Part 61 (2/2)
ONRUSH OF THE REVOLUTION.
The army was to move at break of day. Before dawn John Lebrenn and Castillon dug Victoria's grave on the heights of Geisberg. Thither she was carried on a funeral litter borne by Captain Martin, Castillon, d.u.c.h.emin and Oliver. John Lebrenn, leaning because of his wounded knee upon the arm of the young volunteer Duresnel, followed his sister's bier in deep grief. It was snowing, and Victoria's last resting place soon disappeared beneath the white blanket that fell upon the heights as the army marched from its bivouac to advance upon Weissenburg, which might still be defended by the Austrian army. But the Austrians left their trenches during the night; they evacuated Weissenburg; the hordes of the monarchs fled before the legions of the Republic.
Oliver was made under-lieutenant in the Third Hussars. Captain Martin was elected commander of the battalion of Paris Volunteers, succeeding the former commander, who was killed in the siege of Geisberg. The standard captured from the Gerolstein Cuira.s.siers was carried to General Hoche by John Lebrenn, who received from the hands of the young general, in honor and memory of the glorious defense, a sword taken from the enemy on that day.
On the 10th Nivose, General Donadieu, denounced before the revolutionary tribunal, and convicted of treason, was condemned to death, a penalty which he paid on the scaffold.
Hoche's victory, of the Lines of Weissenburg, decided the success of the whole campaign. On the 12th Nivose the Convention, upon motion of Barrere, rendered this decree:
The National Convention decrees:
The Armies of the Rhine and of the Moselle, and the citizens and garrison of Landau, have deserved well of the fatherland.
John Lebrenn, accordingly, being a soldier of the Army of the Rhine and Moselle, engraved these words on the blade of the sword presented to him by Hoche--JOHN LEBRENN HAS DESERVED WELL OF THE FATHERLAND.
The war continued. As soon as his wound had closed, Lebrenn wished to rejoin the Army of the Rhine and the Moselle. But the cut, hardly healed, opened again, and grew worse under the fatigues of a new campaign. He was invalided to the hospital at Strasburg late in the month of Germinal of the year II (March, 1794).
During her husband's absence Charlotte Lebrenn continued to live with her mother in the house on Anjou Street. Master Gervais consented to resume the direction of the smithy he had sold to Lebrenn, until the latter's return from the army. Charlotte, as previously, kept the books of the house. On this task she was engaged on the 23rd Prairial, year II (June 11, 1794). The young woman, now nearing her confinement, was still dressed in mourning for Victoria, her sister-in-law. Madam Desmarais was employed about some dressmaking.
Having finished her accounts, Charlotte closed her books, took out a portfolio of white paper, and prepared to write.
”I must seem very curious, my dear daughter,” said Madam Desmarais, ”but I am piqued about these sheets of paper which you fill with ma.n.u.script every night, and which will soon make a book.”
”It is a surprise I am preparing for John upon his return, good mother.”
”May he be able, for his sake and for ours, to enjoy the surprise soon!
His last letter gave us at least the hope of seeing him any moment. He wrote in the same tenor to Monsieur Billaud-Varenne, who came to see us day before yesterday expecting to find your husband here.”
”John awaited only the permission of his surgeon to set out on his way, for the results of his wound made great precautions imperative. Ah, mother! How proud I am to be his wife! With what joy and honor I will embrace him!”
”Alas, that pride costs dear. My fear is that our poor John will be crippled all his life. Ah, war, war,” sighed Madam Desmarais, her eyes moistening with tears. ”Poor Victoria--what a terrible end was hers!”
”Valiant sister! She lived a martyr, and died a heroine. Never was I so moved as when reading the letter John wrote us from Weissenburg the day after Victoria expired in his arms prophecying the Universal Republic, the Federation of the Nations.” Then smiling faintly and indicating to her mother the papers scattered over the table Charlotte added: ”And that brings us back to the surprise I am getting ready for our dear John. Read the t.i.tle of this page.”
Madam Desmarais took the sheet which her daughter held out to her, and read upon it, traced in large characters, ”TO MY CHILD!”
”So!” began Madam Desmarais, much moved, ”these pages you have been at work on so many days--”
”Are addressed, in thought, to my child. The babe will see the light during a terrible period. If it is a boy, I can not hold before him a better example than that of his own father; if it is a girl--” and Charlotte's voice changed slightly, ”I shall offer her as a model that courageous woman whom chance gave me to know, to love, and to admire for a short while before her martyrdom.”
”Lucile!” cried Madam Desmarais, shuddering at the recollection. ”The unfortunate wife of Camille Desmoulins! Poor Lucile! So beautiful, so modest, so good--and a young mother, too! Nothing could soften the monsters who sat upon the revolutionary tribunal; they sent that innocent young woman of twenty to the scaffold!”
”Alas, the eve of her death, she sent to Madam Duplessis, her mother, this letter of two lines:
”Good mother; a tear escapes my eye; it is for you. I go to sleep in the calmness of innocence.
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