The Greatest Historical Novels. Rafael Sabatini
The Freys considered the point of view, and were partially pacified. But only in so far as the past was concerned.
'This time it may be so,' said Junius. 'But there will always be danger so long as that evil-disposed woman is about. She may surprise other secrets. Chabot is not discreet. He drinks too much, and when he's drunk he's given to boasting. Sooner or later she may be in a position to ruin him, and, what is worse—oh, I am frank with you, citizen—she will be in a position to ruin those who are associated with him.'
'She must be eliminated,' said the Baron, so grimly that it startled them.
Emmanuel shivered and breathed noisily. Junius stared. 'How?'
'That's to be discovered. But discovered it must be. It is more important even than you yet realize. For very soon you may be needing Chabot's support as you have never yet needed it.'
That shook them afresh. Scared interrogation was in the eyes of both. De Batz flung his bombshell.
'It has just come to my knowledge that there is a movement on foot to demand that confiscation be decreed of the property of all foreigners resident in France.'
This was terrifying. Emmanuel, in a long shabby coat that added to his overgrown appearance, stood paralyzed, with fallen jaw. Junius, on the other hand, mixed rage with his panic. He turned purple and grew voluble. Such a thing would be an outrage. It was against the comity of nations. It must be the work of madmen. The Convention would never yield to any such demands.
'The Convention!' In utter frankness de Batz permitted himself to be scornful. 'Are you still under the delusion that the Convention governs France? It may do. But the mob governs the Convention. Vox populi, vox Dei, my dear Junius. That is the watchword of the Republic. The mob, directed by the Jacobins and the Cordeliers, is the real master. Hébert is to print an article demanding this expropriation. The demand will be so popular that the Convention will be powerless to resist it even if it has the will to do so.'
Emmanuel found his quavering voice to demand the source of the Baron's information.
'That is not important. Accept my word for it that the article is already written. Within a few days it will be printed and read. Within a few days again you will see the decree promulgated. That is inevitable.'
Junius accepted conviction. 'I suppose that sooner or later it was inevitable in such a country as this, with a people such as this.' He was bitter about the land of his adoption, this land which was being swept by the exhilarating and purifying winds of Liberty.
His conviction shattered Emmanuel's last hopeful doubt. His weak eyes looked tearfully at his sturdy brother.
'Oh, my God! Oh, my God! This is ruin! Ruin! The end of everything!'
De Batz agreed with him. 'It is certainly grave.'
Junius let his anger run free. Furiously he held forth upon his patriotic sentiments, his republicanism, his services to, and his sacrifices in, the holy cause of Liberty. He dwelt upon the friendships he had formed in the Jacobins and the Convention, spoke of the national representatives who had been free of his table and who had enjoyed even to the point of abuse the hospitality which he dispensed to all true patriots. It was unthinkable that he should be so ill-requited.
'It's an ungrateful world,' de Batz reminded him. 'Fortunately I am able to warn you in time.'
'In time? In time for what? You mock me, I think. What measures can I take?'
'You have a stout friend in Chabot.'
'Chabot! That poltroon!' Wrath was rendering Junius illuminatingly frank.
'He served you well in the matter of the corsair fleet.'
'He had to be driven to it, simple as it was. How should we drive him now, and if the decree is passed what can he do? Even he?'
'True, he would be powerless, then. You must act before the decree is promulgated.'
'Act!' Junius strode wildly about the room on his sturdy legs. 'How can I act? What is in your mind, Citizen de Batz?'
'Make his interests one with your own, so that he rises or falls with you. Oh, a moment. I have given this matter thought, for naturally it interests me, too. If you sink, my friend Moreau and I will suffer heavily in our investments with you. This is no time for half-measures, unless you are prepared to see all your wealth absorbed into the national treasury, and yourselves cast naked upon the world. Chabot can save you if you can arouse in him the courage and the will to do so.'
'Heiliger Gott! Tell me how it is to be done. How? There's the difficulty.'
'No difficulty at all. Bind Chabot to you in bonds that will make your cause his own, and so compel him for his own sake to champion it.'
'Where am I to find such bonds?' demanded Junius at the height of exasperation.
'In God's name where?' cried Emmanuel, wagging his narrow head.
'They are under your hand. The only question is, Will you care to employ them?'
'That would not be the question. I should like to know what bonds I possess that I would not employ in such an extremity.'
De Batz tapped his snuffbox and proffered it. Junius swept the courtesy aside by an impatient gesture; Emmanuel declined by a gentle shrinking. They were breathing hard in their impatience. But the Gascon was not to be hurried. Between poised finger and thumb, delicately, he held the pinch.
'Chabot is fortunately unmarried. You have an eminently marriageable and very attractive sister. Have you not observed that Chabot is susceptible to the attraction? This may offer a means to save your fortune.'
Smiling quietly upon their stupefaction, he snapped down the lid of his snuffbox with the thumb of one hand, whilst with the other he bore the pinch to his nostrils.
Junius, his feet planted wide, his dark brows knit, stood glowering at him in silence. It was Emmanuel who first found his voice.
'Not that! Not little Léopoldine! Ah, that ... that is too much! Too much!'
But de Batz paid no heed to him. He knew that decision lay with the elder brother, and that no merely emotional explosions from Emmanuel would influence it. He dusted some fragments of snuff from his cravat, and waited.
At last Junius growled a question. 'Is Chabot in this? Have you discussed it with him?'
De Batz shook his head. 'He is not even aware that the decree is to be demanded. And he should be kept in ignorance until you have him fast. That is why it is necessary to act quickly.'
'Why should you suppose that he will agree?'
'I have seen the way he looks at your sister.'
'The way he looks at her! That satyr! It's the way he looks at every woman. The result of a monastic education.'
'But Léopoldine!' Emmanuel was complaining. 'You could not contemplate it, Junius.'
'Of course not. Besides, what could it avail us in the end? And we do not even know that Chabot desires a wife.'
'The desire might be quickened.' De Batz sat back in his chair, crossing his legs. 'A dowry might determine the matter. It need not be exorbitant. Chabot's views of money are still comparatively modest. Say a couple of hundred thousand francs.'
Junius exploded. His visitor must suppose that his supplies were inexhaustible. He had to pay here and pay there and pay everywhere. He could not move without paying. He was growing tired of it.
'If you let things take their course, you'll have no more troubles of that kind,' said the sardonic de Batz. 'After all, you must one day be marrying your sister; and you will have to provide her with a dowry. Could you possibly marry her to greater advantage than to one who is already almost the first man in France and may soon stand firmly in that position! Think of your republican sentiments, my friend.'
Suspecting mockery, Junius eyed him not without malevolence.
'But