Sir Jasper Carew Part 50

I bowed my a.s.sent.

"You may speak freely of him now he is past the consequences of either our censure or our praise. You know, perhaps, that he completely exonerated you from all share in his odious scheme, and at the same time communicated certain particulars about yourself which suggested the desire to see you here."

"Yes," said the other, with a faint but very pleasing smile. "We are relatives, Monsieur Carew; and if all that I hear of you be true, I shall not disown the relations.h.i.+p."

"You knew my dear mother, then," cried I, wild with the glad thought.

"Pardon me," said he, slowly, "I had not that honor. I have, however, frequently heard of her beauty and her fascination; but I never saw her."

The General here whispered a few words, to which the other replied aloud,--

"Be it so, then. My friend here," resumed he, addressing me, "is of opinion that your information and habits would well fit you for a task which will be at once one of emolument and trust. The English minister has already pointed you out as a suitable agent, and nothing but your own concurrence is now needed."

I begged for a further explanation; and he briefly told me that the Royalist party, not alone throughout France, but in different parts of the Continent, where they had sought refuge, were distracted and broken up for want of due intercourse with each other and with the head of their party; that false intelligence and fict.i.tious stories had been circulated industriously to sow discord and disunion amongst them; and that nothing but an actual, direct, and personal agency could efficiently counteract this peril and restore confidence and stability to the party. Many--some of them men of the highest rank--had taken service in this way; some had condescended to accept of the very humblest stations, and almost menial duties, where they could obtain information of value; and all we're ready to risk life and fortune for the Prince to whom they owed their allegiance.

"But you forget, sir, that the loyalty which reflects such honor on them would be wanting in my case: I am not a Frenchman."

"But your mother was French," said he who sat at the table, "and of the best blood of France too. I have told you we are relations."

A gesture of caution from the General stopped him here, and he was silent. I saw there was embarra.s.sment somewhere; but on what ground I knew not. More to relieve the awkwardness of the moment than from any other intention, I asked what my duties might be in this capacity.

"On that head you will receive the fullest instructions," said the General. "Once say that you are ready and at our disposal, and we shall supply you with every means and every knowledge you can wish for."

"May I have a little time to consider of it, sir?" asked I. "A night, for instance?"

"Yes, a night,--certainly; only remember that whether you accept or refuse, this interview is a secret, and not to be divulged to any one."

"I shall so consider it," said I.

"You will, then, be here to-morrow at ten,--at ten, remember, and this time punctually." And with that he bowed me ceremoniously to the door, the other waving his hand more familiarly, and wis.h.i.+ng me a good-bye as I pa.s.sed out.

As I reached the outer gate of the lawn, a servant hastily overtook me. It was a gentleman, he said, who wished to return to London, begged permission to accompany me, if I would so far oblige him.

"With pleasure," said I. "Will you favor me with his name?"

"The Abbe Tonsurd."

"The Abbe Tonsurd!--the very man of all others I wished to meet!" And while I was just rejoicing over my good fortune on the occurrence, he came hurrying forward to offer me his thanks.

"Chance has favored me for once, Monsieur l'Abbe," said I, "since I have the good fortune to see one to whom I have a letter of introduction. I called this very morning at your lodgings to deliver this."

"Oh, the rare good luck indeed," cried he, breaking open the seal and rapidly perusing the contents. "That dear Ursule," said he, with something very near to a smile, "always so good and so confiding, trusts even after hope has departed. But tell me rather of themselves; for this is the theme she has not spoken of."

I rapidly related all that I knew of the family. I saw, however, that his mind was wandering from the subject ere I had finished.

"And you," said he, suddenly, "when do you set out on your mission?"

"I have not decided on accepting it."

"Not decided! Can you hesitate, can you waver for a moment? Has not the Count himself charged you with his commands?"

"And who may the Count be?" asked I.

"His Majesty the rightful king of France. You cannot be well versed in physiognomy, or you must have recognized the royal features of his race.

He is every inch a Bourbon."

"He who sat at the table?"

"The same. The General Guerronville is reckoned handsome; but he is vulgar and commonplace when seen beside his Majesty."

The Abbe, to whom, doubtless, the letter imparted sufficient to give him full confidence in me, spoke frankly and openly of the Royalist party, their hopes and fears and future prospects. He even went so far as to say that they were losing confidence in the English Government, of whose designs for a peace they entertained deep suspicion. Turning hastily from this, he urged me earnestly not to decline the duty proposed to me, and said at last,--

"That if no other argument could weigh with me, personal advantage might, and that success in my enterprise was my fortune made forever."

While he was thus speaking, I was only dwelling upon what I could recall of my late scene with the King of France, and wondering what he possibly could mean by a relations.h.i.+p between us. The Abbe explained the difficulty away by a careless reply as to the various small channels into which the royal blood had been diverted, by obscure marriages and the like.

"At all events," said he, "if his Majesty could remember the tie, it would come badly from you to forget it. Accept this offer, therefore, and be a.s.sured that you will serve yourself even more than his cause."

It was not very difficult to persuade me; and even where his arguments failed, my own necessities urged me to accept the offer. I therefore agreed, and, charging the Abbe to convey my sentiments of grat.i.tude for the trust reposed in me, I stated my readiness to set out at once wherever it was deemed necessary to employ me; and with this I lay down to rest, more at ease in heart than I had felt for months long.

CHAPTER x.x.xIV. SECRET SERVICE

When I come to reflect over the s.p.a.ce I have devoted in these memoirs of my life to slight and unimportant circ.u.mstances,--the small incidents of a purely personal character,--I feel that I owe my readers an apology for pa.s.sing rapidly over events of real moment. My excuse, however, is, the events were such as to render my share in them most humble and insignificant. My figure was never a foreground one; and in the great drama that Europe then played, my part was obscure indeed. It is true, I was conversant with stirring themes. I had on many occasions opportunities of meeting with the mighty intelligences that gave the world its destiny for the time; but in no history will there ever be a record of the humble name of Paul Gervois. Such I now found myself called; and the pa.s.sport delivered to me called me, in addition, "Agent secret." It is true, I had another, which represented me as travelling for a Dutch commercial house; but the former was the doc.u.ment which, in my interviews with prefects and men in authority, I made use of, and which at once obtained for me protection and respect.

It is well known that the rightful king of France in his exile made a personal appeal by letters to Bonaparte to induce him to devote his genius and influence to the cause of the monarchy. The example of Monk was cited, and the boundless grat.i.tude of royalty pledged on the issue.

The fact is history. Of this memorable note I was the bearer. Looking back at the wondrous destiny of that great man, such an overture may easily appear vain and absurd to a degree; but it was by no means so dest.i.tute of all chance of success at the time in which it was made. Of this I feel a.s.sured, and for the following reason: There was a frequent interchange of letters between the persons attached to the exiled family and leading members of the then French Government. This correspondence was carried on by secret agents, who were suffered to pa.s.s freely from capital to capital, and more than once intrusted with even verbal communications. These agents were rigidly instructed to limit themselves strictly to the duty a.s.signed to them, and neither to use their opportunities for personal objects, nor for the acquirement of information on subjects foreign to their mission. They were narrowly watched, and I believe myself that a secret espionage was maintained expressly to observe them. The sudden disappearance of more than one amongst them fully warrants the suspicion that indiscretion had paid its greatest and last penalty.

By the means of these persons, then, a close and compact correspondence was maintained,--a tone of familiarity, and even frankness, was, I am a.s.sured, paraded in it; while, in reality, the object of each side was purely treacherous. At one time it was a proposition to some high and leading individual to desert his party and espouse that of its opponents; at another, it was an artful description of the decline of revolutionary doctrines, made purposely to draw from the Royalists some confession of their own future intentions; while, more important than all, there came a letter in Bonaparte's own hand, offering to Louis a sum of several millions of francs, in return for a formal renunciation of all right to that throne from which his destiny seemed sufficiently to exclude him. What a curious page of history will it fill when this secret correspondence shall one day see the light! I know, of my own knowledge, that a great part of it is still in existence, though in the hands of those who have solid reasons for not revealing it.

At the time when I first joined this secret service, the interchange of letters was more than ordinarily great. The momentous change which had taken place in France by the ascendancy of Bonaparte had imparted new hopes to the Royalist party; and they were profuse in their expressions of admiration for the man who of all the world was fated to be the deadliest enemy of their race. Their grat.i.tude was, indeed, boundless,--at least, it transcended the usual limits of the virtue, since it went so far as to betray the cause of the very nation to which they were at the very same moment beholden for a refuge and an asylum!

Secret information of the views of the English cabinet; the opinions of statesmen about the policy of the war; the resources, the plans, even the discontents, of the country were all commented on and detailed; while carefully drawn-up statistics were forwarded, setting forth the s.h.i.+ps in commission or in readiness for sea, with every circ.u.mstance that could render the information valuable.

I know not if the English Government looked with contempt on these intrigues, or whether they themselves did not acquire information more valuable than that they connived at; for a.s.suredly every secret agent was well known to them, and more than one actually in their pay.

Of myself, I can boldly say such was not the case. I traversed the Continent, from Hamburg to Naples; I pa.s.sed freely across Europe in every direction; and on my return to England I met neither molestation nor hindrance, nor did I attract any more attention than an ordinary traveller. If I owed this immunity to a settled plan I had set down for my guidance, it is equally true that it impeded my promotion, and left me in the rank of those who were less secret agents than mere messengers. My plan was to appear totally ignorant of the countries through which I journeyed, neither remarking the events, nor being able to afford any tidings about them. I was not ignorant of the injury this course of action inflicted on my prospects. I saw myself pa.s.sed over for others of less capacity; I noticed the cla.s.s with which I was a.s.sociated as belonging to the humblest members of the walk; and I even overheard myself quoted as unfit for this, and unequal to that. Shall I own at once that the career was distasteful to me in the highest degree?

Conceal it how we could, wear what appellation we might, we were only spies; and any estimation we were held in simply depended on whatever abilities we could display in this odious capacity. It was, then, in a sort of compromise with my pride that I stooped to the lowest grade, rather than win my advancement by the low arts of the eavesdropper.

If I seemed utterly incapable of those efforts which depended on tact and worldly skill, my employers freely acknowledged that, as a messenger, I had no equal. No difficulties could arrest my progress; the most arduous journeys I surmounted with ease; the least-frequented roads were all familiar to me. Three, four, and even five days consecutively have I pa.s.sed in the saddle; and whether over the rude sierras of Spain, the wild paths of the Apennines, or the hot sands of the desert, no fatigue ever compelled me to halt. The Royalist partisans were scattered over the whole globe. Some of them had taken service in the German armies; some were in the Neapolitan service; some had abjured their religion, and were high in command over the Sultan's troops; and many had emigrated to America, where they settled. Wherever they were, whatever cloth they wore, or the flag they were ranged under, they had but one cause and one hope,--the restoration of the Bourbons; and for this were they ever ready to abandon any eminence they might have gained, or any fame or fortune they had acquired, to rally at a moment beneath the banner of him they regarded as their true and rightful sovereign. I knew them well, for I saw them near. Their littleness, their jealousies, their absurd vanity and egregious pretensions, were all well known to me; but many a time have I felt a sort of contemptuous scorn of them repelled by reflecting over the heroic and chivalrous loyalty which bound them to a cause so all but hopeless. If it be asked why I remained in a career so distasteful to me, and served a cause to which no sympathy bound me, my answer is, that I followed it with an object which had engrossed every ambition and every wish of my heart; and this was to find out "my mother" and Raper. I knew that the secrets of my birth were known to them, and that with them alone, of all the world, lay the clew to my family and kindred. While the Count lived, my mother--I cannot call her by any other name--was fearful of revealing circ.u.mstances to me, of which he would not suffer any mention in his presence. This barrier was now removed. Besides, I had grown up to manhood, and had a better pretension to ask for the satisfaction of my curiosity.

This was, then, the stimulus that supported me in many a long and weary journey; this the hope that sustained me through every reverse of fortune, and through what is still harder to bear,--the solitude of my lonely, friendless lot. By degrees, however, it began to fail within me; frequent disappointment at last so chilled my ardor that I almost determined to abandon the pursuit forever, and with it a career which I detested. The slightest accident that foreshadowed a prospect of success was still enough to make me change my resolve; and thus I lived on, vacillating now to this side, now to that, and enduring the protracted tortures of expectation.

It was in one of these moments, when despair was in the ascendant, that I received an order to set out for Reichenau and obtain certain papers which had been left there in the keeping of Monsieur Jost, the property of a certain person whose initial was the letter C. I was given to understand that the doc.u.ments were of great importance, and the mission one to be executed with prompt.i.tude. I had almost decided on abandoning this pursuit. The very note in which I should communicate my resignation was begun on the table, when the Abbe, who generally was the bearer of my instructions, came to convey this order. He was in a mood of unusual gayety and frankness; and after rallying me on my depression, and jestingly pointing out the great rewards which one day or other would be bestowed upon me, he told me that the tidings from France were of the very best kind, that the insolent airs of Bonaparte were detaching from him many of his stanchest adherents, that Pichegru openly, and Bernadotte secretly, had abandoned him; Davoust had ceased to visit at his house; while Lasalle and others of less note were heard to declare that if they were to have a master, at least it should be one who was born to the station that conferred command.

"We knew," continued he, joyously, "that we had only to leave this man alone, and he would be his own executioner; and the event has only come a little earlier than we looked for. These papers for which you are now despatched contain a secret correspondence between a great personage and some of the most distinguished generals of the Republic."

He said much more on this theme,--indeed, he sat late, and talked of nothing else; but I paid little attention to the subject. I had over and over again heard the same observation; and at least a dozen eventful crises had occurred when the Republic was declared in its last struggle, and the cause of the king triumphant.