CHAPTER II. THE DESCENDANTS OF THE WANDERING JEW.
That lonely wayfarer whom we have heard so plaintively urging to berelieved of his gigantic burden of misery, spoke of "his sister'sdescendants" being of all ranks, from the working man to the king's son.They were seven in number, who had, in the year 1832, been led to Paris,directly or indirectly, by a bronze medal which distinguished them fromothers, bearing these words:-VICTIM of L. C. D. J. Pray for me!
-----PARIS, February the 13th, 1682.
IN PARIS, Rue St. Francois, No. 3, In a century and a half you will be.February the 13th, 1832.
-----PRAY FOR ME!
The son of the King of Mundi had lost his father and his domains inIndia by the irresistible march of the English, and was but in titlePrince Djalma. Spite of attempts to make his departure from the Eastdelayed until after the period when he could have obeyed hismedal's command, he had reached France by the second month of 1832.Nevertheless, the results of shipwreck had detained him from Paris tillafter that date. A second possessor of this token had remained unawareof its existence, only discovered by accident. But an enemy who soughtto thwart the union of these seven members, had shut her up in amad-house, from which she was released only after that day. Not alonewas she in imprisonment. An old Bonapartist, General Simon, Marshal ofFrance, and Duke de Ligny, had left a wife in Russian exile, while he(unable to follow Napoleon to St. Helena) continued to fight the Englishin India by means of Prince Djalma's Sepoys, whom he drilled. On thelatter's defeat, he had meant to accompany his young friend to Europe,induced the more by finding that the latter's mother, a Frenchwoman, hadleft him such another bronze medal as he knew his wife to have had.
Unhappily, his wife had perished in Siberia, without his knowing it, anymore than he did, that she had left twin daughters, Rose and Blanche.Fortunately for them, one who had served their father in the Grenadiersof the Guard. Francis Baudoin, nicknamed Dagobert, undertook to fulfilthe dying mother's wishes, inspired by the medal. Saving a check atLeipsic, where one Morok the lion-tamer's panther had escaped from itscage and killed Dagobert's horse, and a subsequent imprisonment (whichthe Wandering Jew's succoring hand had terminated) the soldier and hisorphan charges had reached Paris in safety and in time. But there, arenewal of the foe's attempt had gained its end. By skillful devices,Dagobert and his son Agricola were drawn out of the way while Rose andBlanche Simon were decoyed into a nunnery, under the eyes of Dagobert'swife. But she had been bound against interfering by the influence of theJesuit confessional. The fourth was M. Hardy, a manufacturer, and thefifth, Jacques Rennepont, a drunken scamp of a workman, who were moreeasily fended off, the latter in a sponging house, the former bya friend's lure. Adrienne de Cardoville, daughter of the Count ofRennepont, who had also been Duke of Cardoville, was the lady who hadbeen unwarrantably placed in the lunatic asylum. The fifth, unawareof the medal, was Gabriel, a youth, who had been brought up, thougha foundling, in Dagobert's family, as a brother to Agricola. He hadentered holy orders, and more, was a Jesuit, in name though not inheart. Unlike the others, his return from abroad had been smoothed. Hehad signed away all his future prospects, for the benefit of the orderof Loyola, and, moreover, executed a more complete deed of transfer onthe day, the 13th of February, 1832, when he, alone of the heirs, stoodin the room of the house, No. 3, Rue St. Francois, claiming what was avast surprise for the Jesuits, who, a hundred and fifty yearsbefore, had discovered that Count Marius de Rennepont had secreted aconsiderable amount of his wealth, all of which had been confiscated tothem, in those painful days of dragoonings, and the revocation of theEdict of Nantes. They had bargained for some thirty or forty millions offrancs to be theirs, by educating Gabriel into resigning his inheritanceto them, but it was two hundred and twelve millions which the Jesuitrepresentatives (Father d'Aigrigny and his secretary, Rodin) were amazedto hear their nursling placed in possession of. They had the treasurein their hands, in fact, when a woman of strangely sad beauty hadmysteriously entered the room where the will had been read, and laida paper before the notary. It was a codicil, duly drawn up and signed,deferring the carrying out of the testament until the first day of Junethe same year. The Jesuits fled from the house, in rage and intensedisappointment. Father d'Aigrigny was so stupor-stricken at the defeat,that he bade his secretary at once write off to Rome that the Rennepontinheritance had escaped them, and hopes to seize it again were utterlyat an end. Upon this, Rodin had revolted, and shown that he hadauthority to command where he had, so far, most humbly obeyed. Many suchspies hang about their superior's heels, with full powers to become thegovernor in turn, at a moment's notice. Thenceforward, he, Rodin, hadtaken the business into his own hands. He had let Rose and Blanche Simonout of the convent into their father's arms. He had gone in person torelease Adrienne de Cardoville from the asylum. More, having led her tosigh for Prince Djalma, he prompted the latter to burn for her.
He let not M. Hardy escape. A friend whom the latter treated as abrother, had been shown up to him as a mere spy of the Jesuits; thewoman whom he adored, a wedded woman, alas! who had loved him in spiteof her vows, had been betrayed. Her mother had compelled her to hide hershame in America, and, as she had often said--"Much as you are endearedto me, I cannot waver between you and my mother!" so she had obeyed,without one farewell word to him. Confess, Rodin was a more dextrousman than his late master! In the pages that ensue farther proofs of hissuperiority in baseness and satanic heartlessness will not be wanting.