Beadle's Dime Library No. 157 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

A Mourad, the ‘*They only sev what I see for myself,” she La All England cannot yperen him coming | quired moro courage to refuse a challenge than answered in a iow voice, ‘* And what is that?” ‘‘ That you care more for a word of Madame Bonaparte than for my best efforts to piease you. You only use me to gain news for her and—” ' general, Claire. ‘‘In short,” he replied as she hesitated, ‘‘ you | . think that Iam in love with madame? Well, 1 admit that she is a charming person, with a singular grace about her that is rarely found, except in her race; you know we are both creoles.” His large dark eyes were watching the chang- ing color of the girl as he spoke, and a smile was on his lips. Claire tapped the floor with her little foot in a nervous way. ‘* You are laughing at me,” she said with the tears in her eyes, ‘‘ and I do not deserve it.” ‘* But indeed you do,” he replied gravely. ‘‘ Why, monsieur?’ : Her tone was cold and injured. ‘« Because,” he answered, still more gravely, ‘‘vou permit yourself to be swayed by the falsehoods of people you know to be her ene- mies and mine. You are the only person in Paris, Claire, that knows me asl am. Do you permit yourself to think that I, who adore my general, would cherish a single thought other than respect toward my general’s wife—a wo- man sanctified by her misfortune? Some one has been trying to poison your mind against me. I know who it is—” ‘‘T swear to you that this foolish Bottot does not so much as influence a single thought.” ‘‘No, but Bottot’s master does, the Director Barras. What did he say to you?” | He spoke to her as if she were a child, he her teacher, as indeed he was, in the art of love; for it needed no spectacles to see that Claire was over head and ears in love with the hand- some creole. All Paris could see it, and Paris seldom makes mistakes in affairs of the heart. St. George kmew his power and used it. Claire blushed deeply and looked ashamed. ‘“‘Tt is nothing, after all,” she murmured, ‘and I don’t think .Monsieur Barras knew I when be wishes. He is a demigod among these pigmies. But come, we have quarreled enough tor one evening. Tell me you trust me.” ‘‘ Ah, you know I do when you are near me, Emil. But when you are away and. I hear things—” ‘‘ Answer them in your heart thus: ‘He trusts me with his life; 1 will trust him also!’ We must wait, Claire. When he comes back back | all will be well again, and in the mean time be- | lieve that I love you always. See, here is Bot- tet again. Now youshall seel am more gen- erous than you. 1 know he isin love with you ret I trust you with bim. Find out all you can or me.” He rose and went away as Bottot came bow- ing up to her and the girl murmured: ‘ Yes, it is easy to trust when one does not care: but I—1 am desolated with jealousy.” Then she watched the creole jom Madame Bonaparte and sighed as she looked. CHAPTER XVI. THE GUILLOTINE CLUB. THE Guillotine Club was in session at No. 419 Rue de Tabac, and the president had put on his red cap, an example followed by all the mem- bers, each of whom had a glass of red wine be- . fore bim on the table, flanked by a black bottle. ‘‘No, you do not,” she interrupted eagerly, It looked very imposing and was also very cheap; for the wine wes only worth half a _ frenc a bottle or ten cents American coin. The Guillotine Club had the reputation of _ being the most ferocious ** Red” club in Paris, and the viole: ce of its speethes was proverbial, though its members rarely went to the barriers for affairs of honor. They wished for the restoration of ‘* Madame Guillotine,” as they foudly called ber, and did not believe in giving the accursed aristocrats any chance to perforate the bodies of the soy- _ereign people. was within hearing when he spoke. dt was to- | day at dur house, when my facher and he were talking business before the meeting.” ‘* Yes, and what passed?’ There was a slight tremor in the creole’s': voice, for he was very eager to know, | ‘“Dhey were-talking of the rumors in the En- elish papers that Bonaparte had been killed in the ‘assault on St. Jean d’ Acre, and Barras laughed and said: ‘That is not possible, for Ll have received dispatches from bim since then, which tell me that he is master of all Palestine. But that is not the worst of it. The little ras- cal has the impudence to tell me in his letter, that, if the news in the papers is true, and the kings are marching against France,’he will:re- turn to Europe at once. Fancy his impudence! He will return without orders!” ‘‘Well;” said St. George, “was that all? What said your father?” ‘‘ Oh, he tried to excuse: Bonaparte, and even said that he would be glad to sce him back to reorganize the army, which was falling into disrepute in wrt ? ‘‘Ob! he bad the courage to say that? Well, what answered Barras, who thinks that he rules France by right of brains?” ‘‘He retorted ou my father,‘ Oh, ves, you think I don’t know you are oue of his creatures, since you have saved somuch money. I know all about this brave 8S. George, who has made a convert of you by means of your daughter, at the same time that he makes love to Madame Bonaparte. If you are not a fool you will send this creole pucking, or you will find yourself in a bad box,’” ‘‘ Did he say that?” es Yes,” ‘‘Do you think he suspects that I am on the staff of the genera), and receive news from him by Mourad? ‘‘ He knows you are of the general’s party. No one can help that, to hear you talk so openly in his favor.” St. George fell into a fit of thought, from which he was rousud by Claire’s voice, timidly asking: ‘** Emil, is it true?” ‘‘[s what true?’ he retorted absently. ; ‘Ts it true that'you have only played with me and that you make love to Madame?” He looked at her with a singular mixture of tenderness and raillery: ‘* Little jealousy! if I were making love to Madame Lonaparte, should I plot to bring back the general? Claire, you are like a lake of clear water. One can see the white sands of purity in the depths of your soul. I am, it is true, like the turbid sea after a storm, not so easily fathomed; but | swearto you that I love you more than any one in this world, and that my only object in bringing your father to our side is to secure his satety from the storm that is gathering. France is coming to a tempest, and only one man can save her. That man is my general,” | | ‘* But heis in Egypt and cannot get back, for the English hold the seas.” In the coarse but expressive phrase of the journalists of Chicago, ‘* they were waiting for a sure thing.” The Guillotine Club was not com of sol- diers, and some of its members gloried in the that fact they had never been out of Paris. ‘* The enemies of the Republic can best be met here, citizens,” remarked Jacquot, the tailor, ‘‘and I am in favor of Securing the rear of the army, as we did in °93, by killing all the sneak- ing aristocrats who act as spies for the hordes of despotism.” So Citizem Jacquot stayed at home along ' with twenty six other tailors, fourteen citizens, ee who cobbled shoes for a living, thirty a dozen bakers, one butcher, and Georges and Gascon, Citizens Georges and Gascon were new men who had been admitted to the society only a few months, but they had acquired a reputation which was very useful to the club. \Vhenever any of the members had an affair with one of the ‘‘ Whites,” it was the invariable custom of the club to hold a meeting and con- sider whether the dignity of the. sovereign people would not be imperiled by sending a representative to the barrier, when he might be killed. In most cases the club decided that duel- ing was a remnant of barbarism, and that it would be better to go in a body at night and break the windows of the ‘‘ White” who had in- sulted their member, instead of allowing the duel to take place. The result of this was that the ‘‘ Whites,” ina mean spirit of revenge, used to call the mem- bers of the Guillotine Club ‘“ cowards” when- ever they met them alone, and some even went so far a& to spit on them in public in broad day- ligbt on the streets. It was Citizen Gascon who broke through this custom the very night after his initiation, by re- fusing to obey a vote of the club, going out to the barriers to meet a famous fighting ‘* White.” called the Count de Brissac, and running him through the body at the second pass with an ease and dexterity that showed him to be anold hand at the sword. After that, wherever a member was insulted by one of the ‘‘ Whites,” he used to tell Citizen Guscon, and Citizen Gas- con invariably hunted up the offender, went to the barrier with him and pinked bim. So that the Guillotine Club gained a reputa- tion for fighting, and Citizen Gascon became a great favorite. There was even talk of making him the presi- dent; but he refused the honor, and only asked rmission to bring in a friend of his to assist im in his duties of general champion. he club received the new member witb en- thusinsm. He was a tall, dark man, who was introduced as ‘‘ Cit.zen Georges,” and said very little in meeting. But he was always ready to volunteer for a duel, and had a peculiar parry of his own by which be elmost always disarmed his adversery whenever he had an affair. He was very polite in Lig demeanor, much more so than Citizen ocers, ‘itizens ou do not know my | w accept one in these times.’ ‘ ‘**That’s all very well,” Citizen Gascon once said in open meeting, ‘‘ but, to my thinking, it requires very little courage to submit to be kicked. The smallest dog will do that, and then run away.” . ‘* That is the argument of physical force ap- propriate only to the dark ages,” seid the presi- dent on that occasion. ‘ No man has any right to kick his fellow-man.” ‘‘ But. they do it,” retorted obstinate Citizen Gascon, *“‘ and as long as I understand the sav- atte I shall kick back.” The savatte is a way of fighting in which the art of kicking is reduced to a science. On the night of the Directory ball at the Tuil- eries, President Jacquot took bis seat at the head of the long table—in fact on it, for Jacquot had got so used to sitting with bis legs crossed _ that the club granted him that privilege—and ee | wr yen, who had the rough manners of a soldier, | and ha been known to call the president ef the | club an ‘ old fool” when he asserted that ** duel- | ing was an evidence of cowurdice; that it re- ee 0 ——_—__ mR he cried out in his most imposing voice: **Citizens, the session has commenced. us open with the usual toast, Citizen Gascon?” ‘*He is at the barrier!” cried a dozen voices. ‘* He will be here at ten of the night.” ‘Very good. Are your glasses full?’ ** All full, citizen.” The members raised their glasses. and the president said oracularly: ‘*To the memory of Madame Guillotine. May we have ber back before the snow falls!” ‘**Amen!” cried the twenty-six tailors in a piping chorus, while the grocers, bakers, cob- blers and the solitary butcher growled: ‘* Down with the aristocrats.” Then they drank off their glasses at a gulp, . and the butcher observed; ‘‘In ninety-tbree we had real blood in the glasses Ab, whata pity those days. are gone! Never mind. We'll have them back.” ‘* Has any one seen Citizen Georges to-night?” asked the president, looking round, ‘*T am here,” answered a quiet voice as Citi- zen Georges entered the room. ‘* What is re- quired?” ‘* The chib has just learned from Citizen Poi- rier, the ecbbler, that. the aristocrats of the Dauphin Club, in the next street, are to havea grand banquet to-night. We have not taken a vote on the suject, as the formal meeti bas nct opened, but it is proposed that we spoil the ir 1uu for them by breaking the windows.” ‘‘T am opposed to. any such thing,” remarked Citizen Georges quietly. , There was a murmur of surprise, : Lyon Why?’ Had any other member said as much, a dozen ‘‘ Guillotines ” would have been on their feet a once, howling: ‘‘ Coward!” butit was not thought prudent in tbe club to call either Citizen Gev rges or Citizen Gascon a coward to bis face. Only the president could co that, in a strictly parliamentary sense and in the abstract, in saying that dueling was cowardly. resident Jacquot now repeated the murmurs of the club officially, by saying: ‘Why are you opy ¢” ‘* Because, to break the windows of a party of people at dinner is cowardly, and you are sure to run away as soon as you have done the deed,” answered Citizen Georges, President Jacquot blew his nose. When the president of the Guillotine Club blew his nose, which he did with a noise like the blast of a horn, it. was a signal] that the debate was about to open. Citizen Georges quietly took his seat and allowed his glass to.remain before him. Then Citizen Gigot, the orator of the ciub, and a man who mended shoes in very superior style, rose up in his place and blew his nose also, ~ “The Citizen Gigot is about to address the meeting. The citizens will preserve order,” proclaimed Jacquot. oe looked around him with fire in his eye, and began: ‘* Which of you, citizens, has not suffered from the accursed aristocrats who to-day return to fasten their honey fangs in the vitals of exhausted France: Which of you has not been forced to passin the streets the hated white cockade, flaunted in our faces by the insolent tyrants who think that their time has come once more? Only to-day, 1, Pierre Gigot, of the sovereign people, passing along the street, received a splash of mud in my eye, citizens, in that eye—given me by France that L might see the glorious tri-color. And. whence came that mud, think you?) Whence came that mud?’ “From tre broom of a sweeper,” suggested the president. ‘‘ Those rascals think it fun to pretend to be bard at work.” ‘No, no,” shrieked Gigot, waving his arms wildly. “I could have borne that; for a sweeper is my brother, he is one of the le— though | admit, Citizen President, that some of them are very insolent to sober citizens. who own their shops, parbleu—own their shops, and can pay for thefr bottle of wine. No, it was no siveeper. It was from the carringe wheels of a vile aristocrat, and his coaciivan had a white cockade on his hat, Are we slaves once more that we are to be blinded by these minions of tyranny with mud from the cbariots of their Let Stop! where is EOmiIG S = a