Scenes from a Courtesan's Life [248]
"I thought only of you.--I got the young man to make a clean breast of it; he was bound to trust me, we had been chained together. Theodore is very good stuff; he thought he was doing his mistress a good turn by undertaking to sell or pawn stolen goods; but he is no more guilty of the Nanterre job than you are. He is a Corsican; it is their way to revenge themselves and kill each other like flies. In Italy and Spain a man's life is not respected, and the reason is plain. There we are believed to have a soul in our own image, which survives us and lives for ever. Tell that to your analyst! It is only among atheistical or philosophical nations that those who mar human life are made to pay so dearly; and with reason from their point of view--a belief only in matter and in the present.
"If Calvi had told you who the woman was from whom he obtained the stolen goods, you would not have found the real murderer; he is already in your hands; but his accomplice, whom poor Theodore will not betray because she is a woman---- Well, every calling has its point of honor; convicts and thieves have theirs!
"Now, I know the murderer of those two women and the inventors of that bold, strange plot; I have been told every detail. Postpone Calvi's execution, and you shall know all; but you must give me your word that he shall be sent safe back to the hulks and his punishment commuted. A man so miserable as I am does not take the trouble to lie--you know that. What I have told you is the truth."
"To you, Jacques Collin, though it is degrading Justice, which ought never to condescend to such a compromise, I believe I may relax the rigidity of my office and refer the case to my superiors."
"Will you grant me this life?"
"Possibly."
"Monsieur, I implore you to give me your word; it will be enough."
Monsieur Granville drew himself up with offended pride.
"I hold in my hand the honor of three families, and you only the lives of three convicts in yours," said Jacques Collin. "I have the stronger hand."
"But you may be sent back to the dark cells: then, what will you do?" said the public prosecutor.
"Oh! we are to play the game out then!" said Jacques Collin. "I was speaking as man to man--I was talking to Monsieur de Granville. But if the public prosecutor is my adversary, I take up the cards and hold them close.--And if only you had given me your word, I was ready to give you back the letters that Mademoiselle Clotilde de Grandlieu----"
This was said with a tone, an audacity, and a look which showed Monsieur de Granville, that against such an adversary the least blunder was dangerous.
"And is that all you ask?" said the magistrate.
"I will speak for myself now," said Jacques. "The honor of the Grandlieu family is to pay for the commutation of Theodore's sentence. It is giving much to get very little. For what is a convict in penal servitude for life? If he escapes, you can so easily settle the score. It is drawing a bill on the guillotine! Only, as he was consigned to Rochefort with no amiable intentions, you must promise me that he shall be quartered at Toulon, and well treated there.
"Now, for myself, I want something more. I have the packets of letters from Madame de Serizy and Madame de Maufrigneuse.--And what letters!-- I tell you, Monsieur le Comte, prostitutes, when they write letters, assume a style of sentiment; well, sir, fine ladies, who are accustomed to style and sentiment all day long, write as prostitutes behave. Philosophers may know the reasons for this contrariness. I do not care to seek them. Woman is an inferior animal; she is ruled by her instincts. To my mind a woman has no beauty who is not like a man.
"So your smart duchesses, who are men in brains only, write masterpieces. Oh! they are splendid from beginning to end, like Piron's famous ode!----"
"Indeed!"
"Would you like to see them?" said Jacques Collin, with a laugh.
The magistrate felt ashamed.
"I cannot give them to you to read. But, there; no nonsense; this is business and all above board, I suppose?--You must