The Chevalier De Maison Rouge (55 page)

us at St. Omer ; money, passport, nothing will be want-

ing. There exists not the gendarme who shall arrest us ;

what do you think ? We remain in Paris because we

choose to do so."

" No, that is not correct, excellent friend, devoted and faithful as you are. We remain because I wish to continue here."

" And you wish to remain to discover Genevi^ve.

Well, nothing is more simple, just, or natural. You

think she is in prison ; nothing more probable. You wish

to keep watch over her, and on that account we cannot

quit Paris."

Maurice drew a deep sigh ; it was evident his thoughts

were wandering.

" Do you remember the death of Louis XVI. ? " said he.

" I can see him yet, pale with pride and emotion. I

was then one of the chiefs in this crowd, where I conceal

myself to-day. I was greater at the foot of the scaffold

than the king upon it had ever been. What changes,

Louis ! and when one thinks that nine short months have

sufficed to work this change."

"Nine months of love, Maurice ! Love lost Troy."

Maurice sighed ; his wandering thoughts now took an-

other direction.

" Poor Maison Eouge ! " said he, " it is a sad thing for him."

' Helas ! " said Louis, "shall I tell you what appears to me the most melancholy thing about the revolution ? "

" Yes," said Maurice.

" It is that one often has for friends those we should prefer as enemies, and for enemies those we would wish ''

" It gives me much pain to think of one thing," in*

terrupted Maurice.

"What?"

368 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

" It is that he did not invent some project to save the queen. He must be mad ! "

" A man with the strength of ten thousand."

"I tell you he was mad. I know that to save Gene-

vieve "

Louis frowned.

"I again tell you, Maurice," said he, " you are wild.

No ; even were it possible for you to save Genevieve, you

would only become a bad citizen. But enough of this.

Maurice, let us listen. Look how the heads undulate ;

see, there is Sanson's valet raising himself from under

the basket, and looking in the distance. The Austrian

arrives.

In short, as if to accompany this movement which

Louis had remarked, a shuddering, prolonged and unceas-

ing, pervaded the crowd. It was one of those hurricanes

which commence with a whistle and terminate with a

bellow. Maurice raised himself by the help of the lamp-

post, and looked toward La Rue St. Honore".

"Yes ; said he, shuddering, " there it is."

And another machine now made its appearance, almost

as revolting as the guillotine. It was the fatal cart. On

the right and left glittered the arms of the escort, while

in front marched Grammont, replying with flashes of his

saber to the shouts and cries of some fanatics. But even

as the cart advanced, these cries subsided under the

haughty courage of the condemned. Xever had a coim-

tenance commanded more respect, never had Marie Antoi-

nette looked more the queen. Her proud courage inspired

her assistants with terror. Indifferent to the exhortations of the Abbe Giraud, who still accompanied her, her face

moved neither to the right nor left ; her deep thought

was as immutable as her look ; even the jolting motion of

the cart upon the uneven pavement did not by its violence

disturb the rigidity of ber features ; she might have been

taken for a royal statue riding in the cart, had it not been for her brilliant eyes, and her hair, which had escaped

from her cap, being waved about by the wind. A silence

equal to that of the desert fell suddenly upon those three

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 369

hundred thousand spectators of this scene, witnessed by

the heavens for the first time by the light of the sun. On

the right, where Maurice and Louis were standing, the

wheels of the cart were heard, and the breathing of the

horse. The cart stopped at the scaffold. The queen,

who, doubtless, was not conscious at the moment, awoke,

and understood it all ; she threw a haughty glance upon

the crowd, and again encountered the restless eyes of the

pale young man she had previously seen standing on the

cannon. He was now mounted on a stone, and repeated

the respectful salutation he had before offered her as she

left the conciergerie. He then disappeared. Many persons

seeing him, it was soon reported, from his being dressed

in black, that a priest was in attendance on Marie Antoi-

nette, to give her absolution ere she ascended the scaffold.

As to the rest, no one disturbed the chevalier. There is

in the highest moments a supreme respect for certain

things. The queen cautiously descended the steps from

the cart, supported by Sanson, who to the last moment,

in accomplishing the task to which he himself appeared

to be condemned, treated her with the most marked

respect.

As tlie queen walked toward the steps of the scaffold

some of the horses reared, and several of the foot-guards

and soldiers appeared to oscillate and lose their equilib-

rium ; then a shadow was seen to glide under the scaffold,

but tranquillity was almost instantaneously reestablished,

since no one was willing to quit his place at this solemn

moment no one was willing to lose the minutest detail in

the dreadful tragedy about to be accomplished. All eyes

were directed toward the condemned. The queen was

already on the platform of the scaffold. The priest still

continued to address her ; an assistant softly placed him-

self behind her, while another removed the handkerchief

from her shoulders. Marie Antoinette felt the touch of

the infamous hand upon her neck, and, making a brusque

movement, trod upon Sanson's foot, who, without her

having seen him, was engaged in iixing the fatal plank,

Sanson drew back.

370 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

"Excuse me, monsieur/' said the qneen ; "I did not do it intentionally."

These were the last words pronounced by the daughter

of the Cassars, the queen of France, the widow of Louis

XVI.

As the clock of the Tuileries struck a quarter after

twelve, the queen was launched into eternity. A terrible

cry a shout comprising at once joy, terror, sorrow,

triumph, expiation rose like a storm, smothering in its

birth a feeble burst of lamentation which issued from

beneath the scaffold. The gendarmes heard it, notwith-

standing, feeble as it was, and advanced some steps in

front. The crowd, now less compact, expanded like a

river whose dike has been enlarged, threw down the fence,

dispersed the guards, and rushed like the returning tide

to beat the foot of the scaffold, which was already shaking.

Each one wished for a nearer view of the royal remains of

her whom they had considered the destruction of France.

But the gendarmes had another object in view they

sought the shadow which had repassed their lines, and

glided beneath the scaffold. Two of them returned lead-

ing between them by the collar a pale young man, whose

hand contained a bloodstained handkerchief, which he

pressed to his heart ; he was followed by a little spaniel

howling piteously.

"Death to the aristocrat! death to the ci-devant!"

cried some men of the people ; " he has dipped his handkerchief in the Austrian's blood to death with him ! "

"Great God !" said Maurice to Louis. "Do yon recognize him ? do you recognize him ? "

" Death to the royalist ! " repeated these madmen ;

"take away the handkerchief he wishes to preserve as a relic, wrest it from him. tear it from him."

A haughty smile flitted across the young man's lips, he

tore open his shirt, bared his breast, and dropped the

handkerchief.

"Gentlemen," said he, "this blood is not the queen's, but my own. Let me die in peace."

And a deep gushing wound appeared widely gaping

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 371

under the left breast. The crowd uttered one cry, and

retired. The young man sank slowly upon his knees, and

gazed upon the scaffold as a martyr looks upon the altar.

" Maison Rouge," whispered Louis to Maurice.

" Adieu ! " murmured the young man, bowing his head with an angelic smile, "adieu ! or, rather, au revoir ! "

and he expired in the midst of the stupefied guards.

" There is still the expedient, Louis," said Maurice,

" before becoming an unworthy citizen."

The little spaniel turned toward the corpse, terrified and

howling lamentably.

' ' Why, here is Jet ! " said a man, holding a large club in his hand ; " why, here is Jet ! Come here, old fellow."

The dog advanced toward him, but was scarcely within

arm's-length of the man who had called him, when the

brutal wretch raised his club and dashed out his brains,

at the same time bursting into a hoarse laugh.

' Cowardly wretch !" cried Maurice.

' Silence," said Louis, " or we are lost. It is Simon."

CHAPTER L.

THE VISIT TO THE DOMICILE.

Louis and Maurice returned to their mutual home, but

the latter, in order not to compromise his friend too openly, usually absented himself during the day, and returned at

night. In the midst of these events, being present always

at the removal of the prisoners to the conciergerie, he

watched daily for the sight of Genevieve, not having been

yet able to discover her place of imprisonment. Louis,

since his visit to Fonquier Tinville, had succeeded in con-

vincing him that on the first ostensible act he was lost, and would then have sacrificed himself without having benefited Genevieve. and Maurice, who would willingly have

thrown himself into prison in the hope of being united to his mistress, became prudent from the fear of being separated

from her forever. He went every morning to the Carmel-

ites at Port Libre, the Madelonnettea at St. Lazare, from

372 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

La Force to the Luxembourg ; he stationed himself before

these prisons to watch the carts as they came out to con-

vey the accused to the Revolutionary Tribunal. Then,

when he had scanned the victims, he proceeded to the

other prisons to prosecute this hopeless search, as he soon became aware that the activity of ten men would prove

inadequate to keep watch over the thirty-three prisons

which Paris could boast of at this period. He, therefore,

contented himself by going daily to the tribunal, there to

await the coming of Genevieve. He was already begin-

ning to despair. Indeed, what resources remained to a

person condemned, after their arrest ? Sometimes the

tribunal, whose sittings commenced at ten o'clock, had

condemned twenty or thirty people by four o'clock ; those

first condemned had six hours to live, but the last, sen-

tenced at a quarter to four, fell at half-past beneath the

ax. To resign Geneviere to submit to a similar fate would

be ceasing to fight then against destiny. Oh ! if he had

known beforehand of the imprisonment of Genevieve, how

Maurice would have tracked the blind human justice of

this epoch ! how easily and promptly he had torn Gene-

vieve from prison ! Never were escapes more easy, and

it may be said never were they so rare. All the nobles

once placed in prison, installed themselves as in a chateau, and died at leisure. To fly was to withdraw from the consequences of a duel ; the women even blushed at liberty

acquired at this price.

But Maurice would not have shown himself so scrupu-

lous. To kill the dogs, to alter the door-keys, what more

simple ? Genevieve was not one of those splendid names

calculated to attract general attention. She would not

dishonor herself by flying, and besides, when could she be

disgraced ? Oh ! as he bitterly called to mind the gardens

of Port Libre, so easy to scale, the chambers of Madelon-

nettes, so easy of access to the street, the low walls of the Luxembourg, and the dark corridors of the Carmelites,

where a resolute man could so easily penetrate by opening

a window !

But was Genevieve in one of these prisons ? Then, de-

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 373

vonred by donbt and worn out with anxiety, he loaded

Dixmer with imprecations ; he threatened, and nourished

his hatred against this man, whose cowardly vengeance

concealed itself under an apparent devotion to the royal

cause.

"I will find him out thus/' thought Maurice : "if he wishes to save the unhappy woman, he will show himself ;

if he wishes to ruin her, he will insult her. I will find him out, the scoundrel, and it will be an evil day for him ! "

On the morning of the day when the events occurred

which we are about to relate, Maurice went out early to

take his usual station at the Eevolutionary Tribunal, leav-

ing Louis asleep.

He was suddenly awakened by a loud noise at the door,

the voices of women, and the butt-ends of guns. lie

threw around him the startled glance of a surprised man,

who wished to convince himself that nothing that could

compromise him was in view. Four sectionaries, two