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Updated: June 26, 2025
And Tournefort had need of all his wits to keep well under the shadow of any projecting wall or under cover of open doorways which were conveniently in the way, and all the while not to lose sight of that consumptive giant, who seemed to be playing some intricate game which well-nigh exhausted the strength of citizen Tournefort.
He searched none too gently the squalid little lodge through and through, turned the paltry sticks of furniture over, hauled little Amelie, Grosjean's granddaughter, out of bed, searched under the mattresses, and even poked his head up the chimney. Grosjean watched him wholly unperturbed. These were strange times, and friend Tournefort had obviously gone a little off his head.
Chauvelin uttered a brief: "What the -are you doing, citizen?" "Rateau is going," replied Tournefort excitedly. "He drank a mug of wine at a draught and has picked up his bundle, ready to go." Once more cowering in the dark angle of a doorway, the two men waited, their nerves on edge, for the reappearance of their quarry. "I wish citizen Gourdon were here," whispered Tournefort.
In regard to this I remember that one day the abbess of the Benedictines in the Rue Tournefort said to me: 'Since our tears are not holy enough, nor our souls pure enough, God makes trial of us in our bodies. Here are long illnesses which cannot be cured, illnesses which doctors fail to understand, and we make thus much expiation for others.
"What is it, citizen?" queried Tournefort, awed by this sudden outburst on the part of a man whose icy calmness had become proverbial throughout the Committee. "Sound the alarm, citizen!" cried Chauvelin in response. "Or, by Satan, he'll escape us again!" "But " stammered Tournefort in utter bewilderment, while, with fingers that trembled somewhat, he fumbled for his whistle.
The latter perused it thoughtfully. "Where did Tournefort find these men?" he asked. "For the most part at the Cabaret de la Liberte a place of very evil repute down in the Rue Christine." "I know it," rejoined the other. He was still studying the list of names which Gourdon had given him. "And," he added, "I know most of these men. As thorough a set of ruffians as we need for some of our work.
All that the Committee knew for certain was that you and Tournefort and a number of men had arrived at Gentilly before daybreak, and I was then instructed to follow you hither to see what mischief you were up to. You acted in complete secrecy, remember, citizen Gourdon, and without first ascertaining the wishes of the Committee of Public Safety, whose servant you are.
Nor was the trouble slow in coming, not only on Grosjean, but on every lodger inside the house; for before half an hour had gone by Tournefort had gone and come back, this time with the local commissary of police and a couple of agents, who had every man, woman and child in that house out of bed and examined at great length, their identity books searchingly overhauled, their rooms turned topsy-turvy and their furniture knocked about.
Tournefort, who had watched the brief little incident from behind the window of a neighbouring cabaret, could not help but chuckle to himself. Never had he seen game walk more readily into a trap. Rateau, after he had passed the barrier, appeared undecided which way he would go.
He learned, from a sensible and well informed gentleman, who resided in the island, that a shrub is common there, which agrees exactly with the description given by Tournefort and Linnaeus, of the tea shrub, as growing in China and Japan. It is reckoned a weed, and every year is rooted out in large quantities from the vineyards.
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