"Idiot! To save my King! To s.n.a.t.c.h him out of the hands of the Philistines!"
"And is it thus that you pretend to save him, by interrupting our deliberations with your buffoonery? With jests out of season?"
"But you are not deliberating on a thing! You"re sitting there like three sea-storks! Hi! hi! hi! You"re not going ahead with the business any more than I am."
"The giddy fellow is correct," said Morlet, for once taking the Marquis"s side. "We shall never finish if we do not introduce some order into this. I shall take the chair, and open the meeting."
"You--take the chair--my reverend sir? And by what right?" was the reply of the Bishop of Gallipoli.
"By the right which a man of sense has over fools like the Marquis; by the right which my age gives me. For I am here much older than any of you."
"So be it; preside," said Plouernel.
"If it is only a question of the precedence of age, I yield," said his brother.
"Oh, and I also! Hi! hi!" cried the Marquis, holding his sides.
"By heaven, Marquis, we shall have to toss you out of the window!"
impatiently shouted the Count.
"Shut your heads, one and all of you," commanded Abbot Morlet. "I shall put the case to you in two words. To-morrow Louis XVI will be conducted from the prison of the Temple to the bar of the Convention. The occasion seems favorable for rescuing the King during the pa.s.sage. Here is the means proposed. Five or six hundred resolute men, armed under their cloaks with pistols and poniards, will meet at different places previously agreed on, and locate themselves in isolated groups along the route to be taken by the King; they will mingle with the crowd, affect the language of the sans-culottes, and propagate the rumor, designedly launched several days ago, that the majority of the Convention is resolved to spare the life of Capet, and that the people must take justice into its own hands. Our agents will strive thus to inflame the people; during the pa.s.sage of the King they will cry, "Death to the tyrant!" At those words, the signal agreed upon, they shall resolutely attack the escort with pistols and daggers. It is our hope that, favored by the tumult, we may be able boldly to seize Louis XVI, and carry him off to some safe retreat prepared in advance. Our men will then march to the Convention and exterminate its members; this being successfully accomplished, proclamations already in print will be placarded over Paris calling all honest men to arms against the Republic. A part of the old elite companies of the National Guard, all the royalists and const.i.tutionalists of Paris, the Emigrants who have been arriving for a fortnight--all will respond to the call to arms, and conduct the King to the Tuileries. Numerous emissaries will be sent at once into the west and south, and to Lyons, all of which places are ready to rise at the voice of the n.o.bles and priests in hiding there. Civil war will flare up at once in several parts of the kingdom. The foreign armies, demoralized by their defeat at Valmy, are now beating an offensive retreat to the frontier; it is hoped that, through the civil war and the consequent chaos, the allies will regain the advantage they had at the opening of the campaign, advance on Paris by forced marches, and inflict terrible chastis.e.m.e.nt upon it. This culmination, prepared with a long hand--the only way to save the King--was about to occur just before the September ma.s.sacres. The ma.s.sacres had their good and their bad side."
"You dare to say there was a good side to that carnage? Your language is odious!" interrupted the Bishop.
"The ma.s.sacres of September had a good side and a bad side," calmly reiterated the Abbot. "Here is the bad: The most active chiefs in the conspiracy, detained as suspects in the prisons, whence they were carrying on their plots, were killed; the royalists of Paris and the provinces, struck with terror, lay low and ceased their activity. It took three months to knit together all the threads of the conspiracy which had been snapped by the death of its leaders. The September ma.s.sacres had also the bad aspect for us that they were combined with an outburst of patriotism. The volunteers, flocking in ma.s.s to the front, changed entirely by their bedevilled fury the previous tactics of the war. The Prussian infantry, the best in Europe, was overcome by the mad-caps--there is danger lest it may long remain in the panic into which it was thrown by the bayonet charge of the volunteers at the battle of Valmy."
"Blue death! my reverend sir, you would best hold your tongue in matters of war, of which you know nothing!" the Count of Plouernel impatiently declared. "I served in the Emigrant corps which stormed the position of Croix-aux-Bois at the battle of Argonne; I was at the side of the Duke of Brunswick in the affray at Valmy; and I say that if the Prussian infantry was beaten down by these bare-feet, who precipitated themselves upon us like savages, it is now recovered from the panic, and asks nothing better than to avenge its disgrace. Yes, and let a war come, a real war, a great war, and the allies will make a butchery of these undisciplined hordes. The Prussians will feed fat their vengeance!"
"And I in turn tell you, that in this matter you are completely off your base," was the Abbot"s unmoved rejoinder.
"By heaven, my reverend sir!" flared back the Count, "measure your terms!"
And the giggling Marquis cried, "Plague on it, Abbot, all you need is a switch to give us a flogging! Hi! hi! hi!"
"And in your case in particular, Marquis, it would fall where it was deserved. But to continue, I come now to the good, the excellent side of the September ma.s.sacres."
Again the mere mention of such a possibility was more than the Bishop could contain himself under. "It is impossible," he broke in, "to sit still and hear it said in cold blood that that abominable carnage produced any good results."
"Monseigneur," was Morlet"s reply, "it does not at all become you to discredit events in which you did not partic.i.p.ate. Disguised as a charcoal burner, and with my G.o.d-son as a chimney-sweep, I saw these ma.s.sacres at close range. Do you remember, Count, what I told you over the supper-table, four years ago, the evening the Bastille was taken: The ferocious beast must get the taste of blood to put it in the humor of slaying? Well, so it was. And, to make the blood flow, I rolled back my sleeves to the elbow, and set to work! So I say again, the ma.s.sacres of September held this much good for us, that they aroused general horror throughout Europe and exasperated the foreign powers, even including England, which was until then almost neutral, but is now become the soul of the coalition. Even in Paris, this execrable hot-bed of revolution, where, it must be admitted, the ma.s.sacres were, in a moment of vertigo, accepted by all cla.s.ses of the people as a measure of public safety, they now inspire unspeakable horror! The revolutionists themselves are divided into two camps--the patriots of the 10th of August, and the Septembrists--a precious germ of internal discord among the wretches. All in all, there is good, much good for us, in the days of September. The terror evoked by them will come to the a.s.sistance of the present plot. Everything is prepared; the posts are a.s.signed, the depots of arms established, the proclamations printed. Lehiron, a knave for any trick, if you grease his palm well, is in charge of the band of make-believe sans-culottes which is to a.s.sail the King"s escort. I can answer for his intelligence and courage; he awaits his final orders next door. Finally, this very evening, and in spite of the careful guard kept about him, Louis XVI is to receive from his waiting-man Clery word of the project, merely that the prince may not be frightened at the tumult, and that he may follow with confidence those who give him the pa.s.s-word, "G.o.d and the King! Pilnitz and Brunswick." That, then, is how matters stand. A plot has been framed, it is on the eve of being carried out.
Now, I put this question: Is the time ripe for action?"
Mute with astonishment, the Count, the Marquis and the Bishop stared blankly at one another. The Count was the first to break the silence:
"How is that! You give out the details, the agencies, the object of the plot, the execution of which is fixed for to-morrow, and still you seem to be in doubt as to whether action should be taken?"
"I ask deliberation on these two plain propositions: First, would it not be more opportune to await the day set for the execution of Louis XVI--his condemnation is not a matter of doubt--and only then attempt our stroke, in the hope that the horror of regicide will add to the number of our partisans? And secondly,--it is I, on my own initiative, on my own responsibility, who propose this grave question--would it not be more expedient, in the manifest interest of the Church and the monarchy--simply to allow Louis to be guillotined?"
The Jesuit"s proposal, as strange as it was unexpected, threw his hearers into such amazement that they were struck dumb anew, and sat with their mouths hanging open. Three taps at the door, given like a preconcerted signal, were heard in the stillness.
"It is my G.o.d-son," whispered the Jesuit; and in a louder tone, he added: "Come in!"
Little Rodin was togged out in a red jacket and bonnet the same as the prelate. He saluted the company.
"What news, my child? What have you to tell us?" inquired his preceptor.
"Gentle G.o.d-father, there is a man down below, with the porter, disguised as a woman. He gave the pa.s.s-word, but the porter, not recognizing him, replied that he knew not what he was after with his jargon. Scenting a possible spy, the porter sent his wife up to me on the second floor, to warn me of what had happened."
"Doubtless it is one of our men, obliged to take refuge in disguise,"
began the Count.
"It is more serious than that," the Bishop dissented. "How are you to make sure he is one of us?"
"A man tricked out as a woman!" exclaimed the Marquis. "Is this carnival time?"
"You know all our people by sight?" asked Morlet of his G.o.d-son.
"Yes, dear G.o.d-father. When I"ve seen a person once, I do not forget him. The Lord G.o.d," and he crossed himself, "has blessed His little servant with the gift of memory, which he has so much use for."
"Go down to the porter"s lodge," returned his dear G.o.d-father. "Examine the personage in question. If you recognize him, tell the porter to let him come up. If not, come back and let me know."
"Yes, good G.o.d-father, your orders shall be followed to the dot!"
responded little Rodin, sliding out of the door, while the Bishop asked, dubiously:
"But may not that child make a mistake? Meseems the errand is poorly entrusted."
"My G.o.d-son is a prodigy of cleverness and penetration," returned the Abbot.
The interrupted topic of discussion was immediately resumed by the Count.
"I refuse to sit under a chairman," said he, "a priest, a subject of the King, who has the sacrilegious audacity of bringing up for consideration the abominable question, Is it, yes or no, expedient to allow Louis XVI to be guillotined?"
"Such abomination would seem incredible," chimed in the Bishop, "did one not know that the Society of Jesus often preaches regicide."
"The Society of Jesus has preached, has counseled regicide whenever it became important to suppress Kings _ad majorem Dei gloriam_--to the greater glory of G.o.d! The church is above monarchs," retorted the representative of the Society.
"A capital pleasantry!" put in the Marquis. "Here we are met to advise on measures to save the King, and the priest proposes to us to let them clip his head! The idea is brilliant!"
At this moment little Rodin returned, and reported to the Jesuit:
"Good G.o.d-father, in the person rigged out as a woman I have recognized Monsieur Hubert."
"Let him come in," ordered the recipient of the information.
Still in Madam Desmarais"s hat and fur cloak Hubert entered the room. At the sight, the Marquis greeted him with a roar of laughter. Pale with rage, Hubert threw at his feet his feminine head-gear, dashed off the cloak which hid his vest and grey trousers, rushed at the Marquis, and, shaking his fist under the latter"s nose, cried:
"You shall give me a reason for your insolence, you pigeon-house tenant!"
But the Count of Plouernel and his brother the Bishop interposed between the two, and succeeded in calming the financier"s irritation, explaining to him that the Marquis was a hare-brain, and should not be taken seriously. Apparently bent upon proving his reputation, the Marquis cried out: