Beauvais

“ Wilfrid walked forward and, opening the door just wide enough to ascertain who the new-comer was, beheld Beauvais standing without.
“The very man we want,” he said, pulling the surprised doctor within and locking the door. “The Czar requires your aid.”
Beauvais, being a wise man, spent no time in asking irrelevant questions. Hurrying forward he knelt down, and examined the body of the fallen emperor.
“An apoplectic stroke. Takes after his father Paul,” said Beauvais, as he loosened the Czar’s military collar and bade Wilfrid bring him a carafe of water.
“Is it serious?” asked Pauline. ”

“ Jean de Beauvais, seeing this figure just escaped from college, with a neck like that of a page, long light lashes, blue eyes, hair floating wildly in the breeze, pink cheeks, cherry lips, and exquisite teeth, had felt a longing for all this dawn, and tried the effect of her charms upon Enjolras, a formidable look of surprise would have suddenly shown her the abyss, and taught her not to confound the avenging cherub of Ezekiel with the gallant cherub of Beaumarchais.
By the side of Enjolras, who represented the logic of the Revolution, Combeferre represented its philosophy. ”

“ The dexterity of this query, by replying to which I at once established his preceding assumption, completely escaped me, and I gave an account of my first meeting with De Beauvais, without ever dreaming of the inferences it led to.
“An unhappy rencontre,” said the advocate, as if musing; “better have finished the intimacy, as you first intended, at the Bois de Boulogne.” ”

“ I had but just reached the broad alley that leads to the foot of the great terrace, when I saw a figure before me hastening on towards the château. The flutter of the dress showed it to be a woman; and then the thought flashed on me,—it was Mademoiselle de Meudon. Yes, it was her step; I knew it well. She had left the place thus early to meet De Beauvais. ”

“ But he wanted to live. Life was just beginning—the rough road had been left behind. He was choosing between his life and the Colonel's. Beauvais, after the fashion of the old masters, was playing for the throat. This upward thrusting, when continuous, is difficult to meet, and Maurice saw that sooner or later the blade would reach home. If not sudden death, it meant speechlessness, and death as a finality. ”

“ He now translated Beauvais's smile.
“So you wish to add another to the list?” he said.
“To shield one crime, a man must commit many others. O, this will not be murder. It will be a duel, in which you will have no chance. Pick up the sword, if only for form's sake.” Beauvais caught the wrist thong of the rapier between his teeth and rapidly divested himself of his jacket and saber straps. With his back toward the door, he rolled up his sleeve and discovered a formidable forearm. He tried the blade and thrust several times into the air. ”

“ Within the gate the village widens into an open square rising toward the château, and this square is surrounded by old houses picturesque and with histories. Many a time Beauvais has stood siege, its lord holding it against some neighbor stirred by pride or love tragedy to deadly feud. In these ancient houses his retainers lived, his only so long as he was strong enough to make himself feared, fierce men gathered from all points of the compass, soldiers of fortune holding their own lives and the lives of others cheaply. ”

“ From Beauvais you will journey to Paris. Will you let me go with you?"
"No. I will not help you to your destruction. I will carry whatever message you will to this man, but I will not do more."
"Then take this message: Jeanne St. Clair is on her way to Paris; she asked my escort, but since I would not give it she has found another. Tell him that, Monsieur Barrington."
"Have you no fear, mademoiselle?"
"For myself—none."
"Very well, I will try and see you safely into Paris. You will go most easily as a woman of the people, one who has some aristocrat enemy on whom she wishes to be avenged. ”

“ Beauvais carries on a brisk trade in grain and wine. Population, in 1890, 19,900. It was included in the country of the powerful Bellovaci, in Gallia Belgica, and was known by the Romans as Cæsaromagus, afterwards as Bellovacum. The Jacquerie, or Peasants' War, broke out in the neighborhood of Beauvais, March 21, 1358. In 1472 the town was besieged by Charles the Bold of Burgundy, with an army of 80,000 men, when the women of Beauvais, under the leadership of the heroine, Jeanne Lainé, surnamed La Hachette for her daring, joined in the defense. ”

“ Clair.
"I will not trespass on your courtesy for an introduction to her, Monsieur," he said, "and since the wine is finished, you will pardon us if we retire. We have traveled far and are weary."
Monsieur le Comte looked at his companion when they had gone, and smiled.
"A new experience for Beauvais," he said; "a man who has not the honor of knowing Madame la Marquise and has not heard of the charms of Mademoiselle her niece." ”

“ And yet the abbé, I had every reason to believe, was a friend of the present Government; at least it was evident he was on terms of close intimacy with Monsieur Savary.
“De Beauvais must clear up some of these doubts for me,” thought I; “he must inform me more particularly as to those to whom he introduced me. I shall endeavor to learn, too, something of their schemes, and thus guard myself against the mere chance of suspicion; for unquestionably he is not in ignorance of the movement, whatever it be.” ”

“ To-night Beauvais was crowded, it would be easy for her to go, and Jeanne had consented to start in an hour.
She was proud, a daughter of a proud race. The nobility were suffering many things at the hands of the people. This fellow Barrington should be punished. Retaliation was justifiable. There was not a man in the château of Beauvais who would not stand her champion. She sought out the Vicomte de Montbard, told him that this foreigner had come to her with a lying message from friends of hers in Paris. She had met deceit with deceit, and at dawn he was to wait for her at the wood end. ”

“ Who's back of Kopf?”
“Our distinguished Colonel,” snapped Max, “who was this day relieved of his straps. A case of revenge, probably.”
“Beauvais! Ah, ah!” The Captain smiled grimly. He had always hated Beauvais, who had, for no obvious reason, passed him and grasped the coveted colonelcy, and because, curiously enough, the native troops had made an idol of him. “Beauvais? I am not surprised. An adventurer, with neither kith nor country.”
“He is Prince Walmoden,” said Maurice, “and for some reason not known, the emperor has promised to recall him.” ”

“ Am I, a Frenchman born, to be lectured on my loyalty and allegiance by a foreign mercenary?”
“Not even that taunt, De Beauvais, shall avail you anything. I am firm in my resolve.”
“Pardieu! then,” cried he, with savage energy, “there remains but this!”
As he spoke, he leaped from his chair, and sprang towards me. In so doing, however, his knee struck the table, and with a groan of agony, he reeled back and fell on the floor, while from his reopened wound a torrent of blood gushed out and deluged the room. ”

“ Another workman who contributed greatly to the success of Beauvais was Georges Blommaert, who was also called to Beauvais in 1684 from Lille, where he had established a workshop in 1677.
When Georges Blommaert left Lille to go to Beauvais, he was succeeded by François and André Pannemaker, descendants of the famous Pannemaker family of tapestry-makers. In 1688, they had a rival in Jean de Melter, of Brussels, who was particularly fond of reproducing compositions after Rubens. The Pannemakers devoted their skill chiefly to “Verdures.” ”

“ If it has had little to distress, there is fully as little to cheer; and I half suspect the fine illusions I used to picture to myself of a soldier's career had very little connection with reality.”
As De Beauvais seemed to listen with more attention than such a theme would naturally call for, I gradually was drawn into a picture of my barrack life, in which I dwelt at length on my own solitary position, and the want of that companionship which formed the chief charm of my schoolboy life. ”

“ However, Kopf knew too much; he is dead, thanks to your service. After all, it was a stroke of war; the princess, whose little rose you have, was to have been a hostage.”
“If she had refused to be a wife,” Maurice replied.
Beauvais curled his mustache.
“I know a good deal more than Kopf.”
“You do, certainly; but you are at a convenient nearness. What you know will be of no use to you. Let us sit down.”
“I prefer to stand. The honor you do me is too delicate.” ”

“ On this day (Wednesday, the twenty-fifth of June) a Monsieur Beauvais, [8] who, with a friend, had been making inquiries for Marie near the Barrière du Roule, on the shore of the Seine which is opposite the Rue Pavée St. Andrée, was informed that a corpse had just been towed ashore by some fishermen, who had found it floating in the river. Upon seeing the body, Beauvais, after some hesitation, identified it as that of the perfumery girl. ”

“ M. de Beyons sought the king, and loudly complained to him of the infatuation and obstinacy of M. de la Roche Aymon. Louis XV however commanded that M. de Beauvais should be appointed to the first vacant see, and when the grand almoner repeated his objections to the preferment, the king answered, “Monsieur le cardinal, in the days of our blessed Saviour the apostles had no need to present their genealogical tree, duly witnessed and attested. It is my pleasure to make M. de Beauvais a bishop ”

“ Not a muscle moved in Maurice's face.
“It is too, bad,” went on Beauvais, “that her Highness finds a lover only to lose him. You fool! I read your eyes when you picked up that rose. Princesses are not for such as you. I will find her a lover, it will be neither you nor Prince Frederick—ah! you caught that nicely. But you depend too much on the wrist. Presently it will tire; and then—pouf!”
Now and then a a flame, darting from the grate, sparkled on the polished steel, and from the steel it shot into the watchful eyes. A quarter of an hour passed; still Maurice remained on the defensive. ”

“ De Beauvais, I can bear it no longer.”
“You must let me give you the reverse of the medal. Hear now what England has done.”
“He writes well, at least for the taste of newspaper readers,” said the abbé, musingly; “but still he only understands the pen as he does the sword,—it must be a weapon of attack.”
“Who is the writer, then?” said I, in a half-whisper.
“Who!—can you doubt it?—Bonaparte himself. What other man in France would venture to pronounce so authoritatively on the prospects and the intentions of the nation?” ”

“ Long since out of range of the smoke cloud rising in the morning sky, Richard Barrington and Seth urged their horses along the road.
"Is this a wise journey?" Seth asked suddenly.
"I cannot tell."
"Paris might be safer."
"I promised to carry a message to a woman," Barrington answered. "The man is dead; there remains my oath. Somewhere before us lies the Château of Beauvais, and that is the way we go."
CHAPTER III BEAUVAIS
There are few fairer spots in this world than Beauvais. ”

“ Beauvais passed over this. “You are a very good blade; you handle a sword well. That is a compliment, considering that I am held as the first blade in the kingdom. It was only to-day I learned that formerly you had been a cavalryman in America. You have the making of a soldier.”
Maurice bowed, his hand resting near one of the bayonets.
“You are also a soldier of fortune-like myself. You made a good stroke with the archbishop. ”

“ You have not one who speaks and thinks of you more highly than he does. I left him this morning not many miles from this. And now that I think of it, he gave me a letter for you,—here it is.” So saying, he threw it carelessly on the chimney-piece, and continued: “I must tell you a secret of poor De Beauvais, for I know you feel interested in him. You must know, then, that our friend is desperately in love with a very beautiful cousin of his own, one of the suite of Madame Bonaparte. ”

“ A look from De Beauvais drew me towards him, when he threw his arms around my neck, and in a low, broken voice, muttered, “When I tell you that all I lived for exists to me no longer,—the love I sought refused me, my dearest ambition thwarted,—you will not think that a selfish desire for life prompts me now ”

“ This new and patchwork Court does but try to imitate the tone of its leader. When did you see De Beauvais?”
“Not for some months past. Is he in Paris?”
“No; the poor fellow has been ill. He 's in Normandy just now, but I expect him back soon. There is a youth who might be anything he pleased: his family, one of the oldest in the South; his means abundant; his own ability first-rate. But his principles are of that inflexible material that won't bend for mere convenience' sake; he does not like, he does not approve of, the present Government of France.” ”

“ Beauvais required no second bidding; he set off with fleet feet, while Wilfrid, bearing the Princess in his arms, followed as fast as he was able.
At the castle-entrance he was met by a wondering-eyed maid, who, apprised of his coming, asked no questions but at once led the way to a bed-chamber that was being rapidly prepared for the reception of the patient. Two other maids were there under the doctor’s directions, getting ready the necessary restoratives.
“Now, girls, to work!” said he cheerfully. “It’s a [248] struggle betwixt life and death, and we’re not going to let death be the winner.” ”

“ With some it was more than a passing word of greeting, there was news to be imparted by one lately in communication with Austria or Prussia, or perchance with England; there was the latest news from Paris to be had from one who had just escaped from his enemies; there was news, too, of friends who had not been so fortunate, or who had willingly stayed to face the storm; there were rumors which had been gathered from all sources to be whispered. This château of Beauvais was a meeting place, a center for much scheming; and for a while the hours must be made to pass as pleasantly as possible. ”