The Chevalier De Maison Rouge (38 page)

ing again. When there, they stopped, and Maurice

turned round. The sky was red from the horizon to the

faubourg, and from above the houses ascended innumer-

able crimson stars.

CHAPTEE XXXII.

THE FIRE,

MAURICE shuddered as lie extended his hand toward

La Hue St. Jacques.

"The fire!" said ho, "the fire !"

" Yes,'' said Louis, "tho fire ! What then ?"

" Oh, Mfiti JJicu ! nwn Dieu ! if she has returned."

"Who ?"

" fiencvieve."

" (ienevu've means Madame Dixmer, does it not ?"

"Yes."

" Then: is no danger of her return ; she did not go

away for that purpose."

"Louis, I must find her. I will have my revenge."

"Oh, oh !" said Louis.

" You will assist me in my search, will you not,

Louis ?"

" Pardicu! there will be no difficulty in that."

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 253

" Why so ? "

" Without doubt, if you are so much interested, as far as I am able to form an opinion on the Citoyenne Dixmer's fate, you being intimate with her, ought, knowing

her, also to know her friends. She has not quitted Paris ;

it is all the rage to remain there ; she has taken refuge

in the house of some confidential acquaintance, and to-

morrow morning you will receive a billet from some

'Bose,' or some ' Meuton,' requesting yon to present

yourself at the house of the concierge, such a number,

such a street, and inquire for Madame ; that is all."

Maurice shrugged his shoulders ; he well knew there

was no one with whom Genevieve could take refuge.

" We shall not find her," said he.

" Will you permit me to say one thing, Maurice ? "

"What?"

" That it will be no great misfortune if we should not find her."

' If we do not, Louis, I shall die."

" DiaMe! " said the young man, " it is only this love, then, that has hitherto kept you alive ?"

" Yes," replied Maurice.

Louis reflected an instant.

" Maurice," said he, "it is now nearly eleven o'clock ; this quarter is deserted , here is a stone seat, particularly adapted for the reception of two friends. Accord me

the favor of a private interview, as they described it under the ancient regime."

They both seated themselves upon the bench.

" Speak," said Maurice, resting his aching head upon his hand.

" I give you my word of honor I will speak only in

prose, Tiion ami. without exordium, periphrase, or com-

mentary ; I tell you one tiling, it is that we are ruining

ourselves, or, rather, you are ruining us."

" Why so ?" demanded Maurice.

" There is, my friend, a decree issued by the Com-

nr.ttee of Public Safety, which declares every man a

traitor to his country who enters into any relationship

254 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

with the acknowledged enemies of the said country.

Alas ! do you know this decree ? "

" Doubtless I do," said Maurice.

" Well, it seems to me you are not a vile traitor to

your country. What say you ? as Manlius says."

"Louis ! At least, you do not regard with idolatry in

this country those who give house-room, table, and bed

to Monsieur le Chevalier de Maison Rouge, who is not a

high Republican, as I suppose, and has not been accused

at any time of having taken part in the days of September.

Ah ! Louis," said Maurice, sighing heavily.

"Still, it appears to me," continued the moralist,

"that you have been, and still are, too intimate with

the enemies of your country. AUons, allons ! cher ami,

do not rebel, and, like the fire, Enceladus, you will re-

move the mountain as you turn back."

Louis pronounced these words in the kindest manner

possible, and glossed them over with an artifice truly

Ciceronian. Maurice merely made a gesture of assent,

but the gesture was considered an admission, and Louis

continued :

" If we exist in a greenhouse temperature, a healthy

atmosphere, where the barometer invariably points to

sixteen degrees (this, my clear Maurice, is elegant, comme

il fit uf, we are occasionally rather aristocratic), we

flourish and do well, but if scorched in a heat of thirty

or forty degrees, the sup burns, so that it rises slowly,

and from the excess of heat seems cold ; when cold, then

comes the blight of suspicion ; you know this, Maurice,

and, once suspected, you possess too much good sense

not to know that we shall ere long be no more."

"'Well, then," said Maurice, "they can kill me, and there will be an end of me, for I am weary of my life.''

" A quarter of an hour ago, indeed, scarcely so long,"

said Louis, " I left you to act according to your own

pleasure on this subject ; and then to die now it is

necessary to die a Republican, while you would die an

aristocrat."

" Ah ! " said Maurice, whose blood began to boil from THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 255

Impassioned grief, resulting from the consciousness of

his own criminality, "you go too far, mon ami."

" I shall go further still, and inform you, that if you turn aristocrat "

" You will denounce me ? "

" For shame ! No. I will confine you in a yault, and

have you sought after to the sound of the drum, like a

wild object ; then I will proclaim that the aristocrats,

know ing what was in reserve, had seized, victimized, and

starved you, so that like the Prevot Elie de Beaumont,

Monsieur, Latude, and others, when found, you will be

publicly crowned with flowers by the ladies of La Halle

and the rag-pickers of the section. Make haste, then,

to appear an Aristides, else your business is quite con-

cluded."

"Louis! Louis I feel that yon are right, but I am

dragged along. I am sliding down the precipice. Leave

me to my fate, for I am drawn to it."

" I shall not leave you, but I shall quarrel with you.

Call to mind a few of the scenes enacted daily between

Pylades and Orestes scenes which prove beyond all

doubt that friendship is a paradox, since these model

friends quarreled without ceasing."

" Leave me to my fate, Louis : you had much better

do so."

"'I will never abandon you."

"Then allow me to love, to be mad, at my ease ; to be

criminal, perhaps, for if I again see her I fear I shall kill her."

" Or fall upon your knees. Ah, ah, Maurice, Maurice,

to have loved an aristocrat, 1 never could have credited

it. It is like poor Asselin with the Marquis de Gharry."

"No more, Louis, I beseech yon."

" Maurice, I will cure you, or may the devil take me.

I do not wish you to be drawn in the lottery of St. Guillo-

tine, as the grocer of La Hue des Lombards observes.

Maurice, you will exasperate me ! Maurice, you will

render me bloodthirsty ! I feel as if I wanted to set

fire to the Isle of St. Louis ! A torch ! a fire-brand ! "

256 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

Maurice smiled in spite of himself.

" You exasperate me with your folly," continued

Louis. " Drink, Maurice, become a drunkard, do any-

thing ; study political economy ; but, for the love of

Jupiter,let us fall in love with nothing but Liberty."

" Or Reason ! "

" Ah ! the goddess talks much about you. She thinks

yon a charming mortal."

" Are you not jealous ? "

" Maurice, to save a friend I feel capable of any

sacrifice.

" Thanks, my poor Louis, and I truly appreciate your

devotion ; but the best way to console me is to saturate

me with grief. Adieu, Louis, go to Arthemise."

" And you, where are you going ? "

(e I shall return home."

And Maurice turned toward the bridge.

" You live, then, on the side of the Old Rue St,

Jacques now ? "

" Xo ; but it pleases me to go that way. To look once

again upon the place inhabited by your fair incon-

stant ? "

' To see if she has not returned where she knows I

am awaiting her. Ah ! Genevieve, I could not have

believed you capable of so much deceit."

Maurice, a tyrant who well knew the fair sex, since he

died from having loved them too well, said :

" Woe to the man who trusts his heart

To woman, changeful as the breeze."

Maurice sighed, and the two friends took the road to

the Old Rue St. Jacques. As they approached they

heard a great noise and saw the light increase ; they

listened to patriotic chants, which, on a brilliant day,

in tho. glorious sunshine, or in the atmosphere of combat,

sounded like hymns of heroism ; but which, by the red

light of an incendiary fire, savored more of the degrad-

ing acronts of a drunken rabble.

"Oh, mon L>icu, rnon Dieu ! " cried Maurice, forget'

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 357

ting that God was abolished, as he wiped the perspiration

from his face.

Louis watched him attentively, and muttered :

" Alas ! when caught in Cupid's snare,

To Prudence we must bid adieu."

All the inhabitants of Paris appeared moving toward

the theater of these events we are about to narrate.

Maurice was obliged to cross a hedge formed by the

grenadiers, the range of the sections, then the impetuous

crowd of this always furious populace, at this epoch easily aroused, and who ran howling from spectacle to spectacle,

without intermission. As they approached, Maurice im-

patiently hastened his steps ; Louis, witli some trouble,

kept close behind him, for he did not like to leave him

to himself for a moment. It was nearly all over. The

fire had communicated from the outhouses, where the

soldier had flung his torch, to the work-shops, constructed of planks, so put together as to allow the free circulation of air, the merchandise was consumed, and the house

itself was now in flames.

'*' Oil, mon Dicu ! '" said Maurice ; " if she has returned, should she find-herself in a chamber encircled by the devouring element, waiting for me, calling on me *' and

Maurice, nearly insensible from grief, liked better to think of the folly of those who loved than of his treason.

Maurice stooped and entered the door lie caught sight

of through the mass of burning flame. Louis still followed

him. lie would have pursued him to the confines of -hell.

The whole was in flames ; the lire had now indeed com-

menced its work of destruction on the staircase. Maurice

hastened to visit the first floor, the salon, the chamber of Gcnevieve, of the Chevalier de Maison Eouge, and the

corridors, calling, in a choking voice :

" CJenevieve ! Geneveive "

Xo one replied. On returning from the search our two

friends saw volumes of flame now entering the door ; but,

not heeding the shouts of Louis, who had clambered to

258 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

the window, Maurice passed through the midst of them,

then ran to the house, crossed, notwithstanding all im-

pediments, a courtyard strewed with broken marbles,

discovered the salle-a-manger, the salon of Dixmer, Mo-

rand's cabinet of chemistry, all filled with smoke, with

fragments and broken glass. The fire had reached this

part of the house, and the work of destruction would soon

be complete. Maurice, as in the pavilion, did not omit

visiting a single chamber, or leave unexamined even a

corridor. He then descended to the cellars ; perhaps

Genevieve had taken refuge from the fire there. He

found no one.

" Morbleu f " said Louis, "no one but a salamander could take refuge here, and it is not that fabulous animal

that you are in search of. Let us go ; we can make in-

quiry in this assemblage ; someone has perhaps seen her."

It needed all Louis' force to drag away Maurice hope

still detained him there. Then they commenced their

investigation ; they visited the environs, stopped all the

females who passed, searched all the alleys, without any

result. It was now one o'clock in the morning, and

Maurice, notwithstanding his athletic vigor, was over-

powered and broken down with fatigue, and at length

desisted from his worse than useless efforts. A carriage

passed ; Louis hailed it.

" 3fo>i cher," said he to Maurice, " we have done all in the range of human possibility that we can do to recover

Genevieve. We have broken our backs, been roasted, and

have boon cruelly cuffed for her. Cupid, however exact-

ing lie may be, could require no more from a man in love,

and, above all, from one who is not. So jump into the

carriage, and let us return home."

Maurice submitted without making any reply. They

arrived at Maurice's door without either of the friends

having uttered a single word. As he descended from the

carriage, they heard the window of his apartment close.

" All right ! " said Louis ; " he is waiting. I shall rest easy now. Knock, however."

Maurice knocked ; the door opened.

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 259

" Bon soir," said Louis ; " wait for me to-morrow morning to go out. w

"Bon soir," said Maurice, mechanically, as the door closed behind him.

Upon the first steps of the staircase he met his official.

" Ah, Citizen Lindey," said he, " how much uneasiness you have caused us."