Complete Works of Emile Zola (89 page)

“What has happened? Have you seen my sister?”

But before the ex-master-stevedore could answer, he continued:

“I and my men have been confined to the office since this morning. The authorities, being aware of my opinions, placed a picket of National Guards at my door, and I have only just been able to escape. I ran to my brother-in-law’s lodging, on the Cours Bonaparte, and found the house empty. Goodness, gracious! what has happened? Speak, quick!”

“Good Heavens!” murmured Sauvaire, “a misfortune never comes singly. The whole family must be in this house.”

“Do you think my sister is there?”

“Eh! I don’t know. What I do know is that I saw Philippe, on the barricade fighting like a maniac. Ah! my poor Cadet. I’m very much afraid all this will end very badly. But I forgot: your enemy is prowling about the square.’’

“What enemy?”

“M. de Cazalis. He’s disguised as a National Guard.’’

Cadet shuddered. All at once he perceived the door had been broken in.

“Let’s run there quick!” he exclaimed.

As soon as the entrance was clear, a swarm of soldiers rushed forward, but three or four shots were fired from the staircase and the besiegers withdrew in disorder. For a few moments no one dared penetrate within the passage. The insurgents had spent their last cartridges, and after this show of defence, had bounded up on to the roof to try and escape. After the first moment of panic, the soldiers made up their minds to advance cautiously to the foot of the staircase; then, seeing they met with no resistance, they invaded the house and searched in every corner.

Sauvaire and Cadet had committed the imprudence of retiring a short distance away, for the purpose of talking, and when they endeavoured to approach the door again, they found themselves behind a regular crowd, which prevented them advancing. Notwithstanding all their efforts they had to beat time a long while, and when they at last entered, they were only able to get up the staircase very slowly, on account of its being so full of soldiers and National Guards.

As they reached the third floor they were jostled by a man who was running away and knocking up against everyone. This individual, whom the besiegers took for a terrified lodger, had a child in his arms. He passed so rapidly, half hiding his charge beneath his frock coat, that Cadet did not get a good view of him; the young man, however, turned round, as if feeling a presentiment that something was wrong, but the man had then already descended five or six stairs. Fine’s brother, pushed on by Sauvaire, who had seen nothing, continued to ascend, and soon found himself at the entrance to the little lodging.

This door was wide open, and in the middle of the first room, Fine lay unconscious on the ground. Joseph had disappeared.

CHAPTER XX

HOW PHILIPPE FIRED A LAST SHOT

FINE’S anguish during the struggle had been terrible. Each shot had made her tremble, for she thought to herself with horror, that the bullet had perhaps killed one of hers. She would have liked to have been below in the street, sharing the peril of Marius and Philippe, but the necessity of looking after Joseph confined her to that room where she was dying with anxiety. The poor child was as white as a sheet and his teeth were set firmly together, but he was not crying. With his face hidden in the young woman’s lap, and his little arms clutching her waist, he stood motionless and mute.

On several occasions bullets entered by the window, cutting up the furniture and becoming embedded in the wall. Fine gazed at the holes made by these projectiles with stupor. She tried to make herself smaller, caught up Joseph, and clasped him closely in her arms. She did not care about herself, but an icy shiver ran through her frame when she thought that a bullet might rebound and strike the child she was pressing to her bosom.

This torment lasted more than an hour, she listened with anxiety to the least sound. All at once from the tumult that arose from the Square, she understood that the barricades had been carried. She felt relieved, but this feeling was soon followed by increased anxiety. As the firing had ceased, she ventured to approach the window, and throw a glance outside.

Suddenly she was seized with the most horrible fear. She asked herself why Marius and Philippe had not come upstairs again after the barricades had been taken? They ought to have hurried up there, to hide themselves beside her. If they had not come, it was because they were taken prisoners or perhaps killed. Her mind which was tormented with the most frightful thoughts, would admit of no other solution. Then, it seemed to her that she saw her husband and brother-in-law, stretched out weltering in their blood, or being led away to prison by the soldiers, and these pictures, which she conjured up in her terrible grief, caused her to burst out sobbing.

As she was gazing on the square, she perceived the troops rushing towards the house. She rapidly withdrew from the window, and almost immediately heard the blows of the axes. Joseph began to fret; his fright which had hitherto been mute, now showed itself in most piercing cries. He called his father, clung to Fine’s neck, yelled out that he didn’t want the soldiers to come and take him.

The poor child’s shrieks had the effect of causing the young woman to completely lose her head. She rushed on to the staircase, wanted to go down and run to Marius and Philippe. But she had not reached the second floor before she heard the door give way and fall in. At the same instant the rioters who were hidden in the corridor hastened upstairs, after having discharged their weapons. For a moment she hesitated; a muffled sound came from the vestibule, and she soon heard the footsteps of the besiegers approaching her. She remained firm, and would, perhaps, have stayed there, if, leaning over the bannister, she had not caught sight of the man who was coming up first. That man was Mathéus. She thought herself in presence of the phantom of her despair. As if fascinated, with her eyes increased in volume with horror, she ascended the stairs one by one, retreating before Mathéus who never ceased glaring at her. As she entered the room, and before she had time to shut herself in, he sprang upon her, and tore Joseph from her arms. She uttered a faint cry, which was the only defence she could offer, for she was broken-down with emotion and staggering on her legs. When she no longer felt the child in her arms, she stretched her hands out before her as if to regain possession of the dear treasure, and, encountering naught but emptiness, fell stiff to the floor.

None of the soldiers who were searching the house noticed this scene, but the abduction had all the same been witnessed by two people in a neighbouring building.

The house in which Marius and Philippe had taken refuge by chance, stood at the corner of the square on the other side of the Grande Rue. By a happy circumstance the two brothers were the only insurgents who had entered it, and as soon as they were inside, they had bolted the door. The staircase was silent and deserted and the tenants who were barricaded in their respective dwellings, took very good care not to show themselves. Marius and Philippe sat down for a moment on the first stair, and held council. They hardly knew how they would be able to escape the search of the soldiers who, from one moment to another, might burst the door open. The only chance remaining to them was to escape by the roofs; but this retreat would be very dangerous; and, besides, although the peril of remaining where they were was intense, they wished to do so in order to make sure that Fine and Joseph ran no risk.

“We ought not to have abandoned them,” said Philippe; “it was cowardly on our part, to have thought only of our own personal safety.”

“Don’t let us despair,” answered Marius, who had been endeavouring to comfort himself, whilst trying to assuage his brother’s anxiety. “We should have perhaps done ourselves needless harm. Fine is strong and courageous.”

“No matter, I’ll only consent to fly when my mind’s easy on their account. Listen! They’re breaking in a door. Let us go up quick.”

They ascended to the first floor and saw with the greatest alarm, that the house which was being besieged was the one opposite. For the space of a few minutes they remained motionless and breathless: each stroke of the axe found an echo in their breasts. Never in their lives had they felt such emotion. They followed the different phases of the siege with painful anxiety, but their greatest suffering, after all, was their powerlessness to do anything: they could not run to the assistance of those whom they believed in peril, but must stay where they were with their hands tied, and watch this onslaught of a crowd of furious soldiers.

All at once Philippe uttered a savage cry. He had just caught sight of Mathéus in the first rank of the besiegers and pointed him out to his brother.

“Ah! the wretch,” he murmured bitterly, “I ought to have let them hang him. He must have escaped, and is there to steal Joseph.”

He was turning round, when another cry escaped him, and he pointed out to Marius a National Guard half hidden behind one of the trees on the square.

“Cazalis!” he exclaimed in a choking tone, and bringing his musket to his shoulder he continued:

“I have but one bullet left, and it shall be for him.”

He was about to fire, but Marius tore the gun away from him saying:

“No unnecessary murder! We shall perhaps want that bullet. It’s regular foul play.”

At the same moment the door gave way beneath the blows of the axe.

“Let’s go up higher,” continued Marius.

They ascended to the third floor where a terrible sight awaited them. Exactly opposite was the window of the room where Fine and Joseph were. They saw the young woman wringing her hands, but were unable to cry out to her, amidst the tumult, that they were watching over her, and they were thus pale and trembling spectators of the abduction. When Fine went downstairs they followed her with their eyes, each window having a landing looking on to the street. Then, they saw her come up again, retreating before Mathéus. The next thing was Mathéus entering the room and tearing Joseph from the young woman’s arms.

Marius returned Philippe his musket saying to him in a husky voice:

“I felt we should have need of that last cartridge.”

Philippe brought the weapon to his shoulder, but the barrel shook in his hand’s. He was afraid of hitting his son, and so Mathéus was able to leave the room and commence going downstairs. When the villain passed before the window on the second floor landing, Philippe again felt himself shaking and could not pull the trigger.

“If you let him reach the street,” murmured Marius, “we shall lose the child.”

Then Philippe made a violent effort and recovered his customary coolness. He rested the barrel on the window sill and waited for Mathéus to pass again.

As the spy, who continued to descend, placed his foot on the first floor landing, the gun went off.

Sauvaire and Cadet, who were attending to Fine, raised their heads at the report, and perceived the two brothers leaning anxiously out of one of the windows on the other side of the street, endeavouring to find out the effect of the shot. The ex-master-stevedore uttered a cry of surprise and satisfaction: he now knew the whereabouts of those whom he wished to protect. Cadet had a sudden presentiment of what had just occurred. Not having found the child in the room, he had at once thought of the man who had dashed past him on the stairs. He ran down as fast as he could, and found a strange sight awaiting him on the first floor.

Mathéus with his head smashed, was lying on the landing. In falling, he had opened his arms, and Joseph had slipped on to him without doing himself any injury. Philippe’s bullet had lodged in the spy’s skull passing close to the child’s forehead. The latter recovering from the fainting fit which had helped Mathéus to carry him off easily, and resting half on the corpse began to cry bitterly. Cadet pushed aside the dead body and took the little boy in his arms. He had got half way upstairs, again, when a sudden thought struck him, and going down again he searched the corpse, taking all the papers he could find on it. These, he was sure, would be useful.

When he returned to the room on the third floor, he found Sauvaire very much embarrassed, not knowing what remedy to administer to Fine who was still unconscious. The worthy man had confined himself to placing her on the bed, and Cadet put Joseph beside her. The child immediately clasped the young woman round the neck, nestling close up to her, quite happy at having his favourite place again, and brought her back to life with his caresses. She raised herself up and kissed Joseph passionately. It seemed to her that she was awakening from a frightful nightmare. All of a sudden she turned pale again.

“Where are Marius and Philippe?” she inquired. “Hide nothing from me, I beg of you.”

When Cadet had pointed out the two brothers to her in the adjoining house she remained for a time motionless and quite absorbed with joy. All danger was not over for them, assuredly, but they lived, and for the moment she did not ask for anything more. Philippe and Marius also had good cause to be thankful. The former, after having discharged his gun, felt quite overcome, his eyes were bursting with tears and he uttered a cry of terror on seeing Mathéus and the child fall. For an instant, he felt as if he were choking, being unable to distinguish, through the smoke, whether he had struck his son or not. But when Marius heard the cries of the little one whom Cadet had just brought into the room, he exclaimed:

“Look!”

Then the two brothers followed the scene that was passing before them with profound happiness. They saw Fine and Joseph safe and sound, and said to each other that they ran little risk themselves, now that they had friends at hand to defend them. What gave them still further confidence was to see M. Martelly and Abbé Chastanier go up into the room conducted there by M. de Girousse. These three gentlemen had followed the soldiers into the house in order to protect the young woman, and had no idea of the rapid drama that had just occurred there. The sight of the corpse on the staircase had made them run up hurriedly, and as soon as they reached the room, they heard what had happened from Fine and Cadet.