“Forty miles in three hours,” she answered, addressing the abbe, who watched her with amazement. “I started at half-past nine, and it was well past one when I returned.”
She looked at the clock which said half-past two.
“So you don’t deny that you have ridden forty miles?” said Corentin.
“No,” she said. “I admit that my cousins, in their perfect innocence, expected not to be excluded from the amnesty, and were on their way to Cinq-Cygne. When I found that the Sieur Malin was plotting to injure them, I went to warn them to return to Germany, where they will be before the telegraph can have guarded the frontier. If I have done wrong I shall be punished for it.”
This answer, which Laurence had carefully considered, was so probable in all its parts that Corentin’s convictions were shaken. In that decisive moment, when every soul present hung suspended, as it were, on the faces of the two adversaries, and all eyes turned from Corentin to Laurence and from Laurence to Corentin, again the gallop of a horse, coming from the forest, resounded on the road and from there through the gates to the paved courtyard. Frightful anxiety was stamped on every face.
Peyrade entered, his eyes gleaming with joy. He went hastily to Corentin and said, loud enough for the countess to hear him: “We have caught Michu.”
Laurence, to whom the agony, fatigue, and tension of all her intellectual faculties had given an unusual color, turned white and fell back almost fainting on a chair. Madame Durieu, Mademoiselle Goujet, and Madame d’Hauteserre sprang to help her, for she was suffocating. She signed to cut the frogging of her habit.
“Duped!” said Corentin to Peyrade. “I am certain now they are on their way to Paris. Change the orders.”
They left the room and the house, placing one gendarme on guard at the door of the salon. The infernal cleverness of the two men had gained a terrible advantage by taking Laurence in the trap of a not uncommon trick.
CHAPTER IX. FOILED
At six o’clock in the morning, as day was dawning, Corentin and Peyrade returned. Having explored the covered way they were satisfied that horses had passed through it to reach the forest. They were now awaiting the report of the captain of gendarmerie sent to reconnoitre the neighborhood. Leaving the chateau in charge of a corporal, they went to the tavern at Cinq-Cygne to get their breakfast, giving orders that Gothard, who never ceased to reply to all questions with a burst of tears, should be set at liberty, also Catherine, who still continued silent and immovable. Catherine and Gothard went to the salon to kiss the hands of their mistress, who lay exhausted on the sofa; Durieu also went in to tell her that Stella would recover, but needed great care.
The mayor, uneasy and inquisitive, met Peyrade and Corentin in the village. He declared that he could not allow such important officials to breakfast in a miserable tavern, and he took them to his own house. The abbey was only three quarters of a mile distant. On the way, Peyrade remarked that the corporal of Arcis had sent no news of Michu or of Violette.
“We are dealing with very able people,” said Corentin; “they are stronger than we. The priest no doubt has a finger in all this.”
Just as the mayor’s wife was ushering her guests into a vast dining-room (without any fire) the lieutenant of gendarmes arrived with an anxious air.
“We met the horse of the corporal of Arcis in the forest without his master,” he said to Peyrade.
“Lieutenant,” cried Corentin, “go instantly to Michu’s house and find out what is going on there. They must have murdered the corporal.”
This news interfered with the mayor’s breakfast. Corentin and Peyrade swallowed their food with the rapidity of hunters halting for a meal, and drove back to the chateau in their wicker carriage, so as to be ready to start at the first call for any point where their presence might be necessary. When the two men reappeared in the salon into which they had brought such trouble, terror, grief, and anxiety, they found Laurence, in a dressing-gown, Monsieur d’Hauteserre and his wife, the abbe and his sister, sitting round the fire, to all appearance tranquil.
“If they had caught Michu,” Laurence told herself, “they would have brought him with them. I have the mortification of knowing that I was not the mistress of myself, and that I threw some light upon the matter for those wretches; but the harm can be undone — How long are we to be your prisoners?” she asked sarcastically, with an easy manner.
“How can she know anything about Michu? No one from the outside has got near the chateau; she is laughing at us,” said the two agents to each other by a look.
“We shall not inconvenience you long,” replied Corentin. “In three hours from now we shall offer our regrets for having troubled your solitude.”
No one replied. This contemptuous silence redoubled Corentin’s inward rage. Laurence and the abbe (the two minds of their little world) had talked the man over and drawn their conclusions. Gothard and Catherine had set the breakfast-table near the fire and the abbe and his sister were sharing the meal. Neither masters nor servants paid the slightest attention to the two spies, who walked up and down the garden, the courtyard or the lawn, returning every now and then to the salon.
At half-past two the lieutenant reappeared.
“I found the corporal,” he said to Corentin, “lying in the road which leads from the pavilion of Cinq-Cygne to the farm at Bellache. He has no wound, only a bad contusion of the head, caused, apparently, by his fall. He told me he had been lifted suddenly off his horse and flung so violently to the ground that he could not discover how the thing was done. His feet left the stirrups, which was lucky, for he might have been killed by the horse dragging him. We put him in charge of Michu and Violette — ”
“Michu! is Michu in his own house?” said Corentin, glancing at Laurence.
The countess smiled ironically, like a woman obtaining her revenge.
“He is bargaining with Violette about the sale of some land,” said the lieutenant. “They seemed to me drunk; and it’s no wonder, for they have been drinking all night and discussing the matter, and they haven’t come to terms yet.”
“Did Violette tell you so?” cried Corentin.
“Yes,” said the lieutenant.
“Nothing is right if we don’t attend to it ourselves!” cried Peyrade, looking at Corentin, who doubted the lieutenant’s news as much as the other did.
“At what hour did you get to Michu’s house?” asked Corentin, noticing that the countess had glanced at the clock.
“About two,” replied the lieutenant.
Laurence covered Monsieur and Madame d’Hauteserre and the abbe and his sister in one comprehensive glance, which made them fancy they were wrapped in an azure mantle; triumph sparkled in her eyes, she blushed, and the tears welled up beneath her lids. Strong under all misfortunes, the girl knew not how to weep except from joy. At this moment she was all glorious, especially to the priest, who was sometimes distressed by the virility of her character, and who now caught a glimpse of the infinite tenderness of her woman’s nature. But such feelings lay in her soul like a treasure hidden at a great depth beneath a block of granite.
Just then a gendarme entered the salon to ask if he might bring in Michu’s son, sent by his father to speak to the gentlemen from Paris. Corentin gave an affirmative nod. Francois Michu, a sly little chip of the old block, was in the courtyard, where Gothard, now at liberty, got a chance to speak to him for an instant under the eyes of a gendarme. The little fellow managed to slip something into Gothard’s hand without being detected, and the latter glided into the salon after him till he reached his mistress, to whom he stealthily conveyed both halves of the wedding-ring, a sure sign, she knew, that Michu had met the four gentlemen and put them in safety.
“My papa wants to know what he’s to do with the corporal, who ain’t doing well,” said Francois.
“What’s the matter with him?” asked Peyrade.
“It’s his head — he pitched down hard on the ground,” replied the boy. “For a gindarme who knows
how to ride it was bad luck — I suppose the horse stumbled. He’s got a hole — my! as big as your fist — in the back of his head. Seems as if he must have hit some big stone, poor man! He may be a gindarme, but he suffers all the same — you’d pity him.”
The captain of the gendarmerie now arrived and dismounted in the courtyard. Corentin threw up the window, not to lose time.
“What has been done?”
“We are back like the Dutchmen! We found nothing but five dead horses, their coats stiff with sweat, in the middle of the forest. I have kept them to find out where they came from and who owns them. The forest is surrounded; whoever is in it can’t get out.”
“At what hour do you suppose those horsemen entered the forest?”
“About half-past twelve.”
“Don’t let a hare leave that forest without your seeing it,” whispered Corentin. “I’ll station Peyrade at the village to help you; I am going to see the corporal myself — Go to the mayor’s house,” he added, still whispering, to Peyrade. “I’ll send some able man to relieve you. We shall have to make use of the country-people; examine all faces.” He turned towards the family and said in a threatening tone, “Au revoir!”
No one replied, and the two agents left the room.
“What would Fouche say if he knew we had made a domiciliary visit without getting any results?” remarked Peyrade as he helped Corentin into the osier vehicle.
“It isn’t over yet,” replied the other, “those four young men are in the forest. Look there!” and he pointed to Laurence who was watching them from a window. “I once revenged myself on a woman who was worth a dozen of that one and had stirred my bile a good deal less. If this girl comes in the way of my hatchet I’ll pay her for the lash of that whip.”
“The other was a strumpet,” said Peyrade; “this one has rank.”
“What difference is that to me? All’s fish that swims in the sea,” replied Corentin, signing to the gendarme who drove him to whip up.
Ten minutes later the chateau de Cinq-Cygne was completely evacuated.
“How did they get rid of the corporal?” said Laurence to Francois Michu, whom she had ordered to sit down and eat some breakfast.
“My father told me it was a matter of life and death and I mustn’t let anybody get into our house,” replied the boy. “I knew when I heard the horses in the forest that I’d got to do with them hounds of gindarmes, and I meant to keep ‘em from getting in. So I took some big ropes that were in my garret and fastened one of ‘em to a tree at the corner of the road. Then I drew the rope high enough to hit the breast of a man on horseback, and tied it to the tree on the opposite side of the way in the direction where I heard the horses. That barred the road. It didn’t miss fire, I can tell you! There was no moon, and the corporal just pitched! — but he wasn’t killed; they’re tough, them gindarmes! I did what I could.”
“You have saved us!” said Laurence, kissing him as she took him to the gate. When there, she looked about her and seeing no one she said cautiously, “Have they provisions?”
“I have just taken them twelve pounds of bread and four bottles of wine,” said the boy. “They’ll be snug for a week.”
Returning to the salon, the girl was beset with mute questions in the eyes of all, each of whom looked at her with as much admiration as eagerness.
“But have you really seen them?” cried Madame d’Hauteserre.
The countess put a finger on her lips and smiled; then she left the room and went to bed; her triumph sure, utter weariness had overtaken her.
The shortest road from Cinq-Cygne to Michu’s lodge was that which led from the village past the farm at Bellache to the rond-point where the Parisian spies had first seen Michu on the preceding evening. The gendarme who was driving Corentin took this way, which was the one the corporal of Arcis had taken. As they drove along, the agent was on the look-out for signs to show why the corporal had been unhorsed. He blamed himself for having sent but one man on so important an errand, and he drew from this mistake an axiom for the police Code, which he afterwards applied.
“If they have got rid of the corporal,” he said to himself, “they have done as much by Violette. Those five horses have evidently brought the four conspirators and Michu from the neighborhood of Paris to the forest. Has Michu a horse?” he inquired of the gendarme who was driving him and who belonged to the squad from Arcis.
“Yes, and a famous little horse it is,” answered the man, “a hunter from the stables of the ci-devant Marquis de Simeuse. There’s no better beast, though it is nearly fifteen years old. Michu can ride him fifty miles and he won’t turn a hair. He takes mighty good care of him and wouldn’t sell him at any price.”
“What does the horse look like?”
“He’s brown, turning rather to black; white stockings above the hoofs, thin, all nerves like an Arab.”
“Did you ever see an Arab?”
“In Egypt — last year. I’ve ridden the horses of the mamelukes. We have to serve twelve years in the cavalry, and I was on the Rhine under General Steingel, after that in Italy, and then I followed the First Consul to Egypt. I’ll be a corporal soon.”
“When I get to Michu’s house go to the stable; if you have served twelve years in the cavalry you know when a horse is blown. Let me know the condition of Michu’s beast.”
“See! that’s where our corporal was thrown,” said the man, pointing to a spot where the road they were following entered the rond-point.
“Tell the captain to come and pick me up at Michu’s, and I’ll go with him to Troyes.”
So saying Corentin got down, and stood about for a few minutes examining the ground. He looked at the two elms which faced each other, — one against the park wall, the other on the bank of the rond-point; then he saw (what no one had yet noticed) the button of a uniform lying in the dust, and he picked it up. Entering the lodge he saw Violette and Michu sitting at the table in the kitchen and talking eagerly. Violette rose, bowed to Corentin, and offered him some wine.
“Thank you, no; I came to see the corporal,” said the young man, who saw with half a glance that Violette had been drunk all night.
“My wife is nursing him upstairs,” said Michu.
“Well, corporal, how are you?” said Corentin who had run up the stairs and found the gendarme with his head bandaged, and lying on Madame Michu’s bed; his hat, sabre, and shoulder-belt on a chair.
Marthe, faithful in her womanly instincts, and knowing nothing of her son’s prowess, was giving all her care to the corporal, assisted by her mother.
“We expect Monsieur Varlet the doctor from Arcis,” she said to Corentin; “our servant-lad has gone to fetch him.”
“Leave us alone for a moment,” said Corentin, a good deal surprised at the scene, which amply proved the innocence of the two women. “Where were you struck?” he asked the man, examining his uniform.
“On the breast,” replied the corporal.
“Let’s see your belt,” said Corentin.
On the yellow band with a white edge, which a recent regulation had made part of the equipment of the guard now called National, was a metal plate a good deal like that of the foresters, on which the law required the inscription of these remarkable words: “Respect to persons and to properties.” Francois’s rope had struck the belt and defaced it. Corentin took up the coat and found the place where the button he had picked up upon the road belonged.
“What time did they find you?” asked Corentin.
“About daybreak.”
“Did they bring you up here at once?” said Corentin, noticing that the bed had not been slept in.
“Yes.”
“Who brought you up?”
“The women and little Michu, who found me unconscious.”
“So!” thought Corentin: “evidently they didn’t go to bed. The corporal was not shot at, nor struck by any weapon, for an assailant must have been at his own height to strike a blow. Something, some obstacle, was in his way an
d that unhorsed him. A piece of wood? not possible! an iron chain? that would have left marks. What did you feel?” he said aloud.
“I was knocked over so suddenly — ”
“The skin is rubbed off under your chin,” said Corentin quickly.
“I think,” said the corporal, “that a rope did go over my face.”
“I have it!” cried Corentin; “somebody tied a rope from tree to tree to bar the way.”
“Like enough,” replied the corporal.
Corentin went downstairs to the kitchen.
“Come, you old rascal,” Michu was saying to Violette, “let’s make an end of this. One hundred thousand francs for the place, and you are master of my whole property. I shall retire on my income.”
“I tell you, as there’s a God in heaven, I haven’t more than sixty thousand.”
“But don’t I offer you time to pay the rest? You’ve kept me here since yesterday, arguing it. The land is in prime order.”
“Yes, the soil is good,” said Violette.
“Wife, some more wine,” cried Michu.
“Haven’t you drunk enough?” called down Marthe’s mother. “This is the fourteenth bottle since nine o’clock yesterday.”
“You have been here since nine o’clock this morning, haven’t you?” said Corentin to Violette.
“No, beg your pardon, since last night I haven’t left the place, and I’ve gained nothing after all; the more he makes me drink the more he puts up the price.”
“In all markets he who raises his elbow raises a price,” said Corentin.
A dozen empty bottles ranged along the table proved the truth of the old woman’s words. Just then the gendarme who had driven him made a sign to Corentin, who went to the door to speak to him.
“There is no horse in the stable,” said the man.
“You sent your boy on horseback to the chateau, didn’t you?” said Corentin, returning to the kitchen. “Will he be back soon?”
“No, monsieur,” said Michu, “he went on foot.”
“What have you done with your horse, then?”
“I have lent him,” said Michu, curtly.
Works of Honore De Balzac Page 884
