Part 39 (1/2)

For a few minutes every attention was directed toward her; and it was only as she showed signs of recovery, some one asked--

'What has become of De Noe and his friend?'

They were gone.

CHAPTER VI. 'LA GRUE'

When Gerald gained the street, it was to find it crammed with a dense mob, whose wild cries and screams filled the air. No sooner was he perceived by some of the mult.i.tude than a hundred yells saluted him, with shouts of 'Down with the aristocrat; down with the tyrant, who insults the friend of the people.' It was a mob who, in fervour of enthusiasm for Mirabeau's memory, had closed each of the theatres in succession, dispersed all meetings of public festivity, and even invaded the precincts of private houses, to dictate a more becoming observance toward the ill.u.s.trious dead. Few men could bear such prescription less patiently than Fitzgerald. The very thought of being ruled and directed by the 'canaille' was insupportably offensive, and he drove back those who rudely pressed upon him, and answered with contempt their words of insult and outrage.

'Who is it that insults the majesty of the people?' cried one; 'let us hear his name.'

'It is Louvet'--'It is Plessard'--'It is Lestocq'--'It is that miserable Custine '--shouted several together.

'You are all wrong. I am a stranger, whose name not one of you has ever heard----'

'A spy! an emissary of Pitt and Cobourg!'

'I am a foreigner, with whose sentiments you have no concern. I do not obtrude my opinions upon you.'

'What do we care for that?' shouted a deep voice. 'You have dared to offend the most sacred sentiments of a nation, and to riot in a festive orgie while we weep over the deathbed of a patriot.'

'_A la Grue! a la Grue!_' screamed the wild ma.s.s in a yell of pa.s.sion.

Now the Grue was an immense crane--used in some repairs of the Pont Neuf--which still held its place at the approach to the bridge. It was here that a sort of public tribunal held its nightly sittings by the light of a gigantic lantern, suspended from the crane; and which, report alleged, had more than once given way to a very different pendant. It is certain that two men, taken in the act of robbery, had been hanged by the sentence of this self-const.i.tuted tribunal, which, in open defiance of the authorities, continued to a.s.semble there. The cry, '_A la Grue!

a la Grue!_' had, therefore, a dreadful significance; and there was a terrible import in the savage roar of the mob as they ratified the proposal.

'We will try him fairly. He shall be judged deliberately, and be allowed to speak in his own defence,' said several, who believed that their words were those of moderation and equity:

Powerless against the overwhelming ma.s.s, and too indignant to proffer one single word of palliation, Gerald was hurried along towards the quay.

There was something singularly solemn in the measured tread of that vast mult.i.tude, as, in a mockery of justice, they marched along. At first not a word was spoken; but suddenly a deep voice in the front rank began one of the popular chants of the day, the whole dense ma.s.s joining in the refrain. Nothing could be ruder than the verses, save the accents that intoned them; but there was in the very roar and resonance a depth that imparted a sense of force and power.

We offer a rough version of the unpolished chant--

'The Cour Royale has a princely hall, And many come there to sue; But I love the sight of a stilly night, And the crowd beneath the Grue.

No lawyer clown, with his cap and gown, Has complex work to do; For the h.o.r.n.y hand and the face that's tanned Are the judges beneath the Grue.

At best, this life is a fleeting strife, For me as well as for you; But our work is brief with a rogue or thief When he stands beneath the Grue.

No bribes resort to our humble court, All is open and plain to view; And the people's voice and the people's choice Are the law beneath the Grue.

The Grue! the Grue! the Grue!

I ween there are but few Who have hearts for hope as they see the rope That dangles beneath the Grue.'

As they sang a number of voices in front of them took up the strain, till the crowd seemed to make the very air ring with their hoa.r.s.e chant.

In this way they reached the Seine, over whose dark and rapid flood the fatal crane seemed to droop sadly. Several hundred people were a.s.sembled here, a confused murmur showing that they were engaged in conversing rather than in that judicial function it was their pride to discharge.