The Honor of the Name | Page 6

know?"
"I know it through Monsieur Laugeron, who, when I mounted his horse,
said to me: 'Above all, old man, explain to my friend Lacheneur that
the duke has ordered horses to be in readiness to convey him to
Sairmeuse at eleven o'clock.'"
With a common movement, all the peasants who had watches consulted
them.
"And what does he want here?" demanded the same young farmer.
"Pardon! he did not tell me," replied Father Chupin; "but one need not
be very cunning to guess. He comes to revisit his former estates, and to
take them from those who have purchased them, if possible. From you,
Rousselet, he will claim the meadows upon the Oiselle, which always
yield two crops; from you, Father Gauchais, the ground upon which the
Croix-Brulee stands; from you, Chanlouineau, the vineyards on the
Borderie----"
Chanlouineau was the impetuous young man who had interrupted
Father Chupin twice already.
"Claim the Borderie!" he exclaimed, with even greater violence; "let

him try, and we will see. It was waste land when my father bought it--
covered with briers; even a goat could not have found pasture there. We
have cleared it of stones, we have scratched up the soil with our very
nails, we have watered it with our sweat, and now they would try to
take it from us! Ah! they shall have my last drop of blood first!"
"I do not say but----"
"But what? Is it any fault of ours that the nobles fled to foreign lands?
We have not stolen their lands, have we? The government offered them
for sale; we bought them, and paid for them; they are lawfully ours."
"That is true; but Monsieur de Sairmeuse is the great friend of the
king."
The young soldier, whose voice had aroused the most noble sentiments
only a moment before, was forgotten.
Invaded France, the threatening enemy, were alike forgotten. The all-
powerful instinct of avarice was suddenly aroused.
"In my opinion," resumed Chanlouineau, "we should do well to consult
the Baron d'Escorval."
"Yes, yes!" exclaimed the peasants; "let us go at once!"
They were starting, when a villager who sometimes read the papers,
checked them by saying:
"Take care what you do. Do you not know that since the return of the
Bourbons Monsieur d'Escorval is of no account whatever? Fouche has
him upon the proscription list, and he is under the surveillance of the
police."
This objection dampened the enthusiasm.
"That is true," murmured some of the older men; "a visit to Monsieur
d'Escorval would, perhaps, do us more harm than good. And, besides,
what advice could he give us?"

Chanlouineau had forgotten all prudence.
"What of that?" he exclaimed. "If Monsieur d'Escorval has no counsel
to give us about this matter, he can, perhaps, teach us how to resist and
to defend ourselves."
For some moments Father Chupin had been studying, with an
impassive countenance, the storm of anger he had aroused. In his secret
heart he experienced the satisfaction of the incendiary at the sight of the
flames he has kindled.
Perhaps he already had a presentiment of the infamous part he would
play a few months later.
Satisfied with his experiment, he assumed, for the time, the role of
moderator.
"Wait a little. Do not cry before you are hurt," he exclaimed, in an
ironical tone. "Who told you that the Duc de Sairmeuse would trouble
you? How much of his former domain do you all own between you?
Almost nothing. A few fields and meadows and a hill on the Borderie.
All these together did not in former times yield him an income of five
thousand francs a year."
"Yes, that is true," replied Chanlouineau; "and if the revenue you
mention is quadrupled, it is only because the land is now in the hands
of forty proprietors who cultivate it themselves."
"Another reason why the duke will not say a word; he will not wish to
set the whole district in commotion. In my opinion, he will dispossess
only one of the owners of his former estates, and that is our worthy
ex-mayor--Monsieur Lacheneur, in short."
Ah! he knew only too well the egotism of his compatriots. He knew
with what complacency and eagerness they would accept an expiatory
victim whose sacrifice should be their salvation.
"That is a fact," remarked an old man; "Monsieur Lacheneur owns

nearly all the Sairmeuse property."
"Say all, while you are about it," rejoined Father Chupin. "Where does
Monsieur Lacheneur live? In that beautiful Chateau de Sairmeuse
whose gable we can see there through the trees. He hunts in the forests
which once belonged to the Ducs de Sairmeuse; he fishes in their lakes;
he drives the horses which once belonged to them, in the carriages upon
which one could now see their coat-of-arms, if it