| 601 | 602 | 603 | 604 | 605 |
| 1 | 171 | 343 | 514 | 685 |
|
"I have served under him."
It was the truth. Cournet had served under M. de Joinville, and prided
himself on it.
At this statement the administrator of Belgian safety completely unbent,
and said to Cournet, with the most gracious smile that the police can
find, "That's all right, sir; stay here as long as you please; we close
Belgium to the Men of the Mountain, but we throw it widely open to men
like you."
When Cournet told me this answer of Hody's, I thought that my fourth
Belgian was right.
A certain comic gloom was mingled at times with these tragedies.
Barthelémy Terrier was a Representative of the people, and a proscript.
They gave him a special passport for a compulsory route as far as
Belgium for himself and his wife. Furnished with this passport he left
with a woman. This woman was a man. Préveraud, a landed proprietor at
Donjon, one of the most prominent men in the Department of Allier, was
Terrier's brother-in-law. When the coup d'état broke out at Donjon,
Préveraud had taken up arms and fulfilled his duty, had combated the
outrage and defended the law. For this he had been condemned to death.
The justice of that time, as we know. Justice executed justice. For this
crime of being an honest man they had guillotined Charlet, guillotined
Cuisinier, guillotined Cirasse. The guillotine was an instrument of the
reign. Assassination by the guillotine was one of the means of order of
that time. It was necessary to save Préveraud. He was little and slim:
603
Page
Quick Jump
|