THE TERROR LET LOOSE
Jacques Dangeau was at this time about eight-and-twenty years of age.
He was a successful lawyer, and an ardent Republican, a friend of
Danton, and a fairly prominent member of the Cordeliers' Club.
Under a handsome, well-controlled exterior he concealed an unbounded
enthusiasm and a passionate devotion to the cause of liberty. When
Dangeau spoke, his section listened. He carried always in his mind a
vision of the ideal State, in the service of which a race should be
trained from infancy to the civic virtues, inflamed with a pure ambition
to spend themselves for humanity. He saw mankind, shedding brutishness
and self, become sober, law-abiding, just;--in a word, he possessed
those qualities of vision and faith without which neither prophet nor
reformer can influence his generation. Dangeau had the gift of speech,
and, carried on a flood of burning words, some perception of the
ultimate Ideal would rise upon the hearts of even the most degraded
among his hearers. For the moment they too felt the glow of a reflected
altruism, and forgot that to them, and to their fellows, the Revolution
meant unpunished pillage, theft recognised, and murder winked at.
As Dangeau walked through the darkening streets his heart burned in him.
The events of the last month had brought the ideal almost within grasp.
The grapes of liberty had been trodden long enough in the vats of
oppression. Now the long ferment was nearing its close, and the time
approached when the wine of life should be free to all; and that
glorious moment of anticipation held no dread of intoxication or excess.
Truly a patriot might be hopeful at this juncture. Capet and his
family, sometime unapproachable, lay prisoners now, in the firm grip of
the Commune, and the possession of such hostages enabled Paris to laugh
at the threats of foreign interference. The proclamation of the
Republic was only a matter of weeks, and then--renewed visions of a
saturnian reign,--peace and plenty coupled with the rigid virtues of old
Rome,--rose glowingly before his eyes.
As he entered the Temple gates he came down to earth with a sigh. He
was on his way to take his turn of a duty eminently distasteful to
him,--that of guarding the imprisoned King and his family. As a patriot
he detested Louis the Tyrant, as a man he despised Louis the man; but
the spectacle of fallen greatness was disagreeable to his really
generous mind, and he was of sufficiently gentle habits to revolt from
the position of intrusive familiarity into which he was forced with
regard to the women of the party.
The Tower of the Temple, where the unfortunate Royal Family of France
were at this time confined, was to be reached only by traversing the
Palace of the same name, and crossing the court and garden where the
work of demolishing a mass of old houses, which encroached too nearly
upon Capet's prison, was still proceeding. Patriotic ardour had seen a
spy behind every window, a concealed courtier in every niche; so the
buildings were doomed, and falling fast, whilst from the debris arose a
strong enclosing wall pierced by a couple of guarded entries. Broken
masonry lay everywhere, and Dangeau stumbled precariously as he made his
way over the rubble. The workmen had been gone this half-hour, but as
he halted and called out, a man with a lantern advanced and piloted him
to the Tower.
The Commune was responsible for the prisoners of the Temple, and the
actual guarding of them was delegated to eight of its Deputies. These
were on duty for forty-eight hours at a stretch, and were relieved by
fours every twenty-four hours.
As Dangeau entered the Council-room, those whose term of duty was
finished were already leaving. The office of gaoler was an unpopular
one, and most men, having once satisfied their curiosity about the
prisoners, were very unwilling to approach them again. The sight of
misfortune is only pleasing to a mind completely debased, and most of
these Deputies were worthy men enough.
Dangeau was met almost on the threshold by a fair-haired, eager-looking
youth, who hailed him warmly as Jacques, and, linking his arm in his,
led him, unresisting, into the deep embrasure of the window.
"What is it, Edmond?" inquired Dangeau, an unusually attractive smile
lighting up his rather grave features. It was plain that this young man
roused in him an amused affection.
"Nothing," said Edmond aloud, "but it is so long since I saw you. Have
you been dead, buried, or out of Paris?"
"Since the arm you pinched just now is reasonably solid flesh and blood,
you may conclude that during the past fortnight Paris has been rendered
inconsolable by my absence," said Dangeau, laughing a little.
Edmond Clery threw an imperceptible glance at his fellow-Commissioners.
Two being always with the prisoners, there remained four others, and of
these a couple were playing cards at the wine-stained table, and two
more lounged on the doorstep smoking a villanously rank tobacco and
talking loudly.
Certainly no one was in the least interested in the conversation of
Citizens Dangeau and Clery. Yet for all that Edmond dropped his voice,
not to a whisper, but to that smooth monotone which hardly carries a
yard, and yet is distinctly audible to the person addressed. In this
voice he asked:
"You have not been to the Club?"
Dangeau shook his head.
"Nor seen Hebert, Marat, Jules Dupuis?"
An expression of distaste lifted Dangeau's finely cut lip.
"I have existed without that felicity," he observed, with a slightly
sarcastic inflexion.
"Then you have been told--have heard--nothing?"
"My dear Edmond, what mysteries are these?"
Edmond Clery leaned a little closer, and dropped his voice until it was
a mere tenuous thread.
"They have decided on a massacre," he said.
"A massacre?"
"Yes, of the prisoners."
"Just Heaven! No!"
"It is true. Things have fallen from Hebert once or twice. He and
Marat have been closeted for hours--the devil's own alliance that--and
the plan is of their hatching. Two days ago Hebert spoke at the Club.
It was late, Danton was not there. They say--" Clery hesitated, and
stole a glance at his companion's set face,--"they say he wishes to know
nothing."
"A lie," said Dangeau very quietly.
"I don't know. There, Jacques, don't look at me like that! How can I
tell? I tell you my brain reels at the thought of the thing."
"What did Hebert say? He spoke?"
"Yes; said the people must be fleshed,--there was not sufficient
enthusiasm. Paris as a whole was quiescent, apathetic. This must be
changed, an elixir was needed. What? Blood,--blood of traitors,--blood
of aristocrats,--oppressors of the people. Bah!--you can fancy the rest
well enough."
"Did any one else speak?"
"Marat said the Jacobins were with us."
"Robespierre?"
"In it, of course, but would n't dirty those white hands for the world,"
said Clery, sneering.
"No one opposed it?"
"Oh, yes, but hooted down almost at once. You know Dupuis's bull voice?
It did his friends a good turn, bellowing slackness, lack of patriotism,
and so on. I wish you had been there."
Dangeau shook his head.
"I could have done nothing."
"Ah, but you could; there 's no one like you, Jacques. Danton thunders,
and Marat spits out venom, and Hebert panders to the vile in us, but you
really make us see an ideal, and wish to be more worthy of it. I said
to Barrassin, 'If only Dangeau were here we should be spared this
shame.'"
The boy's face flushed as he spoke, but Dangeau looked down moodily.
"I could have done nothing," he repeated. "If they spoke as openly as
that it is because their plans are completed. Did you hear any more?"
Edmond looked a little confused.
"Not there,--but--well, I was told,--a friend told me,--it was for
to-morrow," and he looked up to find Dangeau's eyes fixed steadily on
him.
"A friend, Edmond? Who? Therese?"
Clery coloured hotly.
"Why not Therese, Jacques?"
"Oh, if you like to play with gunpowder it's no business of mine,
Edmond; but the girl is Hebert's mistress, and as dangerous as the
devil, that's all. And so she told you that?"
Clery nodded, a trifle defiantly.
"To-morrow," said Dangeau slowly; "where?"
"At all the prisons. One or two of the gaolers are warned, but I do not
believe they will be able to do anything."
Dangeau was thinking hard.
"They sent me away on purpose," he said at last.
"Curse them!" said Clery in a shaking voice.
Dangeau did not swear, but he nodded his head as who should say Amen,
and his face was bitter hard.
"Is anything intended here?" he asked sharply.
"No, not from head-quarters; but Heaven knows what may happen when the
mob tastes blood."
Dangeau gave a short laugh.
"Why, Jacques?" said Clery, surprised.
"Why, Edmond," repeated Dangeau sardonically, "I was thinking that it
would be a queer turn for Fate to play if you and I were to die
to-morrow, fighting in defence of Capet against the people."
"You would do that?" asked Edmond.
"But naturally, my friend, since we are responsible for him."
He had been leaning carelessly against the wall, but as he spoke he
straightened himself.
"Our friends upstairs will be getting impatient," he said aloud. "Who
takes the night duty with me?"
Clery was about to speak, but received a warning pressure of the arm.
He was silent, and Legros, one of the loungers, came forward.
Dangeau and he went out together. Upstairs silence reigned. The two
Commissioners on duty rose with an air of relief, and passed out. The
light of a badly trimmed oil-lamp showed that the little party of
prisoners were all present, and Dangeau saluted them with a grave
inclination of the head that was hardly a bow. His companion, clumsily
embarrassed, shuffled with his feet, spat on the floor, and lounged to a
seat.
The Queen raised her eyebrows at him, and, turning slightly, smiled and
nodded to Dangeau. Mme Elizabeth bowed abstractedly and turned again to
the chessboard which stood between her and her brother. Mme Royale
curtsied, but the little Dauphin did not raise his head from some
childish game which occupied his whole attention. His mother, after
waiting a moment, called him to her and, laying one of her long delicate
hands on his petulantly twitching shoulder, observed gently:
"Fi donc, my son; did you not see these gentlemen enter? Bid them good
evening!"
The child tossed his head, but as his father's gaze met him, he hung it
down again, saying in a clear childish voice, "Good evening, Citizens."
Mme Elizabeth's colour rose perceptibly at the form of address, but the
Queen smiled, and, giving the boy's shoulder a little tap of dismissal,
she turned to Dangeau.
"We forget our manners in this solitude, Monsieur," she said in her
peculiarly soft and agreeable voice. Then after a pause, during which
Dangeau, to his annoyance, felt that his face was flushing, "It is
Monsieur Dangeau, is it not?"
"Citizen Dangeau, at your service."
Marie Antoinette laughed; the sound was pleasing but disturbing. "Oh,
my good Monsieur, I am too old to learn these new forms of address. My
son, you see, is quicker"; the arch eyes clouded, the laugh dropped to a
sigh, then rippled back again into merriment. "Only figure to yourself,
Monsieur, that I have had already to learn one new language, for when I
came to France as a bride, all was strange--oh, but so strange--to me.
I had hard work, I do assure you; and that good Mme de Noailles was a
famous task-mistress!"
"Should it be harder to learn simplicity?" said Dangeau, a faint tinge
of bitterness in his pleasant voice.
"Why, no, Monsieur," returned the Queen, "it should not be. My liking
has always been for simplicity. Good bread to eat, fresh water to drink,
and a clean white dress to wear,--with these things I could be very well
content. But, alas! Monsieur, the last at least is lacking us; and
simplicity, though a cardinal virtue now, does not of itself afford an
occupation. Pray, Monsieur Dangeau, could you not ask that my sister
and I should be permitted the consolation of needlework?"
Dangeau coloured.
"The Commune has already decided against needle-work," he said rather
curtly.
"But why then, Monsieur?"
"Because we all know that the needle may be used instead of the pen, and
that it is as easy to embroider treason on a piece of stuff as to write
it on paper," he replied, with some annoyance.
The Queen gave a little light laugh.
"Oh, de grace! Monsieur," she said, "my sister and I are not so clever!
But may we not at least knit? There is nothing treasonable in a few pins
and a little wool, is there, M. le Depute?"
Dangeau shook his head doubtfully. Consciousness of the Queen's
fascination rendered his outward aspect austere, and even ungracious.
"I will ask the Council," was all he permitted himself to say, but was
thanked as charmingly as though he had promised some great concession.
This did not diminish his discomfort, and he was acutely conscious of
Mme Elizabeth's frown, and of a coarse grunt from Legros.
The prisoners did not keep late hours. Punctually at ten the King rose,
embraced Mme Royale, kissed his sister's forehead and the Queen's hand,
and retired to his own apartment, accompanied by M. le Dauphin, his
valet, and the Deputy Legros. The Queen, Mme Elizabeth, and Mme Royale
busied themselves for a moment with putting away the chessmen, and a
book or two that lay about. They then proceeded to their own quarters,
which consisted of two small rooms opening from an ante-chamber. There
Marie Antoinette embraced her sister and daughter, and they separated
for the night. Dangeau was obliged to enter each apartment in turn, in
order to satisfy himself that all was in order, after which he locked
both doors, and drew a pallet-bed across that which led to the Queen's
room. Here he stretched himself, but it was long ere he slept, and his
thoughts were very bitter. No Jacobin of them all could go as far as he
in Republican principles. To him the Republic was not only the best
form of government, but the only one under which the civic virtues could
flourish. It was his faith, his ardent religion, the inspiration of his
life and labours, and it was this faith which he was to see clouded,
this religion defiled, this inspiration befouled,--and at the hands of
his co-devotees, Hebert, Marat, and their crew. They worshipped at the
same altar, but they brought to it blood-stained hands, lives foul with
license, and the smoking blood of tortured sacrifices.
Paris let loose on the prisoners! He shuddered at the thought. Once
the tiger had tasted blood, who could assuage his thirst? There would
be victims enough and to spare. Curled fops of the salons; scented
exquisites of the Court; indolent, luxurious priests; smooth-skinned,
bright-eyed women; children foolish and unthinking. He saw the sea of
blood rise and rise till it engulfed them all.
Strange that he should think of the girl he had seen for an instant on
Rosalie's stairway. How uneasily she had looked at him, and with what a
rising colour. How young she seemed, how delicately proud. Her face
stayed with him as he sank into a sleep, vexed by prophetic dreams.
The next morning passed uneasily. It was a hot, cloudless day, and the
small room in which the prisoners were confined became very oppressive.
The King spent a part of the time in superintending the education of his
son, and whilst thus engaged certainly appeared to greater advantage
than at any other time. The child was wayward, wilful, and hard to
teach; but the father's patience appeared inexhaustible, and his method
of imparting information was not only painstaking, but attractive.
The Princesses read or conversed. Presently the King got up and began
pacing the room. It was a habit of his, and, after glancing at him once
or twice, Mme Elizabeth rose and joined him. Now and then they stood at
the window and looked out. The last few houses to be demolished were
falling fast, and the King amused himself by speculating on the
direction likely to be taken by each crashing mass of masonry. He made
little wagers with his sister, was chagrined when he lost, and pleased
out of all reason when he won. Dangeau's lip curled a little as he
watched the trivial scene, and perhaps the Queen read his thought, for
she said smilingly:
"Prisoners learn to take pleasure in small things, Monsieur"; and
Dangeau bit his lip. The quick intuition, the arch glance, confused
him.
"All things are comparative," continued Marie Antoinette. "When I had
many amusements and occupations, I would not have turned my head to
remark what now constitutes an event in my monotonous day. Yesterday a
workman hurt his foot, and I assure you, Monsieur, that we all regarded
him with as much interest as if he had been a dear friend. Trifles have
ceased to be trifles, and soon I shall look out for a mouse or a spider
to tame, as I have heard of prisoners doing."
"I cannot imagine even the loneliest of unfortunates caring for a
spider," said Dangeau, with a smile.
"No, Monsieur, nor I," returned the Queen. She seemed about to speak
again, and, indeed, her lips had already opened, when, above the crash
of the falling masonry, there came the heavy boom of a gun. Dangeau
started up. It came again, and yet a third time.
"It is the alarm," said Legros stolidly.
Immediately there was a confused noise of voices, shouting, footsteps.
Dangeau and his colleague pressed forward to the window. The workmen
were throwing down their tools; here a group stood talking,
gesticulating, there half a dozen were running,--all was confusion.
Louis had recoiled from the window. His great face was a sickly yellow,
and the sweat stood in large beads upon the skin.
"Is there danger? What is it?" he stammered, and caught at the table
for support.
Mme Royale sat still, her long, mournful features steadily composed.
She neither moved nor cried out, but Dangeau saw the thin, unchildish
shoulders tremble. Mme Elizabeth embraced first her brother, and then
her sister, demanding protection for them in agitated accents. Only the
Queen appeared unmoved. She had risen and, passing her arm through that
of her husband, rapidly addressed a few words to him in an undertone.
Inaudible to others, they had an immediate effect upon him, for he
retired to the back of the room, sat down, and drew his little son upon
his knee.
The Queen then turned to the Commissioners.
"What is it, Messieurs?" she asked. "Is there danger?"
"I don't know," answered Legros bluntly.
Dangeau threw her a reassuring glance.
"It is a street riot, I think," he said calmly. "It is probably of no
consequence; and in any case, Madame, we are here to protect you, with
our lives if necessary. You may be perfectly assured of that."
The Queen thanked him with an earnest look and resumed her seat. The
noise outside decreased, and presently the routine of the day fell
heavily about them once more.
If Dangeau were disturbed in mind his face showed nothing, and if he
found the day of an interminable length he did not say so. When the
evening brought him relief, he found the Council in considerable
excitement. The prisons had been raided, "hundreds killed," said one.
"Bah! only one or two, nothing to speak of," maintained another.
Edmond Clery looked agitated.
"It is only the beginning," he whispered, as he passed his friend. He
was on duty with the prisoners, so further conversation was impossible;
but Dangeau's sleep in the Council-room was not much sounder than that
of the night before in the Queen's ante-chamber.