The Countess De Charny - Volume II (44 page)

“Dictate,” he said.

“I want to send a farewell line to Pitou.”

“I will attend to that for you,” replied Gilbert, beginning to write. When he had finished. Billot asked: “What have you written?”

CAGLIOSTRO’S ADVICE. 359

Gilbert read as follows : —

My Dear Pitou, — We are about leaviug France, — Billot, Sebastian, and I, — and we all three embrace you tenderly.

We think that as you have control of Billot’s farm you need nothing more.

Some day we shall probably write for you to join us.

Your friend,

Gilbert.

*‘Is that all?” asked Billot. “I have added a postscript,” replied Gilbert. ” What is it? “

Gilbert looked the farmer full in the face, as he said slowly : —

” Billot commends Catherine to your care.”

Billot uttered a cry of gratitude, and again threw himself into Gilbert’s arms.

Ten minutes afterwards the post-chaise, containing Gilbert, Sebastian, and Billot, was rolling swiftly along towards Havre.

EPILOGUE.

EPILOGUE.

CHAPTER I.

HOW ANGE PITOU AND CATHERINE BILLOT WERE ENGAGED ON FEBRUARY 15th, 1794.

One clear cold morning, a little more than a year after the execution of the king, and Gilbert’s and Billot’s departure for America, three or four hundred persons, that is to say, about one-sixth of the population of Villers-Cotterets, were waiting in the square, and in the courtyard of the Town Hall, for the exit of two lovers whom our old friend Monsieur de Longpré was uniting in marriage.

These two lovers were Ange Pitou and Catherine Billot.

It is needless to say that many important changes must have occurred to induce the Vicomte Isidore de Charny’s former sweetheart and little Isidore’s mother to become Madame Ange Pitou.

People related and commented on these events after their own fashion; but however much the facts were twisted and turned they only redounded to the glory and devotion of Ange Pitou, and the wisdom of Catherine, though the more interesting the lovers became in the eyes of their acquaintances and friends, the more their acquaintances and friends pitied them.

They were probably much happier than any man or woman in the crowd, but a crowd is so constituted that it must always either pity or envy.

364 LA COMTESSE DE CHARNY.

Tluit day the tendency was towards compassion, and they pitied the couple accordingly.

The events predicted by Cagliostro on the night of January 21st, 1793, had followed one another with frightful rapidity, each leaving an ineffaceable bloodstain in its wake.

On February 1st, 1793, the National Convention had voted to issue assignats to the amount of eight hundred million francs. This increased the total amount of assignats issued to three billion one hundred million francs.

On March 28th, 1793, the Convention, on the motion of Treilhard, passed an edict against the Koyalist refugees, making their exile perpetual, and confiscating their estates for the benefit of the Eepublic.

On November 7th, the Convention directed the Committee of Public Instruction to devise a plan for the substitution of some rational form of worship in place of that taught and practised by the Eoman Catholic Church.

It is unnecessary for us to speak of the proscription and death of the Girondists, or of the execution of the Duke of Orleans, the queen, Bailly, Danton, Desmoulins, and so many others; for though the influence of these events extended even to the little town of Villers-Cotterets, they did not affect the persons of whom we are speaking.

The result of this confiscation of property was that Gilbert and Billot being regarded as refugees, their estates were advertised for public sale. And the same thing happened to the property of Charny, who was killed on the 10th of August, and of his countess, slain during the massacre on the 2nd of September.

Catherine was consequently obliged to leave the farm, which was now considered the property of the nation. Pitou was anxious to institute a claim for it in Catherine’s name ; but Pitou, having become a moderate, was himself regarded with something like suspicion, and sagacious persons advised him not to oppose the nation either by word or by deed.

WHAT PITOU AND CATHEEIXE DID. 365

At first, Catherine had some idea of taking up her abode in the hut of Father Clouis, as she had done twice before ; but when she presented herself at the door of the Duke of Orleans’s former gamekeeper, the old man placed his finger on his lip, as if to recommend silence, and shook his head to denote impossibility.

This impossibility was due to the fact that Catherine’s old place was already occupied. The law against rebellious priests had been rigorously enforced; and as nothing could have induced Abbé Fortier to take the required oath, he would certainly have been banished if he had not previously taken the precaution to banish himself.

But this was not a favourable time for crossing the frontier, so he limited his exile to forsaking his house at Villers-Cotterets, — leaving his sister, Mademoiselle Alexandrine, to watch over his worldly goods, — and seeking an asylum with Father Clouis, which the old gamekeeper felt obliged to grant on account of the relations that formerly existed between both these men and the Orleans family.

It will be remembered that the accommodations at Clouise Eock were extremely limited, so there was not room for the priest and Catherine and little Isidore; besides, even if there had been room, Catherine was not enough of a Christian to forgive the priest for his refusal to bury her mother; and even if she had been enough of a Christian to forgive him, he was too much of a Catholic to forgive her, so she had to abandon all idea of residing at Clouise Eock.

Of course Aunt Angelica’s house was not to be thought of. The farther the Revolution progressed, the more irascible the old woman became, if that were possible; this deterioration of temper on her part being due to the fact that at Villers-Cotterets, as everywhere else, the parish church was closed until some rational form of worship could be substituted by the Committee on Public Instruction, and the church being closed, the rental of chairs, which constituted Aunt Angelica’s chief source of revenue, dwindled away to nothing.

36 G LA COMTESSE DE CHAKNY.

We should also say, by way of explanation, that, having heard so much about the capture of the Bastille by Billot and Ange Pitou, and having seen her nephew and the farmer start off for Taris on the eve of each great outbreak at the nation’s capital, she had not the slightest doubt that the French Revolution was conducted by Ange and Billot, and that Citizens Marat, Danton, and Robespierre were merely the assistants or tools of these two chief managers.

Mademoiselle Alexandrine, of course, encouraged her in these absurd ideas, which after Billot’s regicidal vote resulted in a sort of fanatical hatred; so it would not do to think of placing Catherine with Aunt Angelica. The only place of refuge left consequently was Pitou’s little cottage at Haramont; but how could the two dwell there together without causing the very worst kind of gossip?

Pitou therefore decided to ask the hospitality of his friend Desire Maniquet, — a hospitality which was cheerfully granted, and which Pitou more than repaid by services of every kind.

All this placed poor Catherine in a very trying position. Pitou lavished all the attentions of a friend and all the kindness of a brother upon her, but she was beginning to feel that it was neither as a friend nor as a brother that she loved Pitou.

Poor Catherine felt that she was entirely alone in the world except for Pitou and her child, and knew that if she were to die, little Isidore would not have a friend in the world except Pitou; so it gradually came about that Catherine was almost ready to make Pitou the only return in her power by giving herself to him body and soul, though the idolised lover of her youth had been trans-planted to heaven.

Nearly six months passed, during which Catherine kept her resolve carefully concealed in a corner of lier mind, or rather in the bottom of her heart, for she could not quite accustom herself to this new idea. So, though Pitou was greeted every morning with a pleasanter smile and a rather

WHAT PITOU AND CATHERINE DID. 367

more tender pressure of the hand, he had no idea that any-such change had taken place in Catherine’s sentiments; but as Pitou’s love and devotion did not arise from any hope of a return, he only loved Catherine more and more, and became more and more devoted to her.

This state of things might have continued, until both Catherine and Pitou were in their graves, or until Pitou was as venerable as Philemon, and Catherine as old as Baucis, without arousing any hope in the heart of the captain of the Haramont National Guards; so Catherine was obliged to speak first, — that is, after the feminine mode of speaking.

So one evening, instead of offering him her hand as usual, she offered him her forehead.

Pitou, fancying this was merely a piece of absent-minded- ness on Catherine’s part, did not take advantage of the supposed inadvertence, but retreated a step or two, whereupon Catherine, instead of releasing his hand, drew him towards her, and this time offered him not her forehead, but her cheek. Pitou, poor fellow, was even more at a loss to know what to do now.

Seeing all this, little Isidore interposed in his mother’s behalf.

“Papa Pitou, kiss Mamma Catherine,” he cried imperiously.

“Oh, God!” murmured Pitou, turning deathly pale as he touched Catherine’s cheek with his cold and trembling lips.

Picking up her child, Catherine placed him in Pitou’s arms.

“I give you my child, Pitou,” she said. “Will you not take the mother too? “

Pitou’s head whirled. He closed his eyes, and, still pressing the child to his heart, dropped into a chair, cry-ing out with that delicacy of feeling which only a susceptible nature can appreciate, “Monsieur Isidore, my darling Monsieur Isidore, how much I love you! “

368 LA COMTESSE DE CHARNY.

Isidore always called their benefactor “Papa Pitou,” but Pitou had always called the viscount’s son “Monsieur Isidore.”

Pitou felt that it was chiefly on account of Catherine’s love for her child that she was inclined to love him, and for that reason, he did not say, ” How much I love you, IMademoiselle Catherine ! ” but ” How I love you, Monsieur Isidore ! “

It being settled that Pitou loved the child better than he did the mother, they began to talk of marriage.

“I will not hurry you, Mademoiselle Catherine,” said Pitou. ” Take your time; but if you will consent to make me happy, don’t keep me waiting too long.”

Catherine only asked for a month ; so at the end of three weeks, Pitou, in full regimentals, started out to pay a ceremonious visit to Aunt Angelica to invite her to honour with her presence his approaching nuptials with Mademoiselle Catherine Billot.

Aunt Angelica saw her prodigal nephew while he was still afar off, and hastily closed the door; but Pitou advanced towards the inhospitable portal just the same. On reaching it, he rapped.

“Who ‘s there?” demanded Aunt Angelica, in her most acrid tones.

“Me, your nephew, Aunt Angelica.”

” Go away, you September fiend ! ” cried the old woman.

” Aunt, I came to announce a piece of news which cannot fail to please you, and which gives me great happiness.”

“What is it, you Jacobin? “

“Open the door, and I will tell you.”

“Tell me through the door; I won’t open it for such a scalawag.”

“Won’t you really. Aunt Angelica?”

“No, I won’t.”

” Well, I ‘m about to be married.”

The door opened as if by magic.

“To whom?”

WHAT PITOU AND CATHERINE DID. 369

“To Mademoiselle Catherine Billot.”

“You wretch! You scoundrel! You ass!” cried Aunt Angelica. “Marry that hussy! that — Clear out! I wash my hands of you ! “

“I ‘m too used to your pet names to mind them much. I thought I owed you the courtesy of announcing my marriage to you. I have done it, so good-bye.”

And, raising his hand to his three-cornered hat in a military salute, he walked on down the lane.

VOL. IV. — 24

370 LA COMTESSE DE CIIARNY.

CHAPTER II.

THE EFFECT OF THE NEWS ON AUNT ANGELICA.

Pitou had to notify Monsieur de Longpré, who resided on the Rue de I’Ormet, of his intended marriage; and Monsieur de Longpré, being less prejudiced against the Billot family, congratulated Pitou upon the highly commendable action he was about to perform, and Pitou listened to him in astonishment, for he had never once thought he was doing such a virtuous act in insuring his own happiness.

A good Republican, Pitou was more grateful than ever to the Republic, for had it not abolished the publishing of the bans, and all other tedious preliminaries, by suppressing marriages in church ; and it was consequently agreed between Citizen-Mayor Longpré and Pitou that the latter should be united in marriage with Catherine at the town-hall on the Saturday following.

The next day, Sunday, was the day appointed for the sale of Billot’s farm and the Château de Boursonnes. The farm was valued at four hundred thousand francs, and the château at six hundred thousand; but these valuations were estimated in assignats, and paper money had depre-ciated terribly in value. A gold louis was formerly worth twenty-four francs in specie; but this same golden louis was now worth nine hundred and twenty francs in paper money.

Pitou went back to tell Catherine the good news, though he was a little afraid she would be displeased that he had ventured to hasten the marriage a couple of days. Catherine manifested no dissatisfaction, however, so Pitou was in raptures ; but Catherine insisted that Pitou should again

EFFECT OF NEWS UPON AUNT ANGELICA. 371

visit Aunt Angelica to announce the exact date of the marriage , and urge her to be present. The old lady was Pitou’s only relative; and though not a very affectionate kinswoman, it was only right for Pitou to fuliil the usual social requirements.