THE LUXEMBOURG
Robert Tournay breathed easier after having sent the message to Gaillard
by La Liberte. Gaillard at least was not likely to become implicated;
and the anonymous communication once destroyed, nothing of an
incriminating nature would be found, should their lodging be visited.
Nevertheless, he could not repress a feeling of disquiet as the iron
door of the Luxembourg clanked behind him and he found himself a
prisoner.
The cell into which he was conducted was absolutely dark.
"It will not be so bad during the day," volunteered the jailer. "There
is a small window that looks out on the courtyard." Tournay drew a sigh
of thankfulness on hearing this.
"Your bed is near the door. Can you see it?" asked the jailer.
"I can feel for it," replied Tournay. "Yes, here it is."
"Very well, I will now lock you up safely. Pleasant dreams in your new
quarters, citizen colonel." And with this parting salute the cheerful
jailer went jingling down the corridor, leaving Tournay in the darkness,
seated on the edge of his narrow bed, with elbows on knees and his chin
resting in the palms of his hands.
Suddenly he sat up straight and listened attentively. The sound of
regular breathing told him that he was not the sole occupant of the
cell. "Whoever he may be, he sleeps contentedly," thought Tournay; "I
may as well follow his good example." In a very few minutes a quiet
concert of long-drawn breaths told of two men sleeping peacefully in the
cell on the upper tier of the Luxembourg prison.
The little daylight that could struggle through the bars of the tiny
window near the ceiling had long since made its appearance, when Robert
Tournay opened his eyes next morning.
His fellow prisoner was already astir; and without moving, Tournay lay
and watched him at his toilet. He was most particular in this regard.
Despite the diminutive ewer and hand basin, his ablutions were the
occasion of a great amount of energetic scrubbing and rubbing,
accompanied by a gentle puffing as if he were enjoying the luxury of a
refreshing bath. After washing, he wiped his face and hands carefully on
a napkin correspondingly small. He proceeded with the rest of his toilet
in the same thorough manner, as leisurely as if he had been in the most
luxurious dressing-room. A wound in his neck, that was not entirely
healed, gave him some trouble; but he dressed it carefully, and finally
hid it entirely from sight by a clean white neckerchief which he took
from a little packet in a corner of the room near the head of his bed.
Having adjusted the neckcloth to his satisfaction, he put on a
well-brushed coat, and, sitting carelessly upon the edge of the
table,--the room contained no chair,--he began to polish his nails with
a little set of manicure articles which were also drawn forth from his
small treasury of personal effects.
[Illustration: ADJUSTED THE NECKCLOTH TO HIS SATISFACTION]
The light from the slit of a window above his head fell on his face. It
was thin and haggard, like that of a man who had undergone a severe
illness, but, despite this fact, it was an attractive face, and the
longer Tournay looked at it, the more it seemed to be familiar to him,
recalling to his mind some one he had once known.
Suddenly the colonel sprung to his feet. "St. Hilaire!" he exclaimed
aloud, answering his own mental inquiry.
St. Hilaire rose from his seat on the table and saluted Tournay
graciously.
"I am what is left of St. Hilaire," he replied lightly. "And you
are--For the life of me I cannot recall your name at the moment. Though
I am fully aware that I have seen you more than once before this."
"My name is Robert Tournay."
"Of course. I should have remembered it. You must pardon my poor
memory." Then, looking at him closely, he continued: "You wear the
uniform of a colonel. You have won distinction, and yet I see you here
in prison."
"It matters not how loyal a soldier or citizen one may be if one incurs
the enmity or suspicion of Robespierre," was the answer.
"What you say is true, Colonel Tournay," said St. Hilaire.
"Do you also owe your arrest to him?" asked the colonel.
"No," replied St. Hilaire, resuming his former seat. "I became involved
in a slight dispute with some of the gendarmerie about a certain
question of--of etiquette. The altercation became somewhat spirited.
They lost their tempers. I nearly lost my life. When I regained
consciousness I discovered what remained of myself here, and I am
recovering as fast as could be expected, in view of the rather limited
amount of fresh air and sunlight in my chamber."
Tournay thought of the brilliant and dashing Marquis Raphael de St.
Hilaire as he had seen him in his boyhood, and looked with deep interest
at the figure sitting easily on the edge of the table in apparent
contentment, cheerfully accepting misfortune with a smile, and parrying
the arrows of adversity with the best of his wit, like the brave and
sprightly gentleman he was.
"The resources here are somewhat limited," St. Hilaire continued. "But
by placing the table against the wall and mounting upon it one can
squeeze his nose between the bars of the window and get a glimpse of the
courtyard beneath. Occasionally the jailer has taken me for a promenade
there. It seems that we prisoners on the second tier are considered of
more importance, or else it is feared that we are more likely to attempt
to escape, for we are kept in closer confinement than those who are on
the main floor. Although this may be construed as a compliment, it is
nevertheless very tedious. But I am keeping you from your toilet by my
gossip. I have left you half of the water in the pitcher. Pardon the
small quantity. We will try to prevail upon our jailer to bring us a
double supply in future. He is an obliging fellow, particularly if you
grease his palm with a little silver."
Tournay accepted his share of the water with alacrity grateful for the
courtesy that divides with another even a few litres of indifferently
clean water in a prison cell.
After this toilet, and a breakfast of rolls and coffee, partaken
together from the rough deal table, the two prisoners felt as if they
had known each other for years.
The lines of their lives had frequently run near together during the
years of the Revolution, yet in all that whirl of events had never
crossed till now, since the summer day in the woods of La Thierry, when
the Marquis de St. Hilaire had placed his hand upon the boy's shoulder
and bade him save his life by flight.
By some common understanding, subtler than words, no reference to past
events was made by either of them. They began their acquaintance then
and there; the officer in the republican army, and the Citizen St.
Hilaire; fellow prisoners, who in spite of any misfortune that might
overtake them would never falter in their devotion and loyalty to their
beloved country, France, and who recognized each in the other a man of
courage and a gentleman.
So the day passed in discussing the victories of the armies, the
oppression and tyranny practiced by the committee, and the prospects of
the future.
A few days after Tournay's incarceration the turnkey came toward
nightfall to give them a short time for recreation in the courtyard.
This, though far from satisfying, was hailed with pleasure by the
prisoners, and especially by Tournay, who, accustomed to the violent
exertion of the camp and field, chafed for want of exercise.
They were escorted along the upper corridor, whence they could look down
into the main hall on the first floor of the Luxembourg. Here, those
prisoners who were happy enough not to be confined under special orders,
had the privilege of congregating during the hours of the day and early
evening. Looking down upon this scene shortly after the supper hour,
Tournay drew a breath of surprise. He felt for a moment as if he were
transported back to the days before the Revolution and was looking upon
a reception in the crowded salons of the chateau de Rochefort where the
baron entertained as became a grand seigneur. The republican colonel
turned a look of inquiry toward St. Hilaire. The latter gave a slight
shrug as he answered:--
"The ladies dress three times a day and appear in the evening in full
toilet. As for the men, they also wear the best they have. You will see
that many wear suits which in better days would have been thrown to
their lackeys. Now they are mended and remended during the day, that
they may make their appearance at night, and defy the shadows of the
gray stone walls and the imperfect candlelight quite bravely." And St.
Hilaire himself pulled a spotless ruffle below the sleeves of his
well-worn coat.
"And so," mused Tournay, "they can find the heart to wear a gay exterior
in such a place as this?"
"No revolution is great enough to change the feelings and passions of
human nature," replied St. Hilaire. "They only adapt themselves to new
conditions. Here, within these walls, under the shadow of the
guillotine, Generosity, Envy, Love, and Vanity play the same parts they
do in the outer world. Affairs of the heart refuse to be locked out by a
jailer's key, and these darkened recesses nightly resound with tender
accents and the sighs of lovers. Bright eyes kindle sparks that only
death can quench. Jealousy, also, is sometimes aroused, and I am told
that even affairs of honor have taken place here."
"I should never have dreamed it possible," said the soldier, looking
with renewed interest upon the moving picture at his feet; from which a
sound of vivacious conversation arose like the multiplied hum of many
swarms of bees.
St. Hilaire leaned idly with one arm on the gallery rail, while he
flecked from his coat a few grains of dust with a cambric handkerchief.
Suddenly he straightened himself and grasped the railing tightly with
both hands.
"Good God! can it be possible?" he exclaimed to himself.
Tournay looked at him, surprised by his sudden change of manner. St.
Hilaire did not notice him, but looked intently at some one in the hall
below.
Tournay followed the direction of his companion's eyes and saw a young
woman, with childish countenance, standing by the elbow of a woman who
was seated in a chair occupied with some needlework.
"Countess d'Arlincourt," St. Hilaire continued sadly, speaking to
himself. "I hoped that I had saved her."
The woman glanced upward, and her large blue eyes met St. Hilaire's
gaze. After the first start of surprise her look expressed the deepest
gratitude, while his denoted interest and pity.
Then he turned away. "Come citizen jailer," he said, addressing the
attendant, "lead us back to our cell."
As Tournay was about to follow St. Hilaire, he saw, to his amazement,
the figure of de Lacheville standing apart from the rest, in the shadow
of the wall, as if he preferred the gloomy companionship of his own
thoughts to the society of his fellow beings in adversity.
"Do you see that man skulking in the shadow by the wall?" asked Tournay,
pointing de Lacheville out to the jailer. "When did he come here?"
"A few days ago. Either the same evening you were brought in, or the
day following," was the reply.
"The same evening!" exclaimed Tournay to himself as he followed St.
Hilaire to their cell. "Robespierre has indeed been consistent in that
poor devil's case."
The Countess d'Arlincourt drew up a little stool and placed herself at
the feet of her friend, Madame de Remur. The latter was still a woman in
the full flush of beauty. She was dressed in black velvet which seemed
but little worn, and which set off a complexion so brilliant that it
needed no rouge even to counteract the pallor of a prison.
The countess leaned her head against the knees of her friend, allowing
the velvet of the dress to touch her own soft cheek caressingly.
"Do not grieve, my child," said Madame de Remur, laying down her
embroidery and placing one hand upon the blonde head in her lap. "Grieve
not too much for your husband; there is not one person in this room who
has not to mourn the loss of some near friend or relative, and yet for
the sake of those who are living they continue to wear cheerful faces. I
only regret that you, who were at that time safe, should have
surrendered yourself after the count was taken. It has availed nothing,
and has sacrificed two lives instead of one."
"Hush, Diane; a wife should not measure her duty by the result. He was a
prisoner. He was ill. It was my duty to come to his side."
"Your pardon, dear child. You, with your baby face and gentle manner,
have more real courage than I. I hardly think I could do that for any
man in the world."
"You always underrate yourself, dear Diane, you who are the noblest and
most generous of women!" exclaimed the countess, rising. "Now I am going
to speak to that poor little Mademoiselle de Choiseul. It was only
yesterday that they took her father." And Madame d'Arlincourt moved
quietly across the room.
"I cannot understand the courage and devotion of that child," said
Madame de Remur, addressing the old Chevalier de Creux who stood behind
her chair. "I might possibly be willing to share any fate, even the
guillotine, with a man if I loved him madly; but"--and Madame de Remur
finished the sentence with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Perhaps the countess loved her husband," suggested the young
Mademoiselle de Belloeil who sat near the table, bending over some
crochet work, but at the same time lending an ear to the conversation.
"How could she?" said Diane, "he was so cold, so austere, and so
dreadfully uninteresting, and then I happen to know she did not,
because"--
"Because she loved another gentleman," said the chevalier, completing
the sentence with a laugh. "Under the circumstances I do not know
whether I admire the countess's loyalty in following her husband to
prison, or condemn her cruelty in leaving a lover to pine outside its
walls."
"She was always a faithful wife, I would have you understand, you wicked
old Chevalier de Creux!" exclaimed Madame de Remur, looking up at him as
he leaned over the back of her chair.
"Perhaps the lover may be confined in the prison also," suggested the
philosopher, who had also been a silent listener to the dialogue.
"More than likely," assented the chevalier dryly.
"Whether he were here or not," said madame decidedly, "she would have
done the same."
"Here is the Count de Blois," said the chevalier; "let us put the case
before him."
"Oh, you men," laughed Madame de Remur. "I will not accept the verdict
of the best of you. But the count is accompanied by the poet; let us get
him to recite us some verses." And she tossed her fancywork upon the
table at her side.
Monsieur de Blois, with his arm through the poet's, bowed low before
them. The count had been in the prison for over a year, and the poor
gentleman's wardrobe had begun to show the effect of long service.
"They have evidently forgotten my existence entirely," he had said
pathetically one morning to a friend who found him washing his only fine
shirt in the prison-yard fountain. "When this shirt is worn out, I shall
make a demand to be sent to the guillotine from very modesty."
A few days later he had received a couple of shirts and a note by the
hand of the jailer.
"Dear de Blois," the letter had read. "I am called, and shall
not need these. If they prevent you from carrying out your
threat of the other morning, I shall go with a lighter heart.
"Yours, V. de K."
"De Blois!" said the chevalier, drawing the count away from the table of
Mademoiselle de Belloeil, "you are called to decide a point of the
greatest delicacy."
The count put his glass to his eye as if to look at the chevalier and
the philosopher, but in reality he only saw Mademoiselle de Belloeil
bending over her embroidery.
"If a lady," continued the chevalier, his bright eyes twinkling,
"voluntarily puts herself into a prison where are confined both her
husband and her lover, what credit does she deserve for her action? Can
it be called self-sacrifice?"
Before replying, the count looked attentively at the group before him:
at the philosopher's impenetrable countenance; at the chevalier's
quizzical and wrinkled brown physiognomy; then at Madame de Remur's
handsome face, and lastly and most tenderly at the drooping eyelids of
the delicate Mademoiselle de Belloeil.
"She would be twice revered," replied de Blois.
Mademoiselle de Belloeil's needle stopped in its click-click.
"Why so, monsieur le comte?" inquired the philosopher. "If she has a
double motive for the sacrifice, should not the honor of it be only half
as great?"
"She should receive credit for her loyalty to the husband whom she had
sworn to obey, and homage for her devotion to the lover on whom by
nature she has placed her affections," replied the count, bowing to
Madame de Remur, while he noted with a certain satisfaction the smile of
approval on the lips of Mademoiselle de Belloeil.
"And no one has said that she has a lover," declared Madame de Remur
warmly.
"Did you not imply as much, dear madame?" asked the old chevalier slyly.
"I intimated that she might have had one--if--let us change the subject.
I move that the poet read us his latest verses. I am dying for some
amusement."
"Ladies and gentlemen," cried the old chevalier, clapping his hands
together to attract the attention of all those in the room, "this
brilliant young author and poet, who needs no introduction to you, has
consented to read his latest production. Will you kindly take places?"
There was some polite applause. "The poem! let us hear the poem," buzzed
upon all sides, and the throng began to settle down around the poet, the
ladies occupying the chairs, and the gentlemen either leaning against
the walls or seated upon stools by the side of those ladies in whose
eyes they found particular favor.
In a few moments a hush of expectancy fell upon an audience delighted at
the prospect of being entertained.
"This is a play in verse," began the poet, taking a roll of manuscript
from his pocket.
"A play! how charming," said Mademoiselle de Belloeil.
"It is in three acts," continued the author. "Act first, in the prison
of the Luxembourg, where the young people first meet and fall deeply in
love."
A rustle of approval ran through his audience.
"Act second is in the prison yard where they are separated, she being
set at liberty and he conducted to the guillotine."
"Oh, how terrible!" murmured the young damsel.
"One moment, monsieur le poete," said Madame de Remur. "How does it end?
I warn you that I shall not like your play if it ends unhappily."
"You shall judge of that in a moment, madame," replied the poet, bowing
to her graciously.
"In the third act," he continued, "the lovers are brought together under
the shadow of the guillotine, whither she has followed him. The knife
falls upon both of them in quick succession, and their souls are united
in the next world, never to be separated more."
"What a beautiful ending," cried Mademoiselle de Belloeil, and the
exclamation on the part of the audience showed that her sentiment was
echoed generally.
"Continue," said Madame de Remur. "I was afraid it was going to end
unhappily."
The chevalier took a pinch of snuff and settled himself back in the
arm-chair which was accorded to him as a tribute to his advanced age;
and the poet unfolded his manuscript and began to read.
It was an intensely appreciative audience that listened to the dramatic
work of the poet. They followed with breathless interest the meeting of
the young lovers in the hall of the Luxembourg; assisted smilingly at
their rendezvous in the corridors and shadowy corners of the old prison;
and sighed gently during the most tender passages. At the scene of
separation, tears of regret flowed freely, and in the meeting in the
last act, tears of joy and sorrow mingled together in sympathetic
unison.
As the young poet ended he folded up his manuscript and bowed his
blushing acknowledgments to the storm of applause that greeted him.
The wave of approbation had not ceased to resound through the room when
the outer door opened, and the jailer and some half a dozen gendarmes
entered abruptly.
Instantly the hum of conversation stopped, and an icy chill fell upon
the assemblage. Faces that the moment before were wreathed in smiles now
became pale and marked with fear.
"The call of to-morrow's list to the guillotine," rang out through the
room in harsh notes.
Amid the silence of death, a captain of gendarmerie took a slip of paper
from his pocket, while a comrade held a lantern under his nose. Some of
those who listened wiped the clammy perspiration from their foreheads,
others trembled and sat down. Some affected an air of indifference, and
began a forced conversation with their neighbors; but all ears were
strained. Each dreaded lest his own name or that of some loved one
should be called out by that monotonous, relentless voice.
"Bertrand de Chalons."
An old man stepped forward.
"Annette Duclos."
There was a pause after each name, during which the suspense was
intensified.
"Diane de Remur."
Madame de Remur laid aside her work and rose.
"Diane! Diane! I cannot bear it!" cried the Countess d'Arlincourt,
throwing her arms about her friend's neck. "Oh, sirs, have pity!"
"Hush, my dear," replied Madame de Remur soothingly. "Chevalier, look to
the poor child; she is hysterical." The chevalier gently drew the
countess aside, then took Madame de Remur's hand and silently bending
over it, put it to his lips.
"Take your place in the line, citizeness," called out a gendarme, and
Madame de Remur stood with the others.
"Andre de Blois!"
As de Blois' name was called, a shrill cry echoed through the room, and
Mademoiselle de Belloeil fell back into the chair from which she had
just risen. She did not swoon, but sat like one in a dream, staring with
wide-open eyes.
The count stepped to her side.
"Adele," he said, bending down and speaking in a low voice, "give me one
of those roses you are wearing on your breast." Mechanically she took
the flower from her bosom and put it in his hand. He placed it over his
heart. "It shall be here to the last," he said softly; "now farewell;"
and he pressed a kiss upon her cold lips.
"Maurice de Lacheville."
A man crouched down behind a group of prisoners, and all heads were
turned in his direction.
"Maurice de Lacheville, you are called," said a gendarme, going up to
him and seizing him by the arm with no gentle grasp.
"There is some mistake," cried de Lacheville pitiably.
"There is no mistake, your name is here."
"I say, there must be some mistake. My arrest was a mistake. I was
promised"--
"Into the line with you," was the gruff interruption. "Many would claim
there was a mistake if it would avail them to say so."
"But in my case it is true," pleaded de Lacheville. "Send word to
Robespierre; he promised"--
"Into the line, I tell you!" cried the exasperated gendarme. "There is
no mistake; your name is written here. You go with the rest."
"One moment, one little moment," implored the wretched marquis in an
agony of fear. "Oh, messieurs the gendarmes, if you will but hear me, I
have an important communication to make." All this time he was fighting
desperately as the two officers of the law dragged him toward the door.
"Silence, idiot!" yelled the angry captain, "or I will have you bound
and gagged. Take example from these women who put you to shame."
"Idiot that I was," cried de Lacheville, "why did I ever return from a
place of safety? None but a fool would have trusted the word of
Robespierre."
"Bind him," ordered the captain.
With a strength no one would have believed that he possessed, de
Lacheville threw off those who held him.
"Stand back!" he shouted wildly, as the officers endeavored to seize
him. He drew an object quickly from his pocket.
"Take care, Jean. He has a weapon," cried one.
There was a report of a pistol, and the marquis fell forward to the
floor.
A murmur of horror filled the prison hall. Women fainted, and men turned
away their heads. The gendarmes hastened to bend over him.
"I believe he is dead, captain," said one after a brief examination.
"Carry him out with the others just the same," ordered the captain.
"Pierre, continue with the list."
"Bertrand de Tourin."
"Here."
"Adele de Belloeil."
There was a cry of joy in the answer:--
"I am here. The Blessed Virgin has heard my prayer;" and Mademoiselle de
Belloeil stepped forward. "Andre, I come with you; we shall go
together where they can never separate us." And she threw herself into
the arms of her lover.
"About face--fall in--forward! march." The heavy door closed, and those
who had been called were led away, while those remaining in the prison
went quietly to their cells, to recommence the same life on the morrow
until the next roll-call.
"The nobility of France," said the chevalier to the philosopher, "may
not have known how to live, but it knows how to die."
"Except the Marquis de Lacheville," was the reply.
"Bah. He was always one of the canaille at heart; he only proves my
assertion," and the chevalier took an extra large pinch of snuff and
limped off to his mattress of straw.