A Conspiracy of the Carbonari Part 8

"Yes, sir!" sighed Peter. "What clothes will you take? Do we travel this time again as Baron von Moudenfels, and must I pack the old gentleman's baggage as I did for the journey to Frankfort?"

"No, not as Baron von Moudenfels. This time I shall go in my own person and under my own name. We shall go to Totis to the camp of his majesty the emperor. So take the court dress and everything necessary for a gentleman.

Thank heaven, I shall be rid of the tiresome wig for a few days."

Removing the blonde wig he pa.s.sed his hand through the black locks which appeared under it.

"Hurry, Peter, order post-horses and pack our clothing; we must start in an hour."

CHAPTER VI.

THE CONSPIRACY DISCOVERED.

The festival was over, the last guests had taken leave of Baroness de Simonie, and the servants and lackeys were gliding noiselessly through the empty rooms to extinguish the lights in the chandeliers and candelabra, and here and there push the scattered pieces of furniture into place.

Baroness de Simonie had gone to her boudoir, but though it was late at night she seemed to feel no disposition to retire to rest, nor was there the slightest expression of weariness on her beautiful face; her eyes sparkled as brightly as they had just flashed upon her guests, and there was no change in the proud carriage of her head, or of the tall, slender figure, still robed in white satin veiled with silver-embroidered white crepe. The diadem of diamonds still glittered in her hair, and clasps of the same brilliant gems adorned her neck and her bare white arms.

Madame de Simonie was pacing up and down her boudoir with hasty, impetuous steps; her whole being seemed intensely agitated. Sometimes she paused at the door to listen, then with panting breath resumed her restless movement to and fro, while her scarlet lips murmured: "He does not come yet.

Something extraordinary must have happened. But what? What? Can he be in danger? Oh, my G.o.d, if this terrible week were once over, that--But hus.h.!.+ I hear footsteps; it is he."

Springing to the door with a single bound like a lioness, she tore it open.

"Is it you, father?"

"Yes, it is I," he answered, entering the room and cautiously locking the door behind him.

"Thank heaven that you are here, father!" she sighed, with an air of relief.

"What?" he asked, smiling, "has my Leonore again become so affectionate a daughter that she is anxious about her father if he is suddenly called away at night? For you have been anxious about me--about me and no one else--have you not?"

"No, not for you," she cried impetuously, "for him, for him alone. Tell me that he is not in danger, that he has nothing to do with the matter on whose account you were so suddenly called away!"

"I swear it, Leonore. But, my child, the impetuosity of your pa.s.sion is beginning to make me uneasy. How will you keep your head clear, if your heart is burning with such impetuous fire that the rising smoke must becloud your brain? I have allowed you to give yourself the amus.e.m.e.nt of love, but you must not make a serious life question of it."

"Yet I shall either perish of this love or be new-born by it," she murmured. "But let us not talk about it. Tell me first why you left the ball so suddenly?"

"Urgent business, my child. The emperor sent for me to come to Schonbrunn."

"The emperor! What did he want of you?"

"There is something to be discovered, Leonore--a murderer who seeks the emperor's life."

"A murderer!" she said, shuddering; "my G.o.d, suppose it should be he!"

"The emperor has received an anonymous letter from Hungary, in which he is informed that, during the course of the next week, a young man will come to Schonbrunn to murder him.[D] I suppose that this comes directly from the Emperor Francis' court at Totis. Some fanatic has told the Emperor Francis that he will go there to murder his hated foe, and the kind-hearted emperor, in his magnanimity has sent this warning to Napoleon."

"And _he_ was in Totis," said Leonore, trembling, under her breath, "and he told me that in a week something decisive would happen."

"You are silent, Leonore?" asked her father. "Have you nothing to tell me?"

She started from her sorrowful reverie; a bold, resolute fire again flashed in her eyes. "I have many things to tell you, many important things," she replied. "But I will not utter a single word unless you first take an oath."

"What oath?"

"The oath that, if it is Kolbielsky who comes to murder Napoleon, you will warn him and let him escape."

"But how am I to warn him in advance, since the probability is that, if I really catch him, it will be at the moment of the deed."

"Well, then, you will let him escape at that moment, if it is Kolbielsky."

"But that is impossible, Leonore! You will understand yourself that it is impossible."

"Well, then, do as you choose, but do not ask me to communicate my discoveries. Good-night, father; I feel tired, I will go to sleep."

Pa.s.sing her father, she approached the door. But just as she was about to open it, he laid his hand on her arm and stopped her.

"Stubborn girl," he said, smiling, "I see that your will must be obeyed to induce you to speak. Well, then, I swear that, if the person who comes to murder Napoleon is Baron von Kolbielsky, I will let him escape if he falls into my hands."

"Swear it by my mother's spirit and memory."

"I swear it by your mother's spirit and memory. But now, Leonore, speak.

Have you really discovered a conspiracy?"

"Yes, I have discovered a conspiracy, and, thank heaven, I can tell you everything--the names of all the conspirators; for _he_ is not among them--he has nothing to do with this crazy, reckless affair. Father, you can tell Napoleon that a widespread conspiracy exists, and that it even has numerous adherents in his own army. The most aristocratic members of it were present at my entertainment and held a consultation here. Colonel Mariage, as you know, had begged me to give him and his friends a room where they could talk undisturbed."

"And you gave him the little red drawing-room didn't you?"

"Yes. I gave them the little red drawing-room, which is reached from this boudoir. I was in the niche and heard all."

"So it is really an actual conspiracy?" asked her father, with a happy smile.

"Really an actual conspiracy," she repeated gravely, "and unless you warn the Emperor Napoleon, unless you save him, he will be a lost man within a week, even if that murderer's dagger should not strike him."

"That is splendid, that is marvelous," cried her father. "Leonore, this time we shall really attain our goal. We shall be rich. The emperor is generous; he loves life. I will set a high price upon it. By heaven, the Caesar's head is well worth four hundred thousand francs! I will ask them, and I shall receive. We shall be rich enough to do without and be independent of men."

"And I shall be free," murmured Leonore, with a flash of enthusiasm upon her beautiful face. "You will not forget, father, that you promised to give me my liberty if I helped you to become rich. You will not forget that you are to permit me to escape, with the man I love, from this false, pitiful world, and fly with him to some remote, secluded nook, where no one knows me--no one can betray to him the shame and sin of my past life. And above all, father, you will not forget that you have solemnly sworn to reveal nothing of my former existence, not to let him suspect who I am, and--"

"Who and what your father is, you wanted to say," he interrupted. "Yes, I will remember and not disclose our little secrets to him. The virtuous Baron von Kolbielsky would certainly be very much astonished if he made the discovery that your major-domo has the honor of being your father, and that the father of the proud baroness is no other than the well-known spy Schulmeister, who has rendered the Emperor Napoleon so many useful services, and whose name Kolbielsky has so often mentioned in my presence with scornful execration. No, he must not learn all this. We will conceal our past, we will begin a new life, and since we shall then be rich enough, it will not be difficult for us to remain n.o.ble and virtuous. But now, my Leonore, tell me exactly and in detail everything you know. Come, let us sit down on this divan and allow me to note at once the most important points in your story, and especially the names."

"Then listen, father! Thursday next the emperor is to be carried away by force."

"Carried away--where?" asked Schulmeister, smiling.

"To some desolate island in the ocean. But do not interrupt me; don't let me antic.i.p.ate, but relate everything in regular order. So listen and note what is necessary. There is a conspiracy which has its members in the French army, in the garrison now in Vienna, nay, even among those who are in the closest attendance upon the emperor, and which unites all the malcontents in France with the foes of Napoleon throughout all Europe.

Heligoland is the meeting-place for the envoys of the conspirators throughout Europe; there the central committee always a.s.sembles at certain times, and from there by confidential messengers and fellow conspirators issues its commands and directions to the members in all places; there is the depot of the arms, ammunition, and other military stores. Thither England has sent General Bathurst; Spain, General Bandari, for consultation and agreement with the Austrian General Nugent, the Russian General Demidoff, and a certain Baron von Moudenfels, who has apparently played a prominent part in all these negotiations, and in whose hands all the single threads of this many-branched conspiracy meet. There was devised and arranged the plan which is now to be executed and in which Baron von Moudenfels plays the most important part."