Part 45 (1/2)
”These are not days in which one can trust to the post, Jasper; but if ever the occasion offer of letting us hear of you by other means, you 'll not neglect it.”
”The Pere Tonsurd will manage this for you,” broke in Ursule. ”He knows how to communicate, when, and with whom he pleases.”
”But how am I to meet with him?” asked I.
”This is his address, and this letter will introduce you,” said she, giving me a carefully-folded and well-sealed packet. ”Make a friend of him, Jasper, and your happiness will be the reward.”
I thought that Margot's lip was upturned at these words, with a faint expression of disdainful meaning; but I may easily have been deceived, for as I looked again, her features were calm and unmoved.
”The Pere,” resumed Ursule, ”was superintendent of the 'Chaise Dieu,'
and removed to be a Professor at Namur. He is a man of high acquirements and sincere piety, but his great characteristic is his humility. With a tenth of the ambition that others possess, he had been a Prince of the Church.”
Margot's eyes were downcast as this was spoken, so that I could not detect how the speech affected her; but again it struck me that her mouth was moved with an expression of scorn.
”There! I hear the horn of the postilion; you have n't a moment to lose!” cried Ursule.
A fond, close embrace with each in turn, and a whispered word from Margot which I tried in vain to catch, and I was gone! I buried my head between my hands in shame, for I was crying bitterly, and never looked up till we were far away from the village, and traversing a wide, open country, with great undulating fields of corn, and few traces of habitation.
”Come, come, be a man,” broke in the _conducteur_, with a rough good-humor. ”You 're not the first who had to leave his home for the conscription, and some have gone back _chefs-d' escadron_, afterwards.”
I accepted the part he thus erringly a.s.signed me, and let him run on about all the fortunes and chances of a soldier's life.
If his conversation did not divert my thoughts, it at least suffered me to pursue them unmolested; and so I travelled along through the whole of that night and the following day, seldom speaking, or only in half mechanical a.s.sent to some remark of my companion.
”They 'll want to see your pa.s.sport here, citizen,” said he, as we approached the gate of a fortified town; ”so get it ready, and don't delay the authorities.”
A few minutes more brought us to the outworks of a fortification, pa.s.sing through which, we crossed a drawbridge, over a deep moat, and entered a long, dark archway. Here the diligence drew up, and the pa.s.sengers were ordered to descend. I overheard the _conducteur_ say the word ”conscript,” and began to fear that he used it in relation to me, when suddenly the official, opening my pa.s.sport, called out:
”Which of you is the citizen Bernard?”
I at once remembered that it was the name I had recruited under, and answered, ”It is I.”
”Step inside here,” said he, civilly; ”I have some directions with respect to you.”
I walked into a small chamber off the public room, when, having carefully closed the door, he said,--
”So you are going over to England, monsieur?”
The last word was accented deeply, and with an emphasis meant to show that he who used it proclaimed himself no partisan of republican principles, but one who held to the ancient habits of the monarchy.
The manners of the time suggested distrust on all sides, and I answered, guardedly, that I had some intention of visiting England.
”You will see them, then,” resumed he, ”and even that much is a blessing in itself! How do I envy you! Ah, monsieur, if the name should not escape you, will you try and remember Claude Mirepois? My father was head postilion in the royal stables, and enjoyed his pension to his death; and I was educated by order of the princes, and was to have been in the household too.”
”Are we all right and regular, citizen?” broke in the _conducteur_, putting in his head.
”All right--quite right, citizen Guichemar,” said the other, in some confusion. ”These are ticklish times; I was anxious to see that this youth's pa.s.s was regular.”
”_Parbleu!_ a conscript is always _en regle_,” said the other, laughing, and so hurried me away to the diligence; and once more we rattled along on our journey.
The whole of that night my mind dwelt upon this incident. Amongst the various parties that disputed for preeminence in the country, I had never heard of any professing royalist principles, except the Vendeans; nor had I the slightest suspicion that many concealed monarchists held places of trust under the government of the republic.