SISTERS DEATH AND TRUTH
At a second-story window, in an unpretentious part of the Rue St.
Honoré--known just then as the Rue Honoré, for the saints had been
abolished, together with the terrestrial aristocracy--a young woman was
sitting one late July afternoon employed in sewing. She was pale, thin,
and poorly clad. Her fingers were very nervous as she hurried on with
her work.
For three years the surges of the Revolutionary deluge had succeeded one
another with ever-increasing rapidity, and at last threatened to swallow
the entire inhabitants of the city. "The generation which saw the
monarchical _régime_ will always regret it," Robespierre was crying,
"therefore every individual who was more than fifteen years old in 1789
should have his throat cut." "Away with the nobles!" was shouting
another vicious leader, "and if there are any good ones so much the
worse for them. Let the guillotine work incessantly through the whole
Republic. France has nineteen millions too many inhabitants, she will
have enough with five." "Milk is the nourishment of infants," announced
another; "blood is that of the children of liberty."
The new doctrine was not merely being shouted; it was being carried into
practice as fast as the executioner could work, and sometimes in a
single afternoon the life-stream of two hundred hearts gushed out
through two hundred severed necks on the Place de la Révolution. The
King, and at last the Queen, were among the slaughtered. None knew but
that his or her turn, or that of his dearest ones might come next. A too
respectable dress, a thoughtless expression, the malice of an
extortionate workman, or the offending of a servant, meant death. Even
the wickedest were betrayed by their associates to the Goddess of Blood,
and citizens, as they hurried along the deserted and filthy streets,
looked at each other with suspicious eyes. On the throne of France's
ancient sovereigns sat a shadowy monarch from hell, and all recognised
his name and reign--The Reign of Terror.
In the midst of that thunder-fraught atmosphere sat this poor girl,
mechanically glancing down the street from time to time at the silent
houses, each with the legal paper affixed stating the names of the
inmates, for the information of the revolutionary committees.
Her bearing, though humble, announced her as one of the hated class, and
by scrutinising her thin features we see that she is "the Citizeness
Montmorency, heretofore Baroness."
She was absorbed in thought. Recollections, one by one, of the changes
which had made her an old woman in experience at the age when most
maidens become brides, were crossing her mind. She recalled the alarming
news brought to the Hôtel de Noailles of the march of the viragoes on
Versailles, and with that news her suspense for the safety of Germain;
the entry of General Lafayette (who was married to a Noailles) into the
hotel towards morning, smilingly assuring the family that all was well;
her agony upon word of the attack on the royal apartments; the deadly
illness of Germain at the Hôtel-Dieu Hospital, whither some National
Guards had taken him; the pauper bed and gown in which the Sisters of
the Hospital kept him hidden from the roused populace who searched the
wards for him; her own assumption of the humble dress of a servitor to
nurse him; his pretended death and burial by substitute; his long
delirium, her joy at his return to life; his gratitude and
convalescence; the forced dispersal of the Sisters, and with it her
removal of her charge to the half-deserted Hôtel de Poix; the mob
sacking mansion after mansion around them and their inexplicable
exemption; an anonymous warning at length to flee, and the subterfuges
of Dominique to cover their removal to the present house.
She thought also of the faithfulness of Germain to the King throughout
his misfortunes, and how in order to be ready for service in case of a
royalist opportunity, he had refused even her own entreaties to flee.
And sewing on and looking with habitual apprehension down the street,
she thought of the blanks in the old circle--sadly, but without tears,
for she had grown beyond tears over memories, so often had she been
called to shed them for events.
With sorrowful recollection she saw again her good friend, Hélène de
Merecourt, and her own sister Jeanne, disappear out of life.
There was that terrible day when the King was beheaded, and that other
when the Queen followed him; Bellecour, d'Amoreau, the Canoness,
Vaudreuil, the Guiches, the Polignacs, were in exile. Others were
concealed, scattered, outlawed, some perhaps included in the massacres;
some perhaps lost among the immense number crowded into the seventy
prisons of the City. When would _her_ turn arrive? When Germain's?
A distant sound made her lips part in alarm. It was the too well-known
surging murmur of a mob approaching. She hastily rose and closed the
window. The Rue Honoré was one of the highways particularly exposed to
persecution, for its chief portion was lined with mansions where dwelt
many of the "aristocrats." The great _porte cochère_ and street wall of
one were in full view of her window, coated with insulting placards and
painted in huge letters, "NATIONAL PROPERTY--Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity." How far the property had become national may be inferred
from the fact that the patriot commissioner who took its chattels into
his charge, and whose name was signed with a mark at the bottom of the
placard, was--Gougeon.
In this quiet part of the street, however, the smaller houses usually
passed unscathed, and the neighbourhood had the advantage of its
residents not being so prying as in quarters still poorer. So that by
aid of some bribery of patriots of the section, discreetly done by
Dominique, their slender stores of money had thus far seemed to suffice
to obtain them immunity. We say seemed to suffice, because there was
something very remarkable, after all, in the escape of a Montmorency,
and particularly one so intimate with the obnoxious Maréchale de
Noailles.
The mob of women and red-capped men swarmed up the street, led by a
drum, and singing "Ça ira"--
"Ah, on it goes, and on it goes, and on it goes!--
The aristocrats to the lantern!
Ah, on it goes, and on it goes, and on it goes!--
The aristocrats, we'll hang them."
In front of the confiscated hotel the _Sans-culottes_ stopped, and,
joining hands in a circle, whirled around in the wild Revolutionary
dance, "the Carmagnole," singing the words--
"Madame Veto had pledged her word,
_Madame Veto had pledged her word_
To put all Paris to the sword,
_To put all Paris to the sword_,
But we all missed our biers
Thanks to our canoneers.
Dance, dance the Carmagnole,
Hurrah for the sound,
_Hurrah for the sound_,
Dance, dance the Carmagnole,
Hurrah for the sound of the cannon!"
She watched the dancers, involuntarily fascinated. All at once an object
tapped against the window, and she noticed many eyes turned up to her in
malicious amusement. The object was pushed up to her on a long pole and
again tapped on the window; she dropped her sewing and sprang back with
a scream. It was a human hand. A shout of coarse laughter met her ears,
and the hand was withdrawn. She sank back in her chair and burst into
tears.
"Wretches!" cried a woman, darting forward from behind her and shaking a
fist at the window.
"Oh, be careful," Cyrène gasped, pulling back the arm. "Have they seen
you?"
"I fear so," was the answer, as dismayed as her question; and a number
of blows and thrusts sounded against the door below. But it was only a
momentary diversion; the crowd had work cut out for it somewhere else
and the drum drew them onwards.
"Oh, Germain," she said hysterically, "why do you risk your life so?"
"Because it is worthless," replied the apparent woman, pulling off his
hood and throwing aside the rest of his disguise. But I am a fool to
endanger you that way. Oh my darling, you who saved my life, is it not
rather to comfort you at times like this that I live?" and he knelt and
kissed her hand.
"Dearest," she answered softly, "you make my life happy in the very
midst of horrors."
"I am unworthy of your love," he returned mournfully, rising to his
feet.
"You say that too often; but have not the old reasons lost their force?
Even here we could make a home. Let us defer our marriage no longer."
"We cannot marry," he said slowly.
She thought he spoke of the prohibition of Christian rites by the law,
and said--"But Dominique knows of a priest, who is hidden in a cellar at
his cousin's."
He shook his head and she read a soul of infinite sorrow in his eyes as
they rested on her face.
"It is the thought of his own death," was the interpretation that
flashed upon her.
A rap was heard.
"Come in, Dominique," said he.
The list of inmates affixed to the front of the house would have
explained Germain's disguise. It read--
"The Citizen Dominique Levesque, boarding-house keeper.
"_The Citizeness Marie Levesque, his wife._
"The Citizeness Montmorency, sempstress."
"Citizeness Levesque" was sometimes observed about the house by the
neighbours, but the family, like many others, cultivated no intercourse.
Wearing the garb only whenever absolutely necessary, he took part each
day in whatever work was obtained to support the household, and at night
went out to keep track of what was happening.
At the time of the guillotining of the Queen, he was restrained with
difficulty from throwing his life away in an insane rush upon the
murderers.
"My Lady Baroness," Dominique said, clinging to all the old delicate
form of his respect--for the faithful servitor was as chivalrous as any
knight--"I regret to report that there is a new law compelling everybody
to take out cards of civism, as they call them, at the Hôtel de Ville.
During the trouble at our door a few moments ago, some of the
_Sans-culottes_ threatened to return. I consider it absolutely necessary
that Madame and I should go at once and obtain these credentials."
"Is there no way of getting them without Madame? It looks to me
dangerous," Lecour said.
"The demand must be made in person, Monsieur le Chevalier. I have
thought that question over very carefully."
"If is the most dangerous thing yet."
"I do not conceal the risk, Monsieur."
"Dear Dominique," Cyrène put in firmly, "I am ready to do all you say."
"Yes, our more than parent," Lecour added in tears, "she is ready to
trust her life in your hands," and going over to Dominique he put his
arm upon his shoulder and kissed him.
The old man's lip trembled and he withdrew, and at the same time Cyrène
also left the chamber to prepare for the ordeal.
Then did Germain fully realise the sharpness of dread. She whom he loved
was in the direst peril. He saw the gulf which had swallowed so many
others yawning for her life, and he trembled as he had never trembled
before. It must be said for him that he had always valued his own life
little and had been willing to risk it for another on more occasions
than one. It was when not he but his heart's beloved was in such danger
that his eyes were opened to the greatness of the fact of death.
Moreover he felt that he was helpless to lessen the peril. For him to
accompany her to the Hôtel de Ville was to make her fate absolutely
certain. That charge must be left to Dominique, and--God!
God! He had not dared to think of God for years; yet now the Divine Face
appeared through the dissolving vision of things mortal, and he suddenly
saw it looming dim and awful as the one changeless Reality.
Her step sounded returning and he composed himself. Both tried to be
brave. Both were thinking of the other's happiness.
"Have no anxieties, my dear one," she exclaimed, coming close to him,
her eyes moistened and voice trembling slightly, "I have our good
Dominique to take care of me, and we shall soon return."
"I do not doubt it," he replied as cheerily as he was able, bending and
gently kissing her forehead. "Prudence and Courage!--all shall go
rightly."
But at the touch of his lips she started, threw her arms around his neck
and passionately drew him to her.
"And what, my beloved, if it should _not_ go rightly?--what for you to
be left behind?"
"Darling, darling, do not say it," he cried, fervently returning her
embraces. "All must and will go rightly. We cannot live without each
other. Trust in Providence."
Ah, what those words meant for him!
"I do," she murmured, "but would that Dominique's priest were here. I
long for the eternal union of our souls."
He pressed her to his breast in great emotion, then loosed his arms and
stood looking sorrowfully at her again, as for the last time.
"_Au revoir_," she whispered, her eyes intensely searching into his.
"_Au revoir, ma chère_," he answered, mastering his voice with all his
strength.
Then she and Dominique left the house.