Lord Tony’s Wife Baroness Orczy (story read aloud .TXT) 📖

“Eh? What?” he queried airily.

“If another five thousand francs is of any use to you⁠ ⁠…”

“You seem passing rich, citizen Martin-Roget,” sneered Carrier.

“I have slaved and saved for four years. What I have amassed I will sacrifice for the completion of my revenge.”

“Well!” rejoined Carrier with an expressive wave of the hand, “it certainly is not good for a pure-minded republican to own too much wealth. Have we not fought,” he continued with a grandiloquent gesture, “for equality of fortune as well as of privileges⁠ ⁠…”

A sardonic laugh from young Lalouët broke in on the proconsul’s eloquent effusion.

Carrier swore as was his wont, but after a second or two he began again more quietly:

“I will accept a further six thousand francs from you, citizen Martin-Roget, in the name of the Republic and all her needs. The Republic of France is up in arms against the entire world. She hath need of men, of arms, of⁠ ⁠…”

“Oh! cut that,” interposed young Lalouët roughly.

But the over-vain, high and mighty despot who was ready to lash out with unbridled fury against the slightest show of disrespect on the part of any other man, only laughed at the boy’s impudence.

“Curse you, you young viper,” he said with that rude familiarity which he seemed to reserve for the boy, “you presume too much on my forbearance. These children you know, citizen.⁠ ⁠… Name of a dog!” he added roughly, “we are wasting time! What was I saying⁠ ⁠… ?”

“That you would take six thousand francs,” replied Martin-Roget curtly, “in return for further help in the matter of the Kernogans.”

“Why, yes!” rejoined Carrier blandly, “I was forgetting. But I’ll show you what a good dog I am. I’ll help you with those Kernogans⁠ ⁠… but you mistook my words, citizen: ’tis ten thousand francs you must pour into the coffers of the Republic, for her servants will have to be placed at the disposal of your private schemes of vengeance.”

“Ten thousand francs is a large sum,” said Martin-Roget. “Let me hear what you will do for me for that.”

He had regained something of his former complacency. The man who buys⁠—be it goods, consciences or services⁠—is always for the moment master of the man who sells. Carrier, despite his dictatorial ways, felt this disadvantage, no doubt, for his tone was more bland, his manner less curt. Only young Jacques Lalouët stood by⁠—like a snarling terrier⁠—still arrogant and still disdainful⁠—the master of the situation⁠—seeing that neither schemes of vengeance nor those of corruption had ruffled his self-assurance. He remained beside the door, ready to pounce on either of the two intruders if they showed the slightest sign of forgetting the majesty of the great proconsul.

“I told you just now, citizen Martin-Roget,” resumed Carrier after a brief pause, “and I suppose you knew it already, that I am surrounded with spies.”

“Spies, citizen?” murmured Martin-Roget, somewhat taken aback by this sudden irrelevance. “I didn’t know⁠ ⁠… I imagine⁠ ⁠… Anyone in your position⁠ ⁠…”

“That’s just it,” broke in Carrier roughly. “My position is envied by those who are less competent, less patriotic than I am. Nantes is swarming with spies. Mine enemies in Paris are working against me. They want to undermine the confidence which the National Convention reposes in her accredited representative.”

“Preposterous,” ejaculated young Lalouët solemnly.

“Well!” rejoined Carrier with a savage oath, “you would have thought that the Convention would be only too thankful to get a strong man at the head of affairs in this hotbed of treason and of rebellion. You would have thought that it was no one’s affair to interfere with the manner in which I administer the powers that have been given me. I command in Nantes, what? Yet some busybodies up in Paris, some fools, seem to think that we are going too fast in Nantes. They have become weaklings over there since Marat has gone. It seems that they have heard rumours of our flat-bottomed barges and of our fine Republican marriages: apparently they disapprove of both. They don’t realise that we have to purge an entire city of every kind of rabble⁠—traitors as well as criminals. They don’t understand my aspirations, my ideals,” he added loftily and with a wide, sweeping gesture of his arm, “which is to make Nantes a model city, to free her from the taint of crime and of treachery, and.⁠ ⁠…”

An impatient exclamation from young Lalouët once again broke in on Carrier’s rhetoric, and Martin-Roget was able to slip in the query which had been hovering on his lips:

“And is this relevant, citizen Carrier,” he asked, “to the subject which we have been discussing?”

“It is,” replied Carrier drily, “as you will see in a moment. Learn then, that it has been my purpose for some time to silence mine enemies by sending to the National Convention a tangible reply to all the accusations which have been levelled against me. It is my purpose to explain to the Assembly my reasons for mine actions in Nantes, my Drownages, my Republican marriages, all the coercive measures which I have been forced to take in order to purge the city from all that is undesirable.”

“And think you, citizen Carrier,” queried Martin-Roget without the slightest trace of a sneer, “that up in Paris they will understand your explanations?”

“Yes! they will⁠—they must when they realise that everything that I have done has been necessitated by the exigencies of public safety.”

“They will be slow to realise that,” mused the other. “The National Convention today is not what the Constitutional Assembly was in ’92. It has become soft and sentimental. Many there are who will disapprove of your doings.⁠ ⁠… Robespierre talks loftily of the dignity of the Republic⁠ ⁠… her impartial justice.⁠ ⁠… The Girondins⁠ ⁠…”

Carrier interposed with a coarse imprecation. He suddenly leaned forward, sprawling right across the desk. A shaft of light from between the damask curtains caught the end of his nose and the tip of his protruding chin, distorting his face and making it seem grotesque as well as hideous in the dim light. He appeared excited and inflated