• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“Come, Madame Tison, I have something to say to you.”

“Wait a minute! No huddling over there,” yelled Maurice’s colleague. “We’re not here for nothing, for pity’s sake! Everything has to be out in the open, in front of the municipality! Out in the open, I say!”

“Let her alone, citizen Agricola,” Maurice whispered in the man’s ear. “As long as we learn the truth, who cares how it comes to us.”

“You’re right, citizen Maurice, but still …”

“Let’s go behind the glass, citizen Agricola, and turn our backs, if you’ll just bear with me; I am sure that the woman for whom we show such indulgence will not cause us to regret it.”

The Queen heard these words as she was meant to do. She threw the young man a grateful look. Maurice casually turned his head away and went through to the other side of the glass partition, followed by Agricola.

“You see that woman,” he said to Agricola. “As Queen, she’s more than guilty; as a woman, she is a most worthy and noble soul. It’s a good thing to smash crowns; unhappiness purifies.”

“Good grief, you talk beautiful, citizen Maurice! I could listen to you all day, you and your friend Lorin. Is that also poetry, what you just said?”

Maurice smiled.

During this conversation, the scene Maurice had anticipated was taking place on the other side of the glass. Mother Tison had approached the Queen.

“Madame,” said the Queen, “your despair breaks my heart. I do not want to deprive you of your child, it hurts too much. Just think for a moment: if you do what these men are asking you to do, perhaps your daughter will also be lost.”

“Do what they say!” shrieked Mother Tison. “Do what they say!”

“But first, I want you to think what you’re doing.”

“What am I doing?” asked the jailer with an almost crazed curiosity.

“Your daughter brought a friend with her.”

“Yes, a working lass like herself. She didn’t want to come alone because of the soldiers.”

“This friend had given your daughter a note; your daughter dropped it. Marie went and picked it up. It’s a perfectly insignificant piece of paper, but people with bad intentions could misconstrue it. Didn’t the municipal officer say that when they want to find something they always do?”

“So? So? Go on!”

“Well, that’s all; you want me to hand over this piece of paper. Do you want me to sacrifice a friend without necessarily getting you your daughter back for all that?”

“Do what they say!” cried the woman. “Do what they say!”

“But this piece of paper compromises your daughter,” said the Queen. “Please understand!”

“My daughter is a good patriot, like me,” shrieked the shrew. “Thank God! The Tisons are well known! Do what they say!”

“My God!” cried the Queen. “What can I do to convince you!”

“My daughter! I want my daughter back!” resumed Mother Tison, staggering. “Give me the note, Antoinette, give it to me.”

“Here it is, madame.”

With that, the Queen handed the unfortunate creature a piece of paper that the latter waved above her head, shouting, “Come back, come back, citizen municipal officers. I’ve got the note. Take it and give me back my child.”

“You are sacrificing our friends, sister,” said Madame Elisabeth.

“No, sister,” the Queen replied, with sadness. “I’m only sacrificing ourselves. The note compromises no one.”

At Mother Tison’s eruption, Maurice and his colleague returned and stood before her; she handed over the note and they read: “In the Orient, a friend still keeps watch.”

Maurice had barely glanced at the note when he began to tremble, for the writing seemed to him not unfamiliar.

“Oh, my God!” he intoned silently. “Surely this can’t be Geneviève’s writing! No, it’s not possible! I’m mad. It looks like her writing, no doubt about that; but what connection could Geneviève possibly have with the Queen?”

He spun round and saw that Marie Antoinette was watching him. As for Mother Tison, she was devouring him with her eyes, waiting to hear her fate.

“You’ve done a good deed,” he said to Mother Tison. “And you,