Then a cry sprang from ten thousand throats which sounded as one—"Under the knife! Under the knife!"
"My God!" murmured Charles, quivering with terror as he leaned against the wall, and yet rooted to the spot by an unconquerable curiosity, "are they going to kill him? are they going to kill him?"
"No, don't worry," replied a voice, "he will get off with a fright this time. But it would do no great harm to finish him up at once."
Charles recognized the voice immediately; he turned his head in the direction whence it came and perceived Sergeant6 Augereau.
"Ah!" he exclaimed joyfully7, as if he himself had es[Pg 93]caped a great danger; "ah, it is you, my worthy8 friend! And Eugene?"
"Safe and sound like yourself. We went back to the hotel yesterday, and there we learned of your arrest. I hurried to the prison and found that you were there; when I returned at one o'clock you were still there. At three, I heard that Saint-Just had sent for you, so I made up my mind to wait here in the square till you came out, for I was very sure that he would not eat you. All at once I saw you near him at the window, and, as you seemed to be on the best terms possible with each other, I was reassured9. And now you are free?"
"Free as the air."
"There is nothing to keep you here any longer?"
"I only wish I had not come."
"I don't agree with you. It seems to me a good thing to be friends with Saint-Just, even better than with Schneider, especially now that he is the stronger. As for Schneider, you didn't have time to become very much attached to him; so you will probably not be inconsolable over his loss. What has happened this evening will be a warning to Tétrell, who, by the way, has not budged10, but who must not be allowed the time to take his revenge."
Just then they heard a confusion of cries, cheers and shouts.
"Oh! what is that?" cried Charles, hiding his head on his friend's breast.
"Nothing," replied Augereau, raising himself upon the tips of his toes. "Nothing, except that they are fastening him under the knife—doing to him just what he did yesterday to the mayor and the deputy at Eschau; each one in his turn. Fortunate are those, my good friend, who come from that place with their heads on their shoulders."
"Terrible! terrible!" murmured Charles.
"Terrible, yes; but we see that or worse every day. Say good-by to your worthy professor; you will probably never see him again, as they are going to send him to Paris[Pg 94] as soon as they take him down from that platform, and I don't envy him his promotion11. And now let us go and get some supper. You must be starved, my poor boy!"
"I never thought of that," said Charles; "but now that you remind me of it, I remember that it is a far cry from breakfast."
"All the more reason to return to the H?tel de la Lanterne as soon as possible."
"Come on, then."
Charles glanced at the square a last time.
"Farewell! poor friend of my father," he said. "When he sent me to you he believed that you were still the good and learned monk12 whom he had known. He did not know that you had become the bloody13 tyrant14 that I have found you, and that the spirit of the Lord had departed from you. Quos vult perdere Jupiter dementat. Come."
This time it was the boy who hurried Pierre Augereau toward the H?tel de la Lanterne.
Two persons were anxiously awaiting Charles's return; Madame Teutch and Eugene.
Madame Teutch, in her double r?le of hostess and woman, began by fondling Charles, and it was not until she had looked him all over, to convince herself that it was indeed he, and had kissed him to make sure that he was not a ghost, that she gave him to Eugene.
The greetings of the two young friends were equally tender though less demonstrative. Nothing binds15 friendship so rapidly as dangers shared in common; and since they had known each other, events had not been wanting to lead their friendship to a point equalled only by the ancients.
This friendship was further increased by the knowledge that they were soon to part. It was imprudent for Eugene, who had, moreover, nearly finished his researches, to remain longer in Strasbourg, where he was exposed to the vengeance16 of Tétrell, who might brood over the insult he had received for a certain time, but who would surely not[Pg 95] forget it. As for Charles, there was no further reason for him to remain in Strasbourg once Schneider was no longer there, since he had come to the city for the sole purpose of studying under him.
Eugene was, therefore, to return to Paris, where his mother and sister were working for the liberation of his father; and Charles, utilizing17 the second letter that his father had given him, was to enter upon his military apprenticeship18, instead of becoming Euloge Schneider's pupil.
It was agreed that the two boys should set out the next morning at daybreak. This resolution drove Madame Teutch to despair, for, as she said, she felt as if she had a little family, and she loved them as if they were her own children. But she was too reasonable to attempt to delay, much less to prevent, a departure which she knew to be inevitable19 and, above all, urgent. She entered therefore into all their plans; the only condition that she made was that she herself might be allowed to give them the last meal that they were to take in her house.
Not only was the offer accepted, but the young comrades, who regarded Madame Teutch, if not as a mother, at least as a friend, insisted that she should do the honors of the repast; an invitation which pleased her so greatly that she immediately gave orders to the cook for the best supper he could provide, and then hastened up to her room to don the handsomest gown she possessed20.
And as the supper preparations and Madame Teutch's toilet would consume at least half an hour, the two boys decided21 to employ that time in making ready for their departure.
The Paris diligence, in which Eugene had engaged a place, was to start at daybreak. Charles intended to accompany his friend to the diligence and then to start for Auenheim, where Pichegru had his headquarters.
Auenheim is some twenty-four miles distant from Strasbourg. It was one of the eight or ten fortresses22 which, like[Pg 96] advance sentinels, watched over the safety of the frontiers around Strasbourg.
Charles had need of a good night's rest to prepare for such a fatiguing23 journey. And it was to secure an uninterrupted sleep that Madame Teutch advised the boys to look over their papers and to pack their trunks before supper.
In the meantime Augereau went to the barracks to leave word that, as he was to sup in the city, he did not know when he would return that evening, if he returned at all. As fencing-master he enjoyed many advantages over the other volunteers of Paris, who in their turn possessed immunities24 which the soldiers of the country were not allowed.
The two boys left the communicating door between their rooms open, so that they could still talk with each other, although each was in his own room.
Now that they were to part, each planned out his future as he intended it to be.
"I," said Eugene, as he classified his military documents, "shall never be anything but a soldier. I know but little Latin, for which I have a strong dislike, and still less Greek, of which I don't understand a word. On the other hand, give me a horse, I don't care what it is, and I can ride it; I can hit the bull's-eye at twenty paces every time, and Augereau had told you himself that I need fear no one with sword or sabre. As soon as I hear a drum or a trumpet25, my heart beats and the blood rushes to my head. I shall certainly be a soldier like my father. Who knows? Perhaps I shall become a general like him. It's fine to be a general."
"Yes," replied Charles, "but just see to what that leads; look at your father. You are sure that he is innocent, are you not?"
"Of course I am!"
"Well, he is in danger of being exiled, or even of being put to death, as you told me."
"Pooh! Themistocles took part in the battles of Marathon and Salamis, and he died in exile. Exile, when it is un[Pg 97]deserved, makes a hero of a general. When death strikes the innocent it makes of the hero a demigod. Wouldn't you like to be Phocion, even at the risk of having to drink hemlock26 like him?"
"Hemlock for hemlock," replied Charles, "I would rather drink that of Socrates; he is the hero for me."
"Ah! I don't dispute that! He began by being a soldier; at Potid?a he saved Alcibiades' life, and at Delium, that of Xenophon. Saving a man's life, Charles, was the act for which the Romans bestowed27 their most beautiful crown—the crown of oak."
"To save the life of two men, and to make sixty thousand perish, as Phocion, of whom you spoke28 just now, did in the forty-five battles which he fought, do you think that would be sufficient compensation?"
"Upon my word, yes, when those two men were Alcibiades and Xenophon."
"I am not as ambitious as you," said Charles, with a sigh. "You want to be an Alexander, a Scipio, or a C?sar, while I should be content to be, I don't say, a Virgil—there never will be but one Virgil—but a Horace, a Longinus, or even an Apuleius. You want a camp, an army, tents, horses, bright uniforms, drums, bugles29, trumpets30, military music, the cracking of rifles, the thunder of cannon31; for me the aurea mediocritas of the poet is enough—a little house full of friends, a great library full of books, a life work and dreams, the death of the righteous in the end, and God will have given me more than I dare to ask. Ah! if I only knew Greek!"
"But what are you going to Pichegru for except to become his aide-de-camp some day."
"And my trunk is packed."
Eugene went into Charles's room.
"Ah!" said he, "you are fortunate to be able to limit your desires; you have at least some prospect33 of arriving at your goal, while I—"
[Pg 98]
"Do you think then that my ambition is not as great as yours, my dear Eugene, and that it is less difficult to become a Diderot than a Maréchal de Saxe, a Voltaire than a Turenne? To be sure, I do not aspire34 to be either a Diderot or a Voltaire."
"Nor I the Maréchal de Saxe."
"Never mind, we can wish for it, anyway."
At that moment Pierre Augereau's voice could be heard crying at the foot of the stairs: "Now then, young men, dinner is ready!"
"Come, Monsieur Scholar!" said Eugene.
"Come, Citizen General!" said Charles.
One last word concerning the terrible events of that day; after which we will return to our young friends.
At six o'clock a post-chaise was brought to the guillotine to which Eugene Schneider was tied. It contained two gendarmes36, who got out and unfastening Schneider made him enter the carriage and take a seat in it; then they themselves took their places beside him. The post-chaise set off at a gallop37 on the road to Paris.
On the 12th Germinal, of the year II. (1st of April, 1794), Euloge Schneider, of Vepefeld, was beheaded during the sessions of the revolutionary tribunal, for having by extortions and immoral38 and cruel vexations, by the most revolting and sanguinary abuse in the name of the revolutionary commission, oppressed, stolen, assassinated39, and ravished the honor, the fortune and the tranquillity40 of peaceable families.
A few days later the poet-shoemaker, Young, the musician, Edelmann, and the ex-prefect of the College of Besan?on, Monnet, died upon the same scaffold.
Of the five heads of the individuals which were present at the famous dinner given by Euloge Schneider, when Mademoiselle de Brumpt came to beg for mercy in behalf of her father, that of Charles was the only one which had not been severed41 from its shoulders at the end of four months.
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1
reassure
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| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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prick
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| v.刺伤，刺痛，刺孔；n.刺伤，刺痛 | |
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4
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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5
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6
sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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7
joyfully
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| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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8
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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9
reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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10
budged
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| v.（使）稍微移动( budge的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）改变主意，（使）让步 | |
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promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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15
binds
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| v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 )；装订；捆绑；（用长布条）缠绕 | |
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vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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utilizing
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| v.利用，使用( utilize的现在分词 ) | |
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apprenticeship
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| n.学徒身份；学徒期 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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fortresses
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| 堡垒，要塞( fortress的名词复数 ) | |
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fatiguing
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| a.使人劳累的 | |
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immunities
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| 免除，豁免( immunity的名词复数 )； 免疫力 | |
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trumpet
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| n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘 | |
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hemlock
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| n.毒胡萝卜，铁杉 | |
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27
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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29
bugles
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| 妙脆角，一种类似薯片但做成尖角或喇叭状的零食； 号角( bugle的名词复数 )； 喇叭； 匍匐筋骨草； （装饰女服用的）柱状玻璃（或塑料）小珠 | |
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30
trumpets
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| 喇叭( trumpet的名词复数 )； 小号； 喇叭形物； （尤指）绽开的水仙花 | |
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31
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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strapped
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| adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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aspire
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| vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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gendarmes
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| n.宪兵，警官( gendarme的名词复数 ) | |
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37
gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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38
immoral
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| adj.不道德的，淫荡的，荒淫的，有伤风化的 | |
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39
assassinated
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| v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏 | |
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40
tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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41
severed
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| v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂 | |
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