Scenes from a Courtesan's Life [243]
person the functions of judicial and sacerdotal authority. We should be accessible only in our high seat.--As it is, we are to be seen every day, amused or unhappy, like other men. We are to be found in drawing-rooms and at home, as ordinary citizens, moved by our passions; and we seem, perhaps, more grotesque than terrible."
This bitter cry, broken by pauses and interjections, and emphasized by gestures which gave it an eloquence impossible to reduce to writing, made Camusot's blood run chill.
"And I, monsieur," said he, "began yesterday my apprenticeship to the sufferings of our calling.--I could have died of that young fellow's death. He misunderstood my wish to be lenient, and the poor wretch committed himself."
"Ah, you ought never to have examined him!" cried Monsieur de Granville; "it is so easy to oblige by doing nothing."
"And the law, monsieur?" replied Camusot. "He had been in custody two days."
"The mischief is done," said the public prosecutor. "I have done my best to remedy what is indeed irremediable. My carriage and servants are following the poor weak poet to the grave. Serizy has sent his too; nay, more, he accepts the duty imposed on him by the unfortunate boy, and will act as his executor. By promising this to his wife he won from her a gleam of returning sanity. And Count Octave is attending the funeral in person."
"Well, then, Monsieur le Comte," said Camusot, "let us complete our work. We have a very dangerous man on our hands. He is Jacques Collin --and you know it as well as I do. The ruffian will be recognized----"
"Then we are lost!" cried Monsieur de Granville.
"He is at this moment shut up with your condemned murderer, who, on the hulks, was to him what Lucien has been in Paris--a favorite protege. Bibi-Lupin, disguised as a gendarme, is watching the interview."
"What business has the superior police to interfere?" said the public prosecutor. "He has no business to act without my orders!"
"All the Conciergerie must know that we have caught Jacques Collin.-- Well, I have come on purpose to tell you that this daring felon has in his possession the most compromising letters of Lucien's correspondence with Madame de Serizy, the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, and Mademoiselle Clotilde de Grandlieu."
"Are you sure of that?" asked Monsieur de Granville, his face full of pained surprise.
"You shall hear, Monsieur le Comte, what reason I have to fear such a misfortune. When I untied the papers found in the young man's rooms, Jacques Collin gave a keen look at the parcel, and smiled with satisfaction in a way that no examining judge could misunderstand. So deep a villain as Jacques Collin takes good care not to let such a weapon slip through his fingers. What is to be said if these documents should be placed in the hands of counsel chosen by that rascal from among the foes of the government and the aristocracy!--My wife, to whom the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse has shown so much kindness, is gone to warn her, and by this time they must be with the Grandlieus holding council."
"But we cannot possibly try the man!" cried the public prosecutor, rising and striding up and down the room. "He must have put the papers in some safe place----"
"I know where," said Camusot.
These words finally effaced every prejudice the public prosecutor had felt against him.
"Well, then----" said Monsieur de Granville, sitting down again.
"On my way here this morning I reflected deeply on this miserable business. Jacques Collin has an aunt--an aunt by nature, not putative --a woman concerning whom the superior police have communicated a report to the Prefecture. He is this woman's pupil and idol; she is his father's sister, her name is Jacqueline Collin. This wretched woman carries on a trade as a wardrobe purchaser, and by the connection this business has secured her she gets hold of many family secrets. If Jacques Collin has intrusted those papers, which would be his salvation, to any one's keeping, it is to that of this creature. Have her arrested."
The public prosecutor gave Camusot
This bitter cry, broken by pauses and interjections, and emphasized by gestures which gave it an eloquence impossible to reduce to writing, made Camusot's blood run chill.
"And I, monsieur," said he, "began yesterday my apprenticeship to the sufferings of our calling.--I could have died of that young fellow's death. He misunderstood my wish to be lenient, and the poor wretch committed himself."
"Ah, you ought never to have examined him!" cried Monsieur de Granville; "it is so easy to oblige by doing nothing."
"And the law, monsieur?" replied Camusot. "He had been in custody two days."
"The mischief is done," said the public prosecutor. "I have done my best to remedy what is indeed irremediable. My carriage and servants are following the poor weak poet to the grave. Serizy has sent his too; nay, more, he accepts the duty imposed on him by the unfortunate boy, and will act as his executor. By promising this to his wife he won from her a gleam of returning sanity. And Count Octave is attending the funeral in person."
"Well, then, Monsieur le Comte," said Camusot, "let us complete our work. We have a very dangerous man on our hands. He is Jacques Collin --and you know it as well as I do. The ruffian will be recognized----"
"Then we are lost!" cried Monsieur de Granville.
"He is at this moment shut up with your condemned murderer, who, on the hulks, was to him what Lucien has been in Paris--a favorite protege. Bibi-Lupin, disguised as a gendarme, is watching the interview."
"What business has the superior police to interfere?" said the public prosecutor. "He has no business to act without my orders!"
"All the Conciergerie must know that we have caught Jacques Collin.-- Well, I have come on purpose to tell you that this daring felon has in his possession the most compromising letters of Lucien's correspondence with Madame de Serizy, the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, and Mademoiselle Clotilde de Grandlieu."
"Are you sure of that?" asked Monsieur de Granville, his face full of pained surprise.
"You shall hear, Monsieur le Comte, what reason I have to fear such a misfortune. When I untied the papers found in the young man's rooms, Jacques Collin gave a keen look at the parcel, and smiled with satisfaction in a way that no examining judge could misunderstand. So deep a villain as Jacques Collin takes good care not to let such a weapon slip through his fingers. What is to be said if these documents should be placed in the hands of counsel chosen by that rascal from among the foes of the government and the aristocracy!--My wife, to whom the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse has shown so much kindness, is gone to warn her, and by this time they must be with the Grandlieus holding council."
"But we cannot possibly try the man!" cried the public prosecutor, rising and striding up and down the room. "He must have put the papers in some safe place----"
"I know where," said Camusot.
These words finally effaced every prejudice the public prosecutor had felt against him.
"Well, then----" said Monsieur de Granville, sitting down again.
"On my way here this morning I reflected deeply on this miserable business. Jacques Collin has an aunt--an aunt by nature, not putative --a woman concerning whom the superior police have communicated a report to the Prefecture. He is this woman's pupil and idol; she is his father's sister, her name is Jacqueline Collin. This wretched woman carries on a trade as a wardrobe purchaser, and by the connection this business has secured her she gets hold of many family secrets. If Jacques Collin has intrusted those papers, which would be his salvation, to any one's keeping, it is to that of this creature. Have her arrested."
The public prosecutor gave Camusot