Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Part 58

"It is now a quarter to ten," said she, looking at a pretty little watch, a perfect gem of goldsmith's work, which made Ma.s.sol say to himself:

"Where the devil will Fortune make herself at home next!"

At this moment Asie had come to the dark hall looking out on the yard of the Conciergerie, where the ushers wait. On seeing the gate through the window, she exclaimed:

"What are those high walls?"

"That is the Conciergerie."

"Oh! so that is the Conciergerie where our poor queen----Oh! I should so like to see her cell!"

"Impossible, Madame la Baronne," replied the young lawyer, on whose arm the dowager was now leaning. "A permit is indispensable, and very difficult to procure."

"I have been told," she went on, "that Louis XVIII. himself composed the inscription that is to be seen in Marie-Antoinette's cell."

"Yes, Madame la Baronne."

"How much I should like to know Latin that I might study the words of that inscription!" said she. "Do you think that Monsieur Camusot could give me a permit?"

"That is not in his power; but he could take you there."

"But his business----" objected she.

"Oh!" said Ma.s.sol, "prisoners under suspicion can wait."

"To be sure," said she artlessly, "they are under suspicion.--But I know Monsieur de Granville, your public prosecutor----"

This hint had a magical effect on the ushers and the young lawyer.

"Ah, you know Monsieur de Granville?" said Ma.s.sol, who was inclined to ask the client thus sent to him by chance her name and address.

"I often see him at my friend Monsieur de Serizy's house. Madame de Serizy is a connection of mine through the Ronquerolles."

"Well, if Madame wishes to go down to the Conciergerie," said an usher, "she----"

"Yes," said Ma.s.sol.

So the Baroness and the lawyer were allowed to pa.s.s, and they presently found themselves in the little guard-room at the top of the stairs leading to the "mousetrap," a spot well known to Asie, forming, as has been said, a post of observation between those cells and the Court of the Sixth Chamber, through which everybody is obliged to pa.s.s.

"Will you ask if Monsieur Camusot is come yet?" said she, seeing some gendarmes playing cards.

"Yes, madame, he has just come up from the 'mousetrap.'"

"The mousetrap!" said she. "What is that?--Oh! how stupid of me not to have gone straight to the Comte de Granville.--But I have not time now. Pray take me to speak to Monsieur Camusot before he is otherwise engaged."

"Oh, you have plenty of time for seeing Monsieur Camusot," said Ma.s.sol.

"If you send him in your card, he will spare you the discomfort of waiting in the ante-room with the witnesses.--We can be civil here to ladies like you.--You have a card about you?"

At this instant Asie and her lawyer were exactly in front of the window of the guardroom whence the gendarmes could observe the gate of the Conciergerie. The gendarmes, brought up to respect the defenders of the widow and the orphan, were aware too of the prerogative of the gown, and for a few minutes allowed the Baroness to remain there escorted by a pleader. Asie listened to the terrible tales which a young lawyer is ready to tell about that prison-gate. She would not believe that those who were condemned to death were prepared for the scaffold behind those bars; but the sergeant-at-arms a.s.sured her it was so.

"How much I should like to see it done!" cried she.

And there she remained, prattling to the lawyer and the sergeant, till she saw Jacques Collin come out supported by two gendarmes, and preceded by Monsieur Camusot's clerk.

"Ah, there is a chaplain no doubt going to prepare a poor wretch----"

"Not at all, Madame la Baronne," said the gendarme. "He is a prisoner coming to be examined."

"What is he accused of?"

"He is concerned in this poisoning case."

"Oh! I should like to see him."

"You cannot stay here," said the sergeant, "for he is under close arrest, and he must pa.s.s through here. You see, madame, that door leads to the stairs----"

"Oh! thank you!" cried the Baroness, making for the door, to rush down the stairs, where she at once shrieked out, "Oh! where am I?"

This cry reached the ear of Jacques Collin, who was thus prepared to see her. The sergeant flew after Madame la Baronne, seized her by the middle, and lifted her back like a feather into the midst of a group of five gendarmes, who started up as one man; for in that guardroom everything is regarded as suspicious. The proceeding was arbitrary, but the arbitrariness was necessary. The young lawyer himself had cried out twice, "Madame! madame!" in his horror, so much did he fear finding himself in the wrong.

The Abbe Carlos Herrera, half fainting, sank on a chair in the guardroom.

"Poor man!" said the Baroness. "Can he be a criminal?"

The words, though spoken low to the young advocate, could be heard by all, for the silence of death reigned in that terrible guardroom.

Certain privileged persons are sometimes allowed to see famous criminals on their way through this room or through the pa.s.sages, so that the clerk and the gendarmes who had charge of the Abbe Carlos made no remark. Also, in consequence of the devoted zeal of the sergeant who had s.n.a.t.c.hed up the Baroness to hinder any communication between the prisoner and the visitors, there was a considerable s.p.a.ce between them.

"Let us go on," said Jacques Collin, making an effort to rise.

At the same moment the little ball rolled out of his sleeve, and the spot where it fell was noted by the Baroness, who could look about her freely from under her veil. The little pellet, being damp and sticky, did not roll; for such trivial details, apparently unimportant, had all been duly considered by Jacques Collin to insure success.

When the prisoner had been led up the higher part of the steps, Asie very unaffectedly dropped her bag and picked it up again; but in stooping she seized the pellet which had escaped notice, its color being exactly like that of the dust and mud on the floor.

"Oh dear!" cried she, "it goes to my heart.--He is dying----"

"Or seems to be," replied the sergeant.

"Monsieur," said Asie to the lawyer, "take me at once to Monsieur Camusot; I have come about this case; and he might be very glad to see me before examining that poor priest."

The lawyer and the Baroness left the guardroom, with its greasy, fuliginous walls; but as soon as they reached the top of the stairs, Asie exclaimed:

"Oh, and my dog! My poor little dog!" and she rushed off like a mad creature down the _Salle des Pas-Perdus_, asking every one where her dog was. She got to the corridor beyond (la Galerie Marchande, or Merchant's Hall, as it is called), and flew to the staircase, saying, "There he is!"

These stairs lead to the Cour de Harlay, through which Asie, having played out the farce, pa.s.sed out and took a hackney cab on the Quai des Orfevres, where there is a stand; thus she vanished with the summons requiring "Europe" to appear, her real name being unknown to the police and the lawyers.

"Rue Neuve-Saint-Marc," cried she to the driver.