An Historical Mystery | Page 7

and picked it up. Michu turned round, saw the paper in the
man's hands, pulled a pistol from his belt and threatened the farmer
(who knew how to read) to blow his brains out if he opened the paper.
Michu's action was so sudden and violent, the tone of his voice so
alarming, his eyes blazed so savagely, that the men about him turned
cold with fear. The farmer of Cinq-Cygne was already his enemy.
Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, the man's employer, was a cousin of the
Simeuse brothers; she had only one farm left for her maintenance and
was now residing at her chateau of Cinq-Cygne. She lived for her
cousins the twins, with whom she had played in childhood at Troyes
and at Gondreville. Her only brother, Jules de Cinq-Cygne, who
emigrated before the twins, died at Mayence, but by a privilege which
was somewhat rare and will be mentioned later, the name of
Cinq-Cygne was not to perish through lack of male heirs.
This affair between Michu and the farmer made a great noise in the
arrondissement and darkened the already mysterious shadows which
seemed to veil him. Nor was it the only circumstance which made him
feared. A few months after this scene the citizen Marion, present owner
of the Gondreville estate, came to inspect it with the citizen Malin.
Rumor said that Marion was about to sell the property to his companion,
who had profited by political events and had just been appointed on the
Council of State by the First Consul, in return for his services on the
18th Brumaire. The shrewd heads of the little town of Arcis now

perceived that Marion had been the agent of Malin in the purchase of
the property, and not of the brothers Simeuse, as was first supposed.
The all-powerful Councillor of State was the most important personage
in Arcis. He had obtained for one of his political friends the prefecture
of Troyes, and for a farmer at Gondreville the exemption of his son
from the draft; in fact, he had done services to many. Consequently, the
sale met with no opposition in the neighborhood where Malin then
reigned, and where he still reigns supreme.
The Empire was just dawning. Those who in these days read the
histories of the French Revolution can form no conception of the vast
spaces which public thought traversed between events which now seem
to have been so near together. The strong need of peace and tranquillity
which every one felt after the violent tumults of the Revolution brought
about a complete forgetfulness of important anterior facts. History
matured rapidly under the advance of new and eager interests. No one,
therefore, except Michu, looked into the past of this affair, which the
community accepted as a simple matter. Marion, who had bought
Gondreville for six hundred thousand francs in assignats, sold it for the
value of a couple of million in coin; but the only payments actually
made by Malin were for the costs of registration. Grevin, a seminary
comrade of Malin, assisted the transaction, and the Councillor rewarded
his help with the office of notary at Arcis. When the news of the sale
reached the pavilion, brought there by a farmer whose farm, at Grouage,
was situated between the forest and the park on the left of the noble
avenue, Michu turned pale and left the house. He lay in wait for Marion,
and finally met him alone in one of the shrubberies of the park.
"Is monsieur about to sell Gondreville?" asked the bailiff.
"Yes, Michu, yes. You will have a man of powerful influence for your
master. He is the friend of the First Consul, and very intimate with all
the ministers; he will protect you."
"Then you were holding the estate for him?"
"I don't say that," replied Marion. "At the time I bought it I was looking
for a place to put my money, and I invested in national property as the

best security. But it doesn't suit me to keep an estate once belonging to
a family in which my father was--"
"--a servant," said Michu, violently. "But you shall not sell it! I want it;
and I can pay for it."
"You?"
"Yes, I; seriously, in good gold,--eight hundred thousand francs."
"Eight hundred thousand francs!" exclaimed Marion. "Where did you
get them?"
"That's none of your business," replied Michu; then, softening his tone,
he added in a low voice: "My father-in-law saved the lives of many
persons."
"You are too late, Michu; the sale is made."
"You must put it off, monsieur!" cried the bailiff, seizing his master by
the hand which he held as in a vice. "I am hated, but I choose to be rich
and powerful, and I must have Gondreville. Listen to me; I