第134章 TOULAN.(1)

The citizen Toulan is on guard again at the Temple, and this time with his friend Lepitre. He is so trustworthy and blameless a republican, and so zealous a citizen, that the republic gives him unconditional confidence. The republic had appointed him as chief of the bureau for the control of the effects of emigres. Toulan is, besides, a member of the Convention; and it is not his fault that, on the day when the decision was made respecting the king's life or death, he was not in the Assembly. He had been compelled at that time to make a journey into the provinces, to attach the property of an aristocrat who had emigrated. Had Toulan been in Paris, he would naturally have given his voice in favor of the execution of the king. He says this freely and openly to every one, and every one believes him, for Toulan is an entirely unsuspected republican. He belongs to the sans-culottes, and takes pride in not being dressed better than the meanest citizen. He belongs to the friends of Marat, and Simon the cobbler is always happy when Toulan has the watch in the Temple; for Toulan is such a jovial, merry fellow, he can make such capital jokes and laugh so heartily at those of others. They have such fine times when Toulan is there, and the sport is the greatest when his friend Lepitre is with him on service in the Temple. Then the two have the grandest sport of all; they even have little plays, which are so funny that Simon has to laugh outright, and even the turnkey Tison, and his wife, forget to keep guard, and leave the glass door through which they have been watching the royal family, in order to be spectators at Toulan's little farces.

"These are jolly days when you are both in the Temple," said Simon, "and you cannot blame me if I like to have you here, and put you on service pretty often."

"Oh, we do not blame you for that," said Toulan, "on the other hand, we particularly like being with you, you are such a splendid fellow!"

"And then," adds Lepitre to this, "it is so pleasant to see the proud she-wolf and her young ones, and to set them down a little.

These people, when they were living in the Tuileries, have turned up their noses at us often enough, and acted as if we were only dust that they must blow away from their exalted presence. It is time that they should feel a little that they are only dust for us to blow away!"

"Yes, indeed," chimed in Toulan, "it is high time that they should feel it!"

"And you both understood that matter capitally," said Simon, with a laugh, "I always see that it particularly provokes the queen to have you on service, and I like that, and I am especially glad to have you here."

"I've thought out a joke for to-day," said Toulan. "I will teach the widow to smoke. You know, brother Simon, that she always pretends not to be able to bear the smell of tobacco, she shall learn to bear it. I will hand her a paper cigarette to-day, and tell her that if she does not want us to smoke, she must smoke with us."

"Splendid joke!" said Simon, with a loud laugh. "But there's one thing to be thought of about that," said Lepitre, reflectively. "the widow Capet might perhaps promise to smoke, if we would tell her that we would never smoke afterward. But then we should not keep our word, of course."

"What! you say we should not keep our word!" said Toulan, in amazement. "We are republicans; more than that, we are sans-culottes! and shall we not keep our word? ought we not to be better than the cursed aristocrats, that never kept their word to the people? How can you disgrace us and yourself so much? Ask our noble friend and brother Simon, whether he is of the opinion that a free man ought not to keep his word, even if he has only given it to a woman in prison."

"I am of that opinion," said Simon, with dignity. "I swore to myself that the king should lose his head, and I kept my word. I promised the she-wolf that she should be hanged, and I hope to keep this promise too. If I keep my word to her in what is bad, I must do so also in what is good. If a republican promises any thing, he must hold to it."

"Right, Simon, you are a noble and wise man. It remains fixed, then, that the queen shall smoke, but if we have our joke out, we shall not smoke any more."

"I will put up a placard on the door: 'Smoking forbidden in the anteroom of the she-wolf.'"

"Good," cried Toulan, "that is worthy of you."

"Let us go up now," said Simon, "the two other sentries are up-stairs already, they will wonder that you come so late, but I do like to chat with you. Come on, let's go up. I'll stay there to see the joke. But wait a moment, there is something new. It has been proposed that not so many guards are needed to watch the Capets, and that it has the appearance as if the government was afraid of these howling women and this little monkey, whom the crazy royalists call King Louis XVII. It is very likely that they will reduce the guard to two."

"Very good," said Toulan, approvingly.--"What's the use of wearying out so many other men and condemning them to such idleness? We cannot be making jokes all the time; and then again it is not pleasant always looking on these people's long faces."

"So only two guards," said Lepitre; "but that seems to me rather too few, for what if the widow should succeed in winning them over and getting them to help her escape?"

"Impossible!" cried Simon, "she'll never come around me, and as long as I have my eyes open, she and her brood will never get away. No one can come down the staircase without my hearing and seeing it, for you know my rooms are near the stairs, and the door is always open and I am always there, and then there is the turnkey Ricard, who watches the door that leads to the court like a cerberus. Then there are three sentries at the doors leading from the inner court to the outer one, and the four sentries at the doors leading from the outer court to the street. No, no, my friends, if the she-wolf wants to escape she must use magic, and make wings grow on her shoulders and fly away."

"That is good, I like that," said Toulan, springing up the staircase.