Scenes from a Courtesan's Life [63]
such eyes as Esther's could ever stir a man so rotten as Nucingen. What the devil! you could not hide an ugly woman. When this puppet has played her part, I will send her off in safe custody to Rome or to Madrid, where she will be the rage."
"If we have her only for a short time," said Lucien, "I will go back to her----"
"Go, my boy, amuse yourself. You will be a day older to-morrow. For my part, I must wait for some one whom I have instructed to learn what is going on at the Baron de Nucingen's."
"Who?"
"His valet's mistress; for, after all, we must keep ourselves informed at every moment of what is going on in the enemy's camp."
At midnight, Paccard, Esther's tall chasseur, met Carlos on the Pont des Arts, the most favorable spot in all Paris for saying a few words which no one must overhear. All the time they talked the servant kept an eye on one side, while his master looked out on the other.
"The Baron went to the Prefecture of Police this morning between four and five," said the man, "and he boasted this evening that he should find the woman he saw in the Bois de Vincennes--he had been promised it----"
"We are watched!" said Carlos. "By whom?"
"They have already employed Louchard the bailiff."
"That would be child's play," replied Carlos. "We need fear nothing but the guardians of public safety, the criminal police; and so long as that is not set in motion, we can go on!"
"That is not all."
"What else?"
"Our chums of the hulks.--I saw Lapouraille yesterday---- He has choked off a married couple, and has bagged ten thousand five-franc pieces--in gold."
"He will be nabbed," said Jacques Collin. "That is the Rue Boucher crime."
"What is the order of the day?" said Paccard, with the respectful demeanor a marshal must have assumed when taking his orders from Louis XVIII.
"You must get out every evening at ten o'clock," replied Herrera. "Make your way pretty briskly to the Bois de Vincennes, the Bois de Meudon, and de Ville-d'Avray. If any one should follow you, let them do it; be free of speech, chatty, open to a bribe. Talk about Rubempre's jealousy and his mad passion for madame, saying that he would not on any account have it known that he had a mistress of that kind."
"Enough.--Must I have any weapons?"
"Never!" exclaimed Carlos vehemently. "A weapon? Of what use would that be? To get us into a scrape. Do not under any circumstances use your hunting-knife. When you know that you can break the strongest man's legs by the trick I showed you--when you can hold your own against three armed warders, feeling quite sure that you can account for two of them before they have got out flint and steel, what is there to be afraid of? Have not you your cane?"
"To be sure," said the man.
Paccard, nicknamed The Old Guard, Old Wide-Awake, or The Right Man--a man with legs of iron, arms of steel, Italian whiskers, hair like an artist's, a beard like a sapper's, and a face as colorless and immovable as Contenson's, kept his spirit to himself, and rejoiced in a sort of drum-major appearance which disarmed suspicion. A fugitive from Poissy or Melun has no such serious self-consciousness and belief in his own merit. As Giafar to the Haroun el Rasheed of the hulks, he served him with the friendly admiration which Peyrade felt for Corentin.
This huge fellow, with a small body in proportion to his legs, flat- chested, and lean of limb, stalked solemnly about on his two long pins. Whenever his right leg moved, his right eye took in everything around him with the placid swiftness peculiar to thieves and spies. The left eye followed the right eye's example. Wiry, nimble, ready for anything at any time, but for a weakness of Dutch courage Paccard would have been perfect, Jacques Collin used to say, so completely was he endowed with the talents indispensable to a man at war with society; but the master had succeeded in persuading his slave to drink only in the evening. On going home at night, Paccard tippled the liquid gold poured into small glasses out of a pot-bellied stone jar from Danzig.
"If we have her only for a short time," said Lucien, "I will go back to her----"
"Go, my boy, amuse yourself. You will be a day older to-morrow. For my part, I must wait for some one whom I have instructed to learn what is going on at the Baron de Nucingen's."
"Who?"
"His valet's mistress; for, after all, we must keep ourselves informed at every moment of what is going on in the enemy's camp."
At midnight, Paccard, Esther's tall chasseur, met Carlos on the Pont des Arts, the most favorable spot in all Paris for saying a few words which no one must overhear. All the time they talked the servant kept an eye on one side, while his master looked out on the other.
"The Baron went to the Prefecture of Police this morning between four and five," said the man, "and he boasted this evening that he should find the woman he saw in the Bois de Vincennes--he had been promised it----"
"We are watched!" said Carlos. "By whom?"
"They have already employed Louchard the bailiff."
"That would be child's play," replied Carlos. "We need fear nothing but the guardians of public safety, the criminal police; and so long as that is not set in motion, we can go on!"
"That is not all."
"What else?"
"Our chums of the hulks.--I saw Lapouraille yesterday---- He has choked off a married couple, and has bagged ten thousand five-franc pieces--in gold."
"He will be nabbed," said Jacques Collin. "That is the Rue Boucher crime."
"What is the order of the day?" said Paccard, with the respectful demeanor a marshal must have assumed when taking his orders from Louis XVIII.
"You must get out every evening at ten o'clock," replied Herrera. "Make your way pretty briskly to the Bois de Vincennes, the Bois de Meudon, and de Ville-d'Avray. If any one should follow you, let them do it; be free of speech, chatty, open to a bribe. Talk about Rubempre's jealousy and his mad passion for madame, saying that he would not on any account have it known that he had a mistress of that kind."
"Enough.--Must I have any weapons?"
"Never!" exclaimed Carlos vehemently. "A weapon? Of what use would that be? To get us into a scrape. Do not under any circumstances use your hunting-knife. When you know that you can break the strongest man's legs by the trick I showed you--when you can hold your own against three armed warders, feeling quite sure that you can account for two of them before they have got out flint and steel, what is there to be afraid of? Have not you your cane?"
"To be sure," said the man.
Paccard, nicknamed The Old Guard, Old Wide-Awake, or The Right Man--a man with legs of iron, arms of steel, Italian whiskers, hair like an artist's, a beard like a sapper's, and a face as colorless and immovable as Contenson's, kept his spirit to himself, and rejoiced in a sort of drum-major appearance which disarmed suspicion. A fugitive from Poissy or Melun has no such serious self-consciousness and belief in his own merit. As Giafar to the Haroun el Rasheed of the hulks, he served him with the friendly admiration which Peyrade felt for Corentin.
This huge fellow, with a small body in proportion to his legs, flat- chested, and lean of limb, stalked solemnly about on his two long pins. Whenever his right leg moved, his right eye took in everything around him with the placid swiftness peculiar to thieves and spies. The left eye followed the right eye's example. Wiry, nimble, ready for anything at any time, but for a weakness of Dutch courage Paccard would have been perfect, Jacques Collin used to say, so completely was he endowed with the talents indispensable to a man at war with society; but the master had succeeded in persuading his slave to drink only in the evening. On going home at night, Paccard tippled the liquid gold poured into small glasses out of a pot-bellied stone jar from Danzig.