The Greatest Historical Novels. Rafael Sabatini
so regard the Republic,' Chabot thundered. 'You permit yourself to jest about it. A sacrilege.'
De Batz intervened to place his purse at the disposal of the representative, so that he might acquire a share in this venture. Chabot, however, would not be tempted. If the business went awry, as well it might, for the risks connected with it were not to be denied, he would be without means to repay. He would be left in debt, and that was a dangerous situation for a Representative of the people. The Baron did not pursue the matter. He returned instead to the subject of his own investment, settling the details.
On their way home, through deserted streets, at a late hour of that summer night, André-Louis approved him.
'You were quick to take the hint, Jean.'
'Even although I did not perceive your aim. My trust in you becomes childlike, André.'
'My aim is twofold. To seduce Chabot by showing him how easily and safely he may grow rich by trusting us, and so to display our powers to the Freys that they will not venture to oppose us, whatever we demand. You shall see some pretty happenings shortly.'
But the month was out before André-Louis made any further move. He concerned himself, meanwhile, jointly with de Batz, in some transactions in émigré property by which Delaunay and Julien were allowed to profit modestly, so as to encourage them.
Then one August morning he went off alone to the Tuileries. Awaiting the end of the morning session, he paced the hall mingling with the incredibly assorted attendance attracted by different motives to this vestibule of government. The preponderance was of rough men of the people, uncouth, ill-kempt, loud of voice and foul of utterance, some of them red-capped, all making great parade of revolutionary colours. As a leaven there were amongst them a few exquisites with powdered heads and striped coats, and a goodly proportion of men of the lawyer class in sober, well-cut raiment, wearing their hair in clubs, with here and there the blue-and-white of an officer or the blue-and-red of a National Guardsman; and there were some women present, too, for the most part coarse slatterns from the markets who took an interest in politics, bare of arms and almost bare of bosom, the tricolour cockade in their mob-caps. All intermingled and rubbed shoulders on terms of the equality dictated by the revolutionary rule.
Sitting apart on one of the benches ranged against a wall, André-Louis watched the scene with interest whilst he waited, himself scarcely observed. Ever and anon when a representative or other person of consequence arrived or departed, the thin crowd would range itself aside to give him passage, its members saluting him as he passed, some respectfully, but most of them familiarly.
Many of these were known to André-Louis. There was Chabot, short, sturdy, and ill-clad, with a red cap on his brown curls, undisputedly the greatest man with the populace now that Marat was dead. Pleasantries, at once obscene and affectionate, hailed him as he strutted through the crowd, and were returned by him in kind. In contrast, there was a young man of striking beauty of face and figure, dressed with conspicuous elegance, with whom none dared take such liberties. He was deferentially greeted as he passed, and he acknowledged the greetings with a casual haughtiness which no aristocrat of the old régime could have exceeded. This was the terrible Chevalier de Saint-Just, a gentleman by birth, a rogue by nature, who had lent the fire of his eloquence and personality to hoist Robespierre to the first place in the State.
There was another, an older man, also of good presence and careful attire, languid of air and affected of manner, in whom André-Louis recognized the dramatist and legislator Fabre, who had assumed the poetical name of d'Églantine and who had attached himself to the tribune Danton.
At last among those issuing from the Convention he beheld the man he awaited, and rose to intercept him.
'A word with you on a matter of national importance, Delaunay.'
The representative used him with the deference due to the man by whom we hope to profit. They extricated themselves from the throng, and sought the bench which André-Louis had lately occupied.
'Things move slowly, Delaunay.'
'You don't reproach me with it, I hope,' the representative grumbled.
'We will never quicken them, never come to big operations until Chabot's timidity is conquered.'
'Agreed. But then?'
'This: the Freys, who control him, have sunk a fortune in a fleet of corsairs.' He supplied some details. 'An interdict upon that fleet would ruin them.'
Delaunay was startled. 'Do you want to ruin them?'
'Oh, no. Merely to temper them. Merely to bend them to the proper shape for our ends.'
André-Louis talked for some time, and evidently to some purpose; for three days later, desolation descended upon the house in the Rue d'Anjou. From the tribune of the Convention the Deputy Delaunay had denounced the corsairs as robbers. 'The Republic cannot sanction brigands by sea or land!' That had been his text. Upon this he had preached a sermon of republican virtue and probity, at the end of which he had demanded an interdict against the corsair fleet. This had been casually voted by a Convention which had little interest in the matter.
De Batz and André-Louis sought the Freys. De Batz wore an air of consternation. 'My friends, this is ruin for me!' In consternation he was answered that it was ruin for them no less.
Emmanuel was in tears, whilst Junius so far forgot himself in his rage as to inveigh against Chabot.
'That man has come here to guzzle at my table daily for the past three months; and now, when he might have stood my friend, when by a word in time he might have averted this disaster, he keeps silent and leaves us to our fate. That is a friend for you! Ah, name of God!'
'You should have made him a partner in the venture,' said de Batz. 'I attempted it; but you did not support me.'
'At least,' said André-Louis, 'make use of him in this extremity. If you don't, it is ruin. You have a responsibility towards de Batz, my friend. You will forgive my mentioning it.'
'A responsibility! Oh, my God! He was a free agent. You knew what you were doing. I laid all my cards on the table. You saw precisely what was involved. Enough that we should be ruined ourselves without being charged with responsibility for the ruin of others.'
'And it won't help. What matters is to have things corrected, to have this ban lifted. Get Chabot here. Invite him to dinner. Amongst us we must constrain him.'
Junius Frey obeyed; but he was not sanguine. He regarded an appeal to Chabot as a forlorn hope, and Chabot justified him of this when that same evening across the dinner-table it was proposed to him that he should stand their friend and procure the repeal of the interdict.
'If I were to do as you require, how should I ever justify myself before the tribunal of my conscience?'
Before the condemnation in his glance the long, bony Emmanuel seemed to wilt and even the sturdy Junius grew uncomfortable.
Giving no one time to answer him, Chabot launched himself upon an oration, a magnificent capucinade, some of the best sentiments of which were borrowed from the speech in which Delaunay had demanded the troublesome decree, but the terms of which were luridly Chabot's own. He inveighed fiercely against all dishonesty and peculation. He dwelt at length upon the corrupting power of gold which he described as the drag upon the wheels of progress towards that universal brotherhood which was to transform the earth into the likeness of a celestial abode.
'I remind you again,' André-Louis cut in dryly, 'that the Republic has abolished Heaven.'
Thrown out of his rhetorical stride, Chabot glared annoyance.
'I speak in images,' he announced.
'You should select them more in accordance with the creed of reason,' André-Louis reproved him. 'Otherwise you are in danger of being suspected of cant, a disease of which you are certainly a victim.'
To Chabot this was almost paralyzing.
'A victim of cant? I?' He could hardly speak.
'Your ardour misleads you. Your virtuous