What Marc Antoine intended to suggest had instantly leapt to Carrier's mind—that there had been a second letter which his agents had missed. They should pay for that. But, meanwhile, if it were true, he dare not for his neck's sake go further in this matter. He may have suspected that it was not true. But he had no means of testing that suspicion. Marc Antoine, you see, was subtle.
“Your father?” growled the Representative. “Who is your father?”
“The Deputy Jullien.”
“What?” Carrier straightened himself, affecting an immense astonishment. “You are the son of the Deputy Julien?” He burst into a laugh. He came forward, holding out both his hands. He could be subtle, too, you see. “My friend, why did you not say so sooner? See in what a ghastly mistake you have let me flounder. I imagined you—of course, it was foolish of me—to be a proscribed rascal from Angers, of the same name.”
He had fallen upon Marc Antoine's neck, and was embracing him.
“Forgive me, my friend!” he besought him. “Come and dine with me to-morrow, and we will laugh over it together.”
But Marc Antoine had no mind to dine with Carrier, although he promised to do so readily enough. Back at his inn, scarce believing that he had got away alive, still sweating with terror at the very thought of his near escape, he packed his valise, and, by virtue of his commission, obtained post-horses at once.
On the morrow from Angers, safe beyond the reach of Carrier, he wrote again to Robespierre, and this time also to his father.
“In Nantes,” he wrote, “I found the old regime in its worst form.” He knew the jargon of Liberty, the tune that set the patriots a-dancing. “Carrier's insolent secretaries emulate the intolerable haughtiness of a ci-devant minister's lackeys. Carrier himself lives surrounded by luxury, pampered by women and parasites, keeping a harem and a court. He tramples justice in the mud. He has had all those who filled the prisons flung untried into the Loire. The city of Nantes,” he concluded, “needs saving. The Vendean revolt must be suppressed, and Carrier the slayer of Liberty recalled.”
The letter had its effect, and Carrier was recalled to Paris, but not in disgrace. Failing health was urged as the solicitous reason for his retirement from the arduous duties of governing Nantes.