CHAPTER XXVII.
THE SQUEEZED LEMON.
On the day after the Constituent Assembly dissolved, that is, the secondof October, at Barnave's usual hour for seeing the Queen, he was usheredinto the Grand Study.
On the day of the King taking the oath to the Constitution, Lafayette'saids and soldiers had been withdrawn from the palace and the King hadbecome less hampered if not more powerful.
It was slender satisfaction for the humiliations they had latelyundergone. In the street, when out for carriage exercise, as some voicesshouted "Long live the King!" a roughly dressed man, walking beside thecoach and laying his unwashed hand on the window ledge, kept repeatingin a loud voice:
"Do not believe them. The only cry is, 'The Nation Forever!'"
The Queen had been applauded at the Opera where the "house was packed,"but the same precaution could not be adopted at the Italians, where thepit was taken in advance. When the hirelings in the gallery hailed theQueen, they were hushed by the pit.
Looking into the pit to see who these were who so detested her, theQueen saw that the leader was the Arch-Revolutionist, Cagliostro, theman who had pursued from her youth. Once her eyes were fastened on his,she could not turn hers aloof, for he exercised the fascination of theserpent on the bird.
The play commenced and she managed to tear her gaze aloof for a time,but ever and anon it had to go back again, from the potent magnetism. Itwas fatal possession, as by a nightmare.
Besides, the house was full of electricity; two clouds surcharged werefloating about, restless to thunder at each other: a spark would sendforth the double flame.
Madam Dugazon had a song to sing with the tenor in this opera of Gretry,"Unforeseen Events." She had the line to sing:
"Oh, how I love my mistress!"
The Queen divined that the storm was to burst, and involuntarily sheglanced towards the man controlling her. It seemed to her that he gave asignal to the audience, and from all sides was hurled the cry:
"No more mistresses--no more masters! away with kings and queens!"
She screamed and hid her eyes, unable to look longer on this demonof destruction who ruled the disorder. Pursued by the roar: "No moremasters, no more kings and queens!" she was borne fainting to hercarriage.
She received the orator standing, though she knew the respect hecherished for her and saw that he was paler and sadder than ever.
"Well," she said, "I suppose you are satisfied, since the King hasfollowed your advice and sworn to the Constitution?"
"You are very kind to say my advice has been followed," returnedBarnave, bowing, "but if it had not been the same as that from EmperorLeopold and Prince von Kaunitz, perhaps his Majesty would have putgreater hesitation in doing the act, though the only one to save theKing if the King----"
"Can be saved, do you imply?" questioned she, taking the dilemma by thehorns with the courage, or rashness peculiar to her.
"Lord preserve me from being the prophet of such miseries! And yet I donot want to dispirit your Majesty too much or leave too many deceptionsas I depart from Paris to dwell afar from the throne."
"Going away from town and me?"
"The work of the Assembly of which I am a member has terminated, and Ihave no motive to stay here."
"Not even to be useful to us?"
"Not even that." He smiled sadly. "For indeed I cannot be useful to youin any way now. My strength lay in my influence over the House and atthe Jacobin club, in my painfully acquired popularity, in short; butthe House is dissolved, the Jacobins are broke up, and my popularity islost."
He smiled more mournfully than before.
She looked at him with a strange glare which resembled the glow oftriumph.
"You see, sir, that popularity may be lost," she said.
By his sigh, she felt that she had perpetrated one of those pieces ofpetty cruelty which were habitual to her.
Indeed, if he had lost it in a month, was it not for her, the angel ofdeath, like Mary Stuart, to those who tried to serve her?
"But you will not go?" she said.
"If ordered to remain by the Queen, I will stay, like a soldier who hashis furlough but remains for the battle; but if I do so, I become morethan weak, a traitor."
"Explain: I do not understand," she said, slightly hurt.
"Perhaps the Queen takes the dissolved Assembly as her enemy?"
"Let us define matters; in that body were friends of mine. You will notdeny that the majority were hostile."
"It never passed but one bill really an act of hostility to your Majestyand the King; that was the decree that none of its members could belongto the Legislative. That snatched the buckler from your friends' arms."
"But also the sword from our foemen's hand, methinks."
"Alas, you are wrong. The blow comes from Robespierre and is dreadfullike all from that man. As things were we knew whom we had to meet;with all uncertainty we strike in the fog. Robespierre wishes to forceFrance to take the rulers from the class above us or beneath. Above usthere is nothing, the aristocracy having fled; but anyway the electorswould not seek representatives among the noble. The people will choosedeputies from below us and the next House will be democratic, withslight variations."
The Queen began to be alarmed from following this statement.
"I have studied the new-comers: particularly those from the South," wenton Barnave; "they are nameless men eager to acquire fame, the more asthey are all young. They are to be feared as their orders are to makewar on the priests and nobles; nothing is said as to the King, but if hewill be merely the executive, he may be forgiven the past."
"How? they will forgive him? I thought it lay in the King to pardon?"exclaimed insulted majesty.
"There it is--we shall never agree. These new-comers, as you willunhappily have the proof, will not handle the matter in gloves. Forthem the King is an enemy, the nucleus, willingly or otherwise, of allthe external and internal foes. They think they have made a discoverythough, alas! they are only saying aloud what your ardent adversarieshave whispered all the time."
"But, the King the enemy of the people?" repeated the lady.
"Oh, M. Barnave, this is something you will never induce me to admit,for I cannot understand it."
"Still it is the fact. Did not the King accept the Constitution theother day? well, he flew into a passion when he returned within thepalace and wrote that night to the Emperor."
"How can you expect us to bear such humiliations?"
"Ah, you see, madam! he is the born enemy and so by his character. Hewas brought up by the chief of the Jesuits, and his heart is alwaysin the hands of the priests, those opponents of free government,involuntarily but inevitably counter to Revolution. Without his quittingParis he is with the princes at Coblentz, with the clergy in Lavendee,with his allies in Vienna and Prussia. I admit that the King doesnothing, but his name cloaks the plots; in the cabin, the pulpit andthe castle, the poor, good, saintly King is prated about, so that therevolution of pity is opposed to that of Freedom."
"Is it really you who cast this up, M. Barnave, when you were the firstto be sorry for us."
"I am sorry for you still, lady; but there is this difference, that Iwas sorry in order to save you while these others want to ruin you."
"But, in short, have these new-comers, who have vowed a war ofextermination on us, any settled plan?"
"No, madam, I can only catch a few vague ideas: to suppress the titleof Majesty in the opening address, and set a plain arm-chair beside theSpeaker's instead of throne-chair. The dreadful thing is that Bailly andLafayette will be done away with."
"I shall not regret that," quickly said the Queen.
"You are wrong, madam, for they are your friends----"
She smiled bitterly.
"Your last friends, perhaps. Cherish them, and use what power they have:their popularity will fly, like mine."
"This amounts to your leading me to the brink of the crater and makingme measure the depth without telling m
e I may avoid the eruption."
"Oh, that you had not been stopped on the road to Montmedy!" sighedBarnave after being mute for a spell.
"Here we have M. Barnave approving of the flight to Varennes!"
"I do not approve of it: but the present state is its naturalconsequence, and so I deplore its not having succeeded--not as themember of the House, but as Barnave your humble servant, ready to givehis life, which is all he possesses."
"Thank you," replied the Queen: "your tone proves you are the man tohold to your word, but I hope no such sacrifice will be required ofyou."
"So much the worse for me, for if I must fall, I would wish it were in adeath-struggle. The end will overtake me in my retreat. Your friends aresure to be hunted out; I will be taken, imprisoned and condemned: yetperhaps my obscure death will be unheard of by you. But should the newsreach you, I shall have been so little a support to you that you willhave forgotten the few hours of my use."
"M. Barnave," said Marie Antoinette with dignity, "I am completelyignorant what fate the future reserves to the King, and myself, but Ido know that the names of those to whom we are beholden are written onour memory, and nothing ill or good that may befall them will cease tointerest us. Meanwhile, is there anything we can do for you?"
"Only, give me your hand to kiss."
A tear stood in her dry eyes as she extended to the young man thecold white hand which had at a year's interval been kissed by the twoleaders, Mirabeau and Barnave.
"Madam," said he, rising, "I cannot say, 'I save the monarchy!' but hewho has this favor will say 'If lost, he went down with it.'"
She sighed as he went forth, but her words were:
"Poor squeezed lemon, they did not take much time to leave nothing ofyou but the peel!"
The Royal Life Guard; or, the flight of the royal family. Page 27