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Updated: May 19, 2025
And the next day he went to Lacheneur's house. In the warmth of the greeting that awaited him there, all his anger vanished, all his suspicions evaporated. Marie-Anne's eyes beamed with joy on seeing him again; he noticed it. "Oh! I shall win her yet!" he thought.
A strange sight met their eyes as they emerged from the grove on the Reche. Night was falling, but it was still light enough for them to distinguish objects only a short distance from them. Before Lacheneur's house stood a group of about a dozen persons, and M. Lacheneur was speaking and gesticulating excitedly. What was he saying?
"And do you expect to make me, your old friend, believe that a man of your superior intelligence is deceived by the excuses the marquis makes for these frequent visits? Look me in the eye, and then tell me, if you dare, that you believe these visits are addressed to you!" Lacheneur's eye did not waver. "To whom else could they be addressed?" he inquired.
It was not until he heard the conversation of these peasants that Maurice fully realized the horror of Lacheneur's position. Suddenly precipitated from the social eminence which he had attained, he found, in the valley of humiliations into which he was cast, only hatred, distrust, and scorn. Both factions despised and denied him. Traitor, cried one; thief, cried the other.
It is so long since we have met. I have suffered so much. I have so many things to tell you! Jean, my dear brother, can it be that you love me no longer?" One must have been bronze to remain insensible to such prayers. Jean Lacheneur's heart swelled almost to bursting; his stern features relaxed, and a tear trembled in his eye. Marie-Anne saw that tear.
Our millions form a rampart around us, but he will know how to open a breach. And no precautions will save us. At the very moment when we feel ourselves secure, he will be ready to strike. What he will attempt, I know not; but his will be a terrible revenge. Remember my words, Blanche, if ruin ever threatens our house, it will be Jean Lacheneur's work."
But Marie-Anne had not this ambition. All her thoughts, all her wishes were for her father's success. Maurice and Marie-Anne had become M. Lacheneur's most intrepid auxiliaries. They were looking forward to such a magnificent reward. Such feverish activity as Maurice displayed!
Marie-Anne's incomprehensible obstinacy, the insults he had received from the marquis, and Lacheneur's feigned anger were mingled in inextricable confusion, forming one immense, intolerable misfortune, too crushing for his powers of resistance.
Have you forgotten that the allied sovereigns have left one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers within a day's march of Paris?" Sullen murmurs were heard among Lacheneur's followers. "But all this is nothing," continued the baron. "The chief danger lies in the fact that there are as many traitors as dupes in an undertaking of this sort." "Whom do you call dupes, Monsieur?"
"Nothing is easier than to find me. The first peasant you meet will point out the house of Baron d'Escorval." "Eh bien! sir, I cannot promise that you will not see two of my friends." "Oh! whenever it may please you!" "Certainly; but it would gratify me to know by what right you make yourself the judge of Monsieur Lacheneur's honor, and take it upon yourself to defend what has not been attacked.
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