“And who is your correspondent?” demanded Monsieur Gramont, somewhat authoritatively.
“A man who will soon revive the power of the terrorists (another name for jacobins)—Babouf, who is now styled the tribune of the people; he will restore the ‘true, pure, and absolute democracy.’”
“Bah!” muttered Monsieur Gramont. “I tell you what, Augustine Vadier, you will bring your head under the axe; to believe or think that a rascally scribbler of a paltry paper, who reproduces the discarded theories of that little villain Muret, will again overturn the present consolidated form of government, under which our armies are achieving the most triumphant success! Bah! It is the army that will govern by and by.”
“By heaven, I do believe you are no better than an aristocrat at heart—a loyalist!” said Augustine Vadier, savagely.
“No doubt in the world of it,” returned Monsieur Gramont, quite coolly, “and always was; your republican principles and your ideas of liberty are all fudge. However, here we are, drop your political career, or you will lose your head. I never, out of all those I have seen, ever knew a man’s carcase worth a sous without a head. So keep yours, follow my counsel, and I’ll stick to my bargain, though you botched the beginning.”
So saying Monsieur Gramont rode into the court-yard at the back of his château, an edifice of considerable importance at one time, but at this period greatly out of repair, and sadly neglected. A domestic came to take the horses, and then followed Monsieur Gramont into the house, looking both gloomy and discontented.
Our readers will recollect that in one of the chapters we mentioned that Jean Plessis stated to our hero that he firmly believed that the casket Madame Coulancourt confided to his care was plundered of its contents by a galley slave named Augustine Vadier, who afterwards played a very conspicuous part among the monsters of the revolution.
That Augustine Vadier and the Augustine Vadier above-mentioned are one and the same person, and it will be now necessary to lay before our readers an account of his connection with Monsieur Gramont.
Being committed to the galleys for his crimes, he was one of the two convicts left on board the hulk where our hero and Mabel passed so many hours, after escaping from the mob in the streets of Toulon. Augustine Vadier was in communication with the other slaves, and with some of the most vicious of the Toulon Republicans, and their emancipation was hourly expected. This man perceived the extreme care William Thornton bestowed upon the parcel he carried under his arm, and saw him deposit it at the foot of the berth in which Mabel reposed. His first intention was to possess himself of it altogether; but as he could not get out of the dock till the insurrection emancipated himself and companions, he resolved to have a look at it, and, watching his opportunity, he extracted the casket from the berth, and getting into a remote part of the hulk took off the cover. What was his astonishment when he recognised the casket itself as one sold by him several years back to the Duchess de Coulancourt! and quite aware of its construction, in ten minutes, with a thin saw made from a watch spring, and one or two other tools he had hidden, he took out the bottom and all the contents, devouring with greedy eyes the valuable jewels and money it contained. Cutting up some pieces of lead he wrapped them in brown paper, and filling the spaces of the casket with shavings he restored the bottom, and putting the cover on, replaced it in the berth. Augustine Verdier’s first impulse was to destroy the papers, but on looking at them he saw reason to think they might be of value hereafter.
On the galley slaves regaining their freedom, Vadier removed his plunder, and as he gained a position amongst the monsters brought into existence by the times, he placed the papers in greater security. Excelling in ingenuity, devilish in temper and disposition, he soon made himself notorious, and having the command of money from the sale of his jewels and gold, he soon became closely associated with the leaders of the jacobin mob. Amongst the most violent and arrogant leaders of the party he joined was the elder Gramont, a man of high family but poor and eager for aggrandizement, who thought to gain his ends by siding with the ferocious and bloodthirsty followers of Marat, and afterwards with Robespierre.