Part 58 (2/2)
Footsteps approached; the heavy bolts were drawn back, the door opened, and Marie-Anne entered, accompanied by Corporal Bavois.
”Monsieur de Courtornieu promised me that we should be left alone!”
exclaimed Chanlouineau.
”Therefore, I go at once,” replied the old soldier. ”But I have orders to return for mademoiselle in half an hour.”
When the door closed behind the worthy corporal, Chanlouineau took Marie-Anne's hand and drew her to the tiny grafted window.
”Thank you for coming,” said he, ”thank you. I can see you and speak to you once more. Now that my hours are numbered, I may reveal the secret of my soul and of my life. Now, I can venture to tell you how ardently I have loved you--how much I still love you.”
Involuntarily Marie-Anne drew away her hand and stepped back.
This outburst of pa.s.sion, at such a moment, seemed at once unspeakably sad and frightful.
”Have I, then, offended you?” said Chanlouineau, sadly. ”Forgive one who is about to die! You cannot refuse to listen to the voice of one, who after tomorrow, will have vanished from earth forever.
”I have loved you for a long time, Marie-Anne, for more than six years.
Before I saw you, I loved only my possessions. To raise fine crops, and to ama.s.s a fortune, seemed to me, then, the greatest possible happiness here below.
”Why did I meet you? But at that time you were so high, and I, so low, that never in my wildest dreams did I aspire to you. I went to church each Sunday only that I might wors.h.i.+p you as peasant women wors.h.i.+p the Blessed Virgin; I went home with my eyes and my heart full of you--and that was all.
”Then came the misfortune that brought us nearer to each other; and your father made me as insane, yes, as insane as himself.
”After the insults he received from the Sairmeuse, your father resolved to revenge himself upon these arrogant n.o.bles, and he selected me for his accomplice. He had read my heart. On leaving the house of Baron d'Escorval, on that Sunday evening, which you must remember, the compact that bound me to your father was made.
”'You love my daughter, my boy,' said he. 'Very well, aid me, and I promise you, in case we succeed, she shall be your wife. Only,' he added, 'I must warn you that you hazard your life.'
”But what was life in comparison with the hope that dazzled me! From that night I gave body, soul, and fortune to the cause. Others were influenced by hatred, or by ambition; but I was actuated by neither of these motives.
”What did the quarrels of the great matter to me--a simple laborer? I knew that the greatest were powerless to give my crops a drop of rain in season of drought, or a ray of suns.h.i.+ne during the rain.
”I took part in this conspiracy because I loved you----”
”Ah! you are cruel!” exclaimed Marie-Anne, ”you are pitiless!”
It seemed to the poor girl that he was reproaching her for the horrible fate which Lacheneur had brought upon him, and for the terrible part which her father had imposed upon her, and which she had not been strong enough to refuse to perform.
But Chanlouineau scarcely heard Marie-Anne's exclamation. All the bitterness of the past had mounted to his brain like fumes of alcohol.
He was scarcely conscious of his own words.
”But the day soon came,” he continued, ”when my foolish illusions were destroyed. You could not be mine since you belonged to another. I might have broken my compact! I thought of doing so, but had not the courage.
To see you, to hear your voice, to dwell beneath the same roof with you, was happiness. I longed to see you happy and honored; I fought for the triumph of another, for him whom you had chosen----”
A sob that had risen in his throat choked his utterance; he buried his face in his hands to hide his tears, and, for a moment, seemed completely overcome.
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