CHAPTER VII.
CITIZEN JEAN VAUQUELAS.
In April, 1793, about eight months after his arrival in Paris, Coursegolwent one evening to the Palais Egalite. The establishment, which hadformerly been known as the Palais Royal, had at that epoch a splendorand an importance of which its present appearance gives but a faintconception. One should read in the journals of those days thedescription of the galleries ever filled with an eager, bustling throngattracted by the excitement and the unwholesome amusements always to befound there. Mercier, in sharp, almost indignant language, gives us avivid picture of the famous resort. Gambling-dens, dance-halls, shopsdevoted to the sale of the most reckless and infamous productions,restaurants and wine-shops were to be seen on every side. The spirit ofspeculation and gambling raged with inconceivable violence. Vice satenthroned there, and when evening came the immense establishment wasdensely crowded by a throng of people thirsting for pleasure, andcircling round and round in the brilliantly-lighted galleries to thesound of the violins that mounted to the ears of the promenaders fromthe dance-halls in the basement below.
Coursegol frequently visited the Palais Egalite. At the instance ofBridoul he had speculated a little in assignats which were constantlyfluctuating in value. It was the only negotiation in which Coursegolwould consent to embark. He might have trafficked in the estates of theEmigres which the Republic was selling at a merely nominal price; but hehad no desire to become the owner of what he considered stolen property.After a few evenings spent in the Palais Egalite, Coursegol becameacquainted with most of the brokers who transacted business there. Theywere stout, well-fed, jovial men, whose self-satisfied and flourishingappearance seemed a stinging irony hurled in the face of the poorwretches who were perishing of hunger in the Faubourgs of Paris. Theycould be seen rushing about the garden and through the galleries, givingorders to their subordinates whose duty it was to find new clients, andto allure unsophisticated provincials, that they might rob them of theirmoney to cast it into the gulf in which the fortunes of so many had beenswallowed up.
These unprincipled persons resorted to the basest means to dupe thosewho trusted them. They called wine and reckless women to their aid, andthus disarmed the unsuspecting men who came to the money market with thehope of doubling their capital. In the Palais Egalite, conspiracies wereformed not only against the Republic but against the fortunes, theplace, and even the lives of its citizens. Still even the dreadCommittee of Public Safety were powerless to discover the formidableenemies that concealed themselves there. That Coursegol was notirretrievably lost the instant he crossed the threshold of thismysterious and dangerous cavern was due entirely to Bridoul, who hadvolunteered to act as his guide and protector. Bridoul possessed a veryconsiderable amount of influence. He presented his comrade to some ofthe fortunate speculators, and recommended him to them to such purposethat several of them took Coursegol under their protection.Quick-witted, endowed with remarkable energy and tact, and inspired byan ardent desire to acquire wealth for the sake of Dolores, he renderedthem important services on more than one occasion by lending his obscureand modest name to conceal operations in which a well-known personagecould not have embarked without peril.
Coursegol was only a peasant; but he had served in the army a long time,and contact with others had sharpened his wits, while the excellentjudgment of his old master, the Marquis de Chamondrin, had not failed toexert a most beneficial effect upon his intellectual development. Hence,though it was not without hesitation that he entered upon a career soentirely new to him, he at least brought with him not only honesty,prudence and tact, but a coolness which could not but contribute notablyto his success in those perturbed times.
On the evening to which we have alluded he went to the Palais Egalite asusual. It was after nightfall, and the restaurants were filled tooverflowing with crowds of excited people glad to forget in thedistractions of play, of speculation and of good cheer the woes of thecountry and their own degradation. Some were eagerly buying tickets thatwould entitle them to seats in the Theatre de la Republique, only ahundred paces distant; others were buying the daily papers. Some werepromenading with that careless gayety that never deserts the French evenin their darkest days, while they insolently eyed the shameless women,who, with bold gaze and naked shoulders, stood there endeavoring toattract the attention of the passers-by. Others rushed to the gamblingsaloons, already dreaming of the stroke of good fortune that wouldenlarge the rolls of assignats with which their pockets were filled.
Some promenaders approached each other with mysterious proposals, andafterwards repaired to the garden where they could converse undisturbed.It was there that many confidential interviews were held, it was therethat the most diverse hopes had birth; it was there that the Royalists,the friends and the relatives of the Emigres or of suspected personsincarcerated in prison plotted for the return of the Bourbons or for thedeliverance of the poor wretches whose lives hung upon a thread. There,too, the spies in the employ of the Committee of Public Safety, or ofthe Commune, flitted about, trying to discover any secret that might behostile to the Republic. Sometimes gloomy visaged men or women with paleand anxious looks were seen hurrying through the crowd; some man whohad been vainly seeking bread for his children; some woman whose husbandwas in the Luxembourg or in the Abbaye prisons, awaiting the dread fiatof the Revolutionary Tribunal.
These livid and despairing faces were the only blemishes upon theexuberant gayety that prevailed; but no one saw them and the poorwretches disappeared without exciting either anger or pity.
The eyes of Coursegol were accustomed to this spectacle, so he walkedcoolly through the galleries heedless of the tumult around him andpaused only when he met a group of acquaintances who were discussing thenews of the day. Suddenly some one tapped him on the shoulder. Heturned.
"Is that you, Citizen Vauquelas?"
"I wish to speak to you, Coursegol."
At the same time the man who had just interrupted Coursegol's promenadetook him by the arm and led him toward the garden. He was clad in blackand enveloped in a large cloak that would have made him look like apriest had it not been for the high hat, ornamented with the nationalcockade, which proved him a patriot of the middle class. His thin,emaciated face, deeply furrowed with wrinkles indicated that he had longsince passed his sixtieth birthday; but there was nothing else in hisappearance that betokened old age. His form was so erect, his eye soclear, his step so firm, that one, not seeing his face, would havethought him still in the prime of life.
On entering the garden, Vauquelas glanced around, but, seeing no placewhich he deemed sufficiently retired, he seemed to change his plan.
"I fear that these trees have ears," said he, "and what I wish to say toyou must not be overheard."
And without saying more, he led the way to the Cafe Corazza. Theyentered it. The saloon was filled with people, eating and drinking whilethey read the papers or indulged in heated political discussions. Oneman had mounted a table and was delivering a long discourse. He wasendeavoring to convince his listeners that France was being betrayed bythe secret agents sent to Paris by the Emigres. His was no new theme;buy the orator displayed so much energy that his audience was politeenough to seem pleased with his efforts. Vauquelas, who appeared to beperfectly at home, crossed the room to whisper a word in the ear of theman who was standing at the cashier's desk. This man, who proved to bethe proprietor of the establishment, at once conducted Vauquelas to aprivate room. Coursegol followed, and, the proprietor having taken hisdeparture, the two men found themselves alone.
"I have been contemplating the proposition I am about to make you forseveral months," Vauquelas then began. "The very first time I saw you, Imade up my mind that you were the man to aid me in the projects I hadlong since formed, but which had not been carried into execution forwant of an assistant in whom I could implicitly confide. But before Itrusted you with my plans, I wished to know you; so I have studied youclosely while you were unconscious of my scrutiny. I have admired theprudence
you have displayed in all your business transactions. You suitme; and if you see fit to accede to the proposition I am about to offerfor your consideration, our fortunes are made."
"I am listening, Citizen Vauquelas," replied Coursegol, "but I may aswell tell you that it will be useless to confide your plans to me ifthey are not perfectly honest."
"You shall judge," rejoined Vauquelas, not appearing in the leastwounded by Coursegol's remark. "Last month the Republic passed a decreeagainst the Emigres, ordering the confiscation of their property for thebenefit of the nation. This measure has been carried into execution, andthe government is now the possessor of a large amount of such property.These lands will be sold at public auction, and will fall into all sortsof hands. They will be divided and parceled out, and the rightful ownerswhen they return to France will have no power to take possession of theproperty that once belonged to them. Very well--now I have wondered ifthe purchase of a portion of this property would not be both profitableand a praiseworthy action."
"And why?" inquired Coursegol, who had been listening attentively.
"The reason is plain," replied Vauquelas. "Will it not be for theinterest of the exiled owners that their estates should be bought on themost favorable possible terms, and properly cared for. The brigands whoare now in power will fall some day; and then the Emigres will return.Will they not be glad to find their property in good and careful hands,and to be able to regain possession of it by paying the trifling sumwhich the government received for it?"
Coursegol did not reply at once, he was reflecting.
"The transactions would be honest enough," he said at last; "but if youpurchase the lands of the government to-day and sell them later to theirowners at the same price you paid for them, where would your profit comein?"
"I would pay for them in assignats; their owners would pay me in gold."
Vauquelas uttered these last words with an air of triumph; then, as iffearing Coursegol's objections, he made haste to develop his scheme.
"The assignats have already undergone a very considerable depreciation.With fifty thousand francs in gold one can, to-day, purchase at leasttwo hundred thousand francs in assignats; and the depreciation willbecome much greater. There is a piece of property in the FaubourgSaint-Germain which will be ostensibly sold for two millions by theRepublic, but which will really cost the purchaser only two hundredthousand francs; and, by and by, the owner will have no difficulty indisposing of it again for the ostensible price he paid for it, and itwill be only natural and right that he should demand gold in payment."
"And in what way could I be of service to you?" Coursegol timidlyinquired.
"By lending me your name. We will buy sometimes in your name, sometimesin mine, so we shall not arouse suspicion."
"But where shall we find the money?"
Vauquelas arose and, without the slightest hesitation, replied:
"Since I have begun to give you my confidence, I will hide nothing. Comewith me."
Vauquelas, as we have said before, had arrived at the trying age ofthree-score and ten, which, for the majority of men, is the age ofdecrepitude, that sinister forerunner of death; but time had neitherbowed his head nor enfeebled his intellect. The clearness of his mindand the vigor of his limbs indicated that he was likely to be one ofthose centenarians who carry their years so lightly that they make usthink with regret of that golden age in which the gods could conferimmortality upon man. His eye still flashed with all the ardor of youth;and in his breast glowed a fire which age was powerless to quench.Vauquelas had formerly been a magistrate in Arras. A widower, without achild for whose fate he was compelled to tremble, he had seen theapproach of the Revolution and the Reign of Terror without the slightestdismay; and the tenth of August found him in Paris, drawn there by thedesire to increase his by no means contemptible fortune, and to win thefavor of those who were then in power.
He had taken up his abode in a modest mansion at the extremity of theFaubourg du Roule. The house stood in the centre of a garden, which wasprotected from the gaze of the curious by high walls that surrounded iton every side. Served by an old woman whom he had brought from Arras, heapparently lived the life of a recluse who desires to remain a strangerto the changes and emotions of the moment, and to end his days in peaceand quietness. He received no visitors; and the people in theneighborhood thought him a poor man who had lost his family andsquandered his money in unfortunate speculations. He never left thehouse until evening and always returned very late at night. Asans-culotte, who lived near by and whose suspicions had been aroused,followed him one evening. He fancied him a conspirator, he saw him enterthe Palais Egalite, speak to several persons who seemed to listen to himwith extreme deference, and afterwards repair to the house of one of themost influential members of the Committee of Public Safety, where heremained until two o'clock in the morning, and then returned home. Theself-constituted spy concluded that he had to deal with one of theCommittee's secret agents; and he was inspired with such wholesome awethat he decided to push his investigations no further.
In reality, Vauquelas was nothing more nor less than a man tormented byan unappeasable thirst for wealth. He had only one passion: a passionfor gold. It was this that urged him--in spite of a fortune that wouldhave satisfied his modest wants ten times over--into all kinds offinancial ventures. It was this that had suggested to him the idea ofingratiating himself with the men who were in power, and thus gain theirfriendship, their influences and protection. In all the acts of thegovernment, in the great events that succeeded one another day afterday, he saw only an opportunity for speculation. Whether peace or warprevailed; whether the people obeyed the Commune or Convention; whetherthey worshipped the Supreme Being or the Goddess of Reason; whether themen condemned to death were innocent or guilty mattered little to him.These things interested him only by the effect they might produce on themoney-market. So he had allied himself in turn with the Girondists andwith the Jacobins. He had loaned money to Mirabeau; he had speculatedwith Barras and with Tallien, always placing himself at the service ofthose who held the power or seemed likely to hold it in the future.
Such was the man whose confidence Coursegol had won by his honesty andsagacity. He appeared in the pathway of Vauquelas just as the latter hadarrived at the conclusion that further speculation in assignats would beextremely hazardous, and just as he was looking about him for somereliable man who would join him in enterprises of a different and muchsafer nature. In those perilous times it was hard to find a person inwhom one could implicitly confide. Denunciation, that fatal weapon thatlay within the reach of every hand, was frequently made the instrumentof personal vengeance. No one was beyond its reach; and Vauquelas wasnot disposed to reveal his plans to a man who would be likely to betraythem or him.
It was about eight o'clock when the two men left the Cafe and thePalais Egalite, and entered one of the cabriolets that stood before thetheatre, a few steps below.
In about twenty minutes, the carriage stopped not far from theFolies-Bergeres. When the driver had been paid and dismissed, Vauquelasand Coursegol traversed the unoccupied ground that lay between the Ruedu Roule and the Champs-Elysees. The place was dark and deserted. A fewhouses, surrounded by gardens, skirted the street. Superb residenceshave since been erected there and Boulevards have been opened; but atthe time of which we write this Faubourg resembled a street in a quietcountry village. It was here that Vauquelas lived. As the two men wereapproaching the house by a path shaded with lindens, pruned into thesame uniformity as those at Versailles, an enormous dog sprang out uponthem, barking ferociously. With a word, Vauquelas quieted him; then,turning to Coursegol, he said, smiling:
"This is the guardian of my dwelling. If need be, he can hold a band ofrobbers at bay."
They reached the house and were admitted by the old servant, whoconducted them to the drawing-room.
"Give me a lantern and then go to bed, my good woman," said Vauquelas.
She disappeared, but soon returned, bearing in one hand a
doublecandlestick which she placed upon a table, and in the other the lanternfor which her master had called.
"Follow me," said Coursegol's host.
Coursegol obeyed. They left the drawing-room, passed through severalsmall and shabbily furnished apartments, and at last entered a smallpassage. Vauquelas opened a door and Coursegol saw a narrow stairwaywinding down into the cellar.
"This is my wine-cellar and it is well stocked," said Vauquelas, with asmile.
He spoke only the simple truth. Countless casks ranged along the walland long shelves filled with dusty bottles attracted Coursegol'sattention; but he could scarcely understand why Vauquelas had broughthim there if he had nothing else to show him. Suddenly the latterexclaimed:
"You asked me just now if I had money enough for the enterprise Iproposed to you. You shall judge for yourself, for I am going to revealmy secret."
As he spoke he seized a spade that stood near by, removed a few shovelsfull of earth and disclosed a large white stone slab, in the centre ofwhich was an iron ring which enabled him to lift it.
"Look!" said he.
Coursegol bent over the opening and looked in. He saw a large iron boxburied in the earth and filled with sacks of gold. The bright metalgleamed through the meshes of the coarse bags, dazzling the eye of thebeholder with its golden glory. Vauquelas seemed to enjoy Coursegol'ssurprise; but it was in vain that he tried to discover the slightestvestige of envy or avarice in the face of his visitor. Coursegol wasastonished, and perhaps dazzled by the sight of so much wealth, but noevil thought entered his mind. Vauquelas breathed more freely. He hadjust subjected the man upon whom he had bestowed his confidence to adecisive test, and he had emerged from it victorious.
"There are two millions here," he remarked.
"Two millions! Do they belong to you?"
"They belong to me."
"And you are not satisfied! You wish to acquire more!"
"Oh! it is a question of health to me. If I stopped work I should soondie; and I wish to live--life is good!"
There was a moment's silence, and Vauquelas looked tenderly at histreasure.
"Moreover, as I have told you, we shall not only make money, but performa most commendable action," he remarked after a little. "We willpurchase some of those fine houses on the Faubourg Saint-Germain, whichhave been confiscated by the government in their masters' absence. Wewill take good care of them. In some hands, they would soon fall toruin; but in ours they will increase in value, and when their formerowners return, they will find their homes in the same condition as whenthey left them. They will buy them from us, and they will be evergrateful to us. Come, my boy, make up your mind. Will you become mypartner in this enterprise?"
"I accept your offer," replied Coursegol. He saw his fortune assured ina few years, and Dolores forever out of the reach of want.
"Do you know how to write?" Vauquelas inquired.
"Not very well."
"That is bad. We must keep an account of our business operations; itwill not do to take any one else into our confidence, and I cannot dothe work myself. My eyesight is not very good."
"I will do my best," replied Coursegol, mentally cursing his ignorance.
Suddenly another plan flashed through his brain.
"Ah! now I have it," he exclaimed, eagerly. "This work that you cannotdo and that I should do so badly can be entrusted to my daughter."
"Your daughter! You have a daughter! You have never told me that youwere a married man."
Coursegol was silent for a moment; he seemed to hesitate.
"I will return confidence for confidence," he said finally.
Then he related the history of Dolores, and his own. When it was ended,Vauquelas rubbed his hands joyfully.
"She will not betray us," said he. "Ah well! Everything is for thebest."
He covered the box in which his gold was concealed with earth, and thenthe two men returned to the drawing-room. They remained in earnestconversation for some time, Vauquelas disclosing his plans for thefuture, the other listening and proffering occasional but judicioussuggestions. It was after midnight when they separated.
Coursegol walked home. Twice he was stopped by the patrols, but, thanksto the credentials he carried with him, he was allowed to pursue hisway unmolested. A week later, Dolores and Coursegol left Bridoul's houseto take up their abode in that of Vauquelas. The parting was a sad one.Cornelia Bridoul loved Dolores as fondly as the latter loved her; stillthey would have frequent opportunities to see each other, and thisthought greatly alleviated their sorrow.