"I will be at that fête," he said.
And the dark night swallowed him.
CHAPTER VII
THE FÊTE OF THE SUPREME BEING
The Duplays' house, in which Robespierre lodged, was situated in the Rue Saint-Honoré, opposite the Church of the Assumption. The front door opened on to a large vaulted passage littered with planks propped up against the wall. At the end of this a small courtyard was formed by the quadrangular shape of the two-storied house. The first floor was occupied by the Duplay couple and their two daughters, Cornélie and Victoire. The ground floor was divided into three rooms, including the dining-room and the drawing-room. Robespierre lived in a room on the first floor of the left wing, which formed one side of the quadrangle. The ground floor of this wing, along which ran a shed, was used by the old Duplay as a carpenter's workshop. Robespierre's window was above the carpenter's shed, one room, and his quarters were connected with the main building by means of a wooden staircase, which led from his room to the dining-room. He was thus well guarded on one side by the Duplay family, as he was on the other by young Maurice Duplay and Simon, the wooden-legged, who occupied two rooms on a line with Robespierre's, which also looked on to the shed.
It would have been certainly difficult for Robespierre to find a house more suited to his craving for an ostentatious display of Republican simplicity. The joiner's bench, the planks and tools littering the courtyard, the shed full of workmen during the day, sawing, piecing, and planing; the personal appearance of old Duplay, who only put aside his apron to come to table, or to go to the Jacobin Club, at which he was a constant attendant, or to the Revolutionary Tribunal, where he acted as deputy jury-man—all this marked the simple and industrious surroundings in which he lived.
Two of his colleagues at the Convention had been lately received in the courtyard by Cornélie Duplay, who was hanging out some stockings to dry; and Robespierre had enjoyed their surprise from the window of his room, where he was shaving himself. He was suspected of aiming at the Dictatorship! Was he? And this was the spectacle which met the astonished eyes of visitors who surprised him in his private life!
Robespierre and Cornélie had been received at the door by Blount, who barked and gambolled with joy at his master's return. The Duplay family, cooling themselves in the courtyard, were awaiting their return.
"Here they are at last!" some one cried.
It was mother Duplay, seated in the background under the dining-room window, washing a salad under the pump, her sleeves tucked up to the elbow, all ears for the slightest sound.