Gilbert would also have gone into the Hotel de Ville, not to threaten but to protect Flesselles. He had already ascended three or four of the front steps, when he felt himself violently pulled back. He turned round to disengage himself from this new obstruction, but he recognized Billot and Pitou.
“Oh!” exclaimed Gilbert, who from his commanding position could glance over the whole square, “what can they be doing yonder?”
And he pointed with his convulsively clinched hand to the corner of the Rue de la Tixéranderie.
“Come with us, Doctor, come!” simultaneously cried Billot and Pitou.
“Oh, the assassins!” cried the doctor, “the assassins!”
And indeed at that moment Major de Losme fell, killed by a desperate blow from a hatchet,—the people confounding in their rage the egotistical and barbarous governor, who had been the persecutor of his prisoners, with the generous man who had been their friend and reliever.
“Oh, yes, yes,” said he, “let us be gone, for I begin to be ashamed of having been liberated by such men.”
“Doctor,” said Billot, “be not uneasy on that score. The men who fought down yonder are not the same men who are committing these horrid massacres.”
But at the moment when the doctor was about to descend the steps which he had gone up, to hasten to the assistance of Flesselles, the flood which had poured into the building was again vomited forth. Amid this torrent of men was one who was struggling furiously as they dragged him forward.
“To the Palais Royal! to the Palais Royal!” cried the crowd.
“Yes, my friends—yes, my good friends—to the Palais Royal!” repeated the man.
And they went towards the river, as if this human inundation had wished, not to bear him towards the Palais Royal, but to drag him towards the Seine.
“Oh!” cried Gilbert, “here is another they are about to murder!—let us endeavor to save him at least.” But scarcely had he pronounced these words when a pistol-shot was heard, and De Flesselles disappeared amid the smoke.
Gilbert covered his eyes with both his hands, with a gesture of excessive anger; he cursed the people who, after having shown themselves so great, had not the firmness to remain pure, and had sullied the victory they had gained by a triple assassination.
Then, when he removed his hands from his eyes, he saw three heads raised above the crowd, on three pikes.
The first was that of De Flesselles, the second that of De Losme, the third that of De Launay.
The one rose above the front steps of the Hôtel de Ville, the other from the middle of the Rue de la Tixéranderie, the third on the Quai Pelletier.
From their relative positions they assumed the form of a triangle.
“Oh, Balsamo! Balsamo!” murmured the doctor, with a sigh; “is it then such a triangle as this that is to be symbolical of liberty!”
And he ran along the Rue de la Vannerie, Billot and Pitou accompanying him.
Chapter XX
Sebastien Gilbert
AT the corner of the Rue Planche Mibray the doctor met a hackney coach, made a sign to the coachman to stop, and hastily got into it.
Billot and Pitou quickly followed him.
“To the College of Louis-le-Grand!” cried Gilbert, and threw himself into one corner of the vehicle, where he fell into a profound reverie, which was respected by Billot and Pitou.
They went over the Pont au Change by the Rue de la Cité, the Rue St. Jacques, and at length reached the College Louis-le-Grand.
All Paris was trembling with emotion. The news had spread rapidly throughout the city; rumors of the assassinations on the Place de la Grève were mingled with the glorious recital of the taking of the Bastille. On every face could be seen depicted the various emotions to which the news gave rise, according to the varied feelings they excited,—the lightning of the soul which thus betrayed themselves.
Gilbert had not once looked out of the coach window; Gilbert had not uttered a single word. There is always a ridiculous side in popular ovations, and Gilbert contemplated his ovation in that point of view.
And besides, it also appeared to him that notwithstanding all he had done to prevent it, some drops of the blood which had been shed would fall upon his head.