Part 21 (1/2)

At Jerome's words a light dawned upon Victoria. The Jesuit at Neroweg's banquet had recognized her in the column of the victors of the Bastille!

It was he who had pointed her out to the swords of the a.s.sa.s.sins as a Marchioness!

”As to me,” quoth the Prince of Gerolstein, drawing two double-barrelled pistols from his pockets, ”I shall singe the heads of four of these brigands!”

”Franz, let us see, first of all, to the defense of mother and father,”

cried Victoria; and drawing from its sheath the hunting knife which the Prince carried at his side, she gripped the weapon with a virile hand, and prepared to protect the aged man and his wife, who instinctively retreated into a corner of the room.

All this occurred with the rapidity of thought. John, who, in spite of the prayers and efforts of neighbor Jerome, had stepped out upon the landing to see what manner of men were invading the house and mounting the stairway, was immediately hurled back across the sill by Lehiron. A dozen scoundrels armed with pikes and sabers were ranged on the landing and the topmost stairs. Seizing his musket and clapping on the bayonet, John then drew near to Franz and Victoria in order to cover with his body his mother and father, who, mute and terrified, trembled at every limb. Thus ranged, the two men and Victoria prepared to meet their a.s.sailants.

Lehiron, who strode alone into the chamber, was taken aback by the resolute att.i.tude of the three. Franz, with his double-barrelled pistols, covered the intruders; Victoria, fearless, her eyes flas.h.i.+ng, held aloft her hunting-knife; and John Lebrenn stood ready to plunge his bayonet into the bandits' b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Suddenly little Rodin appeared. He slipped through Lehiron's followers, entered the room, approached the giant, made him a sign to stoop over, and then, stretching on tiptoes, whispered in his ear:

”Don't forget the papers!”

”Hush, vermin, I know what's to be done here,” retorted the Hercules; and taking two steps toward John, whom he threatened with his cutla.s.s, he roared:

”Citizen Lebrenn, you play the people false! You are hiding here an aristocrat, Marchioness Aldini--there she stands--” and Lehiron designated Victoria with his weapon. ”She is one of the harpies of the Austrian party. She sat last night at the board of a royalist council-feast. You are conspiring with her against the Nation. You will deliver the jade to us, and also all the papers in your house, which are claimed by justice. Quick! Or your lives shall pay the penalty.”

”To the lamp-post with the n.o.blewoman! Live the Nation! Death to the traitors!” cried Lehiron's band of jackals, and brandis.h.i.+ng their pikes and swords they poured into the room. But the giant, held in awe by the pistols trained upon him and not anxious to have recourse to force except in the last extremity, waved back his brigands with a gesture and addressed himself again to John:

”Deliver up the n.o.blewoman and the papers, and your life will be spared.

But be quick about it.”

”Helas! My G.o.d! Have pity on us!” murmured Madam Lebrenn, overcome with terror and throwing her arms about her blind old husband.

”Out of here, you scoundrels!” was the answer of John Lebrenn. Lehiron waved his hand to his gang of bandits and cried:

”Forward! To the lamp-post with the traitors!”

As the valiant leader of the cut-throats gave the command, he himself leaped to one side and ducked his head to escape the pistol-fire of Franz of Gerolstein. But the latter no less quickly changed the aim of his weapon, and pulled the trigger. The giant flew back almost his full length, flung out his arms, dropped his cutla.s.s, tumbled to his knees, and rolled over, face down, on the floor, almost mortally wounded.

All of a sudden, above the tumult was heard a cry of pain from Madam Lebrenn:

”Oh, the wicked child! He is biting me!”

John turned, and while his two companions fell upon their adversaries, ran to his mother and found her in a desperate struggle with little Rodin. The latter, faithful to the tuition of his dear G.o.d-father, and hoping to profit by the turmoil, was about to make off with the bundle of ma.n.u.scripts. Madam Lebrenn seized hold of him to take them away, and the little rat had bitten her savagely on the hand. To s.n.a.t.c.h from the Jesuit's G.o.d-son the treasured legends, seize him by the slack of his pantaloons, and send him rolling ten paces away, was the work of an instant for young Lebrenn. The terrible child, wriggling and sliding like a snake between the legs of John's companions, gained the stairway and escaped with his discomfited accomplices.

The attempted arrest of Victoria and theft of the legends added fuel to the fears of the family on the machinations of the Jesuits. That very day the Prince deposited in safe keeping the records and relics of the family of Lebrenn.

Two days after our interview, Charlotte Desmarais wrote to me, John Lebrenn, a letter that was touching, and in all points worthy of her.

She informed me of her departure for Lyons, whither her mother was to accompany her.

From the month of July, 1789, up till December, 1792, nothing of importance occurred in our family save the death of our beloved parents.

My father died on the 11th of August, 1789; my mother, ill for years, survived him but briefly; she expired in our arms on October 29th of the same year.