The Companions of Jehu by Alexandre Dumas (great novels of all time .TXT) đ
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- Author: Alexandre Dumas
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Montbar and Adler, whose real names were unknown, like those of dâAssas and Morgan, were commonly called by the Company âthe inseparables.â Imagine Damon and Pythias, Euryalus and Nisus, Orestes and Pylades at twenty-twoâone joyous, loquacious, noisy, the other melancholy, silent, dreamy; sharing all things, dangers, money, mistresses; one the complement of the other; each rushing to all extremes, but forgetting self when in peril to watch over the other, like the Spartan youths on the sacred legionsâand you will form an idea of Montbar and Adler.
It is needless to say that all three were Companions of Jehu. They had been convoked, as Morgan suspected, on business of the Company.
On entering the room, Morgan went straight to the pretended bearer of despatches and shook hands with him.
âAh! the dear friend,â said the latter, with a stiff movement, showing that the best rider cannot do a hundred and fifty miles on post-hacks with impunity. âYou are taking it easy, you Parisians. Hannibal at Capua slept on rushes and thorns compared to you. I only glanced at the ballroom in passing, as becomes a poor cabinet courier bearing despatches from General MassĂ©na to the citizen First Consul; but it seemed to me you were a fine lot of victims! Only, my poor friends, you will have to bid farewell to all that for the present; disagreeable, unlucky, exasperating, no doubt, but the House of Jehu before all.â
âMy dear Hastierââ began Morgan.
âStop!â cried Hastier. âNo proper names, if you please, gentlemen. The Hastiers are an honest family in Lyons, doing business, it is said, on the Place des Terreaux, from father to son, and would be much humiliated to learn that their heir had become a cabinet courier, and rode the highways with the national pack on his back. Lecoq as much as you please, but not Hastier. I donât know Hastier; and you, gentlemen,â continued the young man, addressing Montbar, Adler and dâAssas, âdo you know him?â
âNo,â replied the three young men, âand we ask pardon for Morgan, who did wrong.â
âMy dear Lecoq,â exclaimed Morgan.
âThatâs right,â interrupted Hastier. âI answer to that name! Well, what did you want to tell me?â
âI wanted to say that if you are not the antipodes of the god Harpocrates, whom the Egyptians represent with a finger on his lips, you will, instead of indulging in a lot of declamations, more or less flowery, tell us why this costume, and why that map?â
âThe deuce!â retorted the young man. âIf you donât know already, itâs your fault and not mine. If I hadnât been obliged to call you twice, caught as you doubtless were in the toils of some beautiful Eumenides imploring vengeance of a fine young man for the death of her old parents, youâd know as much as these gentlemen, and I wouldnât have to sing an encore. Well, hereâs what it is: simply of the remaining treasure of the Berne bears, which General Lecourbe is sending to the citizen First Consul by order of General MassĂ©na. A trifle, only a hundred thousand francs, that they donât dare send over the Jura on account of M. Teysonnetâs partisans, who, they pretend, are likely to seize it; so it will be sent by Geneva, Bourg, MĂącon, Dijon, and Troyes; a much safer way, as they will find when they try it.â
âVery good!â
âWe were informed of this by Renard, who started from Gex at full speed, and transmitted the news to lâHirondelle, who is at present stationed at ChĂąlon-sur-SaĂŽne. He transmitted it to me, Lecoq, at Auxerre, and I have done a hundred and fifty miles to transmit it in turn to you. As for the secondary details, here they are. The treasure left Berne last octodi, 28th NivĂŽse, year VIII. of the Republic triple and indivisible. It should reach Genoa to-day, duodi, and leave tomorrow, tridi, by the diligence from Geneva to Bourg; so that, by leaving this very night, by the day after tomorrow, quintide, you can, my dear sons of Israel, meet the treasure of messires the bears between Dijon and Troyes, near Bar-sur-Seine or ChĂątillon. What say you?â
âBy heavens!â cried Morgan, âwe say that there seems to be no room for argument left; we say we should never have permitted ourselves to touch the money of their Highnesses the bears of Berne so long as it remained in their coffers; but as it has changed hands once, I see no objection to its doing so a second time. Only how are we to start?â
âHavenât you a post-chaise?â
âYes, itâs here in the coach-house.â
âHavenât you horses to get you to the next stage?â
âThey are in the stable.â
âHavenât you each your passports.â
âWe have each four.â
âWell, then?â
âWell, we canât stop the diligence in a post-chaise. We donât put ourselves to too much inconvenience, but we donât take our ease in that way.â
âWell, and why not?â asked Montbar; âit would be original. I canât see why, if sailors board from one vessel to another, we couldnât board a diligence from a post-chaise. We want novelty; shall we try it, Adler?â
âI ask nothing better,â replied the latter, âbut what will we do with the postilion?â
âThatâs true,â replied Montbar.
âThe difficulty is foreseen, my children,â said the courier; âa messenger has been sent to Troyes. You will leave your post-chaise at Delbauce; there you will find four horses all saddled and stuffed with oats. You will then calculate your time, and the day after tomorrow, or rather tomorrow, for it is past midnight, between seven and eight in the morning, the money of Messires Bruin will pass an anxious quarter of an hour.â
âShall we change our clothes?â inquired dâAssas.
âWhat for?â replied Morgan. âI think we are very presentable as we are. No diligence could be relieved of unnecessary weight by better dressed fellows. Let us take a last glance at the map, transfer a pĂątĂ©, a cold chicken, and a dozen of champagne from the supper-room to the pockets of the coach, arm to the teeth in the arsenal, wrap ourselves in warm cloaks, andâclack! postilion!â
âYes!â cried Montbar, âthatâs the idea.â
âI should think so,â added Morgan. âWeâll kill the horses if necessary, and be back at seven in the evening, in time to show ourselves at the opera.â
âThat will establish an alibi,â observed dâAssas.
âPrecisely,â said Morgan, with his imperturbable gayety. âHow could men who applaud Mademoiselle Clotilde and M. Vestris at eight oâclock in the evening have been at Bar and Chatillon in the morning settling accounts with the conductor of a diligence? Come, my sons, a last look at the map to choose our spot.â
The four young men bent over Cassiniâs map.
âIf I may give you a bit of topographical advice,â said the courier, âit would be to put yourselves in ambush just beyond Massu; thereâs a ford opposite to the Riceysâsee, there!â
And the young man pointed out the exact spot on the map.
âI should return to Chacource, there; from Chacource you have a department road, straight as an arrow, which will take you to Troyes; at Troyes you take carriage again, and follow the road to Sens instead of that to Coulommiers. The donkeysâthere are plenty in the provincesâwho saw you in the morning wonât wonder at seeing you again in the evening; youâll get to the opera at ten instead of eightâa more fashionable hourâneither seen nor recognized, Iâll warrant you.â
âAdopted, so far as I am concerned,â said Morgan.
âAdopted!â cried the other three in chorus.
Morgan pulled out one of the two watches whose chains were dangling from his belt; it was a masterpiece of Petitotâs enamel, and on the outer case which protected the painting was a diamond monogram. The pedigree of this beautiful trinket was as well established as that of an Arab horse; it had been made for Marie-Antoinette, who had given it to the Duchesse de Polastron, who had given it to Morganâs mother.
âOne oâclock,â said Morgan; âcome, gentlemen, we must relay at Lagny at three.â
From that moment the expedition had begun, and Morgan became its leader; he no longer consulted, he commanded.
DâAssas, who in Morganâs absence commanded, was the first to obey on his return.
Half an hour later a closed carriage containing four young men wrapped in their cloaks was stopped at the Fontainebleau barrier by the post-guard, who demanded their passports.
âOh, what a joke!â exclaimed one of them, putting his head out of the window and affecting the pronunciation of the day. âPasspawts to dwive to Gwobois to call on citizen Ba-as? âWord of fluted honor!â youâre cwazy, fwend! Go on, dwiver!â
The coachman whipped up his horses and the carriage passed without further opposition.
Let us leave our four hunters on their way to Lagnyâwhere, thanks to the passports they owed to the obligingness of certain clerks in citizen FouchĂ©âs employ, they exchanged their own horses for post-horses and their coachman for a postilionâand see why the First Consul had sent for Roland.
After leaving Morgan, Roland had hastened to obey the generalâs orders. He found the latter standing in deep thought before the fireplace. At the sound of his entrance General Bonaparte raised his head.
âWhat were you two saying to each other?â asked Bonaparte, without preamble, trusting to Rolandâs habit of answering his thought.
âWhy,â said Roland, âwe paid each other all sorts of compliments, and parted the best friends in the world.â
âHow does he impress you?â
âAs a perfectly well-bred man.â
âHow old do you take him to be?â
âAbout my age, at the outside.â
âSo I think; his voice is youthful. What now, Roland, can I be mistaken? Is there a new royalist generation growing up?â
âNo, general,â replied Roland, shrugging his shoulders; âitâs the remains of the old one.â
âWell, Roland, we must build up another, devoted to my sonâif ever I have one.â
Roland made a gesture which might be translated into the words, âI donât object.â Bonaparte understood the gesture perfectly.
âYou must do more than not object,â said he; âyou must contribute to it.â
A nervous shudder passed over Rolandâs body.
âIn what way, general?â he asked.
âBy marrying.â
Roland burst out laughing.
âGood! With my aneurism?â he asked.
Bonaparte looked at him, and said: âMy dear Roland, your aneurism looks to me very much like a pretext for remaining single.â
âDo you think so?â
âYes; and as I am a moral man I insist upon marriage.â
âDoes that mean that I am immoral,â retorted Roland, âor that I cause any scandal with my mistresses?â
âAugustus,â answered Bonaparte, âcreated laws against celibates, depriving them of their rights as Roman citizens.â
âAugustusââ
âWell?â
âIâll wait until you are Augustus; as yet, you are only CĂŠsar.â
Bonaparte came closer to the young man, and, laying his hands on his shoulders, said: âRoland, there are some names I do not wish to see extinct, and among them is that of Montrevel.â
âWell, general, in my default, supposing that through caprice or obstinacy I refuse to perpetuate it, there is my little brother.â
âWhat! Your brother? Then you have a brother?â
âWhy, yes; I have a brother! Why shouldnât I have brother?â
âHow old is he?â
âEleven or twelve.â
âWhy did you never tell me about him?â
âBecause I thought the sayings and doings of a youngster of that age could not interest you.â
âYou are mistaken, Roland; I am interested in
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