Part 65 (1/2)

After the careful investigation had been ended, the doctor called the two gentlemen who had withdrawn to the window to the bed again.

”Marquis,” said he, ”this unfortunate child will never recover, and the least painful thing that could happen to him would be a speedy release from his miserable lot. Yet I do not believe that this will occur, but consider it possible that the boy will protract his unfortunate life a full year after his mind has entirely pa.s.sed away, and nothing is left of him but his body. The boy, if you can regard such a poor creature as a human being, is suffering from an incurable form of scrofula, which will by and by consume his limbs, and convert him into an idiot; he is now deaf; he will be a mere stupid beast. If it were permitted to subst.i.tute the hand of science in place of the hand of G.o.d, I should say we ought to kill this poor creature that is no man and no beast, and has nothing more to expect of life than pain and torture, having no more consciousness of any thing than the dog has when he does not get a bone with which to quiet his hunger.”

”Poor, unhappy creature!” sighed the marquis. ”Now, I thank G.o.d that He released my sister from the pain of seeing her dear child in this condition.

”Doctor Naudin,” said Toulan, solemnly, ”is it your fixed conviction that this sick person will never recover?”

”My firm and undoubted conviction, which every physician who should see him would share with me.”

”Are you of the opinion that this child has nothing in life to lose, and that death would be a gain to it?”

”Yes; that is my belief. Death would be a release for the poor creature, for life is only a burden to it as well as to others.”

”Then,” cried Toulan, solemnly, ”I will give this poor sick child a higher and a fairer mission. I will make its life an advantage to others, and its death a hallowed sacrifice. Marquis of Jarjayes, in the name of King Louis XVI., in the name of the exalted martyr to whom we have all sworn fidelity unto death, Queen Marie Antoinette, I demand and desire of you that you would intrust to me this unhappy creature, and give his life into my hands. In the name of Marie Antoinette, I demand of the Marquis of Jarjayes that he deliver to me the son of his sister, that he do what every one of us is joyfully prepared to do if our holy cause demands it, that this boy may give his life for his king, the imprisoned Louis XVII.”

While Toulan was speaking with his earnest, solemn voice, Jarjayes knelt before the bed of the poor sobbing child, and, hiding his face in his hands, he prayed softly.

Then, after a long pause, he rose and laid his hand on the feverish brow of the boy. ”You have addressed me,” he said, ”in the name of Queen Marie Antoinette. You demand of me as the guardian of this poor creature that I give him to you, that he may give his life for his king. The sons and daughters of my house have always been ready and glad to devote their possessions, their happiness, their lives, to the service of their kings, and I speak simply in the spirit of my sister--who ascended the scaffold to seal her fidelity to the royal family with her death--I speak in the spirit of all my ancestors when I say, here is the last off-spring of the Baroness of Tardif, here is the son of my sister; take him and let him live or die for his king, Louis XVII., the prisoner at the Temple.”

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE CONSULTATION.

During the night which followed the second visit of Doctor Naudin, Jeanne Marie Simon had a long and earnest conversation with her husband. The first words which the wife uttered, spoken in a whisper though they were, excited the cobbler so much that he threatened her with his clinched fist. She looked him calmly in the face, however, and said to him softly, ”And so you mean to stay perpetually in this hateful prison? You want to remain shut up here like a criminal, and get no more satisfaction out of life than what comes from tormenting this poor, half-witted boy to death?”

Simon let his hand fall, and said, ”If there were a means of escaping from this infernal prison, it would certainly be most welcome to me, for I am heartily tired of being a prisoner here, after having prayed for freedom so long, and worked for it so much.

So, if there is a means--”

”There is such a means,” interrupted his wife. ”Listen to me!”

And Simon did listen, and the moving and eloquent words of his wife at length found a willing ear. Simon's face gradually lightened up, and it seemed to him that he was now able to release his wife from an oppressive, burdensome load.

”If it succeeds,” he muttered--”if it succeeds, I shall be free from the mountainous weight which presses upon me day and night and shall become a healthy man again.”

”And if it does not succeed,” whispered Jeanne Marie, ”the worst that can happen to us is what has happened to thousands before us.

We shall merely feed the machine, and our heads will tumble into the basket, with this difference, that I shall not be able to make any mark in my stocking. I would rather die all at once on the guillotine and have it over, than be dying here day after day, and hour after hour, having nothing to expect from life but pain and ennui.”

”And I, too,” said Simon, decidedly. ”Rather die, than go on leading such a dog's life. Let your doctor come to me to-morrow morning. I will talk with him!”

Early the next day the doctor came in his long, black cloak, and with his peruke, to visit the sick Mistress Simon. The guards at the gate leading to the outer court quietly let him pa.s.s in, and did not notice that another face appeared in the peruke from that which had been seen the day before. The two official guards above, who had just completed their duties in the upper story, and met the doctor on the tower stairs, did not take any offence at his figure. The director of the Hotel Dieu was not personally known to them, and they were familiar with but little about him, excepting that he took the liberty of going about in his old-fas.h.i.+oned cloak, without giving offence to the authorities, and that he had permission from those authorities to come to the Temple for the purpose of visiting the wife of Simon.

”You will find two patients to-day up there,” said one of the officials as he pa.s.sed by. ”We empower you, doctor, to take the second one, little Capet, under your charge. The boy appears to be really sick, or else he is obstinate and mulish. He answers no questions, and he has taken no nourishment, Simon tells us, since yesterday noon. Examine into the case, doctor, and then tell us what your opinion is. We will wait for you down in the council-room. So make as much haste as possible.”

They pa.s.sed on, and the doctor did really make haste to ascend the staircase. At the open door which led to the apartment of the little Capet and his ”guardian,” he found Simon.

”Did you hear, citizen?” asked the doctor. ”The officials are waiting for me below.”

”Yes, I heard, doctor,” whispered Simon. ”We have not much time.

Come!”