Mme. Blanche was dumb with horror. It was impossible, she thought, to sink lower than this.
"Well!" demanded the man, harshly. "What reply shall I make to my comrade?"
"I will go--tell him that I will go!" she said, driven to desperation.
She made the journey, visited the prison, but did not find Chupin.
The previous week there had been a revolt in the prison, the troops had fired upon the prisoners, and Chupin had been killed instantly.
Still the d.u.c.h.ess dared not rejoice.
She feared that her tormentor had told his wife the secret of his power.
"I shall soon know," she thought.
The widow promptly made her appearance; but her manner was humble and supplicating.
She had often heard her dear, dead husband say that madame was his benefactress, and now she came to beg a little aid to enable her to open a small drinking saloon.
Her son Polyte--ah! such a good son! just eighteen years old, and such a help to his poor mother--had discovered a little house in a good situation for the business, and if they only had three or four hundred francs----
Mme. Blanche gave her five hundred francs.
"Either her humility is a mask," she thought, "or her husband has told her nothing."
Five days later Polyte Chupin presented himself.
They needed three hundred francs more before they could commence business, and he came on behalf of his mother to entreat the kind lady to advance them.
Determined to discover exactly where she stood, the d.u.c.h.ess shortly refused, and the young man departed without a word.
Evidently the mother and son were ignorant of the facts. Chupin"s secret had died with him.
This happened early in January. Toward the last of February, Aunt Medea contracted inflammation of the lungs on leaving a fancy ball, which she attended in an absurd costume, in spite of all the attempts which her niece made to dissuade her.
Her pa.s.sion for dress killed her. Her illness lasted only three days; but her sufferings, physical and mental, were terrible.
Constrained by her fear of death to examine her own conscience, she saw plainly that by profiting by the crime of her niece she had been as culpable as if she had aided her in committing it. She had been very devout in former years, and now her superst.i.tious fears were reawakened and intensified. Her faith returned, accompanied by a _cortege_ of terrors.
"I am lost!" she cried; "I am lost!"
She tossed to and fro upon her bed; she writhed and shrieked as if she already saw h.e.l.l opening to engulf her.
She called upon the Holy Virgin and upon all the saints to protect her.
She entreated G.o.d to grant her time for repentance and for expiation.
She begged to see a priest, swearing she would make a full confession.
Paler than the dying woman, but implacable, Blanche watched over her, aided by that one of her personal attendants in whom she had most confidence.
"If this lasts long, I shall be ruined," she thought. "I shall be obliged to call for a.s.sistance, and she will betray me."
It did not last long.
The patient"s delirium was succeeded by such utter prostration that it seemed each moment would be her last.
But toward midnight she appeared to revive a little, and in a voice of intense feeling, she said:
"You have had no pity, Blanche. You have deprived me of all hope in the life to come. G.o.d will punish you. You, too, shall die like a dog; alone, without a word of Christian counsel or encouragement. I curse you!"
And she died just as the clock was striking two.
The time when Blanche would have given almost anything to know that Aunt Medea was beneath the sod, had long since pa.s.sed.
Now, the death of the poor old woman affected her deeply.
She had lost an accomplice who had often consoled her, and she had gained nothing, since one of her maids was now acquainted with the secret of the crime at the Borderie.
Everyone who was intimately acquainted with the d.u.c.h.esse de Sairmeuse, noticed her dejection, and was astonished by it.
"Is it not strange," remarked her friends, "that the d.u.c.h.ess--such a very superior woman--should grieve so much for that absurd relative of hers?"
But the dejection of Mme. Blanche was due in great measure to the sinister prophecies of the accomplice to whom she had denied the last consolations of religion.
And as her mind reviewed the past she shuddered, as the peasants at Sairmeuse had done, when she thought of the fatality which had pursued the shedders of innocent blood.
What misfortune had attended them all--from the sons of Chupin, the miserable traitor, up to her father, the Marquis de Courtornieu, whose mind had not been illumined by the least gleam of reason for ten long years before his death.
"My turn will come!" she thought.
The Baron and the Baroness d"Escorval, and old Corporal Bavois had departed this life within a month of each other, the previous year, mourned by all.
So that of all the people of diverse condition who had been connected with the troubles at Montaignac, Blanche knew only four who were still alive.
Maurice d"Escorval, who had entered the magistracy, and was now a judge in the tribunal of the Seine; Abbe Midon, who had come to Paris with Maurice, and Martial and herself.
There was another person, the bare recollection of whom made her tremble, and whose name she dared not utter.
Jean Lacheneur, Marie-Anne"s brother.
An inward voice, more powerful than reason, told her that this implacable enemy was still alive, watching for his hour of vengeance.
More troubled by her presentiments now, than she had been by Chupin"s persecutions in days gone by, Mme. de Sairmeuse decided to apply to Chelteux in order to ascertain, if possible, what she had to expect.
Fouche"s former agent had not wavered in his devotion to the d.u.c.h.ess.
Every three months he presented his bill, which was paid without discussion; and to ease his conscience, he sent one of his men to prowl around Sairmeuse for a while, at least once a year.
Animated by the hope of a magnificent reward, the spy promised his client, and--what was more to the purpose--promised himself, that he would discover this dreaded enemy.