登陆注册
5386900000145

第145章 THE PLAN OF THE ESCAPE.(7)

"Hush!" interrupted Tison, commandingly, "I am not your 'dear woman,' I am the wife of Citizen Tison, and I want none of your confidence, for confidence from such persons as you are, might easily bring me to the scaffold."

She now passed through the whole room with her slow, stealthy tread, let the light fall upon every article of furniture and the floor, examined all the objects that lay upon the table, and then, after one last threatening look at the beds of the two ladies, went slowly out. She stopped again at the cribs of the children, and looked at them with a touch of gentleness. "How quietly they sleep!" the whispered. "They lie there exactly as they lay before. One would think they were smiling in their sleep--I suppose they are playing with angels. I should like to know how angels come into this old, horrid Temple, and what Simon's wife would say if she knew they came in here at night without her permission. See, see," she continued, "the boy is laughing again, and spreading out his hands, as if he wanted to catch the angels. Ah! I should like to know if my dear little Solange is sleeping as soundly as these children, and whether she smiles in her sleep and plays with angels; I should like to know if she dreams of her parents, my dear little Solange, and whether she sometimes sees her poor mother, who loves her so and yearns toward her so tenderly that" [Footnote: This Mistress Tison, the cruel keeper of the queen, soon after this fell into lunacy, owing both to her longings after her daughter and her compunctions of conscience for her treatment of the queen. The first token of her insanity was her falling upon her knees before Marie Antoinette, and begging pardon for all the pain she had occasioned, and amid floods of tears accusing herself as the one who would be answerable for the death of the queen. She then fell into such dreadful spasms, that four men were scarcely able to hold her. They carried her into the Hotel Dieu, where she died after two days of the most dreadful sufferings and bitter reproaches of herself.--See Goncourt, p. 280.

]

She could not go on; tears extinguished her utterance, and she hastened out, to silence her longings on the pillow of her bed.

The ladies listened a long time in perfect silence; then, when every thing was still again, they raised themselves up softly, and began to talk to each other in the faintest of whispers, and to make their final preparations for the flight of the morrow. They then rose and drew from the various hiding-places the garments which they were to use, placed the various suits together, and then tried to put them on. A fearful, awful picture, such as a painter of hell, such as Breugel could not surpass in horror!--a queen and a princess, two tender, pale, harmless women, busied, deep in the night, as if dressing for a masquerade, in transforming themselves into those very officials who had led the king to the scaffold, and who, with their pitiless iron hands, were detaining the royal family in prison!

There they stood, a queen, a princess, clad in the coarse, threadbare garments of republican officials, the tri-colored sashes of the "one indivisible republic" around their bodies, their heads covered with the three-cornered hats, on which the tri-colored cockade glittered. They stood and viewed each other with sad looks and heavy sighs. Ah, what bright, joyous laughter would have sprung from the lips of the queen in the days of her happiness, if she had wanted to hide her beauty in such attire for some pleasant masquerade at Trianon! What charming sport it would have been then and there! How would her friends and courtiers have laughed! How they would have admired the queen in her original costume, which might well have been thought to belong to the realm of dreams and fantasies! A tri-colored cockade--a figment of the brain--a tri-colored sash--a merry dream! The lilies rule over France, and will rule forever!

No laughter resounded in the desolate room, scantily lighted with the dim taper--no laughter as the queen and the princess put on their strange, fearful attire. It was no masquerade, but a dreadful, horrible reality; and as they looked at each other wearing the costume of revolutionists, tears started from the eyes of the queen; the princess folded her hands and prayed; and she too could not keep back the drops that slowly coursed over her cheeks.

The lilies of France are faded and torn from the ground! From the palace of the Tuileries waved the tri-color of the republic, and in the palace of the former Knights Templars is a pale, sad woman, with gray hair and sunken eyes, a broken heart, and a bowed form. This pale, sad shadow of the past is Marie Antoinette, once the Queen of France, the renowned beauty, the first woman in a great kingdom, now the widow of an executed man, she herself probably with one foot--

No, no, she will be saved! God has sent her a deliverer, a friend, and this friend, this helper in her need, has made every thing ready for her flight.

同类推荐
  • Of Commerce

    Of Commerce

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太上洞渊说请雨龙王经

    太上洞渊说请雨龙王经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 上清帝七书

    上清帝七书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 树杞林志

    树杞林志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 小奢摩馆脞录

    小奢摩馆脞录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 锦庭娇

    锦庭娇

    原本奔着复仇而来,没想到除了复仇,这一世还有着仅属于她的精彩篇章……当她心满意足做回了高门贵女,某人却忽然阴恻恻在她耳畔呢喃:欠我的帐,不许赖!——————全文无异能,望周知……
  • 金刚錍科

    金刚錍科

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 四川文学(2015年第8期)

    四川文学(2015年第8期)

    《四川文学》: 文学刊物。以发表短篇小说为主,同时容纳其它文学体裁、品类,注重思想性与文学性的统一,刊物融现实性、艺术性、可读性于一体,聚读者、作者、编者为一家,所发作品受到省内外广大读者和全国各家文学选刊的青睐。
  • 花甲

    花甲

    崔解放冲回家,打开西房门朝床上看了一眼,就扣上门,从堂屋刀架上抽出一把刀,走到屋外。磨刀,刀贴着磨石铮的一下过去,滋的一下回来,干磨。干磨伤刀,他这样想时站了起来,随手拿盆子舀了水淋在磨刀石上,吃了水的磨刀石磨起刀来轻快多了,他一点一点挪着磨,磨了一边儿,再磨另一边儿。伸出食指在刀口荡,嘴角抽搐了一下,刀快!再将刀伸进水里荡了荡,新磨的刀看着有点青乌,不像吃过木头的刀看着白亮。
  • 长水日抄

    长水日抄

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 仙道长途

    仙道长途

    牧隽一直觉得,自己是低调励志修真女主世界里打酱油的路人甲,所以她努力,再努力拖着酱油瓶远远的滚出了女主的世界。若干年后,她在另一方世界遇到了一个美人儿聊起这段辛酸史,美人儿淡淡说:我知道这个人,将来会被XX杀掉。牧隽大惊,忙问可是会预言?美人儿抓抓脑袋尴尬的说:重生的!牧隽大悟:原来我们都是别人世界里打酱油的.……………………………………………………………………交流群QQ:549860181
  • 木槿风年

    木槿风年

    生活中总会有或喜或悲的小情绪,还有或得或失的体会,有成功与失败的感悟,有刻骨铭心的记忆,也有心与心的交流,就算是漫无边际的放飞思绪,也是成长的一部分。把这些片段统统放到一起,就成了一个关于生活和成长的故事。(读者群:792177724)
  • 异能豪门弃妇

    异能豪门弃妇

    十年爱情,三年婚姻,换来的只是被怀疑!姐很小白,不是娘家派来你家的卧底!既然不信任,我要离婚~意外的读心异能,事业风生水起。拥有读心异能的女人,必将无敌 ———————————————————— 弄了一个企鹅群:160151236 欢迎大家来坐哟,敲门砖:书中任何一个你喜欢的角色名字哟
  • 杀手老婆是女王

    杀手老婆是女王

    她是他心底最美的爱情,他是她不敢碰触的回忆。且看妻奴总裁如何追杀手老婆,儿子顺便来助攻。 妻奴:“洛洛,跟我回家。”某女:“滚。” 儿子:“爸爸。”某男:“怎么了?”儿子:“我发现你好没用哦。”某男:“……”臭小子找打。 生死时刻,某女:“云言君,要是你能活着回来,我就嫁给你。”某男激动:“真的!”某女:“……”突然想反悔 【本文1对1,带有玄幻色彩,女主最强!】
  • 被枪决的变脸鼠

    被枪决的变脸鼠

    中午,几块黑云凑到一起,就把天给遮住了,外面的人像鸟一样急着往巢里飞,卧龙帮帮主楚延寿的家人乃至佣人却屋里屋外的忙活着,风雨欲来的天气好像与他们毫不相干。楚延寿的家就在卧龙帮的院里。卧龙帮在城西头,是个庞大的四合院,院套的东西南北一圈的青砖房,是帮会喽罗的营房,驻扎百十号弟兄。当央另有一圈青砖房,东西南北二三十间,是帮会大小头目的宅邸。宅邸中间,是三十米见方的院落,方石铺地,宽绰敞亮。坐北朝南的一趟正房便是帮主楚延寿的宅邸。这天下午,楚延寿的母亲突然痨病复发,正赶上楚延寿不在家,于是忙坏了下人。