The Chevalier De Maison Rouge (42 page)

while undergoing this examination.

"Theodore !" said he ; "and who is Theodore ?"

" I," said the man in the blouse.

"You carried the head oi' the Princess Lamballe?"

said the public accuser, with a great expression of doubt.

" I. .Rue St. Antoine."

" But I know a person who boasts that he did so,"

said Fouquier.

" I know ten," replied the Citizen Theodore, courageously ; "but, indeed, as they all make some demand,

and I ask nothing, at least I ought to have the preference

I hope."

This reply excited Simon's laughter, and dispersed the

cloud on the accuser's brow.

" Right," said he; "and if you did not do it, you ought to have done so. But leave me now ; Simon has

some business to transact with me."

Theodore retired, rather wounded by the frankness of

the public accuser.

"One moment," cried Simon. " Do not send him away so ; let us first hear his denunciation."

"Ah!" said Fouquier Tinville, with an absent air,

* a denunciation ?"

" Y',s ; a covey," replied Simon.

"All in good time. Speak what is the matter

now ? "

Ali ! not much ; only the Chevalier do Maisou

Itouuv ;ind some of his friends."

Fouquier advanced a step, while Simon raised his

arms toward heaven.

"Is this the truth ?" they exclaimed, both together.

"The pure truth ; will you take them ?"

"Directly. Where are they ?"

" I met the Chevalier do ALaison Rouge in La Rue de

la Grande Tissanderie."

280 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

" You are mistaken ; he is not in Paris," replied Fouquier.

"I tell you I have seen him."

" Impossible ; they have sent a hundred men in pur-

suit of him ; he would not show himself in the streets of

Paris/'

" It was him," said the patriot. " Very brown, and a beard like a bear."

Fouquier shrugged his shoulders disdainfully.

" More folly," said he ; " the Chevalier de Maisou Rouge is short, pale, and has not a sign of a beard."

The patriot dropped his weapon with an air of con-

sternation.

" Never mind, your good intention was all the same.

Come, Simon, we must both make haste ; they require

the register, this is the time for the carts."

"Well, there is nothing new ; the child is well."

The patriot turned his back that he might not appear

indiscreet, but remained in a position which enabled him

to listen.

"I will go," said he, "lest I should intrude."

" Adieu ! " said Simon.

" Good day," said Fouquier.

" Tell your friend that you were deceived," added Simon.

"Well, I shall wait."

And Theodore removed to a short distance, and stood

resting on his cudgel.

"So the child goes on well? "said Fouquier; "but the rest ? "

" I mold him to my will."

" He will speak, then ? "

"When I choose."

" I think he will be afraid in the trial of Antoi-

nette."

"I think not ; indeed, I am sure."

Theodore was leaning against, a pillar, his eyes directed

toward the door. But his eye was wandering, while his

ears were erect and uncovered under the hairy bonnet he

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 281

wore. Perhaps he saw nothing, bnt most assuredly he

heard something.

" Reflect well/' said Fouquier, " and do not make what is termed a blunder of this commission. You feel

sure that Capet will speak ? "

" He will say all that I require."

" Has he told you what we are going to ask him ? "

"lie has told me."

" It is important, Simon, that you shonld promise this ; the child's evidence is fatal to the mother."

" I count upon that, pardieu ! "

"There will have been nothing equal to it seen since

the intimacy between Xero and Narcisse. Once more,

reflect, Simon."

" One would fancy you took me for a brute, repeating

constantly the same thing. Take this as an example :

when I put leather in water it becomes supple, does it

not ? "

" But I do not know," replied Fouquier.

" It becomes soft, then. Well, in my hands the little

Capet becomes supple as the softest leather. I have my

own method for that."

"It may be so," said Fouquier. "Have you anything else to say ? "

" I forgot. There is a denunciation.*'

" Again ? You will overwhelm me with business,"

said Fouquier.

" One must serve the country."

Simon presented a small paper, black as the leather he

had just mentioned, but certainly less supple. Fouquier

receive. 1 it and read the contents.

"Again the Citizen Louis ; you have a great hatred

for this man.''

" I am always at daggers drawn with him. He said,

'Adieu, madame,' to a woman who saluted him from a

window yesterday evening. To-morrow I hope to give

you a little information concerning another ' suspect ' ;

that Maurice who was municipal at the Temple when

that affair of the red carnation occurred."

282 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

" Precisely, precisely," said Fouquier, smiling at Simon.

He held out his hand, and then turned away with an

eagerness that evinced little favor toward the shoemaker.

" What the devil do you want more ? Many have been

guillotined for much less."

"Patience," replied Fouquier, quietly; ''everything cannot be done at the same time ; " and he passed quickly through the wicket.

Simon looked round for the Citizen Theodore, to con-

sole himself with him. He was no longer to be seen. He

had hardly gone beyond the western iron gate, when

Theodore reappeared at the corner of a writer's hut. The

occupant of the hut accompanied him.

" At what hour are the iron gates closed ? " said Theodore to this man.

"At five o'clock."

" And then what do they do here ? "

" Nothing ; the hall remains empty till to-morrow."

"'No rounds, no visits ? "

"No, monsieur; our barracks are locked."

The word "monsieur" made Theodore knit his brows

and look around with defiance.

"Are the crowbar and pistols safe in the barracks ?"

said he.

"Yes, under the carpet."

" Keturn home, then. Apropos, show me again the

chamber of the tribunal that has not a grated window,

and looks upon the court near La Place Dauphiue."

"To the left, between the pillars under the lantern."

" Go now, and have the horse ready at the place as-

signed.''

" A glorious chance ! a glorious chance ! Depend fully upon mo."

" Now is your time. No one is looking. Open your

barrack."

" It's done, monsieur ; I will pray for you."

" It is not for me you ought to pray. Adieu."

And the Citizen Theodore, after an eloquent look,

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE, 283

glided so adroitly under the low roof of the barrack, that

he disappeared like the shadow of the waiter who closed

the door. The worthy scribe drew the key from the lock,

took some papers under his arm, and went out of the vast

saloon with the delightful thought that the stroke of five

would disperse all these registers like an arrear guard of

idle bees.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE CITIZEN THEODORE.

THIS immense saloon was enshrouded by the gray veil

of night, of which the wretched echoes had learned to re-

peat the severe words of the advocates and the suppliant

ones of the pleaders. From afar, in the distance, in the

midst of the obscurity, upright and immovable, a white

column seemed watching, in the center of the hall, like a

phantom protector over the sacred place. The only noise

heard in this darkness was the nibbling and galloping of

innumerable rats, who rummaged the papers enclosed in

the writer's huts, having first commenced by gnawing the

wood. Sometimes the sound of a carriage penetrated as

far as this sanctuary of Themis (an academician, so

called), and the loose clashing of keys, which appeared to

proceed from under the ground ; but all this only rever-

berated in the distance, and nothing resembling a noise

ever interrupted the silent darkness, which was not even

broken upon by the apparition of a star. Most unques-

tionably, much terror was occasioned at this hour by the

saloon of a palace, whose Avails of the exterior were yet

stained with the blood of the victims of September whose

staircases had witnessed the descent in one day of twenty.

five human beings condemned to an ignominious death,

and separated only by a few feet from the cells of the con-

ciergerie peopled with bleached skeletons. Notwithstand-

ing, in the middle of this frightful night in the midst o:

this almost solemn silence, a low grinding was heard j

284 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

the door of a writer's hut turned upon its creaking

hinges, and a shadow, darker than the shadow of night,

glided cautiously out of the barrack. Then the fierce

patriot we have heard addressed as " Monsieur," but who called himself Theodore, stepped lightly over the

uneven stones. He held in his right hand a ponderous

iron lever, and with his left felt in his belt to ascertain the safety of his double-barreled pistol.

" I reckoned twelve stones to this part of the cell, and here is the end of the first," murmured he ; and, as he calculated, groping with the point of his foot, to discover the chinks which time had rendered daily more perceptible.

" Let me see," said he, stopping ; "have I taken my measurement correctly ? Shall I possess strength sufficient ? A?icl she will she have the courage ? Oh, yes ;

her courage is known to me. Oh, mon Dieu ! mon Dicu I

when I shall take her hand when I can say, ' Madame,

you are saved ! ' '

He suddenly paused, as if crushing this hope beneath

his feet.

" Ah ! " replied he, " fearful and foolish project. They say the others hid themselves under their bedclothes, or

contented themselves by roaming about dressed as lackeys

through the conciergerie ; but they have not my motive

for daring all it is, that I not only desire to serve the

queen, but the woman. Well, to work ; we Avill sum up

the whole. To raise the stone is nothing, to leave it open

is the danger they may perhaps come the rounds ; but

yet they never do so. They cannot suspect anything,

for I have not any accomplices, and what is required with

an ardor like mine to overcome the dark passage ? In

three minutes I am under her chamber ; in five minutes

I raise the stone which is on the hearth. She will hear

me working, but has too much firmness to feel alarmed ;

on the contrary, she will understand that a friend is near, and laboring for her deliverance. She is guarded by two

men, who will doubtless hasten to the spot. Well, after

all," said the patriot, with a melancholy smile, looking THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 285

first at the weapon concealed in his girdle, and then at the one he held poised in his hand, "a double shot from this pistol, or a couple of strokes from this iron bar. Poor

creatures ! they will die like others not more culpable

than themselves."

And the Citizen Theodore resolutely pressed his lever

between the chinks of the flag-stones. At this moment a

vivid light gleamed like a ray of gold across the stones,

and a noise, repeated by the echoes of the vault, caused

the conspirator to turn, and then with a single bound to

conceal himself in the stall. Soon voices, weakened by

the distance, and softened by the emotion experienced by

every one at night in a large and desolate building,

reached the ears of Theodore. He stooped down, and

through an aperture in the stall perceived first a man in

military costume, whose large saber, dangling against the

pavement, partly produced the sound which had attracted

his attention ; then a man in a pistachio-colored suit,

holding a rule in his hand, and a roll of papers under his

arm. Thirdly, a man in a large waistcoat of rateen and

fur bonnet ; and lastly, a fourth, with wooden shoes and

a blouse. The iron gate, Des Merciers, ground upon its

sonorous hinges, rattling the chain intended to keep it

open during the clay. The four men entered.

" A round," murmured Theodore. " God be praised !

five minutes later and I should have been ruined."

He then, with the utmost attention, endeavored to rec-

ognize the individuals who composed the round indeed,

three of them were known to him. He who walked first,

clad in the costume of a general, was Elenriot ; the man

in the hairy bonnet was Richard, the concierge, and the

man in the blouse was, in all probability, a turnkey. But

the man in the pistachio-colored coat he had never seen

he was totally unknown to him. Who or what could

this man be ? and what brought, at ten o'clock at night,

to the Salle des Pas-Perdus, the general of the Commune,

the guardian of the conciergerie, a turnkey, and this

man unknown ? The Citizen Theodore remained kneeling,

with one hand on his loaded pistol, while with the other

286 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

he replaced his bonnet, which his precipitous movement