Scaramouche Rafael Sabatini (ebook pdf reader for pc TXT) đ
- Author: Rafael Sabatini
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âAre there in the world no laws but game laws?â he demanded, angrily. âHave you never by any chance heard of the laws of humanity?â
The Marquis sighed wearily. âWhat have I to do with the laws of humanity?â he wondered.
M. de Vilmorin looked at him a moment in speechless amazement.
âNothing, M. le Marquis. That isâ âalas!â âtoo obvious. I hope you will remember it in the hour when you may wish to appeal to those laws which you now deride.â
M. de La Tour dâAzyr threw back his head sharply, his high-bred face imperious.
âNow what precisely shall that mean? It is not the first time today that you have made use of dark sayings that I could almost believe to veil the presumption of a threat.â
âNot a threat, M. le Marquisâ âa warning. A warning that such deeds as these against Godâs creaturesâ ââ ⊠Oh, you may sneer, monsieur, but they are Godâs creatures, even as you or Iâ âneither more nor less, deeply though the reflection may wound your pride, In His eyesâ ââ âŠâ
âOf your charity, spare me a sermon, M. lâabbĂ©!â
âYou mock, monsieur. You laugh. Will you laugh, I wonder, when God presents His reckoning to you for the blood and plunder with which your hands are full?â
âMonsieur!â The word, sharp as the crack of a whip, was from M. de Chabrillane, who bounded to his feet. But instantly the Marquis repressed him.
âSit down, Chevalier. You are interrupting M. lâabbĂ©, and I should like to hear him further. He interests me profoundly.â
In the background AndrĂ©-Louis, too, had risen, brought to his feet by alarm, by the evil that he saw written on the handsome face of M. de La Tour dâAzyr. He approached, and touched his friend upon the arm.
âBetter be going, Philippe,â said he.
But M. de Vilmorin, caught in the relentless grip of passions long repressed, was being hurried by them recklessly along.
âOh, monsieur,â said he, âconsider what you are and what you will be. Consider how you and your kind live by abuses, and consider the harvest that abuses must ultimately bring.â
âRevolutionist!â said M. le Marquis, contemptuously. âYou have the effrontery to stand before my face and offer me this stinking cant of your modern so-called intellectuals!â
âIs it cant, monsieur? Do you thinkâ âdo you believe in your soulâ âthat it is cant? Is it cant that the feudal grip is on all things that live, crushing them like grapes in the press, to its own profit? Does it not exercise its rights upon the waters of the river, the fire that bakes the poor manâs bread of grass and barley, on the wind that turns the mill? The peasant cannot take a step upon the road, cross a crazy bridge over a river, buy an ell of cloth in the village market, without meeting feudal rapacity, without being taxed in feudal dues. Is not that enough, M. le Marquis? Must you also demand his wretched life in payment for the least infringement of your sacred privileges, careless of what widows or orphans you dedicate to woe? Will naught content you but that your shadow must lie like a curse upon the land? And do you think in your pride that France, this Job among the nations, will suffer it forever?â
He paused as if for a reply. But none came. The Marquis considered him, strangely silent, a half smile of disdain at the corners of his lips, an ominous hardness in his eyes.
Again AndrĂ©-Louis tugged at his friendâs sleeve.
âPhilippe.â
Philippe shook him off, and plunged on, fanatically.
âDo you see nothing of the gathering clouds that herald the coming of the storm? You imagine, perhaps, that these States General summoned by M. Necker, and promised for next year, are to do nothing but devise fresh means of extortion to liquidate the bankruptcy of the State? You delude yourselves, as you shall find. The Third Estate, which you despise, will prove itself the preponderating force, and it will find a way to make an end of this canker of privilege that is devouring the vitals of this unfortunate country.â
M. le Marquis shifted in his chair, and spoke at last.
âYou have, monsieur,â said he, âa very dangerous gift of eloquence. And it is of yourself rather than of your subject. For after all, what do you offer me? A rechauffe of the dishes served to out-at-elbow enthusiasts in the provincial literary chambers, compounded of the effusions of your Voltaires and Jean-Jacques and such dirty-fingered scribblers. You have not among all your philosophers one with the wit to understand that we are an order consecrated by antiquity, that for our rights and privileges we have behind us the authority of centuries.â
âHumanity, monsieur,â Philippe replied, âis more ancient than nobility. Human rights are contemporary with man.â
The Marquis laughed and shrugged.
âThat is the answer I might have expected. It has the right note of cant that distinguishes the philosophers.â
And then M. de Chabrillane spoke.
âYou go a long way round,â he criticized his cousin, on a note of impatience.
âBut I am getting there,â he was answered. âI desired to make quite certain first.â
âFaith, you should have no doubt by now.â
âI have none.â The Marquis rose, and turned again to M. de Vilmorin, who had understood nothing of that brief exchange. âM. lâabbĂ©,â said he once more, âyou have a very dangerous gift of eloquence. I can conceive of men being swayed by it. Had you been born a gentleman, you would not so easily have acquired these false views that you express.â
M. de Vilmorin stared blankly, uncomprehending.
âHad I been born a gentleman, do you say?â quoth he, in a slow, bewildered voice. âBut I was born a gentleman. My race is as old, my blood as good as yours, monsieur.â
From M. le Marquis there was a slight play of eyebrows, a vague, indulgent smile.
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