Charlotte replied. "Robespierre is put under ban of arrest, but the Jacobins and the Sections will go to his rescue. The Commune has declared the country in danger, the tocsin calls the people to arms."
"Alas, I fear for your husband. He is at the City Hall as a member of the General Council. The Commune is in insurrection against the Convention; if the Commune loses, John will have become an outlaw."
"My husband will do his duty; the future belongs to G.o.d."
Suddenly Castillon entered the parlor, crying: "Good news! The Sections are taking arms and a.s.sembling to march to the Commune, with their cannon; the Jacobins have declared themselves in permanent session.
Robespierre has been taken to the Luxembourg Prison; his brother to St.
Lazare; St. Just to the Scotch Prison; Couthon to La Bourbe; and Lebas to the Chatelet. As I left the City Hall they were discussing the means of rescuing them."
"You see, mother, the Sections are in the majority, with the Commune."
"Ah, madam, madam!" cried Gertrude, running in in a fright. "Don"t be too alarmed--Oh, heavens, there he is!"
Hardly had Gertrude uttered these words when advocate Desmarais, pale, half frightened to death, tumbled into the room, crying: "Save me! In heaven"s name!"
And running to his wife and daughter, whom he pressed in his arms, he continued wailing, "Hide me! They are after me!"
"Fright has unbalanced you, father," said Charlotte. "No one is pursuing you."
Madam Desmarais had hurriedly found a bottle of smelling salts, which she held to the nose of her half-fainting spouse. He recovered his senses, and began again, in a quaking voice: "Thank you. You are generous. Now, I beseech you both, conceal me somewhere. Charlotte"s husband may come back and be accompanied by some member of the General Council. I shall be recognized--arrested--guillotined. Pity me!"
"But, father, your fears are all exaggerated. My husband will not allow you to be arrested in his house."
At that moment Gertrude, opening a crack of the door, called mysteriously to her mistress:
"Madam, come at once!"
"What is it, Gertrude?" Charlotte asked. "Who is there?"
"A man of the mounted police demands to speak with you."
Hearing the nature of the visitor, Monsieur Desmarais flew into a new fit of fear. His mind gave way. He ran to a window and sought to hide by wrapping himself up in the curtains. Charlotte left the room, closing the door behind her. In a second she was back, joyfully waving a paper she held in her hand. "It is good news, mother. Where"s father?"
Madam Desmarais indicated with a gesture the window, the curtains of which revealed the figure of the attorney, and left his feet exposed at the bottom. Then she added, in a low voice: "If we do not hide your father somehow, he will die of agony and fright."
"His fright is baseless, but I think you are right about it," responded Charlotte in the same tone. "We can take him up to the garret, to the locked room; there he will no doubt feel that he is safe, and his fears will calm down." And she went to the window where her father, white as a sheet and bathed in a cold sweat, was clinging for support to the window casing.
"That gendarme!" stammered the lawyer. "What did he want?"
"He just brought me a letter from John. I shall read it to you and mother, after which you will be taken, as you wish, to a retreat, in the top of the house, where you need not fear being seen by a soul. Here is what John wrote me:
"Dearly beloved wife:--All goes well here so far. The General Council of the Commune is almost complete. We are advising on energetic and prompt measures--prompt above all; the Convention, on its side, is not idle. We are in session. The majority of the Sections are with us. We shall receive word in an instant that the suburbs of St. Antoine and Marceau are ready to march; we await their delegates. The City Hall Place is covered with an armed force, furnished with several pieces of artillery, and all crying "Long live the Republic! Down with the brigands of the Convention!"
Robespierre and his friends are still in prison; we shall deliver them. Be of good cheer, and remember that you live not alone for
"Your
"J. L.
"Tell Castillon to join me as soon as possible. He is a sure man, and I shall need him."
"If the suburbs march with the Commune, the Convention is lost!"
murmured the lawyer. "Conduct me to the hiding place you spoke of. You shall lock me in, you will keep the key about you, you will not give the key to anyone, not even to your husband--you promise me?"
"I swear it;" and forcing a smile, the young woman added: "I alone shall be your jailer. Come, come."
As she went out, Charlotte said to her mother, "Please ask Gertrude to have Castillon wait for me in the parlor." The advocate staggered out on the arm of his daughter. Looking after him, Madam Desmarais sighed to herself, "Unhappy man! I pity him." Sinister reflections followed close: "The triumph of Robespierre will mean the death of Billaud-Varenne, our friend, our protector, he who has prevented, to this very day, my brother Hubert from being called before the revolutionary tribunal. But when he is there no longer, who will take his place in protecting my brother"s life? Alas, this day, whatever its issue, will hold a sad outcome for our family. How can one prepare for such a crisis?"
Charlotte at that moment returned, bearing the walnut casket in which reposed the legends and relics of the Lebrenn family. Madam Desmarais, running to her daughter quickly, said, in a tone of reproach, as she helped her set the casket down on a table, "Could you not have called Gertrude, instead of yourself carrying such a burden?"
"Have you asked Castillon to come here, good mother? I wish to set him to a task."
"I forgot your request, my girl. I shall at once repair the forgetfulness, and go seek your foreman. But before all, tell me, why you have brought this box in here?"
"I wish to place it in a safe and secret place, with Castillon"s aid, dear mother. You know what store John and I set by the papers and objects contained in it. In these times of revolution, one must think of everything. John will be grateful to me for the precaution." So saying, she rang the bell.
Castillon entered. The foreman seemed preoccupied. He had slung on his cartridge box, his sword, and his volunteer"s rifle.
"Put this chest on your shoulder and follow me, brave Castillon," said Charlotte. "I shall soon be back, dear mother. Hope and courage, all will go well! The Commune will triumph over the Convention."
"Oh, my presentiments, my presentiments did not deceive me," moaned Madam Desmarais after her daughter"s and Castillon"s departure. "This day will be fatal to us!"
Ten o"clock at night of that same day found the General Council of the Insurrectionary Commune of Paris still in session in that chamber of the City Hall called the Equality Chamber. The open windows gave on the square choked with citizens. Their bayonets and pike-heads glittered in the light of numerous torches; several cannon had been dragged up by the Sections, and from time to time one might hear cries of "Long live the Republic!" "Long live the Commune!" Within, torches lighted the vast expanse of the Equality Chamber, and the table about which sat, under the presidency of Fleuriot-Lescot the Mayor of Paris, the members of the Council of the Commune.
"Here is the proclamation," said the Mayor, preparing to read, "which is about to be placarded on the streets of Paris:
"Citizens, the country is more than ever in danger. Scoundrels dictate laws to the Convention, which they overmaster. They pursue Robespierre, who declares for the consoling principles of the existence of the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul; St.
Just and Lebas, those two apostles of virtue; Couthon, who has but his heart and head alive, though they are glowing with the ardor of patriotism; Robespierre the younger, who presided over the victories of the army in Italy.
People, arise! Lose not the fruit of the 10th of August and the 31st of May. Let us hurl all the traitors into their tomb!
Signed, FLEURIOT-LESCOT,
Mayor,
BLIN,
Secretary."
As the Mayor"s proclamation was declared adopted by the session, John Lebrenn, who had approached one of the windows, remarked that not only had the number of armed Section representatives in the square diminished, but that the place was almost deserted. Soon the whole City Hall Place, with the exception of a group here and there, lay silent and empty. John had barely returned to his seat at the table when the doors were flung open with a crash by the press of people who sought to enter.
They carried in Robespierre the elder, Robespierre the younger, Lebas, St. Just and Couthon, borne aloft in chairs. At the sight of the liberated Representatives of the people, surrounded by their Jacobin friends, the members of the Council rose spontaneously with cries of "Long live the Republic!" Gradually the tumult died down, and the Mayor of Paris began to speak:
"Citizens--from this moment the functions of the General Council of the Commune should undergo a change. I move that it be transformed into a committee of action, and that the presidency of it be conferred upon Maximilien Robespierre. The _Revolution_ now commences!"
Robespierre responded in the following words:
"Citizens, I long resisted the entreaties of the patriots who sought to deliver me from prison. I wished to respect the law, for the very reason that our enemies make of it a football. I wished, in Marat"s steps, to appear before the revolutionary tribunal. Had they p.r.o.nounced me innocent, the villains of the Convention would have been confounded, and honest folks would triumph; on the contrary, had they p.r.o.nounced my death sentence, I would have drunk the hemlock calmly. But I yield to events. I accept the presidency. The era of the Revolution has begun."
On the instant there rushed into the hall General Henriot, pale, excited, his clothing in disorder. "All is lost!" he cried.