The Greatest Historical Novels. Rafael Sabatini
voice of Emmanuel.
Chabot blew out his cheeks, and raised his shoulders; he inflated his chest. The impeachment was not one that in any case would have disturbed him. 'I am like that. What use to inveigh against it? It is no more than human, I suppose. I was never built for celibacy.'
'You should take a wife,' said Junius sternly.
'I have thought about it.'
'At the moment it would afford you a sound pretext for ridding yourself of that squinting beldame. You cannot keep a wife and a mistress under the same roof. Even the Berger must recognize that, and so she may be less vindictive than if you put her in the street for any other reason.'
Chabot was scared. 'But you've said that she is blackmailing you with her knowledge of that corsair transaction.' He got up, upsetting his chair in his perturbation. 'May God damn me, I knew I was engaging in a dangerous business. I should have sent you all to the devil before ever I ...'
'Calm, man! Calm!' Junius thundered. 'Was ever anything achieved by panic? Of what can she accuse you, after all? Are you so poorly regarded that the breath of a vindictive woman can blow you away? Where are her proofs of what she asserts? You have but to say that she lies, and the National Barber will do the rest. A little firmness, my friend. That is all you need. Show her plainly what will be the consequences of denouncing you.'
Chabot took courage.
'You are right, Junius. A patriot of my integrity, a servant of the Nation, a pillar of the Republic such as I am, is not to be dismissed upon the word of a jealous harridan. If she dares to attempt such a disservice to France, it will be my duty to immolate her upon the altar of Liberty.'
'Spoken like a Roman,' Junius commended him. 'Yours is the true spirit, Chabot. I am proud to be your friend.'
The egregious ex-Capuchin bolted the outrageous flattery. He threw back his head in proud consciousness of his worth.
'And I'll be guided by you, Junius. I will take a wife.'
'My friend!' Junius rose, and went to enfold the representative in his powerful arms. 'My friend! It is what I have hoped and desired! Thus the spiritual fraternity that already unites us through the republican sentiments we share will be strengthened by this carnal bond.' Symbolically he tightened an embrace which was already rendering the flabby Chabot a little out of breath. 'My friend! My brother!' He loosed him and turned to the younger Frey. 'Embrace him, Emmanuel. Take him to your heart in body as you have already done in spirit.'
The lanky Emmanuel complied. Chabot's breathlessness was increased by astonishment. Something here seemed to have been assumed, and he did not discern what.
'Our little Léopoldine will be overjoyed,' said Junius. 'Overjoyed.'
'Your little Léopoldine?' Chabot was in a dream.
Junius, his head on one side, was smiling benignly upon the representative.
'Millionaires and noblemen have asked for the hand of my sister, and they have been refused. The ci-devant Duke of Chartres might sue for her, and even if he were a patriot, instead of a vile aristocrat, he should not win her. If you do not take her, Chabot, nobody in France shall have her.'
Chabot's amazement became stupefaction. 'But ...' he stammered. 'But I ... I have no fortune ... I ...'
Junius interrupted him. The rich voice was raised in vehemence.
'Fortune? If you had that, you would not be the pure patriot that you are, which is why I account you worthy of my sister. She will be well-dowered, Chabot. Two hundred thousand livres; so that there may be no change in the mode of life to which we have accustomed her. And on her wedding-day we will give up to her these apartments. You shall come and live here with her. Emmanuel and I will remove ourselves to the floor above. Thus all arranges itself.'
Chabot's eyes looked as if they would drop from his face. Here, at long last, was the reward of virtue! Not for nothing had he trodden the flinty path of duty. Not for nothing had he set his hand to the plough of reform and toiled in such self-abnegation for the good of humanity and of France. His labours were at last to yield the wages due. Two hundred thousand livres, a handsome lodging and the little partridge, so plump and soft and meek.
When, the shock of surprise being spent, he was able to assure himself that all this was real, that he was not passing through a dream, he had an impulse to fall on his knees and return thanks to the betrayed God of his early days. But his stout republican spirit saved him in time from such a heresy against the newly adopted Goddess of Reason who governed this enlightened Age of Liberty.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE BAIT
If to Chabot the prospect of marriage was a dream, to Léopoldine, when she was informed of it, it was a nightmare.
For the first time in her docile young life she was in rebellion against the will of the masterful brother who was so much her senior. She would not marry the Citizen-Representative. She announced it flatly. To describe that august personage she employed such terms as hateful, detestable, repellent. He was not even clean, and she knew that he was not good.
They argued. She passed from indignant resistance to dismay when she perceived for how little her own wishes were to count. Finally she came to intercession and tears.
Emmanuel was so moved that he wept with her. But the Roman fibres of the sterner Junius remained unshaken. Aware that the weak points in her defences were her gentle kindliness of spirit and her sense of duty, he directed his attack upon these. He told her the truth. Ruin stared them in the face. Their only chance of evading it lay in this marriage. She, at least, would no longer be a foreigner; and to her they would transfer the greater part of their possessions, nominally as her dowry, actually to be held in trust for them by her and her husband.
By coming to live with them, Chabot would render their fine house in the Rue d'Anjou his domicile, and none would dare to lay impious hands upon the domicile of that august representative of the sovereign people.
So far Junius was frank with his sister. Where he practised deception was in pretending that the representative had sought her hand. In such a time of peril, far from daring to reject the suit of a statesman of Chabot's eminence, he had welcomed it as a Heaven-sent chance to save themselves and to save her at the same time. For what must her fate be if they were ruined?
He passed on to speak of Chabot. The man might be a little rough externally, but this could be improved. To so ardent a lover a hint of how to render himself more acceptable to his mistress would suffice. For the rest, that rough exterior covered a noble, kindly soul, aflame with republican zeal. Had it been otherwise, could she suppose that Junius would ever have consented to sacrifice her? All was not gold that glittered, and much that did not glitter was gold.
If all the arguments he summoned could not suffice to conquer her repugnance, at least they defeated her opposition. If thereafter she was not resigned, at least she was submissive, regarding herself as a suitable sacrificial victim for the salvation of her brothers.
But there was one whom she desired should know the truth. Perhaps she hoped that the knowledge might move him to work some miracle for her deliverance.
And so on the morrow André-Louis received the following pathetic little note:
Citizen André-Louis: My brother Junius tells me that I must marry the Citizen-Representative Chabot. That this is necessary for our security. I care nothing for my security. I would not buy it at this price, as I hope you will believe, Citizen André-Louis. But I must care for the security of my brothers. I suppose that is my duty. Women are the slaves of duty. But I do not love the Citizen Chabot. I think I am greatly to be pitied. I want you to know this. Good-bye, Citizen André-Louis. The unhappy
Léopoldine
André-Louis laid the letter before de Batz. 'You perceive the appeal