"Ah! good-day, Citizen Republican," said Dixmer, without evincing any other emotion than an almost imperceptible start, which he immediately repressed.
"Good-day, Citizen Coward," replied Maurice. "You were waiting for me, were you not?"
"That is to say," replied Dixmer, "that, on the contrary, I had ceased to expect you."
"Why was that?"
"Because I expected you sooner."
"I still arrive too soon for you, assassin!" added Maurice, with a murmured growl rather than a voice, since it resembled the grumbling of a storm gathered in his heart, his looks being like the lightning's flashes.
"You fling fire from your eyes, Citizen," replied Dixmer. "We shall be recognized, and followed."
"Yes; and you fear to be arrested, do you not? You dread lest you might be conducted to the scaffold where you send others. Let them arrest us, so much the better; for it seems to me that the life of one guilty wretch was due to national justice."
"As there is one name the less on the list of people of honor. Is it not so—since yours has disappeared?"
[Pg 483]
"Well, we shall speak about all that again, I hope; but, in the mean time, you are avenged—miserably avenged—upon a woman. Why, since you have waited for me elsewhere, did you not do so at my house, when you stole away Geneviève?"
"You were the first thief, I believe."
"Neither by your wit nor your words have I ever known you, sir. I know you better by your actions,—witness the day when you wanted to murder me. That day your true nature spoke."
"And I have more than once regretted that I did not listen to it," answered Dixmer, coolly.
"Well," said Maurice, touching his sword, "I offer you your revenge."
"To-morrow, if you like, but not to-day."
"And why to-morrow?"
"Or this evening."
"Why not directly?"
"Because I am engaged till five o'clock."
"Another hideous project!" said Maurice; "another ambush!"
"Really, Monsieur Maurice, you are rather ungrateful!" replied Dixmer. "In truth you are. Here, for six months, I have allowed you to make love to my wife; for six months have permitted your meetings, and have not noticed your smiles. Never man, you must confess, has evinced so little of the tiger in his composition as myself."
"That is to say, you thought I might be useful, and you could mould me to your purpose."
"Without doubt," returned Dixmer, calmly, who ruled his own passion as much as Maurice was carried away by his. "Without doubt; while you were betraying your Republic, and were selling it to me for a look from my[Pg 484] wife; while you were dishonoring yourselves,—you by your treason, she by her adulterous love,—I remained the sage and hero. I waited, and I triumphed."
"Horrible!" said Maurice.
"Is it not? Yes; you appreciate your own conduct fully, sir. It is horrible!—it is infamous!"
"You deceive yourself, sir; the conduct I term horrible and infamous is that of the man to whom the honor of a woman had been confided, who had sworn to guard this honor pure and unsullied, and who, instead of keeping his word and oath, employed her beauty as a shameful bait to ensnare a feeble heart. It was your sacred duty beyond all others to protect this woman, and instead of protecting her, you have sold her."
"What I had to do, sir," replied Dixmer, "I will tell you. I had to save my friend who united with me in this sacred cause. Even as I have sacrificed my property to this cause, so have I sacrificed my honor. As for me, I have completely forgotten, completely effaced myself. Now my friend is no more; he has died by the poniard. My queen is no more; she has died ignominiously on the scaffold. Now! now! I can think of revenge."
"Say of assassination."
"One cannot assassinate an adulteress; when she is killed, she is but punished for her crime."
"This sin you imposed upon her, therefore it was rendered lawful."
"You think so?" said Dixmer, with a sardonic smile. "Judge from her remorse if she believes she has acted lawfully."
"Those who punish strike openly. You, you do not punish; for while striking you fly, and while casting her head to the guillotine you conceal yourself."
"I fly! I hide myself! when did you see that, poor[Pg 485] idiot that you are?" demanded Dixmer. "Is it concealing myself to be present at her condemnation? Is it flying when I go into the Salle des Morts to fling her my last adieu?"
"You are going to see her again,—to fling her a last adieu?" cried Maurice.
"Decidedly you are not expert at revenge, Citizen," replied Dixmer, shrugging his shoulders. "Thus, in my situation you would abandon these events to their strength alone, these circumstances to their natural course; thus, for example, the adulterous woman having merited death, the moment she has received the punishment of death I am quits with her, or rather she is quits with me. No, Citizen Maurice; I know better than that. I have discovered a way to return this woman all the evil she has done me. She loves you, and will die far from you; she detests me, and I will be near her. There!" said he, drawing a pocket-book from his pocket, "do you see this? It contains a card signed by the registrar of the Palace. With this card I can gain near access to the condemned. I will penetrate to Geneviève; I will call her 'Adulteress!' I shall see her curls fall under the hand of the vile executioner, and as they are severed she shall still hear my voice hissing, 'Adulteress!' I will even accompany her to the fatal car, and as she plants her foot upon the scaffold, the last sound that greets her ear shall be the word 'Adulteress!'"
"Take care! she will not have strength to support so much cowardice; she will denounce you."
"No," cried Dixmer, "she hates me too much for that. If she had wished to denounce me she would have done so when her friend urged her so softly. If she did not denounce me to save her life, she will not do so that I may die with her; for she well knows in that case I should[Pg 486] retard her execution for a day. She well knows that if she denounces me, I shall go with her not only to the lowest step of the Palace, but even to the scaffold; she well knows that instead of leaving her at the foot of the ladder, I shall ascend into the car with her, and that, seated by her side, the whole length of the road I shall constantly repeat the one dreadful word 'Adulteress;' that even on the scaffold I shall continue to do so till the moment she sinks into eternity and the accusation falls with her."
Dixmer was frightful in this state of anger and hatred. He seized Maurice by the hand and shook it with a force unknown to the young man, upon whom this had acted with a contrary effect; as Dixmer became excited, Maurice grew calm.
"Listen!" said the young man, "in your vengeance you have omitted one thing."
"What?"
"That you will be able to tell her, 'On leaving the Tribunal, I have seen your lover, and have killed him.'"
"On the contrary, I prefer telling her that you live, and will suffer for the remainder of your days from the spectacle of her death."
"You shall kill me, notwithstanding," said Maurice; "or," added he, turning round and finding himself nearly master of his position, "I will kill you!"
And pale with emotion, and excited by fury, finding his strength redoubled from the restraint he had imposed upon his feelings while listening to the unfolding of Dixmer's horrible project, he seized him by the throat and drew him backward toward a stair which led to the high bank of the river. At the contact with his hand, Dixmer, in his turn, felt hatred rush over him like hot lava.
[Pg 487]
"You need not compel me by force, I will follow."
"Come, then. You are armed."
"I will follow you."
"No, go first; but I give you notice, at the least sign or gesture I will cleave your skull with my sword."
"You know I am a stranger to fear," said Dixmer, with a smile rendered frightful from his pallor.
"Fear of my sword," said Maurice, "no; but fear of losing your revenge; and now that we are face to face you may bid it adieu."
They had, indeed, arrived at the water's brink; and had any one seen and followed them, he could not have arrived in time to prevent the duel from taking place, since an equal desire for vengeance now animated both. While speaking, they had descended the short stair leading to the Palace square, and gained the nearly deserted quay; for as the condemnations continued, seeing it was two o'clock at least, the crowd still filled the judgment-hall, the corridors, and the courts.
They appeared equally to thirst for each other's blood.
They plunged under one of those arches leading from the cells of the Conciergerie to the river; at this time drained, but then foul and saturated with blood, serving more than once as a means of conveyance for the corpses, which floated far away from the dungeons, leaving no trace behind.
Maurice placed himself between Dixmer and the water.
"I decidedly think I shall kill you, Maurice," said Dixmer, "you tremble so much."
"And I, Dixmer," said Maurice, taking his sword in hand and carefully enclosing him so as to cut off all retreat,—"I, on the contrary, believe that I shall kill you; and having killed you, shall remove from your pocket-[Pg 488]book the pass signed by the registrar of the Palace. Nay, you need not button your coat; my sword shall open it, I will be bound, were it even formed of brass like the cuirasses of old."
"And this paper," roared Dixmer, "you will take it, will you?"
"Yes," said Maurice; "I will use the pass. With this talisman I will secure an entrance to Geneviève. I will sit next her in the car; I will murmur in her ear while her life remains, 'I love thee;' and when the last stroke has fallen, I will murmur still, 'I loved thee.'"
Dixmer made a movement with his left hand to take the pass from his pocket, and together with the pocket-book to cast it into the river, when rapid as a thunderbolt, and trenchant as a hatchet, Maurice's sword fell upon his hand, nearly severing it from the wrist. The wounded man uttered a cry, and shaking his mutilated limb, flung himself furiously on his antagonist.
Then in the obscurity of this gloomy vault the deadly combat commenced. The two men, enclosed in a space so narrow that the sword strokes could not diverge from the line of the body, slid upon the humid pavement, and with difficulty supported themselves by the sides of the arch; the impatience of the combatants caused them to redouble their blows. Dixmer, who, as he felt his life-blood flow, was aware that his strength diminished, charged Maurice so furiously that the latter was compelled to step backward; in so doing he lost his footing, and his enemy's sword grazed his breast. But by a movement rapid as thought, kneeling as he was, he raised the blade with his left arm and turned the point toward Dixmer, who, maddened with rage, darted forward, and impelled by the inclining ground, fell on the sword, the point of which entered his body. He uttered a fearful[Pg 489] imprecation, and the two bodies rolled to the outside of the arch.
One only rose. It was Maurice,—Maurice covered with blood, but with the blood of his enemy.
He drew his sword toward him, and as he drew it the remnant of life which still agitated with a nervous shuddering the limbs of Dixmer, ceased.
Then, when assured that he was dead, Maurice stooped toward the corpse, opened the dead man's coat, withdrew the pass, and hurried away directly.
But on looking at himself he felt assured that in his present state he should not proceed far without being arrested. He was literally covered with blood.
He approached the water's edge, and bending toward the river, washed his hands and coat. He then rapidly ascended the steps, casting a last look toward the arch, from whence a red, smoking stream issued, advancing slowly toward the river.
On approaching the Palace he opened the pocket-book, and there found the pass signed by the registrar.
"Thanks, just God!" murmured he, and he rapidly mounted the steps leading to the Salle des Morts.
It struck three.
[Pg 490]