The Chevalier De Maison Rouge (6 page)

sympathy with the people, blended with more aristocratic

organizations ; such were the morals, not of those whom

we have selected, but which history has given us as the

heroes of our tale.

As to his personal appearance, he was in height five

feet eight inches, from twenty-five to twenty-six years of

age, and muscular as Hercules. His beauty was of the

French cast, that is to say, fair complexion, blue eyes,

curling chestnut hair, rosy lips, and ivory teeth.

After the portrait of the man comes the position of the

citizen. Maurice, not rich, but still independent, bore a

name much respected, and, above all, popular. Maurice,

known by his education, and principles still more liberal

even than his education, Maurice placed himself, so to

speak, at the head of a party composed of all the young

citizen patriots. It was well that with the sans-culottes

he passed for rather lukewarm, and with the sectionaries

as rather foppish. But the sans-culottes nc longer re-

membered his lukewarmness when they saw him snap in

twain the knotted cudgels, and the sectioiiaries pardoned

his elegance when he one day scientifically planted a blow

between two oyes that had been watching him in an of-

fensive manner for some time past.

And now for the physical, moral, and civic combined.

Maurice had assisted at the taking of the Bastile, he had

been on the expedition to Versailles, had fought like a

lion on the 10th of August, and in this memorable journey,

it is only justice to observe, he had killed as many patriots as Swiss, .lot being more willing to permit an assassin

under a blouse than an enemy to the Republic under a

red coat. It was he who exhorted the defenders of the

chateau to surrender themselves, and to prevent the shed-

ding of blood ; it was he who placed himself before the

mouth of the cannon to which a Parisian artilleryman was

putting a light ; he who by a window first entered the

Louvre, regardless of the firing of five hundred Swiss and

as many gentlemen in ambush ; and when he perceived

36 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

the signal of surrender, his avenging sword had already

cut through more than ten uniforms. Then, seeing hia

friends leisurely massacring some prisoners, who, having

thrown down their arms, and, clasping their hands, sup-

plicated for life, he furiously attacked these fiends, which had gained for him a reputation worthy of the good days

of Rome and of Greece. War declared, Maurice enrolled

himself, and departed for the frontier in the ranks, as a

lieutenant, with the first fifteen hundred volunteers the

city sent against the invaders, and who each day had been

followed by fifteen hundred others.

At the first battle in which he assisted, that is to say,

at Jemappes, he received a ball, which, after having di-

vided the muscles of the shoulder, lodged against the

bone. The representative of the people knew Maurice,

and he returned to Paris for his recovery.

For a whole month, consumed by fever, he tossed upon

his bed of suffering, but in January was able to resume hia command, if not by name, at least in fact, of the club of

Thermopyles, that is to say, of one hundred young men

of the Parisian citizens, armed to oppose any attempt in

favor of the tyrant Capet ; and yet more, Maurice, with

contracted brows, dilated eyes, and pale face, his heart

shrouded with a strange mixture of moral hatred and

physical pity, assisted at the execution of the king, and

perhaps he alone, of all that throng, remained silont

when the head of the son of St. Louis fell on the scaffold, ami only raised on high his redoubtable saber, while his

friends, loudly shouting, " Vive la liberte!" omitted to notice that one voice, at least, did not unite itself with

their own.

This was the individual who, on the morning of the

14th of March, bent his steps toward La Rue Lepelletier,

and of whose stormy career our history will furnish fur-

ther detail.

Toward ten o'clock Maurice reached the section of

which he was secretary. The commotion was great. The

question in agitation was, to vote an address to the Con-

Tention, in order to repress the conspiracies of the Giron-

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 37

dins. They impatiently awaited the arrival of Mau-

rice.

There was no doubt of the return of the Chevalier de

Maison Rouge, of the audacity with which the arch-con-

spirator had for the second time entered Paris, where he

well knew a price was now fixed on his head.

To this circumstance was attributed the attempt made

the preceding evening on the temple, and each one ex-

pressed his hatred and indignation against the traitors

and aristocrats.

Contrary to the general expectation, Maurice appeared

preoccupied and silent, wrote down the proclamation,

finished his employment in three hours, demanded if the

sitting had terminated, and receiving an answer in the

affirmative, took his hat, and proceeded toward La Rue

St. Honore.

Arriving there, Paris appeared quite different to him.

He revisited the corner of La Rue du Coq, where, during

the night, he had first seen the lovely unknown struggling

in the hands of the soldiers. Then, from thence he pro-

ceeded to the bridge Marie, the same road he had traveled

by her side, stopping where the patrols had stopped them,

repeating in the same place, as if it had preserved an

echo of their words, the sentences exchanged between

them ; only it was now one o'clock in the afternoon, and

the sun, shining brilliantly upon this walk, reminded him

at every step of the occurrences of the past night.

Maurice crossed the bridge, and entered directly La

Rue Victor, as it was then called.

" Poor woman," murmured Maurice, " she did not reflect yesterday that the duration of the night was only

twelve hours, and that her secret would, in all prob-

ability, not last longer than the night. By the light of

the sun, I will endeavor to find the door through which

she vanished, and who knows but I may, perhaps, even

see her at a window ? "

He then entered the Old Rue St. Jacques, and placed

himself in the same spot as the unknown had placed him

on the preceding evening. For an instant he closed his

38 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

eyes, perhaps foolishly expecting the kiss he had then

received would again impress his lips. But he felt noth-

ing but the remembrance ; 'tis true that burned yet.

Maurice opened his eyes, and saw two little streets, one

to the right, the other to the left. They were muddy,

dirty, and badly formed, furnished with barriers, cut by

little bridges, thrown over a kennel. There might be

seen the beams of arches, nooks, corners, and twenty

doors propped up, fast falling into decay. Here, indeed,

was misery in all its hideousness. Here and there was a

garden inclosed in a fence, others by palisades of poles,

some by walls, and skins hanging in the outhouses, dif-

fusing around that disgusting odor always arising from a

tan-yard.

Maurice's search lasted for nearly two hours, during

which he found nothing, and divined nothing, and ten

times he had retraced his steps to consider where he was.

But all his efforts were in vain ; his search was a fruitless one, as all trace of the young woman seemed to have been

effaced by the fog and rain of the previous night.

" Truly," said Maurice, " I must be in a dream. This filthy place could not for an instant have afforded refuge

for my beautiful fairy of last night."

There was, in this wild Republican, more real poetry

than in his friend of the anacreontic quatrains, since he

clung to this idea, fearful to sully, even in thought, the

spotless purity of the unknown. But all hope had now

forsaken him.

"Adieu," said he; "mysterious beauty, you have treated me like a child and a fool. Would she have led

me here if she really lived in this wretched locality ? Xo, she would only pass as a swan over the infected marsh,

and, like a bird in the air, leave 110 trace behind."

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 39

TH,E TEMPLE.

THE same day, and the same hour, when Maurice, dis-

appointed and unhappy, repassed the bridge De la

Tournelle, several municipals, accompanied by Santerre,

commandant of the Parisian National Guard, made a

visit of inquiry to the temple, transformed into a prison,

since the 13th of August, 1793.

The visit was made especially to an apartment in the

third story, consisting of an ante-chamber and three

rooms. One of these chambers was occupied by two

females, a young girl, and a child of nine years old, all

dressed in mourning. The elder of the females was about

seven or eight and thirty. She was seated at a table

reading.

The second, whose age appeared twenty-eight or twenty-

nine was engaged on a piece of tapestry.

The young girl of fourteen years was seated near the

child, who, ill and in bed, closed his eyes as if asleep,

although that was utterly impossible, owing to the noise

made by the municipals. While some moved the beds,

others examined their clothes and linen ; the rest, when

their search was concluded, remained rudely staring at the

unfortunate prisoners, who never even raised their eyes,

the one from her book, the other from her embroidery,

and the third from her brother.

The eldest of these women was tall, handsome, and very

pale. She appeared to concentrate all her attention on

her book, although, in all probability, her eyes read, but

not her mind. One of the municipals approached her,

brutally snatched away her book, and flung it into the

middle of the room. The prisoner stretched her hand

across the table, took up the second volume, and con-

tinued to read.

40 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

The Montagnard made a furious gesture, as if he would

take away the second, as he had the first, but at this

attempt, which startled the prisoner at her embroidery

near the window, the young girl sprang forward, and

encircling the reader's head with her arms, weeping, ex-

claimed : "My poor mother! my poor mother!" and

then embraced her. As she did so, the prisoner placed

her mouth to her ear, and whispered :

" Marie, there is a letter concealed in the stove ; remove it."

" Come, come," said the municipal, brutally dragging the young girl toward him, and separating her from her

mother, "shall you soon have finished embracing ?"

"Sir," said she, "has the Convention decreed that children shall not embrace their mothers ? "

" No ; but it has decreed that traitors, aristocrats, and ci-devants shall be punished ; that is why I am here to

interrogate you. Answer, Antoinette."

She who was thus grossly accosted did not even deign

to look at her examiner, but turned her head aside,

while a flush passed over her face, pale and furrowed

with tears.

"It is impossible," said he, "that you are ignorant of the attempt last night. Whence came it ?"

The prisoners still maintained silence.

" Answer, Antoinette," said Santerre, approaching her, without remarking the almost frenzied horror which had

seized the young woman at sight of this man, who, on the

morning of the 21st of January, conducted Louis XVI.

from the temple to the scaffold. " Reply. They were

conspiring last night against the Republic, and seeking

your escape from the captivity in which you are expiating

your crimes, by the will of the people. Tell me, do you

know who are the conspirators ? "

Marie started at contact with that voice, which she

endeavored to fly from by removing her chair to the

.greatest distance possible, but replied no more to this

question than to the former one ; paid no more deference

to Santerre than she had done to the municipal.

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 41

" You are, then, determined not to reply ? " said Santerre, stamping his foot furiously.

The prisoner took up the third volume from the table.

Santerre turned himself away. The brutal power of this

man, who commanded eighty thousand men, who had

only need of a gesture to cover the voice of the dying

Louis XVI., was defeated by the dignity of a poor pris-

oner, whose head he could cause to fall, but whose will

he could not bend.

" And you, Elizabeth," said he, addressing the other female, who at that instant abandoned her tapestry to

join her hands in prayer, not to these men, but to God,

" will you reply ?"

" I do not know what you ask," said she ; "therefore, I cannot reply."

" Morblen ! Citoyenne Capet," said Santerre, impatiently, " I think what I say is sufficiently clear, too.

I again tell you that yesterday an attempt was made for

your escape, and you certainly must know the culprits."

" Having no communication with those outside, mon-

sieur, we cannot possibly tell what they do, either for or