"Now, sir," said Dagobert, in a grave voice, "I declare, in presence of all, that I was wrong to abuse and ill-treat you. I make you my apology for it, sir; and I acknowledge, with joy, that I owe you--much--oh! very much and when I owe, I pay."
So saying, Dagobert held out his honest hand to Rodin, who pressed it in a very affable manner, and replied: "Now, really--what is all this about? What great service do you speak of?"
"This!" said Dagobert, holding up the cross before Rodin"s eyes. "You do not know, then, what this cross is to me?"
"On the contrary, supposing you would set great store by it, I intended to have the pleasure of delivering it myself. I had brought it for that purpose; but, between ourselves, you gave me so warm a reception, that I had not the time--"
"Sir," said Dagobert, in confusion, "I a.s.sure you that I sincerely repent of what I have done."
"I know it, my good friend; do not say another word about it. You were then much attached to this cross?"
"Attached to it, sir!" cried Dagobert. "Why, this cross," and he kissed it as he spoke, "is my relic. He from whom it came was my saint--my hero--and he had touched it with his hand!"
"Oh!" said Rodin, feigning to regard the cross with as much curiosity as respectful admiration; "did Napoleon--the Great Napoleon--indeed touch with his own hand--that victorious hand!--this n.o.ble star of honor?"
"Yes, sir, with his own hand. He placed it there upon my bleeding breast, as a cure for my fifth wound. So that, you see, were I dying of hunger, I think I should not hesitate betwixt bread and my cross--that I might, in any case, have it on my heart in death. But, enough--enough!
let us talk of something else. It is foolish in an old soldier, is it not?" added Dagobert, drawing his hand across his eyes, and then, as if ashamed to deny what he really felt: "Well, then! yes," he resumed, raising his head proudly, and no longer seeking to conceal the tears that rolled down his cheek; "yes, I weep for joy, to have found my cross--my cross, that the Emperor gave me with his victorious hand, as this worthy man has called it."
"Then blessed be my poor old hand for having restored you the glorious treasure!" said Rodin, with emotion. "In truth," he added, "the day will be a good one for everybody--as I announced to you this morning in my letter."
"That letter without a signature?" asked the soldier, more and more astonished. "Was it from you?"
"It was I who wrote it. Only, fearing some new snare of the Abbe d"Aigrigny, I did not choose, you understand, to explain myself more clearly."
"Then--I shall see--my orphans?"
Rodin nodded affirmatively, with an expression of great good-nature.
"Presently--perhaps immediately," said Adrienne, with smile. "Well! was I right in telling you that you had not judged this gentleman fairly?"
"Why did he not tell me this when I came in?" cried Dagobert, almost beside himself with joy.
"There was one difficulty in the way, my good friend," said Rodin; "it was, that when you came in, you nearly throttled me."
"True; I was too hasty. Once more, I ask your pardon. But was I to blame? I had only seen you with that Abbe d"Aigrigny, and in the first moment--"
"This dear young lady," said Rodin, bowing to Adrienne, "will tell you that I have been, without knowing it, the accomplice IN many perfidious actions; but as soon as I began to see my way through the darkness, I quitted the evil course on which I had entered, and returned to that which is honest, just and true."
Adrienne nodded affirmatively to Dagobert, who appeared to consult her look.
"If I did not sign the letter that I wrote to you, my good friend, it was partly from fear that my name might inspire suspicion; and if I asked you to come hither, instead of to the convent, it was that I had some dread--like this dear young lady--lest you might be recognized by the porter or by the gardener, your affair of the other night rendering such a recognition somewhat dangerous."
"But M. Baleinier knows all; I forgot that," said Adrienne, with uneasiness. "He threatened to denounce M. Dagobert and his son, if I made any complaint."
"Do not be alarmed, my dear young lady; it will soon be for you to dictate conditions," replied Rodin. "Leave that to me; and as for you, my good friend, your torments are now finished."
"Yes," said Adrienne, "an upright and worthy magistrate has gone to the convent, to fetch Marshal Simon"s daughters. He will bring them hither; but he thought with me, that it would be most proper for them to take up their abode in my house. I cannot, however, come to this decision without your consent, for it is to you that these orphans were entrusted by their mother."
"You wish to take her place with regard to them, madame?" replied Dagobert. "I can only thank you with all my heart, for myself and for the children. But, as the lesson has been a sharp one, I must beg to remain at the door of their chamber, night and day. If they go out with you, I must be allowed to follow them at a little distance, so as to keep them in view, just like Spoil-sport, who has proved himself a better guardian than myself. When the marshal is once here--it will be in a day or two--my post will be relieved. Heaven grant it may be soon!"
"Yes," replied Rodin, in a firm voice, "heaven grant he may arrive soon, for he will have to demand a terrible reckoning of the Abbe d"Aigrigny, for the persecution of his daughters; and yet the marshal does not know all."
"And don"t you tremble for the renegade?" asked Dagobert, as he thought how the marquis would soon find himself face to face with the marshal.
"I never care for cowards and traitors," answered Rodin; "and when Marshal Simon returns--" Then, after a pause of some seconds, he continued: "If he will do me the honor to hear me, he shall be edified as to the conduct of the Abbe d"Aigrigny. The marshal knows that his dearest friends, as well as himself, have been victims of the hatred of that dangerous man."
"How so?" said Dagobert.
"Why, yourself, for instance," replied Rodin; "you are an example of what I advance."
"Do you think it was mere chance, that brought about the scene at the White Falcon Inn, near Leipsic?"
"Who told you of that scene?" said Dagobert in astonishment.
"Where you accepted the challenge of Morok," continued the Jesuit, without answering Dagobert"s question, "and so fell into a trap, or else refused it, and were then arrested for want of papers, and thrown into prison as a vagabond, with these poor children. Now, do you know the object of this violence? It was to prevent your being here on the 13th of February."
"But the more I hear, sir," said Adrienne, "the more I am alarmed at the audacity of the Abbe d"Aigrigny, and the extent of the means he has at his command. Really," she resumed, with increasing surprise, "if your words were not ent.i.tled to absolute belief--"
"You would doubt their truth, madame?" said Dagobert. "It is like me.
Bad as he is. I cannot think that this renegade had relations with a wild-beast showman as far off as Saxony; and then, how could he know that I and the children were to pa.s.s through Leipsic? It is impossible, my good man."
"In fact, sir," resumed Adrienne, "I fear that you are deceived by your dislike (a very legitimate one) of Abbe d"Aigrigny, and that you ascribe to him an almost fabulous degree of power and extent of influence."
After a moment"s silence, during which Rodin looked first at Adrienne and then at Dagobert, with a kind of pity, he resumed. "How could the Abbe d"Aigrigny have your cross in his possession, if he had no connection with Morok?"
"That is true, sir," said Dagobert; "joy prevented me from reflecting.
But how indeed, did my cross come into your hands?"
"By means of the Abbe d"Aigrigny"s having precisely those relations with Leipsic, of which you and the young lady seem to doubt."
"But how did my cross get to Paris?"
"Tell me; you were arrested at Leipsic for want of papers--is it not so?"
"Yes; but I could never understand how my pa.s.sports and money disappeared from my knapsack. I thought I must have had the misfortune to lose them."
Rodin shrugged his shoulders, and replied: "You were robbed of them at the White Falcon Inn, by Goliath, one of Morok"s servants, and the latter sent the papers and the cross to the Abbe d"Aigrigny, to prove that he had succeeded in executing his orders with respect to the orphans and yourself. It was the day before yesterday, that I obtained the key of that dark machination. Cross and papers were amongst the stores of Abbe d"Aigrigny; the papers formed a considerable bundle, and he might have missed them; but, hoping to see you this morning, and knowing how a soldier of the Empire values his cross, his sacred relic, as you call it, my good friend--I did not hesitate. I put the relic into my pocket. "After all," said I, "it is only rest.i.tution, and my delicacy perhaps exaggerates this breach of trust.""
"You could not have done a better action," said Adrienne; "and, for my part, because of the interest I feel for M. Dagobert--I take it as a personal favor. But, sir," after a moment"s silence, she resumed with anxiety: "What terrible power must be at the command of M. d"Aigrigny, for him to have such extensive and formidable relations in a foreign country!"
"Silence!" said Rodin, in a low voice, and looking round him with an air of alarm. "Silence! In heaven"s name do not ask me about it!"
CHAPTER x.x.xVIII. REVELATIONS.
Mdlle. de Cardoville, much astonished at the alarm displayed by Rodin, when she had asked him for some explanation of the formidable and far reaching power of the Abby d"Aigrigny, said to him: "Why, sir, what is there so strange in the question that I have just asked you?"