" No doubt a petition," replied Rossigneux, which was the name of the person addressed,
" Yes; but for what prisoner ?"
They called for lights. In the interval of their appearing, the three hot-headed youths took an oath among themselves to obtain, that very evening from Legendre, the signature that would give liberty to the captive, whoever he might be, and to announce to him his freedom within the same hour.
" I swear it, though it should be the liberation of the Prince de Condé," said Rossigneux.
" No doubt," said the others, laughing; " he is no longer a prisoner."
42 DELIVERANCE OF MADAME DE CUSTINE.
They read the petition; it was that dictated by Nanette, and signed by the workmen of Niderviller.
" How fortunate," shouted the young men; " the lovely Custine, a second Roland ! ЛУе will go and fetch her from prison in a body."
Legendre returned home at one o'olock in the morning, under the influence of wine like the others. The petition fur my mother's liberty was presented by three giddy youths, signed by a drunken man, and at three o'clock in the morning, the former, empowered to open her prison gates, knocked at the door of her apartment.
She at that time slept alone ; and would neither open her door, nor consent to leave the prison.
Her liberators explained to her as well as they could, the circumstances of their coming; but she resisted all their urgent entreaties; she feared to enter a hackney coach with strangers in the middle of the night; and all they could obtain from her was the permission to return at the hour of ten.
When she finally left the prison, they related to her, with many details, the circumstances to which the liberation was owing, more especially with the view of proving to her that she had nobody to thank for it; fur at that time a species of traffic in liberty was carried on by certain intriguers, who would often extort largely from the liberated parties, for the most part already ruined by the revolution.
A lady of rank, and nearly related to my mother, was not ashamed to ask her for 30,000 francs, which she pretended had been expended in bribes to procure her release. My mother replied by simply relating the story of Rossigneux, and saw her relative no more.
NOBLE CONDUCT OF JEROME.43
What a scene had she to encounter on returning to her own residence ! The house bare and desolate, the seals yet on the doors, and I in the kitchen, still deaf and imbecile, in consequence of the malady that had so nearly ended in my death. My mother had remained firm before the terror of the scaffold, but she sank under this misery. The day after her return she was attacked with jaundice, which lasted fiye months, and left an affection of the liver, from which she suffered throughout her life.
At the end of six months, the small part of the estate of her husband that had remained unsold, was restored to her. We were then both recovered.
" On what does my lady imagine she has lived, since she left the prison ? " asked Nanette, one day.
" I do not know; you must have sold the plate, the linen, or the jewels."
" There were none left to sell."
" Well then, on what ? "
" On money which Jerome forwarded to me every week, with the express command that I was not to mention it to my lady ; but now that she can return it, I will tell her the real fact."
My mother had the gratification of saving the life of this man, when proscribed with the terrorists. She concealed him, and aided his escape to America.
He returned under the consulate, with a little fortune which he had made in the United States, and which he afterwards augmented by speculations in Paris. My mother treated him as a friend, and her family loaded him with marks of grateful kindness ; yet he would never form one of our society. He used to say to my mother, " I will come and sec you
44 DIFFICULTIES OF MADAME DE CUSTINE.
when you are alone, you will always receive me with kindness, for I know your heart; but your friends will regard me as some strange animal; I shall not be at my ease with them. I was not born as you were; I cannot speak as you do." My mother always continued a faithful friend to him. lie had the utmost confidence in her, and used often to relate to her his domestic troubles, but never spoke on politics or religion. lie died while I was yet a child, about the commencement of the period of the Empire.
My poor mother passed in struggling with poverty the best years of that life which had been so miraculously preserved.
Of the enormously rich estate of my grandfather, nothing remained to us but the debts. The govern-inent took the property, but left the task of paying the creditors to those whom it had robbed of the means for so doing.
Twenty years were spent in ruinous lawsuits, with the view of recovering for me some of tliis estate. My mother was my guardian. Her love for me prevented her ever again marrying; besides, made a widow by the hands of the executioner, she did not feel herself free to act as do other women.
Our involved and complicated affairs wrere her torment. We were ever kept suspended betwixt fear and hope, and struggling meanwhile with want. At one time riches would appear within our grasp; at another, some unforeseen reverse, some chicanery of the law, deprived lis of every prospect. If I have any taste for the elegancies of life, I attribute it to the privations of my early youth.
A year after her liberation, my mother obtained
BALLAD OF LE ROSIER.
45
a passport to proceed to Switzerland. Here her mother and her brother, who did not dare to enter France, awaited her.
Their meeting, notwithstanding the renewal of griefs which it called forth, was a consolation.
Madame de Sabran had, at one time, ceased to hope that she should ever again see her daughter. This meeting was therefore the realisation of the charming ballad of Le Rosier, which had then become celebrated throughout Europe.
My grandmother being unable, as an emigre, to write letters to her daughter during the reign of terror, contrived to have conveyed to her in prison, these beautiful and touching verses.
Am or J. Jacques. — Je Vui plantê,je l`ai vu nuítre.
i. Est bien à moi, car l'ai fait naître, Ce beau rosier, plaisirs trop courts ! II a fallu fuir et peut-être Plus ne le verrai de mes jours.
п. Beau rosier cede à la tempète : Faiblesse désarme fureurs, Sous les autans com`be ta tête, 0ù bien e'en est fait de tes íleurs.
ni. Bien que me fit, mal que me cause En ton penser s'offrent à moi; Auprès de toi n'ai vu que roses, Ne sens qu'épines loin de toi.
Étais ma joie, étais ma gloire, Et mes plaisirs et mon bonheur ; Ne périras dans ma mémoire : Та racine tient à mon cœur !!
46
LAVATEIÌ.
v.
Rosier prends so¡ii de ton feuillage, So¡s tonjours beau, so¡s toujours vert, Ann ({lie voye après l'orage Tes fleurs égayer шоп liiver.
The wish was accomplished, the rose bush had reflourished, and the united children were again pressed to the bosom of their tender mother.