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Updated: June 21, 2025
"Information has been laid against you, Citizen-Deputy," he said, "by an anonymous writer, who states that you have just now in your possession correspondence or other papers intended for the Widow Capet: and the Committee of Public Safety has entrusted me and these citizens to seize such correspondence, and make you answerable for its presence in your house."
The Ayes mean death, the Noes freedom." "Ay, ay!" came from every hoarse, parched throat; and twelve gaunt hand were lifted up demanding death for Citizen-Deputy Deroulede. "The Ayes have it," said Lenoir quietly, "Now all we need do is to decide how best to carry out our purpose."
Citizen-Deputy Merlin, are you the son of some ci-devant duke or prince that you dared not forge a document which would bring a traitor to his doom? Nay; let me tell you, friends, that the Republic has no use for curs, and calls him a traitor who allows one of her enemies to remain inviolate through his cowardice, his terror of that intangible and fleeting shadow the wrath of a Paris mob."
In the courtyard the horseman was now dismounting, and a moment or two later they heard the fall of feet, upon the stairs. A soldier threw open the door, and holding it, announced: "The Citizen-deputy La Boulaye, Commissioner of the National Convention to the army of General Dumouriez."
"Then let me tell you, Citizen-Deputy Merlin, that a true patriot would have found those papers in Deroulede's, and not the woman's room; that in the hands of a faithful servant of the Republic those documents would not all have been destroyed, for he would have 'found' one letter addressed to the Widow Capet, which would have proved conclusively that Citizen-Deputy Deroulede was a traitor.
Heriot laughed a low, cynical laugh and shrugged his thin shoulders: "And who will prevent me, I pray you?" he asked sarcastically. The old man made no immediate reply, but he came just a step or two closer to the citizen-deputy and, suddenly drawing himself up to his full height, he looked for one brief moment down upon the mean and sordid figure of the ex-valet.
The slightest suggestion of relief on Deroulede's part, a sigh of satisfaction, would have been sufficient at this moment, to convince him and the Committee of Public Safety that the Citizen-Deputy was guilty after all. But Deroulede never moved. He was sufficiently master of himself not to express either surprise or satisfaction.
Now it was merely a question of putting these measures into execution. Within two hours of Juliette Marny's arrest, Madame Deroulede and Anne Mie had quitted the house in the Rue Ecole de Medecine. They had but little luggage with them, and were ostensibly going into the country to visit a sick cousin. The mother of the popular Citizen-Deputy was free to travel unmolested.
But I have given the matter thought and I can promise you that as the Citoyenne La Boulaye, wife of the Citizen-deputy Caron La Boulaye, you will be as safe as I should be myself, if you are questioned, and, in response, you will find nothing but eagerness to serve you on every hand."
He had had no intention of escorting Deroulede himself; he had still important business to transact inside the house which he had just quitted, and had merely wished to get the Citizen-Deputy well out of the way, before he went upstairs again. Moreover, he had expected something of a riot in the streets. The temper of the people of Paris was at fever heat just now.
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