CHAPTER L
JUDGMENT DAY
Germain, left alone in the house, bolted the door, returned withtrembling limbs to the room above and threw himself down in his chairblanched and nerveless. They who have experienced the minutes when awell-loved one hangs between life and death can alone know what hesuffered. It was now that the fleeting poverty of the ideals he had beenfollowing became visible. The elegance, the pride, the historic glamour,the fine breeding of the Old _Regime_, by which he had been fascinated,had they not fallen to pieces like a flower whose petals are scatteredin the tempest? Even the burning hope of his heart, the dream of a lifeof earthly bliss with his love, was showing its insecurity and droppingasunder. His ship was sinking in the ocean of Eternity. How futile hisintrigue, how mean his deceptions, how insufficient his excuses. TheEverlasting Presence gazed through them, and in its all-illumining blazethey fell and sank away. He saw that that which underlies life and deathand all that is, is a living Conscience, to which all must perforceconform. Pride, deception, selfishness, uncontrol of passion, the takingof that which was not his, and the injuring of honourable men--theseexcrescences he saw upon his soul, and that without their surgery itwould never be divine. He remembered the prophetic warning of hisfather that "Eternal Justice calls us to exact account"; and thepertinacity of Retribution in the matter of the Golden Dog. He saw thatthe justice of this life and the next are one, and are absolutelycomplete in their demands. One great conclusion came to him withoverwhelming force; he saw that it was the plan of Heaven that _no manmust profit by any fruit of his wrong_. He now himself must meet thatjustice and make that retribution.
At length, leaving the room, he dragged himself up the stair leading tohis own chamber, a cramped place in the flat above, bearing smallresemblance to his luxurious apartments of former days; yet around itwere hung the de Lincy family portraits; his sword of the Bodyguard layon the mantel; and in the space behind the door were the old Chevalier'siron-bound muniment-chest and his own little portmanteau gilded with hisarms.
With fevered face and icy hands he opened the latter and sought out thepacket of his proofs of _noblesse_. Then turning to the fireplacebeneath the mantel, he threw the papers one by one into it--hisfalsified birth-certificate, his father's altered marriage-contract, theletter of the gentlemen of Montreal, the apology of Councillor de Lery,the will of the Chevalier de Lincy and the attestation of theGenealogist of France. He took a flint and steel from the mantel andquickly struck spark after spark into them until they sprang intoflames. Then he added his great genealogical tree of the de Lincys,whose branches withered and quivered, like his heart, as the fireattacked the broad folds of the parchment. Packet after packet theprecious archives of the Lecours de Lincy went upon the pile until hehad emptied the muniment-chest; the fire raged and reddened into a solidmass, and they were irrevocably gone. Next he took up de Bailleul'swill--sorrowfully and hesitatingly, for it was his title to EauxTranquilles--but the following instant he threw it also on the flames.Then he deliberately cast in his Grand Cross of St. Louis and theinsignia of the Order of the Holy Ghost. His _Diamond Armorial_followed, he tore his seal, cut with the pretended coat-of-arms, fromhis watch-chain, broke up with his foot his little portmanteau, andtearing down the de Lincy portraits one by one watched all blaze up andconsume together. At last, on the top of the heap, he mournfully laidhis sword of the Bodyguard and saw its golden handle and delicate bladebegin to glow and discolour.
"Disappear, old dreams;" he murmured, "Eternal Justice visit me for all!But afflict not _her_; spare thine angel for her own sake. Oh, spare_her_."
One packet remained, which he had intentionally not destroyed. When thefire settled down a little he took a strong paper and cord, wrapped andsealed it, and addressed it for mailing as follows--
+--------------------------------------------+| RECORD OF PROOFS AGAINST G. LECOUR, || THE PROPERTY OF MONSIEUR LOUIS R. C. || DE LERY, || || _Late Bodyguard of the King of France_, || || AT QUEBEC || IN CANADA. |+--------------------------------------------+
Humbly he descended the stair once more, and placing the package on thetable of the sitting-room, sank again feverishly into his chair,prepared to confess all should Cyrene safely return.
A knocking sounded in the lower part of the house. He went to the door;the wicket showed a beggar woman, but on Mademoiselle Richevalmentioning her name he recognised her and let her in. His mind was soabsorbed that he felt no surprise. As food was what she wanted he setbefore her everything in their little larder; and while she was eatinglike one famished he forgot her presence completely. The two once sosociable persons were for a while dumb to each other.
At length, however, having satisfied her ravenous hunger, she commencedto speak of the changes which the Revolution had brought to them and towonder at his strange want of interest, when the noise of a mob crowdingaround the door was heard.
Lecour saw what might happen.
"Fly, Mademoiselle," he said; "in the courtyard there is a door on theleft, take it and pass into the next house where are good people whowill not abandon you. I must stay here."
He then went to the door at which pikes and gun-stocks were beating.
"Citizens, I am the only person in the house," said he, at an openingthey had broken in one of the panels. "What do you wish?"
For answer several pikes were thrown in; he stepped back beyond theirreach, calmly fronting the fierce faces.
"Tell me what you want. I am ready to do your will."
There was a short period of indecision outside. A muscular man in acarmagnole swinging a formidable axe pushed forward and the others fellback at his rough order.
"I arrest you, citizen Repentigny," said Hache, for it was he. "We matesof Bec and Caron that you quartered have had it in for you for a longtime. I am a commissioner now, and they call this my domiciliary visit.If you will come, I will see, on the faith of a brigand, that you get toprison safely; if not, I will see that you don't. Do you come?"
Germain calculated the seconds he had been able to save for MademoiselleRicheval. They were ample.
He opened the door and gave himself up.