I suppose the expression of my face at the ribald tone of this remark must have intimated what I felt, but "tried to conceal, since he speedily corrected himself, and said, in a voice of apology,--
"It is not, a.s.suredly, at their poverty I would sneer, your Excellency; but for persons of their condition this was not the suitable way to travel."
"Did they leave no friends behind them who might give a clew to their mysterious departure?"
"Friends! No, your Excellency, they were too proud and too highly born for us of Reichenau,--at least, the Comtesse was; as for Monsieur Raper, poor fellow, he was a teacher at Monsieur Jost"s yonder, and rarely seen amongst us."
"And how do you explain it?--I mean, what explanation was the common one in vogue in the village?"
"As for that, there were all manner of rumors. Some said they had fled from their debts, which was false; for they had sold the little they possessed, and came to pa.s.s the two last days here while paying whatever they owed in the village. Some thought that they had been hiding from justice, and that their refuge had been at last discovered; and some, among whom I confess myself one, think that it was with reference to the Count"s affairs that they had taken to flight."
"How do you mean?" asked I.
"Oh, De Gabriac was a "bad subject," and, if report speak truly, was implicated in many crimes. One thing is certain: before they had been gone a week, the gensdarmes were here in search of him; they ransacked the lodging for some clew to his hiding-place, and searched the post for letters to or from him."
"And so you think that it was probably to avoid him that she fled?" said I, hazarding a question, to obtain a fuller admission than he had made.
"That is precisely my opinion; and when I tell your Excellency that it was on receiving a letter from Paris, most probably from him, that she hastily sold off everything, you will possibly be of my mind also."
"And Gabriac, did he ever appear here again?"
"Some say he did; but it is doubtful. One thing, however, is certain: there was a teacher here in Monsieur Jost"s academy, a certain Monsieur Augustin, who gave lessons in mathematics, and the secret police gave him some tidings that made him also leave this; and the report is, that Gabriac was somehow the cause of this. n.o.body ever thought ill of Augustin, and it is hard to believe he was Gabriac"s accomplice."
I could perceive, from this reply of the host, that he was "all abroad" as to any real knowledge of events, and had only got some faint glimmerings of the truth. I now suffered him to run on about people and occurrences of which I knew nothing, so as to divert him from any attention to myself, and then betook me to my bed with an anxious mind and a wearied one.
I was up early the next morning, and hastened to the chateau, where I found my old master already up, and walking in the garden. He was, indeed, much changed. Time had told heavily on him too, and he seemed far more feeble than I expected to find him. The letter with which I was charged for him invited him to make me any confidential communication he desired to impart, and to regard me as trustworthy in all respects. He read it over, I should think, several times; for he sat down on a bench, and seemed to study it profoundly.
"You shall have the papers," said he at length; "but I doubt that they will be found of use now. Dumourier"s influence is at an end with his old adherents. The party is broken up; and, so far as human foresight can go, the cause is lost."
"I ought to tell you, Monsieur Jost," then broke I in, "that although you are speaking to one who will not abuse your confidence, that it is also one who knows nothing of the plan you speak of."
He appeared to reflect some minutes over my words, and then said,--
"These are matters, however, not for my judgment. If the Prince think well of the scheme, it is enough."
I saw that this was said unconsciously and to himself, and so I made no remark on it.
"At all events, Monsieur Gervois," continued he, "let them not build upon many whose names are here. We saw what Dejaunay became t" other day. Jussard is little better than a spy for the First Consul; and as for Gabriac, to whom we all trusted, he would have been even worse than a spy, if his villany had succeeded."
"You knew him, then, sir?" asked I.
"Knew him! Parbleu! I did know him; and better, too, than most did! I always said he would play the traitor,--not to one, but to every cause.
He was false to all, sir," said he, with increasing bitterness,--"to his King; to that King"s enemies; to the Convention; to the "Emigration;" to the n.o.bles; to the people: false everywhere and to every one! False to her who bore his name, and to her whom he led away to ruin,--that poor girl, whose father"s chivalrous loyalty alone might have protected her--How do you call him?--the Marquis de Bresinart? No, not him; I mean that old loyalist leader who lived near Valence."
"Not the Marquis de Nipernois?" said I, in trembling eagerness.
"The same; the Marquis de Nipernois, to whose daughter he was once betrothed, and whose fair fame and name he has tarnished forever!"
"You do not mean that Gabriac was the seducer of Madame de Bertin?" said I.
"The world knows it as well as I do; and although one alone ever dared to deny it, and branded the tale with the epithet of base scandal, she came at last to see its truth; and her broken heart was the last of his triumphs!"
"You speak of the Countess,--his wife?"
He grasped my hand within one of his own, and pressed the other across his eyes, unable to speak, through emotion. Nor were my feelings less moved. What a terrible revelation was this! Misfortune upon misfortune, and De Gabriac the cause of all!
For a moment I thought of declaring myself to be his old pupil, and the child who had called that dear Comtesse "mother;" but the morbid shame with which I remembered what I then was, stopped me, and I was silent.
"You know, of course, whither she went from this, and what became of her?" asked I, anxiously.
"Yes. I had two letters from her,--at long intervals, though; the last, when about to sail for Halifax--"
"For Halifax!--gone to America?"
"Even so. She said that the Old World had been long unkind to her, and that she would try the New! and then as their only friend in Hamburg was dead--"
"They were at Hamburg!--you did not say that?" said I.
"Yes, to be sure. Monsieur Raper, who was a worthy, good man, and a smart scholar besides, had obtained the place of correspondence clerk in a rich mercantile house in that city, where he lived with credit, till the death of the head of the firm. After that, I believe the house ceased business, or broke up. At all events, Raper was thrown on the world again, and resolved to emigrate. I suppose if Monsieur Geysiger had lived--"
"Geysiger!--is that the name you said?"
"Ay; Adam Geysiger,--the great house of Geysiger, Mersman, and Dorth, of Hamburg, the first merchants of that city."
Though he continued to talk on, I heard no more; my thoughts become confused, and my head felt turning with the intense effort to collect myself. Geysiger? thought I; the very house where I had been at Hamburg,--where I had overheard the project of a plan against myself!
Could it be, that through all my disguise of name and condition, that they knew me? With what increase of terror did this discovery come upon me! If they have, indeed, recognized me, it may be that some scheme is laid against my life. I could not tell how or whence this suspicion came; but, doubtless, some chance word let drop before me in my infancy, and dormant since in my mind, now rushed forth to my recollection with all the power of a fact!
I questioned the old man about this Geysiger,--where he had lived, whom he had married, and so on; but he only knew that his wife had been an actress. I did not ask for more. The ident.i.ty was at once established.
I next tried to find out if any relations of friendship or intimacy had subsisted between the Comtesse and Madame de Geysiger; but, on the contrary, he told me they had not met nor known each other when she wrote to him; and her stay after that in Hamburg was very brief. I wearied him with asking to repeat for me several circ.u.mstances of these strange revelations; nor was it till I saw him fatigued and half exhausted that I could prevail on myself to cease. I had now loitered here to the last limit of my time; and, with an affectionate leave of my kind old master, I left Reichenau to make my way with all speed to England.
CHAPTER x.x.xVI. THE ORDEAL
My first care on arriving in England was to resign my post as an "Agent secret." This was not, however, so easily accomplished as I thought; for the Royalists had more than once before discovered that those in their employment had been seduced into the service of their enemies, whose rewards were greater, and who had a large field of patronage at their disposal. Unable to prevent these desertions by the inducements of profit, they had resorted to a system of secret intimidation and menace which unquestionably had its influence over many.
I have not s.p.a.ce here to dwell on a theme, some of whose details might, however, prove amusing, ill.u.s.trating as they did the mysterious working of that Jesuit element which labored so zealously and so long in the cause of the Restoration. There is a little work still extant, called "L"Espionage et ses Dangers," by Jules Lacoste, published at Bruxelles, in 1802, which gives, if not a perfectly authentic, at least a very graphic, description of this curious system. The writer distinctly alleges that five of his colleagues met their deaths by poison, on mere suspicion of their disloyalty, and gives the names of several whose impaired faculties and shattered health showed that they had narrowly, but perhaps not more fortunately, escaped a similar fate.
For my own part I must own that such perils were not mine. It is true, I was asked to reconsider my determination. It was at first hinted vaguely, and then positively a.s.sured me, that my long and faithful services were on the eve of a high and substantial recognition. I was even told that my own wishes would be consulted as to the nature of my reward, since I was not to be treated like one of the mere herd. When all these temptations were found to fail, I was left, as it were, to reflect on the matter, while in reality a still more ingenious and artful scheme was drawn around me; the Abbe being employed as its chief agent. Affecting, in a measure, to coincide with and even encourage my determination, he invited me constantly to his lodgings, and by degrees insinuated himself into my confidence. At least he learned that it was in pure disgust of the career itself that I desired to forsake it, and not with any prospect of other advancement in life. He sought eagerly to discover the secret subject which engaged my thoughts, for I could not succeed in concealing my deep pre-occupation; but he cautiously abstained from ever obtruding even a word of question or inquiry. Nor did his ardor stop here; he studied my tastes, my pa.s.sions, and my disposition, as subjects for successful temptation. I was young, high-couraged, and enthusiastic; and yet he found me indifferent to pleasure, and indisposed to society and its amus.e.m.e.nts. He knew me to be poor, and yet saw clearly that wealth did not dazzle me. I was humble and unknown; yet no recognition of the high and great could stir my heart nor awaken my ambitions. He was too well read in human nature to accept these as signs of an apathetic and callous disposition: he recognized them rather as evidences of a temperament given up to some one and engrossing theme.
I own that in my utter dest.i.tution there was a pleasing flattery to me in this pursuit; and I could not but feel gratified at the zeal with which he seemed to devote himself to comprehend me. He exposed me to the various subjects of temptation which so successfully a.s.sail youth; but he perceived that not one could touch the secret cord of my nature.
To some I was averse; I was indifferent to others. He took me into society,--that circle of his intimates, which really in conversational excellence surpa.s.sed anything I had ever met before; and although I enjoyed it at the time, I could refrain from frequenting it without a regret.
"You are a puzzle to me, Bernard," said he, addressing me by my former "sobriquet," which he always used in private; "I want to see you take interest in something, and show that humanity is not dead within you; but nothing seems to touch, nothing to attract you; and yet it was not thus that Sister Ursule first represented you to me. She spoke of you as one that could be warmed by the zeal of a great cause, and whose faculties would expand when once engaged in it. If the monarchy be too mean for your ambition, what say you to the church?"
I pleaded my unworthiness, but he stopped me, saying: