‘Lisette,’ I said, ‘when the mob see you like that what do you think they will do?’
‘I will tell them, “Yes, I am an aristocrat but I have always been for the people I have worked with Léon Blanchard. Ask him. He will tell you I speak the truth.” I shall come to no harm then.’
‘You foolish girl!’ cried Tante Berthe.
Lisette shook her head and laughed. She came and stood close to me, her hands on her hips, taunting, and I thought: Her obsession has driven her mad.
‘I always wanted this dress,’ she said, ‘and the necklace goes with it so well. It belongs to me now. Everything here belongs to me. It is my right and Léon will see that it is given to me.’
I turned away from her. I could not bear the look in her eyes. I thought: Truly she is mad.
They were coming. I could hear the shouts in the distance. I went to the window. There was a strange light out there. It came from the torches they were carrying.
I heard their chanting voices.
I thought of the lifeless body of the merchant hanging from the lamp-post and I felt sick with fear.
They were coming nearer and nearer.
Tante Berthe said: ‘The drawbridge will stop them.’
‘Not for long,’ I answered.
We looked at each other fearfully and Lisette glided from the room.
‘Where has she gone?’ asked Sophie.
‘To take off that finery if she has any sense,’ retorted Tante Berthe.
I said: ‘I am going to find her. I am going to talk to her.’
I found her mounting the spiral staircase to the tower. I saw her standing on the battlements. The light from the torches had thrown a fierce glow over the scene for the mob was very close … right at the castle gates.
She stood there on the battlements. She looked magnificent with the diamonds sparkling at her throat.
The mob shouted when they saw her.
‘Lisette,’ I called. ‘Come down. Come down.’
She held up her hand and there was silence. She called out to the mob: ‘I am the daughter of the Comte d’Aubigné … an aristocrat by birth.’
The mob started to shout.
She shouted above the noise and eventually they were quiet, listening.
‘But I have worked for your cause. My friend is Léon Blanchard and he will confirm this. I have worked for you, my friends, against the overlords, against those who caused the price of bread to be so high, against those whose extravagances have impoverished France. I will prove to you that I am your friend. I will let down the drawbridge so that you may enter the castle.’
There was a roar of applause.
She dashed past me. I thought of trying to stop her. She would let them in but did it matter? They would not allow the drawbridge to stop them for very long.
She would save herself at the cost of Sophie’s life and mine. It was the final act of hatred.
I went back to the room. They were all waiting expectantly. It would not be long now. The mob would soon be storming the castle.
Jeanne did a strange thing. She untied Sophie’s hood and took it off so that the hideous disfigurement was displayed. ‘Trust me,’ she whispered to Sophie, who had gasped with dismay. ‘I know these people. I think it best. Trust me.’
I could hear sounds of ribald laughter, the noise of falling furniture. The mob was in the château.
Lisette had joined us. Her eyes were shining with triumph. ‘They have come,’ she said.
The door burst open. It was a horrific moment—the one for which we had all been waiting. They were here.
In those terrifying moments I was surprised to recognize among the people who burst into the room three shopkeepers whom I knew slightly—respectable men—not the kind I should have expected to be involved in such an outrage; but mob madness could spring up everywhere.
Lisette faced them. ‘I am the daughter of the Comte,’ she repeated. ‘I am of aristocratic birth, but I have always worked for you and the revolution.’
A man was staring at the diamonds at her throat. I thought he was going to snatch them. Then one of the shopkeepers pushed him roughly aside.
‘Be careful,’ he growled. There was about him a hint of leadership and I felt a faint touch of relief. I sensed that this man was uneasy … wary, and it occurred to me that he could command a certain respect and perhaps hold the more bloodthirsty of the raiders in check.
His words certainly had an effect, for the men who had entered the room ignored us for a few seconds and went round the room examining everything. They looked at the men lying on the bed. Both Armand and his companion regarded them with indifference.
‘Who are they?’ asked one of the men.
‘They are half dead,’ said another.
Jeanne and Tante Berthe faced them squarely. ‘We are servants here. We are not aristocrats,’ said Tante Berthe. ‘You don’t want us.’
Jeanne had her arm about Sophie and I saw the men staring at her scarred face.
One of them took Lisette by the shoulders.
‘Take your hands from me,’ said Lisette haughtily.
