The Trampling of the Lilies   By: Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950)

By Rafael Sabatini

CONTENTS

PART I

THE OLD RULE

CHAPTER

I. MONSIEUR THE SECRETARY

II. LORDS OF LIFE AND DEATH

III. THE WORD OF BELLECOUR

IV. THE DISCIPLES OF ROUSSEAU

PART II

THE NEW RULE

V. THE SHEEP TURNED WOLVES

VI. THE CITIZEN COMMISSIONER

VII. LA BOULAYE DISCHARGES A DEBT

VIII. THE INVALIDS AT BOISVERT

IX. THE CAPTIVES

X. THE BAISER LAMOURETTE

XI. THE ESCAPE

XII. THE AWAKENING

XIII. THE ROAD TO LIEGE

XIV. THE COURIER

XV. LA BOULAYE BAITS HIS HOOK

PART III

THE EVERLASTING RULE

XVI. CECILE DESHAIX

XVII. LA BOULAYE'S PROMISE

XVIII. THE INCORRUPTIBLE

XIX. THE THEFT

XX. THE GRATITUDE OF OMBREVAL

XXI. THE ARREST

XXII. THE TRIBUNAL

XXIII. THE CONCIERGERIE

PART I. THE OLD RULE

These are they Who ride on the court gale, control its tides;

Whose frown abases and whose smile exalts. They shine like any rainbow and, perchance, Their colours are as transient.

Old Play

CHAPTER I. MONSIEUR THE SECRETARY

It was spring at Bellecour the spring of 1789, a short three months before the fall of the Bastille came to give the nobles pause, and make them realise that these new philosophies, which so long they have derided, were by no means the idle vapours they had deemed them.

By the brook, plashing its glittering course through the park of Bellecour, wandered La Boulaye, his long, lean, figure clad with a sombreness that was out of harmony in that sunlit, vernal landscape. But the sad hued coat belied that morning a heart that sang within his breast as joyously as any linnet of the woods through which he strayed. That he was garbed in black was but the outward indication of his clerkly office, for he was secretary to the most noble the Marquis de Fresnoy de Bellecour, and so clothed in the livery of the ink by which he lived. His face was pale and lean and thoughtful, but within his great, intelligent eyes there shone a light of new born happiness. Under his arm he carried a volume of the new philosophies which Rousseau had lately given to the world, and which was contributing so vastly to the mighty change that was impending. But within his soul there dwelt in that hour no such musty subject as the metaphysical dreams of old Rousseau. His mood inclined little to the "Discourses upon the Origin of Inequality" which his elbow hugged to his side. Rather was it a mood of song and joy and things of light, and his mind was running on a string of rhymes which mentally he offered up to his divinity. A high born lady was she, daughter to his lordly employer, the most noble Marquis of Bellecour. And he a secretary, a clerk! Aye, but a clerk with a great soul, a secretary with a great belief in the things to come, which in that musty tome beneath his arm were dimly prophesied.

And as he roamed beside the brook, his feet treading the elastic, velvety turf, and crushing heedlessly late primrose and stray violet, his blood quickened by the soft spring breeze, fragrant with hawthorn and the smell of the moist brown earth, La Boulaye's happiness gathered strength from the joy that on that day of spring seemed to invest all Nature. An old world song stole from his firm lips at first timidly, like a thing abashed in new surroundings, then in bolder tones that echoed faintly through the trees

"Si le roi m'avait donne Paris, sa grande ville, Et qui'il me fallut quitter L'amour de ma mie, Je dirais au roi Louis Reprenez votre Paris. J'aime mieux ma mie, O gai! J'aime mieux ma mie!"