THE NINTH THERMIDOR.
In the early morning of the 10th Thermidor, Charlotte Lebrenn and Madam
Desmarais, pale from a night of sleeplessness, silent, worried, listened
anxiously at their garden windows, which had been left open through the
beautiful, balmy July night. From their nests in the trees the birds
greeted with their chirping the first glow of the sun, which lighted up
the eastern azure. Nature was smiling, with repose and calm in every
lineament.
"Not a sound, absolutely nothing!" said Madam Desmarais, the first to
break the silence. "It is more than an hour since the tocsin ceased
clanging."
"If that is so, mother, have courage! If the tocsin has ceased, the
Commune is worsted. The Convention triumphs," replied the younger woman
in a tense voice. Then, unable to withstand the emotion which seized
her, Charlotte burst into tears, raised her hands heavenward, and cried,
"Just God, spare my husband!"
At this moment Gertrude entered and said to her mistress: "Madam, there
is a citizen in the ante-chamber who says he is sent by your husband to
bring you news of him."
"Let him enter," answered Charlotte gladly. "I wonder what the news will
be," she added, to her mother.
No sooner had she spoken than Jesuit Morlet appeared in the room. His
hypocritical countenance at once caused Charlotte a revulsion of
feeling; but immediately reproaching herself for what was perhaps an
involuntary injustice to the man, she came a few steps toward the
Jesuit, saying: "Citizen, you come from my husband?"
"Aye, citizeness; to reassure you, and inform you that he is in a safe
place."
"You hear, my poor child," cried Madam Desmarais, weeping with joy as
she embraced her daughter. "He is out of danger."
"Can you, citizen, conduct me at once to where my husband is?"
"Such a trip would be very imprudent, citizeness. My friend John Lebrenn
has sent me to you, first to reassure you as to his situation; next, to
post you on the course of events. The City Hall is in the power of the
troops of the Convention, commanded by Leonard Bourdon and Barras. Lebas
is a suicide. Robespierre the younger has flung himself from a window
and broken both legs. Robespierre the elder has his jaw broken by a
pistol fired at him by a gendarme;[17] St. Just and Couthon are
arrested, they will be executed in the course of the day, without any
form of trial, having been outlawed by the Convention; the same decree
has been passed upon the members of the General Council of the Commune,
who will also, accordingly--all except my friend John, who escaped in
the melee, and is now in safe hiding with me--be guillotined without
trial. In short, to tell you all in two words, the Republic is lost. The
brigands triumph!"
For a moment Charlotte's tears flowed in silence. Reassured as to her
husband, she wept for the first five victims of the 9th Thermidor, those
illustrious and virtuous citizens.
"My eternal thanks are yours," she at length replied; and added: "Take
me to my husband, I implore you. I long to see him."
"To do as you request, citizeness, would be to commit a great
imprudence. Perhaps its only result would be to put the police on his
track. As to the gratitude you believe you owe me, let us speak no more
of it. Between patriots there should be mutual aid and protection; in
concealing John from the searches of our enemies I did my duty, nothing
more. But time is fleeting, and I must get to the end of the errand your
husband sent me on: It is that you give me a certain casket, containing,
he told me, some precious legends which it is of importance to carry
away from here, lest they fall into the hands of our enemies; the latter
will not delay descending with a search party upon your house."
"My husband has already given me his advice on that subject," answered
Charlotte. "Foreseeing that in the struggle against the Convention the
Commune might be worsted, my husband arrested, and the house searched, I
already have had the casket carried to the home of one of our friends."
A slight spasm of anger contracted the brows of the Jesuit; the young
woman caught the expression, and the thought flashed over her mind:
"Careful! This man may be a false friend!"
"Madam," said Gertrude, coming in leading a young boy by the hand, "here
is a poor child who asked to speak to this gentleman; I brought him up
to you."
The Jesuit's god-son--who else but he?--respectfully greeted Charlotte,
at the same moment that the latter whispered to her mother: "My anxiety
for John is still lively, despite this man's reassurances. Something
tells me he is deceiving us."
"Gentle god-father," Rodin was whispering to the Jesuit, "I just saw
John Lebrenn hurry down a street at the end of Anjou Street, and turn in
this direction."
"The devil!" thought the Jesuit to himself, "our man will land at home
sooner than I counted on. I shall have to double my audacity; nothing is
lost as yet." And then, sotto voice to his pupil, "Are the police agents
placed, and in sufficient number?"
"They are watching all around the building--I counted twenty. John
Lebrenn will be caught like a mouse in a trap, _Ad majorem Dei
gloriam!_"
"While the house is being searched from cellar to garret, follow you the
agents, and try to put your hand on that casket you know of."
"Mother," whispered Charlotte, on her part, "they are plotting some
treachery." Then, suddenly dashing toward the door, which just then
opened, she cried,
"Husband!"
Charlotte's husband, into whose arms his wife joyfully threw herself,
was pale, his clothing in disorder; his face was bathed in sweat, and he
panted for breath. In a gasping voice he said to his wife, as he
returned her embrace, "Charlotte, I could not resist the craving to see
you an instant, and to reassure you and mother of my fate, before I
flee. The Commune is defeated, I am outlawed; but I hope to escape our
enemies. Have courage--" Then his eyes falling upon the Jesuit and
little Rodin, he recognized in them the two spies he had arrested before
Weissenburg; he recalled that Victoria had designated Morlet to him as
an enemy of the Lebrenn family; hence, struck with astonishment, he said
to his wife as he stared at the reverend, "What does this fellow here?
How did he get entrance to my house?"
"He professed to be sent by you, my friend. He demanded in your name the
chest with the family legends."
"Ah, my reverend! The Society of Jesus never lets the scent of those it
seeks to run down grow cold!" cried John. "Wretched, infamous
spy--hence!"
"Not before you," replied the reverend with a bow and a smirk,
indicating to John the commissioner of the Section, newly appointed by
the Convention, who appeared in the door, accompanied by several of his
agents.
"Search, the house from top to bottom," ordered the magistrate; and to
Lebrenn: "Citizen, here is a warrant of arrest issued against you. I am
further ordered to seal your papers and carry them to the office of the
revolutionary tribunal."
Lebrenn read the warrant and replied to the magistrate, "I am ready to
follow you, citizen."
"I must first place the seals, in your presence, upon all your
furniture, and especially on your papers."
The agents of the police, in their search of the house, soon arrived at
the retreat which sheltered advocate Desmarais. They incontinently broke
open the door. The advocate was soon informed by the agents of the turn
events had taken, and at once planned the new role he was to play in the
business. Stepping briskly down the stairs, he strode into the parlor,
and went straight to the commissioner:
"Citizen, in the name of the law, I denounce a plot of which I am
victim. Since yesterday I have been sequestered in this house."
While the advocate was speaking to the officer, Charlotte had given her
surprised husband in a few words the history of the pretended
sequestration, and added, "Now, my friend, for your own dignity, and out
of regard for my mother and myself, maintain the silence of contempt.
The wretched man is still my father."
"Dear wife, now, and in your presence, I shall keep silence. But
later--I shall speak," answered Lebrenn, yielding to Charlotte's plea;
then, recollecting, he suddenly asked, softly, "And the casket?"
"It is safe. Yesterday I thought of burying it, with Castillon's aid, in
the cellar; but he suggested taking it to the house of one of his
friends, a workman like himself, in the St. Antoine suburb. This latter
course I adopted."
"You did wisely. This Jesuit's presence here proves to me that the
Society of Jesus, which has so many a time and oft already sought the
destruction of our family legends, will leave no stone unturned to
ferret them out."
John's words were interrupted by an exclamation from Madam Desmarais.
"Brother!" she cried as she ran toward the financier, who had just
entered the room precipitately, "Hubert! You here! You are free!"
"Yes, free," replied Hubert, embracing his sister effusively. "And my
first visit is to you. The prisons are opened, and all the royalist
suspects are giving place to the brigands and terrorists."[18]
"Ah, brother, you forget that we are under the roof of my son-in-law
John Lebrenn, who has been accused, and has just fallen under arrest."
"What!" exclaimed Hubert, not having noticed Lebrenn as he came in, "is
that true?" Then, addressing the young man, to whom he extended his
hand, "I was unaware of the misfortune which has fallen upon you,
Monsieur Lebrenn; I know what interest you have always borne me, and if
I can to-day in my turn prove useful to you, I am entirely at your
service."
The commissioner received the report of his agents. They had unearthed
not a paper in the entire house, nor in the furniture, nor in the
workshop. They had sounded the cellar floor, examined the earth in the
garden, nothing gave suspicion of a secret hiding place. Little Rodin
also confirmed this information to the Jesuit.
"Citizen," said the magistrate to John, "a coach is at the door. Are you
ready to follow me?"
"_We_ are ready," said Charlotte, hastily throwing a cloak over her
shoulders. "Come, my friend, let us go. I shall accompany my husband to
the prison door."
"Adieu, good and dear mother," said John to Madam Desmarais, embracing
her. "Be of good heart, we shall see each other soon again, I hope.
Adieu, Citizen Hubert. Revolutions have strange outcomes! You, the
royalist, are free--I, the republican, go to prison!"
"Whatever your opinions, I have always found you a man of courage,"
quoth the financier, in a voice of emotion. "If any consolation can
temper the bitterness of your temporary separation, let it be the
certainty that my sister and my niece, your wife, will find in me a most
tender and devoted friend. I shall watch over them both."
John Lebrenn and Charlotte left with the commissioner. Monsieur Hubert
and Madam Desmarais accompanied them as far as the waiting carriage, and
strained them in a last adieu.