THE INNERMOST CIRCLE.
Those who went out were brothers of the second and third circles, and
left seven who were masters in their lodge. They recognized each other
by signs proving they were admitted to the high degrees.
Their first care was to close the doors. The presiding officer, who was
now Balsamo, showed his ring. On it were graved the letters L. P. D.
They stood for Latin words meaning “Destroy the Lilies!” The Lily is the
emblem of the House of Bourbon.
This chief was charged with the universal correspondence of the order.
The six other highest leaders dwelt in America, Russia, Sweden, Spain
and Italy.
He had brought some of the more important messages received to impart
them to his associates placed under him but above the files.
The most important was from Swedenborg the spiritualist, who wrote from
Sweden:
“Look out in the South, brothers, where the burning sun hatched a
traitor. He will be your ruin, brothers. Watch at Paris, for there the
false one dwells: the secrets of the Order are in his hands and a
hateful sentiment moves him. I hear the denunciation, made in a low
voice. I see a terrible doom, but it may fall too late. In the interim,
brothers, keep watchful. One treacherous tongue, however ill-instructed,
would be enough to upset all our skillfully contrived plans.”
The conspirators looked at one another in mute surprise. The language of
the ferocious Rosicrucian and his foresight, to which many examples gave
imposing authority, all contributed no little to cloud the committee
presided over by the mesmerist.
“Brothers,” he said, “this inspired prophet is seldom wrong. Watch
therefore, as he bids us. Like me, now, you know that the war has begun.
Do not let us be baffled by these ridiculous foes whose position we
undermine. Do not forget, though, that they have an army of fierce
hirelings at their disposal--a powerful argument in the eyes of those
who do not see far beyond earthly limits. Brothers, be on your guard
against the traitors who are bribed.”
“Such alarm seems puerile to me,” said a voice: “we are gaining in
strength daily, and are led by brilliant genius and mighty hands.”
Balsamo bowed at this flattery.
“True, but treachery sneaks in everywhere,” remarked Marat, who had been
promoted to a superior rank, spite of his youth, and for the first time
sat in the superior council. “Think, brothers, that a great capture may
be made by increasing the size of the bait. While Chief of Police
Sartines, with a bag of silver, may catch a subordinate, the Prime
Minister, with one of gold, may buy one of the superiors.
“In our company the obscure brother knows nothing. He may at the most
know the names of a few of those above him, but these names afford no
information. Our constitution is admirable, but it is eminently
aristocratic. The lower members can know nothing and do nothing. They
are only gathered to tell them some nonsense, and yet they contribute to
the solidity of the building. They bring the mortar and the bricks as
others bring the tools and the plan. But, without bricks and mortar, how
can you have a Temple? The workman gets but a poor wage, although I for
one regard him as equal to the Architect’s clerk, whose plan creates and
gives existence to the work. I regard him as an equal, I say, as he is a
man and all men are equal, as the philosophers teach, for he bears his
portion of misery and fatality like another, more than others, as he is
exposed to the fall of a stone or the breaking down of a scaffold.”
“I interrupt you, brother,” said Balsamo. “You are talking wide of the
question bringing us together. Your fault, brother, is in generalizing
subjects, and exaggerating zeal. We are not discussing whether the
constitution of our society is good or bad, but to maintain its firmness
and integrity. If I were wrangling with you I should say, ‘No, the organ
which receives the movement is not the equal of the genius of the
creator; the workman is not on a level with the architect; arms are not
equal to the brains.’”
“If Sartine arrests one of our lowliest brothers he will send him to
jail just as sure as you or me,” protested the surgeon.
“Granted; but the person will suffer, not the society. It can endure
such things. But if the head is imprisoned, the plot stops--the army
loses the victory if the general is slain. Brothers, watch for the
safety of the Supreme Chief!”
“Yes, but let them look out for us.”
“It is their duty.”
“And have their faults more severely punished.”
“Again, brother, you overstep the regulations of the Order. Are you
ignorant that all the members are alike and under the same penalties?”
“In such cases the great ones elude the chastisement.”
“That is not what the Grand Masters think, brother; but hearken to the
end of the letter from the great prophet Swedenborg, one of the greatest
among us; here is what he adds:
“The harm will come from one of the great ones--very great--of the
Order; or, if not from him directly, the fault will be imputable to him.
Remember that Fire and Water may be accomplices: one gives light and
the other gives revelations.”
This enigmatical allusion would seem to be to the process of showing the
future in the glass of water, which was one of the conjuring experiments
of Joseph Balsamo.
“Watch, brothers, (Concluded the seer) over all things and all men!”
“Let us, then, repeat the oath,” said Marat, grasping at his hold in the
letter and the chief’s speech, “the oath which binds us and pledges us
to carry it out in full rigor in case one of us betrays or is the cause
of a treacherous act.”
Balsamo rose and uttered these awful words in a low voice, solemn and
terrifying:
“In the name of the Architect of the Universe, I swear to break all
carnal bonds attaching me to father and mother, sister and brother,
wife, friends, mistress, kings, captains, benefactors, all unto
whomsoever I have promised faith, obedience, gratitude or service.
“I vow to reveal to the chief whom I acknowledge according to the rules
of the Order, what I have seen, heard, learnt or divined, and moreover
to ascertain what happens beyond my knowledge.
“I honor all means to purify the globe of the enemies of truth and
freedom.
“I subscribe to the vow of silence; I consent to die as if by the
thunderbolt on the day when I deserve punishment and I will wait without
remonstrance for the deadly stab to accomplish its work wherever I shall
be.”
The seven men repeated the oath, standing up with uncovered heads, a
sombre gathering.
“We are pledged to one another,” said Balsamo when the last word was
spoken; “let us waste no time in idle arguments. I have a report to make
to the Committee on the principal work of the year. France is situated
in the center of Europe like its heart, and it makes the other parts of
the body live. In its agitations may be sought the cause of the ills of
the general organism. Hence I have come out of the East to sound this
heart like a physician; I have listened to it, sounded it and
experimented with it. A year ago when I began, monarchy was weakening.
To-day, vices are destroying it. I have quickened the debauchery and
favored what will be deadly.
“One obstacle stood in the way--a man, not merely the First Minister but
the foremost man in the realm. It was Choiseul whom I have removed. This
important work was undertaken by many intriguers and much hatred during
ten years, but I accomplished it in a few months, by means which it is
useless to describe. By a secret, which is one of my strong means, the
greater as it must remain hidden from all eyes and never be manifested
save by its effect, I have overturned and driven away Choiseul. Look at
the fruit of the toil: all France is crying for Choiseul and rising to
bring him back as orphans appeal to heaven to restore their father.
Parliament uses its only right, inertia. But if it does not go on, there
will be no work and the wage-earners will earn no money. No money for
the workers--no rent, no tax paying--gold, the blood of a realm, will be
wanting.
“They will try to make the poor pay--and there will be a struggle. But
who will struggle against the masses? not the army, which is recruited
from the people, eating the black bread of the farm hand, and drinking
the sour wine of the vineyard laborer. The King has his household
troops, the foreign regiments, five or six thousand men at the
most--what will this squad of pigmies do against an army of giants?”
“Bid them rise!” exclaimed the chiefs.
“Yes, yes, let us set to work,” said Marat.
“Young man, your advice is not asked,” coldly said Balsamo. “Yet you may
speak.”
“I will be brief,” said Marat; “mild attempts rock the people to sleep
when they do not discourage them. Mere chipping at the stone is the
theory of the Rousseaus, who are always bidding us to wait. We have been
waiting seven centuries! This poor and feeble opposition has not
advanced humanity by a single step. Have we seen one abuse redressed in
three hundred years? Enough of these poets and theorists! let us have
work and deeds. For three hundred years we have been physicking France
and it is high time that the surgeons were called in, with scalpel and
lancet. Society is gangrened and we must cut away and apply the redhot
iron. A revolt, though it be put down, enlightens slaves more on their
power than a thousand years of precepts and examples. It may not be
enough, but it is much!”
A flattering murmur rose from several hearers.
“Where are our enemies,” continued the young man; “on the steps of the
throne, guarding it as their palladium. We cannot reach royalty but over
the bodies of those insolent, gold-coated guards. Well, let us fell
them, as we read has been done to the body-guards of tyrants before now.
Thus will we get near enough to the gilded idol to hurl it down. Count
these privileged heads. Scarce two hundred thousand. Let us walk through
the lovely garden, which is France, as Tarquin did in his, and cut off
the heads of these flaunting poppies, and all will be done. When dwarfs
aim to slay a colossus they attack its feet; when men want to fell the
oak they chop at the root. Woodmen, take the ax, let us hack at the base
of the tree and it will fall in the dust.”
“And crush you, pigmies,” commented the Supreme Chief in a voice of
thunder. “You declaim against poets and you spout fustian. Brother, you
have picked up these phrases in some novel you concoct in your garret.”
Marat blushed.
“Do you know what a revolution is?” said the Grand Copt. “I have seen
two hundred, and they have tended to nothing because the revolutionists
were in too great a haste. You talk of chopping down giant trees. This
tree is not an oak but one of those immense redwoods of the far western
American forests which I have seen. If they were felled, a horseman
starting from the base to avoid the high-up branches would be overtaken
and smashed. You cannot wish this. You cannot obtain the warrant from
me.”
“I have lived some forty generations of man.”
“Being long-lived, I can be patient. I carry your fate--ay, that of the
world in the hollow of my hand. I will not open it to let out the
lightnings till I see fit. Let us come down from these sublime hights
and walk on the earth.
“Gentlemen, I say with simplicity and full belief, it is not yet time.
The King now reigning is the last reflection of the glory of the Great
Louis who dazzles still enough to pale your ineffectual fires. A King,
he will die royally: of an insolent race but pure-bred. Slay him and
that will happen which befel Charles First of England: his executioners
will bow to him and courtiers will kiss the ax which lops off his head.
You know that England was in too much of a hurry. It is true that
Charles Stuart died on the scaffold but the block was a stepping-stone
for his son to reach the throne and he died on it.”
“Wait, wait, brothers, for the times are becoming propitious.
“We are sworn to destroy the lilies but we must root them up--not a
stalk must be left. But the breath of fate is going to shrivel royalty
up to nothing. Draw nearer and hear this--the Dauphiness, though a year
wedded---- ”
“Well?” asked the chiefs with anxiety.
“She is still as when she came from her mother’s land.”
An ominous murmur, so full of hatred and revengeful triumph as to make
all Kings flee, escaped like a blast of hell from the lips of this
narrow circle of six heads almost touching, but towered over by
Balsamo’s bending down from the stage.
“In this state of things,” he pursued, “two suppositions are presented.
The race will die out and our friends will have no difficulties, combats
or troubles. As happens every time three Kings succeed, the Dauphin,
Provence and Artois will reign but die without posterity--it is the law
of destiny.
“The other hypothesis is that the Dauphiness will yet bear children.
That is the trap into which our enemies will rush in the belief that we
will fall into it. We will rejoice when she is a mother, just like them;
for we possess a dread secret, comprising crimes which no power,
prestige or efforts can counteract. We can easily make out that the heir
which she gives the throne is illegitimate and the more fecund she may
be, the worse will appear her conduct.
“This is why, my brothers, that I wait; judging it useless as yet to
unchain popular passions to be employed efficaciously when the right
time comes.
“Now, brothers, you know how I have employed this year. You see the
extent of my mines. Be persuaded that we shall succeed, but with the
genius and courage of some, who are the eyes and the brain; with the
labor and perseverance of others, who represent the arms; and with the
faith and devotedness of others still, who are the heart.
“Be penetrated with the necessity of blind obedience which makes the
Grand Copt himself stand ready to be immolated to the will of the
Order’s statutes when the day comes.
“There is a good act yet to do, and an evil to point out.
“The great author who came to us this evening and would have joined us
but for the stormy behavior of one of our brothers who alarmed the
sensitive spirit--he was right as against us and I am sorry one of the
profane was in the right before a majority of our society, who know the
ritual badly and our aims not at all. Triumphing with the sophisms of
his works over our Order’s truths, he represents a vice which I shall
extirpate with fire and sword, unless it can be done with persuasion, as
I hope. The self-conceit of one of our brothers showed itself vilely. He
placed us secondary in the argument. I trust that no such fault will
again be committed or else I shall have recourse to discipline.
“Now, brothers, propagate the faith with mildness and persuasion.
Insinuate rather than impose, and do not try to make truths enter with
hammer and ax blows like the torturers who use wedge and sledge.
Remember that we shall be acknowledged great only after having proved
that we have done good, and that will only happen when we shall appear
better than those round us. Remember, too, that the good are nothing
without science, art and faith; nothing beside those whom the Divine
Architect has stamped with a peculiar seal to command men and rule an
empire.
“Brothers, the meeting adjourns.”
He put on his hat and wrapped himself in his mantle. Each freemason went
out in his turn, alone and silent so as not to awaken suspicion. The
last with the Supreme Master was the Surgeon Marat.
Very pale, he humbly approached him for he knew the terrible speaker’s
power was unlimited.
“Master, did I commit a fault?” he inquired.
“A great one, and all the worse as you are not conscious that you did
so,” replied the man of mystery.
“I confess it; not only ignorant, but I thought I spoke becomingly.”
“Pride--destructive demon! men hunt for fever in the veins and search
for the cancer in the vitals, but they let pride shoot up such roots
deeply in their heart as never to be able to wrench them out.”
“You have a very poor opinion of me, master,” returned Marat. “Am I so
paltry a fellow that I am not to be counted among my equals? Have I
culled the fruit of the tree of knowledge so clumsily that I am
incapable of saying a word without being taxed with ignorance? Am I so
lukewarm a member that my conviction is suspected? Were this all so,
still I exist by reason of my devotion to the masses.”
“Brother, it is because the spirit of evil contends in you with that of
good and seems to me to promise to overpower it one day, that I
undertake to correct you. If I succeed it will be in one hour, unless
pride has the upperhand of all your other passions.”
“Master, make an appointment which I will keep.”
“I will call on you.”
“Mind what you promise. I am living in a garret in Cordelier’ Street. A
garret, mark you, while you--” he emphasized the word with an
affectation of proud simplicity.
“While I---- ”
“While, so they say, you live in a palace.”
The master shrugged his shoulders as a giant might do when jeered at by
a dwarf.
“I will call upon you in your garret in the morning.”
“I go to the dissection hall at daybreak and then to the hospital.”
“That will suit me very well; I should have suggested it if you had not
said it.”
“You understand--early--I do not sleep much.”
“And I never sleep at peep of day,” said Balsamo.
Upon this they separated, as they had reached the street door, dark and
lonely on their going forth as it had been noisy and lively when they
went in.