Part 65 (1/2)
Leonard Bourdon and Barras, delegates of the Convention, and escorted by half a hundred gendarmes with pistols and muskets, burst in at Henriot's heels. The soldiers covered with their guns the members of the Council of the Commune and the five Representatives of the people, all of whom remained standing; calm; impa.s.sible.
CHAPTER x.x.xIV.
THE NINTH THERMIDOR.
In the early morning of the 10th Thermidor, Charlotte Lebrenn and Madam Desmarais, pale from a night of sleeplessness, silent, worried, listened anxiously at their garden windows, which had been left open through the beautiful, balmy July night. From their nests in the trees the birds greeted with their chirping the first glow of the sun, which lighted up the eastern azure. Nature was smiling, with repose and calm in every lineament.
”Not a sound, absolutely nothing!” said Madam Desmarais, the first to break the silence. ”It is more than an hour since the tocsin ceased clanging.”
”If that is so, mother, have courage! If the tocsin has ceased, the Commune is worsted. The Convention triumphs,” replied the younger woman in a tense voice. Then, unable to withstand the emotion which seized her, Charlotte burst into tears, raised her hands heavenward, and cried, ”Just G.o.d, spare my husband!”
At this moment Gertrude entered and said to her mistress: ”Madam, there is a citizen in the ante-chamber who says he is sent by your husband to bring you news of him.”
”Let him enter,” answered Charlotte gladly. ”I wonder what the news will be,” she added, to her mother.
No sooner had she spoken than Jesuit Morlet appeared in the room. His hypocritical countenance at once caused Charlotte a revulsion of feeling; but immediately reproaching herself for what was perhaps an involuntary injustice to the man, she came a few steps toward the Jesuit, saying: ”Citizen, you come from my husband?”
”Aye, citizeness; to rea.s.sure you, and inform you that he is in a safe place.”
”You hear, my poor child,” cried Madam Desmarais, weeping with joy as she embraced her daughter. ”He is out of danger.”
”Can you, citizen, conduct me at once to where my husband is?”
”Such a trip would be very imprudent, citizeness. My friend John Lebrenn has sent me to you, first to rea.s.sure you as to his situation; next, to post you on the course of events. The City Hall is in the power of the troops of the Convention, commanded by Leonard Bourdon and Barras. Lebas is a suicide. Robespierre the younger has flung himself from a window and broken both legs. Robespierre the elder has his jaw broken by a pistol fired at him by a gendarme;[17] St. Just and Couthon are arrested, they will be executed in the course of the day, without any form of trial, having been outlawed by the Convention; the same decree has been pa.s.sed upon the members of the General Council of the Commune, who will also, accordingly--all except my friend John, who escaped in the melee, and is now in safe hiding with me--be guillotined without trial. In short, to tell you all in two words, the Republic is lost. The brigands triumph!”
For a moment Charlotte's tears flowed in silence. Rea.s.sured as to her husband, she wept for the first five victims of the 9th Thermidor, those ill.u.s.trious and virtuous citizens.
”My eternal thanks are yours,” she at length replied; and added: ”Take me to my husband, I implore you. I long to see him.”
”To do as you request, citizeness, would be to commit a great imprudence. Perhaps its only result would be to put the police on his track. As to the grat.i.tude you believe you owe me, let us speak no more of it. Between patriots there should be mutual aid and protection; in concealing John from the searches of our enemies I did my duty, nothing more. But time is fleeting, and I must get to the end of the errand your husband sent me on: It is that you give me a certain casket, containing, he told me, some precious legends which it is of importance to carry away from here, lest they fall into the hands of our enemies; the latter will not delay descending with a search party upon your house.”
”My husband has already given me his advice on that subject,” answered Charlotte. ”Foreseeing that in the struggle against the Convention the Commune might be worsted, my husband arrested, and the house searched, I already have had the casket carried to the home of one of our friends.”
A slight spasm of anger contracted the brows of the Jesuit; the young woman caught the expression, and the thought flashed over her mind: ”Careful! This man may be a false friend!”
”Madam,” said Gertrude, coming in leading a young boy by the hand, ”here is a poor child who asked to speak to this gentleman; I brought him up to you.”
The Jesuit's G.o.d-son--who else but he?--respectfully greeted Charlotte, at the same moment that the latter whispered to her mother: ”My anxiety for John is still lively, despite this man's rea.s.surances. Something tells me he is deceiving us.”
”Gentle G.o.d-father,” Rodin was whispering to the Jesuit, ”I just saw John Lebrenn hurry down a street at the end of Anjou Street, and turn in this direction.”
”The devil!” thought the Jesuit to himself, ”our man will land at home sooner than I counted on. I shall have to double my audacity; nothing is lost as yet.” And then, sotto voice to his pupil, ”Are the police agents placed, and in sufficient number?”
”They are watching all around the building--I counted twenty. John Lebrenn will be caught like a mouse in a trap, _Ad majorem Dei gloriam!_”
”While the house is being searched from cellar to garret, follow you the agents, and try to put your hand on that casket you know of.”
”Mother,” whispered Charlotte, on her part, ”they are plotting some treachery.” Then, suddenly das.h.i.+ng toward the door, which just then opened, she cried,
”Husband!”