THE RECORD
On New Year's morning de Lotbinière was crossing the great courtyard of
the Louvre, when he heard the voice of Louis de Léry calling him. The
Bodyguard was hurrying forward with a curl of disgust on his lip, and
holding out an open letter.
The Marquis, stopping, took it with a glance of inquiry.
"More of the beast!" ejaculated Louis.
The letter was one from Madame de Léry, relating with a woman's
indignation the proceedings of Germain during his first visit to Quebec.
"_Mon Dieu!_ how disgusting," Louis exclaimed.
"More than that--it is felonious," almost shouted the Marquis, great
veins swelling upon his forehead and his hand shaking with rage. "Should
the monster ever land again upon the shores of France from which I drove
him, my God, I will hang him! Leave me this letter."
"The fellow is gross enough to return," said Louis scornfully. "What
could be plainer--his movements speak for themselves."
Here a shabby individual stepped up, handed the Marquis a note, and at
the same time beckoned the two into a corner out of the crowd. The
billet was a scrap on which was written only--
"LECOUR."
Mystery had a fascination for de Lotbinière. Not so for Louis, who was
impatient that so seedy a person should presume to stop them. Still, on
being handed the paper, he condescended to remain.
"Craving pardon, my Lord," said Jude--it was of course he--in a low
voice, "I have word for you in this affair. Your powerful movements are
known to me."
"Indeed?"
"I know your sentiments on the impostor."
"And you wish me to buy some information from you?"
"Monsieur le Marquis--he is my enemy also: I ask no price, only your
co-operation with a humble individual like myself."
"Speak on."
"It is all letters to day, my Lord. I heard you both discuss that of
Madame de Léry."
"You are a spy, then?" asked Louis tartly, scorn flashing across his
face.
"An _observer_, Monsieur--one of the King's secret service."
"A 'Sentinel of the nation,'" the Marquis said, only the more deeply
interested, smiling and tendering his snuff-box to Jude graciously.
"And next?" added he.
"Next, too, is a letter. I watched the mails addressed to his
correspondents and friends here. This is a letter to his valet."
The Marquis took it. It read--
"DOVER, _6th January, 1789_.
"MY DEAR DOMINIQUE,--Prepare for me within ten days after you
receive this.
"DE LINCY."
"_Peste!_" hissed the Marquis.
Jude pressed a folded paper into his hand, slipped behind a pillar and
disappeared, and the two relatives joined the crowd. The Marquis that
day made copious entries in his journal.
His life was now entirely engrossed in the controversy with LeCour. As a
Frenchman the occupation was dear to his heart. What Norman does not
love a lawsuit? What Parisian, politics? The journal became even more
complete and exact on the matter and teemed with expressions of contempt
thrust home to the heart of the absent adversary. It recapitulated
minutely the manner in which LeCour had been discovered wearing the
Répentigny name; the refusal of the slayer of Philibert to punish him;
the change of name to de Lincy, which de Lotbinière shrewdly attributed
to the genealogist; the conduct of de Bailleul; the real origin of the
Lecour family, with the history of the father; the duels with Louis, and
his vexations on account of the matter; the writer's journey to Châlons,
Troyes, and Versailles, the circumstances of the disappearance of
Germain, and the news of his actions in Canada.
After bringing his account down to date with a description of the
written proofs collected, he laid the journal aside, opened the drawer
of his secretary and took out a folio sheet of an exceedingly heavy
wrapping-paper. This he bent over so as to make it into something
resembling the cover of a book, then cut a lining of white unruled
foolscap for this improvised cover, and taking out his paste-pot, fitted
it neatly to the inside. Next he clipped up a length of linen tape and
by means of wafers attached eight pieces of it as ties to the top,
bottom, and sides. The whole constituted one of those record-covers
which he had been taught to make for the papers of special enterprises
in his profession. On the outside he pasted a small square labelled:--
+-------------------------+
| PAPERS |
| |
| RELATIVE TO LECOUR, |
| RÉPENTIGNY, DE LINCY, |
| |
| ET CETERA. |
+-------------------------+
There was, he considered, a fine turn of irony in "_et cetera_."
The record-cover completed, he surveyed it front and back with
satisfaction, tried the ties, read the inscription over once more, and
opened it. In it he placed a long "_Extract from my journal_," written
with care in his beautiful handwriting and bound with a tiny ribbon.
Next, he added some letters of Collinot to himself and de Léry. These
were followed by copies of his own to the latter. His epistle of
reproach to de Bailleul came next. Then a genealogical memorandum of the
family of LeGardeur. Then Madame de Léry's letter from Canada; after it
a solemn statement which he had caused to be drawn by Quartermaster
Villerai of Châlons. Then the folded paper left by Jude, which was a
copy of the damaging entry discovered by him in the books of the church
of St. Germain-des-Prés. Some lesser documents added to these made up
the nucleus of a _dossier_ or Record--an armoury of weapons which were
to be gathered for the complete and final destruction of the usurper,
should he again set foot in France.
Only a day or two passed when another letter came to him from Madame de
Léry. It related the actions of Germain on his second visit to Quebec,
dwelling, with the rage of a proud woman, on what had passed between her
husband and the young man. Judge Panet, too, had joined his efforts to
hers, and rapidly tracked Germain's intrigues from Notary d'Aguilhe to
the Judge and the young gentlemen of Montreal, and from the Governor at
Quebec to the sacristy of the cathedral. He therefore was able to
enclose a packet of letters and affidavits arranged in order, and which
included among others--
1. A long foolscap statement by d'Aguilhe, in which the Notary of St.
Elphège took care to duly magnify his own dignity and precautions.
2. A copy of the Lecour petition to insert the titles into the contract
of marriage.
3. A letter from Chief Justice Fraser about the granting of the
petition.
4. A copy of the marriage contract of Lecour's parents showing the
alterations.
5. A letter from Lord Dorchester on the duel arbitration, addressed to
Madame de Léry, and sealed with his seal.
6. One from the Bishop of Quebec.
7. A copy, signed by him, of the true birth-certificate of Germain.
8. A total repudiation by Quinson St. Ours of the affair of the banquet
at Montreal.
9. A letter from General Gabriel Christie, Commander-in-Chief of the
forces in Canada and proprietor of the Seigniory of Répentigny: "I
declare upon my honour that I have never sold my Seigniory of
Répentigny."
Letters and certificates from nearly all of the most prominent of the
French gentry of the colony concerning Lecour, his family, and his
pretensions.
The affair was causing a rustle among the entire alliance, and the
letters were full of the terms, "my dear cousin," "uncle," "brother,"
&c.
D'Aguilhe (No. 1) said, among other things, "The probity and good faith
which should be the basis of the actions of all men, and more
particularly those of a _Public Person_, preserved me from condescending
to the reiterated demands made upon me by the Sieurs Lecour, father and
son, to myself make the additions of the titles in question to the said
contract, a thing which I refused absolutely, giving them plainly to
understand that a deed received by a Notary, made and finished in his
notariat and enregistered, was a _sacred thing_, to which it could not
BE PERMITTED TO ANY ONE TO MAKE THE SLIGHTEST ALTERATION WITHOUT
PROFOUND DISGRACE."
Chief Justice Fraser (No. 3) wrote: "Some time ago I heard some rumours
current about Monsieur LeCour, but I had no idea I had played a _rôle_
in the affair. Here are the facts: In September last a Guard of his
Majesty the King of France presented himself with his papers, which
appeared to me as much in proper form as foreign papers could seem to
me. He presented a petition to me to be permitted to add the names 'de
Lincy' and 'Esquire' to his documents. I allowed it. I had no suspicion
that the Guard or his papers were impostures. In any event, I reap from
this incident the pleasure of corresponding with Madame de Léry."
The letter of Quinson St. Ours (No. 8) read: "Sir and dear relative,--I
should deem myself lacking in what I owe both to you and to myself were
I to neglect to destroy the suspicion you have formed of my conduct in
the affair of Monsieur, your son, against Lecour. I can give you my word
of honour that I always refused to give my signature to his different
petitions. My brother informs me that you say 'that several of your
friends, and even of your relations at Montreal, certified that Monsieur
Lecour was a gentleman.' I am not of their number, and I do not know
that family."
The Marquis eagerly read the packet through, digested its contents,
blessed his ally Panet for his professional methodicality, and placed
the papers in order in the Record.
After the flight of more than a century, this Record, yellow and faded
and a little worm-eaten, but complete even to its wax seals, its
wire-headed pins, and the thin gilt edges of the correspondence paper,
lies before the writer of these pages, a vivid fragment of the old
_régime_, a witness to the hatred, the activity, the very thoughts, as
it were, of the enemies of Lecour, and revealing his perils from their
inner side.