"Monsieur John Lebrenn being the equal of my father, bonds of friendship could exist between them."
"I shall admit, for the moment, that an ironsmith"s apprentice might think himself the equal of an attorney at the bar of Paris. What do you conclude therefrom?"
"I hoped you would have understood," stammered the young girl in confusion, and more embarra.s.sed than ever at seeing her mother so far from suspecting the nature of the confidence she was about to make.
Suddenly a dull and heavy roar, prolonged and repeated from echo to echo, shook and rattled the windows of the room.
"What noise is that!" cried Madam Desmarais with a start, and raising her head.
Crash upon crash, more distinct than the first, rattled again the windows and even the doors of the dwelling. At that instant in rushed one of Madam Desmarais"s maids, screaming out with affright:
"Madam, Oh, madam! It is the cannon! It is the roar of artillery!"
"Great G.o.d!" exclaimed Madam Desmarais, turning pale. "And my husband!
To what dangers will he be exposed!"
"Do not worry, dear mother. Father is at Versailles," spoke out Charlotte, now the comforter.
"They are attacking Paris. The counter-attack will lead on to Versailles. There will be uprisings, insurrections, ma.s.sacres!"
"The suburbs are attacking the Bastille," answered Gertrude, the maid, all of a tremble. "At daybreak our neighbor, Monsieur Lebrenn the ironsmith, armed with sword and gun, placed himself at the head of a troop, and marched upon the fortress."
"Alas, he rushes into the arms of death--I shall never see him more!"
cried Charlotte, starting to her feet. And overcome with emotion and fear, she paled, her eyes closed, and she fainted in the arms of her mother and the servant, who bent over her plying their simple restorative cares.
For a long time the detonation of the artillery and the rattle of musketry continued unabated. At length the firing slackened, became desultory, and finally ceased altogether. The tumult gave way to a profound silence. Charlotte regained consciousness. Her face hidden in her hands, she was now seated beside her mother, who regarded her daughter with a severe and saddened look. The older woman seemed to hesitate to speak to the girl; finally she addressed her in a voice that was hard and dry:
"Thank heaven, Charlotte, you have recovered from your faint. Let us continue our interview, that was so unfortunately interrupted. Meseems it is of extreme importance for us all. I can guess its conclusion."
The hard lines in the face of Madam Desmarais and the iciness in her tone took the young girl aback; but overcoming the pa.s.sing emotion, she raised her head, revealing her countenance wet with tears, and answered:
"I have never practised dissimulation towards you. So, just now, I could not conceal the fears which a.s.sailed me for John Lebrenn--for I love him pa.s.sionately. I have pledged him my faith, I have received his in return. We have sworn our troth, one to the other. There, my dear mother, that is the confidence, I wished to make to you."
"Oh, woe is us! The predictions of my brother are realized. How right he was to reproach my husband for his relations with that workingman!
Unworthy daughter!" continued Madam Desmarais addressing Charlotte, "How could you so far forget your duties as to think of uniting your lot with that of a miserable artisan? Shame and ignominy! Dishonor to your family--"
"Mother," replied Charlotte, raising her head proudly, "my love is as n.o.ble and pure as the man who calls it forth."
Gertrude, the serving maid, here again broke precipitately into the room, joyfully crying as she crossed the threshold:
"Madam, good news! Your husband has just entered the courtyard."
"My husband in Paris!" exclaimed Madam Desmarais. "What can have taken place at Versailles? Perhaps the a.s.sembly is dissolved! Perhaps he is proscribed, a fugitive! My G.o.d, have pity on us!"
She rushed to the door to meet her husband, but checked herself long enough to say to Charlotte:
"Swear to me to forget at once this shameful love. On that condition I consent to withhold from your father all knowledge of the wretched affair."
"My father shall know all!" replied Charlotte resolutely, as Monsieur Desmarais entered the room.
CHAPTER X.
DEPUTY DESMARAIS.
The deputy of the Third Estate was a man in the prime of life; his intellectual face betrayed more of diplomacy than of frankness. The disorder of his apparel and the perspiration that covered his brow bespoke the precipitancy of his return. His pallor, the contortion of his features, the fear portrayed upon them, disclosed the anxiety of his mind. But his whole expression relaxed at sight of Charlotte and her mother. He pressed them several times in turn to his bosom, and cried joyously:
"Dear wife--dear daughter--embrace me again! I never before thought what a consolation in these cursed times the sweet joys of the domestic hearth would prove."
And again embracing his wife and daughter, the advocate added, "Blessings on you both for your presence. You have made me forget for a moment the atrocities committed by a cannibal people!"
As Monsieur Desmarais uttered these last words, a storm of triumphal outcries, first distant, then gradually drawing nearer, smote upon his ear: "Victory! The Bastille is taken by the people! Down with the court!
Down with the traitors! Down with the King! Death to the King! Long live the Nation!"
Then as gradually the cries moved away and died out in the distance.
"The Bastille is taken--but how much blood had to be shed in the heroic attack!" thought Charlotte, endeavoring to curb her apprehensions for John Lebrenn. Then, carrying her handkerchief to her lips to smother a sob, she added to herself, "He is dead, perhaps. O, G.o.d, have pity on my grief."
"What mean these cries, my friend?" asked Madam Desmarais of her husband. "Is it possible that the Bastille has fallen into the hands of the people? Can the working cla.s.ses have overcome the army? In what sort of times do we live?"
"The Bastille is taken! Cursed day--the people are on top!"
Charlotte heard with astonishment the execrations of her father on the victory just won by the people. But before she was able to explain to herself this revulsion in her father"s beliefs, Gertrude re-entered the room, calling out through the open door--
"Good news again! Mother Lebrenn, our neighbor, has sent one of her apprentices to inform you that she has just received a note from Monsieur John, saying that he received a slight gunshot wound in the shoulder during the battle--and announcing that the people is everywhere victorious!"
"John Lebrenn!" exclaimed Monsieur Desmarais, enraged. "He took part in that insurrection! Send answer to Mother Lebrenn that I take no interest in parties to ma.s.sacre!" Then recollecting himself, he added, "No--say to the apprentice that you have delivered the message."
"Not a word of interest, and John wounded," thought Charlotte. "Ah, at least, thanks to You, my G.o.d, John"s wound is slight. I need not tremble for his life."
"If the revolution one of these days miscarries, it will be the fools of the stamp of this Lebrenn who will be to blame," continued Desmarais bitterly. "They will not comprehend that the ideal government is a bourgeois, const.i.tutional monarchy, amenable to the courts, disarmed, and subordinated to an a.s.sembly of representatives of the Third Estate.
These miserable workingmen dishonor the revolution by a.s.sa.s.sination."
"Father," responded Charlotte firmly, her forehead flushed with a generous resolve, "Monsieur John Lebrenn can not be called an a.s.sa.s.sin."
"I, too, believed in the honesty of that workman whom I showered with favors, in spite of the warnings of your uncle Hubert," replied Desmarais. "But when John Lebrenn takes part in this insurrection, I withdraw my esteem. I look upon him as a brigand!"
"John Lebrenn a brigand!" exclaimed Charlotte, unable to restrain her indignation. "Is it you, father, who thus insult a man whom you but now called your friend! What a contradiction in your language!"
"My dear husband," interposed Madam Desmarais, interrupting her daughter to r.e.t.a.r.d an explanation of which she dreaded the issue: "You have not yet told us what compelled your departure from Versailles, and why you are in Paris instead of in session with the National a.s.sembly."
"Last evening and night the most sinister rumors were in circulation about Versailles. According to some, the court party had secured from the King the dissolution of the a.s.sembly. The members of the Left were to be arrested as seditious characters, and imprisoned or banished from the kingdom."
"Great heaven--that is where you sit, my friend! To what danger have you not been exposed!"