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<h2> CHAPTER XIII. SANCTUARY </h2>
<p>Into the late afternoon of that endless day of horror with its perpetual
alarms, its volleying musketry, rolling drums, and distant muttering of
angry multitudes, Mme. de Plougastel and Aline sat waiting in that
handsome house in the Rue du Paradis. It was no longer for Rougane they
waited. They realized that, be the reason what it might—and by now
many reasons must no doubt exist—this friendly messenger would not
return. They waited without knowing for what. They waited for whatever
might betide.</p>
<p>At one time early in the afternoon the roar of battle approached them,
racing swiftly in their direction, swelling each moment in volume and in
horror. It was the frenzied clamour of a multitude drunk with blood and
bent on destruction. Near at hand that fierce wave of humanity checked in
its turbulent progress. Followed blows of pikes upon a door and imperious
calls to open, and thereafter came the rending of timbers, the shivering
of glass, screams of terror blending with screams of rage, and, running
through these shrill sounds, the deeper diapason of bestial laughter.</p>
<p>It was a hunt of two wretched Swiss guardsmen seeking blindly to escape.
And they were run to earth in a house in the neighbourhood, and there
cruelly done to death by that demoniac mob. The thing accomplished, the
hunters, male and female, forming into a battalion, came swinging down the
Rue du Paradis, chanting the song of Marseilles—a song new to Paris
in those days:</p>
<p>Allons, enfants de la patrie!<br/>
Le jour de gloire est arrive<br/>
Contre nous de la tyrannie<br/>
L'etendard sanglant est leve.<br/></p>
<p>Nearer it came, raucously bawled by some hundreds of voices, a dread sound
that had come so suddenly to displace at least temporarily the merry,
trivial air of the "Ca ira!" which hitherto had been the revolutionary
carillon. Instinctively Mme. de Plougastel and Aline clung to each other.
They had heard the sound of the ravishing of that other house in the
neighbourhood, without knowledge of the reason. What if now it should be
the turn of the Hotel Plougastel! There was no real cause to fear it, save
that amid a turmoil imperfectly understood and therefore the more
awe-inspiring, the worst must be feared always.</p>
<p>The dreadful song so dreadfully sung, and the thunder of heavily shod feet
upon the roughly paved street, passed on and receded. They breathed again,
almost as if a miracle had saved them, to yield to fresh alarm an instant
later, when madame's young footman, Jacques, the most trusted of her
servants, burst into their presence unceremoniously with a scared face,
bringing the announcement that a man who had just climbed over the garden
wall professed himself a friend of madame's, and desired to be brought
immediately to her presence.</p>
<p>"But he looks like a sansculotte, madame," the staunch fellow warned her.</p>
<p>Her thoughts and hopes leapt at once to Rougane.</p>
<p>"Bring him in," she commanded breathlessly.</p>
<p>Jacques went out, to return presently accompanied by a tall man in a long,
shabby, and very ample overcoat and a wide-brimmed hat that was turned
down all round, and adorned by an enormous tricolour cockade. This hat he
removed as he entered.</p>
<p>Jacques, standing behind him, perceived that his hair, although now in
some disorder, bore signs of having been carefully dressed. It was
clubbed, and it carried some lingering vestiges of powder. The young
footman wondered what it was in the man's face, which was turned from him,
that should cause his mistress to out and recoil. Then he found himself
dismissed abruptly by a gesture.</p>
<p>The newcomer advanced to the middle of the salon, moving like a man
exhausted and breathing hard. There he leaned against a table, across
which he confronted Mme. de Plougastel. And she stood regarding him, a
strange horror in her eyes.</p>
<p>In the background, on a settle at the salon's far end, sat Aline staring
in bewilderment and some fear at a face which, if unrecognizable through
the mask of blood and dust that smeared it, was yet familiar. And then the
man spoke, and instantly she knew the voice for that of the Marquis de La
Tour d'Azyr.</p>
<p>"My dear friend," he was saying, "forgive me if I startled you. Forgive me
if I thrust myself in here without leave, at such a time, in such a
manner. But... you see how it is with me. I am a fugitive. In the course
of my distracted flight, not knowing which way to turn for safety, I
thought of you. I told myself that if I could but safely reach your house,
I might find sanctuary."</p>
<p>"You are in danger?"</p>
<p>"In danger?" Almost he seemed silently to laugh at the unnecessary
question. "If I were to show myself openly in the streets just now, I
might with luck contrive to live for five minutes! My friend, it has been
a massacre. Some few of us escaped from the Tuileries at the end, to be
hunted to death in the streets. I doubt if by this time a single Swiss
survives. They had the worst of it, poor devils. And as for us—my
God! They hate us more than they hate the Swiss. Hence this filthy
disguise."</p>
<p>He peeled off the shaggy greatcoat, and casting it from him stepped forth
in the black satin that had been the general livery of the hundred knights
of the dagger who had rallied in the Tuileries that morning to the defence
of their king.</p>
<p>His coat was rent across the back, his neckcloth and the ruffles at his
wrists were torn and bloodstained; with his smeared face and disordered
headdress he was terrible to behold. Yet he contrived to carry himself
with his habitual easy assurance, remembered to kiss the trembling hand
which Mme. de Plougastel extended to him in welcome.</p>
<p>"You did well to come to me, Gervais," she said. "Yes, here is sanctuary
for the present. You will be quite safe, at least for as long as we are
safe. My servants are entirely trustworthy. Sit down and tell me all."</p>
<p>He obeyed her, collapsing almost into the armchair which she thrust
forward, a man exhausted, whether by physical exertion or by nerve-strain,
or both. He drew a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped some of the
blood and dirt from his face.</p>
<p>"It is soon told." His tone was bitter with the bitterness of despair.
"This, my dear, is the end of us. Plougastel is lucky in being across the
frontier at such a time. Had I not been fool enough to trust those who
to-day have proved themselves utterly unworthy of trust, that is where I
should be myself. My remaining in Paris is the crowning folly of a life
full of follies and mistakes. That I should come to you in my hour of most
urgent need adds point to it." He laughed in his bitterness.</p>
<p>Madame moistened her dry lips. "And... and now?" she asked him.</p>
<p>"It only remains to get away as soon as may be, if it is still possible.
Here in France there is no longer any room for us—at least, not
above ground. To-day has proved it." And then he looked up at her,
standing there beside him so pale and timid, and he smiled. He patted the
fine hand that rested upon the arm of his chair. "My dear Therese, unless
you carry charitableness to the length of giving me to drink, you will see
me perish of thirst under your eyes before ever the canaille has a chance
to finish me."</p>
<p>She started. "I should have thought of it!" she cried in self-reproach,
and she turned quickly. "Aline," she begged, "tell Jacques to bring..."</p>
<p>"Aline!" he echoed, interrupting, and swinging round in his turn. Then, as
Aline rose into view, detaching from her background, and he at last
perceived her, he heaved himself abruptly to his weary legs again, and
stood there stiffly bowing to her across the space of gleaming floor.
"Mademoiselle, I had not suspected your presence," he said, and he seemed
extraordinarily ill-at-ease, a man startled, as if caught in an illicit
act.</p>
<p>"I perceived it, monsieur," she answered, as she advanced to do madame's
commission. She paused before him. "From my heart, monsieur, I grieve that
we should meet again in circumstances so very painful."</p>
<p>Not since the day of his duel with Andre-Louis—the day which had
seen the death and burial of his last hope of winning her—had they
stood face to face.</p>
<p>He checked as if on the point of answering her. His glance strayed to Mme.
de Plougastel, and, oddly reticent for one who could be very glib, he
bowed in silence.</p>
<p>"But sit, monsieur, I beg. You are fatigued."</p>
<p>"You are gracious to observe it. With your permission, then." And he
resumed his seat. She continued on her way to the door and passed out upon
her errand.</p>
<p>When presently she returned they had almost unaccountably changed places.
It was Mme. de Plougastel who was seated in that armchair of brocade and
gilt, and M. de La Tour d'Azyr who, despite his lassitude, was leaning
over the back of it talking earnestly, seeming by his attitude to plead
with her. On Aline's entrance he broke off instantly and moved away, so
that she was left with a sense of having intruded. Further she observed
that the Countess was in tears.</p>
<p>Following her came presently the diligent Jacques, bearing a tray laden
with food and wine. Madame poured for her guest, and he drank a long
draught of the Burgundy, then begged, holding forth his grimy hands, that
he might mend his appearance before sitting down to eat.</p>
<p>He was led away and valeted by Jacques, and when he returned he had
removed from his person the last vestige of the rough handling he had
received. He looked almost his normal self, the disorder in his attire
repaired, calm and dignified and courtly in his bearing, but very pale and
haggard of face, seeming suddenly to have increased in years, to have
reached in appearance the age that was in fact his own.</p>
<p>As he ate and drank—and this with appetite, for as he told them he
had not tasted food since early morning—he entered into the details
of the dreadful events of the day, and gave them the particulars of his
own escape from the Tuileries when all was seen to be lost and when the
Swiss, having burnt their last cartridge, were submitting to wholesale
massacre at the hands of the indescribably furious mob.</p>
<p>"Oh, it was all most ill done," he ended critically. "We were timid when
we should have been resolute, and resolute at last when it was too late.
That is the history of our side from the beginning of this accursed
struggle. We have lacked proper leadership throughout, and now—as I
have said already—there is an end to us. It but remains to escape,
as soon as we can discover how the thing is to be accomplished."</p>
<p>Madame told him of the hopes that she had centred upon Rougane.</p>
<p>It lifted him out of his gloom. He was disposed to be optimistic.</p>
<p>"You are wrong to have abandoned that hope," he assured her. "If this
mayor is so well disposed, he certainly can do as his son promised. But
last night it would have been too late for him to have reached you, and
to-day, assuming that he had come to Paris, almost impossible for him to
win across the streets from the other side. It is most likely that he will
yet come. I pray that he may; for the knowledge that you and Mlle. de
Kercadiou are out of this would comfort me above all."</p>
<p>"We should take you with us," said madame.</p>
<p>"Ah! But how?"</p>
<p>"Young Rougane was to bring me permits for three persons—Aline,
myself, and my footman, Jacques. You would take the place of Jacques."</p>
<p>"Faith, to get out of Paris, madame, there is no man whose place I would
not take." And he laughed.</p>
<p>Their spirits rose with his and their flagging hopes revived. But as dusk
descended again upon the city, without any sign of the deliverer they
awaited, those hopes began to ebb once more.</p>
<p>M. de La Tour d'Azyr at last pleaded weariness, and begged to be permitted
to withdraw that he might endeavour to take some rest against whatever
might have to be faced in the immediate future. When he had gone, madame
persuaded Aline to go and lie down.</p>
<p>"I will call you, my dear, the moment he arrives," she said, bravely
maintaining that pretence of a confidence that had by now entirely
evaporated.</p>
<p>Aline kissed her affectionately, and departed, outwardly so calm and
unperturbed as to leave the Countess wondering whether she realized the
peril by which they were surrounded, a peril infinitely increased by the
presence in that house of a man so widely known and detested as M. de La
Tour d'Azyr, a man who was probably being sought for by his enemies at
this moment.</p>
<p>Left alone, madame lay down on a couch in the salon itself, to be ready
for any emergency. It was a hot summer night, and the glass doors opening
upon the luxuriant garden stood wide to admit the air. On that air came
intermittently from the distance sounds of the continuing horrible
activities of the populace, the aftermath of that bloody day.</p>
<p>Mme. de Plougastel lay there, listening to those sounds for upwards of an
hour, thanking Heaven that for the present at least the disturbances were
distant, dreading lest at any moment they should occur nearer at hand,
lest this Bondy section in which her hotel was situated should become the
scene of horrors similar to those whose echoes reached her ears from other
sections away to the south and west.</p>
<p>The couch occupied by the Countess lay in shadow; for all the lights in
that long salon had been extinguished with the exception of a cluster of
candles in a massive silver candle branch placed on a round marquetry
table in the middle of the room—an island of light in the
surrounding gloom.</p>
<p>The timepiece on the overmantel chimed melodiously the hour of ten, and
then, startling in the suddenness with which it broke the immediate
silence, another sound vibrated through the house, and brought madame to
her feet, in a breathless mingling of hope and dread. Some one was
knocking sharply on the door below. Followed moments of agonized suspense,
culminating in the abrupt invasion of the room by the footman Jacques. He
looked round, not seeing his mistress at first.</p>
<p>"Madame! Madame!" he panted, out of breath.</p>
<p>"What is it, Jacques!" Her voice was steady now that the need for
self-control seemed thrust upon her. She advanced from the shadows into
that island of light about the table. "There is a man below. He is
asking... he is demanding to see you at once."</p>
<p>"A man?" she questioned.</p>
<p>"He... he seems to be an official; at least he wears the sash of office.
And he refuses to give any name; he says that his name would convey
nothing to you. He insists that he must see you in person and at once."</p>
<p>"An official?" said madame.</p>
<p>"An official," Jacques repeated. "I would not have admitted him, but that
he demanded it in the name of the Nation. Madame, it is for you to say
what shall be done. Robert is with me. If you wish it... whatever it may
be..."</p>
<p>"My good Jacques, no, no." She was perfectly composed. "If this man
intended evil, surely he would not come alone. Conduct him to me, and then
beg Mlle. de Kercadiou to join me if she is awake."</p>
<p>Jacques departed, himself partly reassured. Madame seated herself in the
armchair by the table well within the light. She smoothed her dress with a
mechanical hand. If, as it would seem, her hopes had been futile, so had
her momentary fears. A man on any but an errand of peace would have
brought some following with him, as she had said.</p>
<p>The door opened again, and Jacques reappeared; after him, stepping briskly
past him, came a slight man in a wide-brimmed hat, adorned by a tricolour
cockade. About the waist of an olive-green riding-coat he wore a broad
tricolour sash; a sword hung at his side.</p>
<p>He swept off his hat, and the candlelight glinted on the steel buckle in
front of it. Madame found herself silently regarded by a pair of large,
dark eyes set in a lean, brown face, eyes that were most singularly intent
and searching.</p>
<p>She leaned forward, incredulity swept across her countenance. Then her
eyes kindled, and the colour came creeping back into her pale cheeks. She
rose suddenly. She was trembling.</p>
<p>"Andre-Louis!" she exclaimed.</p>
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