The Chevalier De Maison Rouge (33 page)

budget of news. Seeing his master preoccupied, he dared

not interrupt him, and therefore contented himself by

constantly passing and repassing before him, without any

reasonable cause for so doing.

" What is it ? " at length said Maurice ; "speak, if you have anything to tell me."

" Ah, citizen, another desperate conspiracy ! "

Maurice merely shrugged his shoulders.

" A conspiracy enough to make the hair of one's head

stand upright," continued Agesilas.

"Indeed!" replied Maurice, like a man accustomed

to hear daily of thirty conspiracies at this epoch.

" Yes, citizen," replied Agesilas ; " it drives me to frenzy, you see. Xo thing else is thought of ; it makes

one's flesh creep."

" Let us heai this conspiracy," said Maurice.

"The Austrian has fulled in her attempt to escape."

" Nonsense," said Maurice, beginning to listen with the greatest avidity.

"It seems," continued Agesilas, "that the Widow Capet was in communication with the girl Tison, who is

to be guillotined to-day. She has not escaped, unfortu-

nate creature ! "

" How had the queen communication with this girl ?"

demanded Maurice, who felt the perspiration exuding at

every pore.

" Through a carnation. Can you imagine, citizen, how

they could have conveyed the plan to her in a carnation ?"

J DUMAS VOL. XI.

218 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

' ( In a carnation ! Who did this ? "

" Monsieur le Chevalier de wait, then. He bears a

fine title ; but as for me, I forget all these names. A

Chevalier de Chateau what a fool I am I it is not a

Chateau a Chevalier de Maison.'"'

"De Maison Rouge ?"

"That is it."

" Impossible ! "

" How impossible ? When I told you they have found

the trapdoor, the subterranean passage, and coaches."

" On the contrary, you have told me nothing about all

this."

" Well, I am going to tell you, then."

" Go on, then. If it is a story, it is, at least, a good one."

" No, citizen ; it is not a story, and, in proof of that, I had it from a citizen porter. The aristocrats had dug a

mine, and this mine commenced at La Rue de la Corderie,

and terminated in the cellar of the little cabin belonging

to Madame Plumeau, who has narrowly escaped being

arrested as an accomplice. This widow Plumeau you

see it all now, I hope ? "

"Yes," replied Maurice ; "but afterward ?"

" Capet's wife was to escape, by the subterranean pas-

sage. She already had her foot on the first step, when

Simon caught her by her robe. They beat to arms in

the city, and the recall in the sections. Do you not hear

the drum ? There ! It is said that the Prussians are at

Dumartin, and have reconnoitered as far as the frontiers."

In the midst of this flow of words, a mixture of truth

and falsehood, probability and impossibility, Maurice

seized the winding thread. All sprung from the carna-

tion presented before his eyes to the queen, and pur-

chased by himself from the poor, miserable flower-girl.

This carnation contained the plan of the plot, the whole

of which now burst upon him, connected as it was with

the events, more or less true, detailed by Agesilas. At

this moment the noise of the drum was heard still, and

Maurice listened to the crier in the street.

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 219

"Tremendous conspiracy discovered at the Temple by

the Citizen Simon. Grand conspiracy in favor of the

Widow Capet, discovered at the Temple."

"Yes, yes," said Maurice; "it is just as I thought.

There is some truth in all this. And Louis, in the midst

of this popular excitation, goes to offer himself to this

girl, and makes himself a suspect."

Maurice took up his hat, clasped his sword-belt, and

with two bounds was in the street.

" Where can he be ? " said Maurice to himself. " Probably on the road to the conciergerie."

And lie rushed toward the quay.

At the extreme end of the Quai de la Megisserie, some

pikes and bayonets, standing in the midst of the crowd,

attracted his attention, and he fancied in the center he

could distinguish the costume of a National Guard, and

in the group signs of hostile movements. He ran, his

heart oppressed with the dread of impending misfortune,

toward the assemblage on the banks of the river. The

National Guard pressed by the company of Marseillais

was Louis. He was very pale, his lips compressed, his

eyes menacing, his hand upon the handle of his sword,

measuring the place best calculated to strike the blows he

fully intended to inflict on his cowardly assailants.

Within two feet from Louis stood Simon. He was laugh-

ing ferociously, and pointing him out to the Marseillais

and the populace, saying :

" Look at him ! look well at him ! He is one of those

that I drove from the Temple yesterday for an aristocrat.

He is one of those who favored the correspondence with

the carnations. This is an accomplice of the girl Tison,

who will pass here presently. Well, do you see ? he

walks quietly on the quay while his coadjutor goes to the

guillotine ; and. perhaps, she was even more to him than

an assistant. She might be his mistress, and he is here

to bid her farewell, or to try and save her !"

Louis was not the man to endure much more. He

drew his sword from its scabbard. At the same time, the

crowd opened to admit a man, who rushed headlong into

220 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

the group, whose broad shoulders had already knocked

down two or three spectators who were preparing to be-

come actors in this scene.

"Be happy, Simon," said Maurice. " You regretted, no doubt, that I was not with my friend to enable you to

turn your new title of denunciator to full account.

Denounce, Simon, denounce ! I am here."

"Ma foil yes," said Simon, with his hideous laugh ;

" and your arrival is very apropos. This," continued he, " is the elegant Maurice Lindey, who was accused at the same time as the girl Tison, but was acquitted because he was rich."

" jL la lanterne / Ala lanterne ! " cried the Marseillais.

" Yes, forsooth, you had better make the attempt,"

said Maurice ; and, advancing a step, he pricked one of

the foremost cut-throats in the forehead, so that the

blood from his wound nearly blinded him.

" Have at the murderer ! " cried the latter.

The Marseillais lowered their pikes, raised their hatch-

ets, and loaded their guns, while the frightened crowd

dispersed, leaving the two friends to contend alone

against this storm of blows. They regarded each other

with a last sad yet sublime smile, while calmly awaiting

their destruction from the whirlwind of iron and flame

which threatened them, when, all at once, the door of the

house against which they were leaning suddenly opened,

and a swarm of young people, attired in the habits of

those termed " Muscadins," or fops, each wearing a sword and brace of pistols in his girdle, rushed upon the Marseillais, and were instantly engaged in a terrific contest.

fi Hurrah ! hurrah !" cried Maurice and Louis, simul-

taneously, animated by this unexpected relief, without

reflecting that to fight in the ranks of the new-comers

was to confirm Simon's accusation, "Hurrah !" But if they were forgetful 01 their own safety, another thought

for them. A short young man, about fivc-6,nd-twenty

years of age, with blue eyes, who fought without any

intermission, with infinite science and valor, with a

heavy sword, which any one would have thought his

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 221

delicate and feminine hand incapable of wielding, per-

ceiving that Maurice and Louis, instead of escaping by

the door, which seemed to have been left open with that

intention, remained fighting by his side, turned round,

saying in a low voice :

" Fly directly through this door ; pay no attention to what we may do here, or you will uselessly compromise

yourselves."

Then, seeing the two friends hesitate, he suddenly

cried out, addressing himself to Maurice :

"Away!" said he; "no patriots among us, Citizen Lindey ; we are aristocrats here."

At these words, united to the audacity which would

induce a man publicly to accuse himself of what at this

period must lead to certain death, the crowd uttered a

loud shout. But the fair young man, without evincing

any symptoms of alarm, pushed Maurice and Louis into

the alley, where he closed the door behind them. lie

then, with the three or four friends who had been assisting him, threw himself into the melee, which was now considerably augmented hy the approach of the fatal cart.

Maurice and Louis, thus miraculously saved, regarded

each other in amazement; but comprehending they had

no time to lose, sought for some" outlet. This seemed to have been managed expressly for them. They entered a

court, and at the end discovered a small door concealed,

which opened into La Rue St. Germaine 1'Auxerrois.

At this moment a detachment of gendarmes opened

from Pont au Change, who had soon swept over the

quay, although, from the traverse street where our

two friends had concealed themselves, they heard for an

instant the noise of an obstinate struggle. They pre-

ceded the cart which conducted the hapless Heloise to

the scaffold.

" Gallop ! " cried a voice, *' gallop ! "

The cart proceeded at a quick pace, and Louis saw the

unfortunate girl standing, a smile upon her lips, and

calm reliance in her eye, but was unable to exchange even a gesture with her, as she passed without seeing him, in the

222 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

midst of a whirl wind of people, shouting, " To the guillotine with the aristocrat ! to the guillotine ! " The noise decreased in the distance till they reached the Tuileries.

Then the little door through which Maurice and Louis

had escaped again opened, and three or four Muscadins,

with their clothes torn and stained with blood, passed

through. It was probably all that remained of the little

troop. The fair young man went through the last.

"Alas !" said he, "this cause is, then, accursed !"

And, casting from him his sword, notched and bloody,

he rushed toward La Rue des Lavandieres.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

MAURICE hastened to return to the section to enter a

complaint against Simon. It is true that before quitting

Maurice Louis had found a more expeditious way ; this

was to collect some Thermopyles to lie in wait for him

and kill him in a pitched battle. But Maurice was strenu-

ously opposed to this plan.

" You are ruined," said he, "if you make use of these means. Crush Simon, but do it legally. That ought to

be an easy thing enough to the lawyers."

Consequently, the next morning, Maurice laid a formal

complaint before the section, but was both astonished

and annoyed when the president turned a deaf oar, excus-

ing himself by saying he could not interfere between two

good citizens, each incited by the love of country.

" Good !" said Maurice. " I know now how to act to merit the reputation of a good citizen. To assemble the

people and to assassinate a man who displeases you ;

this you call being 'incited by love of country.' Well, I

return to Louis' opinion, which I was wrong to dispute.

After to-day, as you hear, I shall adopt patriotism and

shall first experimentalize upon Simon."

"Citizen Maurice," said the president, "you are, after all, perhaps more to blame in this affair than Simon.

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.- 223

He has discovered a conspiracy, which it was not his

province to do so. You have seen nothing, although the

discovery formed part of your duty ; and more, you have

held communication, accidentally or intentionally, we

know not which, with the enemies of the nation.' '

" I ? " said Maurice. " Well, this is something new.

And with whom, pray, Citizen President ? "

"With the Citizen Maison Kouge."

"I?" said Maurice, stupefied. "I had communication with the Chevalier de Maison Rouge ? I do not

even know him I never "

" You have been speaking to him."

" I ? "

" To shake his hand."

" I ? "

" Yes."

"Where? when, Citizen President ?" said Maurice,

carried away by the firm conviction of his own innocence.

"You have lied."

" Your zeal for your country carries you too far,

Citizen Maurice," said the president, "and you will regret what you have said, when I tell you I can prove

what I say to you be true. I have advanced nothing but

the truth. Here are three different reports accusing

you."

" Is T ow," said Maurice, " do you really think me simple enough to believe in your ' Chevalier de Maisou

Rouge ' ? "

" And why should you not believe it ?"

' Because it is only the ghost of a conspirator, with

whom you always have a conspiracy ready to amuse your

enemies."

" Read the denunciations."

"I will read nothing," said Maurice. "I protest I have never seen the chevalier never spoken to him. Let