The duke's marriage

Front matter

(I IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON }JubIis.irrs in ©riinarg to pHr iBajcstg tljr ©uctn. 18S5. All rights reserved.) CONTENTS OF. VOL. III. CHAPTER PAGE I. Off to Paris ... ... ... 1 II. Hucks in Prison ... ... ... 17 III. Odette in Silk ... ... ... 33 IV. The Eestaurant Cagnot ... ... 52 V. The Jackal and the Lion ... 61 VI. The Minister of Police ... ... 74 VII. La Cloture ... ... ... 87 VIII. In the Prison of St. Lazare ... ... 103 IX. Before the Magistrate ... ... 121 X. The New Joan of Arc ... ... 130 XL Odette's Mission Work ... ... 141 XII. A Chance for Claverley ... ... 163 XIII. Eebuff and Eebound ... ... 180 XIV. The Antechamber of Powek, ... ... 192 XV. The Last Days of a Dynasty ... 201 XVI. The End of a Day-dream ... ... VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE XVII.

The Little Housekeeper of Chateaufort 232 XVIII. The Carmelite Convent ... ... 252 XIX. Polhuan to the Eescue ... ... 272 XX. Madame La Prefete ... ... 297 XXI. Met Again ... ... ... 312 XXII. Conclusion ... ... ... ...

Chapter I. Off To Paris

Kate had never seen her husband so prompt in resolving a journey. When he copied a list of trains in his note-book, she guessed that he had made up his mind to go, even if nobody accom panied him ; and such, in fact, was his intention. He could go, as he said, without knowing French. He would ask the British Embassy to recommend him some lawyer who spoke English. Neverthe less, Kate, with his consent, hastened to Kings house to show the Count's letter to her father and mother, and to ascertain if Gertrude were willing to take the trip to France. Kate spoke to the General and Mrs. Corring ton before seeing Gertrude. The audacity of VOL. in. the Count's letter astounded them both. The General roared whilst his daughter was reading it, " By George, if Littlepoint hadn't proposed to go, I should have started myself to pull this scoundrel's ears.

What the deuce does he mean ? " " I made sure this would be disputed," sighed Mrs. Corrington. "It would have been too good that Gertrude should have inherited a fortune without any trouble. We are born to trouble. Heigho ! But I'll go and pack up the child's things ; not that I think any good will be got by her going to Paris, mind you." " But you agree that she may go, mother ? " asked Kate. " If your husband advises it, dear. He's the best judge. My advice to her would be to accept what those people may offer, and think herself lucky to get that. Anything for peace." " The girl had better go, if only for the change of air," said the General. " She'll mope herself to death if she stays at home. She has not been out of doors for a week." Gertrude was in the breakfast-room directino a number of parcels, which contained her wedding presents.

Her mother had been afraid to talk to her about these since the snub which Gertrude had administered ; but now the presents were going to be sent back. Gertrude had taken upon herself the duty of sorting them, packing them, and addressing to each donor a short letter of thanks. There was a heap of these letters in black-bordered envelopes lying on the table. Gertrude did not appear to be moping, but there was something dry and over-collected in her manner. She was wearing the deep mourning of widows, all except the cap, and looked like a young woman who is her own mistress, not a girl. Yet the sweetness of her voice remained, and she was very beautiful. Kate always fondled her. Before showing her the letter, she put an arm round her waist, drew the pretty head on to her bosom, and kissed it till Gertrude smiled.

But it was a cold smile, and the elder sister could no longer feel that she was caressinoa child. All that Gertrude said and did now showed that she had a will of her own. If she let herself be fondled, it was because she was so pleased, not because she was in a melting mood. " I shall be glad to go to Paris, Katie," she said. " I have been wondering what I could do with myself. I think I shall become an ambulance nurse, and remain in Paris." " You don't mean that, Gertie . If I thought you did, I wouldn't let Hu take you." "It is horrible to me to be in Lewbury, Kate. I have refused to receive visitors. Mrs. Nethersole, Susan Jentleigh, and some others tried to see me ; but I could guess the sort of things they would have said to me, and I don't want to hear them. I was reading a religious paper yesterday, and it said that the French had been beaten because they were Papists.

A little more of this would make a Catholic of me. " Don't say such things, Gertie." " I feel more than I express, dear. The exultation of the people in this wretched town over the German victories is downright shock ing. Don't you remember how Mr. Quang at our ball was for giving a banquet to my poor Roland as a mark of respect to the Emperor of the French ? And you recollect how many gentlemen put down their names. I feel inclined now to pin a tricolour cockade in my hat, and to go out into the streets and ask these gentle men when they mean to get up a testimonial to King William of Prussia. I'll go and tend the French soldiers, Katie, if they will accept me, in an ambulance. It's my duty, after all ; for if I'm to inherit Roland's estates, I shall have to consider myself a Frenchwoman and live in France."

She had opened the letter as she was speaking, and now paused to read it. A flush mounted to her face, and, receding, gave way to an expression of calm anger, with tightening of the lips. "Claverley!" she muttered. "You se< Roland did suspect him ! If I can have an object in life now, Katie, it must be to bring that man to justice. I never believed for a moment in his story of a duel." " Hu thinks that the Count de Beaujeu has been misled by the report of a French detective who is over here," said Kate, who was prepared for Gertrude's vehemence. " This detective may have picked up the tattle of Mrs. Nethersole and other such people. But I'll tell Hu that you are willing to go with him, dear ; and you must make haste to get ready, for Hu is a bad sailor, and wants to go by the Folkestone route, so you will have to start this afternoon."

" I wdl go, of course," said Gertrude. " It's very kind of Hu to have offered to take me, and you must thank him for me. I don't think the Count de Beaujeu will dispute my claims once he has heard what I have got to say about Dr. Claverley. But you can tell Hu that I mean to have my rights." "He thinks you should, dear. The only thing he fears is, that we may have a great deal of worry and expense." "We shall see." There was a flash in Gertrude's eyes as she said this, refolding the Count's letter. "M. Ragotin not only holds a will made in my favour, but a sealed packet con taining Roland's last instructions to me. It may require money to carry out these instructions, so I have no right to renounce my inheritance, even if I were inclined to do so to avoid trouble. As to expense, I will go into court and plead my own cause, if necessary, without any counsel's help."

Upon this Kate wished her sister good-bye, and ran home to assist her husband's preparations for departure. She was able to tell Hu that he would find in Gertrude something more than an interpreter — an energetic client. Gertrude met Hucks Littlepoint at the station at four o'clock. Her father went to see her off, but spoke little of the object of the journey, and supposed that his daughter would not be away more than a couple of days. All Gertrude's equipment was contained in a small portmanteau. Hucks had less luggage — only a carpet-bag, with a change of raiment. He was attired in his ordinary garb — a long-skirted black coat and tall hat ; but under his arm he carried a precious new purchase — a cloth cap to be worn on board the steamer, with lappets to go over the ears, and a fall to protect the nape of his neck.

He also had a quarto copy of " Wills on the Law of Succession," to read in the train. While the passengers were waiting on the platform, Hucks noticed Inspector Trotter, of the Borough Police, in conversation with a handsome man of foreign appearance. This stranger stared hard at Gertrude, and whispered to the inspector. The latter turned, and, seeing General Corrington, touched his cap to him ; then edged away with the foreigner, giving him a slight nudge as though to rebuke him for staring at the General's daughter. A minute afterwards the two shook hands, and the inspector, coming down the plat form, stopped before the General with a salute, and said in a half-whisper — "That's a French detective, sir." " The man who came about the Duke's business ? " asked Hucks in a low tone, so that Gertrude should not hear.

" The same, sir. His name is Quirolo." " Is he going back to France 1 " inquired the General. " No, sir ; to Freshaven. It seems he's been collecting evidence there, but wants more." The south coast train came into the station then, and Hucks handed Gertrude into a first class carriage. He had not taken a very long look at Quirolo's face, but a couple of hours later, on stepping aboard the Folkestone packet, he fancied he recognized this man among the passengers. Recollecting what Inspector Trotter had said about the detective beine; bound for Freshaven, this surprised him ; but other sur prises were in store for the Lewdoury lawyer, who had never crossed the sea before, and who was soon a prey to those sensations which are produced on a weak stomach by frisky waves. It was not a rough passage, but Hucks was pitifully ill ; and in the intermittent contem plation of a piece of crockery, which the steward kept whisking before him, he forgot to wonder what had made the French detective so suddenly alter his route.

He was reminded of the man ao-ain at Boulogne. While Hucks lay in the cabin, musing by fits and starts that there was so much to say in favour of the Channel Tunnel, Gertrude had sat on deck, and M. Quirolo had rendered her some polite little offices — finding her a com fortable seat, a rug, and so forth. She did not know who he was, but she could not help being struck by his uncommon face, and on landing designated him to her brother-in-law as a gentle man who had been very civil to her. Hucks thought it best not to say that this gallant was a detective ; and doubtless either a foolish or a lying detective, whose misrepresentations were the cause that had just brought him (Hucks) to be so sea-sick. Hucks was still too unwell to talk, and trudged into the Custom House pressing "Wills upon Succession" to his waistcoat, and feeling as if the floor was rising alternately to hit him in the face or kick him in the back.

But now Hucks and Gertrude were to be in debted to the foreigner for another piece of courtesy. Hucks had left England without passports, forgetting that, since the outbreak of the war, travellers were required to be furnished with these certificates of identity. The demand, " Votre passeport, monsieur ? " struck him speech less ; but he was not suffered to feel incon venience a single minute. Quirolo, who had contrived to walk up to the police-desk imme diately behind Gertrude, handed to the official at the table his own passport along with some thing that looked like a yellow picture in an oval glass case, and at the same time he made a sign with the hand, as if to show that the English lady and gentleman were both under his protection. " Passez, monsieur," then said the official, eyeing Hucks and Gertrude with evident curiosity.

" This is very good of you," stammered Hucks, turning round at the door to thank Quirolo ; but the detective had vanished. "That gentleman must be very powerful. I wonder who he is," remarked Gertrude; but Hucks made no answer, simply because, had he done so, he must have entered into developments too fatiguing for him in his giddy condition. He was only too glad to climb into the Paris train, and, once he had installed Gertrude, to ensconce himself in a corner opposite to her, and try if the broad soft cushions of the French railway carriage could give him sleep. Hucks Littlepoint was no lady's man', and, even if he had been travelling by day with a number of the other sex eager to talk, would have found it difficult to keep conversation going. But he had some old-fashioned gallantry, and thought that ladies on a journey always required to be eating or drinking or to be fidgeted with as to wrappings.

So at every stoppage of the train on its night voyage, the lawyer started out of his slumbers and made spasmodic offers to run and fetch cups of tea, soup, brandy-and-water, and extra rugs. Gertrude was almost a stranger to him, though she was his sister-in-law. He was too shy to become familiar with a girl, and, in truth, he had never examined Gertrude's face with any full appreciation of its beauty until he scanned it at leisure in this train going to Paris. About an hour before the end of the journey, Hucks sat up broad awake. Day had dawned ; but Gertrude was asleep, and by the grey morning light beaming on her pale features Hucks first saw that she was very lovely. Then he understood the French Duke's passion for her, and a brotherly feeling towards the girl was kindled in himself such as he had not known before.

" Poor thing 1 " he muttered. The war having played havoc with French railway arrangements, the train which should have reached Paris at six did not get there till eight. The passengers were, as usual, turned into a large room to wait for the examination of their luggage, which would take place in another room, separated from them by a glass screen. This waiting-place was already half filled writh the passengers who had come in a train from Brussels, and Gertrude suddenly became aware of a familiar English voice ejaculating close to her. " Oh, my goodness, Tim, what a time they do keep us waiting, and what Aairs those chaps with the pewter buttons do give themselves ! It's worse than our police." " What wdl you ? If these men were not imbecile they would not be wearing pewter buttons," grumbled an equally familiar voice, in which Gertrude recognized M. Grachard's, though the speaker was disguised almost beyond recog nition by a white wig and the shaving off of his black beard.

" Hucks, that is Polly Hopkins, and that man beside her must be M. Grachard ! " exclaimed Gertrude, excitedly. Madame Grachard, nee Hopkins, turned at this, and from her lips and those of Hucks' names started simultaneously. " Mr. Littlepoint ! " "Madam Grachard!" "Hush !" murmured Polly, who had turned scarlet, and seemed abruptly smitten with a great fright. " Don't speak my husband's name aloud, Mr. Littlepoint ; he hasn't got his pardon yet. But he's come to Paris on the quiet, because there is going to be a Republic here soon, and " " Malediction I will you always be betraying me ? " hissed the disguised Revolutionist, clutching his wife violently by the wrist. Come along, will you ? We shall be lost." " M. Grachard, I must speak to you ! " cried Gertrude, stepping forward. But Grachard took to his heels, and, as he plunged through the crowd, dragging Polly after him, Gertrude was appalled to see Quirolo, the detective, dart in pursuit of him.

There was a scuffle near the door, a woman's shriek, some loud angry words, and this was all that the passengers in the waiting-room heard, for the door was instantly closed ; and in answers to questions, the experienced station officials said — " It's nothing — it's nothing ; only a pick pocket taken into custody." " I expect he's caught," said Hucks nervously to Gertrude. " Oh, I do hope he is ! " exclaimed Gertrude, trembling with agitation. " He'U be forced to tell the truth then." " But there's a capital charge over him," observed Hucks. " Why should you feel more for a man who has plotted to murder the Emperor than for one who has tried to kill our Queen ? " asked Ger trude ; and the question was so scornfully put that the lawyer was happy that the sliding back of the luggage-room doors, producing a surge forward of all the passengers, relieved him from the obligation of answering it.

A few minutes later Hucks and Gertrude were seated in a voiture de place, and Gertrude directed the coachman to drive to an hotel, which Hucks had ascertained from his " Bradshaw " to be near the British Embassy. As the coachman was climbing to his box, a man in uniform approached him, and spoke a few words, to which the man answered by a start and some nods. As both the inmates of the cab were strangers to Paris, they could have no idea as to how far they were from their destination. They looked out of the windows, admiring the tall white houses, the broad causeways and pavements, the showy shops with their wealth of mirrors and plate glass, and the picturesque variety of uni forms in the streets. Their cab had crossed a bridge, whence they had obtained a glorious view of the Seine and its quays, when their journey ended by the vehicle passing under a gloomy archwray, guarded by two sentries.

The cab stopped, the door was opened, and a throng of half a dozen policemen, wearing cocked hats and straight swords, appeared. " What a strange hotel ! " thought Hucks. " There must be some mistake," remarked Gertrude. " Get down, sir," said a voice peremptorily to Hucks in English. But when the lawyer, having alighted, turned to help Gertrude out of the cab, he was told that the young lady need not get down. " Walk in, sir, you alone ; " and Hucks, essaying to speak, was pushed forward without violence, but irresistibly, by two policemen, one at each elbow. The stupefied Hucks had guessed by this time that he was not in an hotel. The nature of his habitation was made but too plain to him when he was marched into a dingy room with grated windows, in which were two men in shirt-sleeves, one of whom said to him — " Deshabillez-vous — strip ! "

Chapter II. Hucks In Prison

Hucks Littlepoint was a prisoner at the Pre fecture de Police (the French Scotland Yard and Newgate amalgamated), and, as an aggravating circumstance, he did not know why he had been taken captive. The men who surrounded him could only speak those few words of English which they had to use in their intercourse with British and American thieves — " Strip," " Be quiet," " Go there, " " Quick ; " but they under stood not what they spake, and repeated these words at random. Suffocating with terror and indignation, the most respectable of Lewbury lawyers had to strip to the skin till he stood " . . . nu comme la main Nu comme un discours d'Academicien." VOL. III. He kept on repeating that this was most un warrantable'; but the stolid men, who rifled his clothes, had no ears for such complaints.

They turned his socks inside out, prodded the interior of his boots, fingered the pockets and lining of every one of his garments. Then they ran their hands through his hair, and gave him a gentle chuck under the chin, to see if he concealed any thing in his mouth. To end these indignities, they ordered him to dress ; and whilst he was struggling into his nether garments, they bundled the rest of his clothes into his arms, forced a brown loaf into his hands, and put him out of the room. At the door a turnkey cried to him to run. Hucks understood the "courez," ac centuated by an energetic stamp of the foot ; and when, breathless and waddling, he had got half way down a dark passage, another turnkey opened a door for him, and locked him up in a cell. The cell was dingy and dirty. The walls were not whitewashed, as in English prisons, but painted a dark brown ; and the small corrugated panes of the narrow, barred window were so coated with dust that only a murky light passed through them.

Hucks sunk on to a low iron bedstead, covered with a straw mattress and some sacking ; and, fumbling among his clothes, he discovered that his tormentors had left him his watch and some sdver money, but little else. They had confiscated his pocket-handkerchief, necktie, and braces, lest he should hang himself ; his penknife, lest he should cut his throat ; his pocket-book, letters, and papers, because they wanted them. Realizing his despoiled condition, Hucks uttered a moan ; but he was not imaginative enough for his terrors to get the better of his judgment, so whilst he finished dressing hi gradually calmed his nerves with the reflection that he would be brought before a magistrate in an hour or two, and that he could then make a formal complaint of the gross way in which he had been treated.

Afterwards he would write to the Times. He supposed that the charge against him would be that of entering France without a passport. He could conceive of no other charge ; but the British Embassy would give him a passport, and get him out of the difficulty. And he should then take an opportunity of denouncing to the magistrate the reprehensible duplicity of that detective Quirolo, who had not apprised him at Boulogne that he, Mr. Littlepoint, would be liable to arrest in Paris. No doubt Gertrude was already on her way to the British Embassy. It was a great relief to Hucks that Gertrude had not been made to get out of the cab, for it would have magnified his anxieties a hundredfold if he had thought that any annoyance had befallen her. Presuming that Gertrude had been left free to go to the hotel, he naturally concluded that her first proceeding would be to assist him out of his trouble by getting him a passport, or bail, or both.

The philosophy engendered by this British way of looking at his position enabled him to bite a mouthful or two out of the stale brown loaf that had been presented to him, for he had to stay the gnawings of a stomach exhausted by sea-sickness. Yet poor Hucks reasoned without knowledge. A great deal of the political nonsense that makes its way among Englishmen is due to the defect which reasoning like his betrayed, namely, a total ignorance of the laws and customs of foreign countries. If all Englishmen knew the extent of their freedom from having compared it with what passes for freedom abroad, they would be more inclined to value those institutions under which their national liberties have grown up, and less disposed to try experiments with those foreign systems under Avhich democracy and universal suffrage flourish, without protecting men from arbitrary arrest or long imprisonment without trial.

Here was Hucks Littlepoint, a gentleman of education and a shrewd solicitor, munching his brown bread resignedly, because he knew that in England the liberty of a man cannot be taken without open inquiry, and he imagined it must be the same in France. The only thing that seriously disturbed him was that he should have to appear before a magistrate unshaved and without necktie or braces. If the truth must be told, the absence of these last adjuncts to civilized costume obliged Hucks, when he paced about his cell, to grasp his unmentionables by the waist band, and he was aware that the dignity of a man does not shine impressively in this attitude. Hucks had entered his cell a httle before nine. London magistrates commence their sittings at ten, so at that hour the captive was prepared to face a Parisian bench ; but sixty minutes crawled by, and no summons came.

At eleven o'clock a trap in the door was opened, and on the ledge which the trap made in falling was set an earthenware bowl, containing a small quantity of thin brown soup. Hucks tasted this mess, and it was not good, so he put it back on the ledge. In a few minutes a hand whisked it away ; but before the trap was reclosed, Hucks screamed — " Garcong — waiter ! " " Qu'est-ce qu'il y a \ " and a bristling moustache, with a red nose, showed themselves in the aperture. " Parleyvoo English . " stammered Hucks. " I want to know* a " " No spik Ingleesh. Tout a l'heure," was the answer ; and the trap went up. It was down again before long, and this time words of English fed upon Hucks' ears as music — though it was like the music of a Jew's harp, for the words were sounded with a Yankee nasal twang.

" I say, boss, what's up ? " "Oh — a — I want to know at what time I shall go before a magistrate," answered Hucks. " Are you the— a — interpreter ? " "Whal, they've sent me to ask what you want. What are you in for ? " "Do you mean what is the charge against me ? I came into France without a passport, that's all." " Have you any chinko — any money \ " " A few shillings, but " " Whal, if you want anything, just write it down on a bit of paper, and they'll bring it to me ; I'm on the same flat as you. But, I say, chummy " — and here the speaker's voice sank to a whisper — " help a chap to half a dollar, will you ? So help me, I haven't tasted a bit of baccy or a drop of liquor for six blooming weeks." Mr. Littlepoint was scandalized to discover that he had been talking with a prisoner. His first impulse was to terminate the colloquy ; his second, was to produce half a crown, suspecting that unless he did so he was not likely to obtain any more information.

His "chummy" thanked him for the coin, but could give him no cheering assurances in return for it — at least, no assurances cheering to an innocent man, though his enumera tion of the creature comforts to be obtained in a French prison might have raised the spirits of a gaol-bird. " They let you smoke, boss, and you can get wine from the canteen — about a quart a clay ; and you can have your coffee, and roll and butter in the morning, sossidge, cheese, and all that, 1 guess. Any amount of letter-paper. I calculate you can be writing all day if you like. If they bagged any of your money when you came in, they'll let you have it back by twenty francs at a time. My name is U. B. Deed, of New York ; don't forget that. I can't tell you when you'll be called up. Guess I've been here nine weeks, and I haven't been into a court yet.

This is a tarna tion h of a country." There is a stoicism in honest men that bears them up through trials which cow those of whom troubled consciences make cowards. Hucks Littlepoint had nothing to be afraid of, except injustice, and he was not going to believe the authorities of a civilized nation unjust on the faith of an American criminal's accusations. Then Hucks Littlepoint was a religious man, and in this moment, texts of which he had never been obliged to make a practical use, so happy had his life been, came back to him. He had stored these texts in his mind as we put very bright coins into a box to give away as presents, or to use ourselves in some great emergency. The emergency having come, he repeated to himself, " Why art thou cast clown, 0 my soul ? and why art thou disquieted within me ?

" Presently he summoned a warder by ringing a bell, and made signs through the trap that he wanted to write. A piece of paper and a pencil were given him, and he wrote out on it a list of things that he wanted — stationary, soap, an English book of some sort, and a cup of coffee. These articles were brought to him pretty quickly, for the warders, being empowered to levy a com mission on all money that passed through their hands, had no objection to be sent to the canteen. The man who came with the coffee — a burly, good-natured fellow, with a black tunic and an enormous bunch of keys — entered the cell, carrying Hucks' carpet-bag and his book, " Wdls on the Law of Succession." This was unexpected, and as Hucks had left both the bag and the book in the cab, he fell to conjecturing how they had got into the prison.