CHAPTER XIII.
THE LEBRENN FAMILY.
Thus reunited, the Lebrenn family gave themselves up to those sweetestof reminiscences, the recollections of sorrows now no more. The fatherrecounted to his wife and children the tortures of his long captivity.Victoria retold the events in which she had been an actor since she hadleft them, not neglecting her affiliation with the sect of the Voyants,or "Seeing Ones." Due tribute having been paid by the family to thecivil cares of the day, the conversation turned upon their privateinterests.
John informed his father of his love for Charlotte Desmarais, and of thehope he cherished of soon uniting his destiny with hers. After listeningattentively to his son, the old man said, in a voice marked withsadness:
"Alas, my dear John, I augur no good of your love. Advocate Desmarais isrich; he belongs to the bourgeoisie, and the bourgeoisie, like thenobility, has its arrogance, its haughtiness. I much doubt whether hewill give his consent to the marriage."
"That would have been true before, good father," replied John. "Butideas have changed of late years; great progress has been made duringyour sad imprisonment. People and bourgeoisie are now but one party,united by the same interests, by the same hopes, and both resolved onending the privileges of our enemies, royalty, the Church, and thenobility. The bourgeoisie has learned that in the struggle it has joinedwith the monarchy, it has but one support, the people. If it is thehead, we are the arms. The Third Estate possesses the shining lights,the wealth; but we, of the seed of the people, we have the numbers, theforce, the courage. And then, to accomplish the revolution, ourco-operation is absolutely necessary to the bourgeoisie. They must counton the workingmen, the proletariat. We have the power and the right."
"Perhaps, my son. Yet, social prejudices are not effaced in a day. Andfor a long time to come, I fear, the bourgeois will see between himselfand the artisan the same distance which separates him, the bourgeois,from the nobility."
"Nevertheless, my friend," interposed Madam Lebrenn, "Monsieur Desmaraishas always received our son on a footing of equality, calling himfriend, and inviting him to pass his evenings with him. He has heapedupon our son many marks of his gratitude."
"Marks of gratitude, Marianne? For what?" asked the blind man. "Whatservice has our son done Monsieur Desmarais? Or is his friendshipdisinterested?"
"I did my best to insure his election to the States General," repliedthe young artisan.
"So," said the old man, thoughtfully, "advocate Desmarais owes hiselection to your efforts, to your exertions?"
"He owes it to his merit, to his value. I only suggested MonsieurDesmarais to those of our fellow citizens who had confidence in me, andall acclaimed him."
"In short, you powerfully aided in his election. I am no longerastonished that he treats you as a friend, an equal. But it is a farcry, my son, from words to acts. I doubt the sincerity of this lawyer'saffection."
"That doubt would never enter your thoughts, good father, if you knewthe excellent man. If you had heard him inveigh, as I have, against thedistinctions of birth and fortune--"
"Perhaps he had in mind only the privileges of the nobility," observedVictoria, who until then had remained grave and silent. "The prejudicesof the Third Estate are tenacious."
"I should add, dearest sister, that he idolizes his daughter so, that tosee her happy, he would sacrifice all the prejudices of his class--evenif he were still under their influence, which I can not believe. I amwell assured of that."
"And his daughter is an angel," added Madam Lebrenn. "I have seen andcan appreciate her."
"The excellence of our son's choice is not doubted," replied the oldman, half convinced. "And, after all, it may be that Monsieur Desmaraisdoes belong to that portion of the bourgeoisie which sees in theproletariat, disinherited for so many centuries, a brother to be guidedand helped along the path of emancipation. If such is the case, my son,your marriage with Mademoiselle Desmarais may be consummated, and becomethe joy of my old age."
"Brother," asked Victoria, "has Mademoiselle Desmarais informed herfamily of this projected union?"
"At our last meeting, she assured me that she would soon broach thesubject to her mother, and inform her that she had pledged me herfaith, as I have mine to her. But I can not yet tell you whether theconfidence has been made."
"Does Mademoiselle Desmarais seem to have any doubts as to the consentof her relatives?"
"Among those relatives there is an uncle, Hubert, a rich banker, whowithout doubt will oppose the project. This moneyed bourgeois entertainsfor the working class the most supreme contempt. But the violence of hisopinions has brought about a rupture between him and Monsieur Desmarais.As to the latter and his wife, Mademoiselle Charlotte has no doubt oftheir consent, by reason of the affection and esteem they have alwaysevinced for me."
"Brother," continued Victoria after a moment's reflection, "I counselyou, make your demand for the hand of Mademoiselle Charlotte this veryday. I base my advice on urgent grounds. If Monsieur Desmarais reallysees in you a friend, an equal, if his devotion to the people and therevolution is sincere, the glory you have won at the taking of theBastille can not but plead in your favor; his consent will be givenimmediately. On the contrary, if his protestations of love for thepeople have been but a mask of hypocrisy, it is better to know at oncehow to regard him; in that case, he will repulse you, or will evadegiving you a direct answer. It is not merely a question of your love,brother, but of our cause--of a grave responsibility that weighs uponyou. Your friends placed their faith in you when you asked their votesfor Monsieur Desmarais; you owe it to them, now that the occasionpresents itself, to make a decisive test, and assure yourself whetherthe convictions expressed by Monsieur Desmarais are sincere. If herefuses you the hand of his daughter, it shows that he is with us fromthe lips only, not from the heart. In that case, it will be proven thatadvocate Desmarais is a hypocrite and a traitor! Would not then yourduty, your honor, brother, demand that you unmask the double-dealer?"
"Nothing more just than what Victoria has said," declared the old man."You should, my son, go this very day and lay your suit before MonsieurDesmarais."
John thought for an instant, and answered: "You are right, father. Myline of conduct is mapped out for me. I go at once to MonsieurDesmarais's, and formally present my request for the hand of Charlotte."
"Brother," interposed Victoria, suppressing a sigh, "have you informedMonsieur Desmarais fully on our father's disappearance? He should knowall that relates to that mournful event."
"Monsieur Desmarais knows that immediately upon the publication of ahand-bill by father, he disappeared, and that we believed him dead orshut up in some state prison. He even knows the contents of the pamphletwhich father wrote, and often has he shed tears in my presence whenspeaking of the disgrace of which you were a victim at the hands ofLouis XV."
A bitter smile contracted Victoria's lips, and she replied, "My fatherhid the truth in what he wrote, in order to stigmatize the first crime,and he threw a veil over the consequences of my dishonor. Have youraised the veil which covered my life? Did you speak of the series ofassaults of which I was the victim?"
"Sister," answered John Lebrenn, "out of respect for our family, I didnot inform Monsieur Desmarais of the consequences of that first royaldishonor. I merely told him that you had been snatched from us, the sameas my father, and that we knew not what had become of you. Myconfidences did not extend beyond that."
"Your reserve was wise and prudent, dear brother. Continue to guard mysecret from Monsieur Desmarais and his daughter. For them, as for allwho know you, I must remain as dead."
"Let it be as you desire, sister. But the dissimulation weighs on myheart like an act of cowardice."
"The dissimulation is necessary to-day, brother, but it will not lastforever. When you shall have a deeper knowledge of the character of yourwife; after some years of marriage and motherhood shall have ripened herjudgment, then, and only then, you may make to her a complete confidenceof my past. Until t
hen, I must remain dead to her, as to all--except youthree and one other of our relatives, the Prince of Gerolstein, myinitiator into the Voyants. Dead I shall be to the world, but living toyou and to Franz of Gerolstein."
"This Franz of Gerolstein," asked Victoria's father, "is he not one ofthe princes of that sovereign house of Germany founded of old by thedescendants of our ancestor Gaelo the Pirate?"
"Yes, father; the heir to a reigning prince was to-day one of the mostfearless attackers of the Bastille."
At this moment a knock was heard at the door.
"Enter," cried John, and to the astonished eyes of the Lebrenn familyappeared Franz of Gerolstein. In the Prince, whom Victoria had justnamed, John recognized one of his fellow-combatants of the day.
"Franz, here is my brother, of whom I have often spoken to you," saidVictoria, taking John's hand and pressing it into that of the Prince."You are relatives--now be friends. You are both worthy, one of theother. Both march in the same path."
"My dear John--for so it is that friends and relatives of the same ageshould greet," answered Franz with cordial familiarity, affectionatelyclosing in his own hand that of the young artisan, "I know through yoursister all the good that can be thought of you. That will tell you howglad I am to meet you."
"I also, my dear Franz, am happy to find in you a relative and afriend," John made answer, no less affectionately than the Prince."Chance has made you of the sovereign race, yet you fight for thefreedom of the people."
"My dear John, I am, like you, a son of Joel, the brenn of the tribe ofKarnak. More than once, across the ages, the republican ardor of the oldGallic blood has roused itself in my plebeian race--although, by anuncouth stroke of destiny, it has been muffled under a sovereignship anda grand-ducal crown."
"Aye, we are indeed of the same blood--your words, your acts prove it,"said the blind father. "Your hand--let me also press your hand, my braveyoung man."
Franz stepped toward Monsieur Lebrenn. "I am deeply sensible of thesemarks of fatherly good-will," he said. "They console me for the rigorsof my own father, who has banished me from his presence and forbade mefrom his states."
"What can have been the cause of such severity!" rejoined the old man insurprise. "What is your crime?"
"My crime?" replied Franz, with a slight smile. "My crime consists inattaching scant weight to our sovereignty. I tried more than once tobring my father to more just, more modest appreciation of our origin.'Did not our family,' I said to him, 'come into its power through theaudacity of an adventurer? May the earth lie light on our ancestorGaelo! But he was the companion and pupil of old Rolf, a frightfulbandit, who, each spring, came to ravage the banks of the Loire and theSeine.' My father's answer was that all the crowned heads of the world,big or little, were sprung from no less savage a beginning. To which Iretorted that there would come the day when the people, enlightened asto the origin of their pretended masters, would tire of being theexploitable property, the forced laborers, the chattels of a few royalfamilies whose founders were fit for the galleys or the gibbet; and thatI feared for kings, princes, emperors and Popes lest, by some terriblereversal of things here below, the people, driven to the limit ofendurance, should treat them as their august founders deserved, and themost of them to this very day deserve to be treated."
"In good sooth," said John Lebrenn, laughing, "that language was surelysevere for a Prince to hold--and to monarchs!"
"So, my dear John, my father grew furious at my language. In fine, Iconcluded by urging him to set a great example to the other princes ofthe Germanic Confederation, by laying aside his grand-duchy. 'Layaside,' I said to him, 'a power stained with crime in its very origin,and lead the people of your states and the other German principalitiesto unite in a republic like the cantons of the Swiss, or the provincesof the Netherlands. The Poles, the Hungarians, the Moldavians, theWallachians, enslaved by Prussia, by Russia and by Austria, but trainedto republicanism by their old elective customs, will soon be attractedby the example and the cry of liberty! Then the three last powerfuldespotisms of Europe--Prussia, Austria, and Russia--will find themselveshemmed in, threatened by free peoples, and we shall soon have an end ofthese last lairs of royalty!'"
"That was preparing for the future!" the old man exclaimed. "The UnitedStates of Europe! The Universal Republic!"
"But my father preferred to hang to his throne," continued Franz. "Thenconvinced of the futility of my appeals, and holding the duty of acitizen in precedence over that of a son, I passed from word to action.With all my power and by every means at my disposal I propagated inGermany, its cradle, the society of the Illuminati; my father banishedme."
"Your account of yourself, Monsieur Gerolstein, deepens still more theesteem in which I needs must hold you," nodded the old man.
"These words of regard are doubly precious, Monsieur Lebrenn. They shalladd their bonds to those of the relationship already existent betweenus. It is in the name of those very bonds that I am about to reveal toyou one of the motives of my visit--a cordial offer of my services. Itis a blood-relation, it is a friend who speaks, Monsieur Lebrenn; do notthen, I beg of you, yield to a susceptibility in itself honorable, butperhaps exaggerated. You were a printer. For long your labor providedfor the wants of your family. But now you have lost your sight inprison; you are feeble. Madam Lebrenn is old. What are to be yourresources against the material needs of existence?"
"My health, thanks to God, is not so weakened that I can no longerwork," replied Madam Lebrenn brightly. "The presence of my husband willdouble my strength."
"And I, mother," added John, "am I not here by you? Reassure yourself,Franz, my father and mother shall want for nothing. We are,nevertheless, deeply sensible of your offer. We thank you, but wedecline, firmly."
"John, allow me to interrupt you," began the Prince. "I know from yoursister what an industrious and skilful workman you are. But, please you,let us look at the situation together. Have you been able to go to yourshop for the last four days? Considering the great events close at hand,of which the taking of the Bastille is but the precursor and sign, canyou count on the full disposition of your time? The struggle onceengaged between the nation and the royal power, will it not continueimpetuous, implacable? Is it at a season when the liberty of the peopletrembles in the balance that you ought to abandon the field of battle?And still your family must live, and it can only live by your dailylabor."
"Often have I said," exclaimed Victoria, "that the people has never hadthe time to complete the revolutions it began! or else, if they wereaccomplished promptly, decisively and overwhelmingly, the time hasalways been lacking to defend the conquest, to maintain it, consolidateit, and fructify it. The people's enemies, on the other hand, gentlemenof leisure, free from care, kings, priests, nobles or tax-farmers, haveawaited, under cover, the certain hour to ravish from the people thebenefits of its short-lived conquest."
"Alas, it is but too true," assented her father. "The time has alwaysbeen lacking--the time and the money."
"Such is the fatal verity!" continued Gerolstein. "Would that veritycould convince the people that if they can, which is rarely the case,make some little savings from their meager pay, it is not at the tavernthey should spend them. For those savings of the worker should, when theday arrives, insure to him a portion of the necessary leisure toemancipate himself. And if he has been able to put aside nothing, he isin error to yield to an exaggerated scruple of delicacy and repulse theaid fraternally offered to him by his friends in order that he may beassured one of the means to clinch his victory."
"A singular occurrence which I witnessed this morning," responded theyoung artisan, "strikingly reinforces your argument. One of my friends,a journeyman carpenter, and several others of our comrades, weregathered at break of day in the neighborhood of the Bastille, awaitingthe signal for the attack. A man simply clad, and with an opencountenance, accosted them: 'Brothers,' said he, 'you go to-day to fightfor your liberty. It is your duty. But to-day you will not go to yourshops, and will e
arn nothing. If you have families, how will they liveto-morrow? If you are bachelors, what will you live on yourselves? Allowthen, one of your unknown friends to come to your aid as a brother. Itis not an alms that I offer; I only assure you your leisure for thisgreat day, by delivering you from your cares for the morrow.'"
"That 'unknown friend' was the banker Anacharsis Clootz, the treasurerof the Voyants, and rich enough in his own name to aid our brothers fora long time to come," explained Franz in an undertone to Victoria,without interrupting John, who continued:
"My comrades accepted the offer so delicately made, without muchhesitation."
"Now, Monsieur Lebrenn, can you still shrink from accepting, as Johndoes, my tenders of service?"
"No, Monsieur Gerolstein, neither I nor my son will hesitate any furtherin accepting your generous offer, should there arise any necessity offalling back upon it," replied the father of the house.
"John," said Victoria, suddenly, "it is growing late. Go at once toMonsieur Desmarais, who is liable at any moment to leave for Versailles.Your plan must not be altered."
"True," answered the young man with a shudder. "The project is nowdoubly important. I must to it without delay."
"My friends, you know advocate Desmarais, deputy of the Third Estate inthe States General?" asked Franz of Gerolstein. "He is reputed a goodcitizen and a friend of the revolution."
"We all believe that Monsieur Desmarais is not one of those suspiciousand craven bourgeois who tremble at the revolution," John answered, ashe made toward the door. Then he returned--"Till we meet again, Franz, Ihope; meseems we are already old friends."
"Franz will await here the result of your visit, brother," saidVictoria.