Honore de Balzac (15 page)

"My papa wants to know what he's to do with the corporal, who ain't
doing well," said Francois.

"What's the matter with him?" asked Peyrade.

"It's his head—he pitched down hard on the ground," replied the boy.
"For a gindarme who knows how to ride it was bad luck—I suppose the
horse stumbled. He's got a hole—my! as big as your fist—in the back of
his head. Seems as if he must have hit some big stone, poor man! He may
be a gindarme, but he suffers all the same—you'd pity him."

The captain of the gendarmerie now arrived and dismounted in the
courtyard. Corentin threw up the window, not to lose time.

"What has been done?"

"We are back like the Dutchmen! We found nothing but five dead horses,
their coats stiff with sweat, in the middle of the forest. I have kept
them to find out where they came from and who owns them. The forest is
surrounded; whoever is in it can't get out."

"At what hour do you suppose those horsemen entered the forest?"

"About half-past twelve."

"Don't let a hare leave that forest without your seeing it," whispered
Corentin. "I'll station Peyrade at the village to help you; I am going
to see the corporal myself—Go to the mayor's house," he added, still
whispering, to Peyrade. "I'll send some able man to relieve you. We
shall have to make use of the country-people; examine all faces." He
turned towards the family and said in a threatening tone, "Au revoir!"

No one replied, and the two agents left the room.

"What would Fouche say if he knew we had made a domiciliary visit
without getting any results?" remarked Peyrade as he helped Corentin
into the osier vehicle.

"It isn't over yet," replied the other, "those four young men are in the
forest. Look there!" and he pointed to Laurence who was watching them
from a window. "I once revenged myself on a woman who was worth a dozen
of that one and had stirred my bile a good deal less. If this girl comes
in the way of my hatchet I'll pay her for the lash of that whip."

"The other was a strumpet," said Peyrade; "this one has rank."

"What difference is that to me? All's fish that swims in the sea,"
replied Corentin, signing to the gendarme who drove him to whip up.

Ten minutes later the chateau de Cinq-Cygne was completely evacuated.

"How did they get rid of the corporal?" said Laurence to Francois Michu,
whom she had ordered to sit down and eat some breakfast.

"My father told me it was a matter of life and death and I mustn't let
anybody get into our house," replied the boy. "I knew when I heard the
horses in the forest that I'd got to do with them hounds of gindarmes,
and I meant to keep 'em from getting in. So I took some big ropes that
were in my garret and fastened one of 'em to a tree at the corner of
the road. Then I drew the rope high enough to hit the breast of a man
on horseback, and tied it to the tree on the opposite side of the way in
the direction where I heard the horses. That barred the road. It didn't
miss fire, I can tell you! There was no moon, and the corporal just
pitched!—but he wasn't killed; they're tough, them gindarmes! I did
what I could."

"You have saved us!" said Laurence, kissing him as she took him to
the gate. When there, she looked about her and seeing no one she said
cautiously, "Have they provisions?"

"I have just taken them twelve pounds of bread and four bottles of
wine," said the boy. "They'll be snug for a week."

Returning to the salon, the girl was beset with mute questions in the
eyes of all, each of whom looked at her with as much admiration as
eagerness.

"But have you really seen them?" cried Madame d'Hauteserre.

The countess put a finger on her lips and smiled; then she left the room
and went to bed; her triumph sure, utter weariness had overtaken her.

The shortest road from Cinq-Cygne to Michu's lodge was that which led
from the village past the farm at Bellache to the
rond-point
where
the Parisian spies had first seen Michu on the preceding evening. The
gendarme who was driving Corentin took this way, which was the one the
corporal of Arcis had taken. As they drove along, the agent was on the
look-out for signs to show why the corporal had been unhorsed. He blamed
himself for having sent but one man on so important an errand, and he
drew from this mistake an axiom for the police Code, which he afterwards
applied.

"If they have got rid of the corporal," he said to himself, "they have
done as much by Violette. Those five horses have evidently brought
the four conspirators and Michu from the neighborhood of Paris to the
forest. Has Michu a horse?" he inquired of the gendarme who was driving
him and who belonged to the squad from Arcis.

"Yes, and a famous little horse it is," answered the man, "a hunter
from the stables of the ci-devant Marquis de Simeuse. There's no better
beast, though it is nearly fifteen years old. Michu can ride him fifty
miles and he won't turn a hair. He takes mighty good care of him and
wouldn't sell him at any price."

"What does the horse look like?"

"He's brown, turning rather to black; white stockings above the hoofs,
thin, all nerves like an Arab."

"Did you ever see an Arab?"

"In Egypt—last year. I've ridden the horses of the mamelukes. We have
to serve twelve years in the cavalry, and I was on the Rhine under
General Steingel, after that in Italy, and then I followed the First
Consul to Egypt. I'll be a corporal soon."

"When I get to Michu's house go to the stable; if you have served twelve
years in the cavalry you know when a horse is blown. Let me know the
condition of Michu's beast."

"See! that's where our corporal was thrown," said the man, pointing to a
spot where the road they were following entered the
rond-point
.

"Tell the captain to come and pick me up at Michu's, and I'll go with
him to Troyes."

So saying Corentin got down, and stood about for a few minutes examining
the ground. He looked at the two elms which faced each other,—one
against the park wall, the other on the bank of the
rond-point
; then
he saw (what no one had yet noticed) the button of a uniform lying in
the dust, and he picked it up. Entering the lodge he saw Violette and
Michu sitting at the table in the kitchen and talking eagerly. Violette
rose, bowed to Corentin, and offered him some wine.

"Thank you, no; I came to see the corporal," said the young man, who saw
with half a glance that Violette had been drunk all night.

"My wife is nursing him upstairs," said Michu.

"Well, corporal, how are you?" said Corentin who had run up the stairs
and found the gendarme with his head bandaged, and lying on Madame
Michu's bed; his hat, sabre, and shoulder-belt on a chair.

Marthe, faithful in her womanly instincts, and knowing nothing of her
son's prowess, was giving all her care to the corporal, assisted by her
mother.

"We expect Monsieur Varlet the doctor from Arcis," she said to Corentin;
"our servant-lad has gone to fetch him."

"Leave us alone for a moment," said Corentin, a good deal surprised at
the scene, which amply proved the innocence of the two women. "Where
were you struck?" he asked the man, examining his uniform.

"On the breast," replied the corporal.

"Let's see your belt," said Corentin.

On the yellow band with a white edge, which a recent regulation had
made part of the equipment of the guard now called National, was a metal
plate a good deal like that of the foresters, on which the law required
the inscription of these remarkable words: "Respect to persons and
to properties." Francois's rope had struck the belt and defaced it.
Corentin took up the coat and found the place where the button he had
picked up upon the road belonged.

"What time did they find you?" asked Corentin.

"About daybreak."

"Did they bring you up here at once?" said Corentin, noticing that the
bed had not been slept in.

"Yes."

"Who brought you up?"

"The women and little Michu, who found me unconscious."

"So!" thought Corentin: "evidently they didn't go to bed. The corporal
was not shot at, nor struck by any weapon, for an assailant must have
been at his own height to strike a blow. Something, some obstacle, was
in his way and that unhorsed him. A piece of wood? not possible! an iron
chain? that would have left marks. What did you feel?" he said aloud.

"I was knocked over so suddenly—"

"The skin is rubbed off under your chin," said Corentin quickly.

"I think," said the corporal, "that a rope did go over my face."

"I have it!" cried Corentin; "somebody tied a rope from tree to tree to
bar the way."

"Like enough," replied the corporal.

Corentin went downstairs to the kitchen.

"Come, you old rascal," Michu was saying to Violette, "let's make an end
of this. One hundred thousand francs for the place, and you are master
of my whole property. I shall retire on my income."

"I tell you, as there's a God in heaven, I haven't more than sixty
thousand."

"But don't I offer you time to pay the rest? You've kept me here since
yesterday, arguing it. The land is in prime order."

"Yes, the soil is good," said Violette.

"Wife, some more wine," cried Michu.

"Haven't you drunk enough?" called down Marthe's mother. "This is the
fourteenth bottle since nine o'clock yesterday."

"You have been here since nine o'clock this morning, haven't you?" said
Corentin to Violette.

"No, beg your pardon, since last night I haven't left the place, and
I've gained nothing after all; the more he makes me drink the more he
puts up the price."

"In all markets he who raises his elbow raises a price," said Corentin.

A dozen empty bottles ranged along the table proved the truth of the old
woman's words. Just then the gendarme who had driven him made a sign to
Corentin, who went to the door to speak to him.

"There is no horse in the stable," said the man.

"You sent your boy on horseback to the chateau, didn't you?" said
Corentin, returning to the kitchen. "Will he be back soon?"

"No, monsieur," said Michu, "he went on foot."

"What have you done with your horse, then?"

"I have lent him," said Michu, curtly.

"Come out here, my good fellow," said Corentin; "I've a word for your
ear."

Corentin and Michu left the house.

"The gun which you were loading yesterday at four o'clock you meant to
use in murdering the Councillor of State; but we can't take you up for
that—plenty of intention, but no witnesses. You managed, I don't know
how, to stupefy Violette, and you and your wife and that young rascal
of yours spent the night out of doors to warn Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne
and save her cousins, whom you are hiding here,—though I don't as
yet know where. Your son or your wife threw the corporal off his horse
cleverly enough. Well, you've got the better of us just now; you're a
devil of a fellow. But the end is not yet, and you won't have the last
word. Hadn't you better compromise? your masters would be the better for
it."

"Come this way, where we can talk without being overheard," said Michu,
leading the way through the park to the pond.

When Corentin saw the water he looked fixedly at Michu, who was no doubt
reckoning on his physical strength to fling the spy into seven feet of
mud below three feet of water. Michu replied with a look that was
not less fixed. The scene was absolutely as if a cold and flabby boa
constrictor had defied one of those tawny, fierce leopards of Brazil.

"I am not thirsty," said Corentin, stopping short at the edge of the
field and putting his hand into his pocket to feel for his dagger.

"We shall never come to terms," said Michu, coldly.

"Mind what you're about, my good fellow; the law has its eye upon you."

"If the law can't see any clearer than you, there's danger to every
one," said the bailiff.

"Do you refuse?" said Corentin, in a significant tone.

"I'd rather have my head cut off a thousand times, if that could be
done, than come to an agreement with such a villain as you."

Corentin got into his vehicle hastily, after one more comprehensive look
at Michu, the lodge, and Couraut, who barked at him. He gave certain
orders in passing through Troyes, and then returned to Paris. All the
brigades of gendarmerie in the neighborhood received secret instructions
and special orders.

During the months of December, January, and February the search was
active and incessant, even in remote villages. Spies were in all the
taverns. Corentin learned some important facts: a horse like that of
Michu had been found dead in the neighborhood of Lagny; the five horses
burned in the forest of Nodesme had been sold, for five hundred francs
each, by farmers and millers to a man who answered to the description of
Michu. When the decree against the accomplices and harborers of Georges
was put in force Corentin confined his search to the forest of Nodesme.
After Moreau, the royalists, and Pichegru were arrested no strangers
were ever seen about the place.

Michu lost his situation at that time; the notary of Arcis brought him a
letter in which Malin, now made senator, requested Grevin to settle all
accounts with the bailiff and dismiss him. Michu asked and obtained a
formal discharge and became a free man. To the great astonishment of the
neighborhood he went to live at Cinq-Cygne, where Laurence made him
the farmer of all the reserved land about the chateau. The day of his
installation as farmer coincided with the fatal day of the death of the
Duc d'Enghien, when nearly the whole of France heard at the same time
of the arrest, trial, condemnation, and death of the prince,—terrible
reprisals, which preceded the trial of Polignac, Riviere, and Moreau.