Beadle's Dime Library No. 157 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

im And they went out withou’ further trouble, St. George saying iu a low voice: ‘‘T’ve heard enough for us. Come, Jet us be off to Malmaison.” CHAPTER XI. THE LETTER ARRIVES. A uwapy, tall, slender and graceful, with ‘brown curls clustering over her forehead, was -seated by the open window of a large country house sume leagues from Paris, looking out over a beautiful park in the light of an autumn day, Mourad, - _—<<—_ CO OO LAL ee _ wag Sanity ———— SSCS Se then turned to the bearer with a smile of sin- | 6 In Heaven’s name, monsieur, tell me how gular sweetness. _ you know all this?’ asked the lady, and as she ‘How can I apologize to monsieur for the | spoke she laid her white hand on his ragged are no doubt the Monsieur Saint George men- | the iron-willed Bonaparte, could resist. ‘‘ You But how is | are from Martinique?” ‘“‘No, [am from St. Domingo, madame.” ‘‘Then how do you knew this prophecy?” St. George turned away his head and looked at one of his companions with a burning glance as he asked in Arabic: ‘*Sball I tell the truth, my brother?’ Both the lady and Lafangere looked at him tioned by the general in his letter. it possible you have not been welcomed and rovided with all you need in France? Bear- | ing news of victory, too?” ‘* Alas, madame,” returned the creole sadly, ‘“we bear news of victory on land but of a ter- rible disaster at sea. On the very day we de- parted, the whole French fleet was destroyed " i : when a servant entered, and said: before our eyes. The general has, it is true, ‘Three persons—I should say men—wish tosee | possession of Egypt; but his retreat is cut off madame. They say they come from Egypt, but | and the apg can never return to France.” they look like beggars.” Josephine listened and turned pale. h e lady started up, her face wreathed in| ‘Are you sure of this, monsieur?” smniles, ‘‘T saw it with my own eyes, madame.” “From Egypt! Why do you not admit them, The lady had sunk on an ottoman and mur- Jacques fidgeted. ‘“Oh, heavens! what shall we do?” ‘Tf madame please—they are in rags—and-—I St. George turned on the old servant Jacques, fear they are impostors.” who was listening with all his ears and said The lady looked vexed, with the utmost politeness: : : “Tf they are from Egypt they cannot be im- “My friend, it is the custom of polite society postors. wie SE they must have news from | for you to set chairs and retire, as soon as you the general. Send them here.” have introduced visitors. Can you understand Scill Jacques hesitated. plain French?” ‘Tf madame please—they are not fit to come Jacques took the hint and went out and then into the saloon. I made them wait outside. | St. George advanced to the lady, who seemed They are ragged and dirty, and all they willsay | to be perfectly stunned by his news and said is that they want to see madame to give hersome- | gravely: thing. It may be the plague, for all I know, | ‘*Madame possibly knows the general better for they say it is raging in Egypt.” | than I, but I, on my part, have been with him The lady, looking still more vexed, stamped | under fire in bad places, and I learned from him her little foot. never to despair. The army may never return ‘Plague or no plague, I care not, so they | from Egypt, tut the general will, and he is come from Egypt. Send them up.” worth ten armies. Let madame ‘take courage. Jacques’bowed resignedly, muttering: We three are on her side and we three can do “If madame please. I have done all I can to | anything in the world when we are Poe og ” keep them out. osephine looked up with a faint smile. e went down to the hall and opened the door. ‘‘You are a brave man, monsieur, but you On the steps outside sat three men in rags, bare- | don’t know in what a condition these men have footed, dusty, bearded, haggard with fatigue | plunged France. They are jealousof Bonaparte, and hunger. They looked as if they had walked | ‘They hate him and willdo all they can to hurt a long way, as indeed they had. | him with the people, and he is a thousand miles “You can come in,” said Jacques, gruffly. | away from home with no one to befriend him ‘‘ Madame will see you; but if 1 had my way | here.” she would send for the gendarmes and have ‘‘You mistake, madame. He has five friends ‘you arrested as suspicious people.” that I know of, who will work for him as none One of the men, a swarthy Gascon from his | else can.” looks, laughed. | The lady looked puzzled. “If you had your way perhaps, France ‘ive friends. Who—?’ would be in a pretty pickle. ‘‘ First is madame the closest of all.” ‘*She would have no such people as you at all ‘‘ Ah, yes, monsieur, but only a woman and so events. It isnot because my mistress lowered | weak!” herself by marrying a Republican that we are | ‘‘ Women are mighty in their love and can do to fraternize with tramps,” answered Jacques, | many things men can not. crustily. ‘‘ Well, monsieur, who are the others?’ “Hola, citizen, you appear to forget that this| ‘‘Second are we three, who have made our is the year Seven of the Republic, one and iv- | way hither spite of English foes and French divisible,” retorted the Gascon fiercely. ‘‘ Are | traitors who hate the general. AsI told you, we fallen into a den of aristocrats here?” we three together can go anywLere and do any- His two companions: had said nothing and he | thing. That is four.” 3 appeared to be fully equal to doing all the talk- of And the fifth, monsieur?”’ ing required. ‘The fifth is fate. Madame is like myself a acques laughed in a sneering way. creole, and has heard of the voudou.” ‘* Your republic has brought things toa pretty Josephine looked interested at once, for she pass,” he said. “The sans culottes are not so | was exceedingly superstitious. ‘ strong as they used to be, thank Heaven! and ‘“What do you know of voudou?”’ she asked, my mistress belongs to the old families.” ‘‘ Madame comes from Martinique. She was The Gascon was about to make a hot reply | once Mademoiselle de la Pagerie, Is it not so, when one of his companions laid his hand on | madame?’ his shoulder and said quietly: Josephine sighed. ‘*Hush! Lafangere, we do not bandy words ‘‘Ttis true, monsieur. with servants. y friend, you told us madame | those days when TI had no care, before I— was willing to receive us. Why do you not, never mind. Goon,” take us thither?” ‘‘Madame may remember a prophecy niade ‘“Why don’t you come along then?” retorted | about her when almost a child, by one of the J acques. “follow me and shut the door after | priestesses of the ancient rite.” you.” Josephine shuddered and rose up. “Yes, I remember. Oh, monsieur, how did you know of it?” ee St. George’s friends were looking at him in silent amazement, for the lady seemed to be strangely affected. ‘“Does madame remember the words of the oracle?” asked St. George calmly. ‘Well, how well! Sho told me that I should o beyond seas to be wed; that he I loved should be slain on the scaffold: that 1 myself should be on the point of death—” “She stop and hid her face. ' “ And what more?” asked the deep voice of the creole. ‘‘ Has it not all come true, so far? Your husband, Beauharnais, perished on the illotine, and you were only saved by the eath of Robespierre fron a like fate. But the oracle said further. Was it not this? ‘And after that you shall be Queen of France—ay, more than queen—and the ‘people shall bless your footsteps.’ ” ‘Yes, yes,” interrupted Josephine, hurriedly. ‘‘ How know you this/ Tell no more. © For the last is—” “The last is the fate of all,” answered St. at once, Jacques?’ mured half to herself: Ah, how happy were But “Pardon me,” returned the ragged man ina tone of extreme politeness. ‘‘I never do an- other’s duty. Go on, friend, we follow.” Jacques slammed the door viciously and pre- ceied them to the salon where the lady came several steps to meet them and then recoiled, murmuring: ** Mon Dieu! r creatures!” In truth, they looked about as forlorn objects as could be seen in a day’stravel. The rags of their Mameluke dresses were covered with hay- seed showing where they had passed most of their nights and their thin unshaven faces look- ed wild in the extreme, as the lady ejaculated: * Who are you and what do you wish with me? With a strange air of dignity the tallest of the three drew himself up and replied: ‘Do I stand in presence of Madame la Gen- eralesse Bonaparte?” * Yes, yes, monsieur. What is it?’ “I am the bearer of a letter from the general which would have reached you a month since pas for the fortune of war, madame. It is ere.’ And St. George handed the lady the yellow | George, gravely, “that you should die.” and water-stained missive which his chief had “ But in days of rebellion,” interrupted Jose- written under the shadow of the Pyramids at | phine, quickly. the close of July. , St. shrugged his shoulders slightly. “What matters it then? Death wipes out all troubles. Madame has yet a glorious destiny before her. Let these men do with France what they will, till he comes back. They cannot kill Bonaparte. They cannot quench is star.” The lady looked doubtingly at it fora mo- ment, then tore it open and cried out hurriedly: ‘It is true; itistrue. Oh, mon Dieu, I have heard from him at last!” She devoured the letter with her eyes, and rrr errr eS PF rudeness of my servant and my own. You | sleeve with that bewitching smile few, not even ee —_ EL RR RR RM in amezement as the the third man, who had been standing like a statue all this time, an- swered in the same language: ‘‘No. She will despise you as I did before I knew you, my brother.” St. George shook his head. ‘““My part of the truth must be told. Let yours rest where you wish it.” Then he turned to Madame Bonaparte. ‘‘Madame wishes to know how I know this prophecy. It was delivered to me by the lips of the prophetess, and she was—” He paused, as if almost afraid to speak, and then said. in a low tone: ‘*__My mother’s mother.” Josephine started violently, and then looked at him in a strange way. ‘it is im ible,’ she murmured. ‘* He is as white as | am.” St. George smiled proudly. ‘*And yet in my veins flows the one drop of blood of the Spey Enough, madame, | knew you would not trust me when you knew that I am not all of your race. I will take my leave.” ‘Stay, monsieur,” said Josephine earnestly. ‘It is true that when a child | was brought up to abhor all taint of impure blood, but the world and the Revolution have showed me the folly of all that. You area brave man; my husband trusted you. Be my friend and help me, I trust you as fully as I would my own son, who is now with the general.” A softer light beamed in the eyes of the creole as he asked her gently: ** And will you, a creole, born of the race of the master. trust me as one of your own race, knowing that my motker was a slave and the child of a slave?’ “Certainly, monsieur. I have too few friends now, to throw away any who are faithful.” She held out her hand to the creole who fell on his knees with a sort of sob. ‘‘Then hear me, God of the white min and the black!” he said buskily. ‘‘Smite mo dead with palsy, and make my’ name a thing to be cursed by little children, if ever I falter from the general’s side and that of this noble lady till the last drop of my blood is shed.” Impressible Josephine was already weeping as St. George rose up, and now she tried to smile as she said: “It is a compact, messieurs. I know you will be able to help me. Now tell me first how I can help you.” * Parbleu, madame, la generalesse,” said La- fangere bluntly. ‘‘ The first thing is to let us have something to eat, for on my faith when a man has marched from Marseilles on roasted chestnuts and few enough of them he feels as if .. good dinner would be a good thing for m. ee with a face full of concern ran to the be crying: ‘‘My poor fellows! It is infamous! And how came you in such a plight?” ‘* Parbleu, madame, it seems, since we went to Egypt that France is turned upside down. The general’s order on the paymaster at Toulon was laughed at; we had lost all our own money in the sea, and as no one would recognize us in our characters as officers with dispatches we even had to tramp here as beggars.” Josephine made no answer until she had di- rected the astonished Jacques who had answered the bell to procure a cold dinner at once for —— gentlemen, officers of the general’s Then, when he had disappeared to execu the order she observed brightly: - ** Perhaps so much the ‘better. Had they let you pass as officers they might have ordered you somewhere else. As private citizens, no one need know you, and I will supply you with all the funds you need till he comes back. You can repay me then. In the mean time you must take up your abode at Malmaison.” ‘Pardon, madame,” answered St. George, ‘Sat Mualmaison—that is here—we can do you no good. It is at Paris we must work for the general. As for funds, we three will not starve. I assure you. All we need we can e as soon as I reach a friend of mine in Paris. Wea will not trespass on your hospitality after we have dined.” very much to the relief of Jacques, the three ragged adventurers tramped away on the high- ro-d to Paris that evening, causing the old butler to observe to himself: ‘Were well rid of them anyhow. I declare I was afraid of the spoons all the time they were here.” Gom ebooks And ae all the lady’s remonstrances, but c