Part 37 (2/2)

”He has said it, old Laroche!” cried Courtecuisse.

”He has said it,” remarked Vaudoyer, ”but he hasn't done it, and he won't do it. What good would it do to get yourself guillotined for some gendarme or other? No, if you kill, I say, kill Michaud.”

During this scene Catherine Tonsard stood sentinel at the door to warn the drinkers to keep silent if any one pa.s.sed. In spite of their half-drunken legs they sprang rather than walked out of the tavern, and their bellicose temper started them at a good pace on the road to Conches, which led for over a mile along the park wall of Les Aigues.

Conches was a true Burgundian village, with one street, which was crossed by the main road. The houses were built either of brick or of cobblestones, and were squalid in aspect. Following the mail-road from Ville-aux-Fayes, the village was seen from the rear and there it presented rather a picturesque effect. Between the road and the Ronquerolles woods, which continued those of Les Aigues and crowned the heights, flowed a little river, and several houses, rather prettily grouped, enlivened the scene. The church and the parsonage stood alone and were seen from the park of Les Aigues, which came nearly up to them. In front of the church was a square bordered by trees, where the conspirators of the Grand-I-Vert saw the gendarmerie and hastened their already hasty steps. Just then three men on horseback rode rapidly out of the park of Les Aigues and the peasants at once recognized the general, his groom, and Michaud the bailiff, who came at a gallop into the square. Tonsard and his party arrived a minute or two after them.

The delinquents, men and women, had made no resistance, and were standing between five of the Soulanges gendarmes and fifteen of those from Ville-aux-Fayes. The whole village had a.s.sembled. The fathers, mothers, and children of the prisoners were going and coming and bringing them what they might want in prison. It was a curious scene, that of a population one and all exasperated, but nearly all silent, as though they had made up their minds to a course of action. The old women and the young ones alone spoke. The children, boys and girls, were perched on piles of wood and heaps of stones to get a better sight of what was happening.

”They have chosen their time, those hussars of the guillotine,” said one old woman; ”they are making a fete of it.”

”Are you going to let 'em carry of your man like that? How shall you manage to live for three months?--the best of the year, too, when he could earn so much.”

”It's they who rob us,” replied the woman, looking at the gendarmes with a threatening air.

”What do you mean by that, old woman?” said the sergeant. ”If you insult us it won't take long to settle you.”

”I meant nothing,” said the old woman, in a humble and piteous tone.

”I heard you say something just now you may have cause to repent of.”

”Come, come, be calm, all of you,” said the mayor of Conches, who was also the postmaster. ”What the devil is the use of talking? These men, as you know very well, are under orders and must obey.”

”That's true; it's the owner of Les Aigues who persecutes us--But patience!”

Just then the general rode into the square and his arrival caused a few groans which did not trouble him in the least. He rode straight up to the lieutenant in command, and after saying a few words gave him a paper; the officer then turned to his men and said: ”Release your prisoners; the general has obtained their pardon.”

General Montcornet was then speaking to the mayor; after a few moments'

conversation in a low tone, the latter, addressing the delinquents, who expected to sleep in prison and were a good deal surprised to find themselves free, said to them:--

”My friends, thank Monsieur le comte. You owe your release to him. He went to Paris and obtained your pardon in honor of the anniversary of the king's restoration. I hope that in future you will conduct yourself properly to a man who has behaved so well to you, and that you will in future respect his property. Long live the King!”

The peasants shouted ”Long live the King!” with enthusiasm, to avoid shouting, ”Hurrah for the Comte de Montcornet!”

The scene was a bit of policy arranged between the general, the prefect, and the attorney-general; for they were all anxious, while showing enough firmness to keep the local authorities up to their duty and awe the country-people, to be as gentle as possible, fully realizing as they did the difficulties of the question. In fact, if resistance had occurred, the government would have been in a tight place. As Laroche truly said, they could not guillotine or even convict a whole community.

The general invited the mayor of Conches, the lieutenant, and the sergeant to breakfast. The conspirators of the Grand-I-Vert adjourned to the tavern of Conches, where the delinquents spent in drink the money their relations had given them to take to prison, sharing it with the Blangy people, who were naturally part of the wedding,--the word ”wedding” being applied indiscriminately in Burgundy to all such rejoicings. To drink, quarrel, fight, eat and go home drunk and sick,--that is a wedding to these peasants.

The general, who had come by the park, took his guests back through the forest that they might see for themselves the injury done to the timber, and so judge of the importance of the question.

Just as Rigou and Soudry were on their way back to Blangy, the count and countess, Emile Blondet, the lieutenant of gendarmerie, the sergeant, and the mayor of Conches were finis.h.i.+ng their breakfast in the splendid dining-room where Bouret's luxury had left the delightful traces already described by Blondet in his letter to Nathan.

”It would be a terrible pity to abandon this beautiful home,” said the lieutenant, who had never before been at Les Aigues, and who was glancing over a gla.s.s of champagne at the circling nymphs that supported the ceiling.

”We intend to defend it to the death,” said Blondet.

”If I say that,” continued the lieutenant, looking at his sergeant as if to enjoin silence, ”it is because the general's enemies are not only among the peasantry--”

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