The Countess De Charny - Volume II by Alexandre Dumas Page A

was as much compassion as love in the decision which united her to that god of thunder and of lightning who was to personify the famous year 1792, as Mirabeau liad personified 1791, and as Robespierre was to personify
    1793.
     
    The families lived only a short distance from each other. As soon as Camille and his wife reached Danton’s, one woman went straight to the other woman, and one man went straight to the otlicr man.
    Madame Danton was in tears when they entered, and Danton was evidently trying to console her. The two women kissed each other, and the men shook hands.
    ” Do you think anything will come of it? ” asked Camille.
     
    76 LA COMTESSE DE CIIARXY.
    “I hope so, though Santerre is but lukewarm. Fortunately, the affair to-morrow will not be one of personal aggrandisement or individual leadership. The forces we have to rely upon are the general indignation and anger caused by long suffering, the wrath aroused by the interference and near approach of foreign armies, and the growing conviction that France has been basely betrayed. Forty-seven out of forty-eight municipal sections have voted for the king’s déposai; and each section has elected three commissioners to unite with the Commune in saving the country.”
    “Saving the country? Those are rather vague instructions, it seems to me,” said Camille, shaking his head.
    “How about Marat and Robespierre? “
    “Neither of them is visible. One is hiding in his garret, and the other in his cellar. When all the danger is over, you ‘11 see them peering out, — one like a weasel, the other like an owl.”
    “AndPetion?”
    “It would take a shrewd man to find out where he stands. On the 4th he declared war iipon the palace. On the 8th he gave notice that he would no longer be responsible for the king’s safety. This morning he proposed to station National Guards in the Carrousel. This evening he asked the department for twenty thousand francs with which to send our Marseillais home.”
    Just then another couple entered, — Monsieur and Madame Robert. It will be remembered that the year before, Madame Robert — then Mademoiselle de Kéralio — dictated at the patriot altar the famous petition which her husband wrote out.
    Unlike the other two couples, — in which the husbands were so greatly superior to the wives, — this woman was greatly superior to her husband intellectual Ij’.
    Robert was a stout man about forty years of age, a member of the Cordeliers Club, and the possessor of more patriotism than talent. He had very little ability as a
     
    AN EVENTFUL NIGHT AT DANTON’s. 77
    writer, was a bitter enemy of Lafayette’s, and exceedingly ambitious, if we can believe Madame Eoland’s description of him in her Memoirs.
    Madame Robert was thirty-four. She was small, clever, witty, and proud, and had been educated by her father, Guinement de Kéralio, who had also numbered among his pupils a young Corsican whose wonderful career he was far from suspecting.
    Educated by her father, as we have said. Mademoiselle de Kéralio naturally became an exceedingly learned and accomplished woman. At the age of seventeen she wrote, translated, and compiled. At eighteen she wrote a novel entitled “Adélaïde.”
    As her father’s salary barely sufficed for his own needs, he wrote for several periodicals, and more than once affixed his signature to articles which his daughter prepared, and which were infinitely superior to his own.
    The Roberts had just passed through the Saint-Antoine quarter, and they reported that things wore a rather peculiar appearance there. The night was beautiful; but the streets were deserted, though all the windows were brilliantly lighted.
    Just as Madame Robert finished her description, the sound of a bell made everybody start. It was the first stroke of the alarm-bell resounding from the Cordeliers Club.
    ” Good! ” cried Danton. “I hear our Marseillais. That is their signal, I ‘ve no doubt.”
    The two women gazed