The Chevalier De Maison Rouge (51 page)

this circumstance surprised Maurice. He looked all

round, thinking Genevieve was in the corridor. She was

not there. He entered, looked in the ante-chamber, the

dining-room, the saloon. He visited the bedchamber,

but anteroom, saloon, and bedchamber were all empty.

He loudly called. No one replied. The official, as he

knew, had gone out. Maurice imagined that, during his

absence, Genevieve had perhaps required some cord to

fasten her trunk, or provision de voyage to store in the carriage, and had gone out to purchase it. He thought it

imprudent, but although every moment his anxiety in-

creased, he in reality feared nothing.

Maurice waited for some time, walking up and down

the room with long impatient strides, and occasionally

leaning out of the window, which, half opened, admitted

puffs of air charged heavily with rain. But soon he fan-

cied he heard a step upon the staircase ; he listened, it

was not that of Genevieve ; he ran to the landing, looked

over the palisade, and recognized the official, who leisurely mounted the stairs after the manner of domestics.

" Scevola ! " cried lie.

The official raised his head.

"Ah ! is it you, citizen ?"

" Yes. Where is the citoyenne ? "

' ( The citoyenne ? " demanded Scevola, with much sur-

prise, as he continued mounting the stairs.

" Have you seen her below ? "

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 34!

"No."

" Go down, then, and ask the porter, and inquire of all the neighbors. "

Scevola descended.

" Quicker ! quicker ! " said his master. " Do you not see I am burning with impatience ? "

After waiting five or six minutes, and Scevola not hav-

ing made his appearance, Maurice reentered the apart-

ment and again leaned out of the window. He saw

Scevola enter several shops and leave them without having

gained any fresh intelligence. He called him. The

official raised his head, and saw his master impatiently

looking from the window. Maurice signed to him to

come up.

' It is impossible she can have gone out, "said Maurice to himself ; and again he called : '' Genevieve ! Gene-vievo

All was silent as death ; even the solitary chamber ap-

peared no longer to have an echo. Scevola reappeared.

" Well ? " demanded Maurice.

' The porter is the only person who lias seen her."

' The porter has seen her ! How was that ?"

' lie saw her go out.*'

" She is gone out, then ? ''

' It seems so."

"Alone! It is impossible Gencvieve would go out

alone ! "

She was not alone, citizen : she had a man with her."

" IIov ! a man with her ? ''

' That is what the porter says, at least."

' Go and seek him. I must tind out who this man is."

Scevola made a step toward the door; then, turning:

" Wait," said he, appearing to reflect.

' What is it ?" said Maurice, ''Speak, or you will h?

the death of me."

' Perhaps it was the man who ran after me ? "

"What for ?"

'"' To ask me for the key."

' Whatke) ?"

342 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

" The key of your apartments."

"You gave the key of the apartments to a stranger ?"

cried Maurice, seizing with both hands the official by the

collar.

"It was not to a stranger, monsieur, it was to one of

your friends."

" Ah ! yes, to one of my friends. It is Louis, no doubt, it is so. She lias gone out with Louis ; " and smiling a ghastly smile, Maurice wiped away the drops of agony

which hud gathered on his brow.

" No, monsieur ; no, it was not he. I know Monsieur

Louis very well."

" Who was it, then ? "

" You know the man who came here one day ? "

" What day ? "

"The day when you were so sad, and he took you away

with him, and you returned so happy."

Scevola had remarked all these things. Maurice regarded

him with a bewildered air ; a cold shudder ran through all

his veins. Then, after a long silence :

" Dixmer ! " cried he.

"Mafoi! yes. I think it was him, citizen."

Maurice tottered, and fell back upon the chair.

"Oh, my God!" murmured he. When he reopened

his eyes they encountered the violets, forgotten, or, rather, left there by Genevieve. He rushed toward them, seized

and kissed them, remarking where she had placed them :

"Doubtless," said he, "these violets it is her last adieu."

When Maurice turned round lie perceived for the first

time the trunk was half full, the rest of the linen remained on the ground, or in the half-opened wardrobe. The cord

which lay upon the ground had no doubt fallen from

Geni'vieve's hand at the apparition of Dixmer. It was all

explained now. The scene rose vivid and terrible before

his eyes, between these four walls that had lately wit-

nessed so much happiness. Till now Maurice had remained

crushed and heart-broken. Now the reaction was fearful.

Ilis rage was bordering on frenzy. He rose, closed the

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 343

window, took from the top of his secretaire a pair of pistols, ready loaded for their intended journey, looked to the

priming, and finding all right, placed them in his pocket.

He also furnished himself with two rouleaux of louis,

which, notwithstanding his patriotism, he had thought

it politic to -conceal at the bottom of a drawer, and

taking his saber in his hand :

"Scevola," said he, ''you are attached to me, I think ; you have served my father and myself for fifteen years."

*' Yes, citizen," replied the official, terrified at the pallor and nervous trembling he had never before remarked

in his master, who had always been justly considered one

of the most courageous and vigorous of men, " yes ; what are your orders for me ? "

" Listen. If this lady who lived here " He stopped ; his voice trembled so much in pronouncing these words,

he was unable to proceed. "If she should return," continued he, after a moment's pause, " receive her, close the door after her, take this gun, and station yourself upon the staircase; and, for your head, for your life, for your soul, do not permit a single person to enter here. If any one

should force the door, defend it. Strike ! kill ! kill, and fear nothing, Scevola, for I will answer for all."

The young man's impetuous harangue, his vehement

confidence, electrified Scevola.

"I will not only kill, but will even suffer death for the Citoyenne Genevieve," said he.

" Thanks. Now, attend. This apartment is odious to

me, and since I cannot find her I will no longer remain

here ; if she has been able to effect her escape, if she has returned, place before the window the Japan vase, with the

pearls, which she loves so much. That is, during the day.

At night put a lantern. Every time I pass the end of the

street I shall know, and if I see neither vase nor lantern I shall still continue my researches."

" Be prudent, monsieur ! Oh, pray be prudent ! " continued Scevola.

His master made no reply, but, rushing from the cham-

ber, flew down the staircase as if possessed of wings, and

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

ran toward Louis' house. It would be difficult to paint

the astonishment and rage of our worthy poet when he

heard the news, much as he wished to recommence the

touching elegies addressed by Orestes to Pylades.

"And you do not know where she is ?" he repeated, incessantly.

" Lost ! disappeared ! " shrieked Maurice, in a tone of despair ; " he has killed her, Louis he has killed her ! "

" No, my dear friend ; no, Maurice ; he has not killed her ; it is not after so many days of reflection that he would be likely to kill a woman like Genevieve. If he had

thought of doing so, he would have done it on the spot, and have left her corpse there in token of his just vengeance.

No, no ; he has taken her away, only too happy at having

regained his lost treasure."

" You do not know, Louis you do not know ; this man

had something fatal in his look."

" You are mistaken," said Louis ; " he always struck me as a brave man. He has taken her as the sacrifice. He

will stop with her, and they will die together. Where,

then, is the danger ? "

These words redoubled Maurice's fury.

"1 will find her ! I will find her, or perish in the attempt ! " cried he.

" Oh ! as to that, we are certain to find her/"' said Louis ;

" only calm yourself. They fail in success who do not reflect ; and when agitated as you are, we reflect badly and

unwisely."

"Adieu, Louis, adieu !"

" Where are you going, then ?"

" I ;un going."

" You will leave me, then ? Why is that ?"

" lii'causu tliis concerns me only. 1 alone should risk my life to save fJenevievo's."

' Do you vi.~h to die ? "

'-'I vil! fare all. I will find out the president of the

Committee of Surveillance. 1 will speak 1o Hebert, to

Danton, to Robespierre. I will avow all, that she may be

restored to me."

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 345

"Very well," said Louis ; and, without adding another word, he rose, adjusted his belt, put on his military cap,

and, as Maurice had done, provided himself with a pair of

pistols, ready loaded, which he put in his pocket.

" Let us go," said he, simply.

"But you will compromise yourself," said Maurice.

"Well, what next ?"

"Where shall we seek her first ? " said Maurice.

" We will first search in the old quarter ; you know.

Vieille Rue St. Jacques ; then we will watch for Maison

Rouge, as where he will be, doubtless Dixmer will be also ; then we will draw near the houses in La Vieille Corderie.

You know they talk of transferring Marie Antoinette to

the Temple ; believe me, men like them will not, till the last moment, abandon the hope of serving her."

' Yes/' repeated Maurice, "you are right. Maison

Rouge, do you think he is in Paris ?"

" Dixmer is there."

" It is true, it is true ; of course they will be together,"

said Maurice, to whom these vague ideas seemed partially

to restore reason.

The two friends went out to commence their search im-

mediately, but all in vain. Paris is large, and well adapted for concealment. Never was a pit known to conceal more

obscurely the secret confided to its keeping by crime or

misery. A hundred times Maurice and Louis passed over

La Place de drove ; a hundred times glanced at the house

that contained Genevieve, watching without ceasing for

Dixmer, as the priests watch the victim destined for a sac-

rifice. (Jenevieve, on her side, seeing herself destined to perish, like all generous souls, accepted the sacrifice, and only wished to die quietly and unnoticed ; besides, she

dreaded less for Dixmer than the cause of the queen the

publicity that Maurice would not fail to give to his venge-

ance. She kept, then, a silence as profound as if death

had already sealed her lips.

In the meantime, without saying anything to Louis,

Maurice had applied to the members of the terrible Com-

mittee of Public Safety ; and Louis, without speaking to

346 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

Maurice, had, on his part, determined on a similar pro-

ceeding. Thus, on the same day, a red cross was affixed

by Fouquier Tiuville to both their names, and the word

" suspects " united them in a sanguinary embrace.

CHAPTER XLVI.

THE SENTENCE.

ON the 23d day of the month of the second year of the

French Republic, one and indivisible, corresponding to

the 14th of October, 1793, old style, as it was then called, a curious crowd had, since the morning, invaded the galleries of the hall where the revolutionary sittings were

held. The passages of the palace, the avenues of the

couciergerie, were lined with greedy and impatient spec-

tators, who made over one to another their reports and

passions, as the waves transmit their froth and foam.

Notwithstanding the curiosity which agitated each spec-

tator an agitation caused by this curiosity every wave

of this troubled sea, enclosed between two barriers the

exterior one which propelled them, and the interior which

repelled them this flux and reflux of human beings wore

thus kept almost stationary in the places they had at first taken. Thus, those more conveniently situated, comprehending it was necessary they should obtain forgiveness

for their good fortune, kept this object in view by trans-

mitting to these their neighbors loss comfortably and

commodiously placed than themselves, and who, in their

turn, recounted to others the first words they hoard and

all they .saw.

Near the door of the tribunal a group of men was col-

lected, rudely disputing for ten lines of spare in width

and height for ten lines in breadth sufficed to see be-

tween two shoulders the corner of the hall and the form

of the judges for ten lines in height was sufficient to

overlook the entire hall and the figure of the accused.

Unfortunately, this entrance to the passage of the hall,

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 347

this narrow defile, was almost entirely filled by a man with broad shoulders, aiid his arms akimbo, who most effectually excluded the wavering crowd, ready to drop into the