Snot continued to work at the inn during the day and to sleep in Roubeau's bed at night. One evening, while he was waiting for the man to pass by and take him as always, there entered a middle class man who, from the cockade he had on his collar, he recognized to be a Girondist. From the innkeeper's bows he also realized that he had to be an important man. Snot enquired and learned that he was a deputy of the Third Estate appointed as a member of the National Constituent Assembly.
When he was sent to serve him, Snot could observe him from near - he had a hard face, almost rough-hewn, and eyes cold like ice blades.
After serving him, Snot was going away when the man seized him at his wrist holding him back and said, "Sit here, boy, with me. What is your name and family name?"
"Jaquot Chambord, sir."
"Here there are no sirs, call me citizen. I am the citizen Roland Duquesne. Where are you from?"
"Jambville, citizen."
"For long in Paris?"
"About one month."
"Where do you live?"
"At a certain Roubeau's place."
Questions followed closely, dry, short, straight like in a police interrogation. Snot, even though somewhat nervous, was not intimidated and answered. Finally the man made him a dismissing gesture. The boy resumed his work and asked himself the reason of all those questions, but was not able to understand.
When Roubeau came to take him, he told him of the encounter. The man seemed alarmed and only when Snot assured him that he was not asked even just one question about him, the man seemed to relax.
"He is an important person, that one. He is one of the leaders of the opposition and he has several followers. Nowadays just one word of one of those citizens has more value than ten edicts of the King. And he has money - his father was a famous banker. You see him always going on foot, dressed in a modest fashion, but he is more powerful than the Prime Minister of the King."
Roubeau continued to extol his praises in a mix of dread and respect, but was not able to suggest any reason for the interest shown toward Snot.
Two or three evenings later, the citizen Roland went back to the inn. That evening he didn't talk to Snot, but his eyes didn't lose sight of him a single moment. The boy was slightly annoyed by that staring, mainly because he was not able to read in those eyes any emotion, any thoughts, any sentiment, even if they were alive and vigilant.
Then the man stood up, went to talk with the innkeeper and began asking him questions. Snot, from the fast and nervous glances of the innkeeper toward him, understood they were talking about him. Then, the citizen Roland left the inn.
A full week elapsed and the boy had forgotten the mysterious man when he appeared again. This was different from the other two times in that it was not yet evening. As soon as he entered, he went at a determined pace toward the innkeeper and said something to him. The keeper nodded several times.
Then the man made a sign to Snot to approach, and told him, "I chose you to offer you work. Come with me."
"But I, citizen, am already working here, and I'm well, here..."
"You don't work here anymore."
"And anyway I have to inform Roubeau, to ask him..."
"He was informed. He agrees."
"So... I have just to obey..." Snot concluded frowning.
"No. You are a free citizen. But I'm offering you a pleasurable work, a good wage, a decent lodging and two meals a day. And dignified clothes. If you want you can refuse all that, but it would be a pity."
"Why favour me, citizen?"
"And why not you? Why another? You are fit. What do you decide to do?"
"What work is it?"
"You will like it, I am certain. Do you accept?"
"I do."
Citizen Roland lived in a small but elegant house, not far from the Benedictine enclosed nunnery. It was a three-floored building where the first two were used by the citizen Roland, who lived here alone, and the third by his servants, composed of a cook, a waiter, a secretary and now him, Snot. The secretary acted also as the servants' chief. Snot was assigned a small room in the attic. His task was to clean all the rooms of the house. There, the servants didn't wear a real livery, but all wore a simple jacket and trousers, all of the same colour, black, and a white shirt without the jabot and with a collar cut differently from usual.
Winter was coming and it started to be cold. The two lower floors were warmed by fireplaces lit almost all day long. The rooms upstairs received warmth from the flues, but were rather cold. Snot, feeling that the wall where the flue from the study downstairs passed was really warm, put his bed against the wall to be warmer in the night.
So, one evening when citizen Roland had a meeting in his study with other members of the Assembly, Snot became aware that just putting his ear on the flue wall, he could hear almost any word that was said in the study downstairs. This fact at first made him somewhat curious, like a game, but soon he stopped eavesdropping because all these political speeches were absolutely not interesting to him.
He worked in that house for a few days, when citizen Roland, one evening, summoned him.
"Citizen Chambord, do you get on well, working here for me?"
"Yes, citizen, a lot better than in the inn."
"Therefore, you are in debt to me for a good job. But this doesn't matter. I know that you, before, had regular sexual intercourse with citizen Rou... what was his name."
Snot looked at him astounded and asked, "Did he tell you?"
"Certainly. Is it not true, perhaps?"
"It is true, yes...," Snot hesitantly answered.
"I would like you to have sex with me."
This sentence said so, without sentiment or passion, the eyes always cold and hard, without that special light that had to shine in them, left the boy perplexed. To feel the other's desire, until then, had almost always woken up his own desire. But here he didn't see or feel anything, just cold determination.
The man, perceiving Snot's hesitation, added, always with the same tone, "I am not asking that to you for my pleasure, but for France."
This last sentence left the boy even more dumbfounded but, collecting himself, he hesitantly answered, "As you desire, citizen..."
"Come to my bedroom, then, after supper."
Snot went. They undressed and a strange rite begun. The man asked him to perform the acts that normally two male lovers perform in their intimacy. However, all had the same taste as the questions he had asked him in the inn. It seemed more a test or an experiment than the sexual union between two beings desiring each other. At the end Snot understood that his sensation was not wrong.
In fact, after having reached his orgasm, the man said, "You must have noticed that all the staff of this house, citizen Chambord, is like you: youths of uncommon beauty, even if so physically different from each other. And they too love sex amongst men. Like you and me, however. And we all are working for the good of our unhappy Country. Nobility and Clergy for too long a time have oppressed us. It is time to change things."
Snot was hardly able to follow that speech mixed with sex and politics and he could not understand what relation there could be but, still naked on the man's bed, he listened.
Roland continued, "Well then, several aristocrats and also some important members of the Clergy, willingly indulge in these pleasures that could be given amongst men. Therefore, together with citizen Melies, I organized a service for these lords. We arrange that they always have a handsome boy ready to go in their bed. One of our youths, of course. This young man or boy, this man of ours, can spy on them and report to us precious information. By one side they pretend to be lovers of the people we assign them, to be their "mignon", on the other side they are our precious informers and faithful allies. This is the reason why I hired you, why you now are here. If you accept, we will finely reward you."
"And if I don't accept?" Snot on instinct asked.
"You will go back to the slums where I found you, and will be treated as an enemy of the cause."
"Why did you choose me? Why do you trust me?"
"To the first point I answer - because you are really beautiful, because you like lying with men, because in bed you are skilled. To the second I say - because you have all to gain being with us and all to lose not to be, because I inquired about you and know you are trustworthy. So, do you accept?"
Snot shook his head almost amused, then said, "To me it is all right. Just, please, not with men too old or too fat..."
"We will consider that, in the limits that are possible."
So the boy started his new work. Contrary to Roland, Melies was not interested in men. Before having him meet one of the designated victims, the man gave him some instructions and provided him the right clothing. At times Snot had to go straight to the mansion of his victim, at times the meetings happened in one of the three special apartments that the group had prepared in town. In a short time, as he later discovered happened also to the other boys, he had a certain number of steady relationships and some others occasional. At times he had nothing to report, at times he had. Anyway after each of his meetings he had to undergo a substantial set of questions by one of the two men that organized that special group, and who, with his amazement, from details that he judged insignificant, drew useful information.
Months elapsed and he passed from bed to bed. At times the relationship he had to maintain was pleasant, at times less. He knew, in the most intimate meaning of the word, people of remarkable importance, and amongst them one of the Private Councillors of the King. It was exactly thanks to his relationship with this important personage that, around the end of the month of June 1791, the patriots had the suspicion that the King was planning his flight.
When the King was stopped and brought back to Paris, Snot became aware he had become an important pawn in that strange game that was taking place in the country. He, a boy just eighteen years old, a bastard born amidst dregs of society...
Snot was now a well-off citizen, thanks to the rewards he received from the patriots and to the presents from the lords with whom he had sex. On advise of Etienne, the waiter, one of his other colleagues and with whom at times he made love, he decided to buy a small house, just outside the town, at the edges of the Bois de Boulogne. This he accomplished with the savings of just one year. He used very seldom that refuge, because almost always he slept at Roland's house or in the bed of one of his noble lovers. However, the rare times he could spend some hours there in solitude, he felt happy - that house was his own, his first, real home.
In April 1792, the Girondists forced the King to declare war on Austria. Several youths were recruited, but Snot and his colleagues were not enlisted - they were too precious for the internal cause of the Girondists to uselessly risk them at the front. The war was not going so well, because several of the aristocrats, and the same King, were more pro-Austrian than pro-Girondist. The situation became more and more tense. At the Assembly were raised grave accusations of high treason toward some aristocrats. There were arrests, processes and also death sentences.
It was at this point that Snot began to become aware that he was the cause, and not even involuntarily, of part of these events. He never worried about it, until then. He carried out a task he was paid for, he didn't do politics. But when he became aware that the count d'Orgel, one of his lovers, had been arrested just thanks to the information he had given, he pitied him and felt almost a sense of shame. It was not because he particularly liked the Count, who rather was one of those with whom he less willingly had sex, but because Snot deeply disliked harming anybody. He tried to mention that to Etienne, but his colleague was a great patriot devoted to the cause, and therefore didn't partake of the scruples or the sentiments of his companion.
During the month of May, one night while he was staying in his small room on the third floor in the house of citizen Roland, while he was falling asleep, somebody knocked at the entrance gate on the street. He heard Luc, the secretary, hurriedly going downstairs, then voices of people coming upstairs. One of the not rare, sudden night meetings, Snot thought. He was trying to sleep, when, mechanically, he leaned his ear to the wall of the flue near his bed and he heard some words. He was not really listening, but something attracted his attention. He leaned closer to the wall and listened. It seemed a rather lively discussion. He recognized Melies, then Roland's voice. Then known voices and others he didn't recognize.
They were discussing the necessity to act soon to take full power: "... it is not good to touch the King, while there are still some aristocrats around. We must first neutralize them, then we can do with the King all we want."
"All of them? We have not the means nor the strength."
"It will be enough to get the most influential and powerful out of our way. The others will not move."
"The list?"
"Sure!"
"It is dangerous. What way can we have to reduce to silence all of them at the same time? For two or three of them, murder, some three or four more we can have them arrested with some pretext. But all the others?"
"We have just to make the peasant rebellions against the castles burst out again and so we can eliminate several of them in just one stroke. It will be the peasants who arrest the nobles and who kill them under the pretext they made resistance or tried to flee... And where it will be necessary, we will punish the peasants who killed without reason nobles who surrendered... But anyway, we will so eliminate many aristocrats, and we will not be involved."
Snot listened, at first just out of curiosity, then disturbed by their bloody projects, then a thought struck him with such violence that he sat up on his bed - but then, also Jambville castle will be assaulted, they will kill also Julien! He immediately adhered again to the wall so as not to lose a single word, so he could listen to the conclusion of the debate. All during the following month there would be arranged a set of assaults against the castles of the most powerful aristocrats still residing in their castles, in an apparently unorganized way, to neutralize the greatest possible of them in the shortest time. Who accepted the protection of the National Guard, which was in the Girondists hands, would be kept under guard in their residences and, with the pretext to protect them, they would practically become prisoners. Then rebellions against the other castles, killing the lesser aristocrats who could try to help their majors... If all went on smoothly, in a few weeks they could even arrest the King, accusing him of high treason, as it was from the beginning of time in Danton's plans, and nobody would have the strength to rise to his defence.
Snot, after decisions had been made and the meeting had broken up, abandoned himself on his bed, his ear numb from the force he had pressed it against the flue wall. He didn't care so much about the King or the aristocrats, but he did care about his Julien. Nothing evil had to happen to him. He had to rescue him. His first temptation was to immediately leave to go to Jambville but he knew that his sudden departure could make them suspicious. Besides, he did not even know if, before the peasants' revolts really started, Julien would believe him. He thought all the night long, doing plans and undoing them, gradually tuning his project...
At the first glimmering of dawn, tiredness, until then held back by his emotion, overcame his will and he plunged into a deep sleep, short and restless. After a few hours Luc went to wake him up, telling him that the citizen Roland was waiting for him in his study. Snot rapidly got out of his bed, washed himself with cold water, dressed and went downstairs.
"Citizen Chambord, your work is requested with a new subject. Go immediately to see citizen Melies who will explain all to you. As I will not see you for some days, here is the money due you."
Snot nodded and pocketed the money bag. He then went downstairs to the kitchen, ate his breakfast and went to Melies's place. The man explained to him his new mission, made him wear the uniform of a cadet and dismissed him. He had to go to an inn at the gates of the town where the lackey of an aristocrat, a man who was an ally of the patriots and who from time to time came to Paris on his master's order to find him an available boy, would be waiting for him to accompany him by coach to his master's castle. Snot was happy as his destination would bring him nearer Jambville.
Walking at a fast pace, he reached the inn in a couple of hours. Here, thanks to his cadet clothes and to the detailed description of the lackey livery, they recognized each other. The lackey was a middle-aged man, with vulgar traits. Snot introduced himself with the requested password.
The lackey answered with the right words while he uttered in a lustful smile, "This time I'll bring to my master a really fine morsel! But you are possibly somewhat too old... how old are you?"
"Nineteen."
"I see. But to my master you will say you are seventeen, understood? And, tell me, are you good in bed?"
"Sure."
"Very good. Here, out there is the coach. It's a pity I have to drive. I would like to taste you. You must have a delicious little ass."
"Yes, and a big cock too!" Snot brusquely answered, and at once he disliked the man.
Mounting the coachman seat, the man coarsely laughed while Snot entered the coach. The journey took a little more than half an hour. Reaching the castle, Snot was immediately guided by the lackey through halls and service corridors, to the master's room. The aristocrat was waiting for him wearing just a long nightshirt, sitting at a little writing desk, reading a book.
When he was alone with Snot, the man made him draw nearer with a finger gesture and looked at him from head to toe. "How old are you, nice little male?"
"Seventeen, my Lord."
"Good, the right age. Let me feel how you are endowed... MMMhhh, good... and it is still quiet... You promise well. Is it a uniform, what you are wearing?"
"Yes, sir. I am a cadet of the Saint Germain's Academy, sir," Snot lied as he had been instructed.
"Very good, very good... I heard that at night, amongst cadets... real orgies..."
"Quite often, sir. And at times even with some of the superiors, in private..." Snot said with a cunning air, acting his part.
The man was getting aroused. "And... what do you do, eh? Tell me, cadet..."
"We suck each other, sir. And then we also bugger..."
"I bet you like to bugger, don't you?"
"Very much, sir..."
"Undress, boy," the man asked with hoarse voice.
Snot complied. The man knelt in front of him and took in his mouth the boy's member, sucking it until it was erect and hard.
"Good. Come in my bed and bugger me, cadet. But you are not to come soon, understood? You have to make it so I enjoy for a good while this nice sausage of yours."
He remained in the aristocrat's room almost all day long. Between one coupling and the next, the man rung a bell and the lackey, always the same repelling man with his lustful smile on his lips, brought them something to eat and to drink. That man seemed insatiable. When at last he let the boy go, telling him not to leave the castle enceinte, they both had four orgasms each. Snot felt somewhat tired. He dressed and went to the garden, wandering here and there. When he reached the stables, he had a sudden inspiration - if possibly, at night, he stole a horse, he could in a few hours reach Jambville. He studied the surroundings to imagine from where he could leave the enceinte of the castle. Then he thought that, in order not to make the horses neigh and in doing so announce his presence, he had to be known, accepted by them. So he entered the stable and started to slowly go toward the horses, talking to them as he was able to do, and when he was near, he started to caress them. At first the animals seemed to be nervous at the presence of that stranger but then, little by little they calmed down. He was caressing a beautiful roan on his muzzle when a voice at his back made him have a start. He turned in a burst and found himself in front of a young, elegantly dressed aristocrat.
"Ah, so you must be the last mignon of the sir, my father! Do you like horses?"
"Yes, sir, very much."
"The one you are caressing belongs to my brother. It is a frisky horse, at times dangerous, but fast like wind. His name is Jaquot."
"My same name, sir."
"Well, you too are mounted by my father, after all, Jaquot," the young man answered, laughing with amusement, and left the stable.
Snot nodded and asked himself what would have thought the son of his father, if he knew that really it was his mignon that mounted him... then he resumed caressing the horse, calling him now by his name. The animal brushed his muzzle on his chest - they were friends, at this point. The same night he would take him and run to Jambville.
But that evening the old satyr looked for him and he had to spend all night in the lord's bed. Snot was impatient, he felt time flowing and, even though it was still May, he knew that time was running short. His plans were frustrated also the two following nights. However finally, on the fourth night, he was not summoned by the old man, so he could by stealth reach the stable.
Taking Jaquot by his halter, they silently left the stable, and then the enclosure. When they finally reached the road, Snot mounted the horse and spurred him. The horse immediately sprang in an unrestrained gallop. Just then Snot became aware he didn't know the road to Jambville. He had gone along it just once, on foot, in the opposite direction and two years before...
After about an hour of galloping he saw a small group of peasants' houses. He stopped and knocked on several doors until someone opened. He asked for information and getting it, resumed on his way. With this method, after several hours and curses of the awakened people, at the first light of dawn, he finally recognized in the distance the unmistakable outline of Jambville Castle.
Happily he approached, thinking that soon he could see again Julien. However, while distance decreased, and he was anxiously asking himself how his master would receive him, he started to notice something wrong, and soon he understood - the assault on the castle had begun!
He felt an ice-like vice grip at his stomach. At first he spurred the horse, prey of haste, then he realized that, well dressed as he was, he had little chance to steal through the assailing horde.
While his horse continued to run, he reached a latecomer who was running, hot-headedly yelling, and shaking a craggy club, toward the castle. When he reached him, the boy jumped from the horse landing on the man. They fell on the ground and after a short struggle the boy stunned the peasant with his club. The horse continued his run, but turned round going back to the direction they came, possibly to go back to his stable.
Snot shouted him: "Go, Jaquot, you are free!"
Then with feverish moves he undressed the man, undressed himself, and put on the clothes of the unlucky peasant. With his clothes he tied up the arms and legs of the man, seized his craggy club and went running toward the castle. Just before reaching the enclosure, he reached another man yelling and dishevelled. From his back he dealt a big blow and stunned this man also. He was about to continue when a new idea made its way inside him. He undressed also his second victim, while inside himself he hoped he didn't kill him, put on his clothes over the ones he was wearing, and then, his heart in his mouth, outflanking the castle, he snuck inside from a narrow side passage that he knew.