Belle-Rose — page 208: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE ARGUMENTS OF A MINISTER. ‘197 which floats unceasingly over Paris. One of the lights dis- appeared, then another, then still another. Presently only three or four were to be distinguished which shone like stars fallen from heaven. While Belle-Rose was contem- plating them, an indefinable emotion penetrated his heart; it seemed to him that these lights were the images of those whom he had known. One of those radiant sparks suddenly carried away by an invisible hand, recalled to him Monsieur d’Assonville killed in the prime of life; a red light. which brusquely disappeared in the sinister folds of the night, made him recollect Monsieur de Ville- brais and the funereal hour which had sounded his death; farther still, a soft and trembling light, slowly eclipsed behind a thick curtain, made him think of his father, whose life had been so honest and whose death had been so loyal. As he was meditating thus, he heard the bolts of his cell sreak; the door opened, the red light of a torch illumined his room, and Belle-Rose saw, on turning round, the lieu- tenant of the Bastile preceded by a turnkey and followed by three or four soldiers. ‘‘Monsieur,’’ the officer said to him, ‘‘I have an order to bring you to the council-room where the governor is ex- pecting you.”’ ‘‘I follow you,’’ replied Belle-Rose. His escort threaded a long corridor, at the end of which they descended a stair-way which led to an interior court of the Bastile. They traversed it, passed under a porch, mounted another stair-way and stopped before a vaulted room which adjoined the military lodgings of the gov- ernor. The governor was. standing near a personage un- known to Belle-Rose, but who seemed all-powerful, judg- ing from the respectful manner with which thé governor spoke to him. When Belle-Rose was introduced, this per- sonage turned toward him. From the description given him while in the army, Belle-Rose recognized Monsieur de Louvois. ‘The redoubtable minister fixed upon him a piercing look as if he had wished to read the very depth of his heart. Belle-Rose waited with head elevated and glance firm. 3 ‘‘Approach, monsieur,’’ the minister said to him. Belle-Rose made a step forward. ‘Is it indeed you who have gone this morning to Mon- sieur Bergame’s?’’ continued Monsieur de Louvois. ‘*l am the man,’’ | GEomicboo <“S Eo