The Chevalier De Maison Rouge (5 page)

28 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

brought the letter, about eight in the morning. The

young man multiplied his questions and varied them in

every possible shape, but could elicit nothing further.

Maurice requested hie acceptance of six francs, also desir-

ing, if the stranger again presented himself, that he would follow h'm, without appearing to do so, and inform him

where he returned to.

We hasten to say that, much to the satisfaction of Aris-

tide, who felt himself rather insulted by this proposition, the man returned no more.

Maurice remained alone, crushing the letter with vexa-

tion ; he drew the ring from his finger, and placed it with the crumpled letter upon the table de nuit. then turned

toward the wall, with the foolish idea of sleeping afresh ; but at the end of an hour Maurice returned to this fan-faronade, kissed the ring and reread the letter. The ring

was a splendid sapphire ; the letter, as we have said, was a charming little billet, displaying its aristocracy in every line.

As Maurice reread and examined it, the door opened.

Maurice hastily replaced the ring on his finger, and con-

cealed the note under his pillow. Was this the modesty

of newly awakened love, or was it the shame of a patriot,

who would not wish it to be known that one in relation

with the people was imprudent enough to write a billet,

of which the perfume aloiie was sufficient to compromise

both the hand that penned it and the hand that received

it ?

He Avho eiitered was a young man attired as a patriot,

but a patriot of surpassing elegance. His blouse was

composed of fine cloth, his breechos 01 cashmere, and his

stockings of fine striped silk. As to his bonnet, it might

have shamed, from the elegance of its form and splendid

purple color, even those of Paris itself. Added to all

this, lie carried in his belt a pair of pistols of the royal manufacture of Versailles, and a short saber, equal to

those of the pupils of the Champ de Mars.

" Ali ! thou sleepest, Brutus," said the new-comer,

*' and the country is ; n danger. Fi done I "

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 29

"No, Louis/' said Maurice, laughing, " I do not sleep, I dream."

"Yes, I understand."

" Well, as for me, I cannot understand."

"Bah !"

" Of whom do you speak ? Who is this Eucharis ? "

" Why, the woman."

" What woman ? "

" The woman of La Sue St. Honore the woman of

the patrol the unknown the woman for whom you and

I risked our heads last night."

"Oh, yes!" said Maurice, who knew perfectly well

what his friend would say. and only feigned ignorance,

" the unknown."

' Well, who was she ? "

" I know nothing."

" Was she pretty ? "

" Pshaw ! " said Maurice, pouting his lips disdainfully.

"A poor woman forgotten in some love adventure.

" Yes ; sweet creatures that we are,

"Tis love that ever tortures man."

" Is this possible ? " said Maurice, to whom such an idea was at this moment peculiarly repugnant, and who

would have much preferred finding the unknown to be

even a conspirator rather than a light woman.

" And where does she live ? "

"I know nothing concerning her."

"Come, now ; you know nothing; that's impossible."

' Why so ?"

"You escorted her back."

" She escaped from me at the Bridge Marie."

" Escaped from you ! " said Louis, with a roar of laughter ; "a woman escape from you ?

" Say, can the tremhling dove elude

The vulture tyrant of the air ;

The fawn, on whom the tiger rude

Springs from his solitary lair ? "

80 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

"Louis," said Maurice, "I wish you would accustom yourself to speak like other people. You annoy me

horribly with your atrocious poetry."

" To speak like other people, indeed ! Now, it appears to me I speak better than most people. I speak as the

Citizen Demonstur, both in prose and poetry. As for

my poetry, mon cher, I know a certain Emilie who does

not consider is so bad. But to return to yours."

" My poetry ? "

"No ; your Emilie."

" Have I an Emilie ? "

" Ah, ah ! your gazelle may turn tigress, and show her teeth in a manner that may not please you, although in

love."

" I in love ? " said Maurice, shaking his head.

" Yes, you in love."

"Louis," said Maurice, arming himself with a pipe-key which lay upon the table, " I swear that if you will spout verses, I will whistle."

" Then let us talk politics ; besides, that brought me here. Have you heard the news ?"

"I know that Capet's wife wished to escape."

" Oh ! that is nothing."

" "What more is there, then ? "

"The famous Chevalier de Maison Rouge is in Paris."

"Is it true ?" said Maurice, raising himself to a siting posture. " When did lie come ? "

" Yesterday evening."

" But how ? "

"Disguised as a chasseur of the National Guard. A

woman who is thought to be MI aristocrat, disguised as a

woman of the people, took him these clothes to the barrier

gate ; an instant afterward they are gone out arm in arm.

It was not till after they had passed the sentinel suspi-

cion was excited. lie had seen the woman pass with a

bundle and repass, accompanied by a soldier, when it

suddenly struck him something was wrong, and lie ran

after them. They had disappeared in a hotel of La Rue

St. llonore, where the door was opened as if by magic.

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 31

The hotel had a second point of egress, leading on to the

Champs Elysees. Bon soir to the Chevalier de Maisou

Rouge and his companion ; they had both vanished.

They will demolish the hotel and guillotine the proprie-

tor, but that will not deter the chevalier from renewing

the attempt which has just failed; it is four months

since the preceding one, and yesterday was the second."

" Is he not arrested ? " demanded Maurice.

" Ah ; well. Yes, mon cJier, as well attempt to stop

Proteus, arrest Proteus ; you know the trouble Aristidea

had to accomplish it."

" ' Pastor Aristseus, fugiens Penei'a Temple.' "

"Take care," said Maurice, carrying the key to his mouth.

" Take care of yourself, for this time you will not

whistle at me, but at Virgil."

" That is very true, and as long as you do not translate it I have nothing to say. Now to return to Maison

Rouge."

" We agree that he is a brave man."

" The fact is, that to undertake such things he must

possess immense courage."

" Or intense adoration."

" Do you believe, then, in the love of the chevalier for the queen ? "

" I do not believe it. I only mention what report says.

Besides, she has turned the brains of so many others, that

tliis would not be at all surprising. She has seduced

Bernais, so they say."

" Never mind ; the chevalier must have had confederates in the Temple even."

" Very possible.

" Love breaks through bars,

And laughs at bolts."

" Louis ! "

" Ah ! it is true."

"Then you think like the rest ?"

"Why not?"

32 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

" Because, according to your account, the queen has

had already two hundred lovers."

"Two, three, four hundred. She is quite handsome

eoough for that. I do not say she loves them ; but, in

short, they love her. All the world beholds the sun, but

the sun does not see all the world. "

" Yon say, then, that the Chevalier de Maison

Rouge " '

"I say they are on the track at this moment, and if he escapes this time the bloodhounds of the Republic, he

will be a cunning fox."

" And what does the Commune in all this affair ? "

" The Commune is about to issue a decree, by which

every house, like an open register, must display on the

front the name of -every inhabitant, both male and female.

This is realizing the dream of the ancients. "Why should there not be a window in every breast, that all the world

may see what passes there ? "

"An excellent idea, that," said "Maurice.

" To place windows in men's breasts ? "

" No ; but to place a list of names on every door.'*

Maurice felt this might be the means of assisting him

to discover the unknown, or, at least, to afford him some

clew whereby he might be able to trace her.

" Is it not so ?" said Louis. "I have already betted this measure will secure us a batch of five hundred aristocrats. By the bye, we have received this morning, at our

club, a deputation of enrolled volunteers ; they arrived,

conducted by our adversaries of that night, whom I had

not abandoned till dead drunk ; they are here, I tell you,

with garlands of flowers and immortelle crowns."

" Indeed," replied Maurice, laughing ; " and how many were there ?"

"They were thirty, and were shaved, wearing bouquets

in their button-holes."

" Citizens of the Club of Thermopyles," said the orator,

" we wish the union of Frenchmen not to be interrupted by any misunderstanding ; we, therefore, come to fraternize anew with such excellent patriots as yourselves/'

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. SS

" Well, what then ? "

" Then we have fraternized, and in this reiteration, as Diasonis expresses himself, we raised an altar to the

country with the table of the secretary and two carafes,

in which the nosegays were deposited. As you were the

hero of the feat, you were three times summoned to ap-

pear, that you might be crowned ; bat as you did not reply, and it was necessary to crown something, they crowned

the bust of Washington. This was the order of the cere-

mony."

As Louis concluded this statement, which at this epoch

had nothing of burlesque, a noise was heard proceeding

from the street ; the drums, first heard in the distance,

now approached nearer and nearer. They easily compre-

hended the cause of this noise, now too common to be

misunderstood.

" What is all that ? " said Maurice.

" The proclamation of the decree of the Commune,"

said Louis.

" I will run to the station," said Maurice, leaping from his bed, and calling his servant to assist him.

" I will return home and go to bed," said Louis. " I had not two hours' sleep last night, thanks to those outrageous volunteers. If they only fight a little, let me

sleep ; but if they fight much, come and fetch me."

" But why are you so smart to-day?" said Maurice, eying him all over as he rose to withdraw.

" Becauso on my road hither I am obliged to pass the

Rue Bethisy, and in the Rue Bethisy, on the third flat, is

a window which always opens when I pass."

" Then you do not fear being taken for a fop ? "

" I ! a fop ? I am. on the contrary, known for a French sanx-culottv. But one must make some sacrifice to the

softer sex. The worship of the country does not exclude

that of love ; indeed, one commands the other.

" Our Republicans profess

We but follow ancient lore ;

Beauty we prize none the less,

That we love our freedom more.

34 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.

Dare' to whistle to that, and I denounce you as an aristo

crat. Adieu, mon ami."

Louis held out his hand to Maurice, which the young

Republican cordially shook, and went out, thinking of a

sonnet to Chloris.

CHAPTER V.

WHAT SORT OF MAN THE CITIZEN MAURICE LINDEY WAS.

WHILE Maurice Lindey, having dressed quickly, pro-

ceeds to the section of La Rue Lepelletier, of which, as

we already know, he was secretary, we will endeavor to

lay before the public the antecedents of this young man,

introduced upon the scene by one of those impulses so

familiar to powerful and generous natures.

The young man had spoken correctly the preceding

evening, when in reply he had said his name was Maurice

Lindey, resident in La Rue de Roule. He might have

added he was a child of that half-aristocracy accorded to

the gentlemen of the robe. His ancestors, for two hun-

dred years, had distinguished themselves by that same

parliamentary opposition which has rendered so illustrious

the names of Moles and Masson. His father, the good

Lindey, who had passed his life grumbling against des-

potism, when on the 14th of July, '80, the Bastile had

fallen by the hands of the people, died from sudden fright, and the shock of seeing despotism replaced by a liberty

militant, leaving his only son independent by fortune and

a republican in principles.

The Revolution which had closely followed this great

event found Maurice, in all the vigor and maturity of

manhood, becoming a champion prepared to enter the

lists ; his republican education, improved by his great

assiduity to the clubs, and from reading all the pamphlets

of that period God knows how many Maurice had read !

deep and rational contempt for the hierarchy, philosoph-

ical consideration of the events which formed the body,

THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. 35

absolute denial of all nobility which was not personal,

impartial appreciation of the past, ardor for new ideas,