Part 57 (1/2)
”No, Marguerite, that would unman me, and to-day I must be strong and master of myself. Farewell, I am going to the Temple!”
And, without looking at his wife again, he hurried out into the street, and turned his steps toward his destination. But just as he was turning the very next corner Lepitre met him, pale, and displaying great excitement in his face.
”Thank G.o.d!” he said, ”thank G.o.d that I have found you. I wanted to hasten to you. We must flee directly--all is discovered. Immediate flight alone can save us!”
”What is discovered?” asked Toulan. ”Speak, Lepitre, what is discovered?”
”For G.o.d's sake, let us not be standing here on the streets!”
e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Lepitre. ”They have certainly sent out the constables to arrest us. Let us go into this house here, it contains a pa.s.sage through to the next street. Now, listen! We are reported. Simon's wife has carried our names to the Committee of Public Safety as suspicious persons. Tison's wife has given out that the queen and her sister-in-law have won us both over, and that through our means she is kept informed about every thing that happens. The carpet- manufacturer, Arnault, has just been publicly denouncing us both, saying that Simon's wife has reported to him that we both have conducted conversation with the prisoners in low tones of voice, and have thereby been the means of conveying some kind of cheering information to the queen. [Footnote: Literally reproduced here.--See Concourt, ”Histoire de Marie Antoinette,” p. 290.] On that, our names were stricken from the list of official guards at the Temple, and we are excluded from the new ward committee that is forming to- day.”
”And is that all?” asked Toulan, calmly. ”Is that all the bad news that you bring? Then the projected flight is not discovered, is it?
Nothing positive is known against us? Nothing more is known than the silly and unfounded denunciations of two old women?”
”For G.o.d's sake, do not use such idle words as these!” replied Lepitre. ”We are suspected, our names are stricken from the ward list. Is not that itself a charge against us? And are not those who come under suspicion always condemned? Do not laugh, Toulan, and shake your head!
Believe me, we are lost if we do not flee; if we do not leave Paris on the spot and conceal ourselves somewhere. I am firmly resolved on this, and in an hour I shall have started, disguised as a sans- culotte. Follow my example, my friend. Do not throw away your life foolhardily. Follow me!”
”No,” said Toulan, ”I shall stay. I have sworn to devote my life to the service of the queen, and I shall fulfil my oath so long as breath remains in my body. I must not go away from here so long as there is a possibility of a.s.sisting her. If flight is impracticable to-day, it may be effected at some more favorable time, and I must hold myself in readiness for it.”
”But they will take you, I tell you,” said Lepitre, with a downcast air. ”You will do no good to the queen, and only bring yourself to harm.”
”Oh, nonsense! they will not catch me so soon,” said Toulan, confidently. ”Fortune always favors the bold, and I will show you that I am brave. Go, my friend, save yourself, and may G.o.d give you long life and a contented heart! Farewell, and be careful that they do not discover you!”
”You are angry with me, Toulan,” said Lepitre. ”You consider me cowardly. But I tell you, you are foolhardy, and your folly will plunge you into destruction.”
”I am not angry with you, Lepitre, and you shall not be with me.
Every one must do as best he can, and as his heart and his head dictate to him. One is not the better for this, and another the worse. Farewell, my friend! Take care for your own safety, for it is well that some faithful ones should still remain to serve the queen, and I know that you will serve her when she needs your help.”
”Then give me your hand in parting, my friend. And if at last you come to the conclusion to flee, come to Normandy, and in the village of Lerne, near Dieppe, you will find me, and my father will receive you, and you shall be treated as if you were my brother.”
”Thanks, my friend, thanks! One last shake of the hand. There! Now you are away, and I remain here.”
Toulan went out into the street, walked along with a cheerful face, and repaired at once to the hall where the Committee of Safety were sitting.
”Citizens and brothers,” he said, in aloud, bold voice, ”I have just been informed that I have been brought under suspicion and denounced. Friends have warned me to betake to flight. But I am no coward, I have no bad conscience, and therefore do not fly, but come here and ask you is this true? Is it possible that you regard me as no patriot, and as a traitor?”
”Yes,” answered President Hobart, with a harsh, hard voice, ”you are under suspicion, and we mistrust you. This shameful seducer, this she-wolf Marie Antoinette has cast her foxy eyes upon you, and would doubtless succeed if you are often with her. We have therefore once for all taken your name from the list of the official guards in the Temple, and you will no longer be exposed to the wiles of the Austrian woman. But besides this, as the second denunciation has been made against you to-day, and as it is a.s.serted that you are in relations with aristocrats and suspected persons, we have considered it expedient, in view of the common safety, to issue a warrant for your apprehension. An officer has just gone with two soldiers to your house, to arrest you and bring you hither. You have simply antic.i.p.ated the course of law by surrendering yourself. Officer, soldiers, here!”
The persons summoned appeared, and put Toulan under arrest, preparatory to taking him to prison.
”It is well,” said Toulan, with a n.o.ble calmness. ”I know that the time will come when you will regret having so abused a true patriot; and I hope, for the peace of your consciences, that there will be a time then to undo the evil which you are doing to me to-day, and that my head will then be on my shoulders, that my lips may be able to testify to you what my heart now dictates, that I forgive you!
You are in error about me, yet I know that you are acting not out of enmity to me, but for the weal of the country, and out of love for the great, united republic. As the true and tenderly loving son of this n.o.ble, exalted mother, I forgive you for giving ear to my unrighteous accusers, and, even if you shed my innocent blood, my dying wish will be a blessing on the republic.”
”Those are n.o.ble and excellent words,” said Hobart, coldly. ”But if deeds speak in antagonism to words, we cannot let the latter beguile us out of our sense, but we must give heed to justice.”
”That is the one only thing that I ask,” cried Toulan, brightly.
”Let justice be done, my brothers, and I shall very soon he free, and shall come out from an investigation like a spotless lamb. I make no resistance. Come, my friends, take me to prison! I only ask for permission to be escorted first to my house, to procure a few articles of clothing to use during my imprisonment. But I urge pressingly that my articles may be sealed up in my presence. For when the man of the house is not at home, it fares badly with the safety of his property, and I shall be able to feel at ease only when the seal of the republic is upon my possessions. I beg you therefore to allow my paper and valuables to be sealed in my presence. You will thus be sure that my wife and my friends have not removed any thing which might be used against me, and my innocence will s.h.i.+ne out the more clearly. I beg you therefore to comply with my wish.”
The members of the committee consulted with one another in low tones, and the chairman then announced to Toulan that his wish would be complied with, and that an escort of soldiers might accompany him to his house, to allow him to procure linen and clothing, and to seal his effects and papers in their presence.