CHAPTER XLIV. REMEMBRANCES.
Other events took place a few days after the fatal evening in which M.Hardy, fascinated and misled by the deplorable, mystic jargon of Rodin,had implored Father d'Aigrigny on his knees to remove him far fromParis, into some deep solitude where he might devote himself to a lifeof prayer and ascetic austerities. Marshal Simon, since his arrivalin Paris, had occupied, with his two daughters, a house in the Rue desTrois-Freres. Before introducing the reader into this modest dwelling,we are obliged to recall to his memory some preceding facts. The day ofthe burning of Hardy 's factory, Marshal Simon had come to consult withhis father on a question of the highest importance, and to communicateto him his painful apprehensions on the subject of the growing sadnessof his twin daughters, which he was unable to explain.
Marshal Simon held in religious reverence the memory of the GreatEmperor. His gratitude to the hero was boundless, his devotion blind,his enthusiasm founded upon reason, his affection warm as the mostsincere and passionate friendship. But this was not all.
One day the emperor, in a burst of joy and paternal tenderness, had ledthe marshal to the cradle of the sleeping King of Rome, and said to him,as he proudly pointed to the beautiful child: "My old friend, swear tome that you will serve the son as you have served the father!"
Marshal Simon took and kept that vow. During the Restoration, the chiefof a military conspiracy in favor of Napoleon II., he had attemptedin vain to secure a regiment of cavalry, at that time commanded bythe Marquis d'Aigrigny. Betrayed and denounced, the marshal, after adesperate duel with the future Jesuit, had succeeded in reaching Poland,and thus escaping a sentence of death. It is useless to repeat theseries of events which led the marshal from Poland to India, and thenbrought him back to Paris after the Revolution of July--an epoch atwhich a number of his old comrades in arms had solicited and obtainedfrom the government, without his knowledge, the confirmation of the rankand title which the emperor had bestowed upon him just before Waterloo.
On his return to Paris, after his long exile, in spite of all thehappiness he felt in at length embracing his children, Marshal Simon wasdeeply affected on learning the death of their mother, whom headored. Till the last moment, he had hoped to find her in Paris. Thedisappointment was dreadful, and he felt it cruelly, though he soughtconsolation in his children's affection.
But soon new causes of trouble and anxiety were interwoven with hislife by the machinations of Rodin. Thanks to the secret intrigues of thereverend father at the Courts of Rome and Vienna, one of his emissaries,in a condition to inspire full confidence, and provided with undeniableevidence to support his words, went to Marshal Simon, and said to him:"The son of the emperor is dying, the victim of the fears with which thename of Napoleon still inspires Europe.
"From this slow expiring, you, Marshal Simon, one of the emperor's mostfaithful friends, are able to rescue this unfortunate prince.
"The correspondence in my hand proves that it would be easy to openrelations, of the surest and most secret nature, with one of the mostinfluential persons about the King of Rome, and this person would bedisposed to favor the prince's escape.
"It is possible, by a bold, unexpected stroke, to deliver Napoleon II.from the custody of Austria, which would leave him to perish by inchesin an atmosphere that is fatal to him.
"The enterprise may be a rash one, but it has chances of success thatyou Marshal Simon, more than any other, could change into certainties;for your devotion to the emperor is well known, and we remember withwhat adventurous audacity you conspired, in 1815, in favor of NapoleonII."
The state of languor and decline of the King of Rome was then in Francea matter of public notoriety. People even went so far as to affirm thatthe son of the hero was carefully trained by priests, who kept him incomplete ignorance of the glory of his paternal name; and that, by themost execrable machinations, they strove day by day to extinguish everynoble and generous instinct that displayed itself in the unfortunateyouth. The coldest hearts were touched and softened at the story ofso sad and fatal a destiny. When we remember the heroic character andchivalrous loyalty of Marshal Simon, and his passionate devotion to theemperor, we can understand how the father of Rose and Blanche was moreinterested than any one else in the fate of the young prince, and how,if occasion offered, he would feel himself obliged not to confinehis efforts to mere regrets. With regard to the reality of thecorrespondence produced by Rodin's emissary, it had been submitted bythe marshal to a searching test, by means of his intimacy with one ofhis old companions in arms, who had been for a long period on a missionto Vienna, in the time of the empire. The result of this investigation,conducted with as much prudence as address, so that nothing shouldtranspire, showed that the marshal might give his serious attention tothe advances made him.
Hence, this proposition threw the father of Rose and Blanche into acruel perplexity; for, to attempt so bold and dangerous an enterprise,he must once more abandon his children; whilst, on the contrary, if,alarmed at this separation, he renounced the endeavor to save theKing of Rome, whose lingering death was perfectly true and wellauthenticated, the marshal would consider himself as false to the vowhe had sworn to the emperor. To end these painful hesitations, full ofconfidence in the inflexible uprightness of his father's character, themarshal had gone to ask his advice; unfortunately the old republicanworkman, mortally wounded during the attack on M. Hardy's factory, butstill pondering over the serious communication of his son, died withthese words upon his Lips: "My son, you have a great duty to perform,under pain of not acting like a man of honor, and of disobeying my lastwill. You must, without hesitation--"
But, by a deplorable fatality, the last words, which would havecompleted the sense of the old workman's thought, were spoken in sofeeble a voice as to be quite unintelligible. He died, leaving MarshalSimon in a worse state of anxiety, as one of the two courses open to himhad now been formally condemned by his father, in whose judgment he hadthe most implicit and merited confidence. In a word, his mind was nowtortured by the doubt whether his father had intended, in the name ofhonor and duty, to advise him not to abandon his children, to engage inso hazardous an enterprise, or whether, on the contrary, he had wishedhim to leave them for a time, to perform the vow made to the emperor,and endeavor at least to rescue Napoleon II. from a captivity that mightsoon be mortal.
This perplexity, rendered more cruel by certain circumstances, to berelated hereafter, the tragical death of his father, who had expiredin his arms; the incessant and painful remembrance of his wife, whohad perished in a land of exile; and finally, the grief he felt atperceiving the overgrowing sadness of Rose and Blanche, occasionedsevere shocks to Marshal Simon. Let us add that, in spite of his naturalintrepidity, so nobly proved by twenty years of war, the ravages of thecholera, the same terrible malady to which his wife had fallen a victimin Siberia, filled the marshal with involuntary dread. Yes, this man ofiron nerves, who had coolly braved death in so many battles, felt thehabitual firmness of his character give way at sight of the scenes ofdesolation and mourning which Paris offered at every step. Yet, whenMdlle. de Cardoville gathered round her the members of her family, towarn them against the plot of their enemies, the affectionate tendernessof Adrienne for Rose and Blanche appeared to exercise so happy aninfluence on their mysterious sorrow, that the marshal, forgetting for amoment his fatal regrets, thought only of enjoying this blessed change,which, alas! was but of short duration. Having now recalled these factsto the mind of the reader, we shall continue our story.