The Chevalier De Maison Rouge (37 page)

' You see I am at my post/' said Maurice.

" And no one has attempted to force the watchword

from you ?" said Louis.

" Xo one," replied Maurice, happy to escape by an evasion, from the way in which the question was put to

him. " Xo one. And what have you done ?"

" Why, we have acquired the certainty that the

chevalier entered the house an hour ago, and has not 'eft

it since," replied the agent of police.

" Do you know his chamber ?" said Louis.

" His room is only separated from the Citoyenne Dix-

mcr's by a corridor."

" Aii, all !" said Louis. "It appears this Chevalier de Maison Kongo is a gallant."

Maurice felt the hot blood rush to his forehead ; he

closed his eyes, yet saw a thousand lights.

"Let us see," said he, in a choking voice; "'upon what do we decide ? "

' We have decided," said the police agent, "to arrest him in his chamber, perhaps in his bed."

246 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

" He does not, then, suspect anything ? "

" Absolutely nothing."

" What is the ground plan ? " inquired Louis.

" We have had an exact plan," said the man in gray.

" A pavilion 'situated at an angle of the garden ; there it is ; you ascend four steps, do you see them here ? and

find yourself on a landing ; to the right is the apartment

of the Citoyenne Dixmer ; no doubt it is that of which

we see the window. Facing this window, at the back

part, is a door opening on the corridor, and in this corri-

dor the entrance to the chamber of the traitor."

" Well, with so careful a specimen of topography,"

said Louis, " we might, I think, as easily find our way blindfolded as with our eyes open. Let us march."

" Are the streets well guarded ? " said Maurice, with an interest which the assistants very naturally attributed

to his fear lest the chevalier should escape.

" The streets, the passages, even the crossings," said the man in gray. " I defy any one to pass who has not

the watchword."

Maurice shuddered ; all these precautions being taken

made him fear that he had uselessly parted with his

honor to add to his happiness.

" Xow," said the man in gray, "how many men do you require to secure the chevalier ? "

"How many men?" said Louis. "I hope Maurice

and I are sufficient for that. Is it not so, Maurice ? "

"Yes," murmured he; "we are certainly suffi-

cient."

" Attend ! " said the police agent ; " now, no pretending. Do you moan to take him ? "

" Morlleu ! Do we mean?" said Louis; "I should think so ! Is it not, Maurice, necessary that we should

take him ? "

Louis laid a stress upon these words, for, as he had

truly said, suspicion began to settle upon them, and it

was not wise to allow time for suspicion (which marched

with such rapid strides at this epoch) to assume a firmer

consistence, for Louis comprehended that no one would

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 247

presume to doubt the stanch patriotism of two meii who

captured the Chevalier de Maison Eouge.

" Well, then/' said the police agent, " if you are in earnest, better take three men than two, and four than

three, with you. The chevalier invariably sleeps with

pistols under his pillow, and his sword on a table by his

side."

" Eh, mordieu ! " said one of the grenadiers of Louis'

company. " Let us go in without preference for any

one ; if he resists, we will cut him to pieces ; if he sur-

renders, we will reserve him for the guillotine."

" Well done ! " said Louis. " Do we go in by the door or by the window ?"

"By the door," said the police agent; "perhaps by chance the key may remain in it, and if we enter by the

window, we must break some panes, and that would

make a noise."

"Let us go by the door, then," said Louis ; " as long as we enter, it little matters how. Allons, sword in

hand, Maurice ! "

Maurice mechanically drew his sword from the scab-

bard, and the little troop advanced toward the pavilion.

The information of the man in gray proved perfectly

correct ; they first found the steps, then the landing, and at last entered the vestibule.

' Ah ! " cried Louis, joyfully, " the key is in the door."

In short, extending his hand in the dark, his fingers

hud encountered the cold key.

Then open it, Citizen Lieutenant," suid the man in

gray.

Louis cautiously turned the key in the lock. The

door opened. Maurice wiped the perspiration from his

brow.

' We shall find him here," said Louis.

'otyet," suid the man in gray, "if our chart is

correct this is the apartment of the Citoycnne Dixmer."

" We can soon ascertain that," said Louis ; "light the wax caudle, some fire still remains."

248 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

" Light the torches/' said the man in gray ; " they are not so soon extinguished as candles."

At the same time, taking two torches from the hand of

a grenadier, which he lighted by the dying embers. He

placed one in the hand of Maurice, the other of Louis.

"You see/' said he, "I was not deceived ; here is the door opening into Citoyenne Dixmer's sleeping apartment, and here the one opening into the corridor."

" Now, for the corridor-/' said Louis..

They opened the door at the further end, which was

not more firmly secured than the first, and found them-

selves fronting the door of the chevalier's chamber.

Maurice had seen this door twenty times before, and never

thought of inquiring where it led to. All his world was

centered in the room where he was received by Geuevieve.

" Oh, oil ! " said Louis, in a low voice. " we must change our tactics no more keys, and the door locked."

" Are you," asked Maurice, at length able to articu-late, " sure that he is here ? "

' If our plan is correct, it ought to be here," replied the police agent; "besides, we are about to ascertain

that. Grenadiers, force open the door, and you, citizens,

hold yourselves in readiness, and the instant the door is

opened precipitate yourselves into the chamber.''

Four men, selected by the emissary of police, raised

the butt-ends of their muskets, and on a signal from the

man AV!IO conducted this enterprise gave one blow alto-

gether, when the door ilew into a thousand fragments.

'Surrender, or you are a dead man!" cried Louis,

rushing into the chamber.

No one replied, and the curtains of the bed were

closely drawn.

<' Make way/' said the emissary of police, ""'and at the first movement of the curtains, fire ! "

" AVait.*' said Maurice, '' I will open them.''

And 7io doubt in the hope that the Chevalier de Maison

Rouge might be concealed behind it, Maurice, hastily

pulled back the curtain, which, rolling along the iron

rods, left the tenantless bed exposed to view.

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 249

"Mordieu!" said Louis, " there is no one here."

"He must have escaped," murmured Maurice.

" Impossible, citizen, impossible ! " said the man in gray. " I tell you he was seen to enter here an hour ago, and no one has been seen to go out, and all the outlets

from the garden are well guarded."

Louis opened the cabinets, the wardrobes, and looked

everywhere, even where it was morally impossible a man

could be concealed.

" You see, however, that no one is here ? "

tf Xo one ! " repeated Maurice, with emotion easily

understood. "You see no one is here."

" To the chamber of the Citoyenne Dixmer," said the police agent ; " perhaps he may be there ? "

"Eh!" said Maurice, "respect the chamber of a woman.

" Certainly we will respect it, and the Citoyenne

Dixmer also ; but for all that, we must visit it."

" What, the Citoyenne Dixmer ? " said one of the grenadiers, delighted at the idea of making a wretched joke.

"Xo," said Louis ; "the chamber only."

" Then," said Maurice, "permit me to pass first."

"'Puss on, then," said Louis. "You are captain in all honor ; " and leaving two men to guard the apartment, they returned to that where they had lighted their

torches. Maurice approached the door opening into the

chamber of Genevieve. It was the first time he had ever

entered there. II is heart beat violently. The key was

in the door. Maurice laid his hand upon the key, but

still hesitated. " Well," said Louis, " open ! "

' lint," said Maurice, " if the Citoyenne Dixmer should be in bed ? "

" We will look in her bed, under her bed, in the chim-

ney, in the wardrobes, and then, if we find no one there

but herself, we will wish her good-night," said Louis.

"Xo, not so," said the police agent ; "we shall arrest her. The Citoyenne Dixmer is an aristocrat who has been

recognized as an accomplice of the girl Tison and the

Chevalier de Maison Koiuje."

250 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

"Open it yourself, then," said Maurice. "I do not arrest women."

The agent of police looked at Maurice sideways, and

the men murmured among themselves.

" Oh, you grumble, do you ?" said Louis ; " then you shall have two to grumble about. I am of Maurice's

opinion," and he made a step forward.

The man in gray seized the key, opened the door, and

the soldiers rushed into the chamber. Two wax lights

burned upon a little table, but the chamber of Genevieve,

like that of the Chevalier de Maison Rouge was unin-

habited.

" Empty ! " cried the police agent.

"Empty!" cried Maurice, turning pale; "where is she, then ? "

Louis regarded Maurice with astonishment.

" Let us search," said the agent of police ; and, closely followed by the militia, he began to rummage the house

from the cellars to the work-shops. At length, when

their backs were turned, Maurice, who had followed them

impatiently with his eyes, in his turn darted into the

chamber, opening the presses, which had already been

opened, and, calling, in a voice replete with anxiety,

" Genevieve ! Genevieve !" But Genevieve made no reply ; the chamber was indeed vacated. Then he began

to search the house in a species of frenzy, the greenhouse, even the outhouses, nothing was omitted, but all without

success. Suddenly a noise was heard, a troop of armed

men presented themselves at the door, exchanged the

password with the sentinel, entered the garden, and dis-

persed themselves over the house. At the head of this

reinforcement waved the red plume of llenriot.*

" Well," said Louis, "where is the conspirator ?"

" How ! where is the conspirator ?"

" Yes ; I ask what have you done with him ?"

" I shall ask you that question. If your detachment

had guarded the outlets properly, ere this he must have

* The name of Santerre has boen incorrectly introduced, as, since the 3d of May, Henriot commanded the National Guard*

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 251

been arrested, since he was not in the house when we

entered it."

. " What ! do you mean to say," cried the furious general, "that you have really allowed him to escape ?"

" We could not allow him to escape, since we have

never taken him."

" Then I can comprehend nothing," said Henriot.

" Why ? " said Louis.

" Of the message you sent me by your envoy."

" We have sent none."

" Yes ; a man in a brown coat, with black hair, and

green spectacles, who came from you to inform me you

were on the eve of capturing Maison Rouge, but that he

defended himself like a lion, upon hearing which I has-

tened to your assistance."

" A man in a brown coat, black hair, and green specta-

cles ? " repeated Louis.

"Yes ; with a female on his arm."

"Young and pretty ?" cried Maurice, glancing toward the general.

" Yes, young and pretty."

"It was she the Citoyenne Dixmer."

" And lie ? Maison Rouge. Oh, miserable that I am,

not to have killed them both ! "

" Let us go, Citizen Lindey," said Henriot ; " we may perhaps overtake them."

" But how the devil," said Louis, " came you to let them pass ? "

"Tardieu !" said Henriot, "I allowed them to pass because they know the password."

"' They had the password ?" said Louis ; "then there is surely a traitor among us."

" Xo, no, Citizen Louis ; you know, and we all know,

we have no traitors among us."

Louis looked around him as if to detect the miscreant,

and publicly proclaim his shame. He encountered the

gloomy face and wandering eye of Maurice.

" Ah ! " murmured he, " who could have foretold this ? "

252 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

" This man cannot be very far off/' said Henriot ;

" let us search the environs ; perhaps he has fallen in with some patrol who, more clever than ourselves, will

not fail to secure him.

"Yes, yes, let us search/' said Louis ; and, under the pretense of so doing, he seized Maurice by the arm, and

drew him into the garden.

" Yes, let us search," said the soldiers ; "but before we search " and one of them flung his still burning

torch into an adjacent outhouse filled with bundles of

dried cow-hair and rotten planks.

"Come," said Louis, " come."

Maurice offered no resistance. He followed Louis like

a child ; they both ran as far as the bridge without speak-