Part 2 (1/2)
It is not difficult to persuade a young e city to while away an evening in the companionshi+p of a cheerful talker, and de Batz was essentially good co, but Arave hih the chief had warned hi man felt that that restriction would certainly not apply to a man like de Batz, whose hot partisanshi+p of the Royalist cause and hare-brained scheue of the Scarlet Pimpernel
Armand accepted the other's cordial invitation He, too, felt that he would indeed be safer fro a closely packed throng bent on a man, with the appearance of a student or of a journalist, would easily pass unperceived
But somehow, after the first ten loomy shelter of the small avant-scene box, Armand already repented of the iht, and to renew acquaintanceshi+p with the ex-officer of the late King's Guard Though he knew de Batz to be an ardent Royalist, and even an active adherent of the ue sense of mistrust of this pompous, self-complacent individual, whose every utterance breathed selfish aims rather than devotion to a forlorn cause
Therefore, when the curtain rose at last on the first act of Moliere's witty coe and tried to interest himself in the wordy quarrel between Philinte and Alceste
But this attitude on the part of the younger man did not seem to suit his newly-found friend It was clear that de Batz did not consider the topic of conversation by any means exhausted, and that it had been more with a view to a discussion like the present interrupted one that he had invited St Just to coht, rather than for the purpose of witnessing Mlle Lange's debut in the part of Celimene
The presence of St Just in Paris had as a matter of fact astonished de Batz not a little, and had set his intriguing brain busy on conjectures
It was in order to turn these conjectures into certainties that he had desired private talk with the young man
He waited silently now for awith evident anxiety on Ar the impatient tattoo upon the velvet-covered cushi+on of the box Then at the first movement of St Just towards him he was ready in an instant to re-open the subject under discussion
With a quick nod of his head he called his young friend's attention back to the ood cousin Antoine St Just is hand and glove with Robespierre now,” he said ”When you left Paris o you could afford to despise hi; now, if you desire to remain in France, you will have to fear him as a power and awith the wolves,” rejoined Arhtly ”At one time he was in love with my sister I thank God that she never cared for him”
”They say that he herds with the wolves because of this disappointment,”
said de Batz ”The whole pack is made up ofmore to lose When all these wolves will have devoured one another, then and then only can we hope for the restoration of the monarchy in France And they will not turn on one another whilst prey for their greed lies ready to their jaws Your friend the Scarlet Pimpernel should feed this bloody revolution of ours rather than starve it, if indeed he hates it as he seeation into those of the youngerfor a reply; then, as St Just remained silent, he reiterated slowly, ale:
”If indeed he hates this bloodthirsty revolution of ours as he seems to do”
The reiteration implied a doubt In a moment St Just's loyalty was up in arht for your political aims
The work of mercy that he does, he does for justice and for humanity”
”And for sport,” said de Batz with a sneer, ”so I've been told”
”He is English,” assented St Just, ”and as such will never own to sentiment Whatever be the motive, look at the result!
”Yes! a few lives stolen frouillotine”
”Women and children--innocent victims--would have perished but for his devotion”
”The more innocent they were, the more helpless, the more pitiable, the louder would their blood have cried for reprisals against the wild beasts who sent them to their death”
St Just ue with this man, whose political aims were as far apart from those of the Scarlet Pimpernel as was the North Pole from the South
”If any of you have influence over that hot-headed leader of yours,”
continued de Batz, unabashed by the silence of his friend, ”I wish to God you would exert it now”