Part 46 (1/2)

”Ah! Madame,” he exclaimed, ”the baron had nothing to do with this movement; far from it----”

He paused; all this was pa.s.sing in the court-yard, in the glare of the torches which had been lighted up by the servants. Anyone in the public road could hear and see all. He realized the imprudence of which they were guilty.

”Come, Madame,” said he, leading the baroness toward the house; ”and you, also, Maurice, come!”

It was with the silent and pa.s.sive submission of great misery that Mme.

d'Escorval obeyed the cure.

Her body alone moved in mechanical obedience; her mind and heart were flying through s.p.a.ce to the man who was her all, and whose mind and heart were even then, doubtless, calling to her from the dread abyss into which he had fallen.

But when she had pa.s.sed the threshold of the drawing-room, she trembled and dropped the priest's arm, rudely recalled to the present reality.

She recognized Marie-Anne in the lifeless form extended upon the sofa.

”Mademoiselle Lacheneur!” she faltered, ”here in this costume--dead!”

One might indeed believe the poor girl dead, to see her lying there rigid, cold, and as white as if the last drop of blood had been drained from her veins. Her beautiful face had the immobility of marble; her half-opened, colorless lips disclosed teeth convulsively clinched, and a large dark-blue circle surrounded her closed eyelids.

Her long black hair, which she had rolled up closely to slip under her peasant's hat, had become unbound, and flowed down in rich ma.s.ses over her shoulders and trailed upon the floor.

”She is only in a state of syncope; there is no danger,” declared the abbe, after he had examined Marie-Anne. ”It will not be long before she regains consciousness.”

And then, rapidly but clearly, he gave the necessary directions to the servants, who were astonished at their mistress.

Mme. d'Escorval looked on with eyes dilated with terror. She seemed to doubt her own sanity, and incessantly pa.s.sed her hand across her forehead, thickly beaded with cold sweat.

”What a night!” she murmured. ”What a night!”

”I must remind you, Madame,” said the priest, sympathizingly, but firmly, ”that reason and duty alike forbid you thus to yield to despair! Wife, where is your energy? Christian, what has become of your confidence in a just and beneficial G.o.d?”

”Oh! I have courage, Monsieur,” faltered the wretched woman. ”I am brave!”

The abbe led her to a large arm-chair, where he forced her to seat herself, and in a gentler tone, he resumed:

”Besides, why should you despair, Madame? Your son, certainly, is with you in safety. Your husband has not compromised himself; he has done nothing which I myself have not done.”

And briefly, but with rare precision, he explained the part which he and the baron had played during this unfortunate evening.

But this recital, instead of rea.s.suring the baroness, seemed to increase her anxiety.

”I understand you,” she interrupted, ”and I believe you. But I also know that all the people in the country round about are convinced that my husband commanded the insurrectionists. They believe it, and they will say it.”

”And what of that?”

”If he has been arrested, as you give me to understand, he will be summoned before a court-martial. Was he not the friend of the Emperor?

That is a crime, as you very well know. He will be convicted and sentenced to death.”

”No, Madame, no! Am I not here? I will appear before the tribunal, and I shall say: 'Here I am! I have seen and I know all.'”