The Royal Life Guard; or, the flight of the royal family.

by Alexandre Dumas

  CHAPTER XVII.

  THE FEUD.

  The two men, on facing each other, looked without the nobleman makingthe plebeian cower. More than that, it was the latter who spoke thefirst.

  "The count does me the honor to say he wants to speak with me. I amwaiting for him to be good enough to do so."

  "Billet," began Charny, "how comes it that you are here on an errand ofvengeance? I thought you were the friend of your superiors the nobles,and, besides, a faithful and sound subject of his Majesty."

  "I was all that, count: I was your most humble servant--for I cannotsay your friend, in as much as such an honor is not vouchsafed toa farmer like me. But you may see that I am nothing of the kind atpresent."

  "I do not follow you, Billet."

  "Why need you? am I asking you the reason for your fidelity to the King,and your standing true to the Queen? No, I presume you have your reasonsfor doing this, and as you are a good and wise gentleman I expect yourreasons are sound or at least meet for your conscience. I am not inyour high position, count, and have not your learning; but you know, oryou have heard I am accounted an honest and sensible man, and you maysuppose that, like yourself, I have my reasons----suiting my conscience,if not good."

  "Billet, I used to know you as far different from what you are now,"said Charny, totally unaware of the farmer's grounds for hatred againstroyalty and nobility.

  "Oh, certainly I am not going to deny that you saw me unlike this,"replied Billet, with a bitter smile. "I do not mind telling you, count,how this is: I was a true lover of my country, devoted to one thingand two persons: the men were the King and Dr. Gilbert--the thing, mynative-land. One day the King's men--I confess that this began to set meagainst him," said the farmer, shaking his head, "broke into my houseand stole away a casket, half by surprise, half by force, a precioustrust left me by Dr. Gilbert.

  "As soon as I was free I started for Paris, where I arrived on theevening of the thirteenth of July. It was right in the thick of theriot over the busts of Necker and the Duke of Orleans. Fellows werecarrying them about the street, with cheers for those two, doing noharm to the King, when the royal soldiers charged upon us. I saw poorchaps, who had committed no offense but shouting for persons they hadprobably never seen, fall around me, some with their skulls laid openwith sabre slashes, others with their breasts bored by bullets. I sawPrince Lambesq, a friend of the King, drive women and children insidethe Tuileries gardens, who had shouted for nobody, and trample under hishorse's hoofs an old man. This set me still more against the King.

  "Next day I went to the boarding school where Dr. Gilbert's sonSebastian was kept, and learnt from the poor lad that his father waslocked up in the Bastile on a King's order sued for by a lady of thecourt. So I said to myself, this King, whom they call kind, has momentswhen he errs, blunders or is ignorant, and I ought to amend one of thefaults the King so makes--which I proposed to do by contributing all mypower to destroying the Bastile. We managed that--not without its beinga tough job, for the soldiers of the King fired on us, and killed sometwo hundred of us which gave me a fresh wrinkle on the kindness of theKing. But in short, we took the Bastile. In one of its dungeons I foundDr. Gilbert, for whom I had risked death a hundred times, and the joyof finding him made me forget that and a lot more. Besides, he was thefirst to tell me that the King was kind, ignorant for the most part ofthe shameful deeds perpetrated in his name, and that one must not bearhim a grudge but cast it on his ministers. Now, as all that Dr. Gilbertsaid at that time was Gospel, I believed Dr. Gilbert.

  "The Bastile being captured, Dr. Gilbert safe and free, and Pitou andmyself all well, I forgot the charges in the Tuileries garden, theshooting in the street, the two hundred men slain by Marshal Saxe'ssackbut, which is or was a gun on the Bastile ramparts, and theimprisonment of my friend on the mere application of a court dame. But,pardon me, count," Billet interrupted himself, "all this is no concernof yours, and you cannot have asked to speak with me to hear the babbleof a poor uneducated rustic--you who are both a high noble and learnedgentleman."

  He made a move to lay hold of the doorknob and re-enter the other room.But Charny stopped him for two reasons, the first that it might beimportant to learn why Billet acted thus, and again, to gain time.

  "No; tell me the whole story, my dear Billet," he said; "you know theinterest my poor brothers and I always bore you, and what you sayengages me in a high degree."

  Billet smiled bitterly at the words "My poor brothers."

  "Well, then," he replied, "I will tell you all; with regret that yourpoor brothers--particularly Lord Isidore, are not here to hear me."

  This was spoken with such singular intonation that the count repressedthe feeling of grief the mention of Isidore's name had aroused in hissoul, and he waved his hand for the farmer to continue, as Billet wasevidently ignorant of what had happened the viscount whose presence hedesired.

  "Hence," proceeded the yeoman, "when the King returned to Paris fromVersailles, I saw in it sheerly the return home of a father among hischildren. I walked with Dr. Gilbert beside the royal carriage, makinga breastwork for those within it of my body, and shouting 'Long livethe King!' to split the ear. This was the first journey of the King:blessings and flowers were all around him. On arriving at the City Hallit was noticed that he did not wear the white cockade of his fathers,but he had not yet donned the tricolored one. So I plucked mine from myhat and gave it him as they were roaring he must sport it, and thereforehe thanked me, to the cheering of the crowd. I was wild with glee at theKing wearing my own favor and I shouted Long Life to him louder thananybody.

  "I was so enthusiastic about our good King that I wanted to stay intown. My harvest was ripe and cried for me; but pooh, what mattered aharvest? I was rich enough to lose one season and it was better for meto stay beside this good King to be useful, this Father of the People,this Restorer of French Liberty, as we dunces called him at the time. Ilost pretty near all the harvest because I trusted it to Catherine, whohad something else to look after than my wheat. Let us say no more onthat score.

  "Still, it was said that the King had not quite fairly agreed to thechange in things, that he moved forced and constrained; that he mightwear the tricolor cockade in his hat but the white one was in hisheart. They were slanderers who said this; it was clearly proved thatat the Guards' Banquet, the Queen put on neither the national nor theFrench cockade but the black one of her brother the Austrian Emperor.I own that this made my doubts revive; but as Dr. Gilbert pointed out,'Billet, it is not the King who did this but the Queen; and the Queenbeing a woman, one must be indulgent towards a woman.' I believedthis so deeply that, when the ruffians came from Paris to attack theVersailles Palace, though I did not hold them wholly in the wrong--itwas I who ran to rouse General Lafayette--who was in the sleep of theblessed, poor dear man! and brought him on the field in time to save theRoyal Family.

  "On that night I saw Lady Elizabeth hug General Lafayette and the Queengive him her hand to kiss, while the King called him his friend, andI said to myself, says I: 'Upon my faith, I believe Dr. Gilbert isright. Surely, not from fear would such high folks make such a show ofgratitude, and they would not play a lie if they did not share thishero's opinions, howsoever useful he may be at this pinch to them all.'Again I pitied the poor Queen, who had only been rash, and the poorKing, only feeble; but I let them go back to Paris without me--I hadbetter to do at Versailles. You know what, Count Charny!"

  The Lifeguardsman uttered a sigh recalling the death of his brotherValence.

  "I heard that this second trip to the town was not as merry as theformer," continued Billet; "instead of blessings, curses were showereddown; instead of shouts of Long Live! those of Death to the lot! insteadof bouquets under the horses hoofs and carriage wheels, dead men's headscarried on spear-points. I don't know, not being there, as I stayed atVersailles. Still I left the farm without a master, but pshaw! I wasrich enough to lose another harvest after that of '89! But, one finemorning, Pitou arrived to announce that I
was on the brink of losingsomething dearer which no father is rich enough to lose: his daughter!"

  Charny started, but the other only looked at him fixedly as he went on:

  "I must tell you, lord, that a league off from us, at Boursonne, livesa noble family of mighty lords, terribly rich. Three brothers were thefamily. When they were boys and used to come over to Villers Cotterets,the two younger of the three were wont to stop on my place, doing me thehonor to say that they never drank sweeter milk than my cows gave, oreaten finer bread than my wife made, and, from time to time they wouldadd--I believing they just said it in payment of my good cheer--assthat I was! that they had never seen a prettier lass than my Catherine.Lord bless you, I thanked them for drinking the milk, and eating thebread, and finding my child so pretty into the bargain! What would you?as I believed in the King, though he is half a German by the mother'sside, I might believe in noblemen who were wholly French.

  "So, when the youngest of all, Valence, who had been away from our partsfor a long time, was killed at Versailles, before the Queen's door, onthe October Riot night, bravely doing his duty as a nobleman, what ablow that was to me! His brother saw me on my knees before the body,shedding almost as many tears as he shed blood--his eldest brother,I mean, who never came to my house, not because he was too proud, Iwill do him that fair play, but because he was sent to foreign partswhile young. I think I can still see him in the damp courtyard, where Icarried the poor young fellow in my arms so that he should not be hackedto pieces, like his comrades, whose blood so dyed me that I was almostas reddened as yourself, Lord Charny. He was a pretty boy, whom I stillsee riding to school on his little dappled pony, with a basket on hisarm--and thinking of him thus, I think I can mourn him like yourself, mylord. But I think of the other, and I weep no more," said Billet.

  "The other? what do you mean." cried the count.

  "Wait, we are coming to it," was the reply. "Pitou had come to Paris,and let a couple of words drop to show that it was not my crops so muchin danger as my child--not my fortune but my happiness. So I left theKing to shift for himself in the city. Since he meant the right thing,as Dr. Gilbert assured me, all would go for the best, whether I was athand or not, and I returned on my farm.

  "I believed that Catherine had brain fever or something I would notunderstand, but was only in danger of death. The condition in which Ifound her made me uneasy, all the more as the doctor forbade me the roomtill she was cured. The poor father in despair, not allowed to go intothe sickroom, could not help hanging round the door. Yes, I listened.Then I learnt that she was at death's point almost out of her senseswith fever, mad because her lover--her gallant, not her sweetheart, see!had gone away. A year before, I had gone away, but she had smiled on mygoing instead of grieving. My going left her free to meet her gallant!

  "Catherine returned to health but not to gladness! a month, two, three,six months passed without a single beam of joy kissing the face whichmy eyes never quitted. One morning I saw her smile and shuddered. Wasnot her lover coming back that she should smile? Indeed a shepherd whohad seen him prowling about, a year before, told me that he had arrivedthat morning. I did not doubt that he would come over on my ground thatevening or rather on the land where Catherine was mistress. I loaded upmy gun at dark and laid in wait----"

  "You did this, Billet?" queried Charny.

  "Why not?" retorted the farmer. "I lay in wait right enough for the wildboar coming to make mush of my potatoes, the wolf to tear my lambs'throats, the fox to throttle my fowls, and am I not to lay in wait forthe villain who comes to disgrace my daughter?"

  "But your heart failed you at the test, Billet, I hope," said the count.

  "No, not the heart, but the eye and the hand," said the other: "A trackof blood showed me that I had not wholly missed, only you may understandthat a defamed maid had not wavered between father and scoundrel--when Ientered the house, Catherine had disappeared."

  "And you have not seen her since?"

  "No. Why should I see her? she knows right well that I should kill heron sight."

  Charny shrank back in terror mingled with admiration for the massivecharacter confronting him.

  "I retook the work on the farm," proceeded the farmer. "What concernof mine was my misfortune if France were only happy? Was not the Kingmarching steadily in the road of Revolution? was he not to take his partin the Federation? might I not see him again whom I had saved in Octoberand sheltered with my own cockade? what a pleasure it must be for him tosee all France gathered on the parade-ground at Paris, swearing likeone man the Unity of the country!

  "So, for a space, while I saw him, I forgot all, even to Catherine--no,I lie--no father forgets his child! He also took the oath. It seemed tome that he swore clumsily, evasively, from his seat, instead of at theAltar of the Country, but what did that matter? the main thing was thathe did swear. An oath is an oath. It is not the place where he takes itthat makes it holy, and when an honest man takes an oath, he keeps it.So the King should keep his word. But it is true that when I got hometo Villers Cotterets,--having no child now, I attended to politics--Iheard say that the King was willing to have Marquis Favras carry himoff but the scheme had fallen through; that the King had tried to fleewith his aunts, but that had failed; that he wanted to go out to St.Cloud, whence he would have hurried off to Rouen, but that the peopleprevented him leaving town. I heard all this but I did not believe it.Had I not with my own eyes seen the King hold up his hand to high heavenon the Paris Parade-ground and swear to maintain the nation? How couldI believe that a king, having sworn in the presence of three hundredthousand citizens, would not hold his pledge to be as sacred as that ofother men? It was not likely!

  "Hence, as I was at Meaux Market yesterday,--I may as well say I wassleeping at the postmaster's house, with whom I had made a grain deal--Iwas astonished to see in a carriage changing horses at my friend's door,the King, the Queen and the Dauphin! There was no mistaking them; I wasin the habit of seeing them in a coach; on the sixteenth of July, Iaccompanied them from Versailles to Paris. I heard one of the party say:'The Chalons Road!' This man in a buff waistcoat had a voice I knew;I turned and recognized--who but the gentleman who had stolen away mydaughter! This noble was doing his duty by playing the flunky before hismaster's coach."

  At this, he looked hard at Charny to see if he understood that hisbrother Isidore was the subject; but the hearer was silent as he wipedhis face with his handkerchief.

  "I wanted to fly at him, but he was already at a distance. He was ona good horse and had weapons--I, none. I ground my teeth at the ideathat the King was escaping out of France and this ravisher escaping me,but suddenly another thought struck me. Why, look ye; I took an oath tothe Nation, and while the King breaks his, I shall keep mine. I am onlyten leagues from Paris which I can reach in two hours on a good nag; itis but three in the morning. I will talk this matter over with MayorBailly, an honest man who appears to be one of the kind who stick to thepromises they make. This point settled I wasted no time, but begged myfriend the postinghouse keeper to lend me his national Guards uniform,his sword and pistols and I took the best horse in his stables--allwithout letting him know what was in the wind, of course. Instead,therefore, of trotting home, I galloped hellity-split to Paris.

  "Thank God, I got there on time! the flight of the King was known butnot the direction. Lafayette had sent his aid Romeuf on the ValenciennesRoad! But mark what a thing chance is! they had stopped him at the bars,and he was brought back to the Assembly, where he walked in at the verynick when Mayor Bailly, informed by me, was furnishing the most preciseparticulars about the runaways. There was nothing but the proper warrantto write and the road to state. The thing was done in a flash. Romeufwas dispatched on the Chalons Road and my order was to stick to him,which I am going to do. Now," concluded Billet, with a gloomy air, "Ihave overtaken the King, who deceived me as a Frenchman, and I am easyabout his escaping me! I can go and attend to the man who deceived me asa father; and I swear to you, Lord Charny, that he sh
all not escape meeither."

  "You are wrong, my dear Billet--woeful to say," responded the count.

  "How so?"

  "The unfortunate young man you speak of has escaped."

  "Fled?" cried Billet with indescribable rage.

  "No, he is dead," replied the other.

  "Dead?" exclaimed Billet, shivering in spite of himself, and sponginghis forehead on which the sweat had started out.

  "Dead," repeated Charny, "for this is his blood which you see on me andwhich you were right just now in likening to that from his brother slainat Versailles. If you doubt, go down into the street where you will findhis body laid out in a little yard, like that of Versailles, struck downfor the same cause for which his brother fell."

  Billet looked at the speaker, who spoke in a gentle voice, but withhaggard eyes and a frightened face; then suddenly he cried:

  "Of a truth, there is justice in heaven!" He darted out of the room,saying: "I do not doubt your word, lord, but I must assure my sight thatjustice is done."

  Charny stifled a sigh as he watched him go, and dashed away a tear.Aware that there was not an instant to lose, he hurried to the Queen'sroom, and as soon as he walked directly up to her, he asked how she hadgot on with Romeuf.

  "He is on our side," responded the lady.

  "So much the better," said Charny, "for there is nothing to hope in thatquarter."

  "What are we to do then?"

  "Gain time for Bouille to come up."

  "But will he come?"

  "Yes, for I am going to fetch him."

  "But the streets swarm with murderers," cried the Queen. "You are known,you will never pass, you will be hewn to pieces: George, George!"

  But smiling without replying, Charny opened the window on the backgarden, waved his hand to the King and the Queen, and jumped out overfifteen feet. The Queen sent up a shriek of terror and hid her face inher hands; but the man ran to the wind and by a cheer allayed her fears.

  Charny had scaled the garden wall and was disappearing on the otherside.

  It was high time, for Billet was entering.