“Of course we were,” replied Joseph Lacrisse. “But I’ve just remembered three telegrams in cipher which have to be sent off before night. It is a complicated matter, and a dangerous one. We really thought for a moment that Dupuy had intercepted our telegrams on February 22nd. There was enough in them to jug the lot of us.”
“But he did not intercept them, mon ami?”
“We must suppose not, as we were not molested. But I have my reasons for believing that for the last fortnight the Government have had an eye on us, and until this wretched Republic is done for I shan’t have a moment’s peace.”
Tender and radiant, she put her arms about his neck, like a scented garland of flowers, and gazing at him with her moist sapphire eyes she said, with a smile upon her fresh, ardent mouth:
“Do not be anxious, mon ami. Do not worry so. I am sure you will succeed. Their Republic is done for. How could it resist you? The people have had enough of Parliamentarians. They don’t want any more of them, I’m certain. Nor of the Freemasons, and Freethinkers, and all those horrible godless people who have neither religion nor country. For one’s country and one’s religion are the same thing, aren’t they? There is a wonderful spiritual impulse abroad. On Sunday, at Mass, the churches are full. And not only of women, as the Republicans would have us believe. There are gentlemen and officers. Believe me mon ami, you will succeed. Besides, I will burn candles for you in St. Anthony’s chapel.”
“Yes, we shall make a move early in September,” he replied, grave and thoughtful. “The public frame of mind is favourable. We have the good wishes and encouragement of the people. Oh, it is not sympathy we lack.”
She imprudently inquired what they did lack.
“What we lack, or at any rate might lack, if things were not settled quickly, is the sinews of war—money, deuce take it! We get a good deal, of course, but we shall need so much. Three ladies in the best set gave us three hundred thousand francs. Monseigneur was much impressed by a generosity so truly French. Do you not think that there is something charming, exquisite, fragrant of the old France, the old aristocratic society, in the offering of these women to royalty?”
Madame de Bonmont, dressing in front of the glass, did not appear to have heard the question.
He explained his meaning: