it was the year of grace 1792, thirteen years after the events related in the last chapter. it was the 2nd of september, and sunday, a day of rest and peace in all christian countries, and even more in gay, beautiful france—a day of festivity and merriment. this sunday, however, seemed rather an exception to the general rule. there were no gay groups or bannered processions; the typical incense and the public devotion of which it is the symbol were alike wanting; the streets in some places seemed deserted, and in others there was an ominous crowd, and the [145]dreary silence was now and then broken by a distant sound of yells and cries, that struck terror into the hearts of the parisians.

it was a deserted bye-street, overlooked by some shut-up warehouses, and from the cellar of one of these a young man crept up on to the pathway. his dress had once been beautiful, but it was torn and soiled; his face was beautiful still, but it was marred by the hideous eagerness of a face on which famine has laid her hand—he was starving. as this man came out from the warehouse, another man came down the street. his dress was not beautiful, neither was he. there was a red look about him—he wore a red flannel cap, tricolour ribbons, and had something red upon his hands, which was neither ribbon nor flannel. he also looked hungry; but it was not for food. the other stopped when he saw him, and pulled something from his pocket. it was a watch, a repeater, in a gold filigree case of exquisite workmanship, with raised figures depicting the loves of an arcadian shepherd and shepherdess; and, as it lay on the white hand of its owner, it bore an evanescent fragrance that seemed to recall scenes as beautiful and as completely past as the days of pastoral perfection, when

"all the world and love were young

and truth in every shepherd's tongue."

[146]

the young man held it to the other and spoke. "it was my mother's," he said, with an appealing glance of violet eyes; "i would not part with it but that i am starving. will you get me food?"

"you are hiding?" said he of the red cap.

"is that a crime in these days?" said the other, with a smile that would in other days have been irresistible.

the man took the watch, shaded the donor's beautiful face with a rough red cap and tricolour ribbon, and bade him follow him. he, who had but lately come to paris, dragged his exhausted body after his conductor, hardly noticed the crowds in the streets, the signs by which the man got free passage for them both, or their entrance by a little side-door into a large dark building, and never knew till he was delivered to one of the gaolers that he had been led into the prison of the abbaye. then the wretch tore the cap of liberty from his victim's head, and pointed to him with a fierce laugh.

"he wants food, this aristocrat. he shall not wait long—there is a feast in the court below, which he shall join presently. see to it, antoine! and you, monsieur, mons-ieur! listen to the banqueters."

he ceased, and in the silence yells and cries from a court below came up like some horrid answer to imprecation.

[147]

the man continued—

"he has paid for his admission, this monsieur. it belonged to madame his mother. behold!"

he held the watch above his head, and dashed it with insane fury on the ground, and, bidding the gaoler see to his prisoner, rushed away to the court below.

the prisoner needed some attention. weakness, and fasting, and horror had overpowered a delicate body and a sensitive mind, and he lay senseless by the shattered relic of happier times. antoine, the gaoler (a weak-minded man whom circumstances had made cruel), looked at him with indifference while the jacobin remained in the place, and with half-suppressed pity when he had gone. the place where he lay was a hall or passage in the prison, into which several cells opened, and a number of the prisoners were gathered together at one end of it. one of them had watched the proceedings of the jacobin and his victim with profound interest, and now advanced to where the poor youth lay. he was a priest, and though thirteen years had passed over his head since we saw him in the chateau, and though toil and suffering and anxiety had added the traces of as many more, yet it would not have been difficult to recognize the towering height, the candid face, and, [148]finally, the large thumb in the little book of ——, monsieur the preceptor, who had years ago exchanged his old position for a parochial cure. he strode up to the gaoler (whose head came a little above the priest's elbow), and, drawing him aside, asked, with his old abruptness, "who is this?"

"it is the vicomte de b——. i know his face. he has escaped the commissaires for some days."

"i thought so. is his name on the registers?"

"no. he escaped arrest, and has just been brought in, as you saw."

"antoine," said the priest, in a low voice, and with a gaze that seemed to pierce the soul of the weak little gaoler; "antoine, when you were a shoemaker in the rue de la croix, in two or three hard winters i think you found me a friend."

"oh! monsieur le curé," said antoine, writhing; "if monsieur le curé would believe that if i could save his life! but—"

"pshaw!" said the priest, "it is not for myself, but for this boy. you must save him, antoine. hear me, you must. take him now to one of the lower cells and hide him. you risk nothing. his name is not on the prison register. he will not be called, he will not be missed; that fanatic will think that he has perished with the rest of us (antoine shuddered, though the priest did not move a [149]muscle) and when this mad fever has subsided and order is restored, he will reward you. and antoine—"

here the priest pocketed his book, and somewhat awkwardly with his huge hands unfastened the left side of his cassock, and tore the silk from the lining. monsieur le curé's cassock seemed a cabinet of oddities. first he pulled from this ingenious hiding-place a crucifix, which he replaced; then a knot of white ribbon, which he also restored; and, finally, a tiny pocket or bag of what had been cream-coloured satin, embroidered with small bunches of heartsease, and which was aromatic with otto of roses. awkwardly, and somewhat slowly, he drew out of this a small locket, in the centre of which was some unreadable legend in cabalistic-looking character, and which blazed with the finest diamonds. heaven alone knows the secret of that gem, or the struggle with which the priest yielded it. he put it into antoine's hand, talking as he did so partly to himself and partly to the gaoler.

"we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. the diamonds are of the finest, antoine, and will sell for much. the blessing of a dying priest upon you if you do kindly, and his curse if you do ill to this poor child, whose home was my home in better days. and for [150]the locket—it is but a remembrance, and to remember is not difficult!"

as the last observation was not addressed to antoine, so also he did not hear it. he was discontentedly watching the body of the viscount, whom he consented to help, but with genuine weak-mindedness consented ungraciously.

"how am i to get him there? monsieur le curé sees that he cannot stand upon his feet."

monsieur le curé smiled, and stooping, picked his old pupil up in his arms as if he had been a baby, and bore him to one of the doors.

"you must come no further," said antoine, hastily.

"ingrate!" muttered the priest in momentary anger, and then, ashamed, he crossed himself, and pressing the young nobleman to his bosom with the last gush of earthly affection that he was to feel, he kissed his senseless face, spoke a benediction to ears that could not hear it, and laid his burden down.

"god the father, the son, and the holy ghost, be with thee now and in the dread hour of death. adieu! we shall meet hereafter."

the look of pity, the yearning of rekindled love, the struggle of silenced memories passed from his face and left a shining calm—foretaste of the perpetual light and the eternal rest.

[151]

before he reached the other prisoners, the large thumb had found its old place in the little book, the lips formed the old old words; but it might almost have been said of him already, that "his spirit was with the god who gave it."

as for monsieur the viscount, it was perhaps well that he was not too sensible of his position, for antoine got him down the flight of stone steps that led to the cell by the simple process of dragging him by the heels. after a similar fashion he crossed the floor, and was deposited on a pallet; the gaoler then emptied a broken pitcher of water over his face, and locking the door securely, hurried back to his charge.

when monsieur the viscount came to his senses he raised himself and looked round his new abode. it was a small stone cell; it was underground, with a little grated window at the top that seemed to be level with the court; there was a pallet—painfully pressed and worn—a chair, a stone on which stood a plate and broken pitcher, and in one corner a huge bundle of firewood which mocked a place where there was no fire. stones lay scattered about, the walls were black, and in the far dark corners the wet oozed out and trickled slowly down, and lizards and other reptiles crawled up.

i suppose that the first object that attracts the [152]hopes of a new prisoner is the window of his cell, and to this, despite his weakness, monsieur the viscount crept. it afforded him little satisfaction. it was too high in the cell for him to reach it, too low in the prison to command any view, and was securely grated with iron. then he examined the walls, but not a stone was loose. as he did so, his eye fell upon the floor, and he noticed that two of the stones that lay about had been raised up by some one and a third laid upon the top. it looked like child's play, and monsieur the viscount kicked it down, and then he saw that underneath it there was a pellet of paper roughly rolled together. evidently it was something left by the former occupant of the cell for his successor. perhaps he had begun some plan for getting away which he had not had time to perfect on his own account, perhaps—but by this time the paper was spread out, and monsieur the viscount read the writing. the paper was old and yellow. it was the fly-leaf torn out of a little book, and on it was written in black chalk, the words—

"souvenez-vous du sauveur."

(remember the saviour.)

he turned it over, he turned it back again; there was no other mark; there was nothing more; and monsieur the viscount did not conceal from himself [153]that he was disappointed. how could it be otherwise? he had been bred in ease and luxury, and surrounded with everything that could make life beautiful; while ugliness, and want, and sickness, and all that make life miserable, had been kept, as far as they can be kept, from the precincts of the beautiful chateau which was his home. what were the consolations of religion to him? they are offered to those (and to those only) who need them. they were to monsieur the viscount what the crucified christ was to the greeks of old—foolishness.

he put the paper in his pocket and lay down again, feeling it the crowning disappointment of what he had lately suffered. presently, antoine came with some food; it was not dainty, but monsieur the viscount devoured it like a famished hound, and then made inquiries as to how he came and how long he had been there. when the gaoler began to describe him, whom he called the curé, monsieur the viscount's attention quickened into eagerness, an eagerness deepened by the tender interest that always hangs round the names of those whom we have known in happier and younger days. the happy memories recalled by hearing of his old tutor seemed to blot out his present misfortunes. with french excitability, he laughed and wept alternately.

"as burly as ever, you say? the little book? i remember [154] it, it was his breviary. ah! it is he. it is monsieur the preceptor, whom i have not seen for years. take me to him, bring him here, let me see him!"

but monsieur the preceptor was in paradise.

that first night of monsieur the viscount's imprisonment was a terrible one. the bitter chill of a parisian autumn, the gnawings of half-satisfied hunger, the thick walls that shut out all hope of escape but did not exclude those fearful cries that lasted with few intervals throughout the night, made it like some hideous dream. at last the morning broke; at half-past two o'clock, some members of the commune presented themselves in the hall of the national assembly with the significant announcement:—"the prisons are empty!" and antoine, who had been quaking for hours, took courage, and went with half a loaf of bread and a pitcher of water to the cell that was not "empty." he found his prisoner struggling with a knot of white ribbon, which he was trying to fasten in his hair. one glance at his face told all.

"it is the fever," said antoine; and he put down the bread and water and fetched an old blanket and a pillow; and that day and for many days, the gaoler hung above his prisoner's pallet with the tenderness of a woman. was he haunted by the vision of a burly figure that had bent over his own sick bed in the [155]rue de la croix? did the voice (once so familiar in counsel and benediction!) echo still in his ears?

"the blessing of a dying priest upon you if you do well, and his curse if you do ill to this poor child, whose home was my home in better days."

be this as it may, antoine tended his patient with all the constancy compatible with keeping his presence in the prison a secret; and it was not till the crisis was safely past, that he began to visit the cell less frequently, and reassumed the harsh manners which he held to befit his office.

monsieur the viscount's mind rambled much in his illness. he called for his mother, who had long been dead. he fancied himself in his own chateau. he thought that all his servants stood in a body before him, but that not one would move to wait on him. he thought that he had abundance of the most tempting food and cooling drinks, but placed just beyond his reach. he thought that he saw two lights like stars near together, which were close to the ground, and kept appearing and then vanishing away. in time he became more sensible; the chateau melted into the stern reality of his prison walls; the delicate food became bread and water; the servants disappeared like spectres; but in the empty cell, in the dark corners near the floor, he still fancied that he saw two sparks of light coming and going, [156] appearing and then vanishing away. he watched them till his giddy head would bear it no longer, and he closed his eyes and slept. when he awoke he was much better, but when he raised himself and turned towards the stone—there, by the bread and the broken pitcher, sat a dirty, ugly, wrinkled toad, gazing at him, monsieur the viscount, with eyes of yellow fire.

monsieur the viscount had long ago forgotten the toad which had alarmed his childhood; but his national dislike to that animal had not been lessened by years, and the toad of the prison seemed likely to fare no better than the toad of the chateau. he dragged himself from his pallet, and took up one of the large damp stones which lay about the floor of the cell, to throw at the intruder. he expected that when he approached it, the toad would crawl away, and that he could throw the stone after it; but to his surprise, the beast sat quite unmoved, looking at him with calm shining eyes, and, somehow or other, monsieur the viscount lacked strength or heart to kill it. he stood doubtful for a moment, and then a sudden feeling of weakness obliged him to drop the stone, and sit down, while tears sprang to his eyes with the sense of his helplessness.

"why should i kill it?" he said, bitterly. "the beast will live and grow fat upon this damp and [157]loathsomeness, long after they have put an end to my feeble life. it shall remain. the cell is not big, but it is big enough for us both. however large be the rooms a man builds himself to live in, it needs but little space in which to die!"

so monsieur the viscount dragged his pallet away from the toad, placed another stone by it, and removed the pitcher; and then, wearied with his efforts, lay down and slept heavily.

when he awoke, on the new stone by the pitcher was the toad, staring full at him with topaz eyes. he lay still this time and did not move, for the animal showed no intention of spitting, and he was puzzled by its tameness.

"it seems to like the sight of a man," he thought. "is it possible that any former inmate of this wretched prison can have amused his solitude by making a pet of such a creature? and if there were such a man, where is he now?"

henceforward, sleeping or waking, whenever monsieur the viscount lay down upon his pallet, the toad crawled up on to the stone, and kept watch over him with shining lustrous eyes; but whenever there was a sound of the key grating in the lock, and the gaoler coming his rounds, away crept the toad, and was quickly lost in the dark corners of the room. when the man was gone, it returned to its place, and[158] monsieur the viscount would talk to it, as he lay on his pallet.

"ah! monsieur crapaud," he would say, with mournful pleasantry, "without doubt you have had a master and a kind one; but, tell me, who was he, and where is he now? was he old or young, and was it in the last stage of maddening loneliness that he made friends with such a creature as you?"

monsieur crapaud looked very intelligent, but he made no reply, and monsieur the viscount had recourse to antoine.

"who was in this cell before me?" he asked at the gaoler's next visit.

antoine's face clouded. "monsieur le curé had this room. my orders were that he was to be imprisoned in secret.'"

monsieur le curé had this room. there was a revelation in those words. it was all explained now. the priest had always had a love for animals (and for ugly, common animals), which his pupil had by no means shared. his room at the chateau had been little less than a menagerie. he had even kept a glass beehive there, which communicated with a hole in the window through which the bees flew in and out, and he would stand for hours with his thumb in the breviary, watching the labours of his pets. and this also had been his room! this dark, damp cell.[159] here, breviary in hand, he had stood, and lain, and knelt. here, in this miserable prison, he had found something to love, and on which to expend the rare intelligence and benevolence of his nature. here, finally, in the last hours of his life, he had written on the fly-leaf of his prayer-book something to comfort his successor, and, "being dead, yet spoke" the words of consolation which he had administered in his lifetime. monsieur the viscount read that paper now with different feelings.

there is, perhaps, no argument so strong, and no virtue that so commands the respect of young men, as consistency. monsieur the preceptor's lifelong counsel and example would have done less for his pupil than was effected by the knowledge of his consistent career, now that it was past. it was not the nobility of the priest's principles that awoke in monsieur the viscount a desire to imitate his religious example, but the fact that he had applied them to his own life, not only in the time of wealth, but in the time of tribulation and in the hour of death. all that high-strung piety—that life of prayer—those unswerving admonitions to consider the vanity of earthly treasures, and to prepare for death—which had sounded so unreal amidst the perfumed elegances of the chateau, came back now with a reality gained from experiment. the daily life of [160]self-denial, the conversation garnished from scripture and from the fathers, had not, after all, been mere priestly affectations. in no symbolic manner, but literally, he had "watched for the coming of his lord," and "taken up the cross daily;" and so, when the cross was laid on him, and when the voice spoke which must speak to all, "the master is come, and calleth for thee," he bore the burden and obeyed the summons unmoved.

unmoved!—this was the fact that struck deep into the heart of monsieur the viscount, as he listened to antoine's account of the curé's imprisonment. what had astonished and overpowered his own undisciplined nature had not disturbed monsieur the preceptor. he had prayed in the chateau—he prayed in the prison. he had often spoken in the chateau of the softening and comforting influences of communion with the lower animals and with nature, and in the uncertainty of imprisonment he had tamed a toad. "none of these things had moved him," and, in a storm of grief and admiration, monsieur the viscount bewailed the memory of his tutor.

"if he had only lived to teach me!"

but he was dead, and there was nothing for monsieur the viscount but to make the most of his example. this was not so easy to follow as he [161]imagined. things seemed to be different with him to what they had been with monsieur the preceptor. he had no lofty meditations, no ardent prayers, and calm and peace seemed more distant than ever. monsieur the viscount met, in short, with all those difficulties that the soul must meet with, which, in a moment of enthusiasm, has resolved upon a higher and a better way of life, and in moments of depression is perpetually tempted to forego that resolution. his prison life was, however, a pretty severe discipline, and he held on with struggles and prayers; and so, little by little, and day by day, as the time of his imprisonment went by, the consolations of religion became a daily strength against the fretfulness of imperious temper, the sickness of hope deferred, and the dark suggestions of despair.

the term of his imprisonment was a long one. many prisoners came and went within the walls of the abbaye, but monsieur the viscount still remained in his cell; indeed, he would have gained little by leaving it if he could have done so, as he would almost certainly have been retaken. as it was, antoine on more than one occasion concealed him behind the bundles of firewood, and once or twice he narrowly escaped detection by less friendly officials. there were times when the guillotine seemed to him almost better than this long suspense: but while [162]other heads passed to the block, his remained on his shoulders; and so weeks and even months went by. and during all this time, sleeping or waking, whenever he lay down upon his pallet, the toad crept up on to the stone, and kept watch over him with lustrous eyes.

monsieur the viscount hardly acknowledged to himself the affection with which he came to regard this ugly and despicable animal. the greater part of his regard for it he believed to be due to its connection with his tutor, and the rest he set down to the score of his own humanity, and took credit to himself accordingly: whereas in truth monsieur crapaud was of incalculable service to his master, who would lie and chatter to him for hours, and almost forget his present discomfort in recalling past happiness, as he described the chateau, the gardens, the burly tutor, and beautiful madame, or laughed over his childish remembrances of the toad's teeth in claude mignon's pocket; whilst monsieur crapaud sat well-bred and silent, with a world of comprehension in his fiery eyes. whoever thinks this puerile must remember that my hero was a frenchman, and a young frenchman, with a prescriptive right to chatter for chattering's sake, and also that he had not a very highly cultivated mind of his own to converse with, even if the most highly cultivated intellect is ever a [163] reliable resource against the terrors of solitary confinement.

foolish or wise, however, monsieur the viscount's attachment strengthened daily; and one day something happened which showed his pet in a new light, and afforded him fresh amusement.

the prison was much infested with certain large black spiders, which crawled about the floor and walls; and, as monsieur the viscount was lying on his pallet, he saw one of these scramble up and over the stone on which sat monsieur crapaud. that good gentleman, whose eyes, till then, had been fixed as usual on his master, now turned his attention to the intruder. the spider, as if conscious of danger, had suddenly stopped still. monsieur crapaud gazed at it intently with his beautiful eyes, and bent himself slightly forward. so they remained for some seconds, then the spider turned round, and began suddenly to scramble away. at this instant monsieur the viscount saw his friend's eyes gleam with an intenser fire, his head was jerked forwards; it almost seemed as if something had been projected from his mouth, and drawn back again with the rapidity of lightning. then monsieur crapaud resumed his position, drew in his head, and gazed mildly and sedately before him; but the spider was nowhere to be seen.

monsieur the viscount burst into a loud laugh. [164]

"eh, well! monsieur," said he, "but this is not well-bred on your part. who gave you leave to eat my spiders? and to bolt them in such an unmannerly way, moreover."

in spite of this reproof monsieur crapaud looked in no way ashamed of himself, and i regret to state that henceforward (with the partial humaneness of mankind in general), monsieur the viscount amused himself by catching the insects (which were only too plentiful) in an old oyster-shell, and then setting them at liberty on the stone for the benefit of his friend. as for him, all appeared to be fish that came to his net—spiders and beetles, slugs and snails from the damp corners, flies, and wood-lice found on turning up the large stone, disappeared one after the other. the wood-lice were an especial amusement: when monsieur the viscount touched them, they shut up into tight little balls, and in this condition he removed them to the stone, and placed them like marbles in a row, monsieur crapaud watching the proceeding with rapt attention. after awhile the balls would slowly open and begin to crawl away; but he was a very active wood-louse indeed who escaped the suction of monsieur crapaud's tongue, as, his eyes glowing with eager enjoyment, he bolted one after another, and monsieur the viscount clapped his hands and applauded.

[165]

the grated window was a very fine field for spiders and other insects, and by piling up stones on the floor, monsieur the viscount contrived to scramble up to it, and fill his friend's oyster-shell with the prey.

one day, about a year and nine months after his first arrival at the prison, he climbed to the embrasure of the window, as usual, oyster-shell in hand. he always chose a time for this when he knew that the court would most probably be deserted, to avoid the danger of being recognized through the grating. he was, therefore, not a little startled at being disturbed in his capture of a fat black spider by a sound of something bumping against the iron bars. on looking up, he saw that a string was dangling before the window with something attached to the end of it. he drew it in, and, as he did so, he fancied that he heard a distant sound of voices and clapped hands, as if from some window above. he proceeded to examine his prize, and found that it was a little round pincushion of sand, such as women use to polish their needles with, and that, apparently, it was used as a make-weight to ensure the steady descent of a neat little letter that was tied beside it, in company with a small lead pencil. the letter was directed to "the prisoner who finds this." monsieur the viscount [166]opened it at once. this was the letter—"in prison, 24th prairial, year 2.

"fellow-sufferer, who are you? how long have you been imprisoned? be good enough to answer."

monsieur the viscount hesitated for a moment, and then determined to risk all. he tore off a bit of the paper, and with the little pencil hurriedly wrote this reply:—

"in secret, june 12, 1794.

"louis archambaud jean-marie arnaud, vicomte de b., supposed to have perished in the massacres of september, 1792. keep my secret. i have been imprisoned a year and nine months. who are you? how long have you been here?"

the letter was drawn up, and he watched anxiously for the reply. it came, and with it some sheets of blank paper.

"monsieur,—we have the honour to reply to your inquiries, and thank you for your frankness. henri edouard clermont, baron de st. claire. valerie de st. claire. we have been here but two days. accept our sympathy for your misfortunes."

four words in this note seized at once upon monsieur the viscount's interest—valerie de st. claire;—and for some reasons, which i do not pretend to explain, he decided that it was she who was the author [167]of these epistles, and the demon of curiosity forthwith took possession of his mind. who was she? was she old or young? and in which relation did she stand to monsieur le baron—that of wife, of sister, or of daughter? and from some equally inexplicable cause monsieur the viscount determined in his own mind that it was the latter. to make assurance doubly sure, however, he laid a trap to discover the real state of the case. he wrote a letter of thanks and sympathy, expressed with all the delicate chivalrous politeness of a nobleman of the old régime, and addressed it to madame la baronne. the plan succeeded. the next note he received contained these sentences:—"i am not the baroness. madame my mother is, alas! dead. i and my father are alone. he is ill, but thanks you, monsieur, for your letters, which relieve the ennui of imprisonment. are you alone?"

monsieur the viscount, as in duty bound, relieved the ennui of the baron's captivity by another epistle. before answering the last question, he turned round involuntarily, and looked to where monsieur crapaud sat by the broken pitcher. the beautiful eyes were turned towards him, and monsieur the viscount took up his pencil, and wrote hastily, "i am not alone—i have a friend."

henceforward the oyster-shell took a long time to fill, and patience seemed a harder virtue than ever. [168]perhaps the last fact had something to do with the rapid decline of monsieur the viscount's health. he became paler and weaker, and more fretful. his prayers were accompanied by greater mental struggles, and watered with more tears. he was, however, most positive in his assurances to monsieur crapaud that he knew the exact nature and cause of the malady that was consuming him. it resulted, he said, from the noxious and unwholesome condition of his cell; and he would entreat antoine to have it swept out. after some difficulty the gaoler consented.

it was nearly a month since monsieur the viscount had first been startled by the appearance of the little pincushion. the stock of paper had long been exhausted. he had torn up his cambric ruffles to write upon, and mademoiselle de st. claire had made havoc of her pocket-handkerchiefs for the same purpose. the viscount was feebler than ever, and antoine became alarmed. the cell should be swept out the next morning. he would come himself, he said, and bring another man out of the town with him to help him, for the work was heavy, and he had a touch of rheumatism. the man was a stupid fellow from the country, who had only been a week in paris; he had never heard of the viscount, and antoine would tell him that the prisoner was a certain [169]young lawyer who had really died of fever in prison the day before. monsieur the viscount thanked him; and it was not till the next morning arrived, and he was expecting them every moment, that monsieur the viscount remembered the toad, and that he would without doubt be swept away with the rest in the general clearance. at first he thought that he would beg them to leave it, but some knowledge of the petty insults which that class of men heaped upon their prisoners made him feel that this would probably be only an additional reason for their taking the animal away. there was no place to hide it in, for they would go all round the room; unless—unless monsieur the viscount took it up in his hand. and this was just what he objected to do. all his old feelings of repugnance came back; he had not even got gloves on; his long white hands were bare, he could not touch a toad. it was true that the beast had amused him, and that he had chatted to it; but, after all, this was a piece of childish folly—an unmanly way, to say the least, of relieving the tedium of captivity. what was monsieur crapaud but a very ugly (and most people said a venomous) reptile? to what a folly he had been condescending! with these thoughts, monsieur the viscount steeled himself against the glances of his topaz-eyed friend, and when the steps of the men were heard upon the stairs, [170]he did not move from the window where he had placed himself, with his back to the stone.

the steps came nearer and nearer, monsieur the viscount began to whistle—the key was rattled in the lock, and monsieur the viscount heard a bit of bread fall, as the toad hastily descended to hide itself as usual in the corners. in a moment his resolution was gone; another second, and it would be too late. he dashed after the creature, picked it up, and when the men came in he was standing with his hands behind him, in which monsieur crapaud was quietly and safely seated.

the room was swept, and antoine was preparing to go, when the other, who had been eyeing the prisoner suspiciously, stopped and said with a sharp sneer, "does the citizen always preserve that position?"

"not he," said the gaoler, good-naturedly. "he spends most of his time in bed, which saves his legs. come along, fran?ois."

"i shall not come," said the other, obstinately. "let the citizen show me his hands."

"plague take you!" said antoine, in a whisper. "what sulky fit possesses you, my comrade? let the poor wretch alone. what wouldst thou with his hands? wait a little, and thou shall have his head."

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"we should have few heads or prisoners either, if thou hadst the care of them," said fran?ois, sharply. "i say that the prisoner secretes something, and that i will see it. show your hands, dog of an aristocrat!"

monsieur the viscount set his teeth to keep himself from speaking, and held out his hands in silence, toad and all.

both the men started back with an exclamation, and fran?ois got behind his comrade, and swore over his shoulder.

monsieur the viscount stood upright and still, with a smile on his white face. "behold, citizen, what i secrete, and what i desire to keep. behold all that i have left to secrete or to desire! there is nothing more."

"throw it down!" screamed fran?ois; "many a witch has been burnt for less—throw it down."

the colour began to flood over monsieur the viscount's face; but still he spoke gently, and with bated breath. "if you wish me to suffer, citizen, let this be my witness that i have suffered. i must be very friendless to desire such a friend. i must be brought very low to ask such a favour. let the republic give me this."

"the republic has one safe rule for aristocrats," said the other; "she gives them nothing but their [172]keep till she pays for their shaving—once for all. she gave one of these dogs a few rags to dress a wound on his back with, and he made a rope of his dressings, and let himself down from the window. we will have no more such games. you may be training the beast to spit poison at good citizens. throw it down and kill it."

monsieur the viscount made no reply. his hands had moved towards his breast, against which he was holding his golden-eyed friend. there are times in life when the brute creation contrasts favourably with the lords thereof, and this was one of them. it was hard to part just now.

antoine, who had been internally cursing his own folly in bringing such a companion into the cell, now interfered. "if you are going to stay here to be bitten or spit at, fran?ois, my friend," said he, "i am not. thou art zealous, my comrade, but dull as an owl. the republic is far-sighted in her wisdom beyond thy coarse ideas, and has more ways of taking their heads from these aristocrats than one. dost thou not see?" and he tapped his forehead significantly, and looked at the prisoner; and so, between talking and pushing, got his sulky companion out of the cell, and locked the door after them.

"and so, my friend—my friend!" said monsieur the viscount, tenderly, "we are safe once more; but [173]it will not be for long, my crapaud. something tells me that i cannot much longer be overlooked. a little while, and i shall be gone; and thou wilt have, perchance, another master, when i am summoned before mine."

monsieur the viscount's misgivings were just. fran?ois, on whose stupidity antoine had relied, was (as is not uncommon with people stupid in other respects) just clever enough to be mischievous. antoine's evident alarm made him suspicious, and he began to talk about the too-elegant-looking young lawyer who was imprisoned "in secret," and permitted by the gaoler to keep venomous beasts. antoine was examined and committed to one of his own cells, and monsieur the viscount was summoned before the revolutionary tribunal.

there was little need even for the scanty inquiry that in those days preceded sentence. in every line of his beautiful face, marred as it was by sickness and suffering—in the unconquerable dignity, which dirt and raggedness were powerless to hide, the fatal nobility of his birth and breeding were betrayed. when he returned to the ante-room, he did not positively know his fate; but in his mind there was a moral certainty that left him no hope.

the room was filled with other prisoners awaiting trial; and, as he entered, his eyes wandered round it [174]to see if there were any familiar faces. they fell upon two figures standing with their backs to him—a tall, fierce-looking man, who, despite his height and fierceness, had a restless, nervous despondency expressed in all his movements; and a young girl who leant on his arm as if for support, but whose steady quietude gave her more the air of a supporter. without seeing their faces, and for no reasonable reason, monsieur the viscount decided with himself that they were the baron and his daughter, and he begged the man who was conducting him for a moment's delay. the man consented. france was becoming sick of unmitigated carnage, and even the executioners sometimes indulged in pity by way of a change.

as monsieur the viscount approached the two they turned round, and he saw her face—a very fair and very resolute one, with ashen hair and large eyes. in common with almost all the faces in that room, it was blanched with suffering; and, it is fair to say, in common with many of them, it was pervaded by a lofty calm. monsieur the viscount never for an instant doubted his own conviction; he drew near and said in a low voice, "mademoiselle de st. claire!"

the baron looked first fierce, and then alarmed. his daughter's face illumined; she turned her large eyes on the speaker, and said simply,[175] "monsieur le vicomte?"

the baron apologized, commiserated, and sat down on a seat near, with a look of fretful despair; and his daughter and monsieur the viscount were left standing together. monsieur the viscount desired to say a great deal, and could say very little. the moments went by, and hardly a word had been spoken.

valerie asked if he knew his fate.

"i have not heard it," he said; "but i am morally certain. there can be but one end in these days."

she sighed. "it is the same with us. and if you must suffer, monsieur, i wish that we may suffer together. it would comfort my father—and me."

her composure vexed him. just, too, when he was sensible that the desire of life was making a few fierce struggles in his own breast.

"you seem to look forward to death with great cheerfulness, mademoiselle."

the large eyes were raised to him with a look of surprise at the irritation of his tone.

"i think," she said, gently, "that one does not look forward to, but beyond it." she stopped and hesitated, still watching his face, and then spoke hurriedly and diffidently:—

"monsieur, it seems impertinent to make such suggestions to you, who have doubtless a full fund of [176]consolation; but i remember, when a child, going to hear the preaching of a monk who was famous for his eloquence. he said that his text was from the scriptures—it has been in my mind all to-day—'there the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest.' the man is becoming impatient. adieu! monsieur. a thousand thanks and a thousand blessings."

she offered her cheek, on which there was not a ray of increased colour, and monsieur the viscount stooped and kissed it, with a thick mist gathering in his eyes, through which he could not see her face.

"adieu! valerie!"

"adieu! louis!"

so they met, and so they parted; and as monsieur the viscount went back to his prison, he flattered himself that the last link was broken for him in the chain of earthly interests.

when he reached the cell he was tired, and lay down, and in a few seconds a soft scrambling over the floor announced the return of monsieur crapaud from his hiding-place. with one wrinkled leg after another he clambered on to the stone, and monsieur the viscount started when he saw him.

"friend crapaud! i had actually forgotten thee. i fancied i had said adieu for the last time;" and he gave a choked sigh, which monsieur crapaud could [177]not be expected to understand. in about five minutes he sprang up suddenly. "monsieur crapaud, i have not long to live, and no time must be lost in making my will." monsieur crapaud was too wise to express any astonishment; and his master began to hunt for a tidy-looking stone (paper and cambric were both at an end). they were all rough and dirty; but necessity had made the viscount inventive, and he took a couple and rubbed them together till he had polished both. then he pulled out the little pencil, and for the next half hour composed and wrote busily. when it was done he lay down, and read it to his friend. this was monsieur the viscount's last will and testament:—

"to my successor in this cell.

"to you whom providence has chosen to be the inheritor of my sorrows and my captivity, i desire to make another bequest. there is in this prison a toad. he was tamed by a man (peace to his memory!) who tenanted this cell before me. he has been my friend and companion for nearly two years of sad imprisonment. he has sat by my bedside, fed from my hand, and shared all my confidence. he is ugly, but he has beautiful eyes; he is silent, but he is attentive; he is a brute, but i wish the men of france were in this respect more [178]his superiors! he is very faithful. may you never have a worse friend! he feeds upon insects, which i have been accustomed to procure for him. be kind to him; he will repay it. like other men, i bequeath what i would take with me if i could.

"fellow-sufferer, adieu! god comfort you as he has comforted me! the sorrows of this life are sharp but short; the joys of the next life are eternal. think sometimes on him who commends his friend to your pity, and himself to your prayers.

"this is the last will and testament of louis archambaud jean-marie arnaud, vicomte de b——."

monsieur the viscount's last will and testament was with difficulty squeezed into the surface of the larger of the stones. then he hid it where the priest had hidden his bequest long ago, and then lay down to dream of monsieur the preceptor, and that they had met at last.

the next day was one of anxious suspense. in the evening, as usual, a list of those who were to be guillotined next morning, was brought into the prison; and monsieur the viscount begged for a sight of it. it was brought to him. first on the list was antoine! halfway down was his own name, "louis de b——," and a little lower his fascinated [179]gaze fell upon names that stirred his heart with such a passion of regret as he had fancied it would never feel again, "henri de st. claire, valerie de st. claire."

her eyes seemed to shine on him from the gathering twilight, and her calm voice to echo in his ears. "it has been in my mind all to-day. there the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest."

there! he buried his face and prayed.

he was disturbed by the unlocking of the door, and the new gaoler appeared with antoine! the poor wretch seemed overpowered by terror. he had begged to be imprisoned for this last night with monsieur the viscount. it was only a matter of a few hours, as they were to die at daybreak, and his request was granted.

antoine's entrance turned the current of monsieur the viscount's thoughts. no more selfish reflections now. he must comfort this poor creature, of whose death he was to be the unintentional cause. antoine's first anxiety was that monsieur the viscount should bear witness that the gaoler had treated him kindly, and so earned the blessing and not the curse of monsieur le curé, whose powerful presence seemed to haunt him still. on this score he was soon set at rest, and then came the old, old [180]story. he had been but a bad man. if his life were to come over again, he would do differently. did monsieur the viscount think that there was any hope?

would monsieur the viscount have recognized himself, could he, two years ago, have seen himself as he was now? kneeling by that rough, uncultivated figure, and pleading with all the eloquence that he could master to that rough uncultivated heart, the great truths of christianity—so great and few and simple in their application to our needs! the violet eyes had never appealed more tenderly, the soft voice had never been softer than now, as he strove to explain to this ignorant soul, the cardinal doctrines of faith and repentance, and charity, with an earnestness that was perhaps more effectual than his preaching.

monsieur the viscount was quite as much astonished as flattered by the success of his instructions. the faith on which he had laid hold with such mortal struggles, seemed almost to "come natural" (as people say) to antoine. with abundant tears he professed the deepest penitence for his past life, at the same time that he accepted the doctrine of the atonement as a natural remedy, and never seemed to have a doubt in the infinite mercy that should cover his infinite guilt.

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it was all so orthodox that even if he had doubted (which he did not) the sincerity of the gaoler's contrition and belief, monsieur the viscount could have done nothing but envy the easy nature of antoine's convictions. he forgot the difference of their respective capabilities!

when the night was far advanced the men rose from their knees, and monsieur the viscount persuaded antoine to lie down on his pallet, and when the gaoler's heavy breathing told that he was asleep, monsieur the viscount felt relieved to be alone once more—alone, except for monsieur crapaud, whose round fiery eyes were open as usual.

the simplicity with which he had been obliged to explain the truths of divine love to antoine, was of signal service to monsieur the viscount himself. it left him no excuse for those intricacies of doubt, with which refined minds too often torture themselves; and as he paced feebly up and down the cell, all the long-withheld peace for which he had striven since his imprisonment seemed to flood into his soul. how blessed—how undeservedly blessed—was his fate! who or what was he that after such short, such mitigated sufferings, the crown of victory should be so near? the way had seemed long to come, it was short to look back upon, and now the golden gates were almost reached, the everlasting doors were [182]open. a few more hours, and then—! and as monsieur the viscount buried his worn face in his hands, the tears that trickled from his fingers were literally tears of joy.

he groped his way to the stone, pushed some straw close to it, and lay down on the ground to rest, watched by monsieur's crapaud's fiery eyes. and as he lay, faces seemed to him to rise out of the darkness, to take the form and features of the face of the priest, and to gaze at him with unutterable benediction. and in his mind, like some familiar piece of music, awoke the words that had been written on the fly-leaf of the little book; coming back, sleepily and dreamily, over and over again—

"souvenez-vous du sauveur! souvenez-vous du sauveur!"

(remember the saviour!)

in that remembrance he fell asleep.

monsieur the viscount's sleep for some hours was without a dream. then it began to be disturbed by that uneasy consciousness of sleeping too long, which enables some people to awake at whatever hour they have resolved upon. at last it became intolerable, and wearied as he was, he awoke. it was broad daylight, and antoine was snoring beside him. surely the cart would come soon, the executions were generally at an early hour. but time went on, and [183]no one came, and antoine awoke. the hours of suspense passed heavily, but at last there were steps and a key rattled into the lock. the door opened, and the gaoler appeared with a jug of milk and a loaf. with a strange smile he set them down.

"a good appetite to you, citizens."

antoine flew on him. "comrade! we used to be friends. tell me, what is it? is the execution deferred?"

"the execution has taken place at last," said the other, significantly; "robespierre is dead!" and he vanished.

antoine uttered a shriek of joy. he wept, he laughed, he cut capers, and flinging himself at monsieur the viscount's feet, he kissed them rapturously. when he raised his eyes to monsieur the viscount's face, his transports moderated. the last shock had been too much, he seemed almost in a stupor. antoine got him on to the pallet, dragged the blanket over him, broke the bread into the milk, and played the nurse once more.

on that day thousands of prisoners in the city of paris alone awoke from the shadow of death to the hope of life. the reign of terror was ended!