第36章

Only a few persons were in the secret.M.du Ronceret, president of the Tribunal; M.Sauvager, deputy Public Prosecutor; and M.du Coudrai, a registrar of mortgages, who had lost his post by voting on the wrong side, were the only persons who were supposed to know about it; but Mesdames du Ronceret and du Coudrai had told the news, in strict confidence, to one or two intimate friends, so that it had spread half over the semi-noble, semi-bourgeois assembly at M.du Croisier's.Everybody felt the gravity of the situation, but no one ventured to speak of it openly; and, moreover, Mme.du Croisier's attachment to the upper sphere was so well known, that people scarcely dared to mention the disaster which had befallen the d'Esgrignons or to ask for particulars.The persons most interested were waiting till good Mme.du Croisier retired, for that lady always retreated to her room at the same hour to perform her religious exercises as far as possible out of her husband's sight.

Du Croisier's adherents, knowing the secret and the plans of the great commercial power, looked round when the lady of the house disappeared;but there were still several persons present whose opinions or interests marked them out as untrustworthy, so they continued to play.

About half past eleven all had gone save intimates: M.Sauvager, M.

Camusot, the examining magistrate, and his wife, M.and Mme.du Ronceret and their son Fabien, M.and Mme.du Coudrai, and Joseph Blondet, the eldest of an old judge; ten persons in all.

It is told of Talleyrand that one fatal day, three hours after midnight, he suddenly interrupted a game of cards in the Duchesse de Luynes' house by laying down his watch on the table and asking the players whether the Prince de Conde had any child but the Duc d'Enghien.

"Why do you ask?" returned Mme.de Luynes, "when you know so well that he has not.""Because if the Prince has no other son, the House of Conde is now at an end."There was a moment's pause, and they finished the game.--President du Ronceret now did something very similar.Perhaps he had heard the anecdote; perhaps, in political life, little minds and great minds are apt to hit upon the same expression.He looked at his watch, and interrupted the game of boston with:

"At this moment M.le Comte d'Esgrignon is arrested, and that house which has held its head so high is dishonored forever.""Then, have you got hold of the boy?" du Coudrai cried gleefully.

Every one in the room, with the exception of the President, the deputy, and du Croisier, looked startled.

"He has just been arrested in Chesnel's house, where he was hiding,"said the deputy public prosecutor, with the air of a capable but unappreciated public servant, who ought by rights to be Minister of Police.M.Sauvager, the deputy, was a thin, tall young man of five-and-twenty, with a lengthy olive-hued countenance, black frizzled hair, and deep-set eyes; the wide, dark rings beneath them were completed by the wrinkled purple eyelids above.With a nose like the beak of some bird of prey, a pinched mouth, and cheeks worn lean with study and hollowed by ambition, he was the very type of a second-rate personage on the lookout for something to turn up, and ready to do anything if so he might get on in the world, while keeping within the limitations of the possible and the forms of law.His pompous expression was an admirable indication of the time-serving eloquence to be expected of him.Chesnel's successor had discovered the young Count's hiding place to him, and he took great credit to himself for his penetration.

The news seemed to come as a shock to the examining magistrate, M.

Camusot, who had granted the warrant of arrest on Sauvager's application, with no idea that it was to be executed so promptly.

Camusot was short, fair, and fat already, though he was only thirty years old or thereabouts; he had the flabby, livid look peculiar to officials who live shut up in their private study or in a court of justice; and his little, pale, yellow eyes were full of the suspicion which is often mistaken for shrewdness.

Mme.Camusot looked at her spouse, as who should say, "Was I not right?""Then the case will come on," was Camusot's comment.

"Could you doubt it?" asked du Coudrai."Now they have got the Count, all is over.""There is the jury," said Camusot."In this case M.le Prefet is sure to take care that after the challenges from the prosecution and the defence, the jury to a man will be for an acquittal.--My advice would be to come to a compromise," he added, turning to du Croisier.

"Compromise!" echoed the President; "why, he is in the hands of justice.""Acquitted or convicted, the Comte d'Esgrignon will be dishonored all the same," put in Sauvager.

"I am bringing an action,"[*] said du Croisier."I shall have Dupin senior.We shall see how the d'Esgrignon family will escape out of his clutches."[*] A trial for an offence of this kind in France is an action brought by a private person (partie civile) to recover damages, and at the same time a criminal prosecution conducted on behalf of the Government.--Tr.

"The d'Esgrignons will defend the case and have counsel from Paris;they will have Berryer," said Mme.Camusot."You will have a Roland for your Oliver."Du Croisier, M.Sauvager, and the President du Ronceret looked at Camusot, and one thought troubled their minds.The lady's tone, the way in which she flung her proverb in the faces of the eight conspirators against the house of d'Esgrignon, caused them inward perturbation, which they dissembled as provincials can dissemble, by dint of lifelong practice in the shifts of a monastic existence.