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diff --git a/old/1454.txt b/old/1454.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..86a2cc3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1454.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2795 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Maitre Cornelius, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Maitre Cornelius + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley + +Release Date: September, 1998 [Etext #1454] +Posting Date: February 25, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAITRE CORNELIUS *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + + + + + +MAITRE CORNELIUS + + +By Honore De Balzac + + + +Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + DEDICATION + + To Monsieur le Comte Georges Mniszech: + + Some envious being may think on seeing this page illustrated by + one of the most illustrious of Sarmatian names, that I am + striving, as the goldsmiths do, to enhance a modern work with an + ancient jewel,--a fancy of the fashions of the day,--but you and a + few others, dear count, will know that I am only seeking to pay my + debt to Talent, Memory, and Friendship. + + + + + +MAITRE CORNELIUS + + + + +CHAPTER I. A CHURCH SCENE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY + + +In 1479, on All Saints' day, the moment at which this history begins, +vespers were ending in the cathedral of Tours. The archbishop Helie de +Bourdeilles was rising from his seat to give the benediction himself to +the faithful. The sermon had been long; darkness had fallen during the +service, and in certain parts of the noble church (the towers of which +were not yet finished) the deepest obscurity prevailed. Nevertheless +a goodly number of tapers were burning in honor of the saints on the +triangular candle-trays destined to receive such pious offerings, the +merit and signification of which have never been sufficiently explained. +The lights on each altar and all the candelabra in the choir were +burning. Irregularly shed among a forest of columns and arcades which +supported the three naves of the cathedral, the gleam of these masses of +candles barely lighted the immense building, because the strong shadows +of the columns, projected among the galleries, produced fantastic forms +which increased the darkness that already wrapped in gloom the arches, +the vaulted ceilings, and the lateral chapels, always sombre, even at +mid-day. + +The crowd presented effects that were no less picturesque. Certain +figures were so vaguely defined in the "chiaroscuro" that they seemed +like phantoms; whereas others, standing in a full gleam of the scattered +light, attracted attention like the principal heads in a picture. Some +statues seemed animated, some men seemed petrified. Here and there eyes +shone in the flutings of the columns, the floor reflected looks, the +marbles spoke, the vaults re-echoed sighs, the edifice itself seemed +endowed with life. + +The existence of Peoples has no more solemn scenes, no moments more +majestic. To mankind in the mass, movement is needed to make it +poetical; but in these hours of religious thought, when human riches +unite themselves with celestial grandeur, incredible sublimities are +felt in the silence; there is fear in the bended knee, hope in the +clasping hands. The concert of feelings in which all souls are rising +heavenward produces an inexplicable phenomenon of spirituality. The +mystical exaltation of the faithful reacts upon each of them; the +feebler are no doubt borne upward by the waves of this ocean of faith +and love. Prayer, a power electrical, draws our nature above itself. +This involuntary union of all wills, equally prostrate on the earth, +equally risen into heaven, contains, no doubt, the secret of the magic +influences wielded by the chants of the priests, the harmonies of the +organ, the perfumes and the pomps of the altar, the voices of the crowd +and its silent contemplations. Consequently, we need not be surprised to +see in the middle-ages so many tender passions begun in churches after +long ecstasies,--passions ending often in little sanctity, and for +which women, as usual, were the ones to do penance. Religious sentiment +certainly had, in those days, an affinity with love; it was either +the motive or the end of it. Love was still a religion, with its fine +fanaticism, its naive superstitions, its sublime devotions, which +sympathized with those of Christianity. + +The manners of that period will also serve to explain this alliance +between religion and love. In the first place society had no +meeting-place except before the altar. Lords and vassals, men and women +were equals nowhere else. There alone could lovers see each other and +communicate. The festivals of the Church were the theatre of former +times; the soul of woman was more keenly stirred in a cathedral than +it is at a ball or the opera in our day; and do not strong emotions +invariably bring women back to love? By dint of mingling with life and +grasping it in all its acts and interests, religion had made itself a +sharer of all virtues, the accomplice of all vices. Religion had passed +into science, into politics, into eloquence, into crimes, into the flesh +of the sick man and the poor man; it mounted thrones; it was everywhere. +These semi-learned observations will serve, perhaps, to vindicate the +truth of this study, certain details of which may frighten the perfected +morals of our age, which are, as everybody knows, a trifle straitlaced. + +At the moment when the chanting ceased and the last notes of the organ, +mingling with the vibrations of the loud "A-men" as it issued from the +strong chests of the intoning clergy, sent a murmuring echo through the +distant arches, and the hushed assembly were awaiting the beneficent +words of the archbishop, a burgher, impatient to get home, or fearing +for his purse in the tumult of the crowd when the worshippers dispersed, +slipped quietly away, at the risk of being called a bad Catholic. On +which, a nobleman, leaning against one of the enormous columns that +surround the choir, hastened to take possession of the seat abandoned by +the worthy Tourainean. Having done so, he quickly hid his face among +the plumes of his tall gray cap, kneeling upon the chair with an air of +contrition that even an inquisitor would have trusted. + +Observing the new-comer attentively, his immediate neighbors seemed to +recognize him; after which they returned to their prayers with a certain +gesture by which they all expressed the same thought,--a caustic, +jeering thought, a silent slander. Two old women shook their heads, and +gave each other a glance that seemed to dive into futurity. + +The chair into which the young man had slipped was close to a chapel +placed between two columns and closed by an iron railing. It was +customary for the chapter to lease at a handsome price to seignorial +families, and even to rich burghers, the right to be present at the +services, themselves and their servants exclusively, in the various +lateral chapels of the long side-aisles of the cathedral. This simony +is in practice to the present day. A woman had her chapel as she now +has her opera-box. The families who hired these privileged places were +required to decorate the altar of the chapel thus conceded to them, and +each made it their pride to adorn their own sumptuously,--a vanity which +the Church did not rebuke. In this particular chapel a lady was kneeling +close to the railing on a handsome rug of red velvet with gold tassels, +precisely opposite to the seat vacated of the burgher. A silver-gilt +lamp, hanging from the vaulted ceiling of the chapel before an altar +magnificently decorated, cast its pale light upon a prayer-book held +by the lady. The book trembled violently in her hand when the young man +approached her. + +"A-men!" + +To that response, sung in a sweet low voice which was painfully +agitated, though happily lost in the general clamor, she added rapidly +in a whisper:-- + +"You will ruin me." + +The words were said in a tone of innocence which a man of any delicacy +ought to have obeyed; they went to the heart and pierced it. But the +stranger, carried away, no doubt, by one of those paroxysms of passion +which stifle conscience, remained in his chair and raised his head +slightly that he might look into the chapel. + +"He sleeps!" he replied, in so low a voice that the words could be heard +by the young woman only, as sound is heard in its echo. + +The lady turned pale; her furtive glance left for a moment the vellum +page of the prayer-book and turned to the old man whom the young man had +designated. What terrible complicity was in that glance? When the young +woman had cautiously examined the old seigneur, she drew a long breath +and raised her forehead, adorned with a precious jewel, toward a picture +of the Virgin; that simple movement, that attitude, the moistened +glance, revealed her life with imprudent naivete; had she been wicked, +she would certainly have dissimulated. The personage who thus alarmed +the lovers was a little old man, hunchbacked, nearly bald, savage in +expression, and wearing a long and discolored white beard cut in a +fan-tail. The cross of Saint-Michel glittered on his breast; his coarse, +strong hands, covered with gray hairs, which had been clasped, had +now dropped slightly apart in the slumber to which he had imprudently +yielded. The right hand seemed about to fall upon his dagger, the hilt +of which was in the form of an iron shell. By the manner in which he +had placed the weapon, this hilt was directly under his hand; if, +unfortunately, the hand touched the iron, he would wake, no doubt, +instantly, and glance at his wife. His sardonic lips, his pointed chin +aggressively pushed forward, presented the characteristic signs of a +malignant spirit, a sagacity coldly cruel, that would surely enable him +to divine all because he suspected everything. His yellow forehead was +wrinkled like those of men whose habit it is to believe nothing, to +weigh all things, and who, like misers chinking their gold, search out +the meaning and the value of human actions. His bodily frame, though +deformed, was bony and solid, and seemed both vigorous and excitable; +in short, you might have thought him a stunted ogre. Consequently, an +inevitable danger awaited the young lady whenever this terrible seigneur +woke. That jealous husband would surely not fail to see the difference +between a worthy old burgher who gave him no umbrage, and the new-comer, +young, slender, and elegant. + +"Libera nos a malo," she said, endeavoring to make the young man +comprehend her fears. + +The latter raised his head and looked at her. Tears were in his eyes; +tears of love and of despair. At sight of them the lady trembled and +betrayed herself. Both had, no doubt, long resisted and could resist +no longer a love increasing day by day through invincible obstacles, +nurtured by terror, strengthened by youth. The lady was moderately +handsome; but her pallid skin told of secret sufferings that made her +interesting. She had, moreover, an elegant figure, and the finest hair +in the world. Guarded by a tiger, she risked her life in whispering a +word, accepting a look, and permitting a mere pressure of the hand. Love +may never have been more deeply felt than in those hearts, never more +delightfully enjoyed, but certainly no passion was ever more perilous. +It was easy to divine that to these two beings air, sound, foot-falls, +etc., things indifferent to other men, presented hidden qualities, +peculiar properties which they distinguished. Perhaps their love made +them find faithful interpreters in the icy hands of the old priest to +whom they confessed their sins, and from whom they received the Host +at the holy table. Love profound! love gashed into the soul like a scar +upon the body which we carry through life! When these two young people +looked at each other, the woman seemed to say to her lover, "Let us love +each other and die!" To which the young knight answered, "Let us love +each other and not die." In reply, she showed him a sign her old duenna +and two pages. The duenna slept; the pages were young and seemingly +careless of what might happen, either of good or evil, to their masters. + +"Do not be frightened as you leave the church; let yourself be managed." + +The young nobleman had scarcely said these words in a low voice, when +the hand of the old seigneur dropped upon the hilt of his dagger. +Feeling the cold iron he woke, and his yellow eyes fixed themselves +instantly on his wife. By a privilege seldom granted even to men of +genius, he awoke with his mind as clear, his ideas as lucid as though he +had not slept at all. The man had the mania of jealousy. The lover, with +one eye on his mistress, had watched the husband with the other, and he +now rose quickly, effacing himself behind a column at the moment when +the hand of the old man fell; after which he disappeared, swiftly as a +bird. The lady lowered her eyes to her book and tried to seem calm; but +she could not prevent her face from blushing and her heart from beating +with unnatural violence. The old lord saw the unusual crimson on the +cheeks, forehead, even the eyelids of his wife. He looked about him +cautiously, but seeing no one to distrust, he said to his wife:-- + +"What are you thinking of, my dear?" + +"The smell of the incense turns me sick," she replied. + +"It is particularly bad to-day?" he asked. + +In spite of this sarcastic query, the wily old man pretended to believe +in this excuse; but he suspected some treachery and he resolved to watch +his treasure more carefully than before. + +The benediction was given. Without waiting for the end of the "Soecula +soeculorum," the crowd rushed like a torrent to the doors of the church. +Following his usual custom, the old seigneur waited till the general +hurry was over; after which he left his chapel, placing the duenna and +the youngest page, carrying a lantern, before him; then he gave his arm +to his wife and told the other page to follow them. + +As he made his way to the lateral door which opened on the west side +of the cloister, through which it was his custom to pass, a stream +of persons detached itself from the flood which obstructed the great +portals, and poured through the side aisle around the old lord and his +party. The mass was too compact to allow him to retrace his steps, and +he and his wife were therefore pushed onward to the door by the pressure +of the multitude behind them. The husband tried to pass out first, +dragging the lady by the arm, but at that instant he was pulled +vigorously into the street, and his wife was torn from him by a +stranger. The terrible hunchback saw at once that he had fallen into a +trap that was cleverly prepared. Repenting himself for having slept, he +collected his whole strength, seized his wife once more by the sleeve +of her gown, and strove with his other hand to cling to the gate of the +church; but the ardor of love carried the day against jealous fury. +The young man took his mistress round the waist, and carried her off so +rapidly, with the strength of despair, that the brocaded stuff of silk +and gold tore noisily apart, and the sleeve alone remained in the hand +of the old man. A roar like that of a lion rose louder than the shouts +of the multitude, and a terrible voice howled out the words:-- + +"To me, Poitiers! Servants of the Comte de Saint-Vallier, here! Help! +help!" + +And the Comte Aymar de Poitiers, sire de Saint-Vallier, attempted +to draw his sword and clear a space around him. But he found himself +surrounded and pressed upon by forty or fifty gentlemen whom it would be +dangerous to wound. Several among them, especially those of the highest +rank, answered him with jests as they dragged him along the cloisters. + +With the rapidity of lightning the abductor carried the countess into an +open chapel and seated her behind the confessional on a wooden bench. By +the light of the tapers burning before the saint to whom the chapel was +dedicated, they looked at each other for a moment in silence, clasping +hands, and amazed at their own audacity. The countess had not the cruel +courage to reproach the young man for the boldness to which they owed +this perilous and only instant of happiness. + +"Will you fly with me into the adjoining States?" said the young man, +eagerly. "Two English horses are awaiting us close by, able to do thirty +leagues at a stretch." + +"Ah!" she cried, softly, "in what corner of the world could you hide a +daughter of King Louis XI.?" + +"True," replied the young man, silenced by a difficulty he had not +foreseen. + +"Why did you tear me from my husband?" she asked in a sort of terror. + +"Alas!" said her lover, "I did not reckon on the trouble I should feel +in being near you, in hearing you speak to me. I have made plans,--two +or three plans,--and now that I see you all seems accomplished." + +"But I am lost!" said the countess. + +"We are saved!" the young man cried in the blind enthusiasm of his love. +"Listen to me carefully!" + +"This will cost me my life!" she said, letting the tears that rolled +in her eyes flow down her cheeks. "The count will kill me,--to-night, +perhaps! But go to the king; tell him the tortures that his daughter has +endured these five years. He loved me well when I was little; he called +me 'Marie-full-of-grace,' because I was ugly. Ah! if he knew the man to +whom he gave me, his anger would be terrible. I have not dared complain, +out of pity for the count. Besides, how could I reach the king? +My confessor himself is a spy of Saint-Vallier. That is why I have +consented to this guilty meeting, to obtain a defender,--some one to +tell the truth to the king. Can I rely on--Oh!" she cried, turning pale +and interrupting herself, "here comes the page!" + +The poor countess put her hands before her face as if to veil it. + +"Fear nothing," said the young seigneur, "he is won! You can safely +trust him; he belongs to me. When the count contrives to return for you +he will warn us of his coming. In the confessional," he added, in a low +voice, "is a priest, a friend of mine, who will tell him that he drew +you for safety out of the crowd, and placed you under his own protection +in this chapel. Therefore, everything is arranged to deceive him." + +At these words the tears of the poor woman stopped, but an expression of +sadness settled down on her face. + +"No one can deceive him," she said. "To-night he will know all. Save me +from his blows! Go to Plessis, see the king, tell him--" she hesitated; +then, some dreadful recollection giving her courage to confess the +secrets of her marriage, she added: "Yes, tell him that to master me the +count bleeds me in both arms--to exhaust me. Tell him that my husband +drags me about by the hair of my head. Say that I am a prisoner; that--" + +Her heart swelled, sobs choked her throat, tears fell from her eyes. In +her agitation she allowed the young man, who was muttering broken words, +to kiss her hands. + +"Poor darling! no one can speak to the king. Though my uncle is +grand-master of his archers, I could not gain admission to Plessis. My +dear lady! my beautiful sovereign! oh, how she has suffered! Marie, let +yourself say but two words, or we are lost!" + +"What will become of us?" she murmured. Then, seeing on the dark wall a +picture of the Virgin, on which the light from the lamp was falling, she +cried out:-- + +"Holy Mother of God, give us counsel!" + +"To-night," said the young man, "I shall be with you in your room." + +"How?" she asked naively. + +They were in such great peril that their tenderest words were devoid of +love. + +"This evening," he replied, "I shall offer myself as apprentice to +Maitre Cornelius, the king's silversmith. I have obtained a letter of +recommendation to him which will make him receive me. His house is next +to yours. Once under the roof of that old thief, I can soon find my way +to your apartment by the help of a silken ladder." + +"Oh!" she said, petrified with horror, "if you love me don't go to +Maitre Cornelius." + +"Ah!" he cried, pressing her to his heart with all the force of his +youth, "you do indeed love me!" + +"Yes," she said; "are you not my hope? You are a gentleman, and I +confide to you my honor. Besides," she added, looking at him with +dignity, "I am so unhappy that you would never betray my trust. But what +is the good of all this? Go, let me die, sooner than that you should +enter that house of Maitre Cornelius. Do you not know that all his +apprentices--" + +"Have been hanged," said the young man, laughing. + +"Oh, don't go; you will be made the victim of some sorcery." + +"I cannot pay too dearly for the joy of serving you," he said, with a +look that made her drop her eyes. + +"But my husband?" she said. + +"Here is something to put him to sleep," replied her lover, drawing from +his belt a little vial. + +"Not for always?" said the countess, trembling. + +For all answer the young seigneur made a gesture of horror. + +"I would long ago have defied him to mortal combat if he were not so +old," he said. "God preserve me from ridding you of him in any other +way." + +"Forgive me," said the countess, blushing. "I am cruelly punished for my +sins. In a moment of despair I thought of killing him, and I feared you +might have the same desire. My sorrow is great that I have never +yet been able to confess that wicked thought; but I fear it would +be repeated to him and he would avenge it. I have shamed you," she +continued, distressed by his silence, "I deserve your blame." + +And she broke the vial by flinging it on the floor violently. + +"Do not come," she said, "my husband sleeps lightly; my duty is to wait +for the help of Heaven--that will I do!" + +She tried to leave the chapel. + +"Ah!" cried the young man, "order me to do so and I will kill him. You +will see me to-night." + +"I was wise to destroy that drug," she said in a voice that was faint +with the pleasure of finding herself so loved. "The fear of awakening my +husband will save us from ourselves." + +"I pledge you my life," said the young man, pressing her hand. + +"If the king is willing, the pope can annul my marriage. We will then be +united," she said, giving him a look that was full of delightful hopes. + +"Monseigneur comes!" cried the page, rushing in. + +Instantly the young nobleman, surprised at the short time he had gained +with his mistress and wondering at the celerity of the count, snatched a +kiss, which was not refused. + +"To-night!" he said, slipping hastily from the chapel. + +Thanks to the darkness, he reached the great portal safely, gliding from +column to column in the long shadows which they cast athwart the nave. +An old canon suddenly issued from the confessional, came to the side +of the countess and closed the iron railing before which the page was +marching gravely up and down with the air of a watchman. + +A strong light now announced the coming of the count. Accompanied by +several friends and by servants bearing torches, he hurried forward, a +naked sword in hand. His gloomy eyes seemed to pierce the shadows and to +rake even the darkest corners of the cathedral. + +"Monseigneur, madame is there," said the page, going forward to meet +him. + +The Comte de Saint-Vallier found his wife kneeling on the steps of the +alter, the old priest standing beside her and reading his breviary. At +that sight the count shook the iron railing violently as if to give vent +to his rage. + +"What do you want here, with a drawn sword in a church?" asked the +priest. + +"Father, that is my husband," said the countess. + +The priest took a key from his sleeve, and unlocked the railed door of +the chapel. The count, almost in spite of himself, cast a look into the +confessional, then he entered the chapel, and seemed to be listening +attentively to the sounds in the cathedral. + +"Monsieur," said his wife, "you owe many thanks to this venerable canon, +who gave me a refuge here." + +The count turned pale with anger; he dared not look at his friends, who +had come there more to laugh at him than to help him. Then he answered +curtly: + +"Thank God, father, I shall find some way to repay you." + +He took his wife by the arm and, without allowing her to finish her +curtsey to the canon, he signed to his servants and left the church +without a word to the others who had accompanied him. His silence had +something savage and sullen about it. Impatient to reach his home and +preoccupied in searching for means to discover the truth, he took +his way through the tortuous streets which at that time separated the +cathedral from the Chancellerie, a fine building recently erected by the +Chancellor Juvenal des Ursins, on the site of an old fortification given +by Charles VII. to that faithful servant as a reward for his glorious +labors. + +The count reached at last the rue du Murier, in which his dwelling, +called the hotel de Poitiers, was situated. When his escort of servants +had entered the courtyard and the heavy gates were closed, a deep +silence fell on the narrow street, where other great seigneurs had their +houses, for this new quarter of the town was near to Plessis, the usual +residence of the king, to whom the courtiers, if sent for, could go in a +moment. The last house in this street was also the last in the town. It +belonged to Maitre Cornelius Hoogworst, an old Brabantian merchant, +to whom King Louis XI. gave his utmost confidence in those financial +transactions which his crafty policy induced him to undertake outside of +his own kingdom. + +Observing the outline of the houses occupied respectively by Maitre +Cornelius and by the Comte de Poitiers, it was easy to believe that +the same architect had built them both and destined them for the use of +tyrants. Each was sinister in aspect, resembling a small fortress, and +both could be well defended against an angry populace. Their corners +were upheld by towers like those which lovers of antiquities remark +in towns where the hammer of the iconoclast has not yet prevailed. The +bays, which had little depth, gave a great power of resistance to the +iron shutters of the windows and doors. The riots and the civil wars so +frequent in those tumultuous times were ample justification for these +precautions. + +As six o'clock was striking from the great tower of the Abbey +Saint-Martin, the lover of the hapless countess passed in front of the +hotel de Poitiers and paused for a moment to listen to the sounds +made in the lower hall by the servants of the count, who were supping. +Casting a glance at the window of the room where he supposed his love to +be, he continued his way to the adjoining house. All along his way, the +young man had heard the joyous uproar of many feasts given throughout +the town in honor of the day. The ill-joined shutters sent out streaks +of light, the chimneys smoked, and the comforting odor of roasted meats +pervaded the town. After the conclusion of the church services, the +inhabitants were regaling themselves, with murmurs of satisfaction which +fancy can picture better than words can paint. But at this particular +spot a deep silence reigned, because in these two houses lived two +passions which never rejoiced. Beyond them stretched the silent country. +Beneath the shadow of the steeples of Saint-Martin, these two mute +dwellings, separated from the others in the same street and standing +at the crooked end of it, seemed afflicted with leprosy. The building +opposite to them, the home of the criminals of the State, was also under +a ban. A young man would be readily impressed by this sudden contrast. +About to fling himself into an enterprise that was horribly hazardous, +it is no wonder that the daring young seigneur stopped short before the +house of the silversmith, and called to mind the many tales furnished by +the life of Maitre Cornelius,--tales which caused such singular horror +to the countess. At this period a man of war, and even a lover, trembled +at the mere word "magic." Few indeed were the minds and the imaginations +which disbelieved in occult facts and tales of the marvellous. The lover +of the Comtesse de Saint-Vallier, one of the daughters whom Louis XI. +had in Dauphine by Madame de Sassenage, however bold he might be in +other respects, was likely to think twice before he finally entered the +house of a so-called sorcerer. + +The history of Maitre Cornelius Hoogworst will fully explain the +security which the silversmith inspired in the Comte de Saint-Vallier, +the terror of the countess, and the hesitation that now took possession +of the lover. But, in order to make the readers of this nineteenth +century understand how such commonplace events could be turned into +anything supernatural, and to make them share the alarms of that olden +time, it is necessary to interrupt the course of this narrative and cast +a rapid glance on the preceding life and adventures of Maitre Cornelius. + + + + +CHAPTER II. THE TORCONNIER + + +Cornelius Hoogworst, one of the richest merchants in Ghent, having drawn +upon himself the enmity of Charles, Duke of Burgundy, found refuge +and protection at the court of Louis XI. The king was conscious of the +advantages he could gain from a man connected with all the principal +commercial houses of Flanders, Venice, and the Levant; he naturalized, +ennobled, and flattered Maitre Cornelius; all of which was rarely done +by Louis XI. The monarch pleased the Fleming as much as the Fleming +pleased the monarch. Wily, distrustful, and miserly; equally politic, +equally learned; superior, both of them, to their epoch; understanding +each other marvellously; they discarded and resumed with equal facility, +the one his conscience, the other his religion; they loved the same +Virgin, one by conviction, the other by policy; in short, if we may +believe the jealous tales of Olivier de Daim and Tristan, the king went +to the house of the Fleming for those diversions with which King +Louis XI. diverted himself. History has taken care to transmit to our +knowledge the licentious tastes of a monarch who was not averse to +debauchery. The old Fleming found, no doubt, both pleasure and profit in +lending himself to the capricious pleasures of his royal client. + +Cornelius had now lived nine years in the city of Tours. During those +years extraordinary events had happened in his house, which had made +him the object of general execration. On his first arrival, he had spent +considerable sums in order to put the treasures he brought with him in +safety. The strange inventions made for him secretly by the locksmiths +of the town, the curious precautions taken in bringing those locksmiths +to his house in a way to compel their silence, were long the subject +of countless tales which enlivened the evening gatherings of the city. +These singular artifices on the part of the old man made every +one suppose him the possessor of Oriental riches. Consequently the +_narrators_ of that region--the home of the tale in France--built rooms +full of gold and precious tones in the Fleming's house, not omitting to +attribute all this fabulous wealth to compacts with Magic. + +Maitre Cornelius had brought with him from Ghent two Flemish valets, an +old woman, and a young apprentice; the latter, a youth with a gentle, +pleasing face, served him as secretary, cashier, factotum, and +courier. During the first year of his settlement in Tours, a robbery of +considerable amount took place in his house, and judicial inquiry showed +that the crime must have been committed by one of its inmates. The old +miser had his two valets and the secretary put in prison. The young man +was feeble and he died under the sufferings of the "question" protesting +his innocence. The valets confessed the crime to escape torture; but +when the judge required them to say where the stolen property could +be found, they kept silence, were again put to the torture, judged, +condemned, and hanged. On their way to the scaffold they declared +themselves innocent, according to the custom of all persons about to be +executed. + +The city of Tours talked much of this singular affair; but the +criminals were Flemish, and the interest felt in their unhappy fate +soon evaporated. In those days wars and seditions furnished endless +excitements, and the drama of each day eclipsed that of the night +before. More grieved by the loss he had met with than by the death of +his three servants, Maitre Cornelius lived alone in his house with the +old Flemish woman, his sister. He obtained permission from the king to +use state couriers for his private affairs, sold his mules to a muleteer +of the neighborhood, and lived from that moment in the deepest solitude, +seeing no one but the king, doing his business by means of Jews, who, +shrewd calculators, served him well in order to gain his all-powerful +protection. + +Some time after this affair, the king himself procured for his old +"torconnier" a young orphan in whom he took an interest. Louis XI. +called Maitre Cornelius familiarly by that obsolete term, which, under +the reign of Saint-Louis, meant a usurer, a collector of imposts, a man +who pressed others by violent means. The epithet, "tortionnaire," which +remains to this day in our legal phraseology, explains the old word +torconnier, which we often find spelt "tortionneur." The poor young +orphan devoted himself carefully to the affairs of the old Fleming, +pleased him much, and was soon high in his good graces. During a +winter's night, certain diamonds deposited with Maitre Cornelius by the +King of England as security for a sum of a hundred thousand crowns were +stolen, and suspicion, of course, fell on the orphan. Louis XI. was all +the more severe because he had answered for the youth's fidelity. +After a very brief and summary examination by the grand provost, the +unfortunate secretary was hanged. After that no one dared for a long +time to learn the arts of banking and exchange from Maitre Cornelius. + +In course of time, however, two young men of the town, Touraineans,--men +of honor, and eager to make their fortunes,--took service with the +silversmith. Robberies coincided with the admission of the two young men +into the house. The circumstances of these crimes, the manner in which +they were perpetrated, showed plainly that the robbers had secret +communication with its inmates. Become by this time more than ever +suspicious and vindictive, the old Fleming laid the matter before +Louis XI., who placed it in the hands of his grand provost. A trial was +promptly had and promptly ended. The inhabitants of Tours blamed Tristan +l'Hermite secretly for unseemly haste. Guilty or not guilty, the +young Touraineans were looked upon as victims, and Cornelius as an +executioner. The two families thus thrown into mourning were much +respected; their complaints obtained a hearing, and little by little it +came to be believed that all the victims whom the king's silversmith had +sent to the scaffold were innocent. Some persons declared that the cruel +miser imitated the king, and sought to put terror and gibbets between +himself and his fellow-men; others said that he had never been robbed +at all,--that these melancholy executions were the result of cool +calculations, and that their real object was to relieve him of all fear +for his treasure. + +The first effect of these rumors was to isolate Maitre Cornelius. The +Touraineans treated him like a leper, called him the "tortionnaire," and +named his house Malemaison. If the Fleming had found strangers to the +town bold enough to enter it, the inhabitants would have warned them +against doing so. The most favorable opinion of Maitre Cornelius was +that of persons who thought him merely baneful. Some he inspired with +instinctive terror; others he impressed with the deep respect that most +men feel for limitless power and money, while to a few he certainly +possessed the attraction of mystery. His way of life, his countenance, +and the favor of the king, justified all the tales of which he had now +become the subject. + +Cornelius travelled much in foreign lands after the death of his +persecutor, the Duke of Burgundy; and during his absence the king caused +his premises to be guarded by a detachment of his own Scottish guard. +Such royal solicitude made the courtiers believe that the old miser had +bequeathed his property to Louis XI. When at home, the torconnier went +out but little; but the lords of the court paid him frequent visits. +He lent them money rather liberally, though capricious in his manner of +doing so. On certain days he refused to give them a penny; the next day +he would offer them large sums,--always at high interest and on good +security. A good Catholic, he went regularly to the services, always +attending the earliest mass at Saint-Martin; and as he had purchased +there, as elsewhere, a chapel in perpetuity, he was separated even +in church from other Christians. A popular proverb of that day, long +remembered in Tours, was the saying: "You passed in front of the +Fleming; ill-luck will happen to you." Passing in front of the Fleming +explained all sudden pains and evils, involuntary sadness, ill-turns of +fortune among the Touraineans. Even at court most persons attributed +to Cornelius that fatal influence which Italian, Spanish, and Asiatic +superstition has called the "evil eye." Without the terrible power +of Louis XI., which was stretched like a mantle over that house, +the populace, on the slightest opportunity, would have demolished La +Malemaison, that "evil house" in the rue du Murier. And yet Cornelius +had been the first to plant mulberries in Tours, and the Touraineans at +that time regarded him as their good genius. Who shall reckon on popular +favor! + +A few seigneurs having met Maitre Cornelius on his journeys out of +France were surprised at his friendliness and good-humor. At Tours he +was gloomy and absorbed, yet always he returned there. Some inexplicable +power brought him back to his dismal house in the rue du Murier. Like a +snail, whose life is so firmly attached to its shell, he admitted to +the king that he was never at ease except under the bolts and behind the +vermiculated stones of his little bastille; yet he knew very well that +whenever Louis XI. died, the place would be the most dangerous spot on +earth for him. + +"The devil is amusing himself at the expense of our crony, the +torconnier," said Louis XI. to his barber, a few days before the +festival of All-Saints. "He says he has been robbed again, but he can't +hang anybody this time unless he hangs himself. The old vagabond came +and asked me if, by chance, I had carried off a string of rubies he +wanted to sell me. 'Pasques-Dieu! I don't steal what I can take,' I said +to him." + +"Was he frightened?" asked the barber. + +"Misers are afraid of only one thing," replied the king. "My crony the +torconnier knows very well that I shall not plunder him unless for good +reason; otherwise I should be unjust, and I have never done anything but +what is just and necessary." + +"And yet that old brigand overcharges you," said the barber. + +"You wish he did, don't you?" replied the king, with the malicious look +at his barber. + +"Ventre-Mahom, sire, the inheritance would be a fine one between you and +the devil!" + +"There, there!" said the king, "don't put bad ideas into my head. +My crony is a more faithful man than those whose fortunes I have +made--perhaps because he owes me nothing." + +For the last two years Maitre Cornelius had lived entirely alone with +his aged sister, who was thought a witch. A tailor in the neighborhood +declared that he had often seen her at night, on the roof of the house, +waiting for the hour of the witches' sabbath. This fact seemed the more +extraordinary because it was known to be the miser's custom to lock up +his sister at night in a bedroom with iron-barred windows. + +As he grew older, Cornelius, constantly robbed, and always fearful of +being duped by men, came to hate mankind, with the one exception of the +king, whom he greatly respected. He fell into extreme misanthropy, but, +like most misers, his passion for gold, the assimilation, as it were, +of that metal with his own substance, became closer and closer, and age +intensified it. His sister herself excited his suspicions, though she +was perhaps more miserly, more rapacious than her brother whom she +actually surpassed in penurious inventions. Their daily existence had +something mysterious and problematical about it. The old woman rarely +took bread from the baker; she appeared so seldom in the market, that +the least credulous of the townspeople ended by attributing to these +strange beings the knowledge of some secret for the maintenance of life. +Those who dabbled in alchemy declared that Maitre Cornelius had the +power of making gold. Men of science averred that he had found the +Universal Panacea. According to many of the country-people to whom the +townsfolk talked of him, Cornelius was a chimerical being, and many of +them came into the town to look at his house out of mere curiosity. + +The young seigneur whom we left in front of that house looked about him, +first at the hotel de Poitiers, the home of his mistress, and then at +the evil house. The moonbeams were creeping round their angles, and +tinting with a mixture of light and shade the hollows and reliefs of the +carvings. The caprices of this white light gave a sinister expression +to both edifices; it seemed as if Nature herself encouraged the +superstitions that hung about the miser's dwelling. The young man +called to mind the many traditions which made Cornelius a personage both +curious and formidable. Though quite decided through the violence of his +love to enter that house, and stay there long enough to accomplish his +design, he hesitated to take the final step, all the while aware that he +should certainly take it. But where is the man who, in a crisis of his +life, does not willingly listen to presentiments as he hangs above the +precipice? A lover worthy of being loved, the young man feared to die +before he had been received for love's sake by the countess. + +This mental deliberation was so painfully interesting that he did not +feel the cold wind as it whistled round the corner of the building, and +chilled his legs. On entering that house, he must lay aside his name, as +already he had laid aside the handsome garments of nobility. In case of +mishap, he could not claim the privileges of his rank nor the protection +of his friends without bringing hopeless ruin on the Comtesse de +Saint-Vallier. If her husband suspected the nocturnal visit of a lover, +he was capable of roasting her alive in an iron cage, or of killing her +by degrees in the dungeons of a fortified castle. Looking down at the +shabby clothing in which he had disguised himself, the young nobleman +felt ashamed. His black leather belt, his stout shoes, his ribbed socks, +his linsey-woolsey breeches, and his gray woollen doublet made him +look like the clerk of some poverty-stricken justice. To a noble of +the fifteenth century it was like death itself to play the part of a +beggarly burgher, and renounce the privileges of his rank. But--to climb +the roof of the house where his mistress wept; to descend the chimney, +or creep along from gutter to gutter to the window of her room; to risk +his life to kneel beside her on a silken cushion before a glowing fire, +during the sleep of a dangerous husband, whose snores would double +their joy; to defy both heaven and earth in snatching the boldest of +all kisses; to say no word that would not lead to death or at least +to sanguinary combat if overheard,--all these voluptuous images and +romantic dangers decided the young man. However slight might be the +guerdon of his enterprise, could he only kiss once more the hand of his +lady, he still resolved to venture all, impelled by the chivalrous and +passionate spirit of those days. He never supposed for a moment that +the countess would refuse him the soft happiness of love in the midst of +such mortal danger. The adventure was too perilous, too impossible not +to be attempted and carried out. + +Suddenly all the bells in the town rang out the curfew,--a custom fallen +elsewhere into desuetude, but still observed in the provinces, where +venerable habits are abolished slowly. Though the lights were not +put out, the watchmen of each quarter stretched the chains across the +streets. Many doors were locked; the steps of a few belated burghers, +attended by their servants, armed to the teeth and bearing lanterns, +echoed in the distance. Soon the town, garroted as it were, seemed to be +asleep, and safe from robbers and evil-doers, except through the roofs. +In those days the roofs of houses were much frequented after dark. The +streets were so narrow in the provincial towns, and even in Paris, that +robbers could jump from the roofs on one side to those on the other. +This perilous occupation was long the amusement of King Charles IX. in +his youth, if we may believe the memoirs of his day. + +Fearing to present himself too late to the old silversmith, the young +nobleman now went up to the door of the Malemaison intending to knock, +when, on looking at it, his attention was excited by a sort of vision, +which the writers of those days would have called "cornue,"--perhaps +with reference to horns and hoofs. He rubbed his eyes to clear his +sight, and a thousand diverse sentiments passed through his mind at the +spectacle before him. On each side of the door was a face framed in +a species of loophole. At first he took these two faces for grotesque +masks carved in stone, so angular, distorted, projecting, motionless, +discolored were they; but the cold air and the moonlight presently +enabled him to distinguish the faint white mist which living breath sent +from two purplish noses; then he saw in each hollow face, beneath the +shadow of the eyebrows, two eyes of porcelain blue casting clear fire, +like those of a wolf crouching in the brushwood as it hears the baying +of the hounds. The uneasy gleam of those eyes was turned on him so +fixedly that, after receiving it for fully a minute, during which he +examined the singular sight, he felt like a bird at which a setter +points; a feverish tumult rose in his soul, but he quickly repressed +it. The two faces, strained and suspicious, were doubtless those of +Cornelius and his sister. + +The young man feigned to be looking about him to see where he was, +and whether this were the house named on a card which he drew from his +pocket and pretended to read in the moonlight; then he walked straight +to the door and struck three blows upon it, which echoed within the +house as if it were the entrance to a cave. A faint light crept beneath +the threshold, and an eye appeared at a small and very strong iron +grating. + +"Who is there?" + +"A friend, sent by Oosterlinck, of Brussels." + +"What do you want?" + +"To enter." + +"Your name?" + +"Philippe Goulenoire." + +"Have you brought credentials?" + +"Here they are." + +"Pass them through the box." + +"Where is it?" + +"To your left." + +Philippe Goulenoire put the letter through the slit of an iron box above +which was a loophole. + +"The devil!" thought he, "plainly the king comes here, as they say he +does; he couldn't take more precautions at Plessis." + +He waited for more than a quarter of an hour in the street. After that +lapse of time, he heard Cornelius saying to his sister, "Close the traps +of the door." + +A clinking of chains resounded from within. Philippe heard the bolts +run, the locks creak, and presently a small low door, iron-bound, opened +to the slightest distance through which a man could pass. At the risk of +tearing off his clothing, Philippe squeezed himself rather than walked +into La Malemaison. A toothless old woman with a hatchet face, the +eyebrows projecting like the handles of a cauldron, the nose and chin +so near together that a nut could scarcely pass between them,--a pallid, +haggard creature, her hollow temples composed apparently of only bones +and nerves,--guided the "soi-disant" foreigner silently into a lower +room, while Cornelius followed prudently behind him. + +"Sit there," she said to Philippe, showing him a three-legged stool +placed at the corner of a carved stone fireplace, where there was no +fire. + +On the other side of the chimney-piece was a walnut table with +twisted legs, on which was an egg in a plate and ten or a dozen little +bread-sops, hard and dry and cut with studied parsimony. Two stools +placed beside the table, on one of which the old woman sat down, showed +that the miserly pair were eating their suppers. Cornelius went to the +door and pushed two iron shutters into their place, closing, no doubt, +the loopholes through which they had been gazing into the street; then +he returned to his seat. Philippe Goulenoire (so called) next beheld the +brother and sister dipping their sops into the egg in turn, and with +the utmost gravity and the same precision with which soldiers dip their +spoons in regular rotation into the mess-pot. This performance was done +in silence. But as he ate, Cornelius examined the false apprentice with +as much care and scrutiny as if he were weighing an old coin. + +Philippe, feeling that an icy mantle had descended on his shoulders, was +tempted to look about him; but, with the circumspection dictated by all +amorous enterprises, he was careful not to glance, even furtively, at +the walls; for he fully understood that if Cornelius detected him, +he would not allow so inquisitive a person to remain in his house. He +contented himself, therefore, by looking first at the egg and then at +the old woman, occasionally contemplating his future master. + +Louis XI.'s silversmith resembled that monarch. He had even acquired the +same gestures, as often happens where persons dwell together in a sort +of intimacy. The thick eyebrows of the Fleming almost covered his eyes; +but by raising them a little he could flash out a lucid, penetrating, +powerful glance, the glance of men habituated to silence, and to +whom the phenomenon of the concentration of inward forces has become +familiar. His thin lips, vertically wrinkled, gave him an air of +indescribable craftiness. The lower part of his face bore a vague +resemblance to the muzzle of a fox, but his lofty, projecting forehead, +with many lines, showed great and splendid qualities and a nobility +of soul, the springs of which had been lowered by experience until the +cruel teachings of life had driven it back into the farthest recesses of +this most singular human being. He was certainly not an ordinary +miser; and his passion covered, no doubt, extreme enjoyments and secret +conceptions. + +"What is the present rate of Venetian sequins?" he said abruptly to his +future apprentice. + +"Three-quarters at Brussels; one in Ghent." + +"What is the freight on the Scheldt?" + +"Three sous parisis." + +"Any news at Ghent?" + +"The brother of Lieven d'Herde is ruined." + +"Ah!" + +After giving vent to that exclamation, the old man covered his knee with +the skirt of his dalmatian, a species of robe made of black velvet, open +in front, with large sleeves and no collar, the sumptuous material being +defaced and shiny. These remains of a magnificent costume, formerly worn +by him as president of the tribunal of the Parchons, functions which had +won him the enmity of the Duke of Burgundy, was now a mere rag. + +Philippe was not cold; he perspired in his harness, dreading further +questions. Until then the brief information obtained that morning from +a Jew whose life he had formerly saved, had sufficed him, thanks to his +good memory and the perfect knowledge the Jew possessed of the manners +and habits of Maitre Cornelius. But the young man who, in the first +flush of his enterprise, had feared nothing was beginning to perceive +the difficulties it presented. The solemn gravity of the terrible +Fleming reacted upon him. He felt himself under lock and key, and +remembered how the grand provost Tristan and his rope were at the orders +of Maitre Cornelius. + +"Have you supped?" asked the silversmith, in a tone which signified, +"You are not to sup." + +The old maid trembled in spite of her brother's tone; she looked at the +new inmate as if to gauge the capacity of the stomach she might have to +fill, and said with a specious smile:-- + +"You have not stolen your name; your hair and moustache are as black as +the devil's tail." + +"I have supped," he said. + +"Well then," replied the miser, "you can come back and see me to-morrow. +I have done without an apprentice for some years. Besides, I wish to +sleep upon the matter." + +"Hey! by Saint-Bavon, monsieur, I am a Fleming; I don't know a soul +in this place; the chains are up in the streets, and I shall be put in +prison. However," he added, frightened at the eagerness he was showing +in his words, "if it is your good pleasure, of course I will go." + +The oath seemed to affect the old man singularly. + +"Come, come, by Saint-Bavon indeed, you shall sleep here." + +"But--" said his sister, alarmed. + +"Silence," replied Cornelius. "In his letter Oosterlinck tells me he +will answer for this young man. You know," he whispered in his sister's +ear, "we have a hundred thousand francs belonging to Oosterlinck? That's +a hostage, hey!" + +"And suppose he steals those Bavarian jewels? Tiens, he looks more like +a thief than a Fleming." + +"Hush!" exclaimed the old man, listening attentively to some sound. + +Both misers listened. A moment after the "Hush!" uttered by Cornelius, a +noise produced by the steps of several men echoed in the distance on the +other side of the moat of the town. + +"It is the Plessis guard on their rounds," said the sister. + +"Give me the key of the apprentice's room," said Cornelius. + +The old woman made a gesture as if to take the lamp. + +"Do you mean to leave us alone, without light?" cried Cornelius, in a +meaning tone of voice. "At your age can't you see in the dark? It isn't +difficult to find a key." + +The sister understood the meaning hidden beneath these words and left +the room. Looking at this singular creature as she walked towards the +door, Philippe Goulenoire was able to hide from Cornelius the glance +which he hastily cast about the room. It was wainscoted in oak to the +chair-strip, and the walls above were hung with yellow leather stamped +with black arabesques; but what struck the young man most was a +match-lock pistol with its formidable trigger. This new and terrible +weapon lay close to Cornelius. + +"How do you expect to earn your living with me?" said the latter. + +"I have but little money," replied Philippe, "but I know good tricks in +business. If you will pay me a sou on every mark I earn for you, that +will satisfy me." + +"A sou! a sou!" echoed the miser; "why, that's a good deal!" + +At this moment the old sibyl returned with the key. + +"Come," said Cornelius to Philippe. + +The pair went out beneath the portico and mounted a spiral stone +staircase, the round well of which rose through a high turret, beside +the hall in which they had been sitting. At the first floor up the young +man paused. + +"No, no," said Cornelius. "The devil! this nook is the place where the +king takes his ease." + +The architect had constructed the room given to the apprentice under the +pointed roof of the tower in which the staircase wound. It was a little +room, all of stone, cold and without ornament of any kind. The tower +stood in the middle of the facade on the courtyard, which, like the +courtyards of all provincial houses, was narrow and dark. At the farther +end, through an iron railing, could be seen a wretched garden in which +nothing grew but the mulberries which Cornelius had introduced. The +young nobleman took note of all this through the loopholes on the spiral +staircase, the moon casting, fortunately, a brilliant light. A cot, a +stool, a mismatched pitcher and basin formed the entire furniture of +the room. The light could enter only through square openings, placed at +intervals in the outside wall of the tower, according, no doubt, to the +exterior ornamentation. + +"Here is your lodging," said Cornelius; "it is plain and solid and +contains all that is needed for sleep. Good night! Do not leave this +room as _the others_ did." + +After giving his apprentice a last look full of many meanings, Cornelius +double-locked the door, took away the key and descended the staircase, +leaving the young nobleman as much befooled as a bell-founder when on +opening his mould he finds nothing. Alone, without light, seated on a +stool, in a little garret from which so many of his predecessors had +gone to the scaffold, the young fellow felt like a wild beast caught in +a trap. He jumped upon the stool and raised himself to his full height +in order to reach one of the little openings through which a faint light +shone. Thence he saw the Loire, the beautiful slopes of Saint-Cyr, +the gloomy marvels of Plessis, where lights were gleaming in the deep +recesses of a few windows. Far in the distance lay the beautiful meadows +of Touraine and the silvery stream of her river. Every point of this +lovely nature had, at that moment, a mysterious grace; the windows, the +waters, the roofs of the houses shone like diamonds in the trembling +light of the moon. The soul of the young seigneur could not repress a +sad and tender emotion. + +"Suppose it is my last farewell!" he said to himself. + +He stood there, feeling already the terrible emotions his adventure +offered him, and yielding to the fears of a prisoner who, nevertheless, +retains some glimmer of hope. His mistress illumined each difficulty. To +him she was no longer a woman, but a supernatural being seen through +the incense of his desires. A feeble cry, which he fancied came from the +hotel de Poitiers, restored him to himself and to a sense of his true +situation. Throwing himself on his pallet to reflect on his course, he +heard a slight movement which echoed faintly from the spiral staircase. +He listened attentively, and the whispered words, "He has gone to bed," +said by the old woman, reached his ear. By an accident unknown probably +to the architect, the slightest noise on the staircase sounded in the +room of the apprentices, so that Philippe did not lose a single movement +of the miser and his sister who were watching him. He undressed, lay +down, pretended to sleep, and employed the time during which the pair +remained on the staircase, in seeking means to get from his prison to +the hotel de Poitiers. + +About ten o'clock Cornelius and his sister, convinced that their new +inmate was sleeping, retired to their rooms. The young man studied +carefully the sounds they made in doing so, and thought he could +recognize the position of their apartments; they must, he believed, +occupy the whole second floor. Like all the houses of that period, this +floor was next below the roof, from which its windows projected, adorned +with spandrel tops that were richly sculptured. The roof itself was +edged with a sort of balustrade, concealing the gutters for the rain +water which gargoyles in the form of crocodile's heads discharged +into the street. The young seigneur, after studying this topography as +carefully as a cat, believed he could make his way from the tower to the +roof, and thence to Madame de Vallier's by the gutters and the help of a +gargoyle. But he did not count on the narrowness of the loopholes of the +tower; it was impossible to pass through them. He then resolved to get +out upon the roof of the house through the window of the staircase on +the second floor. To accomplish this daring project he must leave his +room, and Cornelius had carried off the key. + +By way of precaution, the young man had brought with him, concealed +under his clothes, one of those poignards formerly used to give the +"coup de grace" in a duel when the vanquished adversary begged the +victor to despatch him. This horrible weapon had on one side a blade +sharpened like a razor, and on the other a blade that was toothed like +a saw, but toothed in the reverse direction from that by which it would +enter the body. The young man determined to use this latter blade to saw +through the wood around the lock. Happily for him the staple of the lock +was put on to the outside of the door by four stout screws. By the help +of his dagger he managed, not without great difficulty, to unscrew and +remove it altogether, carefully laying it aside and the four screws with +it. By midnight he was free, and he went down the stairs without his +shoes to reconnoitre the localities. + +He was not a little astonished to find a door wide open which led down a +corridor to several chambers, at the end of which corridor was a window +opening on a depression caused by the junction of the roofs of the hotel +de Poitiers and that of the Malemaison which met there. Nothing could +express his joy, unless it be the vow which he instantly made to the +Blessed Virgin to found a mass in her honor in the celebrated parish +church of the Escrignoles at Tours. After examining the tall broad +chimneys of the hotel de Poitiers he returned upon his steps to fetch +his dagger, when to his horror, he beheld a vivid light on the staircase +and saw Maitre Cornelius himself in his dalmatian, carrying a lamp, his +eyes open to their fullest extent and fixed upon the corridor, at the +entrance of which he stood like a spectre. + +"If I open the window and jump upon the roofs, he will hear me," thought +the young man. + +The terrible old miser advanced, like the hour of death to a criminal. +In this extremity Philippe, instigated by love, recovered his presence +of mind; he slipped into a doorway, pressing himself back into the angle +of it, and awaited the old man. When Cornelius, holding his lamp in +advance of him, came into line with the current of air which the +young man could send from his lungs, the lamp was blown out. Cornelius +muttered vague words and swore a Dutch oath; but he turned and retraced +his steps. The young man then rushed to his room, caught up his dagger +and returned to the blessed window, opened it softly and jumped upon the +roof. + +Once at liberty under the open sky, he felt weak, so happy was he. +Perhaps the extreme agitation of his danger of the boldness of the +enterprise caused his emotion; victory is often as perilous as battle. +He leaned against the balustrade, quivering with joy and saying to +himself:-- + +"By which chimney can I get to her?" + +He looked at them all. With the instinct given by love, he went to all +and felt them to discover in which there had been a fire. Having made +up his mind on that point, the daring young fellow stuck his dagger +securely in a joint between two stones, fastened a silken ladder to it, +threw the ladder down the chimney and risked himself upon it, trusting +to his good blade, and to the chance of not having mistaken his +mistress's room. He knew not whether Saint-Vallier was asleep or awake, +but one thing he was resolved upon, he would hold the countess in his +arms if it cost the life of two men. + +Presently his feet gently touched the warm embers; he bent more gently +still and saw the countess seated in an armchair; and she saw him. Pale +with joy and palpitating, the timid creature showed him, by the light of +the lamp, Saint-Vallier lying in a bed about ten feet from her. We may +well believe their burning silent kisses echoed only in their hearts. + + + + +CHAPTER III. THE ROBBERY OF THE JEWELS OF THE DUKE OF BAVARIA + + +The next day, about nine in the morning, as Louis XI. was leaving his +chapel after hearing mass, he found Maitre Cornelius on his path. + +"Good luck to you, crony," he said, shoving up his cap in his hasty way. + +"Sire, I would willingly pay a thousand gold crowns if I could have a +moment's talk with you; I have found the thief who stole the rubies and +all the jewels of the Duke of--" + +"Let us hear about that," said Louis XI., going out into the courtyard +of Plessis, followed by his silversmith, Coyctier his physician, Olivier +de Daim, and the captain of his Scottish guard. "Tell me about it. +Another man to hang for you! Hola, Tristan!" + +The grand provost, who was walking up and down the courtyard, came with +slow steps, like a dog who exhibits his fidelity. The group paused under +a tree. The king sat down on a bench and the courtiers made a circle +about him. + +"Sire, a man who pretended to be a Fleming has got the better of me--" +began Cornelius. + +"He must be crafty indeed, that fellow!" exclaimed Louis, wagging his +head. + +"Oh, yes!" replied the silversmith, bitterly. "But methinks he'd have +snared you yourself. How could I distrust a beggar recommended to me +by Oosterlinck, one hundred thousand francs of whose money I hold in +my hands. I will wager the Jew's letter and seal were forged! In short, +sire, I found myself this morning robbed of those jewels you admired so +much. They have been ravished from me, sire! To steal the jewels of the +Elector of Bavaria! those scoundrels respect nothing! they'll steal your +kingdom if you don't take care. As soon as I missed the jewels I went +up to the room of that apprentice, who is, assuredly, a past-master in +thieving. This time we don't lack proof. He had forced the lock of +his door. But when he got back to his room, the moon was down and he +couldn't find all the screws. Happily, I felt one under my feet when +I entered the room. He was sound asleep, the beggar, tired out. Just +fancy, gentlemen, he got down into my strong-room by the chimney. +To-morrow, or to-night, rather, I'll roast him alive. He had a silk +ladder, and his clothes were covered with marks of his clambering over +the roof and down the chimney. He meant to stay with me, and ruin +me, night after night, the bold wretch! But where are the jewels? The +country-folks coming into town early saw him on the roof. He must have +had accomplices, who waited for him by that embankment you have been +making. Ah, sire, you are the accomplice of fellows who come in boats; +crack! they get off with everything, and leave no traces! But we hold +this fellow as a key, the bold scoundrel! ah! a fine morsel he'll be +for the gallows. With a little bit of _questioning_ beforehand, we shall +know all. Why, the glory of your reign is concerned in it! there ought +not to be robbers in the land under so great a king." + +The king was not listening. He had fallen into one of those gloomy +meditations which became so frequent during the last years of his life. +A deep silence reigned. + +"This is your business," he said at length to Tristan; "take you hold of +it." + +He rose, walked a few steps away, and the courtiers left him alone. +Presently he saw Cornelius, mounted on his mule, riding away in company +with the grand provost. + +"Where are those thousand gold crowns?" he called to him. + +"Ah! sire, you are too great a king! there is no sum that can pay for +your justice." + +Louis XI. smiled. The courtiers envied the frank speech and privileges +of the old silversmith, who promptly disappeared down the avenue of +young mulberries which led from Tours to Plessis. + +Exhausted with fatigue, the young seigneur had indeed fallen soundly +asleep. Returning from his gallant adventure, he no longer felt the same +ardor and courage to defend himself against distant or imaginary dangers +with which he had rushed into the perils of the night. He had even +postponed till the morrow the cleaning of his soiled garments; a great +blunder, in which all else conspired. It was true that, lacking the +moonlight, he had missed finding all the screws of that cursed lock; he +had no patience to look for them. With the "laisser-aller" of a tired +man, he trusted to his luck, which had so far served him well. He did, +however, make a sort of compact with himself to awake at daybreak, but +the events of the day and the agitations of the night did not allow him +to keep faith with himself. Happiness is forgetful. Cornelius no longer +seemed formidable to the young man when he threw himself on the +pallet where so many poor wretches had wakened to their doom; and this +light-hearted heedlessness proved his ruin. While the king's silversmith +rode back from Plessis, accompanied by the grand provost and his +redoubtable archers. The false Goulenoire was being watched by the old +sister, seated on the corkscrew staircase oblivious of the cold, and +knitting socks for Cornelius. + +The young man continued to dream of the secret delights of that charming +night, ignorant of the danger that was galloping towards him. He saw +himself on a cushion at the feet of the countess, his head on her knees +in the ardor of his love; he listened to the story of her persecutions +and the details of the count's tyranny; he grew pitiful over the poor +lady, who was, in truth, the best-loved natural daughter of Louis XI. He +promised her to go on the morrow and reveal her wrongs to that terrible +father; everything, he assured her, should be settled as they wished, +the marriage broken off, the husband banished,--and all this within +reach of that husband's sword, of which they might both be the victims +if the slightest noise awakened him. But in the young man's dream the +gleam of the lamp, the flame of their eyes, the colors of the stuffs and +the tapestries were more vivid, more of love was in the air, more fire +about them, than there had been in the actual scene. The Marie of his +sleep resisted far less than the living Marie those adoring looks, +those tender entreaties, those adroit silences, those voluptuous +solicitations, those false generosities, which render the first moments +of a passion so completely ardent, and shed into the soul a fresh +delirium at each new step in love. + +Following the amorous jurisprudence of the period, Marie de +Saint-Vallier granted to her lover all the superficial rights of the +tender passion. She willingly allowed him to kiss her foot, her robe, +her hands, her throat; she avowed her love, she accepted the devotion +and life of her lover; she permitted him to die for her; she yielded to +an intoxication which the sternness of her semi-chastity increased; but +farther than that she would not go; and she made her deliverance the +price of the highest rewards of his love. In those days, in order to +dissolve a marriage it was necessary to go to Rome; to obtain the help +of certain cardinals, and to appear before the sovereign pontiff +in person armed with the approval of the king. Marie was firm in +maintaining her liberty to love, that she might sacrifice it to +him later. Nearly every woman in those days had sufficient power to +establish her empire over the heart of a man in a way to make that +passion the history of his whole life, the spring and principle of his +highest resolutions. Women were a power in France; they were so many +sovereigns; they had forms of noble pride; their lovers belonged to them +far more than they gave themselves to their lovers; often their love +cost blood, and to be their lover it was necessary to incur great +dangers. But the Marie of his dream made small defence against the young +seigneur's ardent entreaties. Which of the two was the reality? Did the +false apprentice in his dream see the true woman? Had he seen in the +hotel de Poitiers a lady masked in virtue? The question is difficult to +decide; and the honor of women demands that it be left, as it were, in +litigation. + +At the moment when the Marie of the dream may have been about to forget +her high dignity as mistress, the lover felt himself seized by an iron +hand, and the sour voice of the grand provost said to him:-- + +"Come, midnight Christian, who seeks God on the roofs, wake up!" + +The young man saw the black face of Tristan l'Hermite above him, and +recognized his sardonic smile; then, on the steps of the corkscrew +staircase, he saw Cornelius, his sister, and behind them the provost +guard. At that sight, and observing the diabolical faces expressing +either hatred or curiosity of persons whose business it was to hang +others, the so-called Philippe Goulenoire sat up on his pallet and +rubbed his eyes. + +"Mort-Dieu!" he cried, seizing his dagger, which was under the pillow. +"Now is the time to play our knives." + +"Ho, ho!" cried Tristan, "that's the speech of a noble. Methinks I see +Georges d'Estouteville, the nephew of the grand master of the archers." + +Hearing his real name uttered by Tristan, young d'Estouteville thought +less of himself than of the dangers his recognition would bring upon his +unfortunate mistress. To avert suspicion he cried out:-- + +"Ventre-Mahom! help, help to me, comrades!" + +After that outcry, made by a man who was really in despair, the young +courtier gave a bound, dagger in hand, and reached the landing. But the +myrmidons of the grand provost were accustomed to such proceedings. When +Georges d'Estouteville reached the stairs they seized him dexterously, +not surprised by the vigorous thrust he made at them with his dagger, +the blade of which fortunately slipped on the corselet of a guard; then, +having disarmed him, they bound his hands, and threw him on the pallet +before their leader, who stood motionless and thoughtful. + +Tristan looked silently at the prisoner's hands, then he said to +Cornelius, pointing to them:-- + +"Those are not the hands of a beggar, nor of an apprentice. He is a +noble." + +"Say a thief!" cried the torconnier. "My good Tristan, noble or serf, he +has ruined me, the villain! I want to see his feet warmed in your pretty +boots. He is, I don't doubt it, the leader of that gang of devils, +visible and invisible, who know all my secrets, open my locks, rob me, +murder me! They have grown rich out of me, Tristan. Ha! this time we +shall get back the treasure, for the fellow has the face of the king of +Egypt. I shall recover my dear rubies, and all the sums I have lost; and +our worthy king shall have his share in the harvest." + +"Oh, our hiding-places are much more secure than yours!" said Georges, +smiling. + +"Ha! the damned thief, he confesses!" cried the miser. + +The grand provost was engaged in attentively examining Georges +d'Estouteville's clothes and the lock of the door. + +"How did you get out those screws?" + +Georges kept silence. + +"Oh, very good, be silent if you choose. You will soon confess on the +holy rack," said Tristan. + +"That's what I call business!" cried Cornelius. + +"Take him off," said the grand provost to the guards. + +Georges d'Estouteville asked permission to dress himself. On a sign from +their chief, the men put on his clothing with the clever rapidity of a +nurse who profits by the momentary tranquillity of her nursling. + +An immense crowd cumbered the rue du Murier. The growls of the populace +kept increasing, and seemed the precursors of a riot. From early morning +the news of the robbery had spread through the town. On all sides +the "apprentice," said to be young and handsome, had awakened public +sympathy, and revived the hatred felt against Cornelius; so that there +was not a young man in the town, nor a young woman with a fresh face and +pretty feet to exhibit, who was not determined to see the victim. When +Georges issued from the house, led by one of the provost's guard, who, +after he had mounted his horse, kept the strong leathern thong that +bound the prisoner tightly twisted round his arm, a horrible uproar +arose. Whether the populace merely wished to see this new victim, or +whether it intended to rescue him, certain it is that those behind +pressed those in front upon the little squad of cavalry posted around +the Malemaison. At this moment, Cornelius, aided by his sister, closed +the door, and slammed the iron shutters with the violence of panic +terror. Tristan, who was not accustomed to respect the populace of those +days (inasmuch as they were not yet the sovereign people), cared little +for a probable riot. + +"Push on! push on!" he said to his men. + +At the voice of their leader the archers spurred their horses towards +the end of the street. The crowd, seeing one or two of their number +knocked down by the horses and trampled on, and some others pressed +against the sides of the horses and nearly suffocated, took the wiser +course of retreating to their homes. + +"Make room for the king's justice!" cried Tristan. "What are you doing +here? Do you want to be hanged too? Go home, my friends, go home; your +dinner is getting burnt. Hey! my good woman, go and darn your husband's +stockings; get back to your needles." + +Though such speeches showed that the grand provost was in good humor, +they made the most obstreperous fly as if he were flinging the plague +upon them. + +At the moment when the first movement of the crowd took place, Georges +d'Estouteville was stupefied at seeing, at one of the windows of the +hotel de Poitiers, his dear Marie de Saint-Vallier, laughing with the +count. She was mocking at _him_, poor devoted lover, who was going to +his death for her. But perhaps she was only amused at seeing the caps +of the populace carried off on the spears of the archers. We must be +twenty-three years old, rich in illusions, able to believe in a woman's +love, loving ourselves with all the forces of our being, risking +our life with delight on the faith of a kiss, and then betrayed, to +understand the fury of hatred and despair which took possession of +Georges d'Estouteville's heart at the sight of his laughing mistress, +from whom he received a cold and indifferent glance. No doubt she had +been there some time; she was leaning from the window with her arms on +a cushion; she was at her ease, and her old man seemed content. He, too, +was laughing, the cursed hunchback! A few tears escaped the eyes of the +young man; but when Marie de Saint-Vallier saw them she turned hastily +away. Those tears were suddenly dried, however, when Georges beheld the +red and white plumes of the page who was devoted to his interests. The +count took no notice of this servitor, who advanced to his mistress on +tiptoe. After the page had said a few words in her ear, Marie returned +to the window. Escaping for a moment the perpetual watchfulness of her +tyrant, she cast one glance upon Georges that was brilliant with the +fires of love and hope, seeming to say:-- + +"I am watching over you." + +Had she cried the words aloud, she could not have expressed their +meaning more plainly than in that glance, full of a thousand thoughts, +in which terror, hope, pleasure, the dangers of their mutual situation +all took part. He had passed, in that one moment, from heaven to +martyrdom and from martyrdom back to heaven! So then, the brave young +seigneur, light-hearted and content, walked gaily to his doom; thinking +that the horrors of the "question" were not sufficient payment for the +delights of his love. + +As Tristan was about leaving the rue du Murier, his people stopped him, +seeing an officer of the Scottish guard riding towards them at full +speed. + +"What is it?" asked the provost. + +"Nothing that concerns you," replied the officer, disdainfully. "The +king has sent me to fetch the Comte and Comtesse de Saint-Vallier, whom +he invites to dinner." + +The grand provost had scarcely reached the embankment leading to +Plessis, when the count and his wife, both mounted, she on her white +mule, he on his horse, and followed by two pages, joined the archers, +in order to enter Plessis-lez-Tours in company. All were moving slowly. +Georges was on foot, between two guards on horseback, one of whom held +him still by the leathern thong. Tristan, the count, and his wife were +naturally in advance; the criminal followed them. Mingling with the +archers, the young page questioned them, speaking sometimes to the +prisoner, so that he adroitly managed to say to him in a low voice:-- + +"I jumped the garden wall and took a letter to Plessis from madame to +the king. She came near dying when she heard of the accusation against +you. Take courage. She is going now to speak to the king about you." + +Love had already given strength and wiliness to the countess. Her +laughter was part of the heroism which women display in the great crises +of life. + +In spite of the singular fancy which possessed the author of "Quentin +Durward" to place the royal castle of Plessis-lez-Tours upon a height, +we must content ourselves by leaving it where it really was, namely on +low land, protected on either side by the Cher and the Loire; also by +the canal Sainte-Anne, so named by Louis XI. in honor of his beloved +daughter, Madame de Beaujeu. By uniting the two rivers between the +city of Tours and Plessis this canal not only served as a formidable +protection to the castle, but it offered a most precious road to +commerce. On the side towards Brehemont, a vast and fertile plain, +the park was defended by a moat, the remains of which still show its +enormous breadth and depth. At a period when the power of artillery was +still in embryo, the position of Plessis, long since chosen by Louis XI. +for his favorite retreat, might be considered impregnable. The castle, +built of brick and stone, had nothing remarkable about it; but it was +surrounded by noble trees, and from its windows could be seen, through +vistas cut in the park (plexitium), the finest points of view in the +world. No rival mansion rose near this solitary castle, standing in the +very centre of the little plain reserved for the king and guarded by +four streams of water. + +If we may believe tradition, Louis XI. occupied the west wing, and +from his chamber he could see, at a glance the course of the Loire, +the opposite bank of the river, the pretty valley which the Croisille +waters, and part of the slopes of Saint-Cyr. Also, from the windows that +opened on the courtyard, he saw the entrance to his fortress and the +embankment by which he had connected his favorite residence with the +city of Tours. If Louis XI. had bestowed upon the building of his castle +the luxury of architecture which Francois I. displayed afterwards at +Chambord, the dwelling of the kings of France would ever have remained +in Touraine. It is enough to see this splendid position and its magical +effects to be convinced of its superiority over the sites of all other +royal residences. + +Louis XI., now in the fifty-seventh year of his age, had scarcely more +than three years longer to live; already he felt the coming on of death +in the attacks of his mortal malady. Delivered from his enemies; on the +point of increasing the territory of France by the possessions of the +Dukes of Burgundy through the marriage of the Dauphin with Marguerite, +heiress of Burgundy (brought about by means of Desquerdes, commander of +his troops in Flanders); having established his authority everywhere, +and now meditating ameliorations in his kingdom of all kinds, he saw +time slipping past him rapidly with no further troubles than those +of old age. Deceived by every one, even by the minions about him, +experience had intensified his natural distrust. The desire to live +became in him the egotism of a king who has incarnated himself in his +people; he wished to prolong his life in order to carry out his vast +designs. + +All that the common-sense of publicists and the genius of revolutions +has since introduced of change in the character of monarchy, Louis XI. +had thought of and devised. Unity of taxation, equality of subjects +before the law (the prince being then the law) were the objects of his +bold endeavors. On All-Saints' eve he had gathered together the learned +goldsmiths of his kingdom for the purpose of establishing in France a +unity of weights and measures, as he had already established the unity +of power. Thus, his vast spirit hovered like an eagle over his empire, +joining in a singular manner the prudence of a king to the natural +idiosyncracies of a man of lofty aims. At no period in our history +has the great figure of Monarchy been finer or more poetic. Amazing +assemblages of contrasts! a great power in a feeble body; a spirit +unbelieving as to all things here below, devoutly believing in the +practices of religion; a man struggling with two powers greater than his +own--the present and the future; the future in which he feared eternal +punishment, a fear which led him to make so many sacrifices to the +Church; the present, namely his life itself, for the saving of which he +blindly obeyed Coyctier. This king, who crushed down all about him, +was himself crushed down by remorse, and by disease in the midst of the +great poem of defiant monarchy in which all power was concentrated. It +was once more the gigantic and ever magnificent combat of Man in the +highest manifestation of his forces tilting against Nature. + +While awaiting his dinner, a repast which was taken in those days +between eleven o'clock and mid-day, Louis XI., returning from a short +promenade, sat down in a huge tapestried chair near the fireplace in his +chamber. Olivier de Daim, and his doctor, Coyctier, looked at each other +without a word, standing in the recess of a window and watching their +master, who presently seemed asleep. The only sound that was heard were +the steps of the two chamberlains on service, the Sire de Montresor, +and Jean Dufou, Sire de Montbazon, who were walking up and down the +adjoining hall. These two Tourainean seigneurs looked at the captain +of the Scottish guard, who was sleeping in his chair, according to +his usual custom. The king himself appeared to be dozing. His head had +drooped upon his breast; his cap, pulled forward on his forehead, hid +his eyes. Thus seated in his high chair, surmounted by the royal crown, +he seemed crouched together like a man who had fallen asleep in the +midst of some deep meditation. + +At this moment Tristan and his cortege crossed the canal by the bridge +of Sainte-Anne, about two hundred feet from the entrance to Plessis. + +"Who is that?" said the king. + +The two courtiers questioned each other with a look of surprise. + +"He is dreaming," said Coyctier, in a low voice. + +"Pasques-Dieu!" cried Louis XI., "do you think me mad? People are +crossing the bridge. It is true I am near the chimney, and I may hear +sounds more easily than you. That effect of nature might be utilized," +he added thoughtfully. + +"What a man!" said de Daim. + +Louis XI. rose and went toward one of the windows that looked on the +town. He saw the grand provost, and exclaimed:-- + +"Ha, ha! here's my crony and his thief. And here comes my little +Marie de Saint-Vallier; I'd forgotten all about it. Olivier," he said, +addressing the barber, "go and tell Monsieur de Montbazon to serve some +good Bourgeuil wine at dinner, and see that the cook doesn't forget +the lampreys; Madame le comtesse likes both those things. Can I eat +lampreys?" he added, after a pause, looking anxiously at Coyctier. + +For all answer the physician began to examine his master's face. The two +men were a picture in themselves. + +History and romance-writers have consecrated the brown camlet coat, and +the breeches of the same stuff, worn by Louis XI. His cap, decorated +with leaden medallions, and his collar of the order of Saint-Michel, are +not less celebrated; but no writer, no painter has represented the face +of that terrible monarch in his last years,--a sickly, hollow, yellow +and brown face, all the features of which expressed a sour craftiness, +a cold sarcasm. In that mask was the forehead of a great man, a brow +furrowed with wrinkles, and weighty with high thoughts; but in his +cheeks and on his lips there was something indescribably vulgar and +common. Looking at certain details of that countenance you would have +thought him a debauched husbandman, or a miserly peddler; and yet, above +these vague resemblances and the decrepitude of a dying old man, the +king, the man of power, rose supreme. His eyes, of a light yellow, +seemed at first sight extinct; but a spark of courage and of anger +lurked there, and at the slightest touch it could burst into flames and +cast fire about him. The doctor was a stout burgher, with a florid face, +dressed in black, peremptory, greedy of gain, and self-important. These +two personages were framed, as it were, in that panelled chamber, hung +with high-warped tapestries of Flanders, the ceiling of which, made of +carved beams, was blackened by smoke. The furniture, the bed, all inlaid +with arabesques in pewter, would seem to-day more precious than they +were at that period when the arts were beginning to produce their +choicest masterpieces. + +"Lampreys are not good for you," replied the physician. + +That title, recently substituted for the former term of "myrrh-master," +is still applied to the faculty in England. The name was at this period +given to doctors everywhere. + +"Then what may I eat?" asked the king, humbly. + +"Salt mackerel. Otherwise, you have so much bile in motion that you may +die on All-Souls' Day." + +"To-day!" cried the king in terror. + +"Compose yourself, sire," replied Coyctier. "I am here. Try not to fret +your mind; find some way to amuse yourself." + +"Ah!" said the king, "my daughter Marie used to succeed in that +difficult business." + +As he spoke, Imbert de Bastarnay, sire of Montresor and Bridore, rapped +softly on the royal door. On receiving the king's permission he entered +and announced the Comte and Comtesse de Saint-Vallier. Louis XI. made +a sign. Marie appeared, followed by her old husband, who allowed her to +pass in first. + +"Good-day, my children," said the king. + +"Sire," replied his daughter in a low voice, as she embraced him, "I +want to speak to you in secret." + +Louis XI. appeared not to have heard her. He turned to the door and +called out in a hollow voice, "Hola, Dufou!" + +Dufou, seigneur of Montbazon and grand cup-bearer of France, entered in +haste. + +"Go to the maitre d'hotel, and tell him I must have salt mackerel for +dinner. And go to Madame de Beaujeu, and let her know that I wish to +dine alone to-day. Do you know, madame," continued the king, pretending +to be slightly angry, "that you neglect me? It is almost three years +since I have seen you. Come, come here, my pretty," he added, sitting +down and holding out his arms to her. "How thin you have grown! Why have +you let her grow so thin?" said the king, roughly, addressing the Comte +de Poitiers. + +The jealous husband cast so frightened a look at his wife that she +almost pitied him. + +"Happiness, sire!" he stammered. + +"Ah! you love each other too much,--is that it?" said the king, +holding his daughter between his knees. "I did right to call you +Mary-full-of-grace. Coyctier, leave us! Now, then, what do you want +of me?" he said to his daughter the moment the doctor had gone. "After +sending me your--" + +In this danger, Marie boldly put her hand on the king's lips and said in +his ear,-- + +"I always thought you cautious and penetrating." + +"Saint-Vallier," said the king, laughing, "I think that Bridore has +something to say to you." + +The count left the room; but he made a gesture with his shoulders well +known to his wife, who could guess the thoughts of the jealous man, and +knew she must forestall his cruel designs. + +"Tell me, my child, how do you think I am,--hey? Do I seem changed to +you?" + +"Sire, do you want me to tell you the real truth, or would you rather I +deceived you?" + +"No," he said, in a low voice, "I want to know truly what to expect." + +"In that case, I think you look very ill to-day; but you will not let my +truthfulness injure the success of my cause, will you?" + +"What is your cause?" asked the king, frowning and passing a hand across +his forehead. + +"Ah, sire," she replied, "the young man you have had arrested for +robbing your silversmith Cornelius, and who is now in the hands of the +grand provost, is innocent of the robbery." + +"How do you know that?" asked the king. Marie lowered her head and +blushed. + +"I need not ask if there is love in this business," said the king, +raising his daughter's head gently and stroking her chin. "If you don't +confess every morning, my daughter, you will go to hell." + +"Cannot you oblige me without forcing me to tell my secret thoughts?" + +"Where would be the pleasure?" cried the king, seeing only an amusement +in this affair. + +"Ah! do you want your pleasure to cost me grief?" + +"Oh! you sly little girl, haven't you any confidence in me?" + +"Then, sire, set the young nobleman at liberty." + +"So! he is a nobleman, is he?" cried the king. "Then he is not an +apprentice?" + +"He is certainly innocent," she said. + +"I don't see it so," said the king, coldly. "I am the law and justice of +my kingdom, and I must punish evil-doers." + +"Come, don't put on that solemn face of yours! Give me the life of that +young man." + +"Is it yours already?" + +"Sire," she said, "I am pure and virtuous. You are jesting at--" + +"Then," said Louis XI., interrupting her, "as I am not to know the +truth, I think Tristan had better clear it up." + +Marie turned pale, but she made a violent effort and cried out:-- + +"Sire, I assure you, you will regret all this. The so-called thief stole +nothing. If you will grant me his pardon, I will tell you everything, +even though you may punish me." + +"Ho, ho! this is getting serious," cried the king, shoving up his cap. +"Speak out, my daughter." + +"Well," she said, in a low voice, putting her lips to her father's ear, +"he was in my room all night." + +"He could be there, and yet rob Cornelius. Two robberies!" + +"I have your blood in my veins, and I was not born to love a scoundrel. +That young seigneur is the nephew of the captain-general of your +archers." + +"Well, well!" cried the king; "you are hard to confess." + +With the words the king pushed his daughter from his knee, and hurried +to the door of the room, but softly on tiptoe, making no noise. For +the last moment or two, the light from a window in the adjoining hall, +shining through a space below the door, had shown him the shadow of a +listener's foot projected on the floor of his chamber. He opened the +door abruptly, and surprised the Comte de Saint-Vallier eavesdropping. + +"Pasques-Dieu!" he cried; "here's an audacity that deserves the axe." + +"Sire," replied Saint-Vallier, haughtily, "I would prefer an axe at my +throat to the ornament of marriage on my head." + +"You may have both," said Louis XI. "None of you are safe from such +infirmities, messieurs. Go into the farther hall. Conyngham," continued +the king, addressing the captain of the guard, "you are asleep! Where +is Monsieur de Bridore? Why do you let me be approached in this way? +Pasques-Dieu! the lowest burgher in Tours is better served than I am." + +After scolding thus, Louis re-entered his room; but he took care to +draw the tapestried curtain, which made a second door, intended more to +stifle the words of the king than the whistling of the harsh north wind. + +"So, my daughter," he said, liking to play with her as a cat plays with +a mouse, "Georges d'Estouteville was your lover last night?" + +"Oh, no, sire!" + +"No! Ah! by Saint-Carpion, he deserves to die. Did the scamp not think +my daughter beautiful?" + +"Oh! that is not it," she said. "He kissed my feet and hands with an +ardor that might have touched the most virtuous of women. He loves me +truly in all honor." + +"Do you take me for Saint-Louis, and suppose I should believe such +nonsense? A young fellow, made like him, to have risked his life just to +kiss your little slippers or your sleeves! Tell that to others." + +"But, sire, it is true. And he came for another purpose." + +Having said these words, Marie felt that she had risked the life of her +husband, for Louis instantly demanded: + +"What purpose?" + +The adventure amused him immensely. But he did not expect the strange +confidences his daughter now made to him after stipulating for the +pardon of her husband. + +"Ho, ho, Monsieur de Saint-Vallier! So you dare to shed the royal +blood!" cried the king, his eyes lighting with anger. + +At this moment the bell of Plessis sounded the hour of the king's +dinner. Leaning on the arm of his daughter, Louis XI. appeared with +contracted brows on the threshold of his chamber, and found all +his servitors in waiting. He cast an ambiguous look on the Comte de +Saint-Vallier, thinking of the sentence he meant to pronounce upon him. +The deep silence which reigned was presently broken by the steps of +Tristan l'Hermite as he mounted the grand staircase. The grand provost +entered the hall, and, advancing toward the king, said:-- + +"Sire, the affair is settled." + +"What! is it all over?" said the king. + +"Our man is in the hands of the monks. He confessed the theft after a +touch of the 'question.'" + +The countess gave a sign, and turned pale; she could not speak, but +looked at the king. That look was observed by Saint-Vallier, who +muttered in a low tone: "I am betrayed; that thief is an acquaintance of +my wife." + +"Silence!" cried the king. "Some one is here who will wear out my +patience. Go at once and put a stop to the execution," he continued, +addressing the grand provost. "You will answer with your own body for +that of the criminal, my friend. This affair must be better sifted, +and I reserve to myself the doing of it. Set the prisoner at liberty +provisionally; I can always recover him; these robbers have retreats +they frequent, lairs where they lurk. Let Cornelius know that I shall +be at his house to-night to begin the inquiry myself. Monsieur de +Saint-Vallier," said the king, looking fixedly at the count, "I know +about you. All your blood could not pay for one drop of mine; do +you hear me? By our Lady of Clery! you have committed crimes of +lese-majesty. Did I give you such a pretty wife to make her pale and +weakly? Go back to your own house, and make your preparations for a long +journey." + +The king stopped at these words from a habit of cruelty; then he +added:-- + +"You will leave to-night to attend to my affairs with the government +of Venice. You need be under no anxiety about your wife; I shall take +charge of her at Plessis; she will certainly be safe here. Henceforth I +shall watch over her with greater care than I have done since I married +her to you." + +Hearing these words, Marie silently pressed her father's arm as if to +thank him for his mercy and goodness. As for Louis XI., he was laughing +to himself in his sleeve. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE HIDDEN TREASURE + + +Louis XI. was fond of intervening in the affairs of his subjects, and he +was always ready to mingle his royal majesty with the burgher life. This +taste, severely blamed by some historians, was really only a passion for +the "incognito," one of the greatest pleasures of princes,--a sort of +momentary abdication, which enables them to put a little real life into +their existence, made insipid by the lack of opposition. Louis XI., +however, played the incognito openly. On these occasions he was always +the good fellow, endeavoring to please the people of the middle classes, +whom he made his allies against feudality. For some time past he had +found no opportunity to "make himself populace" and espouse the domestic +interests of some man "engarrie" (an old word still used in Tours, +meaning engaged) in litigious affairs, so that he shouldered the +anxieties of Maitre Cornelius eagerly, and also the secret sorrows of +the Comtesse de Saint-Vallier. Several times during dinner he said to +his daughter:-- + +"Who, think you, could have robbed my silversmith? The robberies now +amount to over twelve hundred thousand crowns in eight years. Twelve +hundred thousand crowns, messieurs!" he continued, looking at the +seigneurs who were serving him. "Notre Dame! with a sum like that what +absolutions could be bought in Rome! And I might, Pasques-Dieu! bank +the Loire, or, better still, conquer Piedmont, a fine fortification +ready-made for this kingdom." + +When dinner was over, Louis XI. took his daughter, his doctor, and the +grand provost, with an escort of soldiers, and rode to the hotel +de Poitiers in Tours, where he found, as he expected, the Comte de +Saint-Vallier awaiting his wife, perhaps to make away with her life. + +"Monsieur," said the king, "I told you to start at once. Say farewell +to your wife now, and go to the frontier; you will be accompanied by an +escort of honor. As for your instructions and credentials, they will be +in Venice before you get there." + +Louis then gave the order--not without adding certain secret +instructions--to a lieutenant of the Scottish guard to take a squad of +men and accompany the ambassador to Venice. Saint-Vallier departed in +haste, after giving his wife a cold kiss which he would fain have made +deadly. Louis XI. then crossed over to the Malemaison, eager to begin +the unravelling of the melancholy comedy, lasting now for eight years, +in the house of his silversmith; flattering himself that, in his +quality of king, he had enough penetration to discover the secret of the +robberies. Cornelius did not see the arrival of the escort of his royal +master without uneasiness. + +"Are all those persons to take part in the inquiry?" he said to the +king. + +Louis XI. could not help smiling as he saw the fright of the miser and +his sister. + +"No, my old crony," he said; "don't worry yourself. They will sup at +Plessis, and you and I alone will make the investigation. I am so good +in detecting criminals, that I will wager you ten thousand crowns I +shall do so now." + +"Find him, sire, and make no wager." + +They went at once into the strong room, where the Fleming kept his +treasure. There Louis, who asked to see, in the first place, the casket +from which the jewels of the Duke of Burgundy had been taken, then the +chimney down which the robber was supposed to have descended, easily +convinced his silversmith of the falsity of the latter supposition, +inasmuch as there was no soot on the hearth,--where, in truth, a fire +was seldom made,--and no sign that any one had passed down the flue; and +moreover that the chimney issued at a part of the roof which was almost +inaccessible. At last, after two hours of close investigation, marked +with that sagacity which distinguished the suspicious mind of Louis +XI., it was clear to him, beyond all doubt, that no one had forced an +entrance into the strong-room of his silversmith. No marks of violence +were on the locks, nor on the iron coffers which contained the gold, +silver, and jewels deposited as securities by wealthy debtors. + +"If the robber opened this box," said the king, "why did he take nothing +out of it but the jewels of the Duke of Bavaria? What reason had he for +leaving that pearl necklace which lay beside them? A queer robber!" + +At that remark the unhappy miser turned pale: he and the king looked at +each other for a moment. + +"Then, sire, what did that robber whom you have taken under your +protection come to do here, and why did he prowl about at night?" + +"If you have not guessed why, my crony, I order you to remain in +ignorance. That is one of my secrets." + +"Then the devil is in my house!" cried the miser, piteously. + +In any other circumstances the king would have laughed at his +silversmith's cry; but he had suddenly become thoughtful, and was +casting on the Fleming those glances peculiar to men of talent and power +which seem to penetrate the brain. Cornelius was frightened, thinking he +had in some way offended his dangerous master. + +"Devil or angel, I have him, the guilty man!" cried Louis XI. abruptly. +"If you are robbed again to-night, I shall know to-morrow who did it. +Make that old hag you call your sister come here," he added. + +Cornelius almost hesitated to leave the king alone in the room with his +hoards; but the bitter smile on Louis's withered lips determined him. +Nevertheless he hurried back, followed by the old woman. + +"Have you any flour?" demanded the king. + +"Oh yes; we have laid in our stock for the winter," she answered. + +"Well, go and fetch some," said the king. + +"What do you want to do with our flour, sire?" she cried, not the least +impressed by his royal majesty. + +"Old fool!" said Cornelius, "go and execute the orders of our gracious +master. Shall the king lack flour?" + +"Our good flour!" she grumbled, as she went downstairs. "Ah! my flour!" + +Then she returned, and said to the king:-- + +"Sire, is it only a royal notion to examine my flour?" + +At last she reappeared, bearing one of those stout linen bags which, +from time immemorial, have been used in Touraine to carry or bring, to +and from market, nuts, fruits, or wheat. The bag was half full of flour. +The housekeeper opened it and showed it to the king, on whom she cast +the rapid, savage look with which old maids appear to squirt venom upon +men. + +"It costs six sous the 'septeree,'" she said. + +"What does that matter?" said the king. "Spread it on the floor; but be +careful to make an even layer of it--as if it had fallen like snow." + +The old maid did not comprehend. This proposal astonished her as though +the end of the world had come. + +"My flour, sire! on the ground! But--" + +Maitre Cornelius, who was beginning to understand, though vaguely, the +intentions of the king, seized the bag and gently poured its contents +on the floor. The old woman quivered, but she held out her hand for the +empty bag, and when her brother gave it back to her she disappeared with +a heavy sigh. + +Cornelius then took a feather broom and gently smoothed the flour till +it looked like a fall of snow, retreating step by step as he did so, +followed by the king, who seemed much amused by the operation. When they +reached the door Louis XI. said to his silversmith, "Are there two keys +to the lock?" + +"No, sire." + +The king then examined the structure of the door, which was braced with +large plates and bars of iron, all of which converged to a secret lock, +the key of which was kept by Cornelius. + +After examining everything, the king sent for Tristan, and ordered him +to post several of his men for the night, and with the greatest +secrecy, in the mulberry trees on the embankment and on the roofs of the +adjoining houses, and to assemble at once the rest of his men and escort +him back to Plessis, so as to give the idea in the town that he himself +would not sup with Cornelius. Next, he told the miser to close his +windows with the utmost care, that no single ray of light should escape +from the house, and then he departed with much pomp for Plessis along +the embankment; but there he secretly left his escort, and returned by +a door in the ramparts to the house of the torconnier. All these +precautions were so well taken that the people of Tours really thought +the king had returned to Plessis, and would sup on the morrow with +Cornelius. + +Towards eight o'clock that evening, as the king was supping with his +physician, Cornelius, and the captain of his guard, and holding much +jovial converse, forgetting for the time being that he was ill and in +danger of death, the deepest silence reigned without, and all passers, +even the wariest robber, would have believed that the Malemaison was +occupied as usual. + +"I hope," said the king, laughing, "that my silversmith shall be robbed +to-night, so that my curiosity may be satisfied. Therefore, messieurs, +no one is to leave his chamber to-morrow morning without my order, under +pain of grievous punishment." + +Thereupon, all went to bed. The next morning, Louis XI. was the first to +leave his apartment, and he went at once to the door of the strong-room. +He was not a little astonished to see, as he went along, the marks of +a large foot along the stairways and corridors of the house. Carefully +avoiding those precious footprints, he followed them to the door of +the treasure-room, which he found locked without a sign of fracture or +defacement. Then he studied the direction of the steps; but as they grew +gradually fainter, they finally left not the slightest trace, and it was +impossible for him to discover where the robber had fled. + +"Ho, crony!" called out the king, "you have been finely robbed this +time." + +At these words the old Fleming hurried out of his chamber, visibly +terrified. Louis XI. made him look at the foot-prints on the stairs and +corridors, and while examining them himself for the second time, the +king chanced to observe the miser's slippers and recognized the type of +sole that was printed in flour on the corridors. He said not a word, and +checked his laughter, remembering the innocent men who had been hanged +for the crime. The miser now hurried to his treasure. Once in the room +the king ordered him to make a new mark with his foot beside those +already existing, and easily convinced him that the robber of his +treasure was no other than himself. + +"The pearl necklace is gone!" cried Cornelius. "There is sorcery in +this. I never left my room." + +"We'll know all about it now," said the king; the evident truthfulness +of his silversmith making him still more thoughtful. + +He immediately sent for the men he had stationed on the watch and +asked:-- + +"What did you see during the night?" + +"Oh, sire!" said the lieutenant, "an amazing sight! Your silversmith +crept down the side of the wall like a cat; so lightly that he seemed to +be a shadow." + +"I!" exclaimed Cornelius; after that one word, he remained silent, and +stood stock-still like a man who has lost the use of his limbs. + +"Go away, all of you," said the king, addressing the archers, "and tell +Messieurs Conyngham, Coyctier, Bridore, and also Tristan, to leave their +rooms and come here to mine.--You have incurred the penalty of death," +he said to Cornelius, who, happily, did not hear him. "You have ten +murders on your conscience!" + +Thereupon Louis XI. gave a silent laugh, and made a pause. Presently, +remarking the strange pallor on the Fleming's face, he added:-- + +"You need not be uneasy; you are more valuable to bleed than to kill. +You can get out of the claws of _my_ justice by payment of a good round +sum to my treasury, but if you don't build at least one chapel in honor +of the Virgin, you are likely to find things hot for you throughout +eternity." + +"Twelve hundred and thirty, and eighty-seven thousand crowns, make +thirteen hundred and seventeen thousand crowns," replied Cornelius +mechanically, absorbed in his calculations. "Thirteen hundred and +seventeen thousand crowns hidden somewhere!" + +"He must have buried them in some hiding-place," muttered the king, +beginning to think the sum royally magnificent. "That was the magnet +that invariably brought him back to Tours. He felt his treasure." + +Coyctier entered at this moment. Noticing the attitude of Maitre +Cornelius, he watched him narrowly while the king related the adventure. + +"Sire," replied the physician, "there is nothing supernatural in that. +Your silversmith has the faculty of walking in his sleep. This is +the third case I have seen of that singular malady. If you would give +yourself the amusement of watching him at such times, you would see that +old man stepping without danger at the very edge of the roof. I noticed +in the two other cases I have already observed, a curious connection +between the actions of that nocturnal existence and the interests and +occupations of their daily life." + +"Ah! Maitre Coyctier, you are a wise man." + +"I am your physician," replied the other, insolently. + +At this answer, Louis XI. made the gesture which was customary with him +when a good idea was presented to his mind; he shoved up his cap with a +hasty motion. + +"At such times," continued Coyctier, "persons attend to their business +while asleep. As this man is fond of hoarding, he has simply pursued his +dearest habit. No doubt each of these attacks have come on after a day +in which he has felt some fears about the safety of his treasure." + +"Pasques-Dieu! and such treasure!" cried the king. + +"Where is it?" asked Cornelius, who, by a singular provision of nature, +heard the remarks of the king and his physician, while continuing +himself almost torpid with thought and the shock of this singular +misfortune. + +"Ha!" cried Coyctier, bursting into a diabolical, coarse laugh, +"somnambulists never remember on their waking what they have done when +asleep." + +"Leave us," said the king. + +When Louis XI. was alone with his silversmith, he looked at him and +chuckled coldly. + +"Messire Hoogworst," he said, with a nod, "all treasures buried in +France belong to the king." + +"Yes, sire, all is yours; you are the absolute master of our lives and +fortunes; but, up to this moment, you have only taken what you need." + +"Listen to me, old crony; if I help you to recover this treasure, you +can surely, and without fear, agree to divide it with me." + +"No, sire, I will not divide it; I will give it all to you, at my death. +But what scheme have you for finding it?" + +"I shall watch you myself when you are taking your nocturnal tramps. You +might fear any one but me." + +"Ah, sire!" cried Cornelius, flinging himself at the king's feet, "you +are the only man in the kingdom whom I would trust for such a service; +and I will try to prove my gratitude for your goodness, by doing +my utmost to promote the marriage of the Burgundian heiress with +Monseigneur. She will bring you a noble treasure, not of money, but of +lands, which will round out the glory of your crown." + +"There, there, Dutchman, you are trying to hoodwink me," said the king, +with frowning brows, "or else you have already done so." + +"Sire! can you doubt my devotion? you, who are the only man I love!" + +"All that is talk," returned the king, looking the other in the eyes. +"You need not have waited till this moment to do me that service. You +are selling me your influence--Pasques-Dieu! to me, Louis XI.! Are you +the master, and am I your servant?" + +"Ah, sire," said the old man, "I was waiting to surprise you agreeably +with news of the arrangements I had made for you in Ghent; I was +awaiting confirmation from Oosterlinck through that apprentice. What has +become of that young man?" + +"Enough!" said the king; "this is only one more blunder you have +committed. I do not like persons to meddle in my affairs without my +knowledge. Enough! leave me; I wish to reflect upon all this." + +Maitre Cornelius found the agility of youth to run downstairs to the +lower rooms where he was certain to find his sister. + +"Ah! Jeanne, my dearest soul, a hoard is hidden in this house; I have +put thirteen hundred thousand crowns and all the jewels somewhere. I, I, +I am the robber!" + +Jeanne Hoogworst rose from her stool and stood erect as if the seat she +quitted were of red-hot iron. This shock was so violent for an old maid +accustomed for years to reduce herself by voluntary fasts, that she +trembled in every limb, and horrible pains were in her back. She turned +pale by degrees, and her face,--the changes in which were difficult +to decipher among its wrinkles,--became distorted while her brother +explained to her the malady of which he was the victim, and the +extraordinary situation in which he found himself. + +"Louis XI. and I," he said in conclusion, "have just been lying to each +other like two peddlers of coconuts. You understand, my girl, that if he +follows me, he will get the secret of the hiding-place. The king alone +can watch my wanderings at night. I don't feel sure that his conscience, +near as he is to death, can resist thirteen hundred thousand crowns. We +MUST be beforehand with him; we must find the hidden treasure and send +it to Ghent, and you alone--" + +Cornelius stopped suddenly, and seemed to be weighing the heart of the +sovereign who had had thoughts of parricide at twenty-two years of age. +When his judgment of Louis XI. was concluded, he rose abruptly like a +man in haste to escape a pressing danger. At this instant, his sister, +too feeble or too strong for such a crisis, fell stark; she was dead. +Maitre Cornelius seized her, and shook her violently, crying out: + +"You cannot die now. There is time enough later--Oh! it is all over. The +old hag never could do anything at the right time." + +He closed her eyes and laid her on the floor. Then the good and noble +feelings which lay at the bottom of his soul came back to him, and, half +forgetting his hidden treasure, he cried out mournfully:-- + +"Oh! my poor companion, have I lost you?--you who understood me so well! +Oh! you were my real treasure. There it lies, my treasure! With you, my +peace of mind, my affections, all, are gone. If you had only known what +good it would have done me to live two nights longer, you would have +lived, solely to please me, my poor sister! Ah, Jeanne! thirteen hundred +thousand crowns! Won't that wake you?--No, she is dead!" + +Thereupon, he sat down, and said no more; but two great tears issued +from his eyes and rolled down his hollow cheeks; then, with strange +exclamations of grief, he locked up the room and returned to the king. +Louis XI. was struck with the expression of sorrow on the moistened +features of his old friend. + +"What is the matter?" he asked. + +"Ah! sire, misfortunes never come singly. My sister is dead. She +precedes me there below," he said, pointing to the floor with a dreadful +gesture. + +"Enough!" cried Louis XI., who did not like to hear of death. + +"I make you my heir. I care for nothing now. Here are my keys. Hang me, +if that's your good pleasure. Take all, ransack the house; it is full of +gold. I give up all to you--" + +"Come, come, crony," replied Louis XI., who was partly touched by the +sight of this strange suffering, "we shall find your treasure some fine +night, and the sight of such riches will give you heart to live. I will +come back in the course of this week--" + +"As you please, sire." + +At that answer the king, who had made a few steps toward the door of the +chamber, turned round abruptly. The two men looked at each other with an +expression that neither pen nor pencil can reproduce. + +"Adieu, my crony," said Louis XI. at last in a curt voice, pushing up +his cap. + +"May God and the Virgin keep you in their good graces!" replied the +silversmith humbly, conducting the king to the door of the house. + +After so long a friendship, the two men found a barrier raised between +them by suspicion and gold; though they had always been like one man on +the two points of gold and suspicion. But they knew each other so well, +they had so completely the habit, one may say, of each other, that the +king could divine, from the tone in which Cornelius uttered the words, +"As you please, sire," the repugnance that his visits would henceforth +cause to the silversmith, just as the latter recognized a declaration of +war in the "Adieu, my crony," of the king. + +Thus Louis XI. and his torconnier parted much in doubt as to the conduct +they ought in future to hold to each other. The monarch possessed the +secret of the Fleming; but on the other hand, the latter could, by his +connections, bring about one of the finest acquisitions that any king +of France had ever made; namely, that of the domains of the house +of Burgundy, which the sovereigns of Europe were then coveting. The +marriage of the celebrated Marguerite depended on the people of Ghent +and the Flemings who surrounded her. The gold and the influence of +Cornelius could powerfully support the negotiations now begun by +Desquerdes, the general to whom Louis XI. had given the command of the +army encamped on the frontiers of Belgium. These two master-foxes were, +therefore, like two duellists, whose arms are paralyzed by chance. + +So, whether it were that from that day the king's health failed and went +from bad to worse, or that Cornelius did assist in bringing into France +Marguerite of Burgundy--who arrived at Ambroise in July, 1438, to +marry the Dauphin to whom she was betrothed in the chapel of the +castle--certain it is that the king took no steps in the matter of the +hidden treasure; he levied no tribute from his silversmith, and the pair +remained in the cautious condition of an armed friendship. Happily for +Cornelius a rumor was spread about Tours that his sister was the +actual robber, and that she had been secretly put to death by Tristan. +Otherwise, if the true history had been known, the whole town would have +risen as one man to destroy the Malemaison before the king could have +taken measures to protect it. + +But, although these historical conjectures have some foundation so +far as the inaction of Louis XI. is concerned, it is not so as regards +Cornelius Hoogworst. There was no inaction there. The silversmith spent +the first days which succeeded that fatal night in ceaseless occupation. +Like carnivorous animals confined in cages, he went and came, smelling +for gold in every corner of his house; he studied the cracks and +crevices, he sounded the walls, he besought the trees of the garden, the +foundations of the house, the roofs of the turrets, the earth and the +heavens, to give him back his treasure. Often he stood motionless for +hours, casting his eyes on all sides, plunging them into the void. +Striving for the miracles of ecstasy and the powers of sorcery, he +tried to see his riches through space and obstacles. He was constantly +absorbed in one overwhelming thought, consumed with a single desire that +burned his entrails, gnawed more cruelly still by the ever-increasing +agony of the duel he was fighting with himself since his passion for +gold had turned to his own injury,--a species of uncompleted suicide +which kept him at once in the miseries of life and in those of death. + +Never was a Vice more punished by itself. A miser, locked by accident +into the subterranean strong-room that contains his treasures, has, like +Sardanapalus, the happiness of dying in the midst of his wealth. But +Cornelius, the robber and the robbed, knowing the secret of neither the +one nor the other, possessed and did not possess his treasure,--a +novel, fantastic, but continually terrible torture. Sometimes, becoming +forgetful, he would leave the little gratings of his door wide open, +and then the passers in the street could see that already wizened man, +planted on his two legs in the midst of his untilled garden, absolutely +motionless, and casting on those who watched him a fixed gaze, the +insupportable light of which froze them with terror. If, by chance, he +walked through the streets of Tours, he seemed like a stranger in them; +he knew not where he was, nor whether the sun or the moon were shining. +Often he would ask his way of those who passed him, believing that he +was still in Ghent, and seeming to be in search of something lost. + +The most perennial and the best materialized of human ideas, the idea +by which man reproduces himself by creating outside of himself the +fictitious being called Property, that mental demon, drove its steel +claws perpetually into his heart. Then, in the midst of this torture, +Fear arose, with all its accompanying sentiments. Two men had his +secret, the secret he did not know himself. Louis XI. or Coyctier could +post men to watch him during his sleep and discover the unknown gulf +into which he had cast his riches,--those riches he had watered with the +blood of so many innocent men. And then, beside his fear, arose Remorse. + +In order to prevent during his lifetime the abduction of his hidden +treasure, he took the most cruel precautions against sleep; besides +which, his commercial relations put him in the way of obtaining powerful +anti-narcotics. His struggles to keep awake were awful--alone with +night, silence, Remorse, and Fear, with all the thoughts that man, +instinctively perhaps, has best embodied--obedient thus to a moral truth +as yet devoid of actual proof. + +At last this man so powerful, this heart so hardened by political and +commercial life, this genius, obscure in history, succumbed to the +horrors of the torture he had himself created. Maddened by certain +thoughts more agonizing than those he had as yet resisted, he cut his +throat with a razor. + +This death coincided, almost, with that of Louis XI. Nothing then +restrained the populace, and Malemaison, that Evil House, was pillaged. +A tradition exists among the older inhabitants of Touraine that a +contractor of public works, named Bohier, found the miser's treasure +and used it in the construction of Chenonceaux, that marvellous chateau +which, in spite of the wealth of several kings and the taste of Diane +de Poitiers and Catherine de' Medici for building, remains unfinished to +the present day. + +Happily for Marie de Sassenage, the Comte de Saint-Vallier died, as +we know, in his embassy. The family did not become extinct. After the +departure of the count, the countess gave birth to a son, whose career +was famous in the history of France under the reign of Francois I. +He was saved by his daughter, the celebrated Diane de Poitiers, +the illegitimate great-granddaughter of Louis XI., who became the +illegitimate wife, the beloved mistress of Henri II.--for bastardy and +love were hereditary in that family of nobles. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Maitre Cornelius, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAITRE CORNELIUS *** + +***** This file should be named 1454.txt or 1454.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/5/1454/ + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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