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*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCARAMOUCHE *** Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer, and David Widger



SCARAMOUCHE A ROMANCE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION


By Rafael Sabatini





CONTENTS


SCARAMOUCHE


BOOK I.   

CHAPTER I.   THE REPUBLICAN

CHAPTER II.   THE ARISTOCRAT

CHAPTER III.   THE ELOQUENCE OF M. DE VILMORIN

CHAPTER IV.   THE HERITAGE

CHAPTER V.   THE LORD OF GAVRILLAC

CHAPTER VI.   THE WINDMILL

CHAPTER VII.   THE WIND

CHAPTER VIII.   OMNES OMNIBUS

CHAPTER IX.   THE AFTERMATH


BOOK II.     

CHAPTER I.   THE TRESPASSERS

CHAPTER II.   THE SERVICE OF THESPIS

CHAPTER III.   THE COMIC MUSE

CHAPTER IV.   EXIT MONSIEUR PARVISSIMUS

CHAPTER V.   ENTER SCARAMOUCHE

CHAPTER VI.   CLIMENE

CHAPTER VII.   THE CONQUEST OF NANTES

CHAPTER VIII.   THE DREAM

CHAPTER IX.   THE AWAKENING

CHAPTER X.   CONTRITION

CHAPTER XI.   THE FRACAS AT THE THEATRE FEYDAU


BOOK III.     

CHAPTER I.   TRANSITION

CHAPTER II.   QUOS DEUS VULT PERDERE

CHAPTER III.   PRESIDENT LE CHAPELIER

CHAPTER IV.   AT MEUDON

CHAPTER V.   MADAME DE PLOUGASTEL

CHAPTER VI.   POLITICIANS

CHAPTER VII.   THE SPADASSINICIDES

CHAPTER VIII.   THE PALADIN OF THE THIRD

CHAPTER IX.   TORN PRIDE

CHAPTER X.   THE RETURNING CARRIAGE

CHAPTER XI.   INFERENCES

CHAPTER XII.   THE OVERWHELMING REASON

CHAPTER XIII.      SANCTUARY

CHAPTER XIV.   THE BARRIER

CHAPTER XV.   SAFE-CONDUCT

CHAPTER XVI.   SUNRISE





SCARAMOUCHE





BOOK I: THE ROBE





CHAPTER I. THE REPUBLICAN

He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad. And that was all his patrimony. His very paternity was obscure, although the village of Gavrillac had long since dispelled the cloud of mystery that hung about it. Those simple Brittany folk were not so simple as to be deceived by a pretended relationship which did not even possess the virtue of originality. When a nobleman, for no apparent reason, announces himself the godfather of an infant fetched no man knew whence, and thereafter cares for the ladโ€™s rearing and education, the most unsophisticated of country folk perfectly understand the situation. And so the good people of Gavrillac permitted themselves no illusions on the score of the real relationship between Andre-Louis Moreauโ€”as the lad had been namedโ€”and Quintin de Kercadiou, Lord of Gavrillac, who dwelt in the big grey house that dominated from its eminence the village clustering below.

Andre-Louis had learnt his letters at the village school, lodged the while with old Rabouillet, the attorney, who in the capacity of fiscal intendant, looked after the affairs of M. de Kercadiou. Thereafter, at the age of fifteen, he had been packed off to Paris, to the Lycee of Louis Le Grand, to study the law which he was now returned to practise in conjunction with Rabouillet. All this at the charges of his godfather, M. de Kercadiou, who by placing him once more under the tutelage of Rabouillet would seem thereby quite clearly to be making provision for his future.

Andre-Louis, on his side, had made the most of his opportunities. You behold him at the age of four-and-twenty stuffed with learning enough to produce an intellectual indigestion in an ordinary mind. Out of his zestful study of Man, from Thucydides to the Encyclopaedists, from Seneca to Rousseau, he had confirmed into an unassailable conviction his earliest conscious impressions of the general insanity of his own species. Nor can I discover that anything in his eventful life ever afterwards caused him to waver in that opinion.

In body he was a slight wisp of a fellow, scarcely above middle height, with a lean, astute countenance, prominent of nose and cheek-bones, and with lank, black hair that reached almost to his shoulders. His mouth was long, thin-lipped, and humorous. He was only just redeemed from ugliness by the splendour of a pair of ever-questing, luminous eyes, so dark as to be almost black. Of the whimsical quality of his mind and his rare gift of graceful expression, his writingsโ€”unfortunately but too scantyโ€”and particularly his Confessions, afford us very ample evidence. Of his gift of oratory he was hardly conscious yet, although he had already achieved a certain fame for it in the Literary Chamber of Rennesโ€”one of those clubs by now ubiquitous in the land, in which the intellectual youth of France foregathered to study and discuss the new philosophies that were permeating social life. But the fame he had acquired there was hardly enviable. He was too impish, too caustic, too much disposedโ€”so thought his colleaguesโ€”to ridicule their sublime theories for the regeneration of mankind. Himself he protested that he merely held them up to the mirror of truth, and that it was not his fault if when reflected there they looked ridiculous.

All that he achieved by this was to exasperate; and his expulsion from a society grown mistrustful of him must already have followed but for his friend, Philippe de Vilmorin, a divinity student of Rennes, who, himself, was one of the most popular members of the Literary Chamber.

Coming to Gavrillac on a November morning, laden with news of the political storms which were then gathering over France, Philippe found in that sleepy Breton village

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