Page:Peterson Magazine 1869B.pdf/134

 137 MARIE ANTOINETTE'S TALISMAN.

two persons were fast becoming—a sharp glance, but made no answer to his last speech, which had apparently made no impression upon him.

“The king, the queen, and, most of all, you and the lady on whose behalf I come, are in danger. A single new cause of discontent against. this prison, and the smouldering hate of the people will break forth. Louis foresaw this, but had not force of will enough to prevent it. One word from his wife, and he was ready to brave everything.”

«But what has he done?”

The page drew close to the table and leaned one hand upon it.

“Years ago, the very last of our old king’s reign, @ man was brought to the Bastile—his name was Gosner.”

“Gosner—why that man is alive yet. Neither dampness or famine seem to have any impres- sion on him. He was brought here under a lettre-de-cachet, and was one of Madame Du Barry’s enemies. I remember, she came here to the prison, just after the old king died, and upbraided this man with having killed him by his necromancy. She was very bitter against him, and seemed afraid that he might be par- doned out. That woman had a hard heart.”

“Yes; she had a hard heart,” repeated the page; ‘“‘but often, ah! so often, she was forced to be cruel in self-defence. It is so now— it is so now!”

Once more the page was walking up and down the room; he paused suddenly.

“This man, Gosner, was, at the request of madame, put into the underground cells,” he said, “where he has been until within the last year. When we took him out he was almost blind —a poor, enfeebled creature, hardly worthy of the new life we gave him.”

“And now?” questioned the page.

“Now he is but little better—a gleam or two of light and air does not change a prisoner of many years so much as you might imagine; besides, this man was feeble from the first, but lived on, withering away into the shadow he is.”

“Well, this is the man they will parade before the people as a proof of the terrible cruelties practiced here.”

The governor half rose from his feet in sudden alarm.

“Who will do this?” he exclaimed.

“The king; or, rather, his Austrian wife.”

“The king!”

“Who has pardoned this man, Gosner.”

The ruddy countenance of the governor lost its tone, and a cold whiteness crept over his lips.

At last he turned a blanched and scared face upon the page. The great danger of his position had forced itself upon him.

“And the king has done this? believe it.”

“You may, for tomorrow will bring the proof. The order of Gosner’s release was signed this morning, and is now in Paris.”

The governor was on his feet at once.

“What is to be done? You came here for something more than this. Madame Du Barry has heard of Gosner’s pardon. She sent you here. What does she, propose? This is a case that concerns us all, and may destroy us all.”

“Unless proper steps are taken,” said the page, in a low voice.

“But what steps can be taken?”

“You ask me that?” answered the page, with a strange smile on his lips; “you, who know all the mysteries of this prison, who receive men without record, and send them forth for burial with only a number instead of a name?”

“Who told you these things?” demanded the governor, with a sudden panic.

“No matter, I know; then I know, also, that this man, Dr. Gosner,, is not an inmate of this prison. He was buried within the month, aad the number attached to his name is registered against it.”

“You know this?” cried the governor. “Rather you suggest it.”

“Yes, I suggest it. This.man must not be let loose to prowl, the streets of Paris, and. drive the rabble wild with his stories of the, Bastile, its cruelties, its dungeons, and its underground horrors. He was aman of wonderful eloquence, and freedom will touch his tongue with fire. His white hair; the wonderful pathos in, his eyes, and that shadowy form, will excite the people to terrible wrath.”

The governor was trembling visibly throughout his entire frame. He. leaned his hand so heavily on the table that the glasses, with the amber and ruby-tinted drops left in them, shook and rattled together beneath his pressure.

“Madame Du Barry was the person who cast this man into prison, the people hates her already,” continued the page, who was himself growing strangely pale. “This man, will first assail her; as for yourself——”

The governor dropped into the chair he had left, and, gazed upon the. page with frightened eyes and parted lips, a remembrance of all he had done to the prisoner since his incarceration, of the neglect, starvation, the awful soli- tude in which he had been left, year after year,