XIV
GOURSAC AS ACCUSER
For two days, while the massacre ran its course, Paris, in terror ofa few hundred assassins, was silent and empty. Bands of maraudersscoured the streets, robbing and pillaging under pretext of the rightof search. No shops were opened, all industry was suspended, while thelaw-abiding occupied themselves with fortifying their doors againstimmediate assault.
Nicole, broken with the horror of her experience, remained in her room,in utter collapse. Barabant, who likewise was ignorant of the escapeof Dossonville, sick at heart, passed the day in the room of Goursac,mourning the fall of the Revolution of Ideas. Louison, alone of allthe court, ventured out, bringing back such tales of the ferocity ofJavogues that Goursac in his anger vowed that he would strike him down.The day was pervaded with the stillness of night. Across the roofarrived the faint traveling cries of victims; beyond that, the air wasempty.
After three days of butchery, came the reaction. The assassins, afterslaughtering indiscriminately women, children, old men, priests,forgers, and other criminals, blinded with lust of blood, hurledthemselves on La Correction, where the children of the people wereconfined, maltreated and covered with vermin. Thirty-three were led outand put to death.
Then at last Paris revolted. The Commune, itself horrified, rose upand ended the slaughter. On all sides the nursed wrath of the peopleexploded in cries of vengeance, as they thronged to the section-hallswith angry denunciations and demands for prosecution.
After two days of fever and stupor, haunted by visions of the mockingface of Louison and of Barabant, Nicole made an effort, and rising fromher bed, set out for the section-hall in the company of Genevieve.When they had entered the hot, choked hall and had taken seats, theyfound Goursac at the tribune stirring the assembly with pictures of themassacre of women and children. The audience, relieved of its personalfear, vented its anger in wild cries for vengeance. Goursac, havingdemanded the arrest and condemnation of the Terrorists, descended.
Across the boisterous hall Nicole beheld, with a sudden thrill,Barabant springing impetuously to take his place. But as he reached thetribune and turned to address the crowd, her eyes, which had followedhis every movement, were distracted by a violent interruption at theentrance. A cry of indignant anger exploded from the crowd, a cry ofdespair from Genevieve, whose fingers buried themselves in Nicole'sarm; and Nicole, seeking through the overheated, clamorous atmosphere,beheld, flanked by two companions, the wild figure of Javogues.
The crowd, taken unawares, remained vacillating; while the Marseillais,confident of his reception, advanced, and lifting his hideous arms,shouted:
"Citoyens, behold the blood of traitors and rejoice!"
No answering shout was returned.
"Citoyens, France has been purged of its tyrants!"
Nicole, shrinking from the horror of the Marseillais, was yetfascinated by his scornful courage.
For a moment the individual dominated the mass, as yet divided,awaiting the moment that should produce its leader. From somewhere inthe back came the answer:
"And La Correction? Is the blood of children also on your arms?"
At this solemn denunciation, Javogues, for the first time realizing hisdanger, drew back a step, seeking the speaker in the craning of thecrowd.
"Butcher! look this way! It is I--the Citoyen Goursac--who challengeyou."
With a sweep of his arms, Goursac freed himself and began a zigzagdescent down the benches toward his enemy, pausing at every step to cry:
"Butcher! Assassin! Cutthroat!"
Javogues, watching his approach, was at first too astounded to gatherhis senses; but when Goursac, piercing the last rows, emerged withaccusing finger, Javogues advanced a step and closed a hand over hisknife.
The mass, watching every motion of these two men, with one movement ofits hundred arms loosened its weapons. The action unified it. It becamean organism, hostile, menacing, and alert for the first outburst.
Goursac, gathering anger as he advanced, cried:
"Assassin of children! butcher of women! murderer! cutthroat! do youdare to show yourself in this assembly?"
Javogues's answer was lost in the clamor. From all quarters arrived theaccusing question:
"La Correction? La Correction?"
"I was not at La Correction!" Javogues thundered above the tumult."There is no blood of children on these arms."
"And of women?" Goursac caught up. "If you say those arms have not beenstained with the blood of women, I tell you, you lie!"
Javogues snatched up his cutlass, but, changing his tactics, appealedto the assembly:
"Hear me!"
From all sides they cried angrily:
"No! no!"
"I demand the right of speech."
"No! no!"
"Hear him!" Barabant cried from the tribune. "Condemn no man withouthearing him."
Nicole, with a swift premonition of an overhanging vengeance, startedto cry:
"No, Barabant, no!"
But Genevieve, entwining her arms about her, besought her, crying:
"Mercy, Nicole, mercy! I love him!"
At points in the crowd others caught up Barabant's cry, until, afterfive minutes of fury and storm, the noise dwindled and went out.
Javogues, facing his accusers, returned his weapon to his belt, spreadhis legs as though to withstand the impending shock, folded his arms,and ran his eye over the banks of his enemies.
"Citoyens, I have answered that I was not at La Correction. You ask meif on these arms there is the blood of women. This is my answer: I donot know!"
"He mocks us!"
"Insolent!"
"Liar!"
"Impostor!"
"This is the blood of traitors," Javogues cried when the outburst hadsubsided, "and that is all I know. Traitors have no sex. When I see atraitor, I do not stop to ask if it be man, woman, or child, old oryoung! A traitor is a traitor! Were the mother who brought me forth orthe child of my flesh to conspire against the Nation, I would stranglethem with these my own hands!"
Again the clamor rose to drown his words, but this time Goursac,rushing from side to side, shouted:
"Let him continue! Let him continue!"
"Of what I have done I am ready to give an accounting," Javoguescontinued disdainfully. "At the prison of Les Carmes, my hatchet sentdown to Hell the soul of that arch-conspirator Dulan." He lifted hisarms. "That is the blood these arms bear, and I glory in it. At theAbbaye, I myself purified the Nation of five traitors. At La Force--"
But from the angry crowd rose the cry:
"Enough! Enough!"
One voice, deep and rumbling with an accent of doom, made itself heard:
"We give the right of speech to a citoyen to defend himself, not to acriminal to recite his crimes!"
Goursac, mounting to the tribune, secured a lull.
"You have recited these executions," he cried, addressing Javogues. "Bywhat authority did you constitute yourself a judge?"
Javogues, opening his arms, said:
"By the authority of popular justice."
"Where is your warrant?"
The Marseillais did not answer. The section, seeing where he wasbeing led, kept an intense silence as Goursac's voice, rising indenunciation, continued:
"You admit these deaths. You claim popular authority. Show us yourwarrant from any popular body, from any section, and you march fromhere unmolested."
Javogues, turning to his companions, said in a low tone: "Saveyourselves. I remain." The two moved--but forward to his side.
The eyes of the assembly were on Goursac, who, white with the intensityof his passion, slowly stretched forth his finger:
"Well?" He waited a moment, his figure rigid in denunciation. "Noanswer? Then I pronounce, before this assembly, that you have lied! Ihere declare that what you have done is not the work of a judge, but ofa murderer! That when you declared you acted by popular authority, youslandered the
Nation, and tried to fasten on it the stain of your guiltand the odium of massacre!" Then assembling all his powers, he shoutedat the top of his lungs, "Slanderer of the Nation!"
He turned to the section.
"Citoyens, these are the vipers that assail every life. No one of us issafe. They threaten the Assembly. They do not conceal their desire forits massacre. But to-night we hold one, this monster, this scum of theearth. We hold him, self-confessed and convicted. Citoyens, I declareto you we shall be guilty of cowardice if we now allow this monster tolive another day!"
"Aye, to prison with them!"
"A la mort! A la mort!"
"A la guillotine!"
Above the confusion one shrill voice rose victorious, bearing the finaldecree of the mass.
"No, citoyens! A la lanterne! A la lanterne!"
The next moment all other cries were swallowed up in the wild outburst:
"A la lanterne!"
A hundred hands were stretched out to grasp the Marseillais, whenBarabant, to the despair of Nicole, flung himself in front of Javogues,and with appealing arm sought to be heard. But the torrent he facedwas relentless. He saw nothing but open mouths, clenched fists, blackbrows; pistol, knife, and hatchet tossing above the surge of arms. Hisfriends thundered in his ear:
"A la lanterne!"
Those in the back, climbing on the benches, bellowed down:
"A la lanterne!"
From the tribune, frenzied and terrible in his anger, Goursac whippedon the tempest:
"A la lanterne!"
Barabant, with all effort of his lungs, could not utter a sound againstthe storm. Those that were near shouted to him:
"Barabant, do not balk us!"
"Barabant, look out for your own neck!"
All at once, through the crowd, the terrified figure of Nicolestruggled toward him. She flung herself to his side, catching himviolently by the shoulders, panting and hysterical.
"Barabant--for my sake--Barabant--for your own safety--Barabant--if youbelieve in a woman's premonitions, do not save that viper!"
He shook his head and firmly but gently put her from him. The girl,covering her face with her hands, yielded to her despair and fell backinto the crowd; while Barabant, never flinching, fought the uproaruntil he forced the frantic audience to listen.
"This man," he cried at last, above the persisting clamor--"this man isguilty; he should die!" The uproar broke out afresh. "He has put humanbeings to death without authority from the people. He _must_ die!"
"A la lanterne!"
"Listen!"
"Shut the doors! Lock the doors!"
"But, citoyens," Barabant burst out, "neither have we the right ofdeath. Denounce him, arrest him, but obey the law. Respect the law;respect justice. Citoyens, I demand the arrestation."
The shouts rose in conflict.
"No! no!"
"Yes! yes! yes!"
"Death to him!"
"Arrest him!"
"Hang him!"
"The law! The law!"
The mob was divided, threatening to clash and annihilate itself. Theresult was a dozen times in doubt, but after half an hour of lulland tumult the verdict was for the course of the law. Barabant againmounted the tribune and put the resolution of arrest.
Javogues and the two Marseillais were led away; the storm rolled out;the hall emptied; a few loiterers straggled down the benches, staringat Nicole, who, exhausted, sobbed on the shoulder of Goursac:
"What a mistake! What a mistake!"
Barabant, leaving the tribune, approached his friends. Now that thepassions of the moment were cold, he began to doubt the wisdom of hisact.
"I could not help it, Nicole," he said, moved by her utter grief. "Itwas right, Goursac, was it not?"
Twice he repeated the question without success; nor did the otheranswer until they reached the Rue Maugout. Then, at length, hisbitterness broke through.
"Barabant," he cried, "I will say but one thing: my life is on yourhead."
"That is absurd," protested Barabant. "Javogues is in prison. He willbe condemned."
"He will not remain there one hour!" Goursac replied curtly; butconquering his dejection, he extended his hand. "Barabant, I know youmeant well--but you made a mistake. Remember what I say!"
"Meaning I have betrayed you?"
Goursac made no answer.
Barabant, turning brusquely, repeated the question:
"Citoyen, did I do wrong?"
"Barabant, my young friend," Goursac answered, avoiding the question,"when I meet a snake, I do not stop to ask if it is another's property!"
"Then I was wrong?"
"If Javogues loses his neck and we keep ours, no. If Javogues keepshis--"
He rubbed his own solicitously, it being unnecessary to complete thesentence.
* * * * *
By six o'clock the prophecy of Goursac was confirmed, and theinhabitants of the Rue Maugout learned, without astonishment, thatJavogues had been liberated and was in hiding.