“Pierre went on pretending to read, but in reality listening with acute
tension of ear to every little sound. His perceptions became so
sensitive in this respect that he was incapable of measuring time, every
moment had seemed so full of noises, from the beating of his heart up to
the roll of the heavy carts in the distance. He wondered whether
Virginie would have reached the place of rendezvous, and yet he was
unable to compute the passage of minutes. His mother slept soundly: that
was well. By this time Virginie must have met the ‘faithful cousin:’ if,
indeed, Morin had not made his appearance.
“At length, he felt as if he could no longer sit still, awaiting the
issue, but must run out and see what course events had taken. In vain
his mother, half-rousing herself, called after him to ask whither he was
going: he was already out of hearing before she had ended her sentence,
and he ran on until stopped by the sight of Mademoiselle Cannes walking
along at so swift a pace that it was almost a run; while at her side,
resolutely keeping by her, Morin was striding abreast. Pierre had just
turned the corner of the street, when he came upon them. Virginie would
have passed him without recognising him, she was in such passionate
agitation, but for Morin’s gesture, by which he would fain have kept
Pierre from interrupting them. Then, when Virginie saw the lad, she
caught at his arm, and thanked God, as if in that boy of twelve or
fourteen she held a protector. Pierre felt her tremble from head to
foot, and was afraid lest she would fall, there where she stood, in the
hard rough street.
“‘Begone, Pierre!’ said Morin.
“‘I cannot,’ replied Pierre, who indeed was held firmly by Virginie.
‘Besides, I won’t,’ he added. ‘Who has been frightening Mademoiselle in
this way?’ asked he, very much inclined to brave his cousin at all
hazards.
“‘Mademoiselle is not accustomed to walk in the streets alone,’ said
Morin, sulkily. ‘She came upon a crowd attracted by the arrest of an
aristocrat, and their cries alarmed her. I offered to take charge of her
home. Mademoiselle should not walk in these streets alone. We are not
like the cold-blooded people of the Faubourg Saint Germain.’
“Virginie did not speak. Pierre doubted if she heard a word of what they
were saying. She leant upon him more and more heavily.
“‘Will Mademoiselle condescend to take my arm?’ said Morin, with sulky,
and yet humble, uncouthness. I dare say he would have given worlds if he
might have had that little hand within his arm; but, though she still
kept silence, she shuddered up away from him, as you shrink from
touching a toad. He had said something to her during that walk, you may
be sure, which had made her loathe him. He marked and understood the
gesture. He held himself aloof while Pierre gave her all the assistance
he could in their slow progress homewards. But Morin accompanied her all
the same. He had played too desperate a game to be baulked now. He had
given information against the çi-devant Marquis de Créquy, as a returned
emigré, to be met with at such a time, in such a place. Morin had hoped
that all sign of the arrest would have been cleared away before Virginie
reached the spot--so swiftly were terrible deeds done in those days. But
Clément defended himself desperately: Virginie was punctual to a second;
and, though the wounded man was borne off to the Abbaye, amid a crowd of
the unsympathising jeerers who mingled with the armed officials of the
Directory, Morin feared lest Virginie had recognised him; and he would
have preferred that she should have thought that the ‘faithful cousin’
was faithless, than that she should have seen him in bloody danger on
her account. I suppose he fancied that, if Virginie never saw or heard
more of him, her imagination would not dwell on his simple
disappearance, as it would do if she knew what he was suffering for her
sake.
“At any rate, Pierre saw that his cousin was deeply mortified by the
whole tenor of his behaviour during their walk home. When they arrived
at Madame Babette’s, Virginie fell fainting on the floor; her strength
had but just sufficed for this exertion of reaching the shelter of the
house. Her first sign of restoring consciousness consisted in avoidance
of Morin. He had been most assiduous in his efforts to bring her round;
quite tender in his way, Pierre said; and this marked, instinctive
repugnance to him evidently gave him extreme pain. I suppose Frenchmen
are more demonstrative than we are; for Pierre declared that he saw his
cousin’s eyes fill with tears, as she shrank away from his touch, if he
tried to arrange the shawl they had laid under her head like a pillow,
or as she shut her eyes when he passed before her. Madame Babette was
urgent with her to go and lie down on the bed in the inner room; but it
was some time before she was strong enough to rise and do this.
“When Madame Babette returned from arranging the girl comfortably, the
three relations sat down in silence; a silence which Pierre thought
would never be broken. He wanted his mother to ask his cousin what had
happened. But Madame Babette was afraid of her nephew, and thought it
more discreet to wait for such crumbs of intelligence as he might think
fit to throw to her. But, after she had twice reported Virginie to be
asleep, without a word being uttered in reply to her whispers by either
of her companions, Morin’s powers of self-containment gave way.
“‘It is hard!’ he said.
“‘What is hard?’ asked Madame Babette, after she had paused for a time,
to enable him to add to, or to finish, his sentence, if he pleased.
“‘It is hard for a man to love a woman as I do,’ he went on. ‘I did not
seek to love her, it came upon me before I was aware--before I had ever
thought about it at all, I loved her better than all the world beside.
All my life before I knew her, seems a dull blank. I neither know nor
care for what I did before then. And now there are just two lives before
me. Either I have her, or I have not. That is all: but that is
everything. And what can I do to make her have me? Tell me, aunt,’ and
he caught at Madame Babette’s arm, and gave it so sharp a shake, that
she half screamed out, Pierre said, and evidently grew alarmed at her
nephew’s excitement.
“‘Hush, Victor!’ said she. ‘There are other women in the world, if this
one will not have you.’
“‘None other for me,’ he said, sinking back as if hopeless. ‘I am plain
and coarse, not one of the scented darlings of the aristocrats. Say that
I am ugly, brutish; I did not make myself so, any more than I made
myself love her. It is my fate. But am I to submit to the consequences
of my fate without a struggle? Not I. As strong as my love is, so strong
is my will. It can be no stronger,’ continued he, gloomily, ‘Aunt
Babette, you must help me--you must make her love me.’ He was so fierce
here, that Pierre said he did not wonder that his mother was frightened.
“‘I, Victor!’ she exclaimed. ‘I make her love you? How can I? Ask me to
speak for you to Mademoiselle Didot, or to Mademoiselle Cauchois even,
or to such as they, and I’ll do it, and welcome. But to Mademoiselle de
Créquy, why you don’t know the difference! Those people--the old
nobility I mean--why they don’t know a man from a dog, out of their own
rank! And no wonder, for the young gentlemen of quality are treated
differently to us from their very birth. If she had you to-morrow, you
would be miserable. Let me alone for knowing the aristocracy. I have
not been a concièrge to a duke and three counts for nothing. I tell you,
all your ways are different to her ways.’
“‘I would change “my ways,” as you call them.’
“‘Be reasonable, Victor.’
“‘No, I will not be reasonable, if by that you mean giving her up. I
tell you two lives are before me; one with her, one without her. But the
latter will be but a short career for both of us. You said, aunt, that
the talk went in the concièrgerie of her father’s hôtel, that she would
have nothing to do with this cousin whom I put out of the way to-day?’
“‘So the servants said. How could I know? All I know is, that he left
off coming to our hôtel, and that at one time before then he had never
been two days absent.’
“‘So much the better for him. He suffers now for having come between me
and my object--in trying to snatch her away out of my sight. Take you
warning, Pierre! I did not like your meddling to-night.’ And so he went
off, leaving Madame Babette rocking herself backwards and forwards, in
all the depression of spirits consequent upon the reaction after the
brandy, and upon her knowledge of her nephew’s threatened purpose
combined.
“In telling you most of this, I have simply repeated Pierre’s account,
which I wrote down at the time. But here what he had to say came to a
sudden break; for, the next morning, when Madame Babette rose, Virginie
was missing, and it was some time before either she, or Pierre, or
Morin, could get the slightest clue to the missing girl.
“And now I must take up the story as it was told to the Intendant
Fléchier by the old gardener Jacques, with whom Clément had been lodging
on his first arrival in Paris. The old man could not, I dare say,
remember half as much of what had happened as Pierre did; the former had
the dulled memory of age, while Pierre had evidently thought over the
whole series of events as a story--as a play, if one may call it
so--during the solitary hours in his after-life, wherever they were
passed, whether in lonely camp watches, or in the foreign prison where
he had to drag out many years. Clément had, as I said, returned to the
gardener’s garret after he had been dismissed from the Hôtel Duguesclin.
There were several reasons for his thus doubling back. One was, that he
put nearly the whole breadth of Paris between him and an enemy; though
why Morin was an enemy, and to what extent he carried his dislike or
hatred, Clément could not tell, of course. The next reason for returning
to Jacques was, no doubt, the conviction that, in multiplying his
residences, he multiplied the chances against his being suspected and
recognised. And then, again, the old man was in his secret, and his
ally, although perhaps but a feeble kind of one. It was through Jacques
that the plan of communication, by means of a nosegay of pinks, had been
devised; and it was Jacques who procured him the last disguise that
Clément was to use in Paris--as he hoped and trusted. It was that of a
respectable shopkeeper of no particular class; a dress that would have
seemed perfectly suitable to the young man who would naturedly have worn
it; and yet, as Clément put it on, and adjusted it--giving it a sort of
finish and elegance which I always noticed about his appearance, and
which I believed was innate in the wearer--I have no doubt it seemed
like the usual apparel of a gentleman. No coarseness of texture, nor
clumsiness of cut could disguise the nobleman of thirty descents, it
appeared; for immediately on arriving at the place of rendezvous, he was
recognised by the men placed there on Morin’s information to seize him.
Jacques, following at a little distance, with a bundle under his arm
containing articles of feminine disguise for Virginie, saw four men
attempt Clément’s arrest--saw him, quick as lightning, draw a sword
hitherto concealed in a clumsy stick--saw his agile figure spring to his
guard,--and saw him defend himself with the rapidity and art of a man
skilled in arms. But what good did it do? as Jacques piteously used to
ask, Monsieur Fléchier told me. A great blow from a heavy club on the
sword-arm of Monsieur de Créquy laid it helpless and immoveable by his
side. Jacques always thought that that blow came from one of the
spectators, who by this time had collected round the scene of the
affray. The next instant, his master,--his little marquis--was down
among the feet of the crowd, and though he was up again before he had
received much damage--so active and light was my poor Clément--it was
not before the old gardener had hobbled forwards, and, with many an
old-fashioned oath and curse, proclaimed himself a partizan of the
losing side--a follower of a çi-devant aristocrat. It was quite enough.
He received one or two good blows, which were, in fact, aimed at his
master; and then, almost before he was aware, he found his arms pinioned
behind him with a woman’s garter, which one of the viragos in the crowd
had made no scruple of pulling off in public, as soon as she heard for
what purpose it was wanted. Poor Jacques was stunned and unhappy,--his
master was out of sight, on before; and the old gardener scarce knew
whither they were taking him. His head ached from the blows which had
fallen upon it; it was growing dark,--June day though it was,--and when
first he seems to have become exactly aware of what had happened to him,
it was when he was turned into one of the larger rooms of the Abbaye, in
which all were put who had no other allotted place wherein to sleep. One
or two iron lamps hung from the ceiling by chains, giving a dim light
for a little circle. Jacques stumbled forwards over a sleeping body
lying on the ground. The sleeper wakened up enough to complain; and the
apology of the old man in reply caught the ear of his master, who, until
this time, could hardly have been aware of the straits and difficulties
of his faithful Jacques. And there they sat,--against a pillar, the
live-long night, holding one another’s hands, and each restraining
expressions of pain, for fear of adding to the other’s distress. That
night made them intimate friends, in spite of the difference of age and
rank. The disappointed hopes, the acute suffering of the present, the
apprehensions of the future, made them seek solace in talking of the
past. Monsieur de Créquy and the gardener found themselves disputing
with interest in which chimney of the stack the starling used to
build,--the starling whose nest Clément sent to Urian, you
remember,--and discussing the merits of different espalier-pears which
grew, and may grow still, in the old garden of the Hôtel de Créquy.
Towards morning both fell asleep. The old man wakened first. His frame
was deadened to suffering, I suppose, for he felt relieved of his pain;
but Clément moaned and cried in feverish slumber. His broken arm was
beginning to inflame his blood. He was, besides, much injured by some
kicks from the crowd as he fell. As the old man looked sadly on the
white, baked lips, and the flushed cheeks, contorted with suffering even
in his sleep, Clément gave a sharp cry, which disturbed his miserable
neighbours, all slumbering around in uneasy attitudes. They bade him
with curses be silent; and then turning round, tried again to forget
their own misery in sleep. For you see, the bloodthirsty canaille had
not been sated with guillotining and hanging all the nobility they could
find, but were now informing, right and left, even against each other;
and when Clément and Jacques were in the prison, there were few of
gentle blood in the place, and fewer still of gentle manners. At the
sound of the angry words and threats, Jacques thought it best to awaken
his master from his feverish uncomfortable sleep, lest he should provoke
more enmity; and, tenderly lifting him up, he tried to adjust his own
body, so that it should serve as a rest and a pillow for the younger
man. The motion aroused Clément, and he began to talk in a strange,
feverish way, of Virginie, too,--whose name he would not have breathed
in such a place had he been quite himself. But Jacques had as much
delicacy of feeling as any lady in the land, although, mind you, he knew
neither how to read nor write,--and bent his head low down, so that his
master might tell him in a whisper what messages he was to take to
Mademoiselle de Créquy, in case---- Poor Clément, he knew it must come
to that! No escape for him now, in Norman disguise or otherwise! Either
by gathering fever or guillotine, death was sure of his prey. Well! when
that happened, Jacques was to go and find Mademoiselle de Créquy, and
tell her that her cousin loved her at the last as he had loved her at
the first; but that she should never have heard another word of his
attachment from his living lips; that he knew he was not good enough for
her, his queen; and that no thought of earning her love by his devotion
had prompted his return to France, only that, if possible, he might have
the great privilege of serving her whom he loved. And then he went off
into rambling talk about petit-maîtres, and such kind of expressions,
said Jacques to Fléchier, the intendant, little knowing what a clue that
one word gave to much of the poor lad’s suffering.
“The summer morning came slowly on in that dark prison, and when Jacques
could look round--his master was now sleeping on his shoulder, still the
uneasy, starting sleep of fever,--he saw that there were many women
among the prisoners. (I have heard some of those who have escaped from
the prisons say, that the look of despair and agony that came into the
faces of the prisoners on first wakening, as the sense of their
situation grew upon them, was what lasted the longest in the memory of
the survivors. This look, they said, passed away from the women’s faces
sooner than it did from those of the men.)
“Poor old Jacques kept falling asleep, and plucking himself up again for
fear lest, if he did not attend to his master, some harm might come to
the swollen, helpless arm. Yet his weariness grew upon him in spite of
all his efforts, and at last he felt as if he must give way to the
irresistible desire, if only for five minutes. But just then there was a
bustle at the door. Jacques opened his eyes wide to look.
“‘The gaoler is early with breakfast,’ said some one, lazily.
“‘It is the darkness of this accursed place that makes us think it
early,’ said another.
“All this time a parley was going on at the door. Some one came in; not
the gaoler--a woman. The door was shut to and locked behind her. She
only advanced a step or two; for it was too sudden a change, out of the
light into that dark shadow, for any one to see clearly for the first
few minutes. Jacques had his eyes fairly open now; and was wide awake.
It was Mademoiselle de Créquy, looking bright, clear, and resolute. The
faithful heart of the old man read that look like an open page. Her
cousin should not die there on her behalf, without at least the comfort
of her sweet presence.
“‘Here he is,’ he whispered, as her gown would have touched him in
passing, without her perceiving him, in the heavy obscurity of the
place.
“‘The good God bless you, my friend!’ she murmured, as she saw the
attitude of the old man, propped against a pillar, and holding Clément
in his arms, as if the young man had been a helpless baby, while one of
the poor gardener’s hands supported the broken limb in the easiest
position. Virginie sat down by the old man, and held out her arms.
Softly she moved Clément’s head to her own shoulder; softly she
transferred the task of holding the arm to herself. Clément lay on the
floor, but she supported him, and Jacques was at liberty to arise and
stretch and shake his stiff, weary old body. He then sat down at a
little distance, and watched the pair until he fell asleep. Clément had
muttered ‘Virginie,’ as they half-roused him by their movements out of
his stupor; but Jacques thought he was only dreaming; nor did he seem
fully awake when once his eyes opened, and he looked full at Virginie’s
face bending over him, and growing crimson under his gaze, though she
never stirred, for fear of hurting him if she moved. Clément looked in
silence, until his heavy eyelids came slowly down, and he fell into his
oppressive slumber again. Either he did not recognise her, or she came
in too completely as a part of his sleeping visions for him to be
disturbed by her appearance there.
“When Jacques awoke it was full daylight--at least as full as it would
ever be in that place. His breakfast--the gaol-allowance of bread and
vin ordinaire--was by his side. He must have slept soundly. He looked
for his master. He and Virginie had recognised each other now,--hearts,
as well as appearance. They were smiling into each other’s faces, as if
that dull, vaulted room in the grim Abbaye were the sunny gardens of
Versailles, with music and festivity all abroad. Apparently they had
much to say to each other; for whispered questions and answers never
ceased.
“Virginie had made a sling for the poor broken arm; nay, she had
obtained two splinters of wood in some way, and one of their
fellow-prisoners--having, it appeared, some knowledge of surgery--had
set it. Jacques felt more desponding by far than they did, for he was
suffering from the night he had passed, which told upon his aged frame;
while they must have heard some good news, as it seemed to him, so
bright and happy did they look. Yet Clément was still in bodily pain and
suffering, and Virginie, by her own act and deed, was a prisoner in that
dreadful Abbaye, whence the only issue was the guillotine. But they were
together: they loved: they understood each other at length.
“When Virginie saw that Jacques was awake, and languidly munching his
breakfast, she rose from the wooden stool on which she was sitting, and
went to him, holding out both hands, and refusing to allow him to rise,
while she thanked him with pretty eagerness for all his kindness to
Monsieur. Monsieur himself came towards him,--following Virginie,--but
with tottering steps, as if his head was weak and dizzy, to thank the
poor old man, who, now on his feet, stood between them, ready to cry
while they gave him credit for faithful actions which he felt to have
been almost involuntary on his part,--for loyalty was like an instinct
in the good old days, before your educational cant had come up. And so
two days went on. The only event was the morning call for the victims, a
certain number of whom were summoned to trial every day. And to be tried
was to be condemned. Every one of the prisoners became grave, as the
hour for their summons approached. Most of the victims went to their
doom with uncomplaining resignation, and for awhile after their
departure there was comparative silence in the prison. But,
by-and-by,--so said Jacques,--the conversation or amusements began
again. Human nature cannot stand the perpetual pressure of such keen
anxiety, without an effort to relieve itself by thinking of something
else. Jacques said that Monsieur and Mademoiselle were for ever talking
together of the past days,--it was ‘Do you remember this?’ or, ‘Do you
remember that?’ perpetually. He sometimes thought they forgot where they
were, and what was before them. But Jacques did not, and every day he
trembled more and more as the list was called over.
“The third morning of their incarceration, the gaoler brought in a man
whom Jacques did not recognise, and therefore did not at once observe;
for he was waiting, as in duty bound, upon his master and his sweet
young lady (as he always called her in repeating the story). He thought
that the new introduction was some friend of the gaoler, as the two
seemed well acquainted, and the latter stayed a few minutes talking with
his visitor before leaving him in the prison. So Jacques was surprised
when, after a short time had elapsed, he looked round, and saw the
fierce stare with which the stranger was regarding Monsieur and
Mademoiselle de Créquy, as the pair sat at breakfast,--the said
breakfast being laid as well as Jacques knew how, on a bench fastened
into the prison wall,--Virginie sitting on her low stool, and Clément
half lying on the ground by her side, and submitting gladly to be fed by
her pretty white fingers; for it was one of her fancies, Jacques said,
to do all she could for him, in consideration of his broken arm. And,
indeed, Clément was wasting away daily; for he had received other
injuries, internal and more serious than that to his arm, during the
mélée which had ended in his capture. The stranger made Jacques
conscious of his presence by a sigh, which was almost a groan. All three
prisoners looked round at the sound. Clément’s face expressed little but
scornful indifference; but Virginie’s face froze into stony hate.
Jacques said he never saw such a look, and hoped that he never should
again. Yet after that first revelation of feeling, her look was steady
and fixed in another direction to that in which the stranger
stood,--still motionless--still watching. He came a step nearer at last.
“‘Mademoiselle,’ he said. Not the quivering of an eyelash showed that
she heard him. ‘Mademoiselle!’ he said again, with an intensity of
beseeching that made Jacques--not knowing who he was--almost pity him,
when he saw his young lady’s obdurate face.
“There was perfect silence for a space of time which Jacques could not
measure. Then again the voice, hesitatingly, saying, ‘Monsieur!’ Clément
could not hold the same icy countenance as Virginie; he turned his head
with an impatient gesture of disgust; but even that emboldened the man.
“‘Monsieur, do ask Mademoiselle to listen to me,--just two words!’
“‘Mademoiselle de Créquy only listens to whom she chooses.’ Very
haughtily my Clément would say that, I am sure.
“‘But, Mademoiselle,’---lowering his voice, and coming a step or two
nearer. Virginie must have felt his approach, though she did not see it;
for she drew herself a little on one side, so as to put as much space as
possible between him and her. ‘Mademoiselle, it is not too late. I can
save you; but to-morrow your name is down on the list. I can save you,
if you will listen.’
“Still no word or sign. Jacques did not understand the affair. Why was
she so obdurate to one who might be ready to include Clément in the
proposal, as far as Jacques knew?
“The man withdrew a little, but did not offer to leave the prison. He
never took his eyes off Virginie; he seemed to be suffering from some
acute and terrible pain as he watched her.
“Jacques cleared away the breakfast-things as well as he could.
Purposely, as I suspect, he passed near the man.
“‘Hist!’ said the stranger. ‘You are Jacques, the gardener, arrested for
assisting an aristocrat. I know the gaoler. You shall escape, if you
will. Only take this message from me to Mademoiselle. You heard. She
will not listen to me: I did not want her to come here. I never knew she
was here, and she will die to-morrow. They will put her beautiful, round
throat under the guillotine. Tell her, good old man, tell her how sweet
life is; and how I can save her; and how I will not ask for more than
just to see her from time to time. She is so young; and death is
annihilation, you know. Why does she hate me so? I want to save her; I
have done her no harm. Good old man, tell her how terrible death is; and
that she will die to-morrow, unless she listens to me.’
“Jacques saw no harm in repeating this message. Clément listened in
silence, watching Virginie with an air of infinite tenderness.
“‘Will you not try him, my cherished one?’ he said. ‘Towards you he may
mean well’ (which makes me think that Virginie had never repeated to
Clément the conversation which she had overheard that last night at
Madame Babette’s); ‘you would be in no worse a situation than you were
before!’
“‘No worse, Clément! and I should have known what you were, and have
lost you. My Clément!’ said she, reproachfully.
“‘Ask him,’ said she, turning to Jacques, suddenly, ‘if he can save
Monsieur de Créquy as well,--if he can?--O Clément, we might escape to
England; we are but young.’ And she hid her face on his shoulder.
“Jacques returned to the stranger, and asked him Virginie’s question.
His eyes were fixed on the cousins; he was very pale, and the twitchings
or contortions, which must have been involuntary whenever he was
agitated, convulsed his whole body.
“He made a long pause. ‘I will save mademoiselle and monsieur, if she
will go straight from prison to the mairie, and be my wife.’
“‘Your wife!’ Jacques could not help exclaiming. ‘That she will never
be--never!’
“‘Ask her!’ said Morin, hoarsely.
“‘But almost before Jacques thought he could have fairly uttered the
words, Clément caught their meaning.
“‘Begone!’ said he; ‘not one word more.’ Virginie touched the old man as
he was moving away. ‘Tell him he does not know how he makes me welcome
Death.’ And smiling, as if triumphant, she turned again to Clément.
“The stranger did not speak as Jacques gave him the meaning, not the
words of their replies. He was going away, but stopped. A minute or two
afterwards, he beckoned to Jacques. The old gardener seems to have
thought it undesirable to throw away even the chance of assistance from
such a man as this, for he went forwards to speak to him.
“‘Listen! I have influence with the gaoler. He shall let thee pass out
with the victims to-morrow. No one will notice it, or miss thee, ----.
They will be led to trial,--even at the last moment, I will save her, if
she sends me word she relents. Speak to her, as the time draws on. Life
is very sweet,--tell her how sweet. Speak to him; he will do more with
her than thou canst. Let him urge her to live. Even at the last, I will
be at the Palais de Justice,--at the Grève. I have followers,--I have
interest. Come among the crowd that follow the victims,--I shall see
thee. It will be no worse for him, if she escapes’-----
“‘Save my master, and I will do all,’ said Jacques.
“‘Only on my one condition,’ said Morin, doggedly; and Jacques was
hopeless of that condition ever being fulfilled. But he did not see why
his own life might not be saved. By remaining in prison until the next
day, he should have rendered every service in his power to his master
and the young lady. He, poor fellow, shrank from death; and he agreed
with Morin to escape, if he could, by the means Morin suggested, and to
bring him word if Mademoiselle de Créquy relented. (Jacques had no
expectation that she would; but I fancy he did not think it necessary to
tell Morin of this conviction of his.) This bargaining with so base a
man for so slight a thing as life, was the only flaw that I heard of in
the old gardener’s behaviour. Of course, the mere reopening of the
subject was enough to stir Virginie to displeasure. Clément urged her,
it is true; but the light he had gained upon Morin’s motions, made him
rather try to set the case before her in as fair a manner as possible
than use any persuasive arguments. And, even as it was, what he said on
the subject made Virginie shed tears--the first that had fallen from her
since she entered the prison. So, they were summoned and went together,
at the fatal call of the muster-roll of victims the next morning. He,
feeble from his wounds and his injured health; she, calm and serene,
only petitioning to be allowed to walk next to him, in order that she
might hold him up when he turned faint and giddy from his extreme
suffering.
“Together they stood at the bar; together they were condemned. As the
words of judgment were pronounced, Virginie turned to Clément, and
embraced him with passionate fondness. Then, making him lean on her,
they marched out towards the Place de la Grève.
“Jacques was free now. He had told Morin how fruitless his efforts at
persuasion had been; and, scarcely caring to note the effect of his
information upon the man, he had devoted himself to watching Monsieur
and Mademoiselle de Créquy. And now he followed them to the Place de la
Grève. He saw them mount the platform; saw them kneel down together till
plucked up by the impatient officials; could see that she was urging
some request to the executioner; the end of which seemed to be, that
Clément advanced first to the guillotine, was executed (and just at this
moment there was a stir among the crowd, as of a man pressing forward
towards the scaffold). Then she, standing with her face to the
guillotine, slowly made the sign of the cross, and knelt down.
“Jacques covered his eyes, blinded with tears. The report of a pistol
made him look up. She was gone--another victim in her place--and where
there had been the little stir in the crowd not five minutes before,
some men were carrying off a dead body. A man had shot himself, they
said. Pierre told me who that man was.”