"I do not think so," replied Madam Lebrenn; "but you may go."
A few minutes later Gildas returned holding in his hand a letter that he delivered to Madam Lebrenn, saying:
"Madam, a messenger brought this--there is no answer."
Hardly had the merchant"s wife cast her eyes upon the envelope when she cried:
"Children--a letter from your father!"
George, Sacrovir and Velleda rose together and drew near their mother.
"Singular," she pondered aloud and not without some signs of uneasiness as she examined the envelope which she was unsealing. "This letter must come from Rochefort, like all the others, and yet it is not stamped."
"Perhaps," observed George, "Monsieur Lebrenn commissioned someone who was leaving Rochefort to bring it to you."
"And that must have been the cause of the delay," added Sacrovir. "That is the explanation."
Feeling not a little alarmed at the unusual occurrence, Madam Lebrenn hastened to open the letter, which she proceeded to read aloud to her children:
"Dearly beloved friend, embrace our children in the name of a bit of good news, that will surprise you as much as it will make you happy--I have hopes of seeing you soon--"
When the merchant"s wife uttered these words it became impossible for her to continue reading. Her children gathered around her and threw their arms about her neck with shouts of joy, too many and loud to reproduce, while George and Jeanike, standing at a respectful distance, shared the general family glee.
"Dear children, be sensible--do not let us rejoice too soon," cautioned Madam Lebrenn. "Your father only expresses a hope to us. G.o.d knows how often our hopes of an amnesty have been dashed!"
"Oh, mother! Mother! Quick! Read on! finish the letter!" exclaimed the children in all keys of impatience. "We shall soon see whether the hope is well founded."
Madam Lebrenn proceeded to read her husband"s letter:
"I have hopes of seeing you soon again--sooner perhaps than you may imagine--"
"Do you see, mother, do you see!" cried the children, trembling with joy and clasping their hands as if in prayer.
"Good G.o.d! Good G.o.d! Is it possible! We are to see him soon again!"
exclaimed Madam Lebrenn, wiping from her eyes the tears that darkened them, and she proceeded reading:
"When I say I _hope_, my dearly beloved friend, I mean more than a mere hope; it is in fact a certainty. I should, perhaps, have begun my letter by giving you this a.s.surance; but, however well aware I am of your self-possession, I feared lest too sudden a surprise might hurt you and our children. By this time, I consider, your minds are quite familiarized with the idea of seeing me soon, very soon, not so? Accordingly, I now feel free to promise you--"
"Why, mother," broke in George interrupting the reading of the letter, "Monsieur Lebrenn must be in Paris!"
"In Paris!" the family cried in chorus.
"The letter bears no stamp," proceeded George excitedly. "Monsieur Lebrenn has arrived--and he sent the letter ahead with a messenger."
"There can be no doubt! George is right," put in Madam Lebrenn.
And she read rapidly the rest of the missive:
"Accordingly, I now feel free to promise you that we shall all celebrate together our son"s anniversary. That day begins to-night after twelve o"clock; at that hour, or, perhaps, even sooner, I shall be with you. Just so soon as the messenger who takes my letter to you, leaves the house, I shall run upstairs and wait--yes, I shall wait behind the door, there, near you."
No sooner were these last words read than Madam Lebrenn and her children precipitated themselves upon the door.
It opened.
Indeed, Monsieur Lebrenn was there.
Futile to describe the transports of joy of this family when once again they had their adored father in their midst!
CHAPTER XIV.
SACROVIR"S BIRTHDAY.
The family of Marik Lebrenn were a.s.sembled in their little parlor on the day after the merchant"s arrival. It was the birthday of his son, who on that day completed his twenty-first year.
"My son," Lebrenn said to Sacrovir, "to-day you are twenty-one years of age. The time has come to introduce you to the chamber with the closed window that has so often excited your curiosity. You are about to become acquainted with its contents. I wish first to explain to you the reason for and the cause of this mystery. The moment you are initiated, my son, I know your curiosity will turn to pious respect. Accident has so willed it that the day of your initiation into this family mystery should be providentially chosen. Since my arrival yesterday, we have given ourselves over to tokens of love, and have had little time to consider public matters. Nevertheless, a few words that escaped you--as well as you, my dear George," added the merchant addressing his daughter"s husband, "cause me to apprehend that you feel discouraged--that you may even despair."
"It is but too true, father," answered Sacrovir.
"When one witnesses the things that are happening every day," added George, "one may well feel alarmed for the future of the Republic, and of mankind."
"Well, tell me, children," asked Lebrenn with his usual smile, "what is happening that is so very terrible? Tell me all about it."
"Everywhere at this hour the people"s liberty is being kicked and cuffed, and even strangled by the henchmen of absolute Kings. Italy, Prussia, Germany, Hungary, are all again forced under the b.l.o.o.d.y yoke that, electrified by our example in 1848, they that year broke, relying upon our support as their brothers! To the northeast the despot of the Cossacks planted one foot upon Poland, another upon Hungary, smothered both countries in their own blood, and now threatens the independence of Europe with his knout, and is even ready to hurl upon us his savage hordes!"
"Similar hordes, my children, our wooden-shoed fathers rolled in the dust in the days of the Convention--we shall do as much. As to the Kings, they ma.s.sacre, they threaten, they foam at the mouth with rage--and, above all, with terror! Already they see myriads of avengers arise out of the blood of the martyrs whom they a.s.sa.s.sinated. These crown-carriers have the vertigo. And there is good reason therefor. If a European war breaks out, immediately the Revolution will raise its head in their own camp and devour them; if peace prevails, the pacific tide of civilization will rise higher and higher, and engulf their thrones.
Proceed, children."
"But at home!" cried George. "At home!"
"Well, my friend, what is happening at home?"
"Alas, father! Mistrust, fear, misery sowed everywhere by the hereditary enemies of the people and the bourgeoisie. Credit is destroyed. Turn around, the population, misled, betrayed and deceived, mutinies against the Republic."
"Poor dear blind boys!" replied Lebrenn with his placid and sarcastic smile. "Does not the prodigious industrial movement that is going on among the working cla.s.s and the bourgeoisie strike your eyes? Only consider the innumerable workingmen"s a.s.sociations that are founded on all sides; consider the admirable attempts made at establishing banks of exchange, commercial bureaus, land credits, co-operative a.s.sociations, etc. Of these attempts, some are already crowned with success, others are still doubtful, but they are all undertaken with intelligence, boldness, probity, perseverance and faith in the democratic future of society. Do not they prove that the people and the bourgeoisie, no longer leaning upon government for support, seek their strength and resources in themselves, with the end in view of freeing themselves from capitalist and usurious exploitation? Believe me, my children, when the ma.s.s of a people like ours goes about seeking the solution of the problem as to the source of their true liberty, of their labor, of their wellbeing and the wellbeing of their families, the problem can not remain unsolved, and, with Socialism giving its help, the problem will be solved."
"But where are our forces, father? Our party is shattered! The republicans are hounded down, calumniated, imprisoned, proscribed!"
"And what is the conclusion you draw from your discouragement, my boys?"
"Alas," answered Sacrovir sadly, "what we fear is the ruin of the Republic and the return of the days of old; retrogression instead of progress; the desolate conviction that, instead of steadily marching forward, mankind is fatedly condemned to turn in a circle, unable ever to step out of that iron grip. If the Republic goes down we run the risk of retrogressing, who knows how far back, perchance back to the point from which our fathers started in 1789!"
"That, indeed, is exactly what the royalists say and hope, my children.
That the royalists should be blind enough to incur that error in logic is easily understood. Nothing blinds so completely as pa.s.sion, interests, or caste prejudices. But that we, my children, that we should shut our eyes to the obvious evidences of progress, evidences more glaring than the sun, and plunge ourselves in the dismal vapors of doubt;--that we, my children, should do the sanct.i.ty of our cause the injustice of questioning its power and its ultimate, supreme triumph, when on all sides it manifests--"