LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1518, 28 December 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

HOSE OHERRIL : AN EXILE’S LOVE STORY. Concluded. Then Paul Brun sallied forth bravely, like a man whose spirits rise at the approach of peril. It was a glorious morning. Ten o’clock was striking from many churches, and as Paul had still two hours before him, ho took a walk to Westminster Bridge, and there embarked on one of the steamers for Chelsea. As he threaded the streets, and as he sat by the wheel of the steamer ploughing its way on the broad river past Lambeth, dismal Millbank, and Vauxhall, he mentally rehearsed all he should say to the “ brethren,” and this buoyed him up. There must be men of sense among them, and he would dare them to meet his arguments by counter arguments, not by irrational dictation. . As Bose was to be the prize of his efforts, he felt eloquent enough to move senates, and upon alighting at Chelsea he clearedwith rapid steps the short distance to Cramoiaeau’s house. All the wav Paul had purposely forbore to reflect how Rose would bear the blow if she read in the papers one morning that he had been found dead. It was no use unnerving himself by a contemplation of tragic possibilities ; much better was it to hope, as he was doing. Three knocks rapped on Cramoiseau’s door in a particular fashion, caused the door to be opened by the head-centre himself, who, having admitted Paul, forthwith locked it and put the key in his pocket. Paul walked down the pa>aage and entered the parlor whore the brethren were already assembled and waiting for him. This time they sat, not in the front parlor, but in a back chamber which looked out on to a yard. The shutters and curtains were closely drawn, however, and candles burned on the table as if it were night. There was no smoking, and the brethren, who had been conversing in whispers, lapsed into a moody silence as Paul entered.

They assumed hostile expressions too. Paul offered his hand to the brother who sat nearest the door the Pole Raczki—but that patriot declined the greeting; he then held out his band to the Russian with the soft eyes and sad smile, but was again rebuffed 4 Well,’ said he, turning a little pale, ‘ I will not make a third attempt. It seems lam unwelcome here.’ And he sat down on a spare chair at the end of the table.

‘ Thou wast always welcome so long as we could put faith in thee,’ repeated the German, H ardreich, drily. ‘ When wo give our hands we give our esteem too, or we withhold both,’ exclaimed Eaczki with a sneer.

‘Don’t let us waste words,’ cried the fidgety Cramoiseau, who, having shut the parlor door, advanced to the table and began stirring a number of folded papers which had her* thrown into a hat. ‘Silence, if you please. Paul Brim, let me ask you if you remember the rules of onr association ?’ ‘ I do.’ ‘ Why, then, have you absented yourself from our recent meetings ?’ ‘ Because I have ceased to approve the objects of this society.’

An evil murmur ran round the table. ‘ Hush !’ cried Cramoiseau, stamping his foot md glaring to obtain silence. * You say you disapprove our objects, but you know that, according to our statutes, an absent member is bound by the decisions of the lo<1ge? Now, we have determined that a certain thing must be done to advance our cause.’ Here Cramoiseau explained at some length, but in clear, well-set terms, what that thing was. The other brethren listened solemnly and nodded. ‘You were absent when these resolutions of ours were voted,’ he said in conclusion. ‘So much the worse for you. But now we are going to draw lots as to who shall be our instrument in this great enterprise, and you must draw with ua I command you to step forward and take one of the papers out of this hat,’ ‘I refuse,’replied Paul, standing up and folding his arras. ‘ You refuse?’

‘ I do, because what you are meditating is a crime, and I will not soil my hands in it ’ Again' an explosion of murmurs arose, and moat of the brethren sprang to their feet with menacing looks, but once more Cramoiseau made them hold their tongues. ‘ Are you aware what risks you run by bearding us, Paul Bran?’ he asked with forced calm.

* I risk death, perhaps; but before you judge me you shall hear me,’ cried Paul Brun, and his glance was S 3 bold, his language so energetic, that it momentarily cowed these fanatics. * Listen. I came among you when I was young and believed in your theories. Reason has convinced me that they are wrong. Must I, then, to please you, do a thing which my sense condemns ? If so, what right have you to call yourselves apostles of freedom ? The tyranny which you would set up is as bad as that which you would break.’ ‘Discipline is not tyranny,’ interrupted Hardreich ; ‘in every army there must be some to command and soldiers to obey.’ * We are not soldiers fighting in the open, but men plotting in the dark,’ answered Paul Brun. ‘Each of us can only give obedience so far as his conscience allows, and mine revolts at your decrees. I will not put blood on my hands, since I am convinced that our cause cannot be furthered by such means. I have fought, as you know ; so it is not cowardice which makes me recoil. And I am not a traitor, else I should not be standing here. I wish not less heartily than you do the welfare of the people, but I feel that it can only be compassed by peaceful methods and time, which carries on this great strange world of ours, from progress to progress, surely and safely.' Hero Paul Brun paused a moment and glanced round the table. The faces of the brethren were fixed on him rather idtyingly than angrily as if they thought him mad. To the-e men any s ecch dictated by mere reason seemed claptrap, unless the reason tallied with their own. The sneers which Paul Brun saw dammed up the torrent of eloquence which he had prepared to let flow Instead of speaking he drew out the association list, which he had placed in his pocket, and threw it on the table ; but as ho did so Rose’s flower and his copy of verses fell out too. He made a snatch to pick them up, but the Pole Baczki was too quick for him. Thinking anything in the nature of writing must be a compromising document, he made a snatch at the paper, and was much disgusted to find that it contained only verses. ‘ Poetry,’ he said contemptuously. ‘Let us see,’ exclaimed the German Ha'drcich.

•Thou art crowing too idyllic, Paul,’ remarked the Russian.

‘ Give mo that paper, please,’ said Paul, red with confusion and considerably put out by sumo smiles he witnessed ‘ No ; it shall be thy punishment 'to hoar them read out,’ said the heavy, sarcastic German. * They may furnish a key to thy mind, which is one of the most complex I have mot with—a mind full of compartments Cramoiseau. as thou art a Frenchman, I pray thee read those verses,’ Cramoiseau took the paper with a shrug, and, rather to annoy Paul than to gratify the company, ho proceeded to read. Paul made an ineffectual protest, bnt strong arms held him back when he would have snatched the paper from Cramoiseau’s hand. Bo he had to sit down, looking foolish, while his rhymes were given out for the general delectation.

Cramoiseau though so fidgety a person, did not read badly, aud his tone imparted more rhythm to the love ode than perhaps it possessed. But one thing struck all these fanatical men, who were more misguided than cruel—that such verses could only have been penned by one who was seriously enamo^d, A moment’s silence followed the conclusion o i the ode ; then the German, Hardreieh, spoke ‘Bah! Paul is out of his senses. He is in love. He can be of no use to as. Lot him go.’ * Without killing him asked the soft, sad Russian, who had been shedding sent!*

mental tears, bat was none the less ready for a little private execution. ‘Our rules are formal,’ yelled the Pole Raczki.

‘ Every rule has Its exception, though,’ replied the d gmatic German. Here one of the Frenchmen, who was at heart Paul’s friend, took him by the shoulders with pretended roughness and shoved him towards the door ‘ Out you go !’ he shouted. ‘ A pretty fellow you are, forsooth I We took you for a man, and we find you a puling baby! Off with you, and don’t let ua see you again !’ ‘Stop!’ cried Oramoiseau, ‘I have the key; let me unlock the door. I’m sure I don’t want the fellow’s blood; let him go and get hanged or married, so far as I am concerned, only don’t let him come athwart any of us. Do you hear what I say, Paul Brun V

‘Thank you,’ answered Paul, rather flurried as he saw the door opened, and doubting whether he were not dreaming. ‘Then begone,’ said the little Oramoiseau peremptorily, as he pointed to the street with quivering finger. * Eemember that you are disgraced, and that we have turned you out from our society ; but wo shall have our eyes on you. ’

‘ That is of no consequence so long as you keep your hands off,’ rejoined Paul with an attempt at a joke- At heart he was rather humiliated to be treated with this ignominy, but by the time he had descended the doorstep he bethought him that it is a good thing enough when a drama which threatened to end as a tragedy concludes as a farce. Nobody followed him. The door closed behind his back, and ho felt that he was free.

* And I owe it all to Rose, ’ he muttered, thinking of his verses, which one of the brethren had confiscated. ‘ Well, now, I will go to Richmond and tell her all about it I dare say she will laugh, and think my secret was not such a terrible one after all,’

Paul Brun did go to Richmond, but on second thoughts he did not tell Rose Cherril of his heroi-comic adventure. He confined himself to assuring her, in Miss Smalway’s presence, that he was free, and to asking her if she would marry him during the holidays. To the schoolmistress’s speechless disgust no further explanations were vouchsafed her then or afterwards, when Rose, having become a happy wife, came to pay occasional friendly visits to Acacia House with her husband the Mosier.