It was close on midnight when the two friends finally parted company
outside the doors of the theatre. The night air struck with biting
keenness against them when they emerged from the stuffy, overheated
building, and both wrapped their caped cloaks tightly round their
shoulders. Armand--more than ever now--was anxious to rid himself of
de Batz. The Gascon’s platitudes irritated him beyond the bounds of
forbearance, and he wanted to be alone, so that he might think over
the events of this night, the chief event being a little lady with an
enchanting voice and the most fascinating brown eyes he had ever seen.
Self-reproach, too, was fighting a fairly even fight with the excitement
that had been called up by that same pair of brown eyes. Armand for the
past four or five hours had acted in direct opposition to the earnest
advice given to him by his chief; he had renewed one friendship which
had been far better left in oblivion, and he had made an acquaintance
which already was leading him along a path that he felt sure his comrade
would disapprove. But the path was so profusely strewn with scented
narcissi that Armand’s sensitive conscience was quickly lulled to rest
by the intoxicating fragrance.
Looking neither to right nor left, he made his way very quickly up the
Rue Richelieu towards the Montmartre quarter, where he lodged.
De Batz stood and watched him for as long as the dim lights of the
street lamps illumined his slim, soberly-clad figure; then he turned on
his heel and walked off in the opposite direction.
His florid, pock-marked face wore an air of contentment not altogether
unmixed with a kind of spiteful triumph.
“So, my pretty Scarlet Pimpernel,” he muttered between his closed lips,
“you wish to meddle in my affairs, to have for yourself and your friends
the credit and glory of snatching the golden prize from the clutches of
these murderous brutes. Well, we shall see! We shall see which is the
wiliest--the French ferret or the English fox.”
He walked deliberately away from the busy part of the town, turning
his back on the river, stepping out briskly straight before him, and
swinging his gold-beaded cane as he walked.
The streets which he had to traverse were silent and deserted, save
occasionally where a drinking or an eating house had its swing-doors
still invitingly open. From these places, as de Batz strode rapidly by,
came sounds of loud voices, rendered raucous by outdoor oratory; volleys
of oaths hurled irreverently in the midst of impassioned speeches;
interruptions from rowdy audiences that vied with the speaker in
invectives and blasphemies; wordy war-fares that ended in noisy
vituperations; accusations hurled through the air heavy with tobacco
smoke and the fumes of cheap wines and of raw spirits.
De Batz took no heed of these as he passed, anxious only that the crowd
of eating-house politicians did not, as often was its wont, turn out
pele-mele into the street, and settle its quarrel by the weight
of fists. He did not wish to be embroiled in a street fight, which
invariably ended in denunciations and arrests, and was glad when
presently he had left the purlieus of the Palais Royal behind him, and
could strike on his left toward the lonely Faubourg du Temple.
From the dim distance far away came at intervals the mournful sound of a
roll of muffled drums, half veiled by the intervening hubbub of the
busy night life of the great city. It proceeded from the Place de la
Revolution, where a company of the National Guard were on night watch
round the guillotine. The dull, intermittent notes of the drum came as
a reminder to the free people of France that the watchdog of a vengeful
revolution was alert night and day, never sleeping, ever wakeful,
“beating up game for the guillotine,” as the new decree framed to-day by
the Government of the people had ordered that it should do.
From time to time now the silence of this lonely street was broken by
a sudden cry of terror, followed by the clash of arms, the inevitable
volley of oaths, the call for help, the final moan of anguish. They
were the ever-recurring brief tragedies which told of denunciations, of
domiciliary search, of sudden arrests, of an agonising desire for
life and for freedom--for life under these same horrible conditions of
brutality and of servitude, for freedom to breathe, if only a day or two
longer, this air, polluted by filth and by blood.
De Batz, hardened to these scenes, paid no heed to them. He had heard it
so often, that cry in the night, followed by death-like silence; it
came from comfortable bourgeois houses, from squalid lodgings, or
lonely cul-de-sac, wherever some hunted quarry was run to earth by the
newly-organised spies of the Committee of General Security.
Five and thirty livres for every head that falls trunkless into the
basket at the foot of the guillotine! Five and thirty pieces of silver,
now as then, the price of innocent blood. Every cry in the night, every
call for help, meant game for the guillotine, and five and thirty livres
in the hands of a Judas.
And de Batz walked on unmoved by what he saw and heard, swinging his
cane and looking satisfied. Now he struck into the Place de la
Victoire, and looked on one of the open-air camps that had recently been
established where men, women, and children were working to provide arms
and accoutrements for the Republican army that was fighting the whole of
Europe.
The people of France were up in arms against tyranny; and on the open
places of their mighty city they were encamped day and night forging
those arms which were destined to make them free, and in the meantime
were bending under a yoke of tyranny more complete, more grinding
and absolute than any that the most despotic kings had ever dared to
inflict.
Here by the light of resin torches, at this late hour of the night,
raw lads were being drilled into soldiers, half-naked under the cutting
blast of the north wind, their knees shaking under them, their arms and
legs blue with cold, their stomachs empty, and their teeth chattering
with fear; women were sewing shirts for the great improvised army,
with eyes straining to see the stitches by the flickering light of
the torches, their throats parched with the continual inhaling of
smoke-laden air; even children, with weak, clumsy little fingers, were
picking rags to be woven into cloth again--all, all these slaves were
working far into the night, tired, hungry, and cold, but working
unceasingly, as the country had demanded it: “the people of France in
arms against tyranny!” The people of France had to set to work to make
arms, to clothe the soldiers, the defenders of the people’s liberty.
And from this crowd of people--men, women, and children--there came
scarcely a sound, save raucous whispers, a moan or a sigh quickly
suppressed. A grim silence reigned in this thickly-peopled camp; only
the crackling of the torches broke that silence now and then, or the
flapping of canvas in the wintry gale. They worked on sullen, desperate,
and starving, with no hope of payment save the miserable rations wrung
from poor tradespeople or miserable farmers, as wretched, as oppressed
as themselves; no hope of payment, only fear of punishment, for that was
ever present.
The people of France in arms against tyranny were not allowed to forget
that grim taskmaster with the two great hands stretched upwards, holding
the knife which descended mercilessly, indiscriminately on necks that
did not bend willingly to the task.
A grim look of gratified desire had spread over de Batz’ face as he
skirted the open-air camp. Let them toil, let them groan, let them
starve! The more these clouts suffer, the more brutal the heel that
grinds them down, the sooner will the Emperor’s money accomplish its
work, the sooner will these wretches be clamoring for the monarchy,
which would mean a rich reward in de Batz’ pockets.
To him everything now was for the best: the tyranny, the brutality, the
massacres. He gloated in the holocausts with as much satisfaction as did
the most bloodthirsty Jacobin in the Convention. He would with his own
hands have wielded the guillotine that worked too slowly for his ends.
Let that end justify the means, was his motto. What matter if the future
King of France walked up to his throne over steps made of headless
corpses and rendered slippery with the blood of martyrs?
The ground beneath de Batz’ feet was hard and white with the frost.
Overhead the pale, wintry moon looked down serene and placid on this
giant city wallowing in an ocean of misery.
There, had been but little snow as yet this year, and the cold was
intense. On his right now the Cimetiere des SS. Innocents lay peaceful
and still beneath the wan light of the moon. A thin covering of snow lay
evenly alike on grass mounds and smooth stones. Here and there a broken
cross with chipped arms still held pathetically outstretched, as if in
a final appeal for human love, bore mute testimony to senseless excesses
and spiteful desire for destruction.
But here within the precincts of the dwelling of the eternal Master a
solemn silence reigned; only the cold north wind shook the branches of
the yew, causing them to send forth a melancholy sigh into the night,
and to shed a shower of tiny crystals of snow like the frozen tears of
the dead.
And round the precincts of the lonely graveyard, and down narrow streets
or open places, the night watchmen went their rounds, lanthorn in hand,
and every five minutes their monotonous call rang clearly out in the
night:
“Sleep, citizens! everything is quiet and at peace!”
We may take it that de Batz did not philosophise over-much on what went
on around him. He had walked swiftly up the Rue St. Martin, then turning
sharply to his right he found himself beneath the tall, frowning
walls of the Temple prison, the grim guardian of so many secrets, such
terrible despair, such unspeakable tragedies.
Here, too, as in the Place de la Revolution, an intermittent roll of
muffled drums proclaimed the ever-watchful presence of the National
Guard. But with that exception not a sound stirred round the grim and
stately edifice; there were no cries, no calls, no appeals around its
walls. All the crying and wailing was shut in by the massive stone that
told no tales.
Dim and flickering lights shone behind several of the small windows in
the facade of the huge labyrinthine building. Without any hesitation de
Batz turned down the Rue du Temple, and soon found himself in front
of the main gates which gave on the courtyard beyond. The sentinel
challenged him, but he had the pass-word, and explained that he desired
to have speech with citizen Heron.
With a surly gesture the guard pointed to the heavy bell-pull up against
the gate, and de Batz pulled it with all his might. The long clang of
the brazen bell echoed and re-echoed round the solid stone walls. Anon
a tiny judas in the gate was cautiously pushed open, and a peremptory
voice once again challenged the midnight intruder.
De Batz, more peremptorily this time, asked for citizen Heron, with whom
he had immediate and important business, and a glimmer of a piece of
silver which he held up close to the judas secured him the necessary
admittance.
The massive gates slowly swung open on their creaking hinges, and as de
Batz passed beneath the archway they closed again behind him.
The concierge’s lodge was immediately on his left. Again he was
challenged, and again gave the pass-word. But his face was apparently
known here, for no serious hindrance to proceed was put in his way.
A man, whose wide, lean frame was but ill-covered by a threadbare coat
and ragged breeches, and with soleless shoes on his feet, was told off
to direct the citoyen to citizen Heron’s rooms. The man walked slowly
along with bent knees and arched spine, and shuffled his feet as he
walked; the bunch of keys which he carried rattled ominously in his
long, grimy hands; the passages were badly lighted, and he also carried
a lanthorn to guide himself on the way.
Closely followed by de Batz, he soon turned into the central corridor,
which is open to the sky above, and was spectrally alight now with
flag-stones and walls gleaming beneath the silvery sheen of the moon,
and throwing back the fantastic elongated shadows of the two men as they
walked.
On the left, heavily barred windows gave on the corridor, as did here
and there the massive oaken doors, with their gigantic hinges and bolts,
on the steps of which squatted groups of soldiers wrapped in their
cloaks, with wild, suspicious eyes beneath their capotes, peering at the
midnight visitor as he passed.
There was no thought of silence here. The very walls seemed alive with
sounds, groans and tears, loud wails and murmured prayers; they exuded
from the stones and trembled on the frost-laden air.
Occasionally at one of the windows a pair of white hands would appear,
grasping the heavy iron bar, trying to shake it in its socket, and
mayhap, above the hands, the dim vision of a haggard face, a man’s or a
woman’s, trying to get a glimpse of the outside world, a final look at
the sky, before the last journey to the place of death to-morrow. Then
one of the soldiers, with a loud, angry oath, would struggle to his
feet, and with the butt-end of his gun strike at the thin, wan fingers
till their hold on the iron bar relaxed, and the pallid face beyond
would sink back into the darkness with a desperate cry of pain.
A quick, impatient sigh escaped de Batz’ lips. He had skirted the wide
courtyard in the wake of his guide, and from where he was he could see
the great central tower, with its tiny windows lighted from within, the
grim walls behind which the descendant of the world’s conquerors, the
bearer of the proudest name in Europe, and wearer of its most ancient
crown, had spent the last days of his brilliant life in abject shame,
sorrow, and degradation. The memory had swiftly surged up before him of
that night when he all but rescued King Louis and his family from this
same miserable prison: the guard had been bribed, the keeper corrupted,
everything had been prepared, save the reckoning with the one
irresponsible factor--chance!
He had failed then and had tried again, and again had failed; a fortune
had been his reward if he had succeeded. He had failed, but even now,
when his footsteps echoed along the flagged courtyard, over which
an unfortunate King and Queen had walked on their way to their last
ignominious Calvary, he hugged himself with the satisfying thought that
where he had failed at least no one else had succeeded.
Whether that meddlesome English adventurer, who called himself the
Scarlet Pimpernel, had planned the rescue of King Louis or of Queen
Marie Antoinette at any time or not--that he did not know; but on one
point at least he was more than ever determined, and that was that
no power on earth should snatch from him the golden prize offered by
Austria for the rescue of the little Dauphin.
“I would sooner see the child perish, if I cannot save him myself,” was
the burning thought in this man’s tortuous brain. “And let that accursed
Englishman look to himself and to his d----d confederates,” he added,
muttering a fierce oath beneath his breath.
A winding, narrow stone stair, another length or two of corridor, and
his guide’s shuffling footsteps paused beside a low iron-studded door
let into the solid stone. De Batz dismissed his ill-clothed guide and
pulled the iron bell-handle which hung beside the door.
The bell gave forth a dull and broken clang, which seemed like an echo
of the wails of sorrow that peopled the huge building with their weird
and monotonous sounds.
De Batz--a thoroughly unimaginative person--waited patiently beside the
door until it was opened from within, and he was confronted by a tall
stooping figure, wearing a greasy coat of snuff-brown cloth, and holding
high above his head a lanthorn that threw its feeble light on de Batz’
jovial face and form.
“It is even I, citizen Heron,” he said, breaking in swiftly on the
other’s ejaculation of astonishment, which threatened to send his name
echoing the whole length of corridors and passages, until round every
corner of the labyrinthine house of sorrow the murmur would be borne
on the wings of the cold night breeze: “Citizen Heron is in parley with
ci-devant Baron de Batz!”
A fact which would have been equally unpleasant for both these worthies.
“Enter!” said Heron curtly.
He banged the heavy door to behind his visitor; and de Batz, who seemed
to know his way about the place, walked straight across the narrow
landing to where a smaller door stood invitingly open.
He stepped boldly in, the while citizen Heron put the lanthorn down on
the floor of the couloir, and then followed his nocturnal visitor into
the room.