There he took a fresh one and continued his ride with nothing
+alarming along the road.
+
+The Queen found that such good news deserved the favor of her extending
+her hand to the bearer; he kissed it respectfully, and she turned pale.
+Was it from joy that he had returned, or with sorrow that he did not
+press it?
+
+When the vehicle started off, Charny rode by the side.
+
+At the next relay house all was ready except a saddle horse for the
+count which Isidore had not foreseen the want of. There would be delay
+for one to be found. The vehicle went off without him, but he overtook
+it in five minutes. It was settled that he should follow and not escort
+it. Still he kept close enough for the Queen to see him if she put
+her head out of the window and thus he exchanged a few words with the
+illustrious couple when the pace allowed it.
+
+Charny changed horses at Montmirail and was dashing on thinking it had a
+good start of him when he almost ran into it. It had been pulled up from
+a trace breaking. He dismounted and found a new leather in the boot,
+filled with repairing stuff. The two guardsmen profited by the halt to
+ask for their weapons, but the King opposed their having them. On the
+objection that the vehicle might be stopped he replied that he would
+not have blood spilt on his account.
+
+They lost half an hour by this mishap, when seconds were priceless.
+
+They arrived at Chalons by two o'clock.
+
+"All will go well if we reach Chalons without being stopped," the King
+had said.
+
+Here the King showed himself for a moment. In the crowd around the huge
+conveyance two men watched him with sustained attention. One of them
+suddenly went away while the other came up.
+
+"Sire, you will wreck all if you show yourself thus," he said. "Make
+haste, you lazybones," he cried to the postboys: "this is a pretty way
+to serve those who pay you handsomely."
+
+He set to work, aiding the hostlers.
+
+It was the postmaster.
+
+At last the horses were hooked on and the postboys in their saddles and
+boots. The first tried to start his pair when they went clean off their
+feet. They got them up and all clear again, when the second span went
+off their feet! This time the postboy was caught under them.
+
+Charny, who was looking on in silence, seized hold of the man and
+dragged him out of his heavy boots, remaining under the horse.
+
+"What kind of horses have you given us?" demanded he of the postinghouse
+master.
+
+"The best I had in," replied the man.
+
+The horses were so entangled with the traces that the more they pulled
+at them the worse the snarl became.
+
+Charny flew down to the spot.
+
+"Unbuckle and take off everything," he said, "and harness up afresh. We
+shall get on quicker so."
+
+The postmaster lent a hand in the work, cursing with desperation.
+
+Meanwhile the other man, who had been looking on had run to the mayor,
+whom he told that the Royal Family were in a coach passing through the
+town. Luckily the official was far from being a republican and did
+not care to take any responsibility on himself. Instead of making the
+assertion sure, he shilly-shallied so that time was lost and finally
+arrived as the coach disappeared round the corner.
+
+But more than twenty minutes had been frittered away.
+
+Alarm was in the royal party; the Queen thought that the downfall of the
+two pair of horses were akin to the four candles going out one after
+another which she had taken to portend the death of herself, her husband
+and their two children.
+
+Still, on getting out of the town, she and the King and his sister had
+all exclaimed:
+
+"We are saved!"
+
+But, a hundred paces beyond, a man shouted in at the window:
+
+"Your measures are badly taken--you will be arrested!"
+
+The Queen screamed but the man jumped into the hedge and was lost to
+sight.
+
+Happily they were but four leagues from Sommevelle Bridge, where
+Choiseul and forty hussars were to be posted. But it was three in the
+afternoon and they were nearly four hours late.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE QUEEN'S HAIRDRESSER.
+
+
+On the morning of the twenty-first of June, the Count of Choiseul, who
+had notified the King that he could wait no longer but must pick up his
+detachments along the road and fall back towards Bouille, who was also
+at the end of his patience, was told that a messenger from the Queen was
+at last at his house in Paris.
+
+It was Leonard the Queen's hairdresser. He was a favorite who enjoyed
+immense credit at the court, but the duke could wish for a more weighty
+confidant. But how could the Queen go into exile without the artist who
+alone could build up her hair into one of those towers which caused her
+to be the envy of her sex and the stupefaction of the sterner one?
+
+He was wearing a round hat pulled down to his eyes and an enormous
+"wraprascal," which he explained were property of his brother. The
+Queen, in confiding to him her jewels, had ordered him to disguise
+himself, and placed himself under the command of Choiseul. Not only
+verbal was this direction but in a note which the duke read and burned.
+
+He ordered a cab to be made ready. When the servant reported it at the
+door, he said to the hairdresser:
+
+"Come, my dear Leonard."
+
+"But where?"
+
+"A little way out of town where your art is required."
+
+"But the diamonds?"
+
+"Bring them along."
+
+"But my brother will come home and see I have taken his best hat and
+overcoat--he will wonder what has become of me."
+
+"Let him wonder! Did not the Queen bid you obey me as herself?"
+
+"True, but Lady Ange will be expecting me to do up her hair. Nobody can
+make anything of her scanty wisp but me, and----"
+
+"Lady Ange must wait till her hair grows again."
+
+Without paying farther heed to his lamentations, the lord forced him
+into his cab and the horse started off at a fast gait. When they stopped
+to renew the horse, he believed they were going to the world's end,
+though the duke confessed that their destination was the frontier.
+
+At Montmirail they were to pass the balance of the night, and indeed
+at the inn beds were ready. Leonard began to feel better, in pride at
+having been chosen for such an important errand.
+
+At eleven they reached Sommevelle Bridge, where Choiseul got out to put
+on his uniform. His hussars had not yet arrived.
+
+Leonard watched his preparations, particularly his freshening the pistol
+primings, with sharp disquiet and heaved sighs which touched the hearer.
+
+"It is time to let you into the truth, Leonard; you are true to your
+masters so you may as well know that they will be here in a couple of
+hours. The King, the Queen, Lady Elizabeth, and the royal children. You
+know what dangers they were running, and dangers they are running still,
+but in two hours they will be saved. I am awaiting a hussar detachment
+to be brought by Lieut. Goguelat. We will have dinner and take our time
+over it."
+
+But they heard the bugle and the hussars arrived. Goguelat brought six
+blank royal warrants and the order from Bouille for Choiseul to be
+obeyed like himself by all military officers, whatever their ranking
+seniority.
+
+The horses were hobbled, wine and eatables served out to the troopers
+and Choiseuil sat at table.
+
+Not that the lieutenant's news was good. He had found ferment everywhere
+along the road. For more than a year rumors of the King's flight had
+circulated as well in the country as in town, and the stationing of the
+soldiers had aroused talk. In one township the village church bells had
+sounded the alarm.
+
+This was calculated to dull even a Choiseuil's appetite. So he got up
+from the board in an hour, as the clock struck half after twelve, and
+leaving Lieut. Boudet to rule the troop of horse, he went out on a hill
+by the town entrance which commanded a good view. Every five minutes
+he pulled out his watch, and, each time, Leonard groaned: "Oh, my poor
+masters, they will not come. Something bad has happened them."
+
+His despair added to the duke's disquiet.
+
+Three o'clock came without any tidings. It will be remembered that this
+was the hour when the King left Chalons.
+
+While Choiseul was fretting, Fatality, unless Cagliostro had a hand in
+it, was preparing an event which had much to do with influencing the
+drama in course of performance.
+
+A few days before, some peasants on the Duchess of Elboeuf's estate,
+near Sommevelle Bridge, had refused payment of some unredeemable taxes.
+They were threatened with the sheriff calling in the military; but
+the Federation business had done its work and the inhabitants of the
+neighborhood vowed to make common cause with their brothers of the plow
+and came armed to resist the process-servers.
+
+On seeing the hussars ride in, the clowns thought that they were here
+for this purpose. So they sent runners to the surrounding villages and
+at three o'clock the alarm-bells were booming all over the country.
+
+Choiseul went back on hearing this and found Lieut. Boudet uneasy.
+
+Threats were heard against the hussars who were the best hated corps in
+the army. The crowd bantered them and sang a song at them which was made
+for the occasion:
+
+    "Than the hussars there is no worse,
+    But we don't care for them a curse!"
+
+Other persons, better informed or keener, began to whisper that the
+cavalry were here not to execute a writ on the Elboeuf tillers but to
+wait for the King and Queen coming through.
+
+Meanwhile four o'clock struck without any courier with intelligence.
+
+The count put Leonard in his cab with the diamonds, and sent him on
+to Varennes, with order to say all he could to the commanders of each
+military troop on the road.
+
+To calm the agitation he informed the mob that he and his company were
+there not to assist the sheriff, but to guard a treasure which the
+War Minister was sending along. This word "treasure," with its double
+meaning, confirmed suspicions on one side while allaying irritability on
+the other. In a short time he saw that his men were so outnumbered and
+as hedged in that they could do nothing in such a mass, and would have
+been powerless to protect the Royal Family if they came then.
+
+His orders were to "act so that the King's carriage should pass without
+hindrance," while his presence was becoming an obstacle instead of
+protection.
+
+Even had the King came up he had better be out of the way. Indeed his
+departure would remove the block from the highway. But he needed an
+excuse for the going.
+
+The postmaster was there among half-a-dozen leading citizens whom a word
+would turn into active foes. He was close to Choiseul who inquired:
+
+"My friend, did you hear anything about this military money-chest coming
+through?"
+
+"This very morning," replied the man, "the stage-coach came along for
+Metz with a hundred thousand crowns; two gendarmes rode with it."
+
+"You don't say so?" cried the nobleman, amazed at luck so befriending
+him.
+
+"It is so true that I was one of the escort," struck in a gendarme.
+
+"Then the Minister preferred that way of transmitting the cash," said
+Choiseul, turning to his lieutenant, quietly, "and we were sent only as
+a blind to highwaymen. As we are no longer needed, I think we can be
+off. Boot and saddle, my men!"
+
+The troop marched out with trumpets sounding and the count at the head
+as the clock struck half-past five.
+
+He branched off the road to avoid St. Menehould, where great hubbub was
+reported to prevail.
+
+At this very instant, Isidore Charny, spurring and whipping a horse
+which had taken two hours to cover four leagues, dashed up to the
+posthouse to get another; asking about a squad of hussars he was told
+that it had marched slowly out of the place a quarter of an hour before;
+leaving orders about the horses for the carriage, he rode off at full
+speed of the fresh steed, hoping to overtake the count.
+
+Choiseul had taken the side road precisely as Isidore arrived at the
+post, so that the viscount never met him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+MISCHANCE.
+
+
+Ten minutes after young Charny rode out, the King's coach rumbled in.
+
+As the duke had foreseen, the crowd had dissolved almost completely.
+
+Knowing that a detachment of soldiery was to be at Sommevelle, Charny
+had thought he need not linger and had galloped beside the door, urging
+on the postillions and keeping them up to the hand-gallop.
+
+On arriving and seeing neither Choiseul nor the escort, the King stuck
+his head out of the window.
+
+"For mercy's sake, do not show yourself," said Charny; "let me inquire."
+
+In five minutes he returned from the postinghouse where he had learnt
+all, and he repeated it to the monarch. They understood that the count
+had withdrawn to leave the road open. No doubt he had fallen back on St.
+Menehould where they ought to hasten to find him with the hussars and
+dragoons.
+
+"What am I to do?" asked Charny as they were about to proceed again;
+"does the Queen order me to go ahead or ride in the rear?"
+
+"Do not leave me," said the Queen.
+
+He bowed, and rode by the carriage side.
+
+During this time Isidore rode on, gaining on the vehicle, and fearing
+that the people of St. Menehould would also take umbrage at having the
+soldiers in their town. He was not wrong.
+
+The first thing he perceived there was a goodly number of National
+Guards scattered about the streets; they were the first seen since he
+left the capital.
+
+The whole town seemed in a stir and on the opposite side, drums were
+beating.
+
+He dashed through the streets without appearing to notice the tumult:
+crossing the square he stopped at the postinghouse.
+
+On a bench in the square he noticed a dozen dragoons not in their
+helmets but fatigue caps, sitting at ease. Up at a ground floor window
+lounged Marquis Dandoins in undress, also, with a riding whip in his
+hand.
+
+Isidore passed without seeming to look, presuming that the captain would
+recognize the royal courier by his uniform and not need any other hint.
+
+At the posthouse was a young man whose hair was cut short in the Emperor
+Titus fashion which the Patriots adopted in the period: he wore his
+beard all round the lower face from ear to ear. He was in a dressing
+gown.
+
+"What do you want?" challenged the black-whiskered man, seeing that the
+new-comer was looking round.
+
+"To speak to the postmaster."
+
+"He is out just now, but I am his son, Jean Baptiste Drouet. If I can
+replace him, speak."
+
+He had emphasized his name as though he fore-felt that it would take a
+place on the historic page.
+
+"I want six horses for two carriages coming after me."
+
+Drouet nodded to show that he would fulfill the order and walked into
+the stable yard, calling out:
+
+"Turn out there! six horses for carriages and a nag for the courier."
+
+At this nick Marquis Dandoins hurriedly came up to Isidore.
+
+"You are preceding the King's coach, I suppose?" he questioned.
+
+"Yes, my lord, and I am surprised to see that you and your men are not
+in the battle array."
+
+"We have not been notified; besides, very ugly manifestations have been
+made around us; attempts to make my men mutiny. What am I to do?"
+
+"Why, as the King passes, guard the vehicle, act as circumstances
+dictate, and start off half an hour after the Royal Family to guard the
+rear." But he interrupted himself saying: "Hush, we are spied. Perhaps
+we have been overheard. Get away to your squadron and do all you can to
+keep your men steadfast."
+
+Indeed, Drouet was at the kitchen door where this dialogue was held.
+Dandoins walked away.
+
+At this period, cracking of whips was heard: the royal coach rolled up
+across the square and stopped at the posthouse.
+
+At the noise it made, the population mustered around the spot with
+curiosity.
+
+Captain Dandoins, whose heart was sore about the oversight, and wanting
+to explain why his men were standing at ease instead of being ready
+for action, darted up to the carriage window, taking off his cap and
+bowing, with all kind of respect to excuse himself to the sovereign and
+the Royal Family. To answer him the King put his head out of the window
+several times.
+
+Isidore, with his foot in the stirrup, was near Drouet who watched
+the conveyance with profound attention: he had been up to town to
+the Federation Festival and he had seen the King whom he believed he
+recognized. That morning he had received a number of the new issue of
+_assignats_ the paper money of the State which bore the monarch's head:
+he pulled one out and compared it with the original. This seemed to cry
+out to him: "You have the man before you."
+
+Isidore went round the carriage to the other side where his brother was
+masking the Queen by leaning his elbow on the window.
+
+"The King is recognized," he said; "hurry off the carriage and take
+a good look at that tall dark fellow--the postmaster's son, who has
+recognized the King. His name is Jean Baptiste Drouet."
+
+"Right," responded George, "I will look to him. You, be off!"
+
+Isidore galloped on to Clermont to have the fresh horses ready there.
+
+Scarcely was he through the town before the vehicle started off, by
+Malden and Valory pressing and the promise of extra money.
+
+Charny had lost sight of Drouet who did not budge, but was talking with
+the groom. The count went up to him.
+
+"Was there no horse ordered for me, sir?" he demanded.
+
+"One was ordered, but we are out of them."
+
+"What do you mean--when here is a saddled horse in the yard."
+
+"That is mine."
+
+"But you can let me have it. I do not mind what I pay."
+
+"Impossible. I have a journey to make, and it cannot be postponed."
+
+To insist was to cause suspicions; to take by force was to ruin all.
+He thought of a means to smoothe over the difficulty. He went over to
+Captain Dandoins who was watching the royal carriage going round the
+corner. He turned on a hand being laid on his shoulder.
+
+"Hush, I am Count Charny," said the Lifeguard. "I cannot get a horse
+here. Let me have one of your dragoons' as I must follow the King and
+the Queen. I alone know where the relays set by the Count of Choiseul
+are, and if I am not at hand the King will be brought to a standstill at
+Varennes."
+
+"Count, you must take my charger, not one of my men's."
+
+"I accept. The welfare of the Royal Family depends on the least
+accident. The better the steed the better the chances."
+
+The two went through the town to the marquis' lodgings. Before departing
+Charny charged a quarter-master to watch young Drouet.
+
+Unfortunately the nobleman's rooms were five hundred paces away. When
+the horses were saddled a quarter of an hour had gone by; for the
+marquis had another got ready as he was to take up the rear guard duty
+over the King.
+
+Suddenly it seemed to Charny that he heard great clamor and could
+distinguish shouts of "The Queen, the Queen!"
+
+He sprang from the house, begging Dandoins to have the horse brought to
+the square.
+
+The town was in an uproar. Scarcely had Charny and his brother noble
+gone, as if Drouet had waited for it, he shouted out:
+
+"That carriage which went by is the King's! in it are the King, the
+Queen, and the Royals!"
+
+He jumped on his horse; some friends sought to detain him.
+
+"Where are you off to? what do you intend? what is your project?"
+
+"The colonel and the troop are here. We could not stop the King without
+a riot which might turn out ill for us. What cannot be done here can be
+done at Clermont. Keep back the dragoons, that is all I ask."
+
+And away galloped he on the track of the King.
+
+Hence the shouting that the King and the Queen had gone through, as
+Charny heard. Those shouts set the mayor and councilmen afoot; the mayor
+ordered the soldiers into the barracks as eight o'clock was striking
+and it was the hour when soldiers had no business to be about in arms.
+
+"Horses!" cried Charny as Dandoins joined him.
+
+"They are coming."
+
+"Have you pistols in the holsters?"
+
+"I loaded them myself."
+
+"Good! Now, all hangs on the goodness of your horse. I must catch up
+with a man who has a quarter-hour's start, and kill him."
+
+"You must kill him----"
+
+"Or, all is lost!"
+
+"Do not wait for the horses, then."
+
+"Never mind me; you, get your men out before they are coaxed over; look
+at the mayor speechifying to them! you have no time to lose either; make
+haste!"
+
+At this instant up came the orderly with the two chargers. Charny took
+the nearest at hazard, snatched the reins from the man's hands, leaped
+astride, drove in both spurs and burst away on the track of Drouet,
+without clearly comprehending what the marquis yelled after him. Yet
+these words were important.
+
+"You have taken my horse and not yours, and the pistols are not loaded!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+STOP, KING!
+
+
+With Isidore riding before it, the royal conveyance flew over the road
+between St. Menehould and Clermont.
+
+Night was falling; the coach entered Argonne Forest crossing the
+highway.
+
+The Queen had noticed the absence of Charny, but she could not slacken
+the pace or question the postboys. She did lean out a dozen times but
+she discovered nothing.
+
+At half-past nine they reached Clermont, four leagues covered. Count
+Damas was waiting outside the place as he had been warned by Leonard and
+he stopped Isidore on recognizing his livery.
+
+"You are Charles de Damas? well; I am preceding the King. Get your
+dragoons in hand and escort the carriage."
+
+"My lord," replied the count, "such a breath of discontent is blowing
+that I am alarmed, and must confess that my men cannot be answered for,
+if they recognize the King. All I can promise is that I will fall in
+behind when he gets by, and bar the road."
+
+"Do your best--here they come!"
+
+He pointed to the carriage rushing through the darkness and visible by
+the sparks from the horses' shoes.
+
+Isidore's duty was to ride ahead and get the relays ready. In five
+minutes, he stopped at the posthouse door.
+
+Almost at the same time, Damas rode up with half-a-dozen dragoons, and
+the King's coach came next. It had followed Isidore so closely that he
+had not had time to remount. Without being showy it was so large and
+well built that a great crowd gathered to see it.
+
+Damas stood by the door to prevent the passengers being studied. But
+neither the King nor the Queen could master their desire to learn what
+was going on.
+
+"Is that you, Count Damas?" asked the King. "Why are not your dragoons
+under arms?"
+
+"Sire, your Majesty is five hours behind time. My troop has been in the
+saddle since four P. M. I have kept as quiet as possible but the town
+is getting fretful; and my men want to know what is the matter. If the
+excitement comes to a head before your Majesty is off again, the alarm
+bell will be rung and the road will be blocked. So I have kept only
+a dozen men ready and sent the others into quarters; but I have the
+trumpeters in my rooms so as to sound the Boot-and-Saddle at the first
+call. Your Majesty sees that all was for the best for the road is free."
+
+"Very well; you have acted like a prudent man, my lord," said the King;
+"when I am gone, get your men together and follow me closely."
+
+"Sire, will you kindly hear what Viscount Charny has to say?" asked the
+Queen.
+
+"What has he to say?" said the King, fretfully.
+
+"That you were recognised by the St. Menehould postmaster's son, who
+compared your face with the likeness on the new paper money; his brother
+the count stayed behind to watch this fellow, and no doubt something
+serious is happening as he has not rejoined us."
+
+"If we were recognized, the more reason to hurry. Viscount, urge on the
+postboys and ride on before."
+
+Isidore's horse was ready. He dashed on, shouting to the postillions:
+"The Varennes Road!" and led the vehicle, which rattled off with
+lightning speed.
+
+Damas thought of following with his handful but he had positive orders
+and as the town was in commotion--lights appearing at windows and
+persons running from door to door--he thought only of one thing: to stop
+the alarm bell. He ran to the church tower and set a guard on the door.
+
+But all seemed to calm down. A messenger arrived from Dandoins, to say
+that he and his dragoons were detained at St. Menehould by the people;
+besides--as Damas already knew--Drouet had ridden off to pursue the
+carriage which he had probably failed to catch up with, as they had not
+seen him at Clermont.
+
+Then came a hussar orderly, from Commandant Rohrig, at Varennes with
+Count Bouille and another. He was a young officer of twenty who was not
+in the knowledge of the plot but was told a treasure was in question.
+Uneasy at time going by they wanted to know what news Damas could give.
+
+All was quiet with them and on the road the hussar had passed the royal
+carriage.
+
+"All's well," thought Count Damas, going home to bid his bugler sound
+"Boot and Saddle!"
+
+All was therefore going for the best, except for the St. Menehould
+incident, by which Dandoins' thirty dragoons were locked up.
+
+But Damas could dispense with them from having a hundred and forty.
+
+Returning to the King's carriage, it was on the road to Varennes.
+
+This place is composed of an upper and a lower town; the relay of horses
+was to be ready beyond the town, on the farther side of the bridge and
+a vaulted passage, where a stoppage would be bad.
+
+Count Jules Bouille and Raigecourt were to guard these horses and Charny
+was to guide the party through the daedalus of streets. He had spent a
+fortnight in Varennes and had studied and jotted down every point; not a
+lane but was familiar, not a boundary post but he knew it.
+
+Unfortunately Charny was not to the fore.
+
+Hence the Queen's anxiety doubled. Something grave must have befallen
+him to keep him remote when he knew how much he was wanted.
+
+The King grew more distressed, too, as he had so reckoned on Charny that
+he had not brought away the plan of the town.
+
+Besides the night was densely dark--not a star scintillated.
+
+It was easy to go wrong in a known place, still more a strange one.
+
+Isidore's orders from his brother was to stop before the town.
+
+Here his brother was to change horses and take the lead.
+
+He was as troubled as the Queen herself at this absence. His hope was
+that Bouille and Raigecourt in their eagerness would come out to meet
+the Royal party: they must have learnt the site during three days and
+would do as guides.
+
+Consequently on reaching the base of the hill, seeing a few lights
+sparkling over the town, Isidore pulled up irresolutely, and cast a
+glance around to try and pierce the murkiness. He saw nothing.
+
+He ventured to call in a low voice, but louder and louder, for the
+officers; but no reply came.
+
+He heard the rumbling of the stage coming along at a quarter of a league
+off, like a thunder peal.
+
+Perhaps the officers were hiding in the woods which he explored along
+the skirts without meeting a soul.
+
+He had no alternative but to wait.
+
+In five minutes the carriage came up, and the heads of the royal couple
+were thrust out of the windows.
+
+"Have you seen Count Charny?" both asked simultaneously.
+
+"I have not, Sire," was the response: "and I judge that some hurt has
+met him in the chase of that confounded Drouet."
+
+The Queen groaned.
+
+"What can be done?" inquired the King who found that nobody knew the
+place.
+
+"Sire," said the viscount, "all is silent and appears quiet. Please your
+Majesty, wait ten minutes. I will go into the town, and try to get news
+of Count Bouille or at least of the Choiseul horses."
+
+He darted towards the houses.
+
+The nearest had opened at the approach of the vehicles, and light was
+perceptible through the chink of the door.
+
+The Queen got out, leant on Malden's arm and walked up to this dwelling:
+but the door closed at their drawing near. Malden had time to dash up
+and give it a shove which overpowered the resistance. The man who had
+attempted to shut it was in his fiftieth year; he wore a night gown and
+slippers.
+
+It was not without astonishment that he was pushed into his own house by
+a gentleman who had a lady on his arm. He started when he cast a rapid
+glance at the latter.
+
+"What do you want?" he challenged Malden.
+
+"We are strangers to Varennes, and we beg you to point out the Stenay
+road."
+
+"But if I give you the information, and it is known, I will be a ruined
+man."
+
+"Whatever the risk, sir," said the Lifeguardsman, "it will be kindness
+to a lady who is in a dangerous position----"
+
+"Yes, but this is a great lady--it is the Queen," he whispered to the
+sham courier.
+
+The Queen pulled Malden back.
+
+"Before going farther, let the King know that I am recognized," she
+said.
+
+Malden took but a second to run this errand and he brought word that the
+King wanted to see this careful man.
+
+He kicked off his slippers with a sigh, and went on tiptoe out to the
+vehicle.
+
+"Your name, sir?" demanded the King.
+
+"I am Major Prefontaine of the cavalry, and Knight of the St. Louis
+Order."
+
+"In both capacities you have sworn fealty to me: it is doubly your duty
+therefore to help me in this quandary."
+
+"Certainly: but will your Majesty please be quick about it lest I am
+seen," faltered the major.
+
+"All the better if you are seen," interposed Malden; "you will never
+have a finer chance to do your duty."
+
+Not appearing to be of this opinion, the major gave a groan. The Queen
+shook her shoulders with scorn and stamped with impatience.
+
+The King waved his hand to appease her and said to the lukewarm
+royalist:
+
+"Sir, did you hear by chance of soldiers waiting for a carriage to come
+through, and have you seen any hussars lately about?"
+
+"They are on the other side of the town, Sire; the horses are at the
+Great Monarch inn and the soldiers probably in the barracks."
+
+"I thank you, sir; nobody has seen you and you will probably have
+nothing happen you."
+
+He gave his hand to the Queen to help her into the vehicle, and issued
+orders for the start to be made again.
+
+But as the couriers shouted "To the Monarch Inn!" a shadowy horseman
+loomed up in the woods and darted crosswise on the road, shouting:
+
+"Postboys, not a step farther! You are driving the fleeing King. In the
+name of the Nation, I bid ye stand!"
+
+"The King," muttered the postillions, who had gathered up the reins.
+
+Louis XVI. saw that it was a vital instant.
+
+"Who are you, sir, to give orders here?" he demanded.
+
+"A plain citizen, but I represent the law and I speak in the name of the
+Nation. Postillions, I order you a second time not to stir. You know me
+well: I am Jean Baptiste Drouet, son of the postmaster at St.
+Menehould."
+
+"The scoundrel, it is he," shouted the two Lifeguardsmen, drawing their
+hunting-swords.
+
+But before they could alight, the other had dashed away into the Lower
+Town streets.
+
+"Oh, what has become of Charny?" murmured the Queen.
+
+Fatality had ridden at the count's knee.
+
+Dandoins' horse was a good racer but Drouet had twenty minute's start.
+Charny dug in the spurs, and the bounding horse blew steam from his
+nostrils as it darted off. Without knowing that he was pursued,
+Drouet tore along, but he rode an ordinary nag while the other was a
+thoroughbred.
+
+The result was that at a league's end the pursuer gained a third.
+Thereupon the postmaster's son saw that he was chased and redoubled
+his efforts to keep beyond the hunter. At the end of the second league
+Charny saw that he had gained in the same proportion, while the other
+turned to watch him with more and more uneasiness.
+
+Drouet had gone off in such haste that he had forgotten to arm himself.
+The young patriot did not dread death, but he feared being stopped
+in his mission of arresting the King, whereupon he would lose the
+opportunity of making his name famous.
+
+He had still two leagues to go before reaching Clermont, but it was
+evident that he would be overtaken at the end of the first league, that
+is, the third, from his leaving St. Menehould.
+
+As if to stimulate his ardor, he was sure that the royal carriage was in
+front of him.
+
+He laid on the lash and drove in the spurs more cruelly.
+
+It was half after nine and night fell.
+
+He was but three quarters of a league from Clermont but Charny was only
+two hundred paces away.
+
+Drouet knew Varennes was not a posting station and he surmised that the
+King would have to go through Verdun. He began to despair; before he
+caught up with the King he would be seized. He would have to give up the
+pursuit or turn to fight his pursuer and he was unarmed.
+
+Suddenly, when Charny was not fifty paces from him, he met postillions
+returning with the unharnessed horses. Drouet recognized them as those
+who had ridden the royal horses.
+
+"They took the Verdun Road, eh?" he called out as he forged past them.
+
+"No, the Varennes Road," they shouted.
+
+He roared with delight. He was saved and the King lost!
+
+Instead of the long way he had a short cut to make. He knew all about
+Argonne Woods into which he flung himself: by cutting through, he would
+gain a quarter of an hour over the King, besides being shielded by the
+darkness under the trees.
+
+Charny, who knew the ground almost as well as the young man, understood
+that he would escape him and he howled with rage.
+
+"Stop, stop!" he shouted out to Drouet, as he at the same time urged his
+horse also on the short level separating the road from the woods.
+
+But Drouet took good care not to reply: he bent down on his horse's
+neck, inciting him with whip and spur and voice. All he wanted was to
+reach the thicket--he would be safe there.
+
+He could do it, but he had to run the gauntlet of Charny at ten paces.
+He seized one of the horse-pistols and levelled it.
+
+"Stop!" he called out again, "or you are a dead man."
+
+Drouet only leaned over the more and pressed on. The royalist pulled the
+trigger but the flint on the hammer only shot sparks from the pan: he
+furiously flung the weapon at the flyer, took out the other of the pair
+and plunging into the woods after him, shot again at the dark-form--but
+once more the hammer fell uselessly; neither pistol was loaded.
+
+It was then he remembered that Dandoins had called out something to him
+which he had heard imperfectly.
+
+"I made a mistake in the horse," he said, "and no doubt what he shouted
+was that the pistols were not charged. Never mind, I will catch this
+villain, and strangle him with my own hands if needs must."
+
+He took up the pursuit of the shadow which he just descried in the
+obscurity. But he had hardly gone a hundred paces in the forest before
+his horse broke down in the ditch: he was thrown over its head; rising
+he pulled it up and got into the seat again but Drouet was out of sight.
+
+Thus it was that he escaped Charny, and swept like a phantom over the
+road to bid the King's conductors to make not another step.
+
+They obeyed, for he had conjured them in the name of the Nation,
+beginning to be more mighty than the King's.
+
+Scarcely had he dived into the Lower Town and the sound of his horse
+lessened before they heard that of another coming nearer.
+
+Isidore appeared by the same street as Drouet had taken.
+
+His information agreed with that furnished by Major Prefontaine. The
+horses were beyond the town at the Monarch Hotel.
+
+Lieutenant Rohrig had the hussars at the barracks.
+
+But instead of filling them with joy by his news he found the party
+plunged into the deepest stupor. Prefontaine was wailing and the two
+Lifeguardsmen threatening someone unseen.
+
+"Did not a rider go by you at a gallop?"
+
+"Yes, Sire."
+
+"The man was Drouet," said the King.
+
+"Then my brother is dead," ejaculated Isidore with a deep pang at the
+heart.
+
+The Queen uttered a shriek and buried her face in her hands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE CAPTURE.
+
+
+Inexpressible prostration overpowered the fugitives, checked on the
+highway by a danger they could not measure.
+
+"Sire," said Isidore, the first to shake it off; "dead or living, let us
+not think of our brother, but of your Majesty. There is not an instant
+to lose. These fellows must know the Monarch Hotel; so, gallop to the
+Grand Monarch!"
+
+But the postillions did not stir.
+
+"Did you not hear?" queried the young noble.
+
+"Yes, sir, we heard----"
+
+"Well, why do we not start?"
+
+"Because Master Drouet forbade us."
+
+"What? Drouet forbade you? when the King commands and Drouet forbids, do
+you obey a Drouet?"
+
+"We obey the Nation."
+
+"Then, gentlemen," went on Isidore, "there are moments when a human life
+is of no account. Pick out your man; I will settle this one. We will
+drive ourselves."
+
+He grasped the nearest postillion by the collar and set the point of his
+short sword to his breast.
+
+On seeing the three knives flash, the Queen screamed and cried:
+
+"Mercy, gentlemen!"
+
+She turned to the postboys:
+
+"Friends, fifty gold pieces to share among you, and a pension of five
+hundred a-year if you save the King!"
+
+Whether they were frightened by the young nobles' demonstration or
+snapped at the offer, the three shook up their horses and resumed the
+road.
+
+Prefontaine sneaked into his house all of a tremble and barred himself
+in.
+
+Isidore rode on in front to clear the way through the town and over the
+bridge to the Monarch House.
+
+The vehicle rolled at full speed down the slope.
+
+On arriving at a vaulted way leading to the bridge and passing under the
+Revenue Tower, one of the doors was seen closed. They got it open but
+two or three wagons were in the way.
+
+"Lend me a hand, gentlemen," cried Isidore, dismounting.
+
+Just then they heard the bells boom and a drum beat. Drouet was hard at
+work!
+
+"The scamp! if ever I lay hold of him--" growled Isidore, grinding his
+teeth. By an incredible effort he dragged one of the carts aside while
+Malden and Valory drew off the other. They tugged at the last as the
+coach thundered under the vault.
+
+Suddenly through the uprights of the tilt, they saw several musket
+barrels thrust upon the cart.
+
+"Not a step or you are dead men!" shouted a voice.
+
+"Gentlemen," interposed the King, looking out of the window, "do not try
+to force your way through--I order you."
+
+The two officers and Isidore fell back a step.
+
+"What do they mean to do?" asked the King.
+
+At the same time a shriek of fright sounded from within the coach.
+Besides the men who barred the way, two or three had slipped up to the
+conveyance and shoved their gun barrels under the windows. One was
+pointed at the Queen's breast: Isidore saw this; he darted up, and
+pushed the gun aside by grasping the barrel.
+
+"Fire, fire," roared several voices.
+
+One of the men obeyed but luckily his gun missed fire.
+
+Isidore raised his arm to stab him but the Queen stopped his hand.
+
+"Oh, in heaven's name, let me charge this rabble," said Isidore,
+enraged.
+
+"No, sheathe your sword, do you hear me?"
+
+He did not obey her by half; instead of sheathing his sword he let it
+fall on the ground.
+
+"If I only get hold of Drouet," he snarled.
+
+"I leave you him to wreck your vengeance on," said the Queen, in an
+undertone and squeezing his arm with strange force.
+
+"In short, gentlemen," said the King, "what do you want?"
+
+"We want to see your passports," returned several voices.
+
+"So you may," he replied. "Get the town authorities and we will show
+them."
+
+"You are making too much fuss over it," said the fellow who had missed
+fire with his gun and now levelled it at the King.
+
+But the two Guardsmen leaped upon him, and dragged him down; in the
+scuffle the gun went off and the bullet did no harm in the crowd.
+
+"Who fired?" demanded a voice.
+
+"Help," called out the one whom the officers were beating.
+
+Five or six armed men rushed to his rescue. The two Lifeguardsmen
+whipped out their short swords and prepared to use them. The King and
+the Queen made useless efforts to stop both parties: the contest was
+beginning fierce, terrible and deadly.
+
+But two men plunged into the struggle, distinguishable by a tricolored
+scarf and military uniform; one was Sausse the County Attorney and the
+other National Guard Commandant Hannonet.
+
+They brought twenty muskets, which gleamed in the torchlight.
+
+The King comprehended that these officials were a guarantee if not
+assistance.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "I am ready to entrust myself and party to you,
+but put a stop to these rough fellow's brutality."
+
+"Ground your arms," cried Hannonet.
+
+The men obeyed but growlingly.
+
+"Excuse me, sir," said the attorney, "but the story is about that the
+King is in flight and it is our duty to make sure if it is a fact."
+
+"Make sure?" retorted Isidore. "If this carriage really conveyed his
+Majesty you ought to be at his feet: if it is but a private individual
+by what right do you stay him?"
+
+"Sir, I am addressing you," went on Sausse, to the King. "Will you be
+good enough to answer me?"
+
+"Sire, gain time," whispered Isidore: "Damas and his dragoons are
+somewhere near and will doubtless ride up in a trice."
+
+The King thought this right and replied to Sausse:
+
+"I suppose you will let us go on if our passes are correct?"
+
+"Of course," was the reply.
+
+"Then, Baroness," said the Monarch to Lady Tourzel, "be good enough to
+find the passports and give them to the gentleman."
+
+The old lady understood what the speaker meant by saying "find!" so she
+went to seeking in the pockets where it was not likely to be.
+
+"Nonsense," said one of the crowd, "don't you see that they have not got
+any passport."
+
+The voice was fretful and full of menace too.
+
+"Excuse me, sir," said the Queen, "my lady the baroness has the paper
+but not knowing that it would be called for, she does not know where she
+put it."
+
+The bystanders began to hoot, showing that they were not dupes of the
+trick.
+
+"There is a plainer way," said Sausse: "postillions, drive on to my
+store, where the ladies and gentlemen can go in while the matter is
+cleared up. Go ahead, boys! Soldiers of the National Guard, escort the
+carriage."
+
+This invitation was too much like an order to be dallied with.
+
+Besides resistance would probably not have succeeded for the bells
+continued to ring and the drum to beat so that the crowd was
+considerably augmented, as the carriage moved on.
+
+"Oh, Colonel Damas," muttered the King, "if you will only strike in
+before we are put within this accursed house!"
+
+The Queen said nothing for she had to stifle her sobs as she thought of
+Charny, and restrained her tears.
+
+Damas? he had managed to break out of Clermont with three officers and
+twice as many troopers but the rest had fraternized with the people.
+
+Sausse was a grocer as well as attorney, and his grocery had a parlor
+behind the store where he meant to lodge the visitors.
+
+His wife, half-dressed, came from upstairs as the Queen crossed the
+sill, with the King next, Lady Elizabeth and Lady Tourzel following.
+
+More than a hundred persons guarded the coach, and stopped before the
+store which was in a little square.
+
+"If the lady has found the pass yet," observed Sausse, who had shown the
+way in, "I will take it to the Town Council and see if it is correct."
+
+As the passport which Charny had got from Baron Zannone, and given to
+the Queen, was in order, the King made a sign that Lady Tourzel was to
+hand it over. She drew the precious paper from her pocket and let Sausse
+have it. He charged his wife to do the honor of his house while he went
+to the town-house.
+
+It was a lively meeting, for Drouet was there to fan the flames. The
+silence of curiosity fell as the attorney entered with the document. All
+knew that he harbored the party. The mayor pronounced the pass perfectly
+good.
+
+"It must be good for there is the royal signature," he said.
+
+A dozen hands were held out for it but Drouet snatched it up.
+
+"But has it got the signature of the Assembly?" he demanded.
+
+It was signed by a member of the Committee though not for the president.
+
+"This is not the question," said the young patriot, "these travelers
+are not Baroness von Korff, a Russian lady, with her steward, her
+governess and her children, but the King and the Queen, the Prince
+and the Princess Royal and Lady Elizabeth, a court lady, and their
+guardsmen--the Royal Family in short. Will you or will you not let the
+Royal Family go out of the kingdom?"
+
+This question was properly put, but it was too heavy for the town
+governors of a third-rate town to handle.
+
+As their deliberation promised to take up some time, Sausse went home to
+see how his guests were faring.
+
+They had refused to lay aside their wraps or sit down as this concession
+seemed to delay their approaching departure, which they took for
+granted.
+
+All their faculties were concentrated on the master of the house who
+might be expected to bring the council's decision. When he arrived the
+King went to meet him.
+
+"Well, what about the passport?" he asked, with anxiety he vainly strove
+to conceal.
+
+"It causes a grave debate in the council," replied Sausse.
+
+"Why? is its validity doubted by any chance?" proceeded the King.
+
+"No; but it is doubted that it is really in the hands of Lady Korff, and
+the rumor spreads that it covers the Royal Family."
+
+Louis hesitated an instant, but then, making up his mind, he said:
+
+"Well, yes; I am the King. You see the Queen and the children; I entreat
+you to deal with them with the respect the French have always shown
+their sovereigns."
+
+The street door had remained open to the staring multitude; the words
+were heard without. Unhappily, though they were uttered with a kind of
+dignity, the speaker did not carry out the idea in his bob wig, grey
+coat, and plain stockings and shoes.
+
+How could anybody see the ruler of the realm in this travesty?
+
+The Queen felt the flush come to her eyes at the poor impression made on
+the mob.
+
+"Let us accept Madam Sausse's hospitality," she hastened to say, "and go
+upstairs."
+
+Meanwhile the news was carried to the town house and the tumult
+redoubled over the town.
+
+How was it this did not attract the soldiers in waiting?
+
+At about nine in the evening, Count Jules Bouille--not his brother Louis
+whom we have seen in locksmith's dress--and Lieut. Raigecourt, with
+their hussars, were at the Monarch inn door, when they heard a carriage
+coming. But it was the cab containing the Queen's hairdresser. He was
+very frightened.
+
+He revealed his personality.
+
+"The King got out of Paris last evening," he said: "but it does not
+look as if he could keep on; I have warned Colonel Damas who has called
+in his outposts; the dragoon regiment mutinied; at Clermont there was
+a riot--I have had great trouble to get through. I have the Queen's
+diamonds and my brother's hat and coat, and you must give me a horse to
+help me on the road."
+
+"Master Leonard," said Bouille, who wanted to set the hairdresser down a
+peg, "the horses here are for the King's service and nobody else can use
+them."
+
+"But as I tell you that there is little likelihood of the King coming
+along----"
+
+"But still he may, and he would hold me to task for letting you have
+them."
+
+"What, do you imagine that the King would blame you for giving me his
+horses when it is to help me out of a fix?"
+
+The young noble could not help smiling. Leonard was comic in the big
+hat and misfit coat, and he was glad to get rid of him by begging the
+landlord to find a horse for the cab.
+
+Bouille and his brother-officer went through the town and saw nothing
+on the farther side; they began to believe that the King, eight or ten
+hours belated, would never come. It was eleven when they returned to
+the inn. They had sent out an orderly before this, who had reported to
+Damas, as we have seen.
+
+They threw themselves, dressed, on the bed to wait till midnight.
+
+At half past twelve they were aroused by the tocsin, the drum and the
+shouting. Thrusting their heads out of the window, they saw the town in
+confusion racing towards the town hall. Many armed men ran in the same
+direction with all sorts of weapons.
+
+The officers went to the stables to get the horses out so that they
+would be ready for the carriage if it crossed the town. They had their
+own chargers ready and kept by the King's relay, on which sat the
+postboys.
+
+Soon they learnt, amid the shouts and menaces that the royal party had
+been stopped.
+
+They argued that they had better ride over to Stenay where the little
+army corps commanded by Bouille was waiting. They could arrive in two
+hours.
+
+Abandoning the relay, they galloped off, so that one of the main forces
+foiled the King at the critical moment!
+
+During this time, Choiseul had been pushing on but he lost three
+quarters of an hour by threading a wood, the guide going wrong by
+accident or design. This was the very time while the King was compelled
+to alight and go into Sausse's.
+
+At half after twelve, while the two young officers were riding off by
+the other road, Choiseul presented himself at the gate, coming by the
+cross-road.
+
+"Who goes there?" was challenged at the bridge where National guards
+were posted.
+
+"France--Lauzun Hussars," was the count's reply.
+
+"You cannot pass!" returned the sentry, who called up the guard to arms.
+
+At the instant the darkness was streaked with torchlight, and the
+cavalry could see masses of armed men and the musket-barrels shine.
+
+Not knowing what had happened, Choiseul parleyed and said that he wanted
+to be put in communication with the officers of the garrison.
+
+But while he was talking he noticed that trees were felled to make a
+breastwork and that two field pieces were trained on his forty men. As
+the gunner finished his aiming, the hussar's provost-marshal's squad
+arrived, unhorsed; they had been surprised and disarmed in the barracks
+and only knew that the King had been arrested. They were ignorant what
+had become of their comrades.
+
+As they were concluding these thin explanations, Choiseul saw a troop of
+horse advance in the gloom and heard the bridge guards challenge:
+
+"Who goes there?"
+
+"The Provence Dragoons!"
+
+A national Guard fired off his gun:
+
+"It is Damas with his cavalry," whispered the count to an officer.
+
+Without waiting for more, he shook off the two soldiers who were
+clinging to his skirts and suggesting that his duty was to obey the town
+authorities and know nothing beyond. He commanded his men to go at the
+trot, and took the defenders so well by surprise that he cut through,
+and rushed the streets, swarming with people.
+
+On approaching Sausse's store, he saw the royal carriage, without the
+horses, and a numerous guard before the mean-looking house in the petty
+square.
+
+Not to have a collision with the townsfolk, the count went straight to
+the military barracks, which he knew.
+
+As he came out, two men stopped him and bade him appear before the town
+council; still having his troopers within call, he sent them off, saying
+that he would pay the council a visit when he found time, and he ordered
+the sentry to allow no one entrance.
+
+Inquiring of the stablemen, he learnt that the hussars, not knowing what
+had become of their leaders, had scattered about the streets where the
+inhabitants had sympathized with them and treated them to drink. He went
+back into barracks to count what he might rely upon, say, forty men, as
+tired as their horses which had travelled more than twenty leagues that
+day.
+
+But the situation was not one to trifle with.
+
+He had the pistols inspected to make sure they were loaded; as the
+hussars were Germans and did not understand French, he harangued them
+in their tongue to the effect that they were in Varennes where the
+Royal Family had been waylaid and were detained and that they must be
+rescued or the rescuers should die. Short but sharp, the speech made a
+fine impression; the men repeated in German: "The King! the Queen!" with
+amazement.
+
+Leaving them no time to cool down, he arranged them in fours and led
+them with sabres drawn to the house where he suspected the King was held
+in durance.
+
+In the midst of the volunteer guards' invectives, he placed two videttes
+at the door, and alighted to walk in.
+
+As he was crossing the threshold, he was touched on the shoulder by
+Colonel Damas on whose assistance he had no little depended.
+
+"Are you in force?" he inquired.
+
+"I am all but alone. My regiment refused to follow me and I have but
+half-a-dozen men."
+
+"What a misfortune! but never mind--I have forty fellows and we must see
+what we can do with them."
+
+The King was receiving a deputation from the town, whose spokesman said:
+
+"Since there is no longer any doubt that Varennes has the honor to
+receive King Louis, we come to have his orders."
+
+"My orders are to have the horses put to my carriage and let me depart,"
+replied the monarch.
+
+The answer to this precise request will never be known as at this point
+they heard Choiseul's horsemen gallop up and saw them form a line on the
+square with flashing swords.
+
+The Queen started with a beam of joy in her eyes.
+
+"We are saved," she whispered to her sister-in-law.
+
+"Heaven grant it," replied the holy woman, who looked to heaven for
+everything.
+
+The King waited eagerly and the town's delegation with disquiet.
+
+Great riot broke out in the outer room guarded by countrymen with
+scythes; words and blows were exchanged and Choiseul, without his hat
+and sword in hand, appeared on the sill.
+
+Above his shoulder was seen the colonel's pale but resolute face.
+
+In the look of both was such a threatening expression that the deputies
+stood aside so as to give a clear space to the Royal Family.
+
+"Welcome, Lord Choiseul," cried the Queen going over to the officer.
+
+"Alas, my lady, I arrive very late."
+
+"No matter, since you come in good company."
+
+"Nay, we are almost alone, on the contrary. Dandoins has been held with
+his cavalry at St. Menehould and Damas has been abandoned by his troop."
+
+The Queen sadly shook her head.
+
+"But where is Chevalier Bouille, and Lieut. Raigecourt?" he looked
+inquiringly around.
+
+"I have not so much as seen those officers," said the King, joining in.
+
+"I give you my word, Sire, that I thought they had died under your
+carriage-wheels, or even you had come to this," observed Count Damas.
+
+"What is to be done?" asked the King.
+
+"We must save you," replied Damas. "Give your orders."
+
+"My orders?"
+
+"Sire, I have forty hussars at the door, who are fagged but we can get
+as far as Dun."
+
+"But how can we manage?" inquired the King.
+
+"I will dismount seven of my men, on whose horses you should get, the
+Dauphin in your arms. We will lay the swords about us and cut our way
+through as the only chance. But the decision must be instant for in a
+quarter of an hour perhaps my men will be bought over."
+
+The Queen approved of the project but the King seemed to elude her gaze
+and the influence she had over him.
+
+"It is a way," he responded to the proposer, "and I daresay the only
+one; but can you answer for it that in the unequal struggle of thirty
+men with seven or eight hundred, no shot will kill my boy or my
+daughter, the Queen or my sister?"
+
+"Sire, if such a misfortune befell through my suggestion, I should be
+killed under your Majesty's eyes."
+
+"Then, instead of yielding to such mad propositions," returned the
+other, "let us reason calmly."
+
+The Queen sighed and retired a few paces. In this regretful movement,
+she met Isidore who was going over to the window whither a noise in the
+street attracted him; he hoped it was his brother coming.
+
+"The townsfolk do not refuse to let me pass," said the King, without
+appearing to notice the two in conversation, "but ask me to wait till
+daybreak. We have no news of the Count of Charny, who is so deeply
+devoted to us. I am assured that Bouille and Raigecourt left the town
+ten minutes before we drove in, to notify Marquis Bouille and bring up
+his troops, which are surely ready. Were I alone I should follow your
+advice and break through; but it is impossible to risk the Queen, my
+children, my sister and the others with so small a guard as you offer,
+especially as part must be dismounted--for I certainly would not leave
+my Lifeguards here."
+
+He looked at his watch.
+
+"It will soon be three o'clock; young Bouille left at half after twelve
+so that, as his father must have ranged his troops in detachments along
+the road, he will warn them and they will successively arrive. About
+five or six, Marquis Bouille ought to be here with the main body, the
+first companies outstripping him. Thereupon, without any danger to my
+family, and no violence, we can quit Varennes and continue our road."
+
+Choiseul acknowledged the logic in this argument but he felt that logic
+must not be listened to on certain occasions.
+
+He turned to the Queen to beg other orders from her, or to have her get
+the King to revoke his, but she shook her head and said:
+
+"I do not want to take anything upon myself; it is the King's place to
+command and my duty to obey. Besides, I am of his opinion--Bouille will
+soon be coming."
+
+Choiseul bowed and drew Damas aside while beckoning the two Lifeguards
+to join in the council he held.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+POOR CATHERINE.
+
+
+The scene was slightly changed in aspect.
+
+The little princess could not resist the weariness and she was put abed
+beside her brother, where both slumbered.
+
+Lady Elizabeth stood by, leaning her head against the wall.
+
+Shivering with anger the Queen stood near the fireplace, looking
+alternatively at the King, seated on a bale of goods, and on the four
+officers deliberating near the door.
+
+An old woman knelt by the children and prayed; it was the attorney's
+grandmother who was struck by the beauty of the children and the Queen's
+imposing air.
+
+Sausse and his colleagues had gone out, promising that the horses should
+be harnessed to the carriage.
+
+But the Queen's bearing showed that she attached little faith to the
+pledge, which caused Choiseul to say to his party:
+
+"Gentlemen, do not trust to the feigned tranquility of our masters;
+the position is not hopeless and we must look it in the face. The
+probability is that at present, Marquis Bouille has been informed, and
+will be arriving here about six, as he ought to be at hand with some of
+the royal Germans. His vanguard may be only half an hour before him; for
+in such a scrape all that is possible ought to be performed. But we must
+not deceive ourselves about the four or five thousand men surrounding
+us, and that the moment they see the troops, there will be dreadful
+excitement and imminent danger.
+
+"They will try to drag the King back from Varennes, put him on a
+horse and carry him to Clermont, threaten and have a try at his life
+perhaps--but this will only be a temporary danger," added Choiseul, "and
+as soon as the barricades are stormed and our cavalry inside the town,
+the route will be complete. Therefore we ten men must hold out as many
+minutes; as the land lays we may hope to lose but a man a minute, so
+that we have time enough."
+
+The audience nodded; this devotion to the death's point, thus plainly
+set down, was accepted with the same simplicity.
+
+"This is what we must do," continued the count, "at the first shot we
+hear and shout without, we rush into the outer room, where we kill
+everybody in it, and take possession of the outlets: three windows,
+where three of us defend. The seven others stand on the stairs which
+the winding will facilitate our defending as one may face a score. The
+bodies of the slain will serve as rampart; it is a hundred to one that
+the troops will be masters of the town, before we are killed to the last
+man, and though that happens, we will fill a glorious page in history,
+as recompense for our sacrifice."
+
+The chosen ones shook hands on this pledge like Spartans, and selected
+their stations during the action: the two Lifeguards, and Isidore, whose
+place was kept though he was absent, at the three casements on the
+street; Choiseul at the staircase foot; next him, Damas, and the rest of
+the soldiers.
+
+As they settled their arrangements, bustle was heard in the street.
+
+In came a second deputation headed by Sausse, the National Guards
+commander Hannonet, and three or four town officers. Thinking they
+came to say the horses were put to the coach, the King ordered their
+admittance.
+
+The officers who were trying to read every token, believed that Sausse
+betrayed hesitation but that Hannonet had a settled will which was of
+evil omen.
+
+At the same time, Isidore ran up and whispered a few words to the Queen
+before he went out again. She went to the children, pale, and leaned on
+the bed.
+
+As the deputation bowed without speaking, the King pretended to infer
+what they came upon, and said:
+
+"Gentlemen, the French have merely gone astray, and their attachment
+to their monarch is genuine. Weary of the excesses daily felt in my
+capital, I have decided to go down into the country where the sacred
+flame of devotion ever burns; I am assured of finding the ancient
+devotion of the people here, I am ready to give my loyal subjects the
+proof of my trust. So, I will form an escort, part troops of the line
+and part National Guards, to accompany me to Montmedy where I have
+determined to retire. Consequently, commander, I ask you to select the
+men to escort me from your own force, and to have my carriage ready."
+
+During the silence, Sausse and Hannonet looked at each other for one to
+speak. At last the latter bowed and said,
+
+"Sire, I should feel great pleasure in obeying your Majesty, but an
+article of the Constitution forbids the King leaving the kingdom and
+good Frenchmen from aiding a flight."
+
+This made the hearer start.
+
+"Consequently," proceeded the volunteer soldier, lifting his hand to
+hush the King, "the Varennes Council decide that a courier must take the
+word to Paris and return with the advice of the Assembly before allowing
+the departure."
+
+The King felt the perspiration damp his brow, while the Queen bit her
+pale lips fretfully, and Lady Elizabeth raised her eyes and hands to
+heaven.
+
+"Soho, gentlemen," exclaimed the sovereign with the dignity returning
+to him when driven to the wall. "Am I no longer the master to go my own
+way? In that case I am more of a slave than the meanest of my subjects."
+
+"Sire," replied the National Guardsman, "you are always the ruler;
+but all men, King or citizens, are bound by their oath; you swore to
+obey the law, and ought to set the example--it is also a noble duty to
+fulfill."
+
+Meanwhile Choiseul had consulted with the Queen by glances and on her
+mute assent he had gone downstairs.
+
+The King was aware that he was lost if he yielded without resistance to
+this rebellion of the villages, for it was rebellion from his point of
+view.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "this is violence; but I am not so lonely as you
+imagine. At the door are forty determined men and ten thousand soldiers
+are around Varennes. I order you to have my horses harnessed to the
+coach--do you hear, I order!"
+
+"Well said, Sire," whispered the Queen, stepping up; "let us risk life
+but not injure our honor and dignity."
+
+"What will result if we refuse your Majesty?" asked the National Guards
+officer.
+
+"I shall appeal to force, and you will be responsible for the blood
+spilt, which will be shed by you."
+
+"Have it so then," replied Hannonet, "call in your hussars--I will let
+my men loose on them!"
+
+He left the room.
+
+The King and the Queen looked at one another, daunted; they would
+perhaps have given way had it not been for an incident.
+
+Pushing aside her grandmother, who continued to pray by the bedside,
+Madam Sausse walked up to the Queen and said with the bluntness and
+plain speech of the common people:
+
+"So, so, you are the Queen, it appears?"
+
+Marie Antoinette turned, stung at being accosted thus.
+
+"At least I thought so an hour ago," she replied.
+
+"Well, if you are the Queen, and get twenty odd millions to keep your
+place, why do you not hold to it, being so well paid?"
+
+The Queen uttered an outcry of pain and said to the King:
+
+"Oh, anything, everything but such insults!"
+
+She took up the sleeping prince off the couch in her arms, and running
+to open the window, she cried:
+
+"My lord, let us show ourselves to the people, and learn whether they
+are entirely corrupted. In that case, appeal to the soldiers, and
+encourage them with voice and gesture. It is little enough for those who
+are going to die for us!"
+
+The King mechanically followed her and appeared on the balcony. The
+whole square on which fell their gaze presented a scene of lively
+agitation.
+
+Half Choiseul's hussars were on horseback; the others, separated from
+their chargers, were carried away by the mob, having been won over; the
+mounted men seemed submissive yet to Choiseul, who was talking to them
+in German but they seemed to point to their lost comrades.
+
+Isidore Charny, with his knife in hand, seemed to be waylaying for some
+prey like a hunter.
+
+"The King!" was the shout from five hundred voices.
+
+Had the Sixteenth Louis been regally arrayed, or even militarily,
+with sword or sceptre in his hand, and spoken in the strong, imposing
+voice seeming still to the masses that of God, he might have swayed the
+concourse.
+
+But in the grey dawn, that wan light which spoils beauty itself, he was
+not the personage his friends--or even his enemies, expected to behold.
+He was clad like a waiting-gentleman, in plain attire, with a powderless
+curly wig; he was pale and flabby and his beard had bristled out; his
+thick lip and dull eye expressed no idea of tyranny or the family man;
+he stammered over and over again: "Gentlemen, my children!"
+
+However, the Count of Choiseul cried "Long live the King!" Isidore
+Charny imitated him, and such was the magic of royalty that spite of his
+not looking to be head of the great realm, a few voices uttered a feeble
+"God save the King!"
+
+But one cheer responded, set up by the National Guards commander, and
+most generally repeated, with a mighty echo--it was:
+
+"The Nation forever!" It was rebellion at such a time, and the King and
+the Queen could see that part of their German hussars had joined in with
+it.
+
+She uttered a scream of rage, and hugging her son to her, ignorant
+of the grandeur of passing events, she hung over the rail, muttering
+between her teeth and finally hurling at the multitude these words:
+
+"You beasts!"
+
+Some heard this and replied by similar language, the whole place being
+in immense uproar.
+
+Choiseul, in despair, was only wishful to get killed.
+
+"Hussars," he shouted, "in the name of honor, save the King!"
+
+But at the head of twenty men, well armed, a fresh actor came on the
+stage. It was Drouet, come from the council which he had constrained to
+stay the King from going.
+
+"Ha," he cried, stepping up to the count, "you want to take away the
+King, do ye? I tell you it will not be unless dead."
+
+Choiseul started towards him with his sword up.
+
+"Stand, or I will have you shot," interrupted the National Guards
+commander.
+
+Just then a man leaped out of the crowd, who could not stop him. It was
+Isidore Charny who was watching for Drouet.
+
+"Back, back," he yelled to the bystanders, crushing them away from
+before the breast of his horse, "this wretch belongs to me."
+
+But as he was striking at Drouet with his short sword, two shots went
+off together: a pistol and a gun--the bullet of the first flattened on
+his collarbone, the other went through his chest. They were fired so
+close to him that the unfortunate young noble was literally wrapt in
+flame and smoke.
+
+Through the fiery cloud he was seen to throw up his arms as he gasped:
+
+"Poor Catherine!"
+
+Letting his weapon drop, he bent back in the saddle, and slipped from
+the crupper to the ground.
+
+The Queen uttered a terrible shriek. She nearly let the prince fall, and
+in her own falling back she did not see a horseman riding at the top of
+his pace from Dun, and plunging into the wake Isidore had furrowed in
+the crowd.
+
+The King closed the window behind the Queen.
+
+It was no longer almost but all voices that roared "The Nation forever!"
+The twenty hussars who had been the last reliance of royalty in
+distress, added their voices to the cheer.
+
+The Queen sank upon an armchair, hiding her face in her hands, for she
+still saw Isidore falling in her defense as his brother had been slain
+at her door at Versailles.
+
+Suddenly there was loud disturbance at the door which forced her to lift
+her eyes. We renounce describing what passed in an instant in her heart
+of Queen and loving woman--it was George Charny, pale and bloody from
+the last embrace of his brother, who stood on the threshold!
+
+The King seemed confounded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE.
+
+
+The room was crammed with strangers and National Guards whom curiosity
+had drawn into it.
+
+The Queen was therefore checked in her first impulse which was to rush
+to the new arrival, sponge away the blood with her handkerchief and
+address him some of the comforting words which spring from the heart,
+and therefore go to them.
+
+But she could not help rising a little on her seat, extend her arms
+towards him and mutter his Christian name.
+
+Calm and gloomy, he waved his hand to the strangers and in a soft but
+firm voice, said:
+
+"You will excuse me, but I have business with their Majesties."
+
+The National Guard began to remonstrate that they were there to prevent
+anybody talking with the prisoners, but Charny pressed his bloodless
+lips, frowned, opened his riding coat to show that he carried pistols,
+and repeated in a voice as gentle as before but twice as menacing:
+
+"Gentlemen, I have already had the honor to tell you that I have private
+business with the King and the Queen."
+
+At the same time he waved them to go out. On this voice, and the mastery
+Charny exercised over others, Damas and the two bodyguards resumed their
+energy, temporarily impaired, and cleared the room by driving the gapers
+and volunteer soldiers before them.
+
+The Queen now comprehended what use this man would have been in the
+royal carriage instead of Lady Tourzel, whom she had let etiquette
+impose on them.
+
+Charny glanced round to make sure that only the faithful were at hand,
+and said as he went nearer Marie Antoinette:
+
+"I am here, my lady. I have some seventy hussars at the town gate. I
+believe I can depend on them. What do you order me to do?"
+
+"Tell us first what has happened you, my poor Charny?" she said in
+German.
+
+He made a sign towards Malden whom he knew to understand the speaker's
+language.
+
+"Alas, not seeing you, we thought you were dead," she went on in French.
+
+"Unhappily, it is not I but my brother who is slain--poor Isidore! but
+my turn is coming."
+
+"Charny, I ask you what happened and how you came to keep so long out of
+the way?" continued the Queen. "You were a defaulter, George, especially
+to me," she added in German and in a lower voice.
+
+"I thought my brother would account for my temporary absence," he said,
+bowing.
+
+"Yes, I know: to pursue that wretch of a man, Drouet, and we feared for
+awhile that you had come to disaster, in that chase."
+
+"A great misfortune did befall me, for despite all my efforts, I could
+not catch up with him. A postboy returning let him know that your
+carriage had taken the Varennes Road when he was thinking it had gone
+to Verdun: he turned into the woods where I pulled my pistols on him
+but they were not loaded--I had taken Dandoins' horse and not the one
+prepared for me. It was fatality, and who could help it? I pursued him
+none the less through the forest but I only knew the roads, so that I
+was thrown by my horse falling into a ditch! In the darkness I was but
+hunting a shadow, and he knew it in every hollow. Thus I was left alone
+in the night, cursing with rage."
+
+She offered her hand to him and he touched it with his tremulous lips.
+
+"Nobody replied to my calls. All night long I wandered and only at
+daybreak came out at a village on the road from Varennes to Dun. As
+it was possible that you had escaped Drouet as he escaped me, it was
+then useless for me to go to Varennes; yet but as he might have had you
+stopped there, and I was but one man and my devotion was useless, I
+determined to go on to Dun.
+
+"Before I arrived I met Captain Deslon with a hundred hussars. He was
+fretting in the absence of news: he had seen Bouille and Raigecourt
+racing by towards Stenay, but they had said nothing to him, probably
+from some distrust. But I know Deslon to be a loyal gentleman; I guessed
+that your Majesty had been detained at Varennes, and that Bouille and
+his companion had taken flight to get help. I told Deslon all, adjured
+him to follow me with his cavalry, which he did, but leaving thirty to
+guard the Meuse Bridge.
+
+"An hour after we were at Varennes, four leagues in an hour, where I
+wanted to charge and upset everything between us and your Majesty: but
+we found breastworks inside of works; and to try to ride over them
+was folly. So I tried parleying: a post of the National Guards being
+there, I asked leave to join my hussars with those inside but it was
+refused me: I asked to be allowed to get the King's orders direct and
+as that was about to be refused likewise. I spurred my steed, jumped
+two barricades and guided by the tumult, galloped up to this spot just
+when my bro--your Majesty fell back from the balcony. Now, I await your
+orders," he concluded.
+
+The Queen pressed his hand in both hers.
+
+"Sire," she said to the King, still plunged in torpor; "have you heard
+what this faithful servitor is saying?"
+
+The King gave no answer and she went over to him.
+
+"Sire, there is no time to lose, and indeed too much has been lost.
+Here is Lord Charny with seventy men, sure, he says, and he wants your
+orders."
+
+He shook his head, though Charny implored him with a glance and the
+Queen by her voice.
+
+"Orders? I have none to give, being a prisoner. Do whatever you like."
+
+"Good, that is all we want," said the Queen: "you have a blank warrant,
+you see," she added to her follower whom she took aside: "Do as the
+King says, whatever you see fit." In a lower voice she appended: "Do it
+swiftly, and with vigor, or else we are lost!"
+
+"Very well," returned the Lifeguards officer, "let me confer a
+moment with these gentlemen and we will carry out what we determine
+immediately."
+
+Choiseul entered, carrying some letters wrapped in a bloodstained
+handkerchief. He offered this to Charny without a word. The count
+understood that it came from his brother and putting out his hand to
+receive the tragic inheritance, he kissed the wrapper. The Queen could
+not hold back a sigh.
+
+But Charny did not turn round to her, but said as he thrust the packet
+into his breast:
+
+"Gentlemen, can you aid me in the last effort I intend?"
+
+"We are ready for anything."
+
+"Do you believe we are a dozen men staunch and able?"
+
+"We are eight or nine, any way."
+
+"Well, I will return to my hussars. While I attack the barriers in
+front, you storm them in the rear. By favor of your diversion, I will
+force through, and with our united forces we will reach this spot where
+we will extricate the King."
+
+They held out their hands to him by way of answer.
+
+"In an hour," said Charny to the King and Queen, "you shall be free, or
+I dead."
+
+"Oh, count, do not say that word," said she, "it causes me too much
+pain."
+
+George bowed in confirmation of his vow, and stepped towards the door
+without being appalled by the fresh uproar in the street.
+
+But as he laid his hand on the knob, it flew open and gave admission to
+a new character who mingled directly in the already complicated plot of
+the drama.
+
+This was a man in his fortieth year; his countenance was dark and
+forbidding; his collar open at the throat, his unbuttoned coat, the dust
+on his clothes, and his eyes red with fatigue, all indicated that he had
+ridden far and fast under the goad of fierce feeling.
+
+He carried a brace of pistols in his sash girdle and a sabre hung by his
+side.
+
+Almost breathless as he opened the door, he appeared relieved only when
+he saw the Royal Family. A smile of vengeance flittered over his face
+and without troubling about the other persons around the room and by the
+doorway itself, which he almost blocked up with his massive form, he
+thundered as he stretched out his hand:
+
+"In the name of the National Assembly, you are all my prisoners!"
+
+As swift as thought Choiseul sprang forward with a pistol in hand and
+offered to blow out the brains of this intruder, who seemed to surpass
+in insolence and resolution all they had met before. But the Queen
+stopped the menacing hand with a still swifter action and said in an
+undertone to the count:
+
+"Do not hasten our ruin! prudence, my lord! let us gain time for Bouille
+to arrive."
+
+"You are right," said Choiseul, putting up the firearm.
+
+The Queen glanced at Charny whom she had thought would have been the
+first to intervene: but, astonishing thing! Charny seemed not to
+want the new-comer to notice him, and shrank into the darkest corner
+apparently in that end.
+
+But she did not doubt him or that he would step out of the mystery and
+shadow at the proper time.
+
+The threatening move of the nobleman against the representative of the
+National Assembly had passed over without the latter appearing to remark
+his escape from death.
+
+Besides, another emotion than fear seemed to monopolize his heart: there
+was no mistaking his face's expression; so looks the hunter who has
+tracked to the den of the lion, the lioness and their cubs, with their
+jackals,--amongst whom was devoured his only child!
+
+But the King had winced at the word "Prisoners," which had made Choiseul
+revolt.
+
+"Prisoners, in the name of the Assembly? what do you mean? I do not
+understand you."
+
+"It is plain, and easy enough," replied the man. "In spite of the oath
+you took not to go out of France, you have fled in the night, betraying
+your pledge, the Nation and the people; hence the nation have cried 'To
+arms!' risen, and to say:--by the voice of one of your lowest subjects,
+not less powerful because it comes from below, though: 'Sire, in the
+name of the people, the nation and the National Assembly, you are my
+prisoner!"
+
+In the adjoining room, a cheer burst at the words.
+
+"My lady," said Choiseul to the Queen, in her ear, "do not forget that
+you stopped me and that you would not suffer this insult if your pity
+had not interfered for this bully."
+
+"It will go for nothing if we are revenged," she replied.
+
+"But if not?"
+
+She could only groan hollowly and painfully. But Charny's hand was
+slowly reached over the duke's shoulder and touched the Queen's arm. She
+turned quickly.
+
+"Let that man speak and act--I answer for him," said the count.
+
+Meanwhile the monarch, stunned by the fresh blow dealt him, stared with
+amazement at the gloomy figure which had spoken so energetic a language,
+and curiosity was mingled with it from his belief that he had seen him
+before.
+
+"Well, in short, what do you want? Speak," he said.
+
+"Sire, I am here to prevent you and the Royal Family taking another step
+towards the frontier."
+
+"I suppose you come with thousands of men to oppose my march," went on
+the King, who became grander during his discussion.
+
+"No, Sire, I am alone, or with only another, General Lafayette's
+aid-de-camp, sent by him and the Assembly to have the orders of the
+Nation executed. I am sent by Mayor Bailly, but I come mainly on my own
+behalf to watch this envoy and blow out his brains if he flinches."
+
+All the hearers looked at him with astonishment; they had never seen the
+commoners but oppressed or furious, and begging for pardon or murdering
+all before them; for the first time they beheld a man of the people
+upright, with folded arms, feeling his force and speaking in the name of
+his rights.
+
+Louis saw quickly that nothing was to be hoped from one of this metal
+and said in his eagerness to finish with him:
+
+"Where is your companion?"
+
+"Here he is, behind me," said he, stepping forward so as to disclose the
+doorway, where might be seen a young man in staff-officer's uniform, who
+was leaning against the window. He was also in disorder but it was of
+fatigue not force. His face looked mournful. He held a paper in his
+hand.
+
+This was Captain Romeuf, Lafayette's aid, a sincere patriot, but during
+Lafayette's dictature while he was superintending the Tuileries, he
+had shown so much respectful delicacy that the Queen had thanked him on
+several occasions.
+
+"Oh, it is you?" she exclaimed, painfully surprised. "I never should
+have believed it," she added, with the painful groan of a beauty who
+feels her fancied invincible power failing.
+
+"Good, it looks as if I were quite right to come," muttered the second
+deputy, smiling.
+
+The impatient King did not give the young officer time to present his
+warrant; he took a step towards him rapidly and snatched it from his
+hands.
+
+"There is no longer a King in France," he uttered after having read it.
+
+The companion of Romeuf smiled as much as to say: "I knew that all
+along."
+
+The Queen moved towards the King to question him at these words.
+
+"Listen, madam," he said, "to the decree the Assembly has presumed to
+issue."
+
+In a voice shaking with indignation he read the following lines:
+
+     "It is hereby ordered by the Assembly that the Home Secretary
+     shall send instantly messengers into every department with the
+     order for all functionaries, National Guards, and troops of
+     the line in the country to arrest or have arrested all persons
+     soever attempting to leave the country, as well as to prevent all
+     departure of goods, arms, ammunition, gold and silver, horses
+     and vehicles; and in case these messengers overtake the King, or
+     any members of the Royal Family, and those who connive at their
+     absconding, the said functionaries, National Guards and troops of
+     the line are to take, and hereby are bound to take, all measure
+     possible to check the said absconding, prevent the absconders
+     continuing their route, and give an account immediately to the
+     House of Representatives."
+
+The Queen listened in torpor--but when the King finished she shook her
+head to arouse her wits and said:
+
+"Impossible--give it to me," and she held out her hand for the fatal
+message.
+
+In the meantime Romeuf's companion was encouraging the National Guards
+and patriots of Varennes with a smile.
+
+Though they had heard the tenor of the missive the Queen's expression of
+"Impossible!" had startled them.
+
+"Read, Madam, and if still you doubt," said the King with bitterness;
+"it is written and signed by the Speaker of the House."
+
+"What man dares write and sign such impudence?"
+
+"A peer of the realm--the Marquis of Beauharnais."
+
+Is it not a strange thing, which proves how events are mysteriously
+linked together, that the decree stopping Louis in his flight should
+bear a name, obscure up to then, yet about to be attached in a brilliant
+manner with the history of the commencement of the 19th Century?
+
+The Queen read the paper, frowning. The King took it to re-peruse it and
+then tossed it aside so carelessly that it fell on the sleeping prince
+and princess's couch. At this, the Queen, incapable of self-constraint
+any longer, rose quickly with an angry roar, and seizing the paper,
+crushed it up in her grip before throwing it afar, with the words:
+
+"Be careful, my lord--I would not have such a filthy rag sully my
+children."
+
+A deafening clamor arose from the next room, and the Guards made a
+movement to rush in upon the illustrious fugitives. Lafayette's aid let
+a cry of apprehension escape him. His companion uttered one of wrath.
+
+"Ha," he growled between his teeth, "is it thus you insult the Assembly,
+the Nation and the people?--very well, we shall see! Come, citizens!" he
+called out, turning to the men without, already excited by the contest,
+and armed with guns, scythes mounted on poles like spears, and swords.
+
+They were taking the second stride to enter the room and Heaven only
+knows what would have been the shock of two such enmities, had not
+Charny sprang forward. He had kept aloof during the scene, and now
+grasping the National Guards man by the wrist as he was about to draw
+his sabre, he said:
+
+"A word with you, Farmer Billet; I want to speak with you."
+
+Billet, for it was he, emitted a cry of astonishment, turned pale as
+death, stood irresolute for an instant, and then said as he sheathed the
+half-drawn steel:
+
+"Have it so. I have to speak with you, Lord Charny." He proceeded to
+the door and said: "Citizens, make room if you please. I have to confer
+with this officer; but have no uneasiness," he added in a low voice,
+"there shall not escape one wolf, he or she, or yet a whelp. I am on the
+lookout and I answer for them!"
+
+As if this man had the right to give them orders, though he was unknown
+to them all--save Charny--they backed out and left the inner room free.
+Besides, each was eager to relate to those without what had happened
+inside, and enjoin all patriots to keep close watch.
+
+In the meantime Charny whispered to the Queen:
+
+"Romeuf is a friend of yours; I leave him with you--get the utmost from
+him."
+
+This was the more easy as Charny closed the door behind him to prevent
+anybody, even Billet, entering.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE FEUD.
+
+
+The two men, on facing each other, looked without the nobleman making
+the plebeian cower. More than that, it was the latter who spoke the
+first.
+
+"The count does me the honor to say he wants to speak with me. I am
+waiting for him to be good enough to do so."
+
+"Billet," began Charny, "how comes it that you are here on an errand of
+vengeance? I thought you were the friend of your superiors the nobles,
+and, besides, a faithful and sound subject of his Majesty."
+
+"I was all that, count: I was your most humble servant--for I cannot
+say your friend, in as much as such an honor is not vouchsafed to
+a farmer like me. But you may see that I am nothing of the kind at
+present."
+
+"I do not follow you, Billet."
+
+"Why need you? am I asking you the reason for your fidelity to the King,
+and your standing true to the Queen? No, I presume you have your reasons
+for doing this, and as you are a good and wise gentleman I expect your
+reasons are sound or at least meet for your conscience. I am not in
+your high position, count, and have not your learning; but you know, or
+you have heard I am accounted an honest and sensible man, and you may
+suppose that, like yourself, I have my reasons----suiting my conscience,
+if not good."
+
+"Billet, I used to know you as far different from what you are now,"
+said Charny, totally unaware of the farmer's grounds for hatred against
+royalty and nobility.
+
+"Oh, certainly I am not going to deny that you saw me unlike this,"
+replied Billet, with a bitter smile. "I do not mind telling you, count,
+how this is: I was a true lover of my country, devoted to one thing
+and two persons: the men were the King and Dr. Gilbert--the thing, my
+native-land. One day the King's men--I confess that this began to set me
+against him," said the farmer, shaking his head, "broke into my house
+and stole away a casket, half by surprise, half by force, a precious
+trust left me by Dr. Gilbert.
+
+"As soon as I was free I started for Paris, where I arrived on the
+evening of the thirteenth of July. It was right in the thick of the
+riot over the busts of Necker and the Duke of Orleans. Fellows were
+carrying them about the street, with cheers for those two, doing no
+harm to the King, when the royal soldiers charged upon us. I saw poor
+chaps, who had committed no offense but shouting for persons they had
+probably never seen, fall around me, some with their skulls laid open
+with sabre slashes, others with their breasts bored by bullets. I saw
+Prince Lambesq, a friend of the King, drive women and children inside
+the Tuileries gardens, who had shouted for nobody, and trample under his
+horse's hoofs an old man. This set me still more against the King.
+
+"Next day I went to the boarding school where Dr. Gilbert's son
+Sebastian was kept, and learnt from the poor lad that his father was
+locked up in the Bastile on a King's order sued for by a lady of the
+court. So I said to myself, this King, whom they call kind, has moments
+when he errs, blunders or is ignorant, and I ought to amend one of the
+faults the King so makes--which I proposed to do by contributing all my
+power to destroying the Bastile. We managed that--not without its being
+a tough job, for the soldiers of the King fired on us, and killed some
+two hundred of us which gave me a fresh wrinkle on the kindness of the
+King. But in short, we took the Bastile. In one of its dungeons I found
+Dr. Gilbert, for whom I had risked death a hundred times, and the joy
+of finding him made me forget that and a lot more. Besides, he was the
+first to tell me that the King was kind, ignorant for the most part of
+the shameful deeds perpetrated in his name, and that one must not bear
+him a grudge but cast it on his ministers. Now, as all that Dr. Gilbert
+said at that time was Gospel, I believed Dr. Gilbert.
+
+"The Bastile being captured, Dr. Gilbert safe and free, and Pitou and
+myself all well, I forgot the charges in the Tuileries garden, the
+shooting in the street, the two hundred men slain by Marshal Saxe's
+sackbut, which is or was a gun on the Bastile ramparts, and the
+imprisonment of my friend on the mere application of a court dame. But,
+pardon me, count," Billet interrupted himself, "all this is no concern
+of yours, and you cannot have asked to speak with me to hear the babble
+of a poor uneducated rustic--you who are both a high noble and learned
+gentleman."
+
+He made a move to lay hold of the doorknob and re-enter the other room.
+But Charny stopped him for two reasons, the first that it might be
+important to learn why Billet acted thus, and again, to gain time.
+
+"No; tell me the whole story, my dear Billet," he said; "you know the
+interest my poor brothers and I always bore you, and what you say
+engages me in a high degree."
+
+Billet smiled bitterly at the words "My poor brothers."
+
+"Well, then," he replied, "I will tell you all; with regret that your
+poor brothers--particularly Lord Isidore, are not here to hear me."
+
+This was spoken with such singular intonation that the count repressed
+the feeling of grief the mention of Isidore's name had aroused in his
+soul, and he waved his hand for the farmer to continue, as Billet was
+evidently ignorant of what had happened the viscount whose presence he
+desired.
+
+"Hence," proceeded the yeoman, "when the King returned to Paris from
+Versailles, I saw in it sheerly the return home of a father among his
+children. I walked with Dr. Gilbert beside the royal carriage, making
+a breastwork for those within it of my body, and shouting 'Long live
+the King!' to split the ear. This was the first journey of the King:
+blessings and flowers were all around him. On arriving at the City Hall
+it was noticed that he did not wear the white cockade of his fathers,
+but he had not yet donned the tricolored one. So I plucked mine from my
+hat and gave it him as they were roaring he must sport it, and therefore
+he thanked me, to the cheering of the crowd. I was wild with glee at the
+King wearing my own favor and I shouted Long Life to him louder than
+anybody.
+
+"I was so enthusiastic about our good King that I wanted to stay in
+town. My harvest was ripe and cried for me; but pooh, what mattered a
+harvest? I was rich enough to lose one season and it was better for me
+to stay beside this good King to be useful, this Father of the People,
+this Restorer of French Liberty, as we dunces called him at the time. I
+lost pretty near all the harvest because I trusted it to Catherine, who
+had something else to look after than my wheat. Let us say no more on
+that score.
+
+"Still, it was said that the King had not quite fairly agreed to the
+change in things, that he moved forced and constrained; that he might
+wear the tricolor cockade in his hat but the white one was in his
+heart. They were slanderers who said this; it was clearly proved that
+at the Guards' Banquet, the Queen put on neither the national nor the
+French cockade but the black one of her brother the Austrian Emperor.
+I own that this made my doubts revive; but as Dr. Gilbert pointed out,
+'Billet, it is not the King who did this but the Queen; and the Queen
+being a woman, one must be indulgent towards a woman.' I believed
+this so deeply that, when the ruffians came from Paris to attack the
+Versailles Palace, though I did not hold them wholly in the wrong--it
+was I who ran to rouse General Lafayette--who was in the sleep of the
+blessed, poor dear man! and brought him on the field in time to save the
+Royal Family.
+
+"On that night I saw Lady Elizabeth hug General Lafayette and the Queen
+give him her hand to kiss, while the King called him his friend, and
+I said to myself, says I: 'Upon my faith, I believe Dr. Gilbert is
+right. Surely, not from fear would such high folks make such a show of
+gratitude, and they would not play a lie if they did not share this
+hero's opinions, howsoever useful he may be at this pinch to them all.'
+Again I pitied the poor Queen, who had only been rash, and the poor
+King, only feeble; but I let them go back to Paris without me--I had
+better to do at Versailles. You know what, Count Charny!"
+
+The Lifeguardsman uttered a sigh recalling the death of his brother
+Valence.
+
+"I heard that this second trip to the town was not as merry as the
+former," continued Billet; "instead of blessings, curses were showered
+down; instead of shouts of Long Live! those of Death to the lot! instead
+of bouquets under the horses hoofs and carriage wheels, dead men's heads
+carried on spear-points. I don't know, not being there, as I stayed at
+Versailles. Still I left the farm without a master, but pshaw! I was
+rich enough to lose another harvest after that of '89! But, one fine
+morning, Pitou arrived to announce that I was on the brink of losing
+something dearer which no father is rich enough to lose: his daughter!"
+
+Charny started, but the other only looked at him fixedly as he went on:
+
+"I must tell you, lord, that a league off from us, at Boursonne, lives
+a noble family of mighty lords, terribly rich. Three brothers were the
+family. When they were boys and used to come over to Villers Cotterets,
+the two younger of the three were wont to stop on my place, doing me the
+honor to say that they never drank sweeter milk than my cows gave, or
+eaten finer bread than my wife made, and, from time to time they would
+add--I believing they just said it in payment of my good cheer--ass
+that I was! that they had never seen a prettier lass than my Catherine.
+Lord bless you, I thanked them for drinking the milk, and eating the
+bread, and finding my child so pretty into the bargain! What would you?
+as I believed in the King, though he is half a German by the mother's
+side, I might believe in noblemen who were wholly French.
+
+"So, when the youngest of all, Valence, who had been away from our parts
+for a long time, was killed at Versailles, before the Queen's door, on
+the October Riot night, bravely doing his duty as a nobleman, what a
+blow that was to me! His brother saw me on my knees before the body,
+shedding almost as many tears as he shed blood--his eldest brother,
+I mean, who never came to my house, not because he was too proud, I
+will do him that fair play, but because he was sent to foreign parts
+while young. I think I can still see him in the damp courtyard, where I
+carried the poor young fellow in my arms so that he should not be hacked
+to pieces, like his comrades, whose blood so dyed me that I was almost
+as reddened as yourself, Lord Charny. He was a pretty boy, whom I still
+see riding to school on his little dappled pony, with a basket on his
+arm--and thinking of him thus, I think I can mourn him like yourself, my
+lord. But I think of the other, and I weep no more," said Billet.
+
+"The other? what do you mean." cried the count.
+
+"Wait, we are coming to it," was the reply. "Pitou had come to Paris,
+and let a couple of words drop to show that it was not my crops so much
+in danger as my child--not my fortune but my happiness. So I left the
+King to shift for himself in the city. Since he meant the right thing,
+as Dr. Gilbert assured me, all would go for the best, whether I was at
+hand or not, and I returned on my farm.
+
+"I believed that Catherine had brain fever or something I would not
+understand, but was only in danger of death. The condition in which I
+found her made me uneasy, all the more as the doctor forbade me the room
+till she was cured. The poor father in despair, not allowed to go into
+the sickroom, could not help hanging round the door. Yes, I listened.
+Then I learnt that she was at death's point almost out of her senses
+with fever, mad because her lover--her gallant, not her sweetheart, see!
+had gone away. A year before, I had gone away, but she had smiled on my
+going instead of grieving. My going left her free to meet her gallant!
+
+"Catherine returned to health but not to gladness! a month, two, three,
+six months passed without a single beam of joy kissing the face which
+my eyes never quitted. One morning I saw her smile and shuddered. Was
+not her lover coming back that she should smile? Indeed a shepherd who
+had seen him prowling about, a year before, told me that he had arrived
+that morning. I did not doubt that he would come over on my ground that
+evening or rather on the land where Catherine was mistress. I loaded up
+my gun at dark and laid in wait----"
+
+"You did this, Billet?" queried Charny.
+
+"Why not?" retorted the farmer. "I lay in wait right enough for the wild
+boar coming to make mush of my potatoes, the wolf to tear my lambs'
+throats, the fox to throttle my fowls, and am I not to lay in wait for
+the villain who comes to disgrace my daughter?"
+
+"But your heart failed you at the test, Billet, I hope," said the count.
+
+"No, not the heart, but the eye and the hand," said the other: "A track
+of blood showed me that I had not wholly missed, only you may understand
+that a defamed maid had not wavered between father and scoundrel--when I
+entered the house, Catherine had disappeared."
+
+"And you have not seen her since?"
+
+"No. Why should I see her? she knows right well that I should kill her
+on sight."
+
+Charny shrank back in terror mingled with admiration for the massive
+character confronting him.
+
+"I retook the work on the farm," proceeded the farmer. "What concern
+of mine was my misfortune if France were only happy? Was not the King
+marching steadily in the road of Revolution? was he not to take his part
+in the Federation? might I not see him again whom I had saved in October
+and sheltered with my own cockade? what a pleasure it must be for him to
+see all France gathered on the parade-ground at Paris, swearing like
+one man the Unity of the country!
+
+"So, for a space, while I saw him, I forgot all, even to Catherine--no,
+I lie--no father forgets his child! He also took the oath. It seemed to
+me that he swore clumsily, evasively, from his seat, instead of at the
+Altar of the Country, but what did that matter? the main thing was that
+he did swear. An oath is an oath. It is not the place where he takes it
+that makes it holy, and when an honest man takes an oath, he keeps it.
+So the King should keep his word. But it is true that when I got home
+to Villers Cotterets,--having no child now, I attended to politics--I
+heard say that the King was willing to have Marquis Favras carry him
+off but the scheme had fallen through; that the King had tried to flee
+with his aunts, but that had failed; that he wanted to go out to St.
+Cloud, whence he would have hurried off to Rouen, but that the people
+prevented him leaving town. I heard all this but I did not believe it.
+Had I not with my own eyes seen the King hold up his hand to high heaven
+on the Paris Parade-ground and swear to maintain the nation? How could
+I believe that a king, having sworn in the presence of three hundred
+thousand citizens, would not hold his pledge to be as sacred as that of
+other men? It was not likely!
+
+"Hence, as I was at Meaux Market yesterday,--I may as well say I was
+sleeping at the postmaster's house, with whom I had made a grain deal--I
+was astonished to see in a carriage changing horses at my friend's door,
+the King, the Queen and the Dauphin! There was no mistaking them; I was
+in the habit of seeing them in a coach; on the sixteenth of July, I
+accompanied them from Versailles to Paris. I heard one of the party say:
+'The Chalons Road!' This man in a buff waistcoat had a voice I knew;
+I turned and recognized--who but the gentleman who had stolen away my
+daughter! This noble was doing his duty by playing the flunky before his
+master's coach."
+
+At this, he looked hard at Charny to see if he understood that his
+brother Isidore was the subject; but the hearer was silent as he wiped
+his face with his handkerchief.
+
+"I wanted to fly at him, but he was already at a distance. He was on
+a good horse and had weapons--I, none. I ground my teeth at the idea
+that the King was escaping out of France and this ravisher escaping me,
+but suddenly another thought struck me. Why, look ye; I took an oath to
+the Nation, and while the King breaks his, I shall keep mine. I am only
+ten leagues from Paris which I can reach in two hours on a good nag; it
+is but three in the morning. I will talk this matter over with Mayor
+Bailly, an honest man who appears to be one of the kind who stick to the
+promises they make. This point settled I wasted no time, but begged my
+friend the postinghouse keeper to lend me his national Guards uniform,
+his sword and pistols and I took the best horse in his stables--all
+without letting him know what was in the wind, of course. Instead,
+therefore, of trotting home, I galloped hellity-split to Paris.
+
+"Thank God, I got there on time! the flight of the King was known but
+not the direction. Lafayette had sent his aid Romeuf on the Valenciennes
+Road! But mark what a thing chance is! they had stopped him at the bars,
+and he was brought back to the Assembly, where he walked in at the very
+nick when Mayor Bailly, informed by me, was furnishing the most precise
+particulars about the runaways. There was nothing but the proper warrant
+to write and the road to state. The thing was done in a flash. Romeuf
+was dispatched on the Chalons Road and my order was to stick to him,
+which I am going to do. Now," concluded Billet, with a gloomy air, "I
+have overtaken the King, who deceived me as a Frenchman, and I am easy
+about his escaping me! I can go and attend to the man who deceived me as
+a father; and I swear to you, Lord Charny, that he shall not escape me
+either."
+
+"You are wrong, my dear Billet--woeful to say," responded the count.
+
+"How so?"
+
+"The unfortunate young man you speak of has escaped."
+
+"Fled?" cried Billet with indescribable rage.
+
+"No, he is dead," replied the other.
+
+"Dead?" exclaimed Billet, shivering in spite of himself, and sponging
+his forehead on which the sweat had started out.
+
+"Dead," repeated Charny, "for this is his blood which you see on me and
+which you were right just now in likening to that from his brother slain
+at Versailles. If you doubt, go down into the street where you will find
+his body laid out in a little yard, like that of Versailles, struck down
+for the same cause for which his brother fell."
+
+Billet looked at the speaker, who spoke in a gentle voice, but with
+haggard eyes and a frightened face; then suddenly he cried:
+
+"Of a truth, there is justice in heaven!" He darted out of the room,
+saying: "I do not doubt your word, lord, but I must assure my sight that
+justice is done."
+
+Charny stifled a sigh as he watched him go, and dashed away a tear.
+Aware that there was not an instant to lose, he hurried to the Queen's
+room, and as soon as he walked directly up to her, he asked how she had
+got on with Romeuf.
+
+"He is on our side," responded the lady.
+
+"So much the better," said Charny, "for there is nothing to hope in that
+quarter."
+
+"What are we to do then?"
+
+"Gain time for Bouille to come up."
+
+"But will he come?"
+
+"Yes, for I am going to fetch him."
+
+"But the streets swarm with murderers," cried the Queen. "You are known,
+you will never pass, you will be hewn to pieces: George, George!"
+
+But smiling without replying, Charny opened the window on the back
+garden, waved his hand to the King and the Queen, and jumped out over
+fifteen feet. The Queen sent up a shriek of terror and hid her face in
+her hands; but the man ran to the wind and by a cheer allayed her fears.
+
+Charny had scaled the garden wall and was disappearing on the other
+side.
+
+It was high time, for Billet was entering.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+ON THE BACK TRACK.
+
+
+Billet's countenance was dark; thoughtfulness lowered the brows over
+eyes deeply investigating; he reviewed all the prisoners and over the
+circle he made two remarks.
+
+Charny's flight was patent; the window was being closed by the Colonel
+after him; by bending forward Billet could see the count vaulting over
+the garden wall. It followed that the agreement made between Captain
+Romeuf and the Queen was for him to stand neutral.
+
+Behind Billet the outer room was filled as before with the
+scythe-bearers, musketeers and swordsmen whom his gesture had dismissed.
+
+These men seemed to obey this chief to whom they were attracted by
+magnetic influence, because they divined in one a plebeian like
+themselves patriotism or hatred equal to their own.
+
+His glance behind himself meeting theirs told him that he might rely on
+them, even in case he had to proceed to violence.
+
+"Well, have they decided to go?" he asked Romeuf.
+
+The Queen threw on him one of those side looks which would have blasted
+him if they had the power of lightning, which they resemble. Without
+replying, she clutched the arm of her chair as though to clamp herself
+to it.
+
+"The King begs a little more time as they have not slept in the night
+and their Majesties are dying of fatigue?" said Romeuf.
+
+"Captain," returned Billet bluntly, "you know very well that it is not
+because their Majesties are fatigued that they sue for time, but because
+they hope in a few instants that Lord Bouille will arrive. But it will
+be well for their Majesties not to dally," added Billet with emphasis,
+"for if they refuse to come out willingly, they will be lugged by the
+heels."
+
+"Scoundrel!" cried Damas, darting at the speaker with his sword up.
+
+Billet turned to face him, but with folded arms. He had in truth no
+need to defend himself, for eight or ten men sprang into the room, and
+the colonel was threatened by ten different weapons. The King saw that
+the least word or move would lead to all his supporters being shot or
+chopped to rags, and he said,
+
+"It is well: let the horses be put to. We are going."
+
+One of the Queen's women who travelled in a cab with her companion after
+the royal coach, screamed and swooned; this awakened the boy prince and
+his sister, who wept.
+
+"Fie, sir, you cannot have a child that you are so cruel to a mother,"
+said the Queen to the farmer.
+
+"No, madam," replied he, repressing a start, and with a bitter smile, "I
+have no child now. There is to be no delay about the horses," he went
+on, to the King, "the horses are harnessed, and the carriage at the
+door."
+
+Approaching the window the King saw that all was ready; in the immense
+din he had not heard the horses brought up. Seeing him through the
+window the mob burst into a shout which was a threat. He turned pale.
+
+"What does your Majesty order?" inquired Choiseul of the Queen: "we had
+rather die than witness this outrage."
+
+"Do you believe Lord Charny has got away?" she asked quickly in an
+undertone.
+
+"I can answer for that."
+
+"Then let us go; but in heaven's name, for your own sake as well as
+ours, do not quit us."
+
+The King understood her fear.
+
+"I do not see any horses for Lord Choiseul and Damas," observed he.
+
+"They can follow as they like," said Billet; "my orders are to bring the
+King and the Queen, and do not speak of them."
+
+"But I declare that I will not go without them having their horses,"
+broke forth the monarch with more firmness than was expected from him.
+
+"What do you say to that?" cried Billet to his men swarming into the
+room. "Here is the King not going because these gentlemen have no
+horses!"
+
+The mob roared with laughter.
+
+"I will find them," said Romeuf.
+
+"Do not quit their Majesties," interposed Choiseul: "your office gives
+you some power over the people, and it depends on your honor that not a
+hair of their head should fall."
+
+Romeuf stopped, while Billet snapped his fingers.
+
+"I will attend to this," said he, leading the way; but stopping on the
+threshold he said, frowning: "But you will fetch them along, eh, lads?"
+
+"Oh, never fear," replied the men, with a peal of laughter evidencing
+that no pity was to be expected in case of resistance.
+
+At such a point of irritation, they would certainly have used roughness
+and shot down any one resisting. Billet had no need to come upstairs
+again. One of them by the window watched what happened in the street.
+
+"The horses are ready," he said: "out you get!"
+
+"Out, and be off!" said his companions with a tone admitting no
+discussion.
+
+The King took the lead. Romeuf was supposed to look particularly after
+the family, but the fact is he had need to take care of himself. The
+rumor had spread that he was not only carrying out the Assembly's orders
+with mildness but by his inertia, if not actively, favored the flight of
+one of the most devoted upholders of the Royals, who had only quitted
+them in order to hurry up Marquis Bouille to their rescue.
+
+The result was that on the sill, while Billet's conduct was glorified
+by the gathering, Romeuf heard himself qualified as a traitor and an
+aristocrat.
+
+The party stepped into the carriage and the cab, with the two Lifeguards
+on the box.
+
+Valory had asked as a favor that the King would let him and his comrade
+be considered as domestics since they were no longer allowed to act as
+his soldiers.
+
+"As things stand," he pleaded, "princes of the blood royal might be
+glad to be here; the more honor for simple gentlemen like us."
+
+"Have it so," said the sovereign tearfully, "you shall not quit me
+ever."
+
+Thus they took in reality the place of couriers. Choiseul closed the
+door.
+
+"Gentlemen," said the King, "I positively give the order that you shall
+drive me to Montmedy. Postillions, to Montmedy!"
+
+But one voice, that of the united populations of more than this town,
+replied:
+
+"To Paris!"
+
+In the lull, Billet pointed with his sword and said:
+
+"Postboys, take the Clermont Road."
+
+The vehicle whirled round to obey this order.
+
+"I take you all for witness that I am overpowered by violence," said
+Louis XVI.
+
+Exhausted by the effort he had made, the unfortunate King, who had never
+shown so much will before, fell back on the rear seat, between the Queen
+and his sister.
+
+In five minutes, after going a couple of hundred paces, a great clamor
+was heard behind. As they were placed, the Queen was the passenger who
+could first get her head out of the window.
+
+She drew in almost instantly, covering her eyes with both hands, and
+muttering:
+
+"Oh, woe to us! they are murdering Choiseul."
+
+The King tried to rise, but the two ladies pulled him down; anyhow the
+carriage turned the road and they could not see what passed at twenty
+paces that way.
+
+Choiseul and Damas had mounted their horses at Sausse's door but
+Romeuf's had been taken away from the post-house. He and two cavalrymen
+followed on foot, hoping to find a horse or two, either of the hussars
+and dragoons who had been led off by the people, or abandoned by their
+masters. But they had not gone fifteen steps before Choiseul perceived
+that the three were in danger of being smothered, pressed down and
+scattered in the multitude. He stopped, letting the carriage go on, and
+judging that Romeuf was of the most value to the Royal Family in this
+strait, called to his servant, James Brisack, who was mixed up with the
+press.
+
+"Give my spare horse to Captain Romeuf."
+
+Scarce had he spoken the words than the exasperated crowd enveloped him,
+yelling:
+
+"This is the Count of Choiseul, one who wanted to take away the King!
+Down with the aristocrat--death to the traitor!"
+
+All know with what rapidity the effect follows the threat in popular
+commotions.
+
+Torn from his saddle, Count Choiseul was hurled back and was swallowed
+up in that horrible gulf of the multitude, from which in that epoch of
+deadly passions one emerged only in fragments.
+
+But at the same time as he fell five persons rushed to his rescue. These
+were Damas, Romeuf, Brisack and two others, the last having lost the led
+horse so that his hands were free for his master's service.
+
+Such a conflict arose as the Indians wage around the body of a fallen
+warrior whom they do not wish scalped.
+
+Contrary to all probability, Choiseul was not hurt, or at least
+slightly, despite the ugly weapons used against him. A soldier parried
+with his musket a scythe thrust aimed at him, and Brisack warded off
+another with a stick he had snatched from a hand in the medley. This
+stick was cleft like a reed, but the cut was so turned as to wound only
+the count's horse.
+
+"This way the dragoons!" it came into Adjutant Foucq's head to halloa.
+
+Some soldiers rushed up at the call and cleared a space in their shame
+at the officer being murdered among them. Romeuf sprang into the open
+space.
+
+"In the name of the National Assembly, and of General Lafayette, whose
+deputy I am, lead these gentleman to the town-hall!" he vociferated.
+
+Both names of the Assembly and the general enjoyed full popularity at
+this period and exerted their usual effect.
+
+"To the town-hall," roared the concourse.
+
+Willing hands made a united effort and Choiseul and his companions
+were dragged towards the council rooms. It took well over an hour to
+get there; each minute had its threat and attempt to murder, and every
+opening the protectors left was used to thrust with a pike or pitchfork
+or sabre.
+
+However, the municipal building was reached at last, where only one
+towns officer remained, frightened extremely at the responsibility
+devolving on him. To relieve him of this charge, he ordered that
+Choiseul, Damas and Floirac should be put in the cells and watched by
+the National Guards.
+
+Romeuf thereupon declared that he would not quit Choiseul, who had
+shielded him and so brought on himself what happened. So the town
+official ordered that he should be put in the cell along with him.
+
+Choiseul made a sign for his groom Brisack to get away and see to the
+horses. Not much pulled about, they were in an inn, guarded by the
+volunteers.
+
+Romeuf stayed till the Verdun National Guard came in, when he entrusted
+the prisoners to them, and went his way with the officers' pledge that
+they would keep them well.
+
+Isidore Charny's remains were dragged into a weaver's house, where pious
+but alien hands prepared them for the grave--less fortunate he than
+his brother Valence, who, at least, was mourned over by his brother
+and Billet, and Gilbert. But at that time, Billet was a devoted and
+respectful friend. We know how these feelings changed into hate: as
+implacable as the better sentiments had been deep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE DOLOROUS WAY.
+
+
+In the meantime the Royal Family continued on the road to Paris.
+
+They advanced slowly, for the carriage could not move but at the gait
+of the escort, and that was composed mostly of men on foot. Their ranks
+were filled up with women and children, the women lifting their babes up
+in their arms to see the King dragged back to the capital: probably they
+would never have seen him under other circumstances.
+
+The coach and the cab with the ladies in waiting, seemed in the human
+sea like a ship with her tender. Incidents stirred up the sea into
+heaving furiously at times when the coach disappeared under the billows
+and appeared very slow to emerge.
+
+Though it was six miles to Clermont where they arrived, the terrible
+escort did not lessen in number as those who dropped off were replaced
+by new-comers from the countryside who wanted to have a peep at the
+show.
+
+Of all the captives on and in this ambulatory prison the worst exposed
+to the popular wrath and the plainest butt of the menaces were the
+unhappy Lifeguards on the large box seat; as the order of the National
+Assembly made the Royal Family inviolable, the way to vent spite on them
+by proxy, was to plague these men. Bayonets were continually held to
+their breasts, some scythes, really Death's, gleamed over their heads,
+or some spear glided like a perfidious serpent, in the gaps to pierce
+the flesh with its keen sting and return to the wielder disgusted that
+he had not drawn more blood.
+
+All at once they saw a man without hat or weapon, his clothing smeared
+with mud and dust, split the crowd. After having addressed a respectful
+bow to the King and the Queen, he sprang upon the forepart of the
+carriage and from the trace-chain hooks upon the box between the two
+Lifeguards.
+
+The Queen's outcry was of fear, joy and pain. She had recognized Charny.
+
+Fear, for what he did was so bold that it was a miracle he had reached
+the perch without receiving some wound. Joy, for she was happy to see
+that he had escaped the unknown dangers he must have run, all the
+greater as imagination was outstripped by the reality. Pain, for she
+comprehended that Charny's solitary return implied that nothing was to
+be expected from Bouille.
+
+In fact, while Charny had reached the royalists at Grange-au-Bois on a
+horse he picked up on the road, his attempt to guide the army ended in
+failure: a canal which he had not noted down in his survey, perhaps cut
+since then, was brimful of water and he nearly lost his life, as he did
+his horse, in trying to swim across it. All he could do, on scrambling
+out on the other side from his friends, was to wave them a farewell,
+for he understood that the cavaliers as a mass could not succeed where
+he had fallen short.
+
+Confounded by the audacity of this recruit to the lost cause, the mob
+seemed to respect him for this boldness.
+
+At the turmoil, Billet, who was riding at the head, turned and
+recognized the nobleman.
+
+"Ha, I am glad that nothing happened him," he said: "but woe to
+whomsoever tries this again, for he shall certainly pay for the two."
+
+At two of the afternoon they arrived at St. Menehould.
+
+Loss of sleep and weariness was telling on all the prisoners, but
+particularly on the Dauphin, who was feverish and wanted to be undressed
+and put to bed, as he was not well, he said.
+
+But St. Menehould was the place most enraged against the Royal Family.
+So no attention was paid to the King who ordered a stop. A contradictory
+order from Billet led to the change of horses being hooked on the pole.
+
+The Queen could not withstand her child's complaints and holding the
+little prince up at the window to show him to the people, shivering and
+in tears, she said:
+
+"Gentlemen, in pity for this boy, stop!"
+
+"Forward, March!" shouted Billet.
+
+"Forward," repeated the people.
+
+Billet passed the carriage window to take his place in the front when
+the Queen appealed to him:
+
+"For shame, sir, it is plain, I repeat that you never were a father."
+
+"And I repeat, madam, that I was a father once, but am one no longer."
+
+"Do as you will, for you are the stronger: but beware! for no voice
+cries more loudly to heaven than that of these little ones!"
+
+The procession went on again.
+
+It was cruel work passing through the town. If kings could learn any
+thing, the enthusiasm excited by sight of Drouet, to whom the arrest was
+due, would have been a dreadful lesson; but both captives saw merely
+blind fury in the cheers; they saw but rebels in these patriots who
+were convinced that they were saving their country.
+
+Perhaps it was the King's impression that Paris alone was perverted that
+urged him into the evil course. He had relied on "his dear provinces."
+But here were the dear rurals not only escaping him but turning
+pitilessly against him. The country folk had frightened Choiseul in
+Sommevelle, imprisoned Dandoins at St. Menehould, fired on Damas at
+Clermont, and lately killed Isidore Charny under the royal eyes. All
+classes rose against him.
+
+It would have cut him worse had he seen what the spreading news did;
+roused all the country to come--not to stare and form an escort--but to
+kill him. The harvest was so bad that this country was called "Blank
+Champagne," and here came the King who had brought in the thievish
+hussar and the pillaging pandour to trample the poor fields under their
+horses' hoofs; but the carriage was guarded by an angel and two cherubs.
+
+Lady Elizabeth was twenty-seven but her chastity had kept the unfading
+brilliancy of youth on her brow: the Dauphin, ailing and shivering on
+his mother's knee; the princess fair as the blondes can be, looking out
+with her firm while astonished gaze.
+
+These men saw these, the Queen bent over her boy, and the King
+downhearted: and their anger abated or sought another object on which to
+turn it.
+
+They yelped at the Lifeguardsmen; insulted them, called those noble and
+devoted hearts traitors and cowards, while the June sun made a fiery
+rainbow in the chalky dust flung up by the endless train upon those
+hotheads, heated by the cheap wine of the taverns.
+
+Half a mile out of the town, an old Knight of St. Louis was seen
+galloping over the fields; he wore the ribbon of the order at his
+buttonhole: as it was first thought that he came from sheer curiosity,
+the crowd made room for him. He went up to the carriage window, hat in
+hand, saluted the King and the Queen, and hailed them as Majesties. The
+people had measured true force and real majesty, and were indignant at
+the title being given away from them to whom it was due; they began to
+grumble and threaten.
+
+The King had already learnt what this growl portended from hearing it
+around the house at Varennes.
+
+"Sir Knight," he said to the old chevalier, "the Queen and myself are
+touched by this publicly expressed token of your devotion; but in God's
+name, get you hence--your life is not safe."
+
+"My life is the King's, and the finest day of it will be when laid down
+for the King."
+
+Hearing this speech, some growled.
+
+"Retire," said the King. "Make way there, my friends, for Chevalier
+Dampierre."
+
+Those near who heard the appeal, stood back. But unfortunately the
+horseman was squeezed in and used the whip and spur on the animal unable
+to move freely. Some trodden-on women screamed, a frightened child
+cried, and on the men shaking their fists the old noble flourished his
+whip. Thereupon the growl changed to a roar: the grand popular and
+leonine fury broke forth.
+
+Dampierre was already on the edge of the forest of men; he drove in both
+spurs which made the steed leap the ditch where it galloped across the
+country. He turned, and waving his hat, cried: "God save the King!"--a
+final homage to his sovereign but a supreme insult to the people.
+
+Off went a gun. He pulled a pistol from his holsters and returned the
+fire. Everyone who had firearms, let fly at him. The horse fell, riddled
+with bullets.
+
+Nobody ever knew whether the man was slain outright or not by this
+dreadful volley. The multitude rushed like an avalanche where rider
+and steed had dropped, some fifty paces from the royal carriage: one
+of those tumults arose such as surge upon a dead body in battle: then,
+out of the disordered movements, the shapeless chaos, the gulf of yells
+and cheers, up rose a pike surmounted by the white head of the luckless
+Chevalier Dampierre.
+
+The Queen screamed and threw herself back in the vehicle.
+
+"Monsters, cannibals, assassins!" shouted Charny.
+
+"Hold your tongue, count," said Billet, "or I cannot answer for you."
+
+"What matters? I am tired of life. What can befall me worse than my poor
+brother?"
+
+"Your brother was guilty and you are not," replied Billet.
+
+Charny started to jump down from the box but the other Lifeguard
+restrained him, while twenty bayonets bristled to receive him.
+
+"Friends," said the farmer in his strong and imposing voice, as he
+pointed to Charny, "whatever this man says or does, never heed--I forbid
+a hair of his head being touched. I am answerable for him to his wife."
+
+"To his wife," muttered the Queen, shuddering as though one of the steel
+points menacing her beloved had pricked her heart, "why does he say to
+his wife?"
+
+Billet could not have himself told. He had invoked the name of the
+count's wife, knowing how powerful such a charm is over a mob composed
+mainly of men with wives.
+
+They were late reaching Chalons, where the King, in alighting at the
+house prepared for the family, heard a bullet whizz by his ear.
+
+Was it an accident where so many were inexperienced in arms or an
+attempt at regicide?
+
+"Some clumsy fellow," said he coolly: "gentlemen, you ought to be
+careful--an accident soon happens."
+
+Apart from this shot, there was a calmer atmosphere to step into. The
+uproar ceased at the house door: murmurs of compassion were heard; the
+table was laid out with elegance astonishing the captives. There were
+servants also, but Charny claimed their work for himself and the other
+Lifeguards, hiding under the pretended humility, the intention to stay
+close to the King for any event.
+
+Marie Antoinette understood this; but in her heart rumbled Billet's
+words about Charny's wife, like a storm brewing.
+
+Charny, whom she had expected to take away from France, to live abroad
+with her, was now returning to Paris to see his wife Andrea again!
+
+He was ignorant of this ferment in her heart, from not supposing she had
+heard the words; besides, he was busy over some freshly conceived hopes.
+Having been sent in advance to study the route he had conscientiously
+fulfilled his errand. He knew the political tone of even each village.
+Chalons had a royalist bias from it being an old town, without trade,
+work or activity, peopled by nobles, retired business men and contented
+citizens.
+
+Scarcely were the royal party at table than the County Lieutenant, whose
+house they were in, came to bow to the Queen, who looked at him uneasily
+from having ceased to expect anything good, and said:
+
+"May it please your Majesty to let the maids of Chalons offer flowers?"
+
+"Flowers?" repeated she, looking with astonishment from him to Lady
+Elizabeth. "Pray, let them come."
+
+Shortly after, twelve young ladies, the prettiest they could find in the
+town, tripped up to the threshold where the Queen held out her arms to
+them. One of them who had been taught a formal speech, was so effected
+by this warm greeting that she forgot it all and stammered the general
+opinion:
+
+"Oh, your Majesty, what a dreadful misfortune!"
+
+The Queen took the bunch of flowers and kissed the girl.
+
+"Sire," whispered Charny to the King meanwhile, "something good may be
+done here; if your Majesty will spare me for an hour, I will go out and
+inquire how the wind turns."
+
+"Do so, but be prudent," was the reply: "I shall never console myself if
+harm befalls you. Alas, two deaths are enough in one family."
+
+"Sire, my life is as much the King's as my brothers'."
+
+In the presence of the monarch his stoicism could be worn but he felt
+his grief when by himself.
+
+"Poor Isidore," he muttered, while pressing his hand to his breast to
+see if he still had in the pocket the papers of the dead handed him by
+Count Choiseul, which he had promised himself to read as he would the
+last will of his loved one.
+
+Behind the girls came their parents, almost all nobles or members of the
+upper middle class; they came timidly and humbly to crave permission to
+offer their respect to their unfortunate sovereigns. They could hardly
+believe that they had seen the unfortunate Dampierre hewn to pieces
+under their eyes a while before.
+
+Charny came back in half an hour. It was impossible for the keenest eye
+to read the effect of his reconnoitre on his countenance.
+
+"All is for the best, Sire," replied he to the King's inquiry. "The
+National Guard offer to conduct your Majesty to-morrow to Montmedy."
+
+"So you have arranged some course?"
+
+"With the principal citizens. It is a church feast to-morrow so that
+they cannot refuse your request to go to hear service. At the church
+door a carriage will be waiting which will receive your Majesties; amid
+the cheering you will give the order to be driven to Montmedy and you
+will be obeyed."
+
+"That is well," said Louis: "thank you, count, and we will do this if
+nothing comes between. But you and your companions must take some rest;
+you must need it more than we."
+
+The reception was not prolonged far into the night so that the Royal
+Family retired about nine. A sentinel at their door let them see that
+they were still regarded as prisoners. But he presented arms to them. By
+his precise movement the King recognized an old soldier.
+
+"Where have you served, my friend?" he inquired.
+
+"In the French Guards, Sire," answered the veteran.
+
+"Then I am not surprised to see you here," returned the monarch; for he
+had not forgotten that the French Guards had gone over to the people on
+the 13th July, 1789.
+
+This sentinel was posted at their sleeping room door. An hour
+afterwards, he asked to speak with the leader of the escort, who was
+Billet, on his being relieved of guard-mounting. The farmer was taking
+supper with the rustics who flocked in from all sides and endeavoring
+to persuade them to stay in town all night. But most of them had seen
+the King, which was mainly what led them, and they wanted to celebrate
+the holiday at home. He tried to detain them because the aristocratic
+tendency of the old town alarmed him.
+
+It was in the midst of this discussion that the sentinel came to talk
+with him. They conversed in a low voice most lively.
+
+Next, Billet sent for Drouet, and they held a similar conference. After
+this they went to the postmaster, who was Drouet's friend, and the same
+line of business made them friendlier still.
+
+He saddled two horses and in ten minutes Billet was galloping on the
+road to Rheims and Drouet to Vitry.
+
+Day dawned. Hardly six hundred men remained of the numerous escort, and
+they were fagged out, having passed the night on straw they had brought
+along, in the street. As they shook themselves awake in the dawn they
+might have seen a dozen men in uniform enter the Lieutenancy Office and
+come out hastily shortly after.
+
+Chalons was headquarters for the Villeroy Company of Lifeguards, and
+ten or twelve of the officers came to take orders from Charny. He told
+them to don full dress and be on their horses by the church door for the
+King's exit. These were the uniformed men whom we have seen.
+
+Some of the peasants reckoned their distance from home in the morning
+and to the number of two hundred more or less they departed, in spite of
+their comrades' pleadings. This reduced the faithful to a little over
+four hundred only.
+
+To the same number might be reckoned the National Guards devoted to the
+King, without the Royal Guards officers and those recruited, a forlorn
+hope which would set the lead in case of emergency.
+
+Besides, as hinted, the town was aristocratic.
+
+When the word was sent to Billet and Drouet to hear what they said about
+the King and the Queen going to hear mass, they could not be found and
+nothing therefore opposed the desire.
+
+The King was delighted to hear of the absence but Charny shook his head:
+he did not know Drouet's character but he knew Billet's.
+
+Nevertheless all the augury was favorable, and indeed the King not only
+came out of church amid cheers but the royalist gathering had assumed
+colossal proportions.
+
+Still it was not without apprehension that Charny encouraged the King to
+make up his mind.
+
+He put his head out of the carriage window and said:
+
+"Gentlemen, yesterday at Varennes, violence was used against me; I gave
+the order to be driven to Montmedy but I was constrained to go towards
+a revolted capital. Then I was among rebels, but now I am among honest
+subjects, to whom I repeat, 'To Montmedy!'"
+
+"To Montmedy!" echoed Charny and the others shouted the same, and to the
+chorus of "Long live the King!" the carriage was turned round and retook
+the road it had yesterday travelled.
+
+In the absence of Billet and Drouet the rustics seemed commanded by the
+French Guardsman who had stood sentry at the royal door. Charny watched
+and saw that he made his men wheel and mutely follow the movement
+though the scowls showed that they did not approve of it. They let the
+National Guards pass them, and massed in their rear as a rearguard.
+In the foremost ranks marched the pike and spear-men: then fifty who
+carried muskets and fowling pieces manoeuvring so neatly that Charny was
+disquieted: but he could not oppose it and he was unable to understand
+it.
+
+He was soon to have the explanation.
+
+As they approached the town gates, spite of the cheering, they heard
+another sound like the dull rolling of a storm. Suddenly Charny turned
+pale and laid his hand on the Lifeguard next him.
+
+"All is lost," he gasped: "do you not hear that drum?"
+
+They turned the corner into a square where two streets entered. One came
+from Rheims the other from Vitry, and up each was marching a column of
+National Guards; one numbered eighteen hundred, the other more than two
+thousand. Each was led by a man on horseback. One was Billet, the other
+Drouet.
+
+Charny saw why they had disappeared during the night. Fore-warned no
+doubt, of the counteraction in preparation, they had gone off for
+reinforcements. They had concerted their movements so as to arrive
+simultaneously. They halted their men in the square, completely blocking
+the road. Without any cries, they began to load their firearms. The
+procession had to stop.
+
+"What is the matter?" asked the King, putting his head out of the
+window, of Charny, pale and gritting his teeth.
+
+"Why, my lord, the enemy has gone for reinforcements and they stand
+yonder, loading their guns, while behind the Chalons National Guards the
+peasants are ready with their guns."
+
+"What do you think of all this?"
+
+"That we are caught between two fires, which will not prevent us
+passing, but what will happen to your Majesty I cannot tell."
+
+"Very well, let us turn back. Enough blood has been shed for my sake and
+I weep bitter tears for it. I do not wish one drop more to flow. Let us
+return."
+
+"Gentlemen," said Charny, jumping down and taking the leader horse by
+the bridle, "the King bids us turn back."
+
+At the Paris Gate the Chalons National Guards, become useless, gave
+place to those from Rheims and Vitry.
+
+"Do you not think I behaved properly, madam?" inquired Louis of his
+wife.
+
+"Yes--but I think Count Charny obeyed you very easily," was her comment.
+
+She fell into one of those gloomy reveries which was not entirely due to
+the terrible situation in which she was hedged in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+MIRABEAU'S SUCCESSOR.
+
+
+The royal carriage sadly travelled the Paris Road, watched by the two
+moody men who had forced it to alter its direction. Between Epernay and
+Dormans, Charny, from his stature and his high seat, could distinguish a
+four-in-hand coach approaching from the way of Paris.
+
+He guessed that it brought grave news of some important character.
+
+Indeed, it was hailed with cheers for the National Assembly, and
+contained three officials. One was Hatour Maubourg, Lafayette's right
+hand man, Petion and Barnave, members of the House.
+
+Of the three the oldest stepped up to the royal carriage, leaving his
+own, and roughly opening the door, he said:
+
+"I am Petion, and these Barnave and Latour, members of the Assembly,
+sent by it to serve you as escort and see that the wrath of the populace
+does not anticipate justice with its own hand. Close up there to make
+room for me."
+
+The Queen darted on all three one of those disdainful glances which the
+haughty daughter of Maria Theresa deigned to let fall from her pride.
+Latour was a gentleman of the old school, like Lafayette, and he could
+not support the glance. He declined to enter the carriage on the ground
+that the occupants were too closely packed.
+
+"I will get into the following one," he said.
+
+"Get in where you like," said Petion; "my place is with the King and the
+Queen, and in I go."
+
+He stepped in at the same time. He looked one after another at the King,
+the Queen and Lady Elizabeth, who occupied the back seat.
+
+"Excuse me, madam," he said to the last, "but the place of honor belongs
+to me as representative of the Assembly. Be obliging enough to rise and
+take the front seat."
+
+"Whoever heard of such a thing?" muttered the Queen.
+
+"Sir!" began the King.
+
+"That is the way of it; so, rise, madam, and give your place to me."
+
+Lady Elizabeth obeyed, with a sign of resignation to her brother and
+sister.
+
+Latour had gone to the cab to ask the ladies to let him travel with
+them. Member Barnave stood without, wavering about entering the
+conveyance where seven persons were.
+
+"Are you not coming, Barnave?" asked Petion.
+
+"Where am I to put myself?" inquired the somewhat embarrassed man.
+
+"Would you like my place?" demanded the Queen tartly.
+
+"I thank you, madam," rejoined Barnave, stung; "a seat in the front will
+do for me."
+
+It was made by Lady Elizabeth drawing the Princess Royal to her side
+while the Queen took the Dauphin on her knee. Barnave was thus placed
+opposite the Queen.
+
+"All ready," cried Petion, without asking the King, "on you go!"
+
+The vehicle resumed the journey, to cheers for the National Assembly.
+
+It was the people who stepped into the royal carriage with their
+representatives.
+
+There was silence during which each studied the others except Petion who
+seemed in his roughness to be indifferent to everything.
+
+Jerome Petion, _alias_ Villeneuve, was about thirty-two; his features
+were sharply defined; his merit lay in the exaltation, clearness and
+straightforwardness of his political opinions. Born at Chartres, he was
+a lawyer when sent to Paris in 1789, as member of the Assembly. He was
+fated to be Mayor of Paris, enjoy popularity effacing that of Bailly
+and Lafayette and die on the Bordeaux salt meadow wastes, devoured by
+wolves. His friends called him the Virtuous Petion. He and Camille
+Desmoulins were republicans when nobody else in France knew the word.
+
+Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave was born at Grenoble; he was hardly
+thirty; in the Assembly he had acquired both his reputation and great
+popularity, by struggling with Mirabeau as the latter waned. All the
+great orator's enemies were necessarily friends of Barnave and had
+sustained him. He appeared but five-and-twenty, with bright blue eyes, a
+largish mouth, turned-up nose and sharp voice. But his form was elegant;
+a duelist and aggressive, he looked like a young military captain in
+citizen's dress. He was worth more than he seemed.
+
+He belonged to the Constitutional Royalist party.
+
+"Gentlemen," said the King as he took his seat, "I declare to you that
+it never was my intention to quit the kingdom."
+
+"That being so, the words will save France," replied Barnave, looking at
+him ere he sat down.
+
+Thereupon something strange transpired between this scion of the country
+middle class and the woman descended from the greatest throne of Europe.
+Each tried to read the other's heart, not like two political foes,
+hiding state secrets, but like a man and a woman seeking mysteries of
+love.
+
+Barnave aimed in all things to be the heir and successor of Mirabeau.
+In everybody's eyes Mirabeau passed for having enjoyed the King's
+confidence and the Queen's affection. We know what the truth was. It was
+not only the fashion then to spread libels but to believe in them.
+
+Barnave's desire to be Mirabeau in all respects is what led him to be
+appointed one of the three Commissioners to bring back the Royal Family.
+
+He came with the assurance of the man who knows that he has the power to
+make himself hated if he cannot make himself loved.
+
+The Queen divined this with her woman's eye if she did not perceive it.
+
+She also observed Barnave's moodiness.
+
+Half a dozen times in a quarter of an hour, Barnave turned to look
+at the three Lifeguards on the box, examining them with scrupulous
+attention, and dropping his glance to the Queen more hard and hostile
+than before.
+
+Barnave knew that one of the trio was Charny, but which he was ignorant
+of: and public rumor accredited Charny as the Queen's paramour. He was
+jealous, though it is hard to explain such a feeling in him; but the
+Queen guessed that, too.
+
+From that moment she was stronger; she knew the flaw in the adversary's
+breastplate and she could strike true.
+
+"Did you hear what that man who was conducting the carriage said about
+the Count of Charny?" she asked of Louis XVI.
+
+Barnave gave a start which did not escape the Queen, whose knees was
+touching his.
+
+"He declared, did he not, that he was responsible for the count's life?"
+rejoined the sovereign.
+
+"Exactly, and that he answered for his life to his wife."
+
+Barnave half closed his eyes but he did not lose a syllable.
+
+"Now the countess is my old friend Andrea Taverney. Do you think, on our
+return to Paris, that it will be handsome to give him leave to go and
+cheer his wife. He has run great risks, and his brother has been killed
+on our behalf. I think that to claim his continued service beside us
+would be to act cruelly to the happy couple."
+
+Barnave breathed again and opened his eyes fully.
+
+"You are right, though I doubt that the count will accept it," returned
+the King.
+
+"In that case we shall both have done our duty--we in proposing it and
+the count in refusing."
+
+By magnetic sympathy she felt that Barnave's irritation was softening.
+At the same time that his generous heart understood that he had been
+unfair to her his shame sprang up.
+
+He had borne himself with a high head like a judge, and now she suddenly
+spoke the very words which determined her innocence of the charge which
+she could not have foreseen, or her repentance. Why not innocence?
+
+"We would stand in the better position," continued the Queen, "from
+our not having taken Count Charny with us, and from my thinking, on my
+part, that he was in Paris when he suddenly appeared by the side of our
+carriage."
+
+"It is so," proceeded the monarch; "but it only proves that the count
+has no need of stimulant when his duty is in question."
+
+There was no longer any doubt that she was guiltless.
+
+How was Barnave to obtain the Queen's forgiveness for having wronged her
+as a woman? He did not dare address her, and was he to wait till she
+spoke the first? She said nothing at all as she was satisfied with the
+effect she had produced.
+
+He had become gentle, almost humble; he implored her with a look, but
+she did not appear to pay him any heed.
+
+He was in one of those moods when to rouse a woman from inattention he
+would have undertaken the twelve labors of Hercules, at the risk of the
+first being too much for him.
+
+He was beseeching "the Supreme Being," which was the fashionable God
+in 1789, when they had ceased to believe in heaven, for some chance to
+bring attention upon him, when all at once, as though the Ruler, under
+whatever title addressed, had heard the prayer, a poor priest who waited
+for the King to go by, approached from the roadside to see the august
+prisoner the nearer, and said as he raised his supplicating hands and
+tear-wet eyes:
+
+"God bless your Majesty!"
+
+It was a long time since the crowd had a chance of flying into anger.
+Nothing had presented itself since the hapless Knight of St. Louis,
+whose head was still following on the pike-point. This occasion was
+eagerly embraced.
+
+The mob replied to the reverence with a roar: they threw themselves on
+the priest in a twinkling, and he was flung down and would have been
+flayed alive before Barnave broke from his abstraction had not the
+frightened Queen appealed to him.
+
+"Oh, sir, do you not see what is going on?"
+
+He raised his head, plunged a rapid look into the ocean which submerged
+the priest, and rolled in growling and tumultuous waves up to the
+carriage; he burst the door with such violence that he would have fallen
+out if the Princess Elizabeth had not caught him by the coat.
+
+"You villains!" he shouted. "Tigers, who cannot be French men! or
+France, the home of the brave, has become a den of assassins!"
+
+This apostrophe may appear bombastic to us but it was in the style of
+the period. Besides, the denunciator belonged to the National Assembly
+and supreme power spoke by his voice. The crowd recoiled and the old man
+was saved.
+
+He rose and said:
+
+"You did well to save an old man, young sir--he will ever pray for you."
+
+He made the sign of the cross, and went his way, the throng opening to
+him, dominated by the voice and attitude of Barnave, who seemed the
+statue of Command. When the victim was gone from sight, the young deputy
+simply and naturally retook his seat, as if he were not aware he had
+saved a human life.
+
+"I thank you, sir," said the Queen.
+
+These few words set him quivering over all his frame. In all the long
+period during which we have accompanied Marie Antoinette, though she had
+been more lovely, never had she been more touching.
+
+He was contemplating so much motherly grace when the prince uttered a
+cry of pain at the moment when Barnave was inclined to fall at the knees
+of dying Majesty. The boy had played some roguish trick on the virtuous
+Petion, who had deemed it proper to pull his ears. The King reddened
+with anger, the Queen turned pale with shame. She held out her arms and
+pulled the boy from between Petion's knees, so that Barnave received him
+between his. She still wished to draw him to her but he resisted,
+saying:
+
+"I am comfortable here."
+
+Through motherly playfulness or womanly seductiveness, she allowed the
+boy to stay. It is impossible to tell what passed in Barnave's heart: he
+was both proud and happy. The prince set to playing with the buttons of
+the member's coat, which bore the motto: "Live Free or Die."
+
+"What does that mean?" he wanted to know.
+
+As Barnave was silent, Petion interpreted.
+
+"My little man, that means that the French have sworn never to know
+masters more, if you can understand that? Explain it otherwise, Barnave,
+if you can."
+
+The other was hushed: the motto, which he had thought sublime, seemed
+almost cruel at present. But he took the boy's hand and respectfully
+kissed it. The Queen wiped away a tear, risen from her heart.
+
+The carriage, moving theatre of this little episode, continued to roll
+forward through the hooting of the mob, bearing to death six of the
+eight passengers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+ANOTHER DUPE.
+
+
+On arriving at Dormans, the party had to get out at an inn as nothing
+was prepared for them. Either from Petion's orders or from the Royal
+Family's snubbing him on the journey having vexed him, or because the
+place was really full, only three garret rooms were available.
+
+Charny got down the first to have the Queen's orders but she gave him a
+look to imply that he was to keep in the background. He hastened to obey
+without knowing the cause.
+
+It was Petion who entered the hotel, and acted as quarter-master; he did
+not give himself the trouble to come out again and it was a waiter who
+told the Royals that their rooms were ready.
+
+Barnave was embarrassed as he wanted to offer his arm to the Queen, but
+he feared that she who had been wont to rail at exaggerated etiquette,
+would nevertheless invoke it now. So he waited.
+
+The King stepped out, followed by the Queen, who held out her arms for
+her son, but he said as if he knew his part to please his mother:
+
+"No, I want to stay with my friend Barnave."
+
+Marie Antoinette submitted with a sweet smile. Barnave let lady
+Elizabeth pass out with the Princess Royal before he alighted, carrying
+the boy in his arms.
+
+Lady Tourzel closed the march, eager to snatch the royal child from
+these plebeian arms but the Queen made her a sign which cooled the ardor
+of the aristocratic governess. Barnave did not say anything on finding
+that the Virtuous Petion had taken the best part of the house, as he set
+down the prince on the second landing.
+
+"Mamma, here is my friend Barnave going away," cried he.
+
+"Very right, too," observed the Queen on seeing the attics reserved for
+her and her family.
+
+The King was so tired that he wished to lie down, but the bed was so
+short that he had to get up in a minute and called for a chair. With the
+cane-bottomed one eking out a wooden one he lengthened the couch.
+
+"Oh, Sire," said Malden, who brought the chair, "can you pass the night
+thus?"
+
+"Certainly: besides, if what the ministers say be true, many of my
+subjects would be only too glad to have this loft, these chairs and this
+pallet."
+
+He laid on this wretched bed, a prelude to his miserable nights in the
+Temple Prison.
+
+When he came in to supper, he found the table set for six: Petion had
+added himself to the Royal Family.
+
+"Why not eight, then, for Messieurs Latour Maubourg and Barnave?" jeered
+the King.
+
+"M. Barnave excused himself, but M. Petion persisted," replied the
+waiter.
+
+The grave, austere face of the deputy appeared in the doorway.
+
+The King bore himself as if alone and said to the waiter:
+
+"I sit at table with my own family solely: or without guests. If not, we
+do not eat at all."
+
+Petion went away furious, and heard the door bolted after him.
+
+The Queen looked for Charny during the meal, wishing that he had
+disobeyed her.
+
+Her husband was rising after finishing supper when the waiter came to
+state that the first floor parlors were ready for them. They had been
+decked out with flowers, by the forethought of Barnave.
+
+The Queen sighed: a few years before she would have had to thank Charny
+for such attentions. Moreover, Barnave had the delicacy not to appear
+to receive his reward; just as the count would have acted. How was it
+a petty country lawyer should show the same attentions and daintiness
+as the most eminent courtier? There was certainly much in this to set a
+woman--even a queen, a-thinking. Hence she did ponder over this mystery
+half the night.
+
+What had become of Count Charny during this interval?
+
+With his duty keeping him close to his masters, he was glad to have the
+Queen's signal for him to take some leisure for lonely reflection.
+
+After having been so busy for others lately, he was not sorry to have
+time for his own distress.
+
+He was the old-time nobleman, more a father than a brother to his
+younger brothers.
+
+His grief had been great at Valence's death, but at least he had a
+comfort in the second brother Isidore on whom he placed the whole of
+his affection. Isidore had become more dear still since he was his
+intermediary with Andrea.
+
+The less Charny saw of Andrea the more he thought of her, and to think
+of her was to love her. She was a statue when he saw her, but when he
+departed she became colored and animated by the distance. It seemed to
+him that internal fire sprang up in the alabaster mould and he could see
+the veins circulate blood and the heart throb.
+
+It was in these times of loneliness and separation that the wife was the
+real rival of the Queen: in the feverish nights Charny saw the tapestry
+cleft or the walls melt to allow the transparent statue to approach his
+couch, with open arms and murmuring lips and kindled eye: the fire of
+her love beamed from within. He also would hold out his arms, calling
+the lovely vision, and try to press the phantom to his heart. But, alas!
+the vision would flee and, embracing vacancy, he would fall from his
+breathless dream into sad and cold reality.
+
+Therefore, Isidore was dearer to him than Valence, and he had not the
+chance to mourn over him as he had over the cadet of the family.
+
+Both had fallen for the same fatal woman and into the abyss of the same
+cause full of pitfalls. For them he would certainly fall.
+
+Alone in an attic, shut up with a table which bore an old-fashioned
+three-wicked oil lamp, he drew out the bloodstained papers, the last
+relics of his brother. He sighed, raised his head and opened one letter.
+
+It was from poor Catherine Billet. Charny had suspected the connection
+some months before Billet had at Varennes given him confirmation of it.
+Only then had he given it the importance it should have taken in his
+mind.
+
+Now he learnt that the title of mistress had become holy by its
+promotion to that of mother, and in the simple language Catherine used,
+all her woman's life was given in expiation of her fault as a girl. A
+second and a third, showed the same plans of love, maternal joys, fears
+of the loving, pains and repentance.
+
+Suddenly, among the letters, he saw one whose writing struck him. To
+this was attached a note of Isidore's, sealed with his arms in black
+wax. It was the letter which Andrea had enjoined him to give her husband
+in case he were mortally hurt or read to him if unable. The note
+explained this and concluded:
+
+"I league to my brother the Count of Charny poor Catherine Billet, now
+living with my boy in the village of Villedovray."
+
+This note had totally absorbed him: but finally he turned his attention
+to that from his wife. But after reading the explanation three times, he
+shook his head and said in an undertone:
+
+"I have no right to open this letter; but I will so entreat her that she
+will let me read it."
+
+Dawn surprised him, devouring with his gaze this letter damp with
+frequent pressing it with his lips.
+
+Suddenly in the midst of the bustle for the departure, he heard his name
+called and he hurried out on the stairs.
+
+Here he met Barnave inquiring for the Queen and charging Valory to get
+the order for the start. It was easy to see that Barnave had had no more
+sleep than the count. They bowed to each other, and Charny would surely
+have remarked the jealous gleam in the member's eye if he had been able
+to think of anything but the letter of his wife which he pressed to his
+heart under his arm.
+
+On stepping into the coach once more the royal pair noticed they had
+only the population of the town to stare at them and cavalry to escort
+them. This was an attention of Barnave's.
+
+He knew what the Queen had suffered from the squalid and infected
+peasants pressing round the wheels, the severed head, the threats to
+her guards. He pretended to have heard of an invasion by the Austrians
+to help Marquis Bouille, and he had turned towards the frontier all the
+irregularly armed men.
+
+The hatred of the French for the foreign invader was such that it made
+them forget for the moment that the Queen was one of them.
+
+She guessed to whom she owed this boon, and thanked him with a look.
+
+As she resumed her place in the conveyance she glanced out to see
+Charny, who had taken the outer seat beside the Guards; he wanted to
+be in the danger, in hopes that a wound would give him the right to
+open his wife's letter. He did not notice her looking for him, and that
+made her sigh, which Barnave heard. Uneasy about it, he stopped on the
+carriage step.
+
+"Madam," he said, "I remarked yesterday how incommoded we were in
+here: if you like I will find room in the other carriage with M.
+Latour-Maubourg."
+
+While suggesting this, he would have given half his remaining days--not
+that many were left him!--to have her refuse the offer.
+
+"No, stay with us," she quickly responded.
+
+At once the Dauphin held out his little hands to draw him to him,
+saying:
+
+"My friend Barnave! I do not want him to go."
+
+Barnave gladly took his former place. The prince went over to his knee
+from his mother's. The Queen kissed him on his cheek as he passed and
+the member looked at the pink spots caused by the pressure like Tantalus
+at the fruit hanging over his head. He asked leave to kiss the little
+fellow and did it with such ardor that the boy cried out. She lost none
+of this incident in which Barnave was staking his head.
+
+Perhaps she had no more slept than Charny or the deputy; perhaps the
+animation enflaming her eyes was caused by fever; any way, her purpled
+lips and rosy cheeks, all made her that perilous siren who with one
+golden tress would draw her adorers over the whirlpool's edge.
+
+The carriage went faster and they could dine at Chateau Thierry. Before
+they got to Meaux, at evening Lady Elizabeth was overpowered by sleep
+and laid down in the middle of the vehicle. Her giving way had caused
+her to lean against Petion, who deposed in his report that she had
+tried to tempt him with love and had rested her head on his virtuous
+shoulder--that pious creature!
+
+The halt at Meaux was in the bishop's palace, a gloomy structure which
+still echoed those sinister wails from Bossuet's study that presaged the
+downfall of monarchy.
+
+The Queen looked around for support and smiled on seeing Barnave.
+
+"Give me your arm," she said, "and be my guide in this old palace. I
+dare not venture alone lest the great voice is heard which one day made
+Christianity shudder with the outcry: 'The Duchess Henriette is dead!'"
+
+Barnave sprang forward to offer his arm, while the lady cast a last
+glance around, fretted by Charny's obstinate silence.
+
+"Do you seek some one?" he asked.
+
+"Yes; the King."
+
+"Oh, he is chatting with Petion."
+
+Appearing satisfied, the Queen drew Barnave into the pile. She seemed
+a fugitive, following some phantom and looking neither before her nor
+behind. She only stopped, breathless, in the great preacher's sleeping
+chamber, where chance placed her confronting the portrait of a lady.
+Mechanically looking, she read the label: "Madam Henriette." She started
+without Barnave understanding why. From the name he guessed.
+
+"Yes," he observed, "not Henrietta Maria of England, not the widow of
+the unfortunate Charles the First but the wife of the reckless Philip of
+Orleans; not she who died of cold in the Louvre Palace, but she who died
+of poison at St. Cloud and sent her ring to Bossuet. Rather would I have
+it her portrait," he said after a pause "for such a mouth as hers might
+give advice, but, alas! such are the very ones death seals up."
+
+"What could Charles the First's widow furnish me in the way of advice?"
+she inquired.
+
+"By your leave, I will try to say. 'Oh, my sister (Seems to say this
+mouth) do you not see the resemblance between our fates? I come from
+England as you from Austria, and was a foreigner to the English as you
+are to the French. I might have given my husband good counsel, but was
+silent or gave him bad; instead of uniting him to his people, I excited
+him to war against them; I gave him the counsel to march on London with
+the Irish. Not only did I maintain correspondence with the enemies of
+England but twice I went over into France to bring back foreign troops'.
+But why continue the bloody story which you know?"
+
+"Continue," said the Queen, with dark brow and pleated lip.
+
+"The portrait would continue to say: 'Sister, finally the Scotch
+delivered up their monarch, so that he was arrested just when he dreamt
+of escaping into France. A tailor seized him, a butcher led him into
+prison, a carter packed the jury, a beer-vendor presided over the
+assembly, and that nothing should be omitted odious in the trial and the
+sentence, it was carried out by a masked deaths-man striking off the
+victim's head.' This is what the picture of Henrietta Maria would say.
+God knows that nothing is lacking for the likeness. We have our brewer
+in Santerre for Cromwell, our butcher in Lengedre, not Harrison, and all
+the other plebeians who will conduct the trial; even as the conductor of
+this array is a lowborn peasant. What do you say to the picture?"
+
+"I would say: 'Poor dear princess, you are reading me a page of history
+not giving me advice.'"
+
+"If you do not refuse to follow it, the advice would be given you by the
+living," rejoined Barnave.
+
+"Dead or living, those who can advise ought to do so: if good, it should
+be followed."
+
+"Dead or living, one kind alone is given. Gain the people's love."
+
+"It is so very easy to gain your people's love!"
+
+"Why, madam, they are more your people than mine, and the proof is that
+they worshiped you when you first came here."
+
+"Oh, sir, dwell not on that flimsy thing, popularity."
+
+"Madam," returned Barnave, "if I, springing from my obscure sphere,
+won this popularity, how much easier for you to keep it than I to
+conquer it? But no," continued he, warming with the theme, "to whom
+have you confided this holy cause of monarchy, the loftiest and most
+splendorous? What voices and what arms do you choose to defend it?
+Never was seen such ignorance of the times and such forgetfulness of
+the characteristics of France! Why, you have only to look at me for one
+instance--who solicited the mission of coming to you with the single end
+of offering myself, devoting myself----"
+
+"Hush, some one is coming," interrupted the Queen; "we must refer to
+this, M. Barnave, for I am ready to listen to your counsel and heed
+you."
+
+It was a servant announcing that dinner was waiting.
+
+The two Lifeguards waited at table, but Charny stood in a window
+recess. Though under the roof of one of the first bishops, the meal was
+nothing to brag of: but the King ate heartily.
+
+The Dauphin had been asking for strawberries but was told along the road
+that there were none, though he had seen the country lads devouring them
+by the handsful. So the poor little fellow had envied the rustic urchins
+who could seek the fruit in the dewy grass like the birds that revel at
+nature's bounteous board.
+
+This desire had saddened the Queen, who called Charny in a voice hoarse
+with emotion. At the third call he heard her and came, but the door
+opened and Barnave appeared on the sill; in his hand was a platter of
+the fruit.
+
+"I hope the King and the Queen will excuse my intruding," he said, "but
+I heard the prince ask for strawberries several times during the day, so
+that, finding this dish on the bishop's table, I made so bold as to take
+and bring it."
+
+"Thank you, count," said the Queen to Charny, "but M. Barnave has
+divined my want and I have no farther need of you."
+
+Charny bowed without a word and returned to his place. The Dauphin
+thanked the member, and the King asked him to sit down between the boy
+and the Queen to partake of the meal, bad as it was.
+
+Charny beheld the scene without a spark of jealousy. But he said, on
+seeing this poor moth singe its wings at the royal light:
+
+"Still another going to destruction! a pity, for he is worth more than
+the others." But returning to his thought, he muttered: "This letter,
+what can be in this letter?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE CENTRE OF CATASTROPHES.
+
+
+After the repast, the King called the three Lifeguards into council with
+the Queen and Lady Elizabeth.
+
+"Gentlemen," he began, "yesterday, M. Petion proposed that you should
+flee in disguise, but the Queen and I opposed the plan for fear it
+was a plot. This day he repeats the offer, pledging his honor as a
+representative, and I believe you ought to hear the idea."
+
+"Sire, we humbly beg," replied Charny for the others, "that we may be
+free to take the hint or leave it."
+
+"I pledge myself to put no pressure on you. Your desires be done."
+
+The astonished Queen looked at Charny without understanding the growing
+indifference she remarked in his determination not to swerve from his
+duty. She said nothing but let the King conduct the conversation.
+
+"Now that you reserve freedom, here are Petion's own words," he went on.
+"Sire, there is no safeguard for your attendants in Paris. Neither I,
+nor Barnave nor Latour can answer for shielding them even at peril of
+our lives, for their blood is claimed by the people.'"
+
+Charny exchanged a look with the other two bodyguards who smiled with
+scorn.
+
+"Well?" he said.
+
+"M. Petion suggests that he should provide three National Guards suits
+and you might in them get away this night."
+
+Charny consulted his brother officers who replied with the same smile.
+
+"Sire," he replied, "our days are set apart for your Majesty, having
+deigned to accept the homage, it is easier for us to die than separate.
+Do us the favor to treat us as you have been doing. Of all your court
+and army and Lifeguards, three have stood staunch; do not rob them of
+the only glory they yearn for, namely to be true to the last."
+
+"It is well, gentlemen," said, the Queen; "but you understand that you
+are no longer servants but brothers." She took her tablets from her
+pockets. "Let us know the names of your kinsfolk so that, should you
+fall in the struggle, we can tell the loved ones how it happened and
+soothe them as far as in our power lies."
+
+Malden named his old, infirm mother and Valory his young orphan sister.
+The Queen stopped in her writing to wipe her eyes.
+
+"Count," she said, turning to Charny, "we know that you have no one to
+mention as you have lost your two brothers----"
+
+"Yes, they had the happiness to perish for your sake," said the nobleman
+"but the latter to fall leaves a poor girl recommended in a kind of
+will found upon him. He stole her away from her family which will never
+forgive her. So long as I live she and her child never shall want, but,
+as your Majesty says with her admirable courage, we are all in the
+face of death, and if death strikes me down, she and her babe will be
+penniless. Madam, deign to write the name of this poor country girl, and
+if I die like the others of the house of Charny, for my august master
+and noble mistress, lower your generosity to Catherine Billet and her
+child, in Villedovray."
+
+No doubt the idea of George Charny expiring like his brothers was too
+dreadful a picture for the hearer, for in swaying back with a faint cry,
+she let the tablets fall and sank giddily on a chair. The two Guards
+hastened to her while Charny caught up the memo-book and inscribed the
+name and address.
+
+The Queen recovered and said: "Gentlemen, do not leave me without
+kissing my hand."
+
+The Lifeguards obeyed, but when it came Charny's turn he barely brushed
+the hand with his lips. It seemed to him sacrilege when he was carrying
+Andrea's letter on his heart. The Queen sighed: never had she so
+accurately measured the depth of the gulf between her and her lover,
+widening daily.
+
+As the Guards therefore replied next day to the Committeemen that
+they would not change their attire from what the King authorized them
+to wear, Barnave had an extra seat placed in front of them with two
+grenadiers to occupy it so as to shield them in some degree.
+
+At ten A. M. they quitted Meaux for Paris, from which they had been five
+days absent.
+
+What an unfathomable abyss had deepened in those few days.
+
+At a league beyond Meaux the accompanying sightseers took an aspect more
+frightful than before. All the dwellers of the Paris suburbs flocked to
+the road. Barnave tried to make the postillions go at a trot but the
+Claye National Guard blocked the way with their bayonets and it would be
+imprudent to try to break that dam: comprehending the danger, the Queen
+supplicated the deputies not to vex the mob--it was a formidable storm
+growling and felt to be coming.
+
+Such was the press that the horses could hardly move at a walk.
+
+It had never been hotter, the air seemed fire.
+
+The insolent curiosity of the people pursued the royal prisoners right
+up to the carriage interior. Men mounted upon it and clung to the
+horses. It was a miracle that Charny and his comrades were not killed
+over and over again. The two grenadiers failed to fend off the attacks:
+appeals in the name of the Assembly were drowned by the hooting.
+
+Two thousand men formed the vanguard, and double that number closed up
+the rear. On the flanks rolled an incalculable gathering.
+
+The air seemed to fail as they neared Paris as though that giant inhaled
+it all. The Queen was suffocating, and when the King begged for a glass
+of wine it was proposed that he should have a sponge dipped in gall and
+vinegar.
+
+At Lavillette, the multitude was beyond the power of sight to estimate;
+the pavement was so covered that they could not move. Windows, walls,
+doors, all were crammed. The trees were bending under the novel living
+fruit.
+
+Everybody wore their hats, for the walls had been placarded:
+
+"Flogging for whoever salutes the King: hanging for him who insults
+him."
+
+All this was so appalling that the Commissioners dared not go down St.
+Martin's Street Without-the-City, a crowded way full of horrors, where
+Berthier Savigny had been torn to pieces and other barbarities
+committed.
+
+So they made the circuit and went by the Champs Elysees.
+
+The concourse of spectators was still more great and broke up the ranks
+of the soldiery.
+
+It was the third time Louis had entered by this dread entrance.
+
+All Paris rushed hither. The King and the Queen saw a vast sea of heads,
+silent, sombre and threatening, with hats on. Still more alarming was
+the double row of National Guards, all the way to the Tuileries, their
+muskets held butt up as if at a funeral. It was a funeral procession
+indeed, for the monarchy of seven centuries!
+
+This slowly toiling carriage was the hearse taking royalty to the grave.
+
+On perceiving this long file of Guards the soldiers of the escort
+greeted them with "Long Live the Nation!" and that was the cry bursting
+out along the line from the barrier to the palace.
+
+All the bystanders joined in, a cry of brotherhood uttered by the whole
+of France, but this one family was excluded.
+
+Behind the cab following the royal carriage came a chaise, open but
+covered with green boughs on account of the heat; it contained Drouet
+and two others who had arrested the King. Fatigue had forced them to
+ride.
+
+Billet alone, indefatigable, as if revenge made him bronze, kept on
+horseback and seemed to lead the whole procession.
+
+Louis noticed that the statue of his ancestor, on Louis XV. Square, had
+the eyes bandaged; in token of the blindness of rulers, Petion
+explained.
+
+Spite of all, the mob burst all bars and stormed the carriage. Suddenly
+the Queen saw at the windows those hideous men with implacable speech
+who come to the surface on certain days like the sea monsters seen only
+in tempestuous weather.
+
+Once she was so terrified that she pulled down the sash, whereupon a
+dozen furious voices demanded the reason.
+
+"I am stifling," she stammered.
+
+"Pooh, we will stifle you in quite another way, never fear," replied a
+rough voice while a dirty fist smashed the window.
+
+Nevertheless the cortege reached the grand terrace steps.
+
+"Oh, gentlemen, save the Lifeguards," cried the Queen, particularly to
+Barnave and Petion.
+
+"Have you any preference?" asked the former.
+
+"No," she answered, looking at him full and square.
+
+She required that the King and the royal children should first alight.
+
+The next ten minutes were the cruelest of her life. She was under
+the impression, not that she would be killed--prompt death would be
+nothing--but made the sport of the mob or dragged away into jail whence
+she would issue only after a trial handing her over to ignominious
+death.
+
+As she stepped forth, under the ceiling of steel made by the swords
+and bayonets of the soldiers, Barnave gathered to cover her. Even as
+a giddiness made her close her eyes, she caught a glimpse down the
+flashing vista of a face she remembered. This face seemed to be the
+centre of the multitudinous eyes of the mob: from his glance would
+come the cue for her immolation. It was the terrible man who had in a
+mysterious manner at Taverney Manor raised the veil over the future.
+He whom she had seen at Sevres on returning from Versailles. He who
+appeared merely to foretell great catastrophes or to witness their
+fulfillment.
+
+And yet if Cagliostro, was he not dead in the dungeons of the Pope?
+
+To be assured that her sight did not deceive her, she darted down the
+tunnel of steel, strong against realities but not against this sinister
+vision.
+
+It seemed to her that the earth gave way under her tread; that all
+whirled round her, palace, gardens, trees, the countless people; that
+vigorous arms seized her and carried her away amid deafening yells. She
+heard the Lifeguards shouting, calling the wrath upon them to turn it
+aside from its true aim. Opening her eyes an instant, she beheld Charny
+between the pair hurled from the box--pale and handsome, as ever, he
+fought with ten men at once, with the nobleman's smile of scorn and the
+martyr's light in his gaze. From Charny her eyes went back to the man
+whose myrmidons ruled the storm and swept her out of the maelstrom. With
+terror she undoubtedly recognized the magician of Taverney and Sevres.
+
+"You, it is you!" she gasped, trying to repel him with her rigid hands.
+
+"Yes, it is I," he hissed in her ear. "I still need you to push the
+throne into its last gulf, and so I save you!"
+
+She could support no more, but screaming, she swooned.
+
+Meanwhile the mob, defrauded of the chief morsel, were tearing the
+Lifeguards to pieces and carrying Billet and Drouet in triumph.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE BITTER CUP.
+
+
+When the Queen came to her senses she was in her sleeping room in the
+Tuileries. Her favorite bed-chamber women, Lady Misery and Madam Campan
+were at hand. Though they told her the Dauphin was safe, she rose and
+went to see him: he was in sleep after the great fright.
+
+She looked at him for a long time, haunted by the words of that awful
+man: "I save you because you are needed to hurl the throne over into the
+last abyss." Was it true that she would destroy the monarchy? Were her
+enemies guarding her that she might accomplish the work of destruction
+better than themselves? But would this gulf close after swallowing the
+King, the throne and herself? Would not her two children go down in it
+also? In religions of the past alone is innocence safe to disarm the
+gods?
+
+Abraham's sacrifice had not been accepted, but it was not so in
+Jephthaph's case.
+
+These were gloomy thoughts for a Queen, gloomier still for a mother.
+
+She shook her head and went slowly back to her rooms. She noticed the
+disorder she was in and took a bath and was attired more fitly.
+
+The news awaiting her was not so black as she had feared; all three
+Lifeguards had been saved from the mob, mainly by Petion who screened a
+good heart under his rough bark. Malden and Valory were in the palace,
+bruised, wounded, but alive. Nobody knew where Charny was in refuge
+after having been snatched from the ruffians.
+
+At these words from Madam Campan, such a deadly pallor came over the
+Queen's countenance that the Lady thought it was from anxiety about the
+count and she hastened to say:
+
+"But there need be no alarm about his coming back to the palace; the
+countess has a town house and of course he will hasten there."
+
+This was just what she feared and what made her lose color.
+
+She wanted to dress, as if she would be allowed to go out of the palace
+prison to inquire about his fate, when he was announced as present in
+the other room.
+
+"Oh, he is keeping his word," muttered the Queen which her attendants
+did not understand.
+
+Her toilet hastily completed, she ordered the count to be introduced
+into her sitting room, where she joined him.
+
+He had also dressed for the reception, for he wore the naval uniform in
+which she had first seen him. Never had he been calmer, handsomer and
+more elegant, and she could not believe that this beau was the man whom
+she had seen the mob fall upon a while before.
+
+"Oh, my lord, I hope you were told how distressed I was on your behalf
+and that I was sending out for tidings?"
+
+"Madam, you may be sure that I did not go away till I learned that you
+were safe and sound," was his rejoinder. "And now that I am assured by
+sight, and hearing of the health of your children and the King, I think
+it proper to ask leave to give personal news to my lady the countess."
+
+The Queen pressed her hand to her heart as if to ascertain if this blow
+had not deadened it, and said in a voice almost strangled by the dryness
+of her throat:
+
+"It is only fair, my lord, and I wonder how it is that you did not ask
+before this."
+
+"The Queen forgets my promise not to see the countess without her
+permission."
+
+"I suppose, though, in your ardor to see the lady again, you could do
+without it?"
+
+"I think the Queen unjust to me," he replied. "When I left Paris I
+believed it was to part from her forever. During the journey I did all
+that was humanly possible to make the journey a success. It is not my
+fault that I did not lose my life like my brother or was not cut to
+pieces on the road or in the Tuileries Gardens. Had I the honor to
+conduct your Majesty across the frontier, I should have lived in exile
+with you, or if I were fated to die, I should have died without seeing
+the countess. But, I repeat, I cannot, being again in town, give the
+lady this mark of indifference, not to show her I am alive, particularly
+as I no longer have my brother Isidore as my substitute; at all events,
+either M. Barnave is wrong or your Majesty was of the same opinion only
+yesterday."
+
+The Queen glided her arm along the chair-arm and following the movement
+with her body said:
+
+"You must love this woman fondly to give me this pain so coldly?"
+
+"Madam, at a time when I did not think of such a thing, as there was
+but one woman the world for me--it will soon be six years--this woman
+being placed too high above me for me to hope for her, as well as under
+an indissoluble bond--you gave me as wife Mdlle. Andrea Taverney,
+imposed her on me! In these six years my hand has not twice touched
+hers; without necessity I have not spoken a word to her and our glances
+have not met a dozen times. My life has been occupied by another love,
+the thousand tasks, cares and combats agitating man's existence in camp
+and court. I have coursed the King's highways, entangling the thread
+the master gave me in the intrigues of fatality. I have not counted the
+days, or months or years, for time has passed most rapidly from my being
+enwrapt in these tasks.
+
+"But not so has fared the Countess of Charny. Since she has had the
+affliction of quitting your Majesty, after having displeased you, I
+suppose, she has lived lonely in the Paris summerhouse, accepting the
+neglect and isolation without complaining, for she has not the same
+affections as other women from her heart being devoid of love. But she
+may not accept without complaint my forgetting the simplest duty and the
+most commonplace attentions."
+
+"Good gracious, my lord, you are mightily busy about what the countess
+thinks of you according to whether you see her or not! Before worrying
+yourself it would be well to know whether she does think of you in the
+hour of your departure or in that of your return."
+
+"I do not know about the hour of my return but I do know that she
+thought about me when I departed."
+
+"So you saw her before you went?"
+
+"I had the honor of stating that I had not seen the countess since I
+promised the Queen not to see her."
+
+"Then she wrote to you? confess it!" cried Marie Antoinette.
+
+"She confided a letter for me to my brother Isidore."
+
+"A letter which you read? what does she say? but she promised me--but
+let us hear quickly. What does she say in this letter? Speak, see you
+not that I am on thorns?"
+
+"I cannot repeat what it says as I have not read it."
+
+"You destroyed it unread?" exclaimed she delightedly, "you threw it in
+the fire? Oh, Charny, if you did that, you are the most true of lovers
+and I was wrong to scold--for I have lost nothing."
+
+She held out her arms to lure him to his former place, but he stood
+firm.
+
+"I have not torn it or burnt it," he replied.
+
+"But then, how came you not to read it?" questioned she, sinking back on
+the chair.
+
+"The letter was to be given me if I were mortally wounded. But alas! it
+was the bearer who fell. He being dead, his papers were brought to me
+and among them was this, the countess's letter."
+
+She took the letter with a trembling hand and rang for lights. During
+the brief silence in the dusk, her breathing could be heard and the
+hurried throbbing of her heart. As soon as the candlesticks were placed
+on the mantle shelf, before the servant left the room, she ran to the
+light. She looked on the paper twice without ability to read it.
+
+"It is flame," she said, "Oh, God!" she ejaculated, smoothing her
+forehead to bring back her sight and stamping her foot to calm her hand
+by force of will. In a husky voice utterly like her own, she read:
+
+"This letter is intended not for me but for my brother Count Charny,
+or to be returned to the countess. It is from her I had it with the
+following recommendation. If in the enterprise undertaken by the count,
+he succeeds without mishap, return the letter to the countess."
+
+The reader's voice became more panting as she proceeded.
+
+"If he is grievously hurt, but without mortal danger, his wife prays to
+be let join him."
+
+"That is clear," said the Queen falteringly and in a scarcely
+intelligible voice she added: "'Lastly, if he be wounded to the death,
+give him the letter or read it to him if he cannot, in order that he
+should know the secret contained before he dies.'
+
+"Do you deny it now, that she loves you?" demanded the Queen, covering
+the count with a flaming look.
+
+"The countess love me? what are you saying?" cried Charny.
+
+"The truth, unhappy woman that I am!"
+
+"Love me? impossible!"
+
+"Why, for I love you?"
+
+"But in six years the countess has never let me see it, never said a
+word!"
+
+The time had come for Marie Antoinette to suffer so keenly that she felt
+the need to bury her grief like a dagger in the depth of his heart.
+
+"Of course," she sneered, "she would not breathe a word, she would not
+let a token show, and the reason is because she was well aware that she
+was not worthy to be your wife."
+
+"Not worthy?" reiterated Charny.
+
+"She cherished a secret which would slay your love," continued the
+other, more and more maddened by her pain.
+
+"A secret to kill our love?"
+
+"She knew you would despise her after she told it."
+
+"I, despise the countess? tut, tut!"
+
+"Unless one is not to despise the girl who is a mother without being a
+wife."
+
+It was the man's turn to become paler than death and lean on the back of
+the nearest chair.
+
+"Madam, you have said too much or too little, and I have the right for
+an explanation."
+
+"Do you ask a queen for explanations?"
+
+"I do," replied Charny.
+
+The door opened, and the Queen turned to demand impatiently:
+
+"What is wanted?"
+
+It was a valet who announced Dr. Gilbert, come by appointment. She
+eagerly bade him send him in.
+
+"You call for an explanation about the countess," she continued to the
+count: "well, ask it of this gentleman, who can give it, better than
+anybody else."
+
+Gilbert had come in so as to hear the final words and he remained on the
+threshold, mute and standing.
+
+The Queen tossed the letter to Charny and took a few steps to gain her
+dressing room when the count barred her passage and grasped her wrist.
+
+"My lord, methinks that you forget I am your Queen," said Marie
+Antoinette, with clenched teeth and enfevered eye.
+
+"You are an ungrateful woman who slanders her friend, a jealous women
+who defames another, and that woman the wife of a man who has for three
+days risked his life a score of times for you--the wife of George Count
+of Charny. Justice must be rendered in face of her you have calumniated
+and insulted! Sit down and wait."
+
+"Well, have it so," railed the Queen. "Dr. Gilbert," she pursued,
+forcing a shallow laugh, "you see what this nobleman desires."
+
+"Dr. Gilbert, you hear what the Queen orders," rebuked Charny with a
+tone full of courtesy and dignity.
+
+"Oh, madam," said Gilbert, sadly regarding the Queen as he came forward.
+"My Lord Count," he went on to the gentleman, "I have to tell you
+of the shame of a man and the glory of a woman. A wretched earthworm
+fell in love with his lord's daughter, the Lady of Taverney. One day,
+he found her in a mesmeric trance, and without respect for her youth,
+beauty and innocence, this villain abused her and thus the maid became
+a woman, the mother before marriage. Mdlle. Taverney was an angel--Lady
+Charny is a martyr!"
+
+"I thank Dr. Gilbert," said the count, wiping his brow. "Madam," he
+proceeded to the Queen, "I was ignorant that Mdlle. Taverney was so
+unfortunate--that Lady Charny was so worthy of respect; otherwise,
+believe me, six years would not have elapsed before I fell at her feet
+and adored her as she deserves."
+
+Bowing to the stupefied Queen, he stalked forth without the baffled one
+making a move to detain him. But he heard her shriek of pain when the
+door closed between them. She comprehended that over those portals the
+hand of the demon of jealousy was writing the dread doom:
+
+    "Leave hope behind who enter here."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+AT LAST THEY ARE HAPPY!
+
+
+It is easy for us who know the state of Andrea's heart to imagine what
+she suffered from the time of Isidore's leaving. She trembled for the
+grand plot failing or succeeding. If succeeding, she knew the count's
+devotion to his masters too well not to be sure that he would never quit
+them in exile. If failure, she knew his courage too well not to be sure
+that he would struggle till the last moment, so long as hope remained,
+and beyond that.
+
+So she had her eye open to every light and her ear to every sound.
+
+On the following day, she learnt with the rest of the population that
+the King had fled from the capital in the night, without any mischance.
+
+She had suspected the flight, and as Charny would participate, she was
+losing him by his going far from her.
+
+Sighing deeply, she knelt in prayer for the journey to be happy.
+
+For two days, Paris was dumb, without news; then the rumor broke forth
+that the King had been stopped at Varennes. No details, just the word.
+
+Andrea hunted up on the map the little obscure point on which attention
+was centred. There she lived on hopes, fears and thought.
+
+Gradually came the details precious to her, particularly when news came
+that a Charny, one of the royal bodyguard, had been killed: Isidore
+or George? for two days, while this was undecided, Andrea's heart
+oscillated in anguish indescribable.
+
+Finally the return of the august prisoners were heralded. They slept at
+Meaux.
+
+At eleven in the morning, veiled and dressed most plainly she went and
+waited till three o'clock at the east end, for it was supposed that the
+party would enter by St. Martin's suburb. At that hour the mob began to
+move away, hearing that the King was going round to enter through the
+Champs Elysees. It was half the city to cross afoot as no vehicles could
+move in the throng, unexampled since the Taking of the Bastile.
+
+Andrea did not hesitate and was one of the first on the spot where she
+had still three mortal hours to wait.
+
+At last the procession appeared, we know in what order.
+
+She hailed the royal coach with a cry of joy for she saw Charny on the
+box. A scream which seemed an echo of her own, though different in tone,
+arose, and she saw a girl in convulsions in the crowd. She would have
+gone to her help, though three or four kind persons flew to her side,
+but she heard the men around her pour imprecations on the three on the
+box seat. On them would fall the popular rage as the scapegoats of the
+royal treachery; when the coach stopped they would be torn to pieces.
+
+And Charny was one!
+
+She resolved to do her utmost to get within the Tuileries gardens; this
+she managed by going round about but the crush was so dense that she
+could not get into the front. She retired to the waterside terrace where
+she saw and heard badly, but that was better than not seeing at all.
+
+She saw Charny, indeed, on the same level, little suspecting that the
+heart beating for him alone was so near; probably he had no thought for
+her--solely for the Queen, forgetting his own safety to watch over hers.
+
+Oh, had she known that he was pressing her letter on his heart and
+offering her the last sigh which he thought he must soon yield! At
+last the coach stopped amid the howling, groaning and clamor. Almost
+instantly around it rose an immense turbulence, weapons swaying like a
+steel wheat-field shaken by the breeze.
+
+Precipitated from the box, the three Lifeguards disappeared as if
+dropped into a gulf. Then there was such a back-wave of the crowd that
+the retiring rear ranks broke against the terrace front.
+
+Andrea was shrouded in anguish; she could hear and see nothing;
+breathless and with outstretched arms, she screamed inarticulate sounds
+into the midst of the dreadful concert of maledictions, blasphemy and
+death cries.
+
+She could no longer understand what went on: the earth turned, the sky
+grew red, and a roar as of the sea rang in her ears.
+
+She fell, half dead, knowing only that she lived from her feeling
+suffering.
+
+A sensation of coolness brought her round: a woman was putting to
+her forehead a handkerchief dipped in river water. She remembered
+her as having fainted when the royal coach came into sight, without
+guessing what sympathy attached her to this mistress of her husband's
+brother--for this was Catherine Billet.
+
+"Are they dead?" was her first question.
+
+Compassion is intelligent: they around her understood that she asked
+after the three Lifeguardsmen.
+
+"No, all three are saved."
+
+"The Lord be praised! Where are they?"
+
+"I believe in the palace."
+
+Rising and shaking her head, seeing where she was in a distracted way,
+she went around to the Princes' Court and sprang into the janitor's
+room. This man knew the countess as having been in attendance when the
+court first came back from Versailles. He had also seen her go away,
+with Sebastian in her carriage.
+
+He related that the Guardsmen were safe; Count Charny had gone out for a
+little while, when he returned dressed in naval uniform to appear in the
+Queen's rooms, where he probably was at that period.
+
+Andrea thanked the good fellow and hastened home, now that George was
+safe. She knelt on her praying stand, to thank heaven, with all her soul
+going up to her Maker.
+
+She was plunged in ecstasy when she heard the door open, and she
+wondered what this earthly sound could be, disturbing her in her deepest
+reverie.
+
+The shadow in the doorway was dim but her instinct told her who it was
+without the girl announcing:
+
+"My lord the Count of Charny."
+
+Andrea tried to rise but her strength failed her: half turning, she slid
+down the slope of the stand, leaning her arm on the guard.
+
+"The count," she murmured, disbelieving her eyes.
+
+The servant closed the door on her master and mistress.
+
+"I was told you had recently returned home? Am I rude in following you
+indoors so closely?" he asked.
+
+"No, you are welcome, my lord," she tremblingly replied. "I was so
+uneasy that I left the house to learn what had happened."
+
+"Were you long out?"
+
+"Since morning; I was first out to St. Martin's Bars, and then went
+to the Champs Elysees; there I saw--" she hesitated--"I saw the Royal
+Family--you, and momentarily I was set at ease, though I feared for you
+when the carriage should set you down. Then I went into the Tuileries
+Gardens, where I thought I should have died."
+
+"Yes, the crowd was great; you were crushed, and I understand----"
+
+"No," said Andrea, shaking her head, "that was not it. I inquired and
+learned that you were unhurt, so that I hastened home to thank God on my
+knees."
+
+"Since you are so, praying, say a word for my poor brother."
+
+"Isidore--poor youth! was it he, then?" exclaimed Andrea.
+
+She let her head sink on her hands. Charny stepped forward a few steps
+to regard the chaste creature at her devotions. In his look was immense
+commiseration, together with a longing restrained.
+
+Had not the Queen said--or rather revealed that Andrea loved him?
+
+"And he is no more?" queried the lady, turning round after finishing her
+prayer.
+
+"He died, madam, like Valence, and for the same cause, fulfilling the
+same duty."
+
+"And in the great grief which you must have felt, you still thought of
+me?" asked Andrea in so weak a voice that her words were barely audible.
+
+Luckily Charny was listening with the heart as well as ear.
+
+"Did you not charge my brother with a message for me?" he inquired. "A
+letter to my address?"
+
+She rose on one knee and looked with anxiety upon him.
+
+"After poor Isidore's death, his papers were handed to me and among them
+was this letter."
+
+"And you have read it--ah!" she cried, hiding her face in her hands.
+
+"I ought to know the contents only if I were mortally wounded and you
+see I have returned safe. Consequently, as you see, it is intact, as you
+gave it to Isidore."
+
+"Oh, what you have done is very lofty--or very unkind," muttered the
+countess, taking the letter.
+
+Charny stretched out his hand and caught her hand in spite of an effort
+to retain it. As Charny persisted, uttering a reproachful "Oh!" she
+sighed almost with fright; but she gave way, leaving it quivering in his
+clasp. Embarrassed, not knowing where to turn her eyes, to avoid his
+glance, which she felt to be fastened on her, and unable to retreat as
+her back was against the wall, she said:
+
+"I understand--you came to restore the letter."
+
+"For that, and another matter. I have to beg your pardon heartily,
+Andrea."
+
+She shuddered to the bottom of her soul for this was the first time he
+had addressed her so informally. The whole sentence had been spoken with
+indescribable softness.
+
+"Pardon of me, my lord? on what grounds?"
+
+"For my behavior towards you these six years."
+
+"Have I ever complained?" she asked, eyeing him in profound
+astonishment.
+
+"No, because you are an angel."
+
+Despite herself her eyes were veiled and tears welled out.
+
+"You weep, Andrea," exclaimed Charny.
+
+"Excuse me, my lord," she sobbed, "but I am not used to being thus
+spoken to. Oh, heavens!" She sank on an easy chair, hiding her face in
+her hands for a space but then withdrawing them, she said:
+
+"Really, I must be going mad."
+
+She stopped--while she had her eyes hid, Charny had fallen on his knees
+to her.
+
+"Oh, you, on your knees to me?" she said.
+
+"Did I not say I must ask your forgiveness?"
+
+"What can this mean?" she muttered.
+
+"Andrea, it means that I love you," he answered in his sweetest voice.
+
+Laying her hand on her heart, she uttered a cry. Springing upright as
+though impelled by a spring under her feet, she pressed her temples
+between her hands and cried:
+
+"He loves me? this cannot be."
+
+"Say that it is impossible you should love me, but not that I should
+love you."
+
+She lowered her gaze on the speaker to see if he spoke truly and his
+eyes said more than his tongue: though she might doubt the words she
+could not the glance.
+
+"Oh, God, in all the world is there a being more unfortunate than me?"
+she cried.
+
+"Andrea, tell me that you love me," continued Charny, "or at least that
+you do not hate me?"
+
+"I, hate you?" she said, with a double flash from the calm eyes usually
+so limpid and serene. "Oh, my lord, it would be very wrong to take for
+hate the feeling you inspire."
+
+"But if not hate or love, what is it?"
+
+"It is not love because I am not allowed to love you; but did you not
+hear me call myself the unhappiest of God's creatures?"
+
+"Why are you not allowed to love me when I love you with all the
+strength of my soul?"
+
+"Oh, that I cannot, dare not, must not tell you," replied she, wringing
+her hands.
+
+"But if another should tell me what you cannot, dare not, must not
+tell?" he demanded.
+
+"Heaven!" she gasped, leaning her hands on his shoulder.
+
+"Suppose I know? and that, considering you the more worthy because of
+the noble way you have borne that woe, it was that terrible secret which
+determined me upon telling you that I loved you?"
+
+"If you did this, you would be the noblest and most generous of men."
+
+"Andrea, I love you," cried he, three times.
+
+"Oh, God, I knew not that there could be such bliss in this world," she
+said, lifting her arms heavenward.
+
+"Now, in your turn, tell me that you love me."
+
+"Oh, no, that I dare not, but you may read that letter," said Andrea.
+
+While she covered her face with her hands, he sharply broke the letter
+seal, and exclaimed when he had read the first lines; parting her hands
+and with the same movement drawing her upon his heart, he said: "How
+shall I love you enough, saintly creature, to make you forget what you
+have undergone in these six years!"
+
+"Oh, God, if this be a dream, let me never awake, or die on awakening,"
+prayed Andrea, bending like a reed beneath the weight of so much
+happiness.
+
+And now, let us forget these who are happy to return to those who hate,
+suffer or are struggling, and perhaps their evil fate will forget them,
+too.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+CORRECTING THE PETITION.
+
+
+On the Field of Mars the Altar of the Country still stood, set up for
+the anniversary of the Bastile Capture, a skeleton of the past. On
+this sixteenth of July, it was used as a table on which was spread
+a petition to the Assembly, which considered that the King had
+practically abdicated by his flight, and that he ought to be replaced by
+"Constitutional methods." This was a cunning way to propose the Duke of
+Orleans as Regent.
+
+Politics is a fine veil, but the people see through it if they are given
+time.
+
+There was some discussion by the persons called on to sign over these
+very words. But they might have been glossed over by the man in charge
+of the paper, the pen and the ink, but for a man of the people, judging
+by his manners and dress, who, with a frankness next to roughness,
+stopped the secretary abruptly.
+
+"Halt, this is cheating the people," said he.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"This stuff about replacing the abdicated King by 'constitutional
+means.' You want to give us King Stock instead of King Log. You want to
+rig up royalty again and that is just what we don't want any more of."
+
+"No, no more Kings--enough of royalty?" shouted most of the lookers on.
+
+The secretary was Brissot, a Jacobin, and strange thing, here were the
+arch-revolutionists, the Jacobins defending royalty!
+
+"Have a care, gentlemen," cried he and his supporters, "with no royalty,
+no king; the Republic would come, and we are not ripe for anything of
+that kind."
+
+"Not ripe?" jeered the Commoner: "a few such suns as shone on Varennes
+when we nabbed the skulking King, will ripen us."
+
+"Let's vote on this petition."
+
+"Vote," shouted those who had clamored for no more royalty.
+
+"Let those who do not want Louis XVI. or any other king, put up their
+hand," cried the plebeian in a lusty voice.
+
+Such a powerful number held up their hands that the Ayes had it beyond a
+necessity of farther trial.
+
+"Good," said the stranger; "to-morrow is Sunday, the seventeenth; let
+all the boys come out here to sign the petition as amended to our
+liking. I, Billet, will get the right sort ready."
+
+At this name everybody recognized Farmer Billet, the Taker of the
+Bastile, the hero of the people, the volunteer envoy who had accompanied
+Lafayette's dandy aid to Varennes where he arrested the King whom he had
+brought back to Paris.
+
+Thus, at the first start, the boldest of the politicians had been
+surpassed by--a man of the people, the embodied instincts of the masses!
+The other leaders said that a storm would be raised and that they had
+best get permission of the Mayor to hold this meeting on the morrow.
+
+"Very well," said Billet, "obtain leave, and if refused you, I will
+wrest it from them."
+
+Mayor Bailly was absent when Brissot and Desmoulins called for the
+leave: his deputy verbally granted it, but sent word to the House what
+he had done.
+
+The House was caught napping, for it had done nothing in fixing the
+status of the King after his flight. As if from an enemy of the rulers,
+the decree was passed that "The suspension of the executive power will
+last until the King shall have accepted and signed the Constitutional
+Act." Thus he was as much of a king as before; the popular petition
+became useless.
+
+Whoever claimed the dethronement of a monarch who was constitutionally
+maintained by the House, so long as the King agreed to accomplish
+this condition, was a rebel, of course. The decree was to be posted
+throughout the town next morning at eight.
+
+Prudent politicians went out of the town. The Jacobins retired, and
+their vulgar member, Santerre, the great brewer of the working quarter,
+was chosen to go and withdraw the petition from the Altar of the
+Country.
+
+But those meant to attend, spite of governmental warning, who are like
+the wolves and vultures who flock to the battlefields.
+
+Marat was confined to his cellar by his monomania, but he yelled for the
+Assembly to be butchered and cried for a general massacre out of which
+he would wade a universal dictator.
+
+Verriere, the abominable hunchback, careered about on a horse like the
+spectre of the Apocalypse, and stopped at every crossroad to invite the
+masses to meet on the Field of Mars.
+
+So the thousands went to the rendezvous, to sign the paper, sing and
+dance and shout "The Nation Forever!"
+
+The sun rose magnificently. All the petty tradesfolk who cater to the
+multitude swarmed on the parade-ground where the Altar of the Country
+stood up in the middle like a grand catafalque.
+
+By half past four a hundred and fifty thousand souls were present. Those
+who rise early are usually bad sleepers, and who has not slept well is
+commonly in a bad humor.
+
+In the midst of the chatter a woman's scream was heard. On the crowd
+flocking round her, she complained of having been stabbed in the ankle
+while leaning against the altar. Indeed the point of a gimlet was seen
+sticking through the boards. In a twinkling the planks were torn down
+and two men were unearthed in the hollow. They were old cronies, sots
+who had taken a keg of liquor with them and eatables, and stolen a march
+on the crowd by hiding here overnight.
+
+But unfortunately the mob at the woman's cue thought they made peepholes
+for a mean purpose and cried that the keg contained powder to blow up
+the signers of the petition. They forgot that these new Guido Fawkes
+hardly looked the sort to blow themselves up with their victims.
+
+Be this as it may, they were taken to the police court where the
+magistrates laughingly released them; but the washer-women, great
+sticklers for women not to be probed in the ankle by gimlets, gave them
+a beating with the paddles used in thumping linen. This was not all: the
+cry that powder was found getting spread, they were taken from the women
+and slain. A few minutes after, their heads were cut off and the ready
+pikes were there to receive them on their points.
+
+The news was perverted on its way to the Assembly where the heads were
+stated to be of two friends of order who had lost them while preaching
+respect to the law.
+
+The Assembly at once voted the City to be under martial law.
+
+Santerre, sent by the Jacobin Club to withdraw their petition before
+Billet transformed it, found that worthy the centre of the immense
+gathering. He did not know how to write but he had let some one guide
+his hand when he "put his fist" to it.
+
+The brewer went up the steps of the altar, announced that the Assembly
+proclaimed any one a rebel who dared demand the dethronement of the
+King, and said he was sent to call in the petition.
+
+Billet went down three steps to face the brewer. The two members of the
+lower orders looked at each other, examining the symbols of the two
+forces ruling France, the town and the country.
+
+They had fought together to take the Bastile and acknowledged that they
+were brothers.
+
+"All right," said Billet, "we do not want your petition; take yours back
+to the Jacobins; we will start another."
+
+"And fetch it along to my brewery in the St. Antoine Suburb, where I
+will sign it and get my men and friends to do the same."
+
+He held out his broad hand in which Billet clapped his.
+
+At sight of this powerful alliance, the mob cheered.
+
+They began to know the worth of the brewer, too. He went away with one
+of those gestures expressive of meeting again, which the lower classes
+understood.
+
+"Now, look here," said Billet, "the Jacobins are afraid. They have a
+right to back out with their petition, but we are not afraid and we have
+the right to draw up another."
+
+"Hurrah for another petition! all be on hand to-morrow."
+
+"But why not to-day?" cried Billet: "who knows what may happen
+to-morrow?"
+
+"He's right," called out many; "to-day--at once!"
+
+A group of enlightened men flocked round Billet; they were members of
+the Invisibles like him, and, besides, strength has the loadstone's
+power to attract.
+
+Roland and his celebrated wife with Dr. Gilbert, wrote the petition,
+which was read in silence, while all bared their head to this document
+dictated by the people. It declared that the King had abdicated the
+throne by his flight and called for a fresh House to "proceed in a truly
+national manner to try the guilty ruler and organize a new executive
+power."
+
+It answered to everybody's wish so that it was applauded at the last
+phrase. Numbered sheets were served out for the signatures to be written
+on them by the many who sought to sign, all over the place.
+
+During this work, which was so quietly done that women were strolling
+about the groups with their children, Lafayette arrived with his special
+guard, who were paid troops.
+
+But he could not see any cause to intervene and marched away. It is true
+that on the road he had to take one barricade set up by the gang who had
+slaughtered the two Peeping Toms of the Altar of the Country. One of his
+aids had been fired at in this scuffle; and the report ran to the House
+that in a severe action Lafayette had been shot and his officers
+wounded.
+
+The house sent a deputation to inquire.
+
+This party of three found the multitude still signing, and signing a
+document so harmless that they personally said they would put their own
+names to it if they were not in an official position.
+
+In the conflict of no importance between the mob and the National Guards
+two prisoners had been made by the latter. As usual in such cases they
+had nothing to do with the riot.
+
+The principal petitioners asked their release.
+
+"We can do nothing in the matter," replied the deputation; "but send a
+committee to the City Hall and the liberation will be given."
+
+Billet was unanimously chosen chairman of a party of twelve. They were
+kept waiting an hour before the Mayor Bailly came to receive them.
+Bailly was pale but determined; he knew he was unjust but he had the
+Assembly's order at his back and he would carry it out to the end.
+
+But Billet walked straight up to him, saying, in his firm tone:
+
+"Mayor, we have been kept waiting an hour."
+
+"Who are you and what have you to say to me?"
+
+"I am surprised you should ask who I am, Mayor Bailly but those who turn
+off the right road do not always get back on the track. I am Farmer
+Billet."
+
+Bailly was reminded of one of the Takers of the Bastile, who had tried
+to save the objects of public wrath from the slaughterers; the man who
+had given the King the tricolor cockade; who had aroused Lafayette on
+the night when the Royal Family were nearly murdered; the leader who had
+not shrank from making the King and the Queen prisoners.
+
+"As for what I have to say," continued he, "we are the messengers of the
+people assembled on the parade-ground: we demand the fulfillment of the
+promise of your three envoys--that the two citizens unjustly accused and
+whose innocence we guarantee, shall be set free straightway."
+
+"Nonsense, whoever heard of promises being kept that were made to
+rioters?" returned Bailly, trying to go by.
+
+The committee looked astonished at one another and Billet frowned.
+
+"Rioters? so we are rioters now, eh?"
+
+"Yes, factious folk, among whom I will restore peace by going to the
+place."
+
+Billet laughed roughly in that way which is a menace on some lips.
+
+"Restore peace? Your friend Lafayette has been there, and your three
+delegates, and they will say it is calmer than the City Hall Square."
+
+At this juncture a captain of militia came running up in fright to tell
+the Mayor that there was fighting on the Field of Mars, "where fifty
+thousand ragamuffins were making ready to march on the Assembly."
+
+Scarce had he got the words out before he felt Billet's heavy hand on
+his shoulder.
+
+"Who says this?" demanded the farmer.
+
+"The Assembly."
+
+"Then the Assembly lies." The captain drew his sword on him, which he
+seized by the hilt and the point and wrenched from his grasp.
+
+"Enough, gentlemen," said Bailly; "we will ourselves see into this.
+Farmer Billet, return the sword, and if you have influence over those
+you come from, hasten back, to make them disperse."
+
+Billet threw the sabre at the officer's feet.
+
+"Disperse be hanged! the right to petition is recognized by decree and
+till another revokes it, nobody can prevent citizens expressing their
+wishes--mayor, or National Guards commander, or others. Come to the
+place--we will be there before you."
+
+Those around expected Bailly to give orders for the arrest of this bold
+speaker, but he knew that this was the voice of the people, so loud and
+lofty. He made a sign and Billet and his friends passed out.
+
+When they arrived on the parade-ground, the crowd was a third larger,
+say, sixty thousand, all old, women and men. There was a rush for the
+news.
+
+"The two citizens are not released: the mayor will not answer except
+that we are all rioters."
+
+The "rioters" laughed at this title and went on signing the petition,
+which had some five thousand names down: by night it would be fifty
+thousand, and the Assembly would be forced to bow to such unanimity.
+
+Suddenly the arrival of the military was shouted. Bailly and the city
+officials were leading the National Guards hither.
+
+When the bayonets were seen, many proposed retiring.
+
+"Brothers, what are you talking of?" said Billet, on the Altar of the
+Country, "why this fear? either martial law is aimed at us, or not. If
+not, why should we run? if it is, the riot act must be read and that
+will give time to get away."
+
+"Yes, yes," said many voices, "we are lawfully here. Wait for the
+summons to disperse. Stand your ground."
+
+The drums were heard and the soldiers appeared at three entrances into
+the ground. The crowd fell back towards the Altar which resembled a
+pyramid of human bodies. One corps was composed of four thousand men
+from the working quarter and Lafayette, who did not trust them, had
+added a battalion of his paid Guards to them. They were old soldiers,
+Fayettists, who had heard of their god being fired on and were burning
+to avenge the insult.
+
+So, when Bailly was received by the "booing" of the boys, and one shot
+was heard from the mob in that part, which sent a bullet to slightly
+wound a dragoon, the Mayor ordered a volley, but of blank cartridge from
+those soldiers around him.
+
+But the Fayettists, also obeyed the command and fired on the mass at the
+Altar, a most inoffensive crowd.
+
+A dreadful scream arose there, and the fugitives were seen leaving
+corpses behind them, with the wounded dragging themselves in trails
+of blood! Amid the smoke and dust the cavalry rushed in chase of the
+running figures.
+
+The broad expanse presented a lamentable aspect, for women and children
+had mostly been shot and cut down.
+
+An aid galloped up to the East-end battalions and ordered them to march
+on their side and sweep the mob away till they had formed a junction
+with the other corps. But these workingmen pointed their guns at him and
+the cavalry running down the fugitives and made them recoil before the
+patriotic bayonets. All who ran in this direction found protection.
+
+Who gave the order to fire? none will ever know. It remains one of
+those historical mysteries inexplicable despite the most conscientious
+investigations. Neither the chivalric Lafayette nor the honest Bailly
+liked bloodshed, and this stain clung to them to the end. In vain were
+they congratulated by the Assembly; in vain their press organs called
+this slaughter a constitutional victory; this triumph was branded like
+all those days when the slain were given no chance to fight. The people
+who always fit the cap to the right head, call it "The Massacre of the
+Champ de Mars."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+CAGLIOSTRO'S COUNSEL.
+
+
+Paris had heard the fusillade and quivered, feeling that she had been
+wounded and the blood was flowing.
+
+The Queen had sent her confidential valet Weber to the spot to get the
+latest news. To be just to her and comprehend the hatred she felt for
+the French, she had not only so suffered during the flight to Varennes,
+that her hair had turned white, but also after her return.
+
+It was a popular idea, shared in by her own retinue, that she was a
+witch. A Medea able to go out of window in a flying car.
+
+But if she kept her jailers on the alert, they also frightened her. She
+had a dream of scenes of violence, for they had always turned against
+her.
+
+She waited with anxiety for her envoy's return, for the mobs might have
+overturned this old, decrepit, trimming Assembly of which Barnave had
+promised the help, and which might now want help itself.
+
+The door opened: she turned her eyes swiftly thither, but instead of her
+foster-brother, it was Dr. Gilbert, with his stern face.
+
+She did not like this royalist whose constitutional ideas made him a
+republican almost; but she felt respect for him; she would not have sent
+him in any strait, but she submitted to his influence when by.
+
+"You, doctor?" she said with a shiver.
+
+"It is I, madam. I bring you more precise news than those you expect by
+Weber. He was on the side of the Seine where no blood was spilt, while
+I was where the slaughter was committed. A great misfortune has taken
+place--the court party has triumphed."
+
+"Oh, _you_ would call this a misfortune, doctor!"
+
+"Because the triumph is one of those which exhaust the victor and lay
+him beside the dead. Lafayette and Bailly have shot down the people, so
+that they will never be able to serve you again; they have lost their
+popularity."
+
+"What were the people doing when shot down?"
+
+"Signing a petition demanding the removal of the King."
+
+"And you think they were wrong to fire on men doing that?" returned the
+sovereign, with kindling eye.
+
+"I believe it better to argue with them than shoot them."
+
+"Argue about what?"
+
+"The King's sincerity."
+
+"But the King is sincere!"
+
+"Excuse me, madam: three days ago, I spent the evening trying to
+convince the King that his worst enemies were his brothers and the
+fugitive nobles abroad. On my knees I entreated him to break off
+dealings with them and frankly adopt the Constitution, with revision
+of the impracticable articles. I thought the King persuaded, for he
+kindly promised that all was ended between him and the nobles who fled:
+but behind my back he signed, and induced you to sign, a letter which
+charged his brother to get the aid of Prussia and Austria."
+
+The Queen blushed like a schoolboy caught in fault; but such a one would
+have hung his head--she only held hers the stiffer and higher.
+
+"Have our enemies spied in our private rooms?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, madam," tranquilly replied the doctor, "which is what makes such
+double-dealing on the King's part so dangerous."
+
+"But, sir, this letter was written wholly by the royal hand, after I
+signed it, too, the King sealed it up and handed it to the messenger."
+
+"It has been read none the less."
+
+"Are we surrounded by traitors?"
+
+"All men are not Charnys."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Alas, Madam! that one of the fatal tokens foretelling the doom of
+Kings is their driving away from them those very men whom they ought to
+'grapple to them by hooks of steel.'"
+
+"I have not driven Count Charny away," said the Queen bitterly, "he went
+of his own free will. When monarchs become unfortunate, their friends
+fall off."
+
+"Do not slander Count Charny," said Gilbert mildly, "or the blood of
+his brothers will cry from their graves that the Queen of France is an
+ingrate. Oh, you know I speak the truth, madam: that on the day when
+unmistakable danger impends, the Count of Charny will be at his post and
+that the most perilous."
+
+"But I suppose you have not come to talk about Count Charny," said she
+testily, though she lowered her head.
+
+"No, madam; but ideas are like events, they are attached by invisible
+links and thus are drawn forth from darkness. No, I come to speak to
+the Queen and I beg pardon if I addressed the woman: but I am ready to
+repair the error. I wish to say that you are staking the woe or good
+of the world on one game: you lost the first round on the sixth of
+October, you win the second, in the courtiers' eyes, on this sad day;
+and to-morrow you will begin what is called the rub. If you lose, with
+it go throne, liberty and life."
+
+"Do you believe that this prospect makes us recede?" queried the proud
+one, quickly rising.
+
+"I know the King is brave and the Queen heroic; so I never try to do
+anything with them but reason; unfortunately I can never pass my belief
+into their minds."
+
+"Why trouble about what you believe useless?"
+
+"Because it is my duty. It is sweet in such times to feel, though the
+result is unfruitful, that one has done his duty."
+
+She looked him in the face and asked:
+
+"Do you think it possible to save the King and the throne?"
+
+"I believe for him and hope for the other."
+
+"Then you are happier than I," she responded with a sad sigh: "I believe
+both are lost and I fight merely to salve my conscience."
+
+"Yes, I understand that you want a despotic monarchy and the King an
+absolute one: like the miser who will not cast away a portion of his
+gold in a shipwreck so that he may swim to shore with the rest, you will
+go down with all. No, cut loose of all burdens and swim towards the
+future."
+
+"To throw the past into a gulf is to break with all the crowned heads of
+Europe."
+
+"Yes, but it is to join hands with the French people."
+
+"Our enemies," returned Marie Antoinette.
+
+"Because you taught them to doubt you."
+
+"They cannot struggle against an European Coalition."
+
+"Suppose a Constitutional King at their head and they will make the
+conquest of Europe."
+
+"They would need a million of armed men for that."
+
+"Millions do not conquer Europe--an idea will. Europe will be conquered
+when over the Alps and across the Rhine advance the flags bearing the
+mottoes: 'Death to tyranny!' and 'Freedom to all!'"
+
+"Really, sir, there are times when I am inclined to think the wise are
+madmen."
+
+"Ah, you know not that France is the Madonna of Liberty, for whose
+coming the peoples await around her borders. She is not merely a nation,
+as she advances with her hands full of freedom--but immutable Justice
+and eternal Reason. But if you do not profit by all not yet committed
+to violence, if you dally too long, these hands will be turned to rend
+herself.
+
+"Besides, none of these kings whose help you seek is able to make war.
+Two empires, or rather an empress and a minister, deeply hate us but
+they are powerless! Catherine of Russia and William Pitt. Your envoy to
+Pitt, the Princess Lamballe, can get him to do much to prevent France
+becoming a republic, but he hates the monarch and will not promise to
+save him. Is not Louis the Constitutional King, the crowned philosopher,
+who disputed the East Indies with him and helped America to wrest
+herself from the Briton's grasp? He desires only that the French will
+have a pendant to his Charles the Beheaded."
+
+"Oh, who can reveal such things to you?" gasped the Queen.
+
+"The same who tell me what is in the letters you secretly write."
+
+"Have we not even a thought that is our own?"
+
+"I tell you that the Kings of Europe are enmeshed in an unseen net
+where they write in vain. Do not you resist, madam: but put yourself at
+the head of ideas which will otherwise spurn you if you take the lead,
+and this net will be your defense when you are outside of it and the
+daggers threatening you will be turned towards the other monarchs."
+
+"But you forgot that the kings are our brothers, not enemies, as you
+style them."
+
+"But, Madam, if the French are called your sons you will see how little
+are your brothers according to politics and diplomacy. Besides, do you
+not perceive that all these monarchs are tottering towards the gulf,
+to suicide, while you, if you liked, might be marching towards the
+universal monarchy, the empire of the world!"
+
+"Why do you not talk thus to the King?" said the Queen, shaken.
+
+"I have, but like yourself, he has evil geniuses who undo what I have
+done. You have ruined Mirabeau and Barnave, and will treat me the
+same--whereupon the last word will be spoken."
+
+"Dr. Gilbert, await me here!" said she: "I will see the King for a while
+and will return."
+
+He had been waiting a quarter of an hour when another door opened than
+that she had left by, and a servant in the royal livery entered. He
+looked around warily, approached Gilbert, making a masonic sign of
+caution, handed him a letter and glided away.
+
+Opening the letter, Gilbert read:
+
+     "GILBERT: You waste your time. At this moment, the King and
+     the Queen are listening to Lord Breteuil fresh from Vienna, who
+     brings this plan of policy: 'Treat Barnave as you did Mirabeau;
+     gain time, swear to the Constitution and execute it to the letter
+     to prove that it is unworkable. France will cool and be bored, as
+     the French have a fanciful head and will want novelty, so that the
+     mania for liberty will pass. If it do not, we shall gain a year and
+     by that time we shall be ready for war.'
+
+     "Leave these two condemned beings, still called King and
+     Queen in mockery, and hasten to the Groscaillou Hospital, where an
+     injured man is in a dying state, but not so hopeless as they: he
+     may be saved, while they are not only lost but will drag you down
+     to perdition with them!"
+
+The note had no signature, but the reader knew the hand of Cagliostro.
+
+Madam Campan entered from the Queen's apartments; she brought a note to
+the effect that the King would be glad to have Dr. Gilbert's proposition
+in writing, while the Queen could not return from being called away on
+important business.
+
+"Lunatics," he said after musing. "Here, take them this as my answer."
+
+And he gave the lady Cagliostro's warning, as he went out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+THE SQUEEZED LEMON.
+
+
+On the day after the Constituent Assembly dissolved, that is, the second
+of October, at Barnave's usual hour for seeing the Queen, he was ushered
+into the Grand Study.
+
+On the day of the King taking the oath to the Constitution, Lafayette's
+aids and soldiers had been withdrawn from the palace and the King had
+become less hampered if not more powerful.
+
+It was slender satisfaction for the humiliations they had lately
+undergone. In the street, when out for carriage exercise, as some voices
+shouted "Long live the King!" a roughly dressed man, walking beside the
+coach and laying his unwashed hand on the window ledge, kept repeating
+in a loud voice:
+
+"Do not believe them. The only cry is, 'The Nation Forever!'"
+
+The Queen had been applauded at the Opera where the "house was packed,"
+but the same precaution could not be adopted at the Italians, where the
+pit was taken in advance. When the hirelings in the gallery hailed the
+Queen, they were hushed by the pit.
+
+Looking into the pit to see who these were who so detested her, the
+Queen saw that the leader was the Arch-Revolutionist, Cagliostro, the
+man who had pursued from her youth. Once her eyes were fastened on his,
+she could not turn hers aloof, for he exercised the fascination of the
+serpent on the bird.
+
+The play commenced and she managed to tear her gaze aloof for a time,
+but ever and anon it had to go back again, from the potent magnetism. It
+was fatal possession, as by a nightmare.
+
+Besides, the house was full of electricity; two clouds surcharged were
+floating about, restless to thunder at each other: a spark would send
+forth the double flame.
+
+Madam Dugazon had a song to sing with the tenor in this opera of Gretry,
+"Unforeseen Events." She had the line to sing:
+
+    "Oh, how I love my mistress!"
+
+The Queen divined that the storm was to burst, and involuntarily she
+glanced towards the man controlling her. It seemed to her that he gave a
+signal to the audience, and from all sides was hurled the cry:
+
+"No more mistresses--no more masters! away with kings and queens!"
+
+She screamed and hid her eyes, unable to look longer on this demon
+of destruction who ruled the disorder. Pursued by the roar: "No more
+masters, no more kings and queens!" she was borne fainting to her
+carriage.
+
+She received the orator standing, though she knew the respect he
+cherished for her and saw that he was paler and sadder than ever.
+
+"Well," she said, "I suppose you are satisfied, since the King has
+followed your advice and sworn to the Constitution?"
+
+"You are very kind to say my advice has been followed," returned
+Barnave, bowing, "but if it had not been the same as that from Emperor
+Leopold and Prince von Kaunitz, perhaps his Majesty would have put
+greater hesitation in doing the act, though the only one to save the
+King if the King----"
+
+"Can be saved, do you imply?" questioned she, taking the dilemma by the
+horns with the courage, or rashness peculiar to her.
+
+"Lord preserve me from being the prophet of such miseries! And yet I do
+not want to dispirit your Majesty too much or leave too many deceptions
+as I depart from Paris to dwell afar from the throne."
+
+"Going away from town and me?"
+
+"The work of the Assembly of which I am a member has terminated, and I
+have no motive to stay here."
+
+"Not even to be useful to us?"
+
+"Not even that." He smiled sadly. "For indeed I cannot be useful to you
+in any way now. My strength lay in my influence over the House and at
+the Jacobin club, in my painfully acquired popularity, in short; but
+the House is dissolved, the Jacobins are broke up, and my popularity is
+lost."
+
+He smiled more mournfully than before.
+
+She looked at him with a strange glare which resembled the glow of
+triumph.
+
+"You see, sir, that popularity may be lost," she said.
+
+By his sigh, she felt that she had perpetrated one of those pieces of
+petty cruelty which were habitual to her.
+
+Indeed, if he had lost it in a month, was it not for her, the angel of
+death, like Mary Stuart, to those who tried to serve her?
+
+"But you will not go?" she said.
+
+"If ordered to remain by the Queen, I will stay, like a soldier who has
+his furlough but remains for the battle; but if I do so, I become more
+than weak, a traitor."
+
+"Explain: I do not understand," she said, slightly hurt.
+
+"Perhaps the Queen takes the dissolved Assembly as her enemy?"
+
+"Let us define matters; in that body were friends of mine. You will not
+deny that the majority were hostile."
+
+"It never passed but one bill really an act of hostility to your Majesty
+and the King; that was the decree that none of its members could belong
+to the Legislative. That snatched the buckler from your friends' arms."
+
+"But also the sword from our foemen's hand, methinks."
+
+"Alas, you are wrong. The blow comes from Robespierre and is dreadful
+like all from that man. As things were we knew whom we had to meet;
+with all uncertainty we strike in the fog. Robespierre wishes to force
+France to take the rulers from the class above us or beneath. Above us
+there is nothing, the aristocracy having fled; but anyway the electors
+would not seek representatives among the noble. The people will choose
+deputies from below us and the next House will be democratic, with
+slight variations."
+
+The Queen began to be alarmed from following this statement.
+
+"I have studied the new-comers: particularly those from the South," went
+on Barnave; "they are nameless men eager to acquire fame, the more as
+they are all young. They are to be feared as their orders are to make
+war on the priests and nobles; nothing is said as to the King, but if he
+will be merely the executive, he may be forgiven the past."
+
+"How? they will forgive him? I thought it lay in the King to pardon?"
+exclaimed insulted majesty.
+
+"There it is--we shall never agree. These new-comers, as you will
+unhappily have the proof, will not handle the matter in gloves. For
+them the King is an enemy, the nucleus, willingly or otherwise, of all
+the external and internal foes. They think they have made a discovery
+though, alas! they are only saying aloud what your ardent adversaries
+have whispered all the time."
+
+"But, the King the enemy of the people?" repeated the lady.
+
+"Oh, M. Barnave, this is something you will never induce me to admit,
+for I cannot understand it."
+
+"Still it is the fact. Did not the King accept the Constitution the
+other day? well, he flew into a passion when he returned within the
+palace and wrote that night to the Emperor."
+
+"How can you expect us to bear such humiliations?"
+
+"Ah, you see, madam! he is the born enemy and so by his character. He
+was brought up by the chief of the Jesuits, and his heart is always
+in the hands of the priests, those opponents of free government,
+involuntarily but inevitably counter to Revolution. Without his quitting
+Paris he is with the princes at Coblentz, with the clergy in Lavendee,
+with his allies in Vienna and Prussia. I admit that the King does
+nothing, but his name cloaks the plots; in the cabin, the pulpit and
+the castle, the poor, good, saintly King is prated about, so that the
+revolution of pity is opposed to that of Freedom."
+
+"Is it really you who cast this up, M. Barnave, when you were the first
+to be sorry for us."
+
+"I am sorry for you still, lady; but there is this difference, that I
+was sorry in order to save you while these others want to ruin you."
+
+"But, in short, have these new-comers, who have vowed a war of
+extermination on us, any settled plan?"
+
+"No, madam, I can only catch a few vague ideas: to suppress the title
+of Majesty in the opening address, and set a plain arm-chair beside the
+Speaker's instead of throne-chair. The dreadful thing is that Bailly and
+Lafayette will be done away with."
+
+"I shall not regret that," quickly said the Queen.
+
+"You are wrong, madam, for they are your friends----"
+
+She smiled bitterly.
+
+"Your last friends, perhaps. Cherish them, and use what power they have:
+their popularity will fly, like mine."
+
+"This amounts to your leading me to the brink of the crater and making
+me measure the depth without telling me I may avoid the eruption."
+
+"Oh, that you had not been stopped on the road to Montmedy!" sighed
+Barnave after being mute for a spell.
+
+"Here we have M. Barnave approving of the flight to Varennes!"
+
+"I do not approve of it: but the present state is its natural
+consequence, and so I deplore its not having succeeded--not as the
+member of the House, but as Barnave your humble servant, ready to give
+his life, which is all he possesses."
+
+"Thank you," replied the Queen: "your tone proves you are the man to
+hold to your word, but I hope no such sacrifice will be required of
+you."
+
+"So much the worse for me, for if I must fall, I would wish it were in a
+death-struggle. The end will overtake me in my retreat. Your friends are
+sure to be hunted out; I will be taken, imprisoned and condemned: yet
+perhaps my obscure death will be unheard of by you. But should the news
+reach you, I shall have been so little a support to you that you will
+have forgotten the few hours of my use."
+
+"M. Barnave," said Marie Antoinette with dignity, "I am completely
+ignorant what fate the future reserves to the King, and myself, but I
+do know that the names of those to whom we are beholden are written on
+our memory, and nothing ill or good that may befall them will cease to
+interest us. Meanwhile, is there anything we can do for you?"
+
+"Only, give me your hand to kiss."
+
+A tear stood in her dry eyes as she extended to the young man the
+cold white hand which had at a year's interval been kissed by the two
+leaders, Mirabeau and Barnave.
+
+"Madam," said he, rising, "I cannot say, 'I save the monarchy!' but he
+who has this favor will say 'If lost, he went down with it.'"
+
+She sighed as he went forth, but her words were:
+
+"Poor squeezed lemon, they did not take much time to leave nothing of
+you but the peel!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+THE FIELD OF BLOOD.
+
+
+Lugubrious was the scene which met the eye of a young man who trod the
+Champ de Mars, after the tragedy of which Bailly and Lafayette were the
+principal actors.
+
+It was illumined by the moon two-thirds full, rolling among huge black
+clouds in which it was lost now and then.
+
+It had the semblance of a battle field, covered with maimed and dead,
+amid which wandered like shades the men charged to throw the lifeless
+into the River Seine and load up the wounded to be transported to the
+Groscaillou Hospital.
+
+The young man was dressed like a captain of the National Guards. He
+paused on the way over the Field, and muttered as he clasped his hands
+with unaffected terror:
+
+"Lord help us, the matter is worse than they gave me to understand."
+
+After looking for a while on the weird work in operation, he approached
+two men who were carrying a corpse towards the water, and asked:
+
+"Citizens, do you mind telling me what you are going to do with that
+man?"
+
+"Follow us, and you will know all about it," replied one.
+
+He followed them. On reaching the wooden bridge, they swung the body
+between them as they counted: "One, two, three, and it's off!" and slung
+it into the tide.
+
+The young officer uttered a cry of terror.
+
+"Why, what are you about, citizens?" he demanded.
+
+"Can't you see, officer," replied one, "we are clearing up the ground."
+
+"And you have orders to act thus?"
+
+"It looks so, does it not?"
+
+"From whom?"
+
+"From the Municipality."
+
+"Oh," ejaculated the young man, stupefied. "Have you cast many bodies
+into the stream?" he inquired, after a little pause during which they
+had returned upon the place.
+
+"Half a dozen or so," was the man's answer.
+
+"I beg your pardon, citizens," went on the captain, "but I have a great
+interest in the question I am about to put. Among those bodies did you
+notice one of a man of forty-five or so, six feet high but looking
+less from his being strongly built; he would have the appearance of a
+countryman."
+
+"Faith, we have only one thing to notice," said the man, "it is whether
+the men are alive or dead: if dead, we just fling them over board; if
+alive, we send them on to the hospital."
+
+"Ah," said the captain: "the fact is that one of my friends, not having
+come home and having gone out here, as I learnt, I am greatly afeared
+that he may be among the hurt or killed."
+
+"If he came here," said one of the undertakers, shaking a body while his
+mate held up a lantern, "he is likely to be here still; if he has not
+gone home, the chances are he has gone to his last long one." Redoubling
+the shaking, to the body lying at his feet, he shouted: "Hey, you! are
+you dead or alive? if you are not dead, make haste to tell us."
+
+"Oh, he is stiff enough," rejoined his associate; "he has a bullet clean
+through him."
+
+"In that case, into the river with him."
+
+They lifted the body and retook the way to the bridge.
+
+"Citizens," said the young officer, "you don't need your lamp to throw
+the man into the water; so be kind enough to lend it me for a minute:
+while you are on your errand, I will seek my friend."
+
+The carriers of the dead consented to this request; and the lantern
+passed into the young man's hands, whereupon he commenced his search
+with care and an expression denoting that he had not entitled the lost
+one his friend merely from the lips but out of his heart.
+
+Ten or more persons, supplied like him with lights, were engaged
+likewise in the ghastly scrutiny. From time to time, in the midst of
+stillness--for the awful solemnity of the picture seemed to hush the
+voice of the living amid the dead--a name spoken in a loud tone, would
+cross the space.
+
+Sometimes a cry, a moan, or groan would reply to the call; but most
+often, the answer was gruesome silence.
+
+After having hesitated for a time as though his voice was chained by
+awe, the young officer imitated the example set him, and three times
+called out:
+
+"Farmer Billet!"
+
+No voice responded.
+
+"For sure he is dead," groaned he, wiping with his sleeve the tears
+flowing from his eyes: "Poor Farmer Billet!"
+
+At this moment, two men came along, bearing a corpse towards the river.
+
+"Mild, I fancy our stiff one gave a sigh," said the one who held the
+upper part of the body and was consequently nearer the head.
+
+"Pooh," laughed the other: "if we were to listen to all these fellows
+say, there would not be one dead!"
+
+"Citizens, for mercy's sake," interrupted the young officer, "let me see
+the man you are carrying."
+
+"Oh, willingly, officer," said the men.
+
+They placed the dead in a sitting posture for him to examine it.
+Bringing the lantern to it, he uttered a cry. In spite of the terrible
+wound disfiguring the face, he believed it was the man he was seeking.
+
+But was he alive or dead?
+
+This wretch who had gone half way to the watery grave, had his skull
+cloven by a sword stroke. The wound was dreadful, as stated: it had
+severed the left whisker and left the cheekbone bare; the temporal
+artery had been cut, so that the skull and body were flooded with gore.
+On the wounded side the unfortunate man was unrecognizable.
+
+The lantern-bearer swung the light round to the other side.
+
+"Oh, citizens," he cried, "it is he, the man I seek: Farmer Billet."
+
+"The deuce it is--he seems to have his billet for the other world--ha,
+ha, ha!" said one of the men. "He is pretty badly hammered."
+
+"Did you not say he heaved a sigh?"
+
+"I think so, anyhow."
+
+"Then do me a kindness," and he fumbled in his pocket for a silver coin.
+
+"What is it?" asked the porter full of willingness on seeing the money.
+
+"Run to the river and bring me some water."
+
+"In a jiffy."
+
+While the fellow ran to the river the officer took his place and held up
+the wounded one.
+
+In five minutes he had returned.
+
+"Throw the water in his face," said the captain.
+
+The man obeyed by dipping his hand in his hat, which was his pitcher,
+and sprinkling the slashed face.
+
+"He shivered," exclaimed the young man holding the dying one: "he is not
+dead. Oh, dear M. Billet, what a blessing I came here."
+
+"In faith, it is a blessing," said the two men; "another twenty paces
+and your friend would have come to his senses in the nets at St. Cloud."
+
+"Throw some more on him."
+
+Renewing the operation, the wounded man shuddered and uttered a sigh.
+
+"Come, come, he certainly ain't dead," said the man.
+
+"Well, what shall we do with him?" inquired his companion.
+
+"Help me to carry him to St. Honore Street, to Dr. Gilbert's house, if
+you would like good reward," said the young captain.
+
+"We cannot do that. Our orders are to heave the dead over, or to hand
+the hurt to the carriers for the hospital. Since this chap makes out he
+is not dead, why, he must be taken to the hospital."
+
+"Well, carry him there," said the young man, "and as soon as possible.
+Where is the hospital?" he asked, looking round.
+
+"Close to the Military Academy, about three hundred paces."
+
+"Then it is over yonder?"
+
+"You have it right."
+
+"The whole of the place to cross?"
+
+"And the long way too."
+
+"Have you not a hand-barrow?"
+
+"Well, if it comes to that, such a thing can be found, like the water,
+if a crownpiece or two----"
+
+"Quite right," said the captain; "you shall not lose by your kindness.
+Here is more money--only, get the litter."
+
+Ten minutes after the litter was found.
+
+The wounded man was laid on a pallet; the two fellows took up the shafts
+and the mournful party proceeded towards the military hospital escorted
+by the young officer, the lantern in hand, by the disfigured head.
+
+A dreadful thing was this night marching over the blood-stained ground,
+among the stiffened and motionless remains, against which one stumbled
+at every step, or wounded wretches who rose only to fall anew and called
+for succor.
+
+In a quarter of an hour they crossed the hospital threshold.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+IN THE HOSPITAL.
+
+
+Gilbert had obeyed Cagliostro's injunction to go to the Groscaillou
+Hospital to attend to a patient.
+
+At this period hospitals were far from being organized as at present,
+particularly military ones like this which was receiving the injured in
+the massacre, while the dead were bundled into the river to save burial
+expenses and hide the extent of the crime of Lafayette and Bailly.
+
+Gilbert was welcomed by the overworked surgeons amid the disorder which
+opposed their desires being fulfilled.
+
+Suddenly in the maze, he heard a voice which he knew but had not
+expected there.
+
+"Ange Pitou," he exclaimed, seeing the peasant in National Guards
+uniform by a bed; "what about Billet?"
+
+"He is here," was the answer, as he showed a motionless body. "His head
+is split to the jaw."
+
+"It is a serious wound," said Gilbert, examining the hurt. "You must
+find me a private room; this is a friend of mine," he added to the male
+nurses.
+
+There were no private rooms but they gave up the laundry to Dr.
+Gilbert's special patient. Billet groaned as they carried him thither.
+
+"Ah," said the doctor, "never did an exclamation of pleasure give me
+such joy as that wrung by pain; he lives--that is the main point."
+
+It was not till he had finished the dressing that he asked the news of
+Pitou.
+
+The matter was simple. Since the disappearance of Catherine, whom
+Isidore Charny had had transported to Paris with her babe, and the
+departure of Billet to town also, Mother Billet, whom we have never
+presented as a strong-minded woman, fell into an increasing state of
+idiocy. Dr. Raynal said that nothing would rouse her from this torpor
+but the sight of her daughter.
+
+Without waiting for the cue, Pitou started to Paris. He seemed
+predestined to arrive there at great events.
+
+The first time, he was in time to take a hand in the storming of the
+Bastile; the next, to help the Federation of 1790; and now he arrived
+for the Massacre of the Champ de Mars. He heard that it had all come
+about over a petition drawn up by Dr. Gilbert and presented by Billet to
+the signers.
+
+Pitou learnt at the doctor's house that he had come home, but there were
+no tidings of the farmer.
+
+On going to the scene of blood, Pitou happened on the nearly lifeless
+body which would have been hurled in the river but for his
+interposition.
+
+It was thus that Pitou hailed the doctor in the hospital and the wounded
+man had his chances improved by being in such skillful hands as his
+friend Gilbert's.
+
+As Billet could not be taken to his wife's bedside, Catherine was more
+than ever to be desired there. Where was she? The only way to reach her
+would be through the Charny family.
+
+Happily Ange had been so warmly greeted by her when he took Sebastian to
+her house that he did not hesitate to call again.
+
+He went there with the doctor in the latter's carriage; but the house
+was dark and dismal. The count and countess had gone to their country
+seat at Boursonnes.
+
+"Excuse me, my friend," said the doctor to the janitor who had received
+the National Guards captain with no friendliness, "but can you not give
+me a piece of information in your master's absence?"
+
+"I beg pardon, sir," said the porter recognizing the tone of a superior
+in this blandness and politeness.
+
+He opened the door and in his nightcap and undress came to take the
+orders of the carriage-gentleman.
+
+"My friend, do you know anything about a young woman from the country in
+whom the count and countess are taking interest?"
+
+"Miss Catherine?" asked the porter.
+
+"The same," replied Gilbert.
+
+"Yes, sir; my lord and my lady sent me twice to see her and learn if
+she stood in need of anything, but the poor girl, whom I do not believe
+to be well off, no more than her dear little child, said she wanted for
+nothing."
+
+Pitou sighed heavily at the mention of the dear little child.
+
+"Well, my friend," continued the doctor, "poor Catherine's father was
+wounded on the Field of Mars, and her mother, Mrs. Billet, is dying out
+at Villers Cotterets, which sad news we want to break to her. Will you
+kindly give us her address?"
+
+"Oh, poor girl, may heaven assist her. She was unhappy enough before.
+She is living at Villedavray, your honor, in the main street. I cannot
+give you the number, but it is in front of the public well."
+
+"That is straight enough," said Pitou; "I can find it."
+
+"Thanks, my friend," said Gilbert, slipping a silver piece into the
+man's hand.
+
+"There was no need of that, sir, for Christians ought to do a good
+turn amongst themselves," said the janitor, doffing his nightcap and
+returning indoors.
+
+"I am off for Villedavray," said Pitou.
+
+He was always ready to go anywhere on a kind errand.
+
+"Do you know the way?"
+
+"No; but somebody will tell me."
+
+"You have a golden heart and steel muscles," said the doctor laughing;
+"but you want rest and had better start to-morrow."
+
+"But it is a pressing matter----"
+
+"On neither side is there urgency," corrected the doctor; "Billet's
+state is serious but not mortal unless by mischance. Mother Billet may
+linger ten days yet."
+
+"She don't look it, but, of course, you know best."
+
+"We may as well leave poor Catherine another night of repose and
+ignorance; a night's rest is of importance to the unfortunate, Pitou."
+
+"Then, where are we going, doctor?" asked the peasant, yielding to the
+argument.
+
+"I shall give you a room you have slept in before; and to-morrow at six,
+my horses shall be put to the carriage to take you to Villedavray."
+
+"Lord, is it fifty leagues off?"
+
+"Nay, it is only two or three."
+
+"Then I can cover it in an hour or two--I can lick it up like an egg."
+
+"Yes, but Catherine can lick up like an egg the distance from
+Villedavray to Paris and the eighteen leagues from Paris to Villers
+Cotterets?"
+
+"True: excuse me, doctor, for being a fool. Talking of fools--no, I mean
+the other way about--how is Sebastian?"
+
+"Wonderfully well, you shall see him to-morrow."
+
+"Still at college? I shall be downright glad."
+
+"And so shall he, for he loves you with all his heart."
+
+At six, he started in the carriage and by seven was at Catherine's door.
+She opened it and shrieked on seeing Pitou:
+
+"I know--my mother is dead!"
+
+She turned pale and leaned against the wall.
+
+"No; but you will have to hasten to see her before she goes," replied
+the messenger.
+
+This brief exchange of words said so much in little that Catherine was
+at once placed face to face with her affliction.
+
+"That is not all," added the peasant.
+
+"What's the other misfortune?" queried Catherine, in the sharp tone of
+one who has exhausted the measure of human ails and has no fear of an
+overflow.
+
+"Master Billet was dangerously wounded on the parade-grounds."
+
+"Ah," said she, much less affected by this news than the other.
+
+"So I says to myself, and Dr. Gilbert bears me out: 'Miss Catherine
+will pay a visit to her father at the hospital on the way down to her
+mother's.'"
+
+"But you, Pitou?" queried the girl.
+
+"While you go by stage-coach to help Mother Billet to make her long
+journey, I will stay by the farmer. You understand that I must stick to
+him who has never a soul to look after him, see?"
+
+Pitou spoke the words with that angelic simplicity of his, with no idea
+that he was painting his whole devoted nature.
+
+"You have a kind heart, Ange," said she, giving him her hand. "Come and
+kiss my little Isidore."
+
+She walked into the house, prettier than ever, though she was clad in
+black, which drew another sigh from Pitou.
+
+She had one little room, overlooking the garden, its furniture a bed for
+the mother and a cradle for the infant. It was sleeping.
+
+She pulled a muslin curtain aside for him to see it.
+
+"Oh, the sweet little angel!" exclaimed Pitou.
+
+He knelt as it were to an angel, and kissed the tiny hand. He was
+speedily rewarded for his devotion for he felt Catherine's tresses on
+his head and her lips on his forehead. The mother was returning the
+caress given her son.
+
+"Thank you, good Pitou," she said; "since the last kiss he had from his
+father, I alone have fondled the pet."
+
+"Oh, Miss Catherine!" muttered Pitou, dazzled and thrilled by the kiss
+as by an electrical shock.
+
+And yet it was purely what a mother's caress may contain of the holy and
+grateful.
+
+Ten minutes afterwards, Catherine, little Isidore and Pitou were rolling
+in the doctor's carriage towards the hospital, where she handed the
+child to the peasant with as much or more trust as she would have had in
+a brother, and walked in at the door.
+
+Dr. Gilbert was by his patient's side. Little change had taken place.
+Despite the beginning of fever, the face was still deadly pale from the
+great loss of blood and one eye and the left cheek were swelling.
+
+Catherine dropped on her knees by the bedside, and said as she raised
+her hands to heaven,
+
+"O my God, Thou knowest that my utmost wish has been for my father's
+life to be spared."
+
+This was as much as could be expected from the girl whose lover's life
+had been attempted by her father.
+
+The patient shuddered at this voice, and his breathing was more hurried;
+he opened his eyes and his glance, wandering for a space over the room,
+was fixed on the woman. His hand made a move to repulse this figure
+which he doubtless took to be a vision. Their glances met, and Gilbert
+was horrified to see the hatred which shot towards each, rather than
+affection.
+
+She rose and went to find Pitou by the door. He was on all fours,
+playing with the babe.
+
+She caught up her boy with a roughness more like a lioness than a woman,
+and pressed it to her bosom, crying,
+
+"My child, oh, my child!"
+
+In the outburst were all the mother's anguish, the widow's wails, and
+the woman's pangs.
+
+Pitou proposed seeing her to the stage, but she repulsed him, saying:
+
+"Your place is here."
+
+Pitou knew nothing but to obey when Catherine commanded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THE MOTHER'S BLESSING.
+
+
+It was six o'clock in the afternoon, broad day, when Catherine arrived
+home.
+
+Had Isidore been alive and she were coming to visit her mother in
+health, she would have got down from the stage at the end of the village
+and slipped round upon her father's farm, without going through. But
+a widow and a mother, she did not give a thought to rustic jests; she
+alighted without fear; it seemed to her that scorn and insult ought to
+be warded off from her by her child and her sorrow, the dark and the
+bright angel.
+
+At the first she was not recognized; she was so pale and so changed that
+she did not seem the same woman; and what set her apart from her class
+was the lofty air which she had already caught from community with an
+elegant man.
+
+One person knew her again but not till she had passed by.
+
+This was Pitou's aunt Angelique. She was gossiping at the townhouse door
+with some cronies about the oath required of the clergy, declaring that
+she had heard Father Fortier say that he would never vow allegiance to
+the Revolution, preferring to submit to martyrdom than bend his head to
+the democratic yoke.
+
+"Bless us and save us!" she broke forth, in the midst of her speech, "if
+here ain't Billet's daughter and her fondling a-stepping down off the
+coach."
+
+"Catherine?" cried several voices.
+
+"Yes, but look at her running away, down the lane."
+
+Aunt Angelique was making a mistake: Catherine was not running away and
+she took the sideway simply because she was in haste to see her mother.
+
+At the cry the children scampered after her, and as she was fond of them
+always, and more than ever at present, she gave them some small change
+with which they returned.
+
+"What is that?" asked the gossips.
+
+"It is Miss Catherine; she asked how her mother was and when we said the
+doctor says she is good for a week yet, she thanked us and gave us some
+money."
+
+"Hem! then, she seems to have taken her pigs to a good market in Paris,"
+sneered Angelique, "to be able to give silver to the urchins who run at
+her heels."
+
+She did not like Catherine because the latter was young and sweet and
+Angelique was old and sour; Catherine was tall and well made while the
+other was short and limped. Besides, when Angelique turned her nephew
+Ange out of doors, it was on Billet's farm that he took refuge.
+
+Again, it was Billet who had lugged Father Fortier out of his rectory to
+say the mass for the country on the day of the Declaration of the Rights
+of Man.
+
+All these were ample reasons for Angelique to hate Catherine, joined to
+her natural asperity, in particular, and the Billet's in general. And
+when she hated it was thorough, as becomes a prude and a devotee.
+
+She ran to the priest's to tell him and his sister the fresh scandal of
+Billet's daughter returning home with her child.
+
+"Indeed," said Fortier, "I should have thought she would drop it into
+the box at the Foundling Hospital."
+
+"The proper thing to do, for then the thing would not have to blush for
+his mother."
+
+"That is a new point from which to regard that institution! But what has
+she come after here?"
+
+"It looks as if to see her mother, who might not have been living
+still."
+
+"Stay, a woman who does not come to confess, methinks?" said the abbé,
+with a wicked smile.
+
+"Oh, that is not her fault!" said the old maid, "but she has had
+softening of the brain lately; up to the time when her daughter threw
+this grief upon her, she was a pious soul who feared God and paid for
+two chairs when she came to church, one to sit in, the other to put her
+feet upon."
+
+"But how many chairs did her husband pay for, Billet, the Hero of the
+Mobs, the Conqueror of the Bastile?" cried the priest, his little eyes
+sparkling with spite.
+
+"I do not know," returned Angelique simply, "for he never comes to
+church, while his good wife----"
+
+"Very well, we will settle accounts with him on the day of his good
+wife's funeral."
+
+In the meantime Catherine continued her way, one long series of memories
+of him who was no more, unless his arms were around the little boy whom
+she carried on her bosom.
+
+What would the neighbors say of her shame and dishonor? So handsome a
+boy would be a shame and disgrace to a peasant!
+
+But she entered the farm without fear though rapidly.
+
+A huge dog barked as she came up, but suddenly recognizing his young
+mistress, he neared her to the stretch of his chain, and stood up with
+his forepaws in the air to utter little joyous yelps.
+
+At the dog's barking a man ran out to see the cause.
+
+"Miss Catherine," he exclaimed.
+
+"Father Clovis," she said.
+
+"Welcome, dear young mistress--the house much needs you, by heaven!"
+
+"And my poor mother?"
+
+"Sorry to say she is just the same, neither worse nor better--she is
+dying out like an oilless lamp, poor dear!"
+
+"Where is she?"
+
+"In her own room."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"No, no, no! I would not have allowed that. You must excuse me, Miss
+Catherine, coming out as the master here, but your having stopped at my
+house before you went to town made me one of the family, I thought, in a
+manner of speaking, and I was very fond of you and poor Master Isidore."
+
+"So you know?" said Catherine, wiping away her tears.
+
+"Yes, yes, killed for the Queen's sake, like his brother. But he has
+left something behind him, a lovely boy, so while we mourn for the
+father we must smile for the son."
+
+"Thank you, Clovis," said she, giving her hand: "but my mother?"
+
+"I had Mother Clement the nurse to sit with her, the same who attended
+to you----"
+
+"Has my mother her senses yet?" asked the girl hesitating.
+
+"Sometimes I think so, when your name is spoken. That was the great
+means of stirring her, but since yesterday she has not showed any signs
+even when you are spoken of."
+
+He opened the bedroom door and she could glance in.
+
+Mother Clement was dozing in a large armchair, while her patient seemed
+to be asleep: she was not much changed but her complexion was like ivory
+in pallor.
+
+"Mother, my dear mother," exclaimed Catherine, rushing into the room.
+
+The dying one opened her eyes and tried to turn her head, as a gleam
+of intelligence sparkled in her look; but, babbling, her movement was
+abortive, and her arm sank inert on the head of the girl, kneeling by
+her side.
+
+From the lethargy of the father and the mother had shot two opposite
+feelings: hate from the former, love from the latter.
+
+The girl's arrival caused excitement on the farm, where Billet was
+expected, not his daughter. She related the accident to the farmer, and
+how he was as near death's door as his wife at home, only he was moving
+from it on the right side.
+
+She went into her own room, where there were many tears evoked by the
+memories where she had passed in the bright dreams of childhood, and the
+girl's burning passions, and returned with the widow's broken heart.
+
+At once she resumed the sway over that house in disorder which her
+father had delegated to her to the detriment of her mother.
+
+Father Clovis, thanked and rewarded, retook the road to his "earth," as
+his hut was called.
+
+When Dr. Raynal came next day on his tri-weekly visit, he was glad to
+see the girl.
+
+He broached the great question which he had not dared debate with
+Billet, whether the poor woman should receive the Last Sacrament.
+Billet was a rabid Voltairian, while the doctor was a scientist. But he
+believed it his duty in such cases to warn the family of the dying and
+let them settle it.
+
+Catherine was pious and attached little importance to the wrangles
+between her father and the priest.
+
+But the abbé was one of the sombre school, who would have been an
+inquisitor in Spain. When he found the sufferer unconscious, he said
+that he could not give absolution to those unable to confess, and went
+out again.
+
+There was no use applying elsewhere as he was monarch over this parish.
+
+Catherine accepted the refusal as still another grief and went on with
+her cares as daughter and mother for eight or nine days and nights.
+
+As she was watching by her mother, frail bark sinking deeper and deeper
+on Eternity's sea, the door opened, and Pitou appeared on the sill.
+
+He came from Paris that morning. Catherine shuddered to see him, fearing
+that her father was dead. But his countenance, without being what you
+would call gay, was not that of the bearer of bad news. Indeed, Billet
+was mending; since a few days the doctor had answered for him: that
+morning he had been moved from the hospital to the doctor's house.
+
+Pitou feared for Catherine, now. His opinion was that the moment Billet
+learned what he was sure to ask, how his wife was, he would start for
+home.
+
+What would it be if he found Catherine there?
+
+It was Gilbert who had therefore sent Pitou down into the country.
+But when Pitou expressed their fears about their meeting, Catherine
+declared that she would not leave her mother's pillow although her
+father slew her there.
+
+Pitou groaned at such a determination but he did not combat it.
+
+So he stayed there to intervene, if he might.
+
+During two days and nights, Mother Billet's life seemed going, breath by
+breath. It was a wonder how a body lived with so little breath, but how
+slightly it lived!
+
+During the night, when all animation seemed extinct, the patient awoke
+as it were, and she stared at Catherine, who ran to bring her boy.
+
+The eyes were bright when she returned, a sound was heard, and the arms
+were held out.
+
+Catherine fell on her knees beside the bed.
+
+A strange phenomenon took place: Mother Billet rose on her pillow,
+slowly held out her arms over the girl's head and the boy, and with a
+mighty effort, said:
+
+"Bless you, my children!"
+
+She fell back, dead. Her eyes remained open, as though she longed to see
+her daughter from beyond the grave from not having seen enough of her
+before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+FORTIER EXECUTES HIS THREAT.
+
+
+Catherine piously closed her mother's eyes, with her hand and then
+with her lips, while Mother Clement lit the candles and arranged other
+paraphernalia.
+
+Pitou took charge of the other details. Reluctant to visit Father
+Fortier, with whom he stood on delicate ground, he ordered the
+mortuary mass of the sacristan, and engaged the gravedigger and the
+coffin-bearers.
+
+Then he went over to Haramont to have his company of militia notified
+that the wife of the Hero of the People would be buried at eleven on
+the morrow. It was not an official order but an invitation. But it
+was too well known what Billet had done for this Revolution which was
+turning all heads and enflaming all hearts; what danger Billet was even
+then running for the sake of the masses--for this invitation not to be
+regarded as an order: all the volunteer soldiers promised their captain
+that they would be punctual.
+
+Pitou brought the joiner with him, who carried the coffin. He had all
+the heartfelt delicacy rare in the lowborn, and hid the man and his bier
+in the outhouse so Catherine should not see it, and to spare her from
+hearing the sound of the hammering of the nails, he entered the dwelling
+alone.
+
+Catherine was still praying by the dead, which had been shrouded by two
+neighbors.
+
+Pitou suggested that she should go out for a change of air; then for the
+child's sake, upon which she proposed he should take the little one. She
+must have had great confidence in Pitou to trust her boy to him for a
+time.
+
+"He won't come," reported Pitou, presently. "He is crying."
+
+She kissed her mother, took her child by the hand and walked away with
+Pitou. The joiner carried in the coffin when she was gone.
+
+He took her out on the road to Boursonnes, where she went half a league
+without saying a word to Pitou, listening to the voices of the woodland
+which talked to her heart.
+
+When she got home, the work was done, and she understood why Ange had
+insisted on her going out. She thanked him with an eloquent look. She
+prayed for a long while by the coffin, understanding now that she had
+but one of the two friends, left, her mother and Pitou, when Isidore
+died.
+
+"You must come away," said the peasant, "or I must go and hire a nurse
+for Master Isidore."
+
+"You are right, Pitou," she said. "My God, how good Thou art to me--and
+how I love you, Pitou!"
+
+He reeled and nearly fell over backwards. He leaned up against the wall,
+choking, for Catherine had said that she loved him! He did not deceive
+himself about the kind of love, but any kind was a great deal for him.
+
+Finishing her prayer, she rose and went with a slow step to lean on his
+shoulder. He put his arm round her to sustain her; she allowed this.
+Turning at the door, she breathed: "Farewell, mother!" and went forth.
+
+Pitou stopped her at her own door. She began to understand Pitou.
+
+"Why, Miss Catherine," he stammered, "do you not think it is a good time
+to leave the farm?"
+
+"I shall only leave when my mother shall no longer be here," she
+replied.
+
+She spoke with such firmness that he saw it was an irrevocable resolve.
+
+"When you do go, you know you have two homes, Father Clovis' and my
+house."
+
+Pitou's "house" was his sitting room and bedroom.
+
+"I thank you," she replied, her smile and nod meaning that she accepted
+both offers.
+
+She went into her room without troubling about the young man, who had
+the knack of finding some burrow.
+
+At ten next day all the farmers for miles around flocked to the farm.
+The Mayor came, too. At half after ten up marched the Haramont National
+Guards, with colors tied up in black, without a man being missing.
+Catherine, dressed in black, with her boy in mourning, welcomed all
+comers and it must be said that there was no feeling for her but of
+respect.
+
+At eleven, some three hundred persons were gathered at the farm. The
+priest and his attendants alone were absent. Pitou knew Father Fortier
+and he guessed that he who had refused the sacraments to the dying
+woman, would withhold the funeral service under the pretext that she had
+died unconscious. These reflections, confided to Mayor Longpre, produced
+a doleful impression. While they were looking at each other in silence,
+Maniquet, whose opinions were anti-religious, called out:
+
+"If Abbé Fortier does not like to say mass, we will get on without it."
+
+But it was evidently a bold act, although Voltaire and Rousseau were in
+the ascendancy.
+
+"Gentlemen," suggested the mayor, "let us proceed to Villers Cotterets
+where we will have an explanation."
+
+The procession moved slowly past Catherine and her little boy, and was
+going down the road, when the rear guards heard a voice behind them. It
+was a call and they turned.
+
+A man on a horse was riding from the side of Paris.
+
+Part of the rider's face was covered with black bandages; he waved his
+hat in his hand and signalled that he wanted the party to stop.
+
+Pitou had turned like the others.
+
+"Why, it is Billet," he said, "good! I should not like to be in Father
+Fortier's skin."
+
+At the name everybody halted. He advanced rapidly and as he neared all
+were able to recognize him as Pitou had done.
+
+On reaching the head of the line, Billet jumped off his horse, threw the
+bridle on its neck, and, after saying a lusty: "Good day and thank ye,
+citizens!" he took his proper place which Pitou had in his absence held
+to lead the mourners.
+
+A stable boy took away the horse.
+
+Everybody looked curiously at the farmer. He had grown thinner and much
+paler. Part of his face and around his left eye had retained the black
+and blue tint of extravasated blood. His clenched teeth and frowning
+brows indicated sullen rage which waited the time for a vent.
+
+"Do you know what has happened?" inquired Pitou.
+
+"I know all," was the reply.
+
+As soon as Gilbert had told his patient of the state of his wife, he had
+taken a cabriolet as far as Nanteuil. As the horse could go no farther,
+though Billet was weak, he had mounted a post horse and with a change at
+Levignan, he reached his farm as we know.
+
+In two words Mother Clement had told the story. He remounted the horse
+and stopped the procession which he descried on turning a wall.
+
+Silent and moody before, the party became more so since this figure of
+hate led the way.
+
+At Villers Cotterets a waiting party fell into the line. As the cortege
+went up the street, men, women and children flowed out of the dwellings,
+saluted Billet, who nodded, and incorporated themselves in the ranks.
+
+It numbered five hundred when it reached the church. It was shut, as
+Pitou had anticipated. They halted at the door.
+
+Billet had become livid; his expression had grown more and more
+threatening.
+
+The church and the town hall adjoined. The player of the bassoon in
+the holy building was also janitor at the mayor's, so that he belonged
+under the secular and the clerical arm. Questioned by Mayor Longpre, he
+answered that Father Fortier had forbidden any retainer of the church to
+lend his aid to the funeral. The mayor asked where the keys were, and
+was told the beadle had them.
+
+"Go and get the keys," said Billet to Pitou, who opened out his long
+compass-like legs and, having been gone five minutes, returned to say:
+
+"Abbé Fortier had the keys taken to his house to be sure the church
+should not be opened."
+
+"We must go straight to the priest for them," suggested Maniquet, the
+promoter of extreme measures.
+
+"Let us go to the abbé's," cried the crowd.
+
+"It would take too long," remarked Billet: "and when death knocks at a
+door, it does not like to wait."
+
+He looked round him. Opposite the church, a house was being built. Some
+carpenters had been squaring a joist. Billet walked up and ran his arm
+round the beam, which rested on trestles. With one effort he raised it.
+But he had reckoned on absent strength. Under the great burden the giant
+reeled and it was thought for an instant that he would fall. It was but
+a flash; he recovered his balance and smiled terribly; and forward he
+walked, with the beam under his arm, with a firm step albeit slow.
+
+He seemed one of those antique battering-rams with which the Caesars
+overthrow walls.
+
+He planted himself, with legs set apart, before the door and the
+formidable machine began to work. The door was oak with iron fastenings;
+but at the third shove, bolts, bars and lock had flown off; the oaken
+panels yawned, too.
+
+Billet let the beam drop. It took four men to carry it back to its
+place, and not easily.
+
+"Now, mayor, have my poor wife's coffin carried to the midst of the
+choir--she never did harm to anybody--and you, Pitou, collect the
+beadle, the choirboys and the chanters, while I bring the priest."
+
+Several wished to follow Billet to Father Fortier's house.
+
+"Let me go alone," said he: "maybe what I do is serious and I should
+bear my own burden."
+
+This was the second time that the revolutionist had come into conflict
+with the son of the church, at a year's interval. Remembering what had
+happened before, a similar scene was anticipated.
+
+The rectory door was sealed up like that of the church. Billet looked
+round for some beam to be used like the other, but there was nothing of
+the sort. The only thing was a stone post, a boundary mark, with which
+the children had played so long at "over-ing" that it was loose in the
+socket like an old tooth.
+
+The farmer stepped up to it, shook it violently to enlarge its orbit,
+and tore it clean out. Then raising it like a Highlander "putting the
+stone," he hurled it at the door which flew into shivers.
+
+At the same time as this breach was made, the upper window opened and
+Father Fortier appeared, calling on his parishioners with all the power
+of his lungs. But the voice of the pastor fell lost, as the flock did
+not care to interfere between him and the wolf.
+
+It took Billet some time to break all the doors down between him and his
+prey, but in ten minutes, more or less, that was done.
+
+At the end of that time, loud shrieks were heard and by the abbé's most
+expressive gestures it was to be surmised that the danger was drawing
+nearer and nearer him.
+
+In fact, suddenly was seen to rise behind the priest Billet's pale face,
+as his hand launched out and grabbed him by the shoulder.
+
+The priest clutched the window sill; he was of proverbial strength and
+it would not be easy for Hercules to make him relax his grip.
+
+Billet passed his arm around the priest as a girdle; straightened
+himself on both legs, and with a pull which would uproot an oak, he tore
+him away with the snapped wood between his hands.
+
+Farmer and priest, they disappeared within the room, where in the depths
+were heard the wailings of the priest, dying away like the bellowing of
+a bull carried off by a lion.
+
+In the meanwhile, Pitou had gathered up the trembling church staff, who
+hastened to don the vestments, light the candles and incense and prepare
+all things for the death mass.
+
+Billet was seen coming, dragging the priest with him at as smart a pace,
+though he still made resistance, as if he were alone.
+
+This was not a man, but one of the forces of nature: something like a
+torrent or an avalanche; nothing human could withstand him and it took
+an element to combat with him.
+
+About a hundred steps from the church, the poor abbé ceased to kick,
+completely overpowered.
+
+All stood aside to let the pair go by.
+
+The abbé cast a frightened glance on the door, shivered like a pane of
+glass and seeing all his men at their stands whom he had forbidden to
+enter the place, he shook his head like one who acknowledges that some
+resistless power weighed on the church's ministers if not on itself.
+
+He entered the sacristy and came forth in his robes, with the sacrament
+in his hand.
+
+But as he was mounting the altar Billet stretched out his hand.
+
+"Enough, you faulty servant of God," he thundered: "I only attempted to
+check your pride, that is all: but I want it known that a sainted woman
+like my wife can dispense with the prayers of a hateful and fanatical
+priest like you."
+
+As a loud murmur rose under the vaulted ceiling of the fane, he said:
+
+"If this be sacrilege, let it fall on my head."
+
+Turning to the crowd he added: "Citizens, to the cemetery!"
+
+"To the cemetery," cried the concourse which filled not the church alone
+but the square in front.
+
+The four bearers passed their muskets under the bier lifting the body
+and as they had come without ecclesiastical pomp, such as religion has
+devised to accompany man to the grave, they went forth. Billet conducted
+the mourners, with six hundred persons following the remains, to the
+burial-ground, situated at the end of a lane near Aunt Angelique's
+house.
+
+The cemetery-gates were closed but Billet respected the dead; he sent
+for the gravedigger who had the key, and Pitou brought it with two
+spades.
+
+Fortier had proscribed the dead as unfit for consecrated ground, which
+the gravedigger had been ordered not to break for her.
+
+At this last evidence of the priest's hatred for the farmer, a shiver
+of menace ran through the gathering: if Billet had had a little of the
+gall which the Tartuffes hold, to the amazement of Boileau, he had but
+a word to say and the Abbé Fortier would have had that satisfaction of
+martyrdom for which he had howled on the day when he refused to say mass
+on the Altar of the Country.
+
+But Billet's wrath was that of the people and the lion; he did not
+retrace his steps to tear.
+
+He thanked Pitou with a nod, took the key, opened the gates, passed the
+coffin in, and following it, was followed by the procession, recruited
+by all that could walk.
+
+Arrived where the grave had been marked out before the sexton had the
+order not to open the earth, Billet held out his hand to Pitou for one
+of the spades.
+
+Thereupon, with uncovered head, Pitou and Billet, amid the citizens
+bareheaded likewise, under the devouring July sun dug the resting-place
+for this poor creature who, pious and resigned throughout life, would
+have been greatly astonished in her lifetime if told what a sensation
+her death would cause.
+
+The task lasted an hour without either worker thinking of being
+relieved. Meanwhile rope was sought for and was ready.
+
+It was still Billet and Pitou who lowered the coffin into the pit. They
+did all so naturally that nobody thought of offering help. It would have
+been a sacrilege to have stayed them from carrying out all to the end.
+Only at the first clods falling on the coffin, Billet ran his hand over
+his eyes and Pitou his sleeve. Then they resolutely shoveled the earth
+in. When they had finished, Billet flung the spade far from him and
+gripped Pitou by the hand.
+
+"God is my witness," said he, "that I hold in hand all the simple
+and grandest virtues on earth: charity, devotion, abnegation,
+brotherhood--and that I dedicate my life to these virtues." He held out
+his hand over the grave, saying: "God be again my witness that I swear
+eternal war against the King who tried to have me murdered; to the
+nobles who defamed my daughter; to the priests who refused sepulture to
+my wife!"
+
+Turning towards the spectators full of sympathy with this adjuration, he
+said:
+
+"Brothers, a new assembly is to be convoked in place of the traitors now
+in session; select me to represent you in this new parliament, and you
+will see how I keep my oath."
+
+A shout of universal adhesion hailed this suggestion, and at once
+over his wife's grave, terrible altar, worthy of the dread vow, the
+candidature of Billet was proposed, seconded and carried. After this,
+he thanked his fellow citizens for their sympathy in his affliction,
+his friendship and his hatred, and each, citizen, countryman, peasant
+and forester, went home, carrying in heart that spirit of revolutionary
+propaganda to which in their blindness the most deadly weapons were
+afforded by those who were to be destroyed by them--priests, nobles and
+King!
+
+How Billet kept his oath, with other circumstances which are linked with
+his return to Paris in the new Legislative Assembly, will be recorded in
+the sequel entitled "THE COUNTESS OF CHARNY."
+
+
+
+
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+by Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, the greatest of living preachers. Every
+workingman and those who employ them should read this book, and thus be
+informed of the real solution of the question of the relations of Labor
+and Capital. 12mo, 125 pages. Paper cover, 25 cents; cloth, 75 cents.
+
+=BLACK ART EXPOSED (THE).=--This book contains some of the most
+marvelous things in ancient and modern magic, jugglery, etc., ever
+printed, and has to be seen to be fully appreciated. Suffice it to say
+that any boy knowing the secrets it contains will be able to do things
+that will astonish all. 15 cts.
+
+=BLUNDERS OF A BASHFUL MAN (THE).=--By the popular author of "A Bad
+Boy's Diary." This is one of the most humorous books ever issued,
+and has been pronounced _better_ than "A Bad Boy's Diary." 12mo, 160
+pages. Handsomely illustrated from original designs, including also the
+portrait and autograph of "The Bashful Man." Price, paper cover, 25
+cents.
+
+=BOILER-MAKER'S ASSISTANT (THE).= and the Theoretical and Practical
+Boiler-Maker and Engineer's Reference Book. By Samuel Nicholls, Foreman
+Boiler-Maker. 1 vol. 12mo, extra cloth, $2.50.
+
+=COMPLETE FORTUNE TELLER AND DREAM BOOK.=--This book contains a complete
+Dictionary of Dreams, alphabetically, with a clear interpretation
+of each dream, and the lucky numbers that belong to it. It includes
+Palmistry, or telling fortunes by the lines of the hand; fortune-telling
+by the grounds in a tea or coffee cup; how to read your future life by
+the white of an egg; tells how to know who your future husband will be,
+and how soon you will be married; fortune-telling by cards; Hymen's
+lottery; good and bad omens, etc. 25 cents.
+
+=CONCERT EXERCISES FOR SUNDAY SCHOOLS.=--5 cents each; 30 cents per
+dozen; per hundred, by mail, postpaid, $2.00 No. 1, THE CHRISTIAN'S
+JOURNEY. No. 2, THE STORY OF REDEEMING LOVE. (For Christmas.) No.
+3, CHRIST IS RISEN. (Appropriate for Easter.) No. 4, WELCOME GREETING.
+(Appropriate for Children's Day.) No. 5, GOOD TIDINGS. (Appropriate for
+anniversaries and celebrations.)
+
+=LEISURE-HOUR WORK FOR LADIES.=--Containing instructions for flower and
+shell work; Antique, Grecian and Theorem painting; Botanical specimens;
+Cone work; Anglo-Japanese work; Decalcomanie; Diaphame; Leather work;
+Modeling in clay; Transferring; Crayon drawing; Photograph coloring,
+etc., etc. A very complete book, and one that no young lady having spare
+time can afford to be without. 15 cents.
+
+=LOVER'S GUIDE (THE).=--A book no lover should be without. It gives
+handkerchief, parasol, glove, and fan flirtations; also window and
+dining-room signaling; the language of flowers; how to kiss deliciously;
+love-letters, and how to write them, with specimens; bashfulness and
+timidity, and how to overcome them, etc., etc. 15 cents.
+
+=COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE;= or, The Mysteries of Making Love Fully
+Explained.--This is an entirely new work on a most interesting subject.
+CONTENTS: First steps in courtship; Advice to both parties at the
+outset; Introduction to the lady's family; Restrictions imposed by
+etiquette; What the lady should observe in early courtship; What the
+suitor should observe; Etiquette as to presents; The proposal; Mode of
+refusal when not approved; Conduct to be observed by a rejected suitor;
+Refusal by the lady's parents or guardians; Etiquette of an engagement;
+Demeanor of the betrothed pair; Should a courtship be long or short;
+Preliminary etiquette of a wedding; Fixing the day; How to be married;
+The trousseau; Duties to be attended to by the bridegroom; Who should be
+asked to the wedding; Duties of the bridesmaids and groomsmen; Etiquette
+of a wedding; Costume of bride, bridesmaids, and bridegroom; Arrival at
+the church; The marriage ceremonial; Registry of the marriage; Return
+home, and wedding breakfast; Departure for the honeymoon; Wedding cards;
+Modern practice of "No cards;" Reception and return of wedding visits;
+Practical advice to a newly married couple. Price, 25 cents.
+
+="DON'T MARRY"=--At least until you have read our new book entitled
+"Don't Marry." Some marry too soon, others wait too long. This book will
+tell you how, when, and whom to marry; besides giving you valuable hints
+and helps not found in any other book. It contains 112 pages, paper
+cover, and is worth $10 to any one. Price, 25 cents.
+
+=DIARY OF A MINISTER'S WIFE.=--By Almedia M. Brown. Complete edition,
+12mo, 544 pages. Handsomely bound in cloth, with fine full-page
+illustrations, including portraits of Mrs. Minnie Hardscrabble, the
+minister's wife, from the facts and incidents in whose life the
+story was written; also Rev. John Hardscrabble, with three other
+characteristic engravings, which will amuse and interest every reader.
+Price, $1.50.
+
+This popular book is also issued complete in two volumes in paper
+covers. Price, per volume, 25 cents.
+
+=DIARY OF A VILLAGE GOSSIP.=--By Almedia M. Brown, author of "Diary of
+a Minister's Wife," etc., etc. 12mo, 293 pages. Paper cover, 25 cents;
+handsomely bound in cloth, $1.00.
+
+=MAGIC DIAL (THE).=--By the use of which secret correspondence may be
+carried on without fear of detection. No one (even if provided with one
+of these dials) can decipher it. It is entirely new, and nothing like
+it has ever appeared. It is simple and reliable and can be used by any
+person. It will be mailed for 15 cents.
+
+=EDUCATING THE HORSE.=--A new and improved system of Educating the
+Horse. Also a Treatise on Shoeing, with new and valuable Receipts for
+Diseases of Horses. CONTENTS: The great secret of Horse-Taming; How to
+throw a horse; the wild colt; to halter; break a colt; hitching colt
+in stall; how to handle a colt's feet; breaking and driving colts to
+harness; objects of fear; to train a horse to stand when getting into
+a carriage; balking horses; pulling at halter; to break horses from
+jumping; pawing in stall and kicking in harness; the runaway horse;
+shoeing; corns; to teach a horse to appear intelligent; to teach a horse
+how to dance, waltz, kiss you, shake hands, etc., etc.; cure of sore
+breasts, big head, big leg, fullness of blood, catarrh; loose bowels,
+corns, cough, inflammation of eye, brittle feet, sand crack in foot,
+founder (a sure cure), galled back, grease, inflammation of kidneys,
+worms, itch, nasal, gleet, over-reaching, staggers, botts, etc., etc.;
+concluding with rules and regulations for the government of trotting and
+racing. No man who owns a horse can afford to do without this book. It
+is very thorough, complete and reliable, and well worth a dozen times
+the price asked for it. It contains matter not to be found in any other
+horse book. Price, 15 cents.
+
+=GRAND WONDER COLLECTION.=--A wonderful offer. $3.00 worth of goods for
+only 50 cents! Everything is now very cheap, and people get a good deal
+more for their money than they used to, but we have no hesitation in
+saying that never before was so much offered for the money as is offered
+in this GRAND WONDER COLLECTION. It could not be done, only that we
+expect to sell thousands of them and are fully satisfied that each one
+sold will sell a dozen more.
+
+The contents of the GRAND WONDER COLLECTION--comprising seven complete
+books in one--1. Old Secrets and New Discoveries. 2. Secrets for
+Farmers. 3. Laughing Gas. 4. The Swindlers of America. 5. Preserving and
+Manufacturing Secrets. 6. The Housewife's Treasure. 7. Fourteen Popular
+Songs, Words and Music.
+
+Any person ordering this collection and not fully satisfied, the money
+will be cheerfully refunded. Price, 50 cents.
+
+=MAGIC TRICK CARDS.=--The Magician's Own Cards, for performing wonderful
+tricks. Every boy a magician! Every man a conjurer! Every girl a
+witch! Every one astonished! They are the most superior trick cards
+ever offered for sale, and with them you can perform some of the most
+remarkable illusions ever discovered.
+
+Complete illustrated directions accompany each pack. They will be
+mailed, postpaid, sealed as a letter, for 15 cents a pack.
+
+=HEALTH HINTS.=--A new book showing how to Acquire and Retain Bodily
+Symmetry, Health, Vigor, and Beauty. Its contents are as follows:
+Laws of Beauty--Air, Sunshine, Water, and Food--Work and Rest--Dress
+and Ornament--The Hair and its Management--Skin and Complexion--The
+Mouth--The Eyes, Ears, and Nose--The Neck, Hands and Feet--Growth and
+Marks that are Enemies of Beauty--Cosmetics and Perfumery.
+
+=Fat People.=--It gives ample rules how Corpulency may be cured--the Fat
+made Lean, Comely and Active.
+
+=Lean People.=--It also gives directions, the following of which will
+enable Lean, Angular, Bony or Sharp Visaged People, to be Plump and Rosy
+Skinned.
+
+=Gray Hair.=--It tells how Gray Hair may be Restored to its natural
+color without the aid of Dyes, Restorers or Pomades.
+
+=Baldness.=--It gives ample directions for Restoring Hair on Bald Heads,
+as well as how to stop Falling of the Hair, how to Curl the Hair, etc.
+
+=Beard and Mustache.=--It tells what Young Men should do to acquire a
+Fine, Silky and Handsome Beard and Mustache.
+
+=Freckles and Pimples.=--It gives full directions for the Cure of
+Sunburn, Freckles, Pimples, Wrinkles, Warts, etc., so that they can be
+entirely removed.
+
+=Cosmetics.=--This chapter, among other things, gives an Analysis of
+Perry's Moth and Freckle Lotion, Balm of White Lilies, Hagan's Magnolia
+Balm, Laird's Bloom of Youth, Phalon's Enamel, Clark's Restorative for
+the Hair, Chevalier's Life for the Hair, Ayer's Hair Vigor, Professor
+Wood's Hair Restorative, Hair Restorer America, Gray's Hair Restorative,
+Phalon's Vitalia, Ring's Vegetable Ambrosia, Mrs. Allen's World's Hair
+Restorer, Hall's Vegetable Sicilian Hair Renewer, Martha Washington Hair
+Restorative, etc., etc. (no room for more), showing how the lead, etc.,
+in these mixtures causes disease and oftentimes premature death. Price,
+25 cents.
+
+=LOVE AND COURTSHIP CARDS.=--Sparking, courting, and lovemaking all
+made easy by the use of these cards. They are arranged with such apt
+conversation that you will be able to ask the momentous question in such
+a delicate manner that the girl will not suspect what you are at. They
+may be used by two persons only, or they will make lots of fun for an
+evening party of young people. There are sixty cards in all, and each
+answer will respond differently to every one of the questions. Price, 30
+cents.
+
+=MISS SLIMMENS' BOARDING-HOUSE.=--By the author of "A Bad Boy's Diary."
+16mo, 188 pages, with nine illustrations. Complete edition. Paper cover,
+25 cents.
+
+=HOUSEWIFE'S TREASURE (THE).=--A manual of information of everything
+that relates to household economies. It gives the method of making
+Jackson's Universal Washing Compound, which can clean the dirtiest
+cotton, linen or woolen clothes in twenty minutes without rubbing or
+harming the material. This recipe is being constantly peddled through
+the country at $5.00 each, and is certainly worth it. It also tells all
+about soap-making at home, so as to make it cost about one-quarter of
+what bar soap costs; it tells how to make candles by molding or dipping;
+it gives seven methods for destroying rats and mice; how to make healthy
+bread without flour (something entirely new); to preserve clothes and
+furs from moths; a sure plan for destroying house-flies, cockroaches,
+beetles, ants, bedbugs and fleas; all about house cleaning, papering,
+etc., and hundreds of other valuable hints just such as housekeepers are
+wanting to know. 25 cents.
+
+=HOW TO ENTERTAIN A SOCIAL PARTY.=--A complete selection of Home
+Recreations. Profusely illustrated with fine wood-cuts, containing:
+Round Games and Forfeit Games; Parlor Magic and Curious Puzzles; Comic
+Diversions and Parlor Tricks; Scientific Recreations and Evening
+Amusements; The Blue Beard tableaux; Tableaux-vivant for acting; The
+play-room; Blind-man's buff; One old ox opening oysters; How do you like
+it? when do you like it? and where do you like it? Cross questions and
+crooked answers; Cupid's coming; Proverbs; Earth, air and water; Yes and
+no; Copenhagen; Hunt the hare, and a thousand other games.
+
+Here is family amusement for the million. Here is parlor or drawing-room
+entertainment, night after night, for a whole winter. A young man
+with this volume may render himself the _beau ideal_ of a delightful
+companion to every party. Price, 25 cents.
+
+=HOW TO WOO AND HOW TO WIN.=--This interesting work contains full and
+interesting rules for the etiquette of courtship, with directions
+showing how to win the favor of the ladies; how to begin and end a
+courtship; and how love-letters should be written. It not only tells
+how to win the favor of the ladies, but how to address a lady; Conduct
+a courtship; "Pop the Question;" Write love-letters; All about the
+marriage ceremony; Bridal chamber; After marriage, etc. Price, 15 cents.
+
+=ODELL'S SYSTEM OF SHORTHAND.=--By which the taking down of sermons,
+lectures, trials, speeches, etc., may be easily acquired, without the
+aid of a master. By this plan the difficulties of mastering this useful
+art are very much lessened, and the time required to attain proficiency
+reduced to the least possible limits. Price 15 cents.
+
+=HOW TO TALK AND DEBATE.=--CONTENTS: Introduction; Laws of Conversation;
+Listening; Self-possession; Appreciativeness; Conversation, when
+confidential; The matter and the manner; Proper subjects; Trifles;
+Objectionable subjects; Politics; Rights of women; Wit and humor;
+Questions and negatives; Our own hobbies; The voice, how to improve;
+Speaking one's mind; Public speaking; How to make a speech; Opening a
+debate; Division of the subject; The affirmative; The reply, etc., etc.
+A really valuable book, and one that every man and woman, boy and girl
+should possess. 15 cents.
+
+=LIFE IN THE BACKWOODS.=--A Guide to the successful Hunting and Trapping
+of all kinds of Animals. It gives the right season for trapping; how to
+make, set and bait all kinds of traps; traps for minks, weasels, skunks,
+hawks, owls, gophers, birds, squirrels, musk-rats, foxes, rabbits,
+raccoons, etc.; how to make and use bird lime. It gives the English
+secrets for catching alive all kinds of birds; it tells how to know the
+true value of skins, as well as how to skin all animals; deodorize,
+stretch, and cure them; to dress and tan skins, furs and leather; to tan
+with or without the wool or hair; to skin and stuff birds; baits and
+hooks for fishing; how to fish successfully without nets, lines, spears,
+snares, "bobs," or bait (a great secret), how to choose and clean guns;
+how to breed minks for their skins (hundreds of dollars can be made by
+any boy or young man who knows how to breed minks), etc.
+
+This book is by an old trapper, for many years engaged in trapping in
+the Northwest, who has finally consented to publish and disclose these
+secrets. Persons living where wild animals exist, with some traps and
+the information contained in this book, can make money faster through
+the trapping season by giving their time and energies to the business
+than they can by seeking their fortunes in the gold regions or in oil
+speculations. This is at once the most complete and practical book now
+in the market. Price, 15 cents.
+
+=MODEL LETTER-WRITER (THE).=--A comprehensive and complete
+guide and assistant for those who desire to carry on epistolary
+correspondence--containing instructions for writing letters of
+introduction; Letters of business; Letters of recommendation;
+Applications for employment; Letters of congratulation; Letters of
+condolence; Letters of friendship and relationship; Love-letters; Notes
+of invitation; Letters of favor, of advice, and of excuse, etc., etc.,
+together with appropriate answers to each. This is an invaluable book
+for those persons who have not had sufficient practice to enable them to
+write letters without great effort. 15 cents.
+
+=NAPOLEON'S COMPLETE BOOK= of Fate and Complete Fortune Teller.--This is
+the celebrated Oracle of Human Destiny consulted by Napoleon the First
+previous to any of his undertakings, and by which he was so successful
+in war, business, and love. It is the only authentic and complete copy
+extant, being translated into English from a German translation of an
+ancient Egyptian manuscript found in the year 1801 by M. Sonini, in one
+of the royal tombs near Mount Libycus, in Upper Egypt. This Oraculum is
+so arranged that any question on business, love, wealth, losses, hidden
+treasures, no matter what its nature, the Oraculum has an answer for
+it. It also shows how to learn of one's fate by consulting the planets.
+Price 15 cents.
+
+=OGILVIE'S HOUSE PLANS; OR HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE.=--A neat new book,
+containing over thirty finely executed engravings of dwellings of all
+sizes, from two rooms up; also churches, barns, and out-houses in great
+variety.
+
+This handy, compact, and very useful volume contains, in addition to
+the foregoing, plans for each floor in each and every dwelling of which
+an engraving is given. It has, also, valuable information relative to
+building, such as number of shingles required in a roof, quantity of
+plaster for a house, quantity of materials required for building a
+house, etc., etc., and much other information of permanent and practical
+value.
+
+Any one of the plans is alone worth very much more than the price asked
+for the book. It is invaluable to every architect, builder, mason, or
+carpenter, and particularly do we urge all who anticipate erecting a
+new or remodeling an old dwelling to send for a copy, as its fortunate
+possessor may save hundred of dollars by following the suggestions it
+contains. 25 cents.
+
+=HOW TO BEHAVE.=--Hand-book of Etiquette and Guide to True Politeness.
+CONTENTS: Etiquette and its uses; Introductions; Cutting acquaintances;
+Letters of introduction; Street etiquette; Domestic etiquette and
+duties; Visiting; Receiving company; Evening parties; The lady's toilet;
+The gentleman's toilet; Invitations; Etiquette of the ball-room;
+General rules of conversation; Bashfulness and how to overcome it;
+Dinner parties; Table etiquette; Carving; Servants; Traveling; Visiting
+cards; Letter writing; Conclusion. This is the best book of the kind
+yet published, and every person wishing to be considered well-bred, who
+wishes to understand the customs of good society, and to avoid incorrect
+and vulgar habits, should send for a copy. 15 cents.
+
+=MISS SLIMMENS' WINDOW.=--Complete edition in one volume now ready.
+16mo, 150 pages. Bound in heavy paper covers, with 13 illustrations. 25
+cents.
+
+=OGILVIE'S HANDY MONITOR AND UNIVERSAL ASSISTANT=, containing
+Statistical Tables of Practical Value for Mechanics, Merchants,
+Editors, Lawyers, Printers, Doctors, Farmers, Lumbermen, Bankers,
+Bookkeepers, Politicians and all classes of workers in every department
+of human effort, and containing a compilation of facts for reference on
+various subjects, being an epitome of matters Historical, Statistical,
+Biographical, Political, Geographical and general interest. 190 pages
+bound in paper, 25 cents.
+
+No more valuable books has ever been offered containing so much
+information of practical value in everyday life.
+
+=OLD SECRETS AND NEW DISCOVERIES.=--Containing Information of Rare Value
+for all Classes, in all Conditions of Society.
+
+=It Tells= all about _Electrical Psychology_, showing how you can
+biologize any person, and, while under the influence, he will do
+anything you may wish him, no matter how ridiculous it may be, and he
+cannot help doing it.
+
+=It Tells= how to _Mesmerize_. Knowing this, you can place any person
+in a mesmeric sleep, and then be able to do with him as you will. This
+secret has been sold over and over again for $10.
+
+=It Tells= how to make persons at a distance think of you--something all
+lovers should know.
+
+=It Tells= how you can charm those you meet and make them love you,
+whether they will or not.
+
+=It Tells= how Spiritualists and others can make writing appear on the
+arm in blood characters, as performed by Foster and all noted magicians.
+
+=It Tells= how to make a cheap Galvanic Battery; how to plate and gild
+without a battery; how to make a candle burn all night; how to make a
+clock for 25 cents; how to detect counterfeit money; how to banish and
+prevent mosquitoes from biting; how to make yellow butter in winter;
+Circassian curling fluid; Sympathetic or Secret Writing Ink; Cologne
+Water; Artificial honey; Stammering; how to make large noses small; to
+cure drunkenness; to copy letters without a press; to obtain fresh-blown
+flowers in winter; to make good burning candles from lard.
+
+=It Tells= how to make a horse appear as though he was badly foundered;
+to make a horse temporarily lame; how to make him stand by his food and
+not eat it; how to cure a horse from the crib or sucking wind; how to
+put a young countenance on the horse; how to cover up the heaves; how to
+make him appear as if he had the glanders; how to make a true-pulling
+horse balk; how to nerve a horse that is lame, etc., etc.--These horse
+secrets are being continually sold at one dollar each.
+
+=It Tells= how to make the Eggs of Pharo's Serpents, which when lighted,
+though but the size of a pea, there issues from it a coiling, hissing
+serpent, wonderful in length and similarity to a genuine serpent.
+
+=It Tells= how to make gold and silver from block tin (the least said
+about which the better). Also how to take impressions from coins. Also
+how to imitate gold and silver.
+
+=It Tells= of a simple and ingenious method of copying any kind of
+drawing or picture. Also, more wonderful still, how to print pictures
+from the print itself.
+
+=It Tells= how to perform the Davenport Brothers' "Spirit Mysteries." So
+that any person can astonish an audience, as they have done. Also scores
+of other wonderful things which there is no room to mention.
+
+=Old Secrets and New Discoveries= is worth $5 to any person; but it will
+be mailed to any address on receipt of only 25 cents.
+
+=OUT IN THE STREETS.=--By S. N. Cook. Price, 15 cents.
+
+We take pleasure in offering the strictly moral and very amusing
+temperance drama entitled, "Out in the Streets," to all entertainment
+committees as one that will give entire satisfaction. The parts are
+taken by six male and six female characters.
+
+=PHUNNY PHELLOW'S GRAB BAG=; or, Jolly Tid-Bits for Mirthful
+Mortals.--Josh Billings, Danbury News Man and Bret Harte rolled into
+one. It is not too much to say that the book contains the choicest
+humor in the English language. Its size is mammoth, containing more
+than one thousand of the raciest jests, comical hits, exhilarating
+stories, flowers of wit, excruciating jokes, uproarious poems, laughable
+sketches, darky comicalities, clowns' efforts, button-bursting
+conundrums, endmen's jokes, plantation humors, funny caricatures,
+hifalutin dialogues, curious scenes, cute sayings, ludicrous drolleries,
+peculiar repartees, and nearly 500 illustrations. 25 cents.
+
+=SCIENCE OF A NEW LIFE (THE).=--By John Cowan, M.D. A handsome 8vo,
+containing over 400 pages, with more than 100 illustrations, and sold at
+the following prices; English cloth, beveled boards, gilt side and back,
+$3.00; leather, sprinkled edges, $3.50; half turkey morocco, marbled
+edges, gilt back, $4.00.
+
+=SOME FUNNY THINGS= said by Clever Children. Who is not interested in
+children? We are satisfied that this book will give genuine satisfaction
+to all who are interested in listening to the happy voices of children.
+This will show that humor is not confined to adult minds by any means.
+64 pages, 10 cents.
+
+=PALLISER'S AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE=; or, EVERY MAN A COMPLETE BUILDER.
+The Latest and Best Publication on Modern Artistic Dwellings and other
+Buildings of Low Cost. This is a new book just published, and there is
+not a Builder or any one intending to Build or otherwise interested in
+building that can afford to be without it. It is a practical work and
+everybody buys it. The best, cheapest and most popular work of the kind
+ever issued. Nearly four hundred drawings. A $5 book in size and style,
+but we have determined to make it meet the popular demand, to suit the
+times, so that it can be easily reached by all.
+
+This book contains 104 pages, 11x14 inches in size, and consists of
+large 9x12 plate pages giving plans, elevations, perspective views,
+descriptions, owners' names, actual cost of construction, no guess work,
+and instructions HOW TO BUILD 70 Cottages, Villas, Double Houses, Brick
+Block Houses, suitable for city suburbs, town and country, houses for
+the farm and workingmen's homes for all sections of the country, and
+costing from $300 to $4,500; also Barns, Stables, School House, Town
+Hall, Churches and other public buildings, together with specifications,
+form of contract, etc., etc., and a large amount of information on the
+erection of buildings, selection of site, employment of Architects,
+etc., etc.
+
+This book of 104 pages, as described above, will be sent by mail,
+postpaid to any address on receipt of price. Price, heavy paper cover,
+$1; handsomely bound in cloth, $2.
+
+=SECRETS FOR FARMERS.=--This book tells how to restore rancid butter
+to its original flavor and purity; a new way of coloring butter; how
+largely to increase the milk of cows; a sure cure for kicking cows; how
+to make Thorley's celebrated condimental food for cattle; how to make
+hens lay every day in the year; it gives an effectual remedy for the
+Canada thistle; to save mice-girdled trees; a certain plan to destroy
+the curculio and peach-borer; how to convert dead animals and bones into
+manure; Barnet's certain preventive for the potato rot, worth $50 to
+any farmer; remedy for smut in wheat; to cure blight in fruit trees; to
+destroy potato bug; to prevent mildew and rust in wheat; to destroy the
+cut-worm; home-made stump machine, as good as any sold; to keep cellars
+from freezing, etc., etc.
+
+It is impossible to give the full contents of this valuable book here;
+space will not allow. Price, 25 cents.
+
+=SIDNEY'S STUMP SPEAKER.=--Price, 15 cents.
+
+A collection of Yankee, Dutch, French, Irish and Ethiopian Stump
+Speeches and Recitations, Burlesque Orations, Laughable Scenes, Humorous
+Lectures, Button-bursting Witticisms, Ridiculous Drolleries. Funny
+Stories, etc., etc.
+
+=SUNNYSIDE COLLECTION OF READINGS AND RECITATIONS, NO 1.=--Compiled
+by J. S. Ogilvie. 12mo, 192 pages, paper cover, 25 cents. This book
+contains a choice collection of Readings and Recitations, which have
+been selected with great care, and are especially adapted for Day
+and Sabbath Schools, all adult and juvenile Organizations, Young
+People's Associations, Reading Clubs, Temperance Societies, and Parlor
+Entertainments. They comprise Prose and Poetry--Serious, Humorous,
+Pathetic, Comic, Temperance, Patriotic. All those who are interested in
+providing an entertainment should have this collection.
+
+=THE SUNNYSIDE COOK BOOK.=--12mo, 250 pages. Paper cover, 25 cents;
+bound in cloth, 75 cents. This book is offered as one of the best and
+most complete books of the kind published. Not only are all the recipes
+practical, but they are economical and such as come within the reach
+of families of moderate income. It also contains valuable information
+in relation to home matters not found in any other publication. It
+also gives plain and easily understood directions for preparing and
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+
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+
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+
+This is a book that every one that wishes to know what is going to
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+on receipt of 25 cents.
+
+
+
+
+THE
+EVERY-DAY EDUCATOR
+OR,
+
+How To Do Business.
+
+Prepared for Ambitious Americans by
+Prof. SEYMOUR EATON.
+
+The Brightest and Best Help Manual ever issued in this Country.
+
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+[Illustration]
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+BOOK-KEEPING, BANKING, CORRESPONDENCE, ARITHMETIC, FRENCH, GERMAN,
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+
+[Illustration]
+
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+
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+bound in paper cover, 25 cents. Sent by mail, postpaid, to any address
+on receipt of price. Agents wanted. Address all orders and applications
+for an agency to
+
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+_Lock Box 2767._      _57 Rose Street, New York._
+
+[Illustration:
+
+AYER'S
+CHERRY PECTORAL
+CURES COLDS COUGHS
+Throat and Lung Diseases]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's notes:
+
+Both US and British spellings of words are used throughout the text. The
+prevalent spelling of individual words determined which were retained
+and which were corrected. Non-standard spellings of common words have
+been retained if used consistently. Generally, compound words such as
+"musketbarrels" and "churchdoor" have been split. Archaic and French
+spellings have been retained when appropriate to the sense of the text.
+Inconsistent spellings of proper nouns have been regularized to agree
+with the most prevalent spelling.
+
+Punctuation errors affecting the flow of the prose appear to be
+typesetter's errors and have been corrected. These include missing
+periods, missing open or closed quote marks, colons used where
+semicolons were more appropriate, and inappropriate placement of
+punctuation.
+
+Obvious typesetters' errors, such as repeated words, have been
+corrected. Occasionally a missing word has been supplied when the sense
+was obvious, such as in the phrase. "Thrusting their heads out of [the]
+window, they saw the town in confusion..."
+
+The translation contains countless French-like phrase constructions that
+sound awkward in English, such as:
+
+     "Meanwhile four o'clock struck without any courier with
+     intelligence."
+
+     "At half-past nine they reached Clermont, four leagues
+     covered."
+
+     "Unfortunately Charny was not to the fore."
+
+     "We renounce describing what passed in an instant in her heart
+     of Queen and loving woman..."
+
+     "Just then a man leaped out of the crowd, who could not stop
+     him."
+
+     "In the adjoining room, a cheer burst at the words."
+
+     "And away galloped he on the track of the King."
+
+In all cases they have been left as found.
+
+The following words have been corrected (page numbers are refer to the
+original hardcopy):
+
+P6: mainroom changed to main room
+P8: provences changed to provinces
+P9: dirtcarts changed to dirt carts
+P10: fron changed to from
+P10: cooly changed to coolly
+P14: ghastlily changed to ghastly
+P15: self-acknowleged changed to self-acknowledged
+P17: foul changed to fowl
+P17: attaching changed to attacking
+P22: eatabless changed to eatables
+P22: seconed changed to second
+P25: basilic changed to basilica
+P26: griefs changed to grief
+P26: whomesoever changed to whomsoever
+P30: 1890 changed to 1790
+P31: hight changed to height
+P37: worshippers changed to worshipers
+P39: bellpull changed to bell pull
+P40: deuse changed to deuce
+P40: Plebs changed to Plebes
+P41: marrow changed to morrow
+P42: obiivion changed to oblivion
+P42: is inserted between it and so
+P43: vitalism changed to vitality
+P44: you inserted between whenever and arrived
+P46: stilettes changed to stilettos
+P46: Couldron changed to cauldron
+P47: decide changed to decided
+P51: spick changed to spic (and span)
+P52: listenes changed to listens
+P53: spectres changed to specters
+P53: CHAPTER X changed to CHAPTER IX
+P57: premaces changed to premises
+P58: Choseul changed to Choiseul
+P58: picklock changed to pick-lock
+P59: kinglike changed to king-like
+P61: wizzed changed to whizzed
+P64: ridingcoat chnged to riding coat
+P64: broadbrimmed changed to broad brimmed
+P65: saddlehorse changed to saddle horse
+P67: mesures changed to measures
+P70: banted changed to bantered
+P72: postilions changed to postillions
+P73: forefelt changed to fore-felt
+P73: new comer changed to new-comer
+P73: stableyard changed to stable yard
+P78: churchtower changed to church tower
+P79: thunderpeal changed to thunder peal
+P85: road changed to rode
+P85: to changed to two
+P85: musketbarrels changed to musket barrels
+P86: gunbarrels changed to gun barrels
+P90: bobwig changed to bob wig
+P91: "the" added to text (out of [the] window)
+P92: fieldpieces changed to field pieces
+P93: sabers changed to sabres
+P96: tranquillity changed to tranquility
+P102: spunge changed to sponge
+P103: new changed to knew
+P103: defalter changed to defaulter
+P104: gentelman changed to gentleman
+P107: energetical changed to energetic
+P108: fanciedly chabged to fancied
+P109: reperuse changed to re-peruse
+P114: carriagewheels changed to carriage wheels
+P115: fairplay changed to fair play
+P117: flunkey changed to flunky
+P118: gallopped cchanged to galloped
+P118: despatched changed to dispatched
+P118: spunging changed to sponging
+P119: backgarden changed to back garden
+P125: townsofficer changed to towns officer
+P126: comprehened changed to comprehended
+P127: audactiy changed to audacity
+P132: livelily chamged to lively
+P133: churchdoor changed to church door
+P135: righthand changed to right hand
+P137: turn-up changed to turned-up
+P137: dullist changed to duelist
+P137: saltmeadow changed to salt meadow
+P143: nobeman changed to nobleman
+P148: worshipped changed to worshiped
+P148: splendrous changed to splendorous
+P150, 154: catastrophies changed to catastrophes
+P182: rashess changed to rashness
+P187: Hay changed to Hey
+P189: deuse changed to deuce
+P192: ain changed to again
+P201: pllow changed to pillow
+P146, 178: perillous changed to perilous
+P148: deathsman changed to deaths-man
+P152: smoe changed to some
+P152: appeales changed to appeals
+P154: pepole changed to people
+P154: cruellest changed to cruelest
+P156, 203: sittingroom changed to sitting room
+P159: mantleshelf changed to mantle shelf
+P163: deathcries changed to death cries
+P164: Chount changed to Count
+P169: Ays changed to Ayes
+P175: battallions changed to battalions
+P178: unmistakeable changed to unmistakable
+P181: Constituant changed to Constituent
+P181: Italiens changed to Italians
+P204: posthorse changed to post horse
+P205: townhall changed to town hall
+PP48, 62, 102: etiquet changed to etiquette, which is more prevalent
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Royal Life Guard, by Alexander Dumas (père)
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43633 ***