BENEATH THE MASK
An atmosphere of secrecy seemed to pervade Robespierre's house, and Tournay, following the servant along the dimly lighted corridor, passed his hand over his eyes, as one brushes away the fine cobwebs that come across the face in going through the woods.
The rustle of a gown fell upon his ear as he entered the salon, and at the further end of the apartment he saw a woman who had evidently risen at his entrance, and now stood irresolute, with one hand on the latch of a door leading into an adjoining room, as if she had intended making her exit unobserved by him.
She stood in such a manner that the shadow of the half-open door fell across her face, but he could see that she was a young woman of small stature and well proportioned figure. At the sound of his voice she allowed her hand to fall from the latch, then lifting her head erect, walked toward him.
"La Liberté!" ejaculated Tournay. He had not seen her since the day he had left her dancing on the cannon-truck, winecup in hand; but she still kept her girlish look, and except in her dress she had not greatly changed.
She still showed a partiality for bright colors, by her gown of deep crimson. But the material was of velvet instead of the simple woolen stuff she used to wear. Her hair, which had once curled about her forehead and been tossed about by the wind, was now coiled upon her head, from which a few locks, as if rebellious at confinement, had fallen on her neck and shoulders. She wore nothing on her head but a tricolored knot of ribbon, the color of the Republic.
"How does it happen that we meet here?" asked Tournay after a moment, during which he had gazed at her in surprise.
"Never mind about me for the present," she said, looking up in his face, half defiantly, half admiringly; for as he stood before her, framed in the open door, he was a striking picture, with his handsome, bronzed face and brilliant uniform.
"Let us speak of your affairs," she continued. "I am told the committee has ordered you to await its permission before returning to the army."
"How did you know that?" he demanded in surprise.
"Oh, I know many things that are going on in this strange world," and she gave the old toss of her head. "Now do not talk, but listen. You must return to the army. A soldier like you is at a disadvantage among these intriguers. They will suspect you for the simple reason that they suspect every one. You, who are accustomed to fight openly, will fall a victim to their wiles."
"My enemies may find that I can strike back," said Tournay quietly.
La Liberté shrugged her shoulders.
"Did you receive a letter this afternoon?" she asked quickly.
"Did you write that letter?"
"I never write letters," she answered significantly; "but if you received one and read it, you know the names of some of your enemies. What can you do with such an array against you? I repeat, you are no match for them. You must go back to your command."
"That is what I desire above all else," answered Tournay.
"You can go to-morrow, if you wish," said the demoiselle.
"How?"
"By listening to what the president of the committee has to say to you, and agreeing to it. Yield to his demands, whatever they may be, and you will be permitted to set out to-morrow."
"I shall be glad to meet the committee more than halfway. I will agree to everything they wish, if I can do so consistently."
"Consistently!" she repeated. "I see you will be obstinate." Then she stopped and looked full in his face. "I might know that you would after all only act according to your convictions, and that any advice would be thrown away on you. Well, I must say I like you better that way, and were I a man I should do the same."
She placed one hand upon her hip where hung a small poniard suspended by a silver chain about her waist, and went on earnestly: "But listen to this word of advice. You, who have been so long absent from Paris, do not realize Robespierre's power. It is sometimes the part of a brave man to yield. Give way to him as much as your consistency will permit. Now adieu." She turned away; then facing him suddenly with an impulsive gesture she came toward him.
"Compatriot!" she said with an unwonted tremble in her voice, "will you take my hand?" He took the hand extended to him.
"I do not forget, Marianne, that you and I both came from La Thierry. If ever you are in need of a friend, you can rely upon me."
For one moment the brown head was bent over his hand, and La Liberté showed an emotion which none of those who thought they knew her would have believed possible. Then throwing back her head she disappeared through the door beyond, as Robespierre entered from the corridor.
Much absorbed in his meditations, Robespierre did not appear to notice that any one had just quitted the room. He walked very slowly as if to impress Tournay with his greatness, and did not speak for some moments. He no longer affected the great simplicity of dress which had characterized him at the beginning of the Revolution, and the coat of blue velvet, waistcoat of white silk, and buff breeches which he wore were quite in keeping with his fine linen shirt and the laces of his ruffles.
It was Tournay who first broke the silence.
"Citizen president, you see I have been prompt to comply with your request; I am here in answer to your summons."
Robespierre raised his head, and started from his soliloquy.
"Ah yes, you are the citizen colonel who appeared to-day before the committee to answer certain charges."
"I am," replied Tournay.
"Citizen colonel," said Robespierre, "I will be perfectly frank with you. The Committee of Public Safety, whose dearest wish, whose only thought, is the welfare of the Republic," here the president's small eyes blinked in rapid succession, "is not quite satisfied with the condition of affairs in the army."
"I am sorry to hear that, citizen president, and in behalf of the army, I would call the committee's attention to the recent battles in which the soldiers of France have certainly borne themselves with great bravery. I speak now as one of their officers who is justly proud of them."
"It is not the conduct of the soldiers of which the committee finds cause of complaint," replied Robespierre, "but of their generals."
"It is not for me to criticise my superior officers," said Tournay. "I leave that to the nation."
"The committee has good reason to criticise the attitude of certain of its generals, who seem to have forgotten that they are merely citizens. They have been chosen to serve the Republic only for a time in a more exalted position than their fellow citizens, yet they have become swollen with pride, and take to themselves the credit of the victories won by their armies. Their dispatches to the convention are couched in arrogant and sometimes insolent language."
Tournay bowed. "Again I must refrain from expressing my opinion on such a matter," he said.
"Ever since the treason of General Dumouriez," Robespierre went on, "the committee has had its suspicions as to the conduct of several of its generals. Hoche is one."
Tournay started.
"What you are pleased to impart to me, citizen president, sounds strange. Permit me to state that I feel sure the committee's suspicions are unfounded."
Robespierre looked at him closely. "Does General Hoche take you into his entire confidence?" he inquired quickly; his weak eyes blinking more rapidly than ever.
"No, I am merely a colonel in his army. Though I have good reason to believe he places confidence in me, he naturally does not inform me of his plans before they are matured."
"Citizen colonel, the committee also places great confidence in you, and for that reason it wishes you to return at once to the army."
"I obey its orders with the greatest pleasure in the world," said Tournay.
"The committee also desires," Robespierre continued, "that you send to its secretary each week a minute report of everything that passes under your notice, particularly as regards the actions of Citizen General Hoche. Do not regard anything as too trifling to be included in your report; the committee will pass upon its importance."
Tournay had listened in silence. His teeth ground together in the rage he struggled to suppress. He felt that if he made a movement it would be to strike the president to the floor.
"I must decline the commission with which the committee honors me. I am not fitted for it," he replied.
"The committee has chosen you as eminently fitted for the work. The confidence that General Hoche places in you makes you the best agent the committee could employ."
"Then tell your committee, citizen president, that it must find some less fitting agent to do its dirty work. My business is to fight the enemies of France, not to spy upon its patriots."
Robespierre's sallow face became a shade more yellow. "Have a care how you speak of the committee. In the service of the Republic all employment is sacred and honorable."
"I prefer my own interpretation of the words," answered Tournay, with a look of scorn.
"And yet you yourself have somewhat strange ideas of what is honorable," remarked Robespierre sneeringly.
"I do not understand what you mean," replied Tournay.
Robespierre stepped to the wall and pulled the bell-rope. "Perhaps when it is made clear to you, your mind may change."
The colonel made no reply, but the next moment uttered an exclamation of surprise as the Marquis de Lacheville entered the room. Robespierre turned toward Tournay with the shadow of a smile hovering on his thin lips.
"You know this citizen?" he asked in his harsh voice.
Tournay looked at the marquis curiously, wondering why he had jeopardized his own safety by returning to Paris. The look of hatred which the nobleman shot at him served as an explanation.
"I know him as a former nobleman, an emigré, who is proscribed by the Republic; I wonder that he puts his life in danger by returning to the land he fled from."
The marquis made an uneasy gesture, and was about to speak when Robespierre said:—
"He has taken the oath of allegiance to the Republic."
Tournay laughed outright at this. "And do you trust his oath?" he asked.
"And for the service he now renders the nation, his emigration and the fact of his having been an aristocrat are to be condoned." As he spoke, a grim smile hovered about Robespierre's lips. It faded away instantly, leaving his face as mirthless and forbidding as before.
"Shall we ask the Citizen Lacheville to tell us when he last saw you?" he went on sternly.
"It is unnecessary. We met last at Falzenberg," said Tournay, eyeing him with disdain.
"Where you were on terms of intimacy with Prussian officers," said de Lacheville. "I will not dwell upon the fact of your having assisted an aristocrat to escape from prison; but I will testify to your having come in disguise to the enemies of France and entered into a secret understanding with them. I was serving those same enemies at the time, I will admit," and the marquis shrugged his shoulders, "but as the Citizen Robespierre has said, I have repented of it, and have come here to make atonement by faithful devotion to the nation. One of the greatest of my pleasures is to help unmask a hypocrite."
Tournay addressed Robespierre.
"Do you believe this man's story?"
"You have already admitted having gone over the frontier," was the suave rejoinder.
"I did go, yes."
"Will you deny having been closeted alone with General von Waldenmeer?"
"No, but"—
"Do you suppose any tribunal in the land would hold you guiltless upon such testimony and such admissions?"
"Permit me to ask you two questions," said Tournay.
Robespierre acquiesced.
"Admitting that this—citizen's accusation is true, why did I return to Wissembourg and do my best to defeat the enemy with whom I am accused by him of being on friendly terms?"
"There are hundreds of similar precedents—Dumouriez's, for example."
"Admitting, then, that I have already been false to one trust, how is it that you are prepared to trust me now to play the spy for your committee?" continued Tournay, with contempt ringing in his voice.
Again the peculiar smile flitted across Robespierre's pale features.
"All men are to be trusted as far as their self-interest leads them," he answered. "None are to be trusted implicitly. You will be watched closely and will doubtless prove faithful. It will be to your decided advantage to attend to the committee's business efficiently. Your little interview with the Prussian general, from which nothing has resulted, may be forgotten for the time."
Tournay's anger during the interview had several times risen to white heat. Not even his sense of danger enabled him longer to repress it.
"I have already told you that I would have nothing to do with the commission of your committee!" he cried hotly. "And as for this man's accusations, let him make them in court and I will answer him. Let him repeat them in the streets and I will thrust the lies back into his throat and choke him with them." As he spoke he advanced toward de Lacheville who paled and retreated a step or two. "If any man accuses me of disloyalty to the Republic," continued Tournay, turning and addressing Robespierre, "unless he takes revenge behind the bar of a tribunal he shall answer to me personally. I will defend my honor with my own hand."
Robespierre turned pale and took a step or two in the direction of the bell-rope.
"You may have an opportunity to answer the charges before the tribunal," he said coldly.
"Why did you not bring them in to-day's inquiry?" demanded Tournay.
"I do not announce my reasons nor divulge my plans," was the reply. "It is enough to know that I had need of you. Neither am I in the habit of having my will opposed. You would do best to yield before it is too late."
"Robespierre," cried Tournay, the blood mounting to his forehead, "you have played the tyrant too long! You are not 'in the habit of having your will opposed?' I have not learned to bend and truckle to your will, doing your bidding like a dog; and, by Heaven! I will not now. Bring your charges against me before your tribunal, packed as it is with your creatures, and I will answer them, but my answer shall be addressed to the Nation. My appeal will be to the People. I will denounce you for what you are, a tyrant. And a coward—too"—he continued, as Robespierre, with ashen lips, rang the bell violently. "You shall be known for what you are, and when you are once known the people will cease to fear you."
He strode toward the committee's president, who, with trembling knees, stood tugging at the bell-rope. De Lacheville had long since fled from the room; and Robespierre, pulling his courage together with an effort, lifted his hand and pointed a trembling finger at Tournay.
"Stop where you are!" he shrieked. "Come a step nearer me at your peril!"
"I am not going to do you any injury," was Tournay's reply in a tone of contempt; "I despise you too much to do you personal violence; I leave you to your fears, citizen president."
There was a sound of heavy footsteps in the corridor, and Tournay moved toward the door to be confronted by a file of soldiers.
"Henriot, you drunken snail," cried Robespierre, "why did you not answer my summons? Arrest this man."
Tournay turned a look upon Robespierre which made the latter quail notwithstanding the guard that surrounded him.
"You had this all arranged," said the colonel quietly.
"I was prepared," replied Robespierre grimly.
Tournay turned away with contempt. "Dictator, your time will be short," he murmured.
"Come, citizen colonel," said the Commandant Henriot, "I must trouble you for your sword."
"Where are you going to take me?" asked Tournay as he delivered up his weapon.
Henriot glanced at his chief as if for instructions.
"To the Luxembourg," was the order. Then, without looking at Tournay, Robespierre left the room.
"May I send word to a friend at my lodgings?" Tournay asked of Henriot.
"No," was the short rejoinder, "you must come with me on the instant."
In the corridor stood de Lacheville. He smiled triumphantly as he saw Tournay pass out between the file of soldiers.
"De Lacheville," said Tournay scornfully, "you have played the part of a fool as well as a coward. A few days and you also will be in prison."
His guards hurried him on, and he could not hear de Lacheville's answer.
At the doorway that led into the street stood La Liberté.
"Out of the way, citizeness!" growled Henriot.
"Out of the way yourself, Citizen Henriot," was the woman's reply, and she pushed through the soldiers until she stood at Tournay's elbow.
"Come, citizeness, none of that; you cannot speak to the prisoner," growled Henriot a second time.
"I was afraid of this," she whispered in Tournay's ear.
"Will you take a message for me?" he asked in a quick whisper.
"Yes."
"Go to Gaillard, 15 Rue des Mathurins, wait until he comes. Tell him I am arrested. That is all."
With a nod of intelligence, La Liberté left his side and disappeared in the darkness.