第39章

Mme.du Croisier shared Chesnel's views of the d'Esgrignons.She was a deeply religious woman, a Royalist attached to the noblesse; the interview had been in every way a cruel shock to her feelings.She, a staunch Royalist, had heard the roaring of that Liberalism, which, in her director's opinion, wished to crush the Church.The Left benches for her meant the popular upheaval and the scaffolds of 1793.

"What would your uncle, that sainted man who hears us, say to this?"exclaimed Chesnel.Mme.du Croisier made no reply, but the great tears rolled down her checks.

"You have already been the cause of one poor boy's death; his mother will go mourning all her days," continued Chesnel; he saw how his words told, but he would have struck harder and even broken this woman's heart to save Victurnien."Do you want to kill Mlle.Armande, for she would not survive the dishonor of the house for a week? Do you wish to be the death of poor Chesnel, your old notary? For I shall kill the Count in prison before they shall bring the charge against him, and take my own life afterwards, before they shall try me for murder in an Assize Court.""That is enough! that is enough, my friend! I would do anything to put a stop to such an affair; but I never knew M.du Croisier's real character until a few minutes ago.To you I can make the admission:

there is nothing to be done."

"But what if there is?"

"I would give half the blood in my veins that it were so," said she, finishing her sentence by a wistful shake of the head.

As the First Consul, beaten on the field of Marengo till five o'clock in the evening, by six o'clock saw the tide of battle turned by Desaix's desperate attack and Kellermann's terrific charge, so Chesnel in the midst of defeat saw the beginnings of victory.No one but a Chesnel, an old notary, an ex-steward of the manor, old Maitre Sorbier's junior clerk, in the sudden flash of lucidity which comes with despair, could rise thus, high as a Napoleon, nay, higher.This was not Marengo, it was Waterloo, and the Prussians had come up;Chesnel saw this, and was determined to beat them off the field.

"Madame," he said, "remember that I have been your man of business for twenty years; remember that if the d'Esgrignons mean the honor of the province, you represent the honor of the bourgeoisie; it rests with you, and you alone, to save the ancient house.Now, answer me; are you going to allow dishonor to fall on the shade of your dead uncle, on the d'Esgrignons, on poor Chesnel? Do you want to kill Mlle.Armande weeping yonder? Or do you wish to expiate wrongs done to others by a deed which will rejoice your ancestors, the intendants of the dukes of Alencon, and bring comfort to the soul of our dear Abbe? If he could rise from his grave, he would command you to do this thing that I beg of you upon my knees.""What is it?" asked Mme.du Croisier.

"Well.Here are the hundred thousand crowns," said Chesnel, drawing the bundles of notes from his pocket."Take them, and there will be an end of it.""If that is all," she began, "and if no harm can come of it to my husband----""Nothing but good," Chesnel replied."You are saving him from eternal punishment in hell, at the cost of a slight disappointment here below.""He will not be compromised, will he?" she asked, looking into Chesnel's face.

Then Chesnel read the depths of the poor wife's mind.Mme.du Croisier was hesitating between her two creeds; between wifely obedience to her husband as laid down by the Church, and obedience to the altar and the throne.Her husband, in her eyes, was acting wrongly, but she dared not blame him; she would fain save the d'Esgrignons, but she was loyal to her husband's interests.

"Not in the least," Chesnel answered; "your old notary swears it by the Holy Gospels----"He had nothing left to lose for the d'Esgrignons but his soul; he risked it now by this horrible perjury, but Mme.du Croisier must be deceived, there was no other choice but death.Without losing a moment, he dictated a form of receipt by which Mme.du Croisier acknowledged payment of a hundred thousand crowns five days before the fatal letter of exchange appeared; for he recollected that du Croisier was away from home, superintending improvements on his wife's property at the time.

"Now swear to me that you will declare before the examining magistrate that you received the money on that date," he said, when Mme.du Croisier had taken the notes and he held the receipt in his hand.

"It will be a lie, will it not?"

"Venial sin," said Chesnel.

"I could not do it without consulting my director, M.l'Abbe Couturier.""Very well," said Chesnel, "will you be guided entirely by his advice in this affair?""I promise that."

"And you must not give the money to M.du Croisier until you have been before the magistrate.""No.Ah! God give me strength to appear in a Court of Justice and maintain a lie before men!"Chesnel kissed Mme.du Croisier's hand, then stood upright, and majestic as one of the prophets that Raphael painted in the Vatican.

"You uncle's soul is thrilled with joy," he said; "you have wiped out for ever the wrong that you did by marrying an enemy of altar and throne"--words that made a lively impression on Mme.du Croisier's timorous mind.

Then Chesnel all at once bethought himself that he must make sure of the lady's director, the Abbe Couturier.He knew how obstinately devout souls can work for the triumph of their views when once they come forward for their side, and wished to secure the concurrence of the Church as early as possible.So he went to the Hotel d'Esgrignon, roused up Mlle.Armande, gave her an account of that night's work, and sped her to fetch the Bishop himself into the forefront of the battle.

"Ah, God in heaven! Thou must save the house of d'Esgrignon!" he exclaimed, as he went slowly home again."The affair is developing now into a fight in a Court of Law.We are face to face with men that have passions and interests of their own; we can get anything out of them.