Part 20 (1/2)
”The jailers are not the only masters: and who among them would expose himself to almost certain death for the sake of your money?”
”Then I will do still better,” replied Vauquelas. ”I will bribe the judges of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and they will acquit your friends.”
”Useless! these judges will demand that the money shall be paid in advance! and as soon as they have it in their grasp, they will condemn the prisoners.”
”What can I do then?”
”There is no help for the misfortune, and it is because you are the cause of it that I am going to wreak my vengeance upon you!”
”Stop, stop! I will go to Robespierre.”
”He will refuse your pet.i.tion.”
”No! my influence over him is all-powerful. I have means to compel him to grant my request.”
”Even when you ask for the release of one of the leaders of the conspiracy to save the queen?”
”Yes; he will not refuse me.”
Coursegol reflected a moment. Vauquelas, still on his knees before him, looked up, trying to read his fate in the stern face above him.
”Listen,” said Coursegol at last. ”I will spare your life on certain conditions. It depends upon yourself whether you are to live or die.”
”Name them. I will obey!” murmured Vauquelas, servilely, beginning to breathe freely once more.
”To-morrow by sunset, I must receive from you a blank order signed by Robespierre which will enable me to obtain the release of two prisoners.”
”You shall have it.”
”I also desire that Robespierre shall remain in ignorance of the names of the prisoners who are to be released.”
”He shall not know.”
”Under these conditions, your life is yours. Only do not attempt to deceive me. I know that it is in your power to obtain an order for my arrest and thus save yourself from the chastis.e.m.e.nt you so richly deserve.”
”Can you believe--”
Vauquelas could not finish his sentence. He stammered and blushed, feeling that his most secret thoughts had been divined.
”But to prevent that, it is here in this house that I shall await your return; and if to-morrow the soldiers, guided by you, come here to arrest me, they will find me in the cellar where your wealth is concealed; and it is I who will have the pleasure of initiating them into the secrets of your patriotic life.”
Vauquelas uttered an exclamation of mingled astonishment and dismay.
”It is here,” repeated Coursegol, ”that I shall wait to receive from your hands the order of release that you have promised me. Now, it is for you to decide whether you will live or die.”
As he spoke, Coursegol pushed open the door leading to the cellar used by Vauquelas as the repository of his riches and disappeared. Vauquelas rose from his kneeling posture, filled with consternation by what he had just heard. The extremity to which he was reduced was a cruel one; he must bribe the incorruptible Robespierre. When he made the promise to Coursegol he did not intend to fulfil it: he intended to denounce him; but the shrewdness of his partner had placed him in a most embarra.s.sing position. He was obliged to keep his promise, but he could do it only by compromising his influence and his reputation; and yet there was no help for it since Coursegol could ruin him by a single word. How much he regretted that the strength and vigor of his youth were now paralyzed by age. If he had been twenty years younger, how desperately he would have struggled with the man who had suddenly become a formidable enemy! What an effort he would have made to kill him and thus silence him forever.
But such a plan was no longer feasible; nothing was left for him but submission. About an hour after Coursegol left him, he went to his room to obtain the rest of which he stood so greatly in need. He threw himself upon the bed; but sleep refused to come to his relief. At daybreak he was upon his feet once more. He wished, before leaving the house, to see Coursegol again. The latter had slept with his pistol in his hand, guarding the strong-box upon which his life as well as the lives of Dolores and Philip depended.
”Have you the order?” inquired Coursegol.