AN HISTORICAL MYSTERY (The Gondreville Mystery) BY HONORE DE BALZAC Translated By Katharine Prescott Wormeley DEDICATION To Monsieur de Margone. In grateful remembrance, from his guest at the Chateau de Sache. De Balzac. AN HISTORICAL MYSTERY PART I CHAPTER I JUDAS The autumn of the year 1803 was one of the finest in the early part ofthat period of the present century which we now call "Empire. " Rainhad refreshed the earth during the month of October, so that the treeswere still green and leafy in November. The French people werebeginning to put faith in a secret understanding between the skies andBonaparte, then declared Consul for life, --a belief in which that manowes part of his prestige; strange to say, on the day the sun failedhim, in 1812, his luck ceased! About four in the afternoon on the fifteenth of November, 1803, thesun was casting what looked like scarlet dust upon the venerable topsof four rows of elms in a long baronial avenue, and sparkling on thesand and grassy places of an immense _rond-point_, such as we oftensee in the country where land is cheap enough to be sacrificed toornament. The air was so pure, the atmosphere so tempered that afamily was sitting out of doors as if it were summer. A man dressed ina hunting-jacket of green drilling with green buttons, and breeches ofthe same stuff, and wearing shoes with thin soles and gaiters to theknee, was cleaning a gun with the minute care a skilful huntsman givesto the work in his leisure hours. This man had neither game norgame-bag, nor any of the accoutrements which denote either departure fora hunt or the return from it; and two women sitting near were looking athim as though beset by a terror they could ill-conceal. Any oneobserving the scene taking place in this leafy nook would haveshuddered, as the old mother-in-law and the wife of the man we speakof were now shuddering. A huntsman does not take such minuteprecautions with his weapon to kill small game, neither does he use, in the department of the Aube, a heavy rifled carbine. "Shall you kill a roe-buck, Michu?" said his handsome young wife, trying to assume a laughing air. Before replying, Michu looked at his dog, which had been lying in thesun, its paws stretched out and its nose on its paws, in the charmingattitude of a trained hunter. The animal had just raised its head andwas snuffing the air, first down the avenue nearly a mile long whichstretched before them, and then up the cross road where it entered the_rond-point_ to the left. "No, " answered Michu, "but a brute I do not wish to miss, a lynx. " The dog, a magnificent spaniel, white with brown spots, growled. "Hah!" said Michu, talking to himself, "spies! the country swarms withthem. " Madame Michu looked appealingly to heaven. A beautiful fair woman withblue eyes, composed and thoughtful in expression and made like anantique statue, she seemed to be a prey to some dark and bitter grief. The husband's appearance may explain to a certain extent the evidentfear of the two women. The laws of physiognomy are precise, not onlyin their application to character, but also in relation to thedestinies of life. There is such a thing as prophetic physiognomy. Ifit were possible (and such a vital statistic would be of value tosociety) to obtain exact likenesses of those who perish on thescaffold, the science of Lavatar and also that of Gall would proveunmistakably that the heads of all such persons, even those who areinnocent, show prophetic signs. Yes, fate sets its mark on the facesof those who are doomed to die a violent death of any kind. Now, thissign, this seal, visible to the eye of an observer, was imprinted onthe expressive face of the man with the rifled carbine. Short andstout, abrupt and active in his motions as a monkey, though calm intemperament, Michu had a white face injected with blood, and featuresset close together like those of a Tartar, --a likeness to which hiscrinkled red hair conveyed a sinister expression. His eyes, clear andyellow as those of a tiger, showed depths behind them in which theglance of whoever examined the man might lose itself and never findeither warmth or motion. Fixed, luminous, and rigid, those eyesterrified whoever gazed into them. The singular contrast between theimmobility of the eyes and the activity of the body increased thechilling impression conveyed by a first sight of Michu. Action, alwaysprompt in this man, was the outcome of a single thought; just as thelife of animals is, without reflection, the outcome of instinct. Since1793 he had trimmed his red beard to the shape of a fan. Even if hehad not been (as he was during the Terror) president of a club ofJacobins, this peculiarity of his head would in itself have made himterrible to behold. His Socratic face with its blunt nose wassurmounted by a fine forehead, so projecting, however, that itoverhung the rest of the features. The ears, well detached from thehead, had the sort of mobility which we find in those of wild animals, which are ever on the qui-vive. The mouth, half-open, as the customusually is among country-people, showed teeth that were strong andwhite as almonds, but irregular. Gleaming red whiskers framed thisface, which was white and yet mottled in spots. The hair, croppedclose in front and allowed to grow long at the sides and on the backof the head, brought into relief, by its savage redness, all thestrange and fateful peculiarities of this singular face. The neckwhich was short and thick, seemed to tempt the axe. At this moment the sunbeams, falling in long lines athwart the group, lighted up the three heads at which the dog from time to time glancedup. The spot on which this scene took place was magnificently fine. The _rond-point_ is at the entrance of the park of Gondreville, one ofthe finest estates in France, and by far the finest in the departmentsof the Aube; it boasts of long avenues of elms, a castle built fromdesigns by Mansart, a park of fifteen hundred acres enclosed by astone wall, nine large farms, a forest, mills, and meadows. Thisalmost regal property belonged before the Revolution to the family ofSimeuse. Ximeuse was a feudal estate in Lorraine; the name waspronounced Simeuse, and in course of time it came to be written aspronounced. The great fortune of the Simeuse family, adherents of the House ofBurgundy, dates from the time when the Guises were in conflict withthe Valois. Richelieu first, and afterwards Louis XIV. Rememberedtheir devotion to the factious house of Lorraine, and rebuffed them. Then the Marquis de Simeuse, an old Burgundian, old Guiser, oldleaguer, old _frondeur_ (he inherited the four great rancors of thenobility against royalty), came to live at Cinq-Cygne. The formercourtier, rejected at the Louvre, married the widow of the Comte deCinq-Cygne, younger branch of the famous family of Chargeboeuf, one ofthe most illustrious names in Champagne, and now as celebrated andopulent as the elder. The marquis, among the richest men of his day, instead of wasting his substance at court, built the chateau ofGondreville, enlarged the estate by the purchase of others, and unitedthe several domains, solely for the purposes of a hunting-ground. Healso built the Simeuse mansion at Troyes, not far from that of theCinq-Cygnes. These two old houses and the bishop's palace were longthe only stone mansions at Troyes. The marquis sold Simeuse to the Ducde Lorraine. His son wasted the father's savings and some part of hisgreat fortune under the reign of Louis XV. , but he subsequentlyentered the navy, became a vice-admiral, and redeemed the follies ofhis youth by brilliant services. The Marquis de Simeuse, son of thisnaval worthy, perished with his wife on the scaffold at Troyes, leaving twin sons, who emigrated and were, at the time our historyopens, still in foreign parts following the fortunes of the house ofConde. The _rond-point_ was the scene of the meet in the time of the "GrandMarquis"--a name given in the family to the Simeuse who builtGondreville. Since 1789 Michu lived in the hunting lodge at theentrance to the park, built in the reign of Louis XIV. , and called thepavilion of Cinq-Cygne. The village of Cinq-Cygne is at the end of theforest of Nodesme (a corruption of Notre-Dame) which was reachedthrough the fine avenue of four rows of elms where Michu's dog was nowsuspecting spies. After the death of the Grand Marquis this pavilionfell into disuse. The vice-admiral preferred the court and the sea toChampagne, and his son gave the dilapidated building to Michu for adwelling. This noble structure is of brick, with vermiculated stone-work at theangles and on the casings of the doors and windows. On either side isa gateway of finely wrought iron, eaten with rust and connected by arailing, beyond which is a wide and deep ha-ha, full of vigoroustrees, its parapets bristling with iron arabesques, the innumerablesharp points of which are a warning to evil-doers. The park walls begin on each side of the circumference of the_rond-point_; on the one hand the fine semi-circle is defined by slopesplanted with elms; on the other, within the park, a correspondinghalf-circle is formed by groups of rare trees. The pavilion, therefore, stands at the centre of this round open space, whichextends before it and behind it in the shape of two horseshoes. Michuhad turned the rooms on the lower floor into a stable, a kitchen, anda wood-shed. The only trace remaining of their ancient splendor was anantechamber paved with marble in squares of black and white, which wasentered on the park side through a door with small leaded panes, suchas might still be seen at Versailles before Louis-Philippe turned thatChateau into an asylum for the glories of France. The pavilion isdivided inside by an old staircase of worm-eaten wood, full ofcharacter, which leads to the first story. Above that is an immensegarret. This venerable edifice is covered by one of those vast roofswith four sides, a ridgepole decorated with leaden ornaments, and around projecting window on each side, such as Mansart very justlydelighted in; for in France, the Italian attics and flat roofs are afolly against which our climate protests. Michu kept his fodder inthis garret. That portion of the park which surrounds the old pavilionis English in style. A hundred feet from the house a former lake, nowa mere pond well stocked with fish, makes known its vicinity as muchby a thin mist rising above the tree-tops as by the croaking of athousand frogs, toads, and other amphibious gossips who discourse atsunset. The time-worn look of everything, the deep silence of thewoods, the long perspective of the avenue, the forest in the distance, the rusty iron-work, the masses of stone draped with velvet mosses, all made poetry of this old structure, which still exists. At the moment when our history begins Michu was leaning against amossy parapet on which he had laid his powder-horn, cap, handkerchief, screw-driver, and rags, --in fact, all the utensils needed for hissuspicious occupation. His wife's chair was against the wall besidethe outer door of the house, above which could still be seen the armsof the Simeuse family, richly carved, with their noble motto, "Cymeurs. " The old mother, in peasant dress, had moved her chair in frontof Madame Michu, so that the latter might put her feet upon the rungsand keep them from dampness. "Where's the boy?" said Michu to his wife. "Round the pond; he is crazy about the frogs and the insects, "answered the mother. Michu whistled in a way that made his hearers tremble. The rapiditywith which his son ran up to him proved plainly enough the despoticpower of the bailiff of Gondreville. Since 1789, but more especiallysince 1793, Michu had been well-nigh master of the property. Theterror he inspired in his wife, his mother-in-law, a servant-lad namedGaucher, and the cook named Marianne, was shared throughout aneighborhood of twenty miles in circumference. It may be well to give, without further delay, the reasons for this fear, --all the morebecause an account of them will complete the moral portrait of theman. The old Marquis de Simeuse transferred the greater part of hisproperty in 1790; but, overtaken by circumstances, he had not beenable to put the estate of Gondreville into sure hands. Accused ofcorresponding with the Duke of Brunswick and the Prince of Cobourg, the marquis and his wife were thrust into prison and condemned todeath by the revolutionary tribunal of Troyes, of which Madame Michu'sfather was then president. The fine domain of Gondreville was sold asnational property. The head-keeper, to the horror of many, was presentat the execution of the marquis and his wife in his capacity aspresident of the club of Jacobins at Arcis. Michu, the orphan son of apeasant, showered with benefactions by the marquise, who brought himup in her own home and gave him his place as keeper, was regarded as aBrutus by excited demagogues; but the people of the neighborhoodceased to recognize him after this act of base ingratitude. Thepurchaser of the estate was a man from Arcis named Marion, grandson ofa former bailiff in the Simeuse family. This man, a lawyer before andafter the Revolution, was afraid of the keeper; he made him hisbailiff with a salary of three thousand francs, and gave him aninterest in the sales of timber; Michu, who was thought to have someten thousand francs of his own laid by, married the daughter of atanner at Troyes, an apostle of the Revolution in that town, where hewas president of the revolutionary tribunal. This tanner, a man ofprofound convictions, who resembled Saint-Just as to character, wasafterwards mixed up in Baboeuf's conspiracy and killed himself toescape execution. Marthe was the handsomest girl in Troyes. In spiteof her shrinking modesty she had been forced by her formidable fatherto play the part of Goddess of Liberty in some republican ceremony. The new proprietor came only three times to Gondreville in the courseof seven years. His grandfather had been bailiff of the estate underthe Simeuse family, and all Arcis took for granted that the citizenMarion was the secret representative of the present Marquis and histwin brother. As long as the Terror lasted, Michu, still bailiff ofGondreville, a devoted patriot, son-in-law of the president of therevolutionary tribunal of Troyes and flattered by Malin, representative from the department of the Aube, was the object of acertain sort of respect. But when the Mountain was overthrown andafter his father-in-law committed suicide, he found himself ascape-goat; everybody hastened to accuse him, in common with hisfather-in-law, of acts to which, so far as he was concerned, he was atotal stranger. The bailiff resented the injustice of the community;he stiffened his back and took an attitude of hostility. He talkedboldly. But after the 18th Brumaire he maintained an unbroken silence, the philosophy of the strong; he struggled no longer against publicopinion, and contented himself with attending to his own affairs, --wise conduct, which led his neighbors to pronounce him sly, for heowned, it was said, a fortune of not less than a hundred thousandfrancs in landed property. In the first place, he spent nothing; next, this property was legitimately acquired, partly from the inheritanceof his father-in-law's estate, and partly from the savings ofsix-thousand francs a year, the salary he derived from his place withits profits and emoluments. He had been bailiff of Gondreville for thelast twelve years and every one had estimated the probable amount ofhis savings, so that when, after the Consulate was proclaimed, hebought a farm for fifty thousand francs, the suspicions attaching tohis former opinions lessened, and the community of Arcis gave himcredit for intending to recover himself in public estimation. Unfortunately, at the very moment when public opinion was condoninghis past a foolish affair, envenomed by the gossip of thecountry-side, revived the latent and very general belief in theferocity of his character. One evening, coming away from Troyes in company with several peasants, among whom was the farmer at Cinq-Cygne, he let fall a paper on themain road; the farmer, who was walking behind him, stooped and pickedit up. Michu turned round, saw the paper in the man's hands, pulled apistol from his belt and threatened the farmer (who knew how to read)to blow his brains out if he opened the paper. Michu's action was sosudden and violent, the tone of his voice so alarming, his eyes blazedso savagely, that the men about him turned cold with fear. The farmerof Cinq-Cygne was already his enemy. Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, theman's employer, was a cousin of the Simeuse brothers; she had only onefarm left for her maintenance and was now residing at her chateau ofCinq-Cygne. She lived for her cousins the twins, with whom she hadplayed in childhood at Troyes and at Gondreville. Her only brother, Jules de Cinq-Cygne, who emigrated before the twins, died at Mayence, but by a privilege which was somewhat rare and will be mentionedlater, the name of Cinq-Cygne was not to perish through lack of maleheirs. This affair between Michu and the farmer made a great noise in thearrondissement and darkened the already mysterious shadows whichseemed to veil him. Nor was it the only circumstance which made himfeared. A few months after this scene the citizen Marion, presentowner of the Gondreville estate, came to inspect it with the citizenMalin. Rumor said that Marion was about to sell the property to hiscompanion, who had profited by political events and had just beenappointed on the Council of State by the First Consul, in return forhis services on the 18th Brumaire. The shrewd heads of the little townof Arcis now perceived that Marion had been the agent of Malin in thepurchase of the property, and not of the brothers Simeuse, as wasfirst supposed. The all-powerful Councillor of State was the mostimportant personage in Arcis. He had obtained for one of his politicalfriends the prefecture of Troyes, and for a farmer at Gondreville theexemption of his son from the draft; in fact, he had done services tomany. Consequently, the sale met with no opposition in theneighborhood where Malin then reigned, and where he still reignssupreme. The Empire was just dawning. Those who in these days read thehistories of the French Revolution can form no conception of the vastspaces which public thought traversed between events which now seem tohave been so near together. The strong need of peace and tranquillitywhich every one felt after the violent tumults of the Revolutionbrought about a complete forgetfulness of important anterior facts. History matured rapidly under the advance of new and eager interests. No one, therefore, except Michu, looked into the past of this affair, which the community accepted as a simple matter. Marion, who hadbought Gondreville for six hundred thousand francs in assignats, soldit for the value of a couple of million in coin; but the only paymentsactually made by Malin were for the costs of registration. Grevin, aseminary comrade of Malin, assisted the transaction, and theCouncillor rewarded his help with the office of notary at Arcis. Whenthe news of the sale reached the pavilion, brought there by a farmerwhose farm, at Grouage, was situated between the forest and the parkon the left of the noble avenue, Michu turned pale and left the house. He lay in wait for Marion, and finally met him alone in one of theshrubberies of the park. "Is monsieur about to sell Gondreville?" asked the bailiff. "Yes, Michu, yes. You will have a man of powerful influence for yourmaster. He is the friend of the First Consul, and very intimate withall the ministers; he will protect you. " "Then you were holding the estate for him?" "I don't say that, " replied Marion. "At the time I bought it I waslooking for a place to put my money, and I invested in nationalproperty as the best security. But it doesn't suit me to keep anestate once belonging to a family in which my father was--" "--a servant, " said Michu, violently. "But you shall not sell it! Iwant it; and I can pay for it. " "You?" "Yes, I; seriously, in good gold, --eight hundred thousand francs. " "Eight hundred thousand francs!" exclaimed Marion. "Where did you getthem?" "That's none of your business, " replied Michu; then, softening histone, he added in a low voice: "My father-in-law saved the lives ofmany persons. " "You are too late, Michu; the sale is made. " "You must put it off, monsieur!" cried the bailiff, seizing his masterby the hand which he held as in a vice. "I am hated, but I choose tobe rich and powerful, and I must have Gondreville. Listen to me; Idon't cling to life; sell me that place or I'll blow your brainsout!--" "But do give me time to get off my bargain with Malin; he'stroublesome to deal with. " "I'll give you twenty-four hours. If you say a word about this matterI'll chop your head off as I would chop a turnip. " Marion and Malin left the chateau in the course of the night. Marionwas frightened; he told Malin of the meeting and begged him to keep aneye on the bailiff. It was impossible for Marion to avoid deliveringthe property to the man who had been the real purchaser, and Michu didnot seem likely to admit any such reason. Moreover, this service doneby Marion to Malin was to be, and in fact ended by being, the originof the former's political fortune, and also that of his brother. In1806 Malin had him appointed chief justice of an imperial court, andafter the creation of tax-collectors his brother obtained the post ofreceiver-general for the department of the Aube. The State Councillortold Marion to stay in Paris, and he warned the minister of police, who gave orders that Michu should be secretly watched. Not wishing topush the man to extremes, Malin kept him on as bailiff, under the ironrule of Grevin the notary of Arcis. From that moment Michu became more absorbed and taciturn than ever, and obtained the reputation of a man who was capable of committing acrime. Malin, the Councillor of State (a function which the FirstConsul raised to the level of a ministry), and a maker of the Code, played a great part in Paris, where he bought one of the finestmansions in the Faubuorg Saint-Germain after marrying the onlydaughter of a rich contractor named Sibuelle. He never came toGondreville; leaving all matters concerning the property to themanagement of Grevin, the Arcis notary. After all, what had he tofear?--he, a former representative of the Aube, and president of aclub of Jacobins. And yet, the unfavorable opinion of Michu held bythe lower classes was shared by the bourgeoisie, and Marion, Grevin, and Malin, without giving any reason or compromising themselves on thesubject, showed that they regarded him as an extremely dangerous man. The authorities, who were under instructions from the minister ofpolice to watch the bailiff, did not of course lessen this belief. Theneighborhood wondered that he kept his place, but supposed it was inconsequence of the terror he inspired. It is easy now, after theseexplanations, to understand the anxiety and sadness expressed in theface of Michu's wife. In the first place, Marthe had been piously brought up by her mother. Both, being good Catholics, had suffered much from the opinions andbehavior of the tanner. Marthe could never think without a blush ofhaving marched through the street of Troyes in the garb of a goddess. Her father had forced her to marry Michu, whose bad reputation wasthen increasing, and she feared him too much to be able to judge him. Nevertheless, she knew that he loved her, and at the bottom of herheart lay the truest affection for this awe-inspiring man; she hadnever known him to do anything that was not just; never did he say abrutal word, to her at least; in fact, he endeavored to forestall herevery wish. The poor pariah, believing himself disagreeable to hiswife, spent most of his time out of doors. Marthe and Michu, distrustful of each other, lived in what is called in these days an"armed peace. " Marthe, who saw no one, suffered keenly from theostracism which for the last seven years had surrounded her as thedaughter of a revolutionary butcher, and the wife of a so-calledtraitor. More than once she had overheard the laborers of theadjoining farm (held by a man named Beauvisage, greatly attached tothe Simeuse family) say as they passed the pavilion, "That's whereJudas lives!" The singular resemblance between the bailiff's head andthat of the thirteenth apostle, which his conduct appeared to carryout, won him that odious nickname throughout the neighborhood. It wasthis distress of mind, added to vague but constant fears for thefuture, which gave Marthe her thoughtful and subdued air. Nothingsaddens so deeply as unmerited degradation from which there seems noescape. A painter could have made a fine picture of this family ofpariahs in the bosom of their pretty nook in Champagne, where thelandscape is generally sad. "Francois!" called the bailiff, to hasten his son. Francois Michu, a child of ten, played in the park and forest, andlevied his little tithes like a master; he ate the fruits; he chasedthe game; he at least had neither cares nor troubles. Of all thefamily, Francois alone was happy in a home thus isolated from theneighborhood by its position between the park and the forest, and bythe still greater moral solitude of universal repulsion. "Pick up these things, " said his father, pointing to the parapet, "andput them away. Look at me! You love your father and your mother, don'tyou?" The child flung himself on his father as if to kiss him, butMichu made a movement to shift the gun and pushed him back. "Verygood. You have sometimes chattered about things that are done here, "continued the father, fixing his eyes, dangerous as those of awild-cat, on the boy. "Now remember this; if you tell the least littlething that happens here to Gaucher, or to the Grouage and Bellachepeople, or even to Marianne who loves us, you will kill your father. Never tattle again, and I will forgive what you said yesterday. " Thechild began to cry. "Don't cry; but when any one questions you, say, as the peasants do, 'I don't know. ' There are persons roaming aboutwhom I distrust. Run along! As for you two, " he added, turning to thewomen, "you have heard what I said. Keep a close mouth, both of you. " "Husband, what are you going to do?" Michu, who was carefully measuring a charge of powder, poured it intothe barrel of his gun, rested the weapon against the parapet and saidto Marthe:-- "No one knows I own that gun. Stand in front of it. " Couraut, who had sprung to his feet, was barking furiously. "Good, intelligent fellow!" cried Michu. "I am certain there are spiesabout--" Man and beast feel a spy. Couraut and Michu, who seemed to have oneand the same soul, lived together as the Arab and his horse in thedesert. The bailiff knew the modulations of the dog's voice, just asthe dog read his master's meaning in his eyes, or felt it exhaling inthe air from his body. "What do you say to that?" said Michu, in a low voice, calling hiswife's attention to two strangers who appeared in a by-path making forthe _rond-point_. "What can it mean?" cried the old mother. "They are Parisians. " "Here they come!" said Michu. "Hide my gun, " he whispered to his wife. The two men who now crossed the wide open space of the _rond-point_were typical enough for a painter. One, who appeared to be thesubaltern, wore top-boots, turned down rather low, showing well-madecalves, and colored silk stockings of doubtful cleanliness. Thebreeches, of ribbed cloth, apricot color with metal buttons, were toolarge; they were baggy about the body, and the lines of their creasesseemed to indicate a sedentary man. A marseilles waistcoat, overloadedwith embroidery, open, and held together by one button only just abovethe stomach, gave to the wearer a dissipated look, --all the more so, because his jet black hair, in corkscrew curls, hid his forehead andhung down his cheeks. Two steel watch-chains were festooned upon hisbreeches. The shirt was adorned with a cameo in white and blue. Thecoat, cinnamon-colored, was a treasure to caricaturists by reason ofits long tails, which, when seen from behind, bore so perfect aresemblance to a cod that the name of that fish was given to them. Thefashion of codfish tails lasted ten years; almost the whole period ofthe empire of Napoleon. The cravat, loosely fastened, and withnumerous small folds, allowed the wearer to bury his face in it up tothe nostrils. His pimpled skin, his long, thick, brick-dust colorednose, his high cheek-bones, his mouth, lacking half its teeth butgreedy for all that and menacing, his ears adorned with huge goldrings, his low forehead, --all these personal details, which might haveseemed grotesque in many men, were rendered terrible in him by twosmall eyes set in his head like those of a pig, expressive ofinsatiable covetousness, and of insolent, half-jovial cruelty. Theseferreting and perspicacious blue eyes, glassy and glacial, might betaken for the model of that famous Eye, the formidable emblem of thepolice, invented during the Revolution. Black silk gloves were on hishands and he carried a switch. He was certainly some officialpersonage, for he showed in his bearing, in his way of taking snuffand ramming it into his nose, the bureaucratic importance of an officesubordinate, one who signs for his superiors and acquires a passingsovereignty by enforcing their orders. The other man, whose dress was in the same style, but elegant andelegantly put on and careful in its smallest detail, wore boots _a la_Suwaroff which came high upon the leg above a pair of tight trousers, and creaked as he walked. Above his coat he wore a spencer, anaristocratic garment adopted by the Clichiens and the young bloods ofParis, which survived both the Clichiens and the fashionable youths. In those days fashions sometimes lasted longer than parties, --asymptom of anarchy which the year of our Lord 1830 has again presentedto us. This accomplished dandy seemed to be thirty years of age. Hismanners were those of good society; he wore jewels of value; thecollar of his shirt came to the tops of his ears. His conceited andeven impertinent air betrayed a consciousness of hidden superiority. His pallid face seemed bloodless, his thin flat nose had the sardonicexpression which we see in a death's head, and his green eyes wereinscrutable; their glance was discreet in meaning just as the thinclosed mouth was discreet in words. The first man seemed on the wholea good fellow compared with this younger man, who was slashing the airwith a cane, the top of which, made of gold, glittered in thesunshine. The first man might have cut off a head with his own hand, but the second was capable of entangling innocence, virtue, and beautyin the nets of calumny and intrigue, and then poisoning them ordrowning them. The rubicund stranger would have comforted his victimwith a jest; the other was incapable of a smile. The first wasforty-five years old, and he loved, undoubtedly, both women and goodcheer. Such men have passions which keep them slaves to their calling. But the young man was plainly without passions and without vices. If hewas a spy he belonged to diplomacy, and did such work from a pure loveof art. He conceived, the other executed; he was the idea, the otherwas the form. "This must be Gondreville, is it not, my good woman?" said the youngman. "We don't say 'my good woman' here, " said Michu. "We are still simpleenough to say 'citizen' and 'citizeness' in these parts. " "Ah!" exclaimed the young man, in a natural way, and without seemingat all annoyed. Players of ecarte often have a sense of inward disaster when someunknown person sits down at the same table with them, whose manners, look, voice, and method of shuffling the cards, all, to their fancy, foretell defeat. The instant Michu looked at the young man he felt aninward and prophetic collapse. He was struck by a fatal presentiment;he had a sudden confused foreboding of the scaffold. A voice told himthat that dandy would destroy him, although there was nothing whateverin common between them. For this reason his answer was rude; he wasand he wished to be forbidding. "Don't you belong to the Councillor of State, Malin?" said the youngerman. "I am my own master, " answered Malin. "Mesdames, " said the young man, assuming a most polite air, "are wenot at Gondreville? We are expected there by Monsieur Malin. " "There's the park, " said Michu, pointing to the open gate. "Why are you hiding that gun, my fine girl?" said the elder, catchingsight of the carbine as he passed through the gate. "You never let a chance escape you, even in the country!" cried hiscompanion. They both turned back with a sense of distrust which the bailiffunderstood at once in spite of their impassible faces. Marthe let themlook at the gun, to the tune of Couraut's bark; she was so convincedthat her husband was meditating some evil deed that she was thankfulfor the curiosity of the strangers. Michu flung a look at his wife which made her tremble; he took the gunand began to load it, accepting quietly the fatal ill-luck of thisencounter and the discovery of the weapon. He seemed no longer to carefor life, and his wife fathomed his inward feeling. "So you have wolves in these parts?" said the young man, watching him. "There are always wolves where there are sheep. You are in Champagne, and there's a forest; we have wild-boars, large and small game both, alittle of everything, " replied Michu, in a truculent manner. "I'll bet, Corentin, " said the elder of the two men, after exchanginga glance with his companion, "that this is my friend Michu--" "We never kept pigs together that I know of, " said the bailiff. "No, but we both presided over Jacobins, citizen, " replied the oldcynic, --"you at Arcis, I elsewhere. I see you've kept your Carmagnolecivility, but it's no longer in fashion, my good fellow. " "The park strikes me as rather large; we might lose our way. If youare really the bailiff show us the path to the chateau, " saidCorentin, in a peremptory tone. Michu whistled to his son and continued to load his gun. Corentinlooked at Marthe with indifference, while his companion seemed charmedby her; but the young man noticed the signs of her inward distress, which escaped the old libertine, who had, however, noticed and fearedthe gun. The natures of the two men were disclosed in this triflingyet important circumstance. "I've an appointment the other side of the forest, " said the bailiff. "I can't go with you, but my son here will take you to the chateau. How did you get to Gondreville? did you come by Cinq-Cygne?" "We had, like yourself, business in the forest, " said Corentin, without apparent sarcasm. "Francois, " cried Michu, "take these gentlemen to the chateau by thewood path, so that no one sees them; they don't follow the beatentracks. Come here, " he added, as the strangers turned to walk away, talking together as they did so in a low voice. Michu caught the boyin his arms, and kissed him almost solemnly with an expression whichconfirmed his wife's fears; cold chills ran down her back; she glancedat her mother with haggard eyes, for she could not weep. "Go, " said Michu; and he watched the boy until he was entirely out ofsight. Couraut was barking on the other side of the road in thedirection of Grouage. "Oh, that's Violette, " remarked Michu. "This isthe third time that old fellow has passed here to-day. What's in thewind? Hush, Couraut!" A few moments later the trot of a pony was heard approaching. CHAPTER II A CRIME RELINQUISHED Violette, mounted on one of those little nags which the farmers in theneighborhood of Paris use so much, soon appeared, wearing a round hatwith a broad brim, beneath which his wood-colored face, deeplywrinkled, appeared in shadow. His gray eyes, mischievous and lively, concealed in a measure the treachery of his nature. His skinny legs, covered with gaiters of white linen which came to the knee, hungrather than rested in the stirrups, seemingly held in place by theweight of his hob-nailed shoes. Above his jacket of blue cloth he worea cloak of some coarse woollen stuff woven in black and white stripes. His gray hair fell in curls behind his ears. This dress, the grayhorse with its short legs, the manner in which Violette sat him, stomach projecting and shoulders thrown back, the big chapped handswhich held the shabby bridle, all depicted him plainly as thegrasping, ambitious peasant who desires to own land and buys it at anyprice. His mouth, with its bluish lips parted as if a surgeon hadpried them open with a scalpel, and the innumerable wrinkles of hisface and forehead hindered the play of features which were expressiveonly in their outlines. Those hard, fixed lines seemed menacing, inspite of the humility which country-folks assume and beneath whichthey conceal their emotions and schemes, as savages and Easterns hidetheirs behind an imperturbable gravity. First a mere laborer, then thefarmer of Grouage through a long course of persistent ill-doing, hecontinued his evil practices after conquering a position whichsurpassed his early hopes. He wished harm to all men and wished itvehemently. When he could assist in doing harm he did it eagerly. Hewas openly envious; but, no matter how malignant he might be, he keptwithin the limits of the law, --neither beyond it nor behind it, like aparliamentary opposition. He believed his prosperity depended on theruin of others, and that whoever was above him was an enemy againstwhom all weapons were good. A character like this is very common amongthe peasantry. Violette's present business was to obtain from Malin an extension ofthe lease of his farm, which had only six years longer to run. Jealousof the bailiff's means, he watched him narrowly. The neighborsreproached him for his intimacy with "Judas"; but the sly old farmer, wishing to obtain a twelve years' lease, was really lying in wait foran opportunity to serve either the government or Malin, who distrustedMichu. Violette, by the help of the game-keeper of Gondreville andothers belonging to the estate, kept Malin informed of all Michu'sactions. Malin had endeavored, fruitlessly, to win over Marianne, theMichus' servant-woman; but Violette and his satellites heardeverything from Gaucher, --a lad on whose fidelity Michu relied, butwho betrayed him for cast-off clothing, waistcoats, buckles, cottonsocks and sugar-plums. The boy had no suspicion of the importance ofhis gossip. Violette in his reports blackened all Michu's actions andgave them a criminal aspect by absurd suggestions, --unknown, ofcourse, to the bailiff, who was aware, however, of the base partplayed by the farmer, and took delight in mystifying him. "You must have a deal of business at Bellache to be here again, " saidMichu. "Again! is that meant as a reproach, Monsieur Michu?--Hey! I did notknow you had that gun. You are not going to whistle for the sparrowson that pipe, I suppose--" "It grew in a field of mine which bears guns, " replied Michu. "Look!this is how I sow them. " The bailiff took aim at a viper thirty feet away and cut it in two. "Have you got that bandit's weapon to protect your master?" saidViolette. "Perhaps he gave it to you. " "He came from Paris expressly to bring it to me, " replied Michu. "People are talking all round the neighborhood of this journey of his;some say he is in disgrace and has to retire from office; others thathe wants to see things for himself down here. But anyway, why does hecome, like the First Consul, without giving warning? Did you know hewas coming?" "I am not on such terms with him as to be in his confidence. " "Then you have not seen him?" "I did not know he was here till I got back from my rounds in theforest, " said Michu, reloading his gun. "He has sent to Arcis for Monsieur Grevin, " said Violette; "they arescheming something. " "If you are going round by Cinq-Cygne, take me up behind you, " saidthe bailiff. "I'm going there. " Violette was too timid to have a man of Michu's strength on hiscrupper, and he spurred his beast. Judas slung his gun over hisshoulder and walked rapidly up the avenue. "Who can it be that Michu is angry with?" said Marthe to her mother. "Ever since he heard of Monsieur Malin's arrival he has been gloomy, "replied the old woman. "But it is getting damp here, let us go in. " After the two women had settled themselves in the chimney corner theyheard Couraut's bark. "There's my husband returning!" cried Marthe. Michu passed up the stairs; his wife, uneasy, followed him to theirbedroom. "See if any one is about, " he said to her, in a voice of some emotion. "No one, " she replied. "Marianne is in the field with the cow, andGaucher--" "Where is Gaucher?" he asked. "I don't know. " "I distrust that little scamp. Go up in the garret, look in thehay-loft, look everywhere for him. " Marthe left the room to obey the order. When she returned she foundMichu on his knees, praying. "What is the matter?" she said, frightened. The bailiff took his wife round the waist and drew her to him, sayingin a voice of deep feeling: "If we never see each other againremember, my poor wife, that I loved you well. Follow minutely theinstructions which you will find in a letter buried at the foot of thelarch in that copse. It is enclosed in a tin tube. Do not touch ituntil after my death. And remember, Marthe, whatever happens to me, that in spite of man's injustice, my arm has been the instrument ofthe justice of God. " Marthe, who turned pale by degrees, became white as her own linen; shelooked at her husband with fixed eyes widened by fear; she tried tospeak, but her throat was dry. Michu disappeared like a shadow, havingtied Couraut to the foot of his bed where the dog, after the manner ofall dogs, howled in despair. Michu's anger against Monsieur Marion had serious grounds, but it wasnow concentrated on another man, far more criminal in his eyes, --onMalin, whose secrets were known to the bailiff, he being in a betterposition than others to understand the conduct of the StateCouncillor. Michu's father-in-law had had, politically speaking, theconfidence of the former representative to the Convention, throughGrevin. Perhaps it would be well here to relate the circumstances whichbrought the Simeuse and the Cinq-Cygne families into connection withMalin, --circumstances which weighed heavily on the fate ofMademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne's twin cousins, but still more heavily onthat of Marthe and Michu. The Cinq-Cygne mansion at Troyes stands opposite to that of Simeuse. When the populace, incited by minds that were as shrewd as they werecautious, pillaged the hotel Simeuse, discovered the marquis andmarchioness, who were accused of corresponding with the nation'senemies, and delivered them to the national guards who took them toprison, the crowd shouted, "Now for the Cinq-Cygnes!" To their mindsthe Cinq-Cygnes were as guilty as other aristocrats. The brave andworthy Monsieur de Simeuse in the endeavor to save his two sons, theneighteen years of age, whose courage was likely to compromise them, had confided them, a few hours before the storm broke, to their aunt, the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne. Two servants attached to the Simeusefamily accompanied the young men to her house. The old marquis, whowas anxious that his name should not die out, requested that what washappening might be concealed from his sons, even in the event of diredisaster. Laurence, the only daughter of the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne, was then twelve years of age; her cousins both loved her and she lovedthem equally. Like other twins the Simeuse brothers were so alike thatfor a long while their mother dressed them in different colors to knowthem apart. The first comer, the eldest, was named Paul-Marie, theother Marie-Paul. Laurence de Cinq-Cygne, to whom their danger wasrevealed, played her woman's part well though still a mere child. Shecoaxed and petted her cousins and kept them occupied until the verymoment when the populace surrounded the Cinq-Cygne mansion. The twobrothers then knew their danger for the first time, and looked at eachother. Their resolution was instantly taken; they armed their ownservants and those of the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne, barricaded thedoors, and stood guard at the windows, after closing the woodenblinds, with the five men-servants and the Abbe d'Hauteserre, arelative of the Cinq-Cygnes. These eight courageous champions poured adeadly fire into the crowd. Every shot killed or wounded an assailant. Laurence, instead of wringing her hands, loaded the guns withextraordinary coolness, and passed the balls and powder to those whoneeded them. The Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne was on her knees. "What are you doing, mother?" said Laurence. "I am praying, " she answered, "for them and for you. " Sublime words, --said also by the mother of Godoy, prince of the Peace, in Spain, under similar circumstances. In a moment eleven persons were killed and lying on the ground among anumber of wounded. Such results either cool or excite a populace;either it grows savage at the work or discontinues it. On the presentoccasion those in advance recoiled; but the crowd behind them werethere to kill and rob, and when they saw their own dead, they criedout: "Murder! Murder! Revenge!" The wiser heads went in search of therepresentative to the Convention, Malin. The twins, by this time awareof the disastrous events of the day, suspected Malin of desiring theruin of their family, and of causing the arrest of their parents, andthe suspicion soon became a certainty. They posted themselves beneaththe porte-cochere, gun in hand, intending to kill Malin as soon as hemade his appearance; but the countess lost her head; she imagined herhouse in ashes and her daughter assassinated, and she blamed the youngmen for their heroic defence and compelled them to desist. It wasLaurence who opened the door slightly when Malin summoned thehousehold to admit him. Seeing her, the representative relied upon theawe he expected to inspire in a mere child, and he entered the house. To his first words of inquiry as to why the family were making such aresistance, the girl replied: "If you really desire to give liberty toFrance how is it that you do not protect us in our homes? They aretrying to tear down this house, monsieur, to murder us, and you say wehave no right to oppose force to force!" Malin stood rooted to the ground. "You, the son of a mason employed by the Grand Marquis to build hiscastle!" exclaimed Marie-Paul, "you have let them drag our father toprison--you have believed calumnies!" "He shall be released at once, " said Malin, who thought himself lostwhen he saw each youth clutch his weapon convulsively. "You owe your life to that promise, " said Marie-Paul, solemnly. "If itis not fulfilled to-night we shall find you again. " "As to that howling populace, " said Laurence, "If you do not send themaway, the next blood will be yours. Now, Monsieur Malin, leave thishouse!" The Conventionalist did leave it, and he harangued the crowd, dwellingon the sacred rights of the domestic hearth, the habeas corpus and theEnglish "home. " He told them that the law and the people weresovereigns, that the law _was_ the people, and that the people couldonly act through the law, and that power was vested in the law. Theparticular law of personal necessity made him eloquent, and he managedto disperse the crowd. But he never forgot the contemptuous expressionof the two brothers, nor the "Leave this house!" of Mademoiselle deCinq-Cygne. Therefore, when it was a question of selling the estatesof the Comte de Cinq-Cygne, Laurence's brother, as national property, the sale was rigorously made. The agents left nothing for Laurence butthe chateau, the park and gardens, and one farm called that ofCinq-Cygne. Malin instructed the appraisers that Laurence had no rightsbeyond her legal share, --the nation taking possession of all thatbelonged to her brother, who had emigrated and, above all, had bornearms against the Republic. The evening after this terrible tumult, Laurence so entreated hercousins to leave the country, fearing treachery on the part of Malin, or some trap into which they might fall, that they took horse thatnight and gained the Prussian outposts. They had scarcely reached theforest of Gondreville before the hotel Cinq-Cygne was surrounded;Malin came himself to arrest the heirs of the house of Simeuse. Hedared not lay hands on the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne, who was in bed witha nervous fever, nor on Laurence, a child of twelve. The servants, fearing the severity of the Republic, had disappeared. The next daythe news of the resistance of the brothers and their flight to Prussiawas known to the neighborhood. A crowd of three thousand personsassembled before the hotel de Cinq-Cygne, which was demolished withincredible rapidity. Madame de Cinq-Cygne, carried to the hotelSimeuse, died there from the effects of the fever aggravated byterror. Michu did not appear in the political arena until after these events, for the marquis and his wife remained in prison over five months. During this time Malin was away on a mission. But when Monsieur Marionsold Gondreville to the Councillor of State, Michu understood thelatter's game, --or rather, he thought he did; for Malin was, likeFouche, one of those personages who are of such depth in all theirdifferent aspects that they are impenetrable when they play a part, and are never understood until long after their drama is ended. In all the chief circumstances of Malin's life he had never failed toconsult his faithful friend Grevin, the notary of Arcis, whosejudgment on men and things was, at a distance, clear-cut and precise. This faculty is the wisdom and makes the strength of second-rate men. Now, in November, 1803, a combination of events (already related inthe "Depute d'Arcis") made matters so serious for the Councillor ofState that a letter might have compromised the two friends. Malin, whohoped to be appointed senator, was afraid to offer his explanations inParis. He came to Gondreville, giving the First Consul only one of thereasons that made him wish to be there; that reason gave him anappearance of zeal in the eyes of Bonaparte; whereas his journey, farfrom concerning the interests of the State, related to his owninterests only. On this particular day, as Michu was watching the parkand expecting, after the manner of a red Indian, a propitious momentfor his vengeance, the astute Malin, accustomed to turn all events tohis own profit, was leading his friend Grevin to a little field in theEnglish garden, a lonely spot in the park, favorable for a secretconference. There, standing in the centre of the grass plot andspeaking low, the friends were at too great a distance to be overheardif any one were lurking near enough to listen to them; they were alsosure of time to change the conversation if others unwarily approached. "Why couldn't we have stayed in a room in the chateau?" asked Grevin. "Didn't you take notice of those two men whom the prefect of policehas sent here to me?" Though Fouche made himself in the matter of the Pichegru, Georges, Moreau, and Polignac conspiracy the soul of the Consular cabinet, hedid not at this time control the ministry of police, but was merely acouncillor of State like Malin. "Those men, " continued Malin, "are Fouche's two arms. One, that dandyCorentin, whose face is like a glass of lemonade, vinegar on his lipsand verjuice in his eyes, put an end to the insurrection at the Westin the year VII. In less than fifteen days. The other is a disciple ofLenoir; he is the only one who preserves the great traditions of thepolice. I had asked for an agent of no great account, backed by someofficial personage, and they send me those past-masters of thebusiness! Ah, Grevin, Fouche wants to pry into my game. That's why Ileft those fellows dining at the chateau; they may look intoeverything for all I care; they won't find Louis XVIII. Nor any signof him. " "But see here, my dear fellow, what game are you playing?" criedGrevin. "Ha, my friend, a double game is a dangerous one, but this, takingFouche into account, is a triple one. He may have nosed the fact thatI am in the secrets of the house of Bourbon. " "You?" "I, " replied Malin. "Have you forgotten Favras?" The words made an impression on the councillor. "Since when?" asked Grevin, after a pause. "Since the Consulate for life. " "I hope there's no proof of it?" "Not that!" said Malin, clicking his thumb-nail against his teeth. In few words the Councillor of State gave a clear and succinct accountof the critical position in which Bonaparte was about to hold England, by threatening her with invasion from the camp at Boulogne; heexplained to Grevin the bearings of that project, which was unobservedby France and Europe but suspected by Pitt; also the critical positionin which England was about to put Bonaparte. A powerful coalition, Prussia, Austria, and Russia, paid by English gold, was pledged tofurnish seven hundred thousand men under arms. At the same time aformidable conspiracy was throwing a network over the whole of France, including among its members montagnards, chouans, royalists, and theirprinces. "Louis XVIII. Held that as long as there were three Consuls anarchywas certain, and that he could at some opportune moment take hisrevenge for the 13th Vendemiaire and the 18th Fructidor, " said Malin, "but the Consulate for life has unmasked Bonaparte's intentions--hewill soon be emperor. The late sub-lieutenant means to create adynasty! This time his life is in actual danger; and the plot is farbetter laid than that of the Rue Saint-Nicaise. Pichegru, Georges, Moreau, the Duc d'Enghien, Polignac and Riviere, the two friends ofthe Comte d'Artois are in it. " "What an amalgamation!" cried Grevin. "France is being silently invaded; no stone is left unturned; thething will be carried with a rush. A hundred picked men, commanded byGeorges, are to attack the Consular guard and the Consul hand tohand. " "Well then, denounce them. " "For the last two months the Consul, his minister of police, theprefect and Fouche, hold some of the clues of this vast conspiracy;but they don't know its full extent, and at this particular momentthey are leaving nearly all the conspirators free, so as to discovermore about it. " "As to rights, " said the notary, "the Bourbons have much more right toconceive, plan, and execute a scheme against Bonaparte, than Bonapartehad on the 18th Brumaire against the Republic, whose product he was. He murdered his mother on that occasion, but these royalists only seekto recover what was theirs. I can understand that the princes andtheir adherents, seeing the lists of the _emigres_ closed, mortgagessuppressed, the Catholic faith restored, anti-revolutionary decreesaccumulating, should begin to see that their return is becomingdifficult, not to say impossible. Bonaparte being the sole obstaclenow in their way, they want to get rid of him--nothing simpler. Conspirators if defeated are brigands, if successful, heroes; and yourperplexity seems to me very natural. " "The matter now is, " said Malin, "to make Bonaparte fling the head ofthe Duc d'Enghien at the Bourbons, just as the Convention flung thehead of Louis XVI. At the kings, so as to commit him as fully as weare to the Revolution; _or else_, we must upset the idol of the Frenchpeople and their future emperor, and seat the true throne upon hisruins. I am at the mercy of some event, some fortunate pistol-shot, some infernal machine which does its work. Even I don't know the wholeconspiracy; they don't tell me all; but they have asked me to call theCouncil of State at the critical moment and direct its action towardsthe restoration of the Bourbons. " "Wait, " said the notary. "Impossible! I am compelled to make my decision at once. " "Why?" "Well, the Simeuse brothers are in the conspiracy; they are here inthe neighborhood; I must either have them watched, let them compromisethemselves, and so be rid of them, or else I must privately protectthem. I asked the prefect for underlings and he has sent me lynxes, who came through Troyes and have got the gendarmerie to support them. " "Gondreville is your real object, " said Grevin, "and this conspiracyyour best chance of keeping it. Fouche, Talleyrand, and those twofellows have nothing to do with that. Therefore play fair with them. What nonsense! those who cut Louis XVI. 's head off are in thegovernment; France is full of men who have bought national property, and yet you talk of bringing back those who would require you to giveup Gondreville! If the Bourbons were not imbeciles they would pass asponge over all we have done. Warn Bonaparte, that's my advice. " "A man of my rank can't denounce, " said Malin, quickly. "Your rank!" exclaimed Grevin, smiling. "They have offered to make me Keeper of the Seals. " "Ah! Now I understand your bewilderment, and it is for me to see clearin this political darkness and find a way out for you. Now, it isquite impossible to foresee what events may happen to bring back theBourbons when a General Bonaparte is in possession of eighty line ofbattle ships and four hundred thousand men. The most difficult thingof all in expectant politics is to know when a power that totters willfall; but, my old man, Bonaparte's power is not tottering, it is inthe ascendant. Don't you think that Fouche may be sounding you so asto get to the bottom of your mind, and then get rid of you?" "No; I am sure of my go-between. Besides, Fouche would never, underthose circumstances, send me such fellows as these; he would know theywould make me suspicious. " "They alarm me, " said Grevin. "If Fouche does not distrust you, and isnot seeking to probe you, why does he send them? Fouche doesn't playsuch a trick as that without a motive; what is it?" "What decides me, " said Malin, "is that I should never be easy withthose two Simeuse brothers in France. Perhaps Fouche, who knows how Iam placed towards them, wants to make sure they don't escape him, andhopes through them to reach the Condes. " "That's right, old fellow; it is not under Bonaparte that the presentpossessor of Gondreville can be ousted. " Just then Malin, happening to look up, saw the muzzle of a gun throughthe foliage of a tall linden. "I was not mistaken, I thought I heard the click of a trigger, " hesaid to Grevin, after getting behind the trunk of a large tree, wherethe notary, uneasy at his friend's sudden movement, followed him. "It is Michu, " said Grevin; "I see his red beard. " "Don't let us seem afraid, " said Malin, who walked slowly away, sayingat intervals: "Why is that man so bitter against the owners of thisproperty? It was not you he was covering. If he overheard us he hadbetter ask the prayers of the congregation! Who the devil would havethought of looking up into the trees!" "There's always something to learn, " said the notary. "But he was agood distance off, and we spoke low. " "I shall tell Corentin about it, " replied Malin. CHAPTER III THE MASK THROWN OFF A few moments later Michu returned home, his face pale, his featurescontracted. "What is the matter?" said his wife, frightened. "Nothing, " he replied, seeing Violette whose presence silenced him. Michu took a chair and sat down quietly before the fire, into which hethrew a letter which he drew from a tin tube such as are given tosoldiers to hold their papers. This act, which enabled Marthe to drawa long breath like one relieved of a great burden, greatly puzzledViolette. The bailiff laid his gun on the mantel-shelf with admirablecomposure. Marianne the servant, and Marthe's mother were spinning bythe light of a lamp. "Come, Francois, " said the father, presently, "it is time to go tobed. " He lifted the boy roughly by the middle of his body and carried himoff. "Run down to the cellar, " he whispered, when they reached the stairs. "Empty one third out of two bottles of the Macon wine, and fill themup with the Cognac brandy which is on the shelf. Then mix a bottle ofwhite wine with one half brandy. Do it neatly, and put the threebottles on the empty cask which stands by the cellar door. When youhear me open the window in the kitchen come out of the cellar, run tothe stable, saddle my horse, mount it, and go and wait for me atPoteaudes-Gueux--That little scamp hates to go to bed, " said Michu, returning; "he likes to do as grown people do, see all, hear all, andknow all. You spoil my people, pere Violette. " "Goodness!" cried Violette, "what has loosened your tongue? I neverheard you say as much before. " "Do you suppose I let myself be spied upon without taking notice ofit? You are on the wrong side, pere Violette. If, instead of servingthose who hate me, you were on my side I could do better for you thanrenew that lease of yours. " "How?" said the peasant, opening wide his avaricious eyes. "I'll sell you my property cheap. " "Nothing is cheap when we have to pay, " said Violette, sententiously. "I want to leave the neighborhood, and I'll let you have my farm ofMousseau, the buildings, granary, and cattle for fifty thousandfrancs. " "Really?" "Does that suit you?" "Hang it! I must think--" "We'll talk about it--I shall want earnest money. " "I have no money. " "Well, a note. " "Can't give it. " "Tell me who sent you here to-day. " "I am on my way back from where I spent this afternoon, and I onlystopped in to say good-evening. " "Back without your horse? What a fool you must take me for! You arelying, and you shall not have my farm. " "Well, to tell you the truth, it was monsieur Grevin who sent me. Hesaid 'Violette, we want Michu; do you go and get him; if he isn't athome, wait for him. ' I saw I should have to stay here all thisevening. " "Are those sharks from Paris still at the chateau?" "Ah! that I don't know; but there were people in the salon. " "You shall have my farm; we'll settle the terms now. Wife, go and getsome wine to wash down the contract. Take the best Roussillon, thewine of the ex-marquis, --we are not babes. You'll find a couple ofbottles on the empty cask near the door, and a bottle of white wine. " "Very good, " said Violette, who never got drunk. "Let us drink. " "You have fifty thousand francs beneath the floor of your bedroomunder your bed, pere Violette; you will give them to me two weeksafter we sign the deed of sale before Grevin--" Violette stared atMichu and grew livid. "Ah! you came here to spy upon a Jacobin who hadthe honor to be president of the club at Arcis, and you imagine hewill let you get the better of him! I have eyes, I saw where yourtiles have been freshly cemented, and I concluded that you did not prythem up to plant wheat there. Come, drink. " Violette, much troubled, drank a large glass of wine without noticingthe quality; terror had put a hot iron in his stomach, the brandy wasnot hotter than his cupidity. He would have given many things to besafely home and able to change the hiding-place of his treasure. Thethree women smiled. "Do you like that wine?" said Michu, refilling his glass. "Yes, I do. " After a good half-hour's decision on the time when the buyer mighttake possession, and on the various punctilios which the peasantrybring forward when concluding a bargain, --in the midst of assertionsand counter-assertions, the filling and emptying of glasses, thegiving of promises and denials, Violette suddenly fell forward withhis head on the table, not tipsy, but dead-drunk. The instant thatMichu saw his eyes blur he opened the window. "Where's that scamp, Gaucher?" he said to his wife. "In bed. " "You, Marianne, " said the bailiff to his faithful servant, "stand infront of his door and watch him. You, mother, stay down here, and keepan eye on this spy; keep your eyes and ears open and don't unfastenthe door to any one but Francois. It is a question of life or death, "he added, in a deep voice. "Every creature beneath my roof mustremember that I have not quitted it this night; all of you must assertthat--even though your heads were on the block. Come, " he said toMarthe, "come, wife, put on your shoes, take your coat, and let us beoff! No questions--I go with you. " For the last three quarters of an hour the man's demeanor and glancewere of despotic authority, all-powerful, irresistible, drawn from thesame mysterious source from which great generals on fields of battlewho inflame an army, great orators inspiring vast audiences, and (itmust be said) great criminals perpetrating bold crimes derive theirinspiration. At such times invincible influence seems to exhale fromthe head and issue from the tongue; the gesture even can inject thewill of the one man into others. The three women knew that somedreadful crisis was at hand; without warning of its nature they feltit in the rapid actions of the man, whose countenance shone, whoseforehead spoke, whose brilliant eyes glittered like stars; they saw itin the sweat that covered his brow to the roots of his hair, whilemore than once his voice vibrated with impatience and fury. Martheobeyed passively. Armed to the teeth and with his gun over hisshoulder Michu dashed into the avenue, followed by his wife. They soonreached the cross-roads where Francois was in waiting hidden among thebushes. "The boy is intelligent, " said Michu, when he caught sight of him. These were his first words. His wife had rushed after him, unable tospeak. "Go back to the house, hide in a thick tree, and watch the country andthe park, " he said to his son. "We have all gone to bed, no one isstirring. Your grandmother will not open the door until you ask her tolet you in. Remember every word I say to you. The life of your fatherand mother depends on it. No one must know we did not sleep at home. " After whispering these words to the boy, who instantly disappeared inthe forest like an eel in the mud, Michu turned to his wife. "Mount behind me, " he said, "and pray that God be with us. Sit firm, the beast may die of it. " So saying he kicked the horse with bothheels, pressing him with his powerful knees, and the animal sprangforward with the rapidity of a hunter, seeming to understand what hismaster wanted of him, and crossed the forest in fifteen minutes. ThenMichu, who had not swerved from the shortest way, pulled up, found aspot at the edge of the woods from which he could see the roofs of thechateau of Cinq-Cygne lighted by the moon, tied his horse to a tree, and followed by his wife, gained a little eminence which overlookedthe valley. The chateau, which Marthe and Michu looked at together for a moment, makes a charming effect in the landscape. Though it has little extentand is of no importance whatever as architecture, yet archaeologicallyit is not without a certain interest. This old edifice of thefifteenth century, placed on an eminence, surrounded on all sides by amoat, or rather by deep, wide ditches always full of water, is builtin cobble-stones buried in cement, the walls being seven feet thick. Its simplicity recalls the rough and warlike life of feudal days. Thechateau, plain and unadorned, has two large reddish towers at eitherend, connected by a long main building with casement windows, thestone mullions of which, being roughly carved, bear some resemblanceto vine-shoots. The stairway is outside the house, at the middle, in asort of pentagonal tower entered through a small arched door. Theinterior of the ground-floor together with the rooms on the firststorey were modernized in the time of Louis XIV. , and the wholebuilding is surmounted by an immense roof broken by casement windowswith carved triangular pediments. Before the castle lies a vast greensward the trees of which had recently been cut down. On either side ofthe entrance bridge are two small dwellings where the gardeners live, connected across the road by a paltry iron railing without character, evidently modern. To right and left of the lawn, which is divided intwo by a paved road-way, are the stables, cow-sheds, barns, wood-house, bakery, poultry-yard, and the offices, placed in what weredoubtless the remains of two wings of the old building similar tothose that were still standing. The two large towers, with theirpepper-pot roofs which had not been rased, and the belfry of themiddle tower, gave an air of distinction to the village. The church, also very old, showed near by its pointed steeple, which harmonizedwell with the solid masses of the castle. The moon brought out in fullrelief the various roofs and towers on which it played and sparkled. Michu gazed at this baronial structure in a manner that upset all hiswife's ideas about him; his face, now calm, wore a look of hope andalso a sort of pride. His eyes scanned the horizon with a glance ofdefiance; he listened for sounds in the air. It was now nine o'clock;the moon was beginning to cast its light upon the margin of the forestand to illumine the little bluff on which they stood. The positionstruck him as dangerous and he left it, fearful of being seen. But nosuspicious noise troubled the peace of the beautiful valley encircledon this side by the forest of Nodesme. Marthe, exhausted andtrembling, was awaiting some explanation of their hurried ride. Whatwas she engaged in? Was she to aid in a good deed or an evil one? Atthat instant Michu bent to his wife's ear and whispered:-- "Go the house and ask to speak to the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne; when yousee her beg her to speak to you alone. If no one can overhear you, sayto her: 'Mademoiselle, the lives of your two cousins are in danger, and he who can explain the how and why is waiting to speak to you. ' Ifshe seems afraid, if she distrusts you, add these words: 'They areconspiring against the First Consul and the conspiracy is discovered. 'Don't give your name; they distrust us too much. " Marthe raised her face towards her husband and said:-- "Can it be that you serve them?" "What if I do?" he said, frowning, taking her words as a reproach. "You don't understand me, " cried Marthe, seizing his large hand andfalling on her knees beside him as she kissed it and covered it withher tears. "Go, go, you shall cry later, " he said, kissing her vehemently. When he no longer heard her step his eyes filled with tears. He haddistrusted Marthe on account of her father's opinions; he had hiddenthe secrets of his life from her; but the beauty of her simple naturehad suddenly appeared to him, just as the grandeur of his had, assuddenly, revealed itself to her. Marthe had passed in a moment fromthe deep humiliation caused by the degradation of the man whose nameshe bore, to the exaltation given by a sense of his nobleness. Thechange was instantaneous, without transition; it was enough to makeher tremble. She told him later that she went, as it were, throughblood from the pavilion to the edge of the forest, and there waslifted to heaven, in a moment, among the angels. Michu, who had knownhe was not appreciated, and who mistook his wife's grieved andmelancholy manner for lack of affection, and had left her to herself, living chiefly out of doors and reserving all his tenderness for hisboy, instantly understood the meaning of her tears. She had cursed thepart which her beauty and her father's will had forced her to take;but now happiness, in the midst of this great storm, played, with abeautiful flame like a vivid lightning about them. And it waslightning! Each thought of the last ten years of misconception, andthey blamed themselves only. Michu stood motionless, his elbow on hisgun, his chin on his hand, lost in deep reverie. Such a moment in aman's life makes him willing to accept the saddest moments of apainful past. Marthe, agitated by the same thoughts as those of her husband, wasalso troubled in heart by the danger of the Simeuse brothers; for shenow understood all, even the faces of the two Parisians, though shestill could not explain to herself her husband's gun. She dartedforward like a doe, and soon reached the road to the chateau. Thereshe was surprised by the steps of a man following behind her; sheturned, with a cry, and her husband's large hand closed her mouth. "From the hill up there I saw the silver lace of the gendarmes' hats. Go in by the breach in the moat between Mademoiselle's tower and thestables. The dogs won't bark at you. Go through the garden and callthe countess by the window; order them to saddle her horse, and askher to come out through the breach. I'll be there, after discoveringwhat the Parisians are planning, and how to escape them. " Danger, which seemed to be rolling like an avalanche upon them, gavewings to Marthe's feet. CHAPTER IV LAURENCE DE CINQ-CYGNE The old Frank name of the Cinq-Cygnes and the Chargeboeufs wasDuineff. Cinq-Cygne became that of the younger branch of theChargeboeufs after the defence of a castle made, during their father'sabsence, by five daughters of that race, all remarkably fair, and ofwhom no one expected such heroism. One of the first Comtes deChampagne wished, by bestowing this pretty name, to perpetuate thememory of their deed as long as the family existed. Laurence, the lastof her race, was, contrary to Salic law, heiress of the name, thearms, and the manor. She was therefore Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne in herown right; her husband would have to take both her name and herblazon, which bore for device the glorious answer made by the elder ofthe five sisters when summoned to surrender the castle, "We diesinging. " Worthy descendant of these noble heroines, Laurence was fairand lily-white as though nature had made her for a wager. The lines ofher blue veins could be seen through the delicate close texture of herskin. Her beautiful golden hair harmonized delightfully with eyes ofthe deepest blue. Everything about her belonged to the type ofdelicacy. Within that fragile though active body, and in defiance asit were of its pearly whiteness, lived a soul like that of a man ofnoble nature; but no one, not even a close observer, would havesuspected it from the gentle countenance and rounded features which, when seen in profile, bore some slight resemblance to those of a lamb. This extreme gentleness, though noble, had something of the stupidityof the little animal. "I look like a dreamy sheep, " she would say, smiling. Laurence, who talked little, seemed not so much dreamy asdormant. But, did any important circumstance arise, the hidden Judithwas revealed, sublime; and circumstances had, unfortunately, not beenwanting. At thirteen years of age, Laurence, after the events already related, was an orphan living in a house opposite to the empty space where sorecently had stood one of the most curious specimens in France ofsixteenth-century architecture, the hotel Cinq-Cygne. Monsieurd'Hauteserre, her relation, now her guardian, took the young heiressto live in the country at her chateau of Cinq-Cygne. That braveprovincial gentleman, alarmed at the death of his brother, the Abbed'Hauteserre, who was shot in the open square as he was about toescape in the dress of a peasant, was not in a position to defend theinterests of his ward. He had two sons in the army of the princes, andevery day, at the slightest unusual sound, he believed that themunicipals of Arcis were coming to arrest him. Laurence, proud ofhaving sustained a siege and of possessing the historic whiteness ofher swan-like ancestors, despised the prudent cowardice of the old manwho bent to the storm, and dreamed only of distinguishing herself. So, she boldly hung the portrait of Charlotte Corday on the walls of herpoor salon at Cinq-Cygne, and crowned it with oak-leaves. Shecorresponded by messenger with her twin cousins, in defiance of thelaw, which punished the act, when discovered, with death. Themessenger, who risked his life, brought back the answers. Laurencelived only, after the catastrophes at Troyes, for the triumph of theroyal cause. After soberly judging Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre(who lived with her at the chateau de Cinq-Cygne), and recognizingtheir honest, but stolid natures, she put them outside the lines ofher own life. She had, moreover, too good a mind and too sound ajudgment to complain of their natures; always kind, amiable, andaffectionate towards them, she nevertheless told them none of hersecrets. Nothing forms a character so much as the practice of constantconcealment in the bosom of a family. After she attained her majority Laurence allowed Monsieur d'Hauteserreto manage her affairs as in the past. So long as her favorite mare waswell-groomed, her maid Catherine dressed to please her, and Gothardthe little page was suitably clothed, she cared for nothing else. Herthoughts were aimed too high to come down to occupations and interestswhich in other times than these would doubtless have pleased her. Dress was a small matter to her mind; moreover her cousins were notthere to see her. She wore a dark-green habit when she rode, and agown of some common woollen stuff with a cape trimmed with braid whenshe walked; in the house she was always seen in a silk wrapper. Gothard, the little groom, a brave and clever lad of fifteen, attendedher wherever she went, and she was nearly always out of doors, ridingor hunting over the farms of Gondreville, without objection being madeby either Michu or the farmers. She rode admirably well, and hercleverness in hunting was thought miraculous. In the country she wasnever called anything but "Mademoiselle" even during the Revolution. Whoever has read the fine romance of "Rob Roy" will remember that rarewoman for whose making Walter Scott's imagination abandoned itscustomary coldness, --Diana Vernon. The recollection will serve to makeLaurence understood if, to the noble qualities of the Scottishhuntress you add the restrained exaltation of Charlotte Corday, surpassing, however, the charming vivacity which rendered Diana soattractive. The young countess had seen her mother die, the Abbed'Hauteserre shot down, the Marquis de Simeuse and his wife executed;her only brother had died of his wounds; her two cousins serving inConde's army might be killed at any moment; and, finally, the fortunesof the Simeuse and the Cinq-Cygne families had been seized and wastedby the Republic without being of any benefit to the nation. Her gravedemeanor, now lapsing into apparent stolidity, can be readilyunderstood. Monsieur d'Hauteserre proved an upright and most careful guardian. Under his administration Cinq-Cygne became a sort of farm. The goodman, who was far more of a close manager than a knight of the oldnobility, had turned the park and gardens to profit, and used theirtwo hundred acres of grass and woodland as pasturage for horses andfuel for the family. Thanks to his severe economy the countess, oncoming of age, had recovered by his investments in the State funds acompetent fortune. In 1798 she possessed about twenty thousand francsa year from those sources, on which, in fact, some dividends werestill due, and twelve thousand francs a year from the rentals atCinq-Cygne, which had lately been renewed at a notable increase. Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre had provided for their old age bythe purchase of an annuity of three thousand francs in the TontinesLafarge. That fragment of their former means did not enable them tolive elsewhere than at Cinq-Cygne, and Laurence's first act on comingto her majority was to give them the use for life of the wing of thechateau which they occupied. The Hauteserres, as niggardly for their ward as they were forthemselves, laid up every year nearly the whole of their annuity forthe benefit of their sons, and kept the young heiress on miserablefare. The whole cost of the Cinq-Cygne household never exceeded fivethousand francs a year. But Laurence, who condescended to no details, was satisfied. Her guardian and his wife, unconsciously ruled by theimperceptible influence of her strong character, which was felt evenin little things, had ended by admiring her whom they had known andtreated as a child, --a sufficiently rare feeling. But in her manner, her deep voice, her commanding eye, Laurence held that inexplicablepower which rules all men, --even when its strength is mere appearance. To vulgar minds real depth is incomprehensible; it is perhaps for thatreason that the populace is so prone to admire what it cannotunderstand. Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre, impressed by thehabitual silence and erratic habits of the young girl, were constantlyexpecting some extraordinary thing of her. Laurence, who did good intelligently and never allowed herself to bedeceived, was held in the utmost respect by the peasantry although shewas an aristocrat. Her sex, name, and great misfortunes, also theoriginality of her present life, contributed to give her authorityover the inhabitants of the valley of Cinq-Cygne. She was sometimesabsent for two days, attended by Gothard, but neither Monsieur norMadame d'Hauteserre questioned her, on her return, as to the reasonsof her absence. Please observe, however, that there was nothing odd oreccentric about Laurence. What she was and what she did was masked, asit were, by a feminine and even fragile appearance. Her heart was fullof extreme sensibility, though her head contained a stoical firmnessand the virile gift of resolution. Her clear-seeing eyes knew not howto weep; but no one would have imagined that the delicate white wristwith its tracery of blue veins could defy that of the boldesthorseman. Her hand, so noble, so flexible, could handle gun or pistolwith the ease of a practised marksman. She always wore when out ofdoors the coquettish little cap with visor and green veil which womenwear on horseback. Her delicate fair face, thus protected, and herwhite throat tied with a black cravat, were never injured by her longrides in all weathers. Under the Directory and at the beginning of the Consulate, Laurencehad been able to escape the observation of others; but since thegovernment had become a more settled thing, the new authorities, theprefect of the Aube, Malin's friends, and Malin himself had endeavoredto undermine her in the community. Her preoccupying thought was theoverthrow of Bonaparte, whose ambition and its triumphs excited theanger of her soul, --a cold, deliberate anger. The obscure and hiddenenemy of a man at the pinnacle of glory, she kept her gaze upon himfrom the depths of her valley and her forests, with relentless fixity;there were times when she thought of killing him in the roads aboutMalmaison or Saint-Cloud. Plans for the execution of this idea mayhave been the cause of many of her past actions, but having beeninitiated, after the peace of Amiens, into the conspiracy of the menwho expected to make the 18th Brumaire recoil upon the First Consul, she had thenceforth subordinated her faculties and her hatred to theirvast and well laid scheme, which was to strike at Bonaparte externallyby the vast coalition of Russia, Austria, and Prussia (vanquished atAusterlitz) and internally by the coalition of men politically opposedto each other, but united by their common hatred of a man whose deathsome of them were meditating, like Laurence herself, without shrinkingfrom the word assassination. This young girl, so fragile to the eye, so powerful to those who knew her well, was at the present moment thefaithful guide and assistant of the exiled gentlemen who came fromEngland to take part in this deadly enterprise. Fouche relied on the co-operation of the _emigres_ everywhere beyondthe Rhine to lure the Duc d'Enghien into the plot. The presence ofthat prince in the Baden territory, not far from Strasburg, gave muchweight later to the accusation. The great question of whether theprince really knew of the enterprise, and was waiting on the frontierto enter France on its success, is one of those secrets about which, as about several others, the house of Bourbon has maintained anunbroken silence. As the history of that period recedes into the past, impartial historians will declare the imprudence, to say the least, ofthe Duc d'Enghien in placing himself close to the frontier at a timewhen a vast conspiracy was about to break forth, the secret of whichwas undoubtedly known to every member of the Bourbon family. The caution which Malin displayed in talking with Grevin in the openair, Laurence applied to her every action. She met the emissaries andconferred with them either at various points in the Nodesme forest, orbeyond the valley of the Cinq-Cygne, between the villages of Sezanneand Brienne. Often she rode forty miles on a stretch with Gothard, andreturned to Cinq-Cygne without the least sign of weariness orpre-occupation on her fair young face. Some years earlier, Laurence had seen in the eyes of a little cow-boy, then nine years old, the artless admiration which children feel foreverything that is out of the common way. She made him her page, andtaught him to groom a horse with the nicety and care of an Englishman. She saw in the lad a desire to do well, a bright intelligence, and atotal absence of sly motives; she tested his devotion and found he hadnot only mind but nobility of character; he never dreamed of reward. The young girl trained this soul that was still so young; she was goodto him, good with dignity; she attached him to her by attachingherself to him, and by herself polishing a nature that was half wild, without destroying its freshness or its simplicity. When she hadsufficiently tested the almost canine fidelity she had nurtured, Gothard became her intelligent and ingenuous accomplice. The littlepeasant, whom no one could suspect, went from Cinq-Cygne to Nancy, andoften returned before any one had missed him from the neighborhood. Heknew how to practise all the tricks of a spy. The extreme distrust andcaution his mistress had taught him did not change his natural self. Gothard, who possessed all the craft of a woman, the candor of achild, and the ceaseless observation of a conspirator, hid every oneof these admirable qualities beneath the torpor and dull ignorance ofa country lad. The little fellow had a silly, weak, and clumsyappearance; but once at work he was active as a fish; he escaped likean eel; he understood, as the dogs do, the merest glance; he nosed athought. His good fat face, both round and red, his sleepy brown eyes, his hair, cut in the peasant fashion, his clothes, and his slow growthgave him the appearance of a child of ten. The two young d'Hauteserres and the twin brothers Simeuse, under theguidance of their cousin Laurence, who had been watching over theirsafety and that of the other _emigres_ who accompanied them fromStrasburg to Bar-sur-Aube, had just passed through Alsace andLorraine, and were now in Champagne while other conspirators, not lessbold, were entering France by the cliffs of Normandy. Dressed asworkmen the d'Hauteserres and the Simeuse twins had walked from forestto forest, guided on their way by relays of persons, chosen byLaurence during the last three months from among the least suspectedof the Bourbon adherents living in each neighborhood. The _emigres_slept by day and travelled by night. Each brought with him twofaithful soldiers; one of whom went before to warn of danger, theother behind to protect a retreat. Thanks to these militaryprecautions, this valuable detachment had at last reached, withoutaccident, the forest of Nodesme, which was chosen as the rendezvous. Twenty-seven other gentlemen had entered France from Switzerland andcrossed Burgundy, guided towards Paris with the same caution. Monsieur de Riviere counted on collecting five hundred men, onehundred of whom were young nobles, the officers of this sacred legion. Monsieur de Polignac and Monsieur de Riviere, whose conduct as chiefsof this advance was most remarkable, afterwards preserved animpenetrable secrecy as to the names of those of their accomplices whowere not discovered. It may be said, therefore, now that theRestoration has made matters clearer, that Bonaparte never knew theextent of the danger he then ran, any more than England knew the perilshe had escaped from the camp at Boulogne; and yet the police ofFrance was never more intelligently or ably managed. At the period when this history begins, a coward--for cowards arealways to be found in conspiracies which are not confined to a smallnumber of equally strong men--a sworn confederate, brought face toface with death, gave certain information, happily insufficient tocover the extent of the conspiracy, but precise enough to show theobject of the enterprise. The police had therefore, as Malin toldGrevin, left the conspirators at liberty, though all the whilewatching them, hoping to discover the ramifications of the plot. Nevertheless, the government found its hand to a certain extent forcedby Georges Cadoudal, a man of action who took counsel of himself only, and who was hiding in Paris with twenty-five _chouans_ for the purposeof attacking the First Consul. Laurence combined both hatred and love within her breast. To destroyBonaparte and bring back the Bourbons was to recover Gondreville andmake the fortune of her cousins. The two sentiments, one thecounterpart of the other, were sufficient, more especially attwenty-three years of age, to excite all the faculties of her soul andall the powers of her being. So, for the last two months, she hadseemed to the inhabitants of Cinq-Cygne more beautiful than at anyother period of her life. Her cheeks became rosy; hope gave pride toher brow; but when old d'Hauteserre read the Gazette at night anddiscussed the conservative course of the First Consul she lowered hereyes to conceal her passionate hopes of the coming fall of that enemyof the Bourbons. No one at the chateau had the faintest idea that the young countesshad met her cousins the night before. The two sons of Monsieur andMadame d'Hauteserre had passed the preceding night in Laurence's ownroom, under the same roof with their father and mother; and Laurence, after knowing them safely in bed had gone between one and two o'clockin the morning to a rendezvous with her cousins in the forest, whereshe hid them in the deserted hut of a wood-dealer's agent. Thefollowing day, certain of seeing them again, she showed no signs ofher joy; nothing about her betrayed emotion; she was able to effaceall traces of pleasure at having met them again; in fact, she wasimpassible. Catherine, her pretty maid, daughter of her former nurse, and Gothard, both in the secret, modelled their behavior upon hers. Catherine was nineteen years old. At that age a girl is a fanatic andwould let her throat be cut before betraying a thought of one sheloves. As for Gothard, merely to inhale the perfume which the countessused in her hair and among her clothes he would have born the rackwithout a word. CHAPTER V ROYALIST HOMES AND PORTRAITS UNDER THE CONSULATE At the moment when Marthe, driven by the imminence of the peril, wasgliding with the rapidity of a shadow towards the breach of whichMichu had told her, the salon of the chateau of Cinq-Cygne presented apeaceful sight. Its occupants were so far from suspecting the stormthat was about to burst upon them that their quiet aspect would haveroused the compassion of any one who knew their situation. In thelarge fireplace, the mantel of which was adorned with a mirror withshepherdesses in paniers painted on its frame, burned a fire such ascan be seen only in chateaus bordering on forests. At the corner ofthis fireplace, on a large square sofa of gilded wood with amagnificent brocaded cover, the young countess lay as it wereextended, in an attitude of utter weariness. Returning at six o'clockfrom the confines of Brie, having played the part of scout to the fourgentlemen whom she guided safely to their last halting-place beforethey entered Paris, she had found Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserrejust finishing their dinner. Pressed by hunger she sat down to tablewithout changing either her muddy habit or her boots. Instead of doingso at once after dinner, she was suddenly overcome with fatigue andallowed her head with its beautiful fair curls to drop on the back ofthe sofa, her feet being supported in front of her by a stool. Thewarmth of the fire had dried the mud on her habit and on her boots. Her doeskin gloves and the little peaked cap with its green veil and awhip lay on the table where she had flung them. She looked sometimesat the old Boule clock which stood on the mantelshelf between thecandelabra, perhaps to judge if her four conspirators were asleep, andsometimes at the card-table in front of the fire where Monsieur andMadame d'Hauteserre, the cure of Cinq-Cygne, and his sister wereplaying a game of boston. Even if these personages were not embedded in this drama, theirportraits would have the merit of representing one of the aspects ofthe aristocracy after its overthrow in 1793. From this point of view, a sketch of the salon at Cinq-Cygne has the raciness of history seenin dishabille. Monsieur d'Hauteserre, then fifty-two years of age, tall, spare, high-colored, and robust in health, would have seemed the embodimentof vigor if it were not for a pair of porcelain blue eyes, the glanceof which denoted the most absolute simplicity. In his face, whichended in a long pointed chin, there was, judging by the rules ofdesign, an unnatural distance between his nose and mouth which gavehim a submissive air, wholly in keeping with his character, whichharmonized, in fact, with other details of his appearance. His grayhair, flattened by his hat, which he wore nearly all day, looked muchlike a skull-cap on his head, and defined its pear-shaped outline. Hisforehead, much wrinkled by life in the open air and by constantanxieties, was flat and expressionless. His aquiline nose redeemed theface somewhat; but the sole indication of any strength of characterlay in the bushy eyebrows which retained their blackness, and in thebrilliant coloring of his skin. These signs were in some respects notmisleading, for the worthy gentlemen, though simple and very gentle, was Catholic and monarchical in faith, and no consideration on earthcould make him change his views. Nevertheless he would have lethimself be arrested without an effort at defence, and would have goneto the scaffold quietly. His annuity of three thousand francs kept himfrom emigrating. He therefore obeyed the government _de facto_ withoutceasing to love the royal family and to pray for their return, thoughhe would firmly have refused to compromise himself by any effort intheir favor. He belonged to that class of royalists who ceaselesslyremembered that they were beaten and robbed; and who remainedthenceforth dumb, economical, rancorous, without energy; incapable ofabjuring the past, but equally incapable of sacrifice; waiting togreet triumphant royalty; true to religion and true to the priesthood, but firmly resolved to bear in silence the shocks of fate. Such anattitude cannot be considered that of maintaining opinions, it becomessheer obstinacy. Action is the essence of party. Without intelligence, but loyal, miserly as a peasant yet noble in demeanor, bold in hiswishes but discreet in word and action, turning all things to profit, willing even to be made mayor of Cinq-Cygne, Monsieur d'Hauteserre wasan admirable representative of those honorable gentlemen on whose browGod Himself has written the word _mites_, --Frenchmen who burrowed intheir country homes and let the storms of the Revolution pass abovetheir heads; who came once more to the surface under the Restoration, rich with their hidden savings, proud of their discreet attachment tothe monarchy, and who, after 1830, recovered their estates. Monsieur d'Hauteserre's costume, expressive envelope of hisdistinctive character, described to the eye both the man and hisperiod. He always wore one of those nut-colored great-coats with smallcollars which the Duc d'Orleans made the fashion after his return fromEngland, and which were, during the Revolution, a sort of compromisebetween the hideous popular garments and the elegant surtouts of thearistocracy. His velvet waistcoat with flowered stripes, the style ofwhich recalled those of Robespierre and Saint-Just, showed the upperpart of a shirt-frill in fine plaits. He still wore breeches; but hiswere of coarse blue cloth, with burnished steel buckles. His stockingsof black spun-silk defined his deer-like legs, the feet of which wereshod in thick shoes, held in place by gaiters of black cloth. Heretained the former fashion of a muslin cravat in innumerable foldsfastened by a gold buckle at the throat. The worthy man had notintended an act of political eclecticism in adopting this costume, which combined the styles of peasant, revolutionist, and aristocrat;he simply and innocently obeyed the dictates of circumstances. Madame d'Hauteserre, forty years of age and wasted by emotions, had afaded face which seemed to be always posing for its portrait. A lacecap, trimmed with bows of white satin, contributed singularly to giveher a solemn air. She still wore powder, in spite of a white kerchief, and a gown of puce-colored silk with tight sleeves and full skirt, thesad last garments of Marie-Antoinette. Her nose was pinched, her chinsharp, the whole face nearly triangular, the eyes worn-out withweeping; but she now wore a touch of rouge which brightened theirgrayness. She took snuff, and each time that she did so she employedall the pretty precautions of the fashionable women of her early days;the details of this snuff-taking constituted a ceremony which could beexplained by one fact--she had very pretty hands. For the last two years the former tutor of the Simeuse twins, a friendof the late Abbe d'Hauteserre, named Goujet, Abbe des Minimes, hadtaken charge of the parish of Cinq-Cygne out of friendship for thed'Hauteserres and the young countess. His sister, Mademoiselle Goujet, who possessed a little income of seven hundred francs, added that sumto the meagre salary of her brother and kept his house. Neither churchnor parsonage had been sold during the Revolution on account of theirsmall value. The abbe and his sister lived close to the chateau, forthe wall of the parsonage garden and that of the park were the same inplaces. Twice a week the pair dined at the chateau, but they cameevery evening to play boston with the d'Hauteserres; for Laurence, unable to play a game, did not even know one card from another. The Abbe Goujet, an old man with white hair and a face as white asthat of an old woman, endowed with a kindly smile and a gentle andpersuasive voice, redeemed the insipidity of his rather mincing faceby a fine intellectual brow and a pair of keen eyes. Of medium height, and very well made, he still wore the old-fashioned black coat, silvershoe-buckles, breeches, black silk stockings, and a black waistcoat onwhich lay his clerical bands, giving him a distinguished air whichdetracted nothing from his dignity. This abbe, who became bishop ofTroyes after the Restoration, had long made a study of young peopleand fully understood the noble character of the young countess; heappreciated her at her full value, and had shown her, from the first, a respectful deference which contributed much to her independence atCinq-Cygne, for it led the austere old lady and the kind old gentlemanto yield to the young girl, who by rights should have yielded to them. For the last six months the abbe had watched Laurence with theintuition peculiar to priests, the most sagacious of men; and althoughhe did not know that this girl of twenty-three was thinking ofoverturning Bonaparte as she lay there twisting with slender fingersthe frogged lacing of her riding-habit, he was well aware that she wasagitated by some great project. Mademoiselle Goujet was one of those unmarried women whose portraitcan be drawn in one word which will enable the least imaginative mindto picture her; she was ungainly. She knew her own ugliness and wasthe first to laugh at it, showing her long teeth, yellow as hercomplexion and her bony hands. She was gay and hearty. She wore thefamous short gown of former days, a very full skirt with pockets fullof keys, a cap with ribbons and a false front. She was forty years ofage very early, but had, so she said, caught up with herself bykeeping at that age for twenty years. She revered the nobility; andknew well how to preserve her own dignity by giving to persons ofnoble birth the respect and deference that were due to them. This little company was a god-send to Madame d'Hauteserre, who hadnot, like her husband, rural occupations, nor, like Laurence, thetonic of hatred, to enable her to bear the dulness of a retired life. Many things had happened to ameliorate that life within the last sixyears. The restoration of Catholic worship allowed the faithful tofulfil their religious duties, which play more of a part in countrylife than elsewhere. Protected by the conservative edicts of the FirstConsul, Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre had been able to correspondwith their sons, and no longer in dread of what might happen to themcould even hope for the erasure of their names from the lists of theproscribed and their consequent return to France. The Treasury hadlately made up the arrearages and now paid its dividends promptly; sothat the d'Hauteserres received, over and above their annuity, abouteight thousand francs a year. The old man congratulated himself on thesagacity of his foresight in having put all his savings, amounting totwenty thousand francs, together with those of his ward, in the publicFunds before the 18th Brumaire, which, as we all know, sent thosestocks up from twelve to eighteen francs. The chateau of Cinq-Cygne had long been empty and denuded offurniture. The prudent guardian was careful not to alter its aspectduring the revolutionary troubles; but after the peace of Amiens hemade a journey to Troyes and brought back various relics of thepillaged mansions which he obtained from the dealers in second-handfurniture. The salon was furnished for the first time since theiroccupation of the house. Handsome curtains of white brocade with greenflowers, from the hotel de Simeuse, draped the six windows of thesalon, in which the family were now assembled. The walls of this vastroom were entirely of wood, with panels encased in beaded mouldingswith masks at the angles; the whole painted in two shades of gray. Thespaces over the four doors were filled with those designs, painted incameo of two colors, which were so much in vogue under Louis XV. Monsieur d'Hauteserre had picked up at Troyes certain gildedpier-tables, a sofa in green damask, a crystal chandelier, a card-tableof marquetry, among other things that served him to restore the chateau. In 1792 all the furniture of the house had been taken or destroyed, for the pillage of the mansions in town was imitated in the valley. Each time that the old man went to Troyes he returned with some relicof the former splendor, sometimes a fine carpet for the floor of thesalon, at other times part of a dinner service, or a bit of rare oldporcelain of either Sevres or Dresden. During the last six months hehad ventured to dig up the family silver, which the cook had buried inthe cellar of a little house belonging to him at the end of one of thelong faubourgs in Troyes. That faithful servant, named Durieu, and his wife had followed thefortunes of their young mistress. Durieu was the factotum of thechateau, and his wife was the housekeeper. He was helped in thecooking by the sister of Catherine, Laurence's maid, to whom he wasteaching his art and who gave promise of becoming an excellent cook. An old gardener, his wife, a son paid by the day, and a daughter whoserved as a dairy-woman, made up the household. Madame Durieu hadlately and secretly had the Cinq-Cygne liveries made for thegardener's son and for Gothard. Though blamed for this imprudence byMonsieur d'Hauteserre, the housekeeper took great pleasure in seeingthe dinner served on the festival of Saint-Laurence, the countess'sfete-day, with almost as much style as in former times. This slow and difficult restoration of departed things was the delightof Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre and the Durieus. Laurence smiledat what she thought nonsense. But the worthy old d'Hauteserre did notforget the more solid matters; he repaired the buildings, put up thewalls, planted trees wherever there was a chance to make them grow, and did not leave an inch of unproductive land. The whole valleyregarded him as an oracle in the matter of agriculture. He had managedto recover a hundred acres of contested land, not sold as nationalproperty, being in some way confounded with that of the township. Thisland he had turned into fields which afforded good pasturage for hishorses and cattle, and he planted them round with poplars, which now, at the end of six years, were making a fine growth. He intended to buyback some of the lost estate, and to utilize all the out-buildings ofthe chateau by making a second farm and managing it himself. Life at the chateau had thus become during the last two yearsprosperous and almost happy. Monsieur d'Hauteserre was off atdaybreaks to overlook his laborers, for he employed them in allweathers. He came home to breakfast, mounted his farm pony as soon asthe meal was over, and made his rounds of the estate like a bailiff, --getting home in time for dinner, and finishing the day with a gameof boston. All the inhabitants of the chateau had their statedoccupations; life was as closely regulated there as in a convent. Laurence alone disturbed its even tenor by her sudden journeys, heruncertain returns, and by what Madame d'Hauteserre called her pranks. But with all this peacefulness there existed at Cinq-Cygne conflictinginterests and certain causes of dissension. In the first place Durieuand his wife were jealous of Catherine and Gothard, who lived ingreater intimacy with their young mistress, the idol of the household, than they did. Then the two d'Hauteserres, encouraged by MademoiselleGoujet and the abbe, wanted their sons as well as the Simeuse brothersto take the oath and return to this quiet life, instead of livingmiserably in foreign countries. Laurence scouted the odious compromiseand stood firmly for the monarchy, militant and implacable. The fourold people, anxious that their present peaceful existence should notbe risked, nor their spot of refuge, saved from the furious waters ofthe revolutionary torrent, lost, did their best to convert Laurence totheir cautious views, believing that her influence counted for much inthe unwillingness of their sons and the Simeuse twins to return toFrance. The superb disdain with which she met the project frightenedthese poor people, who were not mistaken in their fears that she wasmeditating what they called knight-errantry. This jarring of opinioncame to the surface after the explosion of the infernal machine in therue Saint-Nicaise, the first royalist attempt against the conqueror ofMarengo after his refusal to treat with the house of Bourbon. Thed'Hauteserres considered it fortunate that Bonaparte escaped thatdanger, believing that the republicans had instigated it. But Laurencewept with rage when she heard he was safe. Her despair overcame herusual reticence, and she vehemently complained that God had desertedthe sons of Saint-Louis. "I, " she exclaimed, "I could have succeeded! Have we no right, " sheadded, seeing the stupefaction her words produced on the faces abouther, and addressing the abbe, "no right to attack the usurper by everymeans in our power?" "My child, " replied the abbe, "the Church has been greatly blamed byphilosophers for declaring in former times that the same weapons mightbe employed against usurpers which the usurpers themselves hademployed to succeed; but in these days the Church owes far too much tothe First Consul not to protect him against that maxim, --which, by theby, was due to the Jesuits. " "So the Church abandons us!" she answered, gloomily. From that day forth whenever the four old people talked of submittingto the decrees of Providence, Laurence left the room. Of late, theabbe, shrewder than Monsieur d'Hauteserre, instead of discussingprinciples, drew pictures of the material advantages of the consularrule, less to convert the countess than to detect in her eyes someexpression which might enlighten him as to her projects. Gothard'sfrequent disappearances, the long rides of his mistress, and herevident preoccupation, which, for the last few days, had appeared inher face, together with other little signs not to be hidden in thesilence and tranquillity of such a life, had roused the fears of thesesubmissive royalists. Still, as no event happened, and perfect quietappeared to reign in the political atmosphere, the minds of the littlehousehold were soothed into peace, and the countess's long rides wereone more attributed to her passion for hunting. It is easy to imagine the deep silence which reigned at nine o'clockin the evening in the park, courtyards, and gardens of Cinq-Cygne, where at that particular moment the persons we have described wereharmoniously grouped, where perfect peace pervaded all things, wherecomfort and abundance were again enjoyed, and where the worthy andjudicious old gentleman was still hoping to convert his late ward tohis system of obedience to the ruling powers by the argument of whatwe may call the continuity of prosperous results. These royalists continued to play their boston, a game which spreadideas of independence under a frivolous form over the whole of France;for it was first invented in honor of the American insurgents, itsvery terms applying to the struggle which Louis XVI. Encouraged. Whilemaking their "independences" and "poverties, " the players kept an eyeon the countess, who had fallen asleep, overcome by fatigue, with asingular smile on her lips, her last waking thought having been of theterror two words could inspire in the minds of the peaceful company byinforming the d'Hauteserres that their sons had passed the precedingnight under that roof. What young girl of twenty-three would not havebeen, as Laurence was, proud to play the part of Destiny? and whowould not have felt, as she did, a sense of compassion for those whomshe felt to be so far below her in loyalty? "She sleeps, " said the abbe. "I have never seen her so wearied. " "Durieu tells me her mare is almost foundered, " remarked Madamed'Hauteserre. "Her gun has not been fired; the breech is clean; shehas evidently not hunted. " "Oh! that's neither here nor there, " said the abbe. "Bah?" cried Mademoiselle Goujet; "when I was twenty-three and saw Ishould be an old maid all my life, I rushed about and fatigued myselfin a dozen ways. I understand how the countess can scour the countryfor hours without thinking of the game. It is nearly twelve years nowsince she has seen her cousins, and you know she loves them. Well, ifI were she, if I were as young and pretty, I'd make a straight linefor Germany! Poor darling, perhaps she is thinking of the frontier, and that may be the reason why she rides so far towards it. " "You are rather giddy, Mademoiselle Goujet, " said the abbe, smiling. "Not at all, " she replied. "I see you all uneasy about the goings onof a young girl, and I am explaining them to you. " "Her cousins will submit and return soon; they will all be rich, andshe will end by calming down, " said old d'Hauteserre. "God grant it!" said his wife, taking out a gold snuff-box which hadagain seen the light under the Consulate. "There is something stirring in the neighborhood, " remarked Monsieurd'Hauteserre to the abbe. "Malin has been two days at Gondreville. " "Malin!" cried Laurence, roused by the name, though her sleep wassound. "Yes, " replied the abbe, "but he leaves to-night; everybody isconjecturing the motive of this hasty visit. " "That man, " said Laurence, "is the evil genius of our two houses. " The countess had been dreaming of her cousins and the youngHauteserres; she saw them in peril. Her beautiful eyes grew fixed andglassy as her mind thus warned dwelled on the dangers they were aboutto incur in Paris. She rose suddenly and went to her bedroom withoutspeaking. Her bedroom was the best in the house; next came adressing-room and an oratory, in the tower which faced towards theforest. Soon after she had left the salon the dogs barked, the bellof the small gate rang, and Durieu rushed into the salon with afrightened face. "Here is the mayor!" he said. "Something is thematter. " CHAPTER VI A DOMICILIARY VISIT The mayor, a former huntsman of the house of Simeuse, cameoccasionally to the chateau, where the d'Hauteserres showed him out ofpolicy, a deference to which he attached great value. His name wasGoulard; he had married a rich woman of Troyes, whose property, whichwas in the commune of Cinq-Cygne, he had further increased by thepurchase of a fine abbey and its lands, in which he invested all hissavings. The vast abbey of Val-des-Preux, standing about a mile fromthe chateau, he had turned into a dwelling that was almost as splendidas Gondreville; in it his wife and he were now living like rats in acathedral. "Ah! Goulard, you have been greedy, " Mademoiselle had saidto him with a laugh the first time she received him at Cinq-Cygne. Though greatly attached to the Revolution and coldly received by thecountess, the mayor always felt himself bound by ties of respect tothe Cinq-Cygne and Simeuse families. He therefore shut his eyes towhat went on at the chateau. He called shutting his eyes not seeingthe portraits of Louis XVI. , Marie Antoinette, and the royal children, and those of Monsieur, the Comte d'Artois, Cazales and CharlotteCorday, which filled the various panels of the salon; not resentingeither the wishes freely expressed in his presence for the ruin of theRepublic, or the ridicule flung at the five directors and all theother governmental combinations of that time. The position of thisman, who, like many parvenus, having once made his fortune, revertedto his early faith in the old families, and sought to attach himselfto them, was now being made use of by the two members of the Parispolice whose profession had been so quickly guessed by Michu, and who, before going to Gondreville had reconnoitred the neighborhood. The worthy described as the depositary of the best traditions of theold police, and Corentin phoenix of spies, were in fact employed on asecret mission. Malin was not mistaken in attributing a double purposeto those stars of tragic farces. But, before seeing them at work, itis advisable to show the head of which they were the arms. WhenBonaparte became First Consul he found Fouche at the head of thepolice. The Revolution had frankly and with good reason made themanagement of the police into a special ministry. But after his returnfrom Marengo, Bonaparte created the prefecture of police, placedDubois in charge of it, and called Fouche to the Council of State, naming as his successor in the ministry a conventional named Cochon, since known as Comte de Lapparent. Fouche, who considered the ministryof police as by far the most important in a government of broad ideasand fixed policy, saw disgrace or at any rate distrust in the change. After Napoleon became aware of the immense superiority of this greatstatesman, as evidenced in the affair of the infernal machine and inthe conspiracy with which we are now concerned, he returned him to theministry of police. Later still, becoming alarmed at the powers Fouchedisplayed during his absence at the time of the affair at Walcheren, the Emperor gave that ministry to the Duc de Rovigo, and sent Fouche(Duc d'Otrante) as governor to the Illyrian provinces, --an appointmentwhich was in fact an exile. The singular genius of this man, Fouche, which had the power ofinspiring Napoleon with a sort of fear, did not reveal itself all atonce. This obscure conventional, one of the most extraordinary men ofour time, and the most misjudged, was moulded, as it were, by thewhirlwind of events. He raised himself under the Directory to theheight from which men of genius could see the future and judge thepast, and then, like certain commonplace actors who suddenly becomeadmirable through the light of some vivid perception, he gave proofsof his dexterity during the rapid revolution of the 18th Brumaire. This man with the pallid face, educated to monastic dissimulation, possessing the secrets of the _montagnards_ to whom he belonged, andthose of the royalists to whom he ended by belonging, had slowly andsilently studied the men, the events, and the interests on thepolitical stage; he penetrated Napoleon's secrets, he gave him usefulcounsel and precious information. Satisfied with having proven hiscapacity and his usefulness, Fouche was careful not to disclosehimself completely. He wished to remain at the head of affairs, butthe Emperor's restless uneasiness about him cost him his place. The ingratitude or rather the distrust shown by Napoleon after theaffair at Walcheren, gives the key-note to the character of a man who, unfortunately for himself, was not a great _seigneur_, and whoseconduct was modelled on that of Talleyrand. At that time neither hisformer colleagues nor his present ones had suspected the amplitude ofhis genius, which was purely ministerial, essentially governmental, just in its forecasts and incredibly sagacious. To-day, everyimpartial historian perceives that Napoleon's inordinate self-love wasamong the chief causes of his fall, a punishment which cruellyexpiated his wrong-doing. In the mind of that distrustful sovereignlurked a constant jealousy for his own rising power, which influencedall his actions, and caused his secret hatred for men of talent, theprecious legacy of the Revolution, with whom he might have madehimself a cabinet capable of being a true repository for his thoughts. Talleyrand and Fouche were not the only ones who gave him umbrage. Themisfortune of usurpers is that those who have given them a crown areas much their enemies as those from whom they snatch it. Napoleon'ssovereignty was never convincingly felt by those who were once hissuperiors or his equals, nor by those who still held to the doctrineof rights; none of them regarded their oath of allegiance to him asbinding. Malin, an inferior man, incapable of comprehending Fouche's hiddengenius, or of distrusting his own perceptions, burned himself, like amoth in a candle, by asking him confidentially to send agents toGondreville, where, he said, he hoped to obtain certain clues to theconspiracy. Fouche, without alarming his friend by any questions, asked himself why Malin was going to Gondreville, and why he did notimmediately and without loss of time, give the information he alreadypossessed. The ex-Oratorian, fed from his youth up on trickery, andwell aware of the double part played by a good many of theconventionals, said to himself: "From whom is Malin likely to obtaininformation when we ourselves know little or nothing?" Foucheconcluded therefore that there was some either latent or prospectivecollusion, and took care to say nothing about it to the First Consul. He preferred to make Malin his instrument rather than destroy him. Itwas Fouche's habit to keep to himself a good part of the secrets hedetected, and he thus obtained for his own purposes a power over thoseconcerned which was even greater than that of Bonaparte. Thisduplicity was one of the Emperor's charges against his minister. Fouche knew of the swindling transaction by which Malin becamepossessed of Gondreville and which led him to keep his eyes soanxiously on the Simeuse brothers. These gentlemen were now servingin the army of Conde; Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne was their cousin;possibly they were in her neighborhood, and were sharers in theconspiracy; if so, it would implicate the house of Conde to which theywere devoted. Talleyrand and Fouche were bent on casting light intothis dark corner of the conspiracy of 1803. All these considerationsFouche saw at a glance, rapidly and with great clearness. But betweenMalin, Talleyrand, and himself there were strong ties which forced himto the utmost circumspection, and made him anxious to know the exactstate of things within the walls of Gondreville. Corentin wasunreservedly attached to Fouche, just as Monsieur de la Besnardierewas to Talleyrand, Gentz to Monsieur de Metternich, Dundas to Pitt, Duroc to Napoleon, Chavigny to Cardinal Richelieu. Corentin was notthe counsellor of his master, but his instrument, the Tristan to thisLouis XI. Of low estate. Fouche had kept him in the ministry of thepolice when he himself left it, so as to still keep an eye and afinger in it. It was said that Corentin belonged to Fouche by someunavowed relationship, for he rewarded him lavishly after everyservice. Corentin had a friend in Peyrade, the old pupil of the lastlieutenant of police; but he kept a good many of his secrets from him. Fouche gave Corentin an order to explore the chateau of Gondreville, to get the plan of it into his memory, and to know every hiding-placewithin its walls. "We may be obliged to return there, " said the ex-minister, preciselyas Napoleon told his lieutenants to explore the field of Austerlitz onwhich he intended to fall back. Corentin was also to study Malin's conduct, discover what influence hehad in the neighborhood, and observe the men he employed. Foucheregarded it as certain that the Simeuse brothers were in that part ofthe country. By cautiously watching the two officers, who were closelyallied with the Prince de Conde, Peyrade and Corentin could obtainprecious light on the ramifications of the conspiracy beyond theRhine. In any case, however, Corentin received the means, the orders, and the agents, to surround the chateau of Cinq-Cygne and watch thewhole region, from the forest of Nodesme into Paris. Fouche insistedon the utmost caution, and would only allow a domiciliary visit toCinq-Cygne in case Malin gave them positive information which made itnecessary. By way of instructions he explained to Corentin theotherwise inexplicable personality of Michu, who had been watched bythe police for the last three years. Corentin's idea was that of hismaster: "Malin knows all about the conspiracy--But, " he added tohimself, "perhaps Fouche does, too; who knows?" Corentin, having started for Troyes before Malin, had madearrangements with the commandant of the gendarmerie in that town, whopicked out a number of his most intelligent men and placed them underorders of an able captain. Corentin chose Gondreville as the place ofrendezvous, and directed the captain to send some of his men at nightin four detachments to different points of the valley of Cinq-Cygne atsufficient distance from each other to cause no alarm. These fourpickets were to form a square and close in around the chateau ofCinq-Cygne. By leaving Corentin alone at Gondreville during hisconsultation in the fields with Grevin, Malin had enabled him tofulfil part of Fouche's orders and explore the house. When theCouncillor of State returned home he told Corentin so positively thatthe d'Hauteserre and Simeuse brothers were in the neighborhood andprobably at Cinq-Cygne that the two agents despatched the captain withthe rest of his company, who, fortunately for the four gentlemen, crossed the forest on their way to the chateau during the time whenMichu was making Violette drunk. Malin had told Corentin and Peyradeof the escape he had from lying in wait for him. The two agentsrelated the incident of the gun they had seen the bailiff load, andGrevin had sent Violette to obtain information as to what was going onat Michu's house. Corentin advised the notary to take Malin to his ownhouse in the little town of Arcis, and let him sleep there as ameasure of precaution. At the moment when Michu and his wife wererushing through the forest on their way to Cinq-Cygne, Peyrade andCorentin were starting from Gondreville for Cinq-Cygne in a shabbywicker carriage, drawn by one post-horse driven by the corporal ofArcis, one of the shrewdest men in the Legion, whom the commandant atTroyes advised them to employ. "The surest way to seize them all is to warn them, " said Peyrade toCorentin. "At the moment when they are well frightened and are tryingto save their papers or to escape we'll fall upon them like athunderbolt. The gendarmes surround the chateau now and are as goodas a net. We sha'n't lose one of them!" "You had better send the mayor to warn them, " said the corporal. "Heis friendly to them and wouldn't like to see them harmed; they won'tdistrust him. " Just as Goulard was preparing to go to bed, Corentin, who stopped thevehicle in a little wood, went to his house and told him, confidentially, that in a few moments an emissary from the governmentwould require him to enter the chateau of Cinq-Cygne and arrest thebrothers d'Hauteserre and Simeuse; and in case they had alreadydisappeared he would have to ascertain if they had slept there thenight before, search Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne's papers, and, possibly, arrest both the masters and servants of the household. "Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, " said Corentin, "is undoubtedly protectedby some great personages, for I have received private orders to warnher of this visit, and to do all I can to save her withoutcompromising myself. Once on the ground, I shall no longer be able todo so, for I am not alone; go to the chateau yourself and warn them. " The mayor's visit at that time of night was all the more bewilderingto the card-players when they saw the agitation of his face. "Where is the countess?" were his first words. "She has gone to bed, " said Madame d'Hauteserre. The mayor, incredulous, listened to noises that were heard on theupper floor. "What is the matter with you, Goulard?" said Monsieur d'Hauteserre. Goulard was dumb with surprise as he noted the tranquil ease of thefaces about him. Observing the peaceful and innocent game of cardswhich he had thus interrupted, he was unable to imagine what theParisian police meant by their suspicions. At that moment Laurence, kneeling in her oratory, was prayingfervently for the success of the conspiracy. She prayed to God to sendhelp and succor to the murderers of Bonaparte. She implored Himardently to destroy that fatal being. The fanaticism of Harmodius, Judith, Jacques Clement, Ankarstroem, of Charlotte Corday andLimoelan, inspired this pure and virgin spirit. Catherine waspreparing the bed, Gothard was closing the blinds, when Marthe Michucoming under the windows flung a pebble on the glass and was seen atonce. "Mademoiselle, here's some one, " said Gothard, seeing a woman. "Hush!" said Marthe, in a low voice. "Come down and speak to me. " Gothard was in the garden in less time than a bird would have taken tofly down from a tree. "In a minute the chateau will be surrounded by the gendarmerie. Saddlemademoiselle's horse without making any noise and take it down throughthe breach in the moat between the stables and this tower. " Marthe quivered when she saw Laurence, who had followed Gothard, standing beside her. "What is it?" asked Laurence, quietly. "The conspiracy against the First Consul is discovered, " repliedMarthe, in a whisper. "My husband, who seeks to save your two cousins, sends me to ask you to come and speak to him. " Laurence drew back and looked at Marthe. "Who are you?" she said. "Marthe Michu. " "I do not know what you want of me, " replied the countess, coldly. "Take care, you will kill them. Come with me, I implore you in theSimeuse name, " said Marthe, clasping her hands and stretching themtowards Laurence. "Have you papers here which may compromise you? Ifso, destroy them. From the heights over there my husband has just seenthe silver-laced hats and the muskets of the gendarmerie. " Gothard had already clambered to the hay-loft and seen the same sight;he heard in the stillness of the evening the sound of their horses'hoofs. Down he slipped into the stable and saddled his mistress'smare, whose feet Catherine, at a word from the lad, muffled in linen. "Where am I to go?" said Laurence to Marthe, whose look and languagebore the unmistakable signs of sincerity. "Through the breach, " she replied; "my noble husband is there. Youshall learn the value of a 'Judas'!" Catherine went quickly into the salon, picked up the hat, veil, whip, and gloves of her mistress, and disappeared. This sudden apparitionand action were so striking a commentary on the mayor's inquiry thatMadame d'Hauteserre and the abbe exchanged glances which contained themelancholy thought: "Farewell to all our peace! Laurence isconspiring; she will be the death of her cousins. " "But what do you really mean?" said Monsieur d'Hauteserre to themayor. "The chateau is surrounded. You are about to receive a domiciliaryvisit. If your sons are here tell them to escape, and the Simeusebrothers too, if they are with them. " "My sons!" exclaimed Madame d'Hauteserre, stupefied. "We have seen no one, " said Monsieur d'Hauteserre. "So much the better, " said Goulard; "but I care too much for theCinq-Cygne and Simeuse families to let any harm come to them. Listento me. If you have any compromising papers--" "Papers!" repeated the old gentleman. "Yes, if you have any, burn them at once, " said the mayor. "I'll goand amuse the police agents. " Goulard, whose object was to run with the royalist hare and hold withthe republican hounds, left the room; at that moment the dogs barkedviolently. "There is no longer time, " said the abbe, "here they come! But who isto warn the countess? Where is she?" "Catherine didn't come for her hat and whip to make relics of them, "remarked Mademoiselle Goujet. Goulard tried to detain the two agents for a few moments, assuringthem of the perfect ignorance of the family at Cinq-Cygne. "You don't know these people!" said Peyrade, laughing at him. The two agents, insinuatingly dangerous, entered the house at once, followed by the corporal from Arcis and one gendarme. The sight ofthem paralyzed the peaceful card-players, who kept their seats at thetable, terrified by such a display of force. The noise produced by adozen gendarmes whose horses were stamping on the terrace, was heardwithout. "I do not see Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, " said Corentin. "She is probably asleep in her bedroom, " said Monsieur d'Hauteserre. "Come with me, ladies, " said Corentin, turning to pass through theante-chamber and up the staircase, followed by Mademoiselle Goujet andMadame d'Hauteserre. "Rely upon me, " he whispered to the old lady. "Iam in your interests. I sent the mayor to warn you. Distrust mycolleague and look to me. I can save every one of you. " "But what is it all about?" said Mademoiselle Goujet. "A matter of life and death; you must know that, " replied Corentin. Madame d'Hauteserre fainted. To Mademoiselle Goujet's greatastonishment and Corentin's disappointment, Laurence's room was empty. Certain that no one could have escaped from the park or the chateau, for all the issues were guarded, Corentin stationed a gendarme inevery room and ordered others to search the farm buildings, stables, and sheds. Then he returned to the salon, where Durieu and his wifeand the other servants had rushed in the wildest excitement. Peyradewas studying their faces with his little blue eye, cold and calm inthe midst of the uproar. Just as Corentin reappeared alone(Mademoiselle Goujet remaining behind to take care of Madamed'Hauteserre) the tramp of horses was heard, and presently the soundof a child's weeping. The horses entered by the small gate; and thegeneral suspense was put an end to by a corporal appearing at the doorof the salon pushing Gothard, whose hands were tied, and Catherinewhom he led to the agents. "Here are some prisoners, " he said; "that little scamp was escaping onhorseback. " "Fool!" said Corentin, in his ear, "why didn't you let him alone? Youcould have found out something by following him. " Gothard had chosen to burst into tears and behave like an idiot. Catherine took an attitude of artless innocence which made the oldagent reflective. The pupil of Lenoir, after considering the twoprisoners carefully, and noting the vacant air of the old gentlemanwhom he took to be sly, the intelligent eye of the abbe who was stillfingering the cards, and the utter stupefaction of the servants andDurieu, approached Corentin and whispered in his ear, "We are notdealing with ninnies. " Corentin answered with a look at the card-table; then he added, "Theywere playing at boston! Mademoiselle's bed was just being made for thenight; she escaped in a hurry; it is a regular surprise; we shallcatch them. " CHAPTER VII A FOREST NOOK A breach has always a cause and a purpose. Here is the explanation ofhow the one which led from the tower called that of Mademoiselle andthe stables came to be made. After his installation as Laurence'sguardian at Cinq-Cygne old d'Hauteserre converted a long ravine, through which the water of the forest flowed into the moat, into aroadway between two tracts of uncultivated land belonging to thechateau, by merely planting out in it about a hundred walnut treeswhich he found ready in the nursery. In eleven years these trees hadgrown and branched so as to nearly cover the road, hidden already bysteep banks, which ran into a little wood of thirty acres recentlypurchased. When the chateau had its full complement of inhabitantsthey all preferred to take this covered way through the breach to themain road which skirted the park walls and led to the farm, ratherthan go round by the entrance. By dint of thus using it the breach inthe sides of the moat had gradually been widened on both sides, withall the less scruple because in this nineteenth century of ours moatsare no longer of the slightest use, and Laurence's guardian had oftentalked of putting this one to some other purpose. The constantcrumbling away of the earth and stones and gravel had ended by fillingup the ditch, so that only after heavy rains was the causeway thusconstructed covered. But the bank was still so steep that it wasdifficult to make a horse descend it, and even more difficult to gethim up upon the main road. Horses, however, seem in times of peril toshare their masters' thought. While the young countess was hesitating to follow Marthe, and askingexplanations, Michu, from his vantage-ground watched the closing in ofthe gendarmes and understood their plan. He grew desperate as timewent by and the countess did not come to him. A squad of gendarmeswere marching along the park wall and stationing themselves assentinels, each man being near enough to communicate with those oneither side of them, by voice and eye. Michu, lying flat on hisstomach, his ear to earth, gauged, like a red Indian, by the strengthof the sounds the time that remained to him. "I came too late!" he said to himself. "Violette shall pay dear forthis! what a time it took to make him drunk! What can be done?" He heard the detachment that was coming through the forest reach theiron gates and turn into the main road, where before long it wouldmeet the squad coming up from the other direction. "Still five or six minutes!" he said. At that instant the countess appeared. Michu took her with a firm handand pushed her into the covered way. "Keep straight before you! Lead her to where my horse is, " he said tohis wife, "and remember that gendarmes have ears. " Seeing Catherine, who carried the hat and whip, and Gothard leadingthe mare, the man, keen-witted in presence of danger, bethoughthimself of playing the gendarmes a trick as useful as the one he hadjust played Violette. Gothard had forced the mare to mount the bank. "Her feet muffled! I thank thee, boy, " exclaimed the bailiff. Michu let the mare follow her mistress and took the hat, gloves, andwhip from Catherine. "You have sense, boy, you'll understand me, " he said. "Force your ownhorse up here, jump on him, and draw the gendarmes after you acrossthe fields towards the farm; get the whole squad to follow you--Andyou, " he added to Catherine, "there are other gendarmes coming up onthe road from Cinq-Cygne to Gondreville; run in the opposite directionto the one Gothard takes, and draw them towards the forest. Manage sothat we shall not be interfered with in the covered way. " Catherine and the boy, who were destined to give in this affair suchremarkable proofs of intelligence, executed the manoeuvre in a way tomake both detachments of gendarmes believe that they held the game. The dim light of the moon prevented the pursuers from distinguishingthe figure, clothing, sex, or number of those they followed. Thepursuit was based on the maxim, "Always arrest those who areescaping, "--the folly of which saying was, as we have seen, energetically declared by Corentin to the corporal in command. Michu, counting on this instinct of the gendarmes, was able to reach theforest a few moments after the countess, whom Marthe had guided to theappointed place. "Go home now, " he said to Marthe. "The forest is watched and it isdangerous to remain here. We need all our freedom. " Michu unfastened his horse and asked the countess to follow him. "I shall not go a step further, " said Laurence, "unless you give mesome proof of the interest you seem to have in us--for, after all, youare Michu. " "Mademoiselle, " he answered, in a gentle voice; "the part I am playingcan be explained to you in two words. I am, unknown to the Marquis deSimeuse and his brother, the guardian of their property. On thissubject I received the last instructions of their late father andtheir dear mother, my protectress. I have played the part of avirulent Jacobin to serve my dear young masters. Unhappily, I beganthis course too late; I could not save their parents. " Here, Michu'svoice broke down. "Since the young men emigrated I have sent themregularly the sums they needed to live upon. " "Through the house of Breintmayer of Strasburg?" asked the countess. "Yes, mademoiselle; the correspondents of Monsieur Girel of Troyes, aroyalist who, like me, made himself for good reasons, a Jacobin. Thepaper which your farmer picked up one evening and which I forced himto surrender, related to the affair and would have compromised yourcousins. My life no longer belongs to me, but to them, you understand. I could not buy in Gondreville. In my position, I should have lost myhead had the authorities known I had the money. I preferred to waitand buy it later. But that scoundrel of a Marion was the slave ofanother scoundrel, Malin. All the same, Gondreville shall once morebelong to its rightful masters. That's my affair. Four hours ago I hadMalin sighted by my gun; ha! he was almost gone then! Were he dead, the property would be sold and you could have bought it. In case of mydeath my wife would have brought you a letter which would have givenyou the means of buying it. But I overheard that villain telling hisaccomplice Grevin--another scoundrel like himself--that the Marquisand his brother were conspiring against the First Consul, that theywere here in the neighborhood, and that he meant to give them up andget rid of them so as to keep Gondreville in peace. I myself saw thepolice spies; I laid aside my gun, and I have lost no time in cominghere, thinking that you must be the one to know best how to warn theyoung men. That's the whole of it. " "You are worthy to be a noble, " said Laurence, offering her hand toMichu, who tried to kneel and kiss it. She saw his motion andprevented it, saying: "Stand up!" in a tone of voice and with a lookwhich made him amends for all the scorn of the last twelve years. "You reward me as though I had done all that remains for me to do, " hesaid. "But don't you hear them, those huzzars of the guillotine? Letus go elsewhere. " He took the mare's bridle, and led her a little distance. "Think only of sitting firm, " he said, "and of saving your head fromthe branches of the trees which might strike you in the face. " Then he mounted his own horse and guided the young girl for half anhour at full gallop; making turns and half turns, and striking intowood-paths, so as to confuse their traces, until they reached a spotwhere he pulled up. "I don't know where I am, " said the countess looking about her, --"I, who know the forest as well as you do. " "We are in the heart of it, " he replied. "Two gendarmes are after us, but we are quite safe. " The picturesque spot to which the bailiff had guided Laurence wasdestined to be so fatal to the principal personages of this drama, andto Michu himself, that it becomes our duty, as an historian, todescribe it. The scene became, as we shall see hereafter, one of notedinterest in the judiciary annals of the Empire. The forest of Nodesme belonged to the monastery of Notre-Dame. Thatmonastery, seized, sacked, and demolished, had disappeared entirely, monks and property. The forest, an object of much cupidity, was takeninto the domain of the Comtes de Champagne, who mortgaged it later andallowed it to be sold. In the course of six centuries nature coveredits ruins with her rich and vigorous green mantle, and effaced them sothoroughly that the existence of one of the finest convents was nolonger even indicated except by a slight eminence shaded by nobletrees and circled by thick, impenetrable shrubbery, which, since 1794, Michu had taken great pains to make still more impenetrable byplanting the thorny acacia in all the slight openings between thebushes. A pond was at the foot of the eminence and showed theexistence of a hidden stream which no doubt determined in former daysthe site of the monastery. The late owner of the title to the forestof Nodesme was the first to recognize the etymology of the name, whichdated back for eight centuries, and to discover that at one time amonastery had existed in the heart of the forest. When the firstrumblings of the thunder of the Revolution were heard, the Marquis deSimeuse, who had been forced to look into his title by a lawsuit andso learned the above facts as it were by chance, began, with a secretintention not difficult to conceive, to search for some remains of theformer monastery. The keeper, Michu, to whom the forest was wellknown, helped his master in the search, and it was his sagacity as aforester which led to the discovery of the site. Observing the trendof the five chief roads of the forest, some of which were now effaced, he saw that they all ended either at the little eminence or by thepond at the foot of it, to which points travellers from Troyes, fromthe valley of Arcis and that of Cinq-Cygne, and from Bar-sur-Aubedoubtless came. The marquis wished to excavate the hillock but hedared not employ the people of the neighborhood. Pressed bycircumstances, he abandoned the intention, leaving in Michu's mind astrong conviction that the eminence had either the treasure or thefoundations of the former abbey. He continued, all alone, thisarchaeological enterprise; he sounded the earth and discovered ahollowness on the level of the pond between two trees, at the foot ofthe only craggy part of the hillock. One fine night he came to the place armed with a pickaxe, and by thesweat of his brow uncovered a succession of cellars, which wereentered by a flight of stone steps. The pond, which was three feetdeep in the middle, formed a sort of dipper, the handle of whichseemed to come from the little eminence, and went far to prove that aspring had once issued from the crags, and was now lost byinfiltration through the forest. The marshy shores of the pond, covered with aquatic trees, alders, willow, and ash, were the terminusof all the wood-paths, the remains of former roads and forest by-ways, now abandoned. The water, flowing from a spring, though apparentlystagnant, was covered with large-leaved plants and cresses, which gaveit a perfectly green surface almost indistinguishable from the shores, which were covered with fine close herbage. The place is too far fromhuman habitations for any animal, unless a wild one, to come there. Convinced that no game was in the marsh and repelled by the craggysides of the hills, keepers and hunters had never explored or visitedthis nook, which belonged to a part of the forest where the timber hadnot been cut for many years and which Michu meant to keep in its fullgrowth when the time came round to fell it. At the further end of the first cellar was a vaulted chamber, cleanand dry, built with hewn stone, a sort of convent dungeon, such asthey called in monastic days the _in pace_. The salubrity of thechamber and the preservation of this part of the staircase and of thevaults were explained by the presence of the spring, which had beenenclosed at some time by a wall of extraordinary thickness built inbrick and cement like those of the Romans, and received all thewaters. Michu closed the entrance to this retreat with large stones;then, to keep the secret of it to himself and make it impenetrable toothers, he made a rule never to enter it except from the wooded heightabove, by clambering down the crag instead of approaching it from thepond. Just as the fugitives arrived, the moon was casting her beautifulsilvery light on the aged tree-tops above the crag, and flickering onthe splendid foliage at the corners of the several paths, all of whichended here, some with one tree, some with a group of trees. On allsides the eye was irresistibly led along their vanishing perspectives, following the curve of a wood-path or the solemn stretch of a forestglade flanked by a wall of verdure that was nearly black. Themoonlight, filtering through the branches of the crossways, made thelonely, tranquil waters, where they peeped between the crosses and thelily-pads, sparkle like diamonds. The croaking of the frogs broke thedeep silence of this beautiful forest-nook, the wild odors of whichincited the soul to thoughts of liberty. "Are we safe?" said the countess to Michu. "Yes, mademoiselle. But we have each some work to do. Do you go andfasten our horses to the trees at the top of the little hill; tie ahandkerchief round the mouth of each of them, " he said, giving her hiscravat; "your beast and mine are both intelligent, they willunderstand they are not to neigh. When you have done that, come downthe crag directly above the pond; but don't let your habit catchanywhere. You will find me below. " While the countess hid the horses and tied and gagged them, Michuremoved the stones and opened the entrance to the caverns. Thecountess, who thought she knew the forest by heart, was amazed whenshe descended into the vaulted chambers. Michu replaced the stonesabove them with the dexterity of a mason. As he finished, the sound ofhorses' feet and the voices of the gendarmes echoed in the darkness;but he quietly struck a match, lighted a resinous bit of wood and ledthe countess to the _in pace_, where there was still a piece of thecandle with which he had first explored the caves. An iron door ofsome thickness, eaten in several places by rust, had been put in goodorder by the bailiff, and could be fastened securely by bars slippinginto holes in the wall on either side of it. The countess, half deadwith fatigue, sat down on a stone bench, above which there stillremained an iron ring, the staple of which was embedded in themasonry. "We have a salon to converse in, " said Michu. "The gendarmes may prowlas much as they like; the worst they could do would be to take ourhorses. " "If they do that, " said Laurence, "it would be the death of my cousinsand the Messieurs d'Hauteserre. Tell me now, what do you know?" Michu related what he had overheard Malin say to Grevin. "They are already on the road to Paris; they were to enter itto-morrow morning, " said the countess when he had finished. "Lost!" exclaimed Michu. "All persons entering or leaving the barriersare examined. Malin has strong reasons to let my masters compromisethemselves; he is seeking to get them killed out of his way. " "And I, who don't know anything of the general plan of the affair, "cried Laurence, "how can I warn Georges, Riviere, and Moreau? Whereare they?--However, let us think only of my cousins and thed'Hauteserres; you must catch up with them, no matter what it costs. " "The telegraph goes faster than the best horse, " said Michu; "and ofall the nobles concerned in this conspiracy your cousins are theclosest watched. If I can find them, they must be hidden here and kepthere till the affair is over. Their poor father may have had aforeboding when he set me to search for this hiding-place; perhaps hefelt that his sons would be saved here. " "My mare is from the stables of the Comte d'Artois, --she is thedaughter of his finest English horse, " said Laurence; "but she hasalready gone sixty miles, she would drop dead before you reachedthem. " "Mine is in good condition, " replied Michu; "and if you did sixtymiles I shall have only thirty to do. " "Nearer forty, " she said, "they have been walking since dark. You willovertake them beyond Lagny, at Coupvrai, where they expected to be atdaybreak. They are disguised as sailors, and will enter Paris by theriver on some vessel. This, " she added, taking half of her mother'swedding-ring from her finger, "is the only thing which will make themtrust you; they have the other half. The keeper of Couvrai is thefather of one of their soldiers; he has hidden them tonight in a hutin the forest deserted by charcoal-burners. They are eight in all, Messieurs d'Hauteserre and four others are with my cousins. " "Mademoiselle, no one is looking for the others! let them savethemselves as they can; we must think only of the Messieurs deSimeuse. It is enough just to warn the rest. " "What! abandon the Hauteserres? never!" she said. "They must allperish or be saved together!" "Only petty noblemen!" remarked Michu. "They are only chevaliers, I know that, " she replied, "but they arerelated to the Cinq-Cygne and Simeuse blood. Save them all, and advisethem how best to regain this forest. " "The gendarmes are here, --don't you hear them? they are holding acouncil of war. " "Well, you have twice had luck to-night; go! bring my cousins here andhide them in these vaults; they'll be safe from all pursuit--Alas! Iam good for nothing!" she cried, with rage; "I should be only a beaconto light the enemy--but the police will never imagine that my cousinsare in the forest if they see me at my ease. So the question resolvesitself into this: how can we get five good horses to bring them in sixhours from Lagny to the forest, --five horses to be killed and hiddenin some thicket. " "And the money?" said Michu, who was thinking deeply as he listened tothe young countess. "I gave my cousins a hundred louis this evening, " she replied. "I'll answer for them!" cried Michu. "But once hidden here you mustnot attempt to see them. My wife, or the little one, shall bring themfood twice a week. But, as I can't be sure of what may happen to me, remember, mademoiselle, in case of trouble, that the main beam in myhay-loft has been bored with an auger. In the hole, which is pluggedwith a bit of wood, you will find a plan showing how to reach thisspot. The trees which you will find marked with a red dot on the planhave a black mark at their foot close to the earth. Each of thesetrees is a sign-post. At the foot of the third old oak which stands tothe left of each sign-post, two feet in front of it and buried sevenfeet in the ground, you will find a large metal tube; in each tube areone hundred thousand francs in gold. These eleven trees--there areonly eleven--contain the whole fortune of the Simeuse brothers, nowthat Gondreville has been taken from them. " "It will take a hundred years for the nobility to recover from suchblows, " said Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, slowly. "Is there a pass-word?" asked Michu. "'France and Charles' for the soldiers, 'Laurence and Louis' for theMessieurs d'Hauteserre and Simeuse. Good God! to think that I saw themyesterday for the first time in eleven years, and that now they are indanger of death--and what a death! Michu, " she said, with a melancholylook, "be as prudent during the next fifteen hours as you have beengrand and devoted during the last twelve years. If disaster were toovertake my cousins now I should die of it--No, " she added, quickly, "I would live long enough to kill Bonaparte. " "There will be two of us to do that when all is lost, " said Michu. Laurence took his rough hand and wrung it warmly, as the English do. Michu looked at his watch; it was midnight. "We must leave here at any cost, " he said. "Death to the gendarme whoattempts to stop me! And you, madame la comtesse, without presuming todictate, ride back to Cinq-Cygne as fast as you can. The police arethere by this time; fool them! delay them!" The hole once opened, Michu flung himself down with his ear to theearth; then he rose precipitately. "The gendarmes are at the edge ofthe forest towards Troyes!" he said. "Ha, I'll get the better of themyet!" He helped the countess to come out, and replaced the stones. When thiswas done he heard her soft voice telling him she must see him mountedbefore mounting herself. Tears came to the eyes of the stern man as heexchanged a last look with his young mistress, whose own eyes weretearless. "Fool them! yes, he is right!" she said when she heard him no longer. Then she darted towards Cinq-Cygne at full gallop. CHAPTER VIII TRIALS OF THE POLICE Madame d'Hauteserre, roused by the danger of her sons, and notbelieving that the Revolution was over, but still fearing its summaryjustice, recovered her senses by the violence of the same distresswhich made her lose them. Led by an agonizing curiosity she returnedto the salon, which presented a picture worthy of the brush of a genrepainter. The abbe, still seated at the card-table and mechanicallyplaying with the counters, was covertly observing Corentin andPeyrade, who were standing together at a corner of the fireplace andspeaking in a low voice. Several times Corentin's keen eye met the notless keen glance of the priest; but, like two adversaries who knewthemselves equally strong, and who return to their guard aftercrossing their weapons, each averted his eyes the instant they met. The worthy old d'Hauteserre, poised on his long thin legs like aheron, was standing beside the stout form of the mayor, in an attitudeexpressive of utter stupefaction. The mayor, though dressed as abourgeois, always looked like a servant. Each gazed with a bewilderedeye at the gendarmes, in whose clutches Gothard was still sobbing, hishands purple and swollen from the tightness of the cord that boundthem. Catherine maintained her attitude of artless simplicity, whichwas quite impenetrable. The corporal, who, according to Corentin, hadcommitted a great blunder in arresting these smaller fry, did not knowwhether to stay where he was or to depart. He stood pensively in themiddle of the salon, his hand on the hilt of his sabre, his eye on thetwo Parisians. The Durieus, also stupefied, and the other servants ofthe chateau made an admirable group of expressive uneasiness. If ithad not been for Gothard's convulsive snifflings those present couldhave heard the flies fly. When Madame d'Hauteserre, pale and terrified, opened the door andentered the room, almost carried by Mademoiselle Goujet, whose redeyes had evidently been weeping, all faces turned to her at once. Thetwo agents hoped as much as the household feared to see Laurenceenter. This spontaneous movement of both masters and servants seemedproduced by the sort of mechanism which makes a number of woodenfigures perform the same gesture or wink the same eye. Madame d'Hauteserre advanced by three rapid strides towards Corentinand said, in a broken voice but violently: "For pity's sake, monsieur, tell me what my sons are accused of. Do you really think they havebeen here?" The abbe, who seemed to be saying to himself when he saw the old lady, "She will certainly commit some folly, " lowered his eyes. "My duty and the mission I am engaged in forbid me to tell you, "answered Corentin, with a gracious but rather mocking air. This refusal, which the detestable politeness of the vulgar fop seemedto make all the more emphatic, petrified the poor mother, who fellinto a chair beside the Abbe Goujet, clasped her hands and began topray. "Where did you arrest that blubber?" asked Corentin, addressing thecorporal and pointing to Laurence's little henchman. "On the road that leads to the farm along the park walls; the littlescamp had nearly reached the Closeaux woods, " replied the corporal. "And that girl?" "She? oh, it was Oliver who caught her. " "Where was she going?" "Towards Gondreville. " "They were going in opposite directions?" said Corentin. "Yes, " replied the gendarme. "Is that boy the groom, and the girl the maid of the citizenessCinq-Cygne?" said Corentin to the mayor. "Yes, " replied Goulard. After Corentin had exchanged a few words with Peyrade in a whisper, the latter left the room, taking the corporal of gendarmes with him. Just then the corporal of Arcis made his appearance. He went up toCorentin and spoke to him in a low voice: "I know these premiseswell, " he said; "I have searched everywhere; unless those youngfellows are buried, they are not here. We have sounded all the floorsand walls with the butt end of our muskets. " Peyrade, who presently returned, signed to Corentin to come out, andthen took him to the breach in the moat and showed him the sunken way. "We have guessed the trick, " said Peyrade. "And I'll tell you how it was done, " added Corentin. "That littlescamp and the girl decoyed those idiots of gendarmes and thus madetime for the game to escape. " "We can't know the truth till daylight, " said Peyrade. "The road isdamp; I have ordered two gendarmes to barricade it top and bottom. We'll examine it after daylight, and find out by the footsteps whowent that way. " "I see a hoof-mark, " said Corentin; "let us go to the stables. " "How many horses do you keep?" said Peyrade, returning to the salonwith Corentin, and addressing Monsieur d'Hauteserre and Goulard. "Come, monsieur le maire, you know, answer, " cried Corentin, seeingthat that functionary hesitated. "Why, there's the countess's mare, Gothard's horse, and Monsieurd'Hauteserre's. " "There is only one in the stable, " said Peyrade. "Mademoiselle is out riding, " said Durieu. "Does she often ride about at this time of night?" said the libertinePeyrade, addressing Monsieur d'Hauteserre. "Often, " said the good man, simply. "Monsieur le maire can tell youthat. " "Everybody knows she has her freaks, " remarked Catherine; "she lookedat the sky before she went to bed, and I think the glitter of yourbayonets in the moonlight puzzled her. She told me she wanted to knowif there was going to be another revolution. " "When did she go?" asked Peyrade. "When she saw your guns. " "Which road did she take?" "I don't know. " "There's another horse missing, " said Corentin. "The gendarmes--took it--away from me, " said Gothard. "Where were you going?" said one of them. "I was--following--my mistress to the farm, " sobbed the boy. The gendarme looked towards Corentin as if expecting an order. ButGothard's speech was evidently so true and yet so false, so perfectlyinnocent and so artful that the two Parisians again looked at eachother as if to echo Peyrade's former words: "They are not ninnies. " Monsieur d'Hauteserre seemed incapable of a word; the mayor wasbewildered; the mother, imbecile from maternal fears, was puttingquestions to the police agents that were idiotically innocent; theservants had been roused from their sleep. Judging by these triflingsigns, and these diverse characters, Corentin came to the conclusionthat his only real adversary was Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne. Shrewdand dexterous as the police may be, they are always under certaindisadvantages. Not only are they forced to discover all that is knownto a conspirator, but they must also suppose and test a great numberof things before they hit upon the right one. The conspirator isalways thinking of his own safety, whereas the police is only on dutyat certain hours. Were it not for treachery and betrayals, nothingwould be easier than to conspire successfully. The conspirator hasmore mind concentrated upon himself than the police can bring to bearwith all its vast facilities of action. Finding themselves stoppedshort morally, as they might be physically by a door which theyexpected to find open being shut in their faces, Corentin and Peyradesaw they were tricked and misled, without knowing by whom. "I assert, " said the corporal of Arcis, in their ear, "that if thefour young men slept here last night it must have been in the beds oftheir father and mother, and Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, or those ofthe servants; or they must have spent the night in the park. There isnot a trace of their presence. " "Who could have warned them?" said Corentin, to Peyrade. "No one butthe First Consul, Fouche, the ministers, the prefect of police, andMalin knew anything about it. " "We must set spies in the neighborhood, " whispered Peyrade. "And watch the spies, " said the abbe, who smiled as he overheard theword and guessed all. "Good God!" thought Corentin, replying to the abbe's smile with one ofhis own; "there is but one intelligent being here, --he's the one tocome to an understanding with; I'll try him. " "Gentlemen--" said the mayor, anxious to give some proof of devotionto the First Consul and addressing the two agents. "Say 'citizens'; the Republic still exists, " interrupted Corentin, looking at the priest with a quizzical air. "Citizens, " resumed the mayor, "just as I entered this salon andbefore I had opened my mouth Catherine rushed in and took hermistress's hat, gloves, and whip. " A low murmur of horror came from the breasts of all the householdexcept Gothard. All eyes but those of the agent and the gendarmes wereturned threateningly on Goulard, the informer, seeming to dart flamesat him. "Very good, citizen mayor, " said Peyrade. "We see it all plainly. Someone" (this with a glance of evident distrust at Corentin) "warned thecitizeness Cinq-Cygne in time. " "Corporal, handcuff that boy, " said Corentin, to the gendarme, "andtake him away by himself. And shut up that girl, too, " pointing toCatherine. "As for you, Peyrade, search for papers, " adding in hisear, "Ransack everything, spare nothing. --Monsieur l'abbe, " he said, confidentially, "I have an important communication to make to you";and he took him into the garden. "Listen to me attentively, monsieur, " he went on; "you seem to havethe mind of a bishop, and (no one can hear us) you will understand me. I have no longer any hope except through you of saving these families, who, with the greatest folly, are letting themselves roll down aprecipice where no one can save them. The Messieurs Simeuse andd'Hauteserre have been betrayed by one of those infamous spies whomgovernments introduce into all conspiracies to learn their objects, means, and members. Don't confound me, I beg of you, with the wretchwho is with me. He belongs to the police; but I am honorably attachedto the Consular cabinet, I am therefore behind the scenes. The ruin ofthe Simeuse brothers is not desired. Though Malin would like to seethem shot, the First Consul, if they are here and have come withoutevil intentions, wishes them to be warned out of danger, for he likesgood soldiers. The agent who accompanies me has all the powers, I, apparently, am nothing. But I see plainly what is hatching. The agentis pledged to Malin, who has doubtless promised him his influence, anoffice, and perhaps money if he finds the Simeuse brothers anddelivers them up. The First Consul, who is a really great man, neverfavors selfish schemes--I don't want to know if those young men arehere, " he added, quickly, observing the abbe's gesture, "but I wish totell you that there is only one way to save them. You know the law ofthe 6th Floreal, year X. , which amnestied all the _emigres_ who werestill in foreign countries on condition that they returned home beforethe 1st Vendemiaire of the year XI. , that is to say, in September oflast year. But the Messieurs Simeuse having, like the Messieursd'Hauteserre, served in the army of Conde, they come into the categoryof exceptions to this law. Their presence in France is thereforecriminal, and suffices, under the circumstances in which we are, tomake them suspected of collusion in a horrible plot. The First Consulsaw the error of this exception which has made enemies for hisgovernment, and he wishes the Messieurs Simeuse to know that no stepswill be taken against them, if they will send him a petition sayingthat they have re-entered France intending to submit to the laws, andagreeing to take oath to the Constitution. You can understand that thedocument ought to be in my hands before they are arrested, and bedated some days earlier. I would then be the bearer of it--I do notask you where those young men are, " he said again, seeing anothergesture of denial from the priest. "We are, unfortunately, sure offinding them; the forest is guarded, the entrances to Paris and thefrontiers are all watched. Pray listen to me; if these gentlemen arebetween the forest and Paris they must be taken; if they are in Paristhey will be found; if they retreat to the frontier they will still bearrested. The First Consul likes the _ci-devants_, and cannot endurethe republicans--simple enough; if he wants a throne he must needsstrangle Liberty. Keep the matter a secret between us. This is what Iwill do; I will stay here till to-morrow and _be blind_; but beware ofthe agent; that cursed Provencal is the devil's own valet; he has theear of Fouche just as I have that of the First Consul. " "If the Messieurs Simeuse are here, " said the abbe, "I would give tenpints of my blood and my right arm to save them; but if Mademoisellede Cinq-Cygne is in the secret she has not--and this I swear on myeternal salvation--betrayed it in any way, neither has she done me thehonor to consult me. I am now very glad of her discretion, ifdiscretion there be. We played cards last night as usual, at boston, in almost complete silence, until half-past ten o'clock, and weneither saw nor heard anything. Not a child can pass through thissolitary valley without the whole community knowing it, and for thelast two weeks no one has come from other places. Now the d'Hauteserreand the Simeuse brothers would make a party of four. Old d'Hauteserreand his wife have submitted to the present government, and they havemade all imaginable efforts to persuade their sons to return toFrance; they wrote to them again yesterday. I can only say, upon mysoul and conscience, that your visit has alone shaken my firm beliefthat these young men are living in Germany. Between ourselves, thereis no one here, except the young countess, who does not do justice tothe eminent qualities of the First Consul. " "Fox!" thought Corentin. "Well, if those young men are shot, " he said, aloud; "it is because their friends have willed it--I wash my hands ofthe affair. " He had led the abbe to a part of the garden which lay in themoonlight, and as he said the last words he looked at him suddenly. The priest was greatly distressed, but his manner was that of a mansurprised and wholly ignorant. "Understand this, monsieur l'abbe, " resumed Corentin; "the right ofthese young men to the estate of Gondreville will render them doublycriminal in the eyes of the middle class. I'd like to see them putfaith in God and not in his saints--" "Is there really a plot?" asked the abbe, simply. "Base, odious, cowardly, and so contrary to the generous spirit of thenation, " replied Corentin, "that it will meet with universalopprobrium. " "Well! Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne is incapable of baseness, " cried theabbe. "Monsieur l'abbe, " replied Corentin, "let me tell you this; there isfor us (meaning you and me) proof positive of her guilt; but there isnot enough for the law. You see she took flight when we came; I sentthe mayor to warn her. " "Yes, but for one who is so anxious to save them, you followed ratherclosely on his heels, " said the abbe. At those words the two men looked at each other, and all was said. Each belonged to those profound anatomists of thought to whom a mereinflexion of the voice, a look, a word suffices to reveal a soul, justas the Indians track their enemies by signs invisible to Europeaneyes. "I expected to draw something out of him, and I have only betrayedmyself, " thought Corentin. "Ha! the sly rogue!" thought the priest. Midnight rang from the old church clock just as Corentin and the abbere-entered the salon. The opening and shutting of doors and closetscould be heard from the bedrooms above. The gendarmes pulled open thebeds; Peyrade, with the quick perception of a spy, handled and soundedeverything. Such desecration excited both fear and indignation amongthe faithful servants of the house, who still stood motionless aboutthe salon. Monsieur d'Hauteserre exchanged looks of commiseration withhis wife and Mademoiselle Goujet. A species of horrible curiosity keptevery one on the qui vive. Peyrade at length came down, holding in hishand a sandal-wood box which had probably been brought from China byAdmiral de Simeuse. This pretty casket was flat and about the size ofa quarto volume. Peyrade made a sign to Corentin and took him into the embrasure of awindow. "I've an idea!" he said, "that Michu, who was ready to pay Marioneight hundred thousand francs in gold for Gondreville, and whoevidently meant to shoot Malin yesterday, is the man who is helpingthe Simeuse brothers. His motive in threatening Marion and aiming atMalin must be the same. I thought when I saw him that he was capableof ideas; evidently he has but one; he discovered what was going onand he must have come here to warn them. " "Probably Malin talked about the conspiracy to his friend the notary, and Michu from his ambush overheard what was said, " remarked Corentin, continuing the inductions of his colleague. "No doubt he has onlypostponed his shot to prevent an evil he thinks worse than the loss ofGondreville. " "He knew what we were the moment he laid eyes on us, " said Peyrade. "Ithought then that he was amazingly intelligent for a peasant. " "That proves that he is always on his guard, " replied Corentin. "But, mind you, my old man, don't let us make a mistake. Treachery stinks inthe nostrils, and primitive folks do scent it from afar. " "But that's our strength, " said the Provencal. "Call the corporal of Arcis, " cried Corentin to one of the gendarmes. "I shall send him at once to Michu's house, " he added to Peyrade. "Our ear, Violette, is there, " said Peyrade. "We started without getting news from him. Two of us are not enough;we ought to have had Sabatier with us--Corporal, " he said, when thegendarme appeared, taking him aside with Peyrade, "don't let them foolyou as they did the Troyes corporal just now. We think Michu is inthis business. Go to his house, put your eye on everything, and bringword of the result. " "One of my men heard horses in the forest just as they arrested thelittle groom; I've four fine fellows now on the track of whoever ishiding there, " replied the gendarme. He left the room, and the gallop of his horse which echoed on thepaved courtyard died rapidly away. "One thing is certain, " said Corentin to himself, "either they havegone to Paris or they are retreating to Germany. " He sat down, pulled a note-book from the pocket of his spencer, wrotetwo orders in pencil, sealed them, and made a sign to one of thegendarmes to come to him. "Be off at full gallop to Troyes, wake up the prefect, and tell him tostart the telegraph as soon as there's light enough. " The gendarme departed. The meaning of this movement and Corentin'sintentions were so evident that the hearts of the household sankwithin them; but this new anxiety was additional to another that wasnow martyrizing them; their eyes were fixed on the sandal-wood box!All the while the two agents were talking together they were eachtaking note of those eager looks. A sort of cold anger stirred theunfeeling hearts of these men who relished the power of inspiringterror. The police man has the instincts and emotions of a hunter: butwhere the one employs his powers of mind and body in killing a hare, apartridge, or a deer, the other is thinking of saving the State, or aking, and of winning a large reward. So the hunt for men is superiorto the other class of hunting by all the distance that there isbetween animals and human beings. Moreover, a spy is forced to liftthe part he plays to the level and the importance of the interests towhich he is bound. Without looking further into this calling, it iseasy to see that the man who follows it puts as much passionate ardorinto his chase as another man does into the pursuit of game. Thereforethe further these men advanced in their investigations the more eagerthey became; but the expression of their faces and their eyescontinued calm and cold, just as their ideas, their suspicions, andtheir plans remained impenetrable. To any one who watched the effectsof the moral scent, if we may so call it, of these bloodhounds on thetrack of hidden facts, and who noted and understood the movements ofcanine agility which led them to strike the truth in their rapidexamination of probabilities, there was in it all something actuallyhorrifying. How and why should men of genius fall so low when it wasin their power to be so high? What imperfection, what vice, whatpassion debases them? Does a man become a police-agent as he becomes athinker, writer, statesmen, painter, general, on the condition ofknowing nothing but how to spy, as the others speak, write, govern, paint, and fight? The inhabitants of the chateau had but one wish, --that the thunderbolts of heaven might fall upon these miscreants;they were athirst for vengeance; and had it not been for the presence, up to this time, of the gendarmes there would undoubtedly have been anoutbreak. "No one, I suppose, has the key of this box?" said the cynicalPeyrade, questioning the family as much by the movement of his hugered nose as by his words. The Provencal noticed, not without fear, that the guards were nolonger present; he and Corentin were alone with the family. Theyounger man drew a small dagger from his pocket, and began to forcethe lock of the box. Just then the desperate galloping of a horse washeard upon the road and then upon the pavement by the lawn; but mosthorrible of all was the fall and sighing of the animal, which seemedto drop all at once at the door of the middle tower. A convulsion likethat which a thunderbolt might produce shook the spectators whenLaurence, the trailing of whose riding-habit announced her coming, entered the room. The servants hastily formed into two lines to lether pass. In spite of her rapid ride, the girl had felt the full anguish thediscovery of the conspiracy must needs cause her. All her hopes wereoverthrown! she had galloped through ruins as her thoughts turned tothe necessity of submission to the Consular government. Were it notfor the danger which threatened the four gentlemen, and which servedas a tonic to conquer her weariness and her despair, she would havedropped asleep on the way. The mare was almost killed in her haste toreach the chateau, and stand between her cousins and death. As allpresent looked at the heroic girl, pale, her features drawn, her veilaside, her whip in her hand, standing on the threshold of the door, whence her burning glance grasped the whole scene and comprehended it, each knew from the almost imperceptible motion which crossed thesoured and bittered face of Corentin, that the real adversaries hadmet. A terrible duel was about to begin. Noticing the box, now in the hands of Corentin, the countess raisedher whip and sprang rapidly towards him. Striking his hands with soviolent a blow that the casket fell to the ground, she seized it, flung it into the middle of the fire, and stood with her back to thechimney in a threatening attitude before either of the agentsrecovered from their surprise. The scorn which flamed from her eyes, her pale brow, her disdainful lips, were even more insulting than thehaughty action which treated Corentin as though he were a venomousreptile. Old d'Hauteserre felt himself once more a cavalier; all hisblood rushed to his face, and he grieved that he had no sword. Theservants trembled for an instant with joy. The vengeance they hadcalled down upon these men had come. But their joy was driven backwithin their souls by a terrible fear; the gendarmes were still heardcoming and going in the garrets. The _spy_--noun of strength, under which all shades of the police areconfounded, for the public has never chosen to specify in language thevarieties of those who compose this dispensary of social remedies soessential to all governments--the spy has this curious and magnificentquality: he never becomes angry; he possesses the Christian humilityof a priest; his eyes are stolid with an indifference which he holdsas a barrier against the world of fools who do not understand him; hisforehead is adamant under insult; he pursues his ends like a reptilewhose carapace is fractured only by a cannonball; but (like thatreptile) he is all the more furious when the blow does reach him, because he believed his armor invulnerable. The lash of the whip uponhis fingers was to Corentin, pain apart, the cannonball that crackedthe shell. Coming from that magnificent and noble girl, this action, emblematic of her disgust, humiliated him, not only in the eyes of thepeople about him, but in his own. Peyrade sprang to the hearth, caught Laurence's foot, raised it, andcompelled her, out of modesty, to throw herself on the sofa, where shehad lately lain asleep. The scene, like other contrasts in humanthings, was burlesque in the midst of terror. Peyrade scorched hishand as he dashed it into the fire to seize the box; but he got it, threw it on the floor and sat down upon it. These little actions weredone with great rapidity and without a word being uttered. Corentin, recovering from the pain of the blow, caught Mademoiselle deCinq-Cygne by both hands, and held her. "Do not compel me to use force against you, " he said, with witheringpoliteness. Peyrade's action had extinguished the fire by the natural process ofsuppressing the air. "Gendarmes! here!" he cried, still occupying his ridiculous position. "Will you promise to behave yourself?" said Corentin, insolently, addressing Laurence, and picking up his dagger, but not committing thegreat fault of threatening her with it. "The secrets of that box do not concern the government, " she answered, with a tinge of melancholy in her tone and manner. "When you have readthe letters it contains you will, in spite of your infamy, feelashamed of having read them--that is, if you can still feel shame atanything, " she added, after a pause. The abbe looked at her as if to say, "For God's sake, be calm!" Peyrade rose. The bottom of the box, which had been nearly burnedthrough, left a mark upon the floor; the lid was scorched and thesides gave way. The grotesque Scaevola, who had offered to the god ofthe Police and Terror the seat of his apricot breeches, opened the twosides of the box as if it had been a book, and slid three letters andtwo locks of hair upon the card-table. He was about to smile atCorentin when he perceived that the locks were of two shades of gray. Corentin released Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne's hands and went up tothe table to read the letter from which the hair had fallen. Laurence rose, moved to the table beside the spies, and said:--"Readit aloud; that shall be your punishment. " As the two men continued to read to themselves, she herself read outthe following words:-- Dear Laurence, --My husband and I have heard of your noble conduct on the day of our arrest. We know that you love our dear twins as much, almost, as we love them ourselves. Therefore it is with you that we leave a token which will be both precious and sad to them. The executioner has come to cut our hair, for we are to die in a few moments; he has promised to put into your hands the only remembrance we are able to leave to our beloved orphans. Keep these last remains of us and give them to our sons in happier days. We have kissed these locks of hair and have laid our blessing upon them. Our last thought will be of our sons, of you, and of God. Love them, Laurence. Berthe de Cinq-Cygne. Jean de Simeuse. Tears came to the eyes of all the household as they listened to theletter. Laurence looked at the agents with a petrifying glance and said, in afirm voice:-- "You have less pity than the executioner. " Corentin quietly folded the hair in the letter, laid the letter asideon the table, and put a box of counters on the top of it as if toprevent its blowing away. His coolness in the midst of the generalemotion was horrible. Peyrade unfolded the other letters. "Oh, as for those, " said Laurence, "they are very much alike. You hearthe will; you can now hear of its fulfilment. In future I shall haveno secrets from any one. " 1794, Andernach. Before the battle. My dear Laurence, --I love you for life, and I wish you to know it. But you ought also to know, in case I die, that my brother, Paul-Marie, loves you as much as I love you. My only consolation in dying would be the thought that you might some day make my brother your husband without being forced to see me die of jealousy--which must surely happen if, both of us being alive, you preferred him to me. After all, that preference seems natural, for he is, perhaps, more worthy of your love than I-- Marie-Paul. "Here is the other letter, " she said, with the color in her cheeks. Andernach. Before the battle. My kind Laurence, --My heart is sad; but Marie-Paul has a gayer nature, and will please you more than I am able to do. Some day you will have to choose between us--well, though I love you passionately-- "You are corresponding with _emigres_, " said Peyrade, interruptingLaurence, and holding the letters between himself and the light to seeif they contained between the lines any treasonable writing withinvisible ink. "Yes, " replied Laurence, folding the precious letters, the paper ofwhich was already yellow with time. "But by virtue of what right doyou presume to violate my dwelling and my personal liberty?" "Ah, that's the point!" cried Peyrade. "By what right, indeed!--it istime to let you know it, beautiful aristocrat, " he added, taking awarrant from his pocket, which came from the minister of justice andwas countersigned by the minister of the interior. "See, theauthorities have their eye upon you. " "We might also ask you, " said Corentin, in her ear, "by what right youharbor in this house the assassins of the First Consul. You haveapplied your whip to my hands in a manner that authorizes me to takemy revenge upon your cousins, whom I came here to save. " At the mere movement of her lips and the glance which Laurence castupon Corentin, the abbe guessed what that great artist was saying, andhe made her a sign to be distrustful, which no one intercepted butGoulard. Peyrade struck the cover of the box to see if there were adouble top. "Don't break it!" she exclaimed, taking the cover from him. She took a pin, pushed the head of one of the carved figures, and thetwo halves of the top, joined by a spring, opened. In the hollow halflay miniatures of the Messieurs de Simeuse, in the uniform of the armyof Conde, two portraits on ivory done in Germany. Corentin, who felthimself in presence of an adversary worthy of his efforts, calledPeyrade aside into a corner of the room and conferred with him. "How could you throw _that_ into the fire?" said the abbe, speaking toLaurence and pointing to the letter of the marquise which enclosed thelocks of hair. For all answer the young girl shrugged her shoulders significantly. The abbe comprehended then that she had made the sacrifice to misleadthe agents and gain time; he raised his eyes to heaven with a gestureof admiration. "Where did they arrest Gothard, whom I hear crying?" she asked him, loud enough to be overheard. "I don't know, " said the abbe. "Did he reach the farm?" "The farm!" whispered Peyrade to Corentin. "Let us send there. " "No, " said Corentin; "that girl never trusted her cousins' safety to afarmer. She is playing with us. Do as I tell you, so that we mayn'thave to leave here without detecting something, after committing thegreat blunder of coming here at all. " Corentin stationed himself before the fire, lifting the long pointedskirts of his coat to warm himself and assuming the air, manner, andtone of a gentleman who was paying a visit. "Mesdames, you can go to bed, and the servants also. Monsieur lemaire, your services are no longer needed. The sternness of our ordersdoes not permit us to act otherwise than as we have done; but as soonas the walls, which seem to me rather thick, have been thoroughlyexamined, we shall take our departure. " The mayor bowed to the company and retired; but neither the abbe norMademoiselle Goujet stirred. The servants were too uneasy not to watchthe fate of their young mistress. Madame d'Hauteserre, who, from themoment of Laurence's entrance, had studied her with the anxiety of amother, rose, took her by the arm, led her aside, and said in a lowvoice, "Have you seen them?" "Do you think I could have let your sons be under this roof withoutyour knowing it?" replied Laurence. "Durieu, " she added, "see if it ispossible to save my poor Stella; she is still breathing. " "She must have gone a great distance, " said Corentin. "Forty miles in three hours, " she answered, addressing the abbe, whowatched her with amazement. "I started at half-past nine, and it waswell past one when I returned. " She looked at the clock which said half-past two. "So you don't deny that you have ridden forty miles?" said Corentin. "No, " she said. "I admit that my cousins, in their perfect innocence, expected not to be excluded from the amnesty, and were on their way toCinq-Cygne. When I found that the Sieur Malin was plotting to injurethem, I went to warn them to return to Germany, where they will bebefore the telegraph can have guarded the frontier. If I have donewrong I shall be punished for it. " This answer, which Laurence had carefully considered, was so probablein all its parts that Corentin's convictions were shaken. In thatdecisive moment, when every soul present hung suspended, as it were, on the faces of the two adversaries, and all eyes turned from Corentinto Laurence and from Laurence to Corentin, again the gallop of ahorse, coming from the forest, resounded on the road and from therethrough the gates to the paved courtyard. Frightful anxiety wasstamped on every face. Peyrade entered, his eyes gleaming with joy. He went hastily toCorentin and said, loud enough for the countess to hear him: "We havecaught Michu. " Laurence, to whom the agony, fatigue, and tension of all herintellectual faculties had given an unusual color, turned white andfell back almost fainting on a chair. Madame Durieu, MademoiselleGoujet, and Madame d'Hauteserre sprang to help her, for she wassuffocating. She signed to cut the frogging of her habit. "Duped!" said Corentin to Peyrade. "I am certain now they are on theirway to Paris. Change the orders. " They left the room and the house, placing one gendarme on guard at thedoor of the salon. The infernal cleverness of the two men had gained aterrible advantage by taking Laurence in the trap of a not uncommontrick. CHAPTER IX FOILED At six o'clock in the morning, as day was dawning, Corentin andPeyrade returned. Having explored the covered way they were satisfiedthat horses had passed through it to reach the forest. They were nowawaiting the report of the captain of gendarmerie sent to reconnoitrethe neighborhood. Leaving the chateau in charge of a corporal, theywent to the tavern at Cinq-Cygne to get their breakfast, giving ordersthat Gothard, who never ceased to reply to all questions with a burstof tears, should be set at liberty, also Catherine, who stillcontinued silent and immovable. Catherine and Gothard went to thesalon to kiss the hands of their mistress, who lay exhausted on thesofa; Durieu also went in to tell her that Stella would recover, butneeded great care. The mayor, uneasy and inquisitive, met Peyrade and Corentin in thevillage. He declared that he could not allow such important officialsto breakfast in a miserable tavern, and he took them to his own house. The abbey was only three quarters of a mile distant. On the way, Peyrade remarked that the corporal of Arcis had sent no news of Michuor of Violette. "We are dealing with very able people, " said Corentin; "they arestronger than we. The priest no doubt has a finger in all this. " Just as the mayor's wife was ushering her guests into a vastdining-room (without any fire) the lieutenant of gendarmes arrivedwith an anxious air. "We met the horse of the corporal of Arcis in the forest without hismaster, " he said to Peyrade. "Lieutenant, " cried Corentin, "go instantly to Michu's house and findout what is going on there. They must have murdered the corporal. " This news interfered with the mayor's breakfast. Corentin and Peyradeswallowed their food with the rapidity of hunters halting for a meal, and drove back to the chateau in their wicker carriage, so as to beready to start at the first call for any point where their presencemight be necessary. When the two men reappeared in the salon intowhich they had brought such trouble, terror, grief, and anxiety, theyfound Laurence, in a dressing-gown, Monsieur d'Hauteserre and hiswife, the abbe and his sister, sitting round the fire, to allappearance tranquil. "If they had caught Michu, " Laurence told herself, "they would havebrought him with them. I have the mortification of knowing that I wasnot the mistress of myself, and that I threw some light upon thematter for those wretches; but the harm can be undone--How long are weto be your prisoners?" she asked sarcastically, with an easy manner. "How can she know anything about Michu? No one from the outside hasgot near the chateau; she is laughing at us, " said the two agents toeach other by a look. "We shall not inconvenience you long, " replied Corentin. "In threehours from now we shall offer our regrets for having troubled yoursolitude. " No one replied. This contemptuous silence redoubled Corentin's inwardrage. Laurence and the abbe (the two minds of their little world) hadtalked the man over and drawn their conclusions. Gothard and Catherinehad set the breakfast-table near the fire and the abbe and his sisterwere sharing the meal. Neither masters nor servants paid the slightestattention to the two spies, who walked up and down the garden, thecourtyard or the lawn, returning every now and then to the salon. At half-past two the lieutenant reappeared. "I found the corporal, " he said to Corentin, "lying in the road whichleads from the pavilion of Cinq-Cygne to the farm at Bellache. He hasno wound, only a bad contusion of the head, caused, apparently, by hisfall. He told me he had been lifted suddenly off his horse and flungso violently to the ground that he could not discover how the thingwas done. His feet left the stirrups, which was lucky, for he mighthave been killed by the horse dragging him. We put him in charge ofMichu and Violette--" "Michu! is Michu in his own house?" said Corentin, glancing atLaurence. The countess smiled ironically, like a woman obtaining her revenge. "He is bargaining with Violette about the sale of some land, " said thelieutenant. "They seemed to me drunk; and it's no wonder, for theyhave been drinking all night and discussing the matter, and theyhaven't come to terms yet. " "Did Violette tell you so?" cried Corentin. "Yes, " said the lieutenant. "Nothing is right if we don't attend to it ourselves!" cried Peyrade, looking at Corentin, who doubted the lieutenant's news as much as theother did. "At what hour did you get to Michu's house?" asked Corentin, noticingthat the countess had glanced at the clock. "About two, " replied the lieutenant. Laurence covered Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre and the abbe and hissister in one comprehensive glance, which made them fancy they werewrapped in an azure mantle; triumph sparkled in her eyes, she blushed, and the tears welled up beneath her lids. Strong under allmisfortunes, the girl knew not how to weep except from joy. At thismoment she was all glorious, especially to the priest, who wassometimes distressed by the virility of her character, and who nowcaught a glimpse of the infinite tenderness of her woman's nature. Butsuch feelings lay in her soul like a treasure hidden at a great depthbeneath a block of granite. Just then a gendarme entered the salon to ask if he might bring inMichu's son, sent by his father to speak to the gentlemen from Paris. Corentin gave an affirmative nod. Francois Michu, a sly little chip ofthe old block, was in the courtyard, where Gothard, now at liberty, got a chance to speak to him for an instant under the eyes of agendarme. The little fellow managed to slip something into Gothard'shand without being detected, and the latter glided into the salonafter him till he reached his mistress, to whom he stealthily conveyedboth halves of the wedding-ring, a sure sign, she knew, that Michu hadmet the four gentlemen and put them in safety. "My papa wants to know what he's to do with the corporal, who ain'tdoing well, " said Francois. "What's the matter with him?" asked Peyrade. "It's his head--he pitched down hard on the ground, " replied the boy. "For a gindarme who knows how to ride it was bad luck--I suppose thehorse stumbled. He's got a hole--my! as big as your fist--in the backof his head. Seems as if he must have hit some big stone, poor man! Hemay be a gindarme, but he suffers all the same--you'd pity him. " The captain of the gendarmerie now arrived and dismounted in thecourtyard. Corentin threw up the window, not to lose time. "What has been done?" "We are back like the Dutchmen! We found nothing but five dead horses, their coats stiff with sweat, in the middle of the forest. I have keptthem to find out where they came from and who owns them. The forest issurrounded; whoever is in it can't get out. " "At what hour do you suppose those horsemen entered the forest?" "About half-past twelve. " "Don't let a hare leave that forest without your seeing it, " whisperedCorentin. "I'll station Peyrade at the village to help you; I am goingto see the corporal myself--Go to the mayor's house, " he added, stillwhispering, to Peyrade. "I'll send some able man to relieve you. Weshall have to make use of the country-people; examine all faces. " Heturned towards the family and said in a threatening tone, "Au revoir!" No one replied, and the two agents left the room. "What would Fouche say if he knew we had made a domiciliary visitwithout getting any results?" remarked Peyrade as he helped Corentininto the osier vehicle. "It isn't over yet, " replied the other, "those four young men are inthe forest. Look there!" and he pointed to Laurence who was watchingthem from a window. "I once revenged myself on a woman who was worth adozen of that one and had stirred my bile a good deal less. If thisgirl comes in the way of my hatchet I'll pay her for the lash of thatwhip. " "The other was a strumpet, " said Peyrade; "this one has rank. " "What difference is that to me? All's fish that swims in the sea, "replied Corentin, signing to the gendarme who drove him to whip up. Ten minutes later the chateau de Cinq-Cygne was completely evacuated. "How did they get rid of the corporal?" said Laurence to FrancoisMichu, whom she had ordered to sit down and eat some breakfast. "My father told me it was a matter of life and death and I mustn't letanybody get into our house, " replied the boy. "I knew when I heard thehorses in the forest that I'd got to do with them hounds of gindarmes, and I meant to keep 'em from getting in. So I took some big ropes thatwere in my garret and fastened one of 'em to a tree at the corner ofthe road. Then I drew the rope high enough to hit the breast of a manon horseback, and tied it to the tree on the opposite side of the wayin the direction where I heard the horses. That barred the road. Itdidn't miss fire, I can tell you! There was no moon, and the corporaljust pitched!--but he wasn't killed; they're tough, them gindarmes! Idid what I could. " "You have saved us!" said Laurence, kissing him as she took him to thegate. When there, she looked about her and seeing no one she saidcautiously, "Have they provisions?" "I have just taken them twelve pounds of bread and four bottles ofwine, " said the boy. "They'll be snug for a week. " Returning to the salon, the girl was beset with mute questions in theeyes of all, each of whom looked at her with as much admiration aseagerness. "But have you really seen them?" cried Madame d'Hauteserre. The countess put a finger on her lips and smiled; then she left theroom and went to bed; her triumph sure, utter weariness had overtakenher. The shortest road from Cinq-Cygne to Michu's lodge was that which ledfrom the village past the farm at Bellache to the _rond-point_ wherethe Parisian spies had first seen Michu on the preceding evening. Thegendarme who was driving Corentin took this way, which was the one thecorporal of Arcis had taken. As they drove along, the agent was on thelook-out for signs to show why the corporal had been unhorsed. Heblamed himself for having sent but one man on so important an errand, and he drew from this mistake an axiom for the police Code, which heafterwards applied. "If they have got rid of the corporal, " he said to himself, "they havedone as much by Violette. Those five horses have evidently brought thefour conspirators and Michu from the neighborhood of Paris to theforest. Has Michu a horse?" he inquired of the gendarme who wasdriving him and who belonged to the squad from Arcis. "Yes, and a famous little horse it is, " answered the man, "a hunterfrom the stables of the ci-devant Marquis de Simeuse. There's nobetter beast, though it is nearly fifteen years old. Michu can ridehim fifty miles and he won't turn a hair. He takes mighty good care ofhim and wouldn't sell him at any price. " "What does the horse look like?" "He's brown, turning rather to black; white stockings above the hoofs, thin, all nerves like an Arab. " "Did you ever see an Arab?" "In Egypt--last year. I've ridden the horses of the mamelukes. We haveto serve twelve years in the cavalry, and I was on the Rhine underGeneral Steingel, after that in Italy, and then I followed the FirstConsul to Egypt. I'll be a corporal soon. " "When I get to Michu's house go to the stable; if you have servedtwelve years in the cavalry you know when a horse is blown. Let meknow the condition of Michu's beast. " "See! that's where our corporal was thrown, " said the man, pointing toa spot where the road they were following entered the _rond-point_. "Tell the captain to come and pick me up at Michu's, and I'll go withhim to Troyes. " So saying Corentin got down, and stood about for a few minutesexamining the ground. He looked at the two elms which faced eachother, --one against the park wall, the other on the bank of the_rond-point_; then he saw (what no one had yet noticed) the button of auniform lying in the dust, and he picked it up. Entering the lodge hesaw Violette and Michu sitting at the table in the kitchen and talkingeagerly. Violette rose, bowed to Corentin, and offered him some wine. "Thank you, no; I came to see the corporal, " said the young man, whosaw with half a glance that Violette had been drunk all night. "My wife is nursing him upstairs, " said Michu. "Well, corporal, how are you?" said Corentin who had run up the stairsand found the gendarme with his head bandaged, and lying on MadameMichu's bed; his hat, sabre, and shoulder-belt on a chair. Marthe, faithful in her womanly instincts, and knowing nothing of herson's prowess, was giving all her care to the corporal, assisted byher mother. "We expect Monsieur Varlet the doctor from Arcis, " she said toCorentin; "our servant-lad has gone to fetch him. " "Leave us alone for a moment, " said Corentin, a good deal surprised atthe scene, which amply proved the innocence of the two women. "Wherewere you struck?" he asked the man, examining his uniform. "On the breast, " replied the corporal. "Let's see your belt, " said Corentin. On the yellow band with a white edge, which a recent regulation hadmade part of the equipment of the guard now called National, was ametal plate a good deal like that of the foresters, on which the lawrequired the inscription of these remarkable words: "Respect topersons and to properties. " Francois's rope had struck the belt anddefaced it. Corentin took up the coat and found the place where thebutton he had picked up upon the road belonged. "What time did they find you?" asked Corentin. "About daybreak. " "Did they bring you up here at once?" said Corentin, noticing that thebed had not been slept in. "Yes. " "Who brought you up?" "The women and little Michu, who found me unconscious. " "So!" thought Corentin: "evidently they didn't go to bed. The corporalwas not shot at, nor struck by any weapon, for an assailant must havebeen at his own height to strike a blow. Something, some obstacle, wasin his way and that unhorsed him. A piece of wood? not possible! aniron chain? that would have left marks. What did you feel?" he saidaloud. "I was knocked over so suddenly--" "The skin is rubbed off under your chin, " said Corentin quickly. "I think, " said the corporal, "that a rope did go over my face. " "I have it!" cried Corentin; "somebody tied a rope from tree to treeto bar the way. " "Like enough, " replied the corporal. Corentin went downstairs to the kitchen. "Come, you old rascal, " Michu was saying to Violette, "let's make anend of this. One hundred thousand francs for the place, and you aremaster of my whole property. I shall retire on my income. " "I tell you, as there's a God in heaven, I haven't more than sixtythousand. " "But don't I offer you time to pay the rest? You've kept me here sinceyesterday, arguing it. The land is in prime order. " "Yes, the soil is good, " said Violette. "Wife, some more wine, " cried Michu. "Haven't you drunk enough?" called down Marthe's mother. "This is thefourteenth bottle since nine o'clock yesterday. " "You have been here since nine o'clock this morning, haven't you?"said Corentin to Violette. "No, beg your pardon, since last night I haven't left the place, andI've gained nothing after all; the more he makes me drink the more heputs up the price. " "In all markets he who raises his elbow raises a price, " saidCorentin. A dozen empty bottles ranged along the table proved the truth of theold woman's words. Just then the gendarme who had driven him made asign to Corentin, who went to the door to speak to him. "There is no horse in the stable, " said the man. "You sent your boy on horseback to the chateau, didn't you?" saidCorentin, returning to the kitchen. "Will he be back soon?" "No, monsieur, " said Michu, "he went on foot. " "What have you done with your horse, then?" "I have lent him, " said Michu, curtly. "Come out here, my good fellow, " said Corentin; "I've a word for yourear. " Corentin and Michu left the house. "The gun which you were loading yesterday at four o'clock you meant touse in murdering the Councillor of State; but we can't take you up forthat--plenty of intention, but no witnesses. You managed, I don't knowhow, to stupefy Violette, and you and your wife and that young rascalof yours spent the night out of doors to warn Mademoiselle deCinq-Cygne and save her cousins, whom you are hiding here, --though Idon't as yet know where. Your son or your wife threw the corporal offhis horse cleverly enough. Well, you've got the better of us just now;you're a devil of a fellow. But the end is not yet, and you won't havethe last word. Hadn't you better compromise? your masters would be thebetter for it. " "Come this way, where we can talk without being overheard, " saidMichu, leading the way through the park to the pond. When Corentin saw the water he looked fixedly at Michu, who was nodoubt reckoning on his physical strength to fling the spy into sevenfeet of mud below three feet of water. Michu replied with a look thatwas not less fixed. The scene was absolutely as if a cold and flabbyboa constrictor had defied one of those tawny, fierce leopards ofBrazil. "I am not thirsty, " said Corentin, stopping short at the edge of thefield and putting his hand into his pocket to feel for his dagger. "We shall never come to terms, " said Michu, coldly. "Mind what you're about, my good fellow; the law has its eye uponyou. " "If the law can't see any clearer than you, there's danger to everyone, " said the bailiff. "Do you refuse?" said Corentin, in a significant tone. "I'd rather have my head cut off a thousand times, if that could bedone, than come to an agreement with such a villain as you. " Corentin got into his vehicle hastily, after one more comprehensivelook at Michu, the lodge, and Couraut, who barked at him. He gavecertain orders in passing through Troyes, and then returned to Paris. All the brigades of gendarmerie in the neighborhood received secretinstructions and special orders. During the months of December, January, and February the search wasactive and incessant, even in remote villages. Spies were in all thetaverns. Corentin learned some important facts: a horse like that ofMichu had been found dead in the neighborhood of Lagny; the fivehorses burned in the forest of Nodesme had been sold, for five hundredfrancs each, by farmers and millers to a man who answered to thedescription of Michu. When the decree against the accomplices andharborers of Georges was put in force Corentin confined his search tothe forest of Nodesme. After Moreau, the royalists, and Pichegru werearrested no strangers were ever seen about the place. Michu lost his situation at that time; the notary of Arcis brought hima letter in which Malin, now made senator, requested Grevin to settleall accounts with the bailiff and dismiss him. Michu asked andobtained a formal discharge and became a free man. To the greatastonishment of the neighborhood he went to live at Cinq-Cygne, whereLaurence made him the farmer of all the reserved land about thechateau. The day of his installation as farmer coincided with thefatal day of the death of the Duc d'Enghien, when nearly the whole ofFrance heard at the same time of the arrest, trial, condemnation, anddeath of the prince, --terrible reprisals, which preceded the trial ofPolignac, Riviere, and Moreau. PART II CHAPTER X ONE AND THE SAME, YET A TWO-FOLD LOVE While the new farm-house was being built Michu the Judas, so-called, and his family occupied the rooms over the stables at Cinq-Cygne onthe side of the chateau next to the famous breach. He bought twohorses, one for himself and one for Francois, and they both joinedGothard in accompanying Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne in her many rides, which had for their object, as may well be imagined, the feeding ofthe four gentlemen and perpetual watching that they were still insafety. Francois and Gothard, assisted by Couraut and the countess'sdogs, went in front and beat the woods all around the hiding-place tomake sure that there was no one within sight. Laurence and Michucarried the provisions which Marthe, her mother, and Catherineprepared, unknown to the other servants of the household so as torestrict the secret to themselves, for all were sure that there werespies in the village. These expeditions were never made oftener thantwice a week and on different days and at different hours, sometimesby day, sometimes by night. These precautions lasted until the trial of Riviere, Polignac, andMoreau ended. When the senatus-consultum, which called the dynasty ofBonaparte to the throne and nominated Napoleon as Emperor of theFrench, was submitted to the French people for acceptance Monsieurd'Hauteserre signed the paper Goulard brought him. When it was madeknown that the Pope would come to France to crown the Emperor, Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne no longer opposed the general desire thather cousins and the young d'Hauteserres should petition to have theirnames struck off the list of _emigres_, and be themselves reinstatedin their rights as citizens. On this, old d'Hauteserre went to Parisand consulted the ci-devant Marquis de Chargeboeuf who knewTalleyrand. That minister, then in favor, conveyed the petition toJosephine, and Josephine gave it to her husband, who was addressed asEmperor, Majesty, Sire, before the result of the popular vote wasknown. Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, Monsieur d'Hauteserre, and the AbbeGoujet, who also went to Paris, obtained an interview with Talleyrand, who promised them his support. Napoleon had already pardoned severalof the principal actors in the great royalist conspiracy; and yet, though the four gentlemen were merely suspected of complicity, theEmperor, after a meeting of the Council of State, called the senatorMalin, Fouche, Talleyrand, Cambaceres, Lebrun, and Dubois, prefect ofpolice, into his cabinet. "Gentlemen, " said the future Emperor, who still wore the dress of theFirst Consul, "we have received from the Sieurs de Simeuse andd'Hauteserre, officers in the army of the Prince de Conde, a requestto be allowed to re-enter France. " "They are here now, " said Fouche. "Like many others whom I meet in Paris, " remarked Talleyrand. "I think you have not met these gentlemen, " said Malin, "for they arehidden in the forest of Nodesme, where they consider themselves athome. " He was careful not to tell the First Consul and Fouche how he himselfhad given them warning, by talking with Grevin within hearing ofMichu, but he made the most of Corentin's reports and convincedNapoleon that the four gentlemen were sharers in the plot of Riviereand Polignac, with Michu for an accomplice. The prefect of policeconfirmed these assertions. "But how could that bailiff know that the conspiracy was discovered?"said the prefect, "for the Emperor and the council and I were the onlypersons in the secret. " No one paid attention to this remark. "If they have been hidden in that forest for the last seven months andyou have not been able to find them, " said the Emperor to Fouche, "they have expiated their misdeeds. " "Since they are my enemies as well, " said Malin, frightened by theEmperor's clear-sightedness, "I desire to follow the magnanimousexample of your Majesty; I therefore make myself their advocate andask that their names be stricken from the list of _emigres_. " "They will be less dangerous to you here than if they are exiled; forthey will now have to swear allegiance to the Empire and the laws, "said Fouche, looking at Malin fixedly. "In what way are they dangerous to the senator?" asked Napoleon. Talleyrand spoke to the Emperor for some minutes in a low voice. Thereinstatement of the Messieurs de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre appeared tobe granted. "Sire, " said Fouche, "rely upon it, you will hear of those men again. " Talleyrand, who had been urged by the Duc de Grandlieu, gave theEmperor pledges in the name of the young men on their honor asgentlemen (a term which had great fascination for Napoleon), toabstain from all attacks upon his Majesty and to submit themselves tohis government in good faith. "Messieurs d'Hauteserre and de Simeuse are not willing to bear armsagainst France, now that events have taken their present course, " hesaid, aloud; "they have little sympathy, it is true, with the Imperialgovernment, but they are just the men that your Majesty ought toconciliate. They will be satisfied to live on French soil and obey thelaws. " Then he laid before the Emperor a letter he had received from thebrothers in which these sentiments were expressed. "Anything so frank is likely to be sincere, " said the Emperor, returning the letter and looking at Lebrun and Cambaceres. "Have youany further suggestions?" he asked of Fouche. "In your Majesty's interests, " replied the future minister of police, "I ask to be allowed to inform these gentlemen of their reinstatement--when it is _really granted_, " he added, in a louder tone. "Very well, " said Napoleon, noticing an anxious look on Fouche's face. The matter did not seem positively decided when the Council rose; butit had the effect of putting into Napoleon's mind a vague distrust ofthe four young men. Monsieur d'Hauteserre, believing that all wasgained, wrote a letter announcing the good news. The family atCinq-Cygne were therefore not surprised when, a few days later, Goulard came to inform the countess and Madame d'Hauteserre that theywere to send the four gentlemen to Troyes, where the prefect would showthem the decree reinstating them in their rights and administer to themthe oath of allegiance to the Empire and the laws. Laurence replied thatshe would send the notification to her cousins and the Messieursd'Hauteserre. "Then they are not here?" said Goulard. Madame d'Hauteserre looked anxiously after Laurence, who left the roomto consult Michu. Michu saw no reason why the young men should not bereleased at once from their hiding-place. Laurence, Michu, his son, and Gothard therefore started as soon as possible for the forest, taking an extra horse, for the countess resolved to accompany hercousins to Troyes and return with them. The whole household, madeaware of the good news, gathered on the lawn to witness the departureof the happy cavalcade. The four young men issued from their longconfinement, mounted their horses, and took the road to Troyes, accompanied by Mademoiselle Cinq-Cygne. Michu, with the help of hisson and Gothard, closed the entrance to the cellar, and started toreturn home on foot. On the way he recollected that he had left theforks and spoons and a silver cup, which the young men had been using, in the cave, and he went back for them alone. When he reached the edgeof the pond he heard voices, and went straight to the entrance of thecave through the brushwood. "Have you come for your silver?" said Peyrade, showing his big rednose through the branches. Without knowing why, for at any rate his young masters were safe, Michu felt a sharp agony in all his joints, so keen was the sense ofvague, indefinable coming evil which took possession of him; but hewent forward at once, and found Corentin on the stairs with a taper inhis hand. "We are not very harsh, " he said to Michu; "we might have seizedyour ci-devants any day for the last week; but we knew they werereinstated--You're a tough fellow to deal with, and you gave us toomuch trouble not to make us anxious to satisfy our curiosity aboutthis hiding-place of yours. " "I'd give something, " cried Michu, "to know how and by whom we havebeen sold. " "If that puzzles you, old fellow, " said Peyrade, laughing, "look atyour horses' shoes, and you'll see that you betrayed yourselves. " "Well, there need be no rancor!" said Corentin, whistling for thecaptain of gendarmerie and their horses. "So that rascally Parisian blacksmith who shoed the horses in theEnglish fashion and left Cinq-Cygne only the other day was their spy!"thought Michu. "They must have followed our tracks when the ground wasdamp. Well, we're quits now!" Michu consoled himself by thinking that the discovery was of noconsequence, as the young men were now safe, Frenchmen once more, andat liberty. Yet his first presentiment was a true one. The police, like the Jesuits, have the one virtue of never abandoning theirfriends or their enemies. Old d'Hauteserre returned from Paris and was more than surprised notto be the first to bring the news. Durieu prepared a succulent dinner, the servants donned their best clothes, and the household impatientlyawaited the exiles, who arrived about four o'clock, happy, --and yethumiliated, for they found they were to be under police surveillancefor two years, obliged to present themselves at the prefecture everymonth and ordered to remain in the commune of Cinq-Cygne during thesaid two years. "I'll send you the papers for signature, " the prefectsaid to them. "Then, in the course of a few months, you can ask to berelieved of these conditions, which are imposed on all of Pichegru'saccomplices. I will back your request. " These restrictions, fairly deserved, rather dispirited the young men, but Laurence laughed at them. "The Emperor of the French, " she said, "was badly brought up; he hasnot yet acquired the habit of bestowing favors graciously. " The party found all the inhabitants of the chateau at the gates, and agoodly proportion of the people of the village waiting on the road tosee the young men, whose adventures had made them famous throughoutthe department. Madame d'Hauteserre held her sons to her breast for along time, her face covered with tears; she was unable to speak andremained silent, though happy, through a part of the evening. Nosooner had the Simeuse twins dismounted than a cry of surprise aroseon all sides, caused by their amazing resemblance, --the same look, thesame voice, the same actions. They both had the same movement inrising from their saddles, in throwing their leg over the crupper oftheir horses when dismounting, in flinging the reins upon the animal'sneck. Their dress, precisely the same, contributed to this likeness. They wore boots _a la_ Suwaroff, made to fit the instep, tighttrousers of white leather, green hunting-jackets with metal buttons, black cravats, and buckskin gloves. The two young men, just thirty-oneyears of age, were--to use a term in vogue in those days--charmingcavaliers, of medium height but well set up, brilliant eyes with longlashes, floating in liquid like those of children, black hair, noblebrows, and olive skin. Their speech, gentle as that of a woman, fellgraciously from their fresh red lips; their manners, more elegant andpolished than those of the provincial gentlemen, showed that knowledgeof men and things had given them that supplementary education whichmakes its possessor a man of the world. Not lacking money, thanks to Michu, during their emigration, they hadbeen able to travel and be received at foreign courts. Oldd'Hauteserre and the abbe thought them rather haughty; but in theirpresent position this may have been the sign of nobility of character. They possessed all the eminent little marks of a careful education, towhich they added a wonderful dexterity in bodily exercises. Their onlydissimilarity was in the region of ideas. The youngest charmed othersby his gaiety, the eldest by his melancholy; but the contrast, whichwas purely spiritual, was not at first observable. "Ah, wife, " whispered Michu in Marthe's ear, "how could one helpdevoting one's self to those young fellows?" Marthe, who admired them as a wife and mother, nodded her headprettily and pressed her husband's hand. The servants were allowed tokiss their new masters. During their seven months' seclusion in the forest (which the youngmen had brought upon themselves) they had several times committed theimprudence of taking walks about their hiding-place, carefully guardedby Michu, his son, and Gothard. During these walks, taken usually onstarlit nights, Laurence, reuniting the thread of their past andpresent lives, felt the utter impossibility of choosing between thebrothers. A pure and equal love for each divided her heart. Shefancied indeed that she had two hearts. On their side, the brothersdared not speak to themselves of their impending rivalry. Perhaps allthree were trusting to time and accident. The condition of her mind onthis subject acted no doubt upon Laurence as they entered the house, for she hesitated a moment, and then took an arm of each as sheentered the salon followed by Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre, whowere occupied with their sons. Just then a cheer burst from theservants, "Long live the Cinq-Cygne and the Simeuse families!"Laurence turned round, still between the brothers, and made a charminggesture of acknowledgement. When these nine persons came to actually observe each other, --for inall meetings, even in the bosom of families, there comes a moment whenfriends observe those from whom they have been long parted, --the firstglance which Adrien d'Hauteserre cast upon Laurence seemed to hismother and to the abbe to betray love. Adrien, the youngest of thed'Hauteserres, had a sweet and tender soul; his heart had remainedadolescent in spite of the catastrophes which had nerved the man. Likemany young heroes, kept virgin in spirit by perpetual peril, he wasdaunted by the timidities of youth. In this he was very different fromhis brother, a man of rough manners, a great hunter, an intrepidsoldier, full of resolution, but coarse in fibre and without activityof mind or delicacy in matters of the heart. One was all soul, theother all action; and yet they both possessed in the same degree thatsense of honor which is the vital essence of a gentleman. Dark, short, slim and wiry, Adrien d'Hauteserre gave an impression of strength;whereas Robert, who was tall, pale and fair, seemed weakly. Adrien, nervous in temperament, was stronger in soul; while his brother thoughlymphatic, was fonder of bodily exercise. Families often present thesesingularities of contrast, the causes of which it might be interestingto examine; but they are mentioned here merely to explain how it wasthat Adrien was not likely to find a rival in his brother. Robert'saffection for Laurence was that of a relation, the respect of a noblefor a girl of his own caste. In matters of sentiment the elderd'Hauteserre belonged to the class of men who consider woman as anappendage to man, limiting her sphere to the physical duties ofmaternity; demanding perfection in that respect, but regarding hermentally as of no account. To such men the admittance of woman as anactual sharer in society, in the body politic, in the family, meantthe subversion of the social system. In these days we are so farremoved from this theory of primitive people that almost all women, even those who do not desire the fatal emancipation offered by the newsects, will be shocked in merely hearing of it; but it must be ownedthat Robert d'Hauteserre had the misfortune to think in that way. Robert was a man of the middle-ages, Adrien a man of to-day. Thesedifferences instead of hindering their affection had drawn its bondsthe closer. On the first evening after the return of the young menthese shades of character were caught and understood by the abbe, Mademoiselle Goujet, and Madame d'Hauteserre, who, while playing theirboston, were secretly foreseeing the difficulties of the future. At twenty-three years of age, having passed through the manyreflections of a long solitude and the anguish of a defeatedenterprise, Laurence had become a woman, and felt within her anabsorbing desire for affection. She now put forth all her graces ofher mind and was charming; she revealed the hidden beauties of hertender heart with the simple candor of a child. For the last thirteenyears she had been a woman only through suffering; she longed toobtain amends for it, and she showed herself as loving and winning asshe had been, up to this time, strong and great. The four elders, who were the last to leave the salon that night, admitted to each other that they felt uneasy at the new position ofthis charming girl. What power might not passion have on a young womanof her character and with her nobility of soul? The twin brothersloved her with one and the same love and a blind devotion; which ofthe two would Laurence choose? To choose one was to kill the other. Countess in her own right, she could bring her husband a title andcertain prerogatives, together with a long lineage. Perhaps inthinking of these advantages the elder of the twins, the Marquis deSimeuse, would sacrifice himself to give Laurence to his brother, who, according to the old laws, was poor and without a title. But would theyounger brother deprive the elder of the happiness of having Laurencefor a wife? At a distance, this strife of love and generosity might dono harm, --in fact, so long as the brothers were facing danger thechances of war might end the difficulty; but what would be the resultof this reunion? When Marie-Paul and Paul-Marie reached the age whenpassions rise to their greatest height could they share, as now, thelooks and words and attentions of their cousin? must there notinevitably arise a jealousy between them the consequences of whichmight be horrible? What would then become of the unity of thosebeautiful lives, one in heart though twain in body? To thesequestionings, passed from one to another as they finished their game, Madame d'Hauteserre replied that in her opinion Laurence would notmarry either of her cousins. The poor lady had experienced thatevening one of those inexplicable presentiments which are secretsbetween the mother's heart and God. Laurence, in her inward consciousness, was not less alarmed at findingherself tete-a-tete with her cousins. To the active drama ofconspiracy, to the dangers which the brothers had incurred, to thepain and penalties of their exile, was now succeeding another sort ofdrama, of which she had never thought. This noble girl could notresort to the violent means of refusing to marry either of the twins;and she was too honest a woman to marry one and keep an irresistiblepassion for the other in her heart. To remain unmarried, to weary hercousins' love by no decision, and then to take the one who wasfaithful to her in spite of her caprices, was a solution of thedifficulty not so much sought for by her as vaguely admitted. As shefell asleep that night she told herself the wisest course to followwas to let things take their chance. Chance is, in love, theprovidence of women. The next morning Michu went to Paris, whence he returned a few dayslater with four fine horses for his new masters. In six weeks' timethe hunting would begin, and the young countess sagely reflected thatthe violent excitements of that exercise would be a help against thetete-a-tetes of the chateau. At first, however, an unexpected resultsurprised the spectators of these strange loves and roused theiradmiration. Without any premeditated agreement the brothers rivalledeach other in attentions to Laurence, with a sense of pleasure in sodoing which appeared to suffice them. The relation between themselvesand Laurence was just as fraternal as that between themselves. Whatcould be more natural? After so long an absence they felt thenecessity of studying her, of knowing her well and letting her knowthem, leaving to her the right of choice. They were sustained in thisfirst trial by the mutual affection which made their double life oneand the same life. Love, like their own mother, was unable to distinguish between thebrothers. Laurence was obliged (in order to know them apart and makeno mistakes) to give them different cravats--to the elder a white one, to the younger black. Without this perfect resemblance, this identityof life, which misled all about them, such a situation would be justlythought impossible. It can, indeed, be explained only by the factitself, which is one of those which men do not believe in unless theysee them; and then the mind is more bewildered by having to explainthem than by the actual sight which caused belief. If Laurence spoke, her voice echoed in two hearts equally faithful and loving with onetone. Did she give utterance to an intelligent, or witty, or noblethought, her glance encountered the delight expressed in two glanceswhich followed her every movement, interpreted her slightest wish, andbeamed upon her ever with a new expression, gaiety in the one, tendermelancholy in the other. In any matter that concerned their mistressthe brothers showed an admirable quick-wittedness of heart coupledwith instant action which (to use the abbe's own expression)approached the sublime. Often, if something had to be fetched, if itwas a question of some little attention which men delight to pay to abeloved woman, the elder would leave that pleasure to the younger witha look at Laurence that was proud and tender. The younger, on theother hand, put all his own pride into paying such debts. This rivalryof noble natures in a feeling which leads men often to the jealousferocity of the beasts amazed the old people who were watching it, andbewildered their ideas. Such little details often drew tears to the eyes of the countess. Asingle sensation, which is perhaps all-powerful in some rareorganizations, will give an idea of Laurence's emotions; it may beperceived by recalling the perfect unison of two fine voices (likethose of Malibran and Sontag) in some harmonious _duo_, or theblending of two instruments touched by the hand of genius, theirmelodious tones entering the soul like the passionate sighing of oneheart. Sometimes, seeing the Marquis de Simeuse buried in an arm-chairand glancing from time to time with deepest melancholy at his brotherand Laurence who were talking and laughing, the abbe believed himcapable of making the great sacrifice; presently, however, the priestwould see in the young man's eyes the flash of an unconquerablepassion. Whenever either of the brothers found himself alone withLaurence he might reasonably suppose himself the one preferred. "I fancy then that there is but one of them, " explained the countessto the abbe when he questioned her. That answer showed the priest hertotal want of coquetry. Laurence did not conceive that she was lovedby two men. "But, my dear child, " said Madame d'Hauteserre one evening (her ownson silently dying of love for Laurence), "you must choose!" "Oh, let us be happy, " she replied; "God will save us from ourselves. " Adrien d'Hauteserre buried within his breast the jealousy that wasconsuming him; he kept the secret of his torture, aware of how littlehe could hope. He tried to be content with the happiness of seeing thecharming woman who during the few months this struggle lasted shone inall her brilliancy. In one sense Laurence had become coquettish, taking that dainty care of her person which women who are loveddelight in. She followed the fashions, and went more than once toParis to deck her beauty with _chiffons_ or some choice novelty. Desirous of giving her cousins a sense of home and its everyenjoyment, from which they had so long been severed, she made herchateau, in spite of the remonstrances of her late guardian, the mostcompletely comfortable house in Champagne. Robert d'Hauteserre saw nothing of this hidden drama; he never noticedhis brother's love for Laurence. As to the girl herself, he liked totease her about her coquetry, --for he confounded that odious defectwith the natural desire to please; he was always mistaken in mattersof feeling, taste, and the higher ethics. So, whenever this man of themiddle-ages appeared on the scene, Laurence immediately made him, unknown to himself, the clown of the play; she amused her cousins byarguing with Robert, and leading him, step by step, into some bog ofignorance and stupidity. She excelled in such clever mischief, which, to be really successful, must leave the victim content with himself. And yet, though his nature was a coarse one, Robert never, duringthose delightful months (the only happy period in the lives of thethree young people) said one virile word which might have broughtmatters to a crisis between Laurence and her cousins. He was struckwith the sincerity of the brothers; he saw how the one could be gladat the happiness of the other and yet suffer anguish in the depths ofhis heart, and he did perceive how a woman might shrink from showingtenderness to one which would grieve the other. This perception onRobert's part was a just one; it explains a situation which, in timesof faith, when the sovereign pontiff had power to intervene and cutthe Gordian knot of such phenomena (allied to the deepest and mostimpenetrable mysteries), would have found its solution. The Revolutionhad deepened the Catholic faith in these young hearts, and religionnow rendered this crisis in their lives the more severe, becausenobility of character is ever heightened by the grandeur ofcircumstances. A sense of this truth kept Monsieur and Madamed'Hauteserre and the abbe from the slightest fear of any unworthyresult on the part of the brothers or of Laurence. This private drama, secretly developing within the limits of thefamily life where each member watched it silently, ran its course sorapidly and withal so slowly, it carried with it so many unhoped-forpleasures, trifling jars, frustrated fancies, hopes reversed, anxiouswaitings, delayed explanations and mute avowals that the dwellers atCinq-Cygne paid no attention to the public drama of the Emperor'scoronation. At times these passions made a truce and soughtdistraction in the violent enjoyment of hunting, when weariness ofbody took from the soul all occasions to wander in the dangerousmeadows of reverie. Neither Laurence nor her cousins had a thought nowfor public affairs; each day brought its palpitating and absorbinginterests for their hearts. "Really, " said Mademoiselle Goujet one evening, "I don't know which ofall the lovers loves the most. " Adrien, who happened to be alone in the salon with the fourcard-players, raised his eyes and turned pale. For the last few dayshis only hold on life had been the pleasure of seeing Laurence andof listening to her. "I think, " said the abbe, "that the countess, being a woman, loveswith the greater abandonment to love. " Laurence, the twins, and Robert entered the room soon after. Thenewspapers had just arrived. England, seeing the failure of allconspiracies attempted within the borders of France, was now armingall Europe against their common enemy. The disaster at Trafalgar hadoverthrown one of the most amazing plans which human genius everconceived; by which, if it had succeeded, the Emperor would have paidthe nation for his election by the ruin of the British power. The campat Boulogne had just been raised. Napoleon, whose solders were, asalways, inferior in numbers to the enemy, was about to carry the warinto parts of Europe where he had not before waged it. The whole worldwas breathless, awaiting the results of the campaign. "He'll surely be defeated this time, " said Robert, laying down thepaper. "The armies of Austria and of Russia are before him, " said Marie-Paul. "He has never fought in Germany, " added Paul-Marie. "Of whom are you speaking?" asked Laurence. "The Emperor, " answered the three gentlemen. The jealous girl threw a disdainful look at her twin lovers, whichhumiliated them while it rejoiced the heart of Adrien, who made agesture of admiration and gave her one proud look, which said plainlythat _he_ thought only of her, --of Laurence. "I told you, " said the abbe in a low voice, "that love would some daycause her to forget her animosity. " It was the first, last, and only reproach the brothers ever receivedfrom her; but certainly at that moment their love, which could stillbe distracted by national events, was inferior to that of Laurence, which, absorbed her mind so completely that she only knew of theamazing triumph at Austerlitz by overhearing a discussion betweenMonsieur d'Hauteserre and his sons. Faithful to his ideas of submission, the old man wished both Robertand Adrien to re-enter the French army and apply for service; theycould, he thought, be reinstated in their rank and soon find anopening to military honors. But royalist opinions were nowall-powerful at Cinq-Cygne. The four young men and Laurence laughedat their prudent elder, who seemed to foresee a coming evil. Possibly, prudence is less virtue than the exercise of some instinct, or _sense_of the mind (if it is allowable to couple those two words). A day willcome, no doubt, when physiologists and philosophers will both admitthat the senses are, in some way, the sheath or vehicle of a keen andpenetrative active power which issues from the mind. CHAPTER XI WISE COUNSEL After peace was concluded between France and Austria, towards the endof the month of February, 1806, a relative, whose influence had beenemployed for the reinstatement of the Simeuse brothers, and who wasdestined later to give them signal proofs of family attachment, theci-devant Marquis de Chargeboeuf, whose estates extended from thedepartment of the Seine-et-Marne to that of the Aube, arrived onemorning at Cinq-Cygne in a species of caleche which was then named inderision a _berlingot_. When this shabby carriage was driven past thewindows the inhabitants of the chateau, who were at breakfast, wereconvulsed with laughter; but when the bald head of the old man wasseen issuing from behind the leather curtain of the vehicle Monsieurd'Hauteserre told his name, and all present rose instantly to receiveand do honor to the head of the house of Chargeboeuf. "We have done wrong to let him come to us, " said the Marquis deSimeuse to his brother and the d'Hauteserres; "we ought to have goneto him and made our acknowledgements. " A servant, dressed as a peasant, who drove the horses from a seat on alevel with the body of the carriage, slipped his cartman's whip into acoarse leather socket, and got down from the box to assist the marquisfrom the carriage; but Adrien and the younger de Simeuse preventedhim, unbuttoned the leather apron, and helped the old man out in spiteof his protestations. This gentleman of the old school chose toconsider his yellow _berlingot_ with its leather curtains a mostconvenient and excellent equipage. The servant, assisted by Gothard, unharnessed the stout horses with shining flanks, accustomed no doubtto do as much duty at the plough as in a carriage. "In spite of this cold weather! Why, you are a knight of the oldentime, " said Laurence, to her visitor, taking his arm and leading himinto the salon. "What has he come for?" thought old d'Hauteserre. Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, a handsome old gentleman of sixty-six, inlight-colored breeches, his small weak legs encased in coloredstockings, wore powder, pigeon-wings and a queue. His green clothhunting-coat with gold buttons was braided and frogged with gold. Hiswhite waistcoat glittered with gold embroidery. This apparel, still invogue among old people, became his face, which was not unlike that ofFrederick the Great. He never put on his three-cornered hat lest heshould destroy the effect of the half-moon traced upon his cranium bya layer of powder. His right hand, resting on a hooked cane, held bothcane and hat in a manner worthy of Louis XIV. The fine old gentlemantook off his wadded silk pelisse and seated himself in an armchair, holding the three-cornered hat and the cane between his knees in anattitude the secret of which has never been grasped by any but theroues of Louis XV. 's court, an attitude which left the hands free toplay with a snuff-box, always a precious trinket. Accordingly themarquis drew from the pocket of his waistcoat, which was closed by aflap embroidered in gold arabesques, a sumptuous snuff-box. Whilefingering his own pinch and offering the box around him with anothercharming gesture accompanied with kindly smiles, he noticed thepleasure which his visit gave. He seemed then to comprehend why theseyoung _emigres_ had been remiss in their duty towards him, and to besaying to himself, "When we are making love we can't make visits. " "You will stay with us some days?" said Laurence. "Impossible, " he replied. "If we were not so separated by events (foras to distance, you go farther than that which lies between us) youwould know, my dear child, that I have daughters, daughters-in-law, and grand-children. All these dear creatures would be very uneasy if Idid not return to them to-night, and I have forty-five miles to go. " "Your horses are in good condition, " said the Marquis de Simeuse. "Oh! I am just from Troyes, where I had business yesterday. " After the customary polite inquiries for the Marquise de Chargeboeufand other matters really uninteresting but about which politenessassumes that we are keenly interested, it dawned on Monsieurd'Hauteserre that the old gentleman had come to warn his youngrelatives against imprudence. He remarked that times were changed andno one could tell what the Emperor might now become. "Oh!" said Laurence, "he'll make himself God. " The Marquis spoke of the wisdom of concession. When he stated, withmore emphasis and authority than he put into his other remarks, thenecessity of submission, Monsieur d'Hauteserre looked at his sons withan almost supplicating air. "Would you serve that man?" asked the Marquis de Simeuse. "Yes, I would, if the interests of my family required it, " repliedMonsieur de Chargeboeuf. Gradually the old man made them aware, though vaguely, of somethreatened danger. When Laurence begged him to explain the nature ofit, he advised the four young men to refrain from hunting and to keepthemselves as much in retirement as possible. "You treat the domain of Gondreville as if it were your own, " he saidto the Messieurs de Simeuse, "and you are keeping alive a deadlyhatred. I see, by the surprise upon your faces, that you are quiteunaware of the ill-will against you at Troyes, where your late braveconduct is remembered. They tell of how you foiled the police of theEmpire; some praise you for it, but others regard you as enemies ofthe Emperor; partisans declare that Napoleon's clemency isinexplicable. That, however, is nothing. The real danger lies here;you foiled men who thought themselves cleverer than you; and low-bredmen never forgive. Sooner or later justice, which in your departmentemanates from your enemy, Senator Malin (who has his henchmeneverywhere, even in the ministerial offices), --_his_ justice willrejoice to see you involved in some annoying scrape. A peasant, forinstance, will quarrel with you for riding over his field; your gunsare in your hands, you are hot-tempered, and something happens. Inyour position it is absolutely essential that you should not putyourselves in the wrong. I do not speak to you thus without goodreason. The police keep this arrondissement under strict surveillance;they have an agent in that little hole of Arcis expressly to protectthe Imperial senator Malin against your attacks. He is afraid of you, and says so openly. " "It is a calumny!" cried the younger Simeuse. "A calumny, --I am sure of it myself, but will the public believe it?Michu certainly did aim at the senator, who does not forget the dangerhe was in; and since your return the countess has taken Michu into herservice. To many persons, in fact to the majority, Malin will seem tobe in the right. You do not understand how delicate the position of an_emigre_ is towards those who are now in possession of his property. The prefect, a very intelligent man, dropped a word to me yesterdayabout you which has made me uneasy. In short, I sincerely wish youwould not remain here. " This speech was received in dumb amazement. Marie-Paul rang the bell. "Gothard, " he said, to the little page, "send Michu here. " "Michu, my friend, " said the Marquis de Simeuse when the man appeared, "is it true that you intended to kill Malin?" "Yes, Monsieur le marquis; and when he comes here again I shall lie inwait for him. " "Do you know that we are suspected of instigating it, and that ourcousin, by taking you as her farmer is supposed to be furthering yourscheme?" "Good God!" cried Michu, "am I accursed? Shall I never be able to ridyou of that villain?" "No, my man, no!" said Paul-Marie. "But we will always take care ofyou, though you will have to leave our service and the country too. Sell your property here; we will send you to Trieste to a friend ofours who has immense business connections, and he'll employ you untilthings are better in this country for all of us. " Tears came into Michu's eyes; he stood rooted to the floor. "Were there any witnesses when you aimed at Malin?" asked the Marquisde Chargeboeuf. "Grevin the notary was talking with him, and that prevented my killinghim--very fortunately, as Madame la Comtesse knows, " said Michu, looking at his mistress. "Grevin is not the only one who knows it?" said Monsieur deChargeboeuf, who seemed annoyed at what was said, though none but thefamily were present. "That police spy who came here to trap my masters, he knew it too, "said Michu. Monsieur de Chargeboeuf rose as if to look at the gardens, and said, "You have made the most of Cinq-Cygne. " Then he left the house, followed by the two brothers and Laurence, who now saw the meaning ofhis visit. "You are frank and generous, but most imprudent, " said the old man. "It was natural enough that I should warn you of a rumor which wascertain to be a slander; but what have you done now? you have let suchweak persons as Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre and their sons seethat there was truth in it. Oh, young men! young men! You ought tokeep Michu here and go away yourselves. But if you persist inremaining, at least write a letter to the senator and tell him thathaving heard the rumors about Michu you have dismissed him from youremploy. " "We!" exclaimed the brothers; "what, write to Malin, --to the murdererof our father and our mother, to the insolent plunderer of ourproperty!" "All true; but he is one of the chief personages at the Imperialcourt, and the king of your department. " "He, who voted for the death of Louis XVI. In case the army of Condeentered France!" cried Laurence. "He, who probably advised the murder of the Duc d'Enghien!" exclaimedPaul-Marie. "Well, well, if you want to recapitulate his titles of nobility, " criedMonsieur de Chargeboeuf, "say he who pulled Robespierre by the skirtsof his coat to make him fall when he saw that his enemies werestronger than he; he who would have shot Bonaparte if the 18thBrumaire had missed fire; he who manoeuvres now to bring back theBourbons if Napoleon totters; he whom the strong will ever find ontheir side to handle either sword or pistol and put an end to anadversary whom they fear! But--all that is only reason the more forwhat I urge upon you. " "We have fallen very low, " said Laurence. "Children, " said the old marquis, taking them by the hand and going tothe lawn, then covered by a slight fall of snow; "you will be angry atthe prudent advice of an old man, but I am bound to give it, and hereit is: If I were you I would employ as go-between some trustworthy oldfellow--like myself, for instance; I would commission him to ask Malinfor a million of francs for the title-deeds of Gondreville; he wouldgladly consent if the matter were kept secret. You will then havecapital in hand, an income of a hundred thousand francs, and you canbuy a fine estate in another part of France. As for Cinq-Cygne, it cansafely be left to the management of Monsieur d'Hauteserre, and you candraw lots as to which of you shall win the hand of this dear heiress--But ah! I know the words of an old man in the ears of the young arelike the words of the young in the ears of the old, a sound withoutmeaning. " The old marquis signed to his three relatives that he wished noanswer, and returned to the salon, where, during their absence, theabbe and his sister had arrived. The proposal to draw lots for their cousin's hand had offended thebrothers, while Laurence revolted in her soul at the bitterness of theremedy the old marquis counselled. All three were now less gracious tohim, though they did not cease to be polite. The warmth of theirfeeling was chilled. Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, who felt the change, cast frequent looks of kindly compassion on these charming youngpeople. The conversation became general, but the old marquis stilldwelt on the necessity of submitting to events, and he applaudedMonsieur d'Hauteserre for his persistence in urging his sons to takeservice under the Empire. "Bonaparte, " he said, "makes dukes. He has created Imperial fiefs, hewill therefore make counts. Malin is determined to be Comte deGondreville. That is a fancy, " he added, looking at the Simeusebrothers, "which might be profitable to you--" "Or fatal, " said Laurence. As soon as the horses were put-to the marquis took leave, accompaniedto the door by the whole party. When fairly in the carriage he made asign to Laurence to come and speak to him, and she sprang upon thefoot-board with the lightness of a swallow. "You are not an ordinary woman, and you ought to understand me, " hesaid in her ear. "Malin's conscience will never allow him to leave youin peace; he will set some trap to injure you. I implore you to becareful of all your actions, even the most unimportant. Compromise, negotiate; those are my last words. " The brothers stood motionless behind their cousin and watched the_berlingot_ as it turned through the iron gates and took the road toTroyes. Laurence repeated the old man's last words. But sageexperience should not present itself to the eyes of youth in a_berlingot_, colored stockings, and a queue. These ardent young heartshad no conception of the change that had passed over France;indignation crisped their nerves, honor boiled with their noble bloodthrough every vein. "He, the head of the house of Chargeboeuf!" said the Marquis deSimeuse. "A man who bears the motto _Adsit fortior_, the noblest ofwarcries!" "We are no longer in the days of Saint-Louis, " said the youngerSimeuse. "But 'We die singing, '" said the countess. "The cry of the five younggirls of my house is mine!" "And ours, 'Cy meurs, '" said the elder Simeuse. "Therefore, noquarter, I say; for, on reflection, we shall find that our relativehad pondered well what he told us--Gondreville to be the title of aMalin!" "And his seat!" said the younger. "Mansart designed it for noble stock, and the populace will get theirchildren in it!" exclaimed the elder. "If that were to come to pass, I'd rather see Gondreville in ashes!"cried Mademoiselle Cinq-Cygne. One of the villagers, who had entered the grounds to examine a calfMonsieur d'Hauteserre was trying to sell him, overheard these words ashe came from the cow-sheds. "Let us go in, " said Laurence, laughing; "this is very imprudent; weare giving the old marquis a right to blame us. My poor Michu, " sheadded, as she entered the salon, "I had forgotten your adventure; aswe are not in the odor of sanctity in these parts you must be carefulnot to compromise us in future. Have you any other peccadilloes onyour conscience?" "I blame myself for not having killed the murderer of my old mastersbefore I came to the rescue of my present ones--" "Michu!" said the abbe in a warning tone. "But I'll not leave the country, " Michu continued, paying no heed tothe abbe's exclamation, "till I am certain you are safe. I see fellowsroaming about here whom I distrust. The last time we hunted in theforest, that keeper who took my place at Gondreville came to me andasked if we supposed we were on our own property. 'Ho! my lad, ' Isaid, 'we can't get rid in two weeks of ideas we've had forcenturies. '" "You did wrong, Michu, " said the Marquis de Simeuse, smiling withsatisfaction. "What answer did he make?" asked Monsieur d'Hauteserre. "He said he would inform the senator of our claims, " replied Michu. "Comte de Gondreville!" repeated the elder Simeuse; "what amasquerade! But after all, they say 'your Majesty' to Bonaparte!" "And to the Grand Duc de Berg, 'your Highness!'" said the abbe. "Who is he?" asked the Marquis de Simeuse. "Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law, " replied old d'Hauteserre. "Delightful!" remarked Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne. "Do they also say'your Majesty' to the widow of Beauharnais?" "Yes, mademoiselle, " said the abbe. "We ought to go to Paris and see it all, " cried Laurence. "Alas, mademoiselle, " said Michu, "I was there to put Francois atschool, and I swear to you there's no joking with what they call theImperial Guard. If the rest of the army are like them, the thing maylast longer than we. " "They say many of the noble families are taking service, " saidMonsieur d'Hauteserre. "According to the present law, " added the abbe, "you will be compelledto serve. The conscription makes no distinction of ranks or names. " "That man is doing us more harm with his court than the Revolution didwith its axe!" cried Laurence. "The Church prays for him, " said the abbe. These remarks, made rapidly one after another, were so manycommentaries on the wise counsel of the old Marquis de Chargeboeuf;but the young people had too much faith, too much honor, to dream ofresorting to a compromise. They told themselves, as all vanquishedparties in all times have declared, that the luck of the conquerorswould soon be at an end, that the Emperor had no support but that ofthe army, that the power _de facto_ must sooner or later give way tothe Divine Right, etc. So, in spite of the wise counsel given to them, they fell into the pitfall, which others, like old d'Hauteserre, moreprudent and more amenable to reason, would have been able to avoid. Ifmen were frank they might perhaps admit that misfortunes neverovertake them until after they have received either an actual or anoccult warning. Many do not perceive the deep meaning of such visibleor invisible signs until after the disaster is upon them. "In any case, Madame la comtesse knows that I cannot leave the countryuntil I have given up a certain trust, " said Michu in a low voice toMademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne. For all answer she made him a sign of acquiescence, and he left theroom. CHAPTER XII THE FACTS OF A MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR Michu sold his farm at once to Beauvisage, a farmer at Bellache, buthe was not to receive the money for twenty days. A month after theMarquis de Chargeboeuf's visit, Laurence, who had told her cousins oftheir buried fortune, proposed to them to take the day of theMi-careme to disinter it. The unusual quantity of snow which fell thatwinter had hitherto prevented Michu from obtaining the treasure, andit now gave him pleasure to undertake the operation with his masters. He was determined to leave the neighborhood as soon as it was over, for he feared himself. "Malin has suddenly arrived at Gondreville, and no one knows why, " hesaid to his mistress. "I shall never be able to resist putting theproperty into the market by the death of its owner. I feel I am guiltyin not following my inspirations. " "Why should he leave Paris at this season?" said the countess. "All Arcis is talking about it, " replied Michu; "he has left hisfamily in Paris, and no one is with him but his valet. MonsieurGrevin, the notary of Arcis, Madame Marion, the wife of thereceiver-general, and her sister-in-law are staying at Gondreville. " Laurence had chosen the mid-lent day for their purpose because itenabled her to give her servants a holiday and so get them out of theway. The usual masquerade drew the peasantry to the town and no onewas at work in the fields. Chance made its calculations with as muchcleverness as Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne made hers. The uneasiness ofMonsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre at the idea of keeping eleven hundredthousand francs in gold in a lonely chateau on the borders of a forestwas likely to be so great that their sons advised they should knownothing about it. The secret of the expedition was therefore confinedto Gothard, Michu, Laurence, and the four gentlemen. After much consultation it seemed possible to put forty-eight thousandfrancs in a long sack on the crupper of each of their horses. Threetrips would therefore bring the whole. It was agreed to send all theservants, whose curiosity might be troublesome, to Troyes to see theshows. Catherine, Marthe, and Durieu, who could be relied on, stayedat home in charge of the house. The other servants were glad of theirholiday and started by daybreak. Gothard, assisted by Michu, saddledthe horses as soon as they were gone, and the party started by way ofthe gardens to reach the forest. Just as they were mounting--for thepark gate was so low on the garden side that they led their horsesuntil they were through it--old Beauvisage, the farmer at Bellache, happened to pass. "There!" cried Gothard, "I hear some one. " "Oh, it is only I, " said the worthy man, coming toward them. "Yourservant, gentleman; are you off hunting, in spite of the new decrees?_I_ don't complain of you; but do take care! though you have friendsyou have also enemies. " "Oh, as for that, " said the elder Hauteserre, smiling, "God grant thatour hunt may be lucky to-day, --if so, you will get your masters backagain. " These words, to which events were destined to give a totally differentmeaning, earned a severe look from Laurence. The elder Simeuse wasconfident that Malin would restore Gondreville for an indemnity. Theserash youths were determined to do exactly the contrary of what theMarquis de Chargeboeuf had advised. Robert, who shared these hopes, was thinking of them when he gave utterance to the fatal words. "Not a word of this, old friend, " said Michu to Beauvisage, waitingbehind the others to lock the gate. It was one of those fine mornings in March when the air is dry, theearth pure, the sky clear, and the atmosphere a contradiction to theleafless trees; the season was so mild that the eye caught glimpseshere and there of verdure. "We are seeking treasure when all the while you are the real treasureof our house, cousin, " said the elder Simeuse, gaily. Laurence was in front, with a cousin on each side of her. Thed'Hauteserres were behind, followed by Michu. Gothard had gone forwardto clear the way. "Now that our fortune is restored, you must marry my brother, " saidthe younger in a low voice. "He adores you; together you will be asrich as nobles ought to be in these days. " "No, give the whole fortune to him and I will marry you, " saidLaurence; "I am rich enough for two. " "So be it, " cried the Marquis; "I will leave you, and find a wifeworthy to be your sister. " "So you really love me less than I thought you did?" said Laurencelooking at him with a sort of jealousy. "No; I love you better than either of you love me, " replied themarquis. "And therefore you would sacrifice yourself?" asked Laurence with aglance full of momentary preference. The marquis was silent. "Well, then, I shall think only of you, and that will be intolerableto my husband, " exclaimed Laurence, impatient at his silence. "How could I live without you?" said the younger twin to his brother. "But, after all, you can't marry us both, " said the marquis, replyingto Laurence; "and the time has come, " he continued, in the brusquetone of a man who is struck to the heart, "to make your decision. " He urged his horse in advance so that the d'Hauteserres might notoverhear them. His brother's horse and Laurence's followed him. Whenthey had put some distance between themselves and the rest of theparty Laurence attempted to speak, but tears were at first her onlylanguage. "I will enter a cloister, " she said at last. "And let the race of Cinq-Cygne end?" said the younger brother. "Instead of one unhappy man, would you make two? No, whichever of usmust be your brother only, will resign himself to that fate. It is theknowledge that we are no longer poor that has brought us to explainourselves, " he added, glancing at the marquis. "If I am the onepreferred, all this money is my brother's. If I am rejected, he willgive it to me with the title of de Simeuse, for he must then take thename and title of Cinq-Cygne. Whichever way it ends, the loser willhave a chance of recovery--but if he feels he must die of grief, hecan enter the army and die in battle, not to sadden the happyhousehold. " "We are true knights of the olden time, worthy of our fathers, " criedthe elder. "Speak, Laurence; decide between us. " "We cannot continue as we are, " said the younger. "Do not think, Laurence, that self-denial is without its joys, " saidthe elder. "My dear loved ones, " said the girl, "I am unable to decide. I loveyou both as though you were one being--as your mother loved you. Godwill help us. I cannot choose. Let us put it to chance--but I make onecondition. " "What is it?" "Whichever one of you becomes my brother must stay with me until Isuffer him to leave me. I wish to be sole judge of when to part. " "Yes, yes, " said the brothers, without explaining to themselves hermeaning. "The first of you to whom Madame d'Hauteserre speaks to-night at tableafter the Benedicite, shall be my husband. But neither of you mustpractise fraud or induce her to answer a question. " "We will play fair, " said the younger, smiling. Each kissed her hand. The certainty of some decision which both couldfancy favorable made them gay. "Either way, dear Laurence, you create a Comte de Cinq-Cygne--" "I believe, " thought Michu, riding behind them, "that mademoisellewill not long be unmarried. How gay my masters are! If my mistressmakes her choice I shall not leave; I must stay and see that wedding. " Just then a magpie flew suddenly before his face. Michu, superstitiouslike all primitive beings, fancied he heard the muffled tones of adeath-knell. The day, however, began brightly enough for lovers, whorarely see magpies when together in the woods. Michu, armed with hisplan, verified the spots; each gentleman had brought a pickaxe, andthe money was soon found. The part of the forest where it was buriedwas quite wild, far from all paths or habitations, so that thecavalcade bearing the gold returned unseen. This proved to be a greatmisfortune. On their way from Cinq-Cygne to fetch the last two hundredthousand francs, the party, emboldened by success, took a more directway than on their other trips. The path passed an opening from whichthe park of Gondreville could be seen. "What is that?" cried Laurence, pointing to a column of blue flame. "A bonfire, I think, " replied Michu. Laurence, who knew all the by-ways of the forest, left the rest of theparty and galloped towards the pavilion, Michu's old home. Though thebuilding was closed and deserted, the iron gates were open, and tracesof the recent passage of several horses struck Laurence instantly. Thecolumn of blue smoke was rising from a field in what was called theEnglish park, where, as she supposed, they were burning brush. "Ah! so you are concerned in it, too, are you, mademoiselle?" criedViolette, who came out of the park at top speed on his pony, andpulled up to meet Laurence. "But, of course, it is only a carnivaljoke? They surely won't kill him?" "Who?" "Your cousins wouldn't put him to death?" "Death! whose death?" "The senator's. " "You are crazy, Violette!" "Well, what are you doing here, then?" he demanded. At the idea of a danger which was threatening her cousins, Laurenceturned her horse and galloped back to them, reaching the ground as thelast sacks were filled. "Quick, quick!" she cried. "I don't know what is going on, but let usget back to Cinq-Cygne. " While the happy party were employed in recovering the fortune saved bythe old marquis, and guarded for so many years by Michu, anextraordinary scene was taking place in the chateau of Gondreville. About two o'clock in the afternoon Malin and his friend Grevin wereplaying chess before the fire in the great salon on the ground-floor. Madame Grevin and Madame Marion were sitting on a sofa and talkingtogether at a corner of the fireplace. All the servants had gone tosee the masquerade, which had long been announced in thearrondissement. The family of the bailiff who had replaced Michu hadgone too. The senator's valet and Violette were the only personsbeside the family at the chateau. The porter, two gardeners, and theirwives were on the place, but their lodge was at the entrance of thecourtyards at the farther end of the avenue to Arcis, and the distancefrom there to the chateau is beyond the sound of a pistol-shot. Violette was waiting in the antechamber until the senator and Grevincould see him on business, to arrange a matter relating to his lease. At that moment five men, masked and gloved, who in height, manner, andbearing strongly resembled the Simeuse and d'Hauteserre brothers andMichu, rushed into the antechamber, seized and gagged the valet andViolette, and fastened them to their chairs in a side room. In spiteof the rapidity with which this was done, Violette and the servant hadtime to utter one cry. It was heard in the salon. The two ladiesthought it a cry of fear. "Listen!" said Madame Grevin, "can there be robbers?" "No, nonsense!" said Grevin, "only carnival cries; the masqueradersmust be coming to pay us a visit. " This discussion gave time for the four strangers to close the doorstowards the courtyards and to lock up Violette and the valet. MadameGrevin, who was rather obstinate, insisted on knowing what the noisemeant. She rose, left the room, and came face to face with the fivemasked men, who treated her as they had treated the farmer and thevalet. Then they rushed into the salon, where the two strongest seizedand gagged Malin, and carried him off into the park, while the threeothers remained behind to gag Madame Marion and Grevin and lash themto their armchairs. The whole affair did not take more than half anhour. The three unknown men, who were quickly rejoined by the two whohad carried off the senator, then proceeded to ransack the chateaufrom cellar to garret. They opened all closets and doors, and soundedthe walls; until five o'clock they were absolute masters of the place. By that time the valet had managed to loosen with his teeth the ropethat bound Violette. Violette, able then to get the gag from hismouth, began to shout for help. Hearing the shouts the five menwithdrew to the gardens, where they mounted horses closely resemblingthose at Cinq-Cygne and rode away, but not so rapidly that Violettewas unable to catch sight of them. After releasing the valet, the twoladies, and the notary, Violette mounted his pony and rode after help. When he reached the pavilion he was amazed to see the gates open andMademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne apparently on the watch. Directly after the young countess had ridden off, Violette wasovertaken by Grevin and the forester of the township of Gondreville, who had taken horses from the stables at the chateau. The porter'swife was on her way to summon the gendarmerie from Arcis. Violette atonce informed Grevin of his meeting with Laurence and the suddenflight of the daring girl, whose strong and decided character wasknown to all of them. "She was keeping watch, " said Violette. "Is it possible that those Cinq-Cygne people have done this thing?"cried Grevin. "Do you mean to say you didn't recognize that stout Michu?" exclaimedViolette. "It was he who attacked me; I knew his fist. Besides, theyrode the Cinq-Cygne horses. " Noticing the hoof-marks on the sand of the _rond-point_ and along thepark road the notary stationed the forester at the gateway to see tothe preservation of these precious traces until the justice of peaceof Arcis (for whom he now sent Violette) could take note of them. Hehimself returned hastily to the chateau, where the lieutenant andsub-lieutenant of the Imperial gendarmerie at Arcis had arrived, accompanied by four men and a corporal. The lieutenant was the sameman whose head Francois Michu had broken two years earlier, and whohad heard from Corentin the name of his mischievous assailant. Thisman, whose name was Giguet (his brother was in the army, and becameone of the finest colonels of artillery), was an extremely ableofficer of gendarmerie. Later he commanded the squadron of the Aube. The sub-lieutenant, named Welff, had formerly driven Corentin fromCinq-Cygne to the pavilion, and from the pavilion to Troyes. On theway, the spy had fully informed him as to what he called the trickeryof Laurence and Michu. The two officers were therefore well inclinedto show, and did show, great eagerness against the family atCinq-Cygne. CHAPTER XIII THE CODE OF BRUMAIRE, YEAR IV. Malin and Grevin had both, the latter working for the former, takenpart in the construction of the Code called that of Brumaire, yearIV. , the judicial work of the National Convention, so-called, andpromulgated by the Directory. Grevin knew its provisions thoroughly, and was able to apply them in this affair with terrible celerity, under a theory, now converted into a certainty, of the guilt of Michuand the Messieurs de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre. No one in these days, unless it be some antiquated magistrates, will remember this system ofjustice, which Napoleon was even then overthrowing by the promulgationof his own Codes, and by the institution of his magistracy under theform in which it now rules France. The Code of Brumaire, year IV. , gave to the director of the jury ofthe department the duty of discovering, indicting, and prosecuting thepersons guilty of the delinquency committed at Gondreville. Remark, bythe way, that the Convention had eliminated from its judicialvocabulary the word "crime"; _delinquencies_ and _misdemeanors_ werealone admitted; and these were punished with fines, imprisonment, andpenalties "afflictive or infamous. " Death was an afflictivepunishment. But the penalty of death was to be done away with afterthe restoration of peace, and twenty-four years of hard labor were totake its place. Thus the Convention estimated twenty-four years ofhard labor as the equivalent of death. What therefore can be said fora code which inflicts the punishment of hard labor for life? Thesystem then in process of preparation by the Napoleonic Council ofState suppressed the function of the directors of juries, which unitedmany enormous powers. In relation to the discovery of delinquenciesand their prosecution the director of the jury was, in fact, agent ofpolice, public prosecutor, municipal judge, and the court itself. Hisproceedings and his indictments were, however, submitted for signatureto a commissioner of the executive power and to the verdict of eightjurymen, before whom he laid the facts of the case, and who examinedthe witnesses and the accused and rendered the preliminary verdict, called the indictment. The director was, however, in a position toexercise such influence over the jurymen, who met in his privateoffice, that they could not well avoid agreeing with him. Thesejurymen were called the jury of indictment. There were others whoformed the juries of the criminal tribunals whose duty it was to judgethe accused; these were called, in contradistinction to the jury ofindictment, the judgment jury. The criminal tribunal, to whichNapoleon afterwards gave the name of criminal court, was composed ofone President or chief justice, four judges, the public prosecutor, and a government commissioner. Nevertheless, from 1799 to 1806 there were special courts (so-called)which judged without juries certain misdemeanors in certaindepartments; these were composed of judges taken from the civil courtsand formed into a special court. This conflict of special justice andcriminal justice gave rise to questions of competence which camebefore the courts of appeal. If the department of the Aube had had aspecial court, the verdict on the outrage committed on a senator ofthe Empire would no doubt have been referred to it; but this tranquildepartment had never needed unusual jurisdiction. Grevin thereforedespatched the sub-lieutenant to Troyes to bring the director of thejury of that town. The emissary went at full gallop, and soon returnedin a post-carriage with the all-powerful magistrate. The director of the Troyes jury was formerly secretary of one of thecommittees of the Convention, a friend of Malin, to whom he owed hispresent place. This magistrate, named Lechesneau, had helped Malin, asGrevin had done, in his work on the Code during the Convention. Malinin return recommended him to Cambaceres, who appointed himattorney-general for Italy. Unfortunately for him, Lechesneau had aliaison with a great lady in Turin, and Napoleon removed him to avoida criminal trial threatened by the husband. Lechesneau, bound ingratitude to Malin, felt the importance of this attack upon hispatron, and brought with him a captain of gendarmerie and twelve men. Before starting he laid his plans with the prefect, who was unable atthat late hour, it being after dark, to use the telegraph. Theytherefore sent a mounted messenger to Paris to notify the minister ofpolice, the chief justice and the Emperor of this extraordinary crime. In the salon of Gondreville, Lechesneau found Mesdames Marion andGrevin, Violette, the senator's valet, and the justice of peace withhis clerk. The chateau had already been examined; the justice, assisted by Grevin, had carefully collected the first testimony. Thefirst thing that struck him was the obvious intention shown in thechoice of the day and hour for the attack. The hour prevented animmediate search for proofs and traces. At this season it was nearlydark by half-past five, the hour at which Violette gave the alarm, anddarkness often means impunity to evil-doers. The choice of a holiday, when most persons had gone to the masquerade at Arcis, and the senatorwas comparatively alone in the house, showed an obvious intention toget rid of witnesses. "Let us do justice to the intelligence of the prefecture of police, "said Lechesneau; "they have never ceased to warn us to be on our guardagainst the nobles at Cinq-Cygne; they have always declared thatsooner or later those people would play us some dangerous trick. " Sure of the active co-operation of the prefect of the Aube, who sentmessengers to all the surrounding prefectures asking them to searchfor the five abductors and the senator, Lechesneau began his work byverifying the first facts. This was soon done by the help of two suchlegal heads as those of Grevin and the justice of peace. The latter, named Pigoult, formerly head-clerk in the office where Malin andGrevin had first studied law in Paris, was soon after appointed judgeof the municipal court at Arcis. In relation to Michu, Lechesneau knewof the threats the man had made about the sale of Gondreville toMarion, and the danger Malin had escaped in his own park from Michu'sgun. These two facts, one being the consequence of the other, were nodoubt the precursors of the present successful attack, and theypointed so obviously to the late bailiff as the instigator of theoutrage that Grevin, his wife, Violette, and Madame Marion declaredthat they had recognized among the five masked men one who exactlyresembled Michu. The color of the hair and whiskers and the thick-setfigure of the man made the mask he wore useless. Besides, who butMichu could have opened the iron gates of the park with a key? Thepresent bailiff and his wife, now returned from the masquerade, deposed to have locked both gates before leaving the pavilion. Thegates when examined showed no sign of being forced. "When we turned him off he must have taken some duplicate keys withhim, " remarked Grevin. "No doubt he has been meditating a desperatestep, for he has lately sold his whole property, and he received themoney for it in my office day before yesterday. " "The others have followed his lead!" exclaimed Lechesneau, struck withthe circumstances. "He has been their evil genius. " Moreover, who could know as well as the Messieurs de Simeuse the insand outs of the chateau. None of the assailants seemed to haveblundered in their search; they had gone through the house in aconfident way which showed that they knew what they wanted to find andwhere to find it. The locks of none of the opened closets had beenforced; therefore the delinquents had keys. Strange to say, however, nothing had been taken; the motive, therefore, was not robbery. Morethan all, when Violette had followed the tracks of the horses as faras the _rond-point_, he had found the countess, evidently on guard, atthe pavilion. From such a combination of facts and depositions arose apresumption as to the guilt of the Messieurs de Simeuse, d'Hauteserre, and Michu, which would have been strong to unprejudiced minds, and tothe director of the jury had the force of certainty. What were theylikely to do to the future Comte de Gondreville? Did they mean toforce him to make over the estate for which Michu declared in 1799 hehad the money to pay? But there was another aspect of the cast to the knowing criminallawyer. He asked himself what could be the object of the carefulsearch made of the chateau. If revenge were at the bottom of thematter, the assailants would have killed the senator. Perhaps he hadbeen killed and buried. The abduction, however, seemed to point toimprisonment. But why keep their victim imprisoned after searching thecastle? It was folly to suppose that the abduction of a dignitary ofthe Empire could long remain secret. The publicity of the matter wouldprevent any benefit from it. To these suggestions Pigoult replied that justice was never able tomake out all the motives of scoundrels. In every criminal case therewere obscurities, he said, between the judge and the guilty person;conscience had depths into which no human mind could enter unless bythe confession of the criminal. Grevin and Lechesneau nodded their assent, without, however, relaxingtheir determination to see to the bottom of the present mystery. "The Emperor pardoned those young men, " said Pigoult to Grevin. "Heremoved their names from the list of _emigres_, though they certainlytook part in that last conspiracy against him. " Lechesneau make no delay in sending his whole force of gendarmerie tothe forest and to the valley of Cinq-Cygne; telling Giguet to takewith him the justice of peace, who, according to the terms of theCode, would then become an auxiliary police-officer. He ordered themto make all preliminary inquiries in the township of Cinq-Cygne, andto take testimony if necessary; and to save time, he dictated andsigned a warrant for the arrest of Michu, against whom the charge wasevident on the positive testimony of Violette. After the departure ofthe gendarmes Lechesneau returned to the important question of issuingwarrants for the arrest of the Simeuse and d'Hauteserre brothers. According to the Code these warrants would have to contain the chargesagainst the delinquents. Giguet and the justice of peace rode so rapidly to Cinq-Cygne thatthey met Laurence's servants returning from the festivities at Troyes. Stopped, and taken before the mayor where they were interrogated, theyall stated, being ignorant of the importance of the answer, that theirmistress had given them permission to spend the whole day at Troyes. To a question put by the justice of the peace, each replied thatMademoiselle had offered them the amusement which they had not thoughtof asking for. This testimony seemed so important to the justice ofthe peace that he sent back a messenger to Gondreville to adviseLechesneau to proceed himself to Cinq-Cygne and arrest the fourgentlemen, while he went to Michu's farm, so that the five arrestsmight be made simultaneously. This new element was so convincing that Lechesneau started at once forCinq-Cygne. He knew well what pleasure would be felt in Troyes at suchproceedings against the old nobles, the enemies of the people, nowbecome the enemies of the Emperor. In such circumstances a magistrateis very apt to take mere presumptive evidence for actual proof. Nevertheless, on his way from Gondreville to Cinq-Cygne, in thesenator's own carriage, it did occur to Lechesneau (who wouldcertainly have made a fine magistrate had it not been for hislove-affair, and the Emperor's sudden morality to which he owed hisdisgrace) to think the audacity of the young men and Michu a piece offolly which was not in keeping with what he knew of the judgment andcharacter of Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne. He imagined in his own mindsome other motives for the deed than the restitution of Gondreville. In all things, even in the magistracy, there is what may be called theconscience of a calling. Lechesneau's perplexities came from thisconscience, which all men put into the proper performance of theduties they like--scientific men into science, artists into art, judges into the rendering of justice. Perhaps for this reason judgesare really greater safeguards for persons accused of wrong-doing thanare juries. A magistrate relies only on reason and its laws; juriesare floated to and fro by the waves of sentiment. The director of thejury accordingly set several questions before his mind, resolving tofind in their solution satisfactory reasons for making the arrests. Though the news of the abduction was already agitating the town ofTroyes, it was still unknown at Arcis, where the inhabitants weresupping when the messenger arrived to summon the gendarmes. No one, ofcourse, knew it in the village of Cinq-Cygne, the valley and thechateau of which were now, for the second time, encircled bygendarmes. Laurence had only to tell Marthe, Catherine, and the Durieus not toleave the chateau, to be strictly obeyed. After each trip to fetch thegold, the horses were fastened in the covered way opposite to thebreach in the moat, and from there Robert and Michu, the strongest ofthe party, carried the sacks through the breach to a cellar under thestaircase in the tower called Mademoiselle's. Reaching the chateauwith the last load about half-past five o'clock, the four gentlemenand Michu proceeded to bury the treasure in the floor of the cellarand then to wall up the entrance. Michu took charge of the matter withGothard to help him; the lad was sent to the farm for some sacks ofplaster left over when the new buildings were put up, and Marthe wentwith him to show him where they were. Michu, very hungry, made suchhaste that by half-past seven o'clock the work was done; and hestarted for home at a quick pace to stop Gothard, who had been sentfor another sack of plaster which he thought he might want. The farmwas already watched by the forester of Cinq-Cygne, the justice ofpeace, his clerk and four gendarmes who, however, kept out of sightand allowed him to enter the house without seeing them. Michu saw Gothard with the sack on his shoulder and called to him froma distance: "It is all finished, my lad; take that back and stay anddine with us. " Michu, his face perspiring, his clothes soiled with plaster andcovered with fragments of muddy stone from the breach, reached homejoyfully and entered the kitchen where Marthe and her mother wereserving the soup in expectation of his coming. Just as Michu was turning the faucet of the water-pipe intending towash his hands, the justice of peace entered the house accompanied byhis clerk and the forester. "What have you come for, Monsieur Pigoult?" asked Michu. "In the name of the Emperor and the laws, I arrest you, " replied thejustice. The three gendarmes entered the kitchen leading Gothard. Seeing thesilver lace on their hats Marthe and her mother looked at each otherin terror. "Pooh! why?" asked Michu, who sat down at the table and called to hiswife, "Give me something to eat; I'm famished. " "You know why as well as we do, " said the justice, making a sign tohis clerk to begin the _proces-verbal_ and exhibiting the warrant ofarrest. "Well, well, Gothard, you needn't stare so, " said Michu. "Do you wantsome dinner, yes or no? Let them write down their nonsense. " "You admit, of course, the condition of your clothes?" said thejustice of peace; "and you can't deny the words you said just now toGothard?" Michu, supplied with food by his wife, who was amazed at his coolness, was eating with the avidity of a hungry man. He made no answer to thejustice, for his mouth was full and his heart innocent. Gothard'sappetite was destroyed by fear. "Look here, " said the forester, going up to Michu and whispering inhis ear: "What have you done with the senator? You had better make aclean breast of it, for if we are to believe these people it is amatter of life or death to you. " "Good God!" cried Marthe, who overheard the last words and fell into achair as if annihilated. "Violette must have played us some infamous trick, " cried Michu, recollecting what Laurence had said in the forest. "Ha! so you do know that Violette saw you?" said the justice of peace. Michu bit his lips and resolved to say no more. Gothard imitated him. Seeing the uselessness of all attempts to make them talk, and knowingwhat the neighborhood chose to call Michu's perversity, the justiceordered the gendarmes to bind his hands and those of Gothard, and takethem both to the chateau, whither he now went himself to rejoin thedirector of the jury. CHAPTER XIV THE ARRESTS The four young men and Laurence were so hungry and the dinner soacceptable that they would not delay it by changing their dress. Theyentered the salon, she in her riding-habit, they in their whiteleather breeches, high-top boots and green-cloth jackets, where theyfound Monsieur d'Hauteserre and his wife, not a little uneasy at theirlong absence. The goodman had noticed their goings and comings, and, above all, their evident distrust of him, for Laurence had been unableto get rid of him as she had of her servants. Once when his own sonsevidently avoided making any reply to his questions, he went to hiswife and said, "I am afraid that Laurence may still get us intotrouble!" "What sort of game did you hunt to-day?" said Madame d'Hauteserre toLaurence. "Ah!" replied the young girl, laughing, "you'll hear some day what astrange hunt your sons have joined in to-day. " Though said in jest the words made the old lady tremble. Catherineentered to announce dinner. Laurence took Monsieur d'Hauteserre's arm, smiling for a moment at the necessity she thus forced upon her cousinsto offer an arm to Madame d'Hauteserre, who, according to agreement, was now to be the arbiter of their fate. The Marquis de Simeuse took in Madame d'Hauteserre. The situation wasso momentous that after the Benedicite was said Laurence and the youngmen trembled from the violent palpitation of their hearts. Madamed'Hauteserre, who carved, was struck by the anxiety on the faces ofthe Simeuse brothers and the great alteration that was noticeable inLaurence's lamb-like features. "Something extraordinary is going on, I am sure of it!" she exclaimed, looking at all of them. "To whom are you speaking?" asked Laurence. "To all of you, " said the old lady. "As for me, mother, " said Robert, "I am frightfully hungry, and thatis not extraordinary. " Madame d'Hauteserre, still troubled, offered the Marquis de Simeuse aplate intended for his brother. "I am like your mother, " she said. "I don't know you apart even byyour cravats. I thought I was helping your brother. " "You have helped me better than you thought for, " said the youngest, turning pale; "you have made him Comte de Cinq-Cygne. " "What! do you mean to tell me the countess has made her choice?" criedMadame d'Hauteserre. "No, " said Laurence; "we left the decision to fate and you are itsinstrument. " She told of the agreement made that morning. The elder Simeuse, watching the increasing pallor of his brother's face, was momentarilyon the point of crying out, "Marry her; I will go away and die!" Justthen, as the dessert was being served, all present heard raps upon thewindow of the dining-room on the garden side. The eldest d'Hauteserreopened it and gave entrance to the abbe, whose breeches were torn inclimbing over the walls of the park. "Fly! they are coming to arrest you, " he cried. "Why?" "I don't know yet; but there's a warrant against you. " The words were greeted with general laughter. "We are innocent, " said the young men. "Innocent or guilty, " said the abbe, "mount your horses and make forthe frontier. There you can prove your innocence. You could overcome asentence by default; you will never overcome a sentence rendered bypopular passion and instigated by prejudice. Remember the words ofPresident de Harlay, 'If I were accused of carrying off the towers ofNotre-Dame the first thing I should do would be to run away. '" "To run away would be to admit we were guilty, " said the Marquis deSimeuse. "Don't do it!" cried Laurence. "Always the same sublime folly!" exclaimed the abbe, in despair. "If Ihad the power of God I would carry you away. But if I am found here inthis state they will turn my visit against you, and against me too;therefore I leave you by the way I came. Consider my advice; you havestill time. The gendarmes have not yet thought of the wall whichadjoins the parsonage; but you are hemmed in on the other sides. " The sound of many feet and the jangle of the sabres of the gendarmerieechoed through the courtyard and reached the dining-room a few momentsafter the departure of the poor abbe, whose advice had met the samefate as that of the Marquis de Chargeboeuf. "Our twin existence, " said the younger Simeuse, speaking to Laurence, "is an anomaly--our love for you is anomalous; it is that very qualitywhich was won your heart. Possibly, the reason why all twins known tous in history have been unfortunate is that the laws of nature aresubverted in them. In our case, see how persistently an evil fatefollows us! your decision is now postponed. " Laurence was stupefied; the fatal words of the director of the juryhummed in her ears:--"In the name of the Emperor and the laws, Iarrest the Sieurs Paul-Marie and Marie-Paul Simeuse, Adrien and Robertd'Hauteserre--These gentlemen, " he added, addressing the men whoaccompanied him and pointing to the mud on the clothing of theprisoners, "cannot deny that they have spent the greater part of thisday on horseback. " "Of what are they accused?" asked Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, haughtily. "Don't you mean to arrest Mademoiselle?" said Giguet. "I shall leave her at liberty under bail, until I can carefullyexamine the charges against her, " replied the director. The mayor offered bail, asking the countess to merely give her word ofhonor that she would not escape. Laurence blasted him with a lookwhich made him a mortal enemy; a tear started from her eyes, one ofthose tears of rage which reveal a hell of suffering. The fourgentlemen exchanged a terrible look, but remained motionless. Monsieurand Madame d'Hauteserre, dreading lest the young people had practisedsome deceit, were in a state of indescribable stupefaction. Clingingto their chairs these unfortunate parents, finding their sons tornfrom them after so many fears and their late hopes of safety, satgazing before them without seeing, listening without hearing. "Must I ask you to bail me, Monsieur d'Hauteserre?" cried Laurence toher former guardian, who was roused by the cry, clear and agonizing tohis ear as the sound of the last trumpet. He tried to wipe the tears which sprang to his eyes; he now understoodwhat was passing, and said to his young relation in a quivering voice, "Forgive me, countess; you know that I am yours, body and soul. " Lechesneau, who at first was much struck by the evident tranquillityin which the whole party were dining, now returned to his formeropinion of their guilt as he noticed the stupefaction of the oldpeople and the evident anxiety of Laurence, who was seeking todiscover the nature of the trap which was set for them. "Gentlemen, " he said, politely, "you are too well-bred to make auseless resistance; follow me to the stables, where I must, in yourpresence, have the shoes of your horses taken off; they affordimportant proof of either guilt or innocence. Come, too, mademoiselle. " The blacksmith of Cinq-Cygne and his assistant had been summoned byLechesneau as experts. While the operation at the stable was going onthe justice of peace brought in Gothard and Michu. The work ofdetaching the shoes of each horse, putting them together and ticketingthem, so as to compare them with the hoof-prints in the park, tooktime. Lechesneau, notified of the arrival of Pigoult, left theprisoners with the gendarmes and returned to the dining-room todictate the indictment. The justice of peace called his attention tothe condition of Michu's clothes and related the circumstances of hisarrest. "They must have killed the senator and plastered the body up in somewall, " said Pigoult. "I begin to fear it, " answered Lechesneau. "Where did you carry thatplaster?" he said to Gothard. The boy began to cry. "The law frightens him, " said Michu, whose eyes were darting flameslike those of a lion in the toils. The servants, who had been detained at the village by order of themayor, now arrived and filled the antechamber where Catherine andGothard were weeping. To all the questions of the director of the juryand the justice of peace Gothard replied by sobs; and by dint ofweeping he brought on a species of convulsion which alarmed them somuch that they let him alone. The little scamp, perceiving that he wasno longer watched, looked at Michu with a grin, and Michu signifiedhis approval by a glance. Lechesneau left the justice of peace andreturned to the stables. "Monsieur, " said Madame d'Hauteserre, at last, addressing Pigoult;"can you explain these arrests?" "The gentlemen are accused of abducting the senator by armed force andkeeping him a prisoner; for we do not think they have murdered him--inspite of appearances, " replied Pigoult. "What penalties are attached to the crime?" asked Monsieurd'Hauteserre. "Well, as the old law continues in force, and they are not amenableunder the Code, the penalty is death, " replied the justice. "Death!" cried Madame d'Hauteserre, fainting away. The abbe now came in with his sister, who stopped to speak toCatherine and Madame Durieu. "We haven't even seen your cursed senator!" said Michu. "Madame Marion, Madame Grevin, Monsieur Grevin, the senator's valet, and Violette all tell another tale, " replied Pigoult, with the soursmile of magisterial conviction. "I don't understand a thing about it, " said Michu, dumbfounded by hisreply, and beginning now to believe that his masters and himself wereentangled in some plot which had been laid against them. Just then the party from the stables returned. Laurence went up toMadame d'Hauteserre, who recovered her senses enough to say: "Thepenalty is death!" "Death!" repeated Laurence, looking at the four gentlemen. The word excited a general terror, of which Giguet, formerlyinstructed by Corentin, took immediate advantage. "Everything can be arranged, " he said, drawing the Marquis de Simeuseinto a corner of the dining-room. "Perhaps after all it is nothing buta joke; you've been a soldier and soldiers understand each other. Tellme, what have you really done with the senator? If you have killed him--why, that's the end of it! But if you have only locked him up, release him, for you see for yourself your game is balked. Do this andI am certain the director of the jury and the senator himself willdrop the matter. " "We know absolutely nothing about it, " said the marquis. "If you take that tone the matter is likely to go far, " replied thelieutenant. "Dear cousin, " said the Marquis de Simeuse, "we are forced to go toprison; but do not be uneasy; we shall return in a few hours, forthere is some misunderstanding in all this which can be explained. " "I hope so, for your sakes, gentlemen, " said the magistrate, signingto the gendarmes to remove the four gentlemen, Michu, and Gothard. "Don't take them to Troyes; keep them in your guardhouse at Arcis, " hesaid to the lieutenant; "they must be present to-morrow, at daybreak, when we compare the shoes of their horses with the hoof-prints in thepark. " Lechesneau and Pigoult did not follow until they had closelyquestioned Catherine, Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre, and Laurence. The Durieus, Catherine, and Marthe declared they had only seen theirmasters at breakfast-time; Monsieur d'Hauteserre said he had seen themat three o'clock. When, at midnight, Laurence found herself alone with Monsieur andMadame d'Hauteserre, the abbe and his sister, and without the fouryoung men who for the last eighteen months had been the life of thechateau and the love and joy of her own life, she fell into a gloomysilence which no one present dared to break. No affliction was everdeeper or more complete than hers. At last a deep sigh broke thestillness, and all eyes turned towards the sound. Marthe, forgotten in a corner, rose, exclaiming, "Death! They willkill them in spite of their innocence!" "Mademoiselle, what is the matter with you?" said the abbe. Laurence left the room without replying. She needed solitude torecover strength in presence of this terrible unforeseen disaster. CHAPTER XV DOUBTS AND FEARS OF COUNSEL At a distance of thirty-four years, during which three greatrevolutions have taken place, none but elderly persons can recall theimmense excitement produced in Europe by the abduction of a senator ofthe French Empire. No trial, if we except that of Trumeaux, the grocerof the Place Saint-Michel, and that of the widow Morin, under theEmpire; those of Fualdes and de Castaing, under the Restoration; thoseof Madame Lafarge and Fieschi, under the present government, everroused so much curiosity or so deep an interest as that of the fouryoung men accused of abducting Malin. Such an attack against a memberof his Senate excited the wrath of the Emperor, who was told of thearrest of the delinquents almost at the moment when he first heard ofthe crime and the negative results of the inquiries. The forest, searched throughout, the department of the Aube, ransacked from end toend, gave not the slightest indication of the passage of the Comte deGondreville nor of his imprisonment. Napoleon sent for the chiefjustice, who, after obtaining certain information from the ministry ofpolice, explained to his Majesty the position of Malin in regard tothe Simeuse brothers and the Gondreville estate. The Emperor, at thattime pre-occupied with serious matters, considered the affairexplained by these anterior facts. "Those young men are fools, " he said. "A lawyer like Malin will escapeany deed they may force him to sign under violence. Watch thosenobles, and discover the means they take to set the Comte deGondreville at liberty. " He ordered the affair to be conducted with the utmost celerity, regarding it as an attack on his own institutions, a fatal example ofresistance to the results of the Revolution, an effort to open thegreat question of the sales of "national property, " and a hindrance tothat fusion of parties which was the constant object of his homepolicy. Besides all this, he thought himself tricked by these youngnobles, who had given him their promise to live peaceably. "Fouche's prediction has come true, " he cried, remembering the wordsuttered two years earlier by his present minister of police, who saidthem under the impressions conveyed to him by Corentin's report as tothe character and designs of Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne. It is impossible for persons living under a constitutional government, where no one really cares for that cold and thankless, blind, deafThing called public interest, to imagine the zeal which a mere word ofthe Emperor was able to inspire in his political or administrativemachine. That powerful will seemed to impress itself as much uponthings as upon men. His decision once uttered, the Emperor, overtakenby the coalition of 1806, forgot the whole matter. He thought only ofnew battles to fight, and his mind was occupied in massing hisregiments to strike the great blow at the heart of the Prussianmonarchy. His desire for prompt justice in the present case foundpowerful assistance in the great uncertainty which affected theposition of all magistrates of the Empire. Just at this timeCambaceres, as arch-chancellor, and Regnier, chief justice, werepreparing to organize _tribunaux de premiere instance_ (lower civilcourts), imperial courts, and a court of appeal or supreme court. Theywere agitating the question of a legal garb or costume; to whichNapoleon attached, and very justly, so much importance in all officialstations; and they were also inquiring into the character of thepersons composing the magistracy. Naturally, therefore, the officialsof the department of the Aube considered they could have no betterrecommendation than to give proofs of their zeal in the matter of theabduction of the Comte de Gondreville. Napoleon's suppositions becamecertainties to these courtiers and also to the populace. Peace still reigned on the continent; admiration for the Emperor wasunanimous in France; he cajoled all interests, persons, vanities, andthings, in short, everything, even memories. This attack, therefore, directed against his senator, seemed in the eyes of all an assaultupon the public welfare. The luckless and innocent gentlemen were theobjects of general opprobrium. A few nobles living quietly on theirestates deplored the affair among themselves but dared not open theirlips; in fact, how was it possible for them to oppose the current ofpublic opinion. Throughout the department the deaths of the elevenpersons killed by the Simeuse brothers in 1792 from the windows of thehotel Cinq-Cygne were brought up against them. It was feared thatother returned and now emboldened _emigres_ might follow this exampleof violence against those who had bought their estates from the"national domain, " as a method of protesting against what they mightcall an unjust spoliation. The unfortunate young nobles were therefore considered as robbers, brigands, murderers; and their connection with Michu wasparticularly fatal to them. Michu, who was declared, either he or hisfather-in-law, to have cut off all the heads that fell under theTerror in that department, was made the subject of ridiculous tales. The exasperation of the public mind was all the more intense becausenearly all the functionaries of the department owed their offices toMalin. No generous voice uplifted itself against the verdict of thepublic. Besides all this, the accused had no legal means with whichto combat prejudice; for the Code of Brumaire, year IV. , giving as itdid both the prosecution of a charge and the verdict upon it into thehands of a jury, deprived the accused of the vast protection of anappeal against legal suspicion. The day after the arrest all the inhabitants of the chateau ofCinq-Cygne, both masters and servants, were summoned to appear beforethe prosecuting jury. Cinq-Cygne was left in charge of a farmer, underthe supervision of the abbe and his sister who moved into it. Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, with Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre, wentto Troyes and occupied a small house belonging to Durieu in one of thelong and wide faubourgs which lead from the little town. Laurence'sheart was wrung when she at last comprehended the temper of thepopulace, the malignity of the bourgeoisie, and the hostility of theadministration, from the many little events which happened to them asrelatives of prisoners accused of criminal wrong-doing and about to bejudged in a provincial town. Instead of hearing encouraging orcompassionate words they heard only speeches which called for vengeance;proofs of hatred surrounded them in place of the strict politeness orthe reserve required by mere decency; but above all they were consciousof an isolation which every mind must feel, but more particularly thosewhich are made distrustful by misfortune. Laurence, who had recovered her vigor of mind, relied upon theinnocence of the accused, and despised the community too much to befrightened by the stern and silent disapproval they met witheverywhere. She sustained the courage of Monsieur and Madamed'Hauteserre, all the while thinking of the judicial struggle whichwas now being hurried on. She was, however, to receive a blow shelittle expected, which, undoubtedly, diminished her courage. In the midst of this great disaster, at the moment when this afflictedfamily were made to feel themselves, as it were, in a desert, a mansuddenly became exalted in Laurence's eyes and showed the full beautyof his character. The day after the indictment was found by the jury, and the prisoners were finally committed for trial, the Marquis deChargeboeuf courageously appeared, still in the same old caleche, tosupport and protect his young cousin. Foreseeing the haste with whichthe law would be administered, this chief of a great family hadalready gone to Paris and secured the services of the most able aswell as the most honest lawyer of the old school, named Bordin, whowas for ten years counsel of the nobility in Paris, and was ultimatelysucceeded by the celebrated Derville. This excellent lawyer chose forhis assistant the grandson of a former president of the parliament ofNormandy, whose studies had been made under his tuition. This younglawyer, who was destined to be appointed deputy-attorney-general inParis after the conclusion of the present trial, became eventually oneof the most celebrated of French magistrates. Monsieur de Grandville, for that was his name, accepted the defence of the four young men, being glad of an opportunity to make his first appearance as anadvocate with distinction. The old marquis, alarmed at the ravages which troubles had wrought inLaurence's appearance, was charmingly kind and considerate. He made noallusion to his neglected advice; he presented Bordin as an oraclewhose counsel must be followed to the letter, and young de Grandvilleas a defender in whom the utmost confidence might be placed. Laurence held out her hand to the kind old man, and pressed his withan eagerness which delighted him. "You were right, " she said. "Will you now take my advice?" he asked. The young countess bowed her head in assent, as did Monsieur andMadame d'Hauteserre. "Well, then, come to my house; it is in the middle of town, close tothe courthouse. You and your lawyers will be better off there thanhere, where you are crowded and too far from the field of battle. Here, you would have to cross the town twice a day. " Laurence, accepted, and the old man took her with Madame d'Hauteserreto his house, which became the home of the Cinq-Cygne household andthe lawyers of the defence during the whole time the trial lasted. After dinner, when the doors were closed, Bordin made Laurence relateevery circumstance of the affair, entreating her to omit nothing, notthe most trifling detail. Though many of the facts had already beentold to him and his young assistant by the marquis on their journeyfrom Paris to Troyes, Bordin listened, his feet on the fender, withoutobtruding himself into the recital. The young lawyer, however, couldnot help being divided between his admiration for Mademoiselle deCinq-Cygne, and the attention he was bound to give to the facts of hiscase. "Is that really all?" asked Bordin when Laurence had related theevents of the drama just as the present narrative has given them up tothe present time. "Yes, " she answered. Profound silence reigned for several minutes in the salon of theChargeboeuf mansion where this scene took place, --one of the mostimportant which occur in life. All cases are judged by the counsellorsengaged in them, just as the death or life or a patient is foreseen bya physician, before the final struggle which the one sustains againstnature, the other against law. Laurence, Monsieur and Madamed'Hauteserre, and the marquis sat with their eyes fixed on the swarthyand deeply pitted face of the old lawyer, who was now to pronounce thewords of life or death. Monsieur d'Hauteserre wiped the sweat from hisbrow. Laurence looked at the younger man and noted his saddened face. "Well, my dear Bordin?" said the marquis at last, holding out hissnuffbox, from which the old lawyer took a pinch in an absent-mindedway. Bordin rubbed the calf of his leg, covered with thick stockings ofblack raw silk, for he always wore black cloth breeches and a coatmade somewhat in the shape of those which are now termed _a laFrancaise_. He cast his shrewd eyes upon his clients with an anxiousexpression, the effect of which was icy. "Must I analyze all that?" he said; "am I to speak frankly?" "Yes; go on, monsieur, " said Laurence. "All that you have innocently done can be converted into proof againstyou, " said the old lawyer. "We cannot save your friends; we can onlyreduce the penalty. The sale which you induced Michu to make of hisproperty will be taken as evident proof of your criminal intentionsagainst the senator. You sent your servants to Troyes so that youmight be alone; that is all the more plausible because it is actuallytrue. The elder d'Hauteserre made an unfortunate speech to Beauvisage, which will be your ruin. You yourself, mademoiselle, made another inyour own courtyard, which proves that you have long shown ill-will tothe possessor of Gondreville. Besides, you were at the gate of the_rond-point_, apparently on the watch, about the time when theabduction took place; if they have not arrested you, it is solelybecause they fear to bring a sentimental element into the affair. " "The case cannot be successfully defended, " said Monsieur deGrandville. "The less so, " continued Bordin, "because we cannot tell the wholetruth. Michu and the Messieurs de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre must holdto the assertion that you merely went for an excursion into the forestand returned to Cinq-Cygne for luncheon. Allowing that we can show youwere in the house at three o'clock (the exact hour at which the attackwas made), who are our witnesses? Marthe, the wife of one of theaccused, the Durieus, and Catherine, your own servants, and Monsieurand Madame d'Hauteserre, father and mother of two of the accused. Suchtestimony is valueless; the law does not admit it against you, andcommonsense rejects it when given in your favor. If, on the otherhand, you were to say you went to the forest to recover eleven hundredthousand francs in gold, you would send the accused to the galleys asrobbers. Judge, jury, audience, and the whole of France would believethat you took that gold from Gondreville, and abducted the senatorthat you might ransack his house. The accusation as it now stands isnot wholly clear, but tell the truth about the matter and it wouldbecome as plain as day; the jury would declare that the robberyexplained the mysterious features, --for in these days, you mustremember, a royalist means a thief. This very case is welcomed as alegitimate political vengeance. The prisoners are now in danger of thedeath penalty; but that is not dishonoring under some circumstances. Whereas, if they can be proved to have stolen money, which can neverbe made to seem excusable, you lose all benefit of whatever interestmay attach to persons condemned to death for other crimes. If, at thefirst, you had shown the hiding-places of the treasure, the plan ofthe forest, the tubes in which the gold was buried, and the golditself, as an explanation of your day's work, it is possible you mighthave been believed by an impartial magistrate, but as it is we mustbe silent. God grant that none of the prisoners may reveal the truthand compromise the defence; if they do, we must rely on ourcross-examinations. " Laurence wrung her hands in despair and raised her eyes to heaven witha despondent look, for she saw at last in all its depths the gulf intowhich her cousins had fallen. The marquis and the young lawyer agreedwith the dreadful view of Bordin. Old d'Hauteserre wept. "Ah! why did they not listen to the Abbe Goujet and fly!" cried Madamed'Hauteserre, exasperated. "If they could have escaped, and you prevented them, " said Bordin, "you have killed them yourselves. Judgment by default gains time; timeenables the innocent to clear themselves. This is the most mysteriouscase I have ever known in my life, in the course of which I havecertainly seen and known many strange things. " "It is inexplicable to every one, even to us, " said Monsieur deGrandville. "If the prisoners are innocent some one else has committedthe crime. Five persons do not come to a place as if by enchantment, obtain five horses shod precisely like those of the accused, imitatethe appearance of some of them, and put Malin apparently undergroundfor the sole purpose of casting suspicion on Michu and the fourgentlemen. The unknown guilty parties must have had some strong reasonfor wearing the skin, as it were, of five innocent men. To discoverthem, even to get upon their traces, we need as much power as thegovernment itself, as many agents and as many eyes as there aretownships in a radius of fifty miles. " "The thing is impossible, " said Bordin. "There's no use thinkingof it. Since society invented law it has never found a way to givean innocent prisoner an equal chance against a magistrate who ispre-disposed against him. Law is not bilateral. The defence, withoutspies or police, cannot call social power to the rescue of its innocentclients. Innocence has nothing on her side but reason, and reasoningwhich may strike a judge is often powerless on the narrow minds ofjurymen. The whole department is against you. The eight jurors whohave signed the indictment are each and all purchasers of nationaldomain. Among the trial jurors we are certain to have some who haveeither sold or bought the same property. In short, we can get nothingbut a Malin jury. You must therefore set up a consistent defence, holdfast to it, and perish in your innocence. You will certainly becondemned. But there's a court of appeal; we will go there and try toremain there as long as possible. If in the mean time we can collectproofs in your favor you must apply for pardon. That's the anatomy ofthe business, and my advice. If we triumph (for everything is possiblein law) it will be a miracle; but your advocate Monsieur de Grandvilleis the most likely man among all I know to produce that miracle, andI'll do my best to help him. " "The senator has the key to the mystery, " said Monsieur de Grandville;"for a man knows his enemies and why they are so. Here we find himleaving Paris at the close of the winter, coming to Gondreville alone, shutting himself up with his notary, and delivering himself over, asone might say, to five men who seize him. " "Certainly, " said Bordin, "his conduct seems inexplicable. But howcould we, in the face of a hostile community, become accusers when weourselves are the accused? We should need the help and good-will ofthe government and a thousand times more proof than is wanted inordinary circumstances. I am convinced there was premeditation, andsubtle premeditation, on the part of our mysterious adversaries, whomust have known the situation of Michu and the Messieurs de Simeusetowards Malin. Not to utter one word; not to steal one thing!--remarkable prudence! I see something very different from ordinaryevil-doers behind those masks. But what would be the use of saying soto the sort of jurors we shall have to face?" This insight into hidden matters which gives such power to certainlawyers and certain magistrates astonished and confounded Laurence;her heart was wrung by that inexorable logic. "Out of every hundred criminal cases, " continued Bordin, "there arenot ten where the law really lays bare the truth to its full extent;and there is perhaps a good third in which the truth is never broughtto light at all. Yours is one of those cases which are inexplicable toall parties, to accused and accusers, to the law and to the public. Asfor the Emperor, he has other fish to fry than to consider the case ofthese gentlemen, supposing even that they had not conspired againsthim. But who the devil _is_ Malin's enemy? and what has really beendone with him?" Bordin and Monsieur de Grandville looked at each other; they seemed indoubt as to Laurence's veracity. This evident suspicion was the mostcutting of all the many pangs the girl had suffered in the affair; andshe turned upon the lawyers a look which effectually put an end totheir distrust. The next day the indictment was handed over to the defence, and thelawyers were then enabled to communicate with the prisoners. Bordininformed the family that the six accused men were "well supported, "--using a professional term. "Monsieur de Grandville will defend Michu, " said Bordin. "Michu!" exclaimed the Marquis de Chargeboeuf, amazed at the change. "He is the pivot of the affair--the danger lies there, " replied theold lawyer. "If he is more in danger than the others, I think that is just, " criedLaurence. "We see certain chances, " said Monsieur de Grandville, "and we shallstudy them carefully. If we are able to save these gentlemen it willbe because Monsieur d'Hauteserre ordered Michu to repair one of thestone posts in the covered way, and also because a wolf has been seenin the forest; in a criminal court everything depends on discussions, and discussions often turn on trivial matters which then become ofimmense importance. " Laurence sank into that inward dejection which humiliates the soul ofall thoughtful and energetic persons when the uselessness of thoughtand action is made manifest to them. It was no longer a matter ofoverthrowing a usurper, or of coming to the help of devoted friends, --fanatical sympathies wrapped in a shroud of mystery. She now saw allsocial forces full-armed against her cousins and herself. There was notaking a prison by assault with her own hands, no deliverance ofprisoners from the midst of a hostile population and beneath the eyesof a watchful police. So, when the young lawyer, alarmed at the stuporof the generous and noble girl, which the natural expression of herface made still more noticeable, endeavored to revive her courage, sheturned to him and said: "I must be silent; I suffer, --I wait. " The accent, gesture, and look with which the words were said made thisanswer one of those sublime things which only need a wider stage tomake them famous. A few moments later old d'Hauteserre was saying to the Marquis deChargeboeuf: "What efforts I have made for my two unfortunate sons! Ihave already laid by in the Funds enough to give them eight thousandfrancs a year. If they had only been willing to serve in the army theywould have reached the higher grades by this time, and could now havemarried to advantage. Instead of that, all my plans are scattered tothe winds!" "How can you, " said his wife, "think of their interests when it is aquestion of their honor and their lives?" "Monsieur d'Hauteserre thinks of everything, " said the marquis. CHAPTER XVI MARTHE INVEIGLED While the masters of Cinq-Cygne were waiting at Troyes for the openingof the trial before the Criminal court and vainly solicitingpermission to see the prisoners, an event of the utmost importance hadtaken place at the chateau. Marthe returned to Cinq-Cygne as soon as she had given her testimonybefore the indicting jury. This testimony was so insignificant that itwas not thought necessary to summon her before the Criminal court. Like all persons of extreme sensibility, the poor woman sat silent inthe salon, where she kept company with Mademoiselle Goujet, in apitiable state of stupefaction. To her, as to the abbe, and indeed toall others who did not know how the accused had been employed on thatday, their innocence seemed doubtful. There were moments when Marthebelieved that Michu and his masters and Laurence had executedvengeance on the senator. The unhappy woman now knew Michu's devotionwell enough to be certain that he was the one who would be most indanger, not only because of his antecedents, but because of the parthe was sure to have taken in the execution of the scheme. The Abbe Goujet and his sister and Marthe were bewildered among thepossibilities to which this opinion gave rise; and yet, in the processof thinking them over, their minds insensibly took hold of them in acertain way. The absolute doubt which Descartes demands can no moreexist in the brain of a man than a vacuum can exist in nature, and themental operation required to produce it would, like the effect of apneumatic machine, be exceptional and anomalous. Whatever a case maybe, the mind believes in something. Now Marthe was so afraid that theaccused were guilty that her fear became equivalent to belief; andthis condition of her mind proved fatal to her. Five days after the arrests, just as she was in the act of going tobed about ten o'clock at night, she was called from the courtyard byher mother, who had come from the farm on foot. "A laboring man from Troyes wants to speak to you; he is sent byMichu, and is waiting in the covered way, " she said to Marthe. They passed through the breach so as to take the shortest path. In thedarkness it was impossible for Marthe to distinguish anything morethan the form of a person which loomed through the shadows. "Speak, madame; so that I may be certain you are really Madame Michu, "said the person, in a rather anxious voice. "I am Madame Michu, " said Marthe; "what do you want of me?" "Very good, " said the unknown, "give me your hand; do not fear me. Icome, " he added, leaning towards her and speaking low, "from Michuwith a note for you. I am employed at the prison, and if my superiorsdiscover my absence we shall all be lost. Trust me; your good fatherplaced me where I am. For that reason Michu counted on my helpinghim. " He put the letter into Marthe's hand and disappeared toward the forestwithout waiting for an answer. Marthe trembled at the thought that shewas now to hear the secret of the mystery. She ran to the farm withher mother and shut herself up to read the following letter:-- My dear Marthe, --You can rely on the discretion of the man who will give you this letter; he does not know how to read or to write. He is a stanch Republican, and shared in Baboeuf's conspiracy; your father often made use of him, and he regards the senator as a traitor. Now, my dear wife, attend to my directions. The senator has been shut up by us in the cave where our masters were hidden. The poor creature had provisions for only five days, and as it is our interest that he should live, I wish you, as soon as you receive this letter, to take him food for at least five days more. The forest is of course watched; therefore take as many precautions as we formerly did for our young masters. Don't say a word to Malin; don't speak to him; and put on one of our masks which you will find on the steps which lead down to the cave. Unless you wish to compromise our heads you must be absolutely silent about this letter and the secret I have now confided to you. Don't say a word to Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, who might tell of it. Don't fear for me. We are certain that the matter will turn out well; when the time comes Malin himself will save us. I don't need to tell you to burn this letter as soon as you have read it, for it would cost me my head if a line of it were seen. I kiss you for now and always, Michu. The existence of the cave was known only to Marthe, her son, Michu, the four gentlemen, and Laurence; or rather, Marthe, to whom herhusband had not related the incident of his meeting with Peyrade andCorentin, believed it was known only to them. Had she consulted hermistress and the two lawyers, who knew the innocence of the prisoners, the shrewd Bordin would have gained some light upon the perfidioustrap which was evidently laid for his clients. But Marthe, acting likemost women under a first impulse, was convinced by this proof whichcame to her own eyes, and flung the letter into the fire as directed. Nevertheless, moved by a singular gleam of caution, she caught aportion of it from the flames, tore off the five first lines, whichcompromised no one, and sewed them into the hem of her dress. Terrified at the thought that the prisoner had been without food fortwenty-four hours, she resolved to carry bread, meat, and wine to himat once; curiosity was well as humanity permitting no delay. Accordingly, she heated her oven and made, with her mother's help, a_pate_ of hare and ducks, a rice cake, roasted two fowls, selectedthree bottles of wine, and baked two loaves of bread. About two in themorning she started for the forest, carrying the load on her back, accompanied by Couraut, who in all such expeditions showed wonderfulsagacity as a guide. He scented strangers at immense distances, and assoon as he was certain of their presence he returned to his mistresswith a low growl, looking at her fixedly and turning his muzzle in thedirection of the danger. Marthe reached the pond about three in the morning, and left the dogas sentinel on the bank. After half an hour's labor in clearing theentrance she came with a dark lantern to the door of the cave, herface covered with a mask, which she had found, as directed, on thesteps. The imprisonment of the senator seemed to have been longpremeditated. A hole about a foot square, which Marthe had never seenbefore, was roughly cut in the upper part of the iron door whichclosed the cave; but in order to prevent Malin from using the time andpatience all prisoners have at their command in loosening the iron barwhich held the door, it was securely fastened with a padlock. The senator, who had risen from his bed of moss, sighed when he sawthe masked face and felt that there was no chance then of hisdeliverance. He examined Marthe, as much as he could by the unsteadylight of her dark lantern, and he recognized her by her clothes, herstoutness, and her motions. When she passed the _pate_ through thedoor he dropped it to seize her hand and then, with great swiftness, he tried to pull the rings from her fingers, --one her wedding-ring, the other a gift from Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne. "You cannot deny that it is you, my dear Madame Michu, " he said. Marthe closed her fist the moment she felt his fingers, and gave him avigorous blow in the chest. Then, without a word, she turned away andcut a stick, at the end of which she held out to the senator the restof the provisions. "What do they want of me?" he asked. Marthe departed giving him no answer. By five o'clock she had reachedthe edge of the forest and was warned by Couraut of the presence ofstrangers. She retraced her steps and made for the pavilion where shehad lived so long; but just as she entered the avenue she was seenfrom afar by the forester of Gondreville, and she quickly reflectedthat her best plan was to go straight up to him. "You are out early, Madame Michu, " he said, accosting her. "We are so unfortunate, " she replied, "that I am obliged to do aservant's work myself. I am going to Bellache for some grain. " "Haven't you any at Cinq-Cygne?" said the forester. Marthe made no answer. She continued on her way and reached the farmat Bellache, where she asked Beauvisage to give her some seed-grain, saying that Monsieur d'Hauteserre advised her to get it from him torenew her crop. As soon as Marthe had left the farm, the forester wentthere to find out what she asked for. Six days later, Marthe, determined to be prudent, went at midnightwith her provisions so as to avoid the keepers who were evidentlypatrolling the forest. After carrying a third supply to the senatorshe suddenly became terrified on hearing the abbe read aloud thepublic examination of the prisoners, --for the trial was by that timebegun. She took the abbe aside, and after obliging him to swear thathe would keep the secret she was about to reveal as though it was saidto him in the confessional, she showed him the fragments of Michu'sletter, told him the contents of it, and also the secret of thehiding-place where the senator then was. The abbe at once inquired if she had other letters from her husbandthat he might compare the writing. Marthe went to her home to fetchthem and there found a summons to appear in court. By the time shereturned to the chateau the abbe and his sister had received a similarsummons on behalf of the defence. They were obliged therefore to startfor Troyes immediately. Thus all the personages of our drama, eventhose who were only, as it were, supernumeraries, were collected onthe spot where the fate of the two families was about to be decided. CHAPTER XVII THE TRIAL There are but few localities in France where Law derives from outwardappearance the dignity which ought always to accompany it. Yet itsurely is, after religion and royalty, the greatest engine of society. Everywhere, even in Paris, the meanness of its surroundings, thewretched arrangement of the courtrooms, their barrenness and want ofdecoration in the most ornate and showy nation upon earth in thematter of its public monuments, lessens the action of the law's mightypower. At the farther end of some oblong room may be seen a desk witha green baize covering raised on a platform; behind it sit the judgeson the commonest of arm-chairs. To the left, is the seat of the publicprosecutor, and beside him, close to the wall, is a long pen filledwith chairs for the jury. Opposite to the jury is another pen with abench for the prisoners and the gendarmes who guard them. The clerk ofthe court sits below the platform at a table covered with the papersof the case. Before the imperial changes in the administration ofjustice were instituted, a commissary of the government and thedirector of the jury each had a seat and a table, one to the right, the other to the left of the baize-covered desk. Two sheriffs hoveredabout in the space left in front of the desk for the station ofwitnesses. Facing the judges and against the wall above the entrance, there is always a shabby gallery reserved for officials and for women, to which admittance is granted only by the president of the court, to whom the proper management of the courtroom belongs. Thenon-privileged public are compelled to stand in the empty space betweenthe door of the hall and the bar. This normal appearance of all Frenchlaw courts and assize-rooms was that of the Criminal court of Troyes. In April, 1806, neither the four judges nor the president (orchief-justice) who made up the court, nor the public prosecutor, thedirector of the jury, the commissary of the government, nor thesheriffs or lawyers, in fact no one except the gendarmes, wore anyrobes or other distinctive sign which might have relieved thenakedness of the surroundings and the somewhat meagre aspect of thefigures. The crucifix was suppressed; its example was no longer heldup before the eyes of justice and of guilt. All was dull and vulgar. The paraphernalia so necessary to excite social interest is perhaps aconsolation to criminals. On this occasion the eagerness of the publicwas what it has ever been and ever will be in trials of this kind, solong as France refuses to recognize that the admission of the publicto the courts involves publicity, and that the publicity given totrials is a terrible penalty which would never have been inflicted hadlegislators reflected on it. Customs are often more cruel than laws. Customs are the deeds of men, but laws are the judgment of a nation. Customs in which there is often no judgment are stronger than laws. Crowds surrounded the courtroom; the president was obliged to stationsquads of soldiers to guard the doors. The audience, standing belowthe bar, was so crowded that persons suffocated. Monsieur deGrandville, defending Michu, Bordin, defending the Simeuse brothers, and a lawyer of Troyes who appeared for the d'Hauteserres, were intheir seats before the opening of the court; their faces wore a lookof confidence. When the prisoners were brought in, sympathetic murmurswere heard at the appearance of the young men, whose faces, in twentydays' imprisonment and anxiety, had somewhat paled. The perfectlikeness of the twins excited the deepest interest. Perhaps thespectators thought that Nature would exercise some special protectionin the case of her own anomalies, and felt ready to join in repairingthe harm done to them by destiny. Their noble, simple faces, showingno signs of shame, still less of bravado, touched the women's hearts. The four gentlemen and Gothard wore the clothes in which they had beenarrested; but Michu, whose coat and trousers were among the "articlesof testimony, " so-called, had put on his best clothes, --a bluesurtout, a brown velvet waistcoat _a la_ Robespierre, and a whitecravat. The poor man paid the penalty of his dangerous-looking face. When he cast a glance of his yellow eye, so clear and so profound uponthe audience, a murmur of repulsion answered it. The assembly chose tosee the finger of God bringing him to the dock where his father-in-lawhad sacrificed so many victims. This man, truly great, looked at hismasters, repressing a smile of scorn. He seemed to say to them, "I aminjuring your cause. " Five of the prisoners exchanged greetings withtheir counsel. Gothard still played the part of an idiot. After several challenges, made with much sagacity by the defence underadvice of the Marquis de Chargeboeuf, who boldly took a seat besideBordin and de Grandville, the jury were empanelled, the indictment wasread, and the prisoners were brought up separately to be examined. They answered every question with remarkable unanimity. After ridingabout the forest all the morning they had returned to Cinq-Cygne forbreakfast at one o'clock. After that meal, from three to half-pastfive in the afternoon, they had returned to the forest. That was thebasis of each testimony; any variations were merely individualcircumstances. When the president asked the Messieurs de Simeuse whythey had ridden out so early, they both declared that wishing, sincetheir return, to buy back Gondreville and intending to make an offerto Malin who had arrived the night before, they had gone out earlywith their cousin and Michu to make certain examinations of theproperty on which to base their offer. During that time the Messieursd'Hauteserre, their cousin, and Gothard had chased a wolf which wasreported in the forest by the peasantry. If the director of the juryhad sought for the prints of their horses' feet in the forest ascarefully as in the park of Gondreville, he would have found proof oftheir presence at long distances from the house. The examination of the Messieurs d'Hauteserre corroborated thistestimony, and was in harmony with their preliminary dispositions. Thenecessity of some reason for their ride suggested to each of them theexcuse of hunting. The peasants had given warning, a few days earlier, of a wolf in the forest, and on that they had fastened as a pretext. The public prosecutor, however, pointed out a discrepancy between thefirst statements of the Messieurs d'Hauteserre, in which theymentioned that the whole party hunted together, and the defence nowmade by the Messieurs de Simeuse that their purpose on that day wasthe valuation of the forest. Monsieur de Grandville here called attention to the fact that as thecrime was not committed until after two o'clock in the afternoon, theprosecution had no ground to question their word when they stated themanner in which they had employed their morning. The prosecutor replied that the prisoners had an interest inconcealing their preparations for the abduction of the senator. The remarkable ability of the defence was now felt. Judges, jurors, and audience became aware that victory would be hotly contested. Bordin and Monsieur de Grandville had studied their ground andforeseen everything. Innocence is required to render a clear andplausible account of its actions. The duty of the defence is topresent a consistent and probable tale in opposition to aninsufficient and improbable accusation. To counsel who regard theirclient as innocent, an accusation is false. The public examination ofthe four gentlemen sufficiently explained the matter in their favor. So far all was well. But the examination of Michu was more serious;there the real struggle began. It was now clear to every one whyMonsieur de Grandville had preferred to take charge of the servant'sdefence rather than that of his masters. Michu admitted his threats against Marion; but denied that he had madethem violently. As for the ambush in which he was supposed to havewatched for his enemy, he said he was merely making his rounds in hispark; the senator and Monsieur Grevin might perhaps have been alarmedat the sight of his gun and have thought his intentions hostile whenthey were really inoffensive. He called attention to the fact that inthe dusk a man who was not in the habit of hunting might easily fancya gun was pointed at him, whereas, in point of fact, it was held inhis hand at half-cock. To explain the condition of his clothes whenarrested, he said he had slipped and fallen in the breach on his wayhome. "I could scarcely see my way, " he said, "and the loose stonesslipped from under me as I climbed the bank. " As for the plaster whichGothard was bringing him, he replied as he had done in all previousexaminations, that he wanted it to secure one of the stone posts ofthe covered way. The public prosecutor and the president asked him to explain how hecould have been at the top of the covered way engaged in mending astone post and at the same time in the breach of the moat leading tothe chateau; more especially as the justice of peace, the gendarmesand the forester all declared they had heard him approach them fromthe lower road. To this Michu replied that Monsieur d'Hauteserre hadblamed him for not having mended the post, --which he was anxious tohave finished because there were difficulties about that road with thetownship, --and he had therefore gone up to the chateau to report thatthe work was done. Monsieur d'Hauteserre had, in fact, put up a fence above the coveredway to prevent the township from taking possession of it. Michu seeingthe important part which the state of his clothes was likely to play, invented this subterfuge. If, in law, truth is often like falsehood, falsehood on the other hand has a very great resemblance to truth. Thedefence and the prosecution both attached much importance to thistestimony, which became one of the leading points of the trial onaccount of the vigor of the defence and the suspicions of theprosecution. Gothard, instructed no doubt by Monsieur de Grandville, for up to thattime he had only wept when they questioned him, admitted that Michuhad told him to carry the plaster. "Why did neither you nor Gothard take the justice of peace and theforester to the stone post and show them your work?" said the publicprosecutor, addressing Michu. "Because, " replied the man, "I didn't believe there was any seriousaccusation against us. " All the prisoners except Gothard were now removed from the courtroom. When Gothard was left alone the president adjured him to speak thetruth for his own sake, pointing out that his pretended idiocy hadcome to an end; none of the jurors believed him imbecile; if herefused to answer the court he ran the risk of serious penalty;whereas by telling the truth at once he would probably be released. Gothard wept, hesitated, and finally ended by saying that Michu hadtold him to carry several sacks of plaster; but that each time he hadmet him near the farm. He was asked how many sacks he had carried. "Three, " he replied. An argument hereupon ensued as to whether the three sacks included theone which Gothard was carrying at the time of the arrest (whichreduced the number of the other sacks to two) or whether there werethree without the last. The debate ended in favor of the firstproposition, the jury considering that only two sacks had been used. They appeared to have a foregone conviction on that point, but Bordinand Monsieur de Grandville judged it best to surfeit them withplaster, and weary them so thoroughly with the argument that theywould no longer comprehend the question. Monsieur de Grandville madeit appear that experts ought to have been sent to examine the stoneposts. "The director of the jury, " he said, "has contented himself withmerely visiting the place, less for the purpose of making a carefulexamination than to trap Michu in a lie; this, in our opinion, was afailure of duty, but the blunder is to our advantage. " On this the Court appointed experts to examine the posts and see ifone of them had been really mended and reset. The public prosecutor, on his side, endeavored to make capital of the affair before theexperts could testify. "You seem to have chosen, " he said to Michu, who was now brought backinto the courtroom, "an hour when the daylight was waning, fromhalf-past five to half-past six o'clock, to mend this post and tocement it all alone. " "Monsieur d'Hauteserre had blamed me for not doing it, " replied Michu. "But, " said the prosecutor, "if you used that plaster on the post youmust have had a trough and a trowel. Now, if you went to the chateauto tell Monsieur d'Hauteserre that you had done the work, how do youexplain the fact that Gothard was bringing you more plaster. You musthave passed your farm on your way to the chateau, and you wouldnaturally have left your tools at home and stopped Gothard. " This overwhelming argument produced a painful silence in thecourtroom. "Come, " said the prosecutor, "you had better admit at once that whatyou buried was _not a stone post_. " "Do you think it was the senator?" said Michu, sarcastically. Monsieur de Grandville hereupon demanded that the public prosecutorshould explain his meaning. Michu was accused of abduction and theconcealment of a person, but not of murder. Such an insinuation was aserious matter. The code of Brumaire, year IV. , forbade the publicprosecutor from presenting any fresh count at the trial; he must keepwithin the indictment or the proceedings would be annulled. The public prosecutor replied that Michu, the person chiefly concernedin the abduction and who, in the interests of his masters, had takenthe responsibility on his own shoulders, might have thought itnecessary to plaster up the entrance of the hiding-place, stillundiscovered, where the senator was now immured. Pressed with questions, hampered by the presence of Gothard, andbrought into contradiction with himself, Michu struck his fist uponthe edge of the dock with a resounding blow and said: "I have hadnothing whatever to do with the abduction of the senator. I hope andbelieve his enemies have merely imprisoned him; when he reappearsyou'll find out that the plaster was put to no such use. " "Good!" said de Grandville, addressing the public prosecutor; "youhave done more for my client's cause than anything I could have said. " The first day's session ended with this bold declaration, whichsurprised the judges and gave an advantage to the defence. The lawyersof the town and Bordin himself congratulated the young advocate. Theprosecutor, uneasy at the assertion, feared that he had fallen intosome trap; in fact he was really caught in a snare that was cleverlyset for him by the defence and admirably played off by Gothard. Thewits of the town declared that he had white-washed the affair andsplashed his own cause, and had made the accused as white as theplaster itself. France is the domain of satire, which reigns supremein our land; Frenchmen jest on a scaffold, at the Beresina, at thebarricades, and some will doubtless appear with a quirk upon theirlips at the grand assizes of the Last Judgment. CHAPTER XVIII TRIAL CONTINUED: CRUEL VICISSITUDES On the morrow the witnesses for the prosecution were examined, --MadameMarion, Madame Grevin, Grevin himself, the senator's valet, andViolette, whose testimony can readily be imagined from the factsalready told. They all identified the five prisoners, with more orless hesitation as to the four gentlemen, but with absolute certaintyas to Michu. Beauvisage repeated Robert d'Hauteserre's speech when hemet them at daybreak in the park. The peasant who had bought Monsieurd'Hauteserre's calf testified to overhearing that of Mademoiselle deCinq-Cygne. The experts, who had compared the hoof-prints with theshoes on the horses ridden by the five prisoners and found themabsolutely alike, confirmed their previous depositions. This point wasnaturally one of vehement contention between Monsieur de Grandvilleand the prosecuting officer. The defence called the blacksmith atCinq-Cygne and succeeded in proving that he had sold severalhorseshoes of the same pattern to strangers who were not known in theplace. The blacksmith declared, moreover, that he was in the habit ofshoeing in this particular manner not only the horses of the chateaude Cinq-Cygne, but those from other places in the canton. It was alsoproved that the horse which Michu habitually rode was always shod atTroyes, and the mark of that shoe was not among the hoof-prints foundin the park. "Michu's double was not aware of this circumstance, or he would haveprovided for it, " said Monsieur de Grandville, looking at the jury. "Neither has the prosecution shown what horses our clients rode. " He ridiculed the testimony of Violette so far as it concerned arecognition of the horses, seen from a long distance, from behind, andafter dusk. Still, in spite of all his efforts, the body of theevidence was against Michu; and the prosecutor, judge, jury, andaudience were impressed with a feeling (as the lawyers for the defencehad foreseen) that the guilt of the servant carried with it that ofthe masters. So the vital interest centred on all that concernedMichu. His bearing was noble. He showed in his answers the sagacitywith which nature had endowed him; and the public, seeing him on hismettle, recognized his superiority. And yet, strange to say, the morethey understood him the more certainty they felt that he was theinstigator of the outrage. The witnesses for the defence, always less important in the eyes of ajury and of the law than the witnesses for the prosecution, seemed totestify as in duty bound, and were listened to with that allowance. Inthe first place neither Marthe, nor Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserretook the oath. Catherine and the Durieus, in their capacity asservants, did not take it. Monsieur d'Hauteserre stated that he hadordered Michu to replace and mend the stone post which had been throwndown. The deposition of the experts sent to examine the fence, whichwas now read, confirmed his testimony; but they helped the prosecutionby declaring they could not fix the exact time at which the repairshad been made; it might have been several weeks or no more than twentydays. The appearance of Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne excited the liveliestcuriosity; but the sight of her cousins in the prisoners' dock afterthree weeks' separation affected her so much that her emotions gavethe audience an impression of guilt. She felt an overwhelming desireto stand beside the twins, and was obliged, as she afterwardsadmitted, to use all her strength to repress the longing that cameinto her mind to kill the prosecutor so as to stand in the eyes of theworld as a criminal beside them. She testified, with simplicity, thatriding from Cinq-Cygne and seeing smoke in the park of Gondreville, she had supposed there was a fire; at first she thought they were burningweeds or brush; "but later, " she added, "I observed a circumstancewhich I offer to the attention of the Court. I found in the froggingof my habit and in the folds of my collar small fragments of whatappeared to be burned paper which were floating in the air. " "Was there much smoke?" asked Bordin. "Yes, " replied Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, "I feared a conflagration. " "This is enough to change the whole inquiry, " remarked Bordin. "Irequest the Court to order an immediate examination of that region ofthe park where the fire occurred. " The president ordered the inquiry. Grevin, recalled by the defence and questioned on this circumstance, declared he knew nothing about it. But Bordin and he exchanged lookswhich mutually enlightened them. "The gist of the case is there, " thought the old notary. "They've laid their finger on it, " thought the notary. But each shrewd head considered the following up of this pointuseless. Bordin reflected that Grevin would be silent as the grave;and Grevin congratulated himself that every sign of the fire had beeneffaced. To settle this point, which seemed a mere accessory to the trial andsomewhat puerile (but which is really essential in the justificationwhich history owes to these young men), the experts and Pigoult, whowere despatched by the president to examine the park, reported thatthey could find no traces of a bonfire. Bordin summoned two laborers, who testified to having dug over, underthe direction of the forester, a tract of ground in the park where thegrass had been burned; but they declared they had not observed thenature of the ashes they had buried. The forester, recalled by the defence, said he had received from thesenator himself, as he was passing the chateau of Gondreville on hisway to the masquerade at Arcis, an order to dig over that particularpiece of ground which the senator had remarked as needing it. "Had papers, or herbage been burned there?" "I could not say. I saw nothing that made me think that papers hadbeen burned there, " replied the forester. "At any rate, " said Bordin, "if, as it appears, a fire was kindled onthat piece of ground some one brought to the spot whatever was burnedthere. " The testimony of the abbe and that of Mademoiselle Goujet made afavorable impression. They said that as they left the church aftervespers and were walking towards home, they met the four gentlemen andMichu leaving the chateau on horseback and making their way to theforest. The character, position, and known uprightness of the AbbeGoujet gave weight to his words. The summing up of the public prosecutor, who felt sure of obtaining averdict, was in the nature of all such speeches. The prisoners werethe incorrigible enemies of France, her institutions and laws. Theythirsted for tumult and conspiracy. Though they had belonged to thearmy of Conde and had shared in the late attempts against the life ofthe Emperor, that magnanimous sovereign had erased their names fromthe list of _emigres_. This was the return they made for his clemency!In short, all the oratorical declamations of the Bourbons against theBonapartists, which in our day are repeated against the republicansand the legitimists by the Younger Branch, flourished in the speech. These trite commonplaces, which might have some meaning under a fixedgovernment, seem farcical in the mouth of administrators of all epochsand opinions. A saying of the troublous times of yore is stillapplicable: "The label is changed, but the wine is the same as ever. "The public prosecutor, one of the most distinguished legal men underthe Empire, attributed the crime to a fixed determination on the partof returned _emigres_ to protest against the sale of their estates. Hemade the audience shudder at the probable condition of the senator;then he massed together proofs, half-proofs, and probabilities with acleverness stimulated by a sense that his zeal was certain of itsreward, and sat down tranquilly to await the fire of his opponents. Monsieur de Grandville never argued but this one criminal case; and itmade his reputation. In the first place, he spoke with the sameglowing eloquence which to-day we admire in Berryer. He was profoundlyconvinced of the innocence of his clients, and that in itself is amost powerful auxiliary of speech. The following are the chief pointsof his defence, which was reported in full by all the leadingnewspapers of the period. In the first place he exhibited thecharacter and life of Michu in its true light. He made it a nobletale, ringing with lofty sentiments, and it awakened the sympathies ofmany. When Michu heard himself vindicated by that eloquent voice, tears sprang from his yellow eyes and rolled down his terrible face. He appeared then for what he really was, --a man as simple and as wilyas a child; a being whose whole existence had but one thought, oneaim. He was suddenly explained to the minds of all present, moreespecially by his tears, which produced a great effect upon the jury. His able defender seized that moment of strong interest to enter upona discussion of the charges:-- "Where is the body of the person abducted? Where is the senator?" heasked. "You accuse us of walling him up with stones and plaster. Ifso, we alone know where he is; you have kept us twenty-three days inprison, and the senator must be dead by this time for want of food. Weare therefore murderers, but you have not accused us of murder. On theother hand, if he still lives, we must have accomplices. If we havethem, and if the senator is living, we should assuredly have set himat liberty. The scheme in relation to Gondreville which you attributeto us is a failure, and only aggravates our position uselessly. Wemight perhaps obtain a pardon for an abortive attempt by releasing ourvictim; instead of that we persist in detaining a man from whom we canobtain no benefit whatever. It is absurd! Take away your plaster; theeffect is a failure, " he said, addressing the public prosecutor. "Weare either idiotic criminals (which you do not believe) or theinnocent victims of circumstances as inexplicable to us as they are toyou. You ought rather to search for the mass of papers which wereburned at Gondreville, which will reveal motives stronger far thanyours or ours and put you on the track of the causes of thisabduction. " The speaker discussed these hypotheses with marvellous ability. Hedwelt on the moral character of the witnesses for the defence, whosereligious faith was a living one, who believed in a future life and ineternal punishment. He rose to grandeur in this part of his speech andmoved his hearers deeply:-- "Remember!" he said; "these criminals were tranquilly dining when toldof the abduction of the senator. When the officer of gendarmesintimated to them the best means of ending the whole affair by givingup the senator, they refused, for they did not understand what wasasked of them!" Then, reverting to the mystery of the matter, he declared that itssolution was in the hands of time, which would eventually reveal theinjustice of the charge. Once on this ground, he boldly andingeniously supposed himself a juror; related his deliberations withhis colleagues; imagined his distress lest, having condemned theinnocent, the error should be known too late, and drew such a pictureof his remorse, dwelling on the grave doubts which the case presented, that he brought the jury to a condition of intense anxiety. Juries were not in those days so blase to this sort of allocution asthey are now; Monsieur de Grandville's appeal had the power of thingsnew, and the jurors were evidently shaken. After this passionateoutburst they had to listen to the wily and specious prosecutor, whowent over the whole case, brought out the darkest points against theprisoners and made the rest inexplicable. His aim was to reach theminds and the reasoning faculties of his hearers just as Monsieur deGrandville had aimed at the heart and the imagination. The latter, however, had seriously entangled the convictions of the jury, and thepublic prosecutor found his well-laid arguments ineffectual. This wasso plain that the counsel for the Messieurs d'Hauteserre and Gothardappealed to the judgment of the jury, asking that the case againsttheir clients be abandoned. The prosecutor demanded a postponementtill the next day in order that he might prepare an answer. Bordin, who saw acquittal in the eyes of the jury if they deliberated on thecase at once, opposed the delay of even one night by arguments oflegal right and justice to his innocent clients; but in vain, --thecourt allowed it. "The interests of society are as great as those of the accused, " saidthe president. "The court would be lacking in equity if it denied alike request when made by the defence; it ought therefore to grantthat of the prosecution. " "All is luck or ill-luck!" said Bordin to his clients when the sessionwas over. "Almost acquitted tonight you may be condemned to-morrow. " "In either case, " said the elder de Simeuse, "we can only admire yourskill. " Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne's eyes were full of tears. After the doubtsand fears of the counsel for the defence, she had not expected thissuccess. Those around her congratulated her and predicted theacquittal of her cousins. But alas! the matter was destined to end ina startling and almost theatrical event, the most unexpected anddisastrous circumstance which ever changed the face of a criminaltrial. At five in the morning of the day after Monsieur de Grandville'sspeech, the senator was found on the high road to Troyes, deliveredfrom captivity during his sleep, unaware of the trial that was goingon or of the excitement attaching to his name in Europe, and simplyhappy in being once more able to breathe the fresh air. The man whowas the pivot of the drama was quite as amazed at what was now told tohim as the persons who met him on his way to Troyes were astounded athis reappearance. A farmer lent him a carriage and he soon reached thehouse of the prefect at Troyes. The prefect notified the director ofthe jury, the commissary of the government, and the public prosecutor, who, after a statement made to them by Malin, arrested Marthe, whileshe was still in bed at the Durieu's house in the suburbs. Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, who was only at liberty under bail, wasalso snatched from one of the few hours of slumber she had been ableto obtain at rare intervals in the course of her ceaseless anxiety, and taken to the prefecture to undergo an examination. An order tokeep the accused from holding any communication with each other orwith their counsel was sent to the prison. At ten o'clock the crowdwhich assembled around the courtroom were informed that the trial waspostponed until one o'clock in the afternoon of the same day. This change of hour, following on the news of the senator'sdeliverance, Marthe's arrest, and that of Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, together with the denial of the right to communicate with theprisoners carried terror to the hotel de Chargeboeuf. The whole townand the spectators who had come to Troyes to be present at the trial, the short-hand writers for the daily journals, even the populace werein a ferment which can readily be imagined. The Abbe Goujet came atten o'clock to see Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre and the counselfor the defence, who were breakfasting--as well as they could underthe circumstances. The abbe took Bordin and Monsieur Grandville apart, told them what Marthe had confided to him the day before, and gavethem the fragment of the letter she had received. The two lawyersexchanged a look, after which Bordin said to the abbe: "Not a word ofall this! The case is lost; but at any rate let us show a firm front. " Marthe was not strong enough to evade the cross-questioning of thedirector of the jury and the public prosecutor. Moreover the proofagainst her was too overwhelming. Lechesneau had sent for the undercrust of the last loaf of bread she had carried to the cavern, alsofor the empty bottles and various other articles. During the senator'slong hours of captivity he had formed conjectures in his own mind andhad looked for indications which might put him on the track of hisenemies. These he now communicated to the authorities. Michu'sfarmhouse, lately built, had, he supposed, a new oven; the tiles orbricks on which the bread was baked would show their jointed lines onthe bottom of the loaves, and thus afford a proof that the breadsupplied to him was baked on that particular oven. So with the winebrought in bottles sealed with green wax, which would probably befound identical with other bottles in Michu's cellar. These shrewdobservations, which Malin imparted to the justice of peace, who madethe first examination (taking Marthe with him), led to the resultsforeseen by the senator. Marthe, deceived by the apparent friendliness of Lechesneau and thepublic prosecutor, who assured her that complete confession couldalone save her husband's life, admitted that the cavern where thesenator had been hidden was known only to her husband and theMessieurs de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre, and that she herself had takenprovisions to the senator on three separate occasions at midnight. Laurence, questioned about the cavern, was forced to acknowledge thatMichu had discovered it and had shown it to her at the time when thefour young men evaded the police and were hidden in it. As soon as these preliminary examinations were ended, the jury, lawyers, and audience were notified that the trial would be resumed. At three o'clock the president opened the session by announcing thatthe case would be continued under a new aspect. He exhibited to Michuthree bottles of wine and asked him if he recognized them as bottlesfrom his own cellar, showing him at the same time the identity betweenthe green wax on two empty bottles with the green wax on a full bottletaken from his cellar that morning by the justice of peace in presenceof his wife. Michu refused to recognize anything as his own. But theseproofs for the prosecution were understood by the jurors, to whom thepresident explained that the empty bottles were found in the placewhere the senator was imprisoned. Each prisoner was questioned as to the cavern or cellar beneath theruins of the old monastery. It was proved by all witnesses for theprosecution, and also for the defence, that the existence of thishiding-place discovered by Michu was known only to him and his wife, and to Laurence and the four gentlemen. We may judge of the effect inthe courtroom when the public prosecutor made known the fact that thiscavern, known only to the accused and to their two witnesses, was theplace where the senator had been imprisoned. Marthe was summoned. Her appearance caused much excitement among thespectators and keen anxiety to the prisoners. Monsieur de Grandvillerose to protest against the testimony of a wife against her husband. The public prosecutor replied that Marthe by her own confession was anaccomplice in the outrage; that she had neither sworn nor testified, and was to be heard solely in the interests of truth. "We need only submit her preliminary examination to the jury, "remarked the president, who now ordered the clerk of the court to readthe said testimony aloud. "Do you now confirm your own statement?" said the president, addressing Marthe. Michu looked at his wife, and Marthe, who saw her fatal error, faintedaway and fell to the floor. It may be truly said that a thunderbolthad fallen upon the prisoners and their counsel. "I never wrote to my wife from prison, and I know none of the personsemployed there, " said Michu. Bordin passed to him the fragments of the letter Marthe had received. Michu gave but one glance at it. "My writing has been imitated, " hesaid. "Denial is your last resource, " said the public prosecutor. The senator was introduced into the courtroom with all the ceremoniesdue to his position. His entrance was like a stage scene. Malin (nowcalled Comte de Gondreville, without regard to the feelings of thelate owners of the property) was requested by the president to look atthe prisoners, and did so with great attention and for a long time. Hestated that the clothing of his abductors was exactly like that wornby the four gentlemen; but he declared that the trouble of his mindhad been such that he could not be positive that the accused werereally the guilty parties. "More than that, " he said, "it is my conviction that these fourgentlemen had nothing to do with it. The hands that blindfolded me inthe forest were coarse and rough. I should rather suppose, " he added, looking at Michu, "that my old enemy took charge of that duty; but Ibeg the gentlemen of the jury not to give too much weight to thisremark. My suspicions are very slight, and I feel no certaintywhatever--for this reason. The two men who seized me put me onhorseback behind the man who blindfolded me, and whose hair was redlike Michu's. However singular you may consider the observation I amabout to make, it is necessary to make it because it is the ground ofan opinion favorable to the accused--who, I hope, will not feeloffended by it. Fastened to the man's back I would naturally have beenaffected by his odor--yet I did not perceive that which is peculiar toMichu. As to the person who brought me provisions on three severaloccasions, I am certain it was Marthe, the wife of Michu. I recognizedher the first time she came by a ring she always wore, which she hadforgotten to remove. The Court and jury will please allow for thecontradictions which appear in the facts I have stated, which I myselfam wholly unable to reconcile. " A murmur of approval followed this testimony. Bordin asked permissionof the Court to address a few questions to the witness. "Does the senator think that his abduction was due to other causesthan the interests respecting property which the prosecutionattributes to the prisoners?" "I do, " replied the senator, "but I am wholly ignorant of what thereal motives were; for during a captivity of twenty days I saw andheard no one. " "Do you think, " said the public prosecutor, "that your chateau atGondreville contains information, title-deeds, or other papers ofvalue which would induce a search on the part of the Messieurs deSimeuse?" "I do not think so, " replied Malin; "I believe those gentlemen to beincapable of attempting to get possession of such papers by violence. They had only to ask me for them to obtain them. " "You burned certain papers in the park, did you not?" said Monsieur deGondreville, abruptly. Malin looked at Grevin. After exchanging a rapid glance with thenotary, which Bordin intercepted, he replied that he had not burnedany papers. The public prosecutor having asked him to describe theambush to which he had so nearly fallen a victim two years earlier, the senator replied that he had seen Michu watching him from the forkof a tree. This answer, which agreed with Grevin's testimony, produceda great impression. The four gentlemen remained impassible during the examination of theirenemy, who seemed determined to overwhelm them with generosity. Laurence suffered horrible agony. From time to time the Marquis deChargeboeuf held her by the arm, fearing she might dart forward to therescue. The Comte de Gondreville retired from the courtroom and as hedid so he bowed to the four gentlemen, who did not return thesalutation. This trifling matter made the jury indignant. "They are lost now, " whispered Bordin to the Marquis de Chargeboeuf. "Alas, yes! and always through the nobility of their sentiments, "replied the marquis. "My task is now only too easy, gentlemen, " said the prosecutor, risingto address the jury. He explained the use of the cement by the necessity of securing aniron frame on which to fasten a padlock which held the iron bar withwhich the gate of the cavern was closed; a description of which wasgiven in the _proces-verbal_ made that morning by Pigoult. He put thefalsehoods of the accused into the strongest light, and pulverized thearguments of the defence with the new evidence so miraculouslyobtained. In 1806 France was still too near the Supreme Being of 1793to talk about divine justice; he therefore spared the jury allreference to the intervention of heaven; but he said that earthlyjustice would be on the watch for the mysterious accomplices who hadset the senator at liberty, and he sat down, confidently awaiting theverdict. The jury believed there was a mystery, but they were all persuadedthat it came from the prisoners, who were probably concealing somematter of a private interest of great importance to them. Monsieur de Grandville, to whom a plot or machination of some kind wasquite evident, rose; but he seemed discouraged, --less, however, by thenew evidence than by the manifest opinion of the jury. He surpassed, if anything, his speech of the previous evening; his argument was morecompact and logical; but he felt his fervor repelled by the coldnessof the jury; he spoke ineffectually, and he knew it, --a chillingsituation for an advocate. He called attention to the fact that therelease of the senator, as if by magic and clearly without the aid ofany of the accused or of Marthe, corroborated his previous argument. Yesterday the prisoners could most surely rely on acquittal, and ifthey had, as the prosecution claimed, the power to hold or to releasethe senator, they certainly would not have released him until aftertheir acquittal. He endeavored to bring before the minds of the Courtand jury the fact that mysterious enemies, undiscovered as yet, couldalone have struck the accused this final blow. Strange to say, the only minds Monsieur de Grandville reached withthis argument were those of the public prosecutor and the judges. Thejury listened perfunctorily; the audience, usually so favorable toprisoners, were convinced of their guilt. In a court of justice thesentiments of the crowd do unquestionably weigh upon the judges andthe jury, and _vice versa_. Seeing this condition of the minds abouthim, which could be felt if not defined, the counsel uttered his lastwords in a tone of passionate excitement caused by his conviction:-- "In the name of the accused, " he cried, "I forgive you for the fatalerror you are about to commit, and which nothing can repair! We arethe victims of some mysterious and Machiavellian power. Marthe Michuwas inveigled by vile perfidy. You will discover this too late, whenthe evil you now do will be irreparable. " Bordin simply claimed the acquittal of the prisoners on the testimonyof the senator himself. The president summed up the case with all the more impartialitybecause it was evident that the minds of the jurors were already madeup. He even turned the scales in favor of the prisoners by dwelling onthe senator's evidence. This clemency, however, did not in the leastendanger the success of the prosecution. At eleven o'clock that night, after the jury had replied through their foreman to the usualquestions, the Court condemned Michu to death, the Messieurs deSimeuse to twenty-four years' and the Messieurs d'Hauteserre to tenyears, penal servitude at hard labor. Gothard was acquitted. The whole audience was eager to observe the bearing of the five guiltymen in this supreme moment of their lives. The four gentlemen lookedat Laurence, who returned them, with dry eyes, the ardent look of themartyrs. "She would have wept had we been acquitted, " said the younger deSimeuse to his brother. Never did convicted men meet an unjust fate with serener brows orcountenances more worthy of their manhood than these five victims of acruel plot. "Our counsel has forgiven you, " said the eldest de Simeuse to theCourt. * * * * * Madame d'Hauteserre fell ill, and was three months in her bed at thehotel de Chargeboeuf. Monsieur d'Hauteserre returned patiently toCinq-Cygne, inwardly gnawed by one of those sorrows of old age whichhave none of youth's distractions; often he was so absent-minded thatthe abbe, who watched him, knew the poor father was living over againthe scene of the fatal verdict. Marthe passed away from all blame; shedied three weeks after the condemnation of her husband, confiding herson to Laurence, in whose arms she died. The trial once over, political events of the utmost importance effacedeven the memory of it, and nothing further was discovered. Society islike the ocean; it returns to its level and its specious calmnessafter a disaster, effacing all traces of it in the tide of its eagerinterests. Without her natural firmness of mind and her knowledge of her cousins'innocence, Laurence would have succumbed; but she gave fresh proof ofthe grandeur of her character; she astonished Monsieur de Grandvilleand Bordin by the apparent serenity which these terrible misfortunescalled forth in her noble soul. She nursed Madame d'Hauteserre andwent daily to the prison, saying openly that she would marry one ofthe cousins when they were taken to the galleys. "To the galleys!" cried Bordin, "Mademoiselle! our first endeavor mustbe to wring their pardon from the Emperor. " "Their pardon!--_from a Bonaparte_?" cried Laurence in horror. The spectacles of the old lawyer jumped from his nose; he caught themas they fell and looked at the young girl who was now indeed a woman;he understood her character at last in all its bearings; then he tookthe arm of the Marquis de Chargeboeuf, saying:-- "Monsieur le Marquis, let us go to Paris instantly and save themwithout her!" The appeal of the Messieurs de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre and that ofMichu was the first case to be brought before the new court. Itsdecision was fortunately delayed by the ceremonies attending itsinstallation. CHAPTER XIX THE EMPEROR'S BIVOUAC Towards the end of September, after three sessions of the Court ofAppeals in which the lawyers for the defence pleaded, and theattorney-general Merlin himself spoke for the prosecution, the appealwas rejected. The Imperial Court of Paris was by this time instituted. Monsieur de Grandville was appointed assistant attorney-general, andthe department of the Aube coming under the jurisdiction of thiscourt, it became possible for him to take certain steps in favor ofthe convicted prisoners, among them that of importuning Cambaceres, his protector. Bordin and Monsieur de Chargeboeuf came to his house inthe Marais the day after the appeal was rejected, where they found himin the midst of his honeymoon, for he had married in the interval. Inspite of all these changes in his condition, Monsieur de Chargeboeufsaw very plainly that the young lawyer was faithful to his lateclients. Certain lawyers, the artists of their profession, treat theircauses like mistresses. This is rare, however, and must not bedepended on. As soon as they were alone in his study, Monsieur de Grandville saidto the marquis: "I have not waited for your visit; I have alreadyemployed all my influence. Don't attempt to save Michu; if you do, youcannot obtain the pardon of the Messieurs de Simeuse. The law willinsist on one victim. " "Good God!" cried Bordin, showing the young magistrate the threepetitions for mercy; "how can I take upon myself to withdraw theapplication for that man. If I suppress the paper I cut off his head. " He held out the petition; de Grandville took it, looked it over, andsaid:-- "We can't suppress it; but be sure of one thing, if you ask all youwill obtain nothing. " "Have we time to consult Michu?" asked Bordin. "Yes. The order for execution comes from the office of theattorney-general; I will see that you have some days. We kill men, "he said with some bitterness, "but at least we do it formally, especially in Paris. " Monsieur de Chargeboeuf had already received from the chief justicecertain information which added weight to these sad words of Monsieurde Grandville. "Michu is innocent, I know, " continued the young lawyer, "but what canwe do against so many? Remember, too, that my present influencedepends on my keeping silent. I must order the scaffold to beprepared, or my late client is certain to be beheaded. " Monsieur de Chargeboeuf knew Laurence well enough to be certain shewould never consent to save her cousins at the expense of Michu; hetherefore resolved on making one more effort. He asked an audience ofthe minister of foreign affairs to learn if salvation could be lookedfor through the influence of the great diplomat. He took Bordin withhim, for the latter knew the minister and had done him some service. The two old men found Talleyrand sitting with his feet stretched out, absorbed in contemplation of his fire, his head resting on his hand, his elbow on the table, a newspaper lying at his feet. The ministerhad just read the decision of the Court of Appeals. "Pray sit down, Monsieur le marquis, " said Talleyrand, "and you, Bordin, " he added, pointing to a place at the table, "write asfollows:--" Sire, --Four innocent gentlemen, declared guilty by a jury have just had their condemnation confirmed by your Court of Appeals. Your Imperial Majesty can now only pardon them. These gentlemen ask this pardon of your august clemency, in the hope that they may enter your army and meet their death in battle before your eyes; and thus praying, they are, of your Imperial and Royal Majesty, with reverence, etc. "None but princes can do such prompt and graceful kindness, " said theMarquis de Chargeboeuf, taking the precious draft of the petition fromthe hands of Bordin that he might have it signed by the fourgentlemen; resolving in his own mind that he would also obtain thesignatures of several august names. "The life of your young relatives, Monsieur le marquis, " said theminister, "now depends on the turn of a battle. Endeavor to reach theEmperor on the morning after a victory and they are saved. " He took a pen and himself wrote a private and confidential letter tothe Emperor, and another of ten lines to Marechal Duroc. Then he rangthe bell, asked his secretary for a diplomatic passport, and saidtranquilly to the old lawyer, "What is your honest opinion of thattrial?" "Do you know, monseigneur, who was at the bottom of this cruel wrong?" "I presume I do; but I have reasons to wish for certainty, " repliedTalleyrand. "Return to Troyes; bring me the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne, here, to-morrow at the same hour, but secretly; ask to be ushered intoMadame de Talleyrand's salon; I will tell her you are coming. IfMademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, who shall be placed where she can see aman who will be standing before me, recognizes that man as anindividual who came to her house during the conspiracy of de Polignacand Riviere, tell her to remember that, no matter what I say or whathe answers me, she must not utter a word nor make a gesture. One thingmore, think only of saving the de Simeuse brothers; don't embarrassyourself with that scoundrel of a bailiff--" "A sublime man, monseigneur!" exclaimed Bordin. "Enthusiasm! in you, Bordin! The man must be remarkable. Our sovereignhas an immense self-love, Monsieur le marquis, " he said, changing theconversation. "He is about to dismiss me that he may commit follieswithout warning. The Emperor is a great soldier who can change thelaws of time and distance, but he cannot change men; yet he persistsin trying to run them in his own mould! Now, remember this; the youngmen's pardon can be obtained by one person only--Mademoiselle deCinq-Cygne. " The marquis went alone to Troyes and told the whole matter toLaurence. She obtained permission from the authorities to see Michu, and the marquis accompanied her to the gates of the prison, where hewaited for her. When she came out her face was bathed in tears. "Poor man!" she said; "he tried to kneel to me, praying that I wouldnot think of him, and forgetting the shackles that were on his feet!Ah, marquis, I _will_ plead his cause. Yes, I'll kiss the boot oftheir Emperor. If I fail--well, the memory of that man shall liveeternally honored in our family. Present his petition for mercy so asto gain time; meantime I am resolved to have his portrait. Come, letus go. " The next day, when Talleyrand was informed by a sign agreed upon thatLaurence was at her post, he rang the bell; his orderly came to him, and received orders to admit Monsieur Corentin. "My friend, you are a very clever fellow, " said Talleyrand, "and Iwish to employ you. " "Monsiegneur--" "Listen. In serving Fouche you will get money, but never honor nor anyposition you can acknowledge. But in serving me, as you have latelydone at Berlin, you can win credit and repute. " "Monseigneur is very good. " "You displayed genius in that late affair at Gondreville. " "To what does Monseigneur allude?" said Corentin, with a manner thatwas neither too reserved nor too surprised. "Ah, Monsieur!" observed the minister, dryly, "you will never make asuccessful man; you fear--" "What, monseigneur?" "Death!" replied Talleyrand, in his fine, deep voice. "Adieu, my goodfriend. " "That is the man, " said the Marquis de Chargeboeuf entering the roomafter Corentin was dismissed; "but we have nearly killed thecountess. " "He is the only man I know capable of playing such a trick, " repliedthe minister. "Monsieur le marquis, you are in danger of notsucceeding in your mission. Start ostensibly for Strasburg; I'll sendyou double passports in blank to be filled out. Provide yourself withsubstitutes; change your route and above all your carriage; let yoursubstitutes go on to Strasburg, and do you reach Prussia throughSwitzerland and Bavaria. Not a word--prudence! The police are againstyou; and you do not know what the police are--" Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne offered the then celebrated Robert Lefebvrea sufficient sum to induce him to go to Troyes and take Michu'sportrait. Monsieur de Grandville promised to afford the painter everypossible facility. Monsieur de Chargeboeuf then started in the old_berlingot_, with Laurence and a servant who spoke German. Not farfrom Nancy they overtook Mademoiselle Goujet and Gothard, who hadpreceded them in an excellent carriage, which the marquis took, givingthem in exchange the _berlingot_. Talleyrand was right. At Strasburg the commissary-general of policerefused to countersign the passport of the travellers, and gave thempositive orders to return. By that time the marquis and Laurence wereleaving France by way of Besancon with the diplomatic passport. Laurence crossed Switzerland in the first days of October, withoutpaying the slightest attention to that glorious land. She lay back inthe carriage in the torpor which overtakes a criminal on the eve ofhis execution. To her eyes all nature was shrouded in a seethingvapor; even common things assumed fantastic shapes. The one thought, "If I do not succeed they will kill themselves, " fell upon her soulwith reiterated blows, as the bar of the executioner fell upon thevictim's members when tortured on the wheel. She felt herselfbreaking; she lost her energy in this terrible waiting for the cruelmoment, short and decisive, when she should find herself face to facewith that man on whom the fate of the condemned depended. She chose toyield to her depression rather than waste her strength uselessly. Themarquis, who was incapable of understanding this resolve of firmminds, which often assumes quite diverse aspects (for in such momentsof tension certain superior minds give way to surprising gaiety), began to fear that he might never bring Laurence alive to themomentous interview, solemn to them only, and yet beyond the ordinarylimits of private life. To Laurence, the necessity of humiliatingherself before that man, the object of her hatred and contempt, meantthe sacrifice of all her noblest feelings. "After this, " she said, "the Laurence who survives will bear nolikeness to her who is now to perish. " The travellers could not fail to be aware of the vast movement of menand material which surrounded them the moment they entered Prussia. The campaign of Jena had just begun. Laurence and the marquis beheldthe magnificent divisions of the French army deploying and parading asif at the Tuileries. In this display of military power, which can beadequately described only with the words and images of the Bible, theproportions of the Man whose spirit moved these masses grew giganticto Laurence's imagination. Soon, the cry of victory resounded in herears. The Imperial arms had just obtained two signal advantages. ThePrince of Prussia had been killed the evening before the day on whichthe travellers arrived at Saalfeld on their endeavor to overtakeNapoleon, who was marching with the rapidity of lightning. At last, on the 13th of October (date of ill-omen) Mademoiselle deCinq-Cygne was skirting a river in the midst of the Grand Army, seeingnought but confusion, sent hither and thither from one village toanother, from division to division, frightened at finding herselfalone with one old man tossed about in an ocean of a hundred and fiftythousand armed men facing a hundred and fifty thousand more. Weary ofwatching the river through the hedges of the muddy road which she wasfollowing along a hillside, she asked its name of a passing soldier. "That's the Saale, " he said, showing her the Prussian army, grouped ingreat masses on the other side of the stream. Night came on. Laurence beheld the camp-fires lighted and the glitterof stacked arms. The old marquis, whose courage was chivalric, drovethe horses himself (two strong beasts bought the evening before), hisservant sitting beside him. He knew very well he should find neitherhorses nor postilions within the lines of the army. Suddenly the boldequipage, an object of great astonishment to the soldiers, was stoppedby a gendarme of the military gendarmerie, who galloped up to thecarriage, calling out to the marquis: "Who are you? where are yougoing? what do you want?" "The Emperor, " replied the Marquis de Chargeboeuf; "I have animportant dispatch for the Grand-marechal Duroc. " "Well, you can't stay here, " said the gendarme. Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne and the marquis were, however, compelled toremain where they were on account of the darkness. "Where are we?" she asked, stopping two officers whom she saw passing, whose uniforms were concealed by cloth overcoats. "You are among the advanced guard of the French army, " answered one ofthe officers. "You cannot stay here, for if the enemy makes a movementand the artillery opens you will be between two fires. " "Ah!" she said, with an indifferent air. Hearing that "Ah!" the other officer turned and said: "How did thatwoman come here?" "We are waiting, " said Laurence, "for a gendarme who has gone to findGeneral Duroc, a protector who will enable us to speak to theEmperor. " "Speak to the Emperor!" exclaimed the first officer; "how can youthink of such a thing--on the eve of a decisive battle?" "True, " she said; "I ought to speak to him on the morrow--victorywould make him kind. " The two officers stationed themselves at a little distance and satmotionless on their horses. The carriage was now surrounded by a massof generals, marshals, and other officers, all extremely brilliant inappearance, who appeared to pay deference to the carriage merelybecause it was there. "Good God!" said the marquis to Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne; "I amafraid you spoke to the Emperor. " "The Emperor?" said a colonel, beside them, "why there he is!"pointing to the officer who had said, "How did that woman get here?"He was mounted on a white horse, richly caparisoned, and wore thecelebrated gray top-coat over his green uniform. He was scanning witha field-glass the Prussian army massed beyond the Saale. Laurenceunderstood then why the carriage remained there, and why the Emperor'sescort respected it. She was seized with a convulsive tremor--the hourhad come! She heard the heavy sound of the tramp of men and the clangof their arms as they arrived at a quick step on the plateau. Thebatteries had a language, the caissons thundered, the brass glittered. "Marechal Lannes will take position with his whole corps in theadvance; Marechal Lefebvre and the Guard will occupy this hill, " saidthe other officer, who was Major-general Berthier. The Emperor dismounted. At his first motion Roustan, his famousmameluke, hastened to hold his horse. Laurence was stupefied withamazement; she had never dreamed of such simplicity. "I shall pass the night on the plateau, " said the Emperor. Just then the Grand-marechal Duroc, whom the gendarme had finallyfound, came up to the Marquis de Chargeboeuf and asked the reason ofhis coming. The marquis replied that a letter from the Prince deTalleyrand, of which he was the bearer, would explain to the marshalhow urgent it was that Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne and himself shouldobtain an audience of the Emperor. "His Majesty will no doubt dine at his bivouac, " said Duroc, takingthe letter, "and when I find out what your object is, I will let youknow if you can see him. Corporal, " he said to the gendarme, "accompany this carriage, and take it close to that hut at the rear. " Monsieur de Chargeboeuf followed the gendarme and stopped his horsesbehind a miserable cabin, built of mud and branches, surrounded by afew fruit-trees, and guarded by pickets of infantry and cavalry. It may be said that the majesty of war appeared here in all itsgrandeur. From this height the lines of the two armies were visible inthe moonlight. After an hour's waiting, the time being occupied by theincessant coming and going of the aides-de-camp, Duroc himself camefor Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne and the marquis, and made them enterthe hut, the floor of which was of battened earth like that of astable. Before a table with the remains of dinner, and before a fire made ofgreen wood which smoked, Napoleon was seated in a clumsy chair. Hismuddy boots gave evidence of a long tramp across country. He had takenoff the famous top-coat; and his equally famous green uniform, crossedby the red cordon of the Legion of honor and heightened by the whiteof his kerseymere breeches and of his waistcoat, brought out vividlyhis pale and terrible Caesarian face. One hand was on a map which layunfolded on his knees. Berthier stood near him in the brilliantuniform of the vice-constable of the Empire. Constant, the valet, wasoffering the Emperor his coffee from a tray. "What do you want?" said Napoleon, with a show of roughness, dartinghis eye like a flash through Laurence's head. "You are no longerafraid to speak to me before the battle? What is it about?" "Sire, " she said, looking at him with as firm an eye, "I amMademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne. " "Well?" he replied, in an angry voice, thinking her look braved him. "Do you not understand? I am the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne, come to askmercy, " she said, falling on her knees and holding out to him thepetition drawn up by Talleyrand, endorsed by the Empress, byCambaceres and by Malin. The Emperor raised her graciously, and said with a keen look: "Haveyou come to your senses? Do you now understand what the French Empireis and must be?" "Ah! at this moment I understand only the Emperor, " she said, vanquished by the kindly manner with which the man of destiny had saidthe words that foretold to her ears success. "Are they innocent?" asked the Emperor. "Yes, all of them, " she said with enthusiasm. "All? No, that bailiff is a dangerous man, who would have killed mysenator without taking your advice. " "Ah, Sire, " she said, "if you had a friend devoted to you, would youabandon him? Would you not rather--" "You are a woman, " he said, interrupting her in a faint tone ofridicule. "And you, a man of iron!" she replied with a passionate sternnesswhich pleased him. "That man has been condemned to death by the laws of his country, " hecontinued. "But he is innocent!" "Child!" he said. He took Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne by the hand and led her from thehut to the plateau. "See, " he continued, with that eloquence of his which changed evencowards to brave men, "see those three hundred thousand men--allinnocent. And yet to-morrow thirty thousand of them will be lyingdead, dead for their country! Among those Prussians there is, perhaps, some great mathematician, a man of genius, an idealist, who will bemown down. On our side we shall assuredly lose many a great man neverknown to fame. Perhaps even I shall see my best friend die. Shall Iblame God? No. I shall bear it silently. Learn from this, mademoiselle, that a man must die for the laws of his country just asmen die here for her glory. " So saying, he led her back into the hut. "Return to France, " he said, looking at the marquis; "my orders shallfollow you. " Laurence believed in a commutation of Michu's punishment, and in hergratitude she knelt again before the Emperor and kissed his hand. "You are the Marquis de Chargeboeuf?" said Napoleon, addressing themarquis. "Yes, Sire. " "You have children?" "Many children. " "Why not give me one of your grandsons? he shall be my page. " "Ah!" thought Laurence, "there's the sub-lieutenant after all; hewants to be paid for his mercy. " The marquis bowed without replying. Happily at this moment GeneralRapp rushed into the hut. "Sire, the cavalry of the Guard, and that of the Grand-duc de Bergcannot be set up before midday to-morrow. " "Never mind, " said Napoleon, turning to Berthier, "we, too, get ourreprieves; let us profit by them. " At a sign of his hand the marquis and Laurence retired and againentered their carriage; the corporal showed them their road andaccompanied them to a village where they passed the night. The nextday they left the field of battle behind them, followed by the thunderof the cannon, --eight hundred pieces, --which pursued them for tenhours. While still on their way they learned of the amazing victory ofJena. Eight days later, they were driving through the faubourg of Troyes, where they learned that an order of the chief justice, transmittedthrough the _procureur imperial_ of Troyes, commanded the release ofthe four gentlemen on bail during the Emperor's pleasure. But Michu'ssentence was confirmed, and the warrant for his execution had beenforwarded from the ministry of police. These orders had reached Troyesthat very morning. Laurence went at once to the prison, though it wastwo in the morning, and obtained permission to stay with Michu, whowas about to undergo the melancholy ceremony called "the toilet. " Thegood abbe, who had asked permission to accompany him to the scaffold, had just given absolution to the man, whose only distress in dying washis uncertainty as to the fate of his young masters. When Laurenceentered his cell he uttered a cry of joy. "I can die now, " he said. "They are pardoned, " she said; "I do not know on what conditions, butthey are pardoned. I did all I could for you, dear friend--against theadvice of others. I thought I had saved you; but the Emperor deceivedme with his graciousness. " "It was written above, " said Michu, "that the watch-dog should bekilled on the spot where his old masters died. " The last hour passed rapidly. Michu, at the moment of parting, askedto kiss her hand, but Laurence held her cheek to the lips of the noblevictim that he might sacredly kiss it. Michu refused to mount thecart. "Innocent men should go afoot, " he said. He would not let the abbe give him his arm; resolutely and withdignity he walked alone to the scaffold. As he laid his head on theplank he said to the executioner, after asking him to turn down thecollar of his coat, "My clothes belong to you; try not to spot them. " * * * * * The four gentlemen had hardly time to even see Mademoiselle deCinq-Cygne. An orderly of the general commanding the division to whichthey were assigned, brought them their commissions as sub-lieutenantsin the same regiment of cavalry, with orders to proceed at once toBayonne, the base of supplies for its particular army-corps. After ascene of heart-rending farewells, for they all foreboded what thefuture should bring forth, Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne returned to herdesolate home. The two brothers were killed together under the eyes of the Emperor atSommo-Sierra, the one defending the other, both being already incommand of their troop. The last words of each were, "Laurence, _cymeurs_!" The elder d'Hauteserre died a colonel at the attack on the redoubt atMoscow, where his brother took his place. Adrien d'Hauteserre, appointed brigadier-general at the battle ofDresden, was dangerously wounded there and was sent to Cinq-Cygne forproper nursing. While endeavoring to save this relic of the fourgentlemen who for a few brief months had been so happy around her, Laurence, then thirty-two years of age, married him. She offered him awithered heart, but he accepted it; those who truly love doubt nothingor doubt all. The Restoration found Laurence without enthusiasm. The Bourbonsreturned too late for her. Nevertheless, she had no cause forcomplaint. Her husband, made peer of France with the title of Marquisde Cinq-Cygne, became lieutenant-general in 1816, and was rewardedwith the blue ribbon for the eminent services which he then performed. Michu's son, of whom Laurence took care as though he were her ownchild, was admitted to the bar in 1817. After practising two years hewas made assistant-judge at the court of Alencon, and from there hebecame _procureur-du-roi_ at Arcis in 1827. Laurence, who had alsotaken charge of Michu's property, made over to the young man on theday of his majority an investment in the public Funds which yieldedhim an income of twelve thousand francs a year. Later, she arranged amarriage for him with Mademoiselle Girel, an heiress at Troyes. The Marquis de Cinq-Cygne died in 1829, in the arms of his wife, surrounded by his father and mother, and his children who adored him. At the time of his death no one had ever fathomed the mystery of thesenator's abduction. Louis XVIII. Did not neglect to repair, as faras possible, the wrongs done by that affair; but he was silent as tothe causes of the disaster. From that time forth the Marquise deCinq-Cygne believed him to have been an accomplice in the catastrophe. CHAPTER XX THE MYSTERY SOLVED The late Marquis de Cinq-Cygne had used his savings, as well as thoseof his father and mother, in the purchase of a fine house in the ruede Faubourg-du-Roule, entailing it on heirs male for the support ofthe title. The sordid economy of the marquis and his parents, whichhad often troubled Laurence, was then explained. After this purchasethe marquise, who lived at Cinq-Cygne and economized on her ownaccount for her children, spent her winters in Paris, --all the morewillingly because her daughter Berthe and her son Paul were now of anage when their education required the resources of Paris. Madame de Cinq-Cygne went but little into society. Her husband couldnot be ignorant of the regrets which lay in her tender heart; but heshowed her always the most exquisite delicacy, and died having lovedno other woman. This noble soul, not fully understood for a period oftime but to which the generous daughter of the Cinq-Cygnes returned inhis last years as true a love as that he gave to her, was completelyhappy in his married life. Laurence lived for the joys of home. Nowoman has ever been more cherished by her friends or more respected. To be received in her house is an honor. Gentle, indulgent, intellectual, above all things simple and natural, she pleases choicesouls and draws them to her in spite of her saddened aspect; eachlongs to protect this woman, inwardly so strong, and that sentiment ofsecret protection counts for much in the wondrous charm of herfriendship. Her life, so painful during her youth, is beautiful andserene towards evening. Her sufferings are known, and no one asks whowas the original of that portrait by Lefebvre which is the chief andsacred ornament of her salon. Her face has the maturity of fruits thathave ripened slowly; a hallowed pride dignifies that long-tried brow. At the period when the marquise came to Paris to open the new house, her fortune, increased by the law of indemnities, gave her some twohundred thousand francs a year, not counting her husband's salary;besides this, Laurence had inherited the money guarded by Michu forhis young masters. From that time forth she made a practice ofspending half her income and of laying by the rest for her daughterBerthe. Berthe is the living image of her mother, but without her warriornerve; she is her mother in delicacy, in intellect, --"more a woman, "Laurence says, sadly. The marquise was not willing to marry herdaughter until she was twenty years of age. Her savings, judiciouslyinvested in the Funds by old Monsieur d'Hauteserre at the moment whenconsols fell in 1830, gave Berthe a dowry of eighty thousand francs ayear in 1833, when she was twenty. About that time the Princesse de Cadignan, who was seeking to marryher son, the Duc de Maufrigneuse, brought him into intimate relationswith Madame de Cinq-Cygne. Georges de Maufrigneuse dined with themarquise three times a week, accompanied the mother and daughter tothe Opera, and curvetted in the Bois around their carriage when theydrove out. It was evident to all the world of the FaubourgSaint-Germain that Georges loved Berthe. But no one could discover toa certainty whether Madame de Cinq-Cygne was desirous of making herdaughter a duchess, to become a princess later, or whether it was onlythe princess who coveted for her son the splendid dowry. Did thecelebrated Diane court the noble provincial house? and was thedaughter of the Cinq-Cygnes frightened by the celebrity of Madame deCadignan, her tastes and her ruinous extravagance? In her strongdesire not to injure her son's prospects the princess grew devout, shut the door on her former life, and spent the summer season atGeneva in a villa on the lake. One evening there were present in the salon of the Princesse deCadignan, the Marquise d'Espard, and de Marsay, then president of theCouncil (on this occasion the princess saw her former lover for thelast time, for he died the following year), Eugene de Rastignac, under-secretary of State attached to de Marsay's ministry, twoambassadors, two celebrated orators from the Chamber of Peers, the olddukes of Lenoncourt and de Navarreins, the Comte de Vandenesse and hisyoung wife, and d'Arthez, --who formed a rather singular circle, thecomposition of which can be thus explained. The princess was anxiousto obtain from the prime minister of the crown a permit for the returnof the Prince de Cadignan. De Marsay, who did not choose to take uponhimself the responsibility of granting it came to tell the princessthe matter had been entrusted to safe hands, and that a certainpolitical manager had promised to bring her the result in the courseof that evening. Madame and Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne were announced. Laurence, whoseprinciples were unyielding, was not only surprised but shocked to seethe most illustrious representatives of Legitimacy talking andlaughing in a friendly manner with the prime minister of the man whomshe never called anything but Monsieur le Duc d'Orleans. De Marsay, like an expiring lamp, shone with a last brilliancy. He laid aside forthe moment his political anxieties, and Madame de Cinq-Cygne enduredhim, as they say the Court of Austria endured de Saint-Aulaire; theman of the world effaced the minister of the citizen-king. But sherose to her feet as though her chair were of red-hot iron when thename was announced of "Monsieur le Comte de Gondreville. " "Adieu, madame, " she said to the princess in a curt tone. She left the room with Berthe, measuring her steps to avoidencountering that fatal being. "You may have caused the loss of Georges' marriage, " said the princessto de Marsay, in a low voice. "Why did you not tell me your agent'sname?" The former clerk of Arcis, former Conventional, former Thermidorien, tribune, Councillor of State, count of the Empire and senator, peer ofthe Restoration, and now peer of the monarchy of July, made a servilebow to the princess. "Fear nothing, madame, " he said; "we have ceased to make war onprinces. I bring you an assurance of the permit, " he added, seatinghimself beside her. Malin was long in the confidence of Louis XVIII. , to whom his variedexperience was useful. He had greatly aided in overthrowing Decazes, and had given much good advice to the ministry of Villele. Coldlyreceived by Charles X. , he had adopted all the rancors of Talleyrand. He was now in high favor under the twelfth government he had servedsince 1789, and which in turn he would doubtless betray. For the lastfifteen months he had broken the long friendship which had bound himfor thirty-six years to our greatest diplomat, the Prince deTalleyrand. It was in the course of this very evening that he madeanswer to some one who asked why the Prince showed such hostility tothe Duc de Bordeaux, "The Pretender is too young!" "Singular advice to give young men, " remarked Rastignac. De Marsay, who grew thoughtful after Madame de Cadignan's reproachfulspeech, took no notice of these jests. He looked askance atGondreville and was evidently biding his time until that now old man, who went to bed early, had taken leave. All present, who had witnessedthe abrupt departure of Madame de Cinq-Cygne (whose reasons werewell-known to them), imitated de Marsay's conduct and kept silence. Gondreville, who had not recognized the marquise, was ignorant of thecause of the general reticence, but the habit of dealing with publicmatters had given him a certain tact; he was moreover a clever man; hesaw that his presence was embarrassing to the company and he tookleave. De Marsay, standing with his back to the fire, watched the slowdeparture of the old man in a manner which revealed the gravity of histhoughts. "I did wrong, madame, not to tell you the name of my negotiator, " saidthe prime minister, listening for the sound of Malin's wheels as theyrolled away. "But I will redeem my fault and give you the means ofmaking your peace with the Cinq-Cygnes. It is now thirty years sincethe affair I am about to speak of took place; it is as old to thepresent day as the death of Henri IV. (which between ourselves and inspite of the proverb is still a mystery, like so many other historicalcatastrophes). I can, however, assure you that even if this affair didnot concern Madame de Cinq-Cygne it would be none the less curious andinteresting. Moreover, it throws light on a celebrated exploit in ourmodern annals, --I mean that of the Mont Saint-Bernard. Messieurs lesAmbassadeurs, " he added, bowing to the two diplomats, "will see thatin the element of profound intrigue the political men of the presentday are far behind the Machiavellis whom the waves of the popular willlifted, in 1793, above the storm, --some of whom have 'found, ' as theold song says, 'a haven. ' To be anything in France in these days a manmust have been tossed in those tempests. " "It seems to me, " said the princess, smiling, "that from that point ofview the present state of things under your regime leaves nothing tobe desired. " A well-bred laugh went round the room, and even the prime ministerhimself could not help smiling. The ambassadors seemed impatient forthe tale; de Marsay coughed dryly and silence was obtained. "On a June night in 1800, " began the minister, "about three in themorning, just as daylight was beginning to pale the brilliancy of thewax candles, two men tired of playing at _bouillotte_ (or who wereplaying merely to keep others employed) left the salon of the ministryof foreign affairs, then situated in the rue du Bac, and went apartinto a boudoir. These two men, of whom one is dead and the other has_one_ foot in the grave, were, each in his own way, equallyextraordinary. Both had been priests; both had abjured religion; bothwere married. One had been merely an Oratorian, the other had worn themitre of a bishop. The first was named Fouche; I shall not tell youthe name of the second;[*] both were then mere simple citizens--withvery little simplicity. When they were seen to leave the salon andenter the boudoir, the rest of the company present showed a certaincuriosity. A third person followed them, --a man who thought himselffar stronger than the other two. His name was Sieyes, and you all knowthat he too had been a priest before the Revolution. The one who_walked with difficulty_ was then the minister of foreign affairs;Fouche was minister of police; Sieyes had resigned the consulate. [*] Talleyrand was still living when de Marsay related these circumstances. "A small man, cold and stern in appearance, left his seat and followedthe three others, saying aloud in the hearing of the person from whomI have the information, 'I mistrust the gambling of priests. ' This manwas Carnot, minister of war. His remark did not trouble the twoconsuls who were playing cards in the salon. Cambaceres and Lebrunwere then at the mercy of their ministers, men who were infinitelystronger than they. "Nearly all these statesmen are dead, and no secrecy is due to them. They belong to history; and the history of that night and itsconsequences has been terrible. I tell it to you now because I aloneknow it; because Louis XVIII. Never revealed the truth to that poorMadame de Cinq-Cygne; and because the present government which I serveis wholly indifferent as to whether the truth be known to the world ornot. "All four of these personages sat down in the boudoir. The lame manundoubtedly closed the door before a word was said; it is even thoughtthat he ran the bolt. It is only persons of high rank who payattention to such trifles. The three priests had the livid, impassiblefaces which you all remember. Carnot alone was ruddy. He was the firstto speak. 'What is the point to be discussed?' he asked. 'France, 'must have been the answer of the Prince (whom I admire as one of themost extraordinary men of our time). 'The Republic, ' undoubtedly saidFouche. 'Power, ' probably said Sieyes. " All present looked at each other. With voice, look, and gesture deMarsay had wonderfully represented the three men. "The three priests fully understood one another, " he continued, resuming his narrative. "Carnot no doubt looked at his colleagues andthe ex-consul in a dignified manner. He must, however, have feltbewildered in his own mind. "'Do you believe in the success of the army?' Sieyes said to him. "'We may expect everything from Bonaparte, ' replied the minister ofwar; 'he has crossed the Alps. ' "'At this moment, ' said the minister of foreign affairs, withdeliberate slowness, 'he is playing his last stake. ' "'Come, let's speak out, ' said Fouche; 'what shall we do if the FirstConsul is defeated? Is it possible to collect another army? Must wecontinue his humble servants?' "'There is no republic now, ' remarked Sieyes; 'Bonaparte is consul forten years. ' "'He has more power than ever Cromwell had, ' said the former bishop, 'and he did not vote for the death of the king. ' "'We have a master, ' said Fouche; 'the question is, shall we continueto keep him if he loses the battle or shall we return to a purerepublic?' "'France, ' replied Carnot, sententiously, 'cannot resist except shereverts to the old Conventional _energy_. ' "'I agree with Carnot, ' said Sieyes; 'if Bonaparte returns defeated wemust put an end to him; he has let us know him too well during thelast seven months. ' "'The army is for him, ' remarked Carnot, thoughtfully. "'And the people for us!' cried Fouche. "'You go fast, monsieur, ' said the Prince, in that deep bass voicewhich he still preserves and which now drove Fouche back into himself. "'Be frank, ' said a voice, as a former Conventional rose from a cornerof the boudoir and showed himself; 'if Bonaparte returns a victor, weshall adore him; if vanquished, we'll bury him!' "'So you were there, Malin, were you?' said the Prince, withoutbetraying the least feeling. 'Then you must be one of us; sit down';and he made him a sign to be seated. "It is to this one circumstance that Malin, a Conventional of smallrepute, owes the position he afterwards obtained and, ultimately, thatin which we see him at the present moment. He proved discreet, and theministers were faithful to him; but they made him the pivot of themachine and the cat's-paw of the machination. To return to my tale. "'Bonaparte has never yet been vanquished, ' cried Carnot, in a tone ofconviction, 'and he has just surpassed Hannibal. ' "'If the worst happens, here is the Directory, ' said Sieyes, artfully, indicating with a wave of his hand the five persons present. "'And, ' added the Prince, 'we are all committed to the maintenance ofthe French republic; we three priests have literally unfrockedourselves; the general, here, voted for the death of the king; andyou, ' he said, turning to Malin, 'have got possession of the propertyof _emigres_. ' "'Yes, we have all the same interests, ' said Sieyes, dictatorially, 'and our interests are one with those of the nation. ' "'A rare thing, ' said the Prince, smiling. "'We must act, ' interrupted Fouche. 'In all probability the battle isnow going on; the Austrians outnumber us; Genoa has surrendered;Massena has committed the great mistake of embarking for Antibes; itis very doubtful if he can rejoin Bonaparte, who will then be reducedto his own resources. ' "'Who gave you that news?' asked Carnot. "'It is sure, ' replied Fouche. 'You will have the courier when theBourse opens. ' "Those men didn't mince their words, " said de Marsay, smiling, andstopping short for a moment. "'Remember, ' continued Fouche, 'it is not when the news of a disastercomes that we can organize clubs, rouse the patriotism of the people, and change the constitution. Our 18th Brumaire ought to be preparedbeforehand. ' "'Let us leave the care of that to the minister of police, ' said thePrince, bowing to Fouche, 'and beware ourselves of Lucien. ' (LucienBonaparte was then minister of the interior. ) "'I'll arrest him, ' said Fouche. "'Messieurs!' cried Sieyes, 'our Directory ought not to be subject toanarchical changes. We must organize a government of the few, a Senatefor life, and an elective chamber the control of which shall be in ourhands; for we ought to profit by the blunders of the past. ' "'With such a system, there would be peace for me, ' remarked theex-bishop. "'Find me a sure man to negotiate with Moreau; for the Army of theRhine will be our sole resource, ' cried Carnot, who had been plungedin meditation. "Ah!" said de Marsay, pausing, "those men were right. They were grandin this crisis. I should have done as they did"; then he resumed hisnarrative. "'Messieurs!' cried Sieyes, in a grave and solemn tone. "That word 'Messieurs!' was perfectly understood by all present; alleyes expressed the same faith, the same promise, that of absolutesilence, and unswerving loyalty to each other in case the First Consulreturned triumphant. "'We all know what we have to do, ' added Fouche. "Sieyes softly unbolted the door; his priestly ear had warned him. Lucien entered the room. "'Good news!' he said. 'A courier has just brought Madame Bonaparte aline from the First Consul. The campaign has opened with a victory atMontebello. ' "The three ministers exchanged looks. "'Was it a general engagement?' asked Carnot. "'No, a fight, in which Lannes has covered himself with glory. Theaffair was bloody. Attacked with ten thousand men by eighteenthousand, he was only saved by a division sent to his support. Ott isin full retreat. The Austrian line is broken. ' "'When did the fight take place?' asked Carnot. "'On the 8th, ' replied Lucien. "'And this is the 13th, ' said the sagacious minister. 'Well, if thatis so, the destinies of France are in the scale at the very moment weare speaking. '" (In fact, the battle of Marengo did begin at dawn of the 14th. ) "'Four days of fatal uncertainty!' said Lucien. "'Fatal?' said the minister of foreign affairs, coldly andinterrogatively. "'Four days, ' echoed Fouche. "An eye-witness told me, " said de Marsay, continuing the narrative inhis own person, "that the consuls, Cambaceres and Lebrun, knew nothingof this momentous news until after the six personages returned to thesalon. It was then four in the morning. Fouche left first. That man ofdark and mysterious genius, extraordinary, profound, and littleunderstood, but who undoubtedly had the gifts of a Philip the Second, a Tiberius and a Borgia, went at once to work with an infernal andsecret activity. His conduct at the time of the affair at Walcherenwas that of a consummate soldier, a great politician, a far-seeingadministrator. He was the only real minister that Napoleon ever had. And you all know how he then alarmed him. "Fouche, Massena and the Prince, " continued de Marsay, reflectively, "are the three greatest men, the wisest heads in diplomacy, war, andgovernment, that I have ever known. If Napoleon had frankly alliedthem with his work there would no longer be a Europe, only a vastFrench Empire. Fouche did not finally detach himself from Napoleonuntil he saw Sieyes and the Prince de Talleyrand shoved aside. "He now went to work, and in three days (all the while hiding the handthat stirred the ashes of the Montagne) he had organized that generalagitation which then arose all over France and revived therepublicanism of 1793. As it is necessary that I should explain thisobscure corner of our history, I must tell you that this agitation, starting from Fouche's own hand (which held the wires of the formerMontagne), produced republican plots against the life of the FirstConsul, which was in peril from this cause long after the victory ofMarengo. It was Fouche's sense of the evil he had thus brought aboutwhich led him to warn Napoleon, who held a contrary opinion, thatrepublicans were more concerned than royalists in the variousconspiracies. "Fouche was an admirable judge of men; he relied on Sieyes because ofhis thwarted ambition, on Talleyrand because he was a great_seigneur_, on Carnot for his perfect honesty; but the man he dreadedwas the one whom you have seen here this evening. I will now tell howhe entangled that man in his meshes. "Malin was only Malin in those days, --a secret agent and correspondentof Louis XVIII. Fouche now compelled him to reduce to writing all theproclamations of the proposed revolutionary government, its warrantsand edicts against the factions of the 18th Brumaire. An accompliceagainst his own will, Malin was required to have these documentssecretly printed, and the copies held ready in his own house fordistribution if Bonaparte were defeated. The printer was subsequentlyimprisoned and detained two months; he died in 1816, and alwaysbelieved he had been employed by a Montagnard conspiracy. "One of the most singular scenes ever played by Fouche's police wascaused by the blunder of an agent, who despatched a courier to afamous banker of that day with the news of a defeat at Marengo. Victory, you will remember, did not declare itself for Napoleon untilseven o'clock in the evening of the battle. At midday the banker'sagent, considering the day lost and the French army about to beannihilated, hastened to despatch the courier. On receipt of that newsFouche was about to put into motion a whole army of bill-posters andcries, with a truck full of proclamations, when the second courierarrived with the news of the triumph which put all France besideitself with joy. There were heavy losses at the Bourse, of course. Butthe criers and posters who were gathered to announce the politicaldeath of Bonaparte and to post up the new proclamations were only keptwaiting awhile till the news of the victory could be struck off! "Malin, on whom the whole responsibility of the plot of which he hadbeen the working agent was likely to fall if it ever became known, wasso terrified that he packed the proclamations and other papers incarts and took them down to Gondreville in the night-time, where nodoubt they were hidden in the cellars of that chateau, which he hadbought in the name of another man--who was it, by the bye? he had himmade chief-justice of an Imperial court--Ah! Marion. Having thusdisposed of these damning proofs he returned to Paris to congratulatethe First Consul on his victory. Napoleon, as you know, rushed fromItaly to Paris after the battle of Marengo with alarming celerity. Those who know the secret history of that time are well aware that amessage from Lucien brought him back. The minister of the interior hadforeseen the attitude of the Montagnard party, and though he had noidea of the quarter from which the wind really blew, he feared astorm. Incapable of suspecting the three ministers and Carnot, heattributed the movement which stirred all France to the hatred hisbrother had excited by the 18th Brumaire, and to the confident beliefof the men of 1793 that defeat was certain in Italy. "The battle of Marengo detained Napoleon on the plains of Lombardyuntil the 25th of June, but he reached Paris on the 2nd of July. Imagine the faces of the five conspirators as they met the FirstConsul at the Tuileries, and congratulated him on the victory. Foucheon that very occasion at the palace told Malin to have patience, for_all was not over yet_. The truth was, Talleyrand and Fouche both heldthat Bonaparte was not as much bound to the principles of theRevolution as they were, and as he ought to be; and for this reason, as well as for their own safety, they subsequently, in 1804, buckledhim irrevocably, as they believed, to its cause by the affair of theDuc d'Enghien. The execution of that prince is connected by a seriesof discoverable ramifications with the plot which was laid on thatJune evening in the boudoir of the ministry of foreign affairs, thenight before the battle of Marengo. Those who have the means ofjudging, and who have known persons who were well-informed, are fullyaware that Bonaparte was handled like a child by Talleyrand andFouche, who were determined to alienate him irrevocably from the Houseof Bourbon, whose agents were even then, at the last moment, endeavoring to negotiate with the First Consul. " "Talleyrand was playing whist in the salon of Madame de Luynes, " saida personage who had been listening attentively to de Marsay'snarrative. "It was about three o'clock in the morning, when he pulledout his watch, looked at it, stopped the game, and asked his threecompanions abruptly and without any preface whether the Prince deConde had any other children than the Duc d'Enghien. Such an absurdinquiry from the lips of Talleyrand caused the utmost surprise. 'Whydo you ask us what you know perfectly well yourself?' they said tohim. 'Only to let you know that the House of Conde comes to an end atthis moment. ' Now Monsieur de Talleyrand had been at the hotel deLuynes the entire evening, and he must have known that Bonaparte wasabsolutely unable to grant the pardon. " "But, " said Eugene de Rastignac, "I don't see in all this anyconnection with Madame de Cinq-Cygnes and her troubles. " "Ah, you were so young at that time, my dear fellow; I forgot toexplain the conclusion. You all know the affair of the abduction ofthe Comte de Gondreville, then senator of the Empire, for which theSimeuse brothers and the two d'Hauteserres were condemned to thegalleys, --an affair which did, in fact, lead to their death. " De Marsay, entreated by several persons present to whom thecircumstances were unknown, related the whole trial, stating that themysterious abductors were five sharks of the secret service of theministry of the police, who were ordered to obtain the proclamationsof the would-be Directory which Malin had surreptitiously taken fromhis house in Paris, and which he had himself come to Gondreville forthe express purpose of destroying, being convinced at last that theEmpire was on a sure foundation and could not be overthrown. "I haveno doubt, " added de Marsay, "that Fouche took the opportunity to havethe house searched for the correspondence between Malin and LouisXVIII. , which was always kept up, even during the Terror. But in thiscruel affair there was a private element, a passion of revenge in themind of the leader of the party, a man named Corentin, who is stillliving, and who is one of those subaltern agents whom nothing canreplace and who makes himself felt by his amazing ability. It appearsthat Madame, then Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, had ill-treated him on aformer occasion when he attempted to arrest the Simeuse brothers. Whathappened afterwards in connection with the senator's abduction was theresult of his private vengeance. "These facts were known, of course, to Malin, and through him to LouisXVIII. You may therefore, " added de Marsay, turning to the Princessede Cadignan, "explain the whole matter to the Marquise de Cinq-Cygne, and show her why Louis XVIII. Thought fit to keep silence. " ADDENDUM The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. Beauvisage The Member for Arcis Berthier, Alexandre The Chouans Bonaparte, Lucien The Vendetta Bordin The Seamy Side of History The Commission in Lunacy Jealousies of a Country Town Cinq-Cygne, Laurence, Comtesse (afterwards Marquise de) The Secrets of a Princess The Seamy Side of History The Member for Arcis Corentin The Chouans Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Middle Classes Derville Gobseck A Start in Life Father Goriot Colonel Chabert Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Duroc, Gerard-Christophe-Michel A Woman of Thirty Espard, Jeanne-Clementine-Athenais de Blamont-Chauvry, Marquise d' The Commission in Lunacy A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Letters of Two Brides Another Study of Woman The Secrets of a Princess A Daughter of Eve Beatrix Fouche, Joseph The Chouans Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Giguet, Colonel The Member for Arcis Gondreville, Malin, Comte de A Start in Life Domestic Peace The Member for Arcis Gothard The Member for Arcis Goujet, Abbe The Member for Arcis Grandlieu, Duc Ferdinand de The Thirteen A Bachelor's Establishment Modeste Mignon Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Granville, Vicomte de A Second Home Farewell (Adieu) Cesar Birotteau Scenes from a Courtesan's Life A Daughter of Eve Cousin Pons Grevin A Start in Life The Member for Arcis Hauteserre, D' The Member for Arcis Lefebvre, Robert Cousin Betty Lenoncourt, Duc de The Lily of the Valley Cesar Birotteau Jealousies of a Country Town Beatrix Louis XVIII. , Louis-Stanislas-Xavier The Chouans The Seamy Side of History Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Ball at Sceaux The Lily of the Valley Colonel Chabert The Government Clerks Marion (of Arcis) The Member for Arcis Marion (brother) The Member for Arcis Marsay, Henri de The Thirteen The Unconscious Humorists Another Study of Woman The Lily of the Valley Father Goriot Jealousies of a Country Town Ursule Mirouet A Marriage Settlement Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Letters of Two Brides The Ball at Sceaux Modeste Mignon The Secrets of a Princess A Daughter of Eve Maufrigneuse, Duchesse de The Secrets of a Princess Modeste Mignon Jealousies of a Country Town The Muse of the Department Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Letters of Two Brides Another Study of Woman The Member for Arcis Maufrigneuse, Georges de The Secrets of a Princess Beatrix The Member for Arcis Maufrigneuse, Berthe de Beatrix The Member for Arcis Michu, Francois Jealousies of a Country Town The Member for Arcis Michu, Madame Francois The Member for Arcis Murat, Joachim, Prince The Vendetta Colonel Chabert Domestic Peace The Country Doctor Navarreins, Duc de A Bachelor's Establishment Colonel Chabert The Muse of the Department The Thirteen Jealousies of a Country Town The Peasantry Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Country Parson The Magic Skin The Secrets of a Princess Cousin Betty Peyrade Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Rapp The Vendetta Rastignac, Eugene de Father Goriot A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Ball at Sceaux The Commission in Lunacy A Study of Woman Another Study of Woman The Magic Skin The Secrets of a Princess A Daughter of Eve The Firm of Nucingen Cousin Betty The Member for Arcis The Unconscious Humorists Regnier, Claude-Antoine A Second Home Simeuse, Admiral de Beatrix Jealousies of a Country Town Steingel The Peasantry Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles-Maurice de The Chouans The Thirteen Letters of Two Brides Gaudissart II. Vandenesse, Comte Felix de The Lily of the Valley Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Cesar Birotteau Letters of Two Brides A Start in Life The Marriage Settlement The Secrets of a Princess Another Study of Woman A Daughter of Eve Varlet The Gondreville Mystery The Member for Arcis