Part 39 (2/2)
La Tour d'Azyr had quitted the front of the box to roup of infuriated gentlee across the eht deal with the audacious comedian as responsible for this explosion, found theroup coiven expression
Perceiving this, and re the chandelier, he turned to Leandre, who had re,” said he
Leandre, looking ghastly under his paint, appalled by the storinative brain could have conjectured, gurgled an inarticulate agreement But it looked as if already they were too late, for in that moment they were assailed fro past Polichinelle and Rhodo to restrain hireen-rooe to disembowel the knave who had created this riot, and it was they who had flung aside those two co upon Binet After hiain came Polichinelle, Rhodomont, Harlequin, Pierrot, Pasquariel, and Basque the artist, armed with such implements as they could hastily snatch up, and intent upon saving the man hom they sympathized in spite of all, and in whom now all their hopes were centred
Well ahead rolled Binet,the long cane from which Pantaloon is inseparable
”Infamous scoundrel!” he roared ”You have ruined me! But, name of a name, you shall pay!”
Andre-Louis turned to face hiot no farther Binet's cane, viciously driven, descended and broke upon his shoulder Had he not moved swiftly aside as the blow fell it must have taken him across the head, and possibly stunned him
As he moved, he dropped his hand to his pocket, and swift upon the cracking of Binet's breaking cane came the crack of the pistol hich Andre-Louis replied
”You had your warning, you filthy pander!” he cried And on the word he shot hi, whilst the fierce Polichinelle, fiercer than ever in that moment of fierce reality, spoke quickly into Andre-Louis'
ear:
”Fool! So much was not necessary! Aith you now, or you'll leave your skin here! Aith you!”
Andre-Louis thought it good advice, and took it The gentlee, partly held in check by the improvised weapons of the players, partly intimidated by the second pistol that Scaras, and here found hieants of the watch, part of the police that was already invading the theatre with a view to restoring order The sight of them reminded him unpleasantly of how he ht's work, and ed somewhere in Binet's obese body He flourished his pistol
”Make way, or I'll burn your brains!” he threatened them, and intimidated, themselves without firearms, they fell back and let hireen-room, where the ladies of the company had shut theained the street behind the theatre It was deserted Down this he went at a run, intent on reaching the inn for clothes and money, since it was iarb of Scaramouche
BOOK III: THE SWORD
CHAPTER I TRANSITION
”You ree,” wrote Andre-Louis from Paris to Le Chapelier, in a letter which survives, ”that it is to be regretted I should definitely have discarded the livery of Scaramouche, since clearly there could be no livery fitter for my wear It seems to be my part always to stir up strife and then to slip away before I a ele reflection I seek consolation in the reminder of Epictetus (do you ever read Epictetus?) that we are but actors in a play of such a part as it n us It does not, however, console me to have been cast for a part so conte away But if I am not brave, at least I am prudent; so that where I lack one virtue Ianother al ed? This ti murder; for I do not knohether that scoundrel Binet be alive or dead from the dose of lead I pureatly care If I have a hope at all in the matter it is that he is dead--and damned But I ah I have all but spent the little money that I contrived to conceal about ht; and both of the only two professions of which I can claie--are closed toer, especially considering the present price of victuals in this ravenous city Again I have recourse to Epictetus for co lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit amid abundance' I seem likely to perish in the estate that he accounts so enviable That it does not seem exactly enviable to me merely proves that as a Stoic I am not a success”
There is also another letter of his written at about the same time to the Marquis de La Tour d'Azyr--a letter since published by M Emile Quersac in his ”Undercurrents of the Revolution in Brittany,” unearthed by hined by M de Lesdiguieres, who had received it for justiciary purposes from the Marquis
”The Paris newspapers,” he writes in this, ”which have reported in considerable detail the fracas at the Theatre Feydau and disclosed the true identity of the Scaramouche who provoked it, inform me also that you have escaped the fate I had intended for you when I raised that stornation I would not have you take satisfaction in the thought that I regret your escape I do not I rejoice in it To deal justice by death has this disadvantage that the victie that justice has overtaken hiht, I should now repine in the thought of your eternal and untroubled sluuilty atone You see, I am not sure that hell hereafter is a certainty, whilst I am quite sure that it can be a certainty in this life; and I desire you to continue to live yet awhile that youof its bitterness
”You murdered Philippe de Vilerous gift of eloquence, I took an oath that day that your evil deed should be fruitless; that I would render it so; that the voice you had donelike a true Do you realize how I have been fulfilling it, how I shall continue to fulfil it as occasion offers? In the speech hich I fired the people of Rennes on the very morrow of that deed, did you not hear the voice of Philippe de Vil the ideas that were his with a fire and a passion greater than he could have co aid? In the voice of O the petition that sounded the knell of your hopes of coercing the Third Estate, did you not hear again the voice of Philippe de Vilmorin? Did you not reflect that it was the mind of thefriend, which made necessary your futile attempt under arms last January, wherein your order, finally beaten, was driven to seek sanctuary in the Cordelier Convent? And that night when froe of the Feydau you were denounced to the people, did you not hear yet again, in the voice of Scaraerous gift of eloquence which you so foolishly iined you could silence with a sword-thrust?
It is becorave that insists uponitself heard, that will not rest until you have been cast into the pit You will be regretting by now that you did not kill me too, as I invited you on that occasion I can picture to ret, and I contelected opportunity is the worst hell that a living soul can inhabit, particularly such a soul as yours It is because of this that I alad to know that you survived the riot at the Feydau, although at the time it was no part of my intention that you should Because of this I ae and suffer in the shadow of your evil deed, knowing at last--since you had not hitherto the wit to discern it for yourself--that the voice of Philippe de Vilmorin will follow you to denounce you everlived in dread you shall go down in blood under the just rage which your victiainst you”
I find it odd that he should have omitted from this letter all mention of Mlle Binet, and I am disposed to account it at least a partial insincerity that he should have assigned entirely to his self-is in the matter of Climene, the action which he had taken at the Feydau