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diff --git a/old/hwolf10.txt b/old/hwolf10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..09a99f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/hwolf10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6511 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext The House of the Wolf, by Stanley Weyman +#3 in our series by Stanley Weyman [Also see #2038] + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Note: + +In this Etext, text in italics has been written in capital +letters. + +Many French words in the text have accents, etc. which have been +omitted. + + + + + +THE HOUSE OF THE WOLF + +A Romance + +by STANLEY WEYMAN + + + + +CONTENTS. + + CHAP. + I.--WARE WOLF! + II.--THE VIDAME'S THREAT. + III.--THE ROAD TO PARIS. + IV.--ENTRAPPED! + V.--A PRIEST AND A WOMAN. + VI.--MADAME'S FRIGHT. + VII.--A YOUNG KNIGHT ERRANT. +VIII.--THE PARISIAN MATINS. + IX.--THE HEAD OF ERASMUS. + X.--HAU, HAU, HUGUENOTS! + XI.--A NIGHT OF SORROW. + XII.--JOY IN THE MORNING. + + + +INTRODUCTION. + +The following is a modern English version of a curious French +memoir, or fragment of autobiography, apparently written about +the year 1620 by Anne, Vicomte de Caylus, and brought to this +country--if, in fact, the original ever existed in England--by +one of his descendants after the Revocation of the Edict of +Nantes. This Anne, we learn from other sources, was a principal +figure at the Court of Henry IV., and, therefore, in August, +1572, when the adventures here related took place, he and his two +younger brothers, Marie and Croisette, who shared with him the +honour and the danger, must have been little more than boys. +From the tone of his narrative, it appears that, in reviving old +recollections, the veteran renewed his youth also, and though his +story throws no fresh light upon the history of the time, it +seems to possess some human interest. + + + + +THE HOUSE OF THE WOLF. + + + +CHAPTER I. + +WARE WOLF! + +I had afterwards such good reason to look back upon and remember +the events of that afternoon, that Catherine's voice seems to +ring in my brain even now. I can shut my eyes and see again, +after all these years, what I saw then--just the blue summer sky, +and one grey angle of the keep, from which a fleecy cloud was +trailing like the smoke from a chimney. I could see no more +because I was lying on my back, my head resting on my hands. +Marie and Croisette, my brothers, were lying by me in exactly the +same posture, and a few yards away on the terrace, Catherine was +sitting on a stool Gil had brought out for her. It was the +second Thursday in August, and hot. Even the jackdaws were +silent. I had almost fallen asleep, watching my cloud grow +longer and longer, and thinner and thinner, when Croisette, who +cared for heat no more than a lizard, spoke up sharply, +"Mademoiselle," he said, "why are you watching the Cahors road?" + +I had not noticed that she was doing so. But something in the +keenness of Croisette's tone, taken perhaps with the fact that +Catherine did not at once answer him, aroused me; and I turned to +her. And lo! she was blushing in the most heavenly way, and her +eyes were full of tears, and she looked at us adorably. And we +all three sat up on our elbows, like three puppy dogs, and looked +at her. And there was a long silence. And then she said quite +simply to us, "Boys, I am going to be married to M. de Pavannes." + +I fell flat on my back and spread out my arms. "Oh, +Mademoiselle!" I cried reproachfully. + +"Oh, Mademoiselle!" cried Marie. And he fell flat on his back, +and spread out his arms and moaned. He was a good brother, was +Marie, and obedient. + +And Croisette cried, "Oh, mademoiselle!" too. But he was always +ridiculous in his ways. He fell flat on his back, and flopped his +arms and squealed like a pig. + +Yet he was sharp. It was he who first remembered our duty, and +went to Catherine, cap in hand, where she sat half angry and half +confused, and said with a fine redness in his cheeks, +"Mademoiselle de Caylus, our cousin, we give you joy, and wish +you long life; and are your servants, and the good friends and +aiders of M. de Pavannes in all quarrels, as--" + +But I could not stand that. "Not so fast, St. Croix de Caylus" I +said, pushing him aside--he was ever getting before me in those +days--and taking his place. Then with my best bow I began, +"Mademoiselle, we give you joy and long life, and are your +servants and the good friends and aiders of M. de Pavannes in all +quarrels, as--as--" + +"As becomes the cadets of your house," suggested Croisette, +softly. + +"As becomes the cadets of your house," I repeated. And then +Catherine stood up and made me a low bow and we all kissed her +hand in turn, beginning with me and ending with Croisette, as was +becoming. Afterwards Catherine threw her handkerchief over her +face--she was crying--and we three sat down, Turkish fashion, +just where we were, and said "Oh, Kit!" very softly. + +But presently Croisette had something to add. "What will the +Wolf say?" he whispered to me. + +"Ah! To be sure!" I exclaimed aloud. I had been thinking of +myself before; but this opened quite another window. "What will +the Vidame say, Kit?" + +She dropped her kerchief from her face, and turned so pale that I +was sorry I had spoken--apart from the kick Croisette gave me. +"Is M. de Bezers at his house?" she asked anxiously. + +"Yes" Croisette answered. "He came in last night from St. +Antonin, with very small attendance." + +The news seemed to set her fears at rest instead of augmenting +them as I should have expected. I suppose they were rather for +Louis de Pavannes, than for herself. Not unnaturally, too, for +even the Wolf could scarcely have found it in his heart to hurt +our cousin. Her slight willowy figure, her pale oval face and +gentle brown eyes, her pleasant voice, her kindness, seemed to us +boys and in those days, to sum up all that was womanly. We could +not remember, not even Croisette the youngest of us--who was +seventeen, a year junior to Marie and myself--we were twins--the +time when we had not been in love with her. + +But let me explain how we four, whose united ages scarce exceeded +seventy years, came to be lounging on the terrace in the holiday +stillness of that afternoon. It was the summer of 1572. The +great peace, it will be remembered, between the Catholics and the +Huguenots had not long been declared; the peace which in a day or +two was to be solemnized, and, as most Frenchmen hoped, to be +cemented by the marriage of Henry of Navarre with Margaret of +Valois, the King's sister. The Vicomte de Caylus, Catherine's +father and our guardian, was one of the governors appointed to +see the peace enforced; the respect in which he was held by both +parties--he was a Catholic, but no bigot, God rest his soul!-- +recommending him for this employment. He had therefore gone a +week or two before to Bayonne, his province. Most of our +neighbours in Quercy were likewise from home, having gone to +Paris to be witnesses on one side or the other of the royal +wedding. And consequently we young people, not greatly checked +by the presence of good-natured, sleepy Madame Claude, +Catherine's duenna, were disposed to make the most of our +liberty; and to celebrate the peace in our own fashion. + +We were country-folk. Not one of us had been to Pau, much less +to Paris. The Vicomte held stricter views than were common then, +upon young people's education; and though we had learned to ride +and shoot, to use our swords and toss a hawk, and to read and +write, we knew little more than Catherine herself of the world; +little more of the pleasures and sins of court life, and not one- +tenth as much as she did of its graces. Still she had taught us +to dance and make a bow. Her presence had softened our manners; +and of late we had gained something from the frank companionship +of Louis de Pavannes, a Huguenot whom the Vicomte had taken +prisoner at Moncontour and held to ransom. We were not, I +think, mere clownish yokels. + +But we were shy. We disliked and shunned strangers. And when +old Gil appeared suddenly, while we were still chewing the +melancholy cud of Kit's announcement, and cried sepulchrally, "M. +le Vidame de Bezers to pay his respects to Mademoiselle!"--Well, +there was something like a panic, I confess! + +We scrambled to our feet, muttering, "The Wolf!" The entrance at +Caylus is by a ramp rising from the gateway to the level of the +terrace. This sunken way is fenced by low walls so that one may +not--when walking on the terrace--fall into it. Gil had spoken +before his head had well risen to view, and this gave us a +moment, just a moment. Croisette made a rush for the doorway +into the house; but failed to gain it, and drew himself up behind +a buttress of the tower, his finger on his lip. I am slow +sometimes, and Marie waited for me, so that we had barely got to +our legs--looking, I dare say, awkward and ungainly enough-- +before the Vidame's shadow fell darkly on the ground at +Catherine's feet. + +"Mademoiselle!" he said, advancing to her through the sunshine, +and bending over her slender hand with a magnificent grace that +was born of his size and manner combined, "I rode in late last +night from Toulouse; and I go to-morrow to Paris. I have but +rested and washed off the stains of travel that I may lay my-- +ah!" + +He seemed to see us for the first time and negligently broke off +in his compliment; raising himself and saluting us. "Ah," he +continued indolently, "two of the maidens of Caylus, I see. With +an odd pair of hands apiece, unless I am mistaken, Why do you not +set them spinning, Mademoiselle?" and he regarded us with that +smile which--with other things as evil--had made him famous. + +Croisette pulled horrible faces behind his back. We looked hotly +at him; but could find nothing to say. + +"You grow red!" he went on, pleasantly--the wretch!--playing +with us as a cat does with mice. "It offends your dignity, +perhaps, that I bid Mademoiselle set you spinning? I now would +spin at Mademoiselle's bidding, and think it happiness!" + +"We are not girls!" I blurted out, with the flush and tremor of +a boy's passion. "You had not called my godfather, Anne de +Montmorenci a girl, M. le Vidame!" For though we counted it a +joke among ourselves that we all bore girls' names, we were young +enough to be sensitive about it. + +He shrugged his shoulders. And how he dwarfed us all as he stood +there dominating our terrace! "M. de Montmorenci was a man," he +said scornfully. "M. Anne de Caylus is--" + +And the villain deliberately turned his great back upon us, +taking his seat on the low wall near Catherine's chair. It was +clear even to our vanity that he did not think us worth another +word--that we had passed absolutely from his mind. Madame Claude +came waddling out at the same moment, Gil carrying a chair behind +her. And we--well we slunk away and sat on the other side of the +terrace, whence we could still glower at the offender. + +Yet who were we to glower at him? To this day I shake at the +thought of him. It was not so much his height and bulk, though +he was so big that the clipped pointed fashion of his beard a +fashion then new at court--seemed on him incongruous and +effeminate; nor so much the sinister glance of his grey eyes--he +had a slight cast in them; nor the grim suavity of his manner, +and the harsh threatening voice that permitted of no disguise. +It was the sum of these things, the great brutal presence of the +man--that was overpowering--that made the great falter and the +poor crouch. And then his reputation! Though we knew little of +the world's wickedness, all we did know had come to us linked +with his name. We had heard of him as a duellist, as a bully, an +employer of bravos. At Jarnac he had been the last to turn from +the shambles. Men called him cruel and vengeful even for those +days--gone by now, thank God!--and whispered his name when they +spoke of assassinations; saying commonly of him that he would not +blench before a Guise, nor blush before the Virgin. + +Such was our visitor and neighbour, Raoul de Mar, Vidame de +Bezers. As he sat on the terrace, now eyeing us askance, and now +paying Catherine a compliment, I likened him to a great cat +before which a butterfly has all unwittingly flirted her +prettiness. Poor Catherine! No doubt she had her own reasons +for uneasiness; more reasons I fancy than I then guessed. For +she seemed to have lost her voice. She stammered and made but +poor replies; and Madame Claude being deaf and stupid, and we +boys too timid after the rebuff we had experienced to fill the +gap, the conversation languished. The Vidame was not for his +part the man to put himself out on a hot day. + +It was after one of these pauses--not the first but the longest-- +that I started on finding his eyes fixed on mine. More, I +shivered. It is hard to describe, but there was a look in the +Vidame's eyes at that moment which I had never seen before. A +look of pain almost: of dumb savage alarm at any rate. From me +they passed slowly to Marie and mutely interrogated him. Then +the Vidame's glance travelled back to Catherine, and settled on +her. + +Only a moment before she had been but too conscious of his +presence. Now, as it chanced by bad luck, or in the course of +Providence, something had drawn her attention elsewhere. She was +unconscious of his regard. Her own eyes were fixed in a far-away +gaze. Her colour was high, her lips were parted, her bosom +heaved gently. + +The shadow deepened on the Vidame's face. Slowly he took his +eyes from hers, and looked northwards also. + +Caylus Castle stands on a rock in the middle of the narrow valley +of that name. The town clusters about the ledges of the rock so +closely that when I was a boy I could fling a stone clear of the +houses. The hills are scarcely five hundred yards distant on +either side, rising in tamer colours from the green fields about +the brook. It is possible from the terrace to see the whole +valley, and the road which passes through it lengthwise. +Catherine's eyes were on the northern extremity of the defile, +where the highway from Cahors descends from the uplands. She had +been sitting with her face turned that way all the afternoon. + +I looked that way too. A solitary horseman was descending the +steep track from the hills. + +"Mademoiselle!" cried the Vidame suddenly. We all looked up. +His tone was such that the colour fled from Kit's face. There +was something in his voice she had never heard in any voice +before--something that to a woman was like a blow. +"Mademoiselle," he snarled, "is expecting news from Cahors, from +her lover. I have the honour to congratulate M. de Pavannes on +his conquest." + +Ah! he had guessed it! As the words fell on the sleepy silence, +an insult in themselves, I sprang to my feet, amazed and angry, +yet astounded by his quickness of sight and wit. He must have +recognized the Pavannes badge at that distance. "M. le Vidame," +I said indignantly--Catherine was white and voiceless--"M. le +Vidame--" but there I stopped and faltered stammering. For +behind him I could see Croisette; and Croisette gave me no sign +of encouragement or support. + +So we stood face to face for a moment; the boy and the man of the +world, the stripling and the ROUE. Then the Vidame bowed to me +in quite a new fashion. "M. Anne de Caylus desires to answer for +M. de Pavannes?" he asked smoothly; with a mocking smoothness. + +I understood what he meant. But something prompted me--Croisette +said afterwards that it was a happy thought, though now I know +the crisis to have been less serious than he fancied to answer, +"Nay, not for M. de Pavannes. Rather for my cousin." And I +bowed. "I have the honour on her behalf to acknowledge your +congratulations, M. le Vidame. It pleases her that our nearest +neighbour should also be the first outside the family to wish her +well. You have divined truly in supposing that she will shortly +be united to M. de Pavannes." + +I suppose--for I saw the giant's colour change and his lip quiver +as I spoke--that his previous words had been only a guess. For a +moment the devil seemed to be glaring through his eyes; and he +looked at Marie and me as a wild animal at its keepers. Yet he +maintained his cynical politeness in part. "Mademoiselle desires +my congratulations?" he said, slowly, labouring with each word +it seemed. "She shall have them on the happy day. She shall +certainly have them then. But these are troublous times. And +Mademoiselle's betrothed is I think a Huguenot, and has gone to +Paris. Paris--well, the air of Paris is not good for Huguenots, +I am told." + +I saw Catherine shiver; indeed she was on the point of fainting, +I broke in rudely, my passion getting the better of my fears. +"M. de Pavannes can take care of himself, believe me," I said +brusquely. + +"Perhaps so," Bezers answered, his voice like the grating of +steel on steel. "But at any rate this will be a memorable day +for Mademoiselle. The day on which she receives her first +congratulations--she will remember it as long as she lives! Oh, +yes, I will answer for that, M. Anne," he said looking brightly +at one and another of us, his eyes more oblique than ever, +"Mademoiselle will remember it, I am sure!" + +It would be impossible to describe the devilish glance he flung +at the poor sinking girl as he withdrew, the horrid emphasis he +threw into those last words, the covert deadly threat they +conveyed to the dullest ears. That he went then, was small +mercy. He had done all the evil he could do at present. If his +desire had been to leave fear behind him, he had certainly +succeeded. + +Kit crying softly went into the house; her innocent coquetry more +than sufficiently punished already. And we three looked at one +another with blank faces, It was clear that we had made a +dangerous enemy, and an enemy at our own gates. As the Vidame +had said, these were troublous times when things were done to +men--ay, and to women and children--which we scarce dare to speak +of now. "I wish the Vicomte were here," Croisette said uneasily +after we had discussed several unpleasant contingencies. + +"Or even Malines the steward," I suggested. + +"He would not be much good," replied Croisette. + +"And he is at St. Antonin, and will not be back this week. +Father Pierre too is at Albi." + +"You do not think," said Marie, "that he will attack us?" + +"Certainly not!" Croisette retorted with contempt. "Even the +Vidame would not dare to do that in time of peace. Besides, he +has not half a score of men here," continued the lad, shrewdly, +"and counting old Gil and ourselves we have as many. And +Pavannes always said that three men could hold the gate at the +bottom of the ramp against a score. Oh, he will not try that!" + +"Certainly not!" I agreed. And so we crushed Marie. "But for +Louis de Pavannes--" + +Catherine interrupted me. She came out quickly looking a +different person; her face flushed with anger, her tears dried. + +"Anne!" she cried, imperiously, "what is the matter down below +--will you see?" + +I had no difficulty in doing that. All the sounds of town life +came up to us on the terrace. Lounging there we could hear the +chaffering over the wheat measures in the cloisters of the +market-square, the yell of a dog, the voice of a scold, the +church bell, the watchman's cry. I had only to step to the wall +to overlook it all. On this summer afternoon the town had been +for the most part very quiet. If we had not been engaged in our +own affairs we should have taken the alarm before, remarking in +the silence the first beginnings of what was now a very +respectable tumult. It swelled louder even as we stepped to the +wall. + +We could see--a bend in the street laying it open--part of the +Vidame's house; the gloomy square hold which had come to him from +his mother. His own chateau of Bezers lay far away in Franche +Comte, but of late he had shown a preference--Catherine could +best account for it, perhaps--for this mean house in Caylus. It +was the only house in the town which did not belong to us. It +was known as the House of the Wolf, and was a grim stone building +surrounding a courtyard. Rows of wolves' heads carved in stone +flanked the windows, whence their bare fangs grinned day and +night at the church porch opposite. + +The noise drew our eyes in this direction; and there lolling in a +window over the door, looking out on the street with a laughing +eye, was Bezers himself. The cause of his merriment--we had not +far to look for it--was a horseman who was riding up the street +under difficulties. He was reining in his steed--no easy task on +that steep greasy pavement--so as to present some front to a +score or so of ragged knaves who were following close at his +heels, hooting and throwing mud and pebbles at him. The man had +drawn his sword, and his oaths came up to us, mingled with shrill +cries of "VIVE LA MESSE!" and half drowned by the clattering of +the horse's hoofs. We saw a stone strike him in the face, and +draw blood, and heard him swear louder than before. + +"Oh!" cried Catherine, clasping her hands with a sudden shriek +of indignation, "my letter! They will get my letter!" + +"Death!" exclaimed Croisette, "She is right! It is M. de +Pavannes' courier! This must be stopped! We cannot stand this, +Anne!" + +"They shall pay dearly for it, by our Lady!" I cried swearing +myself. "And in peace time too--the villains! Gil! Francis!" I +shouted, "where are you?" + +And I looked round for my fowling piece, while Croisette jumped +on the wall, and forming a trumpet with his hands, shrieked at +the top of his voice, "Back! he bears a letter from the +Vicomte!" + +But the device did not succeed, and I could not find my gun. For +a moment we were helpless, and before I could have fetched the +gun from the house, the horseman and the hooting rabble at his +heels, had turned a corner and were hidden by the roofs. + +Another turn however would bring them out in front of the +gateway, and seeing this we hurried down the ramp to meet them. +I stayed a moment to tell Gil to collect the servants, and, this +keeping me, Croisette reached the narrow street outside before +me. As I followed him I was nearly knocked down by the rider, +whose face was covered with, dirt and blood, while fright had +rendered his horse unmanageable. Darting aside I let him pass +--he was blinded and could not see me--and then found that +Croisette--brave lad! had collared the foremost of the ruffians, +and was beating him with his sheathed sword, while the rest of +the rabble stood back, ashamed, yet sullen, and with anger in +their eyes. A dangerous crew, I thought; not townsmen, most of +them. + +"Down with the Huguenots!" cried one, as I appeared, one bolder +than the rest. + +"Down with the CANAILLE!" I retorted, sternly eyeing the ill- +looking ring. "Will you set yourselves above the king's peace, +dirt that you are? Go back to your kennels!" + +The words were scarcely out of my mouth, before I saw that the +fellow whom Croisette was punishing had got hold of a dagger. I +shouted a warning, but it came too late. The blade fell, and-- +thanks to God--striking the buckle of the lad's belt, glanced off +harmless. I saw the steel flash up again--saw the spite in the +man's eyes: but this time I was a step nearer, and before the +weapon fell, I passed my sword clean through the wretch's body. +He went down like a log, Croisette falling with him, held fast by +his stiffening fingers. + +I had never killed a man before, nor seen a man die; and if I had +stayed to think about it, I should have fallen sick perhaps. But +it was no time for thought; no time for sickness. The crowd were +close upon us, a line of flushed threatening faces from wall to +wall. A single glance downwards told me that the man was dead, +and I set my foot upon his neck. "Hounds! Beasts!" I cried, +not loudly this time, for though I was like one possessed with +rage, it was inward rage, "go to your kennels! Will you dare to +raise a hand against a Caylus? Go--or when the Vicomte returns, +a dozen of you shall hang in the market-place!" + +I suppose I looked fierce enough--I know I felt no fear, only a +strange exaltation--for they slunk away. Unwillingly, but with +little delay the group melted, Bezers' following--of whom I knew +the dead man was one--the last to go. While I still glared at +them, lo! the street was empty; the last had disappeared round +the bend. I turned to find Gil and half-a-dozen servants +standing with pale faces at my back. Croisette seized my hand +with a sob. "Oh, my lord," cried Gil, quaveringly. But I shook +one off, I frowned at the other. + +"Take up this carrion!" I said, touching it with my foot, "And +hang it from the justice-elm. And then close the gates! See to +it, knaves, and lose no time." + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE VIDAME'S THREAT. + +Croisette used to tell a story, of the facts of which I have no +remembrance, save as a bad dream. He would have it that I left +my pallet that night--I had one to myself in the summer, being +the eldest, while he and Marie slept on another in the same room +--and came to him and awoke him, sobbing and shaking and +clutching him; and begging him in a fit of terror not to let me +go. And that so I slept in his arms until morning. But as I +have said, I do not remember anything of this, only that I had an +ugly dream that night, and that when I awoke I was lying with him +and Marie; so I cannot say whether it really happened. + +At any rate, if I had any feeling of the kind it did not last +long; on the contrary--it would be idle to deny it--I was +flattered by the sudden respect, Gil and the servants showed me. +What Catherine thought of the matter I could not tell. She had +her letter and apparently found it satisfactory. At any rate we +saw nothing of her. Madame Claude was busy boiling simples, and +tending the messenger's hurts. And it seemed natural that I +should take command. + +There could be no doubt--at any rate we had none that the assault +on the courier had taken place at the Vidame's instance. The +only wonder was that he had not simply cut his throat and taken +the letter. But looking back now it seems to me that grown men +mingled some childishness with their cruelty in those days--days +when the religious wars had aroused our worst passions. It was +not enough to kill an enemy. It pleased people to make--I speak +literally--a football of his head, to throw his heart to the +dogs. And no doubt it had fallen in with the Vidame's grim +humour that the bearer of Pavannes' first love letter should +enter his mistress's presence, bleeding and plaistered with mud. +And that the riff-raff about our own gates should have part in +the insult. + +Bezers' wrath would be little abated by the issue of the affair, +or the justice I had done on one of his men. So we looked well +to bolts, and bars, and windows, although the castle is well-nigh +impregnable, the smooth rock falling twenty feet at least on +every side from the base of the walls. The gatehouse, Pavannes +had shown us, might be blown up with gunpowder indeed, but we +prepared to close the iron grating which barred the way half-way +up the ramp. This done, even if the enemy should succeed in +forcing an entrance he would only find himself caught in a trap-- +in a steep, narrow way exposed to a fire from the top of the +flanking walls, as well as from the front. We had a couple of +culverins, which the Vicomte had got twenty years before, at the +time of the battle of St. Quentin. We fixed one of these at the +head of the ramp, and placed the other on the terrace, where by +moving it a few paces forward we could train it on Bezers' house, +which thus lay at our mercy. + +Not that we really expected an attack. But we did not know what +to expect or what to fear. We had not ten servants, the Vicomte +having taken a score of the sturdiest lackeys and keepers to +attend him at Bayonne. And we felt immensely responsible. Our +main hope was that the Vidame would at once go on to Paris, and +postpone his vengeance. So again and again we cast longing +glances at the House of the Wolf hoping that each symptom of +bustle heralded his departure. + +Consequently it was a shock to me, and a great downfall of hopes, +when Gil with a grave face came to me on the terrace and +announced that M. le Vidame was at the gate, asking to see +Mademoiselle. + +"It is out of the question that he should see her," the old +servant added, scratching his head in grave perplexity. + +"Most certainly. I will see him instead," I answered stoutly. +"Do you leave Francis and another at the gate, Gil. Marie, keep +within sight, lad. And let Croisette stay with me." + +These preparations made--and they took up scarcely a moment--I +met the Vidame at the head of the ramp. "Mademoiselle de +Caylus," I said, bowing, "is, I regret to say, indisposed to-day, +Vidame." + +"She will not see me?" he asked, eyeing me very unpleasantly. + +"Her indisposition deprives her of the pleasure," I answered with +an effort. He was certainly a wonderful man, for at sight of +him, three-fourths of my courage, and all my importance, oozed +out at the heels of my boots. + +"She will not see me. Very well," he replied, as if I had not +spoken. And the simple words sounded like a sentence of death. +"Then, M. Anne, I have a crow to pick with you. What +compensation do you propose to make for the death of my servant? +A decent, quiet fellow, whom you killed yesterday, poor man, +because his enthusiasm for the true faith carried him away a +little." + +"Whom I killed because he drew a dagger on M. St. Croix de Caylus +at the Vicomte's gate," I answered steadily. I had thought about +this of course and was ready for it. "You are aware, M. de +Bezers," I continued, "that the Vicomte has jurisdiction +extending to life and death over all persons within the valley?" + +"My household excepted," he rejoined quietly. + +"Precisely; while they are within the curtilage of your house," I +retorted. "However as the punishment was summary, and the man +had no time to confess himself, I am willing to--" + +"Well?" + +"To pay Father Pierre to say ten masses for his soul." + +The way the Vidame received this surprised me. He broke into +boisterous laughter. "By our Lady, my friend," he cried with +rough merriment, "but you are a joker! You are indeed. Masses? +Why the man was a Protestant!" + +And that startled me more than anything which had gone before; +more indeed than I can explain. For it seemed to prove that this +man, laughing his unholy laugh was not like other men. He did +not pick and choose his servants for their religion. He was sure +that the Huguenot would stone his fellow at his bidding; the +Catholic cry "Vive Coligny!" I was so completely taken aback +that I found no words to answer him, and it was Croisette who +said smartly, "Then how about his enthusiasm for the true faith, +M. le Vidame?" + +"The true faith," he answered--"for my servants is my faith." +Then a thought seemed to strike him. "What is more." he +continued slowly, "that it is the true and only faith for all, +thousands will learn before the world is ten days older. Bear my +words in mind, boy! They will come back to you. And now hear +me," he went on in his usual tone, "I am anxious to accommodate a +neighbour. It goes without saying that I would not think of +putting you, M. Anne, to any trouble for the sake of that rascal +of mine. But my people will expect something. Let the plaguy +fellow who caused all this disturbance be given up to me, that I +may hang him; and let us cry quits." + +"That is impossible!" I answered coolly. I had no need to ask +what he meant. Give up Pavannes' messenger indeed! Never! + +He regarded me--unmoved by my refusal--with a smile under which I +chafed, while I was impotent to resent it. "Do not build too +much on a single blow, young gentleman," he said, shaking his +head waggishly. "I had fought a dozen times when I was your age. +However, I understand that you refuse to give me satisfaction?" + +"In the mode you mention, certainly," I replied. "But--" + +"Bah!" he exclaimed with a sneer, "business first and pleasure +afterwards! Bezers will obtain satisfaction in his own way, I +promise you that! And at his own time. And it will not be on +unfledged bantlings like you. But what is this for?" And he +rudely kicked the culverin which apparently he had not noticed +before, "So! so! understand," he continued, casting a sharp +glance at one and another of us. "You looked to be besieged! +Why you, booby, there is the shoot of your kitchen midden, twenty +feet above the roof of old Fretis' store! And open, I will be +sworn! Do you think that I should have come this way while there +was a ladder in Caylus! Did you take the wolf for a sheep?" + +With that he turned on his heel, swaggering away in the full +enjoyment of his triumph. For a triumph it was. We stood +stunned; ashamed to look one another in the face. Of course the +shoot was open. We remembered now that it was, and we were so +sorely mortified by his knowledge and our folly, that I failed in +my courtesy, and did not see him to the gate, as I should have +done. We paid for that later. + +"He is the devil in person!" I exclaimed angrily, shaking my +fist at the House of the Wolf, as I strode up and down +impatiently. "I hate him worse!" + +"So do I!" said Croisette, mildly. "But that he hates us is a +matter of more importance. At any rate we will close the shoot." + +"Wait a moment!" I replied, as after another volley of +complaints directed at our visitor, the lad was moving off to see +to it. "What is going on down there?" + +"Upon my word, I believe he is leaving us!" Croisette rejoined +sharply. + +For there was a noise of hoofs below us, clattering on the +pavement. Half-a-dozen horsemen were issuing from the House of +the Wolf, the ring of their bridles and the sound of their +careless voices coming up to us through the clear morning air +Bezers' valet, whom we knew by sight, was the last of them. He +had a pair of great saddle-bags before him, and at sight of these +we uttered a glad exclamation. "He is going!" I murmured, +hardly able to believe my eyes. "He is going after all!" + +"Wait!" Croisette answered drily. + +But I was right. We had not to wait long. He WAS going. In +another moment he came out himself, riding a strong iron-grey +horse: and we could see that he had holsters to his saddle. His +steward was running beside him, to take I suppose his last +orders. A cripple, whom the bustle had attracted from his usual +haunt, the church porch, held up his hand for alms. The Vidame +as he passed, cut him savagely across the face with his whip, and +cursed him audibly. + +"May the devil take him!" exclaimed Croisette in just rage. But +I said nothing, remembering that the cripple was a particular pet +of Catherine's. I thought instead of an occasion, not so very +long ago, when the Vicomte being at home, we had had a great +hawking party. Bezers and Catherine had ridden up the street +together, and Catherine giving the cripple a piece of money, +Bezers had flung to him all his share of the game. And my heart +sank. + +Only for a moment, however. The man was gone; or was going at +any rate. We stood silent and motionless, all watching, until, +after what seemed a long interval, the little party of seven +became visible on the white road far below us--to the northward, +and moving in that direction. Still we watched them, muttering a +word to one another, now and again, until presently the riders +slackened their pace, and began to ascend the winding track that +led to the hills and Cahors; and to Paris also, if one went far +enough. + +Then at length with a loud "Whoop!" we dashed across the +terrace, Croisette leading, and so through the courtyard to the +parlour; where we arrived breathless. "He is off!" Croisette +cried shrilly. "He has started for Paris! And bad luck go with +him!" And we all flung up our caps and shouted. + +But no answer, such as we expected, came from the women folk. +When we picked up our caps, and looked at Catherine, feeling +rather foolish, she was staring at us with a white face and great +scornful eyes. "Fools!" she said. "Fools!" + +And that was all. But it was enough to take me aback. I had +looked to see her face lighten at our news; instead it wore an +expression I had never seen on it before. Catherine, so kind and +gentle, calling us fools! And without cause! I did not +understand it. I turned confusedly to Croisette. He was looking +at her, and I saw that he was frightened. As for Madame Claude, +she was crying in the corner. A presentiment of evil made my +heart sink like lead. What had happened? + +"Fools!" my cousin repeated with exceeding bitterness, her foot +tapping the parquet unceasingly. "Do you think he would have +stooped to avenge himself on YOU? On you! Or that he could hurt +me one hundredth part as much here as--as--" She broke off +stammering. Her scorn faltered for an instant. "Bah! he is a +man! He knows!" she exclaimed superbly, her chin in the air, +"but you are boys. You do not understand!" + +I looked amazedly at this angry woman. I had a difficulty in +associating her with my cousin. As for Croisette, he stepped +forward abruptly, and picked up a white object which was lying at +her feet. + +"Yes, read it!" she cried, "read it! Ah!" and she clenched her +little hand, and in her passion struck the oak table beside her, +so that a stain of blood sprang out on her knuckles. "Why did you +not kill him? Why did you not do it when you had the chance? +You were three to one," she hissed. "You had him in your power! +You could have killed him, and you did not! Now he will kill +me!" + +Madame Claude muttered something tearfully; something about +Pavannes and the saints. I looked over Croisette's shoulder, and +read the letter. It began abruptly without any term of address, +and ran thus, "I have a mission in Paris, Mademoiselle, which +admits of no delay, your mission, as well as my own--to see +Pavannes. You have won his heart. It is yours, and I will bring +it you, or his right hand in token that he has yielded up his +claim to yours. And to this I pledge myself." + +The thing bore no signature. It was written in some red fluid-- +blood perhaps--a mean and sorry trick! On the outside was +scrawled a direction to Mademoiselle de Caylus. And the packet +was sealed with the Vidame's crest, a wolf's head. + +"The coward! the miserable coward!" Croisette cried. He was +the first to read the meaning of the thing. And his eyes were +full of tears--tears of rage. + +For me I was angry exceedingly. My veins seemed full of fire, as +I comprehended the mean cruelty which could thus torture a girl. + +"Who delivered this?" I thundered. "Who gave it to +Mademoiselle? How did it reach her hands? Speak, some one!" + +A maid, whimpering in the background, said that Francis had given +it to her to hand to Mademoiselle. + +I ground my teeth together, while Marie, unbidden, left the room +to seek Francis--and a stirrup leather. The Vidame had brought +the note in his pocket no doubt, rightly expecting that he would +not get an audience of my cousin. Returning to the gate alone he +had seen his opportunity, and given the note to Francis, probably +with a small fee to secure its transmission. + +Croisette and I looked at one another, apprehending all this. +"He will sleep at Cahors to-night," I said sullenly. + +The lad shook his head and answered in a low voice, "I am afraid +not. His horses are fresh. I think he will push on. He always +travels quickly. And now you know--" + +I nodded, understanding only too well. + +Catherine had flung herself into a chair. Her arms lay nerveless +on the table. Her face was hidden in them. But now, overhearing +us, or stung by some fresh thought, she sprang to her feet in +anguish. Her face twitched, her form seemed to stiffen as she +drew herself up like one in physical pain. "Oh, I cannot bear +it!" she cried to us in dreadful tones. "Oh, will no one do +anything? I will go to him! I will tell him I will give him up! +I will do whatever he wishes if he will only spare him!" + +Croisette went from the room crying. It was a dreadful sight for +us--this girl in agony. And it was impossible to reassure her! +Not one of us doubted the horrible meaning of the note, its +covert threat. Civil wars and religious hatred, and I fancy +Italian modes of thought, had for the time changed our countrymen +to beasts. Far more dreadful things were done then than this +which Bezers threatened--even if he meant it literally--far more +dreadful things were suffered. But in the fiendish ingenuity of +his vengeance on her, the helpless, loving woman, I thought Raoul +de Bezers stood alone. Alas! it fares ill with the butterfly +when the cat has struck it down. Ill indeed! + +Madame Claude rose and put her arms round the girl, dismissing me +by a gesture. I went out, passing through two or three scared +servants, and made at once for the terrace. I felt as if I could +only breathe there. I found Marie and St. Croix together, +silent, the marks of tears on their faces. Our eyes met and they +told one tale. + +We all spoke at the same time. "When?" we said. But the others +looked to me for an answer. + +I was somewhat sobered by that, and paused to consider before I +replied. "At daybreak to-morrow," I decided presently. "It is +an hour after noon already. We want money, and the horses are +out. It will take an hour to bring them in. After that we might +still reach Cahors to-night, perhaps; but more haste less speed +you know. At daybreak to-morrow we will start." + +They nodded assent. + +It was a great thing we meditated. No less than to go to Paris-- +the unknown city so far beyond the hills--and seek out M. de +Pavannes, and warn him. It would be a race between the Vidame +and ourselves; a race for the life of Kit's suitor. Could we +reach Paris first, or even within twenty-four hours of Bezers' +arrival, we should in all probability be in time, and be able to +put Pavannes on his guard. It had been the first thought of all +of us, to take such men as we could get together and fall upon +Bezers wherever we found him, making it our simple object to kill +him. But the lackeys M. le Vicomte had left with us, the times +being peaceful and the neighbours friendly, were poor-spirited +fellows. Bezers' handful, on the contrary, were reckless Swiss +riders--like master, like men. We decided that it would be wiser +simply to warn Pavannes, and then stand by him if necessary. + +We might have despatched a messenger. But our servants--Gil +excepted, and he was too old to bear the journey--were ignorant +of Paris. Nor could any one of them be trusted with a mission so +delicate. We thought of Pavannes' courier indeed. But he was a +Rochellois, and a stranger to the capital. There was nothing for +it but to go ourselves. + +Yet we did not determine on this adventure with light hearts, I +remember. Paris loomed big and awesome in the eyes of all of us. +The glamour of the court rather frightened than allured us. We +felt that shrinking from contact with the world which a country +life engenders, as well as that dread of seeming unlike other +people which is peculiar to youth. It was a great plunge, and a +dangerous which we meditated. And we trembled. If we had known +more--especially of the future--we should have trembled more. + +But we were young, and with our fears mingled a delicious +excitement. We were going on an adventure of knight errantry in +which we might win our spurs. We were going to see the world and +play men's parts in it! to save a friend and make our mistress +happy! + +We gave our orders. But we said nothing to Catherine or Madame +Claude; merely bidding Gil tell them after our departure. We +arranged for the immediate despatch of a message to the Vicomte +at Bayonne, and charged Gil until he should hear from him to keep +the gates closed, and look well to the shoot of the kitchen +midden. Then, when all was ready, we went to our pallets, but it +was with hearts throbbing with excitement and wakeful eyes. + +"Anne! Anne!" said Croisette, rising on his elbow and speaking +to me some three hours later, "what do you think the Vidame meant +this morning when he said that about the ten days?" + +"What about the ten days?" I asked peevishly. He had roused me +just when I was at last falling asleep. + +"About the world seeing that his was the true faith--in ten +days?" + +"I am sure I do not know. For goodness' sake let us go to +sleep," I replied. For I had no patience with Croisette, talking +such nonsense, when we had our own business to think about. + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE ROAD TO PARIS. + +The sun had not yet risen above the hills when we three with a +single servant behind us drew rein at the end of the valley; and +easing our horses on the ascent, turned in the saddle to take a +last look at Caylus--at the huddled grey town, and the towers +above it. A little thoughtful we all were, I think. The times +were rough and our errand was serious. But youth and early +morning are fine dispellers of care; and once on the uplands we +trotted gaily forward, now passing through wide glades in the +sparse oak forest, where the trees all leaned one way, now over +bare, wind-swept downs; or once and again descending into a +chalky bottom, where the stream bubbled through deep beds of +fern, and a lonely farmhouse nestled amid orchards. + +Four hours' riding, and we saw below us Cahors, filling the bend +of the river. We cantered over the Vallandre Bridge, which there +crosses the Lot, and so to my uncle's house of call in the +square. Here we ordered breakfast, and announced with pride that +we were going to Paris. + +Our host raised his hands. "Now there!" he exclaimed, regret in +his voice. "And if you had arrived yesterday you could have +travelled up with the Vidame de Bezers! And you a small party-- +saving your lordships' presence--and the roads but so-so!" + +"But the Vidame was riding with only half-a-dozen attendants +also!" I answered, flicking my boot in a careless way. + +The landlord shook his head. "Ah, M. le Vidame knows the world!" +he answered shrewdly. "He is not to be taken off his guard, not +he! One of his men whispered me that twenty staunch fellows +would join him at Chateauroux. They say the wars are over, but" +--and the good man, shrugging his shoulders, cast an expressive +glance at some fine flitches of bacon which were hanging in his +chimney. "However, your lordships know better than I do," he +added briskly. "I am a poor man. I only wish to live at peace +with my neighbours, whether they go to mass or sermon." + +This was a sentiment so common in those days and so heartily +echoed by most men of substance both in town and country, that we +did not stay to assent to it; but having received from the worthy +fellow a token which would insure our obtaining fresh cattle at +Limoges, we took to the road again, refreshed in body, and with +some food for thought. + +Five-and-twenty attendants were more than even such a man as +Bezers, who had many enemies, travelled with in those days; +unless accompanied by ladies. That the Vidame had provided such +a reinforcement seemed to point to a wider scheme than the one +with which we had credited him. But we could not guess what his +plans were; since he must have ordered his people before he heard +of Catherine's engagement. Either his jealousy therefore had put +him on the alert earlier, or his threatened attack on Pavannes +was only part of a larger plot. In either case our errand seemed +more urgent, but scarcely more hopeful. + +The varied sights and sounds however of the road--many of them +new to us--kept us from dwelling over much on this. Our eyes +were young, and whether it was a pretty girl lingering behind a +troop of gipsies, or a pair of strollers from Valencia +--JONGLEURS they still called themselves--singing in the old +dialect of Provence, or a Norman horse-dealer with his string of +cattle tied head and tail, or the Puy de Dome to the eastward +over the Auvergne hills, or a tattered old soldier wounded in the +wars--fighting for either side, according as their lordships +inclined--we were pleased with all. + +Yet we never forgot our errand. We never I think rose in the +morning--too often stiff and sore--without thinking "To-day or +to-morrow or the next day--" as the case might be--"we shall make +all right for Kit!" For Kit! Perhaps it was the purest +enthusiasm we were ever to feel, the least selfish aim we were +ever to pursue. For Kit! + +Meanwhile we met few travellers of rank on the road. Half the +nobility of France were still in Paris enjoying the festivities +which were being held to mark the royal marriage. We obtained +horses where we needed them without difficulty. And though we +had heard much of the dangers of the way, infested as it was said +to be by disbanded troopers, we were not once stopped or annoyed. + +But it is not my intention to chronicle all the events of this my +first journey, though I dwell on them with pleasure; or to say +what I thought of the towns, all new and strange to me, through +which we passed. Enough that we went by way of Limoges, +Chateauroux and Orleans, and that at Chateauroux we learned the +failure of one hope we had formed. We had thought that Bezers +when joined there by his troopers would not be able to get +relays; and that on this account we might by travelling post +overtake him; and possibly slip by him between that place and +Paris. But we learned at Chateauroux that his troop had received +fresh orders to go to Orleans and await him there; the result +being that he was able to push forward with relays so far. He +was evidently in hot haste. For leaving there with his horses +fresh he passed through Angerville, forty miles short of Paris, +at noon, whereas we reached it on the evening of the same day-- +the sixth after leaving Caylus. + +We rode into the yard of the inn--a large place, seeming larger +in the dusk--so tired that we could scarcely slip from our +saddles. Jean, our servant, took the four horses, and led them +across to the stables, the poor beasts hanging their heads, and +following meekly. We stood a moment stamping our feet, and +stretching our legs. The place seemed in a bustle, the clatter +of pans and dishes proceeding from the windows over the entrance, +with a glow of light and the sound of feet hurrying in the +passages. There were men too, half-a-dozen or so standing at the +doors of the stables, while others leaned from the windows. One +or two lanthorns just kindled glimmered here and there in the +semi-darkness; and in a corner two smiths were shoeing a horse. + +We were turning from all this to go in, when we heard Jean's +voice raised in altercation, and thinking our rustic servant had +fallen into trouble, we walked across to the stables near which +he and the horses were still lingering. "Well, what is it?" I +said sharply. + +"They say that there is no room for the horses," Jean answered +querulously, scratching his head; half sullen, half cowed, a +country servant all over. + +"And there is not!" cried the foremost of the gang about the +door, hastening to confront us in turn. His tone was insolent, +and it needed but half an eye to see that his fellows were +inclined to back him up. He stuck his arms akimbo and faced us +with an impudent smile. A lanthorn on the ground beside him +throwing an uncertain light on the group, I saw that they all +wore the same badge. + +"Come," I said sternly, "the stables are large, and your horses +cannot fill them. Some room must be found for mine." + +"To be sure! Make way for the king!" he retorted. While one +jeered "VIVE LE ROI!" and the rest laughed. Not good- +humouredly, but with a touch of spitefulness. + +Quarrels between gentlemen's servants were as common then as they +are to-day. But the masters seldom condescended to interfere. +"Let the fellows fight it out," was the general sentiment. Here, +however, poor Jean was over-matched, and we had no choice but to +see to it ourselves. + +"Come, men, have a care that you do not get into trouble," I +urged, restraining Croisette by a touch, for I by no means wished +to have a repetition of the catastrophe which had happened at +Caylus. "These horses belong to the Vicomte de Caylus. If your +master be a friend of his, as may very probably be the case, you +will run the risk of getting into trouble." + +I thought I heard, as I stopped speaking, a subdued muttering, +and fancied I caught the words, "PAPEGOT! Down with the Guises!" +But the spokesman's only answer aloud was "Cock-a-doodle-doo!" +"Cock-a-doodle-doo!" he repeated, flapping his arms in defiance. +"Here is a cock of a fine hackle!" And so on, and so forth, +while he turned grinning to his companions, looking for their +applause. + +I was itching to chastise him, and yet hesitating, lest the thing +should have its serious side, when a new actor appeared. "Shame, +you brutes!" cried a shrill voice above us in the clouds it +seemed. I looked up, and saw two girls, coarse and handsome, +standing at a window over the stable, a light between them. "For +shame! Don't you see that they are mere children? Let them be," +cried one. + +The men laughed louder than ever; and for me, I could not stand +by and be called a child. "Come here," I said, beckoning to the +man in the doorway. "Come here, you rascal, and I will give you +the thrashing you deserve for speaking to a gentleman!" + +He lounged forward, a heavy fellow, taller than myself and six +inches wider at the shoulders. My heart failed me a little as I +measured him. But the thing had to be done. If I was slight, I +was wiry as a hound, and in the excitement had forgotten my +fatigue. I snatched from Marie a loaded riding-whip he carried, +and stepped forward. + +"Have a care, little man!" cried the girl gaily--yet half in +pity, I think. "Or that fat pig will kill you!" + +My antagonist did not join in the laugh this time. Indeed it +struck me that his eye wandered and that he was not so ready to +enter the ring as his mates were to form it. But before I could +try his mettle, a hand was laid on my shoulder. A man appearing +from I do not know where--from the dark fringe of the group, I +suppose--pushed me aside, roughly, but not discourteously. + +"Leave this to me!" he said, coolly stepping before me. "Do not +dirty your hands with the knave, master. I am pining for work +and the job will just suit me! I will fit him for the worms +before the nuns above can say an AVE!" + +I looked at the newcomer. He was a stout fellow; not over tall, +nor over big; swarthy, with prominent features. The plume of his +bonnet was broken, but he wore it in a rakish fashion; and +altogether he swaggered with so dare-devil an air, clinking his +spurs and swinging out his long sword recklessly, that it was no +wonder three or four of the nearest fellows gave back a foot. + +"Come on!" he cried, boisterously, forming a ring by the simple +process of sweeping his blade from side to side, while he made +the dagger in his left hand flash round his head. "Who is for +the game? Who will strike a blow for the little Admiral? Will +you come one, two, three at once; or all together? Anyway, come +on, you--" And he closed his challenge with a volley of frightful +oaths, directed at the group opposite. + +"It is no quarrel of yours," said the big man, sulkily; making no +show of drawing his sword, but rather drawing back himself. + +"All quarrels are my quarrels! and no quarrels are your +quarrels. That is about the truth, I fancy!" was the smart +retort; which our champion rendered more emphatic by a playful +lunge that caused the big bully to skip again. + +There was a loud laugh at this, even among the enemy's backers. +"Bah, the great pig!" ejaculated the girl above. "Spit him!" +and she spat down on the whilom Hector--who made no great figure +now. + +"Shall I bring you a slice of him, my dear?" asked my rakehelly +friend, looking up and making his sword play round the shrinking +wretch. "Just a tit-bit, my love?" he added persuasively. "A +mouthful of white liver and caper sauce?" + +"Not for me, the beast!" the girl cried, amid the laughter of +the yard. + +"Not a bit? If I warrant him tender? Ladies' meat?" + +"Bah! no!" and she stolidly spat down again. + +"Do you hear? The lady has no taste for you," the tormentor +cried. "Pig of a Gascon!" And deftly sheathing his dagger, he +seized the big coward by the ear, and turning him round, gave him +a heavy kick which sent him spinning over a bucket, and down +against the wall. There the bully remained, swearing and rubbing +himself by turns; while the victor cried boastfully, "Enough of +him. If anyone wants to take up his quarrel, Blaise Bure is his +man. If not, let us have an end of it. Let someone find stalls +for the gentlemen's horses before they catch a chill; and have +done with it. As for me," he added, and then he turned to us and +removed his hat with an exaggerated flourish, "I am your +lordship's servant to command." + +I thanked him with a heartiness, half-earnest, half-assumed. His +cloak was ragged, his trunk hose, which had once been fine +enough, were stained, and almost pointless, He swaggered +inimitably, and had led-captain written large upon him. But he +had done us a service, for Jean had no further trouble about the +horses. And besides one has a natural liking for a brave man, +and this man was brave beyond question. + +"You are from Orleans," he said respectfully enough, but as one +asserting a fact, not asking a question. + +"Yes," I answered, somewhat astonished, "Did you see us come in?" + +"No, but I looked at your boots, gentlemen," he replied. "White +dust, north; red dust, south. Do you see?" + +"Yes, I see," I said, with admiration. "You must have been +brought up in a sharp school, M. Bure." + +"Sharp masters make sharp scholars," he replied, grinning. And +that answer I had occasion to remember afterwards. + +"You are from Orleans, also?" I asked, as we prepared to go in. + +"Yes, from Orleans too, gentlemen. But earlier in the day. With +letters--letters of importance!" And bestowing something like a +wink of confidence on us, he drew himself up, looked sternly at +the stable-folk, patted himself twice on the chest, and finally +twirled his moustaches, and smirked at the girl above, who was +chewing straws. + +I thought it likely enough that we might find it hard to get rid +of him. But this was not so. After listening with gratification +to our repeated thanks, he bowed with the same grotesque +flourish, and marched off as grave as a Spaniard, humming-- + + "Ce petit homme tant joli! + Qui toujours cause et toujours rit, + Qui toujours baise sa mignonne, + Dieu gard' de mal ce petit homme!" + +On our going in, the landlord met us politely, but with +curiosity, and a simmering of excitement also in his manner. +"From Paris, my lords?" he asked, rubbing his hands and bowing +low. "Or from the south?" + +"From the south," I answered. "From Orleans, and hungry and +tired, Master Host." + +"Ah!" he replied, disregarding the latter part of my answer, +while his little eyes twinkled with satisfaction. "Then I dare +swear, my lords, you have not heard the news?" He halted in the +narrow passage, and lifting the candle he carried, scanned our +faces closely, as if he wished to learn something about us before +he spoke. + +"News!" I answered brusquely, being both tired, and as I had +told him, hungry. "We have heard none, and the best you can give +us will be that our supper is ready to be served." + +But even this snub did not check his eagerness to tell his news. +"The Admiral de Coligny," he said, breathlessly, "you have not +heard what has happened to him?" + +"To the admiral? No, what?" I inquired rapidly. I was +interested at last. + +For a moment let me digress. The few of my age will remember, +and the many younger will have been told, that at this time the +Italian queen-mother was the ruling power in France. It was +Catharine de' Medici's first object to maintain her influence +over Charles the Ninth--her son; who, ricketty, weak, and +passionate, was already doomed to an early grave. Her second, to +support the royal power by balancing the extreme Catholics +against the Huguenots. For the latter purpose she would coquet +first with one party, then with the other. At the present moment +she had committed herself more deeply than was her wont to the +Huguenots. Their leaders, the Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, the +King of Navarre, and the Prince of Conde, were supposed to be +high in favour, while the chiefs of the other party, the Duke of +Guise, and the two Cardinals of his house, the Cardinal of +Lorraine and the Cardinal of Guise, were in disgrace; which, as +it seemed, even their friend at court, the queen's favourite son, +Henry of Anjou, was unable to overcome. + +Such was the outward aspect of things in August, 1572, but there +were not wanting rumours that already Coligny, taking advantage +of the footing given him, had gained an influence over the young +king, which threatened Catharine de' Medici herself. The +admiral, therefore, to whom the Huguenot half of France had long +looked as to its leader, was now the object of the closest +interest to all; the Guise faction, hating him--as the alleged +assassin of the Duke of Guise--with an intensity which probably +was not to be found in the affection of his friends, popular with +the latter as he was. + +Still, many who were not Huguenots had a regard for him as a +great Frenchman and a gallant soldier. We--though we were of the +old faith, and the other side--had heard much of him, and much +good. The Vicomte had spoken of him always as a great man, a man +mistaken, but brave, honest and capable in his error. Therefore +it was that when the landlord mentioned him, I forgot even my +hunger. + +"He was shot, my lords, as he passed through the Rue des Fosses, +yesterday," the man declared with bated breath. "It is not known +whether he will live or die. Paris is in an uproar, and there +are some who fear the worst." + +"But," I said doubtfully, "who has dared to do this? He had a +safe conduct from the king himself." + +Our host did not answer; shrugging his shoulders instead, he +opened the door, and ushered us into the eating-room. + +Some preparations for our meal had already been made at one end +of the long board. At the other was seated a man past middle +age; richly but simply dressed. His grey hair, cut short about a +massive head, and his grave, resolute face, square-jawed, and +deeply-lined, marked him as one to whom respect was due apart +from his clothes. We bowed to him as we took our seats. + +He acknowledged the salute, fixing us a moment with a penetrating +glance; and then resumed his meal. I noticed that his sword and +belt were propped against a chair at his elbow, and a dag, +apparently loaded, lay close to his hand by the candlestick. Two +lackeys waited behind his chair, wearing the badge we had +remarked in the inn yard. + +We began to talk, speaking in low tones that we might not disturb +him. The attack on Coligny had, if true, its bearing on our own +business. For if a Huguenot so great and famous and enjoying the +king's special favour still went in Paris in danger of his life, +what must be the risk that such an one as Pavannes ran? We had +hoped to find the city quiet. If instead it should be in a state +of turmoil Bezers' chances were so much the better; and ours +--and Kit's, poor Kit's--so much the worse. + +Our companion had by this time finished his supper. But he still +sat at table, and seemed to be regarding us with some curiosity. +At length he spoke. "Are you going to Paris, young gentlemen?" +he asked, his tone harsh and high-pitched. + +We answered in the affirmative. "To-morrow?" he questioned. + +"Yes," we answered; and expected him to continue the +conversation. But instead he became silent, gazing abstractedly +at the table; and what with our meal, and our own talk we had +almost forgotten him again, when looking up, I found him at my +elbow, holding out in silence a small piece of paper. + +I started his face was so grave. But seeing that there were +half-a-dozen guests of a meaner sort at another table close by, I +guessed that he merely wished to make a private communication to +us; and hastened to take the paper and read it. It contained a +scrawl of four words only-- + + "Va chasser l'Idole." + +No more. I looked at him puzzled; able to make nothing out of +it. St. Croix wrinkled his brow over it with the same result. +It was no good handing it to Marie, therefore. + +"You do not understand?" the stranger continued, as he put the +scrap of paper back in his pouch. + +"No," I answered, shaking my head. We had all risen out of +respect to him, and were standing a little group about him. + +"Just so; it is all right then," he answered, looking at us as it +seemed to me with grave good-nature. "It is nothing. Go your +way. But--I have a son yonder not much younger than you, young +gentlemen. And if you had understood, I should have said to you, +'Do not go! There are enough sheep for the shearer!'" + +He was turning away with this oracular saying when Croisette +touched his sleeve. "Pray can you tell us if it be true," the +lad said eagerly, "that the Admiral de Coligny was wounded +yesterday?" + +"It is true," the other answered, turning his grave eyes on his +questioner, while for a moment his stern look failed him, "It is +true, my boy," he added with an air of strange solemnity. "Whom +the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. And, God forgive me for saying +it, whom He would destroy, He first maketh mad." + +He had gazed with peculiar favour at Croisette's girlish face, I +thought: Marie and I were dark and ugly by the side of the boy. +But he turned from him now with a queer, excited gesture, +thumping his gold-headed cane on the floor. He called his +servants in a loud, rasping voice, and left the room in seeming +anger, driving them before him, the one carrying his dag, and the +other, two candles. + +When I came down early next morning, the first person I met was +Blaise Bure. He looked rather fiercer and more shabby by +daylight than candlelight. But he saluted me respectfully; and +this, since it was clear that he did not respect many people, +inclined me to regard him with favour. It is always so, the more +savage the dog, the more highly we prize its attentions. I asked +him who the Huguenot noble was who had supped with us. For a +Huguenot we knew he must be. + +"The Baron de Rosny," he answered; adding with a sneer, "He is a +careful man! If they were all like him, with eyes on both sides +of his head and a dag by his candle--well, my lord, there would +be one more king in France--or one less! But they are a blind +lot: as blind as bats." He muttered something farther in which +I caught the word "to-night." But I did not hear it all; or +understand any of it. + +"Your lordships are going to Paris?" he resumed in a different +tone. When I said that we were, he looked at me in a shamefaced +way, half timid, half arrogant. "I have a small favour to ask of +you then," he said. "I am going to Paris myself. I am not +afraid of odds, as you have seen. But the roads will be in a +queer state if there be anything on foot in the city, and--well, +I would rather ride with you gentlemen than alone." + +"You are welcome to join us," I said. "But we start in half-an- +hour. Do you know Paris well?" + +"As well as my sword-hilt," he replied briskly, relieved I +thought by my acquiescence, "And I have known that from my +breeching. If you want a game at PAUME, or a pretty girl to +kiss, I can put you in the way for the one or the other." + +The half rustic shrinking from the great city which I felt, +suggested to me that our swashbuckling friend might help us if he +would. "Do you know M. de Pavannes?" I asked impulsively, +"Where he lives in Paris, I mean?" + +"M. Louis de Pavannes?" quoth he. + +"Yes." + +"I know--" he replied slowly, rubbing his chin and looking at the +ground in thought--"where he had his lodgings in town a while +ago, before--Ah! I do know! I remember," he added, slapping his +thigh, "when I was in Paris a fortnight ago I was told that his +steward had taken lodgings for him in the Rue St. Antoine." + +"Good!" I answered overjoyed. "Then we want to dismount there, +if you can guide us straight to the house." + +"I can," he replied simply. "And you will not be the worse for +my company. Paris is a queer place when there is trouble to the +fore, but your lordships have got the right man to pilot you +through it." + +I did not ask him what trouble he meant, but ran indoors to +buckle on my sword, and tell Marie and Croisette of the ally I +had secured. They were much pleased, as was natural; so that we +took the road in excellent spirits intending to reach the city in +the afternoon. But Marie's horse cast a shoe, and it was some +time before we could find a smith. Then at Etampes, where we +stopped to lunch, we were kept an unconscionable time waiting for +it. And so we approached Paris for the first time at sunset. A +ruddy glow was at the moment warming the eastern heights, and +picking out with flame the twin towers of Notre Dame, and the one +tall tower of St. Jacques la Boucherie. A dozen roofs higher +than their neighbours shone hotly; and a great bank of cloud, +which lay north and south, and looked like a man's hand stretched +over the city, changed gradually from blood-red to violet, and +from violet to black, as evening fell. + +Passing within the gates and across first one bridge and then +another, we were astonished and utterly confused by the noise and +hubbub through which we rode. Hundreds seemed to be moving this +way and that in the narrow streets. Women screamed to one +another from window to window. The bells of half-a-dozen +churches rang the curfew. Our country ears were deafened. Still +our eyes had leisure to take in the tall houses with their high- +pitched roofs, and here and there a tower built into the wall; +the quaint churches, and the groups of townsfolk--sullen fellows +some of them with a fierce gleam in their eyes---who, standing in +the mouths of reeking alleys, watched us go by. + +But presently we had to stop. A crowd had gathered to watch a +little cavalcade of six gentlemen pass across our path. They +were riding two and two, lounging in their saddles and chattering +to one another, distainfully unconscious of the people about +them, or the remarks they excited. Their graceful bearing and +the richness of their dress and equipment surpassed anything I +had ever seen. A dozen pages and lackeys were attending them on +foot, and the sound of their jests and laughter came to us over +the heads of the crowd. + +While I was gazing at them, some movement of the throng drove +back Bure's horse against mine. Bure himself uttered a savage +oath; uncalled for so far as I could see. But my attention was +arrested the next moment by Croisette, who tapped my arm with his +riding whip. "Look!" he cried in some excitement, "is not that +he?" + +I followed the direction of the lad's finger--as well as I could +for the plunging of my horse which Bure's had frightened--and +scrutinized the last pair of the troop. They were crossing the +street in which we stood, and I had only a side view of them; or +rather of the nearer rider. He was a singularly handsome man, in +age about twenty-two or twenty-three with long lovelocks falling +on his lace collar and cloak of orange silk. His face was sweet +and kindly and gracious to a marvel. But he was a stranger to +me. + +"I could have sworn," exclaimed Croisette, "that that was Louis +himself--M. de Pavannes!" + +"That?" I answered, as we began to move again, the crowd melting +before us. "Oh, dear, no!" + +"No! no! The farther man!" he explained. + +But I had not been able to get a good look at the farther of the +two. We turned in our saddles and peered after him. His back in +the dusk certainly reminded me of Louis. Bure, however, who said +he knew M. de Pavannes by sight, laughed at the idea. "Your +friend," he said, "is a wider man than that!" And I thought he +was right there--but then it might be the cut of the clothes. +"They have been at the Louvre playing paume, I'll be sworn!" he +went on. "So the Admiral must be better. The one next us was M. +de Teligny, the Admiral's son-in-law. And the other, whom you +mean, was the Comte de la Rochefoucault." + +We turned as he spoke into a narrow street near the river, and +could see not far from us a mass of dark buildings which Bure +told us was the Louvre--the king's residence. Out of this street +we turned into a short one; and here Bure drew rein and rapped +loudly at some heavy gates. It was so dark that when, these +being opened, he led the way into a courtyard, we could see +little more than a tall, sharp-gabled house, projecting over us +against a pale sky; and a group of men and horses in one corner. +Bure spoke to one of the men, and begging us to dismount, said +the footman would show us to M. de Pavannes. + +The thought that we were at the end of our long journey, and in +time to warn Louis of his danger, made us forget all our +exertions, our fatigue and stiffness. Gladly throwing the +bridles to Jean we ran up the steps after the servant. The thing +was done. Hurrah! the thing was done! + +The house--as we passed through a long passage and up some steps +--seemed full of people. We heard voices and the ring of arms +more than once. But our guide, without pausing, led us to a +small room lighted by a hanging lamp. "I will inform M. de +Pavannes of your arrival," he said respectfully, and passed +behind a curtain, which seemed to hide the door of an inner +apartment. As he did so the clink of glasses and the hum of +conversation reached us. + +"He has company supping with him," I said nervously. I tried to +flip some of the dust from my boots with my whip. I remembered +that this was Paris. + +"He will be surprised to see us," quoth Croisette, laughing--a +little shyly, too, I think. And so we stood waiting. + +I began to wonder as minutes passed by--the gay company we had +seen putting it in my mind, I suppose--whether M. de Pavannes, of +Paris, might not turn out to be a very different person from +Louis de Pavannes, of Caylus; whether the king's courtier would +be as friendly as Kit's lover. And I was still thinking of this +without having settled the point to my satisfaction, when the +curtain was thrust aside again. A very tall man, wearing a +splendid suit of black and silver and a stiff trencher-like ruff, +came quickly in, and stood smiling at us, a little dog in his +arms. The little dog sat up and snarled: and Croisette gasped. +It was not our old friend Louis certainly! It was not Louis de +Pavannes at all. It was no old friend at all, It was the Vidame +de Bezers! + +"Welcome, gentlemen!" he said, smiling at us--and never had the +cast been so apparent in his eyes. "Welcome to Paris, M. Anne!" + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +ENTRAPPED! + +There was a long silence. We stood glaring at him, and he smiled +upon us--as a cat smiles. Croisette told me afterwards that he +could have died of mortification--of shame and anger that we had +been so outwitted. For myself I did not at once grasp the +position. I did not understand. I could not disentangle myself +in a moment from the belief in which I had entered the house-- +that it was Louis de Pavannes' house. But I seemed vaguely to +suspect that Bezers had swept him aside and taken his place. My +first impulse therefore--obeyed on the instant--was to stride to +the Vidame's side and grasp his arm. "What have you done?" I +cried, my voice sounding hoarsely even in my own ears. "What +have you done with M. de Pavannes? Answer me!" + +He showed just a little more of his sharp white teeth as he +looked down at my face--a flushed and troubled face doubtless. +"Nothing--yet," he replied very mildly. And he shook me off. + +"Then," I retorted, "how do you come here?" + +He glanced at Croisette and shrugged his shoulders, as if I had +been a spoiled child. "M. Anne does not seem to understand," he +said with mock courtesy, "that I have the honour to welcome him +to my house the Hotel Bezers, Rue de Platriere." + +"The Hotel Bezers! Rue de Platriere!" I cried confusedly. "But +Blaise Bure told us that this was the Rue St. Antoine!" + +"Ah!" he replied as if slowly enlightened--the hypocrite! "Ah! +I see!" and he smiled grimly. "So you have made the +acquaintance of Blaise Bure, my excellent master of the horse! +Worthy Blaise! Indeed, indeed, now I understand. And you +thought, you whelps," he continued, and as he spoke his tone +changed strangely, and he fixed us suddenly with angry eyes, "to +play a rubber with me! With me, you imbeciles! You thought the +wolf of Bezers could be hunted down like any hare! Then listen, +and I will tell you the end of it. You are now in my house and +absolutely at my mercy. I have two score men within call who +would cut the throats of three babes at the breast, if I bade +them! Ay," he, added, a wicked exultation shining in his eyes, +"they would, and like the job!" + +He was going on to say more, but I interrupted him. The rage I +felt, caused as much by the thought of our folly as by his +arrogance, would let me be silent no longer. "First, M. de +Bezers, first," I broke out fiercely, my words leaping over one +another in my haste, "a word with you! Let me tell you what I +think of you! You are a treacherous hound, Vidame! A cur! a +beast! And I spit upon you! Traitor and assassin!" I shouted, +"is that not enough? Will nothing provoke you? If you call +yourself a gentleman, draw!" + +He shook his head; he was still smiling, still unmoved. "I do +not do my own dirty work," he said quietly, "nor stint my footmen +of their sport, boy." + +"Very well!" I retorted. And with the words I drew my sword, +and sprang as quick as lightning to the curtain by which he had +entered. "Very well, we will kill you first!" I cried +wrathfully, my eye on his eye, and every savage passion in my +breast aroused, "and take our chance with the lackeys afterwards! +Marie! Croisette!" I cried shrilly, "on him, lads!" + +But they did not answer! They did not move or draw. For the +moment indeed the man was in my power. My wrist was raised, and +I had my point at his breast, I could have run him through by a +single thrust. And I hated him. Oh, how I hated him! But he +did not stir. Had he spoken, had he moved so much as an eyelid, +or drawn back his foot, or laid his hand on his hilt, I should +have killed him there. But he did not stir and I could not do +it. My hand dropped. "Cowards!" I cried, glancing bitterly +from him to them--they had never failed me before. "Cowards!" I +muttered, seeming to shrink into myself as I said the word. And +I flung my sword clattering on the floor. + +"That is better!" he drawled quite unmoved, as if nothing more +than words had passed, as if he had not been in peril at all. +"It was what I was going to ask you to do. If the other young +gentlemen will follow your example, I shall be obliged. Thank +you. Thank you." + +Croisette, and a minute later Marie, obeyed him to the letter! I +could not understand it. I folded my arms and gave up the game +in despair, and but for very shame I could have put my hands to +my face and cried. He stood in the middle under the lamp, a head +taller than the tallest of us; our master. And we stood round +him trapped, beaten, for all the world like children. Oh, I +could have cried! This was the end of our long ride, our +aspirations, our knight-errantry! + +"Now perhaps you will listen to me," he went on smoothly, "and +hear what I am going to do. I shall keep you here, young +gentlemen, until you can serve me by carrying to mademoiselle, +your cousin, some news of her betrothed. Oh, I shall not detain +you long," he added with an evil smile. "You have arrived in +Paris at a fortunate moment. There is going to be a--well, there +is a little scheme on foot appointed for to-night--singularly +lucky you are!--for removing some objectionable people, some +friends of ours perhaps among them, M. Anne. That is all. You +will hear shots, cries, perhaps screams. Take no notice. You +will be in no danger. For M. de Pavannes," he continued, his +voice sinking, "I think that by morning I shall be able to give +you a--a more particular account of him to take to Caylus--to +Mademoiselle, you understand." + +For a moment the mask was off. His face took a sombre +brightness. He moistened his lips with his tongue as though he +saw his vengeance worked out then and there before him, and were +gloating over the picture. The idea that this was so took such a +hold upon me that I shrank back, shuddering; reading too in +Croisette's face the same thought--and a late repentance. Nay, +the malignity of Bezers' tone, the savage gleam of joy in his +eyes appalled me to such an extent that I fancied for a moment I +saw in him the devil incarnate! + +He recovered his composure very quickly, however; and turned +carelessly towards the door. "If you will follow me," he said, +"I will see you disposed of. You may have to complain of your +lodging--I have other things to think of to-night than +hospitality, But you shall not need to complain of your supper." + +He drew aside the curtain as he spoke, and passed into the next +room before us, not giving a thought apparently to the +possibility that we might strike him from behind. There +certainly was an odd quality apparent in him at times which +seemed to contradict what we knew of him. + +The room we entered was rather long than wide, hung with +tapestry, and lighted by silver lamps. Rich plate, embossed, I +afterwards learned, by Cellini the Florentine--who died that year +I remember--and richer glass from Venice, with a crowd of meaner +vessels filled with meats and drinks covered the table; +disordered as by the attacks of a numerous party. But save a +servant or two by the distant dresser, and an ecclesiastic at the +far end of the table, the room was empty. + +The priest rose as we entered, the Vidame saluting him as if they +had not met that day. "You are welcome M. le Coadjuteur," he +said; saying it coldly, however, I thought. And the two eyed one +another with little favour; rather as birds of prey about to +quarrel over the spoil, than as host and guest. Perhaps the +Coadjutor's glittering eyes and great beak-like nose made me +think of this. + +"Ho! ho!" he said, looking piercingly at us--and no doubt we +must have seemed a miserable and dejected crew enough. "Who are +these? Not the first-fruits of the night, eh?" + +The Vidame looked darkly at him. "No," he answered brusquely. +"They are not. I am not particular out of doors, Coadjutor, as +you know, but this is my house, and we are going to supper. +Perhaps you do not comprehend the distinction. Still it exists +--for me," with a sneer. + +This was as good as Greek to us. But I so shrank from the +priest's malignant eyes, which would not quit us, and felt so +much disgust mingled with my anger that when Bezers by a gesture +invited me to sit down, I drew back. "I will not eat with you," +I said sullenly; speaking out of a kind of dull obstinacy, or +perhaps a childish petulance. + +It did not occur to me that this would pierce the Vidame's +armour. Yet a dull red showed for an instant in his cheek, and +he eyed me with a look, that was not all ferocity, though the +veins in his great temples swelled. A moment, nevertheless, and +he was himself again. "Armand," he said quietly to the servant, +"these gentlemen will not sup with me. Lay for them at the other +end." + +Men are odd. The moment he gave way to me I repented of my +words. It was almost with reluctance that I followed the servant +to the lower part of the table. More than this, mingled with the +hatred I felt for the Vidame, there was now a strange sentiment +towards him--almost of admiration; that had its birth I think in +the moment, when I held his life in my hand, and he had not +flinched. + +We ate in silence; even after Croisette by grasping my hand under +the table had begged me not to judge him hastily. The two at the +upper end talked fast, and from the little that reached us, I +judged that the priest was pressing some course on his host, +which the latter declined to take. + +Once Bezers raised his voice. "I have my own ends to serve!" he +broke out angrily, adding a fierce oath which the priest did not +rebuke, "and I shall serve them. But there I stop. You have +your own. Well, serve them, but do not talk to me of the cause! +The cause? To hell with the cause! I have my cause, and you +have yours, and my lord of Guise has his! And you will not make +me believe that there is any other!" + +"The king's?" suggested the priest, smiling sourly. + +"Say rather the Italian woman's!" the Vidame answered +recklessly--meaning the queen-mother, Catharine de' Medici, I +supposed. + +"Well, then, the cause of the Church?" the priest persisted. + +"Bah! The Church? It is you, my friend!" Bezers rejoined, +rudely tapping his companion--at that moment in the act of +crossing himself--on the chest. "The Church?" he continued; +"no, no, my friend. I will tell you what you are doing. You +want me to help you to get rid of your branch, and you offer in +return to aid me with mine--and then, say you, there will be no +stick left to beat either of us. But you may understand once for +all"--and the Vidame struck his hand heavily down among the +glasses--"that I will have no interference with my work, master +Clerk! None! Do you hear? And as for yours, it is no business +of mine. That is plain speaking, is it not?" + +The priest's hand shook as he raised a full glass to his lips, +but he made no rejoinder, and the Vidame, seeing we had finished, +rose. "Armand!" he cried, his face still dark, "take these +gentlemen to their chamber. You understand?" + +We stiffly acknowledged his salute--the priest taking no notice +of us--and followed the servant from the room; going along a +corridor and up a steep flight of stairs, and seeing enough by +the way to be sure that resistance was hopeless. Doors opened +silently as we passed, and grim fellows, in corslets and padded +coats, peered out. The clank of arms and murmur of voices +sounded continuously about us; and as we passed a window the +jingle of bits, and the hollow clang of a restless hoof on the +flags below, told us that the great house was for the time a +fortress. I wondered much. For this was Paris, a city with +gates and guards; the night a short August night. Yet the +loneliest manor in Quercy could scarcely have bristled with more +pikes and musquetoons, on a winter's night and in time of war. + +No doubt these signs impressed us all; and Croisette not least. +For suddenly I heard him stop, as he followed us up the narrow +staircase, and begin without warning to stumble down again as +fast as he could. I did not know what he was about; but +muttering something to Marie, I followed the lad to see. At the +foot of the flight of stairs I looked back, Marie and the servant +were standing in suspense, where I had left them. I heard the +latter bid us angrily to return. + +But by this time Croisette was at the end of the corridor; and +reassuring the fellow by a gesture I hurried on, until brought to +a standstill by a man opening a door in my face. He had heard +our returning footsteps, and eyed me suspiciously; but gave way +after a moment with a grunt of doubt I hastened on, reaching the +door of the room in which we had supped in time to see something +which filled me with grim astonishment; so much so that I stood +rooted where I was, too proud at any rate to interfere. + +Bezers was standing, the leering priest at his elbow. And +Croisette was stooping forward, his hands stretched out in an +attitude of supplication. + +"Nay, but M. le Vidame," the lad cried, as I stood, the door in +my hand, "it were better to stab her at once than break her +heart! Have pity on her! If you kill him, you kill her!" + +The Vidame was silent, seeming to glower on the boy. The priest +sneered. "Hearts are soon mended--especially women's," he said. + +"But not Kit's!" Croisette said passionately--otherwise ignoring +him. "Not Kit's! You do not know her, Vidame! Indeed you do +not!" + +The remark was ill-timed. I saw a spasm of anger distort Bezers' +face. "Get up, boy!" he snarled, "I wrote to Mademoiselle what +I would do, and that I shall do! A Bezers keeps his word. By +the God above us--if there be a God, and in the devil's name I +doubt it to-night!--I shall keep mine! Go!" + +His great face was full of rage. He looked over Croisette's head +as he spoke, as if appealing to the Great Registrar of his vow, +in the very moment in which he all but denied Him. I turned and +stole back the way I had come; and heard Croisette follow. + +That little scene completed my misery. After that I seemed to +take no heed of anything or anybody until I was aroused by the +grating of our gaoler's key in the lock, and became aware that he +was gone, and that we were alone in a small room under the tiles. +He had left the candle on the floor, and we three stood round it. +Save for the long shadows we cast on the walls and two pallets +hastily thrown down in one corner, the place was empty. I did +not look much at it, and I would not look at the others. I flung +myself on one of the pallets and turned my face to the wall, +despairing. I thought bitterly of the failure we had made of it, +and of the Vidame's triumph. I cursed St. Croix especially for +that last touch of humiliation he had set to it. Then, +forgetting myself as my anger abated, I thought of Kit so far +away at Caylus--of Kit's pale, gentle face, and her sorrow. And +little by little I forgave Croisette. After all he had not +begged for us--he had not stooped for our sakes, but for hers. + +I do not know how long I lay at see-saw between these two moods. +Or whether during that time the others talked or were silent, +moved about the room or lay still. But it was Croisette's hand +on my shoulder, touching me with a quivering eagerness that +instantly communicated itself to my limbs, which recalled me to +the room and its shadows. "Anne!" he cried. "Anne! Are you +awake?" + +"What is it?" I said, sitting up and looking at him. + +"Marie," he began, "has--" + +But there was no need for him to finish. I saw that Marie was +standing at the far side of the room by the unglazed window; +which, being in a sloping part of the roof, inclined slightly +also. He had raised the shutter which closed it, and on his tip- +toes--for the sill was almost his own height from the floor--was +peering out. I looked sharply at Croisette. "Is there a gutter +outside?" I whispered, beginning to tingle all over as the +thought of escape for the first time occurred to me. + +"No," he answered in the same tone. "But Marie says he can see a +beam below, which he thinks we can reach." + +I sprang up, promptly displaced Marie, and looked out. When my +eyes grew accustomed to the gloom I discerned a dark chaos of +roofs and gables stretching as far as I could see before me. +Nearer, immediately under the window, yawned a chasm--a narrow +street. Beyond this was a house rather lower than that in which +we were, the top of its roof not quite reaching the level of my +eyes. + +"I see no beam," I said. + +"Look below!" quoth Marie, stolidly, + +I did so, and then saw that fifteen or sixteen feet below our +window there was a narrow beam which ran from our house to the +opposite one--for the support of both, as is common in towns. In +the shadow near the far end of this--it was so directly under our +window that I could only see the other end of it--I made out a +casement, faintly illuminated from within. + +I shook my head. + +"We cannot get down to it," I said, measuring the distance to the +beam and the depth below it, and shivering. + +"Marie says we can, with a short rope," Croisette replied. His +eyes were glistening with excitement. + +"But we have no rope!" I retorted. I was dull--as usual. Marie +made no answer. Surely he was the most stolid and silent of +brothers. I turned to him. He was taking off his waistcoat and +neckerchief. + +"Good!" I cried. I began to see now. Off came our scarves and +kerchiefs also, and fortunately they were of home make, long and +strong. And Marie had a hank of four-ply yarn in his pocket as +it turned out, and I had some stout new garters, and two or three +yards of thin cord, which I had brought to mend the girths, if +need should arise. In five minutes we had fastened them +cunningly together. + +"I am the lightest," said Croisette. + +"But Marie has the steadiest head," I objected. We had learned +that long ago--that Marie could walk the coping-stones of the +battlements with as little concern as we paced a plank set on the +ground. + +"True," Croisette had to admit. "But he must come last, because +whoever does so will have to let himself down." + +I had not thought of that, and I nodded. It seemed that the lead +was passing out of my hands and I might resign myself. Still one +thing I would have. As Marie was to come last, I would go first. +My weight would best test the rope. And accordingly it was so +decided. + +There was no time to be lost. At any moment we might be +interrupted. So the plan was no sooner conceived than carried +out. The rope was made fast to my left wrist. Then I mounted on +Marie's shoulders, and climbed--not without quavering--through +the window, taking as little time over it as possible, for a bell +was already proclaiming midnight. + +All this I had done on the spur of the moment. But outside, +hanging by my hands in the darkness, the strokes of the great +bell in my ears, I had a moment in which to think. The sense of +the vibrating depth below me, the airiness, the space and gloom +around, frightened me. "Are you ready?" muttered Marie, perhaps +with a little impatience. He had not a scrap of imagination, had +Marie. + +"No! wait a minute!" I blurted out, clinging to the sill, and +taking a last look at the bare room, and the two dark figures +between me and the light. "No!" I added, hurriedly. +"Croisette--boys, I called you cowards just now. I take it back! +I did not mean it! That is all!" I gasped. "Let go!" + +A warm touch on my hand. Something like a sob. + +The next moment I felt myself sliding down the face of the house, +down into the depth. The light shot up. My head turned giddily. +I clung, oh, how I clung to that rope! Half way down the thought +struck me that in case of accident those above might not be +strong enough to pull me up again. But it was too late to think +of that, and in another second my feet touched the beam. I +breathed again. Softly, very gingerly, I made good my footing on +the slender bridge, and, disengaging the rope, let it go. Then, +not without another qualm, I sat down astride of the beam, and +whistled in token of success. Success so far! + +It was a strange position, and I have often dreamed of it since. +In the darkness about me Paris lay to all seeming asleep. A +veil, and not the veil of night only, was stretched between it +and me; between me, a mere lad, and the strange secrets of a +great city; stranger, grimmer, more deadly that night than ever +before or since. How many men were watching under those dimly- +seen roofs, with arms in their hands? How many sat with murder +at heart? How many were waking, who at dawn would sleep for +ever, or sleeping who would wake only at the knife's edge? These +things I could not know, any more than I could picture how many +boon-companions were parting at that instant, just risen from the +dice, one to go blindly--the other watching him--to his death? I +could not imagine, thank Heaven for it, these secrets, or a +hundredth part of the treachery and cruelty and greed that lurked +at my feet, ready to burst all bounds at a pistol-shot. It had +no significance for me that the past day was the 23rd of August, +or that the morrow was St. Bartholomew's feast! + +No. Yet mingled with the jubilation which the possibility of +triumph over our enemy raised in my breast, there was certainly a +foreboding. The Vidame's hints, no less than his open boasts, +had pointed to something to happen before morning--something +wider than the mere murder of a single man. The warning also +which the Baron de Rosny had given us at the inn occurred to me +with new meaning. And I could not shake the feeling off. I +fancied, as I sat in the darkness astride of my beam, that I +could see, closing the narrow vista of the street, the heavy mass +of the Louvre; and that the murmur of voices and the tramp of men +assembling came from its courts, with now and again the stealthy +challenge of a sentry, the restrained voice of an officer. +Scarcely a wayfarer passed beneath me: so few, indeed, that I +had no fear of being detected from below. And yet unless I was +mistaken, a furtive step, a subdued whisper were borne to me on +every breeze, from every quarter. And the night was full of +phantoms. + +Perhaps all this was mere nervousness, the outcome of my +position. At any rate I felt no more of it when Croisette joined +me. We had our daggers, and that gave me some comfort. If we +could once gain entrance to the house opposite, we had only to +beg, or in the last resort force our way downstairs and out, and +then to hasten with what speed we might to Pavannes' dwelling. +Clearly it was a question of time only now; whether Bezers' band +or we should first reach it. And struck by this I whispered +Marie to be quick. He seemed to be long in coming. + +He scrambled down hand over hand at last, and then I saw that he +had not lingered above for nothing. He had contrived after +getting out of the window to let down the shutter. And more he +had at some risk lengthened our rope, and made a double line of +it, so that it ran round a hinge of the shutter; and when he +stood beside us, he took it by one end and disengaged it. Good, +clever Marie! + +"Bravo!" I said softly, clapping him on the back. "Now they +will not know which way the birds have flown!" + +So there we all were, one of us, I confess, trembling. We slid +easily enough along the beam to the opposite house. But once +there in a row one behind the other with our faces to the wall, +and the night air blowing slantwise--well I am nervous on a +height and I gasped. The window was a good six feet above the +beam, The casement--it was unglazed--was open, veiled by a thin +curtain, and alas! protected by three horizontal bars--stout +bars they looked. + +Yet we were bound to get up, and to get in; and I was preparing +to rise to my feet on the giddy bridge as gingerly as I could, +when Marie crawled quickly over us, and swung himself up to the +narrow sill, much as I should mount a horse on the level. He +held out his foot to me, and making an effort I reached the same +dizzy perch. Croisette for the time remained below. + +A narrow window-ledge sixty feet above the pavement, and three +bars to cling to! I cowered to my holdfasts, envying even +Croisette. My legs dangled airily, and the black chasm of the +street seemed to yawn for me. For a moment I turned sick. I +recovered from that to feel desperate. I remembered that go +forward we must, bars or no bars. We could not regain our old +prison if we would. + +It was equally clear that we could not go forward if the inmates +should object. On that narrow perch even Marie was helpless. +The bars of the window were close together. A woman, a child, +could disengage our hands, and then--I turned sick again. I +thought of the cruel stones. I glued my face to the bars, and +pushing aside a corner of the curtain, looked in. + +There was only one person in the room--a woman, who was moving +about fully dressed, late as it was. The room was a mere attic, +the counterpart of that we had left. A box-bed with a canopy +roughly nailed over it stood in a corner. A couple of chairs +were by the hearth, and all seemed to speak of poverty and +bareness. Yet the woman whom we saw was richly dressed, though +her silks and velvets were disordered. I saw a jewel gleam in +her hair, and others on her hands. When she turned her face +towards us--a wild, beautiful face, perplexed and tear-stained--I +knew her instantly for a gentlewoman, and when she walked hastily +to the door, and laid her hand upon it, and seemed to listen-- +when she shook the latch and dropped her hands in despair and +went back to the hearth, I made another discovery I knew at once, +seeing her there, that we were likely but to change one prison +for another. Was every house in Paris then a dungeon? And did +each roof cover its tragedy? + +"Madame!" I said, speaking softly, to attract her attention. +"Madame!" + +She started violently, not knowing whence the sound came, and +looked round, at the door first. Then she moved towards the +window, and with an affrighted gesture drew the curtain rapidly +aside. + +Our eyes met. What if she screamed and aroused the house? What, +indeed? "Madame," I said again, speaking hurriedly, and striving +to reassure her by the softness of my voice, "we implore your +help! Unless you assist us we are lost." + +"You! Who are you?" she cried, glaring at us wildly, her hand +to her head. And then she murmured to herself, "Mon Dieu! what +will become of me?" + +"We have been imprisoned in the house opposite," I hastened to +explain, disjointedly I am afraid. "And we have escaped. We +cannot get back if we would. Unless you let us enter your room +and give us shelter--" + +"We shall be dashed to pieces on the pavement," supplied Marie, +with perfect calmness--nay, with apparent enjoyment. + +"Let you in here?" she answered, starting back in new terror; +"it is impossible." + +She reminded me of our cousin, being, like her pale and dark- +haired. She wore her hair in a coronet, disordered now. But +though she was still beautiful, she was older than Kit, and +lacked her pliant grace. I saw all this, and judging her nature, +I spoke out of my despair. "Madame," I said piteously, "we are +only boys. Croisette! Come up!" Squeezing myself still more +tightly into my corner of the ledge, I made room for him between +us. "See, Madame," I cried, craftily, "will you not have pity on +three boys?" + +St. Crois's boyish face and fair hair arrested her attention, as +I had expected. Her expression grew softer, and she murmured, +"Poor boy!" + +I caught at the opportunity. "We do but seek a passage through +your room," I said fervently. Good heavens, what had we not at +stake! What if she should remain obdurate? "We are in trouble +--in despair," I panted. "So, I believe, are you. We will help +you if you will first save us. We are boys, but we can fight for +you." + +"Whom am I to trust?" she exclaimed, with a shudder. "But +heaven forbid," she continued, her eyes on Croisette's face, +"that, wanting help, I should refuse to give it. Come in, if you +will." + +I poured out my thanks, and had forced my head between the bars +--at imminent risk of its remaining there--before the words were +well out of her mouth. But to enter was no easy task after all. +Croisette did, indeed, squeeze through at last, and then by force +pulled first one and then the other of us after him. But only +necessity and that chasm behind could have nerved us, I think, to +go through a process so painful. When I stood, at length on the +floor, I seemed to be one great abrasion from head to foot. And +before a lady, too! + +But what a joy I felt, nevertheless. A fig for Bezers now. He +had called us boys; and we were boys. But he should yet find +that we could thwart him. It could be scarcely half-an-hour +after midnight; we might still be in time. I stretched myself +and trod the level door jubilantly, and then noticed, while doing +so, that our hostess had retreated to the door and was eyeing us +timidly--half-scared. + +I advanced to her with my lowest bow--sadly missing my sword. +"Madame," I said, "I am M. Anne de Caylus, and these are my +brothers. And we are at your service." + +"And I," she replied, smiling faintly--I do not know why--"am +Madame de Pavannes, I gratefully accept your offers of service." + +"De Pavannes?" I exclaimed, amazed and overjoyed. Madame de +Pavannes! Why, she must be Louis' kinswoman! No doubt she could +tell us where he was lodged, and so rid our task of half its +difficulty. Could anything have fallen out more happily? "You +know then M. Louis de Pavannes?" I continued eagerly. + +"Certainly," she answered, smiling with a rare shy sweetness this +time. "Very well indeed. He is my husband." + + + +CHAPTER V. + +A PRIEST AND A WOMAN. + +"He is my husband!" + +The statement was made in the purest innocence; yet never, as may +well be imagined, did words fall with more stunning force. Not +one of us answered or, I believe, moved so much as a limb or an +eyelid. We only stared, wanting time to take in the astonishing +meaning of the words, and then more time to think what they meant +to us in particular. + +Louis de Pavannes' wife! Louis de Pavannes married! If the +statement were true--and we could not doubt, looking in her face, +that at least she thought she was telling the truth--it meant +that we had been fooled indeed! That we had had this journey for +nothing, and run this risk for a villain. It meant that the +Louis de Pavannes who had won our boyish admiration was the +meanest, the vilest of court-gallants. That Mademoiselle de +Caylus had been his sport and plaything. And that we in trying +to be beforehand with Bezers had been striving to save a +scoundrel from his due. It meant all that, as soon as we grasped +it in the least. + +"Madame," said Croisette gravely, after a pause so prolonged that +her smile faded pitifully from her face, scared by our strange +looks. "Your husband has been some time away from you? He only +returned, I think, a week or two ago?" + +"That is so," she answered, naively, and our last hope vanished. +"But what of that? He was back with me again, and only +yesterday--only yesterday!" she continued, clasping her hands, +"we were so happy." + +"And now, madame?" + +She looked at me, not comprehending. + +"I mean," I hastened to explain, "we do not understand how you +come to be here. And a prisoner." I was really thinking that +her story might throw some light upon ours. + +"I do not know, myself," she said. "Yesterday, in the afternoon, +I paid a visit to the Abbess of the Ursulines." + +"Pardon me," Croisette interposed quickly, "but are you not of +the new faith? A Huguenot?" + +"Oh, yes," she answered eagerly. "But the Abbess is a very dear +friend of mine, and no bigot. Oh, nothing of that kind, I assure +you. When I am in Paris I visit her once a week. Yesterday, +when I left her, she begged me to call here and deliver a +message." + +"Then," I said, "you know this house?" + +"Very well, indeed," she replied. "It is the sign of the 'Hand +and Glove,' one door out of the Rue Platriere. I have been in +Master Mirepoix's shop more than once before. I came here +yesterday to deliver the message, leaving my maid in the street, +and I was asked to come up stairs, and still up until I reached +this room. Asked to wait a moment, I began to think it strange +that I should be brought to so wretched a place, when I had +merely a message for Mirepoix's ear about some gauntlets. I +tried the door; I found it locked. Then I was terrified, and +made a noise." + +We all nodded. We were busy building up theories--or it might be +one and the same theory--to explain this. "Yes," I said, +eagerly. + +"Mirepoix came to me then. 'What does this mean?' I demanded. +He looked ashamed of himself, but he barred my way. 'Only this,' +he said at last, 'that your ladyship must remain here a few +hours--two days at most. No harm whatever is intended to you. +My wife will wait upon you, and when you leave us, all shall be +explained.' He would say no more, and it was in vain I asked him +if he did not take me for some one else; if he thought I was mad. +To all he answered, No. And when I dared him to detain me he +threatened force. Then I succumbed. I have been here since, +suspecting I know not what, but fearing everything." + +"That is ended, madame," I answered, my hand on my breast, my +soul in arms for her. Here, unless I was mistaken, was one more +unhappy and more deeply wronged even than Kit; one too who owed +her misery to the same villain. "Were there nine glovers on the +stairs," I declared roundly, "we would take you out and take you +home! Where are your husband's apartments?" + +"In the Rue de Saint Merri, close to the church. We have a house +there." + +"M. de Pavannes," I suggested cunningly, "is doubtless distracted +by your disappearance." + +"Oh, surely," she answered with earnest simplicity, while the +tears sprang to her eyes. Her innocence--she had not the germ of +a suspicion--made me grind my teeth with wrath. Oh, the base +wretch! The miserable rascal! What did the women see, I +wondered--what had we all seen in this man, this Pavannes, that +won for him our hearts, when he had only a stone to give in +return? + +I drew Croisette and Marie aside, apparently to consider how we +might force the door. "What is the meaning of this?" I said +softly, glancing at the unfortunate lady. "What do you think, +Croisette?" + +I knew well what the answer would be. + +"Think!" he cried with fiery impatience. "What can any one +think except that that villain Pavannes has himself planned his +wife's abduction? Of course it is so! His wife out of the way +he is free to follow up his intrigues at Caylus. He may then +marry Kit or--Curse him!" + +"No," I said sternly, "cursing is no good. We must do something +more. And yet--we have promised Kit, you see, that we would save +him--we must keep our word. We must save him from Bezers at +least." + +Marie groaned. + +But Croisette took up the thought with ardour. "From Bezers?" +he cried, his face aglow. "Ay, true! So we must! But then we +will draw lots, who shall fight him and kill him." + +I extinguished him by a look. "We shall fight him in turn," I +said, "until one of us kill him. There you are right. But your +turn comes last. Lots indeed! We have no need of lots to learn +which is the eldest." + +I was turning from him--having very properly crushed him--to look +for something which we could use to force the door, when he held +up his hand to arrest my attention. We listened, looking at one +another. Through the window came unmistakeable sounds of voices. +"They have discovered our flight," I said, my heart sinking. + +Luckily we had had the forethought to draw the curtain across the +casement. Bezers' people could therefore, from their window, see +no more than ours, dimly lighted and indistinct. Yet they would +no doubt guess the way we had escaped, and hasten to cut off our +retreat below. For a moment I looked at the door of our room, +half-minded to attack it, and fight our way out, taking the +chance of reaching the street before Bezers' folk should have +recovered from their surprise and gone down. But then I looked +at Madame. How could we ensure her safety in the struggle? +While I hesitated the choice was taken from us. We heard voices +in the house below, and heavy feet on the stairs. + +We were between two fires. I glanced irresolutely round the bare +garret, with its sloping roof, searching for a better weapon. I +had only my dagger. But in vain. I saw nothing that would +serve. "What will you do?" Madame de Pavannes murmured, +standing pale and trembling by the hearth, and looking from one +to another. Croisette plucked my sleeve before I could answer, +and pointed to the box-bed with its scanty curtains. "If they +see us in the room," he urged softly, "while they are half in and +half out, they will give the alarm. Let us hide ourselves +yonder. When they are inside--you understand?" + +He laid his hand on his dagger. The muscles of the lad's face +grew tense. I did understand him. "Madame," I said quickly, +"you will not betray us?" + +She shook her head. The colour returned to her cheek, and the +brightness to her eyes. She was a true woman. The sense that +she was protecting others deprived her of fear for herself. + +The footsteps were on the topmost stair now, and a key was thrust +with a rasping sound into the lock. But before it could be +turned--it fortunately fitted ill--we three had jumped on the bed +and were crouching in a row at the head of it, where the curtains +of the alcove concealed, and only just concealed us, from any one +standing at the end of the room near the door. + +I was the outermost, and through a chink could see what passed. +One, two, three people came in, and the door was closed behind +them. Three people, and one of them a woman! My heart--which +had been in my mouth--returned to its place, for the Vidame was +not one. I breathed freely; only I dared not communicate my +relief to the others, lest my voice should be heard. The first +to come in was the woman closely cloaked and hooded. Madame de +Pavannes cast on her a single doubtful glance, and then to my +astonishment threw herself into her arms, mingling her sobs with +little joyous cries of "Oh, Diane! oh, Diane!" + +"My poor little one!" the newcomer exclaimed, soothing her with +tender touches on hair and shoulder. "You are safe now. Quite +safe!" + +"You have come to take me away?" + +"Of course we have!" Diane answered cheerfully, still caressing +her. "We have come to take you to your husband. He has been +searching for you everywhere. He is distracted with grief, +little one." + +"Poor Louis!" ejaculated the wife. + +"Poor Louis, indeed!" the rescuer answered. "But you will see +him soon. We only learned at midnight where you were. You have +to thank M. le Coadjuteur here for that. He brought me the news, +and at once escorted me here to fetch you." + +"And to restore one sister to another," said the priest silkily, +as he advanced a step. He was the very same priest whom I had +seen two hours before with Bezers, and had so greatly disliked! +I hated his pale face as much now as I had then. Even the errand +of good on which he had come could not blind me to his thin- +lipped mouth, to his mock humility and crafty eyes. "I have had +no task so pleasant for many days," added he, with every +appearance of a desire to propitiate. + +But, seemingly, Madame de Pavannes had something of the same +feeling towards him which I had myself; for she started at the +sound of his voice, and disengaging herself from her sister's +arms--it seemed it was her sister--shrank back from the pair. +She bowed indeed in acknowledgment of his words. But there was +little gratitude in the movement, and less warmth. I saw the +sister's face--a brilliantly beautiful face it was--brighter eyes +and lips and more lovely auburn hair I have never seen--even Kit +would have been plain and dowdy beside her--I saw it harden +strangely. A moment before, the two had been in one another's +arms. Now they stood apart, somehow chilled and disillusionised. +The shadow of the priest had fallen upon them--had come between +them. + +At this crisis the fourth person present asserted himself. +Hitherto he had stood silent just within the door: a plain man, +plainly dressed, somewhat over sixty and grey-haired. He looked +disconcerted and embarrassed, and I took him for Mirepoix-- +rightly as it turned out. + +"I am sure," he now exclaimed, his voice trembling with anxiety, +or it might be with fear, "your ladyship will regret leaving +here! You will indeed! No harm would have happened to you. +Madame d'O does not know what she is doing, or she would not take +you away. She does not know what she is doing!" he repeated +earnestly. + +"Madame d'O!" cried the beautiful Diane, her brown eyes darting +fire at the unlucky culprit, her voice full of angry disdain. +"How dare you--such as you--mention my name? Wretch!" + +She flung the last word at him, and the priest took it up. "Ay, +wretch! Wretched man indeed!" he repeated slowly, stretching +out his long thin hand and laying it like the claw of some bird +of prey on the tradesman's shoulder, which flinched, I saw, under +the touch. "How dare you--such as you--meddle with matters of +the nobility? Matters that do not concern you? Trouble! I see +trouble hanging over this house, Mirepoix! Much trouble!" + +The miserable fellow trembled visibly under the covert threat. +His face grew pale. His lips quivered. He seemed fascinated by +the priest's gaze. "I am a faithful son of the church," he +muttered; but his voice shook so that the words were scarcely +audible. "I am known to be such! None better known in Paris, M. +le Coadjuteur." + +"Men are known by their works!" the priest retorted. "Now, +now," he continued, abruptly raising his voice, and lifting his +hand in a kind of exaltation, real or feigned, "is the appointed +time! And now is the day of salvation! and woe, Mirepoix, woe! +woe! to the backslider, and to him that putteth his hand to the +plough and looketh back to-night!" + +The layman cowered and shrank before his fierce denunciation; +while Madame de Pavannes gazed from one to the other as if her +dislike for the priest were so great that seeing the two thus +quarrelling, she almost forgave Mirepoix his offence. "Mirepoix +said he could explain," she murmured irresolutely. + +The Coadjutor fixed his baleful eyes on him. "Mirepoix," he said +grimly, "can explain nothing! Nothing! I dare him to explain!" + +And certainly Mirepoix thus challenged was silent. "Come," the +priest continued peremptorily, turning to the lady who had +entered with him, "your sister must leave with us at once. We +have no time to lose." + +"But what what does it mean!" Madame de Pavannes said, as though +she hesitated even now. "Is there danger still?" + +"Danger!" the priest exclaimed, his form seeming to swell, and +the exaltation I had before read in his voice and manner again +asserting itself. "I put myself at your service, Madame, and +danger disappears! I am as God to-night with powers of life and +death! You do not understand me? Presently you shall. But you +are ready. We will go then. Out of the way, fellow!" he +thundered, advancing upon the door. + +But Mirepoix, who had placed himself with his back to it, to my +astonishment did not give way. His full bourgeois face was pale; +yet peeping through my chink, I read in it a desperate +resolution. And oddly--very oddly, because I knew that, in +keeping Madame de Pavannes a prisoner, he must be in the wrong--I +sympathised with him. Low-bred trader, tool of Pavannes though +he was, I sympathised with him, when he said firmly: + +"She shall not go!" + +"I say she shall!" the priest shrieked, losing all control over +himself. "Fool! Madman! You know not what you do!" As the +words passed his lips, he made an adroit forward movement, +surprised the other, clutched him by the arms, and with a +strength I should never have thought lay in his meagre frame, +flung him some paces into the room. "Fool!" he hissed, shaking +his crooked fingers at him in malignant triumph. "There is no +man in Paris, do you hear--or woman either--shall thwart me to- +night!" + +"Is that so? Indeed?" + +The words, and the cold, cynical voice, were not those of +Mirepoix; they came from behind. The priest wheeled round, as if +he had been stabbed in the back. I clutched Croisette, and +arrested the cramped limb I was moving under cover of the noise. +The speaker was Bezers! He stood in the open door-way, his great +form filling it from post to post, the old gibing smile on his +face. We had been so taken up, actors and audience alike, with +the altercation, that no one had heard him ascend the stairs. He +still wore the black and silver suit, but it was half hidden now +under a dark riding cloak which just disclosed the glitter of his +weapons. He was booted and spurred and gloved as for a journey. + +"Is that so?" he repeated mockingly, as his gaze rested in turn +on each of the four, and then travelled sharply round the room. +"So you will not be thwarted by any man in Paris, to-night, eh? +Have you considered, my dear Coadjutor, what a large number of +people there are in Paris? It would amuse me very greatly now-- +and I'm sure it would the ladies too, who must pardon my abrupt +entrance--to see you put to the test; pitted against--shall we +say the Duke of Anjou? Or M. de Guise, our great man? Or the +Admiral? Say the Admiral foot to foot?" + +Rage and fear--rage at the intrusion, fear of the intruder-- +struggled in the priest's face. "How do you come here, and what +do you want?" he inquired hoarsely. If looks and tones could +kill, we three, trembling behind our flimsy screen, had been +freed at that moment from our enemy. + +"I have come in search of the young birds whose necks you were +for stretching, my friend!" was Bezers' answer. "They have +vanished. Birds they must be, for unless they have come into +this house by that window, they have flown away with wings." + +"They have not passed this way," the priest declared stoutly, +eager only to get rid of the other and I blessed him for the +words! "I have been here since I left you." + +But the Vidame was not one to accept any man's statement. "Thank +you; I think I will see for myself," he answered coolly. +"Madame," he continued, speaking to Madame de Pavannes as he +passed her, "permit me." + +He did not look at her, or see her emotion, or I think he must +have divined our presence. And happily the others did not +suspect her of knowing more than they did. He crossed the floor +at his leisure, and sauntered to the window, watched by them with +impatience. He drew aside the curtain, and tried each of the +bars, and peered through the opening both up and down, An oath +and an expression of wonder escaped him. The bars were standing, +and firm and strong; and it did not occur to him that we could +have passed between them. I am afraid to say how few inches they +were apart. + +As he turned, he cast a casual glance at the bed--at us; and +hesitated. He had the candle in his hand, having taken it to the +window the better to examine the bars; and it obscured his sight. +He did not see us. The three crouching forms, the strained white +faces, the starting eyes, that lurked in the shadow of the +curtain escaped him. The wild beating of our hearts did not +reach his ears. And it was well for him that it was so. If he +had come up to the bed I think that we should have killed him, I +know that we should have tried. All the blood in me had gone to +my head, and I saw him through a haze--larger than life. The +exact spot near the buckle of his cloak where I would strike him, +downwards and inwards, an inch above the collar-bone,--this only +I saw clearly. I could not have missed it. But he turned away, +his face darkening, and went back to the group near the door, and +never knew the risk he had run. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +MADAME'S FRIGHT. + +And we breathed again. The agony of suspense, which Bezers' +pause had created, passed away. But the night already seemed to +us as a week of nights. An age of experience, an aeon of +adventures cut us off--as we lay shaking behind the curtain--from +Caylus and its life. Paris had proved itself more treacherous +than we had even expected to find it. Everything and everyone +shifted, and wore one face one minute, and one another. We had +come to save Pavannes' life at the risk of our own; we found him +to be a villain! Here was Mirepoix owning himself a treacherous +wretch, a conspirator against a woman; we sympathised with him. +The priest had come upon a work of charity and rescue; we loathed +the sound of his voice, and shrank from him, we knew not why, +seeming only to read a dark secret, a gloomy threat in each +doubtful word he uttered. He was the strangest enigma of all. +Why did we fear him? Why did Madame de Pavannes, who apparently +had known him before, shudder at the touch of his hand? Why did +his shadow come even between her and her sister, and estrange +them? so that from the moment Pavannes' wife saw him standing by +Diane's side, she forgot that the latter had come to save, and +looked on her in doubt and sorrow, almost with repugnance. + +We left the Vidame going back to the fireplace. He stooped to +set down the candle by the hearth. "They are not here," he said, +as he straightened himself again, and looked curiously at his +companions. He had apparently been too much taken up with the +pursuit to notice them before. "That is certain, so I have the +less time to lose," he continued. "But I would--yes, my dear +Coadjutor, I certainly would like to know before I go, what you +are doing here. Mirepoix--Mirepoix is an honest man. I did not +expect to find you in HIS house. And two ladies? Two! Fie, +Coadjutor. Ha! Madame d'O, is it? My dear lady," he continued, +addressing her in a whimsical tone, "do not start at the sound of +your own name! It would take a hundred hoods to hide your eyes, +or bleach your lips to the common colour; I should have known you +at once, had I looked at you. And your companion? Pheugh!" + +He broke off, whistling softly. It was clear that he recognised +Madame de Pavannes, and recognised her with astonishment. The +bed creaked as I craned my neck to see what would follow. Even +the priest seemed to think that some explanation was necessary, +for he did not wait to be questioned. + +"Madame de Pavannes," he said in a dry, husky voice, and without +looking up, "was spirited hither yesterday; and detained against +her will by this good man, who will have to answer for it. +Madame d'O discovered her whereabouts, and asked me to escort her +here without loss of time to enforce her sister's release." + +"And her restoration to her distracted husband?" + +"Just so," the priest assented, acquiring confidence, I thought. + +"And Madame desires to go?" + +"Surely! Why not?" + +"Well," the Vidame drawled, his manner such as to bring the blood +to Madame de Pavannes' cheek, "it depends on the person who--to +use your phrase, M. le Coadjuteur--spirited her hither." + +"And that," Madame herself retorted, raising her head, while her +voice quivered with indignation and anger, "was the Abbess of the +Ursulines. Your suspicions are base, worthy of you and unworthy +of me, M. le Vidame! Diane!" she continued sharply, taking her +sister's arm, and casting a disdainful glance at Bezers, "let us +go. I want to be with my husband. I am stifled in this room." + +"We are going, little one," Diane murmured reassuringly. But I +noticed that the speaker's animation, which had been as a soul to +her beauty when she entered the room, was gone. A strange +stillness was it fear of the Vidame? had taken its place. + +"The Abbess of the Ursulines?" Bezers continued thoughtfully. +"SHE brought you here, did she?" There was surprise, genuine +surprise, in his voice. "A good soul, and, I think I have heard, +a friend of yours. Umph!" + +"A very dear friend," Madame answered stiffly. "Now, Diane!" + +"A dear friend! And she spirited you hither yesterday!" +commented the Vidame, with the air of one solving an anagram. +"And Mirepoix detained you; respectable Mirepoix, who is said to +have a well-filled stocking under his pallet, and stands well +with the bourgeoisie. He is in the plot. Then at a very late +hour, your affectionate sister, and my good friend the Coadjutor, +enter to save you. From what?" + +No one spoke. The priest looked down, his cheeks livid with +anger. + +"From what?" Bezers continued with grim playfulness. "There is +the mystery. From the clutches of this profligate Mirepoix, I +suppose. From the dangerous Mirepoix. Upon my honour," with a +sudden ring of resolution in his tone, "I think you are safer +here; I think you had better stay where you are, Madame, until +morning! And risk Mirepoix!" + +"Oh, no! no!" Madame cried vehemently. + +"Oh, yes! yes!" he replied. "What do you say, Coadjutor? Do +you not think so?" + +The priest looked down sullenly. His voice shook as he murmured +in answer, "Madame will please herself. She has a character, M. +le Vidame. But if she prefer to stay here--well!" + +"Oh, she has a character, has she?" rejoined the giant, his eyes +twinkling with evil mirth, "and she should go home with you, and +my old friend Madame d'O, to save it! That is it, is it? No, +no," he continued when he had had his silent laugh out, "Madame +de Pavannes will do very well here--very well here until morning. +We have work to do. Come. Let us go and do it." + +"Do you mean it?" said the priest, starting and looking up with +a subtle challenge--almost a threat--in his tone. + +"Yes, I do." + +Their eyes met: and seeing their looks, I chuckled, nudging +Croisette. No fear of their discovering us now. I recalled the +old proverb which says that when thieves fall out, honest men +come by their own, and speculated on the chance of the priest +freeing us once for all from M. de Bezers. + +But the two were ill-matched. The Vidame could have taken up the +other with one hand and dashed his head on the floor. And it did +not end there. I doubt if in craft the priest was his equal. +Behind a frank brutality Bezers--unless his reputation belied +him--concealed an Italian intellect. Under a cynical +recklessness he veiled a rare cunning and a constant suspicion; +enjoying in that respect a combination of apparently opposite +qualities, which I have known no other man to possess in an equal +degree, unless it might be his late majesty, Henry the Great. A +child would have suspected the priest; a veteran might have been +taken in by the Vidame. + +And indeed the priest's eyes presently sank. "Our bargain is to +go for nothing?" he muttered sullenly. + +"I know of no bargain," quoth the Vidame. "And I have no time to +lose, splitting hairs here. Set it down to what you like. Say +it is a whim of mine, a fad, a caprice. Only understand that +Madame de Pavannes stays. We go. And--" he added this, as a +sudden thought seemed to strike him, "though I would not +willingly use compulsion to a lady, I think Madame d'O had better +come too." + +"You speak masterfully," the priest said with a sneer, forgetting +the tone he had himself used a few minutes before to Mirepoix. + +"Just so. I have forty horsemen over the way," was the dry +answer. "For the moment, I am master of the legions, Coadjutor." + +"That is true," Madame d'O said; so softly that I started. She +had scarcely spoken since Bezers' entrance. As she spoke now, +she shook back the hood from her face and disclosed the chestnut +hair clinging about her temples--deep blots of colour on the +abnormal whiteness of her skin, "That is true, M. de Bezers," she +said. "You have the legions. You have the power. But you will +not use it, I think, against an old friend. You will not do us +this hurt when I--But listen." + +He would not. In the very middle of her appeal he cut her short +--brute that he was! "No Madame!" he burst out violently, +disregarding the beautiful face, the supplicating glance, that +might have moved a stone, "that is just what I will not do. I +will not listen! We know one another. Is not that enough?" + +She looked at him fixedly. He returned her gaze, not smiling +now, but eyeing her with a curious watchfulness. + +And after a long pause she turned from him. "Very well," she +said softly, and drew a deep, quivering breath, the sound of +which reached us. "Then let us go." And without--strangest +thing of all--bestowing a word or look on her sister, who was +weeping bitterly in a chair, she turned to the door and led the +way out, a shrug of her shoulders the last thing I marked. + +The poor lady heard her departing step however, +and sprang up. It dawned upon her that she was being deserted. +"Diane! Diane!" she cried distractedly--and I had to put my +hand on Croisette to keep him quiet, there was such fear and pain +in her tone--"I will go! I will not be left behind in this +dreadful place! Do you hear? Come back to me, Diane!" + +It made my blood run wildly. But Diane did not come back. +Strange! And Bezers too was unmoved. He stood between the poor +woman and the door, and by a gesture bid Mirepoix and the priest +pass out before him. "Madame," he said--and his voice, stern and +hard as ever, expressed no jot of compassion for her, rather such +an impatient contempt as a puling child might elicit--"you are +safe here. And here you will stop! Weep if you please," he +added cynically, "you will have fewer tears to shed to-morrow." + +His last words--they certainly were odd ones--arrested her +attention. She checked her sobs, being frightened I think, and +looked up at him. Perhaps he had spoken with this in view, for +while she still stood at gaze, her hands pressed to her bosom, he +slipped quickly out and closed the door behind him. I heard a +muttering for an instant outside, and then the tramp of feet +descending the stairs. They were gone, and we were still +undiscovered. + +For Madame, she had clean forgotten our presence--of that I am +sure--and the chance of escape we might afford. On finding +herself alone she gazed a short time in alarmed silence at the +door, and then ran to the window and peered out, still trembling, +terrified, silent. So she remained a while. + +She had not noticed that Bezers on going out had omitted to lock +the door behind him. I had. But I was unwilling to move +hastily. Some one might return to see to it before the Vidame +left the house. And besides the door was not over strong, and if +locked would be no obstacle to the three of us when we had only +Mirepoix to deal with. So I kept the others where they were by a +nudge and a pinch, and held my breath a moment, straining my ears +to catch the closing of the door below. I did not hear that. +But I did catch a sound that otherwise might have escaped me, but +which now riveted my eyes to the door of our room. Some one in +the silence, which followed the trampling on the stairs, had +cautiously laid a hand on the latch. + +The light in the room was dim. Mirepoix had taken one of the +candles with him, and the other wanted snuffing. I could not see +whether the latch moved; whether or no it was rising. But +watching intently, I made out that the door was being opened-- +slowly, noiselessly. I saw someone enter--a furtive gliding +shadow. + +For a moment I felt nervous--then I recognised the dark hooded +figure. It was only Madame d'O. Brave woman! She had evaded +the Vidame and slipped back to the rescue. Ha, ha! We would +defeat the Vidame yet! Things were going better! + +But then something in her manner--as she stood holding the door +and peering into the room--something in her bearing startled and +frightened me. As she came forward her movements were so +stealthy that her footsteps made no sound. Her dark shadow, +moving ahead of her across the floor, was not more silent than +she. An undefined desire to make a noise, to give the alarm, +seized me. + +Half-way across the room she stopped to listen, and looked round, +startled herself, I think, by the silence. She could not see her +sister, whose figure was blurred by the outlines of the curtain; +and no doubt she was puzzled to think what had become of her. +The suspense which I felt, but did not understand, was so great +that at last I moved, and the bed creaked. + +In a moment her face was turned our way, and she glided forwards, +her features still hidden by the hood of her cloak. She was +close to us now, bending over us. She raised her hand to her +head--to shade her eyes, as she looked more closely, I supposed, +and I was wondering whether she saw us--whether she took the +shapelessness in the shadow of the curtain for her sister, or +could not make it out--I was thinking how we could best apprise +her of our presence without alarming her--when Croisette dashed +my thoughts to the winds! Croisette, with a tremendous whoop and +a crash, bounded over me on to the floor! + +She uttered a gasping cry--a cry of intense, awful fear. I have +the sound in my ears even now. With that she staggered back, +clutching the air. I heard the metallic clang and ring of +something falling on the floor. I heard an answering cry of +alarm from the window; and then Madame de Pavannes ran forward +and caught her in her arms. + +It was strange to find the room lately so silent become at once +alive with whispering forms, as we came hastily to light. I +cursed Croisette for his folly, and was immeasurably angry with +him, but I had no time to waste words on him then. I hurried to +the door to guard it. I opened it a hand's breadth and listened. +All was quiet below; the house still. I took the key out of the +lock and put it in my pocket and went back. Marie and Croisette +were standing a little apart from Madame de Pavannes, who, +hanging over her sister, was by turns bathing her face and +explaining our presence. + +In a very few minutes Madame d'O seemed to recover, and sat up. +The first shock of deadly terror had passed, but she was still +pale. She still trembled, and shrank from meeting our eyes, +though I saw her, when our attention was apparently directed +elsewhere, glance at one and another of us with a strange +intentness, a shuddering curiosity. No wonder, I thought. She +must have had a terrible fright--one that might have killed a +more timid woman! + +"What on earth did you do that for!" I asked Croisette +presently, my anger certainly not decreasing the more I looked at +her beautiful face. "You might have killed her!" + +In charity I supposed his nerves had failed him, for he could not +even now give me a straightforward answer. His only reply was, +"Let us get away! Let us get away from this horrible house!" +and this he kept repeating with a shudder as he moved restlessly +to and fro. + +"With all my heart!" I answered, looking at him with some +contempt. "That is exactly what we are going to do!" + +But all the same his words reminded me of something which in the +excitement of the scene I had momentarily forgotten, and that was +our duty. Pavannes must still be saved, though not for Kit; +rather to answer to us for his sins. But he must be saved! And +now that the road was open, every minute lost was reproach to us. +"Yes," I added roughly, my thoughts turned into a more rugged +channel, "you are right. This is no time for nursing. We must +be going. Madame de Pavannes," I went on, addressing myself to +her, "you know the way home from here--to your house!" "Oh, +yes," she cried. + +"That is well," I answered. "Then we will start. Your sister is +sufficiently recovered now, I think. And we will not risk any +further delay." + +I did not tell her of her husband's danger, or that we suspected +him of wronging her, and being in fact the cause of her +detention. I wanted her services as a guide. That was the main +point, though I was glad to be able to put her in a place of +safety at the same time that we fulfilled our own mission. + +She rose eagerly. "You are sure that we can get out?" she said. + +"Sure," I replied with a brevity worthy of Bezers himself. + +And I was right. We trooped down stairs, making as little noise +as possible; with the result that Mirepoix only took the alarm, +and came upon us when we were at the outer door, bungling with +the lock. Then I made short work of him, checking his scared +words of remonstrance by flashing my dagger before his eyes. I +induced him in the same fashion--he was fairly taken by surprise +--to undo the fastenings himself; and so, bidding him follow us +at his peril, we slipped out one by one. We softly closed the +door behind us. And lo! we were at last free--free and in the +streets of Paris, with the cool night air fanning our brows. A +church hard by tolled the hour of two; and the strokes were +echoed, before we had gone many steps along the ill-paved way, by +the solemn tones of the bell of Notre Dame. + +We were free and in the streets, with a guide who knew the way. +If Bezers had not gone straight from us to his vengeance, we +might thwart him yet. I strode along quickly, Madame d'O by my +side the others a little way in front. Here and there an oil- +lamp, swinging from a pulley in the middle of the road, enabled +us to avoid some obstacle more foul than usual, or to leap over a +pool which had formed in the kennel. Even in my excitement, my +country-bred senses rebelled against the sights, and smells, the +noisome air and oppressive closeness of the streets. + +The town was quiet, and very dark where the smoky lamps were not +hanging. Yet I wondered if it ever slept, for more than once we +had to stand aside to give passage to a party of men, hurrying +along with links and arms. Several times too, especially towards +the end of our walk, I was surprised by the flashing of bright +lights in a courtyard, the door of which stood half open to right +or left. Once I saw the glow of torches reflected ruddily in the +windows of a tall and splendid mansion, a little withdrawn from +the street. The source of the light was in the fore-court, +hidden from us by a low wall, but I caught the murmur of voices +and stir of many feet. Once a gate was stealthily opened and two +armed men looked out, the act and their manner of doing it, +reminding me on the instant of those who had peeped out to +inspect us some hours before in Bezers' house. And once, nay +twice, in the mouth of a narrow alley I discerned a knot of men +standing motionless in the gloom. There was an air of mystery +abroad, a feeling as of solemn stir and preparation going on +under cover of the darkness, which awed and unnerved me. + +But I said nothing of this, and Madame d'O was equally silent. +Like most countrymen I was ready to believe in any exaggeration +of the city's late hours, the more as she made no remark. I +supposed--shaking off the momentary impression--that what I saw +was innocent and normal. Besides, I was thinking what I should +say to Pavannes when I saw him---in what terms I should warn him +of his peril, and cast his perfidy in his teeth. We had hurried +along in this way--and in absolute silence, save when some +obstacle or pitfall drew from us an exclamation--for about a +quarter of a mile, when my companion, turning into a slightly +wider street, slackened her speed, and indicated by a gesture +that we had arrived. A lamp hung over the porch, to which she +pointed, and showed the small side gate half open. We were close +behind the other three now. I saw Croisette stoop to enter and +as quickly fall back a pace. Why? + +In a moment it flashed across my mind that we were too late that +the Vidame had been before us. + +And yet how quiet it all was. + +Then I breathed freely again. I saw that Croisette had only +stepped back to avoid some one who was coming out--the Coadjutor +in fact. The moment the entrance was clear, the lad shot in, and +the others after him, the priest taking no notice of them, nor +they of him. + +I was for going in too, when I felt Madame d'O's hand tighten +suddenly on my arm, and then fall from it. Apprised of something +by this, I glanced at the priest's face, catching sight of it by +chance just as his eyes met hers. His face was white--nay it was +ugly with disappointment and rage, bitter snarling rage, that was +hardly human. He grasped her by the arm roughly and twisted her +round without ceremony, so as to draw her a few paces aside; yet +not so far that I could not hear what they said. + +"He is not here!" he hissed. "Do you understand? He crossed +the river to the Faubourg St. Germain at nightfall--searching for +her. And he has not come back! He is on the other side of the +water, and midnight has struck this hour past!" + +She stood silent for a moment as if she had received a blow-- +silent and dismayed. Something serious had happened. I could +see that. + +"He cannot recross the river now?" she said after a time. "The +gates--" + +"Shut!" he replied briefly. "The keys are at the Louvre." + +"And the boats are on this side?" + +"Every boat!" he answered, striking his one hand on the other +with violence. "Every boat! No one may cross until it is over." + +"And the Faubourg St. Germain?" she said in a lower voice. + +"There will be nothing done there. Nothing!" + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A YOUNG KNIGHT-ERRANT. + +I would gladly have left the two together, and gone straight into +the house. I was eager now to discharge the errand on which I +had come so far; and apart from this I had no liking for the +priest or wish to overhear his talk. His anger, however, was so +patent, and the rudeness with which he treated Madame d'O so +pronounced that I felt I could not leave her with him unless she +should dismiss me. So I stood patiently enough--and awkwardly +enough too, I daresay--by the door while they talked on in +subdued tones. Nevertheless, I felt heartily glad when at +length, the discussion ending Madame came back to me. I offered +her my arm to help her over the wooden foot of the side gate. +She laid her hand on it, but she stood still. + +"M. de Caylus," she said; and at that stopped. Naturally I +looked at her, and our eyes met. Hers brown and beautiful, +shining in the light of the lamp overhead looked into mine. Her +lips were half parted, and one fair tress of hair had escaped +from her hood. "M. de Caylus, will you do me a favour," she +resumed, softly, "a favour for which I shall always be grateful?" + +I sighed. "Madame," I said earnestly, for I felt the solemnity +of the occasion, "I swear that in ten minutes, if the task I now +have in hand be finished I will devote my life to your service. +For the present--" + +"Well, for the present? But it is the present I want, Master +Discretion." + +"I must see M. de Pavannes! I am pledged to it," I ejaculated. + +"To see M. de Pavannes?" + +"Yes." + +I was conscious that she was looking at me with eyes of doubt, +almost of suspicion. + +"Why? Why?" she asked with evident surprise. "You have +restored--and nearly frightened me to death in doing it--his wife +to her home; what more do you want with him, most valiant knight- +errant?" + +"I must see him," I said firmly. I would have told her all and +been thankful, but the priest was within hearing--or barely out +of it; and I had seen too much pass between him and Bezers to be +willing to say anything before him. + +"You must see M. de Pavannes?" she repeated, gazing at me. + +"I must," I replied with decision. + +"Then you shall. That is exactly what I am going to help you to +do," she exclaimed. "He is not here. That is what is the +matter. He went out at nightfall seeking news of his wife, and +crossed the river, the Coadjutor says, to the Faubourg St. +Germain. Now it is of the utmost importance that he should +return before morning--return here." + +"But is he not here?" I said, finding all my calculations at +fault. "You are sure of it, Madame?" + +"Quite sure," she answered rapidly. "Your brothers will have by +this time discovered the fact. Now, M. de Caylus, Pavannes must +be brought here before morning, not only for his wife's sake-- +though she will be wild with anxiety--but also--" + +"I know," I said, eagerly interrupting her, "for his own too! +There is a danger threatening him." + +She turned swiftly, as if startled, and I turned, and we looked +at the priest. I thought we understood one another. "There is," +she answered softly, "and I would save him from that danger; but +he will only be safe, as I happen to know, here! Here, you +understand! He must be brought here before daybreak, M. de +Caylus. He must! He must!" she exclaimed, her beautiful +features hardening with the earnestness of her feelings. "And +the Coadjutor cannot go. I cannot go. There is only one man who +can save him, and that is yourself. There is, above all, not a +moment to be lost." + +My thoughts were in a whirl. Even as she spoke she began to walk +back the way we had come, her hand on my arm; and I, doubtful, +and in a confused way unwilling, went with her. I did not +clearly understand the position. I would have wished to go in +and confer with Marie and Croisette; but the juncture had +occurred so quickly, and it might be that time was as valuable as +she said, and--well, it was hard for me, a lad, to refuse her +anything when she looked at me with appeal in her eyes. I did +manage to stammer, "But I do not know Paris. I could not find +my way, I am afraid, and it is night, Madame." + +She released my arm and stopped. "Night!" she cried, with a +scornful ring in her voice. "Night! I thought you were a man, +not a boy! You are afraid!" + +"Afraid," I said hotly; "we Cayluses are never afraid." + +"Then I can tell you the way, if that be your only difficulty. +We turn here. Now, come in with me a moment," she continued, +"and I will give you something you will need--and your +directions." + +She had stopped at the door of a tall, narrow house, standing +between larger ones in a street which appeared to me to be more +airy and important than any I had yet seen. As she spoke, she +rang the bell once, twice, thrice. The silvery tinkle had +scarcely died away the third time before the door opened +silently; I saw no one, but she drew me into a narrow hall or +passage. A taper in an embossed holder was burning on a chest. +She took it up, and telling me to follow her led the way lightly +up the stairs, and into a room, half-parlour, half-bedroom--such +a room as I had never seen before. It was richly hung from +ceiling to floor with blue silk, and lighted by the soft rays of +lamps shaded by Venetian globes of delicate hues. The scent of +cedar wood was in the air, and on the hearth in a velvet tray +were some tiny puppies. A dainty disorder reigned everywhere. +On one table a jewel-case stood open, on another lay some lace +garments, two or three masks and a fan. A gemmed riding-whip and +a silver-hilted poniard hung on the same peg. And, strangest of +all, huddled away behind the door, I espied a plain, black- +sheathed sword, and a man's gauntlets. + +She did not wait a moment, but went at once to the jewel-case. +She took from it a gold ring--a heavy seal ring. She held this +out to me in the most matter-of-fact way--scarcely turning, in +fact. "Put it on your finger," she said hurriedly. "If you are +stopped by soldiers, or if they will not give you a boat to cross +the river, say boldly that you are on the king's service. Call +for the officer and show that ring. Play the man. Bid him stop +you at his peril!" + +I hastily muttered my thanks, and she as hastily took something +from a drawer, and tore it into strips. Before I knew what she +was doing she was on her knees by me, fastening a white band of +linen round my left sleeve. Then she took my cap, and with the +same precipitation fixed a fragment of the stuff in it, in the +form of a rough cross. + +"There," she said. "Now, listen, M. de Caylus. There is more +afoot to-night than you know of. Those badges will help you +across to St. Germain, but the moment you land tear them off: +Tear them off, remember. They will help you no longer. You will +come back by the same boat, and will not need them. If you are +seen to wear them as you return, they will command no respect, +but on the contrary will bring you--and perhaps me into trouble." + +"I understand," I said, "but--" + +"You must ask no questions," she retorted, waving one snowy +finger before my eyes. "My knight-errant must have faith in me, +as I have in him; or he would not be here at this time of night, +and alone with me. But remember this also. When you meet +Pavannes do not say you come from me. Keep that in your mind; I +will explain the reason afterwards. Say merely that his wife is +found, and is wild with anxiety about him. If you say anything +as to his danger he may refuse to come. Men are obstinate." + +I nodded a smiling assent, thinking I understood. At the same +time I permitted myself in my own mind a little discretion. +Pavannes was not a fool, and the name of the Vidame--but, +however, I should see. I had more to say to him than she knew +of. Meanwhile she explained very carefully the three turnings I +had to take to reach the river, and the wharf where boats most +commonly lay, and the name of the house in which I should find M. +de Pavannes. + +"He is at the Hotel de Bailli," she said. "And there, I think +that is all." + +"No, not all," I said hardily. "There is one thing I have not +got. And that is a sword!" + +She followed the direction of my eyes, started, and laughed--a +little oddly. But she fetched the weapon. "Take it, and do +not," she urged, "do not lose time. Do not mention me to +Pavannes. Do not let the white badges be seen as you return. +That is really all. And now good luck!" She gave me her hand to +kiss. "Good luck, my knight-errant, good luck--and come back to +me soon!" + +She smiled divinely, as it seemed to me, as she said these last +words, and the same smile followed me down stairs: for she +leaned over the stair-head with one of the lamps in her hand, and +directed me how to draw the bolts. I took one backward glance as +I did so at the fair stooping figure above me, the shining eyes, +and tiny outstretched hand, and then darting into the gloom I +hurried on my way. + +I was in a strange mood. A few minutes before I had been at +Pavannes' door, at the end of our journey; on the verge of +success. I had been within an ace, as I supposed at least, of +executing my errand. I had held the cup of success in my hand. +And it had slipped. Now the conflict had to be fought over +again; the danger to be faced. It would have been no more than +natural if I had felt the disappointment keenly: if I had almost +despaired. + +But it was otherwise--far otherwise. Never had my heart beat +higher or more proudly than as I now hurried through the streets, +avoiding such groups as were abroad in them, and intent only on +observing the proper turnings. Never in any moment of triumph in +after days, in love or war, did anything like the exhilaration, +the energy, the spirit, of those minutes come back to me. I had +a woman's badge in my cap--for the first time--the music of her +voice in my ears. I had a magic ring on my finger: a talisman +on my arm. My sword was at my side again. All round me lay a +misty city of adventures, of danger and romance, full of the +richest and most beautiful possibilities; a city of real +witchery, such as I had read of in stories, through which those +fairy gifts and my right hand should guide me safely. I did not +even regret my brothers, or our separation. I was the eldest. +It was fitting that the cream of the enterprise should be +reserved for me, Anne de Caylus. And to what might it not lead? +In fancy I saw myself already a duke and peer of France--already +I held the baton. + +Yet while I exulted boyishly, I did not forget what I was about. +I kept my eyes open, and soon remarked that the number of people +passing to and fro in the dark streets had much increased within +the last half hour. The silence in which in groups or singly +these figures stole by me was very striking. I heard no +brawling, fighting or singing; yet if it were too late for these +things, why were so many people up and about? I began to count +presently, and found that at least half of those I met wore +badges in their hats and on their arms, similar to mine, and that +they all moved with a businesslike air, as if bound for some +rendezvous. + +I was not a fool, though I was young, and in some matters less +quick than Croisette. The hints which had been dropped by so +many had not been lost on me. "There is more afoot to-night than +you know of!" Madame d'O had said. And having eyes as well as +ears I fully believed it. Something was afoot. Something was +going to happen in Paris before morning. But what, I wondered. +Could it be that a rebellion was about to break out? If so I was +on the king's service, and all was well. I might even be going-- +and only eighteen--to make history! Or was it only a brawl on a +great scale between two parties of nobles? I had heard of such +things happening in Paris. Then--well I did not see how I could +act in that case. I must be guided by events. + +I did not imagine anything else which it could be. That is the +truth, though it may need explanation. I was accustomed only to +the milder religious differences, the more evenly balanced +parties of Quercy, where the peace between the Catholics and +Huguenots had been welcome to all save a very few. I could not +gauge therefore the fanaticism of the Parisian populace, and lost +count of the factor, which made possible that which was going to +happen--was going to happen in Paris before daylight as surely as +the sun was going to rise! I knew that the Huguenot nobles were +present in the city in great numbers, but it did not occur to me +that they could as a body be in danger. They were many and +powerful, and as was said, in favour with the king. They were +under the protection of the King of Navarre--France's brother- +in-law of a week, and the Prince of Conde; and though these +princes were young, Coligny the sagacious admiral was old, and +not much the worse I had learned for his wound. He at least was +high in royal favour, a trusted counsellor. Had not the king +visited him on his sick-bed and sat by him for an hour together? + +Surely, I thought, if there were danger, these men would know of +it. And then the Huguenots' main enemy, Henri le Balafre, the +splendid Duke of Guise, "our great man," and "Lorraine," as the +crowd called him--he, it was rumoured, was in disgrace at court. +In a word these things, to say nothing of the peaceful and joyous +occasion which had brought the Huguenots to Paris, and which +seemed to put treachery out of the question, were more than +enough to prevent me forecasting the event. + +If for a moment, indeed, as I hurried along towards the river, +anything like the truth occurred to me, I put it from me. I say +with pride I put it from me as a thing impossible. For God +forbid--one may speak out the truth these forty years back--God +forbid, say I, that all Frenchmen should bear the blood +guiltiness which came of other than French brains, though French +were the hands that did the work. + +I was not greatly troubled by my forebodings therefore: and the +state of exaltation to which Madame d'O's confidence had raised +my spirits lasted until one of the narrow streets by the Louvre +brought me suddenly within sight of the river. Here faint +moonlight bursting momentarily through the clouds was shining on +the placid surface of the water. The fresh air played upon, and +cooled my temples. And this with the quiet scene so abruptly +presented to me, gave check to my thoughts, and somewhat sobered +me. + +At some distance to my left I could distinguish in the middle of +the river the pile of buildings which crowd the Ile de la Cite, +and could follow the nearer arm of the stream as it swept +landwards of these, closely hemmed in by houses, but unbroken as +yet by the arches of the Pont Neuf which I have lived to see +built. Not far from me on my right--indeed within a stone's +throw--the bulky mass of the Louvre rose dark and shapeless +against the sky. Only a narrow open space--the foreshore-- +separated me from the water; beyond which I could see an +irregular line of buildings, that no doubt formed the Faubourg +St. Germain. + +I had been told that I should find stairs leading down to the +water, and boats moored at the foot of them, at this point. +Accordingly I walked quickly across the open space to a spot, +where I made out a couple of posts set up on the brink-- +doubtless to mark the landing place. + +I had not gone ten paces, however, out of the shadow, before I +chanced to look round, and discerned with an unpleasant eerie +feeling three figures detach themselves from it, and advance in a +row behind me, so as the better to cut off my retreat. I was not +to succeed in my enterprise too easily then. That was clear. +Still I thought it better to act as if I had not seen my +followers, and collecting myself, I walked as quickly as I could +down to the steps. The three were by that time close upon me-- +within striking distance almost. I turned abruptly and +confronted them. + +"Who are you, and what do you want?" I said, eyeing them warily, +my hand on my sword. + +They did not answer, but separated more widely so as to form a +half-circle: and one of them whistled. On the instant a knot of +men started out of the line of houses, and came quickly across +the strip of light towards us. + +The position seemed serious. If I could have run indeed--but I +glanced round, and found escape in that fashion impossible. +There were men crouching on the steps behind me, between me and +the river. I had fallen into a trap. Indeed, there was nothing +for it now but to do as Madame had bidden me, and play the man +boldly. I had the words still ringing in my ears. I had enough +of the excitement I had lately felt still bounding in my veins to +give nerve and daring. I folded my arms and drew myself up. + +"Knaves!" I said, with as much quiet contempt as I could muster, +"you mistake me. You do not know whom you have to deal with. +Get me a boat, and let two of you row me across. Hinder me, and +your necks shall answer for it--or your backs!" + +A laugh and an oath of derision formed the only response, and +before I could add more, the larger group arrived, and joined the +three. + +"Who is it, Pierre?" asked one of these in a matter-of-fact way, +which showed I had not fallen amongst mere thieves. + +The speaker seemed to be the leader of the band. He had a +feather in his bonnet, and I saw a steel corslet gleam under his +cloak, when some one held up a lanthorn to examine me the better. +His trunk-hose were striped with black, white, and green--the +livery as I learned afterwards of Monsieur the King's brother, +the Duke of Anjou, afterwards Henry the Third; then a close +friend of the Duke of Guise, and later his murderer. The captain +spoke with a foreign accent, and his complexion was dark to +swarthiness. His eyes sparkled and flashed like black beads. It +was easy to see that he was an Italian. + +"A gallant young cock enough," the soldier who had whistled +answered; "and not quite of the breed we expected." He held his +lanthorn towards me and pointed to the white badge on my sleeve. +"It strikes me we have caught a crow instead of a pigeon!" + +"How comes this?" the Italian asked harshly, addressing me. +"Who are you? And why do you wish to cross the river at this +time of night, young sir?" + +I acted on the inspiration of the moment. "Play the man boldly!" +Madame had said. I would: and I did with a vengeance. I sprang +forward and seizing the captain by the clasp of his cloak, shook +him violently, and flung him off with all my force, so that he +reeled. "Dog!" I exclaimed, advancing, as if I would seize him +again. "Learn how to speak to your betters! Am I to be stopped +by such sweepings as you? Hark ye, I am on the King's service!" + +He fairly spluttered with rage. "More like the devil's!" he +exclaimed, pronouncing his words abominably, and fumbling vainly +for his weapon. "King's service or no service you do not insult +Andrea Pallavicini!" + +I could only vindicate my daring by greater daring, and I saw +this even as, death staring me in the face, my heart seemed to +stop. The man had his mouth open and his hand raised to give an +order which would certainly have sent Anne de Caylus from the +world, when I cried passionately--it was my last chance, and I +never wished to live more strongly than at that moment--I cried +passionately, "Andrea Pallavicini, if such be your name, look at +that! Look at that!" I repeated, shaking my open hand with the +ring on it before his face, "and then hinder me if you dare! To- +morrow if you have quarterings enough, I will see to your +quarrel! Now send me on my way, or your fate be on your own +head! Disobey--ay, do but hesitate--and I will call on these +very men of yours to cut you down!" + +It was a bold throw, for I staked all on a talisman of which I +did not know the value! To me it was the turn of a die, for I +had had no leisure to look at the ring, and knew no more than a +babe whose it was. But the venture was as happy as desperate. + +Andrea Pallavicini's expression--no pleasant one at the best of +times--changed on the instant. His face fell as he seized my +hand, and peered at the ring long and intently. Then he cast a +quick glance of suspicion at his men, of hatred at me. But I +cared nothing for his glance, or his hatred. I saw already that +he had made up his mind to obey the charm: and that for me was +everything. "If you had shown that to me a little earlier, young +sir, it would, maybe, have been better for both of us," he said, +a surly menace in his voice. And cursing his men for their +stupidity he ordered two of them to unmoor a boat. + +Apparently the craft had been secured with more care than skill, +for to loosen it seemed to be a work of time. Meanwhile I stood +waiting in the midst of the group, anxious and yet exultant; an +object of curiosity, and yet curious myself. I heard the guards +whisper together, and caught such phrases as "It is the Duc +d'Aumale." + +"No, it is not D'Aumale. It is nothing like him." + +"Well, he has the Duke's ring, fool!" + +"The Duke's?" + +"Ay." + +"Then it is all right, God bless him!" This last was uttered +with extreme fervour. + +I was conscious too of being the object of many respectful +glances; and had just bidden the men on the steps below me to be +quick, when I discovered with alarm three figures moving across +the open space towards us, and coming apparently from the same +point from which Pallavicini and his men had emerged. + +In a moment I foresaw danger. "Now be quick there!" I cried +again. But scarcely had I spoken before I saw that it was +impossible to get afloat before these others came up, and I +prepared to stand my ground resolutely. + +The first words, however, with which Pallavicini saluted the new- +comers scattered my fears. "Well, what the foul fiend do you +want?" he exclaimed rudely; and he rapped out half-a-dozen +CORPOS before they could answer him. "What have you brought him +here for, when I left him in the guard-house? Imbeciles!" + +"Captain Pallavicini," interposed the midmost of the three, +speaking with patience--he was a man of about thirty, dressed +with some richness, though his clothes were now disordered as +though by a struggle--"I have induced these good men to bring me +down--" + +"Then," cried the captain, brutally interrupting him, "you have +lost your labour, Monsieur." + +"You do not know me," replied the prisoner with sternness--a +prisoner he seemed to be. "You do not understand that I am a +friend of the Prince of Conde, and that--" + +He would have said more, but the Italian again cut him short. "A +fig for the Prince of Conde!" he cried; "I understand my duty. +You may as well take things easily. You cannot cross, and you +cannot go home, and you cannot have any explanation; except that +it is the King's will! Explanation?" he grumbled, in a lower +tone, "you will get it soon enough, I warrant! Before you want +it!" + +"But there is a boat going to cross," said the other, controlling +his temper by an effort and speaking with dignity. "You told me +that by the King's order no one could cross; and you arrested me +because, having urgent need to visit St. Germain, I persisted. +Now what does this mean, Captain Pallavicini? Others are +crossing. I ask what this means?" + +"Whatever you please, M. de Pavannes," the Italian retorted +contemptuously. "Explain it for yourself!" + +I started as the name struck my ear, and at once cried out in +surprise, "M. de Pavannes!" Had I heard aright? + +Apparently I had, for the prisoner turned to me with a bow. +"Yes, sir," he said with dignity, "I am M. de Pavannes. I have +not the honour of knowing you, but you seem to be a gentleman." +He cast a withering glance at the captain as he said this. +"Perhaps you will explain to me why this violence has been done +to me. If you can, I shall consider it a favour; if not, pardon +me." + +I did not answer him at once, for a good reason--that every +faculty I had was bent on a close scrutiny of the man himself. +He was fair, and of a ruddy complexion. His beard was cut in the +short pointed fashion of the court; and in these respects he bore +a kind of likeness, a curious likeness, to Louis de Pavannes. +But his figure was shorter and stouter. He was less martial in +bearing, with more of the air of a scholar than a soldier. "You +are related to M. Louis de Pavannes?" I said, my heart beginning +to beat with an odd excitement. I think I foresaw already what +was coming. + +"I am Louis de Pavannes," he replied with impatience. + +I stared at him in silence: thinking--thinking--thinking. And +then I said slowly, "You have a cousin of the same name?" + +"I have." + +"He fell prisoner to the Vicomte de Caylus at Moncontour?" + +"He did," he answered curtly. "But what of that, sir?" + +Again I did not answer--at once. The murder was out. I +remembered, in the dim fashion in which one remembers such things +after the event, that I had heard Louis de Pavannes, when we +first became acquainted with him, mention this cousin of the same +name; the head of a younger branch. But our Louis living in +Provence and the other in Normandy, the distance between their +homes, and the troubles of the times had loosened a tie which +their common religion might have strengthened. They had scarcely +ever seen one another. As Louis had spoken of his namesake but +once during his long stay with us, and I had not then foreseen +the connection to be formed between our families, it was no +wonder that in the course of months the chance word had passed +out of my head, and I had clean forgotten the subject of it. +Here however, he was before my eyes, and seeing him; I saw too +what the discovery meant. It meant a most joyful thing! a most +wonderful thing which I longed to tell Croisette and Marie. It +meant that our Louis de Pavannes--my cheek burned for my want of +faith in him--was no villain after all, but such a noble +gentleman as we had always till this day thought him! It meant +that he was no court gallant bent on breaking a country heart for +sport, but Kit's own true lover! And--and it meant more--it +meant that he was yet in danger, and still ignorant of the vow +that unchained fiend Bezers had taken to have his life! In +pursuing his namesake we had been led astray, how sadly I only +knew now! And had indeed lost most precious time. + +"Your wife, M. de Pavannes"--I began in haste, seeing the +necessity of explaining matters with the utmost quickness. "Your +wife is--" + +"Ah, my wife!" he cried interrupting me, with anxiety in his +tone. "What of her? You have seen her!" + +"I have. She is safe at your house in the Rue de St. Merri." + +"Thank Heaven for that!" he replied fervently. Before he could +say more Captain Andrea interrupted us. I could see that his +suspicions were aroused afresh. He pushed rudely between us, and +addressing me said, "Now, young sir, your boat is ready." + +"My boat?" I answered, while I rapidly considered the situation. +Of course I did not want to cross the river now. No doubt +Pavannes---this Pavannes--could guide me to Louis' address. "My +boat?" + +"Yes, it is waiting," the Italian replied, his black eyes roving +from one to the other of us. + +"Then let it wait!" I answered haughtily, speaking with an +assumption of anger. "Plague upon you for interrupting us! I +shall not cross the river now. This gentleman can give me the +information I want. I shall take him back with me." + +"To whom?" + +"To whom? To those who sent me, sirrah!" + +I thundered. "You do not seem to be much in the Duke's +confidence, captain," I went on; "now take a word of advice from +me! There is nothing: so easily cast off as an over-officious +servant! He goes too far--and he goes like an old glove! An old +glove," I repeated grimly, sneering in his face, "which saves the +hand and suffers itself. Beware of too much zeal, Captain +Pallavicini! It is a dangerous thing!" + +He turned pale with anger at being thus treated by a beardless +boy. But he faltered all the same. What I said was unpleasant, +but the bravo knew it was true. + +I saw the impression I had made, and I turned to the soldiers +standing round. + +"Bring here, my friends," I said, "M. de Pavannes' sword!" + +One ran up to the guard house and brought it at once. They were +townsfolk, burgher guards or such like, and for some reason +betrayed so evident a respect for me, that I soberly believe they +would have turned on their temporary leader at my bidding. +Pavannes took his sword, and placed it under his arm. We both +bowed ceremoniously to Pallavicini, who scowled in response; and +slowly, for I was afraid to show any signs of haste, we walked +across the moonlit space to the bottom of the street by which I +had come. There the gloom swallowed us up at once. Pavannes +touched my sleeve and stopped in the darkness. + +"I beg to be allowed to thank you for your aid," he said with +emotion, turning and facing me. "Whom have I the honour of +addressing?" + +"M. Anne de Caylus, a friend of your cousin," I replied. + +"Indeed?" he said "well, I thank you most heartily," and we +embraced with warmth. + +"But I could have done little," I answered modestly, "on your +behalf, if it had not been for this ring." + +"And the virtue of the ring lies in--" + +"In--I am sure I cannot say in what!" I confessed. And then, in +the sympathy which the scene had naturally created between us, I +forgot one portion of my lady's commands and I added impulsively, +"All I know is that Madame d'O gave it me; and that it has done +all, and more than all she said it would." + +"Who gave it to you?" he asked, grasping my arm so tightly as to +hurt me. + +"Madame d'O," I repeated. It was too late to draw back now. + +"That woman!" he ejaculated in a strange low whisper. "Is it +possible? That woman gave it you?" + +I wandered what on earth he meant, surprise, scorn and dislike +were so blended in his tone. It even seemed to me that he drew +off from me somewhat. "Yes, M. de Pavannes," I replied, offended +and indignant, "It is so far possible that it is the truth; and +more, I think you would not so speak of this lady if you knew +all; and that it was through her your wife was to-day freed from +those who were detaining her, and taken safely home!" + +"Ha!" he cried eagerly. "Then where has my wife been?" + +"At the house of Mirepoix, the glover," I answered coldly, "in +the Rue Platriere. Do you know him? You do. Well, she was kept +there a prisoner, until we helped her to escape an hour or so +ago." + +He did not seem to comprehend even then. I could see little of +his face, but there was doubt and wonder in his tone when he +spoke. "Mirepoix the glover," he murmured. "He is an honest man +enough, though a Catholic. She was kept there! Who kept her +there?" + +"The Abbess of the Ursulines seems to have been at the bottom of +it," I explained, fretting with impatience. This wonder was +misplaced, I thought; and time was passing. "Madame d'O found +out where she was," I continued, "and took her home, and then +sent me to fetch you, hearing you had crossed the river. That is +the story in brief." + +"That woman sent you to fetch me?" he repeated again. + +"Yes," I answered angrily. "She did, M. de Pavannes." + +"Then," he said slowly, and with an air of solemn conviction +which could not but impress me, "there is a trap laid for me! +She is the worst, the most wicked, the vilest of women! If she +sent you, this is a trap! And my wife has fallen into it +already! Heaven help her--and me--if it be so!" + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE PARISIAN MATINS. + +There are some statements for which it is impossible to be +prepared; statements so strong and so startling that it is +impossible to answer them except by action--by a blow. And this +of M. de Pavannes was one of these. If there had been any one +present, I think I should have given him the lie and drawn upon +him. But alone with him at midnight in the shadow near the +bottom of the Rue des Fosses, with no witnesses, with every +reason to feel friendly towards him, what was I to do? + +As a fact, I did nothing. I stood, silent and stupefied, waiting +to hear more. He did not keep me long. + +"She is my wife's sister," he continued grimly. "But I have no +reason to shield her on that account! Shield her? Had you lived +at court only a month I might shield her all I could, M. de +Caylus, it would avail nothing. Not Madame de Sauves is better +known. And I would not if I could! I know well, though my wife +will not believe it, that there is nothing so near Madame d'O's +heart as to get rid of her sister and me--of both of us--that she +may succeed to Madeleine's inheritance! Oh, yes, I had good +grounds for being nervous yesterday, when my wife did not +return," he added excitedly. + +"But there at least you wrong Madame d'O!" I cried, shocked and +horrified by an accusation, which seemed so much more dreadful in +the silence and gloom--and withal so much less preposterous than +it might have seemed in the daylight. "There you certainly wrong +her! For shame! M. de Pavannes." + +He came a step nearer, and laying a hand on my sleeve peered into +my face. "Did you see a priest with her?" he asked slowly. "A +man called the Coadjutor--a down-looking dog?" + +I said--with a shiver of dread, a sudden revulsion of feeling, +born of his manner--that I had. And I explained the part the +priest had taken. + +"Then," Pavannes rejoined, "I am right There IS a trap laid for +me. The Abbess of the Ursulines! She abduct my wife? Why, she +is her dearest friend, believe me. It is impossible. She would +be more likely to save her from danger than to--umph! wait a +minute." I did: I waited, dreading what he might discover, +until he muttered, checking himself--"Can that be it? Can it be +that the Abbess did know of some danger threatening us, and would +have put Madeleine in a safe retreat? I wonder!" + +And I wondered; and then--well, thoughts are like gunpowder. The +least spark will fire a train. His words were few, but they +formed spark enough to raise such a flare in my brain as for a +moment blinded me, and shook me so that I trembled. The shock +over, I was left face to face with a possibility of wickedness +such as I could never have suspected of myself. I remembered +Mirepoix's distress and the priest's eagerness. I re-called the +gruff warning Bezers--even Bezers, and there was something very +odd in Bezers giving a warning!--had given Madame de Pavannes +when he told her that she would be better where she was. I +thought of the wakefulness which I had marked in the streets, the +silent hurrying to and fro, the signs of coming strife, and +contrasted these with the quietude and seeming safety of +Mirepoix's house; and I hastily asked Pavannes at what time he +had been arrested. + +"About an hour before midnight," he answered. + +"Then you know nothing of what is happening?" I replied quickly. +"Why, even while we are loitering here--but listen!" + +And with all speed, stammering indeed in my haste and anxiety, I +told him what I had noticed in the streets, and the hints I had +heard, and I showed him the badges with which Madame had +furnished me. + +His manner when he had heard me out frightened me still more. He +drew me on in a kind of fury to a house in the windows of which +some lighted candles had appeared not a minute before. + +"The ring!" he cried, "let me see the ring! Whose is it?" + +He held up my hand to this chance light and we looked at the +ring. It was a heavy gold signet, with one curious +characteristic: it had two facets. On one of these was engraved +the letter "H," and above it a crown. On the other was an eagle +with outstretched wings. + +Pavannes let my hand drop and leaned against the wall in sudden +despair. "It is the Duke of Guise's," he muttered. "It is the +eagle of Lorraine." + +"Ha!" said I softly, seeing light. The Duke was the idol then, +as later, of the Parisian populace, and I understood now why the +citizen soldiers had shown me such respect. They had taken me +for the Duke's envoy and confidant. + +But I saw no farther. Pavannes did, and murmured bitterly, "We +may say our prayers, we Huguenots. That is our death-warrant. +To-morrow night there will not be one left in Paris, lad. Guise +has his father's death to avenge, and these cursed Parisians will +do his bidding like the wolves they are! The Baron de Rosny +warned us of this, word for word. I would to Heaven we had taken +his advice!" + +"Stay!" I cried--he was going too fast for me--"stay!" His +monstrous conception, though it marched some way with my own +suspicions, outran them far! I saw no sufficient grounds for it. +"The King--the king would not permit such a thing, M. de +Pavannes," I argued. + +"Boy, you are blind!" he rejoined impatiently, for now he saw +all and I nothing. "Yonder was the Duke of Anjou's captain-- +Monsieur's officer, the follower of France's brother, mark you! +And HE--he obeyed the Duke's ring! The Duke has a free hand to- +night, and he hates us. And the river. Why are we not to cross +the river? The King indeed! The King has undone us. He has +sold us to his brother and the Guises. VA CHASSER L'IDOLE" for +the second time I heard the quaint phrase, which I learned +afterwards was an anagram of the King's name, Charles de Valois, +used by the Protestants as a password--"VA CHASSER L'IDOLE has +betrayed us! I remember the very words he used to the Admiral, +'Now we have got you here we shall not let you go so easily!' +Oh, the traitor! The wretched traitor!" + +He leaned against the wall overcome by the horror of the +conviction which had burst upon him, and unnerved by the +imminence of the peril. At all times he was an unready man, I +fancy, more fit, courage apart, for the college than the field; +and now he gave way to despair. Perhaps the thought of his wife +unmanned him. Perhaps the excitement through which he had +already gone tended to stupefy him, or the suddenness of the +discovery. + +At any rate, I was the first to gather my wits together, and my +earliest impulse was to tear into two parts a white handkerchief +I had in my pouch, and fasten one to his sleeve, the other in his +hat, in rough imitation of the badges I wore myself. + +It will appear from this that I no longer trusted Madame d'O. I +was not convinced, it is true, of her conscious guilt, still I +did not trust her entirely. "Do not wear them on your return," +she had said and that was odd; although I could not yet believe +that she was such a siren as Father Pierre had warned us of, +telling tales from old poets. Yet I doubted, shuddering as I did +so. Her companionship with that vile priest, her strange +eagerness to secure Pavannes' return, her mysterious directions +to me, her anxiety to take her sister home--home, where she would +be exposed to danger, as being in a known Huguenot's house-- +these things pointed to but one conclusion; still that one was so +horrible that I would not, even while I doubted and distrusted +her, I would not, I could not accept it. I put it from me, and +refused to believe it, although during the rest of that night it +kept coming back to me and knocking for admission at my brain. + +All this flashed through my mind while I was fixing on Pavannes' +badges. Not that I lost time about it, for from the moment I +grasped the position as he conceived it, every minute we had +wasted on explanations seemed to me an hour. I reproached myself +for having forgotten even for an instant that which had brought +us to town--the rescue of Kit's lover. We had small chance now +of reaching him in time, misled as we had been by this miserable +mistake in identity. If my companion's fears were well founded, +Louis would fall in the general massacre of the Huguenots, +probably before we could reach him. If ill-founded, still we had +small reason to hope. Bezers' vengeance would not wait. I knew +him too well to think it. A Guise might spare his foe, but the +Vidame--the Vidame never! We had warned Madame de Pavannes it +was true; but that abnormal exercise of benevolence could only, I +cynically thought, have the more exasperated the devil within +him, which now would be ravening like a dog disappointed of its +victuals. + +I glanced up at the line of sky visible between the tall houses, +and lo! the dawn was coming. It wanted scarcely half-an-hour of +daylight, though down in the dark streets about us the night +still reigned. Yes, the morning was coming, bright and hopeful, +and the city was quiet. There were no signs, no sounds of riot +or disorder. Surely, I thought, surely Pavannes must be +mistaken. Either the plot had never existed, that was most +likely, or it had been abandoned, or perhaps--Crack! + +A pistol shot! Short, sharp, ominous it rang out on the instant, +a solitary sound in the night! It was somewhere near us, and I +stopped. I had been speaking to my companion at the moment. +"Where was it?" I cried, looking behind me. + +"Close to us. Near the Louvre," he answered, listening intently. +"See! See! Ah, heavens!" he continued in a voice of despair, +"it was a signal!" + +It was. One, two, three! Before I could count so far, lights +sprang into brightness in the windows of nine out of ten houses +in the short street where we stood, as if lighted by a single +hand. Before too I could count as many more, or ask him what +this meant, before indeed, we could speak or stir from the spot, +or think what we should do, with a hurried clang and clash, as if +brought into motion by furious frenzied hands, a great bell just +above our heads began to boom and whirr! It hurled its notes +into space, it suddenly filled all the silence. It dashed its +harsh sounds down upon the trembling city, till the air heaved, +and the houses about us rocked. It made in an instant a +pandemonium of the quiet night. + +We turned and hurried instinctively from the place, crouching and +amazed, looking upwards with bent shoulders and scared faces. +"What is it? What is it?" I cried, half in resentment; half in +terror. It deafened me. + +"The bell of St. Germain l'Auxerrois!" he shouted in answer. +"The Church of the Louvre. It is as I said. We are doomed!" + +"Doomed? No!" I replied fiercely, for my courage seemed to rise +again on the wave of sound and excitement as if rebounding from +the momentary shock. "Never! We wear the devil's livery, and he +will look after his own. Draw, man, and let him that stops us +look to himself. You know the way. Lead on!" I cried savagely. + +He caught the infection and drew his sword. So we started +boldly, and the result justified my confidence. We looked, no +doubt, as like murderers as any who were abroad that night. +Moving in this desperate guise we hastened up that street and +into another--still pursued by the din and clangour of the bell +--and then a short distance along a third. We were not stopped +or addressed by anyone, though numbers, increasing each moment as +door after door opened, and we drew nearer to the heart of the +commotion, were hurrying in the same direction, side by side with +us; and though in front, where now and again lights gleamed on a +mass of weapons, or on white eager faces, filling some alley from +wall to wall, we heard the roar of voices rising and falling like +the murmur of an angry sea. + +All was blur, hurry, confusion, tumult. Yet I remember, as we +pressed onwards with the stream and part of it, certain sharp +outlines. I caught here and there a glimpse of a pale scared +face at a window, a half-clad form at a door, of the big, +wondering eyes of a child held up to see us pass, of a Christ at +a corner ruddy in the smoky glare of a link, of a woman armed, +and in man's clothes, who walked some distance side by side with +us, and led off a ribald song. I retain a memory of these +things: of brief bursts of light and long intervals of darkness, +and always, as we tramped forwards, my hand on Pavannes' sleeve, +of an ever-growing tumult in front--an ever-rising flood of +noise. + +At last we came to a standstill where a side street ran out of +ours. Into this the hurrying throng tried to wheel, and, unable +to do so, halted, and pressed about the head of the street, which +was already full to overflowing; and so sought with hungry eyes +for places whence they might look down it. Pavannes and I +struggled only to get through the crowd--to get on; but the +efforts of those behind partly aiding and partly thwarting our +own, presently forced us to a position whence we could not avoid +seeing what was afoot. + +The street--this side street was ablaze with light. From end to +end every gable, every hatchment was glowing, every window was +flickering in the glare of torches. It was paved too with faces +--human faces, yet scarcely human--all looking one way, all +looking upward; and the noise, as from time to time this immense +crowd groaned or howled in unison, like a wild beast in its fury, +was so appalling, that I clutched Pavannes' arm and clung to him +in momentary terror. I do not wonder now that I quailed, though +sometimes I have heard that sound since. For there is nothing in +the world so dreadful as that brute beast we call the CANAILLE, +when the chain is off and its cowardly soul is roused. + +Near our end of the street a group of horsemen rising island-like +from the sea of heads, sat motionless in their saddles about a +gateway. They were silent, taking no notice of the rioting +fiends shouting at their girths, but watching in grim quiet what +was passing within the gates. They were handsomely dressed, +although some wore corslets over their satin coats or lace above +buff jerkins. I could even at that distance see the jewels gleam +in the bonnet of one who seemed to be their leader. He was in +the centre of the band, a very young man, perhaps twenty or +twenty-one, of most splendid presence, sitting his horse +superbly. He wore a grey riding-coat, and was a head taller than +any of his companions. There was pride in the very air with +which his horse bore him. + +I did not need to ask Pavannes who he was. I KNEW that he was +the Duke of Guise, and that the house before which he stood was +Coligny's. I knew what was being done there. And in the same +moment I sickened with horror and rage. I had a vision of grey +hairs and blood and fury scarcely human, And I rebelled. I +battled with the rabble about me. I forced my way through them +tooth and nail after Pavannes, intent only on escaping, only on +getting away from there. And so we neither halted nor looked +back until we were clear of the crowd and had left the blaze of +light and the work doing by it some way behind us. + +We found ourselves then in the mouth of an obscure alley which my +companion whispered would bring us to his house; and here we +paused to take breath and look back. The sky was red behind us, +the air full of the clash and din of the tocsin, and the flood of +sounds which poured from every tower and steeple. From the +eastward came the rattle of drums and random shots, and shrieks +of "A BAS COLIGNY!" "A BAS LES HUGUENOTS!" Meanwhile the city +was rising as one man, pale at this dread awakening. From every +window men and women, frightened by the uproar, were craning +their necks, asking or answering questions or hurriedly calling +for and kindling tapers. But as yet the general populace seemed +to be taking no active part in the disorder. + +Pavannes raised his hat an instant as we stood in the shadow of +the houses. "The noblest man in France is dead," he said, softly +and reverently. "God rest his soul! They have had their way +with him and killed him like a dog. He was an old man and they +did not spare him! A noble, and they have called in the CANAILLE +to tear him. But be sure, my friend"--and as the speaker's tone +changed and grew full and proud, his form seemed to swell with +it--"be sure the cruel shall not live out half their days! No. +He that takes the knife shall perish by the knife! And go to his +own place! I shall not see it, but you will!" + +His words made no great impression on me then. My hardihood was +returning. I was throbbing with fierce excitement, and tingling +for the fight. But years afterwards, when the two who stood +highest in the group about Coligny's threshold died, the one at +thirty-eight, the other at thirty-five--when Henry of Guise and +Henry of Valois died within six months of one another by the +assassin's knife--I remembered Pavannes' augury. And remembering +it, I read the ways of Providence, and saw that the very audacity +of which Guise took advantage to entrap Coligny led him too in +his turn to trip smiling and bowing, a comfit box in his hand and +the kisses of his mistress damp on his lips, into a king's +closet--a king's closet at Blois! Led him to lift the curtain-- +ah! to lift the curtain, what Frenchman does not know the tale? +--behind which stood the Admiral! + +To return to our own fortunes; after a hurried glance we resumed +our way, and sped through the alley, holding a brief consultation +as we went. Pavannes' first hasty instinct to seek shelter at +home began to lose its force, and he to consider whether his +return would not endanger his wife. The mob might be expected to +spare her, he argued. Her death would not benefit any private +foes if he escaped. He was for keeping away therefore. But I +would not agree to this. The priest's crew of desperadoes-- +assuming Pavannes' suspicions to be correct--would wait some +time, no doubt, to give the master of the house a chance to +return, but would certainly attack sooner or later out of greed, +if from no other motive. Then the lady's fate would at the best +be uncertain. I was anxious myself to rejoin my brothers, and +take all future chances, whether of saving our Louis, or escaping +ourselves, with them. United we should be four good swords, and +might at least protect Madame de Pavannes to a place of safety, +if no opportunity of succouring Louis should present itself. We +had too the Duke's ring, and this might be of service at a pinch. +"No," I urged, "let us get together. We two will slip in at the +front gate, and bolt and bar it, and then we will all escape in a +body at the back, while they are forcing the gateway." + +"There is no door at the back," he answered, shaking his head. + +"There are windows?" + +"They are too strongly barred. We could not break out in the +time," he explained, with a groan. + +I paused at that, crestfallen. But danger quickened my wits. In +a moment I had another plan, not so hopeful and more dangerous, +yet worth trying I thought, I told him of it, and he agreed to +it. As he nodded assent we emerged into a street, and I saw--for +the grey light of morning was beginning to penetrate between the +houses--that we were only a few yards from the gateway, and the +small door by which I had seen my brothers enter. Were they +still in the house? Were they safe? I had been away an hour at +least. + +Anxious as I was about them, I looked round me very keenly as we +flitted across the road, and knocked gently at the door. I +thought it so likely that we should be fallen upon here, that I +stood on my guard while we waited. But we were not molested. +The street, being at some distance from the centre of the +commotion, was still and empty, with no signs of life apparent +except the rows of heads poked through the windows--all +possessing eyes which watched us heedfully and in perfect +silence. Yes, the street was quite empty: except, ah! except, +for that lurking figure, which, even as I espied it, shot round a +distant angle of the wall, and was lost to sight. + +"There!" I cried, reckless now who might hear me, "knock! knock +louder! never mind the noise. The alarm is given. A score of +people are watching us, and yonder spy has gone off to summon his +friends." + +The truth was my anger was rising. I could bear no longer the +silent regards of all those eyes at the windows. I writhed under +them--cruel, pitiless eyes they were. I read in them a morbid +curiosity, a patient anticipation that drove me wild. Those men +and women gazing on us so stonily knew my companion's rank and +faith. They had watched him riding in and out daily, one of the +sights of their street, gay and gallant; and now with the same +eyes they were watching greedily for the butchers to come. The +very children took a fresh interest in him, as one doomed and +dying; and waited panting for the show to begin. So I read them. + +"Knock!" I repeated angrily, losing all patience. Had I been +foolish in bringing him back to this part of the town where every +soul knew him? "Knock; we must get in, whether or no. They +cannot all have left the house!" + +I kicked the door desperately, and my relief was great when it +opened. A servant with a pale face stood before me, his knees +visibly shaking. And behind him was Croisette. + +I think we fell straightway into one another's arms. + +"And Marie," I cried, "Marie?" + +"Marie is within, and madame," he answered joyfully; "we are +together again and nothing matters, But oh, Anne, where have you +been? And what is the matter? Is it a great fire? Or is the +king dead? Or what is it?" + +I told him. I hastily poured out some of the things which had +happened to me, and some which I feared were in store for others. +Naturally he was surprised and shocked by the latter, though his +fears had already been aroused. But his joy and relief, when he +heard the mystery of Louis de Pavannes' marriage explained, were +so great that they swallowed up all other feelings. He could not +say enough about it. He pictured Louis again and again as Kit's +lover, as our old friend, our companion; as true, staunch, brave +without fear, without reproach: and it was long before his eyes +ceased to sparkle, his tongue to run merrily, the colour to +mantle in his cheeks--long that is as time is counted by minutes. +But presently the remembrance of Louis' danger and our own +position returned more vividly. Our plan for rescuing him had +failed--failed! + +"No! no!" cried Croisette, stoutly. He would not hear of it. +He would not have it at any price. "No, we will not give up +hope! We will go shoulder to shoulder and find him. Louis is as +brave as a lion and as quick as a weasel. We will find him in +time yet. We will go when--I mean as soon as--" + +He faltered, and paused. His sudden silence as he looked round +the empty forecourt in which we stood was eloquent. The cold +light, faint and uncertain yet, was stealing into the court, +disclosing a row of stables on either side, and a tiny porter's +hutch by the gates, and fronting us a noble house of four storys, +tall, grey, grim-looking. + +I assented; gloomily however. "Yes," I said, "we will go when--" + +And I too stopped. The same thought was in my mind. How could +we leave these people? How could we leave madame in her danger +and distress? How could we return her kindness by desertion? We +could not. No, not for Kit's sake. Because after all Louis, our +Louis, was a man, and must take his chance. He must take his +chance. But I groaned. + +So that was settled. I had already explained our plan to +Croisette: and now as we waited he began to tell me a story, a +long, confused story about Madame d'O. I thought he was talking +for the sake of talking--to keep up our spirits--and I did not +attend much to him; so that he had not reached the gist of it, or +at least I had not grasped it, when a noise without stayed his +tongue. It was the tramp of footsteps, apparently of a large +party in the street. It forced him to break off, and promptly +drove us all to our posts. + +But before we separated a slight figure, hardly noticeable in +that dim, uncertain light, passed me quickly, laying for an +instant a soft hand in mine as I stood waiting by the gates. I +have said I scarcely saw the figure, though I did see the kind +timid eyes, and the pale cheeks under the hood; but I bent over +the hand and kissed it, and felt, truth to tell, no more regret +nor doubt where our duty lay. But stood, waiting patiently. + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE HEAD OF ERASMUS. + +Waiting, and waiting alone! The gates were almost down now. The +gang of ruffians without, reinforced each moment by volunteers +eager for plunder, rained blows unceasingly on hinge and socket; +and still hotter and faster through a dozen rifts in the timbers +came the fire of their threats and curses. Many grew tired, but +others replaced them. Tools broke, but they brought more and +worked with savage energy. They had shown at first a measure of +prudence; looking to be fired on, and to be resisted by men, +surprised, indeed, but desperate; and the bolder of them only had +advanced. But now they pressed round unchecked, meeting no +resistance. They would scarcely stand back to let the sledges +have swing; but hallooed and ran in on the creaking beams and +beat them with their fists, whenever the gates swayed under a +blow. + +One stout iron bar still held its place. And this I watched as +if fascinated. I was alone in the empty courtyard, standing a +little aside, sheltered by one of the stone pillars from which +the gates hung. Behind me the door of the house stood ajar. +Candles, which the daylight rendered garish, still burned in the +rooms on the first floor, of which the tall narrow windows were +open. On the wide stone sill of one of these stood Croisette, a +boyish figure, looking silently down at me, his hand on the +latticed shutter. He looked pale, and I nodded and smiled at +him. I felt rather anger than fear myself; remembering, as the +fiendish cries half-deafened me, old tales of the Jacquerie and +its doings, and how we had trodden it out. + +Suddenly the din and tumult flashed to a louder note; as when +hounds on the scent give tongue at sight. I turned quickly from +the house, recalled to a sense of the position and peril. The +iron bar was yielding to the pressure. Slowly the left wing of +the gate was sinking inwards. Through the widening chasm I +caught a glimpse of wild, grimy faces and bloodshot eyes, and +heard above the noise a sharp cry from Croisette--a cry of +terror. Then I turned and ran, with a defiant gesture and an +answering yell, right across the forecourt and up the steps to +the door. + +I ran the faster for the sharp report of a pistol behind me, and +the whirr of a ball past my ear. But I was not scared by it: +and as my feet alighted with a bound on the topmost step, I +glanced back. The dogs were halfway across the court. I made a +bungling attempt to shut and lock the great door--failed in this; +and heard behind me a roar of coarse triumph. I waited for no +more. I darted up the oak staircase four steps at a time, and +rushed into the great drawing-room on my left, banging the door +behind me. + +The once splendid room was in a state of strange disorder. Some +of the rich tapestry had been hastily torn down. One window was +closed and shuttered; no doubt Croisette had done it. The other +two were open--as if there had not been time to close them--and +the cold light which they admitted contrasted in ghastly fashion +with the yellow rays of candles still burning in the sconces. +The furniture had been huddled aside or piled into a barricade, a +CHEVAUX DE FRISE of chairs and tables stretching across the width +of the room, its interstices stuffed with, and its weakness +partly screened by, the torn-down hangings. Behind this frail +defence their backs to a door which seemed to lead to an inner +room, stood Marie and Croisette, pale and defiant. The former +had a long pike; the latter levelled a heavy, bell-mouthed +arquebuse across the back of a chair, and blew up his match as I +entered. Both had in addition procured swords. I darted like a +rabbit through a little tunnel left on purpose for me in the +rampart, and took my stand by them. + +"Is all right?" ejaculated Croisette turning to me nervously. + +"All right, I think," I answered. I was breathless. + +"You are not hurt?" + +"Not touched!" + +I had just time then to draw my sword before the assailants +streamed into the room, a dozen ruffians, reeking and tattered, +with flushed faces and greedy, staring eyes. Once inside, +however, suddenly--so suddenly that an idle spectator might have +found the change ludicrous--they came to a stop. Their wild +cries ceased, and tumbling over one another with curses and oaths +they halted, surveying us in muddled surprise; seeing what was +before them, and not liking it. Their leader appeared to be a +tall butcher with a pole-axe on his half-naked shoulder; but +there were among them two or three soldiers in the royal livery +and carrying pikes. They had looked for victims only, having met +with no resistance at the gate, and the foremost recoiled now on +finding themselves confronted by the muzzle of the arquebuse and +the lighted match. + +I seized the occasion. I knew, indeed, that the pause presented +our only chance, and I sprang on a chair and waved my hand for +silence. The instinct of obedience for the moment asserted +itself; there was a stillness in the room. + +"Beware!" I cried loudly--as loudly and confidently as I could, +considering that there was a quaver at my heart as I looked on +those savage faces, which met and yet avoided my eye. "Beware of +what you do! We are Catholics one and all like yourselves, and +good sons of the Church. Ay, and good subjects too! VIVE LE +ROI, gentlemen! God save the King! I say." And I struck the +barricade with my sword until the metal rang again. "God save +the King!" + +"Cry VIVE LA MESSE!" shouted one. + +"Certainly, gentlemen!" I replied, with politeness. "With all +my heart. VIVE LA MESSE! VIVE LA MESSE!" + +This took the butcher, who luckily was still sober, utterly +aback. He had never thought of this. He stared at us as if the +ox he had been about to fell had opened its mouth and spoken, and +grievously at a loss, he looked for help to his companions. + +Later in the day, some Catholics were killed by the mob. But +their deaths as far as could be learned afterwards were due to +private feuds. Save in such cases--and they were few--the cry of +VIVE LA MESSE! always obtained at least a respite: more easily +of course in the earlier hours of the morning when the mob were +scarce at ease in their liberty to kill, while killing still +seemed murder, and men were not yet drunk with bloodshed. + +I read the hesitation of the gang in their faces: and when one +asked roughly who we were, I replied with greater boldness, "I am +M. Anne de Caylus, nephew to the Vicomte de Caylus, Governor, +under the King, of Bayonne and the Landes!" This I said with +what majesty I could. "And these" I continued--"are my brothers. +You will harm us at your peril, gentlemen. The Vicomte, believe +me, will avenge every hair of our heads." + +I can shut my eyes now and see the stupid wonder, the baulked +ferocity of those gaping faces. Dull and savage as the men were +they were impressed; they saw reason indeed, and all seemed going +well for us when some one in the rear shouted, "Cursed whelps! +Throw them over!" + +I looked swiftly in the direction whence the voice came--the +darkest corner of the room the corner by the shuttered window. I +thought I made out a slender figure, cloaked and masked--a +woman's it might be but I could not be certain and beside it a +couple of sturdy fellows, who kept apart from the herd and well +behind their fugleman. + +The speaker's courage arose no doubt from his position at the +back of the room, for the foremost of the assailants seemed less +determined. We were only three, and we must have gone down, +barricade and all, before a rush. But three are three. And an +arquebuse--Croisette's match burned splendidly--well loaded with +slugs is an ugly weapon at five paces, and makes nasty wounds, +besides scattering its charge famously. This, a good many of +them and the leaders in particular, seemed to recognise. We +might certainly take two or three lives: and life is valuable to +its owner when plunder is afoot. Besides most of them had common +sense enough to remember that there were scores of Huguenots +--genuine heretics--to be robbed for the killing, so why go out +of the way, they reasoned, to cut a Catholic throat, and perhaps +get into trouble. Why risk Montfaucon for a whim? and offend a +man of influence like the Vicomte de Caylus, for nothing! + +Unfortunately at this crisis their original design was recalled +to their minds by the same voice behind, crying out, "Pavannes! +Where is Pavannes?" + +"Ay!" shouted the butcher, grasping the idea, and at the same +time spitting on his hands and taking a fresh grip of the axe, +"Show us the heretic dog, and go! Let us at him." + +"M. de Pavannes," I said coolly--but I could not take my eyes off +the shining blade of that man's axe, it was so very broad and +sharp--"is not here!" + +"That is a lie! He is in that room behind you!" the prudent +gentleman in the background called out. "Give him up!" + +"Ay, give him up!" echoed the man of the pole-axe almost good +humouredly, "or it will be the worse for you. Let us have at him +and get you gone!" + +This with an air of much reason, while a growl as of a chained +beast ran through the crowd, mingled with cries of "A MORT LES +HUGUENOTS! VIVE LORRAINE!"--cries which seemed to show that all +did not approve of the indulgence offered us. + +"Beware, gentlemen, beware," I urged, "I swear he is not here! I +swear it, do you hear?" + +A howl of impatience and then a sudden movement of the crowd as +though the rush were coming warned me to temporize no longer. +"Stay! Stay!" I added hastily. "One minute! Hear me! You are +too many for us. Will you swear to let us go safe and untouched, +if we give you passage?" + +A dozen voices shrieked assent. But I looked at the butcher +only. He seemed to be an honest man, out of his profession. + +"Ay, I swear it!" he cried with a nod. + +"By the Mass?" + +"By the Mass." + +I twitched Croisette's sleeve, and he tore the fuse from his +weapon, and flung the gun--too heavy to be of use to us longer-- +to the ground. It was done in a moment. While the mob swept +over the barricade, and smashed the rich furniture of it in +wanton malice, we filed aside, and nimbly slipped under it one by +one. Then we hurried in single file to the end of the room, no +one taking much notice of us. All were pressing on, intent on +their prey. We gained the door as the butcher struck his first +blow on that which we had guarded--on that which we had given up. +We sprang down the stairs with bounding hearts, heard as we +reached the outer door the roar of many voices, but stayed not to +look behind--paused indeed for nothing. Fear, to speak candidly, +lent us wings. In three seconds we had leapt the prostrate +gates, and were in the street. A cripple, two or three dogs, a +knot of women looking timidly yet curiously in, a horse tethered +to the staple--we saw nothing else. No one stayed us. No one +raised a hand, and in another minute we had turned a corner, and +were out of sight of the house. + +"They will take a gentleman's word another time," I said with a +quiet smile as I put up my sword. + +"I would like to see her face at this moment," Croisette replied. +"You saw Madame d'O?" + +I shook my head, not answering. I was not sure, and I had a +queer, sickening dread of the subject. If I had seen her, I had +seen oh! it was too horrible, too unnatural! Her own sister! +Her own brother in-law! + +I hastened to change the subject. "The Pavannes," I made shift +to say, "must have had five minutes' start." + +"More," Croisette answered, "if Madame and he got away at once. +If all has gone well with them, and they have not been stopped in +the streets they should be at Mirepoix's by now. They seemed to +be pretty sure that he would take them in." + +"Ah!" I sighed. "What fools we were to bring madame from that +place! If we had not meddled with her affairs we might have +reached Louis long ago our Louis, I mean." + +"True," Croisette answered softly, "but remember that then we +should not have saved the other Louis as I trust we have. He +would still be in Pallavicini's hands. Come, Anne, let us think +it is all for the best," he added, his face shining with a steady +courage that shamed me. "To the rescue! Heaven will help us to +be in time yet!" + +"Ay, to the rescue!" I replied, catching his spirit. "First to +the right, I think, second to the left, first on the right again. +That was the direction given us, was it not? The house opposite +a book-shop with the sign of the Head of Erasmus. Forward, boys! +We may do it yet." + +But before I pursue our fortunes farther let me explain. The +room we had guarded so jealously was empty! The plan had been +mine and I was proud of it. For once Croisette had fallen into +his rightful place. My flight from the gate, the vain attempt to +close the house, the barricade before the inner door--these were +all designed to draw the assailants to one spot. Pavannes and +his wife--the latter hastily disguised as a boy--had hidden +behind the door of the hutch by the gates--the porter's hutch, +and had slipped out and fled in the first confusion of the +attack. + +Even the servants, as we learned afterwards, who had hidden +themselves in the lower parts of the house got away in the same +manner, though some of them--they were but few in all were +stopped as Huguenots and killed before the day ended. I had the +more reason to hope that Pavannes and his wife would get clear +off, inasmuch as I had given the Duke's ring to him, thinking it +might serve him in a strait, and believing that we should have +little to fear ourselves once clear of his house; unless we +should meet the Vidame indeed. + +We did not meet him as it turned out; but before we had traversed +a quarter of the distance we had to go we found that fears based +on reason were not the only terrors we had to resist. Pavannes' +house, where we had hitherto been, stood at some distance from +the centre of the blood-storm which was enwrapping unhappy Paris +that morning. It was several hundred paces from the Rue de +Bethisy where the Admiral lived, and what with this comparative +remoteness and the excitement of our own little drama, we had not +attended much to the fury of the bells, the shots and cries and +uproar which proclaimed the state of the city. We had not +pictured the scenes which were happening so near. Now in the +streets the truth broke upon us, and drove the blood from our +cheeks. A hundred yards, the turning of a corner, sufficed. We +who but yesterday left the country, who only a week before were +boys, careless as other boys, not recking of death at all, were +plunged now into the midst of horrors I cannot describe. And the +awful contrast between the sky above and the things about us! +Even now the lark was singing not far from us; the sunshine was +striking the topmost storeys of the houses; the fleecy clouds +were passing overhead, the freshness of a summer morning was-- + +Ah! where was it? Not here in the narrow lanes surely, that +echoed and re-echoed with shrieks and curses and frantic prayers: +in which bands of furious men rushed up and down, and where +archers of the guard and the more cruel rabble were breaking in +doors and windows, and hurrying with bloody weapons from house to +house, seeking, pursuing, and at last killing in some horrid +corner, some place of darkness--killing with blow on blow dealt +on writhing bodies! Not here, surely, where each minute a child, +a woman died silently, a man snarling like a wolf--happy if he +had snatched his weapon and got his back to the wall: where foul +corpses dammed the very blood that ran down the kennel, and +children--little children--played with them! + +I was at Cahors in 1580 in the great street fight; and there +women were killed, I was with Chatillon nine years later, when he +rode through the Faubourgs of Paris, with this very day and his +father Coligny in his mind, and gave no quarter. I was at +Courtas and Ivry, and more than once have seen prisoners led out +to be piked in batches--ay, and by hundreds! But war is war, and +these were its victims, dying for the most part under God's +heaven with arms in their hands: not men and women fresh roused +from their sleep. I felt on those occasions no such horror, I +have never felt such burning pity and indignation as on the +morning I am describing, that long-past summer morning when I +first saw the sun shining on the streets of Paris. Croisette +clung to me, sick and white, shutting his eyes and ears, and +letting me guide him as I would. Marie strode along on the other +side of him, his lips closed, his eyes sinister. Once a soldier +of the guard whose blood-stained hands betrayed the work he had +done, came reeling--he was drunk, as were many of the butchers-- +across our path, and I gave way a little. Marie did not, but +walked stolidly on as if he did not see him, as if the way were +clear, and there were no ugly thing in God's image blocking it. + +Only his hand went as if by accident to the haft of his dagger. +The archer--fortunately for himself and for us too--reeled clear +of us. We escaped that danger. But to see women killed and pass +by--it was horrible! So horrible that if in those moments I had +had the wishing-cap, I would have asked but for five thousand +riders, and leave to charge with them through the streets of +Paris! I would have had the days of the Jacquerie back again, +and my men-at-arms behind me! + +For ourselves, though the orgy was at its height when we passed, +we were not molested. We were stopped indeed three times--once +in each of the streets we traversed--by different bands of +murderers. But as we wore the same badges as themselves, and +cried "VIVE LA MESSE!" and gave our names, we were allowed to +proceed. I can give no idea of the confusion and uproar, and I +scarcely believe myself now that we saw some of the things we +witnessed. Once a man gaily dressed, and splendidly mounted, +dashed past us, waving his naked sword and crying in a frenzied +way "Bleed them! Bleed them! Bleed in May, as good to-day!" +and never ceased crying out the same words until he passed beyond +our hearing. Once we came upon the bodies of a father and two +sons, which lay piled together in the kennel; partly stripped +already. The youngest boy could not have been more than thirteen, +I mention this group, not as surpassing others in pathos, but +because it is well known now that this boy, Jacques Nompar de +Caumont, was not dead, but lives to-day, my friend the Marshal de +la Force. + +This reminds me too of the single act of kindness we were able to +perform. We found ourselves suddenly, on turning a corner, amid +a gang of seven or eight soldiers, who had stopped and surrounded +a handsome boy, apparently about fourteen. He wore a scholar's +gown, and had some books under his arm, to which he clung firmly +--though only perhaps by instinct--notwithstanding the furious +air of the men who were threatening him with death. They were +loudly demanding his name, as we paused opposite them. He either +could not or would not give it, but said several times in his +fright that he was going to the College of Burgundy. Was he a +Catholic? they cried. He was silent. With an oath the man who +had hold of his collar lifted up his pike, and naturally the lad +raised the books to guard his face. A cry broke from Croisette. +We rushed forward to stay the blow. + +"See! see!" he exclaimed loudly, his voice arresting the man's +arm in the very act of falling. "He has a Mass Book! He has a +Mass Book! He is not a heretic! He is a Catholic!" + +The fellow lowered his weapon, and sullenly snatched the books. +He looked at them stupidly with bloodshot wandering eyes, the red +cross on the vellum bindings, the only thing he understood. But +it was enough for him; he bid the boy begone, and released him +with a cuff and an oath. + +Croisette was not satisfied with this, though I did not +understand his reason; only I saw him exchange a glance with the +lad. "Come, come!" he said lightly. "Give him his books! You +do not want them!" + +But on that the men turned savagely upon us. They did not thank +us for the part we had already taken; and this they thought was +going too far. They were half drunk and quarrelsome, and being +two to one, and two over, began to flourish their weapons in our +faces. Mischief would certainly have been done, and very +quickly, had not an unexpected ally appeared on our side. + +"Put up! put up!" this gentleman cried in a boisterous voice-- +he was already in our midst. "What is all this about? What is +the use of fighting amongst ourselves, when there is many a bonny +throat to cut, and heaven to be gained by it! put up, I say!" + +"Who are you?" they roared in chorus. + +"The Duke of Guise!" he answered coolly. "Let the gentlemen go, +and be hanged to you, you rascals!" + +The man's bearing was a stronger argument than his words, for I +am sure that a stouter or more reckless blade never swaggered in +church or street. I knew him instantly, and even the crew of +butchers seemed to see in him their master. They hung back a few +curses at him, but having nothing to gain they yielded. They +threw down the books with contempt--showing thereby their sense +of true religion; and trooped off roaring, "TUES! TUES! Aux +Huguenots!" at the top of their voices. + +The newcomer thus left with us was Bure--Blaise Bure--the same +who only yesterday, though it seemed months and months back, had +lured us into Bezers' power. Since that moment we had not seen +him. Now he had wiped off part of the debt, and we looked at +him, uncertain whether to reproach him or no. He, however, was +not one whit abashed, but returned our regards with a not +unkindly leer. + +"I bear no malice, young gentlemen," he said impudently. + +"No, I should think not," I answered. + +"And besides, we are quits now," the knave continued. + +"You are very kind," I said. + +"To be sure. You did me a good turn once," he answered, much to +my surprise. He seemed to be in earnest now. "You do not +remember it, young gentleman, but it was you and your brother +here"--he pointed to Croisette--"did it! And by the Pope and the +King of Spain I have not forgotten it!" + +"I have," I said. + +"What! You have forgotten spitting that fellow at Caylus ten +days ago? CA! SA! You remember. And very cleanly done, too! +A pretty stroke! Well, M. Anne, that was a clever fellow, a very +clever fellow. He thought so and I thought so, and what was more +to the purpose the most noble Raoul de Bezers thought so too. +You understand!" + +He leered at me and I did understand. I understood that +unwittingly I had rid Blaise Bure of a rival. This accounted for +the respectful, almost the kindly way in which he had--well, +deceived us. + +"That is all," he said. "If you want as much done for you, let +me know. For the present, gentlemen, farewell!" + +He cocked his hat fiercely, and went off at speed the way we had +ourselves been going; humming as he went, + + "Ce petit homme tant joli, + Qui toujours cause et toujours rit, + Qui toujours baise sa mignonne + Dieu gard' de mal ce petit homme!" + +His reckless song came back to us on the summer breeze. We +watched him make a playful pass at a corpse which some one had +propped in ghastly fashion against a door--and miss it--and go on +whistling the same air--and then a corner hid him from view. + +We lingered only a moment ourselves; merely to speak to the boy +we had befriended. + +"Show the books if anyone challenges you," said Croisette to him +shrewdly. Croisette was so much of a boy himself, with his fair +hair like a halo about his white, excited face, that the picture +of the two, one advising the other, seemed to me a strangely +pretty one. "Show the books and point to the cross on them. And +Heaven send you safe to your college." + +"I would like to know your name, if you please," said the boy. +His coolness and dignity struck me as admirable under the +circumstances. "I am Maximilian de Bethune, son of the Baron de +Rosny." + +"Then," said Croisette briskly, "one good turn has deserved +another. Your father, yesterday, at Etampes--no it was the day +before, but we have not been in bed--warned us--" + +He broke off suddenly; then cried, "Run! run!" + +The boy needed no second warning indeed. He was off like the +wind down the street, for we had seen and so had he, the stealthy +approach of two or three prowling rascals on the look out for a +victim. They caught sight of him and were strongly inclined to +follow him; but we were their match in numbers. The street was +otherwise empty at the moment: and we showed them three +excellent reasons why they should give him a clear start. + +His after adventures are well-known: for he, too, lives. He was +stopped twice after he left us. In each case he escaped by +showing his book of offices. On reaching the college the porter +refused to admit him, and he remained for some time in the open +street exposed to constant danger of losing his life, and knowing +not what to do. At length he induced the gatekeeper, by the +present of some small pieces of money, to call the principal of +the college, and this man humanely concealed him for three days. +The massacre being then at an end, two armed men in his father's +pay sought him out and restored him to his friends. So near was +France to losing her greatest minister, the Duke de Sully. + +To return to ourselves. The lad out of sight, we instantly +resumed our purpose, and trying to shut our eyes and ears to the +cruelty, and ribaldry, and uproar through which we had still to +pass, we counted our turnings with a desperate exactness, intent +only on one thing--to reach Louis de Pavannes, to reach the house +opposite to the Head of Erasmus, as quickly as we could. We +presently entered a long, narrow street. At the end of it the +river was visible gleaming and sparkling in the sunlight. The +street was quiet; quiet and empty. There was no living soul to +be seen from end to end of it, only a prowling dog. The noise of +the tumult raging in other parts was softened here by distance +and the intervening houses. We seemed to be able to breathe more +freely. + +"This should be our street," said Croisette. + +I nodded. At the same moment I espied, half-way down it, the +sign we needed and pointed to it, But ah! were we in time? Or +too late? That was the question. By a single impulse we broke +into a run, and shot down the roadway at speed. A few yards +short of the Head of Erasmus we came, one by one, Croisette +first, to a full stop. A full stop! + +The house opposite the bookseller's was sacked! gutted from top +to bottom. It was a tall house, immediately fronting the street, +and every window in it was broken. The door hung forlornly on +one hinge, glaring cracks in its surface showing where the axe +had splintered it. Fragments of glass and ware, hung out and +shattered in sheer wantonness, strewed the steps: and down one +corner of the latter a dark red stream trickled--to curdle by and +by in the gutter. Whence came the stream? Alas! there was +something more to be seen yet, something our eyes instinctively +sought last of all. The body of a man. + +It lay on the threshold, the head hanging back, the wide glazed +eyes looking up to the summer sky whence the sweltering heat +would soon pour down upon it. We looked shuddering at the face. +It was that of a servant, a valet who had been with Louis at +Caylus. We recognised him at once for we had known and liked +him. He had carried our guns on the hills a dozen times, and +told us stories of the war. The blood crawled slowly from him. +He was dead. + +Croisette began to shake all over. He clutched one of the +pillars, which bore up the porch, and pressed his face against +its cold surface, hiding his eyes from the sight. The worst had +come. In our hearts I think we had always fancied some accident +would save our friend, some stranger warn him. + +"Oh, poor, poor Kit!" Croisette cried, bursting suddenly into +violent sobs. "Oh, Kit! Kit!" + + + +CHAPTER X. + +HAU, HAU, HUGUENOTS! + +His late Majesty, Henry the Fourth, I remember--than whom no +braver man wore sword, who loved danger indeed for its own sake, +and courted it as a mistress--could never sleep on the night +before an action. I have heard him say himself that it was so +before the fight at Arques. Croisette partook of this nature +too, being high-strung and apt to be easily over-wrought, but +never until the necessity for exertion had passed away: while +Marie and I, though not a whit stouter at a pinch, were slower to +feel and less easy to move--more Germanic in fact. + +I name this here partly lest it should be thought after what I +have just told of Croisette that there was anything of the woman +about him--save the tenderness; and partly to show that we acted +at this crisis each after his manner. While Croisette turned +pale and trembled, and hid his eyes, I stood dazed, looking from +the desolate house to the face stiffening in the sunshine, and +back again; wondering, though I had seen scores of dead faces +since daybreak, and a plenitude of suffering in all dreadful +shapes, how Providence could let this happen to us. To us! In +his instincts man is as selfish as any animal that lives. + +I saw nothing indeed of the dead face and dead house after the +first convincing glance. I saw instead with hot, hot eyes the +old castle at home, the green fields about the brook, and the +grey hills rising from them; and the terrace, and Kit coming to +meet us, Kit with white face and parted lips and avid eyes that +questioned us! And we with no comfort to give her, no lover to +bring back to her! + +A faint noise behind as of a sign creaking in the wind, roused me +from this most painful reverie. I turned round, not quickly or +in surprise or fear. Rather in the same dull wonder. The upper +part of the bookseller's door was ajar. It was that I had heard +opened. An old woman was peering out at us. + +As our eyes met, she made a slight movement to close the door +again. But I did not stir, and seeming to be reassured by a +second glance, she nodded to me in a stealthy fashion. I drew a +step nearer, listlessly. "Pst! Pst!" she whispered. Her +wrinkled old face, which was like a Normandy apple long kept, was +soft with pity as she looked at Croisette. "Pst!" + +"Well!" I said, mechanically. + +"Is he taken?" she muttered. + +"Who taken?" I asked stupidly. + +She nodded towards the forsaken house, and answered, "The young +lord who lodged there? Ah! sirs," she continued, "he looked gay +and handsome, if you'll believe me, as he came from the king's +court yester even! As bonny a sight in his satin coat, and his +ribbons, as my eyes ever saw! And to think that they should be +hunting him like a rat to-day!" + +The woman's words were few and simple. But what a change they +made in my world! How my heart awoke from its stupor, and leapt +up with a new joy and a new-born hope! "Did he get away?" I +cried eagerly. "Did he escape, mother, then?" + +"Ay, that he did!" she replied quickly. "That poor fellow, +yonder--he lies quiet enough now God forgive him his heresy, say +I!--kept the door manfully while the gentleman got on the roof, +and ran right down the street on the tops of the houses, with +them firing and hooting at him: for all the world as if he had +been a squirrel and they a pack of boys with stones!" + +"And he escaped?" + +"Escaped!" she answered more slowly, shaking her old head in +doubt. "I do not know about that I fear they have got him by +now, gentlemen. I have been shivering and shaking up stairs with +my husband--he is in bed, good man, and the safest place for him +--the saints have mercy upon us! But I heard them go with their +shouting and gunpowder right along to the river, and I doubt they +will take him between this and the CHATELET! I doubt they will." + +"How long ago was it, dame?" I cried. + +"Oh! may be half an hour. Perhaps you are friends of his?" she +added questioningly. + +But I did not stay to answer her. I shook Croisette, who had not +heard a word of this, by the shoulder. "There is a chance that he +has escaped!" I cried in his ear. "Escaped, do you hear?" And I +told him hastily what she had said. + +It was fine, indeed, and a sight, to see the blood rush to his +cheeks, and the tears dry in his eyes, and energy and decision +spring to life in every nerve and muscle of his face, "Then there +is hope?" he cried, grasping my arm. "Hope, Anne! Come! Come! +Do not let us lose another instant. If he be alive let us join +him!" + +The old woman tried to detain us, but in vain. Nay, pitying us, +and fearing, I think, that we were rushing on our deaths, she +cast aside her caution, and called after us aloud. We took no +heed, running after Croisette, who had not waited for our answer, +as fast as young limbs could carry us down the street. The +exhaustion we had felt a moment before when all seemed lost be it +remembered that we had not been to bed or tasted food for many +hours--fell from us on the instant, and was clean gone and +forgotten in the joy of this respite. Louis was living and for +the moment had escaped. + +Escaped! But for how long? We soon had our answer. The moment +we turned the corner by the river-side, the murmur of a multitude +not loud but continuous, struck our ears, even as the breeze off +the water swept our cheeks. Across the river lay the thousand +roofs of the Ile de la Cite, all sparkling in the sunshine. But +we swept to the right, thinking little of THAT sight, and checked +our speed on finding ourselves on the skirts of the crowd. +Before us was a bridge--the Pont au Change, I think--and at its +head on our side of the water stood the CHATELET, with its hoary +turrets and battlements. Between us and the latter, and backed +only by the river, was a great open space half-filled with +people, mostly silent and watchful, come together as to a show, +and betraying, at present at least, no desire to take an active +part in what was going on. + +We hurriedly plunged into the throng, and soon caught the clue to +the quietness and the lack of movement which seemed to prevail, +and which at first sight had puzzled us. For a moment the +absence of the dreadful symptoms we had come to know so well--the +flying and pursuing, the random blows, the shrieks and curses and +batterings on doors, the tipsy yells, had reassured us. But the +relief was short-lived. The people before us were under control. +A tighter grip seemed to close upon our hearts as we discerned +this, for we knew that the wild fury of the populace, like the +rush of a bull, might have given some chance of escape--in this +case as in others. But this cold-blooded ordered search left +none. + +Every face about us was turned in the same direction; away from +the river and towards a block of old houses which stood opposite +to it. The space immediately in front of these was empty, the +people being kept back by a score or so of archers of the guard +set at intervals, and by as many horsemen, who kept riding up and +down, belabouring the bolder spirits with the flat of their +swords, and so preserving a line. At each extremity of this--more +noticeably on our left where the line curved round the angle of +the buildings--stood a handful of riders, seven in a group +perhaps. And alone in the middle of the space so kept clear, +walking his horse up and down and gazing at the houses rode a man +of great stature, booted and armed, the feather nodding in his +bonnet. I could not see his face, but I had no need to see it. +I knew him, and groaned aloud. It was Bezers! + +I understood the scene better now. The horsemen, stern, bearded +Switzers for the most part, who eyed the rabble about them with +grim disdain, and were by no means chary of their blows, were all +in his colours and armed to the teeth. The order and discipline +were of his making: the revenge of his seeking. A grasp as of +steel had settled upon our friend, and I felt that his last +chance was gone. Louis de Pavannes might as well be lying on his +threshold with his dead servant by his side, as be in hiding +within that ring of ordered swords. + +It was with despairing eyes we looked at the old wooden houses. +They seemed to be bowing themselves towards us, their upper +stories projected so far, they were so decrepit. Their roofs +were a wilderness of gutters and crooked gables, of tottering +chimneys and wooden pinnacles and rotting beams, Amongst these I +judged Kit's lover was hiding. Well, it was a good place for +hide and seek--with any other player than DEATH. In the ground +floors of the houses there were no windows and no doors; by +reason, I learned afterwards, of the frequent flooding of the +river. But a long wooden gallery raised on struts ran along the +front, rather more than the height of a man from the ground, and +access to this was gained by a wooden staircase at each end. +Above this first gallery was a second, and above that a line of +windows set between the gables. The block--it may have run for +seventy or eighty yards along the shore--contained four houses, +each with a door opening on to the lower gallery. I saw indeed +that but for the Vidame's precautions Louis might well have +escaped. Had the mob once poured helter-skelter into that +labyrinth of rooms and passages he might with luck have mingled +with them, unheeded and unrecognized, and effected his escape +when they retreated. + +But now there were sentries on each gallery and more on the roof. +Whenever one of the latter moved or seemed to be looking inward-- +where a search party, I understood, were at work--indeed, if he +did but turn his head, a thrill ran through the crowd and a +murmur arose, which once or twice swelled to a savage roar such +as earlier had made me tremble. When this happened the impulse +came, it seemed to me, from the farther end of the line. There +the rougher elements were collected, and there I more than once +saw Bezers' troopers in conflict with the mob. In that quarter +too a savage chant was presently struck up, the whole gathering +joining in and yelling with an indescribably appalling effect: + + "Hau! Hau! Huguenots! + Faites place aux Papegots!" + +in derision of the old song said to be popular amongst the +Protestants. But in the Huguenot version the last words were of +course transposed. + +We had worked our way by this time to the front of the line, and +looking into one another's eyes, mutely asked a question; but not +even Croisette had an answer ready. There could be no answer but +one. What could we do? Nothing. We were too late. Too late +again! And yet how dreadful it was to stand still among the +cruel, thoughtless mob and see our friend, the touch of whose +hand we knew so well, done to death for their sport! Done to +death as the old woman had said like any rat, not a soul save +ourselves pitying him! Not a soul to turn sick at his cry of +agony, or shudder at the glance of his dying eyes. It was +dreadful indeed. + +"Ah, well," muttered a woman beside me to her companion--there +were many women in the crowd--"it is down with the Huguenots, say +I! It is Lorraine is the fine man! But after all yon is a bonny +fellow and a proper, Margot! I saw him leap from roof to roof +over Love Lane, as if the blessed saints had carried him. And him +a heretic!" + +"It is the black art," the other answered, crossing herself. + +"Maybe it is! But he will need it all to give that big man the +slip to-day," replied the first speaker comfortably. + +"That devil!" Margot exclaimed, pointing with a stealthy gesture +of hate at the Vidame. And then in a fierce whisper, with +inarticulate threats, she told a story of him, which made me +shudder. "He did! And she in religion too!" she concluded. +"May our Lady of Loretto reward him." + +The tale might be true for aught I knew, horrible as it was! I +had heard similar ones attributing things almost as fiendish to +him, times and again; from that poor fellow lying dead on +Pavannes' doorstep for one, and from others besides. As the +Vidame in his pacing to and fro turned towards us, I gazed at him +fascinated by his grim visage and that story. His eye rested on +the crowd about us, and I trembled, lest even at that distance he +should recognise us. + +And he did! I had forgotten his keenness of sight. His face +flashed suddenly into a grim smile. The tail of his eye resting +upon us, and seeming to forbid us to move, he gave some orders. +The colour fled from my face. To escape indeed was impossible, +for we were hemmed in by the press and could scarcely stir a +limb. Yet I did make one effort. + +"Croisette!" I muttered he was the rearmost--"stoop down. He +may not have seen you. Stoop down, lad!" + +But St. Croix was obstinate and would not stoop. Nay, when one +of the mounted men came, and roughly ordered us into the open, it +was Croisette who pushing past us stepped out first with a lordly +air. I, following him, saw that his lips were firmly compressed +and that there was an eager light in his eyes. As we emerged, +the crowd in our wake broke the line, and tried to pursue us; +either hostilely or through eagerness to see what it meant. But +a dozen blows of the long pikes drove them back, howling and +cursing to their places. + +I expected to be taken to Bezers; and what would follow I could +not tell. But he did always it seemed what we least expected, +for he only scowled at us now, a grim mockery on his lip, and +cried, "See that they do not escape again! But do them no harm, +sirrah, until I have the batch of them!" + +He turned one way, and I another, my heart swelling with rage. +Would he dare to harm us? Would even the Vidame dare to murder a +Caylus' nephew openly and in cold blood? I did not think so. +And yet--and yet-- + +Croisette interrupted the train of my thoughts. I found that he +was not following me. He had sprung away, and in a dozen strides +reached the Vidame's stirrup, and was clasping his knee when I +turned. I could not hear at the distance at which I stood, what +he said, and the horseman to whom Bezers had committed us spurred +between us. But I heard the Vidame's answer. + +"No! no! no!" he cried with a ring of restrained fury in his +voice. "Let my plans alone! What do you know of them? And if +you speak to me again, M. St. Croix--I think that is your name, +boy--I will--no, I will not kill you. That might please you, you +are stubborn, I can see. But I will have you stripped and lashed +like the meanest of my scullions! Now go, and take care!" + +Impatience, hate and wild passion flamed in his face for the +moment--transfiguring it. Croisette came back to us slowly, +white-lipped and quiet. "Never mind," I said bitterly. "The +third time may bring luck." + +Not that I felt much indignation at the Vidame's insult, or any +anger with the lad for incurring it; as I had felt on that other +occasion. Life and death seemed to be everything on this +morning. Words had ceased to please and annoy, for what are +words to the sheep in the shambles? One man's life and one +woman's happiness outside ourselves we thought only of these now. +And some day I reflected Croisette might remember even with +pleasure that he had, as a drowning man clutching at straws, +stooped to a last prayer for them. + +We were placed in the middle of a knot of troopers who closed the +line to the right. And presently Marie touched me. He was +gazing intently at the sentry on the roof of the third house from +us; the farthest but one. The man's back was to the parapet, and +he was gesticulating wildly. + +"He sees him!" Marie muttered. + +I nodded almost in apathy. But this passed away, and I started +involuntarily and shuddered, as a savage roar, breaking the +silence, rang along the front of the mob like a rolling volley of +firearms. What was it? A man posted at a window on the upper +gallery had dropped his pike's point, and was levelling it at +some one inside: we could see no more. + +But those in front of the window could; they saw too much for the +Vidame's precautions, as a moment showed. He had not laid his +account with the frenzy of a rabble, the passions of a mob which +had tasted blood. I saw the line at its farther end waver +suddenly and toss to and fro. Then a hundred hands went up, and +confused angry cries rose with them. The troopers struck about +them, giving back slowly as they did so. But their efforts were +in vain. With a scream of triumph a wild torrent of people broke +through between them, leaving them stranded; and rushed in a +headlong cataract towards the steps. Bezers was close to us at +the time. "S'death!" he cried, swearing oaths which even his +sovereign could scarce have equalled. "They will snatch him from +me yet, the hell-hounds!" + +He whirled his horse round and spurred him in a dozen bounds to +the stairs at our end of the gallery. There he leaped from him, +dropping the bridle recklessly; and bounding up three steps at a +time, he ran along the gallery. Half-a-dozen of the troopers +about us stayed only to fling their reins to one of their number, +and then followed, their great boots clattering on the planks. + +My breath came fast and short, for I felt it was a crisis. It +was a race between the two parties, or rather between the Vidame +and the leaders of the mob. The latter had the shorter way to +go. But on the narrow steps they were carried off their feet by +the press behind them, and fell over and hampered one another and +lost time. The Vidame, free from this drawback, was some way +along the gallery before they had set foot on it. + +How I prayed--amid a scene of the wildest uproar and excitement-- +that the mob might be first! Let there be only a short conflict +between Bezers' men and the people, and in the confusion Pavannes +might yet escape. Hope awoke in the turmoil. Above the yells of +the crowd a score of deep voices about me thundered "a Wolf! a +Wolf!" And I too, lost my head, and drew my sword, and screamed +at the top of my voice, "a Caylus! a Caylus!" with the maddest. + +Thousands of eyes besides mine were strained on the foremost +figures on either side. They met as it chanced precisely at the +door of the house. The mob leader was a slender man, I saw; a +priest apparently, though now he was girt with unpriestly +weapons, his skirts were tucked up, and his head was bare. So +much my first glance showed me. It was at the second look it was +when I saw the blood forsake his pale lowering face and leave it +whiter than ever, when horror sprang along with recognition to +his eyes, when borne along by the crowd behind he saw his +position and who was before him--it was only then when his mean +figure shrank, and he quailed and would have turned but could +not, that I recognized the Coadjutor. + +I was silent now, my mouth agape. There are seconds which are +minutes; ay, and many minutes. A man may die, a man may come +into life in such a second. In one of these, it seemed to me, +those two men paused, face to face; though in fact a pause was +for one of them impossible. He was between--and I think he knew +it--the devil and the deep sea. Yet he seemed to pause, while +all, even that yelling crowd below, held their breath. The next +moment, glaring askance at one another like two dogs unevenly +coupled, he and Bezers shot shoulder to shoulder into the +doorway, and in another jot of time would have been out of sight. +But then, in that instant, I saw something happen. The Vidame's +hand flashed up above the priest's head, and the cross-hilt of +his sheathed sword crashed down with awful force, and still more +awful passion, on the other's tonsure! The wretch went down like +a log, without a word, without a cry! Amid a roar of rage from a +thousand throats, a roar that might have shaken the stoutest +heart, and blanched the swarthiest cheek, Bezers disappeared +within! + +It was then I saw the power of discipline and custom. Few as +were the troopers who had followed him--a mere handful--they fell +without hesitation on the foremost of the crowd, who were already +in confusion, stumbling and falling over their leader's body; and +hurled them back pell-mell along the gallery. The throng below +had no firearms, and could give no aid at the moment; the stage +was narrow; in two minutes the Vidame's people had swept it clear +of the crowd and were in possession of it. A tall fellow took up +the priest's body, dead or alive, I do not know which, and flung +it as if it had been a sack of corn over the rail. It fell with +a heavy thud on the ground. I heard a piercing scream that rose +above that babel--one shrill scream! and the mob closed round +and hid the thing. + +If the rascals had had the wit to make at once for the right-hand +stairs, where we stood with two or three of Bezers' men who had +kept their saddles, I think they might easily have disposed of +us, encumbered as we were, by the horses; and then they could +have attacked the handful on the gallery on both flanks. But the +mob had no leaders, and no plan of operations. They seized +indeed two or three of the scattered troopers, and tearing them +from their horses, wreaked their passion upon them horribly. But +most of the Switzers escaped, thanks to the attention the mob +paid to the houses and what was going forward on the galleries; +and these, extricating themselves joined us one by one, so that +gradually a little ring of stern faces gathered about the stair- +foot. A moment's hesitation, and seeing no help for it, we +ranged ourselves with them; and, unchecked as unbidden, sprang on +three of the led horses. + +All this passed more quickly than I can relate it: so that +before our feet were well in the stirrups a partial silence, then +a mightier roar of anger at once proclaimed and hailed the re- +appearance of the Vidame. Bigoted beyond belief were the mob of +Paris of that day, cruel, vengeful, and always athirst for blood; +and this man had killed not only their leader but a priest. He +had committed sacrilege! What would they do? I could just, by +stooping forward, command a side view of the gallery, and the +scene passing there was such that I forgot in it our own peril. + +For surely in all his reckless life Bezers had never been so +emphatically the man for the situation--had never shown to such +advantage as at this moment when he stood confronting the sea of +faces, the sneer on his lip, a smile in his eyes; and looked down +unblenching, a figure of scorn, on the men who were literally +agape for his life. The calm defiance of his steadfast look +fascinated even me. Wonder and admiration for the time took the +place of dislike. I could scarcely believe that there was not +some atom of good in this man so fearless. And no face but one +no face I think in the world, but one--could have drawn my eyes +from him. But that one face was beside him. I clutched Marie's +arm, and pointed to the bareheaded figure at Bezers' right hand. + +It was Louis himself: our Louis de Pavannes, But he was changed +indeed from the gay cavalier I remembered, and whom I had last +seen riding down the street at Caylus, smiling back at us, and +waving his adieux to his mistress! Beside the Vidame he had the +air of being slight, even short. The face which I had known so +bright and winning, was now white and set. His fair, curling +hair--scarce darker than Croisette's--hung dank, bedabbled with +blood which flowed from a wound in his head. His sword was gone; +his dress was torn and disordered and covered with dust. His +lips moved. But he held up his head, he bore himself bravely +with it all; so bravely, that I choked, and my heart seemed +bursting as I looked at him standing there forlorn and now +unarmed. I knew that Kit seeing him thus would gladly have died +with him; and I thanked God she did not see him. Yet there was a +quietness in his fortitude which made a great difference between +his air and that of Bezers. He lacked, as became one looking +unarmed on certain death, the sneer and smile of the giant beside +him. + +What was the Vidame about to do? I shuddered as I asked myself. +Not surrender him, not fling him bodily to the people? No not +that: I felt sure he would let no others share his vengeance +that his pride would not suffer that. And even while I wondered +the doubt was solved. I saw Bezers raise his hand in a peculiar +fashion. Simultaneously a cry rang sharply out above the tumult, +and down in headlong charge towards the farther steps came the +band of horsemen, who had got clear of the crowd on that side. +They were but ten or twelve, but under his eye they charged, as +if they had been a thousand. The rabble shrank from the +collision, and fled aside. Quick as thought the riders swerved; +and changing their course, galloped through the looser part of +the throng, and in a trice drew rein side by side with us, a +laugh and a jeer on their reckless lips. + +It was neatly done: and while it was being done the Vidame and +his knot of men, with those who had been searching the building, +hurried down the gallery towards us, their rear cleared for the +moment by the troopers' feint. The dismounted men came bundling +down the steps, their eyes aglow with the war-fire, and got +horses as they could. Among them I lost sight of Louis, but +perceived him presently, pale and bewildered, mounted behind a +trooper. A man sprang up before each of us too, greeting our +appearance merely by a grunt of surprise. For it was no time to +ask or answer. The mob was recovering itself, and each moment +brought it reinforcements, while its fury was augmented by the +trick we had played it, and the prospect of our escape. + +We were under forty, all told; and some men were riding double. +Bezers' eye glanced hastily over his array, and lit on us three. +He turned and gave some order to his lieutenant. The fellow +spurred his horse, a splendid grey, as powerful as his master's, +alongside of Croisette, threw his arm round the lad, and dragged +him dexterously on to his own crupper. I did not understand the +action, but I saw Croisette settle himself behind Blaise Bure-- +for he it was--and supposed no harm was intended. The next +moment we had surged forward, and were swaying to and fro in the +midst of the crowd. + +What ensued I cannot tell. The outlook, so far as I was +concerned, was limited to wildly plunging horses--we were in the +centre of the band and riders swaying in the saddle--with a +glimpse here and there of a fringe of white scowling faces and +tossing arms. Once, a lane opening, I saw the Vidame's charger +--he was in the van--stumble and fall among the crowd and heard a +great shout go up. But Bezers by a mighty effort lifted it to +its legs again. And once too, a minute later, those riding on my +right, swerved outwards, and I saw something I never afterwards +forgot. + +It was the body of the Coadjutor, lying face upwards, the eyes +open and the teeth bared in a last spasm. Prostrate on it lay a +woman, a young woman, with hair like red gold falling about her +neck, and skin like milk. I did not know whether she was alive +or dead; but I noticed that one arm stuck out stiffly and the +crowd flying before the sudden impact of the horses must have +passed over her, even if she had escaped the iron hoofs which +followed. Still in the fleeting glance I had of her as my horse +bounded aside, I saw no wound or disfigurement. Her one arm was +cast about the priest's breast; her face was hidden on it. But +for all that, I knew her--knew her, shuddering for the woman +whose badges I was even now wearing, whose gift I bore at my +side; and I remembered the priest's vaunt of a few hours before, +made in her presence, "There is no man in Paris shall thwart me +to-night!" + +It had been a vain boast indeed! No hand in all that host of +thousands was more feeble than his now: for good or ill! No +brain more dull, no voice less heeded. A righteous retribution +indeed had overtaken him. He had died by the sword he had drawn +--died, a priest, by violence! The cross he had renounced had +crushed him. And all his schemes and thoughts, and no doubt they +had been many, had perished with him. It had come to this, only +this, the sum of the whole matter, that there was one wicked man +the less in Paris--one lump of breathless clay the more. + +For her--the woman on his breast--what man can judge a woman, +knowing her? And not knowing her, how much less? For the +present I put her out of my mind, feeling for the moment faint +and cold. + +We were clear of the crowd, and clattering unmolested down a +paved street before I fully recovered from the shock which this +sight had caused me. Wonder whither we were going took its +place. To Bezers' house? My heart sank at the prospect if that +were so. Before I thought of an alternative, a gateway flanked +by huge round towers appeared before us, and we pulled up +suddenly, a confused jostling mass in the narrow way; while some +words passed between the Vidame and the Captain of the Guard. A +pause of several minutes followed; and then the gates rolled +slowly open, and two by two we passed under the arch. Those +gates might have belonged to a fortress or a prison, a dungeon or +a palace, for all I knew. + +They led, however, to none of these, but to an open space, dirty +and littered with rubbish, marked by a hundred ruts and tracks, +and fringed with disorderly cabins and make-shift booths. And +beyond this--oh, ye gods! the joy of it--beyond this, which we +crossed at a rapid trot, lay the open country! + +The transition and relief were so wonderful that I shall never +forget them. I gazed on the wide landscape before me, lying +quiet and peaceful in the sunlight, and could scarce believe in +my happiness. I drew the fresh air into my lungs, I threw up my +sheathed sword and caught it again in a frenzy of delight, while +the gloomy men about me smiled at my enthusiasm. I felt the +horse beneath me move once more like a thing of life. No +enchanter with his wand, not Merlin nor Virgil, could have made a +greater change in my world, than had the captain of the gate with +his simple key! Or so it seemed to me in the first moments of +freedom, and escape--of removal from those loathsome streets. + +I looked back at Paris--at the cloud of smoke which hung over the +towers and roofs; and it seemed to me the canopy of hell itself. +I fancied that my head still rang with the cries and screams and +curses, the sounds of death. In very fact, I could hear the dull +reports of firearms near the Louvre, and the jangle of the bells. +Country-folk were congregated at the cross-roads, and in the +villages, listening and gazing; asking timid questions of the +more good-natured among us, and showing that the rumour of the +dreadful work doing in the town had somehow spread abroad. And +this though I learned afterwards that the keys of the city had +been taken the night before to the king, and that, except a party +with the Duke of Guise, who had left at eight in pursuit of +Montgomery and some of the Protestants--lodgers, happily for +themselves, in the Faubourg St. Germain--no one had left the town +before ourselves. + +While I am speaking of our departure from Paris, I may say what I +have to say of the dreadful excesses of those days, ay, and of +the following days; excesses of which France is now ashamed, and +for which she blushed even before the accession of his late +Majesty. I am sometimes asked, as one who witnessed them, what I +think, and I answer that it was not our country which was to +blame. A something besides Queen Catharine de' Medici had been +brought from Italy forty years before, a something invisible but +very powerful; a spirit of cruelty and treachery. In Italy it +had done small harm. But grafted on French daring and +recklessness, and the rougher and more soldierly manners of the +north, this spirit of intrigue proved capable of very dreadful +things. For a time, until it wore itself out, it was the curse +of France. Two Dukes of Guise, Francis and Henry, a cardinal of +Guise, the Prince of Conde, Admiral Coligny, King Henry the Third +all these the foremost men of their day--died by assassination +within little more than a quarter of a century, to say nothing of +the Prince of Orange, and King Henry the Great. + +Then mark--a most curious thing--the extreme youth of those who +were in this business. France, subject to the Queen-Mother, of +course, was ruled at the time by boys scarce out of their tutors' +hands. They were mere lads, hot-blooded, reckless nobles, ready +for any wild brawl, without forethought or prudence. Of the four +Frenchmen who it is thought took the leading parts, one, the +king, was twenty-two; Monsieur, his brother, was only twenty; the +Duke of Guise was twenty-one. Only the Marshal de Tavannes was +of mature age. For the other conspirators, for the Queen-Mother, +for her advisers Retz and Nevers and Birague, they were Italians; +and Italy may answer for them if Florence, Mantua and Milan care +to raise the glove. + +To return to our journey. A league from the town we halted at a +large inn, and some of us dismounted. Horses were brought out to +fill the places of those lost or left behind, and Bure had food +served to us. We were famished and exhausted, and ate it +ravenously, as if we could never have enough. + +The Vidame sat his horse apart, served by his page, I stole a +glance at him, and it struck me that even on his iron nature the +events of the night had made some impression. I read, or thought +I read, in his countenance, signs of emotions not quite in +accordance with what I knew of him--emotions strange and varied. +I could almost have sworn that as he looked at us a flicker of +kindliness lit up his stern and cruel gloom; I could almost have +sworn he smiled with a curious sadness. As for Louis, riding +with a squad who stood in a different part of the yard, he did +not see us; had not yet seen us at all. His side face, turned +towards me, was pale and sad, his manner preoccupied, his mien +rather sorrowful than downcast. He was thinking, I judged, as +much of the many brave men who had yesterday been his friends-- +companions at board and play-table--as of his own fate. When we +presently, at a signal from Bure, took to the road again, I asked +no permission, but thrusting my horse forward, rode to his side +as he passed through the gateway. + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +A NIGHT OF SORROW. + +"Louis! Louis!" + +He turned with a start at the sound of my voice, joy and +bewilderment--and no wonder--in his countenance. He had not +supposed us to be within a hundred leagues of him. And lo! here +we were, knee to knee, hand meeting hand in a long grasp, while +his eyes, to which tears sprang unbidden, dwelt on my face as +though they could read in it the features of his sweetheart. +Some one had furnished him with a hat, and enabled him to put his +dress in order, and wash his wound, which was very slight, and +these changes had improved his appearance; so that the shadow of +grief and despondency passing for a moment from him in the joy of +seeing me, he looked once more his former self: as he had looked +in the old days at Caylus on his return from hawking, or from +some boyish escapade among the hills. Only, alas! he wore no +sword. + +"And now tell me all," he cried, after his first exclamation of +wonder had found vent. "How on earth do you come here? Here, of +all places, and by my side? Is all well at Caylus? Surely +Mademoiselle is not--" + +"Mademoiselle is well! perfectly well! And thinking of you, I +swear!" I answered passionately. "For us," I went on, eager for +the moment to escape that subject--how could I talk of it in the +daylight and under strange eyes?--"Marie and Croisette are +behind. We left Caylus eight days ago. We reached Paris +yesterday evening. We have not been to bed! We have passed, +Louis, such a night as I never--" + +He stopped me with a gesture. "Hush!" he said, raising his +hand. "Don't speak of it, Anne!" and I saw that the fate of his +friends was still too recent, the horror of his awakening to +those dreadful sights and sounds was still too vivid for him to +bear reference to them. Yet after riding for a time in silence-- +though his lips moved--he asked me again what had brought us up. + +"We came to warn you--of him," I answered, pointing to the +solitary, moody figure of the Vidame, who was riding ahead of the +party. "He--he said that Kit should never marry you, and +boasted of what he would do to you, and frightened her. So, +learning he was going to Paris, we followed him--to put you on +your guard, you know." And I briefly sketched our adventures, +and the strange circumstances and mistakes which had delayed us +hour after hour, through all that strange night, until the time +had gone by when we could do good. + +His eyes glistened and his colour rose as I told the story. He +wrung my hand warmly, and looked back to smile at Marie and +Croisette. "It was like you!" he ejaculated with emotion. "It +was like her cousins! Brave, brave lads! The Vicomte will live +to be proud of you! Some day you will all do great things! I +say it!" + +"But oh, Louis!" I exclaimed sorrowfully, though my heart was +bounding with pride at his words, "if we had only been in time! +If we had only come to you two hours earlier!" + +"You would have spoken to little purpose then, I fear," he +replied, shaking his head. "We were given over as a prey to the +enemy. Warnings? We had warnings in plenty. De Rosny warned +us, and we scoffed at him. The king's eye warned us, and we +trusted him. But--" and Louis' form dilated and his hand rose as +he went on, and I thought of his cousin's prediction--"it will +never be so again in France, Anne! Never! No man will after +this trust another! There will be no honour, no faith, no +quarter, and no peace! And for the Valois who has done this, the +sword will never depart from his house! I believe it! I do +believe it!" + +How truly he spoke we know now. For two-and-twenty years after +that twenty-fourth of August, 1572, the sword was scarcely laid +aside in France for a single month. In the streets of Paris, at +Arques, and Coutras, and Ivry, blood flowed like water that the +blood of the St. Bartholomew might be forgotten--that blood +which, by the grace of God, Navarre saw fall from the dice box on +the eve of the massacre. The last of the Valois passed to the +vaults of St. Denis: and a greater king, the first of all +Frenchmen, alive or dead, the bravest, gayest, wisest of the +land, succeeded him: yet even he had to fall by the knife, in a +moment most unhappy for his country, before France, horror- +stricken, put away the treachery and evil from her. + +Talking with Louis as we rode, it was not unnatural--nay, it was +the natural result of the situation--that I should avoid one +subject. Yet that subject was the uppermost in my thoughts. +What were the Vidame's intentions? What was the meaning of this +strange journey? What was to be Louis' fate? I shrank with good +reason from asking him these questions. There could be so little +room for hope, even after that smile which I had seen Bezers +smile, that I dared not dwell upon them. I should but torture +him and myself. + +So it was he who first spoke about it. Not at that time, but +after sunset, when the dusk had fallen upon us, and found us +still plodding southward with tired horses; a link outwardly like +other links in the long chain of riders, toiling onwards. Then +he said suddenly, "Do you know whither we are going, Anne?" + +I started, and found myself struggling with a strange confusion +before I could reply. "Home," I suggested at random. + +"Home? No. And yet nearly home. To Cahors," he answered with +an odd quietude. "Your home, my boy, I shall never see again, +Nor Kit! Nor my own Kit!" It was the first time I had heard him +call her by the fond name we used ourselves. And the pathos in +his tone as of the past, not the present, as of pure memory--I +was very thankful that I could not in the dusk see his face +--shook my self-control. I wept. "Nay, my lad," he went on, +speaking softly and leaning from his saddle so that he could lay +his hand on my shoulder "we are all men together. We must be +brave. Tears cannot help us, so we should leave them to the-- +women." + +I cried more passionately at that. Indeed his own voice quavered +over the last word. But in a moment he was talking to me coolly +and quietly. I had muttered something to the effect that the +Vidame would not dare--it would be too public. + +"There is no question of daring in it," he replied. "And the +more public it is, the better he will like it. They have dared +to take thousands of lives since yesterday. There is no one to +call him to account since the king--our king forsooth!--has +declared every Huguenot an outlaw, to be killed wherever he be +met with. No, when Bezers disarmed me yonder," he pointed as he +spoke to his wound, "I looked of course for instant death. Anne! +I saw blood in his eyes! But he did not strike." + +"Why not?" I asked in suspense. + +"I can only guess," Louis answered with a sigh. "He told me that +my life was in his hands, but that he should take it at his own +time. Further that if I would not give my word to go with him +without trying to escape, he would throw me to those howling dogs +outside. I gave my word. We are on the road together. And oh, +Anne! yesterday, only yesterday, at this time I was riding home +with Teligny from the Louvre, where we had been playing at paume +with the king! And the world--the world was very fair." + +"I saw you, or rather Croisette did," I muttered as his sorrow-- +not for himself, but his friends--forced him to stop. "Yet how, +Louis, do you know that we are going to Cahors?" + +"He told me, as we passed through the gates, that he was +appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Quercy to carry out the edict +against the religion. Do you not see, Anne?" my companion added +bitterly, "to kill me at once were too small a revenge for him! +He must torture me--or rather he would if he could--by the pains +of anticipation. + +"Besides, my execution will so finely open his bed of justice. +Bah!" and Pavannes raised his head proudly, "I fear him not! I +fear him not a jot!" + +For a moment he forgot Kit, the loss of his friends, his own +doom. He snapped his fingers in derision of his foe. + +But my heart sank miserably. The Vidame's rage I remembered had +been directed rather against my cousin than her lover; and now by +the light of his threats I read Bezers' purpose more clearly than +Louis could. His aim was to punish the woman who had played with +him. To do so he was bringing her lover from Paris that he might +execute him--AFTER GIVING HER NOTICE! That was it: after giving +her notice, it might be in her very presence! He would lure her +to Cahors, and then-- + +I shuddered. I well might feel that a precipice was opening at +my feet. There was something in the plan so devilish, yet so +accordant with those stories I had heard of the Wolf, that I felt +no doubt of my insight. I read his evil mind, and saw in a +moment why he had troubled himself with us. He hoped to draw +Mademoiselle to Cahors by our means. + +Of course I said nothing of this to Louis. I hid my feelings as +well as I could. But I vowed a great vow that at the eleventh +hour we would baulk the Vidame. Surely if all else failed we +could kill him, and, though we died ourselves, spare Kit this +ordeal. My tears were dried up as by a fire. My heart burned +with a great and noble rage: or so it seemed to me! + +I do not think that there was ever any journey so strange as this +one of ours. We met with the same incidents which had pleased us +on the road to Paris. But their novelty was gone. Gone too were +the cosy chats with old rogues of landlords and good-natured +dames. We were travelling now in such force that our coming was +rather a terror to the innkeeper than a boon. How much the +Lieutenant-Governor of Quercy, going down to his province, +requisitioned in the king's name; and for how much he paid, we +could only judge from the gloomy looks which followed us as we +rode away each morning. Such looks were not solely due I fear to +the news from Paris, although for some time we were the first +bearers of the tidings. + +Presently, on the third day of our journey I think, couriers from +the Court passed us: and henceforth forestalled us. One of +these messengers--who I learned from the talk about me was bound +for Cahors with letters for the Lieutenant-Governor and the +Count-Bishop--the Vidame interviewed and stopped. How it was +managed I do not know, but I fear the Count-Bishop never got his +letters, which I fancy would have given him some joint authority. +Certainly we left the messenger--a prudent fellow with a care for +his skin--in comfortable quarters at Limoges, whence I do not +doubt he presently returned to Paris at his leisure. + +The strangeness of the journey however arose from none of these +things, but from the relations of our party to one another. +After the first day we four rode together, unmolested, so long as +we kept near the centre of the straggling cavalcade. The Vidame +always rode alone, and in front, brooding with bent head and +sombre face over his revenge, as I supposed. He would ride in +this fashion, speaking to no one and giving no orders, for a day +together. At times I came near to pitying him. He had loved Kit +in his masterful way, the way of one not wont to be thwarted, and +he had lost her--lost her, whatever might happen. He would get +nothing after all by his revenge. Nothing but ashes in the +mouth. And so I saw in softer moments something inexpressibly +melancholy in that solitary giant-figure pacing always alone. + +He seldom spoke to us. More rarely to Louis. When he did, the +harshness of his voice and his cruel eyes betrayed the gloomy +hatred in which he held him. At meals he ate at one end of the +table: we four at the other, as three of us had done on that +first evening in Paris. And sometimes the covert looks, the grim +sneer he shot at his rival--his prisoner--made me shiver even in +the sunshine. Sometimes, on the other hand, when I took him +unawares, I found an expression on his face I could not read. + +I told Croisette, but warily, my suspicions of his purpose. He +heard me, less astounded to all appearance than I had expected. +Presently I learned the reason. He had his own view. "Do you +not think it possible, Anne?" he suggested timidly--we were of +course alone at the time--"that he thinks to make Louis resign +Mademoiselle?" + +"Resign her!" I exclaimed obtusely. "How?" + +"By giving him a choice--you understand?" + +I did understand I saw it in a moment. I had been dull not to +see it before. Bezers might put it in this way: let M. de +Pavannes resign his mistress and live, or die and lose her. + +"I see," I answered. "But Louis would not give her up. Not to +him!" + +"He would lose her either way," Croisette answered in a low tone. +"That is not however the worst of it. Louis is in his power. +Suppose he thinks to make Kit the arbiter, Anne, and puts Louis +up to ransom, setting Kit for the price? And gives her the +option of accepting himself, and saving Louis' life; or refusing, +and leaving Louis to die?" + +"St. Croix!" I exclaimed fiercely. "He would not be so base!" +And yet was not even this better than the blind vengeance I had +myself attributed to him? + +"Perhaps not," Croisette answered, while he gazed onwards through +the twilight. We were at the time the foremost of the party save +the Vidame; and there was nothing to interrupt our view of his +gigantic figure as he moved on alone before us with bowed +shoulders. "Perhaps not," Croisette repeated thoughtfully. +"Sometimes I think we do not understand him; and that after all +there may be worse people in the world than Bezers." + +I looked hard at the lad, for that was not what I had meant. +"Worse?" I said. "I do not think so. Hardly!" + +"Yes, worse," he replied, shaking his head. "Do you remember +lying under the curtain in the box-bed at Mirepoix's?" + +"Of course I do! Do you think I shall ever forget it?" + +"And Madame d'O coming in?" + +"With the Coadjutor?" I said with a shudder. "Yes." + +"No, the second time," he answered, "when she came back alone. +It was pretty dark, you remember, and Madame de Pavannes was at +the window, and her sister did not see her?" + +"Well, well, I remember," I said impatiently. I knew from the +tone of his voice that he had something to tell me about Madame +d'O, and I was not anxious to hear it. I shrank, as a wounded +man shrinks from the cautery, from hearing anything about that +woman; herself so beautiful, yet moving in an atmosphere of +suspicion and horror. Was it shame, or fear, or some chivalrous +feeling having its origin in that moment when I had fancied +myself her knight? I am not sure, for I had not made up my mind +even now whether I ought to pity or detest her; whether she had +made a tool of me, or I had been false to her. + +"She came up to the bed, you remember, Anne?" Croisette went on. +"You were next to her. She saw you indistinctly, and took you +for her sister. And then I sprang from the bed." + +"I know you did!" I exclaimed sharply. All this time I had +forgotten that grievance. "You nearly frightened her out of her +wits, St. Croix. I cannot think what possessed you--why you did +it?" + +"To save your life, Anne" he answered solemnly, "and her from a +crime! an unutterable, an unnatural crime. She had come back to +I can hardly tell it you--to murder her sister. You start. You +do not believe me. It sounds too horrible. But I could see +better than you could. She was exactly between you and the +light. I saw the knife raised. I saw her wicked face! If I had +not startled her as I did, she would have stabbed you. She +dropped the knife on the floor, and I picked it up and have it. +See!" + +I looked furtively, and turned away again, shivering. "Why," I +muttered, "why did she do it?" + +"She had failed you know to get her sister back to Pavannes' +house, where she would have fallen an easy victim. Bezers, who +knew Madame d'O, prevented that. Then that fiend slipped back +with her knife; thinking that in the common butchery the crime +would be overlooked, and never investigated, and that Mirepoix +would be silent!" + +I said nothing. I was stunned. Yet I believed the story. When +I went over the facts in my mind I found that a dozen things, +overlooked at the time and almost forgotten in the hurry of +events, sprang up to confirm it. M. de Pavannes'--the other M. +de Pavannes'--suspicions had been well founded. Worse than +Bezers was she? Ay! worse a hundred times. As much worse as +treachery ever is than violence; as the pitiless fraud of the +serpent is baser than the rage of the wolf. + +"I thought," Croisette added softly, not looking at me, "when I +discovered that you had gone off with her, that I should never +see you again, Anne. I gave you up for lost. The happiest +moment of my life I think was when I saw you come back." + +"Croisette," I whispered piteously, my cheeks burning, "let us +never speak of her again." + +And we never did--for years. But how strange is life. She and +the wicked man with whom her fate seemed bound up had just +crossed our lives when their own were at the darkest. They +clashed with us, and, strangers and boys as we were, we ruined +them. I have often asked myself what would have happened to me +had I met her at some earlier and less stormy period--in the +brilliance of her beauty. And I find but one answer. I should +bitterly have rued the day. Providence was good to me. Such men +and such women, we may believe have ceased to exist now. They +flourished in those miserable days of war and divisions, and +passed away with them like the foul night-birds of the battle- +field. + +To return to our journey. In the morning sunshine one could not +but be cheerful, and think good things possible. The worst trial +I had came with each sunset. For then--we generally rode late +into the evening--Louis sought my side to talk to me of his +sweetheart. And how he would talk of her! How many thousand +messages he gave me for her! How often he recalled old days +among the hills, with each laugh and jest and incident, when we +five had been as children! Until I would wonder passionately, +the tears running down my face in the darkness, how he could--how +he could talk of her in that quiet voice which betrayed no +rebellion against fate, no cursing of Providence! How he could +plan for her and think of her when she should be alone! + +Now I understand it. He was still labouring under the shock of +his friends' murder. He was still partially stunned. Death +seemed natural and familiar to him, as to one who had seen his +allies and companions perish without warning or preparation. +Death had come to be normal to him, life the exception; as I have +known it seem to a child brought face to face with a corpse for +the first time. + +One afternoon a strange thing happened. We could see the +Auvergne hills at no great distance on our left--the Puy de Dome +above them--and we four were riding together. We had fallen--an +unusual thing--to the rear of the party. Our road at the moment +was a mere track running across moorland, sprinkled here and +there with gorse and brushwood. The main company had straggled +on out of sight. There were but half a dozen riders to be seen +an eighth of a league before us, a couple almost as far behind. +I looked every way with a sudden surging of the heart. For the +first time the possibility of flight occurred to me. The rough +Auvergne hills were within reach. Supposing we could get a lead +of a quarter of a league, we could hardly be caught before +darkness came and covered us. Why should we not put spurs to our +horses and ride off? + +"Impossible!" said Pavannes quietly, when I spoke. + +"Why?" I asked with warmth. + +"Firstly," he replied, "because I have given my word to go with +the Vidame to Cahors." + +My face flushed hotly. But I cried, "What of that? You were +taken by treachery! Your safe conduct was disregarded. Why +should you be scrupulous? Your enemies are not. This is folly?" + +"I think not. Nay," Louis answered, shaking his head, "you would +not do it yourself in my place." + +"I think I should," I stammered awkwardly. + +"No, you would not, lad," he said smiling. "I know you too well. +But if I would do it, it is impossible." He turned in the saddle +and, shading his eyes with his hand from the level rays of the +sun, looked back intently. "It is as I thought," he continued. +"One of those men is riding grey Margot, which Bure said +yesterday was the fastest mare in the troop. And the man on her +is a light weight. The other fellow has that Norman bay horse we +were looking at this morning. It is a trap laid by Bezers, Anne. +If we turned aside a dozen yards, those two would be after us +like the wind." + +"Do you mean," I cried, "that Bezers has drawn his men forward on +purpose?" + +"Precisely;" was Louis's answer. "That is the fact. Nothing +would please him better than to take my honour first, and my life +afterwards. But, thank God, only the one is in his power." + +And when I came to look at the horsemen, immediately before us, +they confirmed Louis's view. They were the best mounted of the +party: all men of light weight too. One or other of them was +constantly looking back. As night fell they closed in upon us +with their usual care. When Bure joined us there was a gleam of +intelligence in his bold eyes, a flash of conscious trickery. He +knew that we had found him out, and cared nothing for it. + +And the others cared nothing. But the thought that if left to +myself I should have fallen into the Vidame's cunning trap filled +me with new hatred towards him; such hatred and such fear--for +there was humiliation mingled with them--as I had scarcely felt +before. I brooded over this, barely noticing what passed in our +company for hours--nay, not until the next day when, towards +evening, the cry arose round me that we were within sight of +Cahors. Yes, there it lay below us, in its shallow basin, +surrounded by gentle hills. The domes of the cathedral, the +towers of the Vallandre Bridge, the bend of the Lot, where its +stream embraces the town--I knew them all. Our long journey was +over. + +And I had but one idea. I had some time before communicated to +Croisette the desperate design I had formed--to fall upon Bezers +and kill him in the midst of his men in the last resort. Now the +time had come if the thing was ever to be done: if we had not +left it too long already. And I looked about me. There was some +confusion and jostling as we halted on the brow of the hill, +while two men were despatched ahead to announce the governor's +arrival, and Bure, with half a dozen spears, rode out as an +advanced guard. + +The road where we stood was narrow, a shallow cutting winding +down the declivity of the hills. The horses were tired, It was a +bad time and place for my design, and only the coming night was +in my favour. But I was desperate. + +Yet before I moved or gave a signal which nothing could recall, I +scanned the landscape eagerly, scrutinizing in turn the small, +rich plain below us, warmed by the last rays of the sun, the bare +hills here glowing, there dark, the scattered wood-clumps and +spinneys that filled the angles of the river, even the dusky line +of helm-oaks that crowned the ridge beyond--Caylus way. So near +our own country there might be help! If the messenger whom we +had despatched to the Vicomte before leaving home had reached +him, our uncle might have returned, and even be in Cahors to meet +us. + +But no party appeared in sight: and I saw no place where an +ambush could be lying. I remembered that no tidings of our +present plight or of what had happened could have reached the +Vicomte. The hope faded out of life as soon as despair had given +it birth. We must fend for ourselves and for Kit. + +That was my justification. I leaned from my saddle towards +Croisette--I was riding by his side--and muttered, as I felt my +horse's head and settled myself firmly in the stirrups, "You +remember what I said? Are you ready?" + +He looked at me in a startled way, with a face showing white in +the shadow: and from me to the one solitary figure seated like a +pillar a score of paces in front with no one between us and it. +"There need be but two of us," I muttered, loosening my sword. +"Shall it be you or Marie? The others must leap their horses out +of the road in the confusion, cross the river at the Arembal Ford +if they are not overtaken, and make for Caylus." + +He hesitated. I do not know whether it had anything to do with +his hesitation that at that moment the cathedral bell in the town +below us began to ring slowly for Vespers. Yes, he hesitated. +He--a Caylus. Turning to him again, I repeated my question +impatiently. "Which shall it be? A moment, and we shall be +moving on, and it will be too late." + +He laid his hand hurriedly on my bridle, and began a rambling +answer. Rambling as it was I gathered his meaning. It was +enough for me! I cut him short with one word of fiery +indignation, and turned to Marie and spoke quickly. "Will you, +then?" I said. + +But Marie shook his head in perplexity, and answering little, +said the same. So it happened a second time. + +Strange! Yet strange as it seemed, I was not greatly surprised. +Under other circumstances I should have been beside myself with +anger at the defection. Now I felt as if I had half expected it, +and without further words of reproach I dropped my head and gave +it up. I passed again into the stupor of endurance. The Vidame +was too strong for me. It was useless to fight against him. We +were under the spell. When the troop moved forward, I went with +them, silent and apathetic. + +We passed through the gate of Cahors, and no doubt the scene was +worthy of note; but I had only a listless eye for it--much such +an eye as a man about to be broken on the wheel must have for +that curious instrument, supposing him never to have seen it +before. The whole population had come out to line the streets +through which we rode, and stood gazing, with scarcely veiled +looks of apprehension, at the procession of troopers and the +stern face of the new governor. + +We dismounted passively in the courtyard of the castle, and were +for going in together, when Bure intervened. "M. de Pavannes," +he said, pushing rather rudely between us, "will sup alone to- +night. For you, gentlemen, this way, if you please." + +I went without remonstrance. What was the use? I was conscious +that the Vidame from the top of the stairs leading to the grand +entrance was watching us with a wolfish glare in his eyes. I +went quietly. But I heard Croisette urging something with +passionate energy. + +We were led through a low doorway to a room on the ground floor; +a place very like a cell. Were we took our meal in silence. +When it was over I flung myself on one of the beds prepared for +us, shrinking from my companions rather in misery than in +resentment. + +No explanation had passed between us. Still I knew that the +other two from time to time eyed me doubtfully. I feigned +therefore to be asleep, but I heard Bure enter to bid us good- +night--and see that we had not escaped. And I was conscious too +of the question Croisette put to him, "Does M. de Pavannes lie +alone to-night, Bure?" + +"Not entirely," the captain answered with gloomy meaning. Indeed +he seemed in bad spirits himself, or tired. "The Vidame is +anxious for his soul's welfare, and sends a priest to him." + +They sprang to their feet at that. But the light and its bearer, +who so far recovered himself as to chuckle at his master's pious +thought, had disappeared. They were left to pace the room, and +reproach themselves and curse the Vidame in an agony of late +repentance. Not even Marie could find a loop-hole of escape from +here. The door was double-locked; the windows so barred that a +cat could scarcely pass through them; the walls were of solid +masonry. + +Meanwhile I lay and feigned to sleep, and lay feigning through +long, long hours; though my heart like theirs throbbed in +response to the dull hammering that presently began without, and +not far from us, and lasted until daybreak. From our windows, +set low and facing a wall, we could see nothing. But we could +guess what the noise meant, the dull, earthy thuds when posts +were set in the ground, the brisk, wooden clattering when one +plank was laid to another. We could not see the progress of the +work, or hear the voices of the workmen, or catch the glare of +their lights. But we knew what they were doing. They were +raising the scaffold. + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +JOY IN THE MORNING. + +I was too weary with riding to go entirely without sleep. And +moreover it is anxiety and the tremor of excitement which make +the pillow sleepless, not, heaven be thanked, sorrow. God made +man to lie awake and hope: but never to lie awake and grieve. +An hour or two before daybreak I fell asleep, utterly worn out. +When I awoke, the sun was high, and shining slantwise on our +window. The room was gay with the morning rays, and soft with +the morning freshness, and I lay a while, my cheek on my hand, +drinking in the cheerful influence as I had done many and many a +day in our room at Caylus. It was the touch of Marie's hand, +laid timidly on my arm, which roused me with a shock to +consciousness. The truth broke upon me. I remembered where we +were, and what was before us. "Will you get up, Anne?" +Croisette said. "The Vidame has sent for us." + +I got to my feet, and buckled on my sword. Croisette was leaning +against the wall, pale and downcast. Bure filled the open +doorway, his feathered cap in his hand, a queer smile on his +face. "You are a good sleeper, young gentleman," he said. "You +should have a good conscience." + +"Better than yours, no doubt!" I retorted, "or your master's." + +He shrugged his shoulders, and, bidding us by a sign to follow +him, led the way through several gloomy passages. At the end of +these, a flight of stone steps leading upwards seemed to promise +something better; and true enough, the door at the top being +opened, the murmur of a crowd reached our ears, with a burst of +sunlight and warmth. We were in a lofty room, with walls in some +places painted, and elsewhere hung with tapestry; well lighted by +three old pointed windows reaching to the rush-covered floor. +The room was large, set here and there with stands of arms, and +had a dais with a raised carved chair at one end. The ceiling +was of blue, with gold stars set about it. Seeing this, I +remembered the place. I had been in it once, years ago, when I +had attended the Vicomte on a state visit to the governor. Ah! +that the Vicomte were here now! + +I advanced to the middle window, which was open. Then I started +back, for outside was the scaffold built level with the floor, +and rush-covered like it! Two or three people were lounging on +it. My eyes sought Louis among the group, but in vain. He was +not there: and while I looked for him, I heard a noise behind +me, and he came in, guarded by four soldiers with pikes. + +His face was pale and grave, but perfectly composed. There was a +wistful look in his eyes indeed, as if he were thinking of +something or some one far away--Kit's face on the sunny hills of +Quercy where he had ridden with her, perhaps; a look which seemed +to say that the doings here were nothing to him, and the parting +was yonder where she was. But his bearing was calm and +collected, his step firm and fearless. When he saw us, indeed +his face lightened a moment and he greeted us cheerfully, even +acknowledging Bure's salutation with dignity and good temper. +Croisette sprang towards him impulsively, and cried his name-- +Croisette ever the first to speak. But before Louis could grasp +his hand, the door at the bottom of the hall was swung open, and +the Vidame came hurriedly in. + +He was alone. He glanced round, his forbidding face, which was +somewhat flushed as if by haste, wearing a scowl. Then he saw +us, and, nodding haughtily, strode up the floor, his spurs +clanking heavily on the boards. We gave us no greeting, but by a +short word dismissed Bure and the soldiers to the lower end of +the room. And then he stood and looked at us four, but +principally at his rival; and looked, and looked with eyes of +smouldering hate. And there was a silence, a long silence, while +the murmur of the crowd came almost cheerfully through the +window, and the sparrows under the eaves chirped and twittered, +and the heart that throbbed least painfully was, I do believe, +Louis de Pavannes'! + +At last Bezers broke the silence. + +"M. de Pavannes!" he began, speaking hoarsely, yet concealing +all passion under a cynical smile and a mock politeness, "M. de +Pavannes, I hold the king's commission to put to death all the +Huguenots within my province of Quercy. Have you anything to +say, I beg, why I should not begin with you? Or do you wish to +return to the Church?" + +Louis shrugged his shoulders as in contempt, and held his peace, +I saw his captor's great hands twitch convulsively at this, but +still the Vidame mastered himself, and when he spoke again he +spoke slowly. "Very well," he continued, taking no heed of us, +the silent witnesses of this strange struggle between the two +men, but eyeing Louis only. "You have wronged me more than any +man alive. Alive or dead! or dead! You have thwarted me, M. de +Pavannes, and taken from me the woman I loved. Six days ago I +might have killed you. I had it in my power. I had but to leave +you to the rabble, remember, and you would have been rotting at +Montfaucon to-day, M. de Pavannes." + +"That is true," said Louis quietly. "Why so many words?" + +But the Vidame went on as if he had not heard. "I did not leave +you to them," he resumed, "and yet I hate you--more than I ever +hated any man yet, and I am not apt to forgive. But now the time +has come, sir, for my revenge! The oath I swore to your mistress +a fortnight ago I will keep to the letter. I--Silence, babe!" +he thundered, turning suddenly, "or I will keep my word with you +too!" + +Croisette had muttered something, and this had drawn on him the +glare of Bezers' eyes. But the threat was effectual. Croisette +was silent. The two were left henceforth to one another. + +Yet the Vidame seemed to be put out by the interruption. +Muttering a string of oaths he strode from us to the window and +back again. The cool cynicism, with which he was wont to veil +his anger and impose on other men, while it heightened the effect +of his ruthless deeds, in part fell from him. He showed himself +as he was--masterful, and violent, hating, with all the strength +of a turbulent nature which had never known a check. I quailed +before him myself. I confess it. + +"Listen!" he continued harshly, coming back and taking his place +in front of us at last, his manner more violent than before the +interruption. "I might have left you to die in that hell yonder! +And I did not leave you. I had but to hold my hand and you would +have been torn to pieces! The wolf, however, does not hunt with +the rats, and a Bezers wants no help in his vengeance from king +or CANAILLE! When I hunt my enemy down I will hunt him alone, do +you hear? And as there is a heaven above me"--he paused a +moment--"if I ever meet you face to face again, M. de Pavannes, I +will kill you where you stand!" + +He paused, and the murmur of the crowd without came to my ears; +but mingled with and heightened by some confusion in my thoughts. +I struggled feebly with this, seeing a rush of colour to +Croisette's face, a lightening in his eyes as if a veil had been +raised from before them. Some confusion--for I thought I grasped +the Vidame's meaning; yet there he was still glowering on his +victim with the same grim visage, still speaking in the same +rough tone. "Listen, M. de Pavannes," he continued, rising to +his full height and waving his hand with a certain majesty +towards the window--no one had spoken. "The doors are open! Your +mistress is at Caylus. The road is clear, go to her; go to her, +and tell her that I have saved your life, and that I give it to +you not out of love, but out of hate! If you had flinched I +would have killed you, for so you would have suffered most, M. de +Pavannes. As it is, take your life--a gift! and suffer as I +should if I were saved and spared by my enemy!" + +Slowly the full sense of his words came home to me. Slowly; not +in its full completeness indeed until I heard Louis in broken +phrases, phrases half proud and half humble, thanking him for his +generosity. Even then I almost lost the true and wondrous +meaning of the thing when I heard his answer. For he cut +Pavannes short with bitter caustic gibes, spurned his proffered +gratitude with insults, and replied to his acknowledgments with +threats. + +"Go! go!" he continued to cry violently. "Have I brought you +so far safely that you will cheat me of my vengeance at the last, +and provoke me to kill you? Away! and take these blind puppies +with you! Reckon me as much your enemy now as ever! And if I +meet you, be sure you will meet a foe! Begone, M. de Pavannes, +begone!" + +"But, M. de Bezers," Louis persisted, "hear me. It takes two +to--" + +"Begone! begone! before we do one another a mischief!" cried +the Vidame furiously. "Every word you say in that strain is an +injury to me. It robs me of my vengeance. Go! in God's name!" + +And we went; for there was no change, no promise of softening in +his malignant aspect as he spoke; nor any as he stood and watched +us draw off slowly from him. We went one by one, each lingering +after the other, striving, out of a natural desire to thank him, +to break through that stern reserve. But grim and unrelenting, a +picture of scorn to the last, he saw us go. + +My latest memory of that strange man--still fresh after a lapse +of two and fifty years--is of a huge form towering in the gloom +below the state canopy, the sunlight which poured in through the +windows and flooded us, falling short of him; of a pair of fierce +cross eyes, that seemed to glow as they covered us; of a lip that +curled as in the enjoyment of some cruel jest. And so I--and I +think each of us four saw the last of Raoul de Mar, Vidame de +Bezers, in this life. + +He was a man whom we cannot judge by to-day's standard; for he +was such an one in his vices and his virtues as the present day +does not know; one who in his time did immense evil--and if his +friends be believed, little good. But the evil is forgotten; the +good lives. And if all that good save one act were buried with +him, this one act alone, the act of a French gentleman, would be +told of him--ay! and will be told--as long as the kingdom of +France, and the gracious memory of the late king, shall endure. + +* * * * * * + +I see again by the simple process of shutting my eyes, the little +party of five--for Jean, our servant, had rejoined us--who on +that summer day rode over the hills to Caylus, threading the +mazes of the holm-oaks, and galloping down the rides, and +hallooing the hare from her form, but never pursuing her; +arousing the nestling farmhouses from their sleepy stillness by +joyous shout and laugh, and sniffing, as we climbed the hill-side +again, the scent of the ferns that died crushed under our horses' +hoofs--died only that they might add one little pleasure more to +the happiness God had given us. Rare and sweet indeed are those +few days in life, when it seems that all creation lives only that +we may have pleasure in it, and thank God for it. It is well +that we should make the most of them, as we surely did of that +day. + +It was nightfall when we reached the edge of the uplands, and +looked down on Caylus. The last rays of the sun lingered with +us, but the valley below was dark; so dark that even the rock +about which our homes clustered would have been invisible save +for the half-dozen lights that were beginning to twinkle into +being on its summit. A silence fell upon us as we slowly wended +our way down the well-known path. + +All day long we had ridden in great joy; if thoughtless, yet +innocent; if selfish, yet thankful; and always blithely, with a +great exultation and relief at heart, a great rejoicing for our +own sakes and for Kit's. + +Now with the nightfall and the darkness, now when we were near +our home, and on the eve of giving joy to another, we grew +silent. There arose other thoughts--thoughts of all that had +happened since we had last ascended that track; and so our minds +turned naturally back to him to whom we owed our happiness--to +the giant left behind in his pride and power and his loneliness. +The others could think of him with full hearts, yet without +shame. But I reddened, reflecting how it would have been with us +if I had had my way; if I had resorted in my shortsightedness to +one last violent, cowardly deed, and killed him, as I had twice +wished to do. + +Pavannes would then have been lost almost certainly. Only the +Vidame with his powerful troop--we never knew whether he had +gathered them for that purpose or merely with an eye to his +government--could have saved him. And few men however powerful-- +perhaps Bezers only of all men in Paris would have dared to +snatch him from the mob when once it had sighted him. I dwell on +this now that my grandchildren may take warning by it, though +never will they see such days as I have seen. + +And so we clattered up the steep street of Caylus with a pleasant +melancholy upon us, and passed, not without a more serious +thought, the gloomy, frowning portals, all barred and shuttered, +of the House of the Wolf, and under the very window, sombre and +vacant, from which Bezers had incited the rabble in their attack +on Pavannes' courier. We had gone by day, and we came back by +night. But we had gone trembling, and we came back in joy. + +We did not need to ring the great bell. Jean's cry, "Ho! Gate +there! Open for my lords!" had scarcely passed his lips before +we were admitted. And ere we could mount the ramp, one person +outran those who came forth to see what the matter was; one +outran Madame Claude, outran old Gil, outran the hurrying +servants, and the welcome of the house. I saw a slender figure +all in white break away from the little crowd and dart towards +us, disclosing as it reached me a face that seemed still whiter +than its robes, and yet a face that seemed all eyes--eyes that +asked the question the lips could not frame. + +I stood aside with a low bow, my hat in my hand; and said simply +--it was the great effect of my life--"VOILA Monsieur!" + +And then I saw the sun rise in a woman's face. + +* * * * * * + +The Vidame de Bezers died as he had lived. He was still Governor +of Cahors when Henry the Great attacked it on the night of the +17th of June, 1580. Taken by surprise and wounded in the first +confusion of the assault, he still defended himself and his +charge with desperate courage, fighting from street to street, +and house to house for five nights and as many days. While he +lived Henry's destiny and the fate of France trembled in the +balance. But he fell at length, his brain pierced by the ball of +an arquebuse, and died an hour before sunset on the 22nd of June. +The garrison immediately surrendered. + +Marie and I were present in this action on the side of the King +of Navarre, and at the request of that prince hastened to pay +such honours to the body of the Vidame as were due to his renown +and might serve to evince our gratitude. A year later his +remains were removed from Cahors, and laid where they now rest in +his own Abbey Church of Bezers, under a monument which very +briefly tells of his stormy life and his valour. No matter. He +has small need of a monument whose name lives in the history of +his country, and whose epitaph is written in the lives of men. + +NOTE.--THE CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF VIDAME DE BEZERS, AS THEY +APPEAR IN THE ABOVE MEMOIR FIND A PARALLEL IN AN ACCOUNT GIVEN BY +DE THOU OF ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE INCIDENTS IN THE MASSACRE +OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW: "AMID SUCH EXAMPLES," HE WRITES, "OF THE +FEROCITY OF THE CITY, A THING HAPPENED WORTHY TO BE RELATED, AND +WHICH MAY PERHAPS IN SOME DEGREE WEIGH AGAINST THESE ATROCITIES. +THERE WAS A DEADLY HATRED, WHICH UP TO THIS TIME THE INTERVENTION +OF THEIR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS HAD FAILED TO APPEASE, BETWEEN +TWO MEN--VEZINS, THE LIEUTENANT OF HONORATUS OF SAVOY, MARSHAL +VILLARS, A MAN NOTABLE AMONG THE NOBILITY OF THE PROVINCE FOR HIS +VALOUR, BUT OBNOXIOUS TO MANY OWING TO HIS BRUTAL DISPOSITION +(ferina natura), AND REGNIER, A YOUNG MAN OF LIKE RANK AND +VIGOUR, BUT OF MILDER CHARACTER. WHEN REGNIER THEN, IN THE +MIDDLE OF THAT GREAT UPROAR, DEATH MEETING HIS EYE EVERYWHERE, +WAS MAKING UP HIS MIND TO THE WORST, HIS DOOR WAS SUDDENLY BURST +OPEN, AND VEZINS, WITH TWO OTHER MEN, STOOD BEFORE HIM SWORD IN +HAND. UPON THIS REGNIER, ASSURED OF DEATH, KNELT DOWN AND ASKED +MERCY OF HEAVEN: BUT VEZINS IN A HARSH VOICE BID HIM RISE FROM +HIS PRAYERS AND MOUNT A PALFREY ALREADY STANDING READY IN THE +STREET FOR HIM. SO HE LED REGNIER--UNCERTAIN FOR THE TIME +WHITHER HE WAS BEING TAKEN--OUT OF THE CITY, AND PUT HIM ON HIS +HONOUR TO GO WITH HIM WITHOUT TRYING TO ESCAPE. AND TOGETHER, +WITHOUT PAUSING IN THEIR JOURNEY, THE TWO TRAVELLED ALL THE WAY +TO GUIENNE. DURING THIS TIME VEZINS HONOURED REGNIER WITH VERY +LITTLE CONVERSATION; BUT SO FAR CARED FOR HIM THAT FOOD WAS +PREPARED FOR HIM AT THE INNS BY HIS SERVANTS: AND SO THEY CAME +TO QUERCY AND THE CASTLE OF REGNIER. THERE VEZINS TURNED TO HIM +AND SAID, "YOU KNOW HOW I HAVE FOR A LONG TIME BACK SOUGHT TO +AVENGE MYSELF ON YOU, AND HOW EASILY I MIGHT NOW HAVE DONE IT TO +THE FULL, HAD I BEEN WILLING TO USE THIS OPPORTUNITY. BUT SHAME +WOULD NOT SUFFER IT; AND BESIDES, YOUR COURAGE SEEMED WORTHY TO +BE SET AGAINST MINE ON EVEN TERMS. TAKE THEREFORE THE LIFE WHICH +YOU OWE TO MY KINDNESS." WITH MUCH MORE WHICH THE CURIOUS WILL +FIND IN THE 2ND (FOLIO) VOLUME OF DE THOU. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext The House of the Wolf, by Stanley Weyman + |