"I deny nothing," murmured Rodin, with difficulty. "Only leave me alone!"
"Then heaven inspires you," said the cardinal, with a sigh of satisfaction; and, thinking he had nearly attained his object, he resumed, "Listen to the divine word, that will guide you, father. You deny nothing?"
"I was--delirious--and cannot--(oh! how I suffer!)" added Rodin, by way of parenthesis; "and cannot therefore--deny--the nonsense--I may have uttered!"
"But when this nonsense agrees with the truth," cried the prelate, furious at being again deceived in his expectation; "but when raving is an involuntary, providential revelation--"
"Cardinal Malipieri--your craft is no match--for my agony," answered Rodin, in a failing voice. "The proof--that I have not told my secret--if I have a secret--is--that you want to make me tell it!" In spite of his pain and weakness, the Jesuit had courage to raise himself in the bed, and look the cardinal full in the face, with a smile of bitter irony. After which he fell back on the pillow, and pressed his hands to his chest, with a long sigh of anguish.
"d.a.m.nation! the infernal Jesuit has found me out!" said the cardinal to himself, as he stamped his foot with rage. "He sees that he was compromised by his first movement; he is now upon his guard; I shall get nothing more from him--unless indeed, profiting by the state of weakness in which he is, I can, by entreaties, by threats, by terror--"
The prelate was unable to finish. The door opened abruptly, and Father d"Aigrigny entered the room, exclaiming with an explosion of joy: "Excellent news!"
CHAPTER XXVIII. GOOD NEWS.
By the alteration in the countenance of Father d"Aigrigny, his pale cheek, and the feebleness of his walk, one might see that the terrible scene in the square of Notre-Dame, had violently reacted upon his health. Yet his face was radiant and triumphant, as he entered Rodin"s chamber, exclaiming: "Excellent news!"
On these words, Rodin started. In spite of his weakness, he raised his head, and his eyes shone with a curious, uneasy, piercing expression.
With his lean hand, he beckoned Father d"Aigrigny to approach the bed, and said to him, in a broken voice, so weak that it was scarcely audible: "I am very ill--the cardinal has nearly finished me--but if this excellent news--relates to the Rennepont affair--of which I hear nothing--it might save me yet!"
"Be saved then!" cried Father d"Aigrigny, forgetting the recommendations of Dr. Baleinier; "read, rejoice! What you foretold is beginning to be realized!"
So saying, he drew a paper from his pocket, and delivered it to Rodin, who seized it with an eager and trembling hand. Some minutes before, Rodin would have been really incapable of continuing his conversation with the cardinal, even if prudence had allowed him to do so; nor could he have read a single line, so dim had his sight become. But, at the words of Father d"Aigrigny, he felt such a renewal of hope and vigor, that, by a mighty effort of energy and will, he rose to a sitting posture, and, with clear head, and look of intelligent animation, he read rapidly the paper that Father d"Aigrigny had just delivered to him.
The cardinal, amazed at this sudden transfiguration, asked himself if he beheld the same man, who, a few minutes before, had fallen back on his bed, almost insensible. Hardly had Rodin finished reading, than he uttered a cry of stifled joy, saying, with an accent impossible to describe: "ONE gone! it works--"tis well!" And, closing his eyes in a kind of ecstatic transport, a smile of proud triumph overspread his face, and rendered him still more hideous, by discovering his yellow and gumless teeth. His emotion was so violent, that the paper fell from his trembling hand.
"He has fainted," cried Father d"Aigrigny, with uneasiness, as he leaned over Rodin. "It is my fault, I forgot that the doctor cautioned me not to talk to him of serious matters."
"No; do not reproach yourself," said Rodin, in a low voice, half-raising himself in the bed. "This unexpected joy may perhaps cure me. Yes--I scarce know what I feel--but look at my cheeks--it seems to me, that, for the first time since I have been stretched on this bed of pain, they are a little warm."
Rodin spoke the truth. A slight color appeared suddenly on his livid and icy cheeks; his voice though still very weak, became less tremulous, and he exclaimed, in a tone of conviction that startled Father d"Aigrigny and the prelate, "This first success answers for the others. I read the future. Yes, yes; our cause will triumph. Every member of the execrable Rennepont family will be crushed--and that soon you will see--"
Then, pausing, Rodin threw himself back on the pillow, exclaiming: "Oh!
I am choked with joy. My voice fails me."
"But what is it?" asked the cardinal of Father d"Aigrigny.
The latter replied, in a tone of hypocritical sanct.i.ty: "One of the heirs of the Rennepont family, a poor fellow, worn out with excesses and debauchery, died three days ago, at the close of some abominable orgies, in which he had braved the cholera with sacrilegious impiety.
In consequence of the indisposition that kept me at home, and of another circ.u.mstance, I only received to-day the certificate of the death of this victim of intemperance and irreligion. I must proclaim it to the praise of his reverence"--pointing to Rodin--"that he told me, the worst enemies of the descendants of that infamous renegade would be their own bad pa.s.sions, and that the might look to them as our allies against the whole impious race. And so it has happened with Jacques Rennepont."
"You see," said Rodin, in so faint a voice that it was almost unintelligible, "the punishment begins already. One of the Renneponts is dead--and believe me--this certificate," and he pointed to the paper that Father d"Aigrigny held in his hand, "will one day be worth forty millions to the Society of Jesus--and that--because--"
The lips alone finished the sentence. During some seconds, Rodin"s voice had become so faint, that it was at last quite imperceptible. His larynx, contracted by violent emotion, no longer emitted any sound.
The Jesuit, far from being disconcerted by this incident, finished his phrase, as it were, by expressive pantomime. Raising his head proudly he tapped his forehead with his forefinger, as if to express that it was to his ability this first success was owing. But he soon fell back again on the bed, exhausted, breathless, sinking, with his cotton handkerchief pressed once more to his parched lips. The good news, as Father d"Aigrigny called it, had not cured Rodin. For a moment only, he had had the courage to forget his pain. But the slight color on his cheek soon disappeared; his face became once more livid. His sufferings, suspended for a moment, were so much increased in violence, that he writhed beneath the coverlet, and buried his face in the pillow, extending his arms above his head, and holding them stiff as bars of iron. After this crisis, intense as it was rapid: during which Father d"Aigrigny and the prelate bent anxiously over him, Rodin, whose face was bathed in cold sweat, made a sign that he suffered less, and that he wished to drink of a potion to which he pointed. Father d"Aigrigny fetched it for him, and while the cardinal held him up with marked disgust, the abbe administered a few spoonfuls of the potion, which almost immediately produced a soothing effect.
"Shall I call M. Rousselet?" said Father d"Aigrigny, when Rodin was once more laid down in bed.
Rodin shook his head; then, with a fresh effort, he raised his right hand, opened it, and pointed with his forefinger to a desk in a corner of the room, to signify that, being no longer able to speak, he wished to write.
"I understand your reverence," said Father d"Aigrigny; "but first calm yourself. Presently, if you require it. I will give you writing materials."
Two knocks at the outer door of the next room interrupted this scene.
From motives of prudence, Father d"Aigrigny had begged Rousselet to remain in the first of the three rooms. He now went to open the door, and Rousselet handed him a voluminous packet, saying: "I beg pardon for disturbing you, father, but I was told to let you have these papers instantly."
"Thank you, M. Rousselet," said Father d"Aigrigny; "do you know at what hour Dr. Baleinier will return?"
"He will not be long, father, for he wishes to perform before night the painful operation, that will have a decisive effect on the condition of Father Rodin. I am preparing what is necessary for it," added Rousselet, as he pointed to a singular and formidable apparatus, which Father d"Aigrigny examined with a kind of terror.
"I do not know if the symptom is a serious one," said the Jesuit; "but the reverend father has suddenly lost his voice."
"It is the third time this has happened within the last week," said Rousselet; "the operation of Dr. Baleiner will act both on the larynx and on the lungs."
"Is the operation a very painful one?" asked Father d"Aigrigny.
"There is, perhaps, none more cruel in surgery," answered the young doctor; "and Dr. Baleinier has partly concealed its nature from Father Rodin."
"Please to wait here for Dr. Baleinier, and send him to us as soon as he arrives," resumed Father d"Aigrigny: and, returning to the sick chamber, he sat down by the bedside, and said to Rodin, as he showed him the letter: "Here are different reports with regard to different members of the Rennepont family, whom I have had looked after by others, my indisposition having kept me at home for the last few days. I do not know, father, if the state of your health will permit you to hear--"
Rodin made a gesture, at once so supplicating and peremptory, that Father d"Aigrigny felt there would be at least as much danger in refusing as in granting his request; so, turning towards the cardinal, still inconsolable at not having discovered the Jesuit"s secret, he said to him with respectful deference, pointing at the same time to the letter: "Have I the permission of your Eminence?"
The prelate bowed, and replied: "Your affairs are ours, my dear father.
The Church must always rejoice in what rejoices your glorious Company."
Father d"Aigrigny unsealed the packet, and found in it different notes in different handwritings. When he had read the first, his countenance darkened, and he said, in a grave tone: "A misfortune--a great misfortune."
Rodin turned his head abruptly, and looked at him with an air of uneasy questioning.
"Florine is dead of the cholera," answered Father d"Aigrigny; "and what is the worst," added he, crumpling the note between his hands, "before dying, the miserable creature confessed to Mdlle. de Cardoville that she long acted as a spy under the orders of your reverence."
No doubt the death of Florine, and the confession she had made, crossed some of the plans of Rodin, for he uttered an inarticulate murmur, and his countenance expressed great vexation.
Pa.s.sing to another note, Father d"Aigrigny continued: "This relates to Marshal Simon, and is not absolutely bad, but still far from satisfactory, as it announces some amelioration in his position. We shall see if it merits belief, by information from another source."
Rodin made a sign of impatience, to hasten Father d"Aigrigny to read the note, which he did as follows. ""For some days, the mind of the marshal has appeared to be less sorrowful, anxious and agitated. He lately pa.s.sed two hours with his daughters, which had not been the case for some time before. The harsh countenance of the soldier Dagobert is becoming smoother--a sure sign of some amelioration in the condition of the marshal. Detected by their handwriting, the last anonymous letters were returned by Dagobert to the postman, without having been opened by the marshal. Some other method must be found to get them delivered.""
Looking at Rodin, Father d"Aigrigny said to him: "Your reverence thinks with me that this note is not very satisfactory?"
Rodin held down his head. One saw by the expression of his countenance how much he suffered by not being able to speak. Twice he put his hand to his throat, and looked at Father d"Aigrigny with anguish.
"Oh!" cried Father d"Aigrigny, angrily, when he had perused another note, "for one lucky chance, to-day brings some very black ones."
At these words turning hastily to Father d"Aigrigny, and extending his trembling hands, Rodin questioned him with look and gesture. The cardinal, sharing his uneasiness, exclaimed: "What do you learn by this note, my dear father?"
"We thought the residence of M. Hardy in our house completely unknown,"
replied Father d"Aigrigny, "but we now fear that Agricola Baudoin has discovered the retreat of his old master, and that he has even communicated with him by letter, through a servant of the house. So,"