The Whites and the Blues (2 page)

"And who is your father, my little friend?" asked Tetrell.

"He is president of the tribunal at Besangon, citizen," s-eplied the lad.

*' But one must know Latin to learn Greek.''

The boy drew himself up and said: "I do know it."

"What, you know it?"

"Yes, when I was at Besangon my father and I never spoke anything but. Latin."

"The devil! You seem to be pretty well advanced for one of your age. How old are you? Eleven or twelve?"

"I am almost fourteen."

"And what made your father send you to Euloge Schneider to learn Greek?"

"Because my father does not know Greek as well as he does Latin. He taught me all he knew, then he sent me

to Euloge Schneider, who speaks Greek fluently, having occupied the chair of Greek at Bonn. See, this is the letter my father gave me for him. Besides, he wrote him a week ago, informing him that I would arrive this even ing, and it was he who ordered my room to be made ready at the Hotel de la Lanterne, and sent citizen Cecils to fetch me."

As he spoke the boy handed citizen Te'trell the letter, to prove that he had told him nothing but the truth.

11 Come, Sleepy-head, bring your light nearer," said Te'trell.

"Cocl&s, Codes," insisted the groom, obeying his former friend's order nevertheless.

"My young friend," said Te'trell, "may I call your at tention to the fact that this letter is not addressed to citizen Schneider but to citizen Pichegru?"

4 ' Ah! I beg pardon, I made a mistake; my father gave me two letters and I have handed you the wrong one." Then, taking back the first letter, he gave him a second.

"Ah! this time we are right," said Tetrell. "To the citizen Euloge Schneider."

"filoge Schneider," repeated Codes, correcting in his own way the first name of the public prosecutor, which he thought Tetrell had mispronounced.

"Giveyour guide a lesson in Greek," laughed the leader of the patrol, "and tell him that the name Euloge means— come, my lad, what does it mean?"

"A fine speaker," replied the boy.

"Well answered, upon my word! do you hear, Sleepy head?"

"Codes," repeated the groom, obstinately, more difficult to convince regarding his own name than concerning that of the public prosecutor.

In the meantime Te'trell had drawn the boy aside, and, bending down until he could whisper in his ear, he said: '•'Are you going to the H6tel de la Lanterne ?"

4 ' Yes, citizen, ' ' replied the child.

"You will find two of your compatriots there, who have come here to defend and reclaim the adjutant-general, Charles Perrin, who is accused of treason."

"Yes, citizens Dumont and Ballu."

"That's right. "Well, tell them that not only have they nothing to hope for their client, but their stay here bodes them no good. It is merely a question of their heads. Do you understand ?''

"No, I do not understand," replied the boy.

"What! don't you understand that Saint-Just will have their heads cut off like two chickens if they remain ? Ad vise them to go, and the sooner the better.''

"Shall I tell them that you said so ?"

"No, indeed! For them to make me pay for the broken pots, or, rather, for the pots that are not broken." Then, straightening up, he cried: "Very well, you are good citi zens, go your way. Come, march, you. others!"

And citizen Tetrell went off at the head of his patrol, leaving Codes very proud of having talked for ten minutes with a man of such importance, and citizen Charles much disturbed by the confidence which had just been reposed in him. Both continued their way in silence.

The weather was dark and gloomy, as it is apt to be in December in the north and east of France; and although the moon was nearly at its full, great black clouds swept across its face like equinoctial waves. To reach the Hotel de la Lanterne, which was in the street formerly called the Eue de 1'ArcheVeque, and was now known as the Rue de la Deesse-Kaison, they had to cross the market square, at the extremity of which rose a huge scaffolding, against which the boy, in his abstraction, almost stumbled.

"Take care, citizen Charles," said the groom, laughing, "you will knock down the guillotine."

The boy gave a cry and drew back in terror Just then the moon shone out brilliantly for a few seconds. For an instant the horrible instrument was visible and a pale, sad ray quivered upon its blade.

"My God! do they use it?" asked the boy, ingenuously, drawing closer to the groom.

"What! do they use it?" the latter replied, gayly; "I should think so, and every day at that. It was Mother .Raisin's turn to-day. In spite of her eighty years she ended her life there. It didn't do her any good to tell the executioner: 'It's not worth while killing me, my son; wait a bit and I'll die by myself.' She was slivered like the rest."

"What had the poor woman done?"

"She gave a bit of bread to a starving Austrian. She said that he had asked her in German and so she thought he was a compatriot, but it was no use. They replied that since the time of I don't know what tyrant, the Alsatians and the Austrians were not compatriots.''

The poor child, who had left home for the first time, and who had never experienced so many varying emotions in the course of one evening, suddenly felt cold. Was it the effect of the weather or of Codes' story ? Whatever it was he threw a final glance at the instrument, which, as the moonbeams faded, retreated into the night like a shadow, and then asked, with chattering teeth: "Are we far from the Lanterne ?''

"Faith, no; for here it is," replied Codes, pointing to an enormous lantern hanging over the doorway, which lighted the street for twenty feet around it.

"It's time," said the boy, with a shiver.

And, running the rest of the way, he opened the door of the hotel and darted into the kitchen, where a great fire burning in an immense chimney-piece drew forth a cry of satisfaction from him. Madame Teutch answered the exclamation with a similar one, for, although she had never seen him, she recognized in him the young boy who had been recommended to her care, as she saw Codes ap pear in turn on the threshold with his light.

CHAPTER II

THE CITIZENESS TEUTCH

THE citizeness Teutch, a fresh, fat Alsatian, thirty or thirty-five years of age, felt an affection almost ma ternal for the travellers Providence sent her—an affection which was doubly strong when the travellers were as young and pretty as was the boy now sitting beside the kitchen fire, where, for that matter, he was the only one. So, hastening toward him, and as he still shiv ered, holding out his hands and feet to the blaze, she said: "Oh, the dear little fellow 1 What makes him shiver so, and why is he so pale?"

"Hang it, citizeness," said Codes, with his hoarse laugh, 1 'I can't tell you exactly; but I think he shivers because he is cold, and that he is pale because he nearly fell over the guillotine. He wasn't acquainted with the machine, and it seems to have had quite an effect upon him. What fools children are!"

"Be quiet, you idiot!"

"Thanks, citizeness; that's my pourboire, I suppose."

"No, my friend," said Charles, drawing a little purse from his pocket and handing him a small coin, "here is your pourboire."

"Thanks, citizen," said Codes, lifting his hat with one hand and holding out the other for the money. "The deuce! white money; so there is still some left in France? I thought thai it was all done for; but now I see, as citizen T^trell says, that that is just a report started by the aris tocrats. ''

"Come, get along to your horses," said citizeness Teutch, "and leave us alone."

Codes went out grumbling Madame Teutch sat down,

and, in spite of some slight opposition on the part of Charles, she took him on her knee. Although, as we have said, he was nearly fourteen years old, he did not look more than ten or eleven.

"See here, my little friend," said she, "what I am going to tell you now is for your own good. If you have any silver, you must not show it. Have it changed for paper money; paper money having a forced currency, and a gold louis being worth five hundred francs in assignats, you will not lose anything, and will not risk being suspected as an aristocrat." Then, changing the subject, she said: "How cold his hands are, the poor little fellow."

And she held his hands out to the fire, as if he had been a child.

"And now what shall we do next?" she said. "A little Supper?"

"Oh, as for that, madame, no, thank you; we dined at Erstein, and I am not at all hungry. I would rather go tG bed, for I don't think I can get quite warm until I am in my bed."

'' Very well; then we will warm your bed; and when you are in it we will give you a good cup of—what? Milk or broth?"

"Milk, if you please."

"Milk, then. Poor child, you were only a nursling yes terday, and here you are running about alone like a grown man. Ah! these are sad times!"

And she picked Charles up as if he had been a baby indeed. Placing him in a chair she went to the keyboard to see what room she could give him.

"Let's see! 5, that's it. No! the room is too large and the window doesn't shut tight; the poor child would be cold. 9! No, that is a room with two beds. 14! That will suit him; a nice little room with a good bed hung with curtains to keep out the draughts, and a pretty little fireplace that does not smoke, with an infant Jesus over itj that will bring him good luck. Gretchen! Gretchen!' 1

A beautiful Alsatian, about twenty years old, dressed in the graceful costume of the country, which resembles some what that worn by the women of Aries, came quickly at this summons.

"What is it, mistress?" she asked in German.

"I want you to get No. 14 ready for this little cherub; choose some fine dry sheets while I go and get him some milk porridge.''

Gretchen lighted a candle and started on her errand. Then citizeness Teutch returned to Charles.

"Do you understand German ?" she asked.

"No, madame; but if I stay long in Strasbourg, as I ex pect to, I hope to learn it.''

"Do you know why I gave you No. 14?"

"Yes, I heard what you were saying in your mono logue."

"Goodness gracious! my monologue. What's that?"

"That, madame, is not a French word. It is derived from two Greek words— monos, which means alone, and logos, which signifies to speak."

"My dear child, do you know Greek at your age ?"

'' A little, madame. I have come to Strasbourg to learn more.''

"You have come to Strasbourg to learn Greek?"

"Yes, with M. Euloge Schneider."

Madame Teutch shook her head.

'' Oh, madame! he knows Greek as well as Demosthenes," said Charles, thinking that Madame Teutch doubted his future professor's knowledge.

"I don't say he doesn't. But I do say, that no matter how well he knows it, he won't have time to teach you."

"Why, what does he do?"

"You ask me that?"

4 ' Certainly, I ask you.''

"He cuts off heads," she said, lowering her voice.

Charles trembled. *' He—cuts—on 0 —heads ? " he repeated.

"Didn't you know that he is the public prosecutor ? Ah!