Sons of the Soil Part 31

"Glorious!" said Soudry, candidly. "What happiness to see the Comte de Montcornet, grand cross of the Legion of honor, commander of the Order of Saint Louis, and lieutenant-general, accused of having attempted, in a public resort, the virtue--just think of it!"

"He loves his wife too well," said Lupin, reflectively. "He couldn't be got to that."

"That's no obstacle," remarked Rigou; "but I don't know a single girl in the whole arrondiss.e.m.e.nt who is capable of making a sinner of a saint. I have been looking out for one for the abbe."

"What do you say to that handsome Gatienne Giboulard, of Auxerre, whom Sarcus, junior, is mad after?" asked Lupin.

"That's the only one," answered Rigou, "but she is not suitable; she thinks she has only to be seen to be admired; she's not complying enough; we want a witch and a sly-boots, too. Never mind, the right one will turn up sooner or later."

"Yes," said Lupin, "the more pretty girls he sees the greater the chances are."

"But perhaps you can't get the Shopman to the fair," said the ex-gendarme. "And if he does come, will he go to the Tivoli ball?"

"The reason that has always kept him away from the fair doesn't exist this year, my love," said Madame Soudry.

"What reason, dearest?" asked Soudry.

"The Shopman wanted to marry Mademoiselle de Soulanges," said the notary. "The family replied that she was too young, and that mortified him. That is why Monsieur de Soulanges and Monsieur de Montcornet, two old friends who both served in the Imperial Guard, are so cool to each other that they never speak. The Shopman doesn't want to meet the Soulanges at the fair; but this year the family are not coming."

Usually the Soulanges party stayed at the chateau from July to October, but the general was then in command of the artillery in Spain, under the Duc d'Angouleme, and the countess had accompanied him. At the siege of Cadiz the Comte de Soulanges obtained, as every one knows, the marshal's baton, which he kept till 1826.

"Very true," cried Lupin. "Well, it is for you, papa," he added, addressing Rigou, "to manoeuvre the matter so that we can get him to the fair; once there, we ought to be able to entrap him."

The fair of Soulanges, which takes place on the 15th of August, is one of the features of the town, and carries the palm over all other fairs in a circuit of sixty miles, even those of the capital of the department. Ville-aux-Fayes has no fair, for its fete-day, the Saint-Sylvestre, happens in winter.

From the 12th to the 15th of August all sorts of merchants abounded at Soulanges, and set up their booths in two parallel lines, two rows of the well-known gray linen huts, which gave a lively appearance to the usually deserted streets. The two weeks of the fair brought in a sort of harvest to the little town, for the festival has the authority and prestige of tradition. The peasants, as old Fourchon said, flocked in from the districts to which labor bound them for the rest of the year. The wonderful show on the counters of the improvised shops, the collection of all sorts of merchandise, the coveted objects of the wants or the vanities of these sons of the soil, who have no other shows or exhibitions to enjoy exercise a periodical seduction over the minds of all, especially the women and children. So, after the first of August the authorities posted advertis.e.m.e.nts signed by Soudry, throughout the whole arrondiss.e.m.e.nt, offering protection to merchants, jugglers, mountebanks, prodigies of all kinds, and stating how long the fair would last, and what would be its princ.i.p.al attractions.

On these posters, about which it will be remembered Madame Tonsard inquired of Vermichel, there was always, on the last line, the following announcement:

"Tivoli will be illuminated with colored-gla.s.s lamps."

The town had adopted as the place for public a dance-ground created by Socquard out of a stony garden (stony, like the rest of the hill on which Soulanges is built, where the gardens are of made land), and called by him a Tivoli. This character of the soil explains the peculiar flavor of the Soulanges wine,--a white wine, dry and spirituous, very like Madeira or the Vouvray wine, or Johannisberger,--three vintages which resemble one another.

The powerful effect produced by the Socquard ball upon the imaginations of the whole country-side made the inhabitants thereof very proud of their Tivoli. Such as had ventured as far as Paris declared that the Parisian Tivoli was superior to that of Soulanges only in size.

Gaubertin boldly declared that, for his part, he preferred the Socquard ball to the Parisian ball.

"Well, we'll think it all over," continued Rigou. "That Parisian fellow, the editor of a newspaper, will soon get tired of his present amus.e.m.e.nt and be glad of a change; perhaps we could through the servants give him the idea of coming to the fair, and he'd bring the others; I'll consider it. Sibilet might--although, to be sure, his influence is devilishly decreased of late--but he might get the general to think he could curry popularity by coming."

"Find out if the beautiful countess keeps the general at arm's length,"

said Lupin; "that's the point if you want him to fall into the farce at Tivoli."

"That little woman," cried Madame Soudry, "is too much of a Parisian not to know how to run with the hare and hold with the hounds."

"Fourchon has got his granddaughter Catherine on good terms, he tells me, with Charles, the Shopman's groom. That gives us one ear more in Les Aigues--Are you sure of the Abbe Taupin," he added, as the priest entered the room from the terrace.

"We hold him and the Abbe Mouchon, too, just as I hold Soudry," said the queen, stroking her husband's chin; "you are not unhappy, dearest, are you?" she said to Soudry.

"If I can plan a scandal against that Tartufe of a Brossette we can win," said Rigou, in a low voice. "But I am not sure if the local spirit can succeed against the Church spirit. You don't realize what that is.

I, myself, who am no fool, I can't say what I'll do when I fall ill. I believe I shall try to be reconciled with the Church."

"Suffer me to hope it," said the Abbe Taupin, for whose benefit Rigou had raised his voice on the last words.

"Alas! the wrong I did in marrying prevents it," replied Rigou. "I cannot kill off Madame Rigou."

"Meantime, let us think of Les Aigues," said Madame Soudry.

"Yes," said the ex-monk. "Do you know, I begin to think that our a.s.sociate at Ville-aux-Fayes may be cleverer than the rest of us. I fancy that Gaubertin wants Les Aigues for himself, and that he means to trick us in the end."

"But Les Aigues will not belong to any one of us; it will have to come down, from roof to cellar," said Soudry.

"I shouldn't be surprised if there were treasure buried in those cellars," observed Rigou, cleverly.

"Nonsense!"

"Well, in the wars of the olden time the great lords, who were often besieged and surprised, did bury their gold until they should be able to recover it; and you know that the Marquis de Soulanges-Hautemer (in whom the younger branch came to an end) was one of the victims of the Biron conspiracy. The Comtesse de Moret received the property from Henri IV.

when it was confiscated."

"See what it is to know the history of France!" said Soudry. "You are right. It is time to come to an understanding with Gaubertin."

"If he shirks," said Rigou, "we must smoke him out."

"He is rich enough now," said Lupin, "to be an honest man."

"I'll answer for him as I would for myself," said Madame Soudry; "he's the most loyal man in the kingdom."

"We all believe in his loyalty," said Rigou, "but nevertheless nothing should be neglected, even among friends--By the bye, I think there is some one in Soulanges who is hindering matters."

"Who's that?" asked Soudry.

"Plissoud," replied Rigou.

"Plissoud!" exclaimed Soudry. "Poor fool! Brunet holds him by the halter, and his wife by the gullet; ask Lupin."

"What can he do?" said Lupin.

"He means to warn Montcornet," replied Rigou, "and get his influence and a place--"

"It wouldn't bring him more than his wife earns for him at Soulanges,"

said Madame Soudry.

"He tells everything to his wife when he is drunk," remarked Lupin. "We shall know it all in good time."

"The beautiful Madame Plissoud has no secrets from you," said Rigou; "we may be easy about that."

"Besides, she's as stupid as she is beautiful," said Madame Soudry. "I wouldn't change with her; for if I were a man I'd prefer an ugly woman who has some mind, to a beauty who can't say two words."

"Ah!" said the notary, biting his lips, "but she can make others say three."

"Puppy!" cried Rigou, as he made for the door.