Les Dieux ont soif. English

by Anatole France

  XXIV

  There seemed no end to these trials for conspiracy in the prisons.Forty-nine accused crowded the tiers of seats. Maurice Brotteauxoccupied the right-hand corner of the topmost row,--the place of honour.He was dressed in his plum-coloured surtout, which he had brushed verycarefully the day before and mended at the pocket where his littleLucretius had ended by fretting a hole. Beside him sat the womanRochemaure, painted and powdered and patched, a brilliant and ghastlyfigure. They had put the Pere Longuemare between her and the girlAthenais, who had recovered her look of youthful freshness at theMadelonnettes.

  On the platform the gendarmes massed a number of other prisoners unknownto any of our friends, and who, as likely as not, knew nothing of eachother,--yet accomplices one and all,--lawyers, journalists, _ci-devant_nobles, citizens, and citizens' wives. The _citoyenne_ Rochemaure caughtsight of Gamelin on the jurors' bench. He had not answered her urgentletters and repeated messages; still she had not abandoned hope andthrew him a look of supplication, trying to appear fascinating andpathetic for him. But the young juror's cold glance robbed her of anyillusion she might have entertained.

  The Clerk read the act of accusation, which, succinct as was itsreference to each individual, was a lengthy document because of thegreat number accused. It began by exposing in general outline the plotconcocted in the prisons to drown the Republic in the blood of theRepresentatives of the nation and the people of Paris; then, coming toeach severally, it went on:

  "One of the most mischievous authors of this abominable conspiracy isthe man Brotteaux, once known as des Ilettes, receiver of imposts underthe tyrant. This person, who was remarkable, even in the days oftyranny, for his libertine behaviour, is a sure proof how dissolutenessand immorality are the greatest enemies of the liberty and happiness ofpeoples; as a fact, after misappropriating the public revenues andwasting in debauchery a noticeable part of the people's patrimony, theperson in question connived with his former concubine, the womanRochemaure, to enter into correspondence with the _emigres_ andtraitorously keep the faction of the foreigner informed of the state ofour finances, the movements of our troops, the fluctuations of publicopinion.

  "Brotteaux, who, at this period of his despicable life, was living inconcubinage with a prostitute he had picked up in the mud of the RueFromenteau, the girl Athenais, easily suborned her to his purposes andmade use of her to foment the counterrevolution by impudent andunpatriotic cries and indecent and traitorous speeches.

  "Sundry remarks of this ill-omened individual will afford you a clearindication of his abject views and pernicious purpose. Speaking of thepatriotic tribunal now called upon to punish him, he declaredinsultingly,--'The Revolutionary Tribunal is like a play of WilliamShakespeare, who mixes up with the most bloodthirsty scenes the mosttrivial buffooneries.' Then he was forever preaching atheism, as thesurest means of degrading the people and driving it into immorality. Inthe prison of the Conciergerie, where he was confined, he used todeplore as among the worst of calamities the victories of our valiantarmies, and tried to throw suspicion on the most patriotic Generals,crediting them with designs of tyrannicide. 'Only wait,' he would say inatrocious language which the pen is loath to reproduce, 'only wait till,some day, one of these warriors, to whom you owe your salvation,swallows you all up as the stork in the fable gobbled up the frogs.'

  "The woman Rochemaure, a _ci-devant_ noble, concubine of Brotteaux, isnot less culpable than he. Not only was she in correspondence with theforeigner and in the pay of Pitt himself, but in complicity withswindlers, such as Jullien (of Toulouse) and Chabot, associates of the_ci-devant_ Baron de Batz, she seconded that reprobate in all sorts ofcunning machinations to depreciate the shares of the Company of theIndies, buy them in at a cheap price, and then raise the quotation byartifices of an opposite tendency, to the confusion and ruin of privatefortunes and of the public funds. Incarcerated at La Bourbe and theMadelonnettes, she never ceased in prison to conspire, to dabble instocks and shares and to devote herself to attempts at corruption, tosuborn judges and jury.

  "Louis Longuemare, ex-noble, ex-capuchin, had long been practised ininfamy and crime before committing the acts of treason for which he hasto answer here. Living in a shameful promiscuity with the girl Gorcut,known as Athenais, under Brotteaux's very roof, he is the accomplice ofthe said girl and the said _ci-devant_ nobleman. During hisimprisonment at the Conciergerie he has never ceased for one single daywriting pamphlets aimed at the subversion of public liberty andsecurity.

  "It is right to say, with regard to Marthe Gorcut, known as Athenais,that prostitutes are the greatest scourge of public morality, which theyinsult, and the opprobrium of the society which they disgrace. But whyspeak at length of revolting crimes which the accused confessesshamelessly...?"

  The accusation then proceeded to pass in review the fifty-four otherprisoners, none of whom either Brotteaux, or the Pere Longuemare, or the_citoyenne_ Rochemaure, were acquainted with, except for having seenseveral of them in the prisons, but who were one and all included withthe first named in "this odious plot, with which the annals of thenation can furnish nothing to compare."

  The piece concluded by demanding the penalty of death for all theculprits.

  Brotteaux was the first to be examined:

  "You were in the plot?"

  "No, I have been in no plots. Every word is untrue in the act ofaccusation I have just heard read."

  "There, you see; you are plotting still, at this moment, to discreditthe Tribunal,"--and the President went on to the woman Rochemaure, whoanswered with despairing protestations of innocence, tears andquibblings.

  The Pere Longuemare referred himself purely and entirely to God's will.He had not even brought his written defence with him.

  All the questions put to him he answered in a spirit of resignation.Only, when the President spoke of him as a Capuchin, did the old Adamwake again in him:

  "I am not a Capuchin," he said, "I am a priest and a monk of the Orderof the Barnabites."

  "It is the same thing," returned the President good-naturedly.

  The Pere Longuemare looked at him indignantly:

  "One cannot conceive a more extraordinary error," he cried, "than toconfound with a Capuchin a monk of this Order of the Barnabites whichderives its constitutions from the Apostle Paul himself."

  The remark was greeted with a burst of laughter and hooting from thespectators, at which the Pere Longuemare, taking this derision tobetoken a denial of his proposition, announced that he would die amember of this Order of St. Barnabas, the habit of which he wore in hisheart.

  "Do you admit," asked the President, "entering into plots with the girlGorcut, known as Athenais, the same who accorded you her despicablefavours?"

  At the question, the Pere Longuemare raised his eyes sorrowfully toheaven, but made no answer; his silence expressed the surprise of anunsophisticated mind and the gravity of a man of religion who fears toutter empty words.

  "You, the girl Gorcut," the President asked, turning to Athenais, "doyou admit plotting in conjunction with Brotteaux?"

  Her answer was softly spoken:

  "Monsieur Brotteaux, to my knowledge, has done nothing but good. He is aman of the sort we should have more of; there is no better sort. Thosewho say the contrary are mistaken. That is all I have to say."

  The President asked her if she admitted having lived in concubinagewith Brotteaux. The expression had to be explained to her, as she didnot understand it. But, directly she gathered what the question meant,she answered, that would only have depended on him, but he had neverasked her.

  There was a laugh in the public galleries, and the President threatenedthe girl Gorcut to refuse her a hearing if she answered in such acynical sort again.

  At this she broke out, calling him sneak, sour face, cuckold, andspewing out over him, judges, and jury a torrent of invective, till thegendarmes dragged her from her bench and hustled her out of the hall.

  The President then proceeded to a brief examination of the r
est of theaccused, taking them in the order in which they sat on the tiers ofbenches.

  One, a man named Navette, pleaded that he could not have plotted inprison where he had only spent four days. The President observed thatthe point deserved to be considered, and begged the _citoyens_ of thejury to make a note of it. A certain Bellier said the same, and thePresident made the same remark to the jury in his favour. This mildnesson the judge's part was interpreted by some as the result of apraiseworthy scrupulosity, by others as payment due in recognition oftheir talents as informers.

  The Deputy of the Public Prosecutor spoke next. All he did was toamplify the details of the act of accusation and then to put thequestion:

  "Is it proven that Maurice Brotteaux, Louise Rochemaure, LouisLonguemare, Marthe Gorcut, known as Athenais, Eusebe Rocher, PierreGuyton-Fabulet, Marcelline Descourtis, etc., etc., are guilty offorming a conspiracy, the means whereof are assassination, starvation,the making of forged assignats and false coin, the depravation of moralsand public spirit; the aim and object, civil war, the abolition of theNational representation, the re-establishment of Royalty?"

  The jurors withdrew into the chamber of deliberation. They votedunanimously in the affirmative, only excepting the cases of theafore-named Navette and Bellier, whom the President, and following hislead, the Public Prosecutor, had put, as it were, in a separate class bythemselves.

  Gamelin stated the motives for his decision thus:

  "The guilt of the accused is self-evident; the safety of the Nationdemands their chastisement, and they ought themselves to desire theirpunishment as the only means of expiating their crimes."

  The President pronounced sentence in the absence of those it concerned.In these great days, contrary to what the law prescribed, the condemnedwere not called back again to hear their judgment read, no doubt forfear of the effects of despair on so large a number of prisoners. Aneedless apprehension, so extraordinary and so general was thesubmissiveness of the victims in those days! The Clerk of the Court camedown to the cells to read the verdict, which was listened to with suchsilence and impassivity as made it a common comparison to liken thecondemned of Prairial to trees marked down for felling.

  The _citoyenne_ Rochemaure declared herself pregnant. A surgeon, who waslikewise one of the jury, was directed to see her. She was carried outfainting to her dungeon.

  "Ah!" sighed the Pere Longuemare, "these judges and jurors are men verydeserving of pity; their state of mind is truly deplorable. They mix upeverything and confound a Barnabite with a Franciscan."

  The execution was to take place the same day at the _Barriere duTrone-Renverse_. The condemned, their toilet completed, hair cropped andshirt cut down at the neck, waited for the headsman, packed like cattlein the small room separated off from the Gaoler's office by a glazedpartition.

  When presently the executioner and his men arrived, Brotteaux, who wasquietly reading his Lucretius, put the marker at the page he had begun,shut the book, stuffed it in the pocket of his coat, and said to theBarnabite:

  "What enrages me, Reverend Father, is that I shall never convince you.We are going both of us to sleep our last sleep, and I shall not be ableto twitch you by the sleeve and tell you: 'There you see; you haveneither sensation nor consciousness left; you are inanimate. What comesafter life is like what goes before.'"

  He tried to smile; but an atrocious spasm of pain wrung his heart andvitals, and he came near fainting.

  He resumed, however:

  "Father, I let you see my weakness. I love life and I do not leave itwithout regret."

  "Sir," replied the monk gently, "take heed, you are a braver man than I,and nevertheless death troubles you more. What does that mean, if notthat I see the light, which you do not see yet?"

  "Might it not also be," said Brotteaux, "that I regret life because Ihave enjoyed it better than you, who have made it as close a copy ofdeath as possible?"

  "Sir," said the Pere Longuemare, his face paling, "this is a solemnmoment. God help me! It is plain we shall die without spiritual aid. Itmust be that in other days I have received the sacraments lukewarmly andwith a thankless heart, for Heaven to refuse me them to-day, when I havesuch pressing need of them."

  The carts were waiting. The condemned were loaded into them pell-mell,with hands tied. The woman Rochemaure, whose pregnancy had not beenverified by the surgeon, was hoisted into one of the tumbrils. Sherecovered a little of her old energy to watch the crowd of onlookers,hoping against hope to find rescuers amongst them. The throng was lessdense than formerly, and the excitement less extreme. Only a few womenscreamed, "Death! death!" or mocked those who were to die. The menmostly shrugged their shoulders, looked another way, and said nothing,whether out of prudence or from respect of the laws.

  A shudder went through the crowd when Athenais emerged from the wicket.She looked a mere child.

  She bowed her head before the monk:

  "Monsieur le Cure," she asked him, "give me absolution."

  The Pere Longuemare gravely recited the sacramental words in mutteredtones; then:

  "My daughter!" he added, "you have fallen into great disorders ofliving; but can I offer the Lord a heart as simple as yours? Would Iwere sure!"

  She climbed lightly into the cart. And there, throwing out her bosom andproudly lifting her girlish head, she cried "Vive le Roi!"

  She made a little sign to Brotteaux to show him there was a vacant placebeside her. Brotteaux helped the Barnabite to get in and came andplaced himself between the monk and the simple-hearted girl.

  "Sir," said the Pere Longuemare to the Epicurean philosopher, "I ask youa favour; this God in whom you do not yet believe, pray to Him for me.It is far from sure you are not nearer to Him than I am myself; a momentcan decide this. A second, and you may be called by the Lord to be Hishighly favoured son. Sir, pray for me."

  While the wheels were grinding over the pavement of the long FaubourgAntoine, the monk was busy, with heart and lips, reciting the prayers ofthe dying. Brotteaux's mind was fixed on recalling the lines of the poetof nature: _Sic ubi non erimus_.... Bound as he was and shaken in thevile, jolting cart, he preserved his calm and even showed a certainsolicitude to maintain an easy posture. At his side, Athenais, proud todie like the Queen of France, surveyed the crowd with haughty looks, andthe old financier, noting as a connoisseur the girl's white bosom, wasfilled with regret for the light of day.