Part 59 (1/2)
”You hear that, brigadier!” commented the sentry to an under-officer who had come up. ”The old rascal calls for a general to make revelations to!”
”I'll go see the Provost about it,” said the brigadier. The few moments he was gone the Jesuit utilized to confer in whispers with his G.o.d-son.
The brigadier quickly returned, went up to the post to which the reverend was tethered, and said to him:
”Off to General Donadieu. But look out for yourself if your confidences are a sham!” And seeing that little Rodin made ready to follow the prisoner, the soldier added: ”Has this brat also revelations to make?
Has he got anything to do with you?”
”The child will attest, by his tender candor, the sincerity of my communications, and will complete them in case of gaps in my memory.”
General Donadieu, commandant of a brigade of light cavalry in the Army of the Rhine and Moselle, had just finished reading the order he had received, when one of his aides-de-camp informed him that a spy, condemned to be shot at sunrise, asked for an audience to give him information of the utmost importance, but requested that the interview have no other witness than the child who would accompany him.
”I do not accept the scoundrel's proposal,” replied the General to his aide-de-camp. ”His condition is compromising. Send him in, and stay here yourself.”
Accompanied by his G.o.d-son, the Jesuit appeared. Both were calm. The General looked the spy over from head to foot, and said to him sharply:
”You pretend to have important matters to disclose to me, which, you say, concern the army? I shall listen to you. But be brief. Do not abuse my patience.”
”When we are alone,” replied the Jesuit, glancing at the aide-de-camp.
”Our interview must be in secret.”
”My aide is my second self. He may hear all. Speak, then. Speak at once, or go to the devil!”
”I shall speak, then, General, since you command it. The day after the battle of Watignies a cavalry colonel in the republican army was taken prisoner. He was marched to headquarters--”
”Wait a moment!” cried General Donadieu, visibly troubled at these opening words of the Jesuit's. ”You hope to obtain a suspension of sentence as the price of your revelations?”
”More than that. I must be set at liberty.”
”I can grant you neither delay nor liberation without the authority of the Representatives of the people. Captain, find Citizen St. Just at once, and ask him whether I may suspend the execution of this man if his revelations seem worthy of it.”
”At your orders, General,” replied the aide, as he left the room.
The General, at last overcoming the uneasiness which the Jesuit's first words caused him, now resumed, haughtily:
”As you were saying, the day after the battle of Watignies a cavalry colonel--”
”General Donadieu,” came imperiously from the Jesuit, ”your moments are numbered. If, before your aide returns, you have not contrived a way to set me at liberty, you are lost. Think it over. A prisoner at the battle of Watignies, you were conducted by the Count of Plouernel before Monseigneur the Prince of Conde, who received you most flatteringly. You admitted to him that it was with regret that you served in an army so lacking in military pride as to submit to the yoke of the Representatives of the people. You added--still speaking, be it remembered, to the Prince of Conde--these words, literally: 'Monseigneur, my dignity as an officer is so outraged by subjection to the tyranny of these bourgeois pro-consuls, that, without the slightest scruple of conscience, I would offer you my sword and serve on your side.'”
”Ah, indeed? So I said that to the Prince of Conde, did I? And perhaps you have proofs of what you say?”
”The proofs are inscribed in a certain register kept in the Prince's staff headquarters. In that register are kept the names of all the officers in the republican army on whom, in case of need, the royalist party thinks it can call. The fact which concerns you was related to me by the Count of Plouernel, former colonel in the French Guards, who was present at your interview with Monseigneur the Prince of Conde; which interview was continued by his Most Serene Highness in these words: 'My dear colonel, remain in the republican army. You will there be able to serve the cause of our rightful King most efficaciously by spurring your regiment to rebel at the proper moment in the name of military honor, against these miserable bourgeois pro-consuls. Be sure, my dear colonel, that the day the good cause triumphs you will be rewarded as you deserve. Until then, keep snug behind your republican mask.' So,”
continued the Jesuit, ”you have so well worn your mask that after being returned to the army in the exchange of prisoners, you were first promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, then to Division General--”
”Enough, stop,” cut in Donadieu in a sardonic tone of complete rea.s.surance. ”What now is your project? You intend to make your disclosures to others besides me, if I do not at once enable you to escape?”
”Aye, General, that is my intention.”