CHAPTER I. A TABLE D'HOTE
The 9th of October, 1799, on a beautiful day of that meridional autumnwhich ripens the oranges of Hyeres and the grapes of Saint-Peray, at thetwo extremities of Provence, a travelling chaise, drawn by three posthorses, galloped at full speed over the bridge that crosses the Durance,between Cavailhon and Chateau-Renard, on its way to Avignon, the ancientpapal city which a decree, issued the 25th of May, 1791, eight yearsearlier, had reunited to France--a reunion confirmed by the treatysigned in 1797, at Tolentino, between General Bonaparte and Pope PiusVI.
The carriage entered by the gate of Aix and, without slackening speed,traversed the entire length of the town, with its narrow, windingstreets, built to ward off both wind and sun, and halted at fifty pacesfrom the Porte d'Oulle, at the Hotel du Palais-Egalite, which they wereagain beginning to quietly rename the Hotel du Palais-Royal, a namewhich it bore formerly and still bears to-day.
These few insignificant words about the name of the inn, before whichhalted the post-chaise which we had in view, indicate sufficiently wellthe state of France under the government of the Thermidorian reaction,called the Directory.
After the revolutionary struggle which had occurred between the 14th ofJuly, 1789, and the 9th Thermidor, 1794; after the days of the 5th and6th of October, of the 21st of June, of the 10th of August, of the 2dand 3d of September, of the 21st of May, of the 29th Thermidor and the1st Prairial; after seeing fall the heads of the King and his judges,and the Queen and her accusers, of the Girondins and the Cordeliers, theModerates and the Jacobins, France experienced that most frightful andmost nauseous of all lassitudes, the lassitude of blood!
She had therefore returned, if not to a need of monarchy, at least to adesire for a stable government, in which she might place her confidence,upon which she might lean, which would act for her, and which wouldpermit her some repose while it acted.
In the stead of this vaguely desired government, the country obtainedthe feeble and irresolute Directory, composed for the moment of thevoluptuous Barres, the intriguing Sieyes, the brave Moulins, theinsignificant Roger Ducos, and the honest but somewhat too ingenuousGohier. The result was a mediocre dignity before the world at large anda very questionable tranquillity at home.
It is true that at the moment of which we write our armies, so gloriousduring those epic campaigns of 1796 and 1797, thrown back for a timeupon France by the incapacity of Scherer at Verona and Cassano, and bythe defeat and death of Joubert at Novi, were beginning to resumethe offensive. Moreau had defeated Souvarow at Bassignano; Brune haddefeated the Duke of York and General Hermann at Bergen; Massena hadannihilated the Austro-Russians at Zurich; Korsakof had escaped onlywith the greatest difficulty; the Austrian, Hotz, with three othergenerals, were killed, and five made prisoners. Massena saved France atZurich, as Villars, ninety years earlier, had saved it at Denain.
But in the interior, matters were not in so promising a state, and thegovernment of the Directory was, it must be confessed, much embarrassedbetween the war in the Vendee and the brigandages of the Midi, to which,according to custom, the population of Avignon were far from remainingstrangers.
Beyond doubt the two travellers who descended from the carriage at thedoor of the Hotel du Palais-Royal had reason to fear the state of mindin which the always excitable papal town might be at that time; for justbefore reaching Orgon, at a spot where three crossroads stretched outbefore the traveller--one leading to Nimes, the second to Carpentras,the third to Avignon--the postilion had stopped his horses, and, turninground, asked:
"Will the citizens go by way of Avignon or Carpentras?"
"Which of the two roads is the shorter?" asked the elder of the twotravellers in a harsh, strident voice. Though visibly the elder, he wasscarcely thirty years of age.
"Oh, the road to Avignon, citizen, by a good four miles at least."
"Then," he had replied, "go by way of Avignon."
And the carriage had started again at a gallop, which proclaimed thatthe citizen travellers, as the postilion called them, although the titleof Monsieur was beginning to reappear in conversation, paid a fee of atleast thirty sous.
The same desire to lose no time manifested itself at the hotel entrance.There, as on the road, it was the elder of the two travellers who spoke.He asked if they could dine at once, and the way this demand was madeindicated that he was ready to overlook many gastronomical exigenciesprovided that the repast in question be promptly served.
"Citizens," replied the landlord, who, at the sound of carriage wheelshastened, napkin in hand, to greet the travellers, "you will be promptlyand comfortably served in your room; but if you will permit me toadvise--" He hesitated.
"Oh, go on! go on!" said the younger of the travellers, speaking for thefirst time.
"Well, it would be that you dine at the table d'hote, like the travellerfor whom this coach, already harnessed, is waiting. The dinner isexcellent and all served."
The host at the same time indicated a comfortably appointed carriage,to which were harnessed two horses who were pawing the ground, while thepostilion sought patience in the bottle of Cahors wine he was emptyingnear the window-ledge. The first movement of him to whom this proposalwas made was negative; nevertheless, after a second's reflection,the elder of the two travellers, as if he had reconsidered his firstdecision, made an interrogative sign to his companion, who replied witha look which signified, "You know that I am at your orders."
"Very well, so be it," said the other, "we will dine at the tabled'hote." Then, turning to the postilion, who, hat in hand, awaitedhis order, he added, "Let the horses be ready in a half hour, at thelatest."
And the landlord pointing out the way, they both entered thedining-room, the elder of the two walking first, the other followinghim.
Everyone knows the impression generally produced at a table d'hote bynew-comers. All eyes were bent upon them and the conversation, whichseemed to be quite animated, stopped.
The guests consisted of the frequenters of the hotel, the travellerwhose carriage was waiting harnessed at the door, a wine merchant fromBordeaux, sojourning temporarily at Avignon for reasons we shall shortlyrelate, and a certain number of travellers going from Marseilles toLyons by diligence.
The new arrivals greeted the company with a slight inclination of thehead, and sat down at the extreme end of the table, thereby isolatingthemselves from the other guests by three or four empty places. Thisseemingly aristocratic reserve redoubled the curiosity of which theywere the object; moreover, they were obviously people of unquestionabledistinction, although their garments were simple in the extreme. Bothwore hightop boots and breeches, long-tailed coats, travelling overcoatsand broad-brimmed hats, the usual costume of the young men of that day.But that which distinguished them from the fashionables of Paris, andeven of the provinces, was their long straight hair, and their blackstocks buckled round the neck, military fashion. The Muscadins--thatwas the name then given to young dandies--the Muscadins wore dogs' earspuffing at the temples, the rest of the hair combed up tightly in a bagat the back, and an immense cravat with long floating ends, in whichthe chin was completely buried. Some had even extended this reaction topowder.
As to the personality of the two young men, they presented twodiametrically opposite types.
The elder of the two, he who, as we have already remarked, had takenthe initiative several times, and whose voice, even in its most familiarintonations, denoted the habit of command, was about thirty years ofage. His black hair was parted in the middle, falling straight fromhis temples to his shoulders. He had the swarthy skin of a man who hastravelled long in southern climes, thin lips, a straight nose, whiteteeth, and those hawk-like eyes which Dante gives to Caesar. He was shortrather than tall, his hand was delicate, his foot slender and elegant.His manner betrayed a certain awkwardness, suggesting that he was atthe moment wearing a costume to which he was not accustomed, and when hespoke, his hearers, had they been beside the Loire instead of the Rhone,would have detected a certain
Italian accent in his pronunciation.
His companion seemed to be some three or four years younger than he. Hewas a handsome young man with a rosy complexion, blond hair and lightblue eyes, a straight, firm nose and prominent but almost beardlesschin. He was perhaps a couple of inches taller than his companion,and though his figure was somewhat above medium height, he was so wellproportioned, so admirably free in his movements, that he was evidentlyif not extraordinarily strong, at least uncommonly agile and dexterous.Although attired in the same manner and apparently on a footing ofequality, he evinced remarkable deference to the dark young man,which, as it could not result from age, was doubtless caused by someinferiority of position. Moreover, he called his companion citizen,while the other addressed him as Roland.
These remarks which we make to initiate the reader more profoundly intoour story, were probably not made as extensively by the guests at thetable d'hote; for after bestowing a few seconds of attention uponthe new-comers, they turned their eyes away, and the conversation,interrupted for an instant, was resumed. It must be confessed thatit concerned a matter most interesting to the travellers--that of thestoppage of a diligence bearing a sum of sixty thousand francs belongingto the government. The affair had occurred the day before on the roadfrom Marseilles to Avignon between Lambesc and Pont-Royal.
At the first words referring to this event, the two young men listenedwith unmistakable interest. It had taken place on the same road whichthey had just followed, and the narrator, the wine merchant of Bordeaux,had been one of the principal actors in the scene on the highroad. Thosewho seemed the most curious to hear the details were the travellers inthe diligence which had just arrived and was soon to depart. The otherguests, who belonged to the locality, seemed sufficiently conversantwith such catastrophes to furnish the details themselves instead oflistening to them.
"So, citizen," said a stout gentleman against whom a tall woman, verythin and haggard, was crowding in her terror. "You say that the robberytook place on the very road by which we have just come?"
"Yes, citizen, between Lambesc and Pont-Royal. Did you notice the spotwhere the road ascends between two high banks? There are a great manyrocks there."
"Yes, yes, my friend," said the wife, pressing her husband's arm, "Inoticed it; I even said, as you must remember, 'Here is a bad place; Iwould rather pass here by day than at night.'"
"Oh! madame," said a young man whose voice affected to slur his r'safter the fashion of the day, and who probably assumed to lead theconversation at the table d'hote, on ordinary occasions, "you know theCompanions of Jehu know no day or night."
"What! citizen," asked the lady still more alarmed, "were you attackedin broad daylight?"
"In broad daylight, citizeness, at ten o'clock in the morning."
"And how many were there?" asked the stout gentleman.
"Four, citizen."
"Ambushed beside the road?"
"No; they were on horseback, armed to the teeth and masked."
"That's their custom," said the young frequenter of the table d'hote,"and they said, did they not: 'Do not defend yourself, we will not harmyou. We only want the government money.'"
"Word for word, citizen."
"Then," continued this well-informed young man, "two dismounted fromtheir horses, flinging their bridles to their comrades, and commandedthe conductor to deliver up the money."
"Citizen," said the stout man astonished, "you describe the thing as ifyou had seen it."
"Monsieur was there, perhaps," said one of the travellers, half in jest,half in earnest.
"I do not know, citizen, whether in saying that you intend a rudeness,"carelessly observed the young man who had so pertinently and obliginglycome to the narrator's assistance, "but my political opinions aresuch that I do not consider your suspicion an insult. Had I had themisfortune to be among those attacked, or the honor to be one of thosewho made the attack, I should admit it as frankly in the one case as inthe other. But yesterday at ten o'clock, at precisely the moment whenthe diligence was stopped, twelve miles from here, I was breakfastingquietly in this very seat. And, by-the-bye, with the two citizens whonow do me the honor to sit beside me."
"And," asked the younger of the two travellers who had lately joined thetable, whom his companion called Roland, "how many men were you in thediligence?"
"Let me think; we were--yes, that's it--we were seven men and threewomen."
"Seven men, not including the conductor?" repeated Roland.
"Yes."
"And you seven men allowed yourselves to be plundered by four brigands?I congratulate you, gentlemen."
"We knew with whom we had to deal," replied the wine merchant, "and wetook good care not to defend ourselves."
"What! with whom you had to deal?" retorted the young man. "Why, itseems to me, with thieves and bandits."
"Not at all. They gave their names."
"They gave their names?"
"They said, 'Gentlemen, it is useless to defend yourselves; ladies, donot be alarmed, we are not bandits, we are Companions of Jehu.'"
"Yes," said the young man of the table d'hote, "they warned you thatthere might be no misunderstanding. That's their way."
"Ah, indeed!" exclaimed Roland; "and who is this Jehu who has suchpolite companions? Is he their captain?"
"Sir," said a man whose dress betrayed somewhat the secularized priest,and who seemed also to be, not only an habitual guest at the tabled'hote, but also an initiate into the mysteries of the honorable companywhose merits were then under discussion, "if you were better versed thanyou seem to be in the Holy Scriptures, you would know that this Jehudied something like two thousand six hundred years ago, and thatconsequently he cannot at the present time stop coaches on thehighways."
"Monsieur l'Abbe," replied Roland, who had recognized an ecclesiastic,"as, in spite of the sharp tone in which you speak, you seem a man oflearning, permit a poor ignoramus to ask you a few details about thisJehu, dead these two thousand six hundred years, who, nevertheless, ishonored by followers bearing his name."
"Jehu!" replied the churchman, in the same sour tone, "was a King ofIsrael anointed by Elisha, on condition that he punish the crimes of thehouse of Ahab and Jezbel, and put to death the priests of Baal."
"Monsieur l'Abbe," replied the young man laughing, "I thank you for theexplanation. I don't doubt it is correct, and, above all, very learned.But I must admit it doesn't tell me much."
"What, citizen!" exclaimed the abbe, "don't you understand that Jehuis his Majesty Louis XVIII., anointed on condition that he punish thecrimes of the Revolution and put to death all the priests of Baal; thatis to say, all those who had taken any part whatsoever in the abominablestate of things which, for these last seven years, has been called therepublic?"
"Yes, indeed!" exclaimed the young man; "of course I understand. Butamong those whom the Companions of Jehu are appointed to fight, doyou reckon the brave soldiers who have repulsed the enemy along thefrontiers of France, and the illustrious generals who have commanded thearmies of the Tyrol, the Sambre-and-Meuse, and of Italy?"
"Why, beyond doubt, those foremost and before all."
The young man's eyes flashed lightning; his nostrils quivered and hislips tightened. He rose from his chair, but his comrade touched his coatand forced him to sit down again, while with a single glance he silencedhim. Then he who had thus given proof of his power, speaking for thefirst time, addressed the young man of the table d'hote.
"Citizen, excuse two travellers who are just arrived from the end of theearth, from America, or India as it were. Absent from France these lasttwo years; we are completely ignorant of all that has occurred here, andmost desirous to obtain information."
"Why, as to that," replied the young man, to whom these words wereaddressed, "that is but fair, citizen. Question us and we will answeryou."
"Well," continued the dark young man with the eagle eye, the straightblack hair, and the granite complexion, "now that I know who Jehu is,and to what end his c
ompany was instituted, I should like to know whathis companions do with the money they take."
"Oh! that is very simple, citizen. You know there is much talk of therestoration of the Bourbon monarchy?"
"No, I did not know it," replied the dark young man, in a tone which hevainly strove to render artless; "I am but just arrived, as I told you,from the end of the earth."
"What! you did not know that? Well, six months hence it will be anaccomplished fact."
"Really!"
"I have the honor to tell you so, citizen."
The two soldier-like young men exchanged a glance and a smile, thoughthe young blond one was apparently chafing under the weight of hisextreme impatience.
Their informant continued: "Lyons is the headquarters of the conspiracy,if one can call conspiracy a plot which was organized openly. 'Theprovisional government' would be a more suitable word."
"Well, then, citizen," said the dark young man with a politeness notwholly exempt from satire, "let us call it 'provisional government.'"
"This provisional government has its staff and its armies."
"Bah! its staff perhaps--but its armies--"
"Its armies, I repeat."
"Where are they?"
"One is being organized in the mountains of Auvergne, under the ordersof M. de Chardon; another in the Jura Mountains, under M. Teyssonnet;and, finally, a third is operating most successfully at this time,in the Vendee, under the orders of Escarboville, Achille Leblond andCadoudal."
"Truly, citizen, you render me a real service in telling me this. Ithought the Bourbons completely resigned to their exile. I supposed thepolice so organized as to suppress both provisional royalist committeesin the large towns and bandits on the highways. In fact, I believed theVendee had been completely pacificated by Hoche."
The young man to whom this reply was addressed burst out laughing.
"Why, where do you come from?" he exclaimed.
"I told you, citizen, from the end of the earth."
"So it seems." Then he continued: "You understand, the Bourbons arenot rich, the emigres whose property was confiscated are ruined. It isimpossible to organize two armies and maintain a third without money.The royalists faced an embarrassing problem; the republic alone couldpay for its enemies' troops and, it being improbable that she would doso of her own volition, the shady negotiation was abandoned, and it wasadjudged quicker to take the money without permission than to ask herfor it."
"Ah! I understand at last."
"That's very fortunate."
"Companions of Jehu then are the intermediaries between the Republic andthe Counter-Revolution, the tax-collectors of the royalist generals?"
"Yes. It is not robbery, but a military operation, rather a feat ofarms like any other. So there you are, citizen, and now you are as wellinformed on this point as ourselves."
"But," timidly hazarded the wine merchant of Bordeaux, "if theCompanions of Jehu--observe that I say nothing against them--want thegovernment money--"
"The government money, no other. Individual plunder on their part isunheard of."
"How does it happen, then, that yesterday, in addition to the governmentmoney, they carried off two hundred louis of mine?"
"My dear sir," replied the young man of the table d'hote, "I havealready told you that there is some mistake. As surely as my name isAlfred de Barjols, this money will be returned to you some day."
The wine merchant heaved a sigh and shook his head, as if, in spite ofthat assurance, he still retained some doubts. But at this moment, as ifthe promise given by the young noble, who had just revealed his socialposition by telling his name, had stirred the delicacy of those whom hethus guaranteed, a horse stopped at the entrance, steps were heard inthe corridor, the dining-room door opened, and a masked man, armed tothe teeth, appeared on the threshold.
"Gentlemen," said he, in the profound silence occasioned by hisapparition, "is there a traveller here named Jean Picot, who was in thediligence that was held up yesterday between Lambesc and Pont-Royal?"
"Yes," said the wine merchant, amazed.
"Are you he?" asked the masked man.
"I am."
"Was anything taken from you?"
"Oh, yes, two hundred louis, which I had intrusted to the conductor."
"And I may add," said the young noble, "that the gentleman was speakingof it at this very moment. He looked upon it as lost."
"The gentleman was wrong," said the masked unknown, "we war uponthe government and not against individuals. We are partisans and notrobbers. Here are your two hundred Louis, sir, and if a similar mistakeshould occur in the future, claim your loss, mentioning the name ofMorgan."
So saying, the masked individual deposited a bag of gold beside the winemerchant, bowed courteously to the other guests, and went out, leavingsome terrified and others bewildered by such daring.