The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-26

nette cycle written by the elder Du mas, yet it was the first one of the saiC ''cycle' which came from his prolific pen The story is marred by that sensualisn which too often defaced the writings O Dumas-a seemingly absolute inability t' comprehend the sanctity of marriage re 1ations. Its chief value is the unexcellet pictures, drawn with all Dumas dramatt power, of the condition of the unfortu nate Marie Antoinette in the last days O her Imprisonment Even the fieshly ant carnal Dumas seems to have beer abashed before the majesty of the un happy Queen, before her virtues and hel woes. In the glowing words of Burke is a picture of Marie Antoinette in the glory, beauty and splendor of her exist ence. Carlyle, in his peculiar but graph ic manner deals. in his essay upon tht Diamond Necklace, with the last condi- ton of the Queen. But nowhere can onI find a more living picture of Marie Antoinette in her days of diversity than in the "Chevalier de MaisonRouge.' TT was the evening of the 10th of March
 17es, and 10 o'clock was just striking X from the towers of Notre Dame Night had fallen upon Paris not bois- terous and stormy. but cold and damp and foggy. Paris was then not the Paris of our day, brilliant with light and filled with the sounds of gayety, but fearful city, tirnld, busy The few and scattered inhabitants who were out after dark, even in crossing from one street to another, ran, concealing themselves In the dark ness of all alleys and ensconcing them selves in the shelter of portes-cocheres like wild beasts tracked by a hunter 10 It. ks a,,Ff floaI Ia est hour of the first French republic, beaten on the frontiers and torn by fac lions within. Europe armed against France and France an outlaw among na- tions Every man suspected his neigh bor.
 But Danton had just called for volun- teers to 'save the nation and the volun- teers had been enrolled Within the gloomy walls of the temple still lived Marie Antoinette, a prisoner with her son and daughter and her sister-in-law, Mime. Elizabeth. Her husband had all ready ascended the scaffold and the splendors of Versailles had for her been replaced by gloomy cell, the crowds of glittering courtiers and delft attend ants by rude jailers, and the adulation of a court and the applause of nation by the coarse insults of her turnkeys. This, then. was the night. and this the Paris through which a female figure fit ting from one obscure place of deeper shadow to another, wended her way along the damp and dreary streets.
 There was a sound of trampling feet LID the street, the noise of drunken men singing, and a band of the newly en- rolled volunteers came down the thor oughfare. The woman tried to hide her. self within the shadow of the doorway, but the leader of the volunteers saw her and seized her by the wrists, demand ing what she was dong. where going, had she a pass. accompany his questions with many insulting side remarks. But while the woman struggled in the grasp of the ruffian and called for assistance. there came rapidly in that direction two young men of bearing. wearing swords and dressed in the uniform of officers of the National Guards. They were Mau- rice Lindey and Maximillien Lorin, in- separable friends. By these two officers the unknown womas was rescued, and
 
 at the first words she spoke to him, insisted upon seeing her safely to her home.
 She led him to the old Rue Saint Jaques, lined with tall, dark looking houses and 3ntersected by obscure alleys and narrow lanes leading to streets occupied by man. ufactories and tanyards. "Is it here you 1ivel" exclaimed Maurice in surprise, for every word and motion of the young woman showed that she was not of the common people, and a glimpse which Maurice had caught of her face showed that she was passing fair with a beauty not of the lower orders. Yes" she said ''and it is here you must leave me-" She took from her finger ring and offered it to him. ''I seek no reward" replied Mau- rice-"only the reward of being allowed again to see you That is impossible forever" replied the young woman. Then she made him promise to shut his eyes and keep them shut while he counted sixty. He did so He felt kiss upon his lips, and when the lips which touched his were taken away the rirg he had rejected was left. When he had counted sixty and opened his eyes he saw only the deserted street. This was the first r,.e,- ing between Maurice Lindey and Gene vieve Dixmer, a meeting fraught with fatalities to both. It were long to tell how the infatuated Maurice searched for the home of the fair wanderer of the night, at length found it and became m intimate of the household But this he accomplished and was in a short time an almost daily visitor to the house of the tanner Dixmer. Genevieve's husba nd. an ardent republican, a tanner who en- ployed as his chief workman and chemist one Morand, short man with thick black hair, who, because of weakness of the eyes, always wore large green epectaeles.
 Much was the good republican talk they had at table at their little feasts, these four good patriots, and especially did they talk of the Chevalier de Maison- Rouge, a ''nobles' who had planned many an at- tempt. brought to naught. to rescue the Queen from her captivity, and was re- ported to be even now in Paris-though the authorities could nol catch him Ru- nor said that he was not only passionate personally in love with the Queen. He had never spoken to her. it was true, nor did Marie Antoinette know of the ex- istence of the Chevalier de Maison-R Rouge until he began to plot for her liberation. But he had seen the Queen and worship-.