Part 53 (1/2)
I suppose the expression of my face at the ribald tone of this remark must have intimated what I felt, but 'tried to conceal, since he speedily corrected himself, and said, in a voice of apology,--
”It is not, a.s.suredly, at their poverty I would sneer, your Excellency; but for persons of their condition this was not the suitable way to travel.”
”Did they leave no friends behind them who might give a clew to their mysterious departure?”
”Friends! No, your Excellency, they were too proud and too highly born for us of Reichenau,--at least, the Comtesse was; as for Monsieur Raper, poor fellow, he was a teacher at Monsieur Jost's yonder, and rarely seen amongst us.”
”And how do you explain it?--I mean, what explanation was the common one in vogue in the village?”
”As for that, there were all manner of rumors. Some said they had fled from their debts, which was false; for they had sold the little they possessed, and came to pa.s.s the two last days here while paying whatever they owed in the village. Some thought that they had been hiding from justice, and that their refuge had been at last discovered; and some, among whom I confess myself one, think that it was with reference to the Count's affairs that they had taken to flight.”
”How do you mean?” asked I.
”Oh, De Gabriac was a 'bad subject,' and, if report speak truly, was implicated in many crimes. One thing is certain: before they had been gone a week, the gensdarmes were here in search of him; they ransacked the lodging for some clew to his hiding-place, and searched the post for letters to or from him.”
”And so you think that it was probably to avoid him that she fled?” said I, hazarding a question, to obtain a fuller admission than he had made.
”That is precisely my opinion; and when I tell your Excellency that it was on receiving a letter from Paris, most probably from him, that she hastily sold off everything, you will possibly be of my mind also.”
”And Gabriac, did he ever appear here again?”
”Some say he did; but it is doubtful. One thing, however, is certain: there was a teacher here in Monsieur Jost's academy, a certain Monsieur Augustin, who gave lessons in mathematics, and the secret police gave him some tidings that made him also leave this; and the report is, that Gabriac was somehow the cause of this. n.o.body ever thought ill of Augustin, and it is hard to believe he was Gabriac's accomplice.”
I could perceive, from this reply of the host, that he was ”all abroad” as to any real knowledge of events, and had only got some faint glimmerings of the truth. I now suffered him to run on about people and occurrences of which I knew nothing, so as to divert him from any attention to myself, and then betook me to my bed with an anxious mind and a wearied one.
I was up early the next morning, and hastened to the chateau, where I found my old master already up, and walking in the garden. He was, indeed, much changed. Time had told heavily on him too, and he seemed far more feeble than I expected to find him. The letter with which I was charged for him invited him to make me any confidential communication he desired to impart, and to regard me as trustworthy in all respects. He read it over, I should think, several times; for he sat down on a bench, and seemed to study it profoundly.
”You shall have the papers,” said he at length; ”but I doubt that they will be found of use now. Dumourier's influence is at an end with his old adherents. The party is broken up; and, so far as human foresight can go, the cause is lost.”
”I ought to tell you, Monsieur Jost,” then broke I in, ”that although you are speaking to one who will not abuse your confidence, that it is also one who knows nothing of the plan you speak of.”
He appeared to reflect some minutes over my words, and then said,--
”These are matters, however, not for my judgment. If the Prince think well of the scheme, it is enough.”
I saw that this was said unconsciously and to himself, and so I made no remark on it.
”At all events, Monsieur Gervois,” continued he, ”let them not build upon many whose names are here. We saw what Dejaunay became t' other day. Jussard is little better than a spy for the First Consul; and as for Gabriac, to whom we all trusted, he would have been even worse than a spy, if his villany had succeeded.”
”You knew him, then, sir?” asked I.
”Knew him! Parbleu! I did know him; and better, too, than most did! I always said he would play the traitor,--not to one, but to every cause.
He was false to all, sir,” said he, with increasing bitterness,--”to his King; to that King's enemies; to the Convention; to the 'Emigration;' to the n.o.bles; to the people: false everywhere and to every one! False to her who bore his name, and to her whom he led away to ruin,--that poor girl, whose father's chivalrous loyalty alone might have protected her--How do you call him?--the Marquis de Bresinart? No, not him; I mean that old loyalist leader who lived near Valence.”
”Not the Marquis de Nipernois?” said I, in trembling eagerness.
”The same; the Marquis de Nipernois, to whose daughter he was once betrothed, and whose fair fame and name he has tarnished forever!”
”You do not mean that Gabriac was the seducer of Madame de Bertin?” said I.