The Mesmerist's Victim

Rousseau replied no more, it was so odd for him to be accused of moderation when all Europe called him an extreme innovator. He sat down in silence after having sought for the approval of the person who had defended him.

“You have heard?” asked the chairman, rising. “Is the brother worthy to enter the society? does he comprehend his duties?”

“Yes,” replied the gathering, but the one of reservation showed no unanimity.

“Take the oath,” said the presiding officer.

“It will be disagreeable to me to displease some of the members,” said the philosopher with pride, “but I think that I shall do more for the world and for you, brothers, apart from you, in my own isolation. Leave me then to my labors. I am not shaped to march with others whom I shun; yet I serve them, because I am one of you, and I try to believe you are better than you are. Now, you have my entire mind.”

“He won’t take the oath!” exclaimed Marat.

“I refuse positively. I do not wish to belong to the society. Too many proofs come up that I shall be useless to it.”

“Brother,” said the member with the conciliating speech, “allow me thus to call you, for we are all brothers apart from all combinations of human minds – do not yield to a movement of spite – sacrifice a little of your proper pride. Do for us what may be repugnant to you. Your counsel, ideas and presence are the Light. Do not plunge us into the double darkness of your refusal and your absence.”

“Nay, I take away nothing,” said the author; “if you wish the name and the spiritual essence of Jean Jacques Rousseau, put my books on your chairman’s table, and when my turn to speak comes round, open one and read as far as you like. That will be my advice – my opinion.”

“Stop a moment,” said Surgeon Marat as the last speaker took a step to go out. “Free will is all very well and the illustrious philosopher’s should be respected like the rest; but it strikes me as far from regular to let an outsider into the sanctuary who – being bound by no clause, even tacit – may, without being a dishonest man, reveal our proceedings.”

Rousseau returned him his pitying smile.

“I am ready for the oath, if one of discretion,” he said.

But the unnamed member who had watched the debate with authority which nobody questioned, though he stood in the crowd, approached the chairman and whispered in his ear.

“Quite so,” replied the Venerable, and he added: “You are a man, not a brother, but one whose honor places you on our level. We here lay aside our position to ask your simple promise to forget what has passed between us.”

“Like a dream in the morning: I swear on my honor,” replied Rousseau with feeling.

He went out upon these words, and many members at his heels.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE INNERMOST CIRCLE

THOSE who went out were brothers of the second and third circles, and left seven who were masters in their lodge. They recognized each other by signs proving they were admitted to the high degrees.

Their first care was to close the doors. The presiding officer, who was now Balsamo, showed his ring. On it were graved the letters L. P. D. They stood for Latin words meaning “Destroy the Lilies!” The Lily is the emblem of the House of Bourbon.

This chief was charged with the universal correspondence of the order. The six other highest leaders dwelt in America, Russia, Sweden, Spain and Italy.

He had brought some of the more important messages received to impart them to his associates placed under him but above the files.

The most important was from Swedenborg the spiritualist, who wrote from Sweden:

“Look out in the South, brothers, where the burning sun hatched a traitor. He will be your ruin, brothers. Watch at Paris, for there the false one dwells: the secrets of the Order are in his hands and a hateful sentiment moves him. I hear the denunciation, made in a low voice. I see a terrible doom, but it may fall too late. In the interim, brothers, keep watchful. One treacherous tongue, however ill-instructed, would be enough to upset all our skillfully contrived plans.”

The conspirators looked at one another in mute surprise. The language of the ferocious Rosicrucian and his foresight, to which many examples gave imposing authority, all contributed no little to cloud the committee presided over by the mesmerist.

“Brothers,” he said, “this inspired prophet is seldom wrong. Watch therefore, as he bids us. Like me, now, you know that the war has begun. Do not let us be baffled by these ridiculous foes whose position we undermine. Do not forget, though, that they have an army of fierce hirelings at their disposal – a powerful argument in the eyes of those who do not see far beyond earthly limits. Brothers, be on your guard against the traitors who are bribed.”

“Such alarm seems puerile to me,” said a voice: “we are gaining in strength daily, and are led by brilliant genius and mighty hands.”

Balsamo bowed at this flattery.

“True, but treachery sneaks in everywhere,” remarked Marat, who had been promoted to a superior rank, spite of his youth, and for the first time sat in the superior council. “Think, brothers, that a great capture may be made by increasing the size of the bait. While Chief of Police Sartines, with a bag of silver, may catch a subordinate, the Prime Minister, with one of gold, may buy one of the superiors.

“In our company the obscure brother knows nothing. He may at the most know the names of a few of those above him, but these names afford no information. Our constitution is admirable, but it is eminently aristocratic. The lower members can know nothing and do nothing. They are only gathered to tell them some nonsense, and yet they contribute to the solidity of the building. They bring the mortar and the bricks as others bring the tools and the plan. But, without bricks and mortar, how can you have a Temple? The workman gets but a poor wage, although I for one regard him as equal to the Architect’s clerk, whose plan creates and gives existence to the work. I regard him as an equal, I say, as he is a man and all men are equal, as the philosophers teach, for he bears his portion of misery and fatality like another, more than others, as he is exposed to the fall of a stone or the breaking down of a scaffold.”

“I interrupt you, brother,” said Balsamo. “You are talking wide of the question bringing us together. Your fault, brother, is in generalizing subjects, and exaggerating zeal. We are not discussing whether the constitution of our society is good or bad, but to maintain its firmness and integrity. If I were wrangling with you I should say, ‘No, the organ which receives the movement is not the equal of the genius of the creator; the workman is not on a level with the architect; arms are not equal to the brains.’”

“If Sartine arrests one of our lowliest brothers he will send him to jail just as sure as you or me,” protested the surgeon.

“Granted; but the person will suffer, not the society. It can endure such things. But if the head is imprisoned, the plot stops – the army loses the victory if the general is slain. Brothers, watch for the safety of the Supreme Chief!”

“Yes, but let them look out for us.”

“It is their duty.”

“And have their faults more severely punished.”

“Again, brother, you overstep the regulations of the Order. Are you ignorant that all the members are alike and under the same penalties?”

“In such cases the great ones elude the chastisement.”

“That is not what the Grand Masters think, brother; but hearken to the end of the letter from the great prophet Swedenborg, one of the greatest among us; here is what he adds:

“The harm will come from one of the great ones – very great – of the Order; or, if not from him directly, the fault will be imputable to him. Remember that Fire and Water may be accomplices: one gives light and the other gives revelations.”

This enigmatical allusion would seem to be to the process of showing the future in the glass of water, which was one of the conjuring experiments of Joseph Balsamo.

“Watch, brothers, (Concluded the seer) over all things and all men!”

“Let us, then, repeat the oath,” said Marat, grasping at his hold in the letter and the chief’s speech, “the oath which binds us and pledges us to carry it out in full rigor in case one of us betrays or is the cause of a treacherous act.”

Balsamo rose and uttered these awful words in a low voice, solemn and terrifying:

“In the name of the Architect of the Universe, I swear to break all carnal bonds attaching me to father and mother, sister and brother, wife, friends, mistress, kings, captains, benefactors, all unto whomsoever I have promised faith, obedience, gratitude or service.

“I vow to reveal to the chief whom I acknowledge according to the rules of the Order, what I have seen, heard, learnt or divined, and moreover to ascertain what happens beyond my knowledge.

“I honor all means to purify the globe of the enemies of truth and freedom.

“I subscribe to the vow of silence; I consent to die as if by the thunderbolt on the day when I deserve punishment and I will wait without remonstrance for the deadly stab to accomplish its work wherever I shall be.”

The seven men repeated the oath, standing up with uncovered heads, a sombre gathering.

“We are pledged to one another,” said Balsamo when the last word was spoken; “let us waste no time in idle arguments. I have a report to make to the Committee on the principal work of the year. France is situated in the center of Europe like its heart, and it makes the other parts of the body live. In its agitations may be sought the cause of the ills of the general organism. Hence I have come out of the East to sound this heart like a physician; I have listened to it, sounded it and experimented with it. A year ago when I began, monarchy was weakening. To-day, vices are destroying it. I have quickened the debauchery and favored what will be deadly.