CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE FIRST GUILLOTINE.
On Christmas Eve, a party was given at the Princess Lamballe's, whichthe Queen's presiding over made it really her own reception.
Isidore Charny had returned from Italy that morning and he had foundKing and Queen very kind to him. Two reasons influenced the latter: onehis being the brother of Count Charny, which was a charm in his absence,and his bringing back news from the fugitive princes which suited herwishes.
They backed the Favras scheme and urged her to flee for Turin.
He left her only to go and acquaint Favras with the encouragement. TheQueen had said nothing positive about the flight: but he took enough tothe conspirator to fill him with joy. For the rest, the cash was inhand, the men notified to stand ready, and the King would only have tonod to have the whole plot set in motion.
The silence of the royal couple was the only thing which worried him.The Queen broke this by sending Isidore, and vague as were the words herepeated, they acquired weight from coming out of a royal mouth.
At nine the young viscount went to Lady Lamballe's.
Count Provence was uneasy; Count Louis Narbonne walked about with theease of a man quite at home among princes. Isidore was not known to anyof the circle of the princes' bosom friends, but his well-known name andthe partiality accorded him by the princess led to all hands being heldout to him.
Besides, he brought news from the foreign refuge where so many hadrelatives.
When he had delivered his budget, the conversation returned to itsformer channel; the young men were laughing about a machine forexecuting criminals which Dr. Guillotin had shown in a full size workingmodel and had proposed to the National Assembly.
When an usher announced the King, and another the Queen, of course allthe merriment and chatter ceased.
The more the revolutionary spirit stripped majesty of its eternals themore the true royalists vied with each other to pour evidences ofrespect upon the august chiefs. 1789 saw great ingratitude, but 1793great devotion.
To talk over the Favras scheme in secret a whist party was made up ofthe two rulers, Provence and Charny for the fourth hand. Respectisolated the table.
"Brother," said the Queen, "Lord Charny, who comes from Turin, says thatour kinsfolk there are begging us to join them."
The King gave a stamp with impatience.
"I entreat you to listen," whispered Lady Elizabeth, who sat on a stool.
"Listen to what?"
"That Lord Charny has also seen the Marquis Favras since he came home, agentleman whose lealty we know, and he says that the King has but to saya word," went on the Queen, "or make a sign, and this very night, youwill be at Peronne."
The King kept still. His brother twisted a jack of hearts all to rags.
"Repeat this as the marquis put it," said he to Isidore.
"Your Majesty, thanks to measures taken by Marquis Favras, he declaresthat the King has but the cue to give to be in safety in Peronne thisblessed night."
Turning sharply on his brother, the King said as he fixed his eyes onhim:
"Are you coming if I go?"
"I" said the other, turning pale and trembling. "I have not beennotified, and I have made no preparations."
"You know nothing about it, and yet you found the money for Favras?"exclaimed the monarch. "You not notified, and the moves in the game havebeen reported to you hour by hour?"
"The game?" faltered the prince.
"The plot; for it is one of those plots for which, if discovered, Favraswill be tried and doomed to death--unless by money and other means wesave him as we did Bezenval."
"Then you will save Favras."
"No; for I might not be able to do as much for him. Besides, Bezenvalwas my liege as Favras is yours. Let each save his own man, and both ofus shall have done our duty."
He rose, but the Queen retained him by the skirt of the coat.
"Sire, whether you accept or refuse, you owe the marquis an answer. Whatis Viscount Charny to answer for the King?"
"That the King does not allow himself to be spirited away like a slavefor the Louisiana plantations." He disengaged his coat.
"This means," said Provence, "that the King will not allow of theabduction but if it be executed in spite of his permission, it will bewelcome. In politics success condones the crime and blunderers deservedouble punishment."
"Viscount," said the Queen, "tell the marquis what you heard and let himact as he thinks it points. Go."
The King had gone over to where the younger men were so hilariouslychatting; but the deepest silence fell at his approach.
"Is the King so unhappy that he casts melancholy around him?" hedemanded.
"Sire!" muttered the gentlemen.
"You were very merry when the Queen and I came in. It is a bad thing forkings when no one dares laugh before them. I may say the converse:'Happy are the kings before whom laughter resounds.'"
"Sire," returned one, "the subject is not one for a comic opera."
"Of what were you talking?"
"Sire, I yield the guilty one to your Majesty," said another, steppingforward.
"Oh, it is you, Editor Suleau," said the King. "I have read the lastnumber of your journal the Acts of the Apostles. Take care that you donot offend Master Populus."
"I only said that our Revolution is going so slowly that it has to helpon that in Brabant. We are lamenting the dulness of the session of theAssembly where they had to take up the motion of Dr. Guillotin upon--ofall things--a new machine for public executions."
"Are you making fun of Dr. Guillotin--a philanthropist? remember that Iam one myself."
"There are various kinds; the sort I approve of has a representative atthe head of the French Nation--the one who abolished torture beforetrial: we venerate, nay, we love him."
The hearers bowed with the same impulse.
"But," proceeded Suleau, "there are others who try to find means to killthe hale while they had a thousand to send the ailing out of this life.I beg your Majesty to let me deal with them?"
"What would you do? decapitate them painlessly, or at least merely givea slight coolness round the neck?" inquired the King, quoting Dr.Guillotin's recommendation of his invention.
"Sire, I should like all of these inventors to have the first experimenttried on themselves. I do not complain that Marigny was hanged on theGibbet of Montfaucon which he built. I am not asking, I am not even ajudge; the probability is that I shall have to take my revenge on Dr.Guillotin in the columns of my paper. I will give him a whole number andpropose that the machine shall bear his name for eternity, theGuillotine!"
"Ha, ha, the Guillotine!" exclaimed the men, without waiting for expresspermission to laugh.
"I shall assert, also, that life is divided not extinguished by thisprocess," continued Suleau; "why may not the sufferer feel pain in thehead and the trunk after being cut in two?"
"This is a question for medical men. Did none of us here witness theexperiment this very morning at Bicetre madhouse?" asked the King.
"No, no, no!" cried many voices.
"Sire, I was there," said one grave voice.
"Oh; it is you? Dr. Gilbert," said the sovereign, turning.
"Yes, Sire."
"And how did the experiment succeed?"
"Perfectly in two instances; but at the third the instrument, though itsevered the spine, did not detach the head. They had to finish with aknife."
The young gentlemen listened with frightened eyes and parted lips.
"Three executions this morning?" exclaimed Charles Lameth, who with hisbrother had not yet turned against the Queen.
"Yes, gentlemen," said the King; "but they were three corpses furnishedby the hospitals. What is your opinion of the instrument?"
"An improvement on such machines; but the accident at the thirdexperiment proves that it stands in need of improvement still."
"What is it like?" asked the royal locksmith who had a bias formachines.
Gilbert helped his explanation out by drawing a sketch on a sheet ofpaper at a table. The King saw how curious the bystanders were andallowed them to come near.
"Who knows," said Suleau obeying, "but that one of us may make theacquaintance of Lady Guillotine?"
Laughing, they pressed round the board where the King, taking the penfrom Dr. Gilbert, said:
"No wonder the experience failed, particularly after awhile. The cuttingblade is crescent-shaped whereas it ought to be triangular to sever aresisting substance. See here: shape your knife thus, and I wager thatyou would cut me off twenty-four heads one after another without theedge turning up."
He had scarcely finished the words before a heart-rending scream washeard. The Queen had been attracted to the group of which the King andhis corrected sketch were the centre. She beheld the same instrumentwhich had been presented her in its likeness in a glass of water byBalsamo the Magician twenty years before!
At the view she had no strength to do more than scream, and lifeabandoning her as though she were under the blade, she swooned in thearms of Dr. Gilbert.
It is easily understood that this incident broke up the party.
Gilbert attended to the royal patient who was given the bed of theprincess. When the crisis was over, which he rightly attributed to amental cause, he was going out but she bade him stay.
"Therese," she added to Lady Lamballe, "tell the King that I have cometo: and do not let us be interrupted: I must speak with the doctor.Doctor," she pursued when they were alone, "are you not astonished thatchance seems to place us face to face in all the crises moral orphysical of my life?"
"As I do not know whether to be sorry or to be glad for it, since I readin your mind that the contact is not through your wish or your will."
"That is why I said chance. I like to be frank. But the last time wewere in contiguity, you showed true devotion and I thank you and shallnever forget it."
He bowed.
"I am also a physiognomist. Do you know that you have said withoutspeaking: 'That is over; let us change the subject.'"
"At least I felt the desire to be put to the test."
"Doctor, what do you think of the recent event?" inquired MarieAntoinette as though this was interlinked with what she had spoken.
"Madam, the daughter of Maria Theresa is not one of the women who faintat trifles."
"Do you believe in forewarnings?"
"Science repels all phenomena tending to upset the prevailing order ofthings; still, facts offtimes give the lie to science."
"I ought to have said; do you believe in predictions?"
"I believe that the Supreme Being has benevolently covered the futurewith an impenetrable veil. Still," he went on as if making an effortover himself to meet questions which he wished relegated into doubt, "Iknow a man who sometimes confounds all the arguments of my intelligenceby irrefutable facts. I dare not name him before your Majesty."
"It is your master, the immortal, the all-powerful, the divineCagliostro, is it not, Dr. Gilbert?"
"Madam, my only master is Nature. Cagliostro is but my saver. Pierced bya bullet in the chest, losing all my blood by a wound which I, aphysician, after twenty years study, must pronounce incurable, he curedme in a few days by a salve of which I know not the composition: hencemy gratitude to him, I will almost say my admiration."
"And this man makes predictions which are accomplished?"
"Strange and incredible ones; he moves in the present with a certaintywhich makes one believe in his knowledge of the future."
"So that you would believe if he forecast to you?"
"I should at least act as though it might happen."
"Would you prepare to meet a shameful, terrible and untimely death if heforeshowed it?"
"After having tried to escape it by all manner of means," rejoinedGilbert, looking steadily at her.
"Escape? No, doctor, no! I see that I am doomed," said the Queen. "Thisrevolution is a gulf in which will be swallowed up the throne: thispeople is a lion to devour me."
"Yet it depends on you to have it couch at your feet like a lamb."
"Doctor, all is broken between the people and me; I am hated andscorned."
"Because you do not really know each other. Cease to be a queen andbecome a mother to them; forget you are daughter of Maria Theresa, ourancient enemy, the sister of Joseph our false friend. Be French, andyou will hear the voices rise to bless you, and see arms held out tofondle you."
"I know all this," she replied contemptuously; "fawning one day, theytear the next."
"Because aware of resistance to their will, and hatred opposed to theirlove."
"Does this destructive element know whether it loves or hates? itdestroys like the wind, the sea and fire, and has womanly caprices."
"Because you see it from on high, like the man in the lighthouse viewsthe ocean. Did you go down in the depths you would see how steady it is.What more obedient than the vast mass to the movement of the tides. Youare Queen over the French, madam, and yet you know not what passes inFrance. Raise your veil instead of keeping it down, and you will admireinstead of dreading."
"What would I see so very splendid?"
"The New World blooming over the wreck of the Old; the cradle of FreeFrance floating on a sea wider than the Mediterranean--than the ocean. OGod protect you, little bark--O God shield you, babe of promise,France!"
Little of an enthusiast as Gilbert was he raised his eyes and handsheavenward.
The Queen eyed him with astonishment for she did not understand.
"Fine words," she sneered. "I thought you philosophers had run them downto dust."
"No, great deeds have killed them," returned Gilbert. "Whither tends oldFrance? to the unity of the country. There are no longer provinces, butall French."
"What are you driving at? that your united thirty millions of rebelsshould form a universal federation against their King and Queen?"
"Do not deceive yourself: it is not the people who are rebels but therulers who have rebelled against them. If you go to one of the feastswhich the people hold, you will see that they hail a little child on analtar--emblem of the new birth of liberty. Italy, Spain, Ireland,Poland, all the down-trodden look towards this child and hold out theirenchained hands, saying: 'France, we shall be free because of you.'Madam, if it be still time, take this child and make yourself itsmother."
"You forget that I am the mother of others, and I ought not do as yousuggest--disinherit them in favor of a stranger."
"If thus it be," replied Gilbert with profound sorrow, "wrap yourchildren up in your royal robe, in the war-cloak of Maria Theresa, andcarry them with you far from France; for you spoke the truth in sayingthat the people will devour you and your offspring with you. But thereis no time to lose--make haste!"
"You will not oppose?"
"I will further you in the departure."
"Nothing could fall more timely," said the Queen, "for we have anobleman ready to act in this escape----"
"Do you mean Marquis Favras?" demanded Gilbert, with apprehension.
"Who breathed you his name--who communicated to you his project?"
"Oh, have a care, for a bloody prediction pursued him also."
"Of the same Prophet? what fate awaits him?"
"Untimely, terrible and infamous like that you mentioned."
"Then you speak truly--no time must be lost in giving the lie to thisprophet of evil."
"You were going to tell Favras that you accepted his aid?"
"He was advised and I am awaiting his reply."
She had not long to wait, for Isidore Charny was ushered in by thePrincess Lamballe.
"I am told that I may speak before Dr. Gilbert," said he. "Then, knowthat Marquis Favras was arrested an hour ago and imprisoned in theChatelet."
Bright but despairing and full of ire, the Queen's glance crossed thatof the doctor. All her wrath seemed spent in that flash.
"Madam," said Gilbert with deep pity, "if I can be useful in any way,mak
e use of me. I lay at your feet my mind, my life, my devotion."
"Dr. Gilbert," she said in a slow and resigned voice, "is it youropinion that the death given by this dread engine is as sweet as theinventor asserts?"
He sighed and hid his face in his hands.
As the news of Favras' arrest had circulated over the palace in a fewseconds, Count Provence went to his brother. His advice was that Favrasshould be repudiated and the King take the oath to the Constitution.
"But how can I swear fidelity to an incomplete Constitution?"
"The more easily," replied the schemer, with his false squint which camefrom the darkest sinuosities of his soul.
"I will," said the King: "this does not prevent my writing to MarquisBouille that our plan is postponed. This will give Charny time toregulate the route."
For his part, Provence acted on part of his own suggestion: herepudiated Favras and received the thanks of the Assembly.
Favras was left alone save for Cagliostro who perhaps felt a littleremorse that he had let the bravest in the conspiracy go so far in amission which he had foredoomed to failure. But Favras would not acceptrescue and met his death by hanging with unblemished courage and honor.
The King took the oath, as he had promised his brother, to theConstitution, yet in embryo. If he loved it so dearly already, whatwould he do when it was in shape?
The ten days following were days of rejoicing; joy in the Assembly; calmin Paris; altars built all over the town for passers to take oath afterthe royal precedent.
The Assembly commanded a Te Deum to be chanted in the Cathedral, whereall gathered to renew the oath in solemnity.
"Why did you not go to the church?" sneered the Queen to her husband.
"Because I do not object to lying for a purpose, but I do not mean toperjure myself," said Louis XVI.
The Queen breathed again for until then she had believed in themonarch's honesty. She felt empowered by this perfidy to take the samepath and it was after giving her hand for Mirabeau to kiss that this newleader for the court party vowed that the monarchy was saved.
Her forehead was swathed in a wet bandage, her eyes were wandering andher face flushed with fever. Amongst the incoherent words, the farmerthought he could distinguish the name of Isidore.
"I see that it is good time that I came home," he muttered.
He went forth, and was followed by Pitou, but Dr. Raynal detained thelatter.
"I want you my lad," he said, "to help Mother Clement hold the patientwhile I bleed her for the third time."
"The third time?" cried Mrs. Billet, awaking from her dulness. "Do youhear that, my man, they bleed her for the third time."
"Woman, this would not have happened had you looked after your daughtercloser," said the farmer in a stern voice.
He went to his room, from which he had been absent three months whilePitou entered the sick room.
Pitou was astonished but he would have felt more so if he had guessedthat the doctor called him in as a moral remedy.
The doctor had noticed two names as used by the girl in her frenzy, AngePitou and Isidore Charny, and he soon distinguished that one was afriend's and the other a dearer one. He concluded that Pitou was thelovers' confidant and that there would be no inconvenience in thegallant's friend being there to speak with the patient on the mutualacquaintance.
Everybody knew down here that Valence Charny had been killed atVersailles and that his eldest brother had called away Isidore on thenext evening.
That night Pitou found Catherine fainted on the high road. When sherevived on the farm, it was to be in a fever, and she raved of some oneriding away whom the doctor judged to be Isidore Charny.
The greatest need to a brain-stricken invalid is calm. To learn abouther lover would best calm Catherine, and she would ask the news of theirfriend, Pitou.
On seeing the good effect of the bleeding, the doctor stationed MotherClement by her side, with the strange recommendation for her to get somesleep, and beckoned Pitou to follow him into the kitchen.
Her forehead was swathed in a wet bandage, her eyes were wandering andher face flushed with fever. Amongst the incoherent words, the farmerthought he could distinguish the name of Isidore.
"I see that it is good time that I came home," he muttered.
He went forth, and was followed by Pitou, but Dr. Raynal detained thelatter.
"I want you my lad," he said, "to help Mother Clement hold the patientwhile I bleed her for the third time."
"The third time?" cried Mrs. Billet, awaking from her dulness. "Do youhear that, my man, they bleed her for the third time."
"Woman, this would not have happened had you looked after your daughtercloser," said the farmer in a stern voice.
He went to his room, from which he had been absent three months whilePitou entered the sick room.
Pitou was astonished but he would have felt more so if he had guessedthat the doctor called him in as a moral remedy.
The doctor had noticed two names as used by the girl in her frenzy, AngePitou and Isidore Charny, and he soon distinguished that one was afriend's and the other a dearer one. He concluded that Pitou was thelovers' confidant and that there would be no inconvenience in thegallant's friend being there to speak with the patient on the mutualacquaintance.
Everybody knew down here that Valence Charny had been killed atVersailles and that his eldest brother had called away Isidore on thenext evening.
That night Pitou found Catherine fainted on the high road. When sherevived on the farm, it was to be in a fever, and she raved of some oneriding away whom the doctor judged to be Isidore Charny.
The greatest need to a brain-stricken invalid is calm. To learn abouther lover would best calm Catherine, and she would ask the news of theirfriend, Pitou.
On seeing the good effect of the bleeding, the doctor stationed MotherClement by her side, with the strange recommendation for her to get somesleep, and beckoned Pitou to follow him into the kitchen.
"Cheer up, mother," said he to Mrs. Billet who was mooning in thechimney corner, "she is going on as well as possible."
"It is very hard that a mother cannot care for her child," said thefarmer's wife.
"You are too fragile--we should only have you ill. She will get alongfinely with Mother Clement and Ange to look after her."
"Ange?"
"Yes, he has a leaning toward medicine and I shall make him myassistant. He is coming over to my place now to get a soothing potionmade up. He will bring it back and direct the administration of it. Hewill remain on duty here, to run over to me with the news of anychange."
"You know best, doctor; but give the poor father a word of your hope."
"Where is he?"
"In the next room."
"Useless," said a voice on the threshold, "I have heard all."
As though this was all he wanted, the pale-faced farmer withdrew andoffered no opposition to this ruling of the house by the medicaladviser.
The latter was not a light of science but he was a keen observer.
He had seen that Pitou would be the best confidant to place before hispatient's eyes as soon as they opened to life and reason.
He was able with the first words to reassure her upon Isidore's health.There was no rioting in Paris and the young noble had gone off to Italyas a messenger.
He was sure to write to Catherine, she said, and she authorized him togo to the post for the letter.
As Pitou on the farm ate and drank with his accustomed appetite Billetdid not suspect the treacherous part he was playing.
Consoled by the progress the girl made after the receipt of the belovedletter, Pitou was enabled to proceed with his public work.
With the money Gilbert gave him, he equipped the Haramont NationalGuards with new suits; this was for the ceremony of the Federation ofVillers Cotterets and other villages of the canton, to be held on afollowing Sunday.
At this prospect of uniforms, the Guards assembled with their twominstrels and gave their liberal
leader a serenade, interspersed withfire-crackers and cheers, among which was to be heard a voice or two,slightly tipsy, shouting:
"Long live Pitou, the Hero of the People!"
Remembering the impression the Haramont National Guard had created whenthey had hats alike, you can appreciate the justice in the roar ofadmiration when they appeared in uniforms, and what a dashing air thecaptain must have worn, with his little cap cocked over one ear, hisgorget shining on his breast, his catspaws, as the epaules wereirreverently called, and his sword.
Aunt Angelique could hardly identify her nephew who almost rode her downon his white horse.
But he saluted her with a wave of the sword and left her crushed by thehonor.
Recalling that the tailor had boasted of the order which Pitou had paid,she thought he had come home a millionaire.
"I must not quarrel with him," she mumbled: "aunts inherit fromnephews."
Alas! he had forgotten her by this time. Among the girls wearingtricolored sashes and carrying green palm boughs, he recognizedCatherine. She was pale, her beauty more delicate, but Raynal hadfulfilled his word.
She was happy, for Pitou had managed to find a hollow tree where hedeposited letters for her to take them out in a stroll, and that morningone was there.
Pitou came up and saluted her with his sword. He would have only touchedhis hat for General Lafayette.
"How grand you look in your uniform," she said loudly. "I thank you, mydear Pitou," she added in a voice for him alone; "how good you are. Ilove you!"
She took his hand and pressed it in hers. Giddiness passed into poorPitou's head; he dropped his hat from the free hand, and would havefallen at her feet like the hat only for a great tumult with menacingsounds being heard towards Soissons.
Whatever the cause, he profited by it to get out of the awkwardsituation.
He disengaged his hand from Catherine's, picked up his hat and put it onas he ran to the head of his thirty-three men, shouting:
"To arms!"
It was an old enemy of his who was causing a block to the festivities.
Father Fortier had been designated to perform the office of celebratingthe Federation Mass on the Altar of the Country, for which the holyvessels were to be carried from the church. The mayor, Longpre, was tosuperintend the transfer. Like everybody he knew the schoolmaster'stemper and thought he would not bear him good will for the part he tookin the turning over the muskets.
So, rather than face him, he had sent him an order in writing to bepresent for the mass at ten.
At half past nine he sent his secretary to see how things looked. Thegentleman brought bad news. The church was locked up. The churchofficials were all laid up with various complaints. It had the air of aconspiracy.
At ten the crowd gathered and talked of beating in the church doors andtaking out the church plate.
As a conciliator, Longpre quieted them as well as he could and went toknock at Fortier's housedoor.
In the meantime he sent for the armed forces. The gendarmes officerscame up. They were attended by additions to the mob.
As they had no catapult to force the door, they summoned the locksmith.But when he was going to insert a picklock, the door opened and AbbeFortier appeared, with fiery eye and hair bristling.
"Back," he cried with a threatening gesture, "back, heretics, impiousrelapsers! avaunt ye from the sill of the man of God!"
The murmur receiving his outburst was not flattering to him.
"Excuse me," said the unctuous mayor, "but we only wanted to knowwhether you would serve the mass on the altar of the country, or not?"
"Sanction revolt, rebellion and ingratitude," yelled the holy man in oneof the fits of passion habitual to him: "curse virtue and bless sin? youcannot have hoped it, mayor. I will not say your sacrilegous mass!"
"Very well; this is a free country now--you need not unless you like."
"Free? ha, ha, ha!" and with a most exasperating laugh he was going toslam the door in their faces when a man burst through the throng, pushedthe door nearly open again and all but overturned Fortier though he wasa stout man.
It was Billet.
There was profound silence as all divined that not two mere men, but twoforces were opposing each other.
Though Billet had displayed so much strength to open the door, he spokein a calm voice:
"Pardon me, mayor, but I think I heard you say that the father might saythe mass or not, at his pleasure? this is an error and it is no longerthe time when errors are allowed to flourish. Every man who is paid todo work is bound to do it. You are paid by the country to say mass andyou shall say it."
"Blasphemer, Manichean," roared the priest.
"You ought to set the example of obedience and here you are doing theother thing. If you are a citizen and a Frenchman, obey the nation."
"Bravo, Billet!" cried the multitude. "To the altar, with the priest."
Encouraged by the acclamations, Billet lugged out from his hall thefirst priest who had given the signal for counter-revolution.
"I am a martyr," groaned the priest, comprehending that resistance wasimpossible in the farmer's vigorous hands, "I call for martyrdom!" Andas he was hurried along he sang "Good Lord, deliver us!"
This crowd conducting him was the cause of the turbulence towards whichPitou was marching his cohort. But on seeing the reason, he andCatherine appealed to the farmer with the same voice.
Untouched, the latter carried the prize up to the altar where he let himfall.
"I proclaim you unworthy to serve at this altar which you disdained,"said Billet: "no man should go up these steps unless his head is filledwith these feelings, the desire of liberty, devotion to the country andlove of mankind. Priest, have you these sentiments? if so, go up boldlyand invoke our Maker. But if you do not feel you are the foremost of usall as a citizen, give place to the more worthy, and be off!"
"Madman, you do not know what you are declaring war upon," hissed thepriest, retiring with uplifted finger.
"I do know, if they are like you, vipers, foxes, wolves," returnedBillet: "all that sneak and poison and tear in the shade. Come at me,then--I can face ye, in the open!" he concluded, smiting his broadchest.
During a silent moment the throng parted to let the priest skulkthrough, and, closing, remained mute and admiring the vigorous man whooffered himself as target to the terrible power to which half the worldwas enslaved at that era.
There was no longer mayor, town councilmen or gendarmes, only the Heroof the People, Billet.
"But we have no priest now," said Mayor Longpre.
"We do not want him," replied Billet who had never been in church buttwice, for his wedding and his child's baptism. "We will read theDeclaration of the Rights of Man from the altar. That is the Creed ofLiberty and the Gospel of the Future."
Billet could not read but he had his manifesto by heart. When he hadfinished and with a noble movement embraced the Law and the Sword bytaking the mayor's and Pitou's hands, the multitude appreciated thegrandeur of what they were doing in shouting:
"Long live the Nation!"
It was one of the scenes of which Gilbert had spoken to the Queenwithout her understanding him.
From that time forward, France became one great family, with one heartand one language.