Darkness had fallen. I was preparing to leave. In the stables my horse was ready. The Comte had said my departure must be as quiet as possible.
“I shall have no peace while you are here,” he said. ‘you stand a good chance of escape with Perigot to guide you. Don’t forget, do not speak French unless it is necessary. Stress your nationality. It will carry you through. The people have no quarrel with foreigners. This is a war between Frenchmen and Frenchmen. “
I argued with him. I wanted to stay. Twice I had come near to death. I was ready to risk it again. Anything rather than leave him.
He was moved but adamant
“Ironical,” he said, when there was no danger you hesitated. You wanted to be sure, didn’t you? You didn’t trust me. Nothing has happened to establish that trust . and yet you are ready to risk your life to stay with me. Oh, perverse Minelle! “
I could only plead with him.
“Let me stay. Let me take a chance. Or come with me. Why should you not come to England?”
He shook his head.
“I am too involved here. I could not desert my colleagues. France is my country. She is about to be torn asunder. I must stay and fight for what I believe to be right. Listen, Minelle.
When it is all over I will come for you. “
I shook my head sadly.
You do not believe that? You think I will have forgotten you? I tell you this: whatever happens in the future . j whatever has happened in the past, I love you. You are the l only one for me . and although you do not know it yet . I am the one for you. How different our lives have been! We have lived by different codes. You have been brought up as a good Christian woman.
I .well, I have lived in a decadent society. It never occurred to me to consider whether I had a right to’ behave as I did. Not until I killed a child did I begin to take a little stock of myself, and then my environment was too strong for me. I reverted to type. When you came, I changed. I wanted a different life. You made me see everything in a new light.
You showed me how to see life through your eyes. I want more lessons, little schoolmistress, and only you can teach me. “
“Then I will stay. I will marry you and stay with you.”
“If I married you now you could become the Comtesse Fontaine Delibes.
That would not be a very good name to have in this new France. God knows what they will do to us, but it will be revenge . bitter and cruel. That I am sure of. The last thing that must happen to you just now is that you become one of us. There is only one course open to you now. You must go. It is too late for anything else. Come, we are wasting precious time. Goodbye, my dearest. No, au revoir. We shall meet again. “
I clung to him. Now I was sure. I belonged with him. I never wanted to leave him. I did not know whether he had killed his wife or not and in that moment I knew I could not have changed my feelings towards him even if he were guilty.
“Perigot is waiting in the stables. There must be no delay.”
He put his arm about me and we went out into the hot night air.
As soon as we approached the stables I knew that something was wrong.
I was aware of watching eyes, a movement, the sound of heavy breathing. He was aware of it too. His grip on my arm tightened as he drew me hastily towards the stables. Then suddenly there was a shout.
“He’s here. Take him now.”
As the Comte pushed me from him a torch flared up suddenly. I saw the mob then . twenty . thirty of them crowding in on us, eyes alight with brutal excitement. They were inflamed with the desire for revenge on any member of that class which had oppressed them for hundreds of years.
“Get into the stables,” he muttered to me.
I did not move. I could not leave him.
Then I saw a sight which sickened me. At their head was a face I knew.
Leon’s.
I only just recognized him in the light from the flare, so distorted was his expression. I had never thought Leon could look like that. His eyes were wild with hatred, his mouth distorted. How different from the suave and kindly man I had known!
“Hang him!” shouted a voice.
“Hang him? That’s too nice.”
Then they marched on him. I saw him fall . and Leon was there.
I could not hear what Leon said, but he was commanding them.
They took him away. I saw him attempt to fight them on but even he could do nothing against so many. I felt sick with fear and horror. I was shaking with misery.
Oh God, I thought. He is right. It is too late.
II
Perigot was beside me.
“Mademoiselle, we should go … quickly.”
“No,” I said, “I shall not go.”
There is nothing that can be done. “
“What will they do to him?”
They are killing his kind all over the country. Mademoiselle. His wish was that you should leave at once for England. This is no place for you. “
I shook my head.
“I shall not go until I know what has happened to him.”
Perigot said sadly: “Mademoiselle, there is nothing we can do. His wish must be obeyed.”
“I shall stay here until I know,” I said firmly.
I went into the chateau and to my room. I sat down wearily, my thoughts with him. What would they do to him? What punishment would they inflict for what they called centuries of injustice? His crime was that he belonged to the oppressors. It was now the turn of others to oppress.
He had tried so hard to save me. His thoughts had been all for me. If he had not returned with me to the chateau he would have been in Paris now. Not that there was safety there, but he would have been with his colleagues at the Court and surely they would have made some stand.
What could I do now? What was there to do? Nothing but wait.
Where had they taken him? Where was he now?
I dared not think.
Leon was the traitor. I had been fond of Leon. It was hard to believe that he would have been the one to lead the mob to the Comte. Nearly all his life he had been nurtured in the chateau fed, clothed and educated. And all the time he had nursed such resentment that at the first opportunity, he had turned against his benefactor. But his twin brother had been killed . by the Comte; and that was something which had never been forgiven.
But he had tried to recompense them. He had taken Leon into his household. Leon had looked after his family. Ursule had helped them. But they could not forgive. All those years they must have been waiting for revenge and Leon had so carefully concealed his true feelings as to deceive us all.
It was Leon whom I had seen on the night of the ball. That should have warned me. But I could not believe it then and had convinced myself that I was mistaken.
But what was the use of brooding on these matters now. There was only one thing that mattered. What was happening to the man I loved.
I stood at the window, peering out. I could see the light of a flare in the distance. I strained my eyes. Was he there now? They would kill him. It was murder I had seen in their eyes . the hatred for those who had been born to riches and possessed that which they coveted.
I believed that something died in me at that moment. Nothing I could ever do would be the same again. Life had shown me an opportunity to love, to live excitingly, dangerously perhaps and I had passed it by. My puritanical upbringing had not allowed me to accept what life was offering me. I wanted to make sure . and so I lost my chance.
This would have come. This was inevitable. But at least we might have had some life together.
Someone had come into my room. I turned sharply and saw Nou-Nou. :
“So they have taken him,” she said. They have taken the Comte. “