An Historical Mystery Part 25

The appeal of the Messieurs de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre and that of Michu was the first case to be brought before the new court. Its decision was fortunately delayed by the ceremonies attending its installation.

CHAPTER XIX. THE EMPEROR'S BIVOUAC

Towards the end of September, after three sessions of the Court of Appeals in which the lawyers for the defence pleaded, and the attorney-general Merlin himself spoke for the prosecution, the appeal was rejected. The Imperial Court of Paris was by this time inst.i.tuted.

Monsieur de Grandville was appointed a.s.sistant attorney-general, and the department of the Aube coming under the jurisdiction of this court, it became possible for him to take certain steps in favor of the convicted prisoners, among them that of importuning Cambaceres, his protector.

Bordin and Monsieur de Chargeboeuf came to his house in the Marais the day after the appeal was rejected, where they found him in the midst of his honeymoon, for he had married in the interval. In spite of all these changes in his condition, Monsieur de Chargeboeuf saw very plainly that the young lawyer was faithful to his late clients. Certain lawyers, the artists of their profession, treat their causes like mistresses. This is rare, however, and must not be depended on.

As soon as they were alone in his study, Monsieur de Grandville said to the marquis: "I have not waited for your visit; I have already employed all my influence. Don't attempt to save Michu; if you do, you cannot obtain the pardon of the Messieurs de Simeuse. The law will insist on one victim."

"Good G.o.d!" cried Bordin, showing the young magistrate the three pet.i.tions for mercy; "how can I take upon myself to withdraw the application for that man. If I suppress the paper I cut off his head."

He held out the pet.i.tion; de Grandville took it, looked it over, and said:--

"We can't suppress it; but be sure of one thing, if you ask all you will obtain nothing."

"Have we time to consult Michu?" asked Bordin.

"Yes. The order for execution comes from the office of the attorney-general; I will see that you have some days. We kill men," he said with some bitterness, "but at least we do it formally, especially in Paris."

Monsieur de Chargeboeuf had already received from the chief justice certain information which added weight to these sad words of Monsieur de Grandville.

"Michu is innocent, I know," continued the young lawyer, "but what can we do against so many? Remember, too, that my present influence depends on my keeping silent. I must order the scaffold to be prepared, or my late client is certain to be beheaded."

Monsieur de Chargeboeuf knew Laurence well enough to be certain she would never consent to save her cousins at the expense of Michu; he therefore resolved on making one more effort. He asked an audience of the minister of foreign affairs to learn if salvation could be looked for through the influence of the great diplomat. He took Bordin with him, for the latter knew the minister and had done him some service.

The two old men found Talleyrand sitting with his feet stretched out, absorbed in contemplation of his fire, his head resting on his hand, his elbow on the table, a newspaper lying at his feet. The minister had just read the decision of the Court of Appeals.

"Pray sit down, Monsieur le marquis," said Talleyrand, "and you, Bordin," he added, pointing to a place at the table, "write as follows:--"

Sire,--Four innocent gentlemen, declared guilty by a jury have just had their condemnation confirmed by your Court of Appeals.

Your Imperial Majesty can now only pardon them. These gentlemen ask this pardon of your august clemency, in the hope that they may enter your army and meet their death in battle before your eyes; and thus praying, they are, of your Imperial and Royal Majesty, with reverence, etc.

"None but princes can do such prompt and graceful kindness," said the Marquis de Chargeboeuf, taking the precious draft of the pet.i.tion from the hands of Bordin that he might have it signed by the four gentlemen; resolving in his own mind that he would also obtain the signatures of several august names.

"The life of your young relatives, Monsieur le marquis," said the minister, "now depends on the turn of a battle. Endeavor to reach the Emperor on the morning after a victory and they are saved."

He took a pen and himself wrote a private and confidential letter to the Emperor, and another of ten lines to Marechal Duroc. Then he rang the bell, asked his secretary for a diplomatic pa.s.sport, and said tranquilly to the old lawyer, "What is your honest opinion of that trial?"

"Do you know, monseigneur, who was at the bottom of this cruel wrong?"

"I presume I do; but I have reasons to wish for certainty," replied Talleyrand. "Return to Troyes; bring me the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne, here, to-morrow at the same hour, but secretly; ask to be ushered into Madame de Talleyrand's salon; I will tell her you are coming. If Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, who shall be placed where she can see a man who will be standing before me, recognizes that man as an individual who came to her house during the conspiracy of de Polignac and Riviere, tell her to remember that, no matter what I say or what he answers me, she must not utter a word nor make a gesture. One thing more, think only of saving the de Simeuse brothers; don't embarra.s.s yourself with that scoundrel of a bailiff--"

"A sublime man, monseigneur!" exclaimed Bordin.

"Enthusiasm! in you, Bordin! The man must be remarkable. Our sovereign has an immense self-love, Monsieur le marquis," he said, changing the conversation. "He is about to dismiss me that he may commit follies without warning. The Emperor is a great soldier who can change the laws of time and distance, but he cannot change men; yet he persists in trying to run them in his own mould! Now, remember this; the young men's pardon can be obtained by one person only--Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne."

The marquis went alone to Troyes and told the whole matter to Laurence.

She obtained permission from the authorities to see Michu, and the marquis accompanied her to the gates of the prison, where he waited for her. When she came out her face was bathed in tears.

"Poor man!" she said; "he tried to kneel to me, praying that I would not think of him, and forgetting the shackles that were on his feet!

Ah, marquis, I _will_ plead his cause. Yes, I'll kiss the boot of their Emperor. If I fail--well, the memory of that man shall live eternally honored in our family. Present his pet.i.tion for mercy so as to gain time; meantime I am resolved to have his portrait. Come, let us go."

The next day, when Talleyrand was informed by a sign agreed upon that Laurence was at her post, he rang the bell; his orderly came to him, and received orders to admit Monsieur Corentin.

"My friend, you are a very clever fellow," said Talleyrand, "and I wish to employ you."

"Monsiegneur--"

"Listen. In serving Fouche you will get money, but never honor nor any position you can acknowledge. But in serving me, as you have lately done at Berlin, you can win credit and repute."

"Monseigneur is very good."

"You displayed genius in that late affair at Gondreville."

"To what does Monseigneur allude?" said Corentin, with a manner that was neither too reserved nor too surprised.

"Ah, Monsieur!" observed the minister, dryly, "you will never make a successful man; you fear--"

"What, monseigneur?"

"Death!" replied Talleyrand, in his fine, deep voice. "Adieu, my good friend."

"That is the man," said the Marquis de Chargeboeuf entering the room after Corentin was dismissed; "but we have nearly killed the countess."

"He is the only man I know capable of playing such a trick," replied the minister. "Monsieur le marquis, you are in danger of not succeeding in your mission. Start ostensibly for Strasburg; I'll send you double pa.s.sports in blank to be filled out. Provide yourself with subst.i.tutes; change your route and above all your carriage; let your subst.i.tutes go on to Strasburg, and do you reach Prussia through Switzerland and Bavaria. Not a word--prudence! The police are against you; and you do not know what the police are--"

Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne offered the then celebrated Robert Lefebvre a sufficient sum to induce him to go to Troyes and take Michu's portrait.

Monsieur de Grandville promised to afford the painter every possible facility. Monsieur de Chargeboeuf then started in the old _berlingot_, with Laurence and a servant who spoke German. Not far from Nancy they overtook Mademoiselle Goujet and Gothard, who had preceded them in an excellent carriage, which the marquis took, giving them in exchange the _berlingot_.

Talleyrand was right. At Strasburg the commissary-general of police refused to countersign the pa.s.sport of the travellers, and gave them positive orders to return. By that time the marquis and Laurence were leaving France by way of Besancon with the diplomatic pa.s.sport.

Laurence crossed Switzerland in the first days of October, without paying the slightest attention to that glorious land. She lay back in the carriage in the torpor which overtakes a criminal on the eve of his execution. To her eyes all nature was shrouded in a seething vapor; even common things a.s.sumed fantastic shapes. The one thought, "If I do not succeed they will kill themselves," fell upon her soul with reiterated blows, as the bar of the executioner fell upon the victim's members when tortured on the wheel. She felt herself breaking; she lost her energy in this terrible waiting for the cruel moment, short and decisive, when she should find herself face to face with that man on whom the fate of the condemned depended. She chose to yield to her depression rather than waste her strength uselessly. The marquis, who was incapable of understanding this resolve of firm minds, which often a.s.sumes quite diverse aspects (for in such moments of tension certain superior minds give way to surprising gaiety), began to fear that he might never bring Laurence alive to the momentous interview, solemn to them only, and yet beyond the ordinary limits of private life. To Laurence, the necessity of humiliating herself before that man, the object of her hatred and contempt, meant the sacrifice of all her n.o.blest feelings.

"After this," she said, "the Laurence who survives will bear no likeness to her who is now to perish."

The travellers could not fail to be aware of the vast movement of men and material which surrounded them the moment they entered Prussia. The campaign of Jena had just begun. Laurence and the marquis beheld the magnificent divisions of the French army deploying and parading as if at the Tuileries. In this display of military power, which can be adequately described only with the words and images of the Bible, the proportions of the Man whose spirit moved these ma.s.ses grew gigantic to Laurence's imagination. Soon, the cry of victory resounded in her ears.

The Imperial arms had just obtained two signal advantages. The Prince of Prussia had been killed the evening before the day on which the travellers arrived at Saalfeld on their endeavor to overtake Napoleon, who was marching with the rapidity of lightning.

At last, on the 13th of October (date of ill-omen) Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne was skirting a river in the midst of the Grand Army, seeing nought but confusion, sent hither and thither from one village to another, from division to division, frightened at finding herself alone with one old man tossed about in an ocean of a hundred and fifty thousand armed men facing a hundred and fifty thousand more. Weary of watching the river through the hedges of the muddy road which she was following along a hillside, she asked its name of a pa.s.sing soldier.

"That's the Saale," he said, showing her the Prussian army, grouped in great ma.s.ses on the other side of the stream.

Night came on. Laurence beheld the camp-fires lighted and the glitter of stacked arms. The old marquis, whose courage was chivalric, drove the horses himself (two strong beasts bought the evening before), his servant sitting beside him. He knew very well he should find neither horses nor postilions within the lines of the army. Suddenly the bold equipage, an object of great astonishment to the soldiers, was stopped by a gendarme of the military gendarmerie, who galloped up to the carriage, calling out to the marquis: "Who are you? where are you going?

what do you want?"

"The Emperor," replied the Marquis de Chargeboeuf; "I have an important dispatch for the Grand-marechal Duroc."