The False Chevalier
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE RECORD
On New Year's morning de Lotbiniere was crossing the great courtyard ofthe Louvre, when he heard the voice of Louis de Lery calling him. TheBodyguard was hurrying forward with a curl of disgust on his lip, andholding out an open letter.
The Marquis, stopping, took it with a glance of inquiry.
"More of the beast!" ejaculated Louis.
The letter was one from Madame de Lery, relating with a woman'sindignation the proceedings of Germain during his first visit to Quebec.
"_Mon Dieu!_ how disgusting," Louis exclaimed.
"More than that--it is felonious," almost shouted the Marquis, greatveins swelling upon his forehead and his hand shaking with rage. "Shouldthe monster ever land again upon the shores of France from which I drovehim, my God, I will hang him! Leave me this letter."
"The fellow is gross enough to return," said Louis scornfully. "Whatcould be plainer--his movements speak for themselves."
Here a shabby individual stepped up, handed the Marquis a note, and atthe same time beckoned the two into a corner out of the crowd. Thebillet was a scrap on which was written only--
"LECOUR."
Mystery had a fascination for de Lotbiniere. Not so for Louis, who wasimpatient that so seedy a person should presume to stop them. Still, onbeing handed the paper, he condescended to remain.
"Craving pardon, my Lord," said Jude--it was of course he--in a lowvoice, "I have word for you in this affair. Your powerful movements areknown to me."
"Indeed?"
"I know your sentiments on the impostor."
"And you wish me to buy some information from you?"
"Monsieur le Marquis--he is my enemy also: I ask no price, only yourco-operation with a humble individual like myself."
"Speak on."
"It is all letters to day, my Lord. I heard you both discuss that ofMadame de Lery."
"You are a spy, then?" asked Louis tartly, scorn flashing across hisface.
"An _observer_, Monsieur--one of the King's secret service."
"A 'Sentinel of the nation,'" the Marquis said, only the more deeplyinterested, smiling and tendering his snuff-box to Jude graciously.
"And next?" added he.
"Next, too, is a letter. I watched the mails addressed to hiscorrespondents and friends here. This is a letter to his valet."
The Marquis took it. It read--
"DOVER, _6th January, 1789_.
"MY DEAR DOMINIQUE,--Prepare for me within ten days after you receive this.
"DE LINCY."
"_Peste!_" hissed the Marquis.
Jude pressed a folded paper into his hand, slipped behind a pillar anddisappeared, and the two relatives joined the crowd. The Marquis thatday made copious entries in his journal.
His life was now entirely engrossed in the controversy with LeCour. As aFrenchman the occupation was dear to his heart. What Norman does notlove a lawsuit? What Parisian, politics? The journal became even morecomplete and exact on the matter and teemed with expressions of contemptthrust home to the heart of the absent adversary. It recapitulatedminutely the manner in which LeCour had been discovered wearing theRepentigny name; the refusal of the slayer of Philibert to punish him;the change of name to de Lincy, which de Lotbiniere shrewdly attributedto the genealogist; the conduct of de Bailleul; the real origin of theLecour family, with the history of the father; the duels with Louis, andhis vexations on account of the matter; the writer's journey to Chalons,Troyes, and Versailles, the circumstances of the disappearance ofGermain, and the news of his actions in Canada.
After bringing his account down to date with a description of thewritten proofs collected, he laid the journal aside, opened the drawerof his secretary and took out a folio sheet of an exceedingly heavywrapping-paper. This he bent over so as to make it into somethingresembling the cover of a book, then cut a lining of white unruledfoolscap for this improvised cover, and taking out his paste-pot, fittedit neatly to the inside. Next he clipped up a length of linen tape andby means of wafers attached eight pieces of it as ties to the top,bottom, and sides. The whole constituted one of those record-coverswhich he had been taught to make for the papers of special enterprisesin his profession. On the outside he pasted a small square labelled:--
+-------------------------+| PAPERS || || RELATIVE TO LECOUR, || REPENTIGNY, DE LINCY, || || ET CETERA. |+-------------------------+
There was, he considered, a fine turn of irony in "_et cetera_."
The record-cover completed, he surveyed it front and back withsatisfaction, tried the ties, read the inscription over once more, andopened it. In it he placed a long "_Extract from my journal_," writtenwith care in his beautiful handwriting and bound with a tiny ribbon.
Next, he added some letters of Collinot to himself and de Lery. Thesewere followed by copies of his own to the latter. His epistle ofreproach to de Bailleul came next. Then a genealogical memorandum of thefamily of LeGardeur. Then Madame de Lery's letter from Canada; after ita solemn statement which he had caused to be drawn by QuartermasterVillerai of Chalons. Then the folded paper left by Jude, which was acopy of the damaging entry discovered by him in the books of the churchof St. Germain-des-Pres. Some lesser documents added to these made upthe nucleus of a _dossier_ or Record--an armoury of weapons which wereto be gathered for the complete and final destruction of the usurper,should he again set foot in France.
Only a day or two passed when another letter came to him from Madame deLery. It related the actions of Germain on his second visit to Quebec,dwelling, with the rage of a proud woman, on what had passed between herhusband and the young man. Judge Panet, too, had joined his efforts tohers, and rapidly tracked Germain's intrigues from Notary d'Aguilhe tothe Judge and the young gentlemen of Montreal, and from the Governor atQuebec to the sacristy of the cathedral. He therefore was able toenclose a packet of letters and affidavits arranged in order, and whichincluded among others--
1. A long foolscap statement by d'Aguilhe, in which the Notary of St.Elphege took care to duly magnify his own dignity and precautions.
2. A copy of the Lecour petition to insert the titles into the contractof marriage.
3. A letter from Chief Justice Fraser about the granting of thepetition.
4. A copy of the marriage contract of Lecour's parents showing thealterations.
5. A letter from Lord Dorchester on the duel arbitration, addressed toMadame de Lery, and sealed with his seal.
6. One from the Bishop of Quebec.
7. A copy, signed by him, of the true birth-certificate of Germain.
8. A total repudiation by Quinson St. Ours of the affair of the banquetat Montreal.
9. A letter from General Gabriel Christie, Commander-in-Chief of theforces in Canada and proprietor of the Seigniory of Repentigny: "Ideclare upon my honour that I have never sold my Seigniory ofRepentigny."
Letters and certificates from nearly all of the most prominent of theFrench gentry of the colony concerning Lecour, his family, and hispretensions.
The affair was causing a rustle among the entire alliance, and theletters were full of the terms, "my dear cousin," "uncle," "brother,"&c.
D'Aguilhe (No. 1) said, among other things, "The probity and good faithwhich should be the basis of the actions of all men, and moreparticularly those of a _Public Person_, preserved me from condescendingto the reiterated demands made upon me by the Sieurs Lecour, father andson, to myself make the additions of the titles in question to the saidcontract, a thing which I refused absolutely, giving them plainly tounderstand that a deed received by a Notary, made and finished in hisnotariat and enregistered, was a _sacred thing_, to which it could notBE PERMITTED TO ANY ONE TO MAKE THE SLIGHTEST ALTERATION WITHOUTPROFOUND DISGRACE."
Chief Justice Fraser (No. 3) wrote: "Some time ago I heard some rumourscurrent about Monsieur LeCour, but I had no idea I had played a _role_in the affair. Here a
re the facts: In September last a Guard of hisMajesty the King of France presented himself with his papers, whichappeared to me as much in proper form as foreign papers could seem tome. He presented a petition to me to be permitted to add the names 'deLincy' and 'Esquire' to his documents. I allowed it. I had no suspicionthat the Guard or his papers were impostures. In any event, I reap fromthis incident the pleasure of corresponding with Madame de Lery."
The letter of Quinson St. Ours (No. 8) read: "Sir and dear relative,--Ishould deem myself lacking in what I owe both to you and to myself wereI to neglect to destroy the suspicion you have formed of my conduct inthe affair of Monsieur, your son, against Lecour. I can give you my wordof honour that I always refused to give my signature to his differentpetitions. My brother informs me that you say 'that several of yourfriends, and even of your relations at Montreal, certified that MonsieurLecour was a gentleman.' I am not of their number, and I do not knowthat family."
The Marquis eagerly read the packet through, digested its contents,blessed his ally Panet for his professional methodicality, and placedthe papers in order in the Record.
After the flight of more than a century, this Record, yellow and fadedand a little worm-eaten, but complete even to its wax seals, itswire-headed pins, and the thin gilt edges of the correspondence paper,lies before the writer of these pages, a vivid fragment of the old_regime_, a witness to the hatred, the activity, the very thoughts, asit were, of the enemies of Lecour, and revealing his perils from theirinner side.