An Historical Mystery (The Gondreville Mystery)Balzac, Honoré de
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An Historical Mystery (The Gondreville Mystery)
Balzac, Honoré de
Detective and mystery stories; French fiction -- Translations into English; Historical fiction
In a moment eleven persons were killed and lying on the ground among a
number of wounded. Such results either cool or excite a populace; either
it grows savage at the work or discontinues it. On the present occasion
those in advance recoiled; but the crowd behind them were there to kill
and rob, and when they saw their own dead, they cried out: “Murder!
Murder! Revenge!” The wiser heads went in search of the representative
to the Convention, Malin. The twins, by this time aware of the
disastrous events of the day, suspected Malin of desiring the ruin
of their family, and of causing the arrest of their parents, and the
suspicion soon became a certainty. They posted themselves beneath the
porte-cochere, gun in hand, intending to kill Malin as soon as he made
his appearance; but the countess lost her head; she imagined her house
in ashes and her daughter assassinated, and she blamed the young men for
their heroic defence and compelled them to desist. It was Laurence who
opened the door slightly when Malin summoned the household to admit
him. Seeing her, the representative relied upon the awe he expected to
inspire in a mere child, and he entered the house. To his first words
of inquiry as to why the family were making such a resistance, the girl
replied: “If you really desire to give liberty to France how is it that
you do not protect us in our homes? They are trying to tear down this
house, monsieur, to murder us, and you say we have no right to oppose
force to force!”
Malin stood rooted to the ground.
“You, the son of a mason employed by the Grand Marquis to build his
castle!” exclaimed Marie-Paul, “you have let them drag our father to
prison--you have believed calumnies!”
“He shall be released at once,” said Malin, who thought himself lost
when he saw each youth clutch his weapon convulsively.
“You owe your life to that promise,” said Marie-Paul, solemnly. “If it
is not fulfilled to-night we shall find you again.”
“As to that howling populace,” said Laurence, “If you do not send them
away, the next blood will be yours. Now, Monsieur Malin, leave this
house!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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