An Historical Mystery (The Gondreville Mystery)

“Malin, on whom the whole responsibility of the plot of which he had been the working agent was likely to fall if it ever became known, was so terrified that he packed the proclamations and other papers in carts and took them down to Gondreville in the night-time, where no doubt they were hidden in the cellars of that chateau, which he had bought in the name of another man – who was it, by the bye? he had him made chief-justice of an Imperial court – Ah! Marion. Having thus disposed of these damning proofs he returned to Paris to congratulate the First Consul on his victory. Napoleon, as you know, rushed from Italy to Paris after the battle of Marengo with alarming celerity. Those who know the secret history of that time are well aware that a message from Lucien brought him back. The minister of the interior had foreseen the attitude of the Montagnard party, and though he had no idea of the quarter from which the wind really blew, he feared a storm. Incapable of suspecting the three ministers and Carnot, he attributed the movement which stirred all France to the hatred his brother had excited by the 18th Brumaire, and to the confident belief of the men of 1793 that defeat was certain in Italy.

“The battle of Marengo detained Napoleon on the plains of Lombardy until the 25th of June, but he reached Paris on the 2nd of July. Imagine the faces of the five conspirators as they met the First Consul at the Tuileries, and congratulated him on the victory. Fouche on that very occasion at the palace told Malin to have patience, for all was not over yet. The truth was, Talleyrand and Fouche both held that Bonaparte was not as much bound to the principles of the Revolution as they were, and as he ought to be; and for this reason, as well as for their own safety, they subsequently, in 1804, buckled him irrevocably, as they believed, to its cause by the affair of the Duc d’Enghien. The execution of that prince is connected by a series of discoverable ramifications with the plot which was laid on that June evening in the boudoir of the ministry of foreign affairs, the night before the battle of Marengo. Those who have the means of judging, and who have known persons who were well-informed, are fully aware that Bonaparte was handled like a child by Talleyrand and Fouche, who were determined to alienate him irrevocably from the House of Bourbon, whose agents were even then, at the last moment, endeavoring to negotiate with the First Consul.”

“Talleyrand was playing whist in the salon of Madame de Luynes,” said a personage who had been listening attentively to de Marsay’s narrative. “It was about three o’clock in the morning, when he pulled out his watch, looked at it, stopped the game, and asked his three companions abruptly and without any preface whether the Prince de Conde had any other children than the Duc d’Enghien. Such an absurd inquiry from the lips of Talleyrand caused the utmost surprise. ‘Why do you ask us what you know perfectly well yourself?’ they said to him. ‘Only to let you know that the House of Conde comes to an end at this moment.’ Now Monsieur de Talleyrand had been at the hotel de Luynes the entire evening, and he must have known that Bonaparte was absolutely unable to grant the pardon.”

“But,” said Eugene de Rastignac, “I don’t see in all this any connection with Madame de Cinq-Cygnes and her troubles.”

“Ah, you were so young at that time, my dear fellow; I forgot to explain the conclusion. You all know the affair of the abduction of the Comte de Gondreville, then senator of the Empire, for which the Simeuse brothers and the two d’Hauteserres were condemned to the galleys, – an affair which did, in fact, lead to their death.”

De Marsay, entreated by several persons present to whom the circumstances were unknown, related the whole trial, stating that the mysterious abductors were five sharks of the secret service of the ministry of the police, who were ordered to obtain the proclamations of the would-be Directory which Malin had surreptitiously taken from his house in Paris, and which he had himself come to Gondreville for the express purpose of destroying, being convinced at last that the Empire was on a sure foundation and could not be overthrown. “I have no doubt,” added de Marsay, “that Fouche took the opportunity to have the house searched for the correspondence between Malin and Louis XVIII., which was always kept up, even during the Terror. But in this cruel affair there was a private element, a passion of revenge in the mind of the leader of the party, a man named Corentin, who is still living, and who is one of those subaltern agents whom nothing can replace and who makes himself felt by his amazing ability. It appears that Madame, then Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, had ill-treated him on a former occasion when he attempted to arrest the Simeuse brothers. What happened afterwards in connection with the senator’s abduction was the result of his private vengeance.

“These facts were known, of course, to Malin, and through him to Louis XVIII. You may therefore,” added de Marsay, turning to the Princesse de Cadignan, “explain the whole matter to the Marquise de Cinq-Cygne, and show her why Louis XVIII. thought fit to keep silence.”

ADDENDUM

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Beauvisage

The Member for Arcis

Berthier, Alexandre

The Chouans

Bonaparte, Lucien

The Vendetta

Bordin

The Seamy Side of History

The Commission in Lunacy

Jealousies of a Country Town

Cinq-Cygne, Laurence, Comtesse (afterwards Marquise de)

The Secrets of a Princess

The Seamy Side of History

The Member for Arcis

Corentin

The Chouans

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

The Middle Classes

Derville

Gobseck

A Start in Life

Father Goriot

Colonel Chabert

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Duroc, Gerard-Christophe-Michel

A Woman of Thirty

Espard, Jeanne-Clementine-Athenais de Blamont-Chauvry, Marquise d’

The Commission in Lunacy

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Letters of Two Brides

Another Study of Woman

The Secrets of a Princess

A Daughter of Eve

Beatrix

Fouche, Joseph

The Chouans

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Giguet, Colonel

The Member for Arcis

Gondreville, Malin, Comte de

A Start in Life

Domestic Peace

The Member for Arcis

Gothard

The Member for Arcis

Goujet, Abbe

The Member for Arcis

Grandlieu, Duc Ferdinand de

The Thirteen

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Modeste Mignon

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Granville, Vicomte de

A Second Home

Farewell (Adieu)

Cesar Birotteau

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

A Daughter of Eve

Cousin Pons

Grevin

A Start in Life

The Member for Arcis

Hauteserre, D’

The Member for Arcis

Lefebvre, Robert

Cousin Betty

Lenoncourt, Duc de

The Lily of the Valley

Cesar Birotteau

Jealousies of a Country Town

Beatrix

Louis XVIII., Louis-Stanislas-Xavier

The Chouans

The Seamy Side of History

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

The Ball at Sceaux

The Lily of the Valley

Colonel Chabert

The Government Clerks

Marion (of Arcis)

The Member for Arcis

Marion (brother)

The Member for Arcis

Marsay, Henri de

The Thirteen

The Unconscious Humorists

Another Study of Woman

The Lily of the Valley

Father Goriot

Jealousies of a Country Town

Ursule Mirouet

A Marriage Settlement

Lost Illusions

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Letters of Two Brides

The Ball at Sceaux

Modeste Mignon

The Secrets of a Princess

A Daughter of Eve

Maufrigneuse, Duchesse de

The Secrets of a Princess

Modeste Mignon

Jealousies of a Country Town

The Muse of the Department

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Letters of Two Brides

Another Study of Woman

The Member for Arcis

Maufrigneuse, Georges de

The Secrets of a Princess

Beatrix

The Member for Arcis

Maufrigneuse, Berthe de

Beatrix

The Member for Arcis

Michu, Francois

Jealousies of a Country Town

The Member for Arcis

Michu, Madame Francois

The Member for Arcis

Murat, Joachim, Prince

The Vendetta

Colonel Chabert

Domestic Peace

The Country Doctor

Navarreins, Duc de

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Colonel Chabert

The Muse of the Department

The Thirteen

Jealousies of a Country Town

The Peasantry

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

The Country Parson

The Magic Skin

The Secrets of a Princess

Cousin Betty

Peyrade

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Rapp

The Vendetta

Rastignac, Eugene de

Father Goriot

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

The Ball at Sceaux

The Commission in Lunacy

A Study of Woman

Another Study of Woman

The Magic Skin

The Secrets of a Princess

A Daughter of Eve

The Firm of Nucingen

Cousin Betty

The Member for Arcis

The Unconscious Humorists

Regnier, Claude-Antoine

A Second Home

Simeuse, Admiral de

Beatrix

Jealousies of a Country Town

Steingel

The Peasantry

Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles-Maurice de

The Chouans

The Thirteen

Letters of Two Brides

Gaudissart II.

Vandenesse, Comte Felix de

The Lily of the Valley

Lost Illusions

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Cesar Birotteau

Letters of Two Brides

A Start in Life

The Marriage Settlement

The Secrets of a Princess

Another Study of Woman

A Daughter of Eve

Varlet

The Gondreville Mystery

The Member for Arcis