by Eugène Sue
CHAPTER XX.
MARRIAGE OF JOHN LEBRENN.
Under date of January 26, 1793, the diary of John Lebrenn bears therecord, without comment:
"To-day I espoused Charlotte Desmarais."
Despite the circular addressed by advocate Desmarais to his colleaguesin the Convention, and in which he fixed as the date for his daughter'swedding the day of the tyrant's death, Charlotte, without regard for herfather's very lively disappointment, and unmindful of his reiteratedimportunities, would not consent to be married until the 26th ofJanuary. With his habitual calculation, considering the union merely asa precaution, the lawyer had chosen Robespierre and Marat as witnessesto the ceremony; those selected by John Lebrenn were Billaud-Varenne andLegendre. The municipal officer of the Section received the vows of theyoung couple in his office on the evening after the Convention sessionof January 26. John Lebrenn had several days previously obtained fromhis old employer, Master Gervais, the deed of his smithy and the leaseof the house. The preparations, the modest embellishments of his futurehome, were finished on the eve of his marriage.
After returning from the offices of the Section, the young couplereceived the pledges and felicitations of the witnesses, and presentlywere left alone with Madam Desmarais and her husband, who said to John:
"My dear son-in-law, I leave you an instant to go to look up mydaughter's dowry and present it to you."
When Desmarais left the room, his wife addressed her daughter andnew-found son:
"My children, this is the decisive instant. I would rather die than liveany longer with my husband; but I tremble to think of the rage intowhich our resolution will throw him. Do not forsake me."
"Dear mother," responded Charlotte, "could you really think that of us?Is not our life bound up with yours?"
"Nevertheless, if he should oppose our separation? He would perhaps bein the right, my children?"
"Reassure yourself, dear mother," quoth John in his turn. "In the firstplace, the separation will relieve Monsieur Desmarais of one fear, thatof being compromised by his relationship with Monsieur Hubert, yourbrother; who, unfortunately, as you tell me, has refused to accept theproposal made to him in my name."
"Alas, yes; my brother replied that he appreciated your offer, but thathe considered it an act of cowardice to remain passive; he wished toretain full freedom to combat the Republic."
"Alas," echoed Charlotte, with a sigh, "I deplore uncle's blindness, butI can not but pay homage to his strength of character."
"True enough, my dear Charlotte, Monsieur Hubert is one of thoseadversaries whom one admires while fighting. As I have several timestold your mother, I hoped that struck especially by the attitude of thepeople of Paris on the 21st your uncle, who is a man of sense, wouldrecognize how vain would now be any attempt against the Republic,"observed John. "In that case, dear mother, Monsieur Desmarais,heretofore so terrified at the perils to which he believed himselfexposed by his kinship with Monsieur Hubert, will no doubt see in yourdetermination to leave him nothing but a pledge of his safety for thefuture, and will hardly dream of holding you back. At least, that is theway it appears to me."
At that moment the attorney returned, holding in his hands a littleinlaid casket which he held out to the young artisan with a radiant air,saying:
"My dear son-in-law, I have found in my strong-box, besides the sum Imentioned, a hundred louis, which I add to my daughter's dower."
But seeing John Lebrenn repulse the proffered casket, the attorney addedin great surprise: "Come, take the little chest, my dear pupil. Itcontains, in fine good louis, the dower I promised you, to which I havejust added two thousand four hundred livres. Moreover, it is understoodthat in recompense for the slimness of the dower Charlotte, you, andyour sister will lodge and board with me, without, to put it plainly,any expense to you. We shall live as one family."
"Citizen Desmarais," replied John, "before accepting the dower which youoffer me and of which I have no need, it is our duty, my wife's andmine, to inform you of our plans. First of all, I shall continue in mystation as an iron-worker."
"That is admirable, my dear pupil," exclaimed the lawyer with hastilyassumed enthusiasm. "Far from blushing at your condition, far fromseeing in the advantage afforded you by your marriage with my daughteran opportunity to renounce honest toil and to live in indolence, youchoose to remain a workman. That is indeed admirable!"
"Citizen Desmarais, I hasten to disabuse you of a misunderstanding thatexists between us. Upon mature consideration my wife and I have decidedto dwell in our own house, completely separated from you."
"What do you mean!"
"I mean, Citizen Desmarais, that my former employer has sold me hisestablishment. Whence it follows that my labors and the care of my forgewill oblige me, as well as my wife, to live elsewhere than here withyou. I have, in consequence, hired the house previously occupied by myold master, and this very night my wife and I shall take possession ofour new abode. The question has been considered and settled."
"Aye, father," added Charlotte. "Such is, indeed, our firm resolution."
At these words, pronounced by John Lebrenn and Charlotte in a voice thatadmitted of no reply, advocate Desmarais turned livid with rage andamazement. Forgetting now all his tricks of dissimulation, distractedwith fear, and exasperated by what he took as an indignity on the partof his daughter and her husband, the lawyer cried to Charlotte, as heshook with anger and fright:
"Treason! Shameful treason! Heartless, unnatural daughter! This is thegratitude with which you repay my bounties to you? You would have theaudacity to leave your father's house, would you! And you----" he added,turning tempestuously upon John Lebrenn, "and you, traitor, how dareyou thus abuse my confidence, my generosity?"
"Not another word in that tone, Citizen Desmarais," interposed John. "Donot oblige me to forget the respect I owe the father of my wife; do notoblige me to tell you for what reasons your daughter--and hermother--have resolved to fix their abode elsewhere than with you."
"My wife! She also--would dare----" cried the lawyer, his rageredoubling till it almost choked him.
"Yes, monsieur, I also wish to leave you," replied Madam Desmarais. "Youhave treated me most cruelly, because my unhappy brother, a proscriptand a fugitive, came to ask of you a few hours' shelter. You denouncedme to the commissioner of our Section, adjured him to hale me away as aprisoner. You have even gone so far as to declare to me, 'If it werenecessary, madam, in order to save my life, to send you to thescaffold--I would not hesitate an instant. Just now I must roar with thetigers; but then I should become a tiger.'"
"Hold your tongue!" shrieked the advocate, in a frenzy. "Do you wish toget my head cut off, gabbling like that before this man who perhapsawaits but the moment to settle me? Serpent that he is, whom I havewarmed in my bosom!"
"Citizen Desmarais," replied Lebrenn, half in pity, half in disgust, "itdepends upon you alone to put an end to your alarms, to the terrors bywhich you are assailed and of which those about you are the firstvictims. Cease to display in exaggerated form opinions which are atfisticuffs with your real belief. Renounce your public career. Theweakness of your character, the uneasiness of your conscience, evokefantasms before your eyes."
"It is a plot against my life!" continued Desmarais wildly. "They wantto draw upon my head the fury of the Jacobins, and have me packed off tothe scaffold. They want to be rid of me so that my dutiful daughter andson-in-law may play ducks and drakes with my fortune! But the old foxknows the trap! I shall stay at the Convention. My daughter andson-in-law may take themselves off, if they so wish; but as for you,Citizeness Desmarais, you shall not leave this house. The wife,according to the law, is bound to reside at the home of her husband."
"I will live with you no longer," resolutely replied Madam Desmarais. "Ahundred times rather die!"
"Once would suffice, worthy wife! And it would be good riddance to amost abominable burden."
"Come, mother," said Charlotte, wroth at her father's brutal language."Co
me. You shall not remain here another instant."
"Your mother shall stop where she is," cried the lawyer threateningly."As for you, my daughter--as for you, my son-in-law--I shall denounceyour execrable complot to my friends of the mad-men's party, to Hebert,to James Roux the disfrocked priest, to Varlet. Get you hence--I driveyou from my house." Then seizing his wife by the arm, Desmarais added,"But not you. You stay!"
"You will please to allow my mother full control over her own actions,Citizen Desmarais," said Lebrenn calmly, and mastering his indignation."Unhand her!"
"Get out of here, scoundrel!" retorted the attorney, still holding hiswife by the wrist. "Get out of here, at once!"
"For the last time, Citizen Desmarais," quoth John Lebrenn. "Allow MadamDesmarais to follow her daughter, as is her desire. My patience is at anend, and I can not much longer tolerate the brutality I see here."
"Would you have the boldness to raise your hand against me, wretch!"replied the advocate, foaming with rage, and roughly wrenching hiswife's arm. "Malediction on you both."
"Aye, I shall succor your wife from your wretched treatment," Johnanswered; and seizing the lawyer's wrist with his iron hand as if in avise, he forced the attorney to release his almost fainting spouse. She,on her part, made all haste to leave the now intolerable presence of herhusband, and, supported by Charlotte, disappeared into the next room.
As John left the parlor to rejoin his bride and his second mother,advocate Desmarais, hiding his face in his hands, sank into anarm-chair, crying:
"Abandoned by wife, abandoned by daughter! Henceforth I am condemned tolive alone!"