Part 35 (1/2)
”Go tell our people to redouble their watchfulness,” the commissioner ordered two of his men, who went out quickly. Just then the sleeping room door fell beneath the blows of the lawyer. The chamber was empty.
Suddenly one of the two agents burst in out of breath, crying, ”Treason!
Our man has escaped! Just now two women, one of whom was enveloped in a long furred pelisse, wearing a hat with a heavy veil, appeared at the carriage gate, where two gendarmes were posted. One of the women said: 'I am Madam Desmarais; I am going out with my daughter.'”
”A lie! for my daughter is here and could not have left her room!”
”Pursue the fugitives,” said the commissioner to some of the men around him; then, turning back toward Desmarais, he continued, in a tone of suspicion: ”Citizen Representative, this escape seems to me cleverly planned; but there is still something else to your charge,” indicating the deal chest. ”In the name of the law, I summon you to tell me the contents of that case.”
Remembering that Hubert had told his sister he had used the pretext of a birthday present to her to remove some precious articles from domiciliary visitation, the attorney was staggered by the question. But driven by the logic of his hypocrisy further and further along the path in which he thought lay his safety, the miserable man recovered himself with an effort, and said firmly to the commissioner: ”Citizen, before replying to your question about the chest, I ask the arrest of my wife, as an accomplice in the escape of a conspirator.”
”I have no warrant for the arrest of Citizeness Desmarais. I shall refer the matter to the attorney for the Commune.”
”As to the chest, the object of your interrogation, I answer that it belongs not to me. It was sent here by my brother-in-law several days ago. It should contain, according to what has been told us, a birthday present for my wife; but I hasten to add that I have every ground for believing that Citizen Hubert, taking advantage of my confidence, has sought to conceal from investigation certain compromising papers, by sending them to me in that box. I learned of this circ.u.mstance only by certain words let fall by my brother-in-law just now, when I threatened to cause his arrest. I have nothing else to add.”
”Lift the cover off the box,” ordered the commissioner.
Several gendarmes thrust their bayonets between the cover of the chest and the lock, which yielded to their pressure. The case flew open.
Advocate Desmarais threw an unquiet look into its interior, which was filled to the brim with daggers, pistols, and boxes of cartridges. Among these were several packages of proclamations issued by the royalist insurrectionary committee.
Despite his profound dissimulation and the extraordinary command he exercised over himself, Desmarais could not conceal the fright into which he was thrown by the exposure of the contents of the chest. But curbing his anxiety by a powerful effort, he feigned indifference, and tossed back into the box a copy of the proclamation, which he had hastily read.
The commissioner seated himself by a table, drew out an inkhorn, and began to write.
All at once Madam Desmarais appeared at the door of the parlor, pale, fainting, hardly able to keep her feet. Nevertheless in her face could be read the joy she felt over her brother's escape, and as she entered she said, raising her eyes to heaven:
”Blessed be Thou, my G.o.d! He is saved!”
At the sight of his wife Desmarais leaped with rage, ran to her, seized her roughly by the arm and cried in a voice that betrayed the extent of his terror:
”Citizeness Desmarais, you are guilty of a crime against the nation. I call for your imprisonment.”
Madam Desmarais looked at her husband in amazement, unable, at first, to grasp the import of his words. Just at this moment Charlotte, informed by Gertrude of what was taking place, entered the room. She was in time to hear the last words of the advocate; she ran to Madam Desmarais, clasped her in her arms, and exclaimed:
”Great heaven! Imprison mother! Is it you, father, who thus threaten her!”
”Leave the room,” retorted the lawyer, accompanying the words with an imperious gesture. ”Leave the room, my girl. Your presence is not needed.”
”I, leave the room, when you threaten mother? Never! Where she remains, I remain.”
”My child, be rea.s.sured,” replied Madam Desmarais in an undertone, giving her daughter a look of intelligence which included the commissioner. ”Your father is not speaking seriously. Everything will come out to our satisfaction.”
These words, which might have been heard by the commissioner, still further exasperated the lawyer, who, under the double goad of his hypocrisy and trepidation, cried: ”Citizeness Desmarais, in making yourself the confederate in the escape of a criminal, you have exposed yourself to carrying your head to the scaffold!”
At these words Charlotte uttered a piercing cry, and fell upon the neck of her mother, whom she still held in a tight embrace. But the latter, firmly persuaded that her husband was playing a role to conjure away the dangers which surrounded him, again said to her daughter, in order to calm her anguish:
”But, poor child, know that your father is forced to talk this way in the presence of a commissioner of police.”
Overwhelmed by so many emotions, Madam Desmarais forgot this time to lower her voice sufficiently as she spoke to her daughter. Her words fell with distinctness on the ears of her husband, standing near the commissioner of the Section, who was still occupied in writing his report. False and cowardly men, when in the grip of fear, are capable of any act of brutality to protect their own lives. So it now was with Desmarais; for, leaden pale with fright, he said to himself: