Graham's Magazine, Vol. XLI, No. 1, July 1852Various
General
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XLI, No. 1, July 1852
Various
Literature -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals
herein, the above having been previously read over by me, in presence of
the Reverend Pere de Noailles, having been taken down by him from my own
lips.”
It seemed as if a mountain had been removed from my breast. I thought
not of any advantages which might result to myself. I carried not my
thoughts at all into the future. My father’s memory was cleared. His
honor, his fair name was reëstablished. No crime now blackened the
annals of my race, and when I turned and looked at the corpse of his
murderer, I said with a free heart, and a sincere spirit, “May God
forgive you, unhappy man.”
Poor Jeanette, who was by my side, and had been weeping a good deal
during all these transactions, took me by the hand, saying, joyfully—
“All will go well now, Louis—all will go well. More depends upon that
paper than you know. Keep it safe, keep it safe, and all will go well.”
It was necessary, however, in the first instance, to give a copy to
Monsieur de Noailles, and when that was done, some further conversation
ensued between us, in regard to the funeral of the Marquis de
Carcassonne. I found that he had few, if any, friends in London; for
long previous to his illness, he had been suspected by the principal
emigrants in England of being a spy in the pay of the existing French
government.
“I shall be willing to bear the expense,” I said; “if I can get any one
to superintend the management.”
“From what I know,” replied Monsieur de Noailles, “I think that both the
expense and trouble should fall upon the man below stairs. I have reason
to believe that, for the last year, during which the Marquis has been in
feeble health, Giraud has both ill-treated and plundered him, to a very
great extent. The man is a hardened sinner, a scoffer, and an atheist;
but the facts revealed in that document may, perhaps, frighten him into
doing what is right, and I see no reason why you should be called upon,
Monsieur de Lacy, to pay for that which he himself, I’m sure, is bound
to do.”
I agreed perfectly in this view of the case; but we found ourselves
deceived.
On descending to the shop, there was nobody in it but the boy whom I had
seen there once before. He told us that Monsieur Giraud had called an
hackney-coach, and had gone away in it, with three trunks. He never
returned, and I conclude that, alarmed at the revelations likely to be
made by the Marquis de Carcassonne in his dying moments, he fled from
England, and died somewhere in obscurity. The boy told us that, before
he went, he had cursed the old fool up stairs, and had said, that as he
seemed determined to die with a cow’s tail in his hand, he should absent
himself for a day or two, as he did not like such mummeries.
This afforded sufficient indication of his intention to induce me to
request Monsieur de Noailles to make all the arrangements of the funeral
in my name, and after having obtained his promise to that effect, and
given him my address at Blackheath, I took my departure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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