CHAPTER IV.
BELUS.
Madame de la Motte was not wrong in thinking that the cabriolet whichshe saw driving off contained the two ladies who had just left her.
They had, in fact, found it waiting for them on their exit. It waslightly built, open and fashionable, with high wheels, and a placebehind for a servant to stand. It was drawn by a magnificent bay horseof Irish breed, short-tailed, and plump, which was driven by the sameman whom we have already heard addressed by the name of Weber. The horsehad become so impatient with waiting, that it was with some difficultythat Weber kept him stationary.
When he saw the ladies, he said, "Madame, I intended to bring Scipio,who is gentle and easy to manage, but unluckily he received an injurylast evening, and I was forced to bring Belus, and he is ratherunmanageable."
"Oh, Weber, I do not mind in the least," said the lady; "I am well usedto driving, and not at all timid."
"I know how well madame drives, but the roads are so bad. Where are weto go?"
"To Versailles."
"By the boulevards then, madame?"
"No, Weber; it freezes hard, and the boulevards will be dreadful; thestreets will be better."
He held the horse for the ladies to get in, then jumped up behind, andthey set off at a rapid pace.
"Well, Andree, what do you think of the countess?" asked the elder lady.
"I think, madame," she replied, "that Madame de la Motte is poor andunfortunate."
"She has good manners, has she not?"
"Yes, doubtless."
"You are somewhat cold about her, Andree."
"I must confess, there is a look of cunning in her face that does notplease me."
"Oh, you are always difficult to please, Andree; to please you, one musthave every good quality. Now, I find the little countess interesting andsimple, both in her pride and in her humility."
"It is fortunate for her, madame, that she has succeeded in pleasingyou."
"Take care!" cried the lady, at the same time endeavoring to check herhorse, which nearly ran over a street-porter at the corner of the RueSt. Antoine.
"Gare!" shouted Weber, in the voice of the Stentor.
They heard the man growling and swearing, in which he was joined byseveral people near, but Belus soon carried them away from the sound,and they quickly reached the Place Baudoyer.
From thence the skilful conductress continued her rapid course down theRue de la Tisseranderie, a narrow unaristocratic street, always crowded.Thus, in spite of the reiterated warnings of herself and Weber, thenumbers began to increase around them, many of whom cried fiercely, "Oh!the cabriolet! down with the cabriolet!"
Belus, however, guided by the steady hand which held the reins, kept onhis rapid course, and not the smallest accident had yet occurred.
But in spite of this skilful progress, the people seemed discontented atthe rapid course of the cabriolet, which certainly required some care ontheir part to avoid, and the lady, perhaps half frightened at themurmurs, and knowing the present excited state of the people, onlyurged on her horse the faster to escape from them.
Thus they proceeded until they reached the Rue du Coq St. Honore, andhere had been raised one of the most beautiful of those monuments insnow of which we have spoken.
Round this a great crowd had collected, and they were obliged to stopuntil the people would make an opening for them to pass, which they didat last, but with great grumbling and discontent.
The next obstacle was at the gates of the Palais Royal, where, in acourtyard, which had been thrown open, were a host of beggars crowdinground fires which had been lighted there, and receiving soup, which theservants of M. le Duc d'Orleans were distributing to them in earthenbasins; and as in Paris a crowd collects to see everything, the numberof the spectators of this scene far exceeded that of the actors.
Here, then, they were again obliged to stop, and to their dismay, beganto hear distinctly from behind loud cries of "Down with the cabriolet!down with those that crush the poor!"
"Can it be that those cries are addressed to us?" said the elder lady toher companion.
"Indeed, madame, I fear so," she replied.
"Have we, do you think, run over any one?"
"I am sure you have not."
But still the cries seemed to increase. A crowd soon gathered roundthem, and some even seized Belus by the reins, who thereupon began tostamp and foam most furiously.
"To the magistrate! to the magistrate!" cried several voices.
The two ladies looked at each other in terror. Curious heads began topeep under the apron of the cabriolet.
"Oh, they are women," cried some; "Opera girls, doubtless," said others,"who think they have a right to crush the poor because they receive tenthousand francs a month."
A general shout hailed these words, and they began again to cry, "To themagistrate!"
The younger lady shrank back trembling with fear; the other lookedaround her with wonderful resolution, though with frowning brows andcompressed lips.
"Oh, madame," cried her companione, "for heaven's sake, take care!"
"Courage, Andree, courage!" she replied.
"But they will recognize you, madame."
"Look through the windows, if Weber is still behind the cabriolet."
"He is trying to get down, but the mob surrounds him. Ah! here hecomes."
"Weber," said the lady in German, "we will get out."
The man vigorously pushed aside those nearest the carriage, and openedthe door. The ladies jumped out, and the crowd instantly seized on thehorse and cabriolet, which would evidently soon be in pieces.
"What in heaven's name does it all mean? Do you understand it, Weber?"said the lady, still in German.
"Ma foi, no, madame," he replied, struggling to free a passage for themto pass.
"But they are not men, they are wild beasts," continued the lady; "withwhat do they possibly reproach me?"
She was answered by a voice, whose polite and gentlemanly tonecontrasted strangely with the savage murmurs of the people, and whichsaid in excellent German, "They reproach you, madame, with having bravedthe police order, which appeared this morning, and which prohibited allcabriolets, which are always dangerous, and fifty times more so in thisfrost, when people can hardly escape fast enough, from driving throughthe streets until the spring."
The lady turned, and saw she was addressed by a young officer, whosedistinguished and pleasing air, and fine figure, could not but make afavorable impression.
"Oh, mon Dieu, monsieur," she said, "I was perfectly ignorant of thisorder."
"You are a foreigner, madame?" inquired the young officer.
"Yes, sir; but tell me what I must do? they are destroying mycabriolet."
"You must let them destroy it, and take advantage of that time toescape. The people are furious just now against all the rich, and on thepretext of your breaking this regulation would conduct you before themagistrate."
"Oh, never!" cried Andree.
"Then," said the officer, laughing, "profit by the space which I shallmake in the crowd, and vanish."
The ladies gathered from his manner that he shared the opinion of thepeople as to their station, but it was no time for explanations.
"Give us your arm to a cab-stand," said the elder lady, in a voice fullof authority.
"I was going to make your horse rear, and thereby clear you a passage,"said the young man, who did not much wish to take the charge ofescorting them through the crowd; "the people will become yet moreenraged, if they hear us speaking in a language unknown to them."
"Weber," cried the lady, in a firm voice, "make Belus rear to dispersethe crowd."
"And then, madame?"
"Remain till we are gone."
"But they will destroy the carriage."
"Let them; what does that matter? save Belus if you can, but yourselfabove all."
"Yes, madame;" and a slight touch to the horse soon produced the desiredeffect of dispersing the nearest part of
the crowd, and throwing downthose who held by his reins.
"Your arm, sir!" again said the lady to the officer; "come on, petite,"turning to Andree.
"Let us go then, courageous woman," said the young man, giving his arm,with real admiration, to her who asked for it.
In a few minutes he had conducted them to a cab-stand, but the men wereall asleep on their seats.