Litchfield enquirer., 1880-06-10

sage, the oldest and wisest practitioner at the Bar, who shook his head at him and said: My friend, you have nothing to do with get ling pardon for Marius Beugeard. The fel- low was 8 scamp, who almost broke his mothers heart by his follies before he joined the Commune, and deserved shooting for his crimes. 1 am afraid you are being made the tool of some designing knaves."
 aYou are quite mistaken" answered Pascal, coldly ''It is my future father-in-la law, M Marsault, who has chiefly urged me to take this course" .
 Well then, just you listen to me, and beware of M. Marsault," said M. Lesage, lay ing hand on Pascals shoulder ''Oh, yes, you may start and feel furious against me for speaking against your future father-in-law, but 1t is as well that you should know the full truth before your marriage rather than have to discover it afterward. M. Marsault is so- licitor to very wealthy old man in this town, named Benot, and it is pretty notorious that he has been holding all his clients scrip in his nant1s for years. Now Benot has two neph- ews one the notary Grugy, who is your unc45s rival and greatest enemy; the ether this Marius Bougeard, who IS in exile. Now, assuming as do that NJ. Marsaut has been making rather free use of Benot's money"
 s.Plr, how dare yon suppose such thing ?" interrupted Pascal.
 s.Weil, do suppose it on the faith of facts that have come to my knowledge" answered old Lesage coelly; land 1 add this, that 1t is M. Marsaut's best interest to get M Benot to
 leave all his property to Marius Bougeard sooner than to Grngy. The latter, when he caiIie into old Benot's fortune might ask M. Marsaut for accounts which it would be disa- greeable to furnish, whereas Marius Bougeard if he owed his pardon to M. Marsaults inter- cession and fortune into the bargain, would not be disposed to look too closely into things. Now do you understand 7"
 "No don't, replied Pascal hotly.
 "Well, pity You," said M. Lesage, amica- ply; 'for' l look upon you as rising young man, and don't want to see you shove your head into net"
 Il consider that you have shamefully tra- duced M. Marsault who is an honorable man, D cried Pascal I.edoux.
 "Good morning then, but you will see in the end that was right, responded M. Lesage.
 M. Lesage aoas in the right, and he had stated nothing untrue concerning M. Marsault, of whom circumstances had made rogue. We say circumstances, because Nature h ao rather fashioned this lawyer for playing the part of an honest man than of villain. He was grave, quiet, discreet; he loved his ease j; he had no extravagant taste, such as gambling, picture buying, or china -fancying he paid his taxes regularly, owed no tradesman money, would have lived to the end of his days the most blameless life imaginable, had it not been for one ambition which he cherished that of becoming rich.
 A French notary stands in position excep- tlonaily favorable for speoulating with other peoples money. He is, in a manner Gov ernment officer, as the number of notaries is limited, and their letters of appointment are all signed by Government. As consequence, notary inspires more confidence than an English solicitor. He is member of corpo- ration, who, from esprit de corps feel bound to make good any losses that may be incurred by one of their number, so that a client has the certainty of knowing that if he is robbed by his notary, the Chamber of Notaries will pay ali his dues Thus, a Frenchman makes of notary his con6dant he takes advice from him about his marriage; he gives him the title-deeds of his land, and puts into his keep ing all his savings under the form of scrip. M. Marsault had in this way become possessed of all of M. BenOt's fortune, and had speculat- ed with the same as he had done with the money of other clients, hoping that he might enrich himself without doing them any harm. Unfortunately, his speculations had not al- ways been successful, insomuch that he had felt compelled to exert all his influence on M. Benot in order that the latter might bequeath his wealth to Marius Bougeard, sooner than to the notary Grugy, who would quickly have made him Marsault] feel very uncomfortable by looking too closely into his accounts. But Bougeard was in penal colony; and it was necessary not only to bring him back pardon ed, but likewise to convince NJ. Benot of his innocence, before the latter could be persua- ded to acknowledge him as his heir. M. Be- not was meek little man, who had picked up his weath in selling rabbit-skins. On seme questions, however, he was more stubborn than most of the men who pass for obstinate, and certainly nothing could have induced him to leave his money to a revolutionary black guard rightfuly convicted of dishonesty.
 That is why M. Marsault had fnessed 80 adroitly in order to get Mariuss case put into good hands; that is why he now began so in stantly to urge upon Pascal Ledoux the nec- essity of acting and talking with energy on behalf of the eX-Communist.
 It was about week after Ledoux had com menced his operations by writing letters to newspapers and to personages in high otfice that the idea occurred to him of holding a grand amnesty meeting in public editice. To do this it was requisite to obtain the May or's permission; but the Mayor would not at first give it, experimenting disorderly scenes Pascal referred to the Minister of the Interior, and after an exchange of letters which, on being printed ill the papers, served greatly to advertise his name, he got the required leave, and announced the meeting to the world by means or flaming red posters thus worded
 AMNESTY! AMNESTY ! AMNEsTY!"
 "An address on the cruel wrongs suffered by fellow townsnan of ours the Citizen Ma rius Bougcard, will be delivered by NJ. Pascal Ledoux and other patriots in the Theatre of Vile Aubry, on Sunday next, at } D. m. collection will be made at the doors on behalf of the exile; and ten centines admission money will be charged, also, for the exile's benefit
 '.Fellow-townsmen! attend in body!'
 Pascal Ledoux was surprised at the mass of people which this invitation drew on the ap- pointed day but he was soon able to perceive thai the sentiment of this mob were not 'Iinan-' lmous. As soon as the theatre doors were open they rushed in helter skelter, and present ly began to fight over the question as to whether Marius Bougeard was martyr or scamp. Many who had known him declined to talk of him otherwise than as an i'll con- ditioned vagabond of the worst type, and this naturally incensed the enthusiasts on the other side. These proved to be in majority, and they favored Pascal Ledoux with a tre- mehdous exclamation when he marhced upon the stage of the theatre in swallow tail coat and white tie to deliver his address
 Standing at small table, Pascal had behind hin the members of the local Amnesty Com missions-an unwashed crew-while in the stage box to his right he saw his pretty be- trohed, Rosalie, seated between her father nd d0tA ,s. string all the chords of Pascars eloquence. After commencing with touching narrative of the convict's early career (narrative occa- siolally interrupted by cat calls, ) he broke out into indignant rebuke of the persons who de- niea Bougeard's claims to political saintship s1 declare to you all" he bawled, ''that when this man comes back he will become the glory of our town"
 tBosh you'll be too happy to give him a wide berth" (This from an impatient listen er.) ...,..-..5-..s1 - }o
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