Part 40 (1/2)

”Entirely, Quartermaster. You represent Monsieur de Lery, I presume?”

”Yes, but--but--but----” Villerai stammered, and stopped, his face growing redder.

”Proceed quite tranquilly, Monsieur de Villerai,” the Marshal remarked.

”What accusation do you bring against Monsieur de Lincy?”

Villerai cast an uncomfortable glance at Germain, then he blurted out ”That he is--an--some say an im----. I confess I know nothing against the gentleman myself--he seems to be a very nice young man, but Monsieur de Lery says he is something of that sort.”

”And that his proper t.i.tle is not de Lincy, but that he is the son of a merchant in Canada who is no n.o.ble?” Collinot added.

”You know nothing against him yourself?” Beauveau asked of Villerai.

”Nothing myself, very true.”

”You bring evidence, then?”

”My Lord--Marshal we have no evidence. I throw myself on your goodness--I had some papers with the contents of which I am unacquainted--but where they are I--I--pardon me your Excellency--this is a very unfortunate affair.”

”I think so, Monsieur de Villerai. Your friends have brought to trial a perfectly innocent man--they have allowed him, for several months, to remain under the intolerable vexations of the ban of society, and to stand deprived of his birthright as a gentleman--have destroyed him at Court--have almost blighted his career--have forced him to expose his life to the ocean, to take far-off and highly perilous journeys to collect his defences--and have compelled him more than once to brave mortal combat. They have done all this, as it appears, while his claims were perfectly regular, and while they themselves fail to produce the slightest atom of evidence against him beyond the unsupported a.s.sertions of their own family. What am I, as patron of this regiment, and a military man of sixty years' experience, to say to this state of things?”

”Excuse my--my Lord,” de Villerai cried in desperation. ”I said our proofs are lost.”

”It was your duty to have properly kept them. The opportunity for trial has been given. The accused has responded and cleared himself. You may depart, sir.”

”Monsieur de Lincy,” continued he, addressing the latter, with an alteration from his severe tone to the kindest of voices, ”it almost moves me to tears to think of the indignities to which you have been subjected. Your honour is absolved, and Major Collinot is requested to make entry of this fact on the registers of the company, to avail you in case these charges should ever be repeated. You are reinstalled with your full rank and record, and moreover, in order that your reinstallment may be unequivocal in the eyes of the public, I appoint you my special _aide-de-camp_ for the review of this morning. Horse yourself and report at my apartments.”

Lecour had stood throughout the interview perfectly motionless--almost statuesque, except a slight clinching of the hands at times. His feelings, however, were at the highest possible tension, and his eyes observant of the slightest changes on the faces of those concerned, and when he found de Villerai--who was a stranger to him--so helpless, a feeling of triumph unexpectedly possessed him. He knew, of course, about the Record--- divined that de Villerai had been entrusted with it--in fact, through the mysterious means related, it was safe above their heads locked in his own sleeping chamber. But what he had been uncertain of was what sort of a man the Quartermaster would turn out to be as a representative of de Lery--what kind of a case he would make without the writings--how much of them he would recite--how that recital would be received by the tribunal--and whether the tribunal would have any regard whatever to the evidence or condemn him by some instinct of caste prejudice. While turning these thoughts over like lightning in his mind, they were brought to a standstill by the p.r.o.nouncement of Marshal de Beauveau and the sudden relief and violent sense of grat.i.tude produced by the old soldier's sympathetic address to himself.

He felt he had won Cyrene.

He mounted the staircase to his apartment as if his feet were winged.

The quarters were deserted. The company had already mustered and marched to the review ground, a levelled field adjoining the boulevarded rampart, surrounded with willow trees and known as the Champ-de-Mars.

Germain, as he approached it, riding with the Marshal and the Prince, felt as he had not since he had first put on the uniform of the Bodyguard. His spirit seemed to prance with joy like the horse beneath him. He had now that security, the want of which had caused him such an ocean of misery; he felt that his enemies were now conquered, and that Cyrene was at last his.

Thus they rode to the Champ, where he could see the various regiments, drawn up at the ”attention,” in a long, brilliant line, their arms s.h.i.+ning in the sun, the two companies of the Bodyguard mounted, in their centre, with their magnificent standards and gorgeously arrayed bands.

It was a thrilling and beautiful sight.

When they came to the edge of the Champ, the horses of the Marshal and his staff quickened pace, and soon, galloping down the field, they pa.s.sed in front of the whole division, every eye both of soldiers and spectators levelled towards them. Lecour was the object of intense interest. At this conspicuous moment the Marshal called him to his side and entrusted him with a general order to pa.s.s to the commanders of the regiments.

Germain galloped first to the company of Noailles and pa.s.sed the order with a grave salute to the Prince, who had taken his position in front of it as Colonel. As he did so, the enthusiasm of his companions got the better of their discipline, and they broke into a loud, prolonged cry of ”Vive de Lincy!” The members of the company of Villeroy had, as a body, always felt more or less contrary in the affair to their companion de Lery, and there was a party who had strongly favoured Germain. The proof, now so clear, that Louis' accusations had been rejected, suddenly converted the rest to Lecour's side and an enthusiasm similar to that of his own company broke out in their ranks too, resulting in a continuation of the cry, ”Vive de Lincy!” This extraordinary scene excited the other troops. The whole line broke out again and again into the repeated cry of, ”Vive de Lincy!” while Germain rode rapidly along.

The crowd of spectators took it up, and added tremendous shouts of approbation. Nor did the cry end with the parade. He heard it everywhere; at mess-table it was the greeting as he entered, the response to numerous toasts to his health, and the last sound he heard as he sank to sleep at night.

The feelings of de Lery were very different. The shout was to him his social doom. He stood his ground and executed his duty without an external sign, but his heart withered when his comrades there and then commenced to shun him and drive him into Coventry. No protestations, no statements that he could make, would, he knew, have been of any avail; so he spared himself the trouble. Withdrawing entirely into a proud reserve, he was soon banished from the regiment and from society, and driven to find a refuge over the ocean in Canada, where, hidden from the eyes of European criticism, he entered upon a new career.

The Marquis de Lotbiniere heard of the loss of the doc.u.ments first by a letter from de Villerai. On the same day he received the following from the Count de Vaudreuil--

”AT VERSAILLES, the 13th February, 1788.