The Greatest Historical Novels. Rafael Sabatini
was all the better. Chabot rose from his seat on Robespierre's immediate left to support the wish expressed by his august leader, and to propose that Delaunay himself should be included in the commission. His real object was thus to connect himself with the affair so that he, too, might be named. This followed easily and naturally. Beyond this, however, things did not quite run the prescribed course. It had been arranged that Julien and Bazire should name each other for service on that commission, and as five members would compose it, thus there would have been an overwhelming preponderance of those in the financial conspiracy.
Fabre's intervention, however, had brought him into prominence, and his nomination was inevitable. So, too, was Cambon's, who had spoken to mitigate the harshness of Fabre. To these was added Ramel, who had also intervened in the debate, and upon that, at last, the matter was closed.
That evening the conspirators, a little dismayed by the turn of events, a little dubious now of the result, foregathered in the Rue de Ménars to take counsel with André-Louis.
He was out of temper and caustic, and he lashed Bazire and Julien for having neglected to make an opportunity for themselves in the course of the debate. It would have been especially easy for Julien to have got himself appointed to the commission, considering that he was already associated in the mind of the Assembly with the affairs of the India Company.
'It was Fabre who sent things awry,' Julien accused himself.
De Batz interposed. 'Why recriminate? What does it matter? Does any man believe in the incorruptibility of that mummer? Do you know his history? Bah! You can have his soul for a hundred thousand francs.' He pulled a bundle of assignats from a drawer of the secretaire. 'Here, Chabot! Buy him with that. Thus, whatever Cambon and Ramel may wish, you will be sure of a majority on your commission.'
He had acted upon a sudden inspiration. And when those four traffickers in their mandate had taken their departure, he laughed deep in his throat as he looked at André-Louis.
'Thus things fall out even better than you designed. To entangle Fabre d'Églantine in the business as well as the others was more than I had hoped just yet! He's worth as much as Julien, Delaunay, and Bazire all added together. The gods fight on our side, André-Louis, as we might have known they would; for the gods are all aristocrats.'
Rumours that the Compagnie des Indes was about to be extinguished by order of the Convention spread immediate panic among the stockholders. Within twenty-four hours the shares had fallen even below the level last prognosticated by Delaunay. The miracle was that there should be buyers for them at any price. And yet buyers there were. At one twentieth of their real value, the shares, so fearfully cast upon the market, were instantly absorbed.
Benoît, the Angévin banker, was known to be the buyer. He was derided by his financial colleagues for his pains. He was denounced to his face as mad to pay even the vilest price for paper whose only purpose hereafter could be to wrap up bread. But Benoît remained unperturbed.
'What would you? I am a gambler. I take my chances. The commission has yet to decide the fate of the Company. If the decision is utterly ruinous to it, my loss will be none so heavy. If it is otherwise, I shall have made a fortune.'
He bought, of course, for Delaunay, Julien, and Bazire. Chabot at the last moment lacked the necessary courage. Delaunay urged him to invest the half of the hundred thousand francs he had received for supporting the scheme. But Chabot was fearful of losing it. In the end, he might not prevail with Fabre; and if Fabre remained uncorrupted, all would be lost. Already Fabre's intervention had made it impossible to lay alternative decrees before the directors of the India Company and blackmail them into buying the decree that would save them from destruction.
Delaunay reported the matter to André-Louis. André-Louis dealt with it summarily. Chabot must be implicated neck-deep, inextricably, and for this some speculation on his part was of the first importance. But this was not what André-Louis said.
What he said was: 'Chabot must stand to profit by the preservation of the Company or else he will not work for it. His cowardice will make him take the easier road, and rest content with his hundred thousand francs. If he will not buy shares himself, we must buy them for him.' He thrust upon Delaunay a wad of assignats. 'Let Benoît buy him twenty thousand francs' worth, and take them to him. Point out to him that on the day when the India Company's credit is clear of this cloud, those shares will be worth half a million. To resist that it would be necessary that Chabot should not be human. And God knows he's so human as to be almost bestial.'
Chabot's resistance did not prove insuperable. The prospect of the half-million was a persuasion, not only to accept, but also to set about the seduction of Fabre d'Églantine.
Ten days passed, and still the commission had not sat. It was time to get to work. Chabot sought Fabre, to learn when it would please him to attend to the matter. Fabre displayed indifference. 'I will suit my convenience to your own as far as I am able.'
'I will consult the others, and send you word,' Chabot replied.
The others whom he consulted were Delaunay, Julien, and Bazire, of whom only the first had any official concern in the matter. Unofficially, however, their concern was a common one.
'You may act when you please,' Julien informed him. 'And the sooner the better. We have bought to the limit of our resources.'
So they had, and another who had bought heavily, informed by his friend Delaunay of the inner movement in this business, was Benoît, himself, for his own account. The extent of his purchases gave him a more than ordinarily keen interest in the manipulation, and out of this it presently followed that he began to seek for a reason why de Batz and Moreau, whom he knew for the moving spirits in the scheme, should themselves have abstained from purchasing, neglecting so rare an opportunity of easy fortune. Benoît made exhaustive inquiries. Positively neither de Batz nor Moreau had bought a single share. What the devil was the meaning of it?
He tackled de Batz with some such question at the very first opportunity. De Batz was off his guard, and did not sufficiently weigh his reply.
'It's a speculation. I do not speculate. I trade along lines that are secure.'
'But, then, why the devil did you trouble to work out this scheme?'
And de Batz still more incautiously replied: 'I did not. It is Moreau's scheme.'
'Ah! Then why has Moreau not bought?'
De Batz affected innocence. 'Has he not? Ha! Curious!' And he changed the subject.
Benoît agreed with him in his heart that it was curious. Infernally curious. So curious that he must find the explanation of it. Since he could seek it nowhere else, he sought it of André-Louis himself upon the morrow. Fear of heavy pecuniary loss can spur some men as strongly as the fear of loss of life itself; and Benoît, whose whole existence had been dedicated to the service of Mammon, was of these. So it was a truculent, combative, dangerous Benoît who descended next morning upon André-Louis. He found the young man alone in the Rue de Ménars.
Benoît came straight to the point. André-Louis, standing before him in the Baron's gay salon, heard him with an astonishment of which he betrayed no faintest sign. His lean, keen countenance remained rigid as a mask. If before he answered in words, he uttered a short laugh, yet it was a laugh that told Benoît nothing.
'I do not know that I owe you any explanation. But I'll gratify your curiosity. I do not like the commission that has been appointed. If Fabre d'Églantine keeps of the same mind as that in which he addressed the Convention on this subject, the India Company will be extinguished.'
'Then why,' demanded the portly banker, his countenance more florid than usual this morning, his little eyes narrowed to observe the other's unrevealing countenance, 'why did you send Fabre a hundred thousand francs to change his mind? Why do you spend such a sum if you have no interest to speculate on the result?'
'Since when, Benoît, have I been accountable to you for what I choose to do? What is your right to question me?'
'My right? God of God! I have embarked two hundred and fifty thousand francs upon this scheme of yours ...'
'Of