| 582 | 583 | 584 | 585 | 586 |
| 1 | 171 | 343 | 514 | 685 |
|
frontier, and who kept her word. It was a troublesome task. Quinet had
a foreign passport in the name of Grubesko, he was to personate a
Wallachian, and it was arranged that he should not know how to speak
French, he who writes it as a master. The journey was perilous. They ask
for passports along all the line, beginning at the terminus. At Amiens
they were particularly suspicious. But at Lille the danger was great.
The gendarmes went from carriage to carriage; entered them lantern in
hand, and compared the written descriptions of the travellers with their
personal appearance. Several who appeared to be suspicious characters
were arrested, and were immediately thrown into prison. Edgar Quinet,
seated by the side of Madame Cantacuzène awaited the turn of his
carriage. At length it came. Madame Cantacuzène leaned quickly forward
towards the gendarmes, and hastened to present her passport, but the
corporal waved back Madame Cantacuzène's passport saying, "It is
useless, Madame. We have nothing to do with women's passports," and he
asked Quinet abruptly, "Your papers?" Quinet held out his passport
unfolded. The gendarmes said to him, "Come out of the carriage, so that
we can compare your description." It happened, however, that the
Wallachian passport contained no description. The corporal frowned, and
said to his subordinates, "An irregular passport! Go and fetch the
Commissary."
All seemed lost, but Madame Cantacuzène began to speak to Quinet in the
most Wallachian words in the world, with incredible assurance and
volubility, so much so that the gendarme, convinced that he had to deal
with all Wallachia in person, and seeing the train ready to start,
returned the passport to Quinet, saying to him, "There! be off with
you!"--a few hours afterwards Edgar Quinet was in Belgium.
584
Page
Quick Jump
|