"Well spoken!" said Johan Zegota, looking up from some papers which he, as secretary to the Society, had been docketing for the convenience of Thord"s perusal; "But do not forget, brave Lotys, that the very next meeting we hold is the annual one, in which we draw lots for the "happy dispatch" of traitors and false rulers; and that this year the name of the King is among them!"
Lotys grew a shade paler, but she replied at once and dauntlessly.
"I do not forget it! But if lots are cast and traitors doomed,--it is part of our procedure to give any such doomed man six months" steady and repeated warning, that he may have time to repent of his mistakes and remedy them, so that haply he may still be spared;--and also that he may take heed to arm himself, that he do not die defenceless. Had I not saved the King, his death would have been set down to us, and our work!
Any one of you might have been accused of influencing the crazy boy who attempted the deed,--and it is quite possible our meetings would have been suppressed, and all our work fatally hindered,--if not entirely stopped. Foolish children! You should thank me, not blame me!--but you are blind children all, and cannot even see where you have been faithfully served by your faithfullest friend!"
At these words a new light appeared to break on the minds of all present--a light that was reflected in their eager and animated faces.
The knotted line of Thord"s brooding brows smoothed itself gradually away.
"Was that indeed your thought, Lotys," he asked gently, almost tenderly--"Was it for our sakes and for us alone, that you saved the King?"
At that instant Pasquin Leroy turned his eyes, which till now had been intent on watching Thord, to the other end of the table where the fine, compact woman"s head, framed in its autumn-gold hair, was silhouetted against the dark background of the wall behind her like a cameo. His gaze met hers,--and a vague look of fear and pain flashed over her face, as a faint touch of colour reddened her cheeks.
"I am not accustomed to repeat my words, Sergius Thord!" she answered coldly; "I have said my say!"
Looks were exchanged, and there was a silence.
"If we doubt Lotys, we doubt the very spirit of ourselves!" said Pasquin Leroy, his rich voice thrilling with unwonted emotion; "Sergius--and comrades all! If you will hear me, and believe me,--you may take my word for it, she has run the risk of death for Us!--and has saved Us from false accusation, and Government interference! To wrong Lotys by so much as a thought, is to wrong the truest woman G.o.d ever made!"
A wild shout answered him,--and moved by one impulse, the whole body of men rose to their feet and drank "to the health and honour of Lotys!"
with acclamation, many of them afterwards coming round to where she sat, and kneeling to kiss her hand and ask her pardon for their momentary doubt of her, in the excitement and enthusiasm of their souls. But Lotys herself sat very silent,--almost as silent as Sergius Thord, who, though he drank the toast, remained moody and abstracted.
When the company dispersed that night, each man present was carefully reminded by the secretary, Johan Zegota, that unless the most serious illness or misfortune intervened, every one must attend the next meeting, as it was the yearly "Day of Fate." Pasquin Leroy was told that his two friends, Max Graub and Axel Regor must be with him, and he willingly made himself surety for their attendance.
"But," said he, as he gave the promise, "what is the Day of Fate?"
Johan Zegota pointed a thin finger delicately at his heart.
"The Day of Fate," he said, "is the day of punishment,--or Decision of Deaths. The names of several persons who have been found guilty of treachery,--or who otherwise do injury to the people by the manner of their life and conduct, are written down on slips of paper, which are folded up and put in one receptacle, together with two or three hundred blanks. They must be all men"s names,--we never make war on women.
Against some of these names,--a Red Cross is placed. Whosoever draws a name, and finds the red cross against it, is bound to kill, within six months after due warning, the man therein mentioned. If he fortunately draws a blank then he is free for a year at least,--in spite of the fatal sign,--from the unpleasant duty of despatching a fellow mortal to the next world"--and here Zegota smiled quite cheerfully; "But if he draws a Name,--and at the same time sees the red cross against it, then he is bound by his oath to us to--_do his duty_!"
Leroy nodded, and appeared in no wise dismayed at the ominous suggestion implied.
"How if our friend Zouche were to draw the fatal sign," he said; "Would he perform his allotted task, think you?"
"Most thoroughly!" replied Zegota, still smiling.
And with that, they separated.
Meanwhile, during the constant change and interchange of conflicting rumours, some of which appeared to have foundation in fact, and others which rapidly dispersed themselves as fiction, there could be no doubt whatever of the growing unpopularity of the Government in power. Little by little, drop by drop, there oozed out the secrets of the "Perousse Policy," which was merely another name for Perousse Self-aggrandis.e.m.e.nt.
Little by little, certain facts were at first whispered, and then more loudly talked about, as to the nature of his financial speculations; and it was soon openly stated that in the formation of some of the larger companies, which were beginning to be run on the Gargantuan lines of the "American Trust" idea, he had enormous shares,--though these "Trusts"
had been frequently denounced as a means of enslaving the country, and ruining certain trade-interests which he was in office to protect.
Accusations began to be guardedly thrown out against him in the Senate, which he parried off with the cool and audacious skill of an expert fencer, knowing that for the immediate moment at least, he had a "majority" under his thumb. This majority was composed of persons who had unfortunately become involved in his toils, and were, therefore, naturally afraid of him;--yet it was evident, even to a superficial student of events, that if once the innuendoes against his probity as a statesman could be veraciously proved, this sense of intimidation among his supporters would be removed, and like the props set against a decaying house, their withdrawal would result in the ruin of the building. It was pretty well known that the Marquis de Lutera had sent in his resignation, but it was not at all certain whether the King was of a mind to accept it.
Things were in abeyance,--political and social matters whirled giddily towards chaos and confusion; and the numerous hurried Cabinet Councils that were convened, boded some perturbation among the governing heads of the State. From each and all of these meetings Ministers came away more gloomy and despondent in manner,--some shook their heads sorrowfully and spoke of "the King"s folly,"--others with considerable indignation flung out sudden invectives against "the King"s insolence!"--and between the two appellations, it was not easy to measure exactly the nature of the conduct which had deserved them. For the King himself made no alteration whatever in the outward character of his daily routine; he transacted business in the morning, lunched, sometimes with his family, sometimes with friends; drove in the afternoon, and showed himself punctiliously at different theatres once or twice in the evenings of the week. The only change more observant persons began to notice in his conduct was, that he had drawn the line of demarcation very strongly between those persons who by rank and worth, and n.o.bility of life, merited his attention, and those who by mere Push and Pocket, sought to win his favour by that servile flattery and obsequiousness which are the trademarks of the plebeian and vulgarian. Quietly but firmly, he dropped the acquaintance of Jew sharks, lying in wait among the dirty pools of speculation;--with ease and absoluteness he "let go" one by one, certain ladies of particularly elastic virtue, who fondly dreamed that they "managed" him; and among these, to her infinite rage and despair, went Madame Vantine, wife of Vantine the winegrower, a yellow-haired, sensual "_femelle d"homme_," whose extravagance in clothes, and reckless indecency in conversation, combined with the King"s amused notice, and the super-excellence of her husband"s wines, had for a brief period made her "the rage" among a certain set of exceedingly dissolute individuals.
In place of this kind of riff-raff of "_nouveaux riches_," and plutocrats, he began by degrees to form around himself a totally different _entourage_,--though he was careful to make his various changes slowly, so that they should not be too freely noticed and commented upon. Great n.o.bles, whether possessed of vast wealth and estates, or altogether landless, were summoned to take their rightful positions at the Court, where Vantine the wine-grower, and Jost the Jew, no more obtained admittance;--men of science, letters and learning, were sought out and honoured in various ways, their wives and daughters receiving special marks of the Royal attention and favour; and round the icy and statuesque beauty of the Queen soon gathered a brilliant bevy of the real world of women, not the half-world of the "_femme galante_"
which having long held sway over the Crown Prince while Heir-Apparent to the Throne, judged itself almost as a necessary, and even becoming, appendage to his larger responsibility and state as King. These excellent changes, beneficial and elevating to the social atmosphere generally, could not of course be effected without considerable trouble and heart-burning, in the directions where certain persons had received their dismissal from such favour as they had previously held at Court.
The dismissed ones thirsted with a desire for vengeance, and took every opportunity to inflame the pa.s.sions of their own particular set against the King, some of them openly declaring their readiness to side with the Revolutionary party, and help it to power. But over the seething volcano of discontent, the tide of fashion moved as usual, to all outward appearances tranquil, and absorbed in trivialities of the latest description; and though many talked, few dreamed that the mind of the country, growing more compressed in thought, and inflammable in nature every day, was rapidly becoming like a huge magazine of gunpowder or dynamite, which at a spark would explode into that periodically recurring fire-of-cleansing called Revolution.
Weighted with many thoughts, Sir Roger de Launay, whose taciturn and easy temperament disinclined him for argument and kept him aloof from discussion whenever he could avoid it, sat alone one evening in his own room which adjoined the King"s library, writing a few special letters for his Majesty which were of too friendly a nature to be dealt with in the curt official manner of the private secretary. Once or twice he had risen and drawn aside the dividing curtain between himself and the King"s apartment to see if his Royal master had entered; but the room remained empty, though it was long past eleven at night. He looked every now and again at a small clock which ticked with a quick intrusive cheerfulness on his desk,--then with a slight sigh resumed his work.
Letter after letter was written and sealed, and he was getting to the end of his correspondence, when a tap at the door disturbed him, and his sister Teresa, the Queen"s lady-in-waiting, entered.
"Is the King within?" she asked softly, moving almost on tiptoe as she came.
Sir Roger shook his head.
"He has been absent for some time," he replied,--then after a pause--"But what are you here for, Teresa? This is not your department!"
and he took her hand kindly, noticing with some concern that there were tears in her large dark eyes;--"Is anything wrong?"
"Nothing! That is,--nothing that I have any right to imagine--or to guess. But--" and here she seemed a little confused--"I am commanded by the Queen to summon you to her presence if,--if the King has not returned!"
He rose at once, looking perplexed. Teresa watched him anxiously, and the expression of his face did not tend to rea.s.sure her.
"Roger," she began timidly--"Would you not tell me,--might I not know something of this mystery? Might I not be trusted?"
His languid eyes flashed with a sudden tenderness, as from his great and stately height he looked down upon her pretty shrinking figure.
"Poor little Teresa!" he murmured playfully; "What is the matter? What mystery are you talking about?"
"_You_ know--you must know!" answered Teresa, clasping her hands with a gesture of entreaty; "There is something wrong, I am sure! Why is the King so often absent--when all the household suppose him to be with the Queen?--or in his private library there?" and she pointed to the curtained-off Royal sanctum beyond.
"Why does the Queen herself give it out that he is with her, when he is not? Why does he enter the Queen"s corridor sometimes quite late at night by the private battlement-stair? Does it not seem very strange?
And since he was so nearly a.s.sa.s.sinated, his absences have been more frequent than ever!"
Sir Roger pulled his long fair moustache meditatively between his fingers.
"When you were a little girl, Teresa, you must have been told the story of Blue-beard;" he said; "Now take my advice!--and do not try to open forbidden doors with your tiny golden key of curiosity!"
Teresa"s cheeks flushed a pretty rose pink.
"I am not curious;" she said, with an air of hauteur; "And indeed I am far too loyal to say anything to anyone but to you, of what seems so new and strange. Besides--the Queen has forbidden me--only it is just because of the Queen--" here she stopped hesitatingly.
"Because of the Queen?" echoed Sir Roger; "Why?"
"She is unhappy!" said Teresa.
A smile,--somewhat bitter,--crossed De Launay"s face.
"Unhappy!" he repeated; "She! You mistake her, little girl! She does not know what it is to be unhappy; nothing so weak and slight as poor humanity affects the shining iceberg of her soul! For it _is_ an iceberg, Teresa! The sun shines on it all day, fierce and hot, and never moves or melts one glittering particle!"
He spoke with a concentrated pa.s.sion of melancholy, and Teresa trembled a little. She knew, as no one else did, the intense and despairing love that had corroded her brother"s life ever since the Queen had been brought home to the kingdom in all her exquisite maiden beauty, as bride of the Heir-Apparent. Such love terrified her; she did not understand it. She knew it was hopeless,--she felt it was disloyal,--and yet--it was love!--and her brother was one of the truest and n.o.blest of gentlemen, devoted to the King"s service, and incapable of a mean or a treacherous act. The position was quite incomprehensible to her, for she was not thoughtful enough to a.n.a.lyse it,--and she had no experience of the tender pa.s.sion herself, to aid her in sympathetically considering its many moods, sorrows, and inexplicable martyrdoms of mind-torture.
She contented herself now with repeating her former a.s.sertion.
"She is unhappy,--I am sure she is! You may call her an iceberg, if you like, Roger!--men have such odd names for the women they are unable to understand! But I have seen the iceberg shed tears very often lately!"
He looked at her, surprised.
"You have? Then we may expect the Pallas Athene to weep in marble? Well!