CHAPTER III.
THE VOYANTS.
The half-underground hot-house into which Franz of Gerolstein conductedhis new convert was dimly lighted by a lamp placed at the foot of astairway leading still further beneath the earth. On the first step ofthis staircase Franz found a package from which he produced two looserobes and two masks. Addressing his companion, he said:
"Put this robe on over your garments, and hide your countenance behindthis mask."
They descended the stairs, and arrived in a corridor, lighted by thehanging lamp whose rays had guided them from above. At the extremity ofthe passage stood a man cloaked in red and with a black mask over hisvisage. He held a naked sword in his hand, and advanced two steps tomeet the newcomers.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"We are of the _disinherited_," replied Franz. "For father we had_enslavement_, for mother _ignorance_; our condition is _misery_. We areof the poor, the oppressed, the damned here below."
"What do you wish, my brother?"
"_Liberty_, _knowledge_, _happiness_."
"Knock at that door," commanded the masked figure in red, stepping asideto make way for Franz and his companion. "Knock and it shall be openedunto you; seek, and ye shall find."
The door opened, and as soon closed behind the two initiates. For amoment they were blinded by the brilliance which flooded thesubterraneous chamber to which they had now penetrated. It was lightedby seventy candelabra, each bearing seven candles--again the mysticnumber. The walls were covered with red drapery; at the further end araised platform formed a dais with closed curtains; on the front of thedais was the picture of a carpenter's level. Several steps from theplatform, on a draped table, were thrown in confusion a royal crown, ascepter, a pontifical tiara, a bishop's crosier, several collars ofchivalric orders, and a few ducal or princely coronets; besides thesethere lay in the heap some pouches, half open, and full of gold andsilver pieces.
Directly behind the table on which thus lay cluttered the emblems ofreligion, royalty, aristocracy and wealth, stood seven masked men,garbed in long robes, silent and erect, their arms crossed on theirchests, seven specters, seven fantastic apparitions. The one whose dutyit was to officiate at the reception of initiates stood in the center.Three Voyants were ranged to his right, three to his left. He addressedVictoria, who keenly felt the impression produced on her by the strangespectacle:
"Woman, your age?"
"Fifteen centuries, and more. I was born the first day of theenslavement and misery of my brothers."
"What would you?"
"The end of oppression. I wish to beat down thrones and altars,privileges of birth and of fortune, all the hoary monuments ofignorance, of slavery, and of iniquity, all the monopolies, all theprivileges which flourish upon the people."
"What will happen when the level shall have passed over the old world,and when the exploiters of the people shall have disappeared?"
"The darkness of ages shall be superseded by the revivifying warmth andthe fruitful light of the sun; harvests of abundance will cover withtheir sheaves the soil tilled by a fecund revolution."
"Is your severance from the old world complete?"
"I have broken with the old world, and rallied to the new."
"Behold this pontifical tiara, this kingly crown; gaze on these symbolsof nobility, these sacks of gold and silver. You may demand of kings, ofpriests, of nobles, of the rich, the enjoyments of life, all by devotingyourself body and soul to these idols and to tyranny."
"It is my wish to overthrow those idols. I vow an implacable hatred tothe enemies of the people."
"From this hour," responded the cloaked president, apparently satisfiedwith the interrogatory, "you shall be ours as we will be yours. Ourdevice so has it--_All for each; each for all._ By this device,co-operation will replace in the future the selfishness of the mastersof the old world. Who caused all the evils of which selfishness has beenthe source? He who first dug a ditch about a piece of common land andsaid 'This is mine.' The usurpation was consecrated by men simple-mindedenough to respect these arbitrary boundaries; the spoliation of severalby one gradually became a right; the deed became the law, the exceptionthe rule. The tyranny growing out of this principle, initiated byviolence and perpetuated by custom, became rooted in the peoples' mind,till at length they came to own an infant mewling in the cradle fortheir King, and to kiss the boot of the Pope. What consequences have notcome out of these aberrations! Peoples have throttled each other. Theearth has its damned ones, more to be pitied than those with whomsuperstition peoples hell. The damned on earth call themselves vassals,serfs, proletarians, artisans, laborers! It is of these damned ones thatwe seek the redemption. Think you the overturning of thrones and altarswill suffice for the deliverance of these victims? No, alas, no. To thetyranny of King and Church will succeed an exploitation still moretyrannical, that of the tribe of Business. Then the dispenser of workand of wages will exert an empire absolute over his wage-earningworkingmen. On the ruins of the thrones and altars will soon grow up theoligarchy of merchants and bourgeois.
"That oligarchy must also in its end be overthrown," continued theinitiator. "That is our final aim.[3] Our design is to unite by the bondof a common faith, thousands of initiates in every country ofEurope--first in Germany, then in France, in England, and elsewhere; tobring them gradually, by initiation, into the knowledge of the object ofour association; to have them swear obedience to its chiefs, visible andinvisible, and chosen from all ranks of society, from the highest to thelowest; to recruit our partisans and co-workers in the very councils ofthe Kings themselves, in the heart of the palace of the Popes. Ourenemies will find themselves, without their knowing it, perpetuallyunder our eyes; their plots will be revealed to us; their own creatures,to all appearances the most devoted to them, will obey our orders, andundermine the foundations of their social edifice. Then in the hour ofredemption the old world shall crumble and go down under its debris ofpriests, nobles, and Kings.
"Woman," continued the master of ceremonies, outstretching his handtoward Victoria, "you now know our purposes. Here are our sinews ofaction. An annual assessment levied on all our brothers, who numberthemselves by millions, makes us masters of a mighty treasure. That isthe source of the wealth in which revel those of our number whose dutyit is to mix with the mighty ones of the day, sharing in theirdalliances and dissipations--foxes to deceive, wolves to devour ourenemies. Victoria Lebrenn, it is for you, thanks to your remarkablegifts of nature, to become one of our most active auxiliaries. But toserve well our cause, it will be necessary that you abdicate your ownwill, and that you stand ready, at any hour of the day or night, tofollow our orders."
"Command; I obey."
"I must first acquaint our brothers with the particulars of your life,as you have set them down in your own hand, and confided them to yourconverter."
Picking up a roll of manuscript, the presiding officer proceeded to readthe story of Victoria Lebrenn, as follows:
"In the year 1772, being then eleven years and a half old, I was one daycrossing the garden of the Tuileries, carrying dinner to my father, aworkman in a printing shop in Bac Street. I paused a moment to watchsome little children at play. A woman well dressed and with decentfeatures drew close to me, examined me attentively, and made me somecompliments on my good looks. Then noting the porringer with my father'sdinner, and learning from me that I was on my way to him, she proposedthat I go with her in her carriage. Delighted to have a carriage-ridefor the first time in my life, I readily agreed. Near the Draw Bridge acoach was waiting, into which I got with my conductress. She offered mesome lozenges from a box, which I accepted. The lozenges contained somespecies of narcotic, for in a few minutes I had fallen into a deepsleep.
"When I awoke, it was night. I was lying in a great bed with damaskcurtains. The ceiling of my chamber was of gold, and the room itself wasrichly furnished. Beside my pillow was seated the woman by whose agencyI had been taken to the place. I asked her where I was. I wept at thean
xiety of my parents; she calmed me, promising that they should soon bewith me. She added that I was in the house of a person of great quality,who was interested in my youth, wished me much good, and would enrich myfamily. I knew I was not dreaming, but thought myself the heroine of afairy tale. Two women entered. They made me rise, and put me in aperfumed bath. Then they dressed my hair, one of them winding a stringof pearls through it. They dressed me in silk and lace, and served mewith supper on plates of vermilion and gold. I experienced a sort ofvertigo; I obeyed mechanically. Still, I kept asking for my father andmother. The woman of the carriage assured me that they would soonarrive, and be overjoyed to see me so beautiful. A hard-visaged manentered the chamber. I heard the old woman call him Monsieur Lebel, andspeak to him with great respect. The man scrutinized me carefully.'Little one,' he said to me, 'you must go to bed now.' Then he went out.
"Doubtless, in the course of the repast, they had served me with severalglasses of heady wine, for I felt my reason clouding. I allowed myselfto be put to bed, though not without again inquiring for my parents.They promised to take me back to them the next day. The woman and hertwo companions bade me good night, snuffed the candles in thecandelabrum, and left me for light a single alabaster lamp, which threwa pale illumination over the spacious room. I was about to succumb lessto sleep than to the leaden lethargy into which I had been plunged, whena start of fright restored to me, for a few moments, all my senses. Mybed was set in an alcove. Two of the gilded panels which formed thealcove slid back in their grooves, and I beheld an old man in a dressinggown. I uttered a cry of astonishment--it was the King, Louis XV. I hadseen him but a short time before at a public ceremony in Paris. I wasstupefied into immobility. Close behind the King, in the secretpassageway leading into the alcove, stood a beautiful young womanhalf-clad in a night robe, and holding a candle-stick. She laughedaloud, and said to the King, pushing him by the shoulder--'Go on,France, it is the loving hour!'
"That woman, I afterwards learned, was Countess Du Barry. I fainted withfear. I was the victim of an odious assault. Five days afterward,another poor child, aged like me, hardly twelve, the daughter of amiller of Trianon, was delivered after the same manner to the lust ofLouis XV, and gave him the small-pox of which he died. Two days beforehis death, the woman of whom I have spoken, one of the royalprocuresses, made me leave by night the little apartment in the palaceof Versailles, and get with her into a carriage, assuring me she wasabout to restore me to my father, whom I continually called for, intears. I still was not fully aware of my dishonor. Instead of returningme to my home, the procuress left me in an isolated dwelling not farfrom Versailles. High walls surrounded the garden; the only entry was bya gate which was kept under careful guard. Flight was impossible.
"In that house I found several young girls, of whom the youngest wasbarely my age, and the oldest, twenty. The place was the habitual hauntof great lords, prelates, and financiers. They came to sup withus--suppers that ended in shameful orgies. My companions, the immaturevictims, like myself, of kingly debauchery, gradually made known to methe extent of my disgrace. At first I was overcome by shame; thenfamiliarity with vice, the contagion of example, the influence of thecorrupt atmosphere in which I dwelt, stifled my better sentiments and myearly training. I would never have dared at this time to return to myfamily. I reached my sixteenth year without having left that house ofill fame. By that time reflection and chagrin had matured my reason;then there began to grow up beside the sense of my degradation, theimplacable hatred of the King and of those who, after him, had plungedme still deeper into the mire of infamy. I assisted daily in the orgiesof the seigneurs of the Court, of the Church and of the Bourse. Theynever supposed creatures of our sort capable of attaching anyimportance to what they said in our presence; they expressed withouthesitation their disdain and aversion for the people. Just about thattime, several disturbances brought on by the dearness of provisions hadbeen quelled at the musket's mouth; our guests regretted that the actsof repression had not been still more pitiless, saying, 'These flamescan never be quenched save by rivers of blood.'
"Thus there was created in me, a daughter of the people, a blind thirstfor vengeance. Louis XV was dead, but I followed with my hatred bothroyalty and nobility, clergy and financiers. Our relations with the menof this class taught me to see in them our merciless enemies. Still mymaterial comfort and my early degradation engendered in me a cowardlyinertia. I felt neither the courage nor the desire to flee the domicilewhere I was held. I was seized with mortal terror at the bare thought ofencountering my father, my mother, my young brother; of soiling ourhearth with my presence. And, finally, knowing that their life was poorand laborious, it seemed impossible to me to summon the will to work andto share their privations. Ease and luxury were enervating, weredepraving me. Thus passed several years. I reached the age of twenty.The woman who kept the place died, and my companions and I were turnedadrift. I was without resources and unable to earn my daily bread, myapprenticeship as a sempstress having been cut short by my kidnapping.The fear of misery, my determination not to continue in that abjectlife, the uncertainty of the future, and lastly my attachment to myfamily, overcame my shame and gave me the courage to return home. Myparents believed me dead; my appearance overwhelmed them with joy andrendered them merciful. I confessed to them my past. They both coveredme with tears and caresses, and withheld every reproach. My father gaveme to read the plebeian legends of our family. Then my poor father,exasperated by the deed that marred my childhood, printed anddistributed to the public with his own hand an account which he wroteand entitled _A Night of Louis XV_. A few days after the publication ofthis article, my father failed to come home at night. Since then we havehad no trace of him. Doubtless he now is dead, or languishes in the cellof some State prison.
"For a year I remained with my mother and brother. I forced myself tolive down my past. I took up again my sempstress's apprenticeship, andsoon ceased to be a care to my mother. While my body had been stained,my heart remained pure. I had never felt the pangs of love. I nowconceived a violent affection for a young sergeant in the French Guardsnamed Maurice, the son of one of our neighbors. The young fellow did notknow through what a slough my youth had been dragged, and thought meentirely worthy of him; so much did I dread his scorn that I had not theheart to disabuse him. He asked my hand of my mother. I begged her tohide from him my past shame; moved by my tears she consented to silence.We were affianced, Maurice and I. I had attained the summit of myprayers. I felt a secret remorse in deceiving the man who loyallyoffered me his hand, but I consoled myself with the thought offulfilling scrupulously my marriage vows and making my husband as happyas possible. Cruelly was my dissimulation punished. One day, whilewalking between my mother and my betrothed, we met one of my oldcompanions in misery. She knew me and addressed me in terms of aterrible meaning. Terrified at the expression of Maurice's face at thisrevelation, my heart broke--I collapsed. When I came to myself my motherstood at my side in tears. Commanded by my beloved to tell him all, forhe still could not believe in my past indignity, my mother dared nolonger hide the truth. Maurice was stricken dumb with grief, for heloved me with all his heart. He returned to the barracks inbewilderment, and chancing to come into the presence of his colonel, theCount of Plouernel, did not think to salute him. The Count, angered atthis want of respect, knocked off Maurice's hat with a blow of his cane.He, half crazed with despair, raised his hand against his colonel. Thecrime was punishable by death under the scourge. The next day the youngsergeant expired under that inhuman torture. The death of the man Iloved threw me into a sort of frenzy. Often before, as the record of ourfamily tells, had our fathers, as serfs or vassals, found themselves inarms face to face with the race of Plouernel. This memory redoubled myhatred for the colonel. Disgusted with life by the death of my onlylove, I resolved to avenge on the Count of Plouernel the decease ofMaurice. I repaired to the quarters of the Guards at the hour when Iknew I could find the colonel in his rooms. My hope was dashed. Mypaleness and agita
tion aroused the suspicions of the two under-officersto whom I addressed myself. They demanded the reason of my desire to seetheir chief. The brusqueness of my replies, my sinister and wildappearance strengthened their mistrust. They fell upon me, searched me,and found in my pocket--a dagger. Then I told them why I came. Theyarrested me; they haled me to the Repentant Women. I was subjected inthat prison to the most barbarous treatment. One day a stranger visitedthe place. He questioned me. My answers impressed him. A few days laterI was set at liberty, thanks to the efforts of this stranger, Franz, whocame in person to fetch me from the Repentant Women."
* * * * *
The chief initiator concluded the reading of the melancholy recital, andreplaced the pages of manuscript on the table before him. "The accountof our sister is authenticated throughout," he said.
"To this story of my sad life," declared Victoria, "there is nothing toadd. Only to-day did I learn the name of the generous stranger to whom Iowe my release from prison; and again I declare myself ready to pledgemy devotion and service to the cause of humanity. Let the war upon theoppressors be implacable!"
"From the most obscure to the most illustrious, all devotion is equal inthe eyes of our great cause, and in the eyes of its most noble martyr,the immortal crucified master of Nazareth," added the initiator, drawingaside the curtains of the dais and disclosing a Christ on a crucifix,surmounted with the level of equality. Then he continued, speaking toVictoria, "Woman, in the name of the poor carpenter of Nazareth, thefriend of the sorrowing and the disinherited, the enemy of the priestsand the rulers of his day--woman, do you swear faith, love, andobedience to our cause?"
"I swear!" answered Victoria in a ringing voice, raising her handstoward the crucifix. "I swear faith and obedience to our cause!"
"You are now ours as we are yours," replied the officiant, dropping thecurtains. "From to-morrow on you will receive our instructions from ourbrother Franz. To work! The opening of the States General shall be thesignal for the enfranchisement of the people. The thrones shalldisappear beneath the scourge of the revolution!"[4]
At that moment the watch posted in the corridor of the Voyant temple ofliberty struck thrice precipitately on the door, giving the alarm. Thelights which had cast their radiance over the meeting went out as if bymagic, and a profound darkness took possession of the undergroundchamber.
From the obscurity was heard the voice of Anacharsis Clootz, the maskedofficiant, saying to the other Voyants who had been present at theinitiation of Victoria Lebrenn:
"Baboeuf, go with Buonarotti, Danton and Condorcet by the right exit. Ishall take the left, together with Franz, Loustalot, and our neophyte."