Honore de Balzac (16 page)

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 on the side
of the chateau next to the famous breach. He bought two horses, one
for himself and one for Francois, and they both joined Gothard in
accompanying Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne in her many rides, which had for
their object, as may well be imagined, the feeding of the four gentlemen
and perpetual watching that they were still in safety. Francois and
Gothard, assisted by Couraut and the countess's dogs, went in front and
beat the woods all around the hiding-place to make sure that there was
no one within sight. Laurence and Michu carried the provisions which
Marthe, her mother, and Catherine prepared, unknown to the other
servants of the household so as to restrict the secret to themselves,
for all were sure that there were spies in the village. These
expeditions were never made oftener than twice a week and on different
days and at different hours, sometimes by day, sometimes by night.

These precautions lasted until the trial of Riviere, Polignac, and
Moreau ended. When the senatus-consultum, which called the dynasty of
Bonaparte to the throne and nominated Napoleon as Emperor of the French,
was submitted to the French people for acceptance Monsieur d'Hauteserre
signed the paper Goulard brought him. When it was made known that
the Pope would come to France to crown the Emperor, Mademoiselle de
Cinq-Cygne no longer opposed the general desire that her cousins and the
young d'Hauteserres should petition to have their names struck off
the list of
emigres
, and be themselves reinstated in their rights
as citizens. On this, old d'Hauteserre went to Paris and consulted the
ci-devant Marquis de Chargeboeuf who knew Talleyrand. That minister,
then in favor, conveyed the petition to Josephine, and Josephine gave it
to her husband, who was addressed as Emperor, Majesty, Sire, before the
result of the popular vote was known. Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, Monsieur
d'Hauteserre, and the Abbe Goujet, who also went to Paris, obtained an
interview with Talleyrand, who promised them his support. Napoleon had
already pardoned several of the principal actors in the great royalist
conspiracy; and yet, though the four gentlemen were merely suspected of
complicity, the Emperor, after a meeting of the Council of State, called
the senator Malin, Fouche, Talleyrand, Cambaceres, Lebrun, and Dubois,
prefect of police, into his cabinet.

"Gentlemen," said the future Emperor, who still wore the dress of
the First Consul, "we have received from the Sieurs de Simeuse and
d'Hauteserre, officers in the army of the Prince de Conde, a request to
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 are
hidden in the forest of Nodesme, where they consider themselves at
home."

He was careful not to tell the First Consul and Fouche how he himself
had given them warning, by talking with Grevin within hearing of Michu,
but he made the most of Corentin's reports and convinced Napoleon that
the four gentlemen were sharers in the plot of Riviere and Polignac,
with Michu for an accomplice. The prefect of police confirmed 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 only
persons in the secret."

No one paid attention to this remark.

"If they have been hidden in that forest for the last seven months and
you 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 the
Emperor's clear-sightedness, "I desire to follow the magnanimous example
of your Majesty; I therefore make myself their advocate and ask that
their names be stricken from the list of
emigres
."

"They will be less dangerous to you here than if they are exiled; for
they 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. The
reinstatement of the Messieurs de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre appeared to
be 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 the Emperor
pledges in the name of the young men on their honor as gentlemen (a term
which had great fascination for Napoleon), to abstain from all attacks
upon his Majesty and to submit themselves to his government in good
faith.

"Messieurs d'Hauteserre and de Simeuse are not willing to bear arms
against France, now that events have taken their present course," he
said, aloud; "they have little sympathy, it is true, with the Imperial
government, but they are just the men that your Majesty ought to
conciliate. They will be satisfied to live on French soil and obey the
laws."

Then he laid before the Emperor a letter he had received from the
brothers 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 you any 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; but it
had the effect of putting into Napoleon's mind a vague distrust of the
four young men. Monsieur d'Hauteserre, believing that all was gained,
wrote a letter announcing the good news. The family at Cinq-Cygne were
therefore not surprised when, a few days later, Goulard came to inform
the countess and Madame d'Hauteserre that they were to send the four
gentlemen to Troyes, where the prefect would show them the decree
reinstating them in their rights and administer to them the oath of
allegiance to the Empire and the laws. Laurence replied that she would
send the notification to her cousins and the Messieurs d'Hauteserre.

"Then they are not here?" said Goulard.

Madame d'Hauteserre looked anxiously after Laurence, who left the room
to consult Michu. Michu saw no reason why the young men should not be
released 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 her cousins to
Troyes and return with them. The whole household, made aware of the
good news, gathered on the lawn to witness the departure of the happy
cavalcade. The four young men issued from their long confinement,
mounted their horses, and took the road to Troyes, accompanied by
Mademoiselle Cinq-Cygne. Michu, with the help of his son and Gothard,
closed the entrance to the cellar, and started to return home on foot.
On the way he recollected that he had left the forks 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 edge of the pond he
heard voices, and went straight to the entrance of the cave through the
brushwood.

"Have you come for your silver?" said Peyrade, showing his big red nose
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 of vague,
indefinable coming evil which took possession of him; but he went
forward at once, and found Corentin on the stairs with a taper in his
hand.

"We are not very harsh," he said to Michu; "we might have seized
your ci-devants any day for the last week; but we knew they were
reinstated—You're a tough fellow to deal with, and you gave us too
much trouble not to make us anxious to satisfy our curiosity about this
hiding-place of yours."

"I'd give something," cried Michu, "to know how and by whom we have been
sold."

"If that puzzles you, old fellow," said Peyrade, laughing, "look at your
horses' shoes, and you'll see that you betrayed yourselves."

"Well, there need be no rancor!" said Corentin, whistling for the
captain of gendarmerie and their horses.

"So that rascally Parisian blacksmith who shoed the horses in the
English fashion and left Cinq-Cygne only the other day was their spy!"
thought Michu. "They must have followed our tracks when the ground was
damp. Well, we're quits now!"

Michu consoled himself by thinking that the discovery was of no
consequence, as the young men were now safe, Frenchmen once more, and at
liberty. Yet his first presentiment was a true one. The police, like the
Jesuits, have the one virtue of never abandoning their friends or their
enemies.

Old d'Hauteserre returned from Paris and was more than surprised not to
be the first to bring the news. Durieu prepared a succulent dinner,
the servants donned their best clothes, and the household impatiently
awaited the exiles, who arrived about four o'clock, happy,—and yet
humiliated, for they found they were to be under police surveillance for
two years, obliged to present themselves at the prefecture every month
and ordered to remain in the commune of Cinq-Cygne during the said two
years. "I'll send you the papers for signature," the prefect said to
them. "Then, in the course of a few months, you can ask to be relieved
of these conditions, which are imposed on all of Pichegru's accomplices.
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 has not
yet acquired the habit of bestowing favors graciously."

The party found all the inhabitants of the chateau at the gates, and a
goodly proportion of the people of the village waiting on the road to
see the young men, whose adventures had made them famous throughout the
department. Madame d'Hauteserre held her sons to her breast for a long
time, her face covered with tears; she was unable to speak and remained
silent, though happy, through a part of the evening. No sooner had the
Simeuse twins dismounted than a cry of surprise arose on all sides,
caused by their amazing resemblance,—the same look, the same voice,
the same actions. They both had the same movement in rising from their
saddles, in throwing their leg over the crupper of their horses when
dismounting, in flinging the reins upon the animal's neck. Their dress,
precisely the same, contributed to this likeness. They wore boots
a la
Suwaroff, made to fit the instep, tight trousers of white leather, green
hunting-jackets with metal buttons, black cravats, and buckskin gloves.
The two young men, just thirty-one years of age, were—to use a term in
vogue in those days—charming cavaliers, of medium height but well set
up, brilliant eyes with long lashes, floating in liquid like those of
children, black hair, noble brows, and olive skin. Their speech, gentle
as that of a woman, fell graciously from their fresh red lips; their
manners, more elegant and polished than those of the provincial
gentlemen, showed that knowledge of men and things had given them that
supplementary education which makes its possessor a man of the world.

Not lacking money, thanks to Michu, during their emigration, they had
been able to travel and be received at foreign courts. Old d'Hauteserre
and the abbe thought them rather haughty; but in their present position
this may have been the sign of nobility of character. They possessed all
the eminent little marks of a careful education, to which they added a
wonderful dexterity in bodily exercises. Their only dissimilarity was
in the region of ideas. The youngest charmed others by his gaiety, the
eldest by his melancholy; but the contrast, which was purely spiritual,
was not at first observable.

"Ah, wife," whispered Michu in Marthe's ear, "how could one help
devoting one's self to those young fellows?"

Marthe, who admired them as a wife and mother, nodded her head prettily
and pressed her husband's hand. The servants were allowed to kiss their
new masters.

During their seven months' seclusion in the forest (which the young
men had brought upon themselves) they had several times committed the
imprudence of taking walks about their hiding-place, carefully guarded
by Michu, his son, and Gothard. During these walks, taken usually on
starlit nights, Laurence, reuniting the thread of their past and present
lives, felt the utter impossibility of choosing between the brothers. A
pure and equal love for each divided her heart. She fancied indeed
that she had two hearts. On their side, the brothers dared not speak to
themselves of their impending rivalry. Perhaps all three were trusting
to time and accident. The condition of her mind on this subject acted
no doubt upon Laurence as they entered the house, for she hesitated a
moment, and then took an arm of each as she entered the salon followed
by Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre, who were occupied with their sons.
Just then a cheer burst from the servants, "Long live the Cinq-Cygne
and the Simeuse families!" Laurence turned round, still between the
brothers, and made a charming gesture of acknowledgement.

When these nine persons came to actually observe each other,—for in
all meetings, even in the bosom of families, there comes a moment when
friends observe those from whom they have been long parted,—the first
glance which Adrien d'Hauteserre cast upon Laurence seemed to his
mother and to the abbe to betray love. Adrien, the youngest of the
d'Hauteserres, had a sweet and tender soul; his heart had remained
adolescent in spite of the catastrophes which had nerved the man. Like
many young heroes, kept virgin in spirit by perpetual peril, he was
daunted by the timidities of youth. In this he was very different
from his brother, a man of rough manners, a great hunter, an intrepid
soldier, full of resolution, but coarse in fibre and without activity
of mind or delicacy in matters of the heart. One was all soul, the other
all action; and yet they both possessed in the same degree that sense 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 though
lymphatic, was fonder of bodily exercise. Families often present these
singularities of contrast, the causes of which it might be interesting
to examine; but they are mentioned here merely to explain how it was
that Adrien was not likely to find a rival in his brother. Robert's
affection for Laurence was that of a relation, the respect of a
noble for a girl of his own caste. In matters of sentiment the elder
d'Hauteserre belonged to the class of men who consider woman as
an appendage to man, limiting her sphere to the physical duties of
maternity; demanding perfection in that respect, but regarding her
mentally as of no account. To such men the admittance of woman as an
actual sharer in society, in the body politic, in the family, meant the
subversion of the social system. In these days we are so far removed
from this theory of primitive people that almost all women, even those
who do not desire the fatal emancipation offered by the new sects, will
be shocked in merely hearing of it; but it must be owned that 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. These differences instead of
hindering their affection had drawn its bonds the closer. On the first
evening after the return of the young men these shades of character
were caught and understood by the abbe, Mademoiselle Goujet, and Madame
d'Hauteserre, who, while playing their boston, were secretly foreseeing
the difficulties of the future.