Burton Egbert Stevenson

“ It seemed that in a breath the house itself must be destroyed, torn stone from stone, under that fierce assault. I saw madame shudder at thought of the havoc which was being wrought among the objects that she loved.
“But where are the Blues?” I asked. “Will they stand by and permit this outrage?”
“How could they stay it?” asked M. le Comte sadly. “They are powerless. They can do nothing. As well hope to stay the tide of the ocean.”
“They wish to do nothing, monsieur,” said Pasdeloup. “They abandon the château and all it contains to the mob. See!—there they go yonder.” ”

“ IN THE SHADOW.
“So, Citizen Tavernay,” he repeated, dwelling on the words with a malicious triumph, “you did not escape after all—you and yonder pretty aristocrat. God’s blood! but this is a pleasant moment!”
He stopped and looked into my eyes, then burst into a roar of laughter.
“For me, I mean!” he cried, holding his sides. “For me—not for you. Come—look at it from my standpoint. Be large-minded enough to look at it from my standpoint. Could anything have been more perfect, more complete, more admirable in every way? It tempts me almost to believe in Providence.” ”

“ That sleep, so peaceful and trusting, consecrated the little glade—hallowed it, transformed it into such a temple that I dared lay me down only upon its margin, as though it were a holy place.
Long I lay staring up at the heavens, wondering if I might indeed hope to win this superb creature; weaving a golden future which we trod arm in arm. To possess her, to have her always at my side, the mistress of my home, the mother of my children—the thought shook me with a delicious trembling. ”

“ After all, Dubosq had spoken truly. I had seen little of the world, and he had offered me a chance to see more in gallant company. I could not but admit that he would have made an admirable guide and companion. If his cockade were only white! But even then I could not have followed him. For I was not free—another duty lay before me. Would I ever be free, I wondered—free to march away whither I listed, to live a man’s life and grow to man’s stature? Or would I always be tied to some woman’s petticoat, imprisoned in a trivial round of daily duties, as were so many men? ”

“ And behind and above all this, the soul—a woman’s soul in its delicacy and sweetness, yet with a certain manliness about it, too, in its high ideals, its conception of honor and duty, its courage and devotion, its reverence for the pledged word—something of the oak as well as of the ivy, almost as if she had been raised among men rather than among women, and had come to look at the world somewhat with a man’s eye. ”

“ Now that I was face to face with the task which awaited me, now that there was no longer chance of evasion or escape, the blood turned to water in my veins. To make love to a woman I did not love, to appear before her always with a smile upon my lips and soft words upon my tongue, to play the gallant when my heart was [301] far away, to lead her to the church, to be bound to her irrevocably, and finally to pass the remainder of my life in her company, always with deceit in my face—in a word, to live a lie!—that was the task I had set myself. ”

“ And I felt strangely impotent, as though it were the very hand of Fate raised against us, and not merely that of a vengeful and lecherous scoundrel!
The flames burst out at last at roof and windows, casting a red glow over lawn and garden, where the mob stood staring in half-awed triumph at its handiwork. Madame watched the destruction with white face, but with an admirable control.
“Can they fire the tower?” she asked.
“No, I think not,” answered her husband. “Fire from without would have no effect upon these solid walls, and they cannot get fire to the inside. ”

“ The broad valley of the river seemed one continued village, so closely were cottages and farmsteads set; but as I pushed forward into the flat country beyond, houses became less frequent, the road grew more and more deserted, and the fields stretched fallow and neglected to left and right as far as the eye could reach. Here and there, indeed, I caught a glimpse of a château veiled by a screen of trees, but the land itself seemed empty of humankind. There were no flocks in the pastures, no peasants in the fields, not a single plow driving a furrow through the waiting soil. ”

“ From south and east troops were being massed to crush out by sheer weight of numbers the flame of insurrection which had arisen so suddenly in the very heart of France. From every town within fifty leagues the National Guard had been summoned. From Paris itself levies were hastening—levies of Septembrists, cut-throats, assassins, asking nothing better than permission to murder and pillage, and commanded by a general determined not to fight but to destroy, not to defeat but to exterminate—in a word, not to rest until all Vendée had been made a wilderness, a barren waste. ”

“ Sick with disgust I glanced at the heavens, wondering that God did not blast them with his thunderbolts.
“I never thought such vileness could exist,” I murmured; and Pasdeloup, who heard the words, smiled grimly.
“Do not blame them too bitterly, monsieur,” he said. “How does it happen that they are what they are? What have they to thank God for? Why should they be grateful to the church? All their lives they have known only cruelty and injustice. ”

“ Honor compelled no man to wreck his life beyond redemption. But as I turned the problem over in my mind, I confess my heart sank. So long as Mlle. de Benseval lived, just so long was I bound to her. That was the final statement to which the tangle reduced itself, and I reflected bitterly upon the folly of parents who disposed of their children without asking their consent, or indeed before they were old enough to know to what they were consenting. A boy of ten will blithely promise to marry any one, or will bind himself indifferently with a vow of celibacy, for what does he know of either? ”

“ Since I have been keeper of the gate for M. le Comte,” he added eagerly, “I have had an easy life.”
“Yet I have found you there whenever I passed, day or night.”
“Ah, monsieur has remarked that?” cried Pasdeloup, his face glowing with pleasure. “There is a corner between the gate and the wall,” he explained, “where one is sheltered from the weather. And I have learned to sleep with one eye open, watching for monsieur. It is a thing soon learned. And I sleep none the less soundly.”
“I am glad of that,” said his master, gently, and stared for a moment gloomily down at the crowd upon the lawn. ”

“ I cried; and indeed there were certain petticoated figures shrieking as madly as the rest, though there was nothing feminine in the frenzied countenances revealed by the red light of the torches.
“The women are the worst of all,” said M. le Comte. “They devise tortures of a fiendishness beyond man’s ingenuity. They sit day after day watching the guillotine. They are never sated with blood.”
But the mob had reached the terrace, had swept up over it like a tidal wave, and on into the house. ”

“ We went down the stair into another room even more luxuriously furnished. The great bed stood at one side with curtains drawn. One almost expected to see a small hand pluck them aside and to hear a shrill voice demand the meaning of our intrusion, or to be suddenly confronted by that old gallant Favras, oath on lip and sword in hand. Here there were no windows, only narrow slits sufficient to admit air and light but not wide enough to permit of assault from without. We made a careful circuit of the apartment, but found nothing which could by any possibility serve as a rope. ”

“ I can never hope to marry her—honor forbids it—an oath not to be broken. She herself has pointed that out to me in the clearest way. She has shown me what a coward I was when, for a moment, I permitted my love for her to blind me to my duty; and I know how she hates a coward. That is the real meaning of this message, monsieur; she is afraid even yet that I may not be brave enough.”
Marigny had risen and stood looking down at me with a queer little smile upon his lips.
“Ah, M. de Tavernay,” he said at last, “I understand now why that blow on the head failed to kill you.” ”

“ I thought you brave enough to approach your fate with a smile upon your lips. I thought [257] you generous enough to make this girl who is waiting for you believe that you really loved her. Consider how much more difficult is her task. Perhaps she remembers you only as a thoughtless and unattractive boy; perhaps she also has seen some one whom she fancies she could love better; perhaps it is some one who is really better worth loving. Yet she is awaiting you, stifling her misgivings in her bosom, ready to keep her oath, although an oath is not the same thing to a woman as to a man. ”

“ The breeze, you see, is carrying those sparks away from us.”
“That was my home,” she murmured, “and I loved it.”
“We will build another,” said M. le Comte, pressing her to him. “When this cloud that covers France has rolled away we will build another home, which you will love even more, for we shall be very happy there.”
[150] “Not happier than we have been here,” she said, with a smile full at the same time of tears and joy. “We have been very happy here, my love. Whatever they do, they cannot take the past away from us. The future belongs to God, but the past is ours.” ”

“ Goujon grew more and more excited with each word he uttered. ‘Why is it,’ he demanded, ‘that some people wear lace and jewels and others only rags? Why should a noble’s pigs be treated better than his peasants? Why should the peasants toil from year to year in order that the priests and the aristocrats may live in idleness with their women, and have fine wines to drink, and fine clothes to wear, and great houses to shelter them, while we who make the wine, and spin the cloth, and build the houses, have only swill and rags and hovels? Why should they be warm in winter and we cold? ”

“ Even Marcelle?”
“Yes, monsieur,” said Pasdeloup, laughing grimly. “Even Joseph. Even Marcelle. I do not say that they wished to go. I only know that they were afraid to stay. Where it is a question of one’s life or another’s, one saves oneself. That is human nature.”
M. le Comte stood yet a moment with bent head, as though struck by a heavy blow.
“And you?” he asked at last, looking at Pasdeloup.
Again Pasdeloup laughed grimly.
“It is my nature, too,” he said. “Only I am not so easily frightened. Permit me to remind you, M. le Comte,” he added, “that there is no time to lose.” ”

“ A cold sweat broke out upon me, head to foot.
“God in heaven, no!” I cried, hoarsely. “Not that—anything but that!”
“As for me,” said my companion, with a terrible calmness, “I prefer to kill my wife rather than abandon her to the mercies of Goujon. Come, Tavernay, be a man! You love her and yet you hesitate!”
“Love her! Oh, God!” I groaned.
“Come! We have but a moment. They are almost through!” and indeed I could hear the frantic blows with which the debris was being swept aside, could see the reflection of the torches’ glare. By a supreme effort I controlled the trembling which shook me. ”

“ Can I do this with honor, mademoiselle?”
“What will you do in the Bocage?”
“I will seek death,” I answered; and I know that I spoke sincerely. “And it may be that my death will be of some service to France.”
She sat a moment looking up at me, a strange light in her eyes.
“I do not like to advise,” she began at last, and I fancied that her lips were trembling. “It is so serious a matter.”
“I beg you to,” I urged. “It is the greatest favor you can do me.”
“A man is the best judge of his own duty.” ”

“ She swayed toward me for an instant, her lips parted, her eyes swimming in a veil of tears. I had won! I had won! Then she drew her hands away and sat erect, a convulsive shiver running through her.
“And your honor,” she asked, her face suddenly white—“what of it? The word you have given—what of it? The vow you have taken—what of it? And if I did love you—do you not see that it is the man of honor that I love? Do you think [248] I could keep on loving a dishonored man—even though that dishonor were incurred for me? ”

“ Yet here I am now, caught like a rat in a trap. I can break my teeth against the bars, and all in vain. I must wait for some miracle to deliver me, and not only myself but my dearest friends. Meanwhile their home, their beautiful home, is burned before my eyes, and I must look on helpless while a mob of drunken brutes rejoices in its destruction. I know that no [157] miracle can restore it. And yet, M. de Tavernay, you ask me to fancy myself in some fool’s paradise!”
“It was a paradise,” I agreed; “whether a fool’s or a wise man’s does not matter. Paradise is always paradise.” ”

“ Suddenly behind us rose a chorus of savage yells.
“They have seen us!” said M. le Comte.
I drew my companion to me and half carried her up the steep slope over which in rainy weather the torrent plunged. Pasdeloup had already reached the top. As I looked back I saw a mob of men clambering savagely over the rocks below. At that instant M. le Comte panted up with madame in his arms.
“There!” he said with a smile of triumph, as he placed her on her feet. “That is accomplished! For the moment we are safe. They will never dare——”
A single musket shot rang out. ”

“ Then there came the click of a latch, the creaking of rusty hinges, and a gust of cold air rushed out upon us. We pressed forward into the black pit beyond. The door clanged shut behind us, and at the same instant a shot rang out and I heard the pang of a bullet as it struck the iron.
“Just a breath too late!” said M. le Comte with a grim laugh and dropped the great bars into place. “They will not soon get past this door,” he added, as we stopped to take breath. “It is as solid as the wall itself. We are safe for a time at least.” ”

“ You have come to the end of the path.”
“So much the better,” I said, drawing nearer to her. “Since there is no future, let us love each other. Let us approach the end heart against heart.”
She did not answer, only stared moodily down over the parapet. The château was wholly given over to the flames. They burst from every window; they roared above the roof, and their scorching breath caused us to shrink back a little.
“It is heart-breaking!” she cried, shielding her face with her hand; and I saw that there were tears in her eyes. “That beautiful home! Ah, those wretches will be punished!” ”