diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:19:33 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:19:33 -0700 |
| commit | 2cbe51c72232d4aa818a6fb7c8123e3c3eb91dfe (patch) | |
| tree | 44300404dd45394a8b6d94a30c782de6be40057d | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2636-0.txt | 12194 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2636-0.zip | bin | 0 -> 239264 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2636-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 250685 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2636-h/2636-h.htm | 14482 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2636.txt | 12193 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2636.zip | bin | 0 -> 238573 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/hnits10.txt | 13450 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/hnits10.zip | bin | 0 -> 253170 bytes |
11 files changed, 52335 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2636-0.txt b/2636-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..41325d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/2636-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12194 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Historical Nights' Entertainment, by Rafael +Sabatini + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost +no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use +it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this +eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Historical Nights' Entertainment + +Author: Rafael Sabatini + +Release Date: December 22, 2008 [EBook #2636] +Last Updated: March 10, 2018 + +Last Updated: August 24, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer, and David Widger + + + + + + + + + +THE HISTORICAL NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT + +First Series + + +By Rafael Sabatini + + + + + +PREFACE + +In approaching “The Historical Nights' Entertainment” I set myself the +task of reconstructing, in the fullest possible detail and with all the +colour available from surviving records, a group of more or less famous +events. I would select for my purpose those which were in themselves +bizarre and resulting from the interplay of human passions, and whilst +relating each of these events in the form of a story, I would compel +that story scrupulously to follow the actual, recorded facts without +owing anything to fiction, and I would draw upon my imagination, if at +all, merely as one might employ colour to fill in the outlines which +history leaves grey, taking care that my colour should be as true to +nature as possible. For dialogue I would depend upon such scraps +of actual speech as were chronicled in each case, amplifying it by +translating into terms of speech the paraphrases of contemporary +chroniclers. + +Such was the task I set myself. I am aware that it has been attempted +once or twice already, beginning, perhaps, with the “Crimes Celebres” + of Alexandre Dumas. I am not aware that the attempt has ever succeeded. +This is not to say that I claim success in the essays that follow. How +nearly I may have approached success--judged by the standard I had set +myself--how far I may have fallen short, my readers will discern. I +am conscious, however, of having in the main dutifully resisted the +temptation to take the easier road, to break away from restricting fact +for the sake of achieving a more intriguing narrative. In one instance, +however, I have quite deliberately failed, and in some others I have +permitted myself certain speculations to resolve mysteries of which no +explanation has been discovered. Of these it is necessary that I should +make a full confession. + +My deliberate failure is “The Night of Nuptials.” I discovered an +allusion to the case of Charles the Bold and Sapphira Danvelt in +Macaulay's “History of England”--quoted from an old number of the +“Spectator”--whilst I was working upon the case of Lady Alice Lisle. +There a similar episode is mentioned as being related of Colonel Kirke, +but discredited because known for a story that has a trick of springing +up to attach itself to unscrupulous captains. I set out to track it to +its source, and having found its first appearance to be in connection +with Charles the Bold's German captain Rhynsault, I attempted to +reconstruct the event as it might have happened, setting it at least in +surroundings of solid fact. + +My most flagrant speculation occurs in “The Night of Hate.” But in +defence of it I can honestly say that it is at least no more flagrant +than the speculations on this subject that have become enshrined in +history as facts. In other words, I claim for my reconstruction of the +circumstances attending the mysterious death of Giovanni Borgia, Duke of +Gandia, that it no more lacks historical authority than do any other +of the explanatory narratives adopted by history to assign the guilt to +Gandia's brother, Cesare Borgia. + +In the “Cambridge Modern History” our most authoritative writers on this +epoch have definitely pronounced that there is no evidence acceptable +to historians to support the view current for four centuries that Cesare +Borgia was the murderer. + +Elsewhere I have dealt with this at length. Here let it suffice to say +that it was not until nine months after the deed that the name of Cesare +Borgia was first associated with it; that public opinion had in the mean +time assigned the guilt to a half-dozen others in succession; that no +motive for the crime is discoverable in the case of Cesare; that the +motives advanced will not bear examination, and that they bear on the +face of them the stamp of having been put forward hastily to support +an accusation unscrupulously political in purpose; that the first men +accused by the popular voice were the Cardinal Vice-Chancellor Ascanio +Sforza and his nephew Giovanni Sforza, Tyrant of Pesaro; and, finally, +that in Matarazzo's “Chronicles of Perugia” there is a fairly detailed +account of how the murder was perpetrated by the latter. + +Matarazzo, I confess, is worthy of no more credit than any other of the +contemporary reporters of common gossip. But at least he is worthy of no +less. And it is undeniable that in Sforza's case a strong motive for the +murder was not lacking. + +My narrative in “The Night of Hate” is admittedly a purely theoretical +account of the crime. But it is closely based upon all the known facts +of incidence and of character; and if there is nothing in the surviving +records that will absolutely support it, neither is there anything that +can absolutely refute it. + +In “The Night of Masquerade” I am guilty of quite arbitrarily +discovering a reason to explain the mystery of Baron Bjelke's sudden +change from the devoted friend and servant of Gustavus III of Sweden +into his most bitter enemy. That speculation is quite indefensible, +although affording a possible explanation of that mystery. In the case +of “The Night of Kirk o' Field,” on the other hand, I do not think any +apology is necessary for my reconstruction of the precise manner in +which Darnley met his death. The event has long been looked upon as one +of the mysteries of history--the mystery lying in the fact that whilst +the house at Kirk o' Field was destroyed by an explosion, Darnley's body +was found at some distance away, together with that of his page, bearing +every evidence of death by strangulation. The explanation I adopt seems +to me to owe little to speculation. + +In the story of Antonio Perez--“The Night of Betrayal”--I have permitted +myself fewer liberties with actual facts than might appear. I have +closely followed his own “Relacion,” which, whilst admittedly a piece +of special pleading, must remain the most authoritative document of the +events with which it deals. All that I have done has been to reverse +the values as Perez presents them, throwing the personal elements into +higher relief than the political ones, and laying particular stress upon +the matter of his relations with the Princess of Eboli. “The Night of +Betrayal” is presented in the form of a story within a story. Of the +containing story let me say that whilst to some extent it is fictitious, +it is by no means entirely so. There is enough to justify most of it in +the “Relaciori” itself. + +The exceptions mentioned being made, I hope it may be found that I have +adhered rigorously to my purpose of owing nothing to invention in my +attempt to flesh and clothe these few bones of history. + +I should add, perhaps, that where authorities differ as to motives, +where there is a conflict of evidence as to the facts themselves, or +where the facts admit of more than one interpretation, I have permitted +myself to be selective, and confined myself to a point of view adopted +at the outset. + +R. S. + +LONDON, August, 1917 + + + + + + + +Contents + +PREFACE + +THE HISTORICAL NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT + +I. THE NIGHT OF HOLYROOD--The Murder of David Rizzio II. THE NIGHT OF +KIRK O' FIELD--The Murder of Darnley III. THE NIGHT OF BETRAYAL--Antonio +Perez and Philip II of Spain IV. THE NIGHT OF CHARITY--The Case Of +The Lady Alice Lisle V. THE NIGHT OF MASSACRE--The Story Of The Saint +Bartholomew VI. THE NIGHT OF WITCHCRAFT--Louis XIV and Madame De +Montespan VII. THE NIGHT OF GEMS--The “Affairs” Of The Queen's Necklace +VIII. THE NIGHT OF TERROR--The Drownings At Nantes Under Carrier +IX. THE NIGHT OF NUPTIALS--Charles The Bold And Sapphira Danvelt X. THE +NIGHT OF STRANGLERS--Govanna Of Naples And Andreas Of Hungary XI. +THE NIGHT OF HATE--The Murder Of The Duke Of Gandia XII. THE NIGHT +OF ESCAPE--Casanova's Escape From The Piombi XIII. THE NIGHT OF +MASQUERADE--The Assassination Of Gustavus III Of Sweden + + + + + + +THE HISTORICAL NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT + + + + +I. THE NIGHT OF HOLYROOD--The Murder of David Rizzio + +The tragedy of my Lord Darnley's life lay in the fact that he was a +man born out of his proper station--a clown destined to kingship by the +accident of birth and fortune. By the blood royal flowing in his veins, +he could, failing others, have claimed succession to both the English +and the Scottish thrones, whilst by his marriage with Mary Stuart he +made a definite attempt to possess himself of that of Scotland. + +The Queen of Scots, enamoured for a season of the clean-limbed grace and +almost feminine beauty (“ladyfaced,” Melville had called him once) of +this “long lad of nineteen” who came a-wooing her, had soon discovered, +in matrimony, his vain, debauched, shiftless, and cowardly nature. She +had married him in July of 1565, and by Michaelmas she had come to know +him for just a lovely husk of a man, empty of heart or brain; and the +knowledge transmuted affection into contempt. + +Her natural brother, the Earl of Murray, had opposed the marriage, +chiefly upon the grounds that Darnley was a Catholic, and with Argyll, +Chatellerault, Glencairn, and a host of other Protestant lords, had +risen in arms against his sovereign and her consort. But Mary had chased +her rebel brother and his fellows over the border into England, and by +this very action, taken for the sake of her worthless husband, she sowed +the first seeds of discord between herself and him. It happened that +stout service had been rendered her in this affair by the arrogant +border ruffian, the Earl of Bothwell. Partly to reward him, partly +because of the confidence with which he inspired her, she bestowed +upon him the office of Lieutenant-General of the East, Middle, and West +Marches--an office which Darnley had sought for his father, Lennox. +That was the first and last concerted action of the royal couple. +Estrangement grew thereafter between them, and, in a measure, as it grew +so did Darnley's kingship, hardly established as yet--for the Queen had +still to redeem her pre-nuptial promise to confer upon him the crown +matrimonial--begin to dwindle. + +At first it had been “the King and Queen,” or “His Majesty and Hers”; +but by Christmas--five months after the wedding--Darnley was known +simply as “the Queen's husband,” and in all documents the Queen's name +now took precedence of his, whilst coins bearing their two heads, and +the legend “Hen. et Maria,” were called in and substituted by a new +coinage relegating him to the second place. + +Deeply affronted, and seeking anywhere but in himself and his own +shortcomings the cause of the Queen's now manifest hostility, he +presently conceived that he had found it in the influence exerted upon +her by the Seigneur Davie--that Piedmontese, David Rizzio, who had come +to the Scottish Court some four years ago as a starveling minstrel in +the train of Monsieur de Morette, the ambassador of Savoy. + +It was Rizzio's skill upon the rebec that had first attracted Mary's +attention. Later he had become her secretary for French affairs and the +young Queen, reared amid the elegancies of the Court of France, grew +attached to him as to a fellow-exile in the uncouth and turbulent land +over which a harsh destiny ordained that she should rule. Using his +opportunities and his subtle Italian intelligence, he had advanced so +rapidly that soon there was no man in Scotland who stood higher with +the Queen. When Maitland of Lethington was dismissed under suspicion of +favouring the exiled Protestant lords, the Seigneur Davie succeeded him +as her secretary; and now that Morton was under the same suspicion, it +was openly said that the Seigneur Davie would be made chancellor in his +stead. + +Thus the Seigneur Davie was become the most powerful man in Scotland, +and it is not to be dreamt that a dour, stiff-necked nobility would +suffer it without demur. They intrigued against him, putting it abroad, +amongst other things, that this foreign upstart was an emissary, of the +Pope's, scheming to overthrow the Protestant religion in Scotland. But +in the duel that followed their blunt Scotch wits were no match for his +Italian subtlety. Intrigue as they might his power remained unshaken. +And then, at last it began to be whispered that he owed his high favour +with the beautiful young Queen to other than his secretarial abilities, +so that Bedford wrote to Cecil: + +“What countenance the Queen shows David I will not write, for the honour +due to the person of a queen.” + +This bruit found credit--indeed, there have been ever since those who +have believed it--and, as it spread, it reached the ears of Darnley. +Because it afforded him an explanation of the Queen's hostility, since +he was without the introspection that would have discovered the true +explanation in his own shortcomings, he flung it as so much fuel upon +the seething fires of his rancour, and became the most implacable of +those who sought the ruin of Rizzio. + +He sent for Ruthven, the friend of Murray and the exiled lords--exiled, +remember, on Darnley's own account--and offered to procure the +reinstatement of those outlaws if they would avenge his honour and make +him King of Scots in something more than name. + +Ruthven, sick of a mortal illness, having risen from a bed of pain to +come in answer to that summons, listened dourly to the frothing speeches +of that silly, lovely boy. + +“No doubt you'll be right about yon fellow Davie,” he agreed sombrely, +and purposely he added things that must have outraged Darnley's every +feeling as king and as husband. Then he stated the terms on which +Darnley might count upon his aid. + +“Early next month Parliament is to meet over the business of a Bill +of Attainder against Murray and his friends, declaring them by their +rebellion to have forfeited life, land, and goods. Ye can see the power +with her o' this foreign fiddler, that it drives her so to attaint her +own brother. Murray has ever hated Davie, knowing too much of what lies +'twixt the Queen and him to her dishonour, and Master Davie thinks so to +make an end of Murray and his hatred.” + +Darnley clenched teeth and hands, tortured by the craftily administered +poison. + +“What then? What is to do?” he cried, + +Ruthven told him bluntly. + +“That Bill must never pass. Parliament must never meet to pass it. You +are Her Grace's husband and King of Scots.” + +“In name!” sneered Darnley bitterly. + +“The name will serve,” said Ruthven. “In that name ye'll sign me a bond +of formal remission to Murray and his friends for all their actions and +quarrels, permitting their safe return to Scotland, and charging the +lieges to convoy them safely. Do that and leave the rest to us.” + +If Darnley hesitated at all, it was not because he perceived the irony +of the situation--that he himself, in secret opposition to the Queen, +should sign the pardon of those who had rebelled against her precisely +because she had taken him to husband. He hesitated because indecision +was inherent in his nature. + +“And then?” he asked at last. + +Ruthven's blood-injected eyes considered him stonily out of a livid, +gleaming face. + +“Then, whether you reign with her or without her, reign you shall as +King o' Scots. I pledge myself to that, and I pledge those others, so +that we have the bond.” + +Darnley sat down to sign the death warrant of the Seigneur Davie. + +It was the night of Saturday, the 9th of March. + +A fire of pine logs burned fragrantly on the hearth of the small closet +adjoining the Queen's chamber, suffusing it with a sense of comfort, +the greater by contrast with the cheerlessness out of doors, where an +easterly wind swept down from Arthur's Seat and moaned its dismal way +over a snowclad world. + +The lovely, golden-headed young queen supped with a little company of +intimates: her natural sister, the Countess of Argyll, the Commendator +of Holyrood, Beaton, the Master of the Household, Arthur Erskine, the +Captain of the Guard, and one other--that, David Rizzio, who from an +errant minstrel had risen to this perilous eminence, a man of a swarthy, +ill-favoured countenance redeemed by the intelligence that glowed in +his dark eyes, and of a body so slight and fragile as to seem almost +misshapen. His age was not above thirty, yet indifferent health, early +privation, and misfortune had so set their mark upon him that he had +all the appearance of a man of fifty. He was dressed with sombre +magnificence, and a jewel of great price smouldered upon the middle +finger of one of his slender, delicate hands. + +Supper was at an end. The Queen lounged on a long seat over against the +tapestried wall. The Countess of Argyll, in a tall chair on the Queen's +left, sat with elbows on the table watching the Seigneur Davie's fine +fingers as they plucked softly at the strings of a long-necked lute. The +talk, which, intimate and untrammelled, had lately been of the child +of which Her Majesty was to be delivered some three months hence, was +flagging now, and it was to fill the gap that Rizzio had taken up the +lute. + +His harsh countenance was transfigured as he caressed the strings, his +soul absorbed in the theme of his inspiration. Very softly--indeed, no +more than tentatively as yet--he was beginning one of those wistful airs +in which his spirit survives in Scotland to this day, when suddenly the +expectant hush was broken by a clash of curtain-rings. The tapestries +that masked the door had been swept aside, and on the threshold, +unheralded, stood the tall, stripling figure of the young King. + +Darnley's appearance abruptly scattered the Italian's inspiration. The +melody broke off sharply on the single loud note of a string too rudely +plucked. + +That and the silence that followed it irked them all, conveying a sense +that here something had been broken which never could be made whole +again. + +Darnley shuffled forward. His handsome face was pale save for the two +burning spots upon his cheekbones, and his eyes glittered feveredly. He +had been drinking, so much was clear; and that he should seek the Queen +thus, who so seldom sought her sober, angered those intimates who had +come to share her well-founded dislike of him. King though he might be +in name, into such contempt was he fallen that not one of them rose +in deference, whilst Mary herself watched his approach with hostile, +mistrusting eyes. + +“What is it, my lord?” she asked him coldly, as he flung himself down on +the settle beside her. + +He leered at her, put an arm about her waist, pulled her to him, and +kissed her oafishly. + +None stirred. All eyes were upon them, and all faces blank. After all, +he was the King and she his wife. And then upon the silence, ominous +as the very steps of doom, came a ponderous, clanking tread from the +ante-room beyond. Again the curtains were thrust aside, and the Countess +of Argyll uttered a gasp of sudden fear at the grim spectre she beheld +there. It was a figure armed as for a tourney, in gleaming steel from +head to foot, girt with a sword, the right hand resting upon the hilt of +the heavy dagger in the girdle. The helmet's vizor was raised, revealing +the ghastly face of Ruthven--so ghastly that it must have seemed the +face of a dead man but for the blazing life in the eyes that scanned the +company. Those questing eyes went round the table, settled upon Rizzio, +and seemed horribly to smile. + +Startled, disquieted by this apparition, the Queen half rose, Darnley's +hindering arm still flung about her waist. + +“What's this?” she cried, her voice sharp. + +And then, as if she guessed intuitively what it might portend, she +considered her husband with pale-faced contempt. + +“Judas!” she called him, flung away from his detaining arm, and stood +forth to confront that man in steel. “What seek ye here, my lord--and in +this guise?” was her angry challenge. + +Ruthven's burning eyes fell away before her glance. He clanked forward a +step or two, flung out a mailed arm, and with a hand that shook pointed +to the Seigneur Davie, who stood blankly watching him. + +“I seek yon man,” he said gruffly. “Let him come forth.” + +“He is here by my will,” she told him, her anger mounting. “And so are +not you--for which you shall be made to answer.” + +Then to Darnley, who sat hunched on the settle: + +“What does this mean, sir?” she demanded. + +“Why--how should I know? Why--why, nothing,” he faltered foolishly. + +“Pray God that you are right,” said she, “for your own sake. And you,” + she continued, addressing Ruthven again and waving a hand in imperious +dismissal, “be you gone, and wait until I send for you, which I promise +you shall be right soon.” + +If she divined some of the evil of their purpose, if any fear assailed +her, yet she betrayed nothing of it. She was finely tempered steel. + +But Ruthven, sullen and menacing, stood his ground. + +“Let yon man come forth,” he repeated. “He has been here ower lang.” + +“Over long?” she echoed, betrayed by her quick resentment. + +“Aye, ower lang for the good o' Scotland and your husband,” was the +brutal answer. + +Erskine, of her guards, leapt to his feet. + +“Will you begone, sir?” he cried; and after him came Beaton and the +Commendator, both echoing the captain's threatening question. + +A smile overspread Ruthven's livid face. The heavy dagger flashed from +his belt. + +“My affair is not with any o' ye, but if ye thrust yersels too close +upon my notice--” + +The Queen stepped clear of the table to intervene, lest violence should +be done here in her presence. Rizzio, who had risen, stood now beside +her, watching all with a white, startled face. And then, before more +could be said, the curtains were torn away and half a score of men, +whose approach had passed unnoticed, poured into the room. First came +Morton, the Chancellor, who was to be dispossessed of the great seal +in Rizzio's favour. After him followed the brutal Lindsay of the Byres, +Kerr of Faudonside, black-browed Brunston, red-headed Douglas, and a +half-dozen others. + +Confusion ensued; the three men of the Queen's household were instantly +surrounded and overpowered. In the brief, sharp struggle the table was +overturned, and all would have been in darkness but that as the table +went over the Countess of Argyll had snatched up the candle-branch, and +stood now holding it aloft to light that extraordinary scene. Rizzio, to +whom the sight of Morton had been as the removal of his last illusion, +flung himself upon his knees before the Queen. Frail and feeble of body, +and never a man of his hands, he was hopelessly unequal to the occasion. + +“Justice, madame!” he cried. “Faites justice! Sauvez ma vie!” + +Fearlessly, she stepped between him and the advancing horde of +murderers, making of her body a buckler for his protection. White +of face, with heaving bosom and eyes like two glowing sapphires, she +confronted them. + +“Back, on your lives!” she bade them. + +But they were lost to all sense of reverence, even to all sense of +decency, in their blind rage against this foreign upstart who had +trampled their Scottish vanity in the dust. George Douglas, without +regard for her condition either as queen or woman--and a woman almost +upon the threshold of motherhood--clapped a pistol to her breast and +roughly bade her stand aside. + +Undaunted, she looked at him with eyes that froze his trigger-finger, +whilst behind her Rizzio grovelled in his terror, clutching her +petticoat. Thus, until suddenly she was seized about the waist and half +dragged, half-lifted aside by Darnley, who at the same time spurned +Rizzio forward with his foot. + +The murderers swooped down upon their prey. Kerr of Faudonside flung +a noose about his body, and drew it tight with a jerk that pulled the +secretary from his knees. Then he and Morton took the rope between +them, and so dragged their victim across the room towards the door. +He struggled blindly as he went, vainly clutching first at an overset +chair, then at a leg of the table, and screeching piteously the while +to the Queen to save him. And Mary, trembling with passion, herself +struggling in the arms of Darnley, flung an angry warning after them. + +“If Davie's blood be spilt, it shall be dear blood to some of you! +Remember that, sirs!” + +But they were beyond control by now, hounds unleashed upon the quarry of +their hate. Out of her presence Morton and Douglas dragged him, the rest +of the baying pack going after them. They dragged him, screeching still, +across the ante-chamber to the head of the great stairs, and there they +fell on him all together, and so wildly that they wounded one another +in their fury to rend him into pieces. The tattered body, gushing blood +from six-and-fifty wounds, was hurled from top to bottom of the stairs, +with a gold-hilted dagger--Darnley's, in token of his participation in +the deed--still sticking in his breast. + +Ruthven stood forward from the group, his reeking poniard clutched in +his right hand, a grin distorting his ghastly, vulturine face. Then he +stalked back alone into the royal presence, dragging his feet a little, +like a man who is weary. + +He found the room much as he had left it, save that the Queen had sunk +back to her seat on the settle, and Darnley was now standing over her, +whilst her people were still hemmed about by his own men. Without a “by +your leave,” he flung himself into a chair and called hoarsely for a cup +of wine. + +Mary's white face frowned at him across the room. + +“You shall yet drink the wine that I shall pour you for this night's +work, my lord, and for this insolence! Who gave you leave to sit before +me?” + +He waved a hand as if to dismiss the matter. It may have seemed to him +frivolous to dwell upon such a trifle amid so much. + +“It's no' frae lack o' respect, Your Grace,” he growled, “but frae lack +o' strength. I am ill, and I should ha' been abed but for what was here +to do.” + +“Ah!” She looked at him with cold repugnance. “What have you done with +Davie?” + +He shrugged, yet his eyes quailed before her own. + +“He'll be out yonder,” he answered, grimly evasive; and he took the wine +one of his followers proffered him. + +“Go see,” she bade the Countess. + +And the Countess, setting the candle-branch upon the buffet, went out, +none attempting to hinder her. + +Then, with narrowed eyes, the Queen watched Ruthven while he drank. + +“It will be for the sake of Murray and his friends that you do this,” + she said slowly. “Tell me, my lord, what great kindness is there between +Murray and you that, to save him from forfeiture, you run the risk of +being forfeited with him?” + +“What I have done,” he said, “I have done for others, and under a bond +that shall hold me scatheless.” + +“Under a bond?” said she, and now she looked up at Darnley, standing +ever at her side. “And was the bond yours, my lord?” + +“Me?” He started back. “I know naught of it.” + +But as he moved she saw something else. She leaned forward, pointing to +the empty sheath at his girdle. + +“Where is your dagger, my lord?” she asked him sharply. + +“My dagger? Ha! How should I know?” + +“But I shall know!” she threatened, as if she were not virtually a +prisoner in the hands of these violent men who had invaded her palace +and dragged Rizzio from her side. “I shall not rest until I know!” + +The Countess came in, white to the lips, bearing in her eyes something +of the horror she had beheld. + +“What is it?” Mary asked her, her voice suddenly hushed and faltering. + +“Madame--he is dead! Murdered!” she announced. + +The Queen looked at her, her face of marble. Then her voice came hushed +and tense: + +“Are--you sure?” + +“Myself I saw his body, madame.” + +There was a long pause. A low moan escaped the Queen, and her lovely +eyes were filled with tears; slowly these coursed down her cheeks. +Something compelling in her grief hushed every voice, and the craven +husband at her side shivered as her glance fell upon him once more. + +“And is it so?” she said at length, considering him. She dried her eyes. +“Then farewell tears; I must study revenge.” She rose as if with labour, +and standing, clung a moment to the table's edge. A moment she looked at +Ruthven, who sat glooming there, dagger in one hand and empty wine-cup +in the other; then her glance passed on, and came to rest balefully +on Darnley's face. “You have had your will, my lord,” she said, “but +consider well what I now say. Consider and remember. I shall never rest +until I give you as sore a heart as I have presently.” + +That said she staggered forward. The Countess hastened to her, and +leaning upon her arm, Mary passed through the little door of the closet +into her chamber. + +That night the common bell was rung, and Edinburgh roused in alarm. +Bothwell, Huntly, Atholl, and others who were at Holyrood when Rizzio +was murdered, finding it impossible to go to the Queen's assistance, and +fearing to share the secretary's fate--for the palace was a-swarm with +the murderers' men-at-arms--had escaped by one of the windows. The alarm +they spread in Edinburgh brought the provost and townsmen in arms to the +palace by torchlight, demanding to see the Queen, and refusing to depart +until Darnley had shown himself and assured them that all was well +with the Queen and with himself. And what time Darnley gave them this +reassurance from a window of her room, Mary herself stood pale and taut +amid the brutal horde that on this alarm had violated the privacy of her +chamber, while the ruffianly Red Douglas flashed his dagger before her +eyes, swearing that if she made a sound they would cut her into collops. + +When at last they withdrew and left her to herself, they left her +no illusions as to her true condition. She was a prisoner in her own +palace. The ante-rooms and courts were thronged with the soldiers of +Morton and Ruthven, the palace itself was hemmed about, and none might +come or go save at the good pleasure of the murderers. + +At last Darnley grasped the authority he had coveted. He dictated +forthwith a proclamation which was read next morning at Edinburgh Market +Cross--commanding that the nobles who had assembled in Edinburgh to +compose the Parliament that was to pass the Bill of Attainder should +quit the city within three hours, under pain of treason and forfeiture. + +And meanwhile, with poor Rizzio's last cry of “justice!” still ringing +in her ears, Mary sat alone in her chamber, studying revenge as she +had promised. So that life be spared her, justice, she vowed, should +be done--punishment not only for that barbarous deed, but for the very +manner of the doing of it, for all the insult to which she had been +subjected, for the monstrous violence done her feelings and her very +person, for the present detention and peril of which she was full +conscious. + +Her anger was the more intense because she never permitted it to diffuse +itself over the several offenders. Ruthven, who had insulted her so +grossly; Douglas, who had offered her personal violence; the Laird +of Faudonside, Morton, and all the others who held her now a helpless +prisoner, she hew for no more than the instruments of Darnley. It was +against Darnley that all her rage was concentrated. She recalled in +those bitter hours all that she had suffered at his vile hands, and +swore that at whatever cost to herself he should yield a full atonement. + +He sought her in the morning emboldened by the sovereign power he +was usurping confident that now that he showed himself master of the +situation she would not repine over what was done beyond recall, but +would submit to the inevitable, be reconciled with him, and grant him, +perforce--supported as he now was by the rebellious lords--the crown +matrimonial and the full kingly power he coveted. + +But her reception of him broke that confidence into shards. + +“You have done me such a Wrong,” she told him in a voice of cold hatred, +“that neither the recollection of our early friendship, nor all the hope +you can give me of the future, could ever make me forget it. Jamais! +Jamais je n'oublierai!” she added, and upon that she dismissed him so +imperiously that he went at once. + +She sought a way to deal with him, groped blindly for it, being as yet +but half informed of what was taking place; and whilst she groped, the +thing she sought was suddenly thrust into her land. Mary Beaton, one of +the few attendants left her, brought her word later that day that the +Earl of Murray, with Rothes and some other of the exiled lords, was +in the palace. The news brought revelation. It flooded with light +the tragic happening of the night before, showed her how Darnley was +building himself a party in the state. It did more than that. She +recalled the erstwhile mutual hatred and mistrust of Murray and Darnley, +and saw how it might serve her in this emergency. + +Instantly she summoned Murray to her presence with the message that +she welcomed his return. Yet, despite that message, he hardly +expected--considering what lay between them--the reception that awaited +him at her hands. + +She rose to receive him, her lovely eyes suffused with tears. She +embraced him, kissed him, and then, nestling to him, as if for comfort, +her cheek against his bearded face, she allowed her tears to flow +unchecked. + +“I am punished,” she sobbed--“oh, I am punished! Had I kept you at home, +Murray, you would never have suffered men to entreat me as I have been +entreated.” + +Holding her to hin, he could but pat her shoulder, soothing her, utterly +taken aback, and deeply moved, too, by this display of an affection for +him that he had never hitherto suspected in her. + +“Ah, mon Dieu, Jamie, how welcome you are to one in my sorrow!” she +continued. “It is the fault of others that you have been so long out of +the country. I but require of you that you be a good subject to me, and +you shall never find me other to you than you deserve.” + +And he, shaken to the depths of his selfish soul by her tears, her +clinging caresses, and her protestations of affection, answered with +an oath and a sob that no better or more loyal and devoted subject than +himself could all Scotland yield her. + +“And, as for this killing of Davie,” he ended vehemently, “I swear by my +soul's salvation that I have had no part in it, nor any knowledge of it +until my return!” + +“I know--I know!” she moaned. “Should I make you welcome, else? Be my +friend, Jamie; be my friend!” + +He swore it readily, for he was very greedy of power, and saw the door +of his return to it opening wider than he could have hoped. Then he +spoke of Darnley, begging her to receive him, and hear what he might +have to say, protesting that the King swore that he had not desired the +murder, and that the lords had carried the matter out of his hands and +much beyond all that he had intended. + +Because it suited her deep purpose, Mary consented, feigning to be +persuaded. She had realized that before she could deal with Darnley, and +the rebel lords who held her a prisoner, she must first win free from +Holyrood. + +Darnley came. He was sullen now, mindful of his recent treatment, and in +fear--notwithstanding Murray's reassurance--of further similar rebuffs. +She announced herself ready to hear what he might have to say, and she +listened attentively while he spoke, her elbow on the carved arm of her +chair, her chin in her hand. When he had done, she sat long in thought, +gazing out through the window at the grey March sky. At length she +turned and looked at him. + +“Do you pretend, my lord, to regret for what has passed?” she challenged +him. + +“You tempt me to hypocrisy,” he said. “Yet I will be frank as at an +Easter shrift. Since that fellow Davie fell into credit and familiarity +with Your Majesty, you no longer treated me nor entertained me after +your wonted fashion, nor would you ever bear me company save this Davie +were the third. Can I pretend, then, to regret that one who deprived +me of what I prized most highly upon earth should have been removed? I +cannot. Yet I can and do proclaim my innocence of any part or share in +the deed that has removed him.” + +She lowered her eyes an instant, then raised them again to meet his own. + +“You had commerce with these traitor lords,” she reminded him. “It is +by your decree that they are returned from exile. What was your aim in +this?” + +“To win back the things of which this fellow Davie had robbed me, a +share in the ruling and the crown matrimonial that was my right, yet +which you denied me. That and no more. I had not intended that Davie +should be slain. I had not measured the depth of their hatred of that +upstart knave. You see that I am frank with you.” + +“Aye, and I believe you,” she lied slowly, considering him as she spoke. +And he drew a breath of relief, suspecting nothing of her deep guile. +“And do you know why I believe you? Because you are a fool.” + +“Madame!” he cried. + +She rose, magnificently contemptuous. + +“Must I prove it? You say that the crown matrimonial which I denied +you is to be conferred on you by these lawless men? Believing that, you +signed their pardon and recall from exile. Ha! You do not see, my lord, +that you are no more than their tool, their cat's-paw. You do not see +that they use you but for their ends, and that when they have done with +you, they will serve you as they served poor Davie? No, you see none of +that, which is why I call you a fool, that need a woman's wit to open +wide your eyes.” + +She was so vehement that she forced upon his dull wits some of +the convictions she pretended were her own. Yet, resisting those +convictions, he cried out that she was at fault. + +“At fault?” She laughed. “Let my memory inform your judgment. When these +lords, with Murray at their head, protested against our marriage, in +what terms did they frame their protest? They complained that I had set +over them without consulting them one who had no title to it, whether +by lineal descent of blood, by nature, or by consent of the Estates. +Consider that! They added, remember--I repeat to you the very words +they wrote and published--that while they deemed it their duty to endure +under me, they deemed it intolerable to suffer under you.” + +She was flushed, and her eyes gleamed with excitement. She clutched +his sleeve, and brought her face close to his own, looked deep and +compellingly into his eyes as she continued: + +“Such was their proclamation, and they took arms against me to enforce +it, to pull you down from the place to which I had raised you out of the +dust. Yet you can forget it, and in your purblind folly turn to these +very men to right the wrongs you fancy I have done you. Do you think +that men, holding you in such esteem as that, can keep any sort of faith +with you? Do you think these are the men who are likely to fortify +and maintain your title to the crown? Ask yourself, and answer for +yourself.” + +He was white to the lips. As much by her vehement pretence of sincerity +as by the apparently irrefragable logic of her arguments, she forced +conviction upon him. This brought a loathly fear in its train, and the +gates of his heart stood ever wide to fear. He stepped aside to a chair, +and sank into it, looking at her with dilating eyes--a fool confronted +with the likely fruits of his folly. + +“Then--then--why did they proffer me their help? How can they achieve +their ends this way?” + +“How? Do you still ask? Do you not see what a blind tool you have been +in their crafty hands? In name at least you are king, and your signature +is binding upon my subjects. Have you not brought them back from exile +by one royal decree, whilst by another you have dispersed the Parliament +that was assembled to attaint them of treason?” + +She stepped close up to him, and bending over him as he sat there, +crushed by realization, she lowered her voice. + +“Pray God, my lord, that all their purpose with you is not yet complete, +else in their hands I do not think your life is to be valued at an +apple-paring. You go the ways poor Davie went.” + +He sank his handsome head to his hands, and covered his face. A while +he sat huddled there, she watching him with gleaming, crafty eyes. At +length he rallied. He looked up, tossing back the auburn hair from his +white brow, still fighting, though weakly, against persuasion. “It is +not possible,” he, cried. “They could not! They could not!” + +She laughed, betwixt bitterness and sadness. + +“Trust to that,” she bade him. “Yet look well at matters as they are +already. I am a prisoner here in these men's hands. They will not let +me go until their full purpose is accomplished--perhaps,” she added +wistfully, “perhaps not even then.” + +“Ah, not that!” he cried out. + +“Even that,” she answered firmly. “But,” and again she grew vehement, +“is it less so with you? Are you less a prisoner than I? D'ye think you +will be suffered to come and go at will?” She saw the increase of fear +in him, and then she struck boldly, setting all upon the gamble of a +guess. “I am kept here until I shall have been brought to such a state +that I will add my signature to your own and so pardon one and all for +what is done.” + +His sudden start, the sudden quickening of his glance told her how +shrewdly she had struck home. Fearlessly, then, sure of herself, she +continued. “To that end they use you. When you shall have served it you +will but cumber them. When they shall have used you to procure their +security from me, then they will deal with you as they have ever sought +to deal with you--so that you trouble them no more. Ah, at last you +understand!” + +He came to his feet, his brow gleaming with sweat, his slender hands +nervously interlocked. + +“Oh, God!” he cried in a stifled voice. + +“Aye, you are in a trap, my lord. Yourself you've sprung it.” + +And now you behold him broken by the terror she had so cunningly evoked. +He flung himself upon his knees before her, and with upturned face and +hands that caught and clawed at her own, he implored her pardon for +the wrong that in his folly he had done her in taking sides with her +enemies. + +She dissembled under a mask of gentleness the loathing that his +cowardice aroused in her. + +“My enemies?” she echoed wistfully. “Say rather your own enemies. It +was their enmity to you that drove them into exile. In your rashness you +have recalled them, whilst at the same time you have so bound my hands +that I cannot now help you if I would.” + +“You can, Mary,” he cried, “or else no one can. Withhold the pardon they +will presently be seeking of you. Refuse to sign any remission of their +deed.” + +“And leave them to force you to sign it, and so destroy us both,” she +answered. + +He ranted then, invoking the saints of heaven, and imploring her in +their name--she who was so wise and strong--to discover some way out of +this tangle in which his madness had enmeshed them. + +“What way is there short of flight?” she asked him. “And how are we to +fly who are imprisoned here you as well as myself? Alas, Darnley, I fear +our lives will end by paying the price of your folly.” + +Thus she played upon his terrors, so that he would not be dismissed +until she had promised that she would consider and seek some means of +saving him, enjoining him meanwhile to keep strict watch upon himself +and see that he betrayed nothing of his thoughts. + +She left him to the chastening of a sleepless night, then sent for him +betimes on Monday morning, and bade him repair to the lords and tell +them that realizing herself a prisoner in their hands she was disposed +to make terms with them. She would grant them pardon for what was done +if on their side they undertook to be loyal henceforth and allowed her +to resume her liberty. + +The message startled him. But the smile with which she followed it was +reassuring. + +“There is something else you are to do,” she said, “if we are to turn +the tables on these traitorous gentlemen. Listen.” And she added matter +that begat fresh hope in Darnley's despairing soul. + +He kissed her hands, lowly now and obedient as a hound that had been +whipped to heel, and went below to bear her message to the lords. + +Morton and Ruthven heard him out, but betrayed no eagerness to seize the +opportunity. + +“All this is but words that we hear,” growled Ruthven, who lay stretched +upon a couch, grimly suffering from the disease that was, slowly eating +up his life. + +“She is guileful as the serpent,” Morton added, “being bred up in the +Court of France. She will make you follow her will and desire, but she +will not so lead us. We hold her fast, and we do not let her go without +some good security of what shall follow.” + +“What security will satisfy you?” quoth Darnley. + +Murray and Lindsay came in as he was speaking, and Morton told them of +the message that Darnley had brought. Murray moved heavily across to a +window-seat, and sat down. He cleared a windowpane with his hand, and +looked out upon the wintry landscape as if the matter had no interest +for him. But Lindsay echoed what the other twain had said already. + +“We want a deal more than promises that need not be kept,” he said. + +Darnley looked from one to the other of them, seeing in their +uncompromising attitude a confirmation of what the Queen had told him, +and noting, too--as at another time he might not have noted--their utter +lack of deference to himself, their King. + +“Sirs,” he said, “I vow you wrong Her Majesty. I will stake my life upon +her honour.” + +“Why, so you may,” sneered Ruthven, “but you'll not stake ours.” + +“Take what security you please, and I will subscribe it.” + +“Aye, but will the Queen?” wondered Morton. + +“She will. I have her word for it.” + +It took them the whole of that day to consider the terms of the articles +that would satisfy them. Towards evening the document was ready, +and Morton and Ruthven representing all, accompanied by Murray, and +introduced by Darnley, came to the chamber to which Her Majesty was +confined by the guard they had set upon her. + +She sat as if in state awaiting them, very lovely and very tearful, +knowing that woman's greatest strength is in her weakness, that tears +would serve her best by presenting her as if broken to their will. + +In outward submission they knelt before her to make the pretence of +suing for the pardon which they extorted by force of arms and duress. +When each in his turn had made the brief pleading oration he had +prepared, she dried her eyes and controlled herself by obvious effort. + +“My lords,” she said, in a voice that quivered and broke on every other +word, “when have ye ever found me blood-thirsty, or greedy of your lands +or goods that you must use me so, and take such means with me? Ye have +set my authority at naught, and wrought sedition in this realm. Yet I +forgive you all, that by this clemency I may move you to a better love +and loyalty. I desire that all that is passed may be buried in oblivion, +so that you swear to me that in the future you will stand my friends and +serve me faithfully, who am but a weak woman, and sorely need stout men +to be my friends.” + +For a moment her utterance was checked by sobs. Then she controlled +herself again by an effort so piteous to behold that even the +flinty-hearted Ruthven was moved to some compassion. + +“Forgive this weakness in me, who am very weak, for very soon I am to be +brought to bed as you well know, and I am in no case to offer resistance +to any. I have no more to say, my lords. Since you promise on your side +that you will put all disloyalty behind you, I pledge myself to remit +and pardon all those that were banished for their share in the late +rising, and likewise to pardon those that were concerned in the killing +of Seigneur Davie. All this shall be as if it had never been. I pray +you, my lords, make your own security in what sort you best please, and +I will subscribe it.” + +Morton proffered her the document they had prepared. She conned it +slowly, what time they watched her, pausing ever and anon to brush aside +the tears that blurred her vision. At last she nodded her lovely golden +head. + +“It is very well,” she said. “All is here as I would have it be between +us.” And she turned to Darnley. “Give me pen and ink, my lord.” + +Darnley dipped a quill and handed it to her. She set the parchment +on the little pulpit at her side. Then, as she bent to sign, the pen +fluttered from her fingers, and with a deep, shuddering sigh she sank +back in her chair, her eyes closed, her face piteously white. + +“The Queen is faint!” cried Murray, springing forward. + +But she rallied instantly, smiling upon them wanly. + +“It is naught; it is past,” she said. But even as she spoke she put a +hand to her brow. “I am something dizzy. My condition--” She faltered on +a trembling note of appeal that increased their compassion, and aroused +in them a shame of their own harshness. “Leave this security with me. I +will subscribe it in the morning--indeed, as soon as I am sufficiently +recovered.” + +They rose from their knees at her bidding, and Morton in the name of all +professed himself full satisfied, and deplored the affliction they had +caused her, for which in the future they should make her their amends. + +“I thank you,” she answered simply. “You have leave to go.” + +They departed well satisfied; and, counting the matter at an end, they +quitted the palace and rode to their various lodgings in Edinburgh town, +Murray going with Morton. + +Anon to Maitland of Lethington, who had remained behind, came one of +the Queen's women to summon him to her presence. He found her disposing +herself for bed, and was received by her with tearful upbraidings. + +“Sir,” she said, “one of the conditions upon which I consented to the +will of their lordships was that an immediate term should be set to the +insulting state of imprisonment in which I am kept here. Yet men-at-arms +still guard the very door of my chamber, and my very attendants are +hindered in their comings and goings. Do you call this keeping faith +with me? Have I not granted all the requests of the lords?” + +Lethington, perceiving the justice of what she urged, withdrew shamed +and confused at once to remedy the matter by removing the guards from +the passage and the stairs and elsewhere, leaving none but those who +paced outside the palace. + +It was a rashness he was bitterly to repent him on the morrow, when +it was discovered that in the night Mary had not only escaped, but had +taken Darnley with her. Accompanied by him and a few attendants, she had +executed the plan in which earlier that day she had secured her scared +husband's cooperation. At midnight they had made their way along the now +unguarded corridors, and descended to the vaults of the palace, whence a +secret passage communicated with the chapel. Through this and across the +graveyard where lay the newly buried body of the Siegneur Davie--almost +across the very grave itself which stood near the chapel door they had +won to the horses waiting by Darnley's orders in the open. And they had +ridden so hard that by five o'clock of that Tuesday morning they were in +Dunbar. + +In vain did the alarmed lords send a message after her to demand her +signature of the security upon which she had duped them into counting +prematurely. + +Within a week they were in full flight before the army at the head of +which the prisoner who had slipped through their hands was returning +to destroy them. Too late did they perceive the arts by which she had +fooled them, and seduced the shallow Darnley to betray them. + + + + + + +II. THE NIGHT OF KIRK O' FIELD--The Murder of Darnley + +Perhaps one of the greatest mistakes of a lifetime in which mistakes +were plentiful was the hesitancy of the Queen of Scots in executing upon +her husband Darnley the prompt vengeance she had sworn for the murder of +David Rizzio. + +When Rizzio was slain, and she herself held captive by the murderers in +her Palace of Holyrood, whilst Darnley ruled as king, she had simulated +belief in her husband's innocence that she might use him for her +vengeful ends. + +She had played so craftily upon his cowardly nature as to convince +him that Morton, Ruthven, and the other traitor lords with whom he had +leagued himself were at heart his own implacable enemies; that they +pretended friendship for him to make a tool of him, and that when he had +served their turn they would destroy him. + +In his consequent terror he had betrayed his associates, assisting her +to trick them by a promise to sign an act of oblivion for what was +done. Trusting to this the lords had relaxed their vigilance, whereupon, +accompanied by Darnley, she had escaped by night from Holyrood. + +Hope tempering at first the rage and chagrin in the hearts of the lords +she had duped, they had sent a messenger to her at Dunbar to request +of her the fulfilment of her promise to sign the document of their +security. + +But Mary put off the messenger, and whilst the army she had summoned +was hastily assembling, she used her craft to divide the rebels against +themselves. + +To her natural brother, the Earl of Murray, to Argyll, and to all those +who had been exiled for their rebellion at the time of her marriage--and +who knew not where they stood in the present turn of events, since +one of the objects of the murder had been to procure their +reinstatement--she sent an offer of complete pardon, on condition that +they should at once dissociate themselves from those concerned in the +death of the Seigneur Davie. + +These terms they accepted thankfully, as well they might. Thereupon, +finding themselves abandoned by all men--even by Darnley in whose +service they had engaged in the murder--Morton, Ruthven, and their +associates scattered and fled. + +By the end of that month of March, Morton, Ruthven, Lindsay of the +Byres, George Douglas, and some sixty others were denounced as rebels +with forfeiture of life and goods, while one Thomas Scott, who had been +in command of the guards that had kept Her Majesty prisoner at Holyrood, +was hanged, drawn, and quartered at the Market Cross. + +News of this reached the fugitives to increase their desperate rage. +But what drove the iron into the soul of the arch-murderer Ruthven +was Darnley's solemn public declaration denying all knowledge of or +complicity in Rizzio's assassination; nor did it soothe his fury to know +that all Scotland rang with contemptuous laughter at that impudent and +cowardly perjury. From his sick-bed at Newcastle, whereon some six weeks +later he was to breathe his last, the forsaken wretch replied to it by +sending the Queen the bond to which he had demanded Darnley's signature +before embarking upon the business. + +It was a damning document. There above the plain signature and seal of +the King was the admission, not merely of complicity, but that the thing +was done by his express will and command, that the responsibility +was his own, and that he would hold the doers scatheless from all +consequences. + +Mary could scarcely have hoped to be able to confront her worthless +husband with so complete a proof of his duplicity and baseness. She sent +for him, confounded him with the sight of that appalling bond, made an +end to the amity which for her own ends she had pretended, and drove him +out of her presence with a fury before which he dared not linger. + +You see him, then, crushed under his load of mortification, realizing at +last how he had been duped on every hand, first by the lords for their +own purpose, and then by the Queen for hers. Her contempt of him was now +so manifest that it spread to all who served him--for she made it plain +that who showed him friendship earned her deep displeasure--so that +he was forced to withdraw from a Court where his life was become +impossible. For a while he wandered up and down a land where every door +was shut in his face, where every man of whatsoever party, traitor or +true, despised him alike. In the end, he took himself off to his father, +Lennox, and at Glasgow he sought what amusement he could with his dogs +and his hawks, and such odd vulgar rustic love-affairs as came his way. + +It was in allowing him thus to go his ways, in leaving her +vengeance--indeed, her justice--but half accomplished, that lay the +greatest of the Queen's mistakes. Better for her had she taken with +Darnley the direct way that was her right. Better for her, if acting +strongly then, she had banished or hanged him for his part in the +treason that had inspired the murder of Rizzio. Unfortunately, a factor +that served to quicken her abhorrence of him served also to set a curb +of caution upon the satisfaction of it. + +This factor that came so inopportunely into her life was her regard for +the arrogant, unscrupulous Earl of Bothwell. Her hand was stayed by fear +that men should say that for Bothwell's sake she had rid herself of a +husband become troublesome. That Bothwell had been her friend in the +hour when she had needed friends, and knew not whom she might trust; +that by his masterfulness he seemed a man upon whom a woman might lean +with confidence, may account for the beginnings of the extraordinary +influence he came so swiftly to exercise over her, and the passion he +awakened in her to such a degree that she was unable to dissemble it. + +Her regard for him, the more flagrant by contrast with her contempt for +Darnley, is betrayed in the will she made before her confinement in +the following June. Whilst to Darnley she bequeathed nothing but the +red-enamelled diamond ring with which he had married her--“It was with +this that I was married,” she wrote almost contemptuously. “I leave it +to the King who gave it me”--she appointed Bothwell to the tutelage of +her child in the event of her not surviving it, and to the government of +the realm. + +The King came to visit her during her convalescence, and was scowled +upon by Murray and Argyll, who were at Holyrood, and most of all +by Bothwell, whose arrogance by now was such that he was become the +best-hated man in Scotland. The Queen received him very coldly, whilst +using Bothwell more than cordially in his very presence, so that he +departed again in a deeper humiliation than before. + +Then before the end of July there was her sudden visit to Bothwell +at Alloa, which gave rise to so much scandal. Hearing of it, Darnley +followed in a vain attempt to assert his rights as king and husband, +only to be flouted and dismissed with the conviction that his life was +no longer safe in Scotland, and that he had best cross the Border. +Yet, to his undoing, detained perhaps by the overweening pride that +is usually part of a fool's equipment, he did not act upon that wise +resolve. He returned instead to his hawking and his hunting, and was +seldom seen at Court thereafter. + +Even when in the following October, Mary lay at the point of death at +Jedburgh, Darnley came but to stay a day, and left her again without any +assurance that she would recover. But then the facts of her illness, and +how it had been contracted, were not such as to encourage kindness in +him, even had he been inclined to kindness. + +Bothwell had taken three wounds in a Border affray some weeks before, +and Mary, hearing of this and that he lay in grievous case at Hermitage, +had ridden thither in her fond solicitude--a distance of thirty +miles--and back again in the same day, thus contracting a chill which +had brought her to the very gates of death. + +Darnley had not only heard of this, but he had found Bothwell at +Jedburgh, whither he had been borne in a litter, when in his turn he had +heard of how it was with Mary; and Bothwell had treated him with more +than the contempt which all men now showed him, but which from none +could wound him so deeply as from this man whom rumour accounted Mary's +lover. + +Matters between husband and wife were thus come to a pass in which they +could not continue, as all men saw, and as she herself confessed at +Craigmillar, whither she repaired, still weak in body, towards the end +of November. + +Over a great fire that blazed in a vast chamber of the castle she sat +sick at heart and shivering, for all that her wasted body was swathed in +a long cloak of deepest purple reversed with ermine. Her face was thin +and of a transparent pallor, her eyes great pools of wistfulness amid +the shadows which her illness had set about them. + +“I do wish I could be dead!” she sighed. + +Bothwell's eyes narrowed. He was leaning on the back of her tall chair, +a long, virile figure with a hawk-nosed, bearded face that was sternly +handsome. He thrust back the crisp dark hair that clustered about his +brow, and fetched a sigh. + +“It was never my own death I wished when a man stood in my road to aught +I craved,” he said, lowering his voice, for Maitland of Lethington--now +restored to his secretaryship--was writing at a table across the room, +and my Lord of Argyll was leaning over him. + +She looked up at him suddenly, her eyes startled. + +“What devil's counsel do you whisper?” she asked him. And when he would +have answered, she raised a hand. “No,” she said. “Not that way.” + +“There is another,” said Bothwell coolly. He moved, came round, and +stood squarely upon the hearth, his back to the fire, confronting her, +nor did he further trouble to lower his voice. “We have considered it +already.” + +“What have you considered?” + +Her voice was strained; fear and excitement blended in her face. + +“How the shackles that fetter you might be broken. Be not alarmed. +It was the virtuous Murray himself propounded it to Argyll and +Lethington--for the good of Scotland and yourself.” A sneer flitted +across his tanned face. “Let them speak for themselves.” He raised his +voice and called to them across the room. + +They came at once, and the four made an odd group as they stood there in +the firelit gloom of that November day--the lovely young Queen, so frail +and wistful in her high-backed chair; the stalwart, arrogant Bothwell, +magnificent in a doublet of peach-coloured velvet that tapered to a +golden girdle; Argyll, portly and sober in a rich suit of black; and +Maitland of Lethington, lean and crafty of face, in a long furred gown +that flapped about his bony shanks. + +It was to Lethington that Bothwell addressed himself. + +“Her Grace is in a mood to hear how the Gordian knot of her marriage +might be unravelled,” said he, grimly ironic. + +Lethington raised his eyebrows, licked his thin lips, and rubbed his +bony hands one in the other. + +“Unravelled?” he echoed with wondering stress. “Unravelled? Ha!” His +dark eyes flashed round at them. “Better adopt Alexander's plan, and cut +it. 'Twill be more complete, and--and final.” + +“No, no!” she cried. “I will not have you shed his blood.” + +“He himself was none so tender where another was concerned,” Bothwell +reminded her--as if the memory of Rizzio were dear to him. + +“What he may have done does not weigh upon my conscience,” was her +answer. + +“He might,” put in Argyll, “be convicted of treason for having consented +to Your Grace's retention in ward at Holyrood after Rizzio's murder.” + +She considered an instant, then shook her head. + +“It is too late. It should have been done long since. Now men will say +that it is but a pretext to be rid of him.” She looked up at Bothwell, +who remained standing immediately before her, between her and the fire. +“You said that my Lord of Murray had discussed this matter. Was it in +such terms as these?” + +Bothwell laughed silently at the thought of the sly Murray rendering +himself a party to anything so direct and desperate. It was Lethington +who answered her. + +“My Lord Murray was for a divorce. That would set Your Grace free, +and it might be obtained, he said, by tearing up the Pope's bull of +dispensation that permitted the marriage. Yet, madame, although Lord +Murray would himself go no further, I have no cause to doubt that were +other means concerted, he would be content to look through his fingers.” + +Her mind, however, did not seem to follow his speech beyond the matter +of the divorce. A faint flush of eagerness stirred in her pale cheeks. + +“Ah, yes!” she cried. “I, too, have thought of that--of this divorce. +And God knows I do not want for grounds. And it could be obtained, you +say, by tearing up this papal bull?” + +“The marriage could be proclaimed void thereafter,” Argyll explained. + +She looked past Bothwell into the fire, and took her chin in her hand. + +“Yes,” she said slowly, musingly, and again, “yes. That were a way. That +is the way.” And then suddenly she looked up, and they saw doubt and +dread in her eyes. “But in that case--what of my son?” + +“Aye!” said Lethington grimly. He shrugged his narrow shoulders, parted +his hands, and brought them together again. “That's the obstacle, as we +perceived. It would imperil his succession.” + +“It would make a bastard of him, you mean?” she cried, demanding the +full expansion of their thoughts. + +“Indeed it would do no less,” the secretary assented. + +“So that,” said Bothwell, softly, “we come back to Alexander's method. +What the fingers may not unravel, the knife can sever.” + +She shivered, and drew her furred cloak the more closely about her. + +Lethington leaned forward. He spoke in kindly, soothing accents. + +“Let us guide this matter among us, madame,” he murmured, “and we'll +find means to rid Your Grace of this young fool, without hurt to your +honour or prejudice to your son. And the Earl of Murray will look the +other way, provided you pardon Morton and his friends for the killing +they did in Darnley's service.” + +She looked from one to the other of them, scanning each face in turn. +Then her eyes returned to a contemplation of the flaming logs, and she +spoke very softly. + +“Do nothing by which a spot might be laid on my honour or conscience,” + she said, with an odd deliberateness that seemed to insist upon the +strictly literal meaning of her words. “Rather I pray you let the matter +rest until God remedy it.” + +Lethington looked at the other two, the other two looked at him. He +rubbed his hands softly. + +“Trust to us, madame,” he answered. “We will so guide the matter +that Your Grace shall see nothing but what is good and approved by +Parliament.” + +She committed herself to no reply, and so they were content to take +their answer from her silence. They went in quest of Huntly and +Sir James Balfour, and the five of them entered into a bond for the +destruction of him whom they named “the young fool and proud tiranne,” + to be engaged in when Mary should have pardoned Morton and his +fellow-conspirators. + +It was not until Christmas Eve that she signed this pardon of some +seventy fugitives, proscribed for their participation in the Rizzio +murder, towards whom she had hitherto shown herself so implacable. + +The world saw in this no more than a deed of clemency and charity +befitting the solemn festival of good-will. But the five who had entered +into that bond at Craigmillar Castle beheld in it more accurately the +fulfilment of her part of the suggested bargain, the price she paid in +advance to be rid of Darnley, the sign of her full agreement that the +knot which might not be unravelled should be cut. + +On that same day Her Grace went with Bothwell to Lord Drummond's, where +they abode for the best part of a week, and thence they went on +together to Tullibardine, the rash and open intimacy between them giving +nourishment to scandal. + +At the same time Darnley quitted Stirling, where he had lately been +living in miserable conditions, ignored by the nobles, and even stinted +in his necessary expenses, deprived of his ordinary servants, and his +silver replaced by pewter. The miserable youth reached Glasgow deadly +sick. He had been taken ill on the way, and the inevitable rumour was +spread that he had been poisoned. Later, when it became known that his +once lovely countenance was now blotched and disfigured, it was realized +that his illness was no more than the inevitable result of the debauched +life he led. + +Conceiving himself on the point of death, Darnley wrote piteously to the +Queen; but she ignored his letters until she learnt that his condition +was improving, when at last (on January 29th) she went to visit him at +Glasgow. It may well be that she nourished some hope that nature would +resolve the matter for her, and remove the need for such desperate +measures as had been concerted. But seeing him likely to recover, two +things became necessary, to bring him to the place that was suitable for +the fulfilment of her designs, and to simulate reconciliation with him, +and even renewed and tender affection, so that none might hereafter +charge her with complicity in what should follow. + +I hope that in this I do her memory no injustice. It is thus that I read +the sequel, nor can I read it in any other way. + +She found him abed, with a piece of taffeta over his face to hide its +disfigurement, and she was so moved--as it seemed--by his condition, +that she fell on her knees beside him, and wept in the presence of her +attendants and his own; confessing penitence if anything she had done +in the past could have contributed to their estrangement. Thus +reconciliation followed, and she used him tenderly, grew solicitous +concerning him, and vowed that as soon as he could be moved, he must be +taken to surroundings more salubrious and more befitting the dignity of +his station. + +Gladly then he agreed to return with her to Holyrood. + +“Not to Holyrood,” she said. “At least, not until your health is mended, +lest you should carry thither infection dangerous to your little son.” + +“Whither then?” he asked her, and when she mentioned Craigmillar, he +started up in bed, so that the taffeta slipped from his face, and it was +with difficulty that she dissembled the loathing with which the sight of +its pustules inspired her. + +“Craigmillar!” he cried. “Then what I was told is true.” + +“What were you told?” quoth she, staring at him, brows knit, her face +blank. + +A rumour had filtered through to him of the Craigmillar bond. He had +been told that a letter drawn up there had been presented to her for her +signature, which she had refused. Thus much he told her, adding that he +could not believe that she would do him any hurt; and yet why did she +desire to bear him to Craigmillar? + +“You have been told lies,” she answered him. “I saw no such letter; I +subscribed none, nor was ever asked to subscribe any,” which indeed was +literally true. “To this I swear. As for your going to Craigmillar, you +shall go whithersoever you please, yourself.” + +He sank back on his pillows, and his trembling subsided. + +“I believe thee, Mary. I believe thou'ld never do me any harm,” he +repeated, “and if any other would,” he added on a bombastic note, “they +shall buy it dear, unless they take me sleeping. But I'll never to +Craigmillar.” + +“I have said you shall go where you please,” she assured him again. + +He considered. + +“There is the house at Kirk o' Field. It has a fine garden, and is in a +position that is deemed the healthiest about Edinburgh. I need good air; +good air and baths have been prescribed me to cleanse me of this plague. +Kirk o' Field will serve, if it be your pleasure.” + +She gave a ready consent, dispatched messengers ahead to prepare the +house, and to take from Holyrood certain furnishings that should improve +the interior, and render it as fitting as possible a dwelling for a +king. + +Some days later they set out, his misgivings quieted by the tenderness +which she now showed him--particularly when witnesses were at hand. + +It was a tenderness that grew steadily during those twelve days in which +he lay in convalescence in the house at Kirk o' Field; she was playful +and coquettish with him as a maid with her lover, so that nothing was +talked of but the completeness of this reconciliation, and the hope that +it would lead to a peace within the realm that would be a benefit to +all. Yet many there were who marvelled at it, wondering whether the +waywardness and caprice of woman could account for so sudden a change +from hatred to affection. + +Darnley was lodged on the upper floor, in a room comfortably furnished +from the palace. It was hung with six pieces of tapestry, and the floor +was partly covered by an Eastern carpet. It contained, besides the +handsome bed--which once had belonged to the Queen's mother--a couple of +high chairs in purple velvet, a little table with a green velvet cover, +and some cushions in red. By the side of the bed stood the specially +prepared bath that was part of the cure which Darnley was undergoing. It +had for its incongruous lid a door that had been lifted from its hinges. + +Immediately underneath was a room that had been prepared for the Queen, +with a little bed of yellow and green damask, and a furred coverlet. The +windows looked out upon the close, and the door opened upon the passage +leading to the garden. + +Here the Queen slept on several of those nights of early February, for +indeed she was more often at Kirk o' Field than at Holy-rood, and when +she was not bearing Darnley company in his chamber, and beguiling the +tedium of his illness, she was to be seen walking in the garden with +Lady Reres, and from his bed he could hear her sometimes singing as she +sauntered there. + +Never since the ephemeral season of their courtship had she been on such +fond terms with him, and all his fears of hostile designs entertained +against him by her immediate followers were stilled at last. Yet not +for long. Into his fool's paradise came Lord Robert of Holyrood, with a +warning that flung him into a sweat of panic. + +The conspirators had hired a few trusted assistants to help them carry +out their plans, and a rumour had got abroad--in the unaccountable way +of rumours--that there was danger to the King. It was of this rumour +that Lord Robert brought him word, telling him bluntly that unless he +escaped quickly from this place, he would leave his life there. Yet when +Darnley had repeated this to the Queen, and the Queen indignantly had +sent for Lord Robert and demanded to know his meaning, his lordship +denied that he had uttered any such warning, protested that his words +must have been misunderstood--that they referred solely to the King's +condition, which demanded, he thought, different treatment and healthier +air. + +Knowing not what to believe, Darnley's uneasiness abode with him. Yet, +trusting Mary, and feeling secure so long as she was by his side, he +became more and more insistent upon her presence, more and more fretful +in her absence. It was to quiet him that she consented to sleep as often +as might be at Kirk o' Field. She slept there on the Wednesday of that +week, and again on Friday, and she was to have done so yet again on that +fateful Sunday, February 9th, but that her servant Sebastien--one +who had accompanied her from France, and for whom she had a deep +affection--was that day married, and Her Majesty had promised to be +present at the masque that night at Holyrood, in honour of his nuptials. + +Nevertheless, she did not utterly neglect her husband on that account. +She rode to Kirk o' Field early in the evening, accompanied by Bothwell, +Huntly, Argyll, and some others; and leaving the lords at cards below +to while away the time, she repaired to Darnley, and sat beside his bed, +soothing a spirit oddly perturbed, as if with some premonition of what +was brewing. + +“Ye'll not leave me the night,” he begged her once. + +“Alas,” she said, “I must! Sebastien is being wed, and I have promised +to be present.” + +He sighed and shifted uneasily. + +“Soon I shall be well, and then these foolish humours will cease to +haunt me. But just now I cannot bear you from my sight. When you are +with me I am at peace. I know that all is well. But when you go I am +filled with fears, lying helpless here.” + +“What should you fear?” she asked him. + +“The hate that I know is alive against me.” + +“You are casting shadows to affright yourself,” said she. + +“What's that?” he cried, half raising himself in sudden alarm. “Listen!” + +From the room below came faintly a sound of footsteps, accompanied by a +noise as of something being trundled. + +“It will be my servants in my room--putting it to rights.” + +“To what purpose since you do not sleep there tonight?” he asked. He +raised his voice and called his page. + +“Why, what will you do?” she asked him, steadying her own alarm. + +He answered her by bidding the youth who had entered go see what was +doing in the room below. The lad departed, and had he done his errand +faithfully, he would have found Bothwell's followers, Hay and +Hepburn, and the Queen's man, Nicholas Hubert better known as French +Paris--emptying a keg of gunpowder on the floor immediately under the +King's bed. But it happened that in the passage he came suddenly face +to face with the splendid figure of Bothwell, cloaked and hatted, and +Bothwell asked him whither he went. + +The boy told him. + +“It is nothing,” Bothwell said. “They are moving Her Grace's bed in +accordance with her wishes.” + +And the lad, overborne by that commanding figure which so effectively +blocked his path, chose the line of lesser resistance. He went back to +bear the King that message as if for himself he had seen what my Lord +Bothwell had but told him. + +Darnley was pacified by the assurance, and the lad withdrew. + +“Did I not tell you how it was?” quoth Mary. “Is not my word enough?” + +“Forgive the doubt,” Darnley begged her. “Indeed, there was no doubt of +you, who have shown me so much charity in my affliction.” He sighed, and +looked at her with melancholy eyes. + +“I would the past had been other than it has been between you and me,” + he said. “I was too young for kingship, I think. In my green youth I +listened to false counsellors, and was quick to jealousy and the follies +it begets. Then, when you cast me out and I wandered friendless, a devil +took possession of me. Yet, if you will but consent to bury all the +past into oblivion, I will make amends, and you shall find me worthier +hereafter.” + +She rose, white to the lips, her bosom heaving under her long cloak. +She turned aside and stepped to the window. She stood there, peering out +into the gloom of the close, her knees trembling under her. + +“Why do you not answer me?” he cried. + +“What answer do you need?” she said, and her voice shook. “Are you not +answered already?” And then, breathlessly, she added: “It is time to go, +I think.” + +They heard a heavy step upon the stairs and the clank of a sword against +the rails. The door opened, and Bothwell, wrapped in his scarlet cloak, +stood bending his tall shoulders under the low lintel. His gleaming +eyes, so oddly mocking in their glance, for all that his face was set, +fell upon Darnley, and with their look flung him into an inward state of +blending fear and rage. + +“Your Grace,” said Bothwell's deep voice, “it is close upon midnight.” + +He came no more than in time; it needed the sight of him with its +reminder of all that he meant to her to sustain a purpose that was being +sapped by pity. + +“Very well,” she said. “I come.” + +Bothwell stood aside to give her egress and to invite it. But the King +delayed her. + +“A moment--a word!” he begged, and to Bothwell: “Give us leave apart, +sir!” + +Yet, King though he might be, there was no ready obedience from the +arrogant Border lord, her lover. It was to Mary that Bothwell looked for +commands, nor stirred until she signed to him to go. And even then he +went no farther than the other side of the door, so that he might be +close at hand to fortify her should any weakness assail her now in this +supreme hour. + +Darnley struggled up in bed, caught her hand, and pulled her to him. + +“Do not leave me, Mary. Do not leave me!” he implored her. + +“Why, what is this?” she cried, but her voice lacked steadiness. “Would +you have me disappoint poor Sebastien, who loves me?” + +“I see. Sebastien is more to you than I?” + +“Now this is folly. Sebastien is my faithful servant.” + +“And am I less? Do you not believe that my one aim henceforth will be to +serve you and faithfully? Oh, forgive this weakness. I am full of evil +foreboding to-night. Go, then, if go you must, but give me at least some +assurance of your love, some pledge of it in earnest that you will come +again to-morrow nor part from me again.” + +She looked into the white, piteous young face that had once been so +lovely, and her soul faltered. It needed the knowledge that Bothwell +waited just beyond the door, that he could overhear what was being said, +to strengthen her fearfully in her tragic purpose. + +She has been censured most for what next she did. Murray himself spoke +of it afterwards as the worst part of the business. But it is possible +that she was concerned only at the moment to put an end to a scene that +was unnerving her, and that she took the readiest means to it. + +She drew a ring from her finger and slipped it on to one of his. + +“Be this the pledge, then,” she said; “and so content and rest +yourself.” + +With that she broke from him, white and scared, and reached the door. +Yet with her hand upon the latch she paused. Looking at him she saw that +he was smiling, and perhaps horror of her betrayal of him overwhelmed +her. It must be that she then desired to warn him, yet with Bothwell +within earshot she realized that any warning must precipitate the +tragedy, with direst consequences to Bothwell and herself. + +To conquer her weakness, she thought of David Rizzio, whom Darnley had +murdered almost at her feet, and whom this night was to avenge. She +thought of the Judas part that he had played in that affair, and sought +persuasion that it was fitting he should now be paid in kind. Yet, +very woman that she was, failing to find any such persuasion, she found +instead in the very thought of Rizzio the very means to convey her +warning. + +Standing tense and white by the door, regarding him with dilating eyes, +she spoke her last words to him. + +“It would be just about this time last year that Davie was slain,” she +said, and on that passed out to the waiting Bothwell. + +Once on the stairs she paused and set a hand upon the shoulder of the +stalwart Borderer. + +“Must it be? Oh, must it be?” she whispered fearfully. + +She caught the flash of his eyes in the half gloom as he leaned over +her, his arm about her waist drawing her to him. + +“Is it not just? Is it not full merited?” he asked her. + +“And yet I would that we did not profit by it,” she complained. + +“Shall we pity him on that account?” he asked, and laughed softly and +shortly. “Come away,” he added abruptly. “They wait for you!” And so, +by the suasion of his arm and his imperious will, she was swept onward +along the road of her destiny. + +Outside the horses were ready. There was a little group of gentlemen to +escort her, and half a dozen servants with lighted torches, whilst Lady +Reres was in waiting. A man stood forward to assist her to mount, his +face and hands so blackened by gunpowder that for a moment she failed to +recognize him. She laughed nervously when he named himself. + +“Lord, Paris, how begrimed you are!” she cried; and, mounting, rode away +towards Holyrood with her torchbearers and attendants. + +In the room above, Darnley lay considering her last words. He turned +them over in his thoughts, assured by the tone she had used and how she +had looked that they contained some message. + +“It would be just about this time last year that Davie was slain.” + +In themselves, those words were not strictly accurate. It wanted yet a +month to the anniversary of Rizzio's death. And why, at parting, should +she have reminded him of that which she had agreed should be forgotten? +Instantly came the answer that she sought to warn him that retribution +was impending. He thought again of the rumours that he had heard of a +bond signed at Craigmillar; he recalled Lord Robert's warning to him, +afterwards denied. + +He recalled her words to himself at the time of Rizzio's death: +“Consider well what I now say. Consider and remember. I shall never rest +until I give you as sore a heart as I have presently.” And further, +he remembered her cry at once agonized and fiercely vengeful: “Jamais, +jamais je n'oublierai.” + +His terrors mounted swiftly, to be quieted again at last when he +looked at the ring she had put upon his finger in pledge of her renewed +affection. The past was dead and buried, surely. Though danger might +threaten, she would guard him against it, setting her love about him +like a panoply of steel. When she came to-morrow, he would question her +closely, and she should be more frank and open with him, and tell him +all. Meanwhile, he would take his precautions for to-night. + +He sent his page to make fast all doors. The youth went and did as he +was bidden, with the exception of the door that led to the garden. It +had no bolts, and the key was missing; yet, seeing his master's nervous, +excited state, he forbore from any mention of that circumstance when +presently he returned to him. + +Darnley requested a book of Psalms, that he might read himself to sleep. +The page dozed in a chair, and so the hours passed; and at last the King +himself fell into a light slumber. Out of this he started suddenly at +a little before two o'clock, and sat upright in bed, alarmed without +knowing why, listening with straining ears and throbbing pulses. + +He caught a repetition of the sound that had aroused him, a sound akin +to that which had drawn his attention earlier, when Mary had been with +him. It came up faintly from the room immediately beneath: her room. +Some one was moving there, he thought. Then, as he continued to listen, +all became quiet again, save his fears, which would not be quieted. +He extinguished the light, slipped from the bed, and, crossing to the +window, peered out into the close that was faintly illumined by a +moon in its first quarter. A shadow moved, he thought. He watched with +increasing panic for confirmation, and presently saw that he had been +right. Not one, but several shadows were shifting there among the +trees. Shadows of men, they were, and as he peered, he saw one that +went running from the house across the lawn and joined the others, now +clustered together in a group. What could be their purpose here? In the +silence, he seemed to hear again the echo of Mary's last words to him: + +“It would be just about this time last year that Davie was slain.” + +In terror, he groped his way to the chair where the page slept and shook +the lad vigorously. + +“Afoot, boy!” he said, in a hoarse whisper. He had meant to shout it, +but his voice failed him, his windpipe clutched by panic. “Afoot--we are +beset by enemies!” + +At once the youth was wide awake, and together the King just in his +shirt as he was--they made their way from the room in the dark, groping +their way, and so reached the windows at the back. Darnley opened one of +these very softly, then sent the boy back for a sheet. Making this +fast, they descended by it to the garden, and started towards the wall, +intending to climb it, that they might reach the open. + +The boy led the way, and the King followed, his teeth chattering as much +from the cold as from the terror that possessed him. And then, quite +suddenly, without the least warning, the ground, it seemed to them, +heaved under their feet, and they were flung violently forward on their +faces. A great blaze rent the darkness of the night, accompanied by +the thunders of an explosion so terrific that it seemed as if the whole +world must have been shattered by it. + +For some instants the King and his page lay half stunned where they had +fallen, and well might it have been for them had they so continued. But +Darnley, recovering, staggered to his feet, pulling the boy up with him +and supporting him. Then, as he began to move, he heard a soft whistle +in the gloom behind him. Over his shoulder he looked towards the house, +to behold a great, smoking gap now yawning in it. Through this gap +he caught a glimpse of shadowy men moving in the close beyond, and he +realized that he had been seen. The white shirt he wore had betrayed his +presence to them. + +With a stifled scream, he began to run towards the wall, the page +staggering after him. Behind them now came the clank and thud of a score +of overtaking feet. Soon they were surrounded. The King turned this way +and that, desperately seeking a way out of the murderous human ring that +fenced them round. + +“What d'ye seek? What d'ye seek?” he screeched, in a pitiful attempt to +question with authority. + +A tall man in a trailing cloak advanced and seized him. + +“We seek thee, fool!” said the voice of Bothwell. + +The kingliness that he had never known how to wear becomingly now fell +from him utterly. + +“Mercy--mercy!” he cried. + +“Such mercy as you had on David Rizzio!” answered the Border lord. + +Darnley fell on his knees and sought to embrace the murderer's legs. +Bothwell stooped over him, seized the wretched man's shirt, and pulled +it from his shivering body; then, flinging the sleeves about the royal +neck, slipped one over the other and drew them tight, nor relaxed his +hold until the young man's struggles had entirely ceased. + +Four days later, Mary went to visit the body of her husband in the +chapel of Holyrood House, whither it had been conveyed, and there, as a +contemporary tells us, she looked upon it long, “not only without grief, +but with greedy eyes.” Thereafter it was buried secretly in the night by +Rizzio's side, so that murderer and victim lay at peace together in the +end. + + + + + + +III. THE NIGHT OF BETRAYAL--Antonio Perez and Philip II of Spain + +“You a Spaniard of Spain?” had been her taunt, dry and contemptuous. “I +do not believe it.” + +And upon that she had put spur to the great black horse that bore her +and had ridden off along the precipitous road by the river. + +After her he had flung his answer on a note of laughter, bitter and +cynical as the laughter of the damned, laughter that expressed all +things but mirth. + +“Oh, a Spaniard of Spain, indeed, Madame la Marquise. Very much a +Spaniard of Spain, I assure you.” + +The great black horse and the woman in red flashed round a bend of +the rocky road and were eclipsed by a clump of larches. The man leaned +heavily upon his ebony cane, sighed wearily, and grew thoughtful. Then, +with a laugh and a shrug, he sat down in the shade of the firs that +bordered the road. Behind him, crowning the heights, loomed the brown +castle built by Gaston Phoebus, Count of Foix, two hundred years ago, +and the Tower of Montauzet, its walls scarred by the shots of the +rebellious Biscayans. Below him, nourished by the snows that were +dissolving under the sunshine of early spring, sped the tumbling river; +beyond this spread pasture and arable land to the distant hills, and +beyond those stood the gigantic sharp-summited wall of the Pyrenees, its +long ridge dominated by the cloven cone of the snow clad Pic du Midi. +There was in the sight of that great barrier, at once natural and +political, a sense of security for this fugitive from the perils and +the hatreds that lurked in Spain beyond. Here in Bearn he was a king's +guest, enjoying the hospitality of the great Castle of Pau, safe from +the vindictive persecution of the mean tyrant who ruled in Spain. And +here, at last, he was at peace, or would have been but for the thought +of this woman--this Marquise de Chantenac--who had gone to such lengths +in her endeavours to soften his exile that her ultimate object could +never have been in doubt to a coxcomb, though it was in some doubt to +Antonio Perez, who had been cured for all time of Coxcombry by suffering +and misfortune, to say nothing of increasing age. It was when he +bethought him of that age of his that he was chiefly intrigued by the +amazing ardour of this great lady of Bearn. A dozen years ago--before +misfortune overtook him--he would have accepted her flagrant wooing as +a proper tribute. For then he had been the handsome, wealthy, witty, +profligate Secretary of State to His Catholic Majesty King Philip II, +with a power in Spain second only to the King's, and sometimes even +greater. In those days he would have welcomed her as her endowments +merited. She was radiantly lovely, in the very noontide of her +resplendent youth, the well-born widow of a gentleman of Bearn. And +it would not have lain within the strength or inclinations of Antonio +Perez, as he once had been, to have resisted the temptation that she +offered. Ever avid of pleasure, he had denied himself no single cup of +it that favouring Fortune had proffered him. It was, indeed, because +of this that he was fallen from his high estate; it was a woman who had +pulled him down in ruin, tumbling with him to her doom. She, poor soul, +was dead at last, which was the best that any lover could have wished +her. But he lived on, embittered, vengeful, with gall in his veins +instead of blood. He was the pale, faded shadow of that arrogant, +reckless, joyous Antonio Perez beloved of Fortune. He was fifty, gaunt, +hollow-eyed, and grey, half crippled by torture, sickly from long years +of incarceration. + +What, he asked himself, sitting there, his eyes upon the eternal snows +of the barrier that shut out his past, was there left in him to +awaken love in such a woman as Madame de Chantenac? Was it that his +tribulations stirred her pity, or that the fame of him which rang +through Europe shed upon his withering frame some of the transfiguring +radiance of romance? + +It marked, indeed, the change in him that he should pause to question, +whose erstwhile habit had been blindly to accept the good things tossed +by Fortune into his lap. But question he did, pondering that +parting taunt of hers to which, for emphasis, she had given an odd +redundancy--“You a Spaniard of Spain!” Could her meaning have been +plainer? Was not a Spaniard proverbially as quick to love as to +jealousy? Was not Spain, that scented land of warmth and colour, of +cruelty and blood, of throbbing lutes under lattices ajar, of mitred +sinners doing public penance, that land where lust and piety went hand +in hand, where passion and penitence lay down together--was not Spain +the land of love's most fruitful growth? And was not a Spaniard the very +hierophant of love? + +His thoughts swung with sudden yearning to his wife Juana and their +children, held in brutal captivity by Philip, who sought to slake upon +them some of the vindictiveness from which their husband and father had +at last escaped. Not that Antonio Perez observed marital fidelity more +closely than any other Spaniard of his time, or of any time. But Antonio +Perez was growing old, older than he thought, older than his years. He +knew it. Madame de Chantenac had proved it to him. + +She had reproached him with never coming to see her at Chantenac, +neglecting to return the too assiduous visits that she paid him here at +Pau. + +“You are very beautiful, madame, and the world is very foul,” he had +excused himself. “Believe one who knows the world, to his bitter cost. +Tongues will wag.” + +“And your Spanish pride will not suffer that clods may talk of you?” + +“I am thinking of you, madame.” + +“Of me?” she had answered. “Why, of me they talk already--talk their +fill. I must pretend blindness to the leering eyes that watch me each +time I come to Pau; feign unconsciousness of the impertinent glances of +the captain of the castle there as I ride in.” + +“Then why do you come?” he had asked point-blank. But before her sudden +change of countenance he had been quick to add: “Oh, madame, I am +full conscious of the charity that brings you, and I am deeply, deeply +grateful; but--” + +“Charity?” she had interrupted sharply, on a laugh that was +self-mocking. “Charity?” + +“What else, madame?” + +“Ask yourself,” she had answered, reddening and averting her face from +his questioning eyes. + +“Madame,” he had faltered, “I dare not.” + +“Dare not?” + +“Madame, how should I? I am an old man, broken by sickness, disheartened +by misfortune, daunted by tribulation--a mere husk cast aside by +Fortune, whilst you are lovely as one of the angels about the Throne of +Heaven.” + +She had looked into the haggard face, into the scars of suffering that +seared it, and she had answered gently: “Tomorrow you shall come to me +at Chantenac, my friend.” + +“I am a Spaniard, for whom to-morrow never comes.” + +“But it will this time. To-morrow I shall expect you.” + +He looked up at her sitting her great black horse beside which he had +been pacing. + +“Better not, madame! Better not!” he had said. + +And then he saw the eyes that had been tender grow charged with scorn; +then came her angry taunt: + +“You a Spaniard of Spain! I do not believe it!” + +Oh, there was no doubt that he had angered her. Women of her temperament +are quick to anger as to every emotion. But he had not wished to anger +her. God knows it was never the way of Antonio Perez to anger lovely +women--at least not in this fashion. And it was an ill return for her +gentleness and attention to himself. Considering this as he sat there +now, he resolved that he must make amends--the only amends it was +possible to make. + +An hour later, in one of the regal rooms of the castle, where he enjoyed +the hospitality of King Henri IV of France and Navarre, he announced +to that most faithful equerry, Gil de Mesa, his intention of riding to +Chantenac to-morrow. + +“Is it prudent?” quoth Mesa, frowning. + +“Most imprudent,” answered Don Antonio. “That is why I go.” + +And on the morrow he went, escorted by a single groom. Gil de Mesa had +begged at first to be allowed to accompany him. But for Gil he had other +work, of which the instructions he left were very full. The distance was +short--three miles along the Gave de Pau--and Don Antonio covered it on +a gently ambling mule, such as might have been bred to bear some aged +dignitary of Holy Church. + +The lords of Chantenac were as noble, as proud, and as poor as most +great lords of Bearn. Their lineage was long, their rent-rolls short. +And the last marquis had suffered more from this dual complaint than +any of his forbears, and he had not at all improved matters by a certain +habit of gaming contracted in youth. The chateau bore abundant signs of +it. It was a burnt red pile standing four-square on a little eminence, +about the base of which the river went winding turbulently; it was +turreted at each of its four angles, imposing in its way, but in a sad +state of dilapidation and disrepair. + +The interior, when Don Antonio reached it, was rather better; the +furnishings, though sparse, were massive and imposing; the tapestries on +the walls, if old, were rich and choice. But everywhere the ill-assorted +marriage of pretentiousness and neediness was apparent. The floors of +hall and living-room were strewn with fresh-cut rushes, an obsolescent +custom which served here alike to save the heavy cost of carpets and to +lend the place an ancient baronial dignity. Whilst pretence was made of +keeping state, the servitors were all old, and insufficient in number +to warrant the retention of the infirm seneschal by whom Don Antonio was +ceremoniously received. A single groom, aged and without livery, took +charge at once of Don Antonio's mule, his servant's horse, and the +servant himself. + +The seneschal, hobbling before him, conducted our Spaniard across the +great hall, gloomy and half denuded, through the main living-room of the +chateau into a smaller, more intimate apartment, holding some trace of +luxury, which he announced as madame's own room. And there he left him +to await the coming of the chatelaine. + +She, at least, showed none of the outward disrepair of her surroundings. +She came to him sheathed in a gown of shimmering silk that was of the +golden brown of autumn tints, caught to her waist by a slender girdle of +hammered gold. Eyes of deepest blue pondered him questioningly, whilst +red lips smiled their welcome. “So you have come in spite of all?” she +greeted him. “Be very welcome to my poor house, Don Antonio.” + +And regally she proffered her hand to his homage. + +He took it, observing the shapely, pointed fingers, the delicately +curving nails. Reluctantly, almost, he admitted to himself how complete +was her beauty, how absolute her charm. He sighed--a sigh for that lost +youth of his, perhaps--as he bowed from his fine, lean height to press +cold lips of formal duty on that hand. + +“Your will, madame, was stronger than my prudence,” said he. + +“Prudence?” quoth she, and almost sneered. “Since when has Antonio Perez +stooped to prudence?” + +“Since paying the bitter price of imprudence. You know my story?” + +“A little. I know, for instance, that you murdered Escovedo--all the +world knows that. Is that the imprudence of which you speak? I have +heard it said that it was for love of a woman that you did it.” + +“You have heard that, too?” he said. He had paled a little. “You have +heard a deal, Marquise. I wonder would it amuse you to hear more, to +hear from my own lips this story of mine which all Europe garbles? Would +it?” + +There was a faint note of anxiety in his voice, a look faintly anxious +in his eyes. + +She scanned him a moment gravely, almost inscrutably. “What purpose +can it serve?” she asked; and her tone was forbidding--almost a tone of +fear. + +“It will explain,” he insisted. + +“Explain what?” + +“How it comes that I am not this moment prostrate at your feet; how it +happens that I am not on my knees to worship your heavenly beauty; how I +have contrived to remain insensible before a loveliness that in happier +times would have made me mad.” + +“Vive Dieu!” she murmured, half ironical. “Perhaps that needs +explaining.” + +“How it became necessary,” he pursued, never heeding the interruption, +“that yesterday you should proclaim your disbelief that I could be, as +you said, a Spaniard of Spain. How it happens that Antonio Perez has +become incapable of any emotion but hate. Will you hear the story--all +of it?” + +He was leaning towards her, his white face held close to her own, a +smouldering fire in the dark, sunken eyes that now devoured her. + +She shivered, and her own cheeks turned very pale. Her lips were faintly +twisted as if in an effort to smile. + +“My friend--if you insist,” she consented. + +“It is the purpose for which I came,” he announced. + +For a long moment each looked into the other's eyes with a singular +intentness that nothing here would seem to warrant. + +At length she spoke. + +“Come,” she said, “you shall tell me.” + +And she waved him to a chair set in the embrasure of the mullioned +window that looked out over a tract of meadowland sweeping gently down +to the river. + +Don Antonio sank into the chair, placing his hat and whip upon the floor +beside him. The Marquise faced him, occupying the padded window-seat, +her back to the light, her countenance in shadow. + +And here, in his own words, follows the story that he told her as she +herself set it down soon after. Whilst more elaborate and intimate +in parts, it yet so closely agrees throughout with his own famous +“Relacion,” that I do not hesitate to accept the assurance she has +left us that every word he uttered was burnt as if by an acid upon her +memory. + +THE STORY OF ANTONIO PEREZ + +As a love-story this is, I think, the saddest that ever was invented by +a romancer intent upon wringing tears from sympathetic hearts. How sad +it is you will realize when I tell you that daily I thank God on my +knees--for I still believe in God, despite what was alleged against me +by the inquisitors of Aragon--that she who inspired this love of which +I am to tell you is now in the peace of death. She died in exile at +Pastrana a year ago. Anne de Mendoza was what you call in France a great +parti. She came of one of the most illustrious families in Spain, and +she was a great heiress. So much all the world knew. What the world +forgot was that she was a woman, with a woman's heart and mind, a +woman's natural instincts to select her mate. There are fools who envy +the noble and the wealthy. They are little to be envied, those poor +pawns in the game of statecraft, moved hither and thither at the will +of players who are themselves no better. The human nature of them is a +negligible appendage to the names and rent-rolls that predetermine their +place upon the board of worldly ambition, a board befouled by blood, by +slobberings from the evil mouth of greed, and by infamy of every kind. + +So, because Anne was a daughter of the House of Mendoza, because her +endowments were great, they plucked her from her convent at the age of +thirteen years, knowing little more of life than the merest babe, and +they flung her into the arms of Ruy Gomez, Prince of Eboli, who was +old enough to have been her father. But Eboli was a great man in Spain, +perhaps the greatest; he was, first Minister to Philip II, and between +his House and that of Mendoza an alliance was desired. To establish it +that tender child was sacrificed without ruth. She discovered that life +held nothing of all that her maiden dreamings had foreseen; that it was +a thing of horror and greed and lovelessness and worse. For there was +much worse to come. + +Eboli brought his child-princess to Court. He wore her lightly as +a ribbon or a glove, the insignificant appendage to the wealth and +powerful alliance he had acquired with her. And at Court she came +under the eye of that pious satyr Philip. The Catholic King is very +devout--perfervidly devout. He prays, he fasts, he approaches the +sacraments, he does penance, all in proper season as prescribed by +Mother Church; he abominates sin and lack of faith--particularly in +others; he has drenched Flanders in blood that he might wash it clean +of the heresy of thinking differently from himself in spiritual matters, +and he would have done the same by England but that God--Who cannot, +after all, be quite of Philip's way of thinking--willed otherwise. All +this he has done for the greater honour and glory of his Maker, but he +will not tolerate his Maker's interference with his own minor pleasures +of the flesh. He is, as you would say, a Spaniard of Spain. + +This satyr's protruding eyes fell upon the lovely Princess of Eboli--for +lovely she was, a very pearl among women. I spare you details. Eboli was +most loyal and submissive where his King was concerned, most complacent +and accommodating. That was but logical, and need not shock you at all. +To advance his worldly ambitions had he taken Anne to wife; why should +he scruple, then, to yield her again that thus he might advance those +ambitions further? + +If poor Anne argued at all, she must have argued thus. For the rest, +she was told that to be loved by the King was an overwhelming honour, +a matter for nightly prayers of thankfulness. Philip was something very +exalted, hardly human in fact; almost, if not quite, divine. Who and +what was Anne that she should dispute with those who knew the world, and +who placed these facts before her? Never in all her little life had she +belonged to herself. Always had she been the property of somebody else, +to be dealt with as her owner might consider best. If about the Court +she saw some men more nearly of her own age--though there were not many, +for Philip's Court was ever a gloomy, sparsely peopled place--she took +it for granted that such men were not for her. This until I taught her +otherwise, which, however, was not yet a while. Had I been at Court in +those days, I think I should have found the means, at whatever cost, of +preventing that infamy; for I know that I loved her from the day I saw +her. But I was of no more than her own age, and I had not yet been drawn +into that whirlpool. + +So she went to the arms of that rachitic prince, and she bore him a +son--for, as all the world knows, the Duke of Prastana owns Philip for +his father. And Eboli increased in power and prosperity and the favour +of his master, and also, no doubt, in the contempt of posterity. There +are times when the thought of posterity and its vengeances is of great +solace. + +It would be some six years later when first I came to Court, brought +thither by my father, to enter the service of the Prince of Eboli as one +of his secretaries. As I have told you, I loved the Princess from the +moment I beheld her. From the gossip of the Court I pieced together +her story, and pitied her, and, pitying her, I loved her the more. Her +beauty dazzled me, her charm enmeshed me, and she had grown by now in +worldly wisdom and mental attainments. Yet I set a mask upon my passion, +and walked very circumspectly, for all that by nature I was as reckless +and profligate as all the world could ever call me. She was the wife of +the puissant Secretary of State, the mistress of the King. Who was I to +dispute their property to those exalted ones? + +And another consideration stayed me. She seemed to love the King. Young +and lacking in wisdom, this amazed me. In age he compared favourably +with her husband he was but thirteen years older than herself--but in +nothing else. He was a weedy, unhealthy-looking man, weakly of frame, +rachitic, undersized, with spindle-shanks, and a countenance that was +almost grotesque, with its protruding jaw, gaping mouth, great, doglike +eyes, and yellow tuft of beard. A great king, perhaps, this Philip, +having so been born; but a ridiculous man and an unspeakable lover. And +yet this incomparable woman seemed to love him. + +Let me pass on. For ten years I nursed that love of mine in secret. +I was helped, perhaps, by the fact that in the mean time I had +married--oh, just as Eboli himself had married, an arrangement dictated +by worldly considerations--and no better, truer mate did ever a man find +than I in Juana Coello. We had children and we were happy, and for a +season--for years, indeed--I began to think that my unspoken passion for +the Princess of Eboli was dead and done with. I saw her rarely now, and +my activities increased with increasing duties. At twenty-six I was one +of the Ministers of the Crown, and one of the chief supporters of +that party of which Eboli was the leader in Spanish politics. I sat +in Philip's Council, and I came under the spell of that taciturn, +suspicious man, who, utterly unlovable as he was, had yet an uncanny +power of inspiring devotion. From the spell of it I never quite escaped +until after long years of persecution. Yet the discovery that one by +nature so entirely antipathetic to me should have obtained such sway +over my mind helped me to understand Anne's attachment to him. + +When Eboli died, in 1573, I had so advanced in ability and Royal favour +that I took his place as Secretary of State, thus becoming all but the +supreme ruler of Spain. I do not believe that there was ever in Spain +a Minister so highly favoured by the reigning Prince, so powerful as +I became. Not Eboli himself in his halcyon days had been so deeply +esteemed of Philip, or had wielded such power as I now made my own. +All Europe knows it--for it was to me all Europe addressed itself for +affairs that concerned the Catholic King. + +And with my power came wealth--abundant, prodigious wealth. I was housed +like a Prince of the blood, and no Prince of the blood ever kept greater +state than I, was ever more courted, fawned upon, or flattered. And +remember I was young, little more than thirty, with all the strength and +zest to enjoy my intoxicating eminence. I was to my party what Eboli had +been, though the nominal leader of it remained Quiroga, Archbishop of +Toledo. On the other side was the Duke of Alva with his following. + +You must know that it was King Philip's way to encourage two rival +parties in the State, between which he shared his confidence and sway. +Thus he stimulated emulation and enlightened his own views in the +opposing opinions that were placed before him. But the power of my party +was absolute in those days, and Alva himself was as the dust beneath our +feet. + +Such eminences, they say, are perilous. Heads that are very highly +placed may at any moment be placed still higher--upon a pike. I am all +but a living witness to the truth of that, and yet I wonder would it so +have fallen out with me had I mistrusted that slumbering passion of +mine for Anne. I should have known that where such fires have once been +kindled in a man they never quite die out as long as life endures. Time +and preoccupations may overlay them as with a film of ashes, but more +or less deeply down they smoulder on, and the first breath will fan them +into flame again. + +It was at the King's request I went to see her in her fine Madrid house +opposite Santa Maria Mayor some months after her husband's death. There +were certain matters of heritage to be cleared up, and, having regard +to her high rank, it was Philip's wish that I--who was by now Eboli's +official successor--should wait on her in person. + +There were documents to be conned and signed, and the matter took some +days, for Eboli's possessions were not only considerable, but scattered, +and his widow displayed an acquired knowledge of affairs and a natural +wisdom that inspired her to probe deeply. To my undoing, she probed +too deeply in one matter. It concerned some land--a little property--at +Velez. She had been attached to the place, it seemed, and she missed all +mention of it from the papers that I brought her. She asked the reason. + +“It is disposed of,” I told her. + +“Disposed of!” quoth she. “But by whom?” + +“By the Prince, your husband, a little while before he died.” + +She looked up at me--she was seated at the wide, carved writing-table, +I standing by her side--as if expecting me to say more. As I left my +utterance there, she frowned perplexedly. + +“But what mystery is this?” she asked me. “To whom has it gone?” + +“To one Sancho Gordo.” + +“To Sancho Gordo?” The frown deepened. “The washerwoman's son? You will +not tell me that he bought it?” + +“I do not tell you so, madame. It was a gift from the Prince, your +husband.” + +“A gift!” She laughed. “To Sancho Gordo! So the washerwoman's child is +Eboli's son!” + +And again she laughed on a note of deep contempt. + +“Madame!” I cried, appalled and full of pity, “I assure you that you +assume too much. The Prince--” + +“Let be,” she interrupted me. “Do you dream I care what rivals I may +have had, however lowly they may have been? The Prince, my husband, is +dead, and that is very well. He is much better dead, Don Antonio. The +pity of it is that he ever lived, or else that I was born a woman.” + +She was staring straight before her, her hands fallen to her lap, her +face set as if carved and lifeless, and her voice came hard as the sound +of one stone beating upon another. + +“Do you dream what it can mean to have been so nurtured on indignities +that there is no anger left, no pride to wound by the discovery of yet +another nothing but cold, cold hate? That, Don Antonio, is my case. You +do not know what my life has been. That man--” + +“He is dead, madame,” I reminded her, out of pity. + +“And damned, I hope,” she answered me in that same cold, emotionless +voice. “He deserves no less for all the wrongs he did to me, the least +of which was the great wrong of marrying me. For advancement he acquired +me; for his advancement he bartered and used me and made of me a thing +of shame.” + +I was so overwhelmed with grief and love and pity that a groan escaped +me almost before I was aware of it. She broke off short, and stared at +me in haughtiness. + +“You presume to pity me, I think,” she reproved me. “It is my own +fault. I was wrong to talk. Women should suffer silently, that they may +preserve at least a mask of dignity. Otherwise they incur pity--and pity +is very near contempt.” + +And then I lost my head. + +“Not mine, not mine!” I cried, throwing out my arms; and though that +was all I said, there was such a ring in my choking voice that she rose +stiffly from her seat and stood tense and tall confronting me, almost +eye to eye, reproof in every line of her. + +“Princess, forgive me!” I cried. “It breaks my heart in pieces to hear +you utter things that have been in my mind these many years, poisoning +the devotion that I owed to the late Prince, poisoning the very loyalty +I owe my King. You say I pity you. If that were so, none has the better +right.” + +“Who gave it you?” she asked me, breathless. + +“Heaven itself, I think,” I answered recklessly. “What you have +suffered, I have suffered for you. When I came to Court the infamy was +a thing accomplished--all of it. But I gathered it, and gathering it, +thanked Heaven I had been spared the pain and misery of witnessing it, +which must have been more than ever I could have endured. Yet when I +saw you, when I watched you--your wistful beauty, your incomparable +grace--there was a time when the thought to murder stirred darkly in my +mind that I might at least avenge you.” + +She fell away before me, white to the very lips, her eyes dilating as +they regarded me. + +“In God's name, why?” she asked me in a strangled voice. + +“Because I loved you,” I replied, “always, always, since the day I saw +you. Unfortunately, that day was years too late, even had I dared to +hope--” + +“Antonio!” Something in her voice drew my averted eyes. Her lips had +parted, her eyes kindled into life, a flush was stirring in her cheeks. + +“And I never knew! I never knew!” she faltered piteously. + +I stared. + +“Dear Heaven, why did you withhold a knowledge that would have upheld +me and enheartened me through all that I have suffered? Once, long, long +ago I hoped--” + +“You hoped!” + +“I hoped, Antonio--long, long ago.” + +We were in each other's arms, she weeping on my shoulder as if her heart +would burst, I almost mad with mingling joy and pain--and as God lives +there was more matter here for pain than joy. + +We sat long together after that, and talked it out. There was no help +for it. It was too late on every count. On her side there was the King, +most jealous of all men, whose chattel she was become; on mine, there +was my wife and children, and so deep and true was my love for Anne that +it awakened in me thoughts of the loyalty I owed Juana, thoughts that +had never troubled me hitherto in my pleasure-loving life--and this not +only as concerned Anne herself, but as concerned all women. There was +something so ennobling and sanctifying about our love that it changed +at once the whole of my life, the whole tenor of my ways. I abandoned +profligacy, and became so staid and orderly in my conduct that I was +scarcely recognizable for the Antonio Perez whom the world had known +hitherto. + +We parted there that day with a resolve to put all this behind us; to +efface from our minds all memory of what had passed between us! Poor +fools were we to imagine we could resist the vortex of circumstance +which had caught us. For three months we kept our engagement +scrupulously; and then, at last, resistance mutually exhausted, we +yielded each to the other, both to Fate. + +But because we cherished our love we moved with caution. I was +circumspect in my comings and goings, and such were the precautions +we observed, that for four years the world had little suspicion, and +certainly no knowledge, that I had inherited from the Prince of Eboli +more than his office as Secretary of State. This secrecy was necessary +as long as Philip lived, for we were both fully aware of what manner of +vengeance we should have to reckon with did knowledge of our relations +reach the jealous King. And I think that but for Don John of Austria's +affairs, and the intervention in them of the Escovedo whom you say--whom +the world says I murdered, all might have been well to this day. + +Escovedo had been, like myself, one of Eboli's secretaries in his day, +and it was this that won him after Eboli's death a place at the Royal +Council board. It was but an inferior place, yet the King remarked him +for a man shrewd and able, who might one day have his uses. + +That day was not very long in coming, though the opportunity it afforded +Escovedo was scarcely such as, in his greedy, insatiable ambition, he +had hoped for. Yet the opportunity, such as it was, was afforded him +by me, and had he used it properly it should have carried him far, +certainly much farther than his talent and condition warranted. + +It came about through Don John of Austria's dreams of sovereignty. You +will have heard--as who has not?--so much of Don John, the natural son +of Charles V, that I need tell you little concerning him. In body and +soul he was a very different man, indeed, from his half-brother Philip +of Spain. As joyous as Philip was gloomy, as open and frank as Philip +was cloudy and suspicious, and as beautiful as Philip was grotesque, Don +John was the Bayard of our day, the very mirror of all knightly graces. +To the victory of Lepanto, which had made him illustrious as a soldier, +he had added, in '73--the year of Eboli's death--the conquest of Tunis, +thereby completing the triumph of Christianity over the Muslim in the +Mediterranean. Success may have turned his head a little. He was young, +you know, and an emperor's son. He dreamt of an empire for himself, of +sovereignty, and of making Tunis the capital of the kingdom he would +found. + +We learnt of this. Indeed, Don John made little secret of his +intentions. But they went not at all with Philip's views. It was far +from his notions that Don John should go founding kingdoms of his own. +His valour and talents were required to be employed for the greater +honour and glory of the Crown of Spain, and nothing further. + +Philip consulted me, who was by then the depositary of all his secrets, +the familiar of his inmost desires. There was evidence that Don John's +ambitions were being fomented by his secretary, who dreamt, no doubt, +of his own aggrandizement in the aggrandizement of his master. Philip +proposed the man's removal. + +“That would be something,” I agreed. “But not enough. He must be +replaced by a man of our own, a man loyal to Your Majesty, who will not +only seek to guide Don John in the course that he should follow, but +will keep close watch upon his projects, and warn you should they +threaten to neglect your interests the interests of Spain, for his own.” + +“And such a man? Where shall we find him?” + +I considered a moment, and bethought me of Escovedo. He was able; he +had charm and an ingratiating manner; I believed him loyal, and imagined +that I could quicken that loyalty by showing him that advancement would +wait upon its observation; he could well be spared from the Council, +where, as I have said, he occupied a quite inferior post; lastly, we +were friends, and I was glad of the opportunity to serve him, and place +him on the road to better things. + +All this I said to Philip, and so the matter was concluded. But Escovedo +failed me. His abilities and ingratiating manner endeared him quickly to +Don John, whilst himself he succumbed entirely, not only to Don John +of Austria's great personal charm, but also to Don John's ambitious +projects. The road to advancement upon which I had set him seemed to him +long and toilsome by contrast with the shorter cut that was offered by +his new master's dreams. He fell as the earlier secretary had fallen, +and more grievously, for he was the more ambitious of the two, and from +merely seconding Don John's projects, it was not long before he spurred +them on, not long before he was dreaming dreams of his own for Don John +to realize. + +From Tunis, which had by now been recovered by the Turks, and any hopes +concerned with which King Philip had discouraged, the eyes of Don John +were set, at Escovedo's bidding, I believe, upon the crown of England. + +He had just been invited by Philip to make ready to take in hand the +affairs of Flanders, sadly disorganized under the incompetent rule of +Alva. It occurred to him that if he were to issue victoriously from that +enterprise--and so far victory had waited upon his every venture--if +he were to succeed in restoring peace and Spanish order in rebellious +Flanders, he would then be able to move against England with the Spanish +troops under his command, overthrow Elizabeth, deliver Mary Stuart from +the captivity in which she languished, and by marriage with her set +the crown of England on his brow. To this great project he sought the +support of Rome, and Rome accorded it very readily being naturally +hostile to the heretic daughter of Anne Boleyn. + +It was Escovedo himself who went as Don John's secret ambassador to the +Vatican in this affair Escovedo, who had been placed with Don John to +act as a curb on that young man's ambitions. Nor did he move with the +prudence he should have observed. + +Knowledge of what was brewing reached us from the Papal Nuncio in +Madrid, who came to see me one day in the matter. + +“I have a dispatch from Rome,” he announced, “in which His Holiness +instructs me to enjoin upon the King that the expedition against England +be now executed, and that he consider bestowing its crown upon Don John +of Austria for the greater honour and glory of Holy Church.” + +I was thunderstruck. The expedition against England, I knew, was no new +project. Three years before a secret envoy from the Queen of Scots, an +Italian named Ridolfi, had come to propose to Philip that, in concert +with the Pope, he should reestablish the Catholic faith in England and +place Mary Stuart upon the throne. It was a scheme attractive to Philip, +since it agreed at once with his policy and his religion. But it had +been abandoned under the dissuasions of Alva, who accounted that it +would be too costly even if successful. Here it was again, emanating now +directly from the Holy See, but in a slightly altered form. + +“Why Don John of Austria?” I asked him. + +“A great soldier of the faith. And the Queen of Scots must have a +husband.” + +“I should have thought that she had had husbands enough by now,” said I. + +“His Holiness does not appear to share that view,” he answered tartly. + +“I wonder will the King,” said I. + +“The Catholic King is ever an obedient child of Mother Church,” the oily +Nuncio reminded me, to reprove my doubt. + +But I knew better--that the King's own policy was the measure of his +obedience. This the Nuncio should learn for himself; for if I knew +anything of Philip's mind, I knew precisely how he would welcome this +proposal. + +“Will you see the King now?” I suggested maliciously, anxious to witness +the humbling of his priestly arrogance. + +“Not yet. It is upon that I came to see you. I am instructed first to +consult with one Escoda as to the manner in which this matter shall be +presented to His Majesty. Who is Escoda?” + +“I never heard of him,” said I. “Perhaps he comes from Rome.” + +“No, no. Strange!” he muttered, frowning, and plucked a parchment from +his sleeve. “It is here.” He peered slowly at the writing, and slowly +spelled out the name: “Juan de Escoda.” + +In a flash it came to me. + +“Escovedo you mean,” I cried, + +“Yes, yes--Escovedo, to be sure,” he agreed, having consulted the +writing once more. “Where is he?” + +“On his way to Madrid with Don John,” I informed him. “He is Don John's +secretary.” + +“I will do nothing, then, until he arrives,” he said, and took his +leave. + +Oh, monstrous indiscretion! That dispatch from Rome so cunningly +and secretly contrived in cipher had yet contained no warning that +Escovedo's share in this should be concealed. There are none so +imprudent as the sly. I sought the King at once, and told him all that +I had learnt. He was aghast. Indeed, I never saw him more near to anger. +For Philip of Spain was not the man to show wrath or any other emotion. +He had a fish-like, cold, impenetrable inscrutability. True, his yellow +skin grew yellower, his gaping mouth gaped wider, his goggle eyes +goggled more than usual. Left to himself, I think he would have +disgraced Don John and banished Escovedo there and then, as he did, +indeed, suggest. And I have since had cause enough to wish to God that I +had left him to himself. + +“Who will replace Don John in Flanders?” I asked him quietly. He stared +at me. “He is useful to you there. Use him, Sire, to your own ends.” + +“But they will press this English business.” + +“Acquiesce.” + +“Acquiesce? Are you mad?” + +“Seem to acquiesce. Temporize. Answer them, 'One thing at a time.' +Say, 'When the Flanders business is happily concluded, we will think of +England.' Give them hope that success in Flanders will dispose you +to support the other project. Thus you offer Don John an incentive to +succeed, yet commit yourself to nothing.” + +“And this dog Escovedo?” + +“Is a dog who betrays himself by his bark. We will listen for it.” + +And thus it was determined; thus was Don John suckled on the windy pap +of hope when presently he came to Court with Escovedo at his heels. +Distended by that empty fare he went off to the Low Countries, leaving +Escovedo in Madrid to represent him, with secret instructions to advance +his plans. + +Now Escovedo's talents were far inferior to my conception of them. + +He was just a greedy schemer, without the wit to dissemble his appetite +or the patience necessary to secure attainment. + +Affairs in Flanders went none too well, yet that did not set a curb +upon him. He pressed his master's business upon the King with an ardour +amounting to disrespect, and disrespect was a thing the awful majesty of +Philip could never brook. Escovedo complained of delays, of indecision, +and finally--in the summer of '76--he wrote the King a letter of fierce +upbraidings, criticizing his policy in terms that were contemptuous, and +which entirely exasperated Philip. + +It was in vain I strove to warn the fellow of whither he was drifting; +in vain I admonished and sought to curb his headlong recklessness. I +have said that I had a friendship for him, and because of that I took +more pains, perhaps, than I should have taken in another's case. + +“Unless you put some judgment into that head of yours, my friend, you +will leave it in this business,” I told him one day. + +He flung into a passion at the admonition, heaped abuse upon me, swore +that it was I who thwarted him, I who opposed the fulfilment of Don +John's desires and fostered the dilatory policy of the King. + +I left him after that to pursue his course, having no wish to quarrel +with this headstrong upstart; yet, liking him as I did, I spared no +endeavour to shield him from the consequences he provoked. But that +letter of his to Philip made the task a difficult one. Philip showed it +to me. + +“If that man,” he said, “had uttered to my face what he has dared to +write, I do not think I should have been able to contain myself without +visible change of countenance. It is a sanguinary letter.” + +I set myself to calm him as best I could. + +“The man is indiscreet, which has its advantage, for we always know +whither an indiscreet man is heading. His zeal for his master blinds him +and makes him rash. It is better, perhaps, than if he were secretive and +crafty.” + +With such arguments I appeased his wrath against the secretary. But I +knew that his hatred of Escovedo, his thirst for Escovedo's blood, dated +from that moment in which Escovedo had forgotten the reverence due to +majesty. I was glad when at last he took himself off to Flanders to +rejoin Don John. But that was very far from setting a term to his +pestering. The Flanders affair was going so badly that the hopes of an +English throne to follow were dwindling fast. Something else must +be devised against the worst, and now Don John and Escovedo began to +consider the acquisition of power in Spain itself. Their ambition aimed +at giving Don John the standing of an Infante. Both of them wrote to me +to advance this fresh project of theirs, to work for their recall, +so that they could ally themselves with my party--the Archbishop's +party--and ensure its continuing supreme. Escovedo wrote me a letter +that was little better than an attempt to bribe me. The King was ageing, +and the Prince was too young to relieve him of the heavy duties of +State. Don John should shoulder these, and in so doing Escovedo and +myself should be hoisted into greater power. + +I carried all those letters to the King, and at his suggestion I even +pretended to lend an ear to these proposals that we might draw from +Escovedo a fuller betrayal of his real ultimate aims. It was dangerous, +and I enjoined the King to move carefully. + +“Be discreet,” I warned him, “for if my artifice were discovered, I +should not be of any further use to you at all. In my conscience I am +satisfied that in acting as I do I am performing no more than my duty. I +require no theology other than my own to understand that much.” + +“My theology,” he answered me, “takes much the same view. You would have +failed in your duty to God and me had you failed to enlighten me on the +score of this deception. These things,” he added in a dull voice, “appal +me.” + +So I wrote to Don John, urging him as one who counselled him for his +good, who had no interest but his own at heart, to remain in Flanders +until the work there should be satisfactorily completed. He did so, +since he was left no choice in the matter, but the intrigues continued. +Later we saw how far he was from having forsaken his dreams of England, +when I discovered that he had engaged the Pope to assist him with six +thousand men and one hundred and fifty thousand ducats when the time for +that adventure should be ripe. + +And then, quite suddenly, entirely unheralded, Escovedo reappeared in +Madrid, having come to press Philip in person for reinforcements that +should enable Don John to finish the campaign. He brought news that +there had been a fresh rupture of the patched-up peace, that Don John +had taken the field once more, and had forcibly made himself master +of Namur. This was contrary to all the orders we had sent, a direct +overriding of Philip's wishes. The King desired peace in the Low +Countries because he was in no case just then to renew the war, and +Escovedo's impudently couched demands completed his exasperation. + +“My will,” he said, “is as naught before the ambitions of these two. +You sent my clear instructions to Escovedo, who was placed with Don John +that he might render him pliant to my wishes. Instead, he stiffens him +in rebellion. There must be an end to this man.” + +“Sire,” I cried, “it may be they think to advance your interests.” + +“Heaven help me!” he cried. “Did ever villain wear so transparent a mask +as this dog Escovedo? To advance my interests--that will be his tale, no +doubt. He will advance them where I do not wish them advanced; he will +advance them to my ruin; he will stake all on a success in Flanders that +shall be the preliminary to a descent upon England in the interests of +Don John. I say there must be an end to this man before he works more +mischief.” + +Again I set myself to calm him, as I had so often done before, and again +I was the shield between Escovedo and the royal lightnings, of whose +menace to blot him out the fool had no suspicion. For months things hung +there, until, in January of '78, when war had been forced in earnest +upon Spain by Elizabeth's support of the Low Countries, Don John won the +great victory of Gemblours. This somewhat raised the King's depression, +somewhat dissipated his overgrowing mistrust of his half-brother, and +gave him patience to read the letters in which Don John urged him to +send money--to throw wood on the fire whilst it was alight, or else +resign himself to the loss of Flanders for all time. As it meant also +resigning himself to the loss of all hope of England for all time, +Escovedo's activities were just then increased a hundredfold. + +“Send me money and Escovedo,” was the burden of the almost daily letters +from Don John to me, and at my elbow was Escovedo, perpetually pressing +me to bend the King to his master's will. Another matter on which he +pressed me then was that I should obtain for himself the governorship of +the Castle of Mogro, which commands the port of Santander, an ambition +this which intrigued me deeply, for I confess I could not fathom what it +had to do with all the rest. + +And then something else happened. From the Spanish Ambassador at the +Louvre we learnt one day of a secret federation entered into between Don +John and the Guises, known as the Defence of the Two Crowns. Its object +was as obscure as its title. But it afforded the last drop to the cup +of Philip's mistrust. This time it was directly against Don John that +he inveighed to me. And to defend Don John, in the interests of common +justice, I was forced to place the blame where it belonged. + +“Nay, Sire,” I assured him, “these ambitions are not Don John's. With +all his fevered dreams of greatness, Don John has ever been, will ever +be, loyal to his King.” + +“If you know anything of temptation,” he answered me, “you should know +that there is a breaking-point to every man's resistance of it. How long +will Don John remain loyal while Escovedo feeds his disloyalty, adds +daily to the weight of temptation the burden of a fresh ambition? I tell +you, man, I feel safe no longer.” He rose up before me, a blotch on his +sallow face, his fingers tugging nervously at the tuft of straw-coloured +beard. “I tell you some blow is about to fall unless we avert it. This +man this fellow Escovedo--must be dispatched before he can kill us.” + +I shrugged and affected carelessness to soothe him. + +“A contemptible dreamer,” I said. “Pity him, Sire. He has his uses. +To remove him would be to remove a channel through which we can always +obtain knowledge precisely of what is doing.” + +Again I prevailed, and there the matter hung a while. But the King was +right, his fears were well inspired. Escovedo, always impatient, +was becoming desperate under persistent frustration. I reasoned with +him--was he not still my friend?--I held him off, urged prudence and +patience upon him, and generally sought to temporize. I was as intent +upon saving him from leaving his skin in this business as I was, on the +other hand, intent upon doing my duty without pause or scruple to my +King. But the fool forced my hand. A Court is a foul place always, even +so attenuated a Court as that which Philip of Spain encouraged. Rumour +thrives in it, scandal blossoms luxuriantly in its fetid atmosphere. +And rumour and scandal had been busy with the Princess of Eboli and me, +though I did not dream it. + +We had been indiscreet, no doubt. We had been seen together in public +too often. We had gone to the play together more than once; she had been +present with me at a bull-fight on one occasion, and it was matter of +common gossip, as I was to learn, that I was a too frequent visitor at +her house. + +Another visitor there was Escovedo when in Madrid. Have I not said +that in his early days he had been one of Eboli's secretaries? On +that account the house of Eboli remained open to him at all times. The +Princess liked him, was kindly disposed towards him, and encouraged his +visits. We met there more than once. One day we left together, and +that day the fool set spark to a train that led straight to the mine on +which, all unconsciously, he stood. + +“A word of advice in season, Don Antonio,” he said as we stepped forth +together. “Do not go so often to visit the Princess.” + +I sought to pull my arm from his, but he clung to it and pinned it to +his side. + +“Nay, now--nay, now!” he soothed me. “Not so hot, my friend. What the +devil have I said to provoke resentment? I advise you as your friend.” + +“In future advise that other friend of yours, the devil,” I answered +angrily, and pulled my arm away at last. “Don Juan, you have presumed, I +think. I did not seek your advice. It is yourself that stands in need of +advice this moment more than any man in Spain.” + +“Lord of the World,” he exclaimed in amiable protest, “listen to him! +I speak because I owe friendship to the Princess. Men whisper of your +comings and goings, I tell you. And the King, you know well, should he +hear of this I am in danger of losing my only friend at Court, and so--” + +“Another word of this,” I broke in fiercely, “now or at any other time, +and I'll skewer you like a rabbit!” + +I had stopped. My face was thrust within a hand's-breadth of his own; I +had tossed back my cloak, and my fingers clutched the hilt of my sword. +He became grave. His fine eyes--he had great, sombre, liquid eyes, such +as you'll scarcely ever see outside of Spain--considered me thoughtfully +a moment. Then he laughed lightly and fell back a pace. + +“Pish!” said he. “Saint James! I am no rabbit for your skewering. If +it comes to skewers, I am a useful man of my hands, Antonio. Come, +man”--and again he took my arm--“if I presume, forgive it out of the +assurance that I am moved solely by interest and concern for you. We +have been friends too long that I should be denied.” + +I had grown cool again, and I realized that perhaps my show of anger had +been imprudent. So I relented now, and we went our ways together without +further show of ill-humour on my part, or further advice on his. But +the matter did not end there. Indeed, it but began. Going early in the +afternoon of the morrow to visit Anne, I found her in tears--tears, as I +was to discover, of anger. + +Escovedo had been to visit her before me, and he had dared to reproach +her on the same subject. + +“You are talked about, you and Perez,” he had informed her, “and the +thing may have evil consequences. It is because I have eaten your bread +that I tell you this for your own good.” + +She had risen up in a great passion. + +“You will leave my house, and never set foot in it again,” she had told +him. “You should learn that grooms and lackeys have no concern in the +conduct of great ladies. It is because you have eaten my bread that I +tell you this for your own good.” + +It drove him out incontinently, but it left her in the condition in +which I was later to discover her. I set myself to soothe her. I swore +that Escovedo should be punished. But she would not be soothed. She +blamed herself for an unpardonable rashness. She should not have taken +that tone with Escovedo. He could avenge himself by telling Philip, +and if he told Philip, and Philip believed him--as Philip would, being +jealous and mistrustful beyond all men--my ruin must follow. She had +thought only of herself in dismissing him in that high-handed manner. +Coming since to think of me it was that she had fallen into this +despair. She clung to me in tears. + +“Forgive me, Antonio. The fault is all mine--the fault of all. Always +have I known that this danger must overhang you as a penalty for loving +me. Always I knew it, and, knowing it, I should have been stronger. I +should have sent you from me at the first. But I was so starved of love +from childhood till I met you. I hungered so for love--for your love, +Antonio--that I had not the strength. I was weak and selfish, and +because I was ready and glad to pay the price myself, whatever it should +be and whenever asked, I did not take thought enough for you.” + +“Take no thought now,” I implored her, holding her close. + +“I must. I can't help it. I have raised this peril for you. He will go +to Philip.” + +“Not he; he dare not. I am his only hope. I am the ladder by which he +hopes to scale the heaven of his high ambition. If he destroys me, there +is the kennel for himself. He knows it.” + +“Do you say that to comfort me, or is it really true?” + +“God's truth, sweetheart,” I swore, and drew her closer. + +She was comforted long before I left her. But as I stepped out into +the street again a man accosted me. Evidently he had been on the watch, +awaiting me. He fell into step beside me almost before I realized his +presence. It was Escovedo. + +“So,” he said, very sinister, “you'll not be warned.” + +“Nor will you,” I answered, no whit less sinister myself. + +It was broad daylight. A pale March sunshine was beating down upon the +cobbled streets, and passers-by were plentiful. There was no fingering +of hilts or talk of skewering on either side. Nor must I show any of +the anger that was boiling in me. My face was too well known in Madrid +streets, and a Secretary of State does not parade emotions to the +rabble. So I walked stiff and dignified amain, that dog in step with me +the while. + +“She will have told you what I have said to her,” he murmured. + +“And what she said to you. It was less than your deserts.” + +“Groom and lackey, eh?” said he. “And less than I deserve--a man of my +estate. Oh, ho! Groom and lackey! Those are epithets to be washed out in +blood and tears.” + +“You rant,” I said. + +“Or else to be paid for--handsomely.” His tone was sly--so sly that +I answered nothing, for to answer a sly man is to assist him, and my +business was to let him betray the cause of this slyness. Followed a +spell of silence. Then, “Do you know,” said he, “that several of her +relatives are thinking seriously of killing you?” + +“Many men have thought seriously of that--so seriously that they never +attempted it. Antonio Perez is not easily murdered, Don Juan, as you may +discover.” + +It was a boast that I may claim to have since justified. + +“Shall I tell you their names?” quoth he. + +“If you want to ruin them.” + +“Ha!” It was a short bark of a laugh. “You talk glibly of ruining--but +then you talk to a groom and lackey.” The epithets rankled in his mind; +they were poison to his blood, it seemed. It takes a woman to find words +that burn and blister a man. “Yet groom and lackey that I am, I hold you +both in the hollow of my hand. If I close that hand, it will be very bad +for you, very bad for her. If, for instance, I were to tell King Philip +that I have seen her in your arms--” + +“You dog!” + +“I have--I swear to God I have, with these two eyes--at least with one +of them, applied to the keyhole half an hour ago. Her servants passed me +in; a ducat or two well bestowed--you understand?” + +We had reached the door of my house. I paused and turned to him. + +“You will come in?” I invited. + +“As the wolf said to the lamb, eh? Well, why not?” And we went in. + +“You are well housed,” he commented, his greedy, envious eyes +considering all the tokens of my wealth. “It were a pity to lose so +much, I think. The King is at the Escurial, I am told.” + +He was. He had gone thither into retreat, that he might cleanse his +pious, murky soul against the coming of Eastertide. + +“You would not, I am sure, compel me to undertake so tedious a journey,” + said he. + +“Will you put off this slyness and be plain?” I bade him. “You have some +bargain in your mind. Propound it.” + +He did, and left me aghast. + +“You have temporized long enough, Perez,” he began. “You have been +hunting with the dogs and running with the stag. There must be an end +to all that. Stand by me now, and I will make you greater than you are, +greater than you could ever dream to be. Oppose me, betray me--for I am +going to be very frank--and the King shall hear things from me that will +mean your ruin and hers. You understand?” + +Then came his demands. First of all the command of the fortress of Mogro +for himself. I must obtain him that at once. Secondly, I must see to +it that Philip pledged himself to support Don John's expedition against +England and Elizabeth and to seat Don John upon the throne with Mary +Stuart for his wife. These things must come about, and quickly, or I +perished. Nor was that all. Indeed, no more than a beginning. He opened +out the vista of his dreams, that having blackmailed me on the one hand, +he might now bribe me on the other. Once England was theirs, he aimed at +no less than a descent upon Spain itself. That was why he wanted Mogro +to facilitate a landing at Santander. Thus, as the Christians had +originally come down from the mountains of the Asturias to drive the +Moors from the Peninsula, so should the forces of Don John descend again +to reconquer it for himself. + +It was a madman's fancy utterly--fruit of a brain that ambition had +completely addled; and I do not believe that Don John had any part in it +or even knowledge of it. Escovedo saw himself, perhaps, upon the throne +of one or the other of the two kingdoms as Don John's vice-regent--for +himself and for me, if I stood by him, there was such power in store as +no man ever dreamed of. If I refused, he would destroy me. + +“And if I go straight to the Escurial and lay this project before the +King?” I asked him. + +He smiled. + +“You will force me to tell him that it is a lie invented to deliver you +from a man who can destroy you by the knowledge he possesses, knowledge +which I shall at once impart to Philip. Think what that will mean to +you. Think,” he added very wickedly, “what it will mean to her.” + +As I am a Christian, I believe that had it been but the consideration +of myself I would have flung him from my house upon the instant and bade +him do his worst. But he was well advised to remind me of her. Whatever +Philip's punishment of me, it would be as nothing to his punishment of +that long-suffering woman who had betrayed him. Oh, I assure you it is +a very evil, ill judged thing to have a king for rival, particularly a +fish-souled tyrant of King Philip's kind. + +I was all limp with dread. I passed a hand across my brow, and found it +chill and moist. + +“I am in your hands, Escovedo,” I confessed miserably. + +“Say, rather, that we are partners. Forget all else.” He was eager, +joyous, believing all accomplished, such was his faith in my influence +with Philip. “And now, Mogro for me, and England for Don John. About it +with dispatch.” + +“The King is in retreat. We must wait some days.” + +“Till Easter, then.” And he held out his hand. I took it limply, thus +clenching the bargain of infamy between us. What else was there for me. +What, otherwise, was to become of Anne? + +Oh, I may have been self-seeking and made the most of my position, as +was afterwards urged against me. I may have been extortionate and venal, +and I may have taken regal bribes to expedite affairs. But always was +I loyal and devoted to the King. Never once had I been bribed to aught +that ran counter to his interests; never until now, when at a stroke I +had sold my honour and pledged myself to this betrayal of my trust. + +Not in all Spain was there a more miserable man than I. All night I sat +in the room where I was wont to work, and to my wife's entreaties that +I should take some rest I answered that the affairs of Spain compelled +attention. And when morning found me haggard and distraught came a +courier from Philip with a letter. + +“I have letters from Don John,” he wrote, “more insistent than ever in +their tone. He demands the instant dispatch of money and Escovedo. I +have been thinking, and this letter confirms my every fear. I have cause +to apprehend some stroke that may disturb the public peace and ruin +Don John himself if he is allowed to retain Escovedo any longer in his +service. I am writing to Don John that I will see to it that Escovedo is +promptly dispatched as he requests. Do you see him dispatched, then, +in precise accordance with his deserts, and this at once, before the +villain kills us.” + +My skin bristled as I read. Here was fatality itself at work. Philip was +at his old fears--and, Heaven knows, he was not without justification of +his intuitions, as I had learnt by now--that Escovedo meditated the most +desperate measures. He was urging me again, as he had urged me before, +and more than once, to dispatch this traitor whose restless existence so +perpetually perturbed him. I was not deceived as to the meaning he set +upon that word “dispatch.” I knew quite well the nature of the dispatch +he bade me contrive. + +Conceive now my temptation. Escovedo dead, I should be safe, and Anne +would be safe, and this without any such betrayal as was being forced +upon me. And that death the King himself commanded a secret, royal +execution, such as his confessor Frey Diego de Chaves has since defended +as an expedient measure within the royal prerogative. He had commanded +it before quite unequivocally, but always I had stood between Escovedo +and the sword. Was I to continue in that attitude? Could it humanly be +expected of me in all the circumstances again to seek to deflect the +royal wrath from that too daring head? I was, after all, only a man, +subject to the temptations of the flesh, and there was a woman whom I +loved better than my own salvation to whose peace and happiness that +fellow Escovedo was become a menace. + +If he lived, and for as long as he lived, she and I were to be as slaves +of his will, and I was to drag my honour and my loyalty through the foul +kennels of his disordered ambitions. And the King my master was bidding +me clearly see to it that he died immediately. + +I sat down and wrote at once, and the burden of my letter was: “Be more +explicit, Sire. What manner of dispatch is it your will that Escovedo +should be given?” + +On the morrow, which was Thursday of Holy Week, that note of mine +was returned to me, and on the margin of it, in Philip's own hand, +Escovedo's death-warrant. “I mean that it would be well to hasten the +death of this rascal before some act of his should render it too late; +for he never rests, nor will anything turn him from his usual ways. Do +it, then, and do it quickly, before he kills us.” + +There was no more to be said. My instructions were clear and definite. +Obedience alone remained. I went about it. + +Just as all my life I have been blessed with the staunchest friends, so +have I, too, been blessed with the most faithful servants. And of these +none was more faithful than my steward, Diego Martinez, unless, indeed, +it be my equerry, Gil de Mesa, who to this day follows my evil fortunes. +But Mesa at that time was as yet untried, whilst in Diego I knew that I +had a man devoted to me heart and soul, a man who would allow himself to +be torn limb from limb on the rack on my behalf. + +I placed the affair in Diego's hands. I told him that I was acting +under orders from the King, and that the thing at issue was the private +execution of a dangerous traitor, who could not be brought to trial lest +there he should impeach of complicity one whose birth and blood must be +shielded from all scandal. I bade him get what men he required, and see +the thing done with the least possible delay. And thereupon I instantly +withdrew from Madrid and went to Alcala. + +Diego engaged five men to assist him in the task; these were a young +officer named Enriquez, a lackey named Rubio, the two Aragonese--Mesa +and Insausti--and another whose name was Bosque. He clearly meant to +take no chances, but I incline to think that he overdid precaution, and +employed more hands than were necessary for the job. However, the six of +them lurked in waiting on three successive nights for Escovedo near his +house in the little square of Santiago. At last, on the night of Easter +Monday, March 31st, they caught him and dispatched him. He died almost +before he realized himself beset, from a sword-thrust with which +Insausti transfixed him. But there were at least half a dozen wounds in +the body when it was found. Diego, I have said, was a man who made quite +certain. + +No sooner was it done than they dispersed, whilst the lackey Rubio, +instantly quitting Madrid, brought me news of the deed to Alcala, and +the assurance that no arrests had been made. But there was a great ado +in Madrid upon the morrow, as you may imagine, for it is no everyday +occurrence to find a royal secretary murdered in the streets. + +The alcaldes set out upon a rigorous search, and they began by arresting +and questioning all who attempted to leave the city. On the next day +they harassed with their perquisitions all those who let lodgings. +They were still at this work in the evening when I returned to Madrid, +brought back--as it would seem--from my country rest by the news of this +murder of my friend and colleague. I bore myself as I should have done +had I no knowledge of how the thing had been contrived. That was a +necessity as imperative as it was odious, and no part of it more odious +than the visit of condolence I was forced to pay to the Escovedo family, +which I found plunged in grief. + +From the very outset suspicion pointed its finger at me, although there +were no visible traces to connect me with the deed. Rumour, however, +was astir, and as I had powerful friends, so, too, I had the powerful +enemies which envy must always be breeding for men in high places +such as mine. Escovedo's wife mistrusted me, though at first she seems +equally to have suspected in this deed the hand of the Duke of Alva, who +was hostile to Don John and all his creatures. Very soon, as a result of +this, came the Court alcalde to visit and question me. His stated object +was in the hope that I might give him information which would lead to +the discovery of the assassin; but his real object, rendered apparent +by the searching, insistent nature of his questions, was to lead me +to incriminate myself. I presented a bold front. I pretended to see in +this, perhaps, the work of the Flemish States. I deplored--that I might +remind him of it--my absence from Madrid at the time. + +He was followed by another high official, who came in simulated +friendship to warn me that certain rumours linking me with the deed were +in circulation, in reality to trap me into some admission, to watch my +countenance for some betraying sign. + +I endured it stoutly, but inwardly I was shaken, as I wrote to Philip, +giving him full details of what had been said and what answers I had +returned, what bitter draughts I had been forced to swallow. + +He wrote in reply: “I find that you answered very well. Continue to +be prudent. They will tell you a thousand things, not for the sake +of telling them, but in the hope of drawing something out of you. +The bitter draughts you mention are inevitable. But use all the +dissimulation and address of which you are capable.” + +We corresponded daily after that, and I told him of every step I took; +how I kept my men about me, for fear that if they attempted to leave +Madrid they would be arrested, and how, finally, I contrived their +departure one by one, under conditions that placed them beyond all +suspicion. Juan de Mesa set out for Aragon on a mission concerned with +the administration of some property of the Princess of Eboli's. Rubio, +Insausti, and Enriquez were each given an ensign's commission, bearing +the King's own signature, and ordered to join the armies in various +parts of Italy; the first was sent to Milan, the second to Sicily, and +the last to Naples. Bosque went back to Aragon. Thus all were placed +beyond the reach of the active justice of Castile, all save myself--and +the King, who wrote to me expressing his satisfaction that there had +been no arrests. + +But rumour continued to give tongue, and the burden of its tale was that +the murder had been my work, in complicity with the Princess of Eboli. +How they came to drag her name into the affair I do not know. It may +have been pure malice trading upon its knowledge of the relations +between us. She may have lent colour to the charge by her own +precipitancy in denying it. She announced indignantly that she was +being accused, almost before this had come to pass, and as indignantly +protested against the accusation, and threatened those who dared to +voice it. + +The end of it all was that, a month later, the Escovedo family drew up +a memorial for the consideration of the King, in which they laid the +murder to my charge, and Philip consented to receive Don Pedro de +Escovedo--the dead man's son--and promised him that he would consider +the memorial, and that he would deliver up to justice whomsoever he +thought right. He was embarrassed by these demands of the Escovedos, my +own danger, his duty as king, and his interests as an accomplice, or, +rather, as the originator of the deed. + +The Escovedos were powerfully seconded by Vasquez, the Secretary of the +Council, a member of Alva's party, a secret enemy of my own, consumed +by jealousy of my power, and no longer fearing to disclose himself and +assail me since he believed himself possessed of the means of ruining +me. He spoke darkly to the King of a woman concerned in this business, +without yet daring to mention Anne by name, and urged him for the +satisfaction of the State, where evil rumours were abroad, to order an +inquiry that should reveal the truth of the affair. + +It was Philip himself who informed me of what had passed, sneering at +the wildness of rumours that missed the truth so wildly, and when I +evinced distress at my position, he sought to reassure me; he even wrote +to me after I had left him: “As long as I live you have nothing to fear. +Others may change, but I never change, as you should know who know me.” + +That was a letter that epitomized many others written me in those days +to Madrid from the Escurial, whither he had returned. And those letters +comforted me not only by their expressed assurances, but by the greater +assurance implicit in them of the King's good faith. I had by now a +great mass of his notes dealing with the Escovedo business, in almost +every one of which he betrayed his own share as the chief murderer, +showing that I was no more than his dutiful instrument in that +execution. With those letters in my power what need I ever fear? Not +Philip himself would dare to betray me. + +But I went now in a new dread--the dread of being myself murdered. There +were threats of it in the air. The Escovedo family and their partisans, +who included all my enemies, and even some members of the Eboli family, +who considered that I had sullied the honour of their name by my +relations with Anne, talked openly of vengeance, so that I was driven to +surround myself by armed attendants whenever now I went abroad. + +I appealed again to Philip to protect me. I even begged him to permit +me to retire from my Ministerial office, that thus the clamant envy that +inspired my persecution might be deprived of its incentive. Finally, +I begged him to order me to stand my trial, that thus, since I was +confident that no evidence could be produced against me, I should force +an acquittal from the courts and lay the matter to rest for all time. + +“Go and see the President of Castile,” he bade me. “Tell him the causes +that led to the death of Escovedo, and then let him talk to Don Pedro de +Escovedo and to Vasquez, so as to induce them to desist.” + +I did as I was bidden, and when the president, who was the Bishop of +Pati, had heard me, he sent for my two chief enemies. + +“I have, Don Pedro,” he said, “your memorial to the King in which you +accuse Don Antonio Perez of the murder of your father. And I am to +assure you in the King's name that justice will be done upon the +murderer, whoever he may be, without regard to rank. But I am first +to engage you to consider well what evidence you have to justify your +charge against a person of such consideration. For should your proofs be +insufficient I warn you that matters are likely to take a bad turn for +yourself. Finally, before you answer me, let me add, upon my word as a +priest, that Antonio Perez is as innocent as I am.” + +It was the truth--the absolute truth, so far as it was known to Philip +and to the Bishop--for, indeed, I was no more than the instrument of my +master's will. + +Don Pedro looked foolish, almost awed. He was as a man who suddenly +becomes aware that he has missed stepping over the edge of a chasm in +which destruction awaited him. He may have bethought him at last that +all his rantings had no better authority than suspicions which no +evidence could support. + +“Sir,” he faltered, “since you tell me this, I pledge you my word on +behalf of myself and my family to make no more mention of this death +against Don Antonio.” + +The Bishop swung then upon Vasquez, and his brow became furrowed with +contemptuous anger. + +“As for you, sir, you have heard--which was more than your due, for +it is not your business by virtue of your office, nor have you any +obligations towards the deceased, such as excuse Don Pedro's rashness, +to pursue the murderers of Escovedo. Your solicitude in this matter +brings you under a suspicion the more odious since you are a priest. +I warn you, sir, to abstain, for this affair is different far from +anything that you imagine.” + +But envy is a fierce goad, a consuming, irresistible passion, corroding +wisdom and deaf to all prudent counsels. Vasquez could not abstain. +Ridden by his devil of spite and jealousy, he would not pause until he +had destroyed either himself or me. + +Since Escovedo's immediate family now washed their hands of the affair, +Vasquez sought out more distant relatives of the murdered man, and +stirred them up until they went in their turn to pester the courts, +not only with accusations against myself, but with accusations that now +openly linked with mine the name of the Princess of Eboli. + +We were driven to the brink of despair, and in this Anne wrote to +Philip. It was a madness. She made too great haste to excuse herself. +She demanded protection from Vasquez and the evil rumours he was putting +abroad, implored the King to make an example of men who could push +so far their daring and irreverence, and to punish that Moorish dog +Vasquez--I dare say there was Moorish blood in the fellow's veins--as he +deserved. + +I think our ruin dated from that letter. Philip sent for me to the +Escurial. He wished to know more precisely what the accusations were. +I told him, denying them. Then he desired of the Princess proof of what +she alleged against Vasquez, and she had no difficulty in satisfying +him. He seemed to believe our assurance that all was lies. Yet he did +not move to punish Vasquez. But then I knew that sluggishness was his +great characteristic. “Time and I are one,” he would say when I pressed +on matters. + +After that it was open war in the Council between me and Vasquez. The +climax came when I was at the Escurial. I had sent a servant to Vasquez +for certain State papers to be submitted to the King. He brought them, +and folded in them a fiercely denunciatory letter full of insults and +injuries, not the least of which was the imputation that my blood was +not clean, my caste not good. + +In a passion I sought Philip, beside myself almost, trembling under the +insult. + +“See, Sire, what this Moorish thief has dared to write me. It transcends +all bearing. Either you take satisfaction for me of these insults or you +permit me to take it for myself.” + +He appeared to share my indignation, promised to give me leave to +proceed against the man, but bade me first wait a while until certain +business in the competent hands of Vasquez should be transacted. But +weeks grew into months, and nothing was done. We were in April of '79, +a year after the murder, and I was grown so uneasy, so sensitive to +dangers about me, that I dared no longer visit Anne. And then Philip's +confessor, Frey Diego de Chaves, came to me one day with a request on +the King's part that I should make my peace with Vasquez. + +“If he will retract,” was my condition. And Chaves went to see my enemy. +What passed between them, what Vasquez may have told him, what he may +have added to those rumours of my relations with Anne, I do not know. +But I know that from that date there was a change in the King's attitude +towards me, a change in the tone of the letters that he sent me, and, +this continuing, I wrote to him at last releasing him from his promise +to afford me satisfaction against Vasquez, assuring him that since, +himself, he could forgive the injuries against us both, I could easily +forgive those I had received myself, and finally begging his permission +to resign my office and retire. + +Anne had contributed to this. She had sent for me, and in tears had +besought me to make my peace with Vasquez since the King desired it, +and this was no time in which to attempt resistance to his wishes. I +remained with her some hours, comforting her, for she was in the very +depths of despair, persuaded that we were both ruined, and inconsolable +in the thought that the blame of this was all her own. + +It may be that I was watched, perhaps more closely than I imagined. It +may be that spies were close about us, set by the jealous Philip, who +desired confirmation or refutation of the things he had been told, the +rumours that were gnawing at his vitals. + +I left her, little dreaming that I was never to see her again in this +life. That night I was arrested at my house by the Court alcalde upon an +order from the King. The paltry reason advanced was my refusal to make +my peace with Vasquez, and this when already the King was in possession +of my letter acknowledging my readiness to do so; for the King was in +Madrid, unknown to me. He came, it seems, that he might be present at +another arrest effected that same night. From the porch of the Church +of Santa Maria Mayor, he watched his alguazils enter the house of the +Princess of Eboli, bring her forth, bestow her in a waiting carriage +that was to bear her away to the fortress of Pinto, to an imprisonment +which was later exchanged for exile to Pastrana lasting as long as life +itself. + +To sin against a Prince is worse, it seems, than to sin against God +Himself. For God forgives, but princes, wounded in their vanity and +pride, know nothing of forgiveness. + +I was kept for four months a prisoner by the alcalde, no charge being +preferred against me. Then, because my health was suffering grievously +from confinement and the anxiety of suspense, I was moved to my own +house, and detained there for another eight months under close guard. My +friends besought the King in vain either to restore me to liberty or +to bring me to trial. He told them the affair was of a nature very +different from anything they deemed, and so evaded all demands. + +In the summer of 1580, Philip went to Lisbon to take formal possession +of the crown of Portugal, which he had inherited. I sent my wife to him +to intercede for me. But he refused to see her, and so I was left to +continue the victim of his vindictive lethargy. After a year of this, +upon my giving a formal promise to renounce all hostility towards +Vasquez, and never seek to do him harm in any way, I was accorded some +degree of liberty. I was allowed to go out and to receive visitors, but +not to visit any one myself. + +Followed a further pause. Vasquez was now a man of power, for my party +had fallen with me, and his own had supplanted it in the royal councils. +It was by his work that at last, in '84, I was brought to trial upon a +charge of corruption and misappropriation. I knew that my enemies had, +meanwhile, become possessed of Enriquez, and that he was ready to give +evidence, that he was making no secret of his share in the death of +Escovedo, and that the King was being pressed by the Escovedos to bring +me to trial upon the charge of murder. Instead, the other charge alone +was preferred. + +It was urged against me that I had kept a greater state than any grandee +of Spain, that when I went abroad I did so with a retinue befitting +a prince, that I had sold my favour and accepted bribes from foreign +princes to guard their interests with the King of Spain. + +They sentenced me to two years' imprisonment in a fortress, to be +followed by ten years of exile, and I was to make, within nine days, +restitution of some twenty million maravedis*--the alleged extent of +my misappropriations--besides some jewels and furniture which I had +received from the Princess of Eboli, and which I was now ordered to +deliver up to the heirs of the late Prince. + + +*Ten thousand pounds, but with at least five times the present +purchasing power of that sum. + +Perquisitions had been made in my house, and my papers ransacked. Well +I knew what they had sought. For the thought of the letters that had +passed between Philip and myself at the time of Escovedo's death must +now be troubling his peace of mind. I had taken due precautions when +first I had seen the gathering clouds foreshadowing this change of +weather. I had bestowed those papers safely in two iron-bound chests +which had been concealed away against the time when I might need them +to save my neck. And because now he failed to find what he +sought--the evidence of his own share in the deed and his present base +duplicity--Philip dared not slip the leash from those dogs who would +be at my throat for the murder of Escovedo. That was why he bade them +proceed against me only on the lesser charge of corruption. + +I was taken to the fortress of Turruegano, and there they came to +demand of me the surrender of my papers which the alcalde had failed to +discover at my house. I imagined the uneasiness of Philip in dispatching +those emissaries. I almost laughed as I refused. Those papers were my +buckler against worse befalling me than had befallen already. Even now, +if too hard pressed, I might find the opportunity of breaking my bonds +by means of them. I sometimes wonder why I did not apply myself to that. +Yet there is small cause for wonder, really. From boyhood, almost, King +Philip had been my master. Loyalty to him was a habit that went to the +very roots of my being. I had served him without conscience and without +scruple, and the notion of betraying him, save as a very last and very +desperate resource, was inconceivable. I do not think he ever knew the +depth and breadth of that loyalty of mine. + +My refusal led those sons of dogs to attempt to frighten my wife with +threats of unmentionable horrors unless she delivered up the papers +I had secreted. She and our children were threatened with perpetual +imprisonment on bread and water if she persisted in refusing to +surrender them. But she held out against all threats, and remained firm +even under the oily persecution to the same end of Philip's confessor, +Frey Diego. Finally, I was notified that, in view of her stubbornness +and my own, she and our children were cast into prison, and that there +they would remain until I saw fit to become submissive to the royal +will. + +It is a subtle form of mental torture that will bid a man contemplate +the suffering for his sake to which those who are dear to him are being +subjected. + +I raged and stormed before the officer who brought me this infamous +piece of news. I gave vent to my impotent anger in blasphemous +expressions that were afterwards to be used against me. The officer was +subtly sympathetic. + +“I understand your grief, Don Antonio,” he said. “Believe me, I feel +for you--so much that I urge you to set an end to the captivity of those +dear ones who are innocent, who are suffering for your sake.” + +“And so make an end of myself?” I asked him fiercely. + +“Reflection may show that even that is your duty in the circumstances.” + +I looked into his smug face, and I was within an ace of striking him. +Then I controlled myself, and my will was snapped. + +“Very well,” I said. “The papers shall be surrendered. Let my steward, +Diego Martinez, come to me here, and he shall receive my instructions +to deliver the chests containing them to my wife, that she in turn may +deliver them to the King.” + +He withdrew, well pleased. No doubt he would take great credit to +himself for this. Within three days, such haste did they make, my +faithful steward stood before me in my prison at Turruegano. + +You conceive the despair that had overwhelmed me after giving my +consent, the consciousness that it was my life I was surrendering with +those papers,--that without them I should be utterly defenceless. But +in the three days that were sped I had been thinking, and not quite in +vain. + +Martinez left me with precise instructions, as a result of which those +two iron-bound chests, locked and sealed, were delivered, together +with the keys, to the royal confessor. Martinez was asked what they +contained. + +“I do not know,” he answered. “My orders are merely to deliver them.” + +I can conceive the King's relief and joy in his conviction that thus had +he drawn my teeth, that betide now what might, I could never defend or +justify myself. The immediate sequel took me by surprise. We were at +the end of '85, and my health was suffering from my confinement and +its privations. And now my captivity was mitigated. My wife Juana even +succeeded in obtaining permission that I should be taken home to Madrid, +and there for fourteen months I enjoyed a half liberty, and received the +visits of my old friends, among whom were numbered most of the members +of the Court. + +I imagined at first that since my teeth were drawn the King despised me, +and intended nothing further. But I was soon to be disillusioned on that +score. It began with the arrest of Martinez on a charge of complicity in +the murder of Escovedo. And then one day I was again arrested, without +warning, and carried off for a while to the fortress of Pinto. Thence +I was brought back in close captivity to Madrid, and there I learnt at +last what had been stirring. + +In the previous summer King Philip had gone into Aragon to preside +over the Cortes, and Vasquez, who had gone with him, had seized +the opportunity to examine the ensign Enriquez, who had, meanwhile, +denounced himself of complicity in the murder of Escovedo. Enriquez made +a full confession--turned accuser under a promise of full pardon +for himself and charged Mesa, Rubio, and my steward Martinez with +complicity, denouncing Martinez as the ringleader of the business. The +other two, Insausti and Bosque, were already dead. + +Immediately Vasquez attempted to seize the survivors. But Mesa had gone +to earth in Aragon, and Rubio was with him. Martinez alone remained, +and him they seized and questioned. He remained as cool and master of +himself as he was true and loyal to me. Their threats made no impression +on him. He maintained that the tale was all a lie, begotten of spite, +that I had been Escovedo's best friend, that I had been greatly +afflicted by his death, and that no man could have done more than I to +discover his real murderers. They confronted him with Enriquez, and +the confrontation no whit disturbed him. He handled the traitor +contemptuously as a perjured, suborned witness, a false servant, a man +who, as he proceeded to show, was a scoundrel steeped in crime, whose +word was utterly worthless, and who, no doubt, had been bought to bring +these charges against his sometime master. + +The situation, thanks to Martinez's stoutness, had reached a deadlock. +Between the assertions of one man, who was revealed to the judges for a +worthless scoundrel, and the denials of the other, against whom nothing +was known, it was impossible for the court of inquiry to reach any +conclusion. At least another witness must be obtained. And Vasquez +laboured with all his might and arts and wiles to draw Rubio out of +Aragon into the clutches of the justice of Castile. But he laboured in +vain, for I had secretly found the means to instruct my trusty Mesa to +retain the fellow where he was. + +In this inconclusive state of things the months dragged on and my +captivity continued. I wrote to Philip, imploring his mercy, complaining +of these unjust delays on the part of Vasquez, which threatened to go +on forever, and begging His Majesty to command the conclusion of the +affair. That was in August of '89. You see how time had sped. All that +came of my appeal was at first an increased rigour of imprisonment, and +then a visit from Vasquez to examine and question me upon the +testimony of Enriquez. As you can imagine, the attempt to lure me into +self-betrayal was completely fruitless. My enemy withdrew, baffled, to +go question my wife, but without any better success. + +Nevertheless, Vasquez proclaimed the charge established against myself +and Martinez, and allowed us ten days in which to prepare our answer. +Immediately upon that Don Pedro de Escovedo lodged a formal indictment +against us, and I was put into irons. + +To rebut the evidence of one single, tainted witness I produced six +witnesses of high repute, including the Secretary of the Council of +Aragon. They testified for me that I was at Alcala at the time of +Escovedo's death, that I had always been Escovedo's friend, that I was +a good Christian incapable of such a deed, and that Enriquez as an evil +man whose word was worthless, a false witness inspired by vengeance. + +Thus, in spite of the ill-will of my judges and the hatred of my +enemies, it was impossible legally to condemn me upon the evidence. +There were documents enough in existence to have proved my part in the +affair; but not one of them dared the King produce, since they would +also show me to have been no more than his instrument. And so, desiring +my death as it was now clear he did, he must sit impotently brooding +there with what patience he could command, like a gigantic, evil spider +into whose web I obstinately refused to fling myself. + +My hopes began to revive. When at last the court announced that it +postponed judgment whilst fresh evidence was sought, there was an outcry +of indignation on all sides. This was a tyrannical abuse of power, +men said; and I joined my voice to theirs to demand that judgment +be pronounced and my liberty restored to me, pointing out that I +had already languished years in captivity without any charge against +me--beyond that of corruption, which had been purged by now--having been +established. + +Then at last the King stirred in his diabolical underground manner. He +sent his confessor to me in prison. The friar was mild and benign. + +“My poor friend,” he said, “why do you allow yourself to suffer in this +fashion, when a word from you can set a term to it? Confess the deed +without fear, since at the same time you can advance a peremptory reason +of State to justify it.” + +It was too obvious a trap. Did I make confession, indeed, upon such +grounds, they would demand of me proof of what I asserted; and meanwhile +the documents to prove it had been extorted from me and had passed into +the King's possession. In the result I should be ruined completely as +one who, to the crime of murder, added a wicked, insidious falsehood +touching the honour of his King. + +But I said naught of this. I met guile with guile. “Alas! I have been +tempted,” I answered him. “But I thank Heaven I have known even in my +extremity how to resist the temptation of such disloyalty. I cannot +forget, Brother Diego, that amongst the letters from the King was one +that said, 'Be not troubled by anything your enemies may do against you. +I shall not abandon you, and be sure their animosity cannot prevail. But +you must understand that it must not be discovered that this death took +place by my order.”' + +“But if the King were to release you from that command?” he asked. + +“When His Majesty in his goodness and generosity sends me a note in his +own hand to say, 'You may confess that it was by my express order that +you contrived the death of Escovedo,' then I shall thankfully account +myself absolved from the silence his service imposes on me.” + +He looked at me narrowly. He may have suspected that I saw through the +transparent device to ruin me, and that in a sense I mocked him with my +answer. + +He withdrew, and for some days nothing further happened. Then the +rigours of my captivity were still further increased. I was allowed +to communicate with no one, and even the alguazil who guarded me was +forbidden, under pain of death, to speak to me. + +And in January I was visited by Vasquez, who brought me a letter from +the King, not, indeed, addressed to me and in the terms I had suggested, +but to Vasquez himself, and it ran: + +You may tell Antonio Perez from me, and, if necessary, show him this +letter, that he is aware of my knowledge of having ordered him to put +Escovedo to death and of the motives which he told me existed for this +measure; and that as it imports for the satisfaction of my conscience +that it be ascertained whether or not those motives were sufficient, I +order him to state them in the fullest detail, and to advance proof of +what he then alleged to me, which is not unknown to yourself, since I +have clearly imparted it to you. When I shall have seen his answers, and +the reasons he advances, I shall give order that such measures be taken +as may befit. + +I, THE KING + +You see what a twist he had given to the facts. It was I who had urged +the death of Escovedo; it was I who had advanced reasons which he had +considered sufficient, trusting to my word; and it was because of this +he had consented to give the order. Let me confess so much, let me prove +it, and prove, too, that the motives I had advanced were sound ones, or +I must be destroyed. That was all clear. And that false king held fast +the two trunks of papers that would have given the lie to this atrocious +note of his, that would have proved that again and again I had shielded +Escovedo from the death his king designed for him. + +I looked into the face of my enemy, and there was a twisted smile on my +lips. + +“What fresh trap is this?” I asked him. “King Philip never wrote that +note.” + +“You should know his hand. Look closer,” he bade me harshly. + +“I know his hand--none better. But I claim, too, to know something of +his heart. And I know that it is not the heart of a perjured liar such +as penned those lines.” + +That was as near as a man dared to go in expressing his true opinion of +a prince. + +“For the rest,” I said, “I do not understand it. I know nothing of the +death of Escovedo. I have nothing to add to what already I have said in +open court unless it be to protest against you, who are a passionate, +hostile judge.” + +Six times in the month that followed did Vasquez come to me, accompanied +now by a notary, to press me to confess. At last, seeing that no +persuasions could bend my obstinacy, they resorted to other measures. + +“You will drive us to use the torture upon you so that we may loosen +your tongue!” snarled Vasquez fiercely, enraged by my obduracy. + +I laughed at the threat. I was a noble of Spain, by birth immune from +torture. They dared not violate the law. But they did dare. There was +no law, human or divine, the King was not prepared to violate so that +he might slake his vengeance upon the man who had dared to love where he +had loved. + +They delivered me naked into the hands of the executioner, and I +underwent the question at the rope. They warned me that if I lost my +life or the use of any of my limbs, it would be solely by my own fault. +I advanced my nobility and the state of my health as all-sufficient +reasons why the torture should not be applied to me, reminding them that +for eleven years already I had suffered persecution and detention, so +that my vigour was all gone. + +For the last time they summoned me to answer as the King desired. And +then, since I still refused, the executioner was recalled, he crossed my +arms upon my breast, bound them securely, thrust a long rod beneath the +cord, and, seizing one end of this in either hand, gave the first turn. + +I screamed. I could not help it, enfeebled as I was. But my spirit being +stouter than my flesh, I still refused to answer. Not indeed, until +they had given the rope eight turns, not until it had sliced through my +muscles and crushed the bone of one of my arms, so that to this day +it remains of little use to me, did they conquer me. I had reached the +limit of endurance. + +“In Christ's name, release me!” I gasped. “I will say anything you +wish.” + +Released at last, half swooning, smothered in blood, agonized by pain, +I confessed that it was myself had procured the death of Escovedo for +reasons of State and acting upon the orders of the King. The notary made +haste to write down my words, and, when I had done, it was demanded of +me that I should advance proof of the State reasons which I had alleged. + +Oh, I had never been under any delusion on that score, as I have shown +you. The demand did not take me by surprise at all. I was waiting +for it, knowing that my answer to it would pronounce my doom. But I +delivered it none the less. + +“My papers have been taken from me, and without them I can prove +nothing. With them I could prove my words abundantly.” + +They left me then. On the morrow, as I afterwards learnt, they read my +confession to my devoted Martinez, and the poor fellow, who hitherto had +remained staunch and silent under every test, seeing that there was no +further purpose to be served by silence, gave them the confirmation they +desired of Enriquez's accusation. + +Meanwhile, I was very ill, in a raging fever as you may well conceive, +and in answer to my prayer my own doctor was permitted to visit me in +prison. He announced that he found my case extremely grave, and that I +must perish unless I were relieved. As a consequence, and considering my +weakness and the uselessness just then of both my arms, one of which was +broken, first a page of my own, then other servants, and lastly my wife +were allowed to come and tend me. + +That was at the end of February. By the middle of April my wounds had +healed, I had recovered the use of my limbs, though one remains half +maimed for life, and my condition had undergone a very considerable +improvement. But of this I allowed no sign to show, no suspicion even. I +continued to lie there day after day in a state of complete collapse, +so that whilst I was quickly gathering strength it was believed by my +gaolers that I was steadily sinking, and that I should soon be dead. + +My only hope, you see, lay now in evasion, and it was for this that +I was thus craftily preparing. Once out of Castile I could deal with +Philip, and he should not find me as impotent, as toothless as he +believed. But I go too fast. + +One night at last, on April 20th, by when all measures had been +concerted, and Gil de Mesa awaited me outside with horses--the whole +having been contrived by my dear wife--I made the attempt. My apparent +condition had naturally led to carelessness in guarding me. Who would +guard a helpless, dying man? Soon after dark I rose, donned over my own +clothes a petticoat and a hooded cloak belonging to my wife, and thus +muffed walked out of my cell, past the guards, and so out of the prison +unchallenged. I joined Gil de Mesa, discarded my feminine disguise, +mounted and set out with him upon that ninety-mile journey into Aragon. + +We reached Saragossa in safety, and there my first act was to surrender +myself to the Grand Justiciary of Aragon to stand my trial for the +murder of Escovedo with which I was charged. + +It must have sent a shudder through the wicked Philip when he received +news of that. A very stricken man he must have been, for he must +have suspected something of the truth, that if I dared, after all the +evidence amassed now against me, including my own confession under +torture, openly to seek a judgment, it was because I must possess some +unsuspected means of establishing all the truth--the truth that must +make his own name stink in the nostrils of the world. And so it was. +Have you supposed that Antonio Perez, who had spent his life in studying +the underground methods of burrowing statecraft, had allowed himself to +be taken quite so easily in their snare? Have you imagined that when I +sent for Diego Martinez to come to me at Turruegano and instructed him +touching the surrender of those two chests of documents, that I did +not also instruct him carefully touching the abstraction in the first +instance of a few serviceable papers and the renewal of the seals that +should conceal the fact that he had tampered with the chests? If you +have thought that, you have done me less than justice. There had been so +much correspondence between Philip and myself, so many notes had passed +touching the death of Escovedo, and there was that habit of Philip's of +writing his replies in marginal notes to my own letters and so returning +them, that it was unthinkable he should have kept them all in his +memory, and the abstraction of three or four could not conceivably be +detected by him. + +Ever since then those few letters, of a most deeply incriminating +character, selected with great acumen by my steward, had secretly +remained in the possession of my wife. Yet I had not dared produce them +in Castile, knowing that I should instantly have been deprived of them, +and with them of my last hope. They remained concealed against precisely +such a time as this, when, beyond the immediate reach of Philip's +justice, I should startle the world and clear my own character by their +production. + +You know the ancient privileges enjoyed by Aragon, privileges of which +the Aragonese are so jealous that a King of Castile may not assume the +title of King of Aragon until, bareheaded, he shall have received from +the Grand Justiciary of Aragon the following admonition: “We, who are of +equal worth and greater power than you, constitute you our king on the +condition that you respect our privileges, and not otherwise.” And to +that the king must solemnly bind himself by oath, whose violation would +raise in revolt against him the very cobbles of the streets. No king of +Spain had ever yet been found to dare violate the constitution and +the fueros of Aragon, the independence of their cortes, or parliament, +composed of the four orders of the State. The Grand Justiciary's Court +was superior to any royally constituted tribunal in the kingdom; to +that court it was the privilege of any man to appeal for justice in any +cause; and there justice was measured out with a stern impartiality that +had not its like in any other State of Europe. + +That was the tribunal to which I made surrender of my person and my +cause. There was an attempt on the part of Philip to seize me and drag +me back to Castile and his vengeance. His officers broke into the prison +for that purpose, and already I was in their power, when the men of the +Justiciary, followed by an excited mob, which threatened open rebellion +at this violation of their ancient rights, delivered me from their +hands. + +Baffled in this--and I can imagine his fury, which has since been vented +on the Aragonese--Philip sent his representatives and his jurists to +accuse me before the Court of the Grand Justiciary and to conduct my +prosecution. + +The trial began, exciting the most profound interest, not only in +Aragon, but also in Castile, which, as I afterwards learnt, had openly +rejoiced at my escape. It proceeded with the delays and longueurs that +are inseparable from the sluggish majesty of the law. One of these +pauses I wrote to Philip, inviting him to desist, and to grant me the +liberty to live out my days in peace with my family in some remote +corner of his kingdom. I warned him that I was not helpless before his +persecution, as he imagined; that whilst I had made surrender of two +chests of papers, I yet retained enough authentic documents--letters in +his own hand--to make my innocence and his guilt apparent in a startling +degree, with very evil consequences to himself. + +His answer was to seize my wife and children and cast them into prison, +and then order the courts of Madrid to pronounce sentence of death +against me for the murder of Escovedo. Such were the sops with which he +sought to quench his vindictive rage. + +Thereupon the trial proceeded. I prepared my long memorial of the +affair, supporting it with proofs in the shape of those letters I had +retained. And then at last Philip of Spain took fright. He was warned +by one of his representatives that there was little doubt I should be +acquitted on all counts, and, too late, he sought to save his face by +ordering the cessation of the prosecution he had instructed. + +He stated that since I had chosen a line of defence, to answer which--as +it could be answered--it would be necessary to touch upon matters of +a secrecy that was inviolable, and to introduce personages whose +reputation and honour was of more consequence to the State than the +condemnation of Antonio Perez, he preferred to renounce the prosecution +before the tribunal of Aragon. But he added a certificate upon his royal +word to the effect that my crimes were greater than had ever been the +crimes of any man, and that, whilst he renounced the prosecution before +the courts of Aragon, he retained the right to demand of me an account +of my actions before any other tribunal at any future time. + +My acquittal followed immediately. And immediately again that was +succeeded by fresh charges against me on behalf of the King. First +it was sought to prove that I had procured the death of two of my +servants--a charge which I easily dispersed by proving them to have +died natural deaths. Then it was sought to prosecute me on the charge of +corruption, for which I had once already been prosecuted, condemned, and +punished. Confidently I demanded my release, and Philip must have ground +his teeth in rage to see his prey escaping him, to see himself the butt +of scorn and contempt for the wrongs that it became clear he had done +me. + +One weapon remained to him, and a terrible weapon this--the Holy Office +of the Inquisition, a court before which all temporal courts must bow +and quail. He launched its power against me, and behold me, in the +moment when I accounted myself the victor in the unequal contest, +accused of the dread sin of heresy. Words lightly weighed--uttered by me +in prison under stress--had been zealously gathered up by spies. + +On one occasion I had exclaimed: “I think God sleeps where my affairs +are concerned, and I am in danger of losing my faith.” The Holy Office +held this to be a scandalous proposition, offensive to pious ears. + +Again, when I heard of the arrest of my wife and children I had cried +out in rage: “God sleeps! God sleeps! There cannot be a God!” + +This they argued at length to be rank heresy, since it is man's duty +positively to believe, and who does not believe is an infidel. + +Yet again it seems I had exclaimed: “Should things so come to pass, +I shall refuse to believe in God!” This was accounted blasphemous, +scandalous, and not without suspicion of heresy. + +Upon these grounds the Supreme Council of the Inquisition at Madrid drew +up its impeachment, and delivered it to the inquisitors of Aragon at +Saragossa. These at once sent their familiars to demand the surrender of +me from the Grand Justiciary, in whose hands I still remained. The Grand +Justiciary incontinently refused to yield me up. + +Thereupon the three Inquisitors drew up a peremptory demand, addressed +to the lieutenants of the Justiciary, summoning them by virtue of holy +obedience, under pain of greater excommunication, of a fine in the case +of each of them of one thousand ducats, and other penalties to which +they might later be condemned, to deliver me up within three hours to +the pursuivants of the Holy Office. + +This was the end of the Justiciary's resistance. He dared not refuse +a demand so framed, and surrender of me was duly made. But the news +of what was doing had run abroad. I had no lack of friends, whom I +instantly warned of what was afoot, and they had seen to it that the +knowledge spread in an inflammatory manner. Saragossa began to stir at +once. Here was a thinly masked violation of their ancient privileges. If +they suffered this precedent of circumventing their rights, what was +to become of their liberties in future, who would be secure against an +unjust persecution? For their sympathies were all with me throughout +that trial. + +I was scarcely in the prison of the Holy Office before the dread cry of +Contrafueros! was ringing through the streets of Saragossa, summoning +the citizens to arm and come forth in defence of their inviolable +rights. They stormed the palace of the Grand Justiciary, demanded that +he should defend the fueros, to whose guardianship he had been elected. +Receiving no satisfaction, they attacked the palace of the Inquisition, +clamouring insistently that I should immediately be returned to the +Justiciary's prison, whence I had so unwarrantably been taken. + +The Inquisitors remained firm a while, but the danger was increasing +hourly. In the end they submitted, for the sake of their skins, and +considering, no doubt, a later vengeance for this outrage upon their +holy authority. But it was not done until faggots had been stacked +against the Holy House, and the exasperated mob had threatened to burn +them out of it. + +“Castilian hypocrites!” had been the insurgent roar. “Surrender your +prisoner, or you shall be roasted in the fire in which you roast so +many!” + +Blood was shed in the streets. The King's representative died of wounds +that he received in the affray, whilst the Viceroy himself was assailed +and compelled to intervene and procure my deliverance. + +For the moment I was out of danger. But for the moment only. There was +no question now of my enlargement. The Grand Justiciary, intimidated +by what had taken place, by the precise expression of the King's +will, dared not set me at liberty. And then the Holy Office, under the +direction of the King, went to work in that subterranean way which it +has made its own; legal quibbles were raised to soothe the sensibilities +of the Aragonese with respect to my removal from the Justiciary's prison +to that of the Holy Office. Strong forces of troops were brought to +Saragossa to overawe the plebeian insolence, and so, by the following +September, all the preliminaries being concluded, the Inquisition came +in force and in form to take possession of me. + +The mob looked on and murmured; but it was intimidated by the show of +ordered force; it had perhaps tired a little of the whole affair, and +did not see that it should shed its blood and lay up trouble for itself +for the sake of one who, after all, was of no account in the affairs of +Aragon. I stood upon the threshold of my ruin. All my activities were +to go unrewarded. Doom awaited me. And then the unexpected happened. +The alguazil of the Holy Office was in the very act of setting the gyves +upon my legs when the first shot was fired, followed almost at once by a +fusillade. + +It was Gil de Mesa, faithfullest servant that ever any man possessed. +He had raised an armed band, consisting of some Aragonese gentlemen +and their servants, and with this he fell like a thunderbolt upon the +Castilian men-at-arms and the familiars of the Inquisition. The Alguazil +fled, leaving me one leg free, the other burdened by the gyve, and as +he fled so fled all others, being thus taken unawares. The Inquisitors +scuttled to the nearest shelter; the Viceroy threw himself into his +house and barricaded the door. There was no one to guide, no one to +direct. The soldiery in these circumstances, accounting themselves +overpowered, offered no resistance. They, too, fled before the fusillade +and the hail of shot that descended on them. + +Before I realized what had happened, the iron had been struck from my +leg, I was mounted on a horse, and, with Gil at my side, I was galloping +out of Saragossa by the gate of Santa Engracia, and breasting the slopes +with little cause to fear pursuit just yet, such was the disorder we had +left behind. + +And there, very briefly, you have the story of my sufferings and my +escapes. Not entirely to be baulked, numerous arrests were made by the +Inquisitors in Saragossa when order was at last restored. There followed +an auto-da-fe, the most horrible and vindictive of all those horrors, in +which many suffered for having displayed the weakness of charity towards +a persecuted man. And, since my body was no longer in their clutches, +they none the less sentenced me to death as contumaciously absent, and +my effigy was burnt in the holy fires they lighted, amongst the human +candles which they offered up for the greater honour and glory of a +merciful God. Let me say no more, lest I blaspheme in earnest. + +After months of wandering and hiding, Gil and I made our way here into +Navarre, where we remain the guests of Protestant King Henri IV, who +does not love King Philip any better since he has heard my story. + +Still King Philip's vengeance does not sleep. Twice has he sent after me +his assassins--since assassination is the only weapon now remaining to +him. But his poor tools have each time been taken, exposed to Philip's +greater infamy and shame--and hanged as they deserve who can so vilely +serve so vile a master. It has even been sought to bribe my faithful +Gil de Mesa into turning his hand against me, and that attempt, too, has +been given the fullest publication. Meanwhile, my death to-day could +no longer avail Philip very much. My memorial is published throughout +Europe for all to read. It has been avidly read until Philip of Spain +has earned the contempt of every upright man. In his own dominions the +voice of execration has been raised against him. One of his own nobles +has contemptuously announced that Spain under Philip has become unsafe +for any gentleman, and that a betrayal of a subject by his king is +without parallel in history. + +That is some measure of vengeance. But if I am spared I shall not leave +it there. Henry of Navarre is on the point of turning Catholic that his +interests may be better served. Elizabeth of England remains. In her +dominions, where thrives the righteous hatred of Philip and all the +evil that he stands for, I shall find a welcome and a channel for the +activities that are to show him that Antonio Perez lives. I have sent +him word that when he is weary of the conflict he can signify his +surrender by delivering from their prison my wife and children, upon +whom he seeks still to visit some of the vengeance I have succeeded in +eluding. When he does that, then will I hold my hand. But not before. + +“That, madame, is my story,” said Don Antonio, after a pause, and from +narrowing eyes looked at the beauty who had heard him through. + +Daylight had faded whilst the tale was telling. Night was come, and +lights had long since been fetched, the curtains drawn over the long +windows that looked out across the parkland to the river. + +Twice only had he paused in all that narrative. Once when he had +described the avowal of his love for Anne, Princess of Eboli, when a +burst of sobs from her had come to interrupt him; again when a curious +bird-note had rung out upon the gathering dusk. Then he stopped to +listen. + +“Curious that,” he had said--“an eagle's cry. I have not heard it these +many months, not since I left the hills of Aragon.” + +Thereafter he had continued to the end. + +Considering her now, his glance inscrutable, he said: + +“You weep, madame. Tell me, what is it that has moved you--the +contemplation of my sufferings, or of your own duplicity?” + +She started up, very white, her eyes scared. + +“I do not understand you. What do you mean, sir?” + +“I mean, madame, that God did not give you so much beauty that you +should use it in the decoying of an unfortunate, that you should hire it +at an assassin's fee to serve the crapulous King of Spain.” + +He rose and towered before her, a figure at once of anger, dignity, and +some compassion. + +“So much ardour from youth and beauty to age and infirmity was in itself +suspicious. The Catholic King has the guile of Satan, I remembered. I +wondered, and hoped my suspicions might be unfounded. Yet prudence made +me test them, that the danger, if it existed, should manifest itself and +be destroyed. So I came to tell you all my story, so that if you did the +thing I feared, you might come to the knowledge of precisely what it was +you did. I have learnt whilst here that what I suspected is--alas! quite +true. You were a lure, a decoy sent to work my ruin, to draw me into +a trap where daggers waited for me. Why did you do this? What was the +bribe that could corrupt you, lovely lady?” + +Sobs shook her. Her will gave way before his melancholy sternness. + +“I do not know by what wizardry you have discovered it!” she cried. +“It was true; but it is true no longer. I knew not what I did. By that +window, across the meadows, you can reach the river in safety.” She +rose, controlling her emotion that she might instruct him. “They wait +for you in the enclosed garden.” + +He smiled wistfully. + +“They waited, madame. They wait no longer, unless it be for death. That +eagle's cry, thrice repeated, was the signal from my faithful Gil, not +only that the trap was discovered, but that those who baited it were +taken. Suspecting what I did, I took my measures ere I came. Antonio +Perez, as I have told you, is not an easy man to murder. Unlike Philip, +I do not make war on women, and I have no reckoning to present to you. +But I am curious, madame, to know what led you to this baseness.” + +“I--I thought you evil, and--and they bribed me. I was offered ten +thousand ducats for your head. We are very poor, we Chantenacs, and so +I fell. But, sir--sir”--she was on her knees to him now, and she had +caught his hand in hers--“poor as I am, all that I have is yours to do +with as you will, to help to avenge yourself upon that Spanish monster. +Take what you will. Take all I have.” + +His smile grew gentler. Gently he raised her. + +“Madame,” he said, “I am myself a sinner, as I have shown you, a man +unequal to resisting temptation when it took me in its trammels. Of all +that you offer, I will take only the right to this kiss.” + +And bending, he bore her hand to his lips. + +Then he went out to join Gil and his men, who waited in the courtyard, +guarding three prisoners they had taken. + +Perez considered them by the light of the lantern that Gil held aloft +for him. + +“One of you,” he announced, “shall return to Castile and give tidings to +Philip, his master, that Antonio Perez leaves for England and the Court +of Elizabeth, to aid her, by his knowledge of the affairs of Spain, in +her measures against the Catholic King, and to continue his holy work, +which is to make the name of Philip II stink in the nostrils of all +honest men. One of you I will spare for that purpose. You shall draw +lots for it in the morning. The other two must hang.” + + + + + + +IV. THE NIGHT OF CHARITY--The Case Of The Lady Alice Lisle + +Of all the cases tried in the course of that terrible circuit, justly +known as the Bloody Assizes, the only one that survives at all in the +popular memory is the case of the Lady Alice Lisle. Her advanced age, +the fact that she was the first woman known in English history to have +suffered death for no worse an offence than that of having exercised the +feminine prerogative of mercy, and the further fact that, even so, this +offence--technical as it was--was never fully proved against her, are +all circumstances which have left their indelible stamp of horror upon +the public mind. There is also the further circumstance that hers was +the first case tried in the West by that terrible Chief Justice, Baron +Jeffreys of Wem. + +But the feature that renders her case peculiarly interesting to the +historical psychologist--and it is a feature that is in danger of being +overlooked--is that she cannot really be said to have suffered for the +technical offence for which she took her trial. That was the pretext +rather than the cause. In reality she was the innocent victim of a +relentless, undiscerning Nemesis. + +The battle of Sedgemoor had been fought and lost by the Protestant +champion, James, Duke of Monmouth. In the West, which had answered the +Duke's summons to revolt, there was established now a horrible reign of +terror reflecting the bigoted, pitiless, vindictive nature of the King. +Faversham had left Colonel Percy Kirke in command at Bridgwater, a +ruthless ruffian, who at one time had commanded the Tangier garrison, +and whose men were full worthy of their commander. Kirke's Lambs they +were called, in an irony provoked by the emblem of the Paschal Lamb on +the flag of this, the First Tangier Regiment, originally levied to wage +war upon the infidel. + +From Bridgwater Colonel Kirke made a horrible punitive progress to +Taunton, where he put up at the White Hart Inn. Now, there was a very +solid signpost standing upon a triangular patch of green before the +door of the White Hart, and Colonel Kirke conceived the quite facetious +notion of converting this advertisement of hospitality into a gallows--a +signpost of temporal welfare into a signpost of eternity. So forth he +fetched the prisoners he had brought in chains from Bridgwater, and +proceeded, without any form of trial whatsoever, to string them up +before the inn. The story runs that as they were hoisted to that +improvised gibbet, Kirke and his officers, standing at the windows, +raised their glasses to pledge their happy deliverance; then, when +the victims began to kick convulsively, Kirke would order the drums +to strike up, so that the gentlemen might have music for their better +dancing. + +The colonel, you see, was a humorist, as humour was then understood upon +the northern shores of Africa, where he had been schooled. + +When, eventually, Colonel Kirke was recalled and reprimanded, it was not +because of his barbarities many of which transcend the possibilities of +decent print--but because of a lenity which this venal gentleman began +to display when he discovered that many of his victims were willing to +pay handsomely for mercy. + +Meanwhile, under his reign of terror, men who had cause to fear the +terrible hand of the King's vengeance went into hiding wherever they +could. Among those who escaped into Hampshire, thinking themselves safer +in a county that had not participated in the war, were a dissenting +parson named George Hicks, who had been in Monmouth's army, and a lawyer +named Richard Nelthorp, outlawed for participation in the Rye House +Plot. In his desperate quest for shelter, Hicks bethought him of the +charitable Nonconformist lady of Moyle's Court, the widow of that John +Lisle who had been one of Cromwell's Lords Commissioners of the Great +Seal, and most active in bringing King Charles I to justice. + +John Lisle had fled to Switzerland at the Restoration; but Stuart +vengeance had followed him, set a price upon his head, and procured +his murder at Lausanne. That was twenty years ago. Since then his lady, +because she was known to have befriended and sheltered many Royalists, +and because she had some stout Tory friends to plead for her, was +allowed to remain in tranquil possession of her estates. And there the +Lady Alice Lisle--so called by courtesy, since Cromwell's titles did not +at law survive the Restoration--might have ended her days in peace, but +that it was written that those who hated her--innocent and aged though +she was--for the name she bore, who included her in the rancour which +had procured her husband's assassination, were to be fully satisfied. +And the instrument of fate was this parson Hicks. He prevailed upon +Dunne, a baker of Warminster, and a Nonconformist, to convey to the Lady +Lisle his prayer for shelter. With that message Dunne set out on July +25th for Ellingham, a journey of some twenty miles. He went by way of +Fovant and Chalk to Salisbury Plain. But as he did not know the way +thence, he sought out a co-religionist named Barter, who undertook, for +a consideration, to go with him and direct him. + +Together the pair came in the late afternoon of that Saturday to the +handsome house of Moyle's Court, and to my lady's steward, who received +them. Dunne, who appears to have been silly and imprudent, states that +he is sent to know if my lady will entertain a minister named Hicks. + +Carpenter, the steward, a staid, elderly fellow, took fright at once. +Although he may not have associated an absconding Presbyterian parson +with the late rebellion, he must have supposed at least that he was one +of those against whom there were warrants for preaching in forbidden +private meetings. So to her ladyship above stairs Carpenter conveyed a +warning with the message. + +But that slight, frail, homely lady of seventy, with kindly eyes of +a faded blue, smiled upon his fears. She had sheltered fugitives +before--in the old days of the Commonwealth--and nothing but good had +ever come of it. She would see this messenger. + +With misgivings, Carpenter haled Dunne into her presence, and left them +alone together. The impression conveyed by Dunne was that Hicks was +in hiding from the warrants that were out against all Nonconformist +preachers. But when he mentioned that Hicks had a companion, she desired +to know his name. + +“I do not know, my lady. But I do not think he has been in the army, +either.” + +She considered a while. But in the end pity conquered doubt in her +sweetly charitable soul. + +“Very well,” she said, “I will give them entertainment for a week. +Bring them on Tuesday after dark, and come by the back way through the +orchard, that they may not be seen.” + +And upon this she rose, and took up an ebony cane, herself to reconduct +him and to see to his entertainment before he left. Not until they came +to the kitchen did she realize that he had a companion. At sight of +Barter, who rose respectfully when she entered, she checked, turned to +Dunne, and whispered something, to which his answer provoked from her a +laugh. + +Now Barter, intrigued by this whispering and laughing, of which he +deemed himself the object, questioned Dunne upon it as they rode forth +again together. + +“She asked me if you knew aught of the business,” replied Dunne; “and I +answered 'No.”' + +“Business, say'st thou?” quoth Barter. “What business?” + +“Sure, the business on which we came,” Dunne evaded; and he laughed. + +It was an answer that left Barter uneasy. Nor was his mind set at rest +by the parting words with which Dunne accompanied the half-crown for his +services. + +“This is but an earnest of what's to come if you will meet me here on +Tuesday to show me the way to Moyle's Court again. I shall be bringing +two gentlemen with me--wealthy men, of a half-score thousand pounds a +year apiece. I tell you there will be a fine booty for my part, so fine +that I shall never want for money again all the days of my life. And, so +that you meet us here, you too may count upon a handsome reward.” + +Consenting, Barter went his ways home. But as he pondered Dunne's silly +speech, and marvelled that honest men should pay so disproportionately +for an honest service, he came to the reasonable conclusion that he had +to do with rebels. This made him so uneasy that he resolved at last to +lodge information with the nearest justice. + +Now, it happened, by the irony of Fate, that the justice sought by +Barter was one Colonel Penruddock--the vindictive son of that Penruddock +whom the late John Lisle--whilst Lord President of the High Court--had +sentenced to death some thirty years ago for participation in an +unsuccessful Wiltshire rising against the Commonwealth. + +The colonel, a lean, stark man of forty-five, heard with interest +Barter's story. + +“Art an honest fellow!” he commended him. “What are the names of these +rogues?” + +“The fellow named no names, sir.” + +“Well, well, we shall discover that for ourselves when we come to take +them at this trysting-place. Whither do you say you are to conduct +them?” + +“To Moyle's Court, sir, where my Lady Lisle is to give them +entertainment.” + +The colonel stared a moment; then a heavy smile came to light the +saturnine face under the heavy periwig. Beyond that he gave no sign of +what was passing in his mind. + +“You may go,” he said slowly, at last. “Be sure we shall be at the tryst +to take these rascals.” + +But the colonel did not keep his promise. To Barter's surprise, there +were no soldiers at the tryst on Salisbury Plain on the following +Tuesday; and he was suffered to lead Dunne and the two men with him the +short, corpulent Mr. Hicks and the long, lean Nelthorp--to Moyle's Court +without interference. + +The rich reward that Dunne had promised him amounted in actual fact +to five shillings, that he had from Nelthorpe at parting. Puzzled by +Colonel Penruddock's failure to do his part, Barter went off at once +to the colonel's house to inform him that the pair were now at Lady +Lisle's. + +“Why, that is very well,” said the colonel, his smile more sinister than +ever. “Trouble not yourself about that.” + +And Barter, the unreasoning instrument of Fate, was not to know that +the apprehending of a couple of traitorous Jack Presbyters was of small +account to Colonel Penruddock by comparison with the satisfaction of the +blood-feud between himself and the House of Lisle. + +Meanwhile the fugitives were being entertained at Moyle's Court, and +whilst they sat at supper in a room above-stairs, Dunne being still of +the party, my lady came in person to see that they had all that they +required, and stayed a little while in talk with them. There was some +mention of Monmouth and the battle of Sedgemoor, which was natural, that +being the topic of the hour. + +My lady asked no questions at the time regarding Hicks's long, lean +companion. But it occurred to her later that perhaps she should know +more about him. Early next morning, therefore, she sent for Hicks as he +was in the act of sitting down to breakfast, and by her direct questions +elicited from him that this companion was that Richard Nelthorp outlawed +for his share in the Rye House Plot. Not only was the information +alarming, but it gave her a sense that she had not been dealt with +fairly, as indeed she told him. + +“You will see, sir,” she concluded, “that you cannot bide here. So long +as I thought it was on the score of Nonconformity alone that you were +suffering persecution, I was willing to take some risk in hiding you. +But since your friend is what he is, the risk is greater than I should +be asked to face, for my own sake and for that of my daughters. Nor +can I say that I have ever held plottings and civil war in anything but +abhorrence--as much in the old days as now. I am a loyal woman, and as +a loyal woman I must bid you take your friend hence as soon as your fast +is broken.” + +The corpulent and swarthy Hicks stood dejectedly before her. He might +have pleaded, but at that moment there came a loud knocking at the gates +below, and instantly Carpenter flung into the room with a white, scared +face and whirling gestures. + +“Soldiers, my lady!” he panted in affright. “We have been betrayed. The +presence of Mr. Hicks here is known. What shall we do? What shall we +do?” + +She stood quite still, her countenance entirely unchanged, unless it +were to smile a little upon Carpenter's terror. The mercy of her nature +rose dominant now. + +“Why, we must hide these poor fellows as best we can,” said she; and +Hicks flung down upon one knee to kiss her hand with protestations that +he would sooner be hanged than bring trouble upon her house. + +But she insisted, calm and self-contained; and Carpenter carried Hicks +away to bestow him, together with Dunne, in a hole in the malt-house +under a heap of sacking. Nelthorp had already vanished completely on his +own initiative. + +Meanwhile, the insistent knocking at the gate continued. Came shouted +demands to open in the name of the King, until from a window my lady's +daughters looked out to challenge those who knocked. + +Colonel Penruddock, who had come in person with the soldiers to raid the +house of his hereditary foe, stood forth to answer, very stiff and brave +in his scarlet coat and black plumed hat. + +“You have rebels in the house,” he announced, “and I require you in the +King's name to deliver them up to me.” + +And then, before they could answer him, came Carpenter to unbar the +door, and admit them to the court. Penruddock, standing squarely before +the steward, admonished him very sternly. + +“Friend,” said he, “you had best be ingenuous with me and discover +who are in your lady's house, for it is within my knowledge that some +strangers came hither last night.” + +The stricken Carpenter stood white-faced and trembling. + +“Sir--sir--” he faltered. + +But the colonel was impatient. + +“Come, come, my friend. Since I know they are here, there's an end on't. +Show me where they are hid if you would save your own neck from the +halter.” + +It was enough for Carpenter. The pair in the malthouse might have +eluded all search but for the steward's pusillanimity. Incontinently, he +betrayed the hiding-place. + +“But, sir, of your charity do not tell my mistress that I have told you. +Pray, sir--” + +Penruddock brushed him aside as if he had been a pestering fly, and with +his men went in, and straight to the spot where Hicks and Dunne were +lurking. When he had taken them, he swung round on Carpenter, who had +followed. + +“These be but two,” he said, “and to my knowledge three rogues came +hither last night. No shufling with me, rascal. Where have you bestowed +the other?” + +“I swear, as Heaven's my witness, I do not know where he is,” protested +the afflicted steward, truly enough. + +Penruddock turned to his men. + +“Make search,” he bade them; and search was made in the ruthless manner +of such searches. + +The brutal soldiers passed from room to room beating the wainscoting +with pike and musket-butts, splintering and smashing heedlessly. Presses +were burst open and their contents scattered; chests were broken into +and emptied, the searchers appropriating such objects as took their +fancy, with true military cynicism. A mirror was shattered, and some +boards of the floor were torn up because a sergeant conceived that the +blows of his halbert rang hollow. + +When the tumult was at its height, came her ladyship at last into the +room, where Colonel Penruddock stood watching the operations of his men. +She stood in the doorway leaning upon her ebony cane, her faded eyes +considering the gaunt soldier with reproachful question. + +“Sir,” she asked him with gentle irony, masking her agitation, “has my +house been given over to pillage?” + +He bowed, doffing his plumed hat with an almost excessive courtesy. + +“To search, madame,” he corrected her. And added: “In the King's name.” + +“The King,” she answered, “may give you authority to search my house, +but not to plunder it. Your men are robbing and destroying.” + +He shrugged. It was the way of soldiers. Fine manners, he suggested, +were not to be expected of their kind. And he harangued her upon the +wrong she had done in harbouring rebels and giving entertainment to the +King's enemies. + +“That is not true,” said she. “I know of no King's enemies.” + +He smiled darkly upon her from his great height. She was so frail a body +and so old that surely it was not worth a man's while to sacrifice +her on the altar of revenge. But not so thought Colonel Penruddock. +Therefore he smiled. + +“Two of them, a snivelling Jack Presbyter named Hicks and a rascal named +Dunne, are taken already. Pray, madame, be so free and ingenuous with me +aye, and so kind to yourself--as if there be any other person concealed +in your house--and I am sure there is somebody else--to deliver him up, +and you shall come to no further trouble.” + +She looked up at him, and returned him smile for smile. + +“I know nothing,” she said, “of what you tell me, or of what you ask.” + +His countenance hardened. + +“Then, mistress, the search must go on.” + +But a shout from the adjoining room announced that it was at an end. +Nelthorp had been discovered and dragged from the chimney into which he +had crept. + +Almost exactly a month later--on August 27th the Lady Alice Lisle was +brought to the bar of the court-house at Winchester upon a charge of +high treason. + +The indictment ran that secretly, wickedly, and traitorously she did +entertain, conceal, comfort, uphold, and maintain John Hicks, knowing +him to be a false traitor, against the duty of her allegiance and +against the peace of “our sovereign lord the King that now is.” + +Demurely dressed in grey, the little white-haired lady calmly faced the +Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys and the four judges of oyer and terminer who +sat with him, and confidently made her plea of “Not Guilty.” + +It was inconceivable that Christian men should deal harshly with her for +a technical offence amounting to an act of Christian charity. And the +judge, sitting there in his robe of scarlet reversed with ermine, looked +a gentle, kindly man; his handsome, oval, youthful face--Jeffreys was in +his thirty-sixth year--set in the heavy black periwig, was so pale that +the mouth made a vivid line of scarlet; and the eyes that now surveyed +her were large and liquid and compassionate, as it seemed to her. + +She was not to know that the pallor which gave him so interesting an +air, and the dark stains which lent his eyes that gentle wistfulness, +were the advertisements at once of the debauch that had kept him from +his bed until after two o'clock that morning and of the inexorable +disease that slowly gnawed away his life and enraged him out of all +humanity. + +And the confidence his gentle countenance inspired was confirmed by +the first words he had occasion to address to her. She had interrupted +counsel to the Crown when, in his opening address to the jury--composed +of some of the most considerable gentlemen of Hampshire--he seemed to +imply that she had been in sympathy with Monmouth's cause. She was, of +course, without counsel, and must look herself to her defence. + +“My lord,” she cried, “I abhorred that rebellion as much as any woman in +the world!” + +Jeffreys leaned forward with a restraining gesture. + +“Look you, Mrs. Lisle,” he admonished her sweetly, “because we must +observe the common and usual methods of trial in your case I must +interrupt you now.” And upon that he promised that she should be fully +heard in her own defence at the proper time, and that himself he would +instruct her in the forms of law to her advantage. He reassured her +by reverent allusions to the great Judge of Heaven and Earth, in whose +sight they stood, that she should have justice. “And as to what you say +concerning yourself,” he concluded, “I pray God with all my heart you +may be innocent.” + +He was benign and reassuring. But she had the first taste of his true +quality in the examination of Dunne--a most unwilling witness. + +Reluctantly, under the pressure put upon him, did Dunne yield up the +tale of how he had conducted the two absconders to my lady's house with +her consent, and it was sought to prove that she was aware of their +connection with the rebellion. The stubbornly evasive Dunne was asked at +last: + +“Do you believe that she knew Mr. Hicks before?” + +He returned the answer that already he had returned to many questions of +the sort. + +“I cannot tell truly.” + +Jeffreys stirred in his scarlet robes, and his wistful eyes grew +terrible as they bent from under beetling brows upon the witness. + +“Why,” he asked, “dost thou think that she would entertain any one she +had no knowledge of merely upon thy message? Mr. Dunne, Mr. Dunne! Have +a care. It may be more is known to me of this matter than you think +for.” + +“My lord, I speak nothing but the truth!” bleated the terrified Dunne. + +“I only bid you have a care,” Jeffreys smiled; and his smile was more +terrible than his frown. “Truth never wants a subterfuge; it always +loves to appear naked; it needs no enamel nor any covering. But lying +and snivelling and canting and Hicksing always appear in masquerade. +Come, go on with your evidence.” + +But Dunne was reluctant to go on, and out of his reluctance he lied +foolishly, and pretended that both Hicks and Nelthorp were unknown to +him. When pressed to say why he should have served two men whom he had +never seen before, he answered: + +“All the reason that induced me to it was that they said they were men +in debt, and desired to be concealed for a while.” + +Then the thunder was heard in Jeffreys' voice. + +“Dost thou believe that any one here believes thee? Prithee, what trade +art thou?” + +“My lord,” stammered the unfortunate, “I--I am a baker by trade.” + +“And wilt thou bake thy bread at such easy rates? Upon my word, then, +thou art very kind. Prithee, tell me. I believe thou dost use to bake on +Sundays, dost thou not?” + +“No, my lord, I do not!” cried Dunne indignantly. + +“Alackaday! Art precise in that,” sneered the judge. “But thou canst +travel on Sundays to lead rogues into lurking-holes.” + +Later, when to implicate the prisoner, it was sought to draw from Dunne +a full account of the reception she had given his companions, his terror +under the bullying to which he was subjected made him contradict himself +more flagrantly than ever. Jeffreys addressed the jury. + +“You see, gentlemen, what a precious fellow this is; a very pretty tool +to be employed upon such an errand; a knave that nobody would trust for +half a crown. A Turk has more title to an eternity of bliss than these +pretenders to Christianity.” + +And as there was no more to be got from Dunne just then, he was +presently dismissed, and Barter's damning evidence was taken. +Thereafter the wretched Dunne was recalled, to be bullied by Jeffreys in +blasphemous terms that may not be printed here. + +Barter had told the Court how my lady had come into the kitchen with +Dunne, and how, when he had afterwards questioned Dunne as to why they +had whispered and laughed together, Dunne told him she had asked “If +he knew aught of the business.” Jeffreys sought now to wring from Dunne +what was this business to which he had so mysteriously alluded--this +with the object of establishing Lady Lisle's knowledge of Hicks's +treason. + +Dunne resisted more stubbornly than ever. Jeffreys, exasperated--since +without the admission it would be difficult to convict her +ladyship--invited the jury to take notice of the strange, horrible +carriage of the fellow, and heaped abuse upon the snivelling, canting +sect of which he was a member. Finally, he reminded Dunne of his oath to +tell the truth, and addressed him with a sort of loving ferocity. + +“What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own +soul?” bellowed that terrible judge, his eyes aflame. “Is not this the +voice of Scripture itself? And wilt thou hazard so dear and precious a +thing as thy soul for a lie? Thou wretch! All the mountains and hills of +the world heaped upon one another will not cover thee from the vengeance +of the Great God for this transgression of false-witness bearing.” + +“I cannot tell what to say, my lord,” gasped Dunne. + +In his rage to see all efforts vain, the judge's language became that +of the cockpit. Recovering at last, he tried gentleness again, and very +elaborately invited Dunne, in my lady's own interest, to tell him what +was the business to which he had referred to Barter. + +“She asked me whether I did not know that Hicks was a Nonconformist.” + +“That cannot be all. There must be something more in it.” + +“Yes, my lord,” Dunne protested, “it is all. I know nothing more.” + +“Was there ever such an impudent rascal?” roared the judge. “Dolt think +that, after all the pains I have been at to get an answer, thou canst +banter me with such sham stuff as this? Hold the candle to his brazen +face, that we may see it clearly.” + +Dunne stood terrified and trembling under the glance of those terrible +eyes. + +“My lord,” he cried, “I am so baulked, I am cluttered out of my senses.” + +Again he was put down whilst Colonel Penruddock gave his evidence of +the apprehension of the rebels. When he had told how he found Hicks and +Dunne concealed under some stuff in the malt-house, Dunne was brought +back yet again, that Jeffreys might resume his cross-examination. + +“Dunne, how came you to hide yourself in the malthouse?” + +“My lord,” said Dunne foolishly, “I was frighted by the noise.” + +“Prithee, what needest thou be afraid of, for thou didst not know +Hicks nor Nelthorp; and my lady only asked thee whether Hicks were a +Nonconformist parson. Surely, so very innocent a soul needed no occasion +to be afraid. I doubt there was something in the case of that business +we were talking of before. If we could but get out of thee what it was.” + +But Dunne continued to evade. + +“My lord, I heard a great noise in the house, and did not know what it +meant. So I went and hid myself.” + +“It is very strange thou shouldst hide thyself for a little noise, when +thou knewest nothing of the business.” + +Again the witness, with a candle still held close to his nose, +complained that he was quite cluttered out of his senses, and did not +know what he was saying. + +“But to tell the truth would not rob thee of any of thy senses, if ever +thou hadst any,” Jeffreys told him angrily. “But it would seem that +neither thou nor thy mistress, the prisoner, had any; for she knew +nothing of it either, though she had sent for them thither.” + +“My lord,” cried her ladyship at that, “I hope I shall not be condemned +without being heard.” + +“No, God forbid, Mrs. Lisle,” he answered; and then viciously flashed +forth a hint of the true forces of Nemesis at work against her. “That +was a sort of practice in your late husband's time--you know very well +what I mean--but God be thanked it is not so now.” + +Came next the reluctant evidence of Carpenter and his wife, and after +that there was yet a fourth equally futile attempt to drag from Dunne +an admission that her ladyship was acquainted with Hicks's share in the +rebellion. But if stupid, Dunne at least was staunch, and so, with a +wealth of valedictory invective, Jeffreys dismissed him, and addressed +at last the prisoner, inviting her to speak in her own defence. + +She rose to do so, fearlessly yet gently. + +“My lord, what I have to say is this. I knew of nobody's coming to my +house but Mr. Hicks, and for him I was informed that he did abscond by +reason of warrants that were out against him for preaching in private +meetings; for that reason I sent to him to come by night. But I had +never heard that Nelthorp was to come with him, nor what name Nelthorp +had till after he had come to my house. I could die upon it. As for +Mr. Hicks, I did not in the least suspect that he had been in the army, +being a Presbyterian minister that used to preach and not to fight.” + +“But I will tell you,” Jeffreys interrupted her, “that there is not one +of those lying, snivelling, canting Presbyterian rascals but one way or +the other had a hand in the late horrid conspiracy and rebellion.” + +“My lord, I abhorred both the principles and the practices of the late +rebellion,” she protested; adding that if she had been tried in London, +my Lady Abergavenny and many other persons of quality could have +testified with what detestation she had spoken of the rebellion, and +that she had been in London until Monmouth had been beheaded. + +“If I had known the time of my trial in the country,” she pursued, “I +could have had the testimony of those persons of honour for me. But, +my lord, I have been told, and so I thought it would have been, that +I should not have been tried for harbouring Mr. Hicks until he should +himself be convict as a traitor. I did abhor those that were in the plot +and conspiracy against the King. I know my duty to my King better, and +have always exercised it. I defy anybody in the world that ever knew +contrary to come and give testimony.” + +His voice broke harshly upon the pause. “Have you any more to say?” + +“As to what they say to my denying Nelthorp to be in the house,” she +resumed. “I was in very great consternation and fear of the soldiers, +who were very rude and violent. I beseech your lordship to make that +construction of it, and not harbour an ill opinion of me because of +those false reports that go about of me, relating to my carriage towards +the old King, that I was anyways consenting to the death of King Charles +I; for, my lord, that is as false as God is true. I was not out of my +chamber all the day in which that king was beheaded, and I believe I +shed more tears for him than any other woman then living. + +“And I do repeat it, my lord, as I hope to attain salvation, I never did +know Nelthorp, nor did I know of anybody's coming but Mr. Hicks. Him I +knew to be a Nonconformist minister, and there being, as is well known, +warrants out to apprehend all Nonconformist ministers, I was willing to +give him shelter from these warrants, which I knew was no treason.” + +“Have you any more to say for yourself?” he asked her. + +“My lord,” she was beginning, “I came but five days before this into the +country.” + +“Nay,” he broke in, “I cannot tell when you came into the country, nor I +don't care. It seems you came in time to harbour rebels.” + +She protested that if she would have ventured her life for anything, it +would have been to serve the King. + +“But, though I could not fight for him myself, my son did; he was +actually in arms on the King's side in this business. It was I that bred +him in loyalty and to fight for the King.” + +“Well, have you done?” he asked her brutally. + +“Yes, my lord,” she answered; and resumed her seat, trembling a little +from the exertion and emotion of her address. + +His charge to the jury began. It was very long, and the first half of +it was taken up with windy rhetoric in which the Almighty was invoked +at every turn. It degenerated at one time into a sermon upon the text of +“render unto Caesar,” inveighing against the Presbyterian religion. And +the dull length of his lordship's periods, combined with the monotone +in which he spoke, lulled the wearied lady at the bar into slumber. She +awakened with a start when suddenly his fist crashed down and his voice +rose in fierce denunciation of the late rebellion. But she was dozing +again--so calm and so little moved was she--before he had come to apply +his denunciations to her own case, and this in spite of all her protests +that she had held the rebellion in abhorrence. + +It was all calculated to prejudice the minds of the jurymen before +he came to the facts and the law of the case. And that charge of his +throughout, far from being a judicial summing-up, was a virulent address +for the prosecution, just as his bearing hitherto in examining and +cross-examining witnesses had been that of counsel for the Crown. The +statement that she had made in her own defence he utterly ignored, save +in one particular, where he saw his opportunity further to prejudice her +case. + +“I am sorry,” he said, his face lengthening, “to remember something that +dropped even from the gentlewoman herself. She pretends to religion and +loyalty very much--how greatly she wept at the death of King Charles the +Martyr--and owns her great obligations to the late king and his royal +brother. And yet no sooner is one in the grave than she forgets all +gratitude and entertains those that were rebels against his royal +successor. + +“I will not say,” he continued with deliberate emphasis, “what hand +her husband had in the death of that blessed martyr; she has enough to +answer for her own guilt; and I must confess that it ought not, one way +or other, to make any ingredient into this case what she was in former +times.” + +But he had dragged it in, protesting that it should not influence the +case, yet coldly, calculatingly intending it to do so. She was the widow +of a regicide, reason and to spare in the views of himself and his royal +master why she should be hounded to her death upon any pretext. + +Thereafter he reviewed the evidence against her, dwelt upon the +shuffling of Dunne, deduced that the reason for so much lying was to +conceal the damning truth--namely, that she knew Hicks for a rebel when +she gave him shelter, and thus became the partner of his horrible +guilt. Upon that he charged them to find their verdict “without any +consideration of persons, but considering only the truth.” + +Nevertheless, although his commands were clear, some of the jury would +seem to have feared the God whom Jeffreys invoked so constantly. One +of them rose to ask him pertinently, in point of law, whether it was +treason to have harboured Hicks before the man had been convicted of +treason. + +Curtly he answered them that beyond doubt it was, and upon that +assurance the jury withdrew, the Court settled down into an expectant +silence, and her ladyship dozed again in her chair. + +The minutes passed. It was growing late, and Jeffreys was eager to be +done with this prejudged affair, that he might dine in peace. His voice +broke the stillness of the court, protesting his angry wonder at the +need to deliberate in so plain a case. He was threatening to adjourn +and let the jury lie by all night if they did not bring in their verdict +quickly. When, at the end of a half-hour, they returned, his fierce, +impatient glance found them ominously grave. + +“My lord,” said Mr. Whistler, the foreman, “we have to beg of your +lordship some directions before we can bring our verdict. We have some +doubt upon us whether there be sufficient proof that she knew Hicks to +have been in the army.” + +Well might they doubt it, for there was no proof at all. Yet he never +hesitated to answer them. + +“There is as full proof as proof can be. But you are judges of the +proof. For my part, I thought there was no difficulty in it.” + +“My lord,” the foreman insisted, “we are in some doubt about it.” + +“I cannot help your doubts,” he said irritably. “Was there not proved +a discourse of the battle and of the battle and of the army at +supper-time?” + +“But, my lord, we are not satisfied that she had notice that Hicks was +in the army.” + +He glowered upon them in silence for a moment. They deserved to be +themselves indicted for their slowness to perceive where lay their duty +to their king. + +“I cannot tell what would satisfy you,” he said; and sneered. “Did she +not inquire of Dunne whether Hicks had been in the army? And when he +told her he did not know, she did not say she would refuse if he had +been, but ordered him to come by night, by which it is evident she +suspected it.” + +He ignored, you see, her own complete explanation of that circumstance. + +“And when Hicks and Nelthorp came, did she not discourse with them about +the battle and the army?” (As if that were not at the time a common +topic of discussion.) “Come, come, gentlemen,” he said, with amazing +impudence, “it is plain proof.” + +But Mr. Whistler was not yet satisfied. + +“We do not remember, my lord, that it was proved that she asked any such +question.” + +That put him in a passion. + +“Sure,” he bellowed, “you do not remember anything that has passed. Did +not Dunne tell you there was such a discourse, and she was by? But if +there were no such proof, the circumstances and management of the thing +are as full proof as can be. I wonder what it is you doubt of!” + +Mrs. Lisle had risen. There was a faint flush of excitement on her grey +old face. + +“My lord, I hope--” she began, in trembling tones, to get no further. + +“You must not speak now!” thundered her terrible judge; and thus struck +her silent. + +The brief resistance to his formidable will was soon at an end. Within +a quarter of an hour the jury announced their verdict. They found her +guilty. + +“Gentlemen,” said his lordship, “I did not think I should have occasion +to speak after your verdict, but, finding some hesitancy and doubt among +you, I cannot but say I wonder it should come about; for I think, in my +conscience, the evidence was as full and plain as it could be, and if I +had been among you, and she had been my own mother, I should have found +her guilty.” + +She was brought up for sentence on the morrow, together with several +others subsequently convicted. Amid fresh invectives against the +religion she practised, he condemned her to be burned alive--which was +the proper punishment for high treason--ordering the sheriff to prepare +for her execution that same afternoon. + +“But look you, Mrs. Lisle,” he added, “we that are the judges shall stay +in town an hour or two. You shall have pen, ink, and paper, and if, in +the mean time, you employ that pen, ink, and paper and that hour or two +well--you understand what I mean it may be that you shall hear further +from us in a deferring of this execution.” + +What was this meaning that he assumed she understood? Jeffreys had +knowledge of Kirke's profitable traffic in the West, and it is known +that he spared no means of acquiring an estate suitable to his rank +which he did not possess by way of patrimony. Thus cynically he invited +a bribe. + +It is the only inference that explains the subsequent rancour he +displayed against her, aroused by her neglect to profit by his +suggestions. The intercession of the divines of Winchester procured +her a week's reprieve, and in that week her puissant friends in London, +headed by the Earl of Abergavenny, petitioned the King on her behalf. +Even Feversham, the victor of Sedgemoor, begged her life of the +King--bribed to it, as men say, by an offer of a thousand pounds. But +the King withheld his mercy upon the plea that he had promised Lord +Jeffreys he would not reprieve her, and the utmost clemency influential +petitions could wring from James II was that she should be beheaded +instead of burned. + +She suffered in the market-place of Winchester on September 2d. +Christian charity was all her sin, and for this her head was demanded +in atonement. She yielded it with a gentle fortitude and resolution. In +lieu of speech, she left with the sheriff a pathetic document wherein +she protests her innocence of all offence against the King, and forgives +her enemies specifically--the judge, who prejudiced her case, and +forgot that “the Court should be counsel for the prisoner,” and Colonel +Penruddock, “though he told me he could have taken those men before they +came to my house.” + +Between those lines you may read the true reason why the Lady Alice +Lisle died. She died to slake the cruelly vindictive thirst of King +James II on the one hand, and Colonel Penruddock on the other, against +her husband who had been dead for twenty years. + + + + + + +V. THE NIGHT OF MASSACRE--The Story Of The Saint Bartholomew + +There are elements of mystery about the massacre of Saint Bartholomew +over which, presumably, historians will continue to dispute as long as +histories are written. Indeed, it is largely of their disputes that the +mystery is begotten. Broadly speaking, these historians may be divided +into two schools--Catholic and anti-Catholic. The former have made it +their business to show that the massacre was purely a political affair, +having no concern with religion; the latter have been equally at pains +to prove it purely an act of religious persecution having no concern +with politics. Those who adopt the latter point of view insist that +the affair was long premeditated, that it had its source in something +concerted some seven years earlier between Catherine of Medicis and +the sinister Duke of Alva. And they would seem to suggest that Henry of +Navarre, the nominal head of the Protestant party, was brought to Paris +to wed Marguerite de Valois merely so that by this means the Protestant +nobles of the kingdom, coming to the capital for the wedding, should be +lured to their destruction. + +It does not lie within the purview of the present narrative to enter +into a consideration of the arguments of the two schools, nor will it be +attempted. + +But it may briefly be stated that the truth lies probably in a middle +course of reasoning--that the massacre was political in conception and +religious in execution; or, in other words, that statecraft deliberately +made use of fanaticism as of a tool; that the massacre was brought about +by a sudden determination begotten of opportunity which is but another +word for Chance. + +Against the theory of premeditation the following cardinal facts may be +urged: + +(a) The impossibility of guarding for seven years a secret that several +must have shared; + +(b) The fact that neither Charles IX nor his mother Catherine were in +any sense bigoted Catholics, or even of a normal religious sincerity. + +(c) The lack of concerted action--so far as the kingdom generally was +concerned--in the execution of the massacre. + +A subsidiary disproof lies in the attempted assassination of Coligny two +days before the massacre, an act which might, by putting the Huguenots +on their guard, have caused the miscarriage of the entire plan--had it +existed. + +It must be borne in mind that for years France had been divided by +religious differences into two camps, and that civil war between +Catholic and Huguenot had ravaged and distracted the country. At +the head of the Protestant party stood that fine soldier Gaspard de +Chatillon, Admiral de Coligny, virtually the Protestant King of +France, a man who raised armies, maintaining them by taxes levied upon +Protestant subjects, and treated with Charles IX as prince with prince. +At the head of the Catholic party--the other imperium in imperio--stood +the Duke of Guise. The third and weakest party in the State, serving, as +it seemed, little purpose beyond that of holding the scales between the +other turbulent two, was the party of the King. + +The motives and events that precipitated the massacre are set forth in +the narration of the King's brother, the Duke of Anjou (afterwards +Henri III). It was made by him to Miron, his physician and confidential +servant in Cracow, when he ruled there later as King of Poland, under +circumstances which place it beyond suspicion of being intended to serve +ulterior aims. For partial corroboration, and for other details of the +massacre itself, we have the narratives, among others, of Sully, who was +then a young man in the train of the King of Navarre, and of Lusignan, +a gentleman of the Admiral's household. We shall closely follow these in +our reconstruction of the event and its immediate causes. + +The gay chatter of the gallants and ladies thronging the long gallery +of the Louvre sank and murmured into silence, and a movement was made to +yield a free passage to the King, who had suddenly made his appearance +leaning affectionately upon the shoulder of the Admiral de Coligny. + +The Duke of Anjou, a slender, graceful young man in a gold-embroidered +suit of violet, forgot the interest he was taking in his beautiful +hands to bend lower over the handsome Madame de Nemours what time the +unfriendly eyes of both were turned upon the Admiral. + +The King and the great Huguenot leader came slowly down the gallery, +an oddly contrasting pair. Coligny would have been the taller by a +half-head but for his stoop, yet in spite of it there was energy and +military vigour in his carriage, just as there was a severe dignity +amounting to haughtiness in his scarred and wrinkled countenance. A +bullet that had pierced his cheek and broken three of his teeth at the +battle of Moncontour had left a livid scar that lost itself in his long +white beard. His forehead was high and bald, and his eyes were of +a steely keenness under their tufted brows. He was dressed with +Calvinistic simplicity entirely in black, and just as this contrasted +with the King's suit of sulphur-coloured satin, so did the gravity of +his countenance contrast with the stupidity of his sovereign's. + +Charles IX, a slimly built young man in his twenty-fourth year, was of +a pallid, muddy complexion, with great, shifty, greenish eyes, and a +thick, pendulous nose. The protruding upper lip of his long, thin mouth +gave him an oafish expression, which was increased by his habit of +carrying his head craned forward. + +His nature was precisely what you would have expected from his +appearance--dull and gross. He was chiefly distinguished among men of +birth for general obscenity of speech and morphological inventiveness in +blasphemy. + +At the end of the gallery Coligny stooped to kiss the royal hand in +leave-taking. With his other hand Charles patted the Admiral's shoulder. + +“Count me your friend,” he said, “body and soul, heart and bowels, even +as I count you mine. Fare you well, my father.” + +Coligny departed, and the King retraced his steps, walking quickly, his +head hunched between his shoulders, his baleful eyes looking neither to +left nor right. As he passed out, the Duke of Anjou quitted the side +of Madame de Nemours, and went after him. Then at last the suspended +chatter of the courtiers broke loose again. + +The King was pacing his cabinet--a simple room furnished with a medley +of objects appertaining to study, to devotion, and to hunting. A large +picture of the Virgin hung from a wall flanked on either side by an +arquebus, and carrying a hunting-horn on one of its upper corners. A +little alabaster holy-water font near the door, crowned by a sprig of +palm, seemed to serve as a receptacle for hawk-bells and straps. There +was a writing-table of beautifully carved walnut near the leaded window, +littered with books and papers--a treatise on hunting lay cheek by jowl +with a Book of Hours; a string of rosary beads and a dog-whip lay +across an open copy of Ronsard's verses. The King was quite the vilest +poetaster of his day. + +Charles looked over his shoulder as his brother entered. The scowl on +his face deepened when he saw who came, and with a grunt he viciously +kicked the liver-coloured hound that lay stretched at his feet. The +hound fled yelping to a corner, the Duke checked, startled, in his +advance. + +“Well?” growled the King. “Well? Am I never to have peace? Am I never to +be alone? What now? Bowels of God! What do you want?” + +His green eyes smouldered, his right hand opened and closed on the gold +hilt of the dagger at his girdle: + +Scared by the maniac ferocity of this reception, the young Duke +precipitately withdrew. + +“It is nothing. Another time, since I disturb you now.” He bowed and +vanished, followed by an evil, cackling laugh. + +Anjou knew how little his brother loved him, and he confesses how much +he feared him in that moment. But under his fear it is obvious that +there was lively resentment. He went straight in quest of his mother, +whose darling he was, to bear her the tale of the King's mood, and what +he accounted, no doubt rightly, the cause of it. + +“It is the work of that pestilential Huguenot admiral,” he announced, at +the end of a long tirade, “It is always thus with him after he has seen +Coligny.” + +Catherine of Medicis considered. She was a fat, comfortable woman, with +a thick nose, pinched lips, and sleepy eyes. + +“Charles,” she said at length, in her monotonous, emotionless voice, “is +a weathercock that turns with every wind that blows upon him. You should +know him by now.” And she yawned, so that one who did not know her and +her habit of perpetually yawning might have supposed that she was but +indifferently interested. + +They were alone together in the intimate little tapestried room she +called her oratory. She half sat, half reclined upon a couch of rose +brocade. Anjou stood over by the window, his back to it, so that his +pale face was in shadow. He considered his beautiful hands, which he was +reluctant to lower, lest the blood should flow into them and mar their +white perfection. + +“The Admiral's influence over him is increasing,” he complained, “and he +uses it to lessen our own.” + +“Do I not know it?” came her dull voice. + +“It is time to end it,” said Anjou passionately, “before he ends us. +Your influence grows weaker every day and the Admiral's stronger. +Charles begins to take sides with him against us. We shall have him a +tool of the Huguenot party before all is done. Ah, mon Dieu! You should +have seen him leaning upon the shoulder of that old parpaillot, calling +him 'my father,' and protesting himself his devoted friend 'body +and soul, heart and bowels,' in his own words. And when I seek him +afterwards, he scowls and snarls at me, and fingers his dagger as if he +would have it in my throat. It is plain to see upon what subject the old +scoundrel entertained him.” And again he repeated, more fiercely than +before: “It is time to end it!” + +“I know,” she said, ever emotionless before so much emotion. “And it +shall be ended. The old assassin should have been hanged years ago for +guiding the hand that shot Francois de Guise. Daily he becomes a greater +danger, to Charles, to ourselves, and to France. He is embroiling us +with Spain through this Huguenot army he is raising to go and fight the +battles of Calvinism in Flanders. A fine thing that. Ah, per Dio!” For a +moment her voice was a little warmed and quickened. “Catholic France at +war with Catholic Spain for the sake of Huguenot Flanders!” She laughed +shortly. Then her voice reverted to its habitual sleepy level. “You +are right. It is time to end it. Coligny is the head of this rebellious +beast. If we cut off the head, perhaps the beast will perish. We will +consult the Duke of Guise.” She yawned again. “Yes, the Duke of Guise +will be ready to lend us his counsel and his aid. Decidedly we must get +rid of the Admiral.” + +That was on Monday, August 18th of that year 1572, and such was the firm +purpose and energy of that fat and seemingly sluggish woman, that within +two days all necessary measures were taken, and Maurevert, the +assassin, was at his post in the house of Vilaine, in the Cloisters +of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, procured for the purpose by Madame de +Nemours, who bore the Admiral a mortal hatred. + +It was not, however, until the following Friday that Maurevert was given +the opportunity of carrying out the task to which he had been hired. On +that morning, as the Admiral was passing, accompanied by a few gentlemen +of his household, returning from the Louvre to his house in the Rue +Betisy, the assassin did his work. There was a sudden arquebusade from +a first-floor window, and a bullet smashed two fingers of the Admiral's +right hand, and lodged itself in the muscles of his left arm. + +With his maimed and bleeding hand he pointed to the window whence the +shot had been fired, bidding his gentlemen to force a way into the house +and take the assassin. But whilst they were breaking in at the front, +Maurevert was making his escape by the back, where a horse waited for +him, and, though pursued, he was never overtaken. + +News of the event was instantly borne to the King. It found him at +tennis with the Duke of Guise and the Admiral's son-in-law, Teligny. + +“In this assassin's work, Sire,” said the blunt gentleman whom Coligny +had sent, “the Admiral desires you to see the proof of the worth of the +agreement between himself and Monsieur de Guise that followed upon the +treaty of peace of Saint-Germain.” + +The Duke of Guise drew himself stiffly up, but said no word. The King, +livid with rage, looked at him balefully a moment, then to vent some of +his fury he smashed his racket against the wall. + +“God's Blood!” he cried, mouthing horribly. “Am I then never to have +rest?” He flung away the broken remnants of his racket, and went out +cursing. Questioning the messenger further, he learnt that the shot had +been fired from the house of Vilaine, a sometime tutor to the Duke of +Guise, and that the horse upon which the assassin had fled had been held +for him by a groom in the Guise livery. + +Meanwhile the Duke and Monsieur de Teligny had gone their ways with +no word spoken between them--Guise to shut himself up in his hotel and +assemble his friends, Teligny to repair at once to his father-in-law. + +At two o'clock in the afternoon, in response to an urgent request +from the Admiral, the King went to visit him, accompanied by the +Queen-Mother, by his brothers Anjou and Alencon, and a number of +officers and courtiers. The royal party saw nothing of the excitement +which had been prevailing in the city ever since the morning's event, +an excitement which subsided at their approach. The King was gloomy, +resentful, and silent, having so far refused to discuss the matter with +any one, denying audience even to his mother. Catherine and Anjou were +vexed by the miscarriage of the affair, anxious and no less silent than +the King. + +They found the Admiral awaiting them, calm and composed. The famous +Ambroise Pare had amputated the two broken fingers, and had dealt with +the wound in the arm. But although Coligny might be considered to have +escaped lightly, and not to be in any danger, a rumour was abroad that +the bullet was poisoned; and neither the Admiral nor his people seem to +have rejected the possibility. One suspects, indeed, that capital was +made out of it. It was felt, perhaps, that thus should the Admiral +maintain a greater influence with the King. For in any uncertainty as +to whether Coligny would live or die, the King's feelings must be more +deeply stirred than if he knew that the wound carried no peril to life. + +Followed closely by his mother and his brothers, Charles swept through +the spacious ante-chamber, thronged now with grim-faced, resentful +Huguenot gentlemen, and so entered the room where Coligny reclined upon +a day bed near the window. The Admiral made shift to rise, but this the +King hurried forward to prevent. + +“Rest yourself, my dear father!” he cried, in accents of deep concern. +“Heart of God! What is this they have done to you? Assure me, at least, +that your life is safe, or, by the Mass, I'll--” + +“I hold my life from God,” the Admiral replied gravely, “and when He +requires it of me I will yield it up. That is nothing.” + +“Nothing? God's Blood! Nothing? The hurt is yours, my father, but the +outrage mine; and I swear to you, by the Blood and the Death, that I +will take such a vengeance as shall never be forgotten!” + +Thereupon he fell into such a storm of imprecation and blasphemy that +the Admiral, a sincerely devout, God-fearing heretic, shuddered to hear +him. + +“Calm, Sire!” he begged at last, laying his sound hand upon the King's +velvet sleeve. “Be calm and listen, for it is not to speak of myself, of +these wounds, or of the wrong done me, that I have presumed to beg you +to visit me. This attempt to murder me is but a sign of the evil that +is stirring in France to sap your authority and power. But--” He checked +and looked at the three who stood immediately behind the King. “What I +have to say is, if you will deign to listen, for your private ear.” + +The King jerked round in a fashion peculiar to him; his every action was +abrupt and spasmodic. He eyed his mother and brothers shiftily. It was +beyond his power to look any one directly in the face. + +“Outside!” he commanded, waving an impatient hand almost in their faces. +“Do you hear? Leave me to talk with my father the Admiral.” + +The young dukes fell back at once, ever in dread of provoking the +horrible displays of passion that invariably followed upon any +resistance of his feeble will. But the sluggish Catherine was not so +easily moved. + +“Is Monsieur de Coligny strong enough, do you think, to treat of affairs +at present? Consider his condition, I beg,” she enjoined in her level +voice. + +“I thank you for your consideration, madame,” said the Admiral, the +ghost of an ironic smile about his lips. “But I am strong enough, thank +God! And even though my strength were less than it is, it would be more +heavily taxed by the thought that I had neglected my duty to His Majesty +than it ever could be by the performance of that duty.” + +“Ha! You hear?” snapped the King. “Go, then; go!” + +They went, returning to the ante-chamber to wait until the audience +should conclude. The three stood there in the embrasure of a window that +looked out upon the hot, sunlit courtyard. There, as Anjou himself +tells us, they found themselves hemmed about by some two hundred sullen, +grim-faced gentlemen and officers of the Admiral's party, who eyed them +without dissembling their hostility, who preserved a silence that was +disturbed only by the murmurs of their constant whisperings, and who +moved to and fro before the royal group utterly careless of the proper +degree of deference and respect. + +Isolated thus in that hostile throng, Catherine and her sons became more +and more uneasy, so that, as the Queen-Mother afterwards confessed, she +was never in any place where her tarrying was attended by so much fear, +or her departure thence by so much pleasure. + +It was this fear that spurred her at last to put an end to that secret +conference in the room beyond. She did it in characteristic manner. In +the most complete outward composure, stifling a yawn as she went, +she moved deliberately across to the door, her sons following, rapped +shortly on the panel, and entered without waiting to be bidden. + +The King, who was standing by the Admiral's side, wheeled sharply at +the sound of the opening door. His eyes blazed with sudden anger when he +beheld his mother, but she was the first to speak. + +“My son,” she said, “I am concerned for the poor Admiral. He will have +the fever if you continue to permit him to weary himself with affairs at +present. It is not to treat him as a friend to prolong this interview. +Let business wait until he is recovered, which will be the sooner if he +is given rest at present.” + +Coligny stroked his white beard in silence, while the King flared out, +striding towards her: + +“Par la Mort Dieu! What is this sudden concern for the Admiral?” + +“Not sudden, my son,” she answered in her dull voice, her eyes intent +upon him, with something magnetic in their sleepy glance that seemed +to rob him of half his will. “None knows more accurately than I the +Admiral's precise, value to France.” + +Anjou behind her may have smiled at that equivocal phrase. + +“God's Bowels! Am I King, or what am I?” + +“It ill becomes a king to abuse the strength of a poor wounded subject,” + she returned, her eyes ever regarding him steadily. “Come, Charles. +Another day, when the Admiral shall have recovered more fully, you may +continue this discourse. Come now.” + +His anger was subdued to mere sullenness, almost infantile in its +outward petulant expression. He attempted to meet her glance, and he was +completely lost. + +“Perhaps... Ah, Ventre Dieu, my mother is right! Let the matter rest, +then, my father. We will talk of it again as soon as you are well.” + +He stepped up to the couch, and held out his hand. + +Coligny took it, and his eyes looked up wistfully into the weak young +face of his King. + +“I thank you, Sire, for coming and for hearing me. Another day, if I am +spared, I may tell you more. Meanwhile, bear well in mind what I have +said already. I have no interests in this world but your own, Sire.” And +he kissed the royal hand in farewell. + +Not until they were back in the Louvre did the Queen attempt to break +upon the King's gloomy abstraction, to learn--as learn she must--the +subject of the Admiral's confidential communication. + +Accompanied by Anjou, she sought him in his cabinet, nor would she +be denied. He sat at his writing-table, his head sunken between his +shoulders, his receding chin in his cupped palms. He glared at the pair +as they entered, swore savagely, and demanded their business with him. + +Catherine sat down with massive calm. Anjou remained standing beside and +slightly behind her, leaning upon the back of her tall chair. + +“My son,” she said bluntly, “I have come to learn what passed between +you and Coligny.” + +“What passed? What concern is that of yours?” + +“All your concerns are mine,” she answered tranquilly. “I am your +mother.” + +“And I am your king!” he answered, banging the table. “And I mean to be +king!” + +“By the grace of God and the favour of Monsieur de Coligny,” she +sneered, with unruffled calm. + +“What's that?” His mouth fell open, and his eyes stared. A crimson flush +overspread his muddy complexion. “What's that?” + +Her dull glance met and held his own whilst calmly she repeated her +sneering words. + +“And that is why I have come to you,” she added. “If you are unable +to rule without guidance, I must at least do what I can so that the +guidance shall not be that of a rebel, of one who guides you to the end +that he may master you.” + +“Master me!” he screamed. He rose in his indignation and faced her. But +his glance, unable to support her steady eyes, faltered and fell away. +Foul oaths poured from his royal lips. “Master me!” he repeated. + +“Aye--master you,” she answered him. “Master you until the little +remnant of your authority shall have been sapped; until you are no more +than a puppet in the hands of the Huguenot party, a roi faineant, a king +of straw.” + +“By God, madame, were you not my mother--” + +“It is because I am your mother that I seek to save you.” + +He looked at her again, but again his glance faltered. He paced the +length of the room and back, mouthing and muttering. Then he came to +stand, leaning on the prie-dieu, facing her. + +“By God's Death, madame, since you demand to know what the Admiral said, +you shall. You prove to me that what he told me was no more than true. +He told me that a king is only recognized in France as long as he is a +power for good or ill over his subjects; that this power, together +with the management of all State affairs, is slipping, by the crafty +contrivances of yourself and Anjou there, out of my hands into your own; +that this power and authority which you are both stealing from me may +one day be used against me and my kingdom. And he bade me be on my guard +against you both and take my measures. He gave me this counsel, madame, +because he deemed it his duty as one of my most loyal and faithful +servants at the point of death, and--” + +“The shameless hypocrite!” her dull, contemptuous voice interrupted him. +“At the point of death! Two broken fingers and a flesh-wound in the arm +and he represents himself as in articulo mortis that he may play upon +you, and make you believe his lies.” + +Her stolidity of manner and her logic, ponderous and irresistible, had +their effect. His big, green eyes seemed to dilate, his mouth fell open. + +“If--” he began, and checked, rapped out an oath, and checked again. +“Are they lies, madame?” he asked slowly. + +She caught the straining note of hope in that question of his--a hope +founded upon vanity, the vanity to be king in fact, as well as king in +name. She rose. + +“To ask me that--me, your mother--is to insult me. Come, Anjou.” + +And on that she departed, craftily, leaving her suggestion to prey upon +his mind. + +But once alone in her oratory with Anjou, her habitual torpor was +sloughed away. For once she quivered and crimsoned and raised her voice, +whilst for once her sleepy eyes kindled and flashed as she inveighed +against Coligny and the Huguenots. + +For the moment, however, there was no more to be done. The stroke had +failed; Coligny had survived the attempt upon his life, and there was +danger that on the recoil the blow might smite those who had launched +it. But on the morrow, which was Saturday, things suddenly assumed a +very different complexion. + +That great Catholic leader, the powerful, handsome Duke of Guise, who, +more than suspected of having inspired the attempted assassination, had +kept his hotel since yesterday, now sought the Queen-Mother with news +of what was happening in the city. Armed bands of Huguenot nobles were +riding through the streets, clamouring: + +“Death to the assassins of the Admiral! Down with the Guisards!” + +And, although a regiment of Gardes Francaises had been hastily brought +to Paris to keep order, the Duke feared grave trouble in a city +which the royal wedding had filled with Huguenot gentlemen and their +following. Then, too, there were rumours that the Huguenots were +arming everywhere--rumours which, whether true or not, were, under the +circumstances, sufficiently natural and probable to be taken seriously. + +Leaving Guise in her oratory, and summoning her darling Anjou, Catherine +at once sought the King. She may have believed the rumours, and she may +even have stated them as facts beyond dispute so as to strengthen and +establish her case against Gaspard de Coligny. + +“King Gaspard I,” she told him, “is already taking his measures. The +Huguenots are arming; officers have been dispatched into the provinces +to levy troops. The Admiral has ordered the raising of ten thousand +horse in Germany, and another ten thousand Swiss mercenaries in the +Cantons.” + +He stared at her vacuously. Some such rumour had already reached him, +and he conceived that here was definite confirmation of it. + +“You may determine now who are your friends, who your loyal servants,” + she told him. “How is so much force to be resisted in the state in which +you find yourself? The Catholics exhausted, and weary as they are by a +civil war in which their king was of little account to them, are going +to arm so as to offer what resistance they can without depending upon +you. Thus, within your State you will have two great parties under arms, +neither of which can be called your own. Unless you stir yourself, and +quickly, unless you choose now between friends and foes, you will find +yourself alone, isolated, in grave peril, without authority or power.” + +He sank overwhelmed to a chair, and took his head in his hands, +cogitating. When next he looked at her there was positive fear in his +great eyes, a fear evoked by contemplation of the picture which her +words had painted for him. + +He looked from her to Anjou. + +“What then?” he asked. “What then? How is the danger to be averted?” + +“By a simple stroke of the sword,” she answered calmly. “Slice off at a +blow the head of this beast of rebellion, this hydra of heresy.” + +He huddled back, horror in his eyes. His hands slid slowly along the +carved arms of his chair, and clenched the ends so tightly that his +knuckles looked like knobs of marble. + +“Kill the Admiral?” he said slowly. + +“The Admiral and the chief Huguenot leaders,” she said, much in the tone +she might have used, were it a matter of wringing the necks of a dozen +capons. + +“Ah, ca! Par la Mort Dieu!” He heaved himself up, raging. “Thus would +your hatred of him be served. Thus would you--” + +Coolly she sliced into his foaming speech. + +“Not I--not I!” she said. “Do nothing upon my advice. Summon your +Council. Send for Tavannes, Biragues, Retz, and the others. Consult with +them. They are your friends; you trust and believe in them. When they +know the facts, see if their counsel will differ from your mother's. +Send for them; they are in the Louvre now.” + +He looked at her a moment. + +“Very well,” he said; and reeled to the door, bawling hoarsely his +orders. + +They came, one by one--the Marshal de Tavannes, the Duke of Retz, the +Duke of Nevers, the Chancellor de Biragues, and lastly the Duke of +Guise, upon whom the King scowled a jealous hatred that was now fully +alive. + +The window, which overlooked the quay and the river, stood open to admit +what air might be stirring on that hot day of August. + +Charles sat at his writing-table, sullen and moody, twining a string of +beads about his fingers. Catherine occupied the chair over beyond the +table, Anjou sitting near her on a stool. The others stood respectfully +awaiting that the King should make known his wishes. The shifty royal +glance swept over them from under lowering brows; then it rested almost +in challenge upon his mother. + +“Tell them,” he bade her curtly. + +She told them what already she had told her son, relating all now with +greater detail and circumstance. For some moments nothing was heard in +that room but the steady drone of her unemotional voice. When she had +finished, she yawned and settled herself to hear what might be answered. + +“Well,” snapped the King, “you have heard. What do you advise? Speak +out!” + +Nevers was the first to answer. + +“There is no other way,” he said stiffly, “but that which Her Majesty +advises. The danger is grave. If it is to be averted, action must be +prompt and effective.” + +Tavannes clasped his hands behind him and said much the same, as did +presently the Chancellor. + +Twisting and untwisting his chaplet of beads about his long fingers, +his eyes averted, the King heard each in turn. Then he looked up. His +glance, deliberately ignoring Guise, settled upon the Duke of Retz, who +held aloof. + +“And you, Monsieur le Marechal, what is your counsel?” + +Retz drew himself up, as if bracing himself to meet opposing forces. He +was a little pale, but quite composed. + +“If there is a man whom I should hate,” he said, “it is this Gaspard de +Coligny, who has defamed me and all my family by the foul accusations he +has put abroad. But I will not,” he added firmly, “take vengeance upon +my enemies at the expense of my king and master. I cannot counsel a +course so disastrous to Your Majesty and the whole kingdom. Did we +act as we have been advised, Sire, can you doubt that we should +be taxed--and rightly taxed in view of the treaty that has been +signed--with perfidy and disloyalty?” + +Dead silence followed that bombshell of opposition, coming from a +quarter whence it was least expected. For Catherine and Anjou had +confidently counted upon the Duke's hatred of Coligny to ensure his +support of their designs. + +A little colour crept into the pale cheeks of the King. His glance +kindled out of its sullenness. He was as one who sees sudden hope amid +despair. + +“That is the truth,” he said. “Messieurs, and you, madame my mother, you +have heard the truth. How do you like it?” + +“Monsieur de Retz is deceived by an excess of loyalty,” said Anjou +quickly. “Because he bears a personal enmity to the Admiral, he +conceives that it would hurt his honour to speak otherwise. It must +savour to him, as he has said, of using his king and master to avenge +his own personal wrongs. We can respect Monsieur de Retz's view, +although we hold it mistaken.” + +“Will Monsieur de Retz tell us what other course lies open?” quoth the +bluff Tavannes. + +“Some other course must be found,” cried the King, rousing himself. “It +must be found, do you hear? I will not have you touch the life of my +friend the Admiral. I will not have it--by the Blood!” + +A hubbub followed, all speaking at once, until the King banged the +table, and reminded them that his cabinet was not a fish-market. + +“I say that there is no other way,” Catherine insisted. “There cannot be +two kings in France, nor can there be two parties. For your own safety's +sake, and for the safety of your kingdom, I beseech you so to contrive +that in France there be but one party with one head--yourself.” + +“Two kings in France?” he said. “What two kings?” + +“Yourself and Gaspard I--King Coligny, the King of the Huguenots.” + +“He is my subject--my faithful, loyal subject,” the King protested, but +with less assurance. + +“A subject who raises forces of his own, levies taxes of his own, +garrisons Huguenot cities,” said Biragues. “That is a very dangerous +type of subject, Sire.” + +“A subject who forces you into war with Protestant Flanders against +Catholic Spain,” added the blunt Tavannes. + +“Forces me?” roared the King, half rising, his eyes aflash. “That is a +very daring word.” + +“It would be if the proof were absent. Remember, Sire, his very speech +to you before you permitted him to embark upon preparations for this +war. 'Give us leave,' he said, 'to make war in Flanders, or we shall be +compelled to make war upon yourself.'” + +The King winced and turned livid. Sweat stood in beads upon his brow. He +was touched in his most sensitive spot. That speech of Coligny's was of +all things the one he most desired to forget. He twisted the chaplet so +that the beads bit deeply into his fingers. + +“Sire,” Tavannes continued, “were I a king, and did a subject so address +me, I should have his head within the hour. Yet worse has happened +since, worse is happening now. The Huguenots are arming. They ride +arrogantly through the streets of your capital, stirring up rebellion. +They are here in force, and the danger grows acute and imminent.” + +Charles writhed before them. He mopped his brow with a shaking hand. + +“The danger--yes. I see that. I admit the danger. But Coligny--” + +“Is it to be King Gaspard or King Charles?” rasped the voice of +Catherine. + +The chaplet snapped suddenly in the King's fingers. He sprang to his +feet, deathly pale. + +“So be it!” he cried. “Since it is necessary to kill the Admiral, kill +him, then. Kill him!” he screamed, in a fury that seemed aimed at those +who forced this course upon him. “Kill him--but see to it also that at +the same time you kill every Huguenot in France, so that not one shall +be left to reproach me. Not one, do you hear? Take your measures and let +the thing be done at once.” And on that, his face livid and twitching, +his limbs shaking, he flung out of the room and left them. + +It was all the warrant they required, and they set to work at once +there in the King's own cabinet, where he had left them. Guise, who +had hitherto been no more than a silent spectator, assumed now the most +active part. Upon his own shoulders he took the charge of seeing the +Admiral done to death. + +The remainder of the day and a portion of the evening were spent in +concerting ways and means. They assured themselves of the Provost of +the merchants of Paris, of the officers of the Gardes Francaises and +the three thousand Swiss, of the Captains of the quarters and other +notoriously factious persons who could be trusted as leaders. By ten +o'clock at night all preparations were made and it was agreed that the +ringing of the bell of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois for matins was to be +the signal for the massacre. + +A gentleman of the Admiral's household taking his way homeward that +night passed several men bearing sheaves of pikes upon their shoulders, +and never suspected whom these weapons were to arm. He met several small +companies of soldiers marching quietly, their weapons shouldered, their +matches glowing, and still he suspected nothing, whilst in one quarter +he stopped to watch a man whose behaviour seemed curious, and discovered +that he was chalking a white cross upon the doors of certain houses. + +Meeting soon afterwards another man with a bundle of weapons on his +shoulder, the intrigued Huguenot gentleman asked him bluntly what he +carried and whither he went. + +“It is for the divertissement at the Louvre tonight,” he was answered. + +But in the Louvre the Queen-Mother and the Catholic leaders, the labours +of preparation ended, were snatching a brief rest. Between two and three +o'clock in the morning Catherine and Anjou repaired again to the King's +cabinet. They found him waiting there, his face haggard and his eyes +fevered. + +He had spent a part of the evening at billiards, and among the players +had been La Rochefoucauld, of whom he was fond, and who had left him +with a jest at eleven o'clock, little dreaming that it was for the last +time. + +The three of them crossed to the window overlooking the river. They +opened it, and peered out fearfully. Even Catherine trembled now that +the hour approached. The air was fresh and cool, swept clean by the +stirring breeze of the dawn, whose first ghostly gleams were already in +the sky. Suddenly, somewhere near at hand, a pistol cracked. The noise +affected them oddly. The King fell into an ague and his teeth chattered +audibly. Panic seized him. + +“By the Blood, it shall not be! It shall not be!” he cried suddenly. + +He looked at his mother and his brother and they looked at him; ghastly +were the faces of all three, their eyes wide and staring with horror. + +Charles swore in his terror that he would cancel all commands. And +since Catherine and Anjou made no attempt to hinder him, he summoned an +officer and bade him seek out the Duke of Guise at once and command him +to stay his hand. + +The messenger eventually found the Duke in the courtyard of the +Admiral's house, standing over the Admiral's dead body, which his +assassins had flung down from the bedroom window. Guise laughed, and +stirred the head of the corpse with his foot, answering that the +message came too late. Even as he spoke the great bell of Saint-Germain +l'Auxerrois began to ring for matins. + +The royal party huddled at that window of the Louvre heard it at the +same moment, and heard, as if in immediate answer, shots of arquebus +and pistol, cries and screams near at hand, and then, gradually swelling +from a murmur, the baying of the fierce multitude. Other bells gave +tongue, until from every steeple in Paris the alarm rang out. The red +glow from thousands of torches flushed the heavens with a rosy tint as +of dawn, the air grew heavy with the smell of pitch and resin. + +The King, clutching the sill of the window, poured out a stream of +blasphemy from between his chattering teeth. Then the hubbub rose +suddenly near at hand. The neighbourhood of the Louvre was populous +with Huguenots, and into it now poured the excited Catholic citizens +and soldiers. Soon the quay beneath the palace windows presented the +fiercest spectacle of any quarter, of Paris. + +Half-clad men, women, and children fled screaming before the assassins, +until they were checked by the chains that everywhere had been placed +across the streets. Some sought the river, hoping to find a way of +escape. But with Satanic foresight, the boats usually moored there had +been conveyed to the other side. Thus some hundreds of Huguenots were +brought to bay, and done to death under the very eyes of the King who +had unleashed this horror. Doors were crashed open, flames rose to +heaven, men and women were shot down under the palace wall, bodies were +flung from windows, and on every side--in the words of D'Aubigne--the +blood now flowed, seeking the river. + +The King watched a while, screams and curses pouring from his lips to +be lost in the horrible uproar. He turned, perhaps to upbraid his mother +and his brother, but found that they were no longer at his side. +Behind him in the room a page was crouching, watching him with a white, +horrified face. + +Suddenly the King laughed--it was the fierce, hysterical laugh of a +madman. His eyes fell on the arquebuses flanking the picture of the +Mother of Mercy. He took one of them down, then caught the boy by the +collar of his doublet and dragged him forward to the window. + +“Hither, and load for me!” he bade him, between peals of his terrible +laughter. Then he levelled the weapon across the sill of the window. +“Parpaillots! Parpaillots!” he screamed. “Kill! Kill!” and he discharged +the arquebus into a fleeing group of Huguenots. + +Five days later, the King--who by now had thrown the blame of the whole +affair, with its slaughter of some two thousand Huguenots, upon the +Guises and their hatred of Coligny--rode out to Montfaucon to behold the +decapitated body of the Admiral, which hung from the gallows in chains. +A courtier of a poor but obtrusive wit leaned towards him. + +“The Admiral becomes noisome, I think,” he said. + +The King's green eyes considered him, his lips curling grimly. + +“The body of a dead enemy always smells sweet,” he said. + + + + + + +VI. THE NIGHT OF WITCHCRAFT--Louis XIV and Madame De Montespan + +If you scrape the rubbish-heap of servile, coeval flattery that usually +smothers the personality of a monarch, you will discover a few kings +who have been truly great; many who have achieved greatness because they +were wisely content to serve as masks for the great intellects of their +time; and, for the rest, some bad kings, some foolish kings, and some +ridiculous kings. But in all that royal gallery of history you will +hardly find a more truly absurd figure than that of the resplendent Roi +Soleil, the Grand Monarque, the Fourteenth Louis of France. + +I am not aware that he has ever been laughed at; certainly never to the +extent which he deserves. The flatterers of his day, inevitable products +of his reign, did their work so thoroughly that even in secret they do +not appear to have dared to utter--possibly they did not even dare +to think--the truth about him. Their work survives, and when you have +assessed the monstrous flattery at its true worth, swept it aside and +come down to the real facts of his life, you make the discovery that +the proudest title their sycophancy could bestow and his own fatuity +accept--Le Roi Soleil, the Sun-King--makes him what indeed he is: a +king of opera bouffe. There is about him at times something almost +reminiscent of the Court buffoons of a century before, who puffed +themselves out with mock pride, and aped a sort of sovereignty to excite +laughter; with this difference, however, that in his own case it was not +intended to be amusing. + +A heartless voluptuary of mediocre intelligence, he contrived to wrap +himself in what Saint-Simon has called a “terrible majesty.” He was +obsessed by the idea of the dignity, almost the divinity--of kingship. I +cannot believe that he conceived himself human. He appears to have +held that being king was very like being God, and he duped the world by +ceremonials of etiquette that were very nearly sacramental. We find +him burdening the most simple and personal acts of everyday life with a +succession of rites of an amazing complexity. Thus, when he rose in the +morning, princes of the blood and the first gentlemen of France were in +attendance: one to present to him his stockings, another to proffer +on bended knee the royal garters, a third to perform the ceremony of +handing him his wig, and so on until the toilette of his plump, not +unhandsome person was complete. You miss the incense, you feel that some +noble thurifer should have fumigated him at each stage. Perhaps he never +thought of it. + +The evil fruits of his reign--evil, that is to say, from the point +of view of his order, which was swept away as so much anachronistic +rubbish--did not come until a hundred years later. In his own day France +was great, and this not because but in spite of him. After all, he was +not the absolute ruler he conceived himself. There were such capable men +as Colbert and Louvois at the King's side'; there was the great genius +of France which manifests itself when and as it will, whatever the +regime--and there was Madame de Montespan to whose influence not a +little of Louis's glory may be ascribed, since the most splendid years +of his reign were those between 1668 and 1678 when she was maitresse en +titre and more than Queen of France. The women played a great part at +the Court of Louis XIV, and those upon whom he turned his dark eyes were +in the main as wax under the solar rays of the Sun-King. But Madame de +Montespan had discovered the secret of reversing matters, so that in her +hands it was the King who became as wax for her modelling. It is with +this secret--a page of the secret history of France that we are here +concerned. + +Francoises Athenais de Tonnay-Charente had come to Court in 1660 as +a maid of honour to the Queen. Of a wit and grace to match her superb +beauty, she was also of a perfervid piety, a daily communicant, a model +of virtue to all maids of honour. This until the Devil tempted her. When +that happened, she did not merely eat an apple; she devoured an entire +orchard. Pride and ambition brought about her downfall. She shared the +universal jealousy of which Louise de la Valliere was a victim, +and coveted the honours and the splendour by which that unfortunate +favourite was surrounded. + +Not even her marriage with the Marquis de Montespan some three years +after her coming to Court sufficed to overcome the longings born of +her covetousness and ambition. And then, when the Sun-King looked with +favour upon her opulent charms, when at last she saw the object of her +ambition within reach, that husband of hers went very near to wrecking +everything by his unreasonable behaviour. This preposterous marquis had +the effrontery to dispute his wife with Jupiter, was so purblind as not +to appreciate the honour the Sun-King proposed to do him. + +In putting it thus, I but make myself the mouthpiece of the Court. + +When Montespan began to make trouble by railing furiously against the +friendship of the King for his wife, his behaviour so amazed the King's +cousin, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, that she called him “an extravagant +and extraordinary man.” To his face she told him that he must be mad to +behave in this fashion; and so incredibly distorted were his views, that +he did not at all agree with her. He provoked scenes with the King, in +which he quoted Scripture, made opposite allusions to King David which +were in the very worst taste, and even ventured to suggest that the +Sun-King might have to reckon with the judgment of God. If he escaped +a lettre de cachet and a dungeon in the Bastille, it can only have been +because the King feared the further spread of a scandal injurious to the +sacrosanctity of his royal dignity. + +The Marchioness fumed in private and sneered in public. When +Mademoiselle de Montpensier suggested that for his safety's sake she +should control her husband's antics, she expressed her bitterness. + +“He and my parrot,” she said, “amuse the Court to my shame.” + +In the end, finding that neither by upbraiding the King nor by beating +his wife could he prevail, Monsieur de Montespan resigned himself after +his own fashion. He went into widower's mourning, dressed his servants +in black, and came ostentatiously to Court in a mourning coach to take +ceremonious leave of his friends. It was an affair that profoundly +irritated the Sun-King, and very nearly made him ridiculous. + +Thereafter Montespan abandoned his wife to the King. He withdrew first +to his country seat, and, later, from France, having received more than +a hint that Louis was intending to settle his score with him. By that +time Madame de Montespan was firmly established as maitresse en titre, +and in January of 1669 she gave birth to the Duke of Maine, the first +of the seven children she was to bear the King. Parliament was to +legitimize them all, declaring them royal children of France, and the +country was to provide titles, dignities, and royal rent-rolls for them +and their heirs forever. Do you wonder that there was a revolution +a century later, and that the people, grown weary of the parasitic +anachronism of royalty, should have risen to throw off the intolerable +burden it imposed upon them? + +The splendour of Madame de Montespan in those days was something the +like of which had never been seen at the Court of France. On her estate +of Clagny, near Versailles, stood now a magnificent chateau. Louis had +begun by building a country villa, which satisfied her not at all. + +“That,” she told him, “might do very well for an opera-girl”; whereupon +the infatuated monarch had no alternative but to command its demolition, +and call in the famous architect, Mansard, to erect in its place an +ultraroyal residence. + +At Versailles itself, whilst the long-suffering Queen had to be content +with ten rooms on the second floor, Madame de Montespan was installed +in twice that number on the first; and whilst a simple page sufficed +to carry the Queen's train at Court, nothing less than the wife of a +marshal of France must perform the same office for the favourite. She +kept royal state as few queens have ever kept it. She was assigned a +troop of royal bodyguards for escort, and when she travelled there was a +never-ending train to follow her six-horse coach, and officers of State +came to receive her with royal honours wherever she passed. + +In her immeasurable pride she became a tyrant, even over the King +himself. + +“Thunderous and triumphant,” Madame de Sevigne describes her in those +days when the Sun-King was her utter and almost timid slave. + +But constancy is not a Jovian virtue. Jupiter grew restless, and +then, shaking off all restraint, plunged into inconstancy of the most +scandalous and flagrant kind. It is doubtful if the history of royal +amours, with all its fecundity, can furnish a parallel. Within a few +months, Madame de Soubise, Mademoiselle de Rochefort-Theobon, Madame +de Louvigny, Madame de Ludres, and some lesser ones passed in rapid +succession through the furnace of the Sun-King's affection--which is to +say, through the royal bed--and at last the Court was amazed to see the +Widow Scarron, who had been appointed governess to Madame de Montespan's +royal children, empanoplied in a dignity and ceremony that left no doubt +on the score of her true position at Court. + +And so, after seven years of absolute sway in which homage had been +paid her almost in awe by noble and simple alike, Madame de Montespan, +neglected now by Louis, moved amid reflections of that neglect, with +arrogantly smiling lips and desperate rage in her heart. She sneered +openly at the royal lack of taste, allowed her barbed wit to make +offensive sport with the ladies who supplanted her; yet, ravaged +by jealousy, she feared for herself the fate which through her had +overtaken La Valliere. + +That fear was with her now as she sat in the window embrasure, hell in +her heart and a reflection of it in her eyes, as, fallen almost to the +rank of a spectator in that comedy wherein she was accustomed to the +leading part, she watched the shifting, chattering, glittering crowd. +And as she watched, her line of vision was crossed to her undoing by the +slender, wellknit figure of de Vanens, who, dressed from head to foot in +black, detached sharply from that dazzling throng. His face was pale and +saturnine, his eyes dark, very level, and singularly piercing. Thus +his appearance served to underline the peculiar fascination which he +exerted, the rather sinister appeal which he made to the imagination. + +This young Provencal nobleman was known to dabble in magic, and there +were one or two dark passages in his past life of which more than +a whisper had gone abroad. Of being a student of alchemy, a +“philosopher”--that is to say, a seeker after the philosopher's stone, +which was to effect the transmutation of metals--he made no secret. But +if you taxed him with demoniacal practices he would deny it, yet in a +way that carried no conviction. + +To this dangerous fellow Madame de Montespan now made appeal in her +desperate need. + +Their eyes met as he was sauntering past, and with a lazy smile and a +languid wave of her fan she beckoned him to her side. + +“They tell me, Vanens,” said she, “that your philosophy succeeds so well +that you are transmuting copper into silver.” + +His piercing eyes surveyed her, narrowing; a smile flickered over his +thin lips. + +“They tell you the truth,” he said. “I have cast a bar which has been +purchased as good silver by the Mint.” + +Her interest quickened. “By the Mint!” she echoed, amazed. “But, then, +my friend--” She was breathless with excitement. “It is a miracle.” + +“No less,” he admitted. “But there is the greater miracle to come--the +transmutation of base metal into gold.” + +“And you will perform it?” + +“Let me but conquer the secret of solidifying mercury, and the rest is +naught. I shall conquer it, and soon.” + +He spoke with easy confidence, a man stating something that he knew +beyond the possibility of doubt. The Marquise became thoughtful. She +sighed. + +“You are the master of deep secrets, Vanens. Have you none that will +soften flinty hearts, make them responsive?” + +He considered this woman whom Saint-Simon has called “beautiful as the +day,” and his smile broadened. + +“Look in your mirror for the alchemy needed there,” he bade her. + +Anger rippled across the perfect face. She lowered, “I have looked--in +vain. Can you not help me, Vanens, you who know so much?” + +“A love-philtre?” said he, and hummed. “Are you in earnest?” + +“Do you mock me with that question? Is not my need proclaimed for all to +see?” + +Vanens became grave. + +“It is not an alchemy in which myself I dabble,” he said slowly. “But I +am acquainted with those who do.” + +She clutched his wrist in her eagerness. + +“I will pay well,” she said. + +“You will need to. Such things are costly.” He glanced round to see that +none was listening, then bending nearer: “There is a sorceress named La +Voisin in the Rue de la Tannerie, well known as a fortuneteller to many +ladies of the Court, who at a word from me will do your need.” + +La Montespan turned white. The piety in which she had been reared--the +habits of which clung to her despite the irregularity of her life--made +her recoil before the thing that she desired. Sorcery was of the Devil. +She told him so. But Vanens laughed. + +“So that it be effective. . .” said he with a shrug. + +And then across the room floated a woman's trilling laugh. She looked +in the direction of the sound and beheld the gorgeous figure of the King +bending--yet haughty and condescending even in adoration--over handsome +Madame de Ludres. Pride and ambition rose up in sudden fury to trample +on religious feeling. Let Vanens take her to this witch of his, for be +the aid what it might, she must have it. + +And so, one dark night late in the year, Louis de Vanens handed a masked +and muffled lady from a coach at the corner of the Rue de la Tannerie, +and conducted her to the house of La Voisin. + +The door was opened for them by a young woman of some twenty years +of age--Marguerite Monvoisin, the daughter of the witch--who led them +upstairs to a room that was handsomely furnished and hung with fantastic +tapestry of red designs upon a black ground--designs that took monstrous +shapes in the flickering light of a cluster of candles. Black curtains +parted, and from between them stepped a short, plump woman, of a certain +comeliness, with two round black beads of eyes. She was fantastically +robed in a cloak of crimson velvet, lined with costly furs and closely +studded with double-headed eagles in fine gold, which must have been +worth a prince's ransom; and she wore red shoes on each of which there +was the same eagle design in gold. + +“Ah, Vanens!” she said familiarly. + +He bowed. + +“I bring you,” he announced, “a lady who has need of your skill.” + +And he waved a hand towards the tall cloaked figure at his side. + +La Voisin looked at the masked face. + +“Velvet faces tell me little, Madame la Marquise,” she said calmly. +“Nor, believe me, will the King look at a countenance that you conceal +from me.” + +There was an exclamation of surprise and anger from Madame de Montespan. +She plucked off her mask. + +“You knew me?” + +“Can you wonder?” asked La Voisin, “since I have told you what you carry +concealed in your heart?” + +Madame de Montespan was as credulous as only the very devout can be. + +“Since that is so, since you know already what I seek, tell me can you +procure it me?” she asked in a fever of excitement. “I will pay well.” + +La Voisin smiled darkly. + +“Obdurate, indeed, is the case that will not yield to such medicine as +mine,” she said. “Let me consider first what must be done. In a few days +I shall bring you word. But have you courage for a great ordeal?” + +“For any ordeal that will give me what I want.” + +“In a few days, then, you shall hear from me,” said the witch, and so +dismissed the great lady. + +Leaving a heavy purse behind her, as Vanens had instructed her, the +Marchioness departed with her escort. And there, with that initiation, +as far as we can ascertain, ended Louis de Vanens's connection with the +affair. + +At Clagny Madame de Montespan waited for three days in a fever of +impatience for the coming of the witch. But when at last La Voisin +presented herself, the proposal that she had to make was one before +which the Marchioness recoiled in horror and some indignation. + +The magic that La Voisin suggested involved a coadjutor, the Abbe +Guibourg, and the black mass to be celebrated by him. Madame de +Montespan had heard something of these dread sacrificial rites to Satan; +sufficient to fill her with loathing and disgust of the whitefaced, +beady-eyed woman who dared to insult her by the proposal. She fumed and +raged a while, and even went near to striking La Voisin, who looked +on with inscrutable face and stony, almost contemptuous, indifference. +Before that impenetrable, almost uncanny, calm, Madame de Montespan's +fury at last abated. Then the urgency of her need becoming paramount, +she desired more clearly to be told what would be expected of her. +What the witch told her was more appalling than anything she could have +imagined. But La Voisin argued: + +“Can anything be accomplished without cost? Can anything be gained in +this life without payment of some kind?” + +“But the price of this is monstrous!” Madame de Montespan protested. + +“Measure it by the worldly advantages to be gained. They are not small, +madame. To enjoy boundless wealth, boundless power, and boundless +honour, to be more than queen--is not all this worth some sacrifice?” + +To Madame de Montespan it must have been worth any sacrifice in this +world or the next, since in the end she conquered her disgust, and +agreed to lend herself to this horror. + +Three masses, she was told, would be necessary to ensure success, and +it was determined that they should be celebrated in the chapel of the +Chateau de Villebousin, where Guibourg had been almoner, to which he had +access, and which was at the time untenanted. + +The chateau was a gloomy mediaeval fortress, blackened by age, and +standing, surrounded by a moat, in a lonely spot some two miles to the +south of Paris. Thither on a dark, gusty night of March came Madame de +Montespan, accompanied by her confidential waiting-woman, Mademoiselle +Desceillets. They left the coach to await them on the Orleans road, and +thence, escorted by a single male attendant, they made their way by a +rutted, sodden path towards the grim castle looming faintly through the +enveloping gloom. + +The wind howled dismally about the crenellated turrets; and a row of +poplars, standing like black, phantasmal guardians of the evil place, +bent groaning before its fury. From the running waters of the moat, +swollen by recent rains, came a gurgling sound that was indescribably +wicked. + +Desocillets was frightened by the dark, the desolate loneliness and +eeriness of the place; but she dared utter no complaint as she stumbled +forward over the uneven ground, through the gloom and the buffeting +wind, compelled by the suasion of her mistress's imperious will. Thus, +by a drawbridge spanning dark, oily waters, they came into a vast +courtyard and an atmosphere as of mildew. A studded door stood ajar, and +through the gap, from a guiding beacon of infamy, fell a rhomb of yellow +light, suddenly obscured by a squat female figure when the steps of the +Marchioness and her companions fell upon the stones of the yard. + +It was La Voisin who stood on the threshold to receive her client. In +the stone-flagged hall behind her the light of a lantern revealed her +daughter, Marguerite Monvoisin, and a short, crafty-faced, misshapen +fellow in black homespun and a red wig--a magician named Lesage, one of +La Voisin's coadjutors, a rogue of some talent who exploited the witches +of Paris to his own profit. + +Leaving Leroy--the Marchioness's male attendant below in this fellow's +company, La Voisin took up a candle and lighted Madame de Montespan up +the broad stone staircase, draughty and cold, to the ante-room of the +chapel on the floor above. Mademoiselle Desceillets followed closely and +fearfully, and Marguerite Monvoisin came last. + +They entered the ante-room, a spacious chamber, bare of furniture save +for an oaken table in the middle, some faded and mildewed tapestries, +and a cane-backed settle of twisted walnut over against the wall. An +alabaster lamp on the table made an island of light in that place of +gloom, and within the circle of its feeble rays stood a gross old man of +some seventy years of age in sacerdotal garments of unusual design: the +white alb worn over a greasy cassock was studded with black fir-cones; +the stole and maniple were of black satin, with fir-cones wrought in +yellow thread. + +His inflamed countenance was of a revolting hideousness: his cheeks were +covered by a network of blue veins, his eyes squinted horribly, his lips +vanished inwards over toothless gums, and a fringe of white hair hung +in matted wisps from his high, bald crown. This was the infamous +Abbe Guibourg, sacristan of Saint Denis, an ordained priest who had +consecrated himself to the service of the Devil. + +He received the great lady with a low bow which, despite herself, she +acknowledged by a shudder. She was very pale, and her eyes were dilating +and preternaturally bright. Fear began to possess her, yet she suffered +herself to be ushered into the chapel, which was dimly illumined by a +couple of candles standing beside a basin on a table. The altar light +had been extinguished. Her maid would have hung back, but that she +feared to be parted from her mistress. She passed in with her in the +wake of Guibourg, and followed by La Voisin, who closed the door, +leaving her daughter in the ante-room. + +Although she had never been a participant in any of the sorceries +practised by her mother, yet Marguerite was fully aware of their extent, +and more than guessed what horrors were taking place beyond the closed +doors of the chapel. The very thought of them filled her with loathing +and disgust as she sat waiting, huddled in a corner of the settle. And +yet when presently through the closed doors came the drone of the voice +of that unclean celebrant, to blend with the whine of the wind in the +chimney, Marguerite, urged by a morbid curiosity she could not conquer, +crept shuddering to the door, which directly faced the altar, and going +down on her knees applied her eye to the keyhole. + +What she saw may very well have appalled her considering the exalted +station of Madame de Montespan. She beheld the white, sculptural form of +the royal favourite lying at full length supine upon the altar, her arms +outstretched, holding a lighted candle in each hand. Immediately before +her stood the Abbe Guibourg, his body screening the chalice and its +position from the eye of the watching girl. + +She heard the whine of his voice pattering the Latin of the mass, which +he was reciting backwards from the last gospel; and occasionally +she heard responses muttered by her mother, who with Mademoiselle +Desceillets was beyond Marguerite's narrow range of vision. + +Apart from the interest lent to the proceedings by the presence of +the royal favourite the affair must have seemed now very stupid and +pointless to Marguerite, although she would certainly not have found it +so had she known enough Latin to understand the horrible perversion +of the Credo. But when the Offertory was reached, matters suddenly +quickened. In stealing away from the door, she was no more than in time +to avoid being caught spying by her mother, who now issued from the +chapel. + +La Voisin crossed the ante-room briskly and went out. + +Within a very few minutes she was back again, her approach now heralded +by the feeble, quavering squeals of a very young child. + +Marguerite Monvoisin was sufficiently acquainted with the ghastly rites +to guess what was impending. She was young, and herself a mother. +She had her share of the maternal instinct alive in every female +animal--with the occasional exception of the human pervert--and the +hoarse, plaintive cries of that young child chilled her to the soul with +horror. She felt the skin roughening and tightening upon her body, and a +sense of physical sickness overcame her. That and the fear of her mother +kept her stiff and frozen in an angle of the settle until La Voisin had +passed through and reentered the chapel bearing that piteous bundle in +her arms. + +Then, when the door had closed again, the girl, horrified and +fascinated, sped back to watch. She saw that unclean priest turn and +receive the child from La Voisin. As it changed hands its cries were +stilled. + +Guibourg faced the altar once more, that little wisp of humanity that +was but a few days old held now aloft, naked, in his criminal hands. +His muttering, slobbering voice pronouncing the words of that demoniac +consecration reached the ears of the petrified girl at the keyhole. + +“Ashtaroth, Asmodeus, Princes of Affection, I conjure you to acknowledge +the sacrifice I offer to you of this child for the things I ask of +you, which are that the King's love for me shall be continued, and that +honoured by princes and princesses nothing shall be denied me of all +that I may ask.” + +A sudden gust of wind smote and rattled the windows of the chapel and +the ante-room, as if the legions of hell had flung themselves against +the walls of the chateau. There was a rush and clatter in the chimney of +the ante-room's vast, empty fireplace, and through the din Marguerite, +as her failing limbs sank under her and she slithered down in a heap +against the chapel door, seemed to hear a burst of exultantly cruel +satanic laughter. With chattering teeth and burning eyes she sat +huddled, listening in terror. The child began to cry again, more +violently, more piteously; then, quite suddenly, there was a little +choking cough, a gurgle, the chink of metal against earthenware, and +silence. + +When some moments later the squat figure of La Voisin emerged from the +chapel, Marguerite was back in the shadows, hunched on the settle to +which she had crawled. She saw that her mother now carried a basin under +her arm, and she did not need the evidence of her eyes to inform her of +the dreadful contents that the witch was bearing away in it. + +Meanwhile in the chapel the ineffably blasphemous rites proceeded. To +the warm human blood which had been caught in the consecrated chalice, +Guibourg had added, among other foulnesses, powdered cantharides, the +dust of desiccated moles, and the blood of bats. By the addition of +flour he had wrought the ingredients into an ineffable paste, and over +this, through the door, which La Voisin had left ajar, Marguerite heard +his voice pronouncing the dread words of Transubstantiation. + +Marguerite's horror mounted until it threatened to suffocate her. It +was as if some hellish miasma, released by Guibourg's monstrous +incantations, crept through to permeate and poison the air she breathed. + +It would be a half-hour later when Madame de Montespan at last came out. +She was of a ghastly pallor, her limbs shook and trembled under her as +she stepped forth, and there was a wild horror in her staring eyes. Yet +she contrived to carry herself almost defiantly erect, and she spoke +sharply to the half-swooning Desceillets, who staggered after her. + +She took her departure from that unholy place bearing with her the +host compounded of devilish ingredients which when dried and reduced to +powder was to be administered to the King to ensure the renewal of his +failing affection for her. + +The Marchioness contrived that a creature of her own, an officer of +the buttery in her pay, should introduce it into the royal soup. The +immediate and not unnatural result was that the King was taken violently +ill, and Madame de Montespan's anxiety and suspense were increased +thereby. On his recovery, however, it would seem that the demoniac +sacrament--thrice repeated by then--had not been in vain. + +The sequel, indeed, appeared to justify Madame de Montespan's faith +in sorcery, and to compensate her for all the horror to which in +her despair she had submitted. Madame de Ludres found herself coldly +regarded by the convalescent King. Very soon she was discarded, the +Widow Scarron neglected, and the fickle monarch was once more at the +feet of the lovely marchioness, her utter and devoted slave. + +Thus was Madame de Montespan “thunderously triumphant” once more, +and established as firmly as ever in the Sun-King's favour. Madame de +Sevigne, in speaking of this phase of their relations, dilates upon the +completeness of the reconciliation, and tells us that the ardour of +the first years seemed now to have returned. And for two whole years it +continued thus. Never before had Madame de Montespan's sway been more +absolute, no shadow came to trouble, the serenity of her rule. + +But it proved, after all, to be no more than the last flare of an +expiring fire that was definitely quenched at last, in 1679, by +Mademoiselle de Fontanges. A maid of honour to madame, she was a child +of not more than eighteen years, fair and flaxen, with pink cheeks and +large, childish eyes; and it was for this doll that the regal Montespan +now found herself discarded. + +Honours rained upon the new favourite. Louis made her a duchess with +an income of twenty thousand livres, and deeply though this may have +disgusted his subjects, it disgusted Madame de Montespan still more. +Blinded by rage she openly abused the new duchess, and provoked a fairly +public scene with Louis, in which she gave him her true opinion of him +with a disturbing frankness. + +“You dishonour yourself,” she informed him among other things. “And you +betray your taste when you make love to a pink-and-white doll, a little +fool that has no more wit nor manners than if she were painted on +canvas!” Then, with an increase of scorn, she delivered herself of an +unpardonable apostrophe: “You, a king, to accept the inheritance of that +chit's rustic lovers!” + +He flushed and scowled upon her. + +“That is an infamous falsehood!” he exclaimed. “Madame, you are +unbearable!” He was very angry, and it infuriated him the more that +she should stand so coldly mocking before an anger that could bow the +proudest heads in France. “You have the pride of Satan, your greed is +insatiable, your domineering spirit utterly insufferable, and you have +the most false and poisonous tongue in the world!” + +Her brutal answer bludgeoned that high divinity to earth. + +“With all my imperfections,” she sneered, “at least I do not smell as +badly as you do!” + +It was an answer that extinguished her last chance. It was fatal to +the dignity, to the “terrible majesty” of Louis. It stripped him of +all divinity, and revealed him authoritatively as intensely and even +unpleasantly human. It was beyond hope of pardon. + +His face turned the colour of wax. A glacial silence hung over the +agonized witnesses of that royal humiliation. Then, without a word, in a +vain attempt to rescue the dignity she had so cruelly mauled, he turned, +his red heels clicked rapidly and unsteadily across the polished floor, +and he was gone. + +When Madame de Montespan realized exactly what she had done, nothing +but rage remained to her--rage and its offspring, vindictiveness. The +Duchess of Fontanges must not enjoy her victory, nor must Louis escape +punishment for his faithlessness. La Voisin should afford her the means +to accomplish this. And so she goes once more to the Rue de la Tannerie. + +Now, the matter of Madame de Montespan's present needs was one in which +the witches were particularly expert. Were you troubled with a rival, +did your husband persist in surviving your affection for him, did those +from whom you had expectations cling obstinately and inconsiderately +to life, the witches by incantations and the use of powders--in which +arsenic was the dominant charm--could usually put the matter right for +you. Indeed, so wide and general was the practice of poisoning become, +that the authorities, lately aroused to the fact by the sensational +revelations of the Marchioness de Brinvilliers, had set up in this +year 1670 the tribunal known as the Chambre Ardente to inquire into the +matter, and to conduct prosecutions. + +La Voisin promised help to the Marchioness. She called in another witch +of horrible repute, named La Filastre, her coadjutor Lesage, and two +expert poisoners, Romani and Bertrand, who devised an ingenious plot for +the murder of the Duchess of Fontanges. They were to visit her, Romani +as a cloth merchant, and Bertrand as his servant, to offer her their +wares, including some Grenoble gloves, which were the most beautiful +gloves in the world and unfailingly irresistible to ladies. These gloves +they prepared in accordance with certain magical recipes in such a way +that the Duchess, after wearing them, must die a lingering death in +which there could be no suspicion of poisoning. + +The King was to be dealt with by means of a petition steeped in similar +powders, and should receive his death by taking it into his hands. La +Voisin herself was to go to Saint-Germain to present this petition on +Monday, March 13th, one of those days on which, according to ancient +custom, all comers were admitted to the royal presence. + +Thus they disposed. But Fate was already silently stalking La Voisin. + +It is to the fact that an obscure and vulgar woman had drunk one glass +of wine too many three months earlier that the King owed his escape. + +If you are interested in the almost grotesque disparity that can lie +between cause and effect, here is a subject for you. Three months +earlier a tailor named Vigoureux, whose wife secretly practised magic, +had entertained a few friends to dinner, amongst whom was an intimate +of his wife's, named Marie Bosse. This Marie Bosse it was who drank that +excessive glass of wine which, drowning prudence, led her to boast of +the famous trade she drove as a fortune-teller to the nobility, and even +to hint of something further. + +“Another three poisonings,” she chuckled, “and I shall retire with my +fortune made!” + +An attorney who was present pricked up his ears, bethought him of the +tales that were afloat, and gave information to the police. The police +set a trap for Marie Bosse, and she betrayed herself. Later, under +torture, she betrayed La Vigoureux. La Vigoureux betrayed others, and +these others again. + +The arrest of Marie Bosse was like knocking down the first of a row of +ninepins, but none could have suspected that the last of these stood in +the royal apartments. + +On the day before she was to repair to Saint-Germain, La Voisin, +betrayed in her turn, received a surprise visit from the police--who, of +course, had no knowledge of the regicide their action was thwarting--and +she was carried off to the Chatelet. Put to the question, she revealed +a great deal; but her terror of the horrible punishment reserved +for regicides prevented her to the day of her death at the stake--in +February of 1680 from saying a word of her association with Madame de +Montespan. + +But there were others whom she betrayed under torture, and whose arrest +followed quickly upon her own, who had not her strength of character. +Among these were La Filastre and the magician Lesage. When it was found +that these two corroborated each other in the incredible things which +they related, the Chambre Ardente took fright. La Reynie, who presided +over it, laid the matter before the King, and the King, horror-stricken +by the discovery of the revolting practices in which the mother of +his children had been engaged, suspended the sittings of the Chambre +Ardente, and commanded that no further proceedings should be taken +against Lesage and La Filastre, and none initiated against Romani, +Bertrand, the Abbe Guibourg, and the scores of other poisoners and +magicians who had been arrested, and who were acquainted with Madame de +Montespan's unholy traffic. + +But it was not out of any desire to spare Madame de Montespan that the +King proceeded in this manner; he was concerned only to spare himself +and his royal dignity. He feared above all things the scandal and +ridicule which must touch him as a result of publicity, and because +he feared it so much, he could impose no punishment upon Madame de +Montespan. + +This he made known to her at the interview between them procured by his +minister Louvois, at about the time that the sittings of the Chambre +Ardente were suspended. + +To this interview that proud, domineering woman came in dread, and in +tears and humility for once. The King's bearing was cold and hard. Cold +and hard were the words in which he declared the extent of his knowledge +of her infamy, words which revealed the loathing and disgust this +knowledge brought him. If at first she was terror-stricken, crushed +under the indictment, yet she was never of a temper to bear reproaches +long. Under his scorn her anger kindled and her humility was sloughed. + +“What then?” she cried at last, eyes aflash through lingering tears. “Is +the blame all mine? If all this is true, it is no less true that I +was driven to it by my love for you and the despair to which your +heartlessness and infidelity reduced me. To you,” she continued, +gathering force at every word, “I sacrificed everything--my honour, a +noble husband who loved me, all that a woman prizes. And what did you +give me in exchange? Your cruel fickleness exposed me to the low mockery +of the lick-spittles of your Court. Do you wonder that I went mad, and +that in my madness I sacrificed what shreds of self-respect you had left +me? And now it seems I have lost all but life. Take that, too, if it +be your pleasure. Heaven knows it has little value left for me! But +remember that in striking me you strike the mother of your children--the +legitimate children of France. Remember that!” + +He remembered it. Indeed, he was never in danger of forgetting it; for +she might have added that he would be striking also at himself and at +that royal dignity which was his religion. And so that all scandalous +comment might be avoided she was actually allowed to remain at Court, +although no longer in her first-floor apartments; and it was not until +ten years later that she departed to withdraw to the community of Saint +Joseph. + +But even in her disgrace this woman, secretly convicted among other +abominations of attempting to procure the poisoning of the King and of +her rival, enjoyed an annual pension of 1,200,000 livres; whilst none +dared proceed against those who shared her guilt--not even the infamous +Guibourg, the poisoners Romani and Bertrand, and La Filastre--nor yet +against some scores of associates of these, who were known to live by +sorcery and poisonings, and who might be privy to the part played by +Madame de Montespan in that horrible night of magic at the Chateau de +Villebousin. + +The hot blast of revolution was needed to sweep France clean. + + + + + + +VII. THE NIGHT OF GEMS--The “Affairs” Of The Queen's Necklace + +Under the stars of a tepid, scented night of August of 1784, Prince +Louis de Rohan, Cardinal of Strasbourg, Grand Almoner of France, made +his way with quickened pulses through the Park of Versailles to a +momentous assignation in the Grove of Venus. + +This illustrious member of an illustrious House, that derived from both +the royal lines of Valois and Bourbon, was a man in the prime of life, +of a fine height, still retaining something of the willowy slenderness +that had been his in youth, and of a gentle, almost womanly beauty of +countenance. + +In a grey cloak and a round, grey hat with gold cords, followed closely +by two shadowy attendant figures, he stepped briskly amain, eager to +open those gates across the path of his ambition, locked against him +hitherto by the very hands from which he now went to receive the key. + +He deserves your sympathy, this elegant Cardinal-Prince, who had been +the victim of the malice and schemings of the relentless Austrian +Empress since the days when he represented the King of France at the +Court of Vienna. + +The state he had kept there had been more than royal and royal in +the dazzling French manner, which was perturbing to a woman of Marie +Therese's solid German notions. His hunting-parties, his supper-parties, +the fetes he gave upon every occasion, the worldly inventiveness, the +sumptuousness and reckless extravagance that made each of these affairs +seem like a supplement to “The Arabian Nights' Entertainments,” the +sybaritic luxury of his surroundings, the incredible prodigality of +his expenditure, all served profoundly to scandalize and embitter the +Empress. + +That a priest in gay, secular clothes should hunt the stag on horseback +filled her with horror at his levity; that he should flirt discreetly +with the noble ladies of Vienna made her despair of his morals; whilst +his personal elegance and irresistible charm were proofs to her of a +profligacy that perverted the Court over which she ruled. + +She laboured for the extinction of his pernicious brilliance, and +intrigued for his recall. She made no attempt to conceal her hostility, +nor did she love him any the better because he met her frigid +haughtiness with an ironical urbanity that seemed ever to put her in the +wrong. And then one day he permitted his wit to be bitingly imprudent. + +“Marie Therese,” he wrote to D'Aiguillon, “holds in one hand a +handkerchief to receive her tears for the misfortunes of oppressed +Poland, and in the other a sword to continue its partition.” + +To say that in this witticism lay one of the causes of the French +Revolution may seem at first glance an outrageous overstatement. Yet +it is certain that, but for that imprudent phrase, the need would never +have arisen that sent Rohan across the Park of Versailles on that August +night to an assignation that in the sequel was to place a terrible +weapon in the hands of the Revolutionary party. + +D'Aiguillon had published the gibe. It had reached the ears of Marie +Antoinette, and from her it had travelled back to her mother in Vienna. +It aroused in the Empress a resentment and a bitterness that did not +rest until the splendid Cardinal-Prince was recalled from his embassy. +It did not rest even then. By the ridicule to which the gibe exposed +her--and if you know Marie Therese at all, you can imagine what that +meant--it provoked a hostility that was indefatigably to labour against +him. + +The Cardinal was ambitious, he had confidence in his talents and in +the driving force of his mighty family, and he looked to become another +Richelieu or Mazarin, the first Minister of the Crown, the empurpled +ruler of France, the guiding power behind the throne. All this he looked +confidently to achieve; all this he might have achieved but for the +obstacle that Marie Therese's resentment flung across his path. The +Empress saw to it that, through the person of her daughter, her hatred +should pursue him even into France. + +Obedient ever to the iron will of her mother, sharing her mother's +resentment, Marie Antoinette exerted all her influence to thwart this +Cardinal whom her mother had taught her to regard as a dangerous, +unprincipled man. + +On his return from Vienna bearing letters from Marie Therese to Louis +XVI and Marie Antoinette, the Cardinal found himself coldly received by +the dull King, and discouraged from remaining at Court, whilst the Queen +refused to grant him so much as the audience necessary for the delivery +of these letters, desiring him to forward them instead. + +The chagrined Cardinal had no illusions. He beheld here the hand +of Marie Therese controlling Marie Antoinette, and, through Marie +Antoinette, the King himself. Worse followed. He who had dreamt himself +another Richelieu could only with difficulty obtain the promised +position of Grand Almoner of France, and this solely as a result of the +powerful and insistent influence exerted by his family. + +He perceived that if he was to succeed at all he must begin by softening +the rigorous attitude which the Queen maintained towards him. To that +end he addressed himself. But three successive letters he wrote to the +Queen remained unanswered. Through other channels persistently he begged +for an audience that he might come in person to express his regrets for +the offending indiscretion. But the Queen remained unmoved, ruled ever +by the Austrian Empress, who through her daughter sought to guide the +affairs of France. + +Rohan was reduced to despair, and then in an evil hour his path was +crossed by Jeanne de la Motte de Valois, who enjoyed the reputation +of secretly possessing the friendship of the Queen, exerting a sort of +back-stair influence, and who lived on that reputation. + +As a drowning man clutches at a straw, so the Cardinal-Prince Louis de +Rohan, Grand Almoner of France, Landgrave of Alsace, Commander of the +Order of the Holy Ghost, clutched at this faiseuse d'affaires to help +him in his desperate need. + +Jeanne de la Motte de Valois--perhaps the most astounding adventuress +that ever lived by her wits and her beauty--had begun life by begging +her bread in the streets. She laid claim to left-handed descent from +the royal line of Valois, and, her claim supported by the Marchioness +Boulainvilliers, who had befriended her, she had obtained from the Crown +a small pension, and had married the unscrupulous Marc Antoine de la +Motte, a young soldier in the Burgundy regiment of the Gendarmerie. + +Later, in the autumn of 1786, her protectress presented her to Cardinal +de Rohan. His Eminence, interested in the lady's extraordinary history, +in her remarkable beauty, vivacity, and wit, received the De la Mottes +at his sumptuous chateau at Saverne, near Strasbourg, heard her story in +greater detail, promised his protection, and as an earnest of his +kindly intentions obtained for her husband a captain's commission in the +Dragoons. + +Thereafter you see the De la Mottes in Paris and at Versailles, hustled +from lodging to lodging for failure to pay what they owe; and finally +installed in a house in the Rue Neuve Saint-Gilles. There they kept +a sort of state, spending lavishly, now the money borrowed from the +Cardinal, or upon the Cardinal's security; now the proceeds of pawned +goods that had been bought on credit, and of other swindles practised +upon those who were impressed by the lady's name and lineage and the +patronage of the great Cardinal which she enjoyed. + +To live on your wits is no easy matter. It demands infinite address, +coolness, daring, and resource qualities which Madame de la Motte +possessed in the highest degree, so that, harassed and pressed by +creditors, she yet contrived to evade their attacks and to present a +calm and, therefore, confidence-inspiring front to the world. + +The truth of Madame de la Motte de Valois's reputation for influence +at Court was never doubted. There was nothing in the character of Marie +Antoinette to occasion such doubts. Indiscreet in many things, Her +Majesty was most notoriously so in her attachments, as witness her +intimacy with Madame de Polignac and the Princesse de Lambelle. And the +public voice had magnified--as it will--those indiscretions until it had +torn her character into shreds. + +The fame of the Countess Jeanne de Valois--as Madame de la Motte now +styled herself--increasing, she was employed as an intermediary by +place-seekers and people with suits to prefer, who gratefully purchased +her promises to interest herself on their behalf at Court. + +And then into her web of intrigue blundered the Cardinal de Rohan, who, +as he confessed, “was completely blinded by his immense desire to regain +the good graces of the Queen.” She aroused fresh hope in his despairing +heart by protesting that, as some return for all the favours she had +received from him, she would not rest until she had disposed the Queen +more favourably towards him. + +Later came assurances that the Queen's hostility was melting under her +persuasions, and at last she announced that she was authorized by Her +Majesty to invite him to submit the justification which so long and so +vainly he had sought permission to present. + +Rohan, in a vertigo of satisfaction, indited his justification, +forwarded it to the Queen by the hand of the Countess, and some days +later received a note in the Queen's hand upon blue-edged paper adorned +by the lilies of France. + +“I rejoice,” wrote Marie Antoinette, “to find at last that you were not +in fault. I cannot yet grant you the audience you desire, but as soon as +the circumstances allow of it I shall let you know. Be discreet.” + +Upon the advice of the Countess of Valois, His Eminence sent a reply +expressive of his deep gratitude and joy. + +Thus began a correspondence between Queen and Cardinal which continued +regularly for a space of three months, growing gradually more +confidential and intimate. As time passed his solicitations of an +audience became more pressing, until at last the Queen wrote announcing +that, actuated by esteem and affection for him who had so long been kept +in banishment, she herself desired the meeting. But it must be secret. +An open audience would still be premature; he had numerous enemies at +Court, who, thus forewarned, might so exert themselves against him as +yet to ruin all. + +To receive such a letter from a beautiful woman, and that woman a queen +whose glories her inaccessibility had magnified a thousandfold in his +imagination, must have all but turned the Cardinal's head. The secrecy +of the correspondence, culminating in a clandestine meeting, seemed to +establish between them an intimacy impossible under other circumstances. + +Into the warp of his ambition was now woven another, tenderly romantic, +though infinitely respectful, feeling. + +You realize, I hope, the frame of mind in which the Cardinal-Prince took +his way through that luminous, fragrant summer night towards the Grove +of Venus. He went to lay the cornerstone of the proud edifice of +his ambitions. To him it was a night of nights--a night of gems, he +pronounced it, looking up into the jewelled vault of heaven. And in that +phrase he was singularly prophetic. + +By an avenue of boxwood and yoke-elm he entered into an open glade, +in the middle of which there was a circle where the intended statue of +Venus was never placed. But if the cold marble effigy of a goddess were +absent, the warm, living figure of a queen stood, all in shimmering +white amid the gloom, awaiting him. + +Rohan checked a moment, his breath arrested, his pulses quickened. Then +he sped forward, and, flinging off his wide-brimmed hat, he prostrated +himself to kiss the hem of her white cambric gown. Something--a rose +that she let fall--brushed lightly past his cheek. Reverently he +recovered it, accounting it a tangible symbol of her favour, and +he looked up into the proud, lovely face--which, although but dimly +discernible, was yet unmistakable to him protesting his gratitude and +devotion. He perceived that she was trembling, and caught the quiver in +the voice that answered him. + +“You may hope that the past will be forgiven.” + +And then, before he could drink more deeply of this cup of delight, +came rapid steps to interrupt them. A slender man, in whom the Cardinal +seemed to recognize the Queen's valet Desclaux, thrust through the +curtains of foliage into the grove. + +“Quick, madame!” he exclaimed in agitation. “Madame la Comtesse and +Mademoiselle d'Artois are approaching!” + +The Queen was whirled away, and the Cardinal discreetly effaced himself, +his happiness tempered by chagrin at the interruption. + +When, on the morrow, the Countess of Valois brought him a blue-bordered +note with Her Majesty's wishes that he should patiently await a +propitious season for his public restoration to royal favour, he +resigned himself with the most complete and satisfied submission. Had +he not the memory of her voice and the rose she had given him? Soon +afterwards came a blue-bordered note in which Marie Antoinette advised +him to withdraw to his Bishopric of Strasbourg until she should judge +that the desired season of his reinstatement had arrived. + +Obediently Rohan withdrew. + +It was in the following December that the Countess of Valois's good +offices at Court were solicited by a new client, and that she first +beheld the famous diamond necklace. + +It had been made by the Court jewellers of the Rue Vendome--Bohmer and +Bassenge--and intended for the Countess du Barry. On the assembling of +its component gems Bohmer had laboured for five years and travelled all +over Europe, with the result that he had achieved not so much a necklace +as a blazing scarf of diamonds of a splendour outrivalling any jewel +that the world had ever seen. + +Unfortunately, Bohmer was too long over the task. Louis XV died +inopportunely, and the firm found itself with a necklace worth two +million livres on its hands. + +Hopes were founded upon Marie Antoinette's reputed extravagance. But +the price appalled her, while Louis XVI met the importunities of the +jeweller with the reply that the country needed a ship of war more +urgently than a necklace. + +Thereafter Bohmer offered it in various Courts of Europe, but always +without success. Things were becoming awkward. The firm had borrowed +heavily to pay for the stones, and anxiety seems to have driven Bohmer +to the verge of desperation. Again he offered the necklace to the +King, announcing himself ready to make terms, and to accept payment in +instalments; but again it was refused. + +Bohmer now became that pest to society, the man with a grievance that he +must be venting everywhere. On one occasion he so far forgot himself +as to intrude upon the Queen as she was walking in the gardens of the +Trianon. Flinging himself upon his knees before her, he protested with +sobs that he was in despair, and that unless she purchased the necklace +he would go and drown himself. His tears left her unmoved to anything +but scorn. + +“Get up, Bohmer!” she bade him. “I don't like such scenes. I have +refused the necklace, and I don't want to hear of it again. Instead of +drowning yourself, break it up and sell the diamonds separately.” + +He did neither one nor the other, but continued to air his grievance; +and among those who heard him was one Laporte, an impecunious visitor at +the house of the Countess of Valois. + +Bohmer had said that he would pay a thousand louis to any one who found +him a purchaser for the necklace. That was enough to stir the needy +Laporte. He mentioned the matter to the Countess, and enlisted her +interest. Then he told Bohmer of her great influence with the Queen, and +brought the jeweller to visit her with the necklace. + +Dazzled by the fire of those gems, the Countess nevertheless +protested--but in an arch manner calculated to convince Bohmer of the +contrary--that she had no power to influence Her Majesty. Yet yielding +with apparent reluctance to his importunities, she, nevertheless, ended +by promising to see what could be done. + +On January 3d the Cardinal came back from Strasbourg. Correspondence +with the Queen, through Madame de Valois, had continued during his +absence, and now, within a few days of his return, an opportunity was +to be afforded him of proving his readiness to serve Her Majesty, and of +placing her under a profound obligation to him. + +The Countess brought him a letter from Marie Antoinette, in which the +Queen expressed her desire to acquire the necklace, but added that, +being without the requisite funds at the moment, it would be necessary +to settle the terms and arrange the instalments, which should be paid at +intervals of three months. For this she required an intermediary who in +himself would be a sufficient guarantee to the Bohmers, and she ended by +inviting His Eminence to act on her behalf. + +That invitation the Cardinal, who had been waiting ever since the +meeting in the Grove of Venus for an opportunity of proving himself, +accepted with alacrity. + +And so, on January 24th, the Countess drives up to the Grand Balcon, the +jewellers' shop in the Rue Vendome. Her dark eyes sparkle, the lovely, +piquant face is wreathed in smiles. + +“Messieurs,” she greets the anxious partners, “I think I can promise you +that the necklace will very shortly be sold.” + +The jewellers gasp in the immensity of the hope her words arouse. + +“The purchase,” she goes on to inform them, “will be effected by a very +great nobleman.” + +Bassenge bursts into voluble gratitude. She cuts it short. + +“That nobleman is the Cardinal-Prince Louis de Rohan. It is with him +that you will arrange the affair, and I advise you,” she adds in a +confidential tone, “to take every precaution, especially in the matter +of the terms of payment that may be proposed to you. That is all, +I think, messieurs. You will, of course, bear in mind that it is no +concern of mine, and that I do not so much as want my name mentioned in +connection with it.” + +“Perfectly, madame,” splutters Bohmer, who is perspiring, although the +air is cold--“perfectly! We understand, and we are profoundly grateful. +If--” His hands fumble nervously at a case. “If you would deign, madame, +to accept this trifle as an earnest of our indebtedness, we--” + +There is a tinge of haughtiness in her manner as she interrupts him. + +“You do not appear to understand, Bohmer, that the matter does not at +all concern me. I have done nothing,” she insists; then, melting into +smiles, “My only desire,” she adds, “was to be of service to you.” + +And upon that she departs, leaving them profoundly impressed by her +graciousness and still more by her refusal to accept a valuable jewel. + +On the morrow the great nobleman she had heralded, the Cardinal himself, +alighted at the Grand Balcon, coming, on the Queen's behalf, to see the +necklace and settle the terms. By the end of the week the bargain was +concluded. The price was fixed at 1,600,000 livres, which the Queen was +to pay in four instalments extending over two years, the first falling +due on the following August 1st. + +These terms the Cardinal embodied in a note which he forwarded to Madame +de la Motte, that they might be ratified by the Queen. + +The Countess returned the note to him next day. + +“Her Majesty is pleased and grateful,” she announced, “and she approves +of all that you have done. But she does not wish to sign anything.” + +On that point, however, the Cardinal was insistent. The magnitude of +the transaction demanded it, and he positively refused to move further +without Her Majesty's signature. + +The Countess departed to return again on the last day of the month +with the document completed as the Cardinal required, bearing now the +signature “Marie Antoinette de France,” and the terms marked “approved” + in the Queen's hand. + +“The Queen,” Madame de la Motte informed him, “is making this purchase +secretly, without the King's knowledge, and she particularly begs that +this note shall not leave Your Eminence's hands. Do not, therefore, +allow any one to see it.” + +Rohan gave the required promise, but, not conceiving that the Bohmers +were included in it, he showed them the note and the Queen's signature +when they came to wait upon him with the necklace on the morrow. + +In the dusk of evening a closed carriage drew up at the door of Madame +de la Motte Valois's lodging on the Place Dauphine at Versailles. Rohan +alighted, and went upstairs with a casket under his arm. + +Madame awaited him in a white-panelled, indifferently lighted room, to +which there was an alcove with glass doors. + +“You have brought the necklace?” + +“It is here,” he replied, tapping the box with his gloved hand. + +“Her Majesty is expecting it to-night. Her messenger should arrive at +any moment. She will be pleased with Your Eminence.” + +“That is all that I can desire,” he answered gravely; and sat down in +answer to her invitation, the precious casket on his knees. + +Waiting thus, they talked desultorily for some moments. At last came +steps upon the stairs. + +“Quick! The alcove!” she exclaimed. “You must not be seen by Her +Majesty's messenger.” + +Rohan, with ready understanding, a miracle of discretion, effaced +himself into the alcove, through the glass doors of which he could see +what passed. + +The door was opened by madame's maid with the announcement: + +“From the Queen.” + +A tall, slender young man in black, the Queen's attendant of that other +night of gems--the night of the Grove of Venus--stepped quickly into the +room, bowed like a courtier to Madame de la Motte, and presented a note. + +Madame broke the seal, then begged the messenger to withdraw for a +moment. When he had gone, she turned to the Cardinal, who stood in the +doorway of the alcove. + +“That is Desclaux, Her Majesty's valet,” she said; and held out to him +the note, which requested the delivery of the necklace to the bearer. + +A moment later the messenger was reintroduced to receive the casket from +the hands of Madame de la Motte. Within five minutes the Cardinal was in +his carriage again, driving happily back to Paris with his dreams of a +queen's gratitude and confidence. + +Two days later, meeting Bohmer at Versailles, the Cardinal suggested to +him that he should offer his thanks to the Queen for having purchased +the necklace. + +Bohmer sought an opportunity for this in vain. None offered. It was also +in vain that he waited to hear that the Queen had worn the necklace. +But he does not appear to have been anxious on that score. Moreover, +the Queen's abstention was credibly explained by Madame de la Motte to +Laporte with the statement that Her Majesty did not wish to wear the +necklace until it was paid for. + +With the same explanation she answered the Cardinal's inquiries in +the following July, when he returned from a three months' sojourn in +Strasbourg. + +And she took the opportunity to represent to him that one of the reasons +why the Queen could not yet consider the necklace quite her own was that +she found the price too high. + +“Indeed, she may be constrained to return it, after all, unless the +Bohmers are prepared to be reasonable.” + +If His Eminence was a little dismayed by this, at least any nascent +uneasiness was quieted. He consented to see the jewellers in the matter, +and on July 10th--three weeks before the first instalment was due--he +presented himself at the Grand Balcon to convey the Queen's wishes to +the Bohmers. + +Bohmer scarcely troubled to prevent disgust from showing on his +keen, swarthy countenance. Had not his client been a queen and her +intermediary a cardinal, he would, no doubt, have afforded it full +expression. + +“The price agreed upon was already greatly below the value of the +necklace,” he grumbled. “I should never have accepted it but for the +difficulties under which we have been placed by the purchase of the +stones--the money we owe and the interest we are forced to pay. A +further reduction is impossible.” + +The handsome Cardinal was suave, courtly, regretful, but firm. Since +that was the case, there would be no alternative but to return the +necklace. + +Bohmer took fright. The annulment of the sale would bring him face to +face with ruin. Reluctantly, feeling that he was being imposed upon, he +reduced the price by two hundred thousand livres, and even consented to +write the Queen the following letter, whose epistolary grace suggests +the Cardinal's dictation: + +MADAME,--We are happy to hazard the thought that our submission with +zeal and respect to the last arrangement proposed constitutes a proof +of our devotion and obedience to the orders of Your Majesty. And we have +genuine satisfaction in thinking that the most beautiful set of diamonds +in existence will serve to adorn the greatest and best of queens. + +Now it happened that Bohmer was about to deliver personally to the Queen +some jewels with which the King was presenting her on the occasion of +the baptism of his nephew. He availed himself of that opportunity, two +days later, personally to hand his letter to Her Majesty. But chance +brought the Comptroller-General into the room before she had opened it, +and as a result the jeweller departed while the letter was still unread. + +Afterwards, in the presence of Madame de Campan, who relates the matter +in her memoirs, the Queen opened the note, pored over it a while, and +then, perhaps with vivid memories of Bohmer's threat of suicide: + +“Listen to what that madman Bohmer writes to me,” she said, and read the +lines aloud. “You guessed the riddles in the 'Mercure' this morning. I +wonder could you guess me this one.” + +And, with a half-contemptuous shrug, she held the sheet in the flame +of one of the tapers that stood alight on the table for the purpose of +sealing letters. + +“That man exists for my torment,” she continued. “He has always some mad +notion in his head, and must always be visiting it upon me. When next +you see him, pray convince him how little I care for diamonds.” + +And there the matter was dismissed. + +Days passed, and then a week before the instalment of 350,000 livres +was due, the Cardinal received a visit from Madame de la Motte on the +Queen's behalf. + +“Her Majesty,” madame announced, “seems embarrassed about the +instalment. She does not wish to trouble you by writing about it. But +I have thought of a way by which you could render yourself agreeable to +her and, at the same time, set her mind at rest. Could you not raise a +loan for the amount?” + +Had not the Cardinal himself dictated to Bohmer a letter which Bohmer +himself had delivered to the Queen, he must inevitably have suspected by +now that all was not as it should be. But, satisfied as he was by that +circumstance, he addressed himself to the matter which Madame de la +Motte proposed. But, although Rohan was extraordinarily wealthy, he had +ever been correspondingly lavish. + +Moreover, to complicate matters, there had been the bankruptcy of his +nephew, the Prince de Guimenee, whose debts had amounted to some three +million livres. Characteristically, and for the sake of the family +honour, Rohan had taken the whole of this burden upon his own shoulders. +Hence his resources were in a crippled condition, and it was beyond his +power to advance so considerable a sum at such short notice. Nor did he +succeed in obtaining a loan within the little time at his disposal. + +His anxieties on this score were increased by a letter from the Queen +which Madame de la Motte brought him on July 30th, in which Her Majesty +wrote that the first instalment could not be paid until October 1st; but +that on that date a payment of seven hundred thousand livres--half of +the revised price--would unfailingly be made. Together with this letter, +Madame de la Motte handed him thirty thousand livres, interest on the +instalment due, with which to pacify the jewellers. + +But the jewellers were not so easily to be pacified. Bohmer, at the +end of his patience, definitely refused to grant the postponement or +to receive the thirty thousand livres other than as on account of the +instalment due. + +The Cardinal departed in vexation. Something must be done at once, +or his secret relations with the Queen would be disclosed, thus +precipitating a catastrophe and a scandal. He summoned Madame de la +Motte, flung her into a panic with his news and sent her away to see +what she could do. What she actually did would have surprised him. +Realizing that a crisis had been reached calling for bold measures, she +sent for Bassenge, the milder of the two partners. He came to the Rue +Neuve Saint-Gilles, protesting that he was being abused. + +“Abused?” quoth she, taking him up on the word. “Abused, do you say?” + She laughed sharply. “Say duped, my friend; for that is what has +happened to you. You are the victim of a swindle.” + +Bassenge turned white; his prominent eyes bulged in his rather pasty +face. + +“What are you saying, madame?” His voice was husky. + +“The Queen's signature on the note in the Cardinal's possession is a +forgery.” + +“A forgery! The Queen's signature? Oh, mon Dieu!” He stared at her, and +his knees began to tremble. “How do you know, madame?” + +“I have seen it,” she answered. + +“But--but--” + +His nerveless limbs succumbing under him, he sank without ceremony to +a chair that was opportunely near him. With the same lack of ceremony, +mechanically, in a dazed manner, he mopped the sweat that stood in beads +on his brow, then raised his wig and mopped his head. + +“There is no need to waste emotion,” said she composedly. “The Cardinal +de Rohan is very rich. You must look to him. He will pay you.” + +“Will he?” + +Hope and doubt were blended in the question. + +“What else?” she asked. “Can you conceive that he will permit such a +scandal to burst about his name and the name of the Queen?” + +Bassenge saw light. The rights and wrongs of the case, and who might +be the guilty parties, were matters of very secondary importance. What +mattered was that the firm should recover the 1,600,000 livres for which +the necklace had been sold; and Bassenge was quick to attach full value +to the words of Madame de la Motte. + +Unfortunately for everybody concerned, including the jewellers +themselves, Bohmer's mind was less supple. Panic-stricken by Bassenge's +report, he was all for the direct method. There was no persuading him to +proceed cautiously, and to begin by visiting the Cardinal. He tore away +to Versailles at once, intent upon seeing the Queen. But the Queen, +as we know, had had enough of Bohmer. He had to content himself with +pouring his mixture of intercessions and demands into the ears of Madame +de Campan. + +“You have been swindled, Bohmer,” said the Queen's lady promptly. “Her +Majesty never received the necklace.” + +Bohmer would not be convinced. Disbelieving, and goaded to fury, he +returned to Bassenge. + +Bassenge, however, though perturbed, retained his calm. The Cardinal, +he insisted, was their security, and it was impossible to doubt that +the Cardinal would fulfil his obligations at all costs, rather than be +overwhelmed by a scandal. + +And this, no doubt, is what would have happened but for that hasty visit +of Bohmer's to Versailles. It ruined everything. As a result of it, +Bohmer was summoned to wait instantly upon the Queen in the mater of +some paste buckles. + +The Queen received the jeweller in private, and her greeting proved that +the paste buckles were a mere pretext. She demanded to know the meaning +of his words to Madame de Campan. + +Bohmer could not rid himself of the notion that he was being trifled +with. Had he not written and himself delivered to the Queen a letter +in which he thanked her for purchasing the necklace, and had not that +letter remained unanswered--a silent admission that the necklace was in +her hands? In his exasperation he became insolent. + +“The meaning, madame? The meaning is that I require payment for my +necklace, that the patience of my creditors is exhausted, and that +unless you order the money to be paid, I am a ruined man!” + +Marie Antoinette considered him in cold, imperious anger. + +“Are you daring to suggest that your necklace is in my possession?” + +Bohmer was white to the lips, his hands worked nervously. + +“Does Your Majesty deny it?” + +“You are insolent!” she exclaimed. “You will be good enough to answer +questions, not to ask them. Answer me, then. Do you suggest that I have +your necklace?” + +But a desperate man is not easily intimidated. + +“No, madame; I affirm it! It was the Countess of Valois who--” + +“Who is the Countess of Valois?” + +That sudden question, sharply uttered, was a sword of doubt through +the heart of Bohmer's confidence. He stared wide-eyed a moment at the +indignant lady before him, then collected himself, and made as plain a +tale as he could of the circumstances under which he had parted with +the necklace Madame de la Motte's intervention, the mediation of the +Cardinal de Rohan with Her Majesty's signed approval of the terms, and +the delivery of the necklace to His Eminence for transmission to the +Queen. + +Marie Antoinette listened in increasing horror and anger. A flush crept +into her pale cheeks. + +“You will prepare and send me a written statement of what you have just +told me,” she said. “You have leave to go.” + +That interview took place on August 9th. The 15th was the Feast of the +Assumption, and also the name-day of the Queen, therefore a gala day at +Court, bringing a concourse of nobility to Versailles. Mass was to be +celebrated in the royal chapel at ten o'clock, and the celebrant, as by +custom established for the occasion, was the Grand Almoner of France, +the Cardinal de Rohan. + +But at ten o'clock a meeting was being held in the King's cabinet, +composed of the King and Queen, the Baron de Breteuil, and the Keeper of +the Seals, Miromesnil. They were met, as they believed, to decide upon a +course of action in the matter of a diamond necklace. In reality, these +puppets in the hands of destiny were helping to decide the fate of the +French monarchy. + +The King, fat, heavy, and phlegmatic, sat in a gilded chair by an +ormolu-encrusted writing-table. His bovine eyes were troubled. Two +wrinkles of vexation puckered the flesh above his great nose. Beside, +and slightly behind him, stood the Queen, white and imperious, whilst +facing them stood Monsieur de Breteuil, reading aloud the statement +which Bohmer had drawn up. + +When he had done, there was a moment's utter silence. Then the King +spoke, his voice almost plaintive. + +“What is to be done, then? But what is to be done?” + +It was the Queen who answered him, harshly and angrily. + +“When the Roman purple and a princely title are but masks to cover a +swindler, there is only one thing to be done. This swindler must be +exposed and punished.” + +“But,” the King faltered, “we have not heard the Cardinal.” + +“Can you think that Bohmer, that any man, would dare to lie upon such a +matter?” + +“But consider, madame, the Cardinal's rank and family,” calmly +interposed the prudent Miromesnil; “consider the stir, the scandal that +must ensue if this matter is made public.” + +But the obedient daughter of Marie Therese, hating Rohan at her mother's +bidding and for her mother's sake, was impatient of any such wise +considerations. + +“What shall the scandal signify to us?” she demanded. The King looked at +Breteuil. + +“And you, Baron? What is your view?” + +Breteuil, Rohan's mortal enemy, raised his shoulders and flipped the +document. + +“In the face of this, Sire, it seems to me that the only course is to +arrest the Cardinal.” + +“You believe, then--” began the King, and checked, leaving the sentence +unfinished. + +But Breteuil had understood. + +“I know that the Cardinal must be pressed for money,” he said. “Ever +prodigal in his expenditure, he is further saddled with the debts of the +Prince de Guimenee.” + +“And you can believe,” the King cried, “that a Prince of the House of +Rohan, however pressed for money, could--Oh, it is unimaginable!” + +“Yet has he not stolen my name?” the Queen cut in. “Is he not proven a +common, stupid forger?” + +“We have not heard him,” the King reminded her gently. + +“And His Eminence might be able to explain,” ventured Miromesnil. “It +were certainly prudent to give him the opportunity.” + +Slowly the King nodded his great, powdered head. “Go and find him. Bring +him at once!” he bade Breteuil; and Breteuil bowed and departed. + +Very soon he returned, and he held the door whilst the handsome +Cardinal, little dreaming what lay before him, serene and calm, a +commanding figure in his cassock of scarlet watered silk, rustled +forward into the royal presence, and so came face to face with the Queen +for the first time since that romantic night a year ago in the Grove of +Venus. + +Abruptly the King launched his thunderbolt. + +“Cousin,” he asked, “what purchase is this of a diamond necklace that +you are said to have made in the Queen's name?” + +King and Cardinal looked into each other's eyes, the King's narrowing, +the Cardinal's dilating, the King leaning forward in his chair, elbows +on the table, the Cardinal standing tense and suddenly rigid. + +Slowly the colour ebbed from Rohan's face, leaving it deathly pale. His +eyes sought the Queen, and found her contemptuous glance, her curling +lip. Then at last his handsome head sank a little forward. + +“Sire,” he said unsteadily, “I see that I have been duped. But I have +duped nobody.” + +“You have no reason to be troubled, then. You need but to explain.” + +Explain! That was precisely what he could not do. Besides, what was +the nature of the explanation demanded of him? Whilst he stood stricken +there, it was the Queen who solved this question. + +“If, indeed, you have been duped,” she said scornfully, her colour high, +her eyes like points of steel, “you have been self-duped. But even then +it is beyond belief that self-deception could have urged you to the +lengths of passing yourself off as my intermediary--you, who should know +yourself to be the last man in France I should employ, you to whom I +have not spoken once in eight years.” Tears of anger glistened in her +eyes; her voice shrilled up. “And yet, since you have not denied it, +since you put forward this pitiful plea that you have been duped, we +must believe the unbelievable.” + +Thus at a blow she shattered the fond hopes he had been cherishing ever +since the night of gems--of gems, forsooth!--in the Grove of Venus; thus +she laid his ambition in ruins about him, and left the man himself half +stunned. + +Observing his disorder, the ponderous but kindly monarch rose. + +“Come, my cousin,” he said more gently, “collect yourself. Sit down here +and write what you may have to say in answer.” + +And with that he passed into the library beyond, accompanied by the +Queen and the two Ministers. + +Alone, Rohan staggered forward and sank nervelessly into the chair. He +took up a pen, pondered a moment, and began to write. But he did not +yet see clear. He could not yet grasp the extent to which he had been +deceived, could not yet believe that those treasured notes from Marie +Antoinette were forgeries, that it was not the Queen who had met him in +the Grove of Venus and given him the rose whose faded petals kept those +letters company in a portfolio of red morocco. But at least it was clear +to him that, for the sake of honour--the Queen's honour--he must assume +it so; and in that assumption he now penned his statement. + +When it was completed, himself he bore it to the King in the library. + +Louis read it with frowning brows; then passed it to the Queen. + +“Have you the necklace now?” he asked Rohan. + +“Sir, I left it in the hands of this woman Valois.” + +“Where is this woman?” + +“I do not know, Sire.” + +“And the letter of authority bearing the Queen's signature, which the +jewellers say you presented to them--where is that?” + +“I have it, Sire. I will place it before you. It is only now that I +realize that it is a forgery.” + +“Only now!” exclaimed the Queen in scorn. + +“Her Majesty's name has been compromised,” said the King sternly. “It +must be cleared. As King and as husband my duty is clear. Your Eminence +must submit to arrest.” + +Rohan fell back a step in stupefaction. For disgrace and dismissal he +was prepared, but not for this. + +“Arrest?” he whispered. “Ah, wait, Sire. The publicity! The scandal! +Think of that! As for the necklace, I will pay for it myself, and so pay +for my credulous folly. I beseech you, Sire, to let the matter end here. +I implore it for my own sake, for the sake of the Prince de Soubise +and the name of Rohan, which would be smirched unjustly and to no good +purpose.” + +He spoke with warmth and force; and, without adding more, yet conveyed +an impression that much more could be said for the course he urged. + +The King hesitated, considering. Noting this, the prudent, far-seeing +Miromesnil ventured to develop the arguments at which Rohan had hinted, +laying stress upon the desirability of avoiding scandal. + +Louis was nodding, convinced, when Marie Antoinette, unable longer to +contain her rancour, broke into opposition of those prudent measures. + +“This hideous affair must be disclosed,” she insisted. “It is due to me +that it should publicly be set right. The Cardinal shall tell the world +how he came to suppose that, not having spoken to him for eight years, +I could have wished to make use of his services in the purchase of this +necklace.” + +She was in tears, and her weak, easily swayed husband accounted her +justified in her demand. And so, to the great consternation of all the +world, Prince Louis de Rohan was arrested like a common thief. + +A foolish, indiscreet, short-sighted woman had allowed her rancour to +override all other considerations--careless of consequences, careless of +injustice so that her resentment, glutted by her hatred of the Cardinal, +should be gratified. The ungenerous act was terribly to recoil upon her. +In tears and blood was she to expiate her lack of charity; very soon she +was to reap its bitter fruits. + +Saint-Just, a very prominent counsellor of the Parliament, one of the +most advanced apostles of the new ideas that were to find full fruition +in the Revolution, expressed the popular feeling in the matter. + +“Great and joyful affair! A cardinal and a queen implicated in a forgery +and a swindle! Filth on the crosier and the sceptre! What a triumph for +the ideas of liberty!” + +At the trial that followed before Parliament, Madame de la Motte, a +man named Reteaux de Villette--who had forged the Queen's hand and +impersonated Desclaux and a Mademoiselle d'Oliva--who had used her +striking resemblance to Marie Antoinette to impersonate the Queen in the +Grove of Venus were found guilty and sentenced. But the necklace was not +recovered. It had been broken up, and some of the diamonds were already +sold; others were being sold in London by Captain de la Motte, who had +gone thither for the purpose, and who prudently remained there. + +The Cardinal was acquitted, amid intense public joy and acclamation, +which must have been gall and wormwood to the Queen. His powerful +family, the clergy of France, and the very people, with whom he had ever +been popular, had all laboured strenuously to vindicate him. And thus +it befell that the one man the Queen had aimed at crushing was the only +person connected with the affair who came out of it unhurt. The Queen's +animus against the Cardinal aroused against her the animus of his +friends of all classes. Appalling libels of her were circulated +throughout Europe. It was thought and argued that she was more deeply +implicated in the swindle than had transpired, that Madame de la Motte +was a scapegoat, that the Queen should have stood her trial with the +others, and that she was saved only by the royalty that hedged her. + +Conceive what a weapon this placed in the hands of the men of the new +ideas of liberty--men who were bent on proving the corruption of a +system they sought to destroy! + +Marie Antoinette should have foreseen something of this. She might have +done so had not her hatred blinded her, had she been less intent upon +seizing the opportunity at all costs to make Rohan pay for his barbed +witticism upon her mother. She might have been spared much had she but +spared Rohan when the chance was hers. As it was, the malevolent echoes +of the affair and of Saint-Just's exultation were never out of her +ears. They followed her to her trial eight years later before the +revolutionary tribunal. They followed her to the very scaffold, of which +they had undoubtedly supplied a plank. + + + + + + +VIII, THE NIGHT OF TERROR--The Drownings At Nantes Under Carrier + +The Revolutionary Committee of the city of Nantes, reinforced by some +of the administrators of the district and a few members of the People's +Society, sat in the noble hall of the Cour des Comptes, which +still retained much of its pre-republican sumptuousness. They sat +expectantly--Goullin, the attorney, president of the committee, a +frail, elegant valetudinarian, fierily eloquent; Grandmaison, the +fencing-master, who once had been a gentleman, fierce of eye and +inflamed of countenance; Minee, the sometime bishop, now departmental +president; Pierre Chaux, the bankrupt merchant; the sans-culotte Forget, +of the People's Society, an unclean, ill-kempt ruffian; and some thirty +others called like these from every walk of life. + +Lamps were lighted, and under their yellow glare the huddled +company--for the month was December, and the air of the vast room was +chill and dank--looked anxious and ill at ease. + +Suddenly the doors were thrown open by an usher; and his voice rang loud +in announcement-- + +“The Citizen Representative Carrier.” + +The great man came in, stepping quickly. Of middle height, very frail +and delicate, his clay-colored face was long and thin, with arched +eyebrows, a high nose, and a loose, coarse mouth. His deeply sunken dark +eyes glared fiercely, and wisps of dead-black hair, which had escaped +the confining ribbon of his queue, hung about his livid brow. He was +wrapped in a riding-coat of bottle-green, heavily lined with fur, the +skirts reaching down to the tops of his Hessian boots, and the enormous +turned-up collar almost touching the brim of his round hat. Under the +coat his waist was girt with the tricolour of office, and there were +gold rings in his ears. + +Such at the age of five-and-thirty was Jean Baptiste Carrier, +Representative of the Convention with the Army of the West, the attorney +who once had been intended by devout parents for the priesthood. He had +been a month in Nantes, sent thither to purge the body politic. + +He reached a chair placed in the focus of the gathering, which sat in a +semicircle. Standing by it, one of his lean hands resting upon the back, +he surveyed them, disgust in his glance, a sneer curling his lip, so +terrible and brutal of aspect despite his frailness that more than one +of those stout fellows quailed now before him. + +Suddenly he broke into torrential speech, his voice shrill and harsh: + +“I do not know by what fatality it happens, but happen it does, that +during the month that I have been in Nantes you have never ceased to +give me reason to complain of you. I have summoned you to meet me here +that you may justify yourselves, if you can, for your ineptitude!” And +he flung himself into the chair, drawing his fur-lined coat about him. +“Let me hear from you!” he snapped. + +Minee, the unfrocked bishop, preserving still a certain episcopal +portliness of figure, a certain episcopal oiliness of speech, +respectfully implored the representative to be more precise. + +The invitation flung him into a passion. His irascibility, indeed, +deserved to become a byword. + +“Name of a name!” he shrilled, his sunken eyes ablaze, his face +convulsed. “Is there a thing I can mention in this filthy city of yours +that is not wrong? Everything is wrong! You have failed in your duty to +provide adequately for the army of Vendee. Angers has fallen, and now +the brigands are threatening Nantes itself. There is abject want in the +city, disease is rampant; people are dying of hunger in the streets and +of typhus in the prisons. And sacre nom!--you ask me to be precise! I'll +be precise in telling you where lies the fault. It lies in your lousy +administration. Do you call yourselves administrators? You--” He became +unprintable. “I have come here to shake you out of your torpor, and +by--I'll shake you out of it or I'll have the blasted heads off the lot +of you.” + +They shivered with chill fear under the wild glare of his sunken eyes. + +“Well?” he barked after a long pause. “Are you all dumb as well as +idiots?” + +It was the ruffian Forget who had the courage to answer him: + +“I have told the People's Society that if the machine works badly it is +because the Citizen Carrier refuses to consult with the administration.” + +“You told them that, did you, you--liar?” screeched Carrier. “Am I not +here now to consult with you? And should I not have come before had you +suggested it? Instead, you have waited until, of my own accord, I should +come to tell you that your administration is ruining Nantes.” + +Goullin, the eloquent and elegant Goullin, rose to soothe him: + +“Citizen Representative, we admit the truth of all that you have said. +There has been a misunderstanding. We could not take it upon ourselves +to summon the august representative of the Sacred People. I We have +awaited your own good pleasure, and now that you have made this +manifest, there is no reason why the machine should not work +effectively. The evils of which you speak exist, alas! But they are not +so deeply rooted that, working under your guidance and advice, we cannot +uproot them, rendering the soil fertile once more of good under the +beneficent fertilizing showers of liberty.” + +Mollified, Carrier grunted approval. + +“That is well said, Citizen Goullin. The fertilizer needed by the +soil is blood--the bad blood of aristocrats and federalists, and I +can promise you, in the name of the august people, that it shall be +abundantly provided.” + +The assembly broke into applause, and his vanity melted to it. He stood +up, expressed his gratification at being so completely understood, +opened his arms, and invited the departmental president, Minee, to come +down and receive the kiss of brotherhood. + +Thereafter they passed to the consideration of measures of improvement, +of measures to combat famine and disease. In Carrier's view there was +only one way of accomplishing this--the number of mouths to be fed must +be reduced, the diseased must be eliminated. It was the direct, the +radical, the heroic method. + +That very day six prisoners in Le Bouffay had been sentenced to death +for attempting to escape. + +“How do we know,” he asked, “that those six include all the guilty? How +do we know that all in Le Bouffay do not share the guilt? The prisoners +are riddled with disease, which spreads to the good patriots of Nantes; +they eat bread, which is scarce, whilst good patriots starve. We must +have the heads off all those blasted swine!” He took fire at his own +suggestion. “Aye, that would be a useful measure. We'll deal with it at +once. Let some one fetch the President of the Revolutionary Tribunal.” + +He was fetched--a man of good family and a lawyer, named Francois +Phelippes. + +“Citizen President,” Carrier greeted him, “the administration of Nantes +has been considering an important measure. To-day you sentenced to +death six prisoners in Le Bouffay for attempting to escape. You are to +postpone execution so as to include all the Bouffay prisoners in the +sentence.” + +Although an ardent revolutionary, Phelippes was a logically minded +man with a lawyer's reverence for the sacredness of legal form. This +command, issued with such cynical coldness, and repudiated by none +of those present, seemed to him as grotesque and ridiculous as it was +horrible. + +“But that is impossible, Citizen Representative,” said he. + +“Impossible!” snarled Carrier. “A fool's word. The administration +desires you to understand that it is not impossible. The sacred will of +the august people--” + +Phelippes interrupted him without ceremony. + +“There is no power in France that can countermand the execution of a +sentence of the law.” + +“No--no power!” + +Carrier's loose mouth fell open. He was too amazed to be angry. + +“Moreover,” Phelippes pursued calmly, “there is the fact that all the +other prisoners in Le Bouffay are innocent of the offence for which the +six are to die.” + +“What has that to do with it?” roared Carrier. “Last year I rode a +she-ass that could argue better than you! In the name of--, what has +that to do with it?” + +But there were members of the assembly who thought with Phelippes, and +who, whilst lacking the courage to express themselves, yet found courage +to support another who so boldly expressed them. + +Carrier sprang up quivering with rage before that opposition. “It seems +to me,” he snarled, “that there are more than the scoundrels in Le +Bouffay who need to be shortened by a head for the good of the nation. +I tell you that you are slaying the commonweal by your slowness and +circumspection. Let all the scoundrels perish!” + +A handsome, vicious youngster named Robin made chorus. + +“Patriots are without bread! It is fitting that the scoundrels should +die, and not eat the bread of starving patriots.” + +Carrier shook his fist at the assembly. + +“You hear, you--! I cannot pardon whom the law condemns.” + +It was an unfortunate word, and Phelippes fastened on it. + +“That is the truth, Citizen Representative,” said Phelippes. “And as for +the prisoners in Le Bouffay, you will wait until the law condemns them.” + +And without staying to hear more, he departed as firmly as he had come, +indifferent to the sudden uproar. + +When he had gone, the Representative flung himself into his chair again, +biting his lip. + +“There goes a fellow who will find his way to the guillotine in time,” + he growled. + +But he was glad to be rid of him, and would not have him brought +back. He saw how the opposition of Phelippes had stiffened the weaker +opposition of some of those in the assembly. If he was to have his +way he would contrive better without the legal-minded President of the +Revolutionary Tribunal. And his way he had in the end, though not +until he had stormed and cursed and reviled the few who dared to offer +remonstrances to his plan of wholesale slaughter. + +When at last he took his departure, it was agreed that the assembly +should proceed to elect a jury which was to undertake the duty of +drawing up immediately a list of those confined in the prisons of +Nantes. This list they were to deliver when ready to the committee, +which would know how to proceed, for Carrier had made his meaning +perfectly clear. The first salutary measure necessary to combat the +evils besetting the city was to wipe out at once the inmates of all the +prisons in Nantes. + +In the chill December dawn of the next day the committee--which had sat +all night under the presidency of Goullin forwarded a list of some +five hundred prisoners to General Boivin, the commandant of the city of +Nantes, together with an order to collect them without a moment's delay, +take them to L'Eperonniere, and there have them shot. + +But Boivin was a soldier, and a soldier is not a sans-culotte. He took +the order to Phelippes, with the announcement that he had no intention +of obeying it. Phelippes, to Boivin's amazement, agreed with him. +He sent the order back to the committee, denouncing it as flagrantly +illegal, and reminding them that it was illegal to remove any prisoner, +no matter by whose order, without such an order as might follow upon a +decision of the Tribunal. + +The committee, intimidated by this firmness on the part of the President +of the Revolutionary Tribunal, dared not insist, and there the matter +remained. + +When Carrier learnt of it the things he said were less than ever fit for +publication. He raved like a madman at the very thought that a quibbling +lawyer should stand in the very path of him, the august representative +of the Sacred People. + +It had happened that fifty-three priests, who had been brought to Nantes +a few days before, were waiting in the sheds of the entrepot for prison +accommodation, so that their names did not yet appear upon any of the +prison registers. As a solatium to his wounded feelings, he ordered his +friends of the Marat Company to get rid of them. + +Lamberty, the leader of the Marats, asked him how it should be done. + +“How?” he croaked. “Not so much mystery, my friend. Fling the swine into +the water, and so let's be rid of them. There will be plenty of their +kind left in France.” + +But he seems to have explained himself further, and what precisely were +his orders, and how they were obeyed, transpires from a letter which +he wrote to the Convention, stating that those fifty-three wretched +priests, “being confined in a boat on the Loire, were last night +swallowed up by the river.” And he added the apostrophe, “What a +revolutionary torrent is the Loire!” + +The Convention had no illusions as to his real meaning; and when Carrier +heard that his letter had been applauded by the National Assembly, he +felt himself encouraged to break down all barriers of mere legality +that might obstruct his path. And, after all, what the Revolutionary +Committee as a body--intimidated by Phelippes--dared not do could be +done by his faithful and less punctilious friends of the Marat Company. + +This Marat Company, the police of the Revolutionary Committee, enrolled +from the scourings of Nantes' sans-culottism, and captained by a ruffian +named Fleury, had been called into being by Carrier himself with the +assistance of Goullin. + +On the night of the 24th Frimaire of the year III (December 14, 1793, +old style), which was a Saturday, Fleury mustered some thirty of his +men, and took them to the Cour des Comptes, where they were awaited by +Goullin, Bachelier, Grandmaison, and some other members of the committee +entirely devoted to Carrier. From these the Marats received their formal +instructions. + +“Plague,” Goullin informed them, “is raging in the gaols, and its +ravages must be arrested. You will therefore proceed this evening to the +prison of Le Bouffay in order to take over the prisoners whom you will +march up to the Quay La Fosse, whence they will be shipped to Belle +Isle.” + +In a cell of that sordid old building known as Le Bouffay lay a +cocassier, an egg and poultry dealer, arrested some three years before +upon a charge of having stolen a horse, and since forgotten. His own +version was that a person of whom he knew very little had entrusted +him with the sale of the stolen animal in possession of which he was +discovered. + +The story sounds familiar; it is the sort of story that must have done +duty many times; and it is probable that the cocassier was no better +than he should have been. Nevertheless Fate selected him to be one of +her unconscious instruments. His name was Leroy, and we have his own +word for it that he was a staunch patriot. The horse business was +certainly in the best vein of sans-culottism. + +Leroy was awakened about ten o'clock that night by sounds that were very +unusual in that sombre, sepulchral prison. They were sounds of unbridled +revelry--snatches of ribald song, bursts of coarse, reverberating +laughter and they proceeded, as it seemed to him, from the courtyard and +the porter's lodge. + +He crawled from the dank straw which served him for a bed, and +approached the door to listen. Clearly the porter Laqueze was +entertaining friends and making unusually merry. It was also to be +gathered that Laqueze's friends were getting very drunk. What the devil +did it mean? + +His curiosity was soon to be very fully gratified. Came heavy steps up +the stone staircase, the clatter of sabots, the clank of weapons, and +through the grille of his door an increasing light began to beat. + +Some one was singing the “Carmagnole” in drunken, discordant tones. +Keys rattled, bolts were drawn; doors were being flung open. The noise +increased. Above the general din he heard the detestable voice of the +turnkey. + +“Come and see my birds in their cages. Come and see my pretty birds.” + +Leroy began to have an uneasy premonition that the merrymaking portended +sinister things. + +“Get up, all of you!” bawled the turnkey. “Up and pack your traps. +You're to go on a voyage. No laggards, now. Up with you!” + +The door of Leroy's cell was thrown open in its turn, and he found +himself confronting a group of drunken ruffians. One of these--a +red-capped giant with long, black mustaches and a bundle of ropes over +one arm suddenly pounced upon him. The cocassier was an active, vigorous +young man. But, actuated by fear and discretion, he permitted himself +tamely to be led away. + +Along the stone-flagged corridor he went, and on every hand beheld his +fellow-prisoners in the same plight, being similarly dragged from their +cells and similarly hurried below. At the head of the stairs one fellow, +perfectly drunk, was holding a list, hiccupping over names which he +garbled ludicrously as he called them out. He was lighted in his task by +a candle held by another who was no less drunk. The swaying pair seemed +to inter-support one another grotesquely. + +Leroy suffered himself to be led down the stairs, and so came to the +porter's lodge, where he beheld a half-dozen Marats assembled round a +table, with bumpers of wine before them, bawling, singing, cursing, and +cracking lewd jests at the expense of each prisoner as he entered. The +place was in a litter. A lamp had been smashed, and there was a puddle +of wine on the floor from a bottle that had been knocked over. On a +bench against the wall were ranged a number of prisoners, others lay +huddled on the floor, and all of them were pinioned. + +Two or three of the Marats lurched up to Leroy, and ran their hands +over him, turning out his pockets, and cursing him foully for their +emptiness. He saw the same office performed upon others, and saw them +stripped of money, pocket-books, watches, rings, buckles, and whatever +else of value they happened to possess. One man, a priest, was even +deprived of his shoes by a ruffian who was in want of foot-gear. + +As they were pinioning his wrists, Leroy looked up. He confesses that he +was scared. + +“What is this for?” he asked. “Does it mean death?” + +With an oath he was bidden to ask no questions. + +“If I die,” he assured them, “you will be killing a good republican.” + +A tall man with an inflamed countenance and fierce, black eyes, that +were somewhat vitreous, now leered down upon him. + +“You babbling fool! It's not your life, it's your property we want.” + +This was Grandmaison, the fencing-master, who once had been a gentleman. +He had been supping with Carrier, and he had only just arrived at Le +Bouffay, accompanied by Goullin. He found the work behind time, and told +them so. + +“Leave that fellow now, Jolly. He's fast enough. Up and fetch the rest. +It's time to be going... time to be going.” + +Flung aside now that he was pinioned, Leroy sat down on the floor and +looked about him. Near him an elderly man was begging for a cup of +water. They greeted the prayer with jeering laughter. + +“Water! By Sainte Guillotine, he asks for water!” The drunken +sans-culottes were intensely amused. “Patience, my friend--patience, and +you shall drink your fill. You shall drink from the great cup.” + +Soon the porter's lodge was crowded with prisoners, and they were +overflowing into the passage. + +Came Grandmaison cursing and swearing at the sluggishness of the Marats, +reminding them--as he had been reminding them for the last hour--that it +was time to be off, that the tide was on the ebb. + +Stimulated by him, Jolly--the red-capped giant with the black +mustaches--and some others of the Marat Company, set themselves to tie +the prisoners into chains of twenty, further to ensure against +possible evasion. They were driven into the chilly courtyard, and there +Grandmaison, followed by a fellow with a lantern, passed along the ranks +counting them. + +The result infuriated him. + +“A hundred and five!” he roared, and swore horribly. “You have been here +nearly five hours, and in all that time you have managed to truss up +only a hundred and five. Are we never to get through with it? I tell you +the tide is ebbing. It is time to be off.” + +Laqueze, the porter of Le Bouffay, with whose food and wine those +myrmidons of the committee had made so disgracefully free, came to +assure him that he had all who were in the prison. + +“All?” cried Grandmaison, aghast. “But according to the list there +should have been nearer two hundred.” And he raised his voice to call: +“Goullin! Hola, Goullin! Where the devil is Goullin?” + +“The list,” Laqueze told him, “was drawn up from the register. But you +have not noted that many have died since they came--we have had the +fever here--and that a few are now in hospital.” + +“In hospital! Bah! Go up, some of you, and fetch them. We are taking +them somewhere where they will be cured.” And then he hailed the elegant +Goullin, who came up wrapped in a cloak. “Here's a fine bathing-party!” + he grumbled. “A rare hundred of these swine!” + +Goullin turned to Laqueze. + +“What have you done with the fifteen brigands I sent you this evening?” + +“But they only reached Nantes to-day,” said Laqueze, who understood +nothing of these extraordinary proceedings. “They have not yet been +registered, not even examined.” + +“I asked you what you have done with them?” snapped Goullin. + +“They are upstairs.” + +“Then fetch them. They are as good as any others.” + +With these, and a dozen or so dragged from sick-beds, the total was made +up to about a hundred and thirty. + +The Marats, further reinforced now by half a company of National Guards, +set out from the prison towards five o'clock in the morning; urging +their victims along with blows and curses. + +Our cocassier found himself bound wrist to wrist with a young Capuchin +brother, who stumbled along in patient resignation, his head bowed, his +lips moving as if he were in prayer. + +“Can you guess what they are going to do with us?” murmured Leroy. + +He caught the faint gleam of the Capuchin's eyes in the gloom. + +“I do not know, brother. Commend yourself to God, and so be prepared for +whatever may befall.” + +The answer was not very comforting to a man of Leroy's temperament. He +stumbled on, and they came now upon the Place du Bouffay, where the +red guillotine loomed in ghostly outline, and headed towards the Quai +Tourville. Thence they were marched by the river the whole length of the +Quai La Fosse. Fear spreading amongst them, some clamours were raised, +to be instantly silenced by blows and assurances that they were to be +shipped to Belle Isle, where they were to be set to work to build a +fort. + +The cocassier thought this likely enough, and found it more comforting +than saying his prayers--a trick which he had long since lost. + +As they defiled along the quays, an occasional window was thrown up, and +an inquisitive head protruded, to be almost instantly withdrawn again. + +On the Cale Robin at last they were herded into a shed which opened on +to the water. Here they found a large lighter alongside, and they beheld +in the lantern-light the silhouettes of a half-dozen shipwrights busily +at work upon it, whilst the place rang with the blows of hammers and the +scream of saws. + +Some of those nearest the barge saw what was being done. Two great +ports were being opened in the vessel's side, and over one of these thus +opened the shipwrights were nailing planks. They observed that these +ports, which remained above the water-line now that the barge was empty, +would be well below it once she were laden, and conceiving that they +perceived at last the inhuman fate awaiting them, their terror rose +again. They remembered snatches of conversation and grim jests uttered +by the Marats in Le Bouffay, which suddenly became clear, and the alarm +spreading amongst them, they writhed and clamoured, screamed for mercy, +cursed and raved. + +Blows were showered upon them. In vain was it sought to quiet them again +with that fable of a fort to be constructed on Belle Isle. One of them +in a frenzy of despair tore himself free of his bonds, profited by a +moment of confusion, and vanished so thoroughly that Grandmaison and +his men lost a quarter of an hour seeking him in vain, and would have +so spent the remainder of the night but for a sharp word from a man in +a greatcoat and a round hat who stood looking on in conversation with +Goullin. + +“Get on, man! Never mind that one! We'll have him later. It will be +daylight soon. You've wasted time enough already.” + +It was Carrier. + +He had come in person to see the execution of his orders, and at his +command Grandmaison now proceeded to the loading. A ladder was set +against the side of the lighter by which the prisoners were to descend. +The cords binding them in chains were now severed, and they were left +pinioned only by the wrists. They were ordered to embark. But as +they were slow to obey, and as some, indeed, hung back wailing and +interceding, he and Jolly took them by their collars, thrust them to the +edge, and bundled them neck and crop down into the hold, recking nothing +of broken limbs. Finding this method of embarkation more expeditious, +the use of the ladder was neglected thenceforth. + +Among the last to be thus flung aboard was our cocassier Leroy. He fell +soft upon a heaving, writhing mass of humanity, which only gradually +shook down and sorted itself out on the bottom of the lighter when the +hatches overhead were being nailed down. Yet by an odd chance the young +Capuchin and Leroy, who had been companions in the chain, were not +separated even now. Amid the human welter in that agitated place of +darkness, the cries and wails that rang around him, Leroy recognized the +voice of the young friar exhorting them to prayer. + +They were in the stern of the vessel, against one of the sides, and +Leroy, who still kept a grip on the wits by which he had lived, bade the +Capuchin hold up his wrists. Then he went nosing like a dog, until at +last he found them, and his strong teeth fastened upon the cord that +bound them, and began with infinite patience to gnaw it through. + +Meanwhile that floating coffin had left its moorings and was gliding +with the stream. On the hatches sat Grandmaison, with Jolly and two +other Marats, howling the “Carmagnole” to drown the cries of the +wretches underneath, and beating time with their feet upon the deck. + +Leroy's teeth worked on like a rat's until at last the cord was severed. +Then, lest they should be parted in the general heaving and shifting of +that human mass, those teeth of his fastened upon the Capuchin's sleeve. + +“Take hold of me!” he commanded as distinctly as he could; and the +Capuchin gratefully obeyed. “Now untie my wrists!” + +The Capuchin's hands slid along Leroy's arms until they found his hands, +and there his fingers grew busy, groping at the knots. It was no easy +matter to untie them in the dark, guided by sense of touch alone. But +the friar was persistent and patient, and in the end the last knot ran +loose, and our cocassier was unpinioned. + +It comforted him out of all proportion to the advantage. At least his +hands were free for any emergency that might offer. That he depended in +such a situation, and with no illusions as to what was to happen, upon +emergency, shows how tenacious he was of hope. + +He had been released not a moment too soon. Overhead, Grandmaison and +his men were no longer singing. They were moving about. Something bumped +against the side of the vessel, near the bow, obviously a boat, and +voices came up from below the level of the deck. Then the lighter +shuddered under a great blow upon the planks of the forecastle port. +The cries in the hold redoubled. Panting, cursing, wailing men hurtled +against Leroy, and almost crushed him for a moment under their weight as +the vessel heaved to starboard. Came a succession of blows, not only on +the port in the bow, but also on that astern. There was a cracking and +rending of timbers, and the water rushed in. + +Then the happenings in that black darkness became indescribably +horrible. In their frenzy not a few had torn themselves free of their +bonds. These hurled themselves towards the open ports through which the +water was pouring. They tore at the planks with desperate, lacerated +hands. Some got their arms through, seeking convulsively to widen the +openings and so to gain an egress. But outside in the shipwrights' boat +stood Grandmaison, the fencing-master, brandishing a butcher's sword. + +With derision and foul objurgations he slashed at protruding arms and +hands, thrust his sword again and again through the port into that +close-packed, weltering mass, until at last the shipwrights backed away +the boat to escape the suction of the sinking lighter. + +The vessel, with its doomed freight of a hundred and thirty human +lives, settled down slowly by the head, and the wailing and cursing +was suddenly silenced as the icy waters of the Loire eddied over it and +raced on. + +Caught in the swirl of water, Leroy had been carried up against the deck +of the lighter. Instinctively he had clutched at a crossbeam. The water +raced over his head, and then, to his surprise, receded, beat up once or +twice as the lighter grounded, and finally settled on a level with his +shoulders. + +He was quick to realize what had happened. The lighter had gone down by +the head on a shallow. Her stern remained slightly protruding, so that +in that part of her between the level of the water and the deck there +was a clear space of perhaps a foot or a foot and a half. Yet of the +hundred and thirty doomed wretches on board he was the only one who had +profited by this extraordinary chance. + +Leroy hung on there; and thereafter for two hours, to use his own +expression, he floated upon corpses. A man of less vigorous mettle, +moral and physical, could never have withstood the ordeal of a two +hours' immersion in the ice-cold water of that December morning. Leroy +clung on, and hoped. I have said that he was tenacious of hope. And soon +after daybreak he was justified of his confidence in his luck. As the +first livid gleams of light began to suffuse the water in which he +floated, a creaking of rowlocks and a sound of voices reached his ears. +A boat was passing down the river. + +Leroy shouted, and his voice rang hollow and sepulchral on the morning +stillness. The creak of oars ceased abruptly. He shouted again, and was +answered. The oars worked now at twice their former speed. The boat was +alongside. Blows of a grapnel tore at the planking of the deck until +there was a hole big enough to admit the passage of his body. + +He looked through the faint mist which he had feared never to see again, +heaved himself up with what remained him of strength until his breast +was on a level with the deck, and beheld two men in a boat. + +But, exhausted by the effort, his numbed limbs refused to support him. +He sank back, and went overhead, fearing now, indeed, that help had +arrived too late. But as he struggled to the surface the bight of a rope +smacked the water within the hold. Convulsively he clutched it, wound it +about one arm, and bade them haul. + +Thus they dragged him out and aboard their own craft, and put him ashore +at the nearest point willing out of humanity to do so much, but daring +to do no more when he had told them how he came where they had found +him. + +Half naked, numbed through and through, with chattering teeth and +failing limbs, Leroy staggered into the guard-house at Chantenay. +Soldiers of the Blues stripped him of his sodden rags, wrapped him in a +blanket, thawed him outwardly before a fire and inwardly with gruel, and +then invited him to give an account of himself. + +The story of the horse will have led you to suppose him a ready liar. +He drew now upon that gift of his, represented himself as a mariner +from Montoir, and told a harrowing tale of shipwreck. Unfortunately, he +overdid it. There was present a fellow who knew something of the sea, +and something of Montoir, to whom Leroy's tale did not ring quite true. +To rid themselves of responsibility, the soldiers carried him before the +Revolutionary Committee of Nantes. + +Even here all might have gone well with him, since there was no member +of that body with seacraft to penetrate his imposture. But as +ill-chance would have it, one of the members sitting that day was the +black-mustached sans-culotte Jolly, the very man who had dragged Leroy +out of his cell last night and tied him up. + +At sight of him Jolly's eyes bulged in his head. + +“Where the devil have you come from?” he greeted him thunderously. + +Leroy quailed. Jolly's associates stared. But Jolly explained to them: + +“He was of last night's bathing party. And he has the impudence to come +before us like this. Take him away and shove him back into the water.” + +But Bachelier, a man who, next to the President Goullin, exerted the +greatest influence in the committee, was gifted with a sense of humour +worthy of the Revolution. He went off into peals of laughter as he +surveyed the crestfallen cocassier, and, perhaps because Leroy's +situation amused him, he was disposed to be humane. + +“No, no!” he said. “Take him back to Le Bouffay for the present. Let the +Tribunal deal with him.” + +So back to Le Bouffay went Leroy, back to his dungeon, his fetid straw +and his bread and water, there to be forgotten again, as he had been +forgotten before, until Fate should need him. + +It is to him that we owe most of the materials from which we are able +to reconstruct in detail that first of Carrier's drownings on a grand +scale, conceived as an expeditious means of ridding the city of +useless mouths, of easing the straitened circumstances resulting from +misgovernment. + +Very soon it was followed by others, and, custom increasing Carrier's +audacity, these drownings--there were in all some twenty-three +noyades--ceased to be conducted in the secrecy of the night, or to be +confined to men. They were made presently to include women--of whom at +one drowning alone, in Novose, three hundred perished under the most +revolting circumstances--and even little children. Carrier himself +admitted that during the three months of his rule some three thousand +victims visited the national bathing-place, whilst other, and no doubt +more veracious, accounts treble that number of those who received the +National Baptism. + +Soon these wholesale drownings had become an institution, a sort of +national spectacle that Carrier and his committee felt themselves in +duty bound to provide. + +But at length a point was reached beyond which it seemed difficult to +continue them. So expeditious was the measure, that soon the obvious +material was exhausted. The prisons were empty. Yet habits, once +contracted, are not easily relinquished. Carrier would be looking +elsewhere for material, and there was no saying where he might look, +or who would be safe. Soon the committee heard a rumour that the +Representative intended to depose it and to appoint a new one, whereupon +many of its members, who were conscious of lukewarmness, began to grow +uneasy. + +Uneasy, too, became the members of the People's Society. They had sent +a deputation to Carrier with suggestions for the better conduct of +the protracted campaign of La Vendee. This was a sore point with the +Representative. He received the patriots with the foulest abuse, and had +them flung downstairs by his secretaries. + +Into this atmosphere of general mistrust and apprehension came the most +ridiculous Deus ex machina that ever was in the person of the very young +and very rash Marc Antoine Jullien. His father, the Deputy Jullien, +was an intimate of Robespierre's, by whose influence Marc Antoine was +appointed to the office of Agent of the Committee of Public Safety, +and sent on a tour of inspection to report upon public feeling and the +conduct of the Convention's Representatives. + +Arriving in Nantes at the end of January of '94, one of Marc Antoine's +first visits happened to be to the People's Society, which was still +quivering with rage at the indignities offered by Carrier to its +deputation. + +Marc Antoine was shocked by what he heard, so shocked that instead of +going to visit the Representative on the morrow, he spent the morning +inditing a letter to Robespierre, in which he set forth in detail the +abuses of which Carrier was guilty, and the deplorable state of misery +in which he found the city of Nantes. + +That night, as Marc Antoine was sinking into the peaceful slumber of the +man with duty done, he was rudely aroused by an officer and a couple +of men of the National Guard, who announced to him that he was under +arrest, and bade him rise and dress. + +Marc Antoine flounced out of bed in a temper, and flaunted his +credentials. The officer remained unmoved. He was acting upon orders +from the Citizen Representative. + +Still in a temper, Marc Antoine hurriedly dressed himself. He would soon +show this Representative that it is not safe to trifle with Agents of +the Public Safety. The Citizen Representative should hear from him. The +officer, still unimpressed, bundled him into a waiting carriage, and +bore him away to the Maison Villetreux, on the island where Carrier had +his residence. + +Carrier had gone to bed. But he was awake, and he sat up promptly when +the young muscadin from Paris was roughly thrust into his room by the +soldiers. The mere sight of the Representative sufficed to evaporate +Marc Antoine's anger, and with it his courage. + +Carrier's pallor was of a grey-green from the rage that possessed him. +His black eyes smouldered like those of an animal seen in the gloom, and +his tumbled black hair, fluttering about his moist brow, increased the +terrific aspect of his countenance. Marc Antoine shrank and was dumb. + +“So,” said Carrier, regarding him steadily, terribly, “you are the thing +that dares to denounce me to the Safety, that ventures to find fault +with my work!” From under his pillow he drew Marc Antoine's letter to +Robespierre. “Is this yours?” + +At the sight of this violation of his correspondence with the +Incorruptible, Marc Antoine's indignation awoke, and revived his +courage. + +“It is mine,” he answered. “By what right have you intercepted it?” + +“By what right?” Carrier put a leg out of bed. “So you question my +right, do you? You have so imposed yourself upon folk that you are given +powers, and you come here to air them, by--” + +“You shall answer to the Citizen Robespierre for your conduct,” Marc +Antoine threatened him. + +“Aha!” Carrier revealed his teeth in a smile of ineffable wickedness. He +slipped from the bed, and crouching slightly as if about to spring, he +pointed a lean finger at his captive. + +“You are of those with whom it is dangerous to deal publicly, and you +presume upon that. But you can be dealt with privily, and you shall. I +have you, and, by--, you shall not escape me, you--!” + +Marc Antoine looked into the Representative's face, and saw there the +wickedness of his intent. He stiffened. Nature had endowed him with +wits, and he used them now. + +“Citizen Carrier,” he said, “I understand. I am to be murdered to-night +in the gloom and the silence. But you shall perish after me in daylight, +and amid the execrations of the people. You may have intercepted my +letters to my father and to Robespierre. But if I do not leave Nantes, +my father will come to ask an account of you, and you will end your life +on the scaffold like the miserable assassin that you are.” + +Of all that tirade, but one sentence had remained as if corroded into +the mind of Carrier. “My letters to my father and to Robespierre,” the +astute Marc Antoine had said. And Marc Antoine saw the Representative's +mouth loosen, saw a glint of fear replace the ferocity in his dark eyes. + +What Marc Antoine intended to suggest had instantly leapt to Carrier's +mind--that there had been a second letter which his agents had missed. +They should pay for that. But, meanwhile, if it were true, he dare not +for his neck's sake go further in this matter. He may have suspected +that it was not true. But he had no means of testing that suspicion. +Marc Antoine, you see, was subtle. + +“Your father?” growled the Representative. “Who is your father?” + +“The Deputy Jullien.” + +“What?” Carrier straightened himself, affecting an immense astonishment. +“You are the son of the Deputy Julien?” He burst into a laugh. He came +forward, holding out both his hands. He could be subtle, too, you see. +“My friend, why did you not say so sooner? See in what a ghastly mistake +you have let me flounder. I imagined you--of course, it was foolish of +me--to be a proscribed rascal from Angers, of the same name.” + +He had fallen upon Marc Antoine's neck, and was embracing him. + +“Forgive me, my friend!” he besought him. “Come and dine with me +to-morrow, and we will laugh over it together.” + +But Marc Antoine had no mind to dine with Carrier, although he promised +to do so readily enough. Back at his inn, scarce believing that he had +got away alive, still sweating with terror at the very thought of his +near escape, he packed his valise, and, by virtue of his commission, +obtained post-horses at once. + +On the morrow from Angers, safe beyond the reach of Carrier, he wrote +again to Robespierre, and this time also to his father. + +“In Nantes,” he wrote, “I found the old regime in its worst form.” He +knew the jargon of Liberty, the tune that set the patriots a-dancing. +“Carrier's insolent secretaries emulate the intolerable haughtiness of +a ci-devant minister's lackeys. Carrier himself lives surrounded by +luxury, pampered by women and parasites, keeping a harem and a court. He +tramples justice in the mud. He has had all those who filled the prisons +flung untried into the Loire. The city of Nantes,” he concluded, “needs +saving. The Vendean revolt must be suppressed, and Carrier the slayer of +Liberty recalled.” + +The letter had its effect, and Carrier was recalled to Paris, but not +in disgrace. Failing health was urged as the solicitous reason for his +retirement from the arduous duties of governing Nantes. + +In the Convention his return made little stir, and even when early in +the following July he learnt that Bourbotte, his successor at Nantes, +had ordered the arrest of Goullin, Bachelier, Grandmaison, and his +other friends of the committee, on the score of the drownings and the +appropriation of national property confiscated from emigres, he remained +calm, satisfied that his own position was unassailable. + +But the members of the Committee of Nantes were sent to Paris for trial, +and their arrival there took place on that most memorable date in the +annals of the Revolution, the 10th Thermidor (July 29, 1794, O.S.), the +day on which Robespierre fell and the floodgates of vengeance upon the +terrorists were flung open. + +You have seen in the case of Marc Antoine Jullien how quick Carrier +could be to take a cue. In a coach he followed the tumbril that bore +Robespierre to execution, radiant of countenance and shouting with the +loudest, “Death to the traitor!” On the morrow from the rostrum of +the Convention, he passionately represented himself as a victim of +the fallen tyrant, cleverly turning to his own credit the Marc Antoine +affair, reminding the Convention how he had himself been denounced +to Robespierre. He was greeted with applause in that atmosphere of +Thermidorean reaction. + +But Nemesis was stalking him relentlessly if silently. + +Among a batch of prisoners whom a chain of curious chances had brought +from Nantes to Paris was our old friend Leroy the cocassier, required +now as a witness against the members of the committee. + +Having acquainted the court with the grounds of his arrest, and the +fact that for three years he had lain forgotten and without trial in the +pestilential prison of Le Bouffay, Leroy passed on to a recital of his +sufferings on that night of terror when he had gone down the Loire in +the doomed lighter. He told his tale with an artlessness that rendered +it the more moving and convincing. The audience crowding the chamber +of justice shuddered with horror, and sobbed over the details of his +torments, wept for joy over his miraculous preservation. At the close +he was applauded on all sides, which bewildered him a little, for he had +never known anything but abuse in all his chequered life. + +And then, at the promptings of that spirit of reaction that was abroad +in those days when France was awakening from the nightmare of terror, +some one made there and then a collection on his behalf, and came to +thrust into his hands a great bundle of assignats and bank bills, which +to the humble cocassier represented almost a fortune. It was his turn to +weep. + +Then the crowd in the court which had heard his story shouted for the +head of Carrier. The demand was taken up by the whole of Paris, +and finally his associates of the Convention handed him over to the +Revolutionary Tribunal. + +He came before it on November 25th, and he could not find counsel to +defend him. Six advocates named in succession by the President refused +to plead the cause of so inhuman a monster. In a rage, at last Carrier +announced that he would defend himself. He did. + +He took the line that his business in Nantes had been chiefly concerned +with provisioning the Army of the West; that he had had little to do +with the policing of Nantes, which he left entirely to the Revolutionary +Committee; and that he had no knowledge of the things said to have taken +place. But Goullin, Bachelier, and the others were there to fling +back the accusation in their endeavours to save their own necks at the +expense of his. + +He was sentenced on the very anniversary of that terrible night on which +the men of the Marat Company broke into the prison of Le Bouffay, and he +was accompanied in the tumbril by Grandmaison the pitiless, who was now +filled with self-pity to such an extent that he wept bitterly. + +The crowd, which had hooted and insulted him from the Conciergerie to +the Place de Greve, fell suddenly silent as he mounted the scaffold, his +step firm, but his shoulders bowed, and his eyes upon the ground. + +Suddenly upon the silence, grotesquely, horribly merry, broke the sound +of a clarinet playing the “Ca ira!” + +Jerking himself erect, Carrier turned and flung the last of his terrible +glances at the musician. + +A moment later the knife fell with a thud, and a bleeding head rolled +into the basket, the eyes still staring, but powerless now to inspire +terror. + +Upon the general silence broke an echo of the stroke. + +“Vlan!” cried a voice. “And there's a fine end to a great drowner!” + +It was Leroy the cocassier. The crowd took up the cry. + + + + + + +IX. THE NIGHT OF NUPTIALS--Charles The Bold And Sapphira Danvelt + +When Philip the Good succumbed at Bruges of an apoplexy in the early +part of the year 1467, the occasion was represented to the stout folk +of Flanders as a favourable one to break the Burgundian yoke under which +they laboured. It was so represented by the agents of that astute king, +Louis XI, who ever preferred guile to the direct and costly exertion of +force. + +Charles, surnamed the Bold (le Temeraire), the new Duke of Burgundy, was +of all the French King's enemies by far the most formidable and menacing +just then; and the wily King, who knew better than to measure himself +with a foe that was formidable, conceived a way to embarrass the Duke +and cripple his resources at the very outset of his reign. To this +end did he send his agents into the Duke's Flemish dominions, there to +intrigue with the powerful and to stir up the spirit of sedition that +never did more than slumber in the hearts of those turbulent burghers. + +It was from the Belfry Tower of the populous, wealthy city of +Ghent--then one of the most populous and wealthy cities of Europe--that +the call to arms first rang out, summoning the city's forty thousand +weavers to quit their looms and take up weapons--the sword, the pike, +and that arm so peculiarly Flemish, known as the goedendag. From Ghent +the fierce flame of revolt spread rapidly to the valley of the Meuse, +and the scarcely less important city of Liege, where the powerful guilds +of armourers and leather workers proved as ready for battle as the +weavers of Ghent. + +They made a brave enough show until Charles the Bold came face to face +with them at Saint-Trond, and smashed the mutinous burgher army into +shards, leaving them in their slaughtered thousands upon the stricken +field. + +The Duke was very angry. He felt that the Flemings had sought to take a +base advantage of him at a moment when it was supposed he would not be +equal to protecting his interests, and he intended to brand it for all +time upon their minds that it was not safe to take such liberties with +their liege lord. Thus, when a dozen of the most important burghers of +Liege came out to him very humbly in their shirts, with halters round +their necks, to kneel in the dust at his feet and offer him the keys of +the city, he spurned the offer with angry disdain. + +“You shall be taught,” he told them, “how little I require your keys, +and I hope that you will remember the lesson for your own good.” + +On the morrow his pioneers began to smash a breach, twenty fathoms wide, +in one of the walls of the city, rolling the rubble into the ditch to +fill it up at the spot. When the operation was complete, Charles rode +through the gap, as a conqueror, with vizor lowered and lance on +thigh at the head of his Burgundians, into his city of Liege, whose +fortifications he commanded should be permanently demolished. + +That was the end of the Flemish rising of 1467 against Duke Charles the +Bold of Burgundy. The weavers returned to their looms, the armourers to +their forges, and the glove-makers and leather workers to their shears. +Peace was restored; and to see that it was kept, Charles appointed +military governors of his confidence where he deemed them necessary. + +One of these was Claudius von Rhynsault, who had followed the Duke's +fortunes for some years now, a born leader of men, a fellow of infinite +address at arms and resource in battle, and of a bold, reckless courage +that nothing could ever daunt. It was perhaps this last quality that +rendered him so esteemed of Charles, himself named the Bold, whose view +of courage was that it was a virtue so lofty that in the nature of its +possessor there could, perforce, be nothing mean. + +So now, to mark his esteem of this stalwart German, the Duke made him +Governor of the province of Zeeland, and dispatched him thither to stamp +out there any lingering sparks of revolt, and to rule it in his name as +ducal lieutenant. + +Thus, upon a fair May morning, came Claud of Ryhnsault and his hardy +riders to the town of Middelburg, the capital of Zeeland, to take up his +residence at the Gravenhof in the main square, and thence to dispense +justice throughout that land of dykes in his master's princely name. +This justice the German captain dispensed with merciless rigour, +conceiving that to be the proper way to uproot rebellious tendencies. It +was inevitable that he should follow such a course, impelled to it by a +remorseless cruelty in his nature, of which the Duke his master had seen +no hint, else he might have thought twice before making him Governor +of Zeeland, for Charles--despite his rigour when treachery was to be +punished--was a just and humane prince. + +Now, amongst those arrested and flung into Middelburg gaol as a result +of Rhynsault's ruthless perquisitions and inquisitions was a wealthy +young burgher named Philip Danvelt. His arrest was occasioned by a +letter signed “Philip Danvelt” found in the house of a marked rebel +who had been first tortured and then hanged. The letter, of a date +immediately preceding the late rising, promised assistance in the shape +of arms and money. + +Brought before Rhynsault for examination, in a cheerless hall of the +Gravenhof, Danvelt's defence was a denial upon oath that he had ever +taken or offered to take any part in the rebellion. Told of the letter +found, and of the date it bore, he laughed. That letter made everything +very simple and clear. At the date it bore he had been away at Flushing +marrying a wife, whom he had since brought thence to Middelburg. It was +ludicrous, he urged, to suppose that in such a season--of all seasons +in a man's life--he should have been concerned with rebellion or +correspondence with rebels, and, urging this, he laughed again. + +Now, the German captain did not like burghers who laughed in his +presence. It argued a lack of proper awe for the dignity of his +office and the importance of his person. From his high seat at the +Judgment-board, flanked by clerks and hedged about by men-at-arms, he +scowled upon the flaxen-haired, fresh-complexioned young burgher who +bore himself so very easily. He was a big, handsome man, this Rhynsault, +of perhaps some thirty years of age. His thick hair was of a reddish +brown, and his beardless face was cast in bold lines and tanned by +exposure to the colour of mahogany, save where the pale line of a scar +crossed his left cheek. + +“Yet, I tell you, the letter bears your signature,” he grumbled sourly. + +“My name, perhaps,” smiled the amiable Danvelt, “but assuredly not my +signature.” + +“Herrgott!” swore the German captain. “Is this a riddle? What is the +difference?” + +Feeling himself secure, that very foolish burgher ventured to be mildly +insolent. + +“It is a riddle that the meanest of your clerks there can read for you,” + said he. + +The Governor's blue eyes gleamed like steel as they, fastened upon +Danvelt, his heavy jaw seemed to thrust itself forward, and a dull flush +crept into his cheeks. Then he swore. + +“Beim blute Gottes!” quoth he, “do you whet your trader's wit upon me, +scum?” + +And to the waiting men-at-arms: + +“Take him back to his dungeon,” he commanded, “that in its quiet he may +study a proper carriage before he is next brought before us.” + +Danvelt was haled away to gaol again, to repent him of his pertness and +to reflect that, under the governorship of Claudius von Rhynsault, it +was not only the guilty who had need to go warily. + +The Governor sat back in his chair with a grunt. His secretary, on his +immediate right, leaned towards him. + +“It were easy to test the truth of the man's assertion,” said he. “Let +his servants and his wife attend and be questioned as to when he was in +Flushing and when married.” + +“Aye,” growled von Rhynsault. “Let it be done. I don't doubt we shall +discover that the dog was lying.” + +But no such discovery was made when, on the morrow, Danvelt's household +and his wife stood before the Governor to answer his questions. Their +replies most fully bore out the tale Danvelt had told, and appeared in +other ways to place it beyond all doubt that he had taken no part, in +deed or even in thought, in the rebellion against the Duke of Burgundy. +His wife protested it solemnly and piteously. + +“To this I can swear, my lord,” she concluded. “I am sure no evidence +can be brought against him, who was ever loyal and ever concerned with +his affairs and with me at the time in question. My lord”--she held +out her hands towards the grim German, and her lovely eyes gleamed +with unshed tears of supplication--“I implore you to believe me, and in +default of witnesses against him to restore my husband to me.” + +Rhynsault's blue eyes kindled now as they considered her, and his full +red lips slowly parted in the faintest and most inscrutable of smiles. +She was very fair to look upon--of middle height and most exquisite +shape. Her gown, of palest saffron, edged with fur, high-waisted +according to the mode, and fitted closely to the gently swelling bust, +was cut low to display the white perfection of her neck. Her softly +rounded face looked absurdly childlike under the tall-crowned hennin, +from which a wispy veil floated behind her as she moved. + +In silence, then, for a spell, the German mercenary pondered her with +those slowly kindling eyes, that slowly spreading, indefinite smile. +Then he stirred, and to his secretary he muttered shortly: + +“The woman lies. In private I may snare the truth from her.” + +He rose--a tall, massively imposing figure in a low-girdled tunic of +deep purple velvet, open at the breast, and gold-laced across a white +silken undervest. + +“There is some evidence,” he informed her gruffly. “Come with me, and +you shall see it for yourself.” + +He led the way from that cheerless hall by a dark corridor to a +small snug room, richly hung and carpeted, where a servant waited. He +dismissed the fellow, and in the same breath bade her enter, watching +her the while from under lowered brows. One of her women had followed; +but admittance was denied her. Danvelt's wife must enter his room alone. + +Whilst she waited there, with scared eyes and fluttering bosom, he went +to take from an oaken coffer the letter signed “Philip Danvelt.” He +folded the sheet so that the name only was to be read, and came to +thrust it under her eyes. + +“What name is that?” he asked her gruffly. + +Her answer was very prompt. + +“It is my husband's, but not the writing--it is another hand; some other +Philip Danvelt; there will be others in Zeeland.” + +He laughed softly, looking at her ever with that odd intentness, and +under his gaze she shrank and cowered in terror; it spoke to her of some +nameless evil; the tepid air of the luxurious room was stifling her. + +“If I believed you, your husband would be delivered from his +prison--from all danger; and he stands, I swear to you, in mortal +peril.” + +“Ah, but you must believe me. There are others who can bear witness.” + +“I care naught for others,” he broke in, with harsh and arrogant +contempt. Then he softened his voice to a lover's key. “But I might +accept your word that this is not your husband's hand, even though I did +not believe you.” + +She did not understand, and so she could only stare at him with those +round, brown eyes of hers dilating, her lovely cheeks blanching with +horrid fear. + +“Why, see,” he said at length, with an easy, gruff good-humour, “I place +the life of Philip Danvelt in those fair hands to do with as you please. +Surely, sweeting, you will not be so unkind as to destroy it.” + +And as he spoke his face bent nearer to her own, his flaming eyes +devoured her, and his arm slipped softly, snake-like round her to draw +her to him. But before it had closed its grip she had started away, +springing back in horror, an outcry already on her pale lips. + +“One word,” he admonished her sharply, “and it speaks your husband's +doom!” + +“Oh, let me go, let me go!” she cried in anguish. + +“And leave your husband in the hangman's hands?” he asked. + +“Let me go! Let me go!” was all that she could answer him, expressing +the only thought of which in that dread moment her mind was capable. + +That and the loathing on her face wounded his vanity for this beast was +vain. His manner changed, and the abysmal brute in him was revealed in +the anger he displayed. With foul imprecations he drove her out. + +Next day a messenger from the Governor waited upon her at her house with +a brief note to inform her that her husband would be hanged upon the +morrow. Incredulity was succeeded by a numb, stony, dry-eyed grief, in +which she sat alone for hours--a woman entranced. At last, towards dusk, +she summoned a couple of her grooms to attend and light her, and +made her way, ever in that odd somnambulistic state, to the gaol of +Middelburg. She announced herself to the head gaoler as the wife of +Philip Danvelt, lying under sentence of death, and that she was come to +take her last leave of him. It was not a thing to be denied, nor had the +gaoler any orders to deny it. + +So she was ushered into the dank cell where Philip waited for his doom, +and by the yellow wheel of light of the lantern that hung from the +shallow vaulted ceiling she beheld the ghastly change that the news of +impending death had wrought in him. No longer was he the self-assured +young burgher who, conscious of his innocence and worldly importance, +had used a certain careless insolence with the Governor of Zeeland. Here +she beheld a man of livid and distorted face, wild-eyed, his hair and +garments in disarray, suggesting the physical convulsions to which he +had yielded in his despair and rage. + +“Sapphira!” he cried at sight of her. A sigh of anguish and he flung +himself, shuddering and sobbing, upon her breast. She put her arms about +him, soothed him gently, and drew him back to the wooden chair from +which he had leapt to greet her. + +He took his head in his hands and poured out the fierce anguish of +his soul. To die innocent as he was, to be the victim of an arbitrary, +unjust power! And to perish at his age! + +Hearing him rave, she shivered out of an agony of compassion and also +of some terror for herself. She would that he found it less hard to die. +And thinking this she thought further, and uttered some of her thought +aloud. + +“I could have saved you, my poor Philip.” + +He started up, and showed her again that livid, distorted face of his. + +“What do you mean?” he asked hoarsely. “You could have saved me, do you +say? Then--then why--” + +“Ah, but the price, my dear,” she sobbed. + +“Price?” quoth he in sudden, fierce contempt. “What price is too great +to pay for life? Does this Rhynsault want all our wealth, then yield it +to him yield it so that I may live--” + +“Should I have hesitated had it been but that?” she interrupted. + +And then she told him, whilst he sat there hunched and shuddering. + +“The dog! The foul German dog!” he muttered through clenched teeth. + +“So that you see, my dear,” she pursued brokenly, “it was too great a +price. Yourself, you could not have condoned it, or done aught else but +loathe me afterwards.” + +But he was not as stout-mettled as she deemed him, or else the +all-consuming thirst of life, youth's stark horror of death, made him a +temporizing craven in that hour. + +“Who knows?” he answered. “Certes, I do not. But a thing so done, a +thing in which the will and mind have no part, resolves itself perhaps +into a sacrifice--” + +He broke off there, perhaps from very shame. After all he was a man, and +there are limits to what manhood will permit of one. + +But those words of his sank deeply into her soul. They rang again and +again in her ears as she took her anguished way home after the agony of +their farewells, and in the end they drove her out again that very night +to seek the Governor of Zeeland. + +Rhynsault was at supper when she came, and without quitting the table +bade them usher her into his presence. He found her very white, but +singularly calm and purposeful in her bearing. + +“Well, mistress?” + +“May I speak to you alone?” + +Her voice was as steady as her glance. + +He waved away the attendants, drank a deep draught from the cup at his +elbow, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and sat back in his +tall chair to hear her. + +“Yesterday,” she said, “you made, or seemed to make, me a proposal.” + +He looked up at first in surprise, then with a faint smile on his +coarse, red mouth. His glance had read her meaning clearly. + +“Look you, mistress, here I am lord of life and death. Yet in the case +of your husband I yield up that power to you. Say but the word and I +sign the order for his gaol delivery at dawn.” + +“I have come to say that word,” she informed him. + +A moment he looked up at her, his smile broadening, a flush mounting to +his cheek-bones. Then he rose and sent his chair crashing behind him to +the ground. + +“Herrgott!” he grunted; and he gathered her slim, trembling body to his +massive gold-laced breast. + +Soon after sunrise on the morrow she was beating at the gates of +Middelburg gaol, a paper clutched convulsively in her left hand. + +She was admitted, and to the head gaoler she showed the paper that she +carried. + +“An order from the Governor of Zeeland for the gaol delivery of Philip +Danvelt!” she announced almost hysterically. + +The gaoler scanned the paper, then her face. His lips tightened. + +“Come this way,” he said; and led her down a gloomy corridor to the cell +where yesterday she had seen her husband. + +He threw wide the door, and Sapphira sprang in. + +“Philip!” she cried, and checked as suddenly. + +He lay supine and still upon the miserable pallet, his hands folded +upon his breast, his face waxen, his eyes staring glassily through +half-closed lids. + +She sped to his side in a sudden chill of terror. She fell on her knees +and touched him. + +“Dead!” she screamed, and, kneeling, span round questioning to face the +gaoler in the doorway. “Dead!” + +“He was hanged at daybreak, mistress,” said the gaoler gently. + +She rocked a moment, moaning, then fell suddenly forward across her +husband's body in a swoon. + +That evening she was again at the Gravenhof to see Rhynsault, and again +she was admitted--a haggard faced woman now, in whom there was no trace +of beauty left. She came to stand before the Governor, considered him +in silence a moment with a loathing unutterable in her glance, then +launched into fierce recriminations of his broken faith. + +He heard her out, then shrugged and smiled indulgently. + +“I performed no less than I promised,” said he. “I pledged my word to +Danvelt's gaol delivery, and was not my gaol delivery effective? You +could hardly suppose that I should allow it to be of such a fashion as +to interfere with our future happy meetings.” + +Before his leering glance she fled in terror, followed by the sound of +his bestial laugh. + +For a week thereafter she kept her house and brooded. Then one day she +sallied forth all dressed in deepest mourning and attended by a train +of servants, and, embarking upon a flat-bottomed barge, was borne up the +river Scheldt towards Antwerp. Bruges was her ultimate destination, of +which she left no word behind her, and took the longest way round to +reach it. From Antwerp her barge voyaged on to Ghent, and thence by +canal, drawn by four stout Flemish horses, at last to the magnificent +city where the Dukes of Burgundy kept their Court. + +Under the June sunshine the opulent city of Bruges hummed with activity +like the great human hive it was. For Bruges at this date was the market +of the world, the very centre of the world's commerce, the cosmopolis +of the age. Within its walls were established the agencies of a score of +foreign great trading companies, and the ambassadors of no less a +number of foreign Powers. Here on a day you might hear every language of +civilization spoken in the broad thoroughfares under the shadow of such +imposing buildings as you would not have found together in another city +of Europe. To the harbour came the richly laden argosies from Venice +and Genoa, from Germany and the Baltic, from Constantinople and from +England, and in her thronged markets Lombard and Venetian, Levantine, +Teuton, and Saxon stood jostling one another to buy and sell. + +It was past noon, and the great belfry above the Gothic Cloth Hall in +the Grande Place was casting a lengthening shadow athwart the crowded +square. Above the Babel of voices sounded on a sudden the note of a +horn, and there was a cry of “The Duke! The Duke!” followed by a general +scuttle of the multitude to leave a clear way down the middle of the +great square. + +A gorgeous cavalcade some twoscore strong came into sight, advancing +at an amble, a ducal hunting party returning to the palace. A hush fell +upon the burgher crowd as it pressed back respectfully to gaze; and +to the din of human voices succeeded now the clatter of hoofs upon the +kidney-stones of the square, the jangle of hawkbells, the baying of +hounds, and the occasional note of the horn that had first brought +warning of the Duke's approach. + +It was a splendid iridescent company, flaunting in its apparel every +colour of the prism. There were great lords in silks and velvets of +every hue, their legs encased in the finest skins of Spain; there +were great ladies, in tall, pointed hennins or bicorne headdresses and +floating veils, with embroidered gowns that swept down below the +bellies of their richly harnessed palfreys. And along the flanks of this +cavalcade ran grooms and huntsmen in green and leather, their jagged +liripipes flung about their necks, leading the leashed hounds. + +The burghers craned their necks, and Levantine merchant argued with +Lombard trader upon an estimate of the wealth paraded thus before them. +And then at last came the young Duke himself, in black, as if to detach +himself from the surrounding splendour. He was of middle stature, of +a strong and supple build, with a lean, swarthy face and lively eyes. +Beside him, on a white horse, rode a dazzling youth dressed from head +to foot in flame-coloured silk, a peaked bonnet of black velvet set upon +his lovely golden head, a hooded falcon perched upon his left wrist, +a tiny lute slung behind him by a black ribbon. He laughed as he rode, +looking the very incarnation of youth and gaiety. + +The cavalcade passed slowly towards the Prinssenhof, the ducal +residence. It had all but crossed the square when suddenly a voice--a +woman's voice, high and tense--rang out. + +“Justice, my Lord Duke of Burgundy! Justice, Lord Duke, for a woman's +wrongs!” + +It startled the courtly riders, and for a moment chilled their gaiety. +The scarlet youth at the Duke's side swung round in his saddle to obtain +a view of her who called so piteously, and he beheld Sapphira Danvelt. + +She was all in black, and black was the veil that hung from her steeple +head-dress, throwing into greater relief her pallid loveliness which the +youth's glance was quick to appraise. He saw, too, from her air and from +the grooms attending her, that she was a woman of some quality, and the +tragic appeal of her smote home in his gay, poetic soul. He put forth a +hand and clutched the Duke's arm, and, as if yielding to this, the Duke +reined up. + +“What is it that you seek?” Charles asked her not unkindly, his lively +dark eyes playing over her. + +“Justice!” was all she answered him very piteously, and yet with a +certain fierceness of insistence. + +“None asks it of me in vain, I hope,” he answered gravely. “But I do not +dispense it from the saddle in the public street. Follow us.” + +And he rode on. + +She followed to the Prinssenhof with her grooms and her woman Catherine. +There she was made to wait in a great hall, thronged with grooms and +men-at-arms and huntsmen, who were draining the measure sent them by the +Duke. She stood apart, wrapped in her tragic sorrow, and none molested +her. At last a chamberlain came to summon her to the Duke's presence. + +In a spacious, sparsely furnished room she found the Duke awaiting her, +wearing now a gown of black and gold that was trimmed with rich fur. He +sat in a tall chair of oak and leather, and leaning on the back of it +lounged gracefully the lovely scarlet youth who had ridden at his side. + +Standing before him, with drooping eyes and folded hands, she told her +shameful story. Darker and darker grew his brow as she proceeded with +it. But it was the gloom of doubt rather than of anger. + +“Rhynsault?” he cried when she had done. “Rhynsault did this?” + +There was incredulity in his voice and nothing else. + +The youth behind him laughed softly, and shifted his attitude. + +“You are surprised. Yet what else was to be looked for in that Teuton +swine? Me he never could deceive, for all his--” + +“Be silent, Arnault,” said the Duke sharply. And to the woman: “It is +a grave, grave charge,” he said, “against a man I trusted and have +esteemed, else I should not have placed him where he is. What proof have +you?” + +She proffered him a strip of parchment--the signed order for the gaol +delivery of Philip Danvelt. + +“The gaoler of Middelburg will tell Your Grace that he was hanged +already when I presented this. My woman Catherine, whom I have with +me, can testify to part. And there are some other servants who can bear +witness to my husband's innocence. Captain von Rhynsault had ceased to +doubt it.” + +He studied the parchment, and fell very grave and thoughtful. + +“Where are you lodged?” he asked. + +She told him. + +“Wait there until I send for you again,” he bade her. “Leave this order +with me, and depend upon it, justice shall be done.” + +That evening, a messenger rode out to Middelburg to summon von Rhynsault +to Bruges, and the arrogant German came promptly and confidently, +knowing nothing of the reason, but conceiving naturally that +fresh honours were to be conferred upon him by a master who loved +stout-hearted servants. And that Rhynsault was stout-hearted he showed +most of all when the Duke taxed him without warning with the villainy he +had wrought. + +If he was surprised, he was not startled. What was the life of a Flemish +burgher more or less? What the honour of a Flemish wife? These were not +considerations to daunt a soldier, a valiant man of war. And because +such was his dull mood--for he was dull, this Rhynsault, as dull as +he was brutish--he considered his sin too venial to be denied. And the +Duke, who could be crafty, perceiving that mood of his, and simulating +almost an approval of it, drew the German captain into self-betrayal. + +“And so this Philip Danvelt may have been innocent?” + +“He must have been, for we have since taken the guilty man of the same +name,” said the German easily. “It was unfortunate, but--” + +“Unfortunate!” The Duke's manner changed from silk to steel. He heaved +himself out of his chair, and his dark eyes flamed. “Unfortunate! Is +that all, you dog?” + +“I conceived him guilty when I ordered him to be hanged,” spluttered the +captain, greatly taken aback. + +“Then, why this? Answer me--why this?” + +And under his nose the Duke thrust the order of gaol delivery Rhynsault +had signed. + +The captain blenched, and fear entered his glance. The thing was +becoming serious, it seemed. + +“Is this the sort of justice you were sent to Middelburg to administer +in my name? Is this how you dishonour me? If you conceived him guilty, +why did you sign this and upon what terms? Bah, I know the terms. And +having made such foul terms, why did you not keep your part of the +bargain, evil as it was?” + +Rhynsault had nothing to say. He was afraid, and he was angry too. Here +was a most unreasonable bother all about nothing, it seemed to him. + +“I--I sought to compromise between justice and--and--” + +“And your own vile ends,” the Duke concluded for him. “By Heaven, you +German dog, I think I'll have you shortened by a head!” + +“My lord!” It was a cry of protest. + +“There is the woman you have so foully wronged, and so foully swindled,” + said the Duke, watching him. “What reparation will you make to her? What +reparation can you make? I can toss your filthy head into her lap. But +will that repair the wrong?” + +The captain suddenly saw light, and quite a pleasant light it was, for +he had found Sapphira most delectable. + +“Why,” he said slowly, and with all a fool's audacity, “having made her +a widow, I can make her a wife again. I never thought to wive, myself. +But if Your Grace thinks such reparation adequate, I will afford it +her.” + +The Duke checked in the very act of replying. Again the expression of +his countenance changed. He strode away, his head bowed in thought; then +slowly he returned. + +“Be it so,” he said. “It is not much, but it is all that you can do, and +after a fashion it will mend the honour you have torn. See that you wed +her within the week. Should she not consent, it will be the worse for +you.” + +She would not have consented--she would have preferred death, +indeed--but for the insistence that the Duke used in private with her. +And so, half convinced that it would in some sort repair her honour, +the poor woman suffered herself to be led, more dead than living, to the +altar in the Duke's private chapel, and there, scarcely knowing what she +did, she became the wife of Captain Claudius von Rhynsault, the man she +had most cause to loathe and hate in all the world. + +Rhynsault had ordered a great banquet to celebrate his nuptials, for on +the whole he was well satisfied with the issue of this affair. But as he +left the altar, his half-swooning bride upon his arm, the Duke in person +tapped his shoulder. + +“All is not yet done,” he said. “You are to come with me.” + +The bridal pair were conducted to the great hall of the Prinssenhof, +where there was a great gathering of the Court--to do honour to his +nuptials, thought the German captain. At the broad table sat two clerkly +fellows with quills and parchments, and by this table the Duke took +his stand, Arnault beside him--in peacock-blue to-day--and called for +silence. + +“Captain von Rhynsault,” he said gravely and quietly, “what you have +done is well done; but it does not suffice. In the circumstances of this +marriage, and after the revelation we have had of your ways of thought +and of honour, it is necessary to make provision against the future. It +shall not be yours, save at grave cost, to repudiate the wife you have +now taken.” + +“There is no such intent--” began Rhynsault, who misliked this homily. + +The Duke waved him into silence. + +“You are interrupting me,” he said sharply. “You are a wealthy man, +Rhynsault, thanks to the favours I have heaped upon you ever since +the day when I picked you from your German kennel to set you where you +stand. Here you will find a deed prepared. It is in the form of a will, +whereby you bequeath everything of which you are to-day possessed--and +it is all set down--to your wife on your death, or on the day on which +you put her from you. Your signature is required to that.” + +The captain hesitated a moment. This deed would fetter all his future. +The Duke was unreasonable. But under the steady, compelling eyes of +Charles he moved forward to the table, and accepted the quill the clerk +was proffering. There was no alternative, he realized. He was trapped. +Well, well! He must make the best of it. He stooped from his great +height, and signed in his great sprawling, clumsy, soldier's hand. + +The clerk dusted the document with pounce, and handed it to the Duke. +Charles cast an eye upon the signature, then taking the quill himself, +signed under it, then bore the document to the half-swooning bride. + +“Keep this secure,” he bade her. “It is your marriage-gift from me.” + +Rhynsault's eyes gleamed. If his wife were to keep the deed, the thing +was none so desperate after all. But the next moment he had other things +to think of. + +“Give me your sword,” the Duke requested. + +Wondering, the German unsheathed the weapon, and proffered the hilt +to his master. Charles took it, and a stern smile played about his +beardless mouth. He grasped it, hilt in one hand and point in the other. +Suddenly he bent his right knee, and, bearing sharply downward with the +flat of the weapon upon his thigh, snapped in into two. + +“So much for that dishonourable blade,” he said, and cast the pieces +from him. Then he flung out an arm to point to Rhynsault. “Take him +out,” he commanded; “let him have a priest, and half an hour in which to +make his soul, then set his head on a spear above the Cloth Hall, that +men may know the justice of Charles of Burgundy.” + +With the roar of a 'goaded bull the German attempted to fling forward. +But men-at-arms, in steel and leather, who had come up quietly behind +him, seized him now. Impotent in their coiling arms, he was borne +away to his doom, that thereby he might complete the reparation of his +hideous offence, and deliver Sapphira from the bondage of a wedlock +which Charles of Burgundy had never intended her to endure. + + + + + + +X. THE NIGHT OF STRANGLERS--Govanna Of Naples And Andreas Of Hungary + +Charles, Duke of Durazzo, was one of your super chess-players, handling +kings and queens, knights and prelates of flesh and blood in the game +that he played with Destiny upon the dark board of Neapolitan politics. +And he had no illusions on the score of the forfeit that would be +claimed by his grim opponent in the event of his own defeat. He knew +that his head was the stake he set upon the board, and he knew, too, +that defeat must inevitably follow upon a single false move. Yet he +played boldly and craftily, as you shall judge. + +He made his first move in March of 1343, some three months after the +death of Robert of Anjou, King of Jerusalem and Sicily, as ran the title +of the ruler of Naples. He found his opportunity amid the appalling +anarchy into which the kingdom was then plunged as a result of a wrong +and an ill judged attempt to right it. + +Good King Robert the Wise had wrested the crown of Naples from his elder +brother, the King of Hungary, and had ruled as a usurper. Perhaps to +quiet his conscience, perhaps to ensure against future strife between +his own and his brother's descendants, he had attempted to right the +wrong by a marriage between his brother's grandson Andreas and his +own granddaughter Giovanna, a marriage which had taken place ten years +before, when Andreas was but seven years of age and Giovanna five. + +The aim had been thus to weld into one the two branches of the House of +Anjou. Instead, the rivalry was to be rendered more acute than ever, and +King Robert's fear of some such result contributed to it not a little. +On his deathbed he summoned the Princes of the Blood--the members of +the Houses of Durazzo and Taranto--and the chief nobles of the kingdom, +demanding of them an oath of allegiance to Giovanna, and himself +appointing a Council of Regency to govern the kingdom during her +minority. + +The consequence was that, against all that had been intended when the +marriage was contracted, Giovanna was now proclaimed queen in her +own right, and the government taken over in her name by the appointed +Council. Instantly the Court of Naples was divided into two camps, the +party of the Queen, including the Neapolitan nobility, and the party of +Andreas of Hungary, consisting of the Hungarian nobles forming his +train and a few malcontent Neapolitan barons, and guided by the sinister +figure of Andreas's preceptor, Friar Robert. + +This arrogant friar, of whom Petrarch has left us a vivid portrait, a +red-faced, red-bearded man, with a fringe of red hair about his tonsure, +short and squat of figure, dirty in his dress and habits, yet imbued +with the pride of Lucifer despite his rags, thrust himself violently +into the Council of Regency, demanding a voice in the name of his +pupil Andreas. And the Council feared him, not only on the score of +his over-bearing personality, but also because he was supported by the +populace, which had accepted his general filthiness as the outward sign +of holiness. His irruption occasioned so much trouble and confusion that +in the end the Pope intervened, in his quality as Lord Paramount--Naples +being a fief of Holy Church--and appointed a legate to rule the kingdom +during Giovanna's minority. + +The Hungarians, with Andreas's brother, King Ludwig of Hungary, at their +head, now appealed to the Papal Court of Avignon for a Bull commanding +the joint coronation of Andreas and Giovanna, which would be tantamount +to placing the government in the hands of Andreas. The Neapolitans, +headed by the Princes of the Blood--who, standing next in succession, +had also their own interests to consider clamoured that Giovanna alone +should be crowned. + +In this pass were the affairs of the kingdom when Charles of Durazzo, +who had stood watchful and aloof, carefully weighing the chances, +resolved at last to play that dangerous game of his. He began by the +secret abduction of Maria of Anjou, his own cousin and Giovanna's +sister, a child of fourteen. He kept her concealed for a month in his +palace, what time he obtained from the Pope, through the good offices +of his uncle the Cardinal of Perigord, a dispensation to overcome the +barrier of consanguinity. That dispensation obtained, Charles married +the girl publicly under the eyes of all Naples, and by the marriage--to +which the bride seemed nowise unwilling--became, by virtue of his wife, +next heir to the crown of Naples. + +That was his opening move. His next was to write to his obliging +uncle the Cardinal of Perigord, whose influence at Avignon was very +considerable, urging him to prevail upon Pope Clement VI not to sign the +Bull in favour of Andreas and the joint coronation. + +Now, the high-handed action of Charles in marrying Maria of Anjou had +very naturally disposed Giovanna against him; further, it had disposed +against him those Princes of the Blood who were next in the succession, +and upon whom he had stolen a march by this strengthening of his own +claims. It is inevitable to assume that he had counted precisely +upon this to afford him the pretext that he sought--he, a Neapolitan +prince--to ally himself with the Hungarian intruder. + +Under any other circumstances his advances must have been viewed with +suspicion by Andreas, and still more by the crafty Friar Robert. But, +under the circumstances which his guile had created, he was received +with open arms by the Hungarian party, and his defection from the Court +of Giovanna was counted a victory by the supporters of Andreas. He +protested his good-will towards Andreas, and proclaimed his hatred of +Giovanna's partisans, who poisoned her mind against her husband. He +hunted and drank with Andreas--whose life seems to have been largely +made up of hunting and drinking--and pandered generally to the rather +gross tastes of this foreigner, whom in his heart he despised for a +barbarian. + +From being a boon companion, Charles very soon became a counsellor to +the young Prince, and the poisonous advice that he gave seemed shrewd +and good, even to Friar Robert. + +“Meet hostility with hostility, ride ruthlessly upon your own way, +showing yourself confident of the decision in your favour that the Pope +must ultimately give. For bear ever in your mind that you are King of +Naples, not by virtue of your marriage with Giovanna, but in your own +right, Giovanna being but the offspring of the usurping branch.” + +The pale bovine eyes of Andreas would kindle into something like +intelligence, and a flush would warm his stolid countenance. He was +a fair-haired young giant, white-skinned and well-featured, but dull, +looking, with cold, hard eyes suggesting the barbarian that he was +considered by the cultured Neapolitans, and that he certainly looked +by contrast with them. Friar Robert supporting the Duke of Durazzo's +advice, Andreas did not hesitate to act upon it; of his own authority +he delivered prisoners from gaol, showered honours upon his Hungarian +followers and upon such Neapolitan barons as Count Altamura, who was +ill-viewed at Court, and generally set the Queen at defiance. The +inevitable result, upon which again the subtle Charles had counted, was +to exasperate a group of her most prominent nobles into plotting the +ruin of Andreas. + +It was a good beginning, and unfortunately Giovanna's own behaviour +afforded Charles the means of further speeding up his game. + +The young Queen was under the governance of Filippa the Catanese, an +evil woman, greedy of power. This Filippa, once a washerwoman, had in +her youth been chosen for her splendid health to be the foster-mother +of Giovanna's father. Beloved of her foster-child, she had become +perpetually installed at Court, married to a wealthy Moor named Cabane, +who was raised to the dignity of Grand Seneschal of the kingdom, whereby +the sometime washerwoman found herself elevated to the rank of one of +the first ladies of Naples. She must have known how to adapt herself to +her new circumstances, otherwise she would hardly have been appointed, +as she was upon the death of her foster-son, governess to his infant +daughters. Later, to ensure her hold upon the young Queen, and being +utterly unscrupulous in her greed of power, she had herself contrived +that her son, Robert of Cabane, became Giovanna's lover. + +One of Giovanna's first acts upon her grandfather's death had been to +create this Robert Count of Evoli, and this notwithstanding that in +the mean time he had been succeeded in her favour by the handsome +young Bertrand d'Artois. This was the group--the Catanese, her son, +and Bertrand--that, with the Princes of the Blood, governed the Queen's +party. + +With what eyes Andreas may have looked upon all this we have no means +of determining. Possibly, engrossed as he was with his hawks and his +hounds, he may have been stupidly blind to his own dishonour, at least +as far as Bertrand was concerned. Another than Charles might have +chosen the crude course of opening his eyes to it. But Charles was too +far-seeing. Precipitancy was not one of his faults. His next move must +be dictated by the decision of Avignon regarding the coronation. + +This decision came in July of 1345, and it fell like a thunderbolt upon +the Court. The Pope had pronounced in favour of Andreas by granting the +Bull for the joint coronation of Andreas and Giovanna. + +This was check to Charles. His uncle the Cardinal of Perigord had done +his utmost to oppose the measure, but he had been overborne in the +end by Ludwig of Hungary, who had settled the matter by the powerful +argument that he was himself the rightful heir to the crown of Naples, +and that he relinquished his claim in favour of his younger brother. He +had backed the argument by the payment to the Pope of the enormous sum, +for those days, of one hundred thousand gold crowns, and the issue, +obscure hitherto, had immediately become clear to the Papal Court. + +It was check to Charles, as I have said. But Charles braced himself, and +considered the counter-move that should give him the advantage. He went +to congratulate Andreas, and found him swollen with pride and arrogance +in his triumph. + +“Be welcome, Charles,” he hailed Durazzo. “I am not the man to forget +those who have stood my friends whilst my power was undecided.” + +“For your own sake,” said the smooth Charles, as he stepped back from +that brotherly embrace, “I trust you'll not forget those who have been +your enemies, and who, being desperate now, may take desperate means to +avert your coronation.” + +The pale eyes of the Hungarian glittered. + +“Of whom do you speak?” + +Charles smoothed his black beard thoughtfully, his dark eyes narrowed +and pensive. There must be a victim, to strike fear into Giovanna's +friends and stir them to Charles's purposes. + +“Why, first and foremost, I should place Giovanna's counsellor Isernia, +that man of law whose evil counsels have hurt your rights as king. Next +come--” + +But here Charles craftily paused and looked away, a man at fault. + +“Next?” cried Andreas. “Who next? Speak out!” The Duke shrugged. + +“By the Passion, there is no lack of others. You have enemies to spare +among the Queen's friends.” + +Andreas paled under his faint tan. He flung back his crimson robe as +if he felt the heat, and stood forth, lithe as a wrestler, in his +close-fitting cote-hardie and hose of violet silk. + +“No need, indeed, to name them,” he said fiercely. + +“None,” Charles agreed. “But the most dangerous is Isernia. Whilst +he lives you walk amid swords. His death may spread a panic that will +paralyze the others.” + +He would say no more, knowing that he had said enough to send Andreas, +scowling and sinister, to sow terror in hearts that guilt must render +uneasy now, amongst which hearts be sure that he counted Giovanna's own. + +Andreas took counsel with Friar Robert. Touching Isernia, there was +evidence and to spare that he was dangerous, and so Isernia fell on the +morrow to an assassin's sword as he was in the very act of leaving the +Castel Nuovo, and it was Charles himself who bore word of it to the +Court, and so plunged it into consternation. + +They walked in the cool of evening in the pleasant garden of the Castel +Nuovo, when Charles came upon them and touched the stalwart shoulder of +Bertrand d'Artois. Bertrand the favourite eyed him askance, mistrusting +and disliking him for his association with Andreas. + +“The Hungarian boar,” said Charles, “is sharpening his tusks now that +his authority is assured by the Holy Father.” + +“Who cares?” sneered Bertrand. + +“Should you care if I added that already he has blooded them?” + +Bertrand changed countenance. The Duke explained himself. + +“He has made a beginning upon Giacomo d' Isernia. Ten minutes ago he +was stabbed to death within a stone's throw of the castle.” So Charles +unburdened himself of his news. “A beginning, no more.” + +“My God!” said Bertrand. “D' Isernia! Heaven rest him.” And devoutly he +crossed himself. + +“Heaven will rest some more of you if you suffer Andreas of Hungary to +be its instrument,” said Charles, his lips grimly twisted. + +“Do you threaten?” + +“Nay, man; be not so hot and foolish. I warn. I know his mood. I know +what he intends.” + +“You ever had his confidence,” said Bertrand, sneering. + +“Until this hour I had. But there's an end to that. I am a Prince of +Naples, and I'll not bend the knee to a barbarian. He was well enough +to hunt with and drink with, so long as he was Duke of Calabria with no +prospect of being more. But that he should become my King, and that +our lady Giovanna should be no more than a queen consort--” He made a +gesture of ineffable disgust. + +Bertrand's eyes kindled. He gripped the other's arm, and drew him along +under a trellis of vines that formed a green cloister about the walls. + +“Why, here is great news for our Queen,” he cried. “It will rejoice her, +my lord, to know you are loyal to her.” + +“That is no matter,” he replied. “What matters is that you should be +warned--you, yourself in particular, and Evoli. No doubt there will be +others, too. But the Hungarian's confidences went no further.” + +Bertrand had come to a standstill. He stared at Charles, and slowly the +colour left his face. + +“Me?” he said, a finger on his heart. + +“Aye, you. You will be the next. But not until the crown is firmly on +his brow. Then he will settle his score with the nobles of Naples who +have withstood him. Listen,” and Charles's voice sank as if under the +awful burden of his news; “a black banner of vengeance is to precede him +to his coronation. And your name stands at the head of the list of the +proscribed. Does it surprise you? After all, he is a husband, and he has +some knowledge of what lies between the Queen and you--” + +“Stop!” + +“Pish!” Charles shrugged. “What need for silence upon what all Naples +knows? When have you and the Queen ever used discretion? In your place +I should not need a warning. I should know what to expect from a husband +become king.” + +“The Queen must be told.” + +“Indeed, I think so, too. It will come best from you. Go tell her, so +that measures may be taken. But go secretly and warily. You are safe +until he wears the crown. And above all--whatever you may decide--do +nothing here in Naples.” + +And on that he turned to depart, whilst Bertrand sped to Giovanna. On +the threshold of the garden Charles paused and looked back. His eyes +sought and found the Queen, a tall, lissome girl of seventeen, in a +close-fitting, revealing gown of purple silk, the high, white gorget +outlining an oval face of a surpassing loveliness, crowned by a wealth +of copper-coloured hair. She was standing in a stricken attitude, +looking up into the face of her lover, who was delivering himself of his +news. + +Charles departed satisfied. + +Three days later a man of the Queen's household, one Melazzo, who was +in Duke Charles's pay, brought him word that the seed he had cast had +fallen upon fertile soil. A conspiracy to destroy the King had been laid +by Bertrand d'Artois, Robert of Cabane, Count of Evoli, and the +latter's brothers-in-law, Terlizzi and Morcone. Melazzo himself, for his +notorious affection for the Queen, had been included in this band, and +also a man named Pace, who was body servant to Andreas, and who, like +Melazzo, was in Charles's pay. + +Charles of Durazzo smiled gently to himself. The game went excellently +well. + +“The Court,” he said, “goes to Aversa for a month before the coronation. +That would be a favourable season to their plan. Advise it so.” + +The date appointed for the coronation was September 20th. A month +before--on August 20th--the Court removed itself from the heat and +reek of Naples to the cooler air of Aversa, there to spend the time of +waiting. They were housed in the monastery of Saint Peter, which +had been converted as far as possible into a royal residence for the +occasion. + +On the night of their arrival there the refectory of the monastery was +transfigured to accommodate the numerous noble and very jovial company +assembled there to sup. The long, stone-flagged room, lofty and with +windows set very high, normally so bare and austere, was hung now with +tapestries, and the floor strewn with rushes that were mingled with +lemon verbena and other aromatic herbs. Along the lateral walls and +across the end of the room that faced the double doors were set the +stone tables of the Spartan monks, on a shallow dais that raised them +above the level of the floor. These tables were gay now with the gleam +of crystal and the glitter of gold and silver plate. Along one side of +them, their backs to the walls, sat the ladies and nobles of the +Court. The vaulted ceiling was rudely frescoed to represent the +open heavens--the work of a brother whose brush was more devout than +cunning--and there was the inevitable cenacolo above the Abbot's table +at the upper end of the room. + +At this table sat the royal party, the broad-shouldered Andreas of +Hungary, slightly asprawl, his golden mane somewhat tumbled now, for +he was drinking deeply in accordance with his barbarian habit; ever and +anon he would fling down a bone or a piece of meat to the liver-coloured +hounds that crouched expectant on the rushes of the floor. + +They had hunted that day in the neighbourhood of Capua, and Andreas had +acquitted himself well, and was in high good-humour, giving now little +thought to the sinister things that Charles of Durazzo had lately +whispered, laughing and jesting with the traitor Morcone at his side. +Behind him in close attendance stood his servant Pace, once a creature +of Durazzo's. The Queen sat on his right, making but poor pretence to +eat; her lovely young face was of a ghostly pallor, her dark eyes were +wide and staring. Among the guests were the black-browed Evoli and his +brother-in-law, Terlizzi; Bertrand of Artois and his father; Melazzo, +that other creature of Charles's, and Filippa the Catanese, handsome and +arrogant, but oddly silent to-night. + +But Charles of Durazzo was not of the company. It is not for the player, +himself, to become a piece upon the board. + +He had caught a whisper that the thing he had so slyly prompted to +Bertrand d'Artois was to be done here at Aversa, and so Charles had +remained at Naples. He had discovered very opportunely that his wife was +ailing, and he developed such concern for her that he could not bring +himself to leave her side. He had excused himself to Andreas with a +thousand regrets, since what he most desired was to enjoy with him the +cool, clean air of Aversa and the pleasures of the chase; and he had +presented the young King at parting with the best of all his falcons in +earnest of affection and disappointment. + +The night wore on, and at last, at a sign from the Queen, the ladies +rose and departed to their beds. The men settled down again. The +cellarers redoubled their activities, the flagons circulated more +briskly, and the noise they made must have disturbed the monks +entrenched in their cells against these earthly vanities. The laughter +of Andreas grew louder and more vacuous, and when at last he heaved +himself up at midnight and departed to bed, that he might take some rest +against the morrow's hunt, he staggered a little in his walk. + +But there were other hunters there whose impatience could not keep until +the morrow, whose game was to be run to death that very night. They +waited--Bertrand d'Artois, Robert of Cabane, the Counts of Terlizzi and +Morcone, Melazzo and Andreas's body servant Pace--until all those who +lay at Aversa were deep in slumber. Then at two o'clock in the morning +they made their stealthy way to the loggia on the third floor, a long +colonnaded gallery above the Abbot's garden. They paused a moment before +the Queen's door which opened upon this gallery, then crept on to that +of the King's room at the other end. It was Pace who rapped sharply +on the panels thrice before he was answered by a sleepy growl from the +other side. + +“It is I--Pace--my lord,” he announced. “A courier has arrived from +Naples, from Friar Robert, with instant messages.” + +From within there was a noisy yawn, a rustle, the sound of an +overturning stool, and, lastly, the rasp of a bolt being withdrawn. The +door opened, and in the faint light of the dawning day Andreas appeared, +drawing a furlined robe about his body, which was naked of all but a +shirt. + +He saw no one but Pace. The others had drawn aside into the shadows. +Unsuspecting, he stepped forth. + +“Where is this messenger?” + +The door through which he had come slammed suddenly behind him, and he +turned to see Melazzo in the act of bolting it with a dagger to prevent +any one from following that way--for the room had another door opening +upon the inner corridor. + +Instead, Melazzo might have employed his dagger to stab Andreas behind, +and so have made an instant end. But it happened to be known that +Andreas wore an amulet--a ring that his mother had given him--which +rendered him invulnerable to steel or poison. And such was the credulity +of his age, such the blind faith of those men in the miraculous power +of that charm, that none of them so much as attempted to test it with a +dagger. It was for the same reason that no recourse was had to the still +easier method of disposing of him by poison. Accepting the amulet at +its legendary value, the conspirators had resolved that he must be +strangled. + +As he turned now they leapt upon him, and, taking him unawares, bore +him to the ground before he could realize what was happening. Here they +grappled with him, and he with them. He was endowed with the strength of +a young bull, and he made full use of it. He rose, beating them off, to +be borne down again, bellowing the while for help. He smote out blindly, +and stretched Morcone half senseless with a blow of his great fist. + +Seeing how difficult he proved to strangle, they must have cursed that +amulet of his. He struggled to his knees again, then to his feet, and, +at last, with bleeding face, leaving tufts of his fair hair in their +murderous hands, he broke through and went bounding down the loggia, +screaming as he ran, until he came to his wife's door. Against that he +hurled himself, calling her. + +“Giovanna! Giovanna! For the love of God crucified! Open! Open! I am +being murdered!” + +From within came no answer--utter silence. + +“Giovanna! Giovanna!” He beat frenziedly upon the door. + +Still no answer, which yet was answer enough. + +The stranglers, momentarily discomfited, scared, too, lest his cries +should rouse the convent, had stood hesitating after he broke from them. +But now Bertrand d'Artois, realizing that too much had been done already +to admit of the business being left unfinished, sprang upon him suddenly +again. Locked in each other's arms, those wrestlers swayed and panted in +the loggia for a moment, then with a crash went down, Bertrand on +top, Andreas striking his head against the stone floor as he fell. The +Queen's lover pinned him there, kneeling upon his breast. + +“The rope!” he panted to the others who came up. + +One of them threw him a coil of purple silk interwrought with gold +thread, in which a running noose had been tied. Bertrand slipped it +over Andreas's head, drew it taut, and held it so, despite the man's +desperate, convulsive struggles. The others came to his assistance. +Amongst them they lifted the writhing victim to the parapet of the +loggia, and flung him over; whilst Bertrand, Cabane, and Pace bore upon +the rope, arresting his fall, and keeping him suspended there until he +should be dead. Melazzo and Morcone came to assist them, and it was then +that Cabane observed that Terlizzi held aloof, as if filled with horror. + +Peremptorily he called to him: + +“Hither, and lend a hand! The rope is long enough to afford you a grip. +We want accomplices, not witnesses, Lord Count.” + +Terlizzi obeyed, and then the ensuing silence was broken suddenly by +screams from the floor below the screams of a woman who slept in the +room immediately underneath, who had awakened to behold in the grey +light of the breaking day the figure of a man kicking and writhing at a +rope's end before her window. + +Yet a moment the startled stranglers kept their grip of the rope until +the struggles at the end of it had ceased; then they loosed their hold +and let the body go plunging down into the Abbot's garden. Thereafter +they scattered and fled, for people were stirring now in the convent, +aroused by the screams of the woman. + +Thrice, so the story runs, came the monks to the Queen's door to knock +and demand her orders for the disposal of the body of her husband +without receiving any answer to their question. It remained still +unanswered when later in the day she departed from Aversa in a closed +litter, and returned to Naples escorted by a company of lances, and +for lack of instructions the monks left the body in the Abbot's garden, +where it had fallen, until Charles of Durazzo came to remove it two days +later. + +Ostentatiously he bore to Naples the murdered Prince--whose death he had +so subtly inspired--and in the cathedral before the Hungarians, whom he +had assembled, and in the presence of a vast concourse of the people, he +solemnly swore over the body vengeance upon the murderers. + +Having made a cat's-paw of Giovanna--through the person of her lover, +Bertrand d'Artois, and his confederate assassins--and thus cleared away +one of those who stood between himself and the throne, he now sought +to make a cat's-paw of justice to clear away the other. Meanwhile, days +grew into weeks and weeks into months, and no attempt was made by the +Queen to hunt out the murderers of her husband, no inquiry instituted. +Bertrand d'Artois, it is true, had fled with his father to their +stronghold of Saint Agatha for safety. But the others--Cabane, Terlizzi, +and Morcone--continued unabashed about Giovanna's person at the Castel +Nuovo. + +Charles wrote to Ludwig of Hungary, and to the Pope, demanding that +justice should be done, and pointing out the neglect of all attempt +to perform it in the kingdom itself, and inviting them to construe for +themselves that neglect. As a consequence, Clement VI issued, on June +2d of the following year, a Bull, whereby Bertrand des Baux, the +Grand Justiciary of Naples, was commanded to hunt down and punish the +assassins, against whom--at the same time--the Pope launched a second +Bull, of excommunication. But the Holy Father accompanied his commands +to Des Baux by a private note, wherein he straitly enjoined the Grand +Justiciary for reasons of State to permit nothing to transpire that +might reflect upon the Queen. + +Des Baux set about his task at once, and inspired, no doubt, by Charles, +proceeded to the arrest of Melazzo and the servant Pace. It was not for +Charles to accuse the Queen or even any of her nobles, whereby he might +have aroused against himself the opposition of those who were her +loyal partisans. Sufficient for him to point out the two meanest of the +conspirators, and depend upon the torture to wring from them confessions +that must gradually pull down the rest, and in the end Giovanna herself. + +Terlizzi, alive to his danger when he heard of the arrest of those two, +made a bold and desperate attempt to avert it. Riding forth with a band +of followers, he attacked the escort that was bearing Pace to prison. +The prisoner was seized, but not to be rescued. All that Terlizzi wanted +was his silence. By his orders the wretched man's tongue was torn out, +whereupon he was abandoned once more to his guards and his fate. + +Had Terlizzi been able to carry out his intentions of performing +the like operation upon Melazzo, Charles might have been placed in a +difficult position. So much, however, did not happen, and the horrible +deed upon Pace was in vain. Put to the question, Melazzo denounced +Terlizzi, and together with him Cabane, Morcone, and the others. +Further, his confession incriminated Filippa, the Catanese, and her two +daughters, the wives of Terlizzi and Morcone. Of the Queen, however, he +said nothing, because, one of the lesser conspirators, little more +than a servant like Pace, he can have had no knowledge of the Queen's +complicity. + +The arrest of the others followed instantly, and, sentenced to death, +they were publicly burned in the Square of Sant' Eligio, after suffering +all the brutal, unspeakable horrors of fourteenth-century torture, which +continued to the very scaffold, with the alleged intention of inducing +them to denounce any further accomplices. But though they writhed and +fainted under the pincers of the executioners, they confessed nothing. +Indeed, they preserved a silence which left the people amazed, for the +people lacked the explanation. The Grand Justiciary, Hugh des Baux, +had seen to it that the Pope's injunctions should be obeyed. Lest the +condemned should say too much, he had taken the precaution of having +their tongues fastened down with fish-hooks. + +Thus Charles was momentarily baulked, and he was further baulked by the +fact that Giovanna had taken a second husband, in her cousin, Louis +of Taranto. Unless matters were to remain there and the game end in +a stalemate, bold measures were required, and those measures Charles +adopted. He wrote to the King of Hungary now openly accusing Giovanna +of the murder, and pointing out the circumstances that in themselves +afforded corroboration of his charge. + +Those circumstances Ludwig embodied in a fulminating letter which +he wrote to Giovanna in answer to her defence against the charge of +inaction in the matter of her late husband's murderers: “Giovanna, thy +antecedent disorderly life, thy retention of the exclusive power in the +kingdom, thy neglect of vengeance upon the murderers of thy husband, thy +having taken another husband, and thy very excuses abundantly prove thy +complicity in thy husband's death.” + +So far this was all as Charles of Durazzo could have desired it. But +there was more. Ludwig was advancing now in arms to take possession of +the kingdom, of which, under all the circumstances, he might consider +himself the lawful heir, and the Princes of Italy were affording +him unhindered passage through their States. This was not at all to +Charles's liking. Indeed, unless he bestirred himself, it might prove to +be checkmate from an altogether unexpected quarter, rendering vain all +the masterly play with which he had conducted the game so far. + +It flustered him a little, and in his haste to counter it he blundered. + +Giovanna, alarmed at the rapid advance of Ludwig, summoned her barons to +her aid, and in that summons she included Charles, realizing that at +all costs he must be brought over to her side. He went, listened, and +finally sold himself for a good price the title of Duke of Calabria, +which made him heir to the kingdom. He raised a powerful troop of +lances, and marched upon Aquila, which had already hoisted the Hungarian +banner. + +There it was that he discovered, and soon, his move to have been a bad +one. News was brought to him that the Queen, taken with panic, had fled +to Provence, seeking sanctuary at Avignon. + +Charles set about correcting his error without delay, and marched out +of Aquila to go and meet Ludwig that he might protest his loyalty, and +range himself under the invader's banner. + +At Foligno, the King of Hungary was met by a papal legate, who in the +name of Pope Clement forbade him under pain of excommunication to invade +a fief of Holy Church. + +“When I am master of Naples,” answered Ludwig firmly, “I shall count +myself a feudatory of the Holy See. Until then I render account to none +but God and my conscience.” And he pushed on, preceded by a black banner +of death, scattering in true Hungarian fashion murder, rape, pillage, +and arson through the smiling countryside, exacting upon the whole land +a terrible vengeance for the murder of his brother. + +Thus he came to Aversa, and there quartered himself and his Hungarians +upon that convent of Saint Peter where Andreas had been strangled a year +ago. And it was here that he was joined by Charles, who came protesting +loyalty, and whom the King received with open arms and a glad welcome, +as was to be expected from a man who had been Andreas's one true friend +in that land of enemies. Of Charles's indiscreet escapade in the matter +of Aquila nothing was said. As Charles had fully expected, it was +condoned upon the score both of the past and the present. + +That night there was high feasting in that same refectory where Andreas +had feasted on the night when the stranglers watched him, waiting, and +Charles was the guest of honour. In the morning Ludwig was to pursue his +march upon the city of Naples, and all were astir betimes. + +On the point of setting out, Ludwig turned to Charles. + +“Before I go,” he said, “I have a mind to visit the spot where my +brother died.” + +To Charles, no doubt, this seemed a morbid notion to be discouraged. But +Ludwig was insistent. + +“Take me there,” he bade the Duke. + +“Indeed, I scarce know--I was not here, remember,” Charles answered +him, rendered faintly uneasy, perhaps by a certain grimness in the gaunt +King's face, perhaps by the mutterings of his own conscience. + +“I know that you were not; but surely you must know the place. It will +be known to all the world in these parts. Besides, was it not yourself +recovered the body? Conduct me thither, then.” + +Perforce, then, Charles must do his will. Arm-in-arm they mounted the +stairs to that sinister loggia, a half-dozen of Ludwig's escorting +officers following. + +They stepped along the tessellated floor above the Abbot's garden, +flooded now with sunshine which drew the perfume from the roses blooming +there. + +“Here the King slept,” said Charles, “and yonder the Queen. Somewhere +here between the thing was done, and thence they hanged him.” + +Ludwig, tall and grim, stood considering, chin in hand. Suddenly he +wheeled upon the Duke who stood at his elbow. His face had undergone a +change, and his lip curled so that he displayed his strong teeth as a +dog displays them when he snarls. + +“Traitor!” he rasped. “It is you--you who come smiling and fawning upon +me, and spurring me on to vengeance--who are to blame for what happened +here.” + +“I?” Charles fell back, changing colour, his legs trembling under him. + +“You!” the King answered him furiously. “His death would never have +come about but for your intrigues to keep him out of the royal power, to +hinder his coronation.” + +“It is false!” cried Charles. “False! I swear it before God!” + +“Perjured dog! Do you deny that you sought the aid of your precious +uncle the Cardinal of Perigord to restrain the Pope from granting the +Bull required?” + +“I do deny it. The facts deny it. The Bull was forthcoming.” + +“Then your denial but proves your guilt,” the King answered him, and +from the leather pouch hanging from his belt, he pulled out a parchment, +and held it under the Duke's staring eyes. It was the letter he had +written to the Cardinal of Perigord, enjoining him to prevent the Pope +from signing the Bull sanctioning Andreas's coronation. + +The King smiled terribly into that white, twitching face. + +“Deny it now,” he mocked him. “Deny, too, that, bribed by the title of +Duke of Calabria, you turned to the service of the Queen, to abandon +it again for ours when you perceived your danger. You think to use us, +traitor, as a stepping-stone to help you to mount the throne--as you +sought to use my brother even to the extent of encompassing his murder.” + +“No, no! I had no hand in that. I was his friend--” + +“Liar!” Ludwig struck him across the mouth. + +On the instant the officers of Ludwig laid hands upon the Duke, fearing +that the indignity might spur him to retaliation. + +“You are very opportune,” said Ludwig; and added coldly, “Dispatch him.” + +Charles screamed a moment, even as Andreas had screamed on that same +spot, when he found himself staring into the fearful face of death. Then +the scream became a cough as a Hungarian sword went through him from +side to side. + +They picked up his body from the tessellated floor of the loggia, +carried it to the parapet as Andreas's had been carried, and flung it +down into the Abbot's garden as Andreas's had been flung. It lay in a +rosebush, dyeing the Abbot's roses a deeper red. + +Never was justice more poetic. + + + + + + +XI. THE NIGHT OF HATE--The Murder Of The Duke Of Gandia + +The Cardinal Vice-Chancellor took the packet proffered him by the +fair-haired, scarlet-liveried page, and turned it over, considering it, +the gentle, finely featured, almost ascetic face very thoughtful. + +“It was brought, my lord, by a man in a mask, who will give no name. He +waits below,” said the scarlet stripling. + +“A man in a mask, eh? What mystery!” + +The thoughtful brown eyes smiled, the fine hands broke the fragment of +wax. A gold ring fell out and rolled some little way along the black +and purple Eastern rug. The boy dived after it, and presented it to his +lordship. + +The ring bore an escutcheon, and the Cardinal found graven upon this +escutcheon his own arms the Sforza lion and the flower of the quince. +Instantly those dark, thoughtful eyes of his grew keen as they flashed +upon the page. + +“Did you see the device?” he asked, a hint of steel under the silkiness +of his voice. + +“I saw nothing, my lord--a ring, no more. I did not even look.” + +The Cardinal continued to ponder him for a long moment very searchingly. + +“Go--bring this man,” he said at last; and the boy departed, soon +to reappear; holding aside the tapestry that masked the door to give +passage to a man of middle height wrapped in a black cloak, his face +under a shower of golden hair, covered from chin to brow by a black +visor. + +At a sign from the Cardinal the page departed. Then the man, coming +forward, let fall his cloak, revealing a rich dress of close-fitting +violet silk, sword and dagger hanging from his jewelled girdle; he +plucked away the mask, and disclosed the handsome, weak face of Giovanni +Sforza, Lord of Pesaro and Cotignola, the discarded husband of Madonna +Lucrezia, Pope Alexander's daughter. + +The Cardinal considered his nephew gravely, without surprise. He had +expected at first no more than a messenger from the owner of that +ring. But at sight of his figure and long, fair hair he had recognized +Giovanni before the latter had removed his mask. + +“I have always accounted you something mad,” said the Cardinal softly. +“But never mad enough for this. What brings you to Rome?” + +“Necessity, my lord,” replied the young tyrant. “The need to defend my +honour, which is about to be destroyed.” + +“And your life?” wondered his uncle. “Has that ceased to be of value?” + +“Without honour it is nothing.” + +“A noble sentiment taught in every school. But for practical purposes--” + The Cardinal shrugged. + +Giovanni, however, paid no heed. + +“Did you think, my lord, that I should tamely submit to be a derided, +outcast husband, that I should take no vengeance upon, that villainous +Pope for having made me a thing of scorn, a byword throughout Italy?” + Livid hate writhed in his fair young face. “Did you think I should, +indeed, remain in Pesaro, whither I fled before their threats to my +life, and present no reckoning?” + +“What is the reckoning you have in mind?” inquired his uncle, faintly +ironical. “You'll not be intending to kill the Holy Father?” + +“Kill him?” Giovanni laughed shortly, scornfully. “Do the dead suffer?” + +“In hell, sometimes,” said the Cardinal. + +“Perhaps. But I want to be sure. I want sufferings that I can witness, +sufferings that I can employ as balsam for my own wounded honour. I +shall strike, even as he has stricken me--at his soul, not at his body. +I shall wound him where he is most sensitive.” + +Ascanio Sforza, towering tall and slender in his scarlet robes, shook +his head slowly. + +“All this is madness--madness! You were best away, best in Pesaro. +Indeed, you cannot safely show your face in Rome.” + +“That is why I go masked. That is why I come to you, my lord, for +shelter here until--” + +“Here?” The Cardinal was instantly alert. “Then you think I am as mad as +yourself. Why, man, if so much as a whisper of your presence in Rome got +abroad, this is the first place where they would look for you. If you +will have your way, if you are so set on the avenging of past wrongs +and the preventing of future ones, it is not for me, your kinsman, +to withstand you. But here in my palace you cannot stay, for your own +safety's sake. That page who brought you, now; I would not swear he did +not see the arms upon your ring. I pray that he did not. But if he did, +your presence is known here already.” + +Giovanni was perturbed. + +“But if not here, where, then, in Rome should I be safe?” + +“Nowhere, I think,” answered the ironical Ascanio. “Though perhaps you +might count yourself safe with Pico. Your common hate of the Holy Father +should be a stout bond between you.” + +Fate prompted the suggestion. Fate drove the Lord of Pesaro to act +upon it, and to seek out Antonio Maria Pico, Count of Mirandola, in his +palace by the river, where Pico, as Ascanio had foreseen, gave him a +cordial welcome. + +There he abode almost in hiding until the end of May, seldom issuing +forth, and never without his mask--a matter this which excited no +comment, for masked faces were common in the streets of Rome in the +evening of the fifteenth century. In talk with Pico he set forth +his intent, elaborating what already he had told the Cardinal +Vice-Chancellor. + +“He is a father--this Father of Fathers,” he said once. “A tender, +loving father whose life is in his children, who lives through them +and for them. Deprive him of them, and his life would become empty, +worthless, a living death. There is Giovanni, who is as the apple of his +eye, whom he has created Duke of Gandia, Duke of Benevento, Prince +of Sessa, Lord of Teano, and more besides. There is the Cardinal of +Valencia, there is Giuffredo, Prince of Squillace, and there is my wife, +Lucrezia, of whom he has robbed me. There is, you see, an ample heel to +our Achilles. The question is, where shall we begin?” + +“And also, how,” Pico reminded him. + +Fate was to answer both those questions, and that soon. + +They went on June 1st--the Lord of Pesaro, with his host and his host's +daughter, Antonia--to spend the day at Pico's vineyard in Trastevere. At +the moment of setting out to return to Rome in the evening the Count was +detained by his steward, newly returned from a journey with matters to +communicate to him. + +He bade his guest, with his daughter and their attendants, to ride on, +saying that he himself would follow and overtake them. But the steward +detained him longer than he had expected, so that, although the company +proceeded leisurely towards the city, Pico had not come up with them +when they reached the river. In the narrow street beyond the bridge the +little escort found itself suddenly confronted and thrust aside by a +magnificent cavalcade of ladies and gallants, hawk on wrist and followed +by a pack of hounds. + +Giovanni had eyes for one only in that gay company--a tall, splendidly +handsome man in green, a Plumed bonnet on his auburn head, and a +roguish, jovial eye, which, in its turn, saw nobody in that moment but +Madonna Antonia, reclining in her litter, the leather curtains of which +she had drawn back that she might converse with Giovanni as they rode. + +The Lord of Pesaro beheld the sudden kindling of his brother-in-law's +glance, for that handsome gallant was the Duke of Gandia, the Pope's +eldest son, the very apple of the Holy Father's eye. He saw the Duke's +almost unconscious check upon his reins; saw him turn in the saddle to +stare boldly at Madonna Antonia until, grown conscious of his regard, +she crimsoned under it. And when at last the litter had moved on, he +saw over his shoulder a mounted servant detach from the Duke's side to +follow them. This fellow dogged their heels all the way to the Parione +Quarter, obviously with intent to discover for his master where the +beautiful lady of the litter might be housed. + +Giovanni said naught of this to Pico when he returned a little later. +He was quick to perceive the opportunity that offered, but far from sure +that Pico would suffer his daughter to be used as a decoy; far, indeed, +from sure that he dared himself so employ her. But on the morrow, +chancing to look from a window out of idle curiosity to see what horse +it was that was pacing in the street below, he beheld a man in a rich +cloak, in whom at once he recognized the Duke, and he accounted that the +dice of destiny had fallen. + +Himself unseen by that horseman, Giovanni drew back quickly. On the spur +of the moment, he acted with a subtlety worthy of long premeditation. +Antonia and he were by an odd fatality alone together in that chamber of +the mezzanine. He turned to her. + +“An odd fellow rides below here, tarrying as if expectant. I wonder +should you know who he is.” + +Obeying his suggestion, she rose--a tall, slim child of some eighteen +years, of a delicate, pale beauty, with dark, thoughtful eyes and long, +black tresses, interwoven with jewelled strands of gold thread. She +rustled to the window and looked down upon that cavalier; and, as she +looked, scanning him intently, the Duke raised his head. Their eyes met, +and she drew back with a little cry. + +“What is it?” exclaimed Giovanni. + +“It is that insolent fellow who stared at me last evening in the street. +I would you had not bidden me look.” + +Now, whilst she had been gazing from the window, Giovanni, moving softly +behind her, had espied a bowl of roses on the ebony table in the room's +middle. Swiftly and silently he had plucked a blossom, which he now held +behind his back. As she turned from him again, he sent it flying through +the window; and whilst in his heart he laughed with bitter hate and +scorn as he thought of Gandia snatching up that rose and treasuring it +in his bosom, aloud he laughed at her fears, derided them as idle. + +That night, in his room, Giovanni practised penmanship assiduously, +armed with a model with which Antonia had innocently equipped him. He +went to bed well pleased, reflecting that as a man lives so does he die. +Giovanni Borgia, Duke of Gandia, had been ever an amiable profligate, a +heedless voluptuary obeying no spur but that of his own pleasure, which +should drive him now to his destruction. Giovanni Borgia, he considered +further, was, as he had expressed it, the very apple of his father's +eye; and since, of his own accord, the Duke had come to thrust his +foolish head into the noose, the Lord of Pesaro would make a sweet +beginning to the avenging of his wrongs by drawing it taut. + +Next morning saw him at the Vatican, greatly daring, to deliver in +person his forgery to the Duke. Suspicious of his mask, they asked him +who he was and whence he came. + +“Say one who desires to remain unknown with a letter for the Duke of +Gandia which his magnificence will welcome.” + +Reluctantly, a chamberlain departed with his message. Anon he was +conducted above to the magnificent apartments which Gandia occupied +during his sojourn there. + +He found the Duke newly risen, and with him his brother, the +auburn-headed young Cardinal of Valencia, dressed in a close-fitting +suit of black, that displayed his lithe and gracefully athletic +proportions, and a cloak of scarlet silk to give a suggestion of his +ecclesiastical rank. + +Giovanni bowed low, and, thickening his voice that it might not be +recognized, announced himself and his mission in one. + +“From the lady of the rose,” said he, proffering the letter. + +Valencia stared a moment; then went off into a burst of laughter. +Gandia's face flamed and his eyes sparkled. He snatched the letter, +broke its seal, and consumed its contents. Then he flung away to a +table, took up a pen, and sat down to write; the tall Valencia watching +him with amused scorn a while, then crossing to his side and setting a +hand upon his shoulder. + +“You will never learn,” said the more subtle Cesare. “You must forever +be leaving traces where traces are not to be desired.” + +Gandia looked up into that keen, handsome young face. + +“You are right,” he said; and crumpled the letter in his hand. + +Then he looked at the messenger and hesitated. + +“I am in Madonna's confidence,” said the man in the mask. + +Gandia rose. “Then say--say that her letter has carried me to Heaven; +that I but await her commands to come in person to declare myself. But +bid her hasten, for within two weeks from now I go to Naples, and thence +I may return straight to Spain.” + +“The opportunity shall be found, Magnificent. Myself I shall bring you +word of it.” + +The Duke loaded him with thanks, and in his excessive gratitude pressed +upon him at parting a purse of fifty ducats, which Giovanni flung into +the Tiber some ten minutes later as he was crossing the Bridge of Sant' +Angelo on his homeward way. + +The Lord of Pesaro proceeded without haste. Delay and silence he knew +would make Gandia the more sharp-set, and your sharp-set, impatient +fellow is seldom cautious. Meanwhile, Antonia had mentioned to her +father that princely stranger who had stared so offendingly one evening, +and who for an hour on the following morning had haunted the street +beneath her window. Pico mentioned it to Giovanni, whereupon Giovanni +told him frankly who it was. + +“It was that libertine brother-in-law of mine, the Duke of Gandia,” he +said. “Had he persisted, I should have bidden you look to your daughter. +As it is, no doubt he has other things to think of. He is preparing +for his journey to Naples, to accompany his brother Cesare, who goes as +papal legate to crown Federigo of Aragon.” + +There he left the matter, and no more was heard of it until the night of +June 14th, the very eve of the departure of the Borgia princes upon that +mission. + +Cloaked and masked, Giovanni took his way to the Vatican at dusk that +evening, and desired to have himself announced to the Duke. But he was +met with the answer that the Duke was absent; that he had gone to take +leave of his mother and to sup at her villa in Trastevere. His return +was not expected until late. + +At first Giovanni feared that, in leaving the consummation of his plot +until the eleventh hour, he had left it too late. In his anxiety he at +once set out on foot, as he was, for the villa of Madonna Giovanna de +Catanei. He reached it towards ten o'clock that night, to be informed +that Gandia was there, at supper. The servant went to bear word to +the Duke that a man in a mask was asking to see him, a message which +instantly flung Gandia into agitation. Excitedly he commanded that the +man be brought to him at once. + +The Lord of Pesaro was conducted through the house and out into the +garden to an arbour of vine, where a rich table was spread in the +evening cool, lighted by alabaster lamps. About this table Giovanni +found a noble company of his own relations by marriage. There was +Gandia, who rose hurriedly at his approach, and came to meet him; there +was Cesare, Cardinal of Valencia, who was to go to Naples to-morrow as +papal legate, yet dressed tonight in cloth of gold, with no trace of his +churchly dignity about him; there was their younger brother Giuffredo, +Prince of Squillace, a handsome stripling, flanked by his wife, the +free-and-easy Donna Sancia of Aragon, swarthy, coarse-featured, and +fleshy, despite her youth; there was Giovanni's sometime wife; the +lovely, golden-headed Lucrezia, the innocent cause of all this hate that +festered in the Lord of Pesaro's soul; there was their mother, the nobly +handsome Giovanozza de Catanei, from whom the Borgias derived their +auburn heads; and there was their cousin, Giovanni Borgia, Cardinal of +Monreale, portly and scarlet, at Madonna's side. + +All turned to glance at this masked intruder who had the power so oddly +to excite their beloved Gandia. + +“From the lady of the rose,” Giovanni announced himself softly to the +Duke. + +“Yes, yes,” came the answer, feverishly impatient. “Well, what is your +message?” + +“To-night her father is from home. She will expect your magnificence at +midnight.” + +Gandia drew a deep breath. + +“By the Host! You are no more than in time. I had almost despaired, +my friend, my best of friends. To-night!” He pronounced the word +ecstatically. “Wait you here. Yourself you shall conduct me. Meanwhile, +go sup.” + +And beating his hands, he summoned attendants. + +Came the steward and a couple of Moorish slaves in green turbans, to +whose care the Duke commanded his masked visitor. But Giovanni neither +required nor desired their ministrations; he would not eat nor drink, +but contented himself with the patience of hatred to sit for two long +hours awaiting the pleasure of his foolish victim. + +They left at last, a little before midnight the Duke, his brother +Cesare, his cousin Monreale, and a numerous attendance, his own retinue +and those of the two cardinals. Thus they rode back to Rome, the Borgias +very gay, the man in the mask plodding along beside them. + +They came to the Rione de Ponte, where their ways were to separate, and +there, opposite the palace of the Cardinal Vice-Chancellor, Gandia drew +rein. He announced to the others that he went no farther with them, +summoned a single groom to attend him, and bade the remainder return to +the Vatican and await him there. + +There was a last jest and a laugh from Cesare as the cavalcade went on +towards the papal palace. Then Gandia turned to the man in the mask, +bade him get up on the crupper of his horse, and so rode slowly off +in the direction of the Giudecca, the single attendant he had retained +trotting beside his stirrup. + +Giovanni directed his brother-in-law, not to the main entrance of the +house, but to the garden gate, which opened upon a narrow alley. Here +they dismounted, flinging the reins to the groom, who was bidden to +wait. Giovanni produced a key, unlocked the door, and ushered the Duke +into the gloom of the garden. A stone staircase ran up to the loggia +on the mezzanine, and by this way was Gandia now conducted, treading +softly. His guide went ahead. He had provided himself with yet another +key, and so unlocked the door from the loggia which opened upon the +ante-room of Madonna Antonia. He held the door for the Duke, who +hesitated, seeing all in darkness. + +“In,” Giovanni bade him. “Tread softly. Madonna waits for you.” + +Recklessly, then, that unsuspecting fellow stepped into the trap. + +Giovanni followed, closed the door, and locked it. The Duke, standing +with quickened pulses in that impenetrable blackness, found himself +suddenly embraced, not at all after the fond fashion he was expecting. A +wrestler's arms enlaced his body, a sinewy leg coiled itself snake-wise +about one of his own, pulling it from under him. As he crashed down +under the weight of his unseen opponent, a great voice boomed out: + +“Lord of Mirandola! To me! Help! Thieves!” + +Suddenly a door opened. Light flooded the gloom, and the writhing Duke +beheld a white vision of the girl whose beauty had been the lure that +had drawn him into this peril which, as yet, he scarcely understood. But +looking up into the face of the man who grappled with him, the man who +held him there supine under his weight, he began at last to understand, +or, at least, to suspect, for the face he saw, unmasked now, leering at +him with hate unspeakable through the cloud of golden hair that half +met across it, was the face of Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, whom his +family had so cruelly wronged. Giovanni Sforza's was the voice that now +fiercely announced his doom. + +“You and yours have made me a thing of scorn and laughter. Yourself have +laughed at me. Go laugh in hell!” + +A blade flashed up in Giovanni's hand. Gandia threw up an arm to fend +his breast, and the blade buried itself in the muscles. He screamed with +pain and terror. The other laughed with hate and triumph, and stabbed +again, this time in the shoulder. + +Antonia, from the threshold, watching in bewilderment and panic, sent +a piercing scream to ring through the house, and then the voice of +Giovanni, fierce yet exultant, called aloud: + +“Pico! Pico! Lord of Mirandola! Look to your daughter!” + +Came steps and voice, more light, flooding now the chamber, and through +the mists gathering before his eyes the first-born of the house of +Borgia beheld hurrying men, half dressed, with weapons in their hands. +But whether they came to kill or to save, they came too late: Ten times +Giovanni's blade had stabbed the Duke, yet, hindered by the Duke's +struggles and by the effort of holding him there, he had been unable to +find his heart, wherefore, as those others entered now, he slashed his +victim across the throat, and so made an end. + +He rose, covered with blood, so ghastly and terrific that Pico, thinking +him wounded, ran to him. But Giovanni reassured him with a laugh, and +pointed with his dripping dagger. + +“The blood is his--foul Borgia blood!” + +At the name Pico started, and there was a movement as of fear from the +three grooms who followed him. The Count looked down at that splendid, +blood-spattered figure lying there so still, its sightless eyes +staring up at the frescoed ceiling, so brave and so pitiful in his +gold-broidered suit of white satin, with the richly jewelled girdle +carrying gloves and purse and a jewelled dagger that had been so useless +in that extremity. + +“Gandia” he cried; and looked at Giovanni with round eyes of fear and +amazement. “How came he here?” + +“How?” + +With bloody hand Giovanni pointed to the open door of Antonia's chamber. + +“That was the lure, my lord. Taking the air outside, I saw him slinking +hither, and took him for a thief, as, indeed, he was--a thief of honour, +like all his kind. I followed, and--there he lies.” + +“My God!” cried Pico. And then hoarsely asked, “And Antonia?” + +Giovanni dismissed the question abruptly. + +“She saw, yet she knows nothing.” + +And then on another note: + +“Up now, Pico!” he cried. “Arouse the city, and let all men know how +Gandia died the death of a thief. Let all men know this Borgia brood for +what it is.” + +“Are you mad?” cried Pico. “Will I put my neck under the knife?” + +“You took him here in the night, and yours was the right to kill. You +exercised it.” + +Pico looked long and searchingly into the other's face. True, all the +appearances bore out the tale, as did, too, what had gone before and +had been the cause of Antonia's complaint to him. Yet, knowing what lay +between Sforza and Borgia, it may have seemed to Pico too extraordinary +a coincidence that Giovanni should have been so ready at hand to defend +the honour of the House of Mirandola. But he asked no questions. He was +content in his philosophy to accept the event and be thankful for it on +every count. But as for Giovanni's suggestion that he should proclaim +through Rome how he had exercised his right to slay this Tarquin, the +Lord of Mirandola had no mind to adopt it. + +“What is done is done,” he said shortly, in a tone that conveyed much. +“Let it suffice us all. It but remains now to be rid of this.” + +“You will keep silent?” cried Giovanni, plainly vexed. + +“I am not a fool,” said Pico gently. + +Giovanni understood. “And these your men?” + +“Are very faithful friends who will aid you now to efface all traces.” + +And upon that he moved away, calling his daughter, whose absence was +intriguing him. Receiving no answer, he entered her room, to find her +in a swoon across her bed. She had fainted from sheer horror at what she +had seen. + +Followed by the three servants bearing the body, Giovanni went down +across the garden very gently. Approaching the gate, he bade them wait, +saying that he went to see that the coast was clear. Then, going forward +alone, he opened the gate and called softly to the waiting groom: + +“Hither to me!” + +Promptly the man surged before him in the gloom, and as promptly +Giovanni sank his dagger in the fellow's breast. He deplored the +necessity for the deed, but it was unavoidable, and your cinquecentist +never shrank from anything that necessity imposed upon him. To let the +lackey live would be to have the bargelli in the house by morning. + +The man sank with a half-uttered cry, and lay still. + +Giovanni dragged him aside under the shelter of the wall, where the +others would not see him, then called softly to them to follow. + +When the grooms emerged from Pico's garden, the Lord of Pesaro was +astride of the fine white horse on which Gandia had ridden to his death. + +“Put him across the crupper,” he bade them. + +And they so placed the body, the head dangling on one side, the legs on +the other. And Giovanni reflected grimly how he had reversed the order +in which Gandia and he had ridden that same horse an hour ago. + +At a walk they proceeded down the lane towards the river, a groom +on each side to see that the burden on the crupper did not jolt off, +another going ahead to scout. At the alley's mouth Giovanni drew rein, +and let the man emerge upon the river-bank and look to right and left to +make sure that there was no one about. + +He saw no one. Yet one there was who saw them--Giorgio, the timber +merchant, who lay aboard his boat moored to the Schiavoni, and who, +three days later, testified to what he saw. You know his testimony. It +has been repeated often--how he saw the man emerge from the alley and +look up and down, then retire, to emerge again, accompanied now by the +horseman with his burden, and the other two; how he saw them take the +body from the crupper of the horse, and, with a “one, two, and three,” + fling it into the river; how he heard the horseman ask them had they +thrown it well into the middle, and their answer of, “Yes my lord”; and +finally, when asked why he had not come earlier to report the matter, +how he had answered that he had thought nothing of it, having in his +time seen more than a hundred bodies flung into the Tiber at night. + +Returned to the garden gate, Giovanni bade the men go in without +him. There was something yet that he must do. When they had gone, he +dismounted, and went to the body of the groom which he had left under +the wall. He must remove that too. He cut one of the stirrup-leathers +from the saddle, and attaching one end of it to the dead man's arm, +mounted again, and dragged him thus--ready to leave the body and ride +off at the first alarm--some little way, until he came to the Piazza +della Giudecca. Here, in the very heart of the Jewish quarters, he left +the body, and his movements hereafter are a little obscure. Perhaps he +set out to return to Pico della Mirandola's house, but becoming, as was +natural, uneasy on the way, fearing lest all traces should, after all, +not have been effaced, lest the Duke should be traced to that house, and +himself, if found there, dealt with summarily upon suspicion, he +turned about, and went off to seek sanctuary with his uncle, the +Vice-Chancellor. + +The Duke's horse, which he had ridden, he turned loose in the streets, +where it was found some hours later, and first gave occasion to rumours +of foul play. The rumours growing, with the discovery of the body of +Gandia's groom, and search-parties of armed bargelli scouring Rome, and +the Giudecca in particular, in the course of the next two days, forth at +last came Giorgio, that boatman of the Schiavoni, with the tale of what +he had seen. When the stricken Pope heard it, he ordered the bed of the +river to be dragged foot by foot, with the result that the ill-starred +Duke of Gandia was brought up in one of the nets, whereupon the +heartless Sanazzaro coined his terrible epigram concerning that +successor of Saint Peter, that Fisherman of Men. + +The people, looking about for him who had the greatest motive for that +deed, were quick to fasten the guilt upon Giovanni Sforza, who by that +time was far from Rome, riding hard for the shelter of his tyranny of +Pesaro; and the Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, who was also mentioned, and +who feared to be implicated, apprehensive ever lest his page should have +seen the betraying arms upon the ring of his masked visitor--fled also, +nor could be induced to return save under a safe-conduct from the Holy +Father, expressing conviction of his innocence. + +Later public rumour accused others; indeed, they accused in turn every +man who could have been a possible perpetrator, attributing to some of +them the most fantastic and incredible motives. Once, prompted no doubt +by their knowledge of the libertine, pleasure-loving nature of the dead +Duke, rumour hit upon the actual circumstances of the murder so closely, +indeed, that the Count of Mirandola's house was visited by the bargelli +and subjected to an examination, at which Pico violently rebelled, +appealing boldly to the Pope against insinuations that reflected upon +the honour of his daughter. + +The mystery remained impenetrable, and the culprit was never brought to +justice. We know that in slaying Gandia, Giovanni Sforza vented a hatred +whose object was not Gandia, but Gandia's father. His aim was to deal +Pope Alexander the cruellest and most lingering of wounds, and if he +lacked the avenger's satisfaction of disclosing himself, at least he +did not lack assurance that his blow had stricken home. He heard--as all +Italy heard--from that wayfarer on the bridge of Sant' Angelo, how the +Pope, in a paroxysm of grief at sight of his son's body fished from the +Tiber, had bellowed in his agony like a tortured bull, so that his +cries within the castle were heard upon the bridge. He learnt how the +handsome, vigorous Pope staggered into the consistory of the 19th of +that same month with the mien and gait of a palsied old man, and, in a +voice broken with sobs, proclaimed his bitter lament: + +“Had we seven Papacies we would give them all to restore the Duke to +life.” + +He might have been content. But he was not. That deep hate of his +against those who had made him a thing of scorn was not so easily to be +slaked. He waited, spying his opportunity for further hurt. It came a +year later, when Gandia's brother, the ambitious Cesare Borgia, divested +himself of his cardinalitial robes and rank, exchanging them for +temporal dignities and the title of Duke of Valentinois. Then it was +that he took up the deadly weapon of calumny, putting it secretly about +that Cesare was the murderer of his brother, spurred to it by worldly +ambition and by other motives which involved the principal members of +the family. + +Men do not mount to Borgia heights without making enemies. The evil tale +was taken up in all its foul trappings, and, upon no better authority +than the public voice, it was enshrined in chronicles by every scribbler +of the day. And for four hundred years that lie has held its place in +history, the very cornerstone of all the execration that has been +heaped upon the name of Borgia. Never was vengeance more terrible, +far-reaching, and abiding. It is only in this twentieth century of ours +that dispassionate historians have nailed upon the counter of truth the +base coin of that accusation. + + + + + + +XII. THE NIGHT OF ESCAPE--Casanova's Escape From The Piombi + +Patrician influence from without had procured Casanova's removal in +August of that year, 1756, from the loathsome cell he had occupied +for thirteen months in the Piombi--so called from the leaded roof +immediately above those prisons which are simply the garrets of the +Doge's palace. + +That cell had been no better than a kennel seldom reached by the light +of day, and so shallow that it was impossible for a man of his fine +height to stand upright in it. But his present prison was comparatively +spacious and it was airy and well-lighted by a barred window, whence he +could see the Lido. + +Yet he was desperately chagrined at the change, for he had almost +completed his arrangements to break out of his former cell. The only ray +of hope in his present despair came from the fact that the implement to +which he trusted was still in his possession, safely concealed in the +upholstery of the armchair that had been moved with him into his present +quarters. That implement he had fashioned for himself with infinite +pains out of a door-bolt some twenty inches long, which he had found +discarded in a rubbish-heap in a corner of the attic where he had been +allowed to take his brief daily exercise. Using as a whetstone a small +slab of black marble, similarly acquired, he had shaped that bolt into a +sharp octagonal-pointed chisel or spontoon. + +It remained in his possession, but he saw no chance of using it now, for +the suspicions of Lorenzo, the gaoler, were aroused, and daily a couple +of archers came to sound the floors and walls. True they did not sound +the ceiling, which was low and within reach. But it was obviously +impossible to cut through the ceiling in such a manner as to leave the +progress of the work unseen. + +Hence his despair of breaking out of a prison where he had spent over a +year without trial or prospect of a trial, and where he seemed likely to +spend the remainder of his days. He did not even know precisely why +he had been arrested. All that Giacomo Casanova knew was that he +was accounted a disturber of the public peace. He was notoriously a +libertine, a gamester, and heavily in debt: also--and this was more +serious--he was accused of practising magic, as indeed he had done, as a +means of exploiting to his own profit the credulity of simpletons of all +degrees. He would have explained to the Inquisitors of State of the Most +Serene Republic that the books of magic found by their apparitors in +his possession--“The Clavicula of Solomon,” the “Zecor-ben,” and other +kindred works--had been collected by him as curious instances of human +aberration. But the Inquisitors of State would not have believed him, +for the Inquisitors were among those who took magic seriously. And, +anyhow, they had never asked him to explain, but had left him as if +forgotten in that abominable verminous cell under the leads, until his +patrician friend had obtained him the mercy of this transfer to better +quarters. + +This Casanova was a man of iron nerve and iron constitution. Tall and +well-made, he was boldly handsome, with fine dark eyes and dark brown +hair. In age he was barely one and twenty; but he looked older, as +well he might, for in his adventurer's way he had already gathered more +experience of life than most men gain in half a century. + +The same influence that had obtained him his change of cell had also +gained him latterly the privilege--and he esteemed it beyond all +else--of procuring himself books. Desiring the works of Maffai, he +bade his gaoler purchase them out of the allowance made him by the +Inquisitors in accordance with the Venetian custom. This allowance was +graduated to the social status of each prisoner. But the books being +costly and any monthly surplus from his monthly expenditure being +usually the gaoler's perquisite, Lorenzo was reluctant to indulge him. +He mentioned that there was a prisoner above who was well equipped with +books, and who, no doubt, would be glad to lend in exchange. + +Yielding to the suggestion, Casanova handed Lorenzo a copy of Peteau's +“Rationarium,” and received next morning, in exchange, the first volume +of Wolf. Within he found a sheet bearing in six verses a paraphrase of +Seneca's epigram, “Calamitosus est animus futuri anxius.” Immediately +he perceived he had stumbled upon a means of corresponding with one who +might be disposed to assist him to break prison. + +In reply, being a scholarly rascal (he had been educated for the +priesthood), he wrote six verses himself. Having no pen, he cut the long +nail of his little finger to a point, and, splitting it, supplied +the want. For ink he used the juice of mulberries. In addition to the +verses, he wrote a list of the books in his possession, which he placed +at the disposal of his fellow-captive. He concealed the written sheet in +the spine of that vellum-bound volume; and on the title-page, in warning +of this, he wrote the single Latin word “Latet.” Next morning he handed +the book to Lorenzo, telling him that he had read it, and requesting the +second volume. + +That second volume came on the next day, and in the spine of it a long +letter, some sheets of paper, pens, and a pencil. The writer announced +himself as one Marino Balbi, a patrician and a monk, who had been four +years in that prison, where he had since been given a companion in +misfortune, Count Andrea Asquino. + +Thus began a regular and very full correspondence between the prisoners, +and soon Casanova--who had not lived on his wits for nothing--was able +to form a shrewd estimate of Balbi's character. The monk's letters +revealed it as compounded of sensuality, stupidity, ingratitude, and +indiscretion. + +“In the world,” says Casanova, “I should have had no commerce with a +fellow of his nature. But in the Piombi I was obliged to make capital +out of everything that came under my hands.” + +The capital he desired to make in this instance was to ascertain whether +Balbi would be disposed to do for him what he could not do for himself. +He wrote inquiring, and proposing flight. + +Balbi replied that he and his companion would do anything possible to +make their escape from that abominable prison, but his lack of resource +made him add that he was convinced that nothing was possible. + +“All that you have to do,” wrote Casanova in answer, “is to break +through the ceiling of my cell and get me out of this, then trust to me +to get you out of the Piombi. If you are disposed to make the attempt, I +will supply you with the means, and show you the way.” + +It was a characteristically bold reply, revealing to us the utter +gamester that he was in all things. + +He knew that Balbi's cell was situated immediately under the leads, and +he hoped that once in it he should be able readily to find a way through +the roof. That cell of Balbi's communicated with a narrow corridor, +no more than a shaft for light and air, which was immediately above +Casanova's prison. And no sooner had Balbi written, consenting, than +Casanova explained what was to do. Balbi must break through the wall +of his cell into the little corridor, and there cut a round hole in the +floor precisely as Casanova had done in his former cell--until nothing +but a shell of ceiling remained--a shell that could be broken down by +half a dozen blows when the moment to escape should have arrived. + +To begin with, he ordered Balbi to purchase himself two or three dozen +pictures of saints, with which to paper his walls, using as many as +might be necessary for a screen to hide the hole he would be cutting. + +When Balbi wrote that his walls were hung with pictures of saints, it +became a question of conveying the spontoon to him. This was difficult, +and the monk's fatuous suggestions merely served further to reveal his +stupidity. Finally Casanova's wits found the way. He bade Lorenzo buy +him an in-folio edition of the Bible which had just been published, and +it was into the spine of this enormous tome that he packed the precious +spontoon, and thus conveyed it to Balbi, who immediately got to work. + +This was at the commencement of October. On the 8th of that month Balbi +wrote to Casanova that a whole night devoted to labour had resulted +merely in the displacing of a single brick, which so discouraged the +faint-hearted monk that he was for abandoning an attempt whose +only result must be to increase in the future the rigour of their +confinement. + +Without hesitation, Casanova replied that he was assured of +success--although he was far from having any grounds for any such +assurance. He enjoined the monk to believe him, and to persevere, +confident that as he advanced he would find progress easier. This +proved, indeed, to be the case, for soon Balbi found the brickwork +yielding so rapidly to his efforts that one morning, a week later, +Casanova heard three light taps above his head--the preconcerted signal +by which they were to assure themselves that their notions of the +topography of the prison were correct. + +All that day he heard Balbi at work immediately above him, and again on +the morrow, when Balbi wrote that as the floor was of the thickness of +only two boards, he counted upon completing the job on the next day, +without piercing the ceiling. + +But it would seem as if Fortune were intent upon making a mock of +Casanova, luring him to heights of hope, merely to cast him down again +into the depths of despair. Just as upon the eve of breaking out of his +former cell mischance had thwarted him, so now, when again he deemed +himself upon the very threshold of liberty, came mischance again to +thwart him. + +Early in the afternoon the sound of bolts being drawn outside froze his +very blood and checked his breathing. Yet he had the presence of mind to +give the double knock that was the agreed alarm signal, whereupon Balbi +instantly desisted from his labours overhead. + +Came Lorenzo with two archers, leading an ugly, lean little man of +between forty and fifty years of age, shabbily dressed and wearing a +round black wig, whom the tribunal had ordered should share Casanova's +prison for the present. With apologies for leaving such a scoundrel in +Casanova's company, Lorenzo departed, and the newcomer went down upon +his knees, drew forth a chaplet, and began to tell his beads. + +Casanova surveyed this intruder at once with disgust and despair. +Presently his disgust was increased when the fellow, whose name was +Soradici, frankly avowed himself a spy in the service of the Council +of Ten, a calling which he warmly defended from the contempt +universally--but unjustly, according to himself--meted out to it. He had +been imprisoned for having failed in his duty on one occasion through +succumbing to a bribe. + +Conceive Casanova's frame of mind--his uncertainty as to how long this +monster, as he calls him, might be left in his company, his curbed +impatience to regain his liberty, and his consciousness of the horrible +risk of discovery which delay entailed! He wrote to Balbi that +night while the spy slept, and for the present their operations were +suspended. But not for very long. Soon Casanova's wits resolved how to +turn to account the weakness which he discovered in Soradici. + +The spy was devout to the point of bigoted, credulous superstition. He +spent long hours in prayer, and he talked freely of his special devotion +to the Blessed Virgin, and his ardent faith in miracles. + +Casanova--the arch-humbug who had worked magic to delude the +credulous--determined there and then to work a miracle for Soradici. +Assuming an inspired air, he solemnly informed the spy one morning that +it had been revealed to him in a dream that Soradici's devotion to +the Rosary was about to be rewarded; that an angel was to be sent from +heaven to deliver him from prison, and that Casanova himself would +accompany him in his flight. + +If Soradici doubted, conviction was soon to follow. For Casanova +foretold the very hour at which the angel would come to break into the +prison, and at that hour precisely--Casanova having warned Balbi--the +noise made by the angel overhead flung Soradici into an ecstasy of +terror. + +But when, at the end of four hours, the angel desisted from his labours, +Soradici was beset by doubts. Casanova explained to him that since +angels invariably put on the garb of human flesh when descending upon +earth, they labour under human difficulties. He added the prophecy that +the angel would return on the last day of the month, the eve of All +Saints'--two days later--and that he would then conduct them out of +captivity. + +By this means Casanova ensured that no betrayal should be feared from +the thoroughly duped Soradici, who now spent the time in praying, +weeping, and talking of his sins and of the inexhaustibility of divine +grace. To make doubly sure, Casanova added the most terrible oath that +if, by a word to the gaoler, Soradici should presume to frustrate the +divine intentions, he would immediately strangle him with his own hands. + +On October 31st Lorenzo paid his usual daily visit early in the morning. +After his departure they waited some hours, Soradici in expectant +terror, Casanova in sheer impatience to be at work. Promptly at noon +fell heavy blows overhead, and then, in a cloud of plaster and broken +laths, the heavenly messenger descended clumsily into Casanova's arms. + +Soradici found this tall, gaunt, bearded figure, clad in a dirty shirt +and a pair of leather breeches, of a singularly unangelic appearance; +indeed, he looked far more like a devil. + +When he produced a pair of scissors, so that the spy might cut +Casanova's beard, which, like the angel's, had grown in captivity, +Soradici ceased to have any illusions on the score of Balbi's celestial +nature. Although still intrigued--since he could not guess at the secret +correspondence that had passed between Casanova and Balbi--he perceived +quite clearly that he had been fooled. + +Leaving Soradici in the monk's care, Casanova hoisted himself through +the broken ceiling and gained Balbi's cell, where the sight of Count +Asquino dismayed him. He found a middle-aged man of a corpulence which +must render it impossible for him to face the athletic difficulties that +lay before them; of this the Count himself seemed already persuaded. + +“If you think,” was his greeting, as he shook Casanova's hand, “to break +through the roof and find a way down from the leads, I don't see how you +are to succeed without wings. I have not the courage to accompany you,” + he added, “I shall remain and pray for you.” + +Attempting no persuasions where they must have been idle, Casanova +passed out of the cell again, and approaching as nearly as possible to +the edge of the attic, he sat down where he could touch the roof as +it sloped immediately above his head. With his spontoon he tested the +timbers, and found them so decayed that they almost crumbled at the +touch. Assured thereby that the cutting of a hole would be an easy +matter, he at once returned to his cell, and there he spent the ensuing +four hours in preparing ropes. He cut up sheets, blankets, coverlets, +and the very cover of his mattress, knotting the strips together with +the utmost care. In the end he found himself equipped with some two +hundred yards of rope, which should be ample for any purpose. + +Having made a bundle of the fine taffeta suit in which he had been +arrested, his gay cloak of floss silk, some stockings, shirts, and +handkerchiefs, he and Balbi passed up to the other cell, compelling +Soradici to go with them. Leaving the monk to make a parcel of his +belongings, Casanova went to tackle the roof. By dusk he had made a hole +twice as large as was necessary, and had laid bare the lead sheeting +with which the roof was covered. Unable, single-handed, to raise one of +the sheets, he called Balbi to his aid, and between them, assisted by +the spontoon, which Casanova inserted between the edge of the sheet and +the gutter, they at last succeeded in tearing away the rivets. Then by +putting their shoulders to the lead they bent it upwards until there was +room to emerge, and a view of the sky flooded by the vivid light of the +crescent moon. + +Not daring in that light to venture upon the roof, where they would be +seen, they must wait with what patience they could until midnight, when +the moon would have set. So they returned to the cell where they had +left Soradici with Count Asquino. + +From Balbi, Casanova had learnt that Asquino, though well supplied with +money, was of an avaricious nature. Nevertheless, since money would be +necessary, Casanova asked the Count for the loan of thirty gold sequins. +Asquino answered him gently that, in the first place, they would not +need money to escape; that, in the second, he had a numerous family; +that, in the third, if Casanova perished the money would be lost; and +that, in the fourth, he had no money. + +“My reply,” writes Casanova, “lasted half an hour.” + +“Let me remind you,” he said in concluding his exhortation, “of your +promise to pray for us, and let me ask you what sense there can be +in praying for the success of an enterprise to which you refuse to +contribute the most necessary means.” + +The old man was so far conquered by Casanova's eloquence that he offered +him two sequins, which Casanova accepted, since he was not in case to +refuse anything. + +Thereafter, as they sat waiting for the moon to set, Casanova found his +earlier estimate of the monk's character confirmed. Balbi now broke into +abusive reproaches. He found that Casanova had acted in bad faith +by assuring him that he had formed a complete plan of escape. Had he +suspected that this was a mere gambler's throw on Casanova's part, he +would never have laboured to get him out of his cell. The Count added +his advice that they should abandon an attempt foredoomed to failure, +and, being concerned for the two sequins with which he had so +reluctantly parted, he argued the case at great length. Stifling his +disgust, Casanova assured them that, although it was impossible for him +to afford them details of how he intended to proceed, he was perfectly +confident of success. + +At half-past ten he sent Soradici--who had remained silent +throughout--to report upon the night. The spy brought word that in +another hour or so the moon would have set, but that a thick mist was +rising, which must render the leads very dangerous. + +“So long as the mist isn't made of oil, I am content,” said Casanova. +“Come, make a bundle of your cloak. It is time we were moving.” + +But at this Soradici fell on his knees in the dark, seized Casanova's +hands, and begged to be left behind to pray for their safety, since he +would be sure to meet his death if he attempted to go with them. + +Casanova assented readily, delighted to be rid of the fellow. Then in +the dark he wrote as best he could a quite characteristic letter to the +Inquisitors of State, in which he took his leave of them, telling them +that since he had been fetched into the prison without his wishes +being consulted, they could not complain that he should depart without +consulting theirs. + +The bundle containing Balbi's clothes, and another made up of half the +rope, he slung from the monk's neck, thereafter doing the same in his +own case. Then, in their shirt-sleeves, their hats on their heads, the +pair of them started on their perilous journey, leaving Count Asquino +and Soradici to pray for them. + +Casanova went first, on all fours, and thrusting the point of his +spontoon between the joints of the lead sheeting so as to obtain a hold, +he crawled slowly upwards. To follow, Balbi took a grip of Casanova's +belt with his right hand, so that, in addition to making his own way, +Casanova was compelled to drag the weight of his companion after him, +and this up the sharp gradient of a roof rendered slippery by the mist. + +Midway in that laborious ascent, the monk called to him to stop. He had +dropped the bundle containing the clothes, and he hoped that it had not +rolled beyond the gutter, though he did not mention which of them should +retrieve it. After the unreasonableness already endured from this man, +Casanova's exasperation was such in that moment that, he confesses, he +was tempted to kick him after this bundle. Controlling himself, however, +he answered patiently that the matter could not now be helped, and kept +steadily amain. + +At last the apex of the roof was reached, and they got astride of it +to breathe and to take a survey of their surroundings. They faced the +several cupolas of the Church of Saint Mark, which is connected with +the ducal palace, being, in fact, no more than the private chapel of the +Doge. + +They set down their bundles, and, of course, in the act of doing so +the wretched Balbi must lose his hat, and send it rolling down the roof +after the bundle he had already lost. He cried out that it was an evil +omen. + +“On the contrary,” Casanova assured him patiently, “it is a sign of +divine protection; for if your bundle or your hat had happened to +roll to the left instead of the right it would have fallen into the +courtyard, where it would be seen by the guards, who must conclude that +some one is moving on the roof, and so, no doubt, would have discovered +us. As it is your hat has followed your bundle into the canal, where it +can do no harm.” + +Thereupon, bidding the monk await his return, Casanova set off alone on +a voyage of discovery, keeping for the present astride of the roof in +his progress. He spent a full hour wandering along the vast roof, going +to right and to left in his quest, but failing completely to make any +helpful discovery, or to find anything to which he could attach a rope. +In the end it began to look as if, after all, he must choose between +returning to prison and flinging himself from the roof into the canal. +He was almost in despair, when in his wanderings his attention was +caught by a dormer window on the canal side, about two-thirds of the way +down the slope of the roof. With infinite precaution he lowered himself +down the steep, slippery incline until he was astride of the little +dormer roof. Leaning well forward, he discovered that a slender grating +barred the leaded panes of the window itself, and for a moment this +grating gave him pause. + +Midnight boomed just then from the Church of Saint Mark, like a reminder +that but seven hours remained in which to conquer this and further +difficulties that might confront him, and in which to win clear of +that place, or else submit to a resumption of his imprisonment under +conditions, no doubt, a hundredfold more rigorous. + +Lying flat on his stomach, and hanging far over, so as to see what he +was doing, he worked one point of his spontoon into the sash of the +grating, and, levering outwards, he strained until at last it came away +completely in his hands. After that it was an easy matter to shatter the +little latticed window. + +Having accomplished so much, he turned, and, using his spontoon as +before, he crawled back to the summit of the roof, and made his way +rapidly along this to the spot where he had left Balbi. The monk, +reduced by now to a state of blending despair, terror, and rage, greeted +Casanova in terms of the grossest abuse for having left him there so +long. + +“I was waiting only for daylight,” he concluded, “to return to prison.” + +“What did you think had become of me?” asked Casanova. + +“I imagined that you had tumbled off the roof.” + +“And is this abuse the expression of your joy at finding yourself +mistaken?” + +“Where have you been all this time?” the monk counter-questioned +sullenly. + +“Come with me and you shall see.” + +And taking up his bundle again, Casanova led his companion forward until +they were in line with the dormer. There Casanova showed him what he +had done, and consulted him as to the means to be adopted to enter the +attic. It would be too risky for them to allow themselves to drop from +the sill, since the height of the window from the floor was unknown to +them, and might be considerable. It would be easy for one of them to +lower the other by means of the rope. But it was not apparent how, +hereafter, the other was to follow. Thus reasoned Casanova. + +“You had better lower me, anyhow,” said Balbi, without hesitation; for +no doubt he was very tired of that slippery roof, on which a single +false step might have sent him to his account. “Once I am inside you can +consider ways of following me.” + +That cold-blooded expression of the fellow's egoism put Casanova in +a rage for the second time since they had left their prison. But, as +before, he conquered it, and without uttering a word he proceeded to +unfasten the coil of rope. Making one end of it secure under Balbi's +arms, he bade the monk lie prone upon the roof, his feet pointing +downwards, and then, paying out rope, he lowered him to the dormer. He +then bade him get through the window as far as the level of his waist, +and wait thus, hanging over and supporting himself upon the sill. When +he had obeyed, Casanova followed, sliding carefully down to the roof of +the dormer. Planting himself firmly, and taking the rope once more, he +bade Balbi to let himself go without fear, and so lowered him to the +floor--a height from the window, as it proved, of some fifty feet. This +extinguished all Casanova's hopes of being able to follow by allowing +himself to drop from the sill. He was dismayed. But the monk, happy to +find himself at last off that accursed roof, and out of all danger of +breaking his neck, called foolishly to Casanova to throw him the rope so +that he might take care of it. + +“As may be imagined,” says Casanova, “I was careful not to take this +idiotic advice.” + +Not knowing now what was to become of him unless he could discover some +other means than those at his command, he climbed back again to the +summit of the roof, and started off desperately upon another voyage of +discovery. This time he succeeded better than before. He found about a +cupola a terrace which he had not earlier noticed, and on this terrace +a hod of plaster, a trowel, and a ladder some seventy feet long. He +saw his difficulties solved. He passed an end of rope about one of the +rungs, laid the ladder flat along the slope of the roof, and then, still +astride of the apex, he worked his way back, dragging the ladder with +him, until he was once more on a level with the dormer. + +But now the difficulty was how to get the ladder through the window, +and he had cause to repent having so hastily deprived himself of his +companion's assistance. He had got the ladder into position, and lowered +it until one of its ends rested upon the dormer, whilst the other +projected some twenty feet beyond the edge of the roof. He slid down +to the dormer, and placing the ladder beside him, drew it up so that he +could reach the eighth rung. To this rung he made fast his rope, then +lowered the ladder again until the upper end of it was in line with +the window through which he sought to introduce it. But he found it +impossible to do so beyond the fifth rung, for at this point the end of +the ladder came in contact with the roof inside, and could be pushed no +farther until it was inclined downward. Now, the only possible way to +accomplish this was by raising the other end. + +It occurred to him that he might, by so attaching the rope as to bring +the ladder across the window frame, lower himself hand over hand to the +floor of the attic. But in so doing he must have left the ladder there +to show their pursuers in the morning, not merely the way they had gone, +but for all he knew at this stage, the place where they might then be +still in hiding. Having come so far, at so much risk and labour, he was +determined to leave nothing to chance. To accomplish his object then, he +made his way down to the very edge of the roof, sliding carefully on +his stomach until his feet found support against the marble gutter, the +ladder meanwhile remaining hooked by one of its rungs to the sill of the +dormer. + +In that perilous position he lifted his end of the ladder a few inches, +and so contrived to thrust it another foot or so through the window, +whereby its weight was considerably diminished. If he could but get it +another couple of feet farther in he was sure that by returning to the +dormer he would have been able to complete the job. In his anxiety to do +this and to obtain the necessary elevation, he raised himself upon his +knees. + +But in the very act of making the thrust he slipped, and, clutching +wildly as he went, he shot over the edge of the roof. He found himself +hanging there, suspended above that terrific abyss by his hands and his +elbows, which had convulsively hooked themselves on to the edge of the +gutter, so that he had it on a level with his breast. + +It was a moment of dread the like of which he was never likely to +endure again in a life that was to know many perils and many hairbreadth +escapes. He could not write of it nearly half a century later without +shuddering and growing sick with horror. + +A moment he hung there gasping, then almost mechanically, guided by +the sheer instinct of self-preservation, he not merely attempted, but +actually succeeded in raising himself so as to bring his side against +the gutter. Then continuing gradually to raise himself until his waist +was on a level with the edge, he threw the weight of his trunk forward +upon the roof, and slowly brought his right leg up until he had obtained +with his knee a further grip of the gutter. The rest was easy, and +you may conceive him as he lay there on the roof's edge, panting and +shuddering for a moment to regain his breath and nerve. + +Meanwhile, the ladder, driven forward by the thrust that had so nearly +cost him his life, had penetrated another three feet through the window, +and hung there immovable. Recovered, he took up his spontoon, which he +had placed in the gutter, and, assisted by it, he climbed back to +the dormer. Almost without further difficulty, he succeeded now in +introducing the ladder until, of its own weight, it swung down into +position. + +A moment later he had joined Balbi in the attic, and together they +groped about in the dark, until finding presently a door, they passed +into another chamber, where they discovered furniture by hurtling +against it. Guided by a faint glimmer of light, Casanova made his way to +one of the windows and opened it. He looked out upon a black abyss, and, +having no knowledge of the locality, and no inclination to adventure +himself into unknown regions, he immediately abandoned all idea of +attempting to climb down. He closed the window again, and going back to +the other room, he lay down on the floor, with the bundle of ropes for a +pillow, to wait for dawn. + +And so exhausted was he, not only by the efforts of the past hours, and +the terrible experience in which they had culminated, but also because +in the last two days he had scarcely eaten or slept, that straightway, +and greatly to Balbi's indignation and disgust, he fell into a profound +sleep. + +He was aroused three and a half hours later by the clamours and shakings +of the exasperated monk. Protesting that such a sleep at such a time was +a thing inconceivable, Balbi informed him that it had just struck five. + +It was still dark, but already there was a dim grey glimmer of dawn +by which objects could be faintly discerned. Searching, Casanova +found another door opposite that of the chamber which they had entered +earlier. It was locked, but the lock was a poor one that yielded to half +a dozen blows of the spontoon, and they passed into a little room +beyond which by an open door they came into a long gallery lined with +pigeon-holes stuffed with parchments, which they conceived to be the +archives. At the end of this gallery they found a short flight of +stairs, and below that yet another, which brought them to a glass door. +Opening this, they entered a room which Casanova immediately identified +as the ducal chancellery. Descent from one of its windows would have +been easy, but they would have found themselves in the labyrinth of +courts and alleys behind Saint Mark's, which would not have suited them +at all. + +On a table Casanova found a stout bodkin with a long wooden handle, the +implement used by the secretaries for piercing parchments that were to +be joined by a cord bearing the leaden seals of the Republic. He opened +a desk, and rummaging in it, found a letter addressed to the Proveditor +of Corfu, advising a remittance of three thousand sequins for the +repair of the fortress. He rummaged further, seeking the three thousand +sequins, which he would have appropriated without the least scruple. +Unfortunately they were not there. + +Quitting the desk, he crossed to the door, not merely to find it locked, +but to discover that it was not the kind of lock that would yield to +blows. There was no way out but by battering away one of the panels, and +to this he addressed himself without hesitation, assisted by Balbi, who +had armed himself with the bodkin, but who trembled fearfully at the +noise of Casanova's blows. There was danger in this, but the danger must +be braved, for time was slipping away. In half an hour they had broken +down all the panel it was possible to remove without the help of a saw. +The opening they had made was at a height of five feet from the ground, +and the splintered woodwork armed it with a fearful array of jagged +teeth. + +They dragged a couple of stools to the door, and getting on to these, +Casanova bade Balbi go first. The long, lean monk folded his arms, and +thrust head and shoulders through the hole; then Casanova lifted him, +first by the waist, then by the legs, and so helped him through into the +room beyond. Casanova threw their bundles after him, and then placing a +third stool on top of the other two, climbed on to it, and, being almost +on a level with the opening, was able to get through as far as his +waist, when Balbi took him in his arms and proceeded to drag him out. +But it was done at the cost of torn breeches and lacerated legs, and +when he stood up in the room beyond he was bleeding freely from the +wounds which the jagged edges of the wood had dealt him. + +After that they went down two staircases, and came out at last in the +gallery leading to the great doors at the head of that magnificent +flight of steps known as the Giant's Staircase. But these doors--the +main entrance of the palace--were locked, and, at a glance, Casanova saw +that nothing short of a hatchet would serve to open them. There was no +more to be done. + +With a resignation that seemed to Balbi entirely cynical, Casanova sat +down on the floor. + +“My task is ended,” he announced. “It is now for Heaven or Chance to do +the rest. I don't know whether the palace cleaners will come here to-day +as it is All Saints', or to-morrow, which will be All Souls'. Should any +one come, I shall run for it the moment the door is opened, and you had +best follow me. If no one comes, I shall not move from here, and if I +die of hunger, so much the worse.” + +It was a speech that flung the monk into a passion. In burning terms he +reviled Casanova, calling him a madman, a seducer, a deceiver, a liar. +Casanova let him rave. It was just striking six. Precisely an hour had +elapsed since they had left the attic. + +Balbi, in his red flannel waistcoat and his puce-coloured leather +breeches, might have passed for a peasant; but Casanova, in torn +garments that were soaked in blood, presented an appearance that was +terrifying and suspicious. This he proceeded to repair. Tearing a +handkerchief, he made shift to bandage his wounds, and then from his +bundle he took his fine taffeta summer suit, which on a winter's day +must render him ridiculous. + +He dressed his thick, dark brown hair as best he could, drew on a pair +of white stockings, and donned three lace shirts one over another. His +fine cloak of floss silk he gave to Balbi, who looked for all the world +as if he had stolen it. + +Thus dressed, his fine hat laced with point of Spain on his head, +Casanova opened a window and looked out. At once he was seen by some +idlers in the courtyard, who, amazed at his appearance there, and +conceiving that he must have been locked in by mistake on the previous +day, went off at once to advise the porter. Meanwhile, Casanova, vexed +at having shown himself where he had not expected any one, and little +guessing how excellently this was to serve his ends, left the window +and went to sit beside the angry friar, who greeted him with fresh +revilings. + +A sound of steps and a rattle of keys stemmed Balbi's reproaches in full +flow. The lock groaned. + +“Not a word,” said Casanova to the monk, “but follow me.” + +Holding his spontoon ready, but concealed under his coat, he stepped to +the side of the door. It opened, and the porter, who had come alone +and bareheaded, stared in stupefaction at the strange apparition of +Casanova. + +Casanova took advantage of that paralyzing amazement. Without uttering a +word, he stepped quickly across the threshold, and with Balbi close upon +his heels, he went down the Giant's Staircase in a flash, crossed the +little square, reached the canal, bundled Balbi into the first gondola +he found there, and jumped in after him. + +“I want to go to Fusine, and quickly,” he announced. “Call another +oarsman.” + +All was ready, and in a moment the gondola was skimming the canal. +Dressed in his unseasonable suit, and accompanied by the still more +ridiculous figure of Balbi in his gaudy cloak and without a hat, he +imagined he would be taken for a charlatan or an astrologer. + +The gondola slipped past the custom-house, and took the canal of the +Giudecca. Halfway down this, Casanova put his head out of the little +cabin to address the gondolier in the poop. + +“Do you think we shall reach Mestre in an hour?” + +“Mestre?” quoth the gondolier. “But you said Fusine.” + +“No, no, I said Mestre--at least, I intended to say Mestre.” + +And so the gondola was headed for Mestre by a gondolier who professed +himself ready to convey his excellency to England if he desired it. + +The sun was rising, and the water assumed an opalescent hue. It was a +delicious morning, Casanova tells us, and I suspect that never had any +morning seemed to that audacious, amiable rascal as delicious as this +upon which he regained his liberty, which no man ever valued more +highly. + +In spirit he was already safely over the frontiers of the Most Serene +Republic, impatient to transfer his body thither, as he shortly did, +through vicissitudes that are a narrative in themselves, and no part of +this story of his escape from the Piombi and the Venetian Inquisitors of +State. + + + + + + +XIII. THE NIGHT OF MASQUERADE--The Assassination Of Gustavus III Of +Sweden + +Baron Bjelke sprang from his carriage almost before it had come to a +standstill and without waiting for the footman to let down the steps. +With a haste entirely foreign to a person of his station and importance, +he swept into the great vestibule of the palace, and in a quivering +voice flung a question at the first lackey he encountered: + +“Has His Majesty started yet?” + +“Not yet, my lord.” + +The answer lessened his haste, but not his agitation. He cast off the +heavy wolfskin pelisse in which he had been wrapped, and, leaving it in +the hands of the servant, went briskly up the grand staircase, a tall, +youthful figure, very graceful in the suit of black he wore. + +As he passed through a succession of ante-rooms on his way to the +private apartments of the King, those present observed the pallor of his +clean-cut face under the auburn tie-wig he affected, and the feverish +glow of eyes that took account of no one. They could not guess that +Baron Bjelke, the King's secretary and favourite, carried in his hands +the life of his royal master, or its equivalent in the shape of the +secret of the plot to assassinate him. + +In many ways Bjelke was no better than the other profligate minions of +the profligate Gustavus of Sweden. But he had this advantage over them, +that his intellect was above their average. He had detected the first +signs of the approach of that storm which the King himself had so +heedlessly provoked. He knew, as much by reason as by intuition, that, +in these days when the neighbouring State of France writhed in the +throes of a terrific revolution against monarchic and aristocratic +tyranny, it was not safe for a king to persist in the abuse of his +parasitic power. New ideas of socialism were in the air. They were +spreading through Europe, and it was not only in France that men +accounted it an infamous anachronism that the great mass of a community +should toil and sweat and suffer for the benefit of an insolent +minority. + +Already had there been trouble with the peasantry in Sweden, and Bjelke +had endangered his position as a royal favourite by presuming to warn +his master. Gustavus III desired amusement, not wisdom, from those +about him. He could not be brought to realize the responsibilities which +kingship imposes upon a man. It has been pretended that he was endowed +with great gifts of mind. He may have been, though the thing has been +pretended of so many princes that one may be sceptical where evidence +is lacking. If he possessed those gifts, he succeeded wonderfully in +concealing them under a nature that was frivolously gay, dissolute, and +extravagant. + +His extravagance forced him into monstrous extortions when only a +madman would have wasted in profligacy the wealth so cruelly wrung from +long-suffering subjects. From extortion he was driven by his desperate +need of money into flagrant dishonesty. At a stroke of the pen he had +reduced the value of the paper currency by one-third--a reduction so +violent and sudden that, whilst it impoverished many, it involved +some in absolute ruin--and this that he might gratify his appetite +for magnificence and enrich the rapacious favourites who shared his +profligacy. + +The unrest in the kingdom spread. It was no longer a question of the +resentment of a more or less docile peasantry whose first stirrings of +revolt were easily quelled. The lesser nobility of Sweden were angered +by a measure--following upon so many others--that bore peculiarly +heavily upon themselves; and out of that anger, fanned by one man--John +Jacob Ankarstrom--who had felt the vindictive spirit of royal injustice, +flamed in secret the conspiracy against the King's life which Bjelke had +discovered. + +He had discovered it by the perilous course of joining the conspirators. +He had won their confidence, and they recognized that his collaboration +was rendered invaluable by the position he held so near the King. And +in his subtle wisdom, at considerable danger to himself, Bjelke had kept +his counsel. He had waited until now, until the moment when the blow was +about to fall, before making the disclosure which should not only save +Gustavus, but enable him to cast a net in which all the plotters must be +caught. And he hoped that when Gustavus perceived the narrowness of his +escape, and the reality of the dangers amid which he walked, he would +consider the wisdom of taking another course in future. + +He had reached the door of the last ante-chamber, when a detaining +hand was laid upon his arm. He found himself accosted by a page--the +offspring of one of the noblest families in Sweden, and the son of one +of Bjelke's closest friends, a fair-haired, impudent boy to whom the +secretary permitted a certain familiarity. + +“Are you on your way to the King, Baron?” the lad inquired. + +“I am, Carl. What is it?” + +“A letter for His Majesty--a note fragrant as a midsummer rose--which a +servant has just delivered to me. Will you take it?” + +“Give it to me, impudence,” said Bjelke, the ghost of a smile lighting +for a moment his white face. + +He took the letter and passed on into the last antechamber, which was +empty of all but a single chamberlain-in-waiting. This chamberlain bowed +respectfully to the Baron. + +“His Majesty?” said Bjelke. + +“He is dressing. Shall I announce Your Excellency?” + +“Pray do.” + +The chamberlain vanished, and Bjelke was left alone. Waiting, he stood +there, idly fingering the scented note he had received from the page. +As he turned it in his fingers the superscription came uppermost, and +he turned it no more. His eyes lost their absorbed look, their glance +quickened into attention, a frown shaped itself between them like a +scar; his breathing, suspended a moment, was renewed with a gasp. He +stepped aside to a table bearing a score of candles clustered in a +massive silver branch, and held the note so that the light fell full +upon the writing. + +Standing thus, he passed a hand over his eyes and stared again, two +hectic spots burning now in his white cheeks. Abruptly, disregarding +the superscription, his trembling fingers snapped the blank seal and +unfolded the letter addressed to his royal master. He was still reading +when the chamberlain returned to announce that the King was pleased to +see the Baron at once. He did not seem to hear the announcement. His +attention was all upon the letter, his lips drawn back from his teeth in +a grin, and beads of perspiration glistening upon his brow. + +“His Majesty--” the chamberlain was beginning to repeat, when he broke +off suddenly. “Your Excellency is ill?” + +“Ill?” + +Bjelke stared at him with glassy eyes. He crumpled the letter in his +hand and stuffed one and the other into the pocket of his black satin +coat. He attempted to laugh to reassure the startled chamberlain, and +achieved a ghastly grimace. + +“I must not keep His Majesty waiting,” he said thickly, and stumbled +on, leaving in the chamberlain's mind a suspicion that His Majesty's +secretary was not quite sober. + +But Bjelke so far conquered his emotion that he was almost his usual +imperturbable self when he reached the royal dressing-room; indeed, he +no longer displayed even the agitation that had possessed him when first +he entered the palace. + +Gustavus, a slight, handsome man of a good height, was standing before +a cheval-glass when Bjelke came in. Francois, the priceless valet +His Majesty had brought back from his last pleasure-seeking visit +to pre-revolutionary Paris some five years ago, was standing back +judicially to consider the domino he had just placed upon the royal +shoulders. Baron Armfelt whom the conspirators accused of wielding the +most sinister of all the sinister influences that perverted the King's +mind--dressed from head to foot in shimmering white satin, lounged on a +divan with all the easy familiarity permitted to this most intimate of +courtiers, the associate of all royal follies. + +Gustavus looked over his shoulder as he entered. + +“Why, Bjelke,” he exclaimed, “I thought you had gone into the country!” + +“I am at a loss,” replied Bjelke, “to imagine what should have given +Your Majesty so mistaken an impression.” And he might have smiled +inwardly to observe how his words seemed to put Gustavus out of +countenance. + +The King laughed, nevertheless, with an affectation of ease. + +“I inferred it from your absence from Court on such a night. What has +been keeping you?” But, without waiting for an answer, he fired another +question. “What do you say to my domino, Bjelke?” + +It was a garment embroidered upon a black satin ground with tongues of +flame so cunningly wrought in mingling threads of scarlet and gold that +as he turned about now they flashed in the candlelight, and seemed to +leap like tongues of living fire. + +“Your Majesty will have a great success,” said Bjelke, and to himself +relished the full grimness of his joke. For a terrible joke it was, +seeing that he no longer intended to discharge the errand which had +brought him in such haste to the palace. + +“Faith, I deserve it!” was the flippant answer, and he turned again to +the mirror to adjust a patch on the left side of his chin. “There is +genius in this domino, and it is not the genius of Francois, for the +scheme of flames is my very own, the fruit of a deal of thought and +study.” + +There Gustavus uttered his whole character. As a master of the revels, +or an opera impresario, this royal rake would have been a complete +success in life. The pity of it was that the accident of birth should +have robed him in the royal purple. Like many another prince who has +come to a violent end, he was born to the wrong metier. + +“I derived the notion,” he continued, “from a sanbenito in a Goya +picture.” + +“An ominous garb,” said Bjelke, smiling curiously. “The garment of the +sinner on his way to penitential doom.” + +Armfelt cried out in a protest of mock horror, but Gustavus laughed +cynically. + +“Oh, I confess that it would be most apt. I had not thought of it.” + +His fingers sought a pomatum box, and in doing so displaced a +toilet-case of red morocco. An oblong paper package fell from the top of +this and arrested the King's attention. + +“Why, what is this?” He took it up--a letter bearing the superscription: + + +To His MAJESTY THE KING SECRET AND IMPORTANT + +“What is this, Francois?” The royal voice was suddenly sharp. + +The valet glided forward, whilst Armfelt rose from the divan and, like +Bjelke, attracted by the sudden change in the King's tone and manner, +drew near his master. + +“How comes this letter here?” + +The valet's face expressed complete amazement. It must have been placed +there in his absence an hour ago, after he had made all preparations for +the royal toilette. It was certainly not there at the time, or he must +have seen it. + +With impatient fingers Gustavus snapped the seal and unfolded the +letter. Awhile he stood reading, very still, his brows knit. + +Then, with a contemptuous “Poof!” he handed it to his secretary. + +At a glance Bjelke recognized the hand for that of Colonel Lillehorn, +one of the conspirators, whose courage had evidently failed him in the +eleventh hour. He read: + +SIRE,--Deign to heed the warning of one who, not being in your service, +nor solicitous of your favours, flatters not your crimes, and yet +desires to avert the danger threatening you. There is a plot to +assassinate you which would by now have been executed but for the +countermanding of the ball at the opera last week. What was not done +then will certainly be done to-night if you afford the opportunity. +Remain at home and avoid balls and public gatherings for the rest of the +year; thus the fanaticism which aims at your life will evaporate. + +“Do you know the writing?” Gustavus asked. + +Bjelke shrugged. “The hand will be disguised, no doubt,” he evaded. + +“But you will heed the warning, Sire?” exclaimed, Armfelt, who had read +over the secretary's shoulder, and whose face had paled in reading. + +Gustavus laughed contemptuously. “Faith, if I were to heed every +scaremonger, I should get but little amusement out of life.” + +Yet he was angry, as his shifting colour showed. The disrespectful tone +of the anonymous communication moved him more deeply than its actual +message. He toyed a moment with a hair-ribbon, his nether lip thrust out +in thought. At last he rapped out an oath of vexation, and proffered the +ribbon to his valet. + +“My hair, Francois,” said he, “and then we will be going.” + +“Going!” + +It was an ejaculation of horror from Armfelt, whose face was now as +white as the ivory-coloured suit he wore. + +“What else? Am I to be intimidated out of my pleasures?” Yet that his +heart was less stout than his words his very next question showed. +“Apropos, Bjelke, what was the reason why you countermanded the ball +last week?” + +“The councillors from Gefle claimed Your Majesty's immediate attention,” + Bjelke reminded him. + +“So you said at the time. But the business seemed none so urgent when we +came to it. There was no other reason in your mind--no suspicion?” + +His keen, dark blue eyes were fixed upon the pale masklike face of the +secretary. + +That grave, almost stern countenance relaxed into a smile. + +“I suspected no more than I suspect now,” was his easy equivocation. +“And all that I suspect now is that some petty enemy is attempting to +scare Your Majesty.” + +“To scare me?” Gustavus flushed to the temples. “Am I a man to be +scared?” + +“Ah, but consider, Sire, and you, Bjelke,” Armfelt was bleating. “This +may be a friendly warning. In all humility, Sire, let me suggest that +you incur no risk; that you countermand the masquerade.” + +“And permit the insolent writer to boast that he frightened the King?” + sneered Bjelke. + +“Faith, Baron, you are right. The thing is written with intent to make a +mock of me.” + +“But if it were not so, Sire?” persisted the distressed Armfelt. And +volubly he argued now to impose caution, reminding the King of his +enemies, who might, indeed, be tempted to go the lengths of which the +anonymous writer spoke. Gustavus listened, and was impressed. + +“If I took heed of every admonition,” he said, “I might as well become +a monk at once. And yet--” He took his chin in his hand, and stood +thoughtful, obviously hesitating, his head bowed, his straight, graceful +figure motionless. + +Thus until Bjelke, who now desired above all else the very thing he had +come hot-foot to avert, broke the silence to undo what Armfelt had done. + +“Sire,” he said, “you may avoid both mockery and danger, and yet attend +the masquerade. Be sure, if there is indeed a plot, the assassins will +be informed of the disguise you are to wear. Give me your flame-studded +domino, and take a plain black one for yourself.” + +Armfelt gasped at the audacity of the proposal, but Gustavus gave no +sign that he had heard. He continued standing in that tense attitude, +his eyes vague and dreamy. And as if to show along what roads of +thought his mind was travelling, he uttered a single word a name--in a +questioning voice scarce louder than a whisper. + +Ankarstrom? + +Later again he was to think of Ankarstrom, to make inquiries concerning +him, which justifies us here in attempting to follow those thoughts of +his. They took the road down which his conscience pointed. Above all +Swedes he had cause to fear John Jacobi Ankarstrom, for, foully as he +had wronged many men in his time, he had wronged none more deeply than +that proud, high-minded nobleman. He hated Ankarstrom as we must always +hate those whom we have wronged, and he hated him the more because he +knew himself despised by Ankarstrom with a cold and deadly contempt that +at every turn proclaimed itself. + +That hatred was more than twenty years old. It dated back to the time +when Gustavus had been a vicious youth, and Ankarstrom himself a boy. +They were much of an age. Gustavus had put upon his young companion an +infamous insult, which had been answered by a blow. His youth and +the admitted provocation alone had saved Ankarstrom from the dread +consequence of striking a Prince of the Royal Blood. But they had not +saved him from the vindictiveness of Gustavus. He had kept his lust of +vengeance warm, and very patiently had he watched and waited for his +opportunity to destroy the man, who had struck him. + +That chance had come four years ago--in 1788--during the war with +Russia. Ankarstrom commanded the forces defending the island of +Gothland. These forces were inadequate for the task, nor was the +island in a proper state of defence, being destitute of forts. To have +persevered in resistance might have been heroic, but it would have been +worse than futile, for not only would it have entailed the massacre of +the garrison, but it must have further subjected the inhabitants to all +the horrors of sack and pillage. + +In the circumstances, Ankarstrom had conceived it his duty to surrender +to the superior force of Russia, thereby securing immunity for the +persons and property of the inhabitants. In this the King perceived his +chance to indulge his hatred. He caused Ankarstrom to be arrested +and accused of high treason, it being alleged against him that he had +advised the people of Gothland not to take up arms against the Russians. +The royal agents found witnesses to bear false evidence against +Ankarstrom, with the result that he was sentenced to twenty years' +imprisonment in a fortress. But the sentence was never carried out. +Gustavus had gone too far, as he was soon made aware. The feelings +against him which hitherto had smouldered flamed out at this crowning +act of injustice, and to repair his error Gustavus made haste, not, +indeed, to exonerate Ankarstrom from the charges brought against him, +but to pardon him for his alleged offences. + +When the Swedish nobleman was brought to Court to receive this pardon, +he used it as a weapon against the King whom he despised. + +“My unjust judges,” he announced in a ringing voice, the echoes of which +were carried to the ends of Sweden, “have never doubted in their hearts +my innocence of the charges brought against me, and established by means +of false witnesses. The judgment pronounced against me was unrighteous. +This exemption from it is my proper due. Yet I would rather perish +through the enmity of the King than live dishonoured by his clemency.” + +Gustavus had set his teeth in rage when those fierce words were reported +to him, and his rage had been increased when he was informed of the +cordial reception which everywhere awaited Ankarstrom on his release. +He perceived how far he had overshot his mark, and how, in seeking +treacherously to hurt Ankarstrom, he had succeeded only in hurting +himself. Nor had he appeased the general indignation by his pardon. +True, the flame of revolt had been quelled. But he had no lack of +evidence that the fire continued to burn steadily in secret, and to eat +its way further and further into the ranks of noble and simple alike. + +It is little wonder, then, that in this moment, with that warning lying +there before him, the name of Ankarstrom should be on his lips, the +thought of Ankarstrom, the fear of Ankarstrom, looming big in his mind. +It was big enough to make him heed the warning. He dropped into a chair. + +“I will not go,” he said, and Bjelke saw that his face was white, his +hands shaking. + +But when the secretary had repeated the proposal which had earlier gone +unheard, Gustavus caught at it with sudden avidity, and with but little +concern for the danger that Bjelke might be running. He sprang up, +applauding it. If a conspiracy there was, the conspirators would thus be +trapped; if there were no conspiracy, then this attempt to frighten him +should come to nothing; thus he would be as safe from the mockery of his +enemies as from their knives. Nor did Armfelt protest or make further +attempts to dissuade him from going. In the circumstances proposed by +Bjelke, the risk would be Bjelke's, a matter which troubled Armfelt +not at all; indeed, he had no cause to love Bjelke, in whom he beheld a +formidable rival, and it would be to him no cause for tears if the knife +intended for the royal vitals should find its way into Bjelke's instead. + +So Baron Bjelke, arrayed in the domino copied from the penitential sack, +departed for the Opera House, leaving Gustavus to follow. Yet, despite +the measure of precaution, no sooner had the masked King himself entered +the crowded theatre, leaning upon the arm of the Count of Essen, than he +conceived that he beheld confirmation of the warning, and regretted that +he had not heeded it to the extent of remaining absent. For one of the +first faces he beheld, one of the few unmasked faces in that brilliantly +lit salon, was the face of Ankarstrom, and Ankarstrom appeared to be +watching the entrance. + +Gustavus checked in his stride, a tremor ran through him, and he +stiffened in his sudden apprehension, for the sight of the tall figure +and haughty, resolute face of the nobleman he had wronged was of more +significance than at first might seem. Ever since his infamous trial +Ankarstrom had been at pains to seize every occasion of marking his +contempt for his Prince. Never did he fail upon the King's appearance +in any gathering of which he was a member to withdraw immediately; and +never once had he been known deliberately to attend any function which +was to be graced by the presence of Gustavus. How, then, came he here +to this ball given by the King's own command unless he came for the fell +purpose of which the letter had given warning? + +The King's impulse was to withdraw immediately. He was taken by a +curious, an almost unreasoning, fear that was quite foreign to him, +who, for all his faults, had never yet lacked courage. But, even as +he hesitated, a figure swept past him in a domino flecked with flames, +surrounded by revellers of both sexes, and he remembered that if +Ankarstrom were bent on evil his attention would be held by that figure +before which the crowd fell back, and opened out respectfully, believing +it to be the King's. Yet none the less it was Gustavus himself that +Ankarstrom continued to regard in such a way that the King had a feeling +that his mask was made of glass. + +And then quite suddenly, even as he was on the point of turning, another +wave of revellers swept frantically up, and in a moment Gustavus and the +Count of Essen were surrounded. Another moment and the buffeting crowd +had separated him from his grand equerry. He found himself alone in the +centre of this knot of wild fellows who, seeming to mistake him for one +of themselves, forced him onward with them in their career. For a moment +he attempted to resist. But as well might he have resisted a torrent. +Their rush was not to be stemmed. It almost swept him from his feet, and +to save himself he must perforce abandon himself to the impetus. Thus +he was swirled away across the floor of the amphitheatre, helpless as +a swimmer in strong waters, and with the fear of the drowning clutching +now at his heart. + +He had an impulse to unmask, proclaim himself, and compel the respect +that was his due. But to do so might be to expose himself to the very +danger of whose presence he was now convinced. His only hope must lie +in allowing himself to be borne passively along until a chance opening +allowed him to escape from these madmen. + +The stage had been connected with the floor of the theatre by a broad +flight of wooden steps. Up this flight he was carried by that human +wave. But on the stage itself he found an anchorage at last against one +of the wings. Breathing hard, he set his back to it, waiting for the +wave to sweep on and leave him. Instead, it paused and came to rest with +him, and in that moment some one touched him on the shoulder. He turned +his head, and looked into the set face of Ankarstrom, who was close +behind him. Then a burning, rending pain took him in his side, and he +grew sick and dizzy. The uproar of voices became muffled; the lights +were merged into a luminous billow that swelled and shrank and then went +out altogether. + +The report of the pistol had been lost in the general din to all but +those who stood near the spot where it had been fired. And these found +themselves suddenly borne backwards by the little crowd of maskers that +fell away from the figure lying prone and bleeding on the stage. + +Voices were raised, shouting “Fire! Fire!” Thus the conspirators sought +to create confusion, that they might disperse and lose themselves in the +general crowd. That confusion, however, was very brief. It was stemmed +almost immediately by the Count of Essen, who leapt up the steps to the +stage with a premonition of what had happened. He stooped to rip away +the mask from the face of the victim, and, beholding, as he had feared, +the livid countenance of his King, he stood up, himself almost as pale. + +“Murder has been done!” he roared. “Let the doors be closed and guarded, +and let no one leave the theatre.” Instantly was his bidding done by the +officers of the guard. + +Those of the King's household who were in attendance came forward now +to raise Gustavus, and help to bear him to a couch. There presently he +recovered consciousness, whilst a physician was seeing to his hurt, and +as soon as he realized his condition his manner became so calm that, +himself, he took command of the situation. He issued orders that the +gates of the city should be closed against everybody, whilst himself +apologizing to the Prussian minister who was near him for issuing that +inconvenient but necessary order. + +“The gates shall remain closed for three days, sir,” he announced. +“During that time you will not be able to correspond with your Court; +but your intelligence, when it goes, will be more certain, since by that +time it should be known whether I can survive or not.” + +His next order, delivered in a voice that was broken by his intense +suffering, was to the chamberlain Benzelstjerna, commanding that all +present should unmask and sign their names in a book before being +suffered to depart. That done, he bade them bear him home on the couch +on which he had been placed that he might be spared the agony of more +movement than was necessary. + +Thus his grenadiers bore him on their shoulders, lighted by torches, +through the streets that were now thronged, for the rumour had now gone +forth that the King was dead, and troops had been called out to keep +order. Beside him walked Armfelt in his suit of shimmering white satin, +weeping at once for his King and for himself, for he knew that he was of +those who must fall with Gustavus. And, knowing this, there was bitter +rage in his heart against the men who had wrought this havoc, a rage +that sharpened his wits to an unusual acuteness. + +At last the King was once more in his apartments awaiting the physicians +who were to pronounce his fate, and Armfelt kept him company among +others, revolving in his mind the terrible suspicion he had formed. + +Presently came Duke Charles, the King's brother, and Benzelstjerna with +the list of those who had been present at the ball. + +“Tell me,” he asked, before the list was read to him, “is the name of +Ankarstrom included in it?” + +“He was the last to sign, Sire,” replied the chamberlain. + +The King smiled grimly. “Tell Lillesparre to have him arrested and +questioned.” + +Armfelt flung forward. “There is another who should be arrested, too!” + he cried fiercely. And added, “Bjelke!” + +“Bjelke?” + +The King echoed the name almost in anger at the imputation. Armfelt +spoke torrentially. “It was he persuaded you to go against your own +judgment when you had the warning, and at last induced you to it by +offering to assume your own domino. If the assassins sought the King, +how came they to pass over one who wore the King's domino, and to +penetrate your own disguise that was like a dozen others? Because they +were informed of the change. But by whom--by whom? Who was it knew?” + +“My God!” groaned the unfortunate King, who had in his time broken faith +with so many, and was now to suffer the knowledge of this broken faith +in one whom he had trusted above all others. + +Baron Bjelke was arrested an hour later, arrested in the very act of +entering his own home. The men of Lillesparre's police had preceded him +thither to await his return. He was quite calm when they surged suddenly +about him, laid hands upon him, and formally pronounced him their +prisoner. + +“I suppose,” he said, “it was to have been inferred. Allow me to take my +leave of the Baroness, and I shall be at your disposal.” + +“My orders, Baron, are explicit,” he was answered by the officer in +charge. “I am not to suffer you out of my sight.” + +“How? Am I to be denied so ordinary a boon?” His voice quivered with +sudden anger and something else. + +“Such are my orders, Baron.” + +Bjelke pleaded for five minutes' grace for that leavetaking. But the +officer had his orders. He was no more than a machine. The Baron raised +his clenched hands in mute protest to the heavens, then let them fall +heavily. + +“Very well,” he said, and suffered them to thrust him back into his +carriage and carry him away to the waiting Lillesparre. + +He found Armfelt in the office of the chief of the police, haranguing +Ankarstrom, who was already there under arrest. The favourite broke off +as Bjelke was brought in. + +“You were privy to this infamy, Bjelke,” he cried. “If the King does not +recover--” + +“He will not recover.” It was the cold, passionless voice of Ankarstrom +that spoke. “My pistol was loaded with rusty nails. I intended to make +quite sure of ridding my country of that perjured tyrant.” + +Armfelt stared at the prisoner a moment with furious, bloodshot eyes. +Then he broke into imprecations, stemmed only when Lillesparre ordered +Ankarstrom to be removed. When he was gone, the chief of police turned +to Bjelke. + +“It grieves me, Baron, that we should meet thus, and it is with +difficulty that I can believe what is alleged against you. Baron Armfelt +is perhaps rendered hasty by his grief and righteous anger. But I hope +that you will be able to explain--at least to deny your concern in this +horrible deed.” + +Very tense and white stood Bjelke. + +“I have an explanation that should satisfy you as a man of honour,” he +said quietly, “but not as chief of the police. I joined this conspiracy +that I might master its scope and learn the intentions of the plotters. +It was a desperate thing I did out of love and loyalty to the King, and +I succeeded. I came to-night to the palace with information which should +not only have saved the King's life, but would have enabled him to +smother the conspiracy for all time. On the threshold of his room this +letter for the King was delivered into my hands. Read it, Lillesparre, +that you may know precisely what manner of master you serve, that you +may understand how Gustavus of Sweden recompenses love and loyalty. Read +it, and tell me how you would have acted in my place!” + +And he flung the letter on to the writing-table at which sat +Lillesparre. + +The chief of police took it up, began to read, turned back to the +superscription, then resumed his reading, a dull flush overspreading his +face. Over his shoulder Armfelt, too, was reading. But Bjelke cared +not. Let all the world behold that advertisement of royal infamy, +that incriminating love-letter from Bjelke's wife to the King who had +dishonoured him. + +Lillesparre was stricken dumb. He dared not raise his eyes to meet the +glance of the prisoner. But the shameless Armfelt sucked in a breath of +understanding. + +“You admit your guilt, then?” he snarled. + +“That I sent the monster to the masquerade, knowing that there the +blessed hand of Ankarstrom would give him his passport out of a world he +had befouled--yes.” + +“The rack shall make you yield the name of every one of the +conspirators.” + +“The rack!” Bjelke smiled disdainfully, and shrugged. “Your men, +Lillesparre, were very prompt and very obdurate. They would not allow me +to take leave of the Baroness, so that she has escaped me. But I am not +sure that it is not a fitter vengeance to let her live and remember. +That letter may now be delivered to the King, for whom it is intended. +Its fond messages may lighten the misery of his remaining hours.” + +His face was contorted, with rage, thought Armfelt, who watched him, but +in reality with pain caused by the poison that was corroding his vitals. +He had drained a little phial just before stepping into the presence +of Lillesparre, as they discovered upon inquiries made after he had +collapsed dead at their feet. + +This caused them to bring back Ankarstrom, that he might be searched, +lest he, too, should take some similar way of escaping them. When he +search was done, having discovered nothing, Lillesparre commanded that +he should not have knife or fork or metal comb, or anything with which +he might take his life. + +“You need not fear that I shall seek to evade the sacrifice,” he assured +them, his demeanour haughty, his eyes aglow with fanatic zeal. “It is +the price I pay for having rid Nature of a monster and my country of a +false, perjured tyrant, and I pay it gladly.” As he ceased he smiled, +and drew from the gold lace of his sleeve a surgeon's lancet. “This was +supplied me against my need to open a vein. But the laws of God and man +may require my death upon the scaffold.” + +And, smiling, he placed the lancet on Lillesparre's table. + +Upon his conviction execution followed, and it lasted three days--from +April 19th to 21 st--being attended by all the horrible and gradual +torturings reserved for regicides. Yet possibly he did not suffer more +than his victim, whose agony had lasted for thirteen days, and who +perished miserably in the consciousness that he deserved his fate, +whilst Ankarstrom was uplifted and fortified by his fanaticism. + +The scaffold was erected on the Stora Torget, facing the Opera House +of Stockholm, where the assassination had taken place. Thence the +dismembered remains of Ankarstrom were conveyed to the ordinary gallows +in the suburb of Sodermalm to be exhibited, the right hand being nailed +below the head. Under this hand on the morrow was found a tablet bearing +the legend: + + +Blessed the hand That saved the Fatherland. + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Historical Nights' +Entertainment, by Rafael Sabatini + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT *** + +***** This file should be named 2636-0.txt or 2636-0.zip ***** This and +all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/3/2636/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer, and David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be +renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one +owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and +you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission +and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in +the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and +distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the +PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a +registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, +unless you receive specific permission. If you do not charge anything +for copies of this eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You +may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative +works, reports, performances and research. They may be modified and +printed and given away--you may do practically ANYTHING with public +domain eBooks. Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, +especially commercial redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU +DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree +to and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the +terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy all +copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be used +on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who agree +to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few things that +you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works even without +complying with the full terms of this agreement. See paragraph 1.C +below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement and help +preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. +See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation” + or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in +the collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you +are located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent +you from copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating +derivative works based on the work as long as all references to Project +Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the +Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic +works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with +the terms of this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name +associated with the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this +agreement by keeping this work in the same format with its attached +full Project Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with +others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing +or creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost +no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use +it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this +eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work with +the phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, +you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through +1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute +this electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other +than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain +Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the full +Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing access +to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from +the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method you +already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed to the +owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has agreed to donate +royalties under this paragraph to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid within 60 days following each +date on which you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your +periodic tax returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such +and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the +address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to the +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.” + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies you +in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he does not +agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm License. You +must require such a user to return or destroy all copies of the works +possessed in a physical medium and discontinue all use of and all access +to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of +any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the +electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of +receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free +distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set forth +in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from both the +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael Hart, the +owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as +set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm collection. +Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, and the +medium on which they may be stored, may contain “Defects,” such as, but +not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription +errors, a copyright or other intellectual property infringement, a +defective or damaged disk or other medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees. +YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, +BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE PROVIDED IN +PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE TRADEMARK OWNER, AND +ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR +ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES +EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a defect +in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a written +explanation to the person you received the work from. If you received +the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with your +written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with the +defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, +the trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will remain +freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure and +permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. To +learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and +how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 and the +Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the state +of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue +Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification number +is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, +email business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official page +at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: Dr. Gregory B. Newby Chief Executive +and Director gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide spread +public support and donations to carry out its mission of increasing +the number of public domain and licensed works that can be freely +distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest array +of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations ($1 to +$5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt status with +the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state +visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make any +statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from outside +the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other ways +including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To donate, +please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. unless +a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily keep eBooks +in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + +http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, including +how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to +our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + + diff --git a/2636-0.zip b/2636-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc52155 --- /dev/null +++ b/2636-0.zip diff --git a/2636-h.zip b/2636-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c92776d --- /dev/null +++ b/2636-h.zip diff --git a/2636-h/2636-h.htm b/2636-h/2636-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4aea22 --- /dev/null +++ b/2636-h/2636-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,14482 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Historical Nights' Entertainment, by Rafael Sabatini + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +Project Gutenberg's The Historical Nights' Entertainment, by Rafael Sabatini + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Historical Nights' Entertainment + +Author: Rafael Sabatini + +Release Date: December 22, 2008 [EBook #2636] +Last Updated: March 10, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE HISTORICAL NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT + </h1> + <h2> + First Series + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Rafael Sabatini + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + PREFACE + </h2> + <p> + In approaching “The Historical Nights' Entertainment” I set myself the + task of reconstructing, in the fullest possible detail and with all the + colour available from surviving records, a group of more or less famous + events. I would select for my purpose those which were in themselves + bizarre and resulting from the interplay of human passions, and whilst + relating each of these events in the form of a story, I would compel that + story scrupulously to follow the actual, recorded facts without owing + anything to fiction, and I would draw upon my imagination, if at all, + merely as one might employ colour to fill in the outlines which history + leaves grey, taking care that my colour should be as true to nature as + possible. For dialogue I would depend upon such scraps of actual speech as + were chronicled in each case, amplifying it by translating into terms of + speech the paraphrases of contemporary chroniclers. + </p> + <p> + Such was the task I set myself. I am aware that it has been attempted once + or twice already, beginning, perhaps, with the “Crimes Celebres” of + Alexandre Dumas. I am not aware that the attempt has ever succeeded. This + is not to say that I claim success in the essays that follow. How nearly I + may have approached success—judged by the standard I had set myself—how + far I may have fallen short, my readers will discern. I am conscious, + however, of having in the main dutifully resisted the temptation to take + the easier road, to break away from restricting fact for the sake of + achieving a more intriguing narrative. In one instance, however, I have + quite deliberately failed, and in some others I have permitted myself + certain speculations to resolve mysteries of which no explanation has been + discovered. Of these it is necessary that I should make a full confession. + </p> + <p> + My deliberate failure is “The Night of Nuptials.” I discovered an allusion + to the case of Charles the Bold and Sapphira Danvelt in Macaulay's + “History of England”—quoted from an old number of the “Spectator”—whilst + I was working upon the case of Lady Alice Lisle. There a similar episode + is mentioned as being related of Colonel Kirke, but discredited because + known for a story that has a trick of springing up to attach itself to + unscrupulous captains. I set out to track it to its source, and having + found its first appearance to be in connection with Charles the Bold's + German captain Rhynsault, I attempted to reconstruct the event as it might + have happened, setting it at least in surroundings of solid fact. + </p> + <p> + My most flagrant speculation occurs in “The Night of Hate.” But in defence + of it I can honestly say that it is at least no more flagrant than the + speculations on this subject that have become enshrined in history as + facts. In other words, I claim for my reconstruction of the circumstances + attending the mysterious death of Giovanni Borgia, Duke of Gandia, that it + no more lacks historical authority than do any other of the explanatory + narratives adopted by history to assign the guilt to Gandia's brother, + Cesare Borgia. + </p> + <p> + In the “Cambridge Modern History” our most authoritative writers on this + epoch have definitely pronounced that there is no evidence acceptable to + historians to support the view current for four centuries that Cesare + Borgia was the murderer. + </p> + <p> + Elsewhere I have dealt with this at length. Here let it suffice to say + that it was not until nine months after the deed that the name of Cesare + Borgia was first associated with it; that public opinion had in the mean + time assigned the guilt to a half-dozen others in succession; that no + motive for the crime is discoverable in the case of Cesare; that the + motives advanced will not bear examination, and that they bear on the face + of them the stamp of having been put forward hastily to support an + accusation unscrupulously political in purpose; that the first men accused + by the popular voice were the Cardinal Vice-Chancellor Ascanio Sforza and + his nephew Giovanni Sforza, Tyrant of Pesaro; and, finally, that in + Matarazzo's “Chronicles of Perugia” there is a fairly detailed account of + how the murder was perpetrated by the latter. + </p> + <p> + Matarazzo, I confess, is worthy of no more credit than any other of the + contemporary reporters of common gossip. But at least he is worthy of no + less. And it is undeniable that in Sforza's case a strong motive for the + murder was not lacking. + </p> + <p> + My narrative in “The Night of Hate” is admittedly a purely theoretical + account of the crime. But it is closely based upon all the known facts of + incidence and of character; and if there is nothing in the surviving + records that will absolutely support it, neither is there anything that + can absolutely refute it. + </p> + <p> + In “The Night of Masquerade” I am guilty of quite arbitrarily discovering + a reason to explain the mystery of Baron Bjelke's sudden change from the + devoted friend and servant of Gustavus III of Sweden into his most bitter + enemy. That speculation is quite indefensible, although affording a + possible explanation of that mystery. In the case of “The Night of Kirk o' + Field,” on the other hand, I do not think any apology is necessary for my + reconstruction of the precise manner in which Darnley met his death. The + event has long been looked upon as one of the mysteries of history—the + mystery lying in the fact that whilst the house at Kirk o' Field was + destroyed by an explosion, Darnley's body was found at some distance away, + together with that of his page, bearing every evidence of death by + strangulation. The explanation I adopt seems to me to owe little to + speculation. + </p> + <p> + In the story of Antonio Perez—“The Night of Betrayal”—I have + permitted myself fewer liberties with actual facts than might appear. I + have closely followed his own “Relacion,” which, whilst admittedly a piece + of special pleading, must remain the most authoritative document of the + events with which it deals. All that I have done has been to reverse the + values as Perez presents them, throwing the personal elements into higher + relief than the political ones, and laying particular stress upon the + matter of his relations with the Princess of Eboli. “The Night of + Betrayal” is presented in the form of a story within a story. Of the + containing story let me say that whilst to some extent it is fictitious, + it is by no means entirely so. There is enough to justify most of it in + the “Relaciori” itself. + </p> + <p> + The exceptions mentioned being made, I hope it may be found that I have + adhered rigorously to my purpose of owing nothing to invention in my + attempt to flesh and clothe these few bones of history. + </p> + <p> + I should add, perhaps, that where authorities differ as to motives, where + there is a conflict of evidence as to the facts themselves, or where the + facts admit of more than one interpretation, I have permitted myself to be + selective, and confined myself to a point of view adopted at the outset. + </p> + <p> + R. S. + </p> + <p> + LONDON, August, 1917 + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <p> + <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> + <b>THE HISTORICAL NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT</b> </a><br /> + </p> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> I. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE NIGHT OF HOLYROOD—The Murder of David Rizzio + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> II. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE NIGHT OF KIRK O' FIELD—The Murder of Darnley + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> III. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE NIGHT OF BETRAYAL—Antonio Perez and Philip II of Spain + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> IV. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE NIGHT OF CHARITY—The Case Of The Lady Alice Lisle + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> V. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE NIGHT OF MASSACRE—The Story Of The Saint Bartholomew + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> VI. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE NIGHT OF WITCHCRAFT—Louis XIV and Madame De Montespan + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> VII. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE NIGHT OF GEMS—The “Affairs” Of The Queen's Necklace + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> VIII. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE NIGHT OF TERROR—The Drownings At Nantes Under Carrier + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> IX. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE NIGHT OF NUPTIALS—Charles The Bold And Sapphira Danvelt + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> X. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE NIGHT OF STRANGLERS—Govanna Of Naples And Andreas Of Hungary + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> XI. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE NIGHT OF HATE—The Murder Of The Duke Of Gandia + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> XII. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE NIGHT OF ESCAPE—Casanova's Escape From The Piombi + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> XIII. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE NIGHT OF MASQUERADE—The Assassination Of Gustavus III Of + Sweden + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + THE HISTORICAL NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. THE NIGHT OF HOLYROOD—The Murder of David Rizzio + </h2> + <p> + The tragedy of my Lord Darnley's life lay in the fact that he was a man + born out of his proper station—a clown destined to kingship by the + accident of birth and fortune. By the blood royal flowing in his veins, he + could, failing others, have claimed succession to both the English and the + Scottish thrones, whilst by his marriage with Mary Stuart he made a + definite attempt to possess himself of that of Scotland. + </p> + <p> + The Queen of Scots, enamoured for a season of the clean-limbed grace and + almost feminine beauty (“ladyfaced,” Melville had called him once) of this + “long lad of nineteen” who came a-wooing her, had soon discovered, in + matrimony, his vain, debauched, shiftless, and cowardly nature. She had + married him in July of 1565, and by Michaelmas she had come to know him + for just a lovely husk of a man, empty of heart or brain; and the + knowledge transmuted affection into contempt. + </p> + <p> + Her natural brother, the Earl of Murray, had opposed the marriage, chiefly + upon the grounds that Darnley was a Catholic, and with Argyll, + Chatellerault, Glencairn, and a host of other Protestant lords, had risen + in arms against his sovereign and her consort. But Mary had chased her + rebel brother and his fellows over the border into England, and by this + very action, taken for the sake of her worthless husband, she sowed the + first seeds of discord between herself and him. It happened that stout + service had been rendered her in this affair by the arrogant border + ruffian, the Earl of Bothwell. Partly to reward him, partly because of the + confidence with which he inspired her, she bestowed upon him the office of + Lieutenant-General of the East, Middle, and West Marches—an office + which Darnley had sought for his father, Lennox. That was the first and + last concerted action of the royal couple. Estrangement grew thereafter + between them, and, in a measure, as it grew so did Darnley's kingship, + hardly established as yet—for the Queen had still to redeem her + pre-nuptial promise to confer upon him the crown matrimonial—begin + to dwindle. + </p> + <p> + At first it had been “the King and Queen,” or “His Majesty and Hers”; but + by Christmas—five months after the wedding—Darnley was known + simply as “the Queen's husband,” and in all documents the Queen's name now + took precedence of his, whilst coins bearing their two heads, and the + legend “Hen. et Maria,” were called in and substituted by a new coinage + relegating him to the second place. + </p> + <p> + Deeply affronted, and seeking anywhere but in himself and his own + shortcomings the cause of the Queen's now manifest hostility, he presently + conceived that he had found it in the influence exerted upon her by the + Seigneur Davie—that Piedmontese, David Rizzio, who had come to the + Scottish Court some four years ago as a starveling minstrel in the train + of Monsieur de Morette, the ambassador of Savoy. + </p> + <p> + It was Rizzio's skill upon the rebec that had first attracted Mary's + attention. Later he had become her secretary for French affairs and the + young Queen, reared amid the elegancies of the Court of France, grew + attached to him as to a fellow-exile in the uncouth and turbulent land + over which a harsh destiny ordained that she should rule. Using his + opportunities and his subtle Italian intelligence, he had advanced so + rapidly that soon there was no man in Scotland who stood higher with the + Queen. When Maitland of Lethington was dismissed under suspicion of + favouring the exiled Protestant lords, the Seigneur Davie succeeded him as + her secretary; and now that Morton was under the same suspicion, it was + openly said that the Seigneur Davie would be made chancellor in his stead. + </p> + <p> + Thus the Seigneur Davie was become the most powerful man in Scotland, and + it is not to be dreamt that a dour, stiff-necked nobility would suffer it + without demur. They intrigued against him, putting it abroad, amongst + other things, that this foreign upstart was an emissary, of the Pope's, + scheming to overthrow the Protestant religion in Scotland. But in the duel + that followed their blunt Scotch wits were no match for his Italian + subtlety. Intrigue as they might his power remained unshaken. And then, at + last it began to be whispered that he owed his high favour with the + beautiful young Queen to other than his secretarial abilities, so that + Bedford wrote to Cecil: + </p> + <p> + “What countenance the Queen shows David I will not write, for the honour + due to the person of a queen.” + </p> + <p> + This bruit found credit—indeed, there have been ever since those who + have believed it—and, as it spread, it reached the ears of Darnley. + Because it afforded him an explanation of the Queen's hostility, since he + was without the introspection that would have discovered the true + explanation in his own shortcomings, he flung it as so much fuel upon the + seething fires of his rancour, and became the most implacable of those who + sought the ruin of Rizzio. + </p> + <p> + He sent for Ruthven, the friend of Murray and the exiled lords—exiled, + remember, on Darnley's own account—and offered to procure the + reinstatement of those outlaws if they would avenge his honour and make + him King of Scots in something more than name. + </p> + <p> + Ruthven, sick of a mortal illness, having risen from a bed of pain to come + in answer to that summons, listened dourly to the frothing speeches of + that silly, lovely boy. + </p> + <p> + “No doubt you'll be right about yon fellow Davie,” he agreed sombrely, and + purposely he added things that must have outraged Darnley's every feeling + as king and as husband. Then he stated the terms on which Darnley might + count upon his aid. + </p> + <p> + “Early next month Parliament is to meet over the business of a Bill of + Attainder against Murray and his friends, declaring them by their + rebellion to have forfeited life, land, and goods. Ye can see the power + with her o' this foreign fiddler, that it drives her so to attaint her own + brother. Murray has ever hated Davie, knowing too much of what lies 'twixt + the Queen and him to her dishonour, and Master Davie thinks so to make an + end of Murray and his hatred.” + </p> + <p> + Darnley clenched teeth and hands, tortured by the craftily administered + poison. + </p> + <p> + “What then? What is to do?” he cried, + </p> + <p> + Ruthven told him bluntly. + </p> + <p> + “That Bill must never pass. Parliament must never meet to pass it. You are + Her Grace's husband and King of Scots.” + </p> + <p> + “In name!” sneered Darnley bitterly. + </p> + <p> + “The name will serve,” said Ruthven. “In that name ye'll sign me a bond of + formal remission to Murray and his friends for all their actions and + quarrels, permitting their safe return to Scotland, and charging the + lieges to convoy them safely. Do that and leave the rest to us.” + </p> + <p> + If Darnley hesitated at all, it was not because he perceived the irony of + the situation—that he himself, in secret opposition to the Queen, + should sign the pardon of those who had rebelled against her precisely + because she had taken him to husband. He hesitated because indecision was + inherent in his nature. + </p> + <p> + “And then?” he asked at last. + </p> + <p> + Ruthven's blood-injected eyes considered him stonily out of a livid, + gleaming face. + </p> + <p> + “Then, whether you reign with her or without her, reign you shall as King + o' Scots. I pledge myself to that, and I pledge those others, so that we + have the bond.” + </p> + <p> + Darnley sat down to sign the death warrant of the Seigneur Davie. + </p> + <p> + It was the night of Saturday, the 9th of March. + </p> + <p> + A fire of pine logs burned fragrantly on the hearth of the small closet + adjoining the Queen's chamber, suffusing it with a sense of comfort, the + greater by contrast with the cheerlessness out of doors, where an easterly + wind swept down from Arthur's Seat and moaned its dismal way over a + snowclad world. + </p> + <p> + The lovely, golden-headed young queen supped with a little company of + intimates: her natural sister, the Countess of Argyll, the Commendator of + Holyrood, Beaton, the Master of the Household, Arthur Erskine, the Captain + of the Guard, and one other—that, David Rizzio, who from an errant + minstrel had risen to this perilous eminence, a man of a swarthy, + ill-favoured countenance redeemed by the intelligence that glowed in his + dark eyes, and of a body so slight and fragile as to seem almost + misshapen. His age was not above thirty, yet indifferent health, early + privation, and misfortune had so set their mark upon him that he had all + the appearance of a man of fifty. He was dressed with sombre magnificence, + and a jewel of great price smouldered upon the middle finger of one of his + slender, delicate hands. + </p> + <p> + Supper was at an end. The Queen lounged on a long seat over against the + tapestried wall. The Countess of Argyll, in a tall chair on the Queen's + left, sat with elbows on the table watching the Seigneur Davie's fine + fingers as they plucked softly at the strings of a long-necked lute. The + talk, which, intimate and untrammelled, had lately been of the child of + which Her Majesty was to be delivered some three months hence, was + flagging now, and it was to fill the gap that Rizzio had taken up the + lute. + </p> + <p> + His harsh countenance was transfigured as he caressed the strings, his + soul absorbed in the theme of his inspiration. Very softly—indeed, + no more than tentatively as yet—he was beginning one of those + wistful airs in which his spirit survives in Scotland to this day, when + suddenly the expectant hush was broken by a clash of curtain-rings. The + tapestries that masked the door had been swept aside, and on the + threshold, unheralded, stood the tall, stripling figure of the young King. + </p> + <p> + Darnley's appearance abruptly scattered the Italian's inspiration. The + melody broke off sharply on the single loud note of a string too rudely + plucked. + </p> + <p> + That and the silence that followed it irked them all, conveying a sense + that here something had been broken which never could be made whole again. + </p> + <p> + Darnley shuffled forward. His handsome face was pale save for the two + burning spots upon his cheekbones, and his eyes glittered feveredly. He + had been drinking, so much was clear; and that he should seek the Queen + thus, who so seldom sought her sober, angered those intimates who had come + to share her well-founded dislike of him. King though he might be in name, + into such contempt was he fallen that not one of them rose in deference, + whilst Mary herself watched his approach with hostile, mistrusting eyes. + </p> + <p> + “What is it, my lord?” she asked him coldly, as he flung himself down on + the settle beside her. + </p> + <p> + He leered at her, put an arm about her waist, pulled her to him, and + kissed her oafishly. + </p> + <p> + None stirred. All eyes were upon them, and all faces blank. After all, he + was the King and she his wife. And then upon the silence, ominous as the + very steps of doom, came a ponderous, clanking tread from the ante-room + beyond. Again the curtains were thrust aside, and the Countess of Argyll + uttered a gasp of sudden fear at the grim spectre she beheld there. It was + a figure armed as for a tourney, in gleaming steel from head to foot, girt + with a sword, the right hand resting upon the hilt of the heavy dagger in + the girdle. The helmet's vizor was raised, revealing the ghastly face of + Ruthven—so ghastly that it must have seemed the face of a dead man + but for the blazing life in the eyes that scanned the company. Those + questing eyes went round the table, settled upon Rizzio, and seemed + horribly to smile. + </p> + <p> + Startled, disquieted by this apparition, the Queen half rose, Darnley's + hindering arm still flung about her waist. + </p> + <p> + “What's this?” she cried, her voice sharp. + </p> + <p> + And then, as if she guessed intuitively what it might portend, she + considered her husband with pale-faced contempt. + </p> + <p> + “Judas!” she called him, flung away from his detaining arm, and stood + forth to confront that man in steel. “What seek ye here, my lord—and + in this guise?” was her angry challenge. + </p> + <p> + Ruthven's burning eyes fell away before her glance. He clanked forward a + step or two, flung out a mailed arm, and with a hand that shook pointed to + the Seigneur Davie, who stood blankly watching him. + </p> + <p> + “I seek yon man,” he said gruffly. “Let him come forth.” + </p> + <p> + “He is here by my will,” she told him, her anger mounting. “And so are not + you—for which you shall be made to answer.” + </p> + <p> + Then to Darnley, who sat hunched on the settle: + </p> + <p> + “What does this mean, sir?” she demanded. + </p> + <p> + “Why—how should I know? Why—why, nothing,” he faltered + foolishly. + </p> + <p> + “Pray God that you are right,” said she, “for your own sake. And you,” she + continued, addressing Ruthven again and waving a hand in imperious + dismissal, “be you gone, and wait until I send for you, which I promise + you shall be right soon.” + </p> + <p> + If she divined some of the evil of their purpose, if any fear assailed + her, yet she betrayed nothing of it. She was finely tempered steel. + </p> + <p> + But Ruthven, sullen and menacing, stood his ground. + </p> + <p> + “Let yon man come forth,” he repeated. “He has been here ower lang.” + </p> + <p> + “Over long?” she echoed, betrayed by her quick resentment. + </p> + <p> + “Aye, ower lang for the good o' Scotland and your husband,” was the brutal + answer. + </p> + <p> + Erskine, of her guards, leapt to his feet. + </p> + <p> + “Will you begone, sir?” he cried; and after him came Beaton and the + Commendator, both echoing the captain's threatening question. + </p> + <p> + A smile overspread Ruthven's livid face. The heavy dagger flashed from his + belt. + </p> + <p> + “My affair is not with any o' ye, but if ye thrust yersels too close upon + my notice—” + </p> + <p> + The Queen stepped clear of the table to intervene, lest violence should be + done here in her presence. Rizzio, who had risen, stood now beside her, + watching all with a white, startled face. And then, before more could be + said, the curtains were torn away and half a score of men, whose approach + had passed unnoticed, poured into the room. First came Morton, the + Chancellor, who was to be dispossessed of the great seal in Rizzio's + favour. After him followed the brutal Lindsay of the Byres, Kerr of + Faudonside, black-browed Brunston, red-headed Douglas, and a half-dozen + others. + </p> + <p> + Confusion ensued; the three men of the Queen's household were instantly + surrounded and overpowered. In the brief, sharp struggle the table was + overturned, and all would have been in darkness but that as the table went + over the Countess of Argyll had snatched up the candle-branch, and stood + now holding it aloft to light that extraordinary scene. Rizzio, to whom + the sight of Morton had been as the removal of his last illusion, flung + himself upon his knees before the Queen. Frail and feeble of body, and + never a man of his hands, he was hopelessly unequal to the occasion. + </p> + <p> + “Justice, madame!” he cried. “Faites justice! Sauvez ma vie!” + </p> + <p> + Fearlessly, she stepped between him and the advancing horde of murderers, + making of her body a buckler for his protection. White of face, with + heaving bosom and eyes like two glowing sapphires, she confronted them. + </p> + <p> + “Back, on your lives!” she bade them. + </p> + <p> + But they were lost to all sense of reverence, even to all sense of + decency, in their blind rage against this foreign upstart who had trampled + their Scottish vanity in the dust. George Douglas, without regard for her + condition either as queen or woman—and a woman almost upon the + threshold of motherhood—clapped a pistol to her breast and roughly + bade her stand aside. + </p> + <p> + Undaunted, she looked at him with eyes that froze his trigger-finger, + whilst behind her Rizzio grovelled in his terror, clutching her petticoat. + Thus, until suddenly she was seized about the waist and half dragged, + half-lifted aside by Darnley, who at the same time spurned Rizzio forward + with his foot. + </p> + <p> + The murderers swooped down upon their prey. Kerr of Faudonside flung a + noose about his body, and drew it tight with a jerk that pulled the + secretary from his knees. Then he and Morton took the rope between them, + and so dragged their victim across the room towards the door. He struggled + blindly as he went, vainly clutching first at an overset chair, then at a + leg of the table, and screeching piteously the while to the Queen to save + him. And Mary, trembling with passion, herself struggling in the arms of + Darnley, flung an angry warning after them. + </p> + <p> + “If Davie's blood be spilt, it shall be dear blood to some of you! + Remember that, sirs!” + </p> + <p> + But they were beyond control by now, hounds unleashed upon the quarry of + their hate. Out of her presence Morton and Douglas dragged him, the rest + of the baying pack going after them. They dragged him, screeching still, + across the ante-chamber to the head of the great stairs, and there they + fell on him all together, and so wildly that they wounded one another in + their fury to rend him into pieces. The tattered body, gushing blood from + six-and-fifty wounds, was hurled from top to bottom of the stairs, with a + gold-hilted dagger—Darnley's, in token of his participation in the + deed—still sticking in his breast. + </p> + <p> + Ruthven stood forward from the group, his reeking poniard clutched in his + right hand, a grin distorting his ghastly, vulturine face. Then he stalked + back alone into the royal presence, dragging his feet a little, like a man + who is weary. + </p> + <p> + He found the room much as he had left it, save that the Queen had sunk + back to her seat on the settle, and Darnley was now standing over her, + whilst her people were still hemmed about by his own men. Without a “by + your leave,” he flung himself into a chair and called hoarsely for a cup + of wine. + </p> + <p> + Mary's white face frowned at him across the room. + </p> + <p> + “You shall yet drink the wine that I shall pour you for this night's work, + my lord, and for this insolence! Who gave you leave to sit before me?” + </p> + <p> + He waved a hand as if to dismiss the matter. It may have seemed to him + frivolous to dwell upon such a trifle amid so much. + </p> + <p> + “It's no' frae lack o' respect, Your Grace,” he growled, “but frae lack o' + strength. I am ill, and I should ha' been abed but for what was here to + do.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah!” She looked at him with cold repugnance. “What have you done with + Davie?” + </p> + <p> + He shrugged, yet his eyes quailed before her own. + </p> + <p> + “He'll be out yonder,” he answered, grimly evasive; and he took the wine + one of his followers proffered him. + </p> + <p> + “Go see,” she bade the Countess. + </p> + <p> + And the Countess, setting the candle-branch upon the buffet, went out, + none attempting to hinder her. + </p> + <p> + Then, with narrowed eyes, the Queen watched Ruthven while he drank. + </p> + <p> + “It will be for the sake of Murray and his friends that you do this,” she + said slowly. “Tell me, my lord, what great kindness is there between + Murray and you that, to save him from forfeiture, you run the risk of + being forfeited with him?” + </p> + <p> + “What I have done,” he said, “I have done for others, and under a bond + that shall hold me scatheless.” + </p> + <p> + “Under a bond?” said she, and now she looked up at Darnley, standing ever + at her side. “And was the bond yours, my lord?” + </p> + <p> + “Me?” He started back. “I know naught of it.” + </p> + <p> + But as he moved she saw something else. She leaned forward, pointing to + the empty sheath at his girdle. + </p> + <p> + “Where is your dagger, my lord?” she asked him sharply. + </p> + <p> + “My dagger? Ha! How should I know?” + </p> + <p> + “But I shall know!” she threatened, as if she were not virtually a + prisoner in the hands of these violent men who had invaded her palace and + dragged Rizzio from her side. “I shall not rest until I know!” + </p> + <p> + The Countess came in, white to the lips, bearing in her eyes something of + the horror she had beheld. + </p> + <p> + “What is it?” Mary asked her, her voice suddenly hushed and faltering. + </p> + <p> + “Madame—he is dead! Murdered!” she announced. + </p> + <p> + The Queen looked at her, her face of marble. Then her voice came hushed + and tense: + </p> + <p> + “Are—you sure?” + </p> + <p> + “Myself I saw his body, madame.” + </p> + <p> + There was a long pause. A low moan escaped the Queen, and her lovely eyes + were filled with tears; slowly these coursed down her cheeks. Something + compelling in her grief hushed every voice, and the craven husband at her + side shivered as her glance fell upon him once more. + </p> + <p> + “And is it so?” she said at length, considering him. She dried her eyes. + “Then farewell tears; I must study revenge.” She rose as if with labour, + and standing, clung a moment to the table's edge. A moment she looked at + Ruthven, who sat glooming there, dagger in one hand and empty wine-cup in + the other; then her glance passed on, and came to rest balefully on + Darnley's face. “You have had your will, my lord,” she said, “but consider + well what I now say. Consider and remember. I shall never rest until I + give you as sore a heart as I have presently.” + </p> + <p> + That said she staggered forward. The Countess hastened to her, and leaning + upon her arm, Mary passed through the little door of the closet into her + chamber. + </p> + <p> + That night the common bell was rung, and Edinburgh roused in alarm. + Bothwell, Huntly, Atholl, and others who were at Holyrood when Rizzio was + murdered, finding it impossible to go to the Queen's assistance, and + fearing to share the secretary's fate—for the palace was a-swarm + with the murderers' men-at-arms—had escaped by one of the windows. + The alarm they spread in Edinburgh brought the provost and townsmen in + arms to the palace by torchlight, demanding to see the Queen, and refusing + to depart until Darnley had shown himself and assured them that all was + well with the Queen and with himself. And what time Darnley gave them this + reassurance from a window of her room, Mary herself stood pale and taut + amid the brutal horde that on this alarm had violated the privacy of her + chamber, while the ruffianly Red Douglas flashed his dagger before her + eyes, swearing that if she made a sound they would cut her into collops. + </p> + <p> + When at last they withdrew and left her to herself, they left her no + illusions as to her true condition. She was a prisoner in her own palace. + The ante-rooms and courts were thronged with the soldiers of Morton and + Ruthven, the palace itself was hemmed about, and none might come or go + save at the good pleasure of the murderers. + </p> + <p> + At last Darnley grasped the authority he had coveted. He dictated + forthwith a proclamation which was read next morning at Edinburgh Market + Cross—commanding that the nobles who had assembled in Edinburgh to + compose the Parliament that was to pass the Bill of Attainder should quit + the city within three hours, under pain of treason and forfeiture. + </p> + <p> + And meanwhile, with poor Rizzio's last cry of “justice!” still ringing in + her ears, Mary sat alone in her chamber, studying revenge as she had + promised. So that life be spared her, justice, she vowed, should be done—punishment + not only for that barbarous deed, but for the very manner of the doing of + it, for all the insult to which she had been subjected, for the monstrous + violence done her feelings and her very person, for the present detention + and peril of which she was full conscious. + </p> + <p> + Her anger was the more intense because she never permitted it to diffuse + itself over the several offenders. Ruthven, who had insulted her so + grossly; Douglas, who had offered her personal violence; the Laird of + Faudonside, Morton, and all the others who held her now a helpless + prisoner, she hew for no more than the instruments of Darnley. It was + against Darnley that all her rage was concentrated. She recalled in those + bitter hours all that she had suffered at his vile hands, and swore that + at whatever cost to herself he should yield a full atonement. + </p> + <p> + He sought her in the morning emboldened by the sovereign power he was + usurping confident that now that he showed himself master of the situation + she would not repine over what was done beyond recall, but would submit to + the inevitable, be reconciled with him, and grant him, perforce—supported + as he now was by the rebellious lords—the crown matrimonial and the + full kingly power he coveted. + </p> + <p> + But her reception of him broke that confidence into shards. + </p> + <p> + “You have done me such a Wrong,” she told him in a voice of cold hatred, + “that neither the recollection of our early friendship, nor all the hope + you can give me of the future, could ever make me forget it. Jamais! + Jamais je n'oublierai!” she added, and upon that she dismissed him so + imperiously that he went at once. + </p> + <p> + She sought a way to deal with him, groped blindly for it, being as yet but + half informed of what was taking place; and whilst she groped, the thing + she sought was suddenly thrust into her land. Mary Beaton, one of the few + attendants left her, brought her word later that day that the Earl of + Murray, with Rothes and some other of the exiled lords, was in the palace. + The news brought revelation. It flooded with light the tragic happening of + the night before, showed her how Darnley was building himself a party in + the state. It did more than that. She recalled the erstwhile mutual hatred + and mistrust of Murray and Darnley, and saw how it might serve her in this + emergency. + </p> + <p> + Instantly she summoned Murray to her presence with the message that she + welcomed his return. Yet, despite that message, he hardly expected—considering + what lay between them—the reception that awaited him at her hands. + </p> + <p> + She rose to receive him, her lovely eyes suffused with tears. She embraced + him, kissed him, and then, nestling to him, as if for comfort, her cheek + against his bearded face, she allowed her tears to flow unchecked. + </p> + <p> + “I am punished,” she sobbed—“oh, I am punished! Had I kept you at + home, Murray, you would never have suffered men to entreat me as I have + been entreated.” + </p> + <p> + Holding her to hin, he could but pat her shoulder, soothing her, utterly + taken aback, and deeply moved, too, by this display of an affection for + him that he had never hitherto suspected in her. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, mon Dieu, Jamie, how welcome you are to one in my sorrow!” she + continued. “It is the fault of others that you have been so long out of + the country. I but require of you that you be a good subject to me, and + you shall never find me other to you than you deserve.” + </p> + <p> + And he, shaken to the depths of his selfish soul by her tears, her + clinging caresses, and her protestations of affection, answered with an + oath and a sob that no better or more loyal and devoted subject than + himself could all Scotland yield her. + </p> + <p> + “And, as for this killing of Davie,” he ended vehemently, “I swear by my + soul's salvation that I have had no part in it, nor any knowledge of it + until my return!” + </p> + <p> + “I know—I know!” she moaned. “Should I make you welcome, else? Be my + friend, Jamie; be my friend!” + </p> + <p> + He swore it readily, for he was very greedy of power, and saw the door of + his return to it opening wider than he could have hoped. Then he spoke of + Darnley, begging her to receive him, and hear what he might have to say, + protesting that the King swore that he had not desired the murder, and + that the lords had carried the matter out of his hands and much beyond all + that he had intended. + </p> + <p> + Because it suited her deep purpose, Mary consented, feigning to be + persuaded. She had realized that before she could deal with Darnley, and + the rebel lords who held her a prisoner, she must first win free from + Holyrood. + </p> + <p> + Darnley came. He was sullen now, mindful of his recent treatment, and in + fear—notwithstanding Murray's reassurance—of further similar + rebuffs. She announced herself ready to hear what he might have to say, + and she listened attentively while he spoke, her elbow on the carved arm + of her chair, her chin in her hand. When he had done, she sat long in + thought, gazing out through the window at the grey March sky. At length + she turned and looked at him. + </p> + <p> + “Do you pretend, my lord, to regret for what has passed?” she challenged + him. + </p> + <p> + “You tempt me to hypocrisy,” he said. “Yet I will be frank as at an Easter + shrift. Since that fellow Davie fell into credit and familiarity with Your + Majesty, you no longer treated me nor entertained me after your wonted + fashion, nor would you ever bear me company save this Davie were the + third. Can I pretend, then, to regret that one who deprived me of what I + prized most highly upon earth should have been removed? I cannot. Yet I + can and do proclaim my innocence of any part or share in the deed that has + removed him.” + </p> + <p> + She lowered her eyes an instant, then raised them again to meet his own. + </p> + <p> + “You had commerce with these traitor lords,” she reminded him. “It is by + your decree that they are returned from exile. What was your aim in this?” + </p> + <p> + “To win back the things of which this fellow Davie had robbed me, a share + in the ruling and the crown matrimonial that was my right, yet which you + denied me. That and no more. I had not intended that Davie should be + slain. I had not measured the depth of their hatred of that upstart knave. + You see that I am frank with you.” + </p> + <p> + “Aye, and I believe you,” she lied slowly, considering him as she spoke. + And he drew a breath of relief, suspecting nothing of her deep guile. “And + do you know why I believe you? Because you are a fool.” + </p> + <p> + “Madame!” he cried. + </p> + <p> + She rose, magnificently contemptuous. + </p> + <p> + “Must I prove it? You say that the crown matrimonial which I denied you is + to be conferred on you by these lawless men? Believing that, you signed + their pardon and recall from exile. Ha! You do not see, my lord, that you + are no more than their tool, their cat's-paw. You do not see that they use + you but for their ends, and that when they have done with you, they will + serve you as they served poor Davie? No, you see none of that, which is + why I call you a fool, that need a woman's wit to open wide your eyes.” + </p> + <p> + She was so vehement that she forced upon his dull wits some of the + convictions she pretended were her own. Yet, resisting those convictions, + he cried out that she was at fault. + </p> + <p> + “At fault?” She laughed. “Let my memory inform your judgment. When these + lords, with Murray at their head, protested against our marriage, in what + terms did they frame their protest? They complained that I had set over + them without consulting them one who had no title to it, whether by lineal + descent of blood, by nature, or by consent of the Estates. Consider that! + They added, remember—I repeat to you the very words they wrote and + published—that while they deemed it their duty to endure under me, + they deemed it intolerable to suffer under you.” + </p> + <p> + She was flushed, and her eyes gleamed with excitement. She clutched his + sleeve, and brought her face close to his own, looked deep and + compellingly into his eyes as she continued: + </p> + <p> + “Such was their proclamation, and they took arms against me to enforce it, + to pull you down from the place to which I had raised you out of the dust. + Yet you can forget it, and in your purblind folly turn to these very men + to right the wrongs you fancy I have done you. Do you think that men, + holding you in such esteem as that, can keep any sort of faith with you? + Do you think these are the men who are likely to fortify and maintain your + title to the crown? Ask yourself, and answer for yourself.” + </p> + <p> + He was white to the lips. As much by her vehement pretence of sincerity as + by the apparently irrefragable logic of her arguments, she forced + conviction upon him. This brought a loathly fear in its train, and the + gates of his heart stood ever wide to fear. He stepped aside to a chair, + and sank into it, looking at her with dilating eyes—a fool + confronted with the likely fruits of his folly. + </p> + <p> + “Then—then—why did they proffer me their help? How can they + achieve their ends this way?” + </p> + <p> + “How? Do you still ask? Do you not see what a blind tool you have been in + their crafty hands? In name at least you are king, and your signature is + binding upon my subjects. Have you not brought them back from exile by one + royal decree, whilst by another you have dispersed the Parliament that was + assembled to attaint them of treason?” + </p> + <p> + She stepped close up to him, and bending over him as he sat there, crushed + by realization, she lowered her voice. + </p> + <p> + “Pray God, my lord, that all their purpose with you is not yet complete, + else in their hands I do not think your life is to be valued at an + apple-paring. You go the ways poor Davie went.” + </p> + <p> + He sank his handsome head to his hands, and covered his face. A while he + sat huddled there, she watching him with gleaming, crafty eyes. At length + he rallied. He looked up, tossing back the auburn hair from his white + brow, still fighting, though weakly, against persuasion. “It is not + possible,” he, cried. “They could not! They could not!” + </p> + <p> + She laughed, betwixt bitterness and sadness. + </p> + <p> + “Trust to that,” she bade him. “Yet look well at matters as they are + already. I am a prisoner here in these men's hands. They will not let me + go until their full purpose is accomplished—perhaps,” she added + wistfully, “perhaps not even then.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, not that!” he cried out. + </p> + <p> + “Even that,” she answered firmly. “But,” and again she grew vehement, “is + it less so with you? Are you less a prisoner than I? D'ye think you will + be suffered to come and go at will?” She saw the increase of fear in him, + and then she struck boldly, setting all upon the gamble of a guess. “I am + kept here until I shall have been brought to such a state that I will add + my signature to your own and so pardon one and all for what is done.” + </p> + <p> + His sudden start, the sudden quickening of his glance told her how + shrewdly she had struck home. Fearlessly, then, sure of herself, she + continued. “To that end they use you. When you shall have served it you + will but cumber them. When they shall have used you to procure their + security from me, then they will deal with you as they have ever sought to + deal with you—so that you trouble them no more. Ah, at last you + understand!” + </p> + <p> + He came to his feet, his brow gleaming with sweat, his slender hands + nervously interlocked. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, God!” he cried in a stifled voice. + </p> + <p> + “Aye, you are in a trap, my lord. Yourself you've sprung it.” + </p> + <p> + And now you behold him broken by the terror she had so cunningly evoked. + He flung himself upon his knees before her, and with upturned face and + hands that caught and clawed at her own, he implored her pardon for the + wrong that in his folly he had done her in taking sides with her enemies. + </p> + <p> + She dissembled under a mask of gentleness the loathing that his cowardice + aroused in her. + </p> + <p> + “My enemies?” she echoed wistfully. “Say rather your own enemies. It was + their enmity to you that drove them into exile. In your rashness you have + recalled them, whilst at the same time you have so bound my hands that I + cannot now help you if I would.” + </p> + <p> + “You can, Mary,” he cried, “or else no one can. Withhold the pardon they + will presently be seeking of you. Refuse to sign any remission of their + deed.” + </p> + <p> + “And leave them to force you to sign it, and so destroy us both,” she + answered. + </p> + <p> + He ranted then, invoking the saints of heaven, and imploring her in their + name—she who was so wise and strong—to discover some way out + of this tangle in which his madness had enmeshed them. + </p> + <p> + “What way is there short of flight?” she asked him. “And how are we to fly + who are imprisoned here you as well as myself? Alas, Darnley, I fear our + lives will end by paying the price of your folly.” + </p> + <p> + Thus she played upon his terrors, so that he would not be dismissed until + she had promised that she would consider and seek some means of saving + him, enjoining him meanwhile to keep strict watch upon himself and see + that he betrayed nothing of his thoughts. + </p> + <p> + She left him to the chastening of a sleepless night, then sent for him + betimes on Monday morning, and bade him repair to the lords and tell them + that realizing herself a prisoner in their hands she was disposed to make + terms with them. She would grant them pardon for what was done if on their + side they undertook to be loyal henceforth and allowed her to resume her + liberty. + </p> + <p> + The message startled him. But the smile with which she followed it was + reassuring. + </p> + <p> + “There is something else you are to do,” she said, “if we are to turn the + tables on these traitorous gentlemen. Listen.” And she added matter that + begat fresh hope in Darnley's despairing soul. + </p> + <p> + He kissed her hands, lowly now and obedient as a hound that had been + whipped to heel, and went below to bear her message to the lords. + </p> + <p> + Morton and Ruthven heard him out, but betrayed no eagerness to seize the + opportunity. + </p> + <p> + “All this is but words that we hear,” growled Ruthven, who lay stretched + upon a couch, grimly suffering from the disease that was, slowly eating up + his life. + </p> + <p> + “She is guileful as the serpent,” Morton added, “being bred up in the + Court of France. She will make you follow her will and desire, but she + will not so lead us. We hold her fast, and we do not let her go without + some good security of what shall follow.” + </p> + <p> + “What security will satisfy you?” quoth Darnley. + </p> + <p> + Murray and Lindsay came in as he was speaking, and Morton told them of the + message that Darnley had brought. Murray moved heavily across to a + window-seat, and sat down. He cleared a windowpane with his hand, and + looked out upon the wintry landscape as if the matter had no interest for + him. But Lindsay echoed what the other twain had said already. + </p> + <p> + “We want a deal more than promises that need not be kept,” he said. + </p> + <p> + Darnley looked from one to the other of them, seeing in their + uncompromising attitude a confirmation of what the Queen had told him, and + noting, too—as at another time he might not have noted—their + utter lack of deference to himself, their King. + </p> + <p> + “Sirs,” he said, “I vow you wrong Her Majesty. I will stake my life upon + her honour.” + </p> + <p> + “Why, so you may,” sneered Ruthven, “but you'll not stake ours.” + </p> + <p> + “Take what security you please, and I will subscribe it.” + </p> + <p> + “Aye, but will the Queen?” wondered Morton. + </p> + <p> + “She will. I have her word for it.” + </p> + <p> + It took them the whole of that day to consider the terms of the articles + that would satisfy them. Towards evening the document was ready, and + Morton and Ruthven representing all, accompanied by Murray, and introduced + by Darnley, came to the chamber to which Her Majesty was confined by the + guard they had set upon her. + </p> + <p> + She sat as if in state awaiting them, very lovely and very tearful, + knowing that woman's greatest strength is in her weakness, that tears + would serve her best by presenting her as if broken to their will. + </p> + <p> + In outward submission they knelt before her to make the pretence of suing + for the pardon which they extorted by force of arms and duress. When each + in his turn had made the brief pleading oration he had prepared, she dried + her eyes and controlled herself by obvious effort. + </p> + <p> + “My lords,” she said, in a voice that quivered and broke on every other + word, “when have ye ever found me blood-thirsty, or greedy of your lands + or goods that you must use me so, and take such means with me? Ye have set + my authority at naught, and wrought sedition in this realm. Yet I forgive + you all, that by this clemency I may move you to a better love and + loyalty. I desire that all that is passed may be buried in oblivion, so + that you swear to me that in the future you will stand my friends and + serve me faithfully, who am but a weak woman, and sorely need stout men to + be my friends.” + </p> + <p> + For a moment her utterance was checked by sobs. Then she controlled + herself again by an effort so piteous to behold that even the + flinty-hearted Ruthven was moved to some compassion. + </p> + <p> + “Forgive this weakness in me, who am very weak, for very soon I am to be + brought to bed as you well know, and I am in no case to offer resistance + to any. I have no more to say, my lords. Since you promise on your side + that you will put all disloyalty behind you, I pledge myself to remit and + pardon all those that were banished for their share in the late rising, + and likewise to pardon those that were concerned in the killing of + Seigneur Davie. All this shall be as if it had never been. I pray you, my + lords, make your own security in what sort you best please, and I will + subscribe it.” + </p> + <p> + Morton proffered her the document they had prepared. She conned it slowly, + what time they watched her, pausing ever and anon to brush aside the tears + that blurred her vision. At last she nodded her lovely golden head. + </p> + <p> + “It is very well,” she said. “All is here as I would have it be between + us.” And she turned to Darnley. “Give me pen and ink, my lord.” + </p> + <p> + Darnley dipped a quill and handed it to her. She set the parchment on the + little pulpit at her side. Then, as she bent to sign, the pen fluttered + from her fingers, and with a deep, shuddering sigh she sank back in her + chair, her eyes closed, her face piteously white. + </p> + <p> + “The Queen is faint!” cried Murray, springing forward. + </p> + <p> + But she rallied instantly, smiling upon them wanly. + </p> + <p> + “It is naught; it is past,” she said. But even as she spoke she put a hand + to her brow. “I am something dizzy. My condition—” She faltered on a + trembling note of appeal that increased their compassion, and aroused in + them a shame of their own harshness. “Leave this security with me. I will + subscribe it in the morning—indeed, as soon as I am sufficiently + recovered.” + </p> + <p> + They rose from their knees at her bidding, and Morton in the name of all + professed himself full satisfied, and deplored the affliction they had + caused her, for which in the future they should make her their amends. + </p> + <p> + “I thank you,” she answered simply. “You have leave to go.” + </p> + <p> + They departed well satisfied; and, counting the matter at an end, they + quitted the palace and rode to their various lodgings in Edinburgh town, + Murray going with Morton. + </p> + <p> + Anon to Maitland of Lethington, who had remained behind, came one of the + Queen's women to summon him to her presence. He found her disposing + herself for bed, and was received by her with tearful upbraidings. + </p> + <p> + “Sir,” she said, “one of the conditions upon which I consented to the will + of their lordships was that an immediate term should be set to the + insulting state of imprisonment in which I am kept here. Yet men-at-arms + still guard the very door of my chamber, and my very attendants are + hindered in their comings and goings. Do you call this keeping faith with + me? Have I not granted all the requests of the lords?” + </p> + <p> + Lethington, perceiving the justice of what she urged, withdrew shamed and + confused at once to remedy the matter by removing the guards from the + passage and the stairs and elsewhere, leaving none but those who paced + outside the palace. + </p> + <p> + It was a rashness he was bitterly to repent him on the morrow, when it was + discovered that in the night Mary had not only escaped, but had taken + Darnley with her. Accompanied by him and a few attendants, she had + executed the plan in which earlier that day she had secured her scared + husband's cooperation. At midnight they had made their way along the now + unguarded corridors, and descended to the vaults of the palace, whence a + secret passage communicated with the chapel. Through this and across the + graveyard where lay the newly buried body of the Siegneur Davie—almost + across the very grave itself which stood near the chapel door they had won + to the horses waiting by Darnley's orders in the open. And they had ridden + so hard that by five o'clock of that Tuesday morning they were in Dunbar. + </p> + <p> + In vain did the alarmed lords send a message after her to demand her + signature of the security upon which she had duped them into counting + prematurely. + </p> + <p> + Within a week they were in full flight before the army at the head of + which the prisoner who had slipped through their hands was returning to + destroy them. Too late did they perceive the arts by which she had fooled + them, and seduced the shallow Darnley to betray them. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. THE NIGHT OF KIRK O' FIELD—The Murder of Darnley + </h2> + <p> + Perhaps one of the greatest mistakes of a lifetime in which mistakes were + plentiful was the hesitancy of the Queen of Scots in executing upon her + husband Darnley the prompt vengeance she had sworn for the murder of David + Rizzio. + </p> + <p> + When Rizzio was slain, and she herself held captive by the murderers in + her Palace of Holyrood, whilst Darnley ruled as king, she had simulated + belief in her husband's innocence that she might use him for her vengeful + ends. + </p> + <p> + She had played so craftily upon his cowardly nature as to convince him + that Morton, Ruthven, and the other traitor lords with whom he had leagued + himself were at heart his own implacable enemies; that they pretended + friendship for him to make a tool of him, and that when he had served + their turn they would destroy him. + </p> + <p> + In his consequent terror he had betrayed his associates, assisting her to + trick them by a promise to sign an act of oblivion for what was done. + Trusting to this the lords had relaxed their vigilance, whereupon, + accompanied by Darnley, she had escaped by night from Holyrood. + </p> + <p> + Hope tempering at first the rage and chagrin in the hearts of the lords + she had duped, they had sent a messenger to her at Dunbar to request of + her the fulfilment of her promise to sign the document of their security. + </p> + <p> + But Mary put off the messenger, and whilst the army she had summoned was + hastily assembling, she used her craft to divide the rebels against + themselves. + </p> + <p> + To her natural brother, the Earl of Murray, to Argyll, and to all those + who had been exiled for their rebellion at the time of her marriage—and + who knew not where they stood in the present turn of events, since one of + the objects of the murder had been to procure their reinstatement—she + sent an offer of complete pardon, on condition that they should at once + dissociate themselves from those concerned in the death of the Seigneur + Davie. + </p> + <p> + These terms they accepted thankfully, as well they might. Thereupon, + finding themselves abandoned by all men—even by Darnley in whose + service they had engaged in the murder—Morton, Ruthven, and their + associates scattered and fled. + </p> + <p> + By the end of that month of March, Morton, Ruthven, Lindsay of the Byres, + George Douglas, and some sixty others were denounced as rebels with + forfeiture of life and goods, while one Thomas Scott, who had been in + command of the guards that had kept Her Majesty prisoner at Holyrood, was + hanged, drawn, and quartered at the Market Cross. + </p> + <p> + News of this reached the fugitives to increase their desperate rage. But + what drove the iron into the soul of the arch-murderer Ruthven was + Darnley's solemn public declaration denying all knowledge of or complicity + in Rizzio's assassination; nor did it soothe his fury to know that all + Scotland rang with contemptuous laughter at that impudent and cowardly + perjury. From his sick-bed at Newcastle, whereon some six weeks later he + was to breathe his last, the forsaken wretch replied to it by sending the + Queen the bond to which he had demanded Darnley's signature before + embarking upon the business. + </p> + <p> + It was a damning document. There above the plain signature and seal of the + King was the admission, not merely of complicity, but that the thing was + done by his express will and command, that the responsibility was his own, + and that he would hold the doers scatheless from all consequences. + </p> + <p> + Mary could scarcely have hoped to be able to confront her worthless + husband with so complete a proof of his duplicity and baseness. She sent + for him, confounded him with the sight of that appalling bond, made an end + to the amity which for her own ends she had pretended, and drove him out + of her presence with a fury before which he dared not linger. + </p> + <p> + You see him, then, crushed under his load of mortification, realizing at + last how he had been duped on every hand, first by the lords for their own + purpose, and then by the Queen for hers. Her contempt of him was now so + manifest that it spread to all who served him—for she made it plain + that who showed him friendship earned her deep displeasure—so that + he was forced to withdraw from a Court where his life was become + impossible. For a while he wandered up and down a land where every door + was shut in his face, where every man of whatsoever party, traitor or + true, despised him alike. In the end, he took himself off to his father, + Lennox, and at Glasgow he sought what amusement he could with his dogs and + his hawks, and such odd vulgar rustic love-affairs as came his way. + </p> + <p> + It was in allowing him thus to go his ways, in leaving her vengeance—indeed, + her justice—but half accomplished, that lay the greatest of the + Queen's mistakes. Better for her had she taken with Darnley the direct way + that was her right. Better for her, if acting strongly then, she had + banished or hanged him for his part in the treason that had inspired the + murder of Rizzio. Unfortunately, a factor that served to quicken her + abhorrence of him served also to set a curb of caution upon the + satisfaction of it. + </p> + <p> + This factor that came so inopportunely into her life was her regard for + the arrogant, unscrupulous Earl of Bothwell. Her hand was stayed by fear + that men should say that for Bothwell's sake she had rid herself of a + husband become troublesome. That Bothwell had been her friend in the hour + when she had needed friends, and knew not whom she might trust; that by + his masterfulness he seemed a man upon whom a woman might lean with + confidence, may account for the beginnings of the extraordinary influence + he came so swiftly to exercise over her, and the passion he awakened in + her to such a degree that she was unable to dissemble it. + </p> + <p> + Her regard for him, the more flagrant by contrast with her contempt for + Darnley, is betrayed in the will she made before her confinement in the + following June. Whilst to Darnley she bequeathed nothing but the + red-enamelled diamond ring with which he had married her—“It was + with this that I was married,” she wrote almost contemptuously. “I leave + it to the King who gave it me”—she appointed Bothwell to the + tutelage of her child in the event of her not surviving it, and to the + government of the realm. + </p> + <p> + The King came to visit her during her convalescence, and was scowled upon + by Murray and Argyll, who were at Holyrood, and most of all by Bothwell, + whose arrogance by now was such that he was become the best-hated man in + Scotland. The Queen received him very coldly, whilst using Bothwell more + than cordially in his very presence, so that he departed again in a deeper + humiliation than before. + </p> + <p> + Then before the end of July there was her sudden visit to Bothwell at + Alloa, which gave rise to so much scandal. Hearing of it, Darnley followed + in a vain attempt to assert his rights as king and husband, only to be + flouted and dismissed with the conviction that his life was no longer safe + in Scotland, and that he had best cross the Border. Yet, to his undoing, + detained perhaps by the overweening pride that is usually part of a fool's + equipment, he did not act upon that wise resolve. He returned instead to + his hawking and his hunting, and was seldom seen at Court thereafter. + </p> + <p> + Even when in the following October, Mary lay at the point of death at + Jedburgh, Darnley came but to stay a day, and left her again without any + assurance that she would recover. But then the facts of her illness, and + how it had been contracted, were not such as to encourage kindness in him, + even had he been inclined to kindness. + </p> + <p> + Bothwell had taken three wounds in a Border affray some weeks before, and + Mary, hearing of this and that he lay in grievous case at Hermitage, had + ridden thither in her fond solicitude—a distance of thirty miles—and + back again in the same day, thus contracting a chill which had brought her + to the very gates of death. + </p> + <p> + Darnley had not only heard of this, but he had found Bothwell at Jedburgh, + whither he had been borne in a litter, when in his turn he had heard of + how it was with Mary; and Bothwell had treated him with more than the + contempt which all men now showed him, but which from none could wound him + so deeply as from this man whom rumour accounted Mary's lover. + </p> + <p> + Matters between husband and wife were thus come to a pass in which they + could not continue, as all men saw, and as she herself confessed at + Craigmillar, whither she repaired, still weak in body, towards the end of + November. + </p> + <p> + Over a great fire that blazed in a vast chamber of the castle she sat sick + at heart and shivering, for all that her wasted body was swathed in a long + cloak of deepest purple reversed with ermine. Her face was thin and of a + transparent pallor, her eyes great pools of wistfulness amid the shadows + which her illness had set about them. + </p> + <p> + “I do wish I could be dead!” she sighed. + </p> + <p> + Bothwell's eyes narrowed. He was leaning on the back of her tall chair, a + long, virile figure with a hawk-nosed, bearded face that was sternly + handsome. He thrust back the crisp dark hair that clustered about his + brow, and fetched a sigh. + </p> + <p> + “It was never my own death I wished when a man stood in my road to aught I + craved,” he said, lowering his voice, for Maitland of Lethington—now + restored to his secretaryship—was writing at a table across the + room, and my Lord of Argyll was leaning over him. + </p> + <p> + She looked up at him suddenly, her eyes startled. + </p> + <p> + “What devil's counsel do you whisper?” she asked him. And when he would + have answered, she raised a hand. “No,” she said. “Not that way.” + </p> + <p> + “There is another,” said Bothwell coolly. He moved, came round, and stood + squarely upon the hearth, his back to the fire, confronting her, nor did + he further trouble to lower his voice. “We have considered it already.” + </p> + <p> + “What have you considered?” + </p> + <p> + Her voice was strained; fear and excitement blended in her face. + </p> + <p> + “How the shackles that fetter you might be broken. Be not alarmed. It was + the virtuous Murray himself propounded it to Argyll and Lethington—for + the good of Scotland and yourself.” A sneer flitted across his tanned + face. “Let them speak for themselves.” He raised his voice and called to + them across the room. + </p> + <p> + They came at once, and the four made an odd group as they stood there in + the firelit gloom of that November day—the lovely young Queen, so + frail and wistful in her high-backed chair; the stalwart, arrogant + Bothwell, magnificent in a doublet of peach-coloured velvet that tapered + to a golden girdle; Argyll, portly and sober in a rich suit of black; and + Maitland of Lethington, lean and crafty of face, in a long furred gown + that flapped about his bony shanks. + </p> + <p> + It was to Lethington that Bothwell addressed himself. + </p> + <p> + “Her Grace is in a mood to hear how the Gordian knot of her marriage might + be unravelled,” said he, grimly ironic. + </p> + <p> + Lethington raised his eyebrows, licked his thin lips, and rubbed his bony + hands one in the other. + </p> + <p> + “Unravelled?” he echoed with wondering stress. “Unravelled? Ha!” His dark + eyes flashed round at them. “Better adopt Alexander's plan, and cut it. + 'Twill be more complete, and—and final.” + </p> + <p> + “No, no!” she cried. “I will not have you shed his blood.” + </p> + <p> + “He himself was none so tender where another was concerned,” Bothwell + reminded her—as if the memory of Rizzio were dear to him. + </p> + <p> + “What he may have done does not weigh upon my conscience,” was her answer. + </p> + <p> + “He might,” put in Argyll, “be convicted of treason for having consented + to Your Grace's retention in ward at Holyrood after Rizzio's murder.” + </p> + <p> + She considered an instant, then shook her head. + </p> + <p> + “It is too late. It should have been done long since. Now men will say + that it is but a pretext to be rid of him.” She looked up at Bothwell, who + remained standing immediately before her, between her and the fire. “You + said that my Lord of Murray had discussed this matter. Was it in such + terms as these?” + </p> + <p> + Bothwell laughed silently at the thought of the sly Murray rendering + himself a party to anything so direct and desperate. It was Lethington who + answered her. + </p> + <p> + “My Lord Murray was for a divorce. That would set Your Grace free, and it + might be obtained, he said, by tearing up the Pope's bull of dispensation + that permitted the marriage. Yet, madame, although Lord Murray would + himself go no further, I have no cause to doubt that were other means + concerted, he would be content to look through his fingers.” + </p> + <p> + Her mind, however, did not seem to follow his speech beyond the matter of + the divorce. A faint flush of eagerness stirred in her pale cheeks. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, yes!” she cried. “I, too, have thought of that—of this divorce. + And God knows I do not want for grounds. And it could be obtained, you + say, by tearing up this papal bull?” + </p> + <p> + “The marriage could be proclaimed void thereafter,” Argyll explained. + </p> + <p> + She looked past Bothwell into the fire, and took her chin in her hand. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she said slowly, musingly, and again, “yes. That were a way. That + is the way.” And then suddenly she looked up, and they saw doubt and dread + in her eyes. “But in that case—what of my son?” + </p> + <p> + “Aye!” said Lethington grimly. He shrugged his narrow shoulders, parted + his hands, and brought them together again. “That's the obstacle, as we + perceived. It would imperil his succession.” + </p> + <p> + “It would make a bastard of him, you mean?” she cried, demanding the full + expansion of their thoughts. + </p> + <p> + “Indeed it would do no less,” the secretary assented. + </p> + <p> + “So that,” said Bothwell, softly, “we come back to Alexander's method. + What the fingers may not unravel, the knife can sever.” + </p> + <p> + She shivered, and drew her furred cloak the more closely about her. + </p> + <p> + Lethington leaned forward. He spoke in kindly, soothing accents. + </p> + <p> + “Let us guide this matter among us, madame,” he murmured, “and we'll find + means to rid Your Grace of this young fool, without hurt to your honour or + prejudice to your son. And the Earl of Murray will look the other way, + provided you pardon Morton and his friends for the killing they did in + Darnley's service.” + </p> + <p> + She looked from one to the other of them, scanning each face in turn. Then + her eyes returned to a contemplation of the flaming logs, and she spoke + very softly. + </p> + <p> + “Do nothing by which a spot might be laid on my honour or conscience,” she + said, with an odd deliberateness that seemed to insist upon the strictly + literal meaning of her words. “Rather I pray you let the matter rest until + God remedy it.” + </p> + <p> + Lethington looked at the other two, the other two looked at him. He rubbed + his hands softly. + </p> + <p> + “Trust to us, madame,” he answered. “We will so guide the matter that Your + Grace shall see nothing but what is good and approved by Parliament.” + </p> + <p> + She committed herself to no reply, and so they were content to take their + answer from her silence. They went in quest of Huntly and Sir James + Balfour, and the five of them entered into a bond for the destruction of + him whom they named “the young fool and proud tiranne,” to be engaged in + when Mary should have pardoned Morton and his fellow-conspirators. + </p> + <p> + It was not until Christmas Eve that she signed this pardon of some seventy + fugitives, proscribed for their participation in the Rizzio murder, + towards whom she had hitherto shown herself so implacable. + </p> + <p> + The world saw in this no more than a deed of clemency and charity + befitting the solemn festival of good-will. But the five who had entered + into that bond at Craigmillar Castle beheld in it more accurately the + fulfilment of her part of the suggested bargain, the price she paid in + advance to be rid of Darnley, the sign of her full agreement that the knot + which might not be unravelled should be cut. + </p> + <p> + On that same day Her Grace went with Bothwell to Lord Drummond's, where + they abode for the best part of a week, and thence they went on together + to Tullibardine, the rash and open intimacy between them giving + nourishment to scandal. + </p> + <p> + At the same time Darnley quitted Stirling, where he had lately been living + in miserable conditions, ignored by the nobles, and even stinted in his + necessary expenses, deprived of his ordinary servants, and his silver + replaced by pewter. The miserable youth reached Glasgow deadly sick. He + had been taken ill on the way, and the inevitable rumour was spread that + he had been poisoned. Later, when it became known that his once lovely + countenance was now blotched and disfigured, it was realized that his + illness was no more than the inevitable result of the debauched life he + led. + </p> + <p> + Conceiving himself on the point of death, Darnley wrote piteously to the + Queen; but she ignored his letters until she learnt that his condition was + improving, when at last (on January 29th) she went to visit him at + Glasgow. It may well be that she nourished some hope that nature would + resolve the matter for her, and remove the need for such desperate + measures as had been concerted. But seeing him likely to recover, two + things became necessary, to bring him to the place that was suitable for + the fulfilment of her designs, and to simulate reconciliation with him, + and even renewed and tender affection, so that none might hereafter charge + her with complicity in what should follow. + </p> + <p> + I hope that in this I do her memory no injustice. It is thus that I read + the sequel, nor can I read it in any other way. + </p> + <p> + She found him abed, with a piece of taffeta over his face to hide its + disfigurement, and she was so moved—as it seemed—by his + condition, that she fell on her knees beside him, and wept in the presence + of her attendants and his own; confessing penitence if anything she had + done in the past could have contributed to their estrangement. Thus + reconciliation followed, and she used him tenderly, grew solicitous + concerning him, and vowed that as soon as he could be moved, he must be + taken to surroundings more salubrious and more befitting the dignity of + his station. + </p> + <p> + Gladly then he agreed to return with her to Holyrood. + </p> + <p> + “Not to Holyrood,” she said. “At least, not until your health is mended, + lest you should carry thither infection dangerous to your little son.” + </p> + <p> + “Whither then?” he asked her, and when she mentioned Craigmillar, he + started up in bed, so that the taffeta slipped from his face, and it was + with difficulty that she dissembled the loathing with which the sight of + its pustules inspired her. + </p> + <p> + “Craigmillar!” he cried. “Then what I was told is true.” + </p> + <p> + “What were you told?” quoth she, staring at him, brows knit, her face + blank. + </p> + <p> + A rumour had filtered through to him of the Craigmillar bond. He had been + told that a letter drawn up there had been presented to her for her + signature, which she had refused. Thus much he told her, adding that he + could not believe that she would do him any hurt; and yet why did she + desire to bear him to Craigmillar? + </p> + <p> + “You have been told lies,” she answered him. “I saw no such letter; I + subscribed none, nor was ever asked to subscribe any,” which indeed was + literally true. “To this I swear. As for your going to Craigmillar, you + shall go whithersoever you please, yourself.” + </p> + <p> + He sank back on his pillows, and his trembling subsided. + </p> + <p> + “I believe thee, Mary. I believe thou'ld never do me any harm,” he + repeated, “and if any other would,” he added on a bombastic note, “they + shall buy it dear, unless they take me sleeping. But I'll never to + Craigmillar.” + </p> + <p> + “I have said you shall go where you please,” she assured him again. + </p> + <p> + He considered. + </p> + <p> + “There is the house at Kirk o' Field. It has a fine garden, and is in a + position that is deemed the healthiest about Edinburgh. I need good air; + good air and baths have been prescribed me to cleanse me of this plague. + Kirk o' Field will serve, if it be your pleasure.” + </p> + <p> + She gave a ready consent, dispatched messengers ahead to prepare the + house, and to take from Holyrood certain furnishings that should improve + the interior, and render it as fitting as possible a dwelling for a king. + </p> + <p> + Some days later they set out, his misgivings quieted by the tenderness + which she now showed him—particularly when witnesses were at hand. + </p> + <p> + It was a tenderness that grew steadily during those twelve days in which + he lay in convalescence in the house at Kirk o' Field; she was playful and + coquettish with him as a maid with her lover, so that nothing was talked + of but the completeness of this reconciliation, and the hope that it would + lead to a peace within the realm that would be a benefit to all. Yet many + there were who marvelled at it, wondering whether the waywardness and + caprice of woman could account for so sudden a change from hatred to + affection. + </p> + <p> + Darnley was lodged on the upper floor, in a room comfortably furnished + from the palace. It was hung with six pieces of tapestry, and the floor + was partly covered by an Eastern carpet. It contained, besides the + handsome bed—which once had belonged to the Queen's mother—a + couple of high chairs in purple velvet, a little table with a green velvet + cover, and some cushions in red. By the side of the bed stood the + specially prepared bath that was part of the cure which Darnley was + undergoing. It had for its incongruous lid a door that had been lifted + from its hinges. + </p> + <p> + Immediately underneath was a room that had been prepared for the Queen, + with a little bed of yellow and green damask, and a furred coverlet. The + windows looked out upon the close, and the door opened upon the passage + leading to the garden. + </p> + <p> + Here the Queen slept on several of those nights of early February, for + indeed she was more often at Kirk o' Field than at Holy-rood, and when she + was not bearing Darnley company in his chamber, and beguiling the tedium + of his illness, she was to be seen walking in the garden with Lady Reres, + and from his bed he could hear her sometimes singing as she sauntered + there. + </p> + <p> + Never since the ephemeral season of their courtship had she been on such + fond terms with him, and all his fears of hostile designs entertained + against him by her immediate followers were stilled at last. Yet not for + long. Into his fool's paradise came Lord Robert of Holyrood, with a + warning that flung him into a sweat of panic. + </p> + <p> + The conspirators had hired a few trusted assistants to help them carry out + their plans, and a rumour had got abroad—in the unaccountable way of + rumours—that there was danger to the King. It was of this rumour + that Lord Robert brought him word, telling him bluntly that unless he + escaped quickly from this place, he would leave his life there. Yet when + Darnley had repeated this to the Queen, and the Queen indignantly had sent + for Lord Robert and demanded to know his meaning, his lordship denied that + he had uttered any such warning, protested that his words must have been + misunderstood—that they referred solely to the King's condition, + which demanded, he thought, different treatment and healthier air. + </p> + <p> + Knowing not what to believe, Darnley's uneasiness abode with him. Yet, + trusting Mary, and feeling secure so long as she was by his side, he + became more and more insistent upon her presence, more and more fretful in + her absence. It was to quiet him that she consented to sleep as often as + might be at Kirk o' Field. She slept there on the Wednesday of that week, + and again on Friday, and she was to have done so yet again on that fateful + Sunday, February 9th, but that her servant Sebastien—one who had + accompanied her from France, and for whom she had a deep affection—was + that day married, and Her Majesty had promised to be present at the masque + that night at Holyrood, in honour of his nuptials. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, she did not utterly neglect her husband on that account. She + rode to Kirk o' Field early in the evening, accompanied by Bothwell, + Huntly, Argyll, and some others; and leaving the lords at cards below to + while away the time, she repaired to Darnley, and sat beside his bed, + soothing a spirit oddly perturbed, as if with some premonition of what was + brewing. + </p> + <p> + “Ye'll not leave me the night,” he begged her once. + </p> + <p> + “Alas,” she said, “I must! Sebastien is being wed, and I have promised to + be present.” + </p> + <p> + He sighed and shifted uneasily. + </p> + <p> + “Soon I shall be well, and then these foolish humours will cease to haunt + me. But just now I cannot bear you from my sight. When you are with me I + am at peace. I know that all is well. But when you go I am filled with + fears, lying helpless here.” + </p> + <p> + “What should you fear?” she asked him. + </p> + <p> + “The hate that I know is alive against me.” + </p> + <p> + “You are casting shadows to affright yourself,” said she. + </p> + <p> + “What's that?” he cried, half raising himself in sudden alarm. “Listen!” + </p> + <p> + From the room below came faintly a sound of footsteps, accompanied by a + noise as of something being trundled. + </p> + <p> + “It will be my servants in my room—putting it to rights.” + </p> + <p> + “To what purpose since you do not sleep there tonight?” he asked. He + raised his voice and called his page. + </p> + <p> + “Why, what will you do?” she asked him, steadying her own alarm. + </p> + <p> + He answered her by bidding the youth who had entered go see what was doing + in the room below. The lad departed, and had he done his errand + faithfully, he would have found Bothwell's followers, Hay and Hepburn, and + the Queen's man, Nicholas Hubert better known as French Paris—emptying + a keg of gunpowder on the floor immediately under the King's bed. But it + happened that in the passage he came suddenly face to face with the + splendid figure of Bothwell, cloaked and hatted, and Bothwell asked him + whither he went. + </p> + <p> + The boy told him. + </p> + <p> + “It is nothing,” Bothwell said. “They are moving Her Grace's bed in + accordance with her wishes.” + </p> + <p> + And the lad, overborne by that commanding figure which so effectively + blocked his path, chose the line of lesser resistance. He went back to + bear the King that message as if for himself he had seen what my Lord + Bothwell had but told him. + </p> + <p> + Darnley was pacified by the assurance, and the lad withdrew. + </p> + <p> + “Did I not tell you how it was?” quoth Mary. “Is not my word enough?” + </p> + <p> + “Forgive the doubt,” Darnley begged her. “Indeed, there was no doubt of + you, who have shown me so much charity in my affliction.” He sighed, and + looked at her with melancholy eyes. + </p> + <p> + “I would the past had been other than it has been between you and me,” he + said. “I was too young for kingship, I think. In my green youth I listened + to false counsellors, and was quick to jealousy and the follies it begets. + Then, when you cast me out and I wandered friendless, a devil took + possession of me. Yet, if you will but consent to bury all the past into + oblivion, I will make amends, and you shall find me worthier hereafter.” + </p> + <p> + She rose, white to the lips, her bosom heaving under her long cloak. She + turned aside and stepped to the window. She stood there, peering out into + the gloom of the close, her knees trembling under her. + </p> + <p> + “Why do you not answer me?” he cried. + </p> + <p> + “What answer do you need?” she said, and her voice shook. “Are you not + answered already?” And then, breathlessly, she added: “It is time to go, I + think.” + </p> + <p> + They heard a heavy step upon the stairs and the clank of a sword against + the rails. The door opened, and Bothwell, wrapped in his scarlet cloak, + stood bending his tall shoulders under the low lintel. His gleaming eyes, + so oddly mocking in their glance, for all that his face was set, fell upon + Darnley, and with their look flung him into an inward state of blending + fear and rage. + </p> + <p> + “Your Grace,” said Bothwell's deep voice, “it is close upon midnight.” + </p> + <p> + He came no more than in time; it needed the sight of him with its reminder + of all that he meant to her to sustain a purpose that was being sapped by + pity. + </p> + <p> + “Very well,” she said. “I come.” + </p> + <p> + Bothwell stood aside to give her egress and to invite it. But the King + delayed her. + </p> + <p> + “A moment—a word!” he begged, and to Bothwell: “Give us leave apart, + sir!” + </p> + <p> + Yet, King though he might be, there was no ready obedience from the + arrogant Border lord, her lover. It was to Mary that Bothwell looked for + commands, nor stirred until she signed to him to go. And even then he went + no farther than the other side of the door, so that he might be close at + hand to fortify her should any weakness assail her now in this supreme + hour. + </p> + <p> + Darnley struggled up in bed, caught her hand, and pulled her to him. + </p> + <p> + “Do not leave me, Mary. Do not leave me!” he implored her. + </p> + <p> + “Why, what is this?” she cried, but her voice lacked steadiness. “Would + you have me disappoint poor Sebastien, who loves me?” + </p> + <p> + “I see. Sebastien is more to you than I?” + </p> + <p> + “Now this is folly. Sebastien is my faithful servant.” + </p> + <p> + “And am I less? Do you not believe that my one aim henceforth will be to + serve you and faithfully? Oh, forgive this weakness. I am full of evil + foreboding to-night. Go, then, if go you must, but give me at least some + assurance of your love, some pledge of it in earnest that you will come + again to-morrow nor part from me again.” + </p> + <p> + She looked into the white, piteous young face that had once been so + lovely, and her soul faltered. It needed the knowledge that Bothwell + waited just beyond the door, that he could overhear what was being said, + to strengthen her fearfully in her tragic purpose. + </p> + <p> + She has been censured most for what next she did. Murray himself spoke of + it afterwards as the worst part of the business. But it is possible that + she was concerned only at the moment to put an end to a scene that was + unnerving her, and that she took the readiest means to it. + </p> + <p> + She drew a ring from her finger and slipped it on to one of his. + </p> + <p> + “Be this the pledge, then,” she said; “and so content and rest yourself.” + </p> + <p> + With that she broke from him, white and scared, and reached the door. Yet + with her hand upon the latch she paused. Looking at him she saw that he + was smiling, and perhaps horror of her betrayal of him overwhelmed her. It + must be that she then desired to warn him, yet with Bothwell within + earshot she realized that any warning must precipitate the tragedy, with + direst consequences to Bothwell and herself. + </p> + <p> + To conquer her weakness, she thought of David Rizzio, whom Darnley had + murdered almost at her feet, and whom this night was to avenge. She + thought of the Judas part that he had played in that affair, and sought + persuasion that it was fitting he should now be paid in kind. Yet, very + woman that she was, failing to find any such persuasion, she found instead + in the very thought of Rizzio the very means to convey her warning. + </p> + <p> + Standing tense and white by the door, regarding him with dilating eyes, + she spoke her last words to him. + </p> + <p> + “It would be just about this time last year that Davie was slain,” she + said, and on that passed out to the waiting Bothwell. + </p> + <p> + Once on the stairs she paused and set a hand upon the shoulder of the + stalwart Borderer. + </p> + <p> + “Must it be? Oh, must it be?” she whispered fearfully. + </p> + <p> + She caught the flash of his eyes in the half gloom as he leaned over her, + his arm about her waist drawing her to him. + </p> + <p> + “Is it not just? Is it not full merited?” he asked her. + </p> + <p> + “And yet I would that we did not profit by it,” she complained. + </p> + <p> + “Shall we pity him on that account?” he asked, and laughed softly and + shortly. “Come away,” he added abruptly. “They wait for you!” And so, by + the suasion of his arm and his imperious will, she was swept onward along + the road of her destiny. + </p> + <p> + Outside the horses were ready. There was a little group of gentlemen to + escort her, and half a dozen servants with lighted torches, whilst Lady + Reres was in waiting. A man stood forward to assist her to mount, his face + and hands so blackened by gunpowder that for a moment she failed to + recognize him. She laughed nervously when he named himself. + </p> + <p> + “Lord, Paris, how begrimed you are!” she cried; and, mounting, rode away + towards Holyrood with her torchbearers and attendants. + </p> + <p> + In the room above, Darnley lay considering her last words. He turned them + over in his thoughts, assured by the tone she had used and how she had + looked that they contained some message. + </p> + <p> + “It would be just about this time last year that Davie was slain.” + </p> + <p> + In themselves, those words were not strictly accurate. It wanted yet a + month to the anniversary of Rizzio's death. And why, at parting, should + she have reminded him of that which she had agreed should be forgotten? + Instantly came the answer that she sought to warn him that retribution was + impending. He thought again of the rumours that he had heard of a bond + signed at Craigmillar; he recalled Lord Robert's warning to him, + afterwards denied. + </p> + <p> + He recalled her words to himself at the time of Rizzio's death: “Consider + well what I now say. Consider and remember. I shall never rest until I + give you as sore a heart as I have presently.” And further, he remembered + her cry at once agonized and fiercely vengeful: “Jamais, jamais je + n'oublierai.” + </p> + <p> + His terrors mounted swiftly, to be quieted again at last when he looked at + the ring she had put upon his finger in pledge of her renewed affection. + The past was dead and buried, surely. Though danger might threaten, she + would guard him against it, setting her love about him like a panoply of + steel. When she came to-morrow, he would question her closely, and she + should be more frank and open with him, and tell him all. Meanwhile, he + would take his precautions for to-night. + </p> + <p> + He sent his page to make fast all doors. The youth went and did as he was + bidden, with the exception of the door that led to the garden. It had no + bolts, and the key was missing; yet, seeing his master's nervous, excited + state, he forbore from any mention of that circumstance when presently he + returned to him. + </p> + <p> + Darnley requested a book of Psalms, that he might read himself to sleep. + The page dozed in a chair, and so the hours passed; and at last the King + himself fell into a light slumber. Out of this he started suddenly at a + little before two o'clock, and sat upright in bed, alarmed without knowing + why, listening with straining ears and throbbing pulses. + </p> + <p> + He caught a repetition of the sound that had aroused him, a sound akin to + that which had drawn his attention earlier, when Mary had been with him. + It came up faintly from the room immediately beneath: her room. Some one + was moving there, he thought. Then, as he continued to listen, all became + quiet again, save his fears, which would not be quieted. He extinguished + the light, slipped from the bed, and, crossing to the window, peered out + into the close that was faintly illumined by a moon in its first quarter. + A shadow moved, he thought. He watched with increasing panic for + confirmation, and presently saw that he had been right. Not one, but + several shadows were shifting there among the trees. Shadows of men, they + were, and as he peered, he saw one that went running from the house across + the lawn and joined the others, now clustered together in a group. What + could be their purpose here? In the silence, he seemed to hear again the + echo of Mary's last words to him: + </p> + <p> + “It would be just about this time last year that Davie was slain.” + </p> + <p> + In terror, he groped his way to the chair where the page slept and shook + the lad vigorously. + </p> + <p> + “Afoot, boy!” he said, in a hoarse whisper. He had meant to shout it, but + his voice failed him, his windpipe clutched by panic. “Afoot—we are + beset by enemies!” + </p> + <p> + At once the youth was wide awake, and together the King just in his shirt + as he was—they made their way from the room in the dark, groping + their way, and so reached the windows at the back. Darnley opened one of + these very softly, then sent the boy back for a sheet. Making this fast, + they descended by it to the garden, and started towards the wall, + intending to climb it, that they might reach the open. + </p> + <p> + The boy led the way, and the King followed, his teeth chattering as much + from the cold as from the terror that possessed him. And then, quite + suddenly, without the least warning, the ground, it seemed to them, heaved + under their feet, and they were flung violently forward on their faces. A + great blaze rent the darkness of the night, accompanied by the thunders of + an explosion so terrific that it seemed as if the whole world must have + been shattered by it. + </p> + <p> + For some instants the King and his page lay half stunned where they had + fallen, and well might it have been for them had they so continued. But + Darnley, recovering, staggered to his feet, pulling the boy up with him + and supporting him. Then, as he began to move, he heard a soft whistle in + the gloom behind him. Over his shoulder he looked towards the house, to + behold a great, smoking gap now yawning in it. Through this gap he caught + a glimpse of shadowy men moving in the close beyond, and he realized that + he had been seen. The white shirt he wore had betrayed his presence to + them. + </p> + <p> + With a stifled scream, he began to run towards the wall, the page + staggering after him. Behind them now came the clank and thud of a score + of overtaking feet. Soon they were surrounded. The King turned this way + and that, desperately seeking a way out of the murderous human ring that + fenced them round. + </p> + <p> + “What d'ye seek? What d'ye seek?” he screeched, in a pitiful attempt to + question with authority. + </p> + <p> + A tall man in a trailing cloak advanced and seized him. + </p> + <p> + “We seek thee, fool!” said the voice of Bothwell. + </p> + <p> + The kingliness that he had never known how to wear becomingly now fell + from him utterly. + </p> + <p> + “Mercy—mercy!” he cried. + </p> + <p> + “Such mercy as you had on David Rizzio!” answered the Border lord. + </p> + <p> + Darnley fell on his knees and sought to embrace the murderer's legs. + Bothwell stooped over him, seized the wretched man's shirt, and pulled it + from his shivering body; then, flinging the sleeves about the royal neck, + slipped one over the other and drew them tight, nor relaxed his hold until + the young man's struggles had entirely ceased. + </p> + <p> + Four days later, Mary went to visit the body of her husband in the chapel + of Holyrood House, whither it had been conveyed, and there, as a + contemporary tells us, she looked upon it long, “not only without grief, + but with greedy eyes.” Thereafter it was buried secretly in the night by + Rizzio's side, so that murderer and victim lay at peace together in the + end. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. THE NIGHT OF BETRAYAL—Antonio Perez and Philip II of Spain + </h2> + <p> + “You a Spaniard of Spain?” had been her taunt, dry and contemptuous. “I do + not believe it.” + </p> + <p> + And upon that she had put spur to the great black horse that bore her and + had ridden off along the precipitous road by the river. + </p> + <p> + After her he had flung his answer on a note of laughter, bitter and + cynical as the laughter of the damned, laughter that expressed all things + but mirth. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, a Spaniard of Spain, indeed, Madame la Marquise. Very much a Spaniard + of Spain, I assure you.” + </p> + <p> + The great black horse and the woman in red flashed round a bend of the + rocky road and were eclipsed by a clump of larches. The man leaned heavily + upon his ebony cane, sighed wearily, and grew thoughtful. Then, with a + laugh and a shrug, he sat down in the shade of the firs that bordered the + road. Behind him, crowning the heights, loomed the brown castle built by + Gaston Phoebus, Count of Foix, two hundred years ago, and the Tower of + Montauzet, its walls scarred by the shots of the rebellious Biscayans. + Below him, nourished by the snows that were dissolving under the sunshine + of early spring, sped the tumbling river; beyond this spread pasture and + arable land to the distant hills, and beyond those stood the gigantic + sharp-summited wall of the Pyrenees, its long ridge dominated by the + cloven cone of the snow clad Pic du Midi. There was in the sight of that + great barrier, at once natural and political, a sense of security for this + fugitive from the perils and the hatreds that lurked in Spain beyond. Here + in Bearn he was a king's guest, enjoying the hospitality of the great + Castle of Pau, safe from the vindictive persecution of the mean tyrant who + ruled in Spain. And here, at last, he was at peace, or would have been but + for the thought of this woman—this Marquise de Chantenac—who + had gone to such lengths in her endeavours to soften his exile that her + ultimate object could never have been in doubt to a coxcomb, though it was + in some doubt to Antonio Perez, who had been cured for all time of + Coxcombry by suffering and misfortune, to say nothing of increasing age. + It was when he bethought him of that age of his that he was chiefly + intrigued by the amazing ardour of this great lady of Bearn. A dozen years + ago—before misfortune overtook him—he would have accepted her + flagrant wooing as a proper tribute. For then he had been the handsome, + wealthy, witty, profligate Secretary of State to His Catholic Majesty King + Philip II, with a power in Spain second only to the King's, and sometimes + even greater. In those days he would have welcomed her as her endowments + merited. She was radiantly lovely, in the very noontide of her resplendent + youth, the well-born widow of a gentleman of Bearn. And it would not have + lain within the strength or inclinations of Antonio Perez, as he once had + been, to have resisted the temptation that she offered. Ever avid of + pleasure, he had denied himself no single cup of it that favouring Fortune + had proffered him. It was, indeed, because of this that he was fallen from + his high estate; it was a woman who had pulled him down in ruin, tumbling + with him to her doom. She, poor soul, was dead at last, which was the best + that any lover could have wished her. But he lived on, embittered, + vengeful, with gall in his veins instead of blood. He was the pale, faded + shadow of that arrogant, reckless, joyous Antonio Perez beloved of + Fortune. He was fifty, gaunt, hollow-eyed, and grey, half crippled by + torture, sickly from long years of incarceration. + </p> + <p> + What, he asked himself, sitting there, his eyes upon the eternal snows of + the barrier that shut out his past, was there left in him to awaken love + in such a woman as Madame de Chantenac? Was it that his tribulations + stirred her pity, or that the fame of him which rang through Europe shed + upon his withering frame some of the transfiguring radiance of romance? + </p> + <p> + It marked, indeed, the change in him that he should pause to question, + whose erstwhile habit had been blindly to accept the good things tossed by + Fortune into his lap. But question he did, pondering that parting taunt of + hers to which, for emphasis, she had given an odd redundancy—“You a + Spaniard of Spain!” Could her meaning have been plainer? Was not a + Spaniard proverbially as quick to love as to jealousy? Was not Spain, that + scented land of warmth and colour, of cruelty and blood, of throbbing + lutes under lattices ajar, of mitred sinners doing public penance, that + land where lust and piety went hand in hand, where passion and penitence + lay down together—was not Spain the land of love's most fruitful + growth? And was not a Spaniard the very hierophant of love? + </p> + <p> + His thoughts swung with sudden yearning to his wife Juana and their + children, held in brutal captivity by Philip, who sought to slake upon + them some of the vindictiveness from which their husband and father had at + last escaped. Not that Antonio Perez observed marital fidelity more + closely than any other Spaniard of his time, or of any time. But Antonio + Perez was growing old, older than he thought, older than his years. He + knew it. Madame de Chantenac had proved it to him. + </p> + <p> + She had reproached him with never coming to see her at Chantenac, + neglecting to return the too assiduous visits that she paid him here at + Pau. + </p> + <p> + “You are very beautiful, madame, and the world is very foul,” he had + excused himself. “Believe one who knows the world, to his bitter cost. + Tongues will wag.” + </p> + <p> + “And your Spanish pride will not suffer that clods may talk of you?” + </p> + <p> + “I am thinking of you, madame.” + </p> + <p> + “Of me?” she had answered. “Why, of me they talk already—talk their + fill. I must pretend blindness to the leering eyes that watch me each time + I come to Pau; feign unconsciousness of the impertinent glances of the + captain of the castle there as I ride in.” + </p> + <p> + “Then why do you come?” he had asked point-blank. But before her sudden + change of countenance he had been quick to add: “Oh, madame, I am full + conscious of the charity that brings you, and I am deeply, deeply + grateful; but—” + </p> + <p> + “Charity?” she had interrupted sharply, on a laugh that was self-mocking. + “Charity?” + </p> + <p> + “What else, madame?” + </p> + <p> + “Ask yourself,” she had answered, reddening and averting her face from his + questioning eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Madame,” he had faltered, “I dare not.” + </p> + <p> + “Dare not?” + </p> + <p> + “Madame, how should I? I am an old man, broken by sickness, disheartened + by misfortune, daunted by tribulation—a mere husk cast aside by + Fortune, whilst you are lovely as one of the angels about the Throne of + Heaven.” + </p> + <p> + She had looked into the haggard face, into the scars of suffering that + seared it, and she had answered gently: “Tomorrow you shall come to me at + Chantenac, my friend.” + </p> + <p> + “I am a Spaniard, for whom to-morrow never comes.” + </p> + <p> + “But it will this time. To-morrow I shall expect you.” + </p> + <p> + He looked up at her sitting her great black horse beside which he had been + pacing. + </p> + <p> + “Better not, madame! Better not!” he had said. + </p> + <p> + And then he saw the eyes that had been tender grow charged with scorn; + then came her angry taunt: + </p> + <p> + “You a Spaniard of Spain! I do not believe it!” + </p> + <p> + Oh, there was no doubt that he had angered her. Women of her temperament + are quick to anger as to every emotion. But he had not wished to anger + her. God knows it was never the way of Antonio Perez to anger lovely women—at + least not in this fashion. And it was an ill return for her gentleness and + attention to himself. Considering this as he sat there now, he resolved + that he must make amends—the only amends it was possible to make. + </p> + <p> + An hour later, in one of the regal rooms of the castle, where he enjoyed + the hospitality of King Henri IV of France and Navarre, he announced to + that most faithful equerry, Gil de Mesa, his intention of riding to + Chantenac to-morrow. + </p> + <p> + “Is it prudent?” quoth Mesa, frowning. + </p> + <p> + “Most imprudent,” answered Don Antonio. “That is why I go.” + </p> + <p> + And on the morrow he went, escorted by a single groom. Gil de Mesa had + begged at first to be allowed to accompany him. But for Gil he had other + work, of which the instructions he left were very full. The distance was + short—three miles along the Gave de Pau—and Don Antonio + covered it on a gently ambling mule, such as might have been bred to bear + some aged dignitary of Holy Church. + </p> + <p> + The lords of Chantenac were as noble, as proud, and as poor as most great + lords of Bearn. Their lineage was long, their rent-rolls short. And the + last marquis had suffered more from this dual complaint than any of his + forbears, and he had not at all improved matters by a certain habit of + gaming contracted in youth. The chateau bore abundant signs of it. It was + a burnt red pile standing four-square on a little eminence, about the base + of which the river went winding turbulently; it was turreted at each of + its four angles, imposing in its way, but in a sad state of dilapidation + and disrepair. + </p> + <p> + The interior, when Don Antonio reached it, was rather better; the + furnishings, though sparse, were massive and imposing; the tapestries on + the walls, if old, were rich and choice. But everywhere the ill-assorted + marriage of pretentiousness and neediness was apparent. The floors of hall + and living-room were strewn with fresh-cut rushes, an obsolescent custom + which served here alike to save the heavy cost of carpets and to lend the + place an ancient baronial dignity. Whilst pretence was made of keeping + state, the servitors were all old, and insufficient in number to warrant + the retention of the infirm seneschal by whom Don Antonio was + ceremoniously received. A single groom, aged and without livery, took + charge at once of Don Antonio's mule, his servant's horse, and the servant + himself. + </p> + <p> + The seneschal, hobbling before him, conducted our Spaniard across the + great hall, gloomy and half denuded, through the main living-room of the + chateau into a smaller, more intimate apartment, holding some trace of + luxury, which he announced as madame's own room. And there he left him to + await the coming of the chatelaine. + </p> + <p> + She, at least, showed none of the outward disrepair of her surroundings. + She came to him sheathed in a gown of shimmering silk that was of the + golden brown of autumn tints, caught to her waist by a slender girdle of + hammered gold. Eyes of deepest blue pondered him questioningly, whilst red + lips smiled their welcome. “So you have come in spite of all?” she greeted + him. “Be very welcome to my poor house, Don Antonio.” + </p> + <p> + And regally she proffered her hand to his homage. + </p> + <p> + He took it, observing the shapely, pointed fingers, the delicately curving + nails. Reluctantly, almost, he admitted to himself how complete was her + beauty, how absolute her charm. He sighed—a sigh for that lost youth + of his, perhaps—as he bowed from his fine, lean height to press cold + lips of formal duty on that hand. + </p> + <p> + “Your will, madame, was stronger than my prudence,” said he. + </p> + <p> + “Prudence?” quoth she, and almost sneered. “Since when has Antonio Perez + stooped to prudence?” + </p> + <p> + “Since paying the bitter price of imprudence. You know my story?” + </p> + <p> + “A little. I know, for instance, that you murdered Escovedo—all the + world knows that. Is that the imprudence of which you speak? I have heard + it said that it was for love of a woman that you did it.” + </p> + <p> + “You have heard that, too?” he said. He had paled a little. “You have + heard a deal, Marquise. I wonder would it amuse you to hear more, to hear + from my own lips this story of mine which all Europe garbles? Would it?” + </p> + <p> + There was a faint note of anxiety in his voice, a look faintly anxious in + his eyes. + </p> + <p> + She scanned him a moment gravely, almost inscrutably. “What purpose can it + serve?” she asked; and her tone was forbidding—almost a tone of + fear. + </p> + <p> + “It will explain,” he insisted. + </p> + <p> + “Explain what?” + </p> + <p> + “How it comes that I am not this moment prostrate at your feet; how it + happens that I am not on my knees to worship your heavenly beauty; how I + have contrived to remain insensible before a loveliness that in happier + times would have made me mad.” + </p> + <p> + “Vive Dieu!” she murmured, half ironical. “Perhaps that needs explaining.” + </p> + <p> + “How it became necessary,” he pursued, never heeding the interruption, + “that yesterday you should proclaim your disbelief that I could be, as you + said, a Spaniard of Spain. How it happens that Antonio Perez has become + incapable of any emotion but hate. Will you hear the story—all of + it?” + </p> + <p> + He was leaning towards her, his white face held close to her own, a + smouldering fire in the dark, sunken eyes that now devoured her. + </p> + <p> + She shivered, and her own cheeks turned very pale. Her lips were faintly + twisted as if in an effort to smile. + </p> + <p> + “My friend—if you insist,” she consented. + </p> + <p> + “It is the purpose for which I came,” he announced. + </p> + <p> + For a long moment each looked into the other's eyes with a singular + intentness that nothing here would seem to warrant. + </p> + <p> + At length she spoke. + </p> + <p> + “Come,” she said, “you shall tell me.” + </p> + <p> + And she waved him to a chair set in the embrasure of the mullioned window + that looked out over a tract of meadowland sweeping gently down to the + river. + </p> + <p> + Don Antonio sank into the chair, placing his hat and whip upon the floor + beside him. The Marquise faced him, occupying the padded window-seat, her + back to the light, her countenance in shadow. + </p> + <p> + And here, in his own words, follows the story that he told her as she + herself set it down soon after. Whilst more elaborate and intimate in + parts, it yet so closely agrees throughout with his own famous “Relacion,” + that I do not hesitate to accept the assurance she has left us that every + word he uttered was burnt as if by an acid upon her memory. + </p> + <p> + THE STORY OF ANTONIO PEREZ + </p> + <p> + As a love-story this is, I think, the saddest that ever was invented by a + romancer intent upon wringing tears from sympathetic hearts. How sad it is + you will realize when I tell you that daily I thank God on my knees—for + I still believe in God, despite what was alleged against me by the + inquisitors of Aragon—that she who inspired this love of which I am + to tell you is now in the peace of death. She died in exile at Pastrana a + year ago. Anne de Mendoza was what you call in France a great parti. She + came of one of the most illustrious families in Spain, and she was a great + heiress. So much all the world knew. What the world forgot was that she + was a woman, with a woman's heart and mind, a woman's natural instincts to + select her mate. There are fools who envy the noble and the wealthy. They + are little to be envied, those poor pawns in the game of statecraft, moved + hither and thither at the will of players who are themselves no better. + The human nature of them is a negligible appendage to the names and + rent-rolls that predetermine their place upon the board of worldly + ambition, a board befouled by blood, by slobberings from the evil mouth of + greed, and by infamy of every kind. + </p> + <p> + So, because Anne was a daughter of the House of Mendoza, because her + endowments were great, they plucked her from her convent at the age of + thirteen years, knowing little more of life than the merest babe, and they + flung her into the arms of Ruy Gomez, Prince of Eboli, who was old enough + to have been her father. But Eboli was a great man in Spain, perhaps the + greatest; he was, first Minister to Philip II, and between his House and + that of Mendoza an alliance was desired. To establish it that tender child + was sacrificed without ruth. She discovered that life held nothing of all + that her maiden dreamings had foreseen; that it was a thing of horror and + greed and lovelessness and worse. For there was much worse to come. + </p> + <p> + Eboli brought his child-princess to Court. He wore her lightly as a ribbon + or a glove, the insignificant appendage to the wealth and powerful + alliance he had acquired with her. And at Court she came under the eye of + that pious satyr Philip. The Catholic King is very devout—perfervidly + devout. He prays, he fasts, he approaches the sacraments, he does penance, + all in proper season as prescribed by Mother Church; he abominates sin and + lack of faith—particularly in others; he has drenched Flanders in + blood that he might wash it clean of the heresy of thinking differently + from himself in spiritual matters, and he would have done the same by + England but that God—Who cannot, after all, be quite of Philip's way + of thinking—willed otherwise. All this he has done for the greater + honour and glory of his Maker, but he will not tolerate his Maker's + interference with his own minor pleasures of the flesh. He is, as you + would say, a Spaniard of Spain. + </p> + <p> + This satyr's protruding eyes fell upon the lovely Princess of Eboli—for + lovely she was, a very pearl among women. I spare you details. Eboli was + most loyal and submissive where his King was concerned, most complacent + and accommodating. That was but logical, and need not shock you at all. To + advance his worldly ambitions had he taken Anne to wife; why should he + scruple, then, to yield her again that thus he might advance those + ambitions further? + </p> + <p> + If poor Anne argued at all, she must have argued thus. For the rest, she + was told that to be loved by the King was an overwhelming honour, a matter + for nightly prayers of thankfulness. Philip was something very exalted, + hardly human in fact; almost, if not quite, divine. Who and what was Anne + that she should dispute with those who knew the world, and who placed + these facts before her? Never in all her little life had she belonged to + herself. Always had she been the property of somebody else, to be dealt + with as her owner might consider best. If about the Court she saw some men + more nearly of her own age—though there were not many, for Philip's + Court was ever a gloomy, sparsely peopled place—she took it for + granted that such men were not for her. This until I taught her otherwise, + which, however, was not yet a while. Had I been at Court in those days, I + think I should have found the means, at whatever cost, of preventing that + infamy; for I know that I loved her from the day I saw her. But I was of + no more than her own age, and I had not yet been drawn into that + whirlpool. + </p> + <p> + So she went to the arms of that rachitic prince, and she bore him a son—for, + as all the world knows, the Duke of Prastana owns Philip for his father. + And Eboli increased in power and prosperity and the favour of his master, + and also, no doubt, in the contempt of posterity. There are times when the + thought of posterity and its vengeances is of great solace. + </p> + <p> + It would be some six years later when first I came to Court, brought + thither by my father, to enter the service of the Prince of Eboli as one + of his secretaries. As I have told you, I loved the Princess from the + moment I beheld her. From the gossip of the Court I pieced together her + story, and pitied her, and, pitying her, I loved her the more. Her beauty + dazzled me, her charm enmeshed me, and she had grown by now in worldly + wisdom and mental attainments. Yet I set a mask upon my passion, and + walked very circumspectly, for all that by nature I was as reckless and + profligate as all the world could ever call me. She was the wife of the + puissant Secretary of State, the mistress of the King. Who was I to + dispute their property to those exalted ones? + </p> + <p> + And another consideration stayed me. She seemed to love the King. Young + and lacking in wisdom, this amazed me. In age he compared favourably with + her husband he was but thirteen years older than herself—but in + nothing else. He was a weedy, unhealthy-looking man, weakly of frame, + rachitic, undersized, with spindle-shanks, and a countenance that was + almost grotesque, with its protruding jaw, gaping mouth, great, doglike + eyes, and yellow tuft of beard. A great king, perhaps, this Philip, having + so been born; but a ridiculous man and an unspeakable lover. And yet this + incomparable woman seemed to love him. + </p> + <p> + Let me pass on. For ten years I nursed that love of mine in secret. I was + helped, perhaps, by the fact that in the mean time I had married—oh, + just as Eboli himself had married, an arrangement dictated by worldly + considerations—and no better, truer mate did ever a man find than I + in Juana Coello. We had children and we were happy, and for a season—for + years, indeed—I began to think that my unspoken passion for the + Princess of Eboli was dead and done with. I saw her rarely now, and my + activities increased with increasing duties. At twenty-six I was one of + the Ministers of the Crown, and one of the chief supporters of that party + of which Eboli was the leader in Spanish politics. I sat in Philip's + Council, and I came under the spell of that taciturn, suspicious man, who, + utterly unlovable as he was, had yet an uncanny power of inspiring + devotion. From the spell of it I never quite escaped until after long + years of persecution. Yet the discovery that one by nature so entirely + antipathetic to me should have obtained such sway over my mind helped me + to understand Anne's attachment to him. + </p> + <p> + When Eboli died, in 1573, I had so advanced in ability and Royal favour + that I took his place as Secretary of State, thus becoming all but the + supreme ruler of Spain. I do not believe that there was ever in Spain a + Minister so highly favoured by the reigning Prince, so powerful as I + became. Not Eboli himself in his halcyon days had been so deeply esteemed + of Philip, or had wielded such power as I now made my own. All Europe + knows it—for it was to me all Europe addressed itself for affairs + that concerned the Catholic King. + </p> + <p> + And with my power came wealth—abundant, prodigious wealth. I was + housed like a Prince of the blood, and no Prince of the blood ever kept + greater state than I, was ever more courted, fawned upon, or flattered. + And remember I was young, little more than thirty, with all the strength + and zest to enjoy my intoxicating eminence. I was to my party what Eboli + had been, though the nominal leader of it remained Quiroga, Archbishop of + Toledo. On the other side was the Duke of Alva with his following. + </p> + <p> + You must know that it was King Philip's way to encourage two rival parties + in the State, between which he shared his confidence and sway. Thus he + stimulated emulation and enlightened his own views in the opposing + opinions that were placed before him. But the power of my party was + absolute in those days, and Alva himself was as the dust beneath our feet. + </p> + <p> + Such eminences, they say, are perilous. Heads that are very highly placed + may at any moment be placed still higher—upon a pike. I am all but a + living witness to the truth of that, and yet I wonder would it so have + fallen out with me had I mistrusted that slumbering passion of mine for + Anne. I should have known that where such fires have once been kindled in + a man they never quite die out as long as life endures. Time and + preoccupations may overlay them as with a film of ashes, but more or less + deeply down they smoulder on, and the first breath will fan them into + flame again. + </p> + <p> + It was at the King's request I went to see her in her fine Madrid house + opposite Santa Maria Mayor some months after her husband's death. There + were certain matters of heritage to be cleared up, and, having regard to + her high rank, it was Philip's wish that I—who was by now Eboli's + official successor—should wait on her in person. + </p> + <p> + There were documents to be conned and signed, and the matter took some + days, for Eboli's possessions were not only considerable, but scattered, + and his widow displayed an acquired knowledge of affairs and a natural + wisdom that inspired her to probe deeply. To my undoing, she probed too + deeply in one matter. It concerned some land—a little property—at + Velez. She had been attached to the place, it seemed, and she missed all + mention of it from the papers that I brought her. She asked the reason. + </p> + <p> + “It is disposed of,” I told her. + </p> + <p> + “Disposed of!” quoth she. “But by whom?” + </p> + <p> + “By the Prince, your husband, a little while before he died.” + </p> + <p> + She looked up at me—she was seated at the wide, carved + writing-table, I standing by her side—as if expecting me to say + more. As I left my utterance there, she frowned perplexedly. + </p> + <p> + “But what mystery is this?” she asked me. “To whom has it gone?” + </p> + <p> + “To one Sancho Gordo.” + </p> + <p> + “To Sancho Gordo?” The frown deepened. “The washerwoman's son? You will + not tell me that he bought it?” + </p> + <p> + “I do not tell you so, madame. It was a gift from the Prince, your + husband.” + </p> + <p> + “A gift!” She laughed. “To Sancho Gordo! So the washerwoman's child is + Eboli's son!” + </p> + <p> + And again she laughed on a note of deep contempt. + </p> + <p> + “Madame!” I cried, appalled and full of pity, “I assure you that you + assume too much. The Prince—” + </p> + <p> + “Let be,” she interrupted me. “Do you dream I care what rivals I may have + had, however lowly they may have been? The Prince, my husband, is dead, + and that is very well. He is much better dead, Don Antonio. The pity of it + is that he ever lived, or else that I was born a woman.” + </p> + <p> + She was staring straight before her, her hands fallen to her lap, her face + set as if carved and lifeless, and her voice came hard as the sound of one + stone beating upon another. + </p> + <p> + “Do you dream what it can mean to have been so nurtured on indignities + that there is no anger left, no pride to wound by the discovery of yet + another nothing but cold, cold hate? That, Don Antonio, is my case. You do + not know what my life has been. That man—” + </p> + <p> + “He is dead, madame,” I reminded her, out of pity. + </p> + <p> + “And damned, I hope,” she answered me in that same cold, emotionless + voice. “He deserves no less for all the wrongs he did to me, the least of + which was the great wrong of marrying me. For advancement he acquired me; + for his advancement he bartered and used me and made of me a thing of + shame.” + </p> + <p> + I was so overwhelmed with grief and love and pity that a groan escaped me + almost before I was aware of it. She broke off short, and stared at me in + haughtiness. + </p> + <p> + “You presume to pity me, I think,” she reproved me. “It is my own fault. I + was wrong to talk. Women should suffer silently, that they may preserve at + least a mask of dignity. Otherwise they incur pity—and pity is very + near contempt.” + </p> + <p> + And then I lost my head. + </p> + <p> + “Not mine, not mine!” I cried, throwing out my arms; and though that was + all I said, there was such a ring in my choking voice that she rose + stiffly from her seat and stood tense and tall confronting me, almost eye + to eye, reproof in every line of her. + </p> + <p> + “Princess, forgive me!” I cried. “It breaks my heart in pieces to hear you + utter things that have been in my mind these many years, poisoning the + devotion that I owed to the late Prince, poisoning the very loyalty I owe + my King. You say I pity you. If that were so, none has the better right.” + </p> + <p> + “Who gave it you?” she asked me, breathless. + </p> + <p> + “Heaven itself, I think,” I answered recklessly. “What you have suffered, + I have suffered for you. When I came to Court the infamy was a thing + accomplished—all of it. But I gathered it, and gathering it, thanked + Heaven I had been spared the pain and misery of witnessing it, which must + have been more than ever I could have endured. Yet when I saw you, when I + watched you—your wistful beauty, your incomparable grace—there + was a time when the thought to murder stirred darkly in my mind that I + might at least avenge you.” + </p> + <p> + She fell away before me, white to the very lips, her eyes dilating as they + regarded me. + </p> + <p> + “In God's name, why?” she asked me in a strangled voice. + </p> + <p> + “Because I loved you,” I replied, “always, always, since the day I saw + you. Unfortunately, that day was years too late, even had I dared to hope—” + </p> + <p> + “Antonio!” Something in her voice drew my averted eyes. Her lips had + parted, her eyes kindled into life, a flush was stirring in her cheeks. + </p> + <p> + “And I never knew! I never knew!” she faltered piteously. + </p> + <p> + I stared. + </p> + <p> + “Dear Heaven, why did you withhold a knowledge that would have upheld me + and enheartened me through all that I have suffered? Once, long, long ago + I hoped—” + </p> + <p> + “You hoped!” + </p> + <p> + “I hoped, Antonio—long, long ago.” + </p> + <p> + We were in each other's arms, she weeping on my shoulder as if her heart + would burst, I almost mad with mingling joy and pain—and as God + lives there was more matter here for pain than joy. + </p> + <p> + We sat long together after that, and talked it out. There was no help for + it. It was too late on every count. On her side there was the King, most + jealous of all men, whose chattel she was become; on mine, there was my + wife and children, and so deep and true was my love for Anne that it + awakened in me thoughts of the loyalty I owed Juana, thoughts that had + never troubled me hitherto in my pleasure-loving life—and this not + only as concerned Anne herself, but as concerned all women. There was + something so ennobling and sanctifying about our love that it changed at + once the whole of my life, the whole tenor of my ways. I abandoned + profligacy, and became so staid and orderly in my conduct that I was + scarcely recognizable for the Antonio Perez whom the world had known + hitherto. + </p> + <p> + We parted there that day with a resolve to put all this behind us; to + efface from our minds all memory of what had passed between us! Poor fools + were we to imagine we could resist the vortex of circumstance which had + caught us. For three months we kept our engagement scrupulously; and then, + at last, resistance mutually exhausted, we yielded each to the other, both + to Fate. + </p> + <p> + But because we cherished our love we moved with caution. I was circumspect + in my comings and goings, and such were the precautions we observed, that + for four years the world had little suspicion, and certainly no knowledge, + that I had inherited from the Prince of Eboli more than his office as + Secretary of State. This secrecy was necessary as long as Philip lived, + for we were both fully aware of what manner of vengeance we should have to + reckon with did knowledge of our relations reach the jealous King. And I + think that but for Don John of Austria's affairs, and the intervention in + them of the Escovedo whom you say—whom the world says I murdered, + all might have been well to this day. + </p> + <p> + Escovedo had been, like myself, one of Eboli's secretaries in his day, and + it was this that won him after Eboli's death a place at the Royal Council + board. It was but an inferior place, yet the King remarked him for a man + shrewd and able, who might one day have his uses. + </p> + <p> + That day was not very long in coming, though the opportunity it afforded + Escovedo was scarcely such as, in his greedy, insatiable ambition, he had + hoped for. Yet the opportunity, such as it was, was afforded him by me, + and had he used it properly it should have carried him far, certainly much + farther than his talent and condition warranted. + </p> + <p> + It came about through Don John of Austria's dreams of sovereignty. You + will have heard—as who has not?—so much of Don John, the + natural son of Charles V, that I need tell you little concerning him. In + body and soul he was a very different man, indeed, from his half-brother + Philip of Spain. As joyous as Philip was gloomy, as open and frank as + Philip was cloudy and suspicious, and as beautiful as Philip was + grotesque, Don John was the Bayard of our day, the very mirror of all + knightly graces. To the victory of Lepanto, which had made him illustrious + as a soldier, he had added, in '73—the year of Eboli's death—the + conquest of Tunis, thereby completing the triumph of Christianity over the + Muslim in the Mediterranean. Success may have turned his head a little. He + was young, you know, and an emperor's son. He dreamt of an empire for + himself, of sovereignty, and of making Tunis the capital of the kingdom he + would found. + </p> + <p> + We learnt of this. Indeed, Don John made little secret of his intentions. + But they went not at all with Philip's views. It was far from his notions + that Don John should go founding kingdoms of his own. His valour and + talents were required to be employed for the greater honour and glory of + the Crown of Spain, and nothing further. + </p> + <p> + Philip consulted me, who was by then the depositary of all his secrets, + the familiar of his inmost desires. There was evidence that Don John's + ambitions were being fomented by his secretary, who dreamt, no doubt, of + his own aggrandizement in the aggrandizement of his master. Philip + proposed the man's removal. + </p> + <p> + “That would be something,” I agreed. “But not enough. He must be replaced + by a man of our own, a man loyal to Your Majesty, who will not only seek + to guide Don John in the course that he should follow, but will keep close + watch upon his projects, and warn you should they threaten to neglect your + interests the interests of Spain, for his own.” + </p> + <p> + “And such a man? Where shall we find him?” + </p> + <p> + I considered a moment, and bethought me of Escovedo. He was able; he had + charm and an ingratiating manner; I believed him loyal, and imagined that + I could quicken that loyalty by showing him that advancement would wait + upon its observation; he could well be spared from the Council, where, as + I have said, he occupied a quite inferior post; lastly, we were friends, + and I was glad of the opportunity to serve him, and place him on the road + to better things. + </p> + <p> + All this I said to Philip, and so the matter was concluded. But Escovedo + failed me. His abilities and ingratiating manner endeared him quickly to + Don John, whilst himself he succumbed entirely, not only to Don John of + Austria's great personal charm, but also to Don John's ambitious projects. + The road to advancement upon which I had set him seemed to him long and + toilsome by contrast with the shorter cut that was offered by his new + master's dreams. He fell as the earlier secretary had fallen, and more + grievously, for he was the more ambitious of the two, and from merely + seconding Don John's projects, it was not long before he spurred them on, + not long before he was dreaming dreams of his own for Don John to realize. + </p> + <p> + From Tunis, which had by now been recovered by the Turks, and any hopes + concerned with which King Philip had discouraged, the eyes of Don John + were set, at Escovedo's bidding, I believe, upon the crown of England. + </p> + <p> + He had just been invited by Philip to make ready to take in hand the + affairs of Flanders, sadly disorganized under the incompetent rule of + Alva. It occurred to him that if he were to issue victoriously from that + enterprise—and so far victory had waited upon his every venture—if + he were to succeed in restoring peace and Spanish order in rebellious + Flanders, he would then be able to move against England with the Spanish + troops under his command, overthrow Elizabeth, deliver Mary Stuart from + the captivity in which she languished, and by marriage with her set the + crown of England on his brow. To this great project he sought the support + of Rome, and Rome accorded it very readily being naturally hostile to the + heretic daughter of Anne Boleyn. + </p> + <p> + It was Escovedo himself who went as Don John's secret ambassador to the + Vatican in this affair Escovedo, who had been placed with Don John to act + as a curb on that young man's ambitions. Nor did he move with the prudence + he should have observed. + </p> + <p> + Knowledge of what was brewing reached us from the Papal Nuncio in Madrid, + who came to see me one day in the matter. + </p> + <p> + “I have a dispatch from Rome,” he announced, “in which His Holiness + instructs me to enjoin upon the King that the expedition against England + be now executed, and that he consider bestowing its crown upon Don John of + Austria for the greater honour and glory of Holy Church.” + </p> + <p> + I was thunderstruck. The expedition against England, I knew, was no new + project. Three years before a secret envoy from the Queen of Scots, an + Italian named Ridolfi, had come to propose to Philip that, in concert with + the Pope, he should reestablish the Catholic faith in England and place + Mary Stuart upon the throne. It was a scheme attractive to Philip, since + it agreed at once with his policy and his religion. But it had been + abandoned under the dissuasions of Alva, who accounted that it would be + too costly even if successful. Here it was again, emanating now directly + from the Holy See, but in a slightly altered form. + </p> + <p> + “Why Don John of Austria?” I asked him. + </p> + <p> + “A great soldier of the faith. And the Queen of Scots must have a + husband.” + </p> + <p> + “I should have thought that she had had husbands enough by now,” said I. + </p> + <p> + “His Holiness does not appear to share that view,” he answered tartly. + </p> + <p> + “I wonder will the King,” said I. + </p> + <p> + “The Catholic King is ever an obedient child of Mother Church,” the oily + Nuncio reminded me, to reprove my doubt. + </p> + <p> + But I knew better—that the King's own policy was the measure of his + obedience. This the Nuncio should learn for himself; for if I knew + anything of Philip's mind, I knew precisely how he would welcome this + proposal. + </p> + <p> + “Will you see the King now?” I suggested maliciously, anxious to witness + the humbling of his priestly arrogance. + </p> + <p> + “Not yet. It is upon that I came to see you. I am instructed first to + consult with one Escoda as to the manner in which this matter shall be + presented to His Majesty. Who is Escoda?” + </p> + <p> + “I never heard of him,” said I. “Perhaps he comes from Rome.” + </p> + <p> + “No, no. Strange!” he muttered, frowning, and plucked a parchment from his + sleeve. “It is here.” He peered slowly at the writing, and slowly spelled + out the name: “Juan de Escoda.” + </p> + <p> + In a flash it came to me. + </p> + <p> + “Escovedo you mean,” I cried, + </p> + <p> + “Yes, yes—Escovedo, to be sure,” he agreed, having consulted the + writing once more. “Where is he?” + </p> + <p> + “On his way to Madrid with Don John,” I informed him. “He is Don John's + secretary.” + </p> + <p> + “I will do nothing, then, until he arrives,” he said, and took his leave. + </p> + <p> + Oh, monstrous indiscretion! That dispatch from Rome so cunningly and + secretly contrived in cipher had yet contained no warning that Escovedo's + share in this should be concealed. There are none so imprudent as the sly. + I sought the King at once, and told him all that I had learnt. He was + aghast. Indeed, I never saw him more near to anger. For Philip of Spain + was not the man to show wrath or any other emotion. He had a fish-like, + cold, impenetrable inscrutability. True, his yellow skin grew yellower, + his gaping mouth gaped wider, his goggle eyes goggled more than usual. + Left to himself, I think he would have disgraced Don John and banished + Escovedo there and then, as he did, indeed, suggest. And I have since had + cause enough to wish to God that I had left him to himself. + </p> + <p> + “Who will replace Don John in Flanders?” I asked him quietly. He stared at + me. “He is useful to you there. Use him, Sire, to your own ends.” + </p> + <p> + “But they will press this English business.” + </p> + <p> + “Acquiesce.” + </p> + <p> + “Acquiesce? Are you mad?” + </p> + <p> + “Seem to acquiesce. Temporize. Answer them, 'One thing at a time.' Say, + 'When the Flanders business is happily concluded, we will think of + England.' Give them hope that success in Flanders will dispose you to + support the other project. Thus you offer Don John an incentive to + succeed, yet commit yourself to nothing.” + </p> + <p> + “And this dog Escovedo?” + </p> + <p> + “Is a dog who betrays himself by his bark. We will listen for it.” + </p> + <p> + And thus it was determined; thus was Don John suckled on the windy pap of + hope when presently he came to Court with Escovedo at his heels. Distended + by that empty fare he went off to the Low Countries, leaving Escovedo in + Madrid to represent him, with secret instructions to advance his plans. + </p> + <p> + Now Escovedo's talents were far inferior to my conception of them. + </p> + <p> + He was just a greedy schemer, without the wit to dissemble his appetite or + the patience necessary to secure attainment. + </p> + <p> + Affairs in Flanders went none too well, yet that did not set a curb upon + him. He pressed his master's business upon the King with an ardour + amounting to disrespect, and disrespect was a thing the awful majesty of + Philip could never brook. Escovedo complained of delays, of indecision, + and finally—in the summer of '76—he wrote the King a letter of + fierce upbraidings, criticizing his policy in terms that were + contemptuous, and which entirely exasperated Philip. + </p> + <p> + It was in vain I strove to warn the fellow of whither he was drifting; in + vain I admonished and sought to curb his headlong recklessness. I have + said that I had a friendship for him, and because of that I took more + pains, perhaps, than I should have taken in another's case. + </p> + <p> + “Unless you put some judgment into that head of yours, my friend, you will + leave it in this business,” I told him one day. + </p> + <p> + He flung into a passion at the admonition, heaped abuse upon me, swore + that it was I who thwarted him, I who opposed the fulfilment of Don John's + desires and fostered the dilatory policy of the King. + </p> + <p> + I left him after that to pursue his course, having no wish to quarrel with + this headstrong upstart; yet, liking him as I did, I spared no endeavour + to shield him from the consequences he provoked. But that letter of his to + Philip made the task a difficult one. Philip showed it to me. + </p> + <p> + “If that man,” he said, “had uttered to my face what he has dared to + write, I do not think I should have been able to contain myself without + visible change of countenance. It is a sanguinary letter.” + </p> + <p> + I set myself to calm him as best I could. + </p> + <p> + “The man is indiscreet, which has its advantage, for we always know + whither an indiscreet man is heading. His zeal for his master blinds him + and makes him rash. It is better, perhaps, than if he were secretive and + crafty.” + </p> + <p> + With such arguments I appeased his wrath against the secretary. But I knew + that his hatred of Escovedo, his thirst for Escovedo's blood, dated from + that moment in which Escovedo had forgotten the reverence due to majesty. + I was glad when at last he took himself off to Flanders to rejoin Don + John. But that was very far from setting a term to his pestering. The + Flanders affair was going so badly that the hopes of an English throne to + follow were dwindling fast. Something else must be devised against the + worst, and now Don John and Escovedo began to consider the acquisition of + power in Spain itself. Their ambition aimed at giving Don John the + standing of an Infante. Both of them wrote to me to advance this fresh + project of theirs, to work for their recall, so that they could ally + themselves with my party—the Archbishop's party—and ensure its + continuing supreme. Escovedo wrote me a letter that was little better than + an attempt to bribe me. The King was ageing, and the Prince was too young + to relieve him of the heavy duties of State. Don John should shoulder + these, and in so doing Escovedo and myself should be hoisted into greater + power. + </p> + <p> + I carried all those letters to the King, and at his suggestion I even + pretended to lend an ear to these proposals that we might draw from + Escovedo a fuller betrayal of his real ultimate aims. It was dangerous, + and I enjoined the King to move carefully. + </p> + <p> + “Be discreet,” I warned him, “for if my artifice were discovered, I should + not be of any further use to you at all. In my conscience I am satisfied + that in acting as I do I am performing no more than my duty. I require no + theology other than my own to understand that much.” + </p> + <p> + “My theology,” he answered me, “takes much the same view. You would have + failed in your duty to God and me had you failed to enlighten me on the + score of this deception. These things,” he added in a dull voice, “appal + me.” + </p> + <p> + So I wrote to Don John, urging him as one who counselled him for his good, + who had no interest but his own at heart, to remain in Flanders until the + work there should be satisfactorily completed. He did so, since he was + left no choice in the matter, but the intrigues continued. Later we saw + how far he was from having forsaken his dreams of England, when I + discovered that he had engaged the Pope to assist him with six thousand + men and one hundred and fifty thousand ducats when the time for that + adventure should be ripe. + </p> + <p> + And then, quite suddenly, entirely unheralded, Escovedo reappeared in + Madrid, having come to press Philip in person for reinforcements that + should enable Don John to finish the campaign. He brought news that there + had been a fresh rupture of the patched-up peace, that Don John had taken + the field once more, and had forcibly made himself master of Namur. This + was contrary to all the orders we had sent, a direct overriding of + Philip's wishes. The King desired peace in the Low Countries because he + was in no case just then to renew the war, and Escovedo's impudently + couched demands completed his exasperation. + </p> + <p> + “My will,” he said, “is as naught before the ambitions of these two. You + sent my clear instructions to Escovedo, who was placed with Don John that + he might render him pliant to my wishes. Instead, he stiffens him in + rebellion. There must be an end to this man.” + </p> + <p> + “Sire,” I cried, “it may be they think to advance your interests.” + </p> + <p> + “Heaven help me!” he cried. “Did ever villain wear so transparent a mask + as this dog Escovedo? To advance my interests—that will be his tale, + no doubt. He will advance them where I do not wish them advanced; he will + advance them to my ruin; he will stake all on a success in Flanders that + shall be the preliminary to a descent upon England in the interests of Don + John. I say there must be an end to this man before he works more + mischief.” + </p> + <p> + Again I set myself to calm him, as I had so often done before, and again I + was the shield between Escovedo and the royal lightnings, of whose menace + to blot him out the fool had no suspicion. For months things hung there, + until, in January of '78, when war had been forced in earnest upon Spain + by Elizabeth's support of the Low Countries, Don John won the great + victory of Gemblours. This somewhat raised the King's depression, somewhat + dissipated his overgrowing mistrust of his half-brother, and gave him + patience to read the letters in which Don John urged him to send money—to + throw wood on the fire whilst it was alight, or else resign himself to the + loss of Flanders for all time. As it meant also resigning himself to the + loss of all hope of England for all time, Escovedo's activities were just + then increased a hundredfold. + </p> + <p> + “Send me money and Escovedo,” was the burden of the almost daily letters + from Don John to me, and at my elbow was Escovedo, perpetually pressing me + to bend the King to his master's will. Another matter on which he pressed + me then was that I should obtain for himself the governorship of the + Castle of Mogro, which commands the port of Santander, an ambition this + which intrigued me deeply, for I confess I could not fathom what it had to + do with all the rest. + </p> + <p> + And then something else happened. From the Spanish Ambassador at the + Louvre we learnt one day of a secret federation entered into between Don + John and the Guises, known as the Defence of the Two Crowns. Its object + was as obscure as its title. But it afforded the last drop to the cup of + Philip's mistrust. This time it was directly against Don John that he + inveighed to me. And to defend Don John, in the interests of common + justice, I was forced to place the blame where it belonged. + </p> + <p> + “Nay, Sire,” I assured him, “these ambitions are not Don John's. With all + his fevered dreams of greatness, Don John has ever been, will ever be, + loyal to his King.” + </p> + <p> + “If you know anything of temptation,” he answered me, “you should know + that there is a breaking-point to every man's resistance of it. How long + will Don John remain loyal while Escovedo feeds his disloyalty, adds daily + to the weight of temptation the burden of a fresh ambition? I tell you, + man, I feel safe no longer.” He rose up before me, a blotch on his sallow + face, his fingers tugging nervously at the tuft of straw-coloured beard. + “I tell you some blow is about to fall unless we avert it. This man this + fellow Escovedo—must be dispatched before he can kill us.” + </p> + <p> + I shrugged and affected carelessness to soothe him. + </p> + <p> + “A contemptible dreamer,” I said. “Pity him, Sire. He has his uses. To + remove him would be to remove a channel through which we can always obtain + knowledge precisely of what is doing.” + </p> + <p> + Again I prevailed, and there the matter hung a while. But the King was + right, his fears were well inspired. Escovedo, always impatient, was + becoming desperate under persistent frustration. I reasoned with him—was + he not still my friend?—I held him off, urged prudence and patience + upon him, and generally sought to temporize. I was as intent upon saving + him from leaving his skin in this business as I was, on the other hand, + intent upon doing my duty without pause or scruple to my King. But the + fool forced my hand. A Court is a foul place always, even so attenuated a + Court as that which Philip of Spain encouraged. Rumour thrives in it, + scandal blossoms luxuriantly in its fetid atmosphere. And rumour and + scandal had been busy with the Princess of Eboli and me, though I did not + dream it. + </p> + <p> + We had been indiscreet, no doubt. We had been seen together in public too + often. We had gone to the play together more than once; she had been + present with me at a bull-fight on one occasion, and it was matter of + common gossip, as I was to learn, that I was a too frequent visitor at her + house. + </p> + <p> + Another visitor there was Escovedo when in Madrid. Have I not said that in + his early days he had been one of Eboli's secretaries? On that account the + house of Eboli remained open to him at all times. The Princess liked him, + was kindly disposed towards him, and encouraged his visits. We met there + more than once. One day we left together, and that day the fool set spark + to a train that led straight to the mine on which, all unconsciously, he + stood. + </p> + <p> + “A word of advice in season, Don Antonio,” he said as we stepped forth + together. “Do not go so often to visit the Princess.” + </p> + <p> + I sought to pull my arm from his, but he clung to it and pinned it to his + side. + </p> + <p> + “Nay, now—nay, now!” he soothed me. “Not so hot, my friend. What the + devil have I said to provoke resentment? I advise you as your friend.” + </p> + <p> + “In future advise that other friend of yours, the devil,” I answered + angrily, and pulled my arm away at last. “Don Juan, you have presumed, I + think. I did not seek your advice. It is yourself that stands in need of + advice this moment more than any man in Spain.” + </p> + <p> + “Lord of the World,” he exclaimed in amiable protest, “listen to him! I + speak because I owe friendship to the Princess. Men whisper of your + comings and goings, I tell you. And the King, you know well, should he + hear of this I am in danger of losing my only friend at Court, and so—” + </p> + <p> + “Another word of this,” I broke in fiercely, “now or at any other time, + and I'll skewer you like a rabbit!” + </p> + <p> + I had stopped. My face was thrust within a hand's-breadth of his own; I + had tossed back my cloak, and my fingers clutched the hilt of my sword. He + became grave. His fine eyes—he had great, sombre, liquid eyes, such + as you'll scarcely ever see outside of Spain—considered me + thoughtfully a moment. Then he laughed lightly and fell back a pace. + </p> + <p> + “Pish!” said he. “Saint James! I am no rabbit for your skewering. If it + comes to skewers, I am a useful man of my hands, Antonio. Come, man”—and + again he took my arm—“if I presume, forgive it out of the assurance + that I am moved solely by interest and concern for you. We have been + friends too long that I should be denied.” + </p> + <p> + I had grown cool again, and I realized that perhaps my show of anger had + been imprudent. So I relented now, and we went our ways together without + further show of ill-humour on my part, or further advice on his. But the + matter did not end there. Indeed, it but began. Going early in the + afternoon of the morrow to visit Anne, I found her in tears—tears, + as I was to discover, of anger. + </p> + <p> + Escovedo had been to visit her before me, and he had dared to reproach her + on the same subject. + </p> + <p> + “You are talked about, you and Perez,” he had informed her, “and the thing + may have evil consequences. It is because I have eaten your bread that I + tell you this for your own good.” + </p> + <p> + She had risen up in a great passion. + </p> + <p> + “You will leave my house, and never set foot in it again,” she had told + him. “You should learn that grooms and lackeys have no concern in the + conduct of great ladies. It is because you have eaten my bread that I tell + you this for your own good.” + </p> + <p> + It drove him out incontinently, but it left her in the condition in which + I was later to discover her. I set myself to soothe her. I swore that + Escovedo should be punished. But she would not be soothed. She blamed + herself for an unpardonable rashness. She should not have taken that tone + with Escovedo. He could avenge himself by telling Philip, and if he told + Philip, and Philip believed him—as Philip would, being jealous and + mistrustful beyond all men—my ruin must follow. She had thought only + of herself in dismissing him in that high-handed manner. Coming since to + think of me it was that she had fallen into this despair. She clung to me + in tears. + </p> + <p> + “Forgive me, Antonio. The fault is all mine—the fault of all. Always + have I known that this danger must overhang you as a penalty for loving + me. Always I knew it, and, knowing it, I should have been stronger. I + should have sent you from me at the first. But I was so starved of love + from childhood till I met you. I hungered so for love—for your love, + Antonio—that I had not the strength. I was weak and selfish, and + because I was ready and glad to pay the price myself, whatever it should + be and whenever asked, I did not take thought enough for you.” + </p> + <p> + “Take no thought now,” I implored her, holding her close. + </p> + <p> + “I must. I can't help it. I have raised this peril for you. He will go to + Philip.” + </p> + <p> + “Not he; he dare not. I am his only hope. I am the ladder by which he + hopes to scale the heaven of his high ambition. If he destroys me, there + is the kennel for himself. He knows it.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you say that to comfort me, or is it really true?” + </p> + <p> + “God's truth, sweetheart,” I swore, and drew her closer. + </p> + <p> + She was comforted long before I left her. But as I stepped out into the + street again a man accosted me. Evidently he had been on the watch, + awaiting me. He fell into step beside me almost before I realized his + presence. It was Escovedo. + </p> + <p> + “So,” he said, very sinister, “you'll not be warned.” + </p> + <p> + “Nor will you,” I answered, no whit less sinister myself. + </p> + <p> + It was broad daylight. A pale March sunshine was beating down upon the + cobbled streets, and passers-by were plentiful. There was no fingering of + hilts or talk of skewering on either side. Nor must I show any of the + anger that was boiling in me. My face was too well known in Madrid + streets, and a Secretary of State does not parade emotions to the rabble. + So I walked stiff and dignified amain, that dog in step with me the while. + </p> + <p> + “She will have told you what I have said to her,” he murmured. + </p> + <p> + “And what she said to you. It was less than your deserts.” + </p> + <p> + “Groom and lackey, eh?” said he. “And less than I deserve—a man of + my estate. Oh, ho! Groom and lackey! Those are epithets to be washed out + in blood and tears.” + </p> + <p> + “You rant,” I said. + </p> + <p> + “Or else to be paid for—handsomely.” His tone was sly—so sly + that I answered nothing, for to answer a sly man is to assist him, and my + business was to let him betray the cause of this slyness. Followed a spell + of silence. Then, “Do you know,” said he, “that several of her relatives + are thinking seriously of killing you?” + </p> + <p> + “Many men have thought seriously of that—so seriously that they + never attempted it. Antonio Perez is not easily murdered, Don Juan, as you + may discover.” + </p> + <p> + It was a boast that I may claim to have since justified. + </p> + <p> + “Shall I tell you their names?” quoth he. + </p> + <p> + “If you want to ruin them.” + </p> + <p> + “Ha!” It was a short bark of a laugh. “You talk glibly of ruining—but + then you talk to a groom and lackey.” The epithets rankled in his mind; + they were poison to his blood, it seemed. It takes a woman to find words + that burn and blister a man. “Yet groom and lackey that I am, I hold you + both in the hollow of my hand. If I close that hand, it will be very bad + for you, very bad for her. If, for instance, I were to tell King Philip + that I have seen her in your arms—” + </p> + <p> + “You dog!” + </p> + <p> + “I have—I swear to God I have, with these two eyes—at least + with one of them, applied to the keyhole half an hour ago. Her servants + passed me in; a ducat or two well bestowed—you understand?” + </p> + <p> + We had reached the door of my house. I paused and turned to him. + </p> + <p> + “You will come in?” I invited. + </p> + <p> + “As the wolf said to the lamb, eh? Well, why not?” And we went in. + </p> + <p> + “You are well housed,” he commented, his greedy, envious eyes considering + all the tokens of my wealth. “It were a pity to lose so much, I think. The + King is at the Escurial, I am told.” + </p> + <p> + He was. He had gone thither into retreat, that he might cleanse his pious, + murky soul against the coming of Eastertide. + </p> + <p> + “You would not, I am sure, compel me to undertake so tedious a journey,” + said he. + </p> + <p> + “Will you put off this slyness and be plain?” I bade him. “You have some + bargain in your mind. Propound it.” + </p> + <p> + He did, and left me aghast. + </p> + <p> + “You have temporized long enough, Perez,” he began. “You have been hunting + with the dogs and running with the stag. There must be an end to all that. + Stand by me now, and I will make you greater than you are, greater than + you could ever dream to be. Oppose me, betray me—for I am going to + be very frank—and the King shall hear things from me that will mean + your ruin and hers. You understand?” + </p> + <p> + Then came his demands. First of all the command of the fortress of Mogro + for himself. I must obtain him that at once. Secondly, I must see to it + that Philip pledged himself to support Don John's expedition against + England and Elizabeth and to seat Don John upon the throne with Mary + Stuart for his wife. These things must come about, and quickly, or I + perished. Nor was that all. Indeed, no more than a beginning. He opened + out the vista of his dreams, that having blackmailed me on the one hand, + he might now bribe me on the other. Once England was theirs, he aimed at + no less than a descent upon Spain itself. That was why he wanted Mogro to + facilitate a landing at Santander. Thus, as the Christians had originally + come down from the mountains of the Asturias to drive the Moors from the + Peninsula, so should the forces of Don John descend again to reconquer it + for himself. + </p> + <p> + It was a madman's fancy utterly—fruit of a brain that ambition had + completely addled; and I do not believe that Don John had any part in it + or even knowledge of it. Escovedo saw himself, perhaps, upon the throne of + one or the other of the two kingdoms as Don John's vice-regent—for + himself and for me, if I stood by him, there was such power in store as no + man ever dreamed of. If I refused, he would destroy me. + </p> + <p> + “And if I go straight to the Escurial and lay this project before the + King?” I asked him. + </p> + <p> + He smiled. + </p> + <p> + “You will force me to tell him that it is a lie invented to deliver you + from a man who can destroy you by the knowledge he possesses, knowledge + which I shall at once impart to Philip. Think what that will mean to you. + Think,” he added very wickedly, “what it will mean to her.” + </p> + <p> + As I am a Christian, I believe that had it been but the consideration of + myself I would have flung him from my house upon the instant and bade him + do his worst. But he was well advised to remind me of her. Whatever + Philip's punishment of me, it would be as nothing to his punishment of + that long-suffering woman who had betrayed him. Oh, I assure you it is a + very evil, ill judged thing to have a king for rival, particularly a + fish-souled tyrant of King Philip's kind. + </p> + <p> + I was all limp with dread. I passed a hand across my brow, and found it + chill and moist. + </p> + <p> + “I am in your hands, Escovedo,” I confessed miserably. + </p> + <p> + “Say, rather, that we are partners. Forget all else.” He was eager, + joyous, believing all accomplished, such was his faith in my influence + with Philip. “And now, Mogro for me, and England for Don John. About it + with dispatch.” + </p> + <p> + “The King is in retreat. We must wait some days.” + </p> + <p> + “Till Easter, then.” And he held out his hand. I took it limply, thus + clenching the bargain of infamy between us. What else was there for me. + What, otherwise, was to become of Anne? + </p> + <p> + Oh, I may have been self-seeking and made the most of my position, as was + afterwards urged against me. I may have been extortionate and venal, and I + may have taken regal bribes to expedite affairs. But always was I loyal + and devoted to the King. Never once had I been bribed to aught that ran + counter to his interests; never until now, when at a stroke I had sold my + honour and pledged myself to this betrayal of my trust. + </p> + <p> + Not in all Spain was there a more miserable man than I. All night I sat in + the room where I was wont to work, and to my wife's entreaties that I + should take some rest I answered that the affairs of Spain compelled + attention. And when morning found me haggard and distraught came a courier + from Philip with a letter. + </p> + <p> + “I have letters from Don John,” he wrote, “more insistent than ever in + their tone. He demands the instant dispatch of money and Escovedo. I have + been thinking, and this letter confirms my every fear. I have cause to + apprehend some stroke that may disturb the public peace and ruin Don John + himself if he is allowed to retain Escovedo any longer in his service. I + am writing to Don John that I will see to it that Escovedo is promptly + dispatched as he requests. Do you see him dispatched, then, in precise + accordance with his deserts, and this at once, before the villain kills + us.” + </p> + <p> + My skin bristled as I read. Here was fatality itself at work. Philip was + at his old fears—and, Heaven knows, he was not without justification + of his intuitions, as I had learnt by now—that Escovedo meditated + the most desperate measures. He was urging me again, as he had urged me + before, and more than once, to dispatch this traitor whose restless + existence so perpetually perturbed him. I was not deceived as to the + meaning he set upon that word “dispatch.” I knew quite well the nature of + the dispatch he bade me contrive. + </p> + <p> + Conceive now my temptation. Escovedo dead, I should be safe, and Anne + would be safe, and this without any such betrayal as was being forced upon + me. And that death the King himself commanded a secret, royal execution, + such as his confessor Frey Diego de Chaves has since defended as an + expedient measure within the royal prerogative. He had commanded it before + quite unequivocally, but always I had stood between Escovedo and the + sword. Was I to continue in that attitude? Could it humanly be expected of + me in all the circumstances again to seek to deflect the royal wrath from + that too daring head? I was, after all, only a man, subject to the + temptations of the flesh, and there was a woman whom I loved better than + my own salvation to whose peace and happiness that fellow Escovedo was + become a menace. + </p> + <p> + If he lived, and for as long as he lived, she and I were to be as slaves + of his will, and I was to drag my honour and my loyalty through the foul + kennels of his disordered ambitions. And the King my master was bidding me + clearly see to it that he died immediately. + </p> + <p> + I sat down and wrote at once, and the burden of my letter was: “Be more + explicit, Sire. What manner of dispatch is it your will that Escovedo + should be given?” + </p> + <p> + On the morrow, which was Thursday of Holy Week, that note of mine was + returned to me, and on the margin of it, in Philip's own hand, Escovedo's + death-warrant. “I mean that it would be well to hasten the death of this + rascal before some act of his should render it too late; for he never + rests, nor will anything turn him from his usual ways. Do it, then, and do + it quickly, before he kills us.” + </p> + <p> + There was no more to be said. My instructions were clear and definite. + Obedience alone remained. I went about it. + </p> + <p> + Just as all my life I have been blessed with the staunchest friends, so + have I, too, been blessed with the most faithful servants. And of these + none was more faithful than my steward, Diego Martinez, unless, indeed, it + be my equerry, Gil de Mesa, who to this day follows my evil fortunes. But + Mesa at that time was as yet untried, whilst in Diego I knew that I had a + man devoted to me heart and soul, a man who would allow himself to be torn + limb from limb on the rack on my behalf. + </p> + <p> + I placed the affair in Diego's hands. I told him that I was acting under + orders from the King, and that the thing at issue was the private + execution of a dangerous traitor, who could not be brought to trial lest + there he should impeach of complicity one whose birth and blood must be + shielded from all scandal. I bade him get what men he required, and see + the thing done with the least possible delay. And thereupon I instantly + withdrew from Madrid and went to Alcala. + </p> + <p> + Diego engaged five men to assist him in the task; these were a young + officer named Enriquez, a lackey named Rubio, the two Aragonese—Mesa + and Insausti—and another whose name was Bosque. He clearly meant to + take no chances, but I incline to think that he overdid precaution, and + employed more hands than were necessary for the job. However, the six of + them lurked in waiting on three successive nights for Escovedo near his + house in the little square of Santiago. At last, on the night of Easter + Monday, March 31st, they caught him and dispatched him. He died almost + before he realized himself beset, from a sword-thrust with which Insausti + transfixed him. But there were at least half a dozen wounds in the body + when it was found. Diego, I have said, was a man who made quite certain. + </p> + <p> + No sooner was it done than they dispersed, whilst the lackey Rubio, + instantly quitting Madrid, brought me news of the deed to Alcala, and the + assurance that no arrests had been made. But there was a great ado in + Madrid upon the morrow, as you may imagine, for it is no everyday + occurrence to find a royal secretary murdered in the streets. + </p> + <p> + The alcaldes set out upon a rigorous search, and they began by arresting + and questioning all who attempted to leave the city. On the next day they + harassed with their perquisitions all those who let lodgings. They were + still at this work in the evening when I returned to Madrid, brought back—as + it would seem—from my country rest by the news of this murder of my + friend and colleague. I bore myself as I should have done had I no + knowledge of how the thing had been contrived. That was a necessity as + imperative as it was odious, and no part of it more odious than the visit + of condolence I was forced to pay to the Escovedo family, which I found + plunged in grief. + </p> + <p> + From the very outset suspicion pointed its finger at me, although there + were no visible traces to connect me with the deed. Rumour, however, was + astir, and as I had powerful friends, so, too, I had the powerful enemies + which envy must always be breeding for men in high places such as mine. + Escovedo's wife mistrusted me, though at first she seems equally to have + suspected in this deed the hand of the Duke of Alva, who was hostile to + Don John and all his creatures. Very soon, as a result of this, came the + Court alcalde to visit and question me. His stated object was in the hope + that I might give him information which would lead to the discovery of the + assassin; but his real object, rendered apparent by the searching, + insistent nature of his questions, was to lead me to incriminate myself. I + presented a bold front. I pretended to see in this, perhaps, the work of + the Flemish States. I deplored—that I might remind him of it—my + absence from Madrid at the time. + </p> + <p> + He was followed by another high official, who came in simulated friendship + to warn me that certain rumours linking me with the deed were in + circulation, in reality to trap me into some admission, to watch my + countenance for some betraying sign. + </p> + <p> + I endured it stoutly, but inwardly I was shaken, as I wrote to Philip, + giving him full details of what had been said and what answers I had + returned, what bitter draughts I had been forced to swallow. + </p> + <p> + He wrote in reply: “I find that you answered very well. Continue to be + prudent. They will tell you a thousand things, not for the sake of telling + them, but in the hope of drawing something out of you. The bitter draughts + you mention are inevitable. But use all the dissimulation and address of + which you are capable.” + </p> + <p> + We corresponded daily after that, and I told him of every step I took; how + I kept my men about me, for fear that if they attempted to leave Madrid + they would be arrested, and how, finally, I contrived their departure one + by one, under conditions that placed them beyond all suspicion. Juan de + Mesa set out for Aragon on a mission concerned with the administration of + some property of the Princess of Eboli's. Rubio, Insausti, and Enriquez + were each given an ensign's commission, bearing the King's own signature, + and ordered to join the armies in various parts of Italy; the first was + sent to Milan, the second to Sicily, and the last to Naples. Bosque went + back to Aragon. Thus all were placed beyond the reach of the active + justice of Castile, all save myself—and the King, who wrote to me + expressing his satisfaction that there had been no arrests. + </p> + <p> + But rumour continued to give tongue, and the burden of its tale was that + the murder had been my work, in complicity with the Princess of Eboli. How + they came to drag her name into the affair I do not know. It may have been + pure malice trading upon its knowledge of the relations between us. She + may have lent colour to the charge by her own precipitancy in denying it. + She announced indignantly that she was being accused, almost before this + had come to pass, and as indignantly protested against the accusation, and + threatened those who dared to voice it. + </p> + <p> + The end of it all was that, a month later, the Escovedo family drew up a + memorial for the consideration of the King, in which they laid the murder + to my charge, and Philip consented to receive Don Pedro de Escovedo—the + dead man's son—and promised him that he would consider the memorial, + and that he would deliver up to justice whomsoever he thought right. He + was embarrassed by these demands of the Escovedos, my own danger, his duty + as king, and his interests as an accomplice, or, rather, as the originator + of the deed. + </p> + <p> + The Escovedos were powerfully seconded by Vasquez, the Secretary of the + Council, a member of Alva's party, a secret enemy of my own, consumed by + jealousy of my power, and no longer fearing to disclose himself and assail + me since he believed himself possessed of the means of ruining me. He + spoke darkly to the King of a woman concerned in this business, without + yet daring to mention Anne by name, and urged him for the satisfaction of + the State, where evil rumours were abroad, to order an inquiry that should + reveal the truth of the affair. + </p> + <p> + It was Philip himself who informed me of what had passed, sneering at the + wildness of rumours that missed the truth so wildly, and when I evinced + distress at my position, he sought to reassure me; he even wrote to me + after I had left him: “As long as I live you have nothing to fear. Others + may change, but I never change, as you should know who know me.” + </p> + <p> + That was a letter that epitomized many others written me in those days to + Madrid from the Escurial, whither he had returned. And those letters + comforted me not only by their expressed assurances, but by the greater + assurance implicit in them of the King's good faith. I had by now a great + mass of his notes dealing with the Escovedo business, in almost every one + of which he betrayed his own share as the chief murderer, showing that I + was no more than his dutiful instrument in that execution. With those + letters in my power what need I ever fear? Not Philip himself would dare + to betray me. + </p> + <p> + But I went now in a new dread—the dread of being myself murdered. + There were threats of it in the air. The Escovedo family and their + partisans, who included all my enemies, and even some members of the Eboli + family, who considered that I had sullied the honour of their name by my + relations with Anne, talked openly of vengeance, so that I was driven to + surround myself by armed attendants whenever now I went abroad. + </p> + <p> + I appealed again to Philip to protect me. I even begged him to permit me + to retire from my Ministerial office, that thus the clamant envy that + inspired my persecution might be deprived of its incentive. Finally, I + begged him to order me to stand my trial, that thus, since I was confident + that no evidence could be produced against me, I should force an acquittal + from the courts and lay the matter to rest for all time. + </p> + <p> + “Go and see the President of Castile,” he bade me. “Tell him the causes + that led to the death of Escovedo, and then let him talk to Don Pedro de + Escovedo and to Vasquez, so as to induce them to desist.” + </p> + <p> + I did as I was bidden, and when the president, who was the Bishop of Pati, + had heard me, he sent for my two chief enemies. + </p> + <p> + “I have, Don Pedro,” he said, “your memorial to the King in which you + accuse Don Antonio Perez of the murder of your father. And I am to assure + you in the King's name that justice will be done upon the murderer, + whoever he may be, without regard to rank. But I am first to engage you to + consider well what evidence you have to justify your charge against a + person of such consideration. For should your proofs be insufficient I + warn you that matters are likely to take a bad turn for yourself. Finally, + before you answer me, let me add, upon my word as a priest, that Antonio + Perez is as innocent as I am.” + </p> + <p> + It was the truth—the absolute truth, so far as it was known to + Philip and to the Bishop—for, indeed, I was no more than the + instrument of my master's will. + </p> + <p> + Don Pedro looked foolish, almost awed. He was as a man who suddenly + becomes aware that he has missed stepping over the edge of a chasm in + which destruction awaited him. He may have bethought him at last that all + his rantings had no better authority than suspicions which no evidence + could support. + </p> + <p> + “Sir,” he faltered, “since you tell me this, I pledge you my word on + behalf of myself and my family to make no more mention of this death + against Don Antonio.” + </p> + <p> + The Bishop swung then upon Vasquez, and his brow became furrowed with + contemptuous anger. + </p> + <p> + “As for you, sir, you have heard—which was more than your due, for + it is not your business by virtue of your office, nor have you any + obligations towards the deceased, such as excuse Don Pedro's rashness, to + pursue the murderers of Escovedo. Your solicitude in this matter brings + you under a suspicion the more odious since you are a priest. I warn you, + sir, to abstain, for this affair is different far from anything that you + imagine.” + </p> + <p> + But envy is a fierce goad, a consuming, irresistible passion, corroding + wisdom and deaf to all prudent counsels. Vasquez could not abstain. Ridden + by his devil of spite and jealousy, he would not pause until he had + destroyed either himself or me. + </p> + <p> + Since Escovedo's immediate family now washed their hands of the affair, + Vasquez sought out more distant relatives of the murdered man, and stirred + them up until they went in their turn to pester the courts, not only with + accusations against myself, but with accusations that now openly linked + with mine the name of the Princess of Eboli. + </p> + <p> + We were driven to the brink of despair, and in this Anne wrote to Philip. + It was a madness. She made too great haste to excuse herself. She demanded + protection from Vasquez and the evil rumours he was putting abroad, + implored the King to make an example of men who could push so far their + daring and irreverence, and to punish that Moorish dog Vasquez—I + dare say there was Moorish blood in the fellow's veins—as he + deserved. + </p> + <p> + I think our ruin dated from that letter. Philip sent for me to the + Escurial. He wished to know more precisely what the accusations were. I + told him, denying them. Then he desired of the Princess proof of what she + alleged against Vasquez, and she had no difficulty in satisfying him. He + seemed to believe our assurance that all was lies. Yet he did not move to + punish Vasquez. But then I knew that sluggishness was his great + characteristic. “Time and I are one,” he would say when I pressed on + matters. + </p> + <p> + After that it was open war in the Council between me and Vasquez. The + climax came when I was at the Escurial. I had sent a servant to Vasquez + for certain State papers to be submitted to the King. He brought them, and + folded in them a fiercely denunciatory letter full of insults and + injuries, not the least of which was the imputation that my blood was not + clean, my caste not good. + </p> + <p> + In a passion I sought Philip, beside myself almost, trembling under the + insult. + </p> + <p> + “See, Sire, what this Moorish thief has dared to write me. It transcends + all bearing. Either you take satisfaction for me of these insults or you + permit me to take it for myself.” + </p> + <p> + He appeared to share my indignation, promised to give me leave to proceed + against the man, but bade me first wait a while until certain business in + the competent hands of Vasquez should be transacted. But weeks grew into + months, and nothing was done. We were in April of '79, a year after the + murder, and I was grown so uneasy, so sensitive to dangers about me, that + I dared no longer visit Anne. And then Philip's confessor, Frey Diego de + Chaves, came to me one day with a request on the King's part that I should + make my peace with Vasquez. + </p> + <p> + “If he will retract,” was my condition. And Chaves went to see my enemy. + What passed between them, what Vasquez may have told him, what he may have + added to those rumours of my relations with Anne, I do not know. But I + know that from that date there was a change in the King's attitude towards + me, a change in the tone of the letters that he sent me, and, this + continuing, I wrote to him at last releasing him from his promise to + afford me satisfaction against Vasquez, assuring him that since, himself, + he could forgive the injuries against us both, I could easily forgive + those I had received myself, and finally begging his permission to resign + my office and retire. + </p> + <p> + Anne had contributed to this. She had sent for me, and in tears had + besought me to make my peace with Vasquez since the King desired it, and + this was no time in which to attempt resistance to his wishes. I remained + with her some hours, comforting her, for she was in the very depths of + despair, persuaded that we were both ruined, and inconsolable in the + thought that the blame of this was all her own. + </p> + <p> + It may be that I was watched, perhaps more closely than I imagined. It may + be that spies were close about us, set by the jealous Philip, who desired + confirmation or refutation of the things he had been told, the rumours + that were gnawing at his vitals. + </p> + <p> + I left her, little dreaming that I was never to see her again in this + life. That night I was arrested at my house by the Court alcalde upon an + order from the King. The paltry reason advanced was my refusal to make my + peace with Vasquez, and this when already the King was in possession of my + letter acknowledging my readiness to do so; for the King was in Madrid, + unknown to me. He came, it seems, that he might be present at another + arrest effected that same night. From the porch of the Church of Santa + Maria Mayor, he watched his alguazils enter the house of the Princess of + Eboli, bring her forth, bestow her in a waiting carriage that was to bear + her away to the fortress of Pinto, to an imprisonment which was later + exchanged for exile to Pastrana lasting as long as life itself. + </p> + <p> + To sin against a Prince is worse, it seems, than to sin against God + Himself. For God forgives, but princes, wounded in their vanity and pride, + know nothing of forgiveness. + </p> + <p> + I was kept for four months a prisoner by the alcalde, no charge being + preferred against me. Then, because my health was suffering grievously + from confinement and the anxiety of suspense, I was moved to my own house, + and detained there for another eight months under close guard. My friends + besought the King in vain either to restore me to liberty or to bring me + to trial. He told them the affair was of a nature very different from + anything they deemed, and so evaded all demands. + </p> + <p> + In the summer of 1580, Philip went to Lisbon to take formal possession of + the crown of Portugal, which he had inherited. I sent my wife to him to + intercede for me. But he refused to see her, and so I was left to continue + the victim of his vindictive lethargy. After a year of this, upon my + giving a formal promise to renounce all hostility towards Vasquez, and + never seek to do him harm in any way, I was accorded some degree of + liberty. I was allowed to go out and to receive visitors, but not to visit + any one myself. + </p> + <p> + Followed a further pause. Vasquez was now a man of power, for my party had + fallen with me, and his own had supplanted it in the royal councils. It + was by his work that at last, in '84, I was brought to trial upon a charge + of corruption and misappropriation. I knew that my enemies had, meanwhile, + become possessed of Enriquez, and that he was ready to give evidence, that + he was making no secret of his share in the death of Escovedo, and that + the King was being pressed by the Escovedos to bring me to trial upon the + charge of murder. Instead, the other charge alone was preferred. + </p> + <p> + It was urged against me that I had kept a greater state than any grandee + of Spain, that when I went abroad I did so with a retinue befitting a + prince, that I had sold my favour and accepted bribes from foreign princes + to guard their interests with the King of Spain. + </p> + <p> + They sentenced me to two years' imprisonment in a fortress, to be followed + by ten years of exile, and I was to make, within nine days, restitution of + some twenty million maravedis*—the alleged extent of my + misappropriations—besides some jewels and furniture which I had + received from the Princess of Eboli, and which I was now ordered to + deliver up to the heirs of the late Prince. + </p> + +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + *Ten thousand pounds, but with at least five times the + present purchasing power of that sum. +</pre> + + <p> + Perquisitions had been made in my house, and my papers ransacked. Well I + knew what they had sought. For the thought of the letters that had passed + between Philip and myself at the time of Escovedo's death must now be + troubling his peace of mind. I had taken due precautions when first I had + seen the gathering clouds foreshadowing this change of weather. I had + bestowed those papers safely in two iron-bound chests which had been + concealed away against the time when I might need them to save my neck. + And because now he failed to find what he sought—the evidence of his + own share in the deed and his present base duplicity—Philip dared + not slip the leash from those dogs who would be at my throat for the + murder of Escovedo. That was why he bade them proceed against me only on + the lesser charge of corruption. + </p> + <p> + I was taken to the fortress of Turruegano, and there they came to demand + of me the surrender of my papers which the alcalde had failed to discover + at my house. I imagined the uneasiness of Philip in dispatching those + emissaries. I almost laughed as I refused. Those papers were my buckler + against worse befalling me than had befallen already. Even now, if too + hard pressed, I might find the opportunity of breaking my bonds by means + of them. I sometimes wonder why I did not apply myself to that. Yet there + is small cause for wonder, really. From boyhood, almost, King Philip had + been my master. Loyalty to him was a habit that went to the very roots of + my being. I had served him without conscience and without scruple, and the + notion of betraying him, save as a very last and very desperate resource, + was inconceivable. I do not think he ever knew the depth and breadth of + that loyalty of mine. + </p> + <p> + My refusal led those sons of dogs to attempt to frighten my wife with + threats of unmentionable horrors unless she delivered up the papers I had + secreted. She and our children were threatened with perpetual imprisonment + on bread and water if she persisted in refusing to surrender them. But she + held out against all threats, and remained firm even under the oily + persecution to the same end of Philip's confessor, Frey Diego. Finally, I + was notified that, in view of her stubbornness and my own, she and our + children were cast into prison, and that there they would remain until I + saw fit to become submissive to the royal will. + </p> + <p> + It is a subtle form of mental torture that will bid a man contemplate the + suffering for his sake to which those who are dear to him are being + subjected. + </p> + <p> + I raged and stormed before the officer who brought me this infamous piece + of news. I gave vent to my impotent anger in blasphemous expressions that + were afterwards to be used against me. The officer was subtly sympathetic. + </p> + <p> + “I understand your grief, Don Antonio,” he said. “Believe me, I feel for + you—so much that I urge you to set an end to the captivity of those + dear ones who are innocent, who are suffering for your sake.” + </p> + <p> + “And so make an end of myself?” I asked him fiercely. + </p> + <p> + “Reflection may show that even that is your duty in the circumstances.” + </p> + <p> + I looked into his smug face, and I was within an ace of striking him. Then + I controlled myself, and my will was snapped. + </p> + <p> + “Very well,” I said. “The papers shall be surrendered. Let my steward, + Diego Martinez, come to me here, and he shall receive my instructions to + deliver the chests containing them to my wife, that she in turn may + deliver them to the King.” + </p> + <p> + He withdrew, well pleased. No doubt he would take great credit to himself + for this. Within three days, such haste did they make, my faithful steward + stood before me in my prison at Turruegano. + </p> + <p> + You conceive the despair that had overwhelmed me after giving my consent, + the consciousness that it was my life I was surrendering with those + papers,—that without them I should be utterly defenceless. But in + the three days that were sped I had been thinking, and not quite in vain. + </p> + <p> + Martinez left me with precise instructions, as a result of which those two + iron-bound chests, locked and sealed, were delivered, together with the + keys, to the royal confessor. Martinez was asked what they contained. + </p> + <p> + “I do not know,” he answered. “My orders are merely to deliver them.” + </p> + <p> + I can conceive the King's relief and joy in his conviction that thus had + he drawn my teeth, that betide now what might, I could never defend or + justify myself. The immediate sequel took me by surprise. We were at the + end of '85, and my health was suffering from my confinement and its + privations. And now my captivity was mitigated. My wife Juana even + succeeded in obtaining permission that I should be taken home to Madrid, + and there for fourteen months I enjoyed a half liberty, and received the + visits of my old friends, among whom were numbered most of the members of + the Court. + </p> + <p> + I imagined at first that since my teeth were drawn the King despised me, + and intended nothing further. But I was soon to be disillusioned on that + score. It began with the arrest of Martinez on a charge of complicity in + the murder of Escovedo. And then one day I was again arrested, without + warning, and carried off for a while to the fortress of Pinto. Thence I + was brought back in close captivity to Madrid, and there I learnt at last + what had been stirring. + </p> + <p> + In the previous summer King Philip had gone into Aragon to preside over + the Cortes, and Vasquez, who had gone with him, had seized the opportunity + to examine the ensign Enriquez, who had, meanwhile, denounced himself of + complicity in the murder of Escovedo. Enriquez made a full confession—turned + accuser under a promise of full pardon for himself and charged Mesa, + Rubio, and my steward Martinez with complicity, denouncing Martinez as the + ringleader of the business. The other two, Insausti and Bosque, were + already dead. + </p> + <p> + Immediately Vasquez attempted to seize the survivors. But Mesa had gone to + earth in Aragon, and Rubio was with him. Martinez alone remained, and him + they seized and questioned. He remained as cool and master of himself as + he was true and loyal to me. Their threats made no impression on him. He + maintained that the tale was all a lie, begotten of spite, that I had been + Escovedo's best friend, that I had been greatly afflicted by his death, + and that no man could have done more than I to discover his real + murderers. They confronted him with Enriquez, and the confrontation no + whit disturbed him. He handled the traitor contemptuously as a perjured, + suborned witness, a false servant, a man who, as he proceeded to show, was + a scoundrel steeped in crime, whose word was utterly worthless, and who, + no doubt, had been bought to bring these charges against his sometime + master. + </p> + <p> + The situation, thanks to Martinez's stoutness, had reached a deadlock. + Between the assertions of one man, who was revealed to the judges for a + worthless scoundrel, and the denials of the other, against whom nothing + was known, it was impossible for the court of inquiry to reach any + conclusion. At least another witness must be obtained. And Vasquez + laboured with all his might and arts and wiles to draw Rubio out of Aragon + into the clutches of the justice of Castile. But he laboured in vain, for + I had secretly found the means to instruct my trusty Mesa to retain the + fellow where he was. + </p> + <p> + In this inconclusive state of things the months dragged on and my + captivity continued. I wrote to Philip, imploring his mercy, complaining + of these unjust delays on the part of Vasquez, which threatened to go on + forever, and begging His Majesty to command the conclusion of the affair. + That was in August of '89. You see how time had sped. All that came of my + appeal was at first an increased rigour of imprisonment, and then a visit + from Vasquez to examine and question me upon the testimony of Enriquez. As + you can imagine, the attempt to lure me into self-betrayal was completely + fruitless. My enemy withdrew, baffled, to go question my wife, but without + any better success. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, Vasquez proclaimed the charge established against myself and + Martinez, and allowed us ten days in which to prepare our answer. + Immediately upon that Don Pedro de Escovedo lodged a formal indictment + against us, and I was put into irons. + </p> + <p> + To rebut the evidence of one single, tainted witness I produced six + witnesses of high repute, including the Secretary of the Council of + Aragon. They testified for me that I was at Alcala at the time of + Escovedo's death, that I had always been Escovedo's friend, that I was a + good Christian incapable of such a deed, and that Enriquez as an evil man + whose word was worthless, a false witness inspired by vengeance. + </p> + <p> + Thus, in spite of the ill-will of my judges and the hatred of my enemies, + it was impossible legally to condemn me upon the evidence. There were + documents enough in existence to have proved my part in the affair; but + not one of them dared the King produce, since they would also show me to + have been no more than his instrument. And so, desiring my death as it was + now clear he did, he must sit impotently brooding there with what patience + he could command, like a gigantic, evil spider into whose web I + obstinately refused to fling myself. + </p> + <p> + My hopes began to revive. When at last the court announced that it + postponed judgment whilst fresh evidence was sought, there was an outcry + of indignation on all sides. This was a tyrannical abuse of power, men + said; and I joined my voice to theirs to demand that judgment be + pronounced and my liberty restored to me, pointing out that I had already + languished years in captivity without any charge against me—beyond + that of corruption, which had been purged by now—having been + established. + </p> + <p> + Then at last the King stirred in his diabolical underground manner. He + sent his confessor to me in prison. The friar was mild and benign. + </p> + <p> + “My poor friend,” he said, “why do you allow yourself to suffer in this + fashion, when a word from you can set a term to it? Confess the deed + without fear, since at the same time you can advance a peremptory reason + of State to justify it.” + </p> + <p> + It was too obvious a trap. Did I make confession, indeed, upon such + grounds, they would demand of me proof of what I asserted; and meanwhile + the documents to prove it had been extorted from me and had passed into + the King's possession. In the result I should be ruined completely as one + who, to the crime of murder, added a wicked, insidious falsehood touching + the honour of his King. + </p> + <p> + But I said naught of this. I met guile with guile. “Alas! I have been + tempted,” I answered him. “But I thank Heaven I have known even in my + extremity how to resist the temptation of such disloyalty. I cannot + forget, Brother Diego, that amongst the letters from the King was one that + said, 'Be not troubled by anything your enemies may do against you. I + shall not abandon you, and be sure their animosity cannot prevail. But you + must understand that it must not be discovered that this death took place + by my order.”' + </p> + <p> + “But if the King were to release you from that command?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “When His Majesty in his goodness and generosity sends me a note in his + own hand to say, 'You may confess that it was by my express order that you + contrived the death of Escovedo,' then I shall thankfully account myself + absolved from the silence his service imposes on me.” + </p> + <p> + He looked at me narrowly. He may have suspected that I saw through the + transparent device to ruin me, and that in a sense I mocked him with my + answer. + </p> + <p> + He withdrew, and for some days nothing further happened. Then the rigours + of my captivity were still further increased. I was allowed to communicate + with no one, and even the alguazil who guarded me was forbidden, under + pain of death, to speak to me. + </p> + <p> + And in January I was visited by Vasquez, who brought me a letter from the + King, not, indeed, addressed to me and in the terms I had suggested, but + to Vasquez himself, and it ran: + </p> + <p> + You may tell Antonio Perez from me, and, if necessary, show him this + letter, that he is aware of my knowledge of having ordered him to put + Escovedo to death and of the motives which he told me existed for this + measure; and that as it imports for the satisfaction of my conscience that + it be ascertained whether or not those motives were sufficient, I order + him to state them in the fullest detail, and to advance proof of what he + then alleged to me, which is not unknown to yourself, since I have clearly + imparted it to you. When I shall have seen his answers, and the reasons he + advances, I shall give order that such measures be taken as may befit. + </p> + <p> + I, THE KING + </p> + <p> + You see what a twist he had given to the facts. It was I who had urged the + death of Escovedo; it was I who had advanced reasons which he had + considered sufficient, trusting to my word; and it was because of this he + had consented to give the order. Let me confess so much, let me prove it, + and prove, too, that the motives I had advanced were sound ones, or I must + be destroyed. That was all clear. And that false king held fast the two + trunks of papers that would have given the lie to this atrocious note of + his, that would have proved that again and again I had shielded Escovedo + from the death his king designed for him. + </p> + <p> + I looked into the face of my enemy, and there was a twisted smile on my + lips. + </p> + <p> + “What fresh trap is this?” I asked him. “King Philip never wrote that + note.” + </p> + <p> + “You should know his hand. Look closer,” he bade me harshly. + </p> + <p> + “I know his hand—none better. But I claim, too, to know something of + his heart. And I know that it is not the heart of a perjured liar such as + penned those lines.” + </p> + <p> + That was as near as a man dared to go in expressing his true opinion of a + prince. + </p> + <p> + “For the rest,” I said, “I do not understand it. I know nothing of the + death of Escovedo. I have nothing to add to what already I have said in + open court unless it be to protest against you, who are a passionate, + hostile judge.” + </p> + <p> + Six times in the month that followed did Vasquez come to me, accompanied + now by a notary, to press me to confess. At last, seeing that no + persuasions could bend my obstinacy, they resorted to other measures. + </p> + <p> + “You will drive us to use the torture upon you so that we may loosen your + tongue!” snarled Vasquez fiercely, enraged by my obduracy. + </p> + <p> + I laughed at the threat. I was a noble of Spain, by birth immune from + torture. They dared not violate the law. But they did dare. There was no + law, human or divine, the King was not prepared to violate so that he + might slake his vengeance upon the man who had dared to love where he had + loved. + </p> + <p> + They delivered me naked into the hands of the executioner, and I underwent + the question at the rope. They warned me that if I lost my life or the use + of any of my limbs, it would be solely by my own fault. I advanced my + nobility and the state of my health as all-sufficient reasons why the + torture should not be applied to me, reminding them that for eleven years + already I had suffered persecution and detention, so that my vigour was + all gone. + </p> + <p> + For the last time they summoned me to answer as the King desired. And + then, since I still refused, the executioner was recalled, he crossed my + arms upon my breast, bound them securely, thrust a long rod beneath the + cord, and, seizing one end of this in either hand, gave the first turn. + </p> + <p> + I screamed. I could not help it, enfeebled as I was. But my spirit being + stouter than my flesh, I still refused to answer. Not indeed, until they + had given the rope eight turns, not until it had sliced through my muscles + and crushed the bone of one of my arms, so that to this day it remains of + little use to me, did they conquer me. I had reached the limit of + endurance. + </p> + <p> + “In Christ's name, release me!” I gasped. “I will say anything you wish.” + </p> + <p> + Released at last, half swooning, smothered in blood, agonized by pain, I + confessed that it was myself had procured the death of Escovedo for + reasons of State and acting upon the orders of the King. The notary made + haste to write down my words, and, when I had done, it was demanded of me + that I should advance proof of the State reasons which I had alleged. + </p> + <p> + Oh, I had never been under any delusion on that score, as I have shown + you. The demand did not take me by surprise at all. I was waiting for it, + knowing that my answer to it would pronounce my doom. But I delivered it + none the less. + </p> + <p> + “My papers have been taken from me, and without them I can prove nothing. + With them I could prove my words abundantly.” + </p> + <p> + They left me then. On the morrow, as I afterwards learnt, they read my + confession to my devoted Martinez, and the poor fellow, who hitherto had + remained staunch and silent under every test, seeing that there was no + further purpose to be served by silence, gave them the confirmation they + desired of Enriquez's accusation. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, I was very ill, in a raging fever as you may well conceive, and + in answer to my prayer my own doctor was permitted to visit me in prison. + He announced that he found my case extremely grave, and that I must perish + unless I were relieved. As a consequence, and considering my weakness and + the uselessness just then of both my arms, one of which was broken, first + a page of my own, then other servants, and lastly my wife were allowed to + come and tend me. + </p> + <p> + That was at the end of February. By the middle of April my wounds had + healed, I had recovered the use of my limbs, though one remains half + maimed for life, and my condition had undergone a very considerable + improvement. But of this I allowed no sign to show, no suspicion even. I + continued to lie there day after day in a state of complete collapse, so + that whilst I was quickly gathering strength it was believed by my gaolers + that I was steadily sinking, and that I should soon be dead. + </p> + <p> + My only hope, you see, lay now in evasion, and it was for this that I was + thus craftily preparing. Once out of Castile I could deal with Philip, and + he should not find me as impotent, as toothless as he believed. But I go + too fast. + </p> + <p> + One night at last, on April 20th, by when all measures had been concerted, + and Gil de Mesa awaited me outside with horses—the whole having been + contrived by my dear wife—I made the attempt. My apparent condition + had naturally led to carelessness in guarding me. Who would guard a + helpless, dying man? Soon after dark I rose, donned over my own clothes a + petticoat and a hooded cloak belonging to my wife, and thus muffed walked + out of my cell, past the guards, and so out of the prison unchallenged. I + joined Gil de Mesa, discarded my feminine disguise, mounted and set out + with him upon that ninety-mile journey into Aragon. + </p> + <p> + We reached Saragossa in safety, and there my first act was to surrender + myself to the Grand Justiciary of Aragon to stand my trial for the murder + of Escovedo with which I was charged. + </p> + <p> + It must have sent a shudder through the wicked Philip when he received + news of that. A very stricken man he must have been, for he must have + suspected something of the truth, that if I dared, after all the evidence + amassed now against me, including my own confession under torture, openly + to seek a judgment, it was because I must possess some unsuspected means + of establishing all the truth—the truth that must make his own name + stink in the nostrils of the world. And so it was. Have you supposed that + Antonio Perez, who had spent his life in studying the underground methods + of burrowing statecraft, had allowed himself to be taken quite so easily + in their snare? Have you imagined that when I sent for Diego Martinez to + come to me at Turruegano and instructed him touching the surrender of + those two chests of documents, that I did not also instruct him carefully + touching the abstraction in the first instance of a few serviceable papers + and the renewal of the seals that should conceal the fact that he had + tampered with the chests? If you have thought that, you have done me less + than justice. There had been so much correspondence between Philip and + myself, so many notes had passed touching the death of Escovedo, and there + was that habit of Philip's of writing his replies in marginal notes to my + own letters and so returning them, that it was unthinkable he should have + kept them all in his memory, and the abstraction of three or four could + not conceivably be detected by him. + </p> + <p> + Ever since then those few letters, of a most deeply incriminating + character, selected with great acumen by my steward, had secretly remained + in the possession of my wife. Yet I had not dared produce them in Castile, + knowing that I should instantly have been deprived of them, and with them + of my last hope. They remained concealed against precisely such a time as + this, when, beyond the immediate reach of Philip's justice, I should + startle the world and clear my own character by their production. + </p> + <p> + You know the ancient privileges enjoyed by Aragon, privileges of which the + Aragonese are so jealous that a King of Castile may not assume the title + of King of Aragon until, bareheaded, he shall have received from the Grand + Justiciary of Aragon the following admonition: “We, who are of equal worth + and greater power than you, constitute you our king on the condition that + you respect our privileges, and not otherwise.” And to that the king must + solemnly bind himself by oath, whose violation would raise in revolt + against him the very cobbles of the streets. No king of Spain had ever yet + been found to dare violate the constitution and the fueros of Aragon, the + independence of their cortes, or parliament, composed of the four orders + of the State. The Grand Justiciary's Court was superior to any royally + constituted tribunal in the kingdom; to that court it was the privilege of + any man to appeal for justice in any cause; and there justice was measured + out with a stern impartiality that had not its like in any other State of + Europe. + </p> + <p> + That was the tribunal to which I made surrender of my person and my cause. + There was an attempt on the part of Philip to seize me and drag me back to + Castile and his vengeance. His officers broke into the prison for that + purpose, and already I was in their power, when the men of the Justiciary, + followed by an excited mob, which threatened open rebellion at this + violation of their ancient rights, delivered me from their hands. + </p> + <p> + Baffled in this—and I can imagine his fury, which has since been + vented on the Aragonese—Philip sent his representatives and his + jurists to accuse me before the Court of the Grand Justiciary and to + conduct my prosecution. + </p> + <p> + The trial began, exciting the most profound interest, not only in Aragon, + but also in Castile, which, as I afterwards learnt, had openly rejoiced at + my escape. It proceeded with the delays and longueurs that are inseparable + from the sluggish majesty of the law. One of these pauses I wrote to + Philip, inviting him to desist, and to grant me the liberty to live out my + days in peace with my family in some remote corner of his kingdom. I + warned him that I was not helpless before his persecution, as he imagined; + that whilst I had made surrender of two chests of papers, I yet retained + enough authentic documents—letters in his own hand—to make my + innocence and his guilt apparent in a startling degree, with very evil + consequences to himself. + </p> + <p> + His answer was to seize my wife and children and cast them into prison, + and then order the courts of Madrid to pronounce sentence of death against + me for the murder of Escovedo. Such were the sops with which he sought to + quench his vindictive rage. + </p> + <p> + Thereupon the trial proceeded. I prepared my long memorial of the affair, + supporting it with proofs in the shape of those letters I had retained. + And then at last Philip of Spain took fright. He was warned by one of his + representatives that there was little doubt I should be acquitted on all + counts, and, too late, he sought to save his face by ordering the + cessation of the prosecution he had instructed. + </p> + <p> + He stated that since I had chosen a line of defence, to answer which—as + it could be answered—it would be necessary to touch upon matters of + a secrecy that was inviolable, and to introduce personages whose + reputation and honour was of more consequence to the State than the + condemnation of Antonio Perez, he preferred to renounce the prosecution + before the tribunal of Aragon. But he added a certificate upon his royal + word to the effect that my crimes were greater than had ever been the + crimes of any man, and that, whilst he renounced the prosecution before + the courts of Aragon, he retained the right to demand of me an account of + my actions before any other tribunal at any future time. + </p> + <p> + My acquittal followed immediately. And immediately again that was + succeeded by fresh charges against me on behalf of the King. First it was + sought to prove that I had procured the death of two of my servants—a + charge which I easily dispersed by proving them to have died natural + deaths. Then it was sought to prosecute me on the charge of corruption, + for which I had once already been prosecuted, condemned, and punished. + Confidently I demanded my release, and Philip must have ground his teeth + in rage to see his prey escaping him, to see himself the butt of scorn and + contempt for the wrongs that it became clear he had done me. + </p> + <p> + One weapon remained to him, and a terrible weapon this—the Holy + Office of the Inquisition, a court before which all temporal courts must + bow and quail. He launched its power against me, and behold me, in the + moment when I accounted myself the victor in the unequal contest, accused + of the dread sin of heresy. Words lightly weighed—uttered by me in + prison under stress—had been zealously gathered up by spies. + </p> + <p> + On one occasion I had exclaimed: “I think God sleeps where my affairs are + concerned, and I am in danger of losing my faith.” The Holy Office held + this to be a scandalous proposition, offensive to pious ears. + </p> + <p> + Again, when I heard of the arrest of my wife and children I had cried out + in rage: “God sleeps! God sleeps! There cannot be a God!” + </p> + <p> + This they argued at length to be rank heresy, since it is man's duty + positively to believe, and who does not believe is an infidel. + </p> + <p> + Yet again it seems I had exclaimed: “Should things so come to pass, I + shall refuse to believe in God!” This was accounted blasphemous, + scandalous, and not without suspicion of heresy. + </p> + <p> + Upon these grounds the Supreme Council of the Inquisition at Madrid drew + up its impeachment, and delivered it to the inquisitors of Aragon at + Saragossa. These at once sent their familiars to demand the surrender of + me from the Grand Justiciary, in whose hands I still remained. The Grand + Justiciary incontinently refused to yield me up. + </p> + <p> + Thereupon the three Inquisitors drew up a peremptory demand, addressed to + the lieutenants of the Justiciary, summoning them by virtue of holy + obedience, under pain of greater excommunication, of a fine in the case of + each of them of one thousand ducats, and other penalties to which they + might later be condemned, to deliver me up within three hours to the + pursuivants of the Holy Office. + </p> + <p> + This was the end of the Justiciary's resistance. He dared not refuse a + demand so framed, and surrender of me was duly made. But the news of what + was doing had run abroad. I had no lack of friends, whom I instantly + warned of what was afoot, and they had seen to it that the knowledge + spread in an inflammatory manner. Saragossa began to stir at once. Here + was a thinly masked violation of their ancient privileges. If they + suffered this precedent of circumventing their rights, what was to become + of their liberties in future, who would be secure against an unjust + persecution? For their sympathies were all with me throughout that trial. + </p> + <p> + I was scarcely in the prison of the Holy Office before the dread cry of + Contrafueros! was ringing through the streets of Saragossa, summoning the + citizens to arm and come forth in defence of their inviolable rights. They + stormed the palace of the Grand Justiciary, demanded that he should defend + the fueros, to whose guardianship he had been elected. Receiving no + satisfaction, they attacked the palace of the Inquisition, clamouring + insistently that I should immediately be returned to the Justiciary's + prison, whence I had so unwarrantably been taken. + </p> + <p> + The Inquisitors remained firm a while, but the danger was increasing + hourly. In the end they submitted, for the sake of their skins, and + considering, no doubt, a later vengeance for this outrage upon their holy + authority. But it was not done until faggots had been stacked against the + Holy House, and the exasperated mob had threatened to burn them out of it. + </p> + <p> + “Castilian hypocrites!” had been the insurgent roar. “Surrender your + prisoner, or you shall be roasted in the fire in which you roast so many!” + </p> + <p> + Blood was shed in the streets. The King's representative died of wounds + that he received in the affray, whilst the Viceroy himself was assailed + and compelled to intervene and procure my deliverance. + </p> + <p> + For the moment I was out of danger. But for the moment only. There was no + question now of my enlargement. The Grand Justiciary, intimidated by what + had taken place, by the precise expression of the King's will, dared not + set me at liberty. And then the Holy Office, under the direction of the + King, went to work in that subterranean way which it has made its own; + legal quibbles were raised to soothe the sensibilities of the Aragonese + with respect to my removal from the Justiciary's prison to that of the + Holy Office. Strong forces of troops were brought to Saragossa to overawe + the plebeian insolence, and so, by the following September, all the + preliminaries being concluded, the Inquisition came in force and in form + to take possession of me. + </p> + <p> + The mob looked on and murmured; but it was intimidated by the show of + ordered force; it had perhaps tired a little of the whole affair, and did + not see that it should shed its blood and lay up trouble for itself for + the sake of one who, after all, was of no account in the affairs of + Aragon. I stood upon the threshold of my ruin. All my activities were to + go unrewarded. Doom awaited me. And then the unexpected happened. The + alguazil of the Holy Office was in the very act of setting the gyves upon + my legs when the first shot was fired, followed almost at once by a + fusillade. + </p> + <p> + It was Gil de Mesa, faithfullest servant that ever any man possessed. He + had raised an armed band, consisting of some Aragonese gentlemen and their + servants, and with this he fell like a thunderbolt upon the Castilian + men-at-arms and the familiars of the Inquisition. The Alguazil fled, + leaving me one leg free, the other burdened by the gyve, and as he fled so + fled all others, being thus taken unawares. The Inquisitors scuttled to + the nearest shelter; the Viceroy threw himself into his house and + barricaded the door. There was no one to guide, no one to direct. The + soldiery in these circumstances, accounting themselves overpowered, + offered no resistance. They, too, fled before the fusillade and the hail + of shot that descended on them. + </p> + <p> + Before I realized what had happened, the iron had been struck from my leg, + I was mounted on a horse, and, with Gil at my side, I was galloping out of + Saragossa by the gate of Santa Engracia, and breasting the slopes with + little cause to fear pursuit just yet, such was the disorder we had left + behind. + </p> + <p> + And there, very briefly, you have the story of my sufferings and my + escapes. Not entirely to be baulked, numerous arrests were made by the + Inquisitors in Saragossa when order was at last restored. There followed + an auto-da-fe, the most horrible and vindictive of all those horrors, in + which many suffered for having displayed the weakness of charity towards a + persecuted man. And, since my body was no longer in their clutches, they + none the less sentenced me to death as contumaciously absent, and my + effigy was burnt in the holy fires they lighted, amongst the human candles + which they offered up for the greater honour and glory of a merciful God. + Let me say no more, lest I blaspheme in earnest. + </p> + <p> + After months of wandering and hiding, Gil and I made our way here into + Navarre, where we remain the guests of Protestant King Henri IV, who does + not love King Philip any better since he has heard my story. + </p> + <p> + Still King Philip's vengeance does not sleep. Twice has he sent after me + his assassins—since assassination is the only weapon now remaining + to him. But his poor tools have each time been taken, exposed to Philip's + greater infamy and shame—and hanged as they deserve who can so + vilely serve so vile a master. It has even been sought to bribe my + faithful Gil de Mesa into turning his hand against me, and that attempt, + too, has been given the fullest publication. Meanwhile, my death to-day + could no longer avail Philip very much. My memorial is published + throughout Europe for all to read. It has been avidly read until Philip of + Spain has earned the contempt of every upright man. In his own dominions + the voice of execration has been raised against him. One of his own nobles + has contemptuously announced that Spain under Philip has become unsafe for + any gentleman, and that a betrayal of a subject by his king is without + parallel in history. + </p> + <p> + That is some measure of vengeance. But if I am spared I shall not leave it + there. Henry of Navarre is on the point of turning Catholic that his + interests may be better served. Elizabeth of England remains. In her + dominions, where thrives the righteous hatred of Philip and all the evil + that he stands for, I shall find a welcome and a channel for the + activities that are to show him that Antonio Perez lives. I have sent him + word that when he is weary of the conflict he can signify his surrender by + delivering from their prison my wife and children, upon whom he seeks + still to visit some of the vengeance I have succeeded in eluding. When he + does that, then will I hold my hand. But not before. + </p> + <p> + “That, madame, is my story,” said Don Antonio, after a pause, and from + narrowing eyes looked at the beauty who had heard him through. + </p> + <p> + Daylight had faded whilst the tale was telling. Night was come, and lights + had long since been fetched, the curtains drawn over the long windows that + looked out across the parkland to the river. + </p> + <p> + Twice only had he paused in all that narrative. Once when he had described + the avowal of his love for Anne, Princess of Eboli, when a burst of sobs + from her had come to interrupt him; again when a curious bird-note had + rung out upon the gathering dusk. Then he stopped to listen. + </p> + <p> + “Curious that,” he had said—“an eagle's cry. I have not heard it + these many months, not since I left the hills of Aragon.” + </p> + <p> + Thereafter he had continued to the end. + </p> + <p> + Considering her now, his glance inscrutable, he said: + </p> + <p> + “You weep, madame. Tell me, what is it that has moved you—the + contemplation of my sufferings, or of your own duplicity?” + </p> + <p> + She started up, very white, her eyes scared. + </p> + <p> + “I do not understand you. What do you mean, sir?” + </p> + <p> + “I mean, madame, that God did not give you so much beauty that you should + use it in the decoying of an unfortunate, that you should hire it at an + assassin's fee to serve the crapulous King of Spain.” + </p> + <p> + He rose and towered before her, a figure at once of anger, dignity, and + some compassion. + </p> + <p> + “So much ardour from youth and beauty to age and infirmity was in itself + suspicious. The Catholic King has the guile of Satan, I remembered. I + wondered, and hoped my suspicions might be unfounded. Yet prudence made me + test them, that the danger, if it existed, should manifest itself and be + destroyed. So I came to tell you all my story, so that if you did the + thing I feared, you might come to the knowledge of precisely what it was + you did. I have learnt whilst here that what I suspected is—alas! + quite true. You were a lure, a decoy sent to work my ruin, to draw me into + a trap where daggers waited for me. Why did you do this? What was the + bribe that could corrupt you, lovely lady?” + </p> + <p> + Sobs shook her. Her will gave way before his melancholy sternness. + </p> + <p> + “I do not know by what wizardry you have discovered it!” she cried. “It + was true; but it is true no longer. I knew not what I did. By that window, + across the meadows, you can reach the river in safety.” She rose, + controlling her emotion that she might instruct him. “They wait for you in + the enclosed garden.” + </p> + <p> + He smiled wistfully. + </p> + <p> + “They waited, madame. They wait no longer, unless it be for death. That + eagle's cry, thrice repeated, was the signal from my faithful Gil, not + only that the trap was discovered, but that those who baited it were + taken. Suspecting what I did, I took my measures ere I came. Antonio + Perez, as I have told you, is not an easy man to murder. Unlike Philip, I + do not make war on women, and I have no reckoning to present to you. But I + am curious, madame, to know what led you to this baseness.” + </p> + <p> + “I—I thought you evil, and—and they bribed me. I was offered + ten thousand ducats for your head. We are very poor, we Chantenacs, and so + I fell. But, sir—sir”—she was on her knees to him now, and she + had caught his hand in hers—“poor as I am, all that I have is yours + to do with as you will, to help to avenge yourself upon that Spanish + monster. Take what you will. Take all I have.” + </p> + <p> + His smile grew gentler. Gently he raised her. + </p> + <p> + “Madame,” he said, “I am myself a sinner, as I have shown you, a man + unequal to resisting temptation when it took me in its trammels. Of all + that you offer, I will take only the right to this kiss.” + </p> + <p> + And bending, he bore her hand to his lips. + </p> + <p> + Then he went out to join Gil and his men, who waited in the courtyard, + guarding three prisoners they had taken. + </p> + <p> + Perez considered them by the light of the lantern that Gil held aloft for + him. + </p> + <p> + “One of you,” he announced, “shall return to Castile and give tidings to + Philip, his master, that Antonio Perez leaves for England and the Court of + Elizabeth, to aid her, by his knowledge of the affairs of Spain, in her + measures against the Catholic King, and to continue his holy work, which + is to make the name of Philip II stink in the nostrils of all honest men. + One of you I will spare for that purpose. You shall draw lots for it in + the morning. The other two must hang.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. THE NIGHT OF CHARITY—The Case Of The Lady Alice Lisle + </h2> + <p> + Of all the cases tried in the course of that terrible circuit, justly + known as the Bloody Assizes, the only one that survives at all in the + popular memory is the case of the Lady Alice Lisle. Her advanced age, the + fact that she was the first woman known in English history to have + suffered death for no worse an offence than that of having exercised the + feminine prerogative of mercy, and the further fact that, even so, this + offence—technical as it was—was never fully proved against + her, are all circumstances which have left their indelible stamp of horror + upon the public mind. There is also the further circumstance that hers was + the first case tried in the West by that terrible Chief Justice, Baron + Jeffreys of Wem. + </p> + <p> + But the feature that renders her case peculiarly interesting to the + historical psychologist—and it is a feature that is in danger of + being overlooked—is that she cannot really be said to have suffered + for the technical offence for which she took her trial. That was the + pretext rather than the cause. In reality she was the innocent victim of a + relentless, undiscerning Nemesis. + </p> + <p> + The battle of Sedgemoor had been fought and lost by the Protestant + champion, James, Duke of Monmouth. In the West, which had answered the + Duke's summons to revolt, there was established now a horrible reign of + terror reflecting the bigoted, pitiless, vindictive nature of the King. + Faversham had left Colonel Percy Kirke in command at Bridgwater, a + ruthless ruffian, who at one time had commanded the Tangier garrison, and + whose men were full worthy of their commander. Kirke's Lambs they were + called, in an irony provoked by the emblem of the Paschal Lamb on the flag + of this, the First Tangier Regiment, originally levied to wage war upon + the infidel. + </p> + <p> + From Bridgwater Colonel Kirke made a horrible punitive progress to + Taunton, where he put up at the White Hart Inn. Now, there was a very + solid signpost standing upon a triangular patch of green before the door + of the White Hart, and Colonel Kirke conceived the quite facetious notion + of converting this advertisement of hospitality into a gallows—a + signpost of temporal welfare into a signpost of eternity. So forth he + fetched the prisoners he had brought in chains from Bridgwater, and + proceeded, without any form of trial whatsoever, to string them up before + the inn. The story runs that as they were hoisted to that improvised + gibbet, Kirke and his officers, standing at the windows, raised their + glasses to pledge their happy deliverance; then, when the victims began to + kick convulsively, Kirke would order the drums to strike up, so that the + gentlemen might have music for their better dancing. + </p> + <p> + The colonel, you see, was a humorist, as humour was then understood upon + the northern shores of Africa, where he had been schooled. + </p> + <p> + When, eventually, Colonel Kirke was recalled and reprimanded, it was not + because of his barbarities many of which transcend the possibilities of + decent print—but because of a lenity which this venal gentleman + began to display when he discovered that many of his victims were willing + to pay handsomely for mercy. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, under his reign of terror, men who had cause to fear the + terrible hand of the King's vengeance went into hiding wherever they + could. Among those who escaped into Hampshire, thinking themselves safer + in a county that had not participated in the war, were a dissenting parson + named George Hicks, who had been in Monmouth's army, and a lawyer named + Richard Nelthorp, outlawed for participation in the Rye House Plot. In his + desperate quest for shelter, Hicks bethought him of the charitable + Nonconformist lady of Moyle's Court, the widow of that John Lisle who had + been one of Cromwell's Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal, and most + active in bringing King Charles I to justice. + </p> + <p> + John Lisle had fled to Switzerland at the Restoration; but Stuart + vengeance had followed him, set a price upon his head, and procured his + murder at Lausanne. That was twenty years ago. Since then his lady, + because she was known to have befriended and sheltered many Royalists, and + because she had some stout Tory friends to plead for her, was allowed to + remain in tranquil possession of her estates. And there the Lady Alice + Lisle—so called by courtesy, since Cromwell's titles did not at law + survive the Restoration—might have ended her days in peace, but that + it was written that those who hated her—innocent and aged though she + was—for the name she bore, who included her in the rancour which had + procured her husband's assassination, were to be fully satisfied. And the + instrument of fate was this parson Hicks. He prevailed upon Dunne, a baker + of Warminster, and a Nonconformist, to convey to the Lady Lisle his prayer + for shelter. With that message Dunne set out on July 25th for Ellingham, a + journey of some twenty miles. He went by way of Fovant and Chalk to + Salisbury Plain. But as he did not know the way thence, he sought out a + co-religionist named Barter, who undertook, for a consideration, to go + with him and direct him. + </p> + <p> + Together the pair came in the late afternoon of that Saturday to the + handsome house of Moyle's Court, and to my lady's steward, who received + them. Dunne, who appears to have been silly and imprudent, states that he + is sent to know if my lady will entertain a minister named Hicks. + </p> + <p> + Carpenter, the steward, a staid, elderly fellow, took fright at once. + Although he may not have associated an absconding Presbyterian parson with + the late rebellion, he must have supposed at least that he was one of + those against whom there were warrants for preaching in forbidden private + meetings. So to her ladyship above stairs Carpenter conveyed a warning + with the message. + </p> + <p> + But that slight, frail, homely lady of seventy, with kindly eyes of a + faded blue, smiled upon his fears. She had sheltered fugitives before—in + the old days of the Commonwealth—and nothing but good had ever come + of it. She would see this messenger. + </p> + <p> + With misgivings, Carpenter haled Dunne into her presence, and left them + alone together. The impression conveyed by Dunne was that Hicks was in + hiding from the warrants that were out against all Nonconformist + preachers. But when he mentioned that Hicks had a companion, she desired + to know his name. + </p> + <p> + “I do not know, my lady. But I do not think he has been in the army, + either.” + </p> + <p> + She considered a while. But in the end pity conquered doubt in her sweetly + charitable soul. + </p> + <p> + “Very well,” she said, “I will give them entertainment for a week. Bring + them on Tuesday after dark, and come by the back way through the orchard, + that they may not be seen.” + </p> + <p> + And upon this she rose, and took up an ebony cane, herself to reconduct + him and to see to his entertainment before he left. Not until they came to + the kitchen did she realize that he had a companion. At sight of Barter, + who rose respectfully when she entered, she checked, turned to Dunne, and + whispered something, to which his answer provoked from her a laugh. + </p> + <p> + Now Barter, intrigued by this whispering and laughing, of which he deemed + himself the object, questioned Dunne upon it as they rode forth again + together. + </p> + <p> + “She asked me if you knew aught of the business,” replied Dunne; “and I + answered 'No.”' + </p> + <p> + “Business, say'st thou?” quoth Barter. “What business?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure, the business on which we came,” Dunne evaded; and he laughed. + </p> + <p> + It was an answer that left Barter uneasy. Nor was his mind set at rest by + the parting words with which Dunne accompanied the half-crown for his + services. + </p> + <p> + “This is but an earnest of what's to come if you will meet me here on + Tuesday to show me the way to Moyle's Court again. I shall be bringing two + gentlemen with me—wealthy men, of a half-score thousand pounds a + year apiece. I tell you there will be a fine booty for my part, so fine + that I shall never want for money again all the days of my life. And, so + that you meet us here, you too may count upon a handsome reward.” + </p> + <p> + Consenting, Barter went his ways home. But as he pondered Dunne's silly + speech, and marvelled that honest men should pay so disproportionately for + an honest service, he came to the reasonable conclusion that he had to do + with rebels. This made him so uneasy that he resolved at last to lodge + information with the nearest justice. + </p> + <p> + Now, it happened, by the irony of Fate, that the justice sought by Barter + was one Colonel Penruddock—the vindictive son of that Penruddock + whom the late John Lisle—whilst Lord President of the High Court—had + sentenced to death some thirty years ago for participation in an + unsuccessful Wiltshire rising against the Commonwealth. + </p> + <p> + The colonel, a lean, stark man of forty-five, heard with interest Barter's + story. + </p> + <p> + “Art an honest fellow!” he commended him. “What are the names of these + rogues?” + </p> + <p> + “The fellow named no names, sir.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, well, we shall discover that for ourselves when we come to take + them at this trysting-place. Whither do you say you are to conduct them?” + </p> + <p> + “To Moyle's Court, sir, where my Lady Lisle is to give them + entertainment.” + </p> + <p> + The colonel stared a moment; then a heavy smile came to light the + saturnine face under the heavy periwig. Beyond that he gave no sign of + what was passing in his mind. + </p> + <p> + “You may go,” he said slowly, at last. “Be sure we shall be at the tryst + to take these rascals.” + </p> + <p> + But the colonel did not keep his promise. To Barter's surprise, there were + no soldiers at the tryst on Salisbury Plain on the following Tuesday; and + he was suffered to lead Dunne and the two men with him the short, + corpulent Mr. Hicks and the long, lean Nelthorp—to Moyle's Court + without interference. + </p> + <p> + The rich reward that Dunne had promised him amounted in actual fact to + five shillings, that he had from Nelthorpe at parting. Puzzled by Colonel + Penruddock's failure to do his part, Barter went off at once to the + colonel's house to inform him that the pair were now at Lady Lisle's. + </p> + <p> + “Why, that is very well,” said the colonel, his smile more sinister than + ever. “Trouble not yourself about that.” + </p> + <p> + And Barter, the unreasoning instrument of Fate, was not to know that the + apprehending of a couple of traitorous Jack Presbyters was of small + account to Colonel Penruddock by comparison with the satisfaction of the + blood-feud between himself and the House of Lisle. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile the fugitives were being entertained at Moyle's Court, and + whilst they sat at supper in a room above-stairs, Dunne being still of the + party, my lady came in person to see that they had all that they required, + and stayed a little while in talk with them. There was some mention of + Monmouth and the battle of Sedgemoor, which was natural, that being the + topic of the hour. + </p> + <p> + My lady asked no questions at the time regarding Hicks's long, lean + companion. But it occurred to her later that perhaps she should know more + about him. Early next morning, therefore, she sent for Hicks as he was in + the act of sitting down to breakfast, and by her direct questions elicited + from him that this companion was that Richard Nelthorp outlawed for his + share in the Rye House Plot. Not only was the information alarming, but it + gave her a sense that she had not been dealt with fairly, as indeed she + told him. + </p> + <p> + “You will see, sir,” she concluded, “that you cannot bide here. So long as + I thought it was on the score of Nonconformity alone that you were + suffering persecution, I was willing to take some risk in hiding you. But + since your friend is what he is, the risk is greater than I should be + asked to face, for my own sake and for that of my daughters. Nor can I say + that I have ever held plottings and civil war in anything but abhorrence—as + much in the old days as now. I am a loyal woman, and as a loyal woman I + must bid you take your friend hence as soon as your fast is broken.” + </p> + <p> + The corpulent and swarthy Hicks stood dejectedly before her. He might have + pleaded, but at that moment there came a loud knocking at the gates below, + and instantly Carpenter flung into the room with a white, scared face and + whirling gestures. + </p> + <p> + “Soldiers, my lady!” he panted in affright. “We have been betrayed. The + presence of Mr. Hicks here is known. What shall we do? What shall we do?” + </p> + <p> + She stood quite still, her countenance entirely unchanged, unless it were + to smile a little upon Carpenter's terror. The mercy of her nature rose + dominant now. + </p> + <p> + “Why, we must hide these poor fellows as best we can,” said she; and Hicks + flung down upon one knee to kiss her hand with protestations that he would + sooner be hanged than bring trouble upon her house. + </p> + <p> + But she insisted, calm and self-contained; and Carpenter carried Hicks + away to bestow him, together with Dunne, in a hole in the malt-house under + a heap of sacking. Nelthorp had already vanished completely on his own + initiative. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, the insistent knocking at the gate continued. Came shouted + demands to open in the name of the King, until from a window my lady's + daughters looked out to challenge those who knocked. + </p> + <p> + Colonel Penruddock, who had come in person with the soldiers to raid the + house of his hereditary foe, stood forth to answer, very stiff and brave + in his scarlet coat and black plumed hat. + </p> + <p> + “You have rebels in the house,” he announced, “and I require you in the + King's name to deliver them up to me.” + </p> + <p> + And then, before they could answer him, came Carpenter to unbar the door, + and admit them to the court. Penruddock, standing squarely before the + steward, admonished him very sternly. + </p> + <p> + “Friend,” said he, “you had best be ingenuous with me and discover who are + in your lady's house, for it is within my knowledge that some strangers + came hither last night.” + </p> + <p> + The stricken Carpenter stood white-faced and trembling. + </p> + <p> + “Sir—sir—” he faltered. + </p> + <p> + But the colonel was impatient. + </p> + <p> + “Come, come, my friend. Since I know they are here, there's an end on't. + Show me where they are hid if you would save your own neck from the + halter.” + </p> + <p> + It was enough for Carpenter. The pair in the malthouse might have eluded + all search but for the steward's pusillanimity. Incontinently, he betrayed + the hiding-place. + </p> + <p> + “But, sir, of your charity do not tell my mistress that I have told you. + Pray, sir—” + </p> + <p> + Penruddock brushed him aside as if he had been a pestering fly, and with + his men went in, and straight to the spot where Hicks and Dunne were + lurking. When he had taken them, he swung round on Carpenter, who had + followed. + </p> + <p> + “These be but two,” he said, “and to my knowledge three rogues came hither + last night. No shufling with me, rascal. Where have you bestowed the + other?” + </p> + <p> + “I swear, as Heaven's my witness, I do not know where he is,” protested + the afflicted steward, truly enough. + </p> + <p> + Penruddock turned to his men. + </p> + <p> + “Make search,” he bade them; and search was made in the ruthless manner of + such searches. + </p> + <p> + The brutal soldiers passed from room to room beating the wainscoting with + pike and musket-butts, splintering and smashing heedlessly. Presses were + burst open and their contents scattered; chests were broken into and + emptied, the searchers appropriating such objects as took their fancy, + with true military cynicism. A mirror was shattered, and some boards of + the floor were torn up because a sergeant conceived that the blows of his + halbert rang hollow. + </p> + <p> + When the tumult was at its height, came her ladyship at last into the + room, where Colonel Penruddock stood watching the operations of his men. + She stood in the doorway leaning upon her ebony cane, her faded eyes + considering the gaunt soldier with reproachful question. + </p> + <p> + “Sir,” she asked him with gentle irony, masking her agitation, “has my + house been given over to pillage?” + </p> + <p> + He bowed, doffing his plumed hat with an almost excessive courtesy. + </p> + <p> + “To search, madame,” he corrected her. And added: “In the King's name.” + </p> + <p> + “The King,” she answered, “may give you authority to search my house, but + not to plunder it. Your men are robbing and destroying.” + </p> + <p> + He shrugged. It was the way of soldiers. Fine manners, he suggested, were + not to be expected of their kind. And he harangued her upon the wrong she + had done in harbouring rebels and giving entertainment to the King's + enemies. + </p> + <p> + “That is not true,” said she. “I know of no King's enemies.” + </p> + <p> + He smiled darkly upon her from his great height. She was so frail a body + and so old that surely it was not worth a man's while to sacrifice her on + the altar of revenge. But not so thought Colonel Penruddock. Therefore he + smiled. + </p> + <p> + “Two of them, a snivelling Jack Presbyter named Hicks and a rascal named + Dunne, are taken already. Pray, madame, be so free and ingenuous with me + aye, and so kind to yourself—as if there be any other person + concealed in your house—and I am sure there is somebody else—to + deliver him up, and you shall come to no further trouble.” + </p> + <p> + She looked up at him, and returned him smile for smile. + </p> + <p> + “I know nothing,” she said, “of what you tell me, or of what you ask.” + </p> + <p> + His countenance hardened. + </p> + <p> + “Then, mistress, the search must go on.” + </p> + <p> + But a shout from the adjoining room announced that it was at an end. + Nelthorp had been discovered and dragged from the chimney into which he + had crept. + </p> + <p> + Almost exactly a month later—on August 27th the Lady Alice Lisle was + brought to the bar of the court-house at Winchester upon a charge of high + treason. + </p> + <p> + The indictment ran that secretly, wickedly, and traitorously she did + entertain, conceal, comfort, uphold, and maintain John Hicks, knowing him + to be a false traitor, against the duty of her allegiance and against the + peace of “our sovereign lord the King that now is.” + </p> + <p> + Demurely dressed in grey, the little white-haired lady calmly faced the + Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys and the four judges of oyer and terminer who + sat with him, and confidently made her plea of “Not Guilty.” + </p> + <p> + It was inconceivable that Christian men should deal harshly with her for a + technical offence amounting to an act of Christian charity. And the judge, + sitting there in his robe of scarlet reversed with ermine, looked a + gentle, kindly man; his handsome, oval, youthful face—Jeffreys was + in his thirty-sixth year—set in the heavy black periwig, was so pale + that the mouth made a vivid line of scarlet; and the eyes that now + surveyed her were large and liquid and compassionate, as it seemed to her. + </p> + <p> + She was not to know that the pallor which gave him so interesting an air, + and the dark stains which lent his eyes that gentle wistfulness, were the + advertisements at once of the debauch that had kept him from his bed until + after two o'clock that morning and of the inexorable disease that slowly + gnawed away his life and enraged him out of all humanity. + </p> + <p> + And the confidence his gentle countenance inspired was confirmed by the + first words he had occasion to address to her. She had interrupted counsel + to the Crown when, in his opening address to the jury—composed of + some of the most considerable gentlemen of Hampshire—he seemed to + imply that she had been in sympathy with Monmouth's cause. She was, of + course, without counsel, and must look herself to her defence. + </p> + <p> + “My lord,” she cried, “I abhorred that rebellion as much as any woman in + the world!” + </p> + <p> + Jeffreys leaned forward with a restraining gesture. + </p> + <p> + “Look you, Mrs. Lisle,” he admonished her sweetly, “because we must + observe the common and usual methods of trial in your case I must + interrupt you now.” And upon that he promised that she should be fully + heard in her own defence at the proper time, and that himself he would + instruct her in the forms of law to her advantage. He reassured her by + reverent allusions to the great Judge of Heaven and Earth, in whose sight + they stood, that she should have justice. “And as to what you say + concerning yourself,” he concluded, “I pray God with all my heart you may + be innocent.” + </p> + <p> + He was benign and reassuring. But she had the first taste of his true + quality in the examination of Dunne—a most unwilling witness. + </p> + <p> + Reluctantly, under the pressure put upon him, did Dunne yield up the tale + of how he had conducted the two absconders to my lady's house with her + consent, and it was sought to prove that she was aware of their connection + with the rebellion. The stubbornly evasive Dunne was asked at last: + </p> + <p> + “Do you believe that she knew Mr. Hicks before?” + </p> + <p> + He returned the answer that already he had returned to many questions of + the sort. + </p> + <p> + “I cannot tell truly.” + </p> + <p> + Jeffreys stirred in his scarlet robes, and his wistful eyes grew terrible + as they bent from under beetling brows upon the witness. + </p> + <p> + “Why,” he asked, “dost thou think that she would entertain any one she had + no knowledge of merely upon thy message? Mr. Dunne, Mr. Dunne! Have a + care. It may be more is known to me of this matter than you think for.” + </p> + <p> + “My lord, I speak nothing but the truth!” bleated the terrified Dunne. + </p> + <p> + “I only bid you have a care,” Jeffreys smiled; and his smile was more + terrible than his frown. “Truth never wants a subterfuge; it always loves + to appear naked; it needs no enamel nor any covering. But lying and + snivelling and canting and Hicksing always appear in masquerade. Come, go + on with your evidence.” + </p> + <p> + But Dunne was reluctant to go on, and out of his reluctance he lied + foolishly, and pretended that both Hicks and Nelthorp were unknown to him. + When pressed to say why he should have served two men whom he had never + seen before, he answered: + </p> + <p> + “All the reason that induced me to it was that they said they were men in + debt, and desired to be concealed for a while.” + </p> + <p> + Then the thunder was heard in Jeffreys' voice. + </p> + <p> + “Dost thou believe that any one here believes thee? Prithee, what trade + art thou?” + </p> + <p> + “My lord,” stammered the unfortunate, “I—I am a baker by trade.” + </p> + <p> + “And wilt thou bake thy bread at such easy rates? Upon my word, then, thou + art very kind. Prithee, tell me. I believe thou dost use to bake on + Sundays, dost thou not?” + </p> + <p> + “No, my lord, I do not!” cried Dunne indignantly. + </p> + <p> + “Alackaday! Art precise in that,” sneered the judge. “But thou canst + travel on Sundays to lead rogues into lurking-holes.” + </p> + <p> + Later, when to implicate the prisoner, it was sought to draw from Dunne a + full account of the reception she had given his companions, his terror + under the bullying to which he was subjected made him contradict himself + more flagrantly than ever. Jeffreys addressed the jury. + </p> + <p> + “You see, gentlemen, what a precious fellow this is; a very pretty tool to + be employed upon such an errand; a knave that nobody would trust for half + a crown. A Turk has more title to an eternity of bliss than these + pretenders to Christianity.” + </p> + <p> + And as there was no more to be got from Dunne just then, he was presently + dismissed, and Barter's damning evidence was taken. Thereafter the + wretched Dunne was recalled, to be bullied by Jeffreys in blasphemous + terms that may not be printed here. + </p> + <p> + Barter had told the Court how my lady had come into the kitchen with + Dunne, and how, when he had afterwards questioned Dunne as to why they had + whispered and laughed together, Dunne told him she had asked “If he knew + aught of the business.” Jeffreys sought now to wring from Dunne what was + this business to which he had so mysteriously alluded—this with the + object of establishing Lady Lisle's knowledge of Hicks's treason. + </p> + <p> + Dunne resisted more stubbornly than ever. Jeffreys, exasperated—since + without the admission it would be difficult to convict her ladyship—invited + the jury to take notice of the strange, horrible carriage of the fellow, + and heaped abuse upon the snivelling, canting sect of which he was a + member. Finally, he reminded Dunne of his oath to tell the truth, and + addressed him with a sort of loving ferocity. + </p> + <p> + “What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own + soul?” bellowed that terrible judge, his eyes aflame. “Is not this the + voice of Scripture itself? And wilt thou hazard so dear and precious a + thing as thy soul for a lie? Thou wretch! All the mountains and hills of + the world heaped upon one another will not cover thee from the vengeance + of the Great God for this transgression of false-witness bearing.” + </p> + <p> + “I cannot tell what to say, my lord,” gasped Dunne. + </p> + <p> + In his rage to see all efforts vain, the judge's language became that of + the cockpit. Recovering at last, he tried gentleness again, and very + elaborately invited Dunne, in my lady's own interest, to tell him what was + the business to which he had referred to Barter. + </p> + <p> + “She asked me whether I did not know that Hicks was a Nonconformist.” + </p> + <p> + “That cannot be all. There must be something more in it.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, my lord,” Dunne protested, “it is all. I know nothing more.” + </p> + <p> + “Was there ever such an impudent rascal?” roared the judge. “Dolt think + that, after all the pains I have been at to get an answer, thou canst + banter me with such sham stuff as this? Hold the candle to his brazen + face, that we may see it clearly.” + </p> + <p> + Dunne stood terrified and trembling under the glance of those terrible + eyes. + </p> + <p> + “My lord,” he cried, “I am so baulked, I am cluttered out of my senses.” + </p> + <p> + Again he was put down whilst Colonel Penruddock gave his evidence of the + apprehension of the rebels. When he had told how he found Hicks and Dunne + concealed under some stuff in the malt-house, Dunne was brought back yet + again, that Jeffreys might resume his cross-examination. + </p> + <p> + “Dunne, how came you to hide yourself in the malthouse?” + </p> + <p> + “My lord,” said Dunne foolishly, “I was frighted by the noise.” + </p> + <p> + “Prithee, what needest thou be afraid of, for thou didst not know Hicks + nor Nelthorp; and my lady only asked thee whether Hicks were a + Nonconformist parson. Surely, so very innocent a soul needed no occasion + to be afraid. I doubt there was something in the case of that business we + were talking of before. If we could but get out of thee what it was.” + </p> + <p> + But Dunne continued to evade. + </p> + <p> + “My lord, I heard a great noise in the house, and did not know what it + meant. So I went and hid myself.” + </p> + <p> + “It is very strange thou shouldst hide thyself for a little noise, when + thou knewest nothing of the business.” + </p> + <p> + Again the witness, with a candle still held close to his nose, complained + that he was quite cluttered out of his senses, and did not know what he + was saying. + </p> + <p> + “But to tell the truth would not rob thee of any of thy senses, if ever + thou hadst any,” Jeffreys told him angrily. “But it would seem that + neither thou nor thy mistress, the prisoner, had any; for she knew nothing + of it either, though she had sent for them thither.” + </p> + <p> + “My lord,” cried her ladyship at that, “I hope I shall not be condemned + without being heard.” + </p> + <p> + “No, God forbid, Mrs. Lisle,” he answered; and then viciously flashed + forth a hint of the true forces of Nemesis at work against her. “That was + a sort of practice in your late husband's time—you know very well + what I mean—but God be thanked it is not so now.” + </p> + <p> + Came next the reluctant evidence of Carpenter and his wife, and after that + there was yet a fourth equally futile attempt to drag from Dunne an + admission that her ladyship was acquainted with Hicks's share in the + rebellion. But if stupid, Dunne at least was staunch, and so, with a + wealth of valedictory invective, Jeffreys dismissed him, and addressed at + last the prisoner, inviting her to speak in her own defence. + </p> + <p> + She rose to do so, fearlessly yet gently. + </p> + <p> + “My lord, what I have to say is this. I knew of nobody's coming to my + house but Mr. Hicks, and for him I was informed that he did abscond by + reason of warrants that were out against him for preaching in private + meetings; for that reason I sent to him to come by night. But I had never + heard that Nelthorp was to come with him, nor what name Nelthorp had till + after he had come to my house. I could die upon it. As for Mr. Hicks, I + did not in the least suspect that he had been in the army, being a + Presbyterian minister that used to preach and not to fight.” + </p> + <p> + “But I will tell you,” Jeffreys interrupted her, “that there is not one of + those lying, snivelling, canting Presbyterian rascals but one way or the + other had a hand in the late horrid conspiracy and rebellion.” + </p> + <p> + “My lord, I abhorred both the principles and the practices of the late + rebellion,” she protested; adding that if she had been tried in London, my + Lady Abergavenny and many other persons of quality could have testified + with what detestation she had spoken of the rebellion, and that she had + been in London until Monmouth had been beheaded. + </p> + <p> + “If I had known the time of my trial in the country,” she pursued, “I + could have had the testimony of those persons of honour for me. But, my + lord, I have been told, and so I thought it would have been, that I should + not have been tried for harbouring Mr. Hicks until he should himself be + convict as a traitor. I did abhor those that were in the plot and + conspiracy against the King. I know my duty to my King better, and have + always exercised it. I defy anybody in the world that ever knew contrary + to come and give testimony.” + </p> + <p> + His voice broke harshly upon the pause. “Have you any more to say?” + </p> + <p> + “As to what they say to my denying Nelthorp to be in the house,” she + resumed. “I was in very great consternation and fear of the soldiers, who + were very rude and violent. I beseech your lordship to make that + construction of it, and not harbour an ill opinion of me because of those + false reports that go about of me, relating to my carriage towards the old + King, that I was anyways consenting to the death of King Charles I; for, + my lord, that is as false as God is true. I was not out of my chamber all + the day in which that king was beheaded, and I believe I shed more tears + for him than any other woman then living. + </p> + <p> + “And I do repeat it, my lord, as I hope to attain salvation, I never did + know Nelthorp, nor did I know of anybody's coming but Mr. Hicks. Him I + knew to be a Nonconformist minister, and there being, as is well known, + warrants out to apprehend all Nonconformist ministers, I was willing to + give him shelter from these warrants, which I knew was no treason.” + </p> + <p> + “Have you any more to say for yourself?” he asked her. + </p> + <p> + “My lord,” she was beginning, “I came but five days before this into the + country.” + </p> + <p> + “Nay,” he broke in, “I cannot tell when you came into the country, nor I + don't care. It seems you came in time to harbour rebels.” + </p> + <p> + She protested that if she would have ventured her life for anything, it + would have been to serve the King. + </p> + <p> + “But, though I could not fight for him myself, my son did; he was actually + in arms on the King's side in this business. It was I that bred him in + loyalty and to fight for the King.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, have you done?” he asked her brutally. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, my lord,” she answered; and resumed her seat, trembling a little + from the exertion and emotion of her address. + </p> + <p> + His charge to the jury began. It was very long, and the first half of it + was taken up with windy rhetoric in which the Almighty was invoked at + every turn. It degenerated at one time into a sermon upon the text of + “render unto Caesar,” inveighing against the Presbyterian religion. And + the dull length of his lordship's periods, combined with the monotone in + which he spoke, lulled the wearied lady at the bar into slumber. She + awakened with a start when suddenly his fist crashed down and his voice + rose in fierce denunciation of the late rebellion. But she was dozing + again—so calm and so little moved was she—before he had come + to apply his denunciations to her own case, and this in spite of all her + protests that she had held the rebellion in abhorrence. + </p> + <p> + It was all calculated to prejudice the minds of the jurymen before he came + to the facts and the law of the case. And that charge of his throughout, + far from being a judicial summing-up, was a virulent address for the + prosecution, just as his bearing hitherto in examining and cross-examining + witnesses had been that of counsel for the Crown. The statement that she + had made in her own defence he utterly ignored, save in one particular, + where he saw his opportunity further to prejudice her case. + </p> + <p> + “I am sorry,” he said, his face lengthening, “to remember something that + dropped even from the gentlewoman herself. She pretends to religion and + loyalty very much—how greatly she wept at the death of King Charles + the Martyr—and owns her great obligations to the late king and his + royal brother. And yet no sooner is one in the grave than she forgets all + gratitude and entertains those that were rebels against his royal + successor. + </p> + <p> + “I will not say,” he continued with deliberate emphasis, “what hand her + husband had in the death of that blessed martyr; she has enough to answer + for her own guilt; and I must confess that it ought not, one way or other, + to make any ingredient into this case what she was in former times.” + </p> + <p> + But he had dragged it in, protesting that it should not influence the + case, yet coldly, calculatingly intending it to do so. She was the widow + of a regicide, reason and to spare in the views of himself and his royal + master why she should be hounded to her death upon any pretext. + </p> + <p> + Thereafter he reviewed the evidence against her, dwelt upon the shuffling + of Dunne, deduced that the reason for so much lying was to conceal the + damning truth—namely, that she knew Hicks for a rebel when she gave + him shelter, and thus became the partner of his horrible guilt. Upon that + he charged them to find their verdict “without any consideration of + persons, but considering only the truth.” + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, although his commands were clear, some of the jury would + seem to have feared the God whom Jeffreys invoked so constantly. One of + them rose to ask him pertinently, in point of law, whether it was treason + to have harboured Hicks before the man had been convicted of treason. + </p> + <p> + Curtly he answered them that beyond doubt it was, and upon that assurance + the jury withdrew, the Court settled down into an expectant silence, and + her ladyship dozed again in her chair. + </p> + <p> + The minutes passed. It was growing late, and Jeffreys was eager to be done + with this prejudged affair, that he might dine in peace. His voice broke + the stillness of the court, protesting his angry wonder at the need to + deliberate in so plain a case. He was threatening to adjourn and let the + jury lie by all night if they did not bring in their verdict quickly. + When, at the end of a half-hour, they returned, his fierce, impatient + glance found them ominously grave. + </p> + <p> + “My lord,” said Mr. Whistler, the foreman, “we have to beg of your + lordship some directions before we can bring our verdict. We have some + doubt upon us whether there be sufficient proof that she knew Hicks to + have been in the army.” + </p> + <p> + Well might they doubt it, for there was no proof at all. Yet he never + hesitated to answer them. + </p> + <p> + “There is as full proof as proof can be. But you are judges of the proof. + For my part, I thought there was no difficulty in it.” + </p> + <p> + “My lord,” the foreman insisted, “we are in some doubt about it.” + </p> + <p> + “I cannot help your doubts,” he said irritably. “Was there not proved a + discourse of the battle and of the battle and of the army at supper-time?” + </p> + <p> + “But, my lord, we are not satisfied that she had notice that Hicks was in + the army.” + </p> + <p> + He glowered upon them in silence for a moment. They deserved to be + themselves indicted for their slowness to perceive where lay their duty to + their king. + </p> + <p> + “I cannot tell what would satisfy you,” he said; and sneered. “Did she not + inquire of Dunne whether Hicks had been in the army? And when he told her + he did not know, she did not say she would refuse if he had been, but + ordered him to come by night, by which it is evident she suspected it.” + </p> + <p> + He ignored, you see, her own complete explanation of that circumstance. + </p> + <p> + “And when Hicks and Nelthorp came, did she not discourse with them about + the battle and the army?” (As if that were not at the time a common topic + of discussion.) “Come, come, gentlemen,” he said, with amazing impudence, + “it is plain proof.” + </p> + <p> + But Mr. Whistler was not yet satisfied. + </p> + <p> + “We do not remember, my lord, that it was proved that she asked any such + question.” + </p> + <p> + That put him in a passion. + </p> + <p> + “Sure,” he bellowed, “you do not remember anything that has passed. Did + not Dunne tell you there was such a discourse, and she was by? But if + there were no such proof, the circumstances and management of the thing + are as full proof as can be. I wonder what it is you doubt of!” + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lisle had risen. There was a faint flush of excitement on her grey + old face. + </p> + <p> + “My lord, I hope—” she began, in trembling tones, to get no further. + </p> + <p> + “You must not speak now!” thundered her terrible judge; and thus struck + her silent. + </p> + <p> + The brief resistance to his formidable will was soon at an end. Within a + quarter of an hour the jury announced their verdict. They found her + guilty. + </p> + <p> + “Gentlemen,” said his lordship, “I did not think I should have occasion to + speak after your verdict, but, finding some hesitancy and doubt among you, + I cannot but say I wonder it should come about; for I think, in my + conscience, the evidence was as full and plain as it could be, and if I + had been among you, and she had been my own mother, I should have found + her guilty.” + </p> + <p> + She was brought up for sentence on the morrow, together with several + others subsequently convicted. Amid fresh invectives against the religion + she practised, he condemned her to be burned alive—which was the + proper punishment for high treason—ordering the sheriff to prepare + for her execution that same afternoon. + </p> + <p> + “But look you, Mrs. Lisle,” he added, “we that are the judges shall stay + in town an hour or two. You shall have pen, ink, and paper, and if, in the + mean time, you employ that pen, ink, and paper and that hour or two well—you + understand what I mean it may be that you shall hear further from us in a + deferring of this execution.” + </p> + <p> + What was this meaning that he assumed she understood? Jeffreys had + knowledge of Kirke's profitable traffic in the West, and it is known that + he spared no means of acquiring an estate suitable to his rank which he + did not possess by way of patrimony. Thus cynically he invited a bribe. + </p> + <p> + It is the only inference that explains the subsequent rancour he displayed + against her, aroused by her neglect to profit by his suggestions. The + intercession of the divines of Winchester procured her a week's reprieve, + and in that week her puissant friends in London, headed by the Earl of + Abergavenny, petitioned the King on her behalf. Even Feversham, the victor + of Sedgemoor, begged her life of the King—bribed to it, as men say, + by an offer of a thousand pounds. But the King withheld his mercy upon the + plea that he had promised Lord Jeffreys he would not reprieve her, and the + utmost clemency influential petitions could wring from James II was that + she should be beheaded instead of burned. + </p> + <p> + She suffered in the market-place of Winchester on September 2d. Christian + charity was all her sin, and for this her head was demanded in atonement. + She yielded it with a gentle fortitude and resolution. In lieu of speech, + she left with the sheriff a pathetic document wherein she protests her + innocence of all offence against the King, and forgives her enemies + specifically—the judge, who prejudiced her case, and forgot that + “the Court should be counsel for the prisoner,” and Colonel Penruddock, + “though he told me he could have taken those men before they came to my + house.” + </p> + <p> + Between those lines you may read the true reason why the Lady Alice Lisle + died. She died to slake the cruelly vindictive thirst of King James II on + the one hand, and Colonel Penruddock on the other, against her husband who + had been dead for twenty years. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V. THE NIGHT OF MASSACRE—The Story Of The Saint Bartholomew + </h2> + <p> + There are elements of mystery about the massacre of Saint Bartholomew over + which, presumably, historians will continue to dispute as long as + histories are written. Indeed, it is largely of their disputes that the + mystery is begotten. Broadly speaking, these historians may be divided + into two schools—Catholic and anti-Catholic. The former have made it + their business to show that the massacre was purely a political affair, + having no concern with religion; the latter have been equally at pains to + prove it purely an act of religious persecution having no concern with + politics. Those who adopt the latter point of view insist that the affair + was long premeditated, that it had its source in something concerted some + seven years earlier between Catherine of Medicis and the sinister Duke of + Alva. And they would seem to suggest that Henry of Navarre, the nominal + head of the Protestant party, was brought to Paris to wed Marguerite de + Valois merely so that by this means the Protestant nobles of the kingdom, + coming to the capital for the wedding, should be lured to their + destruction. + </p> + <p> + It does not lie within the purview of the present narrative to enter into + a consideration of the arguments of the two schools, nor will it be + attempted. + </p> + <p> + But it may briefly be stated that the truth lies probably in a middle + course of reasoning—that the massacre was political in conception + and religious in execution; or, in other words, that statecraft + deliberately made use of fanaticism as of a tool; that the massacre was + brought about by a sudden determination begotten of opportunity which is + but another word for Chance. + </p> + <p> + Against the theory of premeditation the following cardinal facts may be + urged: + </p> + <p> + (a) The impossibility of guarding for seven years a secret that several + must have shared; + </p> + <p> + (b) The fact that neither Charles IX nor his mother Catherine were in any + sense bigoted Catholics, or even of a normal religious sincerity. + </p> + <p> + (c) The lack of concerted action—so far as the kingdom generally was + concerned—in the execution of the massacre. + </p> + <p> + A subsidiary disproof lies in the attempted assassination of Coligny two + days before the massacre, an act which might, by putting the Huguenots on + their guard, have caused the miscarriage of the entire plan—had it + existed. + </p> + <p> + It must be borne in mind that for years France had been divided by + religious differences into two camps, and that civil war between Catholic + and Huguenot had ravaged and distracted the country. At the head of the + Protestant party stood that fine soldier Gaspard de Chatillon, Admiral de + Coligny, virtually the Protestant King of France, a man who raised armies, + maintaining them by taxes levied upon Protestant subjects, and treated + with Charles IX as prince with prince. At the head of the Catholic party—the + other imperium in imperio—stood the Duke of Guise. The third and + weakest party in the State, serving, as it seemed, little purpose beyond + that of holding the scales between the other turbulent two, was the party + of the King. + </p> + <p> + The motives and events that precipitated the massacre are set forth in the + narration of the King's brother, the Duke of Anjou (afterwards Henri III). + It was made by him to Miron, his physician and confidential servant in + Cracow, when he ruled there later as King of Poland, under circumstances + which place it beyond suspicion of being intended to serve ulterior aims. + For partial corroboration, and for other details of the massacre itself, + we have the narratives, among others, of Sully, who was then a young man + in the train of the King of Navarre, and of Lusignan, a gentleman of the + Admiral's household. We shall closely follow these in our reconstruction + of the event and its immediate causes. + </p> + <p> + The gay chatter of the gallants and ladies thronging the long gallery of + the Louvre sank and murmured into silence, and a movement was made to + yield a free passage to the King, who had suddenly made his appearance + leaning affectionately upon the shoulder of the Admiral de Coligny. + </p> + <p> + The Duke of Anjou, a slender, graceful young man in a gold-embroidered + suit of violet, forgot the interest he was taking in his beautiful hands + to bend lower over the handsome Madame de Nemours what time the unfriendly + eyes of both were turned upon the Admiral. + </p> + <p> + The King and the great Huguenot leader came slowly down the gallery, an + oddly contrasting pair. Coligny would have been the taller by a half-head + but for his stoop, yet in spite of it there was energy and military vigour + in his carriage, just as there was a severe dignity amounting to + haughtiness in his scarred and wrinkled countenance. A bullet that had + pierced his cheek and broken three of his teeth at the battle of + Moncontour had left a livid scar that lost itself in his long white beard. + His forehead was high and bald, and his eyes were of a steely keenness + under their tufted brows. He was dressed with Calvinistic simplicity + entirely in black, and just as this contrasted with the King's suit of + sulphur-coloured satin, so did the gravity of his countenance contrast + with the stupidity of his sovereign's. + </p> + <p> + Charles IX, a slimly built young man in his twenty-fourth year, was of a + pallid, muddy complexion, with great, shifty, greenish eyes, and a thick, + pendulous nose. The protruding upper lip of his long, thin mouth gave him + an oafish expression, which was increased by his habit of carrying his + head craned forward. + </p> + <p> + His nature was precisely what you would have expected from his appearance—dull + and gross. He was chiefly distinguished among men of birth for general + obscenity of speech and morphological inventiveness in blasphemy. + </p> + <p> + At the end of the gallery Coligny stooped to kiss the royal hand in + leave-taking. With his other hand Charles patted the Admiral's shoulder. + </p> + <p> + “Count me your friend,” he said, “body and soul, heart and bowels, even as + I count you mine. Fare you well, my father.” + </p> + <p> + Coligny departed, and the King retraced his steps, walking quickly, his + head hunched between his shoulders, his baleful eyes looking neither to + left nor right. As he passed out, the Duke of Anjou quitted the side of + Madame de Nemours, and went after him. Then at last the suspended chatter + of the courtiers broke loose again. + </p> + <p> + The King was pacing his cabinet—a simple room furnished with a + medley of objects appertaining to study, to devotion, and to hunting. A + large picture of the Virgin hung from a wall flanked on either side by an + arquebus, and carrying a hunting-horn on one of its upper corners. A + little alabaster holy-water font near the door, crowned by a sprig of + palm, seemed to serve as a receptacle for hawk-bells and straps. There was + a writing-table of beautifully carved walnut near the leaded window, + littered with books and papers—a treatise on hunting lay cheek by + jowl with a Book of Hours; a string of rosary beads and a dog-whip lay + across an open copy of Ronsard's verses. The King was quite the vilest + poetaster of his day. + </p> + <p> + Charles looked over his shoulder as his brother entered. The scowl on his + face deepened when he saw who came, and with a grunt he viciously kicked + the liver-coloured hound that lay stretched at his feet. The hound fled + yelping to a corner, the Duke checked, startled, in his advance. + </p> + <p> + “Well?” growled the King. “Well? Am I never to have peace? Am I never to + be alone? What now? Bowels of God! What do you want?” + </p> + <p> + His green eyes smouldered, his right hand opened and closed on the gold + hilt of the dagger at his girdle: + </p> + <p> + Scared by the maniac ferocity of this reception, the young Duke + precipitately withdrew. + </p> + <p> + “It is nothing. Another time, since I disturb you now.” He bowed and + vanished, followed by an evil, cackling laugh. + </p> + <p> + Anjou knew how little his brother loved him, and he confesses how much he + feared him in that moment. But under his fear it is obvious that there was + lively resentment. He went straight in quest of his mother, whose darling + he was, to bear her the tale of the King's mood, and what he accounted, no + doubt rightly, the cause of it. + </p> + <p> + “It is the work of that pestilential Huguenot admiral,” he announced, at + the end of a long tirade, “It is always thus with him after he has seen + Coligny.” + </p> + <p> + Catherine of Medicis considered. She was a fat, comfortable woman, with a + thick nose, pinched lips, and sleepy eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Charles,” she said at length, in her monotonous, emotionless voice, “is a + weathercock that turns with every wind that blows upon him. You should + know him by now.” And she yawned, so that one who did not know her and her + habit of perpetually yawning might have supposed that she was but + indifferently interested. + </p> + <p> + They were alone together in the intimate little tapestried room she called + her oratory. She half sat, half reclined upon a couch of rose brocade. + Anjou stood over by the window, his back to it, so that his pale face was + in shadow. He considered his beautiful hands, which he was reluctant to + lower, lest the blood should flow into them and mar their white + perfection. + </p> + <p> + “The Admiral's influence over him is increasing,” he complained, “and he + uses it to lessen our own.” + </p> + <p> + “Do I not know it?” came her dull voice. + </p> + <p> + “It is time to end it,” said Anjou passionately, “before he ends us. Your + influence grows weaker every day and the Admiral's stronger. Charles + begins to take sides with him against us. We shall have him a tool of the + Huguenot party before all is done. Ah, mon Dieu! You should have seen him + leaning upon the shoulder of that old parpaillot, calling him 'my father,' + and protesting himself his devoted friend 'body and soul, heart and + bowels,' in his own words. And when I seek him afterwards, he scowls and + snarls at me, and fingers his dagger as if he would have it in my throat. + It is plain to see upon what subject the old scoundrel entertained him.” + And again he repeated, more fiercely than before: “It is time to end it!” + </p> + <p> + “I know,” she said, ever emotionless before so much emotion. “And it shall + be ended. The old assassin should have been hanged years ago for guiding + the hand that shot Francois de Guise. Daily he becomes a greater danger, + to Charles, to ourselves, and to France. He is embroiling us with Spain + through this Huguenot army he is raising to go and fight the battles of + Calvinism in Flanders. A fine thing that. Ah, per Dio!” For a moment her + voice was a little warmed and quickened. “Catholic France at war with + Catholic Spain for the sake of Huguenot Flanders!” She laughed shortly. + Then her voice reverted to its habitual sleepy level. “You are right. It + is time to end it. Coligny is the head of this rebellious beast. If we cut + off the head, perhaps the beast will perish. We will consult the Duke of + Guise.” She yawned again. “Yes, the Duke of Guise will be ready to lend us + his counsel and his aid. Decidedly we must get rid of the Admiral.” + </p> + <p> + That was on Monday, August 18th of that year 1572, and such was the firm + purpose and energy of that fat and seemingly sluggish woman, that within + two days all necessary measures were taken, and Maurevert, the assassin, + was at his post in the house of Vilaine, in the Cloisters of Saint-Germain + l'Auxerrois, procured for the purpose by Madame de Nemours, who bore the + Admiral a mortal hatred. + </p> + <p> + It was not, however, until the following Friday that Maurevert was given + the opportunity of carrying out the task to which he had been hired. On + that morning, as the Admiral was passing, accompanied by a few gentlemen + of his household, returning from the Louvre to his house in the Rue + Betisy, the assassin did his work. There was a sudden arquebusade from a + first-floor window, and a bullet smashed two fingers of the Admiral's + right hand, and lodged itself in the muscles of his left arm. + </p> + <p> + With his maimed and bleeding hand he pointed to the window whence the shot + had been fired, bidding his gentlemen to force a way into the house and + take the assassin. But whilst they were breaking in at the front, + Maurevert was making his escape by the back, where a horse waited for him, + and, though pursued, he was never overtaken. + </p> + <p> + News of the event was instantly borne to the King. It found him at tennis + with the Duke of Guise and the Admiral's son-in-law, Teligny. + </p> + <p> + “In this assassin's work, Sire,” said the blunt gentleman whom Coligny had + sent, “the Admiral desires you to see the proof of the worth of the + agreement between himself and Monsieur de Guise that followed upon the + treaty of peace of Saint-Germain.” + </p> + <p> + The Duke of Guise drew himself stiffly up, but said no word. The King, + livid with rage, looked at him balefully a moment, then to vent some of + his fury he smashed his racket against the wall. + </p> + <p> + “God's Blood!” he cried, mouthing horribly. “Am I then never to have + rest?” He flung away the broken remnants of his racket, and went out + cursing. Questioning the messenger further, he learnt that the shot had + been fired from the house of Vilaine, a sometime tutor to the Duke of + Guise, and that the horse upon which the assassin had fled had been held + for him by a groom in the Guise livery. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile the Duke and Monsieur de Teligny had gone their ways with no + word spoken between them—Guise to shut himself up in his hotel and + assemble his friends, Teligny to repair at once to his father-in-law. + </p> + <p> + At two o'clock in the afternoon, in response to an urgent request from the + Admiral, the King went to visit him, accompanied by the Queen-Mother, by + his brothers Anjou and Alencon, and a number of officers and courtiers. + The royal party saw nothing of the excitement which had been prevailing in + the city ever since the morning's event, an excitement which subsided at + their approach. The King was gloomy, resentful, and silent, having so far + refused to discuss the matter with any one, denying audience even to his + mother. Catherine and Anjou were vexed by the miscarriage of the affair, + anxious and no less silent than the King. + </p> + <p> + They found the Admiral awaiting them, calm and composed. The famous + Ambroise Pare had amputated the two broken fingers, and had dealt with the + wound in the arm. But although Coligny might be considered to have escaped + lightly, and not to be in any danger, a rumour was abroad that the bullet + was poisoned; and neither the Admiral nor his people seem to have rejected + the possibility. One suspects, indeed, that capital was made out of it. It + was felt, perhaps, that thus should the Admiral maintain a greater + influence with the King. For in any uncertainty as to whether Coligny + would live or die, the King's feelings must be more deeply stirred than if + he knew that the wound carried no peril to life. + </p> + <p> + Followed closely by his mother and his brothers, Charles swept through the + spacious ante-chamber, thronged now with grim-faced, resentful Huguenot + gentlemen, and so entered the room where Coligny reclined upon a day bed + near the window. The Admiral made shift to rise, but this the King hurried + forward to prevent. + </p> + <p> + “Rest yourself, my dear father!” he cried, in accents of deep concern. + “Heart of God! What is this they have done to you? Assure me, at least, + that your life is safe, or, by the Mass, I'll—” + </p> + <p> + “I hold my life from God,” the Admiral replied gravely, “and when He + requires it of me I will yield it up. That is nothing.” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing? God's Blood! Nothing? The hurt is yours, my father, but the + outrage mine; and I swear to you, by the Blood and the Death, that I will + take such a vengeance as shall never be forgotten!” + </p> + <p> + Thereupon he fell into such a storm of imprecation and blasphemy that the + Admiral, a sincerely devout, God-fearing heretic, shuddered to hear him. + </p> + <p> + “Calm, Sire!” he begged at last, laying his sound hand upon the King's + velvet sleeve. “Be calm and listen, for it is not to speak of myself, of + these wounds, or of the wrong done me, that I have presumed to beg you to + visit me. This attempt to murder me is but a sign of the evil that is + stirring in France to sap your authority and power. But—” He checked + and looked at the three who stood immediately behind the King. “What I + have to say is, if you will deign to listen, for your private ear.” + </p> + <p> + The King jerked round in a fashion peculiar to him; his every action was + abrupt and spasmodic. He eyed his mother and brothers shiftily. It was + beyond his power to look any one directly in the face. + </p> + <p> + “Outside!” he commanded, waving an impatient hand almost in their faces. + “Do you hear? Leave me to talk with my father the Admiral.” + </p> + <p> + The young dukes fell back at once, ever in dread of provoking the horrible + displays of passion that invariably followed upon any resistance of his + feeble will. But the sluggish Catherine was not so easily moved. + </p> + <p> + “Is Monsieur de Coligny strong enough, do you think, to treat of affairs + at present? Consider his condition, I beg,” she enjoined in her level + voice. + </p> + <p> + “I thank you for your consideration, madame,” said the Admiral, the ghost + of an ironic smile about his lips. “But I am strong enough, thank God! And + even though my strength were less than it is, it would be more heavily + taxed by the thought that I had neglected my duty to His Majesty than it + ever could be by the performance of that duty.” + </p> + <p> + “Ha! You hear?” snapped the King. “Go, then; go!” + </p> + <p> + They went, returning to the ante-chamber to wait until the audience should + conclude. The three stood there in the embrasure of a window that looked + out upon the hot, sunlit courtyard. There, as Anjou himself tells us, they + found themselves hemmed about by some two hundred sullen, grim-faced + gentlemen and officers of the Admiral's party, who eyed them without + dissembling their hostility, who preserved a silence that was disturbed + only by the murmurs of their constant whisperings, and who moved to and + fro before the royal group utterly careless of the proper degree of + deference and respect. + </p> + <p> + Isolated thus in that hostile throng, Catherine and her sons became more + and more uneasy, so that, as the Queen-Mother afterwards confessed, she + was never in any place where her tarrying was attended by so much fear, or + her departure thence by so much pleasure. + </p> + <p> + It was this fear that spurred her at last to put an end to that secret + conference in the room beyond. She did it in characteristic manner. In the + most complete outward composure, stifling a yawn as she went, she moved + deliberately across to the door, her sons following, rapped shortly on the + panel, and entered without waiting to be bidden. + </p> + <p> + The King, who was standing by the Admiral's side, wheeled sharply at the + sound of the opening door. His eyes blazed with sudden anger when he + beheld his mother, but she was the first to speak. + </p> + <p> + “My son,” she said, “I am concerned for the poor Admiral. He will have the + fever if you continue to permit him to weary himself with affairs at + present. It is not to treat him as a friend to prolong this interview. Let + business wait until he is recovered, which will be the sooner if he is + given rest at present.” + </p> + <p> + Coligny stroked his white beard in silence, while the King flared out, + striding towards her: + </p> + <p> + “Par la Mort Dieu! What is this sudden concern for the Admiral?” + </p> + <p> + “Not sudden, my son,” she answered in her dull voice, her eyes intent upon + him, with something magnetic in their sleepy glance that seemed to rob him + of half his will. “None knows more accurately than I the Admiral's + precise, value to France.” + </p> + <p> + Anjou behind her may have smiled at that equivocal phrase. + </p> + <p> + “God's Bowels! Am I King, or what am I?” + </p> + <p> + “It ill becomes a king to abuse the strength of a poor wounded subject,” + she returned, her eyes ever regarding him steadily. “Come, Charles. + Another day, when the Admiral shall have recovered more fully, you may + continue this discourse. Come now.” + </p> + <p> + His anger was subdued to mere sullenness, almost infantile in its outward + petulant expression. He attempted to meet her glance, and he was + completely lost. + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps... Ah, Ventre Dieu, my mother is right! Let the matter rest, + then, my father. We will talk of it again as soon as you are well.” + </p> + <p> + He stepped up to the couch, and held out his hand. + </p> + <p> + Coligny took it, and his eyes looked up wistfully into the weak young face + of his King. + </p> + <p> + “I thank you, Sire, for coming and for hearing me. Another day, if I am + spared, I may tell you more. Meanwhile, bear well in mind what I have said + already. I have no interests in this world but your own, Sire.” And he + kissed the royal hand in farewell. + </p> + <p> + Not until they were back in the Louvre did the Queen attempt to break upon + the King's gloomy abstraction, to learn—as learn she must—the + subject of the Admiral's confidential communication. + </p> + <p> + Accompanied by Anjou, she sought him in his cabinet, nor would she be + denied. He sat at his writing-table, his head sunken between his + shoulders, his receding chin in his cupped palms. He glared at the pair as + they entered, swore savagely, and demanded their business with him. + </p> + <p> + Catherine sat down with massive calm. Anjou remained standing beside and + slightly behind her, leaning upon the back of her tall chair. + </p> + <p> + “My son,” she said bluntly, “I have come to learn what passed between you + and Coligny.” + </p> + <p> + “What passed? What concern is that of yours?” + </p> + <p> + “All your concerns are mine,” she answered tranquilly. “I am your mother.” + </p> + <p> + “And I am your king!” he answered, banging the table. “And I mean to be + king!” + </p> + <p> + “By the grace of God and the favour of Monsieur de Coligny,” she sneered, + with unruffled calm. + </p> + <p> + “What's that?” His mouth fell open, and his eyes stared. A crimson flush + overspread his muddy complexion. “What's that?” + </p> + <p> + Her dull glance met and held his own whilst calmly she repeated her + sneering words. + </p> + <p> + “And that is why I have come to you,” she added. “If you are unable to + rule without guidance, I must at least do what I can so that the guidance + shall not be that of a rebel, of one who guides you to the end that he may + master you.” + </p> + <p> + “Master me!” he screamed. He rose in his indignation and faced her. But + his glance, unable to support her steady eyes, faltered and fell away. + Foul oaths poured from his royal lips. “Master me!” he repeated. + </p> + <p> + “Aye—master you,” she answered him. “Master you until the little + remnant of your authority shall have been sapped; until you are no more + than a puppet in the hands of the Huguenot party, a roi faineant, a king + of straw.” + </p> + <p> + “By God, madame, were you not my mother—” + </p> + <p> + “It is because I am your mother that I seek to save you.” + </p> + <p> + He looked at her again, but again his glance faltered. He paced the length + of the room and back, mouthing and muttering. Then he came to stand, + leaning on the prie-dieu, facing her. + </p> + <p> + “By God's Death, madame, since you demand to know what the Admiral said, + you shall. You prove to me that what he told me was no more than true. He + told me that a king is only recognized in France as long as he is a power + for good or ill over his subjects; that this power, together with the + management of all State affairs, is slipping, by the crafty contrivances + of yourself and Anjou there, out of my hands into your own; that this + power and authority which you are both stealing from me may one day be + used against me and my kingdom. And he bade me be on my guard against you + both and take my measures. He gave me this counsel, madame, because he + deemed it his duty as one of my most loyal and faithful servants at the + point of death, and—” + </p> + <p> + “The shameless hypocrite!” her dull, contemptuous voice interrupted him. + “At the point of death! Two broken fingers and a flesh-wound in the arm + and he represents himself as in articulo mortis that he may play upon you, + and make you believe his lies.” + </p> + <p> + Her stolidity of manner and her logic, ponderous and irresistible, had + their effect. His big, green eyes seemed to dilate, his mouth fell open. + </p> + <p> + “If—” he began, and checked, rapped out an oath, and checked again. + “Are they lies, madame?” he asked slowly. + </p> + <p> + She caught the straining note of hope in that question of his—a hope + founded upon vanity, the vanity to be king in fact, as well as king in + name. She rose. + </p> + <p> + “To ask me that—me, your mother—is to insult me. Come, Anjou.” + </p> + <p> + And on that she departed, craftily, leaving her suggestion to prey upon + his mind. + </p> + <p> + But once alone in her oratory with Anjou, her habitual torpor was sloughed + away. For once she quivered and crimsoned and raised her voice, whilst for + once her sleepy eyes kindled and flashed as she inveighed against Coligny + and the Huguenots. + </p> + <p> + For the moment, however, there was no more to be done. The stroke had + failed; Coligny had survived the attempt upon his life, and there was + danger that on the recoil the blow might smite those who had launched it. + But on the morrow, which was Saturday, things suddenly assumed a very + different complexion. + </p> + <p> + That great Catholic leader, the powerful, handsome Duke of Guise, who, + more than suspected of having inspired the attempted assassination, had + kept his hotel since yesterday, now sought the Queen-Mother with news of + what was happening in the city. Armed bands of Huguenot nobles were riding + through the streets, clamouring: + </p> + <p> + “Death to the assassins of the Admiral! Down with the Guisards!” + </p> + <p> + And, although a regiment of Gardes Francaises had been hastily brought to + Paris to keep order, the Duke feared grave trouble in a city which the + royal wedding had filled with Huguenot gentlemen and their following. + Then, too, there were rumours that the Huguenots were arming everywhere—rumours + which, whether true or not, were, under the circumstances, sufficiently + natural and probable to be taken seriously. + </p> + <p> + Leaving Guise in her oratory, and summoning her darling Anjou, Catherine + at once sought the King. She may have believed the rumours, and she may + even have stated them as facts beyond dispute so as to strengthen and + establish her case against Gaspard de Coligny. + </p> + <p> + “King Gaspard I,” she told him, “is already taking his measures. The + Huguenots are arming; officers have been dispatched into the provinces to + levy troops. The Admiral has ordered the raising of ten thousand horse in + Germany, and another ten thousand Swiss mercenaries in the Cantons.” + </p> + <p> + He stared at her vacuously. Some such rumour had already reached him, and + he conceived that here was definite confirmation of it. + </p> + <p> + “You may determine now who are your friends, who your loyal servants,” she + told him. “How is so much force to be resisted in the state in which you + find yourself? The Catholics exhausted, and weary as they are by a civil + war in which their king was of little account to them, are going to arm so + as to offer what resistance they can without depending upon you. Thus, + within your State you will have two great parties under arms, neither of + which can be called your own. Unless you stir yourself, and quickly, + unless you choose now between friends and foes, you will find yourself + alone, isolated, in grave peril, without authority or power.” + </p> + <p> + He sank overwhelmed to a chair, and took his head in his hands, + cogitating. When next he looked at her there was positive fear in his + great eyes, a fear evoked by contemplation of the picture which her words + had painted for him. + </p> + <p> + He looked from her to Anjou. + </p> + <p> + “What then?” he asked. “What then? How is the danger to be averted?” + </p> + <p> + “By a simple stroke of the sword,” she answered calmly. “Slice off at a + blow the head of this beast of rebellion, this hydra of heresy.” + </p> + <p> + He huddled back, horror in his eyes. His hands slid slowly along the + carved arms of his chair, and clenched the ends so tightly that his + knuckles looked like knobs of marble. + </p> + <p> + “Kill the Admiral?” he said slowly. + </p> + <p> + “The Admiral and the chief Huguenot leaders,” she said, much in the tone + she might have used, were it a matter of wringing the necks of a dozen + capons. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, ca! Par la Mort Dieu!” He heaved himself up, raging. “Thus would your + hatred of him be served. Thus would you—” + </p> + <p> + Coolly she sliced into his foaming speech. + </p> + <p> + “Not I—not I!” she said. “Do nothing upon my advice. Summon your + Council. Send for Tavannes, Biragues, Retz, and the others. Consult with + them. They are your friends; you trust and believe in them. When they know + the facts, see if their counsel will differ from your mother's. Send for + them; they are in the Louvre now.” + </p> + <p> + He looked at her a moment. + </p> + <p> + “Very well,” he said; and reeled to the door, bawling hoarsely his orders. + </p> + <p> + They came, one by one—the Marshal de Tavannes, the Duke of Retz, the + Duke of Nevers, the Chancellor de Biragues, and lastly the Duke of Guise, + upon whom the King scowled a jealous hatred that was now fully alive. + </p> + <p> + The window, which overlooked the quay and the river, stood open to admit + what air might be stirring on that hot day of August. + </p> + <p> + Charles sat at his writing-table, sullen and moody, twining a string of + beads about his fingers. Catherine occupied the chair over beyond the + table, Anjou sitting near her on a stool. The others stood respectfully + awaiting that the King should make known his wishes. The shifty royal + glance swept over them from under lowering brows; then it rested almost in + challenge upon his mother. + </p> + <p> + “Tell them,” he bade her curtly. + </p> + <p> + She told them what already she had told her son, relating all now with + greater detail and circumstance. For some moments nothing was heard in + that room but the steady drone of her unemotional voice. When she had + finished, she yawned and settled herself to hear what might be answered. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” snapped the King, “you have heard. What do you advise? Speak out!” + </p> + <p> + Nevers was the first to answer. + </p> + <p> + “There is no other way,” he said stiffly, “but that which Her Majesty + advises. The danger is grave. If it is to be averted, action must be + prompt and effective.” + </p> + <p> + Tavannes clasped his hands behind him and said much the same, as did + presently the Chancellor. + </p> + <p> + Twisting and untwisting his chaplet of beads about his long fingers, his + eyes averted, the King heard each in turn. Then he looked up. His glance, + deliberately ignoring Guise, settled upon the Duke of Retz, who held + aloof. + </p> + <p> + “And you, Monsieur le Marechal, what is your counsel?” + </p> + <p> + Retz drew himself up, as if bracing himself to meet opposing forces. He + was a little pale, but quite composed. + </p> + <p> + “If there is a man whom I should hate,” he said, “it is this Gaspard de + Coligny, who has defamed me and all my family by the foul accusations he + has put abroad. But I will not,” he added firmly, “take vengeance upon my + enemies at the expense of my king and master. I cannot counsel a course so + disastrous to Your Majesty and the whole kingdom. Did we act as we have + been advised, Sire, can you doubt that we should be taxed—and + rightly taxed in view of the treaty that has been signed—with + perfidy and disloyalty?” + </p> + <p> + Dead silence followed that bombshell of opposition, coming from a quarter + whence it was least expected. For Catherine and Anjou had confidently + counted upon the Duke's hatred of Coligny to ensure his support of their + designs. + </p> + <p> + A little colour crept into the pale cheeks of the King. His glance kindled + out of its sullenness. He was as one who sees sudden hope amid despair. + </p> + <p> + “That is the truth,” he said. “Messieurs, and you, madame my mother, you + have heard the truth. How do you like it?” + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur de Retz is deceived by an excess of loyalty,” said Anjou + quickly. “Because he bears a personal enmity to the Admiral, he conceives + that it would hurt his honour to speak otherwise. It must savour to him, + as he has said, of using his king and master to avenge his own personal + wrongs. We can respect Monsieur de Retz's view, although we hold it + mistaken.” + </p> + <p> + “Will Monsieur de Retz tell us what other course lies open?” quoth the + bluff Tavannes. + </p> + <p> + “Some other course must be found,” cried the King, rousing himself. “It + must be found, do you hear? I will not have you touch the life of my + friend the Admiral. I will not have it—by the Blood!” + </p> + <p> + A hubbub followed, all speaking at once, until the King banged the table, + and reminded them that his cabinet was not a fish-market. + </p> + <p> + “I say that there is no other way,” Catherine insisted. “There cannot be + two kings in France, nor can there be two parties. For your own safety's + sake, and for the safety of your kingdom, I beseech you so to contrive + that in France there be but one party with one head—yourself.” + </p> + <p> + “Two kings in France?” he said. “What two kings?” + </p> + <p> + “Yourself and Gaspard I—King Coligny, the King of the Huguenots.” + </p> + <p> + “He is my subject—my faithful, loyal subject,” the King protested, + but with less assurance. + </p> + <p> + “A subject who raises forces of his own, levies taxes of his own, + garrisons Huguenot cities,” said Biragues. “That is a very dangerous type + of subject, Sire.” + </p> + <p> + “A subject who forces you into war with Protestant Flanders against + Catholic Spain,” added the blunt Tavannes. + </p> + <p> + “Forces me?” roared the King, half rising, his eyes aflash. “That is a + very daring word.” + </p> + <p> + “It would be if the proof were absent. Remember, Sire, his very speech to + you before you permitted him to embark upon preparations for this war. + 'Give us leave,' he said, 'to make war in Flanders, or we shall be + compelled to make war upon yourself.'” + </p> + <p> + The King winced and turned livid. Sweat stood in beads upon his brow. He + was touched in his most sensitive spot. That speech of Coligny's was of + all things the one he most desired to forget. He twisted the chaplet so + that the beads bit deeply into his fingers. + </p> + <p> + “Sire,” Tavannes continued, “were I a king, and did a subject so address + me, I should have his head within the hour. Yet worse has happened since, + worse is happening now. The Huguenots are arming. They ride arrogantly + through the streets of your capital, stirring up rebellion. They are here + in force, and the danger grows acute and imminent.” + </p> + <p> + Charles writhed before them. He mopped his brow with a shaking hand. + </p> + <p> + “The danger—yes. I see that. I admit the danger. But Coligny—” + </p> + <p> + “Is it to be King Gaspard or King Charles?” rasped the voice of Catherine. + </p> + <p> + The chaplet snapped suddenly in the King's fingers. He sprang to his feet, + deathly pale. + </p> + <p> + “So be it!” he cried. “Since it is necessary to kill the Admiral, kill + him, then. Kill him!” he screamed, in a fury that seemed aimed at those + who forced this course upon him. “Kill him—but see to it also that + at the same time you kill every Huguenot in France, so that not one shall + be left to reproach me. Not one, do you hear? Take your measures and let + the thing be done at once.” And on that, his face livid and twitching, his + limbs shaking, he flung out of the room and left them. + </p> + <p> + It was all the warrant they required, and they set to work at once there + in the King's own cabinet, where he had left them. Guise, who had hitherto + been no more than a silent spectator, assumed now the most active part. + Upon his own shoulders he took the charge of seeing the Admiral done to + death. + </p> + <p> + The remainder of the day and a portion of the evening were spent in + concerting ways and means. They assured themselves of the Provost of the + merchants of Paris, of the officers of the Gardes Francaises and the three + thousand Swiss, of the Captains of the quarters and other notoriously + factious persons who could be trusted as leaders. By ten o'clock at night + all preparations were made and it was agreed that the ringing of the bell + of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois for matins was to be the signal for the + massacre. + </p> + <p> + A gentleman of the Admiral's household taking his way homeward that night + passed several men bearing sheaves of pikes upon their shoulders, and + never suspected whom these weapons were to arm. He met several small + companies of soldiers marching quietly, their weapons shouldered, their + matches glowing, and still he suspected nothing, whilst in one quarter he + stopped to watch a man whose behaviour seemed curious, and discovered that + he was chalking a white cross upon the doors of certain houses. + </p> + <p> + Meeting soon afterwards another man with a bundle of weapons on his + shoulder, the intrigued Huguenot gentleman asked him bluntly what he + carried and whither he went. + </p> + <p> + “It is for the divertissement at the Louvre tonight,” he was answered. + </p> + <p> + But in the Louvre the Queen-Mother and the Catholic leaders, the labours + of preparation ended, were snatching a brief rest. Between two and three + o'clock in the morning Catherine and Anjou repaired again to the King's + cabinet. They found him waiting there, his face haggard and his eyes + fevered. + </p> + <p> + He had spent a part of the evening at billiards, and among the players had + been La Rochefoucauld, of whom he was fond, and who had left him with a + jest at eleven o'clock, little dreaming that it was for the last time. + </p> + <p> + The three of them crossed to the window overlooking the river. They opened + it, and peered out fearfully. Even Catherine trembled now that the hour + approached. The air was fresh and cool, swept clean by the stirring breeze + of the dawn, whose first ghostly gleams were already in the sky. Suddenly, + somewhere near at hand, a pistol cracked. The noise affected them oddly. + The King fell into an ague and his teeth chattered audibly. Panic seized + him. + </p> + <p> + “By the Blood, it shall not be! It shall not be!” he cried suddenly. + </p> + <p> + He looked at his mother and his brother and they looked at him; ghastly + were the faces of all three, their eyes wide and staring with horror. + </p> + <p> + Charles swore in his terror that he would cancel all commands. And since + Catherine and Anjou made no attempt to hinder him, he summoned an officer + and bade him seek out the Duke of Guise at once and command him to stay + his hand. + </p> + <p> + The messenger eventually found the Duke in the courtyard of the Admiral's + house, standing over the Admiral's dead body, which his assassins had + flung down from the bedroom window. Guise laughed, and stirred the head of + the corpse with his foot, answering that the message came too late. Even + as he spoke the great bell of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois began to ring for + matins. + </p> + <p> + The royal party huddled at that window of the Louvre heard it at the same + moment, and heard, as if in immediate answer, shots of arquebus and + pistol, cries and screams near at hand, and then, gradually swelling from + a murmur, the baying of the fierce multitude. Other bells gave tongue, + until from every steeple in Paris the alarm rang out. The red glow from + thousands of torches flushed the heavens with a rosy tint as of dawn, the + air grew heavy with the smell of pitch and resin. + </p> + <p> + The King, clutching the sill of the window, poured out a stream of + blasphemy from between his chattering teeth. Then the hubbub rose suddenly + near at hand. The neighbourhood of the Louvre was populous with Huguenots, + and into it now poured the excited Catholic citizens and soldiers. Soon + the quay beneath the palace windows presented the fiercest spectacle of + any quarter, of Paris. + </p> + <p> + Half-clad men, women, and children fled screaming before the assassins, + until they were checked by the chains that everywhere had been placed + across the streets. Some sought the river, hoping to find a way of escape. + But with Satanic foresight, the boats usually moored there had been + conveyed to the other side. Thus some hundreds of Huguenots were brought + to bay, and done to death under the very eyes of the King who had + unleashed this horror. Doors were crashed open, flames rose to heaven, men + and women were shot down under the palace wall, bodies were flung from + windows, and on every side—in the words of D'Aubigne—the blood + now flowed, seeking the river. + </p> + <p> + The King watched a while, screams and curses pouring from his lips to be + lost in the horrible uproar. He turned, perhaps to upbraid his mother and + his brother, but found that they were no longer at his side. Behind him in + the room a page was crouching, watching him with a white, horrified face. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly the King laughed—it was the fierce, hysterical laugh of a + madman. His eyes fell on the arquebuses flanking the picture of the Mother + of Mercy. He took one of them down, then caught the boy by the collar of + his doublet and dragged him forward to the window. + </p> + <p> + “Hither, and load for me!” he bade him, between peals of his terrible + laughter. Then he levelled the weapon across the sill of the window. + “Parpaillots! Parpaillots!” he screamed. “Kill! Kill!” and he discharged + the arquebus into a fleeing group of Huguenots. + </p> + <p> + Five days later, the King—who by now had thrown the blame of the + whole affair, with its slaughter of some two thousand Huguenots, upon the + Guises and their hatred of Coligny—rode out to Montfaucon to behold + the decapitated body of the Admiral, which hung from the gallows in + chains. A courtier of a poor but obtrusive wit leaned towards him. + </p> + <p> + “The Admiral becomes noisome, I think,” he said. + </p> + <p> + The King's green eyes considered him, his lips curling grimly. + </p> + <p> + “The body of a dead enemy always smells sweet,” he said. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI. THE NIGHT OF WITCHCRAFT—Louis XIV and Madame De Montespan + </h2> + <p> + If you scrape the rubbish-heap of servile, coeval flattery that usually + smothers the personality of a monarch, you will discover a few kings who + have been truly great; many who have achieved greatness because they were + wisely content to serve as masks for the great intellects of their time; + and, for the rest, some bad kings, some foolish kings, and some ridiculous + kings. But in all that royal gallery of history you will hardly find a + more truly absurd figure than that of the resplendent Roi Soleil, the + Grand Monarque, the Fourteenth Louis of France. + </p> + <p> + I am not aware that he has ever been laughed at; certainly never to the + extent which he deserves. The flatterers of his day, inevitable products + of his reign, did their work so thoroughly that even in secret they do not + appear to have dared to utter—possibly they did not even dare to + think—the truth about him. Their work survives, and when you have + assessed the monstrous flattery at its true worth, swept it aside and come + down to the real facts of his life, you make the discovery that the + proudest title their sycophancy could bestow and his own fatuity accept—Le + Roi Soleil, the Sun-King—makes him what indeed he is: a king of + opera bouffe. There is about him at times something almost reminiscent of + the Court buffoons of a century before, who puffed themselves out with + mock pride, and aped a sort of sovereignty to excite laughter; with this + difference, however, that in his own case it was not intended to be + amusing. + </p> + <p> + A heartless voluptuary of mediocre intelligence, he contrived to wrap + himself in what Saint-Simon has called a “terrible majesty.” He was + obsessed by the idea of the dignity, almost the divinity—of + kingship. I cannot believe that he conceived himself human. He appears to + have held that being king was very like being God, and he duped the world + by ceremonials of etiquette that were very nearly sacramental. We find him + burdening the most simple and personal acts of everyday life with a + succession of rites of an amazing complexity. Thus, when he rose in the + morning, princes of the blood and the first gentlemen of France were in + attendance: one to present to him his stockings, another to proffer on + bended knee the royal garters, a third to perform the ceremony of handing + him his wig, and so on until the toilette of his plump, not unhandsome + person was complete. You miss the incense, you feel that some noble + thurifer should have fumigated him at each stage. Perhaps he never thought + of it. + </p> + <p> + The evil fruits of his reign—evil, that is to say, from the point of + view of his order, which was swept away as so much anachronistic rubbish—did + not come until a hundred years later. In his own day France was great, and + this not because but in spite of him. After all, he was not the absolute + ruler he conceived himself. There were such capable men as Colbert and + Louvois at the King's side'; there was the great genius of France which + manifests itself when and as it will, whatever the regime—and there + was Madame de Montespan to whose influence not a little of Louis's glory + may be ascribed, since the most splendid years of his reign were those + between 1668 and 1678 when she was maitresse en titre and more than Queen + of France. The women played a great part at the Court of Louis XIV, and + those upon whom he turned his dark eyes were in the main as wax under the + solar rays of the Sun-King. But Madame de Montespan had discovered the + secret of reversing matters, so that in her hands it was the King who + became as wax for her modelling. It is with this secret—a page of + the secret history of France that we are here concerned. + </p> + <p> + Francoises Athenais de Tonnay-Charente had come to Court in 1660 as a maid + of honour to the Queen. Of a wit and grace to match her superb beauty, she + was also of a perfervid piety, a daily communicant, a model of virtue to + all maids of honour. This until the Devil tempted her. When that happened, + she did not merely eat an apple; she devoured an entire orchard. Pride and + ambition brought about her downfall. She shared the universal jealousy of + which Louise de la Valliere was a victim, and coveted the honours and the + splendour by which that unfortunate favourite was surrounded. + </p> + <p> + Not even her marriage with the Marquis de Montespan some three years after + her coming to Court sufficed to overcome the longings born of her + covetousness and ambition. And then, when the Sun-King looked with favour + upon her opulent charms, when at last she saw the object of her ambition + within reach, that husband of hers went very near to wrecking everything + by his unreasonable behaviour. This preposterous marquis had the + effrontery to dispute his wife with Jupiter, was so purblind as not to + appreciate the honour the Sun-King proposed to do him. + </p> + <p> + In putting it thus, I but make myself the mouthpiece of the Court. + </p> + <p> + When Montespan began to make trouble by railing furiously against the + friendship of the King for his wife, his behaviour so amazed the King's + cousin, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, that she called him “an extravagant + and extraordinary man.” To his face she told him that he must be mad to + behave in this fashion; and so incredibly distorted were his views, that + he did not at all agree with her. He provoked scenes with the King, in + which he quoted Scripture, made opposite allusions to King David which + were in the very worst taste, and even ventured to suggest that the + Sun-King might have to reckon with the judgment of God. If he escaped a + lettre de cachet and a dungeon in the Bastille, it can only have been + because the King feared the further spread of a scandal injurious to the + sacrosanctity of his royal dignity. + </p> + <p> + The Marchioness fumed in private and sneered in public. When Mademoiselle + de Montpensier suggested that for his safety's sake she should control her + husband's antics, she expressed her bitterness. + </p> + <p> + “He and my parrot,” she said, “amuse the Court to my shame.” + </p> + <p> + In the end, finding that neither by upbraiding the King nor by beating his + wife could he prevail, Monsieur de Montespan resigned himself after his + own fashion. He went into widower's mourning, dressed his servants in + black, and came ostentatiously to Court in a mourning coach to take + ceremonious leave of his friends. It was an affair that profoundly + irritated the Sun-King, and very nearly made him ridiculous. + </p> + <p> + Thereafter Montespan abandoned his wife to the King. He withdrew first to + his country seat, and, later, from France, having received more than a + hint that Louis was intending to settle his score with him. By that time + Madame de Montespan was firmly established as maitresse en titre, and in + January of 1669 she gave birth to the Duke of Maine, the first of the + seven children she was to bear the King. Parliament was to legitimize them + all, declaring them royal children of France, and the country was to + provide titles, dignities, and royal rent-rolls for them and their heirs + forever. Do you wonder that there was a revolution a century later, and + that the people, grown weary of the parasitic anachronism of royalty, + should have risen to throw off the intolerable burden it imposed upon + them? + </p> + <p> + The splendour of Madame de Montespan in those days was something the like + of which had never been seen at the Court of France. On her estate of + Clagny, near Versailles, stood now a magnificent chateau. Louis had begun + by building a country villa, which satisfied her not at all. + </p> + <p> + “That,” she told him, “might do very well for an opera-girl”; whereupon + the infatuated monarch had no alternative but to command its demolition, + and call in the famous architect, Mansard, to erect in its place an + ultraroyal residence. + </p> + <p> + At Versailles itself, whilst the long-suffering Queen had to be content + with ten rooms on the second floor, Madame de Montespan was installed in + twice that number on the first; and whilst a simple page sufficed to carry + the Queen's train at Court, nothing less than the wife of a marshal of + France must perform the same office for the favourite. She kept royal + state as few queens have ever kept it. She was assigned a troop of royal + bodyguards for escort, and when she travelled there was a never-ending + train to follow her six-horse coach, and officers of State came to receive + her with royal honours wherever she passed. + </p> + <p> + In her immeasurable pride she became a tyrant, even over the King himself. + </p> + <p> + “Thunderous and triumphant,” Madame de Sevigne describes her in those days + when the Sun-King was her utter and almost timid slave. + </p> + <p> + But constancy is not a Jovian virtue. Jupiter grew restless, and then, + shaking off all restraint, plunged into inconstancy of the most scandalous + and flagrant kind. It is doubtful if the history of royal amours, with all + its fecundity, can furnish a parallel. Within a few months, Madame de + Soubise, Mademoiselle de Rochefort-Theobon, Madame de Louvigny, Madame de + Ludres, and some lesser ones passed in rapid succession through the + furnace of the Sun-King's affection—which is to say, through the + royal bed—and at last the Court was amazed to see the Widow Scarron, + who had been appointed governess to Madame de Montespan's royal children, + empanoplied in a dignity and ceremony that left no doubt on the score of + her true position at Court. + </p> + <p> + And so, after seven years of absolute sway in which homage had been paid + her almost in awe by noble and simple alike, Madame de Montespan, + neglected now by Louis, moved amid reflections of that neglect, with + arrogantly smiling lips and desperate rage in her heart. She sneered + openly at the royal lack of taste, allowed her barbed wit to make + offensive sport with the ladies who supplanted her; yet, ravaged by + jealousy, she feared for herself the fate which through her had overtaken + La Valliere. + </p> + <p> + That fear was with her now as she sat in the window embrasure, hell in her + heart and a reflection of it in her eyes, as, fallen almost to the rank of + a spectator in that comedy wherein she was accustomed to the leading part, + she watched the shifting, chattering, glittering crowd. And as she + watched, her line of vision was crossed to her undoing by the slender, + wellknit figure of de Vanens, who, dressed from head to foot in black, + detached sharply from that dazzling throng. His face was pale and + saturnine, his eyes dark, very level, and singularly piercing. Thus his + appearance served to underline the peculiar fascination which he exerted, + the rather sinister appeal which he made to the imagination. + </p> + <p> + This young Provencal nobleman was known to dabble in magic, and there were + one or two dark passages in his past life of which more than a whisper had + gone abroad. Of being a student of alchemy, a “philosopher”—that is + to say, a seeker after the philosopher's stone, which was to effect the + transmutation of metals—he made no secret. But if you taxed him with + demoniacal practices he would deny it, yet in a way that carried no + conviction. + </p> + <p> + To this dangerous fellow Madame de Montespan now made appeal in her + desperate need. + </p> + <p> + Their eyes met as he was sauntering past, and with a lazy smile and a + languid wave of her fan she beckoned him to her side. + </p> + <p> + “They tell me, Vanens,” said she, “that your philosophy succeeds so well + that you are transmuting copper into silver.” + </p> + <p> + His piercing eyes surveyed her, narrowing; a smile flickered over his thin + lips. + </p> + <p> + “They tell you the truth,” he said. “I have cast a bar which has been + purchased as good silver by the Mint.” + </p> + <p> + Her interest quickened. “By the Mint!” she echoed, amazed. “But, then, my + friend—” She was breathless with excitement. “It is a miracle.” + </p> + <p> + “No less,” he admitted. “But there is the greater miracle to come—the + transmutation of base metal into gold.” + </p> + <p> + “And you will perform it?” + </p> + <p> + “Let me but conquer the secret of solidifying mercury, and the rest is + naught. I shall conquer it, and soon.” + </p> + <p> + He spoke with easy confidence, a man stating something that he knew beyond + the possibility of doubt. The Marquise became thoughtful. She sighed. + </p> + <p> + “You are the master of deep secrets, Vanens. Have you none that will + soften flinty hearts, make them responsive?” + </p> + <p> + He considered this woman whom Saint-Simon has called “beautiful as the + day,” and his smile broadened. + </p> + <p> + “Look in your mirror for the alchemy needed there,” he bade her. + </p> + <p> + Anger rippled across the perfect face. She lowered, + “I have looked—in vain. Can you not help me, Vanens, you who know so + much?” + </p> + <p> + “A love-philtre?” said he, and hummed. “Are you in earnest?” + </p> + <p> + “Do you mock me with that question? Is not my need proclaimed for all to + see?” + </p> + <p> + Vanens became grave. + </p> + <p> + “It is not an alchemy in which myself I dabble,” he said slowly. “But I am + acquainted with those who do.” + </p> + <p> + She clutched his wrist in her eagerness. + </p> + <p> + “I will pay well,” she said. + </p> + <p> + “You will need to. Such things are costly.” He glanced round to see that + none was listening, then bending nearer: “There is a sorceress named La + Voisin in the Rue de la Tannerie, well known as a fortuneteller to many + ladies of the Court, who at a word from me will do your need.” + </p> + <p> + La Montespan turned white. The piety in which she had been reared—the + habits of which clung to her despite the irregularity of her life—made her + recoil before the thing that she desired. Sorcery was of the Devil. She + told him so. But Vanens laughed. + </p> + <p> + “So that it be effective. . .” said he with a shrug. + </p> + <p> + And then across the room floated a woman's trilling laugh. She looked in + the direction of the sound and beheld the gorgeous figure of the King + bending—yet haughty and condescending even in adoration—over + handsome Madame de Ludres. Pride and ambition rose up in sudden fury to + trample on religious feeling. Let Vanens take her to this witch of his, + for be the aid what it might, she must have it. + </p> + <p> + And so, one dark night late in the year, Louis de Vanens handed a masked + and muffled lady from a coach at the corner of the Rue de la Tannerie, and + conducted her to the house of La Voisin. + </p> + <p> + The door was opened for them by a young woman of some twenty years of age—Marguerite + Monvoisin, the daughter of the witch—who led them upstairs to a room + that was handsomely furnished and hung with fantastic tapestry of red + designs upon a black ground—designs that took monstrous shapes in + the flickering light of a cluster of candles. Black curtains parted, and + from between them stepped a short, plump woman, of a certain comeliness, + with two round black beads of eyes. She was fantastically robed in a cloak + of crimson velvet, lined with costly furs and closely studded with + double-headed eagles in fine gold, which must have been worth a prince's + ransom; and she wore red shoes on each of which there was the same eagle + design in gold. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, Vanens!” she said familiarly. + </p> + <p> + He bowed. + </p> + <p> + “I bring you,” he announced, “a lady who has need of your skill.” + </p> + <p> + And he waved a hand towards the tall cloaked figure at his side. + </p> + <p> + La Voisin looked at the masked face. + </p> + <p> + “Velvet faces tell me little, Madame la Marquise,” she said calmly. “Nor, + believe me, will the King look at a countenance that you conceal from me.” + </p> + <p> + There was an exclamation of surprise and anger from Madame de Montespan. + She plucked off her mask. + </p> + <p> + “You knew me?” + </p> + <p> + “Can you wonder?” asked La Voisin, “since I have told you what you carry + concealed in your heart?” + </p> + <p> + Madame de Montespan was as credulous as only the very devout can be. + </p> + <p> + “Since that is so, since you know already what I seek, tell me can you + procure it me?” she asked in a fever of excitement. “I will pay well.” + </p> + <p> + La Voisin smiled darkly. + </p> + <p> + “Obdurate, indeed, is the case that will not yield to such medicine as + mine,” she said. “Let me consider first what must be done. In a few days I + shall bring you word. But have you courage for a great ordeal?” + </p> + <p> + “For any ordeal that will give me what I want.” + </p> + <p> + “In a few days, then, you shall hear from me,” said the witch, and so + dismissed the great lady. + </p> + <p> + Leaving a heavy purse behind her, as Vanens had instructed her, the + Marchioness departed with her escort. And there, with that initiation, as + far as we can ascertain, ended Louis de Vanens's connection with the + affair. + </p> + <p> + At Clagny Madame de Montespan waited for three days in a fever of + impatience for the coming of the witch. But when at last La Voisin + presented herself, the proposal that she had to make was one before which + the Marchioness recoiled in horror and some indignation. + </p> + <p> + The magic that La Voisin suggested involved a coadjutor, the Abbe + Guibourg, and the black mass to be celebrated by him. Madame de Montespan + had heard something of these dread sacrificial rites to Satan; sufficient + to fill her with loathing and disgust of the whitefaced, beady-eyed woman + who dared to insult her by the proposal. She fumed and raged a while, and + even went near to striking La Voisin, who looked on with inscrutable face + and stony, almost contemptuous, indifference. Before that impenetrable, + almost uncanny, calm, Madame de Montespan's fury at last abated. Then the + urgency of her need becoming paramount, she desired more clearly to be + told what would be expected of her. What the witch told her was more + appalling than anything she could have imagined. But La Voisin argued: + </p> + <p> + “Can anything be accomplished without cost? Can anything be gained in this + life without payment of some kind?” + </p> + <p> + “But the price of this is monstrous!” Madame de Montespan protested. + </p> + <p> + “Measure it by the worldly advantages to be gained. They are not small, + madame. To enjoy boundless wealth, boundless power, and boundless honour, + to be more than queen—is not all this worth some sacrifice?” + </p> + <p> + To Madame de Montespan it must have been worth any sacrifice in this world + or the next, since in the end she conquered her disgust, and agreed to + lend herself to this horror. + </p> + <p> + Three masses, she was told, would be necessary to ensure success, and it + was determined that they should be celebrated in the chapel of the Chateau + de Villebousin, where Guibourg had been almoner, to which he had access, + and which was at the time untenanted. + </p> + <p> + The chateau was a gloomy mediaeval fortress, blackened by age, and + standing, surrounded by a moat, in a lonely spot some two miles to the + south of Paris. Thither on a dark, gusty night of March came Madame de + Montespan, accompanied by her confidential waiting-woman, Mademoiselle + Desceillets. They left the coach to await them on the Orleans road, and + thence, escorted by a single male attendant, they made their way by a + rutted, sodden path towards the grim castle looming faintly through the + enveloping gloom. + </p> + <p> + The wind howled dismally about the crenellated turrets; and a row of + poplars, standing like black, phantasmal guardians of the evil place, bent + groaning before its fury. From the running waters of the moat, swollen by + recent rains, came a gurgling sound that was indescribably wicked. + </p> + <p> + Desocillets was frightened by the dark, the desolate loneliness and + eeriness of the place; but she dared utter no complaint as she stumbled + forward over the uneven ground, through the gloom and the buffeting wind, + compelled by the suasion of her mistress's imperious will. Thus, by a + drawbridge spanning dark, oily waters, they came into a vast courtyard and + an atmosphere as of mildew. A studded door stood ajar, and through the + gap, from a guiding beacon of infamy, fell a rhomb of yellow light, + suddenly obscured by a squat female figure when the steps of the + Marchioness and her companions fell upon the stones of the yard. + </p> + <p> + It was La Voisin who stood on the threshold to receive her client. In the + stone-flagged hall behind her the light of a lantern revealed her + daughter, Marguerite Monvoisin, and a short, crafty-faced, misshapen + fellow in black homespun and a red wig—a magician named Lesage, one + of La Voisin's coadjutors, a rogue of some talent who exploited the + witches of Paris to his own profit. + </p> + <p> + Leaving Leroy—the Marchioness's male attendant below in this + fellow's company, La Voisin took up a candle and lighted Madame de + Montespan up the broad stone staircase, draughty and cold, to the + ante-room of the chapel on the floor above. Mademoiselle Desceillets + followed closely and fearfully, and Marguerite Monvoisin came last. + </p> + <p> + They entered the ante-room, a spacious chamber, bare of furniture save for + an oaken table in the middle, some faded and mildewed tapestries, and a + cane-backed settle of twisted walnut over against the wall. An alabaster + lamp on the table made an island of light in that place of gloom, and + within the circle of its feeble rays stood a gross old man of some seventy + years of age in sacerdotal garments of unusual design: the white alb worn + over a greasy cassock was studded with black fir-cones; the stole and + maniple were of black satin, with fir-cones wrought in yellow thread. + </p> + <p> + His inflamed countenance was of a revolting hideousness: his cheeks were + covered by a network of blue veins, his eyes squinted horribly, his lips + vanished inwards over toothless gums, and a fringe of white hair hung in + matted wisps from his high, bald crown. This was the infamous Abbe + Guibourg, sacristan of Saint Denis, an ordained priest who had consecrated + himself to the service of the Devil. + </p> + <p> + He received the great lady with a low bow which, despite herself, she + acknowledged by a shudder. She was very pale, and her eyes were dilating + and preternaturally bright. Fear began to possess her, yet she suffered + herself to be ushered into the chapel, which was dimly illumined by a + couple of candles standing beside a basin on a table. The altar light had + been extinguished. Her maid would have hung back, but that she feared to + be parted from her mistress. She passed in with her in the wake of + Guibourg, and followed by La Voisin, who closed the door, leaving her + daughter in the ante-room. + </p> + <p> + Although she had never been a participant in any of the sorceries + practised by her mother, yet Marguerite was fully aware of their extent, + and more than guessed what horrors were taking place beyond the closed + doors of the chapel. The very thought of them filled her with loathing and + disgust as she sat waiting, huddled in a corner of the settle. And yet + when presently through the closed doors came the drone of the voice of + that unclean celebrant, to blend with the whine of the wind in the + chimney, Marguerite, urged by a morbid curiosity she could not conquer, + crept shuddering to the door, which directly faced the altar, and going + down on her knees applied her eye to the keyhole. + </p> + <p> + What she saw may very well have appalled her considering the exalted + station of Madame de Montespan. She beheld the white, sculptural form of + the royal favourite lying at full length supine upon the altar, her arms + outstretched, holding a lighted candle in each hand. Immediately before + her stood the Abbe Guibourg, his body screening the chalice and its + position from the eye of the watching girl. + </p> + <p> + She heard the whine of his voice pattering the Latin of the mass, which he + was reciting backwards from the last gospel; and occasionally she heard + responses muttered by her mother, who with Mademoiselle Desceillets was + beyond Marguerite's narrow range of vision. + </p> + <p> + Apart from the interest lent to the proceedings by the presence of the + royal favourite the affair must have seemed now very stupid and pointless + to Marguerite, although she would certainly not have found it so had she + known enough Latin to understand the horrible perversion of the Credo. But + when the Offertory was reached, matters suddenly quickened. In stealing + away from the door, she was no more than in time to avoid being caught + spying by her mother, who now issued from the chapel. + </p> + <p> + La Voisin crossed the ante-room briskly and went out. + </p> + <p> + Within a very few minutes she was back again, her approach now heralded by + the feeble, quavering squeals of a very young child. + </p> + <p> + Marguerite Monvoisin was sufficiently acquainted with the ghastly rites to + guess what was impending. She was young, and herself a mother. She had her + share of the maternal instinct alive in every female animal—with the + occasional exception of the human pervert—and the hoarse, plaintive + cries of that young child chilled her to the soul with horror. She felt + the skin roughening and tightening upon her body, and a sense of physical + sickness overcame her. That and the fear of her mother kept her stiff and + frozen in an angle of the settle until La Voisin had passed through and + reentered the chapel bearing that piteous bundle in her arms. + </p> + <p> + Then, when the door had closed again, the girl, horrified and fascinated, + sped back to watch. She saw that unclean priest turn and receive the child + from La Voisin. As it changed hands its cries were stilled. + </p> + <p> + Guibourg faced the altar once more, that little wisp of humanity that was + but a few days old held now aloft, naked, in his criminal hands. His + muttering, slobbering voice pronouncing the words of that demoniac + consecration reached the ears of the petrified girl at the keyhole. + </p> + <p> + “Ashtaroth, Asmodeus, Princes of Affection, I conjure you to acknowledge + the sacrifice I offer to you of this child for the things I ask of you, + which are that the King's love for me shall be continued, and that + honoured by princes and princesses nothing shall be denied me of all that + I may ask.” + </p> + <p> + A sudden gust of wind smote and rattled the windows of the chapel and the + ante-room, as if the legions of hell had flung themselves against the + walls of the chateau. There was a rush and clatter in the chimney of the + ante-room's vast, empty fireplace, and through the din Marguerite, as her + failing limbs sank under her and she slithered down in a heap against the + chapel door, seemed to hear a burst of exultantly cruel satanic laughter. + With chattering teeth and burning eyes she sat huddled, listening in + terror. The child began to cry again, more violently, more piteously; + then, quite suddenly, there was a little choking cough, a gurgle, the + chink of metal against earthenware, and silence. + </p> + <p> + When some moments later the squat figure of La Voisin emerged from the + chapel, Marguerite was back in the shadows, hunched on the settle to which + she had crawled. She saw that her mother now carried a basin under her + arm, and she did not need the evidence of her eyes to inform her of the + dreadful contents that the witch was bearing away in it. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile in the chapel the ineffably blasphemous rites proceeded. To the + warm human blood which had been caught in the consecrated chalice, + Guibourg had added, among other foulnesses, powdered cantharides, the dust + of desiccated moles, and the blood of bats. By the addition of flour he + had wrought the ingredients into an ineffable paste, and over this, + through the door, which La Voisin had left ajar, Marguerite heard his + voice pronouncing the dread words of Transubstantiation. + </p> + <p> + Marguerite's horror mounted until it threatened to suffocate her. It was + as if some hellish miasma, released by Guibourg's monstrous incantations, + crept through to permeate and poison the air she breathed. + </p> + <p> + It would be a half-hour later when Madame de Montespan at last came out. + She was of a ghastly pallor, her limbs shook and trembled under her as she + stepped forth, and there was a wild horror in her staring eyes. Yet she + contrived to carry herself almost defiantly erect, and she spoke sharply + to the half-swooning Desceillets, who staggered after her. + </p> + <p> + She took her departure from that unholy place bearing with her the host + compounded of devilish ingredients which when dried and reduced to powder + was to be administered to the King to ensure the renewal of his failing + affection for her. + </p> + <p> + The Marchioness contrived that a creature of her own, an officer of the + buttery in her pay, should introduce it into the royal soup. The immediate + and not unnatural result was that the King was taken violently ill, and + Madame de Montespan's anxiety and suspense were increased thereby. On his + recovery, however, it would seem that the demoniac sacrament—thrice + repeated by then—had not been in vain. + </p> + <p> + The sequel, indeed, appeared to justify Madame de Montespan's faith in + sorcery, and to compensate her for all the horror to which in her despair + she had submitted. Madame de Ludres found herself coldly regarded by the + convalescent King. Very soon she was discarded, the Widow Scarron + neglected, and the fickle monarch was once more at the feet of the lovely + marchioness, her utter and devoted slave. + </p> + <p> + Thus was Madame de Montespan “thunderously triumphant” once more, and + established as firmly as ever in the Sun-King's favour. Madame de + Sevigne, in speaking of this phase of their relations, dilates upon the + completeness of the reconciliation, and tells us that the ardour of the + first years seemed now to have returned. And for two whole years it + continued thus. Never before had Madame de Montespan's sway been more + absolute, no shadow came to trouble, the serenity of her rule. + </p> + <p> + But it proved, after all, to be no more than the last flare of an expiring + fire that was definitely quenched at last, in 1679, by Mademoiselle de + Fontanges. A maid of honour to madame, she was a child of not more than + eighteen years, fair and flaxen, with pink cheeks and large, childish + eyes; and it was for this doll that the regal Montespan now found herself + discarded. + </p> + <p> + Honours rained upon the new favourite. Louis made her a duchess with an + income of twenty thousand livres, and deeply though this may have + disgusted his subjects, it disgusted Madame de Montespan still more. + Blinded by rage she openly abused the new duchess, and provoked a fairly + public scene with Louis, in which she gave him her true opinion of him + with a disturbing frankness. + </p> + <p> + “You dishonour yourself,” she informed him among other things. “And you + betray your taste when you make love to a pink-and-white doll, a little + fool that has no more wit nor manners than if she were painted on canvas!” + Then, with an increase of scorn, she delivered herself of an unpardonable + apostrophe: “You, a king, to accept the inheritance of that chit's rustic + lovers!” + </p> + <p> + He flushed and scowled upon her. + </p> + <p> + “That is an infamous falsehood!” he exclaimed. “Madame, you are + unbearable!” He was very angry, and it infuriated him the more that she + should stand so coldly mocking before an anger that could bow the proudest + heads in France. “You have the pride of Satan, your greed is insatiable, + your domineering spirit utterly insufferable, and you have the most false + and poisonous tongue in the world!” + </p> + <p> + Her brutal answer bludgeoned that high divinity to earth. + </p> + <p> + “With all my imperfections,” she sneered, “at least I do not smell as + badly as you do!” + </p> + <p> + It was an answer that extinguished her last chance. It was fatal to the + dignity, to the “terrible majesty” of Louis. It stripped him of all + divinity, and revealed him authoritatively as intensely and even + unpleasantly human. It was beyond hope of pardon. + </p> + <p> + His face turned the colour of wax. A glacial silence hung over the + agonized witnesses of that royal humiliation. Then, without a word, in a + vain attempt to rescue the dignity she had so cruelly mauled, he turned, + his red heels clicked rapidly and unsteadily across the polished floor, + and he was gone. + </p> + <p> + When Madame de Montespan realized exactly what she had done, nothing but + rage remained to her—rage and its offspring, vindictiveness. The + Duchess of Fontanges must not enjoy her victory, nor must Louis escape + punishment for his faithlessness. La Voisin should afford her the means to + accomplish this. And so she goes once more to the Rue de la Tannerie. + </p> + <p> + Now, the matter of Madame de Montespan's present needs was one in which + the witches were particularly expert. Were you troubled with a rival, did + your husband persist in surviving your affection for him, did those from + whom you had expectations cling obstinately and inconsiderately to life, + the witches by incantations and the use of powders—in which arsenic + was the dominant charm—could usually put the matter right for you. + Indeed, so wide and general was the practice of poisoning become, that the + authorities, lately aroused to the fact by the sensational revelations of + the Marchioness de Brinvilliers, had set up in this year 1670 the tribunal + known as the Chambre Ardente to inquire into the matter, and to conduct + prosecutions. + </p> + <p> + La Voisin promised help to the Marchioness. She called in another witch of + horrible repute, named La Filastre, her coadjutor Lesage, and two expert + poisoners, Romani and Bertrand, who devised an ingenious plot for the + murder of the Duchess of Fontanges. They were to visit her, Romani as a + cloth merchant, and Bertrand as his servant, to offer her their wares, + including some Grenoble gloves, which were the most beautiful gloves in + the world and unfailingly irresistible to ladies. These gloves they + prepared in accordance with certain magical recipes in such a way that the + Duchess, after wearing them, must die a lingering death in which there + could be no suspicion of poisoning. + </p> + <p> + The King was to be dealt with by means of a petition steeped in similar + powders, and should receive his death by taking it into his hands. La + Voisin herself was to go to Saint-Germain to present this petition on + Monday, March 13th, one of those days on which, according to ancient + custom, all comers were admitted to the royal presence. + </p> + <p> + Thus they disposed. But Fate was already silently stalking La Voisin. + </p> + <p> + It is to the fact that an obscure and vulgar woman had drunk one glass of + wine too many three months earlier that the King owed his escape. + </p> + <p> + If you are interested in the almost grotesque disparity that can lie + between cause and effect, here is a subject for you. Three months earlier + a tailor named Vigoureux, whose wife secretly practised magic, had + entertained a few friends to dinner, amongst whom was an intimate of his + wife's, named Marie Bosse. This Marie Bosse it was who drank that + excessive glass of wine which, drowning prudence, led her to boast of the + famous trade she drove as a fortune-teller to the nobility, and even to + hint of something further. + </p> + <p> + “Another three poisonings,” she chuckled, “and I shall retire with my + fortune made!” + </p> + <p> + An attorney who was present pricked up his ears, bethought him of the + tales that were afloat, and gave information to the police. The police set + a trap for Marie Bosse, and she betrayed herself. Later, under torture, + she betrayed La Vigoureux. La Vigoureux betrayed others, and these others + again. + </p> + <p> + The arrest of Marie Bosse was like knocking down the first of a row of + ninepins, but none could have suspected that the last of these stood in + the royal apartments. + </p> + <p> + On the day before she was to repair to Saint-Germain, La Voisin, betrayed + in her turn, received a surprise visit from the police—who, of + course, had no knowledge of the regicide their action was thwarting—and + she was carried off to the Chatelet. Put to the question, she revealed a + great deal; but her terror of the horrible punishment reserved for + regicides prevented her to the day of her death at the stake—in + February of 1680 from saying a word of her association with Madame de + Montespan. + </p> + <p> + But there were others whom she betrayed under torture, and whose arrest + followed quickly upon her own, who had not her strength of character. + Among these were La Filastre and the magician Lesage. When it was found + that these two corroborated each other in the incredible things which they + related, the Chambre Ardente took fright. La Reynie, who presided over it, + laid the matter before the King, and the King, horror-stricken by the + discovery of the revolting practices in which the mother of his children + had been engaged, suspended the sittings of the Chambre Ardente, and + commanded that no further proceedings should be taken against Lesage and + La Filastre, and none initiated against Romani, Bertrand, the Abbe + Guibourg, and the scores of other poisoners and magicians who had been + arrested, and who were acquainted with Madame de Montespan's unholy + traffic. + </p> + <p> + But it was not out of any desire to spare Madame de Montespan that the + King proceeded in this manner; he was concerned only to spare himself and + his royal dignity. He feared above all things the scandal and ridicule + which must touch him as a result of publicity, and because he feared it so + much, he could impose no punishment upon Madame de Montespan. + </p> + <p> + This he made known to her at the interview between them procured by his + minister Louvois, at about the time that the sittings of the Chambre + Ardente were suspended. + </p> + <p> + To this interview that proud, domineering woman came in dread, and in + tears and humility for once. The King's bearing was cold and hard. Cold + and hard were the words in which he declared the extent of his knowledge + of her infamy, words which revealed the loathing and disgust this + knowledge brought him. If at first she was terror-stricken, crushed under + the indictment, yet she was never of a temper to bear reproaches long. + Under his scorn her anger kindled and her humility was sloughed. + </p> + <p> + “What then?” she cried at last, eyes aflash through lingering tears. “Is + the blame all mine? If all this is true, it is no less true that I was + driven to it by my love for you and the despair to which your + heartlessness and infidelity reduced me. To you,” she continued, gathering + force at every word, “I sacrificed everything—my honour, a noble + husband who loved me, all that a woman prizes. And what did you give me in + exchange? Your cruel fickleness exposed me to the low mockery of the + lick-spittles of your Court. Do you wonder that I went mad, and that in my + madness I sacrificed what shreds of self-respect you had left me? And now + it seems I have lost all but life. Take that, too, if it be your pleasure. + Heaven knows it has little value left for me! But remember that in + striking me you strike the mother of your children—the legitimate + children of France. Remember that!” + </p> + <p> + He remembered it. Indeed, he was never in danger of forgetting it; for she + might have added that he would be striking also at himself and at that + royal dignity which was his religion. And so that all scandalous comment + might be avoided she was actually allowed to remain at Court, although no + longer in her first-floor apartments; and it was not until ten years later + that she departed to withdraw to the community of Saint Joseph. + </p> + <p> + But even in her disgrace this woman, secretly convicted among other + abominations of attempting to procure the poisoning of the King and of her + rival, enjoyed an annual pension of 1,200,000 livres; whilst none dared + proceed against those who shared her guilt—not even the infamous + Guibourg, the poisoners Romani and Bertrand, and La Filastre—nor yet + against some scores of associates of these, who were known to live by + sorcery and poisonings, and who might be privy to the part played by + Madame de Montespan in that horrible night of magic at the Chateau de + Villebousin. + </p> + <p> + The hot blast of revolution was needed to sweep France clean. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VII. THE NIGHT OF GEMS—The “Affairs” Of The Queen's Necklace + </h2> + <p> + Under the stars of a tepid, scented night of August of 1784, Prince Louis + de Rohan, Cardinal of Strasbourg, Grand Almoner of France, made his way + with quickened pulses through the Park of Versailles to a momentous + assignation in the Grove of Venus. + </p> + <p> + This illustrious member of an illustrious House, that derived from both + the royal lines of Valois and Bourbon, was a man in the prime of life, of + a fine height, still retaining something of the willowy slenderness that + had been his in youth, and of a gentle, almost womanly beauty of + countenance. + </p> + <p> + In a grey cloak and a round, grey hat with gold cords, followed closely by + two shadowy attendant figures, he stepped briskly amain, eager to open + those gates across the path of his ambition, locked against him hitherto + by the very hands from which he now went to receive the key. + </p> + <p> + He deserves your sympathy, this elegant Cardinal-Prince, who had been the + victim of the malice and schemings of the relentless Austrian Empress + since the days when he represented the King of France at the Court of + Vienna. + </p> + <p> + The state he had kept there had been more than royal and royal in the + dazzling French manner, which was perturbing to a woman of Marie Therese's + solid German notions. His hunting-parties, his supper-parties, the fetes + he gave upon every occasion, the worldly inventiveness, the sumptuousness + and reckless extravagance that made each of these affairs seem like a + supplement to “The Arabian Nights' Entertainments,” the sybaritic luxury + of his surroundings, the incredible prodigality of his expenditure, all + served profoundly to scandalize and embitter the Empress. + </p> + <p> + That a priest in gay, secular clothes should hunt the stag on horseback + filled her with horror at his levity; that he should flirt discreetly with + the noble ladies of Vienna made her despair of his morals; whilst his + personal elegance and irresistible charm were proofs to her of a + profligacy that perverted the Court over which she ruled. + </p> + <p> + She laboured for the extinction of his pernicious brilliance, and + intrigued for his recall. She made no attempt to conceal her hostility, + nor did she love him any the better because he met her frigid haughtiness + with an ironical urbanity that seemed ever to put her in the wrong. And + then one day he permitted his wit to be bitingly imprudent. + </p> + <p> + “Marie Therese,” he wrote to D'Aiguillon, “holds in one hand a + handkerchief to receive her tears for the misfortunes of oppressed Poland, + and in the other a sword to continue its partition.” + </p> + <p> + To say that in this witticism lay one of the causes of the French + Revolution may seem at first glance an outrageous overstatement. Yet it is + certain that, but for that imprudent phrase, the need would never have + arisen that sent Rohan across the Park of Versailles on that August night + to an assignation that in the sequel was to place a terrible weapon in the + hands of the Revolutionary party. + </p> + <p> + D'Aiguillon had published the gibe. It had reached the ears of Marie + Antoinette, and from her it had travelled back to her mother in Vienna. It + aroused in the Empress a resentment and a bitterness that did not rest + until the splendid Cardinal-Prince was recalled from his embassy. It did + not rest even then. By the ridicule to which the gibe exposed her—and + if you know Marie Therese at all, you can imagine what that meant—it + provoked a hostility that was indefatigably to labour against him. + </p> + <p> + The Cardinal was ambitious, he had confidence in his talents and in the + driving force of his mighty family, and he looked to become another + Richelieu or Mazarin, the first Minister of the Crown, the empurpled ruler + of France, the guiding power behind the throne. All this he looked + confidently to achieve; all this he might have achieved but for the + obstacle that Marie Therese's resentment flung across his path. The + Empress saw to it that, through the person of her daughter, her hatred + should pursue him even into France. + </p> + <p> + Obedient ever to the iron will of her mother, sharing her mother's + resentment, Marie Antoinette exerted all her influence to thwart this + Cardinal whom her mother had taught her to regard as a dangerous, + unprincipled man. + </p> + <p> + On his return from Vienna bearing letters from Marie Therese to Louis XVI + and Marie Antoinette, the Cardinal found himself coldly received by the + dull King, and discouraged from remaining at Court, whilst the Queen + refused to grant him so much as the audience necessary for the delivery of + these letters, desiring him to forward them instead. + </p> + <p> + The chagrined Cardinal had no illusions. He beheld here the hand of Marie + Therese controlling Marie Antoinette, and, through Marie Antoinette, the + King himself. Worse followed. He who had dreamt himself another Richelieu + could only with difficulty obtain the promised position of Grand Almoner + of France, and this solely as a result of the powerful and insistent + influence exerted by his family. + </p> + <p> + He perceived that if he was to succeed at all he must begin by softening + the rigorous attitude which the Queen maintained towards him. To that end + he addressed himself. But three successive letters he wrote to the Queen + remained unanswered. Through other channels persistently he begged for an + audience that he might come in person to express his regrets for the + offending indiscretion. But the Queen remained unmoved, ruled ever by the + Austrian Empress, who through her daughter sought to guide the affairs of + France. + </p> + <p> + Rohan was reduced to despair, and then in an evil hour his path was + crossed by Jeanne de la Motte de Valois, who enjoyed the reputation of + secretly possessing the friendship of the Queen, exerting a sort of + back-stair influence, and who lived on that reputation. + </p> + <p> + As a drowning man clutches at a straw, so the Cardinal-Prince Louis de + Rohan, Grand Almoner of France, Landgrave of Alsace, Commander of the + Order of the Holy Ghost, clutched at this faiseuse d'affaires to help him + in his desperate need. + </p> + <p> + Jeanne de la Motte de Valois—perhaps the most astounding adventuress + that ever lived by her wits and her beauty—had begun life by begging + her bread in the streets. She laid claim to left-handed descent from the + royal line of Valois, and, her claim supported by the Marchioness + Boulainvilliers, who had befriended her, she had obtained from the Crown a + small pension, and had married the unscrupulous Marc Antoine de la Motte, + a young soldier in the Burgundy regiment of the Gendarmerie. + </p> + <p> + Later, in the autumn of 1786, her protectress presented her to Cardinal de + Rohan. His Eminence, interested in the lady's extraordinary history, in + her remarkable beauty, vivacity, and wit, received the De la Mottes at his + sumptuous chateau at Saverne, near Strasbourg, heard her story in greater + detail, promised his protection, and as an earnest of his kindly + intentions obtained for her husband a captain's commission in the + Dragoons. + </p> + <p> + Thereafter you see the De la Mottes in Paris and at Versailles, hustled + from lodging to lodging for failure to pay what they owe; and finally + installed in a house in the Rue Neuve Saint-Gilles. There they kept a sort + of state, spending lavishly, now the money borrowed from the Cardinal, or + upon the Cardinal's security; now the proceeds of pawned goods that had + been bought on credit, and of other swindles practised upon those who were + impressed by the lady's name and lineage and the patronage of the great + Cardinal which she enjoyed. + </p> + <p> + To live on your wits is no easy matter. It demands infinite address, + coolness, daring, and resource qualities which Madame de la Motte + possessed in the highest degree, so that, harassed and pressed by + creditors, she yet contrived to evade their attacks and to present a calm + and, therefore, confidence-inspiring front to the world. + </p> + <p> + The truth of Madame de la Motte de Valois's reputation for influence at + Court was never doubted. There was nothing in the character of Marie + Antoinette to occasion such doubts. Indiscreet in many things, Her Majesty + was most notoriously so in her attachments, as witness her intimacy with + Madame de Polignac and the Princesse de Lambelle. And the public voice had + magnified—as it will—those indiscretions until it had torn her + character into shreds. + </p> + <p> + The fame of the Countess Jeanne de Valois—as Madame de la Motte now + styled herself—increasing, she was employed as an intermediary by + place-seekers and people with suits to prefer, who gratefully purchased + her promises to interest herself on their behalf at Court. + </p> + <p> + And then into her web of intrigue blundered the Cardinal de Rohan, who, as + he confessed, “was completely blinded by his immense desire to regain the + good graces of the Queen.” She aroused fresh hope in his despairing heart + by protesting that, as some return for all the favours she had received + from him, she would not rest until she had disposed the Queen more + favourably towards him. + </p> + <p> + Later came assurances that the Queen's hostility was melting under her + persuasions, and at last she announced that she was authorized by Her + Majesty to invite him to submit the justification which so long and so + vainly he had sought permission to present. + </p> + <p> + Rohan, in a vertigo of satisfaction, indited his justification, forwarded + it to the Queen by the hand of the Countess, and some days later received + a note in the Queen's hand upon blue-edged paper adorned by the lilies of + France. + </p> + <p> + “I rejoice,” wrote Marie Antoinette, “to find at last that you were not in + fault. I cannot yet grant you the audience you desire, but as soon as the + circumstances allow of it I shall let you know. Be discreet.” + </p> + <p> + Upon the advice of the Countess of Valois, His Eminence sent a reply + expressive of his deep gratitude and joy. + </p> + <p> + Thus began a correspondence between Queen and Cardinal which continued + regularly for a space of three months, growing gradually more confidential + and intimate. As time passed his solicitations of an audience became more + pressing, until at last the Queen wrote announcing that, actuated by + esteem and affection for him who had so long been kept in banishment, she + herself desired the meeting. But it must be secret. An open audience would + still be premature; he had numerous enemies at Court, who, thus + forewarned, might so exert themselves against him as yet to ruin all. + </p> + <p> + To receive such a letter from a beautiful woman, and that woman a queen + whose glories her inaccessibility had magnified a thousandfold in his + imagination, must have all but turned the Cardinal's head. The secrecy of + the correspondence, culminating in a clandestine meeting, seemed to + establish between them an intimacy impossible under other circumstances. + </p> + <p> + Into the warp of his ambition was now woven another, tenderly romantic, + though infinitely respectful, feeling. + </p> + <p> + You realize, I hope, the frame of mind in which the Cardinal-Prince took + his way through that luminous, fragrant summer night towards the Grove of + Venus. He went to lay the cornerstone of the proud edifice of his + ambitions. To him it was a night of nights—a night of gems, he + pronounced it, looking up into the jewelled vault of heaven. And in that + phrase he was singularly prophetic. + </p> + <p> + By an avenue of boxwood and yoke-elm he entered into an open glade, in the + middle of which there was a circle where the intended statue of Venus was + never placed. But if the cold marble effigy of a goddess were absent, the + warm, living figure of a queen stood, all in shimmering white amid the + gloom, awaiting him. + </p> + <p> + Rohan checked a moment, his breath arrested, his pulses quickened. Then he + sped forward, and, flinging off his wide-brimmed hat, he prostrated + himself to kiss the hem of her white cambric gown. Something—a rose + that she let fall—brushed lightly past his cheek. Reverently he + recovered it, accounting it a tangible symbol of her favour, and he looked + up into the proud, lovely face—which, although but dimly + discernible, was yet unmistakable to him protesting his gratitude and + devotion. He perceived that she was trembling, and caught the quiver in + the voice that answered him. + </p> + <p> + “You may hope that the past will be forgiven.” + </p> + <p> + And then, before he could drink more deeply of this cup of delight, came + rapid steps to interrupt them. A slender man, in whom the Cardinal seemed + to recognize the Queen's valet Desclaux, thrust through the curtains of + foliage into the grove. + </p> + <p> + “Quick, madame!” he exclaimed in agitation. “Madame la Comtesse and + Mademoiselle d'Artois are approaching!” + </p> + <p> + The Queen was whirled away, and the Cardinal discreetly effaced himself, + his happiness tempered by chagrin at the interruption. + </p> + <p> + When, on the morrow, the Countess of Valois brought him a blue-bordered + note with Her Majesty's wishes that he should patiently await a propitious + season for his public restoration to royal favour, he resigned himself + with the most complete and satisfied submission. Had he not the memory of + her voice and the rose she had given him? Soon afterwards came a + blue-bordered note in which Marie Antoinette advised him to withdraw to + his Bishopric of Strasbourg until she should judge that the desired season + of his reinstatement had arrived. + </p> + <p> + Obediently Rohan withdrew. + </p> + <p> + It was in the following December that the Countess of Valois's good + offices at Court were solicited by a new client, and that she first beheld + the famous diamond necklace. + </p> + <p> + It had been made by the Court jewellers of the Rue Vendome—Bohmer + and Bassenge—and intended for the Countess du Barry. On the + assembling of its component gems Bohmer had laboured for five years and + travelled all over Europe, with the result that he had achieved not so + much a necklace as a blazing scarf of diamonds of a splendour outrivalling + any jewel that the world had ever seen. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately, Bohmer was too long over the task. Louis XV died + inopportunely, and the firm found itself with a necklace worth two million + livres on its hands. + </p> + <p> + Hopes were founded upon Marie Antoinette's reputed extravagance. But the + price appalled her, while Louis XVI met the importunities of the jeweller + with the reply that the country needed a ship of war more urgently than a + necklace. + </p> + <p> + Thereafter Bohmer offered it in various Courts of Europe, but always + without success. Things were becoming awkward. The firm had borrowed + heavily to pay for the stones, and anxiety seems to have driven Bohmer to + the verge of desperation. Again he offered the necklace to the King, + announcing himself ready to make terms, and to accept payment in + instalments; but again it was refused. + </p> + <p> + Bohmer now became that pest to society, the man with a grievance that he + must be venting everywhere. On one occasion he so far forgot himself as to + intrude upon the Queen as she was walking in the gardens of the Trianon. + Flinging himself upon his knees before her, he protested with sobs that he + was in despair, and that unless she purchased the necklace he would go and + drown himself. His tears left her unmoved to anything but scorn. + </p> + <p> + “Get up, Bohmer!” she bade him. “I don't like such scenes. I have refused + the necklace, and I don't want to hear of it again. Instead of drowning + yourself, break it up and sell the diamonds separately.” + </p> + <p> + He did neither one nor the other, but continued to air his grievance; and + among those who heard him was one Laporte, an impecunious visitor at the + house of the Countess of Valois. + </p> + <p> + Bohmer had said that he would pay a thousand louis to any one who found + him a purchaser for the necklace. That was enough to stir the needy + Laporte. He mentioned the matter to the Countess, and enlisted her + interest. Then he told Bohmer of her great influence with the Queen, and + brought the jeweller to visit her with the necklace. + </p> + <p> + Dazzled by the fire of those gems, the Countess nevertheless protested—but + in an arch manner calculated to convince Bohmer of the contrary—that + she had no power to influence Her Majesty. Yet yielding with apparent + reluctance to his importunities, she, nevertheless, ended by promising to + see what could be done. + </p> + <p> + On January 3d the Cardinal came back from Strasbourg. Correspondence with + the Queen, through Madame de Valois, had continued during his absence, and + now, within a few days of his return, an opportunity was to be afforded + him of proving his readiness to serve Her Majesty, and of placing her + under a profound obligation to him. + </p> + <p> + The Countess brought him a letter from Marie Antoinette, in which the + Queen expressed her desire to acquire the necklace, but added that, being + without the requisite funds at the moment, it would be necessary to settle + the terms and arrange the instalments, which should be paid at intervals + of three months. For this she required an intermediary who in himself + would be a sufficient guarantee to the Bohmers, and she ended by inviting + His Eminence to act on her behalf. + </p> + <p> + That invitation the Cardinal, who had been waiting ever since the meeting + in the Grove of Venus for an opportunity of proving himself, accepted with + alacrity. + </p> + <p> + And so, on January 24th, the Countess drives up to the Grand Balcon, the + jewellers' shop in the Rue Vendome. Her dark eyes sparkle, the lovely, + piquant face is wreathed in smiles. + </p> + <p> + “Messieurs,” she greets the anxious partners, “I think I can promise you + that the necklace will very shortly be sold.” + </p> + <p> + The jewellers gasp in the immensity of the hope her words arouse. + </p> + <p> + “The purchase,” she goes on to inform them, “will be effected by a very + great nobleman.” + </p> + <p> + Bassenge bursts into voluble gratitude. She cuts it short. + </p> + <p> + “That nobleman is the Cardinal-Prince Louis de Rohan. It is with him that + you will arrange the affair, and I advise you,” she adds in a confidential + tone, “to take every precaution, especially in the matter of the terms of + payment that may be proposed to you. That is all, I think, messieurs. You + will, of course, bear in mind that it is no concern of mine, and that I do + not so much as want my name mentioned in connection with it.” + </p> + <p> + “Perfectly, madame,” splutters Bohmer, who is perspiring, although the air + is cold—“perfectly! We understand, and we are profoundly grateful. + If—” His hands fumble nervously at a case. “If you would deign, + madame, to accept this trifle as an earnest of our indebtedness, we—” + </p> + <p> + There is a tinge of haughtiness in her manner as she interrupts him. + </p> + <p> + “You do not appear to understand, Bohmer, that the matter does not at all + concern me. I have done nothing,” she insists; then, melting into smiles, + “My only desire,” she adds, “was to be of service to you.” + </p> + <p> + And upon that she departs, leaving them profoundly impressed by her + graciousness and still more by her refusal to accept a valuable jewel. + </p> + <p> + On the morrow the great nobleman she had heralded, the Cardinal himself, + alighted at the Grand Balcon, coming, on the Queen's behalf, to see the + necklace and settle the terms. By the end of the week the bargain was + concluded. The price was fixed at 1,600,000 livres, which the Queen was to + pay in four instalments extending over two years, the first falling due on + the following August 1st. + </p> + <p> + These terms the Cardinal embodied in a note which he forwarded to Madame + de la Motte, that they might be ratified by the Queen. + </p> + <p> + The Countess returned the note to him next day. + </p> + <p> + “Her Majesty is pleased and grateful,” she announced, “and she approves of + all that you have done. But she does not wish to sign anything.” + </p> + <p> + On that point, however, the Cardinal was insistent. The magnitude of the + transaction demanded it, and he positively refused to move further without + Her Majesty's signature. + </p> + <p> + The Countess departed to return again on the last day of the month with + the document completed as the Cardinal required, bearing now the signature + “Marie Antoinette de France,” and the terms marked “approved” in the + Queen's hand. + </p> + <p> + “The Queen,” Madame de la Motte informed him, “is making this purchase + secretly, without the King's knowledge, and she particularly begs that + this note shall not leave Your Eminence's hands. Do not, therefore, allow + any one to see it.” + </p> + <p> + Rohan gave the required promise, but, not conceiving that the Bohmers were + included in it, he showed them the note and the Queen's signature when + they came to wait upon him with the necklace on the morrow. + </p> + <p> + In the dusk of evening a closed carriage drew up at the door of Madame de + la Motte Valois's lodging on the Place Dauphine at Versailles. Rohan + alighted, and went upstairs with a casket under his arm. + </p> + <p> + Madame awaited him in a white-panelled, indifferently lighted room, to + which there was an alcove with glass doors. + </p> + <p> + “You have brought the necklace?” + </p> + <p> + “It is here,” he replied, tapping the box with his gloved hand. + </p> + <p> + “Her Majesty is expecting it to-night. Her messenger should arrive at any + moment. She will be pleased with Your Eminence.” + </p> + <p> + “That is all that I can desire,” he answered gravely; and sat down in + answer to her invitation, the precious casket on his knees. + </p> + <p> + Waiting thus, they talked desultorily for some moments. At last came steps + upon the stairs. + </p> + <p> + “Quick! The alcove!” she exclaimed. “You must not be seen by Her Majesty's + messenger.” + </p> + <p> + Rohan, with ready understanding, a miracle of discretion, effaced himself + into the alcove, through the glass doors of which he could see what + passed. + </p> + <p> + The door was opened by madame's maid with the announcement: + </p> + <p> + “From the Queen.” + </p> + <p> + A tall, slender young man in black, the Queen's attendant of that other + night of gems—the night of the Grove of Venus—stepped quickly + into the room, bowed like a courtier to Madame de la Motte, and presented + a note. + </p> + <p> + Madame broke the seal, then begged the messenger to withdraw for a moment. + When he had gone, she turned to the Cardinal, who stood in the doorway of + the alcove. + </p> + <p> + “That is Desclaux, Her Majesty's valet,” she said; and held out to him the + note, which requested the delivery of the necklace to the bearer. + </p> + <p> + A moment later the messenger was reintroduced to receive the casket from + the hands of Madame de la Motte. Within five minutes the Cardinal was in + his carriage again, driving happily back to Paris with his dreams of a + queen's gratitude and confidence. + </p> + <p> + Two days later, meeting Bohmer at Versailles, the Cardinal suggested to + him that he should offer his thanks to the Queen for having purchased the + necklace. + </p> + <p> + Bohmer sought an opportunity for this in vain. None offered. It was also + in vain that he waited to hear that the Queen had worn the necklace. But + he does not appear to have been anxious on that score. Moreover, the + Queen's abstention was credibly explained by Madame de la Motte to Laporte + with the statement that Her Majesty did not wish to wear the necklace + until it was paid for. + </p> + <p> + With the same explanation she answered the Cardinal's inquiries in the + following July, when he returned from a three months' sojourn in + Strasbourg. + </p> + <p> + And she took the opportunity to represent to him that one of the reasons + why the Queen could not yet consider the necklace quite her own was that + she found the price too high. + </p> + <p> + “Indeed, she may be constrained to return it, after all, unless the + Bohmers are prepared to be reasonable.” + </p> + <p> + If His Eminence was a little dismayed by this, at least any nascent + uneasiness was quieted. He consented to see the jewellers in the matter, + and on July 10th—three weeks before the first instalment was due—he + presented himself at the Grand Balcon to convey the Queen's wishes to the + Bohmers. + </p> + <p> + Bohmer scarcely troubled to prevent disgust from showing on his keen, + swarthy countenance. Had not his client been a queen and her intermediary + a cardinal, he would, no doubt, have afforded it full expression. + </p> + <p> + “The price agreed upon was already greatly below the value of the + necklace,” he grumbled. “I should never have accepted it but for the + difficulties under which we have been placed by the purchase of the stones—the + money we owe and the interest we are forced to pay. A further reduction is + impossible.” + </p> + <p> + The handsome Cardinal was suave, courtly, regretful, but firm. Since that + was the case, there would be no alternative but to return the necklace. + </p> + <p> + Bohmer took fright. The annulment of the sale would bring him face to face + with ruin. Reluctantly, feeling that he was being imposed upon, he reduced + the price by two hundred thousand livres, and even consented to write the + Queen the following letter, whose epistolary grace suggests the Cardinal's + dictation: + </p> + <p> + MADAME,—We are happy to hazard the thought that our submission with + zeal and respect to the last arrangement proposed constitutes a proof of + our devotion and obedience to the orders of Your Majesty. And we have + genuine satisfaction in thinking that the most beautiful set of diamonds + in existence will serve to adorn the greatest and best of queens. + </p> + <p> + Now it happened that Bohmer was about to deliver personally to the Queen + some jewels with which the King was presenting her on the occasion of the + baptism of his nephew. He availed himself of that opportunity, two days + later, personally to hand his letter to Her Majesty. But chance brought + the Comptroller-General into the room before she had opened it, and as a + result the jeweller departed while the letter was still unread. + </p> + <p> + Afterwards, in the presence of Madame de Campan, who relates the matter in + her memoirs, the Queen opened the note, pored over it a while, and then, + perhaps with vivid memories of Bohmer's threat of suicide: + </p> + <p> + “Listen to what that madman Bohmer writes to me,” she said, and read the + lines aloud. “You guessed the riddles in the 'Mercure' this morning. I + wonder could you guess me this one.” + </p> + <p> + And, with a half-contemptuous shrug, she held the sheet in the flame of + one of the tapers that stood alight on the table for the purpose of + sealing letters. + </p> + <p> + “That man exists for my torment,” she continued. “He has always some mad + notion in his head, and must always be visiting it upon me. When next you + see him, pray convince him how little I care for diamonds.” + </p> + <p> + And there the matter was dismissed. + </p> + <p> + Days passed, and then a week before the instalment of 350,000 livres was + due, the Cardinal received a visit from Madame de la Motte on the Queen's + behalf. + </p> + <p> + “Her Majesty,” madame announced, “seems embarrassed about the instalment. + She does not wish to trouble you by writing about it. But I have thought + of a way by which you could render yourself agreeable to her and, at the + same time, set her mind at rest. Could you not raise a loan for the + amount?” + </p> + <p> + Had not the Cardinal himself dictated to Bohmer a letter which Bohmer + himself had delivered to the Queen, he must inevitably have suspected by + now that all was not as it should be. But, satisfied as he was by that + circumstance, he addressed himself to the matter which Madame de la Motte + proposed. But, although Rohan was extraordinarily wealthy, he had ever + been correspondingly lavish. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, to complicate matters, there had been the bankruptcy of his + nephew, the Prince de Guimenee, whose debts had amounted to some three + million livres. Characteristically, and for the sake of the family honour, + Rohan had taken the whole of this burden upon his own shoulders. Hence his + resources were in a crippled condition, and it was beyond his power to + advance so considerable a sum at such short notice. Nor did he succeed in + obtaining a loan within the little time at his disposal. + </p> + <p> + His anxieties on this score were increased by a letter from the Queen + which Madame de la Motte brought him on July 30th, in which Her Majesty + wrote that the first instalment could not be paid until October 1st; but + that on that date a payment of seven hundred thousand livres—half of + the revised price—would unfailingly be made. Together with this + letter, Madame de la Motte handed him thirty thousand livres, interest on + the instalment due, with which to pacify the jewellers. + </p> + <p> + But the jewellers were not so easily to be pacified. Bohmer, at the end of + his patience, definitely refused to grant the postponement or to receive + the thirty thousand livres other than as on account of the instalment due. + </p> + <p> + The Cardinal departed in vexation. Something must be done at once, or his + secret relations with the Queen would be disclosed, thus precipitating a + catastrophe and a scandal. He summoned Madame de la Motte, flung her into + a panic with his news and sent her away to see what she could do. What she + actually did would have surprised him. Realizing that a crisis had been + reached calling for bold measures, she sent for Bassenge, the milder of + the two partners. He came to the Rue Neuve Saint-Gilles, protesting that + he was being abused. + </p> + <p> + “Abused?” quoth she, taking him up on the word. “Abused, do you say?” She + laughed sharply. “Say duped, my friend; for that is what has happened to + you. You are the victim of a swindle.” + </p> + <p> + Bassenge turned white; his prominent eyes bulged in his rather pasty face. + </p> + <p> + “What are you saying, madame?” His voice was husky. + </p> + <p> + “The Queen's signature on the note in the Cardinal's possession is a + forgery.” + </p> + <p> + “A forgery! The Queen's signature? Oh, mon Dieu!” He stared at her, and + his knees began to tremble. “How do you know, madame?” + </p> + <p> + “I have seen it,” she answered. + </p> + <p> + “But—but—” + </p> + <p> + His nerveless limbs succumbing under him, he sank without ceremony to a + chair that was opportunely near him. With the same lack of ceremony, + mechanically, in a dazed manner, he mopped the sweat that stood in beads + on his brow, then raised his wig and mopped his head. + </p> + <p> + “There is no need to waste emotion,” said she composedly. “The Cardinal de + Rohan is very rich. You must look to him. He will pay you.” + </p> + <p> + “Will he?” + </p> + <p> + Hope and doubt were blended in the question. + </p> + <p> + “What else?” she asked. “Can you conceive that he will permit such a + scandal to burst about his name and the name of the Queen?” + </p> + <p> + Bassenge saw light. The rights and wrongs of the case, and who might be + the guilty parties, were matters of very secondary importance. What + mattered was that the firm should recover the 1,600,000 livres for which + the necklace had been sold; and Bassenge was quick to attach full value to + the words of Madame de la Motte. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately for everybody concerned, including the jewellers themselves, + Bohmer's mind was less supple. Panic-stricken by Bassenge's report, he was + all for the direct method. There was no persuading him to proceed + cautiously, and to begin by visiting the Cardinal. He tore away to + Versailles at once, intent upon seeing the Queen. But the Queen, as we + know, had had enough of Bohmer. He had to content himself with pouring his + mixture of intercessions and demands into the ears of Madame de Campan. + </p> + <p> + “You have been swindled, Bohmer,” said the Queen's lady promptly. “Her + Majesty never received the necklace.” + </p> + <p> + Bohmer would not be convinced. Disbelieving, and goaded to fury, he + returned to Bassenge. + </p> + <p> + Bassenge, however, though perturbed, retained his calm. The Cardinal, he + insisted, was their security, and it was impossible to doubt that the + Cardinal would fulfil his obligations at all costs, rather than be + overwhelmed by a scandal. + </p> + <p> + And this, no doubt, is what would have happened but for that hasty visit + of Bohmer's to Versailles. It ruined everything. As a result of it, Bohmer + was summoned to wait instantly upon the Queen in the mater of some paste + buckles. + </p> + <p> + The Queen received the jeweller in private, and her greeting proved that + the paste buckles were a mere pretext. She demanded to know the meaning of + his words to Madame de Campan. + </p> + <p> + Bohmer could not rid himself of the notion that he was being trifled with. + Had he not written and himself delivered to the Queen a letter in which he + thanked her for purchasing the necklace, and had not that letter remained + unanswered—a silent admission that the necklace was in her hands? In + his exasperation he became insolent. + </p> + <p> + “The meaning, madame? The meaning is that I require payment for my + necklace, that the patience of my creditors is exhausted, and that unless + you order the money to be paid, I am a ruined man!” + </p> + <p> + Marie Antoinette considered him in cold, imperious anger. + </p> + <p> + “Are you daring to suggest that your necklace is in my possession?” + </p> + <p> + Bohmer was white to the lips, his hands worked nervously. + </p> + <p> + “Does Your Majesty deny it?” + </p> + <p> + “You are insolent!” she exclaimed. “You will be good enough to answer + questions, not to ask them. Answer me, then. Do you suggest that I have + your necklace?” + </p> + <p> + But a desperate man is not easily intimidated. + </p> + <p> + “No, madame; I affirm it! It was the Countess of Valois who—” + </p> + <p> + “Who is the Countess of Valois?” + </p> + <p> + That sudden question, sharply uttered, was a sword of doubt through the + heart of Bohmer's confidence. He stared wide-eyed a moment at the + indignant lady before him, then collected himself, and made as plain a + tale as he could of the circumstances under which he had parted with the + necklace Madame de la Motte's intervention, the mediation of the Cardinal + de Rohan with Her Majesty's signed approval of the terms, and the delivery + of the necklace to His Eminence for transmission to the Queen. + </p> + <p> + Marie Antoinette listened in increasing horror and anger. A flush crept + into her pale cheeks. + </p> + <p> + “You will prepare and send me a written statement of what you have just + told me,” she said. “You have leave to go.” + </p> + <p> + That interview took place on August 9th. The 15th was the Feast of the + Assumption, and also the name-day of the Queen, therefore a gala day at + Court, bringing a concourse of nobility to Versailles. Mass was to be + celebrated in the royal chapel at ten o'clock, and the celebrant, as by + custom established for the occasion, was the Grand Almoner of France, the + Cardinal de Rohan. + </p> + <p> + But at ten o'clock a meeting was being held in the King's cabinet, + composed of the King and Queen, the Baron de Breteuil, and the Keeper of + the Seals, Miromesnil. They were met, as they believed, to decide upon a + course of action in the matter of a diamond necklace. In reality, these + puppets in the hands of destiny were helping to decide the fate of the + French monarchy. + </p> + <p> + The King, fat, heavy, and phlegmatic, sat in a gilded chair by an + ormolu-encrusted writing-table. His bovine eyes were troubled. Two + wrinkles of vexation puckered the flesh above his great nose. Beside, and + slightly behind him, stood the Queen, white and imperious, whilst facing + them stood Monsieur de Breteuil, reading aloud the statement which Bohmer + had drawn up. + </p> + <p> + When he had done, there was a moment's utter silence. Then the King spoke, + his voice almost plaintive. + </p> + <p> + “What is to be done, then? But what is to be done?” + </p> + <p> + It was the Queen who answered him, harshly and angrily. + </p> + <p> + “When the Roman purple and a princely title are but masks to cover a + swindler, there is only one thing to be done. This swindler must be + exposed and punished.” + </p> + <p> + “But,” the King faltered, “we have not heard the Cardinal.” + </p> + <p> + “Can you think that Bohmer, that any man, would dare to lie upon such a + matter?” + </p> + <p> + “But consider, madame, the Cardinal's rank and family,” calmly interposed + the prudent Miromesnil; “consider the stir, the scandal that must ensue if + this matter is made public.” + </p> + <p> + But the obedient daughter of Marie Therese, hating Rohan at her mother's + bidding and for her mother's sake, was impatient of any such wise + considerations. + </p> + <p> + “What shall the scandal signify to us?” she demanded. The King looked at + Breteuil. + </p> + <p> + “And you, Baron? What is your view?” + </p> + <p> + Breteuil, Rohan's mortal enemy, raised his shoulders and flipped the + document. + </p> + <p> + “In the face of this, Sire, it seems to me that the only course is to + arrest the Cardinal.” + </p> + <p> + “You believe, then—” began the King, and checked, leaving the + sentence unfinished. + </p> + <p> + But Breteuil had understood. + </p> + <p> + “I know that the Cardinal must be pressed for money,” he said. “Ever + prodigal in his expenditure, he is further saddled with the debts of the + Prince de Guimenee.” + </p> + <p> + “And you can believe,” the King cried, “that a Prince of the House of + Rohan, however pressed for money, could—Oh, it is unimaginable!” + </p> + <p> + “Yet has he not stolen my name?” the Queen cut in. “Is he not proven a + common, stupid forger?” + </p> + <p> + “We have not heard him,” the King reminded her gently. + </p> + <p> + “And His Eminence might be able to explain,” ventured Miromesnil. “It were + certainly prudent to give him the opportunity.” + </p> + <p> + Slowly the King nodded his great, powdered head. “Go and find him. Bring + him at once!” he bade Breteuil; and Breteuil bowed and departed. + </p> + <p> + Very soon he returned, and he held the door whilst the handsome Cardinal, + little dreaming what lay before him, serene and calm, a commanding figure + in his cassock of scarlet watered silk, rustled forward into the royal + presence, and so came face to face with the Queen for the first time since + that romantic night a year ago in the Grove of Venus. + </p> + <p> + Abruptly the King launched his thunderbolt. + </p> + <p> + “Cousin,” he asked, “what purchase is this of a diamond necklace that you + are said to have made in the Queen's name?” + </p> + <p> + King and Cardinal looked into each other's eyes, the King's narrowing, the + Cardinal's dilating, the King leaning forward in his chair, elbows on the + table, the Cardinal standing tense and suddenly rigid. + </p> + <p> + Slowly the colour ebbed from Rohan's face, leaving it deathly pale. His + eyes sought the Queen, and found her contemptuous glance, her curling lip. + Then at last his handsome head sank a little forward. + </p> + <p> + “Sire,” he said unsteadily, “I see that I have been duped. But I have + duped nobody.” + </p> + <p> + “You have no reason to be troubled, then. You need but to explain.” + </p> + <p> + Explain! That was precisely what he could not do. Besides, what was the + nature of the explanation demanded of him? Whilst he stood stricken there, + it was the Queen who solved this question. + </p> + <p> + “If, indeed, you have been duped,” she said scornfully, her colour high, + her eyes like points of steel, “you have been self-duped. But even then it + is beyond belief that self-deception could have urged you to the lengths + of passing yourself off as my intermediary—you, who should know + yourself to be the last man in France I should employ, you to whom I have + not spoken once in eight years.” Tears of anger glistened in her eyes; her + voice shrilled up. “And yet, since you have not denied it, since you put + forward this pitiful plea that you have been duped, we must believe the + unbelievable.” + </p> + <p> + Thus at a blow she shattered the fond hopes he had been cherishing ever + since the night of gems—of gems, forsooth!—in the Grove of + Venus; thus she laid his ambition in ruins about him, and left the man + himself half stunned. + </p> + <p> + Observing his disorder, the ponderous but kindly monarch rose. + </p> + <p> + “Come, my cousin,” he said more gently, “collect yourself. Sit down here + and write what you may have to say in answer.” + </p> + <p> + And with that he passed into the library beyond, accompanied by the Queen + and the two Ministers. + </p> + <p> + Alone, Rohan staggered forward and sank nervelessly into the chair. He + took up a pen, pondered a moment, and began to write. But he did not yet + see clear. He could not yet grasp the extent to which he had been + deceived, could not yet believe that those treasured notes from Marie + Antoinette were forgeries, that it was not the Queen who had met him in + the Grove of Venus and given him the rose whose faded petals kept those + letters company in a portfolio of red morocco. But at least it was clear + to him that, for the sake of honour—the Queen's honour—he must + assume it so; and in that assumption he now penned his statement. + </p> + <p> + When it was completed, himself he bore it to the King in the library. + </p> + <p> + Louis read it with frowning brows; then passed it to the Queen. + </p> + <p> + “Have you the necklace now?” he asked Rohan. + </p> + <p> + “Sir, I left it in the hands of this woman Valois.” + </p> + <p> + “Where is this woman?” + </p> + <p> + “I do not know, Sire.” + </p> + <p> + “And the letter of authority bearing the Queen's signature, which the + jewellers say you presented to them—where is that?” + </p> + <p> + “I have it, Sire. I will place it before you. It is only now that I + realize that it is a forgery.” + </p> + <p> + “Only now!” exclaimed the Queen in scorn. + </p> + <p> + “Her Majesty's name has been compromised,” said the King sternly. “It must + be cleared. As King and as husband my duty is clear. Your Eminence must + submit to arrest.” + </p> + <p> + Rohan fell back a step in stupefaction. For disgrace and dismissal he was + prepared, but not for this. + </p> + <p> + “Arrest?” he whispered. “Ah, wait, Sire. The publicity! The scandal! Think + of that! As for the necklace, I will pay for it myself, and so pay for my + credulous folly. I beseech you, Sire, to let the matter end here. I + implore it for my own sake, for the sake of the Prince de Soubise and the + name of Rohan, which would be smirched unjustly and to no good purpose.” + </p> + <p> + He spoke with warmth and force; and, without adding more, yet conveyed an + impression that much more could be said for the course he urged. + </p> + <p> + The King hesitated, considering. Noting this, the prudent, far-seeing + Miromesnil ventured to develop the arguments at which Rohan had hinted, + laying stress upon the desirability of avoiding scandal. + </p> + <p> + Louis was nodding, convinced, when Marie Antoinette, unable longer to + contain her rancour, broke into opposition of those prudent measures. + </p> + <p> + “This hideous affair must be disclosed,” she insisted. “It is due to me + that it should publicly be set right. The Cardinal shall tell the world + how he came to suppose that, not having spoken to him for eight years, I + could have wished to make use of his services in the purchase of this + necklace.” + </p> + <p> + She was in tears, and her weak, easily swayed husband accounted her + justified in her demand. And so, to the great consternation of all the + world, Prince Louis de Rohan was arrested like a common thief. + </p> + <p> + A foolish, indiscreet, short-sighted woman had allowed her rancour to + override all other considerations—careless of consequences, careless + of injustice so that her resentment, glutted by her hatred of the + Cardinal, should be gratified. The ungenerous act was terribly to recoil + upon her. In tears and blood was she to expiate her lack of charity; very + soon she was to reap its bitter fruits. + </p> + <p> + Saint-Just, a very prominent counsellor of the Parliament, one of the most + advanced apostles of the new ideas that were to find full fruition in the + Revolution, expressed the popular feeling in the matter. + </p> + <p> + “Great and joyful affair! A cardinal and a queen implicated in a forgery + and a swindle! Filth on the crosier and the sceptre! What a triumph for + the ideas of liberty!” + </p> + <p> + At the trial that followed before Parliament, Madame de la Motte, a man + named Reteaux de Villette—who had forged the Queen's hand and + impersonated Desclaux and a Mademoiselle d'Oliva—who had used her + striking resemblance to Marie Antoinette to impersonate the Queen in the + Grove of Venus were found guilty and sentenced. But the necklace was not + recovered. It had been broken up, and some of the diamonds were already + sold; others were being sold in London by Captain de la Motte, who had + gone thither for the purpose, and who prudently remained there. + </p> + <p> + The Cardinal was acquitted, amid intense public joy and acclamation, which + must have been gall and wormwood to the Queen. His powerful family, the + clergy of France, and the very people, with whom he had ever been popular, + had all laboured strenuously to vindicate him. And thus it befell that the + one man the Queen had aimed at crushing was the only person connected with + the affair who came out of it unhurt. The Queen's animus against the + Cardinal aroused against her the animus of his friends of all classes. + Appalling libels of her were circulated throughout Europe. It was thought + and argued that she was more deeply implicated in the swindle than had + transpired, that Madame de la Motte was a scapegoat, that the Queen should + have stood her trial with the others, and that she was saved only by the + royalty that hedged her. + </p> + <p> + Conceive what a weapon this placed in the hands of the men of the new + ideas of liberty—men who were bent on proving the corruption of a + system they sought to destroy! + </p> + <p> + Marie Antoinette should have foreseen something of this. She might have + done so had not her hatred blinded her, had she been less intent upon + seizing the opportunity at all costs to make Rohan pay for his barbed + witticism upon her mother. She might have been spared much had she but + spared Rohan when the chance was hers. As it was, the malevolent echoes of + the affair and of Saint-Just's exultation were never out of her ears. They + followed her to her trial eight years later before the revolutionary + tribunal. They followed her to the very scaffold, of which they had + undoubtedly supplied a plank. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VIII, THE NIGHT OF TERROR—The Drownings At Nantes Under Carrier + </h2> + <p> + The Revolutionary Committee of the city of Nantes, reinforced by some of + the administrators of the district and a few members of the People's + Society, sat in the noble hall of the Cour des Comptes, which still + retained much of its pre-republican sumptuousness. They sat expectantly—Goullin, + the attorney, president of the committee, a frail, elegant valetudinarian, + fierily eloquent; Grandmaison, the fencing-master, who once had been a + gentleman, fierce of eye and inflamed of countenance; Minee, the sometime + bishop, now departmental president; Pierre Chaux, the bankrupt merchant; + the sans-culotte Forget, of the People's Society, an unclean, ill-kempt + ruffian; and some thirty others called like these from every walk of life. + </p> + <p> + Lamps were lighted, and under their yellow glare the huddled company—for + the month was December, and the air of the vast room was chill and dank—looked + anxious and ill at ease. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly the doors were thrown open by an usher; and his voice rang loud + in announcement— + </p> + <p> + “The Citizen Representative Carrier.” + </p> + <p> + The great man came in, stepping quickly. Of middle height, very frail and + delicate, his clay-colored face was long and thin, with arched eyebrows, a + high nose, and a loose, coarse mouth. His deeply sunken dark eyes glared + fiercely, and wisps of dead-black hair, which had escaped the confining + ribbon of his queue, hung about his livid brow. He was wrapped in a + riding-coat of bottle-green, heavily lined with fur, the skirts reaching + down to the tops of his Hessian boots, and the enormous turned-up collar + almost touching the brim of his round hat. Under the coat his waist was + girt with the tricolour of office, and there were gold rings in his ears. + </p> + <p> + Such at the age of five-and-thirty was Jean Baptiste Carrier, + Representative of the Convention with the Army of the West, the attorney + who once had been intended by devout parents for the priesthood. He had + been a month in Nantes, sent thither to purge the body politic. + </p> + <p> + He reached a chair placed in the focus of the gathering, which sat in a + semicircle. Standing by it, one of his lean hands resting upon the back, + he surveyed them, disgust in his glance, a sneer curling his lip, so + terrible and brutal of aspect despite his frailness that more than one of + those stout fellows quailed now before him. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly he broke into torrential speech, his voice shrill and harsh: + </p> + <p> + “I do not know by what fatality it happens, but happen it does, that + during the month that I have been in Nantes you have never ceased to give + me reason to complain of you. I have summoned you to meet me here that you + may justify yourselves, if you can, for your ineptitude!” And he flung + himself into the chair, drawing his fur-lined coat about him. “Let me hear + from you!” he snapped. + </p> + <p> + Minee, the unfrocked bishop, preserving still a certain episcopal + portliness of figure, a certain episcopal oiliness of speech, respectfully + implored the representative to be more precise. + </p> + <p> + The invitation flung him into a passion. His irascibility, indeed, + deserved to become a byword. + </p> + <p> + “Name of a name!” he shrilled, his sunken eyes ablaze, his face convulsed. + “Is there a thing I can mention in this filthy city of yours that is not + wrong? Everything is wrong! You have failed in your duty to provide + adequately for the army of Vendee. Angers has fallen, and now the brigands + are threatening Nantes itself. There is abject want in the city, disease + is rampant; people are dying of hunger in the streets and of typhus in the + prisons. And sacre nom!—you ask me to be precise! I'll be precise in + telling you where lies the fault. It lies in your lousy administration. Do + you call yourselves administrators? You—” He became unprintable. “I + have come here to shake you out of your torpor, and by—I'll shake + you out of it or I'll have the blasted heads off the lot of you.” + </p> + <p> + They shivered with chill fear under the wild glare of his sunken eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Well?” he barked after a long pause. “Are you all dumb as well as + idiots?” + </p> + <p> + It was the ruffian Forget who had the courage to answer him: + </p> + <p> + “I have told the People's Society that if the machine works badly it is + because the Citizen Carrier refuses to consult with the administration.” + </p> + <p> + “You told them that, did you, you—liar?” screeched Carrier. “Am I + not here now to consult with you? And should I not have come before had + you suggested it? Instead, you have waited until, of my own accord, I + should come to tell you that your administration is ruining Nantes.” + </p> + <p> + Goullin, the eloquent and elegant Goullin, rose to soothe him: + </p> + <p> + “Citizen Representative, we admit the truth of all that you have said. + There has been a misunderstanding. We could not take it upon ourselves to + summon the august representative of the Sacred People. I We have awaited + your own good pleasure, and now that you have made this manifest, there is + no reason why the machine should not work effectively. The evils of which + you speak exist, alas! But they are not so deeply rooted that, working + under your guidance and advice, we cannot uproot them, rendering the soil + fertile once more of good under the beneficent fertilizing showers of + liberty.” + </p> + <p> + Mollified, Carrier grunted approval. + </p> + <p> + “That is well said, Citizen Goullin. The fertilizer needed by the soil is + blood—the bad blood of aristocrats and federalists, and I can + promise you, in the name of the august people, that it shall be abundantly + provided.” + </p> + <p> + The assembly broke into applause, and his vanity melted to it. He stood + up, expressed his gratification at being so completely understood, opened + his arms, and invited the departmental president, Minee, to come down and + receive the kiss of brotherhood. + </p> + <p> + Thereafter they passed to the consideration of measures of improvement, of + measures to combat famine and disease. In Carrier's view there was only + one way of accomplishing this—the number of mouths to be fed must be + reduced, the diseased must be eliminated. It was the direct, the radical, + the heroic method. + </p> + <p> + That very day six prisoners in Le Bouffay had been sentenced to death for + attempting to escape. + </p> + <p> + “How do we know,” he asked, “that those six include all the guilty? How do + we know that all in Le Bouffay do not share the guilt? The prisoners are + riddled with disease, which spreads to the good patriots of Nantes; they + eat bread, which is scarce, whilst good patriots starve. We must have the + heads off all those blasted swine!” He took fire at his own suggestion. + “Aye, that would be a useful measure. We'll deal with it at once. Let some + one fetch the President of the Revolutionary Tribunal.” + </p> + <p> + He was fetched—a man of good family and a lawyer, named Francois + Phelippes. + </p> + <p> + “Citizen President,” Carrier greeted him, “the administration of Nantes + has been considering an important measure. To-day you sentenced to death + six prisoners in Le Bouffay for attempting to escape. You are to postpone + execution so as to include all the Bouffay prisoners in the sentence.” + </p> + <p> + Although an ardent revolutionary, Phelippes was a logically minded man + with a lawyer's reverence for the sacredness of legal form. This command, + issued with such cynical coldness, and repudiated by none of those + present, seemed to him as grotesque and ridiculous as it was horrible. + </p> + <p> + “But that is impossible, Citizen Representative,” said he. + </p> + <p> + “Impossible!” snarled Carrier. “A fool's word. The administration desires + you to understand that it is not impossible. The sacred will of the august + people—” + </p> + <p> + Phelippes interrupted him without ceremony. + </p> + <p> + “There is no power in France that can countermand the execution of a + sentence of the law.” + </p> + <p> + “No—no power!” + </p> + <p> + Carrier's loose mouth fell open. He was too amazed to be angry. + </p> + <p> + “Moreover,” Phelippes pursued calmly, “there is the fact that all the + other prisoners in Le Bouffay are innocent of the offence for which the + six are to die.” + </p> + <p> + “What has that to do with it?” roared Carrier. “Last year I rode a she-ass + that could argue better than you! In the name of—, what has that to + do with it?” + </p> + <p> + But there were members of the assembly who thought with Phelippes, and + who, whilst lacking the courage to express themselves, yet found courage + to support another who so boldly expressed them. + </p> + <p> + Carrier sprang up quivering with rage before that opposition. “It seems to + me,” he snarled, “that there are more than the scoundrels in Le Bouffay + who need to be shortened by a head for the good of the nation. I tell you + that you are slaying the commonweal by your slowness and circumspection. + Let all the scoundrels perish!” + </p> + <p> + A handsome, vicious youngster named Robin made chorus. + </p> + <p> + “Patriots are without bread! It is fitting that the scoundrels should die, + and not eat the bread of starving patriots.” + </p> + <p> + Carrier shook his fist at the assembly. + </p> + <p> + “You hear, you—! I cannot pardon whom the law condemns.” + </p> + <p> + It was an unfortunate word, and Phelippes fastened on it. + </p> + <p> + “That is the truth, Citizen Representative,” said Phelippes. “And as for + the prisoners in Le Bouffay, you will wait until the law condemns them.” + </p> + <p> + And without staying to hear more, he departed as firmly as he had come, + indifferent to the sudden uproar. + </p> + <p> + When he had gone, the Representative flung himself into his chair again, + biting his lip. + </p> + <p> + “There goes a fellow who will find his way to the guillotine in time,” he + growled. + </p> + <p> + But he was glad to be rid of him, and would not have him brought back. He + saw how the opposition of Phelippes had stiffened the weaker opposition of + some of those in the assembly. If he was to have his way he would contrive + better without the legal-minded President of the Revolutionary Tribunal. + And his way he had in the end, though not until he had stormed and cursed + and reviled the few who dared to offer remonstrances to his plan of + wholesale slaughter. + </p> + <p> + When at last he took his departure, it was agreed that the assembly should + proceed to elect a jury which was to undertake the duty of drawing up + immediately a list of those confined in the prisons of Nantes. This list + they were to deliver when ready to the committee, which would know how to + proceed, for Carrier had made his meaning perfectly clear. The first + salutary measure necessary to combat the evils besetting the city was to + wipe out at once the inmates of all the prisons in Nantes. + </p> + <p> + In the chill December dawn of the next day the committee—which had + sat all night under the presidency of Goullin forwarded a list of some + five hundred prisoners to General Boivin, the commandant of the city of + Nantes, together with an order to collect them without a moment's delay, + take them to L'Eperonniere, and there have them shot. + </p> + <p> + But Boivin was a soldier, and a soldier is not a sans-culotte. He took the + order to Phelippes, with the announcement that he had no intention of + obeying it. Phelippes, to Boivin's amazement, agreed with him. He sent the + order back to the committee, denouncing it as flagrantly illegal, and + reminding them that it was illegal to remove any prisoner, no matter by + whose order, without such an order as might follow upon a decision of the + Tribunal. + </p> + <p> + The committee, intimidated by this firmness on the part of the President + of the Revolutionary Tribunal, dared not insist, and there the matter + remained. + </p> + <p> + When Carrier learnt of it the things he said were less than ever fit for + publication. He raved like a madman at the very thought that a quibbling + lawyer should stand in the very path of him, the august representative of + the Sacred People. + </p> + <p> + It had happened that fifty-three priests, who had been brought to Nantes a + few days before, were waiting in the sheds of the entrepot for prison + accommodation, so that their names did not yet appear upon any of the + prison registers. As a solatium to his wounded feelings, he ordered his + friends of the Marat Company to get rid of them. + </p> + <p> + Lamberty, the leader of the Marats, asked him how it should be done. + </p> + <p> + “How?” he croaked. “Not so much mystery, my friend. Fling the swine into + the water, and so let's be rid of them. There will be plenty of their kind + left in France.” + </p> + <p> + But he seems to have explained himself further, and what precisely were + his orders, and how they were obeyed, transpires from a letter which he + wrote to the Convention, stating that those fifty-three wretched priests, + “being confined in a boat on the Loire, were last night swallowed up by + the river.” And he added the apostrophe, “What a revolutionary torrent is + the Loire!” + </p> + <p> + The Convention had no illusions as to his real meaning; and when Carrier + heard that his letter had been applauded by the National Assembly, he felt + himself encouraged to break down all barriers of mere legality that might + obstruct his path. And, after all, what the Revolutionary Committee as a + body—intimidated by Phelippes—dared not do could be done by + his faithful and less punctilious friends of the Marat Company. + </p> + <p> + This Marat Company, the police of the Revolutionary Committee, enrolled + from the scourings of Nantes' sans-culottism, and captained by a ruffian + named Fleury, had been called into being by Carrier himself with the + assistance of Goullin. + </p> + <p> + On the night of the 24th Frimaire of the year III (December 14, 1793, old + style), which was a Saturday, Fleury mustered some thirty of his men, and + took them to the Cour des Comptes, where they were awaited by Goullin, + Bachelier, Grandmaison, and some other members of the committee entirely + devoted to Carrier. From these the Marats received their formal + instructions. + </p> + <p> + “Plague,” Goullin informed them, “is raging in the gaols, and its ravages + must be arrested. You will therefore proceed this evening to the prison of + Le Bouffay in order to take over the prisoners whom you will march up to + the Quay La Fosse, whence they will be shipped to Belle Isle.” + </p> + <p> + In a cell of that sordid old building known as Le Bouffay lay a cocassier, + an egg and poultry dealer, arrested some three years before upon a charge + of having stolen a horse, and since forgotten. His own version was that a + person of whom he knew very little had entrusted him with the sale of the + stolen animal in possession of which he was discovered. + </p> + <p> + The story sounds familiar; it is the sort of story that must have done + duty many times; and it is probable that the cocassier was no better than + he should have been. Nevertheless Fate selected him to be one of her + unconscious instruments. His name was Leroy, and we have his own word for + it that he was a staunch patriot. The horse business was certainly in the + best vein of sans-culottism. + </p> + <p> + Leroy was awakened about ten o'clock that night by sounds that were very + unusual in that sombre, sepulchral prison. They were sounds of unbridled + revelry—snatches of ribald song, bursts of coarse, reverberating + laughter and they proceeded, as it seemed to him, from the courtyard and + the porter's lodge. + </p> + <p> + He crawled from the dank straw which served him for a bed, and approached + the door to listen. Clearly the porter Laqueze was entertaining friends + and making unusually merry. It was also to be gathered that Laqueze's + friends were getting very drunk. What the devil did it mean? + </p> + <p> + His curiosity was soon to be very fully gratified. Came heavy steps up the + stone staircase, the clatter of sabots, the clank of weapons, and through + the grille of his door an increasing light began to beat. + </p> + <p> + Some one was singing the “Carmagnole” in drunken, discordant tones. Keys + rattled, bolts were drawn; doors were being flung open. The noise + increased. Above the general din he heard the detestable voice of the + turnkey. + </p> + <p> + “Come and see my birds in their cages. Come and see my pretty birds.” + </p> + <p> + Leroy began to have an uneasy premonition that the merrymaking portended + sinister things. + </p> + <p> + “Get up, all of you!” bawled the turnkey. “Up and pack your traps. You're + to go on a voyage. No laggards, now. Up with you!” + </p> + <p> + The door of Leroy's cell was thrown open in its turn, and he found himself + confronting a group of drunken ruffians. One of these—a red-capped + giant with long, black mustaches and a bundle of ropes over one arm + suddenly pounced upon him. The cocassier was an active, vigorous young + man. But, actuated by fear and discretion, he permitted himself tamely to + be led away. + </p> + <p> + Along the stone-flagged corridor he went, and on every hand beheld his + fellow-prisoners in the same plight, being similarly dragged from their + cells and similarly hurried below. At the head of the stairs one fellow, + perfectly drunk, was holding a list, hiccupping over names which he + garbled ludicrously as he called them out. He was lighted in his task by a + candle held by another who was no less drunk. The swaying pair seemed to + inter-support one another grotesquely. + </p> + <p> + Leroy suffered himself to be led down the stairs, and so came to the + porter's lodge, where he beheld a half-dozen Marats assembled round a + table, with bumpers of wine before them, bawling, singing, cursing, and + cracking lewd jests at the expense of each prisoner as he entered. The + place was in a litter. A lamp had been smashed, and there was a puddle of + wine on the floor from a bottle that had been knocked over. On a bench + against the wall were ranged a number of prisoners, others lay huddled on + the floor, and all of them were pinioned. + </p> + <p> + Two or three of the Marats lurched up to Leroy, and ran their hands over + him, turning out his pockets, and cursing him foully for their emptiness. + He saw the same office performed upon others, and saw them stripped of + money, pocket-books, watches, rings, buckles, and whatever else of value + they happened to possess. One man, a priest, was even deprived of his + shoes by a ruffian who was in want of foot-gear. + </p> + <p> + As they were pinioning his wrists, Leroy looked up. He confesses that he + was scared. + </p> + <p> + “What is this for?” he asked. “Does it mean death?” + </p> + <p> + With an oath he was bidden to ask no questions. + </p> + <p> + “If I die,” he assured them, “you will be killing a good republican.” + </p> + <p> + A tall man with an inflamed countenance and fierce, black eyes, that were + somewhat vitreous, now leered down upon him. + </p> + <p> + “You babbling fool! It's not your life, it's your property we want.” + </p> + <p> + This was Grandmaison, the fencing-master, who once had been a gentleman. + He had been supping with Carrier, and he had only just arrived at Le + Bouffay, accompanied by Goullin. He found the work behind time, and told + them so. + </p> + <p> + “Leave that fellow now, Jolly. He's fast enough. Up and fetch the rest. + It's time to be going... time to be going.” + </p> + <p> + Flung aside now that he was pinioned, Leroy sat down on the floor and + looked about him. Near him an elderly man was begging for a cup of water. + They greeted the prayer with jeering laughter. + </p> + <p> + “Water! By Sainte Guillotine, he asks for water!” The drunken + sans-culottes were intensely amused. “Patience, my friend—patience, + and you shall drink your fill. You shall drink from the great cup.” + </p> + <p> + Soon the porter's lodge was crowded with prisoners, and they were + overflowing into the passage. + </p> + <p> + Came Grandmaison cursing and swearing at the sluggishness of the Marats, + reminding them—as he had been reminding them for the last hour—that + it was time to be off, that the tide was on the ebb. + </p> + <p> + Stimulated by him, Jolly—the red-capped giant with the black + mustaches—and some others of the Marat Company, set themselves to + tie the prisoners into chains of twenty, further to ensure against + possible evasion. They were driven into the chilly courtyard, and there + Grandmaison, followed by a fellow with a lantern, passed along the ranks + counting them. + </p> + <p> + The result infuriated him. + </p> + <p> + “A hundred and five!” he roared, and swore horribly. “You have been here + nearly five hours, and in all that time you have managed to truss up only + a hundred and five. Are we never to get through with it? I tell you the + tide is ebbing. It is time to be off.” + </p> + <p> + Laqueze, the porter of Le Bouffay, with whose food and wine those + myrmidons of the committee had made so disgracefully free, came to assure + him that he had all who were in the prison. + </p> + <p> + “All?” cried Grandmaison, aghast. “But according to the list there should + have been nearer two hundred.” And he raised his voice to call: “Goullin! + Hola, Goullin! Where the devil is Goullin?” + </p> + <p> + “The list,” Laqueze told him, “was drawn up from the register. But you + have not noted that many have died since they came—we have had the + fever here—and that a few are now in hospital.” + </p> + <p> + “In hospital! Bah! Go up, some of you, and fetch them. We are taking them + somewhere where they will be cured.” And then he hailed the elegant + Goullin, who came up wrapped in a cloak. “Here's a fine bathing-party!” he + grumbled. “A rare hundred of these swine!” + </p> + <p> + Goullin turned to Laqueze. + </p> + <p> + “What have you done with the fifteen brigands I sent you this evening?” + </p> + <p> + “But they only reached Nantes to-day,” said Laqueze, who understood + nothing of these extraordinary proceedings. “They have not yet been + registered, not even examined.” + </p> + <p> + “I asked you what you have done with them?” snapped Goullin. + </p> + <p> + “They are upstairs.” + </p> + <p> + “Then fetch them. They are as good as any others.” + </p> + <p> + With these, and a dozen or so dragged from sick-beds, the total was made + up to about a hundred and thirty. + </p> + <p> + The Marats, further reinforced now by half a company of National Guards, + set out from the prison towards five o'clock in the morning; urging their + victims along with blows and curses. + </p> + <p> + Our cocassier found himself bound wrist to wrist with a young Capuchin + brother, who stumbled along in patient resignation, his head bowed, his + lips moving as if he were in prayer. + </p> + <p> + “Can you guess what they are going to do with us?” murmured Leroy. + </p> + <p> + He caught the faint gleam of the Capuchin's eyes in the gloom. + </p> + <p> + “I do not know, brother. Commend yourself to God, and so be prepared for + whatever may befall.” + </p> + <p> + The answer was not very comforting to a man of Leroy's temperament. He + stumbled on, and they came now upon the Place du Bouffay, where the red + guillotine loomed in ghostly outline, and headed towards the Quai + Tourville. Thence they were marched by the river the whole length of the + Quai La Fosse. Fear spreading amongst them, some clamours were raised, to + be instantly silenced by blows and assurances that they were to be shipped + to Belle Isle, where they were to be set to work to build a fort. + </p> + <p> + The cocassier thought this likely enough, and found it more comforting + than saying his prayers—a trick which he had long since lost. + </p> + <p> + As they defiled along the quays, an occasional window was thrown up, and + an inquisitive head protruded, to be almost instantly withdrawn again. + </p> + <p> + On the Cale Robin at last they were herded into a shed which opened on to + the water. Here they found a large lighter alongside, and they beheld in + the lantern-light the silhouettes of a half-dozen shipwrights busily at + work upon it, whilst the place rang with the blows of hammers and the + scream of saws. + </p> + <p> + Some of those nearest the barge saw what was being done. Two great ports + were being opened in the vessel's side, and over one of these thus opened + the shipwrights were nailing planks. They observed that these ports, which + remained above the water-line now that the barge was empty, would be well + below it once she were laden, and conceiving that they perceived at last + the inhuman fate awaiting them, their terror rose again. They remembered + snatches of conversation and grim jests uttered by the Marats in Le + Bouffay, which suddenly became clear, and the alarm spreading amongst + them, they writhed and clamoured, screamed for mercy, cursed and raved. + </p> + <p> + Blows were showered upon them. In vain was it sought to quiet them again + with that fable of a fort to be constructed on Belle Isle. One of them in + a frenzy of despair tore himself free of his bonds, profited by a moment + of confusion, and vanished so thoroughly that Grandmaison and his men lost + a quarter of an hour seeking him in vain, and would have so spent the + remainder of the night but for a sharp word from a man in a greatcoat and + a round hat who stood looking on in conversation with Goullin. + </p> + <p> + “Get on, man! Never mind that one! We'll have him later. It will be + daylight soon. You've wasted time enough already.” + </p> + <p> + It was Carrier. + </p> + <p> + He had come in person to see the execution of his orders, and at his + command Grandmaison now proceeded to the loading. A ladder was set against + the side of the lighter by which the prisoners were to descend. The cords + binding them in chains were now severed, and they were left pinioned only + by the wrists. They were ordered to embark. But as they were slow to obey, + and as some, indeed, hung back wailing and interceding, he and Jolly took + them by their collars, thrust them to the edge, and bundled them neck and + crop down into the hold, recking nothing of broken limbs. Finding this + method of embarkation more expeditious, the use of the ladder was + neglected thenceforth. + </p> + <p> + Among the last to be thus flung aboard was our cocassier Leroy. He fell + soft upon a heaving, writhing mass of humanity, which only gradually shook + down and sorted itself out on the bottom of the lighter when the hatches + overhead were being nailed down. Yet by an odd chance the young Capuchin + and Leroy, who had been companions in the chain, were not separated even + now. Amid the human welter in that agitated place of darkness, the cries + and wails that rang around him, Leroy recognized the voice of the young + friar exhorting them to prayer. + </p> + <p> + They were in the stern of the vessel, against one of the sides, and Leroy, + who still kept a grip on the wits by which he had lived, bade the Capuchin + hold up his wrists. Then he went nosing like a dog, until at last he found + them, and his strong teeth fastened upon the cord that bound them, and + began with infinite patience to gnaw it through. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile that floating coffin had left its moorings and was gliding with + the stream. On the hatches sat Grandmaison, with Jolly and two other + Marats, howling the “Carmagnole” to drown the cries of the wretches + underneath, and beating time with their feet upon the deck. + </p> + <p> + Leroy's teeth worked on like a rat's until at last the cord was severed. + Then, lest they should be parted in the general heaving and shifting of + that human mass, those teeth of his fastened upon the Capuchin's sleeve. + </p> + <p> + “Take hold of me!” he commanded as distinctly as he could; and the + Capuchin gratefully obeyed. “Now untie my wrists!” + </p> + <p> + The Capuchin's hands slid along Leroy's arms until they found his hands, + and there his fingers grew busy, groping at the knots. It was no easy + matter to untie them in the dark, guided by sense of touch alone. But the + friar was persistent and patient, and in the end the last knot ran loose, + and our cocassier was unpinioned. + </p> + <p> + It comforted him out of all proportion to the advantage. At least his + hands were free for any emergency that might offer. That he depended in + such a situation, and with no illusions as to what was to happen, upon + emergency, shows how tenacious he was of hope. + </p> + <p> + He had been released not a moment too soon. Overhead, Grandmaison and his + men were no longer singing. They were moving about. Something bumped + against the side of the vessel, near the bow, obviously a boat, and voices + came up from below the level of the deck. Then the lighter shuddered under + a great blow upon the planks of the forecastle port. The cries in the hold + redoubled. Panting, cursing, wailing men hurtled against Leroy, and almost + crushed him for a moment under their weight as the vessel heaved to + starboard. Came a succession of blows, not only on the port in the bow, + but also on that astern. There was a cracking and rending of timbers, and + the water rushed in. + </p> + <p> + Then the happenings in that black darkness became indescribably horrible. + In their frenzy not a few had torn themselves free of their bonds. These + hurled themselves towards the open ports through which the water was + pouring. They tore at the planks with desperate, lacerated hands. Some got + their arms through, seeking convulsively to widen the openings and so to + gain an egress. But outside in the shipwrights' boat stood Grandmaison, + the fencing-master, brandishing a butcher's sword. + </p> + <p> + With derision and foul objurgations he slashed at protruding arms and + hands, thrust his sword again and again through the port into that + close-packed, weltering mass, until at last the shipwrights backed away + the boat to escape the suction of the sinking lighter. + </p> + <p> + The vessel, with its doomed freight of a hundred and thirty human lives, + settled down slowly by the head, and the wailing and cursing was suddenly + silenced as the icy waters of the Loire eddied over it and raced on. + </p> + <p> + Caught in the swirl of water, Leroy had been carried up against the deck + of the lighter. Instinctively he had clutched at a crossbeam. The water + raced over his head, and then, to his surprise, receded, beat up once or + twice as the lighter grounded, and finally settled on a level with his + shoulders. + </p> + <p> + He was quick to realize what had happened. The lighter had gone down by + the head on a shallow. Her stern remained slightly protruding, so that in + that part of her between the level of the water and the deck there was a + clear space of perhaps a foot or a foot and a half. Yet of the hundred and + thirty doomed wretches on board he was the only one who had profited by + this extraordinary chance. + </p> + <p> + Leroy hung on there; and thereafter for two hours, to use his own + expression, he floated upon corpses. A man of less vigorous mettle, moral + and physical, could never have withstood the ordeal of a two hours' + immersion in the ice-cold water of that December morning. Leroy clung on, + and hoped. I have said that he was tenacious of hope. And soon after + daybreak he was justified of his confidence in his luck. As the first + livid gleams of light began to suffuse the water in which he floated, a + creaking of rowlocks and a sound of voices reached his ears. A boat was + passing down the river. + </p> + <p> + Leroy shouted, and his voice rang hollow and sepulchral on the morning + stillness. The creak of oars ceased abruptly. He shouted again, and was + answered. The oars worked now at twice their former speed. The boat was + alongside. Blows of a grapnel tore at the planking of the deck until there + was a hole big enough to admit the passage of his body. + </p> + <p> + He looked through the faint mist which he had feared never to see again, + heaved himself up with what remained him of strength until his breast was + on a level with the deck, and beheld two men in a boat. + </p> + <p> + But, exhausted by the effort, his numbed limbs refused to support him. He + sank back, and went overhead, fearing now, indeed, that help had arrived + too late. But as he struggled to the surface the bight of a rope smacked + the water within the hold. Convulsively he clutched it, wound it about one + arm, and bade them haul. + </p> + <p> + Thus they dragged him out and aboard their own craft, and put him ashore + at the nearest point willing out of humanity to do so much, but daring to + do no more when he had told them how he came where they had found him. + </p> + <p> + Half naked, numbed through and through, with chattering teeth and failing + limbs, Leroy staggered into the guard-house at Chantenay. Soldiers of the + Blues stripped him of his sodden rags, wrapped him in a blanket, thawed + him outwardly before a fire and inwardly with gruel, and then invited him + to give an account of himself. + </p> + <p> + The story of the horse will have led you to suppose him a ready liar. He + drew now upon that gift of his, represented himself as a mariner from + Montoir, and told a harrowing tale of shipwreck. Unfortunately, he overdid + it. There was present a fellow who knew something of the sea, and + something of Montoir, to whom Leroy's tale did not ring quite true. To rid + themselves of responsibility, the soldiers carried him before the + Revolutionary Committee of Nantes. + </p> + <p> + Even here all might have gone well with him, since there was no member of + that body with seacraft to penetrate his imposture. But as ill-chance + would have it, one of the members sitting that day was the black-mustached + sans-culotte Jolly, the very man who had dragged Leroy out of his cell + last night and tied him up. + </p> + <p> + At sight of him Jolly's eyes bulged in his head. + </p> + <p> + “Where the devil have you come from?” he greeted him thunderously. + </p> + <p> + Leroy quailed. Jolly's associates stared. But Jolly explained to them: + </p> + <p> + “He was of last night's bathing party. And he has the impudence to come + before us like this. Take him away and shove him back into the water.” + </p> + <p> + But Bachelier, a man who, next to the President Goullin, exerted the + greatest influence in the committee, was gifted with a sense of humour + worthy of the Revolution. He went off into peals of laughter as he + surveyed the crestfallen cocassier, and, perhaps because Leroy's situation + amused him, he was disposed to be humane. + </p> + <p> + “No, no!” he said. “Take him back to Le Bouffay for the present. Let the + Tribunal deal with him.” + </p> + <p> + So back to Le Bouffay went Leroy, back to his dungeon, his fetid straw and + his bread and water, there to be forgotten again, as he had been forgotten + before, until Fate should need him. + </p> + <p> + It is to him that we owe most of the materials from which we are able to + reconstruct in detail that first of Carrier's drownings on a grand scale, + conceived as an expeditious means of ridding the city of useless mouths, + of easing the straitened circumstances resulting from misgovernment. + </p> + <p> + Very soon it was followed by others, and, custom increasing Carrier's + audacity, these drownings—there were in all some twenty-three + noyades—ceased to be conducted in the secrecy of the night, or to be + confined to men. They were made presently to include women—of whom + at one drowning alone, in Novose, three hundred perished under the most + revolting circumstances—and even little children. Carrier himself + admitted that during the three months of his rule some three thousand + victims visited the national bathing-place, whilst other, and no doubt + more veracious, accounts treble that number of those who received the + National Baptism. + </p> + <p> + Soon these wholesale drownings had become an institution, a sort of + national spectacle that Carrier and his committee felt themselves in duty + bound to provide. + </p> + <p> + But at length a point was reached beyond which it seemed difficult to + continue them. So expeditious was the measure, that soon the obvious + material was exhausted. The prisons were empty. Yet habits, once + contracted, are not easily relinquished. Carrier would be looking + elsewhere for material, and there was no saying where he might look, or + who would be safe. Soon the committee heard a rumour that the + Representative intended to depose it and to appoint a new one, whereupon + many of its members, who were conscious of lukewarmness, began to grow + uneasy. + </p> + <p> + Uneasy, too, became the members of the People's Society. They had sent a + deputation to Carrier with suggestions for the better conduct of the + protracted campaign of La Vendee. This was a sore point with the + Representative. He received the patriots with the foulest abuse, and had + them flung downstairs by his secretaries. + </p> + <p> + Into this atmosphere of general mistrust and apprehension came the most + ridiculous Deus ex machina that ever was in the person of the very young + and very rash Marc Antoine Jullien. His father, the Deputy Jullien, was an + intimate of Robespierre's, by whose influence Marc Antoine was appointed + to the office of Agent of the Committee of Public Safety, and sent on a + tour of inspection to report upon public feeling and the conduct of the + Convention's Representatives. + </p> + <p> + Arriving in Nantes at the end of January of '94, one of Marc Antoine's + first visits happened to be to the People's Society, which was still + quivering with rage at the indignities offered by Carrier to its + deputation. + </p> + <p> + Marc Antoine was shocked by what he heard, so shocked that instead of + going to visit the Representative on the morrow, he spent the morning + inditing a letter to Robespierre, in which he set forth in detail the + abuses of which Carrier was guilty, and the deplorable state of misery in + which he found the city of Nantes. + </p> + <p> + That night, as Marc Antoine was sinking into the peaceful slumber of the + man with duty done, he was rudely aroused by an officer and a couple of + men of the National Guard, who announced to him that he was under arrest, + and bade him rise and dress. + </p> + <p> + Marc Antoine flounced out of bed in a temper, and flaunted his + credentials. The officer remained unmoved. He was acting upon orders from + the Citizen Representative. + </p> + <p> + Still in a temper, Marc Antoine hurriedly dressed himself. He would soon + show this Representative that it is not safe to trifle with Agents of the + Public Safety. The Citizen Representative should hear from him. The + officer, still unimpressed, bundled him into a waiting carriage, and bore + him away to the Maison Villetreux, on the island where Carrier had his + residence. + </p> + <p> + Carrier had gone to bed. But he was awake, and he sat up promptly when the + young muscadin from Paris was roughly thrust into his room by the + soldiers. The mere sight of the Representative sufficed to evaporate Marc + Antoine's anger, and with it his courage. + </p> + <p> + Carrier's pallor was of a grey-green from the rage that possessed him. His + black eyes smouldered like those of an animal seen in the gloom, and his + tumbled black hair, fluttering about his moist brow, increased the + terrific aspect of his countenance. Marc Antoine shrank and was dumb. + </p> + <p> + “So,” said Carrier, regarding him steadily, terribly, “you are the thing + that dares to denounce me to the Safety, that ventures to find fault with + my work!” From under his pillow he drew Marc Antoine's letter to + Robespierre. “Is this yours?” + </p> + <p> + At the sight of this violation of his correspondence with the + Incorruptible, Marc Antoine's indignation awoke, and revived his courage. + </p> + <p> + “It is mine,” he answered. “By what right have you intercepted it?” + </p> + <p> + “By what right?” Carrier put a leg out of bed. “So you question my right, + do you? You have so imposed yourself upon folk that you are given powers, + and you come here to air them, by—” + </p> + <p> + “You shall answer to the Citizen Robespierre for your conduct,” Marc + Antoine threatened him. + </p> + <p> + “Aha!” Carrier revealed his teeth in a smile of ineffable wickedness. He + slipped from the bed, and crouching slightly as if about to spring, he + pointed a lean finger at his captive. + </p> + <p> + “You are of those with whom it is dangerous to deal publicly, and you + presume upon that. But you can be dealt with privily, and you shall. I + have you, and, by—, you shall not escape me, you—!” + </p> + <p> + Marc Antoine looked into the Representative's face, and saw there the + wickedness of his intent. He stiffened. Nature had endowed him with wits, + and he used them now. + </p> + <p> + “Citizen Carrier,” he said, “I understand. I am to be murdered to-night in + the gloom and the silence. But you shall perish after me in daylight, and + amid the execrations of the people. You may have intercepted my letters to + my father and to Robespierre. But if I do not leave Nantes, my father will + come to ask an account of you, and you will end your life on the scaffold + like the miserable assassin that you are.” + </p> + <p> + Of all that tirade, but one sentence had remained as if corroded into the + mind of Carrier. “My letters to my father and to Robespierre,” the astute + Marc Antoine had said. And Marc Antoine saw the Representative's mouth + loosen, saw a glint of fear replace the ferocity in his dark eyes. + </p> + <p> + What Marc Antoine intended to suggest had instantly leapt to Carrier's + mind—that there had been a second letter which his agents had + missed. They should pay for that. But, meanwhile, if it were true, he dare + not for his neck's sake go further in this matter. He may have suspected + that it was not true. But he had no means of testing that suspicion. Marc + Antoine, you see, was subtle. + </p> + <p> + “Your father?” growled the Representative. “Who is your father?” + </p> + <p> + “The Deputy Jullien.” + </p> + <p> + “What?” Carrier straightened himself, affecting an immense astonishment. + “You are the son of the Deputy Julien?” He burst into a laugh. He came + forward, holding out both his hands. He could be subtle, too, you see. “My + friend, why did you not say so sooner? See in what a ghastly mistake you + have let me flounder. I imagined you—of course, it was foolish of me—to + be a proscribed rascal from Angers, of the same name.” + </p> + <p> + He had fallen upon Marc Antoine's neck, and was embracing him. + </p> + <p> + “Forgive me, my friend!” he besought him. “Come and dine with me + to-morrow, and we will laugh over it together.” + </p> + <p> + But Marc Antoine had no mind to dine with Carrier, although he promised to + do so readily enough. Back at his inn, scarce believing that he had got + away alive, still sweating with terror at the very thought of his near + escape, he packed his valise, and, by virtue of his commission, obtained + post-horses at once. + </p> + <p> + On the morrow from Angers, safe beyond the reach of Carrier, he wrote + again to Robespierre, and this time also to his father. + </p> + <p> + “In Nantes,” he wrote, “I found the old regime in its worst form.” He knew + the jargon of Liberty, the tune that set the patriots a-dancing. + “Carrier's insolent secretaries emulate the intolerable haughtiness of a + ci-devant minister's lackeys. Carrier himself lives surrounded by luxury, + pampered by women and parasites, keeping a harem and a court. He tramples + justice in the mud. He has had all those who filled the prisons flung + untried into the Loire. The city of Nantes,” he concluded, “needs saving. + The Vendean revolt must be suppressed, and Carrier the slayer of Liberty + recalled.” + </p> + <p> + The letter had its effect, and Carrier was recalled to Paris, but not in + disgrace. Failing health was urged as the solicitous reason for his + retirement from the arduous duties of governing Nantes. + </p> + <p> + In the Convention his return made little stir, and even when early in the + following July he learnt that Bourbotte, his successor at Nantes, had + ordered the arrest of Goullin, Bachelier, Grandmaison, and his other + friends of the committee, on the score of the drownings and the + appropriation of national property confiscated from emigres, he remained + calm, satisfied that his own position was unassailable. + </p> + <p> + But the members of the Committee of Nantes were sent to Paris for trial, + and their arrival there took place on that most memorable date in the + annals of the Revolution, the 10th Thermidor (July 29, 1794, O.S.), the + day on which Robespierre fell and the floodgates of vengeance upon the + terrorists were flung open. + </p> + <p> + You have seen in the case of Marc Antoine Jullien how quick Carrier could + be to take a cue. In a coach he followed the tumbril that bore Robespierre + to execution, radiant of countenance and shouting with the loudest, “Death + to the traitor!” On the morrow from the rostrum of the Convention, he + passionately represented himself as a victim of the fallen tyrant, + cleverly turning to his own credit the Marc Antoine affair, reminding the + Convention how he had himself been denounced to Robespierre. He was + greeted with applause in that atmosphere of Thermidorean reaction. + </p> + <p> + But Nemesis was stalking him relentlessly if silently. + </p> + <p> + Among a batch of prisoners whom a chain of curious chances had brought + from Nantes to Paris was our old friend Leroy the cocassier, required now + as a witness against the members of the committee. + </p> + <p> + Having acquainted the court with the grounds of his arrest, and the fact + that for three years he had lain forgotten and without trial in the + pestilential prison of Le Bouffay, Leroy passed on to a recital of his + sufferings on that night of terror when he had gone down the Loire in the + doomed lighter. He told his tale with an artlessness that rendered it the + more moving and convincing. The audience crowding the chamber of justice + shuddered with horror, and sobbed over the details of his torments, wept + for joy over his miraculous preservation. At the close he was applauded on + all sides, which bewildered him a little, for he had never known anything + but abuse in all his chequered life. + </p> + <p> + And then, at the promptings of that spirit of reaction that was abroad in + those days when France was awakening from the nightmare of terror, some + one made there and then a collection on his behalf, and came to thrust + into his hands a great bundle of assignats and bank bills, which to the + humble cocassier represented almost a fortune. It was his turn to weep. + </p> + <p> + Then the crowd in the court which had heard his story shouted for the head + of Carrier. The demand was taken up by the whole of Paris, and finally his + associates of the Convention handed him over to the Revolutionary + Tribunal. + </p> + <p> + He came before it on November 25th, and he could not find counsel to + defend him. Six advocates named in succession by the President refused to + plead the cause of so inhuman a monster. In a rage, at last Carrier + announced that he would defend himself. He did. + </p> + <p> + He took the line that his business in Nantes had been chiefly concerned + with provisioning the Army of the West; that he had had little to do with + the policing of Nantes, which he left entirely to the Revolutionary + Committee; and that he had no knowledge of the things said to have taken + place. But Goullin, Bachelier, and the others were there to fling back the + accusation in their endeavours to save their own necks at the expense of + his. + </p> + <p> + He was sentenced on the very anniversary of that terrible night on which + the men of the Marat Company broke into the prison of Le Bouffay, and he + was accompanied in the tumbril by Grandmaison the pitiless, who was now + filled with self-pity to such an extent that he wept bitterly. + </p> + <p> + The crowd, which had hooted and insulted him from the Conciergerie to the + Place de Greve, fell suddenly silent as he mounted the scaffold, his step + firm, but his shoulders bowed, and his eyes upon the ground. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly upon the silence, grotesquely, horribly merry, broke the sound of + a clarinet playing the “Ca ira!” + </p> + <p> + Jerking himself erect, Carrier turned and flung the last of his terrible + glances at the musician. + </p> + <p> + A moment later the knife fell with a thud, and a bleeding head rolled into + the basket, the eyes still staring, but powerless now to inspire terror. + </p> + <p> + Upon the general silence broke an echo of the stroke. + </p> + <p> + “Vlan!” cried a voice. “And there's a fine end to a great drowner!” + </p> + <p> + It was Leroy the cocassier. The crowd took up the cry. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IX. THE NIGHT OF NUPTIALS—Charles The Bold And Sapphira Danvelt + </h2> + <p> + When Philip the Good succumbed at Bruges of an apoplexy in the early part + of the year 1467, the occasion was represented to the stout folk of + Flanders as a favourable one to break the Burgundian yoke under which they + laboured. It was so represented by the agents of that astute king, Louis + XI, who ever preferred guile to the direct and costly exertion of force. + </p> + <p> + Charles, surnamed the Bold (le Temeraire), the new Duke of Burgundy, was + of all the French King's enemies by far the most formidable and menacing + just then; and the wily King, who knew better than to measure himself with + a foe that was formidable, conceived a way to embarrass the Duke and + cripple his resources at the very outset of his reign. To this end did he + send his agents into the Duke's Flemish dominions, there to intrigue with + the powerful and to stir up the spirit of sedition that never did more + than slumber in the hearts of those turbulent burghers. + </p> + <p> + It was from the Belfry Tower of the populous, wealthy city of Ghent—then + one of the most populous and wealthy cities of Europe—that the call + to arms first rang out, summoning the city's forty thousand weavers to + quit their looms and take up weapons—the sword, the pike, and that + arm so peculiarly Flemish, known as the goedendag. From Ghent the fierce + flame of revolt spread rapidly to the valley of the Meuse, and the + scarcely less important city of Liege, where the powerful guilds of + armourers and leather workers proved as ready for battle as the weavers of + Ghent. + </p> + <p> + They made a brave enough show until Charles the Bold came face to face + with them at Saint-Trond, and smashed the mutinous burgher army into + shards, leaving them in their slaughtered thousands upon the stricken + field. + </p> + <p> + The Duke was very angry. He felt that the Flemings had sought to take a + base advantage of him at a moment when it was supposed he would not be + equal to protecting his interests, and he intended to brand it for all + time upon their minds that it was not safe to take such liberties with + their liege lord. Thus, when a dozen of the most important burghers of + Liege came out to him very humbly in their shirts, with halters round + their necks, to kneel in the dust at his feet and offer him the keys of + the city, he spurned the offer with angry disdain. + </p> + <p> + “You shall be taught,” he told them, “how little I require your keys, and + I hope that you will remember the lesson for your own good.” + </p> + <p> + On the morrow his pioneers began to smash a breach, twenty fathoms wide, + in one of the walls of the city, rolling the rubble into the ditch to fill + it up at the spot. When the operation was complete, Charles rode through + the gap, as a conqueror, with vizor lowered and lance on thigh at the head + of his Burgundians, into his city of Liege, whose fortifications he + commanded should be permanently demolished. + </p> + <p> + That was the end of the Flemish rising of 1467 against Duke Charles the + Bold of Burgundy. The weavers returned to their looms, the armourers to + their forges, and the glove-makers and leather workers to their shears. + Peace was restored; and to see that it was kept, Charles appointed + military governors of his confidence where he deemed them necessary. + </p> + <p> + One of these was Claudius von Rhynsault, who had followed the Duke's + fortunes for some years now, a born leader of men, a fellow of infinite + address at arms and resource in battle, and of a bold, reckless courage + that nothing could ever daunt. It was perhaps this last quality that + rendered him so esteemed of Charles, himself named the Bold, whose view of + courage was that it was a virtue so lofty that in the nature of its + possessor there could, perforce, be nothing mean. + </p> + <p> + So now, to mark his esteem of this stalwart German, the Duke made him + Governor of the province of Zeeland, and dispatched him thither to stamp + out there any lingering sparks of revolt, and to rule it in his name as + ducal lieutenant. + </p> + <p> + Thus, upon a fair May morning, came Claud of Ryhnsault and his hardy + riders to the town of Middelburg, the capital of Zeeland, to take up his + residence at the Gravenhof in the main square, and thence to dispense + justice throughout that land of dykes in his master's princely name. This + justice the German captain dispensed with merciless rigour, conceiving + that to be the proper way to uproot rebellious tendencies. It was + inevitable that he should follow such a course, impelled to it by a + remorseless cruelty in his nature, of which the Duke his master had seen + no hint, else he might have thought twice before making him Governor of + Zeeland, for Charles—despite his rigour when treachery was to be + punished—was a just and humane prince. + </p> + <p> + Now, amongst those arrested and flung into Middelburg gaol as a result of + Rhynsault's ruthless perquisitions and inquisitions was a wealthy young + burgher named Philip Danvelt. His arrest was occasioned by a letter signed + “Philip Danvelt” found in the house of a marked rebel who had been first + tortured and then hanged. The letter, of a date immediately preceding the + late rising, promised assistance in the shape of arms and money. + </p> + <p> + Brought before Rhynsault for examination, in a cheerless hall of the + Gravenhof, Danvelt's defence was a denial upon oath that he had ever taken + or offered to take any part in the rebellion. Told of the letter found, + and of the date it bore, he laughed. That letter made everything very + simple and clear. At the date it bore he had been away at Flushing + marrying a wife, whom he had since brought thence to Middelburg. It was + ludicrous, he urged, to suppose that in such a season—of all seasons + in a man's life—he should have been concerned with rebellion or + correspondence with rebels, and, urging this, he laughed again. + </p> + <p> + Now, the German captain did not like burghers who laughed in his presence. + It argued a lack of proper awe for the dignity of his office and the + importance of his person. From his high seat at the Judgment-board, + flanked by clerks and hedged about by men-at-arms, he scowled upon the + flaxen-haired, fresh-complexioned young burgher who bore himself so very + easily. He was a big, handsome man, this Rhynsault, of perhaps some thirty + years of age. His thick hair was of a reddish brown, and his beardless + face was cast in bold lines and tanned by exposure to the colour of + mahogany, save where the pale line of a scar crossed his left cheek. + </p> + <p> + “Yet, I tell you, the letter bears your signature,” he grumbled sourly. + </p> + <p> + “My name, perhaps,” smiled the amiable Danvelt, “but assuredly not my + signature.” + </p> + <p> + “Herrgott!” swore the German captain. “Is this a riddle? What is the + difference?” + </p> + <p> + Feeling himself secure, that very foolish burgher ventured to be mildly + insolent. + </p> + <p> + “It is a riddle that the meanest of your clerks there can read for you,” + said he. + </p> + <p> + The Governor's blue eyes gleamed like steel as they, fastened upon + Danvelt, his heavy jaw seemed to thrust itself forward, and a dull flush + crept into his cheeks. Then he swore. + </p> + <p> + “Beim blute Gottes!” quoth he, “do you whet your trader's wit upon me, + scum?” + </p> + <p> + And to the waiting men-at-arms: + </p> + <p> + “Take him back to his dungeon,” he commanded, “that in its quiet he may + study a proper carriage before he is next brought before us.” + </p> + <p> + Danvelt was haled away to gaol again, to repent him of his pertness and to + reflect that, under the governorship of Claudius von Rhynsault, it was not + only the guilty who had need to go warily. + </p> + <p> + The Governor sat back in his chair with a grunt. His secretary, on his + immediate right, leaned towards him. + </p> + <p> + “It were easy to test the truth of the man's assertion,” said he. “Let his + servants and his wife attend and be questioned as to when he was in + Flushing and when married.” + </p> + <p> + “Aye,” growled von Rhynsault. “Let it be done. I don't doubt we shall + discover that the dog was lying.” + </p> + <p> + But no such discovery was made when, on the morrow, Danvelt's household + and his wife stood before the Governor to answer his questions. Their + replies most fully bore out the tale Danvelt had told, and appeared in + other ways to place it beyond all doubt that he had taken no part, in deed + or even in thought, in the rebellion against the Duke of Burgundy. His + wife protested it solemnly and piteously. + </p> + <p> + “To this I can swear, my lord,” she concluded. “I am sure no evidence can + be brought against him, who was ever loyal and ever concerned with his + affairs and with me at the time in question. My lord”—she held out + her hands towards the grim German, and her lovely eyes gleamed with unshed + tears of supplication—“I implore you to believe me, and in default + of witnesses against him to restore my husband to me.” + </p> + <p> + Rhynsault's blue eyes kindled now as they considered her, and his full red + lips slowly parted in the faintest and most inscrutable of smiles. She was + very fair to look upon—of middle height and most exquisite shape. + Her gown, of palest saffron, edged with fur, high-waisted according to the + mode, and fitted closely to the gently swelling bust, was cut low to + display the white perfection of her neck. Her softly rounded face looked + absurdly childlike under the tall-crowned hennin, from which a wispy veil + floated behind her as she moved. + </p> + <p> + In silence, then, for a spell, the German mercenary pondered her with + those slowly kindling eyes, that slowly spreading, indefinite smile. Then + he stirred, and to his secretary he muttered shortly: + </p> + <p> + “The woman lies. In private I may snare the truth from her.” + </p> + <p> + He rose—a tall, massively imposing figure in a low-girdled tunic of + deep purple velvet, open at the breast, and gold-laced across a white + silken undervest. + </p> + <p> + “There is some evidence,” he informed her gruffly. “Come with me, and you + shall see it for yourself.” + </p> + <p> + He led the way from that cheerless hall by a dark corridor to a small snug + room, richly hung and carpeted, where a servant waited. He dismissed the + fellow, and in the same breath bade her enter, watching her the while from + under lowered brows. One of her women had followed; but admittance was + denied her. Danvelt's wife must enter his room alone. + </p> + <p> + Whilst she waited there, with scared eyes and fluttering bosom, he went to + take from an oaken coffer the letter signed “Philip Danvelt.” He folded + the sheet so that the name only was to be read, and came to thrust it + under her eyes. + </p> + <p> + “What name is that?” he asked her gruffly. + </p> + <p> + Her answer was very prompt. + </p> + <p> + “It is my husband's, but not the writing—it is another hand; some + other Philip Danvelt; there will be others in Zeeland.” + </p> + <p> + He laughed softly, looking at her ever with that odd intentness, and under + his gaze she shrank and cowered in terror; it spoke to her of some + nameless evil; the tepid air of the luxurious room was stifling her. + </p> + <p> + “If I believed you, your husband would be delivered from his prison—from + all danger; and he stands, I swear to you, in mortal peril.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, but you must believe me. There are others who can bear witness.” + </p> + <p> + “I care naught for others,” he broke in, with harsh and arrogant contempt. + Then he softened his voice to a lover's key. “But I might accept your word + that this is not your husband's hand, even though I did not believe you.” + </p> + <p> + She did not understand, and so she could only stare at him with those + round, brown eyes of hers dilating, her lovely cheeks blanching with + horrid fear. + </p> + <p> + “Why, see,” he said at length, with an easy, gruff good-humour, “I place + the life of Philip Danvelt in those fair hands to do with as you please. + Surely, sweeting, you will not be so unkind as to destroy it.” + </p> + <p> + And as he spoke his face bent nearer to her own, his flaming eyes devoured + her, and his arm slipped softly, snake-like round her to draw her to him. + But before it had closed its grip she had started away, springing back in + horror, an outcry already on her pale lips. + </p> + <p> + “One word,” he admonished her sharply, “and it speaks your husband's + doom!” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, let me go, let me go!” she cried in anguish. + </p> + <p> + “And leave your husband in the hangman's hands?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Let me go! Let me go!” was all that she could answer him, expressing the + only thought of which in that dread moment her mind was capable. + </p> + <p> + That and the loathing on her face wounded his vanity for this beast was + vain. His manner changed, and the abysmal brute in him was revealed in the + anger he displayed. With foul imprecations he drove her out. + </p> + <p> + Next day a messenger from the Governor waited upon her at her house with a + brief note to inform her that her husband would be hanged upon the morrow. + Incredulity was succeeded by a numb, stony, dry-eyed grief, in which she + sat alone for hours—a woman entranced. At last, towards dusk, she + summoned a couple of her grooms to attend and light her, and made her way, + ever in that odd somnambulistic state, to the gaol of Middelburg. She + announced herself to the head gaoler as the wife of Philip Danvelt, lying + under sentence of death, and that she was come to take her last leave of + him. It was not a thing to be denied, nor had the gaoler any orders to + deny it. + </p> + <p> + So she was ushered into the dank cell where Philip waited for his doom, + and by the yellow wheel of light of the lantern that hung from the shallow + vaulted ceiling she beheld the ghastly change that the news of impending + death had wrought in him. No longer was he the self-assured young burgher + who, conscious of his innocence and worldly importance, had used a certain + careless insolence with the Governor of Zeeland. Here she beheld a man of + livid and distorted face, wild-eyed, his hair and garments in disarray, + suggesting the physical convulsions to which he had yielded in his despair + and rage. + </p> + <p> + “Sapphira!” he cried at sight of her. A sigh of anguish and he flung + himself, shuddering and sobbing, upon her breast. She put her arms about + him, soothed him gently, and drew him back to the wooden chair from which + he had leapt to greet her. + </p> + <p> + He took his head in his hands and poured out the fierce anguish of his + soul. To die innocent as he was, to be the victim of an arbitrary, unjust + power! And to perish at his age! + </p> + <p> + Hearing him rave, she shivered out of an agony of compassion and also of + some terror for herself. She would that he found it less hard to die. And + thinking this she thought further, and uttered some of her thought aloud. + </p> + <p> + “I could have saved you, my poor Philip.” + </p> + <p> + He started up, and showed her again that livid, distorted face of his. + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean?” he asked hoarsely. “You could have saved me, do you + say? Then—then why—” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, but the price, my dear,” she sobbed. + </p> + <p> + “Price?” quoth he in sudden, fierce contempt. “What price is too great to + pay for life? Does this Rhynsault want all our wealth, then yield it to + him yield it so that I may live—” + </p> + <p> + “Should I have hesitated had it been but that?” she interrupted. + </p> + <p> + And then she told him, whilst he sat there hunched and shuddering. + </p> + <p> + “The dog! The foul German dog!” he muttered through clenched teeth. + </p> + <p> + “So that you see, my dear,” she pursued brokenly, “it was too great a + price. Yourself, you could not have condoned it, or done aught else but + loathe me afterwards.” + </p> + <p> + But he was not as stout-mettled as she deemed him, or else the + all-consuming thirst of life, youth's stark horror of death, made him a + temporizing craven in that hour. + </p> + <p> + “Who knows?” he answered. “Certes, I do not. But a thing so done, a thing + in which the will and mind have no part, resolves itself perhaps into a + sacrifice—” + </p> + <p> + He broke off there, perhaps from very shame. After all he was a man, and + there are limits to what manhood will permit of one. + </p> + <p> + But those words of his sank deeply into her soul. They rang again and + again in her ears as she took her anguished way home after the agony of + their farewells, and in the end they drove her out again that very night + to seek the Governor of Zeeland. + </p> + <p> + Rhynsault was at supper when she came, and without quitting the table bade + them usher her into his presence. He found her very white, but singularly + calm and purposeful in her bearing. + </p> + <p> + “Well, mistress?” + </p> + <p> + “May I speak to you alone?” + </p> + <p> + Her voice was as steady as her glance. + </p> + <p> + He waved away the attendants, drank a deep draught from the cup at his + elbow, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and sat back in his tall + chair to hear her. + </p> + <p> + “Yesterday,” she said, “you made, or seemed to make, me a proposal.” + </p> + <p> + He looked up at first in surprise, then with a faint smile on his coarse, + red mouth. His glance had read her meaning clearly. + </p> + <p> + “Look you, mistress, here I am lord of life and death. Yet in the case of + your husband I yield up that power to you. Say but the word and I sign the + order for his gaol delivery at dawn.” + </p> + <p> + “I have come to say that word,” she informed him. + </p> + <p> + A moment he looked up at her, his smile broadening, a flush mounting to + his cheek-bones. Then he rose and sent his chair crashing behind him to + the ground. + </p> + <p> + “Herrgott!” he grunted; and he gathered her slim, trembling body to his + massive gold-laced breast. + </p> + <p> + Soon after sunrise on the morrow she was beating at the gates of + Middelburg gaol, a paper clutched convulsively in her left hand. + </p> + <p> + She was admitted, and to the head gaoler she showed the paper that she + carried. + </p> + <p> + “An order from the Governor of Zeeland for the gaol delivery of Philip + Danvelt!” she announced almost hysterically. + </p> + <p> + The gaoler scanned the paper, then her face. His lips tightened. + </p> + <p> + “Come this way,” he said; and led her down a gloomy corridor to the cell + where yesterday she had seen her husband. + </p> + <p> + He threw wide the door, and Sapphira sprang in. + </p> + <p> + “Philip!” she cried, and checked as suddenly. + </p> + <p> + He lay supine and still upon the miserable pallet, his hands folded upon + his breast, his face waxen, his eyes staring glassily through half-closed + lids. + </p> + <p> + She sped to his side in a sudden chill of terror. She fell on her knees + and touched him. + </p> + <p> + “Dead!” she screamed, and, kneeling, span round questioning to face the + gaoler in the doorway. “Dead!” + </p> + <p> + “He was hanged at daybreak, mistress,” said the gaoler gently. + </p> + <p> + She rocked a moment, moaning, then fell suddenly forward across her + husband's body in a swoon. + </p> + <p> + That evening she was again at the Gravenhof to see Rhynsault, and again + she was admitted—a haggard faced woman now, in whom there was no + trace of beauty left. She came to stand before the Governor, considered + him in silence a moment with a loathing unutterable in her glance, then + launched into fierce recriminations of his broken faith. + </p> + <p> + He heard her out, then shrugged and smiled indulgently. + </p> + <p> + “I performed no less than I promised,” said he. “I pledged my word to + Danvelt's gaol delivery, and was not my gaol delivery effective? You could + hardly suppose that I should allow it to be of such a fashion as to + interfere with our future happy meetings.” + </p> + <p> + Before his leering glance she fled in terror, followed by the sound of his + bestial laugh. + </p> + <p> + For a week thereafter she kept her house and brooded. Then one day she + sallied forth all dressed in deepest mourning and attended by a train of + servants, and, embarking upon a flat-bottomed barge, was borne up the + river Scheldt towards Antwerp. Bruges was her ultimate destination, of + which she left no word behind her, and took the longest way round to reach + it. From Antwerp her barge voyaged on to Ghent, and thence by canal, drawn + by four stout Flemish horses, at last to the magnificent city where the + Dukes of Burgundy kept their Court. + </p> + <p> + Under the June sunshine the opulent city of Bruges hummed with activity + like the great human hive it was. For Bruges at this date was the market + of the world, the very centre of the world's commerce, the cosmopolis of + the age. Within its walls were established the agencies of a score of + foreign great trading companies, and the ambassadors of no less a number + of foreign Powers. Here on a day you might hear every language of + civilization spoken in the broad thoroughfares under the shadow of such + imposing buildings as you would not have found together in another city of + Europe. To the harbour came the richly laden argosies from Venice and + Genoa, from Germany and the Baltic, from Constantinople and from England, + and in her thronged markets Lombard and Venetian, Levantine, Teuton, and + Saxon stood jostling one another to buy and sell. + </p> + <p> + It was past noon, and the great belfry above the Gothic Cloth Hall in the + Grande Place was casting a lengthening shadow athwart the crowded square. + Above the Babel of voices sounded on a sudden the note of a horn, and + there was a cry of “The Duke! The Duke!” followed by a general scuttle of + the multitude to leave a clear way down the middle of the great square. + </p> + <p> + A gorgeous cavalcade some twoscore strong came into sight, advancing at an + amble, a ducal hunting party returning to the palace. A hush fell upon the + burgher crowd as it pressed back respectfully to gaze; and to the din of + human voices succeeded now the clatter of hoofs upon the kidney-stones of + the square, the jangle of hawkbells, the baying of hounds, and the + occasional note of the horn that had first brought warning of the Duke's + approach. + </p> + <p> + It was a splendid iridescent company, flaunting in its apparel every + colour of the prism. There were great lords in silks and velvets of every + hue, their legs encased in the finest skins of Spain; there were great + ladies, in tall, pointed hennins or bicorne headdresses and floating + veils, with embroidered gowns that swept down below the bellies of their + richly harnessed palfreys. And along the flanks of this cavalcade ran + grooms and huntsmen in green and leather, their jagged liripipes flung + about their necks, leading the leashed hounds. + </p> + <p> + The burghers craned their necks, and Levantine merchant argued with + Lombard trader upon an estimate of the wealth paraded thus before them. + And then at last came the young Duke himself, in black, as if to detach + himself from the surrounding splendour. He was of middle stature, of a + strong and supple build, with a lean, swarthy face and lively eyes. Beside + him, on a white horse, rode a dazzling youth dressed from head to foot in + flame-coloured silk, a peaked bonnet of black velvet set upon his lovely + golden head, a hooded falcon perched upon his left wrist, a tiny lute + slung behind him by a black ribbon. He laughed as he rode, looking the + very incarnation of youth and gaiety. + </p> + <p> + The cavalcade passed slowly towards the Prinssenhof, the ducal residence. + It had all but crossed the square when suddenly a voice—a woman's + voice, high and tense—rang out. + </p> + <p> + “Justice, my Lord Duke of Burgundy! Justice, Lord Duke, for a woman's + wrongs!” + </p> + <p> + It startled the courtly riders, and for a moment chilled their gaiety. The + scarlet youth at the Duke's side swung round in his saddle to obtain a + view of her who called so piteously, and he beheld Sapphira Danvelt. + </p> + <p> + She was all in black, and black was the veil that hung from her steeple + head-dress, throwing into greater relief her pallid loveliness which the + youth's glance was quick to appraise. He saw, too, from her air and from + the grooms attending her, that she was a woman of some quality, and the + tragic appeal of her smote home in his gay, poetic soul. He put forth a + hand and clutched the Duke's arm, and, as if yielding to this, the Duke + reined up. + </p> + <p> + “What is it that you seek?” Charles asked her not unkindly, his lively + dark eyes playing over her. + </p> + <p> + “Justice!” was all she answered him very piteously, and yet with a certain + fierceness of insistence. + </p> + <p> + “None asks it of me in vain, I hope,” he answered gravely. “But I do not + dispense it from the saddle in the public street. Follow us.” + </p> + <p> + And he rode on. + </p> + <p> + She followed to the Prinssenhof with her grooms and her woman Catherine. + There she was made to wait in a great hall, thronged with grooms and + men-at-arms and huntsmen, who were draining the measure sent them by the + Duke. She stood apart, wrapped in her tragic sorrow, and none molested + her. At last a chamberlain came to summon her to the Duke's presence. + </p> + <p> + In a spacious, sparsely furnished room she found the Duke awaiting her, + wearing now a gown of black and gold that was trimmed with rich fur. He + sat in a tall chair of oak and leather, and leaning on the back of it + lounged gracefully the lovely scarlet youth who had ridden at his side. + </p> + <p> + Standing before him, with drooping eyes and folded hands, she told her + shameful story. Darker and darker grew his brow as she proceeded with it. + But it was the gloom of doubt rather than of anger. + </p> + <p> + “Rhynsault?” he cried when she had done. “Rhynsault did this?” + </p> + <p> + There was incredulity in his voice and nothing else. + </p> + <p> + The youth behind him laughed softly, and shifted his attitude. + </p> + <p> + “You are surprised. Yet what else was to be looked for in that Teuton + swine? Me he never could deceive, for all his—” + </p> + <p> + “Be silent, Arnault,” said the Duke sharply. And to the woman: “It is a + grave, grave charge,” he said, “against a man I trusted and have esteemed, + else I should not have placed him where he is. What proof have you?” + </p> + <p> + She proffered him a strip of parchment—the signed order for the gaol + delivery of Philip Danvelt. + </p> + <p> + “The gaoler of Middelburg will tell Your Grace that he was hanged already + when I presented this. My woman Catherine, whom I have with me, can + testify to part. And there are some other servants who can bear witness to + my husband's innocence. Captain von Rhynsault had ceased to doubt it.” + </p> + <p> + He studied the parchment, and fell very grave and thoughtful. + </p> + <p> + “Where are you lodged?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + She told him. + </p> + <p> + “Wait there until I send for you again,” he bade her. “Leave this order + with me, and depend upon it, justice shall be done.” + </p> + <p> + That evening, a messenger rode out to Middelburg to summon von Rhynsault + to Bruges, and the arrogant German came promptly and confidently, knowing + nothing of the reason, but conceiving naturally that fresh honours were to + be conferred upon him by a master who loved stout-hearted servants. And + that Rhynsault was stout-hearted he showed most of all when the Duke taxed + him without warning with the villainy he had wrought. + </p> + <p> + If he was surprised, he was not startled. What was the life of a Flemish + burgher more or less? What the honour of a Flemish wife? These were not + considerations to daunt a soldier, a valiant man of war. And because such + was his dull mood—for he was dull, this Rhynsault, as dull as he was + brutish—he considered his sin too venial to be denied. And the Duke, + who could be crafty, perceiving that mood of his, and simulating almost an + approval of it, drew the German captain into self-betrayal. + </p> + <p> + “And so this Philip Danvelt may have been innocent?” + </p> + <p> + “He must have been, for we have since taken the guilty man of the same + name,” said the German easily. “It was unfortunate, but—” + </p> + <p> + “Unfortunate!” The Duke's manner changed from silk to steel. He heaved + himself out of his chair, and his dark eyes flamed. “Unfortunate! Is that + all, you dog?” + </p> + <p> + “I conceived him guilty when I ordered him to be hanged,” spluttered the + captain, greatly taken aback. + </p> + <p> + “Then, why this? Answer me—why this?” + </p> + <p> + And under his nose the Duke thrust the order of gaol delivery Rhynsault + had signed. + </p> + <p> + The captain blenched, and fear entered his glance. The thing was becoming + serious, it seemed. + </p> + <p> + “Is this the sort of justice you were sent to Middelburg to administer in + my name? Is this how you dishonour me? If you conceived him guilty, why + did you sign this and upon what terms? Bah, I know the terms. And having + made such foul terms, why did you not keep your part of the bargain, evil + as it was?” + </p> + <p> + Rhynsault had nothing to say. He was afraid, and he was angry too. Here + was a most unreasonable bother all about nothing, it seemed to him. + </p> + <p> + “I—I sought to compromise between justice and—and—” + </p> + <p> + “And your own vile ends,” the Duke concluded for him. “By Heaven, you + German dog, I think I'll have you shortened by a head!” + </p> + <p> + “My lord!” It was a cry of protest. + </p> + <p> + “There is the woman you have so foully wronged, and so foully swindled,” + said the Duke, watching him. “What reparation will you make to her? What + reparation can you make? I can toss your filthy head into her lap. But + will that repair the wrong?” + </p> + <p> + The captain suddenly saw light, and quite a pleasant light it was, for he + had found Sapphira most delectable. + </p> + <p> + “Why,” he said slowly, and with all a fool's audacity, “having made her a + widow, I can make her a wife again. I never thought to wive, myself. But + if Your Grace thinks such reparation adequate, I will afford it her.” + </p> + <p> + The Duke checked in the very act of replying. Again the expression of his + countenance changed. He strode away, his head bowed in thought; then + slowly he returned. + </p> + <p> + “Be it so,” he said. “It is not much, but it is all that you can do, and + after a fashion it will mend the honour you have torn. See that you wed + her within the week. Should she not consent, it will be the worse for + you.” + </p> + <p> + She would not have consented—she would have preferred death, indeed—but + for the insistence that the Duke used in private with her. And so, half + convinced that it would in some sort repair her honour, the poor woman + suffered herself to be led, more dead than living, to the altar in the + Duke's private chapel, and there, scarcely knowing what she did, she + became the wife of Captain Claudius von Rhynsault, the man she had most + cause to loathe and hate in all the world. + </p> + <p> + Rhynsault had ordered a great banquet to celebrate his nuptials, for on + the whole he was well satisfied with the issue of this affair. But as he + left the altar, his half-swooning bride upon his arm, the Duke in person + tapped his shoulder. + </p> + <p> + “All is not yet done,” he said. “You are to come with me.” + </p> + <p> + The bridal pair were conducted to the great hall of the Prinssenhof, where + there was a great gathering of the Court—to do honour to his + nuptials, thought the German captain. At the broad table sat two clerkly + fellows with quills and parchments, and by this table the Duke took his + stand, Arnault beside him—in peacock-blue to-day—and called + for silence. + </p> + <p> + “Captain von Rhynsault,” he said gravely and quietly, “what you have done + is well done; but it does not suffice. In the circumstances of this + marriage, and after the revelation we have had of your ways of thought and + of honour, it is necessary to make provision against the future. It shall + not be yours, save at grave cost, to repudiate the wife you have now + taken.” + </p> + <p> + “There is no such intent—” began Rhynsault, who misliked this + homily. + </p> + <p> + The Duke waved him into silence. + </p> + <p> + “You are interrupting me,” he said sharply. “You are a wealthy man, + Rhynsault, thanks to the favours I have heaped upon you ever since the day + when I picked you from your German kennel to set you where you stand. Here + you will find a deed prepared. It is in the form of a will, whereby you + bequeath everything of which you are to-day possessed—and it is all + set down—to your wife on your death, or on the day on which you put + her from you. Your signature is required to that.” + </p> + <p> + The captain hesitated a moment. This deed would fetter all his future. The + Duke was unreasonable. But under the steady, compelling eyes of Charles he + moved forward to the table, and accepted the quill the clerk was + proffering. There was no alternative, he realized. He was trapped. Well, + well! He must make the best of it. He stooped from his great height, and + signed in his great sprawling, clumsy, soldier's hand. + </p> + <p> + The clerk dusted the document with pounce, and handed it to the Duke. + Charles cast an eye upon the signature, then taking the quill himself, + signed under it, then bore the document to the half-swooning bride. + </p> + <p> + “Keep this secure,” he bade her. “It is your marriage-gift from me.” + </p> + <p> + Rhynsault's eyes gleamed. If his wife were to keep the deed, the thing was + none so desperate after all. But the next moment he had other things to + think of. + </p> + <p> + “Give me your sword,” the Duke requested. + </p> + <p> + Wondering, the German unsheathed the weapon, and proffered the hilt to his + master. Charles took it, and a stern smile played about his beardless + mouth. He grasped it, hilt in one hand and point in the other. Suddenly he + bent his right knee, and, bearing sharply downward with the flat of the + weapon upon his thigh, snapped in into two. + </p> + <p> + “So much for that dishonourable blade,” he said, and cast the pieces from + him. Then he flung out an arm to point to Rhynsault. “Take him out,” he + commanded; “let him have a priest, and half an hour in which to make his + soul, then set his head on a spear above the Cloth Hall, that men may know + the justice of Charles of Burgundy.” + </p> + <p> + With the roar of a 'goaded bull the German attempted to fling forward. But + men-at-arms, in steel and leather, who had come up quietly behind him, + seized him now. Impotent in their coiling arms, he was borne away to his + doom, that thereby he might complete the reparation of his hideous + offence, and deliver Sapphira from the bondage of a wedlock which Charles + of Burgundy had never intended her to endure. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + X. THE NIGHT OF STRANGLERS—Govanna Of Naples And Andreas Of Hungary + </h2> + <p> + Charles, Duke of Durazzo, was one of your super chess-players, handling + kings and queens, knights and prelates of flesh and blood in the game that + he played with Destiny upon the dark board of Neapolitan politics. And he + had no illusions on the score of the forfeit that would be claimed by his + grim opponent in the event of his own defeat. He knew that his head was + the stake he set upon the board, and he knew, too, that defeat must + inevitably follow upon a single false move. Yet he played boldly and + craftily, as you shall judge. + </p> + <p> + He made his first move in March of 1343, some three months after the death + of Robert of Anjou, King of Jerusalem and Sicily, as ran the title of the + ruler of Naples. He found his opportunity amid the appalling anarchy into + which the kingdom was then plunged as a result of a wrong and an ill + judged attempt to right it. + </p> + <p> + Good King Robert the Wise had wrested the crown of Naples from his elder + brother, the King of Hungary, and had ruled as a usurper. Perhaps to quiet + his conscience, perhaps to ensure against future strife between his own + and his brother's descendants, he had attempted to right the wrong by a + marriage between his brother's grandson Andreas and his own granddaughter + Giovanna, a marriage which had taken place ten years before, when Andreas + was but seven years of age and Giovanna five. + </p> + <p> + The aim had been thus to weld into one the two branches of the House of + Anjou. Instead, the rivalry was to be rendered more acute than ever, and + King Robert's fear of some such result contributed to it not a little. On + his deathbed he summoned the Princes of the Blood—the members of the + Houses of Durazzo and Taranto—and the chief nobles of the kingdom, + demanding of them an oath of allegiance to Giovanna, and himself + appointing a Council of Regency to govern the kingdom during her minority. + </p> + <p> + The consequence was that, against all that had been intended when the + marriage was contracted, Giovanna was now proclaimed queen in her own + right, and the government taken over in her name by the appointed Council. + Instantly the Court of Naples was divided into two camps, the party of the + Queen, including the Neapolitan nobility, and the party of Andreas of + Hungary, consisting of the Hungarian nobles forming his train and a few + malcontent Neapolitan barons, and guided by the sinister figure of + Andreas's preceptor, Friar Robert. + </p> + <p> + This arrogant friar, of whom Petrarch has left us a vivid portrait, a + red-faced, red-bearded man, with a fringe of red hair about his tonsure, + short and squat of figure, dirty in his dress and habits, yet imbued with + the pride of Lucifer despite his rags, thrust himself violently into the + Council of Regency, demanding a voice in the name of his pupil Andreas. + And the Council feared him, not only on the score of his over-bearing + personality, but also because he was supported by the populace, which had + accepted his general filthiness as the outward sign of holiness. His + irruption occasioned so much trouble and confusion that in the end the + Pope intervened, in his quality as Lord Paramount—Naples being a + fief of Holy Church—and appointed a legate to rule the kingdom + during Giovanna's minority. + </p> + <p> + The Hungarians, with Andreas's brother, King Ludwig of Hungary, at their + head, now appealed to the Papal Court of Avignon for a Bull commanding the + joint coronation of Andreas and Giovanna, which would be tantamount to + placing the government in the hands of Andreas. The Neapolitans, headed by + the Princes of the Blood—who, standing next in succession, had also + their own interests to consider clamoured that Giovanna alone should be + crowned. + </p> + <p> + In this pass were the affairs of the kingdom when Charles of Durazzo, who + had stood watchful and aloof, carefully weighing the chances, resolved at + last to play that dangerous game of his. He began by the secret abduction + of Maria of Anjou, his own cousin and Giovanna's sister, a child of + fourteen. He kept her concealed for a month in his palace, what time he + obtained from the Pope, through the good offices of his uncle the Cardinal + of Perigord, a dispensation to overcome the barrier of consanguinity. That + dispensation obtained, Charles married the girl publicly under the eyes of + all Naples, and by the marriage—to which the bride seemed nowise + unwilling—became, by virtue of his wife, next heir to the crown of + Naples. + </p> + <p> + That was his opening move. His next was to write to his obliging uncle the + Cardinal of Perigord, whose influence at Avignon was very considerable, + urging him to prevail upon Pope Clement VI not to sign the Bull in favour + of Andreas and the joint coronation. + </p> + <p> + Now, the high-handed action of Charles in marrying Maria of Anjou had very + naturally disposed Giovanna against him; further, it had disposed against + him those Princes of the Blood who were next in the succession, and upon + whom he had stolen a march by this strengthening of his own claims. It is + inevitable to assume that he had counted precisely upon this to afford him + the pretext that he sought—he, a Neapolitan prince—to ally + himself with the Hungarian intruder. + </p> + <p> + Under any other circumstances his advances must have been viewed with + suspicion by Andreas, and still more by the crafty Friar Robert. But, + under the circumstances which his guile had created, he was received with + open arms by the Hungarian party, and his defection from the Court of + Giovanna was counted a victory by the supporters of Andreas. He protested + his good-will towards Andreas, and proclaimed his hatred of Giovanna's + partisans, who poisoned her mind against her husband. He hunted and drank + with Andreas—whose life seems to have been largely made up of + hunting and drinking—and pandered generally to the rather gross + tastes of this foreigner, whom in his heart he despised for a barbarian. + </p> + <p> + From being a boon companion, Charles very soon became a counsellor to the + young Prince, and the poisonous advice that he gave seemed shrewd and + good, even to Friar Robert. + </p> + <p> + “Meet hostility with hostility, ride ruthlessly upon your own way, showing + yourself confident of the decision in your favour that the Pope must + ultimately give. For bear ever in your mind that you are King of Naples, + not by virtue of your marriage with Giovanna, but in your own right, + Giovanna being but the offspring of the usurping branch.” + </p> + <p> + The pale bovine eyes of Andreas would kindle into something like + intelligence, and a flush would warm his stolid countenance. He was a + fair-haired young giant, white-skinned and well-featured, but dull, + looking, with cold, hard eyes suggesting the barbarian that he was + considered by the cultured Neapolitans, and that he certainly looked by + contrast with them. Friar Robert supporting the Duke of Durazzo's advice, + Andreas did not hesitate to act upon it; of his own authority he delivered + prisoners from gaol, showered honours upon his Hungarian followers and + upon such Neapolitan barons as Count Altamura, who was ill-viewed at + Court, and generally set the Queen at defiance. The inevitable result, + upon which again the subtle Charles had counted, was to exasperate a group + of her most prominent nobles into plotting the ruin of Andreas. + </p> + <p> + It was a good beginning, and unfortunately Giovanna's own behaviour + afforded Charles the means of further speeding up his game. + </p> + <p> + The young Queen was under the governance of Filippa the Catanese, an evil + woman, greedy of power. This Filippa, once a washerwoman, had in her youth + been chosen for her splendid health to be the foster-mother of Giovanna's + father. Beloved of her foster-child, she had become perpetually installed + at Court, married to a wealthy Moor named Cabane, who was raised to the + dignity of Grand Seneschal of the kingdom, whereby the sometime + washerwoman found herself elevated to the rank of one of the first ladies + of Naples. She must have known how to adapt herself to her new + circumstances, otherwise she would hardly have been appointed, as she was + upon the death of her foster-son, governess to his infant daughters. + Later, to ensure her hold upon the young Queen, and being utterly + unscrupulous in her greed of power, she had herself contrived that her + son, Robert of Cabane, became Giovanna's lover. + </p> + <p> + One of Giovanna's first acts upon her grandfather's death had been to + create this Robert Count of Evoli, and this notwithstanding that in the + mean time he had been succeeded in her favour by the handsome young + Bertrand d'Artois. This was the group—the Catanese, her son, and + Bertrand—that, with the Princes of the Blood, governed the Queen's + party. + </p> + <p> + With what eyes Andreas may have looked upon all this we have no means of + determining. Possibly, engrossed as he was with his hawks and his hounds, + he may have been stupidly blind to his own dishonour, at least as far as + Bertrand was concerned. Another than Charles might have chosen the crude + course of opening his eyes to it. But Charles was too far-seeing. + Precipitancy was not one of his faults. His next move must be dictated by + the decision of Avignon regarding the coronation. + </p> + <p> + This decision came in July of 1345, and it fell like a thunderbolt upon + the Court. The Pope had pronounced in favour of Andreas by granting the + Bull for the joint coronation of Andreas and Giovanna. + </p> + <p> + This was check to Charles. His uncle the Cardinal of Perigord had done his + utmost to oppose the measure, but he had been overborne in the end by + Ludwig of Hungary, who had settled the matter by the powerful argument + that he was himself the rightful heir to the crown of Naples, and that he + relinquished his claim in favour of his younger brother. He had backed the + argument by the payment to the Pope of the enormous sum, for those days, + of one hundred thousand gold crowns, and the issue, obscure hitherto, had + immediately become clear to the Papal Court. + </p> + <p> + It was check to Charles, as I have said. But Charles braced himself, and + considered the counter-move that should give him the advantage. He went to + congratulate Andreas, and found him swollen with pride and arrogance in + his triumph. + </p> + <p> + “Be welcome, Charles,” he hailed Durazzo. “I am not the man to forget + those who have stood my friends whilst my power was undecided.” + </p> + <p> + “For your own sake,” said the smooth Charles, as he stepped back from that + brotherly embrace, “I trust you'll not forget those who have been your + enemies, and who, being desperate now, may take desperate means to avert + your coronation.” + </p> + <p> + The pale eyes of the Hungarian glittered. + </p> + <p> + “Of whom do you speak?” + </p> + <p> + Charles smoothed his black beard thoughtfully, his dark eyes narrowed and + pensive. There must be a victim, to strike fear into Giovanna's friends + and stir them to Charles's purposes. + </p> + <p> + “Why, first and foremost, I should place Giovanna's counsellor Isernia, + that man of law whose evil counsels have hurt your rights as king. Next + come—” + </p> + <p> + But here Charles craftily paused and looked away, a man at fault. + </p> + <p> + “Next?” cried Andreas. “Who next? Speak out!” The Duke shrugged. + </p> + <p> + “By the Passion, there is no lack of others. You have enemies to spare + among the Queen's friends.” + </p> + <p> + Andreas paled under his faint tan. He flung back his crimson robe as if he + felt the heat, and stood forth, lithe as a wrestler, in his close-fitting + cote-hardie and hose of violet silk. + </p> + <p> + “No need, indeed, to name them,” he said fiercely. + </p> + <p> + “None,” Charles agreed. “But the most dangerous is Isernia. Whilst he + lives you walk amid swords. His death may spread a panic that will + paralyze the others.” + </p> + <p> + He would say no more, knowing that he had said enough to send Andreas, + scowling and sinister, to sow terror in hearts that guilt must render + uneasy now, amongst which hearts be sure that he counted Giovanna's own. + </p> + <p> + Andreas took counsel with Friar Robert. Touching Isernia, there was + evidence and to spare that he was dangerous, and so Isernia fell on the + morrow to an assassin's sword as he was in the very act of leaving the + Castel Nuovo, and it was Charles himself who bore word of it to the Court, + and so plunged it into consternation. + </p> + <p> + They walked in the cool of evening in the pleasant garden of the Castel + Nuovo, when Charles came upon them and touched the stalwart shoulder of + Bertrand d'Artois. Bertrand the favourite eyed him askance, mistrusting + and disliking him for his association with Andreas. + </p> + <p> + “The Hungarian boar,” said Charles, “is sharpening his tusks now that his + authority is assured by the Holy Father.” + </p> + <p> + “Who cares?” sneered Bertrand. + </p> + <p> + “Should you care if I added that already he has blooded them?” + </p> + <p> + Bertrand changed countenance. The Duke explained himself. + </p> + <p> + “He has made a beginning upon Giacomo d' Isernia. Ten minutes ago he was + stabbed to death within a stone's throw of the castle.” So Charles + unburdened himself of his news. “A beginning, no more.” + </p> + <p> + “My God!” said Bertrand. “D' Isernia! Heaven rest him.” And devoutly he + crossed himself. + </p> + <p> + “Heaven will rest some more of you if you suffer Andreas of Hungary to be + its instrument,” said Charles, his lips grimly twisted. + </p> + <p> + “Do you threaten?” + </p> + <p> + “Nay, man; be not so hot and foolish. I warn. I know his mood. I know what + he intends.” + </p> + <p> + “You ever had his confidence,” said Bertrand, sneering. + </p> + <p> + “Until this hour I had. But there's an end to that. I am a Prince of + Naples, and I'll not bend the knee to a barbarian. He was well enough to + hunt with and drink with, so long as he was Duke of Calabria with no + prospect of being more. But that he should become my King, and that our + lady Giovanna should be no more than a queen consort—” He made a + gesture of ineffable disgust. + </p> + <p> + Bertrand's eyes kindled. He gripped the other's arm, and drew him along + under a trellis of vines that formed a green cloister about the walls. + </p> + <p> + “Why, here is great news for our Queen,” he cried. “It will rejoice her, + my lord, to know you are loyal to her.” + </p> + <p> + “That is no matter,” he replied. “What matters is that you should be + warned—you, yourself in particular, and Evoli. No doubt there will + be others, too. But the Hungarian's confidences went no further.” + </p> + <p> + Bertrand had come to a standstill. He stared at Charles, and slowly the + colour left his face. + </p> + <p> + “Me?” he said, a finger on his heart. + </p> + <p> + “Aye, you. You will be the next. But not until the crown is firmly on his + brow. Then he will settle his score with the nobles of Naples who have + withstood him. Listen,” and Charles's voice sank as if under the awful + burden of his news; “a black banner of vengeance is to precede him to his + coronation. And your name stands at the head of the list of the + proscribed. Does it surprise you? After all, he is a husband, and he has + some knowledge of what lies between the Queen and you—” + </p> + <p> + “Stop!” + </p> + <p> + “Pish!” Charles shrugged. “What need for silence upon what all Naples + knows? When have you and the Queen ever used discretion? In your place I + should not need a warning. I should know what to expect from a husband + become king.” + </p> + <p> + “The Queen must be told.” + </p> + <p> + “Indeed, I think so, too. It will come best from you. Go tell her, so that + measures may be taken. But go secretly and warily. You are safe until he + wears the crown. And above all—whatever you may decide—do + nothing here in Naples.” + </p> + <p> + And on that he turned to depart, whilst Bertrand sped to Giovanna. On the + threshold of the garden Charles paused and looked back. His eyes sought + and found the Queen, a tall, lissome girl of seventeen, in a + close-fitting, revealing gown of purple silk, the high, white gorget + outlining an oval face of a surpassing loveliness, crowned by a wealth of + copper-coloured hair. She was standing in a stricken attitude, looking up + into the face of her lover, who was delivering himself of his news. + </p> + <p> + Charles departed satisfied. + </p> + <p> + Three days later a man of the Queen's household, one Melazzo, who was in + Duke Charles's pay, brought him word that the seed he had cast had fallen + upon fertile soil. A conspiracy to destroy the King had been laid by + Bertrand d'Artois, Robert of Cabane, Count of Evoli, and the latter's + brothers-in-law, Terlizzi and Morcone. Melazzo himself, for his notorious + affection for the Queen, had been included in this band, and also a man + named Pace, who was body servant to Andreas, and who, like Melazzo, was in + Charles's pay. + </p> + <p> + Charles of Durazzo smiled gently to himself. The game went excellently + well. + </p> + <p> + “The Court,” he said, “goes to Aversa for a month before the coronation. + That would be a favourable season to their plan. Advise it so.” + </p> + <p> + The date appointed for the coronation was September 20th. A month before—on + August 20th—the Court removed itself from the heat and reek of + Naples to the cooler air of Aversa, there to spend the time of waiting. + They were housed in the monastery of Saint Peter, which had been converted + as far as possible into a royal residence for the occasion. + </p> + <p> + On the night of their arrival there the refectory of the monastery was + transfigured to accommodate the numerous noble and very jovial company + assembled there to sup. The long, stone-flagged room, lofty and with + windows set very high, normally so bare and austere, was hung now with + tapestries, and the floor strewn with rushes that were mingled with lemon + verbena and other aromatic herbs. Along the lateral walls and across the + end of the room that faced the double doors were set the stone tables of + the Spartan monks, on a shallow dais that raised them above the level of + the floor. These tables were gay now with the gleam of crystal and the + glitter of gold and silver plate. Along one side of them, their backs to + the walls, sat the ladies and nobles of the Court. The vaulted ceiling was + rudely frescoed to represent the open heavens—the work of a brother + whose brush was more devout than cunning—and there was the + inevitable cenacolo above the Abbot's table at the upper end of the room. + </p> + <p> + At this table sat the royal party, the broad-shouldered Andreas of + Hungary, slightly asprawl, his golden mane somewhat tumbled now, for he + was drinking deeply in accordance with his barbarian habit; ever and anon + he would fling down a bone or a piece of meat to the liver-coloured hounds + that crouched expectant on the rushes of the floor. + </p> + <p> + They had hunted that day in the neighbourhood of Capua, and Andreas had + acquitted himself well, and was in high good-humour, giving now little + thought to the sinister things that Charles of Durazzo had lately + whispered, laughing and jesting with the traitor Morcone at his side. + Behind him in close attendance stood his servant Pace, once a creature of + Durazzo's. The Queen sat on his right, making but poor pretence to eat; + her lovely young face was of a ghostly pallor, her dark eyes were wide and + staring. Among the guests were the black-browed Evoli and his + brother-in-law, Terlizzi; Bertrand of Artois and his father; Melazzo, that + other creature of Charles's, and Filippa the Catanese, handsome and + arrogant, but oddly silent to-night. + </p> + <p> + But Charles of Durazzo was not of the company. It is not for the player, + himself, to become a piece upon the board. + </p> + <p> + He had caught a whisper that the thing he had so slyly prompted to + Bertrand d'Artois was to be done here at Aversa, and so Charles had + remained at Naples. He had discovered very opportunely that his wife was + ailing, and he developed such concern for her that he could not bring + himself to leave her side. He had excused himself to Andreas with a + thousand regrets, since what he most desired was to enjoy with him the + cool, clean air of Aversa and the pleasures of the chase; and he had + presented the young King at parting with the best of all his falcons in + earnest of affection and disappointment. + </p> + <p> + The night wore on, and at last, at a sign from the Queen, the ladies rose + and departed to their beds. The men settled down again. The cellarers + redoubled their activities, the flagons circulated more briskly, and the + noise they made must have disturbed the monks entrenched in their cells + against these earthly vanities. The laughter of Andreas grew louder and + more vacuous, and when at last he heaved himself up at midnight and + departed to bed, that he might take some rest against the morrow's hunt, + he staggered a little in his walk. + </p> + <p> + But there were other hunters there whose impatience could not keep until + the morrow, whose game was to be run to death that very night. They waited—Bertrand + d'Artois, Robert of Cabane, the Counts of Terlizzi and Morcone, Melazzo + and Andreas's body servant Pace—until all those who lay at Aversa + were deep in slumber. Then at two o'clock in the morning they made their + stealthy way to the loggia on the third floor, a long colonnaded gallery + above the Abbot's garden. They paused a moment before the Queen's door + which opened upon this gallery, then crept on to that of the King's room + at the other end. It was Pace who rapped sharply on the panels thrice + before he was answered by a sleepy growl from the other side. + </p> + <p> + “It is I—Pace—my lord,” he announced. “A courier has arrived + from Naples, from Friar Robert, with instant messages.” + </p> + <p> + From within there was a noisy yawn, a rustle, the sound of an overturning + stool, and, lastly, the rasp of a bolt being withdrawn. The door opened, + and in the faint light of the dawning day Andreas appeared, drawing a + furlined robe about his body, which was naked of all but a shirt. + </p> + <p> + He saw no one but Pace. The others had drawn aside into the shadows. + Unsuspecting, he stepped forth. + </p> + <p> + “Where is this messenger?” + </p> + <p> + The door through which he had come slammed suddenly behind him, and he + turned to see Melazzo in the act of bolting it with a dagger to prevent + any one from following that way—for the room had another door + opening upon the inner corridor. + </p> + <p> + Instead, Melazzo might have employed his dagger to stab Andreas behind, + and so have made an instant end. But it happened to be known that Andreas + wore an amulet—a ring that his mother had given him—which + rendered him invulnerable to steel or poison. And such was the credulity + of his age, such the blind faith of those men in the miraculous power of + that charm, that none of them so much as attempted to test it with a + dagger. It was for the same reason that no recourse was had to the still + easier method of disposing of him by poison. Accepting the amulet at its + legendary value, the conspirators had resolved that he must be strangled. + </p> + <p> + As he turned now they leapt upon him, and, taking him unawares, bore him + to the ground before he could realize what was happening. Here they + grappled with him, and he with them. He was endowed with the strength of a + young bull, and he made full use of it. He rose, beating them off, to be + borne down again, bellowing the while for help. He smote out blindly, and + stretched Morcone half senseless with a blow of his great fist. + </p> + <p> + Seeing how difficult he proved to strangle, they must have cursed that + amulet of his. He struggled to his knees again, then to his feet, and, at + last, with bleeding face, leaving tufts of his fair hair in their + murderous hands, he broke through and went bounding down the loggia, + screaming as he ran, until he came to his wife's door. Against that he + hurled himself, calling her. + </p> + <p> + “Giovanna! Giovanna! For the love of God crucified! Open! Open! I am being + murdered!” + </p> + <p> + From within came no answer—utter silence. + </p> + <p> + “Giovanna! Giovanna!” He beat frenziedly upon the door. + </p> + <p> + Still no answer, which yet was answer enough. + </p> + <p> + The stranglers, momentarily discomfited, scared, too, lest his cries + should rouse the convent, had stood hesitating after he broke from them. + But now Bertrand d'Artois, realizing that too much had been done already + to admit of the business being left unfinished, sprang upon him suddenly + again. Locked in each other's arms, those wrestlers swayed and panted in + the loggia for a moment, then with a crash went down, Bertrand on top, + Andreas striking his head against the stone floor as he fell. The Queen's + lover pinned him there, kneeling upon his breast. + </p> + <p> + “The rope!” he panted to the others who came up. + </p> + <p> + One of them threw him a coil of purple silk interwrought with gold thread, + in which a running noose had been tied. Bertrand slipped it over Andreas's + head, drew it taut, and held it so, despite the man's desperate, + convulsive struggles. The others came to his assistance. Amongst them they + lifted the writhing victim to the parapet of the loggia, and flung him + over; whilst Bertrand, Cabane, and Pace bore upon the rope, arresting his + fall, and keeping him suspended there until he should be dead. Melazzo and + Morcone came to assist them, and it was then that Cabane observed that + Terlizzi held aloof, as if filled with horror. + </p> + <p> + Peremptorily he called to him: + </p> + <p> + “Hither, and lend a hand! The rope is long enough to afford you a grip. We + want accomplices, not witnesses, Lord Count.” + </p> + <p> + Terlizzi obeyed, and then the ensuing silence was broken suddenly by + screams from the floor below the screams of a woman who slept in the room + immediately underneath, who had awakened to behold in the grey light of + the breaking day the figure of a man kicking and writhing at a rope's end + before her window. + </p> + <p> + Yet a moment the startled stranglers kept their grip of the rope until the + struggles at the end of it had ceased; then they loosed their hold and let + the body go plunging down into the Abbot's garden. Thereafter they + scattered and fled, for people were stirring now in the convent, aroused + by the screams of the woman. + </p> + <p> + Thrice, so the story runs, came the monks to the Queen's door to knock and + demand her orders for the disposal of the body of her husband without + receiving any answer to their question. It remained still unanswered when + later in the day she departed from Aversa in a closed litter, and returned + to Naples escorted by a company of lances, and for lack of instructions + the monks left the body in the Abbot's garden, where it had fallen, until + Charles of Durazzo came to remove it two days later. + </p> + <p> + Ostentatiously he bore to Naples the murdered Prince—whose death he + had so subtly inspired—and in the cathedral before the Hungarians, + whom he had assembled, and in the presence of a vast concourse of the + people, he solemnly swore over the body vengeance upon the murderers. + </p> + <p> + Having made a cat's-paw of Giovanna—through the person of her lover, + Bertrand d'Artois, and his confederate assassins—and thus cleared + away one of those who stood between himself and the throne, he now sought + to make a cat's-paw of justice to clear away the other. Meanwhile, days + grew into weeks and weeks into months, and no attempt was made by the + Queen to hunt out the murderers of her husband, no inquiry instituted. + Bertrand d'Artois, it is true, had fled with his father to their + stronghold of Saint Agatha for safety. But the others—Cabane, + Terlizzi, and Morcone—continued unabashed about Giovanna's person at + the Castel Nuovo. + </p> + <p> + Charles wrote to Ludwig of Hungary, and to the Pope, demanding that + justice should be done, and pointing out the neglect of all attempt to + perform it in the kingdom itself, and inviting them to construe for + themselves that neglect. As a consequence, Clement VI issued, on June 2d + of the following year, a Bull, whereby Bertrand des Baux, the Grand + Justiciary of Naples, was commanded to hunt down and punish the assassins, + against whom—at the same time—the Pope launched a second Bull, + of excommunication. But the Holy Father accompanied his commands to Des + Baux by a private note, wherein he straitly enjoined the Grand Justiciary + for reasons of State to permit nothing to transpire that might reflect + upon the Queen. + </p> + <p> + Des Baux set about his task at once, and inspired, no doubt, by Charles, + proceeded to the arrest of Melazzo and the servant Pace. It was not for + Charles to accuse the Queen or even any of her nobles, whereby he might + have aroused against himself the opposition of those who were her loyal + partisans. Sufficient for him to point out the two meanest of the + conspirators, and depend upon the torture to wring from them confessions + that must gradually pull down the rest, and in the end Giovanna herself. + </p> + <p> + Terlizzi, alive to his danger when he heard of the arrest of those two, + made a bold and desperate attempt to avert it. Riding forth with a band of + followers, he attacked the escort that was bearing Pace to prison. The + prisoner was seized, but not to be rescued. All that Terlizzi wanted was + his silence. By his orders the wretched man's tongue was torn out, + whereupon he was abandoned once more to his guards and his fate. + </p> + <p> + Had Terlizzi been able to carry out his intentions of performing the like + operation upon Melazzo, Charles might have been placed in a difficult + position. So much, however, did not happen, and the horrible deed upon + Pace was in vain. Put to the question, Melazzo denounced Terlizzi, and + together with him Cabane, Morcone, and the others. Further, his confession + incriminated Filippa, the Catanese, and her two daughters, the wives of + Terlizzi and Morcone. Of the Queen, however, he said nothing, because, one + of the lesser conspirators, little more than a servant like Pace, he can + have had no knowledge of the Queen's complicity. + </p> + <p> + The arrest of the others followed instantly, and, sentenced to death, they + were publicly burned in the Square of Sant' Eligio, after suffering all + the brutal, unspeakable horrors of fourteenth-century torture, which + continued to the very scaffold, with the alleged intention of inducing + them to denounce any further accomplices. But though they writhed and + fainted under the pincers of the executioners, they confessed nothing. + Indeed, they preserved a silence which left the people amazed, for the + people lacked the explanation. The Grand Justiciary, Hugh des Baux, had + seen to it that the Pope's injunctions should be obeyed. Lest the + condemned should say too much, he had taken the precaution of having their + tongues fastened down with fish-hooks. + </p> + <p> + Thus Charles was momentarily baulked, and he was further baulked by the + fact that Giovanna had taken a second husband, in her cousin, Louis of + Taranto. Unless matters were to remain there and the game end in a + stalemate, bold measures were required, and those measures Charles + adopted. He wrote to the King of Hungary now openly accusing Giovanna of + the murder, and pointing out the circumstances that in themselves afforded + corroboration of his charge. + </p> + <p> + Those circumstances Ludwig embodied in a fulminating letter which he wrote + to Giovanna in answer to her defence against the charge of inaction in the + matter of her late husband's murderers: “Giovanna, thy antecedent + disorderly life, thy retention of the exclusive power in the kingdom, thy + neglect of vengeance upon the murderers of thy husband, thy having taken + another husband, and thy very excuses abundantly prove thy complicity in + thy husband's death.” + </p> + <p> + So far this was all as Charles of Durazzo could have desired it. But there + was more. Ludwig was advancing now in arms to take possession of the + kingdom, of which, under all the circumstances, he might consider himself + the lawful heir, and the Princes of Italy were affording him unhindered + passage through their States. This was not at all to Charles's liking. + Indeed, unless he bestirred himself, it might prove to be checkmate from + an altogether unexpected quarter, rendering vain all the masterly play + with which he had conducted the game so far. + </p> + <p> + It flustered him a little, and in his haste to counter it he blundered. + </p> + <p> + Giovanna, alarmed at the rapid advance of Ludwig, summoned her barons to + her aid, and in that summons she included Charles, realizing that at all + costs he must be brought over to her side. He went, listened, and finally + sold himself for a good price the title of Duke of Calabria, which made + him heir to the kingdom. He raised a powerful troop of lances, and marched + upon Aquila, which had already hoisted the Hungarian banner. + </p> + <p> + There it was that he discovered, and soon, his move to have been a bad + one. News was brought to him that the Queen, taken with panic, had fled to + Provence, seeking sanctuary at Avignon. + </p> + <p> + Charles set about correcting his error without delay, and marched out of + Aquila to go and meet Ludwig that he might protest his loyalty, and range + himself under the invader's banner. + </p> + <p> + At Foligno, the King of Hungary was met by a papal legate, who in the name + of Pope Clement forbade him under pain of excommunication to invade a fief + of Holy Church. + </p> + <p> + “When I am master of Naples,” answered Ludwig firmly, “I shall count + myself a feudatory of the Holy See. Until then I render account to none + but God and my conscience.” And he pushed on, preceded by a black banner + of death, scattering in true Hungarian fashion murder, rape, pillage, and + arson through the smiling countryside, exacting upon the whole land a + terrible vengeance for the murder of his brother. + </p> + <p> + Thus he came to Aversa, and there quartered himself and his Hungarians + upon that convent of Saint Peter where Andreas had been strangled a year + ago. And it was here that he was joined by Charles, who came protesting + loyalty, and whom the King received with open arms and a glad welcome, as + was to be expected from a man who had been Andreas's one true friend in + that land of enemies. Of Charles's indiscreet escapade in the matter of + Aquila nothing was said. As Charles had fully expected, it was condoned + upon the score both of the past and the present. + </p> + <p> + That night there was high feasting in that same refectory where Andreas + had feasted on the night when the stranglers watched him, waiting, and + Charles was the guest of honour. In the morning Ludwig was to pursue his + march upon the city of Naples, and all were astir betimes. + </p> + <p> + On the point of setting out, Ludwig turned to Charles. + </p> + <p> + “Before I go,” he said, “I have a mind to visit the spot where my brother + died.” + </p> + <p> + To Charles, no doubt, this seemed a morbid notion to be discouraged. But + Ludwig was insistent. + </p> + <p> + “Take me there,” he bade the Duke. + </p> + <p> + “Indeed, I scarce know—I was not here, remember,” Charles answered + him, rendered faintly uneasy, perhaps by a certain grimness in the gaunt + King's face, perhaps by the mutterings of his own conscience. + </p> + <p> + “I know that you were not; but surely you must know the place. It will be + known to all the world in these parts. Besides, was it not yourself + recovered the body? Conduct me thither, then.” + </p> + <p> + Perforce, then, Charles must do his will. Arm-in-arm they mounted the + stairs to that sinister loggia, a half-dozen of Ludwig's escorting + officers following. + </p> + <p> + They stepped along the tessellated floor above the Abbot's garden, flooded + now with sunshine which drew the perfume from the roses blooming there. + </p> + <p> + “Here the King slept,” said Charles, “and yonder the Queen. Somewhere here + between the thing was done, and thence they hanged him.” + </p> + <p> + Ludwig, tall and grim, stood considering, chin in hand. Suddenly he + wheeled upon the Duke who stood at his elbow. His face had undergone a + change, and his lip curled so that he displayed his strong teeth as a dog + displays them when he snarls. + </p> + <p> + “Traitor!” he rasped. “It is you—you who come smiling and fawning + upon me, and spurring me on to vengeance—who are to blame for what + happened here.” + </p> + <p> + “I?” Charles fell back, changing colour, his legs trembling under him. + </p> + <p> + “You!” the King answered him furiously. “His death would never have come + about but for your intrigues to keep him out of the royal power, to hinder + his coronation.” + </p> + <p> + “It is false!” cried Charles. “False! I swear it before God!” + </p> + <p> + “Perjured dog! Do you deny that you sought the aid of your precious uncle + the Cardinal of Perigord to restrain the Pope from granting the Bull + required?” + </p> + <p> + “I do deny it. The facts deny it. The Bull was forthcoming.” + </p> + <p> + “Then your denial but proves your guilt,” the King answered him, and from + the leather pouch hanging from his belt, he pulled out a parchment, and + held it under the Duke's staring eyes. It was the letter he had written to + the Cardinal of Perigord, enjoining him to prevent the Pope from signing + the Bull sanctioning Andreas's coronation. + </p> + <p> + The King smiled terribly into that white, twitching face. + </p> + <p> + “Deny it now,” he mocked him. “Deny, too, that, bribed by the title of + Duke of Calabria, you turned to the service of the Queen, to abandon it + again for ours when you perceived your danger. You think to use us, + traitor, as a stepping-stone to help you to mount the throne—as you + sought to use my brother even to the extent of encompassing his murder.” + </p> + <p> + “No, no! I had no hand in that. I was his friend—” + </p> + <p> + “Liar!” Ludwig struck him across the mouth. + </p> + <p> + On the instant the officers of Ludwig laid hands upon the Duke, fearing + that the indignity might spur him to retaliation. + </p> + <p> + “You are very opportune,” said Ludwig; and added coldly, “Dispatch him.” + </p> + <p> + Charles screamed a moment, even as Andreas had screamed on that same spot, + when he found himself staring into the fearful face of death. Then the + scream became a cough as a Hungarian sword went through him from side to + side. + </p> + <p> + They picked up his body from the tessellated floor of the loggia, carried + it to the parapet as Andreas's had been carried, and flung it down into + the Abbot's garden as Andreas's had been flung. It lay in a rosebush, + dyeing the Abbot's roses a deeper red. + </p> + <p> + Never was justice more poetic. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XI. THE NIGHT OF HATE—The Murder Of The Duke Of Gandia + </h2> + <p> + The Cardinal Vice-Chancellor took the packet proffered him by the + fair-haired, scarlet-liveried page, and turned it over, considering it, + the gentle, finely featured, almost ascetic face very thoughtful. + </p> + <p> + “It was brought, my lord, by a man in a mask, who will give no name. He + waits below,” said the scarlet stripling. + </p> + <p> + “A man in a mask, eh? What mystery!” + </p> + <p> + The thoughtful brown eyes smiled, the fine hands broke the fragment of + wax. A gold ring fell out and rolled some little way along the black and + purple Eastern rug. The boy dived after it, and presented it to his + lordship. + </p> + <p> + The ring bore an escutcheon, and the Cardinal found graven upon this + escutcheon his own arms the Sforza lion and the flower of the quince. + Instantly those dark, thoughtful eyes of his grew keen as they flashed + upon the page. + </p> + <p> + “Did you see the device?” he asked, a hint of steel under the silkiness of + his voice. + </p> + <p> + “I saw nothing, my lord—a ring, no more. I did not even look.” + </p> + <p> + The Cardinal continued to ponder him for a long moment very searchingly. + </p> + <p> + “Go—bring this man,” he said at last; and the boy departed, soon to + reappear; holding aside the tapestry that masked the door to give passage + to a man of middle height wrapped in a black cloak, his face under a + shower of golden hair, covered from chin to brow by a black visor. + </p> + <p> + At a sign from the Cardinal the page departed. Then the man, coming + forward, let fall his cloak, revealing a rich dress of close-fitting + violet silk, sword and dagger hanging from his jewelled girdle; he plucked + away the mask, and disclosed the handsome, weak face of Giovanni Sforza, + Lord of Pesaro and Cotignola, the discarded husband of Madonna Lucrezia, + Pope Alexander's daughter. + </p> + <p> + The Cardinal considered his nephew gravely, without surprise. He had + expected at first no more than a messenger from the owner of that ring. + But at sight of his figure and long, fair hair he had recognized Giovanni + before the latter had removed his mask. + </p> + <p> + “I have always accounted you something mad,” said the Cardinal softly. + “But never mad enough for this. What brings you to Rome?” + </p> + <p> + “Necessity, my lord,” replied the young tyrant. “The need to defend my + honour, which is about to be destroyed.” + </p> + <p> + “And your life?” wondered his uncle. “Has that ceased to be of value?” + </p> + <p> + “Without honour it is nothing.” + </p> + <p> + “A noble sentiment taught in every school. But for practical purposes—” + The Cardinal shrugged. + </p> + <p> + Giovanni, however, paid no heed. + </p> + <p> + “Did you think, my lord, that I should tamely submit to be a derided, + outcast husband, that I should take no vengeance upon, that villainous + Pope for having made me a thing of scorn, a byword throughout Italy?” + Livid hate writhed in his fair young face. “Did you think I should, + indeed, remain in Pesaro, whither I fled before their threats to my life, + and present no reckoning?” + </p> + <p> + “What is the reckoning you have in mind?” inquired his uncle, faintly + ironical. “You'll not be intending to kill the Holy Father?” + </p> + <p> + “Kill him?” Giovanni laughed shortly, scornfully. “Do the dead suffer?” + </p> + <p> + “In hell, sometimes,” said the Cardinal. + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps. But I want to be sure. I want sufferings that I can witness, + sufferings that I can employ as balsam for my own wounded honour. I shall + strike, even as he has stricken me—at his soul, not at his body. I + shall wound him where he is most sensitive.” + </p> + <p> + Ascanio Sforza, towering tall and slender in his scarlet robes, shook his + head slowly. + </p> + <p> + “All this is madness—madness! You were best away, best in Pesaro. + Indeed, you cannot safely show your face in Rome.” + </p> + <p> + “That is why I go masked. That is why I come to you, my lord, for shelter + here until—” + </p> + <p> + “Here?” The Cardinal was instantly alert. “Then you think I am as mad as + yourself. Why, man, if so much as a whisper of your presence in Rome got + abroad, this is the first place where they would look for you. If you will + have your way, if you are so set on the avenging of past wrongs and the + preventing of future ones, it is not for me, your kinsman, to withstand + you. But here in my palace you cannot stay, for your own safety's sake. + That page who brought you, now; I would not swear he did not see the arms + upon your ring. I pray that he did not. But if he did, your presence is + known here already.” + </p> + <p> + Giovanni was perturbed. + </p> + <p> + “But if not here, where, then, in Rome should I be safe?” + </p> + <p> + “Nowhere, I think,” answered the ironical Ascanio. “Though perhaps you + might count yourself safe with Pico. Your common hate of the Holy Father + should be a stout bond between you.” + </p> + <p> + Fate prompted the suggestion. Fate drove the Lord of Pesaro to act upon + it, and to seek out Antonio Maria Pico, Count of Mirandola, in his palace + by the river, where Pico, as Ascanio had foreseen, gave him a cordial + welcome. + </p> + <p> + There he abode almost in hiding until the end of May, seldom issuing + forth, and never without his mask—a matter this which excited no + comment, for masked faces were common in the streets of Rome in the + evening of the fifteenth century. In talk with Pico he set forth his + intent, elaborating what already he had told the Cardinal Vice-Chancellor. + </p> + <p> + “He is a father—this Father of Fathers,” he said once. “A tender, + loving father whose life is in his children, who lives through them and + for them. Deprive him of them, and his life would become empty, worthless, + a living death. There is Giovanni, who is as the apple of his eye, whom he + has created Duke of Gandia, Duke of Benevento, Prince of Sessa, Lord of + Teano, and more besides. There is the Cardinal of Valencia, there is + Giuffredo, Prince of Squillace, and there is my wife, Lucrezia, of whom he + has robbed me. There is, you see, an ample heel to our Achilles. The + question is, where shall we begin?” + </p> + <p> + “And also, how,” Pico reminded him. + </p> + <p> + Fate was to answer both those questions, and that soon. + </p> + <p> + They went on June 1st—the Lord of Pesaro, with his host and his + host's daughter, Antonia—to spend the day at Pico's vineyard in + Trastevere. At the moment of setting out to return to Rome in the evening + the Count was detained by his steward, newly returned from a journey with + matters to communicate to him. + </p> + <p> + He bade his guest, with his daughter and their attendants, to ride on, + saying that he himself would follow and overtake them. But the steward + detained him longer than he had expected, so that, although the company + proceeded leisurely towards the city, Pico had not come up with them when + they reached the river. In the narrow street beyond the bridge the little + escort found itself suddenly confronted and thrust aside by a magnificent + cavalcade of ladies and gallants, hawk on wrist and followed by a pack of + hounds. + </p> + <p> + Giovanni had eyes for one only in that gay company—a tall, + splendidly handsome man in green, a Plumed bonnet on his auburn head, and + a roguish, jovial eye, which, in its turn, saw nobody in that moment but + Madonna Antonia, reclining in her litter, the leather curtains of which + she had drawn back that she might converse with Giovanni as they rode. + </p> + <p> + The Lord of Pesaro beheld the sudden kindling of his brother-in-law's + glance, for that handsome gallant was the Duke of Gandia, the Pope's + eldest son, the very apple of the Holy Father's eye. He saw the Duke's + almost unconscious check upon his reins; saw him turn in the saddle to + stare boldly at Madonna Antonia until, grown conscious of his regard, she + crimsoned under it. And when at last the litter had moved on, he saw over + his shoulder a mounted servant detach from the Duke's side to follow them. + This fellow dogged their heels all the way to the Parione Quarter, + obviously with intent to discover for his master where the beautiful lady + of the litter might be housed. + </p> + <p> + Giovanni said naught of this to Pico when he returned a little later. He + was quick to perceive the opportunity that offered, but far from sure that + Pico would suffer his daughter to be used as a decoy; far, indeed, from + sure that he dared himself so employ her. But on the morrow, chancing to + look from a window out of idle curiosity to see what horse it was that was + pacing in the street below, he beheld a man in a rich cloak, in whom at + once he recognized the Duke, and he accounted that the dice of destiny had + fallen. + </p> + <p> + Himself unseen by that horseman, Giovanni drew back quickly. On the spur + of the moment, he acted with a subtlety worthy of long premeditation. + Antonia and he were by an odd fatality alone together in that chamber of + the mezzanine. He turned to her. + </p> + <p> + “An odd fellow rides below here, tarrying as if expectant. I wonder should + you know who he is.” + </p> + <p> + Obeying his suggestion, she rose—a tall, slim child of some eighteen + years, of a delicate, pale beauty, with dark, thoughtful eyes and long, + black tresses, interwoven with jewelled strands of gold thread. She + rustled to the window and looked down upon that cavalier; and, as she + looked, scanning him intently, the Duke raised his head. Their eyes met, + and she drew back with a little cry. + </p> + <p> + “What is it?” exclaimed Giovanni. + </p> + <p> + “It is that insolent fellow who stared at me last evening in the street. I + would you had not bidden me look.” + </p> + <p> + Now, whilst she had been gazing from the window, Giovanni, moving softly + behind her, had espied a bowl of roses on the ebony table in the room's + middle. Swiftly and silently he had plucked a blossom, which he now held + behind his back. As she turned from him again, he sent it flying through + the window; and whilst in his heart he laughed with bitter hate and scorn + as he thought of Gandia snatching up that rose and treasuring it in his + bosom, aloud he laughed at her fears, derided them as idle. + </p> + <p> + That night, in his room, Giovanni practised penmanship assiduously, armed + with a model with which Antonia had innocently equipped him. He went to + bed well pleased, reflecting that as a man lives so does he die. Giovanni + Borgia, Duke of Gandia, had been ever an amiable profligate, a heedless + voluptuary obeying no spur but that of his own pleasure, which should + drive him now to his destruction. Giovanni Borgia, he considered further, + was, as he had expressed it, the very apple of his father's eye; and + since, of his own accord, the Duke had come to thrust his foolish head + into the noose, the Lord of Pesaro would make a sweet beginning to the + avenging of his wrongs by drawing it taut. + </p> + <p> + Next morning saw him at the Vatican, greatly daring, to deliver in person + his forgery to the Duke. Suspicious of his mask, they asked him who he was + and whence he came. + </p> + <p> + “Say one who desires to remain unknown with a letter for the Duke of + Gandia which his magnificence will welcome.” + </p> + <p> + Reluctantly, a chamberlain departed with his message. Anon he was + conducted above to the magnificent apartments which Gandia occupied during + his sojourn there. + </p> + <p> + He found the Duke newly risen, and with him his brother, the auburn-headed + young Cardinal of Valencia, dressed in a close-fitting suit of black, that + displayed his lithe and gracefully athletic proportions, and a cloak of + scarlet silk to give a suggestion of his ecclesiastical rank. + </p> + <p> + Giovanni bowed low, and, thickening his voice that it might not be + recognized, announced himself and his mission in one. + </p> + <p> + “From the lady of the rose,” said he, proffering the letter. + </p> + <p> + Valencia stared a moment; then went off into a burst of laughter. Gandia's + face flamed and his eyes sparkled. He snatched the letter, broke its seal, + and consumed its contents. Then he flung away to a table, took up a pen, + and sat down to write; the tall Valencia watching him with amused scorn a + while, then crossing to his side and setting a hand upon his shoulder. + </p> + <p> + “You will never learn,” said the more subtle Cesare. “You must forever be + leaving traces where traces are not to be desired.” + </p> + <p> + Gandia looked up into that keen, handsome young face. + </p> + <p> + “You are right,” he said; and crumpled the letter in his hand. + </p> + <p> + Then he looked at the messenger and hesitated. + </p> + <p> + “I am in Madonna's confidence,” said the man in the mask. + </p> + <p> + Gandia rose. “Then say—say that her letter has carried me to Heaven; + that I but await her commands to come in person to declare myself. But bid + her hasten, for within two weeks from now I go to Naples, and thence I may + return straight to Spain.” + </p> + <p> + “The opportunity shall be found, Magnificent. Myself I shall bring you + word of it.” + </p> + <p> + The Duke loaded him with thanks, and in his excessive gratitude pressed + upon him at parting a purse of fifty ducats, which Giovanni flung into the + Tiber some ten minutes later as he was crossing the Bridge of Sant' Angelo + on his homeward way. + </p> + <p> + The Lord of Pesaro proceeded without haste. Delay and silence he knew + would make Gandia the more sharp-set, and your sharp-set, impatient fellow + is seldom cautious. Meanwhile, Antonia had mentioned to her father that + princely stranger who had stared so offendingly one evening, and who for + an hour on the following morning had haunted the street beneath her + window. Pico mentioned it to Giovanni, whereupon Giovanni told him frankly + who it was. + </p> + <p> + “It was that libertine brother-in-law of mine, the Duke of Gandia,” he + said. “Had he persisted, I should have bidden you look to your daughter. + As it is, no doubt he has other things to think of. He is preparing for + his journey to Naples, to accompany his brother Cesare, who goes as papal + legate to crown Federigo of Aragon.” + </p> + <p> + There he left the matter, and no more was heard of it until the night of + June 14th, the very eve of the departure of the Borgia princes upon that + mission. + </p> + <p> + Cloaked and masked, Giovanni took his way to the Vatican at dusk that + evening, and desired to have himself announced to the Duke. But he was met + with the answer that the Duke was absent; that he had gone to take leave + of his mother and to sup at her villa in Trastevere. His return was not + expected until late. + </p> + <p> + At first Giovanni feared that, in leaving the consummation of his plot + until the eleventh hour, he had left it too late. In his anxiety he at + once set out on foot, as he was, for the villa of Madonna Giovanna de + Catanei. He reached it towards ten o'clock that night, to be informed that + Gandia was there, at supper. The servant went to bear word to the Duke + that a man in a mask was asking to see him, a message which instantly + flung Gandia into agitation. Excitedly he commanded that the man be + brought to him at once. + </p> + <p> + The Lord of Pesaro was conducted through the house and out into the garden + to an arbour of vine, where a rich table was spread in the evening cool, + lighted by alabaster lamps. About this table Giovanni found a noble + company of his own relations by marriage. There was Gandia, who rose + hurriedly at his approach, and came to meet him; there was Cesare, + Cardinal of Valencia, who was to go to Naples to-morrow as papal legate, + yet dressed tonight in cloth of gold, with no trace of his churchly + dignity about him; there was their younger brother Giuffredo, Prince of + Squillace, a handsome stripling, flanked by his wife, the free-and-easy + Donna Sancia of Aragon, swarthy, coarse-featured, and fleshy, despite her + youth; there was Giovanni's sometime wife; the lovely, golden-headed + Lucrezia, the innocent cause of all this hate that festered in the Lord of + Pesaro's soul; there was their mother, the nobly handsome Giovanozza de + Catanei, from whom the Borgias derived their auburn heads; and there was + their cousin, Giovanni Borgia, Cardinal of Monreale, portly and scarlet, + at Madonna's side. + </p> + <p> + All turned to glance at this masked intruder who had the power so oddly to + excite their beloved Gandia. + </p> + <p> + “From the lady of the rose,” Giovanni announced himself softly to the + Duke. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, yes,” came the answer, feverishly impatient. “Well, what is your + message?” + </p> + <p> + “To-night her father is from home. She will expect your magnificence at + midnight.” + </p> + <p> + Gandia drew a deep breath. + </p> + <p> + “By the Host! You are no more than in time. I had almost despaired, my + friend, my best of friends. To-night!” He pronounced the word + ecstatically. “Wait you here. Yourself you shall conduct me. Meanwhile, go + sup.” + </p> + <p> + And beating his hands, he summoned attendants. + </p> + <p> + Came the steward and a couple of Moorish slaves in green turbans, to whose + care the Duke commanded his masked visitor. But Giovanni neither required + nor desired their ministrations; he would not eat nor drink, but contented + himself with the patience of hatred to sit for two long hours awaiting the + pleasure of his foolish victim. + </p> + <p> + They left at last, a little before midnight the Duke, his brother Cesare, + his cousin Monreale, and a numerous attendance, his own retinue and those + of the two cardinals. Thus they rode back to Rome, the Borgias very gay, + the man in the mask plodding along beside them. + </p> + <p> + They came to the Rione de Ponte, where their ways were to separate, and + there, opposite the palace of the Cardinal Vice-Chancellor, Gandia drew + rein. He announced to the others that he went no farther with them, + summoned a single groom to attend him, and bade the remainder return to + the Vatican and await him there. + </p> + <p> + There was a last jest and a laugh from Cesare as the cavalcade went on + towards the papal palace. Then Gandia turned to the man in the mask, bade + him get up on the crupper of his horse, and so rode slowly off in the + direction of the Giudecca, the single attendant he had retained trotting + beside his stirrup. + </p> + <p> + Giovanni directed his brother-in-law, not to the main entrance of the + house, but to the garden gate, which opened upon a narrow alley. Here they + dismounted, flinging the reins to the groom, who was bidden to wait. + Giovanni produced a key, unlocked the door, and ushered the Duke into the + gloom of the garden. A stone staircase ran up to the loggia on the + mezzanine, and by this way was Gandia now conducted, treading softly. His + guide went ahead. He had provided himself with yet another key, and so + unlocked the door from the loggia which opened upon the ante-room of + Madonna Antonia. He held the door for the Duke, who hesitated, seeing all + in darkness. + </p> + <p> + “In,” Giovanni bade him. “Tread softly. Madonna waits for you.” + </p> + <p> + Recklessly, then, that unsuspecting fellow stepped into the trap. + </p> + <p> + Giovanni followed, closed the door, and locked it. The Duke, standing with + quickened pulses in that impenetrable blackness, found himself suddenly + embraced, not at all after the fond fashion he was expecting. A wrestler's + arms enlaced his body, a sinewy leg coiled itself snake-wise about one of + his own, pulling it from under him. As he crashed down under the weight of + his unseen opponent, a great voice boomed out: + </p> + <p> + “Lord of Mirandola! To me! Help! Thieves!” + </p> + <p> + Suddenly a door opened. Light flooded the gloom, and the writhing Duke + beheld a white vision of the girl whose beauty had been the lure that had + drawn him into this peril which, as yet, he scarcely understood. But + looking up into the face of the man who grappled with him, the man who + held him there supine under his weight, he began at last to understand, + or, at least, to suspect, for the face he saw, unmasked now, leering at + him with hate unspeakable through the cloud of golden hair that half met + across it, was the face of Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, whom his + family had so cruelly wronged. Giovanni Sforza's was the voice that now + fiercely announced his doom. + </p> + <p> + “You and yours have made me a thing of scorn and laughter. Yourself have + laughed at me. Go laugh in hell!” + </p> + <p> + A blade flashed up in Giovanni's hand. Gandia threw up an arm to fend his + breast, and the blade buried itself in the muscles. He screamed with pain + and terror. The other laughed with hate and triumph, and stabbed again, + this time in the shoulder. + </p> + <p> + Antonia, from the threshold, watching in bewilderment and panic, sent a + piercing scream to ring through the house, and then the voice of Giovanni, + fierce yet exultant, called aloud: + </p> + <p> + “Pico! Pico! Lord of Mirandola! Look to your daughter!” + </p> + <p> + Came steps and voice, more light, flooding now the chamber, and through + the mists gathering before his eyes the first-born of the house of Borgia + beheld hurrying men, half dressed, with weapons in their hands. But + whether they came to kill or to save, they came too late: Ten times + Giovanni's blade had stabbed the Duke, yet, hindered by the Duke's + struggles and by the effort of holding him there, he had been unable to + find his heart, wherefore, as those others entered now, he slashed his + victim across the throat, and so made an end. + </p> + <p> + He rose, covered with blood, so ghastly and terrific that Pico, thinking + him wounded, ran to him. But Giovanni reassured him with a laugh, and + pointed with his dripping dagger. + </p> + <p> + “The blood is his—foul Borgia blood!” + </p> + <p> + At the name Pico started, and there was a movement as of fear from the + three grooms who followed him. The Count looked down at that splendid, + blood-spattered figure lying there so still, its sightless eyes staring up + at the frescoed ceiling, so brave and so pitiful in his gold-broidered + suit of white satin, with the richly jewelled girdle carrying gloves and + purse and a jewelled dagger that had been so useless in that extremity. + </p> + <p> + “Gandia” he cried; and looked at Giovanni with round eyes of fear and + amazement. “How came he here?” + </p> + <p> + “How?” + </p> + <p> + With bloody hand Giovanni pointed to the open door of Antonia's chamber. + </p> + <p> + “That was the lure, my lord. Taking the air outside, I saw him slinking + hither, and took him for a thief, as, indeed, he was—a thief of + honour, like all his kind. I followed, and—there he lies.” + </p> + <p> + “My God!” cried Pico. And then hoarsely asked, “And Antonia?” + </p> + <p> + Giovanni dismissed the question abruptly. + </p> + <p> + “She saw, yet she knows nothing.” + </p> + <p> + And then on another note: + </p> + <p> + “Up now, Pico!” he cried. “Arouse the city, and let all men know how + Gandia died the death of a thief. Let all men know this Borgia brood for + what it is.” + </p> + <p> + “Are you mad?” cried Pico. “Will I put my neck under the knife?” + </p> + <p> + “You took him here in the night, and yours was the right to kill. You + exercised it.” + </p> + <p> + Pico looked long and searchingly into the other's face. True, all the + appearances bore out the tale, as did, too, what had gone before and had + been the cause of Antonia's complaint to him. Yet, knowing what lay + between Sforza and Borgia, it may have seemed to Pico too extraordinary a + coincidence that Giovanni should have been so ready at hand to defend the + honour of the House of Mirandola. But he asked no questions. He was + content in his philosophy to accept the event and be thankful for it on + every count. But as for Giovanni's suggestion that he should proclaim + through Rome how he had exercised his right to slay this Tarquin, the Lord + of Mirandola had no mind to adopt it. + </p> + <p> + “What is done is done,” he said shortly, in a tone that conveyed much. + “Let it suffice us all. It but remains now to be rid of this.” + </p> + <p> + “You will keep silent?” cried Giovanni, plainly vexed. + </p> + <p> + “I am not a fool,” said Pico gently. + </p> + <p> + Giovanni understood. “And these your men?” + </p> + <p> + “Are very faithful friends who will aid you now to efface all traces.” + </p> + <p> + And upon that he moved away, calling his daughter, whose absence was + intriguing him. Receiving no answer, he entered her room, to find her in a + swoon across her bed. She had fainted from sheer horror at what she had + seen. + </p> + <p> + Followed by the three servants bearing the body, Giovanni went down across + the garden very gently. Approaching the gate, he bade them wait, saying + that he went to see that the coast was clear. Then, going forward alone, + he opened the gate and called softly to the waiting groom: + </p> + <p> + “Hither to me!” + </p> + <p> + Promptly the man surged before him in the gloom, and as promptly Giovanni + sank his dagger in the fellow's breast. He deplored the necessity for the + deed, but it was unavoidable, and your cinquecentist never shrank from + anything that necessity imposed upon him. To let the lackey live would be + to have the bargelli in the house by morning. + </p> + <p> + The man sank with a half-uttered cry, and lay still. + </p> + <p> + Giovanni dragged him aside under the shelter of the wall, where the others + would not see him, then called softly to them to follow. + </p> + <p> + When the grooms emerged from Pico's garden, the Lord of Pesaro was astride + of the fine white horse on which Gandia had ridden to his death. + </p> + <p> + “Put him across the crupper,” he bade them. + </p> + <p> + And they so placed the body, the head dangling on one side, the legs on + the other. And Giovanni reflected grimly how he had reversed the order in + which Gandia and he had ridden that same horse an hour ago. + </p> + <p> + At a walk they proceeded down the lane towards the river, a groom on each + side to see that the burden on the crupper did not jolt off, another going + ahead to scout. At the alley's mouth Giovanni drew rein, and let the man + emerge upon the river-bank and look to right and left to make sure that + there was no one about. + </p> + <p> + He saw no one. Yet one there was who saw them—Giorgio, the timber + merchant, who lay aboard his boat moored to the Schiavoni, and who, three + days later, testified to what he saw. You know his testimony. It has been + repeated often—how he saw the man emerge from the alley and look up + and down, then retire, to emerge again, accompanied now by the horseman + with his burden, and the other two; how he saw them take the body from the + crupper of the horse, and, with a “one, two, and three,” fling it into the + river; how he heard the horseman ask them had they thrown it well into the + middle, and their answer of, “Yes my lord”; and finally, when asked why he + had not come earlier to report the matter, how he had answered that he had + thought nothing of it, having in his time seen more than a hundred bodies + flung into the Tiber at night. + </p> + <p> + Returned to the garden gate, Giovanni bade the men go in without him. + There was something yet that he must do. When they had gone, he + dismounted, and went to the body of the groom which he had left under the + wall. He must remove that too. He cut one of the stirrup-leathers from the + saddle, and attaching one end of it to the dead man's arm, mounted again, + and dragged him thus—ready to leave the body and ride off at the + first alarm—some little way, until he came to the Piazza della + Giudecca. Here, in the very heart of the Jewish quarters, he left the + body, and his movements hereafter are a little obscure. Perhaps he set out + to return to Pico della Mirandola's house, but becoming, as was natural, + uneasy on the way, fearing lest all traces should, after all, not have + been effaced, lest the Duke should be traced to that house, and himself, + if found there, dealt with summarily upon suspicion, he turned about, and + went off to seek sanctuary with his uncle, the Vice-Chancellor. + </p> + <p> + The Duke's horse, which he had ridden, he turned loose in the streets, + where it was found some hours later, and first gave occasion to rumours of + foul play. The rumours growing, with the discovery of the body of Gandia's + groom, and search-parties of armed bargelli scouring Rome, and the + Giudecca in particular, in the course of the next two days, forth at last + came Giorgio, that boatman of the Schiavoni, with the tale of what he had + seen. When the stricken Pope heard it, he ordered the bed of the river to + be dragged foot by foot, with the result that the ill-starred Duke of + Gandia was brought up in one of the nets, whereupon the heartless + Sanazzaro coined his terrible epigram concerning that successor of Saint + Peter, that Fisherman of Men. + </p> + <p> + The people, looking about for him who had the greatest motive for that + deed, were quick to fasten the guilt upon Giovanni Sforza, who by that + time was far from Rome, riding hard for the shelter of his tyranny of + Pesaro; and the Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, who was also mentioned, and who + feared to be implicated, apprehensive ever lest his page should have seen + the betraying arms upon the ring of his masked visitor—fled also, + nor could be induced to return save under a safe-conduct from the Holy + Father, expressing conviction of his innocence. + </p> + <p> + Later public rumour accused others; indeed, they accused in turn every man + who could have been a possible perpetrator, attributing to some of them + the most fantastic and incredible motives. Once, prompted no doubt by + their knowledge of the libertine, pleasure-loving nature of the dead Duke, + rumour hit upon the actual circumstances of the murder so closely, indeed, + that the Count of Mirandola's house was visited by the bargelli and + subjected to an examination, at which Pico violently rebelled, appealing + boldly to the Pope against insinuations that reflected upon the honour of + his daughter. + </p> + <p> + The mystery remained impenetrable, and the culprit was never brought to + justice. We know that in slaying Gandia, Giovanni Sforza vented a hatred + whose object was not Gandia, but Gandia's father. His aim was to deal Pope + Alexander the cruellest and most lingering of wounds, and if he lacked the + avenger's satisfaction of disclosing himself, at least he did not lack + assurance that his blow had stricken home. He heard—as all Italy + heard—from that wayfarer on the bridge of Sant' Angelo, how the + Pope, in a paroxysm of grief at sight of his son's body fished from the + Tiber, had bellowed in his agony like a tortured bull, so that his cries + within the castle were heard upon the bridge. He learnt how the handsome, + vigorous Pope staggered into the consistory of the 19th of that same month + with the mien and gait of a palsied old man, and, in a voice broken with + sobs, proclaimed his bitter lament: + </p> + <p> + “Had we seven Papacies we would give them all to restore the Duke to + life.” + </p> + <p> + He might have been content. But he was not. That deep hate of his against + those who had made him a thing of scorn was not so easily to be slaked. He + waited, spying his opportunity for further hurt. It came a year later, + when Gandia's brother, the ambitious Cesare Borgia, divested himself of + his cardinalitial robes and rank, exchanging them for temporal dignities + and the title of Duke of Valentinois. Then it was that he took up the + deadly weapon of calumny, putting it secretly about that Cesare was the + murderer of his brother, spurred to it by worldly ambition and by other + motives which involved the principal members of the family. + </p> + <p> + Men do not mount to Borgia heights without making enemies. The evil tale + was taken up in all its foul trappings, and, upon no better authority than + the public voice, it was enshrined in chronicles by every scribbler of the + day. And for four hundred years that lie has held its place in history, + the very cornerstone of all the execration that has been heaped upon the + name of Borgia. Never was vengeance more terrible, far-reaching, and + abiding. It is only in this twentieth century of ours that dispassionate + historians have nailed upon the counter of truth the base coin of that + accusation. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XII. THE NIGHT OF ESCAPE—Casanova's Escape From The Piombi + </h2> + <p> + Patrician influence from without had procured Casanova's removal in August + of that year, 1756, from the loathsome cell he had occupied for thirteen + months in the Piombi—so called from the leaded roof immediately + above those prisons which are simply the garrets of the Doge's palace. + </p> + <p> + That cell had been no better than a kennel seldom reached by the light of + day, and so shallow that it was impossible for a man of his fine height to + stand upright in it. But his present prison was comparatively spacious and + it was airy and well-lighted by a barred window, whence he could see the + Lido. + </p> + <p> + Yet he was desperately chagrined at the change, for he had almost + completed his arrangements to break out of his former cell. The only ray + of hope in his present despair came from the fact that the implement to + which he trusted was still in his possession, safely concealed in the + upholstery of the armchair that had been moved with him into his present + quarters. That implement he had fashioned for himself with infinite pains + out of a door-bolt some twenty inches long, which he had found discarded + in a rubbish-heap in a corner of the attic where he had been allowed to + take his brief daily exercise. Using as a whetstone a small slab of black + marble, similarly acquired, he had shaped that bolt into a sharp + octagonal-pointed chisel or spontoon. + </p> + <p> + It remained in his possession, but he saw no chance of using it now, for + the suspicions of Lorenzo, the gaoler, were aroused, and daily a couple of + archers came to sound the floors and walls. True they did not sound the + ceiling, which was low and within reach. But it was obviously impossible + to cut through the ceiling in such a manner as to leave the progress of + the work unseen. + </p> + <p> + Hence his despair of breaking out of a prison where he had spent over a + year without trial or prospect of a trial, and where he seemed likely to + spend the remainder of his days. He did not even know precisely why he had + been arrested. All that Giacomo Casanova knew was that he was accounted a + disturber of the public peace. He was notoriously a libertine, a gamester, + and heavily in debt: also—and this was more serious—he was + accused of practising magic, as indeed he had done, as a means of + exploiting to his own profit the credulity of simpletons of all degrees. + He would have explained to the Inquisitors of State of the Most Serene + Republic that the books of magic found by their apparitors in his + possession—“The Clavicula of Solomon,” the “Zecor-ben,” and other + kindred works—had been collected by him as curious instances of + human aberration. But the Inquisitors of State would not have believed + him, for the Inquisitors were among those who took magic seriously. And, + anyhow, they had never asked him to explain, but had left him as if + forgotten in that abominable verminous cell under the leads, until his + patrician friend had obtained him the mercy of this transfer to better + quarters. + </p> + <p> + This Casanova was a man of iron nerve and iron constitution. Tall and + well-made, he was boldly handsome, with fine dark eyes and dark brown + hair. In age he was barely one and twenty; but he looked older, as well he + might, for in his adventurer's way he had already gathered more experience + of life than most men gain in half a century. + </p> + <p> + The same influence that had obtained him his change of cell had also + gained him latterly the privilege—and he esteemed it beyond all else—of + procuring himself books. Desiring the works of Maffai, he bade his gaoler + purchase them out of the allowance made him by the Inquisitors in + accordance with the Venetian custom. This allowance was graduated to the + social status of each prisoner. But the books being costly and any monthly + surplus from his monthly expenditure being usually the gaoler's + perquisite, Lorenzo was reluctant to indulge him. He mentioned that there + was a prisoner above who was well equipped with books, and who, no doubt, + would be glad to lend in exchange. + </p> + <p> + Yielding to the suggestion, Casanova handed Lorenzo a copy of Peteau's + “Rationarium,” and received next morning, in exchange, the first volume of + Wolf. Within he found a sheet bearing in six verses a paraphrase of + Seneca's epigram, “Calamitosus est animus futuri anxius.” Immediately he + perceived he had stumbled upon a means of corresponding with one who might + be disposed to assist him to break prison. + </p> + <p> + In reply, being a scholarly rascal (he had been educated for the + priesthood), he wrote six verses himself. Having no pen, he cut the long + nail of his little finger to a point, and, splitting it, supplied the + want. For ink he used the juice of mulberries. In addition to the verses, + he wrote a list of the books in his possession, which he placed at the + disposal of his fellow-captive. He concealed the written sheet in the + spine of that vellum-bound volume; and on the title-page, in warning of + this, he wrote the single Latin word “Latet.” Next morning he handed the + book to Lorenzo, telling him that he had read it, and requesting the + second volume. + </p> + <p> + That second volume came on the next day, and in the spine of it a long + letter, some sheets of paper, pens, and a pencil. The writer announced + himself as one Marino Balbi, a patrician and a monk, who had been four + years in that prison, where he had since been given a companion in + misfortune, Count Andrea Asquino. + </p> + <p> + Thus began a regular and very full correspondence between the prisoners, + and soon Casanova—who had not lived on his wits for nothing—was + able to form a shrewd estimate of Balbi's character. The monk's letters + revealed it as compounded of sensuality, stupidity, ingratitude, and + indiscretion. + </p> + <p> + “In the world,” says Casanova, “I should have had no commerce with a + fellow of his nature. But in the Piombi I was obliged to make capital out + of everything that came under my hands.” + </p> + <p> + The capital he desired to make in this instance was to ascertain whether + Balbi would be disposed to do for him what he could not do for himself. He + wrote inquiring, and proposing flight. + </p> + <p> + Balbi replied that he and his companion would do anything possible to make + their escape from that abominable prison, but his lack of resource made + him add that he was convinced that nothing was possible. + </p> + <p> + “All that you have to do,” wrote Casanova in answer, “is to break through + the ceiling of my cell and get me out of this, then trust to me to get you + out of the Piombi. If you are disposed to make the attempt, I will supply + you with the means, and show you the way.” + </p> + <p> + It was a characteristically bold reply, revealing to us the utter gamester + that he was in all things. + </p> + <p> + He knew that Balbi's cell was situated immediately under the leads, and he + hoped that once in it he should be able readily to find a way through the + roof. That cell of Balbi's communicated with a narrow corridor, no more + than a shaft for light and air, which was immediately above Casanova's + prison. And no sooner had Balbi written, consenting, than Casanova + explained what was to do. Balbi must break through the wall of his cell + into the little corridor, and there cut a round hole in the floor + precisely as Casanova had done in his former cell—until nothing but + a shell of ceiling remained—a shell that could be broken down by + half a dozen blows when the moment to escape should have arrived. + </p> + <p> + To begin with, he ordered Balbi to purchase himself two or three dozen + pictures of saints, with which to paper his walls, using as many as might + be necessary for a screen to hide the hole he would be cutting. + </p> + <p> + When Balbi wrote that his walls were hung with pictures of saints, it + became a question of conveying the spontoon to him. This was difficult, + and the monk's fatuous suggestions merely served further to reveal his + stupidity. Finally Casanova's wits found the way. He bade Lorenzo buy him + an in-folio edition of the Bible which had just been published, and it was + into the spine of this enormous tome that he packed the precious spontoon, + and thus conveyed it to Balbi, who immediately got to work. + </p> + <p> + This was at the commencement of October. On the 8th of that month Balbi + wrote to Casanova that a whole night devoted to labour had resulted merely + in the displacing of a single brick, which so discouraged the + faint-hearted monk that he was for abandoning an attempt whose only result + must be to increase in the future the rigour of their confinement. + </p> + <p> + Without hesitation, Casanova replied that he was assured of success—although + he was far from having any grounds for any such assurance. He enjoined the + monk to believe him, and to persevere, confident that as he advanced he + would find progress easier. This proved, indeed, to be the case, for soon + Balbi found the brickwork yielding so rapidly to his efforts that one + morning, a week later, Casanova heard three light taps above his head—the + preconcerted signal by which they were to assure themselves that their + notions of the topography of the prison were correct. + </p> + <p> + All that day he heard Balbi at work immediately above him, and again on + the morrow, when Balbi wrote that as the floor was of the thickness of + only two boards, he counted upon completing the job on the next day, + without piercing the ceiling. + </p> + <p> + But it would seem as if Fortune were intent upon making a mock of + Casanova, luring him to heights of hope, merely to cast him down again + into the depths of despair. Just as upon the eve of breaking out of his + former cell mischance had thwarted him, so now, when again he deemed + himself upon the very threshold of liberty, came mischance again to thwart + him. + </p> + <p> + Early in the afternoon the sound of bolts being drawn outside froze his + very blood and checked his breathing. Yet he had the presence of mind to + give the double knock that was the agreed alarm signal, whereupon Balbi + instantly desisted from his labours overhead. + </p> + <p> + Came Lorenzo with two archers, leading an ugly, lean little man of between + forty and fifty years of age, shabbily dressed and wearing a round black + wig, whom the tribunal had ordered should share Casanova's prison for the + present. With apologies for leaving such a scoundrel in Casanova's + company, Lorenzo departed, and the newcomer went down upon his knees, drew + forth a chaplet, and began to tell his beads. + </p> + <p> + Casanova surveyed this intruder at once with disgust and despair. + Presently his disgust was increased when the fellow, whose name was + Soradici, frankly avowed himself a spy in the service of the Council of + Ten, a calling which he warmly defended from the contempt universally—but + unjustly, according to himself—meted out to it. He had been + imprisoned for having failed in his duty on one occasion through + succumbing to a bribe. + </p> + <p> + Conceive Casanova's frame of mind—his uncertainty as to how long + this monster, as he calls him, might be left in his company, his curbed + impatience to regain his liberty, and his consciousness of the horrible + risk of discovery which delay entailed! He wrote to Balbi that night while + the spy slept, and for the present their operations were suspended. But + not for very long. Soon Casanova's wits resolved how to turn to account + the weakness which he discovered in Soradici. + </p> + <p> + The spy was devout to the point of bigoted, credulous superstition. He + spent long hours in prayer, and he talked freely of his special devotion + to the Blessed Virgin, and his ardent faith in miracles. + </p> + <p> + Casanova—the arch-humbug who had worked magic to delude the + credulous—determined there and then to work a miracle for Soradici. + Assuming an inspired air, he solemnly informed the spy one morning that it + had been revealed to him in a dream that Soradici's devotion to the Rosary + was about to be rewarded; that an angel was to be sent from heaven to + deliver him from prison, and that Casanova himself would accompany him in + his flight. + </p> + <p> + If Soradici doubted, conviction was soon to follow. For Casanova foretold + the very hour at which the angel would come to break into the prison, and + at that hour precisely—Casanova having warned Balbi—the noise + made by the angel overhead flung Soradici into an ecstasy of terror. + </p> + <p> + But when, at the end of four hours, the angel desisted from his labours, + Soradici was beset by doubts. Casanova explained to him that since angels + invariably put on the garb of human flesh when descending upon earth, they + labour under human difficulties. He added the prophecy that the angel + would return on the last day of the month, the eve of All Saints'—two + days later—and that he would then conduct them out of captivity. + </p> + <p> + By this means Casanova ensured that no betrayal should be feared from the + thoroughly duped Soradici, who now spent the time in praying, weeping, and + talking of his sins and of the inexhaustibility of divine grace. To make + doubly sure, Casanova added the most terrible oath that if, by a word to + the gaoler, Soradici should presume to frustrate the divine intentions, he + would immediately strangle him with his own hands. + </p> + <p> + On October 31st Lorenzo paid his usual daily visit early in the morning. + After his departure they waited some hours, Soradici in expectant terror, + Casanova in sheer impatience to be at work. Promptly at noon fell heavy + blows overhead, and then, in a cloud of plaster and broken laths, the + heavenly messenger descended clumsily into Casanova's arms. + </p> + <p> + Soradici found this tall, gaunt, bearded figure, clad in a dirty shirt and + a pair of leather breeches, of a singularly unangelic appearance; indeed, + he looked far more like a devil. + </p> + <p> + When he produced a pair of scissors, so that the spy might cut Casanova's + beard, which, like the angel's, had grown in captivity, Soradici ceased to + have any illusions on the score of Balbi's celestial nature. Although + still intrigued—since he could not guess at the secret + correspondence that had passed between Casanova and Balbi—he + perceived quite clearly that he had been fooled. + </p> + <p> + Leaving Soradici in the monk's care, Casanova hoisted himself through the + broken ceiling and gained Balbi's cell, where the sight of Count Asquino + dismayed him. He found a middle-aged man of a corpulence which must render + it impossible for him to face the athletic difficulties that lay before + them; of this the Count himself seemed already persuaded. + </p> + <p> + “If you think,” was his greeting, as he shook Casanova's hand, “to break + through the roof and find a way down from the leads, I don't see how you + are to succeed without wings. I have not the courage to accompany you,” he + added, “I shall remain and pray for you.” + </p> + <p> + Attempting no persuasions where they must have been idle, Casanova passed + out of the cell again, and approaching as nearly as possible to the edge + of the attic, he sat down where he could touch the roof as it sloped + immediately above his head. With his spontoon he tested the timbers, and + found them so decayed that they almost crumbled at the touch. Assured + thereby that the cutting of a hole would be an easy matter, he at once + returned to his cell, and there he spent the ensuing four hours in + preparing ropes. He cut up sheets, blankets, coverlets, and the very cover + of his mattress, knotting the strips together with the utmost care. In the + end he found himself equipped with some two hundred yards of rope, which + should be ample for any purpose. + </p> + <p> + Having made a bundle of the fine taffeta suit in which he had been + arrested, his gay cloak of floss silk, some stockings, shirts, and + handkerchiefs, he and Balbi passed up to the other cell, compelling + Soradici to go with them. Leaving the monk to make a parcel of his + belongings, Casanova went to tackle the roof. By dusk he had made a hole + twice as large as was necessary, and had laid bare the lead sheeting with + which the roof was covered. Unable, single-handed, to raise one of the + sheets, he called Balbi to his aid, and between them, assisted by the + spontoon, which Casanova inserted between the edge of the sheet and the + gutter, they at last succeeded in tearing away the rivets. Then by putting + their shoulders to the lead they bent it upwards until there was room to + emerge, and a view of the sky flooded by the vivid light of the crescent + moon. + </p> + <p> + Not daring in that light to venture upon the roof, where they would be + seen, they must wait with what patience they could until midnight, when + the moon would have set. So they returned to the cell where they had left + Soradici with Count Asquino. + </p> + <p> + From Balbi, Casanova had learnt that Asquino, though well supplied with + money, was of an avaricious nature. Nevertheless, since money would be + necessary, Casanova asked the Count for the loan of thirty gold sequins. + Asquino answered him gently that, in the first place, they would not need + money to escape; that, in the second, he had a numerous family; that, in + the third, if Casanova perished the money would be lost; and that, in the + fourth, he had no money. + </p> + <p> + “My reply,” writes Casanova, “lasted half an hour.” + </p> + <p> + “Let me remind you,” he said in concluding his exhortation, “of your + promise to pray for us, and let me ask you what sense there can be in + praying for the success of an enterprise to which you refuse to contribute + the most necessary means.” + </p> + <p> + The old man was so far conquered by Casanova's eloquence that he offered + him two sequins, which Casanova accepted, since he was not in case to + refuse anything. + </p> + <p> + Thereafter, as they sat waiting for the moon to set, Casanova found his + earlier estimate of the monk's character confirmed. Balbi now broke into + abusive reproaches. He found that Casanova had acted in bad faith by + assuring him that he had formed a complete plan of escape. Had he + suspected that this was a mere gambler's throw on Casanova's part, he + would never have laboured to get him out of his cell. The Count added his + advice that they should abandon an attempt foredoomed to failure, and, + being concerned for the two sequins with which he had so reluctantly + parted, he argued the case at great length. Stifling his disgust, Casanova + assured them that, although it was impossible for him to afford them + details of how he intended to proceed, he was perfectly confident of + success. + </p> + <p> + At half-past ten he sent Soradici—who had remained silent throughout—to + report upon the night. The spy brought word that in another hour or so the + moon would have set, but that a thick mist was rising, which must render + the leads very dangerous. + </p> + <p> + “So long as the mist isn't made of oil, I am content,” said Casanova. + “Come, make a bundle of your cloak. It is time we were moving.” + </p> + <p> + But at this Soradici fell on his knees in the dark, seized Casanova's + hands, and begged to be left behind to pray for their safety, since he + would be sure to meet his death if he attempted to go with them. + </p> + <p> + Casanova assented readily, delighted to be rid of the fellow. Then in the + dark he wrote as best he could a quite characteristic letter to the + Inquisitors of State, in which he took his leave of them, telling them + that since he had been fetched into the prison without his wishes being + consulted, they could not complain that he should depart without + consulting theirs. + </p> + <p> + The bundle containing Balbi's clothes, and another made up of half the + rope, he slung from the monk's neck, thereafter doing the same in his own + case. Then, in their shirt-sleeves, their hats on their heads, the pair of + them started on their perilous journey, leaving Count Asquino and Soradici + to pray for them. + </p> + <p> + Casanova went first, on all fours, and thrusting the point of his spontoon + between the joints of the lead sheeting so as to obtain a hold, he crawled + slowly upwards. To follow, Balbi took a grip of Casanova's belt with his + right hand, so that, in addition to making his own way, Casanova was + compelled to drag the weight of his companion after him, and this up the + sharp gradient of a roof rendered slippery by the mist. + </p> + <p> + Midway in that laborious ascent, the monk called to him to stop. He had + dropped the bundle containing the clothes, and he hoped that it had not + rolled beyond the gutter, though he did not mention which of them should + retrieve it. After the unreasonableness already endured from this man, + Casanova's exasperation was such in that moment that, he confesses, he was + tempted to kick him after this bundle. Controlling himself, however, he + answered patiently that the matter could not now be helped, and kept + steadily amain. + </p> + <p> + At last the apex of the roof was reached, and they got astride of it to + breathe and to take a survey of their surroundings. They faced the several + cupolas of the Church of Saint Mark, which is connected with the ducal + palace, being, in fact, no more than the private chapel of the Doge. + </p> + <p> + They set down their bundles, and, of course, in the act of doing so the + wretched Balbi must lose his hat, and send it rolling down the roof after + the bundle he had already lost. He cried out that it was an evil omen. + </p> + <p> + “On the contrary,” Casanova assured him patiently, “it is a sign of divine + protection; for if your bundle or your hat had happened to roll to the + left instead of the right it would have fallen into the courtyard, where + it would be seen by the guards, who must conclude that some one is moving + on the roof, and so, no doubt, would have discovered us. As it is your hat + has followed your bundle into the canal, where it can do no harm.” + </p> + <p> + Thereupon, bidding the monk await his return, Casanova set off alone on a + voyage of discovery, keeping for the present astride of the roof in his + progress. He spent a full hour wandering along the vast roof, going to + right and to left in his quest, but failing completely to make any helpful + discovery, or to find anything to which he could attach a rope. In the end + it began to look as if, after all, he must choose between returning to + prison and flinging himself from the roof into the canal. He was almost in + despair, when in his wanderings his attention was caught by a dormer + window on the canal side, about two-thirds of the way down the slope of + the roof. With infinite precaution he lowered himself down the steep, + slippery incline until he was astride of the little dormer roof. Leaning + well forward, he discovered that a slender grating barred the leaded panes + of the window itself, and for a moment this grating gave him pause. + </p> + <p> + Midnight boomed just then from the Church of Saint Mark, like a reminder + that but seven hours remained in which to conquer this and further + difficulties that might confront him, and in which to win clear of that + place, or else submit to a resumption of his imprisonment under + conditions, no doubt, a hundredfold more rigorous. + </p> + <p> + Lying flat on his stomach, and hanging far over, so as to see what he was + doing, he worked one point of his spontoon into the sash of the grating, + and, levering outwards, he strained until at last it came away completely + in his hands. After that it was an easy matter to shatter the little + latticed window. + </p> + <p> + Having accomplished so much, he turned, and, using his spontoon as before, + he crawled back to the summit of the roof, and made his way rapidly along + this to the spot where he had left Balbi. The monk, reduced by now to a + state of blending despair, terror, and rage, greeted Casanova in terms of + the grossest abuse for having left him there so long. + </p> + <p> + “I was waiting only for daylight,” he concluded, “to return to prison.” + </p> + <p> + “What did you think had become of me?” asked Casanova. + </p> + <p> + “I imagined that you had tumbled off the roof.” + </p> + <p> + “And is this abuse the expression of your joy at finding yourself + mistaken?” + </p> + <p> + “Where have you been all this time?” the monk counter-questioned sullenly. + </p> + <p> + “Come with me and you shall see.” + </p> + <p> + And taking up his bundle again, Casanova led his companion forward until + they were in line with the dormer. There Casanova showed him what he had + done, and consulted him as to the means to be adopted to enter the attic. + It would be too risky for them to allow themselves to drop from the sill, + since the height of the window from the floor was unknown to them, and + might be considerable. It would be easy for one of them to lower the other + by means of the rope. But it was not apparent how, hereafter, the other + was to follow. Thus reasoned Casanova. + </p> + <p> + “You had better lower me, anyhow,” said Balbi, without hesitation; for no + doubt he was very tired of that slippery roof, on which a single false + step might have sent him to his account. “Once I am inside you can + consider ways of following me.” + </p> + <p> + That cold-blooded expression of the fellow's egoism put Casanova in a rage + for the second time since they had left their prison. But, as before, he + conquered it, and without uttering a word he proceeded to unfasten the + coil of rope. Making one end of it secure under Balbi's arms, he bade the + monk lie prone upon the roof, his feet pointing downwards, and then, + paying out rope, he lowered him to the dormer. He then bade him get + through the window as far as the level of his waist, and wait thus, + hanging over and supporting himself upon the sill. When he had obeyed, + Casanova followed, sliding carefully down to the roof of the dormer. + Planting himself firmly, and taking the rope once more, he bade Balbi to + let himself go without fear, and so lowered him to the floor—a + height from the window, as it proved, of some fifty feet. This + extinguished all Casanova's hopes of being able to follow by allowing + himself to drop from the sill. He was dismayed. But the monk, happy to + find himself at last off that accursed roof, and out of all danger of + breaking his neck, called foolishly to Casanova to throw him the rope so + that he might take care of it. + </p> + <p> + “As may be imagined,” says Casanova, “I was careful not to take this + idiotic advice.” + </p> + <p> + Not knowing now what was to become of him unless he could discover some + other means than those at his command, he climbed back again to the summit + of the roof, and started off desperately upon another voyage of discovery. + This time he succeeded better than before. He found about a cupola a + terrace which he had not earlier noticed, and on this terrace a hod of + plaster, a trowel, and a ladder some seventy feet long. He saw his + difficulties solved. He passed an end of rope about one of the rungs, laid + the ladder flat along the slope of the roof, and then, still astride of + the apex, he worked his way back, dragging the ladder with him, until he + was once more on a level with the dormer. + </p> + <p> + But now the difficulty was how to get the ladder through the window, and + he had cause to repent having so hastily deprived himself of his + companion's assistance. He had got the ladder into position, and lowered + it until one of its ends rested upon the dormer, whilst the other + projected some twenty feet beyond the edge of the roof. He slid down to + the dormer, and placing the ladder beside him, drew it up so that he could + reach the eighth rung. To this rung he made fast his rope, then lowered + the ladder again until the upper end of it was in line with the window + through which he sought to introduce it. But he found it impossible to do + so beyond the fifth rung, for at this point the end of the ladder came in + contact with the roof inside, and could be pushed no farther until it was + inclined downward. Now, the only possible way to accomplish this was by + raising the other end. + </p> + <p> + It occurred to him that he might, by so attaching the rope as to bring the + ladder across the window frame, lower himself hand over hand to the floor + of the attic. But in so doing he must have left the ladder there to show + their pursuers in the morning, not merely the way they had gone, but for + all he knew at this stage, the place where they might then be still in + hiding. Having come so far, at so much risk and labour, he was determined + to leave nothing to chance. To accomplish his object then, he made his way + down to the very edge of the roof, sliding carefully on his stomach until + his feet found support against the marble gutter, the ladder meanwhile + remaining hooked by one of its rungs to the sill of the dormer. + </p> + <p> + In that perilous position he lifted his end of the ladder a few inches, + and so contrived to thrust it another foot or so through the window, + whereby its weight was considerably diminished. If he could but get it + another couple of feet farther in he was sure that by returning to the + dormer he would have been able to complete the job. In his anxiety to do + this and to obtain the necessary elevation, he raised himself upon his + knees. + </p> + <p> + But in the very act of making the thrust he slipped, and, clutching wildly + as he went, he shot over the edge of the roof. He found himself hanging + there, suspended above that terrific abyss by his hands and his elbows, + which had convulsively hooked themselves on to the edge of the gutter, so + that he had it on a level with his breast. + </p> + <p> + It was a moment of dread the like of which he was never likely to endure + again in a life that was to know many perils and many hairbreadth escapes. + He could not write of it nearly half a century later without shuddering + and growing sick with horror. + </p> + <p> + A moment he hung there gasping, then almost mechanically, guided by the + sheer instinct of self-preservation, he not merely attempted, but actually + succeeded in raising himself so as to bring his side against the gutter. + Then continuing gradually to raise himself until his waist was on a level + with the edge, he threw the weight of his trunk forward upon the roof, and + slowly brought his right leg up until he had obtained with his knee a + further grip of the gutter. The rest was easy, and you may conceive him as + he lay there on the roof's edge, panting and shuddering for a moment to + regain his breath and nerve. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, the ladder, driven forward by the thrust that had so nearly + cost him his life, had penetrated another three feet through the window, + and hung there immovable. Recovered, he took up his spontoon, which he had + placed in the gutter, and, assisted by it, he climbed back to the dormer. + Almost without further difficulty, he succeeded now in introducing the + ladder until, of its own weight, it swung down into position. + </p> + <p> + A moment later he had joined Balbi in the attic, and together they groped + about in the dark, until finding presently a door, they passed into + another chamber, where they discovered furniture by hurtling against it. + Guided by a faint glimmer of light, Casanova made his way to one of the + windows and opened it. He looked out upon a black abyss, and, having no + knowledge of the locality, and no inclination to adventure himself into + unknown regions, he immediately abandoned all idea of attempting to climb + down. He closed the window again, and going back to the other room, he lay + down on the floor, with the bundle of ropes for a pillow, to wait for + dawn. + </p> + <p> + And so exhausted was he, not only by the efforts of the past hours, and + the terrible experience in which they had culminated, but also because in + the last two days he had scarcely eaten or slept, that straightway, and + greatly to Balbi's indignation and disgust, he fell into a profound sleep. + </p> + <p> + He was aroused three and a half hours later by the clamours and shakings + of the exasperated monk. Protesting that such a sleep at such a time was a + thing inconceivable, Balbi informed him that it had just struck five. + </p> + <p> + It was still dark, but already there was a dim grey glimmer of dawn by + which objects could be faintly discerned. Searching, Casanova found + another door opposite that of the chamber which they had entered earlier. + It was locked, but the lock was a poor one that yielded to half a dozen + blows of the spontoon, and they passed into a little room beyond which by + an open door they came into a long gallery lined with pigeon-holes stuffed + with parchments, which they conceived to be the archives. At the end of + this gallery they found a short flight of stairs, and below that yet + another, which brought them to a glass door. Opening this, they entered a + room which Casanova immediately identified as the ducal chancellery. + Descent from one of its windows would have been easy, but they would have + found themselves in the labyrinth of courts and alleys behind Saint + Mark's, which would not have suited them at all. + </p> + <p> + On a table Casanova found a stout bodkin with a long wooden handle, the + implement used by the secretaries for piercing parchments that were to be + joined by a cord bearing the leaden seals of the Republic. He opened a + desk, and rummaging in it, found a letter addressed to the Proveditor of + Corfu, advising a remittance of three thousand sequins for the repair of + the fortress. He rummaged further, seeking the three thousand sequins, + which he would have appropriated without the least scruple. Unfortunately + they were not there. + </p> + <p> + Quitting the desk, he crossed to the door, not merely to find it locked, + but to discover that it was not the kind of lock that would yield to + blows. There was no way out but by battering away one of the panels, and + to this he addressed himself without hesitation, assisted by Balbi, who + had armed himself with the bodkin, but who trembled fearfully at the noise + of Casanova's blows. There was danger in this, but the danger must be + braved, for time was slipping away. In half an hour they had broken down + all the panel it was possible to remove without the help of a saw. The + opening they had made was at a height of five feet from the ground, and + the splintered woodwork armed it with a fearful array of jagged teeth. + </p> + <p> + They dragged a couple of stools to the door, and getting on to these, + Casanova bade Balbi go first. The long, lean monk folded his arms, and + thrust head and shoulders through the hole; then Casanova lifted him, + first by the waist, then by the legs, and so helped him through into the + room beyond. Casanova threw their bundles after him, and then placing a + third stool on top of the other two, climbed on to it, and, being almost + on a level with the opening, was able to get through as far as his waist, + when Balbi took him in his arms and proceeded to drag him out. But it was + done at the cost of torn breeches and lacerated legs, and when he stood up + in the room beyond he was bleeding freely from the wounds which the jagged + edges of the wood had dealt him. + </p> + <p> + After that they went down two staircases, and came out at last in the + gallery leading to the great doors at the head of that magnificent flight + of steps known as the Giant's Staircase. But these doors—the main + entrance of the palace—were locked, and, at a glance, Casanova saw + that nothing short of a hatchet would serve to open them. There was no + more to be done. + </p> + <p> + With a resignation that seemed to Balbi entirely cynical, Casanova sat + down on the floor. + </p> + <p> + “My task is ended,” he announced. “It is now for Heaven or Chance to do + the rest. I don't know whether the palace cleaners will come here to-day + as it is All Saints', or to-morrow, which will be All Souls'. Should any + one come, I shall run for it the moment the door is opened, and you had + best follow me. If no one comes, I shall not move from here, and if I die + of hunger, so much the worse.” + </p> + <p> + It was a speech that flung the monk into a passion. In burning terms he + reviled Casanova, calling him a madman, a seducer, a deceiver, a liar. + Casanova let him rave. It was just striking six. Precisely an hour had + elapsed since they had left the attic. + </p> + <p> + Balbi, in his red flannel waistcoat and his puce-coloured leather + breeches, might have passed for a peasant; but Casanova, in torn garments + that were soaked in blood, presented an appearance that was terrifying and + suspicious. This he proceeded to repair. Tearing a handkerchief, he made + shift to bandage his wounds, and then from his bundle he took his fine + taffeta summer suit, which on a winter's day must render him ridiculous. + </p> + <p> + He dressed his thick, dark brown hair as best he could, drew on a pair of + white stockings, and donned three lace shirts one over another. His fine + cloak of floss silk he gave to Balbi, who looked for all the world as if + he had stolen it. + </p> + <p> + Thus dressed, his fine hat laced with point of Spain on his head, Casanova + opened a window and looked out. At once he was seen by some idlers in the + courtyard, who, amazed at his appearance there, and conceiving that he + must have been locked in by mistake on the previous day, went off at once + to advise the porter. Meanwhile, Casanova, vexed at having shown himself + where he had not expected any one, and little guessing how excellently + this was to serve his ends, left the window and went to sit beside the + angry friar, who greeted him with fresh revilings. + </p> + <p> + A sound of steps and a rattle of keys stemmed Balbi's reproaches in full + flow. The lock groaned. + </p> + <p> + “Not a word,” said Casanova to the monk, “but follow me.” + </p> + <p> + Holding his spontoon ready, but concealed under his coat, he stepped to + the side of the door. It opened, and the porter, who had come alone and + bareheaded, stared in stupefaction at the strange apparition of Casanova. + </p> + <p> + Casanova took advantage of that paralyzing amazement. Without uttering a + word, he stepped quickly across the threshold, and with Balbi close upon + his heels, he went down the Giant's Staircase in a flash, crossed the + little square, reached the canal, bundled Balbi into the first gondola he + found there, and jumped in after him. + </p> + <p> + “I want to go to Fusine, and quickly,” he announced. “Call another + oarsman.” + </p> + <p> + All was ready, and in a moment the gondola was skimming the canal. Dressed + in his unseasonable suit, and accompanied by the still more ridiculous + figure of Balbi in his gaudy cloak and without a hat, he imagined he would + be taken for a charlatan or an astrologer. + </p> + <p> + The gondola slipped past the custom-house, and took the canal of the + Giudecca. Halfway down this, Casanova put his head out of the little cabin + to address the gondolier in the poop. + </p> + <p> + “Do you think we shall reach Mestre in an hour?” + </p> + <p> + “Mestre?” quoth the gondolier. “But you said Fusine.” + </p> + <p> + “No, no, I said Mestre—at least, I intended to say Mestre.” + </p> + <p> + And so the gondola was headed for Mestre by a gondolier who professed + himself ready to convey his excellency to England if he desired it. + </p> + <p> + The sun was rising, and the water assumed an opalescent hue. It was a + delicious morning, Casanova tells us, and I suspect that never had any + morning seemed to that audacious, amiable rascal as delicious as this upon + which he regained his liberty, which no man ever valued more highly. + </p> + <p> + In spirit he was already safely over the frontiers of the Most Serene + Republic, impatient to transfer his body thither, as he shortly did, + through vicissitudes that are a narrative in themselves, and no part of + this story of his escape from the Piombi and the Venetian Inquisitors of + State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIII. THE NIGHT OF MASQUERADE—The Assassination Of Gustavus III Of + Sweden + </h2> + <p> + Baron Bjelke sprang from his carriage almost before it had come to a + standstill and without waiting for the footman to let down the steps. With + a haste entirely foreign to a person of his station and importance, he + swept into the great vestibule of the palace, and in a quivering voice + flung a question at the first lackey he encountered: + </p> + <p> + “Has His Majesty started yet?” + </p> + <p> + “Not yet, my lord.” + </p> + <p> + The answer lessened his haste, but not his agitation. He cast off the + heavy wolfskin pelisse in which he had been wrapped, and, leaving it in + the hands of the servant, went briskly up the grand staircase, a tall, + youthful figure, very graceful in the suit of black he wore. + </p> + <p> + As he passed through a succession of ante-rooms on his way to the private + apartments of the King, those present observed the pallor of his clean-cut + face under the auburn tie-wig he affected, and the feverish glow of eyes + that took account of no one. They could not guess that Baron Bjelke, the + King's secretary and favourite, carried in his hands the life of his royal + master, or its equivalent in the shape of the secret of the plot to + assassinate him. + </p> + <p> + In many ways Bjelke was no better than the other profligate minions of the + profligate Gustavus of Sweden. But he had this advantage over them, that + his intellect was above their average. He had detected the first signs of + the approach of that storm which the King himself had so heedlessly + provoked. He knew, as much by reason as by intuition, that, in these days + when the neighbouring State of France writhed in the throes of a terrific + revolution against monarchic and aristocratic tyranny, it was not safe for + a king to persist in the abuse of his parasitic power. New ideas of + socialism were in the air. They were spreading through Europe, and it was + not only in France that men accounted it an infamous anachronism that the + great mass of a community should toil and sweat and suffer for the benefit + of an insolent minority. + </p> + <p> + Already had there been trouble with the peasantry in Sweden, and Bjelke + had endangered his position as a royal favourite by presuming to warn his + master. Gustavus III desired amusement, not wisdom, from those about him. + He could not be brought to realize the responsibilities which kingship + imposes upon a man. It has been pretended that he was endowed with great + gifts of mind. He may have been, though the thing has been pretended of so + many princes that one may be sceptical where evidence is lacking. If he + possessed those gifts, he succeeded wonderfully in concealing them under a + nature that was frivolously gay, dissolute, and extravagant. + </p> + <p> + His extravagance forced him into monstrous extortions when only a madman + would have wasted in profligacy the wealth so cruelly wrung from + long-suffering subjects. From extortion he was driven by his desperate + need of money into flagrant dishonesty. At a stroke of the pen he had + reduced the value of the paper currency by one-third—a reduction so + violent and sudden that, whilst it impoverished many, it involved some in + absolute ruin—and this that he might gratify his appetite for + magnificence and enrich the rapacious favourites who shared his + profligacy. + </p> + <p> + The unrest in the kingdom spread. It was no longer a question of the + resentment of a more or less docile peasantry whose first stirrings of + revolt were easily quelled. The lesser nobility of Sweden were angered by + a measure—following upon so many others—that bore peculiarly + heavily upon themselves; and out of that anger, fanned by one man—John + Jacob Ankarstrom—who had felt the vindictive spirit of royal + injustice, flamed in secret the conspiracy against the King's life which + Bjelke had discovered. + </p> + <p> + He had discovered it by the perilous course of joining the conspirators. + He had won their confidence, and they recognized that his collaboration + was rendered invaluable by the position he held so near the King. And in + his subtle wisdom, at considerable danger to himself, Bjelke had kept his + counsel. He had waited until now, until the moment when the blow was about + to fall, before making the disclosure which should not only save Gustavus, + but enable him to cast a net in which all the plotters must be caught. And + he hoped that when Gustavus perceived the narrowness of his escape, and + the reality of the dangers amid which he walked, he would consider the + wisdom of taking another course in future. + </p> + <p> + He had reached the door of the last ante-chamber, when a detaining hand + was laid upon his arm. He found himself accosted by a page—the + offspring of one of the noblest families in Sweden, and the son of one of + Bjelke's closest friends, a fair-haired, impudent boy to whom the + secretary permitted a certain familiarity. + </p> + <p> + “Are you on your way to the King, Baron?” the lad inquired. + </p> + <p> + “I am, Carl. What is it?” + </p> + <p> + “A letter for His Majesty—a note fragrant as a midsummer rose—which + a servant has just delivered to me. Will you take it?” + </p> + <p> + “Give it to me, impudence,” said Bjelke, the ghost of a smile lighting for + a moment his white face. + </p> + <p> + He took the letter and passed on into the last antechamber, which was + empty of all but a single chamberlain-in-waiting. This chamberlain bowed + respectfully to the Baron. + </p> + <p> + “His Majesty?” said Bjelke. + </p> + <p> + “He is dressing. Shall I announce Your Excellency?” + </p> + <p> + “Pray do.” + </p> + <p> + The chamberlain vanished, and Bjelke was left alone. Waiting, he stood + there, idly fingering the scented note he had received from the page. As + he turned it in his fingers the superscription came uppermost, and he + turned it no more. His eyes lost their absorbed look, their glance + quickened into attention, a frown shaped itself between them like a scar; + his breathing, suspended a moment, was renewed with a gasp. He stepped + aside to a table bearing a score of candles clustered in a massive silver + branch, and held the note so that the light fell full upon the writing. + </p> + <p> + Standing thus, he passed a hand over his eyes and stared again, two hectic + spots burning now in his white cheeks. Abruptly, disregarding the + superscription, his trembling fingers snapped the blank seal and unfolded + the letter addressed to his royal master. He was still reading when the + chamberlain returned to announce that the King was pleased to see the + Baron at once. He did not seem to hear the announcement. His attention was + all upon the letter, his lips drawn back from his teeth in a grin, and + beads of perspiration glistening upon his brow. + </p> + <p> + “His Majesty—” the chamberlain was beginning to repeat, when he + broke off suddenly. “Your Excellency is ill?” + </p> + <p> + “Ill?” + </p> + <p> + Bjelke stared at him with glassy eyes. He crumpled the letter in his hand + and stuffed one and the other into the pocket of his black satin coat. He + attempted to laugh to reassure the startled chamberlain, and achieved a + ghastly grimace. + </p> + <p> + “I must not keep His Majesty waiting,” he said thickly, and stumbled on, + leaving in the chamberlain's mind a suspicion that His Majesty's secretary + was not quite sober. + </p> + <p> + But Bjelke so far conquered his emotion that he was almost his usual + imperturbable self when he reached the royal dressing-room; indeed, he no + longer displayed even the agitation that had possessed him when first he + entered the palace. + </p> + <p> + Gustavus, a slight, handsome man of a good height, was standing before a + cheval-glass when Bjelke came in. Francois, the priceless valet His + Majesty had brought back from his last pleasure-seeking visit to + pre-revolutionary Paris some five years ago, was standing back judicially + to consider the domino he had just placed upon the royal shoulders. Baron + Armfelt whom the conspirators accused of wielding the most sinister of all + the sinister influences that perverted the King's mind—dressed from + head to foot in shimmering white satin, lounged on a divan with all the + easy familiarity permitted to this most intimate of courtiers, the + associate of all royal follies. + </p> + <p> + Gustavus looked over his shoulder as he entered. + </p> + <p> + “Why, Bjelke,” he exclaimed, “I thought you had gone into the country!” + </p> + <p> + “I am at a loss,” replied Bjelke, “to imagine what should have given Your + Majesty so mistaken an impression.” And he might have smiled inwardly to + observe how his words seemed to put Gustavus out of countenance. + </p> + <p> + The King laughed, nevertheless, with an affectation of ease. + </p> + <p> + “I inferred it from your absence from Court on such a night. What has been + keeping you?” But, without waiting for an answer, he fired another + question. “What do you say to my domino, Bjelke?” + </p> + <p> + It was a garment embroidered upon a black satin ground with tongues of + flame so cunningly wrought in mingling threads of scarlet and gold that as + he turned about now they flashed in the candlelight, and seemed to leap + like tongues of living fire. + </p> + <p> + “Your Majesty will have a great success,” said Bjelke, and to himself + relished the full grimness of his joke. For a terrible joke it was, seeing + that he no longer intended to discharge the errand which had brought him + in such haste to the palace. + </p> + <p> + “Faith, I deserve it!” was the flippant answer, and he turned again to the + mirror to adjust a patch on the left side of his chin. “There is genius in + this domino, and it is not the genius of Francois, for the scheme of + flames is my very own, the fruit of a deal of thought and study.” + </p> + <p> + There Gustavus uttered his whole character. As a master of the revels, or + an opera impresario, this royal rake would have been a complete success in + life. The pity of it was that the accident of birth should have robed him + in the royal purple. Like many another prince who has come to a violent + end, he was born to the wrong metier. + </p> + <p> + “I derived the notion,” he continued, “from a sanbenito in a Goya + picture.” + </p> + <p> + “An ominous garb,” said Bjelke, smiling curiously. “The garment of the + sinner on his way to penitential doom.” + </p> + <p> + Armfelt cried out in a protest of mock horror, but Gustavus laughed + cynically. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I confess that it would be most apt. I had not thought of it.” + </p> + <p> + His fingers sought a pomatum box, and in doing so displaced a toilet-case + of red morocco. An oblong paper package fell from the top of this and + arrested the King's attention. + </p> + <p> + “Why, what is this?” He took it up—a letter bearing the + superscription: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + To His MAJESTY THE KING + SECRET AND IMPORTANT +</pre> + <p> + “What is this, Francois?” The royal voice was suddenly sharp. + </p> + <p> + The valet glided forward, whilst Armfelt rose from the divan and, like + Bjelke, attracted by the sudden change in the King's tone and manner, drew + near his master. + </p> + <p> + “How comes this letter here?” + </p> + <p> + The valet's face expressed complete amazement. It must have been placed + there in his absence an hour ago, after he had made all preparations for + the royal toilette. It was certainly not there at the time, or he must + have seen it. + </p> + <p> + With impatient fingers Gustavus snapped the seal and unfolded the letter. + Awhile he stood reading, very still, his brows knit. + </p> + <p> + Then, with a contemptuous “Poof!” he handed it to his secretary. + </p> + <p> + At a glance Bjelke recognized the hand for that of Colonel Lillehorn, one + of the conspirators, whose courage had evidently failed him in the + eleventh hour. He read: + </p> + <p> + SIRE,—Deign to heed the warning of one who, not being in your + service, nor solicitous of your favours, flatters not your crimes, and yet + desires to avert the danger threatening you. There is a plot to + assassinate you which would by now have been executed but for the + countermanding of the ball at the opera last week. What was not done then + will certainly be done to-night if you afford the opportunity. Remain at + home and avoid balls and public gatherings for the rest of the year; thus + the fanaticism which aims at your life will evaporate. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know the writing?” Gustavus asked. + </p> + <p> + Bjelke shrugged. “The hand will be disguised, no doubt,” he evaded. + </p> + <p> + “But you will heed the warning, Sire?” exclaimed, Armfelt, who had read + over the secretary's shoulder, and whose face had paled in reading. + </p> + <p> + Gustavus laughed contemptuously. “Faith, if I were to heed every + scaremonger, I should get but little amusement out of life.” + </p> + <p> + Yet he was angry, as his shifting colour showed. The disrespectful tone of + the anonymous communication moved him more deeply than its actual message. + He toyed a moment with a hair-ribbon, his nether lip thrust out in + thought. At last he rapped out an oath of vexation, and proffered the + ribbon to his valet. + </p> + <p> + “My hair, Francois,” said he, “and then we will be going.” + </p> + <p> + “Going!” + </p> + <p> + It was an ejaculation of horror from Armfelt, whose face was now as white + as the ivory-coloured suit he wore. + </p> + <p> + “What else? Am I to be intimidated out of my pleasures?” Yet that his + heart was less stout than his words his very next question showed. + “Apropos, Bjelke, what was the reason why you countermanded the ball last + week?” + </p> + <p> + “The councillors from Gefle claimed Your Majesty's immediate attention,” + Bjelke reminded him. + </p> + <p> + “So you said at the time. But the business seemed none so urgent when we + came to it. There was no other reason in your mind—no suspicion?” + </p> + <p> + His keen, dark blue eyes were fixed upon the pale masklike face of the + secretary. + </p> + <p> + That grave, almost stern countenance relaxed into a smile. + </p> + <p> + “I suspected no more than I suspect now,” was his easy equivocation. “And + all that I suspect now is that some petty enemy is attempting to scare + Your Majesty.” + </p> + <p> + “To scare me?” Gustavus flushed to the temples. “Am I a man to be scared?” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, but consider, Sire, and you, Bjelke,” Armfelt was bleating. “This may + be a friendly warning. In all humility, Sire, let me suggest that you + incur no risk; that you countermand the masquerade.” + </p> + <p> + “And permit the insolent writer to boast that he frightened the King?” + sneered Bjelke. + </p> + <p> + “Faith, Baron, you are right. The thing is written with intent to make a + mock of me.” + </p> + <p> + “But if it were not so, Sire?” persisted the distressed Armfelt. And + volubly he argued now to impose caution, reminding the King of his + enemies, who might, indeed, be tempted to go the lengths of which the + anonymous writer spoke. Gustavus listened, and was impressed. + </p> + <p> + “If I took heed of every admonition,” he said, “I might as well become a + monk at once. And yet—” He took his chin in his hand, and stood + thoughtful, obviously hesitating, his head bowed, his straight, graceful + figure motionless. + </p> + <p> + Thus until Bjelke, who now desired above all else the very thing he had + come hot-foot to avert, broke the silence to undo what Armfelt had done. + </p> + <p> + “Sire,” he said, “you may avoid both mockery and danger, and yet attend + the masquerade. Be sure, if there is indeed a plot, the assassins will be + informed of the disguise you are to wear. Give me your flame-studded + domino, and take a plain black one for yourself.” + </p> + <p> + Armfelt gasped at the audacity of the proposal, but Gustavus gave no sign + that he had heard. He continued standing in that tense attitude, his eyes + vague and dreamy. And as if to show along what roads of thought his mind + was travelling, he uttered a single word a name—in a questioning + voice scarce louder than a whisper. + </p> + <p> + Ankarstrom? + </p> + <p> + Later again he was to think of Ankarstrom, to make inquiries concerning + him, which justifies us here in attempting to follow those thoughts of + his. They took the road down which his conscience pointed. Above all + Swedes he had cause to fear John Jacobi Ankarstrom, for, foully as he had + wronged many men in his time, he had wronged none more deeply than that + proud, high-minded nobleman. He hated Ankarstrom as we must always hate + those whom we have wronged, and he hated him the more because he knew + himself despised by Ankarstrom with a cold and deadly contempt that at + every turn proclaimed itself. + </p> + <p> + That hatred was more than twenty years old. It dated back to the time when + Gustavus had been a vicious youth, and Ankarstrom himself a boy. They were + much of an age. Gustavus had put upon his young companion an infamous + insult, which had been answered by a blow. His youth and the admitted + provocation alone had saved Ankarstrom from the dread consequence of + striking a Prince of the Royal Blood. But they had not saved him from the + vindictiveness of Gustavus. He had kept his lust of vengeance warm, and + very patiently had he watched and waited for his opportunity to destroy + the man, who had struck him. + </p> + <p> + That chance had come four years ago—in 1788—during the war + with Russia. Ankarstrom commanded the forces defending the island of + Gothland. These forces were inadequate for the task, nor was the island in + a proper state of defence, being destitute of forts. To have persevered in + resistance might have been heroic, but it would have been worse than + futile, for not only would it have entailed the massacre of the garrison, + but it must have further subjected the inhabitants to all the horrors of + sack and pillage. + </p> + <p> + In the circumstances, Ankarstrom had conceived it his duty to surrender to + the superior force of Russia, thereby securing immunity for the persons + and property of the inhabitants. In this the King perceived his chance to + indulge his hatred. He caused Ankarstrom to be arrested and accused of + high treason, it being alleged against him that he had advised the people + of Gothland not to take up arms against the Russians. The royal agents + found witnesses to bear false evidence against Ankarstrom, with the result + that he was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment in a fortress. But the + sentence was never carried out. Gustavus had gone too far, as he was soon + made aware. The feelings against him which hitherto had smouldered flamed + out at this crowning act of injustice, and to repair his error Gustavus + made haste, not, indeed, to exonerate Ankarstrom from the charges brought + against him, but to pardon him for his alleged offences. + </p> + <p> + When the Swedish nobleman was brought to Court to receive this pardon, he + used it as a weapon against the King whom he despised. + </p> + <p> + “My unjust judges,” he announced in a ringing voice, the echoes of which + were carried to the ends of Sweden, “have never doubted in their hearts my + innocence of the charges brought against me, and established by means of + false witnesses. The judgment pronounced against me was unrighteous. This + exemption from it is my proper due. Yet I would rather perish through the + enmity of the King than live dishonoured by his clemency.” + </p> + <p> + Gustavus had set his teeth in rage when those fierce words were reported + to him, and his rage had been increased when he was informed of the + cordial reception which everywhere awaited Ankarstrom on his release. He + perceived how far he had overshot his mark, and how, in seeking + treacherously to hurt Ankarstrom, he had succeeded only in hurting + himself. Nor had he appeased the general indignation by his pardon. True, + the flame of revolt had been quelled. But he had no lack of evidence that + the fire continued to burn steadily in secret, and to eat its way further + and further into the ranks of noble and simple alike. + </p> + <p> + It is little wonder, then, that in this moment, with that warning lying + there before him, the name of Ankarstrom should be on his lips, the + thought of Ankarstrom, the fear of Ankarstrom, looming big in his mind. It + was big enough to make him heed the warning. He dropped into a chair. + </p> + <p> + “I will not go,” he said, and Bjelke saw that his face was white, his + hands shaking. + </p> + <p> + But when the secretary had repeated the proposal which had earlier gone + unheard, Gustavus caught at it with sudden avidity, and with but little + concern for the danger that Bjelke might be running. He sprang up, + applauding it. If a conspiracy there was, the conspirators would thus be + trapped; if there were no conspiracy, then this attempt to frighten him + should come to nothing; thus he would be as safe from the mockery of his + enemies as from their knives. Nor did Armfelt protest or make further + attempts to dissuade him from going. In the circumstances proposed by + Bjelke, the risk would be Bjelke's, a matter which troubled Armfelt not at + all; indeed, he had no cause to love Bjelke, in whom he beheld a + formidable rival, and it would be to him no cause for tears if the knife + intended for the royal vitals should find its way into Bjelke's instead. + </p> + <p> + So Baron Bjelke, arrayed in the domino copied from the penitential sack, + departed for the Opera House, leaving Gustavus to follow. Yet, despite the + measure of precaution, no sooner had the masked King himself entered the + crowded theatre, leaning upon the arm of the Count of Essen, than he + conceived that he beheld confirmation of the warning, and regretted that + he had not heeded it to the extent of remaining absent. For one of the + first faces he beheld, one of the few unmasked faces in that brilliantly + lit salon, was the face of Ankarstrom, and Ankarstrom appeared to be + watching the entrance. + </p> + <p> + Gustavus checked in his stride, a tremor ran through him, and he stiffened + in his sudden apprehension, for the sight of the tall figure and haughty, + resolute face of the nobleman he had wronged was of more significance than + at first might seem. Ever since his infamous trial Ankarstrom had been at + pains to seize every occasion of marking his contempt for his Prince. + Never did he fail upon the King's appearance in any gathering of which he + was a member to withdraw immediately; and never once had he been known + deliberately to attend any function which was to be graced by the presence + of Gustavus. How, then, came he here to this ball given by the King's own + command unless he came for the fell purpose of which the letter had given + warning? + </p> + <p> + The King's impulse was to withdraw immediately. He was taken by a curious, + an almost unreasoning, fear that was quite foreign to him, who, for all + his faults, had never yet lacked courage. But, even as he hesitated, a + figure swept past him in a domino flecked with flames, surrounded by + revellers of both sexes, and he remembered that if Ankarstrom were bent on + evil his attention would be held by that figure before which the crowd + fell back, and opened out respectfully, believing it to be the King's. Yet + none the less it was Gustavus himself that Ankarstrom continued to regard + in such a way that the King had a feeling that his mask was made of glass. + </p> + <p> + And then quite suddenly, even as he was on the point of turning, another + wave of revellers swept frantically up, and in a moment Gustavus and the + Count of Essen were surrounded. Another moment and the buffeting crowd had + separated him from his grand equerry. He found himself alone in the centre + of this knot of wild fellows who, seeming to mistake him for one of + themselves, forced him onward with them in their career. For a moment he + attempted to resist. But as well might he have resisted a torrent. Their + rush was not to be stemmed. It almost swept him from his feet, and to save + himself he must perforce abandon himself to the impetus. Thus he was + swirled away across the floor of the amphitheatre, helpless as a swimmer + in strong waters, and with the fear of the drowning clutching now at his + heart. + </p> + <p> + He had an impulse to unmask, proclaim himself, and compel the respect that + was his due. But to do so might be to expose himself to the very danger of + whose presence he was now convinced. His only hope must lie in allowing + himself to be borne passively along until a chance opening allowed him to + escape from these madmen. + </p> + <p> + The stage had been connected with the floor of the theatre by a broad + flight of wooden steps. Up this flight he was carried by that human wave. + But on the stage itself he found an anchorage at last against one of the + wings. Breathing hard, he set his back to it, waiting for the wave to + sweep on and leave him. Instead, it paused and came to rest with him, and + in that moment some one touched him on the shoulder. He turned his head, + and looked into the set face of Ankarstrom, who was close behind him. Then + a burning, rending pain took him in his side, and he grew sick and dizzy. + The uproar of voices became muffled; the lights were merged into a + luminous billow that swelled and shrank and then went out altogether. + </p> + <p> + The report of the pistol had been lost in the general din to all but those + who stood near the spot where it had been fired. And these found + themselves suddenly borne backwards by the little crowd of maskers that + fell away from the figure lying prone and bleeding on the stage. + </p> + <p> + Voices were raised, shouting “Fire! Fire!” Thus the conspirators sought to + create confusion, that they might disperse and lose themselves in the + general crowd. That confusion, however, was very brief. It was stemmed + almost immediately by the Count of Essen, who leapt up the steps to the + stage with a premonition of what had happened. He stooped to rip away the + mask from the face of the victim, and, beholding, as he had feared, the + livid countenance of his King, he stood up, himself almost as pale. + </p> + <p> + “Murder has been done!” he roared. “Let the doors be closed and guarded, + and let no one leave the theatre.” Instantly was his bidding done by the + officers of the guard. + </p> + <p> + Those of the King's household who were in attendance came forward now to + raise Gustavus, and help to bear him to a couch. There presently he + recovered consciousness, whilst a physician was seeing to his hurt, and as + soon as he realized his condition his manner became so calm that, himself, + he took command of the situation. He issued orders that the gates of the + city should be closed against everybody, whilst himself apologizing to the + Prussian minister who was near him for issuing that inconvenient but + necessary order. + </p> + <p> + “The gates shall remain closed for three days, sir,” he announced. “During + that time you will not be able to correspond with your Court; but your + intelligence, when it goes, will be more certain, since by that time it + should be known whether I can survive or not.” + </p> + <p> + His next order, delivered in a voice that was broken by his intense + suffering, was to the chamberlain Benzelstjerna, commanding that all + present should unmask and sign their names in a book before being suffered + to depart. That done, he bade them bear him home on the couch on which he + had been placed that he might be spared the agony of more movement than + was necessary. + </p> + <p> + Thus his grenadiers bore him on their shoulders, lighted by torches, + through the streets that were now thronged, for the rumour had now gone + forth that the King was dead, and troops had been called out to keep + order. Beside him walked Armfelt in his suit of shimmering white satin, + weeping at once for his King and for himself, for he knew that he was of + those who must fall with Gustavus. And, knowing this, there was bitter + rage in his heart against the men who had wrought this havoc, a rage that + sharpened his wits to an unusual acuteness. + </p> + <p> + At last the King was once more in his apartments awaiting the physicians + who were to pronounce his fate, and Armfelt kept him company among others, + revolving in his mind the terrible suspicion he had formed. + </p> + <p> + Presently came Duke Charles, the King's brother, and Benzelstjerna with + the list of those who had been present at the ball. + </p> + <p> + “Tell me,” he asked, before the list was read to him, “is the name of + Ankarstrom included in it?” + </p> + <p> + “He was the last to sign, Sire,” replied the chamberlain. + </p> + <p> + The King smiled grimly. “Tell Lillesparre to have him arrested and + questioned.” + </p> + <p> + Armfelt flung forward. “There is another who should be arrested, too!” he + cried fiercely. And added, “Bjelke!” + </p> + <p> + “Bjelke?” + </p> + <p> + The King echoed the name almost in anger at the imputation. Armfelt spoke + torrentially. “It was he persuaded you to go against your own judgment + when you had the warning, and at last induced you to it by offering to + assume your own domino. If the assassins sought the King, how came they to + pass over one who wore the King's domino, and to penetrate your own + disguise that was like a dozen others? Because they were informed of the + change. But by whom—by whom? Who was it knew?” + </p> + <p> + “My God!” groaned the unfortunate King, who had in his time broken faith + with so many, and was now to suffer the knowledge of this broken faith in + one whom he had trusted above all others. + </p> + <p> + Baron Bjelke was arrested an hour later, arrested in the very act of + entering his own home. The men of Lillesparre's police had preceded him + thither to await his return. He was quite calm when they surged suddenly + about him, laid hands upon him, and formally pronounced him their + prisoner. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose,” he said, “it was to have been inferred. Allow me to take my + leave of the Baroness, and I shall be at your disposal.” + </p> + <p> + “My orders, Baron, are explicit,” he was answered by the officer in + charge. “I am not to suffer you out of my sight.” + </p> + <p> + “How? Am I to be denied so ordinary a boon?” His voice quivered with + sudden anger and something else. + </p> + <p> + “Such are my orders, Baron.” + </p> + <p> + Bjelke pleaded for five minutes' grace for that leavetaking. But the + officer had his orders. He was no more than a machine. The Baron raised + his clenched hands in mute protest to the heavens, then let them fall + heavily. + </p> + <p> + “Very well,” he said, and suffered them to thrust him back into his + carriage and carry him away to the waiting Lillesparre. + </p> + <p> + He found Armfelt in the office of the chief of the police, haranguing + Ankarstrom, who was already there under arrest. The favourite broke off as + Bjelke was brought in. + </p> + <p> + “You were privy to this infamy, Bjelke,” he cried. “If the King does not + recover—” + </p> + <p> + “He will not recover.” It was the cold, passionless voice of Ankarstrom + that spoke. “My pistol was loaded with rusty nails. I intended to make + quite sure of ridding my country of that perjured tyrant.” + </p> + <p> + Armfelt stared at the prisoner a moment with furious, bloodshot eyes. Then + he broke into imprecations, stemmed only when Lillesparre ordered + Ankarstrom to be removed. When he was gone, the chief of police turned to + Bjelke. + </p> + <p> + “It grieves me, Baron, that we should meet thus, and it is with difficulty + that I can believe what is alleged against you. Baron Armfelt is perhaps + rendered hasty by his grief and righteous anger. But I hope that you will + be able to explain—at least to deny your concern in this horrible + deed.” + </p> + <p> + Very tense and white stood Bjelke. + </p> + <p> + “I have an explanation that should satisfy you as a man of honour,” he + said quietly, “but not as chief of the police. I joined this conspiracy + that I might master its scope and learn the intentions of the plotters. It + was a desperate thing I did out of love and loyalty to the King, and I + succeeded. I came to-night to the palace with information which should not + only have saved the King's life, but would have enabled him to smother the + conspiracy for all time. On the threshold of his room this letter for the + King was delivered into my hands. Read it, Lillesparre, that you may know + precisely what manner of master you serve, that you may understand how + Gustavus of Sweden recompenses love and loyalty. Read it, and tell me how + you would have acted in my place!” + </p> + <p> + And he flung the letter on to the writing-table at which sat Lillesparre. + </p> + <p> + The chief of police took it up, began to read, turned back to the + superscription, then resumed his reading, a dull flush overspreading his + face. Over his shoulder Armfelt, too, was reading. But Bjelke cared not. + Let all the world behold that advertisement of royal infamy, that + incriminating love-letter from Bjelke's wife to the King who had + dishonoured him. + </p> + <p> + Lillesparre was stricken dumb. He dared not raise his eyes to meet the + glance of the prisoner. But the shameless Armfelt sucked in a breath of + understanding. + </p> + <p> + “You admit your guilt, then?” he snarled. + </p> + <p> + “That I sent the monster to the masquerade, knowing that there the blessed + hand of Ankarstrom would give him his passport out of a world he had + befouled—yes.” + </p> + <p> + “The rack shall make you yield the name of every one of the conspirators.” + </p> + <p> + “The rack!” Bjelke smiled disdainfully, and shrugged. “Your men, + Lillesparre, were very prompt and very obdurate. They would not allow me + to take leave of the Baroness, so that she has escaped me. But I am not + sure that it is not a fitter vengeance to let her live and remember. That + letter may now be delivered to the King, for whom it is intended. Its fond + messages may lighten the misery of his remaining hours.” + </p> + <p> + His face was contorted, with rage, thought Armfelt, who watched him, but + in reality with pain caused by the poison that was corroding his vitals. + He had drained a little phial just before stepping into the presence of + Lillesparre, as they discovered upon inquiries made after he had collapsed + dead at their feet. + </p> + <p> + This caused them to bring back Ankarstrom, that he might be searched, lest + he, too, should take some similar way of escaping them. When he search was + done, having discovered nothing, Lillesparre commanded that he should not + have knife or fork or metal comb, or anything with which he might take his + life. + </p> + <p> + “You need not fear that I shall seek to evade the sacrifice,” he assured + them, his demeanour haughty, his eyes aglow with fanatic zeal. “It is the + price I pay for having rid Nature of a monster and my country of a false, + perjured tyrant, and I pay it gladly.” As he ceased he smiled, and drew + from the gold lace of his sleeve a surgeon's lancet. “This was supplied me + against my need to open a vein. But the laws of God and man may require my + death upon the scaffold.” + </p> + <p> + And, smiling, he placed the lancet on Lillesparre's table. + </p> + <p> + Upon his conviction execution followed, and it lasted three days—from + April 19th to 21 st—being attended by all the horrible and gradual + torturings reserved for regicides. Yet possibly he did not suffer more + than his victim, whose agony had lasted for thirteen days, and who + perished miserably in the consciousness that he deserved his fate, whilst + Ankarstrom was uplifted and fortified by his fanaticism. + </p> + <p> + The scaffold was erected on the Stora Torget, facing the Opera House of + Stockholm, where the assassination had taken place. Thence the dismembered + remains of Ankarstrom were conveyed to the ordinary gallows in the suburb + of Sodermalm to be exhibited, the right hand being nailed below the head. + Under this hand on the morrow was found a tablet bearing the legend: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Blessed the hand + That saved the Fatherland. +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Historical Nights' Entertainment, by +Rafael Sabatini + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT *** + +***** This file should be named 2636-h.htm or 2636-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/3/2636/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer, and David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation” + or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +“Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.” + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +“Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + </body> +</html> diff --git a/2636.txt b/2636.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5f1dda --- /dev/null +++ b/2636.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12193 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Historical Nights' Entertainment, by Rafael +Sabatini + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost +no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use +it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this +eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Historical Nights' Entertainment + +Author: Rafael Sabatini + +Release Date: December 22, 2008 [EBook #2636] + +Last Updated: August 24, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer, and David Widger + + + + + + + + + +THE HISTORICAL NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT + +First Series + + +By Rafael Sabatini + + + + + +PREFACE + +In approaching "The Historical Nights' Entertainment" I set myself the +task of reconstructing, in the fullest possible detail and with all the +colour available from surviving records, a group of more or less famous +events. I would select for my purpose those which were in themselves +bizarre and resulting from the interplay of human passions, and whilst +relating each of these events in the form of a story, I would compel +that story scrupulously to follow the actual, recorded facts without +owing anything to fiction, and I would draw upon my imagination, if at +all, merely as one might employ colour to fill in the outlines which +history leaves grey, taking care that my colour should be as true to +nature as possible. For dialogue I would depend upon such scraps +of actual speech as were chronicled in each case, amplifying it by +translating into terms of speech the paraphrases of contemporary +chroniclers. + +Such was the task I set myself. I am aware that it has been attempted +once or twice already, beginning, perhaps, with the "Crimes Celebres" +of Alexandre Dumas. I am not aware that the attempt has ever succeeded. +This is not to say that I claim success in the essays that follow. How +nearly I may have approached success--judged by the standard I had set +myself--how far I may have fallen short, my readers will discern. I +am conscious, however, of having in the main dutifully resisted the +temptation to take the easier road, to break away from restricting fact +for the sake of achieving a more intriguing narrative. In one instance, +however, I have quite deliberately failed, and in some others I have +permitted myself certain speculations to resolve mysteries of which no +explanation has been discovered. Of these it is necessary that I should +make a full confession. + +My deliberate failure is "The Night of Nuptials." I discovered an +allusion to the case of Charles the Bold and Sapphira Danvelt in +Macaulay's "History of England"--quoted from an old number of the +"Spectator"--whilst I was working upon the case of Lady Alice Lisle. +There a similar episode is mentioned as being related of Colonel Kirke, +but discredited because known for a story that has a trick of springing +up to attach itself to unscrupulous captains. I set out to track it to +its source, and having found its first appearance to be in connection +with Charles the Bold's German captain Rhynsault, I attempted to +reconstruct the event as it might have happened, setting it at least in +surroundings of solid fact. + +My most flagrant speculation occurs in "The Night of Hate." But in +defence of it I can honestly say that it is at least no more flagrant +than the speculations on this subject that have become enshrined in +history as facts. In other words, I claim for my reconstruction of the +circumstances attending the mysterious death of Giovanni Borgia, Duke of +Gandia, that it no more lacks historical authority than do any other +of the explanatory narratives adopted by history to assign the guilt to +Gandia's brother, Cesare Borgia. + +In the "Cambridge Modern History" our most authoritative writers on this +epoch have definitely pronounced that there is no evidence acceptable +to historians to support the view current for four centuries that Cesare +Borgia was the murderer. + +Elsewhere I have dealt with this at length. Here let it suffice to say +that it was not until nine months after the deed that the name of Cesare +Borgia was first associated with it; that public opinion had in the mean +time assigned the guilt to a half-dozen others in succession; that no +motive for the crime is discoverable in the case of Cesare; that the +motives advanced will not bear examination, and that they bear on the +face of them the stamp of having been put forward hastily to support +an accusation unscrupulously political in purpose; that the first men +accused by the popular voice were the Cardinal Vice-Chancellor Ascanio +Sforza and his nephew Giovanni Sforza, Tyrant of Pesaro; and, finally, +that in Matarazzo's "Chronicles of Perugia" there is a fairly detailed +account of how the murder was perpetrated by the latter. + +Matarazzo, I confess, is worthy of no more credit than any other of the +contemporary reporters of common gossip. But at least he is worthy of no +less. And it is undeniable that in Sforza's case a strong motive for the +murder was not lacking. + +My narrative in "The Night of Hate" is admittedly a purely theoretical +account of the crime. But it is closely based upon all the known facts +of incidence and of character; and if there is nothing in the surviving +records that will absolutely support it, neither is there anything that +can absolutely refute it. + +In "The Night of Masquerade" I am guilty of quite arbitrarily +discovering a reason to explain the mystery of Baron Bjelke's sudden +change from the devoted friend and servant of Gustavus III of Sweden +into his most bitter enemy. That speculation is quite indefensible, +although affording a possible explanation of that mystery. In the case +of "The Night of Kirk o' Field," on the other hand, I do not think any +apology is necessary for my reconstruction of the precise manner in +which Darnley met his death. The event has long been looked upon as one +of the mysteries of history--the mystery lying in the fact that whilst +the house at Kirk o' Field was destroyed by an explosion, Darnley's body +was found at some distance away, together with that of his page, bearing +every evidence of death by strangulation. The explanation I adopt seems +to me to owe little to speculation. + +In the story of Antonio Perez--"The Night of Betrayal"--I have permitted +myself fewer liberties with actual facts than might appear. I have +closely followed his own "Relacion," which, whilst admittedly a piece +of special pleading, must remain the most authoritative document of the +events with which it deals. All that I have done has been to reverse +the values as Perez presents them, throwing the personal elements into +higher relief than the political ones, and laying particular stress upon +the matter of his relations with the Princess of Eboli. "The Night of +Betrayal" is presented in the form of a story within a story. Of the +containing story let me say that whilst to some extent it is fictitious, +it is by no means entirely so. There is enough to justify most of it in +the "Relaciori" itself. + +The exceptions mentioned being made, I hope it may be found that I have +adhered rigorously to my purpose of owing nothing to invention in my +attempt to flesh and clothe these few bones of history. + +I should add, perhaps, that where authorities differ as to motives, +where there is a conflict of evidence as to the facts themselves, or +where the facts admit of more than one interpretation, I have permitted +myself to be selective, and confined myself to a point of view adopted +at the outset. + +R. S. + +LONDON, August, 1917 + + + + + + + +Contents + +PREFACE + +THE HISTORICAL NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT + +I. THE NIGHT OF HOLYROOD--The Murder of David Rizzio II. THE NIGHT OF +KIRK O' FIELD--The Murder of Darnley III. THE NIGHT OF BETRAYAL--Antonio +Perez and Philip II of Spain IV. THE NIGHT OF CHARITY--The Case Of +The Lady Alice Lisle V. THE NIGHT OF MASSACRE--The Story Of The Saint +Bartholomew VI. THE NIGHT OF WITCHCRAFT--Louis XIV and Madame De +Montespan VII. THE NIGHT OF GEMS--The "Affairs" Of The Queen's Necklace +VIII. THE NIGHT OF TERROR--The Drownings At Nantes Under Carrier +IX. THE NIGHT OF NUPTIALS--Charles The Bold And Sapphira Danvelt X. THE +NIGHT OF STRANGLERS--Govanna Of Naples And Andreas Of Hungary XI. +THE NIGHT OF HATE--The Murder Of The Duke Of Gandia XII. THE NIGHT +OF ESCAPE--Casanova's Escape From The Piombi XIII. THE NIGHT OF +MASQUERADE--The Assassination Of Gustavus III Of Sweden + + + + + + +THE HISTORICAL NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT + + + + +I. THE NIGHT OF HOLYROOD--The Murder of David Rizzio + +The tragedy of my Lord Darnley's life lay in the fact that he was a +man born out of his proper station--a clown destined to kingship by the +accident of birth and fortune. By the blood royal flowing in his veins, +he could, failing others, have claimed succession to both the English +and the Scottish thrones, whilst by his marriage with Mary Stuart he +made a definite attempt to possess himself of that of Scotland. + +The Queen of Scots, enamoured for a season of the clean-limbed grace and +almost feminine beauty ("ladyfaced," Melville had called him once) of +this "long lad of nineteen" who came a-wooing her, had soon discovered, +in matrimony, his vain, debauched, shiftless, and cowardly nature. She +had married him in July of 1565, and by Michaelmas she had come to know +him for just a lovely husk of a man, empty of heart or brain; and the +knowledge transmuted affection into contempt. + +Her natural brother, the Earl of Murray, had opposed the marriage, +chiefly upon the grounds that Darnley was a Catholic, and with Argyll, +Chatellerault, Glencairn, and a host of other Protestant lords, had +risen in arms against his sovereign and her consort. But Mary had chased +her rebel brother and his fellows over the border into England, and by +this very action, taken for the sake of her worthless husband, she sowed +the first seeds of discord between herself and him. It happened that +stout service had been rendered her in this affair by the arrogant +border ruffian, the Earl of Bothwell. Partly to reward him, partly +because of the confidence with which he inspired her, she bestowed +upon him the office of Lieutenant-General of the East, Middle, and West +Marches--an office which Darnley had sought for his father, Lennox. +That was the first and last concerted action of the royal couple. +Estrangement grew thereafter between them, and, in a measure, as it grew +so did Darnley's kingship, hardly established as yet--for the Queen had +still to redeem her pre-nuptial promise to confer upon him the crown +matrimonial--begin to dwindle. + +At first it had been "the King and Queen," or "His Majesty and Hers"; +but by Christmas--five months after the wedding--Darnley was known +simply as "the Queen's husband," and in all documents the Queen's name +now took precedence of his, whilst coins bearing their two heads, and +the legend "Hen. et Maria," were called in and substituted by a new +coinage relegating him to the second place. + +Deeply affronted, and seeking anywhere but in himself and his own +shortcomings the cause of the Queen's now manifest hostility, he +presently conceived that he had found it in the influence exerted upon +her by the Seigneur Davie--that Piedmontese, David Rizzio, who had come +to the Scottish Court some four years ago as a starveling minstrel in +the train of Monsieur de Morette, the ambassador of Savoy. + +It was Rizzio's skill upon the rebec that had first attracted Mary's +attention. Later he had become her secretary for French affairs and the +young Queen, reared amid the elegancies of the Court of France, grew +attached to him as to a fellow-exile in the uncouth and turbulent land +over which a harsh destiny ordained that she should rule. Using his +opportunities and his subtle Italian intelligence, he had advanced so +rapidly that soon there was no man in Scotland who stood higher with +the Queen. When Maitland of Lethington was dismissed under suspicion of +favouring the exiled Protestant lords, the Seigneur Davie succeeded him +as her secretary; and now that Morton was under the same suspicion, it +was openly said that the Seigneur Davie would be made chancellor in his +stead. + +Thus the Seigneur Davie was become the most powerful man in Scotland, +and it is not to be dreamt that a dour, stiff-necked nobility would +suffer it without demur. They intrigued against him, putting it abroad, +amongst other things, that this foreign upstart was an emissary, of the +Pope's, scheming to overthrow the Protestant religion in Scotland. But +in the duel that followed their blunt Scotch wits were no match for his +Italian subtlety. Intrigue as they might his power remained unshaken. +And then, at last it began to be whispered that he owed his high favour +with the beautiful young Queen to other than his secretarial abilities, +so that Bedford wrote to Cecil: + +"What countenance the Queen shows David I will not write, for the honour +due to the person of a queen." + +This bruit found credit--indeed, there have been ever since those who +have believed it--and, as it spread, it reached the ears of Darnley. +Because it afforded him an explanation of the Queen's hostility, since +he was without the introspection that would have discovered the true +explanation in his own shortcomings, he flung it as so much fuel upon +the seething fires of his rancour, and became the most implacable of +those who sought the ruin of Rizzio. + +He sent for Ruthven, the friend of Murray and the exiled lords--exiled, +remember, on Darnley's own account--and offered to procure the +reinstatement of those outlaws if they would avenge his honour and make +him King of Scots in something more than name. + +Ruthven, sick of a mortal illness, having risen from a bed of pain to +come in answer to that summons, listened dourly to the frothing speeches +of that silly, lovely boy. + +"No doubt you'll be right about yon fellow Davie," he agreed sombrely, +and purposely he added things that must have outraged Darnley's every +feeling as king and as husband. Then he stated the terms on which +Darnley might count upon his aid. + +"Early next month Parliament is to meet over the business of a Bill +of Attainder against Murray and his friends, declaring them by their +rebellion to have forfeited life, land, and goods. Ye can see the power +with her o' this foreign fiddler, that it drives her so to attaint her +own brother. Murray has ever hated Davie, knowing too much of what lies +'twixt the Queen and him to her dishonour, and Master Davie thinks so to +make an end of Murray and his hatred." + +Darnley clenched teeth and hands, tortured by the craftily administered +poison. + +"What then? What is to do?" he cried, + +Ruthven told him bluntly. + +"That Bill must never pass. Parliament must never meet to pass it. You +are Her Grace's husband and King of Scots." + +"In name!" sneered Darnley bitterly. + +"The name will serve," said Ruthven. "In that name ye'll sign me a bond +of formal remission to Murray and his friends for all their actions and +quarrels, permitting their safe return to Scotland, and charging the +lieges to convoy them safely. Do that and leave the rest to us." + +If Darnley hesitated at all, it was not because he perceived the irony +of the situation--that he himself, in secret opposition to the Queen, +should sign the pardon of those who had rebelled against her precisely +because she had taken him to husband. He hesitated because indecision +was inherent in his nature. + +"And then?" he asked at last. + +Ruthven's blood-injected eyes considered him stonily out of a livid, +gleaming face. + +"Then, whether you reign with her or without her, reign you shall as +King o' Scots. I pledge myself to that, and I pledge those others, so +that we have the bond." + +Darnley sat down to sign the death warrant of the Seigneur Davie. + +It was the night of Saturday, the 9th of March. + +A fire of pine logs burned fragrantly on the hearth of the small closet +adjoining the Queen's chamber, suffusing it with a sense of comfort, +the greater by contrast with the cheerlessness out of doors, where an +easterly wind swept down from Arthur's Seat and moaned its dismal way +over a snowclad world. + +The lovely, golden-headed young queen supped with a little company of +intimates: her natural sister, the Countess of Argyll, the Commendator +of Holyrood, Beaton, the Master of the Household, Arthur Erskine, the +Captain of the Guard, and one other--that, David Rizzio, who from an +errant minstrel had risen to this perilous eminence, a man of a swarthy, +ill-favoured countenance redeemed by the intelligence that glowed in +his dark eyes, and of a body so slight and fragile as to seem almost +misshapen. His age was not above thirty, yet indifferent health, early +privation, and misfortune had so set their mark upon him that he had +all the appearance of a man of fifty. He was dressed with sombre +magnificence, and a jewel of great price smouldered upon the middle +finger of one of his slender, delicate hands. + +Supper was at an end. The Queen lounged on a long seat over against the +tapestried wall. The Countess of Argyll, in a tall chair on the Queen's +left, sat with elbows on the table watching the Seigneur Davie's fine +fingers as they plucked softly at the strings of a long-necked lute. The +talk, which, intimate and untrammelled, had lately been of the child +of which Her Majesty was to be delivered some three months hence, was +flagging now, and it was to fill the gap that Rizzio had taken up the +lute. + +His harsh countenance was transfigured as he caressed the strings, his +soul absorbed in the theme of his inspiration. Very softly--indeed, no +more than tentatively as yet--he was beginning one of those wistful airs +in which his spirit survives in Scotland to this day, when suddenly the +expectant hush was broken by a clash of curtain-rings. The tapestries +that masked the door had been swept aside, and on the threshold, +unheralded, stood the tall, stripling figure of the young King. + +Darnley's appearance abruptly scattered the Italian's inspiration. The +melody broke off sharply on the single loud note of a string too rudely +plucked. + +That and the silence that followed it irked them all, conveying a sense +that here something had been broken which never could be made whole +again. + +Darnley shuffled forward. His handsome face was pale save for the two +burning spots upon his cheekbones, and his eyes glittered feveredly. He +had been drinking, so much was clear; and that he should seek the Queen +thus, who so seldom sought her sober, angered those intimates who had +come to share her well-founded dislike of him. King though he might be +in name, into such contempt was he fallen that not one of them rose +in deference, whilst Mary herself watched his approach with hostile, +mistrusting eyes. + +"What is it, my lord?" she asked him coldly, as he flung himself down on +the settle beside her. + +He leered at her, put an arm about her waist, pulled her to him, and +kissed her oafishly. + +None stirred. All eyes were upon them, and all faces blank. After all, +he was the King and she his wife. And then upon the silence, ominous +as the very steps of doom, came a ponderous, clanking tread from the +ante-room beyond. Again the curtains were thrust aside, and the Countess +of Argyll uttered a gasp of sudden fear at the grim spectre she beheld +there. It was a figure armed as for a tourney, in gleaming steel from +head to foot, girt with a sword, the right hand resting upon the hilt of +the heavy dagger in the girdle. The helmet's vizor was raised, revealing +the ghastly face of Ruthven--so ghastly that it must have seemed the +face of a dead man but for the blazing life in the eyes that scanned the +company. Those questing eyes went round the table, settled upon Rizzio, +and seemed horribly to smile. + +Startled, disquieted by this apparition, the Queen half rose, Darnley's +hindering arm still flung about her waist. + +"What's this?" she cried, her voice sharp. + +And then, as if she guessed intuitively what it might portend, she +considered her husband with pale-faced contempt. + +"Judas!" she called him, flung away from his detaining arm, and stood +forth to confront that man in steel. "What seek ye here, my lord--and in +this guise?" was her angry challenge. + +Ruthven's burning eyes fell away before her glance. He clanked forward a +step or two, flung out a mailed arm, and with a hand that shook pointed +to the Seigneur Davie, who stood blankly watching him. + +"I seek yon man," he said gruffly. "Let him come forth." + +"He is here by my will," she told him, her anger mounting. "And so are +not you--for which you shall be made to answer." + +Then to Darnley, who sat hunched on the settle: + +"What does this mean, sir?" she demanded. + +"Why--how should I know? Why--why, nothing," he faltered foolishly. + +"Pray God that you are right," said she, "for your own sake. And you," +she continued, addressing Ruthven again and waving a hand in imperious +dismissal, "be you gone, and wait until I send for you, which I promise +you shall be right soon." + +If she divined some of the evil of their purpose, if any fear assailed +her, yet she betrayed nothing of it. She was finely tempered steel. + +But Ruthven, sullen and menacing, stood his ground. + +"Let yon man come forth," he repeated. "He has been here ower lang." + +"Over long?" she echoed, betrayed by her quick resentment. + +"Aye, ower lang for the good o' Scotland and your husband," was the +brutal answer. + +Erskine, of her guards, leapt to his feet. + +"Will you begone, sir?" he cried; and after him came Beaton and the +Commendator, both echoing the captain's threatening question. + +A smile overspread Ruthven's livid face. The heavy dagger flashed from +his belt. + +"My affair is not with any o' ye, but if ye thrust yersels too close +upon my notice--" + +The Queen stepped clear of the table to intervene, lest violence should +be done here in her presence. Rizzio, who had risen, stood now beside +her, watching all with a white, startled face. And then, before more +could be said, the curtains were torn away and half a score of men, +whose approach had passed unnoticed, poured into the room. First came +Morton, the Chancellor, who was to be dispossessed of the great seal +in Rizzio's favour. After him followed the brutal Lindsay of the Byres, +Kerr of Faudonside, black-browed Brunston, red-headed Douglas, and a +half-dozen others. + +Confusion ensued; the three men of the Queen's household were instantly +surrounded and overpowered. In the brief, sharp struggle the table was +overturned, and all would have been in darkness but that as the table +went over the Countess of Argyll had snatched up the candle-branch, and +stood now holding it aloft to light that extraordinary scene. Rizzio, to +whom the sight of Morton had been as the removal of his last illusion, +flung himself upon his knees before the Queen. Frail and feeble of body, +and never a man of his hands, he was hopelessly unequal to the occasion. + +"Justice, madame!" he cried. "Faites justice! Sauvez ma vie!" + +Fearlessly, she stepped between him and the advancing horde of +murderers, making of her body a buckler for his protection. White +of face, with heaving bosom and eyes like two glowing sapphires, she +confronted them. + +"Back, on your lives!" she bade them. + +But they were lost to all sense of reverence, even to all sense of +decency, in their blind rage against this foreign upstart who had +trampled their Scottish vanity in the dust. George Douglas, without +regard for her condition either as queen or woman--and a woman almost +upon the threshold of motherhood--clapped a pistol to her breast and +roughly bade her stand aside. + +Undaunted, she looked at him with eyes that froze his trigger-finger, +whilst behind her Rizzio grovelled in his terror, clutching her +petticoat. Thus, until suddenly she was seized about the waist and half +dragged, half-lifted aside by Darnley, who at the same time spurned +Rizzio forward with his foot. + +The murderers swooped down upon their prey. Kerr of Faudonside flung +a noose about his body, and drew it tight with a jerk that pulled the +secretary from his knees. Then he and Morton took the rope between +them, and so dragged their victim across the room towards the door. +He struggled blindly as he went, vainly clutching first at an overset +chair, then at a leg of the table, and screeching piteously the while +to the Queen to save him. And Mary, trembling with passion, herself +struggling in the arms of Darnley, flung an angry warning after them. + +"If Davie's blood be spilt, it shall be dear blood to some of you! +Remember that, sirs!" + +But they were beyond control by now, hounds unleashed upon the quarry of +their hate. Out of her presence Morton and Douglas dragged him, the rest +of the baying pack going after them. They dragged him, screeching still, +across the ante-chamber to the head of the great stairs, and there they +fell on him all together, and so wildly that they wounded one another +in their fury to rend him into pieces. The tattered body, gushing blood +from six-and-fifty wounds, was hurled from top to bottom of the stairs, +with a gold-hilted dagger--Darnley's, in token of his participation in +the deed--still sticking in his breast. + +Ruthven stood forward from the group, his reeking poniard clutched in +his right hand, a grin distorting his ghastly, vulturine face. Then he +stalked back alone into the royal presence, dragging his feet a little, +like a man who is weary. + +He found the room much as he had left it, save that the Queen had sunk +back to her seat on the settle, and Darnley was now standing over her, +whilst her people were still hemmed about by his own men. Without a "by +your leave," he flung himself into a chair and called hoarsely for a cup +of wine. + +Mary's white face frowned at him across the room. + +"You shall yet drink the wine that I shall pour you for this night's +work, my lord, and for this insolence! Who gave you leave to sit before +me?" + +He waved a hand as if to dismiss the matter. It may have seemed to him +frivolous to dwell upon such a trifle amid so much. + +"It's no' frae lack o' respect, Your Grace," he growled, "but frae lack +o' strength. I am ill, and I should ha' been abed but for what was here +to do." + +"Ah!" She looked at him with cold repugnance. "What have you done with +Davie?" + +He shrugged, yet his eyes quailed before her own. + +"He'll be out yonder," he answered, grimly evasive; and he took the wine +one of his followers proffered him. + +"Go see," she bade the Countess. + +And the Countess, setting the candle-branch upon the buffet, went out, +none attempting to hinder her. + +Then, with narrowed eyes, the Queen watched Ruthven while he drank. + +"It will be for the sake of Murray and his friends that you do this," +she said slowly. "Tell me, my lord, what great kindness is there between +Murray and you that, to save him from forfeiture, you run the risk of +being forfeited with him?" + +"What I have done," he said, "I have done for others, and under a bond +that shall hold me scatheless." + +"Under a bond?" said she, and now she looked up at Darnley, standing +ever at her side. "And was the bond yours, my lord?" + +"Me?" He started back. "I know naught of it." + +But as he moved she saw something else. She leaned forward, pointing to +the empty sheath at his girdle. + +"Where is your dagger, my lord?" she asked him sharply. + +"My dagger? Ha! How should I know?" + +"But I shall know!" she threatened, as if she were not virtually a +prisoner in the hands of these violent men who had invaded her palace +and dragged Rizzio from her side. "I shall not rest until I know!" + +The Countess came in, white to the lips, bearing in her eyes something +of the horror she had beheld. + +"What is it?" Mary asked her, her voice suddenly hushed and faltering. + +"Madame--he is dead! Murdered!" she announced. + +The Queen looked at her, her face of marble. Then her voice came hushed +and tense: + +"Are--you sure?" + +"Myself I saw his body, madame." + +There was a long pause. A low moan escaped the Queen, and her lovely +eyes were filled with tears; slowly these coursed down her cheeks. +Something compelling in her grief hushed every voice, and the craven +husband at her side shivered as her glance fell upon him once more. + +"And is it so?" she said at length, considering him. She dried her eyes. +"Then farewell tears; I must study revenge." She rose as if with labour, +and standing, clung a moment to the table's edge. A moment she looked at +Ruthven, who sat glooming there, dagger in one hand and empty wine-cup +in the other; then her glance passed on, and came to rest balefully +on Darnley's face. "You have had your will, my lord," she said, "but +consider well what I now say. Consider and remember. I shall never rest +until I give you as sore a heart as I have presently." + +That said she staggered forward. The Countess hastened to her, and +leaning upon her arm, Mary passed through the little door of the closet +into her chamber. + +That night the common bell was rung, and Edinburgh roused in alarm. +Bothwell, Huntly, Atholl, and others who were at Holyrood when Rizzio +was murdered, finding it impossible to go to the Queen's assistance, and +fearing to share the secretary's fate--for the palace was a-swarm with +the murderers' men-at-arms--had escaped by one of the windows. The alarm +they spread in Edinburgh brought the provost and townsmen in arms to the +palace by torchlight, demanding to see the Queen, and refusing to depart +until Darnley had shown himself and assured them that all was well +with the Queen and with himself. And what time Darnley gave them this +reassurance from a window of her room, Mary herself stood pale and taut +amid the brutal horde that on this alarm had violated the privacy of her +chamber, while the ruffianly Red Douglas flashed his dagger before her +eyes, swearing that if she made a sound they would cut her into collops. + +When at last they withdrew and left her to herself, they left her +no illusions as to her true condition. She was a prisoner in her own +palace. The ante-rooms and courts were thronged with the soldiers of +Morton and Ruthven, the palace itself was hemmed about, and none might +come or go save at the good pleasure of the murderers. + +At last Darnley grasped the authority he had coveted. He dictated +forthwith a proclamation which was read next morning at Edinburgh Market +Cross--commanding that the nobles who had assembled in Edinburgh to +compose the Parliament that was to pass the Bill of Attainder should +quit the city within three hours, under pain of treason and forfeiture. + +And meanwhile, with poor Rizzio's last cry of "justice!" still ringing +in her ears, Mary sat alone in her chamber, studying revenge as she +had promised. So that life be spared her, justice, she vowed, should +be done--punishment not only for that barbarous deed, but for the very +manner of the doing of it, for all the insult to which she had been +subjected, for the monstrous violence done her feelings and her very +person, for the present detention and peril of which she was full +conscious. + +Her anger was the more intense because she never permitted it to diffuse +itself over the several offenders. Ruthven, who had insulted her so +grossly; Douglas, who had offered her personal violence; the Laird +of Faudonside, Morton, and all the others who held her now a helpless +prisoner, she hew for no more than the instruments of Darnley. It was +against Darnley that all her rage was concentrated. She recalled in +those bitter hours all that she had suffered at his vile hands, and +swore that at whatever cost to herself he should yield a full atonement. + +He sought her in the morning emboldened by the sovereign power he +was usurping confident that now that he showed himself master of the +situation she would not repine over what was done beyond recall, but +would submit to the inevitable, be reconciled with him, and grant him, +perforce--supported as he now was by the rebellious lords--the crown +matrimonial and the full kingly power he coveted. + +But her reception of him broke that confidence into shards. + +"You have done me such a Wrong," she told him in a voice of cold hatred, +"that neither the recollection of our early friendship, nor all the hope +you can give me of the future, could ever make me forget it. Jamais! +Jamais je n'oublierai!" she added, and upon that she dismissed him so +imperiously that he went at once. + +She sought a way to deal with him, groped blindly for it, being as yet +but half informed of what was taking place; and whilst she groped, the +thing she sought was suddenly thrust into her land. Mary Beaton, one of +the few attendants left her, brought her word later that day that the +Earl of Murray, with Rothes and some other of the exiled lords, was +in the palace. The news brought revelation. It flooded with light +the tragic happening of the night before, showed her how Darnley was +building himself a party in the state. It did more than that. She +recalled the erstwhile mutual hatred and mistrust of Murray and Darnley, +and saw how it might serve her in this emergency. + +Instantly she summoned Murray to her presence with the message that +she welcomed his return. Yet, despite that message, he hardly +expected--considering what lay between them--the reception that awaited +him at her hands. + +She rose to receive him, her lovely eyes suffused with tears. She +embraced him, kissed him, and then, nestling to him, as if for comfort, +her cheek against his bearded face, she allowed her tears to flow +unchecked. + +"I am punished," she sobbed--"oh, I am punished! Had I kept you at home, +Murray, you would never have suffered men to entreat me as I have been +entreated." + +Holding her to hin, he could but pat her shoulder, soothing her, utterly +taken aback, and deeply moved, too, by this display of an affection for +him that he had never hitherto suspected in her. + +"Ah, mon Dieu, Jamie, how welcome you are to one in my sorrow!" she +continued. "It is the fault of others that you have been so long out of +the country. I but require of you that you be a good subject to me, and +you shall never find me other to you than you deserve." + +And he, shaken to the depths of his selfish soul by her tears, her +clinging caresses, and her protestations of affection, answered with +an oath and a sob that no better or more loyal and devoted subject than +himself could all Scotland yield her. + +"And, as for this killing of Davie," he ended vehemently, "I swear by my +soul's salvation that I have had no part in it, nor any knowledge of it +until my return!" + +"I know--I know!" she moaned. "Should I make you welcome, else? Be my +friend, Jamie; be my friend!" + +He swore it readily, for he was very greedy of power, and saw the door +of his return to it opening wider than he could have hoped. Then he +spoke of Darnley, begging her to receive him, and hear what he might +have to say, protesting that the King swore that he had not desired the +murder, and that the lords had carried the matter out of his hands and +much beyond all that he had intended. + +Because it suited her deep purpose, Mary consented, feigning to be +persuaded. She had realized that before she could deal with Darnley, and +the rebel lords who held her a prisoner, she must first win free from +Holyrood. + +Darnley came. He was sullen now, mindful of his recent treatment, and in +fear--notwithstanding Murray's reassurance--of further similar rebuffs. +She announced herself ready to hear what he might have to say, and she +listened attentively while he spoke, her elbow on the carved arm of her +chair, her chin in her hand. When he had done, she sat long in thought, +gazing out through the window at the grey March sky. At length she +turned and looked at him. + +"Do you pretend, my lord, to regret for what has passed?" she challenged +him. + +"You tempt me to hypocrisy," he said. "Yet I will be frank as at an +Easter shrift. Since that fellow Davie fell into credit and familiarity +with Your Majesty, you no longer treated me nor entertained me after +your wonted fashion, nor would you ever bear me company save this Davie +were the third. Can I pretend, then, to regret that one who deprived +me of what I prized most highly upon earth should have been removed? I +cannot. Yet I can and do proclaim my innocence of any part or share in +the deed that has removed him." + +She lowered her eyes an instant, then raised them again to meet his own. + +"You had commerce with these traitor lords," she reminded him. "It is +by your decree that they are returned from exile. What was your aim in +this?" + +"To win back the things of which this fellow Davie had robbed me, a +share in the ruling and the crown matrimonial that was my right, yet +which you denied me. That and no more. I had not intended that Davie +should be slain. I had not measured the depth of their hatred of that +upstart knave. You see that I am frank with you." + +"Aye, and I believe you," she lied slowly, considering him as she spoke. +And he drew a breath of relief, suspecting nothing of her deep guile. +"And do you know why I believe you? Because you are a fool." + +"Madame!" he cried. + +She rose, magnificently contemptuous. + +"Must I prove it? You say that the crown matrimonial which I denied +you is to be conferred on you by these lawless men? Believing that, you +signed their pardon and recall from exile. Ha! You do not see, my lord, +that you are no more than their tool, their cat's-paw. You do not see +that they use you but for their ends, and that when they have done with +you, they will serve you as they served poor Davie? No, you see none of +that, which is why I call you a fool, that need a woman's wit to open +wide your eyes." + +She was so vehement that she forced upon his dull wits some of +the convictions she pretended were her own. Yet, resisting those +convictions, he cried out that she was at fault. + +"At fault?" She laughed. "Let my memory inform your judgment. When these +lords, with Murray at their head, protested against our marriage, in +what terms did they frame their protest? They complained that I had set +over them without consulting them one who had no title to it, whether +by lineal descent of blood, by nature, or by consent of the Estates. +Consider that! They added, remember--I repeat to you the very words +they wrote and published--that while they deemed it their duty to endure +under me, they deemed it intolerable to suffer under you." + +She was flushed, and her eyes gleamed with excitement. She clutched +his sleeve, and brought her face close to his own, looked deep and +compellingly into his eyes as she continued: + +"Such was their proclamation, and they took arms against me to enforce +it, to pull you down from the place to which I had raised you out of the +dust. Yet you can forget it, and in your purblind folly turn to these +very men to right the wrongs you fancy I have done you. Do you think +that men, holding you in such esteem as that, can keep any sort of faith +with you? Do you think these are the men who are likely to fortify +and maintain your title to the crown? Ask yourself, and answer for +yourself." + +He was white to the lips. As much by her vehement pretence of sincerity +as by the apparently irrefragable logic of her arguments, she forced +conviction upon him. This brought a loathly fear in its train, and the +gates of his heart stood ever wide to fear. He stepped aside to a chair, +and sank into it, looking at her with dilating eyes--a fool confronted +with the likely fruits of his folly. + +"Then--then--why did they proffer me their help? How can they achieve +their ends this way?" + +"How? Do you still ask? Do you not see what a blind tool you have been +in their crafty hands? In name at least you are king, and your signature +is binding upon my subjects. Have you not brought them back from exile +by one royal decree, whilst by another you have dispersed the Parliament +that was assembled to attaint them of treason?" + +She stepped close up to him, and bending over him as he sat there, +crushed by realization, she lowered her voice. + +"Pray God, my lord, that all their purpose with you is not yet complete, +else in their hands I do not think your life is to be valued at an +apple-paring. You go the ways poor Davie went." + +He sank his handsome head to his hands, and covered his face. A while +he sat huddled there, she watching him with gleaming, crafty eyes. At +length he rallied. He looked up, tossing back the auburn hair from his +white brow, still fighting, though weakly, against persuasion. "It is +not possible," he, cried. "They could not! They could not!" + +She laughed, betwixt bitterness and sadness. + +"Trust to that," she bade him. "Yet look well at matters as they are +already. I am a prisoner here in these men's hands. They will not let +me go until their full purpose is accomplished--perhaps," she added +wistfully, "perhaps not even then." + +"Ah, not that!" he cried out. + +"Even that," she answered firmly. "But," and again she grew vehement, +"is it less so with you? Are you less a prisoner than I? D'ye think you +will be suffered to come and go at will?" She saw the increase of fear +in him, and then she struck boldly, setting all upon the gamble of a +guess. "I am kept here until I shall have been brought to such a state +that I will add my signature to your own and so pardon one and all for +what is done." + +His sudden start, the sudden quickening of his glance told her how +shrewdly she had struck home. Fearlessly, then, sure of herself, she +continued. "To that end they use you. When you shall have served it you +will but cumber them. When they shall have used you to procure their +security from me, then they will deal with you as they have ever sought +to deal with you--so that you trouble them no more. Ah, at last you +understand!" + +He came to his feet, his brow gleaming with sweat, his slender hands +nervously interlocked. + +"Oh, God!" he cried in a stifled voice. + +"Aye, you are in a trap, my lord. Yourself you've sprung it." + +And now you behold him broken by the terror she had so cunningly evoked. +He flung himself upon his knees before her, and with upturned face and +hands that caught and clawed at her own, he implored her pardon for +the wrong that in his folly he had done her in taking sides with her +enemies. + +She dissembled under a mask of gentleness the loathing that his +cowardice aroused in her. + +"My enemies?" she echoed wistfully. "Say rather your own enemies. It +was their enmity to you that drove them into exile. In your rashness you +have recalled them, whilst at the same time you have so bound my hands +that I cannot now help you if I would." + +"You can, Mary," he cried, "or else no one can. Withhold the pardon they +will presently be seeking of you. Refuse to sign any remission of their +deed." + +"And leave them to force you to sign it, and so destroy us both," she +answered. + +He ranted then, invoking the saints of heaven, and imploring her in +their name--she who was so wise and strong--to discover some way out of +this tangle in which his madness had enmeshed them. + +"What way is there short of flight?" she asked him. "And how are we to +fly who are imprisoned here you as well as myself? Alas, Darnley, I fear +our lives will end by paying the price of your folly." + +Thus she played upon his terrors, so that he would not be dismissed +until she had promised that she would consider and seek some means of +saving him, enjoining him meanwhile to keep strict watch upon himself +and see that he betrayed nothing of his thoughts. + +She left him to the chastening of a sleepless night, then sent for him +betimes on Monday morning, and bade him repair to the lords and tell +them that realizing herself a prisoner in their hands she was disposed +to make terms with them. She would grant them pardon for what was done +if on their side they undertook to be loyal henceforth and allowed her +to resume her liberty. + +The message startled him. But the smile with which she followed it was +reassuring. + +"There is something else you are to do," she said, "if we are to turn +the tables on these traitorous gentlemen. Listen." And she added matter +that begat fresh hope in Darnley's despairing soul. + +He kissed her hands, lowly now and obedient as a hound that had been +whipped to heel, and went below to bear her message to the lords. + +Morton and Ruthven heard him out, but betrayed no eagerness to seize the +opportunity. + +"All this is but words that we hear," growled Ruthven, who lay stretched +upon a couch, grimly suffering from the disease that was, slowly eating +up his life. + +"She is guileful as the serpent," Morton added, "being bred up in the +Court of France. She will make you follow her will and desire, but she +will not so lead us. We hold her fast, and we do not let her go without +some good security of what shall follow." + +"What security will satisfy you?" quoth Darnley. + +Murray and Lindsay came in as he was speaking, and Morton told them of +the message that Darnley had brought. Murray moved heavily across to a +window-seat, and sat down. He cleared a windowpane with his hand, and +looked out upon the wintry landscape as if the matter had no interest +for him. But Lindsay echoed what the other twain had said already. + +"We want a deal more than promises that need not be kept," he said. + +Darnley looked from one to the other of them, seeing in their +uncompromising attitude a confirmation of what the Queen had told him, +and noting, too--as at another time he might not have noted--their utter +lack of deference to himself, their King. + +"Sirs," he said, "I vow you wrong Her Majesty. I will stake my life upon +her honour." + +"Why, so you may," sneered Ruthven, "but you'll not stake ours." + +"Take what security you please, and I will subscribe it." + +"Aye, but will the Queen?" wondered Morton. + +"She will. I have her word for it." + +It took them the whole of that day to consider the terms of the articles +that would satisfy them. Towards evening the document was ready, +and Morton and Ruthven representing all, accompanied by Murray, and +introduced by Darnley, came to the chamber to which Her Majesty was +confined by the guard they had set upon her. + +She sat as if in state awaiting them, very lovely and very tearful, +knowing that woman's greatest strength is in her weakness, that tears +would serve her best by presenting her as if broken to their will. + +In outward submission they knelt before her to make the pretence of +suing for the pardon which they extorted by force of arms and duress. +When each in his turn had made the brief pleading oration he had +prepared, she dried her eyes and controlled herself by obvious effort. + +"My lords," she said, in a voice that quivered and broke on every other +word, "when have ye ever found me blood-thirsty, or greedy of your lands +or goods that you must use me so, and take such means with me? Ye have +set my authority at naught, and wrought sedition in this realm. Yet I +forgive you all, that by this clemency I may move you to a better love +and loyalty. I desire that all that is passed may be buried in oblivion, +so that you swear to me that in the future you will stand my friends and +serve me faithfully, who am but a weak woman, and sorely need stout men +to be my friends." + +For a moment her utterance was checked by sobs. Then she controlled +herself again by an effort so piteous to behold that even the +flinty-hearted Ruthven was moved to some compassion. + +"Forgive this weakness in me, who am very weak, for very soon I am to be +brought to bed as you well know, and I am in no case to offer resistance +to any. I have no more to say, my lords. Since you promise on your side +that you will put all disloyalty behind you, I pledge myself to remit +and pardon all those that were banished for their share in the late +rising, and likewise to pardon those that were concerned in the killing +of Seigneur Davie. All this shall be as if it had never been. I pray +you, my lords, make your own security in what sort you best please, and +I will subscribe it." + +Morton proffered her the document they had prepared. She conned it +slowly, what time they watched her, pausing ever and anon to brush aside +the tears that blurred her vision. At last she nodded her lovely golden +head. + +"It is very well," she said. "All is here as I would have it be between +us." And she turned to Darnley. "Give me pen and ink, my lord." + +Darnley dipped a quill and handed it to her. She set the parchment +on the little pulpit at her side. Then, as she bent to sign, the pen +fluttered from her fingers, and with a deep, shuddering sigh she sank +back in her chair, her eyes closed, her face piteously white. + +"The Queen is faint!" cried Murray, springing forward. + +But she rallied instantly, smiling upon them wanly. + +"It is naught; it is past," she said. But even as she spoke she put a +hand to her brow. "I am something dizzy. My condition--" She faltered on +a trembling note of appeal that increased their compassion, and aroused +in them a shame of their own harshness. "Leave this security with me. I +will subscribe it in the morning--indeed, as soon as I am sufficiently +recovered." + +They rose from their knees at her bidding, and Morton in the name of all +professed himself full satisfied, and deplored the affliction they had +caused her, for which in the future they should make her their amends. + +"I thank you," she answered simply. "You have leave to go." + +They departed well satisfied; and, counting the matter at an end, they +quitted the palace and rode to their various lodgings in Edinburgh town, +Murray going with Morton. + +Anon to Maitland of Lethington, who had remained behind, came one of +the Queen's women to summon him to her presence. He found her disposing +herself for bed, and was received by her with tearful upbraidings. + +"Sir," she said, "one of the conditions upon which I consented to the +will of their lordships was that an immediate term should be set to the +insulting state of imprisonment in which I am kept here. Yet men-at-arms +still guard the very door of my chamber, and my very attendants are +hindered in their comings and goings. Do you call this keeping faith +with me? Have I not granted all the requests of the lords?" + +Lethington, perceiving the justice of what she urged, withdrew shamed +and confused at once to remedy the matter by removing the guards from +the passage and the stairs and elsewhere, leaving none but those who +paced outside the palace. + +It was a rashness he was bitterly to repent him on the morrow, when +it was discovered that in the night Mary had not only escaped, but had +taken Darnley with her. Accompanied by him and a few attendants, she had +executed the plan in which earlier that day she had secured her scared +husband's cooperation. At midnight they had made their way along the now +unguarded corridors, and descended to the vaults of the palace, whence a +secret passage communicated with the chapel. Through this and across the +graveyard where lay the newly buried body of the Siegneur Davie--almost +across the very grave itself which stood near the chapel door they had +won to the horses waiting by Darnley's orders in the open. And they had +ridden so hard that by five o'clock of that Tuesday morning they were in +Dunbar. + +In vain did the alarmed lords send a message after her to demand her +signature of the security upon which she had duped them into counting +prematurely. + +Within a week they were in full flight before the army at the head of +which the prisoner who had slipped through their hands was returning +to destroy them. Too late did they perceive the arts by which she had +fooled them, and seduced the shallow Darnley to betray them. + + + + + + +II. THE NIGHT OF KIRK O' FIELD--The Murder of Darnley + +Perhaps one of the greatest mistakes of a lifetime in which mistakes +were plentiful was the hesitancy of the Queen of Scots in executing upon +her husband Darnley the prompt vengeance she had sworn for the murder of +David Rizzio. + +When Rizzio was slain, and she herself held captive by the murderers in +her Palace of Holyrood, whilst Darnley ruled as king, she had simulated +belief in her husband's innocence that she might use him for her +vengeful ends. + +She had played so craftily upon his cowardly nature as to convince +him that Morton, Ruthven, and the other traitor lords with whom he had +leagued himself were at heart his own implacable enemies; that they +pretended friendship for him to make a tool of him, and that when he had +served their turn they would destroy him. + +In his consequent terror he had betrayed his associates, assisting her +to trick them by a promise to sign an act of oblivion for what was +done. Trusting to this the lords had relaxed their vigilance, whereupon, +accompanied by Darnley, she had escaped by night from Holyrood. + +Hope tempering at first the rage and chagrin in the hearts of the lords +she had duped, they had sent a messenger to her at Dunbar to request +of her the fulfilment of her promise to sign the document of their +security. + +But Mary put off the messenger, and whilst the army she had summoned +was hastily assembling, she used her craft to divide the rebels against +themselves. + +To her natural brother, the Earl of Murray, to Argyll, and to all those +who had been exiled for their rebellion at the time of her marriage--and +who knew not where they stood in the present turn of events, since +one of the objects of the murder had been to procure their +reinstatement--she sent an offer of complete pardon, on condition that +they should at once dissociate themselves from those concerned in the +death of the Seigneur Davie. + +These terms they accepted thankfully, as well they might. Thereupon, +finding themselves abandoned by all men--even by Darnley in whose +service they had engaged in the murder--Morton, Ruthven, and their +associates scattered and fled. + +By the end of that month of March, Morton, Ruthven, Lindsay of the +Byres, George Douglas, and some sixty others were denounced as rebels +with forfeiture of life and goods, while one Thomas Scott, who had been +in command of the guards that had kept Her Majesty prisoner at Holyrood, +was hanged, drawn, and quartered at the Market Cross. + +News of this reached the fugitives to increase their desperate rage. +But what drove the iron into the soul of the arch-murderer Ruthven +was Darnley's solemn public declaration denying all knowledge of or +complicity in Rizzio's assassination; nor did it soothe his fury to know +that all Scotland rang with contemptuous laughter at that impudent and +cowardly perjury. From his sick-bed at Newcastle, whereon some six weeks +later he was to breathe his last, the forsaken wretch replied to it by +sending the Queen the bond to which he had demanded Darnley's signature +before embarking upon the business. + +It was a damning document. There above the plain signature and seal of +the King was the admission, not merely of complicity, but that the thing +was done by his express will and command, that the responsibility +was his own, and that he would hold the doers scatheless from all +consequences. + +Mary could scarcely have hoped to be able to confront her worthless +husband with so complete a proof of his duplicity and baseness. She sent +for him, confounded him with the sight of that appalling bond, made an +end to the amity which for her own ends she had pretended, and drove him +out of her presence with a fury before which he dared not linger. + +You see him, then, crushed under his load of mortification, realizing at +last how he had been duped on every hand, first by the lords for their +own purpose, and then by the Queen for hers. Her contempt of him was now +so manifest that it spread to all who served him--for she made it plain +that who showed him friendship earned her deep displeasure--so that +he was forced to withdraw from a Court where his life was become +impossible. For a while he wandered up and down a land where every door +was shut in his face, where every man of whatsoever party, traitor or +true, despised him alike. In the end, he took himself off to his father, +Lennox, and at Glasgow he sought what amusement he could with his dogs +and his hawks, and such odd vulgar rustic love-affairs as came his way. + +It was in allowing him thus to go his ways, in leaving her +vengeance--indeed, her justice--but half accomplished, that lay the +greatest of the Queen's mistakes. Better for her had she taken with +Darnley the direct way that was her right. Better for her, if acting +strongly then, she had banished or hanged him for his part in the +treason that had inspired the murder of Rizzio. Unfortunately, a factor +that served to quicken her abhorrence of him served also to set a curb +of caution upon the satisfaction of it. + +This factor that came so inopportunely into her life was her regard for +the arrogant, unscrupulous Earl of Bothwell. Her hand was stayed by fear +that men should say that for Bothwell's sake she had rid herself of a +husband become troublesome. That Bothwell had been her friend in the +hour when she had needed friends, and knew not whom she might trust; +that by his masterfulness he seemed a man upon whom a woman might lean +with confidence, may account for the beginnings of the extraordinary +influence he came so swiftly to exercise over her, and the passion he +awakened in her to such a degree that she was unable to dissemble it. + +Her regard for him, the more flagrant by contrast with her contempt for +Darnley, is betrayed in the will she made before her confinement in +the following June. Whilst to Darnley she bequeathed nothing but the +red-enamelled diamond ring with which he had married her--"It was with +this that I was married," she wrote almost contemptuously. "I leave it +to the King who gave it me"--she appointed Bothwell to the tutelage of +her child in the event of her not surviving it, and to the government of +the realm. + +The King came to visit her during her convalescence, and was scowled +upon by Murray and Argyll, who were at Holyrood, and most of all +by Bothwell, whose arrogance by now was such that he was become the +best-hated man in Scotland. The Queen received him very coldly, whilst +using Bothwell more than cordially in his very presence, so that he +departed again in a deeper humiliation than before. + +Then before the end of July there was her sudden visit to Bothwell +at Alloa, which gave rise to so much scandal. Hearing of it, Darnley +followed in a vain attempt to assert his rights as king and husband, +only to be flouted and dismissed with the conviction that his life was +no longer safe in Scotland, and that he had best cross the Border. +Yet, to his undoing, detained perhaps by the overweening pride that +is usually part of a fool's equipment, he did not act upon that wise +resolve. He returned instead to his hawking and his hunting, and was +seldom seen at Court thereafter. + +Even when in the following October, Mary lay at the point of death at +Jedburgh, Darnley came but to stay a day, and left her again without any +assurance that she would recover. But then the facts of her illness, and +how it had been contracted, were not such as to encourage kindness in +him, even had he been inclined to kindness. + +Bothwell had taken three wounds in a Border affray some weeks before, +and Mary, hearing of this and that he lay in grievous case at Hermitage, +had ridden thither in her fond solicitude--a distance of thirty +miles--and back again in the same day, thus contracting a chill which +had brought her to the very gates of death. + +Darnley had not only heard of this, but he had found Bothwell at +Jedburgh, whither he had been borne in a litter, when in his turn he had +heard of how it was with Mary; and Bothwell had treated him with more +than the contempt which all men now showed him, but which from none +could wound him so deeply as from this man whom rumour accounted Mary's +lover. + +Matters between husband and wife were thus come to a pass in which they +could not continue, as all men saw, and as she herself confessed at +Craigmillar, whither she repaired, still weak in body, towards the end +of November. + +Over a great fire that blazed in a vast chamber of the castle she sat +sick at heart and shivering, for all that her wasted body was swathed in +a long cloak of deepest purple reversed with ermine. Her face was thin +and of a transparent pallor, her eyes great pools of wistfulness amid +the shadows which her illness had set about them. + +"I do wish I could be dead!" she sighed. + +Bothwell's eyes narrowed. He was leaning on the back of her tall chair, +a long, virile figure with a hawk-nosed, bearded face that was sternly +handsome. He thrust back the crisp dark hair that clustered about his +brow, and fetched a sigh. + +"It was never my own death I wished when a man stood in my road to aught +I craved," he said, lowering his voice, for Maitland of Lethington--now +restored to his secretaryship--was writing at a table across the room, +and my Lord of Argyll was leaning over him. + +She looked up at him suddenly, her eyes startled. + +"What devil's counsel do you whisper?" she asked him. And when he would +have answered, she raised a hand. "No," she said. "Not that way." + +"There is another," said Bothwell coolly. He moved, came round, and +stood squarely upon the hearth, his back to the fire, confronting her, +nor did he further trouble to lower his voice. "We have considered it +already." + +"What have you considered?" + +Her voice was strained; fear and excitement blended in her face. + +"How the shackles that fetter you might be broken. Be not alarmed. +It was the virtuous Murray himself propounded it to Argyll and +Lethington--for the good of Scotland and yourself." A sneer flitted +across his tanned face. "Let them speak for themselves." He raised his +voice and called to them across the room. + +They came at once, and the four made an odd group as they stood there in +the firelit gloom of that November day--the lovely young Queen, so frail +and wistful in her high-backed chair; the stalwart, arrogant Bothwell, +magnificent in a doublet of peach-coloured velvet that tapered to a +golden girdle; Argyll, portly and sober in a rich suit of black; and +Maitland of Lethington, lean and crafty of face, in a long furred gown +that flapped about his bony shanks. + +It was to Lethington that Bothwell addressed himself. + +"Her Grace is in a mood to hear how the Gordian knot of her marriage +might be unravelled," said he, grimly ironic. + +Lethington raised his eyebrows, licked his thin lips, and rubbed his +bony hands one in the other. + +"Unravelled?" he echoed with wondering stress. "Unravelled? Ha!" His +dark eyes flashed round at them. "Better adopt Alexander's plan, and cut +it. 'Twill be more complete, and--and final." + +"No, no!" she cried. "I will not have you shed his blood." + +"He himself was none so tender where another was concerned," Bothwell +reminded her--as if the memory of Rizzio were dear to him. + +"What he may have done does not weigh upon my conscience," was her +answer. + +"He might," put in Argyll, "be convicted of treason for having consented +to Your Grace's retention in ward at Holyrood after Rizzio's murder." + +She considered an instant, then shook her head. + +"It is too late. It should have been done long since. Now men will say +that it is but a pretext to be rid of him." She looked up at Bothwell, +who remained standing immediately before her, between her and the fire. +"You said that my Lord of Murray had discussed this matter. Was it in +such terms as these?" + +Bothwell laughed silently at the thought of the sly Murray rendering +himself a party to anything so direct and desperate. It was Lethington +who answered her. + +"My Lord Murray was for a divorce. That would set Your Grace free, +and it might be obtained, he said, by tearing up the Pope's bull of +dispensation that permitted the marriage. Yet, madame, although Lord +Murray would himself go no further, I have no cause to doubt that were +other means concerted, he would be content to look through his fingers." + +Her mind, however, did not seem to follow his speech beyond the matter +of the divorce. A faint flush of eagerness stirred in her pale cheeks. + +"Ah, yes!" she cried. "I, too, have thought of that--of this divorce. +And God knows I do not want for grounds. And it could be obtained, you +say, by tearing up this papal bull?" + +"The marriage could be proclaimed void thereafter," Argyll explained. + +She looked past Bothwell into the fire, and took her chin in her hand. + +"Yes," she said slowly, musingly, and again, "yes. That were a way. That +is the way." And then suddenly she looked up, and they saw doubt and +dread in her eyes. "But in that case--what of my son?" + +"Aye!" said Lethington grimly. He shrugged his narrow shoulders, parted +his hands, and brought them together again. "That's the obstacle, as we +perceived. It would imperil his succession." + +"It would make a bastard of him, you mean?" she cried, demanding the +full expansion of their thoughts. + +"Indeed it would do no less," the secretary assented. + +"So that," said Bothwell, softly, "we come back to Alexander's method. +What the fingers may not unravel, the knife can sever." + +She shivered, and drew her furred cloak the more closely about her. + +Lethington leaned forward. He spoke in kindly, soothing accents. + +"Let us guide this matter among us, madame," he murmured, "and we'll +find means to rid Your Grace of this young fool, without hurt to your +honour or prejudice to your son. And the Earl of Murray will look the +other way, provided you pardon Morton and his friends for the killing +they did in Darnley's service." + +She looked from one to the other of them, scanning each face in turn. +Then her eyes returned to a contemplation of the flaming logs, and she +spoke very softly. + +"Do nothing by which a spot might be laid on my honour or conscience," +she said, with an odd deliberateness that seemed to insist upon the +strictly literal meaning of her words. "Rather I pray you let the matter +rest until God remedy it." + +Lethington looked at the other two, the other two looked at him. He +rubbed his hands softly. + +"Trust to us, madame," he answered. "We will so guide the matter +that Your Grace shall see nothing but what is good and approved by +Parliament." + +She committed herself to no reply, and so they were content to take +their answer from her silence. They went in quest of Huntly and +Sir James Balfour, and the five of them entered into a bond for the +destruction of him whom they named "the young fool and proud tiranne," +to be engaged in when Mary should have pardoned Morton and his +fellow-conspirators. + +It was not until Christmas Eve that she signed this pardon of some +seventy fugitives, proscribed for their participation in the Rizzio +murder, towards whom she had hitherto shown herself so implacable. + +The world saw in this no more than a deed of clemency and charity +befitting the solemn festival of good-will. But the five who had entered +into that bond at Craigmillar Castle beheld in it more accurately the +fulfilment of her part of the suggested bargain, the price she paid in +advance to be rid of Darnley, the sign of her full agreement that the +knot which might not be unravelled should be cut. + +On that same day Her Grace went with Bothwell to Lord Drummond's, where +they abode for the best part of a week, and thence they went on +together to Tullibardine, the rash and open intimacy between them giving +nourishment to scandal. + +At the same time Darnley quitted Stirling, where he had lately been +living in miserable conditions, ignored by the nobles, and even stinted +in his necessary expenses, deprived of his ordinary servants, and his +silver replaced by pewter. The miserable youth reached Glasgow deadly +sick. He had been taken ill on the way, and the inevitable rumour was +spread that he had been poisoned. Later, when it became known that his +once lovely countenance was now blotched and disfigured, it was realized +that his illness was no more than the inevitable result of the debauched +life he led. + +Conceiving himself on the point of death, Darnley wrote piteously to the +Queen; but she ignored his letters until she learnt that his condition +was improving, when at last (on January 29th) she went to visit him at +Glasgow. It may well be that she nourished some hope that nature would +resolve the matter for her, and remove the need for such desperate +measures as had been concerted. But seeing him likely to recover, two +things became necessary, to bring him to the place that was suitable for +the fulfilment of her designs, and to simulate reconciliation with him, +and even renewed and tender affection, so that none might hereafter +charge her with complicity in what should follow. + +I hope that in this I do her memory no injustice. It is thus that I read +the sequel, nor can I read it in any other way. + +She found him abed, with a piece of taffeta over his face to hide its +disfigurement, and she was so moved--as it seemed--by his condition, +that she fell on her knees beside him, and wept in the presence of her +attendants and his own; confessing penitence if anything she had done +in the past could have contributed to their estrangement. Thus +reconciliation followed, and she used him tenderly, grew solicitous +concerning him, and vowed that as soon as he could be moved, he must be +taken to surroundings more salubrious and more befitting the dignity of +his station. + +Gladly then he agreed to return with her to Holyrood. + +"Not to Holyrood," she said. "At least, not until your health is mended, +lest you should carry thither infection dangerous to your little son." + +"Whither then?" he asked her, and when she mentioned Craigmillar, he +started up in bed, so that the taffeta slipped from his face, and it was +with difficulty that she dissembled the loathing with which the sight of +its pustules inspired her. + +"Craigmillar!" he cried. "Then what I was told is true." + +"What were you told?" quoth she, staring at him, brows knit, her face +blank. + +A rumour had filtered through to him of the Craigmillar bond. He had +been told that a letter drawn up there had been presented to her for her +signature, which she had refused. Thus much he told her, adding that he +could not believe that she would do him any hurt; and yet why did she +desire to bear him to Craigmillar? + +"You have been told lies," she answered him. "I saw no such letter; I +subscribed none, nor was ever asked to subscribe any," which indeed was +literally true. "To this I swear. As for your going to Craigmillar, you +shall go whithersoever you please, yourself." + +He sank back on his pillows, and his trembling subsided. + +"I believe thee, Mary. I believe thou'ld never do me any harm," he +repeated, "and if any other would," he added on a bombastic note, "they +shall buy it dear, unless they take me sleeping. But I'll never to +Craigmillar." + +"I have said you shall go where you please," she assured him again. + +He considered. + +"There is the house at Kirk o' Field. It has a fine garden, and is in a +position that is deemed the healthiest about Edinburgh. I need good air; +good air and baths have been prescribed me to cleanse me of this plague. +Kirk o' Field will serve, if it be your pleasure." + +She gave a ready consent, dispatched messengers ahead to prepare the +house, and to take from Holyrood certain furnishings that should improve +the interior, and render it as fitting as possible a dwelling for a +king. + +Some days later they set out, his misgivings quieted by the tenderness +which she now showed him--particularly when witnesses were at hand. + +It was a tenderness that grew steadily during those twelve days in which +he lay in convalescence in the house at Kirk o' Field; she was playful +and coquettish with him as a maid with her lover, so that nothing was +talked of but the completeness of this reconciliation, and the hope that +it would lead to a peace within the realm that would be a benefit to +all. Yet many there were who marvelled at it, wondering whether the +waywardness and caprice of woman could account for so sudden a change +from hatred to affection. + +Darnley was lodged on the upper floor, in a room comfortably furnished +from the palace. It was hung with six pieces of tapestry, and the floor +was partly covered by an Eastern carpet. It contained, besides the +handsome bed--which once had belonged to the Queen's mother--a couple of +high chairs in purple velvet, a little table with a green velvet cover, +and some cushions in red. By the side of the bed stood the specially +prepared bath that was part of the cure which Darnley was undergoing. It +had for its incongruous lid a door that had been lifted from its hinges. + +Immediately underneath was a room that had been prepared for the Queen, +with a little bed of yellow and green damask, and a furred coverlet. The +windows looked out upon the close, and the door opened upon the passage +leading to the garden. + +Here the Queen slept on several of those nights of early February, for +indeed she was more often at Kirk o' Field than at Holy-rood, and when +she was not bearing Darnley company in his chamber, and beguiling the +tedium of his illness, she was to be seen walking in the garden with +Lady Reres, and from his bed he could hear her sometimes singing as she +sauntered there. + +Never since the ephemeral season of their courtship had she been on such +fond terms with him, and all his fears of hostile designs entertained +against him by her immediate followers were stilled at last. Yet not +for long. Into his fool's paradise came Lord Robert of Holyrood, with a +warning that flung him into a sweat of panic. + +The conspirators had hired a few trusted assistants to help them carry +out their plans, and a rumour had got abroad--in the unaccountable way +of rumours--that there was danger to the King. It was of this rumour +that Lord Robert brought him word, telling him bluntly that unless he +escaped quickly from this place, he would leave his life there. Yet when +Darnley had repeated this to the Queen, and the Queen indignantly had +sent for Lord Robert and demanded to know his meaning, his lordship +denied that he had uttered any such warning, protested that his words +must have been misunderstood--that they referred solely to the King's +condition, which demanded, he thought, different treatment and healthier +air. + +Knowing not what to believe, Darnley's uneasiness abode with him. Yet, +trusting Mary, and feeling secure so long as she was by his side, he +became more and more insistent upon her presence, more and more fretful +in her absence. It was to quiet him that she consented to sleep as often +as might be at Kirk o' Field. She slept there on the Wednesday of that +week, and again on Friday, and she was to have done so yet again on that +fateful Sunday, February 9th, but that her servant Sebastien--one +who had accompanied her from France, and for whom she had a deep +affection--was that day married, and Her Majesty had promised to be +present at the masque that night at Holyrood, in honour of his nuptials. + +Nevertheless, she did not utterly neglect her husband on that account. +She rode to Kirk o' Field early in the evening, accompanied by Bothwell, +Huntly, Argyll, and some others; and leaving the lords at cards below +to while away the time, she repaired to Darnley, and sat beside his bed, +soothing a spirit oddly perturbed, as if with some premonition of what +was brewing. + +"Ye'll not leave me the night," he begged her once. + +"Alas," she said, "I must! Sebastien is being wed, and I have promised +to be present." + +He sighed and shifted uneasily. + +"Soon I shall be well, and then these foolish humours will cease to +haunt me. But just now I cannot bear you from my sight. When you are +with me I am at peace. I know that all is well. But when you go I am +filled with fears, lying helpless here." + +"What should you fear?" she asked him. + +"The hate that I know is alive against me." + +"You are casting shadows to affright yourself," said she. + +"What's that?" he cried, half raising himself in sudden alarm. "Listen!" + +From the room below came faintly a sound of footsteps, accompanied by a +noise as of something being trundled. + +"It will be my servants in my room--putting it to rights." + +"To what purpose since you do not sleep there tonight?" he asked. He +raised his voice and called his page. + +"Why, what will you do?" she asked him, steadying her own alarm. + +He answered her by bidding the youth who had entered go see what was +doing in the room below. The lad departed, and had he done his errand +faithfully, he would have found Bothwell's followers, Hay and +Hepburn, and the Queen's man, Nicholas Hubert better known as French +Paris--emptying a keg of gunpowder on the floor immediately under the +King's bed. But it happened that in the passage he came suddenly face +to face with the splendid figure of Bothwell, cloaked and hatted, and +Bothwell asked him whither he went. + +The boy told him. + +"It is nothing," Bothwell said. "They are moving Her Grace's bed in +accordance with her wishes." + +And the lad, overborne by that commanding figure which so effectively +blocked his path, chose the line of lesser resistance. He went back to +bear the King that message as if for himself he had seen what my Lord +Bothwell had but told him. + +Darnley was pacified by the assurance, and the lad withdrew. + +"Did I not tell you how it was?" quoth Mary. "Is not my word enough?" + +"Forgive the doubt," Darnley begged her. "Indeed, there was no doubt of +you, who have shown me so much charity in my affliction." He sighed, and +looked at her with melancholy eyes. + +"I would the past had been other than it has been between you and me," +he said. "I was too young for kingship, I think. In my green youth I +listened to false counsellors, and was quick to jealousy and the follies +it begets. Then, when you cast me out and I wandered friendless, a devil +took possession of me. Yet, if you will but consent to bury all the +past into oblivion, I will make amends, and you shall find me worthier +hereafter." + +She rose, white to the lips, her bosom heaving under her long cloak. +She turned aside and stepped to the window. She stood there, peering out +into the gloom of the close, her knees trembling under her. + +"Why do you not answer me?" he cried. + +"What answer do you need?" she said, and her voice shook. "Are you not +answered already?" And then, breathlessly, she added: "It is time to go, +I think." + +They heard a heavy step upon the stairs and the clank of a sword against +the rails. The door opened, and Bothwell, wrapped in his scarlet cloak, +stood bending his tall shoulders under the low lintel. His gleaming +eyes, so oddly mocking in their glance, for all that his face was set, +fell upon Darnley, and with their look flung him into an inward state of +blending fear and rage. + +"Your Grace," said Bothwell's deep voice, "it is close upon midnight." + +He came no more than in time; it needed the sight of him with its +reminder of all that he meant to her to sustain a purpose that was being +sapped by pity. + +"Very well," she said. "I come." + +Bothwell stood aside to give her egress and to invite it. But the King +delayed her. + +"A moment--a word!" he begged, and to Bothwell: "Give us leave apart, +sir!" + +Yet, King though he might be, there was no ready obedience from the +arrogant Border lord, her lover. It was to Mary that Bothwell looked for +commands, nor stirred until she signed to him to go. And even then he +went no farther than the other side of the door, so that he might be +close at hand to fortify her should any weakness assail her now in this +supreme hour. + +Darnley struggled up in bed, caught her hand, and pulled her to him. + +"Do not leave me, Mary. Do not leave me!" he implored her. + +"Why, what is this?" she cried, but her voice lacked steadiness. "Would +you have me disappoint poor Sebastien, who loves me?" + +"I see. Sebastien is more to you than I?" + +"Now this is folly. Sebastien is my faithful servant." + +"And am I less? Do you not believe that my one aim henceforth will be to +serve you and faithfully? Oh, forgive this weakness. I am full of evil +foreboding to-night. Go, then, if go you must, but give me at least some +assurance of your love, some pledge of it in earnest that you will come +again to-morrow nor part from me again." + +She looked into the white, piteous young face that had once been so +lovely, and her soul faltered. It needed the knowledge that Bothwell +waited just beyond the door, that he could overhear what was being said, +to strengthen her fearfully in her tragic purpose. + +She has been censured most for what next she did. Murray himself spoke +of it afterwards as the worst part of the business. But it is possible +that she was concerned only at the moment to put an end to a scene that +was unnerving her, and that she took the readiest means to it. + +She drew a ring from her finger and slipped it on to one of his. + +"Be this the pledge, then," she said; "and so content and rest +yourself." + +With that she broke from him, white and scared, and reached the door. +Yet with her hand upon the latch she paused. Looking at him she saw that +he was smiling, and perhaps horror of her betrayal of him overwhelmed +her. It must be that she then desired to warn him, yet with Bothwell +within earshot she realized that any warning must precipitate the +tragedy, with direst consequences to Bothwell and herself. + +To conquer her weakness, she thought of David Rizzio, whom Darnley had +murdered almost at her feet, and whom this night was to avenge. She +thought of the Judas part that he had played in that affair, and sought +persuasion that it was fitting he should now be paid in kind. Yet, +very woman that she was, failing to find any such persuasion, she found +instead in the very thought of Rizzio the very means to convey her +warning. + +Standing tense and white by the door, regarding him with dilating eyes, +she spoke her last words to him. + +"It would be just about this time last year that Davie was slain," she +said, and on that passed out to the waiting Bothwell. + +Once on the stairs she paused and set a hand upon the shoulder of the +stalwart Borderer. + +"Must it be? Oh, must it be?" she whispered fearfully. + +She caught the flash of his eyes in the half gloom as he leaned over +her, his arm about her waist drawing her to him. + +"Is it not just? Is it not full merited?" he asked her. + +"And yet I would that we did not profit by it," she complained. + +"Shall we pity him on that account?" he asked, and laughed softly and +shortly. "Come away," he added abruptly. "They wait for you!" And so, +by the suasion of his arm and his imperious will, she was swept onward +along the road of her destiny. + +Outside the horses were ready. There was a little group of gentlemen to +escort her, and half a dozen servants with lighted torches, whilst Lady +Reres was in waiting. A man stood forward to assist her to mount, his +face and hands so blackened by gunpowder that for a moment she failed to +recognize him. She laughed nervously when he named himself. + +"Lord, Paris, how begrimed you are!" she cried; and, mounting, rode away +towards Holyrood with her torchbearers and attendants. + +In the room above, Darnley lay considering her last words. He turned +them over in his thoughts, assured by the tone she had used and how she +had looked that they contained some message. + +"It would be just about this time last year that Davie was slain." + +In themselves, those words were not strictly accurate. It wanted yet a +month to the anniversary of Rizzio's death. And why, at parting, should +she have reminded him of that which she had agreed should be forgotten? +Instantly came the answer that she sought to warn him that retribution +was impending. He thought again of the rumours that he had heard of a +bond signed at Craigmillar; he recalled Lord Robert's warning to him, +afterwards denied. + +He recalled her words to himself at the time of Rizzio's death: +"Consider well what I now say. Consider and remember. I shall never rest +until I give you as sore a heart as I have presently." And further, +he remembered her cry at once agonized and fiercely vengeful: "Jamais, +jamais je n'oublierai." + +His terrors mounted swiftly, to be quieted again at last when he +looked at the ring she had put upon his finger in pledge of her renewed +affection. The past was dead and buried, surely. Though danger might +threaten, she would guard him against it, setting her love about him +like a panoply of steel. When she came to-morrow, he would question her +closely, and she should be more frank and open with him, and tell him +all. Meanwhile, he would take his precautions for to-night. + +He sent his page to make fast all doors. The youth went and did as he +was bidden, with the exception of the door that led to the garden. It +had no bolts, and the key was missing; yet, seeing his master's nervous, +excited state, he forbore from any mention of that circumstance when +presently he returned to him. + +Darnley requested a book of Psalms, that he might read himself to sleep. +The page dozed in a chair, and so the hours passed; and at last the King +himself fell into a light slumber. Out of this he started suddenly at +a little before two o'clock, and sat upright in bed, alarmed without +knowing why, listening with straining ears and throbbing pulses. + +He caught a repetition of the sound that had aroused him, a sound akin +to that which had drawn his attention earlier, when Mary had been with +him. It came up faintly from the room immediately beneath: her room. +Some one was moving there, he thought. Then, as he continued to listen, +all became quiet again, save his fears, which would not be quieted. +He extinguished the light, slipped from the bed, and, crossing to the +window, peered out into the close that was faintly illumined by a +moon in its first quarter. A shadow moved, he thought. He watched with +increasing panic for confirmation, and presently saw that he had been +right. Not one, but several shadows were shifting there among the +trees. Shadows of men, they were, and as he peered, he saw one that +went running from the house across the lawn and joined the others, now +clustered together in a group. What could be their purpose here? In the +silence, he seemed to hear again the echo of Mary's last words to him: + +"It would be just about this time last year that Davie was slain." + +In terror, he groped his way to the chair where the page slept and shook +the lad vigorously. + +"Afoot, boy!" he said, in a hoarse whisper. He had meant to shout it, +but his voice failed him, his windpipe clutched by panic. "Afoot--we are +beset by enemies!" + +At once the youth was wide awake, and together the King just in his +shirt as he was--they made their way from the room in the dark, groping +their way, and so reached the windows at the back. Darnley opened one of +these very softly, then sent the boy back for a sheet. Making this +fast, they descended by it to the garden, and started towards the wall, +intending to climb it, that they might reach the open. + +The boy led the way, and the King followed, his teeth chattering as much +from the cold as from the terror that possessed him. And then, quite +suddenly, without the least warning, the ground, it seemed to them, +heaved under their feet, and they were flung violently forward on their +faces. A great blaze rent the darkness of the night, accompanied by +the thunders of an explosion so terrific that it seemed as if the whole +world must have been shattered by it. + +For some instants the King and his page lay half stunned where they had +fallen, and well might it have been for them had they so continued. But +Darnley, recovering, staggered to his feet, pulling the boy up with him +and supporting him. Then, as he began to move, he heard a soft whistle +in the gloom behind him. Over his shoulder he looked towards the house, +to behold a great, smoking gap now yawning in it. Through this gap +he caught a glimpse of shadowy men moving in the close beyond, and he +realized that he had been seen. The white shirt he wore had betrayed his +presence to them. + +With a stifled scream, he began to run towards the wall, the page +staggering after him. Behind them now came the clank and thud of a score +of overtaking feet. Soon they were surrounded. The King turned this way +and that, desperately seeking a way out of the murderous human ring that +fenced them round. + +"What d'ye seek? What d'ye seek?" he screeched, in a pitiful attempt to +question with authority. + +A tall man in a trailing cloak advanced and seized him. + +"We seek thee, fool!" said the voice of Bothwell. + +The kingliness that he had never known how to wear becomingly now fell +from him utterly. + +"Mercy--mercy!" he cried. + +"Such mercy as you had on David Rizzio!" answered the Border lord. + +Darnley fell on his knees and sought to embrace the murderer's legs. +Bothwell stooped over him, seized the wretched man's shirt, and pulled +it from his shivering body; then, flinging the sleeves about the royal +neck, slipped one over the other and drew them tight, nor relaxed his +hold until the young man's struggles had entirely ceased. + +Four days later, Mary went to visit the body of her husband in the +chapel of Holyrood House, whither it had been conveyed, and there, as a +contemporary tells us, she looked upon it long, "not only without grief, +but with greedy eyes." Thereafter it was buried secretly in the night by +Rizzio's side, so that murderer and victim lay at peace together in the +end. + + + + + + +III. THE NIGHT OF BETRAYAL--Antonio Perez and Philip II of Spain + +"You a Spaniard of Spain?" had been her taunt, dry and contemptuous. "I +do not believe it." + +And upon that she had put spur to the great black horse that bore her +and had ridden off along the precipitous road by the river. + +After her he had flung his answer on a note of laughter, bitter and +cynical as the laughter of the damned, laughter that expressed all +things but mirth. + +"Oh, a Spaniard of Spain, indeed, Madame la Marquise. Very much a +Spaniard of Spain, I assure you." + +The great black horse and the woman in red flashed round a bend of +the rocky road and were eclipsed by a clump of larches. The man leaned +heavily upon his ebony cane, sighed wearily, and grew thoughtful. Then, +with a laugh and a shrug, he sat down in the shade of the firs that +bordered the road. Behind him, crowning the heights, loomed the brown +castle built by Gaston Phoebus, Count of Foix, two hundred years ago, +and the Tower of Montauzet, its walls scarred by the shots of the +rebellious Biscayans. Below him, nourished by the snows that were +dissolving under the sunshine of early spring, sped the tumbling river; +beyond this spread pasture and arable land to the distant hills, and +beyond those stood the gigantic sharp-summited wall of the Pyrenees, its +long ridge dominated by the cloven cone of the snow clad Pic du Midi. +There was in the sight of that great barrier, at once natural and +political, a sense of security for this fugitive from the perils and +the hatreds that lurked in Spain beyond. Here in Bearn he was a king's +guest, enjoying the hospitality of the great Castle of Pau, safe from +the vindictive persecution of the mean tyrant who ruled in Spain. And +here, at last, he was at peace, or would have been but for the thought +of this woman--this Marquise de Chantenac--who had gone to such lengths +in her endeavours to soften his exile that her ultimate object could +never have been in doubt to a coxcomb, though it was in some doubt to +Antonio Perez, who had been cured for all time of Coxcombry by suffering +and misfortune, to say nothing of increasing age. It was when he +bethought him of that age of his that he was chiefly intrigued by the +amazing ardour of this great lady of Bearn. A dozen years ago--before +misfortune overtook him--he would have accepted her flagrant wooing as +a proper tribute. For then he had been the handsome, wealthy, witty, +profligate Secretary of State to His Catholic Majesty King Philip II, +with a power in Spain second only to the King's, and sometimes even +greater. In those days he would have welcomed her as her endowments +merited. She was radiantly lovely, in the very noontide of her +resplendent youth, the well-born widow of a gentleman of Bearn. And +it would not have lain within the strength or inclinations of Antonio +Perez, as he once had been, to have resisted the temptation that she +offered. Ever avid of pleasure, he had denied himself no single cup of +it that favouring Fortune had proffered him. It was, indeed, because +of this that he was fallen from his high estate; it was a woman who had +pulled him down in ruin, tumbling with him to her doom. She, poor soul, +was dead at last, which was the best that any lover could have wished +her. But he lived on, embittered, vengeful, with gall in his veins +instead of blood. He was the pale, faded shadow of that arrogant, +reckless, joyous Antonio Perez beloved of Fortune. He was fifty, gaunt, +hollow-eyed, and grey, half crippled by torture, sickly from long years +of incarceration. + +What, he asked himself, sitting there, his eyes upon the eternal snows +of the barrier that shut out his past, was there left in him to +awaken love in such a woman as Madame de Chantenac? Was it that his +tribulations stirred her pity, or that the fame of him which rang +through Europe shed upon his withering frame some of the transfiguring +radiance of romance? + +It marked, indeed, the change in him that he should pause to question, +whose erstwhile habit had been blindly to accept the good things tossed +by Fortune into his lap. But question he did, pondering that +parting taunt of hers to which, for emphasis, she had given an odd +redundancy--"You a Spaniard of Spain!" Could her meaning have been +plainer? Was not a Spaniard proverbially as quick to love as to +jealousy? Was not Spain, that scented land of warmth and colour, of +cruelty and blood, of throbbing lutes under lattices ajar, of mitred +sinners doing public penance, that land where lust and piety went hand +in hand, where passion and penitence lay down together--was not Spain +the land of love's most fruitful growth? And was not a Spaniard the very +hierophant of love? + +His thoughts swung with sudden yearning to his wife Juana and their +children, held in brutal captivity by Philip, who sought to slake upon +them some of the vindictiveness from which their husband and father had +at last escaped. Not that Antonio Perez observed marital fidelity more +closely than any other Spaniard of his time, or of any time. But Antonio +Perez was growing old, older than he thought, older than his years. He +knew it. Madame de Chantenac had proved it to him. + +She had reproached him with never coming to see her at Chantenac, +neglecting to return the too assiduous visits that she paid him here at +Pau. + +"You are very beautiful, madame, and the world is very foul," he had +excused himself. "Believe one who knows the world, to his bitter cost. +Tongues will wag." + +"And your Spanish pride will not suffer that clods may talk of you?" + +"I am thinking of you, madame." + +"Of me?" she had answered. "Why, of me they talk already--talk their +fill. I must pretend blindness to the leering eyes that watch me each +time I come to Pau; feign unconsciousness of the impertinent glances of +the captain of the castle there as I ride in." + +"Then why do you come?" he had asked point-blank. But before her sudden +change of countenance he had been quick to add: "Oh, madame, I am +full conscious of the charity that brings you, and I am deeply, deeply +grateful; but--" + +"Charity?" she had interrupted sharply, on a laugh that was +self-mocking. "Charity?" + +"What else, madame?" + +"Ask yourself," she had answered, reddening and averting her face from +his questioning eyes. + +"Madame," he had faltered, "I dare not." + +"Dare not?" + +"Madame, how should I? I am an old man, broken by sickness, disheartened +by misfortune, daunted by tribulation--a mere husk cast aside by +Fortune, whilst you are lovely as one of the angels about the Throne of +Heaven." + +She had looked into the haggard face, into the scars of suffering that +seared it, and she had answered gently: "Tomorrow you shall come to me +at Chantenac, my friend." + +"I am a Spaniard, for whom to-morrow never comes." + +"But it will this time. To-morrow I shall expect you." + +He looked up at her sitting her great black horse beside which he had +been pacing. + +"Better not, madame! Better not!" he had said. + +And then he saw the eyes that had been tender grow charged with scorn; +then came her angry taunt: + +"You a Spaniard of Spain! I do not believe it!" + +Oh, there was no doubt that he had angered her. Women of her temperament +are quick to anger as to every emotion. But he had not wished to anger +her. God knows it was never the way of Antonio Perez to anger lovely +women--at least not in this fashion. And it was an ill return for her +gentleness and attention to himself. Considering this as he sat there +now, he resolved that he must make amends--the only amends it was +possible to make. + +An hour later, in one of the regal rooms of the castle, where he enjoyed +the hospitality of King Henri IV of France and Navarre, he announced +to that most faithful equerry, Gil de Mesa, his intention of riding to +Chantenac to-morrow. + +"Is it prudent?" quoth Mesa, frowning. + +"Most imprudent," answered Don Antonio. "That is why I go." + +And on the morrow he went, escorted by a single groom. Gil de Mesa had +begged at first to be allowed to accompany him. But for Gil he had other +work, of which the instructions he left were very full. The distance was +short--three miles along the Gave de Pau--and Don Antonio covered it on +a gently ambling mule, such as might have been bred to bear some aged +dignitary of Holy Church. + +The lords of Chantenac were as noble, as proud, and as poor as most +great lords of Bearn. Their lineage was long, their rent-rolls short. +And the last marquis had suffered more from this dual complaint than +any of his forbears, and he had not at all improved matters by a certain +habit of gaming contracted in youth. The chateau bore abundant signs of +it. It was a burnt red pile standing four-square on a little eminence, +about the base of which the river went winding turbulently; it was +turreted at each of its four angles, imposing in its way, but in a sad +state of dilapidation and disrepair. + +The interior, when Don Antonio reached it, was rather better; the +furnishings, though sparse, were massive and imposing; the tapestries on +the walls, if old, were rich and choice. But everywhere the ill-assorted +marriage of pretentiousness and neediness was apparent. The floors of +hall and living-room were strewn with fresh-cut rushes, an obsolescent +custom which served here alike to save the heavy cost of carpets and to +lend the place an ancient baronial dignity. Whilst pretence was made of +keeping state, the servitors were all old, and insufficient in number +to warrant the retention of the infirm seneschal by whom Don Antonio was +ceremoniously received. A single groom, aged and without livery, took +charge at once of Don Antonio's mule, his servant's horse, and the +servant himself. + +The seneschal, hobbling before him, conducted our Spaniard across the +great hall, gloomy and half denuded, through the main living-room of the +chateau into a smaller, more intimate apartment, holding some trace of +luxury, which he announced as madame's own room. And there he left him +to await the coming of the chatelaine. + +She, at least, showed none of the outward disrepair of her surroundings. +She came to him sheathed in a gown of shimmering silk that was of the +golden brown of autumn tints, caught to her waist by a slender girdle of +hammered gold. Eyes of deepest blue pondered him questioningly, whilst +red lips smiled their welcome. "So you have come in spite of all?" she +greeted him. "Be very welcome to my poor house, Don Antonio." + +And regally she proffered her hand to his homage. + +He took it, observing the shapely, pointed fingers, the delicately +curving nails. Reluctantly, almost, he admitted to himself how complete +was her beauty, how absolute her charm. He sighed--a sigh for that lost +youth of his, perhaps--as he bowed from his fine, lean height to press +cold lips of formal duty on that hand. + +"Your will, madame, was stronger than my prudence," said he. + +"Prudence?" quoth she, and almost sneered. "Since when has Antonio Perez +stooped to prudence?" + +"Since paying the bitter price of imprudence. You know my story?" + +"A little. I know, for instance, that you murdered Escovedo--all the +world knows that. Is that the imprudence of which you speak? I have +heard it said that it was for love of a woman that you did it." + +"You have heard that, too?" he said. He had paled a little. "You have +heard a deal, Marquise. I wonder would it amuse you to hear more, to +hear from my own lips this story of mine which all Europe garbles? Would +it?" + +There was a faint note of anxiety in his voice, a look faintly anxious +in his eyes. + +She scanned him a moment gravely, almost inscrutably. "What purpose +can it serve?" she asked; and her tone was forbidding--almost a tone of +fear. + +"It will explain," he insisted. + +"Explain what?" + +"How it comes that I am not this moment prostrate at your feet; how it +happens that I am not on my knees to worship your heavenly beauty; how I +have contrived to remain insensible before a loveliness that in happier +times would have made me mad." + +"Vive Dieu!" she murmured, half ironical. "Perhaps that needs +explaining." + +"How it became necessary," he pursued, never heeding the interruption, +"that yesterday you should proclaim your disbelief that I could be, as +you said, a Spaniard of Spain. How it happens that Antonio Perez has +become incapable of any emotion but hate. Will you hear the story--all +of it?" + +He was leaning towards her, his white face held close to her own, a +smouldering fire in the dark, sunken eyes that now devoured her. + +She shivered, and her own cheeks turned very pale. Her lips were faintly +twisted as if in an effort to smile. + +"My friend--if you insist," she consented. + +"It is the purpose for which I came," he announced. + +For a long moment each looked into the other's eyes with a singular +intentness that nothing here would seem to warrant. + +At length she spoke. + +"Come," she said, "you shall tell me." + +And she waved him to a chair set in the embrasure of the mullioned +window that looked out over a tract of meadowland sweeping gently down +to the river. + +Don Antonio sank into the chair, placing his hat and whip upon the floor +beside him. The Marquise faced him, occupying the padded window-seat, +her back to the light, her countenance in shadow. + +And here, in his own words, follows the story that he told her as she +herself set it down soon after. Whilst more elaborate and intimate +in parts, it yet so closely agrees throughout with his own famous +"Relacion," that I do not hesitate to accept the assurance she has +left us that every word he uttered was burnt as if by an acid upon her +memory. + +THE STORY OF ANTONIO PEREZ + +As a love-story this is, I think, the saddest that ever was invented by +a romancer intent upon wringing tears from sympathetic hearts. How sad +it is you will realize when I tell you that daily I thank God on my +knees--for I still believe in God, despite what was alleged against me +by the inquisitors of Aragon--that she who inspired this love of which +I am to tell you is now in the peace of death. She died in exile at +Pastrana a year ago. Anne de Mendoza was what you call in France a great +parti. She came of one of the most illustrious families in Spain, and +she was a great heiress. So much all the world knew. What the world +forgot was that she was a woman, with a woman's heart and mind, a +woman's natural instincts to select her mate. There are fools who envy +the noble and the wealthy. They are little to be envied, those poor +pawns in the game of statecraft, moved hither and thither at the will +of players who are themselves no better. The human nature of them is a +negligible appendage to the names and rent-rolls that predetermine their +place upon the board of worldly ambition, a board befouled by blood, by +slobberings from the evil mouth of greed, and by infamy of every kind. + +So, because Anne was a daughter of the House of Mendoza, because her +endowments were great, they plucked her from her convent at the age of +thirteen years, knowing little more of life than the merest babe, and +they flung her into the arms of Ruy Gomez, Prince of Eboli, who was +old enough to have been her father. But Eboli was a great man in Spain, +perhaps the greatest; he was, first Minister to Philip II, and between +his House and that of Mendoza an alliance was desired. To establish it +that tender child was sacrificed without ruth. She discovered that life +held nothing of all that her maiden dreamings had foreseen; that it was +a thing of horror and greed and lovelessness and worse. For there was +much worse to come. + +Eboli brought his child-princess to Court. He wore her lightly as +a ribbon or a glove, the insignificant appendage to the wealth and +powerful alliance he had acquired with her. And at Court she came +under the eye of that pious satyr Philip. The Catholic King is very +devout--perfervidly devout. He prays, he fasts, he approaches the +sacraments, he does penance, all in proper season as prescribed by +Mother Church; he abominates sin and lack of faith--particularly in +others; he has drenched Flanders in blood that he might wash it clean +of the heresy of thinking differently from himself in spiritual matters, +and he would have done the same by England but that God--Who cannot, +after all, be quite of Philip's way of thinking--willed otherwise. All +this he has done for the greater honour and glory of his Maker, but he +will not tolerate his Maker's interference with his own minor pleasures +of the flesh. He is, as you would say, a Spaniard of Spain. + +This satyr's protruding eyes fell upon the lovely Princess of Eboli--for +lovely she was, a very pearl among women. I spare you details. Eboli was +most loyal and submissive where his King was concerned, most complacent +and accommodating. That was but logical, and need not shock you at all. +To advance his worldly ambitions had he taken Anne to wife; why should +he scruple, then, to yield her again that thus he might advance those +ambitions further? + +If poor Anne argued at all, she must have argued thus. For the rest, +she was told that to be loved by the King was an overwhelming honour, +a matter for nightly prayers of thankfulness. Philip was something very +exalted, hardly human in fact; almost, if not quite, divine. Who and +what was Anne that she should dispute with those who knew the world, and +who placed these facts before her? Never in all her little life had she +belonged to herself. Always had she been the property of somebody else, +to be dealt with as her owner might consider best. If about the Court +she saw some men more nearly of her own age--though there were not many, +for Philip's Court was ever a gloomy, sparsely peopled place--she took +it for granted that such men were not for her. This until I taught her +otherwise, which, however, was not yet a while. Had I been at Court in +those days, I think I should have found the means, at whatever cost, of +preventing that infamy; for I know that I loved her from the day I saw +her. But I was of no more than her own age, and I had not yet been drawn +into that whirlpool. + +So she went to the arms of that rachitic prince, and she bore him a +son--for, as all the world knows, the Duke of Prastana owns Philip for +his father. And Eboli increased in power and prosperity and the favour +of his master, and also, no doubt, in the contempt of posterity. There +are times when the thought of posterity and its vengeances is of great +solace. + +It would be some six years later when first I came to Court, brought +thither by my father, to enter the service of the Prince of Eboli as one +of his secretaries. As I have told you, I loved the Princess from the +moment I beheld her. From the gossip of the Court I pieced together +her story, and pitied her, and, pitying her, I loved her the more. Her +beauty dazzled me, her charm enmeshed me, and she had grown by now in +worldly wisdom and mental attainments. Yet I set a mask upon my passion, +and walked very circumspectly, for all that by nature I was as reckless +and profligate as all the world could ever call me. She was the wife of +the puissant Secretary of State, the mistress of the King. Who was I to +dispute their property to those exalted ones? + +And another consideration stayed me. She seemed to love the King. Young +and lacking in wisdom, this amazed me. In age he compared favourably +with her husband he was but thirteen years older than herself--but in +nothing else. He was a weedy, unhealthy-looking man, weakly of frame, +rachitic, undersized, with spindle-shanks, and a countenance that was +almost grotesque, with its protruding jaw, gaping mouth, great, doglike +eyes, and yellow tuft of beard. A great king, perhaps, this Philip, +having so been born; but a ridiculous man and an unspeakable lover. And +yet this incomparable woman seemed to love him. + +Let me pass on. For ten years I nursed that love of mine in secret. +I was helped, perhaps, by the fact that in the mean time I had +married--oh, just as Eboli himself had married, an arrangement dictated +by worldly considerations--and no better, truer mate did ever a man find +than I in Juana Coello. We had children and we were happy, and for a +season--for years, indeed--I began to think that my unspoken passion for +the Princess of Eboli was dead and done with. I saw her rarely now, and +my activities increased with increasing duties. At twenty-six I was one +of the Ministers of the Crown, and one of the chief supporters of +that party of which Eboli was the leader in Spanish politics. I sat +in Philip's Council, and I came under the spell of that taciturn, +suspicious man, who, utterly unlovable as he was, had yet an uncanny +power of inspiring devotion. From the spell of it I never quite escaped +until after long years of persecution. Yet the discovery that one by +nature so entirely antipathetic to me should have obtained such sway +over my mind helped me to understand Anne's attachment to him. + +When Eboli died, in 1573, I had so advanced in ability and Royal favour +that I took his place as Secretary of State, thus becoming all but the +supreme ruler of Spain. I do not believe that there was ever in Spain +a Minister so highly favoured by the reigning Prince, so powerful as +I became. Not Eboli himself in his halcyon days had been so deeply +esteemed of Philip, or had wielded such power as I now made my own. +All Europe knows it--for it was to me all Europe addressed itself for +affairs that concerned the Catholic King. + +And with my power came wealth--abundant, prodigious wealth. I was housed +like a Prince of the blood, and no Prince of the blood ever kept greater +state than I, was ever more courted, fawned upon, or flattered. And +remember I was young, little more than thirty, with all the strength and +zest to enjoy my intoxicating eminence. I was to my party what Eboli had +been, though the nominal leader of it remained Quiroga, Archbishop of +Toledo. On the other side was the Duke of Alva with his following. + +You must know that it was King Philip's way to encourage two rival +parties in the State, between which he shared his confidence and sway. +Thus he stimulated emulation and enlightened his own views in the +opposing opinions that were placed before him. But the power of my party +was absolute in those days, and Alva himself was as the dust beneath our +feet. + +Such eminences, they say, are perilous. Heads that are very highly +placed may at any moment be placed still higher--upon a pike. I am all +but a living witness to the truth of that, and yet I wonder would it so +have fallen out with me had I mistrusted that slumbering passion of +mine for Anne. I should have known that where such fires have once been +kindled in a man they never quite die out as long as life endures. Time +and preoccupations may overlay them as with a film of ashes, but more +or less deeply down they smoulder on, and the first breath will fan them +into flame again. + +It was at the King's request I went to see her in her fine Madrid house +opposite Santa Maria Mayor some months after her husband's death. There +were certain matters of heritage to be cleared up, and, having regard +to her high rank, it was Philip's wish that I--who was by now Eboli's +official successor--should wait on her in person. + +There were documents to be conned and signed, and the matter took some +days, for Eboli's possessions were not only considerable, but scattered, +and his widow displayed an acquired knowledge of affairs and a natural +wisdom that inspired her to probe deeply. To my undoing, she probed +too deeply in one matter. It concerned some land--a little property--at +Velez. She had been attached to the place, it seemed, and she missed all +mention of it from the papers that I brought her. She asked the reason. + +"It is disposed of," I told her. + +"Disposed of!" quoth she. "But by whom?" + +"By the Prince, your husband, a little while before he died." + +She looked up at me--she was seated at the wide, carved writing-table, +I standing by her side--as if expecting me to say more. As I left my +utterance there, she frowned perplexedly. + +"But what mystery is this?" she asked me. "To whom has it gone?" + +"To one Sancho Gordo." + +"To Sancho Gordo?" The frown deepened. "The washerwoman's son? You will +not tell me that he bought it?" + +"I do not tell you so, madame. It was a gift from the Prince, your +husband." + +"A gift!" She laughed. "To Sancho Gordo! So the washerwoman's child is +Eboli's son!" + +And again she laughed on a note of deep contempt. + +"Madame!" I cried, appalled and full of pity, "I assure you that you +assume too much. The Prince--" + +"Let be," she interrupted me. "Do you dream I care what rivals I may +have had, however lowly they may have been? The Prince, my husband, is +dead, and that is very well. He is much better dead, Don Antonio. The +pity of it is that he ever lived, or else that I was born a woman." + +She was staring straight before her, her hands fallen to her lap, her +face set as if carved and lifeless, and her voice came hard as the sound +of one stone beating upon another. + +"Do you dream what it can mean to have been so nurtured on indignities +that there is no anger left, no pride to wound by the discovery of yet +another nothing but cold, cold hate? That, Don Antonio, is my case. You +do not know what my life has been. That man--" + +"He is dead, madame," I reminded her, out of pity. + +"And damned, I hope," she answered me in that same cold, emotionless +voice. "He deserves no less for all the wrongs he did to me, the least +of which was the great wrong of marrying me. For advancement he acquired +me; for his advancement he bartered and used me and made of me a thing +of shame." + +I was so overwhelmed with grief and love and pity that a groan escaped +me almost before I was aware of it. She broke off short, and stared at +me in haughtiness. + +"You presume to pity me, I think," she reproved me. "It is my own +fault. I was wrong to talk. Women should suffer silently, that they may +preserve at least a mask of dignity. Otherwise they incur pity--and pity +is very near contempt." + +And then I lost my head. + +"Not mine, not mine!" I cried, throwing out my arms; and though that +was all I said, there was such a ring in my choking voice that she rose +stiffly from her seat and stood tense and tall confronting me, almost +eye to eye, reproof in every line of her. + +"Princess, forgive me!" I cried. "It breaks my heart in pieces to hear +you utter things that have been in my mind these many years, poisoning +the devotion that I owed to the late Prince, poisoning the very loyalty +I owe my King. You say I pity you. If that were so, none has the better +right." + +"Who gave it you?" she asked me, breathless. + +"Heaven itself, I think," I answered recklessly. "What you have +suffered, I have suffered for you. When I came to Court the infamy was +a thing accomplished--all of it. But I gathered it, and gathering it, +thanked Heaven I had been spared the pain and misery of witnessing it, +which must have been more than ever I could have endured. Yet when I +saw you, when I watched you--your wistful beauty, your incomparable +grace--there was a time when the thought to murder stirred darkly in my +mind that I might at least avenge you." + +She fell away before me, white to the very lips, her eyes dilating as +they regarded me. + +"In God's name, why?" she asked me in a strangled voice. + +"Because I loved you," I replied, "always, always, since the day I saw +you. Unfortunately, that day was years too late, even had I dared to +hope--" + +"Antonio!" Something in her voice drew my averted eyes. Her lips had +parted, her eyes kindled into life, a flush was stirring in her cheeks. + +"And I never knew! I never knew!" she faltered piteously. + +I stared. + +"Dear Heaven, why did you withhold a knowledge that would have upheld +me and enheartened me through all that I have suffered? Once, long, long +ago I hoped--" + +"You hoped!" + +"I hoped, Antonio--long, long ago." + +We were in each other's arms, she weeping on my shoulder as if her heart +would burst, I almost mad with mingling joy and pain--and as God lives +there was more matter here for pain than joy. + +We sat long together after that, and talked it out. There was no help +for it. It was too late on every count. On her side there was the King, +most jealous of all men, whose chattel she was become; on mine, there +was my wife and children, and so deep and true was my love for Anne that +it awakened in me thoughts of the loyalty I owed Juana, thoughts that +had never troubled me hitherto in my pleasure-loving life--and this not +only as concerned Anne herself, but as concerned all women. There was +something so ennobling and sanctifying about our love that it changed +at once the whole of my life, the whole tenor of my ways. I abandoned +profligacy, and became so staid and orderly in my conduct that I was +scarcely recognizable for the Antonio Perez whom the world had known +hitherto. + +We parted there that day with a resolve to put all this behind us; to +efface from our minds all memory of what had passed between us! Poor +fools were we to imagine we could resist the vortex of circumstance +which had caught us. For three months we kept our engagement +scrupulously; and then, at last, resistance mutually exhausted, we +yielded each to the other, both to Fate. + +But because we cherished our love we moved with caution. I was +circumspect in my comings and goings, and such were the precautions +we observed, that for four years the world had little suspicion, and +certainly no knowledge, that I had inherited from the Prince of Eboli +more than his office as Secretary of State. This secrecy was necessary +as long as Philip lived, for we were both fully aware of what manner of +vengeance we should have to reckon with did knowledge of our relations +reach the jealous King. And I think that but for Don John of Austria's +affairs, and the intervention in them of the Escovedo whom you say--whom +the world says I murdered, all might have been well to this day. + +Escovedo had been, like myself, one of Eboli's secretaries in his day, +and it was this that won him after Eboli's death a place at the Royal +Council board. It was but an inferior place, yet the King remarked him +for a man shrewd and able, who might one day have his uses. + +That day was not very long in coming, though the opportunity it afforded +Escovedo was scarcely such as, in his greedy, insatiable ambition, he +had hoped for. Yet the opportunity, such as it was, was afforded him +by me, and had he used it properly it should have carried him far, +certainly much farther than his talent and condition warranted. + +It came about through Don John of Austria's dreams of sovereignty. You +will have heard--as who has not?--so much of Don John, the natural son +of Charles V, that I need tell you little concerning him. In body and +soul he was a very different man, indeed, from his half-brother Philip +of Spain. As joyous as Philip was gloomy, as open and frank as Philip +was cloudy and suspicious, and as beautiful as Philip was grotesque, Don +John was the Bayard of our day, the very mirror of all knightly graces. +To the victory of Lepanto, which had made him illustrious as a soldier, +he had added, in '73--the year of Eboli's death--the conquest of Tunis, +thereby completing the triumph of Christianity over the Muslim in the +Mediterranean. Success may have turned his head a little. He was young, +you know, and an emperor's son. He dreamt of an empire for himself, of +sovereignty, and of making Tunis the capital of the kingdom he would +found. + +We learnt of this. Indeed, Don John made little secret of his +intentions. But they went not at all with Philip's views. It was far +from his notions that Don John should go founding kingdoms of his own. +His valour and talents were required to be employed for the greater +honour and glory of the Crown of Spain, and nothing further. + +Philip consulted me, who was by then the depositary of all his secrets, +the familiar of his inmost desires. There was evidence that Don John's +ambitions were being fomented by his secretary, who dreamt, no doubt, +of his own aggrandizement in the aggrandizement of his master. Philip +proposed the man's removal. + +"That would be something," I agreed. "But not enough. He must be +replaced by a man of our own, a man loyal to Your Majesty, who will not +only seek to guide Don John in the course that he should follow, but +will keep close watch upon his projects, and warn you should they +threaten to neglect your interests the interests of Spain, for his own." + +"And such a man? Where shall we find him?" + +I considered a moment, and bethought me of Escovedo. He was able; he +had charm and an ingratiating manner; I believed him loyal, and imagined +that I could quicken that loyalty by showing him that advancement would +wait upon its observation; he could well be spared from the Council, +where, as I have said, he occupied a quite inferior post; lastly, we +were friends, and I was glad of the opportunity to serve him, and place +him on the road to better things. + +All this I said to Philip, and so the matter was concluded. But Escovedo +failed me. His abilities and ingratiating manner endeared him quickly to +Don John, whilst himself he succumbed entirely, not only to Don John +of Austria's great personal charm, but also to Don John's ambitious +projects. The road to advancement upon which I had set him seemed to him +long and toilsome by contrast with the shorter cut that was offered by +his new master's dreams. He fell as the earlier secretary had fallen, +and more grievously, for he was the more ambitious of the two, and from +merely seconding Don John's projects, it was not long before he spurred +them on, not long before he was dreaming dreams of his own for Don John +to realize. + +From Tunis, which had by now been recovered by the Turks, and any hopes +concerned with which King Philip had discouraged, the eyes of Don John +were set, at Escovedo's bidding, I believe, upon the crown of England. + +He had just been invited by Philip to make ready to take in hand the +affairs of Flanders, sadly disorganized under the incompetent rule of +Alva. It occurred to him that if he were to issue victoriously from that +enterprise--and so far victory had waited upon his every venture--if +he were to succeed in restoring peace and Spanish order in rebellious +Flanders, he would then be able to move against England with the Spanish +troops under his command, overthrow Elizabeth, deliver Mary Stuart from +the captivity in which she languished, and by marriage with her set +the crown of England on his brow. To this great project he sought the +support of Rome, and Rome accorded it very readily being naturally +hostile to the heretic daughter of Anne Boleyn. + +It was Escovedo himself who went as Don John's secret ambassador to the +Vatican in this affair Escovedo, who had been placed with Don John to +act as a curb on that young man's ambitions. Nor did he move with the +prudence he should have observed. + +Knowledge of what was brewing reached us from the Papal Nuncio in +Madrid, who came to see me one day in the matter. + +"I have a dispatch from Rome," he announced, "in which His Holiness +instructs me to enjoin upon the King that the expedition against England +be now executed, and that he consider bestowing its crown upon Don John +of Austria for the greater honour and glory of Holy Church." + +I was thunderstruck. The expedition against England, I knew, was no new +project. Three years before a secret envoy from the Queen of Scots, an +Italian named Ridolfi, had come to propose to Philip that, in concert +with the Pope, he should reestablish the Catholic faith in England and +place Mary Stuart upon the throne. It was a scheme attractive to Philip, +since it agreed at once with his policy and his religion. But it had +been abandoned under the dissuasions of Alva, who accounted that it +would be too costly even if successful. Here it was again, emanating now +directly from the Holy See, but in a slightly altered form. + +"Why Don John of Austria?" I asked him. + +"A great soldier of the faith. And the Queen of Scots must have a +husband." + +"I should have thought that she had had husbands enough by now," said I. + +"His Holiness does not appear to share that view," he answered tartly. + +"I wonder will the King," said I. + +"The Catholic King is ever an obedient child of Mother Church," the oily +Nuncio reminded me, to reprove my doubt. + +But I knew better--that the King's own policy was the measure of his +obedience. This the Nuncio should learn for himself; for if I knew +anything of Philip's mind, I knew precisely how he would welcome this +proposal. + +"Will you see the King now?" I suggested maliciously, anxious to witness +the humbling of his priestly arrogance. + +"Not yet. It is upon that I came to see you. I am instructed first to +consult with one Escoda as to the manner in which this matter shall be +presented to His Majesty. Who is Escoda?" + +"I never heard of him," said I. "Perhaps he comes from Rome." + +"No, no. Strange!" he muttered, frowning, and plucked a parchment from +his sleeve. "It is here." He peered slowly at the writing, and slowly +spelled out the name: "Juan de Escoda." + +In a flash it came to me. + +"Escovedo you mean," I cried, + +"Yes, yes--Escovedo, to be sure," he agreed, having consulted the +writing once more. "Where is he?" + +"On his way to Madrid with Don John," I informed him. "He is Don John's +secretary." + +"I will do nothing, then, until he arrives," he said, and took his +leave. + +Oh, monstrous indiscretion! That dispatch from Rome so cunningly +and secretly contrived in cipher had yet contained no warning that +Escovedo's share in this should be concealed. There are none so +imprudent as the sly. I sought the King at once, and told him all that +I had learnt. He was aghast. Indeed, I never saw him more near to anger. +For Philip of Spain was not the man to show wrath or any other emotion. +He had a fish-like, cold, impenetrable inscrutability. True, his yellow +skin grew yellower, his gaping mouth gaped wider, his goggle eyes +goggled more than usual. Left to himself, I think he would have +disgraced Don John and banished Escovedo there and then, as he did, +indeed, suggest. And I have since had cause enough to wish to God that I +had left him to himself. + +"Who will replace Don John in Flanders?" I asked him quietly. He stared +at me. "He is useful to you there. Use him, Sire, to your own ends." + +"But they will press this English business." + +"Acquiesce." + +"Acquiesce? Are you mad?" + +"Seem to acquiesce. Temporize. Answer them, 'One thing at a time.' +Say, 'When the Flanders business is happily concluded, we will think of +England.' Give them hope that success in Flanders will dispose you +to support the other project. Thus you offer Don John an incentive to +succeed, yet commit yourself to nothing." + +"And this dog Escovedo?" + +"Is a dog who betrays himself by his bark. We will listen for it." + +And thus it was determined; thus was Don John suckled on the windy pap +of hope when presently he came to Court with Escovedo at his heels. +Distended by that empty fare he went off to the Low Countries, leaving +Escovedo in Madrid to represent him, with secret instructions to advance +his plans. + +Now Escovedo's talents were far inferior to my conception of them. + +He was just a greedy schemer, without the wit to dissemble his appetite +or the patience necessary to secure attainment. + +Affairs in Flanders went none too well, yet that did not set a curb +upon him. He pressed his master's business upon the King with an ardour +amounting to disrespect, and disrespect was a thing the awful majesty of +Philip could never brook. Escovedo complained of delays, of indecision, +and finally--in the summer of '76--he wrote the King a letter of fierce +upbraidings, criticizing his policy in terms that were contemptuous, and +which entirely exasperated Philip. + +It was in vain I strove to warn the fellow of whither he was drifting; +in vain I admonished and sought to curb his headlong recklessness. I +have said that I had a friendship for him, and because of that I took +more pains, perhaps, than I should have taken in another's case. + +"Unless you put some judgment into that head of yours, my friend, you +will leave it in this business," I told him one day. + +He flung into a passion at the admonition, heaped abuse upon me, swore +that it was I who thwarted him, I who opposed the fulfilment of Don +John's desires and fostered the dilatory policy of the King. + +I left him after that to pursue his course, having no wish to quarrel +with this headstrong upstart; yet, liking him as I did, I spared no +endeavour to shield him from the consequences he provoked. But that +letter of his to Philip made the task a difficult one. Philip showed it +to me. + +"If that man," he said, "had uttered to my face what he has dared to +write, I do not think I should have been able to contain myself without +visible change of countenance. It is a sanguinary letter." + +I set myself to calm him as best I could. + +"The man is indiscreet, which has its advantage, for we always know +whither an indiscreet man is heading. His zeal for his master blinds him +and makes him rash. It is better, perhaps, than if he were secretive and +crafty." + +With such arguments I appeased his wrath against the secretary. But I +knew that his hatred of Escovedo, his thirst for Escovedo's blood, dated +from that moment in which Escovedo had forgotten the reverence due to +majesty. I was glad when at last he took himself off to Flanders to +rejoin Don John. But that was very far from setting a term to his +pestering. The Flanders affair was going so badly that the hopes of an +English throne to follow were dwindling fast. Something else must +be devised against the worst, and now Don John and Escovedo began to +consider the acquisition of power in Spain itself. Their ambition aimed +at giving Don John the standing of an Infante. Both of them wrote to me +to advance this fresh project of theirs, to work for their recall, +so that they could ally themselves with my party--the Archbishop's +party--and ensure its continuing supreme. Escovedo wrote me a letter +that was little better than an attempt to bribe me. The King was ageing, +and the Prince was too young to relieve him of the heavy duties of +State. Don John should shoulder these, and in so doing Escovedo and +myself should be hoisted into greater power. + +I carried all those letters to the King, and at his suggestion I even +pretended to lend an ear to these proposals that we might draw from +Escovedo a fuller betrayal of his real ultimate aims. It was dangerous, +and I enjoined the King to move carefully. + +"Be discreet," I warned him, "for if my artifice were discovered, I +should not be of any further use to you at all. In my conscience I am +satisfied that in acting as I do I am performing no more than my duty. I +require no theology other than my own to understand that much." + +"My theology," he answered me, "takes much the same view. You would have +failed in your duty to God and me had you failed to enlighten me on the +score of this deception. These things," he added in a dull voice, "appal +me." + +So I wrote to Don John, urging him as one who counselled him for his +good, who had no interest but his own at heart, to remain in Flanders +until the work there should be satisfactorily completed. He did so, +since he was left no choice in the matter, but the intrigues continued. +Later we saw how far he was from having forsaken his dreams of England, +when I discovered that he had engaged the Pope to assist him with six +thousand men and one hundred and fifty thousand ducats when the time for +that adventure should be ripe. + +And then, quite suddenly, entirely unheralded, Escovedo reappeared in +Madrid, having come to press Philip in person for reinforcements that +should enable Don John to finish the campaign. He brought news that +there had been a fresh rupture of the patched-up peace, that Don John +had taken the field once more, and had forcibly made himself master +of Namur. This was contrary to all the orders we had sent, a direct +overriding of Philip's wishes. The King desired peace in the Low +Countries because he was in no case just then to renew the war, and +Escovedo's impudently couched demands completed his exasperation. + +"My will," he said, "is as naught before the ambitions of these two. +You sent my clear instructions to Escovedo, who was placed with Don John +that he might render him pliant to my wishes. Instead, he stiffens him +in rebellion. There must be an end to this man." + +"Sire," I cried, "it may be they think to advance your interests." + +"Heaven help me!" he cried. "Did ever villain wear so transparent a mask +as this dog Escovedo? To advance my interests--that will be his tale, no +doubt. He will advance them where I do not wish them advanced; he will +advance them to my ruin; he will stake all on a success in Flanders that +shall be the preliminary to a descent upon England in the interests of +Don John. I say there must be an end to this man before he works more +mischief." + +Again I set myself to calm him, as I had so often done before, and again +I was the shield between Escovedo and the royal lightnings, of whose +menace to blot him out the fool had no suspicion. For months things hung +there, until, in January of '78, when war had been forced in earnest +upon Spain by Elizabeth's support of the Low Countries, Don John won the +great victory of Gemblours. This somewhat raised the King's depression, +somewhat dissipated his overgrowing mistrust of his half-brother, and +gave him patience to read the letters in which Don John urged him to +send money--to throw wood on the fire whilst it was alight, or else +resign himself to the loss of Flanders for all time. As it meant also +resigning himself to the loss of all hope of England for all time, +Escovedo's activities were just then increased a hundredfold. + +"Send me money and Escovedo," was the burden of the almost daily letters +from Don John to me, and at my elbow was Escovedo, perpetually pressing +me to bend the King to his master's will. Another matter on which he +pressed me then was that I should obtain for himself the governorship of +the Castle of Mogro, which commands the port of Santander, an ambition +this which intrigued me deeply, for I confess I could not fathom what it +had to do with all the rest. + +And then something else happened. From the Spanish Ambassador at the +Louvre we learnt one day of a secret federation entered into between Don +John and the Guises, known as the Defence of the Two Crowns. Its object +was as obscure as its title. But it afforded the last drop to the cup +of Philip's mistrust. This time it was directly against Don John that +he inveighed to me. And to defend Don John, in the interests of common +justice, I was forced to place the blame where it belonged. + +"Nay, Sire," I assured him, "these ambitions are not Don John's. With +all his fevered dreams of greatness, Don John has ever been, will ever +be, loyal to his King." + +"If you know anything of temptation," he answered me, "you should know +that there is a breaking-point to every man's resistance of it. How long +will Don John remain loyal while Escovedo feeds his disloyalty, adds +daily to the weight of temptation the burden of a fresh ambition? I tell +you, man, I feel safe no longer." He rose up before me, a blotch on his +sallow face, his fingers tugging nervously at the tuft of straw-coloured +beard. "I tell you some blow is about to fall unless we avert it. This +man this fellow Escovedo--must be dispatched before he can kill us." + +I shrugged and affected carelessness to soothe him. + +"A contemptible dreamer," I said. "Pity him, Sire. He has his uses. +To remove him would be to remove a channel through which we can always +obtain knowledge precisely of what is doing." + +Again I prevailed, and there the matter hung a while. But the King was +right, his fears were well inspired. Escovedo, always impatient, +was becoming desperate under persistent frustration. I reasoned with +him--was he not still my friend?--I held him off, urged prudence and +patience upon him, and generally sought to temporize. I was as intent +upon saving him from leaving his skin in this business as I was, on the +other hand, intent upon doing my duty without pause or scruple to my +King. But the fool forced my hand. A Court is a foul place always, even +so attenuated a Court as that which Philip of Spain encouraged. Rumour +thrives in it, scandal blossoms luxuriantly in its fetid atmosphere. +And rumour and scandal had been busy with the Princess of Eboli and me, +though I did not dream it. + +We had been indiscreet, no doubt. We had been seen together in public +too often. We had gone to the play together more than once; she had been +present with me at a bull-fight on one occasion, and it was matter of +common gossip, as I was to learn, that I was a too frequent visitor at +her house. + +Another visitor there was Escovedo when in Madrid. Have I not said +that in his early days he had been one of Eboli's secretaries? On +that account the house of Eboli remained open to him at all times. The +Princess liked him, was kindly disposed towards him, and encouraged his +visits. We met there more than once. One day we left together, and +that day the fool set spark to a train that led straight to the mine on +which, all unconsciously, he stood. + +"A word of advice in season, Don Antonio," he said as we stepped forth +together. "Do not go so often to visit the Princess." + +I sought to pull my arm from his, but he clung to it and pinned it to +his side. + +"Nay, now--nay, now!" he soothed me. "Not so hot, my friend. What the +devil have I said to provoke resentment? I advise you as your friend." + +"In future advise that other friend of yours, the devil," I answered +angrily, and pulled my arm away at last. "Don Juan, you have presumed, I +think. I did not seek your advice. It is yourself that stands in need of +advice this moment more than any man in Spain." + +"Lord of the World," he exclaimed in amiable protest, "listen to him! +I speak because I owe friendship to the Princess. Men whisper of your +comings and goings, I tell you. And the King, you know well, should he +hear of this I am in danger of losing my only friend at Court, and so--" + +"Another word of this," I broke in fiercely, "now or at any other time, +and I'll skewer you like a rabbit!" + +I had stopped. My face was thrust within a hand's-breadth of his own; I +had tossed back my cloak, and my fingers clutched the hilt of my sword. +He became grave. His fine eyes--he had great, sombre, liquid eyes, such +as you'll scarcely ever see outside of Spain--considered me thoughtfully +a moment. Then he laughed lightly and fell back a pace. + +"Pish!" said he. "Saint James! I am no rabbit for your skewering. If +it comes to skewers, I am a useful man of my hands, Antonio. Come, +man"--and again he took my arm--"if I presume, forgive it out of the +assurance that I am moved solely by interest and concern for you. We +have been friends too long that I should be denied." + +I had grown cool again, and I realized that perhaps my show of anger had +been imprudent. So I relented now, and we went our ways together without +further show of ill-humour on my part, or further advice on his. But +the matter did not end there. Indeed, it but began. Going early in the +afternoon of the morrow to visit Anne, I found her in tears--tears, as I +was to discover, of anger. + +Escovedo had been to visit her before me, and he had dared to reproach +her on the same subject. + +"You are talked about, you and Perez," he had informed her, "and the +thing may have evil consequences. It is because I have eaten your bread +that I tell you this for your own good." + +She had risen up in a great passion. + +"You will leave my house, and never set foot in it again," she had told +him. "You should learn that grooms and lackeys have no concern in the +conduct of great ladies. It is because you have eaten my bread that I +tell you this for your own good." + +It drove him out incontinently, but it left her in the condition in +which I was later to discover her. I set myself to soothe her. I swore +that Escovedo should be punished. But she would not be soothed. She +blamed herself for an unpardonable rashness. She should not have taken +that tone with Escovedo. He could avenge himself by telling Philip, +and if he told Philip, and Philip believed him--as Philip would, being +jealous and mistrustful beyond all men--my ruin must follow. She had +thought only of herself in dismissing him in that high-handed manner. +Coming since to think of me it was that she had fallen into this +despair. She clung to me in tears. + +"Forgive me, Antonio. The fault is all mine--the fault of all. Always +have I known that this danger must overhang you as a penalty for loving +me. Always I knew it, and, knowing it, I should have been stronger. I +should have sent you from me at the first. But I was so starved of love +from childhood till I met you. I hungered so for love--for your love, +Antonio--that I had not the strength. I was weak and selfish, and +because I was ready and glad to pay the price myself, whatever it should +be and whenever asked, I did not take thought enough for you." + +"Take no thought now," I implored her, holding her close. + +"I must. I can't help it. I have raised this peril for you. He will go +to Philip." + +"Not he; he dare not. I am his only hope. I am the ladder by which he +hopes to scale the heaven of his high ambition. If he destroys me, there +is the kennel for himself. He knows it." + +"Do you say that to comfort me, or is it really true?" + +"God's truth, sweetheart," I swore, and drew her closer. + +She was comforted long before I left her. But as I stepped out into +the street again a man accosted me. Evidently he had been on the watch, +awaiting me. He fell into step beside me almost before I realized his +presence. It was Escovedo. + +"So," he said, very sinister, "you'll not be warned." + +"Nor will you," I answered, no whit less sinister myself. + +It was broad daylight. A pale March sunshine was beating down upon the +cobbled streets, and passers-by were plentiful. There was no fingering +of hilts or talk of skewering on either side. Nor must I show any of +the anger that was boiling in me. My face was too well known in Madrid +streets, and a Secretary of State does not parade emotions to the +rabble. So I walked stiff and dignified amain, that dog in step with me +the while. + +"She will have told you what I have said to her," he murmured. + +"And what she said to you. It was less than your deserts." + +"Groom and lackey, eh?" said he. "And less than I deserve--a man of my +estate. Oh, ho! Groom and lackey! Those are epithets to be washed out in +blood and tears." + +"You rant," I said. + +"Or else to be paid for--handsomely." His tone was sly--so sly that +I answered nothing, for to answer a sly man is to assist him, and my +business was to let him betray the cause of this slyness. Followed a +spell of silence. Then, "Do you know," said he, "that several of her +relatives are thinking seriously of killing you?" + +"Many men have thought seriously of that--so seriously that they never +attempted it. Antonio Perez is not easily murdered, Don Juan, as you may +discover." + +It was a boast that I may claim to have since justified. + +"Shall I tell you their names?" quoth he. + +"If you want to ruin them." + +"Ha!" It was a short bark of a laugh. "You talk glibly of ruining--but +then you talk to a groom and lackey." The epithets rankled in his mind; +they were poison to his blood, it seemed. It takes a woman to find words +that burn and blister a man. "Yet groom and lackey that I am, I hold you +both in the hollow of my hand. If I close that hand, it will be very bad +for you, very bad for her. If, for instance, I were to tell King Philip +that I have seen her in your arms--" + +"You dog!" + +"I have--I swear to God I have, with these two eyes--at least with one +of them, applied to the keyhole half an hour ago. Her servants passed me +in; a ducat or two well bestowed--you understand?" + +We had reached the door of my house. I paused and turned to him. + +"You will come in?" I invited. + +"As the wolf said to the lamb, eh? Well, why not?" And we went in. + +"You are well housed," he commented, his greedy, envious eyes +considering all the tokens of my wealth. "It were a pity to lose so +much, I think. The King is at the Escurial, I am told." + +He was. He had gone thither into retreat, that he might cleanse his +pious, murky soul against the coming of Eastertide. + +"You would not, I am sure, compel me to undertake so tedious a journey," +said he. + +"Will you put off this slyness and be plain?" I bade him. "You have some +bargain in your mind. Propound it." + +He did, and left me aghast. + +"You have temporized long enough, Perez," he began. "You have been +hunting with the dogs and running with the stag. There must be an end +to all that. Stand by me now, and I will make you greater than you are, +greater than you could ever dream to be. Oppose me, betray me--for I am +going to be very frank--and the King shall hear things from me that will +mean your ruin and hers. You understand?" + +Then came his demands. First of all the command of the fortress of Mogro +for himself. I must obtain him that at once. Secondly, I must see to +it that Philip pledged himself to support Don John's expedition against +England and Elizabeth and to seat Don John upon the throne with Mary +Stuart for his wife. These things must come about, and quickly, or I +perished. Nor was that all. Indeed, no more than a beginning. He opened +out the vista of his dreams, that having blackmailed me on the one hand, +he might now bribe me on the other. Once England was theirs, he aimed at +no less than a descent upon Spain itself. That was why he wanted Mogro +to facilitate a landing at Santander. Thus, as the Christians had +originally come down from the mountains of the Asturias to drive the +Moors from the Peninsula, so should the forces of Don John descend again +to reconquer it for himself. + +It was a madman's fancy utterly--fruit of a brain that ambition had +completely addled; and I do not believe that Don John had any part in it +or even knowledge of it. Escovedo saw himself, perhaps, upon the throne +of one or the other of the two kingdoms as Don John's vice-regent--for +himself and for me, if I stood by him, there was such power in store as +no man ever dreamed of. If I refused, he would destroy me. + +"And if I go straight to the Escurial and lay this project before the +King?" I asked him. + +He smiled. + +"You will force me to tell him that it is a lie invented to deliver you +from a man who can destroy you by the knowledge he possesses, knowledge +which I shall at once impart to Philip. Think what that will mean to +you. Think," he added very wickedly, "what it will mean to her." + +As I am a Christian, I believe that had it been but the consideration +of myself I would have flung him from my house upon the instant and bade +him do his worst. But he was well advised to remind me of her. Whatever +Philip's punishment of me, it would be as nothing to his punishment of +that long-suffering woman who had betrayed him. Oh, I assure you it is +a very evil, ill judged thing to have a king for rival, particularly a +fish-souled tyrant of King Philip's kind. + +I was all limp with dread. I passed a hand across my brow, and found it +chill and moist. + +"I am in your hands, Escovedo," I confessed miserably. + +"Say, rather, that we are partners. Forget all else." He was eager, +joyous, believing all accomplished, such was his faith in my influence +with Philip. "And now, Mogro for me, and England for Don John. About it +with dispatch." + +"The King is in retreat. We must wait some days." + +"Till Easter, then." And he held out his hand. I took it limply, thus +clenching the bargain of infamy between us. What else was there for me. +What, otherwise, was to become of Anne? + +Oh, I may have been self-seeking and made the most of my position, as +was afterwards urged against me. I may have been extortionate and venal, +and I may have taken regal bribes to expedite affairs. But always was +I loyal and devoted to the King. Never once had I been bribed to aught +that ran counter to his interests; never until now, when at a stroke I +had sold my honour and pledged myself to this betrayal of my trust. + +Not in all Spain was there a more miserable man than I. All night I sat +in the room where I was wont to work, and to my wife's entreaties that +I should take some rest I answered that the affairs of Spain compelled +attention. And when morning found me haggard and distraught came a +courier from Philip with a letter. + +"I have letters from Don John," he wrote, "more insistent than ever in +their tone. He demands the instant dispatch of money and Escovedo. I +have been thinking, and this letter confirms my every fear. I have cause +to apprehend some stroke that may disturb the public peace and ruin +Don John himself if he is allowed to retain Escovedo any longer in his +service. I am writing to Don John that I will see to it that Escovedo is +promptly dispatched as he requests. Do you see him dispatched, then, +in precise accordance with his deserts, and this at once, before the +villain kills us." + +My skin bristled as I read. Here was fatality itself at work. Philip was +at his old fears--and, Heaven knows, he was not without justification of +his intuitions, as I had learnt by now--that Escovedo meditated the most +desperate measures. He was urging me again, as he had urged me before, +and more than once, to dispatch this traitor whose restless existence so +perpetually perturbed him. I was not deceived as to the meaning he set +upon that word "dispatch." I knew quite well the nature of the dispatch +he bade me contrive. + +Conceive now my temptation. Escovedo dead, I should be safe, and Anne +would be safe, and this without any such betrayal as was being forced +upon me. And that death the King himself commanded a secret, royal +execution, such as his confessor Frey Diego de Chaves has since defended +as an expedient measure within the royal prerogative. He had commanded +it before quite unequivocally, but always I had stood between Escovedo +and the sword. Was I to continue in that attitude? Could it humanly be +expected of me in all the circumstances again to seek to deflect the +royal wrath from that too daring head? I was, after all, only a man, +subject to the temptations of the flesh, and there was a woman whom I +loved better than my own salvation to whose peace and happiness that +fellow Escovedo was become a menace. + +If he lived, and for as long as he lived, she and I were to be as slaves +of his will, and I was to drag my honour and my loyalty through the foul +kennels of his disordered ambitions. And the King my master was bidding +me clearly see to it that he died immediately. + +I sat down and wrote at once, and the burden of my letter was: "Be more +explicit, Sire. What manner of dispatch is it your will that Escovedo +should be given?" + +On the morrow, which was Thursday of Holy Week, that note of mine +was returned to me, and on the margin of it, in Philip's own hand, +Escovedo's death-warrant. "I mean that it would be well to hasten the +death of this rascal before some act of his should render it too late; +for he never rests, nor will anything turn him from his usual ways. Do +it, then, and do it quickly, before he kills us." + +There was no more to be said. My instructions were clear and definite. +Obedience alone remained. I went about it. + +Just as all my life I have been blessed with the staunchest friends, so +have I, too, been blessed with the most faithful servants. And of these +none was more faithful than my steward, Diego Martinez, unless, indeed, +it be my equerry, Gil de Mesa, who to this day follows my evil fortunes. +But Mesa at that time was as yet untried, whilst in Diego I knew that I +had a man devoted to me heart and soul, a man who would allow himself to +be torn limb from limb on the rack on my behalf. + +I placed the affair in Diego's hands. I told him that I was acting +under orders from the King, and that the thing at issue was the private +execution of a dangerous traitor, who could not be brought to trial lest +there he should impeach of complicity one whose birth and blood must be +shielded from all scandal. I bade him get what men he required, and see +the thing done with the least possible delay. And thereupon I instantly +withdrew from Madrid and went to Alcala. + +Diego engaged five men to assist him in the task; these were a young +officer named Enriquez, a lackey named Rubio, the two Aragonese--Mesa +and Insausti--and another whose name was Bosque. He clearly meant to +take no chances, but I incline to think that he overdid precaution, and +employed more hands than were necessary for the job. However, the six of +them lurked in waiting on three successive nights for Escovedo near his +house in the little square of Santiago. At last, on the night of Easter +Monday, March 31st, they caught him and dispatched him. He died almost +before he realized himself beset, from a sword-thrust with which +Insausti transfixed him. But there were at least half a dozen wounds in +the body when it was found. Diego, I have said, was a man who made quite +certain. + +No sooner was it done than they dispersed, whilst the lackey Rubio, +instantly quitting Madrid, brought me news of the deed to Alcala, and +the assurance that no arrests had been made. But there was a great ado +in Madrid upon the morrow, as you may imagine, for it is no everyday +occurrence to find a royal secretary murdered in the streets. + +The alcaldes set out upon a rigorous search, and they began by arresting +and questioning all who attempted to leave the city. On the next day +they harassed with their perquisitions all those who let lodgings. +They were still at this work in the evening when I returned to Madrid, +brought back--as it would seem--from my country rest by the news of this +murder of my friend and colleague. I bore myself as I should have done +had I no knowledge of how the thing had been contrived. That was a +necessity as imperative as it was odious, and no part of it more odious +than the visit of condolence I was forced to pay to the Escovedo family, +which I found plunged in grief. + +From the very outset suspicion pointed its finger at me, although there +were no visible traces to connect me with the deed. Rumour, however, +was astir, and as I had powerful friends, so, too, I had the powerful +enemies which envy must always be breeding for men in high places +such as mine. Escovedo's wife mistrusted me, though at first she seems +equally to have suspected in this deed the hand of the Duke of Alva, who +was hostile to Don John and all his creatures. Very soon, as a result of +this, came the Court alcalde to visit and question me. His stated object +was in the hope that I might give him information which would lead to +the discovery of the assassin; but his real object, rendered apparent +by the searching, insistent nature of his questions, was to lead me +to incriminate myself. I presented a bold front. I pretended to see in +this, perhaps, the work of the Flemish States. I deplored--that I might +remind him of it--my absence from Madrid at the time. + +He was followed by another high official, who came in simulated +friendship to warn me that certain rumours linking me with the deed were +in circulation, in reality to trap me into some admission, to watch my +countenance for some betraying sign. + +I endured it stoutly, but inwardly I was shaken, as I wrote to Philip, +giving him full details of what had been said and what answers I had +returned, what bitter draughts I had been forced to swallow. + +He wrote in reply: "I find that you answered very well. Continue to +be prudent. They will tell you a thousand things, not for the sake +of telling them, but in the hope of drawing something out of you. +The bitter draughts you mention are inevitable. But use all the +dissimulation and address of which you are capable." + +We corresponded daily after that, and I told him of every step I took; +how I kept my men about me, for fear that if they attempted to leave +Madrid they would be arrested, and how, finally, I contrived their +departure one by one, under conditions that placed them beyond all +suspicion. Juan de Mesa set out for Aragon on a mission concerned with +the administration of some property of the Princess of Eboli's. Rubio, +Insausti, and Enriquez were each given an ensign's commission, bearing +the King's own signature, and ordered to join the armies in various +parts of Italy; the first was sent to Milan, the second to Sicily, and +the last to Naples. Bosque went back to Aragon. Thus all were placed +beyond the reach of the active justice of Castile, all save myself--and +the King, who wrote to me expressing his satisfaction that there had +been no arrests. + +But rumour continued to give tongue, and the burden of its tale was that +the murder had been my work, in complicity with the Princess of Eboli. +How they came to drag her name into the affair I do not know. It may +have been pure malice trading upon its knowledge of the relations +between us. She may have lent colour to the charge by her own +precipitancy in denying it. She announced indignantly that she was +being accused, almost before this had come to pass, and as indignantly +protested against the accusation, and threatened those who dared to +voice it. + +The end of it all was that, a month later, the Escovedo family drew up +a memorial for the consideration of the King, in which they laid the +murder to my charge, and Philip consented to receive Don Pedro de +Escovedo--the dead man's son--and promised him that he would consider +the memorial, and that he would deliver up to justice whomsoever he +thought right. He was embarrassed by these demands of the Escovedos, my +own danger, his duty as king, and his interests as an accomplice, or, +rather, as the originator of the deed. + +The Escovedos were powerfully seconded by Vasquez, the Secretary of the +Council, a member of Alva's party, a secret enemy of my own, consumed +by jealousy of my power, and no longer fearing to disclose himself and +assail me since he believed himself possessed of the means of ruining +me. He spoke darkly to the King of a woman concerned in this business, +without yet daring to mention Anne by name, and urged him for the +satisfaction of the State, where evil rumours were abroad, to order an +inquiry that should reveal the truth of the affair. + +It was Philip himself who informed me of what had passed, sneering at +the wildness of rumours that missed the truth so wildly, and when I +evinced distress at my position, he sought to reassure me; he even wrote +to me after I had left him: "As long as I live you have nothing to fear. +Others may change, but I never change, as you should know who know me." + +That was a letter that epitomized many others written me in those days +to Madrid from the Escurial, whither he had returned. And those letters +comforted me not only by their expressed assurances, but by the greater +assurance implicit in them of the King's good faith. I had by now a +great mass of his notes dealing with the Escovedo business, in almost +every one of which he betrayed his own share as the chief murderer, +showing that I was no more than his dutiful instrument in that +execution. With those letters in my power what need I ever fear? Not +Philip himself would dare to betray me. + +But I went now in a new dread--the dread of being myself murdered. There +were threats of it in the air. The Escovedo family and their partisans, +who included all my enemies, and even some members of the Eboli family, +who considered that I had sullied the honour of their name by my +relations with Anne, talked openly of vengeance, so that I was driven to +surround myself by armed attendants whenever now I went abroad. + +I appealed again to Philip to protect me. I even begged him to permit +me to retire from my Ministerial office, that thus the clamant envy that +inspired my persecution might be deprived of its incentive. Finally, +I begged him to order me to stand my trial, that thus, since I was +confident that no evidence could be produced against me, I should force +an acquittal from the courts and lay the matter to rest for all time. + +"Go and see the President of Castile," he bade me. "Tell him the causes +that led to the death of Escovedo, and then let him talk to Don Pedro de +Escovedo and to Vasquez, so as to induce them to desist." + +I did as I was bidden, and when the president, who was the Bishop of +Pati, had heard me, he sent for my two chief enemies. + +"I have, Don Pedro," he said, "your memorial to the King in which you +accuse Don Antonio Perez of the murder of your father. And I am to +assure you in the King's name that justice will be done upon the +murderer, whoever he may be, without regard to rank. But I am first +to engage you to consider well what evidence you have to justify your +charge against a person of such consideration. For should your proofs be +insufficient I warn you that matters are likely to take a bad turn for +yourself. Finally, before you answer me, let me add, upon my word as a +priest, that Antonio Perez is as innocent as I am." + +It was the truth--the absolute truth, so far as it was known to Philip +and to the Bishop--for, indeed, I was no more than the instrument of my +master's will. + +Don Pedro looked foolish, almost awed. He was as a man who suddenly +becomes aware that he has missed stepping over the edge of a chasm in +which destruction awaited him. He may have bethought him at last that +all his rantings had no better authority than suspicions which no +evidence could support. + +"Sir," he faltered, "since you tell me this, I pledge you my word on +behalf of myself and my family to make no more mention of this death +against Don Antonio." + +The Bishop swung then upon Vasquez, and his brow became furrowed with +contemptuous anger. + +"As for you, sir, you have heard--which was more than your due, for +it is not your business by virtue of your office, nor have you any +obligations towards the deceased, such as excuse Don Pedro's rashness, +to pursue the murderers of Escovedo. Your solicitude in this matter +brings you under a suspicion the more odious since you are a priest. +I warn you, sir, to abstain, for this affair is different far from +anything that you imagine." + +But envy is a fierce goad, a consuming, irresistible passion, corroding +wisdom and deaf to all prudent counsels. Vasquez could not abstain. +Ridden by his devil of spite and jealousy, he would not pause until he +had destroyed either himself or me. + +Since Escovedo's immediate family now washed their hands of the affair, +Vasquez sought out more distant relatives of the murdered man, and +stirred them up until they went in their turn to pester the courts, +not only with accusations against myself, but with accusations that now +openly linked with mine the name of the Princess of Eboli. + +We were driven to the brink of despair, and in this Anne wrote to +Philip. It was a madness. She made too great haste to excuse herself. +She demanded protection from Vasquez and the evil rumours he was putting +abroad, implored the King to make an example of men who could push +so far their daring and irreverence, and to punish that Moorish dog +Vasquez--I dare say there was Moorish blood in the fellow's veins--as he +deserved. + +I think our ruin dated from that letter. Philip sent for me to the +Escurial. He wished to know more precisely what the accusations were. +I told him, denying them. Then he desired of the Princess proof of what +she alleged against Vasquez, and she had no difficulty in satisfying +him. He seemed to believe our assurance that all was lies. Yet he did +not move to punish Vasquez. But then I knew that sluggishness was his +great characteristic. "Time and I are one," he would say when I pressed +on matters. + +After that it was open war in the Council between me and Vasquez. The +climax came when I was at the Escurial. I had sent a servant to Vasquez +for certain State papers to be submitted to the King. He brought them, +and folded in them a fiercely denunciatory letter full of insults and +injuries, not the least of which was the imputation that my blood was +not clean, my caste not good. + +In a passion I sought Philip, beside myself almost, trembling under the +insult. + +"See, Sire, what this Moorish thief has dared to write me. It transcends +all bearing. Either you take satisfaction for me of these insults or you +permit me to take it for myself." + +He appeared to share my indignation, promised to give me leave to +proceed against the man, but bade me first wait a while until certain +business in the competent hands of Vasquez should be transacted. But +weeks grew into months, and nothing was done. We were in April of '79, +a year after the murder, and I was grown so uneasy, so sensitive to +dangers about me, that I dared no longer visit Anne. And then Philip's +confessor, Frey Diego de Chaves, came to me one day with a request on +the King's part that I should make my peace with Vasquez. + +"If he will retract," was my condition. And Chaves went to see my enemy. +What passed between them, what Vasquez may have told him, what he may +have added to those rumours of my relations with Anne, I do not know. +But I know that from that date there was a change in the King's attitude +towards me, a change in the tone of the letters that he sent me, and, +this continuing, I wrote to him at last releasing him from his promise +to afford me satisfaction against Vasquez, assuring him that since, +himself, he could forgive the injuries against us both, I could easily +forgive those I had received myself, and finally begging his permission +to resign my office and retire. + +Anne had contributed to this. She had sent for me, and in tears had +besought me to make my peace with Vasquez since the King desired it, +and this was no time in which to attempt resistance to his wishes. I +remained with her some hours, comforting her, for she was in the very +depths of despair, persuaded that we were both ruined, and inconsolable +in the thought that the blame of this was all her own. + +It may be that I was watched, perhaps more closely than I imagined. It +may be that spies were close about us, set by the jealous Philip, who +desired confirmation or refutation of the things he had been told, the +rumours that were gnawing at his vitals. + +I left her, little dreaming that I was never to see her again in this +life. That night I was arrested at my house by the Court alcalde upon an +order from the King. The paltry reason advanced was my refusal to make +my peace with Vasquez, and this when already the King was in possession +of my letter acknowledging my readiness to do so; for the King was in +Madrid, unknown to me. He came, it seems, that he might be present at +another arrest effected that same night. From the porch of the Church +of Santa Maria Mayor, he watched his alguazils enter the house of the +Princess of Eboli, bring her forth, bestow her in a waiting carriage +that was to bear her away to the fortress of Pinto, to an imprisonment +which was later exchanged for exile to Pastrana lasting as long as life +itself. + +To sin against a Prince is worse, it seems, than to sin against God +Himself. For God forgives, but princes, wounded in their vanity and +pride, know nothing of forgiveness. + +I was kept for four months a prisoner by the alcalde, no charge being +preferred against me. Then, because my health was suffering grievously +from confinement and the anxiety of suspense, I was moved to my own +house, and detained there for another eight months under close guard. My +friends besought the King in vain either to restore me to liberty or +to bring me to trial. He told them the affair was of a nature very +different from anything they deemed, and so evaded all demands. + +In the summer of 1580, Philip went to Lisbon to take formal possession +of the crown of Portugal, which he had inherited. I sent my wife to him +to intercede for me. But he refused to see her, and so I was left to +continue the victim of his vindictive lethargy. After a year of this, +upon my giving a formal promise to renounce all hostility towards +Vasquez, and never seek to do him harm in any way, I was accorded some +degree of liberty. I was allowed to go out and to receive visitors, but +not to visit any one myself. + +Followed a further pause. Vasquez was now a man of power, for my party +had fallen with me, and his own had supplanted it in the royal councils. +It was by his work that at last, in '84, I was brought to trial upon a +charge of corruption and misappropriation. I knew that my enemies had, +meanwhile, become possessed of Enriquez, and that he was ready to give +evidence, that he was making no secret of his share in the death of +Escovedo, and that the King was being pressed by the Escovedos to bring +me to trial upon the charge of murder. Instead, the other charge alone +was preferred. + +It was urged against me that I had kept a greater state than any grandee +of Spain, that when I went abroad I did so with a retinue befitting +a prince, that I had sold my favour and accepted bribes from foreign +princes to guard their interests with the King of Spain. + +They sentenced me to two years' imprisonment in a fortress, to be +followed by ten years of exile, and I was to make, within nine days, +restitution of some twenty million maravedis*--the alleged extent of +my misappropriations--besides some jewels and furniture which I had +received from the Princess of Eboli, and which I was now ordered to +deliver up to the heirs of the late Prince. + + +*Ten thousand pounds, but with at least five times the present +purchasing power of that sum. + +Perquisitions had been made in my house, and my papers ransacked. Well +I knew what they had sought. For the thought of the letters that had +passed between Philip and myself at the time of Escovedo's death must +now be troubling his peace of mind. I had taken due precautions when +first I had seen the gathering clouds foreshadowing this change of +weather. I had bestowed those papers safely in two iron-bound chests +which had been concealed away against the time when I might need them +to save my neck. And because now he failed to find what he +sought--the evidence of his own share in the deed and his present base +duplicity--Philip dared not slip the leash from those dogs who would +be at my throat for the murder of Escovedo. That was why he bade them +proceed against me only on the lesser charge of corruption. + +I was taken to the fortress of Turruegano, and there they came to +demand of me the surrender of my papers which the alcalde had failed to +discover at my house. I imagined the uneasiness of Philip in dispatching +those emissaries. I almost laughed as I refused. Those papers were my +buckler against worse befalling me than had befallen already. Even now, +if too hard pressed, I might find the opportunity of breaking my bonds +by means of them. I sometimes wonder why I did not apply myself to that. +Yet there is small cause for wonder, really. From boyhood, almost, King +Philip had been my master. Loyalty to him was a habit that went to the +very roots of my being. I had served him without conscience and without +scruple, and the notion of betraying him, save as a very last and very +desperate resource, was inconceivable. I do not think he ever knew the +depth and breadth of that loyalty of mine. + +My refusal led those sons of dogs to attempt to frighten my wife with +threats of unmentionable horrors unless she delivered up the papers +I had secreted. She and our children were threatened with perpetual +imprisonment on bread and water if she persisted in refusing to +surrender them. But she held out against all threats, and remained firm +even under the oily persecution to the same end of Philip's confessor, +Frey Diego. Finally, I was notified that, in view of her stubbornness +and my own, she and our children were cast into prison, and that there +they would remain until I saw fit to become submissive to the royal +will. + +It is a subtle form of mental torture that will bid a man contemplate +the suffering for his sake to which those who are dear to him are being +subjected. + +I raged and stormed before the officer who brought me this infamous +piece of news. I gave vent to my impotent anger in blasphemous +expressions that were afterwards to be used against me. The officer was +subtly sympathetic. + +"I understand your grief, Don Antonio," he said. "Believe me, I feel +for you--so much that I urge you to set an end to the captivity of those +dear ones who are innocent, who are suffering for your sake." + +"And so make an end of myself?" I asked him fiercely. + +"Reflection may show that even that is your duty in the circumstances." + +I looked into his smug face, and I was within an ace of striking him. +Then I controlled myself, and my will was snapped. + +"Very well," I said. "The papers shall be surrendered. Let my steward, +Diego Martinez, come to me here, and he shall receive my instructions +to deliver the chests containing them to my wife, that she in turn may +deliver them to the King." + +He withdrew, well pleased. No doubt he would take great credit to +himself for this. Within three days, such haste did they make, my +faithful steward stood before me in my prison at Turruegano. + +You conceive the despair that had overwhelmed me after giving my +consent, the consciousness that it was my life I was surrendering with +those papers,--that without them I should be utterly defenceless. But +in the three days that were sped I had been thinking, and not quite in +vain. + +Martinez left me with precise instructions, as a result of which those +two iron-bound chests, locked and sealed, were delivered, together +with the keys, to the royal confessor. Martinez was asked what they +contained. + +"I do not know," he answered. "My orders are merely to deliver them." + +I can conceive the King's relief and joy in his conviction that thus had +he drawn my teeth, that betide now what might, I could never defend or +justify myself. The immediate sequel took me by surprise. We were at +the end of '85, and my health was suffering from my confinement and +its privations. And now my captivity was mitigated. My wife Juana even +succeeded in obtaining permission that I should be taken home to Madrid, +and there for fourteen months I enjoyed a half liberty, and received the +visits of my old friends, among whom were numbered most of the members +of the Court. + +I imagined at first that since my teeth were drawn the King despised me, +and intended nothing further. But I was soon to be disillusioned on that +score. It began with the arrest of Martinez on a charge of complicity in +the murder of Escovedo. And then one day I was again arrested, without +warning, and carried off for a while to the fortress of Pinto. Thence +I was brought back in close captivity to Madrid, and there I learnt at +last what had been stirring. + +In the previous summer King Philip had gone into Aragon to preside +over the Cortes, and Vasquez, who had gone with him, had seized +the opportunity to examine the ensign Enriquez, who had, meanwhile, +denounced himself of complicity in the murder of Escovedo. Enriquez made +a full confession--turned accuser under a promise of full pardon +for himself and charged Mesa, Rubio, and my steward Martinez with +complicity, denouncing Martinez as the ringleader of the business. The +other two, Insausti and Bosque, were already dead. + +Immediately Vasquez attempted to seize the survivors. But Mesa had gone +to earth in Aragon, and Rubio was with him. Martinez alone remained, +and him they seized and questioned. He remained as cool and master of +himself as he was true and loyal to me. Their threats made no impression +on him. He maintained that the tale was all a lie, begotten of spite, +that I had been Escovedo's best friend, that I had been greatly +afflicted by his death, and that no man could have done more than I to +discover his real murderers. They confronted him with Enriquez, and +the confrontation no whit disturbed him. He handled the traitor +contemptuously as a perjured, suborned witness, a false servant, a man +who, as he proceeded to show, was a scoundrel steeped in crime, whose +word was utterly worthless, and who, no doubt, had been bought to bring +these charges against his sometime master. + +The situation, thanks to Martinez's stoutness, had reached a deadlock. +Between the assertions of one man, who was revealed to the judges for a +worthless scoundrel, and the denials of the other, against whom nothing +was known, it was impossible for the court of inquiry to reach any +conclusion. At least another witness must be obtained. And Vasquez +laboured with all his might and arts and wiles to draw Rubio out of +Aragon into the clutches of the justice of Castile. But he laboured in +vain, for I had secretly found the means to instruct my trusty Mesa to +retain the fellow where he was. + +In this inconclusive state of things the months dragged on and my +captivity continued. I wrote to Philip, imploring his mercy, complaining +of these unjust delays on the part of Vasquez, which threatened to go +on forever, and begging His Majesty to command the conclusion of the +affair. That was in August of '89. You see how time had sped. All that +came of my appeal was at first an increased rigour of imprisonment, and +then a visit from Vasquez to examine and question me upon the +testimony of Enriquez. As you can imagine, the attempt to lure me into +self-betrayal was completely fruitless. My enemy withdrew, baffled, to +go question my wife, but without any better success. + +Nevertheless, Vasquez proclaimed the charge established against myself +and Martinez, and allowed us ten days in which to prepare our answer. +Immediately upon that Don Pedro de Escovedo lodged a formal indictment +against us, and I was put into irons. + +To rebut the evidence of one single, tainted witness I produced six +witnesses of high repute, including the Secretary of the Council of +Aragon. They testified for me that I was at Alcala at the time of +Escovedo's death, that I had always been Escovedo's friend, that I was +a good Christian incapable of such a deed, and that Enriquez as an evil +man whose word was worthless, a false witness inspired by vengeance. + +Thus, in spite of the ill-will of my judges and the hatred of my +enemies, it was impossible legally to condemn me upon the evidence. +There were documents enough in existence to have proved my part in the +affair; but not one of them dared the King produce, since they would +also show me to have been no more than his instrument. And so, desiring +my death as it was now clear he did, he must sit impotently brooding +there with what patience he could command, like a gigantic, evil spider +into whose web I obstinately refused to fling myself. + +My hopes began to revive. When at last the court announced that it +postponed judgment whilst fresh evidence was sought, there was an outcry +of indignation on all sides. This was a tyrannical abuse of power, +men said; and I joined my voice to theirs to demand that judgment +be pronounced and my liberty restored to me, pointing out that I +had already languished years in captivity without any charge against +me--beyond that of corruption, which had been purged by now--having been +established. + +Then at last the King stirred in his diabolical underground manner. He +sent his confessor to me in prison. The friar was mild and benign. + +"My poor friend," he said, "why do you allow yourself to suffer in this +fashion, when a word from you can set a term to it? Confess the deed +without fear, since at the same time you can advance a peremptory reason +of State to justify it." + +It was too obvious a trap. Did I make confession, indeed, upon such +grounds, they would demand of me proof of what I asserted; and meanwhile +the documents to prove it had been extorted from me and had passed into +the King's possession. In the result I should be ruined completely as +one who, to the crime of murder, added a wicked, insidious falsehood +touching the honour of his King. + +But I said naught of this. I met guile with guile. "Alas! I have been +tempted," I answered him. "But I thank Heaven I have known even in my +extremity how to resist the temptation of such disloyalty. I cannot +forget, Brother Diego, that amongst the letters from the King was one +that said, 'Be not troubled by anything your enemies may do against you. +I shall not abandon you, and be sure their animosity cannot prevail. But +you must understand that it must not be discovered that this death took +place by my order."' + +"But if the King were to release you from that command?" he asked. + +"When His Majesty in his goodness and generosity sends me a note in his +own hand to say, 'You may confess that it was by my express order that +you contrived the death of Escovedo,' then I shall thankfully account +myself absolved from the silence his service imposes on me." + +He looked at me narrowly. He may have suspected that I saw through the +transparent device to ruin me, and that in a sense I mocked him with my +answer. + +He withdrew, and for some days nothing further happened. Then the +rigours of my captivity were still further increased. I was allowed +to communicate with no one, and even the alguazil who guarded me was +forbidden, under pain of death, to speak to me. + +And in January I was visited by Vasquez, who brought me a letter from +the King, not, indeed, addressed to me and in the terms I had suggested, +but to Vasquez himself, and it ran: + +You may tell Antonio Perez from me, and, if necessary, show him this +letter, that he is aware of my knowledge of having ordered him to put +Escovedo to death and of the motives which he told me existed for this +measure; and that as it imports for the satisfaction of my conscience +that it be ascertained whether or not those motives were sufficient, I +order him to state them in the fullest detail, and to advance proof of +what he then alleged to me, which is not unknown to yourself, since I +have clearly imparted it to you. When I shall have seen his answers, and +the reasons he advances, I shall give order that such measures be taken +as may befit. + +I, THE KING + +You see what a twist he had given to the facts. It was I who had urged +the death of Escovedo; it was I who had advanced reasons which he had +considered sufficient, trusting to my word; and it was because of this +he had consented to give the order. Let me confess so much, let me prove +it, and prove, too, that the motives I had advanced were sound ones, or +I must be destroyed. That was all clear. And that false king held fast +the two trunks of papers that would have given the lie to this atrocious +note of his, that would have proved that again and again I had shielded +Escovedo from the death his king designed for him. + +I looked into the face of my enemy, and there was a twisted smile on my +lips. + +"What fresh trap is this?" I asked him. "King Philip never wrote that +note." + +"You should know his hand. Look closer," he bade me harshly. + +"I know his hand--none better. But I claim, too, to know something of +his heart. And I know that it is not the heart of a perjured liar such +as penned those lines." + +That was as near as a man dared to go in expressing his true opinion of +a prince. + +"For the rest," I said, "I do not understand it. I know nothing of the +death of Escovedo. I have nothing to add to what already I have said in +open court unless it be to protest against you, who are a passionate, +hostile judge." + +Six times in the month that followed did Vasquez come to me, accompanied +now by a notary, to press me to confess. At last, seeing that no +persuasions could bend my obstinacy, they resorted to other measures. + +"You will drive us to use the torture upon you so that we may loosen +your tongue!" snarled Vasquez fiercely, enraged by my obduracy. + +I laughed at the threat. I was a noble of Spain, by birth immune from +torture. They dared not violate the law. But they did dare. There was +no law, human or divine, the King was not prepared to violate so that +he might slake his vengeance upon the man who had dared to love where he +had loved. + +They delivered me naked into the hands of the executioner, and I +underwent the question at the rope. They warned me that if I lost my +life or the use of any of my limbs, it would be solely by my own fault. +I advanced my nobility and the state of my health as all-sufficient +reasons why the torture should not be applied to me, reminding them that +for eleven years already I had suffered persecution and detention, so +that my vigour was all gone. + +For the last time they summoned me to answer as the King desired. And +then, since I still refused, the executioner was recalled, he crossed my +arms upon my breast, bound them securely, thrust a long rod beneath the +cord, and, seizing one end of this in either hand, gave the first turn. + +I screamed. I could not help it, enfeebled as I was. But my spirit being +stouter than my flesh, I still refused to answer. Not indeed, until +they had given the rope eight turns, not until it had sliced through my +muscles and crushed the bone of one of my arms, so that to this day +it remains of little use to me, did they conquer me. I had reached the +limit of endurance. + +"In Christ's name, release me!" I gasped. "I will say anything you +wish." + +Released at last, half swooning, smothered in blood, agonized by pain, +I confessed that it was myself had procured the death of Escovedo for +reasons of State and acting upon the orders of the King. The notary made +haste to write down my words, and, when I had done, it was demanded of +me that I should advance proof of the State reasons which I had alleged. + +Oh, I had never been under any delusion on that score, as I have shown +you. The demand did not take me by surprise at all. I was waiting +for it, knowing that my answer to it would pronounce my doom. But I +delivered it none the less. + +"My papers have been taken from me, and without them I can prove +nothing. With them I could prove my words abundantly." + +They left me then. On the morrow, as I afterwards learnt, they read my +confession to my devoted Martinez, and the poor fellow, who hitherto had +remained staunch and silent under every test, seeing that there was no +further purpose to be served by silence, gave them the confirmation they +desired of Enriquez's accusation. + +Meanwhile, I was very ill, in a raging fever as you may well conceive, +and in answer to my prayer my own doctor was permitted to visit me in +prison. He announced that he found my case extremely grave, and that I +must perish unless I were relieved. As a consequence, and considering my +weakness and the uselessness just then of both my arms, one of which was +broken, first a page of my own, then other servants, and lastly my wife +were allowed to come and tend me. + +That was at the end of February. By the middle of April my wounds had +healed, I had recovered the use of my limbs, though one remains half +maimed for life, and my condition had undergone a very considerable +improvement. But of this I allowed no sign to show, no suspicion even. I +continued to lie there day after day in a state of complete collapse, +so that whilst I was quickly gathering strength it was believed by my +gaolers that I was steadily sinking, and that I should soon be dead. + +My only hope, you see, lay now in evasion, and it was for this that +I was thus craftily preparing. Once out of Castile I could deal with +Philip, and he should not find me as impotent, as toothless as he +believed. But I go too fast. + +One night at last, on April 20th, by when all measures had been +concerted, and Gil de Mesa awaited me outside with horses--the whole +having been contrived by my dear wife--I made the attempt. My apparent +condition had naturally led to carelessness in guarding me. Who would +guard a helpless, dying man? Soon after dark I rose, donned over my own +clothes a petticoat and a hooded cloak belonging to my wife, and thus +muffed walked out of my cell, past the guards, and so out of the prison +unchallenged. I joined Gil de Mesa, discarded my feminine disguise, +mounted and set out with him upon that ninety-mile journey into Aragon. + +We reached Saragossa in safety, and there my first act was to surrender +myself to the Grand Justiciary of Aragon to stand my trial for the +murder of Escovedo with which I was charged. + +It must have sent a shudder through the wicked Philip when he received +news of that. A very stricken man he must have been, for he must +have suspected something of the truth, that if I dared, after all the +evidence amassed now against me, including my own confession under +torture, openly to seek a judgment, it was because I must possess some +unsuspected means of establishing all the truth--the truth that must +make his own name stink in the nostrils of the world. And so it was. +Have you supposed that Antonio Perez, who had spent his life in studying +the underground methods of burrowing statecraft, had allowed himself to +be taken quite so easily in their snare? Have you imagined that when I +sent for Diego Martinez to come to me at Turruegano and instructed him +touching the surrender of those two chests of documents, that I did +not also instruct him carefully touching the abstraction in the first +instance of a few serviceable papers and the renewal of the seals that +should conceal the fact that he had tampered with the chests? If you +have thought that, you have done me less than justice. There had been so +much correspondence between Philip and myself, so many notes had passed +touching the death of Escovedo, and there was that habit of Philip's of +writing his replies in marginal notes to my own letters and so returning +them, that it was unthinkable he should have kept them all in his +memory, and the abstraction of three or four could not conceivably be +detected by him. + +Ever since then those few letters, of a most deeply incriminating +character, selected with great acumen by my steward, had secretly +remained in the possession of my wife. Yet I had not dared produce them +in Castile, knowing that I should instantly have been deprived of them, +and with them of my last hope. They remained concealed against precisely +such a time as this, when, beyond the immediate reach of Philip's +justice, I should startle the world and clear my own character by their +production. + +You know the ancient privileges enjoyed by Aragon, privileges of which +the Aragonese are so jealous that a King of Castile may not assume the +title of King of Aragon until, bareheaded, he shall have received from +the Grand Justiciary of Aragon the following admonition: "We, who are of +equal worth and greater power than you, constitute you our king on the +condition that you respect our privileges, and not otherwise." And to +that the king must solemnly bind himself by oath, whose violation would +raise in revolt against him the very cobbles of the streets. No king of +Spain had ever yet been found to dare violate the constitution and +the fueros of Aragon, the independence of their cortes, or parliament, +composed of the four orders of the State. The Grand Justiciary's Court +was superior to any royally constituted tribunal in the kingdom; to +that court it was the privilege of any man to appeal for justice in any +cause; and there justice was measured out with a stern impartiality that +had not its like in any other State of Europe. + +That was the tribunal to which I made surrender of my person and my +cause. There was an attempt on the part of Philip to seize me and drag +me back to Castile and his vengeance. His officers broke into the prison +for that purpose, and already I was in their power, when the men of the +Justiciary, followed by an excited mob, which threatened open rebellion +at this violation of their ancient rights, delivered me from their +hands. + +Baffled in this--and I can imagine his fury, which has since been vented +on the Aragonese--Philip sent his representatives and his jurists to +accuse me before the Court of the Grand Justiciary and to conduct my +prosecution. + +The trial began, exciting the most profound interest, not only in +Aragon, but also in Castile, which, as I afterwards learnt, had openly +rejoiced at my escape. It proceeded with the delays and longueurs that +are inseparable from the sluggish majesty of the law. One of these +pauses I wrote to Philip, inviting him to desist, and to grant me the +liberty to live out my days in peace with my family in some remote +corner of his kingdom. I warned him that I was not helpless before his +persecution, as he imagined; that whilst I had made surrender of two +chests of papers, I yet retained enough authentic documents--letters in +his own hand--to make my innocence and his guilt apparent in a startling +degree, with very evil consequences to himself. + +His answer was to seize my wife and children and cast them into prison, +and then order the courts of Madrid to pronounce sentence of death +against me for the murder of Escovedo. Such were the sops with which he +sought to quench his vindictive rage. + +Thereupon the trial proceeded. I prepared my long memorial of the +affair, supporting it with proofs in the shape of those letters I had +retained. And then at last Philip of Spain took fright. He was warned +by one of his representatives that there was little doubt I should be +acquitted on all counts, and, too late, he sought to save his face by +ordering the cessation of the prosecution he had instructed. + +He stated that since I had chosen a line of defence, to answer which--as +it could be answered--it would be necessary to touch upon matters of +a secrecy that was inviolable, and to introduce personages whose +reputation and honour was of more consequence to the State than the +condemnation of Antonio Perez, he preferred to renounce the prosecution +before the tribunal of Aragon. But he added a certificate upon his royal +word to the effect that my crimes were greater than had ever been the +crimes of any man, and that, whilst he renounced the prosecution before +the courts of Aragon, he retained the right to demand of me an account +of my actions before any other tribunal at any future time. + +My acquittal followed immediately. And immediately again that was +succeeded by fresh charges against me on behalf of the King. First +it was sought to prove that I had procured the death of two of my +servants--a charge which I easily dispersed by proving them to have +died natural deaths. Then it was sought to prosecute me on the charge of +corruption, for which I had once already been prosecuted, condemned, and +punished. Confidently I demanded my release, and Philip must have ground +his teeth in rage to see his prey escaping him, to see himself the butt +of scorn and contempt for the wrongs that it became clear he had done +me. + +One weapon remained to him, and a terrible weapon this--the Holy Office +of the Inquisition, a court before which all temporal courts must bow +and quail. He launched its power against me, and behold me, in the +moment when I accounted myself the victor in the unequal contest, +accused of the dread sin of heresy. Words lightly weighed--uttered by me +in prison under stress--had been zealously gathered up by spies. + +On one occasion I had exclaimed: "I think God sleeps where my affairs +are concerned, and I am in danger of losing my faith." The Holy Office +held this to be a scandalous proposition, offensive to pious ears. + +Again, when I heard of the arrest of my wife and children I had cried +out in rage: "God sleeps! God sleeps! There cannot be a God!" + +This they argued at length to be rank heresy, since it is man's duty +positively to believe, and who does not believe is an infidel. + +Yet again it seems I had exclaimed: "Should things so come to pass, +I shall refuse to believe in God!" This was accounted blasphemous, +scandalous, and not without suspicion of heresy. + +Upon these grounds the Supreme Council of the Inquisition at Madrid drew +up its impeachment, and delivered it to the inquisitors of Aragon at +Saragossa. These at once sent their familiars to demand the surrender of +me from the Grand Justiciary, in whose hands I still remained. The Grand +Justiciary incontinently refused to yield me up. + +Thereupon the three Inquisitors drew up a peremptory demand, addressed +to the lieutenants of the Justiciary, summoning them by virtue of holy +obedience, under pain of greater excommunication, of a fine in the case +of each of them of one thousand ducats, and other penalties to which +they might later be condemned, to deliver me up within three hours to +the pursuivants of the Holy Office. + +This was the end of the Justiciary's resistance. He dared not refuse +a demand so framed, and surrender of me was duly made. But the news +of what was doing had run abroad. I had no lack of friends, whom I +instantly warned of what was afoot, and they had seen to it that the +knowledge spread in an inflammatory manner. Saragossa began to stir at +once. Here was a thinly masked violation of their ancient privileges. If +they suffered this precedent of circumventing their rights, what was +to become of their liberties in future, who would be secure against an +unjust persecution? For their sympathies were all with me throughout +that trial. + +I was scarcely in the prison of the Holy Office before the dread cry of +Contrafueros! was ringing through the streets of Saragossa, summoning +the citizens to arm and come forth in defence of their inviolable +rights. They stormed the palace of the Grand Justiciary, demanded that +he should defend the fueros, to whose guardianship he had been elected. +Receiving no satisfaction, they attacked the palace of the Inquisition, +clamouring insistently that I should immediately be returned to the +Justiciary's prison, whence I had so unwarrantably been taken. + +The Inquisitors remained firm a while, but the danger was increasing +hourly. In the end they submitted, for the sake of their skins, and +considering, no doubt, a later vengeance for this outrage upon their +holy authority. But it was not done until faggots had been stacked +against the Holy House, and the exasperated mob had threatened to burn +them out of it. + +"Castilian hypocrites!" had been the insurgent roar. "Surrender your +prisoner, or you shall be roasted in the fire in which you roast so +many!" + +Blood was shed in the streets. The King's representative died of wounds +that he received in the affray, whilst the Viceroy himself was assailed +and compelled to intervene and procure my deliverance. + +For the moment I was out of danger. But for the moment only. There was +no question now of my enlargement. The Grand Justiciary, intimidated +by what had taken place, by the precise expression of the King's +will, dared not set me at liberty. And then the Holy Office, under the +direction of the King, went to work in that subterranean way which it +has made its own; legal quibbles were raised to soothe the sensibilities +of the Aragonese with respect to my removal from the Justiciary's prison +to that of the Holy Office. Strong forces of troops were brought to +Saragossa to overawe the plebeian insolence, and so, by the following +September, all the preliminaries being concluded, the Inquisition came +in force and in form to take possession of me. + +The mob looked on and murmured; but it was intimidated by the show of +ordered force; it had perhaps tired a little of the whole affair, and +did not see that it should shed its blood and lay up trouble for itself +for the sake of one who, after all, was of no account in the affairs of +Aragon. I stood upon the threshold of my ruin. All my activities were +to go unrewarded. Doom awaited me. And then the unexpected happened. +The alguazil of the Holy Office was in the very act of setting the gyves +upon my legs when the first shot was fired, followed almost at once by a +fusillade. + +It was Gil de Mesa, faithfullest servant that ever any man possessed. +He had raised an armed band, consisting of some Aragonese gentlemen +and their servants, and with this he fell like a thunderbolt upon the +Castilian men-at-arms and the familiars of the Inquisition. The Alguazil +fled, leaving me one leg free, the other burdened by the gyve, and as +he fled so fled all others, being thus taken unawares. The Inquisitors +scuttled to the nearest shelter; the Viceroy threw himself into his +house and barricaded the door. There was no one to guide, no one to +direct. The soldiery in these circumstances, accounting themselves +overpowered, offered no resistance. They, too, fled before the fusillade +and the hail of shot that descended on them. + +Before I realized what had happened, the iron had been struck from my +leg, I was mounted on a horse, and, with Gil at my side, I was galloping +out of Saragossa by the gate of Santa Engracia, and breasting the slopes +with little cause to fear pursuit just yet, such was the disorder we had +left behind. + +And there, very briefly, you have the story of my sufferings and my +escapes. Not entirely to be baulked, numerous arrests were made by the +Inquisitors in Saragossa when order was at last restored. There followed +an auto-da-fe, the most horrible and vindictive of all those horrors, in +which many suffered for having displayed the weakness of charity towards +a persecuted man. And, since my body was no longer in their clutches, +they none the less sentenced me to death as contumaciously absent, and +my effigy was burnt in the holy fires they lighted, amongst the human +candles which they offered up for the greater honour and glory of a +merciful God. Let me say no more, lest I blaspheme in earnest. + +After months of wandering and hiding, Gil and I made our way here into +Navarre, where we remain the guests of Protestant King Henri IV, who +does not love King Philip any better since he has heard my story. + +Still King Philip's vengeance does not sleep. Twice has he sent after me +his assassins--since assassination is the only weapon now remaining to +him. But his poor tools have each time been taken, exposed to Philip's +greater infamy and shame--and hanged as they deserve who can so vilely +serve so vile a master. It has even been sought to bribe my faithful +Gil de Mesa into turning his hand against me, and that attempt, too, has +been given the fullest publication. Meanwhile, my death to-day could +no longer avail Philip very much. My memorial is published throughout +Europe for all to read. It has been avidly read until Philip of Spain +has earned the contempt of every upright man. In his own dominions the +voice of execration has been raised against him. One of his own nobles +has contemptuously announced that Spain under Philip has become unsafe +for any gentleman, and that a betrayal of a subject by his king is +without parallel in history. + +That is some measure of vengeance. But if I am spared I shall not leave +it there. Henry of Navarre is on the point of turning Catholic that his +interests may be better served. Elizabeth of England remains. In her +dominions, where thrives the righteous hatred of Philip and all the +evil that he stands for, I shall find a welcome and a channel for the +activities that are to show him that Antonio Perez lives. I have sent +him word that when he is weary of the conflict he can signify his +surrender by delivering from their prison my wife and children, upon +whom he seeks still to visit some of the vengeance I have succeeded in +eluding. When he does that, then will I hold my hand. But not before. + +"That, madame, is my story," said Don Antonio, after a pause, and from +narrowing eyes looked at the beauty who had heard him through. + +Daylight had faded whilst the tale was telling. Night was come, and +lights had long since been fetched, the curtains drawn over the long +windows that looked out across the parkland to the river. + +Twice only had he paused in all that narrative. Once when he had +described the avowal of his love for Anne, Princess of Eboli, when a +burst of sobs from her had come to interrupt him; again when a curious +bird-note had rung out upon the gathering dusk. Then he stopped to +listen. + +"Curious that," he had said--"an eagle's cry. I have not heard it these +many months, not since I left the hills of Aragon." + +Thereafter he had continued to the end. + +Considering her now, his glance inscrutable, he said: + +"You weep, madame. Tell me, what is it that has moved you--the +contemplation of my sufferings, or of your own duplicity?" + +She started up, very white, her eyes scared. + +"I do not understand you. What do you mean, sir?" + +"I mean, madame, that God did not give you so much beauty that you +should use it in the decoying of an unfortunate, that you should hire it +at an assassin's fee to serve the crapulous King of Spain." + +He rose and towered before her, a figure at once of anger, dignity, and +some compassion. + +"So much ardour from youth and beauty to age and infirmity was in itself +suspicious. The Catholic King has the guile of Satan, I remembered. I +wondered, and hoped my suspicions might be unfounded. Yet prudence made +me test them, that the danger, if it existed, should manifest itself and +be destroyed. So I came to tell you all my story, so that if you did the +thing I feared, you might come to the knowledge of precisely what it was +you did. I have learnt whilst here that what I suspected is--alas! quite +true. You were a lure, a decoy sent to work my ruin, to draw me into +a trap where daggers waited for me. Why did you do this? What was the +bribe that could corrupt you, lovely lady?" + +Sobs shook her. Her will gave way before his melancholy sternness. + +"I do not know by what wizardry you have discovered it!" she cried. +"It was true; but it is true no longer. I knew not what I did. By that +window, across the meadows, you can reach the river in safety." She +rose, controlling her emotion that she might instruct him. "They wait +for you in the enclosed garden." + +He smiled wistfully. + +"They waited, madame. They wait no longer, unless it be for death. That +eagle's cry, thrice repeated, was the signal from my faithful Gil, not +only that the trap was discovered, but that those who baited it were +taken. Suspecting what I did, I took my measures ere I came. Antonio +Perez, as I have told you, is not an easy man to murder. Unlike Philip, +I do not make war on women, and I have no reckoning to present to you. +But I am curious, madame, to know what led you to this baseness." + +"I--I thought you evil, and--and they bribed me. I was offered ten +thousand ducats for your head. We are very poor, we Chantenacs, and so +I fell. But, sir--sir"--she was on her knees to him now, and she had +caught his hand in hers--"poor as I am, all that I have is yours to do +with as you will, to help to avenge yourself upon that Spanish monster. +Take what you will. Take all I have." + +His smile grew gentler. Gently he raised her. + +"Madame," he said, "I am myself a sinner, as I have shown you, a man +unequal to resisting temptation when it took me in its trammels. Of all +that you offer, I will take only the right to this kiss." + +And bending, he bore her hand to his lips. + +Then he went out to join Gil and his men, who waited in the courtyard, +guarding three prisoners they had taken. + +Perez considered them by the light of the lantern that Gil held aloft +for him. + +"One of you," he announced, "shall return to Castile and give tidings to +Philip, his master, that Antonio Perez leaves for England and the Court +of Elizabeth, to aid her, by his knowledge of the affairs of Spain, in +her measures against the Catholic King, and to continue his holy work, +which is to make the name of Philip II stink in the nostrils of all +honest men. One of you I will spare for that purpose. You shall draw +lots for it in the morning. The other two must hang." + + + + + + +IV. THE NIGHT OF CHARITY--The Case Of The Lady Alice Lisle + +Of all the cases tried in the course of that terrible circuit, justly +known as the Bloody Assizes, the only one that survives at all in the +popular memory is the case of the Lady Alice Lisle. Her advanced age, +the fact that she was the first woman known in English history to have +suffered death for no worse an offence than that of having exercised the +feminine prerogative of mercy, and the further fact that, even so, this +offence--technical as it was--was never fully proved against her, are +all circumstances which have left their indelible stamp of horror upon +the public mind. There is also the further circumstance that hers was +the first case tried in the West by that terrible Chief Justice, Baron +Jeffreys of Wem. + +But the feature that renders her case peculiarly interesting to the +historical psychologist--and it is a feature that is in danger of being +overlooked--is that she cannot really be said to have suffered for the +technical offence for which she took her trial. That was the pretext +rather than the cause. In reality she was the innocent victim of a +relentless, undiscerning Nemesis. + +The battle of Sedgemoor had been fought and lost by the Protestant +champion, James, Duke of Monmouth. In the West, which had answered the +Duke's summons to revolt, there was established now a horrible reign of +terror reflecting the bigoted, pitiless, vindictive nature of the King. +Faversham had left Colonel Percy Kirke in command at Bridgwater, a +ruthless ruffian, who at one time had commanded the Tangier garrison, +and whose men were full worthy of their commander. Kirke's Lambs they +were called, in an irony provoked by the emblem of the Paschal Lamb on +the flag of this, the First Tangier Regiment, originally levied to wage +war upon the infidel. + +From Bridgwater Colonel Kirke made a horrible punitive progress to +Taunton, where he put up at the White Hart Inn. Now, there was a very +solid signpost standing upon a triangular patch of green before the +door of the White Hart, and Colonel Kirke conceived the quite facetious +notion of converting this advertisement of hospitality into a gallows--a +signpost of temporal welfare into a signpost of eternity. So forth he +fetched the prisoners he had brought in chains from Bridgwater, and +proceeded, without any form of trial whatsoever, to string them up +before the inn. The story runs that as they were hoisted to that +improvised gibbet, Kirke and his officers, standing at the windows, +raised their glasses to pledge their happy deliverance; then, when +the victims began to kick convulsively, Kirke would order the drums +to strike up, so that the gentlemen might have music for their better +dancing. + +The colonel, you see, was a humorist, as humour was then understood upon +the northern shores of Africa, where he had been schooled. + +When, eventually, Colonel Kirke was recalled and reprimanded, it was not +because of his barbarities many of which transcend the possibilities of +decent print--but because of a lenity which this venal gentleman began +to display when he discovered that many of his victims were willing to +pay handsomely for mercy. + +Meanwhile, under his reign of terror, men who had cause to fear the +terrible hand of the King's vengeance went into hiding wherever they +could. Among those who escaped into Hampshire, thinking themselves safer +in a county that had not participated in the war, were a dissenting +parson named George Hicks, who had been in Monmouth's army, and a lawyer +named Richard Nelthorp, outlawed for participation in the Rye House +Plot. In his desperate quest for shelter, Hicks bethought him of the +charitable Nonconformist lady of Moyle's Court, the widow of that John +Lisle who had been one of Cromwell's Lords Commissioners of the Great +Seal, and most active in bringing King Charles I to justice. + +John Lisle had fled to Switzerland at the Restoration; but Stuart +vengeance had followed him, set a price upon his head, and procured +his murder at Lausanne. That was twenty years ago. Since then his lady, +because she was known to have befriended and sheltered many Royalists, +and because she had some stout Tory friends to plead for her, was +allowed to remain in tranquil possession of her estates. And there the +Lady Alice Lisle--so called by courtesy, since Cromwell's titles did not +at law survive the Restoration--might have ended her days in peace, but +that it was written that those who hated her--innocent and aged though +she was--for the name she bore, who included her in the rancour which +had procured her husband's assassination, were to be fully satisfied. +And the instrument of fate was this parson Hicks. He prevailed upon +Dunne, a baker of Warminster, and a Nonconformist, to convey to the Lady +Lisle his prayer for shelter. With that message Dunne set out on July +25th for Ellingham, a journey of some twenty miles. He went by way of +Fovant and Chalk to Salisbury Plain. But as he did not know the way +thence, he sought out a co-religionist named Barter, who undertook, for +a consideration, to go with him and direct him. + +Together the pair came in the late afternoon of that Saturday to the +handsome house of Moyle's Court, and to my lady's steward, who received +them. Dunne, who appears to have been silly and imprudent, states that +he is sent to know if my lady will entertain a minister named Hicks. + +Carpenter, the steward, a staid, elderly fellow, took fright at once. +Although he may not have associated an absconding Presbyterian parson +with the late rebellion, he must have supposed at least that he was one +of those against whom there were warrants for preaching in forbidden +private meetings. So to her ladyship above stairs Carpenter conveyed a +warning with the message. + +But that slight, frail, homely lady of seventy, with kindly eyes of +a faded blue, smiled upon his fears. She had sheltered fugitives +before--in the old days of the Commonwealth--and nothing but good had +ever come of it. She would see this messenger. + +With misgivings, Carpenter haled Dunne into her presence, and left them +alone together. The impression conveyed by Dunne was that Hicks was +in hiding from the warrants that were out against all Nonconformist +preachers. But when he mentioned that Hicks had a companion, she desired +to know his name. + +"I do not know, my lady. But I do not think he has been in the army, +either." + +She considered a while. But in the end pity conquered doubt in her +sweetly charitable soul. + +"Very well," she said, "I will give them entertainment for a week. +Bring them on Tuesday after dark, and come by the back way through the +orchard, that they may not be seen." + +And upon this she rose, and took up an ebony cane, herself to reconduct +him and to see to his entertainment before he left. Not until they came +to the kitchen did she realize that he had a companion. At sight of +Barter, who rose respectfully when she entered, she checked, turned to +Dunne, and whispered something, to which his answer provoked from her a +laugh. + +Now Barter, intrigued by this whispering and laughing, of which he +deemed himself the object, questioned Dunne upon it as they rode forth +again together. + +"She asked me if you knew aught of the business," replied Dunne; "and I +answered 'No."' + +"Business, say'st thou?" quoth Barter. "What business?" + +"Sure, the business on which we came," Dunne evaded; and he laughed. + +It was an answer that left Barter uneasy. Nor was his mind set at rest +by the parting words with which Dunne accompanied the half-crown for his +services. + +"This is but an earnest of what's to come if you will meet me here on +Tuesday to show me the way to Moyle's Court again. I shall be bringing +two gentlemen with me--wealthy men, of a half-score thousand pounds a +year apiece. I tell you there will be a fine booty for my part, so fine +that I shall never want for money again all the days of my life. And, so +that you meet us here, you too may count upon a handsome reward." + +Consenting, Barter went his ways home. But as he pondered Dunne's silly +speech, and marvelled that honest men should pay so disproportionately +for an honest service, he came to the reasonable conclusion that he had +to do with rebels. This made him so uneasy that he resolved at last to +lodge information with the nearest justice. + +Now, it happened, by the irony of Fate, that the justice sought by +Barter was one Colonel Penruddock--the vindictive son of that Penruddock +whom the late John Lisle--whilst Lord President of the High Court--had +sentenced to death some thirty years ago for participation in an +unsuccessful Wiltshire rising against the Commonwealth. + +The colonel, a lean, stark man of forty-five, heard with interest +Barter's story. + +"Art an honest fellow!" he commended him. "What are the names of these +rogues?" + +"The fellow named no names, sir." + +"Well, well, we shall discover that for ourselves when we come to take +them at this trysting-place. Whither do you say you are to conduct +them?" + +"To Moyle's Court, sir, where my Lady Lisle is to give them +entertainment." + +The colonel stared a moment; then a heavy smile came to light the +saturnine face under the heavy periwig. Beyond that he gave no sign of +what was passing in his mind. + +"You may go," he said slowly, at last. "Be sure we shall be at the tryst +to take these rascals." + +But the colonel did not keep his promise. To Barter's surprise, there +were no soldiers at the tryst on Salisbury Plain on the following +Tuesday; and he was suffered to lead Dunne and the two men with him the +short, corpulent Mr. Hicks and the long, lean Nelthorp--to Moyle's Court +without interference. + +The rich reward that Dunne had promised him amounted in actual fact +to five shillings, that he had from Nelthorpe at parting. Puzzled by +Colonel Penruddock's failure to do his part, Barter went off at once +to the colonel's house to inform him that the pair were now at Lady +Lisle's. + +"Why, that is very well," said the colonel, his smile more sinister than +ever. "Trouble not yourself about that." + +And Barter, the unreasoning instrument of Fate, was not to know that +the apprehending of a couple of traitorous Jack Presbyters was of small +account to Colonel Penruddock by comparison with the satisfaction of the +blood-feud between himself and the House of Lisle. + +Meanwhile the fugitives were being entertained at Moyle's Court, and +whilst they sat at supper in a room above-stairs, Dunne being still of +the party, my lady came in person to see that they had all that they +required, and stayed a little while in talk with them. There was some +mention of Monmouth and the battle of Sedgemoor, which was natural, that +being the topic of the hour. + +My lady asked no questions at the time regarding Hicks's long, lean +companion. But it occurred to her later that perhaps she should know +more about him. Early next morning, therefore, she sent for Hicks as he +was in the act of sitting down to breakfast, and by her direct questions +elicited from him that this companion was that Richard Nelthorp outlawed +for his share in the Rye House Plot. Not only was the information +alarming, but it gave her a sense that she had not been dealt with +fairly, as indeed she told him. + +"You will see, sir," she concluded, "that you cannot bide here. So long +as I thought it was on the score of Nonconformity alone that you were +suffering persecution, I was willing to take some risk in hiding you. +But since your friend is what he is, the risk is greater than I should +be asked to face, for my own sake and for that of my daughters. Nor +can I say that I have ever held plottings and civil war in anything but +abhorrence--as much in the old days as now. I am a loyal woman, and as +a loyal woman I must bid you take your friend hence as soon as your fast +is broken." + +The corpulent and swarthy Hicks stood dejectedly before her. He might +have pleaded, but at that moment there came a loud knocking at the gates +below, and instantly Carpenter flung into the room with a white, scared +face and whirling gestures. + +"Soldiers, my lady!" he panted in affright. "We have been betrayed. The +presence of Mr. Hicks here is known. What shall we do? What shall we +do?" + +She stood quite still, her countenance entirely unchanged, unless it +were to smile a little upon Carpenter's terror. The mercy of her nature +rose dominant now. + +"Why, we must hide these poor fellows as best we can," said she; and +Hicks flung down upon one knee to kiss her hand with protestations that +he would sooner be hanged than bring trouble upon her house. + +But she insisted, calm and self-contained; and Carpenter carried Hicks +away to bestow him, together with Dunne, in a hole in the malt-house +under a heap of sacking. Nelthorp had already vanished completely on his +own initiative. + +Meanwhile, the insistent knocking at the gate continued. Came shouted +demands to open in the name of the King, until from a window my lady's +daughters looked out to challenge those who knocked. + +Colonel Penruddock, who had come in person with the soldiers to raid the +house of his hereditary foe, stood forth to answer, very stiff and brave +in his scarlet coat and black plumed hat. + +"You have rebels in the house," he announced, "and I require you in the +King's name to deliver them up to me." + +And then, before they could answer him, came Carpenter to unbar the +door, and admit them to the court. Penruddock, standing squarely before +the steward, admonished him very sternly. + +"Friend," said he, "you had best be ingenuous with me and discover +who are in your lady's house, for it is within my knowledge that some +strangers came hither last night." + +The stricken Carpenter stood white-faced and trembling. + +"Sir--sir--" he faltered. + +But the colonel was impatient. + +"Come, come, my friend. Since I know they are here, there's an end on't. +Show me where they are hid if you would save your own neck from the +halter." + +It was enough for Carpenter. The pair in the malthouse might have +eluded all search but for the steward's pusillanimity. Incontinently, he +betrayed the hiding-place. + +"But, sir, of your charity do not tell my mistress that I have told you. +Pray, sir--" + +Penruddock brushed him aside as if he had been a pestering fly, and with +his men went in, and straight to the spot where Hicks and Dunne were +lurking. When he had taken them, he swung round on Carpenter, who had +followed. + +"These be but two," he said, "and to my knowledge three rogues came +hither last night. No shufling with me, rascal. Where have you bestowed +the other?" + +"I swear, as Heaven's my witness, I do not know where he is," protested +the afflicted steward, truly enough. + +Penruddock turned to his men. + +"Make search," he bade them; and search was made in the ruthless manner +of such searches. + +The brutal soldiers passed from room to room beating the wainscoting +with pike and musket-butts, splintering and smashing heedlessly. Presses +were burst open and their contents scattered; chests were broken into +and emptied, the searchers appropriating such objects as took their +fancy, with true military cynicism. A mirror was shattered, and some +boards of the floor were torn up because a sergeant conceived that the +blows of his halbert rang hollow. + +When the tumult was at its height, came her ladyship at last into the +room, where Colonel Penruddock stood watching the operations of his men. +She stood in the doorway leaning upon her ebony cane, her faded eyes +considering the gaunt soldier with reproachful question. + +"Sir," she asked him with gentle irony, masking her agitation, "has my +house been given over to pillage?" + +He bowed, doffing his plumed hat with an almost excessive courtesy. + +"To search, madame," he corrected her. And added: "In the King's name." + +"The King," she answered, "may give you authority to search my house, +but not to plunder it. Your men are robbing and destroying." + +He shrugged. It was the way of soldiers. Fine manners, he suggested, +were not to be expected of their kind. And he harangued her upon the +wrong she had done in harbouring rebels and giving entertainment to the +King's enemies. + +"That is not true," said she. "I know of no King's enemies." + +He smiled darkly upon her from his great height. She was so frail a body +and so old that surely it was not worth a man's while to sacrifice +her on the altar of revenge. But not so thought Colonel Penruddock. +Therefore he smiled. + +"Two of them, a snivelling Jack Presbyter named Hicks and a rascal named +Dunne, are taken already. Pray, madame, be so free and ingenuous with me +aye, and so kind to yourself--as if there be any other person concealed +in your house--and I am sure there is somebody else--to deliver him up, +and you shall come to no further trouble." + +She looked up at him, and returned him smile for smile. + +"I know nothing," she said, "of what you tell me, or of what you ask." + +His countenance hardened. + +"Then, mistress, the search must go on." + +But a shout from the adjoining room announced that it was at an end. +Nelthorp had been discovered and dragged from the chimney into which he +had crept. + +Almost exactly a month later--on August 27th the Lady Alice Lisle was +brought to the bar of the court-house at Winchester upon a charge of +high treason. + +The indictment ran that secretly, wickedly, and traitorously she did +entertain, conceal, comfort, uphold, and maintain John Hicks, knowing +him to be a false traitor, against the duty of her allegiance and +against the peace of "our sovereign lord the King that now is." + +Demurely dressed in grey, the little white-haired lady calmly faced the +Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys and the four judges of oyer and terminer who +sat with him, and confidently made her plea of "Not Guilty." + +It was inconceivable that Christian men should deal harshly with her for +a technical offence amounting to an act of Christian charity. And the +judge, sitting there in his robe of scarlet reversed with ermine, looked +a gentle, kindly man; his handsome, oval, youthful face--Jeffreys was in +his thirty-sixth year--set in the heavy black periwig, was so pale that +the mouth made a vivid line of scarlet; and the eyes that now surveyed +her were large and liquid and compassionate, as it seemed to her. + +She was not to know that the pallor which gave him so interesting an +air, and the dark stains which lent his eyes that gentle wistfulness, +were the advertisements at once of the debauch that had kept him from +his bed until after two o'clock that morning and of the inexorable +disease that slowly gnawed away his life and enraged him out of all +humanity. + +And the confidence his gentle countenance inspired was confirmed by +the first words he had occasion to address to her. She had interrupted +counsel to the Crown when, in his opening address to the jury--composed +of some of the most considerable gentlemen of Hampshire--he seemed to +imply that she had been in sympathy with Monmouth's cause. She was, of +course, without counsel, and must look herself to her defence. + +"My lord," she cried, "I abhorred that rebellion as much as any woman in +the world!" + +Jeffreys leaned forward with a restraining gesture. + +"Look you, Mrs. Lisle," he admonished her sweetly, "because we must +observe the common and usual methods of trial in your case I must +interrupt you now." And upon that he promised that she should be fully +heard in her own defence at the proper time, and that himself he would +instruct her in the forms of law to her advantage. He reassured her +by reverent allusions to the great Judge of Heaven and Earth, in whose +sight they stood, that she should have justice. "And as to what you say +concerning yourself," he concluded, "I pray God with all my heart you +may be innocent." + +He was benign and reassuring. But she had the first taste of his true +quality in the examination of Dunne--a most unwilling witness. + +Reluctantly, under the pressure put upon him, did Dunne yield up the +tale of how he had conducted the two absconders to my lady's house with +her consent, and it was sought to prove that she was aware of their +connection with the rebellion. The stubbornly evasive Dunne was asked at +last: + +"Do you believe that she knew Mr. Hicks before?" + +He returned the answer that already he had returned to many questions of +the sort. + +"I cannot tell truly." + +Jeffreys stirred in his scarlet robes, and his wistful eyes grew +terrible as they bent from under beetling brows upon the witness. + +"Why," he asked, "dost thou think that she would entertain any one she +had no knowledge of merely upon thy message? Mr. Dunne, Mr. Dunne! Have +a care. It may be more is known to me of this matter than you think +for." + +"My lord, I speak nothing but the truth!" bleated the terrified Dunne. + +"I only bid you have a care," Jeffreys smiled; and his smile was more +terrible than his frown. "Truth never wants a subterfuge; it always +loves to appear naked; it needs no enamel nor any covering. But lying +and snivelling and canting and Hicksing always appear in masquerade. +Come, go on with your evidence." + +But Dunne was reluctant to go on, and out of his reluctance he lied +foolishly, and pretended that both Hicks and Nelthorp were unknown to +him. When pressed to say why he should have served two men whom he had +never seen before, he answered: + +"All the reason that induced me to it was that they said they were men +in debt, and desired to be concealed for a while." + +Then the thunder was heard in Jeffreys' voice. + +"Dost thou believe that any one here believes thee? Prithee, what trade +art thou?" + +"My lord," stammered the unfortunate, "I--I am a baker by trade." + +"And wilt thou bake thy bread at such easy rates? Upon my word, then, +thou art very kind. Prithee, tell me. I believe thou dost use to bake on +Sundays, dost thou not?" + +"No, my lord, I do not!" cried Dunne indignantly. + +"Alackaday! Art precise in that," sneered the judge. "But thou canst +travel on Sundays to lead rogues into lurking-holes." + +Later, when to implicate the prisoner, it was sought to draw from Dunne +a full account of the reception she had given his companions, his terror +under the bullying to which he was subjected made him contradict himself +more flagrantly than ever. Jeffreys addressed the jury. + +"You see, gentlemen, what a precious fellow this is; a very pretty tool +to be employed upon such an errand; a knave that nobody would trust for +half a crown. A Turk has more title to an eternity of bliss than these +pretenders to Christianity." + +And as there was no more to be got from Dunne just then, he was +presently dismissed, and Barter's damning evidence was taken. +Thereafter the wretched Dunne was recalled, to be bullied by Jeffreys in +blasphemous terms that may not be printed here. + +Barter had told the Court how my lady had come into the kitchen with +Dunne, and how, when he had afterwards questioned Dunne as to why they +had whispered and laughed together, Dunne told him she had asked "If +he knew aught of the business." Jeffreys sought now to wring from Dunne +what was this business to which he had so mysteriously alluded--this +with the object of establishing Lady Lisle's knowledge of Hicks's +treason. + +Dunne resisted more stubbornly than ever. Jeffreys, exasperated--since +without the admission it would be difficult to convict her +ladyship--invited the jury to take notice of the strange, horrible +carriage of the fellow, and heaped abuse upon the snivelling, canting +sect of which he was a member. Finally, he reminded Dunne of his oath to +tell the truth, and addressed him with a sort of loving ferocity. + +"What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own +soul?" bellowed that terrible judge, his eyes aflame. "Is not this the +voice of Scripture itself? And wilt thou hazard so dear and precious a +thing as thy soul for a lie? Thou wretch! All the mountains and hills of +the world heaped upon one another will not cover thee from the vengeance +of the Great God for this transgression of false-witness bearing." + +"I cannot tell what to say, my lord," gasped Dunne. + +In his rage to see all efforts vain, the judge's language became that +of the cockpit. Recovering at last, he tried gentleness again, and very +elaborately invited Dunne, in my lady's own interest, to tell him what +was the business to which he had referred to Barter. + +"She asked me whether I did not know that Hicks was a Nonconformist." + +"That cannot be all. There must be something more in it." + +"Yes, my lord," Dunne protested, "it is all. I know nothing more." + +"Was there ever such an impudent rascal?" roared the judge. "Dolt think +that, after all the pains I have been at to get an answer, thou canst +banter me with such sham stuff as this? Hold the candle to his brazen +face, that we may see it clearly." + +Dunne stood terrified and trembling under the glance of those terrible +eyes. + +"My lord," he cried, "I am so baulked, I am cluttered out of my senses." + +Again he was put down whilst Colonel Penruddock gave his evidence of +the apprehension of the rebels. When he had told how he found Hicks and +Dunne concealed under some stuff in the malt-house, Dunne was brought +back yet again, that Jeffreys might resume his cross-examination. + +"Dunne, how came you to hide yourself in the malthouse?" + +"My lord," said Dunne foolishly, "I was frighted by the noise." + +"Prithee, what needest thou be afraid of, for thou didst not know +Hicks nor Nelthorp; and my lady only asked thee whether Hicks were a +Nonconformist parson. Surely, so very innocent a soul needed no occasion +to be afraid. I doubt there was something in the case of that business +we were talking of before. If we could but get out of thee what it was." + +But Dunne continued to evade. + +"My lord, I heard a great noise in the house, and did not know what it +meant. So I went and hid myself." + +"It is very strange thou shouldst hide thyself for a little noise, when +thou knewest nothing of the business." + +Again the witness, with a candle still held close to his nose, +complained that he was quite cluttered out of his senses, and did not +know what he was saying. + +"But to tell the truth would not rob thee of any of thy senses, if ever +thou hadst any," Jeffreys told him angrily. "But it would seem that +neither thou nor thy mistress, the prisoner, had any; for she knew +nothing of it either, though she had sent for them thither." + +"My lord," cried her ladyship at that, "I hope I shall not be condemned +without being heard." + +"No, God forbid, Mrs. Lisle," he answered; and then viciously flashed +forth a hint of the true forces of Nemesis at work against her. "That +was a sort of practice in your late husband's time--you know very well +what I mean--but God be thanked it is not so now." + +Came next the reluctant evidence of Carpenter and his wife, and after +that there was yet a fourth equally futile attempt to drag from Dunne +an admission that her ladyship was acquainted with Hicks's share in the +rebellion. But if stupid, Dunne at least was staunch, and so, with a +wealth of valedictory invective, Jeffreys dismissed him, and addressed +at last the prisoner, inviting her to speak in her own defence. + +She rose to do so, fearlessly yet gently. + +"My lord, what I have to say is this. I knew of nobody's coming to my +house but Mr. Hicks, and for him I was informed that he did abscond by +reason of warrants that were out against him for preaching in private +meetings; for that reason I sent to him to come by night. But I had +never heard that Nelthorp was to come with him, nor what name Nelthorp +had till after he had come to my house. I could die upon it. As for +Mr. Hicks, I did not in the least suspect that he had been in the army, +being a Presbyterian minister that used to preach and not to fight." + +"But I will tell you," Jeffreys interrupted her, "that there is not one +of those lying, snivelling, canting Presbyterian rascals but one way or +the other had a hand in the late horrid conspiracy and rebellion." + +"My lord, I abhorred both the principles and the practices of the late +rebellion," she protested; adding that if she had been tried in London, +my Lady Abergavenny and many other persons of quality could have +testified with what detestation she had spoken of the rebellion, and +that she had been in London until Monmouth had been beheaded. + +"If I had known the time of my trial in the country," she pursued, "I +could have had the testimony of those persons of honour for me. But, +my lord, I have been told, and so I thought it would have been, that +I should not have been tried for harbouring Mr. Hicks until he should +himself be convict as a traitor. I did abhor those that were in the plot +and conspiracy against the King. I know my duty to my King better, and +have always exercised it. I defy anybody in the world that ever knew +contrary to come and give testimony." + +His voice broke harshly upon the pause. "Have you any more to say?" + +"As to what they say to my denying Nelthorp to be in the house," she +resumed. "I was in very great consternation and fear of the soldiers, +who were very rude and violent. I beseech your lordship to make that +construction of it, and not harbour an ill opinion of me because of +those false reports that go about of me, relating to my carriage towards +the old King, that I was anyways consenting to the death of King Charles +I; for, my lord, that is as false as God is true. I was not out of my +chamber all the day in which that king was beheaded, and I believe I +shed more tears for him than any other woman then living. + +"And I do repeat it, my lord, as I hope to attain salvation, I never did +know Nelthorp, nor did I know of anybody's coming but Mr. Hicks. Him I +knew to be a Nonconformist minister, and there being, as is well known, +warrants out to apprehend all Nonconformist ministers, I was willing to +give him shelter from these warrants, which I knew was no treason." + +"Have you any more to say for yourself?" he asked her. + +"My lord," she was beginning, "I came but five days before this into the +country." + +"Nay," he broke in, "I cannot tell when you came into the country, nor I +don't care. It seems you came in time to harbour rebels." + +She protested that if she would have ventured her life for anything, it +would have been to serve the King. + +"But, though I could not fight for him myself, my son did; he was +actually in arms on the King's side in this business. It was I that bred +him in loyalty and to fight for the King." + +"Well, have you done?" he asked her brutally. + +"Yes, my lord," she answered; and resumed her seat, trembling a little +from the exertion and emotion of her address. + +His charge to the jury began. It was very long, and the first half of +it was taken up with windy rhetoric in which the Almighty was invoked +at every turn. It degenerated at one time into a sermon upon the text of +"render unto Caesar," inveighing against the Presbyterian religion. And +the dull length of his lordship's periods, combined with the monotone +in which he spoke, lulled the wearied lady at the bar into slumber. She +awakened with a start when suddenly his fist crashed down and his voice +rose in fierce denunciation of the late rebellion. But she was dozing +again--so calm and so little moved was she--before he had come to apply +his denunciations to her own case, and this in spite of all her protests +that she had held the rebellion in abhorrence. + +It was all calculated to prejudice the minds of the jurymen before +he came to the facts and the law of the case. And that charge of his +throughout, far from being a judicial summing-up, was a virulent address +for the prosecution, just as his bearing hitherto in examining and +cross-examining witnesses had been that of counsel for the Crown. The +statement that she had made in her own defence he utterly ignored, save +in one particular, where he saw his opportunity further to prejudice her +case. + +"I am sorry," he said, his face lengthening, "to remember something that +dropped even from the gentlewoman herself. She pretends to religion and +loyalty very much--how greatly she wept at the death of King Charles the +Martyr--and owns her great obligations to the late king and his royal +brother. And yet no sooner is one in the grave than she forgets all +gratitude and entertains those that were rebels against his royal +successor. + +"I will not say," he continued with deliberate emphasis, "what hand +her husband had in the death of that blessed martyr; she has enough to +answer for her own guilt; and I must confess that it ought not, one way +or other, to make any ingredient into this case what she was in former +times." + +But he had dragged it in, protesting that it should not influence the +case, yet coldly, calculatingly intending it to do so. She was the widow +of a regicide, reason and to spare in the views of himself and his royal +master why she should be hounded to her death upon any pretext. + +Thereafter he reviewed the evidence against her, dwelt upon the +shuffling of Dunne, deduced that the reason for so much lying was to +conceal the damning truth--namely, that she knew Hicks for a rebel when +she gave him shelter, and thus became the partner of his horrible +guilt. Upon that he charged them to find their verdict "without any +consideration of persons, but considering only the truth." + +Nevertheless, although his commands were clear, some of the jury would +seem to have feared the God whom Jeffreys invoked so constantly. One +of them rose to ask him pertinently, in point of law, whether it was +treason to have harboured Hicks before the man had been convicted of +treason. + +Curtly he answered them that beyond doubt it was, and upon that +assurance the jury withdrew, the Court settled down into an expectant +silence, and her ladyship dozed again in her chair. + +The minutes passed. It was growing late, and Jeffreys was eager to be +done with this prejudged affair, that he might dine in peace. His voice +broke the stillness of the court, protesting his angry wonder at the +need to deliberate in so plain a case. He was threatening to adjourn +and let the jury lie by all night if they did not bring in their verdict +quickly. When, at the end of a half-hour, they returned, his fierce, +impatient glance found them ominously grave. + +"My lord," said Mr. Whistler, the foreman, "we have to beg of your +lordship some directions before we can bring our verdict. We have some +doubt upon us whether there be sufficient proof that she knew Hicks to +have been in the army." + +Well might they doubt it, for there was no proof at all. Yet he never +hesitated to answer them. + +"There is as full proof as proof can be. But you are judges of the +proof. For my part, I thought there was no difficulty in it." + +"My lord," the foreman insisted, "we are in some doubt about it." + +"I cannot help your doubts," he said irritably. "Was there not proved +a discourse of the battle and of the battle and of the army at +supper-time?" + +"But, my lord, we are not satisfied that she had notice that Hicks was +in the army." + +He glowered upon them in silence for a moment. They deserved to be +themselves indicted for their slowness to perceive where lay their duty +to their king. + +"I cannot tell what would satisfy you," he said; and sneered. "Did she +not inquire of Dunne whether Hicks had been in the army? And when he +told her he did not know, she did not say she would refuse if he had +been, but ordered him to come by night, by which it is evident she +suspected it." + +He ignored, you see, her own complete explanation of that circumstance. + +"And when Hicks and Nelthorp came, did she not discourse with them about +the battle and the army?" (As if that were not at the time a common +topic of discussion.) "Come, come, gentlemen," he said, with amazing +impudence, "it is plain proof." + +But Mr. Whistler was not yet satisfied. + +"We do not remember, my lord, that it was proved that she asked any such +question." + +That put him in a passion. + +"Sure," he bellowed, "you do not remember anything that has passed. Did +not Dunne tell you there was such a discourse, and she was by? But if +there were no such proof, the circumstances and management of the thing +are as full proof as can be. I wonder what it is you doubt of!" + +Mrs. Lisle had risen. There was a faint flush of excitement on her grey +old face. + +"My lord, I hope--" she began, in trembling tones, to get no further. + +"You must not speak now!" thundered her terrible judge; and thus struck +her silent. + +The brief resistance to his formidable will was soon at an end. Within +a quarter of an hour the jury announced their verdict. They found her +guilty. + +"Gentlemen," said his lordship, "I did not think I should have occasion +to speak after your verdict, but, finding some hesitancy and doubt among +you, I cannot but say I wonder it should come about; for I think, in my +conscience, the evidence was as full and plain as it could be, and if I +had been among you, and she had been my own mother, I should have found +her guilty." + +She was brought up for sentence on the morrow, together with several +others subsequently convicted. Amid fresh invectives against the +religion she practised, he condemned her to be burned alive--which was +the proper punishment for high treason--ordering the sheriff to prepare +for her execution that same afternoon. + +"But look you, Mrs. Lisle," he added, "we that are the judges shall stay +in town an hour or two. You shall have pen, ink, and paper, and if, in +the mean time, you employ that pen, ink, and paper and that hour or two +well--you understand what I mean it may be that you shall hear further +from us in a deferring of this execution." + +What was this meaning that he assumed she understood? Jeffreys had +knowledge of Kirke's profitable traffic in the West, and it is known +that he spared no means of acquiring an estate suitable to his rank +which he did not possess by way of patrimony. Thus cynically he invited +a bribe. + +It is the only inference that explains the subsequent rancour he +displayed against her, aroused by her neglect to profit by his +suggestions. The intercession of the divines of Winchester procured +her a week's reprieve, and in that week her puissant friends in London, +headed by the Earl of Abergavenny, petitioned the King on her behalf. +Even Feversham, the victor of Sedgemoor, begged her life of the +King--bribed to it, as men say, by an offer of a thousand pounds. But +the King withheld his mercy upon the plea that he had promised Lord +Jeffreys he would not reprieve her, and the utmost clemency influential +petitions could wring from James II was that she should be beheaded +instead of burned. + +She suffered in the market-place of Winchester on September 2d. +Christian charity was all her sin, and for this her head was demanded +in atonement. She yielded it with a gentle fortitude and resolution. In +lieu of speech, she left with the sheriff a pathetic document wherein +she protests her innocence of all offence against the King, and forgives +her enemies specifically--the judge, who prejudiced her case, and +forgot that "the Court should be counsel for the prisoner," and Colonel +Penruddock, "though he told me he could have taken those men before they +came to my house." + +Between those lines you may read the true reason why the Lady Alice +Lisle died. She died to slake the cruelly vindictive thirst of King +James II on the one hand, and Colonel Penruddock on the other, against +her husband who had been dead for twenty years. + + + + + + +V. THE NIGHT OF MASSACRE--The Story Of The Saint Bartholomew + +There are elements of mystery about the massacre of Saint Bartholomew +over which, presumably, historians will continue to dispute as long as +histories are written. Indeed, it is largely of their disputes that the +mystery is begotten. Broadly speaking, these historians may be divided +into two schools--Catholic and anti-Catholic. The former have made it +their business to show that the massacre was purely a political affair, +having no concern with religion; the latter have been equally at pains +to prove it purely an act of religious persecution having no concern +with politics. Those who adopt the latter point of view insist that +the affair was long premeditated, that it had its source in something +concerted some seven years earlier between Catherine of Medicis and +the sinister Duke of Alva. And they would seem to suggest that Henry of +Navarre, the nominal head of the Protestant party, was brought to Paris +to wed Marguerite de Valois merely so that by this means the Protestant +nobles of the kingdom, coming to the capital for the wedding, should be +lured to their destruction. + +It does not lie within the purview of the present narrative to enter +into a consideration of the arguments of the two schools, nor will it be +attempted. + +But it may briefly be stated that the truth lies probably in a middle +course of reasoning--that the massacre was political in conception and +religious in execution; or, in other words, that statecraft deliberately +made use of fanaticism as of a tool; that the massacre was brought about +by a sudden determination begotten of opportunity which is but another +word for Chance. + +Against the theory of premeditation the following cardinal facts may be +urged: + +(a) The impossibility of guarding for seven years a secret that several +must have shared; + +(b) The fact that neither Charles IX nor his mother Catherine were in +any sense bigoted Catholics, or even of a normal religious sincerity. + +(c) The lack of concerted action--so far as the kingdom generally was +concerned--in the execution of the massacre. + +A subsidiary disproof lies in the attempted assassination of Coligny two +days before the massacre, an act which might, by putting the Huguenots +on their guard, have caused the miscarriage of the entire plan--had it +existed. + +It must be borne in mind that for years France had been divided by +religious differences into two camps, and that civil war between +Catholic and Huguenot had ravaged and distracted the country. At +the head of the Protestant party stood that fine soldier Gaspard de +Chatillon, Admiral de Coligny, virtually the Protestant King of +France, a man who raised armies, maintaining them by taxes levied upon +Protestant subjects, and treated with Charles IX as prince with prince. +At the head of the Catholic party--the other imperium in imperio--stood +the Duke of Guise. The third and weakest party in the State, serving, as +it seemed, little purpose beyond that of holding the scales between the +other turbulent two, was the party of the King. + +The motives and events that precipitated the massacre are set forth in +the narration of the King's brother, the Duke of Anjou (afterwards +Henri III). It was made by him to Miron, his physician and confidential +servant in Cracow, when he ruled there later as King of Poland, under +circumstances which place it beyond suspicion of being intended to serve +ulterior aims. For partial corroboration, and for other details of the +massacre itself, we have the narratives, among others, of Sully, who was +then a young man in the train of the King of Navarre, and of Lusignan, +a gentleman of the Admiral's household. We shall closely follow these in +our reconstruction of the event and its immediate causes. + +The gay chatter of the gallants and ladies thronging the long gallery +of the Louvre sank and murmured into silence, and a movement was made to +yield a free passage to the King, who had suddenly made his appearance +leaning affectionately upon the shoulder of the Admiral de Coligny. + +The Duke of Anjou, a slender, graceful young man in a gold-embroidered +suit of violet, forgot the interest he was taking in his beautiful +hands to bend lower over the handsome Madame de Nemours what time the +unfriendly eyes of both were turned upon the Admiral. + +The King and the great Huguenot leader came slowly down the gallery, +an oddly contrasting pair. Coligny would have been the taller by a +half-head but for his stoop, yet in spite of it there was energy and +military vigour in his carriage, just as there was a severe dignity +amounting to haughtiness in his scarred and wrinkled countenance. A +bullet that had pierced his cheek and broken three of his teeth at the +battle of Moncontour had left a livid scar that lost itself in his long +white beard. His forehead was high and bald, and his eyes were of +a steely keenness under their tufted brows. He was dressed with +Calvinistic simplicity entirely in black, and just as this contrasted +with the King's suit of sulphur-coloured satin, so did the gravity of +his countenance contrast with the stupidity of his sovereign's. + +Charles IX, a slimly built young man in his twenty-fourth year, was of +a pallid, muddy complexion, with great, shifty, greenish eyes, and a +thick, pendulous nose. The protruding upper lip of his long, thin mouth +gave him an oafish expression, which was increased by his habit of +carrying his head craned forward. + +His nature was precisely what you would have expected from his +appearance--dull and gross. He was chiefly distinguished among men of +birth for general obscenity of speech and morphological inventiveness in +blasphemy. + +At the end of the gallery Coligny stooped to kiss the royal hand in +leave-taking. With his other hand Charles patted the Admiral's shoulder. + +"Count me your friend," he said, "body and soul, heart and bowels, even +as I count you mine. Fare you well, my father." + +Coligny departed, and the King retraced his steps, walking quickly, his +head hunched between his shoulders, his baleful eyes looking neither to +left nor right. As he passed out, the Duke of Anjou quitted the side +of Madame de Nemours, and went after him. Then at last the suspended +chatter of the courtiers broke loose again. + +The King was pacing his cabinet--a simple room furnished with a medley +of objects appertaining to study, to devotion, and to hunting. A large +picture of the Virgin hung from a wall flanked on either side by an +arquebus, and carrying a hunting-horn on one of its upper corners. A +little alabaster holy-water font near the door, crowned by a sprig of +palm, seemed to serve as a receptacle for hawk-bells and straps. There +was a writing-table of beautifully carved walnut near the leaded window, +littered with books and papers--a treatise on hunting lay cheek by jowl +with a Book of Hours; a string of rosary beads and a dog-whip lay +across an open copy of Ronsard's verses. The King was quite the vilest +poetaster of his day. + +Charles looked over his shoulder as his brother entered. The scowl on +his face deepened when he saw who came, and with a grunt he viciously +kicked the liver-coloured hound that lay stretched at his feet. The +hound fled yelping to a corner, the Duke checked, startled, in his +advance. + +"Well?" growled the King. "Well? Am I never to have peace? Am I never to +be alone? What now? Bowels of God! What do you want?" + +His green eyes smouldered, his right hand opened and closed on the gold +hilt of the dagger at his girdle: + +Scared by the maniac ferocity of this reception, the young Duke +precipitately withdrew. + +"It is nothing. Another time, since I disturb you now." He bowed and +vanished, followed by an evil, cackling laugh. + +Anjou knew how little his brother loved him, and he confesses how much +he feared him in that moment. But under his fear it is obvious that +there was lively resentment. He went straight in quest of his mother, +whose darling he was, to bear her the tale of the King's mood, and what +he accounted, no doubt rightly, the cause of it. + +"It is the work of that pestilential Huguenot admiral," he announced, at +the end of a long tirade, "It is always thus with him after he has seen +Coligny." + +Catherine of Medicis considered. She was a fat, comfortable woman, with +a thick nose, pinched lips, and sleepy eyes. + +"Charles," she said at length, in her monotonous, emotionless voice, "is +a weathercock that turns with every wind that blows upon him. You should +know him by now." And she yawned, so that one who did not know her and +her habit of perpetually yawning might have supposed that she was but +indifferently interested. + +They were alone together in the intimate little tapestried room she +called her oratory. She half sat, half reclined upon a couch of rose +brocade. Anjou stood over by the window, his back to it, so that his +pale face was in shadow. He considered his beautiful hands, which he was +reluctant to lower, lest the blood should flow into them and mar their +white perfection. + +"The Admiral's influence over him is increasing," he complained, "and he +uses it to lessen our own." + +"Do I not know it?" came her dull voice. + +"It is time to end it," said Anjou passionately, "before he ends us. +Your influence grows weaker every day and the Admiral's stronger. +Charles begins to take sides with him against us. We shall have him a +tool of the Huguenot party before all is done. Ah, mon Dieu! You should +have seen him leaning upon the shoulder of that old parpaillot, calling +him 'my father,' and protesting himself his devoted friend 'body +and soul, heart and bowels,' in his own words. And when I seek him +afterwards, he scowls and snarls at me, and fingers his dagger as if he +would have it in my throat. It is plain to see upon what subject the old +scoundrel entertained him." And again he repeated, more fiercely than +before: "It is time to end it!" + +"I know," she said, ever emotionless before so much emotion. "And it +shall be ended. The old assassin should have been hanged years ago for +guiding the hand that shot Francois de Guise. Daily he becomes a greater +danger, to Charles, to ourselves, and to France. He is embroiling us +with Spain through this Huguenot army he is raising to go and fight the +battles of Calvinism in Flanders. A fine thing that. Ah, per Dio!" For a +moment her voice was a little warmed and quickened. "Catholic France at +war with Catholic Spain for the sake of Huguenot Flanders!" She laughed +shortly. Then her voice reverted to its habitual sleepy level. "You +are right. It is time to end it. Coligny is the head of this rebellious +beast. If we cut off the head, perhaps the beast will perish. We will +consult the Duke of Guise." She yawned again. "Yes, the Duke of Guise +will be ready to lend us his counsel and his aid. Decidedly we must get +rid of the Admiral." + +That was on Monday, August 18th of that year 1572, and such was the firm +purpose and energy of that fat and seemingly sluggish woman, that within +two days all necessary measures were taken, and Maurevert, the +assassin, was at his post in the house of Vilaine, in the Cloisters +of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, procured for the purpose by Madame de +Nemours, who bore the Admiral a mortal hatred. + +It was not, however, until the following Friday that Maurevert was given +the opportunity of carrying out the task to which he had been hired. On +that morning, as the Admiral was passing, accompanied by a few gentlemen +of his household, returning from the Louvre to his house in the Rue +Betisy, the assassin did his work. There was a sudden arquebusade from +a first-floor window, and a bullet smashed two fingers of the Admiral's +right hand, and lodged itself in the muscles of his left arm. + +With his maimed and bleeding hand he pointed to the window whence the +shot had been fired, bidding his gentlemen to force a way into the house +and take the assassin. But whilst they were breaking in at the front, +Maurevert was making his escape by the back, where a horse waited for +him, and, though pursued, he was never overtaken. + +News of the event was instantly borne to the King. It found him at +tennis with the Duke of Guise and the Admiral's son-in-law, Teligny. + +"In this assassin's work, Sire," said the blunt gentleman whom Coligny +had sent, "the Admiral desires you to see the proof of the worth of the +agreement between himself and Monsieur de Guise that followed upon the +treaty of peace of Saint-Germain." + +The Duke of Guise drew himself stiffly up, but said no word. The King, +livid with rage, looked at him balefully a moment, then to vent some of +his fury he smashed his racket against the wall. + +"God's Blood!" he cried, mouthing horribly. "Am I then never to have +rest?" He flung away the broken remnants of his racket, and went out +cursing. Questioning the messenger further, he learnt that the shot had +been fired from the house of Vilaine, a sometime tutor to the Duke of +Guise, and that the horse upon which the assassin had fled had been held +for him by a groom in the Guise livery. + +Meanwhile the Duke and Monsieur de Teligny had gone their ways with +no word spoken between them--Guise to shut himself up in his hotel and +assemble his friends, Teligny to repair at once to his father-in-law. + +At two o'clock in the afternoon, in response to an urgent request +from the Admiral, the King went to visit him, accompanied by the +Queen-Mother, by his brothers Anjou and Alencon, and a number of +officers and courtiers. The royal party saw nothing of the excitement +which had been prevailing in the city ever since the morning's event, +an excitement which subsided at their approach. The King was gloomy, +resentful, and silent, having so far refused to discuss the matter with +any one, denying audience even to his mother. Catherine and Anjou were +vexed by the miscarriage of the affair, anxious and no less silent than +the King. + +They found the Admiral awaiting them, calm and composed. The famous +Ambroise Pare had amputated the two broken fingers, and had dealt with +the wound in the arm. But although Coligny might be considered to have +escaped lightly, and not to be in any danger, a rumour was abroad that +the bullet was poisoned; and neither the Admiral nor his people seem to +have rejected the possibility. One suspects, indeed, that capital was +made out of it. It was felt, perhaps, that thus should the Admiral +maintain a greater influence with the King. For in any uncertainty as +to whether Coligny would live or die, the King's feelings must be more +deeply stirred than if he knew that the wound carried no peril to life. + +Followed closely by his mother and his brothers, Charles swept through +the spacious ante-chamber, thronged now with grim-faced, resentful +Huguenot gentlemen, and so entered the room where Coligny reclined upon +a day bed near the window. The Admiral made shift to rise, but this the +King hurried forward to prevent. + +"Rest yourself, my dear father!" he cried, in accents of deep concern. +"Heart of God! What is this they have done to you? Assure me, at least, +that your life is safe, or, by the Mass, I'll--" + +"I hold my life from God," the Admiral replied gravely, "and when He +requires it of me I will yield it up. That is nothing." + +"Nothing? God's Blood! Nothing? The hurt is yours, my father, but the +outrage mine; and I swear to you, by the Blood and the Death, that I +will take such a vengeance as shall never be forgotten!" + +Thereupon he fell into such a storm of imprecation and blasphemy that +the Admiral, a sincerely devout, God-fearing heretic, shuddered to hear +him. + +"Calm, Sire!" he begged at last, laying his sound hand upon the King's +velvet sleeve. "Be calm and listen, for it is not to speak of myself, of +these wounds, or of the wrong done me, that I have presumed to beg you +to visit me. This attempt to murder me is but a sign of the evil that +is stirring in France to sap your authority and power. But--" He checked +and looked at the three who stood immediately behind the King. "What I +have to say is, if you will deign to listen, for your private ear." + +The King jerked round in a fashion peculiar to him; his every action was +abrupt and spasmodic. He eyed his mother and brothers shiftily. It was +beyond his power to look any one directly in the face. + +"Outside!" he commanded, waving an impatient hand almost in their faces. +"Do you hear? Leave me to talk with my father the Admiral." + +The young dukes fell back at once, ever in dread of provoking the +horrible displays of passion that invariably followed upon any +resistance of his feeble will. But the sluggish Catherine was not so +easily moved. + +"Is Monsieur de Coligny strong enough, do you think, to treat of affairs +at present? Consider his condition, I beg," she enjoined in her level +voice. + +"I thank you for your consideration, madame," said the Admiral, the +ghost of an ironic smile about his lips. "But I am strong enough, thank +God! And even though my strength were less than it is, it would be more +heavily taxed by the thought that I had neglected my duty to His Majesty +than it ever could be by the performance of that duty." + +"Ha! You hear?" snapped the King. "Go, then; go!" + +They went, returning to the ante-chamber to wait until the audience +should conclude. The three stood there in the embrasure of a window that +looked out upon the hot, sunlit courtyard. There, as Anjou himself +tells us, they found themselves hemmed about by some two hundred sullen, +grim-faced gentlemen and officers of the Admiral's party, who eyed them +without dissembling their hostility, who preserved a silence that was +disturbed only by the murmurs of their constant whisperings, and who +moved to and fro before the royal group utterly careless of the proper +degree of deference and respect. + +Isolated thus in that hostile throng, Catherine and her sons became more +and more uneasy, so that, as the Queen-Mother afterwards confessed, she +was never in any place where her tarrying was attended by so much fear, +or her departure thence by so much pleasure. + +It was this fear that spurred her at last to put an end to that secret +conference in the room beyond. She did it in characteristic manner. In +the most complete outward composure, stifling a yawn as she went, +she moved deliberately across to the door, her sons following, rapped +shortly on the panel, and entered without waiting to be bidden. + +The King, who was standing by the Admiral's side, wheeled sharply at +the sound of the opening door. His eyes blazed with sudden anger when he +beheld his mother, but she was the first to speak. + +"My son," she said, "I am concerned for the poor Admiral. He will have +the fever if you continue to permit him to weary himself with affairs at +present. It is not to treat him as a friend to prolong this interview. +Let business wait until he is recovered, which will be the sooner if he +is given rest at present." + +Coligny stroked his white beard in silence, while the King flared out, +striding towards her: + +"Par la Mort Dieu! What is this sudden concern for the Admiral?" + +"Not sudden, my son," she answered in her dull voice, her eyes intent +upon him, with something magnetic in their sleepy glance that seemed +to rob him of half his will. "None knows more accurately than I the +Admiral's precise, value to France." + +Anjou behind her may have smiled at that equivocal phrase. + +"God's Bowels! Am I King, or what am I?" + +"It ill becomes a king to abuse the strength of a poor wounded subject," +she returned, her eyes ever regarding him steadily. "Come, Charles. +Another day, when the Admiral shall have recovered more fully, you may +continue this discourse. Come now." + +His anger was subdued to mere sullenness, almost infantile in its +outward petulant expression. He attempted to meet her glance, and he was +completely lost. + +"Perhaps... Ah, Ventre Dieu, my mother is right! Let the matter rest, +then, my father. We will talk of it again as soon as you are well." + +He stepped up to the couch, and held out his hand. + +Coligny took it, and his eyes looked up wistfully into the weak young +face of his King. + +"I thank you, Sire, for coming and for hearing me. Another day, if I am +spared, I may tell you more. Meanwhile, bear well in mind what I have +said already. I have no interests in this world but your own, Sire." And +he kissed the royal hand in farewell. + +Not until they were back in the Louvre did the Queen attempt to break +upon the King's gloomy abstraction, to learn--as learn she must--the +subject of the Admiral's confidential communication. + +Accompanied by Anjou, she sought him in his cabinet, nor would she +be denied. He sat at his writing-table, his head sunken between his +shoulders, his receding chin in his cupped palms. He glared at the pair +as they entered, swore savagely, and demanded their business with him. + +Catherine sat down with massive calm. Anjou remained standing beside and +slightly behind her, leaning upon the back of her tall chair. + +"My son," she said bluntly, "I have come to learn what passed between +you and Coligny." + +"What passed? What concern is that of yours?" + +"All your concerns are mine," she answered tranquilly. "I am your +mother." + +"And I am your king!" he answered, banging the table. "And I mean to be +king!" + +"By the grace of God and the favour of Monsieur de Coligny," she +sneered, with unruffled calm. + +"What's that?" His mouth fell open, and his eyes stared. A crimson flush +overspread his muddy complexion. "What's that?" + +Her dull glance met and held his own whilst calmly she repeated her +sneering words. + +"And that is why I have come to you," she added. "If you are unable +to rule without guidance, I must at least do what I can so that the +guidance shall not be that of a rebel, of one who guides you to the end +that he may master you." + +"Master me!" he screamed. He rose in his indignation and faced her. But +his glance, unable to support her steady eyes, faltered and fell away. +Foul oaths poured from his royal lips. "Master me!" he repeated. + +"Aye--master you," she answered him. "Master you until the little +remnant of your authority shall have been sapped; until you are no more +than a puppet in the hands of the Huguenot party, a roi faineant, a king +of straw." + +"By God, madame, were you not my mother--" + +"It is because I am your mother that I seek to save you." + +He looked at her again, but again his glance faltered. He paced the +length of the room and back, mouthing and muttering. Then he came to +stand, leaning on the prie-dieu, facing her. + +"By God's Death, madame, since you demand to know what the Admiral said, +you shall. You prove to me that what he told me was no more than true. +He told me that a king is only recognized in France as long as he is a +power for good or ill over his subjects; that this power, together +with the management of all State affairs, is slipping, by the crafty +contrivances of yourself and Anjou there, out of my hands into your own; +that this power and authority which you are both stealing from me may +one day be used against me and my kingdom. And he bade me be on my guard +against you both and take my measures. He gave me this counsel, madame, +because he deemed it his duty as one of my most loyal and faithful +servants at the point of death, and--" + +"The shameless hypocrite!" her dull, contemptuous voice interrupted him. +"At the point of death! Two broken fingers and a flesh-wound in the arm +and he represents himself as in articulo mortis that he may play upon +you, and make you believe his lies." + +Her stolidity of manner and her logic, ponderous and irresistible, had +their effect. His big, green eyes seemed to dilate, his mouth fell open. + +"If--" he began, and checked, rapped out an oath, and checked again. +"Are they lies, madame?" he asked slowly. + +She caught the straining note of hope in that question of his--a hope +founded upon vanity, the vanity to be king in fact, as well as king in +name. She rose. + +"To ask me that--me, your mother--is to insult me. Come, Anjou." + +And on that she departed, craftily, leaving her suggestion to prey upon +his mind. + +But once alone in her oratory with Anjou, her habitual torpor was +sloughed away. For once she quivered and crimsoned and raised her voice, +whilst for once her sleepy eyes kindled and flashed as she inveighed +against Coligny and the Huguenots. + +For the moment, however, there was no more to be done. The stroke had +failed; Coligny had survived the attempt upon his life, and there was +danger that on the recoil the blow might smite those who had launched +it. But on the morrow, which was Saturday, things suddenly assumed a +very different complexion. + +That great Catholic leader, the powerful, handsome Duke of Guise, who, +more than suspected of having inspired the attempted assassination, had +kept his hotel since yesterday, now sought the Queen-Mother with news +of what was happening in the city. Armed bands of Huguenot nobles were +riding through the streets, clamouring: + +"Death to the assassins of the Admiral! Down with the Guisards!" + +And, although a regiment of Gardes Francaises had been hastily brought +to Paris to keep order, the Duke feared grave trouble in a city +which the royal wedding had filled with Huguenot gentlemen and their +following. Then, too, there were rumours that the Huguenots were +arming everywhere--rumours which, whether true or not, were, under the +circumstances, sufficiently natural and probable to be taken seriously. + +Leaving Guise in her oratory, and summoning her darling Anjou, Catherine +at once sought the King. She may have believed the rumours, and she may +even have stated them as facts beyond dispute so as to strengthen and +establish her case against Gaspard de Coligny. + +"King Gaspard I," she told him, "is already taking his measures. The +Huguenots are arming; officers have been dispatched into the provinces +to levy troops. The Admiral has ordered the raising of ten thousand +horse in Germany, and another ten thousand Swiss mercenaries in the +Cantons." + +He stared at her vacuously. Some such rumour had already reached him, +and he conceived that here was definite confirmation of it. + +"You may determine now who are your friends, who your loyal servants," +she told him. "How is so much force to be resisted in the state in which +you find yourself? The Catholics exhausted, and weary as they are by a +civil war in which their king was of little account to them, are going +to arm so as to offer what resistance they can without depending upon +you. Thus, within your State you will have two great parties under arms, +neither of which can be called your own. Unless you stir yourself, and +quickly, unless you choose now between friends and foes, you will find +yourself alone, isolated, in grave peril, without authority or power." + +He sank overwhelmed to a chair, and took his head in his hands, +cogitating. When next he looked at her there was positive fear in his +great eyes, a fear evoked by contemplation of the picture which her +words had painted for him. + +He looked from her to Anjou. + +"What then?" he asked. "What then? How is the danger to be averted?" + +"By a simple stroke of the sword," she answered calmly. "Slice off at a +blow the head of this beast of rebellion, this hydra of heresy." + +He huddled back, horror in his eyes. His hands slid slowly along the +carved arms of his chair, and clenched the ends so tightly that his +knuckles looked like knobs of marble. + +"Kill the Admiral?" he said slowly. + +"The Admiral and the chief Huguenot leaders," she said, much in the tone +she might have used, were it a matter of wringing the necks of a dozen +capons. + +"Ah, ca! Par la Mort Dieu!" He heaved himself up, raging. "Thus would +your hatred of him be served. Thus would you--" + +Coolly she sliced into his foaming speech. + +"Not I--not I!" she said. "Do nothing upon my advice. Summon your +Council. Send for Tavannes, Biragues, Retz, and the others. Consult with +them. They are your friends; you trust and believe in them. When they +know the facts, see if their counsel will differ from your mother's. +Send for them; they are in the Louvre now." + +He looked at her a moment. + +"Very well," he said; and reeled to the door, bawling hoarsely his +orders. + +They came, one by one--the Marshal de Tavannes, the Duke of Retz, the +Duke of Nevers, the Chancellor de Biragues, and lastly the Duke of +Guise, upon whom the King scowled a jealous hatred that was now fully +alive. + +The window, which overlooked the quay and the river, stood open to admit +what air might be stirring on that hot day of August. + +Charles sat at his writing-table, sullen and moody, twining a string of +beads about his fingers. Catherine occupied the chair over beyond the +table, Anjou sitting near her on a stool. The others stood respectfully +awaiting that the King should make known his wishes. The shifty royal +glance swept over them from under lowering brows; then it rested almost +in challenge upon his mother. + +"Tell them," he bade her curtly. + +She told them what already she had told her son, relating all now with +greater detail and circumstance. For some moments nothing was heard in +that room but the steady drone of her unemotional voice. When she had +finished, she yawned and settled herself to hear what might be answered. + +"Well," snapped the King, "you have heard. What do you advise? Speak +out!" + +Nevers was the first to answer. + +"There is no other way," he said stiffly, "but that which Her Majesty +advises. The danger is grave. If it is to be averted, action must be +prompt and effective." + +Tavannes clasped his hands behind him and said much the same, as did +presently the Chancellor. + +Twisting and untwisting his chaplet of beads about his long fingers, +his eyes averted, the King heard each in turn. Then he looked up. His +glance, deliberately ignoring Guise, settled upon the Duke of Retz, who +held aloof. + +"And you, Monsieur le Marechal, what is your counsel?" + +Retz drew himself up, as if bracing himself to meet opposing forces. He +was a little pale, but quite composed. + +"If there is a man whom I should hate," he said, "it is this Gaspard de +Coligny, who has defamed me and all my family by the foul accusations he +has put abroad. But I will not," he added firmly, "take vengeance upon +my enemies at the expense of my king and master. I cannot counsel a +course so disastrous to Your Majesty and the whole kingdom. Did we +act as we have been advised, Sire, can you doubt that we should +be taxed--and rightly taxed in view of the treaty that has been +signed--with perfidy and disloyalty?" + +Dead silence followed that bombshell of opposition, coming from a +quarter whence it was least expected. For Catherine and Anjou had +confidently counted upon the Duke's hatred of Coligny to ensure his +support of their designs. + +A little colour crept into the pale cheeks of the King. His glance +kindled out of its sullenness. He was as one who sees sudden hope amid +despair. + +"That is the truth," he said. "Messieurs, and you, madame my mother, you +have heard the truth. How do you like it?" + +"Monsieur de Retz is deceived by an excess of loyalty," said Anjou +quickly. "Because he bears a personal enmity to the Admiral, he +conceives that it would hurt his honour to speak otherwise. It must +savour to him, as he has said, of using his king and master to avenge +his own personal wrongs. We can respect Monsieur de Retz's view, +although we hold it mistaken." + +"Will Monsieur de Retz tell us what other course lies open?" quoth the +bluff Tavannes. + +"Some other course must be found," cried the King, rousing himself. "It +must be found, do you hear? I will not have you touch the life of my +friend the Admiral. I will not have it--by the Blood!" + +A hubbub followed, all speaking at once, until the King banged the +table, and reminded them that his cabinet was not a fish-market. + +"I say that there is no other way," Catherine insisted. "There cannot be +two kings in France, nor can there be two parties. For your own safety's +sake, and for the safety of your kingdom, I beseech you so to contrive +that in France there be but one party with one head--yourself." + +"Two kings in France?" he said. "What two kings?" + +"Yourself and Gaspard I--King Coligny, the King of the Huguenots." + +"He is my subject--my faithful, loyal subject," the King protested, but +with less assurance. + +"A subject who raises forces of his own, levies taxes of his own, +garrisons Huguenot cities," said Biragues. "That is a very dangerous +type of subject, Sire." + +"A subject who forces you into war with Protestant Flanders against +Catholic Spain," added the blunt Tavannes. + +"Forces me?" roared the King, half rising, his eyes aflash. "That is a +very daring word." + +"It would be if the proof were absent. Remember, Sire, his very speech +to you before you permitted him to embark upon preparations for this +war. 'Give us leave,' he said, 'to make war in Flanders, or we shall be +compelled to make war upon yourself.'" + +The King winced and turned livid. Sweat stood in beads upon his brow. He +was touched in his most sensitive spot. That speech of Coligny's was of +all things the one he most desired to forget. He twisted the chaplet so +that the beads bit deeply into his fingers. + +"Sire," Tavannes continued, "were I a king, and did a subject so address +me, I should have his head within the hour. Yet worse has happened +since, worse is happening now. The Huguenots are arming. They ride +arrogantly through the streets of your capital, stirring up rebellion. +They are here in force, and the danger grows acute and imminent." + +Charles writhed before them. He mopped his brow with a shaking hand. + +"The danger--yes. I see that. I admit the danger. But Coligny--" + +"Is it to be King Gaspard or King Charles?" rasped the voice of +Catherine. + +The chaplet snapped suddenly in the King's fingers. He sprang to his +feet, deathly pale. + +"So be it!" he cried. "Since it is necessary to kill the Admiral, kill +him, then. Kill him!" he screamed, in a fury that seemed aimed at those +who forced this course upon him. "Kill him--but see to it also that at +the same time you kill every Huguenot in France, so that not one shall +be left to reproach me. Not one, do you hear? Take your measures and let +the thing be done at once." And on that, his face livid and twitching, +his limbs shaking, he flung out of the room and left them. + +It was all the warrant they required, and they set to work at once +there in the King's own cabinet, where he had left them. Guise, who +had hitherto been no more than a silent spectator, assumed now the most +active part. Upon his own shoulders he took the charge of seeing the +Admiral done to death. + +The remainder of the day and a portion of the evening were spent in +concerting ways and means. They assured themselves of the Provost of +the merchants of Paris, of the officers of the Gardes Francaises and +the three thousand Swiss, of the Captains of the quarters and other +notoriously factious persons who could be trusted as leaders. By ten +o'clock at night all preparations were made and it was agreed that the +ringing of the bell of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois for matins was to be +the signal for the massacre. + +A gentleman of the Admiral's household taking his way homeward that +night passed several men bearing sheaves of pikes upon their shoulders, +and never suspected whom these weapons were to arm. He met several small +companies of soldiers marching quietly, their weapons shouldered, their +matches glowing, and still he suspected nothing, whilst in one quarter +he stopped to watch a man whose behaviour seemed curious, and discovered +that he was chalking a white cross upon the doors of certain houses. + +Meeting soon afterwards another man with a bundle of weapons on his +shoulder, the intrigued Huguenot gentleman asked him bluntly what he +carried and whither he went. + +"It is for the divertissement at the Louvre tonight," he was answered. + +But in the Louvre the Queen-Mother and the Catholic leaders, the labours +of preparation ended, were snatching a brief rest. Between two and three +o'clock in the morning Catherine and Anjou repaired again to the King's +cabinet. They found him waiting there, his face haggard and his eyes +fevered. + +He had spent a part of the evening at billiards, and among the players +had been La Rochefoucauld, of whom he was fond, and who had left him +with a jest at eleven o'clock, little dreaming that it was for the last +time. + +The three of them crossed to the window overlooking the river. They +opened it, and peered out fearfully. Even Catherine trembled now that +the hour approached. The air was fresh and cool, swept clean by the +stirring breeze of the dawn, whose first ghostly gleams were already in +the sky. Suddenly, somewhere near at hand, a pistol cracked. The noise +affected them oddly. The King fell into an ague and his teeth chattered +audibly. Panic seized him. + +"By the Blood, it shall not be! It shall not be!" he cried suddenly. + +He looked at his mother and his brother and they looked at him; ghastly +were the faces of all three, their eyes wide and staring with horror. + +Charles swore in his terror that he would cancel all commands. And +since Catherine and Anjou made no attempt to hinder him, he summoned an +officer and bade him seek out the Duke of Guise at once and command him +to stay his hand. + +The messenger eventually found the Duke in the courtyard of the +Admiral's house, standing over the Admiral's dead body, which his +assassins had flung down from the bedroom window. Guise laughed, and +stirred the head of the corpse with his foot, answering that the +message came too late. Even as he spoke the great bell of Saint-Germain +l'Auxerrois began to ring for matins. + +The royal party huddled at that window of the Louvre heard it at the +same moment, and heard, as if in immediate answer, shots of arquebus +and pistol, cries and screams near at hand, and then, gradually swelling +from a murmur, the baying of the fierce multitude. Other bells gave +tongue, until from every steeple in Paris the alarm rang out. The red +glow from thousands of torches flushed the heavens with a rosy tint as +of dawn, the air grew heavy with the smell of pitch and resin. + +The King, clutching the sill of the window, poured out a stream of +blasphemy from between his chattering teeth. Then the hubbub rose +suddenly near at hand. The neighbourhood of the Louvre was populous +with Huguenots, and into it now poured the excited Catholic citizens +and soldiers. Soon the quay beneath the palace windows presented the +fiercest spectacle of any quarter, of Paris. + +Half-clad men, women, and children fled screaming before the assassins, +until they were checked by the chains that everywhere had been placed +across the streets. Some sought the river, hoping to find a way of +escape. But with Satanic foresight, the boats usually moored there had +been conveyed to the other side. Thus some hundreds of Huguenots were +brought to bay, and done to death under the very eyes of the King who +had unleashed this horror. Doors were crashed open, flames rose to +heaven, men and women were shot down under the palace wall, bodies were +flung from windows, and on every side--in the words of D'Aubigne--the +blood now flowed, seeking the river. + +The King watched a while, screams and curses pouring from his lips to +be lost in the horrible uproar. He turned, perhaps to upbraid his mother +and his brother, but found that they were no longer at his side. +Behind him in the room a page was crouching, watching him with a white, +horrified face. + +Suddenly the King laughed--it was the fierce, hysterical laugh of a +madman. His eyes fell on the arquebuses flanking the picture of the +Mother of Mercy. He took one of them down, then caught the boy by the +collar of his doublet and dragged him forward to the window. + +"Hither, and load for me!" he bade him, between peals of his terrible +laughter. Then he levelled the weapon across the sill of the window. +"Parpaillots! Parpaillots!" he screamed. "Kill! Kill!" and he discharged +the arquebus into a fleeing group of Huguenots. + +Five days later, the King--who by now had thrown the blame of the whole +affair, with its slaughter of some two thousand Huguenots, upon the +Guises and their hatred of Coligny--rode out to Montfaucon to behold the +decapitated body of the Admiral, which hung from the gallows in chains. +A courtier of a poor but obtrusive wit leaned towards him. + +"The Admiral becomes noisome, I think," he said. + +The King's green eyes considered him, his lips curling grimly. + +"The body of a dead enemy always smells sweet," he said. + + + + + + +VI. THE NIGHT OF WITCHCRAFT--Louis XIV and Madame De Montespan + +If you scrape the rubbish-heap of servile, coeval flattery that usually +smothers the personality of a monarch, you will discover a few kings +who have been truly great; many who have achieved greatness because they +were wisely content to serve as masks for the great intellects of their +time; and, for the rest, some bad kings, some foolish kings, and some +ridiculous kings. But in all that royal gallery of history you will +hardly find a more truly absurd figure than that of the resplendent Roi +Soleil, the Grand Monarque, the Fourteenth Louis of France. + +I am not aware that he has ever been laughed at; certainly never to the +extent which he deserves. The flatterers of his day, inevitable products +of his reign, did their work so thoroughly that even in secret they do +not appear to have dared to utter--possibly they did not even dare +to think--the truth about him. Their work survives, and when you have +assessed the monstrous flattery at its true worth, swept it aside and +come down to the real facts of his life, you make the discovery that +the proudest title their sycophancy could bestow and his own fatuity +accept--Le Roi Soleil, the Sun-King--makes him what indeed he is: a +king of opera bouffe. There is about him at times something almost +reminiscent of the Court buffoons of a century before, who puffed +themselves out with mock pride, and aped a sort of sovereignty to excite +laughter; with this difference, however, that in his own case it was not +intended to be amusing. + +A heartless voluptuary of mediocre intelligence, he contrived to wrap +himself in what Saint-Simon has called a "terrible majesty." He was +obsessed by the idea of the dignity, almost the divinity--of kingship. I +cannot believe that he conceived himself human. He appears to have +held that being king was very like being God, and he duped the world by +ceremonials of etiquette that were very nearly sacramental. We find +him burdening the most simple and personal acts of everyday life with a +succession of rites of an amazing complexity. Thus, when he rose in the +morning, princes of the blood and the first gentlemen of France were in +attendance: one to present to him his stockings, another to proffer +on bended knee the royal garters, a third to perform the ceremony of +handing him his wig, and so on until the toilette of his plump, not +unhandsome person was complete. You miss the incense, you feel that some +noble thurifer should have fumigated him at each stage. Perhaps he never +thought of it. + +The evil fruits of his reign--evil, that is to say, from the point +of view of his order, which was swept away as so much anachronistic +rubbish--did not come until a hundred years later. In his own day France +was great, and this not because but in spite of him. After all, he was +not the absolute ruler he conceived himself. There were such capable men +as Colbert and Louvois at the King's side'; there was the great genius +of France which manifests itself when and as it will, whatever the +regime--and there was Madame de Montespan to whose influence not a +little of Louis's glory may be ascribed, since the most splendid years +of his reign were those between 1668 and 1678 when she was maitresse en +titre and more than Queen of France. The women played a great part at +the Court of Louis XIV, and those upon whom he turned his dark eyes were +in the main as wax under the solar rays of the Sun-King. But Madame de +Montespan had discovered the secret of reversing matters, so that in her +hands it was the King who became as wax for her modelling. It is with +this secret--a page of the secret history of France that we are here +concerned. + +Francoises Athenais de Tonnay-Charente had come to Court in 1660 as +a maid of honour to the Queen. Of a wit and grace to match her superb +beauty, she was also of a perfervid piety, a daily communicant, a model +of virtue to all maids of honour. This until the Devil tempted her. When +that happened, she did not merely eat an apple; she devoured an entire +orchard. Pride and ambition brought about her downfall. She shared the +universal jealousy of which Louise de la Valliere was a victim, +and coveted the honours and the splendour by which that unfortunate +favourite was surrounded. + +Not even her marriage with the Marquis de Montespan some three years +after her coming to Court sufficed to overcome the longings born of +her covetousness and ambition. And then, when the Sun-King looked with +favour upon her opulent charms, when at last she saw the object of her +ambition within reach, that husband of hers went very near to wrecking +everything by his unreasonable behaviour. This preposterous marquis had +the effrontery to dispute his wife with Jupiter, was so purblind as not +to appreciate the honour the Sun-King proposed to do him. + +In putting it thus, I but make myself the mouthpiece of the Court. + +When Montespan began to make trouble by railing furiously against the +friendship of the King for his wife, his behaviour so amazed the King's +cousin, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, that she called him "an extravagant +and extraordinary man." To his face she told him that he must be mad to +behave in this fashion; and so incredibly distorted were his views, that +he did not at all agree with her. He provoked scenes with the King, in +which he quoted Scripture, made opposite allusions to King David which +were in the very worst taste, and even ventured to suggest that the +Sun-King might have to reckon with the judgment of God. If he escaped +a lettre de cachet and a dungeon in the Bastille, it can only have been +because the King feared the further spread of a scandal injurious to the +sacrosanctity of his royal dignity. + +The Marchioness fumed in private and sneered in public. When +Mademoiselle de Montpensier suggested that for his safety's sake she +should control her husband's antics, she expressed her bitterness. + +"He and my parrot," she said, "amuse the Court to my shame." + +In the end, finding that neither by upbraiding the King nor by beating +his wife could he prevail, Monsieur de Montespan resigned himself after +his own fashion. He went into widower's mourning, dressed his servants +in black, and came ostentatiously to Court in a mourning coach to take +ceremonious leave of his friends. It was an affair that profoundly +irritated the Sun-King, and very nearly made him ridiculous. + +Thereafter Montespan abandoned his wife to the King. He withdrew first +to his country seat, and, later, from France, having received more than +a hint that Louis was intending to settle his score with him. By that +time Madame de Montespan was firmly established as maitresse en titre, +and in January of 1669 she gave birth to the Duke of Maine, the first +of the seven children she was to bear the King. Parliament was to +legitimize them all, declaring them royal children of France, and the +country was to provide titles, dignities, and royal rent-rolls for them +and their heirs forever. Do you wonder that there was a revolution +a century later, and that the people, grown weary of the parasitic +anachronism of royalty, should have risen to throw off the intolerable +burden it imposed upon them? + +The splendour of Madame de Montespan in those days was something the +like of which had never been seen at the Court of France. On her estate +of Clagny, near Versailles, stood now a magnificent chateau. Louis had +begun by building a country villa, which satisfied her not at all. + +"That," she told him, "might do very well for an opera-girl"; whereupon +the infatuated monarch had no alternative but to command its demolition, +and call in the famous architect, Mansard, to erect in its place an +ultraroyal residence. + +At Versailles itself, whilst the long-suffering Queen had to be content +with ten rooms on the second floor, Madame de Montespan was installed +in twice that number on the first; and whilst a simple page sufficed +to carry the Queen's train at Court, nothing less than the wife of a +marshal of France must perform the same office for the favourite. She +kept royal state as few queens have ever kept it. She was assigned a +troop of royal bodyguards for escort, and when she travelled there was a +never-ending train to follow her six-horse coach, and officers of State +came to receive her with royal honours wherever she passed. + +In her immeasurable pride she became a tyrant, even over the King +himself. + +"Thunderous and triumphant," Madame de Sevigne describes her in those +days when the Sun-King was her utter and almost timid slave. + +But constancy is not a Jovian virtue. Jupiter grew restless, and +then, shaking off all restraint, plunged into inconstancy of the most +scandalous and flagrant kind. It is doubtful if the history of royal +amours, with all its fecundity, can furnish a parallel. Within a few +months, Madame de Soubise, Mademoiselle de Rochefort-Theobon, Madame +de Louvigny, Madame de Ludres, and some lesser ones passed in rapid +succession through the furnace of the Sun-King's affection--which is to +say, through the royal bed--and at last the Court was amazed to see the +Widow Scarron, who had been appointed governess to Madame de Montespan's +royal children, empanoplied in a dignity and ceremony that left no doubt +on the score of her true position at Court. + +And so, after seven years of absolute sway in which homage had been +paid her almost in awe by noble and simple alike, Madame de Montespan, +neglected now by Louis, moved amid reflections of that neglect, with +arrogantly smiling lips and desperate rage in her heart. She sneered +openly at the royal lack of taste, allowed her barbed wit to make +offensive sport with the ladies who supplanted her; yet, ravaged +by jealousy, she feared for herself the fate which through her had +overtaken La Valliere. + +That fear was with her now as she sat in the window embrasure, hell in +her heart and a reflection of it in her eyes, as, fallen almost to the +rank of a spectator in that comedy wherein she was accustomed to the +leading part, she watched the shifting, chattering, glittering crowd. +And as she watched, her line of vision was crossed to her undoing by the +slender, wellknit figure of de Vanens, who, dressed from head to foot in +black, detached sharply from that dazzling throng. His face was pale and +saturnine, his eyes dark, very level, and singularly piercing. Thus +his appearance served to underline the peculiar fascination which he +exerted, the rather sinister appeal which he made to the imagination. + +This young Provencal nobleman was known to dabble in magic, and there +were one or two dark passages in his past life of which more than +a whisper had gone abroad. Of being a student of alchemy, a +"philosopher"--that is to say, a seeker after the philosopher's stone, +which was to effect the transmutation of metals--he made no secret. But +if you taxed him with demoniacal practices he would deny it, yet in a +way that carried no conviction. + +To this dangerous fellow Madame de Montespan now made appeal in her +desperate need. + +Their eyes met as he was sauntering past, and with a lazy smile and a +languid wave of her fan she beckoned him to her side. + +"They tell me, Vanens," said she, "that your philosophy succeeds so well +that you are transmuting copper into silver." + +His piercing eyes surveyed her, narrowing; a smile flickered over his +thin lips. + +"They tell you the truth," he said. "I have cast a bar which has been +purchased as good silver by the Mint." + +Her interest quickened. "By the Mint!" she echoed, amazed. "But, then, +my friend--" She was breathless with excitement. "It is a miracle." + +"No less," he admitted. "But there is the greater miracle to come--the +transmutation of base metal into gold." + +"And you will perform it?" + +"Let me but conquer the secret of solidifying mercury, and the rest is +naught. I shall conquer it, and soon." + +He spoke with easy confidence, a man stating something that he knew +beyond the possibility of doubt. The Marquise became thoughtful. She +sighed. + +"You are the master of deep secrets, Vanens. Have you none that will +soften flinty hearts, make them responsive?" + +He considered this woman whom Saint-Simon has called "beautiful as the +day," and his smile broadened. + +"Look in your mirror for the alchemy needed there," he bade her. + +Anger rippled across the perfect face. She lowered, "I have looked--in +vain. Can you not help me, Vanens, you who know so much?" + +"A love-philtre?" said he, and hummed. "Are you in earnest?" + +"Do you mock me with that question? Is not my need proclaimed for all to +see?" + +Vanens became grave. + +"It is not an alchemy in which myself I dabble," he said slowly. "But I +am acquainted with those who do." + +She clutched his wrist in her eagerness. + +"I will pay well," she said. + +"You will need to. Such things are costly." He glanced round to see that +none was listening, then bending nearer: "There is a sorceress named La +Voisin in the Rue de la Tannerie, well known as a fortuneteller to many +ladies of the Court, who at a word from me will do your need." + +La Montespan turned white. The piety in which she had been reared--the +habits of which clung to her despite the irregularity of her life--made +her recoil before the thing that she desired. Sorcery was of the Devil. +She told him so. But Vanens laughed. + +"So that it be effective. . ." said he with a shrug. + +And then across the room floated a woman's trilling laugh. She looked +in the direction of the sound and beheld the gorgeous figure of the King +bending--yet haughty and condescending even in adoration--over handsome +Madame de Ludres. Pride and ambition rose up in sudden fury to trample +on religious feeling. Let Vanens take her to this witch of his, for be +the aid what it might, she must have it. + +And so, one dark night late in the year, Louis de Vanens handed a masked +and muffled lady from a coach at the corner of the Rue de la Tannerie, +and conducted her to the house of La Voisin. + +The door was opened for them by a young woman of some twenty years +of age--Marguerite Monvoisin, the daughter of the witch--who led them +upstairs to a room that was handsomely furnished and hung with fantastic +tapestry of red designs upon a black ground--designs that took monstrous +shapes in the flickering light of a cluster of candles. Black curtains +parted, and from between them stepped a short, plump woman, of a certain +comeliness, with two round black beads of eyes. She was fantastically +robed in a cloak of crimson velvet, lined with costly furs and closely +studded with double-headed eagles in fine gold, which must have been +worth a prince's ransom; and she wore red shoes on each of which there +was the same eagle design in gold. + +"Ah, Vanens!" she said familiarly. + +He bowed. + +"I bring you," he announced, "a lady who has need of your skill." + +And he waved a hand towards the tall cloaked figure at his side. + +La Voisin looked at the masked face. + +"Velvet faces tell me little, Madame la Marquise," she said calmly. +"Nor, believe me, will the King look at a countenance that you conceal +from me." + +There was an exclamation of surprise and anger from Madame de Montespan. +She plucked off her mask. + +"You knew me?" + +"Can you wonder?" asked La Voisin, "since I have told you what you carry +concealed in your heart?" + +Madame de Montespan was as credulous as only the very devout can be. + +"Since that is so, since you know already what I seek, tell me can you +procure it me?" she asked in a fever of excitement. "I will pay well." + +La Voisin smiled darkly. + +"Obdurate, indeed, is the case that will not yield to such medicine as +mine," she said. "Let me consider first what must be done. In a few days +I shall bring you word. But have you courage for a great ordeal?" + +"For any ordeal that will give me what I want." + +"In a few days, then, you shall hear from me," said the witch, and so +dismissed the great lady. + +Leaving a heavy purse behind her, as Vanens had instructed her, the +Marchioness departed with her escort. And there, with that initiation, +as far as we can ascertain, ended Louis de Vanens's connection with the +affair. + +At Clagny Madame de Montespan waited for three days in a fever of +impatience for the coming of the witch. But when at last La Voisin +presented herself, the proposal that she had to make was one before +which the Marchioness recoiled in horror and some indignation. + +The magic that La Voisin suggested involved a coadjutor, the Abbe +Guibourg, and the black mass to be celebrated by him. Madame de +Montespan had heard something of these dread sacrificial rites to Satan; +sufficient to fill her with loathing and disgust of the whitefaced, +beady-eyed woman who dared to insult her by the proposal. She fumed and +raged a while, and even went near to striking La Voisin, who looked +on with inscrutable face and stony, almost contemptuous, indifference. +Before that impenetrable, almost uncanny, calm, Madame de Montespan's +fury at last abated. Then the urgency of her need becoming paramount, +she desired more clearly to be told what would be expected of her. +What the witch told her was more appalling than anything she could have +imagined. But La Voisin argued: + +"Can anything be accomplished without cost? Can anything be gained in +this life without payment of some kind?" + +"But the price of this is monstrous!" Madame de Montespan protested. + +"Measure it by the worldly advantages to be gained. They are not small, +madame. To enjoy boundless wealth, boundless power, and boundless +honour, to be more than queen--is not all this worth some sacrifice?" + +To Madame de Montespan it must have been worth any sacrifice in this +world or the next, since in the end she conquered her disgust, and +agreed to lend herself to this horror. + +Three masses, she was told, would be necessary to ensure success, and +it was determined that they should be celebrated in the chapel of the +Chateau de Villebousin, where Guibourg had been almoner, to which he had +access, and which was at the time untenanted. + +The chateau was a gloomy mediaeval fortress, blackened by age, and +standing, surrounded by a moat, in a lonely spot some two miles to the +south of Paris. Thither on a dark, gusty night of March came Madame de +Montespan, accompanied by her confidential waiting-woman, Mademoiselle +Desceillets. They left the coach to await them on the Orleans road, and +thence, escorted by a single male attendant, they made their way by a +rutted, sodden path towards the grim castle looming faintly through the +enveloping gloom. + +The wind howled dismally about the crenellated turrets; and a row of +poplars, standing like black, phantasmal guardians of the evil place, +bent groaning before its fury. From the running waters of the moat, +swollen by recent rains, came a gurgling sound that was indescribably +wicked. + +Desocillets was frightened by the dark, the desolate loneliness and +eeriness of the place; but she dared utter no complaint as she stumbled +forward over the uneven ground, through the gloom and the buffeting +wind, compelled by the suasion of her mistress's imperious will. Thus, +by a drawbridge spanning dark, oily waters, they came into a vast +courtyard and an atmosphere as of mildew. A studded door stood ajar, and +through the gap, from a guiding beacon of infamy, fell a rhomb of yellow +light, suddenly obscured by a squat female figure when the steps of the +Marchioness and her companions fell upon the stones of the yard. + +It was La Voisin who stood on the threshold to receive her client. In +the stone-flagged hall behind her the light of a lantern revealed her +daughter, Marguerite Monvoisin, and a short, crafty-faced, misshapen +fellow in black homespun and a red wig--a magician named Lesage, one of +La Voisin's coadjutors, a rogue of some talent who exploited the witches +of Paris to his own profit. + +Leaving Leroy--the Marchioness's male attendant below in this fellow's +company, La Voisin took up a candle and lighted Madame de Montespan up +the broad stone staircase, draughty and cold, to the ante-room of the +chapel on the floor above. Mademoiselle Desceillets followed closely and +fearfully, and Marguerite Monvoisin came last. + +They entered the ante-room, a spacious chamber, bare of furniture save +for an oaken table in the middle, some faded and mildewed tapestries, +and a cane-backed settle of twisted walnut over against the wall. An +alabaster lamp on the table made an island of light in that place of +gloom, and within the circle of its feeble rays stood a gross old man of +some seventy years of age in sacerdotal garments of unusual design: the +white alb worn over a greasy cassock was studded with black fir-cones; +the stole and maniple were of black satin, with fir-cones wrought in +yellow thread. + +His inflamed countenance was of a revolting hideousness: his cheeks were +covered by a network of blue veins, his eyes squinted horribly, his lips +vanished inwards over toothless gums, and a fringe of white hair hung +in matted wisps from his high, bald crown. This was the infamous +Abbe Guibourg, sacristan of Saint Denis, an ordained priest who had +consecrated himself to the service of the Devil. + +He received the great lady with a low bow which, despite herself, she +acknowledged by a shudder. She was very pale, and her eyes were dilating +and preternaturally bright. Fear began to possess her, yet she suffered +herself to be ushered into the chapel, which was dimly illumined by a +couple of candles standing beside a basin on a table. The altar light +had been extinguished. Her maid would have hung back, but that she +feared to be parted from her mistress. She passed in with her in the +wake of Guibourg, and followed by La Voisin, who closed the door, +leaving her daughter in the ante-room. + +Although she had never been a participant in any of the sorceries +practised by her mother, yet Marguerite was fully aware of their extent, +and more than guessed what horrors were taking place beyond the closed +doors of the chapel. The very thought of them filled her with loathing +and disgust as she sat waiting, huddled in a corner of the settle. And +yet when presently through the closed doors came the drone of the voice +of that unclean celebrant, to blend with the whine of the wind in the +chimney, Marguerite, urged by a morbid curiosity she could not conquer, +crept shuddering to the door, which directly faced the altar, and going +down on her knees applied her eye to the keyhole. + +What she saw may very well have appalled her considering the exalted +station of Madame de Montespan. She beheld the white, sculptural form of +the royal favourite lying at full length supine upon the altar, her arms +outstretched, holding a lighted candle in each hand. Immediately before +her stood the Abbe Guibourg, his body screening the chalice and its +position from the eye of the watching girl. + +She heard the whine of his voice pattering the Latin of the mass, which +he was reciting backwards from the last gospel; and occasionally +she heard responses muttered by her mother, who with Mademoiselle +Desceillets was beyond Marguerite's narrow range of vision. + +Apart from the interest lent to the proceedings by the presence of +the royal favourite the affair must have seemed now very stupid and +pointless to Marguerite, although she would certainly not have found it +so had she known enough Latin to understand the horrible perversion +of the Credo. But when the Offertory was reached, matters suddenly +quickened. In stealing away from the door, she was no more than in time +to avoid being caught spying by her mother, who now issued from the +chapel. + +La Voisin crossed the ante-room briskly and went out. + +Within a very few minutes she was back again, her approach now heralded +by the feeble, quavering squeals of a very young child. + +Marguerite Monvoisin was sufficiently acquainted with the ghastly rites +to guess what was impending. She was young, and herself a mother. +She had her share of the maternal instinct alive in every female +animal--with the occasional exception of the human pervert--and the +hoarse, plaintive cries of that young child chilled her to the soul with +horror. She felt the skin roughening and tightening upon her body, and a +sense of physical sickness overcame her. That and the fear of her mother +kept her stiff and frozen in an angle of the settle until La Voisin had +passed through and reentered the chapel bearing that piteous bundle in +her arms. + +Then, when the door had closed again, the girl, horrified and +fascinated, sped back to watch. She saw that unclean priest turn and +receive the child from La Voisin. As it changed hands its cries were +stilled. + +Guibourg faced the altar once more, that little wisp of humanity that +was but a few days old held now aloft, naked, in his criminal hands. +His muttering, slobbering voice pronouncing the words of that demoniac +consecration reached the ears of the petrified girl at the keyhole. + +"Ashtaroth, Asmodeus, Princes of Affection, I conjure you to acknowledge +the sacrifice I offer to you of this child for the things I ask of +you, which are that the King's love for me shall be continued, and that +honoured by princes and princesses nothing shall be denied me of all +that I may ask." + +A sudden gust of wind smote and rattled the windows of the chapel and +the ante-room, as if the legions of hell had flung themselves against +the walls of the chateau. There was a rush and clatter in the chimney of +the ante-room's vast, empty fireplace, and through the din Marguerite, +as her failing limbs sank under her and she slithered down in a heap +against the chapel door, seemed to hear a burst of exultantly cruel +satanic laughter. With chattering teeth and burning eyes she sat +huddled, listening in terror. The child began to cry again, more +violently, more piteously; then, quite suddenly, there was a little +choking cough, a gurgle, the chink of metal against earthenware, and +silence. + +When some moments later the squat figure of La Voisin emerged from the +chapel, Marguerite was back in the shadows, hunched on the settle to +which she had crawled. She saw that her mother now carried a basin under +her arm, and she did not need the evidence of her eyes to inform her of +the dreadful contents that the witch was bearing away in it. + +Meanwhile in the chapel the ineffably blasphemous rites proceeded. To +the warm human blood which had been caught in the consecrated chalice, +Guibourg had added, among other foulnesses, powdered cantharides, the +dust of desiccated moles, and the blood of bats. By the addition of +flour he had wrought the ingredients into an ineffable paste, and over +this, through the door, which La Voisin had left ajar, Marguerite heard +his voice pronouncing the dread words of Transubstantiation. + +Marguerite's horror mounted until it threatened to suffocate her. It +was as if some hellish miasma, released by Guibourg's monstrous +incantations, crept through to permeate and poison the air she breathed. + +It would be a half-hour later when Madame de Montespan at last came out. +She was of a ghastly pallor, her limbs shook and trembled under her as +she stepped forth, and there was a wild horror in her staring eyes. Yet +she contrived to carry herself almost defiantly erect, and she spoke +sharply to the half-swooning Desceillets, who staggered after her. + +She took her departure from that unholy place bearing with her the +host compounded of devilish ingredients which when dried and reduced to +powder was to be administered to the King to ensure the renewal of his +failing affection for her. + +The Marchioness contrived that a creature of her own, an officer of +the buttery in her pay, should introduce it into the royal soup. The +immediate and not unnatural result was that the King was taken violently +ill, and Madame de Montespan's anxiety and suspense were increased +thereby. On his recovery, however, it would seem that the demoniac +sacrament--thrice repeated by then--had not been in vain. + +The sequel, indeed, appeared to justify Madame de Montespan's faith +in sorcery, and to compensate her for all the horror to which in +her despair she had submitted. Madame de Ludres found herself coldly +regarded by the convalescent King. Very soon she was discarded, the +Widow Scarron neglected, and the fickle monarch was once more at the +feet of the lovely marchioness, her utter and devoted slave. + +Thus was Madame de Montespan "thunderously triumphant" once more, +and established as firmly as ever in the Sun-King's favour. Madame de +Sevigne, in speaking of this phase of their relations, dilates upon the +completeness of the reconciliation, and tells us that the ardour of +the first years seemed now to have returned. And for two whole years it +continued thus. Never before had Madame de Montespan's sway been more +absolute, no shadow came to trouble, the serenity of her rule. + +But it proved, after all, to be no more than the last flare of an +expiring fire that was definitely quenched at last, in 1679, by +Mademoiselle de Fontanges. A maid of honour to madame, she was a child +of not more than eighteen years, fair and flaxen, with pink cheeks and +large, childish eyes; and it was for this doll that the regal Montespan +now found herself discarded. + +Honours rained upon the new favourite. Louis made her a duchess with +an income of twenty thousand livres, and deeply though this may have +disgusted his subjects, it disgusted Madame de Montespan still more. +Blinded by rage she openly abused the new duchess, and provoked a fairly +public scene with Louis, in which she gave him her true opinion of him +with a disturbing frankness. + +"You dishonour yourself," she informed him among other things. "And you +betray your taste when you make love to a pink-and-white doll, a little +fool that has no more wit nor manners than if she were painted on +canvas!" Then, with an increase of scorn, she delivered herself of an +unpardonable apostrophe: "You, a king, to accept the inheritance of that +chit's rustic lovers!" + +He flushed and scowled upon her. + +"That is an infamous falsehood!" he exclaimed. "Madame, you are +unbearable!" He was very angry, and it infuriated him the more that +she should stand so coldly mocking before an anger that could bow the +proudest heads in France. "You have the pride of Satan, your greed is +insatiable, your domineering spirit utterly insufferable, and you have +the most false and poisonous tongue in the world!" + +Her brutal answer bludgeoned that high divinity to earth. + +"With all my imperfections," she sneered, "at least I do not smell as +badly as you do!" + +It was an answer that extinguished her last chance. It was fatal to +the dignity, to the "terrible majesty" of Louis. It stripped him of +all divinity, and revealed him authoritatively as intensely and even +unpleasantly human. It was beyond hope of pardon. + +His face turned the colour of wax. A glacial silence hung over the +agonized witnesses of that royal humiliation. Then, without a word, in a +vain attempt to rescue the dignity she had so cruelly mauled, he turned, +his red heels clicked rapidly and unsteadily across the polished floor, +and he was gone. + +When Madame de Montespan realized exactly what she had done, nothing +but rage remained to her--rage and its offspring, vindictiveness. The +Duchess of Fontanges must not enjoy her victory, nor must Louis escape +punishment for his faithlessness. La Voisin should afford her the means +to accomplish this. And so she goes once more to the Rue de la Tannerie. + +Now, the matter of Madame de Montespan's present needs was one in which +the witches were particularly expert. Were you troubled with a rival, +did your husband persist in surviving your affection for him, did those +from whom you had expectations cling obstinately and inconsiderately +to life, the witches by incantations and the use of powders--in which +arsenic was the dominant charm--could usually put the matter right for +you. Indeed, so wide and general was the practice of poisoning become, +that the authorities, lately aroused to the fact by the sensational +revelations of the Marchioness de Brinvilliers, had set up in this +year 1670 the tribunal known as the Chambre Ardente to inquire into the +matter, and to conduct prosecutions. + +La Voisin promised help to the Marchioness. She called in another witch +of horrible repute, named La Filastre, her coadjutor Lesage, and two +expert poisoners, Romani and Bertrand, who devised an ingenious plot for +the murder of the Duchess of Fontanges. They were to visit her, Romani +as a cloth merchant, and Bertrand as his servant, to offer her their +wares, including some Grenoble gloves, which were the most beautiful +gloves in the world and unfailingly irresistible to ladies. These gloves +they prepared in accordance with certain magical recipes in such a way +that the Duchess, after wearing them, must die a lingering death in +which there could be no suspicion of poisoning. + +The King was to be dealt with by means of a petition steeped in similar +powders, and should receive his death by taking it into his hands. La +Voisin herself was to go to Saint-Germain to present this petition on +Monday, March 13th, one of those days on which, according to ancient +custom, all comers were admitted to the royal presence. + +Thus they disposed. But Fate was already silently stalking La Voisin. + +It is to the fact that an obscure and vulgar woman had drunk one glass +of wine too many three months earlier that the King owed his escape. + +If you are interested in the almost grotesque disparity that can lie +between cause and effect, here is a subject for you. Three months +earlier a tailor named Vigoureux, whose wife secretly practised magic, +had entertained a few friends to dinner, amongst whom was an intimate +of his wife's, named Marie Bosse. This Marie Bosse it was who drank that +excessive glass of wine which, drowning prudence, led her to boast of +the famous trade she drove as a fortune-teller to the nobility, and even +to hint of something further. + +"Another three poisonings," she chuckled, "and I shall retire with my +fortune made!" + +An attorney who was present pricked up his ears, bethought him of the +tales that were afloat, and gave information to the police. The police +set a trap for Marie Bosse, and she betrayed herself. Later, under +torture, she betrayed La Vigoureux. La Vigoureux betrayed others, and +these others again. + +The arrest of Marie Bosse was like knocking down the first of a row of +ninepins, but none could have suspected that the last of these stood in +the royal apartments. + +On the day before she was to repair to Saint-Germain, La Voisin, +betrayed in her turn, received a surprise visit from the police--who, of +course, had no knowledge of the regicide their action was thwarting--and +she was carried off to the Chatelet. Put to the question, she revealed +a great deal; but her terror of the horrible punishment reserved +for regicides prevented her to the day of her death at the stake--in +February of 1680 from saying a word of her association with Madame de +Montespan. + +But there were others whom she betrayed under torture, and whose arrest +followed quickly upon her own, who had not her strength of character. +Among these were La Filastre and the magician Lesage. When it was found +that these two corroborated each other in the incredible things which +they related, the Chambre Ardente took fright. La Reynie, who presided +over it, laid the matter before the King, and the King, horror-stricken +by the discovery of the revolting practices in which the mother of +his children had been engaged, suspended the sittings of the Chambre +Ardente, and commanded that no further proceedings should be taken +against Lesage and La Filastre, and none initiated against Romani, +Bertrand, the Abbe Guibourg, and the scores of other poisoners and +magicians who had been arrested, and who were acquainted with Madame de +Montespan's unholy traffic. + +But it was not out of any desire to spare Madame de Montespan that the +King proceeded in this manner; he was concerned only to spare himself +and his royal dignity. He feared above all things the scandal and +ridicule which must touch him as a result of publicity, and because +he feared it so much, he could impose no punishment upon Madame de +Montespan. + +This he made known to her at the interview between them procured by his +minister Louvois, at about the time that the sittings of the Chambre +Ardente were suspended. + +To this interview that proud, domineering woman came in dread, and in +tears and humility for once. The King's bearing was cold and hard. Cold +and hard were the words in which he declared the extent of his knowledge +of her infamy, words which revealed the loathing and disgust this +knowledge brought him. If at first she was terror-stricken, crushed +under the indictment, yet she was never of a temper to bear reproaches +long. Under his scorn her anger kindled and her humility was sloughed. + +"What then?" she cried at last, eyes aflash through lingering tears. "Is +the blame all mine? If all this is true, it is no less true that I +was driven to it by my love for you and the despair to which your +heartlessness and infidelity reduced me. To you," she continued, +gathering force at every word, "I sacrificed everything--my honour, a +noble husband who loved me, all that a woman prizes. And what did you +give me in exchange? Your cruel fickleness exposed me to the low mockery +of the lick-spittles of your Court. Do you wonder that I went mad, and +that in my madness I sacrificed what shreds of self-respect you had left +me? And now it seems I have lost all but life. Take that, too, if it +be your pleasure. Heaven knows it has little value left for me! But +remember that in striking me you strike the mother of your children--the +legitimate children of France. Remember that!" + +He remembered it. Indeed, he was never in danger of forgetting it; for +she might have added that he would be striking also at himself and at +that royal dignity which was his religion. And so that all scandalous +comment might be avoided she was actually allowed to remain at Court, +although no longer in her first-floor apartments; and it was not until +ten years later that she departed to withdraw to the community of Saint +Joseph. + +But even in her disgrace this woman, secretly convicted among other +abominations of attempting to procure the poisoning of the King and of +her rival, enjoyed an annual pension of 1,200,000 livres; whilst none +dared proceed against those who shared her guilt--not even the infamous +Guibourg, the poisoners Romani and Bertrand, and La Filastre--nor yet +against some scores of associates of these, who were known to live by +sorcery and poisonings, and who might be privy to the part played by +Madame de Montespan in that horrible night of magic at the Chateau de +Villebousin. + +The hot blast of revolution was needed to sweep France clean. + + + + + + +VII. THE NIGHT OF GEMS--The "Affairs" Of The Queen's Necklace + +Under the stars of a tepid, scented night of August of 1784, Prince +Louis de Rohan, Cardinal of Strasbourg, Grand Almoner of France, made +his way with quickened pulses through the Park of Versailles to a +momentous assignation in the Grove of Venus. + +This illustrious member of an illustrious House, that derived from both +the royal lines of Valois and Bourbon, was a man in the prime of life, +of a fine height, still retaining something of the willowy slenderness +that had been his in youth, and of a gentle, almost womanly beauty of +countenance. + +In a grey cloak and a round, grey hat with gold cords, followed closely +by two shadowy attendant figures, he stepped briskly amain, eager to +open those gates across the path of his ambition, locked against him +hitherto by the very hands from which he now went to receive the key. + +He deserves your sympathy, this elegant Cardinal-Prince, who had been +the victim of the malice and schemings of the relentless Austrian +Empress since the days when he represented the King of France at the +Court of Vienna. + +The state he had kept there had been more than royal and royal in +the dazzling French manner, which was perturbing to a woman of Marie +Therese's solid German notions. His hunting-parties, his supper-parties, +the fetes he gave upon every occasion, the worldly inventiveness, the +sumptuousness and reckless extravagance that made each of these affairs +seem like a supplement to "The Arabian Nights' Entertainments," the +sybaritic luxury of his surroundings, the incredible prodigality of +his expenditure, all served profoundly to scandalize and embitter the +Empress. + +That a priest in gay, secular clothes should hunt the stag on horseback +filled her with horror at his levity; that he should flirt discreetly +with the noble ladies of Vienna made her despair of his morals; whilst +his personal elegance and irresistible charm were proofs to her of a +profligacy that perverted the Court over which she ruled. + +She laboured for the extinction of his pernicious brilliance, and +intrigued for his recall. She made no attempt to conceal her hostility, +nor did she love him any the better because he met her frigid +haughtiness with an ironical urbanity that seemed ever to put her in the +wrong. And then one day he permitted his wit to be bitingly imprudent. + +"Marie Therese," he wrote to D'Aiguillon, "holds in one hand a +handkerchief to receive her tears for the misfortunes of oppressed +Poland, and in the other a sword to continue its partition." + +To say that in this witticism lay one of the causes of the French +Revolution may seem at first glance an outrageous overstatement. Yet +it is certain that, but for that imprudent phrase, the need would never +have arisen that sent Rohan across the Park of Versailles on that August +night to an assignation that in the sequel was to place a terrible +weapon in the hands of the Revolutionary party. + +D'Aiguillon had published the gibe. It had reached the ears of Marie +Antoinette, and from her it had travelled back to her mother in Vienna. +It aroused in the Empress a resentment and a bitterness that did not +rest until the splendid Cardinal-Prince was recalled from his embassy. +It did not rest even then. By the ridicule to which the gibe exposed +her--and if you know Marie Therese at all, you can imagine what that +meant--it provoked a hostility that was indefatigably to labour against +him. + +The Cardinal was ambitious, he had confidence in his talents and in +the driving force of his mighty family, and he looked to become another +Richelieu or Mazarin, the first Minister of the Crown, the empurpled +ruler of France, the guiding power behind the throne. All this he looked +confidently to achieve; all this he might have achieved but for the +obstacle that Marie Therese's resentment flung across his path. The +Empress saw to it that, through the person of her daughter, her hatred +should pursue him even into France. + +Obedient ever to the iron will of her mother, sharing her mother's +resentment, Marie Antoinette exerted all her influence to thwart this +Cardinal whom her mother had taught her to regard as a dangerous, +unprincipled man. + +On his return from Vienna bearing letters from Marie Therese to Louis +XVI and Marie Antoinette, the Cardinal found himself coldly received by +the dull King, and discouraged from remaining at Court, whilst the Queen +refused to grant him so much as the audience necessary for the delivery +of these letters, desiring him to forward them instead. + +The chagrined Cardinal had no illusions. He beheld here the hand +of Marie Therese controlling Marie Antoinette, and, through Marie +Antoinette, the King himself. Worse followed. He who had dreamt himself +another Richelieu could only with difficulty obtain the promised +position of Grand Almoner of France, and this solely as a result of the +powerful and insistent influence exerted by his family. + +He perceived that if he was to succeed at all he must begin by softening +the rigorous attitude which the Queen maintained towards him. To that +end he addressed himself. But three successive letters he wrote to the +Queen remained unanswered. Through other channels persistently he begged +for an audience that he might come in person to express his regrets for +the offending indiscretion. But the Queen remained unmoved, ruled ever +by the Austrian Empress, who through her daughter sought to guide the +affairs of France. + +Rohan was reduced to despair, and then in an evil hour his path was +crossed by Jeanne de la Motte de Valois, who enjoyed the reputation +of secretly possessing the friendship of the Queen, exerting a sort of +back-stair influence, and who lived on that reputation. + +As a drowning man clutches at a straw, so the Cardinal-Prince Louis de +Rohan, Grand Almoner of France, Landgrave of Alsace, Commander of the +Order of the Holy Ghost, clutched at this faiseuse d'affaires to help +him in his desperate need. + +Jeanne de la Motte de Valois--perhaps the most astounding adventuress +that ever lived by her wits and her beauty--had begun life by begging +her bread in the streets. She laid claim to left-handed descent from +the royal line of Valois, and, her claim supported by the Marchioness +Boulainvilliers, who had befriended her, she had obtained from the Crown +a small pension, and had married the unscrupulous Marc Antoine de la +Motte, a young soldier in the Burgundy regiment of the Gendarmerie. + +Later, in the autumn of 1786, her protectress presented her to Cardinal +de Rohan. His Eminence, interested in the lady's extraordinary history, +in her remarkable beauty, vivacity, and wit, received the De la Mottes +at his sumptuous chateau at Saverne, near Strasbourg, heard her story in +greater detail, promised his protection, and as an earnest of his +kindly intentions obtained for her husband a captain's commission in the +Dragoons. + +Thereafter you see the De la Mottes in Paris and at Versailles, hustled +from lodging to lodging for failure to pay what they owe; and finally +installed in a house in the Rue Neuve Saint-Gilles. There they kept +a sort of state, spending lavishly, now the money borrowed from the +Cardinal, or upon the Cardinal's security; now the proceeds of pawned +goods that had been bought on credit, and of other swindles practised +upon those who were impressed by the lady's name and lineage and the +patronage of the great Cardinal which she enjoyed. + +To live on your wits is no easy matter. It demands infinite address, +coolness, daring, and resource qualities which Madame de la Motte +possessed in the highest degree, so that, harassed and pressed by +creditors, she yet contrived to evade their attacks and to present a +calm and, therefore, confidence-inspiring front to the world. + +The truth of Madame de la Motte de Valois's reputation for influence +at Court was never doubted. There was nothing in the character of Marie +Antoinette to occasion such doubts. Indiscreet in many things, Her +Majesty was most notoriously so in her attachments, as witness her +intimacy with Madame de Polignac and the Princesse de Lambelle. And the +public voice had magnified--as it will--those indiscretions until it had +torn her character into shreds. + +The fame of the Countess Jeanne de Valois--as Madame de la Motte now +styled herself--increasing, she was employed as an intermediary by +place-seekers and people with suits to prefer, who gratefully purchased +her promises to interest herself on their behalf at Court. + +And then into her web of intrigue blundered the Cardinal de Rohan, who, +as he confessed, "was completely blinded by his immense desire to regain +the good graces of the Queen." She aroused fresh hope in his despairing +heart by protesting that, as some return for all the favours she had +received from him, she would not rest until she had disposed the Queen +more favourably towards him. + +Later came assurances that the Queen's hostility was melting under her +persuasions, and at last she announced that she was authorized by Her +Majesty to invite him to submit the justification which so long and so +vainly he had sought permission to present. + +Rohan, in a vertigo of satisfaction, indited his justification, +forwarded it to the Queen by the hand of the Countess, and some days +later received a note in the Queen's hand upon blue-edged paper adorned +by the lilies of France. + +"I rejoice," wrote Marie Antoinette, "to find at last that you were not +in fault. I cannot yet grant you the audience you desire, but as soon as +the circumstances allow of it I shall let you know. Be discreet." + +Upon the advice of the Countess of Valois, His Eminence sent a reply +expressive of his deep gratitude and joy. + +Thus began a correspondence between Queen and Cardinal which continued +regularly for a space of three months, growing gradually more +confidential and intimate. As time passed his solicitations of an +audience became more pressing, until at last the Queen wrote announcing +that, actuated by esteem and affection for him who had so long been kept +in banishment, she herself desired the meeting. But it must be secret. +An open audience would still be premature; he had numerous enemies at +Court, who, thus forewarned, might so exert themselves against him as +yet to ruin all. + +To receive such a letter from a beautiful woman, and that woman a queen +whose glories her inaccessibility had magnified a thousandfold in his +imagination, must have all but turned the Cardinal's head. The secrecy +of the correspondence, culminating in a clandestine meeting, seemed to +establish between them an intimacy impossible under other circumstances. + +Into the warp of his ambition was now woven another, tenderly romantic, +though infinitely respectful, feeling. + +You realize, I hope, the frame of mind in which the Cardinal-Prince took +his way through that luminous, fragrant summer night towards the Grove +of Venus. He went to lay the cornerstone of the proud edifice of +his ambitions. To him it was a night of nights--a night of gems, he +pronounced it, looking up into the jewelled vault of heaven. And in that +phrase he was singularly prophetic. + +By an avenue of boxwood and yoke-elm he entered into an open glade, +in the middle of which there was a circle where the intended statue of +Venus was never placed. But if the cold marble effigy of a goddess were +absent, the warm, living figure of a queen stood, all in shimmering +white amid the gloom, awaiting him. + +Rohan checked a moment, his breath arrested, his pulses quickened. Then +he sped forward, and, flinging off his wide-brimmed hat, he prostrated +himself to kiss the hem of her white cambric gown. Something--a rose +that she let fall--brushed lightly past his cheek. Reverently he +recovered it, accounting it a tangible symbol of her favour, and +he looked up into the proud, lovely face--which, although but dimly +discernible, was yet unmistakable to him protesting his gratitude and +devotion. He perceived that she was trembling, and caught the quiver in +the voice that answered him. + +"You may hope that the past will be forgiven." + +And then, before he could drink more deeply of this cup of delight, +came rapid steps to interrupt them. A slender man, in whom the Cardinal +seemed to recognize the Queen's valet Desclaux, thrust through the +curtains of foliage into the grove. + +"Quick, madame!" he exclaimed in agitation. "Madame la Comtesse and +Mademoiselle d'Artois are approaching!" + +The Queen was whirled away, and the Cardinal discreetly effaced himself, +his happiness tempered by chagrin at the interruption. + +When, on the morrow, the Countess of Valois brought him a blue-bordered +note with Her Majesty's wishes that he should patiently await a +propitious season for his public restoration to royal favour, he +resigned himself with the most complete and satisfied submission. Had +he not the memory of her voice and the rose she had given him? Soon +afterwards came a blue-bordered note in which Marie Antoinette advised +him to withdraw to his Bishopric of Strasbourg until she should judge +that the desired season of his reinstatement had arrived. + +Obediently Rohan withdrew. + +It was in the following December that the Countess of Valois's good +offices at Court were solicited by a new client, and that she first +beheld the famous diamond necklace. + +It had been made by the Court jewellers of the Rue Vendome--Bohmer and +Bassenge--and intended for the Countess du Barry. On the assembling of +its component gems Bohmer had laboured for five years and travelled all +over Europe, with the result that he had achieved not so much a necklace +as a blazing scarf of diamonds of a splendour outrivalling any jewel +that the world had ever seen. + +Unfortunately, Bohmer was too long over the task. Louis XV died +inopportunely, and the firm found itself with a necklace worth two +million livres on its hands. + +Hopes were founded upon Marie Antoinette's reputed extravagance. But +the price appalled her, while Louis XVI met the importunities of the +jeweller with the reply that the country needed a ship of war more +urgently than a necklace. + +Thereafter Bohmer offered it in various Courts of Europe, but always +without success. Things were becoming awkward. The firm had borrowed +heavily to pay for the stones, and anxiety seems to have driven Bohmer +to the verge of desperation. Again he offered the necklace to the +King, announcing himself ready to make terms, and to accept payment in +instalments; but again it was refused. + +Bohmer now became that pest to society, the man with a grievance that he +must be venting everywhere. On one occasion he so far forgot himself +as to intrude upon the Queen as she was walking in the gardens of the +Trianon. Flinging himself upon his knees before her, he protested with +sobs that he was in despair, and that unless she purchased the necklace +he would go and drown himself. His tears left her unmoved to anything +but scorn. + +"Get up, Bohmer!" she bade him. "I don't like such scenes. I have +refused the necklace, and I don't want to hear of it again. Instead of +drowning yourself, break it up and sell the diamonds separately." + +He did neither one nor the other, but continued to air his grievance; +and among those who heard him was one Laporte, an impecunious visitor at +the house of the Countess of Valois. + +Bohmer had said that he would pay a thousand louis to any one who found +him a purchaser for the necklace. That was enough to stir the needy +Laporte. He mentioned the matter to the Countess, and enlisted her +interest. Then he told Bohmer of her great influence with the Queen, and +brought the jeweller to visit her with the necklace. + +Dazzled by the fire of those gems, the Countess nevertheless +protested--but in an arch manner calculated to convince Bohmer of the +contrary--that she had no power to influence Her Majesty. Yet yielding +with apparent reluctance to his importunities, she, nevertheless, ended +by promising to see what could be done. + +On January 3d the Cardinal came back from Strasbourg. Correspondence +with the Queen, through Madame de Valois, had continued during his +absence, and now, within a few days of his return, an opportunity was +to be afforded him of proving his readiness to serve Her Majesty, and of +placing her under a profound obligation to him. + +The Countess brought him a letter from Marie Antoinette, in which the +Queen expressed her desire to acquire the necklace, but added that, +being without the requisite funds at the moment, it would be necessary +to settle the terms and arrange the instalments, which should be paid at +intervals of three months. For this she required an intermediary who in +himself would be a sufficient guarantee to the Bohmers, and she ended by +inviting His Eminence to act on her behalf. + +That invitation the Cardinal, who had been waiting ever since the +meeting in the Grove of Venus for an opportunity of proving himself, +accepted with alacrity. + +And so, on January 24th, the Countess drives up to the Grand Balcon, the +jewellers' shop in the Rue Vendome. Her dark eyes sparkle, the lovely, +piquant face is wreathed in smiles. + +"Messieurs," she greets the anxious partners, "I think I can promise you +that the necklace will very shortly be sold." + +The jewellers gasp in the immensity of the hope her words arouse. + +"The purchase," she goes on to inform them, "will be effected by a very +great nobleman." + +Bassenge bursts into voluble gratitude. She cuts it short. + +"That nobleman is the Cardinal-Prince Louis de Rohan. It is with him +that you will arrange the affair, and I advise you," she adds in a +confidential tone, "to take every precaution, especially in the matter +of the terms of payment that may be proposed to you. That is all, +I think, messieurs. You will, of course, bear in mind that it is no +concern of mine, and that I do not so much as want my name mentioned in +connection with it." + +"Perfectly, madame," splutters Bohmer, who is perspiring, although the +air is cold--"perfectly! We understand, and we are profoundly grateful. +If--" His hands fumble nervously at a case. "If you would deign, madame, +to accept this trifle as an earnest of our indebtedness, we--" + +There is a tinge of haughtiness in her manner as she interrupts him. + +"You do not appear to understand, Bohmer, that the matter does not at +all concern me. I have done nothing," she insists; then, melting into +smiles, "My only desire," she adds, "was to be of service to you." + +And upon that she departs, leaving them profoundly impressed by her +graciousness and still more by her refusal to accept a valuable jewel. + +On the morrow the great nobleman she had heralded, the Cardinal himself, +alighted at the Grand Balcon, coming, on the Queen's behalf, to see the +necklace and settle the terms. By the end of the week the bargain was +concluded. The price was fixed at 1,600,000 livres, which the Queen was +to pay in four instalments extending over two years, the first falling +due on the following August 1st. + +These terms the Cardinal embodied in a note which he forwarded to Madame +de la Motte, that they might be ratified by the Queen. + +The Countess returned the note to him next day. + +"Her Majesty is pleased and grateful," she announced, "and she approves +of all that you have done. But she does not wish to sign anything." + +On that point, however, the Cardinal was insistent. The magnitude of +the transaction demanded it, and he positively refused to move further +without Her Majesty's signature. + +The Countess departed to return again on the last day of the month +with the document completed as the Cardinal required, bearing now the +signature "Marie Antoinette de France," and the terms marked "approved" +in the Queen's hand. + +"The Queen," Madame de la Motte informed him, "is making this purchase +secretly, without the King's knowledge, and she particularly begs that +this note shall not leave Your Eminence's hands. Do not, therefore, +allow any one to see it." + +Rohan gave the required promise, but, not conceiving that the Bohmers +were included in it, he showed them the note and the Queen's signature +when they came to wait upon him with the necklace on the morrow. + +In the dusk of evening a closed carriage drew up at the door of Madame +de la Motte Valois's lodging on the Place Dauphine at Versailles. Rohan +alighted, and went upstairs with a casket under his arm. + +Madame awaited him in a white-panelled, indifferently lighted room, to +which there was an alcove with glass doors. + +"You have brought the necklace?" + +"It is here," he replied, tapping the box with his gloved hand. + +"Her Majesty is expecting it to-night. Her messenger should arrive at +any moment. She will be pleased with Your Eminence." + +"That is all that I can desire," he answered gravely; and sat down in +answer to her invitation, the precious casket on his knees. + +Waiting thus, they talked desultorily for some moments. At last came +steps upon the stairs. + +"Quick! The alcove!" she exclaimed. "You must not be seen by Her +Majesty's messenger." + +Rohan, with ready understanding, a miracle of discretion, effaced +himself into the alcove, through the glass doors of which he could see +what passed. + +The door was opened by madame's maid with the announcement: + +"From the Queen." + +A tall, slender young man in black, the Queen's attendant of that other +night of gems--the night of the Grove of Venus--stepped quickly into the +room, bowed like a courtier to Madame de la Motte, and presented a note. + +Madame broke the seal, then begged the messenger to withdraw for a +moment. When he had gone, she turned to the Cardinal, who stood in the +doorway of the alcove. + +"That is Desclaux, Her Majesty's valet," she said; and held out to him +the note, which requested the delivery of the necklace to the bearer. + +A moment later the messenger was reintroduced to receive the casket from +the hands of Madame de la Motte. Within five minutes the Cardinal was in +his carriage again, driving happily back to Paris with his dreams of a +queen's gratitude and confidence. + +Two days later, meeting Bohmer at Versailles, the Cardinal suggested to +him that he should offer his thanks to the Queen for having purchased +the necklace. + +Bohmer sought an opportunity for this in vain. None offered. It was also +in vain that he waited to hear that the Queen had worn the necklace. +But he does not appear to have been anxious on that score. Moreover, +the Queen's abstention was credibly explained by Madame de la Motte to +Laporte with the statement that Her Majesty did not wish to wear the +necklace until it was paid for. + +With the same explanation she answered the Cardinal's inquiries in +the following July, when he returned from a three months' sojourn in +Strasbourg. + +And she took the opportunity to represent to him that one of the reasons +why the Queen could not yet consider the necklace quite her own was that +she found the price too high. + +"Indeed, she may be constrained to return it, after all, unless the +Bohmers are prepared to be reasonable." + +If His Eminence was a little dismayed by this, at least any nascent +uneasiness was quieted. He consented to see the jewellers in the matter, +and on July 10th--three weeks before the first instalment was due--he +presented himself at the Grand Balcon to convey the Queen's wishes to +the Bohmers. + +Bohmer scarcely troubled to prevent disgust from showing on his +keen, swarthy countenance. Had not his client been a queen and her +intermediary a cardinal, he would, no doubt, have afforded it full +expression. + +"The price agreed upon was already greatly below the value of the +necklace," he grumbled. "I should never have accepted it but for the +difficulties under which we have been placed by the purchase of the +stones--the money we owe and the interest we are forced to pay. A +further reduction is impossible." + +The handsome Cardinal was suave, courtly, regretful, but firm. Since +that was the case, there would be no alternative but to return the +necklace. + +Bohmer took fright. The annulment of the sale would bring him face to +face with ruin. Reluctantly, feeling that he was being imposed upon, he +reduced the price by two hundred thousand livres, and even consented to +write the Queen the following letter, whose epistolary grace suggests +the Cardinal's dictation: + +MADAME,--We are happy to hazard the thought that our submission with +zeal and respect to the last arrangement proposed constitutes a proof +of our devotion and obedience to the orders of Your Majesty. And we have +genuine satisfaction in thinking that the most beautiful set of diamonds +in existence will serve to adorn the greatest and best of queens. + +Now it happened that Bohmer was about to deliver personally to the Queen +some jewels with which the King was presenting her on the occasion of +the baptism of his nephew. He availed himself of that opportunity, two +days later, personally to hand his letter to Her Majesty. But chance +brought the Comptroller-General into the room before she had opened it, +and as a result the jeweller departed while the letter was still unread. + +Afterwards, in the presence of Madame de Campan, who relates the matter +in her memoirs, the Queen opened the note, pored over it a while, and +then, perhaps with vivid memories of Bohmer's threat of suicide: + +"Listen to what that madman Bohmer writes to me," she said, and read the +lines aloud. "You guessed the riddles in the 'Mercure' this morning. I +wonder could you guess me this one." + +And, with a half-contemptuous shrug, she held the sheet in the flame +of one of the tapers that stood alight on the table for the purpose of +sealing letters. + +"That man exists for my torment," she continued. "He has always some mad +notion in his head, and must always be visiting it upon me. When next +you see him, pray convince him how little I care for diamonds." + +And there the matter was dismissed. + +Days passed, and then a week before the instalment of 350,000 livres +was due, the Cardinal received a visit from Madame de la Motte on the +Queen's behalf. + +"Her Majesty," madame announced, "seems embarrassed about the +instalment. She does not wish to trouble you by writing about it. But +I have thought of a way by which you could render yourself agreeable to +her and, at the same time, set her mind at rest. Could you not raise a +loan for the amount?" + +Had not the Cardinal himself dictated to Bohmer a letter which Bohmer +himself had delivered to the Queen, he must inevitably have suspected by +now that all was not as it should be. But, satisfied as he was by that +circumstance, he addressed himself to the matter which Madame de la +Motte proposed. But, although Rohan was extraordinarily wealthy, he had +ever been correspondingly lavish. + +Moreover, to complicate matters, there had been the bankruptcy of his +nephew, the Prince de Guimenee, whose debts had amounted to some three +million livres. Characteristically, and for the sake of the family +honour, Rohan had taken the whole of this burden upon his own shoulders. +Hence his resources were in a crippled condition, and it was beyond his +power to advance so considerable a sum at such short notice. Nor did he +succeed in obtaining a loan within the little time at his disposal. + +His anxieties on this score were increased by a letter from the Queen +which Madame de la Motte brought him on July 30th, in which Her Majesty +wrote that the first instalment could not be paid until October 1st; but +that on that date a payment of seven hundred thousand livres--half of +the revised price--would unfailingly be made. Together with this letter, +Madame de la Motte handed him thirty thousand livres, interest on the +instalment due, with which to pacify the jewellers. + +But the jewellers were not so easily to be pacified. Bohmer, at the +end of his patience, definitely refused to grant the postponement or +to receive the thirty thousand livres other than as on account of the +instalment due. + +The Cardinal departed in vexation. Something must be done at once, +or his secret relations with the Queen would be disclosed, thus +precipitating a catastrophe and a scandal. He summoned Madame de la +Motte, flung her into a panic with his news and sent her away to see +what she could do. What she actually did would have surprised him. +Realizing that a crisis had been reached calling for bold measures, she +sent for Bassenge, the milder of the two partners. He came to the Rue +Neuve Saint-Gilles, protesting that he was being abused. + +"Abused?" quoth she, taking him up on the word. "Abused, do you say?" +She laughed sharply. "Say duped, my friend; for that is what has +happened to you. You are the victim of a swindle." + +Bassenge turned white; his prominent eyes bulged in his rather pasty +face. + +"What are you saying, madame?" His voice was husky. + +"The Queen's signature on the note in the Cardinal's possession is a +forgery." + +"A forgery! The Queen's signature? Oh, mon Dieu!" He stared at her, and +his knees began to tremble. "How do you know, madame?" + +"I have seen it," she answered. + +"But--but--" + +His nerveless limbs succumbing under him, he sank without ceremony to +a chair that was opportunely near him. With the same lack of ceremony, +mechanically, in a dazed manner, he mopped the sweat that stood in beads +on his brow, then raised his wig and mopped his head. + +"There is no need to waste emotion," said she composedly. "The Cardinal +de Rohan is very rich. You must look to him. He will pay you." + +"Will he?" + +Hope and doubt were blended in the question. + +"What else?" she asked. "Can you conceive that he will permit such a +scandal to burst about his name and the name of the Queen?" + +Bassenge saw light. The rights and wrongs of the case, and who might +be the guilty parties, were matters of very secondary importance. What +mattered was that the firm should recover the 1,600,000 livres for which +the necklace had been sold; and Bassenge was quick to attach full value +to the words of Madame de la Motte. + +Unfortunately for everybody concerned, including the jewellers +themselves, Bohmer's mind was less supple. Panic-stricken by Bassenge's +report, he was all for the direct method. There was no persuading him to +proceed cautiously, and to begin by visiting the Cardinal. He tore away +to Versailles at once, intent upon seeing the Queen. But the Queen, +as we know, had had enough of Bohmer. He had to content himself with +pouring his mixture of intercessions and demands into the ears of Madame +de Campan. + +"You have been swindled, Bohmer," said the Queen's lady promptly. "Her +Majesty never received the necklace." + +Bohmer would not be convinced. Disbelieving, and goaded to fury, he +returned to Bassenge. + +Bassenge, however, though perturbed, retained his calm. The Cardinal, +he insisted, was their security, and it was impossible to doubt that +the Cardinal would fulfil his obligations at all costs, rather than be +overwhelmed by a scandal. + +And this, no doubt, is what would have happened but for that hasty visit +of Bohmer's to Versailles. It ruined everything. As a result of it, +Bohmer was summoned to wait instantly upon the Queen in the mater of +some paste buckles. + +The Queen received the jeweller in private, and her greeting proved that +the paste buckles were a mere pretext. She demanded to know the meaning +of his words to Madame de Campan. + +Bohmer could not rid himself of the notion that he was being trifled +with. Had he not written and himself delivered to the Queen a letter +in which he thanked her for purchasing the necklace, and had not that +letter remained unanswered--a silent admission that the necklace was in +her hands? In his exasperation he became insolent. + +"The meaning, madame? The meaning is that I require payment for my +necklace, that the patience of my creditors is exhausted, and that +unless you order the money to be paid, I am a ruined man!" + +Marie Antoinette considered him in cold, imperious anger. + +"Are you daring to suggest that your necklace is in my possession?" + +Bohmer was white to the lips, his hands worked nervously. + +"Does Your Majesty deny it?" + +"You are insolent!" she exclaimed. "You will be good enough to answer +questions, not to ask them. Answer me, then. Do you suggest that I have +your necklace?" + +But a desperate man is not easily intimidated. + +"No, madame; I affirm it! It was the Countess of Valois who--" + +"Who is the Countess of Valois?" + +That sudden question, sharply uttered, was a sword of doubt through +the heart of Bohmer's confidence. He stared wide-eyed a moment at the +indignant lady before him, then collected himself, and made as plain a +tale as he could of the circumstances under which he had parted with +the necklace Madame de la Motte's intervention, the mediation of the +Cardinal de Rohan with Her Majesty's signed approval of the terms, and +the delivery of the necklace to His Eminence for transmission to the +Queen. + +Marie Antoinette listened in increasing horror and anger. A flush crept +into her pale cheeks. + +"You will prepare and send me a written statement of what you have just +told me," she said. "You have leave to go." + +That interview took place on August 9th. The 15th was the Feast of the +Assumption, and also the name-day of the Queen, therefore a gala day at +Court, bringing a concourse of nobility to Versailles. Mass was to be +celebrated in the royal chapel at ten o'clock, and the celebrant, as by +custom established for the occasion, was the Grand Almoner of France, +the Cardinal de Rohan. + +But at ten o'clock a meeting was being held in the King's cabinet, +composed of the King and Queen, the Baron de Breteuil, and the Keeper of +the Seals, Miromesnil. They were met, as they believed, to decide upon a +course of action in the matter of a diamond necklace. In reality, these +puppets in the hands of destiny were helping to decide the fate of the +French monarchy. + +The King, fat, heavy, and phlegmatic, sat in a gilded chair by an +ormolu-encrusted writing-table. His bovine eyes were troubled. Two +wrinkles of vexation puckered the flesh above his great nose. Beside, +and slightly behind him, stood the Queen, white and imperious, whilst +facing them stood Monsieur de Breteuil, reading aloud the statement +which Bohmer had drawn up. + +When he had done, there was a moment's utter silence. Then the King +spoke, his voice almost plaintive. + +"What is to be done, then? But what is to be done?" + +It was the Queen who answered him, harshly and angrily. + +"When the Roman purple and a princely title are but masks to cover a +swindler, there is only one thing to be done. This swindler must be +exposed and punished." + +"But," the King faltered, "we have not heard the Cardinal." + +"Can you think that Bohmer, that any man, would dare to lie upon such a +matter?" + +"But consider, madame, the Cardinal's rank and family," calmly +interposed the prudent Miromesnil; "consider the stir, the scandal that +must ensue if this matter is made public." + +But the obedient daughter of Marie Therese, hating Rohan at her mother's +bidding and for her mother's sake, was impatient of any such wise +considerations. + +"What shall the scandal signify to us?" she demanded. The King looked at +Breteuil. + +"And you, Baron? What is your view?" + +Breteuil, Rohan's mortal enemy, raised his shoulders and flipped the +document. + +"In the face of this, Sire, it seems to me that the only course is to +arrest the Cardinal." + +"You believe, then--" began the King, and checked, leaving the sentence +unfinished. + +But Breteuil had understood. + +"I know that the Cardinal must be pressed for money," he said. "Ever +prodigal in his expenditure, he is further saddled with the debts of the +Prince de Guimenee." + +"And you can believe," the King cried, "that a Prince of the House of +Rohan, however pressed for money, could--Oh, it is unimaginable!" + +"Yet has he not stolen my name?" the Queen cut in. "Is he not proven a +common, stupid forger?" + +"We have not heard him," the King reminded her gently. + +"And His Eminence might be able to explain," ventured Miromesnil. "It +were certainly prudent to give him the opportunity." + +Slowly the King nodded his great, powdered head. "Go and find him. Bring +him at once!" he bade Breteuil; and Breteuil bowed and departed. + +Very soon he returned, and he held the door whilst the handsome +Cardinal, little dreaming what lay before him, serene and calm, a +commanding figure in his cassock of scarlet watered silk, rustled +forward into the royal presence, and so came face to face with the Queen +for the first time since that romantic night a year ago in the Grove of +Venus. + +Abruptly the King launched his thunderbolt. + +"Cousin," he asked, "what purchase is this of a diamond necklace that +you are said to have made in the Queen's name?" + +King and Cardinal looked into each other's eyes, the King's narrowing, +the Cardinal's dilating, the King leaning forward in his chair, elbows +on the table, the Cardinal standing tense and suddenly rigid. + +Slowly the colour ebbed from Rohan's face, leaving it deathly pale. His +eyes sought the Queen, and found her contemptuous glance, her curling +lip. Then at last his handsome head sank a little forward. + +"Sire," he said unsteadily, "I see that I have been duped. But I have +duped nobody." + +"You have no reason to be troubled, then. You need but to explain." + +Explain! That was precisely what he could not do. Besides, what was +the nature of the explanation demanded of him? Whilst he stood stricken +there, it was the Queen who solved this question. + +"If, indeed, you have been duped," she said scornfully, her colour high, +her eyes like points of steel, "you have been self-duped. But even then +it is beyond belief that self-deception could have urged you to the +lengths of passing yourself off as my intermediary--you, who should know +yourself to be the last man in France I should employ, you to whom I +have not spoken once in eight years." Tears of anger glistened in her +eyes; her voice shrilled up. "And yet, since you have not denied it, +since you put forward this pitiful plea that you have been duped, we +must believe the unbelievable." + +Thus at a blow she shattered the fond hopes he had been cherishing ever +since the night of gems--of gems, forsooth!--in the Grove of Venus; thus +she laid his ambition in ruins about him, and left the man himself half +stunned. + +Observing his disorder, the ponderous but kindly monarch rose. + +"Come, my cousin," he said more gently, "collect yourself. Sit down here +and write what you may have to say in answer." + +And with that he passed into the library beyond, accompanied by the +Queen and the two Ministers. + +Alone, Rohan staggered forward and sank nervelessly into the chair. He +took up a pen, pondered a moment, and began to write. But he did not +yet see clear. He could not yet grasp the extent to which he had been +deceived, could not yet believe that those treasured notes from Marie +Antoinette were forgeries, that it was not the Queen who had met him in +the Grove of Venus and given him the rose whose faded petals kept those +letters company in a portfolio of red morocco. But at least it was clear +to him that, for the sake of honour--the Queen's honour--he must assume +it so; and in that assumption he now penned his statement. + +When it was completed, himself he bore it to the King in the library. + +Louis read it with frowning brows; then passed it to the Queen. + +"Have you the necklace now?" he asked Rohan. + +"Sir, I left it in the hands of this woman Valois." + +"Where is this woman?" + +"I do not know, Sire." + +"And the letter of authority bearing the Queen's signature, which the +jewellers say you presented to them--where is that?" + +"I have it, Sire. I will place it before you. It is only now that I +realize that it is a forgery." + +"Only now!" exclaimed the Queen in scorn. + +"Her Majesty's name has been compromised," said the King sternly. "It +must be cleared. As King and as husband my duty is clear. Your Eminence +must submit to arrest." + +Rohan fell back a step in stupefaction. For disgrace and dismissal he +was prepared, but not for this. + +"Arrest?" he whispered. "Ah, wait, Sire. The publicity! The scandal! +Think of that! As for the necklace, I will pay for it myself, and so pay +for my credulous folly. I beseech you, Sire, to let the matter end here. +I implore it for my own sake, for the sake of the Prince de Soubise +and the name of Rohan, which would be smirched unjustly and to no good +purpose." + +He spoke with warmth and force; and, without adding more, yet conveyed +an impression that much more could be said for the course he urged. + +The King hesitated, considering. Noting this, the prudent, far-seeing +Miromesnil ventured to develop the arguments at which Rohan had hinted, +laying stress upon the desirability of avoiding scandal. + +Louis was nodding, convinced, when Marie Antoinette, unable longer to +contain her rancour, broke into opposition of those prudent measures. + +"This hideous affair must be disclosed," she insisted. "It is due to me +that it should publicly be set right. The Cardinal shall tell the world +how he came to suppose that, not having spoken to him for eight years, +I could have wished to make use of his services in the purchase of this +necklace." + +She was in tears, and her weak, easily swayed husband accounted her +justified in her demand. And so, to the great consternation of all the +world, Prince Louis de Rohan was arrested like a common thief. + +A foolish, indiscreet, short-sighted woman had allowed her rancour to +override all other considerations--careless of consequences, careless of +injustice so that her resentment, glutted by her hatred of the Cardinal, +should be gratified. The ungenerous act was terribly to recoil upon her. +In tears and blood was she to expiate her lack of charity; very soon she +was to reap its bitter fruits. + +Saint-Just, a very prominent counsellor of the Parliament, one of the +most advanced apostles of the new ideas that were to find full fruition +in the Revolution, expressed the popular feeling in the matter. + +"Great and joyful affair! A cardinal and a queen implicated in a forgery +and a swindle! Filth on the crosier and the sceptre! What a triumph for +the ideas of liberty!" + +At the trial that followed before Parliament, Madame de la Motte, a +man named Reteaux de Villette--who had forged the Queen's hand and +impersonated Desclaux and a Mademoiselle d'Oliva--who had used her +striking resemblance to Marie Antoinette to impersonate the Queen in the +Grove of Venus were found guilty and sentenced. But the necklace was not +recovered. It had been broken up, and some of the diamonds were already +sold; others were being sold in London by Captain de la Motte, who had +gone thither for the purpose, and who prudently remained there. + +The Cardinal was acquitted, amid intense public joy and acclamation, +which must have been gall and wormwood to the Queen. His powerful +family, the clergy of France, and the very people, with whom he had ever +been popular, had all laboured strenuously to vindicate him. And thus +it befell that the one man the Queen had aimed at crushing was the only +person connected with the affair who came out of it unhurt. The Queen's +animus against the Cardinal aroused against her the animus of his +friends of all classes. Appalling libels of her were circulated +throughout Europe. It was thought and argued that she was more deeply +implicated in the swindle than had transpired, that Madame de la Motte +was a scapegoat, that the Queen should have stood her trial with the +others, and that she was saved only by the royalty that hedged her. + +Conceive what a weapon this placed in the hands of the men of the new +ideas of liberty--men who were bent on proving the corruption of a +system they sought to destroy! + +Marie Antoinette should have foreseen something of this. She might have +done so had not her hatred blinded her, had she been less intent upon +seizing the opportunity at all costs to make Rohan pay for his barbed +witticism upon her mother. She might have been spared much had she but +spared Rohan when the chance was hers. As it was, the malevolent echoes +of the affair and of Saint-Just's exultation were never out of her +ears. They followed her to her trial eight years later before the +revolutionary tribunal. They followed her to the very scaffold, of which +they had undoubtedly supplied a plank. + + + + + + +VIII, THE NIGHT OF TERROR--The Drownings At Nantes Under Carrier + +The Revolutionary Committee of the city of Nantes, reinforced by some +of the administrators of the district and a few members of the People's +Society, sat in the noble hall of the Cour des Comptes, which +still retained much of its pre-republican sumptuousness. They sat +expectantly--Goullin, the attorney, president of the committee, a +frail, elegant valetudinarian, fierily eloquent; Grandmaison, the +fencing-master, who once had been a gentleman, fierce of eye and +inflamed of countenance; Minee, the sometime bishop, now departmental +president; Pierre Chaux, the bankrupt merchant; the sans-culotte Forget, +of the People's Society, an unclean, ill-kempt ruffian; and some thirty +others called like these from every walk of life. + +Lamps were lighted, and under their yellow glare the huddled +company--for the month was December, and the air of the vast room was +chill and dank--looked anxious and ill at ease. + +Suddenly the doors were thrown open by an usher; and his voice rang loud +in announcement-- + +"The Citizen Representative Carrier." + +The great man came in, stepping quickly. Of middle height, very frail +and delicate, his clay-colored face was long and thin, with arched +eyebrows, a high nose, and a loose, coarse mouth. His deeply sunken dark +eyes glared fiercely, and wisps of dead-black hair, which had escaped +the confining ribbon of his queue, hung about his livid brow. He was +wrapped in a riding-coat of bottle-green, heavily lined with fur, the +skirts reaching down to the tops of his Hessian boots, and the enormous +turned-up collar almost touching the brim of his round hat. Under the +coat his waist was girt with the tricolour of office, and there were +gold rings in his ears. + +Such at the age of five-and-thirty was Jean Baptiste Carrier, +Representative of the Convention with the Army of the West, the attorney +who once had been intended by devout parents for the priesthood. He had +been a month in Nantes, sent thither to purge the body politic. + +He reached a chair placed in the focus of the gathering, which sat in a +semicircle. Standing by it, one of his lean hands resting upon the back, +he surveyed them, disgust in his glance, a sneer curling his lip, so +terrible and brutal of aspect despite his frailness that more than one +of those stout fellows quailed now before him. + +Suddenly he broke into torrential speech, his voice shrill and harsh: + +"I do not know by what fatality it happens, but happen it does, that +during the month that I have been in Nantes you have never ceased to +give me reason to complain of you. I have summoned you to meet me here +that you may justify yourselves, if you can, for your ineptitude!" And +he flung himself into the chair, drawing his fur-lined coat about him. +"Let me hear from you!" he snapped. + +Minee, the unfrocked bishop, preserving still a certain episcopal +portliness of figure, a certain episcopal oiliness of speech, +respectfully implored the representative to be more precise. + +The invitation flung him into a passion. His irascibility, indeed, +deserved to become a byword. + +"Name of a name!" he shrilled, his sunken eyes ablaze, his face +convulsed. "Is there a thing I can mention in this filthy city of yours +that is not wrong? Everything is wrong! You have failed in your duty to +provide adequately for the army of Vendee. Angers has fallen, and now +the brigands are threatening Nantes itself. There is abject want in the +city, disease is rampant; people are dying of hunger in the streets and +of typhus in the prisons. And sacre nom!--you ask me to be precise! I'll +be precise in telling you where lies the fault. It lies in your lousy +administration. Do you call yourselves administrators? You--" He became +unprintable. "I have come here to shake you out of your torpor, and +by--I'll shake you out of it or I'll have the blasted heads off the lot +of you." + +They shivered with chill fear under the wild glare of his sunken eyes. + +"Well?" he barked after a long pause. "Are you all dumb as well as +idiots?" + +It was the ruffian Forget who had the courage to answer him: + +"I have told the People's Society that if the machine works badly it is +because the Citizen Carrier refuses to consult with the administration." + +"You told them that, did you, you--liar?" screeched Carrier. "Am I not +here now to consult with you? And should I not have come before had you +suggested it? Instead, you have waited until, of my own accord, I should +come to tell you that your administration is ruining Nantes." + +Goullin, the eloquent and elegant Goullin, rose to soothe him: + +"Citizen Representative, we admit the truth of all that you have said. +There has been a misunderstanding. We could not take it upon ourselves +to summon the august representative of the Sacred People. I We have +awaited your own good pleasure, and now that you have made this +manifest, there is no reason why the machine should not work +effectively. The evils of which you speak exist, alas! But they are not +so deeply rooted that, working under your guidance and advice, we cannot +uproot them, rendering the soil fertile once more of good under the +beneficent fertilizing showers of liberty." + +Mollified, Carrier grunted approval. + +"That is well said, Citizen Goullin. The fertilizer needed by the +soil is blood--the bad blood of aristocrats and federalists, and I +can promise you, in the name of the august people, that it shall be +abundantly provided." + +The assembly broke into applause, and his vanity melted to it. He stood +up, expressed his gratification at being so completely understood, +opened his arms, and invited the departmental president, Minee, to come +down and receive the kiss of brotherhood. + +Thereafter they passed to the consideration of measures of improvement, +of measures to combat famine and disease. In Carrier's view there was +only one way of accomplishing this--the number of mouths to be fed must +be reduced, the diseased must be eliminated. It was the direct, the +radical, the heroic method. + +That very day six prisoners in Le Bouffay had been sentenced to death +for attempting to escape. + +"How do we know," he asked, "that those six include all the guilty? How +do we know that all in Le Bouffay do not share the guilt? The prisoners +are riddled with disease, which spreads to the good patriots of Nantes; +they eat bread, which is scarce, whilst good patriots starve. We must +have the heads off all those blasted swine!" He took fire at his own +suggestion. "Aye, that would be a useful measure. We'll deal with it at +once. Let some one fetch the President of the Revolutionary Tribunal." + +He was fetched--a man of good family and a lawyer, named Francois +Phelippes. + +"Citizen President," Carrier greeted him, "the administration of Nantes +has been considering an important measure. To-day you sentenced to +death six prisoners in Le Bouffay for attempting to escape. You are to +postpone execution so as to include all the Bouffay prisoners in the +sentence." + +Although an ardent revolutionary, Phelippes was a logically minded +man with a lawyer's reverence for the sacredness of legal form. This +command, issued with such cynical coldness, and repudiated by none +of those present, seemed to him as grotesque and ridiculous as it was +horrible. + +"But that is impossible, Citizen Representative," said he. + +"Impossible!" snarled Carrier. "A fool's word. The administration +desires you to understand that it is not impossible. The sacred will of +the august people--" + +Phelippes interrupted him without ceremony. + +"There is no power in France that can countermand the execution of a +sentence of the law." + +"No--no power!" + +Carrier's loose mouth fell open. He was too amazed to be angry. + +"Moreover," Phelippes pursued calmly, "there is the fact that all the +other prisoners in Le Bouffay are innocent of the offence for which the +six are to die." + +"What has that to do with it?" roared Carrier. "Last year I rode a +she-ass that could argue better than you! In the name of--, what has +that to do with it?" + +But there were members of the assembly who thought with Phelippes, and +who, whilst lacking the courage to express themselves, yet found courage +to support another who so boldly expressed them. + +Carrier sprang up quivering with rage before that opposition. "It seems +to me," he snarled, "that there are more than the scoundrels in Le +Bouffay who need to be shortened by a head for the good of the nation. +I tell you that you are slaying the commonweal by your slowness and +circumspection. Let all the scoundrels perish!" + +A handsome, vicious youngster named Robin made chorus. + +"Patriots are without bread! It is fitting that the scoundrels should +die, and not eat the bread of starving patriots." + +Carrier shook his fist at the assembly. + +"You hear, you--! I cannot pardon whom the law condemns." + +It was an unfortunate word, and Phelippes fastened on it. + +"That is the truth, Citizen Representative," said Phelippes. "And as for +the prisoners in Le Bouffay, you will wait until the law condemns them." + +And without staying to hear more, he departed as firmly as he had come, +indifferent to the sudden uproar. + +When he had gone, the Representative flung himself into his chair again, +biting his lip. + +"There goes a fellow who will find his way to the guillotine in time," +he growled. + +But he was glad to be rid of him, and would not have him brought +back. He saw how the opposition of Phelippes had stiffened the weaker +opposition of some of those in the assembly. If he was to have his +way he would contrive better without the legal-minded President of the +Revolutionary Tribunal. And his way he had in the end, though not +until he had stormed and cursed and reviled the few who dared to offer +remonstrances to his plan of wholesale slaughter. + +When at last he took his departure, it was agreed that the assembly +should proceed to elect a jury which was to undertake the duty of +drawing up immediately a list of those confined in the prisons of +Nantes. This list they were to deliver when ready to the committee, +which would know how to proceed, for Carrier had made his meaning +perfectly clear. The first salutary measure necessary to combat the +evils besetting the city was to wipe out at once the inmates of all the +prisons in Nantes. + +In the chill December dawn of the next day the committee--which had sat +all night under the presidency of Goullin forwarded a list of some +five hundred prisoners to General Boivin, the commandant of the city of +Nantes, together with an order to collect them without a moment's delay, +take them to L'Eperonniere, and there have them shot. + +But Boivin was a soldier, and a soldier is not a sans-culotte. He took +the order to Phelippes, with the announcement that he had no intention +of obeying it. Phelippes, to Boivin's amazement, agreed with him. +He sent the order back to the committee, denouncing it as flagrantly +illegal, and reminding them that it was illegal to remove any prisoner, +no matter by whose order, without such an order as might follow upon a +decision of the Tribunal. + +The committee, intimidated by this firmness on the part of the President +of the Revolutionary Tribunal, dared not insist, and there the matter +remained. + +When Carrier learnt of it the things he said were less than ever fit for +publication. He raved like a madman at the very thought that a quibbling +lawyer should stand in the very path of him, the august representative +of the Sacred People. + +It had happened that fifty-three priests, who had been brought to Nantes +a few days before, were waiting in the sheds of the entrepot for prison +accommodation, so that their names did not yet appear upon any of the +prison registers. As a solatium to his wounded feelings, he ordered his +friends of the Marat Company to get rid of them. + +Lamberty, the leader of the Marats, asked him how it should be done. + +"How?" he croaked. "Not so much mystery, my friend. Fling the swine into +the water, and so let's be rid of them. There will be plenty of their +kind left in France." + +But he seems to have explained himself further, and what precisely were +his orders, and how they were obeyed, transpires from a letter which +he wrote to the Convention, stating that those fifty-three wretched +priests, "being confined in a boat on the Loire, were last night +swallowed up by the river." And he added the apostrophe, "What a +revolutionary torrent is the Loire!" + +The Convention had no illusions as to his real meaning; and when Carrier +heard that his letter had been applauded by the National Assembly, he +felt himself encouraged to break down all barriers of mere legality +that might obstruct his path. And, after all, what the Revolutionary +Committee as a body--intimidated by Phelippes--dared not do could be +done by his faithful and less punctilious friends of the Marat Company. + +This Marat Company, the police of the Revolutionary Committee, enrolled +from the scourings of Nantes' sans-culottism, and captained by a ruffian +named Fleury, had been called into being by Carrier himself with the +assistance of Goullin. + +On the night of the 24th Frimaire of the year III (December 14, 1793, +old style), which was a Saturday, Fleury mustered some thirty of his +men, and took them to the Cour des Comptes, where they were awaited by +Goullin, Bachelier, Grandmaison, and some other members of the committee +entirely devoted to Carrier. From these the Marats received their formal +instructions. + +"Plague," Goullin informed them, "is raging in the gaols, and its +ravages must be arrested. You will therefore proceed this evening to the +prison of Le Bouffay in order to take over the prisoners whom you will +march up to the Quay La Fosse, whence they will be shipped to Belle +Isle." + +In a cell of that sordid old building known as Le Bouffay lay a +cocassier, an egg and poultry dealer, arrested some three years before +upon a charge of having stolen a horse, and since forgotten. His own +version was that a person of whom he knew very little had entrusted +him with the sale of the stolen animal in possession of which he was +discovered. + +The story sounds familiar; it is the sort of story that must have done +duty many times; and it is probable that the cocassier was no better +than he should have been. Nevertheless Fate selected him to be one of +her unconscious instruments. His name was Leroy, and we have his own +word for it that he was a staunch patriot. The horse business was +certainly in the best vein of sans-culottism. + +Leroy was awakened about ten o'clock that night by sounds that were very +unusual in that sombre, sepulchral prison. They were sounds of unbridled +revelry--snatches of ribald song, bursts of coarse, reverberating +laughter and they proceeded, as it seemed to him, from the courtyard and +the porter's lodge. + +He crawled from the dank straw which served him for a bed, and +approached the door to listen. Clearly the porter Laqueze was +entertaining friends and making unusually merry. It was also to be +gathered that Laqueze's friends were getting very drunk. What the devil +did it mean? + +His curiosity was soon to be very fully gratified. Came heavy steps up +the stone staircase, the clatter of sabots, the clank of weapons, and +through the grille of his door an increasing light began to beat. + +Some one was singing the "Carmagnole" in drunken, discordant tones. +Keys rattled, bolts were drawn; doors were being flung open. The noise +increased. Above the general din he heard the detestable voice of the +turnkey. + +"Come and see my birds in their cages. Come and see my pretty birds." + +Leroy began to have an uneasy premonition that the merrymaking portended +sinister things. + +"Get up, all of you!" bawled the turnkey. "Up and pack your traps. +You're to go on a voyage. No laggards, now. Up with you!" + +The door of Leroy's cell was thrown open in its turn, and he found +himself confronting a group of drunken ruffians. One of these--a +red-capped giant with long, black mustaches and a bundle of ropes over +one arm suddenly pounced upon him. The cocassier was an active, vigorous +young man. But, actuated by fear and discretion, he permitted himself +tamely to be led away. + +Along the stone-flagged corridor he went, and on every hand beheld his +fellow-prisoners in the same plight, being similarly dragged from their +cells and similarly hurried below. At the head of the stairs one fellow, +perfectly drunk, was holding a list, hiccupping over names which he +garbled ludicrously as he called them out. He was lighted in his task by +a candle held by another who was no less drunk. The swaying pair seemed +to inter-support one another grotesquely. + +Leroy suffered himself to be led down the stairs, and so came to the +porter's lodge, where he beheld a half-dozen Marats assembled round a +table, with bumpers of wine before them, bawling, singing, cursing, and +cracking lewd jests at the expense of each prisoner as he entered. The +place was in a litter. A lamp had been smashed, and there was a puddle +of wine on the floor from a bottle that had been knocked over. On a +bench against the wall were ranged a number of prisoners, others lay +huddled on the floor, and all of them were pinioned. + +Two or three of the Marats lurched up to Leroy, and ran their hands +over him, turning out his pockets, and cursing him foully for their +emptiness. He saw the same office performed upon others, and saw them +stripped of money, pocket-books, watches, rings, buckles, and whatever +else of value they happened to possess. One man, a priest, was even +deprived of his shoes by a ruffian who was in want of foot-gear. + +As they were pinioning his wrists, Leroy looked up. He confesses that he +was scared. + +"What is this for?" he asked. "Does it mean death?" + +With an oath he was bidden to ask no questions. + +"If I die," he assured them, "you will be killing a good republican." + +A tall man with an inflamed countenance and fierce, black eyes, that +were somewhat vitreous, now leered down upon him. + +"You babbling fool! It's not your life, it's your property we want." + +This was Grandmaison, the fencing-master, who once had been a gentleman. +He had been supping with Carrier, and he had only just arrived at Le +Bouffay, accompanied by Goullin. He found the work behind time, and told +them so. + +"Leave that fellow now, Jolly. He's fast enough. Up and fetch the rest. +It's time to be going... time to be going." + +Flung aside now that he was pinioned, Leroy sat down on the floor and +looked about him. Near him an elderly man was begging for a cup of +water. They greeted the prayer with jeering laughter. + +"Water! By Sainte Guillotine, he asks for water!" The drunken +sans-culottes were intensely amused. "Patience, my friend--patience, and +you shall drink your fill. You shall drink from the great cup." + +Soon the porter's lodge was crowded with prisoners, and they were +overflowing into the passage. + +Came Grandmaison cursing and swearing at the sluggishness of the Marats, +reminding them--as he had been reminding them for the last hour--that it +was time to be off, that the tide was on the ebb. + +Stimulated by him, Jolly--the red-capped giant with the black +mustaches--and some others of the Marat Company, set themselves to tie +the prisoners into chains of twenty, further to ensure against +possible evasion. They were driven into the chilly courtyard, and there +Grandmaison, followed by a fellow with a lantern, passed along the ranks +counting them. + +The result infuriated him. + +"A hundred and five!" he roared, and swore horribly. "You have been here +nearly five hours, and in all that time you have managed to truss up +only a hundred and five. Are we never to get through with it? I tell you +the tide is ebbing. It is time to be off." + +Laqueze, the porter of Le Bouffay, with whose food and wine those +myrmidons of the committee had made so disgracefully free, came to +assure him that he had all who were in the prison. + +"All?" cried Grandmaison, aghast. "But according to the list there +should have been nearer two hundred." And he raised his voice to call: +"Goullin! Hola, Goullin! Where the devil is Goullin?" + +"The list," Laqueze told him, "was drawn up from the register. But you +have not noted that many have died since they came--we have had the +fever here--and that a few are now in hospital." + +"In hospital! Bah! Go up, some of you, and fetch them. We are taking +them somewhere where they will be cured." And then he hailed the elegant +Goullin, who came up wrapped in a cloak. "Here's a fine bathing-party!" +he grumbled. "A rare hundred of these swine!" + +Goullin turned to Laqueze. + +"What have you done with the fifteen brigands I sent you this evening?" + +"But they only reached Nantes to-day," said Laqueze, who understood +nothing of these extraordinary proceedings. "They have not yet been +registered, not even examined." + +"I asked you what you have done with them?" snapped Goullin. + +"They are upstairs." + +"Then fetch them. They are as good as any others." + +With these, and a dozen or so dragged from sick-beds, the total was made +up to about a hundred and thirty. + +The Marats, further reinforced now by half a company of National Guards, +set out from the prison towards five o'clock in the morning; urging +their victims along with blows and curses. + +Our cocassier found himself bound wrist to wrist with a young Capuchin +brother, who stumbled along in patient resignation, his head bowed, his +lips moving as if he were in prayer. + +"Can you guess what they are going to do with us?" murmured Leroy. + +He caught the faint gleam of the Capuchin's eyes in the gloom. + +"I do not know, brother. Commend yourself to God, and so be prepared for +whatever may befall." + +The answer was not very comforting to a man of Leroy's temperament. He +stumbled on, and they came now upon the Place du Bouffay, where the +red guillotine loomed in ghostly outline, and headed towards the Quai +Tourville. Thence they were marched by the river the whole length of the +Quai La Fosse. Fear spreading amongst them, some clamours were raised, +to be instantly silenced by blows and assurances that they were to be +shipped to Belle Isle, where they were to be set to work to build a +fort. + +The cocassier thought this likely enough, and found it more comforting +than saying his prayers--a trick which he had long since lost. + +As they defiled along the quays, an occasional window was thrown up, and +an inquisitive head protruded, to be almost instantly withdrawn again. + +On the Cale Robin at last they were herded into a shed which opened on +to the water. Here they found a large lighter alongside, and they beheld +in the lantern-light the silhouettes of a half-dozen shipwrights busily +at work upon it, whilst the place rang with the blows of hammers and the +scream of saws. + +Some of those nearest the barge saw what was being done. Two great +ports were being opened in the vessel's side, and over one of these thus +opened the shipwrights were nailing planks. They observed that these +ports, which remained above the water-line now that the barge was empty, +would be well below it once she were laden, and conceiving that they +perceived at last the inhuman fate awaiting them, their terror rose +again. They remembered snatches of conversation and grim jests uttered +by the Marats in Le Bouffay, which suddenly became clear, and the alarm +spreading amongst them, they writhed and clamoured, screamed for mercy, +cursed and raved. + +Blows were showered upon them. In vain was it sought to quiet them again +with that fable of a fort to be constructed on Belle Isle. One of them +in a frenzy of despair tore himself free of his bonds, profited by a +moment of confusion, and vanished so thoroughly that Grandmaison and +his men lost a quarter of an hour seeking him in vain, and would have +so spent the remainder of the night but for a sharp word from a man in +a greatcoat and a round hat who stood looking on in conversation with +Goullin. + +"Get on, man! Never mind that one! We'll have him later. It will be +daylight soon. You've wasted time enough already." + +It was Carrier. + +He had come in person to see the execution of his orders, and at his +command Grandmaison now proceeded to the loading. A ladder was set +against the side of the lighter by which the prisoners were to descend. +The cords binding them in chains were now severed, and they were left +pinioned only by the wrists. They were ordered to embark. But as +they were slow to obey, and as some, indeed, hung back wailing and +interceding, he and Jolly took them by their collars, thrust them to the +edge, and bundled them neck and crop down into the hold, recking nothing +of broken limbs. Finding this method of embarkation more expeditious, +the use of the ladder was neglected thenceforth. + +Among the last to be thus flung aboard was our cocassier Leroy. He fell +soft upon a heaving, writhing mass of humanity, which only gradually +shook down and sorted itself out on the bottom of the lighter when the +hatches overhead were being nailed down. Yet by an odd chance the young +Capuchin and Leroy, who had been companions in the chain, were not +separated even now. Amid the human welter in that agitated place of +darkness, the cries and wails that rang around him, Leroy recognized the +voice of the young friar exhorting them to prayer. + +They were in the stern of the vessel, against one of the sides, and +Leroy, who still kept a grip on the wits by which he had lived, bade the +Capuchin hold up his wrists. Then he went nosing like a dog, until at +last he found them, and his strong teeth fastened upon the cord that +bound them, and began with infinite patience to gnaw it through. + +Meanwhile that floating coffin had left its moorings and was gliding +with the stream. On the hatches sat Grandmaison, with Jolly and two +other Marats, howling the "Carmagnole" to drown the cries of the +wretches underneath, and beating time with their feet upon the deck. + +Leroy's teeth worked on like a rat's until at last the cord was severed. +Then, lest they should be parted in the general heaving and shifting of +that human mass, those teeth of his fastened upon the Capuchin's sleeve. + +"Take hold of me!" he commanded as distinctly as he could; and the +Capuchin gratefully obeyed. "Now untie my wrists!" + +The Capuchin's hands slid along Leroy's arms until they found his hands, +and there his fingers grew busy, groping at the knots. It was no easy +matter to untie them in the dark, guided by sense of touch alone. But +the friar was persistent and patient, and in the end the last knot ran +loose, and our cocassier was unpinioned. + +It comforted him out of all proportion to the advantage. At least his +hands were free for any emergency that might offer. That he depended in +such a situation, and with no illusions as to what was to happen, upon +emergency, shows how tenacious he was of hope. + +He had been released not a moment too soon. Overhead, Grandmaison and +his men were no longer singing. They were moving about. Something bumped +against the side of the vessel, near the bow, obviously a boat, and +voices came up from below the level of the deck. Then the lighter +shuddered under a great blow upon the planks of the forecastle port. +The cries in the hold redoubled. Panting, cursing, wailing men hurtled +against Leroy, and almost crushed him for a moment under their weight as +the vessel heaved to starboard. Came a succession of blows, not only on +the port in the bow, but also on that astern. There was a cracking and +rending of timbers, and the water rushed in. + +Then the happenings in that black darkness became indescribably +horrible. In their frenzy not a few had torn themselves free of their +bonds. These hurled themselves towards the open ports through which the +water was pouring. They tore at the planks with desperate, lacerated +hands. Some got their arms through, seeking convulsively to widen the +openings and so to gain an egress. But outside in the shipwrights' boat +stood Grandmaison, the fencing-master, brandishing a butcher's sword. + +With derision and foul objurgations he slashed at protruding arms and +hands, thrust his sword again and again through the port into that +close-packed, weltering mass, until at last the shipwrights backed away +the boat to escape the suction of the sinking lighter. + +The vessel, with its doomed freight of a hundred and thirty human +lives, settled down slowly by the head, and the wailing and cursing +was suddenly silenced as the icy waters of the Loire eddied over it and +raced on. + +Caught in the swirl of water, Leroy had been carried up against the deck +of the lighter. Instinctively he had clutched at a crossbeam. The water +raced over his head, and then, to his surprise, receded, beat up once or +twice as the lighter grounded, and finally settled on a level with his +shoulders. + +He was quick to realize what had happened. The lighter had gone down by +the head on a shallow. Her stern remained slightly protruding, so that +in that part of her between the level of the water and the deck there +was a clear space of perhaps a foot or a foot and a half. Yet of the +hundred and thirty doomed wretches on board he was the only one who had +profited by this extraordinary chance. + +Leroy hung on there; and thereafter for two hours, to use his own +expression, he floated upon corpses. A man of less vigorous mettle, +moral and physical, could never have withstood the ordeal of a two +hours' immersion in the ice-cold water of that December morning. Leroy +clung on, and hoped. I have said that he was tenacious of hope. And soon +after daybreak he was justified of his confidence in his luck. As the +first livid gleams of light began to suffuse the water in which he +floated, a creaking of rowlocks and a sound of voices reached his ears. +A boat was passing down the river. + +Leroy shouted, and his voice rang hollow and sepulchral on the morning +stillness. The creak of oars ceased abruptly. He shouted again, and was +answered. The oars worked now at twice their former speed. The boat was +alongside. Blows of a grapnel tore at the planking of the deck until +there was a hole big enough to admit the passage of his body. + +He looked through the faint mist which he had feared never to see again, +heaved himself up with what remained him of strength until his breast +was on a level with the deck, and beheld two men in a boat. + +But, exhausted by the effort, his numbed limbs refused to support him. +He sank back, and went overhead, fearing now, indeed, that help had +arrived too late. But as he struggled to the surface the bight of a rope +smacked the water within the hold. Convulsively he clutched it, wound it +about one arm, and bade them haul. + +Thus they dragged him out and aboard their own craft, and put him ashore +at the nearest point willing out of humanity to do so much, but daring +to do no more when he had told them how he came where they had found +him. + +Half naked, numbed through and through, with chattering teeth and +failing limbs, Leroy staggered into the guard-house at Chantenay. +Soldiers of the Blues stripped him of his sodden rags, wrapped him in a +blanket, thawed him outwardly before a fire and inwardly with gruel, and +then invited him to give an account of himself. + +The story of the horse will have led you to suppose him a ready liar. +He drew now upon that gift of his, represented himself as a mariner +from Montoir, and told a harrowing tale of shipwreck. Unfortunately, he +overdid it. There was present a fellow who knew something of the sea, +and something of Montoir, to whom Leroy's tale did not ring quite true. +To rid themselves of responsibility, the soldiers carried him before the +Revolutionary Committee of Nantes. + +Even here all might have gone well with him, since there was no member +of that body with seacraft to penetrate his imposture. But as +ill-chance would have it, one of the members sitting that day was the +black-mustached sans-culotte Jolly, the very man who had dragged Leroy +out of his cell last night and tied him up. + +At sight of him Jolly's eyes bulged in his head. + +"Where the devil have you come from?" he greeted him thunderously. + +Leroy quailed. Jolly's associates stared. But Jolly explained to them: + +"He was of last night's bathing party. And he has the impudence to come +before us like this. Take him away and shove him back into the water." + +But Bachelier, a man who, next to the President Goullin, exerted the +greatest influence in the committee, was gifted with a sense of humour +worthy of the Revolution. He went off into peals of laughter as he +surveyed the crestfallen cocassier, and, perhaps because Leroy's +situation amused him, he was disposed to be humane. + +"No, no!" he said. "Take him back to Le Bouffay for the present. Let the +Tribunal deal with him." + +So back to Le Bouffay went Leroy, back to his dungeon, his fetid straw +and his bread and water, there to be forgotten again, as he had been +forgotten before, until Fate should need him. + +It is to him that we owe most of the materials from which we are able +to reconstruct in detail that first of Carrier's drownings on a grand +scale, conceived as an expeditious means of ridding the city of +useless mouths, of easing the straitened circumstances resulting from +misgovernment. + +Very soon it was followed by others, and, custom increasing Carrier's +audacity, these drownings--there were in all some twenty-three +noyades--ceased to be conducted in the secrecy of the night, or to be +confined to men. They were made presently to include women--of whom at +one drowning alone, in Novose, three hundred perished under the most +revolting circumstances--and even little children. Carrier himself +admitted that during the three months of his rule some three thousand +victims visited the national bathing-place, whilst other, and no doubt +more veracious, accounts treble that number of those who received the +National Baptism. + +Soon these wholesale drownings had become an institution, a sort of +national spectacle that Carrier and his committee felt themselves in +duty bound to provide. + +But at length a point was reached beyond which it seemed difficult to +continue them. So expeditious was the measure, that soon the obvious +material was exhausted. The prisons were empty. Yet habits, once +contracted, are not easily relinquished. Carrier would be looking +elsewhere for material, and there was no saying where he might look, +or who would be safe. Soon the committee heard a rumour that the +Representative intended to depose it and to appoint a new one, whereupon +many of its members, who were conscious of lukewarmness, began to grow +uneasy. + +Uneasy, too, became the members of the People's Society. They had sent +a deputation to Carrier with suggestions for the better conduct of +the protracted campaign of La Vendee. This was a sore point with the +Representative. He received the patriots with the foulest abuse, and had +them flung downstairs by his secretaries. + +Into this atmosphere of general mistrust and apprehension came the most +ridiculous Deus ex machina that ever was in the person of the very young +and very rash Marc Antoine Jullien. His father, the Deputy Jullien, +was an intimate of Robespierre's, by whose influence Marc Antoine was +appointed to the office of Agent of the Committee of Public Safety, +and sent on a tour of inspection to report upon public feeling and the +conduct of the Convention's Representatives. + +Arriving in Nantes at the end of January of '94, one of Marc Antoine's +first visits happened to be to the People's Society, which was still +quivering with rage at the indignities offered by Carrier to its +deputation. + +Marc Antoine was shocked by what he heard, so shocked that instead of +going to visit the Representative on the morrow, he spent the morning +inditing a letter to Robespierre, in which he set forth in detail the +abuses of which Carrier was guilty, and the deplorable state of misery +in which he found the city of Nantes. + +That night, as Marc Antoine was sinking into the peaceful slumber of the +man with duty done, he was rudely aroused by an officer and a couple +of men of the National Guard, who announced to him that he was under +arrest, and bade him rise and dress. + +Marc Antoine flounced out of bed in a temper, and flaunted his +credentials. The officer remained unmoved. He was acting upon orders +from the Citizen Representative. + +Still in a temper, Marc Antoine hurriedly dressed himself. He would soon +show this Representative that it is not safe to trifle with Agents of +the Public Safety. The Citizen Representative should hear from him. The +officer, still unimpressed, bundled him into a waiting carriage, and +bore him away to the Maison Villetreux, on the island where Carrier had +his residence. + +Carrier had gone to bed. But he was awake, and he sat up promptly when +the young muscadin from Paris was roughly thrust into his room by the +soldiers. The mere sight of the Representative sufficed to evaporate +Marc Antoine's anger, and with it his courage. + +Carrier's pallor was of a grey-green from the rage that possessed him. +His black eyes smouldered like those of an animal seen in the gloom, and +his tumbled black hair, fluttering about his moist brow, increased the +terrific aspect of his countenance. Marc Antoine shrank and was dumb. + +"So," said Carrier, regarding him steadily, terribly, "you are the thing +that dares to denounce me to the Safety, that ventures to find fault +with my work!" From under his pillow he drew Marc Antoine's letter to +Robespierre. "Is this yours?" + +At the sight of this violation of his correspondence with the +Incorruptible, Marc Antoine's indignation awoke, and revived his +courage. + +"It is mine," he answered. "By what right have you intercepted it?" + +"By what right?" Carrier put a leg out of bed. "So you question my +right, do you? You have so imposed yourself upon folk that you are given +powers, and you come here to air them, by--" + +"You shall answer to the Citizen Robespierre for your conduct," Marc +Antoine threatened him. + +"Aha!" Carrier revealed his teeth in a smile of ineffable wickedness. He +slipped from the bed, and crouching slightly as if about to spring, he +pointed a lean finger at his captive. + +"You are of those with whom it is dangerous to deal publicly, and you +presume upon that. But you can be dealt with privily, and you shall. I +have you, and, by--, you shall not escape me, you--!" + +Marc Antoine looked into the Representative's face, and saw there the +wickedness of his intent. He stiffened. Nature had endowed him with +wits, and he used them now. + +"Citizen Carrier," he said, "I understand. I am to be murdered to-night +in the gloom and the silence. But you shall perish after me in daylight, +and amid the execrations of the people. You may have intercepted my +letters to my father and to Robespierre. But if I do not leave Nantes, +my father will come to ask an account of you, and you will end your life +on the scaffold like the miserable assassin that you are." + +Of all that tirade, but one sentence had remained as if corroded into +the mind of Carrier. "My letters to my father and to Robespierre," the +astute Marc Antoine had said. And Marc Antoine saw the Representative's +mouth loosen, saw a glint of fear replace the ferocity in his dark eyes. + +What Marc Antoine intended to suggest had instantly leapt to Carrier's +mind--that there had been a second letter which his agents had missed. +They should pay for that. But, meanwhile, if it were true, he dare not +for his neck's sake go further in this matter. He may have suspected +that it was not true. But he had no means of testing that suspicion. +Marc Antoine, you see, was subtle. + +"Your father?" growled the Representative. "Who is your father?" + +"The Deputy Jullien." + +"What?" Carrier straightened himself, affecting an immense astonishment. +"You are the son of the Deputy Julien?" He burst into a laugh. He came +forward, holding out both his hands. He could be subtle, too, you see. +"My friend, why did you not say so sooner? See in what a ghastly mistake +you have let me flounder. I imagined you--of course, it was foolish of +me--to be a proscribed rascal from Angers, of the same name." + +He had fallen upon Marc Antoine's neck, and was embracing him. + +"Forgive me, my friend!" he besought him. "Come and dine with me +to-morrow, and we will laugh over it together." + +But Marc Antoine had no mind to dine with Carrier, although he promised +to do so readily enough. Back at his inn, scarce believing that he had +got away alive, still sweating with terror at the very thought of his +near escape, he packed his valise, and, by virtue of his commission, +obtained post-horses at once. + +On the morrow from Angers, safe beyond the reach of Carrier, he wrote +again to Robespierre, and this time also to his father. + +"In Nantes," he wrote, "I found the old regime in its worst form." He +knew the jargon of Liberty, the tune that set the patriots a-dancing. +"Carrier's insolent secretaries emulate the intolerable haughtiness of +a ci-devant minister's lackeys. Carrier himself lives surrounded by +luxury, pampered by women and parasites, keeping a harem and a court. He +tramples justice in the mud. He has had all those who filled the prisons +flung untried into the Loire. The city of Nantes," he concluded, "needs +saving. The Vendean revolt must be suppressed, and Carrier the slayer of +Liberty recalled." + +The letter had its effect, and Carrier was recalled to Paris, but not +in disgrace. Failing health was urged as the solicitous reason for his +retirement from the arduous duties of governing Nantes. + +In the Convention his return made little stir, and even when early in +the following July he learnt that Bourbotte, his successor at Nantes, +had ordered the arrest of Goullin, Bachelier, Grandmaison, and his +other friends of the committee, on the score of the drownings and the +appropriation of national property confiscated from emigres, he remained +calm, satisfied that his own position was unassailable. + +But the members of the Committee of Nantes were sent to Paris for trial, +and their arrival there took place on that most memorable date in the +annals of the Revolution, the 10th Thermidor (July 29, 1794, O.S.), the +day on which Robespierre fell and the floodgates of vengeance upon the +terrorists were flung open. + +You have seen in the case of Marc Antoine Jullien how quick Carrier +could be to take a cue. In a coach he followed the tumbril that bore +Robespierre to execution, radiant of countenance and shouting with the +loudest, "Death to the traitor!" On the morrow from the rostrum of +the Convention, he passionately represented himself as a victim of +the fallen tyrant, cleverly turning to his own credit the Marc Antoine +affair, reminding the Convention how he had himself been denounced +to Robespierre. He was greeted with applause in that atmosphere of +Thermidorean reaction. + +But Nemesis was stalking him relentlessly if silently. + +Among a batch of prisoners whom a chain of curious chances had brought +from Nantes to Paris was our old friend Leroy the cocassier, required +now as a witness against the members of the committee. + +Having acquainted the court with the grounds of his arrest, and the +fact that for three years he had lain forgotten and without trial in the +pestilential prison of Le Bouffay, Leroy passed on to a recital of his +sufferings on that night of terror when he had gone down the Loire in +the doomed lighter. He told his tale with an artlessness that rendered +it the more moving and convincing. The audience crowding the chamber +of justice shuddered with horror, and sobbed over the details of his +torments, wept for joy over his miraculous preservation. At the close +he was applauded on all sides, which bewildered him a little, for he had +never known anything but abuse in all his chequered life. + +And then, at the promptings of that spirit of reaction that was abroad +in those days when France was awakening from the nightmare of terror, +some one made there and then a collection on his behalf, and came to +thrust into his hands a great bundle of assignats and bank bills, which +to the humble cocassier represented almost a fortune. It was his turn to +weep. + +Then the crowd in the court which had heard his story shouted for the +head of Carrier. The demand was taken up by the whole of Paris, +and finally his associates of the Convention handed him over to the +Revolutionary Tribunal. + +He came before it on November 25th, and he could not find counsel to +defend him. Six advocates named in succession by the President refused +to plead the cause of so inhuman a monster. In a rage, at last Carrier +announced that he would defend himself. He did. + +He took the line that his business in Nantes had been chiefly concerned +with provisioning the Army of the West; that he had had little to do +with the policing of Nantes, which he left entirely to the Revolutionary +Committee; and that he had no knowledge of the things said to have taken +place. But Goullin, Bachelier, and the others were there to fling +back the accusation in their endeavours to save their own necks at the +expense of his. + +He was sentenced on the very anniversary of that terrible night on which +the men of the Marat Company broke into the prison of Le Bouffay, and he +was accompanied in the tumbril by Grandmaison the pitiless, who was now +filled with self-pity to such an extent that he wept bitterly. + +The crowd, which had hooted and insulted him from the Conciergerie to +the Place de Greve, fell suddenly silent as he mounted the scaffold, his +step firm, but his shoulders bowed, and his eyes upon the ground. + +Suddenly upon the silence, grotesquely, horribly merry, broke the sound +of a clarinet playing the "Ca ira!" + +Jerking himself erect, Carrier turned and flung the last of his terrible +glances at the musician. + +A moment later the knife fell with a thud, and a bleeding head rolled +into the basket, the eyes still staring, but powerless now to inspire +terror. + +Upon the general silence broke an echo of the stroke. + +"Vlan!" cried a voice. "And there's a fine end to a great drowner!" + +It was Leroy the cocassier. The crowd took up the cry. + + + + + + +IX. THE NIGHT OF NUPTIALS--Charles The Bold And Sapphira Danvelt + +When Philip the Good succumbed at Bruges of an apoplexy in the early +part of the year 1467, the occasion was represented to the stout folk +of Flanders as a favourable one to break the Burgundian yoke under which +they laboured. It was so represented by the agents of that astute king, +Louis XI, who ever preferred guile to the direct and costly exertion of +force. + +Charles, surnamed the Bold (le Temeraire), the new Duke of Burgundy, was +of all the French King's enemies by far the most formidable and menacing +just then; and the wily King, who knew better than to measure himself +with a foe that was formidable, conceived a way to embarrass the Duke +and cripple his resources at the very outset of his reign. To this +end did he send his agents into the Duke's Flemish dominions, there to +intrigue with the powerful and to stir up the spirit of sedition that +never did more than slumber in the hearts of those turbulent burghers. + +It was from the Belfry Tower of the populous, wealthy city of +Ghent--then one of the most populous and wealthy cities of Europe--that +the call to arms first rang out, summoning the city's forty thousand +weavers to quit their looms and take up weapons--the sword, the pike, +and that arm so peculiarly Flemish, known as the goedendag. From Ghent +the fierce flame of revolt spread rapidly to the valley of the Meuse, +and the scarcely less important city of Liege, where the powerful guilds +of armourers and leather workers proved as ready for battle as the +weavers of Ghent. + +They made a brave enough show until Charles the Bold came face to face +with them at Saint-Trond, and smashed the mutinous burgher army into +shards, leaving them in their slaughtered thousands upon the stricken +field. + +The Duke was very angry. He felt that the Flemings had sought to take a +base advantage of him at a moment when it was supposed he would not be +equal to protecting his interests, and he intended to brand it for all +time upon their minds that it was not safe to take such liberties with +their liege lord. Thus, when a dozen of the most important burghers of +Liege came out to him very humbly in their shirts, with halters round +their necks, to kneel in the dust at his feet and offer him the keys of +the city, he spurned the offer with angry disdain. + +"You shall be taught," he told them, "how little I require your keys, +and I hope that you will remember the lesson for your own good." + +On the morrow his pioneers began to smash a breach, twenty fathoms wide, +in one of the walls of the city, rolling the rubble into the ditch to +fill it up at the spot. When the operation was complete, Charles rode +through the gap, as a conqueror, with vizor lowered and lance on +thigh at the head of his Burgundians, into his city of Liege, whose +fortifications he commanded should be permanently demolished. + +That was the end of the Flemish rising of 1467 against Duke Charles the +Bold of Burgundy. The weavers returned to their looms, the armourers to +their forges, and the glove-makers and leather workers to their shears. +Peace was restored; and to see that it was kept, Charles appointed +military governors of his confidence where he deemed them necessary. + +One of these was Claudius von Rhynsault, who had followed the Duke's +fortunes for some years now, a born leader of men, a fellow of infinite +address at arms and resource in battle, and of a bold, reckless courage +that nothing could ever daunt. It was perhaps this last quality that +rendered him so esteemed of Charles, himself named the Bold, whose view +of courage was that it was a virtue so lofty that in the nature of its +possessor there could, perforce, be nothing mean. + +So now, to mark his esteem of this stalwart German, the Duke made him +Governor of the province of Zeeland, and dispatched him thither to stamp +out there any lingering sparks of revolt, and to rule it in his name as +ducal lieutenant. + +Thus, upon a fair May morning, came Claud of Ryhnsault and his hardy +riders to the town of Middelburg, the capital of Zeeland, to take up his +residence at the Gravenhof in the main square, and thence to dispense +justice throughout that land of dykes in his master's princely name. +This justice the German captain dispensed with merciless rigour, +conceiving that to be the proper way to uproot rebellious tendencies. It +was inevitable that he should follow such a course, impelled to it by a +remorseless cruelty in his nature, of which the Duke his master had seen +no hint, else he might have thought twice before making him Governor +of Zeeland, for Charles--despite his rigour when treachery was to be +punished--was a just and humane prince. + +Now, amongst those arrested and flung into Middelburg gaol as a result +of Rhynsault's ruthless perquisitions and inquisitions was a wealthy +young burgher named Philip Danvelt. His arrest was occasioned by a +letter signed "Philip Danvelt" found in the house of a marked rebel +who had been first tortured and then hanged. The letter, of a date +immediately preceding the late rising, promised assistance in the shape +of arms and money. + +Brought before Rhynsault for examination, in a cheerless hall of the +Gravenhof, Danvelt's defence was a denial upon oath that he had ever +taken or offered to take any part in the rebellion. Told of the letter +found, and of the date it bore, he laughed. That letter made everything +very simple and clear. At the date it bore he had been away at Flushing +marrying a wife, whom he had since brought thence to Middelburg. It was +ludicrous, he urged, to suppose that in such a season--of all seasons +in a man's life--he should have been concerned with rebellion or +correspondence with rebels, and, urging this, he laughed again. + +Now, the German captain did not like burghers who laughed in his +presence. It argued a lack of proper awe for the dignity of his +office and the importance of his person. From his high seat at the +Judgment-board, flanked by clerks and hedged about by men-at-arms, he +scowled upon the flaxen-haired, fresh-complexioned young burgher who +bore himself so very easily. He was a big, handsome man, this Rhynsault, +of perhaps some thirty years of age. His thick hair was of a reddish +brown, and his beardless face was cast in bold lines and tanned by +exposure to the colour of mahogany, save where the pale line of a scar +crossed his left cheek. + +"Yet, I tell you, the letter bears your signature," he grumbled sourly. + +"My name, perhaps," smiled the amiable Danvelt, "but assuredly not my +signature." + +"Herrgott!" swore the German captain. "Is this a riddle? What is the +difference?" + +Feeling himself secure, that very foolish burgher ventured to be mildly +insolent. + +"It is a riddle that the meanest of your clerks there can read for you," +said he. + +The Governor's blue eyes gleamed like steel as they, fastened upon +Danvelt, his heavy jaw seemed to thrust itself forward, and a dull flush +crept into his cheeks. Then he swore. + +"Beim blute Gottes!" quoth he, "do you whet your trader's wit upon me, +scum?" + +And to the waiting men-at-arms: + +"Take him back to his dungeon," he commanded, "that in its quiet he may +study a proper carriage before he is next brought before us." + +Danvelt was haled away to gaol again, to repent him of his pertness and +to reflect that, under the governorship of Claudius von Rhynsault, it +was not only the guilty who had need to go warily. + +The Governor sat back in his chair with a grunt. His secretary, on his +immediate right, leaned towards him. + +"It were easy to test the truth of the man's assertion," said he. "Let +his servants and his wife attend and be questioned as to when he was in +Flushing and when married." + +"Aye," growled von Rhynsault. "Let it be done. I don't doubt we shall +discover that the dog was lying." + +But no such discovery was made when, on the morrow, Danvelt's household +and his wife stood before the Governor to answer his questions. Their +replies most fully bore out the tale Danvelt had told, and appeared in +other ways to place it beyond all doubt that he had taken no part, in +deed or even in thought, in the rebellion against the Duke of Burgundy. +His wife protested it solemnly and piteously. + +"To this I can swear, my lord," she concluded. "I am sure no evidence +can be brought against him, who was ever loyal and ever concerned with +his affairs and with me at the time in question. My lord"--she held +out her hands towards the grim German, and her lovely eyes gleamed +with unshed tears of supplication--"I implore you to believe me, and in +default of witnesses against him to restore my husband to me." + +Rhynsault's blue eyes kindled now as they considered her, and his full +red lips slowly parted in the faintest and most inscrutable of smiles. +She was very fair to look upon--of middle height and most exquisite +shape. Her gown, of palest saffron, edged with fur, high-waisted +according to the mode, and fitted closely to the gently swelling bust, +was cut low to display the white perfection of her neck. Her softly +rounded face looked absurdly childlike under the tall-crowned hennin, +from which a wispy veil floated behind her as she moved. + +In silence, then, for a spell, the German mercenary pondered her with +those slowly kindling eyes, that slowly spreading, indefinite smile. +Then he stirred, and to his secretary he muttered shortly: + +"The woman lies. In private I may snare the truth from her." + +He rose--a tall, massively imposing figure in a low-girdled tunic of +deep purple velvet, open at the breast, and gold-laced across a white +silken undervest. + +"There is some evidence," he informed her gruffly. "Come with me, and +you shall see it for yourself." + +He led the way from that cheerless hall by a dark corridor to a +small snug room, richly hung and carpeted, where a servant waited. He +dismissed the fellow, and in the same breath bade her enter, watching +her the while from under lowered brows. One of her women had followed; +but admittance was denied her. Danvelt's wife must enter his room alone. + +Whilst she waited there, with scared eyes and fluttering bosom, he went +to take from an oaken coffer the letter signed "Philip Danvelt." He +folded the sheet so that the name only was to be read, and came to +thrust it under her eyes. + +"What name is that?" he asked her gruffly. + +Her answer was very prompt. + +"It is my husband's, but not the writing--it is another hand; some other +Philip Danvelt; there will be others in Zeeland." + +He laughed softly, looking at her ever with that odd intentness, and +under his gaze she shrank and cowered in terror; it spoke to her of some +nameless evil; the tepid air of the luxurious room was stifling her. + +"If I believed you, your husband would be delivered from his +prison--from all danger; and he stands, I swear to you, in mortal +peril." + +"Ah, but you must believe me. There are others who can bear witness." + +"I care naught for others," he broke in, with harsh and arrogant +contempt. Then he softened his voice to a lover's key. "But I might +accept your word that this is not your husband's hand, even though I did +not believe you." + +She did not understand, and so she could only stare at him with those +round, brown eyes of hers dilating, her lovely cheeks blanching with +horrid fear. + +"Why, see," he said at length, with an easy, gruff good-humour, "I place +the life of Philip Danvelt in those fair hands to do with as you please. +Surely, sweeting, you will not be so unkind as to destroy it." + +And as he spoke his face bent nearer to her own, his flaming eyes +devoured her, and his arm slipped softly, snake-like round her to draw +her to him. But before it had closed its grip she had started away, +springing back in horror, an outcry already on her pale lips. + +"One word," he admonished her sharply, "and it speaks your husband's +doom!" + +"Oh, let me go, let me go!" she cried in anguish. + +"And leave your husband in the hangman's hands?" he asked. + +"Let me go! Let me go!" was all that she could answer him, expressing +the only thought of which in that dread moment her mind was capable. + +That and the loathing on her face wounded his vanity for this beast was +vain. His manner changed, and the abysmal brute in him was revealed in +the anger he displayed. With foul imprecations he drove her out. + +Next day a messenger from the Governor waited upon her at her house with +a brief note to inform her that her husband would be hanged upon the +morrow. Incredulity was succeeded by a numb, stony, dry-eyed grief, in +which she sat alone for hours--a woman entranced. At last, towards dusk, +she summoned a couple of her grooms to attend and light her, and +made her way, ever in that odd somnambulistic state, to the gaol of +Middelburg. She announced herself to the head gaoler as the wife of +Philip Danvelt, lying under sentence of death, and that she was come to +take her last leave of him. It was not a thing to be denied, nor had the +gaoler any orders to deny it. + +So she was ushered into the dank cell where Philip waited for his doom, +and by the yellow wheel of light of the lantern that hung from the +shallow vaulted ceiling she beheld the ghastly change that the news of +impending death had wrought in him. No longer was he the self-assured +young burgher who, conscious of his innocence and worldly importance, +had used a certain careless insolence with the Governor of Zeeland. Here +she beheld a man of livid and distorted face, wild-eyed, his hair and +garments in disarray, suggesting the physical convulsions to which he +had yielded in his despair and rage. + +"Sapphira!" he cried at sight of her. A sigh of anguish and he flung +himself, shuddering and sobbing, upon her breast. She put her arms about +him, soothed him gently, and drew him back to the wooden chair from +which he had leapt to greet her. + +He took his head in his hands and poured out the fierce anguish of +his soul. To die innocent as he was, to be the victim of an arbitrary, +unjust power! And to perish at his age! + +Hearing him rave, she shivered out of an agony of compassion and also +of some terror for herself. She would that he found it less hard to die. +And thinking this she thought further, and uttered some of her thought +aloud. + +"I could have saved you, my poor Philip." + +He started up, and showed her again that livid, distorted face of his. + +"What do you mean?" he asked hoarsely. "You could have saved me, do you +say? Then--then why--" + +"Ah, but the price, my dear," she sobbed. + +"Price?" quoth he in sudden, fierce contempt. "What price is too great +to pay for life? Does this Rhynsault want all our wealth, then yield it +to him yield it so that I may live--" + +"Should I have hesitated had it been but that?" she interrupted. + +And then she told him, whilst he sat there hunched and shuddering. + +"The dog! The foul German dog!" he muttered through clenched teeth. + +"So that you see, my dear," she pursued brokenly, "it was too great a +price. Yourself, you could not have condoned it, or done aught else but +loathe me afterwards." + +But he was not as stout-mettled as she deemed him, or else the +all-consuming thirst of life, youth's stark horror of death, made him a +temporizing craven in that hour. + +"Who knows?" he answered. "Certes, I do not. But a thing so done, a +thing in which the will and mind have no part, resolves itself perhaps +into a sacrifice--" + +He broke off there, perhaps from very shame. After all he was a man, and +there are limits to what manhood will permit of one. + +But those words of his sank deeply into her soul. They rang again and +again in her ears as she took her anguished way home after the agony of +their farewells, and in the end they drove her out again that very night +to seek the Governor of Zeeland. + +Rhynsault was at supper when she came, and without quitting the table +bade them usher her into his presence. He found her very white, but +singularly calm and purposeful in her bearing. + +"Well, mistress?" + +"May I speak to you alone?" + +Her voice was as steady as her glance. + +He waved away the attendants, drank a deep draught from the cup at his +elbow, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and sat back in his +tall chair to hear her. + +"Yesterday," she said, "you made, or seemed to make, me a proposal." + +He looked up at first in surprise, then with a faint smile on his +coarse, red mouth. His glance had read her meaning clearly. + +"Look you, mistress, here I am lord of life and death. Yet in the case +of your husband I yield up that power to you. Say but the word and I +sign the order for his gaol delivery at dawn." + +"I have come to say that word," she informed him. + +A moment he looked up at her, his smile broadening, a flush mounting to +his cheek-bones. Then he rose and sent his chair crashing behind him to +the ground. + +"Herrgott!" he grunted; and he gathered her slim, trembling body to his +massive gold-laced breast. + +Soon after sunrise on the morrow she was beating at the gates of +Middelburg gaol, a paper clutched convulsively in her left hand. + +She was admitted, and to the head gaoler she showed the paper that she +carried. + +"An order from the Governor of Zeeland for the gaol delivery of Philip +Danvelt!" she announced almost hysterically. + +The gaoler scanned the paper, then her face. His lips tightened. + +"Come this way," he said; and led her down a gloomy corridor to the cell +where yesterday she had seen her husband. + +He threw wide the door, and Sapphira sprang in. + +"Philip!" she cried, and checked as suddenly. + +He lay supine and still upon the miserable pallet, his hands folded +upon his breast, his face waxen, his eyes staring glassily through +half-closed lids. + +She sped to his side in a sudden chill of terror. She fell on her knees +and touched him. + +"Dead!" she screamed, and, kneeling, span round questioning to face the +gaoler in the doorway. "Dead!" + +"He was hanged at daybreak, mistress," said the gaoler gently. + +She rocked a moment, moaning, then fell suddenly forward across her +husband's body in a swoon. + +That evening she was again at the Gravenhof to see Rhynsault, and again +she was admitted--a haggard faced woman now, in whom there was no trace +of beauty left. She came to stand before the Governor, considered him +in silence a moment with a loathing unutterable in her glance, then +launched into fierce recriminations of his broken faith. + +He heard her out, then shrugged and smiled indulgently. + +"I performed no less than I promised," said he. "I pledged my word to +Danvelt's gaol delivery, and was not my gaol delivery effective? You +could hardly suppose that I should allow it to be of such a fashion as +to interfere with our future happy meetings." + +Before his leering glance she fled in terror, followed by the sound of +his bestial laugh. + +For a week thereafter she kept her house and brooded. Then one day she +sallied forth all dressed in deepest mourning and attended by a train +of servants, and, embarking upon a flat-bottomed barge, was borne up the +river Scheldt towards Antwerp. Bruges was her ultimate destination, of +which she left no word behind her, and took the longest way round to +reach it. From Antwerp her barge voyaged on to Ghent, and thence by +canal, drawn by four stout Flemish horses, at last to the magnificent +city where the Dukes of Burgundy kept their Court. + +Under the June sunshine the opulent city of Bruges hummed with activity +like the great human hive it was. For Bruges at this date was the market +of the world, the very centre of the world's commerce, the cosmopolis +of the age. Within its walls were established the agencies of a score of +foreign great trading companies, and the ambassadors of no less a +number of foreign Powers. Here on a day you might hear every language of +civilization spoken in the broad thoroughfares under the shadow of such +imposing buildings as you would not have found together in another city +of Europe. To the harbour came the richly laden argosies from Venice +and Genoa, from Germany and the Baltic, from Constantinople and from +England, and in her thronged markets Lombard and Venetian, Levantine, +Teuton, and Saxon stood jostling one another to buy and sell. + +It was past noon, and the great belfry above the Gothic Cloth Hall in +the Grande Place was casting a lengthening shadow athwart the crowded +square. Above the Babel of voices sounded on a sudden the note of a +horn, and there was a cry of "The Duke! The Duke!" followed by a general +scuttle of the multitude to leave a clear way down the middle of the +great square. + +A gorgeous cavalcade some twoscore strong came into sight, advancing +at an amble, a ducal hunting party returning to the palace. A hush fell +upon the burgher crowd as it pressed back respectfully to gaze; and +to the din of human voices succeeded now the clatter of hoofs upon the +kidney-stones of the square, the jangle of hawkbells, the baying of +hounds, and the occasional note of the horn that had first brought +warning of the Duke's approach. + +It was a splendid iridescent company, flaunting in its apparel every +colour of the prism. There were great lords in silks and velvets of +every hue, their legs encased in the finest skins of Spain; there +were great ladies, in tall, pointed hennins or bicorne headdresses and +floating veils, with embroidered gowns that swept down below the +bellies of their richly harnessed palfreys. And along the flanks of this +cavalcade ran grooms and huntsmen in green and leather, their jagged +liripipes flung about their necks, leading the leashed hounds. + +The burghers craned their necks, and Levantine merchant argued with +Lombard trader upon an estimate of the wealth paraded thus before them. +And then at last came the young Duke himself, in black, as if to detach +himself from the surrounding splendour. He was of middle stature, of +a strong and supple build, with a lean, swarthy face and lively eyes. +Beside him, on a white horse, rode a dazzling youth dressed from head +to foot in flame-coloured silk, a peaked bonnet of black velvet set upon +his lovely golden head, a hooded falcon perched upon his left wrist, +a tiny lute slung behind him by a black ribbon. He laughed as he rode, +looking the very incarnation of youth and gaiety. + +The cavalcade passed slowly towards the Prinssenhof, the ducal +residence. It had all but crossed the square when suddenly a voice--a +woman's voice, high and tense--rang out. + +"Justice, my Lord Duke of Burgundy! Justice, Lord Duke, for a woman's +wrongs!" + +It startled the courtly riders, and for a moment chilled their gaiety. +The scarlet youth at the Duke's side swung round in his saddle to obtain +a view of her who called so piteously, and he beheld Sapphira Danvelt. + +She was all in black, and black was the veil that hung from her steeple +head-dress, throwing into greater relief her pallid loveliness which the +youth's glance was quick to appraise. He saw, too, from her air and from +the grooms attending her, that she was a woman of some quality, and the +tragic appeal of her smote home in his gay, poetic soul. He put forth a +hand and clutched the Duke's arm, and, as if yielding to this, the Duke +reined up. + +"What is it that you seek?" Charles asked her not unkindly, his lively +dark eyes playing over her. + +"Justice!" was all she answered him very piteously, and yet with a +certain fierceness of insistence. + +"None asks it of me in vain, I hope," he answered gravely. "But I do not +dispense it from the saddle in the public street. Follow us." + +And he rode on. + +She followed to the Prinssenhof with her grooms and her woman Catherine. +There she was made to wait in a great hall, thronged with grooms and +men-at-arms and huntsmen, who were draining the measure sent them by the +Duke. She stood apart, wrapped in her tragic sorrow, and none molested +her. At last a chamberlain came to summon her to the Duke's presence. + +In a spacious, sparsely furnished room she found the Duke awaiting her, +wearing now a gown of black and gold that was trimmed with rich fur. He +sat in a tall chair of oak and leather, and leaning on the back of it +lounged gracefully the lovely scarlet youth who had ridden at his side. + +Standing before him, with drooping eyes and folded hands, she told her +shameful story. Darker and darker grew his brow as she proceeded with +it. But it was the gloom of doubt rather than of anger. + +"Rhynsault?" he cried when she had done. "Rhynsault did this?" + +There was incredulity in his voice and nothing else. + +The youth behind him laughed softly, and shifted his attitude. + +"You are surprised. Yet what else was to be looked for in that Teuton +swine? Me he never could deceive, for all his--" + +"Be silent, Arnault," said the Duke sharply. And to the woman: "It is +a grave, grave charge," he said, "against a man I trusted and have +esteemed, else I should not have placed him where he is. What proof have +you?" + +She proffered him a strip of parchment--the signed order for the gaol +delivery of Philip Danvelt. + +"The gaoler of Middelburg will tell Your Grace that he was hanged +already when I presented this. My woman Catherine, whom I have with +me, can testify to part. And there are some other servants who can bear +witness to my husband's innocence. Captain von Rhynsault had ceased to +doubt it." + +He studied the parchment, and fell very grave and thoughtful. + +"Where are you lodged?" he asked. + +She told him. + +"Wait there until I send for you again," he bade her. "Leave this order +with me, and depend upon it, justice shall be done." + +That evening, a messenger rode out to Middelburg to summon von Rhynsault +to Bruges, and the arrogant German came promptly and confidently, +knowing nothing of the reason, but conceiving naturally that +fresh honours were to be conferred upon him by a master who loved +stout-hearted servants. And that Rhynsault was stout-hearted he showed +most of all when the Duke taxed him without warning with the villainy he +had wrought. + +If he was surprised, he was not startled. What was the life of a Flemish +burgher more or less? What the honour of a Flemish wife? These were not +considerations to daunt a soldier, a valiant man of war. And because +such was his dull mood--for he was dull, this Rhynsault, as dull as +he was brutish--he considered his sin too venial to be denied. And the +Duke, who could be crafty, perceiving that mood of his, and simulating +almost an approval of it, drew the German captain into self-betrayal. + +"And so this Philip Danvelt may have been innocent?" + +"He must have been, for we have since taken the guilty man of the same +name," said the German easily. "It was unfortunate, but--" + +"Unfortunate!" The Duke's manner changed from silk to steel. He heaved +himself out of his chair, and his dark eyes flamed. "Unfortunate! Is +that all, you dog?" + +"I conceived him guilty when I ordered him to be hanged," spluttered the +captain, greatly taken aback. + +"Then, why this? Answer me--why this?" + +And under his nose the Duke thrust the order of gaol delivery Rhynsault +had signed. + +The captain blenched, and fear entered his glance. The thing was +becoming serious, it seemed. + +"Is this the sort of justice you were sent to Middelburg to administer +in my name? Is this how you dishonour me? If you conceived him guilty, +why did you sign this and upon what terms? Bah, I know the terms. And +having made such foul terms, why did you not keep your part of the +bargain, evil as it was?" + +Rhynsault had nothing to say. He was afraid, and he was angry too. Here +was a most unreasonable bother all about nothing, it seemed to him. + +"I--I sought to compromise between justice and--and--" + +"And your own vile ends," the Duke concluded for him. "By Heaven, you +German dog, I think I'll have you shortened by a head!" + +"My lord!" It was a cry of protest. + +"There is the woman you have so foully wronged, and so foully swindled," +said the Duke, watching him. "What reparation will you make to her? What +reparation can you make? I can toss your filthy head into her lap. But +will that repair the wrong?" + +The captain suddenly saw light, and quite a pleasant light it was, for +he had found Sapphira most delectable. + +"Why," he said slowly, and with all a fool's audacity, "having made her +a widow, I can make her a wife again. I never thought to wive, myself. +But if Your Grace thinks such reparation adequate, I will afford it +her." + +The Duke checked in the very act of replying. Again the expression of +his countenance changed. He strode away, his head bowed in thought; then +slowly he returned. + +"Be it so," he said. "It is not much, but it is all that you can do, and +after a fashion it will mend the honour you have torn. See that you wed +her within the week. Should she not consent, it will be the worse for +you." + +She would not have consented--she would have preferred death, +indeed--but for the insistence that the Duke used in private with her. +And so, half convinced that it would in some sort repair her honour, +the poor woman suffered herself to be led, more dead than living, to the +altar in the Duke's private chapel, and there, scarcely knowing what she +did, she became the wife of Captain Claudius von Rhynsault, the man she +had most cause to loathe and hate in all the world. + +Rhynsault had ordered a great banquet to celebrate his nuptials, for on +the whole he was well satisfied with the issue of this affair. But as he +left the altar, his half-swooning bride upon his arm, the Duke in person +tapped his shoulder. + +"All is not yet done," he said. "You are to come with me." + +The bridal pair were conducted to the great hall of the Prinssenhof, +where there was a great gathering of the Court--to do honour to his +nuptials, thought the German captain. At the broad table sat two clerkly +fellows with quills and parchments, and by this table the Duke took +his stand, Arnault beside him--in peacock-blue to-day--and called for +silence. + +"Captain von Rhynsault," he said gravely and quietly, "what you have +done is well done; but it does not suffice. In the circumstances of this +marriage, and after the revelation we have had of your ways of thought +and of honour, it is necessary to make provision against the future. It +shall not be yours, save at grave cost, to repudiate the wife you have +now taken." + +"There is no such intent--" began Rhynsault, who misliked this homily. + +The Duke waved him into silence. + +"You are interrupting me," he said sharply. "You are a wealthy man, +Rhynsault, thanks to the favours I have heaped upon you ever since +the day when I picked you from your German kennel to set you where you +stand. Here you will find a deed prepared. It is in the form of a will, +whereby you bequeath everything of which you are to-day possessed--and +it is all set down--to your wife on your death, or on the day on which +you put her from you. Your signature is required to that." + +The captain hesitated a moment. This deed would fetter all his future. +The Duke was unreasonable. But under the steady, compelling eyes of +Charles he moved forward to the table, and accepted the quill the clerk +was proffering. There was no alternative, he realized. He was trapped. +Well, well! He must make the best of it. He stooped from his great +height, and signed in his great sprawling, clumsy, soldier's hand. + +The clerk dusted the document with pounce, and handed it to the Duke. +Charles cast an eye upon the signature, then taking the quill himself, +signed under it, then bore the document to the half-swooning bride. + +"Keep this secure," he bade her. "It is your marriage-gift from me." + +Rhynsault's eyes gleamed. If his wife were to keep the deed, the thing +was none so desperate after all. But the next moment he had other things +to think of. + +"Give me your sword," the Duke requested. + +Wondering, the German unsheathed the weapon, and proffered the hilt +to his master. Charles took it, and a stern smile played about his +beardless mouth. He grasped it, hilt in one hand and point in the other. +Suddenly he bent his right knee, and, bearing sharply downward with the +flat of the weapon upon his thigh, snapped in into two. + +"So much for that dishonourable blade," he said, and cast the pieces +from him. Then he flung out an arm to point to Rhynsault. "Take him +out," he commanded; "let him have a priest, and half an hour in which to +make his soul, then set his head on a spear above the Cloth Hall, that +men may know the justice of Charles of Burgundy." + +With the roar of a 'goaded bull the German attempted to fling forward. +But men-at-arms, in steel and leather, who had come up quietly behind +him, seized him now. Impotent in their coiling arms, he was borne +away to his doom, that thereby he might complete the reparation of his +hideous offence, and deliver Sapphira from the bondage of a wedlock +which Charles of Burgundy had never intended her to endure. + + + + + + +X. THE NIGHT OF STRANGLERS--Govanna Of Naples And Andreas Of Hungary + +Charles, Duke of Durazzo, was one of your super chess-players, handling +kings and queens, knights and prelates of flesh and blood in the game +that he played with Destiny upon the dark board of Neapolitan politics. +And he had no illusions on the score of the forfeit that would be +claimed by his grim opponent in the event of his own defeat. He knew +that his head was the stake he set upon the board, and he knew, too, +that defeat must inevitably follow upon a single false move. Yet he +played boldly and craftily, as you shall judge. + +He made his first move in March of 1343, some three months after the +death of Robert of Anjou, King of Jerusalem and Sicily, as ran the title +of the ruler of Naples. He found his opportunity amid the appalling +anarchy into which the kingdom was then plunged as a result of a wrong +and an ill judged attempt to right it. + +Good King Robert the Wise had wrested the crown of Naples from his elder +brother, the King of Hungary, and had ruled as a usurper. Perhaps to +quiet his conscience, perhaps to ensure against future strife between +his own and his brother's descendants, he had attempted to right the +wrong by a marriage between his brother's grandson Andreas and his +own granddaughter Giovanna, a marriage which had taken place ten years +before, when Andreas was but seven years of age and Giovanna five. + +The aim had been thus to weld into one the two branches of the House of +Anjou. Instead, the rivalry was to be rendered more acute than ever, and +King Robert's fear of some such result contributed to it not a little. +On his deathbed he summoned the Princes of the Blood--the members of +the Houses of Durazzo and Taranto--and the chief nobles of the kingdom, +demanding of them an oath of allegiance to Giovanna, and himself +appointing a Council of Regency to govern the kingdom during her +minority. + +The consequence was that, against all that had been intended when the +marriage was contracted, Giovanna was now proclaimed queen in her +own right, and the government taken over in her name by the appointed +Council. Instantly the Court of Naples was divided into two camps, the +party of the Queen, including the Neapolitan nobility, and the party of +Andreas of Hungary, consisting of the Hungarian nobles forming his +train and a few malcontent Neapolitan barons, and guided by the sinister +figure of Andreas's preceptor, Friar Robert. + +This arrogant friar, of whom Petrarch has left us a vivid portrait, a +red-faced, red-bearded man, with a fringe of red hair about his tonsure, +short and squat of figure, dirty in his dress and habits, yet imbued +with the pride of Lucifer despite his rags, thrust himself violently +into the Council of Regency, demanding a voice in the name of his +pupil Andreas. And the Council feared him, not only on the score of +his over-bearing personality, but also because he was supported by the +populace, which had accepted his general filthiness as the outward sign +of holiness. His irruption occasioned so much trouble and confusion that +in the end the Pope intervened, in his quality as Lord Paramount--Naples +being a fief of Holy Church--and appointed a legate to rule the kingdom +during Giovanna's minority. + +The Hungarians, with Andreas's brother, King Ludwig of Hungary, at their +head, now appealed to the Papal Court of Avignon for a Bull commanding +the joint coronation of Andreas and Giovanna, which would be tantamount +to placing the government in the hands of Andreas. The Neapolitans, +headed by the Princes of the Blood--who, standing next in succession, +had also their own interests to consider clamoured that Giovanna alone +should be crowned. + +In this pass were the affairs of the kingdom when Charles of Durazzo, +who had stood watchful and aloof, carefully weighing the chances, +resolved at last to play that dangerous game of his. He began by the +secret abduction of Maria of Anjou, his own cousin and Giovanna's +sister, a child of fourteen. He kept her concealed for a month in his +palace, what time he obtained from the Pope, through the good offices +of his uncle the Cardinal of Perigord, a dispensation to overcome the +barrier of consanguinity. That dispensation obtained, Charles married +the girl publicly under the eyes of all Naples, and by the marriage--to +which the bride seemed nowise unwilling--became, by virtue of his wife, +next heir to the crown of Naples. + +That was his opening move. His next was to write to his obliging +uncle the Cardinal of Perigord, whose influence at Avignon was very +considerable, urging him to prevail upon Pope Clement VI not to sign the +Bull in favour of Andreas and the joint coronation. + +Now, the high-handed action of Charles in marrying Maria of Anjou had +very naturally disposed Giovanna against him; further, it had disposed +against him those Princes of the Blood who were next in the succession, +and upon whom he had stolen a march by this strengthening of his own +claims. It is inevitable to assume that he had counted precisely +upon this to afford him the pretext that he sought--he, a Neapolitan +prince--to ally himself with the Hungarian intruder. + +Under any other circumstances his advances must have been viewed with +suspicion by Andreas, and still more by the crafty Friar Robert. But, +under the circumstances which his guile had created, he was received +with open arms by the Hungarian party, and his defection from the Court +of Giovanna was counted a victory by the supporters of Andreas. He +protested his good-will towards Andreas, and proclaimed his hatred of +Giovanna's partisans, who poisoned her mind against her husband. He +hunted and drank with Andreas--whose life seems to have been largely +made up of hunting and drinking--and pandered generally to the rather +gross tastes of this foreigner, whom in his heart he despised for a +barbarian. + +From being a boon companion, Charles very soon became a counsellor to +the young Prince, and the poisonous advice that he gave seemed shrewd +and good, even to Friar Robert. + +"Meet hostility with hostility, ride ruthlessly upon your own way, +showing yourself confident of the decision in your favour that the Pope +must ultimately give. For bear ever in your mind that you are King of +Naples, not by virtue of your marriage with Giovanna, but in your own +right, Giovanna being but the offspring of the usurping branch." + +The pale bovine eyes of Andreas would kindle into something like +intelligence, and a flush would warm his stolid countenance. He was +a fair-haired young giant, white-skinned and well-featured, but dull, +looking, with cold, hard eyes suggesting the barbarian that he was +considered by the cultured Neapolitans, and that he certainly looked +by contrast with them. Friar Robert supporting the Duke of Durazzo's +advice, Andreas did not hesitate to act upon it; of his own authority +he delivered prisoners from gaol, showered honours upon his Hungarian +followers and upon such Neapolitan barons as Count Altamura, who was +ill-viewed at Court, and generally set the Queen at defiance. The +inevitable result, upon which again the subtle Charles had counted, was +to exasperate a group of her most prominent nobles into plotting the +ruin of Andreas. + +It was a good beginning, and unfortunately Giovanna's own behaviour +afforded Charles the means of further speeding up his game. + +The young Queen was under the governance of Filippa the Catanese, an +evil woman, greedy of power. This Filippa, once a washerwoman, had in +her youth been chosen for her splendid health to be the foster-mother +of Giovanna's father. Beloved of her foster-child, she had become +perpetually installed at Court, married to a wealthy Moor named Cabane, +who was raised to the dignity of Grand Seneschal of the kingdom, whereby +the sometime washerwoman found herself elevated to the rank of one of +the first ladies of Naples. She must have known how to adapt herself to +her new circumstances, otherwise she would hardly have been appointed, +as she was upon the death of her foster-son, governess to his infant +daughters. Later, to ensure her hold upon the young Queen, and being +utterly unscrupulous in her greed of power, she had herself contrived +that her son, Robert of Cabane, became Giovanna's lover. + +One of Giovanna's first acts upon her grandfather's death had been to +create this Robert Count of Evoli, and this notwithstanding that in +the mean time he had been succeeded in her favour by the handsome +young Bertrand d'Artois. This was the group--the Catanese, her son, +and Bertrand--that, with the Princes of the Blood, governed the Queen's +party. + +With what eyes Andreas may have looked upon all this we have no means +of determining. Possibly, engrossed as he was with his hawks and his +hounds, he may have been stupidly blind to his own dishonour, at least +as far as Bertrand was concerned. Another than Charles might have +chosen the crude course of opening his eyes to it. But Charles was too +far-seeing. Precipitancy was not one of his faults. His next move must +be dictated by the decision of Avignon regarding the coronation. + +This decision came in July of 1345, and it fell like a thunderbolt upon +the Court. The Pope had pronounced in favour of Andreas by granting the +Bull for the joint coronation of Andreas and Giovanna. + +This was check to Charles. His uncle the Cardinal of Perigord had done +his utmost to oppose the measure, but he had been overborne in the +end by Ludwig of Hungary, who had settled the matter by the powerful +argument that he was himself the rightful heir to the crown of Naples, +and that he relinquished his claim in favour of his younger brother. He +had backed the argument by the payment to the Pope of the enormous sum, +for those days, of one hundred thousand gold crowns, and the issue, +obscure hitherto, had immediately become clear to the Papal Court. + +It was check to Charles, as I have said. But Charles braced himself, and +considered the counter-move that should give him the advantage. He went +to congratulate Andreas, and found him swollen with pride and arrogance +in his triumph. + +"Be welcome, Charles," he hailed Durazzo. "I am not the man to forget +those who have stood my friends whilst my power was undecided." + +"For your own sake," said the smooth Charles, as he stepped back from +that brotherly embrace, "I trust you'll not forget those who have been +your enemies, and who, being desperate now, may take desperate means to +avert your coronation." + +The pale eyes of the Hungarian glittered. + +"Of whom do you speak?" + +Charles smoothed his black beard thoughtfully, his dark eyes narrowed +and pensive. There must be a victim, to strike fear into Giovanna's +friends and stir them to Charles's purposes. + +"Why, first and foremost, I should place Giovanna's counsellor Isernia, +that man of law whose evil counsels have hurt your rights as king. Next +come--" + +But here Charles craftily paused and looked away, a man at fault. + +"Next?" cried Andreas. "Who next? Speak out!" The Duke shrugged. + +"By the Passion, there is no lack of others. You have enemies to spare +among the Queen's friends." + +Andreas paled under his faint tan. He flung back his crimson robe as +if he felt the heat, and stood forth, lithe as a wrestler, in his +close-fitting cote-hardie and hose of violet silk. + +"No need, indeed, to name them," he said fiercely. + +"None," Charles agreed. "But the most dangerous is Isernia. Whilst +he lives you walk amid swords. His death may spread a panic that will +paralyze the others." + +He would say no more, knowing that he had said enough to send Andreas, +scowling and sinister, to sow terror in hearts that guilt must render +uneasy now, amongst which hearts be sure that he counted Giovanna's own. + +Andreas took counsel with Friar Robert. Touching Isernia, there was +evidence and to spare that he was dangerous, and so Isernia fell on the +morrow to an assassin's sword as he was in the very act of leaving the +Castel Nuovo, and it was Charles himself who bore word of it to the +Court, and so plunged it into consternation. + +They walked in the cool of evening in the pleasant garden of the Castel +Nuovo, when Charles came upon them and touched the stalwart shoulder of +Bertrand d'Artois. Bertrand the favourite eyed him askance, mistrusting +and disliking him for his association with Andreas. + +"The Hungarian boar," said Charles, "is sharpening his tusks now that +his authority is assured by the Holy Father." + +"Who cares?" sneered Bertrand. + +"Should you care if I added that already he has blooded them?" + +Bertrand changed countenance. The Duke explained himself. + +"He has made a beginning upon Giacomo d' Isernia. Ten minutes ago he +was stabbed to death within a stone's throw of the castle." So Charles +unburdened himself of his news. "A beginning, no more." + +"My God!" said Bertrand. "D' Isernia! Heaven rest him." And devoutly he +crossed himself. + +"Heaven will rest some more of you if you suffer Andreas of Hungary to +be its instrument," said Charles, his lips grimly twisted. + +"Do you threaten?" + +"Nay, man; be not so hot and foolish. I warn. I know his mood. I know +what he intends." + +"You ever had his confidence," said Bertrand, sneering. + +"Until this hour I had. But there's an end to that. I am a Prince of +Naples, and I'll not bend the knee to a barbarian. He was well enough +to hunt with and drink with, so long as he was Duke of Calabria with no +prospect of being more. But that he should become my King, and that +our lady Giovanna should be no more than a queen consort--" He made a +gesture of ineffable disgust. + +Bertrand's eyes kindled. He gripped the other's arm, and drew him along +under a trellis of vines that formed a green cloister about the walls. + +"Why, here is great news for our Queen," he cried. "It will rejoice her, +my lord, to know you are loyal to her." + +"That is no matter," he replied. "What matters is that you should be +warned--you, yourself in particular, and Evoli. No doubt there will be +others, too. But the Hungarian's confidences went no further." + +Bertrand had come to a standstill. He stared at Charles, and slowly the +colour left his face. + +"Me?" he said, a finger on his heart. + +"Aye, you. You will be the next. But not until the crown is firmly on +his brow. Then he will settle his score with the nobles of Naples who +have withstood him. Listen," and Charles's voice sank as if under the +awful burden of his news; "a black banner of vengeance is to precede him +to his coronation. And your name stands at the head of the list of the +proscribed. Does it surprise you? After all, he is a husband, and he has +some knowledge of what lies between the Queen and you--" + +"Stop!" + +"Pish!" Charles shrugged. "What need for silence upon what all Naples +knows? When have you and the Queen ever used discretion? In your place +I should not need a warning. I should know what to expect from a husband +become king." + +"The Queen must be told." + +"Indeed, I think so, too. It will come best from you. Go tell her, so +that measures may be taken. But go secretly and warily. You are safe +until he wears the crown. And above all--whatever you may decide--do +nothing here in Naples." + +And on that he turned to depart, whilst Bertrand sped to Giovanna. On +the threshold of the garden Charles paused and looked back. His eyes +sought and found the Queen, a tall, lissome girl of seventeen, in a +close-fitting, revealing gown of purple silk, the high, white gorget +outlining an oval face of a surpassing loveliness, crowned by a wealth +of copper-coloured hair. She was standing in a stricken attitude, +looking up into the face of her lover, who was delivering himself of his +news. + +Charles departed satisfied. + +Three days later a man of the Queen's household, one Melazzo, who was +in Duke Charles's pay, brought him word that the seed he had cast had +fallen upon fertile soil. A conspiracy to destroy the King had been laid +by Bertrand d'Artois, Robert of Cabane, Count of Evoli, and the +latter's brothers-in-law, Terlizzi and Morcone. Melazzo himself, for his +notorious affection for the Queen, had been included in this band, and +also a man named Pace, who was body servant to Andreas, and who, like +Melazzo, was in Charles's pay. + +Charles of Durazzo smiled gently to himself. The game went excellently +well. + +"The Court," he said, "goes to Aversa for a month before the coronation. +That would be a favourable season to their plan. Advise it so." + +The date appointed for the coronation was September 20th. A month +before--on August 20th--the Court removed itself from the heat and +reek of Naples to the cooler air of Aversa, there to spend the time of +waiting. They were housed in the monastery of Saint Peter, which +had been converted as far as possible into a royal residence for the +occasion. + +On the night of their arrival there the refectory of the monastery was +transfigured to accommodate the numerous noble and very jovial company +assembled there to sup. The long, stone-flagged room, lofty and with +windows set very high, normally so bare and austere, was hung now with +tapestries, and the floor strewn with rushes that were mingled with +lemon verbena and other aromatic herbs. Along the lateral walls and +across the end of the room that faced the double doors were set the +stone tables of the Spartan monks, on a shallow dais that raised them +above the level of the floor. These tables were gay now with the gleam +of crystal and the glitter of gold and silver plate. Along one side of +them, their backs to the walls, sat the ladies and nobles of the +Court. The vaulted ceiling was rudely frescoed to represent the +open heavens--the work of a brother whose brush was more devout than +cunning--and there was the inevitable cenacolo above the Abbot's table +at the upper end of the room. + +At this table sat the royal party, the broad-shouldered Andreas of +Hungary, slightly asprawl, his golden mane somewhat tumbled now, for +he was drinking deeply in accordance with his barbarian habit; ever and +anon he would fling down a bone or a piece of meat to the liver-coloured +hounds that crouched expectant on the rushes of the floor. + +They had hunted that day in the neighbourhood of Capua, and Andreas had +acquitted himself well, and was in high good-humour, giving now little +thought to the sinister things that Charles of Durazzo had lately +whispered, laughing and jesting with the traitor Morcone at his side. +Behind him in close attendance stood his servant Pace, once a creature +of Durazzo's. The Queen sat on his right, making but poor pretence to +eat; her lovely young face was of a ghostly pallor, her dark eyes were +wide and staring. Among the guests were the black-browed Evoli and his +brother-in-law, Terlizzi; Bertrand of Artois and his father; Melazzo, +that other creature of Charles's, and Filippa the Catanese, handsome and +arrogant, but oddly silent to-night. + +But Charles of Durazzo was not of the company. It is not for the player, +himself, to become a piece upon the board. + +He had caught a whisper that the thing he had so slyly prompted to +Bertrand d'Artois was to be done here at Aversa, and so Charles had +remained at Naples. He had discovered very opportunely that his wife was +ailing, and he developed such concern for her that he could not bring +himself to leave her side. He had excused himself to Andreas with a +thousand regrets, since what he most desired was to enjoy with him the +cool, clean air of Aversa and the pleasures of the chase; and he had +presented the young King at parting with the best of all his falcons in +earnest of affection and disappointment. + +The night wore on, and at last, at a sign from the Queen, the ladies +rose and departed to their beds. The men settled down again. The +cellarers redoubled their activities, the flagons circulated more +briskly, and the noise they made must have disturbed the monks +entrenched in their cells against these earthly vanities. The laughter +of Andreas grew louder and more vacuous, and when at last he heaved +himself up at midnight and departed to bed, that he might take some rest +against the morrow's hunt, he staggered a little in his walk. + +But there were other hunters there whose impatience could not keep until +the morrow, whose game was to be run to death that very night. They +waited--Bertrand d'Artois, Robert of Cabane, the Counts of Terlizzi and +Morcone, Melazzo and Andreas's body servant Pace--until all those who +lay at Aversa were deep in slumber. Then at two o'clock in the morning +they made their stealthy way to the loggia on the third floor, a long +colonnaded gallery above the Abbot's garden. They paused a moment before +the Queen's door which opened upon this gallery, then crept on to that +of the King's room at the other end. It was Pace who rapped sharply +on the panels thrice before he was answered by a sleepy growl from the +other side. + +"It is I--Pace--my lord," he announced. "A courier has arrived from +Naples, from Friar Robert, with instant messages." + +From within there was a noisy yawn, a rustle, the sound of an +overturning stool, and, lastly, the rasp of a bolt being withdrawn. The +door opened, and in the faint light of the dawning day Andreas appeared, +drawing a furlined robe about his body, which was naked of all but a +shirt. + +He saw no one but Pace. The others had drawn aside into the shadows. +Unsuspecting, he stepped forth. + +"Where is this messenger?" + +The door through which he had come slammed suddenly behind him, and he +turned to see Melazzo in the act of bolting it with a dagger to prevent +any one from following that way--for the room had another door opening +upon the inner corridor. + +Instead, Melazzo might have employed his dagger to stab Andreas behind, +and so have made an instant end. But it happened to be known that +Andreas wore an amulet--a ring that his mother had given him--which +rendered him invulnerable to steel or poison. And such was the credulity +of his age, such the blind faith of those men in the miraculous power +of that charm, that none of them so much as attempted to test it with a +dagger. It was for the same reason that no recourse was had to the still +easier method of disposing of him by poison. Accepting the amulet at +its legendary value, the conspirators had resolved that he must be +strangled. + +As he turned now they leapt upon him, and, taking him unawares, bore +him to the ground before he could realize what was happening. Here they +grappled with him, and he with them. He was endowed with the strength of +a young bull, and he made full use of it. He rose, beating them off, to +be borne down again, bellowing the while for help. He smote out blindly, +and stretched Morcone half senseless with a blow of his great fist. + +Seeing how difficult he proved to strangle, they must have cursed that +amulet of his. He struggled to his knees again, then to his feet, and, +at last, with bleeding face, leaving tufts of his fair hair in their +murderous hands, he broke through and went bounding down the loggia, +screaming as he ran, until he came to his wife's door. Against that he +hurled himself, calling her. + +"Giovanna! Giovanna! For the love of God crucified! Open! Open! I am +being murdered!" + +From within came no answer--utter silence. + +"Giovanna! Giovanna!" He beat frenziedly upon the door. + +Still no answer, which yet was answer enough. + +The stranglers, momentarily discomfited, scared, too, lest his cries +should rouse the convent, had stood hesitating after he broke from them. +But now Bertrand d'Artois, realizing that too much had been done already +to admit of the business being left unfinished, sprang upon him suddenly +again. Locked in each other's arms, those wrestlers swayed and panted in +the loggia for a moment, then with a crash went down, Bertrand on +top, Andreas striking his head against the stone floor as he fell. The +Queen's lover pinned him there, kneeling upon his breast. + +"The rope!" he panted to the others who came up. + +One of them threw him a coil of purple silk interwrought with gold +thread, in which a running noose had been tied. Bertrand slipped it +over Andreas's head, drew it taut, and held it so, despite the man's +desperate, convulsive struggles. The others came to his assistance. +Amongst them they lifted the writhing victim to the parapet of the +loggia, and flung him over; whilst Bertrand, Cabane, and Pace bore upon +the rope, arresting his fall, and keeping him suspended there until he +should be dead. Melazzo and Morcone came to assist them, and it was then +that Cabane observed that Terlizzi held aloof, as if filled with horror. + +Peremptorily he called to him: + +"Hither, and lend a hand! The rope is long enough to afford you a grip. +We want accomplices, not witnesses, Lord Count." + +Terlizzi obeyed, and then the ensuing silence was broken suddenly by +screams from the floor below the screams of a woman who slept in the +room immediately underneath, who had awakened to behold in the grey +light of the breaking day the figure of a man kicking and writhing at a +rope's end before her window. + +Yet a moment the startled stranglers kept their grip of the rope until +the struggles at the end of it had ceased; then they loosed their hold +and let the body go plunging down into the Abbot's garden. Thereafter +they scattered and fled, for people were stirring now in the convent, +aroused by the screams of the woman. + +Thrice, so the story runs, came the monks to the Queen's door to knock +and demand her orders for the disposal of the body of her husband +without receiving any answer to their question. It remained still +unanswered when later in the day she departed from Aversa in a closed +litter, and returned to Naples escorted by a company of lances, and +for lack of instructions the monks left the body in the Abbot's garden, +where it had fallen, until Charles of Durazzo came to remove it two days +later. + +Ostentatiously he bore to Naples the murdered Prince--whose death he had +so subtly inspired--and in the cathedral before the Hungarians, whom he +had assembled, and in the presence of a vast concourse of the people, he +solemnly swore over the body vengeance upon the murderers. + +Having made a cat's-paw of Giovanna--through the person of her lover, +Bertrand d'Artois, and his confederate assassins--and thus cleared away +one of those who stood between himself and the throne, he now sought +to make a cat's-paw of justice to clear away the other. Meanwhile, days +grew into weeks and weeks into months, and no attempt was made by the +Queen to hunt out the murderers of her husband, no inquiry instituted. +Bertrand d'Artois, it is true, had fled with his father to their +stronghold of Saint Agatha for safety. But the others--Cabane, Terlizzi, +and Morcone--continued unabashed about Giovanna's person at the Castel +Nuovo. + +Charles wrote to Ludwig of Hungary, and to the Pope, demanding that +justice should be done, and pointing out the neglect of all attempt +to perform it in the kingdom itself, and inviting them to construe for +themselves that neglect. As a consequence, Clement VI issued, on June +2d of the following year, a Bull, whereby Bertrand des Baux, the +Grand Justiciary of Naples, was commanded to hunt down and punish the +assassins, against whom--at the same time--the Pope launched a second +Bull, of excommunication. But the Holy Father accompanied his commands +to Des Baux by a private note, wherein he straitly enjoined the Grand +Justiciary for reasons of State to permit nothing to transpire that +might reflect upon the Queen. + +Des Baux set about his task at once, and inspired, no doubt, by Charles, +proceeded to the arrest of Melazzo and the servant Pace. It was not for +Charles to accuse the Queen or even any of her nobles, whereby he might +have aroused against himself the opposition of those who were her +loyal partisans. Sufficient for him to point out the two meanest of the +conspirators, and depend upon the torture to wring from them confessions +that must gradually pull down the rest, and in the end Giovanna herself. + +Terlizzi, alive to his danger when he heard of the arrest of those two, +made a bold and desperate attempt to avert it. Riding forth with a band +of followers, he attacked the escort that was bearing Pace to prison. +The prisoner was seized, but not to be rescued. All that Terlizzi wanted +was his silence. By his orders the wretched man's tongue was torn out, +whereupon he was abandoned once more to his guards and his fate. + +Had Terlizzi been able to carry out his intentions of performing +the like operation upon Melazzo, Charles might have been placed in a +difficult position. So much, however, did not happen, and the horrible +deed upon Pace was in vain. Put to the question, Melazzo denounced +Terlizzi, and together with him Cabane, Morcone, and the others. +Further, his confession incriminated Filippa, the Catanese, and her two +daughters, the wives of Terlizzi and Morcone. Of the Queen, however, he +said nothing, because, one of the lesser conspirators, little more +than a servant like Pace, he can have had no knowledge of the Queen's +complicity. + +The arrest of the others followed instantly, and, sentenced to death, +they were publicly burned in the Square of Sant' Eligio, after suffering +all the brutal, unspeakable horrors of fourteenth-century torture, which +continued to the very scaffold, with the alleged intention of inducing +them to denounce any further accomplices. But though they writhed and +fainted under the pincers of the executioners, they confessed nothing. +Indeed, they preserved a silence which left the people amazed, for the +people lacked the explanation. The Grand Justiciary, Hugh des Baux, +had seen to it that the Pope's injunctions should be obeyed. Lest the +condemned should say too much, he had taken the precaution of having +their tongues fastened down with fish-hooks. + +Thus Charles was momentarily baulked, and he was further baulked by the +fact that Giovanna had taken a second husband, in her cousin, Louis +of Taranto. Unless matters were to remain there and the game end in +a stalemate, bold measures were required, and those measures Charles +adopted. He wrote to the King of Hungary now openly accusing Giovanna +of the murder, and pointing out the circumstances that in themselves +afforded corroboration of his charge. + +Those circumstances Ludwig embodied in a fulminating letter which +he wrote to Giovanna in answer to her defence against the charge of +inaction in the matter of her late husband's murderers: "Giovanna, thy +antecedent disorderly life, thy retention of the exclusive power in the +kingdom, thy neglect of vengeance upon the murderers of thy husband, thy +having taken another husband, and thy very excuses abundantly prove thy +complicity in thy husband's death." + +So far this was all as Charles of Durazzo could have desired it. But +there was more. Ludwig was advancing now in arms to take possession of +the kingdom, of which, under all the circumstances, he might consider +himself the lawful heir, and the Princes of Italy were affording +him unhindered passage through their States. This was not at all to +Charles's liking. Indeed, unless he bestirred himself, it might prove to +be checkmate from an altogether unexpected quarter, rendering vain all +the masterly play with which he had conducted the game so far. + +It flustered him a little, and in his haste to counter it he blundered. + +Giovanna, alarmed at the rapid advance of Ludwig, summoned her barons to +her aid, and in that summons she included Charles, realizing that at +all costs he must be brought over to her side. He went, listened, and +finally sold himself for a good price the title of Duke of Calabria, +which made him heir to the kingdom. He raised a powerful troop of +lances, and marched upon Aquila, which had already hoisted the Hungarian +banner. + +There it was that he discovered, and soon, his move to have been a bad +one. News was brought to him that the Queen, taken with panic, had fled +to Provence, seeking sanctuary at Avignon. + +Charles set about correcting his error without delay, and marched out +of Aquila to go and meet Ludwig that he might protest his loyalty, and +range himself under the invader's banner. + +At Foligno, the King of Hungary was met by a papal legate, who in the +name of Pope Clement forbade him under pain of excommunication to invade +a fief of Holy Church. + +"When I am master of Naples," answered Ludwig firmly, "I shall count +myself a feudatory of the Holy See. Until then I render account to none +but God and my conscience." And he pushed on, preceded by a black banner +of death, scattering in true Hungarian fashion murder, rape, pillage, +and arson through the smiling countryside, exacting upon the whole land +a terrible vengeance for the murder of his brother. + +Thus he came to Aversa, and there quartered himself and his Hungarians +upon that convent of Saint Peter where Andreas had been strangled a year +ago. And it was here that he was joined by Charles, who came protesting +loyalty, and whom the King received with open arms and a glad welcome, +as was to be expected from a man who had been Andreas's one true friend +in that land of enemies. Of Charles's indiscreet escapade in the matter +of Aquila nothing was said. As Charles had fully expected, it was +condoned upon the score both of the past and the present. + +That night there was high feasting in that same refectory where Andreas +had feasted on the night when the stranglers watched him, waiting, and +Charles was the guest of honour. In the morning Ludwig was to pursue his +march upon the city of Naples, and all were astir betimes. + +On the point of setting out, Ludwig turned to Charles. + +"Before I go," he said, "I have a mind to visit the spot where my +brother died." + +To Charles, no doubt, this seemed a morbid notion to be discouraged. But +Ludwig was insistent. + +"Take me there," he bade the Duke. + +"Indeed, I scarce know--I was not here, remember," Charles answered +him, rendered faintly uneasy, perhaps by a certain grimness in the gaunt +King's face, perhaps by the mutterings of his own conscience. + +"I know that you were not; but surely you must know the place. It will +be known to all the world in these parts. Besides, was it not yourself +recovered the body? Conduct me thither, then." + +Perforce, then, Charles must do his will. Arm-in-arm they mounted the +stairs to that sinister loggia, a half-dozen of Ludwig's escorting +officers following. + +They stepped along the tessellated floor above the Abbot's garden, +flooded now with sunshine which drew the perfume from the roses blooming +there. + +"Here the King slept," said Charles, "and yonder the Queen. Somewhere +here between the thing was done, and thence they hanged him." + +Ludwig, tall and grim, stood considering, chin in hand. Suddenly he +wheeled upon the Duke who stood at his elbow. His face had undergone a +change, and his lip curled so that he displayed his strong teeth as a +dog displays them when he snarls. + +"Traitor!" he rasped. "It is you--you who come smiling and fawning upon +me, and spurring me on to vengeance--who are to blame for what happened +here." + +"I?" Charles fell back, changing colour, his legs trembling under him. + +"You!" the King answered him furiously. "His death would never have +come about but for your intrigues to keep him out of the royal power, to +hinder his coronation." + +"It is false!" cried Charles. "False! I swear it before God!" + +"Perjured dog! Do you deny that you sought the aid of your precious +uncle the Cardinal of Perigord to restrain the Pope from granting the +Bull required?" + +"I do deny it. The facts deny it. The Bull was forthcoming." + +"Then your denial but proves your guilt," the King answered him, and +from the leather pouch hanging from his belt, he pulled out a parchment, +and held it under the Duke's staring eyes. It was the letter he had +written to the Cardinal of Perigord, enjoining him to prevent the Pope +from signing the Bull sanctioning Andreas's coronation. + +The King smiled terribly into that white, twitching face. + +"Deny it now," he mocked him. "Deny, too, that, bribed by the title of +Duke of Calabria, you turned to the service of the Queen, to abandon +it again for ours when you perceived your danger. You think to use us, +traitor, as a stepping-stone to help you to mount the throne--as you +sought to use my brother even to the extent of encompassing his murder." + +"No, no! I had no hand in that. I was his friend--" + +"Liar!" Ludwig struck him across the mouth. + +On the instant the officers of Ludwig laid hands upon the Duke, fearing +that the indignity might spur him to retaliation. + +"You are very opportune," said Ludwig; and added coldly, "Dispatch him." + +Charles screamed a moment, even as Andreas had screamed on that same +spot, when he found himself staring into the fearful face of death. Then +the scream became a cough as a Hungarian sword went through him from +side to side. + +They picked up his body from the tessellated floor of the loggia, +carried it to the parapet as Andreas's had been carried, and flung it +down into the Abbot's garden as Andreas's had been flung. It lay in a +rosebush, dyeing the Abbot's roses a deeper red. + +Never was justice more poetic. + + + + + + +XI. THE NIGHT OF HATE--The Murder Of The Duke Of Gandia + +The Cardinal Vice-Chancellor took the packet proffered him by the +fair-haired, scarlet-liveried page, and turned it over, considering it, +the gentle, finely featured, almost ascetic face very thoughtful. + +"It was brought, my lord, by a man in a mask, who will give no name. He +waits below," said the scarlet stripling. + +"A man in a mask, eh? What mystery!" + +The thoughtful brown eyes smiled, the fine hands broke the fragment of +wax. A gold ring fell out and rolled some little way along the black +and purple Eastern rug. The boy dived after it, and presented it to his +lordship. + +The ring bore an escutcheon, and the Cardinal found graven upon this +escutcheon his own arms the Sforza lion and the flower of the quince. +Instantly those dark, thoughtful eyes of his grew keen as they flashed +upon the page. + +"Did you see the device?" he asked, a hint of steel under the silkiness +of his voice. + +"I saw nothing, my lord--a ring, no more. I did not even look." + +The Cardinal continued to ponder him for a long moment very searchingly. + +"Go--bring this man," he said at last; and the boy departed, soon +to reappear; holding aside the tapestry that masked the door to give +passage to a man of middle height wrapped in a black cloak, his face +under a shower of golden hair, covered from chin to brow by a black +visor. + +At a sign from the Cardinal the page departed. Then the man, coming +forward, let fall his cloak, revealing a rich dress of close-fitting +violet silk, sword and dagger hanging from his jewelled girdle; he +plucked away the mask, and disclosed the handsome, weak face of Giovanni +Sforza, Lord of Pesaro and Cotignola, the discarded husband of Madonna +Lucrezia, Pope Alexander's daughter. + +The Cardinal considered his nephew gravely, without surprise. He had +expected at first no more than a messenger from the owner of that +ring. But at sight of his figure and long, fair hair he had recognized +Giovanni before the latter had removed his mask. + +"I have always accounted you something mad," said the Cardinal softly. +"But never mad enough for this. What brings you to Rome?" + +"Necessity, my lord," replied the young tyrant. "The need to defend my +honour, which is about to be destroyed." + +"And your life?" wondered his uncle. "Has that ceased to be of value?" + +"Without honour it is nothing." + +"A noble sentiment taught in every school. But for practical purposes--" +The Cardinal shrugged. + +Giovanni, however, paid no heed. + +"Did you think, my lord, that I should tamely submit to be a derided, +outcast husband, that I should take no vengeance upon, that villainous +Pope for having made me a thing of scorn, a byword throughout Italy?" +Livid hate writhed in his fair young face. "Did you think I should, +indeed, remain in Pesaro, whither I fled before their threats to my +life, and present no reckoning?" + +"What is the reckoning you have in mind?" inquired his uncle, faintly +ironical. "You'll not be intending to kill the Holy Father?" + +"Kill him?" Giovanni laughed shortly, scornfully. "Do the dead suffer?" + +"In hell, sometimes," said the Cardinal. + +"Perhaps. But I want to be sure. I want sufferings that I can witness, +sufferings that I can employ as balsam for my own wounded honour. I +shall strike, even as he has stricken me--at his soul, not at his body. +I shall wound him where he is most sensitive." + +Ascanio Sforza, towering tall and slender in his scarlet robes, shook +his head slowly. + +"All this is madness--madness! You were best away, best in Pesaro. +Indeed, you cannot safely show your face in Rome." + +"That is why I go masked. That is why I come to you, my lord, for +shelter here until--" + +"Here?" The Cardinal was instantly alert. "Then you think I am as mad as +yourself. Why, man, if so much as a whisper of your presence in Rome got +abroad, this is the first place where they would look for you. If you +will have your way, if you are so set on the avenging of past wrongs +and the preventing of future ones, it is not for me, your kinsman, +to withstand you. But here in my palace you cannot stay, for your own +safety's sake. That page who brought you, now; I would not swear he did +not see the arms upon your ring. I pray that he did not. But if he did, +your presence is known here already." + +Giovanni was perturbed. + +"But if not here, where, then, in Rome should I be safe?" + +"Nowhere, I think," answered the ironical Ascanio. "Though perhaps you +might count yourself safe with Pico. Your common hate of the Holy Father +should be a stout bond between you." + +Fate prompted the suggestion. Fate drove the Lord of Pesaro to act +upon it, and to seek out Antonio Maria Pico, Count of Mirandola, in his +palace by the river, where Pico, as Ascanio had foreseen, gave him a +cordial welcome. + +There he abode almost in hiding until the end of May, seldom issuing +forth, and never without his mask--a matter this which excited no +comment, for masked faces were common in the streets of Rome in the +evening of the fifteenth century. In talk with Pico he set forth +his intent, elaborating what already he had told the Cardinal +Vice-Chancellor. + +"He is a father--this Father of Fathers," he said once. "A tender, +loving father whose life is in his children, who lives through them +and for them. Deprive him of them, and his life would become empty, +worthless, a living death. There is Giovanni, who is as the apple of his +eye, whom he has created Duke of Gandia, Duke of Benevento, Prince +of Sessa, Lord of Teano, and more besides. There is the Cardinal of +Valencia, there is Giuffredo, Prince of Squillace, and there is my wife, +Lucrezia, of whom he has robbed me. There is, you see, an ample heel to +our Achilles. The question is, where shall we begin?" + +"And also, how," Pico reminded him. + +Fate was to answer both those questions, and that soon. + +They went on June 1st--the Lord of Pesaro, with his host and his host's +daughter, Antonia--to spend the day at Pico's vineyard in Trastevere. At +the moment of setting out to return to Rome in the evening the Count was +detained by his steward, newly returned from a journey with matters to +communicate to him. + +He bade his guest, with his daughter and their attendants, to ride on, +saying that he himself would follow and overtake them. But the steward +detained him longer than he had expected, so that, although the company +proceeded leisurely towards the city, Pico had not come up with them +when they reached the river. In the narrow street beyond the bridge the +little escort found itself suddenly confronted and thrust aside by a +magnificent cavalcade of ladies and gallants, hawk on wrist and followed +by a pack of hounds. + +Giovanni had eyes for one only in that gay company--a tall, splendidly +handsome man in green, a Plumed bonnet on his auburn head, and a +roguish, jovial eye, which, in its turn, saw nobody in that moment but +Madonna Antonia, reclining in her litter, the leather curtains of which +she had drawn back that she might converse with Giovanni as they rode. + +The Lord of Pesaro beheld the sudden kindling of his brother-in-law's +glance, for that handsome gallant was the Duke of Gandia, the Pope's +eldest son, the very apple of the Holy Father's eye. He saw the Duke's +almost unconscious check upon his reins; saw him turn in the saddle to +stare boldly at Madonna Antonia until, grown conscious of his regard, +she crimsoned under it. And when at last the litter had moved on, he +saw over his shoulder a mounted servant detach from the Duke's side to +follow them. This fellow dogged their heels all the way to the Parione +Quarter, obviously with intent to discover for his master where the +beautiful lady of the litter might be housed. + +Giovanni said naught of this to Pico when he returned a little later. +He was quick to perceive the opportunity that offered, but far from sure +that Pico would suffer his daughter to be used as a decoy; far, indeed, +from sure that he dared himself so employ her. But on the morrow, +chancing to look from a window out of idle curiosity to see what horse +it was that was pacing in the street below, he beheld a man in a rich +cloak, in whom at once he recognized the Duke, and he accounted that the +dice of destiny had fallen. + +Himself unseen by that horseman, Giovanni drew back quickly. On the spur +of the moment, he acted with a subtlety worthy of long premeditation. +Antonia and he were by an odd fatality alone together in that chamber of +the mezzanine. He turned to her. + +"An odd fellow rides below here, tarrying as if expectant. I wonder +should you know who he is." + +Obeying his suggestion, she rose--a tall, slim child of some eighteen +years, of a delicate, pale beauty, with dark, thoughtful eyes and long, +black tresses, interwoven with jewelled strands of gold thread. She +rustled to the window and looked down upon that cavalier; and, as she +looked, scanning him intently, the Duke raised his head. Their eyes met, +and she drew back with a little cry. + +"What is it?" exclaimed Giovanni. + +"It is that insolent fellow who stared at me last evening in the street. +I would you had not bidden me look." + +Now, whilst she had been gazing from the window, Giovanni, moving softly +behind her, had espied a bowl of roses on the ebony table in the room's +middle. Swiftly and silently he had plucked a blossom, which he now held +behind his back. As she turned from him again, he sent it flying through +the window; and whilst in his heart he laughed with bitter hate and +scorn as he thought of Gandia snatching up that rose and treasuring it +in his bosom, aloud he laughed at her fears, derided them as idle. + +That night, in his room, Giovanni practised penmanship assiduously, +armed with a model with which Antonia had innocently equipped him. He +went to bed well pleased, reflecting that as a man lives so does he die. +Giovanni Borgia, Duke of Gandia, had been ever an amiable profligate, a +heedless voluptuary obeying no spur but that of his own pleasure, which +should drive him now to his destruction. Giovanni Borgia, he considered +further, was, as he had expressed it, the very apple of his father's +eye; and since, of his own accord, the Duke had come to thrust his +foolish head into the noose, the Lord of Pesaro would make a sweet +beginning to the avenging of his wrongs by drawing it taut. + +Next morning saw him at the Vatican, greatly daring, to deliver in +person his forgery to the Duke. Suspicious of his mask, they asked him +who he was and whence he came. + +"Say one who desires to remain unknown with a letter for the Duke of +Gandia which his magnificence will welcome." + +Reluctantly, a chamberlain departed with his message. Anon he was +conducted above to the magnificent apartments which Gandia occupied +during his sojourn there. + +He found the Duke newly risen, and with him his brother, the +auburn-headed young Cardinal of Valencia, dressed in a close-fitting +suit of black, that displayed his lithe and gracefully athletic +proportions, and a cloak of scarlet silk to give a suggestion of his +ecclesiastical rank. + +Giovanni bowed low, and, thickening his voice that it might not be +recognized, announced himself and his mission in one. + +"From the lady of the rose," said he, proffering the letter. + +Valencia stared a moment; then went off into a burst of laughter. +Gandia's face flamed and his eyes sparkled. He snatched the letter, +broke its seal, and consumed its contents. Then he flung away to a +table, took up a pen, and sat down to write; the tall Valencia watching +him with amused scorn a while, then crossing to his side and setting a +hand upon his shoulder. + +"You will never learn," said the more subtle Cesare. "You must forever +be leaving traces where traces are not to be desired." + +Gandia looked up into that keen, handsome young face. + +"You are right," he said; and crumpled the letter in his hand. + +Then he looked at the messenger and hesitated. + +"I am in Madonna's confidence," said the man in the mask. + +Gandia rose. "Then say--say that her letter has carried me to Heaven; +that I but await her commands to come in person to declare myself. But +bid her hasten, for within two weeks from now I go to Naples, and thence +I may return straight to Spain." + +"The opportunity shall be found, Magnificent. Myself I shall bring you +word of it." + +The Duke loaded him with thanks, and in his excessive gratitude pressed +upon him at parting a purse of fifty ducats, which Giovanni flung into +the Tiber some ten minutes later as he was crossing the Bridge of Sant' +Angelo on his homeward way. + +The Lord of Pesaro proceeded without haste. Delay and silence he knew +would make Gandia the more sharp-set, and your sharp-set, impatient +fellow is seldom cautious. Meanwhile, Antonia had mentioned to her +father that princely stranger who had stared so offendingly one evening, +and who for an hour on the following morning had haunted the street +beneath her window. Pico mentioned it to Giovanni, whereupon Giovanni +told him frankly who it was. + +"It was that libertine brother-in-law of mine, the Duke of Gandia," he +said. "Had he persisted, I should have bidden you look to your daughter. +As it is, no doubt he has other things to think of. He is preparing +for his journey to Naples, to accompany his brother Cesare, who goes as +papal legate to crown Federigo of Aragon." + +There he left the matter, and no more was heard of it until the night of +June 14th, the very eve of the departure of the Borgia princes upon that +mission. + +Cloaked and masked, Giovanni took his way to the Vatican at dusk that +evening, and desired to have himself announced to the Duke. But he was +met with the answer that the Duke was absent; that he had gone to take +leave of his mother and to sup at her villa in Trastevere. His return +was not expected until late. + +At first Giovanni feared that, in leaving the consummation of his plot +until the eleventh hour, he had left it too late. In his anxiety he at +once set out on foot, as he was, for the villa of Madonna Giovanna de +Catanei. He reached it towards ten o'clock that night, to be informed +that Gandia was there, at supper. The servant went to bear word to +the Duke that a man in a mask was asking to see him, a message which +instantly flung Gandia into agitation. Excitedly he commanded that the +man be brought to him at once. + +The Lord of Pesaro was conducted through the house and out into the +garden to an arbour of vine, where a rich table was spread in the +evening cool, lighted by alabaster lamps. About this table Giovanni +found a noble company of his own relations by marriage. There was +Gandia, who rose hurriedly at his approach, and came to meet him; there +was Cesare, Cardinal of Valencia, who was to go to Naples to-morrow as +papal legate, yet dressed tonight in cloth of gold, with no trace of his +churchly dignity about him; there was their younger brother Giuffredo, +Prince of Squillace, a handsome stripling, flanked by his wife, the +free-and-easy Donna Sancia of Aragon, swarthy, coarse-featured, and +fleshy, despite her youth; there was Giovanni's sometime wife; the +lovely, golden-headed Lucrezia, the innocent cause of all this hate that +festered in the Lord of Pesaro's soul; there was their mother, the nobly +handsome Giovanozza de Catanei, from whom the Borgias derived their +auburn heads; and there was their cousin, Giovanni Borgia, Cardinal of +Monreale, portly and scarlet, at Madonna's side. + +All turned to glance at this masked intruder who had the power so oddly +to excite their beloved Gandia. + +"From the lady of the rose," Giovanni announced himself softly to the +Duke. + +"Yes, yes," came the answer, feverishly impatient. "Well, what is your +message?" + +"To-night her father is from home. She will expect your magnificence at +midnight." + +Gandia drew a deep breath. + +"By the Host! You are no more than in time. I had almost despaired, +my friend, my best of friends. To-night!" He pronounced the word +ecstatically. "Wait you here. Yourself you shall conduct me. Meanwhile, +go sup." + +And beating his hands, he summoned attendants. + +Came the steward and a couple of Moorish slaves in green turbans, to +whose care the Duke commanded his masked visitor. But Giovanni neither +required nor desired their ministrations; he would not eat nor drink, +but contented himself with the patience of hatred to sit for two long +hours awaiting the pleasure of his foolish victim. + +They left at last, a little before midnight the Duke, his brother +Cesare, his cousin Monreale, and a numerous attendance, his own retinue +and those of the two cardinals. Thus they rode back to Rome, the Borgias +very gay, the man in the mask plodding along beside them. + +They came to the Rione de Ponte, where their ways were to separate, and +there, opposite the palace of the Cardinal Vice-Chancellor, Gandia drew +rein. He announced to the others that he went no farther with them, +summoned a single groom to attend him, and bade the remainder return to +the Vatican and await him there. + +There was a last jest and a laugh from Cesare as the cavalcade went on +towards the papal palace. Then Gandia turned to the man in the mask, +bade him get up on the crupper of his horse, and so rode slowly off +in the direction of the Giudecca, the single attendant he had retained +trotting beside his stirrup. + +Giovanni directed his brother-in-law, not to the main entrance of the +house, but to the garden gate, which opened upon a narrow alley. Here +they dismounted, flinging the reins to the groom, who was bidden to +wait. Giovanni produced a key, unlocked the door, and ushered the Duke +into the gloom of the garden. A stone staircase ran up to the loggia +on the mezzanine, and by this way was Gandia now conducted, treading +softly. His guide went ahead. He had provided himself with yet another +key, and so unlocked the door from the loggia which opened upon the +ante-room of Madonna Antonia. He held the door for the Duke, who +hesitated, seeing all in darkness. + +"In," Giovanni bade him. "Tread softly. Madonna waits for you." + +Recklessly, then, that unsuspecting fellow stepped into the trap. + +Giovanni followed, closed the door, and locked it. The Duke, standing +with quickened pulses in that impenetrable blackness, found himself +suddenly embraced, not at all after the fond fashion he was expecting. A +wrestler's arms enlaced his body, a sinewy leg coiled itself snake-wise +about one of his own, pulling it from under him. As he crashed down +under the weight of his unseen opponent, a great voice boomed out: + +"Lord of Mirandola! To me! Help! Thieves!" + +Suddenly a door opened. Light flooded the gloom, and the writhing Duke +beheld a white vision of the girl whose beauty had been the lure that +had drawn him into this peril which, as yet, he scarcely understood. But +looking up into the face of the man who grappled with him, the man who +held him there supine under his weight, he began at last to understand, +or, at least, to suspect, for the face he saw, unmasked now, leering at +him with hate unspeakable through the cloud of golden hair that half +met across it, was the face of Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, whom his +family had so cruelly wronged. Giovanni Sforza's was the voice that now +fiercely announced his doom. + +"You and yours have made me a thing of scorn and laughter. Yourself have +laughed at me. Go laugh in hell!" + +A blade flashed up in Giovanni's hand. Gandia threw up an arm to fend +his breast, and the blade buried itself in the muscles. He screamed with +pain and terror. The other laughed with hate and triumph, and stabbed +again, this time in the shoulder. + +Antonia, from the threshold, watching in bewilderment and panic, sent +a piercing scream to ring through the house, and then the voice of +Giovanni, fierce yet exultant, called aloud: + +"Pico! Pico! Lord of Mirandola! Look to your daughter!" + +Came steps and voice, more light, flooding now the chamber, and through +the mists gathering before his eyes the first-born of the house of +Borgia beheld hurrying men, half dressed, with weapons in their hands. +But whether they came to kill or to save, they came too late: Ten times +Giovanni's blade had stabbed the Duke, yet, hindered by the Duke's +struggles and by the effort of holding him there, he had been unable to +find his heart, wherefore, as those others entered now, he slashed his +victim across the throat, and so made an end. + +He rose, covered with blood, so ghastly and terrific that Pico, thinking +him wounded, ran to him. But Giovanni reassured him with a laugh, and +pointed with his dripping dagger. + +"The blood is his--foul Borgia blood!" + +At the name Pico started, and there was a movement as of fear from the +three grooms who followed him. The Count looked down at that splendid, +blood-spattered figure lying there so still, its sightless eyes +staring up at the frescoed ceiling, so brave and so pitiful in his +gold-broidered suit of white satin, with the richly jewelled girdle +carrying gloves and purse and a jewelled dagger that had been so useless +in that extremity. + +"Gandia" he cried; and looked at Giovanni with round eyes of fear and +amazement. "How came he here?" + +"How?" + +With bloody hand Giovanni pointed to the open door of Antonia's chamber. + +"That was the lure, my lord. Taking the air outside, I saw him slinking +hither, and took him for a thief, as, indeed, he was--a thief of honour, +like all his kind. I followed, and--there he lies." + +"My God!" cried Pico. And then hoarsely asked, "And Antonia?" + +Giovanni dismissed the question abruptly. + +"She saw, yet she knows nothing." + +And then on another note: + +"Up now, Pico!" he cried. "Arouse the city, and let all men know how +Gandia died the death of a thief. Let all men know this Borgia brood for +what it is." + +"Are you mad?" cried Pico. "Will I put my neck under the knife?" + +"You took him here in the night, and yours was the right to kill. You +exercised it." + +Pico looked long and searchingly into the other's face. True, all the +appearances bore out the tale, as did, too, what had gone before and +had been the cause of Antonia's complaint to him. Yet, knowing what lay +between Sforza and Borgia, it may have seemed to Pico too extraordinary +a coincidence that Giovanni should have been so ready at hand to defend +the honour of the House of Mirandola. But he asked no questions. He was +content in his philosophy to accept the event and be thankful for it on +every count. But as for Giovanni's suggestion that he should proclaim +through Rome how he had exercised his right to slay this Tarquin, the +Lord of Mirandola had no mind to adopt it. + +"What is done is done," he said shortly, in a tone that conveyed much. +"Let it suffice us all. It but remains now to be rid of this." + +"You will keep silent?" cried Giovanni, plainly vexed. + +"I am not a fool," said Pico gently. + +Giovanni understood. "And these your men?" + +"Are very faithful friends who will aid you now to efface all traces." + +And upon that he moved away, calling his daughter, whose absence was +intriguing him. Receiving no answer, he entered her room, to find her +in a swoon across her bed. She had fainted from sheer horror at what she +had seen. + +Followed by the three servants bearing the body, Giovanni went down +across the garden very gently. Approaching the gate, he bade them wait, +saying that he went to see that the coast was clear. Then, going forward +alone, he opened the gate and called softly to the waiting groom: + +"Hither to me!" + +Promptly the man surged before him in the gloom, and as promptly +Giovanni sank his dagger in the fellow's breast. He deplored the +necessity for the deed, but it was unavoidable, and your cinquecentist +never shrank from anything that necessity imposed upon him. To let the +lackey live would be to have the bargelli in the house by morning. + +The man sank with a half-uttered cry, and lay still. + +Giovanni dragged him aside under the shelter of the wall, where the +others would not see him, then called softly to them to follow. + +When the grooms emerged from Pico's garden, the Lord of Pesaro was +astride of the fine white horse on which Gandia had ridden to his death. + +"Put him across the crupper," he bade them. + +And they so placed the body, the head dangling on one side, the legs on +the other. And Giovanni reflected grimly how he had reversed the order +in which Gandia and he had ridden that same horse an hour ago. + +At a walk they proceeded down the lane towards the river, a groom +on each side to see that the burden on the crupper did not jolt off, +another going ahead to scout. At the alley's mouth Giovanni drew rein, +and let the man emerge upon the river-bank and look to right and left to +make sure that there was no one about. + +He saw no one. Yet one there was who saw them--Giorgio, the timber +merchant, who lay aboard his boat moored to the Schiavoni, and who, +three days later, testified to what he saw. You know his testimony. It +has been repeated often--how he saw the man emerge from the alley and +look up and down, then retire, to emerge again, accompanied now by the +horseman with his burden, and the other two; how he saw them take the +body from the crupper of the horse, and, with a "one, two, and three," +fling it into the river; how he heard the horseman ask them had they +thrown it well into the middle, and their answer of, "Yes my lord"; and +finally, when asked why he had not come earlier to report the matter, +how he had answered that he had thought nothing of it, having in his +time seen more than a hundred bodies flung into the Tiber at night. + +Returned to the garden gate, Giovanni bade the men go in without +him. There was something yet that he must do. When they had gone, he +dismounted, and went to the body of the groom which he had left under +the wall. He must remove that too. He cut one of the stirrup-leathers +from the saddle, and attaching one end of it to the dead man's arm, +mounted again, and dragged him thus--ready to leave the body and ride +off at the first alarm--some little way, until he came to the Piazza +della Giudecca. Here, in the very heart of the Jewish quarters, he left +the body, and his movements hereafter are a little obscure. Perhaps he +set out to return to Pico della Mirandola's house, but becoming, as was +natural, uneasy on the way, fearing lest all traces should, after all, +not have been effaced, lest the Duke should be traced to that house, and +himself, if found there, dealt with summarily upon suspicion, he +turned about, and went off to seek sanctuary with his uncle, the +Vice-Chancellor. + +The Duke's horse, which he had ridden, he turned loose in the streets, +where it was found some hours later, and first gave occasion to rumours +of foul play. The rumours growing, with the discovery of the body of +Gandia's groom, and search-parties of armed bargelli scouring Rome, and +the Giudecca in particular, in the course of the next two days, forth at +last came Giorgio, that boatman of the Schiavoni, with the tale of what +he had seen. When the stricken Pope heard it, he ordered the bed of the +river to be dragged foot by foot, with the result that the ill-starred +Duke of Gandia was brought up in one of the nets, whereupon the +heartless Sanazzaro coined his terrible epigram concerning that +successor of Saint Peter, that Fisherman of Men. + +The people, looking about for him who had the greatest motive for that +deed, were quick to fasten the guilt upon Giovanni Sforza, who by that +time was far from Rome, riding hard for the shelter of his tyranny of +Pesaro; and the Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, who was also mentioned, and +who feared to be implicated, apprehensive ever lest his page should have +seen the betraying arms upon the ring of his masked visitor--fled also, +nor could be induced to return save under a safe-conduct from the Holy +Father, expressing conviction of his innocence. + +Later public rumour accused others; indeed, they accused in turn every +man who could have been a possible perpetrator, attributing to some of +them the most fantastic and incredible motives. Once, prompted no doubt +by their knowledge of the libertine, pleasure-loving nature of the dead +Duke, rumour hit upon the actual circumstances of the murder so closely, +indeed, that the Count of Mirandola's house was visited by the bargelli +and subjected to an examination, at which Pico violently rebelled, +appealing boldly to the Pope against insinuations that reflected upon +the honour of his daughter. + +The mystery remained impenetrable, and the culprit was never brought to +justice. We know that in slaying Gandia, Giovanni Sforza vented a hatred +whose object was not Gandia, but Gandia's father. His aim was to deal +Pope Alexander the cruellest and most lingering of wounds, and if he +lacked the avenger's satisfaction of disclosing himself, at least he +did not lack assurance that his blow had stricken home. He heard--as all +Italy heard--from that wayfarer on the bridge of Sant' Angelo, how the +Pope, in a paroxysm of grief at sight of his son's body fished from the +Tiber, had bellowed in his agony like a tortured bull, so that his +cries within the castle were heard upon the bridge. He learnt how the +handsome, vigorous Pope staggered into the consistory of the 19th of +that same month with the mien and gait of a palsied old man, and, in a +voice broken with sobs, proclaimed his bitter lament: + +"Had we seven Papacies we would give them all to restore the Duke to +life." + +He might have been content. But he was not. That deep hate of his +against those who had made him a thing of scorn was not so easily to be +slaked. He waited, spying his opportunity for further hurt. It came a +year later, when Gandia's brother, the ambitious Cesare Borgia, divested +himself of his cardinalitial robes and rank, exchanging them for +temporal dignities and the title of Duke of Valentinois. Then it was +that he took up the deadly weapon of calumny, putting it secretly about +that Cesare was the murderer of his brother, spurred to it by worldly +ambition and by other motives which involved the principal members of +the family. + +Men do not mount to Borgia heights without making enemies. The evil tale +was taken up in all its foul trappings, and, upon no better authority +than the public voice, it was enshrined in chronicles by every scribbler +of the day. And for four hundred years that lie has held its place in +history, the very cornerstone of all the execration that has been +heaped upon the name of Borgia. Never was vengeance more terrible, +far-reaching, and abiding. It is only in this twentieth century of ours +that dispassionate historians have nailed upon the counter of truth the +base coin of that accusation. + + + + + + +XII. THE NIGHT OF ESCAPE--Casanova's Escape From The Piombi + +Patrician influence from without had procured Casanova's removal in +August of that year, 1756, from the loathsome cell he had occupied +for thirteen months in the Piombi--so called from the leaded roof +immediately above those prisons which are simply the garrets of the +Doge's palace. + +That cell had been no better than a kennel seldom reached by the light +of day, and so shallow that it was impossible for a man of his fine +height to stand upright in it. But his present prison was comparatively +spacious and it was airy and well-lighted by a barred window, whence he +could see the Lido. + +Yet he was desperately chagrined at the change, for he had almost +completed his arrangements to break out of his former cell. The only ray +of hope in his present despair came from the fact that the implement to +which he trusted was still in his possession, safely concealed in the +upholstery of the armchair that had been moved with him into his present +quarters. That implement he had fashioned for himself with infinite +pains out of a door-bolt some twenty inches long, which he had found +discarded in a rubbish-heap in a corner of the attic where he had been +allowed to take his brief daily exercise. Using as a whetstone a small +slab of black marble, similarly acquired, he had shaped that bolt into a +sharp octagonal-pointed chisel or spontoon. + +It remained in his possession, but he saw no chance of using it now, for +the suspicions of Lorenzo, the gaoler, were aroused, and daily a couple +of archers came to sound the floors and walls. True they did not sound +the ceiling, which was low and within reach. But it was obviously +impossible to cut through the ceiling in such a manner as to leave the +progress of the work unseen. + +Hence his despair of breaking out of a prison where he had spent over a +year without trial or prospect of a trial, and where he seemed likely to +spend the remainder of his days. He did not even know precisely why +he had been arrested. All that Giacomo Casanova knew was that he +was accounted a disturber of the public peace. He was notoriously a +libertine, a gamester, and heavily in debt: also--and this was more +serious--he was accused of practising magic, as indeed he had done, as a +means of exploiting to his own profit the credulity of simpletons of all +degrees. He would have explained to the Inquisitors of State of the Most +Serene Republic that the books of magic found by their apparitors in +his possession--"The Clavicula of Solomon," the "Zecor-ben," and other +kindred works--had been collected by him as curious instances of human +aberration. But the Inquisitors of State would not have believed him, +for the Inquisitors were among those who took magic seriously. And, +anyhow, they had never asked him to explain, but had left him as if +forgotten in that abominable verminous cell under the leads, until his +patrician friend had obtained him the mercy of this transfer to better +quarters. + +This Casanova was a man of iron nerve and iron constitution. Tall and +well-made, he was boldly handsome, with fine dark eyes and dark brown +hair. In age he was barely one and twenty; but he looked older, as +well he might, for in his adventurer's way he had already gathered more +experience of life than most men gain in half a century. + +The same influence that had obtained him his change of cell had also +gained him latterly the privilege--and he esteemed it beyond all +else--of procuring himself books. Desiring the works of Maffai, he +bade his gaoler purchase them out of the allowance made him by the +Inquisitors in accordance with the Venetian custom. This allowance was +graduated to the social status of each prisoner. But the books being +costly and any monthly surplus from his monthly expenditure being +usually the gaoler's perquisite, Lorenzo was reluctant to indulge him. +He mentioned that there was a prisoner above who was well equipped with +books, and who, no doubt, would be glad to lend in exchange. + +Yielding to the suggestion, Casanova handed Lorenzo a copy of Peteau's +"Rationarium," and received next morning, in exchange, the first volume +of Wolf. Within he found a sheet bearing in six verses a paraphrase of +Seneca's epigram, "Calamitosus est animus futuri anxius." Immediately +he perceived he had stumbled upon a means of corresponding with one who +might be disposed to assist him to break prison. + +In reply, being a scholarly rascal (he had been educated for the +priesthood), he wrote six verses himself. Having no pen, he cut the long +nail of his little finger to a point, and, splitting it, supplied +the want. For ink he used the juice of mulberries. In addition to the +verses, he wrote a list of the books in his possession, which he placed +at the disposal of his fellow-captive. He concealed the written sheet in +the spine of that vellum-bound volume; and on the title-page, in warning +of this, he wrote the single Latin word "Latet." Next morning he handed +the book to Lorenzo, telling him that he had read it, and requesting the +second volume. + +That second volume came on the next day, and in the spine of it a long +letter, some sheets of paper, pens, and a pencil. The writer announced +himself as one Marino Balbi, a patrician and a monk, who had been four +years in that prison, where he had since been given a companion in +misfortune, Count Andrea Asquino. + +Thus began a regular and very full correspondence between the prisoners, +and soon Casanova--who had not lived on his wits for nothing--was able +to form a shrewd estimate of Balbi's character. The monk's letters +revealed it as compounded of sensuality, stupidity, ingratitude, and +indiscretion. + +"In the world," says Casanova, "I should have had no commerce with a +fellow of his nature. But in the Piombi I was obliged to make capital +out of everything that came under my hands." + +The capital he desired to make in this instance was to ascertain whether +Balbi would be disposed to do for him what he could not do for himself. +He wrote inquiring, and proposing flight. + +Balbi replied that he and his companion would do anything possible to +make their escape from that abominable prison, but his lack of resource +made him add that he was convinced that nothing was possible. + +"All that you have to do," wrote Casanova in answer, "is to break +through the ceiling of my cell and get me out of this, then trust to me +to get you out of the Piombi. If you are disposed to make the attempt, I +will supply you with the means, and show you the way." + +It was a characteristically bold reply, revealing to us the utter +gamester that he was in all things. + +He knew that Balbi's cell was situated immediately under the leads, and +he hoped that once in it he should be able readily to find a way through +the roof. That cell of Balbi's communicated with a narrow corridor, +no more than a shaft for light and air, which was immediately above +Casanova's prison. And no sooner had Balbi written, consenting, than +Casanova explained what was to do. Balbi must break through the wall +of his cell into the little corridor, and there cut a round hole in the +floor precisely as Casanova had done in his former cell--until nothing +but a shell of ceiling remained--a shell that could be broken down by +half a dozen blows when the moment to escape should have arrived. + +To begin with, he ordered Balbi to purchase himself two or three dozen +pictures of saints, with which to paper his walls, using as many as +might be necessary for a screen to hide the hole he would be cutting. + +When Balbi wrote that his walls were hung with pictures of saints, it +became a question of conveying the spontoon to him. This was difficult, +and the monk's fatuous suggestions merely served further to reveal his +stupidity. Finally Casanova's wits found the way. He bade Lorenzo buy +him an in-folio edition of the Bible which had just been published, and +it was into the spine of this enormous tome that he packed the precious +spontoon, and thus conveyed it to Balbi, who immediately got to work. + +This was at the commencement of October. On the 8th of that month Balbi +wrote to Casanova that a whole night devoted to labour had resulted +merely in the displacing of a single brick, which so discouraged the +faint-hearted monk that he was for abandoning an attempt whose +only result must be to increase in the future the rigour of their +confinement. + +Without hesitation, Casanova replied that he was assured of +success--although he was far from having any grounds for any such +assurance. He enjoined the monk to believe him, and to persevere, +confident that as he advanced he would find progress easier. This +proved, indeed, to be the case, for soon Balbi found the brickwork +yielding so rapidly to his efforts that one morning, a week later, +Casanova heard three light taps above his head--the preconcerted signal +by which they were to assure themselves that their notions of the +topography of the prison were correct. + +All that day he heard Balbi at work immediately above him, and again on +the morrow, when Balbi wrote that as the floor was of the thickness of +only two boards, he counted upon completing the job on the next day, +without piercing the ceiling. + +But it would seem as if Fortune were intent upon making a mock of +Casanova, luring him to heights of hope, merely to cast him down again +into the depths of despair. Just as upon the eve of breaking out of his +former cell mischance had thwarted him, so now, when again he deemed +himself upon the very threshold of liberty, came mischance again to +thwart him. + +Early in the afternoon the sound of bolts being drawn outside froze his +very blood and checked his breathing. Yet he had the presence of mind to +give the double knock that was the agreed alarm signal, whereupon Balbi +instantly desisted from his labours overhead. + +Came Lorenzo with two archers, leading an ugly, lean little man of +between forty and fifty years of age, shabbily dressed and wearing a +round black wig, whom the tribunal had ordered should share Casanova's +prison for the present. With apologies for leaving such a scoundrel in +Casanova's company, Lorenzo departed, and the newcomer went down upon +his knees, drew forth a chaplet, and began to tell his beads. + +Casanova surveyed this intruder at once with disgust and despair. +Presently his disgust was increased when the fellow, whose name was +Soradici, frankly avowed himself a spy in the service of the Council +of Ten, a calling which he warmly defended from the contempt +universally--but unjustly, according to himself--meted out to it. He had +been imprisoned for having failed in his duty on one occasion through +succumbing to a bribe. + +Conceive Casanova's frame of mind--his uncertainty as to how long this +monster, as he calls him, might be left in his company, his curbed +impatience to regain his liberty, and his consciousness of the horrible +risk of discovery which delay entailed! He wrote to Balbi that +night while the spy slept, and for the present their operations were +suspended. But not for very long. Soon Casanova's wits resolved how to +turn to account the weakness which he discovered in Soradici. + +The spy was devout to the point of bigoted, credulous superstition. He +spent long hours in prayer, and he talked freely of his special devotion +to the Blessed Virgin, and his ardent faith in miracles. + +Casanova--the arch-humbug who had worked magic to delude the +credulous--determined there and then to work a miracle for Soradici. +Assuming an inspired air, he solemnly informed the spy one morning that +it had been revealed to him in a dream that Soradici's devotion to +the Rosary was about to be rewarded; that an angel was to be sent from +heaven to deliver him from prison, and that Casanova himself would +accompany him in his flight. + +If Soradici doubted, conviction was soon to follow. For Casanova +foretold the very hour at which the angel would come to break into the +prison, and at that hour precisely--Casanova having warned Balbi--the +noise made by the angel overhead flung Soradici into an ecstasy of +terror. + +But when, at the end of four hours, the angel desisted from his labours, +Soradici was beset by doubts. Casanova explained to him that since +angels invariably put on the garb of human flesh when descending upon +earth, they labour under human difficulties. He added the prophecy that +the angel would return on the last day of the month, the eve of All +Saints'--two days later--and that he would then conduct them out of +captivity. + +By this means Casanova ensured that no betrayal should be feared from +the thoroughly duped Soradici, who now spent the time in praying, +weeping, and talking of his sins and of the inexhaustibility of divine +grace. To make doubly sure, Casanova added the most terrible oath that +if, by a word to the gaoler, Soradici should presume to frustrate the +divine intentions, he would immediately strangle him with his own hands. + +On October 31st Lorenzo paid his usual daily visit early in the morning. +After his departure they waited some hours, Soradici in expectant +terror, Casanova in sheer impatience to be at work. Promptly at noon +fell heavy blows overhead, and then, in a cloud of plaster and broken +laths, the heavenly messenger descended clumsily into Casanova's arms. + +Soradici found this tall, gaunt, bearded figure, clad in a dirty shirt +and a pair of leather breeches, of a singularly unangelic appearance; +indeed, he looked far more like a devil. + +When he produced a pair of scissors, so that the spy might cut +Casanova's beard, which, like the angel's, had grown in captivity, +Soradici ceased to have any illusions on the score of Balbi's celestial +nature. Although still intrigued--since he could not guess at the secret +correspondence that had passed between Casanova and Balbi--he perceived +quite clearly that he had been fooled. + +Leaving Soradici in the monk's care, Casanova hoisted himself through +the broken ceiling and gained Balbi's cell, where the sight of Count +Asquino dismayed him. He found a middle-aged man of a corpulence which +must render it impossible for him to face the athletic difficulties that +lay before them; of this the Count himself seemed already persuaded. + +"If you think," was his greeting, as he shook Casanova's hand, "to break +through the roof and find a way down from the leads, I don't see how you +are to succeed without wings. I have not the courage to accompany you," +he added, "I shall remain and pray for you." + +Attempting no persuasions where they must have been idle, Casanova +passed out of the cell again, and approaching as nearly as possible to +the edge of the attic, he sat down where he could touch the roof as +it sloped immediately above his head. With his spontoon he tested the +timbers, and found them so decayed that they almost crumbled at the +touch. Assured thereby that the cutting of a hole would be an easy +matter, he at once returned to his cell, and there he spent the ensuing +four hours in preparing ropes. He cut up sheets, blankets, coverlets, +and the very cover of his mattress, knotting the strips together with +the utmost care. In the end he found himself equipped with some two +hundred yards of rope, which should be ample for any purpose. + +Having made a bundle of the fine taffeta suit in which he had been +arrested, his gay cloak of floss silk, some stockings, shirts, and +handkerchiefs, he and Balbi passed up to the other cell, compelling +Soradici to go with them. Leaving the monk to make a parcel of his +belongings, Casanova went to tackle the roof. By dusk he had made a hole +twice as large as was necessary, and had laid bare the lead sheeting +with which the roof was covered. Unable, single-handed, to raise one of +the sheets, he called Balbi to his aid, and between them, assisted by +the spontoon, which Casanova inserted between the edge of the sheet and +the gutter, they at last succeeded in tearing away the rivets. Then by +putting their shoulders to the lead they bent it upwards until there was +room to emerge, and a view of the sky flooded by the vivid light of the +crescent moon. + +Not daring in that light to venture upon the roof, where they would be +seen, they must wait with what patience they could until midnight, when +the moon would have set. So they returned to the cell where they had +left Soradici with Count Asquino. + +From Balbi, Casanova had learnt that Asquino, though well supplied with +money, was of an avaricious nature. Nevertheless, since money would be +necessary, Casanova asked the Count for the loan of thirty gold sequins. +Asquino answered him gently that, in the first place, they would not +need money to escape; that, in the second, he had a numerous family; +that, in the third, if Casanova perished the money would be lost; and +that, in the fourth, he had no money. + +"My reply," writes Casanova, "lasted half an hour." + +"Let me remind you," he said in concluding his exhortation, "of your +promise to pray for us, and let me ask you what sense there can be +in praying for the success of an enterprise to which you refuse to +contribute the most necessary means." + +The old man was so far conquered by Casanova's eloquence that he offered +him two sequins, which Casanova accepted, since he was not in case to +refuse anything. + +Thereafter, as they sat waiting for the moon to set, Casanova found his +earlier estimate of the monk's character confirmed. Balbi now broke into +abusive reproaches. He found that Casanova had acted in bad faith +by assuring him that he had formed a complete plan of escape. Had he +suspected that this was a mere gambler's throw on Casanova's part, he +would never have laboured to get him out of his cell. The Count added +his advice that they should abandon an attempt foredoomed to failure, +and, being concerned for the two sequins with which he had so +reluctantly parted, he argued the case at great length. Stifling his +disgust, Casanova assured them that, although it was impossible for him +to afford them details of how he intended to proceed, he was perfectly +confident of success. + +At half-past ten he sent Soradici--who had remained silent +throughout--to report upon the night. The spy brought word that in +another hour or so the moon would have set, but that a thick mist was +rising, which must render the leads very dangerous. + +"So long as the mist isn't made of oil, I am content," said Casanova. +"Come, make a bundle of your cloak. It is time we were moving." + +But at this Soradici fell on his knees in the dark, seized Casanova's +hands, and begged to be left behind to pray for their safety, since he +would be sure to meet his death if he attempted to go with them. + +Casanova assented readily, delighted to be rid of the fellow. Then in +the dark he wrote as best he could a quite characteristic letter to the +Inquisitors of State, in which he took his leave of them, telling them +that since he had been fetched into the prison without his wishes +being consulted, they could not complain that he should depart without +consulting theirs. + +The bundle containing Balbi's clothes, and another made up of half the +rope, he slung from the monk's neck, thereafter doing the same in his +own case. Then, in their shirt-sleeves, their hats on their heads, the +pair of them started on their perilous journey, leaving Count Asquino +and Soradici to pray for them. + +Casanova went first, on all fours, and thrusting the point of his +spontoon between the joints of the lead sheeting so as to obtain a hold, +he crawled slowly upwards. To follow, Balbi took a grip of Casanova's +belt with his right hand, so that, in addition to making his own way, +Casanova was compelled to drag the weight of his companion after him, +and this up the sharp gradient of a roof rendered slippery by the mist. + +Midway in that laborious ascent, the monk called to him to stop. He had +dropped the bundle containing the clothes, and he hoped that it had not +rolled beyond the gutter, though he did not mention which of them should +retrieve it. After the unreasonableness already endured from this man, +Casanova's exasperation was such in that moment that, he confesses, he +was tempted to kick him after this bundle. Controlling himself, however, +he answered patiently that the matter could not now be helped, and kept +steadily amain. + +At last the apex of the roof was reached, and they got astride of it +to breathe and to take a survey of their surroundings. They faced the +several cupolas of the Church of Saint Mark, which is connected with +the ducal palace, being, in fact, no more than the private chapel of the +Doge. + +They set down their bundles, and, of course, in the act of doing so +the wretched Balbi must lose his hat, and send it rolling down the roof +after the bundle he had already lost. He cried out that it was an evil +omen. + +"On the contrary," Casanova assured him patiently, "it is a sign of +divine protection; for if your bundle or your hat had happened to +roll to the left instead of the right it would have fallen into the +courtyard, where it would be seen by the guards, who must conclude that +some one is moving on the roof, and so, no doubt, would have discovered +us. As it is your hat has followed your bundle into the canal, where it +can do no harm." + +Thereupon, bidding the monk await his return, Casanova set off alone on +a voyage of discovery, keeping for the present astride of the roof in +his progress. He spent a full hour wandering along the vast roof, going +to right and to left in his quest, but failing completely to make any +helpful discovery, or to find anything to which he could attach a rope. +In the end it began to look as if, after all, he must choose between +returning to prison and flinging himself from the roof into the canal. +He was almost in despair, when in his wanderings his attention was +caught by a dormer window on the canal side, about two-thirds of the way +down the slope of the roof. With infinite precaution he lowered himself +down the steep, slippery incline until he was astride of the little +dormer roof. Leaning well forward, he discovered that a slender grating +barred the leaded panes of the window itself, and for a moment this +grating gave him pause. + +Midnight boomed just then from the Church of Saint Mark, like a reminder +that but seven hours remained in which to conquer this and further +difficulties that might confront him, and in which to win clear of +that place, or else submit to a resumption of his imprisonment under +conditions, no doubt, a hundredfold more rigorous. + +Lying flat on his stomach, and hanging far over, so as to see what he +was doing, he worked one point of his spontoon into the sash of the +grating, and, levering outwards, he strained until at last it came away +completely in his hands. After that it was an easy matter to shatter the +little latticed window. + +Having accomplished so much, he turned, and, using his spontoon as +before, he crawled back to the summit of the roof, and made his way +rapidly along this to the spot where he had left Balbi. The monk, +reduced by now to a state of blending despair, terror, and rage, greeted +Casanova in terms of the grossest abuse for having left him there so +long. + +"I was waiting only for daylight," he concluded, "to return to prison." + +"What did you think had become of me?" asked Casanova. + +"I imagined that you had tumbled off the roof." + +"And is this abuse the expression of your joy at finding yourself +mistaken?" + +"Where have you been all this time?" the monk counter-questioned +sullenly. + +"Come with me and you shall see." + +And taking up his bundle again, Casanova led his companion forward until +they were in line with the dormer. There Casanova showed him what he +had done, and consulted him as to the means to be adopted to enter the +attic. It would be too risky for them to allow themselves to drop from +the sill, since the height of the window from the floor was unknown to +them, and might be considerable. It would be easy for one of them to +lower the other by means of the rope. But it was not apparent how, +hereafter, the other was to follow. Thus reasoned Casanova. + +"You had better lower me, anyhow," said Balbi, without hesitation; for +no doubt he was very tired of that slippery roof, on which a single +false step might have sent him to his account. "Once I am inside you can +consider ways of following me." + +That cold-blooded expression of the fellow's egoism put Casanova in +a rage for the second time since they had left their prison. But, as +before, he conquered it, and without uttering a word he proceeded to +unfasten the coil of rope. Making one end of it secure under Balbi's +arms, he bade the monk lie prone upon the roof, his feet pointing +downwards, and then, paying out rope, he lowered him to the dormer. He +then bade him get through the window as far as the level of his waist, +and wait thus, hanging over and supporting himself upon the sill. When +he had obeyed, Casanova followed, sliding carefully down to the roof of +the dormer. Planting himself firmly, and taking the rope once more, he +bade Balbi to let himself go without fear, and so lowered him to the +floor--a height from the window, as it proved, of some fifty feet. This +extinguished all Casanova's hopes of being able to follow by allowing +himself to drop from the sill. He was dismayed. But the monk, happy to +find himself at last off that accursed roof, and out of all danger of +breaking his neck, called foolishly to Casanova to throw him the rope so +that he might take care of it. + +"As may be imagined," says Casanova, "I was careful not to take this +idiotic advice." + +Not knowing now what was to become of him unless he could discover some +other means than those at his command, he climbed back again to the +summit of the roof, and started off desperately upon another voyage of +discovery. This time he succeeded better than before. He found about a +cupola a terrace which he had not earlier noticed, and on this terrace +a hod of plaster, a trowel, and a ladder some seventy feet long. He +saw his difficulties solved. He passed an end of rope about one of the +rungs, laid the ladder flat along the slope of the roof, and then, still +astride of the apex, he worked his way back, dragging the ladder with +him, until he was once more on a level with the dormer. + +But now the difficulty was how to get the ladder through the window, +and he had cause to repent having so hastily deprived himself of his +companion's assistance. He had got the ladder into position, and lowered +it until one of its ends rested upon the dormer, whilst the other +projected some twenty feet beyond the edge of the roof. He slid down +to the dormer, and placing the ladder beside him, drew it up so that he +could reach the eighth rung. To this rung he made fast his rope, then +lowered the ladder again until the upper end of it was in line with +the window through which he sought to introduce it. But he found it +impossible to do so beyond the fifth rung, for at this point the end of +the ladder came in contact with the roof inside, and could be pushed no +farther until it was inclined downward. Now, the only possible way to +accomplish this was by raising the other end. + +It occurred to him that he might, by so attaching the rope as to bring +the ladder across the window frame, lower himself hand over hand to the +floor of the attic. But in so doing he must have left the ladder there +to show their pursuers in the morning, not merely the way they had gone, +but for all he knew at this stage, the place where they might then be +still in hiding. Having come so far, at so much risk and labour, he was +determined to leave nothing to chance. To accomplish his object then, he +made his way down to the very edge of the roof, sliding carefully on +his stomach until his feet found support against the marble gutter, the +ladder meanwhile remaining hooked by one of its rungs to the sill of the +dormer. + +In that perilous position he lifted his end of the ladder a few inches, +and so contrived to thrust it another foot or so through the window, +whereby its weight was considerably diminished. If he could but get it +another couple of feet farther in he was sure that by returning to the +dormer he would have been able to complete the job. In his anxiety to do +this and to obtain the necessary elevation, he raised himself upon his +knees. + +But in the very act of making the thrust he slipped, and, clutching +wildly as he went, he shot over the edge of the roof. He found himself +hanging there, suspended above that terrific abyss by his hands and his +elbows, which had convulsively hooked themselves on to the edge of the +gutter, so that he had it on a level with his breast. + +It was a moment of dread the like of which he was never likely to +endure again in a life that was to know many perils and many hairbreadth +escapes. He could not write of it nearly half a century later without +shuddering and growing sick with horror. + +A moment he hung there gasping, then almost mechanically, guided by +the sheer instinct of self-preservation, he not merely attempted, but +actually succeeded in raising himself so as to bring his side against +the gutter. Then continuing gradually to raise himself until his waist +was on a level with the edge, he threw the weight of his trunk forward +upon the roof, and slowly brought his right leg up until he had obtained +with his knee a further grip of the gutter. The rest was easy, and +you may conceive him as he lay there on the roof's edge, panting and +shuddering for a moment to regain his breath and nerve. + +Meanwhile, the ladder, driven forward by the thrust that had so nearly +cost him his life, had penetrated another three feet through the window, +and hung there immovable. Recovered, he took up his spontoon, which he +had placed in the gutter, and, assisted by it, he climbed back to +the dormer. Almost without further difficulty, he succeeded now in +introducing the ladder until, of its own weight, it swung down into +position. + +A moment later he had joined Balbi in the attic, and together they +groped about in the dark, until finding presently a door, they passed +into another chamber, where they discovered furniture by hurtling +against it. Guided by a faint glimmer of light, Casanova made his way to +one of the windows and opened it. He looked out upon a black abyss, and, +having no knowledge of the locality, and no inclination to adventure +himself into unknown regions, he immediately abandoned all idea of +attempting to climb down. He closed the window again, and going back to +the other room, he lay down on the floor, with the bundle of ropes for a +pillow, to wait for dawn. + +And so exhausted was he, not only by the efforts of the past hours, and +the terrible experience in which they had culminated, but also because +in the last two days he had scarcely eaten or slept, that straightway, +and greatly to Balbi's indignation and disgust, he fell into a profound +sleep. + +He was aroused three and a half hours later by the clamours and shakings +of the exasperated monk. Protesting that such a sleep at such a time was +a thing inconceivable, Balbi informed him that it had just struck five. + +It was still dark, but already there was a dim grey glimmer of dawn +by which objects could be faintly discerned. Searching, Casanova +found another door opposite that of the chamber which they had entered +earlier. It was locked, but the lock was a poor one that yielded to half +a dozen blows of the spontoon, and they passed into a little room +beyond which by an open door they came into a long gallery lined with +pigeon-holes stuffed with parchments, which they conceived to be the +archives. At the end of this gallery they found a short flight of +stairs, and below that yet another, which brought them to a glass door. +Opening this, they entered a room which Casanova immediately identified +as the ducal chancellery. Descent from one of its windows would have +been easy, but they would have found themselves in the labyrinth of +courts and alleys behind Saint Mark's, which would not have suited them +at all. + +On a table Casanova found a stout bodkin with a long wooden handle, the +implement used by the secretaries for piercing parchments that were to +be joined by a cord bearing the leaden seals of the Republic. He opened +a desk, and rummaging in it, found a letter addressed to the Proveditor +of Corfu, advising a remittance of three thousand sequins for the +repair of the fortress. He rummaged further, seeking the three thousand +sequins, which he would have appropriated without the least scruple. +Unfortunately they were not there. + +Quitting the desk, he crossed to the door, not merely to find it locked, +but to discover that it was not the kind of lock that would yield to +blows. There was no way out but by battering away one of the panels, and +to this he addressed himself without hesitation, assisted by Balbi, who +had armed himself with the bodkin, but who trembled fearfully at the +noise of Casanova's blows. There was danger in this, but the danger must +be braved, for time was slipping away. In half an hour they had broken +down all the panel it was possible to remove without the help of a saw. +The opening they had made was at a height of five feet from the ground, +and the splintered woodwork armed it with a fearful array of jagged +teeth. + +They dragged a couple of stools to the door, and getting on to these, +Casanova bade Balbi go first. The long, lean monk folded his arms, and +thrust head and shoulders through the hole; then Casanova lifted him, +first by the waist, then by the legs, and so helped him through into the +room beyond. Casanova threw their bundles after him, and then placing a +third stool on top of the other two, climbed on to it, and, being almost +on a level with the opening, was able to get through as far as his +waist, when Balbi took him in his arms and proceeded to drag him out. +But it was done at the cost of torn breeches and lacerated legs, and +when he stood up in the room beyond he was bleeding freely from the +wounds which the jagged edges of the wood had dealt him. + +After that they went down two staircases, and came out at last in the +gallery leading to the great doors at the head of that magnificent +flight of steps known as the Giant's Staircase. But these doors--the +main entrance of the palace--were locked, and, at a glance, Casanova saw +that nothing short of a hatchet would serve to open them. There was no +more to be done. + +With a resignation that seemed to Balbi entirely cynical, Casanova sat +down on the floor. + +"My task is ended," he announced. "It is now for Heaven or Chance to do +the rest. I don't know whether the palace cleaners will come here to-day +as it is All Saints', or to-morrow, which will be All Souls'. Should any +one come, I shall run for it the moment the door is opened, and you had +best follow me. If no one comes, I shall not move from here, and if I +die of hunger, so much the worse." + +It was a speech that flung the monk into a passion. In burning terms he +reviled Casanova, calling him a madman, a seducer, a deceiver, a liar. +Casanova let him rave. It was just striking six. Precisely an hour had +elapsed since they had left the attic. + +Balbi, in his red flannel waistcoat and his puce-coloured leather +breeches, might have passed for a peasant; but Casanova, in torn +garments that were soaked in blood, presented an appearance that was +terrifying and suspicious. This he proceeded to repair. Tearing a +handkerchief, he made shift to bandage his wounds, and then from his +bundle he took his fine taffeta summer suit, which on a winter's day +must render him ridiculous. + +He dressed his thick, dark brown hair as best he could, drew on a pair +of white stockings, and donned three lace shirts one over another. His +fine cloak of floss silk he gave to Balbi, who looked for all the world +as if he had stolen it. + +Thus dressed, his fine hat laced with point of Spain on his head, +Casanova opened a window and looked out. At once he was seen by some +idlers in the courtyard, who, amazed at his appearance there, and +conceiving that he must have been locked in by mistake on the previous +day, went off at once to advise the porter. Meanwhile, Casanova, vexed +at having shown himself where he had not expected any one, and little +guessing how excellently this was to serve his ends, left the window +and went to sit beside the angry friar, who greeted him with fresh +revilings. + +A sound of steps and a rattle of keys stemmed Balbi's reproaches in full +flow. The lock groaned. + +"Not a word," said Casanova to the monk, "but follow me." + +Holding his spontoon ready, but concealed under his coat, he stepped to +the side of the door. It opened, and the porter, who had come alone +and bareheaded, stared in stupefaction at the strange apparition of +Casanova. + +Casanova took advantage of that paralyzing amazement. Without uttering a +word, he stepped quickly across the threshold, and with Balbi close upon +his heels, he went down the Giant's Staircase in a flash, crossed the +little square, reached the canal, bundled Balbi into the first gondola +he found there, and jumped in after him. + +"I want to go to Fusine, and quickly," he announced. "Call another +oarsman." + +All was ready, and in a moment the gondola was skimming the canal. +Dressed in his unseasonable suit, and accompanied by the still more +ridiculous figure of Balbi in his gaudy cloak and without a hat, he +imagined he would be taken for a charlatan or an astrologer. + +The gondola slipped past the custom-house, and took the canal of the +Giudecca. Halfway down this, Casanova put his head out of the little +cabin to address the gondolier in the poop. + +"Do you think we shall reach Mestre in an hour?" + +"Mestre?" quoth the gondolier. "But you said Fusine." + +"No, no, I said Mestre--at least, I intended to say Mestre." + +And so the gondola was headed for Mestre by a gondolier who professed +himself ready to convey his excellency to England if he desired it. + +The sun was rising, and the water assumed an opalescent hue. It was a +delicious morning, Casanova tells us, and I suspect that never had any +morning seemed to that audacious, amiable rascal as delicious as this +upon which he regained his liberty, which no man ever valued more +highly. + +In spirit he was already safely over the frontiers of the Most Serene +Republic, impatient to transfer his body thither, as he shortly did, +through vicissitudes that are a narrative in themselves, and no part of +this story of his escape from the Piombi and the Venetian Inquisitors of +State. + + + + + + +XIII. THE NIGHT OF MASQUERADE--The Assassination Of Gustavus III Of +Sweden + +Baron Bjelke sprang from his carriage almost before it had come to a +standstill and without waiting for the footman to let down the steps. +With a haste entirely foreign to a person of his station and importance, +he swept into the great vestibule of the palace, and in a quivering +voice flung a question at the first lackey he encountered: + +"Has His Majesty started yet?" + +"Not yet, my lord." + +The answer lessened his haste, but not his agitation. He cast off the +heavy wolfskin pelisse in which he had been wrapped, and, leaving it in +the hands of the servant, went briskly up the grand staircase, a tall, +youthful figure, very graceful in the suit of black he wore. + +As he passed through a succession of ante-rooms on his way to the +private apartments of the King, those present observed the pallor of his +clean-cut face under the auburn tie-wig he affected, and the feverish +glow of eyes that took account of no one. They could not guess that +Baron Bjelke, the King's secretary and favourite, carried in his hands +the life of his royal master, or its equivalent in the shape of the +secret of the plot to assassinate him. + +In many ways Bjelke was no better than the other profligate minions of +the profligate Gustavus of Sweden. But he had this advantage over them, +that his intellect was above their average. He had detected the first +signs of the approach of that storm which the King himself had so +heedlessly provoked. He knew, as much by reason as by intuition, that, +in these days when the neighbouring State of France writhed in the +throes of a terrific revolution against monarchic and aristocratic +tyranny, it was not safe for a king to persist in the abuse of his +parasitic power. New ideas of socialism were in the air. They were +spreading through Europe, and it was not only in France that men +accounted it an infamous anachronism that the great mass of a community +should toil and sweat and suffer for the benefit of an insolent +minority. + +Already had there been trouble with the peasantry in Sweden, and Bjelke +had endangered his position as a royal favourite by presuming to warn +his master. Gustavus III desired amusement, not wisdom, from those +about him. He could not be brought to realize the responsibilities which +kingship imposes upon a man. It has been pretended that he was endowed +with great gifts of mind. He may have been, though the thing has been +pretended of so many princes that one may be sceptical where evidence +is lacking. If he possessed those gifts, he succeeded wonderfully in +concealing them under a nature that was frivolously gay, dissolute, and +extravagant. + +His extravagance forced him into monstrous extortions when only a +madman would have wasted in profligacy the wealth so cruelly wrung from +long-suffering subjects. From extortion he was driven by his desperate +need of money into flagrant dishonesty. At a stroke of the pen he had +reduced the value of the paper currency by one-third--a reduction so +violent and sudden that, whilst it impoverished many, it involved +some in absolute ruin--and this that he might gratify his appetite +for magnificence and enrich the rapacious favourites who shared his +profligacy. + +The unrest in the kingdom spread. It was no longer a question of the +resentment of a more or less docile peasantry whose first stirrings of +revolt were easily quelled. The lesser nobility of Sweden were angered +by a measure--following upon so many others--that bore peculiarly +heavily upon themselves; and out of that anger, fanned by one man--John +Jacob Ankarstrom--who had felt the vindictive spirit of royal injustice, +flamed in secret the conspiracy against the King's life which Bjelke had +discovered. + +He had discovered it by the perilous course of joining the conspirators. +He had won their confidence, and they recognized that his collaboration +was rendered invaluable by the position he held so near the King. And +in his subtle wisdom, at considerable danger to himself, Bjelke had kept +his counsel. He had waited until now, until the moment when the blow was +about to fall, before making the disclosure which should not only save +Gustavus, but enable him to cast a net in which all the plotters must be +caught. And he hoped that when Gustavus perceived the narrowness of his +escape, and the reality of the dangers amid which he walked, he would +consider the wisdom of taking another course in future. + +He had reached the door of the last ante-chamber, when a detaining +hand was laid upon his arm. He found himself accosted by a page--the +offspring of one of the noblest families in Sweden, and the son of one +of Bjelke's closest friends, a fair-haired, impudent boy to whom the +secretary permitted a certain familiarity. + +"Are you on your way to the King, Baron?" the lad inquired. + +"I am, Carl. What is it?" + +"A letter for His Majesty--a note fragrant as a midsummer rose--which a +servant has just delivered to me. Will you take it?" + +"Give it to me, impudence," said Bjelke, the ghost of a smile lighting +for a moment his white face. + +He took the letter and passed on into the last antechamber, which was +empty of all but a single chamberlain-in-waiting. This chamberlain bowed +respectfully to the Baron. + +"His Majesty?" said Bjelke. + +"He is dressing. Shall I announce Your Excellency?" + +"Pray do." + +The chamberlain vanished, and Bjelke was left alone. Waiting, he stood +there, idly fingering the scented note he had received from the page. +As he turned it in his fingers the superscription came uppermost, and +he turned it no more. His eyes lost their absorbed look, their glance +quickened into attention, a frown shaped itself between them like a +scar; his breathing, suspended a moment, was renewed with a gasp. He +stepped aside to a table bearing a score of candles clustered in a +massive silver branch, and held the note so that the light fell full +upon the writing. + +Standing thus, he passed a hand over his eyes and stared again, two +hectic spots burning now in his white cheeks. Abruptly, disregarding +the superscription, his trembling fingers snapped the blank seal and +unfolded the letter addressed to his royal master. He was still reading +when the chamberlain returned to announce that the King was pleased to +see the Baron at once. He did not seem to hear the announcement. His +attention was all upon the letter, his lips drawn back from his teeth in +a grin, and beads of perspiration glistening upon his brow. + +"His Majesty--" the chamberlain was beginning to repeat, when he broke +off suddenly. "Your Excellency is ill?" + +"Ill?" + +Bjelke stared at him with glassy eyes. He crumpled the letter in his +hand and stuffed one and the other into the pocket of his black satin +coat. He attempted to laugh to reassure the startled chamberlain, and +achieved a ghastly grimace. + +"I must not keep His Majesty waiting," he said thickly, and stumbled +on, leaving in the chamberlain's mind a suspicion that His Majesty's +secretary was not quite sober. + +But Bjelke so far conquered his emotion that he was almost his usual +imperturbable self when he reached the royal dressing-room; indeed, he +no longer displayed even the agitation that had possessed him when first +he entered the palace. + +Gustavus, a slight, handsome man of a good height, was standing before +a cheval-glass when Bjelke came in. Francois, the priceless valet +His Majesty had brought back from his last pleasure-seeking visit +to pre-revolutionary Paris some five years ago, was standing back +judicially to consider the domino he had just placed upon the royal +shoulders. Baron Armfelt whom the conspirators accused of wielding the +most sinister of all the sinister influences that perverted the King's +mind--dressed from head to foot in shimmering white satin, lounged on a +divan with all the easy familiarity permitted to this most intimate of +courtiers, the associate of all royal follies. + +Gustavus looked over his shoulder as he entered. + +"Why, Bjelke," he exclaimed, "I thought you had gone into the country!" + +"I am at a loss," replied Bjelke, "to imagine what should have given +Your Majesty so mistaken an impression." And he might have smiled +inwardly to observe how his words seemed to put Gustavus out of +countenance. + +The King laughed, nevertheless, with an affectation of ease. + +"I inferred it from your absence from Court on such a night. What has +been keeping you?" But, without waiting for an answer, he fired another +question. "What do you say to my domino, Bjelke?" + +It was a garment embroidered upon a black satin ground with tongues of +flame so cunningly wrought in mingling threads of scarlet and gold that +as he turned about now they flashed in the candlelight, and seemed to +leap like tongues of living fire. + +"Your Majesty will have a great success," said Bjelke, and to himself +relished the full grimness of his joke. For a terrible joke it was, +seeing that he no longer intended to discharge the errand which had +brought him in such haste to the palace. + +"Faith, I deserve it!" was the flippant answer, and he turned again to +the mirror to adjust a patch on the left side of his chin. "There is +genius in this domino, and it is not the genius of Francois, for the +scheme of flames is my very own, the fruit of a deal of thought and +study." + +There Gustavus uttered his whole character. As a master of the revels, +or an opera impresario, this royal rake would have been a complete +success in life. The pity of it was that the accident of birth should +have robed him in the royal purple. Like many another prince who has +come to a violent end, he was born to the wrong metier. + +"I derived the notion," he continued, "from a sanbenito in a Goya +picture." + +"An ominous garb," said Bjelke, smiling curiously. "The garment of the +sinner on his way to penitential doom." + +Armfelt cried out in a protest of mock horror, but Gustavus laughed +cynically. + +"Oh, I confess that it would be most apt. I had not thought of it." + +His fingers sought a pomatum box, and in doing so displaced a +toilet-case of red morocco. An oblong paper package fell from the top of +this and arrested the King's attention. + +"Why, what is this?" He took it up--a letter bearing the superscription: + + +To His MAJESTY THE KING SECRET AND IMPORTANT + +"What is this, Francois?" The royal voice was suddenly sharp. + +The valet glided forward, whilst Armfelt rose from the divan and, like +Bjelke, attracted by the sudden change in the King's tone and manner, +drew near his master. + +"How comes this letter here?" + +The valet's face expressed complete amazement. It must have been placed +there in his absence an hour ago, after he had made all preparations for +the royal toilette. It was certainly not there at the time, or he must +have seen it. + +With impatient fingers Gustavus snapped the seal and unfolded the +letter. Awhile he stood reading, very still, his brows knit. + +Then, with a contemptuous "Poof!" he handed it to his secretary. + +At a glance Bjelke recognized the hand for that of Colonel Lillehorn, +one of the conspirators, whose courage had evidently failed him in the +eleventh hour. He read: + +SIRE,--Deign to heed the warning of one who, not being in your service, +nor solicitous of your favours, flatters not your crimes, and yet +desires to avert the danger threatening you. There is a plot to +assassinate you which would by now have been executed but for the +countermanding of the ball at the opera last week. What was not done +then will certainly be done to-night if you afford the opportunity. +Remain at home and avoid balls and public gatherings for the rest of the +year; thus the fanaticism which aims at your life will evaporate. + +"Do you know the writing?" Gustavus asked. + +Bjelke shrugged. "The hand will be disguised, no doubt," he evaded. + +"But you will heed the warning, Sire?" exclaimed, Armfelt, who had read +over the secretary's shoulder, and whose face had paled in reading. + +Gustavus laughed contemptuously. "Faith, if I were to heed every +scaremonger, I should get but little amusement out of life." + +Yet he was angry, as his shifting colour showed. The disrespectful tone +of the anonymous communication moved him more deeply than its actual +message. He toyed a moment with a hair-ribbon, his nether lip thrust out +in thought. At last he rapped out an oath of vexation, and proffered the +ribbon to his valet. + +"My hair, Francois," said he, "and then we will be going." + +"Going!" + +It was an ejaculation of horror from Armfelt, whose face was now as +white as the ivory-coloured suit he wore. + +"What else? Am I to be intimidated out of my pleasures?" Yet that his +heart was less stout than his words his very next question showed. +"Apropos, Bjelke, what was the reason why you countermanded the ball +last week?" + +"The councillors from Gefle claimed Your Majesty's immediate attention," +Bjelke reminded him. + +"So you said at the time. But the business seemed none so urgent when we +came to it. There was no other reason in your mind--no suspicion?" + +His keen, dark blue eyes were fixed upon the pale masklike face of the +secretary. + +That grave, almost stern countenance relaxed into a smile. + +"I suspected no more than I suspect now," was his easy equivocation. +"And all that I suspect now is that some petty enemy is attempting to +scare Your Majesty." + +"To scare me?" Gustavus flushed to the temples. "Am I a man to be +scared?" + +"Ah, but consider, Sire, and you, Bjelke," Armfelt was bleating. "This +may be a friendly warning. In all humility, Sire, let me suggest that +you incur no risk; that you countermand the masquerade." + +"And permit the insolent writer to boast that he frightened the King?" +sneered Bjelke. + +"Faith, Baron, you are right. The thing is written with intent to make a +mock of me." + +"But if it were not so, Sire?" persisted the distressed Armfelt. And +volubly he argued now to impose caution, reminding the King of his +enemies, who might, indeed, be tempted to go the lengths of which the +anonymous writer spoke. Gustavus listened, and was impressed. + +"If I took heed of every admonition," he said, "I might as well become +a monk at once. And yet--" He took his chin in his hand, and stood +thoughtful, obviously hesitating, his head bowed, his straight, graceful +figure motionless. + +Thus until Bjelke, who now desired above all else the very thing he had +come hot-foot to avert, broke the silence to undo what Armfelt had done. + +"Sire," he said, "you may avoid both mockery and danger, and yet attend +the masquerade. Be sure, if there is indeed a plot, the assassins will +be informed of the disguise you are to wear. Give me your flame-studded +domino, and take a plain black one for yourself." + +Armfelt gasped at the audacity of the proposal, but Gustavus gave no +sign that he had heard. He continued standing in that tense attitude, +his eyes vague and dreamy. And as if to show along what roads of +thought his mind was travelling, he uttered a single word a name--in a +questioning voice scarce louder than a whisper. + +Ankarstrom? + +Later again he was to think of Ankarstrom, to make inquiries concerning +him, which justifies us here in attempting to follow those thoughts of +his. They took the road down which his conscience pointed. Above all +Swedes he had cause to fear John Jacobi Ankarstrom, for, foully as he +had wronged many men in his time, he had wronged none more deeply than +that proud, high-minded nobleman. He hated Ankarstrom as we must always +hate those whom we have wronged, and he hated him the more because he +knew himself despised by Ankarstrom with a cold and deadly contempt that +at every turn proclaimed itself. + +That hatred was more than twenty years old. It dated back to the time +when Gustavus had been a vicious youth, and Ankarstrom himself a boy. +They were much of an age. Gustavus had put upon his young companion an +infamous insult, which had been answered by a blow. His youth and +the admitted provocation alone had saved Ankarstrom from the dread +consequence of striking a Prince of the Royal Blood. But they had not +saved him from the vindictiveness of Gustavus. He had kept his lust of +vengeance warm, and very patiently had he watched and waited for his +opportunity to destroy the man, who had struck him. + +That chance had come four years ago--in 1788--during the war with +Russia. Ankarstrom commanded the forces defending the island of +Gothland. These forces were inadequate for the task, nor was the +island in a proper state of defence, being destitute of forts. To have +persevered in resistance might have been heroic, but it would have been +worse than futile, for not only would it have entailed the massacre of +the garrison, but it must have further subjected the inhabitants to all +the horrors of sack and pillage. + +In the circumstances, Ankarstrom had conceived it his duty to surrender +to the superior force of Russia, thereby securing immunity for the +persons and property of the inhabitants. In this the King perceived his +chance to indulge his hatred. He caused Ankarstrom to be arrested +and accused of high treason, it being alleged against him that he had +advised the people of Gothland not to take up arms against the Russians. +The royal agents found witnesses to bear false evidence against +Ankarstrom, with the result that he was sentenced to twenty years' +imprisonment in a fortress. But the sentence was never carried out. +Gustavus had gone too far, as he was soon made aware. The feelings +against him which hitherto had smouldered flamed out at this crowning +act of injustice, and to repair his error Gustavus made haste, not, +indeed, to exonerate Ankarstrom from the charges brought against him, +but to pardon him for his alleged offences. + +When the Swedish nobleman was brought to Court to receive this pardon, +he used it as a weapon against the King whom he despised. + +"My unjust judges," he announced in a ringing voice, the echoes of which +were carried to the ends of Sweden, "have never doubted in their hearts +my innocence of the charges brought against me, and established by means +of false witnesses. The judgment pronounced against me was unrighteous. +This exemption from it is my proper due. Yet I would rather perish +through the enmity of the King than live dishonoured by his clemency." + +Gustavus had set his teeth in rage when those fierce words were reported +to him, and his rage had been increased when he was informed of the +cordial reception which everywhere awaited Ankarstrom on his release. +He perceived how far he had overshot his mark, and how, in seeking +treacherously to hurt Ankarstrom, he had succeeded only in hurting +himself. Nor had he appeased the general indignation by his pardon. +True, the flame of revolt had been quelled. But he had no lack of +evidence that the fire continued to burn steadily in secret, and to eat +its way further and further into the ranks of noble and simple alike. + +It is little wonder, then, that in this moment, with that warning lying +there before him, the name of Ankarstrom should be on his lips, the +thought of Ankarstrom, the fear of Ankarstrom, looming big in his mind. +It was big enough to make him heed the warning. He dropped into a chair. + +"I will not go," he said, and Bjelke saw that his face was white, his +hands shaking. + +But when the secretary had repeated the proposal which had earlier gone +unheard, Gustavus caught at it with sudden avidity, and with but little +concern for the danger that Bjelke might be running. He sprang up, +applauding it. If a conspiracy there was, the conspirators would thus be +trapped; if there were no conspiracy, then this attempt to frighten him +should come to nothing; thus he would be as safe from the mockery of his +enemies as from their knives. Nor did Armfelt protest or make further +attempts to dissuade him from going. In the circumstances proposed by +Bjelke, the risk would be Bjelke's, a matter which troubled Armfelt +not at all; indeed, he had no cause to love Bjelke, in whom he beheld a +formidable rival, and it would be to him no cause for tears if the knife +intended for the royal vitals should find its way into Bjelke's instead. + +So Baron Bjelke, arrayed in the domino copied from the penitential sack, +departed for the Opera House, leaving Gustavus to follow. Yet, despite +the measure of precaution, no sooner had the masked King himself entered +the crowded theatre, leaning upon the arm of the Count of Essen, than he +conceived that he beheld confirmation of the warning, and regretted that +he had not heeded it to the extent of remaining absent. For one of the +first faces he beheld, one of the few unmasked faces in that brilliantly +lit salon, was the face of Ankarstrom, and Ankarstrom appeared to be +watching the entrance. + +Gustavus checked in his stride, a tremor ran through him, and he +stiffened in his sudden apprehension, for the sight of the tall figure +and haughty, resolute face of the nobleman he had wronged was of more +significance than at first might seem. Ever since his infamous trial +Ankarstrom had been at pains to seize every occasion of marking his +contempt for his Prince. Never did he fail upon the King's appearance +in any gathering of which he was a member to withdraw immediately; and +never once had he been known deliberately to attend any function which +was to be graced by the presence of Gustavus. How, then, came he here +to this ball given by the King's own command unless he came for the fell +purpose of which the letter had given warning? + +The King's impulse was to withdraw immediately. He was taken by a +curious, an almost unreasoning, fear that was quite foreign to him, +who, for all his faults, had never yet lacked courage. But, even as +he hesitated, a figure swept past him in a domino flecked with flames, +surrounded by revellers of both sexes, and he remembered that if +Ankarstrom were bent on evil his attention would be held by that figure +before which the crowd fell back, and opened out respectfully, believing +it to be the King's. Yet none the less it was Gustavus himself that +Ankarstrom continued to regard in such a way that the King had a feeling +that his mask was made of glass. + +And then quite suddenly, even as he was on the point of turning, another +wave of revellers swept frantically up, and in a moment Gustavus and the +Count of Essen were surrounded. Another moment and the buffeting crowd +had separated him from his grand equerry. He found himself alone in the +centre of this knot of wild fellows who, seeming to mistake him for one +of themselves, forced him onward with them in their career. For a moment +he attempted to resist. But as well might he have resisted a torrent. +Their rush was not to be stemmed. It almost swept him from his feet, and +to save himself he must perforce abandon himself to the impetus. Thus +he was swirled away across the floor of the amphitheatre, helpless as +a swimmer in strong waters, and with the fear of the drowning clutching +now at his heart. + +He had an impulse to unmask, proclaim himself, and compel the respect +that was his due. But to do so might be to expose himself to the very +danger of whose presence he was now convinced. His only hope must lie +in allowing himself to be borne passively along until a chance opening +allowed him to escape from these madmen. + +The stage had been connected with the floor of the theatre by a broad +flight of wooden steps. Up this flight he was carried by that human +wave. But on the stage itself he found an anchorage at last against one +of the wings. Breathing hard, he set his back to it, waiting for the +wave to sweep on and leave him. Instead, it paused and came to rest with +him, and in that moment some one touched him on the shoulder. He turned +his head, and looked into the set face of Ankarstrom, who was close +behind him. Then a burning, rending pain took him in his side, and he +grew sick and dizzy. The uproar of voices became muffled; the lights +were merged into a luminous billow that swelled and shrank and then went +out altogether. + +The report of the pistol had been lost in the general din to all but +those who stood near the spot where it had been fired. And these found +themselves suddenly borne backwards by the little crowd of maskers that +fell away from the figure lying prone and bleeding on the stage. + +Voices were raised, shouting "Fire! Fire!" Thus the conspirators sought +to create confusion, that they might disperse and lose themselves in the +general crowd. That confusion, however, was very brief. It was stemmed +almost immediately by the Count of Essen, who leapt up the steps to the +stage with a premonition of what had happened. He stooped to rip away +the mask from the face of the victim, and, beholding, as he had feared, +the livid countenance of his King, he stood up, himself almost as pale. + +"Murder has been done!" he roared. "Let the doors be closed and guarded, +and let no one leave the theatre." Instantly was his bidding done by the +officers of the guard. + +Those of the King's household who were in attendance came forward now +to raise Gustavus, and help to bear him to a couch. There presently he +recovered consciousness, whilst a physician was seeing to his hurt, and +as soon as he realized his condition his manner became so calm that, +himself, he took command of the situation. He issued orders that the +gates of the city should be closed against everybody, whilst himself +apologizing to the Prussian minister who was near him for issuing that +inconvenient but necessary order. + +"The gates shall remain closed for three days, sir," he announced. +"During that time you will not be able to correspond with your Court; +but your intelligence, when it goes, will be more certain, since by that +time it should be known whether I can survive or not." + +His next order, delivered in a voice that was broken by his intense +suffering, was to the chamberlain Benzelstjerna, commanding that all +present should unmask and sign their names in a book before being +suffered to depart. That done, he bade them bear him home on the couch +on which he had been placed that he might be spared the agony of more +movement than was necessary. + +Thus his grenadiers bore him on their shoulders, lighted by torches, +through the streets that were now thronged, for the rumour had now gone +forth that the King was dead, and troops had been called out to keep +order. Beside him walked Armfelt in his suit of shimmering white satin, +weeping at once for his King and for himself, for he knew that he was of +those who must fall with Gustavus. And, knowing this, there was bitter +rage in his heart against the men who had wrought this havoc, a rage +that sharpened his wits to an unusual acuteness. + +At last the King was once more in his apartments awaiting the physicians +who were to pronounce his fate, and Armfelt kept him company among +others, revolving in his mind the terrible suspicion he had formed. + +Presently came Duke Charles, the King's brother, and Benzelstjerna with +the list of those who had been present at the ball. + +"Tell me," he asked, before the list was read to him, "is the name of +Ankarstrom included in it?" + +"He was the last to sign, Sire," replied the chamberlain. + +The King smiled grimly. "Tell Lillesparre to have him arrested and +questioned." + +Armfelt flung forward. "There is another who should be arrested, too!" +he cried fiercely. And added, "Bjelke!" + +"Bjelke?" + +The King echoed the name almost in anger at the imputation. Armfelt +spoke torrentially. "It was he persuaded you to go against your own +judgment when you had the warning, and at last induced you to it by +offering to assume your own domino. If the assassins sought the King, +how came they to pass over one who wore the King's domino, and to +penetrate your own disguise that was like a dozen others? Because they +were informed of the change. But by whom--by whom? Who was it knew?" + +"My God!" groaned the unfortunate King, who had in his time broken faith +with so many, and was now to suffer the knowledge of this broken faith +in one whom he had trusted above all others. + +Baron Bjelke was arrested an hour later, arrested in the very act of +entering his own home. The men of Lillesparre's police had preceded him +thither to await his return. He was quite calm when they surged suddenly +about him, laid hands upon him, and formally pronounced him their +prisoner. + +"I suppose," he said, "it was to have been inferred. Allow me to take my +leave of the Baroness, and I shall be at your disposal." + +"My orders, Baron, are explicit," he was answered by the officer in +charge. "I am not to suffer you out of my sight." + +"How? Am I to be denied so ordinary a boon?" His voice quivered with +sudden anger and something else. + +"Such are my orders, Baron." + +Bjelke pleaded for five minutes' grace for that leavetaking. But the +officer had his orders. He was no more than a machine. The Baron raised +his clenched hands in mute protest to the heavens, then let them fall +heavily. + +"Very well," he said, and suffered them to thrust him back into his +carriage and carry him away to the waiting Lillesparre. + +He found Armfelt in the office of the chief of the police, haranguing +Ankarstrom, who was already there under arrest. The favourite broke off +as Bjelke was brought in. + +"You were privy to this infamy, Bjelke," he cried. "If the King does not +recover--" + +"He will not recover." It was the cold, passionless voice of Ankarstrom +that spoke. "My pistol was loaded with rusty nails. I intended to make +quite sure of ridding my country of that perjured tyrant." + +Armfelt stared at the prisoner a moment with furious, bloodshot eyes. +Then he broke into imprecations, stemmed only when Lillesparre ordered +Ankarstrom to be removed. When he was gone, the chief of police turned +to Bjelke. + +"It grieves me, Baron, that we should meet thus, and it is with +difficulty that I can believe what is alleged against you. Baron Armfelt +is perhaps rendered hasty by his grief and righteous anger. But I hope +that you will be able to explain--at least to deny your concern in this +horrible deed." + +Very tense and white stood Bjelke. + +"I have an explanation that should satisfy you as a man of honour," he +said quietly, "but not as chief of the police. I joined this conspiracy +that I might master its scope and learn the intentions of the plotters. +It was a desperate thing I did out of love and loyalty to the King, and +I succeeded. I came to-night to the palace with information which should +not only have saved the King's life, but would have enabled him to +smother the conspiracy for all time. On the threshold of his room this +letter for the King was delivered into my hands. Read it, Lillesparre, +that you may know precisely what manner of master you serve, that you +may understand how Gustavus of Sweden recompenses love and loyalty. Read +it, and tell me how you would have acted in my place!" + +And he flung the letter on to the writing-table at which sat +Lillesparre. + +The chief of police took it up, began to read, turned back to the +superscription, then resumed his reading, a dull flush overspreading his +face. Over his shoulder Armfelt, too, was reading. But Bjelke cared +not. Let all the world behold that advertisement of royal infamy, +that incriminating love-letter from Bjelke's wife to the King who had +dishonoured him. + +Lillesparre was stricken dumb. He dared not raise his eyes to meet the +glance of the prisoner. But the shameless Armfelt sucked in a breath of +understanding. + +"You admit your guilt, then?" he snarled. + +"That I sent the monster to the masquerade, knowing that there the +blessed hand of Ankarstrom would give him his passport out of a world he +had befouled--yes." + +"The rack shall make you yield the name of every one of the +conspirators." + +"The rack!" Bjelke smiled disdainfully, and shrugged. "Your men, +Lillesparre, were very prompt and very obdurate. They would not allow me +to take leave of the Baroness, so that she has escaped me. But I am not +sure that it is not a fitter vengeance to let her live and remember. +That letter may now be delivered to the King, for whom it is intended. +Its fond messages may lighten the misery of his remaining hours." + +His face was contorted, with rage, thought Armfelt, who watched him, but +in reality with pain caused by the poison that was corroding his vitals. +He had drained a little phial just before stepping into the presence +of Lillesparre, as they discovered upon inquiries made after he had +collapsed dead at their feet. + +This caused them to bring back Ankarstrom, that he might be searched, +lest he, too, should take some similar way of escaping them. When he +search was done, having discovered nothing, Lillesparre commanded that +he should not have knife or fork or metal comb, or anything with which +he might take his life. + +"You need not fear that I shall seek to evade the sacrifice," he assured +them, his demeanour haughty, his eyes aglow with fanatic zeal. "It is +the price I pay for having rid Nature of a monster and my country of a +false, perjured tyrant, and I pay it gladly." As he ceased he smiled, +and drew from the gold lace of his sleeve a surgeon's lancet. "This was +supplied me against my need to open a vein. But the laws of God and man +may require my death upon the scaffold." + +And, smiling, he placed the lancet on Lillesparre's table. + +Upon his conviction execution followed, and it lasted three days--from +April 19th to 21 st--being attended by all the horrible and gradual +torturings reserved for regicides. Yet possibly he did not suffer more +than his victim, whose agony had lasted for thirteen days, and who +perished miserably in the consciousness that he deserved his fate, +whilst Ankarstrom was uplifted and fortified by his fanaticism. + +The scaffold was erected on the Stora Torget, facing the Opera House +of Stockholm, where the assassination had taken place. Thence the +dismembered remains of Ankarstrom were conveyed to the ordinary gallows +in the suburb of Sodermalm to be exhibited, the right hand being nailed +below the head. Under this hand on the morrow was found a tablet bearing +the legend: + + +Blessed the hand That saved the Fatherland. + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Historical Nights' +Entertainment, by Rafael Sabatini + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT *** + +***** This file should be named 2636.txt or 2636.zip ***** This and +all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/3/2636/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer, and David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be +renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one +owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and +you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission +and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in +the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and +distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the +PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a +registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, +unless you receive specific permission. If you do not charge anything +for copies of this eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You +may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative +works, reports, performances and research. They may be modified and +printed and given away--you may do practically ANYTHING with public +domain eBooks. Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, +especially commercial redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU +DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree +to and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the +terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy all +copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be used +on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who agree +to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few things that +you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works even without +complying with the full terms of this agreement. See paragraph 1.C +below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement and help +preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. +See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in +the collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you +are located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent +you from copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating +derivative works based on the work as long as all references to Project +Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the +Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic +works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with +the terms of this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name +associated with the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this +agreement by keeping this work in the same format with its attached +full Project Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with +others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing +or creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost +no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use +it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this +eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work with +the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, +you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through +1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute +this electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other +than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain +Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the full +Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing access +to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from +the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method you +already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed to the +owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has agreed to donate +royalties under this paragraph to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid within 60 days following each +date on which you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your +periodic tax returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such +and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the +address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to the +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies you +in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he does not +agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm License. You +must require such a user to return or destroy all copies of the works +possessed in a physical medium and discontinue all use of and all access +to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of +any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the +electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of +receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free +distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set forth +in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from both the +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael Hart, the +owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as +set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm collection. +Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, and the +medium on which they may be stored, may contain "Defects," such as, but +not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription +errors, a copyright or other intellectual property infringement, a +defective or damaged disk or other medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees. +YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, +BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE PROVIDED IN +PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE TRADEMARK OWNER, AND +ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR +ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES +EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a defect +in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a written +explanation to the person you received the work from. If you received +the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with your +written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with the +defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, +the trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will remain +freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure and +permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. To +learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and +how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 and the +Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the state +of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue +Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification number +is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, +email business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official page +at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: Dr. Gregory B. Newby Chief Executive +and Director gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide spread +public support and donations to carry out its mission of increasing +the number of public domain and licensed works that can be freely +distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest array +of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations ($1 to +$5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt status with +the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state +visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make any +statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from outside +the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other ways +including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To donate, +please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. unless +a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily keep eBooks +in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + +http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, including +how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to +our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + + diff --git a/2636.zip b/2636.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2aeb61e --- /dev/null +++ b/2636.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc3f7bd --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #2636 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2636) diff --git a/old/hnits10.txt b/old/hnits10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f2278bf --- /dev/null +++ b/old/hnits10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13450 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Historical Nights' Entertainment, by Sabatini +#5 in our series by Rafael Sabatini + + +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. + +*It must legally be the first thing seen when opening the book.* +In fact, our legal advisors said we can't even change margins. + +**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. We need your donations. + + +The Historical Nights' Entertainment + +Author: Rafael Sabatini + +May, 2001 [Etext #2636] + + +Project Gutenberg's Historical Nights' Entertainment, by Sabatini +*******This file should be named hnits10.txt or hnits10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, hnits11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, hnits10a.txt + + +This Etext prepared by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer. + + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any +of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an +up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes +in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has +a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a +look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a +new copy has at least one byte more or less. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-six text +files per month, or 432 more Etexts in 1999 for a total of 2000+ +If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the +total should reach over 200 billion Etexts given away this year. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only ~5% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we +manage to get some real funding; currently our funding is mostly +from Michael Hart's salary at Carnegie-Mellon University, and an +assortment of sporadic gifts; this salary is only good for a few +more years, so we are looking for something to replace it, as we +don't want Project Gutenberg to be so dependent on one person. + +We need your donations more than ever! + + +All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are +tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (CMU = Carnegie- +Mellon University). + +For these and other matters, please mail to: + +Project Gutenberg +P. O. Box 2782 +Champaign, IL 61825 + +When all other email fails. . .try our Executive Director: +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> +hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org +if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if +it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . . + +We would prefer to send you this information by email. + +****** + +To access Project Gutenberg etexts, use any Web browser +to view http://promo.net/pg. This site lists Etexts by +author and by title, and includes information about how +to get involved with Project Gutenberg. You could also +download our past Newsletters, or subscribe here. This +is one of our major sites, please email hart@pobox.com, +for a more complete list of our various sites. + +To go directly to the etext collections, use FTP or any +Web browser to visit a Project Gutenberg mirror (mirror +sites are available on 7 continents; mirrors are listed +at http://promo.net/pg). + +Mac users, do NOT point and click, typing works better. + +Example FTP session: + +ftp metalab.unc.edu +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg +cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext01, etc. +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99] +GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books] + +*** + +**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor** + +(Three Pages) + + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG- +tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor +Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at +Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project"). Among other +things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- + cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + net profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +We are planning on making some changes in our donation structure +in 2000, so you might want to email me, hart@pobox.com beforehand. + + + + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This Etext prepared by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer. + + + + + +The Historical Nights' Entertainment + +by Rafael Sabatini + + + + +First Series + + + +PREFACE + +In approaching "The Historical Nights' Entertainment" I set myself +the task of reconstructing, in the fullest possible detail and +with all the colour available from surviving records, a group of +more or less famous events. I would select for my purpose those +which were in themselves bizarre and resulting from the interplay +of human passions, and whilst relating each of these events in the +form of a story, I would compel that story scrupulously to follow +the actual, recorded facts without owing anything to fiction, and +I would draw upon my imagination, if at all, merely as one might +employ colour to fill in the outlines which history leaves grey, +taking care that my colour should be as true to nature as possible. +For dialogue I would depend upon such scraps of actual speech as +were chronicled in each case, amplifying it by translating into +terms of speech the paraphrases of contemporary chroniclers. + +Such was the task I set myself. I am aware that it has been +attempted once or twice already, beginning, perhaps, with the +"Crimes Celebres" of Alexandre Dumas. I am not aware that the +attempt has ever succeeded. This is not to say that I claim +success in the essays that follow. How nearly I may have +approached success -judged by the standard I had set myself - how +far I may have fallen short, my readers will discern. I am +conscious, however, of having in the main dutifully resisted the +temptation to take the easier road, to break away from restricting +fact for the sake of achieving a more intriguing narrative. In one +instance, however, I have quite deliberately failed, and in some +others I have permitted myself certain speculations to resolve +mysteries of which no explanation has been discovered. Of these it +is necessary that I should make a full confession. + +My deliberate failure is "The Night of Nuptials." I discovered an +allusion to the case of Charles the Bold and Sapphira Danvelt in +Macaulay's "History of England" - quoted from an old number of the +"Spectator" - whilst I was working upon the case of Lady Alice Lisle. +There a similar episode is mentioned as being related of Colonel +Kirke, but discredited because known for a story that has a trick +of springing up to attach itself to unscrupulous captains. I set +out to track it to its source, and having found its first appearance +to be in connection with Charles the Bold's German captain Rhynsault, +I attempted to reconstruct the event as it might have happened, +setting it at least in surroundings of solid fact. + +My most flagrant speculation occurs in "The Night of Hate." But in +defence of it I can honestly say that it is at least no more flagrant +than the speculations on this subject that have become enshrined in +history as facts. In other words, I claim for my reconstruction of +the circumstances attending the mysterious death of Giovanni Borgia, +Duke of Gandia, that it no more lacks historical authority than do +any other of the explanatory narratives adopted by history to assign +the guilt to Gandia's brother, Cesare Borgia. + +In the "Cambridge Modern History" our most authoritative writers on +this epoch have definitely pronounced that there is no evidence +acceptable to historians to support the view current for four +centuries that Cesare Borgia was the murderer. + +Elsewhere I have dealt with this at length. Here let it suffice to +say that it was not until nine months after the deed that the name +of Cesare Borgia was first associated with it; that public opinion +had in the mean time assigned the guilt to a half-dozen others in +succession; that no motive for the crime is discoverable in the case +of Cesare; that the motives advanced will not bear examination, and +that they bear on the face of them the stamp of having been put +forward hastily to support an accusation unscrupulously political in +purpose; that the first men accused by the popular voice were the +Cardinal Vice-Chancellor Ascanio Sforza and his nephew Giovanni +Sforza, Tyrant of Pesaro; and, finally, that in Matarazzo's +"Chronicles of Perugia" there is a fairly detailed account of how +the murder was perpetrated by the latter. + +Matarazzo, I confess, is worthy of no more credit than any other of +the contemporary reporters of common gossip. But at least he is +worthy of no less. And it is undeniable that in Sforza's case a +strong motive for the murder was not lacking. + +My narrative in "The Night of Hate" is admittedly a purely +theoretical account of the crime. But it is closely based upon all +the known facts of incidence and of character; and if there is +nothing in the surviving records that will absolutely support it, +neither is there anything that can absolutely refute it. + +In "The Night of Masquerade" I am guilty of quite arbitrarily +discovering a reason to explain the mystery of Baron Bjelke's sudden +change from the devoted friend and servant of Gustavus III of Sweden +into his most bitter enemy. That speculation is quite indefensible, +although affording a possible explanation of that mystery. In the +case of "The Night of Kirk o' Field," on the other hand, I do not +think any apology is necessary for my reconstruction of the precise +manner in which Darnley met his death. The event has long been +looked upon as one of the mysteries of history - the mystery lying +in the fact that whilst the house at Kirk o' Field was destroyed by +an explosion, Darnley's body was found at some distance away, +together with that of his page, bearing every evidence of death by +strangulation. The explanation I adopt seems to me to owe little +to speculation. + +In the story of Antonio Perez - "The Night of Betrayal" - I have +permitted myself fewer liberties with actual facts than might appear. +I have closely followed his own "Relacion," which, whilst admittedly +a piece of special pleading, must remain the most authoritative +document of the events with which it deals. All that I have done +has been to reverse the values as Perez presents them, throwing the +personal elements into higher relief than the political ones, and +laying particular stress upon the matter of his relations with the +Princess of Eboli. "The Night of Betrayal" is presented in the form +of a story within a story. Of the containing story let me say that +whilst to some extent it is fictitious, it is by no means entirely so. +There is enough to justify most of it in the "Relaciori" itself. + +The exceptions mentioned being made, I hope it may be found that I +have adhered rigorously to my purpose of owing nothing to invention +in my attempt to flesh and clothe these few bones of history. + +I should add, perhaps, that where authorities differ as to motives, +where there is a conflict of evidence as to the facts themselves, +or where the facts admit of more than one interpretation, I have +permitted myself to be selective, and confined myself to a point +of view adopted at the outset. + R. S. +LONDON, August, I9I7 + + + + +CONTENTS + +I. THE NIGHT OF HOLYROOD + The Murder of David Rizzio + +II. THE NIGHT OF KIRK O' FIELD + The Murder of Darnley + +III. THE NIGHT OF BETRAYAL + Antonio Perez and Philip II of Spain + +IV. THE NIGHT OF CHARITY + The Case of the Lady Alice Lisle + +V. THE NIGHT OF MASSACRE + The Story of the Saint Bartholomew + +VI. THE NIGHT OF WITCHCRAFT + Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan + +VII. THE NIGHT OF GEMS + The Affaire of the Queen's Necklace + +VIII. THE NIGHT OF TERROR + The Drownings at Nantes under Carrier + +IX. THE NIGHT OF NUPTIALS + Charles the Bold and Sapphira Danvelt + +X. THE NIGHT OF STRANGLERS + Giovanna of Naples and Andreas of Hungary + +XI. THE NIGHT OF HATE + The Murder of the Duke of Gandia + +XII. THE NIGHT OF ESCAPE + Casanova's Escape from the Piombi + +XIII. THE NIGHT OF MASQUERADE + The Assassination of Gustavus III of Sweden + + + + + + +THE HISTORICAL NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENT + + + + + + +I. THE NIGHT OF HOLYROOD + The Murder of David Rizzio + +The tragedy of my Lord Darnley's life lay in the fact that he was +a man born out of his proper station - a clown destined to kingship +by the accident of birth and fortune. By the blood royal flowing +in his veins, he could, failing others, have claimed succession to +both the English and the Scottish thrones, whilst by his marriage +with Mary Stuart he made a definite attempt to possess himself of +that of Scotland. + +The Queen of Scots, enamoured for a season of the clean-limbed grace +and almost feminine beauty ("ladyfaced," Melville had called him +once) of this "long lad of nineteen" who came a-wooing her, had soon +discovered, in matrimony, his vain, debauched, shiftless, and +cowardly nature. She had married him in July of 1565, and by +Michaelmas she had come to know him for just a lovely husk of a man, +empty of heart or brain; and the knowledge transmuted affection into +contempt. + +Her natural brother, the Earl of Murray, had opposed the marriage, +chiefly upon the grounds that Darnley was a Catholic, and with +Argyll, Chatellerault, Glencairn, and a host of other Protestant +lords, had risen in arms against his sovereign and her consort. But +Mary had chased her rebel brother and his fellows over the border +into England, and by this very action, taken for the sake of her +worthless husband, she sowed the first seeds of discord between +herself and him. It happened that stout service had been rendered +her in this affair by the arrogant border ruffian, the Earl of +Bothwell. Partly to reward him, partly because of the confidence +with which he inspired her, she bestowed upon him the office of +Lieutenant-General of the East, Middle, and West Marches - an office +which Darnley had sought for his father, Lennox. That was the first +and last concerted action of the royal couple. Estrangement grew +thereafter between them, and, in a measure, as it grew so did +Darnley's kingship, hardly established as yet - for the Queen had +still to redeem her pre-nuptial promise to confer upon him the crown +matrimonial - begin to dwindle. + +At first it had been "the King and Queen," or "His Majesty and Hers"; +but by Christmas - five months after the wedding - Darnley was known +simply as "the Queen's husband," and in all documents the Queen's +name now took precedence of his, whilst coins bearing their two +heads, and the legend "Hen. et Maria," were called in and substituted +by a new coinage relegating him to the second place. + +Deeply affronted, and seeking anywhere but in himself and his own +shortcomings the cause of the Queen's now manifest hostility, he +presently conceived that he had found it in the influence exerted +upon her by the Seigneur Davie - that Piedmontese, David Rizzio, +who had come to the Scottish Court some four years ago as a +starveling minstrel in the train of Monsieur de Morette, the +ambassador of Savoy. + +It was Rizzio's skill upon the rebec that had first attracted Mary's +attention. Later he had become her secretary for French affairs + and the young Queen, reared amid the elegancies of the Court of +France, grew attached to him as to a fellow-exile in the uncouth +and turbulent land over which a harsh destiny ordained that she +should rule. Using his opportunities and his subtle Italian +intelligence, he had advanced so rapidly that soon there was no man +in Scotland who stood higher with the Queen. When Maitland of +Lethington was dismissed under suspicion of favouring the exiled +Protestant lords, the Seigneur Davie succeeded him as her secretary; +and now that Morton was under the same suspicion, it was openly said +that the Seigneur Davie would be made chancellor in his stead. + +Thus the Seigneur Davie was become the most powerful man in Scotland, +and it is not to be dreamt that a dour, stiff-necked nobility would +suffer it without demur. They intrigued against him, putting it +abroad, amongst other things, that this foreign upstart was an +emissary, of the Pope's, scheming to overthrow the Protestant +religion in Scotland. But in the duel that followed their blunt +Scotch wits were no match for his Italian subtlety. Intrigue as +they might his power remained unshaken. And then, at last it began +to be whispered that he owed his high favour with the beautiful +young Queen to other than his secretarial abilities, so that Bedford +wrote to Cecil: + +"What countenance the Queen shows David I will not write, for the +honour due to the person of a queen." + +This bruit found credit - indeed, there have been ever since those +who have believed it - and, as it spread, it reached the ears of +Darnley. Because it afforded him an explanation of the Queen's +hostility, since he was without the introspection that would have +discovered the true explanation in his own shortcomings, he flung +it as so much fuel upon the seething fires of his rancour, and +became the most implacable of those who sought the ruin of Rizzio. + +He sent for Ruthven, the friend of Murray and the exiled lords - +exiled, remember, on Darnley's own account - and offered to procure +the reinstatement of those outlaws if they would avenge his honour +and make him King of Scots in something more than name. + +Ruthven, sick of a mortal illness, having risen from a bed of pain +to come in answer to that summons, listened dourly to the frothing +speeches of that silly, lovely boy. + +"No doubt you'll be right about yon fellow Davie," he agreed +sombrely, and purposely he added things that must have outraged +Darnley's every feeling as king and as husband. Then he stated the +terms on which Darnley might count upon his aid. + +"Early next month Parliament is to meet over the business of a Bill +of Attainder against Murray and his friends, declaring them by their +rebellion to have forfeited life, land, and goods. Ye can see the +power with her o' this foreign fiddler, that it drives her so to +attaint her own brother. Murray has ever hated Davie, knowing too +much of what lies 'twixt the Queen and him to her dishonour, and +Master Davie thinks so to make an end of Murray and his hatred." + +Darnley clenched teeth and hands, tortured by the craftily +administered poison. + +"What then? What is to do?" he cried, + +Ruthven told him bluntly. + +"That Bill must never pass. Parliament must never meet to pass it. +You are Her Grace's husband and King of Scots." + +"In name!" sneered Darnley bitterly. + +"The name will serve," said Ruthven. "In that name ye'll sign me a +bond of formal remission to Murray and his friends for all their +actions and quarrels, permitting their safe return to Scotland, and +charging the lieges to convoy them safely. Do that and leave the +rest to us." + +If Darnley hesitated at all, it was not because he perceived the +irony of the situation - that he himself, in secret opposition to +the Queen, should sign the pardon of those who had rebelled against +her precisely because she had taken him to husband. He hesitated +because indecision was inherent in his nature. + +"And then?" he asked at last. + +Ruthven's blood-injected eyes considered him stonily out of a livid, +gleaming face. + +"Then, whether you reign with her or without her, reign you shall +as King o' Scots. I pledge myself to that, and I pledge those +others, so that we have the bond." + +Darnley sat down to sign the death warrant of the Seigneur Davie. + +It was the night of Saturday, the 9th of March, + + A fire of pine logs burned fragrantly on the hearth of the small +closet adjoining the Queen's chamber, suffusing it with a sense of +comfort, the greater by contrast with the cheerlessness out of doors, +where an easterly wind swept down from Arthur's Seat and moaned its +dismal way over a snowclad world. + +The lovely, golden-headed young queen supped with a little company +of intimates: her natural sister, the Countess of Argyll, the +Commendator of Holyrood, Beaton, the Master of the Household, Arthur +Erskine, the Captain of the Guard, and one other - that, David Rizzio, +who from an errant minstrel had risen to this perilous eminence, a +man of a swarthy, ill-favoured countenance redeemed by the +intelligence that glowed in his dark eyes, and of a body so slight +and fragile as to seem almost misshapen. His age was not above +thirty, yet indifferent health, early privation, and misfortune had +so set their mark upon him that he had all the appearance of a man +of fifty. He was dressed with sombre magnificence, and a jewel of +great price smouldered upon the middle finger of one of his slender, +delicate hands. + +Supper was at an end. The Queen lounged on a long seat over against +the tapestried wall. The Countess of Argyll, in a tall chair on the +Queen's left, sat with elbows on the table watching the Seigneur +Davie's fine fingers as they plucked softly at the strings of a +long-necked lute. The talk, which, intimate and untrammelled, had +lately been of the child of which Her Majesty was to be delivered +some three months hence, was flagging now, and it was to fill the +gap that Rizzio had taken up the lute. + +His harsh countenance was transfigured as he caressed the strings, +his soul absorbed in the theme of his inspiration. Very softly - +indeed, no more than tentatively as yet - he was beginning one of +those wistful airs in which his spirit survives in Scotland to this +day, when suddenly the expectant hush was broken by a clash of +curtain-rings. The tapestries that masked the door had been swept +aside, and on the threshold, unheralded, stood the tall, stripling +figure of the young King. + +Darnley's appearance abruptly scattered the Italian's inspiration. +The melody broke off sharply on the single loud note of a string +too rudely plucked. + +That and the silence that followed it irked them all, conveying a +sense that here something had been broken which never could be made +whole again. + +Darnley shuffled forward. His handsome face was pale save for the +two burning spots upon his cheekbones, and his eyes glittered +feveredly. He had been drinking, so much was clear; and that he +should seek the Queen thus, who so seldom sought her sober, angered +those intimates who had come to share her well-founded dislike of +him. King though he might be in name, into such contempt was he +fallen that not one of them rose in deference, whilst Mary herself +watched his approach with hostile, mistrusting eyes. + +"What is it, my lord?" she asked him coldly, as he flung himself +down on the settle beside her. + +He leered at her, put an arm about her waist, pulled her to him, +and kissed her oafishly. + +None stirred. All eyes were upon them, and all faces blank. After +all, he was the King and she his wife. And then upon the silence, +ominous as the very steps of doom, came a ponderous, clanking tread +from the ante-room beyond. Again the curtains were thrust aside, +and the Countess of Argyll uttered a gasp of sudden fear at the +grim spectre she beheld there. It was a figure armed as for a +tourney, in gleaming steel from head to foot, girt with a sword, +the right hand resting upon the hilt of the heavy dagger in the +girdle. The helmet's vizor was raised, revealing the ghastly face +of Ruthven - so ghastly that it must have seemed the face of a dead +man but for the blazing life in the eyes that scanned the company. +Those questing eyes went round the table, settled upon Rizzio, and +seemed horribly to smile. + +Startled, disquieted by this apparition, the Queen half rose, +Darnley's hindering arm still flung about her waist. + +"What's this?" she cried, her voice sharp. + +And then, as if she guessed intuitively what it might portend, she +considered her husband with pale-faced contempt. + +"Judas!" she called him, flung away from his detaining arm, and +stood forth to confront that man in steel. "What seek ye here, my +lord - and in this guise?" was her angry challenge. + +Ruthven's burning eyes fell away before her glance. He clanked +forward a step or two, flung out a mailed arm, and with a hand that +shook pointed to the Seigneur Davie, who stood blankly watching him. + +"I seek yon man," he said gruffly. "Let him come forth." + +"He is here by my will," she told him, her anger mounting. "And so +are not you - for which you shall be made to answer." + +Then to Darnley, who sat hunched on the settle: + +"What does this mean, sir?" she demanded. + +"Why - how should I know? Why - why, nothing," he faltered foolishly. + +"Pray God that you are right," said she, "for your own sake. And +you," she continued, addressing Ruthven again and waving a hand in +imperious dismissal, "be you gone, and wait until I send for you, +which I promise you shall be right soon." + +If she divined some of the evil of their purpose, if any fear +assailed her, yet she betrayed nothing of it. She was finely +tempered steel. + +But Ruthven, sullen and menacing, stood his ground. + +"Let yon man come forth," he repeated. "He has been here ower lang." + +"Over long?" she echoed, betrayed by her quick resentment. + +"Aye, ower lang for the good o' Scotland and your husband," was the +brutal answer. + +Erskine, of her guards, leapt to his feet. + +"Will you begone, sir?" he cried; and after him came Beaton and the +Commendator, both echoing the captain's threatening question. + +A smile overspread Ruthven's livid face. The heavy dagger flashed +from his belt. + +"My affair is not with any o' ye, but if ye thrust yersels too close +upon my notice - " + +The Queen stepped clear of the table to intervene, lest violence +should be done here in her presence. Rizzio, who had risen, stood +now beside her, watching all with a white, startled face. And then, +before more could be said, the curtains were torn away and half a +score of men, whose approach had passed unnoticed, poured into the +room. First came Morton, the Chancellor, who was to be dispossessed +of the great seal in Rizzio's favour. After him followed the brutal +Lindsay of the Byres, Kerr of Faudonside, black-browed Brunston, +red-headed Douglas, and a half-dozen others. + +Confusion ensued; the three men of the Queen's household were +instantly surrounded and overpowered. In the brief, sharp struggle +the table was overturned, and all would have been in darkness but +that as the table went over the Countess of Argyll had snatched up +the candle-branch, and stood now holding it aloft to light that +extraordinary scene. Rizzio, to whom the sight of Morton had been +as the removal of his last illusion, flung himself upon his knees +before the Queen. Frail and feeble of body, and never a man of his +hands, he was hopelessly unequal to the occasion. + +"Justice, madame!" he cried. "Faites justice! Sauvez ma vie!" + +Fearlessly, she stepped between him and the advancing horde of +murderers, making of her body a buckler for his protection. White +of face, with heaving bosom and eyes like two glowing sapphires, she +confronted them. + +"Back, on your lives!" she bade them. + +But they were lost to all sense of reverence, even to all sense of +decency, in their blind rage against this foreign upstart who had +trampled their Scottish vanity in the dust. George Douglas, without +regard for her condition either as queen or woman - and a woman +almost upon the threshold of motherhood - clapped a pistol to her +breast and roughly bade her stand aside. + +Undaunted, she looked at him with eyes that froze his trigger-finger, +whilst behind her Rizzio grovelled in his terror, clutching her +petticoat. Thus, until suddenly she was seized about the waist and +half dragged, half-lifted aside by Darnley, who at the same time +spurned Rizzio forward with his foot. + +The murderers swooped down upon their prey. Kerr of Faudonside +flung a noose about his body, and drew it tight with a jerk that +pulled the secretary from his knees. Then he and Morton took the +rope between them, and so dragged their victim across the room +towards the door. He struggled blindly as he went, vainly +clutching first at an overset chair, then at a leg of the table, +and screeching piteously the while to the Queen to save him. And +Mary, trembling with passion, herself struggling in the arms of +Darnley, flung an angry warning after them. + +"If Davie's blood be spilt, it shall be dear blood to some of you! +Remember that, sirs!" + +But they were beyond control by now, hounds unleashed upon the +quarry of their hate. Out of her presence Morton and Douglas +dragged him, the rest of the baying pack going after them. They +dragged him, screeching still, across the ante-chamber to the head +of the great stairs, and there they fell on him all together, and +so wildly that they wounded one another in their fury to rend him +into pieces. The tattered body, gushing blood from six-and-fifty +wounds, was hurled from top to bottom of the stairs, with a +gold-hilted dagger - Darnley's, in token of his participation in +the deed - still sticking in his breast. + +Ruthven stood forward from the group, his reeking poniard clutched +in his right hand, a grin distorting his ghastly, vulturine face. +Then he stalked back alone into the royal presence, dragging his +feet a little, like a man who is weary. + +He found the room much as he had left it, save that the Queen had +sunk back to her seat on the settle, and Darnley was now standing +over her, whilst her people were still hemmed about by his own men. +Without a "by your leave," he flung himself into a chair and called +hoarsely for a cup of wine. + +Mary's white face frowned at him across the room. + +"You shall yet drink the wine that I shall pour you for this night's +work, my lord, and for this insolence! Who gave you leave to sit +before me?" + +He waved a hand as if to dismiss the matter. It may have seemed to +him frivolous to dwell upon such a trifle amid so much. + +"It's no' frae lack o' respect, Your Grace," he growled, "but frae +lack o' strength. I am ill, and I should ha' been abed but for what +was here to do." + +"Ah!" She looked at him with cold repugnance. "What have you done +with Davie?" + +He shrugged, yet his eyes quailed before her own. + +"He'll be out yonder," he answered, grimly evasive; and he took the +wine one of his followers proffered him. + +"Go see," she bade the Countess. + +And the Countess, setting the candle-branch upon the buffet, went +out, none attempting to hinder her. + +Then, with narrowed eyes, the Queen watched Ruthven while he drank. + +"It will be for the sake of Murray and his friends that you do this," +she said slowly. "Tell me, my lord, what great kindness is there +between Murray and you that, to save him from forfeiture, you run +the risk of being forfeited with him?" + +"What I have done," he said, "I have done for others, and under a +bond that shall hold me scatheless." + +"Under a bond?" said she, and now she looked up at Darnley, standing +ever at her side. "And was the bond yours, my lord?" + +"Mme?" He started back. "I know naught of it." + +But as he moved she saw something else. She leaned forward, pointing +to the empty sheath at his girdle. + +"Where is your dagger, my lord?" she asked him sharply. + +"My dagger? Ha! How should I know?" + +"But I shall know!" she threatened, as if she were not virtually a +prisoner in the hands of these violent men who had invaded her +palace and dragged Rizzio from her side. "I shall not rest until +I know!" + +The Countess came in, white to the lips, bearing in her eyes +something of the horror she had beheld. + +"What is it?" Mary asked her, her voice suddenly hushed and +faltering. + +"Madame-he is dead! Murdered!" she announced. + +The Queen looked at her, her face of marble. Then her voice came +hushed and tense: + +"Are - you sure?" + +"Myself I saw his body, madame." + +There was a long pause. A low moan escaped the Queen, and her +lovely eyes were filled with tears; slowly these coursed down her +cheeks. Something compelling in her grief hushed every voice, and +the craven husband at her side shivered as her glance fell upon him +once more. + +"And is it so?" she said at length, considering him. She dried her +eyes. "Then farewell tears; I must study revenge." She rose as if +with labour, and standing, clung a moment to the table's edge. A +moment she looked at Ruthven, who sat glooming there, dagger in one +hand and empty wine-cup in the other; then her glance passed on, +and came to rest balefully on Darnley's face. "You have had your +will, my lord," she said, "but consider well what I now say. +Consider and remember. I shall never rest until I give you as sore +a heart as I have presently." + +That said she staggered forward. The Countess hastened to her, and +leaning upon her arm, Mary passed through the little door of the +closet into her chamber. + +That night the common bell was rung, and Edinburgh roused in alarm. +Bothwell, Huntly, Atholl, and others who were at Holyrood when +Rizzio was murdered, finding it impossible to go to the Queen's +assistance, and fearing to share the secretary's fate - for the +palace was a-swarm with the murderers' men-at-arms - had escaped +by one of the windows. The alarm they spread in Edinburgh brought +the provost and townsmen in arms to the palace by torchlight, +demanding to see the Queen, and refusing to depart until Darnley +had shown himself and assured them that all was well with the Queen +and with himself. And what time Darnley gave them this reassurance +from a window of her room, Mary herself stood pale and taut amid +the brutal horde that on this alarm had violated the privacy of her +chamber, while the ruffianly Red Douglas flashed his dagger before +her eyes, swearing that if she made a sound they would cut her into +collops. + +When at last they withdrew and left her to herself, they left her +no illusions as to her true condition. She was a prisoner in her +own palace. The ante-rooms and courts were thronged with the +soldiers of Morton and Ruthven, the palace itself was hemmed about, +and none might come or go save at the good pleasure of the murderers. + +At last Darnley grasped the authority he had coveted. He dictated +forthwith a proclamation which was read next morning at Edinburgh +Market Cross - commanding that the nobles who had assembled in +Edinburgh to compose the Parliament that was to pass the Bill of +Attainder should quit the city within three hours, under pain of +treason and forfeiture. + +And meanwhile, with poor Rizzio's last cry of "justice!" still +ringing in her ears, Mary sat alone in her chamber, studying revenge +as she had promised. So that life be spared her, justice, she vowed, +should be done - punishment not only for that barbarous deed, but +for the very manner of the doing of it, for all the insult to which +she had been subjected, for the monstrous violence done her feelings +and her very person, for the present detention and peril of which +she was full conscious. + +Her anger was the more intense because she never permitted it to +diffuse itself over the several offenders. Ruthven, who had +insulted her so grossly; Douglas, who had offered her personal +violence; the Laird of Faudonside, Morton, and all the others who +held her now a helpless prisoner, she hew for no more than the +instruments of Darnley. It was against Darnley that all her rage +was concentrated. She recalled in those bitter hours all that she +had suffered at his vile hands, and swore that at whatever cost to +herself he should yield a full atonement. + +He sought her in the morning emboldened by the sovereign power he +was usurping confident that now that he showed himself master of +the situation she would not repine over what was done beyond recall, +but would submit to the inevitable, be reconciled with him, and +grant him, perforce - supported as he now was by the rebellious +lords - the crown matrimonial and the full kingly power he coveted. + +But her reception of him broke that confidence into shards. + +"You have done me such a Wrong," she told him in a voice of cold +hatred, that neither the recollection of our early friendship, nor +all the hope you can give me of the future, could ever make me +forget it. Jamais! Jamais je n'oublierai!" she added, and upon +that she dismissed him so imperiously that he went at once. + +She sought a way to deal with him, groped blindly for it, being as +yet but half informed of what was taking place; and whilst she +groped, the thing she sought was suddenly thrust into her land. +Mary Beaton, one of the few attendants left her, brought her word +later that day that the Earl of Murray, with Rothes and some other +of the exiled lords, was in the palace. The news brought revelation. +It flooded with light the tragic happening of the night before, +showed her how Darnley was building himself a party in the state. +It did more than that. She recalled the erstwhile mutual hatred +and mistrust of Murray and Darnley, and saw how it might serve her +in this emergency. + +Instantly she summoned Murray to her presence with the message that +she welcomed his return. Yet, despite that message, he hardly +expected - considering what lay between them - the reception that +awaited him at her hands. + +She rose to receive him, her lovely eyes suffused ,with tears. She +embraced him, kissed him, and then, nestling to him, as if for +comfort, her cheek against his bearded face, she allowed her tears +to flow unchecked. + +"I am punished," she sobbed - "oh, I am punished! Had I kept you +at home, Murray, you would never have suffered men to entreat me as +I have been entreated." + +Holding her to hint, he could but pat her shoulder, soothing her, +utterly taken aback, and deeply moved, too, by this display of an +affection for him that he had never hitherto suspected in her. + +"Ah, mon Dieu, Jamie, how welcome you are to one in my sorrow!" +she continued. "It is the fault of others that you have been so +long out of the country. I but require of you that you be a good +subject to me, and you shall never find me other to you than you +deserve." + +And he, shaken to the depths of his selfish soul by her tears, her +clinging caresses, and her protestations of affection, answered +with an oath and a sob that no better or more loyal and devoted +subject than himself could all Scotland yield her. + +"And, as for this killing of Davie," he ended vehemently, "I swear +by my soul's salvation that I have had no part in it, nor any +knowledge of it until my return!" + +"I know - I know!" she moaned. "Should I make you welcome, else? +Be my friend, Jamie; be my friend!" + +He swore it readily, for he was very greedy of power, and saw the +door of his return to it opening wider than he could have hoped. +Then he spoke of Darnley, begging her to receive him, and hear what +he might have to say, protesting that the King swore that he had +not desired the murder, and that the lords had carried the matter +out of his hands and much beyond all that he had intended. + +Because it suited her deep purpose, Mary consented, feigning to be +persuaded. She had realized that before she could deal with +Darnley, and the rebel lords who held her a prisoner, she must first +win free from Holyrood. + +Darnley came. He was sullen now, mindful of his recent treatment, +and in fear - notwithstanding Murray's reassurance - of further +similar rebuffs. She announced herself ready to hear what he might +have to say, and she listened attentively while he spoke, her elbow +on the carved arm of her chair, her chin in her hand. When he had +done, she sat long in thought, gazing out through the window at the +grey March sky. At length she turned and looked at him. + +"Do you pretend, my lord, to regret for what has passed?" she +challenged him. + +"You tempt me to hypocrisy," he said. "Yet I will be frank as at +an Easter shrift. Since that fellow Davie fell into credit and +familiarity with Your Majesty, you no longer treated me nor +entertained me after your wonted fashion, nor would you ever bear +me company save this Davie were the third. Can I pretend, then, +to regret that one who deprived me of what I prized most highly +upon earth should have been removed? I cannot. Yet I can and do +proclaim my innocence of any part or share in the deed that has +removed him." + +She lowered her eyes an instant, then raised them again to meet +his own. + +"You had commerce with these traitor lords," she reminded him. "It +is by your decree that they are returned from exile. What was your +aim in this?" + +"To win back the things of which this fellow Davie had robbed me, +a share in the ruling and the crown matrimonial that was my right, +yet which you denied me. That and no more. I had not intended +that Davie should be slain. I had not measured the depth of their +hatred of that upstart knave. You see that I am frank with you." + +"Aye, and I believe you," she lied slowly, considering him as she +spoke. And he drew a breath of relief, suspecting nothing of her +deep guile. "And do you know why I believe you? Because you are +a fool." + +"Madame!" he cried. + +She rose, magnificently contemptuous. + +"Must I prove it? You say that the crown matrimonial which I denied +you is to be conferred on you by these lawless men? Believing that, +you signed their pardon and recall from exile. Ha! You do not see, +my lord, that you are no more than their tool, their cat's-paw. You +do not see that they use you but for their ends, and that when they +have done with you, they will serve you as they served poor Davie? +No, you see none of that, which is why I call you a fool, that need +a woman's wit to open wide your eyes." + +She was so vehement that she forced upon his dull wits some of the +convictions she pretended were her own. Yet, resisting those +convictions, he cried out that she was at fault. + +"At fault?" She laughed. "Let my memory inform your judgment. When +these lords, with Murray at their head, protested against our +marriage, in what terms did they frame their protest? They +complained that I had set over them without consulting them one who +had no title to it, whether by lineal descent of blood, by nature, +or by consent of the Estates. Consider that! They added, remember + - I repeat to you the very words they wrote and published - that +while they deemed it their duty to endure under me, they deemed it +intolerable to suffer under you." + +She was flushed, and her eyes gleamed with excitement. She clutched +his sleeve, and brought her face close to his own, looked deep and +compellingly into his eyes as she continued: + +"Such was their proclamation, and they took arms against me to +enforce it, to pull you down from the place to which I had raised +you out of the dust. Yet you can forget it, and in your purblind +folly turn to these very men to right the wrongs you fancy I have +done you. Do you think that men, holding you in such esteem as +that, can keep any sort of faith with you? Do you think these are +the men who are likely to fortify and maintain your title to the +crown? Ask yourself, and answer for yourself." + +He was white to the lips. As much by her vehement pretence of +sincerity as by the apparently irrefragable logic of her arguments, +she forced conviction upon him. This brought a loathly fear in its +train, and the gates of his heart stood ever wide to fear. He +stepped aside to a chair, and sank into it, looking at her with +dilating eyes - a fool confronted with the likely fruits of his +folly. + +"Then - then - why did they proffer me their help? How can they +achieve their ends this way?" + +"How? Do you still ask? Do you not see what a blind tool you +have been in their crafty hands? In name at least you are king, +and your signature is binding upon my subjects. Have you not +brought them back from exile by one royal decree, whilst by another +you have dispersed the Parliament that was assembled to attaint +them of treason?" + +She stepped close up to him, and bending ,over him as he sat there, +crushed by realization, she lowered her voice. + +"Pray God, my lord, that all their purpose with you is not yet +complete, else in their hands I do not think your life is to be +valued at an apple-paring. You go the ways poor Davie went." + +He sank his handsome head to his hands, and covered his face. A +while he sat huddled there, she watching him with gleaming, crafty +eyes. At length he rallied. He looked up, tossing back the auburn +hair from his white brow, still fighting, though weakly, against +persuasion. "It is not possible," he, cried. "They could not! +They could not!" + +She laughed, betwixt bitterness and sadness. + +"Trust to that," she bade him. "Yet look well at matters as they +are already. I am a prisoner here in these men's hands. They will +not let me go until their full purpose is accomplished - perhaps," +she added wistfully, "perhaps not even then." + +"Ah, not that!" he cried out. + +"Even that," she answered firmly. "But," and again she grew +vehement, "is it less so with you? Are you less a prisoner than I? +D'ye think you will be suffered to come and go at will?" She saw +the increase of fear in him, and then she struck boldly, setting +all upon the gamble of a guess. "I am kept here until I shall have +been brought to such a state that I will add my signature to your +own and so pardon one and all for what is done." + +His sudden start, the sudden quickening of his glance told her how +shrewdly she had struck home. Fearlessly, then, sure of herself, +she continued. "To that end they use you. When you shall have +served it you will but cumber them. When they shall have used +you to procure their security from me, then they will deal with +you as they have ever sought to deal with you - so that you trouble +them no more. Ali, at last you understand!" + +He came to his feet, his brow gleaming with sweat, his slender +hands nervously interlocked. + +"Oh, God!" he cried in a stifled voice. + +"Aye, you are in a trap, my lord. Yourself you've sprung it." + +And now you behold him broken by the terror she had so cunningly +evoked. He flung himself upon his knees before her, and with +upturned face and hands that caught and clawed at her own, he +implored her pardon for the wrong that in his folly he had done +her in taking sides with her enemies. + +She dissembled under a mask of gentleness the loathing that his +cowardice aroused in her. + +"My enemies?" she echoed wistfully. "Say rather your own enemies. +It was their enmity to you that drove them into exile. In your +rashness you have recalled them, whilst at the same time you have +so bound my hands that I cannot now help you if I would." + +"You can, Mary," he cried, "or else no one can. Withhold the pardon +they will presently be seeking of you. Refuse to sign any remission +of their deed." + +"And leave them to force you to sign it, and so destroy us both," +she answered. + +He ranted then, invoking the saints of heaven, and imploring her +in their name - she who was so wise and strong - to discover some +way out of this tangle in which his madness had enmeshed them. + +"What way is there short of flight?" she asked him. "And how are +we to fly who are imprisoned here you as well as myself? Alas, +Darnley, I fear our lives will end by paying the price of your +folly." + +Thus she played upon his terrors, so that he would not be +dismissed until she had promised that she would consider and seek +some means of saving him, enjoining him meanwhile to keep strict +watch upon himself and see that he betrayed nothing of his +thoughts. + +She left him to the chastening of a sleepless night, then sent for +him betimes on Monday morning, and bade him repair to the lords +and tell them that realizing herself a prisoner in their hands she +was disposed to make terms with them. She would grant them pardon +for what was done if on their side they undertook to be loyal +henceforth and allowed her to resume her liberty. + +The message startled him. But the smile with which she followed +it was reassuring. + +"There is something else you are to do," she said, "if we are to +turn the tables on these traitorous gentlemen. Listen." And she +added matter that begat fresh hope in Darnley's despairing soul. + +He kissed her hands, lowly now and obedient as a hound that had +been whipped to heel, and went below to bear her message to the +lords. + +Morton and Ruthven heard him out, but betrayed no eagerness to +seize the opportunity. + +"All this is but words that we hear," growled Ruthven , who lay +stretched upon a couch, grimly suffering from the disease that +was, slowly eating up his life. + +"She is guileful as the serpent," Morton added, "being bred up in +the Court of France. She will make you follow her will and desire, +but she will not so lead us. We hold her fast, and we do not let +her go without some good security of what shall follow." + +"What security will satisfy you?" quoth Darnley. + +Murray and Lindsay came in as he was speaking, and Morton told them +of the message that Darnley had brought. Murray moved heavily +across to a window-seat, and sat down. He cleared a windowpane with +his hand, and looked out upon the wintry landscape as if the matter +had no interest for him. But Lindsay echoed what the other twain +had said already. + +"We want a deal more than promises that need not be kept," he said. + +Darnley looked from one to the other of them, seeing in their +uncompromising attitude a confirmation of what the Queen had told +him, and noting, too - as at another time he might not have noted + - their utter lack of deference to himself, their King. + +"Sirs," he said, "I vow you wrong Her Majesty. I will stake my +life upon her honour." + +"Why, so you may," sneered Ruthven, "but you'll not stake ours." + +"Take what security you please, and I will subscribe it." + +"Aye, but will the Queen?" wondered Morton. + +"She will. I have her word for it." + +It took them the whole of that day to consider the terms of the +articles that would satisfy them. Towards evening the document +was ready, and Morton and Ruthven representing all, accompanied by +Murray, and introduced by Darnley, came to the chamber to which Her +Majesty was confined by the guard they had set upon her. + +She sat as if in state awaiting them, very lovely and very tearful, +knowing that woman's greatest strength is in her weakness, that +tears would serve her best by presenting her as if broken to their +will. + +In outward submission they knelt before her to make the pretence +of suing for the pardon which they extorted by force of arms and +duress. When each in his turn had made the brief pleading oration +he had prepared, she dried her eyes and controlled herself by +obvious effort. + +"My lords," she said, in a voice that quivered and broke on every +other word, "when have ye ever found me blood-thirsty, or greedy +of your lands or goods that you must use me so, and take such means +with me? Ye have set my authority at naught, and wrought sedition +in this realm. Yet I forgive you all, that by this clemency I may +move you to a better love and loyalty. I desire that all that is +passed may be buried in oblivion, so that you swear to me that in +the future you will stand my friends and serve me faithfully, who +am but a weak woman, and sorely need stout men to be my friends." + +For a moment her utterance was checked by sobs. Then she controlled +herself again by an effort so piteous to behold that even the +flinty-hearted Ruthven was moved to some compassion. + +"Forgive this weakness in me, who am very weak, for very soon I am +to be brought to bed as you well know, and I am in no case to offer +resistance to any. I have no more to say, my lords. Since you +promise on your side that you will put all disloyalty behind you, +I pledge myself to remit and pardon all those that were banished +for their share in the late rising, and likewise to pardon those +that were concerned in the killing of Seigneur Davie. All this +shall be as if it had never been. I pray you, my lords, make your +own security in what sort you best please, and I will subscribe it." + +Morton proffered her the document they had prepared. She conned +it slowly, what time they watched her, pausing ever and anon to +brush aside the tears that blurred her vision. At last she nodded +her lovely golden head. + +"It is very well," she said. "All is here as I would have it be +between us." And she turned to Darnley. "Give me pen and ink, +my lord." + +Darnley dipped a quill and handed it to her. She set the +parchment on the little pulpit at her side. Then, as she bent to +sign, the pen fluttered from her fingers, and with a deep, +shuddering sigh she sank back in her chair, her eyes closed, her +face piteously white. + +"The Queen is faint!" cried Murray, springing forward. + +But she rallied instantly, smiling upon them wanly. + +"It is naught; it is past," she said. But even as she spoke she +put a hand to her brow. "I am something dizzy. My condition - " +She faltered on a trembling note of appeal that increased their +compassion, and aroused in them a shame of their own harshness. +"Leave this security with me. I will subscribe it in the morning + - indeed, as soon as I am sufficiently recovered." + +They rose from their knees at her bidding, and Morton in the name +of all professed himself full satisfied, and deplored the affliction +they had caused her, for which in the future they should make her +their amends. + +"I thank you," she answered simply. "You have leave to go." + +They departed well satisfied; and, counting the matter at an end, +they quitted the palace and rode to their various lodgings in +Edinburgh town, Murray going with Morton. + +Anon to Maitland of Lethington, who had remained behind, came one +of the Queen's women to summon him to her presence. He found her +disposing herself for bed, and was received by her with tearful +upbraidings. + +"Sir," she said, "one of the conditions upon which I consented to +the will of their lordships was that an immediate term should be +set to the insulting state of imprisonment in which I am kept here. +Yet men-at-arms still guard the very door of my chamber, and my +very attendants are hindered in their comings and goings. Do you +call this keeping faith with me? Have I not granted all the +requests of the lords?" + +Lethington, perceiving the justice of what she urged, withdrew +shamed and confused at once to remedy the matter by removing the +guards from the passage and the stairs and elsewhere, leaving none +but those who paced outside the palace. + +It was a rashness he was bitterly to repent him on the morrow, when +it was discovered that in the night Mary had not only escaped, but +had taken Darnley with her. Accompanied by him and a few attendants, +she had executed the plan in which earlier that day she had secured +her scared husband's cooperation. At midnight they had made their +way along the now unguarded corridors, and descended to the vaults +of the palace, whence a secret passage communicated with the chapel. +Through this and across the graveyard where lay the newly buried +body of the Siegneur Davie - almost across the very grave itself +which stood near the chapel door they had won to the horses waiting +by Darnley's orders in the open. And they had ridden so hard that +by five o'clock of that Tuesday morning they were in Dunbar. + +In vain did the alarmed lords send a message after her to demand +her signature of the security upon which she had duped them into +counting prematurely. + +Within a week they were in full flight before the army at the head +of which the prisoner who had slipped through their hands was +returning to destroy them. Too late did they perceive the arts by +which she had fooled them, and seduced the shallow Darnley to +betray them. + + + + +II. THE NIGHT OF KIRK O' FIELD + The Murder of Darnley + + +Perhaps one of the greatest mistakes of a lifetime in which mistakes +were plentiful was the hesitancy of the Queen of Scots in executing +upon her husband Darnley the prompt vengeance she had sworn for the +murder of David Rizzio. + +When Rizzio was slain, and she herself held captive by the murderers +in her Palace of Holyrood, whilst Darnley ruled as king, she had +simulated belief in her husband's innocence that she might use him +for her vengeful ends. + +She had played so craftily upon his cowardly nature as to convince +him that Morton, Ruthven, and the other traitor lords with whom he +had leagued himself were at heart his own implacable enemies; that +they pretended friendship for him to make a tool of him, and that +when he had served their turn they would destroy him. + +In his consequent terror he had betrayed his associates, assisting +her to trick them by a promise to sign an act of oblivion for what +was done. Trusting to this the lords had relaxed their vigilance, +whereupon, accompanied by Darnley, she had escaped by night from +Holyrood. + +Hope tempering at first the rage and chagrin in the hearts of the +lords she had duped, they had sent a messenger to her at Dunbar to +request of her the fulfilment of her promise to sign the document +of their security. + +But Mary put off the messenger, and whilst the army she had summoned +was hastily assembling, she used her craft to divide the rebels +against themselves. + +To her natural brother, the Earl of Murray, to Argyll, and to all +those who had been exiled for their rebellion at the time of her +marriage - and who knew not where they stood in the present turn of +events, since one of the objects of the murder had been to procure +their reinstatement - she sent an offer of complete pardon, on +condition that they should at once dissociate themselves from those +concerned in the death of the Seigneur Davie. + +These terms they accepted thankfully, as well they might. Thereupon, +finding themselves abandoned by all men - even by Darnley in whose +service they had engaged in the murder - Morton, Ruthven, and their +associates scattered and fled. + +By the end of that month of March, Morton, Ruthven, Lindsay of the +Byres, George Douglas, and some sixty others were denounced as +rebels with forfeiture of life and goods, while one Thomas Scott, +who had been in command of the guards that had kept Her Majesty +prisoner at Holyrood, was hanged, drawn, and quartered at the +Market Cross. + +News of this reached the fugitives to increase their desperate rage. +But what drove the iron into the soul of the arch-murderer Ruthven +was Darnley's solemn public declaration denying all knowledge of or +complicity in Rizzio's assassination; nor did it soothe his fury to +know that all Scotland rang with contemptuous laughter at that +impudent and cowardly perjury. From his sick-bed at Newcastle, +whereon some six weeks later he was to breathe his last, the +forsaken wretch replied to it by sending the Queen the bond to +which he had demanded Darnley's signature before embarking upon +the business. + +It was a damning document. There above the plain signature and seal +of the King was the admission, not merely of complicity, but that +the thing was done by his express will and command, that the +responsibility was his own, and that he would hold the doers +scatheless from all consequences. + +Mary could scarcely have hoped to be able to confront her worthless +husband with so complete a proof of his duplicity and baseness. +She sent for him, confounded him with the sight of that appalling +bond, made an end to the amity which for her own ends she had +pretended, and drove him out of her presence with a fury before +which he dared not linger. + +You see him, then, crushed under his load of mortification, +realizing at last how he had been duped on every hand, first by the +lords for their own purpose, and then by the Queen for hers. Her +contempt of him was now so manifest that it spread to all who served +him - for she made it plain that who showed him friendship earned +her deep displeasure - so that he was forced to withdraw from a +Court where his life was become impossible. For a while he wandered +up and down a land where every door was shut in his face, where +every man of whatsoever party, traitor or true, despised him alike. +In the end, he took himself off to his father, Lennox, and at +Glasgow he sought what amusement he could with his dogs and his +hawks, and such odd vulgar rustic love-affairs as came his way. + +It was in allowing him thus to go his ways, in leaving her vengeance + - indeed, her justice - but half accomplished, that lay the +greatest of the Queen's mistakes. Better for her had she taken +with Darnley the direct way that was her right. Better for her, +if acting strongly then, she had banished or hanged him for his +part in the treason that had inspired the murder of Rizzio. +Unfortunately, a factor that served to quicken her abhorrence of +him served also to set a curb of caution upon the satisfaction +of it. + +This factor that came so inopportunely into her life was her regard +for the arrogant, unscrupulous Earl of Bothwell. Her hand was +stayed by fear that men should say that for Bothwell's sake she had +rid herself of a husband become troublesome. That Bothwell had +been her friend in the hour when she had needed friends, and knew +not whom she might trust; that by his masterfulness he seemed a +man upon whom a woman might lean with confidence, may account for +the beginnings of the extraordinary influence he came so swiftly +to exercise over her, and the passion he awakened in her to such a +degree that she was unable to dissemble it. + +Her regard for him, the more flagrant by contrast with her contempt +for Darnley, is betrayed in the will she made before her confinement +in the following June. Whilst to Darnley she bequeathed nothing but +the red-enamelled diamond ring with which he had married her - "It +was with this that I was married," she wrote almost contemptuously. +"I leave it to the King who gave it me" - she appointed Bothwell to +the tutelage of her child in the event of her not surviving it, and +to the government of the realm. + +The King came to visit her during her convalescence, and was scowled +upon by Murray and Argyll, who were at Holyrood, and most of all by +Bothwell, whose arrogance by now was such that he was become the +best-hated man in Scotland. The Queen received him very coldly, +whilst using Bothwell more than cordially in his very presence, so +that he departed again in a deeper humiliation than before. + +Then before the end of July there was her sudden visit to Bothwell +at Alloa, which gave rise to so much scandal. Hearing of it, +Darnley followed in a vain attempt to assert his rights as king and +husband, only to be flouted and dismissed with the conviction that +his life was no longer safe in Scotland, and that he had best cross +the Border. Yet, to his undoing, detained perhaps by the overweening +pride that is usually part of a fool's equipment, he did not act +upon that wise resolve. He returned instead to his hawking and his +hunting, and was seldom seen at Court thereafter. + +Even when in the following October, Mary lay at the point of death +at Jedburgh, Darnley came but to stay a day, and left her again +without any assurance that she would recover. But then the facts +of her illness, and how it had been contracted, were not such as to +encourage kindness in him, even had he been inclined to kindness. + +Bothwell had taken three wounds in a Border affray some weeks +before, and Mary, hearing of this and that he lay in grievous case +at Hermitage, had ridden thither in her fond solicitude - a distance +of thirty miles - and back again in the same day, thus contracting +a chill which had brought her to the very gates of death. + +Darnley had not only heard of this, but he had found Bothwell at +Jedburgh, whither he had been borne in a litter, when in his turn +he had heard of how it was with Mary; and Bothwell had treated him +with more than the contempt which all men now showed him, but which +from none could wound him so deeply as from this man whom rumour +accounted Mary's lover. + +Matters between husband and wife were thus come to a pass in which +they could not continue, as all men saw, and as she herself +confessed at Craigrnillar, whither she repaired, still weak in body, +towards the end of November. + +Over a great fire that blazed in a vast chamber of the castle she +sat sick at heart and shivering, for all that her wasted body was +swathed in a long cloak of deepest purple reversed with ermine. Her +face was thin and of a transparent pallor, her eyes great pools of +wistfulness amid the shadows which her illness had set about them. + +"I do wish I could be dead!" she sighed. + +Bothwell's eyes narrowed. He was leaning on the back of her tall +chair, a long, virile figure with a hawk-nosed, bearded face that +was sternly handsome. He thrust back the crisp dark hair that +clustered about his brow, and fetched a sigh. + +"It was never my own death I wished when a man stood in my road to +aught I craved," he said, lowering his voice, for Maitland of +Lethington - now restored to his secretaryship - was writing at a +table across the room, and my Lord of Argyll was leaning over him. + +She looked up at him suddenly, her eyes startled. + +"What devil's counsel do you whisper?" she asked him. And when he +would have answered, she raised a hand. "No," she said. "Not that +way." + +"There is another," said Bothwell coolly. He moved, came round, +and stood squarely upon the hearth, his back to the fire, +confronting her, nor did he further trouble to lower his voice. +"We have considered it already." + +"What have you considered?" + +Her voice was strained; fear and excitement blended in her face. + +"How the shackles that fetter you might be broken. Be not alarmed. +It was the virtuous Murray himself propounded it to Argyll and +Lethington - for the good of Scotland and yourself." A sneer +flitted across his tanned face. "Let them speak for themselves." +He raised his voice and called to them across the room. + +They came at once, and the four made an odd group as they stood +there in the firelit gloom of that November day - the lovely young +Queen, so frail and wistful in her high-backed chair; the stalwart, +arrogant Bothwell, magnificent in a doublet of peach-coloured velvet +that tapered to a golden girdle; Argyll, portly and sober in a rich +suit of black; and Maitland of Lethington, lean and crafty of face, +in a long furred gown that flapped about his bony shanks. + +It was to Lethington that Bothwell addressed himself. + +"Her Grace is in a mood to hear how the Gordian knot of her marriage +might be unravelled," said he, grimly ironic. + +Lethington raised his eyebrows, licked his thin lips, and rubbed his +bony hands one in the other. + +"Unravelled?" he echoed with wondering stress. "Unravelled? Ha!" +His dark eyes flashed round at them. "Better adopt Alexander's plan, +and cut it. 'Twill be more complete, and - and final." + +"No, no!" she cried. "I will not have you shed his blood." + +"He himself was none so tender where another was concerned," +Bothwell reminded her - as if the memory of Rizzio were dear to him. + +"What he may have done does not weigh upon my conscience," was her +answer. + +"He might," put in Argyll, "be convicted of treason for having +consented to Your Grace's retention in ward at Holyrood after +Rizzio's murder." + +She considered an instant, then shook her head. + +"It is too late. It should have been done long since. Now men +will say that it is but a pretext to be rid of him." She looked up +at Bothwell, who remained standing immediately before her, between +her and the fire. "You said that my Lord of Murray had discussed +this matter. Was it in such terms as these?" + +Bothwell laughed silently at the thought of the sly Murray rendering +himself a party to anything so direct and desperate. It was +Lethington who answered her. + +"My Lord Murray was for a divorce. That would set Your Grace free, +and it might be obtained, he said, by tearing up the Pope's bull of +dispensation that permitted the marriage. Yet, madame, although +Lord Murray would himself go no further, I have no cause to doubt +that were other means concerted, he would be content to look through +his fingers." + +Her mind, however, did not seem to follow his speech beyond the +matter of the divorce. A faint flush of eagerness stirred in her +pale cheeks. + +"Ah, yes!" she cried. "I, too, have thought of that - of this +divorce. And God knows I do not want for grounds. And it could be +obtained, you say, by tearing up this papal bull?" + +"The marriage could be proclaimed void thereafter," Argyll explained. + +She looked past Bothwell into the fire, and took her chin in her +hand. + +"Yes," she said slowly, musingly, and again, "yes. That were a +way. That is the way." And then suddenly she looked up, and they +saw doubt and dread in her eyes. "But in that case - what of my +son?" + +"Aye!" said Lethington grimly. He shrugged his narrow shoulders, +parted his hands, and brought them together again. "That's the +obstacle, as we perceived. It would imperil his succession." + +"It would make a bastard of him, you mean?" she cried, demanding +the full expansion of their thoughts. + +"Indeed it would do no less," the secretary assented. + +"So that," said Bothwell, softly, "we come back to Alexander's +method. What the fingers may not unravel, the knife can sever." + +She shivered, and drew her furred cloak the more closely about her. + +Lethington leaned forward. He spoke in kindly, soothing accents. + +"Let us guide this matter among us, madame," he murmured, "and we'll +find means to rid Your Grace of this young fool, without hurt to +your honour or prejudice to your son. And the Earl of Murray will +look the other way, provided you pardon Morton and his friends for +the killing they did in Darnley's service." + +She looked from one to the other of them, scanning each face in +turn. Then her eyes returned to a contemplation of the flaming +logs, and she spoke very softly. + +"Do nothing by which a spot might be laid on my honour or +conscience," she said, with an odd deliberateness that seemed to +insist upon the strictly literal meaning of her words. "Rather I +pray you let the matter rest until God remedy it." + +Lethington looked at the other two, the other two looked at him. +He rubbed his hands softly. + +"Trust to us, madame," he answered. "We will so guide the matter +that Your Grace shall see nothing but what is good and approved +by Parliament." + +She committed herself to no reply, and so they were content to +take their answer from her silence. They went in quest of Huntly +and Sir James Balfour, and the five of them entered into a bond +for the destruction of him whom they named "the young fool and +proud tiranne," to be engaged in when Mary should have pardoned +Morton and his fellow-conspirators. + +It was not until Christmas Eve that she signed this pardon of some +seventy fugitives, proscribed for their participation in the Rizzio +murder, towards whom she had hitherto shown herself so implacable. + +The world saw in this no more than a deed of clemency and charity +befitting the solemn festival of good-will. But the five who had +entered into that bond at Craigmillar Castle beheld in it more +accurately the fulfilment of her part of the suggested bargain, +the price she paid in advance to be rid of Darnley, the sign of +her full agreement that the knot which might not be unravelled +should be cut. + +On that same day Her Grace went with Bothwell to Lord Drummond's, +where they abode for the best part of a week, and thence they +went on together to Tullibardine, the rash and open intimacy +between them giving nourishment to scandal. + +At the same time Darnley quitted Stirling, where he had lately been +living in miserable conditions, ignored by the nobles, and even +stinted in his necessary expenses, deprived of his ordinary servants, +and his silver replaced by pewter. The miserable youth reached +Glasgow deadly sick. He had been taken ill on the way, and the +inevitable rumour was spread that he had been poisoned. Later, when +it became known that his once lovely countenance was now blotched +and disfigured, it was realized that his illness was no more than +the inevitable result of the debauched life he led. + +Conceiving himself on the point of death, Darnley wrote piteously +to the Queen; but she ignored his letters until she learnt that his +condition was improving, when at last (on January 29th) she went to +visit him at Glasgow. It may well be that she nourished some hope +that nature would resolve the matter for her, and remove the need +for such desperate measures as had been concerted. But seeing him +likely to recover, two things became necessary, to bring him to the +place that was suitable for the fulfilment of her designs, and to +simulate reconciliation with him, and even renewed and tender +affection, so that none might hereafter charge her with complicity +in what should follow. + +I hope that in this I do her memory no injustice. It is thus that +I read the sequel, nor can I read it in any other way. + +She found him abed, with a piece of taffeta over his face to hide +its disfigurement, and she was so moved - as it seemed - by his +condition, that she fell on her knees beside him, and wept in the +presence of her attendants and his own; confessing penitence if +anything she had done in the past could have contributed to their +estrangement. Thus reconciliation followed, and she used him +tenderly, grew solicitous concerning him, and vowed that as soon +as he could be moved, he must be taken to surroundings more +salubrious and more befitting the dignity of his station. + +Gladly then he agreed to return with her to Holyrood. + +"Not to Holyrood," she said. "At least, not until your health is +mended, lest you should carry thither infection dangerous to your +little son." + +"Whither then?" he asked her, and when she mentioned Craigmillar, +he started up in bed, so that the taffeta slipped from his face, +and it was with difficulty that she dissembled the loathing with +which the sight of its pustules inspired her. + +"Craigmillar!" he cried. "Then what I was told is true." + +"What were you told?" quoth she, staring at him, brows knit, her +face blank. + +A rumour had filtered through to him of the Craigmillar bond. He +had been told that a letter drawn up there had been presented to +her for her signature, which she had refused. Thus much he told +her, adding that he could not believe that she would do him any +hurt; and yet why did she desire to bear him to Craigmillar? + +"You have been told lies," she answered him. "I saw no such letter; +I subscribed none, nor was ever asked to subscribe any," which +indeed was literally true. "To this I swear. As for your going to +Craigmillar, you shall go whithersoever you please, yourself." + +He sank back on his pillows, and his trembling subsided. + +"I believe thee, Mary. I believe thou'ld never do me any harm," he +repeated, "and if any other would," he added on a bombastic note, +"they shall buy it dear, unless they take me sleeping. But I'll +never to Craigmillar." + +"I have said you shall go where you please," she assured him again. + +He considered. + +"There is the house at Kirk o' Field. It has a fine garden, and is +in a position that is deemed the healthiest about Edinburgh. I need +good air; good air and baths have been prescribed me to cleanse me +of this plague. Kirk o' Field will serve, if it be your pleasure." + +She gave a ready consent, dispatched messengers ahead to prepare +the house, and to take from Holyrood certain furnishings that should +improve the interior, and render it as fitting as possible a +dwelling for a king. + +Some days later they set out, his misgivings quieted by the +tenderness which she now showed him - particularly when witnesses +were at hand. + +It was a tenderness that grew steadily during those twelve days in +which he lay in convalescence in the house at Kirk o' Field; she +was playful and coquettish with him as a maid with her lover, so +that nothing was talked of but the completeness of this +reconciliation, and the hope that it would lead to a peace within +the realm that would be a benefit to all. Yet many there were who +marvelled at it, wondering whether the waywardness and caprice of +woman could account for so sudden a change from hatred to affection. + +Darnley was lodged on the upper floor, in a room comfortably +furnished from the palace. It was hung with six pieces of tapestry, +and the floor was partly covered by an Eastern carpet. It contained, +besides the handsome bed - which once had belonged to the Queen's +mother - a couple of high chairs in purple velvet, a little table +with a green velvet cover, and some cushions in red. By the side +of the bed stood the specially prepared bath that was part of the +cure which Darnley was undergoing. It had for its incongruous lid +a door that had been lifted from its hinges. + +Immediately underneath was a room that had been prepared for the +Queen, with a little bed of yellow and green damask, and a furred +coverlet. The windows looked out upon the close, and the door +opened upon the passage leading to the garden. + +Here the Queen slept on several of those nights of early February, +for indeed she was more often at Kirk o' Field than at Holy-rood, +and when she was not bearing Darnley company in his chamber, and +beguiling the tedium of his illness, she was to be seen walking in +the garden with Lady Reres, and from his bed he could hear her +sometimes singing as she sauntered there. + +Never since the ephemeral season of their courtship had she been +on such fond terms with him, and all his fears of hostile designs +entertained against him by her immediate followers were stilled at +last. Yet not for long. Into his fool's paradise came Lord Robert +of Holyrood, with a warning that flung him into a sweat of panic. + +The conspirators had hired a few trusted assistants to help them +carry out their plans, and a rumour had got abroad - in the +unaccountable way of rumours - that there was danger to the King. +It was of this rumour that Lord Robert brought him word, telling +him bluntly that unless he escaped quickly from this place, he would +leave his life there. Yet when Darnley had repeated this to the +Queen, and the Queen indignantly had sent for Lord Robert and +demanded to know his meaning, his lordship denied that he had +uttered any such warning, protested that his words must have been +misunderstood - that they referred solely to the King's condition, +which demanded, he thought, different treatment and healthier air. + +Knowing not what to believe, Darnley's uneasiness abode with him. +Yet, trusting Mary, and feeling secure so long as she was by his +side, he became more and more insistent upon her presence, more +and more fretful in her absence. It was to quiet him that she +consented to sleep as often as might be at Kirk o' Field. She +slept there on the Wednesday of that week, and again on Friday, +and she was to have done so yet again on that fateful Sunday, +February 9th, but that her servant Sebastien - one who had +accompanied her from France, and for whom she had a deep affection + - was that day married, and Her Majesty had promised to be present +at the masque that night at Holyrood, in honour of his nuptials. + +Nevertheless, she did not utterly neglect her husband on that +account. She rode to Kirk o' Field early in the evening, +accompanied by Bothwell, Huntly, Argyll, and some others; and +leaving the lords at cards below to while away the time, she +repaired to Darnley, and sat beside his bed, soothing a spirit +oddly perturbed, as if with some premonition of what was brewing. + +"Ye'll not leave me the night," he begged her once. + +"Alas," she said, "I must! Sebastien is being wed, and I have +promised to be present." + +He sighed and shifted uneasily. + +"Soon I shall be well, and then these foolish humours will cease to +haunt me. But just now I cannot bear you from my sight. When you +are with me I am at peace. I know that all is well. But when you +go I am filled with fears, lying helpless here." + +"What should you fear?" she asked him. + +"The hate that I know is alive against me." + +"You are casting shadows to affright yourself," said she. + +"What's that?" he cried, half raising himself in sudden alarm. +"Listen!" + +>From the room below came faintly a sound of footsteps, accompanied +by a noise as of something being trundled. + +"It will be my servants in my room - putting it to rights." + +"To what purpose since you do not sleep there tonight?" he asked. +He raised his voice and called his page. + +"Why, what will you do?" she asked him, steadying her own alarm. + +He answered her by bidding the youth who had entered go see what +was doing in the room below. The lad departed, and had he done his +errand faithfully, he would have found Bothwell's followers, Hay +and Hepburn, and the Queen's man, Nicholas Hubert better known as +French Paris - emptying a keg of gunpowder on the floor immediately +under the King's bed. But it happened that in the passage he came +suddenly face to face with the splendid figure of Bothwell, cloaked +and hatted, and Bothwell asked him whither he went. + +The boy told him. + +"It is nothing," Bothwell said. "They are moving Her Grace's bed +in accordance with her wishes." + +And the lad, overborne by that commanding figure which so effectively +blocked his path, chose the line of lesser resistance. He went back +to bear the King that message as if for himself he had seen what my +Lord Bothwell had but told him. + +Darnley was pacified by the assurance, and the lad withdrew. + +"Did I not tell you how it was?" quoth Mary. "Is not my word enough?" + +"Forgive the doubt," Darnley begged her. "Indeed, there was no +doubt of you, who have shown me so much charity in my affliction." +He sighed, and looked at her with melancholy eyes. + +"I would the past had been other than it has been between you and +me," he said. "I was too young for kingship, I think. In my green +youth I listened to false counsellors, and was quick to jealousy +and the follies it begets. Then, when you cast me out and I +wandered friendless, a devil took possession of me. Yet, if you +will but consent to bury all the past into oblivion, I will make +amends, and you shall find me worthier hereafter." + +She rose, white to the lips, her bosom heaving under her long cloak. +She turned aside and stepped to the window. She stood there, peering +out into the gloom of the close, her knees trembling under her. + +"Why do you not answer me?" he cried. + +"What answer do you need?" she said, and her voice shook. "Are you +not answered already?" And then, breathlessly, she added: "It is +time to go, I think." + +They heard a heavy step upon the stairs and the clank of a sword +against the rails. The door opened, and Bothwell, wrapped in his +scarlet cloak, stood bending his tall shoulders under the low lintel. +His gleaming eyes, so oddly mocking in their glance, for all that +his face was set, fell upon Darnley, and with their look flung him +into an inward state of blending fear and rage. + +"Your Grace," said Bothwell's deep voice, "it is close upon midnight." + +He came no more than in time; it needed the sight of him with its +reminder of all that he meant to her to sustain a purpose that was +being sapped by pity. + +"Very well," she said. "I come." + +Bothwell stood aside to give her egress and to invite it. But the +King delayed her. + +"A moment - a word!" he begged, and to Bothwell: "Give us leave +apart, sir!" + +Yet, King though he might be, there was no ready obedience from the +arrogant Border lord, her lover. It was to Mary that Bothwell +looked for commands, nor stirred until she signed to him to go. And +even then he went no farther than the other side of the door, so +that he might be close at hand to fortify her should any weakness +assail her now in this supreme hour. + +Darnley struggled up in bed, caught her hand, and pulled her to him. + +"Do not leave me, Mary. Do not leave me!" he implored her. + +"Why, what is this?" she cried, but her voice lacked steadiness. +"Would you have me disappoint poor Sebastien, who loves me?" + +"I see. Sebastien is more to you than I?" + +"Now this is folly. Sebastien is my faithful servant." + +"And am I less? Do you not believe that my one aim henceforth will +be to serve you and faithfully? Oh, forgive this weakness. I am +full of evil foreboding to-night. Go, then, if go you must, but +give me at least some assurance of your love, some pledge of it in +earnest that you will come again to-morrow nor part from me again." + +She looked into the white, piteous young face that had once been so +lovely, and her soul faltered. It needed the knowledge that +Bothwell waited just beyond the door, that he could overhear what +was being said, to strengthen her fearfully in her tragic purpose. + +She has been censured most for what next she did. Murray himself +spoke of it afterwards as the worst part of the business. But it +is possible that she was concerned only at the moment to put an end +to a scene that was unnerving her, and that she took the readiest +means to it. + +She drew a ring from her finger and slipped it on to one of his. + +"Be this the pledge, then," she said; "and so content and rest +yourself." + +With that she broke from him, white and scared, and reached the door. +Yet with her hand upon the latch she paused. Looking at him she saw +that he was smiling, and perhaps horror of her betrayal of him +overwhelmed her. It must be that she then desired to warn him, yet +with Bothwell within earshot she realized that any warning must +precipitate the tragedy, with direst consequences to Bothwell and +herself. + +To conquer her weakness, she thought of David Rizzio, whom Darnley +had murdered almost at her feet, and whom this night was to avenge. +She thought of the Judas part that he had played in that affair, +and sought persuasion that it was fitting he should now be paid in +kind. Yet, very woman that she was, failing to find any such +persuasion, she found instead in the very thought of Rizzio the +very means to convey her warning. + +Standing tense and white by the door, regarding him with dilating +eyes, she spoke her last words to him. + +"It would be just about this time last year that Davie was slain," +she said, and on that passed out to the waiting Bothwell. + +Once on the stairs she paused and set a hand upon the shoulder of +the stalwart Borderer. + +"Must it be? Oh, must it be?" she whispered fearfully. + +She caught the flash of his eyes in the half gloom as he leaned +over her, his arm about her waist drawing her to him. + +"Is it not just? Is it not full merited?" he asked her. + +"And yet I would that we did not profit by it," she complained. + +"Shall we pity him on that account?" he asked, and laughed softly +and shortly. "Come away," he added abruptly. "They wait for you!" +And so, by the suasion of his arm and his imperious will, she was +swept onward along the road of her destiny. + +Outside the horses were ready. There was a little group of +gentlemen to escort her, and half a dozen servants with lighted +torches, whilst Lady Reres was in waiting. A man stood forward to +assist her to mount, his face and hands so blackened by gunpowder +that for a moment she failed to recognize him. She laughed +nervously when he named himself. + +"Lord, Paris, how begrimed you are!" she cried; and, mounting, +rode away towards Holyrood with her torchbearers and attendants. + +In the room above, Darnley lay considering her last words. He +turned them over in his thoughts, assured by the tone she had +used and how she had looked that they contained some message. + +"It would be just about this time last year that Davie was slain." + +In themselves, those words were not strictly accurate. It wanted +yet a month to the anniversary of Rizzio's death. And why, at +parting, should she have reminded him of that which she had agreed +should be forgotten? Instantly came the answer that she sought to +warn him that retribution was impending. He thought again of the +rumours that he had heard of a bond signed at Craigmillar; he +recalled Lord Robert's warning to him, afterwards denied. + +He recalled her words to himself at the time of Rizzio's death: +"Consider well what I now say. Consider and remember. I shall +never rest until I give you as sore a heart as I have presently." +And further, he remembered her cry at once agonized and fiercely +vengeful: "Jamais, jamais je n'oublierai." + +His terrors mounted swiftly, to be quieted again at last when he +looked at the ring she had put upon his finger in pledge of her +renewed affection. The past was dead and buried, surely. Though +danger might threaten, she would guard him against it, setting her +love about him like a panoply of steel. When she came to-morrow, +he would question her closely, and she should be more frank and +open with him, and tell him all. Meanwhile, he would take his +precautions for to-night. + +He sent his page to make fast all doors. The youth went and did +as he was bidden, with the exception of the door that led to the +garden. It had no bolts, and the key was missing; yet, seeing +his master's nervous, excited state, he forbore from any mention +of that circumstance when presently he returned to him. + +Darnley requested a book of Psalms, that he might read himself to +sleep. The page dozed in a chair, and so the hours passed; and at +last the King himself fell into a light slumber. Out of this he +started suddenly at a little before two o'clock, and sat upright +in bed, alarmed without knowing why, listening with straining ears +and throbbing pulses. + +He caught a repetition of the sound that had aroused him, a sound +akin to that which had drawn his attention earlier, when Mary had +been with him. It came up faintly from the room immediately beneath: +her room. Some one was moving there, he thought. Then, as he +continued to listen, all became quiet again, save his fears, which +would not be quieted. He extinguished the light, slipped from the +bed, and, crossing to the window, peered out into the close that +was faintly illumined by a moon in its first quarter. A shadow +moved, he thought. He watched with increasing panic for +confirmation, and presently saw that he had been right. Not one, +but several shadows were shifting there among the trees. Shadows +of men, they were, and as he peered, he saw one that went running +from the house across the lawn and joined the others, now clustered +together in a group. What could be their purpose here? In the +silence, he seemed to hear again the echo of Mary's last words to +him: + +"It would be just about this time last year that Davie was slain." + +In terror, he groped his way to the chair where the page slept and +shook the lad vigorously. + +"Afoot, boy!" he said, in a hoarse whisper. He had meant to shout +it, but his voice failed him, his windpipe clutched by panic. +"Afoot - we are beset by enemies!" + +At once the youth was wide awake, and together the King just in his +shirt as he was - they made their way from the room in the dark, +groping their way, and so reached the windows at the back. Darnley +opened one of these very softly, then sent the boy back for a sheet. +Making this fast, they descended by it to the garden, and started +towards the wall, intending to climb it, that they might reach the +open. + +The boy led the way, and the King followed, his teeth chattering +as much from the cold as from the terror that possessed him. And +then, quite suddenly, without the least warning, the ground, it +seemed to them, heaved under their feet, and they were flung +violently forward on their faces. A great blaze rent the darkness +of the night, accompanied by the thunders of an explosion so +terrific that it seemed as if the whole world must have been +shattered by it. + +For some instants the King and his page lay half stunned where they +had fallen, and well might it have been for them had they so +continued. But Darnley, recovering, staggered to his feet, pulling +the boy up with him and supporting him. Then, as he began to move, +he heard a soft whistle in the gloom behind him. Over his shoulder +he looked towards the house, to behold a great, smoking gap now +yawning in it. Through this gap he caught a glimpse of shadowy men +moving in the close beyond, and he realized that he had been seen. +The white shirt he wore had betrayed his presence to them. + +With a stifled scream, he began to run towards the wall, the page +staggering after him. Behind them now came the clank and thud of +a score of overtaking feet. Soon they were surrounded. The King +turned this way and that, desperately seeking a way out of the +murderous human ring that fenced them round. + +"What d'ye seek? What d'ye seek?" he screeched, in a pitiful +attempt to question with authority. + +A tall man in a trailing cloak advanced and seized him. + +"We seek thee, fool!" said the voice of Bothwell. + +The kingliness that he had never known how to wear becomingly now +fell from him utterly. + +"Mercy - mercy!" he cried. + +"Such mercy as you had on David Rizzio!" answered the Border lord. + +Darnley fell on his knees and sought to embrace the murderer's legs. +Bothwell stooped over him, seized the wretched man's shirt, and +pulled it from his shivering body; then, flinging the sleeves about +the royal neck, slipped one over the other and drew them tight, +nor relaxed his hold until the young man's struggles had entirely +ceased. + +Four days later, Mary went to visit the body of her husband in the +chapel of Holyrood House, whither it had been conveyed, and there, +as a contemporary tells us, she looked upon it long, "not only +without grief, but with greedy eyes." Thereafter it was buried +secretly in the night by Rizzio's side, so that murderer and victim +lay at peace together in the end. + + + + +III. THE NIGHT OF BETRAYAL + Antonio Perez and Philip II of Spain + + +You a Spaniard of Spain?" had been her taunt, dry and contemptuous. +"I do not believe it." + +And upon that she had put spur to the great black horse that bore her +and had ridden off along the precipitous road by the river. + +After her he had flung his answer on a note of laughter, bitter and +cynical as the laughter of the damned, laughter that expressed all +things but mirth. + +"Oh, a Spaniard of Spain, indeed, Madame la Marquise. Very much a +Spaniard of Spain, I assure you." + +The great black horse and the woman in red flashed round a bend of +the rocky road and were eclipsed by a clump of larches. The man +leaned heavily upon his ebony cane, sighed wearily, and grew +thoughtful. Then, with a laugh and a shrug, he sat down in the +shade of the firs that bordered the road. Behind him, crowning the +heights, loomed the brown castle built by Gaston Phoebus, Count of +Foix, two hundred years ago, and the Tower of Montauzet, its walls +scarred by the shots of the rebellious Biscayans. Below him, +nourished by the snows that were dissolving under the sunshine of +early spring, sped the tumbling river; beyond this spread pasture +and arable land to the distant hills, and beyond those stood the +gigantic sharp-summited wall of the Pyrenees, its long ridge +dominated by the cloven cone of the snow clad Pic du Midi. There +was in the sight of that great barrier, at once natural and +political, a sense of security for this fugitive from the perils +and the hatreds that lurked in Spain beyond. Here in Bearn he was +a king's guest, enjoying the hospitality of the great Castle of Pau, +safe from the vindictive persecution of the mean tyrant who ruled +in Spain. And here, at last, he was at peace, or would have been +but for the thought of this woman - this Marquise de Chantenac - who +had gone to such lengths in her endeavours to soften his exile that +her ultimate object could never have been in doubt to a coxcomb, +though it was in some doubt to Antonio Perez, who had been cured +for all time of Coxcombry by suffering and misfortune, to say +nothing of increasing age. It was when he bethought him of that +age of his that he was chiefly intrigued by the amazing ardour of +this great lady of Bearn. A dozen years ago - before misfortune +overtook him - he would have accepted her flagrant wooing as a +proper tribute. For then he had been the handsome, wealthy, witty, +profligate Secretary of State to His Catholic Majesty King Philip II, +with a power in Spain second only to the King's, and sometimes even +greater. In those days he would have welcomed her as her endowments +merited. She was radiantly lovely, in the very noontide of her +resplendent youth, the well-born widow of a gentleman of Bearn. And +it would not have lain within the strength or inclinations of Antonio +Perez, as he once had been, to have resisted the temptation that she +offered. Ever avid of pleasure, he had denied himself no single cup +of it that favouring Fortune had proffered him. It was, indeed, +because of this that he was fallen from his high estate; it was a +woman who had pulled him down in ruin, tumbling with him to her doom. +She, poor soul, was dead at last, which was the best that any lover +could have wished her. But he lived on, embittered, vengeful, with +gall in his veins instead of blood. He was the pale, faded shadow +of that arrogant, reckless, joyous Antonio Perez beloved of Fortune. +He was fifty, gaunt, hollow-eyed, and grey, half crippled by torture, +sickly from long years of incarceration. + +What, he asked himself, sitting there, his eyes upon the eternal +snows of the barrier that shut out his past, was there left in him +to awaken love in such a woman as Madame de Chantenac? Was it that +his tribulations stirred her pity, or that the fame of him which +rang through Europe shed upon his withering frame some of the +transfiguring radiance of romance? + +It marked, indeed, the change in him that he should pause to +question, whose erstwhile habit had been blindly to accept the good +things tossed by Fortune into his lap. But question he did, +pondering that parting taunt of hers to which, for emphasis, she +had given an odd redundancy - "You a Spaniard of Spain!" Could her +meaning have been plainer? Was not a Spaniard proverbially as quick +to love as to jealousy? Was not Spain, that scented land of warmth +and colour, of cruelty and blood, of throbbing lutes under lattices +ajar, of mitred sinners doing public penance, that land where lust +and piety went hand in hand, where passion and penitence lay down +together - was not Spain the land of love's most fruitful growth? +And was not a Spaniard the very hierophant of love? + +His thoughts swung with sudden yearning to his wife Juana and their +children, held in brutal captivity by Philip, who sought to slake +upon them some of the vindictiveness from which their husband and +father had at last escaped. Not that Antonio Perez observed marital +fidelity more closely than any other Spaniard of his time, or of any +time. But Antonio Perez was growing old, older than he thought, +older than his years. He knew it. Madame de Chantenac had proved +it to him. + +She had reproached him with never coming to see her at Chantenac, +neglecting to return the too assiduous visits that she paid him +here at Pau. + +"You are very beautiful, madame, and the world is very foul," he +had excused himself. "Believe one who knows the world, to his +bitter cost. Tongues will wag." + +"And your Spanish pride will not suffer that clods may talk of you?" + +"I am thinking of you, madame." + +"Of me?" she had answered. "Why, of me they talk already - talk +their fill. I must pretend blindness to the leering eyes that watch +me each time I come to Pau; feign unconsciousness of the impertinent +glances of the captain of the castle there as I ride in." + +"Then why do you come?" he had asked point-blank. But before her +sudden change of countenance he had been quick to add: "Oh, madame, +I am full conscious of the charity that brings you, and I am deeply, +deeply grateful; but - " + +"Charity?" she had interrupted sharply, on a laugh that was +self-mocking. "Charity?" + +"What else, madame?" + +"Ask yourself," she had answered, reddening and averting her face +from his questioning eyes. + +"Madame," he had faltered, "I dare not." + +"Dare not?" + +"Madame, how should I? I am an old man, broken by sickness, +disheartened by misfortune, daunted by tribulation - a mere husk +cast aside by Fortune, whilst you are lovely as one of the angels +about the Throne of Heaven." + +She had looked into the haggard face, into the scars of suffering +that seared it, and she had answered gently: "Tomorrow you shall +come to me at Chantenac, my friend." + +"I am a Spaniard, for whom to-morrow never comes." + +"But it will this time. To-morrow I shall expect you." + +He looked up at her sitting her great black horse beside which he +had been pacing. + +"Better not, madame! Better not!" he had said. + +And then he saw the eyes that had been tender grow charged with +scorn; then came her angry taunt: + +"You a Spaniard of Spain! I do not believe it!" + +Oh, there was no doubt that he had angered her. Women of her +temperament are quick to anger as to every emotion. But he had not +wished to anger her. God knows it was never the way of Antonio +Perez to anger lovely women - at least not in this fashion. And it +was an ill return for her gentleness and attention to himself. +Considering this as he sat there now, he resolved that he must make +amends - the only amends it was possible to make. + +An hour later, in one of the regal rooms of the castle, where he +enjoyed the hospitality of King Henri IV of France and Navarre, he +announced to that most faithful equerry, Gil de Mesa, his intention +of riding to Chantenac to-morrow. + +"Is it prudent?" quoth Mesa, frowning. + +"Most imprudent," answered Don Antonio. "That is why I go." + +And on the morrow he went, escorted by a single groom. Gil de Mesa +had begged at first to be allowed to accompany him. But for Gil he +had other work, of which the instructions he left were very full. +The distance was short - three miles along the Gave de Pau - and Don +Antonio covered it on a gently ambling mule, such as might have been +bred to bear some aged dignitary of Holy Church. + +The lords of Chantenac were as noble, as proud, and as poor as most +great lords of Bearn. Their lineage was long, their rent-rolls +short. And the last marquis had suffered more from this dual +complaint than any of his forbears, and he had not at all improved +matters by a certain habit of gaming contracted in youth. The +chateau bore abundant signs of it. It was a burnt red pile standing +four-square on a little eminence, about the base of which the river +went winding turbulently; it was turreted at each of its four angles, +imposing in its way, but in a sad state of dilapidation and disrepair. + +The interior, when Don Antonio reached it, was rather better; the +furnishings, though sparse, were massive and imposing; the tapestries +on the walls, if old, were rich and choice. But everywhere the +ill-assorted marriage of pretentiousness and neediness was apparent. +The floors of hall and living-room were strewn with fresh-cut rushes, +an obsolescent custom which served here alike to save the heavy cost +of carpets and to lend the place an ancient baronial dignity. Whilst +pretence was made of keeping state, the servitors were all old, and +insufficient in number to warrant the retention of the infirm +seneschal by whom Don Antonio was ceremoniously received. A single +groom, aged and without livery, took charge at once of Don Antonio's +mule, his servant's horse, and the servant himself. + +The seneschal, hobbling before him, conducted our Spaniard across +the great hall, gloomy and half denuded, through the main living-room +of the chateau into a smaller, more intimate apartment, holding some +trace of luxury, which he announced as madame's own room. And there +he left him to await the coming of the chatelaine. + +She, at least, showed none of the outward disrepair of her +surroundings. She came to him sheathed in a gown of shimmering silk +that was of the golden brown of autumn tints, caught to her waist +by a slender girdle of hammered gold. Eyes of deepest blue pondered +him questioningly, whilst red lips smiled their welcome. "So you +have come in spite of all?" she greeted him. "Be very welcome to +my poor house, Don Antonio." + +And regally she proffered her hand to his homage. + +He took it, observing the shapely, pointed fingers, the delicately +curving nails. Reluctantly, almost, he admitted to himself how +complete was her beauty, how absolute her charm. He sighed - a sigh +for that lost youth of his, perhaps - as he bowed from his fine, +lean height to press cold lips of formal duty on that hand. + +"Your will, madame, was stronger than my prudence," said he. + +"Prudence?" quoth she, and almost sneered. "Since when has Antonio +Perez stooped to prudence?" + +"Since paying the bitter price of imprudence. You know my story?" + +"A little. I know, for instance, that you murdered Escovedo - all +the world knows that. Is that the imprudence of which you speak? +I have heard it said that it was for love of a woman that you did +it." + +"You have heard that, too?" he said. He had paled a little. "You +have heard a deal, Marquise. I wonder would it amuse you to hear +more, to hear from my own lips this story of mine which all Europe +garbles? Would it?" + +There was a faint note of anxiety in his voice, a look faintly +anxious in his eyes. + +She scanned him a moment gravely, almost inscrutably. "What purpose +can it serve?" she asked; and her tone was forbidding - almost a +tone of fear. + +"It will explain," he insisted. + +"Explain what?" + +"How it comes that I am not this moment prostrate at your feet; how +it happens that I am not on my knees to worship your heavenly beauty; +how I have contrived to remain insensible before a loveliness that +in happier times would have made me mad." + +"Vive Dieu!" she murmured, half ironical. "Perhaps that needs +explaining." + +"How it became necessary," he pursued, never heeding the interruption, +"that yesterday you should proclaim your disbelief that I could be, +as you said, a Spaniard of Spain. How it happens that Antonio Perez +has become incapable of any emotion but hate. Will you hear the +story - all of it?" + +He was leaning towards her, his white face held close to her own, a +smouldering fire in the dark, sunken eyes that now devoured her. + +She shivered, and her own cheeks turned very pale. Her lips were +faintly twisted as if in an effort to smile. + +"My friend - if you insist," she consented. + +"It is the purpose for which I came," he announced. + +For a long moment each looked into the other's eyes with a singular +intentness that nothing here would seem to warrant. + +At length she spoke. + +"Come," she said, "you shall tell me." + +And she waved him to a chair set in the embrasure of the mullioned +window that looked out over a tract of meadowland sweeping gently +down to the river. + +Don Antonio sank into the chair, placing his hat and whip upon the +floor beside him. The Marquise faced him, occupying the padded +window-seat, her back to the light, her countenance in shadow. + +And here, in his own words, follows the story that he told her as +she herself set it down soon after. Whilst more elaborate and +intimate in parts, it yet so closely agrees throughout with his own +famous "Relacion," that I do not hesitate to accept the assurance +she has left us that every word he uttered was burnt as if by an +acid upon her memory. + + +THE STORY OF ANTONIO PEREZ + + +As a love-story this is, I think, the saddest that ever was invented +by a romancer intent upon wringing tears from sympathetic hearts. +How sad it is you will realize when I tell you that daily I thank +God on my knees - for I still believe in God, despite what was +alleged against me by the inquisitors of Aragon - that she who +inspired this love of which I am to tell you is now in the peace of +death. She died in exile at Pastrana a year ago. Anne de Mendoza +was what you call in France a great parti. She came of one of the +most illustrious families in Spain, and she was a great heiress. +So much all the world knew. What the world forgot was that she was +a woman, with a woman's heart and mind, a woman's natural instincts +to select her mate. There are fools who envy the noble and the +wealthy. They are little to be envied, those poor pawns in the game +of statecraft, moved hither and thither at the will of players who +are themselves no better. The human nature of them is a negligible +appendage to the names and rent-rolls that predetermine their place +upon the board of worldly ambition, a board befouled by blood, by +slobberings from the evil mouth of greed, and by infamy of every +kind. + +So, because Anne was a daughter of the House of Mendoza, because +her endowments were great, they plucked her from her convent at the +age of thirteen years, knowing little more of life than the merest +babe, and they flung her into the arms of Ruy Gomez, Prince of Eboli, +who was old enough to have been her father. But Eboli was a great +man in Spain, perhaps the greatest; he was, first Minister to +Philip II, and between his House and that of Mendoza an alliance +was desired. To establish it that tender child was sacrificed +without ruth. She discovered that life held nothing of all that +her maiden dreamings had foreseen; that it was a thing of horror +and greed and lovelessness and worse. For there was much worse +to come. + +Eboli brought his child-princess to Court. He wore her lightly as +a ribbon or a glove, the insignificant appendage to the wealth and +powerful alliance he had acquired with her. And at Court she came +under the eye of that pious satyr Philip. The Catholic King is very +devout - perfervidly devout. He prays, he fasts, he approaches the +sacraments, he does penance, all in proper season as prescribed by +Mother Church; he abominates sin and lack of faith - particularly +in others; he has drenched Flanders in blood that he might wash it +clean of the heresy of thinking differently from himself in +spiritual matters, and he would have done the same by England but +that God - Who cannot, after all, be quite of Philip's way of +thinking - willed otherwise. All this he has done for the greater +honour and glory of his Maker, but he will not tolerate his Maker's +interference with his own minor pleasures of the flesh. He is, as +you would say, a Spaniard of Spain. + +This satyr's protruding eyes fell upon the lovely Princess of Eboli + - for lovely she was, a very pearl among women. I spare you +details. Eboli was most loyal and submissive where his King was +concerned, most complacent and accommodating. That was but logical, +and need not shock you at all. To advance his worldly ambitions +had he taken Anne to wife; why should he scruple, then, to yield +her again that thus he might advance those ambitions further? + +If poor Anne argued at all, she must have argued thus. For the +rest, she was told that to be loved by the King was an overwhelming +honour, a matter for nightly prayers of thankfulness. Philip was +something very exalted, hardly human in fact; almost, if not quite, +divine. Who and what was Anne that she should dispute with those +who knew the world, and who placed these facts before her? Never +in all her little life had she belonged to herself. Always had she +been the property of somebody else, to be dealt with as her owner +might consider best. If about the Court she saw some men more +nearly of her own age - though there were not many, for Philip's +Court was ever a gloomy, sparsely peopled place - she took it for +granted that such men were not for her. This until I taught her +otherwise, which, however, was not yet a while. Had I been at Court +in those days, I think I should have found the means, at whatever +cost, of preventing that infamy; for I know that I loved her from +the day I saw her. But I was of no more than her own age, and I +had not yet been drawn into that whirlpool. + +So she went to the arms of that rachitic prince, and she bore him +a son - for, as all the world knows, the Duke of Prastana owns +Philip for his father. And Eboli increased in power and prosperity +and the favour of his master, and also, no doubt, in the contempt +of posterity. There are times when the thought of posterity and +its vengeances is of great solace. + +It would be some six years later when first I came to Court, brought +thither by my father, to enter the service of the Prince of Eboli +as one of his secretaries. As I have told you, I loved the Princess +from the moment I beheld her. From the gossip of the Court I pieced +together her story, and pitied her, and, pitying her, I loved her +the more. Her beauty dazzled me, her charm enmeshed me, and she had +grown by now in worldly wisdom and mental attainments. Yet I set a +mask upon my passion, and walked very circumspectly, for all that by +nature I was as reckless and profligate as all the world could ever +call me. She was the wife of the puissant Secretary of State, the +mistress of the King. Who was I to dispute their property to those +exalted ones? + +And another consideration stayed me. She seemed to love the King. +Young and lacking in wisdom, this amazed me. In age he compared +favourably with her husband he was but thirteen years older than +herself - but in nothing else. He was a weedy, unhealthy-looking +man, weakly of frame, rachitic, undersized, with spindle-shanks, +and a countenance that was almost grotesque, with its protruding +jaw, gaping mouth, great, doglike eyes, and yellow tuft of beard. +A great king, perhaps, this Philip, having so been born; but a +ridiculous man and an unspeakable lover. And yet this incomparable +woman seemed to love him. + +Let me pass on. For ten years I nursed that love of mine in secret. +I was helped, perhaps, by the fact that in the mean time I had +married - oh, just as Eboli himself had married, an arrangement +dictated by worldly considerations - and no better, truer mate did +ever a man find than I in Juana Coello. We had children and we +were happy, and for a season - for years, indeed - I began to think +that my unspoken passion for the Princess of Eboli was dead and done +with. I saw her rarely now, and my activities increased with +increasing duties. At twenty-six I was one of the Ministers of the +Crown, and one of the chief supporters of that party of which Eboli +was the leader in Spanish politics. I sat in Philip's Council, and +I came under the spell of that taciturn, suspicious man, who, +utterly unlovable as he was, had yet an uncanny power of inspiring +devotion. From the spell of it I never quite escaped until after +long years of persecution. Yet the discovery that one by nature so +entirely antipathetic to me should have obtained such sway over my +mind helped me to understand Anne's attachment to him. + +When Eboli died, in 1573, I had so advanced in ability and Royal +favour that I took his place as Secretary of State, thus becoming +all but the supreme ruler of Spain. I do not believe that there +was ever in Spain a Minister so highly favoured by the reigning +Prince, so powerful as I became. Not Eboli himself in his halcyon +days had been so deeply esteemed of Philip, or had wielded such +power as I now made my own. All Europe knows it - for it was to me +all Europe addressed itself for affairs that concerned the Catholic +King. + +And with my power came wealth - abundant, prodigious wealth. I was +housed like a Prince of the blood, and no Prince of the blood ever +kept greater state than I, was ever more courted, fawned upon, or +t flattered. And remember I was young, little more than thirty, +with all the strength and zest to enjoy my intoxicating eminence. +I was to my party what Eboli had been, though the nominal leader of +it remained Quiroga, Archbishop of Toledo. On the other side was +the Duke of Alva with his following. + +You must know that it was King Philip's way to encourage two rival +parties in the State, between which he shared his confidence and +sway. Thus he stimulated emulation and enlightened his own views +in the opposing opinions that were placed before him. But the +power of my party was absolute in those days, and Alva himself was +as the dust beneath our feet. + +Such eminences, they say, are perilous. Heads that are very highly +placed may at any moment be placed still higher - upon a pike. I +am all but a living witness to the truth of that, and yet I wonder +would it so have fallen out with me had I mistrusted that slumbering +passion of mine for Anne. I should have known that where such fires +have once been kindled in a man they never quite die out as long as +life endures. Time and preoccupations may overlay them as with a +film of ashes, but more or less deeply down they smoulder on, and +the first breath will fan them into flame again. + +It was at the King's request I went to see her in her fine Madrid +house opposite Santa Maria Mayor some months after her husband's +death. There were certain matters of heritage to be cleared up, +and, having regard to her high rank, it was Philip's wish that I + - who was by now Eboli's official successor - should wait on her +in person. + +There were documents to be conned and signed, and the matter took +some days, for Eboli's possessions were not only considerable, but +scattered, and his widow displayed an acquired knowledge of affairs +and a natural wisdom that inspired her to probe deeply. To my +undoing, she probed too deeply in one matter. It concerned some +land - a little property - at Velez. She had been attached to the +place, it seemed, and she missed all mention of it from the papers +that I brought her. She asked the reason. + +"It is disposed of," I told her. + +"Disposed of!" quoth she. "But by whom?" + +"By the Prince, your husband, a little while before he died." + +She looked up at me - she was seated at the wide, carved +writing-table, I standing by her side - as if expecting me to say +more. As I left my utterance there, she frowned perplexedly. + +"But what mystery is this?" she asked me. "To whom has it gone?" + +"To one Sancho Gordo." + +"To Sancho Gordo?" The frown deepened. "The washerwoman's son? +You will not tell me that he bought it?" + +"I do not tell you so, madame. It was a gift from the Prince, your +husband." + +"A gift!" She laughed. "To Sancho Gordo! So the washerwoman's +child is Eboli's son!" + +And again she laughed on a note of deep contempt. + +"Madame!" I cried, appalled and full of pity, "I assure you that +you assume too much. The Prince - " + +"Let be," she interrupted me. "Do you dream I care what rivals I +may have had, however lowly they may have been? The Prince, my +husband, is dead, and that is very well. He is much better dead, +Don Antonio. The pity of it is that he ever lived, or else that I +was born a woman." + +She was staring straight before her, her hands fallen to her lap, +her face set as if carved and lifeless, and her voice came hard as +the sound of one stone beating upon another. + +"Do you dream what it can mean to have been so nurtured on +indignities that there is no anger left, no pride to wound by the +discovery of yet another nothing but cold, cold hate? That, Don +Antonio, is my case. You do not know what my life has been. That +man - " + +"He is dead, madame," I reminded her, out of pity. + +"And damned, I hope," she answered me in that same cold, emotionless +voice. "He deserves no less for all the wrongs he did to me, the +least of which was the great wrong of marrying me. For advancement +he acquired me; for his advancement he bartered and used me and made +of me a thing of shame." + +I was so overwhelmed with grief and love and pity that a groan +escaped me almost before I was aware of it. She broke off short, +and stared at me in haughtiness. + +"You presume to pity me, I think," she reproved me. "It is my own +fault. I was wrong to talk. Women should suffer silently, that +they may preserve at least a mask of dignity. Otherwise they incur +pity - and pity is very near contempt." + +And then I lost my head. + +"Not mine, not mine!" I cried, throwing out my arms; and though +that was all I said, there was such a ring in my choking voice that +she rose stiffly from her seat and stood tense and tall confronting +me, almost eye to eye, reproof in every line of her. + +"Princess, forgive me!" I cried. "It breaks my heart in pieces to +hear you utter things that have been in my mind these many years, +poisoning the devotion that I owed to the late Prince, poisoning +the very loyalty I owe my King. You say I pity you. If that were +so, none has the better right." + +"Who gave it you?" she asked me, breathless. + +"Heaven itself, I think," I answered recklessly. "What you have +suffered, I have suffered for you. When I came to Court the infamy +was a thing accomplished - all of it. But I gathered it, and +gathering it, thanked Heaven I had been spared the pain and misery +of witnessing it, which must have been more than ever I could have +endured. Yet when I saw you, when I watched you - your wistful +beauty, your incomparable grace - there was a time when the thought +to murder stirred darkly in my mind that I might at least avenge you." + +She fell away before me, white to the very lips, her eyes dilating +as they regarded me. + +"In God's name, why?" she asked me in a strangled voice. + +"Because I loved you," I replied, "always, always, since the day I +saw you. Unfortunately, that day was years too late, even had I +dared to hope - " + +"Antonio!" Something in her voice drew my averted eyes. Her lips +had parted, her eyes kindled into life, a flush was stirring in +her cheeks. + +"And I never knew! I never knew!" she faltered piteously. + +I stared. + +"Dear Heaven, why did you withhold a knowledge that would have +upheld me and enheartened me through all that I have suffered? +Once, long, long agog I hoped - " + +"You hoped!" + +"I hoped, Antonio - long, long ago." + +We were in each other's arms, she weeping on my shoulder as if her +heart would burst, I almost mad with mingling joy and pain - and +as God lives there was more matter here for pain than joy. + +We sat long together after that, and talked it out. There was no +help for it. It was too late on every count. On her side there +was the King, most jealous of all men, whose chattel she was become; +on mine, there was my wife and children, and so deep and true was +my love for Anne that it awakened in me thoughts of the loyalty I +owed Juana, thoughts that had never troubled me hitherto in my +pleasure-loving life - and this not only as concerned Anne herself, +but as concerned all women. There was something so ennobling and +sanctifying about our love that it changed at once the whole of my +life, the whole tenor of my ways. I abandoned profligacy, and +became so staid and orderly in my conduct that I was scarcely +recognizable for the Antonio Perez whom the world had known hitherto. + +We parted there that day with a resolve to put all this behind us; +to efface from our minds all memory of what had passed between us! +Poor fools were we to imagine we could resist the vortex of +circumstance which had caught us. For three months we kept our +engagement scrupulously; and then, at last, resistance mutually +exhausted, we yielded each to the other, both to Fate. + +But because we cherished our love we moved with caution. I was +circumspect in my comings and goings, and such were the precautions +we observed, that for four years the world had little suspicion, and +certainly no knowledge, that I had inherited from the Prince of +Eboli more than his office as Secretary of State. This secrecy was +necessary as long as Philip lived, for we were both fully aware of +what manner of vengeance we should have to reckon with did knowledge +of our relations reach the jealous King. And I think that but for +Don John of Austria's affairs, and the intervention in them of the +Escovedo whom you say - whom the world says I murdered, all might +have been well to this day. + +Escovedo had been, like myself, one of Eboli's secretaries in his +day, and it was this that won him after Eboli's death a place at +the Royal Council board. It was but an inferior place, yet the +King remarked him for a man shrewd and able, who might one day have +his uses. + +That day was not very long in coming, though the opportunity it +afforded Escovedo was scarcely such as, in his greedy, insatiable +ambition, he had hoped for. Yet the opportunity, such as it was, +was afforded him by me, and had he used it properly it should have +carried him far, certainly much farther than his talent and +condition warranted. + +It came about through Don John of Austria's dreams of sovereignty. +You will have heard - as who has not? - so much of Don John, the +natural son of Charles V, that I need tell you little concerning +him. In body and soul he was a very different man, indeed, from +his half-brother Philip of Spain. As joyous as Philip was gloomy, +as open and frank as Philip was cloudy and suspicious, and as +beautiful as Philip was grotesque, Don John was the Bayard of our +day, the very mirror of all knightly graces. To the victory of +Lepanto, which had made him illustrious as a soldier, he had added, +in '73 - the year of Eboli's death the conquest of Tunis, thereby +completing the triumph of Christianity over the Muslim in the +Mediterranean. Success may have turned his head a little. He +was young, you know, and an emperor's son. He dreamt of an empire +for himself, of sovereignty, and of making Tunis the capital of +the kingdom he would found. + +We learnt of this. Indeed, Don John made little secret of his +intentions. But they went not at all with Philip's views. It was +far from his notions that Don John should go founding kingdoms of +his own. His valour and talents were required to be employed for +the greater honour and glory of the Crown of Spain, and nothing +further. + +Philip consulted me, who was by then the depositary of all his +secrets, the familiar of his inmost desires. There was evidence +that Don John's ambitions were being fomented by his secretary, +who dreamt, no doubt, of his own aggrandizement in the +aggrandizement of his master. Philip proposed the man's removal. + +"That would be something," I agreed. "But not enough. He must be +replaced by a man of our own, a man loyal to Your Majesty, who will +not only seek to guide Don John in the course that he should follow, +but will keep close watch upon his projects, and warn you should +they threaten to neglect your interests the interests of Spain for +his own." + +"And such a man? Where shall we find him?" + +I considered a moment, and bethought me of Escovedo. He was able; +he had charm and an ingratiating manner; I believed him loyal, and +imagined that I could quicken that loyalty by showing him that +advancement would wait upon its observation; he could well be +spared from the Council, where, as I have said, he occupied a quite +inferior post; lastly, we were friends, and I was glad of the +opportunity to serve him, and place him on the road to better things. + +All this I said to Philip, and so the matter was concluded. But +Escovedo failed me. His abilities and ingratiating manner endeared +him quickly to Don John, whilst himself he succumbed entirely, not +only to Don John of Austria's great personal charm, but also to Don +John's ambitious projects. The road to advancement upon which I +had set him seemed to him long and toilsome by contrast with the +shorter cut that was offered by his new master's dreams. He fell +as the earlier secretary had fallen, and more grievously, for he +was the more ambitious of the two, and from merely seconding Don +John's projects, it was not long before he spurred them on, not +long before he was dreaming dreams of his own for Don John to +realize. + +>From Tunis, which had by now been recovered by the Turks, and any +hopes concerned with which King Philip had discouraged, the eyes of +Don John were set, at Escovedo's bidding, I believe, upon the crown +of England. + +He had just been invited by Philip to make ready to take in hand +the affairs of Flanders, sadly disorganized under the incompetent +rule of Alva. It occurred to him that if he were to issue +victoriously from that enterprise - and so far victory had waited +upon his every venture - if he were to succeed in restoring peace +and Spanish order in rebellious Flanders, he would then be able to +move against England with the Spanish troops under his command, +overthrow Elizabeth, deliver Mary Stuart from the captivity in which +she languished, and by marriage with her set the crown of England +on his brow. To this great project he sought the support of Rome, +and Rome accorded it very readily being naturally hostile to the +heretic daughter of Anne Boleyn. + +It was Escovedo himself who went as Don John's secret ambassador to +the Vatican in this affair Escovedo, who had been placed with Don +John to act as a curb on that young man's ambitions. Nor did he +move with the prudence he should have observed. + +Knowledge of what was brewing reached us from the Papal Nuncio in +Madrid, who came to see me one day in the matter. + +"I have a dispatch from Rome," he announced, "in which His Holiness +instructs me to enjoin upon the King that the expedition against +England be now executed, and that he consider bestowing its crown +upon Don John of Austria for the greater honour and glory of Holy +Church." + +I was thunderstruck. The expedition against England, I knew, was +no new project. Three years before a secret envoy from the Queen +of Scots, an Italian named Ridolfi, had come to propose to Philip +that, in concert with the Pope, he should reestablish the Catholic +faith in England and place Mary Stuart upon the throne. It was a +scheme attractive to Philip, since it agreed at once with his policy +and his religion. But it had been abandoned under the dissuasions +of Alva, who accounted that it would be too costly even if +successful. Here it was again, emanating now directly from the +Holy See, but in a slightly altered form. + +"Why Don John of Austria?" I asked him. + +"A great soldier of the faith. And the Queen of Scots must have a +husband." + +"I should have thought that she had had husbands enough by now," +said I. + +"His Holiness does not appear to share that view," he answered +tartly. + +"I wonder will the King," said I. + +"The Catholic King is ever an obedient child of Mother Church," the +oily Nuncio reminded me, to reprove my doubt. + +But I knew better - that the King's own policy was the measure of +his obedience. This the Nuncio should learn for himself; for if +I knew anything of Philip's mind, I knew precisely how he would +welcome this proposal. + +"Will you see the King now?" I suggested maliciously, anxious to +witness the humbling of his priestly arrogance. + +"Not yet. It is upon that I came to see you. I am instructed +first to consult with one Escoda as to the manner in which this +matter shall be presented to His Majesty. Who is Escoda?" + +"I never heard of him," said I. "Perhaps he comes from Rome." + +"No, no. Strange!" he muttered, frowning, and plucked a parchment +from his sleeve. "It is here." He peered slowly at the writing, +and slowly spelled out the name: "Juan de Escoda." + +In a flash it came to me. + +"Escovedo you mean," I cried, + +"Yes, yes - Escovedo, to be sure," he agreed, having consulted the +writing once more. "Where is he?" + +"On his way to Madrid with Don John," I informed him. "He is Don +John's secretary." + +"I will do nothing, then, until he arrives," he said, and took his +leave. + +Oh, monstrous indiscretion! That dispatch from Rome so cunningly +and secretly contrived in cipher had yet contained no warning that +Escovedo's share in this should be concealed. There are none so +imprudent as the sly. I sought the King at once, and told him all +that I had learnt. He was aghast. Indeed, I never saw him more +near to anger. For Philip of Spain was not the man to show wrath +or any other emotion. He had a fish-like, cold, impenetrable +inscrutability. True, his yellow skin grew yellower, his gaping +mouth gaped wider, his goggle eyes goggled more than usual. Left +to himself, I think he would have disgraced Don John and banished +Escovedo there and then, as he did, indeed, suggest. And I have +since had cause enough to wish to God that I had left him to +himself. + +"Who will replace Don John in Flanders?" I asked him quietly. He +stared at me. "He is useful to you there. Use him, Sire, to +your own ends." + +"But they will press this English business." + +"Acquiesce." + +"Acquiesce? Are you mad?" + +"Seem to acquiesce. Temporize. Answer them, 'One thing at a time.' +Say, 'When the Flanders business is happily concluded, we will think +of England.' Give them hope that success in Flanders will dispose +you to support the other project. Thus you offer Don John an +incentive to succeed, yet commit yourself to nothing." + +"And this dog Escovedo?" + +"Is a dog who betrays himself by his bark. We will listen for it." + +And thus it was determined; thus was Don John suckled on the windy +pap of hope when presently he came to Court with Escovedo at his +heels. Distended by that empty fare he went off to the Low +Countries, leaving Escovedo in Madrid to represent him, with secret +instructions to advance his plans. + +Now Escovedo's talents were far inferior to my conception of them. + +He was just a greedy schemer, without the wit to dissemble his +appetite or the patience necessary to secure attainment. + +Affairs in Flanders went none too well, yet that did not set a curb +upon him. He pressed his master's business upon the King with an +ardour amounting to disrespect, and disrespect was a thing the awful +majesty of Philip could never brook. Escovedo complained of delays, +of indecision, and finally - in the summer of '76 - he wrote the +King a letter of fierce upbraidings, criticizing his policy in terms +that were contemptuous, and which entirely exasperated Philip. + +It was in vain I strove to warn the fellow of whither he was +drifting; in vain I admonished and sought to curb his headlong +recklessness. I have said that I had a friendship for him, and +because of that I took more pains, perhaps, than I should have taken +in another's case. + +"Unless you put some judgment into that head of yours, my friend, +you will leave it in this business," I told him one day. + +He flung into a passion at the admonition, heaped abuse upon me, +swore that it was I who thwarted him, I who opposed the fulfilment +of Don John's desires and fostered the dilatory policy of the King. + +I left him after that to pursue his course, having no wish to +quarrel with this headstrong upstart; yet, liking him as I did, I +spared no endeavour to shield him from the consequences he provoked. +But that letter of his to Philip made the task a difficult one. +Philip showed it to me. + +"If that man," he said, "had uttered to my face what he has dared +to write, I do not think I should have been able to contain myself +without visible change of countenance. It is a sanguinary letter." + +I set myself to calm him as best I could. + +"The man is indiscreet, which has its advantage, for we always know +whither an indiscreet man is heading. His zeal for his master +blinds him and makes him rash. It is better, perhaps, than if he +were secretive and crafty." + +With such arguments I appeased his wrath against the secretary. But +I knew that his hatred of Escovedo, his thirst for Escovedo's blood, +dated from that moment in which Escovedo had forgotten the reverence +due to majesty. I was glad when at last he took himself off to +Flanders to rejoin Don John. But that was very far from setting a +term to his pestering. The Flanders affair was going so badly that +the hopes of an English throne to follow were dwindling fast. +Something else must be devised against the worst, and now Don John +and Escovedo began to consider the acquisition of power in Spain +itself. Their ambition aimed at giving Don John the standing of an +Infante. Both of them wrote to me to advance this fresh project of +theirs, to work for their recall, so that they could ally themselves +with my party - the Archbishop's party - and ensure its continuing +supreme. Escovedo wrote me a letter that was little better than an +attempt to bribe me. The King was ageing, and the Prince was too +young to relieve him of the heavy duties of State. Don John should +shoulder these, and in so doing Escovedo and myself should be +hoisted into greater power. + +I carried all those letters to the King, and at his suggestion I +even pretended to lend an ear to these proposals that we might draw +from Escovedo a fuller betrayal of his real ultimate aims. It was +dangerous, and I enjoined the King to move carefully. + +"Be discreet," I warned him, "for if my artifice were discovered, +I should not be of any further use to you at all. In my conscience +I am satisfied that in acting as I do I am performing no more than +my duty. I require no theology other than my own to understand +that much." + +"My theology," he answered me, "takes much the same view. You would +have failed in your duty to God and me had you failed to enlighten +me on the score of this deception. These things," he added in a +dull voice, "appal me." + +So I wrote to Don John, urging him as one who counselled him for +his good, who had no interest but his own at heart, to remain in +Flanders until the work there should be satisfactorily completed. +He did so, since he was left no choice in the matter, but the +intrigues continued. Later we saw how far he was from having +forsaken his dreams of England, when I discovered that he had +engaged the Pope to assist him with six thousand men and one +hundred and fifty thousand ducats when the time for that adventure +should be ripe. + +And then, quite suddenly, entirely unheralded, Escovedo reappeared +in Madrid, having come to press Philip in person for reinforcements +that should enable Don John to finish the campaign. He brought +news that there had been a fresh rupture of the patched-up peace, +that Don John had taken the field once more, and had forcibly made +himself master of Namur. This was contrary to all the orders we +had sent, a direct overriding of Philip's wishes. The King desired +peace in the Low Countries because he was in no case just then to +renew the war, and Escovedo's impudently couched demands completed +his exasperation. + +"My will," he said, "is as naught before the ambitions of these two. +You sent my clear instructions to Escovedo, who was placed with Don +John that he might render him pliant to my wishes. Instead, he +stiffens him in rebellion. There must be an end to this man." + +"Sire," I cried, "it may be they think to advance your interests." + +"Heaven help me!" he cried. "Did ever villain wear so transparent +a mask as this dog Escovedo? To advance my interests - that will +be his tale, no doubt. He will advance them where I do not wish +them advanced; he will advance them to my ruin; he will stake all +on a success in Flanders that shall be the preliminary to a descent +upon England in the interests of Don John. I say there must be an +end to this man before he works more mischief." + +Again I set myself to calm him, as I had so often done before, and +again I was the shield between Escovedo and the royal lightnings, +of whose menace to blot him out the fool had no suspicion. For +months things hung there, until, in January of '78, when war had +been forced in earnest upon Spain by Elizabeth's support of the +Low Countries, Don John won the great victory of Gemblours. This +somewhat raised the King's depression, somewhat dissipated his +overgrowing mistrust of his half-brother, and gave him patience to +read the letters in which Don John urged him to send money - to +throw wood on the fire whilst it was alight, or else resign himself +to the loss of Flanders for all time. As it meant also resigning +himself to the loss of all hope of England for all time, Escovedo's +activities were just then increased a hundredfold. + +"Send me money and Escovedo," was the burden of the almost daily +letters from Don John to me, and at my elbow was Escovedo, +perpetually pressing me to bend the King to his master's will. +Another matter on which he pressed me then was that I should obtain +for himself the governorship of the Castle of Mogro, which commands +the port of Santander, an ambition this which intrigued me deeply, +for I confess I could not fathom what it had to do with all the rest. + +And then something else happened. From the Spanish Ambassador at +the Louvre we learnt one day of a secret federation entered into +between Don John and the Guises, known as the Defence of the Two +Crowns. Its object was as obscure as its title. But it afforded +the last drop to the cup of Philip's mistrust. This time it was +directly against Don John that he inveighed to me. And to defend +Don John, in the interests of common justice, I was forced to place +the blame where it belonged. + +"Nay, Sire," I assured him, "these ambitions are not Don John's. +With all his fevered dreams of greatness, Don John has ever been, +will ever be, loyal to his King." + +"If you know anything of temptation," he answered me, "you should +know that there is a breaking-point to every man's resistance of +it. How long will Don John remain loyal while Escovedo feeds his +disloyalty, adds daily to the weight of temptation the burden of +a fresh ambition? I tell you, man, I feel safe no longer." He +rose up before me, a blotch on his sallow face, his fingers tugging +nervously at the tuft of straw-coloured beard. "I tell you some +blow is about to fall unless we avert it. This man this fellow +Escovedo - must be dispatched before he can kill us." + +I shrugged and affected carelessness to soothe him. + +"A contemptible dreamer," I said. "Pity him, Sire. He has his uses. +To remove him would be to remove a channel through which we can +always obtain knowledge precisely of what is doing." + +Again I prevailed, and there the matter hung a while. But the King +was right, his fears were well inspired. Escovedo, always impatient, +was becoming desperate under persistent frustration. I reasoned +with him - was he not still my friend? - I held him off, urged +prudence and patience upon him, and generally sought to temporize. +I was as intent upon saving him from leaving his skin in this +business as I was, on the other hand, intent upon doing my duty +without pause or scruple to my King. But the fool forced my hand. +A Court is a foul place always, even so attenuated a Court as that +which Philip of Spain encouraged. Rumour thrives in it, scandal +blossoms luxuriantly in its fetid atmosphere. And rumour and +scandal had been busy with the Princess of Eboli and me, though I +did not dream it. + +We had been indiscreet, no doubt. We had been seen together in +public too often. We had gone to the play together more than once; +she had been present with me at a bull-fight on one occasion, and +it was matter of common gossip, as I was to learn, that I was a too +frequent visitor at her house. + +Another visitor there was Escovedo when in Madrid. Have I not said +that in his early days he had been one of Eboli's secretaries? On +that account the house of Eboli remained open to him at all times. +The Princess liked him, was kindly disposed towards him, and +encouraged his visits. We met there more than once. One day we +left together, and that day the fool set spark to a train that led +straight to the mine on which, all unconsciously, he stood. + +"A word of advice in season, Don Antonio," he said as we stepped +forth together. "Do not go so often to visit the Princess." + +I sought to pull my arm from his, but he dung to it and pinned it +to his side. + +"Nay, now - nay, now!" he soothed me. "Not so hot, my friend. +What the devil have I said to provoke resentment? I advise you as +your friend." + +"In future advise that other friend of yours, the devil," I answered +angrily, and pulled my arm away at last. "Don Juan, you have +presumed, I think. I did not seek your advice. It is yourself that +stands in need of advice this moment more than any man in Spain." + +"Lord of the World," he exclaimed in amiable protest, "listen to +him! I speak because I owe friendship to the Princess. Men whisper +of your comings and goings, I tell you. And the King, you know +well, should he hear of this I am in danger of losing my only friend +at Court, and so - " + +"Another word of this," I broke in fiercely, "now or at any other +time, and I'll skewer you like a rabbit!" + +I had stopped. My face was thrust within a hand's-breadth of his +own; I had tossed back my cloak, and my fingers clutched the hilt +of my sword. He became grave. His fine eyes - he had great, +sombre, liquid eyes, such as you'll scarcely ever see outside of +Spain - considered me thoughtfully a moment. Then he laughed +lightly and fell back a pace. + +"Pish!" said he. "Saint James! I am no rabbit for your skewering. +If it comes to skewers, I am a useful man of my hands, Antonio. +Come, man" - and again he took my arm - "if I presume, forgive it +out of the assurance that I am moved solely by interest and concern +for you. We have been friends too long that I should be denied." + +I had grown cool again, and I realized that perhaps my show of anger +had been imprudent. So I relented now, and we went our ways +together without further show of ill-humour on my part, or further +advice on his. But the matter did not end there. Indeed, it but +began. Going early in the afternoon of the morrow to visit Anne, I +found her in tears - tears, as I was to discover, of anger. + +Escovedo had been to visit her before me, and he had dared to +reproach her on the same subject. + +"You are talked about, you and Perez," he had informed her, "and +the thing may have evil consequences. It is because I have eaten +our bread that I tell you this for your own good." + +She had risen up in a great passion. + +"You will leave my house, and never set foot in it again," she had +told him. "You should learn that grooms and lackeys have no concern +in the conduct of great ladies. It is because you have eaten my +bread that I tell you this for your own good." + +It drove him out incontinently, but it left her in the condition in +which I was later to discover her. I set myself to soothe her. I +swore that Escovedo should be punished. But she would not be +soothed. She blamed herself for an unpardonable rashness. She +should not have taken that tone with Escovedo. He could avenge +himself by telling Philip, and if he told Philip, and Philip believed +him - as Philip would, being jealous and mistrustful beyond all men + - my ruin must follow. She had thought only of herself in +dismissing him in that high-handed manner. Coming since to think +of me it was that she had fallen into this despair. She clung to +me in tears. + +"Forgive me, Antonio. The fault is all mine - the fault of all. +Always have I known that this danger must overhang you as a penalty +for loving me. Always I knew it, and, knowing it, I should have +been stronger. I should have sent you from me at the first. But I +was so starved of love from childhood till I met you. I hungered +so for love - for your love, Antonio - that I had not the strength. +I was weak and selfish, and because I was ready and glad to pay the +price myself, whatever it should be and whenever asked, I did not +take thought enough for you." + +"Take no thought now," I implored her, holding her close. + +"I must. I can't help it. I have raised this peril for you. He +will go to Philip." + +"Not he; he dare not. I am his only hope. I am the ladder by which +he hopes to scale the heaven of his high ambition. If he destroys +me, there is the kennel for himself. He knows it." + +"Do you say that to comfort me, or is it really true?" + +"God's truth, sweetheart," I swore, and drew her closer. + +She was comforted long before I left her. But as I stepped out +into the street again a man accosted me. Evidently he had been on +the watch, awaiting me. He fell into step beside me almost before +I realized his presence. It was Escovedo. + +"So," he said, very sinister, "you'll not be warned." + +"Nor will you," I answered, no whit less sinister myself. + +It was broad daylight. A pale March sunshine was beating down upon +the cobbled streets, and passers-by were plentiful. There was no +fingering of hilts or talk of skewering on either side. Nor must +I show any of the anger that was boiling in me. My face was too +well known in Madrid streets, and a Secretary of State does not +parade emotions to the rabble. So I walked stiff and dignified +amain, that dog in step with me the while. + +"She will have told you what I have said to her," he murmured. + +"And what she said to you. It was less than your deserts." + +"Groom and lackey, eh?" said he. "And less than I deserve - a man +of my estate. Oh, ho! Groom and lackey! Those are epithets to be +washed out in blood and tears." + +"You rant," I said. + +"Or else to be paid for - handsomely." His tone was sly - so sly +that I answered nothing, for to answer a sly man is to assist him, +and my business was to let him betray the cause of this slyness. +Followed a spell of silence. Then, "Do you know," said he, "that +several of her relatives are thinking seriously of killing you?" + +"Many men have thought seriously of that - so seriously that they +never attempted it. Antonio Perez is not easily murdered, Don Juan, +as you may discover." + +It was a boast that I may claim to have since justified. + +"Shall I tell you their names?" quoth he. + +"If you want to ruin them." + +"Ha!" It was a short bark of a laugh. "You talk glibly of ruining + - but then you talk to a groom and lackey." The epithets rankled +in his mind; they were poison to his blood, it seemed. It takes a +woman to find words that burn and blister a man. "Yet groom and +lackey that I am, I hold you both in the hollow of my hand. If I +close that hand, it will be very bad for you, very bad for her. If, +for instance, I were to tell King Philip that I have seen her in +your arms -" + +"You dog!" + +"I have - I swear to God I have, with these two eyes - at least +with one of them, applied to the keyhole half an hour ago. Her +servants passed me in; a ducat or two well bestowed - you +understand?" + +We had reached the door of my house. I paused and turned to him. + +"You will come in?" I invited. + +"As the wolf said to the lamb, eh? Well, why not?" And we went in. + +"You are well housed," he commented, his greedy, envious eyes +considering all the tokens of my wealth. "It were a pity to lose +so much, I think. The King is at the Escurial, I am told." + +He was. He had gone thither into retreat, that he might cleanse +his pious, murky soul against the coming of Eastertide. + +"You would not, I am sure, compel me to undertake so tedious a +journey," said he. + +"Will you put off this slyness and be plain?" I bade him. "You +have some bargain in your mind. Propound it." + +He did, and left me aghast. + +"You have temporized long enough, Perez," he began. "You have been +hunting with the dogs and running with the stag. There must be an +end to all that. Stand by me now, and I will make you greater than +you are, greater than you could ever dream to be. Oppose me, betray +me - for I am going to be very frank - and the King shall hear +things from me that will mean your ruin and hers. You understand?" + +Then came his demands. First of all the command of the fortress of +Mogro for himself. I must obtain him that at once. Secondly, I +must see to it that Philip pledged himself to support Don John's +expedition against England and Elizabeth and to seat Don John upon +the throne with Mary Stuart for his wife. These things must come +about, and quickly, or I perished. Nor was that all. Indeed, no +more than a beginning. He opened out the vista of his dreams, that +having blackmailed me on the one hand, he might now bribe me on the +other. Once England was theirs, he aimed at no less than a descent +upon Spain itself. That was why he wanted Mogro to facilitate a +landing at Santander. Thus, as the Christians had originally come +down from the mountains of the Asturias to drive the Moors from the +Peninsula, so should the forces of Don John descend again to +reconquer it for himself. + +It was a madman's fancy utterly - fruit of a brain that ambition +had completely addled; and I do not believe that Don John had any +part in it or even knowledge of it. Escovedo saw himself, perhaps, +upon the throne of one or the other of the two kingdoms as Don +John's vice-regent - for himself and for me, if I stood by him, +there was such power in store as no man ever dreamed of. If I +refused, he would destroy me. + +"And if I go straight to the Escurial and lay this project before +the King?" I asked him. + +He smiled. + +"You will force me to tell him that it is a lie invented to deliver +you from a man who can destroy you by the knowledge he possesses, +knowledge which I shall at once impart to Philip. Think what that +will mean to you. Think," he added very wickedly, "what it will +mean to her." + +As I am a Christian, I believe that had it been but the consideration +of myself I would have flung him from my house upon the instant and +bade him do his worst. But he was well advised to remind me of her. +Whatever Philip's punishment of me, it would be as nothing to his +punishment of that long-suffering woman who had betrayed him. Oh, +I assure you it is a very evil, ill judged thing to have a king for +rival, particularly a fish-souled tyrant of King Philip's kind. + +I was all limp with dread. I passed a hand across my brow, and +found it chill and moist. + +"I am in your hands, Escovedo," I confessed miserably. + +"Say, rather, that we are partners. Forget all else." He was eager, +joyous, believing all accomplished, such was his faith in my +influence with Philip. "And now, Mogro for me, and England for Don +John. About it with dispatch." + +"The King is in retreat. We must wait some days." + +"Till Easter, then." And he held out his hand. I took it limply, +thus clenching the bargain of infamy between us. What else was +there for me. What, otherwise, was to become of Anne? + +Oh, I may have been self-seeking and made the most of my position, +as was afterwards urged against me. I may have been extortionate +and venal, and I may have taken regal bribes to expedite affairs. +But always was I loyal and devoted to the King. Never once had I +been bribed to aught that ran counter to his interests; never until +now, when at a stroke I had sold my honour and pledged myself to +this betrayal of my trust. + +Not in all Spain was there a more miserable man than I. All night +I sat in the room where I was wont to work, and to my wife's +entreaties that I should take some rest I answered that the affairs +of Spain compelled attention. And when morning found me haggard +and distraught came a courier from Philip with a letter. + +"I have letters from Don John," he wrote, "more insistent than ever +in their tone. He demands the instant dispatch of money and +Escovedo. I have been thinking, and this letter confirms my every +fear. I have cause to apprehend some stroke that may disturb the +public peace and ruin Don John himself if he is allowed to retain +Escovedo any longer in his service. I am writing to Don John that +I will see to it that Escovedo is promptly dispatched as he requests. +Do you see him dispatched, then, in precise accordance with his +deserts, and this at once, before the villain kills us." + +My skin bristled as I read. Here was fatality itself at work. +Philip was at his old fears - and, Heaven knows, he was not without +justification of his intuitions, as I had learnt by now - that +Escovedo meditated the most desperate measures. He was urging me +again, as he had urged me before, and more than once, to dispatch +this traitor whose restless existence so perpetually perturbed him. +I was not deceived as to the meaning he set upon that word +"dispatch." I knew quite well the nature of the dispatch he bade +me contrive. + +Conceive now my temptation. Escovedo dead, I should be safe, and +Anne would be safe, and this without any such betrayal as was being +forced upon me. And that death the King himself commanded a secret, +royal execution, such as his confessor Frey Diego de Chaves has +since defended as an expedient measure within the royal prerogative. +He had commanded it before quite unequivocally, but always I had +stood between Escovedo and the sword. Was I to continue in that +attitude? Could it humanly be expected of me in all the +circumstances again to seek to deflect the royal wrath from that +too daring head? I was, after all, only a man, subject to the +temptations of the flesh, and there was a woman whom I loved better +than my own salvation to whose peace and happiness that fellow +Escovedo was become a menace. + +If he lived, and for as long as he lived, she and I were to be as +slaves of his will, and I was to drag my honour and my loyalty +through the foul kennels of his disordered ambitions. And the King +my master was bidding me clearly see to it that he died immediately. + +I sat down and wrote at once, and the burden of my letter was: "Be +more explicit, Sire. What manner of dispatch is it your will that +Escovedo should be given?" + +On the morrow, which was Thursday of Holy Week, that note of mine +was returned to me, and on the margin of it, in Philip's own hand, +Escovedo's death-warrant. "I mean that it would be well to hasten +the death of this rascal before some act of his should render it +too late; for he never rests, nor will anything turn him from his +usual ways. Do it, then, and do it quickly, before he kills us." + +There was no more to be said. My instructions were clear and +definite. Obedience alone remained. I went about it. + +Just as all my life I have been blessed with the staunchest friends, +so have I, too, been blessed with the most faithful servants. And +of these none was more faithful than my steward, Diego Martinez, +unless, indeed, it be my equerry, Gil de Mesa, who to this day +follows my evil fortunes. But Mesa at that time was as yet untried, +whilst in Diego I knew that I had a man devoted to me heart and +soul, a man who would allow himself to be torn limb from limb on +the rack on my behalf. + +I placed the affair in Diego's hands. I told him that I was acting +under orders from the King, and that the thing at issue was the +private execution of a dangerous traitor, who could not be brought +to trial lest there he should impeach of complicity one whose birth +and blood must be shielded from all scandal. I bade him get what +men he required, and see the thing done with the least possible +delay. And thereupon I instantly withdrew from Madrid and went to +Alcala. + +Diego engaged five men to assist him in the task; these were a young +officer named Enriquez, a lackey named Rubio, the two Aragonese - +Mesa and Insausti - and another whose name was Bosque. He clearly +meant to take no chances, but I incline to think that he overdid +precaution, and employed more hands than were necessary for the job. +However, the six of them lurked in waiting on three successive +nights for Escovedo near his house in the little square of Santiago. +At last, on the night of Easter Monday, March 31st, they caught him +and dispatched him. He died almost before he realized himself +beset, from a sword-thrust with which Insausti transfixed him. But +there were at least half a dozen wounds in the body when it was +found. Diego, I have said, was a man who made quite certain. + +No sooner was it done than they dispersed, whilst the lackey Rubio, +instantly quitting Madrid, brought me news of the deed to Alcala, +and the assurance that no arrests had been made. But there was a +great ado in Madrid upon the morrow, as you may imagine, for it is +no everyday occurrence to find a royal secretary murdered in the +streets. + +The alcaldes set out upon a rigorous search, and they began by +arresting and questioning all who attempted to leave the city. On +the next day they harassed with their perquisitions all those who +let lodgings. They were still at this work in the evening when I +returned to Madrid, brought back - as it would seem - from my +country rest by the news of this murder of my friend and colleague. +I bore myself as I should have done had I no knowledge of how the +thing had been contrived. That was a necessity as imperative as +it was odious, and no part of it more odious than the visit of +condolence I was forced to pay to the Escovedo family, which I +found plunged in grief. + +>From the very outset suspicion pointed its finger at me, although +there were no visible traces to connect me with the deed. Rumour, +however, was astir, and as I had powerful friends, so, too, I had +the powerful enemies which envy must always be breeding for men in +high places such as mine. Escovedo's wife mistrusted me, though +at first she seems equally to have suspected in this deed the hand +of the Duke of Alva, who was hostile to Don John and all his +creatures. Very soon, as a result of this, came the Court alcalde +to visit and question me. His stated object was in the hope that +I might give him information which would lead to the discovery of +the assassin; but his real object, rendered apparent by the +searching, insistent nature of his questions, was to lead me to +incriminate myself. I presented a bold front. I pretended to see +in this, perhaps, the work of the Flemish States. I deplored - that +I might remind him of it - my absence from Madrid at the time. + +He was followed by another high official, who came in simulated +friendship to warn me that certain rumours linking me with the deed +were in circulation, in reality to trap me into some admission, to +watch my countenance for some betraying sign. + +I endured it stoutly, but inwardly I was shaken, as I wrote to +Philip, giving him full details of what had been said and what +answers I had returned, what bitter draughts I had been forced to +swallow. + +He wrote in reply: "I find that you answered very well. Continue +to be prudent. They will tell you a thousand things, not for the +sake of telling them, but in the hope of drawing something out of +you. The bitter draughts you mention are inevitable. But use all +the dissimulation and address of which you are capable." + +We corresponded daily after that, and I told him of every step I +took; how I kept my men about me, for fear that if they attempted +to leave Madrid they would be arrested, and how, finally, I +contrived their departure one by one, under conditions that placed +them beyond all suspicion. Juan de Mesa set out for Aragon on a +mission concerned with the administration of some property of the +Princess of Eboli's. Rubio, Insausti, and Enriquez were each given +an ensign's commission, bearing the King's own signature, and +ordered to join the armies in various parts of Italy; the first was +sent to Milan, the second to Sicily, and the last to Naples. Bosque +went back to Aragon. Thus all were placed beyond the reach of the +active justice of Castile, all save myself - and the King, who wrote +to me expressing his satisfaction that there had been no arrests. + +But rumour continued to give tongue, and the burden of its tale was +that the murder had been my work, in complicity with the Princess +of Eboli. How they came to drag her name into the affair I do not +know. It may have been pure malice trading upon its knowledge of +the relations between us. She may have lent colour to the charge +by her own precipitancy in denying it. She announced indignantly +that she was being accused, almost before this had come to pass, +and as indignantly protested against the accusation, and threatened +those who dared to voice it. + +The end of it all was that, a month later, the Escovedo family drew +up a memorial for the consideration of the King, in which they laid +the murder to my charge, and Philip consented to receive Don Pedro +de Escovedo - the dead man's son - and promised him that he would +consider the memorial, and that he would deliver up to justice +whomsoever he thought right. He was embarrassed by these demands +of the Escovedos, my own danger, his duty as king, and his interests +as an accomplice, or, rather, as the originator of the deed. + +The Escovedos were powerfully seconded by Vasquez, the Secretary of +the Council, a member of Alva's party, a secret enemy of my own, +consumed by jealousy of my power, and no longer fearing to disclose +himself and assail me since he believed himself possessed of the +means of ruining me. He spoke darkly to the King of a woman +concerned in this business, without yet daring to mention Anne by +name, and urged him for the satisfaction of the State, where evil +rumours were abroad, to order an inquiry that should reveal the +truth of the affair. + +It was Philip himself who informed me of what had passed, sneering +at the wildness of rumours that missed the truth so wildly, and when +I evinced distress at my position, he sought to reassure me; he even +wrote to me after I had left him: "As long as I live you have +nothing to fear. Others may change, but I never change, as you +should know who know me." + +That was a letter that epitomized many others written me in those +days to Madrid from the Escurial, whither he had returned. And those +letters comforted me not only by their expressed assurances, but by +the greater assurance implicit in them of the King's good faith. I +had by now a great mass of his notes dealing with the Escovedo +business, in almost every one of which he betrayed his own share as +the chief murderer, showing that I was no more than his dutiful +instrument in that execution. With those letters in my power what +need I ever fear? Not Philip himself would dare to betray me. + +But I went now in a new dread - the dread of being myself murdered. +There were threats of it in the air. The Escovedo family and their +partisans, who included all my enemies, and even some members of the +Eboli family, who considered that I had sullied the honour of their +name by my relations with Anne, talked openly of vengeance, so that +I was driven to surround myself by armed attendants whenever now I +went abroad. + +I appealed again to Philip to protect me. I even begged him to +permit me to retire from my Ministerial office, that thus the +clamant envy that inspired my persecution might be deprived of its +incentive. Finally, I begged him to order me to stand my trial, +that thus, since I was confident that no evidence could be produced +against me, I should force an acquittal from the courts and lay +the matter to rest for all time. + +"Go and see the President of Castile," he bade me. "Tell him the +causes that led to the death of Escovedo, and then let him talk to +Don Pedro de Escovedo and to Vasquez, so as to induce them to +desist." + +I did as I was bidden, and when the president, who was the Bishop +of Pati, had heard me, he sent for my two chief enemies. + +"I have, Don Pedro," he said, "your memorial to the King in which +you accuse Don Antonio Perez of the murder of your father. And I +am to assure you in the King's name that justice will be done upon +the murderer, whoever he may be, without regard to rank. But I am +first to engage you to consider well what evidence you have to +justify your charge against a person of such consideration. For +should your proofs be insufficient I warn you that matters are +likely to take a bad turn for yourself. Finally, before you answer +me, let me add, upon my word as a priest, that Antonio Perez is as +innocent as I am." + +It was the truth - the absolute truth, so far as it was known to +Philip and to the Bishop - for, indeed, I was no more than the +instrument of my master's will. + +Don Pedro looked foolish, almost awed. He was as a man who suddenly +becomes aware that he has missed stepping over the edge of a chasm +in which destruction awaited him. He may have bethought him at last +that all his rantings had no better authority than suspicions which +no evidence could support. + +"Sir," he faltered, "since you tell me this, I pledge you my word +on behalf of myself and my family to make no more mention of this +death against Don Antonio." + +The Bishop swung then upon Vasquez, and his brow became furrowed +with contemptuous anger. + +"As for you, sir, you have heard - which was more than your due, for +it is not your business by virtue of your office, nor have you any +obligations towards the deceased, such as excuse Don Pedro's +rashness, to pursue the murderers of Escovedo. Your solicitude in +this matter brings you under a suspicion the more odious since you +are a priest. I warn you, sir, to abstain, for this affair is +different far from anything that you imagine." + +But envy is a fierce goad, a consuming, irresistible passion, +corroding wisdom and deaf to all prudent counsels. Vasquez could +not abstain. Ridden by his devil of spite and jealousy, he would +not pause until he had destroyed either himself or me. + +Since Escovedo's immediate family now washed their hands of the +affair, Vasquez sought out more distant relatives of the murdered +man, and stirred them up until they went in their turn to pester +the courts, not only with accusations against myself, but with +accusations that now openly linked with mine the name of the +Princess of Eboli. + +We were driven to the brink of despair, and in this Anne wrote to +Philip. It was a madness. She made too great haste to excuse +herself. She demanded protection from Vasquez and the evil rumours +he was putting abroad, implored the King to make an example of men +who could push so far their daring and irreverence, and to punish +that Moorish dog Vasquez - I dare say there was Moorish blood in +the fellow's veins - as he deserved. + +I think our ruin dated from that letter. Philip sent for me to the +Escurial. He wished to know more precisely what the accusations +were. I told him, denying them. Then he desired of the Princess +proof of what she alleged against Vasquez, and she had no difficulty +in satisfying him. He seemed to believe our assurance that all was +lies. Yet he did not move to punish Vasquez. But then I knew that +sluggishness was his great characteristic. "Time and I are one," he +would say when I pressed on matters. + +After that it was open war in the Council between me and Vasquez. +The climax came when I was at the Escurial. I had sent a servant +to Vasquez for certain State papers to be submitted to the King. +He brought them, and folded in them a fiercely denunciatory letter +full of insults and injuries, not the least of which was the +imputation that my blood was not clean, my caste not good. + +In a passion I sought Philip, beside myself almost, trembling under +the insult. + +"See, Sire, what this Moorish thief has dared to write me. It +transcends all bearing. Either you take satisfaction for me of +these insults or you permit me to take it for myself." + +He appeared to share my indignation, promised to give me leave to +proceed against the man, but bade me first wait a while until +certain business in the competent hands of Vasquez should be +transacted. But weeks grew into months, and nothing was done. We +were in April of '79, a year after the murder, and I was grown so +uneasy, so sensitive to dangers about me, that I dared no longer +visit Anne. And then Philip's confessor, Frey Diego de Chaves, came +to me one day with a request on the King's part that I should make +my peace with Vasquez. + +"If he will retract," was my condition. And Chaves went to see my +enemy. What passed between them, what Vasquez may have told him, +what he may have added to those rumours of my relations with Anne, +I do not know. But I know that from that date there was a change +in the King's attitude towards me, a change in the tone of the +letters that he sent me, and, this continuing, I wrote to him at +last releasing him from his promise to afford me satisfaction +against Vasquez, assuring him that since, himself, he could forgive +the injuries against us both, I could easily forgive those I had +received myself, and finally begging his permission to resign my +office and retire. + +Anne had contributed to this. She had sent for me, and in tears +had besought me to make my peace with Vasquez since the King desired +it, and this was no time in which to attempt resistance to his +wishes. I remained with her some hours, comforting her, for she was +in the very depths of despair, persuaded that we were both ruined, +and inconsolable in the thought that the blame of this was all her +own. + +It may be that I was watched, perhaps more closely than I imagined. +It may be that spies were close about us, set by the jealous Philip, +who desired confirmation or refutation of the things he had been +told, the rumours that were gnawing at his vitals. + +I left her, little dreaming that I was never to see her again in this +life. That night I was arrested at my house by the Court alcalde +upon an order from the King. The paltry reason advanced was my +refusal to make my peace with Vasquez, and this when already the King +was in possession of my letter acknowledging my readiness to do so; +for the King was in Madrid, unknown to me. He came, it seems, that +he might be present at another arrest effected that same night. From +the porch of the Church of Santa Maria Mayor, he watched his alguazils +enter the house of the Princess of Eboli, bring her forth, bestow her +in a waiting carriage that was to bear her away to the fortress of +Pinto, to an imprisonment which was later exchanged for exile to +Pastrana lasting as long as life itself. + +To sin against a Prince is worse, it seems, than to sin against God +Himself. For God forgives, but princes, wounded in their vanity and +pride, know nothing of forgiveness. + +I was kept for four months a prisoner by the alcalde, no charge +being preferred against me. Then, because my health was suffering +grievously from confinement and the anxiety of suspense, I was moved +to my own house, and detained there for another eight months under +close guard. My friends besought the King in vain either to restore +me to liberty or to bring me to trial. He told them the affair was +of a nature very different from anything they deemed, and so evaded +all demands. + +In the summer of 1580, Philip went to Lisbon to take formal +possession of the crown of Portugal, which he had inherited. I sent +my wife to him to intercede for me. But he refused to see her, and +so I was left to continue the victim of his vindictive lethargy. +After a year of this, upon my giving a formal promise to renounce all +hostility towards Vasquez, and never seek to do him harm in any way, +I was accorded some degree of liberty. I was allowed to go out and +to receive visitors, but not to visit any one myself. + +Followed a further pause. Vasquez was now a man of power, for my +party had fallen with me, and his own had supplanted it in the royal +councils. It was by his work that at last, in '84, I was brought +to trial upon a charge of corruption and misappropriation. I knew +that my enemies had, meanwhile, become possessed of Enriquez, and +that he was ready to give evidence, that he was making no secret of +his share in the death of Escovedo, and that the King was being +pressed by the Escovedos to bring me to trial upon the charge of +murder. Instead, the other charge alone was preferred. + +It was urged against me that I had kept a greater state than any +grandee of Spain, that when I went abroad I did so with a retinue +befitting a prince, that I had sold my favour and accepted bribes +from foreign princes to guard their interests with the King of Spain. + +They sentenced me to two years' imprisonment in a fortress, to be +followed by ten years of exile, and I was to make, within nine days, +restitution of some twenty million maravedis* - the alleged extent +of my misappropriations - besides some jewels and furniture which +I had received from the Princess of Eboli, and which I was now +ordered to deliver up to the heirs of the late Prince. + + *Ten thousand pounds, but with at least five times the + present purchasing power of that sum. + +Perquisitions had been made in my house, and my papers ransacked. +Well I knew what they had sought. For the thought of the letters +that had passed between Philip and myself at the time of Escovedo's +death must now be troubling his peace of mind. I had taken due +precautions when first I had seen the gathering clouds foreshadowing +this change of weather. I had bestowed those papers safely in two +iron-bound chests which had been concealed away against the time +when I might need them to save my neck. And because now he failed +to find what he sought - the evidence of his own share in the deed +and his present base duplicity - Philip dared not slip the leash +from those dogs who would be at my throat for the murder of Escovedo. +That was why he bade them proceed against me only on the lesser +charge of corruption. + +I was taken to the fortress of Turruegano, and there they came to +demand of me the surrender of my papers which the alcalde had failed +to discover at my house. I imagined the uneasiness of Philip in +dispatching those emissaries. I almost laughed as I refused. Those +papers were my buckler against worse befalling me than had befallen +already. Even now, if too hard pressed, I might find the opportunity +of breaking my bonds by means of them. I sometimes wonder why I +did not apply myself to that. Yet there is small cause for wonder, +really. From boyhood, almost, King Philip had been my master. +Loyalty to him was a habit that went to the very roots of my being. +I had served him without conscience and without scruple, and the +notion of betraying him, save as a very last and very desperate +resource, was inconceivable. I do not think he ever knew the depth +and breadth of that loyalty of mine. + +My refusal led those sons of dogs to attempt to frighten my wife +with threats of unmentionable horrors unless she delivered up the +papers I had secreted. She and our children were threatened with +perpetual imprisonment on bread and water if she persisted in +refusing to surrender them. But she held out against all threats, +and remained firm even under the oily persecution to the same end +of Philip's confessor, Frey Diego. Finally, I was notified that, +in view of her stubbornness and my own, she and our children were +cast into prison, and that there they would remain until I saw fit +to become submissive to the royal will. + +It is a subtle form of mental torture that will bid a man +contemplate the suffering for his sake to which those who are dear +to him are being subjected. + +I raged and stormed before the officer who brought me this infamous +piece of news. I gave vent to my impotent anger in blasphemous +expressions that were afterwards to be used against me. The officer +was subtly sympathetic. + +"I understand your grief, Don Antonio," he said. "Believe me, I +feel for you - so much that I urge you to set an end to the +captivity of those dear ones who are innocent, who are suffering +for your sake." + +"And so make an end of myself?" I asked him fiercely. + +"Reflection may show that even that is your duty in the +circumstances." + +I looked into his smug face, and I was within an ace of striking +him. Then I controlled myself, and my will was snapped. + +"Very well," I said. "The papers shall be surrendered. Let my +steward, Diego Martinez, come to me here, and he shall receive my +instructions to deliver the chests containing them to my wife, that +she in turn may deliver them to the King." + +He withdrew, well pleased. No doubt he would take great credit to +himself for this. Within three days, such haste did they make, my +faithful steward stood before me in my prison at Turruegano. + +You conceive the despair that had overwhelmed me after giving my +consent, the consciousness that it was my life I was surrendering +with those papers, - that without them I should be utterly +defenceless. But in the three days that were sped I had been +thinking, and not quite in vain. + +Martinez left me with precise instructions, as a result of which +those two iron-bound chests, locked and sealed, were delivered, +together with the keys, to the royal confessor. Martinez was asked +what they contained. + +"I do not know," he answered. "My orders are merely to deliver +them." + +I can conceive the King's relief and joy in his conviction that +thus had he drawn my teeth, that betide now what might, I could +never defend or justify myself. The immediate sequel took me by +surprise. We were at the end of '85, and my health was suffering +from my confinement and its privations. And now my captivity was +mitigated. My wife Juana even succeeded in obtaining permission +that I should be taken home to Madrid, and there for fourteen months +I enjoyed a half liberty, and received the visits of my old friends, +among whom were numbered most of the members of the Court. + +I imagined at first that since my teeth were drawn the King despised +me, and intended nothing further. But I was soon to be disillusioned +on that score. It began with the arrest of Martinez on a charge of +complicity in the murder of Escovedo. And then one day I was again +arrested, without warning, and carried off for a while to the fortress +of Pinto. Thence I was brought back in close captivity to Madrid, +and there I learnt at last what had been stirring. + +In the previous summer King Philip had gone into Aragon to preside +over the Cortes, and Vasquez, who had gone with him, had seized the +opportunity to examine the ensign Enriquez, who had, meanwhile, +denounced himself of complicity in the murder of Escovedo. Enriquez +made a full confession - turned accuser under a promise of full +pardon for himself and charged Mesa, Rubio, and my steward Martinez +with complicity, denouncing Martinez as the ringleader of the +business. The other two, Insausti and Bosque, were already dead. + +Immediately Vasquez attempted to seize the survivors. But Mesa had +gone to earth in Aragon, and Rubio was with him. Martinez alone +remained, and him they seized and questioned. He remained as cool +and master of himself as he was true and loyal to me. Their threats +made no impression on him. He maintained that the tale was all a +lie, begotten of spite, that I had been Escovedo's best friend, that +I had been greatly afflicted by his death, and that no man could have +done more than I to discover his real murderers. They confronted +him with Enriquez, and the confrontation no whit disturbed him. He +handled the traitor contemptuously as a perjured, suborned witness, +a false servant, a man who, as he proceeded to show, was a scoundrel +steeped in crime, whose word was utterly worthless, and who, no +doubt, had been bought to bring these charges against his sometime +master. + +The situation, thanks to Martinez's stoutness, had reached a +deadlock. Between the assertions of one man, who was revealed to +the judges for a worthless scoundrel, and the denials of the other, +against whom nothing was known, it was impossible for the court of +inquiry to reach any conclusion. At least another witness must be +obtained. And Vasquez laboured with all his might and arts and +wiles to draw Rubio out of Aragon into the clutches of the justice +of Castile. But he laboured in vain, for I had secretly found the +means to instruct my trusty Mesa to retain the fellow where he was. + +In this inconclusive state of things the months dragged on and my +captivity continued. I wrote to Philip, imploring his mercy, +complaining of these unjust delays on the part of Vasquez, which +threatened to go on forever, and begging His Majesty to command the +conclusion of the affair. That was in August of '8g. You see how +time had sped. All that came of my appeal was at first an increased +rigour of imprisonment, and then a visit from Vasquez to examine and +question me upon the testimony of Enriquez. As you can imagine, the +attempt to lure me into self-betrayal was completely fruitless. My +enemy withdrew, baffled, to go question my wife, but without any +better success. + +Nevertheless, Vasquez proclaimed the charge established against +myself and Martinez, and allowed us ten days in which to prepare our +answer. Immediately upon that Don Pedro de Escovedo lodged a formal +indictment against us, and I was put into irons. + +To rebut the evidence of one single, tainted witness I produced six +witnesses of high repute, including the Secretary of the Council of +Aragon. They testified for me that I was at Alcala at the time of +Escovedo's death, that I had always been Escovedo's friend, that I +was a good Christian incapable of such a deed, and that Enriquez +as an evil man whose word was worthless, a false witness inspired +by vengeance. + +Thus, in spite of the ill-will of my judges and the hatred of my +enemies, it was impossible legally to condemn me upon the evidence. +There were documents enough in existence to have proved my part in +the affair; but not one of them dared the King produce, since they +would also show me to have been no more than his instrument. And +so, desiring my death as it was now clear he did, he must sit +impotently brooding there with what patience he could command, like +a gigantic, evil spider into whose web I obstinately refused to +fling myself. + +My hopes began to revive. When at last the court announced that it +postponed judgment whilst fresh evidence was sought, there was an +outcry of indignation on all sides. This was a tyrannical abuse of +power, men said; and I joined my voice to theirs to demand that +judgment be pronounced and my liberty restored to me, pointing out +that I had already languished years in captivity without any charge +against me - beyond that of corruption, which had been purged by +now - having been established. + +Then at last the King stirred in his diabolical underground manner. +He sent his confessor to me in prison. The friar was mild and benign. + +"My poor friend," he said, "why do you allow yourself to suffer in +this fashion, when a word from you can set a term to it? Confess +the deed without fear, since at the same time you can advance a +peremptory reason of State to justify it." + +It was too obvious a trap. Did I make confession, indeed, upon such +grounds, they would demand of me proof of what I asserted; and +meanwhile the documents to prove it had been extorted from me and +had passed into the King's possession. In the result I should be +ruined completely as one who, to the crime of murder, added a wicked, +insidious falsehood touching the honour of his King. + +But I said naught of this. I met guile with guile. "Alas! I have +been tempted," I answered him. "But I thank Heaven I have known even +in my extremity how to resist the temptation of such disloyalty. I +cannot forget, Brother Diego, that amongst the letters from the King +was one that said, 'Be not troubled by anything your enemies may do +against you. I shall not abandon you, and be sure their animosity +cannot prevail. But you must understand that it must not be +discovered that this death took place by my order."' + +"But if the King were to release you from that command?" he asked. + +"When His Majesty in his goodness and generosity sends me a note +in his own hand to say, 'You may confess that it was by my express +order that you contrived the death of Escovedo,' then I shall +thankfully account myself absolved from the silence his service +imposes on me." + +He looked at me narrowly. He may have suspected that I saw through +the transparent device to ruin me, and that in a sense I mocked him +with my answer. + +He withdrew, and for some days nothing further happened. Then the +rigours of my captivity were still further increased. I was allowed +to communicate with no one, and even the alguazil who guarded me was +forbidden, under pain of death, to speak to me. + +And in January I was visited by Vasquez, who brought me a letter +from the King, not, indeed, addressed to me and in the terms I had +suggested, but to Vasquez himself, and it ran: + +You may tell Antonio Perez from me, and, if necessary, show him this +letter, that he is aware of my knowledge of having ordered him to +put Escovedo to death and of the motives which he told me existed +for this measure; and that as it imports for the satisfaction of my +conscience that it be ascertained whether or not those motives were +sufficient, I order him to state them in the fullest detail, and to +advance proof of what he then alleged to me, which is not unknown +to yourself, since I have clearly imparted it to you. When I shall +have seen his answers, and the reasons he advances, I shall give +order that such measures be taken as may befit. + I, THE KING + +You see what a twist he had given to the facts. It was I who had +urged the death of Escovedo; it was I who had advanced reasons which +he had considered sufficient, trusting to my word; and it was +because of this he had consented to give the order. Let me confess +so much, let me prove it, and prove, too, that the motives I had +advanced were sound ones, or I must be destroyed. That was all +clear. And that false king held fast the two trunks of papers that +would have given the lie to this atrocious note of his, that would +have proved that again and again I had shielded Escovedo from the +death his king designed for him. + +I looked into the face of my enemy, and there was a twisted smile +on my lips. + +"What fresh trap is this?" I asked him. "King Philip never wrote +that note." + +"You should know his hand. Look closer," he bade me harshly. + +"I know his hand - none better. But I claim, too, to know something +of his heart. And I know that it is not the heart of a perjured +liar such as penned those lines." + +That was as near as a man dared to go in expressing his true opinion +of a prince. + +"For the rest," I said, "I do not understand it. I know nothing of +the death of Escovedo. I have nothing to add to what already I have +said in open court unless it be to protest against you, who are a +passionate, hostile judge." + +Six times in the month that followed did Vasquez come to me, +accompanied now by a notary, to press me to confess. At last, seeing +that no persuasions could bend my obstinacy, they resorted to other +measures. + +"You will drive us to use the torture upon you so that we may loosen +your tongue!" snarled Vasquez fiercely, enraged by my obduracy. + +I laughed at the threat. I was a noble of Spain, by birth immune +from torture. They dared not violate the law. But they did dare. +There was no law, human or divine, the King was not prepared to +violate so that he might slake his vengeance upon the man who had +dared to love where he had loved. + +They delivered me naked into the hands of the executioner, and I +underwent the question at the rope. They warned me that if I lost +my life or the use of any of my limbs, it would be solely by my own +fault. I advanced my nobility and the state of my health as +all-sufficient reasons why the torture should not be applied to me, +reminding them that for eleven years already I had suffered +persecution and detention, so that my vigour was all gone. + +For the last time they summoned me to answer as the King desired. +And then, since I still refused, the executioner was recalled, he +crossed my arms upon my breast, bound them securely, thrust a long +rod beneath the cord, and, seizing one end of this in either hand, +gave the first turn. + +I screamed. I could not help it, enfeebled as I was. But my spirit +being stouter than my flesh, I still refused to answer. Not indeed, +until they had given the rope eight turns, not until it had sliced +through my muscles and crushed the bone of one of my arms, so that +to this day it remains of little use to me, did they conquer me. I +had reached the limit of endurance. + +"In Christ's name, release me!" I gasped. "I will say anything you +wish." + +Released at last, half swooning, smothered in blood, agonized by +pain, I confessed that it was myself had procured the death of +Escovedo for reasons of State and acting upon the orders of the King. +The notary made haste to write down my words, and, when I had done, +it was demanded of me that I should advance proof of the State +reasons which I had alleged. + +Oh, I had never been under any delusion on that score, as I have +shown you. The demand did not take me by surprise at all. I was +waiting for it, knowing that my answer to it would pronounce my +doom. But I delivered it none the less. + +"My papers have been taken from me, and without them I can prove +nothing. With them I could prove my words abundantly." + +They left me then. On the morrow, as I afterwards learnt, they read +my confession to my devoted Martinez, and the poor fellow, who +hitherto had remained staunch and silent under every test, seeing +that there was no further purpose to be served by silence, gave +them the confirmation they desired of Enriquez's accusation. + +Meanwhile, I was very ill, in a raging fever as you may well conceive, +and in answer to my prayer my own doctor was permitted to visit me +in prison. He announced that he found my case extremely grave, and +that I must perish unless I were relieved. As a consequence, and +considering my weakness and the uselessness just then of both my arms, +one of which was broken, first a page of my own, then other servants, +and lastly my wife were allowed to come and tend me. + +That was at the end of February. By the middle of April my wounds +had healed, I had recovered the use of my limbs, though one remains +half maimed for life, and my condition had undergone a very +considerable improvement. But of this I allowed no sign to show, +no suspicion even. I continued to lie there day after day in a +state of complete collapse, so that whilst I was quickly gathering +strength it was believed by my gaolers that I was steadily sinking, +and that I should soon be dead. + +My only hope, you see, lay now in evasion, and it was for this that +I was thus craftily preparing. Once out of Castile I could deal +with Philip, and he should not find me as impotent, as toothless as +he believed. But I go too fast. + +One night at last, on April 20th, by when all measures had been +concerted, and Gil de Mesa awaited me outside with horses - the +whole having been contrived by my dear wife - I made the attempt. +My apparent condition had naturally led to carelessness in guarding +me. Who would guard a helpless, dying man? Soon after dark I rose, +donned over my own clothes a petticoat and a hooded cloak belonging +to my wife, and thus mufed walked out of my cell, past the guards, +and so out of the prison unchallenged. I joined Gil de Mesa, +discarded my feminine disguise, mounted and set out with him upon +that ninety-mile journey into Aragon. + +We reached Saragossa in safety, and there my first act was to +surrender myself to the Grand Justiciary of Aragon to stand my trial +for the murder of Escovedo with which I was charged. + +It must have sent a shudder through the wicked Philip when he +received news of that. A very stricken man he must have been, for +he must have suspected something of the truth, that if I dared, +after all the evidence amassed now against me, including my own +confession under torture, openly to seek a judgment, it was because +I must possess some unsuspected means of establishing all the truth + - the truth that must make his own name stink in the nostrils of +the world. And so it was. Have you supposed that Antonio Perez, +who had spent his life in studying the underground methods of +burrowing statecraft, had allowed himself to be taken quite so +easily in their snare? Have you imagined that when I sent for Diego +Martinez to come to me at Turruegano and instructed him touching +the surrender of those two chests of documents, that I did not also +instruct him carefully touching the abstraction in the first +instance of a few serviceable papers and the renewal of the seals +that should conceal the fact that he had tampered with the chests? +If you have thought that, you have done me less than justice. There +had been so much correspondence between Philip and myself, so many +notes had passed touching the death of Escovedo, and there was that +habit of Philip's of writing his replies in marginal notes to my +own letters and so returning them, that it was unthinkable he should +have kept them all in his memory, and the abstraction of three or +four could not conceivably be detected by him. + +Ever since then those few letters, of a most deeply incriminating +character, selected with great acumen by my steward, had secretly +remained in the possession of my wife. Yet I had not dared produce +them in Castile, knowing that I should instantly have been deprived +of them, and with them of my last hope. They remained concealed +against precisely such a time as this, when, beyond the immediate +reach of Philip's justice, I should startle the world and clear my +own character by their production. + +You know the ancient privileges enjoyed by Aragon, privileges of +which the Aragonese are so jealous that a King of Castile may not +assume the title of King of Aragon until, bareheaded, he shall have +received from the Grand Justiciary of Aragon the following +admonition: "We, who are of equal worth and greater power than you, +constitute you our king on the condition that you respect our +privileges, and not otherwise." And to that the king must solemnly +bind himself by oath, whose violation would raise in revolt against +him the very cobbles of the streets. No king of Spain had ever yet +been found to dare violate the constitution and the fueros of +Aragon, the independence of their cortes, or parliament, composed +of the four orders of the State. The Grand Justiciary's Court was +superior to any royally constituted tribunal in the kingdom; to that +court it was the privilege of any man to appeal for justice in any +cause; and there justice was measured out with a stern impartiality +that had not its like in any other State of Europe. + +That was the tribunal to which I made surrender of my, person and +my cause. There was an attempt on the part of Philip to seize me +and drag me back to Castile and his vengeance. His officers broke +into the prison for that purpose, and already I was in their power, +when the men of the Justiciary, followed by an excited mob, which +threatened open rebellion at this violation of their ancient rights, +delivered me from their hands. + +Baffled in this - and I can imagine his fury, which has since been +vented on the Aragonese - Philip sent his representatives and his +jurists to accuse me before the Court of the Grand Justiciary and +to conduct my prosecution. + +The trial began, exciting the most profound interest, not only in +Aragon, but also in Castile, which, as I afterwards learnt, had +openly rejoiced at my escape. It proceeded with the delays and +longueurs that are inseparable from the sluggish majesty of the law. +one of these pauses I wrote to Philip, inviting him to desist, and +to grant me the liberty to live out my days in peace with my family +in some remote corner of his kingdom. I warned him that I was not +helpless before his persecution, as he imagined; that whilst I had +made surrender of two chests of papers, I yet retained enough +authentic documents - letters in his own hand - to make my innocence +and his guilt apparent in a startling degree, with very evil +consequences to himself. + +His answer was to seize my wife and children and cast them into +prison, and then order the courts of Madrid to pronounce sentence +of death against me for the murder of Escovedo. Such were the sops +with which he sought to quench his vindictive rage. + +Thereupon the trial proceeded. I prepared my long memorial of the +affair, supporting it with proofs in the shape of those letters I +had retained. And then at last Philip of Spain took fright. He was +warned by one of his representatives that there was little doubt I +should be acquitted on all counts, and, too late, he sought to save +his face by ordering the cessation of the prosecution he had +instructed. + +He stated that since I had chosen a line of defence, to answer +which - as it could be answered - it would be necessary to touch +upon matters of a secrecy that was inviolable, and to introduce +personages whose reputation and honour was of more consequence to +the State than the condemnation of Antonio Perez, he preferred to +renounce the prosecution before the tribunal of Aragon. But he +added a certificate upon his royal word to the effect that my crimes +were greater than had ever been the crimes of any man, and that, +whilst he renounced the prosecution before the courts of Aragon, he +retained the right to demand of me an account of my actions before +any other tribunal at any future time. + +My acquittal followed immediately. And immediately again that was +succeeded by fresh charges against me on behalf of the King. First +it was sought to prove that I had procured the death of two of my +servants - a charge which I easily dispersed by proving them to have +died natural deaths. Then it was sought to prosecute me on the +charge of corruption, for which I had once already been prosecuted, +condemned, and punished. Confidently I demanded my release, and +Philip must have ground his teeth in rage to see his prey escaping +him, to see himself the butt of scorn and contempt for the wrongs +that it became clear he had done me. + +One weapon remained to him, and a terrible weapon this - the Holy +Office of the Inquisition, a court before which all temporal courts +must bow and quail. He launched its power against me, and behold +me, in the moment when I accounted myself the victor in the unequal +contest, accused of the dread sin of heresy. Words lightly weighed + - uttered by me in prison under stress - had been zealously +gathered up y spies. + +On one occasion I had exclaimed: "I think God sleeps where my +affairs are concerned, and I am in danger of losing my faith." The +Holy Office held this to be a scandalous proposition, offensive to +pious ears. + +Again, when I heard of the arrest of my wife and children I had +cried out in rage: "God sleeps! God sleeps! There cannot be a God!" + +This they argued at length to be rank heresy, since it is man's +duty positively to believe, and who does not believe is an infidel. + +Yet again it seems I had exclaimed: "Should things so come to pass, +I shall refuse to believe in God!" This was accounted blasphemous, +scandalous, and not without suspicion of heresy. + +Upon these grounds the Supreme Council of the Inquisition at Madrid +drew up its impeachment, and delivered it to the inquisitors of +Aragon at Saragossa. These at once sent their familiars to demand +the surrender of me from the Grand Justiciary, in whose hands I +still remained. The Grand Justiciary incontinently refused to +yield me up. + +Thereupon the three Inquisitors drew up a peremptory demand, +addressed to the lieutenants of the Justiciary, summoning them by +virtue of holy obedience, under pain of greater excommunication, of +a fine in the case of each of them of one thousand ducats, and +other penalties to which they might later be condemned, to deliver +me up within three hours to the pursuivants of the Holy Office. + +This was the end of the Justiciary's resistance. He dared not +refuse a demand so framed, and surrender of me was duly made. But +the news of what was doing had run abroad. I had no lack of +friends, whom I instantly warned of what was afoot, and they had +seen to it that the knowledge spread in an inflammatory manner. +Saragossa began to stir at once. Here was a thinly masked violation +of their ancient privileges. If they suffered this precedent of +circumventing their rights, what was to become of their liberties +in future, who would be secure against an unjust persecution? For +their sympathies were all with me throughout that trial. + +I was scarcely in the prison of the Holy Office before the dread +cry of Contrafueros! was ringing through the streets of Saragossa, +summoning the citizens to arm and come forth in defence of their +inviolable rights. They stormed the palace of the Grand Justiciary, +demanded that he should defend the fueros, to whose guardianship he +had been elected. Receiving no satisfaction, they attacked the +palace of the Inquisition, clamouring insistently that I should +immediately be returned to the Justiciary's prison, whence I had so +unwarrantably been taken. + +The Inquisitors remained firm a while, but the danger was increasing +hourly. In the end they submitted, for the sake of their skins, and +considering, no doubt, a later vengeance for this outrage upon their +holy authority. But it was not done until faggots had been stacked +against the Holy House, and the exasperated mob had threatened to +burn them out of it. + +"Castilian hypocrites!" had been the insurgent roar. "Surrender +your prisoner, or you shall be roasted in the fire in which you roast +so many!" + +Blood was shed in the streets. The King's representative died of +wounds that he received in the affray, whilst the Viceroy himself +was assailed and compelled to intervene and procure my deliverence. + +For the moment I was out of danger. But for the moment only. There +was no question now of my enlargement. The Grand Justiciary, +intimidated by what had taken place, by the precise expression of +the King's will, dared not set me at liberty. And then the Holy +Office, under the direction of the King, went to work in that +subterranean way which it has made its own; legal quibbles were +raised to soothe the sensibilities of the Aragonese with respect to +my removal from the Justiciary's prison to that of the Holy Office. +Strong forces of troops were brought to Saragossa to overawe the +plebeian insolence, and so, by the following September, all the +preliminaries being concluded, the Inquisition came in force and in +form to take possession of me. + +The mob looked on and murmured; but it was intimidated by the show +of ordered force; it had perhaps tired a little of the whole affair, +and did not see that it should shed its blood and lay up trouble +for itself for the sake of one who, after all, was of no account in +the affairs of Aragon. I stood upon the threshold of my ruin. All +my activities were to go unrewarded. Doom awaited me. And then the +unexpected happened. The alguazil of the Holy Office was in the +very act of setting the gyves upon my legs when the first shot was +fired, followed almost at once by a fusillade. + +It was Gil de Mesa, faithfullest servant that ever any man possessed. +He had raised an armed band, consisting of some Aragonese gentlemen +and their servants, and with this he fell like a thunderbolt upon +the Castilian men-at-arms and the familiars of the Inquisition. The +alguazil fled, leaving me one leg free, the other burdened by the +gyve, and as he fled so fled all others, being thus taken unawares. +The Inquisitors scuttled to the nearest shelter; the Viceroy threw +himself into his house and barricaded the door. There was no one +to guide, no one to direct. The soldiery in these circumstances, +and accounting themselves overpowered, offered no resistance. They, +too, fled before the fusillade and the hail of shot that descended +on them. + +Before I realized what had happened, the iron had been struck from +my leg, I was mounted on a horse, and, with Gil at my side, I was +galloping out of Saragossa by the gate of Santa Engracia, and +breasting the slopes with little cause to fear pursuit just yet, +such was the disorder we had left behind. + +And there, very briefly, you have the story of my sufferings and my +escapes. Not entirely to be baulked, numerous arrests were made by +the Inquisitors in Saragossa when order was at last restored. There +followed an auto-da-fe, the most horrible and vindictive of all +those horrors, in which many suffered for having displayed the +weakness of charity towards a persecuted man. And, since my body +was no longer in their clutches, they none the less sentenced me to +death as contumaciously absent, and my effigy was burnt in the holy +fires they lighted, amongst the human candles which they offered up +for the greater honour and glory of a merciful God. Let me say no +more, lest I blaspheme in earnest. + +After months of wandering and hiding, Gil and I made our way here +into Navarre, where we remain the guests of Protestant King Henri IV, +who does not love King Philip any better since he has heard my story. + +Still King Philip's vengeance does not sleep. Twice has he sent +after me his assassins - since assassination is the only weapon now +remaining to him. But his poor tools have each time been taken, +exposed to Philip's greater infamy and shame - and hanged as they +deserve who can so vilely serve so vile a master. It has even been +sought to bribe my faithful Gil de Mesa into turning his hand +against me, and that attempt, too, has been given the fullest +publication. Meanwhile, my death to-day could no longer avail +Philip very much. My memorial is published throughout Europe for +all to read. It has been avidly read until Philip of Spain has +earned the contempt of every upright man. In his own dominions the +voice of execration has been raised against him. One of his own +nobles has contemptuously announced that Spain under Philip has +become unsafe for any gentleman, and that a betrayal of a subject +by his king is without parallel in history. + +That is some measure of vengeance. But if I am spared I shall not +leave it there. Henry of Navarre is on the point of turning Catholic +that his interests may be better served. Elizabeth of England +remains. In her dominions, where thrives the righteous hatred of +Philip and all the evil that he stands for, I shall find a welcome +and a channel for the activities that are to show him that Antonio +Perez lives. I have sent him word that when he is weary of the +conflict he can signify his surrender by delivering from their +prison my wife and children, upon whom he seeks still to visit some +of the vengeance I have succeeded in eluding. When he does that, +then will I hold my hand. But not before. + +"That, madame, is my story," said Don Antonio, after a pause, and +from narrowing eyes looked at the beauty who had heard him through. + +Daylight had faded whilst the tale was telling. Night was come, and +lights had long since been fetched, the curtains drawn over the long +windows that looked out across the parkland to the river. + +Twice only had he paused in all that narrative. Once when he had +described the avowal of his love for Anne, Princess of Eboli, when +a burst of sobs from her had come to interrupt him; again when a +curious bird-note had rung out upon the gathering dusk. Then he +stopped to listen. + +"Curious that," he had said - "an eagle's cry. I have not heard it +these many months, not since I left the hills of Aragon." + +Thereafter he had continued to the end. + +Considering her now, his glance inscrutable, he said: + +"You weep, madame. Tell me, what is it that has moved you - the +contemplation of my sufferings, or of your own duplicity?" + +She started up, very white, her eyes scared. + +"I do not understand you. What do you mean, sir?" + +"I mean, madame, that God did not give you so much beauty that you +should use it in the decoying of an unfortunate, that you should +hire it at an assassin's fee to serve the crapulous King of Spain." + +He rose and towered before her, a figure at once of anger, dignity, +and some compassion. + +"So much ardour from youth and beauty to age and infirmity was in +itself suspicious. The Catholic King has the guile of Satan, I +remembered. I wondered, and hoped my suspicions might be unfounded. +Yet prudence made me test them, that the danger, if it existed, +should manifest itself and be destroyed. So I came to tell you all +my story, so that if you did the thing I feared, you might come to +the knowledge of precisely what it was you did. I have learnt whilst +here that what I suspected is - alas! quite true. You were a lure, +a decoy sent to work my ruin, to draw me into a trap where daggers +waited for me. Why did you do this? What was the bribe that could +corrupt you, lovely lady?" + +Sobs shook her. Her will gave way before his melancholy sternness. + +"I do not know by what wizardry you have discovered it!" she cried. +"It was true; but it is true no longer. I knew not what I did. By +that window, across the meadows, you can reach the river in safety." +She rose, controlling her emotion that she might instruct him. +"They wait for you in the enclosed garden." + +He smiled wistfully. + +"They waited, madame. They wait no longer, unless it be for death. +That eagle's cry, thrice repeated, was the signal from my faithful +Gil, not only that the trap was discovered, but that those who baited +it were taken. Suspecting what I did, I took my measures ere I came. +Antonio Perez, as I have told you, is not an easy man to murder. +Unlike Philip, I do not make war on women, and I have no reckoning +to present to you. But I am curious, madame, to know what led you +to this baseness." + +"I - I thought you evil, and - and they bribed me. I was offered +ten thousand ducats for your head. We are very poor, we Chantenacs, +and so I fell. But, sir - sir" - she was on her knees to him now, +and she had caught his hand in hers- "poor as I am, all that I have +is yours to do with as you will, to help to avenge yourself upon +that Spanish monster. Take what you will. Take all I have." + +His smile grew gentler. Gently he raised her. + +"Madame," he said, "I am myself a sinner, as I have shown you, a +man unequal to resisting temptation when it took me in its trammels. +Of all that you offer, I will take only the right to this kiss." + +And bending, be bore her hand to his lips. + +Then he went out to join Gil and his men, who waited in the +courtyard, guarding three prisoners they had taken. + +Perez considered them by the light of the lantern that Gil held +aloft for him. + +"One of you," he announced, "shall return to Castile and give tidings +to Philip, his master, that Antonio Perez leaves for England and the +Court of Elizabeth, to aid her, by his knowledge of the affairs of +Spain, in her measures against the Catholic King, and to continue +his holy work, which is to make the name of Philip II stink in the +nostrils of all honest men. One of you I will spare for that +purpose. You shall draw lots for it in the morning. The other two +must hang." + + + + +IV. THE NIGHT OF CHARITY + +THE CASE OF THE LADY ALICE LISLE + + +0f all the cases tried in the course of that terrible circuit, +justly known as the Bloody Assizes, the only one that survives at +all in the popular memory is the case of the Lady Alice Lisle. Her +advanced age, the fact that she was the first woman known in English +history to have suffered death for no worse an offence than that of +having exercised the feminine prerogative of mercy, and the further +fact that, even so, this offence - technical as it was - was never +fully proved against her, are all circumstances which have left +their indelible stamp of horror upon the public mind. There is also +the further circumstance that hers was the first case tried in the +West by that terrible Chief Justice, Baron Jeffreys of Wem. + +But the feature that renders her case peculiarly interesting to the +historical psychologist - and it is a feature that is in danger of +being overlooked - is that she cannot really be said to have suffered +for the technical offence for which she took her trial. That was +the pretext rather than the cause. In reality she was the innocent +victim of a relentless, undiscerning Nemesis. + +The battle of Sedgemoor had been fought and lost by the Protestant +champion, James, Duke of Monmouth. In the West, which had answered +the Duke's summons to revolt, there was established now a horrible +reign of terror reflecting the bigoted, pitiless, vindictive nature +of the King. Faversham had left Colonel Percy Kirke in command at +Bridgwater, a ruthless ruffian, who at one time had commanded the +"Tangier garrison, and whose men were full worthy of their commander. +Kirke's Lambs they were called, in an irony provoked by the emblem +of the Paschal Lamb on the flag of this, the First Tangier Regiment, +originally levied to wage war upon the infidel. + +>From Bridgwater Colonel Kirke made a horrible punitive progress to +Taunton, where he put up at the White Hart Inn. Now, there was a +very solid signpost standing upon a triangular patch of green +before the door of the White Hart, and Colonel Kirke conceived +the quite facetious notion of converting this advertisement of +hospitality into a gallows - a signpost of temporal welfare into +a signpost of eternity. So forth he fetched the prisoners he had +brought in chains from Bridgwater, and proceeded, without any form +of trial whatsoever, to string them up before the inn. The story +runs that as they were hoisted to that improvised gibbet, Kirke +and his officers, standing at the windows, raised their glasses to +pledge their happy deliverance; then, when the victims began to +kick convulsively, Kirke would order the drums to strike up, so +that the gentlemen might have music for their better dancing. + +The colonel, you see, was a humorist, as humour was then understood +upon the northern shores of Africa, where he had been schooled. + +When, eventually, Colonel Kirke was recalled and reprimanded, it +was not because of his barbarities many of which transcend the +possibilities of decent print - but because of a lenity which this +venal gentleman began to display when he discovered that many of +his victims were willing to pay handsomely for mercy. + +Meanwhile, under his reign of terror, men who had cause to fear the +terrible hand of the King's vengeance went into hiding wherever they +could. Among those who escaped into Hampshire, thinking themselves +safer in a county that had not participated in the war, were a +dissenting parson named George Hicks, who had been in Monmouth's +army, and a lawyer named Richard Nelthorp, outlawed for participation +in the Rye House Plot. In his desperate quest for shelter, Hicks +bethought him of the charitable Nonconformist lady of Moyle's Court, +the widow of that John Lisle who had been one of Cromwell's Lords +Commissioners of the Great Seal, and most active in bringing King +Charles I to justice. + +John Lisle had fled to Switzerland at the Restoration; but Stuart +vengeance had followed him, set a price upon his head, and procured +his murder at Lausanne. That was twenty years ago. Since then his +lady, because she was known to have befriended and sheltered many +Royalists, and because she had some stout Tory friends to plead for +her, was allowed to remain in tranquil possession of her estates. +And there the Lady Alice Lisle - so called by courtesy, since +Cromwell's titles did not at law survive the Restoration - might +have ended her days in peace, but that it was written that those +who hated her - innocent and aged though she was - for the name she +bore, who included her in the rancour which had procured her +husband's assassination, were to be fully satisfied. And the +instrument of fate was this parson Hicks. He prevailed upon Dunne, +a baker of Warminster, and a Nonconformist, to convey to the Lady +Lisle his prayer for shelter. With that message Dunne set out on +July 25th for Ellingham, a journey of some twenty miles. He went +by way of Fovant and Chalk to Salisbury Plain. But as he did not +know the way thence, he sought out a co-religionist named Barter, +who undertook, for a consideration, to go with him and direct him. + +Together the pair came in the late afternoon of that Saturday to +the handsome house of Moyle's Court, and to my lady's steward, who +received them. Dunne, who appears to have been silly and imprudent, +states that he is sent to know if my lady will entertain a minister +named Hicks. + +Carpenter, the steward, a staid, elderly fellow, took fright at +once. Although he may not have associated an absconding Presbyterian +parson with the late rebellion, he must have supposed at least that +he was one of those against whom there were warrants for preaching +in forbidden private meetings. So to her ladyship above stairs +Carpenter conveyed a warning with the message. + +But that slight, frail, homely lady of seventy, with kindly eyes of +a faded blue, smiled upon his fears. She had sheltered fugitives +before - in the old days of the Commonwealth - and nothing but good +had ever come of it. She would see this messenger. + +With misgivings, Carpenter haled Dunne into her presence, and left +them alone together. The impression conveyed by Dunne was that +Hicks was in hiding from the warrants that were out against all +Nonconformist preachers. But when he mentioned that Hicks had a +companion, she desired to know his name. + +"I do not know, my lady. But I do not think he has been in the +army, either." + +She considered a while. But in the end pity conquered doubt in her +sweetly charitable soul. + +"Very well," she said, "I will give them entertainment for a week. +Bring them on Tuesday after dark, and come by the back way through +the orchard, that they may not be seen." + +And upon this she rose, and took up an ebony cane, herself to +reconduct him and to see to his entertainment before he left. Not +until they came to the kitchen did she realize that he had a +companion. At sight of Barter, who rose respectfully when she +entered, she checked, turned to Dunne, and whispered something, +to which his answer provoked from her a laugh. + +Now Barter, intrigued by this whispering and laughing, of which he +deemed himself the object, questioned Dunne upon it as they rode +forth again together. + +"She asked me if you knew aught of the business," replied Dunne; +"and I answered 'No."' + +"Business, say'st thou?" quoth Barter. "What business?" + +"Sure, the business on which we came," Dunne evaded; and he laughed. + +It was an answer that left Barter uneasy. Nor was his mind set at +rest by the parting words with which Dunne accompanied the half-crown +for his services. + +"This is but an earnest of what's to come if you will meet me here +on Tuesday to show me the way to Moyle's Court again. I shall be +bringing two gentlemen with me - wealthy men, of a half-score +thousand pounds a year apiece. I tell you there will be a fine +booty for my part, so fine that I shall never want for money again +all the days of my life. And, so that you meet us here, you too +may count upon a handsome reward." + +Consenting, Barter went his ways home. But as he pondered Dunne's +silly speech, and marvelled that honest men should pay so +disproportionately for an honest service, he came to the reasonable +conclusion that he had to do with rebels. This made him so uneasy +that he resolved at last to lodge information with the nearest +justice. + +Now, it happened, by the irony of Fate, that the justice sought by +Barter was one Colonel Penruddock - the vindictive son of that +Penruddock whom the late John Lisle - whilst Lord President of the +High Court - had sentenced to death some thirty years ago for +participation in an unsuccessful Wiltshire rising against the +Commonwealth. + +The colonel, a lean, stark man of forty-five, heard with interest +Barter's story. + +"Art an honest fellow!" he commended him. "What are the names of +these rogues?" + +"The fellow named no names, sir." + +"Well, well, we shall discover that for ourselves when we come to +take them at this trysting-place. Whither do you say you are to +conduct them?" + +"To Moyle's Court, sir, where my Lady Lisle is to give them +entertainment." + +The colonel stared a moment; then a heavy smile came to light the +saturnine face under the heavy periwig. Beyond that he gave no +sign of what was passing in his mind. + +"You may go," he said slowly, at last. "Be sure we shall be at the +tryst to take these rascals." + +But the colonel did not keep his promise. To Barter's surprise, +there were no soldiers at the tryst on Salisbury Plain on the +following Tuesday; and he was suffered to lead Dunne and the two +men with him the short, corpulent Mr. Hicks and the long, lean +Nelthorp - to Moyle's Court without interference. + +The rich reward that Dunne had promised him amounted in actual fact +to five shillings, that he had from Nelthorpe at parting. Puzzled +by Colonel Penruddock's failure to do his part, Barter went off at +once to the colonel's house to inform him that the pair were now at +Lady Lisle's. + +"Why, that is very well," said the colonel, his smile more sinister +than ever. "Trouble not yourself about that." + +And Barter, the unreasoning instrument of Fate, was not to know that +the apprehending of a couple of traitorous Jack Presbyters was of +small account to Colonel Penruddock by comparison with the +satisfaction of the blood-feud between himself and the House of +Lisle. + +Meanwhile the fugitives were being entertained at Moyle's Court, +and whilst they sat at supper in a room above-stairs, Dunne being +still of the party, my lady came in person to see that they had all +that they required, and stayed a little while in talk with them. +There was some mention of Monmouth and the battle of Sedgemoor, +which was natural, that being the topic of the hour. + +My lady asked no questions at the time regarding Hicks's long, lean +companion. But it occurred to her later that perhaps she should +know more about him. Early next morning, therefore, she sent for +Hicks as he was in the act of sitting down to breakfast, and by her +direct questions elicited from him that this companion was that +Richard Nelthorp outlawed for his share in the Rye House Plot. Not +only was the information alarming, but it gave her a sense that she +had not been dealt with fairly, as indeed she told him. + +"You will see, sir," she concluded, "that you cannot bide here. So +long as I thought it was on the score of Nonconformity alone that +you were suffering persecution, I was willing to take some risk in +hiding you. But since your friend is what he is, the risk is greater +than I should be asked to face, for my own sake and for that of my +daughters. Nor can I say that I have ever held plottings and civil +war in anything but abhorrence - as much in the old days as now. I +am a loyal woman, and as a loyal woman I must bid you take your +friend hence as soon as your fast is broken." + +The corpulent and swarthy Hicks stood dejectedly before her. He +might have pleaded, but at that moment there came a loud knocking +at the gates below, and instantly Carpenter flung into the room +with a white, scared face and whirling gestures. + +"Soldiers, my lady!" he panted in affright. "We have been betrayed. +The presence of Mr. Hicks here is known. What shall we do? What +shall we do?" + +She stood quite still, her countenance entirely unchanged, unless +it were to smile a little upon Carpenter's terror. The mercy of her +nature rose dominant now. + +"Why, we must hide these poor fellows as best we can," said she; +and Hicks flung down upon one knee to kiss her hand with +protestations that he would sooner be hanged than bring trouble +upon her house. + +But she insisted, calm and self-contained; and Carpenter carried +Hicks away to bestow him, together with Dunne, in a hole in the +malt-house under a heap of sacking. Nelthorp had already vanished +completely on his own initiative. + +Meanwhile, the insistent knocking at the gate continued. Came +shouted demands to open in the name of the King, until from a window +my lady's daughters looked out to challenge those who knocked. + +Colonel Penruddock, who had come in person with the soldiers to raid +the house of his hereditary foe, stood forth to answer, very stiff +and brave in his scarlet coat and black plumed hat. + +"You have rebels in the house," he announced, "and I require you +in the King's name to deliver them up to me." + +And then, before they could answer him, came Carpenter to, unbar +the door, and admit them to the court. Penruddock, standing +squarely before the steward, admonished him very sternly. + +"Friend," said he, "you had best be ingenuous with me and discover +who are in your lady's house, for it is within my knowledge that +some strangers came hither last night." + +The stricken Carpenter stood white-faced and trembling. + +"Sir - sir -" he faltered. + +But the colonel was impatient. + +"Come, come, my friend. Since I know they are here, there's an end +on't. Show me where they are hid if you would save your own neck +from the halter." + +It was enough for Carpenter. The pair in the malthouse might have +eluded all search but for the steward's pusillanimity. Incontinently, +he betrayed the hiding-place. + +"But, sir, of your charity do not tell my mistress that I have told +you. Pray, sir - " + +Penruddock brushed him aside as if he had been a pestering fly, and +with his men went in, and straight to the spot where Hicks and Dunne +were lurking. When he had taken them, he swung round on Carpenter, +who had followed. + +"These be but two," he said, "and to my knowledge three rogues came +hither last night. No shufing with me, rascal. Where have you +bestowed the other?" + +"I swear, as Heaven's my witness, I do not know where he is," +protested the afflicted steward, truly enough. + +Penruddock turned to his men. + +"Make search," he bade them; and search was made in the ruthless +manner of such searches. + +The brutal soldiers passed from room to room beating the wainscoting +with pike and musket-butts, splintering and smashing heedlessly. +Presses were burst open and their contents scattered; chests were +broken into and emptied, the searchers appropriating such objects +as took their fancy, with true military cynicism. A mirror was +shattered, and some boards of the floor were torn up because a +sergeant conceived that the blows of his halbert rang hollow. + +When the tumult was at its height, came her ladyship at last into +the room, where Colonel Penruddock stood watching the operations of +his men. She stood in the doorway leaning upon her ebony cane, her +faded eyes considering the gaunt soldier with reproachful question. + +"Sir," she asked him with gentle irony, masking her agitation, "has +my house been given over to pillage?" + +He bowed, doffing his plumed hat with an almost excessive courtesy. + +"To search, madame," he corrected her. And added: "In the King's +name." + +"The King," she answered, "may give you authority to search my +house, but not to plunder it. Your men are robbing and destroying." + +He shrugged. It was the way of soldiers. Fine manners, he +suggested, were not to be expected of their kind. And he harangued +her upon the wrong she had done in harbouring rebels and giving +entertainment to the King's enemies. + +"That is not true," said she. "I know of no King's enemies." + +He smiled darkly upon her from his great height. She was so frail +a body and so old that surely it was not worth a man's while to +sacrifice her on the altar of revenge. But not so thought Colonel +Penruddock. Therefore he smiled. + +"Two of them, a snivelling Jack Presbyter named Hicks and a rascal +named Dunne, are taken already. Pray, madame, be so free and +ingenuous with me aye, and so kind to yourself - as if there be any +other person concealed in your house - and I am sure there is +somebody else - to deliver him up, and you shall come to no further +trouble." + +She looked up at him, and returned him smile for smile. + +"I know nothing," she said, "of what you tell me, or of what you +ask." + +His countenance hardened. + +"Then, mistress, the search must go on." + +But a shout from the adjoining room announced that it was at an end. +Nelthorp had been discovered and dragged from the chimney into which +he had crept. + +Almost exactly a month later - on August 27th the Lady Alice Lisle +was brought to the bar of the court-house at Winchester upon a +charge of high treason. + +The indictment ran that secretly, wickedly, and traitorously she +did entertain, conceal, comfort, uphold, and maintain John Hicks, +knowing him to be a false traitor, against the duty of her allegiance +and against the peace of "our sovereign lord the King that now is." + +Demurely dressed in grey, the little white-haired lady calmly faced +the Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys and the four judges of oyer and +terminer who sat with him, and confidently made her plea of "Not +Guilty." + +It was inconceivable that Christian men should deal harshly with +her for a technical offence amounting to an act of Christian charity. +And the judge, sitting there in his robe of scarlet reversed with +ermine, looked a gentle, kindly man; his handsome, oval, youthful +face - Jeffreys was in his thirty-sixth year - set in the heavy +black periwig, was so pale that the mouth made a vivid line of +scarlet; and the eyes that now surveyed her were large and liquid +and compassionate, as it seemed to her. + +She was not to know that the pallor which gave him so interesting +an air, and the dark stains which lent his eyes that gentle +wistfulness, were the advertisements at once of the debauch that +had kept him from his bed until after two o'clock that morning and +of the inexorable disease that slowly gnawed away his life and +enraged him out of all humanity. + +And the confidence his gentle countenance inspired was confirmed +by the first words he had occasion to address to her. She had +interrupted counsel to the Crown when, in his opening address to +the jury - composed of some of the most considerable gentlemen of +Hampshire - he seemed to imply that she had been in sympathy with +Monmouth's cause. She was, of course, without counsel, and must +look herself to her defence. + +"My lord," she cried, "I abhorred that rebellion as much as any +woman in the world!" + +Jeffreys leaned forward with a restraining gesture. + +"Look you, Mrs. Lisle," he admonished her sweetly, "because we +must observe the common and usual methods of trial in your case I +must interrupt you now." And upon that he promised that she should +be fully heard in her own defence at the proper time, and that +himself he would instruct her in the forms of law to her advantage. +He reassured her by reverent allusions to the great Judge of Heaven +and Earth, in whose sight they stood, that she should have justice. +"And as to what you say concerning yourself," he concluded, "I pray +God with all my heart you may be innocent." + +He was benign and reassuring. But she had the first taste of his +true quality in the examination of Dunne -- a most unwilling witness. + +Reluctantly, under the pressure put upon him, did Dunne yield up the +tale of how he had conducted the two absconders to my lady's house +with her consent, and it was sought to prove that she was aware of +their connection with the rebellion. The stubbornly evasive Dunne +was asked at last: + +"Do you believe that she knew Mr. Hicks before?" + +He returned the answer that already he had returned to many +questions of the sort. + +"I cannot tell truly." + +Jeffreys stirred in his scarlet robes, and his wistful eyes grew +terrible as they bent from under beetling brows upon the witness. + +"Why," he asked, "dost thou think that she would entertain any one +she had no knowledge of merely upon thy message? Mr. Dunne, Mr. +Dunne! Have a care. It may be more is known to me of this matter +than you think for." + +"My lord, I speak nothing but the truth!" bleated the terrified +Dunne. + +"I only bid you have a care," Jeffreys smiled; and his smile was +more terrible than his frown. "Truth never wants a subterfuge; it +always loves to appear naked; it needs no enamel nor any covering. +But lying and snivelling and canting and Hicksing always appear in +masquerade. Come, go on with your evidence." + +But Dunne was reluctant to go on, and out of his reluctance he lied +foolishly, and pretended that both Hicks and Nelthorp were unknown +to him. When pressed to say why he should have served two men whom +he had never seen before, he answered: + +"All the reason that induced me to it was that they said they were +men in debt, and desired to be concealed for a while." + +Then the thunder was heard in Jeffreys' voice. + +"Dost thou believe that any one here believes thee? Prithee, what +trade art thou?" + +"My lord," stammered the unfortunate, "I - I am a baker by trade." + +"And wilt thou bake thy bread at such easy rates? Upon my word, +then, thou art very kind. Prithee, tell me. I believe thou dost +use to bake on Sundays, dost thou not?" + +"No, my lord, I do not!" cried Dunne indignantly. + +"Alackaday! Art precise in that," sneered the judge. "But thou +canst travel on Sundays to lead rogues into lurking-holes." + +Later, when to implicate the prisoner, it was sought to draw from +Dunne a full account of the reception she had given his companions, +his terror under the bullying to which he was subjected made him +contradict himself more flagrantly than ever. Jeffreys addressed +the jury. + +"You see, gentlemen, what a precious fellow this is; a very pretty +tool to be employed upon such an errand; a knave that nobody would +trust for half a crown. A Turk has more title to an eternity of +bliss than these pretenders to Christianity." + +And as there was no more to be got from Dunne just then, he was +presently dismissed, and Barter's damning evidence was taken. +Thereafter the wretched Dunne was recalled, to be bullied by Jeffreys +in blasphemous terms that may not be printed here. + +Barter had told the Court how my lady had come into the kitchen with +Dunne, and how, when he had afterwards questioned Dunne as to why +they had whispered and laughed together, Dunne told him she had asked +"If he knew aught of the business." Jeffreys sought now to wring +from Dunne what was this business to which he had so mysteriously +alluded - this with the object of establishing Lady Lisle's knowledge +of Hicks's treason. + +Dunne resisted more stubbornly than ever. Jeffreys, exasperated - +since without the admission it would be difficult to convict her +ladyship --invited the jury to take notice of the strange, horrible +carriage of the fellow, and heaped abuse upon the snivelling, canting +sect of which he was a member. Finally, he reminded Dunne of his +oath to tell the truth, and addressed him with a sort of loving +ferocity. + +"What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own +soul?" bellowed that terrible judge, his eyes aflame. "Is not this +the voice of Scripture itself? And wilt thou hazard so dear and +precious a thing as thy soul for a lie? Thou wretch! All the +mountains and hills of the world heaped upon one another will not +cover thee from the vengeance of the Great God for this transgression +of false-witness bearing." + +"I cannot tell what to say, my lord," gasped Dunne. + +In his rage to see all efforts vain, the judge's language became +that of the cockpit. Recovering at last, he tried gentleness again, +and very elaborately invited Dunne, in my lady's own interest, to +tell him what was the business to which he had referred to Barter. + +"She asked me whether I did not know that Hicks was a Nonconformist." + +"That cannot be all. There must be something more in it." + +"Yes, my lord," Dunne protested, "it is all. I know nothing more." + +"Was there ever such an impudent rascal?" roared the judge. "Dolt +think that, after all the pains I have been at to get an answer, +thou canst banter me with such sham stuff as this? Hold the candle +to his brazen face, that we may see it clearly." + +Dunne stood terrified and trembling under the glance of those +terrible eyes. + +"My lord," he cried, "I am so baulked, I am cluttered out of my +senses." + +Again he was put down whilst Colonel Penruddock gave his evidence +of the apprehension of the rebels. When he had told how he found +Hicks and Dunne concealed under some stuff in the malt-house, +Dunne was brought back yet again, that Jeffreys might resume his +cross-examination. + +"Dunne, how came you to hide yourself in the malthouse?" + +"My lord," said Dunne foolishly, "I was frighted by the noise." + +"Prithee, what needest thou be afraid of, for thou didst not know +Hicks nor Nelthorp; and my lady only asked thee whether Hicks were +a Nonconformist parson. Surely, so very innocent a soul needed +no occasion to be afraid. I doubt there was something in the case +of that business we were talking of before. If we could but get +out of thee what it was." + +But Dunne continued to evade. + +"My lord, I heard a great noise in the house, and did not know what +it meant. So I went and hid myself." + +"It is very strange thou shouldst hide thyself for a little noise, +when thou knewest nothing of the business." + +Again the witness, with a candle still held close to his nose, +complained that he was quite cluttered out of his senses, and did +not know what he was saying. + +"But to tell the truth would not rob thee of any of thy senses, if +ever thou hadst any," Jeffreys told him angrily. "But it would +seem that neither thou nor thy mistress, the prisoner, had any; for +she knew nothing of it either, though she had sent for them thither." + +"My lord," cried her ladyship at that, "I hope I shall not be +condemned without being heard." + +"No, God forbid, Mrs. Lisle," he answered; and then viciously +flashed forth a hint of the true forces of Nemesis at work against +her. "That was a sort of practice in your late husband's time - +you know very well what I mean - but God be thanked it is not so +now." + +Came next the reluctant evidence of Carpenter and his wife, and +after that there was yet a fourth equally futile attempt to drag +from Dunne an admission that her ladyship was acquainted with +Hicks's share in the rebellion. But if stupid, Dunne at least was +staunch, and so, with a wealth of valedictory invective, Jeffreys +dismissed him, and addressed at last the prisoner, inviting her to +speak in her own defence. + +She rose to do so, fearlessly yet gently. + +"My lord, what I have to say is this. I knew of nobody's coming +to my house but Mr. Hicks, and for him I was informed that he did +abscond by reason of warrants that were out against him for +preaching in private meetings; for that reason I sent to him to +come by night. But I had never heard that Nelthorp was to come +with him, nor what name Nelthorp had till after he had come to my +house. I could die upon it. As for Mr. Hicks, I did not in the +least suspect that he had been in the army, being a Presbyterian +minister that used to preach and not to fight." + +"But I will tell you," Jeffreys interrupted her, "that there is not +one of those lying, snivelling, canting Presbyterian rascals but +one way or the other had a hand in the late horrid conspiracy and +rebellion." + +"My lord, I abhorred both the principles and the practices of the +late rebellion," she protested; adding that if she had been tried +in London, my Lady Abergavenny and many other persons of quality +could have testified with what detestation she had spoken of the +rebellion, and that she had been in London until Monmouth had been +beheaded. + +"If I had known the time of my trial in the country," she pursued, +"I could have had the testimony of those persons of honour for me. +But, my lord, I have been told, and so I thought it would have been, +that I should not have been tried for harbouring Mr. Hicks until he +should himself be convict as a traitor. I did abhor those that were +in the plot and conspiracy against the King. I know my duty to my +King better, and have always exercised it. I defy anybody in the +world that ever knew contrary to come and give testimony." + +His voice broke harshly upon the pause. "Have you any more to say?" + +"As to what they say to my denying Nelthorp to be in the house," she +resumed. "I was in very great consternation and fear of the +soldiers, who were very rude and violent. I beseech your lordship +to make that construction of it, and not harbour an ill opinion of +me because of those false reports that go about of me, relating to +my carriage towards the old King, that I was anyways consenting to +the death of King Charles I; for, my lord, that is as false as God +is true. I was not out of my chamber all the day in which that king +was beheaded, and I believe I shed more tears for him than any other +woman then living. + +"And I do repeat it, my lord, as I hope to attain salvation, I never +did know Nelthorp, nor did I know of anybody's coming but Mr. Hicks. +Him I knew to be a Nonconformist minister, and there being, as is +well known, warrants out to apprehend all Nonconformist ministers, +I was willing to give him shelter from these warrants, which I knew +was no treason." + +"Have you any more to say for yourself?" he asked her. + +"My lord," she was beginning, "I came but five days before this into +the country." + +"Nay," he broke in, "I cannot tell when you came into the country, +nor I don't care. It seems you came in time to harbour rebels." + +She protested that if she would have ventured her life for anything, +it would have been to serve the King. + +"But, though I could not fight for him myself, my son did; he was +actually in arms on the King's side in this business. It was I that +bred him in loyalty and to fight for the King." + +"Well, have you done?" he asked her brutally. + +"Yes, my lord," she answered; and resumed her seat, trembling a +little from the exertion and emotion of her address. + +His charge to the jury began. It was very long, and the first half +of it was taken up with windy rhetoric in which the Almighty was +invoked at every turn. It degenerated at one time into a sermon +upon the text of "render unto Caesar," inveighing against the +Presbyterian religion. And the dull length of his lordship's +periods, combined with the monotone in which he spoke, lulled the +wearied lady at the bar into slumber. She awakened with a start +when suddenly his fist crashed down and his voice rose in fierce +denunciation of the late rebellion. But she was dozing again - so +calm and so little moved was she - before he had come to apply his +denunciations to her own case, and this in spite of all her protests +that she had held the rebellion in abhorrence. + +It was all calculated to prejudice the minds of the jurymen before +he came to the facts and the law of the case. And that charge of +his throughout, far from being a judicial summing-up, was a virulent +address for the prosecution, just as his bearing hitherto in +examining and cross-examining witnesses had been that of counsel +for the Crown. The statement that she had made in her own defence +he utterly ignored, save in one particular, where he saw his +opportunity further to prejudice her case. + +"I am sorry," he said, his face lengthening, "to remember something +that dropped even from the gentlewoman herself. She pretends to +religion and loyalty very much - how greatly she wept at the death +of King Charles the Martyr - and owns her great obligations to the +late king and his royal brother. And yet no sooner is one in the +grave than she forgets all gratitude and entertains those that were +rebels against his royal successor. + +"I will not say," he continued with deliberate emphasis, "what hand +her husband had in the death of that blessed martyr; she has enough +to answer for her own guilt; and I must confess that it ought not, +one way or other, to make any ingredient into this case what she was +in former times." + +But he had dragged it in, protesting that it should not influence +the case, yet coldly, calculatingly intending it to do so. She was +the widow of a regicide, reason and to spare in the views of himself +and his royal master why she should be hounded to her death upon any +pretext. + +Thereafter he reviewed the evidence against her, dwelt upon the +shuffling of Dunne, deduced that the reason for so much lying was +to conceal the damning truth - namely, that she knew Hicks for a +rebel when she gave him shelter, and thus became the partner of his +horrible guilt. Upon that he charged them to find their verdict +"without any consideration of persons, but considering only the +truth." + +Nevertheless, although his commands were clear, some of the jury +would seem to have feared the God whom Jeffreys invoked so +constantly. One of them rose to ask him pertinently, in point of +law, whether it was treason to have harboured Hicks before the man +had been convicted of treason. + +Curtly he answered them that beyond doubt it was, and upon that +assurance the jury withdrew, the Court settled down into an expectant +silence, and her ladyship dozed again in her chair. + +The minutes passed. It was growing late, and Jeffreys was eager to +be done with this prejudged affair, that he might dine in peace. +His voice broke the stillness of the court, protesting his angry +wonder at the need to deliberate in so plain a case. He was +threatening to adjourn and let the jury lie by all night if they +did not bring in their verdict quickly. When, at the end of a +half-hour, they returned, his fierce, impatient glance found them +ominously grave. + +"My lord," said Mr. Whistler, the foreman, "we have to beg of your +lordship some directions before we can bring our verdict. We have +some doubt upon us whether there be sufficient proof that she knew +Hicks to have been in the army." + +Well might they doubt it, for there was no proof at all. Yet he +never hesitated to answer them. + +"There is as full proof as proof can be. But you are judges of the +proof. For my part, I thought there was no difficulty in it." + +"My lord," the foreman insisted, "we are in some doubt about it." + +"I cannot help your doubts," he said irritably. "Was there not +proved a discourse of the battle and of the battle and of the army +at supper-time?" + +"But, my lord, we are not satisfied that she had notice that Hicks +was in the army." + +He glowered upon them in silence for a moment. They deserved to +be themselves indicted for their slowness to perceive where lay +their duty to their king. + +"I cannot tell what would satisfy you," he said; and sneered. "Did +she not inquire of Dunne whether Hicks had been in the army? And +when he told her he did not know, she did not say she would refuse +if he had been, but ordered him to come by night, by which it is +evident she suspected it." + +He ignored, you see, her own complete explanation of that +circumstance. + +"And when Hicks and Nelthorp came, did she not discourse with them +about the battle and the army?" (As if that were not at the time +a common topic of discussion.) "Come, come, gentlemen," he said, +with amazing impudence, "it is plain proof." + +But Mr. Whistler was not yet satisfied. + +"We do not remember, my lord, that it was proved that she asked any +such question." + +That put him in a passion. + +"Sure," he bellowed, "you do not remember anything that has passed. +Did not Dunne tell you there was such a discourse, and she was by? +But if there were no such proof, the circumstances and management +of the thing are as full proof as can be. I wonder what it is you +doubt of!" + +Mrs. Lisle had risen. There was a faint flush of excitement on her +grey old face. + +"My lord, I hope - " she began, in trembling tones, to get no further. + +"You must not speak now!" thundered her terrible judge; and thus +struck her silent. + +The brief resistance to his formidable will was soon at an end. +Within a quarter of an hour the jury announced their verdict. They +found her guilty. + +"Gentlemen," said his lordship, "I did not think I should have +occasion to speak after your verdict, but, finding some hesitancy +and doubt among you, I cannot but say I wonder it should come about; +for I think, in my conscience, the evidence was as full and plain +as it could be, and if I had been among you, and she had been my +own mother, I should have found her guilty." + +She was brought up for sentence on the morrow, together with several +others subsequently convicted. Amid fresh invectives against the +religion she practised, he condemned her to be burned alive - which +was the proper punishment for high treason - ordering the sheriff +to prepare for her execution that same afternoon. + +"But look you, Mrs. Lisle," he added, "we that are the judges shall +stay in town an hour or two. You shall have pen, ink, and paper, +and if, in the mean time, you employ that pen, ink, and paper and +that hour or two well - you understand what I mean it may be that +you shall hear further from us in a deferring of this execution." + +What was this meaning that he assumed she understood? Jeffreys had +knowledge of Kirke's profitable traffic in the West, and it is known +that he spared no means of acquiring an estate suitable to his rank +which he did not possess by way of patrimony. Thus cynically he +invited a bribe. + +It is the only inference that explains the subsequent rancour he +displayed against her, aroused by her neglect to profit by his +suggestions. The intercession of the divines of Winchester +procured her a week's reprieve, and in that week her puissant +friends in London, headed by the Earl of Abergavenny, petitioned +the King on her behalf. Even Feversham, the victor of Sedgemoor, +begged her life of the King - bribed to it, as men say, by an offer +of a thousand pounds. But the King withheld his mercy upon the +plea that he had promised Lord Jeffreys he would not reprieve her, +and the utmost clemency influential petitions could wring from +James II was that she should be beheaded instead of burned. + +She suffered in the market-place of Winchester on September 2d. +Christian charity was all her sin, and for this her head was +demanded in atonement. She yielded it with a gentle fortitude and +resolution. In lieu of speech, she left with the sheriff a pathetic +document wherein she protests her innocence of all offence against +the King, and forgives her enemies specifically - the judge, who +prejudiced her case, and forgot that "the Court should be counsel +for the prisoner," and Colonel Penruddock, "though he told me he +could have taken those men before they came to my house." + +Between those lines you may read the true reason why the Lady Alice +Lisle died. She died to slake the cruelly vindictive thirst of +King James II on the one hand, and Colonel Penruddock on the other, +against her husband who had been dead for twenty years. + + + + +V. THE NIGHT OF MASSACRE + +THE STORY OF THE SAINT BARTHOLOMEW + + +There are elements of mystery about the massacre of Saint Bartholomew +over which, presumably, historians will continue to dispute as long +as histories are written. Indeed, it is largely of their disputes +that the mystery is begotten. Broadly speaking, these historians +may be divided into two schools - Catholic and anti-Catholic. The +former have made it their business to show that the massacre was +purely a political affair, having no concern with religion; the +latter have been equally at pains to prove it purely an act of +religious persecution having no concern with politics. Those who +adopt the latter point of view insist that the affair was long +premeditated, that it had its source in something concerted some +seven years earlier between Catherine of Medicis and the sinister +Duke of Alva. And they would seem to suggest that Henry of Navarre, +the nominal head of the Protestant party, was brought to Paris to +wed Marguerite de Valois merely so that by this means the Protestant +nobles of the kingdom, coming to the capital for the wedding, should +be lured to their destruction. + +It does not lie within the purview of the present narrative to enter +into a consideration of the arguments of the two schools, nor will +it be attempted. + +But it may briefly be stated that the truth lies probably in a +middle course of reasoning - that the massacre was political in +conception and religious in execution; or, in other words, that +statecraft deliberately made use of fanaticism as of a tool; that +the massacre was brought about by a sudden determination begotten +of opportunity which is but another word for Chance. + +Against the theory of premeditation the following cardinal facts +may be urged: + +(a) The impossibility of guarding for seven years a secret that +several must have shared; + +(b) The fact that neither Charles IX nor his mother Catherine were +in any sense bigoted Catholics, or even of a normal religious +sincerity. + +(c) The lack of concerted action - so far as the kingdom generally +was concerned - in the execution of the massacre. + +A subsidiary disproof lies in the attempted assassination of Coligny +two days before the massacre, an act which might, by putting the +Huguenots on their guard, have caused the miscarriage of the entire +plan - had it existed. + +It must be borne in mind that for years France had been divided by +religious differences into two camps, and that civil war between +Catholic and Huguenot had ravaged and distracted the country. At +the head of the Protestant party stood that fine soldier Gaspard +de Chatillon, Admiral de Coligny, virtually the Protestant King of +France, a man who raised armies, maintaining them by taxes levied +upon Protestant subjects, and treated with Charles IX as prince +with prince. At the head of the Catholic party - the other +imperium in imperio - stood the Duke of Guise. The third and +weakest party in the State, serving, as it seemed, little purpose +beyond that of holding the scales between the other turbulent two, +was the party of the King. + +The motives and events that precipitated the massacre are set forth +in the narration of the King's brother, the Duke of Anjou +(afterwards Henri III). It was made by him to Miron, his physician +and confidential servant in Cracow, when he ruled there later as +King of Poland, under circumstances which place it beyond suspicion +of being intended to serve ulterior aims. For partial corroboration, +and for other details of the massacre itself, we have the narratives, +among others, of Sully, who was then a young man in the train of the +King of Navarre, and of Lusignan, a gentleman of the Admiral's +household. We shall closely follow these in our reconstruction of +the event and its immediate causes. + +The gay chatter of the gallants and ladies thronging the long +gallery of the Louvre sank and murmured into silence, and a movement +was made to yield a free passage to the King, who had suddenly made +his appearance leaning affectionately upon the shoulder of the +Admiral de Coligny. + +The Duke of Anjou, a slender, graceful young man in a +gold-embroidered suit of violet, forgot the interest he was taking +in his beautiful hands to bend lower over the handsome Madame de +Nemours what time the unfriendly eyes of both were turned upon the +Admiral. + +The King and the great Huguenot leader came slowly down the gallery, +an oddly contrasting pair. Coligny would have been the taller by +a half-head but for his stoop, yet in spite of it there was energy +and military vigour in his carriage, just as there was a severe +dignity amounting to haughtiness in his scarred and wrinkled +countenance. A bullet that had pierced his cheek and broken three +of his teeth at the battle of Moncontour had left a livid scar that +lost itself in his long white beard. His forehead was high and +bald, and his eyes were of a steely keenness under their tufted +brows. He was dressed with Calvinistic simplicity entirely in +black, and just as this contrasted with the King's suit of +sulphur-coloured satin, so did the gravity of his countenance +contrast with the stupidity of his sovereign's. + +Charles IX, a slimly built young man in his twenty-fourth year, was +of a pallid, muddy complexion, with great, shifty, greenish eyes, +and a thick, pendulous nose. The protruding upper lip of his long, +thin mouth gave him an oafish expression, which was increased by +his habit of carrying his head craned forward. + +His nature was precisely what you would have expected from his +appearance - dull and gross. He was chiefly distinguished among +men of birth for general obscenity of speech and morphological +inventiveness in blasphemy. + +At the end of the gallery Coligny stooped to kiss the royal hand in +leave-taking. With his other hand Charles patted the Admiral's +shoulder. + +"Count me your friend," he said, "body and soul, heart and bowels, +even as I count you mine. Fare you well, my father." + +Coligny departed, and the King retraced his steps, walking quickly, +his head hunched between his shoulders, his baleful eyes looking +neither to left nor right. As he passed out, the Duke of Anjou +quitted the side of Madame de Nemours, and went after him. Then +at last the suspended chatter of the courtiers broke loose again. + +The King was pacing his cabinet - a simple room furnished with a +medley of objects appertaining to study, to devotion, and to hunting. +A large picture of the Virgin hung from a wall flanked on either +side by an arquebus, and carrying a hunting-horn on one of its upper +corners. A little alabaster holy-water font near the door, crowned +by a sprig of palm, seemed to serve as a receptacle for hawk-bells +and straps. There was a writing-table of beautifully carved walnut +near the leaded window, littered with books and papers - a treatise +on hunting lay cheek by jowl with a Book of Hours; a string of +rosary beads and a dog-whip lay across an open copy of Ronsard's +verses. The King was quite the vilest poetaster of his day. + +Charles looked over his shoulder as his brother entered. The scowl +on his face deepened when he saw who came, and with a grunt he +viciously kicked the liver-coloured hound that lay stretched at +his feet. The hound fled yelping to a corner, the Duke checked, +startled, in his advance. + +"Well?" growled the King. "Well? Am I never to have peace? Am I +never to be alone? What now? Bowels of God! What do you want?" + +His green eyes smouldered, his right hand opened and closed on the +gold hilt of the dagger at his girdle: + +Scared by the maniac ferocity of this reception, the young Duke +precipitately withdrew. + +"It is nothing. Another time, since I disturb you now." He bowed +and vanished, followed by an evil, cackling laugh. + +Anjou knew how little his brother loved him, and he confesses how +much he feared him in that moment. But under his fear it is obvious +that there was lively resentment. He went straight in quest of his +mother, whose darling he was, to bear her the tale of the King's +mood, and what he accounted, no doubt rightly, the cause of it. + +"It is the work of that pestilential Huguenot admiral," he +announced, at the end of a long tirade, "It is always thus with him +after he has seen Coligny." + +Catherine of Medicis considered. She was a fat, comfortable woman, +with a thick nose, pinched lips, and sleepy eyes. + +"Charles," she said at length, in her monotonous, emotionless voice, +"is a weathercock that turns with every wind that blows upon him. +You should know him by now." And she yawned, so that one who did +not know her and her habit of perpetually yawning might have +supposed that she was but indifferently interested. + +They were alone together in the intimate little tapestried room she +called her oratory. She half sat, half reclined upon a couch of +rose brocade. Anjou stood over by the window, his back to it, so +that his pale face was in shadow. He considered his beautiful hands, +which he was reluctant to lower, lest the blood should flow into +them and mar their white perfection. + +"The Admiral's influence over him is increasing," he complained, +"and he uses it to lessen our own." + +"Do I not know it?" came her dull voice. + +"It is time to end it," said Anjou passionately, "before he ends us. +Your influence grows weaker every day and the Admiral's stronger. +Charles begins to take sides with him against us. We shall have +him a tool of the Huguenot party before all is done. Ah, mon Dieu! +You should have seen him leaning upon the shoulder of that old +parpaillot, calling him 'my father,' and protesting himself his +devoted friend 'body and soul, heart and bowels,' in his own words. +And when I seek him afterwards, he scowls and snarls at me, and +fingers his dagger as if he would have it in my throat. It is +plain to see upon what subject the old scoundrel entertained him." +And again he repeated, more fiercely than before: "It is time to +end it!" + +"I know," she said, ever emotionless before so much emotion. "And +it shall be ended. The old assassin should have been hanged years +ago for guiding the hand that shot Francois de Guise. Daily he +becomes a greater danger, to Charles, to ourselves, and to France. +He is embroiling us with Spain through this Huguenot army he is +raising to go and fight the battles of Calvinism in Flanders. A +fine thing that. Ah, per Dio!" For a moment her voice was a +little warmed and quickened. "Catholic France at war with Catholic +Spain for the sake of Huguenot Flanders!" She laughed shortly. +Then her voice reverted to its habitual sleepy level. "You are +right. It is time to end it. Coligny is the head of this +rebellious beast. If we cut off the head, perhaps the beast will +perish. We will consult the Duke of Guise." She yawned again. +"Yes, the Duke of Guise will be ready to lend us his counsel and +his aid. Decidedly we must get rid of the Admiral." + +That was on Monday, August 18th of that year 1572, and such was the +firm purpose and energy of that fat and seemingly sluggish woman, +that within two days all necessary measures were taken, and +Maurevert, the assassin, was at his post in the house of Vilaine, +in the Cloisters of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, procured for the +purpose by Madame de Nemours, who bore the Admiral a mortal hatred. + +It was not, however, until the following Friday that Maurevert was +given the opportunity of carrying out the task to which he had been +hired. On that morning, as the Admiral was passing, accompanied +by a few gentlemen of his household, returning from the Louvre to +his house in the Rue Betisy, the assassin did his work. There was +a sudden arquebusade from a first-floor window, and a bullet smashed +two fingers of the Admiral's right hand, and lodged itself in the +muscles of his left arm. + +With his maimed and bleeding hand he pointed to the window whence +the shot had been fired, bidding his gentlemen to force a way into +the house and take the assassin. But whilst they were breaking in +at the front, Maurevert was making his escape by the back, where a +horse waited for him, and, though pursued, he was never overtaken. + +News of the event was instantly borne to the King. It found him at +tennis with the Duke of Guise and the Admiral's son-in-law, Teligny. + +"In this assassin's work, Sire," said the blunt gentleman whom +Coligny had sent, "the Admiral desires you to see the proof of the +worth of the agreement between himself and Monsieur de Guise that +followed upon the treaty of peace of Saint-Germain." + +The Duke of Guise drew himself stiffly up, but said no word. The +King, livid with rage, looked at him balefully a moment, then to +vent some of his fury he smashed his racket against the wall. + +"God's Blood!" he cried, mouthing horribly. "Am I then never to +have rest?" He flung away the broken remnants of his racket, and +went out cursing. Questioning the messenger further, he learnt +that the shot had been fired from the house of Vilaine, a sometime +tutor to the Duke of Guise, and that the horse upon which the +assassin had fled had been held for him by a groom in the Guise +livery. + +Meanwhile the Duke and Monsieur de Teligny had gone their ways with +no word spoken between them - Guise to shut himself up in his hotel +and assemble his friends, Teligny to repair at once to his +father-in-law. + +At two o'clock in the afternoon, in response to an urgent request +from the Admiral, the King went to visit him, accompanied by the +Queen-Mother, by his brothers Anjou and Alencon, and a number of +officers and courtiers. The royal party saw nothing of the +excitement which had been prevailing in the city ever since the +morning's event, an excitement which subsided at their approach. +The King was gloomy, resentful, and silent, having so far refused +to discuss the matter with any one, denying audience even to his +mother. Catherine and Anjou were vexed by the miscarriage of the +affair, anxious and no less silent than the King. + +They found the Admiral awaiting them, calm and composed. The +famous Ambroise Pare had amputated the two broken fingers, and had +dealt with the wound in the arm. But although Coligny might be +considered to have escaped lightly, and not to be in any danger, a +rumour was abroad that the bullet was poisoned; and neither the +Admiral nor his people seem to have rejected the possibility. One +suspects, indeed, that capital was made out of it. It was felt, +perhaps, that thus should the Admiral maintain a greater influence +with the King. For in any uncertainty as to whether Coligny would +live or die, the King's feelings must be more deeply stirred than +if he knew that the wound carried no peril to life. + +Followed closely by his mother and his brothers, Charles swept +through the spacious ante-chamber, thronged now with grim-faced, +resentful Huguenot gentlemen, and so entered the room where Coligny +reclined upon a day bed near the window. The Admiral made shift +to rise, but this the King hurried forward to prevent. + +"Rest yourself, my dear father!" he cried, in accents of deep +concern. "Heart of God! What is this they have done to you? +Assure me, at least, that your life is safe, or, by the Mass, I'll - " + +"I hold my life from God," the Admiral replied gravely, "and when He +requires it of me I will yield it up. That is nothing." + +"Nothing? God's Blood! Nothing? The hurt is yours, my father, but +the outrage mine; and I swear to you, by the Blood and the Death, +that I will take such a vengeance as shall never be forgotten!" + +Thereupon he fell into such a storm of imprecation and blasphemy +that the Admiral, a sincerely devout, God-fearing heretic, shuddered +to hear him. + +"Calm, Sire!" he begged at last, laying his sound hand upon the +King's velvet sleeve. " Be calm and listen, for it is not to speak +of myself, of these wounds, or of the wrong done me, that I have +presumed to beg you to visit me. This attempt to murder me is but +a sign of the evil that is stirring in France to sap your authority +and power. But - " He checked and looked at the three who stood +immediately behind the King. "What I have to say is, if you will +deign to listen, for your private ear." + +The King jerked round in a fashion peculiar to him; his every action +was abrupt and spasmodic. He eyed his mother and brothers shiftily. +It was beyond his power to look any one directly in the face. + +"Outside!" he commanded, waving an impatient hand almost in their +faces. "Do you hear? Leave me to talk with my father the Admiral." + +The young dukes fell back at once, ever in dread of provoking the +horrible displays of passion that invariably followed upon any +resistance of his feeble will. But the sluggish Catherine was not +so easily moved. + +"Is Monsieur de Coligny strong enough, do you think, to treat of +affairs at present? Consider his condition, I beg," she enjoined +in her level voice. + +"I thank you for your consideration, madame," said the Admiral, the +ghost of an ironic smile about his lips. "But I am strong enough, +thank God! And even though my strength were less than it is, it +would be more heavily taxed by the thought that I had neglected my +duty to His Majesty than it ever could be by the performance of that +duty." + +"Ha! You hear?" snapped the King. "Go, then; go!" + +They went, returning to the ante-chamber to wait until the audience +should conclude. The three stood there in the embrasure of a window +that looked out upon the hot, sunlit courtyard. There, as Anjou +himself tells us, they found themselves hemmed about by some two +hundred sullen, grim-faced gentlemen and officers of the Admiral's +party, who eyed them without dissembling their hostility, who +preserved a silence that was disturbed only by the murmurs of their +constant whisperings, and who moved to and fro before the royal +group utterly careless of the proper degree of deference and respect. + +Isolated thus in that hostile throng, Catherine and her sons became +more and more uneasy, so that, as the Queen-Mother afterwards +confessed, she was never in any place where her tarrying was attended +by so much fear, or her departure thence by so much pleasure. + +It was this fear that spurred her at last to put an end to that +secret conference in the room beyond. She did it in characteristic +manner. In the most complete outward composure, stifling a yawn as +she went, she moved deliberately across to the door, her sons +following, rapped shortly on the panel, and entered without waiting +to be bidden. + +The King, who was standing by the Admiral's side, wheeled sharply +at the sound of the opening door. His eyes blazed with sudden anger +when he beheld his mother, but she was the first to speak. + +"My son," she said, "I am concerned for the poor Admiral. He will +have the fever if you continue to permit him to weary himself with +affairs at present. It is not to treat him as a friend to prolong +this interview. Let business wait until he is recovered, which +will be the sooner if he is given rest at present." + +Coligny stroked his white beard in silence, while the King flared +out, striding towards her: + +"Par la Mort Dieu! What is this sudden concern for the Admiral?" + +"Not sudden, my son," she answered in her dull voice, her eyes +intent upon him, with something magnetic in their sleepy glance that +seemed to rob him of half his will. "None knows more accurately +than I the Admiral's precise, value to France." + +Anjou behind her may have smiled at that equivocal phrase. + +"God's Bowels! Am I King, or what am I?" + +"It ill becomes a king to abuse the strength of a poor wounded +subject," she returned, her eyes ever regarding him steadily. +"Come, Charles. Another day, when the Admiral shall have recovered +more fully, you may continue this discourse. Come now." + +His anger was subdued to mere sullenness, almost infantile in its +outward petulant expression. He attempted to meet her glance, and +he was completely lost. + +"Perhaps . . . Ah, Ventre Dieu, my mother is right! Let the matter +rest, then, my father. We will talk of it again as soon as you are +well." + +He stepped up to the couch, and held out his hand. + +Coligny took it, and his eyes looked up wistfully into the weak +young face of his King. + +"I thank you, Sire, for coming and for hearing me. Another day, if +I am spared, I may tell you more. Meanwhile, bear well in mind what +I have said already. I have no interests in this world but your +own, Sire." And he kissed the royal hand in farewell. + +Not until they were back in the Louvre did the Queen attempt to +break upon the King's gloomy abstraction, to learn - as learn she +must - the subject of the Admiral's confidential communication. + +Accompanied by Anjou, she sought him in his cabinet, nor would she +be denied. He sat at his writing-table, his head sunken between +his shoulders, his receding chin in his cupped palms. He glared at +the pair as they entered, swore savagely, and demanded their +business with him. + +Catherine sat down with massive calm. Anjou remained standing +beside and slightly behind her, leaning upon the back of her tall +chair. + +"My son," she said bluntly, "I have come to learn what passed +between you and Coligny." + +"What passed? What concern is that of yours?" + +"All your concerns are mine," she answered tranquilly. "I am your +mother." + +"And I am your king!" he answered, banging the table. "And I mean +to be king!" + +"By the grace of God and the favour of Monsieur de Coligny," she +sneered, with unruffled calm. + +"What's that?" His mouth fell open, and his eyes stared. A crimson +flush overspread his muddy complexion. "What's that?" + +Her dull glance met and held his own whilst calmly she repeated her +sneering words. + +"And that is why I have come to you," she added. "If you are unable +to rule without guidance, I must at least do what I can so that the +guidance shall not be that of a rebel, of one who guides you to the +end that he may master you." + +"Master me!" he screamed. He rose in his indignation and faced her. +But his glance, unable to support her steady eyes, faltered and fell +away. Foul oaths poured from his royal lips. "Master me!" he +repeated. + +"Aye - master you," she answered him. "Master you until the little +remnant of your authority shall have been sapped; until you are no +more than a puppet in the hands of the Huguenot party, a roi +faineant, a king of straw." + +"By God, madame, were you not my mother - " + +"It is because I am your mother that I seek to save you." + +He looked at her again, but again his glance faltered. He paced the +length of the room and back, mouthing and muttering. Then he came +to stand, leaning on the prie-dieu, facing her. + +"By God's Death, madame, since you demand to know what the Admiral +said, you shall. You prove to me that what he told me was no more +than true. He told me that a king is only recognized in France as +long as he is a power for good or ill over his subjects; that this +power, together with the management of all State affairs, is +slipping, by the crafty contrivances of yourself and Anjou there, +out of my hands into your own; that this power and authority which +you are both stealing from me may one day be used against me and my +kingdom. And he bade me be on my guard against you both and take +my measures. He gave me this counsel, madame, because he deemed it +his duty as one of my most loyal and faithful servants at the point +of death, and - " + +"The shameless hypocrite!" her dull, contemptuous voice interrupted +him. "At the point of death! Two broken fingers and a flesh-wound +in the arm and he represents himself as in articulo mortis that he +may play upon you, and make you believe his lies." + +Her stolidity of manner and her logic, ponderous and irresistible, +had their effect. His big, green eyes seemed to dilate, his mouth +fell open. + +"If - " he began, and checked, rapped out an oath, and checked again. +"Are they lies, madame?" he asked slowly. + +She caught the straining note of hope in that question of his - a +hope founded upon vanity, the vanity to be king in fact, as well +as king in name. She rose. + +"To ask me that - me, your mother - is to insult me. Come, Anjou." + +And on that she departed, craftily, leaving her suggestion to prey +upon his mind. + +But once alone in her oratory with Anjou, her habitual torpor was +sloughed away. For once she quivered and crimsoned and raised her +voice, whilst for once her sleepy eyes kindled and flashed as she +inveighed against Coligny and the Huguenots. + +For the moment, however, there was no more to be done. The stroke +had failed; Coligny had survived the attempt upon his life, and +there was danger that on the recoil the blow might smite those who +had launched it. But on the morrow, which was Saturday, things +suddenly assumed a very different complexion. + +That great Catholic leader, the powerful, handsome Duke of Guise, +who, more than suspected of having inspired the attempted +assassination, had kept his hotel since yesterday, now sought the +Queen-Mother with news of what was happening in the city. Armed +bands of Huguenot nobles were riding through the streets, clamouring: + +"Death to the assassins of the Admiral! Down with the Guisards!" + +And, although a regiment of Gardes Francaises had been hastily +brought to Paris to keep order, the Duke feared grave trouble in +a city which the royal wedding had filled with Huguenot gentlemen +and their following. Then, too, there were rumours that the +Huguenots were arming everywhere - rumours which, whether true or +not, were, under the circumstances, sufficiently natural and +probable to be taken seriously. + +Leaving Guise in her oratory, and summoning her darling Anjou, +Catherine at once sought the King. She may have believed the +rumours, and she may even have stated them as facts beyond dispute +so as to strengthen and establish her case against Gaspard de +Coligny. + +"King Gaspard I," she told him, "is already taking his measures. +The Huguenots are arming; officers have been dispatched into the +provinces to levy troops. The Admiral has ordered the raising of +ten thousand horse in Germany, and another ten thousand Swiss +mercenaries in the Cantons." + +He stared at her vacuously. Some such rumour had already reached +him, and he conceived that here was definite confirmation of it. + +"You may determine now who are your friends, who your loyal servants," +she told him. "How is so much force to be resisted in the state in +which you find yourself? The Catholics exhausted, and weary as they +are by a civil war in which their king was of little account to them, +are going to arm so as to offer what resistance they can without +depending upon you. Thus, within your State you will have two great +parties under arms, neither of which can be called your own. Unless +you stir yourself, and quickly, unless you choose now between friends +and foes, you will find yourself alone, isolated, in grave peril, +without authority or power." + +He sank overwhelmed to a chair, and took his head in his hands, +cogitating. When next he looked at her there was positive fear in +his great eyes, a fear evoked by contemplation of the picture which +her words had painted for him. + +He looked from her to Anjou. + +"What then?" he asked. "What then? How is the danger to be averted?" + +"By a simple stroke of the sword," she answered calmly. "Slice off +at a blow the head of this beast of rebellion, this hydra of heresy." + +He huddled back, horror in his eyes. His hands slid slowly along +the carved arms of his chair, and clenched the ends so tightly that +his knuckles looked like knobs of marble. + +"Kill the Admiral?" he said slowly. + +"The Admiral and the chief Huguenot leaders," she said, much in the +tone she might have used, were it a matter of wringing the necks of +a dozen capons. + +"Ah, ca! Par la Mort Dieu!" He heaved himself up, raging. "Thus +would your hatred of him be served. Thus would you - " + +Coolly she sliced into his foaming speech. + +"Not I - not I!" she said. "Do nothing upon my advice. Summon your +Council. Send for Tavannes, Biragues, Retz, and the others. Consult +with them. They are your friends; you trust and believe in them. +When they know the facts, see if their counsel will differ from your +mother's. Send for them; they are in the Louvre now." + +He looked at her a moment. + +"Very well," he said; and reeled to the door, bawling hoarsely his +orders. + +They came, one by one - the Marshal de Tavannes, the Duke of Retz, +the Duke of Nevers, the Chancellor de Biragues, and lastly the Duke +of Guise, upon whom the King scowled a jealous hatred that was now +fully alive. + +The window, which overlooked the quay and the river, stood open to +admit what air might be stirring on that hot day of August. + +Charles sat at his writing-table, sullen and moody, twining a string +of beads about his fingers. Catherine occupied the chair over +beyond the table, Anjou sitting near her on a stool. The others +stood respectfully awaiting that the King should make known his +wishes. The shifty royal glance swept over them from under lowering +brows; then it rested almost in challenge upon his mother. + +"Tell them," he bade her curtly. + +She told them what already she had told her son, relating all now +with greater detail and circumstance. For some moments nothing was +heard in that room but the steady drone of her unemotional voice. +When she had finished, she yawned and settled herself to hear what +might be answered. + +"Well," snapped the King, "you have heard. What do you advise? +Speak out!" + +Nevers was the first to answer. + +"There is no other way," he said stiffly, "but that which Her Majesty +advises. The danger is grave. If it is to be averted, action must +be prompt and effective." + +Tavannes clasped his hands behind him and said much the same, as +did presently the Chancellor. + +Twisting and untwisting his chaplet of beads about his long fingers, +his eyes averted, the King heard each in turn. Then he looked up. +His glance, deliberately ignoring Guise, settled upon the Duke of +Retz, who held aloof. + +"And you, Monsieur le Marechal, what is your counsel?" + +Retz drew himself up, as if bracing himself to meet opposing forces. +He was a little pale, but quite composed. + +"If there is a man whom I should hate," he said, "it is this Gaspard +de Coligny, who has defamed me and all my family by the foul +accusations he has put abroad. But I will not," he added firmly, +"take vengeance upon my enemies at the expense of my king and master. +I cannot counsel a course so disastrous to Your Majesty and the +whole kingdom. Did we act as we have been advised, Sire, can you +doubt that we should be taxed - and rightly taxed in view of the +treaty that has been signed - with perfidy and disloyalty?" + +Dead silence followed that bombshell of opposition, coming from a +quarter whence it was least expected. For Catherine and Anjou had +confidently counted upon the Duke's hatred of Coligny to ensure his +support of their designs. + +A little colour crept into the pale cheeks of the King. His glance +kindled out of its sullenness. He was as one who sees sudden hope +amid despair. + +"That is the truth," he said. "Messieurs, and you, madame my mother, +you have heard the truth. How do you like it?" + +"Monsieur de Retz is deceived by an excess of loyalty," said Anjou +quickly. "Because he bears a personal enmity to the Admiral, he +conceives that it would hurt his honour to speak otherwise. It must +savour to him, as he has said, of using his king and master to avenge +his own personal wrongs. We can respect Monsieur de Retz's view, +although we hold it mistaken." + +"Will Monsieur de Retz tell us what other course lies open?" quoth +the bluff Tavannes. + +"Some other course must be found," cried the King, rousing himself. +"It must be found, do you hear? I will not have you touch the life +of my friend the Admiral. I will not have it - by the Blood!" + +A hubbub followed, all speaking at once, until the King banged the +table, and reminded them that his cabinet was not a fish-market. + +"I say that there is no other way," Catherine insisted. "There +cannot be two kings in France, nor can there be two parties. For +your own safety's sake, and for the safety of your kingdom, I +beseech you so to contrive that in France there be but one party +with one head - yourself." + +"Two kings in France?" he said. "What two kings?" + +"Yourself and Gaspard I - King Coligny, the King of the Huguenots." + +"He is my subject - my faithful, loyal subject," the King protested, +but with less assurance. + +"A subject who raises forces of his own, levies taxes of his own, +garrisons Huguenot cities," said Biragues. "That is a very +dangerous type of subject, Sire." + +"A subject who forces you into war with Protestant Flanders against +Catholic Spain," added the blunt Tavannes. + +"Forces me?" roared the King, half rising, his eyes aflash. "That +is a very daring word." + +"It would be if the proof were absent. Remember, Sire, his very +speech to you before you permitted him to embark upon preparations +for this war. 'Give us leave,' he said, 'to make war in Flanders, +or we shall be compelled to make war upon yourself.'" + +The King winced and turned livid. Sweat stood in beads upon his +brow. He was touched in his most sensitive spot. That speech of +Coligny's was of all things the one he most desired to forget. He +twisted the chaplet so that the beads bit deeply into his fingers. + +"Sire," Tavannes continued, "were I a king, and did a subject so +address me, I should have his head within the hour. Yet worse has +happened since, worse is happening now. The Huguenots are arming. +They ride arrogantly through the streets of your capital, stirring +up rebellion. They are here in force, and the danger grows acute +and imminent." + +Charles writhed before them. He mopped his brow with a shaking +hand. + +"The danger - yes. I see that. I admit the danger. But Coligny - " + +"Is it to be King Gaspard or King Charles?" rasped the voice of +Catherine. + +The chaplet snapped suddenly in the King's fingers. He sprang to +his feet, deathly pale. + +"So be it!" he cried. "Since it is necessary to kill the Admiral, +kill him, then. Kill him!" he screamed, in a fury that seemed +aimed at those who forced this course upon him. "Kill him - but +see to it also that at the same time you kill every Huguenot in +France, so that not one shall be left to reproach me. Not one, do +you hear? Take your measures and let the thing be done at once." +And on that, his face livid and twitching, his limbs shaking, he +flung out of the room and left them. + +It was all the warrant they required, and they set to work at once +there in the King's own cabinet, where he had left them. Guise, +who had hitherto been no more than a silent spectator, assumed now +the most active part. Upon his own shoulders he took the charge +of seeing the Admiral done to death. + +The remainder of the day and a portion of the evening were spent in +concerting ways and means. They assured themselves of the Provost +of the merchants of Paris, of the officers of the Gardes Francaises +and the three thousand Swiss, of the Captains of the quarters +and other notoriously factious persons who could be trusted as +leaders. By ten o'clock at night all preparations were made and it +was agreed that the ringing of the bell of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois +for matins was to be the signal for the massacre. + +A gentleman of the Admiral's household taking his way homeward that +night passed several men bearing sheaves of pikes upon their +shoulders, and never suspected whom these weapons were to arm. He +met several small companies of soldiers marching quietly, their +weapons shouldered, their matches glowing, and still he suspected +nothing, whilst in one quarter he stopped to watch a man whose +behaviour seemed curious, and discovered that he was chalking a +white cross upon the doors of certain houses. + +Meeting soon afterwards another man with a bundle of weapons on his +shoulder, the intrigued Huguenot gentleman asked him bluntly what +he carried and whither he went. + +"It is for the divertissement at the Louvre tonight," he was answered. + +But in the Louvre the Queen-Mother and the Catholic leaders, the +labours of preparation ended, were snatching a brief rest. Between +two and three o'clock in the morning Catherine and Anjou repaired +again to the King's cabinet. They found him waiting there, his face +haggard and his eyes fevered. + +He had spent a part of the evening at billiards, and among the +players had been La Rochefoucauld, of whom he was fond, and who had +left him with a jest at eleven o'clock, little dreaming that it was +for the last time. + +The three of them crossed to the window overlooking the river. They +opened it, and peered out fearfully. Even Catherine trembled now +that the hour approached. The air was fresh and cool, swept clean +by the stirring breeze of the dawn, whose first ghostly gleams were +already in the sky. Suddenly, somewhere near at hand, a pistol +cracked. The noise affected them oddly. The King fell into an ague +and his teeth chattered audibly. Panic seized him. + +"By the Blood, it shall not be! It shall not be!" he cried suddenly. + +He looked at his mother and his brother and they looked at him; +ghastly were the faces of all three, their eyes wide and staring +with horror. + +Charles swore in his terror that he would cancel all commands. And +since Catherine and Anjou made no attempt to hinder him, he +summoned an officer and bade him seek out the Duke of Guise at once +and command him to stay his hand. + +The messenger eventually found the Duke in the courtyard of the +Admiral's house, standing over the Admiral's dead body, which his +assassins had flung down from the bedroom window. Guise laughed, +and stirred the head of the corpse with his foot, answering that +the message came too late. Even as he spoke the great bell of +Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois began to ring for matins. + +The royal party huddled at that window of the Louvre heard it at +the same moment, and heard, as if in immediate answer, shots of +arquebus and pistol, cries and screams near at hand, and then, +gradually swelling from a murmur, the baying of the fierce multitude. +Other bells gave tongue, until from every steeple in Paris the alarm +rang out. The red glow from thousands of torches flushed the heavens +with a rosy tint as of dawn, the air grew heavy with the smell of +pitch and resin. + +The King, clutching the sill of the window, poured out a stream of +blasphemy from between his chattering teeth. Then the hubbub rose +suddenly near at hand. The neighbourhood of the Louvre was +populous with Huguenots, and into it now poured the excited Catholic +citizens and soldiers. Soon the quay beneath the palace windows +presented the fiercest spectacle of any quarter, of Paris. + +Half-clad men, women, and children fled screaming before the +assassins, until they were checked by the chains that everywhere +had been placed across the streets. Some sought the river, hoping +to find a way of escape. But with Satanic foresight, the boats +usually moored there had been conveyed to the other side. Thus +some hundreds of Huguenots were brought to bay, and done to death +under the very eyes of the King who had unleashed this horror. +Doors were crashed open, flames rose to heaven, men and women were +shot down under the palace wall, bodies were flung from windows, +and on every side - in the words of D'Aubigne - the blood now +flowed, seeking the river. + +The King watched a while, screams and curses pouring from his lips +to be lost in the horrible uproar. He turned, perhaps to upbraid +his mother and his brother, but found that they were no longer at +his side. Behind him in the room a page was crouching, watching +him with a white, horrified face. + +Suddenly the King laughed - it was the fierce, hysterical laugh of +a madman. His eyes fell on the arquebuses flanking the picture of +the Mother of Mercy. He took one of them down, then caught the boy +by the collar of his doublet and dragged him forward to the window. + +"Hither, and load for me!" he bade him, between peals of his +terrible laughter. Then he levelled the weapon across the sill of +the window. "Parpaillots! Parpaillots!" he screamed. "Kill! +Kill!" and he discharged the arquebus into a fleeing group of +Huguenots. + +Five days later, the King - who by now had thrown the blame of the +whole affair, with its slaughter of some two thousand Huguenots, +upon the Guises and their hatred of Coligny - rode out to Montfaucon +to behold the decapitated body of the Admiral, which hung from the +gallows in chains. A courtier of a poor but obtrusive wit leaned +towards him. + +"The Admiral becomes noisome, I think," he said. + +The King's green eyes considered him, his lips curling grimly. + +"The body of a dead enemy always smells sweet," he said. + + + + +VI. THE NIGHT OF WITCHCRAFT + +LOUIS XIV AND MADAME DE MONTESPAN + + +If you scrape the rubbish-heap of servile, coeval flattery that +usually smothers the personality of a monarch, you will discover a +few kings who have been truly great; many who have achieved +greatness because they were wisely content to serve as masks for +the great intellects of their time; and, for the rest, some bad +kings, some foolish kings, and some ridiculous kings. But in all +that royal gallery of history you will hardly find a more truly +absurd figure than that of the resplendent Roi Soleil, the Grand +Monarque, the Fourteenth Louis of France. + +I am not aware that he has ever been laughed at; certainly never +to the extent which he deserves. The flatterers of his day, +inevitable products of his reign, did their work so thoroughly that +even in secret they do not appear to have dared to utter - possibly +they did not even dare to think - the truth about him. Their work +survives, and when you have assessed the monstrous flattery at its +true worth, swept it aside and come down to the real facts of his +life, you make the discovery that the proudest title their +sycophancy could bestow and his own fatuity accept - Le Roi Soleil, +the Sun-King - makes him what indeed he is: a king of opera bouffe. +There is about him at times something almost reminiscent of the +Court buffoons of a century before, who puffed themselves out with +mock pride, and aped a sort of sovereignty to excite laughter; with +this difference, however, that in his own case it was not intended +to be amusing. + +A heartless voluptuary of mediocre intelligence, he contrived to +wrap himself in what Saint-Simon has called a "terrible majesty." +Hewas obsessed by the idea of the dignity, almost the divinity - of +kingship. I cannot believe that he conceived himself human. He +appears to have held that being king was very like being God, and +he duped the world by ceremonials of etiquette that were very +nearly sacramental. We find him burdening the most simple and +personal acts of everyday life with a succession of rites of an +amazing complexity. Thus, when he rose in the morning, princes of +the blood and the first gentlemen of France were in attendance: one +to present to him his stockings, another to proffer on bended knee +the royal garters, a third to perform the ceremony of handing him +his wig, and so on until the toilette of his plump, not unhandsome +person was complete. You miss the incense, you feel that some +noble thurifer should have fumigated him at each stage. Perhaps +he never thought of it. + +The evil fruits of his reign - evil, that is to say, from the point +of view of his order, which was swept away as so much anachronistic +rubbish - did not come until a hundred years later. In his own day +France was great, and this not because but in spite of him. After +all, he was not the absolute ruler he conceived himself. There were +such capable men as Colbert and Louvois at the King's side'; there +was the great genius of France which manifests itself when and as +it will, whatever the regime - and there was Madame de Montespan +to whose influence not a little of Louis's glory may be ascribed, +since the most splendid years of his reign were those between 1668 +and 1678 when she was maitresse en titre and more than Queen of +France. The women played a great part at the Court of Louis XIV, +and those upon whom he turned his dark eyes were in the main as wax +under the solar rays of the Sun-King. But Madame de Montespan had +discovered the secret of reversing matters, so that in her hands it +was the King who became as wax for her modelling. It is with this +secret - a page of the secret history of France that we are here +concerned. + +Francoises Athenais de Tonnay-Charente had come to Court in 1660 as +a maid of honour to the Queen. Of a wit and grace to match her +superb beauty, she was also of a perfervid piety, a daily +communicant, a model of virtue to all maids of honour. This until +the Devil tempted her. When that happened, she did not merely eat +an apple; she devoured an entire orchard. Pride and ambition +brought about her downfall. She shared the universal jealousy of +which Louise de la Valliere was a victim, and coveted the honours +and the splendour by which that unfortunate favourite was surrounded. + +Not even her marriage with the Marquis de Montespan some three years +after her coming to Court sufficed to overcome the longings born of +her covetousness and ambition. And then, when the Sun-King looked +with favour upon her opulent charms, when at last she saw the object +of her ambition within reach, that husband of hers went very near +to wrecking everything by his unreasonable behaviour. This +preposterous marquis had the effrontery to dispute his wife with +Jupiter, was so purblind as not to appreciate the honour the Sun-King +proposed to do him. + +In putting it thus, I but make myself the mouthpiece of the Court. + +When Montespan began to make trouble by railing furiously against +the friendship of the King for his wife, his behaviour so amazed the +King's cousin, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, that she called him +"an extravagant and extraordinary man." To his face she told him +that he must be mad to behave in this fashion; and so incredibly +distorted were his views, that he did not at all agree with her. +He provoked scenes with the King, in which he quoted Scripture, +made opposite allusions to King David which were in the very worst +taste, and even ventured to suggest that the Sun-King might have +to reckon with the judgment of God. If he escaped a lettre de +cachet and a dungeon in the Bastille, it can only have been because +the King feared the further spread of a scandal injurious to the +sacrosanctity of his royal dignity. + +The Marchioness fumed in private and sneered in public. When +Mademoiselle de Montpensier suggested that for his safety's sake +she should control her husband's antics, she expressed her +bitterness. + +"He and my parrot," she said, "amuse the Court to my shame." + +In the end, finding that neither by upbraiding the King nor by +beating his wife could he prevail, Monsieur de Montespan resigned +himself after his own fashion. He went into widower's mourning, +dressed his servants in black, and came ostentatiously to Court in +a mourning coach to take ceremonious leave of his friends. It was +an affair that profoundly irritated the Sun-King, and very nearly +made him ridiculous. + +Thereafter Montespan abandoned his wife to the King. He withdrew +first to his country seat, and, later, from France, having +received more than a hint that Louis was intending to settle his +score with him. By that time Madame de Montespan was firmly +established as maitresse en titre, and in January of 1669 she gave +birth to the Duke of Maine, the first of the seven children she +was to bear the King. Parliament was to legitimize them all, +declaring them royal children of France, and the country was to +provide titles, dignities, and royal rent-rolls for them and their +heirs forever. Do you wonder that there was a revolution a century +later, and that the people, grown weary of the parasitic anachronism +of royalty, should have risen to throw off the intolerable burden +it imposed upon them? + +The splendour of Madame de Montespan in those days was something +the like of which had never been seen at the Court of France. On +her estate of Clagny, near Versailles, stood now a magnificent +chateau. Louis had begun by building a country villa, which +satisfied her not at all. + +"That," she told him, "might do very well for an opera-girl"; +whereupon the infatuated monarch had no alternative but to command +its demolition, and call in the famous architect, Mansard, to erect +in its place an ultraroyal residence. + +At Versailles itself, whilst the long-suffering Queen had to be +content with ten rooms on the second floor, Madame de Montespan was +installed in twice that number on the first; and whilst a simple +page sufficed to carry the Queen's train at Court, nothing less than +the wife of a marshal of France must perform the same office for the +favourite. She kept royal state as few queens have ever kept it. +She was assigned a troop of royal bodyguards for escort, and when +she travelled there was a never-ending train to follow her six-horse +coach, and officers of State came to receive her with royal honours +wherever she passed. + +In her immeasurable pride she became a tyrant, even over the King +himself. + +"Thunderous and triumphant," Madame de Sevigne describes her in +those days when the Sun-King was her utter and almost timid slave. + +But constancy is not a Jovian virtue. Jupiter grew restless, and +then, shaking off all restraint, plunged into inconstancy of the +most scandalous and flagrant kind. It is doubtful if the history +of royal amours, with all its fecundity, can furnish a parallel. +Within a few months, Madame de Soubise, Mademoiselle de +Rochefort-Theobon, Madame de Louvigny, Madame de Ludres, and some +lesser ones passed in rapid succession through the furnace of the +Sun-King's affection - which is to say, through the royal bed - +and at last the Court was amazed to see the Widow Scarron, who had +been appointed governess to Madame de Montespan's royal children, +empanoplied in a dignity and ceremony that left no doubt on the +score of her true position at Court. + +And so, after seven years of absolute sway in which homage had been +paid her almost in awe by noble and simple alike, Madame de +Montespan, neglected now by Louis, moved amid reflections of that +neglect, with arrogantly smiling lips and desperate rage in her +heart. She sneered openly at the royal lack of taste, allowed her +barbed wit to make offensive sport with the ladies who supplanted +her; yet, ravaged by jealousy, she feared for herself the fate +which through her had overtaken La Valliere. + +That fear was with her now as she sat in the window embrasure, hell +in her heart and a reflection of it in her eyes, as, fallen almost +to the rank of a spectator in that comedy wherein she was accustomed +to the leading part, she watched the shifting, chattering, +glittering crowd. And as she watched, her line of vision was +crossed to her undoing by the slender, wellknit figure of de Vanens, +who, dressed from head to foot in black, detached sharply from that +dazzling throng. His face was pale and saturnine, his eyes dark, +very level, and singularly piercing. Thus his appearance served to +underline the peculiar fascination which he exerted, the rather +sinister appeal which he made to the imagination. + +This young Provencal nobleman was known to dabble in magic, and +there were one or two dark passages in his past life of which more +than a whisper had gone abroad. Of being a student of alchemy, a +"philosopher" - that is to say, a seeker after the philosopher's +stone, which was to effect the transmutation of metals - he made +no secret. But if you taxed him with demoniacal practices he would +deny it, yet in a way that carried no conviction. + +To this dangerous fellow Madame de Montespan now made appeal in her +desperate need. + +Their eyes met as he was sauntering past, and with a lazy smile and +a languid wave of her fan she beckoned him to her side. + +"They tell me, Vanens," said she, "that your philosophy succeeds +so well that you are transmuting copper into silver." + +His piercing eyes surveyed her, narrowing; a smile flickered over +his thin lips. + +"They tell you the truth," he said. "I have cast a bar which has +been purchased as good silver by the Mint." + +Her interest quickened. "By the Mint!" she echoed, amazed. "But, +then, my friend - " She was breathless with excitement. "It is +a miracle." + +"No less," he admitted. "But there is the greater miracle to come + - the transmutation of base metal into gold." + +"And you will perform it?" + +"Let me but conquer the secret of solidifying mercury, and the rest +is naught. I shall conquer it, and soon." + +He spoke with easy confidence, a man stating something that he knew +beyond the possibility of doubt. The Marquise became thoughtful. +She sighed. + +"You are the master of deep secrets, Vanens. Have you none that +will soften flinty hearts, make them responsive?" + +He considered this woman whom Saint-Simon has called "beautiful as +the day," and his smile broadened. + +"Look in your mirror for the alchemy needed there," he bade her. + +Anger rippled across the perfect face. She lowered + +"I have looked - in vain. Can you not help me, Vanens, you who +know so much?" + +"A love-philtre?" said he, and hummed. "Are you in earnest?" + +"Do you mock me with that question? Is not my need proclaimed for +all to see?" + +Vanens became grave. + +"It is not an alchemy in which myself I dabble," he said slowly. +"But I am acquainted with those who do." + +She clutched his wrist in her eagerness. + +"I will pay well," she said. + +"You will need to. Such things are costly." He glanced round to +see that none was listening, then bending nearer: "There is a +sorceress named La Voisin in the Rue de la Tannerie, well known as +a fortuneteller to many ladies of the Court, who at a word from me +will do your need." + +La Montespan turned white. The piety in which she had been reared + - the habits of which clung to her despite the irregularity of her +life-made her recoil before the thing that she desired. Sorcery +was of the Devil. She told him so. But Vanens laughed. + +"So that it be effective . . ." said he with a shrug. + +And then across the room floated a woman's trilling laugh. She +looked in the direction of the sound and beheld the gorgeous figure +of the King bending - yet haughty and condescending even in +adoration - over handsome Madame de Ludres. Pride and ambition +rose up in sudden fury to trample on religious feeling. Let Vanens +take her to this witch of his, for be the aid what it might, she +must have it. + +And so, one dark night late in the year, Louis de Vanens handed a +masked and muffled lady from a coach at the corner of the Rue de +la Tannerie, and conducted her to the house of La Voisin. + +The door was opened for them by a young woman of some twenty years +of age - Marguerite Monvoisin, the daughter of the witch - who led +them upstairs to a room that was handsomely furnished and hung with +fantastic tapestry of red designs upon a black ground - designs that +took monstrous shapes in the flickering light of a cluster of +candles. Black curtains parted, and from between them stepped a +short, plump woman, of a certain comeliness, with two round black +beads of eyes. She was fantastically robed in a cloak of crimson +velvet, lined with costly furs and closely studded with double-headed +eagles in fine gold, which must have been worth a prince's ransom; +and she wore red shoes on each of which there was the same eagle +design in gold. + +"Ah, Vanens!" she said familiarly. + +He bowed. + +"I bring you," he announced, "a lady who has need of your skill." + +And he waved a hand towards the tall cloaked figure at his side. + +La Voisin looked at the masked face. + +"Velvet faces tell me little, Madame la Marquise," she said calmly. +"Nor, believe me, will the King look at a countenance that you +conceal from me." + +Therewas an exclamation of surprise and anger from Madame de +Montespan. She plucked off her mask. + +"You knew me?" + +"Can you wonder?" asked La Voisin, "since I have told you what you +carry concealed in your heart?" + +Madame de Montespan was as credulous as only the very devout can be. + +"Since that is so, since you know already what I seek, tell me can +you procure it me?" she asked in a fever of excitement. "I will +pay well." + +La Voisin smiled darkly. + +"Obdurate, indeed, is the case that will not yield to such medicine +as mine," she said. "Let me consider first what must be done. In +a few days I shall bring you word. But have you courage for a great +ordeal?" + +"For any ordeal that will give me what I want." + +"In a few days, then, you shall hear from me," said the witch, and +so dismissed the great lady. + +Leaving a heavy purse behind her, as Vanens had instructed her, the +Marchioness departed with her escort. And there, with that +initiation, as far as we can ascertain, ended Louis de Vanens's +connection with the affair. + +At Clagny Madame de Montespan waited for three days in a fever of +impatience for the coming of the witch. But when at last La Voisin +presented herself, the proposal that she had to make was one before +which the Marchioness recoiled in horror and some indignation. + +The magic that La Voisin suggested involved a coadjutor, the Abbe +Guibourg, and the black mass to be celebrated by him. Madame de +Montespan had heard something of these dread sacrificial rites to +Satan; sufficient to fill her with loathing and disgust of the +whitefaced, beady-eyed woman who dared to insult her by the +proposal. She fumed and raged a while, and even went near to +striking La Voisin, who looked on with inscrutable face and stony, +almost contemptuous, indifference. Before that impenetrable, +almost uncanny, calm, Madame de Montespan's fury at last abated. +Then the urgency of her need becoming paramount, she desired more +clearly to be told what would be expected of her. What the witch +told her was more appalling than anything she could have imagined. +But La Voisin argued: + +"Can anything be accomplished without cost? Can anything be gained +in this life without payment of some kind?" + +"But the price of this is monstrous!" Madame de Montespan protested. + +"Measure it by the worldly advantages to be gained. They are not +small, madame. To enjoy boundless wealth, boundless power, and +boundless honour, to be more than queen - is not all this worth +some sacrifice?" + +To Madame de Montespan it must have been worth any sacrifice in this +world or the next, since in the end she conquered her disgust, and +agreed to lend herself to this horror. + +Three masses, she was told, would be necessary to ensure success, +and it was determined that they should be celebrated in the chapel +of the Chateau de Villebousin, where Guibourg had been almoner, to +which he had access, and which was at the time untenanted. + +The chateau was a gloomy mediaeval fortress, blackened by age, and +standing, surrounded by a moat, in a lonely spot some two miles to +the south of Paris. Thither on a dark, gusty night of March came +Madame de Montespan, accompanied by her confidential waiting-woman, +Mademoiselle Desceillets. They left the coach to await them on the +Orleans road, and thence, escorted by a single male attendant, they +made their way by a rutted, sodden path towards the grim castle +looming faintly through the enveloping gloom. + +The wind howled dismally about the crenellated turrets; and a row +of poplars, standing like black, phantasmal guardians of the evil +place, bent groaning before its fury. From the running waters of +the moat, swollen by recent rains, came a gurgling sound that was +indescribably wicked. + +Desocillets was frightened by the dark, the desolate loneliness and +eeriness of the place; but she dared utter no complaint as she +stumbled forward over the uneven ground, through the gloom and the +buffeting wind, compelled by the suasion of her mistress's imperious +will. Thus, by a drawbridge spanning dark, oily waters, they came +into a vast courtyard and an atmosphere as of mildew. A studded +door stood ajar, and through the gap, from a guiding beacon of +infamy, fell a rhomb of yellow light, suddenly obscured by a squat +female figure when the steps of the Marchioness and her companions +fell upon the stones of the yard. + +It was La Voisin who stood on the threshold to receive her client. +In the stone-flagged hall behind her the light of a lantern revealed +her daughter, Marguerite Monvoisin, and a short, crafty-faced, +misshapen fellow in black homespun and a red wig - a magician named +Lesage, one of La Voisin's coadjutors, a rogue of some talent who +exploited the witches of Paris to his own profit. + +Leaving Leroy - the Marchioness's male attendant below in this +fellow's company, La Voisin took up a candle and lighted Madame de +Montespan up the broad stone staircase, draughty and cold, to the +ante-room of the chapel on the floor above. Mademoiselle +Desceillets followed closely and fearfully, and Marguerite Monvoisin +came last. + +They entered the ante-room, a spacious chamber, bare of furniture +save for an oaken table in the middle, some faded and mildewed +tapestries, and a cane-backed settle of twisted walnut over against +the wall. An alabaster lamp on the table made an island of light +in that place of gloom, and within the circle of its feeble rays +stood a gross old man of some seventy years of age in sacerdotal +garments of unusual design: the white alb worn over a greasy cassock +was studded with black fir-cones; the stole and maniple were of +black satin, with fir-cones wrought in yellow thread. + +His inflamed countenance was of a revolting hideousness: his cheeks +were covered by a network of blue veins, his eyes squinted horribly, +his lips vanished inwards over toothless gums, and a fringe of white +hair hung in matted wisps from his high, bald crown. This was the +infamous Abbe Guibourg, sacristan of Saint Denis, an ordained +priest who had consecrated himself to the service of the Devil. + +He received the great lady with a low bow which, despite herself, +she acknowledged by a shudder. She was very pale, and her eyes +were dilating and preternaturally bright. Fear began to possess +her, yet she suffered herself to be ushered into the chapel, which +was dimly illumined by a couple of candles standing beside a basin +on a table. The altar light had been extinguished. Her maid would +have hung back, but that she feared to be parted from her mistress. +She passed in with her in the wake of Guibourg, and followed by La +Voisin, who closed the door, leaving her daughter in the ante-room. + +Although she had never been a participant in any of the sorceries +practised by her mother, yet Marguerite was fully aware of their +extent, and more than guessed what horrors were taking place beyond +the closed doors of the chapel. The very thought of them filled +her with loathing and disgust as she sat waiting, huddled in a +corner of the settle. And yet when presently through the closed +doors came the drone of the voice of that unclean celebrant, to +blend with the whine of the wind in the chimney, Marguerite, urged +by a morbid curiosity she could not conquer, crept shuddering to +the door, which directly faced the altar, and going down on her +knees applied her eye to the keyhole. + +What she saw may very well have appalled her considering the exalted +station of Madame de Montespan. She beheld the white, sculptural +form of the royal favourite lying at full length supine upon the +altar, her arms outstretched, holding a lighted candle in each hand. +Immediately before her stood the Abbe Guibourg, his body screening +the chalice and its position from the eye of the watching girl. + +She heard the whine of his voice pattering the Latin of the mass, +which he was reciting backwards from the last gospel; and +occasionally she heard responses muttered by her mother, who with +Mademoiselle Desceillets was beyond Marguerite's narrow range of +vision. + +Apart from the interest lent to the proceedings by the presence of +the royal favourite the affair must have seemed now very stupid and +pointless to Marguerite, although she would certainly not have found +it so had she known enough Latin to understand the horrible +perversion of the Credo. But when the Offertory was reached, +matters suddenly quickened. In stealing away from the door, she +was no more than in time to avoid being caught spying by her mother, +who now issued from the chapel. + +La Voisin crossed the ante-room briskly and went out. + +Within a very few minutes she was back again, her approach now +heralded by the feeble, quavering squeals of a very young child. + +Marguerite Monvoisin was sufficiently acquainted with the ghastly +rites to guess what was impending. She was young, and herself a +mother. She had her share of the maternal instinct alive in every +female animal - with the occasional exception of the human pervert + - and the hoarse, plaintive cries of that young child chilled her +to the soul with horror. She felt the skin roughening and +tightening upon her body, and a sense of physical sickness overcame +her. That and the fear of her mother kept her stiff and frozen in +an angle of the settle until La Voisin had passed through and +reentered the chapel bearing that piteous bundle in her arms. + +Then, when the door had closed again, the girl, horrified and +fascinated, sped back to watch. She saw that unclean priest turn +and receive the child from La Voisin. As it changed hands its +cries were stilled. + +Guibourg faced the altar once more, that little wisp of humanity +that was but a few days old held now aloft, naked, in his criminal +hands. His muttering, slobbering voice pronouncing the words of +that demoniac consecration reached the ears of the petrified girl +at the keyhole. + +Ashtaroth, Asmodeus, Princes of Affection, I conjure you to +acknowledge the sacrifice I offer to you of this child for the +things I ask of you, which are that the King's love for me shall +be continued, and that honoured by princes and princesses nothing +shall be denied me of all that I may ask." + +A sudden gust of wind smote and rattled the windows of the chapel +and the ante-room, as if the legions of hell had flung themselves +against the walls of the chateau. There was a rush and clatter in +the chimney of the ante-room's vast, empty fireplace, and through +the din Marguerite, as her failing limbs sank under her and she +slithered down in a heap against the chapel door, seemed to hear a +burst of exultantly cruel satanic laughter. With chattering teeth +and burning eyes she sat huddled, listening in terror. The child +began to cry again, more violently, more piteously; then, quite +suddenly, there was a little choking cough, a gurgle, the chink of +metal against earthenware, and silence. + +When some moments later the squat figure of La Voisin emerged from +the chapel, Marguerite was back in the shadows, hunched on the +settle to which she had crawled. She saw that her mother now +carried a basin under her arm, and she did not need the evidence +of her eyes to inform her of the dreadful contents that the witch +was bearing away in it. + +Meanwhile in the chapel the ineffably blasphemous rites proceeded. +To the warm human blood which had been caught in the consecrated +chalice, Guibourg had added, among other foulnesses, powdered +cantharides, the dust of desiccated moles, and the blood of bats. +By the addition of flour he had wrought the ingredients into an +ineffable paste, and over this, through the door, which La Voisin +had left ajar, Marguerite heard his voice pronouncing the dread +words of Transubstantiation. + +Marguerite's horror mounted until it threatened to suffocate her. +It was as if some hellish miasma, released by Guibourg's monstrous +incantations, crept through to permeate and poison the air she +breathed. + +It would be a half-hour later when Madame de Montespan at last came +out. She was of a ghastly pallor, her limbs shook and trembled +under her as she stepped forth, and there was a wild horror in her +staring eyes. Yet she contrived to carry herself almost defiantly +erect, and she spoke sharply to the half-swooning Desceillets, who +staggered after her. + +She took her departure from that unholy place bearing with her the +host compounded of devilish ingredients which when dried and reduced +to powder was to be administered to the King to ensure the renewal +of his failing affection for her. + +The Marchioness contrived that a creature of her own, an officer of +the buttery in her pay, should introduce it into the royal soup. +The immediate and not unnatural result was that the King was taken +violently ill, and Madame de Montespan's anxiety and suspense were +increased thereby. On his recovery, however, it would seem that +the demoniac sacrament - thrice repeated by then - had not been in +vain. + +The sequel, indeed, appeared to justify Madame de Montespan's faith +in sorcery, and to compensate her for all the horror to which in +her despair she had submitted. Madame de Ludres found herself coldly +regarded by the convalescent King. Very soon she was discarded, the +Widow Scarron neglected, and the fickle monarch was once more at the +feet of the lovely marchioness, her utter and devoted slave. + +Thus was Madame de Montespan "thunderously triumphant" once more, +and established as firmly as 'ever in the Sun-King's favour. Madame +de Sevigne, in speaking of this phase of their relations, dilates +upon the completeness of the reconciliation, and tells us that the +ardour of the first years seemed now to have returned. And for two +whole years it continued thus. Never before had Madame de +Montespan's sway been more absolute, no shadow came to trouble, the +serenity of her rule. + +But it proved, after all, to be no more than the last flare of an +expiring fire that was definitely quenched at last, in 1679, by +Mademoiselle de Fontanges. A maid of honour to madame, she was a +child of not more than eighteen years, fair and flaxen, with pink +cheeks and large, childish eyes; and it was for this doll that the +regal Montespan now found herself discarded. + +Honours rained upon the new favourite. Louis made her a duchess +with an income of twenty thousand livres, and deeply though this +may have disgusted his subjects, it disgusted Madame de Montespan +still more. Blinded by rage she openly abused the new duchess, and +provoked a fairly public scene with Louis, in which she gave him +her true opinion of him with a disturbing frankness. + +"You dishonour yourself," she informed him among other things. "And +you betray your taste when you make love to a pink-and-white doll, +a little fool that has no more wit nor manners than if she were +painted on canvas!" Then, with an increase of scorn, she delivered +herself of an unpardonable apostrophe: "You, a king, to accept the +inheritance of that chit's rustic lovers! " + +He flushed and scowled upon her. + +"That is an infamous falsehood!" he exclaimed. "Madame, you are +unbearable!" He was very angry, and it infuriated him the more that +she should stand so coldly mocking before an anger that could bow +the proudest heads in France. "You have the pride of Satan, your +greed is insatiable, your domineering spirit utterly insufferable, +and you have the most false and poisonous tongue in the world!" + +Her brutal answer bludgeoned that high divinity to earth. + +"With all my imperfections," she sneered, "at least I do not smell +as badly as you do!" + +It was an answer that extinguished her last chance. It was fatal +to the dignity, to the "terrible majesty" of Louis. It stripped +him of all divinity, and revealed him authoritatively as intensely +and even unpleasantly human. It was beyond hope of pardon. + +His face turned the colour of wax. A glacial silence hung over the +agonized witnesses of that royal humiliation. Then, without a word, +in a vain attempt to rescue the dignity she had so cruelly mauled, +he turned, his red heels clicked rapidly and unsteadily across the +polished floor, and he was gone. + +When Madame de Montespan realized exactly what she had done, nothing +but rage remained to her - rage and its offspring, vindictiveness. +The Duchess of Fontanges must not enjoy her victory, nor must Louis +escape punishment for his faithlessness. La Voisin should afford +her the means to accomplish this. And so she goes once more to the +Rue de la Tannerie. + +Now, the matter of Madame de Montespan's present needs was one in +which the witches were particularIy expert. Were you troubled with +a rival, did your husband persist in surviving your affection for him, +did those from whom you had expectations cling obstinately and +inconsiderately to life, the witches by incantations and the use of +powders - in which arsenic was the dominant charm - could usually +put the matter right for you. Indeed, so wide and general was the +practice of poisoning become, that the authorities, lately aroused +to the fact by the sensational revelations of the Marchioness de +Brinvilliers, had set up in this year 1670 the tribunal known as +the Chambre Ardente to inquire into the matter, and to conduct +prosecutions. + +La Voisin promised help to the Marchioness. She called in another +witch of horrible repute, named La Filastre, her coadjutor Lesage, +and two expert poisoners, Romani and Bertrand, who devised an +ingenious plot for the murder of the Duchess of Fontanges. They +were to visit her, Romani as a cloth merchant, and Bertrand as his +servant, to offer her their wares, including some Grenoble gloves, +which were the most beautiful gloves in the world and unfailingly +irresistible to ladies. These gloves they prepared in accordance +with certain magical recipes in such a way that the Duchess, after +wearing them, must die a lingering death in which there could be no +suspicion of poisoning. + +The King was to be dealt with by means of a petition steeped in +similar powders, and should receive his death by taking it into his +hands. La Voisin herself was to go to Saint-Germain to present +this petition on Monday, March 13th, one of those days on which, +according to ancient custom, all comers were admitted to the royal +presence. + +Thus they disposed. But Fate was already silently stalking La +Voisin. + +It is to the fact that an obscure and vulgar woman had drunk one +glass of wine too many three months earlier that the King owed his +escape. + +If you are interested in the almost grotesque disparity that can +lie between cause and effect, here is a subject for you. Three +months earlier a tailor named Vigoureux, whose wife secretly +practised magic, had entertained a few friends to dinner, amongst +whom was an intimate of his wife's, named Marie Bosse. This Marie +Bosse it was who drank that excessive glass of wine which, drowning +prudence, led her to boast of the famous trade she drove as a +fortune-teller to the nobility, and even to hint of something +further. + +"Another three poisonings," she chuckled, "and I shall retire with +my fortune made!" + +An attorney who was present pricked up his ears, bethought him of +the tales that were afloat, and gave information to the police. +The police set a trap for Marie Bosse, and she betrayed herself. +Later, under torture, she betrayed La Vigoureux. La Vigoureux +betrayed others, and these others again. + +The arrest of Marie Bosse was like knocking down the first of a row +of ninepins, but none could have suspected that the last of these +stood in the royal apartments. + +On the day before she was to repair to Saint-Germain, La Voisin, +betrayed in her turn, received a surprise visit from the police - +who, of course, had no knowledge of the regicide their action was +thwarting - and she was carried off to the Chatelet. Put to the +question, she revealed a great deal; but her terror of the horrible +punishment reserved for regicides prevented her to the day of her +death at the stake - in February of 1680 from saying a word of her +association with Madame de Montespan. + +But there were others whom she betrayed under torture, and whose +arrest followed quickly upon her own, who had not her strength of +character. Among these were La Filastre and the magician Lesage. +When it was found that these two corroborated each other in the +incredible things which they related, the Chambre Ardente took +fright. La Reynie, who presided over it, laid the matter before +the King, and the King, horror-stricken by the discovery of the +revolting practices in which the mother of his children had been +engaged, suspended the sittings of the Chambre Ardente, and +commanded that no further proceedings should be taken against Lesage +and La Filastre, and none initiated against Romani, Bertrand, the +Abbe Guibourg, and the scores of other poisoners and magicians who +had been arrested, and who were acquainted with Madame de Montespan's +unholy traffic. + +But it was not out of any desire to spare Madame de Montespan that +the King proceeded in this manner; he was concerned only to spare +himself and his royal dignity. He feared above all things the +scandal and ridicule which must touch him as a result of publicity, +and because he feared it so much, he could impose no punishment +upon Madame de Montespan. + +This he made known to her at the interview between them procured by +his minister Louvois, at about the time that the sittings of the +Chambre Ardente were suspended. + +To this interview that proud, domineering woman came in dread, and +in tears and humility for once. The King's bearing was cold and +hard. Cold and hard were the words in which he declared the extent +of his knowledge of her infamy, words which revealed the loathing +and disgust this knowledge brought him. If at first she was +terror-stricken, crushed under the indictment, yet she was never of +a temper to bear reproaches long. Under his scorn her anger kindled +and her humility was sloughed. + +"What then?" she cried at last, eyes aflash through lingering tears. +"Is the blame all mine? If all this is true, it is no less true +that I was driven to it by my love for you and the despair to which +your heartlessness and infidelity reduced me. To you," she +continued, gathering force at every word, "I sacrificed everything + - my honour, a noble husband who loved me, all that a woman prizes. +And what did you give me in exchange? Your cruel fickleness exposed +me to the low mockery of the lick-spittles of your Court. Do you +wonder that I went mad, and that in my madness I sacrificed what +shreds of self-respect you had left me? And now it seems I have +lost all but life. Take that, too, if it be your pleasure. Heaven +knows it has little value left for me! But remember that in +striking me you strike the mother of your children - the legitimate +children of France. Remember that!" + +He remembered it. Indeed, he was never in danger of forgetting it; +for she might have added that he would be striking also at himself +and at that royal dignity which was his religion. And so that all +scandalous comment might be avoided she was actually allowed to +remain at Court, although no longer in her first-floor apartments; +and it was not until ten years later that she departed to withdraw +to the community of Saint Joseph. + +But even in her disgrace this woman, secretly convicted among other +abominations of attempting to procure the poisoning of the King and +of her rival, enjoyed an annual pension of 1,200.000 livres; whilst +none dared proceed against those who shared her guilt - not even +the infamous Guibourg, the poisoners Romani and Bertrand, and La +Filastre - nor yet against some scores of associates of these, who +were known to live by sorcery and poisonings, and who might be +privy to the part played by Madame de Montespan in that horrible +night of magic at the Chateau de Villebousin. + +The hot blast of revolution was needed to sweep France clean. + + + + +VI. THE NIGHT OF WITCHCRAFT + +LOUIS XIV AND MADAME DE MONTESPAN + + +If you scrape the rubbish-heap of servile, coeval flattery that +usually smothers the personality of a monarch, you will discover a +few kings who have been truly great; many who have achieved +greatness because they were wisely content to serve as masks for +the great intellects of their time; and, for the rest, some bad +kings, some foolish kings, and some ridiculous kings. But in all +that royal gallery of history you will hardly find a more truly +absurd figure than that of the resplendent Roi Soleil, the Grand +Monarque, the Fourteenth Louis of France. + +I am not aware that he has ever been laughed at; certainly never +to the extent which he deserves. The flatterers of his day, +inevitable products of his reign, did their work so thoroughly that +even in secret they do not appear to have dared to utter - possibly +they did not even dare to think - the truth about him. Their work +survives, and when you have assessed the monstrous flattery at its +true worth, swept it aside and come down to the real facts of his +life, you make the discovery that the proudest title their +sycophancy could bestow and his own fatuity accept - Le Roi Soleil, +the Sun-King - makes him what indeed he is: a king of opera bouffe. +There is about him at times something almost reminiscent of the +Court buffoons of a century before, who puffed themselves out with +mock pride, and aped a sort of sovereignty to excite laughter; with +this difference, however, that in his own case it was not intended +to be amusing. + +A heartless voluptuary of mediocre intelligence, he contrived to +wrap himself in what Saint-Simon has called a "terrible majesty." +He was obsessed by the idea of the dignity, almost the divinity - of +kingship. I cannot believe that he conceived himself human. He +appears to have held that being king was very like being God, and +he duped the world by ceremonials of etiquette that were very +nearly sacramental. We find him burdening the most simple and +personal acts of everyday life with a succession of rites of an +amazing complexity. Thus, when he rose in the morning, princes of +the blood and the first gentlemen of France were in attendance: one +to present to him his stockings, another to proffer on bended knee +the royal garters, a third to perform the ceremony of handing him +his wig, and so on until the toilette of his plump, not unhandsome +person was complete. You miss the incense, you feel that some +noble thurifer should have fumigated him at each stage. Perhaps +he never thought of it. + +The evil fruits of his reign - evil, that is to say, from the point +of view of his order, which was swept away as so much anachronistic +rubbish - did not come until a hundred years later. In his own day +France was great, and this not because but in spite of him. After +all, he was not the absolute ruler he conceived himself. There were +such capable men as Colbert and Louvois at the King's side'; there +was the great genius of France which manifests itself when and as +it will, whatever the regime - and there was Madame de Montespan +to whose influence not a little of Louis's glory may be ascribed, +since the most splendid years of his reign were those between 1668 +and 1678 when she was maitresse en titre and more than Queen of +France. The women played a great part at the Court of Louis XIV, +and those upon whom he turned his dark eyes were in the main as wax +under the solar rays of the Sun-King. But Madame de Montespan had +discovered the secret of reversing matters, so that in her hands it +was the King who became as wax for her modelling. It is with this +secret - a page of the secret history of France that we are here +concerned. + +Francoises Athenais de Tonnay-Charente had come to Court in 1660 as +a maid of honour to the Queen. Of a wit and grace to match her +superb beauty, she was also of a perfervid piety, a daily +communicant, a model of virtue to all maids of honour. This until +the Devil tempted her. When that happened, she did not merely eat +an apple; she devoured an entire orchard. Pride and ambition +brought about her downfall. She shared the universal jealousy of +which Louise de la Valliere was a victim, and coveted the honours +and the splendour by which that unfortunate favourite was surrounded. + +Not even her marriage with the Marquis de Montespan some three years +after her coming to Court sufficed to overcome the longings born of +her covetousness and ambition. And then, when the Sun-King looked +with favour upon her opulent charms, when at last she saw the object +of her ambition within reach, that husband of hers went very near +to wrecking everything by his unreasonable behaviour. This +preposterous marquis had the effrontery to dispute his wife with +Jupiter, was so purblind as not to appreciate the honour the Sun-King +proposed to do him. + +In putting it thus, I but make myself the mouthpiece of the Court. + +When Montespan began to make trouble by railing furiously against +the friendship of the King for his wife, his behaviour so amazed the +King's cousin, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, that she called him +"an extravagant and extraordinary man." To his face she told him +that he must be mad to behave in this fashion; and so incredibly +distorted were his views, that he did not at all agree with her. +He provoked scenes with the King, in which he quoted Scripture, +made opposite allusions to King David which were in the very worst +taste, and even ventured to suggest that the Sun-King might have +to reckon with the judgment of God. If he escaped a lettre de +cachet and a dungeon in the Bastille, it can only have been because +the King feared the further spread of a scandal injurious to the +sacrosanctity of his royal dignity. + +The Marchioness fumed in private and sneered in public. When +Mademoiselle de Montpensier suggested that for his safety's sake +she should control her husband's antics, she expressed her +bitterness. + +"He and my parrot," she said, "amuse the Court to my shame." + +In the end, finding that neither by upbraiding the King nor by +beating his wife could he prevail, Monsieur de Montespan resigned +himself after his own fashion. He went into widower's mourning, +dressed his servants in black, and came ostentatiously to Court in +a mourning coach to take ceremonious leave of his friends. It was +an affair that profoundly irritated the Sun-King, and very nearly +made him ridiculous. + +Thereafter Montespan abandoned his wife to the King. He withdrew +first to his country seat, and, later, from France, having +received more than a hint that Louis was intending to settle his +score with him. By that time Madame de Montespan was firmly +established as maitresse en titre, and in January of 1669 she gave +birth to the Duke of Maine, the first of the seven children she +was to bear the King. Parliament was to legitimize them all, +declaring them royal children of France, and the country was to +provide titles, dignities, and royal rent-rolls for them and their +heirs forever. Do you wonder that there was a revolution a century +later, and that the people, grown weary of the parasitic anachronism +of royalty, should have risen to throw off the intolerable burden +it imposed upon them? + +The splendour of Madame de Montespan in those days was something +the like of which had never been seen at the Court of France. On +her estate of Clagny, near Versailles, stood now a magnificent +chateau. Louis had begun by building a country villa, which +satisfied her not at all. + +"That," she told him, "might do very well for an opera-girl"; +whereupon the infatuated monarch had no alternative but to command +its demolition, and call in the famous architect, Mansard, to erect +in its place an ultra royal residence. + +At Versailles itself, whilst the long-suffering Queen had to be +content with ten rooms on the second floor, Madame de Montespan was +installed in twice that number on the first; and whilst a simple +page sufficed to carry the Queen's train at Court, nothing less than +the wife of a marshal of France must perform the same office for the +favourite. She kept royal state as few queens have ever kept it. +She was assigned a troop of royal bodyguards for escort, and when +she travelled there was a never-ending train to follow her six-horse +coach, and officers of State came to receive her with royal honours +wherever she passed. + +In her immeasurable pride she became a tyrant, even over the King +himself. + +"Thunderous and triumphant," Madame de Sevigne describes her in +those days when the Sun-King was her utter and almost timid slave. + +But constancy is not a Jovian virtue. Jupiter grew restless, and +then, shaking off all restraint, plunged into inconstancy of the +most scandalous and flagrant kind. It is doubtful if the history +of royal amours, with all its fecundity, can furnish a parallel. +Within a few months, Madame de Soubise, Mademoiselle de +Rochefort-Theobon, Madame de Louvigny, Madame de Ludres, and some +lesser ones passed in rapid succession through the furnace of the +Sun-King's affection - which is to say, through the royal bed - +and at last the Court was amazed to see the Widow Scarron, who had +been appointed governess to Madame de Montespan's royal children, +empanoplied in a dignity and ceremony that left no doubt on the +score of her true position at Court. + +And so, after seven years of absolute sway in which homage had been +paid her almost in awe by noble and simple alike, Madame de +Montespan, neglected now by Louis, moved amid reflections of that +neglect, with arrogantly smiling lips and desperate rage in her +heart. She sneered openly at the royal lack of taste, allowed her +barbed wit to make offensive sport with the ladies who supplanted +her; yet, ravaged by jealousy, she feared for herself the fate +which through her had overtaken La Valliere. + +That fear was with her now as she sat in the window embrasure, hell +in her heart and a reflection of it in her eyes, as, fallen almost +to the rank of a spectator in that comedy wherein she was accustomed +to the leading part, she watched the shifting, chattering, +glittering crowd. And as she watched, her line of vision was +crossed to her undoing by the slender, well-knit figure of de Vanens, +who, dressed from head to foot in black, detached sharply from that +dazzling throng. His face was pale and saturnine, his eyes dark, +very level, and singularly piercing. Thus his appearance served to +underline the peculiar fascination which he exerted, the rather +sinister appeal which he made to the imagination. + +This young Provencal nobleman was known to dabble in magic, and +there were one or two dark passages in his past life of which more +than a whisper had gone abroad. Of being a student of alchemy, a +"philosopher" - that is to say, a seeker after the philosopher's +stone, which was to effect the transmutation of metals - he made +no secret. But if you taxed him with demoniacal practices he would +deny it, yet in a way that carried no conviction. + +To this dangerous fellow Madame de Montespan now made appeal in her +desperate need. + +Their eyes met as he was sauntering past, and with a lazy smile and +a languid wave of her fan she beckoned him to her side. + +"They tell me, Vanens," said she, "that your philosophy succeeds +so well that you are transmuting copper into silver." + +His piercing eyes surveyed her, narrowing; a smile flickered over +his thin lips. + +"They tell you the truth," he said. "I have cast a bar which has +been purchased as good silver by the Mint." + +Her interest quickened. "By the Mint!" she echoed, amazed. "But, +then, my friend - " She was breathless with excitement. "It is +a miracle." + +"No less," he admitted. "But there is the greater miracle to come + - the transmutation of base metal into gold." + +"And you will perform it?" + +"Let me but conquer the secret of solidifying mercury, and the rest +is naught. I shall conquer it, and soon." + +He spoke with easy confidence, a man stating something that he knew +beyond the possibility of doubt. The Marquise became thoughtful. +She sighed. + +"You are the master of deep secrets, Vanens. Have you none that +will soften flinty hearts, make them responsive?" + +He considered this woman whom Saint-Simon has called "beautiful as +the day," and his smile broadened. + +"Look in your mirror for the alchemy needed there," he bade her. + +Anger rippled across the perfect face. She lowered + +"I have looked - in vain. Can you not help me, Vanens, you who +know so much?" + +"A love-philtre?" said he, and hummed. "Are you in earnest?" + +"Do you mock me with that question? Is not my need proclaimed for +all to see?" + +Vanens became grave. + +"It is not an alchemy in which myself I dabble," he said slowly. +"But I am acquainted with those who do." + +She clutched his wrist in her eagerness. + +"I will pay well," she said. + +"You will need to. Such things are costly." He glanced round to +see that none was listening, then bending nearer: "There is a +sorceress named La Voisin in the Rue de la Tannerie, well known as +a fortuneteller to many ladies of the Court, who at a word from me +will do your need." + +La Montespan turned white. The piety in which she had been reared + - the habits of which clung to her despite the irregularity of her +life-made her recoil before the thing that she desired. Sorcery +was of the Devil. She told him so. But Vanens laughed. + +"So that it be effective . . ." said he with a shrug. + +And then across the room floated a woman's trilling laugh. She +looked in the direction of the sound and beheld the gorgeous figure +of the King bending - yet haughty and condescending even in +adoration - over handsome Madame de Ludres. Pride and ambition +rose up in sudden fury to trample on religious feeling. Let Vanens +take her to this witch of his, for be the aid what it might, she +must have it. + +And so, one dark night late in the year, Louis de Vanens handed a +masked and muffled lady from a coach at the corner of the Rue de +la Tannerie, and conducted her to the house of La Voisin. + +The door was opened for them by a young woman of some twenty years +of age - Marguerite Monvoisin, the daughter of the witch - who led +them upstairs to a room that was handsomely furnished and hung with +fantastic tapestry of red designs upon a black ground - designs that +took monstrous shapes in the flickering light of a cluster of +candles. Black curtains parted, and from between them stepped a +short, plump woman, of a certain comeliness, with two round black +beads of eyes. She was fantastically robed in a cloak of crimson +velvet, lined with costly furs and closely studded with double-headed +eagles in fine gold, which must have been worth a prince's ransom; +and she wore red shoes on each of which there was the same eagle +design in gold. + +"Ah, Vanens!" she said familiarly. + +He bowed. + +"I bring you," he announced, "a lady who has need of your skill." + +And he waved a hand towards the tall cloaked figure at his side. + +La Voisin looked at the masked face. + +"Velvet faces tell me little, Madame la Marquise," she said calmly. +"Nor, believe me, will the King look at a countenance that you +conceal from me." + +There was an exclamation of surprise and anger from Madame de +Montespan. She plucked off her mask. + +"You knew me?" + +"Can you wonder?" asked La Voisin, "since I have told you what you +carry concealed in your heart?" + +Madame de Montespan was as credulous as only the very devout can be. + +"Since that is so, since you know already what I seek, tell me can +you procure it me?" she asked in a fever of excitement. "I will +pay well." + +La Voisin smiled darkly. + +"Obdurate, indeed, is the case that will not yield to such medicine +as mine," she said. "Let me consider first what must be done. In +a few days I shall bring you word. But have you courage for a great +ordeal?" + +"For any ordeal that will give me what I want." + +"In a few days, then, you shall hear from me," said the witch, and +so dismissed the great lady. + +Leaving a heavy purse behind her, as Vanens had instructed her, the +Marchioness departed with her escort. And there, with that +initiation, as far as we can ascertain, ended Louis de Vanens's +connection with the affair. + +At Clagny Madame de Montespan waited for three days in a fever of +impatience for the coming of the witch. But when at last La Voisin +presented herself, the proposal that she had to make was one before +which the Marchioness recoiled in horror and some indignation. + +The magic that La Voisin suggested involved a coadjutor, the Abbe +Guibourg, and the black mass to be celebrated by him. Madame de +Montespan had heard something of these dread sacrificial rites to +Satan; sufficient to fill her with loathing and disgust of the +white-faced, beady-eyed woman who dared to insult her by the +proposal. She fumed and raged a while, and even went near to +striking La Voisin, who looked on with inscrutable face and stony, +almost contemptuous, indifference. Before that impenetrable, +almost uncanny, calm, Madame de Montespan's fury at last abated. +Then the urgency of her need becoming paramount, she desired more +clearly to be told what would be expected of her. What the witch +told her was more appalling than anything she could have imagined. +But La Voisin argued: + +"Can anything be accomplished without cost? Can anything be gained +in this life without payment of some kind?" + +"But the price of this is monstrous!" Madame de Montespan protested. + +"Measure it by the worldly advantages to be gained. They are not +small, madame. To enjoy boundless wealth, boundless power, and +boundless honour, to be more than queen - is not all this worth +some sacrifice?" + +To Madame de Montespan it must have been worth any sacrifice in this +world or the next, since in the end she conquered her disgust, and +agreed to lend herself to this horror. + +Three masses, she was told, would be necessary to ensure success, +and it was determined that they should be celebrated in the chapel +of the Chateau de Villebousin, where Guibourg had been almoner, to +which he had access, and which was at the time untenanted. + +The chateau was a gloomy mediaeval fortress, blackened by age, and +standing, surrounded by a moat, in a lonely spot some two miles to +the south of Paris. Thither on a dark, gusty night of March came +Madame de Montespan, accompanied by her confidential waiting-woman, +Mademoiselle Desoeillets. They left the coach to await them on the +Orleans road, and thence, escorted by a single male attendant, they +made their way by a rutted, sodden path towards the grim castle +looming faintly through the enveloping gloom. + +The wind howled dismally about the crenellated turrets; and a row +of poplars, standing like black, phantasmal guardians of the evil +place, bent groaning before its fury. From the running waters of +the moat, swollen by recent rains, came a gurgling sound that was +indescribably wicked. + +Desoeillets was frightened by the dark, the desolate loneliness and +eeriness of the place; but she dared utter no complaint as she +stumbled forward over the uneven ground, through the gloom and the +buffeting wind, compelled by the suasion of her mistress's imperious +will. Thus, by a drawbridge spanning dark, oily waters, they came +into a vast courtyard and an atmosphere as of mildew. A studded +door stood ajar, and through the gap, from a guiding beacon of +infamy, fell a rhomb of yellow light, suddenly obscured by a squat +female figure when the steps of the Marchioness and her companions +fell upon the stones of the yard. + +It was La Voisin who stood on the threshold to receive her client. +In the stone-flagged hall behind her the light of a lantern revealed +her daughter, Marguerite Monvoisin, and a short, crafty-faced, +misshapen fellow in black homespun and a red wig - a magician named +Lesage, one of La Voisin's coadjutors, a rogue of some talent who +exploited the witches of Paris to his own profit. + +Leaving Leroy - the Marchioness's male attendant below in this +fellow's company, La Voisin took up a candle and lighted Madame de +Montespan up the broad stone staircase, draughty and cold, to the +ante-room of the chapel on the floor above. Mademoiselle +Desoeillets followed closely and fearfully, and Marguerite Monvoisin +came last. + +They entered the ante-room, a spacious chamber, bare of furniture +save for an oaken table in the middle, some faded and mildewed +tapestries, and a cane-backed settle of twisted walnut over against +the wall. An alabaster lamp on the table made an island of light +in that place of gloom, and within the circle of its feeble rays +stood a gross old man of some seventy years of age in sacerdotal +garments of unusual design: the white alb worn over a greasy cassock +was studded with black fir-cones; the stole and maniple were of +black satin, with fir-cones wrought in yellow thread. + +His inflamed countenance was of a revolting hideousness: his cheeks +were covered by a network of blue veins, his eyes squinted horribly, +his lips vanished inwards over toothless gums, and a fringe of white +hair hung in matted wisps from his high, bald crown. This was the +infamous Abbe Guibourg, sacristan of Saint Denis, an ordained +priest who had consecrated himself to the service of the Devil. + +He received the great lady with a low bow which, despite herself, +she acknowledged by a shudder. She was very pale, and her eyes +were dilating and preternaturally bright. Fear began to possess +her, yet she suffered herself to be ushered into the chapel, which +was dimly illumined by a couple of candles standing beside a basin +on a table. The altar light had been extinguished. Her maid would +have hung back, but that she feared to be parted from her mistress. +She passed in with her in the wake of Guibourg, and followed by La +Voisin, who closed the door, leaving her daughter in the ante-room. + +Although she had never been a participant in any of the sorceries +practised by her mother, yet Marguerite was fully aware of their +extent, and more than guessed what horrors were taking place beyond +the closed doors of the chapel. The very thought of them filled +her with loathing and disgust as she sat waiting, huddled in a +corner of the settle. And yet when presently through the closed +doors came the drone of the voice of that unclean celebrant, to +blend with the whine of the wind in the chimney, Marguerite, urged +by a morbid curiosity she could not conquer, crept shuddering to +the door, which directly faced the altar, and going down on her +knees applied her eye to the keyhole. + +What she saw may very well have appalled her considering the exalted +station of Madame de Montespan. She beheld the white, sculptural +form of the royal favourite lying at full length supine upon the +altar, her arms outstretched, holding a lighted candle in each hand. +Immediately before her stood the Abbe Guibourg, his body screening +the chalice and its position from the eye of the watching girl. + +She heard the whine of his voice pattering the Latin of the mass, +which he was reciting backwards from the last gospel; and +occasionally she heard responses muttered by her mother, who with +Mademoiselle Desoeillets was beyond Marguerite's narrow range of +vision. + +Apart from the interest lent to the proceedings by the presence of +the royal favourite the affair must have seemed now very stupid and +pointless to Marguerite, although she would certainly not have found +it so had she known enough Latin to understand the horrible +perversion of the Credo. But when the Offertory was reached, +matters suddenly quickened. In stealing away from the door, she +was no more than in time to avoid being caught spying by her mother, +who now issued from the chapel. + +La Voisin crossed the ante-room briskly and went out. + +Within a very few minutes she was back again, her approach now +heralded by the feeble, quavering squeals of a very young child. + +Marguerite Monvoisin was sufficiently acquainted with the ghastly +rites to guess what was impending. She was young, and herself a +mother. She had her share of the maternal instinct alive in every +female animal - with the occasional exception of the human pervert + - and the hoarse, plaintive cries of that young child chilled her +to the soul with horror. She felt the skin roughening and +tightening upon her body, and a sense of physical sickness overcame +her. That and the fear of her mother kept her stiff and frozen in +an angle of the settle until La Voisin had passed through and +reentered the chapel bearing that piteous bundle in her arms. + +Then, when the door had closed again, the girl, horrified and +fascinated, sped back to watch. She saw that unclean priest turn +and receive the child from La Voisin. As it changed hands its +cries were stilled. + +Guibourg faced the altar once more, that little wisp of humanity +that was but a few days old held now aloft, naked, in his criminal +hands. His muttering, slobbering voice pronouncing the words of +that demoniac consecration reached the ears of the petrified girl +at the keyhole. + +Ashtaroth, Asmodeus, Princes of Affection, I conjure you to +acknowledge the sacrifice I offer to you of this child for the +things I ask of you, which are that the King's love for me shall +be continued, and that honoured by princes and princesses nothing +shall be denied me of all that I may ask." + +A sudden gust of wind smote and rattled the windows of the chapel +and the ante-room, as if the legions of hell had flung themselves +against the walls of the chateau. There was a rush and clatter in +the chimney of the ante-room's vast, empty fireplace, and through +the din Marguerite, as her failing limbs sank under her and she +slithered down in a heap against the chapel door, seemed to hear a +burst of exultantly cruel satanic laughter. With chattering teeth +and burning eyes she sat huddled, listening in terror. The child +began to cry again, more violently, more piteously; then, quite +suddenly, there was a little choking cough, a gurgle, the chink of +metal against earthenware, and silence. + +When some moments later the squat figure of La Voisin emerged from +the chapel, Marguerite was back in the shadows, hunched on the +settle to which she had crawled. She saw that her mother now +carried a basin under her arm, and she did not need the evidence +of her eyes to inform her of the dreadful contents that the witch +was bearing away in it. + +Meanwhile in the chapel the ineffably blasphemous rites proceeded. +To the warm human blood which had been caught in the consecrated +chalice, Guibourg had added, among other foulnesses, powdered +cantharides, the dust of desiccated moles, and the blood of bats. +By the addition of flour he had wrought the ingredients into an +ineffable paste, and over this, through the door, which La Voisin +had left ajar, Marguerite heard his voice pronouncing the dread +words of Transubstantiation. + +Marguerite's horror mounted until it threatened to suffocate her. +It was as if some hellish miasma, released by Guibourg's monstrous +incantations, crept through to permeate and poison the air she +breathed. + +It would be a half-hour later when Madame de Montespan at last came +out. She was of a ghastly pallor, her limbs shook and trembled +under her as she stepped forth, and there was a wild horror in her +staring eyes. Yet she contrived to carry herself almost defiantly +erect, and she spoke sharply to the half-swooning Desoeillets, who +staggered after her. + +She took her departure from that unholy place bearing with her the +host compounded of devilish ingredients which when dried and reduced +to powder was to be administered to the King to ensure the renewal +of his failing affection for her. + +The Marchioness contrived that a creature of her own, an officer of +the buttery in her pay, should introduce it into the royal soup. +The immediate and not unnatural result was that the King was taken +violently ill, and Madame de Montespan's anxiety and suspense were +increased thereby. On his recovery, however, it would seem that +the demoniac sacrament - thrice repeated by then - had not been in +vain. + +The sequel, indeed, appeared to justify Madame de Montespan's faith +in sorcery, and to compensate her for all the horror to which in +her despair she had submitted. Madame de Ludres found herself coldly +regarded by the convalescent King. Very soon she was discarded, the +Widow Scarron neglected, and the fickle monarch was once more at the +feet of the lovely marchioness, her utter and devoted slave. + +Thus was Madame de Montespan "thunderously triumphant" once more, +and established as firmly as 'ever in the Sun-King's favour. Madame +de Sevigne, in speaking of this phase of their relations, dilates +upon the completeness of the reconciliation, and tells us that the +ardour of the first years seemed now to have returned. And for two +whole years it continued thus. Never before had Madame de +Montespan's sway been more absolute, no shadow came to trouble, the +serenity of her rule. + +But it proved, after all, to be no more than the last flare of an +expiring fire that was definitely quenched at last, in 1679, by +Mademoiselle de Fontanges. A maid of honour to madame, she was a +child of not more than eighteen years, fair and flaxen, with pink +cheeks and large, childish eyes; and it was for this doll that the +regal Montespan now found herself discarded. + +Honours rained upon the new favourite. Louis made her a duchess +with an income of twenty thousand livres, and deeply though this +may have disgusted his subjects, it disgusted Madame de Montespan +still more. Blinded by rage she openly abused the new duchess, and +provoked a fairly public scene with Louis, in which she gave him +her true opinion of him with a disturbing frankness. + +"You dishonour yourself," she informed him among other things. "And +you betray your taste when you make love to a pink-and-white doll, +a little fool that has no more wit nor manners than if she were +painted on canvas!" Then, with an increase of scorn, she delivered +herself of an unpardonable apostrophe: "You, a king, to accept the +inheritance of that chit's rustic lovers! " + +He flushed and scowled upon her. + +"That is an infamous falsehood!" he exclaimed. "Madame, you are +unbearable!" He was very angry, and it infuriated him the more that +she should stand so coldly mocking before an anger that could bow +the proudest heads in France. "You have the pride of Satan, your +greed is insatiable, your domineering spirit utterly insufferable, +and you have the most false and poisonous tongue in the world!" + +Her brutal answer bludgeoned that high divinity to earth. + +"With all my imperfections," she sneered, "at least I do not smell +as badly as you do!" + +It was an answer that extinguished her last chance. It was fatal +to the dignity, to the "terrible majesty" of Louis. It stripped +him of all divinity, and revealed him authoritatively as intensely +and even unpleasantly human. It was beyond hope of pardon. + +His face turned the colour of wax. A glacial silence hung over the +agonized witnesses of that royal humiliation. Then, without a word, +in a vain attempt to rescue the dignity she had so cruelly mauled, +he turned, his red heels clicked rapidly and unsteadily across the +polished floor, and he was gone. + +When Madame de Montespan realized exactly what she had done, nothing +but rage remained to her - rage and its offspring, vindictiveness. +The Duchess of Fontanges must not enjoy her victory, nor must Louis +escape punishment for his faithlessness. La Voisin should afford +her the means to accomplish this. And so she goes once more to the +Rue de la Tannerie. + +Now, the matter of Madame de Montespan's present needs was one in +which the witches were particularly expert. Were you troubled with +a rival, did your husband persist in surviving your affection for him, +did those from whom you had expectations cling obstinately and +inconsiderately to life, the witches by incantations and the use of +powders - in which arsenic was the dominant charm - could usually +put the matter right for you. Indeed, so wide and general was the +practice of poisoning become, that the authorities, lately aroused +to the fact by the sensational revelations of the Marchioness de +Brinvilliers, had set up in this year 1670 the tribunal known as +the Chambre Ardente to inquire into the matter, and to conduct +prosecutions. + +La Voisin promised help to the Marchioness. She called in another +witch of horrible repute, named La Filastre, her coadjutor Lesage, +and two expert poisoners, Romani and Bertrand, who devised an +ingenious plot for the murder of the Duchess of Fontanges. They +were to visit her, Romani as a cloth merchant, and Bertrand as his +servant, to offer her their wares, including some Grenoble gloves, +which were the most beautiful gloves in the world and unfailingly +irresistible to ladies. These gloves they prepared in accordance +with certain magical recipes in such a way that the Duchess, after +wearing them, must die a lingering death in which there could be no +suspicion of poisoning. + +The King was to be dealt with by means of a petition steeped in +similar powders, and should receive his death by taking it into his +hands. La Voisin herself was to go to Saint-Germain to present +this petition on Monday, March 13th, one of those days on which, +according to ancient custom, all comers were admitted to the royal +presence. + +Thus they disposed. But Fate was already silently stalking La +Voisin. + +It is to the fact that an obscure and vulgar woman had drunk one +glass of wine too many three months earlier that the King owed his +escape. + +If you are interested in the almost grotesque disparity that can +lie between cause and effect, here is a subject for you. Three +months earlier a tailor named Vigoureux, whose wife secretly +practised magic, had entertained a few friends to dinner, amongst +whom was an intimate of his wife's, named Marie Bosse. This Marie +Bosse it was who drank that excessive glass of wine which, drowning +prudence, led her to boast of the famous trade she drove as a +fortune-teller to the nobility, and even to hint of something +further. + +"Another three poisonings," she chuckled, "and I shall retire with +my fortune made!" + +An attorney who was present pricked up his ears, bethought him of +the tales that were afloat, and gave information to the police. +The police set a trap for Marie Bosse, and she betrayed herself. +Later, under torture, she betrayed La Vigoureux. La Vigoureux +betrayed others, and these others again. + +The arrest of Marie Bosse was like knocking down the first of a row +of ninepins, but none could have suspected that the last of these +stood in the royal apartments. + +On the day before she was to repair to Saint-Germain, La Voisin, +betrayed in her turn, received a surprise visit from the police - +who, of course, had no knowledge of the regicide their action was +thwarting - and she was carried off to the Chatelet. Put to the +question, she revealed a great deal; but her terror of the horrible +punishment reserved for regicides prevented her to the day of her +death at the stake - in February of 1680 from saying a word of her +association with Madame de Montespan. + +But there were others whom she betrayed under torture, and whose +arrest followed quickly upon her own, who had not her strength of +character. Among these were La Filastre and the magician Lesage. +When it was found that these two corroborated each other in the +incredible things which they related, the Chambre Ardente took +fright. La Reynie, who presided over it, laid the matter before +the King, and the King, horror-stricken by the discovery of the +revolting practices in which the mother of his children had been +engaged, suspended the sittings of the Chambre Ardente, and +commanded that no further proceedings should be taken against Lesage +and La Filastre, and none initiated against Romani, Bertrand, the +Abbe Guibourg, and the scores of other poisoners and magicians who +had been arrested, and who were acquainted with Madame de Montespan's +unholy traffic. + +But it was not out of any desire to spare Madame de Montespan that +the King proceeded in this manner; he was concerned only to spare +himself and his royal dignity. He feared above all things the +scandal and ridicule which must touch him as a result of publicity, +and because he feared it so much, he could impose no punishment +upon Madame de Montespan. + +This he made known to her at the interview between them procured by +his minister Louvois, at about the time that the sittings of the +Chambre Ardente were suspended. + +To this interview that proud, domineering woman came in dread, and +in tears and humility for once. The King's bearing was cold and +hard. Cold and hard were the words in which he declared the extent +of his knowledge of her infamy, words which revealed the loathing +and disgust this knowledge brought him. If at first she was +terror-stricken, crushed under the indictment, yet she was never of +a temper to bear reproaches long. Under his scorn her anger kindled +and her humility was sloughed. + +"What then?" she cried at last, eyes aflash through lingering tears. +"Is the blame all mine? If all this is true, it is no less true +that I was driven to it by my love for you and the despair to which +your heartlessness and infidelity reduced me. To you," she +continued, gathering force at every word, "I sacrificed everything + - my honour, a noble husband who loved me, all that a woman prizes. +And what did you give me in exchange? Your cruel fickleness exposed +me to the low mockery of the lick-spittles of your Court. Do you +wonder that I went mad, and that in my madness I sacrificed what +shreds of self-respect you had left me? And now it seems I have +lost all but life. Take that, too, if it be your pleasure. Heaven +knows it has little value left for me! But remember that in +striking me you strike the mother of your children - the legitimate +children of France. Remember that!" + +He remembered it. Indeed, he was never in danger of forgetting it; +for she might have added that he would be striking also at himself +and at that royal dignity which was his religion. And so that all +scandalous comment might be avoided she was actually allowed to +remain at Court, although no longer in her first-floor apartments; +and it was not until ten years later that she departed to withdraw +to the community of Saint Joseph. + +But even in her disgrace this woman, secretly convicted among other +abominations of attempting to procure the poisoning of the King and +of her rival, enjoyed an annual pension of 1,200,000 livres; whilst +none dared proceed against those who shared her guilt - not even +the infamous Guibourg, the poisoners Romani and Bertrand, and La +Filastre - nor yet against some scores of associates of these, who +were known to live by sorcery and poisonings, and who might be +privy to the part played by Madame de Montespan in that horrible +night of magic at the Chateau de Villebousin. + +The hot blast of revolution was needed to sweep France clean. + + + + +VII. THE NIGHT OF GEMS + +THE "AFFAIRS" OF THE QUEEN'S NECKLACE + + +Under the stars of a tepid, scented night of August of 1784, Prince +Louis de Rohan, Cardinal of Strasbourg, Grand Almoner of France, +made his way with quickened pulses through the Park of Versailles +to a momentous assignation in the Grove of Venus. + +This illustrious member of an illustrious House, that derived from +both the royal lines of Valois and Bourbon, was a man in the prime +of life, of a fine height, still retaining something of the willowy +slenderness that had been his in youth, and of a gentle, almost +womanly beauty of countenance. + +In a grey cloak and a round, grey hat with gold cords, followed +closely by two shadowy attendant figures, he stepped briskly amain, +eager to open those gates across the path of his ambition, locked +against him hitherto by the very hands from which he now went to +receive the key. + +He deserves your sympathy, this elegant Cardinal-Prince, who had been +the victim of the malice and schemings of the relentless Austrian +Empress since the days when he represented the King of France at the +Court of Vienna. + +The state he had kept there had been more than royal and royal in +the dazzling French manner, which was perturbing to a woman of +Marie Therese's solid German notions. His hunting-parties, his +supper-parties, the fetes he gave upon every occasion, the worldly +inventiveness, the sumptuousness and reckless extravagance that +made each of these affairs seem like a supplement to "The Arabian +Nights' Entertainments," the sybaritic luxury of his surroundings, +the incredible prodigality of his expenditure, all served profoundly +to scandalize and embitter the Empress. + +That a priest in gay, secular clothes should hunt the stag on +horseback filled her with horror at his levity; that he should flirt +discreetly with the noble ladies of Vienna made her despair of his +morals; whilst his personal elegance and irresistible charm were +proofs to her of a profligacy that perverted the Court over which +she ruled. + +She laboured for the extinction of his pernicious brilliance, and +intrigued for his recall. She made no attempt to conceal her +hostility, nor did she love him any the better because he met her +frigid haughtiness with an ironical urbanity that seemed ever to +put her in the wrong. And then one day he permitted his wit to be +bitingly imprudent. + +"Marie Therese," he wrote to D'Aiguillon, "holds in one hand a +handkerchief to receive her tears for the misfortunes of oppressed +Poland, and in the other a sword to continue its partition." + +To say that in this witticism lay one of the causes of the French +Revolution may seem at first glance an outrageous overstatement. +Yet it is certain that, but for that imprudent phrase, the need +would never have arisen that sent Rohan across the Park of Versailles +on that August night to an assignation that in the sequel was to +place a terrible weapon in the hands of the Revolutionary party. + +D'Aiguillon had published the gibe. It had reached the ears of +Marie Antoinette, and from her it had travelled back to her mother +in Vienna. It aroused in the Empress a resentment and a bitterness +that did not rest until the splendid Cardinal-Prince was recalled +from his embassy. It did not rest even then. By the ridicule to +which the gibe exposed her - and if you know Marie Therese at all, +you can imagine what that meant - it provoked a hostility that was +indefatigably to labour against him. + +The Cardinal was ambitious, he had confidence in his talents and in +the driving force of his mighty family, and he looked to become +another Richelieu or Mazarin, the first Minister of the Crown, the +empurpled ruler of France, the guiding power behind the throne. All +this he looked confidently to achieve; all this he might have +achieved but for the obstacle that Marie Therese's resentment flung +across his path. The Empress saw to it that, through the person of +her daughter, her hatred should pursue him even into France. + +Obedient ever to the iron will of her mother, sharing her mother's +resentment, Marie Antoinette exerted all her influence to thwart +this Cardinal whom her mother had taught her to regard as a +dangerous, unprincipled man. + +On his return from Vienna bearing letters from Marie Therese to +Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, the Cardinal found himself coldly +received by the dull King, and discouraged from remaining at Court, +whilst the Queen refused to grant him so much as the audience +necessary for the delivery of these letters, desiring him to forward +them instead. + +The chagrined Cardinal had no illusions. He beheld here the hand +of Marie Therese controlling Marie Antoinette, and, through Marie +Antoinette, the King himself. Worse followed. He who had dreamt +himself another Richelieu could only with difficulty obtain the +promised position of Grand Almoner of France, and this solely as a +result of the powerful and insistent influence exerted by his family. + +He perceived that if he was to succeed at all he must begin by +softening the rigorous attitude which the Queen maintained towards +him. To that end he addressed himself. But three successive letters +he wrote to the Queen remained unanswered. Through other channels +persistently he begged for an audience that he might come in person +to express his regrets for the offending indiscretion. But the Queen +remained unmoved, ruled ever by the Austrian Empress, who through +her daughter sought to guide the affairs of France. + +Rohan was reduced to despair, and then in an evil hour his path was +crossed by Jeanne de la Motte de Valois, who enjoyed the reputation +of secretly possessing the friendship of the Queen, exerting a sort +of back-stair influence, and who lived on that reputation. + +As a drowning man clutches at a straw, so the Cardinal-Prince Louis +de Rohan, Grand Almoner of France, Landgrave of Alsace, Commander +of the Order of the Holy Ghost, clutched at this faiseuse d'affaires +to help him in his desperate need. + +Jeanne de la Motte de Valois - perhaps the most astounding +adventuress that ever lived by her wits and her beauty - had begun +life by begging her bread in the streets. She laid claim to +left-handed descent from the royal line of Valois, and, her claim +supported by the Marchioness Boulainvilliers, who had befriended +her, she had obtained from the Crown a small pension, and had +married the unscrupulous Marc Antoine de la Motte, a young soldier +in the Burgundy regiment of the Gendarmerie. + +Later, in the autumn of 1786, her protectress presented her to +Cardinal de Rohan. His Eminence, interested in the lady's +extraordinary history, in her remarkable beauty, vivacity, and wit, +received the De la Mottes at his sumptuous chateau at Saverne, near +Strasbourg, heard her story in greater detail, promised his +protection, and as an earnest of his kindly intentions obtained for +her husband a captain's commission in the Dragoons. + +Thereafter you see the De la Mottes in Paris and at Versailles, +hustled from lodging to lodging for failure to pay what they owe; +and finally installed in a house in the Rue Neuve Saint-Gilles. +There they kept a sort of state, spending lavishly, now the money +borrowed from the Cardinal, or upon the Cardinal's security; now +the proceeds of pawned goods that had been bought on credit, and of +other swindles practised upon those who were impressed by the lady's +name and lineage and the patronage of the great Cardinal which she +enjoyed. + +To live on your wits is no easy matter. It demands infinite address, +coolness, daring, and resource qualities which Madame de la Motte +possessed in the highest degree, so that, harassed and pressed by +creditors, she yet contrived to evade their attacks and to present +a calm and, therefore, confidence-inspiring front to the world. + +The truth of Madame de la Motte de Valois's reputation for influence +at Court was never doubted. There was nothing in the character of +Marie Antoinette to occasion such doubts. Indiscreet in many things, +Her Majesty was most notoriously so in her attachments, as witness +her intimacy with Madame de Polignac and the Princesse de Lambelle. +And the public voice had magnified - as it will - those indiscretions +until it had torn her character into shreds. + +The fame of the Countess Jeanne de Valois - as Madame de la Motte +now styled herself - increasing, she was employed as an intermediary +by place-seekers and people with suits to prefer, who gratefully +purchased her promises to interest herself on their behalf at Court. + +And then into her web of intrigue blundered the Cardinal de Rohan, +who, as he confessed, "was completely blinded by his immense desire +to regain the good graces of the Queen." She aroused fresh hope in +his despairing heart by protesting that, as some return for all the +favours she had received from him, she would not rest until she had +disposed the Queen more favourably towards him. + +Later came assurances that the Queen's hostility was melting under +her persuasions, and at last she announced that she was authorized +by Her Majesty to invite him to submit the justification which so +long and so vainly he had sought permission to present. + +Rohan, in a vertigo of satisfaction, indited his justification, +forwarded it to the Queen by the hand of the Countess, and some days +later received a note in the Queen's hand upon blue-edged paper +adorned by the lilies of France. + +"I rejoice," wrote Marie Antoinette, "to find at last that you were +not in fault. I cannot yet grant you the audience you desire, but +as soon as the circumstances allow of it I shall let you know. Be +discreet." + +Upon the advice of the Countess of Valois, His Eminence sent a reply +expressive of his deep gratitude and joy. + +Thus began a correspondence between Queen and Cardinal which +continued regularly for a space of three months, growing gradually +more confidential and intimate. As time passed his solicitations +of an audience became more pressing, until at last the Queen wrote +announcing that, actuated by esteem and affection for him who had +so long been kept in banishment, she herself desired the meeting. +But it must be secret. An open audience would still be premature; +he had numerous enemies at Court, who, thus forewarned, might so +exert themselves against him as yet to ruin all. + +To receive such a letter from a beautiful woman, and that woman a +queen whose glories her inaccessibility had magnified a thousandfold +in his imagination, must have all but turned the Cardinal's head. +The secrecy of the correspondence, culminating in a clandestine +meeting, seemed to establish between them an intimacy impossible +under other circumstances. + +Into the warp of his ambition was now woven another, tenderly +romantic, though infinitely respectful, feeling. + + +You realize, I hope, the frame of mind in which the Cardinal-Prince +took his way through that luminous, fragrant summer night towards +the Grove of Venus. He went to lay the cornerstone of the proud +edifice of his ambitions. To him it was a night of nights - a night +of gems, he pronounced it, looking up into the jewelled vault of +heaven. And in that phrase he was singularly prophetic. + +By an avenue of boxwood and yoke-elm he entered into an open glade, +in the middle of which there was a circle where the intended statue +of Venus was never placed. But if the cold marble effigy of a +goddess were absent, the warm, living figure of a queen stood, all +in shimmering white amid the gloom, awaiting him. + +Rohan checked a moment, his breath arrested, his pulses quickened. +Then he sped forward, and, flinging off his wide-brimmed hat, he +prostrated himself to kiss the hem of her white cambric gown. +Something - a rose that she let fall - brushed lightly past his +cheek. Reverently he recovered it, accounting it a tangible symbol +of her favour, and he looked up into the proud, lovely face - which, +although but dimly discernible, was yet unmistakable to him +protesting his gratitude and devotion. He perceived that she was +trembling, and caught the quiver in the voice that answered him. + +"You may hope that the past will be forgiven." + +And then, before he could drink more deeply of this cup of delight, +came rapid steps to interrupt them. A slender man, in whom the +Cardinal seemed to recognize the Queen's valet Desclaux, thrust +through the curtains of foliage into the grove. + +"Quick, madame!" he exclaimed in agitation. "Madame la Comtesse +and Mademoiselle d'Artois are approaching!" + +The Queen was whirled away, and the Cardinal discreetly effaced +himself, his happiness tempered by chagrin at the interruption. + +When, on the morrow, the Countess of Valois brought him a +blue-bordered note with Her Majesty's wishes that he should patiently +await a propitious season for his public restoration to royal favour, +he resigned himself with the most complete and satisfied submission. +Had he not the memory of her voice and the rose she had given him? +Soon afterwards came a blue-bordered note in which Marie Antoinette +advised him to withdraw to his Bishopric of Strasbourg until she +should judge that the desired season of :his reinstatement had +arrived. + +Obediently Rohan withdrew. + + +It was in the following December that the Countess of Valois's good +offices at Court were solicited by a new client, and that she first +beheld the famous diamond necklace. + +It had been made by the Court jewellers of the Rue Vendome - Bohmer +and Bassenge - and intended for the Countess du Barry. On the +assembling of its component gems Bohmer had laboured for five years +and travelled all over Europe, with the result that he had achieved +not so much a necklace as a blaziing scarf of diamonds of a splendour +outrivalling any jewel that the world had ever seen. + +Unfortunately, Bohmer was too long over the task. Louis XV died +inopportunely, and the firm found itself with a necklace worth two +million livres on its hands. + +Hopes were founded upon Marie Antoinette's reputed extravagance. But +the price appalled her, while Louis XVI met the importunities of the +jeweller with the reply that the country needed a ship of war more +urgently than a necklace. + +Thereafter Bohmer offered it in various Courts of Europe, but always +without success. Things were becoming awkward. The firm had borrowed +heavily to pay for the stones, and anxiety seems to have driven Bohmer +to the verge of desperation. Again he offered the necklace to the +King, announcing himself ready to make terms, and to accept payment +in instalments; but again it was refused. + +Bohmer now became that pest to society, the man with a grievance +that he must be venting everywhere. On one occasion he so far +forgot himself as to intrude upon the Queen as she was walking in +the gardens of the Trianon. Flinging himself upon his knees before +her, he protested with sobs that he was in despair, and that unless +she purchased the necklace he would go and drown himself. His tears +left her unmoved to anything but scorn. + +"Get up, Bohmer!" she bade him. "I don't like such scenes. I have +refused the necklace, and I don't want to hear of it again. Instead +of drowning yourself, break it up and sell the diamonds separately." + +He did neither one nor the other, but continued to air his grievance; +and among those who heard him was one Laporte, an impecunious visitor +at the house of the Countess of Valois. + +Bohmer had said that he would pay a thousand louis to any one who +found him a purchaser for the necklace. That was enough to stir the +needy Laporte. He mentioned the matter to the Countess, and enlisted +her interest. Then he told Bohmer of her great influence with the +Queen, and brought the jeweller to visit her with the necklace. + +Dazzled by the fire of those gems, the Countess nevertheless +protested - but in an arch manner calculated to convince Bohmer of +the contrary - that she had no power to influence Her Majesty. Yet +yielding with apparent reluctance to his importunities, she, +nevertheless, ended by promising to see what could be done. + +On January 3d the Cardinal came back from Strasbourg. Correspondence +with the Queen, through Madame de Valois, had continued during his +absence, and now, within a few days of his return, an opportunity +was to be afforded him of proving his readiness to serve Her Majesty, +and of placing her under a profound obligation to him. + +The Countess brought him a letter from Marie Antoinette, in which +the Queen expressed her desire to acquire the necklace, but added +that, being without the requisite funds at the moment, it would be +necessary to settle the terms and arrange the instalments, which +should be paid at intervals of three months. For this she required +an intermediary who in himself would be a sufficient guarantee to +the Bohmers, and she ended by inviting His Eminence to act on her +behalf. + +That invitation the Cardinal, who had been waiting ever since the +meeting in the Grove of Venus for an opportunity of proving himself, +accepted with alacrity. + +And so, on January 24th, the Countess drives up to the Grand Balcon, +the jewellers' shop in the Rue Vendome. Her dark eyes sparkle, the +lovely, piquant face is wreathed in smiles. + +"Messieurs," she greets the anxious partners, "I think I can promise +you that the necklace will very shortly be sold." + +The jewellers gasp in the immensity of the hope her words arouse. + +"The purchase," she goes on to inform them, "will be effected by a +very great nobleman." + +Bassenge bursts into voluble gratitude. She cuts it short. + +"That nobleman is the Cardinal-Prince Louis de Rohan. It is with +him that you will arrange the affair, and I advise you," she adds +in a confidential tone, "to take every precaution, especially in +the matter of the terms of payment that may be proposed to you. +That is all, I think, messieurs. You will, of course, bear in mind +that it is no concern of mine, and that I do not so much as want my +name mentioned in connection with it." + +"Perfectly, madame," splutters Bohmer, who is perspiring, although +the air is cold - "perfectly! We understand, and we are profoundly +grateful. If - " His hands fumble nervously at a case. "If you +would deign, madame, to accept this trifle as an earnest of our +indebtedness, we - " + +There is a tinge of haughtiness in her manner as she interrupts him. + +"You do not appear to understand, Bohmer, that the matter does not +at all concern me. I have done nothing," she insists; then, melting +into smiles, "My only desire," she adds, "was to be of service to +you." + +And upon that she departs, leaving them profoundly impressed by her +graciousness and still more by her refusal to accept a valuable jewel. + +On the morrow the great nobleman she had heralded, the Cardinal +himself, alighted at the Grand Balcon, coming, on the Queen's behalf, +to see the necklace and settle the terms. By the end of the week +the bargain was concluded. The price was fixed at 1,600,000 livres, +which the Queen was to pay in four instalments extending over two +years, the first falling due on the following August 1st. + +These terms the Cardinal embodied in a note which he forwarded to +Madame de la Motte, that they might be ratified by the Queen. + +The Countess returned the note to him next day. + +"Her Majesty is pleased and grateful," she announced, "and she +approves of all that you have done. But she does not wish to sign +anything." + +On that point, however, the Cardinal was insistent. The magnitude +of the transaction demanded it, and he positively refused to move +further without Her Majesty's signature. + +The Countess departed to return again on the last day of the month +with the document completed as the Cardinal required, bearing now +the signature "Marie Antoinette de France," and the terms marked +"approved" in the Queen's hand. + +"The Queen," Madame de la Motte informed him, "is making this +purchase secretly, without the King's knowledge, and she particularly +begs that this note shall not leave Your Eminence's hands. Do not, +therefore, allow any one to see it." + +Rohan gave the required promise, but, not conceiving that the +Bohmers were included in it, he showed them the note and the Queen's +signature when they came to wait upon him with the necklace on the +morrow. + +In the dusk of evening a closed carriage drew up at the door of +Madame de la Motte Valois's lodging on the Place Dauphine at +Versailles. Rohan alighted, and went upstairs with a casket under +his arm. + +Madame awaited him in a white-panelled, indifferently lighted room, +to which there was an alcove with glass doors. + +"You have brought the necklace?" + +"It is here," he replied, tapping the box with his gloved hand. + +"Her Majesty is expecting it to-night. Her messenger should arrive +at any moment. She will be pleased with Your Eminence." + +"That is all that I can desire," he answered gravely; and sat down +in answer to her invitation, the precious casket on his knees. + +Waiting thus, they talked desultorily for some moments. At last +came steps upon the stairs. + +"Quick! The alcove!" she exclaimed. "You must not be seen by Her +Majesty's messenger." + +Rohan, with ready understanding, a miracle of discretion, effaced +himself into the alcove, through the glass doors of which he could +see what passed. + +The door was opened by madame's maid with the announcement: + +"From the Queen." + +A tall, slender young man in black, the Queen's attendant of that +other night of gems - the night of the Grove of Venus - stepped +quickly into the room, bowed like a courtier to Madame de la Motte, +and presented a note. + +Madame broke the seal, then begged the messenger to withdraw for a +moment. When he had gone, she turned to the Cardinal, who stood +in the doorway of the alcove. + +"That is Desclaux, Her Majesty's valet," she said; and held out to +him the note, which requested the delivery of the necklace to the +bearer. + +A moment later the messenger was reintroduced to receive the casket +from the hands of Madame de la Motte. Within five minutes the +Cardinal was in his carriage again, driving happily back to Paris +with his dreams of a queen's gratitude and confidence. + +Two days later, meeting Bohmer at Versailles, the Cardinal suggested +to him that he should offer his thanks to the Queen for having +purchased the necklace. + +Bohmer sought an opportunity for this in vain. None offered. It +was also in vain that he waited to hear that the Queen had worn +the necklace. But he does not appear to have been anxious on that +score. Moreover, the Queen's abstention was credibly explained by +Madame de la Motte to Laporte with the statement that Her Majesty +did not wish to wear the necklace until it was paid for. + +With the same explanation she answered the Cardinal's inquiries in +the following July, when he returned from a three months' sojourn +in Strasbourg. + +And she took the opportunity to represent to him that one of the +reasons why the Queen could not yet consider the necklace quite +her own was that she found the price too high. + +"Indeed, she may be constrained to return it, after all, unless +the Bohmers are prepared to be reasonable." + +If His Eminence was a little dismayed by this, at least any nascent +uneasiness was quieted. He consented to see the jewellers in the +matter, and on July 10th - three weeks before the first instalment +was due - he presented himself at the Grand Balcon to convey the +Queen's wishes to the Bohmers. + +Bohmer scarcely troubled to prevent disgust from showing on his +keen, swarthy countenance. Had not his client been a queen and +her intermediary a cardinal, he would, no doubt, have afforded it +full expression. + +"The price agreed upon was already greatly below the value of the +necklace," he grumbled. "I should never have accepted it but for +the difficulties under which we have been placed by the purchase +of the stones - the money we owe and the interest we are forced to +pay. A further reduction is impossible." + +The handsome Cardinal was suave, courtly, regretful, but firm. Since +that was the case, there would be no alternative but to return the +necklace. + +Bohmer took fright. The annulment of the sale would bring him face +to face with ruin. Reluctantly, feeling that he was being imposed +upon, he reduced the price by two hundred thousand livres, and even +consented to write the Queen the following letter, whose epistolary +grace suggests the Cardinal's dictation: + +MADAME, - We are happy to hazard the thought that our submission +with zeal and respect to the last arrangement proposed constitutes +a proof of our devotion and obedience to the orders of Your Majesty. +And we have genuine satisfaction in thinking that the most +beautiful set of diamonds in existence will serve to adorn the +greatest and best of queens. + +Now it happened that Bohmer was about to deliver personally to the +Queen some jewels with which the King was presenting her on the +occasion of the baptism of his nephew. He availed himself of that +opportunity, two days later, personally to hand his letter to Her +Majesty. But chance brought the Comptroller-General into the room +before she had opened it, and as a result the jeweller departed +while the letter was, still unread. + +Afterwards, in the presence of Madame de Campan, who relates the +matter in her memoirs, the Queen opened the note, pored over it a +while, and then, perhaps with vivid memories of Bohmer's threat of +suicide: + +"Listen to what that madman Bohmer writes to me," she said, and +read the lines aloud. "You guessed the riddles in the 'Mercure' +this morning. I wonder could you guess me this one." + +And, with a half-contemptuous shrug, she held the sheet in the flame +of one of the tapers that stood alight on the table for the purpose +of sealing letters. + +"That man exists for my torment," she continued. "He has always +some mad notion in his head, and must always be visiting it upon me. +When next you see him, pray convince him how little I care for +diamonds." + +And there the matter was dismissed. + +Days passed, and then a week before the instalment of 350,000 livres +was due, the Cardinal received a visit from Madame de la Motte on +the Queen's behalf. + +"Her Majesty," madame announced, "seems embarrassed about the +instalment. She does not wish to trouble you by writing about it. +But I have thought of a way by which you could render yourself +agreeable to her and, at the same time, set her mind at rest. Could +you not raise a loan for the amount?" + +Had not the Cardinal himself dictated to Bohmer a letter which +Bohmer himself had delivered to the Queen, he must inevitably have +suspected by now that all was not as it should be. But, satisfied +as he was by that circumstance, he addressed himself to the matter +which Madame de la Motte proposed. But, although Rohan was +extraordinarily wealthy, he had ever been correspondingly lavish. + +Moreover, to complicate matters, there had been the bankruptcy of +his nephew, the Prince de Guimenee, whose debts had amounted to +some three million livres. Characteristically, and for the sake +of the family honour, Rohan had taken the whole of this burden +upon his own shoulders. Hence his resources were in a crippled +condition, and it was beyond his power to advance so considerable +a sum at such short notice. Nor did he succeed in obtaining a +loan within the little time at his disposal. + +His anxieties on this score were increased by a letter from the +Queen which Madame de la Motte brought him on July 30th, in which +Her Majesty wrote that the first instalment could not be paid until +October 1st; but that on that date a payment of seven hundred +thousand livres - half of the revised price -would unfailingly be +made. Together with this letter, Madame de la Motte handed him +thirty thousand livres, interest on the instalment due, with which +to pacify the jewellers. + +But the jewellers were not so easily to be pacified. Bohmer, at the +end of his patience, definitely refused to grant the postponement +or to receive the thirty thousand livres other than as on account +of the instalment due. + +The Cardinal departed in vexation. Something must be done at once, +or his secret relations with the Queen would be disclosed, thus +precipitating a catastrophe and a scandal. He summoned Madame de +la Motte, flung her into a panic with his news and sent her away +to see what she could do. What she actually did would have +surprised him. Realizing that a crisis had been reached calling +for bold measures, she sent for Bassenge, the milder of the two +partners. He came to the Rue Neuve Saint-Gilles, protesting that +he was being abused. + +"Abused?" quoth she, taking him up on the word. "Abused, do you +say?" She laughed sharply. "Say duped, my friend; for that is what +has happened to you. You are the victim of a swindle." + +Bassenge turned white; his prominent eyes bulged in his rather +pasty face. + +"What are you saying, madame?" His voice was husky. + +"The Queen's signature on the note in the Cardinal's possession +is a forgery." + +"A forgery! The Queen's signature? Oh, mon Dieu!" He stared at +her, and his knees began to tremble. "How do you know, madame?" + +"I have seen it," she answered. + +"But - but - " + +His nerveless limbs succumbing under him, he sank without ceremony +to a chair that was opportunely near him. With the same lack of +ceremony, mechanically, in a dazed manner, he mopped the sweat +that stood in beads on his brow, then raised his wig and mopped +his head. + +"There is no need to waste emotion," said she composedly. "The +Cardinal de Rohan is very rich. You must look to him. He will +pay you." + +"Will he?" + +Hope and doubt were blended in the question. + +"What else?" she asked. "Can you conceive that he will permit +such a scandal to burst about his name and the name of the Queen?" + +Bassenge saw light. The rights and wrongs of the case, and who +might be the guilty parties, were matters of very secondary +importance. What mattered was that the firm should recover the +14,000,000 livres for which the necklace had been sold; and +Bassenge was quick to attach full value to the words of Madame +de la Motte. + +Unfortunately for everybody concerned, including the jewellers +themselves, Bohmer's mind was less supple. Panic-stricken by +Bassenge's report, he was all for the direct method. There was +no persuading him to proceed cautiously, and to begin by visiting +the Cardinal. He tore away to Versailles at once, intent upon +seeing the Queen. But the Queen, as we know, had had enough of +Bohmer. He had to content himself with pouring his mixture of +intercessions and demands into the ears of Madame de Campan. + +"You have been swindled, Bohmer," said the Queen's lady promptly. +"Her Majesty never received the necklace." + +Bohmer would not be convinced. Disbelieving, and goaded to fury, +he returned to Bassenge. + +Bassenge, however, though perturbed, retained his calm. The +Cardinal, he insisted, was their security, and it was impossible +to doubt that the Cardinal would fulfil his obligations at all +costs, rather than be overwhelmed by a scandal. + +And this, no doubt, is what would have happened but for that hasty +visit of Bohmer's to Versailles. It ruined everything. As a +result of it, Bohmer was summoned to wait instantly upon the Queen +in the mater of some paste buckles. + +The Queen received the jeweller in private, and her greeting proved +that the paste buckles were a mere pretext. She demanded to know +the meaning of his words to Madame de Campan. + +Bohmer could not rid himself of the notion that he was being trifled +with. Had he not written and himself delivered to the Queen a +letter in which he thanked her for purchasing the necklace, and had +not that letter remained unanswered - a silent admission that the +necklace was in her hands? In his exasperation he became insolent. + +"The meaning, madame? The meaning is that I require payment for my +necklace, that the patience of my creditors is exhausted, and that +unless you order the money to be paid, I am a ruined man!" + +Marie Antoinette considered him in cold, imperious anger. + +"Are you daring to suggest that your necklace is in my possession?" + +Bohmer was white to the lips, his hands worked nervously. + +"Does Your Majesty deny it?" + +"You are insolent!" she exclaimed. "You will be good enough to +answer questions, not to ask them. Answer me, then. Do you suggest +that I have your necklace?" + +But a desperate man is not easily intimidated. + +"No, madame; I affirm it! It was the Countess of Valois who - " + +"Who is the Countess of Valois?" + +That sudden question, sharply uttered, was a sword of doubt through +the heart of Bohmer's confidence. He stared wide-eyed a moment at +the indignant lady before him, then collected himself, and made as +plain a tale as he could of the circumstances under which he had +parted with the necklace Madame de la Motte's intervention, the +mediation of the Cardinal de Rohan with Her Majesty's signed +approval of the terms, and the delivery of the necklace to His +Eminence for transmission to the Queen. + +Marie Antoinette listened in increasing horror and anger. A flush +crept into her pale cheeks. + +"You will prepare and send me a written statement of what you have +just told me," she said. "You have leave to go." + +That interview took place on August 9th. The 15th was the Feast of +the Assumption, and also the name-day of the Queen, therefore a +gala day at Court, bringing a concourse of nobility to Versailles. +Mass was to be celebrated in the royal chapel at ten o'clock, and +the celebrant, as by custom established for the occasion, was the +Grand Almoner of France, the Cardinal de Rohan. + +But at ten o'clock a meeting was being held in the King's cabinet, +composed of the King and Queen, the Baron de Breteuil, and the +Keeper of the Seals, Miromesnil. They were met, as they believed, +to decide upon a course of action in the matter of a diamond +necklace. In reality, these puppets in the hands of destiny were +helping to decide the fate of the French monarchy. + +The King, fat, heavy, and phlegmatic, sat in a gilded chair by an +ormolu-encrusted writing-table. His bovine eyes were troubled. +Two wrinkles of vexation puckered the flesh above his great nose. +Beside, and slightly behind him, stood the Queen, white and +imperious, whilst facing them stood Monsieur de Breteuil, reading +aloud the statement which Bohmer had drawn up. + +When he had done, there was a moment's utter silence. Then the +King spoke, his voice almost plaintive. + +"What is to be done, then? But what is to be done?" + +It was the Queen who answered him, harshly and angrily. + +"When the Roman purple and a princely title are but masks to cover +a swindler, there is only one thing to be done. This swindler must +be exposed and punished." + +"But," the King faltered, "we have not heard the Cardinal." + +"Can you think that Bohmer, that any man, would dare to lie upon +such a matter?" + +"But consider, madame, the Cardinal's rank and family," calmly +interposed the prudent Miromesnil; "consider the stir, the scandal +that must ensue if this matter is made public." + +But the obedient daughter of Marie Therese, hating Rohan at her +mother's bidding and for her mother's sake, was impatient of any +such wise considerations. + +"What shall the scandal signify to us?" she demanded. The King +looked at Breteuil. + +"And you, Baron? What is your view?" + +Breteuil, Rohan's mortal enemy, raised his shoulders and flipped +the document. + +"In the face of this, Sire, it seems to me that the only course is +to arrest the Cardinal." + +"You believe, then - " began the King, and checked, leaving the +sentence unfinished. + +But Breteuil had understood. + +"I know that the Cardinal must be pressed for money," he said. +"Ever prodigal in his expenditure, he is further saddled with the +debts of the Prince de Guimenee." + +"And you can believe," the King cried, "that a Prince of the House +of Rohan, however pressed for money, could - Oh, it is unimaginable!" + +"Yet has he not stolen my name?" the Queen cut in. "Is he not proven +a common, stupid forger?" + +"We have not heard him," the King reminded her gently. + +"And His Eminence might be able to explain," ventured Miromesnil. +"It were certainly prudent to give him the opportunity." + +Slowly the King nodded his great, powdered head. "Go and find him. +Bring him at once!" he bade Breteuil; and Breteuil bowed and +departed. + +Very soon he returned, and he held the door whilst the handsome +Cardinal, little dreaming what lay before him, serene and calm, a +commanding figure in his cassock of scarlet watered silk, rustled +forward into the royal presence, and so came face to face with the +Queen for the first time since that romantic night a year ago in +the Grove of Venus. + +Abruptly the King launched his thunderbolt. + +"Cousin," he asked, "what purchase is this of a diamond necklace +that you are said to have made in the Queen's name?" + +King and Cardinal looked into each other's eyes, the King's +narrowing, the Cardinal's dilating, the King leaning forward in his +chair, elbows on the table, the Cardinal standing tense and suddenly +rigid. + +Slowly the colour ebbed from Rohan's face, leaving it deathly pale. +His eyes sought the Queen, and found her contemptuous glance, her +curling lip. Then at last his handsome head sank a little forward. + +"Sire," he said unsteadily, "I see that I have been duped. But I +have duped nobody." + +"You have no reason to be troubled, then. You need but to explain." + +Explain! That was precisely what he could not do. Besides, what +was the nature of the explanation demanded of him? Whilst he stood +stricken there, it was the Queen who solved this question. + +"If, indeed, you have been duped," she said scornfully, her colour +high, her eyes like points of steel, "you have been self-duped. But +even then it is beyond belief that self-deception could have urged +you to the lengths of passing yourself off as my intermediary - you, +who should know yourself to be the last man in France I should +employ, you to whom I have not spoken once in eight years." Tears +of anger glistened in her eyes; her voice shrilled up. "And yet, +since you have not denied it, since you put forward this pitiful +plea that you have been duped, we must believe the unbelievable." + +Thus at a blow she shattered the fond hopes he had been cherishing +ever since the night of gems - of gems, forsooth! - in the Grove of +Venus; thus she laid his ambition in ruins about him, and left the +man himself half stunned. + +Observing his disorder, the ponderous but kindly monarch rose. + +"Come, my cousin," he said more gently, "collect yourself. Sit +down here and write what you may have to say in answer." + +And with that he passed into the library beyond, accompanied by the +Queen and the two Ministers. + +Alone, Rohan staggered forward and sank nervelessly into the chair. +He took up a pen, pondered a moment, and began to write. But he +did not yet see clear. He could not yet grasp the extent to which +he had been deceived, could not yet believe that those treasured +notes from Marie Antoinette were forgeries, that it was not the +Queen who had met him in the Grove of Venus and given him the rose +whose faded petals kept those letters company in a portfolio of red +morocco. But at least it was clear to him that, for the sake of +honour - the Queen's honour - he must assume it so; and in that +assumption he now penned his statement. + +When it was completed, himself he bore it to the King in the +library. + +Louis read it with frowning brows; then passed it to the Queen. + +"Have you the necklace now?" he asked Rohan. + +"Sir, I left it in the hands of this woman Valois." + +"Where is this woman?" + +"I do not know, Sire." + +"And the letter of authority bearing the Queen's signature, which +the jewellers say you presented to them - where is that?" + +"I have it, Sire. I will place it before you. It is only now that +I realize that it is a forgery." + +"Only now!" exclaimed the Queen in scorn. + +"Her Majesty's name has been compromised," said the King sternly. +"It must be cleared. As King and as husband my duty is clear. +Your Eminence must submit to arrest." + +Rohan fell back a step in stupefaction. For disgrace and dismissal +he was prepared, but not for this. + +"Arrest?" he whispered. "Ah, wait, Sire. The publicity! The +scandal! Think of that! As for the necklace, I will pay for it +myself, and so pay for my credulous folly. I beseech you, Sire, +to let the matter end here. I implore it for my own sake, for the +sake of the Prince de Soubise and the name of Rohan, which would +be smirched unjustly and to no good purpose." + +He spoke with warmth and force; and, without adding more, yet +conveyed an impression that much more could be said for the course +he urged. + +The King hesitated, considering. Noting this, the prudent, +far-seeing Miromesnil ventured to develop the arguments at which +Rohan had hinted, laying stress upon the desirability of avoiding +scandal. + +Louis was nodding, convinced, when Marie Antoinette, unable longer +to contain her rancour, broke into opposition of those prudent +measures. + +"This hideous affair must be disclosed," she insisted. "It is due +to me that it should publicly be set right. The Cardinal shall +tell the world how he came to suppose that, not having spoken to +him for eight years, I could have wished to make use of his services +in the purchase of this necklace." + +She was in tears, and her weak, easily swayed husband accounted her +justified in her demand. And so, to the great consternation of all +the world, Prince Louis de Rohan was arrested like a common thief. + +A foolish, indiscreet, short-sighted woman had allowed her rancour +to override all other considerations - careless of consequences, +careless of injustice so that her resentment, glutted by her hatred +of the Cardinal, should be gratified. The ungenerous act was +terribly to recoil upon her. In tears and blood was she to expiate +her lack of charity; very soon she was to reap its bitter fruits. + +Saint-Just, a very prominent counsellor of the Parliament, one of +the most advanced apostles of the new ideas that were to find full +fruition in the Revolution, expressed the popular feeling in the +matter. + +"Great and joyful affair! A cardinal and a queen implicated in a +forgery and a swindle! Filth on the crosier and the sceptre! What +a triumph for the ideas of liberty!" + +At the trial that followed before Parliament, Madame de la Motte, +a man named Reteaux de Villette - who had forged the Queen's hand +and impersonated Desclaux and a Mademoiselle d'Oliva - who had used +her striking resemblance to Marie Antoinette to impersonate the +Queen in the Grove of Venus were found guilty and sentenced. But +the necklace was not recovered. It had been broken up, and some +of the diamonds were already sold; others were being sold in London +by Captain de la Motte, who had gone thither for the purpose, and +who prudently remained there. + +The Cardinal was acquitted, amid intense public joy and acclamation, +which must have been gall and wormwood to the Queen. His powerful +family, the clergy of France, and the very people, with whom he had +ever been popular, had all laboured strenuously to vindicate him. +And thus it befell that the one man the Queen had aimed at crushing +was the only person connected with the affair who came out of it +unhurt. The Queen's animus against the Cardinal aroused against her +the animus of his friends of all classes. Appalling libels of her +were circulated throughout Europe. It was thought and argued that +she was more deeply implicated in the swindle than had transpired, +that Madame de la Motte was a scapegoat, that the Queen should have +stood her trial with the others, and that she was saved only by the +royalty that hedged her. + +Conceive what a weapon this placed in the hands of the men of the +new ideas of liberty - men who were bent on proving the corruption +of a system they sought to destroy! + +Marie Antoinette should have foreseen something of this. She might +have done so had not her hatred blinded her, had she been less +intent upon seizing the opportunity at all costs to make Rohan pay +for his barbed witticism upon her mother. She might have been +spared much had she but spared Rohan when the chance was hers. As +it was, the malevolent echoes of the affair and of Saint-Just's +exultation were never out of her ears. They followed her to her +trial eight years later before the revolutionary tribunal. They +followed her to the very scaffold, of which they had undoubtedly +supplied a plank. + + + + +VIII, THE NIGHT OF TERROR + +THE DROWNINGS AT NANTES UNDER CARRIER + + +The Revolutionary Committee of the city of Nantes, reinforced by +some of the administrators of the district and a few members of the +People's Society, sat in the noble hall of the Cour des Comptes, +which still retained much of its pre-republican sumptuousness. They +sat expectantly - Goullin, the attorney, president of the committee, +a frail, elegant valetudinarian, fierily eloquent; Grandmaison, +the fencing-master, who once had been a gentleman, fierce of eye +and inflamed of countenance; Minee, the sometime bishop, now +departmental president; Pierre Chaux, the bankrupt merchant; the +sans-culotte Forget, of the People's Society, an unclean, ill-kempt +ruffian; and some thirty others called like these from every walk +of life. + +Lamps were lighted, and under their yellow glare the huddled company + - for the month was December, and the air of the vast room was +chill and dank - looked anxious and ill at ease. + +Suddenly the doors were thrown open by an usher; and his voice rang +loud in announcement - + +"The Citizen Representative Carrier." + +The great man came in, stepping quickly. Of middle height, very +frail and delicate, his clay-colored face was long and thin, with +arched eyebrows, a high nose, and a loose, coarse mouth. His deeply +sunken dark eyes glared fiercely, and wisps of dead-black hair, +which had escaped the confining ribbon of his queue, hung about his +livid brow. He was wrapped in a riding-coat of bottle-green, +heavily lined with fur, the skirts reaching down to the tops of his +Hessian boots, and the enormous turned-up collar almost touching +the brim of his round hat. Under the coat his waist was girt with +the tricolour of office, and there were gold rings in his ears. + +Such at the age of five-and-thirty was Jean Baptiste Carrier, +Representative of the Convention with the Army of the West, the +attorney who once had been intended by devout parents for the +priesthood. He had been a month in Nantes, sent thither to purge +the body politic. + +He reached a chair placed in the focus of the gathering, which sat +in a semicircle. Standing by it, one of his lean hands resting +upon the back, he surveyed them, disgust in his glance, a sneer +curling his lip, so terrible and brutal of aspect despite his +frailness that more than one of those stout fellows quailed now +before him. + +Suddenly he broke into torrential speech, his voice shrill and harsh: + +"I do not know by what fatality it happens, but happen it does, that +during the month that I have been in Nantes you have never ceased +to give me reason to complain of you. I have summoned you to meet +me here that you may justify yourselves, if you can, for your +ineptitude!" And he flung himself into the chair, drawing his +fur-lined coat about him. "Let me hear from you!" he snapped. + +Minee, the unfrocked bishop, preserving still a certain episcopal +portliness of figure, a certain episcopal oiliness of speech, +respectfully implored the representative to be more precise. + +The invitation flung him into a passion. His irascibility, indeed, +deserved to become a byword. + +"Name of a name!" he shrilled, his sunken eyes ablaze, his face +convulsed. "Is there a thing I can mention in this filthy city of +yours that is not wrong? Everything is wrong! You have failed in +your duty to provide adequately for the army of Vendee. Angers +has fallen, and now the brigands are threatening Nantes itself. +There is abject want in the city, disease is rampant; people are +dying of hunger in the streets and of typhus in the prisons. And +sacre nom! - you ask me to be precise! I'll be precise in telling +you where lies the fault. It lies in your lousy administration. +Do you call yourselves administrators? You - " He became +unprintable. "I have come here to shake you out of your torpor, +and by -- I'll shake you out of it or I'll have the blasted heads +off the lot of you." + +They shivered with chill fear under the wild glare of his sunken +eyes. + +"Well?" he barked after a long pause. "Are you all dumb as well +as idiots?" + +It was the ruffian Forget who had the courage to answer him: + +"I have told the People's Society that if the machine works badly +it is because the Citizen Carrier refuses to consult with the +administration." + +"You told them that, did you, you -- liar?" screeched Carrier. +"Am I not here now to consult with you? And should I not have +come before had you suggested it? Instead, you have waited until, +of my own accord, I should come to tell you that your +administration is ruining Nantes." + +Goullin, the eloquent and elegant Goullin, rose to soothe him: + +"Citizen Representative, we admit the truth of all that you have +said. There has been a misunderstanding. We could not take it +upon ourselves to summon the august representative of the Sacred +People. I We have awaited your own good pleasure, and now that +you have made this manifest, there is no reason why the machine +should not work effectively. The evils of which you speak exist, +alas! But they are not so deeply rooted that, working under your +guidance and advice, we cannot uproot them, rendering the soil +fertile once more of good under the beneficent fertilizing showers +of liberty." + +Mollified, Carrier grunted approval. + +"That is well said, Citizen Goullin. The fertilizer needed by +the soil is blood - the bad blood of aristocrats and federalists, +and I can promise you, in the name of the august people, that it +shall be abundantly provided." + +The assembly broke into applause, and his vanity melted to it. He +stood up, expressed his gratification at being so completely +understood, opened his arms, and invited the departmental president, +Minee, to come down and receive the kiss of brotherhood. + +Thereafter they passed to the consideration of measures of +improvement, of measures to combat famine and disease. In Carrier's +view there was only one way of accomplishing this - the number of +mouths to be fed must be reduced, the diseased must be eliminated. +It was the direct, the radical, the heroic method. + +That very day six prisoners in Le Bouffay had been sentenced to +death for attempting to escape. + +"How do we know," he asked, "that those six include all the guilty? +How do we know that all in Le Bouffay do not share the guilt? The +prisoners are riddled with disease, which spreads to the good +patriots of Nantes; they eat bread, which is scarce, whilst good +patriots starve. We must have the heads off all those blasted +swine!" He took fire at his own suggestion. "Aye, that would be +a useful measure. We'll deal with it at once. Let some one fetch +the President of the Revolutionary Tribunal." + +He was fetched - a man of good family and a lawyer, named Francois +Phelippes. + +"Citizen President," Carrier greeted him, "the administration of +Nantes has been considering an important measure. To-day you +sentenced to death six prisoners in Le Bouffay for attempting to +escape. You are to postpone execution so as to include all the +Bouffay prisoners in the sentence." + +Although an ardent revolutionary, Phelippes was a logically minded +man with a lawyer's reverence for the sacredness of legal form. +This command, issued with such cynical coldness, and repudiated by +none of those present, seemed to him as grotesque and ridiculous +as it was horrible. + +"But that is impossible, Citizen Representative," said he. + +"Impossible!" snarled Carrier. "A fool's word. The administration +desires you to understand that it is not impossible. The sacred +will of the august people - " + +Phelippes interrupted him without ceremony. + +"There is no power in France that can countermand the execution of +a sentence of the law." + +"No - no power!" + +Carrier's loose mouth fell open. He was too amazed to be angry. + +"Moreover," Phelippes pursued calmly, "there is the fact that all +the other prisoners in Le Bouffay are innocent of the offence for +which the six are to die." + +"What has that to do with it?" roared Carrier. "Last year I rode +a she-ass that could argue better than you! In the name of --, what +has that to do with it?" + +But there were members of the assembly who thought with Phelippes, +and who, whilst lacking the courage to express themselves, yet +found courage to support another who so boldly expressed them. + +Carrier sprang up quivering with rage before that opposition. "It +seems to me," he snarled, "that there are more than the scoundrels +in Le Bouffay who need to be shortened by a head for the good of +the nation. I tell you that you are slaying the commonweal by your +slowness and circumspection. Let all the scoundrels perish!" + +A handsome, vicious youngster named Robin made chorus. + +"Patriots are without bread! It is fitting that the scoundrels +should die, and not eat the bread of starving patriots." + +Carrier shook his fist at the assembly. + +"You hear, you --! I cannot pardon whom the law condemns." + +It was an unfortunate word, and Phelippes fastened on it. + +"That is the truth, Citizen Representative," said Phelippes. "And +as for the prisoners in Le Bouffay, you will wait until the law +condemns them." + +And without staying to hear more, he departed as firmly as he had +come, indifferent to the sudden uproar. + +When he had gone, the Representative flung himself into his chair +again, biting his lip. + +"There goes a fellow who will find his way to the guillotine in +time," he growled. + +But he was glad to be rid of him, and would not have him brought +back. He saw how the opposition of Phelippes had stiffened the +weaker opposition of some of those in the assembly. If he was to +have his way he would contrive better without the legal-minded +President of the Revolutionary Tribunal. And his way he had in +the end, though not until he had stormed and cursed and reviled the +few who dared to offer remonstrances to his plan of wholesale +slaughter. + +When at last he took his departure, it was agreed that the assembly +should proceed to elect a jury which was to undertake the duty of +drawing up immediately a list of those confined in the prisons of +Nantes. This list they were to deliver when ready to the committee, +which would know how to proceed, for Carrier had made his meaning +perfectly clear. The first salutary measure necessary to combat +the evils besetting the city was to wipe out at once the inmates of +all the prisons in Nantes. + +In the chill December dawn of the next day the committee - which +had sat all night under the presidency of Goullin forwarded a list +of some five hundred prisoners to General Boivin, the commandant +of the city of Nantes, together with an order to collect them +without a moment's delay, take them to L'Eperonniere, and there +have them shot. + +But Boivin was a soldier, and a soldier is not a sans-culotte. He +took the order to Phelippes, with the announcement that he had no +intention of obeying it. Phelippes, to Boivin's amazement, agreed +with him. He sent the order back to the committee, denouncing it +as flagrantly illegal, and reminding them that it was illegal to +remove any prisoner, no matter by whose order, without such an order +as might follow upon a decision of the Tribunal. + +The committee, intimidated by this firmness on the part of the +President of the Revolutionary Tribunal, dared not insist, and +there the matter remained. + +When Carrier learnt of it the things he said were less than ever +fit for publication. He raved like a madman at the very thought +that a quibbling lawyer should stand in the very path of him, the +august representative of the Sacred People. + +It had happened that fifty-three priests, who had been brought to +Nantes a few days before, were waiting in the sheds of the entrepot +for prison accommodation, so that their names did not yet appear +upon any of the prison registers. As a solatium to his wounded +feelings, he ordered his friends of the Marat Company to get rid +of them. + +Lamberty, the leader of the Marats, asked him how it should be done. + +"How?" he croaked. "Not so much mystery, my friend. Fling the +swine into the water, and so let's be rid of them. There will be +plenty of their kind left in France." + +But he seems to have explained himself further, and what precisely +were his orders, and how they were obeyed, transpires from a letter +which he wrote to the Convention, stating that those fifty-three +wretched priests, "being confined in a boat on the Loire, were last +night swallowed up by the river." And he added the apostrophe, +"What a revolutionary torrent is the Loire!" + +The Convention had no illusions as to his real meaning; and when +Carrier heard that his letter had been applauded by the National +Assembly, he felt himself encouraged to break down all barriers of +mere legality that might obstruct his path. And, after all, what +the Revolutionary Committee as a body - intimidated by Phelippes + - dared not do could be done by his faithful and less punctilious +friends of the Marat Company. + +This Marat Company, the police of the Revolutionary Committee, +enrolled from the scourings of Nantes' sans-culottism, and +captained by a ruffian named Fleury, had been called into being by +Carrier himself with the assistance of Goullin. + +On the night of the 24th Frimaire of the year III (December 14, 1793, +old style), which was a Saturday, Fleury mustered some thirty of his +men, and took them to the Cour des Comptes, where they were awaited +by Goullin, Bachelier, Grandmaison, and some other members of the +committee entirely devoted to Carrier. From these the Marats +received their formal instructions. + +"Plague," Goullin informed them, "is raging in the gaols, and its +ravages must be arrested. You will therefore proceed this evening +to the prison of Le Bouffay in order to take over the prisoners +whom you will march up to the Quay La Fosse, whence they will be +shipped to Belle Isle." + + +In a cell of that sordid old building known as Le Bouffay lay a +cocassier, an egg and poultry dealer, arrested some three years +before upon a charge of having stolen a horse, and since forgotten. +His own version was that a person of whom he knew very little had +entrusted him with the sale of the stolen animal in possession of +which he was discovered. + +The story sounds familiar; it is the sort of story that must have +done duty many times; and it is probable that the cocassier was no +better than he should have been. Nevertheless Fate selected him +to be one of her unconscious instruments. His name was Leroy, and +we have his own word for it that he was a staunch patriot. The +horse business was certainly in the best vein of sans-culottism. + +Leroy was awakened about ten o'clock that night by sounds that were +very unusual in that sombre, sepulchral prison. They were sounds +of unbridled revelry - snatches of ribald song, bursts of coarse, +reverberating laughter and they proceeded, as it seemed to him, +from the courtyard and the porter's lodge. + +He crawled from the dank straw which served him for a bed, and +approached the door to listen. Clearly the porter Laqueze was +entertaining friends and making unusually merry. It was also to be +gathered that Laqueze's friends were getting very drunk. What the +devil did it mean? + +His curiosity was soon to be very fully gratified. Came heavy steps +up the stone staircase, the clatter of sabots, the clank of weapons, +and through the grille of his door an increasing light began to beat. + +Some one was singing the "Carmagnole" in drunken, discordant tones. +Keys rattled, bolts were drawn; doors were being flung open. The +noise increased. Above the general din he heard the detestable +voice of the turnkey. + +"Come and see my birds in their cages. Come and see my pretty birds." + +Leroy began to have an uneasy premonition that the merrymaking +portended sinister things. + +"Get up, all of you!" bawled the turnkey. "Up and pack your traps. +You're to go on a voyage. No laggards, now. Up with you!" + +The door of Leroy's cell was thrown open in its turn, and he found +himself confronting a group of drunken ruffians. One of these - a +red-capped giant with long, black mustaches and a bundle of ropes +over one arm suddenly pounced upon him. The cocassier was an active, +vigorous young man. But, actuated by fear and discretion, he +permitted himself tamely to be led away. + +Along the stone-flagged corridor he went, and on every hand beheld +his fellow-prisoners in the same plight, being similarly dragged +from their cells and similarly hurried below. At the head of the +stairs one fellow, perfectly drunk, was holding a list, hiccupping +over names which he garbled ludicrously as he called them out. He +was lighted in his task by a candle held by another who was no less +drunk. The swaying pair seemed to inter-support one another +grotesquely. + +Leroy suffered himself to be led down the stairs, and so came to +the porter's lodge, where he beheld a half-dozen Marats assembled +round a table, with bumpers of wine before them, bawling, singing, +cursing, and cracking lewd jests at the expense of each prisoner +as he entered. The place was in a litter. A lamp had been smashed, +and there was a puddle of wine on the floor from a bottle that had +been knocked over. On a bench against the wall were ranged a number +of prisoners, others lay huddled on the floor, and all of them +were pinioned. + +Two or three of the Marats lurched up to Leroy, and ran their hands +over him, turning out his pockets, and cursing him foully for their +emptiness. He saw the same office performed upon others, and saw +them stripped of money, pocket-books, watches, rings, buckles, and +whatever else of value they happened to possess. One man, a priest, +was even deprived of his shoes by a ruffian who was in want of +foot-gear. + +As they were pinioning his wrists, Leroy looked up. He confesses +that he was scared. + +"What is this for?" he asked. "Does it mean death?" + +With an oath he was bidden to ask no questions. + +"If I die," he assured them, "you will be killing a good republican." + +A tall man with an inflamed countenance and fierce, black eyes, that +were somewhat vitreous, now leered down upon him. + +"You babbling fool! It's not your life, it's your property we want." + +This was Grandmaison, the fencing-master, who once had been a +gentleman. He had been supping with Carrier, and he had only just +arrived at Le Bouffay, accompanied by Goullin. He found the work +behind time, and told them so. + +"Leave that fellow now, Jolly. He's fast enough. Up and fetch the +rest. It's time to be going . . . time to be going." + +Flung aside now that he was pinioned, Leroy sat down on the floor +and looked about him. Near him an elderly man was begging for a cup +of water. They greeted the prayer with jeering laughter. + +"Water! By Sainte Guillotine, he asks for water!" The drunken +sans-culottes were intensely amused. "Patience, my friend - +patience, and you shall drink your fill. You shall drink from the +great cup." + +Soon the porter's lodge was crowded with prisoners, and they were +overflowing into the passage. + +Came Grandmaison cursing and swearing at the sluggishness of the +Marats, reminding them - as he had been reminding them for the last +hour - that it was time to be off, that the tide was on the ebb. + +Stimulated by him, Jolly - the red-capped giant with the black +mustaches - and some others of the Marat Company, set themselves +to tie the prisoners into chains of twenty, further to ensure +against possible evasion. They were driven into the chilly +courtyard, and there Grandmaison, followed by a fellow with a +lantern, passed along the ranks counting them. + +The result infuriated him. + +"A hundred and five!" he roared, and swore horribly. "You have been +here nearly five hours, and in all that time you have managed to +truss up only a hundred and five. Are we never to get through with +it? I tell you the tide is ebbing. It is time to be off." + +Laqueze, the porter of Le Bouffay, with whose food and wine those +myrmidons of the committee had made so disgracefully free, came to +assure him that he had all who were in the prison. + +"All?" cried Grandmaison, aghast. "But according to the list there +should have been nearer two hundred." And he raised his voice to +call: "Goullin! Hola, Goullin! Where the devil is Goullin?" + +"The list," Laqueze told him, "was drawn up from the register. But +you have not noted that many have died since they came - we have +had the fever here - and that a few are now in hospital." + +"In hospital! Bah! Go up, some of you, and fetch them. We are +taking them somewhere where they will be cured." And then he +hailed the elegant Goullin, who came up wrapped in a cloak. "Here's +a fine bathing-party!" he grumbled. "A rare hundred of these swine!" + +Goullin turned to Laqueze. + +"What have you done with the fifteen brigands I sent you this +evening?" + +"But they only reached Nantes to-day," said Laqueze, who understood +nothing of these extraordinary proceedings. "They have not yet +been registered, not even examined." + +"I asked you what you have done with them?" snapped Goullin. + +"They are upstairs." + +"Then fetch them. They are as good as any others." + +With these, and a dozen or so dragged from sick-beds, the total was +made up to about a hundred and thirty. + +The Marats, further reinforced now by half a company of National +Guards, set out from the prison towards five o'clock in the morning; +urging their victims along with blows and curses. + +Our cocassier found himself bound wrist to wrist with a young +Capuchin brother, who stumbled along in patient resignation, his +head bowed, his lips moving as if he were in prayer. + +"Can you guess what they are going to do with us?" murmured Leroy. + +He caught the faint gleam of the Capuchin's eyes in the gloom. + +"I do not know, brother. Commend yourself to God, and so be prepared +for whatever may befall." + +The answer was not very comforting to a man of Leroy's temperament. +He stumbled on, and they came now upon the Place du Bouffay, where +the red guillotine loomed in ghostly outline, and headed towards +the Quai Tourville. Thence they were marched by the river the whole +length of the Quai La Fosse. Fear spreading amongst them, some +clamours were raised, to be instantly silenced by blows and +assurances that they were to be shipped to Belle Isle, where they +were to be set to work to build a fort. + +The cocassier thought this likely enough, and found it more +comforting than saying his prayers - a trick which he had long +since lost. + +As they defiled along the quays, an occasional window was thrown +up, and an inquisitive head protruded, to be almost instantly +withdrawn again. + +On the Cale Robin at last they were herded into a shed which opened +on to the water. Here they found a large lighter alongside, and +they beheld in the lantern-light the silhouettes of a half-dozen +shipwrights busily at work upon it, whilst the place rang with the +blows of hammers and the scream of saws. + +Some of those nearest the barge saw what was being done. Two great +ports were being opened in the vessel's side, and over one of these +thus opened the shipwrights were nailing planks. They observed that +these ports, which remained above the water-line now that the barge +was empty, would be well below it once she were laden, and conceiving +that they perceived at last the inhuman fate awaiting them, their +terror rose again. They remembered snatches of conversation and +grim jests uttered by the Marats in Le Bouffay, which suddenly +became clear, and the alarm spreading amongst them, they writhed +and clamoured, screamed for mercy, cursed and raved. + +Blows were showered upon them. In vain was it sought to quiet them +again with that fable of a fort to be constructed on Belle Isle. +One of them in a frenzy of despair tore himself free of his bonds, +profited by a moment of confusion, and vanished so thoroughly that +Grandmaison and his men lost a quarter of an hour seeking him in +vain, and would have so spent the remainder of the night but for a +sharp word from a man in a greatcoat and a round hat who stood +looking on in conversation with Goullin. + +"Get on, man! Never mind that one! We'll have him later. It will +be daylight soon. You've wasted time enough already." + +It was Carrier. + +He had come in person to see the execution of his orders, and at +his command Grandmaison now proceeded to the loading. A ladder was +set against the side of the lighter by which the prisoners were to +descend. The cords binding them in chains were now severed, and +they were left pinioned only by the wrists. They were ordered to +embark. But as they were slow to obey, and as some, indeed, hung +back wailing and interceding, he and Jolly took them by their +collars, thrust them to the edge, and bundled them neck and crop +down into the hold, recking nothing of broken limbs. Finding this +method of embarkation more expeditious, the use of the ladder was +neglected thenceforth. + +Among the last to be thus flung aboard was our cocassier Leroy. +He fell soft upon a heaving, writhing mass of humanity, which only +gradually shook down and sorted itself out on the bottom of the +lighter when the hatches overhead were being nailed down. Yet by +an odd chance the young Capuchin and Leroy, who had been companions +in the chain, were not separated even now. Amid the human welter +in that agitated place of darkness, the cries and wails that rang +around him, Leroy recognized the voice of the young friar exhorting +them to prayer. + +They were in the stern of the vessel, against one of the sides, and +Leroy, who still kept a grip on the wits by which he had lived, bade +the Capuchin hold up his wrists. Then he went nosing like a dog, +until at last he found them, and his strong teeth fastened upon the +cord that bound them, and began with infinite patience to gnaw it +through. + +Meanwhile that floating coffin had left its moorings and was gliding +with the stream. On the hatches sat Grandmaison, with Jolly and two +other Marats, howling the "Carmagnole" to drown the cries of the +wretches underneath, and beating time with their feet upon the deck. + +Leroy's teeth worked on like a rat's until at last the cord was +severed. Then, lest they should be parted in the general heaving +and shifting of that human mass, those teeth of his fastened upon +the Capuchin's sleeve. + +"Take hold of me!" he commanded as distinctly as he could; and the +Capuchin gratefully obeyed. "Now untie my wrists!" + +The Capuchin's hands slid along Leroy's arms until they found his +hands, and there his fingers grew busy, groping at the knots. It +was no easy matter to untie them in the dark, guided by sense of +touch alone. But the friar was persistent and patient, and in the +end the last knot ran loose, and our cocassier was unpinioned. + +It comforted him out of all proportion to the advantage. At least +his hands were free for any emergency that might offer. That he +depended in such a situation, and with no illusions as to what was +to happen, upon emergency, shows how tenacious he was of hope. + +He had been released not a moment too soon. Overhead, Grandmaison +and his men were no longer singing. They were moving about. +Something bumped against the side of the vessel, near the bow, +obviously a boat, and voices came up from below the level of the +deck. Then the lighter shuddered under a great blow upon the planks +of the forecastle port. The cries in the hold redoubled. Panting, +cursing, wailing men hurtled against Leroy, and almost crushed him +for a moment under their weight as the vessel heaved to starboard. +Came a succession of blows, not only on the port in the bow, but +also on that astern. There was a cracking and rending of timbers, +and the water rushed in. + +Then the happenings in that black darkness became indescribably +horrible. In their frenzy not a few had torn themselves free of +their bonds. These hurled themselves towards the open ports through +which the water was pouring. They tore at the planks with desperate, +lacerated hands. Some got their arms through, seeking convulsively +to widen the openings and so to gain an egress. But outside in the +shipwrights' boat stood Grandmaison, the fencing-master, brandishing +a butcher's sword. + +With derision and foul objurgations he slashed at protruding arms +and hands, thrust his sword again and again through the port into +that close-packed, weltering mass, until at last the shipwrights +backed away the boat to escape the suction of the sinking lighter. + +The vessel, with its doomed freight of a hundred and thirty human +lives, settled down slowly by the head, and the wailing and cursing +was suddenly silenced as the icy waters of the Loire eddied over it +and raced on. + +Caught in the swirl of water, Leroy had been carried up against the +deck of the lighter. Instinctively he had clutched at a crossbeam. +The water raced over his head, and then, to his surprise, receded, +beat up once or twice as the lighter grounded, and finally settled +on a level with his shoulders. + +He was quick to realize what had happened. The lighter had gone +down by the head on a shallow. Her stern remained slightly +protruding, so that in that part of her between the level of the +water and the deck there was a clear space of perhaps a foot or a +foot and a half. Yet of the hundred and thirty doomed wretches on +board he was the only one who had profited by this extraordinary +chance. + +Leroy hung on there; and thereafter for two hours, to use his own +expression, he floated upon corpses. A man of less vigorous mettle, +moral and physical, could never have withstood the ordeal of a two +hours' immersion in the ice-cold water of that December morning. +Leroy clung on, and hoped. I have said that he was tenacious of +hope. And soon after daybreak he was justified of his confidence +in his luck. As the first livid gleams of light began to suffuse +the water in which he floated, a creaking of rowlocks and a sound +of voices reached his ears. A boat was passing down the river. + +Leroy shouted, and his voice rang hollow and sepulchral on the +morning stillness. The creak of oars ceased abruptly. He shouted +again, and was answered. The oars worked now at twice their former +speed. The boat was alongside. Blows of a grapnel tore at the +planking of the deck until there was a hole big enough to admit the +passage of his body. + +He looked through the faint mist which he had feared never to see +again, heaved himself up with what remained him of strength until +his breast was on a level with the deck, and beheld two men in a +boat. + +But, exhausted by the effort, his numbed limbs refused to support +him. He sank back, and went overhead, fearing now, indeed, that +help had arrived too late. But as he struggled to the surface the +bight of a rope smacked the water within the hold. Convulsively +he clutched it, wound it about one arm, and bade them haul. + +Thus they dragged him out and aboard their own craft, and put him +ashore at the nearest point willing out of humanity to do so much, +but daring to do no more when he had told them how he came where +they had found him. + +Half naked, numbed through and through, with chattering teeth and +failing limbs, Leroy staggered into the guard-house at Chantenay. +Soldiers of the Blues stripped him of his sodden rags, wrapped him +in a blanket, thawed him outwardly before a fire and inwardly with +gruel, and then invited him to give an account of himself. + +The story of the horse will have led you to suppose him a ready liar. +He drew now upon that gift of his, represented himself as a mariner +from Montoir, and told a harrowing tale of shipwreck. Unfortunately, +he overdid it. There was present a fellow who knew something of the +sea, and something of Montoir, to whom Leroy's tale did not ring +quite true. To rid themselves of responsibility, the soldiers +carried him before the Revolutionary Committee of Nantes. + +Even here all might have gone well with him, since there was no +member of that body with seacraft to penetrate his imposture. But +as ill-chance would have it, one of the members sitting that day +was the black-mustached sans-culotte Jolly, the very man who had +dragged Leroy out of his cell last night and tied him up. + +At sight of him Jolly's eyes bulged in his head. + +"Where the devil have you come from?" he greeted him thunderously. + +Leroy quailed. Jolly's associates stared. But Jolly explained to +them: + +"He was of last night's bathing party. And he has the impudence +to come before us like this. Take him away and shove him back into +the water." + +But Bachelier, a man who, next to the President Goullin, exerted +the greatest influence in the committee, was gifted with a sense +of humour worthy of the Revolution. He went off into peals of +laughter as he surveyed the crestfallen cocassier, and, perhaps +because Leroy's situation amused him, he was disposed to be humane. + +"No, no!" he said. "Take him back to Le Bouffay for the present. +Let the Tribunal deal with him." + +So back to Le Bouffay went Leroy, back to his dungeon, his fetid +straw and his bread and water, there to be forgotten again, as he +had been forgotten before, until Fate should need him. + +It is to him that we owe most of the materials from which we are +able to reconstruct in detail that first of Carrier's drownings on +a grand scale, conceived as an expeditious means of ridding the +city of useless mouths, of easing the straitened circumstances +resulting from misgovernment. + +Very soon it was followed by others, and, custom increasing Carrier's +audacity, these drownings - there were in all some twenty-three +noyades - ceased to be conducted in the secrecy of the night, or to +be confined to men. They were made presently to include women - of +whom at one drowning alone, in Novose, three hundred perished under +the most revolting circumstances - and even little children. Carrier +himself admitted that during the three months of his rule some three +thousand victims visited the national bathing-place, whilst other, +and no doubt more veracious, accounts treble that number of those +who received the National Baptism. + +Soon these wholesale drownings had become an institution, a sort of +national spectacle that Carrier and his committee felt themselves +in duty bound to provide. + +But at length a point was reached beyond which it seemed difficult +to continue them. So expeditious was the measure, that soon the +obvious material was exhausted. The prisons were empty. Yet habits, +once contracted, are not easily relinquished. Carrier would be +looking elsewhere for material, and there was no saying where he +might look, or who would be safe. Soon the committee heard a rumour +that the Representative intended to depose it and to appoint a new +one, whereupon many of its members, who were conscious of +lukewarmness, began to grow uneasy. + +Uneasy, too, became the members of the People's Society. They had +sent a deputation to Carrier with suggestions for the better conduct +of the protracted campaign of La Vendee. This was a sore point +with the Representative. He received the patriots with the foulest +abuse, and had them flung downstairs by his secretaries. + +Into this atmosphere of general mistrust and apprehension came the +most ridiculous Deus ex machina that ever was in the person of the +very young and very rash Marc Antoine Jullien. His father, the +Deputy Jullien, was an intimate of Robespierre's, by whose influence +Marc Antoine was appointed to the office of Agent of the Committee +of Public Safety, and sent on a tour of inspection to report upon +public feeling and the conduct of the Convention's Representatives. + +Arriving in Nantes at the end of January of '94, one of Marc +Antoine's first visits happened to be to the People's Society, +which was still quivering with rage at the indignities offered by +Carrier to its deputation. + +Marc Antoine was shocked by what he heard, so shocked that instead +of going to visit the Representative on the morrow, he spent the +morning inditing a letter to Robespierre, in which he set forth in +detail the abuses of which Carrier was guilty, and the deplorable +state of misery in which he found the city of Nantes. + +That night, as Marc Antoine was sinking into the peaceful slumber +of the man with duty done, he was rudely aroused by an officer and +a couple of men of the National Guard, who announced to him that +he was under arrest, and bade him rise and dress. + +Marc Antoine flounced out of bed in a temper, and flaunted his +credentials. The officer remained unmoved. He was acting upon +orders from the Citizen Representative. + +Still in a temper, Marc Antoine hurriedly dressed himself. He would +soon show this Representative that it is not safe to trifle with +Agents of the Public Safety. The Citizen Representative should hear +from him. The officer, still unimpressed, bundled him into a waiting +carriage, and bore him away to the Maison Villetreux, on the island +where Carrier had his residence. + +Carrier had gone to bed. But he was awake, and he sat up promptly +when the young muscadin from Paris was roughly thrust into his room +by the soldiers. The mere sight of the Representative sufficed to +evaporate Marc Antoine's anger, and with it his courage. + +Carrier's pallor was of a grey-green from the rage that possessed +him. His black eyes smouldered like those of an animal seen in the +gloom, and his tumbled black hair, fluttering about his moist brow, +increased the terrific aspect of his countenance. Marc Antoine +shrank and was dumb. + +"So," said Carrier, regarding him steadily, terribly, "you are the +thing that dares to denounce me to the Safety, that ventures to +find fault with my work!" From under his pillow he drew Marc +Antoine's letter to Robespierre. "Is this yours?" + +At the sight of this violation of his correspondence with the +Incorruptible, Marc Antoine's indignation awoke, and revived his +courage. + +"It is mine," he answered. "By what right have you intercepted it?" + +"By what right?" Carrier put a leg out of bed. "So you question +my right, do you? You have so imposed yourself upon folk that you +are given powers, and you come here to air them, by " + +"You shall answer to the Citizen Robespierre for your conduct," +Marc Antoine threatened him. + +"Aha!" Carrier revealed his teeth in a smile of ineffable +wickedness. He slipped from the bed, and crouching slightly as if +about to spring, he pointed a lean finger at his captive. + +"You are of those with whom it is dangerous to deal publicly, and +you presume upon that. But you can be dealt with privily, and you +shall. I have you, and, by -- , you shall not escape me, you -- !" + +Marc Antoine looked into the Representative's face, and saw there +the wickedness of his intent. He stiffened. Nature had endowed +him with wits, and he used them now. + +"Citizen Carrier," he said, "I understand. I am to be murdered +to-night in the gloom and the silence. But you shall perish after +me in daylight, and amid the execrations of the people. You may +have intercepted my letters to my father and to Robespierre. But +if I do not leave Nantes, my father will come to ask an account of +you, and you will end your life on the scaffold like the miserable +assassin that you are." + +Of all that tirade, but one sentence had remained as if corroded +into the mind of Carrier. "My letters to my father and to +Robespierre," the astute Marc Antoine had said. And Marc Antoine +saw the Representative's mouth loosen, saw a glint of fear replace +the ferocity in his dark eyes. + +What Marc Antoine intended to suggest had instantly leapt to +Carrier's mind - that there had been a second letter which his +agents had missed. They should pay for that. But, meanwhile, if +it were true, he dare not for his neck's sake go further in this +matter. He may have suspected that it was not true. But he had +no means of testing that suspicion. Marc Antoine, you see, was +subtle. + +"Your father?"growled the Representative. "Who is your father?" + +"The Deputy Jullien." + +"What?" Carrier straightened himself, affecting an immense +astonishment. "You are the son of the Deputy Julien?" He burst +into a laugh. He came forward, holding out both his hands. He +could be subtle, too, you see. "My friend, why did you not say +so sooner? See in what a ghastly mistake you have let me flounder. +I imagined you - of course, it was foolish of me - to be a +proscribed rascal from Angers, of the same name." + +He had fallen upon Marc Antoine's neck, and was embracing him. + +"Forgive me, my friend!" he besought him. "Come and dine with me +to-morrow, and we will laugh over it together." + +But Marc Antoine had no mind to dine with Carrier, although he +promised to do so readily enough. Back at his inn, scarce +believing that he had got away alive, still sweating with terror +at the very thought of his near escape, he packed his valise, +and, by virtue of his commission, obtained post-horses at once. + +On the morrow from Angers, safe beyond the reach of Carrier, he +wrote again to Robespierre, and this time also to his father. + +"In Nantes," he wrote, "I found the old regime in its worst form." +He knew the jargon of Liberty, the tune that set the patriots +a-dancing. "Carrier's insolent secretaries emulate the intolerable +haughtiness of a ci-devant minister's lackeys. Carrier himself +lives surrounded by luxury, pampered by women 'and parasites, +keeping a harem and a court. He tramples justice in the mud. He +has had all those who filled the prisons flung untried into the +Loire. The city of Nantes," he concluded, "needs saving. The +Vendean revolt must be suppressed, and Carrier the slayer of Liberty +recalled." + +The letter had its effect, and Carrier was recalled to Paris, but +not in disgrace. Failing health was urged as the solicitous reason +for his retirement from the arduous duties of governing Nantes. + +In the Convention his return made little stir, and even when early +in the following July he learnt that Bourbotte, his successor at +Nantes, had ordered the arrest of Goullin, Bachelier, Grandmaison, +and his other friends of the committee, on the score of the +drownings and the appropriation of national property confiscated +from emigres, he remained calm, satisfied that his own position was +unassailable. + +But the members of the Committee of Nantes were sent to Paris for +trial, and their arrival there took place on that most memorable +date in the annals of the Revolution, the 10th Thermidor (July 29, +1794, O.S.), the day on which Robespierre fell and the floodgates +of vengeance upon the terrorists were flung open. + +You have seen in the case of Marc Antoine Jullien how quick Carrier +could be to take a cue. In a coach he followed the tumbril that +bore Robespierre to execution, radiant of countenance and shouting +with the loudest, "Death to the traitor!" On the morrow from the +rostrum of the Convention, he passionately represented himself as +a victim of the fallen tyrant, cleverly turning to his own credit +the Marc Antoine affair, reminding the Convention how he had +himself been denounced to Robespierre. He was greeted with applause +in that atmosphere of Thermidorean reaction. + +But Nemesis was stalking him relentlessly if silently. + +Among a batch of prisoners whom a chain of curious chances had +brought from Nantes to Paris was our old friend Leroy the cocassier, +required now as a witness against the members of the committee. + +Having acquainted the court with the grounds of his arrest, and the +fact that for three years he had lain forgotten and without trial +in the pestilential prison of Le Bouffay, Leroy passed on to a +recital of his sufferings on that night of terror when he had gone +down the Loire in the doomed lighter. He told his tale with an +artlessness that rendered it the more moving and convincing. The +audience crowding the chamber of justice shuddered with horror, +and sobbed over the details of his torments, wept for joy over his +miraculous preservation. At the close he was applauded on all +sides, which bewildered him a little, for he had never known +anything but abuse in all his chequered life. + +And then, at the promptings of that spirit of reaction that was +abroad in those days when France was awakening from the nightmare +of terror, some one made there and then a collection on his behalf, +and came to thrust into his hands a great bundle of assignats and +bank bills, which to the humble cocassier represented almost a +fortune. It was his turn to weep. + +Then the crowd in the court which had heard his story shouted for +the head of Carrier. The demand was taken up by the whole of Paris, +and finally his associates of the Convention handed him over to the +Revolutionary Tribunal. + +He came before it on November 25th, and he could not find counsel +to defend him. Six advocates named in succession by the President +refused to plead the cause of so inhuman a monster. In a rage, at +last Carrier announced that he would defend himself. He did. + +He took the line that his business in Nantes had been chiefly +concerned with provisioning the Army of the West; that he had had +little to do with the policing of Nantes, which he left entirely to +the Revolutionary Committee; and that he had no knowledge of the +things said to have taken place. But Goullin, Bachelier, and the +others were there to fling back the accusation in their endeavours +to save their own necks at the expense of his. + +He was sentenced on the very anniversary of that terrible night on +which the men of the Marat Company broke into the prison of Le +Bouffay, and he was accompanied in the tumbril by Grandmaison the +pitiless, who was now filled with self-pity to such an extent that +he wept bitterly. + +The crowd, which had hooted and insulted him from the Conciergerie +to the Place de Greve, fell suddenly silent as he mounted the +scaffold, his step firm, but his shoulders bowed, and his eyes upon +the ground. + +Suddenly upon the silence, grotesquely, horribly merry, broke the +sound of a clarinet playing the "Ca ira!" + +Jerking himself erect, Carrier turned and flung the last of his +terrible glances at the musician. + +A moment later the knife fell with a thud, and a bleeding head +rolled into the basket, the eyes still staring, but powerless now +to inspire terror. + +Upon the general silence broke an echo of the stroke. + +"Vlan!" cried a voice. "And there's a fine end to a great drowner!" + +It was Leroy the cocassier. The crowd took up the cry. + + + + +IX. THE NIGHT OF NUPTIALS + +CHARLES THE BOLD AND SAPPHIRA DANVELT + + +When Philip the Good succumbed at Bruges of an apoplexy in the early +part of the year 1467, the occasion was represented to the stout +folk of Flanders as a favourable one to break the Burgundian yoke +under which they laboured. It was so represented by the agents of +that astute king, Louis XI, who ever preferred guile to the direct +and costly exertion of force. + +Charles, surnamed the Bold (le Temeraire), the new Duke of Burgundy, +was of all the French King's enemies by far the most formidable and +menacing just then; and the wily King, who knew better than to +measure himself with a foe that was formidable, conceived a way to +embarrass the Duke and cripple his resources at the very outset of +his reign. To this end did he send his agents into the Duke's Flemish +dominions, there to intrigue with the powerful and to stir up the +spirit of sedition that never did more than slumber in the hearts of +those turbulent burghers. + +It was from the Belfry Tower of the populous, wealthy city of Ghent + - then one of the most populous and wealthy cities of Europe - that +the call to arms first rang out, summoning the city's forty thousand +weavers to quit their looms and take up weapons - the sword, the +pike, and that arm so peculiarly Flemish, known as the goedendag. +>From Ghent the fierce flame of revolt spread rapidly to the valley +of the Meuse, and the scarcely less important city of Liege, where +the powerful guilds of armourers and leather workers proved as ready +for battle as the weavers of Ghent. + +They made a brave enough show until Charles the Bold came face to +face with them at Saint-Trond, and smashed the mutinous burgher army +into shards, leaving them in their slaughtered thousands upon the +stricken field. + +The Duke was very angry. He felt that the Flemings had sought to +take a base advantage of him at a moment when it was supposed he +would not be equal to protecting his interests, and he intended to +brand it for all time upon their minds that it was not safe to take +such liberties with their liege lord. Thus, when a dozen of the +most important burghers of Liege came out to him very humbly in +their shirts, with halters round their necks, to kneel in the dust +at his feet and offer him the keys of the city, he spurned the +offer with angry disdain. + +"You shall be taught," he told them, "how little I require your +keys, and I hope that you will remember the lesson for your own +good." + +On the morrow his pioneers began to smash a breach, twenty fathoms +wide, in one of the walls of the city, rolling the rubble into the +ditch to fill it up at the spot. When the operation was complete, +Charles rode through the gap, as a conqueror, with vizor lowered +and lance on thigh at the head of his Burgundians, into his city +of Liege, whose fortifications he commanded should be permanently +demolished. + +That was the end of the Flemish rising of 1467 against Duke Charles +the Bold of Burgundy. The weavers returned to their looms, the +armourers to their forges, and the glove-makers and leather workers +to their shears. Peace was restored; and to see that it was kept, +Charles appointed military governors of his confidence where he +deemed them necessary. + +One of these was Claudius von Rhynsault, who had followed the Duke's +fortunes for some years now, a born leader of men, a fellow of +infinite address at arms and resource in battle, and of a bold, +reckless courage that nothing could ever daunt. It was perhaps this +last quality that rendered him so esteemed of Charles, himself named +the Bold, whose view of courage was that it was a virtue so lofty +that in the nature of its possessor there could, perforce, be +nothing mean. + +So now, to mark his esteem of this stalwart German, the Duke made +him Governor of the province of Zeeland, and dispatched him thither +to stamp out there any lingering sparks of revolt, and to rule it +in his name as ducal lieutenant. + +Thus, upon a fair May morning, came Claud of Ryhnsault and his hardy +riders to the town of Middelburg, the capital of Zeeland, to take up +his residence at the Gravenhof in the main square, and thence to +dispense justice throughout that land of dykes in his master's +princely name. This justice the German captain dispensed with +merciless rigour, conceiving that to be the proper way to uproot +rebellious tendencies. It was inevitable that he should follow such +a course, impelled to it by a remorseless cruelty in his nature, of +which the Duke his master had seen no hint, else he might have +thought twice before making him Governor of Zeeland, for Charles + - despite his rigour when treachery was to be punished - was a just +and humane prince. + +Now, amongst those arrested and flung into Middelburg gaol as a +result of Rhynsault's ruthless perquisitions and inquisitions was +a wealthy young burgher named Philip Danvelt. His arrest was +occasioned by a letter signed "Philip Danvelt" found in the house +of a marked rebel who had been first tortured and then hanged. The +letter, of a date immediately preceding the late rising, promised +assistance in the shape of arms and money. + +Brought before Rhynsault for examination, in a cheerless hall of +the Gravenhof, Danvelt's defence was a denial upon oath that he had +ever taken or offered to take any part in the rebellion. Told of +the letter found, and of the date it bore, he laughed. That letter +made everything very simple and clear. At the date it bore he had +been away at Flushing marrying a wife, whom he had since brought +thence to Middelburg. It was ludicrous, he urged, to suppose that +in such a season - of all seasons in a man's life - he should have +been concerned with rebellion or correspondence with rebels, and, +urging this, he laughed again. + +Now, the German captain did not like burghers who laughed in his +presence. It argued a lack of proper awe for the dignity of his +office and the importance of his person. From his high seat at +the Judgment-board, flanked by clerks and hedged about by +men-at-arms, he scowled upon the flaxen-haired, fresh-complexioned +young burgher who bore himself so very easily. He was a big, +handsome man, this Rhynsault, of perhaps some thirty years of age. +His thick hair was of a reddish brown, and his beardless face was +cast in bold lines and tanned by exposure to the colour of mahogany, +save where the pale line of a scar crossed his left cheek. + +"Yet, I tell you, the letter bears your signature," he grumbled +sourly. + +"My name, perhaps," smiled the amiable Danvelt, "but assuredly not +my signature." + +"Herrgott!" swore the German captain. "Is this a riddle? What is +the difference?" + +Feeling himself secure, that very foolish burgher ventured to be +mildly insolent. + +"It is a riddle that the meanest of your clerks there can read for +you," said he. + +The Governor's blue eyes gleamed like steel as they, fastened upon +Danvelt, his heavy jaw seemed to thrust itself forward, and a dull +flush crept into his cheeks. Then he swore. + +"Beim blute Gottes!" quoth he, "do you whet your trader's wit upon +me, scum?" + +And to the waiting men-at-arms: + +"Take him back to his dungeon," he commanded, "that in its quiet +he may study a proper carriage before he is next brought before us." + +Danvelt was haled away to gaol again, to repent him of his pertness +and to reflect that, under the governorship of Claudius von Rhynsault, +it was not only the guilty who had need to go warily. + +The Governor sat back in his chair with a grunt. His secretary, on +his immediate right, leaned towards him. + +"It were easy to test the truth of the man's assertion," said he. +"Let his servants and his wife attend and be questioned as to when +he was in Flushing and when married." + +"Aye," growled von Rhynsault. "Let it be done. I don't doubt we +shall discover that the dog was lying." + +But no such discovery was made when, on the morrow, Danvelt's +household and his wife stood before the Governor to answer his +questions. Their replies most fully bore out the tale Danvelt had +told, and appeared in other ways to place it beyond all doubt that +he had taken no part, in deed or even in thought, in the rebellion +against the Duke of Burgundy. His wife protested it solemnly and +piteously. + +"To this I can swear, my lord," she concluded. "I am sure no +evidence can be brought against him, who was ever loyal and ever +concerned with his affairs and with me at the time in question. +My lord" - she held out her hands towards the grim German, and her +lovely eyes gleamed with unshed tears of supplication - "I implore +you to believe me, and in default of witnesses against him to +restore my husband to me." + +Rhynsault's blue eyes kindled now as they considered her, and his +full red lips slowly parted in the faintest and most inscrutable +of smiles. She was very fair to look upon - of middle height and +most exquisite shape. Her gown, of palest saffron, edged with fur, +high-waisted according to the mode, and fitted closely to the +gently swelling bust, was cut low to display the white perfection +of her neck. Her softly rounded face looked absurdly childlike +under the tall-crowned hennin, from which a wispy veil floated +behind her as she moved. + +In silence, then, for a spell, the German mercenary pondered her +with those slowly kindling eyes, that slowly spreading, indefinite +smile. Then he stirred, and to his secretary he muttered shortly: + +"The woman lies. In private I may snare the truth from her." + +He rose - a tall, massively imposing figure in a low-girdled tunic +of deep purple velvet, open at the breast, and gold-laced across a +white silken undervest. + +"There is some evidence," he informed her gruffly. "Come with me, +and you shall see it for yourself." + +He led the way from that cheerless hall by a dark corridor to a +small snug room, richly hung and carpeted, where a servant waited. +He dismissed the fellow, and in the same breath bade her enter, +watching her the while from under lowered brows. One of her women +had followed; but admittance was denied her. Danvelt's wife must +enter his room alone. + +Whilst she waited there, with scared eyes and fluttering bosom, he +went to take from an oaken coffer the letter signed "Philip Danvelt." +He folded the sheet so that the name only was to be read, and came +to thrust it under her eyes. + +"What name is that?" he asked her gruffly. + +Her answer was very prompt. + +"It is my husband's, but not the writing - it is another hand; some +other Philip Danvelt; there will be others in Zeeland." + +He laughed softly, looking at her ever with that odd intentness, +and under his gaze she shrank and cowered in terror; it spoke to her +of some nameless evil; the tepid air of the luxurious room was +stifling her. + +"If I believed you, your husband would be delivered from his prison + - from all danger; and he stands, I swear to you, in mortal peril." + +"Ah, but you must believe me. There are others who can bear witness." + +"I care naught for others," he broke in, with harsh and arrogant +contempt. Then he softened his voice to a lover's key. "But I might +accept your word that this is not your husband's hand, even though +I did not believe you." + +She did not understand, and so she could only stare at him with those +round, brown eyes of hers dilating, her lovely cheeks blanching with +horrid fear. + +"Why, see," he said at length, with an easy, gruff good-humour, "I +place the life of Philip Danvelt in those fair hands to do with as +you please. Surely, sweeting, you will not be so unkind as to +destroy it." + +And as he spoke his face bent nearer to her own, his flaming eyes +devoured her, and his arm slipped softly, snake-like round her to +draw her to him. But before it had closed its grip she had started +away, springing back in horror, an outcry already on her pale lips. + +"One word," he admonished her sharply, "and it speaks your husband's +doom!" + +"Oh, let me go, let me go!" she cried in anguish. + +"And leave your husband in the hangman's hands?" he asked. + +"Let me go! Let me go!" was all that she could answer him, +expressing the only thought of which in that dread moment her mind +was capable. + +That and the loathing on her face wounded his vanity for this beast +was vain. His manner changed, and the abysmal brute in him was +revealed in the anger he displayed. With foul imprecations he drove +her out. + +Next day a messenger from the Governor waited upon her at her house +with a brief note to inform her that her husband would be hanged +upon the morrow. Incredulity was succeeded by a numb, stony, +dry-eyed grief, in which she sat alone for hours - a woman entranced. +At last, towards dusk, she summoned a couple of her grooms to +attend and light her, and made her way, ever in that odd +somnambulistic state, to the gaol of Middelburg. She announced +herself to the head gaoler as the wife of Philip Danvelt, lying +under sentence of death, and that she was come to take her last +leave of him. It was not a thing to be denied, nor had the gaoler +any orders to deny it. + +So she was ushered into the dank cell where Philip waited for his +doom, and by the yellow wheel of light of the lantern that hung +from the shallow vaulted ceiling she beheld the ghastly change +that the news of impending death had wrought in him. No longer +was he the self-assured young burgher who, conscious of his +innocence and worldly importance, had used a certain careless +insolence with the Governor of Zeeland. Here she beheld a man of +livid and distorted face, wild-eyed, his hair and garments in +disarray, suggesting the physical convulsions to which he had +yielded in his despair and rage. + +"Sapphira!" he cried at sight of her. A sigh of anguish and he +flung himself, shuddering and sobbing, upon her breast. She put +her arms about him, soothed him gently, and drew him back to the +wooden chair from which he had leapt to greet her. + +He took his head in his hands and poured out the fierce anguish of +his soul. To die innocent as he was, to be the victim of an +arbitrary, unjust power! And to perish at his age! + +Hearing him rave, she shivered out of an agony of compassion and +also of some terror for herself. She would that he found it less +hard to die. And thinking this she thought further, and uttered +some of her thought aloud. + +"I could have saved you, my poor Philip." + +He started up, and showed her again that livid, distorted face of +his. + +"What do you mean?" he asked hoarsely. "You could have saved me, +do you say? Then - then why - " + +"Ah, but the price, my dear," she sobbed. + +"Price?" quoth he in sudden, fierce contempt. "What price is too +great to pay for life? Does this Rhynsault want all our wealth, +then yield it to him yield it so that I may live - " + +"Should I have hesitated had it been but that?" she interrupted. + +And then she told him, whilst he sat there hunched and shuddering. + +"The dog! The foul German dog!" he muttered through clenched teeth. + +"So that you see, my dear," she pursued brokenly, "it was too great +a price. Yourself, you could not have condoned it, or done aught +else but loathe me afterwards." + +But he was not as stout-mettled as she deemed him, or else the +all-consuming thirst of life, youth's stark horror of death, made +him a temporizing craven in that hour. + +"Who knows?" he answered. "Certes, I do not. But a thing so done, +a thing in which the will and mind have no part, resolves itself +perhaps into a sacrifice - " + +He broke off there, perhaps from very shame. After all he was a +man, and there are limits to what manhood will permit of one. + +But those words of his sank deeply into her soul. They rang again +and again in her ears as she took her anguished way home after the +agony of their farewells, and in the end they drove her out again +that very night to seek the Governor of Zeeland. + +Rhynsault was at supper when she came, and without quitting the +table bade them usher her into his presence. He found her very +white, but singularly calm and purposeful in her bearing. + +"Well, mistress?" + +"May I speak to you alone?" + +Her voice was as steady as her glance. + +He waved away the attendants, drank a deep draught from the cup at +his elbow, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and sat back +in his tall chair to hear her. + +"Yesterday," she said, "you made, or seemed to make, me a proposal." + +He looked up at first in surprise, then with a faint smile on his +coarse, red mouth. His glance had read her meaning clearly. + +"Look you, mistress, here I am lord of life and death. Yet in the +case of your husband I yield up that power to you. Say but the word +and I sign the order for his gaol delivery at dawn." + +"I have come to say that word," she informed him. + +A moment he looked up at her, his smile broadening, a flush mounting +to his cheek-bones. Then he rose and sent his chair crashing behind +him to the ground. + +"Herrgott!" he grunted; and he gathered her slim, trembling body to +his massive gold-laced breast. + + +Soon after sunrise on the morrow she was beating at the gates of +Middelburg gaol, a paper clutched convulsively in her left hand. + +She was admitted, and to the head gaoler she showed the paper that +she carried. + +"An order from the Governor of Zeeland for the gaol delivery of +Philip Danvelt!" she announced almost hysterically. + +The gaoler scanned the paper, then her face. His lips tightened. + +"Come this way," he said; and led her down a gloomy corridor to the +cell where yesterday she had seen her husband. + +He threw wide the door, and Sapphira sprang in. + +"Philip!" she cried, and checked as suddenly. + +He lay supine and still upon the miserable pallet, his hands folded +upon his breast, his face waxen, his eyes staring glassily through +half-closed lids. + +She sped to his side in a sudden chill of terror. She fell on her +knees and touched him. + +"Dead!" she screamed, and, kneeling, span round questioning to face +the gaoler in the doorway. "Dead!" + +"He was hanged at daybreak, mistress," said the gaoler gently. + +She rocked a moment, moaning, then fell suddenly forward across her +husband's body in a swoon. + +That evening she was again at the Gravenhof to see Rhynsault, and +again she was admitted - a haggard faced woman now, in whom there +was no trace of beauty left. She came to stand before the Governor, +considered him in silence a moment with a loathing unutterable in +her glance, then launched into fierce recriminations of his broken +faith. + +He heard her out, then shrugged and smiled indulgently. + +"I performed no less than I promised," said he. "I pledged my word +to Danvelt's gaol delivery, and was not my gaol delivery effective? +You could hardly suppose that I should allow it to be of such a +fashion as to interfere with our future happy meetings." + +Before his leering glance she fled in terror, followed by the sound +of his bestial laugh. + +For a week thereafter she kept her house and brooded. Then one day +she sallied forth all dressed in deepest mourning and attended by a +train of servants, and, embarking upon a flat-bottomed barge, was +borne up the river Scheldt towards Antwerp. Bruges was her ultimate +destination, of which she left no word behind her, and took the +longest way round to reach it. From Antwerp her barge voyaged on +to Ghent, and thence by canal, drawn by four stout Flemish horses, +at last to the magnificent city where the Dukes of Burgundy kept +their Court. + + +Under the June sunshine the opulent city of Bruges hummed with +activity like the great human hive it was. For Bruges at this date +was the market of the world, the very centre of the world's commerce, +the cosmopolis of the age. Within its walls were established the +agencies of a score of foreign great trading companies, and the +ambassadors of no less a number of foreign Powers. Here on a day +you might hear every language of civilization spoken in the broad +thoroughfares under the shadow of such imposing buildings as you +would not have found together in another city of Europe. To the +harbour came the richly laden argosies from Venice and Genoa, from +Germany and the Baltic, from Constantinople and from England, and +in her thronged markets Lombard and Venetian, Levantine, Teuton, +and Saxon stood jostling one another to buy and sell. + +It was past noon, and the great belfry above the Gothic Cloth Hall +in the Grande Place was casting a lengthening shadow athwart the +crowded square. Above the Babel of voices sounded on a sudden the +note of a horn, and there was a cry of "The Duke! The Duke!" +followed by a general scuttle of the multitude to leave a clear way +down the middle of the great square. + +A gorgeous cavalcade some twoscore strong came into sight, advancing +at an amble, a ducal hunting party returning to the palace. A hush +fell upon the burgher crowd as it pressed back respectfully to gaze; +and to the din of human voices succeeded now the clatter of hoofs +upon the kidney-stones of the square, the jangle of hawkbells, the +baying of hounds, and the occasional note of the horn that had +first brought warning of the Duke's approach. + +It was a splendid iridescent company, flaunting in its apparel +every colour of the prism. There were great lords in silks and +velvets of every hue, their legs encased in the finest skins of +Spain; there were great ladies, in tall, pointed hennins or bicorne +headdresses and floating veils, with embroidered gowns that swept +down below the bellies of their richly harnessed palfreys. And +along the flanks of this cavalcade ran grooms and huntsmen in +green and leather, their jagged liripipes flung about their necks, +leading the leashed hounds. + +The burghers craned their necks, and Levantine merchant argued with +Lombard trader upon an estimate of the wealth paraded thus before +them. And then at last came the young Duke himself, in black, as +if to detach himself from the surrounding splendour. He was of +middle stature, of a strong and supple build, with a lean, swarthy +face and lively eyes. Beside him, on a white horse, rode a +dazzling youth dressed from head to foot in flame-coloured silk, +a peaked bonnet of black velvet set upon his lovely golden head, +a hooded falcon perched upon his left wrist, a tiny lute slung +behind him by a black ribbon. He laughed as he rode, looking the +very incarnation of youth and gaiety. + +The cavalcade passed slowly towards the Prinssenhof, the ducal +residence. It had all but crossed the square when suddenly a voice + - a woman's voice, high and tense - rang out. + +"Justice, my Lord Duke of Burgundy! Justice, Lord Duke, for a +woman's wrongs!" + +It startled the courtly riders, and for a moment chilled their +gaiety. The scarlet youth at the Duke's side swung round in his +saddle to obtain a view of her who called so piteously, and he +beheld Sapphira Danvelt. + +She was all in black, and black was the veil that hung from her +steeple head-dress, throwing into greater relief her pallid +loveliness which the youth's glance was quick to appraise. He saw, +too, from her air and from the grooms attending her, that she was +a woman of some quality, and the tragic appeal of her smote home +in his gay, poetic soul. He put forth a hand and clutched the +Duke's arm, and, as if yielding to this, the Duke reined up. + +"What is it that you seek?" Charles asked her not unkindly, his +lively dark eyes playing over her. + +"Justice!" was all she answered him very piteously, and yet with +a certain fierceness of insistence. + +"None asks it of me in vain, I hope," he answered gravely. "But I +do not dispense it from the saddle in the public street. Follow us." + +And he rode on. + +She followed to the Prinssenhof with her grooms and her woman +Catherine. There she was made to wait in a great hall, thronged +with grooms and men-at-arms and huntsmen, who were draining the +measure sent them by the Duke. She stood apart, wrapped in her +tragic sorrow, and none molested her. At last a chamberlain came +to summon her to the Duke's presence. + +In a spacious, sparsely furnished room she found the Duke awaiting +her, wearing now a gown of black and gold that was trimmed with +rich fur. He sat in a tall chair of oak and leather, and leaning +on the back of it lounged gracefully the lovely scarlet youth who +had ridden at his side. + +Standing before him, with drooping eyes and folded hands, she told +her shameful story. Darker and darker grew his brow as she proceeded +with it. But it was the gloom of doubt rather than of anger. + +"Rhynsault?" he cried when she had done. "Rhynsault did this?" + +There was incredulity in his voice and nothing else. + +The youth behind him laughed softly, and shifted his attitude. + +"You are surprised. Yet what else was to be looked for in that +Teuton swine? Me he never could deceive, for all his - " + +"Be silent, Arnault," said the Duke sharply. And to the woman: "It +is a grave, grave charge," he said, "against a man I trusted and +have esteemed, else I should not have placed him where he is. What +proof have you?" + +She proffered him a strip of parchment - the signed order for the +gaol delivery of Philip Danvelt. + +"The gaoler of Middelburg will tell Your Grace that he was hanged +already when I presented this. My woman Catherine, whom I have +with me, can testify to part. And there are some other servants +who can bear witness to my husband's innocence. Captain von +Rhynsault had ceased to doubt it." + +He studied the parchment, and fell very grave and thoughtful. + +"Where are you lodged?" he asked. + +She told him. + +"Wait there until I send for you again," he bade her. "Leave this +order with me, and depend upon it, justice shall be done." + +That evening, a messenger rode out to Middelburg to summon von +Rhynsault to Bruges, and the arrogant German came promptly and +confidently, knowing nothing of the reason, but conceiving naturally +that fresh honours were to be conferred upon him by a master who +loved stout-hearted servants. And that Rhynsault was stout-hearted +he showed most of all when the Duke taxed him without warning with +the villainy he had wrought. + +If he was surprised, he was not startled. What was the life of a +Flemish burgher more or less? What the honour of a Flemish wife? +These were not considerations to daunt a soldier, a valiant man of +war. And because such was his dull mood - for he was dull, this +Rhynsault, as dull as he was brutish - he considered his sin too +venial to be denied. And the Duke, who could be crafty, perceiving +that mood of his, and simulating almost an approval of it, drew the +German captain into self-betrayal. + +"And so this Philip Danvelt may have been innocent?" + +"He must have been, for we have since taken the guilty man of the +same name," said the German easily. "It was unfortunate, but - " + +"Unfortunate!" The Duke's manner changed from silk to steel. He +heaved himself out of his chair, and his dark eyes flamed. +"Unfortunate! Is that all, you dog?" + +"I conceived him guilty when I ordered him to be hanged," spluttered +the captain, greatly taken aback. + +"Then, why this? Answer me - why this?" + +And under his nose the Duke thrust the order of gaol delivery +Rhynsault had signed. + +The captain blenched, and fear entered his glance. The thing was +becoming serious, it seemed. + +"Is this the sort of justice you were sent to Middelburg to +administer in my name? Is this how you dishonour me? If you +conceived him guilty, why did you sign this and upon what terms? +Bah, I know the terms. And having made such foul terms, why did +you not keep your part of the bargain, evil as it was?" + +Rhynsault had nothing to say. He was afraid, and he was angry too. +Here was a most unreasonable bother all about nothing, it seemed +to him. + +"I - I sought to compromise between justice and - and - " + +"And your own vile ends," the Duke concluded for him. "By Heaven, +you German dog, I think I'll have you shortened by a head!" + +"My lord!" It was a cry of protest. + +"There is the woman you have so foully wronged, and so foully +swindled," said the Duke, watching him. "What reparation will you +make to her? What reparation can you make? I can toss your filthy +head into her lap. But will that repair the wrong?" + +The captain suddenly saw light, and quite a pleasant light it was, +for he had found Sapphira most delectable. + +"Why," he said slowly, and with all a fool's audacity, "having made +her a widow, I can make her a wife again. I never thought to wive, +myself. But if Your Grace thinks such reparation adequate, I will +afford it her." + +The Duke checked in the very act of replying. Again the expression +of his countenance changed. He strode away, his head bowed in +thought; then slowly he returned. + +"Be it so," he said. "It is not much, but it is all that you can do, +and after a fashion it will mend the honour you have torn. See that +you wed her within the week. Should she not consent, it will be the +worse for you." + +She would not have consented - she would have preferred death, +indeed - but for the insistence that the Duke used in private with +her. And so, half convinced that it would in some sort repair her +honour, the poor woman suffered herself to be led, more dead than +living, to the altar in the Duke's private chapel, and there, +scarcely knowing what she did, she became the wife of Captain +Claudius von Rhynsault, the man she had most cause to loathe and +hate in all the world. + +Rhynsault had ordered a great banquet to celebrate his nuptials, +for on the whole he was well satisfied with the issue of this +affair. But as he left the altar, his half-swooning bride upon +his arm, the Duke in person tapped his shoulder. + +"All is not yet done," he said. "You are to come with me." + +The bridal pair were conducted to the great hall of the Prinssenhof, +where there was a great gathering of the Court - to do honour to +his nuptials, thought the German captain. At the broad table sat +two clerkly fellows with quills and parchments, and by this table +the Duke took his stand, Arnault beside him - in peacock-blue +to-day - and called for silence. + +"Captain von Rhynsault," he said gravely and quietly, "what you have +done is well done; but it does not suffice. In the circumstances +of this marriage, and after the revelation we have had of your ways +of thought and of honour, it is necessary to make provision against +the future. It shall not be yours, save at grave cost, to repudiate +the wife you have now taken." + +"There is no such intent - " began Rhynsault, who misliked this homily. + +The Duke waved him into silence. + +"You are interrupting me," he said sharply. "You are a wealthy man, +Rhynsault, thanks to the favours I have heaped upon you ever since +the day when I picked you from your German kennel to set you where +you stand. Here you will find a deed prepared. It is in the form +of a will, whereby you bequeath everything of which you are to-day +possessed - and it is all set down - to your wife on your death, or +on the day on which you put her from you. Your signature is +required to that." + +The captain hesitated a moment. This deed would fetter all his +future. The Duke was unreasonable. But under the steady, compelling +eyes of Charles he moved forward to the table, and accepted the quill +the clerk was proffering. There was no alternative, he realized. +He was trapped. Well, well! He must make the best of it. He +stooped from his great height, and signed in his great sprawling, +clumsy, soldier's hand. + +The clerk dusted the document with pounce, and handed it to the Duke. +Charles cast an eye upon the signature, then taking the quill +himself, signed under it, then bore the document to the half-swooning +bride. + +"Keep this secure," he bade her. "It is your marriage-gift from me." + +Rhynsault's eyes gleamed. If his wife were to keep the deed, the +thing was none so desperate after all. But the next moment he had +other things to think of. + +"Give me your sword," the Duke requested. + +Wondering, the German unsheathed the weapon, and proffered the hilt +to his master. Charles took it, and a stern smile played about his +beardless mouth. He grasped it, hilt in one hand and point in the +other. Suddenly he bent his right knee, and, bearing sharply +downward with the flat of the weapon upon his thigh, snapped in into +two. + +"So much for that dishonourable blade," he said, and cast the pieces +from him. Then he flung out an arm to point to Rhynsault. "Take +him out," he commanded; "let him have a priest, and half an hour in +which to make his soul, then set his head on a spear above the Cloth +Hall, that men may know the justice of Charles of Burgundy." + +With the roar of a 'goaded bull the German attempted to fling +forward. But men-at-arms, in steel and leather, who had come up +quietly behind him, seized him now. Impotent in their coiling arms, +he was borne away to his doom, that thereby he might complete the +reparation of his hideous offence, and deliver Sapphira from the +bondage of a wedlock which Charles of Burgundy had never intended +her to endure. + + + + +X. THE NIGHT OF STRANGLERS + +GOVANNA OF NAPLES AND ANDREAS OF HUNGARY + + +Charles, Duke of Durazzo, was one of your super chess-players, +handling kings and queens, knights and prelates of flesh and blood +in the game that he played with Destiny upon the dark board of +Neapolitan politics. And he had no illusions on the score of the +forfeit that would be claimed by his grim opponent in the event of +his own defeat. He knew that his head was the stake he set upon +the board, and he knew, too, that defeat must inevitably follow +upon a single false move. Yet he played boldly and craftily, as +you shall judge. + +He made his first move in March of 1343, some three months after +the death of Robert of Anjou, King of Jerusalem and Sicily, as ran +the title of the ruler of Naples. He found his opportunity amid +the appalling anarchy into which the kingdom was then plunged as a +result of a wrong and an ill judged attempt to right it. + +Good King Robert the Wise had wrested the crown of Naples from his +elder brother, the King of Hungary, and had ruled as a usurper. +Perhaps to quiet his conscience, perhaps to ensure against future +strife between his own and his brother's descendants, he had +attempted to right the wrong by a marriage between his brother's +grandson Andreas and his own granddaughter Giovanna, a marriage +which had taken place ten years before, when Andreas was but seven +years of age and Giovanna five. + +The aim had been thus to weld into one the two branches of the House +of Anjou. Instead, the rivalry was to be rendered more acute than +ever, and King Robert's fear of some such result contributed to it +not a little. On his deathbed he summoned the Princes of the Blood + - the members of the Houses of Durazzo and Taranto - and the chief +nobles of the kingdom, demanding of them an oath of allegiance to +Giovanna, and himself appointing a Council of Regency to govern the +kingdom during her minority. + +The consequence was that, against all that had been intended when +the marriage was contracted, Giovanna was now proclaimed queen in +her own right, and the government taken over in her name by the +appointed Council. Instantly the Court of Naples was divided into +two camps, the party of the Queen, including the Neapolitan nobility, +and the party of Andreas of Hungary, consisting of the Hungarian +nobles forming his train and a few malcontent Neapolitan barons, and +guided by the sinister figure of Andreas's preceptor, Friar Robert. + +This arrogant friar, of whom Petrarch has left us a vivid portrait, +a red-faced, red-bearded man, with a fringe of red hair about his +tonsure, short and squat of figure, dirty in his dress and habits, +yet imbued with the pride of Lucifer despite his rags, thrust +himself violently into the Council of Regency, demanding a voice in +the name of his pupil Andreas. And the Council feared him, not +only on the score of his over-bearing personality, but also because +he was supported by the populace, which had accepted his general +filthiness as the outward sign of holiness. His irruption occasioned +so much trouble and confusion that in the end the Pope intervened, +in his quality as Lord Paramount - Naples being a fief of Holy +Church - and appointed a legate to rule the kingdom during +Giovanna's minority. + +The Hungarians, with Andreas's brother, King Ludwig of Hungary, at +their head, now appealed to the Papal Court of Avignon for a Bull +commanding the joint coronation of Andreas and Giovanna, which +would be tantamount to placing the government in the hands of +Andreas. The Neapolitans, headed by the Princes of the Blood - who, +standing next in succession, had also their own interests to consider +clamoured that Giovanna alone should be crowned. + +In this pass were the affairs of the kingdom when Charles of Durazzo, +who had stood watchful and aloof, carefully weighing the chances, +resolved at last to play that dangerous game of his. He began by +the secret abduction of Maria of Anjou, his own cousin and Giovanna's +sister, a child of fourteen. He kept her concealed for a month in +his palace, what time he obtained from the Pope, through the good +offices of his uncle the Cardinal of Perigord, a dispensation to +overcome the barrier of consanguinity. That dispensation obtained, +Charles married the girl publicly under the eyes of all Naples, +and by the marriage - to which the bride seemed nowise unwilling + - became, by virtue of his wife, next heir to the crown of Naples. + +That was his opening move. His next was to write to his obliging +uncle the Cardinal of Perigord, whose influence at Avignon was very +considerable, urging him to prevail upon Pope Clement VI not to +sign the Bull in favour of Andreas and the joint coronation. + +Now, the high-handed action of Charles in marrying Maria of Anjou +had very naturally disposed Giovanna against him; further, it had +disposed against him those Princes of the Blood who were next in +the succession, and upon whom he had stolen a march by this +strengthening of his own claims. It is inevitable to assume that +he had counted precisely upon this to afford him the pretext that +he sought - he, a Neapolitan prince - to ally himself with the +Hungarian intruder. + +Under any other circumstances his advances must have been viewed +with suspicion by Andreas, and still more by the crafty Friar +Robert. But, under the circumstances which his guile had created, +he was received with open arms by the Hungarian party, and his +defection from the Court of Giovanna was counted a victory by the +supporters of Andreas. He protested his good-will towards Andreas, +and proclaimed his hatred of Giovanna's partisans, who poisoned her +mind against her husband. He hunted and drank with Andreas - whose +life seems to have been largely made up of hunting and drinking - +and pandered generally to the rather gross tastes of this foreigner, +whom in his heart he despised for a barbarian. + +>From being a boon companion, Charles very soon became a counsellor +to the young Prince, and the poisonous advice that he gave seemed +shrewd and good, even to Friar Robert. + +"Meet hostility with hostility, ride ruthlessly upon your own way, +showing yourself confident of the decision in your favour that the +Pope must ultimately give. For bear ever in your mind that you are +King of Naples, not by virtue of your marriage with Giovanna, but +in your own right, Giovanna being but the offspring of the usurping +branch." + +The pale bovine eyes of Andreas would kindle into something like +intelligence, and a flush would warm his stolid countenance. He +was a fair-haired young giant, white-skinned and well-featured, but +dull, looking, with cold, hard eyes suggesting the barbarian that +he was considered by the cultured Neapolitans, and that he certainly +looked by contrast with them. Friar Robert supporting the Duke of +Durazzo's advice, Andreas did not hesitate to act upon it; of his +own authority he delivered prisoners from gaol, showered honours +upon his Hungarian followers and upon such Neapolitan barons as +Count Altamura, who was ill-viewed at Court, and generally set the +Queen at defiance. The inevitable result, upon which again the +subtle Charles had counted, was to exasperate a group of her most +prominent nobles into plotting the ruin of Andreas. + +It was a good beginning, and unfortunately Giovanna's own behaviour +afforded Charles the means of further speeding up his game. + +The young Queen was under the governance of Filippa the Catanese, +an evil woman, greedy of power. This Filippa, once a washerwoman, +had in her youth been chosen for her splendid health to be the +foster-mother of Giovanna's father. Beloved of her foster-child, +she had become perpetually installed at Court, married to a wealthy +Moor named Cabane, who was raised to the dignity of Grand Seneschal +of the kingdom, whereby the sometime washerwoman found herself +elevated to the rank of one of the first ladies of Naples. She must +have known how to adapt herself to her new circumstances, otherwise +she would hardly have been appointed, as she was upon the death of +her foster-son, governess to his infant daughters. Later, to ensure +her hold upon the young Queen, and being utterly unscrupulous in her +greed of power, she had herself contrived that her son, Robert of +Cabane, became Giovanna's lover. + +One of Giovanna's first acts upon her grandfather's death had been +to create this Robert Count of Evoli, and this notwithstanding that +in the mean time he had been succeeded in her favour by the handsome +young Bertrand d'Artois. This was the group - the Catanese, her +son, and Bertrand - that, with the Princes of the Blood, governed +the Queen's party. + +With what eyes Andreas may have looked upon all this we have no +means of determining. Possibly, engrossed as he was with his hawks +and his hounds, he may have been stupidly blind to his own dishonour, +at least as far as Bertrand was concerned. Another than Charles +might have chosen the crude course of opening his eyes to it. But +Charles was too far-seeing. Precipitancy was not one of his faults. +His next move must be dictated by the decision of Avignon regarding +the coronation. + +This decision came in July of 1345, and it fell like a thunderbolt +upon the Court. The Pope had pronounced in favour of Andreas by +granting the Bull for the joint coronation of Andreas and Giovanna. + +This was check to Charles. His uncle the Cardinal of Perigord had +done his utmost to oppose the measure, but he had been overborne in +the end by Ludwig of Hungary, who had settled the matter by the +powerful argument that he was himself the rightful heir to the crown +of Naples, and that he relinquished his claim in favour of his +younger brother. He had backed the argument by the payment to the +Pope of the enormous sum, for those days, of one hundred thousand +gold crowns, and the issue, obscure hitherto, had immediately become +clear to the Papal Court. + +It was check to Charles, as I have said. But Charles braced himself, +and considered the counter-move that should give him the advantage. +He went to congratulate Andreas, and found him swollen with pride +and arrogance in his triumph. + +"Be welcome, Charles," he hailed Durazzo. "I am not the man to +forget those who have stood my friends whilst my power was undecided." + +"For your own sake," said the smooth Charles, as he stepped back +from that brotherly embrace, "I trust you'll not forget those who +have been your enemies, and who, being desperate now, may take +desperate means to avert your coronation." + +The pale eyes of the Hungarian glittered. + +"Of whom do you speak?" + +Charles smoothed his black beard thoughtfully, his dark eyes narrowed +and pensive. There must be a victim, to strike fear into Giovanna's +friends and stir them to Charles's purposes. + +"Why, first and foremost, I should place Giovanna's counsellor +Isernia, that man of law whose evil counsels have hurt your rights +as king. Next come - " + +But here Charles craftily paused and looked away, a man at fault. + +"Next?" cried Andreas. "Who next? Speak out!" The Duke shrugged. + +"By the Passion, there is no lack of others. You have enemies to +spare among the Queen's friends." + +Andreas paled under his faint tan. He flung back his crimson robe +as if he felt the heat, and stood forth, lithe as a wrestler, in +his close-fitting cote-hardie and hose of violet silk. + +"No need, indeed, to name them," he said fiercely. + +"None," Charles agreed. "But the most dangerous is Isernia. Whilst +he lives you walk amid swords. His death may spread a panic that +will paralyze the others." + +He would say no more, knowing that he had said enough to send +Andreas, scowling and sinister, to sow terror in hearts that guilt +must render uneasy now, amongst which hearts be sure that he +counted Giovanna's own. + +Andreas took counsel with Friar Robert. Touching Isernia, there +was evidence and to spare that he was dangerous, and so Isernia +fell on the morrow to an assassin's sword as he was in the very +act of leaving the Castel Nuovo, and it was Charles himself who +bore word of it to the Court, and so plunged it into consternation. + +They walked in the cool of evening in the pleasant garden of the +Castel Nuovo, when Charles came upon them and touched the stalwart +shoulder of Bertrand d'Artois. Bertrand the favourite eyed him +askance, mistrusting and disliking him for his association with +Andreas. + +"The Hungarian boar," said Charles, "is sharpening his tusks now +that his authority is assured by the Holy Father." + +"Who cares?" sneered Bertrand. + +"Should you care if I added that already he has blooded them?" + +Bertrand changed countenance. The Duke explained himself. + +"He has made a beginning upon Giacomo d' Isernia. Ten minutes ago +he was stabbed to death within a stone's throw of the castle." So +Charles unburdened himself of his news. "A beginning, no more." + +"My God!" said Bertrand. "D' Isernia! Heaven rest him." And +devoutly he crossed himself. + +"Heaven will rest some more of you if you suffer Andreas of Hungary +to be its instrument," said Charles, his lips grimly twisted. + +"Do you threaten?" + +"Nay, man; be not so hot and foolish. I warn. I know his mood. +I know what he intends." + +"You ever had his confidence," said Bertrand, sneering. + +"Until this hour I had. But there's an end to that. I am a Prince +of Naples, and I'll not bend the knee to a barbarian. He was well +enough to hunt with and drink with, so long as he was Duke of +Calabria with no prospect of being more. But that he should become +my King, and that our lady Giovanna should be no more than a queen +consort - " He made a gesture of ineffable disgust. + +Bertrand's eyes kindled. He gripped the other's arm, and drew him +along under a trellis of vines that formed a green cloister about +the walls. + +"Why, here is great news for our Queen," he cried. "It will rejoice +her, my lord, to know you are loyal to her." + +"That is no matter," he replied. "What matters is that you should +be warned - you, yourself in particular, and Evoli. No doubt there +will be others, too. But the Hungarian's confidences went no +further." + +Bertrand had come to a standstill. He stared at Charles, and slowly +the colour left his face. + +"Me?" he said, a finger on his heart. + +"Aye, you. You will be the next. But not until the crown is firmly +on his brow. Then he will settle his score with the nobles of +Naples who have withstood him. Listen," and Charles's voice sank +as if under the awful burden of his news; "a black banner of +vengeance is to precede him to his coronation. And your name stands +at the head of the list of the proscribed. Does it surprise you? +After all, he is a husband, and he has some knowledge of what lies +between the Queen and you - " + +"Stop!" + +"Pish!" Charles shrugged. "What need for silence upon what all +Naples knows? When have you and the Queen ever used discretion? +In your place I should not need a warning. I should know what to +expect from a husband become king." + +"The Queen must be told." + +"Indeed, I think so, too. It will come best from you. Go tell her, +so that measures may be taken. But go secretly and warily. You +are safe until he wears the crown. And above all - whatever you may +decide - do nothing here in Naples." + +And on that he turned to depart, whilst Bertrand sped to Giovanna. +On the threshold of the garden Charles paused and looked back. His +eyes sought and found the Queen, a tall, lissome girl of seventeen, +in a close-fitting, revealing gown of purple silk, the high, white +gorget outlining an oval face of a surpassing loveliness, crowned +by a wealth of copper-coloured hair. She was standing in a stricken +attitude, looking up into the face of her lover, who was delivering +himself of his news. + +Charles departed satisfied. + +Three days later a man of the Queen's household, one Melazzo, who +was in Duke Charles's pay, brought him word that the seed he had +cast had fallen upon fertile soil. A conspiracy to destroy the King +had been laid by Bertrand d'Artois, Robert of Cabane, Count of Evoli, +and the latter's brothers-in-law, Terlizzi and Morcone. Melazzo +himself, for his notorious affection for the Queen, had been included +in this band, and also a man named Pace, who was body servant to +Andreas, and who, like Melazzo, was in Charles's pay. + +Charles of Durazzo smiled gently to himself. The game went +excellently well. + +"The Court," he sad, "goes to Aversa for a month before the +coronation. That would be a favourable season to their plan. Advise +it so." + +The date appointed for the coronation was September 20th. A month +before - on August 20th - the Court removed itself from the heat and +reek of Naples to the cooler air of Aversa, there to spend the time +of waiting. They were housed in the monastery of Saint Peter, which +had been converted as far as possible into a royal residence for +the occasion. + +On the night of their arrival there the refectory of the monastery +was transfigured to accommodate the numerous noble and very jovial +company assembled there to sup. The long, stone-flagged room, lofty +and with windows set very high, normally so bare and austere, was +hung now with tapestries, and the floor strewn with rushes that were +mingled with lemon verbena and other aromatic herbs. Along the +lateral walls and across the end of the room that faced the double +doors were set the stone tables of the Spartan monks, on a shallow +dais that raised them above the level of the floor. These tables +were gay now with the gleam of crystal and the glitter of gold and +silver plate. Along one side of them, their backs to the walls, +sat the ladies and nobles of the Court. The vaulted ceiling was +rudely frescoed to represent the open heavens - the work of a +brother whose brush was more devout than cunning - and there was +the inevitable cenacolo above the Abbot's table at the upper end of +the room. + +At this table sat the royal party, the broad-shouldered Andreas of +Hungary, slightly asprawl, his golden mane somewhat tumbled now, +for he was drinking deeply in accordance with his barbarian habit; +ever and anon he would fling down a bone or a piece of meat to the +liver-coloured hounds that crouched expectant on the rushes of the +floor. + +They had hunted that day in the neighbourhood of Capua, and Andreas +had acquitted himself well, and was in high good-humour, giving now +little thought to the sinister things that Charles of Durazzo had +lately whispered, laughing and jesting with the traitor Morcone at +his side. Behind him in close attendance stood his servant Pace, +once a creature of Durazzo's. The Queen sat on his right, making +but poor pretence to eat; her lovely young face was of a ghostly +pallor, her dark eyes were wide and staring. Among the guests were +the black-browed Evoli and his brother-in-law, Terlizzi; Bertrand +of Artois and his father; Melazzo, that other creature of Charles's, +and Filippa the Catanese, handsome and arrogant, but oddly silent +to-night. + +But Charles of Durazzo was not of the company. It is not for the +player, himself, to become a piece upon the board. + +He had caught a whisper that the thing he had so slyly prompted to +Bertrand d'Artois was to be done here at Aversa, and so Charles had +remained at Naples. He had discovered very opportunely that his +wife was ailing, and he developed such concern for her that he could +not bring himself to leave her side. He had excused himself to +Andreas with a thousand regrets, since what he most desired was to +enjoy with him the cool, clean air of Aversa and the pleasures of +the chase; and he had presented the young King at parting with the +best of all his falcons in earnest of affection and disappointment. + +The night wore on, and at last, at a sign from the Queen, the ladies +rose and departed to their beds. The men settled down again. The +cellarers redoubled their activities, the flagons circulated more +briskly, and the noise they made must have disturbed the monks +entrenched in their cells against these earthly vanities. The +laughter of Andreas grew louder and more vacuous, and when at last +he heaved himself up at midnight and departed to bed, that he might +take some rest against the morrow's hunt, he staggered a little in +his walk. + +But there were other hunters there whose impatience could not keep +until the morrow, whose game was to be run to death that very night. +They waited - Bertrand d'Artois, Robert of Cabane, the Counts of +Terlizzi and Morcone, Melazzo and Andreas's body servant Pace - until +all those who lay at Aversa were deep in slumber. Then at two +o'clock in the morning they made their stealthy way to the loggia +on the third floor, a long colonnaded gallery above the Abbot's +garden. They paused a moment before the Queen's door which opened +upon this gallery, then crept on to that of the King's room at the +other end. It was Pace who rapped sharply on the panels thrice +before he was answered by a sleepy growl from the other side. + +"It is I - Pace - my lord," he announced. "A courier has arrived +from Naples, from Friar Robert, with instant messages." + +>From within there was a noisy yawn, a rustle, the sound of an +overturning stool, and, lastly, the rasp of a bolt being withdrawn. +The door opened, and in the faint light of the dawning day Andreas +appeared, drawing a furlined robe about his body, which was naked +of all but a shirt. + +He saw no one but Pace. The others had drawn aside into the shadows. +Unsuspecting, he stepped forth. + +"Where is this messenger?" + +The door through which he had come slammed suddenly behind him, and +he turned to see Melazzo in the act of bolting it with a dagger to +prevent any one from following that way - for the room had another +door opening upon the inner corridor. + +Instead, Melazzo might have employed his dagger to stab Andreas +behind, and so have made an instant end. But it happened to be +known that Andreas wore an amulet - a ring that his mother had +given him - which rendered him invulnerable to steel or poison. +And such was the credulity of his age, such the blind faith of those +men in the miraculous power of that charm, that none of them so much +as attempted to test it with a dagger. It was for the same reason +that no recourse was had to the still easier method of disposing of +him by poison. Accepting the amulet at its legendary value, the +conspirators had resolved that he must be strangled. + +As he turned now they leapt upon him, and, taking him unawares, bore +him to the ground before he could realize what was happening. Here +they grappled with him, and he with them. He was endowed with the +strength of a young bull, and he made full use of it. He rose, +beating them off, to be borne down again, bellowing the while for +help. He smote out blindly, and stretched Morcone half senseless +with a blow of his great fist. + +Seeing how difficult he proved to strangle, they must have cursed +that amulet of his. He struggled to his knees again, then to his +feet, and, at last, with bleeding face, leaving tufts of his fair +hair in their murderous hands, he broke through and went bounding +down the loggia, screaming as he ran, until he came to his wife's +door. Against that he hurled himself, calling her. + +"Giovanna! Giovanna! For the love of God crucified! Open! Open! +I am being murdered!" + +>From within came no answer - utter silence. + +"Giovanna! Giovanna!" He beat frenziedly upon the door. + +Still no answer, which yet was answer enough. + +The stranglers, momentarily discomfited, scared, too, lest his cries +should rouse the convent, had stood hesitating after he broke from +them. But now Bertrand d'Artois, realizing that too much had been +done already to admit of the business being left unfinished, sprang +upon him suddenly again. Locked in each other's arms, those +wrestlers swayed and panted in the loggia for a moment, then with +a crash went down, Bertrand on top, Andreas striking his head against +the stone floor as he fell. The Queen's lover pinned him there, +kneeling upon his breast. + +"The rope!" he panted to the others who came up. + +One of them threw him a coil of purple silk interwrought with gold +thread, in which a running noose had been tied. Bertrand slipped it +over Andreas's head, drew it taut, and held it so, despite the man's +desperate, convulsive struggles. The others came to his assistance. +Amongst them they lifted the writhing victim to the parapet of the +loggia, and flung him over; whilst Bertrand, Cabane, and Pace bore +upon the rope, arresting his fall, and keeping him suspended there +until he should be dead. Melazzo and Morcone came to assist them, +and it was then that Cabane observed that Terlizzi held aloof, as if +filled with horror. + +Peremptorily he called to him: + +"Hither, and lend a hand! The rope is long enough to afford you a +grip. We want accomplices, not witnesses, Lord Count." + +Terlizzi obeyed, and then the ensuing silence was broken suddenly +by screams from the floor below the screams of a woman who slept in +the room immediately underneath, who had awakened to behold in the +grey light of the breaking day the figure of a man kicking and +writhing at a rope's end before her window. + +Yet a moment the startled stranglers kept their grip of the rope +until the struggles at the end of it had ceased; then they loosed +their hold and let the body go plunging down into the Abbot's garden. +Thereafter they scattered and fled, for people were stirring now in +the convent, aroused by the screams of the woman. + +Thrice, so the story runs, came the monks to the Queen's door to +knock and demand her orders for the disposal of the body of her +husband without receiving any answer to their question. It remained +still unanswered when later in the day she departed from Aversa in +a closed litter, and returned to Naples escorted by a company of +lances, and for lack of instructions the monks left the body in the +Abbot's garden, where it had fallen, until Charles of Durazzo came +to remove it two days later. + +Ostentatiously he bore to Naples the murdered Prince - whose death +he had so subtly inspired - and in the cathedral before the +Hungarians, whom he had assembled, and in the presence of a vast +concourse of the people, he solemnly swore over the body vengeance +upon the murderers. + +Having made a cat's-paw of Giovanna - through the person of her +lover, Bertrand d'Artois, and his confederate assassins - and thus +cleared away one of those who stood between himself and the throne, +he now sought to make a cat's-paw of justice to clear away the other. +Meanwhile, days grew into weeks and weeks into months, and no attempt +was made by the Queen to hunt out the murderers of her husband, no +inquiry instituted. Bertrand d'Artois, it is true, had fled with +his father to their stronghold of Saint Agatha for safety. But the +others - Cabane, Terlizzi, and Morcone - continued unabashed about +Giovanna's person at the Castel Nuovo. + +Charles wrote to Ludwig of Hungary, and to the Pope, demanding that +justice should be done, and pointing out the neglect of all attempt +to perform it in the kingdom itself, and inviting them to construe +for themselves that neglect. As a consequence, Clement VI issued, +on June 2d of the following year, a Bull, whereby Bertrand des Baux, +the Grand Justiciary of Naples, was commanded to hunt down and +punish the assassins, against whom - at the same time - the Pope +launched a second Bull, of excommunication. But the Holy Father +accompanied his commands to Des Baux by a private note, wherein he +straitly enjoined the Grand Justiciary for reasons of State to +permit nothing to transpire that might reflect upon the Queen. + +Des Baux set about his task at once, and inspired, no doubt, by +Charles, proceeded to the arrest of Melazzo and the servant Pace. +It was not for Charles to accuse the Queen or even any of her nobles, +whereby he might have aroused against himself the opposition of +those who were her loyal partisans. Sufficient for him to point +out the two meanest of the conspirators, and depend upon the torture +to wring from them confessions that must gradually pull down the +rest, and in the end Giovanna herself. + +Terlizzi, alive to his danger when he heard of the arrest of those +two, made a bold and desperate attempt to avert it. Riding forth +with a band of followers, he attacked the escort that was bearing +Pace to prison. The prisoner was seized, but not to be rescued. +All that Terlizzi wanted was his silence. By his orders the +wretched man's tongue was torn out, whereupon he was abandoned once +more to his guards and his fate. + +Had Terlizzi been able to carry out his intentions of performing +the like operation upon Melazzo, Charles might have been placed in +a difficult position. So much, however, did not happen, and the +horrible deed upon Pace was in vain. Put to the question, Melazzo +denounced Terlizzi, and together with him Cabane, Morcone, and the +others. Further, his confession incriminated Filippa, the Catanese, +and her two daughters, the wives of Terlizzi and Morcone. Of the +Queen, however, he said nothing, because, one of the lesser +conspirators, little more than a servant like Pace, he can have had +no knowledge of the Queen's complicity. + +The arrest of the others followed instantly, and, sentenced to death, +they were publicly burned in the Square of Sant' Eligio, after +suffering all the brutal, unspeakable horrors of fourteenth-century +torture, which continued to the very scaffold, with the alleged +intention of inducing them to denounce any further accomplices. But +though they writhed and fainted under the pincers of the executioners, +they confessed nothing. Indeed, they preserved a silence which left +the people amazed, for the people lacked the explanation. The Grand +Justiciary, Hugh des Baux, had seen to it that the Pope's injunctions +should be obeyed. Lest the condemned should say too much, he had +taken the precaution of having their tongues fastened down with +fish-hooks. + +Thus Charles was momentarily baulked, and he was further baulked by +the fact that Giovanna had taken a second husband, in her cousin, +Louis of Taranto. Unless matters were to remain there and the game +end in a stalemate, bold measures were required, and those measures +Charles adopted. He wrote to the King of Hungary now openly +accusing Giovanna of the murder, and pointing out the circumstances +that in themselves afforded corroboration of his charge. + +Those circumstances Ludwig embodied in a fulminating letter which +he wrote to Giovanna in answer to her defence against the charge of +inaction in the matter of her late husband's murderers: "Giovanna, +thy antecedent disorderly life, thy retention of the exclusive power +in the kingdom, thy neglect of vengeance upon the murderers of thy +husband, thy having taken another husband, and thy very excuses +abundantly prove thy complicity in thy husband's death." + +So far this was all as Charles of Durazzo could have desired it. +But there was more. Ludwig was advancing now in arms to take +possession of the kingdom, of which, under all the circumstances, +he might consider himself the lawful heir, and the Princes of Italy +were affording him unhindered passage through their States. This +was not at all to Charles's liking. Indeed, unless he bestirred +himself, it might prove to be checkmate from an altogether unexpected +quarter, rendering vain all the masterly play with which he had +conducted the game so far. + +It flustered him a little, and in his haste to counter it he +blundered. + +Giovanna, alarmed at the rapid advance of Ludwig, summoned her +barons to her aid, and in that summons she included Charles, +realizing that at all costs he must be brought over to her side. +He went, listened, and finally sold himself for a good price the +title of Duke of Calabria, which made him heir to the kingdom. +He raised a powerful troop of lances, and marched upon Aquila, +which had already hoisted the Hungarian banner. + +There it was that he discovered, and soon, his move to have been a +bad one. News was brought to him that the Queen, taken with panic, +had fled to Provence, seeking sanctuary at Avignon. + +Charles set about correcting his error without delay, and marched +out of Aquila to go and meet Ludwig that he might protest his +loyalty, and range himself under the invader's banner. + +At Foligno, the King of Hungary was met by a papal legate, who in +the name of Pope Clement forbade him under pain of excommunication +to invade a fief of Holy Church. + +"When I am master of Naples," answered Ludwig firmly, "I shall count +myself a feudatory of the Holy See. Until then I render account to +none but God and my conscience." And he pushed on, preceded by a +black banner of death, scattering in true Hungarian fashion murder, +rape, pillage, and arson through the smiling countryside, exacting +upon the whole land a terrible vengeance for the murder of his +brother. + +Thus he came to Aversa, and there quartered himself and his +Hungarians upon that convent of Saint Peter where Andreas had been +strangled a year ago. And it was here that he was joined by Charles, +who came protesting loyalty, and whom the King received with open +arms and a glad welcome, as was to be expected from a man who had +been Andreas's one true friend in that land of enemies. Of Charles's +indiscreet escapade in the matter of Aquila nothing was said. As +Charles had fully expected, it was condoned upon the score both of +the past and the present. + +That night there was high feasting in that same refectory where +Andreas had feasted on the night when the stranglers watched him, +waiting, and Charles was the guest of honour. In the morning Ludwig +was to pursue his march upon the city of Naples, and all were astir +betimes. + +On the point of setting out, Ludwig turned to Charles. + +"Before I go," he said, "I have a mind to visit the spot where my +brother died. + +To Charles, no doubt, this seemed a morbid notion to be discouraged. +But Ludwig was insistent. + +"Take me there," he bade the Duke, + +"Indeed, I scarce know - I was not here, remember," Charles answered +him, rendered faintly uneasy, perhaps by a certain grimness in the +gaunt King's face, perhaps by the mutterings of his own conscience. + +"I know that you were not; but surely you must know the place. It +will be known to all the world in these parts. Besides, was it not +yourself recovered the body? Conduct me thither, then. + +Perforce, then, Charles must do his will. Arm-in-arm they mounted +the stairs to that sinister loggia, a half-dozen of Ludwig's +escorting officers following. + +They stepped along the tessellated floor above the Abbot's garden, +flooded now with sunshine which drew the perfume from the roses +blooming there. + +"Here the King slept," said Charles, "and yonder the Queen. +Somewhere here between the thing was done, and thence they hanged +him." + +Ludwig, tall and grim, stood considering, chin in hand. Suddenly +he wheeled upon the Duke who stood at his elbow. His face had +undergone a change, and his lip curled so that he displayed his +strong teeth as a dog displays them when he snarls. + +"Traitor!" he rasped. "It is you - you who come smiling and fawning +upon me, and spurring me on to vengeance - who are to blame for what +happened here." + +"I?" Charles fell back, changing colour, his legs trembling under +him. + +"You!" the King answered him furiously. "His death would never +have come about but for your intrigues to keep him out of the royal +power, to hinder his coronation." + +"It is false!" cried Charles. "False! I swear it before God!" + +"Perjured dog! Do you deny that you sought the aid of your precious +uncle the Cardinal of Perigord to restrain the Pope from granting +the Bull required?" + +"I do deny it. The facts deny it. The Bull was forthcoming." + +"Then your denial but proves your guilt," the King answered him, +and from the leather pouch hanging from his belt, he pulled out a +parchment, and held it under the Duke's staring eyes. It was the +letter he had written to the Cardinal of Perigord, enjoining him to +prevent the Pope from signing the Bull sanctioning Andreas's +coronation. + +The King smiled terribly into that white, twitching face. + +"Deny it now," he mocked him. "Deny, too, that, bribed by the +title of Duke of Calabria, you turned to the service of the Queen, +to abandon it again for ours when you perceived your danger. You +think to use us, traitor, as a stepping-stone to help you to mount +the throne - as you sought to use my brother even to the extent of +encompassing his murder." + +"No, no! I had no hand in that. I was his friend - " + +"Liar!" Ludwig struck him across the mouth. + +On the instant the officers of Ludwig laid hands upon the Duke, +fearing that the indignity might spur him to retaliation. + +"You are very opportune," said Ludwig; and added coldly, "Dispatch +him." + +Charles screamed a moment, even as Andreas had screamed on that same +spot, when he found himself staring into the fearful face of death. +Then the scream became a cough as a Hungarian sword went through him +from side to side. + +They picked up his body from the tessellated floor of the loggia, +carried it to the parapet as Andreas's had been carried, and flung +it down into the Abbot's garden as Andreas's had been flung. It lay +in a rosebush, dyeing the Abbot's roses a deeper red. + +Never was justice more poetic. + + + + +XI. THE NIGHT OF HATE + +THE MURDER OF THE DUKE OF GANDIA + + +The Cardinal Vice-Chancellor took the packet proffered him by the +fair-haired, scarlet-liveried page, and turned it over, considering +it, the gentle, finely featured, almost ascetic face very thoughtful. + +"It was brought, my lord, by a man in a mask, who will give no name. + He waits below," said the scarlet stripling. + +"A man in a mask, eh? What mystery!" + +The thoughtful brown eyes smiled, the fine hands broke the fragment +of wax. A gold ring fell out and rolled some little way along the +black and purple Eastern rug. The boy dived after it, and presented +it to his lordship. + +The ring bore an escutcheon, and the Cardinal found graven upon this +escutcheon his own arms the Sforza lion and the flower of the quince. +Instantly those dark, thoughtful eyes of his grew keen as they +flashed upon the page. + +"Did you see the device?" he asked, a hint of steel under the +silkiness of his voice. + +"I saw nothing, my lord - a ring, no more. I did not even look." + +The Cardinal continued to ponder him for a long moment very +searchingly. + +"Go - bring this man," he said at last; and the boy departed, soon +to reappear; holding aside the tapestry that masked the door to give +passage to a man of middle height wrapped in a black cloak, his face +under a shower of golden hair, covered from chin to brow by a black +visor. + +At a sign from the Cardinal the page departed. Then the man, coming +forward, let fall his cloak, revealing a rich dress of close-fitting +violet silk, sword and dagger hanging from his jewelled girdle; he +plucked away the mask, and disclosed the handsome, weak face of +Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro and Cotignola, the discarded husband +of Madonna Lucrezia, Pope Alexander's daughter. + +The Cardinal considered his nephew gravely, without surprise. He +had expected at first no more than a messenger from the owner of +that ring. But at sight of his figure and long, fair hair he had +recognized Giovanni before the latter had removed his mask. + +"I have always accounted you something mad," said the Cardinal +softly. "But never mad enough for this. What brings you to Rome?" + +"Necessity, my lord," replied the young tyrant. "The need to defend +my honour, which is about to be destroyed." + +"And your life?" wondered his uncle. "Has that ceased to be of +value?" + +"Without honour it is nothing." + +"A noble sentiment taught in every school. But for practical +purposes - " The Cardinal shrugged. + +Giovanni, however, paid no heed. + +"Did you think, my lord, that I should tamely submit to be a +derided, outcast husband, that I should take no vengeance upon, +that villainous Pope for having made me a thing of scorn, a byword +throughout Italy?" Livid hate writhed in his fair young face. "Did +you think I should, indeed, remain in Pesaro, whither I fled before +their threats to my life, and present no reckoning?" + +"What is the reckoning you have in mind?" inquired his uncle, +faintly ironical. "You'll not be intending to kill the Holy Father?" + +"Kill him?" Giovanni laughed shortly, scornfully. "Do the dead +suffer?" + +"In hell, sometimes," said the Cardinal. + +"Perhaps. But I want to be sure. I want sufferings that I can +witness, sufferings that I can employ as balsam for my own wounded +honour. I shall strike, even as he has stricken me - at his soul, +not at his body. I shall wound him where he is most sensitive." + +Ascanio Sforza, towering tall and slender in his scarlet robes, +shook his head slowly. + +"All this is madness - madness! You were best away, best in Pesaro. +Indeed, you cannot safely show your face in Rome." + +"That is why I go masked. That is why I come to you, my lord, for +shelter here until - " + +"Here?" The Cardinal was instantly alert. "Then you think I am +as mad as yourself. Why, man, if so much as a whisper of your +presence in Rome got abroad, this is the first place where they +would look nor you. If you will have your way, if you are so set +on the avenging of past wrongs and the preventing of future ones, +it is not for me, your kinsman, to withstand you. But here in my +palace you cannot stay, for your own safety's sake. That page who +brought you, now; I would not swear he did not see the arms upon +your ring. I pray that he did not. But if he did, your presence +is known here already." + +Giovanni was perturbed. + +"But if not here, where, then, in Rome should I be safe?" + +"Nowhere, I think," answered the ironical Ascanio. "Though perhaps +you might count yourself safe with Pico. Your common hate of the +Holy Father should be a stout bond between you." + +Fate prompted the suggestion. Fate drove the Lord of Pesaro to act +upon it, and to seek out Antonio Maria Pico, Count of Mirandola, in +his palace by the river, where Pico, as Ascanio had foreseen, gave +him a cordial welcome. + +There he abode almost in hiding until the end of May, seldom issuing +forth, and never without his mask - a matter this which excited no +comment, for masked faces were common in the streets of Rome in the +evening of the fifteenth century. In talk with Pico he set forth +his intent, elaborating what already he had told the Cardinal +Vice-Chancellor. + +"He is a father - this Father of Fathers," he said once. "A tender, +loving father whose life is in his children, who lives through them +and for them. Deprive him of them, and his life would become empty, +worthless, a living death. There is Giovanni, who is as the apple +of his eye, whom he has created Duke of Gandia, Duke of Benevento, +Prince of Sessa, Lord of Teano, and more besides. There is the +Cardinal of Valencia, there is Giuffredo, Prince of Squillace, and +there is my wife, Lucrezia, of whom he has robbed me. There is, you +see, an ample heel to our Achilles. The question is, where shall we +begin?" + +"And also, how," Pico reminded him. + +Fate was to answer both those questions, and that soon. + +They went on June 1st - the Lord of Pesaro, with his host and his +host's daughter, Antonia - to spend the day at Pico's vineyard in +Trastevere. At the moment of setting out to return to Rome in the +evening the Count was detained by his steward, newly returned from +a journey with matters to communicate to him. + +He bade his guest, with his daughter and their attendants, to ride +on, saying that he himself would follow and overtake them. But the +steward detained him longer than he had expected, so that, although +the company proceeded leisurely towards the city, Pico had not come +up with them when they reached the river. In the narrow street +beyond the bridge the little escort found itself suddenly confronted +and thrust aside by a magnificent cavalcade of ladies and gallants, +hawk on wrist and followed by a pack of hounds. + +Giovanni had eyes for one only in that gay company - a tall, +splendidly handsome man in green, a Plumed bonnet on his auburn head, +and a roguish, jovial eye, which, in its turn, saw nobody in that +moment but Madonna Antonia, reclining in her litter, the leather +curtains of which she had drawn back that she might converse with +Giovanni as they rode. + +The Lord of Pesaro beheld the sudden kindling of his brother-in-law's +glance, for that handsome gallant was the Duke of Gandia, the Pope's +eldest son, the very apple of the Holy Father's eye. He saw the +Duke's almost unconscious check upon his reins; saw him turn in the +saddle to stare boldly at Madonna Antonia until, grown conscious of +his regard, she crimsoned under it. And when at last the litter had +moved on, he saw over his shoulder a mounted servant detach from the +Duke's side to follow them. This fellow dogged their heels all the +way to the Parione Quarter, obviously with intent to discover for his +master where the beautiful lady of the litter might be housed. + +Giovanni said naught of this to Pico when he returned a little later. +He was quick to perceive the opportunity that offered, but far from +sure that Pico would suffer his daughter to be used as a decoy; far, +indeed, from sure that he dared himself so employ her. But on the +morrow, chancing to look from a window out of idle curiosity to see +what horse it was that was pacing in the street below, he beheld a +man in a rich cloak, in whom at once he recognized the Duke, and he +accounted that the dice of destiny had fallen. + +Himself unseen by that horseman, Giovanni drew back quickly. On the +spur of the moment, he acted with a subtlety worthy of long +premeditation. Antonia and he were by an odd fatality alone together +in that chamber of the mezzanine. He turned to her. + +"An odd fellow rides below here, tarrying as if expectant. I wonder +should you know who he is." + +Obeying his suggestion, she rose - a tall, slim child of some +eighteen years, of a delicate, pale beauty, with dark, thoughtful +eyes and long, black tresses, interwoven with jewelled strands of +gold thread. She rustled to the window and looked down upon that +cavalier; and, as she looked, scanning him intently, the Duke raised +his head. Their eyes met, and she drew back with a little cry. + +"What is it?" exclaimed Giovanni. + +"It is that insolent fellow who stared at me last evening in the +street. I would you had not bidden me look." + +Now, whilst she had been gazing from the window, Giovanni, moving +softly behind her, had espied a bowl of roses on the ebony table in +the room's middle. Swiftly and silently he had plucked a blossom, +which he now held behind his back. As she turned from him again, +he sent it flying through the window; and whilst in his heart he +laughed with bitter hate and scorn as he thought of Gandia snatching +up that rose and treasuring it in his bosom, aloud he laughed at her +fears, derided them as idle. + +That night, in his room, Giovanni practised penmanship assiduously, +armed with a model with which Antonia had innocently equipped him. +He went to bed well pleased, reflecting that as a man lives so does +he die. Giovanni Borgia, Duke of Gandia, had been ever an amiable +profligate, a heedless voluptuary obeying no spur but that of his +own pleasure, which should drive him now to his destruction. +Giovanni Borgia, he considered further, was, as he had expressed it, +the very apple of his father's eye; and since, of his own accord, +the Duke had come to thrust his foolish head into the noose, the +Lord of Pesaro would make a sweet beginning to the avenging of his +wrongs by drawing it taut. + +Next morning saw him at the Vatican, greatly daring, to deliver in +person his forgery to the Duke. Suspicious of his mask, they asked +him who he was and whence he came. + +"Say one who desires to remain unknown with a letter for the Duke +of Gandia which his magnificence will welcome." + +Reluctantly, a chamberlain departed with his message. Anon he was +conducted above to the magnificent apartments which Gandia occupied +during his sojourn there. + +He found the Duke newly risen, and with him his brother, the +auburn-headed young Cardinal of Valencia, dressed in a close-fitting +suit of black, that displayed his lithe and gracefully athletic +proportions, and a cloak of scarlet silk to give a suggestion of +his ecclesiastical rank. + +Giovanni bowed low, and, thickening his voice that it might not be +recognized, announced himself and his mission in one. + +"From the lady of the rose," said he, proffering the letter. + +Valencia stared a moment; then went off into a burst of laughter. +Gandia's face flamed and his eyes sparkled. He snatched the letter, +broke its seal, and consumed its contents. Then he flung away to a +table, took up a pen, and sat down to write; the tall Valencia +watching him with amused scorn a while, then crossing to his side +and setting a hand upon his shoulder. + +"You will never learn," said the more subtle Cesare. "You must +forever be leaving traces where traces are not to be desired." + +Gandia looked up into that keen, handsome young face. + +"You are right," he said; and crumpled the letter in his hand. + +Then he looked at the messenger and hesitated. + +"I am in Madonna's confidence," said the man in the mask. + +Gandia rose. "Then say - say that her letter has carried me to +Heaven; that I but await her commands to come in person to declare +myself. But bid her hasten, for within two weeks from now I go to +Naples, and thence I may return straight to Spain." + +"The opportunity shall be found, Magnificent. Myself I shall bring +you word of it." + +The Duke loaded him with thanks, and in his excessive gratitude +pressed upon him at parting a purse of fifty ducats, which Giovanni +flung into the Tiber some ten minutes later as he was crossing the +Bridge of Sant' Angelo on his homeward way. + +The Lord of Pesaro proceeded without haste. Delay and silence he +knew would make Gandia the more sharp-set, and your sharp-set, +impatient fellow is seldom cautious. Meanwhile, Antonia had +mentioned to her father that princely stranger who had stared so +offendingly one evening, and who for an hour on the following +morning had haunted the street beneath her window. Pico mentioned +it to Giovanni, whereupon Giovanni told him frankly who it was. + +"It was that libertine brother-in-law of mine, the Duke of Gandia," +he said. "Had he persisted, I should have bidden you look to your +daughter. As it is, no doubt he has other things to think of. He +is preparing for his journey to Naples, to accompany his brother +Cesare, who goes as papal legate to crown Federigo of Aragon." + +There he left the matter, and no more was heard of it until the night +of June 14th, the very eve of the departure of the Borgia princes +upon that mission. + +Cloaked and masked, Giovanni took his way to the Vatican at dusk that +evening, and desired to have himself announced to the Duke. But he +was met with the answer that the Duke was absent; that he had gone to +take leave of his mother and to sup at her villa in Trastevere. His +return was not expected until late. + +At first Giovanni feared that, in leaving the consummation of his +plot until the eleventh hour, he had left it too late. In his +anxiety he at once set out on foot, as he was, for the villa of +Madonna Giovanna de Catanei. He reached it towards ten o'clock +that night, to be informed that Gandia was there, at supper. The +servant went to bear word to the Duke that a man in a mask was +asking to see him, a message which instantly flung Gandia into +agitation. Excitedly he commanded that the man be brought to him +at once. + +The Lord of Pesaro was conducted through the house and out into the +garden to an arbour of vine, where a rich table was spread in the +evening cool, lighted by alabaster lamps. About this table Giovanni +found a noble company of his own relations by marriage. There was +Gandia, who rose hurriedly at his approach, and came to meet him; +there was Cesare, Cardinal of Valencia, who was to go to Naples +to-morrow as papal legate, yet dressed tonight in cloth of gold, +with no trace of his churchly dignity about him; there was their +younger brother Giuffredo, Prince of Squillace, a handsome stripling, +flanked by his wife, the free-and-easy Donna Sancia of Aragon, +swarthy, coarse-featured, and fleshy, despite her youth; there was +Giovanni's sometime wife; the lovely, golden-headed Lucrezia, the +innocent cause of all this hate that festered in the Lord of Pesaro's +soul; there was their mother, the nobly handsome Giovanozza de +Catanei, from whom the Borgias derived their auburn heads; and there +was their cousin, Giovanni Borgia, Cardinal of Monreale, portly and +scarlet, at Madonna's side. + +All turned to glance at this masked intruder who had the power so +oddly to excite their beloved Gandia. + +"From the lady of the rose," Giovanni announced himself softly to +the Duke. + +"Yes, yes," came the answer, feverishly impatient. "Well, what is +your message?" + +"To-night her father is from home. She will expect your magnificence +at midnight." + +Gandia drew a deep breath. + +"By the Host! You are no more than in time. I had almost despaired, +my friend, my best of friends. To-night!" He pronounced the word +ecstatically. "Wait you here. Yourself you shall conduct me. +Meanwhile, go sup." + +And beating his hands, he summoned attendants. + +Came the steward and a couple of Moorish slaves in green turbans, to +whose care the Duke commanded his masked visitor. But Giovanni +neither required nor desired their ministrations; he would not eat +nor drink, but contented himself with the patience of hatred to sit +for two long hours awaiting the pleasure of his foolish victim. + +They left at last, a little before midnight the Duke, his brother +Cesare, his cousin Monreale, and a numerous attendance, his own +retinue and those of the two cardinals. Thus they rode back to +Rome, the Borgias very gay, the man in the mask plodding along +beside them. + +They came to the Rione de Ponte, where their ways were to separate, +and there, opposite the palace of the Cardinal Vice-Chancellor, +Gandia drew rein. He announced to the others that he went no farther +with them, summoned a single groom to attend him, and bade the +remainder return to the Vatican and await him there. + +There was a last jest and a laugh from Cesare as the cavalcade went +on towards the papal palace. Then Gandia turned to the man in the +mask, bade him get up on the crupper of his horse, and so rode +slowly off in the direction of the Giudecca, the single attendant +he had retained trotting beside his stirrup. + +Giovanni directed his brother-in-law, not to the main entrance of +the house, but to the garden gate, which opened upon a narrow alley. +Here they dismounted, flinging the reins to the groom, who was bidden +to wait. Giovanni produced a key, unlocked the door, and ushered the +Duke into the gloom of the garden. A stone staircase ran up to the +loggia on the mezzanine, and by this way was Gandia now conducted, +treading softly. His guide went ahead. He had provided himself with +yet another key, and so unlocked the door from the loggia which opened +upon the ante-room of Madonna Antonia. He held the door for the Duke, +who hesitated, seeing all in darkness. + +"In," Giovanni bade him. "Tread softly. Madonna waits for you." + +Recklessly, then, that unsuspecting fellow stepped into the trap. + +Giovanni followed, closed the door, and locked it. The Duke, +standing with quickened pulses in that impenetrable blackness, found +himself suddenly embraced, not at all after the fond fashion he was +expecting. A wrestler's arms enlaced his body, a sinewy leg coiled +itself snake-wise about one of his own, pulling it from under him. +As he crashed down under the weight of his unseen opponent, a great +voice boomed out: + +"Lord of Mirandola! To me! Help! Thieves!" + +Suddenly a door opened. Light flooded the gloom, and the writhing +Duke beheld a white vision of the girl whose beauty had been the +lure that had drawn him into this peril which, as yet, he scarcely +understood. But looking up into the face of the man who grappled +with him, the man who held him there supine under his weight, he +began at last to understand, or, at least, to suspect, for the face +he saw, unmasked now, leering at him with hate unspeakable through +the cloud of golden hair that half met across it, was the face of +Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, whom his family had so cruelly +wronged. Giovanni Sforza's was the voice that now fiercely announced +his doom. + +"You and yours have made me a thing of scorn and laughter. Yourself +have laughed at me. Go laugh in hell!" + +A blade flashed up in Giovanni's hand. Gandia threw up an arm to +fend his breast, and the blade buried itself in the muscles. He +screamed with pain and terror. The other laughed with hate and +triumph, and stabbed again, this time in the shoulder. + +Antonia, from the threshold, watching in bewilderment and panic, sent +a piercing scream to ring through the house, and then the voice of +Giovanni, fierce yet exultant, called aloud: + +"Pico! Pico! Lord of Mirandola! Look to your daughter!" + +Came steps and voice, more light, flooding now the chamber, and +through the mists gathering before his eyes the first-born of the +house of Borgia beheld hurrying men, half dressed, with weapons in +their hands. But whether they came to kill or to save, they came +too late: Ten times Giovanni's blade had stabbed the Duke, yet, +hindered by the Duke's struggles and by the effort of holding him +there, he had been unable to find his heart, wherefore, as those +others entered now, he slashed his victim across the throat, and so +made an end. + +He rose, covered with blood, so ghastly and terrific that Pico, +thinking him wounded, ran to him. But Giovanni reassured him with +a laugh, and pointed with his dripping dagger. + +"The blood is his - foul Borgia blood!" + +At the name Pico started, and there was a movement as of fear from +the three grooms who followed him. The Count looked down at that +splendid, blood-spattered figure lying there so still, its sightless +eyes staring up at the frescoed ceiling, so brave and so pitiful in +his gold-broidered suit of white satin, with the richly jewelled +girdle carrying gloves and purse and a jewelled dagger that had been +so useless in that extremity. + +"Gandia" he cried; and looked at Giovanni with round eyes of fear +and amazement. "How came he here?" + +"How?" + +With bloody hand Giovanni pointed to the open door of Antonia's +chamber. + +"That was the lure, my lord. Taking the air outside, I saw him +slinking hither, and took him for a thief, as, indeed, he was - a +thief of honour, like all his kind. I followed, and - there he +lies." + +"My God!" cried Pico. And then hoarsely asked, "And Antonia?" + +Giovanni dismissed the question abruptly. + +"She saw, yet she knows nothing." + +And then on another note: + +"Up now, Pico!" he cried. "Arouse the city, and let all men know +how Gandia died the death of a thief. Let all men know this Borgia +brood for what it is." + +"Are you mad?" cried Pico. "Will I put my neck under the knife?" + +"You took him here in the night, and yours was the right to kill. +You exercised it." + +Pico looked long and searchingly into the other's face. True, all +the appearances bore out the tale, as did, too, what had gone before +and had been the cause of Antonia's complaint to him. Yet, knowing +what lay between Sforza and Borgia, it may have seemed to Pico too +extraordinary a coincidence that Giovanni should have been so ready +at hand to defend the honour of the House of Mirandola. But he asked +no questions. He was content in his philosophy to accept the event +and be thankful for it on every count. But as for Giovanni's +suggestion that he should proclaim through Rome how he had exercised +his right to slay this Tarquin, the Lord of Mirandola had no mind to +adopt it. + +"What is done is done," he said shortly, in a tone that conveyed much. +"Let it suffice us all. It but remains now to be rid of this." + +"You will keep silent?" cried Giovanni, plainly vexed. + +"I am not a fool," said Pico gently. + +Giovanni understood. "And these your men?" + +"Ate very faithful friends who will aid you now to efface all +traces." + +And upon that he moved away, calling his daughter, whose absence +was intriguing him. Receiving no answer, he entered her room, to +find her in a swoon across her bed. She had fainted from sheer +horror at what she had seen. + +Followed by the three servants bearing the body, Giovanni went down +across the garden very gently. Approaching the gate, he bade them +wait, saying that he went to see that the coast was clear. Then, +going forward alone, he opened the gate and called softly to the +waiting groom: + +"Hither to me!" + +Promptly the man surged before him in the gloom, and as promptly +Giovanni sank his dagger in the fellow's breast. He deplored the +necessity for the deed, but it was unavoidable, and your +cinquecentist never shrank from anything that necessity imposed +upon him. To let the lackey live would be to have the bargelli in +the house by morning. + +The man sank with a half-uttered cry, and lay still. + +Giovanni dragged him aside under the shelter of the wall, where the +others would not see him, then called softly to them to follow. + +When the grooms emerged from Pico's garden, the Lord of Pesaro was +astride of the fine white horse on which Gandia had ridden to his +death. + +"Put him across the crupper," he bade them. + +And they so placed the body, the head dangling on one side, the +legs on the other. And Giovanni reflected grimly how he had +reversed the order in which Gandia and he had ridden that same +horse an hour ago. + +At a walk they proceeded down the lane towards the river, a groom +on each side to see that the burden on the crupper did not jolt +off, another going ahead to scout. At the alley's mouth Giovanni +drew rein, and let the man emerge upon the river-bank and look to +right and left to make sure that there was no one about. + +He saw no one. Yet one there was who saw them Giorgio, the timber +merchant, who lay aboard his boat moored to the Schiavoni, and who, +three days later, testified to what he saw. You know his testimony. +It has been repeated often - how he saw the man emerge from the +alley and look up and down, then retire, to emerge again, accompanied +now by the horseman with his burden, and the other two; how he saw +them take the body from the crupper of the horse, and, with a "one, +two, and three," fling it into the river; how he heard the horseman +ask them had they thrown it well into the middle, and their answer +of, "Yes my lord"; and finally, when asked why he had not come +earlier to report the matter, how he had answered that he had thought +nothing of it, having in his time seen more than a hundred bodies +flung into the Tiber at night. + +Returned to the garden gate, Giovanni bade the men go in without him. +There was something yet that he must do. When they had gone, he +dismounted, and went to the body of the groom which he had left under +the wall. He must remove that too. He cut one of the +stirrup-leathers from the saddle, and attaching one end of it to the +dead man's arm, mounted again, and dragged him thus - ready to leave +the body and ride off at the first alarm - some little way, until he +came to the Piazza della Giudecca. Here, in the very heart of the +Jewish quarters, he left the body, and his movements hereafter are +a little obscure. Perhaps he set out to return to Pico della +Mirandola's house, but becoming, as was natural, uneasy on the way, +fearing lest all traces should, after all, not have been effaced, +lest the Duke should be traced to that house, and himself, if found +there, dealt with summarily upon suspicion, he turned about, and went +off to seek sanctuary with his uncle, the Vice-Chancellor. + +The Duke's horse, which he had ridden, he turned loose in the streets, +where it was found some hours later, and first gave occasion to +rumours of foul play. The rumours growing, with the discovery of the +body of Gandia's groom, and search-parties of armed bargelli scouring +Rome, and the Giudecca in particular, in the course of the next two +days, forth at last came Giorgio, that boatman of the Schiavoni, with +the tale of what he had seen. When the stricken Pope heard it, he +ordered the bed of the river to be dragged foot by foot, with the +result that the ill-starred Duke of Gandia was brought up in one of +the nets, whereupon the heartless Sanazzaro coined his terrible +epigram concerning that successor of Saint Peter, that Fisherman of +Men. + +The people, looking about for him who had the greatest motive for +that deed, were quick to fasten the guilt upon Giovanni Sforza, who +by that time was far from Rome, riding hard for the shelter of his +tyranny of Pesaro; and the Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, who was also +mentioned, and who feared to be implicated, apprehensive ever lest +his page should have seen the betraying arms upon the ring of his +masked visitor - fled also, nor could be induced to return save +under a safe-conduct from the Holy Father, expressing conviction of +his innocence. + +Later public rumour accused others; indeed, they accused in turn +every man who could have been a possible perpetrator, attributing +to some of them the most fantastic and incredible motives. Once, +prompted no doubt by their knowledge of the libertine, +pleasure-loving nature of the dead Duke, rumour hit upon the +actual circumstances of the murder so closely, indeed, that the +Count of Mirandola's house was visited by the bargelli and subjected +to an examination, at which Pico violently rebelled, appealing +boldly to the Pope against insinuations that reflected upon the +honour of his daughter. + +The mystery remained impenetrable, and the culprit was never brought +to justice. We know that in slaying Gandia, Giovanni Sforza vented +a hatred whose object was not Gandia, but Gandia's father. His aim +was to deal Pope Alexander the cruellest and most lingering of +wounds, and if he lacked the avenger's satisfaction of disclosing +himself, at least he did not lack assurance that his blow had stricken +home. He heard - as all Italy heard - from that wayfarer on the +bridge of Sant' Angelo, how the Pope, in a paroxysm of grief at sight +of his son's body fished from the Tiber, had bellowed in his agony +like a tortured bull, so that his cries within the castle were heard +upon the bridge. He learnt how the handsome, vigorous Pope staggered +into the consistory of the 19th of that same month with the mien and +gait of a palsied old man, and, in a voice broken with sobs, +proclaimed his bitter lament: + +"Had we seven Papacies we would give them all to restore the Duke to +life." + +He might have been content. But he was not. That deep hate of his +against those who had made him a thing of scorn was not so easily to +be slaked. He waited, spying his opportunity for further hurt. It +came a year later, when Gandia's brother, the ambitious Cesare +Borgia, divested himself of his cardinalitial robes and rank, +exchanging them for temporal dignities and the title of Duke of +Valentinois. Then it was that he took up the deadly weapon of +calumny, putting it secretly about that Cesare was the murderer of +his brother, spurred to it by worldly ambition and by other motives +which involved the principal members of the family. + +Men do not mount to Borgia heights without making enemies. The evil +tale was taken up in all its foul trappings, and, upon no better +authority than the public voice, it was enshrined in chronicles by +every scribbler of the day. And for four hundred years that lie has +held its place in history, the very cornerstone of all the execration +that has been heaped upon the name of Borgia. Never was vengeance +more terrible, far-reaching, and abiding. It is only in this +twentieth century of ours that dispassionate historians have nailed +upon the counter of truth the base coin of that accusation. + + + + +XII. THE NIGHT OF ESCAPE + +CASANOVA'S ESCAPE FROM THE PIOMBI + + +Patrician influence from without had procured Casanova's removal in +August of that year, 1756, from the loathsome cell he had occupied +for thirteen months in the Piombi - so called from the leaded roof +immediately above those prisons which are simply the garrets of the +Doge's palace. + +That cell had been no better than a kennel seldom reached by the +light of day, and so shallow that it was impossible for a man of +his fine height to stand upright in it. But his present prison was +comparatively spacious and it was airy and well-lighted by a barred +window, whence he could see the Lido. + +Yet he was desperately chagrined at the change, for he had almost +completed his arrangements to break out of his former cell. The +only ray of hope in his present despair came from the fact that the +implement to which he trusted was still in his possession, safely +concealed in the upholstery of the armchair that had been moved with +him into his present quarters. That implement he had fashioned for +himself with infinite pains out of a door-bolt some twenty inches +long, which he had found discarded in a rubbish-heap in a corner of +the attic where he had been allowed to take his brief daily exercise. +Using as a whetstone a small slab of black marble, similarly +acquired, he had shaped that bolt into a sharp octagonal-pointed +chisel or spontoon. + +It remained in his possession, but he saw no chance of using it now, +for the suspicions of Lorenzo, the gaoler, were aroused, and daily +a couple of archers came to sound the floors and walls. True they +did not sound the ceiling, which was low and within reach. But it +was obviously impossible to cut through the ceiling in such a manner +as to leave the progress of the work unseen. + +Hence his despair of breaking out of a prison where he had spent +over a year without trial or prospect of a trial, and where he seemed +likely to spend the remainder of his days. He did not even know +precisely why he had been arrested. All that Giacomo Casanova knew +was that he was accounted a disturber of the public peace. He was +notoriously a libertine, a gamester, and heavily in debt: also - and +this was more serious - he was accused of practising magic, as indeed +he had done, as a means of exploiting to his own profit the credulity +of simpletons of all degrees. He would have explained to the +Inquisitors of State of the Most Serene Republic that the books of +magic found by their apparitors in his possession - "The Clavicula +of Solomon," the "Zecor-ben," and other kindred works - had been +collected by him as curious instances of human aberration. But the +Inquisitors of State would not have believed him, for the Inquisitors +were among those who took magic seriously. And, anyhow, they had +never asked him to explain, but had left him as if forgotten in that +abominable verminous cell under the leads, until his patrician +friend had obtained him the mercy of this transfer to better quarters. + +This Casanova was a man of iron nerve and iron constitution. Tall +and well-made, he was boldly handsome, with fine dark eyes and dark +brown hair. In age he was barely one and twenty; but he looked +older, as well he might, for in his adventurer's way he had already +gathered more experience of life than most men gain in half a +century. + +The same influence that had obtained him his change of cell had also +gained him latterly the privilege - and he esteemed it beyond all +else - of procuring himself books. Desiring the works of Maffai, +he bade his gaoler purchase them out of the allowance made him by +the Inquisitors in accordance with the Venetian custom. This +allowance was graduated to the social status of each prisoner. But +the books being costly and any monthly surplus from his monthly +expenditure being usually the gaoler's perquisite, Lorenzo was +reluctant to indulge him. He mentioned that there was a prisoner +above who was well equipped with books, and who, no doubt, would be +glad to lend in exchange. + +Yielding to the suggestion, Casanova handed Lorenzo a copy of +Peteau's "Rationarium," and received next morning, in exchange, +the first volume of Wolf. Within he found a sheet bearing in six +verses a paraphrase of Seneca's epigram, "Calamitosus est animus +futuri anxius." Immediately he perceived he had stumbled upon a +means of corresponding with one who might be disposed to assist +him to break prison. + +In reply, being a scholarly rascal (he had been educated for the +priesthood), he wrote six verses himself. Having no pen, he cut +the long nail of his little finger to a point, and, splitting it, +supplied the want. For ink he used the juice of mulberries. In +addition to the verses, he wrote a list of the books in his +possession, which he placed at the disposal of his fellow-captive. +He concealed the written sheet in the spine of that vellum-bound +volume; and on the title-page, in warning of this, he wrote the +single Latin word "Latet." Next morning he handed the book to +Lorenzo, telling him that he had read it, and requesting the +second volume. + +That second volume came on the next day, and in the spine of it +a long letter, some sheets of paper, pens, and a pencil. The +writer announced himself as one Marino Balbi, a patrician and a +monk, who had been four years in that prison, where he had since +been given a companion in misfortune, Count Andrea Asquino. + +Thus began a regular and very full correspondence between the +prisoners, and soon Casanova - who had not lived on his wits for +nothing - was able to form a shrewd estimate of Balbi's character. +The monk's letters revealed it as compounded of sensuality, +stupidity, ingratitude, and indiscretion. + +"In the world," says Casanova, "I should have had no commerce with +a fellow of his nature. But in the Piombi I was obliged to make +capital out of everything that came under my hands." + +The capital he desired to make in this instance was to ascertain +whether Balbi would be disposed to do for him what he could not do +for himself. He wrote inquiring, and proposing flight. + +Balbi replied that he and his companion would do anything possible +to make their escape from that abominable prison, but his lack of +resource made him add that he was convinced that nothing was +possible. + +"All that you have to do," wrote Casanova in answer, "is to break +through the ceiling of my cell and get me out of this, then trust +to me to get you out of the Piombi. If you are disposed to make +the attempt, I will supply you with the means, and show you the +way." + +It was a characteristically bold reply, revealing to us the utter +gamester that he was in all things. + +He knew that Balbi's cell was situated immediately under the leads, +and he hoped that once in it he should be able readily to find a way +through the roof. That cell of Balbi's communicated with a narrow +corridor, no more than a shaft for light and air, which was +immediately above Casanova's prison. And no sooner had Balbi +written, consenting, than Casanova explained what was to do. Balbi +must break through the wall of his cell into the little corridor, +and there cut a round hole in the floor precisely as Casanova had +done in his former cell - until nothing but a shell of ceiling +remained - a shell that could be broken down by half a dozen blows +when the moment to escape should have arrived. + +To begin with, he ordered Balbi to purchase himself two or three +dozen pictures of saints, with which to paper his walls, using as +many as might be necessary for a screen to hide the hole he would be +cutting. + +When Balbi wrote that his walls were hung with pictures of saints, +it became a question of conveying the spontoon to him. This was +difficult, and the monk's fatuous suggestions merely served further +to reveal his stupidity. Finally Casanova's wits found the way. +He bade Lorenzo buy him an in-folio edition of the Bible which had +just been published, and it was into the spine of this enormous tome +that he packed the precious spontoon, and thus conveyed it to Balbi, +who immediately got to work. + +This was at the commencement of October. On the 8th of that month +Balbi wrote to Casanova that a whole night devoted to labour had +resulted merely in the displacing of a single brick, which so +discouraged the faint-hearted monk that he was for abandoning an +attempt whose only result must be to increase in the future the +rigour of their confinement. + +Without hesitation, Casanova replied that he was assured of success + - although he was far from having any grounds for any such +assurance. He enjoined the monk to believe him, and to persevere, +confident that as he advanced he would find progress easier. This +proved, indeed, to be the case, for soon Balbi found the brickwork +yielding so rapidly to his efforts that one morning, a week later, +Casanova heard three light taps above his head - the preconcerted +signal by which they were to assure themselves that their notions +of the topography of the prison were correct. + +All that day he heard Balbi at work immediately above him, and again +on the morrow, when Balbi wrote that as the floor was of the +thickness of only two boards, he counted upon completing the job on +the next day, without piercing the ceiling. + +But it would seem as if Fortune were intent upon making a mock of +Casanova, luring him to heights of hope, merely to cast him down +again into the depths of despair. Just as upon the eve of breaking +out of his former cell mischance had thwarted him, so now, when +again he deemed himself upon the very threshold of liberty, came +mischance again to thwart him. + +Early in the afternoon the sound of bolts being drawn outside froze +his very blood and checked his breathing. Yet he had the presence +of mind to give the double knock that was the agreed alarm signal, +whereupon Balbi instantly desisted from his labours overhead. + +Came Lorenzo with two archers, leading an ugly, lean little man of +between forty and fifty years of age, shabbily dressed and wearing +a round black wig, whom the tribunal had ordered should share +Casanova's prison for the present. With apologies for leaving +such a scoundrel in Casanova's company, Lorenzo departed, and the +newcomer went down upon his knees, drew forth a chaplet, and began +to tell his beads. + +Casanova surveyed this intruder at once with disgust and despair. +Presently his disgust was increased when the fellow, whose name +was Soradici, frankly avowed himself a spy in the service of the +Council of Ten, a calling which he warmly defended from the contempt +universally - but unjustly, according to himself - meted out to it. +He had been imprisoned for having failed in his duty on one occasion +through succumbing to a bribe. + +Conceive Casanova's frame of mind - his uncertainty as to how long +this monster, as he calls him, might be left in his company, his +curbed impatience to regain his liberty, and his consciousness of +the horrible risk of discovery which delay entailed! He wrote +to Balbi that night while the spy slept, and for the present their +operations were suspended. But not for very long. Soon Casanova's +wits resolved how to turn to account the weakness which he +discovered in Soradici. + +The spy was devout to the point of bigoted, credulous superstition. +He spent long hours in prayer, and he talked freely of his special +devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and his ardent faith in miracles. + +Casanova - the arch-humbug who had worked magic to delude the +credulous - determined there and then to work a miracle for Soradici. +Assuming an inspired air, he solemnly informed the spy one morning +that it had been revealed to him in a dream that Soradici's devotion +to the Rosary was about to be rewarded; that an angel was to be sent +from heaven to deliver him from prison, and that Casanova himself +would accompany him in his flight. + +If Soradici doubted, conviction was soon to follow. For Casanova +foretold the very hour at which the angel would come to break into +the prison, and at that hour precisely - Casanova having warned +Balbi - the noise made by the angel overhead flung Soradici into +an ecstasy of terror. + +But when, at the end of four hours, the angel desisted from his +labours, Soradici was beset by doubts. Casanova explained to him +that since angels invariably put on the garb of human flesh when +descending upon earth, they labour under human difficulties. He +added the prophecy that the angel would return on the last day of +the month, the eve of All Saints'- two days later - and that he +would then conduct them out of captivity. + +By this means Casanova ensured that no betrayal should be feared +from the thoroughly duped Soradici, who now spent the time in +praying, weeping, and talking of his sins and of the +inexhaustibility of divine grace. To make doubly sure, Casanova +added the most terrible oath that if, by a word to the gaoler, +Soradici should presume to frustrate the divine intentions, he +would immediately strangle him with his own hands. + +On October 31st Lorenzo paid his usual daily visit early in the +morning. After his departure they waited some hours, Soradici +in expectant terror, Casanova in sheer impatience to be at work. +Promptly at noon fell heavy blows overhead, and then, in a cloud +of plaster and broken laths, the heavenly messenger descended +clumsily into Casanova's arms. + +Soradici found this tall, gaunt, bearded figure, clad in a dirty +shirt and a pair of leather breeches, of a singularly unangelic +appearance; indeed, he looked far more like a devil. + +When he produced a pair of scissors, so that the spy might cut +Casanova's beard, which, like the angel's, had grown in captivity, +Soradici ceased to have any illusions on the score of Balbi's +celestial nature. Although still intrigued - since he could not +guess at the secret correspondence that had passed between Casanova +and Balbi - he perceived quite clearly that he had been fooled. + +Leaving Soradici in the monk's care, Casanova hoisted himself +through the broken ceiling and gained Balbi's cell, where the sight +of Count Asquino dismayed him. He found a middle-aged man of a +corpulence which must render it impossible for him to face the +athletic difficulties that lay before them; of this the Count +himself seemed already persuaded. + +"If you think," was his greeting, as he shook Casanova's hand, "to +break through the roof and find a way down from the leads, I don't +see how you are to succeed without wings. I have not the courage +to accompany you," he added, "I shall remain and pray for you." + +Attempting no persuasions where they must have been idle, Casanova +passed out of the cell again, and approaching as nearly as possible +to the edge of the attic, he sat down where he could touch the roof +as it sloped immediately above his head. With his spontoon he +tested the timbers, and found them so decayed that they almost +crumbled at the touch. Assured thereby that the cutting of a hole +would be an easy matter, he at once returned to his cell, and there +he spent the ensuing four hours in preparing ropes. He cut up +sheets, blankets, coverlets, and the very cover of his mattress, +knotting the strips together with the utmost care. In the end he +found himself equipped with some two hundred yards of rope, which +should be ample for any purpose. + +Having made a bundle of the fine taffeta suit in which he had been +arrested, his gay cloak of floss silk, some stockings, shirts, and +handkerchiefs, he and Balbi passed up to the other cell, compelling +Soradici to go with them. Leaving the monk to make a parcel of his +belongings, Casanova went to tackle the roof. By dusk he had made +a hole twice as large as was necessary, and had laid bare the lead +sheeting with which the roof was covered. Unable, single-handed, +to raise one of the sheets, he called Balbi to his aid, and between +them, assisted by the spontoon, which Casanova inserted between the +edge of the sheet and the gutter, they at last succeeded in tearing +away the rivets. Then by putting their shoulders to the lead they +bent it upwards until there was room to emerge, and a view of the +sky flooded by the vivid light of the crescent moon. + +Not daring in that light to venture upon the roof, where they would +be seen, they must wait with what patience they could until midnight, +when the moon would have set. So they returned to the cell where +they had left Soradici with Count Asquino. + +>From Balbi, Casanova had learnt that Asquino, though well supplied +with money, was of an avaricious nature. Nevertheless, since money +would be necessary, Casanova asked the Count for the loan of thirty +gold sequins. Asquino answered him gently that, in the first place, +they would not need money to escape; that, in the second, he had a +numerous family; that, in the third, if Casanova perished the money +would be lost; and that, in the fourth, he had no money. + +"My reply," writes Casanova, "lasted half an hour." + +"Let me remind you," he said in concluding his exhortation, "of your +promise to pray for us, and let me ask you what sense there can be +in praying for the success of an enterprise to which you refuse to +contribute the most necessary means." + +The old man was so far conquered by Casanova's eloquence that he +offered him two sequins, which Casanova accepted, since he was not +in case to refuse anything. + +Thereafter, as they sat waiting for the moon to set, Casanova found +his earlier estimate of the monk's character confirmed. Balbi now +broke into abusive reproaches. He found that Casanova had acted in +bad faith by assuring him that he had formed a complete plan of +escape. Had he suspected that this was a mere gambler's throw on +Casanova's part, he would never have laboured to get him out of his +cell. The Count added his advice that they should abandon an +attempt foredoomed to failure, and, being concerned for the two +sequins with which he had so reluctantly parted, he argued the case +at great length. Stifling his disgust, Casanova assured them that, +although it was impossible for him to afford them details of how +he intended to proceed, he was perfectly confident of success. + +At half-past ten he sent Soradici -who had remained silent throughout + - to report upon the night. The spy brought word that in another +hour or so the moon would have set, but that a thick mist was rising, +which must render the leads very dangerous. + +"So long as the mist isn't made of oil, I am content," said Casanova. +"Come, make a bundle of your cloak. It is time we were moving." + +But at this Soradici fell on his knees in the dark, seized Casanova's +hands, and begged to be left behind to pray for their safety, since +he would be sure to meet his death if he attempted to go with them. + +Casanova assented readily, delighted to be rid of the fellow. Then +in the dark he wrote as best he could a quite characteristic letter +to the Inquisitors of State, in which he took his leave of them, +telling them that since he had been fetched into the prison without +his wishes being consulted, they could not complain that he should +depart without consulting theirs. + +The bundle containing Balbi's clothes, and another made up of half +the rope, he slung from the monk's neck, thereafter doing the same +in his own case. Then, in their shirt-sleeves, their hats on their +heads, the pair of them started on their perilous journey, leaving +Count Asquino and Soradici to pray for them. + +Casanova went first, on all fours, and thrusting the point of his +spontoon between the joints of the lead sheeting so as to obtain a +hold, he crawled slowly upwards. To follow, Balbi took a grip of +Casanova's belt with his right hand, so that, in addition to making +his own way, Casanova was compelled to drag the weight of his +companion after him, and this up the sharp gradient of a roof +rendered slippery by the mist. + +Midway in that laborious ascent, the monk called to him to stop. +He had dropped the bundle containing the clothes, and he hoped that +it had not rolled beyond the gutter, though he did not mention which +of them should retrieve it. After the unreasonableness already +endured from this man, Casanova's exasperation was such in that +moment that, he confesses, he was tempted to kick him after this +bundle. Controlling himself, however, he answered patiently that +the matter could not now be helped, and kept steadily amain. + +At last the apex of the roof was reached, and they got astride of +it to breathe and to take a survey of their surroundings. They +faced the several cupolas of the Church of Saint Mark, which is +connected with the ducal palace, being, in fact, no more than the +private chapel of the Doge. + +They set down their bundles, and, of course, in the act of doing +so the wretched Balbi must lose his hat, and send it rolling down +the roof after the bundle he had already lost. He cried out that +it was an evil omen. + +"On the contrary," Casanova assured him patiently, "it is a sign +of divine protection; for if your bundle or your hat had happened +to roll to the left instead of the right it would have fallen into +the courtyard, where it would be seen by the guards, who must +conclude that some one is moving on the roof, and so, no doubt, +would have discovered us. As it is your hat has followed your +bundle into the canal, where it can do no harm." + +Thereupon, bidding the monk await his return, Casanova set off +alone on a voyage of discovery, keeping for the present astride +of the roof in his progress. He spent a full hour wandering along +the vast roof, going to right and to left in his quest, but failing +completely to make any helpful discovery, or to find anything to +which he could attach a rope. In the end it began to look as if, +after all, he must choose between returning to prison and flinging +himself from the roof into the canal. He was almost in despair, +when in his wanderings his attention was caught by a dormer window +on the canal side, about two-thirds of the way down the slope of +the roof. With infinite precaution he lowered himself down the +steep, slippery incline until he was astride of the little dormer +roof. Leaning well forward, he discovered that a slender grating +barred the leaded panes of the window itself, and for a moment +this grating gave him pause. + +Midnight boomed just then from the Church of Saint Mark, like a +reminder that but seven hours remained in which to conquer this and +further difficulties that might confront him, and in which to win +clear of that place, or else submit to a resumption of his +imprisonment under conditions, no doubt, a hundredfold more +rigorous. + +Lying flat on his stomach, and hanging far over, so as to see what +he was doing, he worked one point of his spontoon into the sash of +the grating, and, levering outwards, he strained until at last it +came away completely in his hands. After that it was an easy matter +to shatter the little latticed window. + +Having accomplished so much, he turned, and, using his spontoon as +before, he crawled back to the summit of the roof, and made his way +rapidly along this to the spot where he had left Balbi. The monk, +reduced by now to a state of blending despair, terror, and rage, +greeted Casanova in terms of the grossest abuse for having left +him there so long. + +"I was waiting only for daylight," he concluded, "to return to +prison." + +"What did you think had become of me?" asked Casanova. + +"I imagined that you had tumbled off the roof." + +"And is this abuse the expression of your joy at finding yourself +mistaken?" + +"Where have you been all this time?" the monk counter-questioned +sullenly. + +"Come with me and you shall see." + +And taking up his bundle again, Casanova led his companion forward +until they were in line with the dormer. There Casanova showed him +what he had done, and consulted him as to the means to be adopted +to enter the attic. It would be too risky for them to allow +themselves to drop from the sill, since the height of the window +from the floor was unknown to them, and might be considerable. It +would be easy for one of them to lower the other by means of the +rope. But it was not apparent how, hereafter, the other was to +follow. Thus reasoned Casanova. + +"You had better lower me, anyhow," said Balbi, without hesitation; +for no doubt he was very tired of that slippery roof, on which a +single false step might have sent him to his account. "Once I am +inside you can consider ways of following me." + +That cold-blooded expression of the fellow's egoism put Casanova +in a rage for the second time since they had left their prison. +But, as before, he conquered it, and without uttering a word he +proceeded to unfasten the coil of rope. Making one end of it +secure under Balbi's arms, he bade the monk lie prone upon the +roof, his feet pointing downwards, and then, paying out rope, he +lowered him to the dormer. He then bade him get through the +window as far as the level of his waist, and wait thus, hanging +over and supporting himself upon the sill. When he had obeyed, +Casanova followed, sliding carefully down to the roof of the +dormer. Planting himself firmly, and taking the rope once more, +he bade Balbi to let himself go without fear, and so lowered him +to the floor - a height from the window, as it proved, of some +fifty feet. This extinguished all Casanova's hopes of being able +to follow by allowing himself to drop from the sill. He was +dismayed. But the monk, happy to find himself at last off that +accursed roof, and out of all danger of breaking his neck, called +foolishly to Casanova to throw him the rope so that he might take +care of it. + +"As may be imagined," says Casanova, "I was careful not to take +this idiotic advice." + +Not knowing now what was to become of him unless he could discover +some other means than those at his command, he climbed back again +to the summit of the roof, and started off desperately upon another +voyage of discovery. This time he succeeded better than before. +He found about a cupola a terrace which he had not earlier noticed, +and on this terrace a hod of plaster, a trowel, and a ladder some +seventy feet long. He saw his difficulties solved. He passed an +end of rope about one of the rungs, laid the ladder flat along the +slope of the roof, and then, still astride of the apex, he worked +his way back, dragging the ladder with him, until he was once more +on a level with the dormer. + +But now the difficulty was how to get the ladder through the window, +and he had cause to repent having so hastily deprived himself of +his companion's assistance. He had got the ladder into position, +and lowered it until one of its ends rested upon the dormer, whilst +the other projected some twenty feet beyond the edge of the roof. +He slid down to the dormer, and placing the ladder beside him, drew +it up so that he could reach the eighth rung. To this rung he made +fast his rope, then lowered the ladder again until the upper end of +it was in line with the window through which he sought to introduce +it. But he found it impossible to do so beyond the fifth rung, for +at this point the end of the ladder came in contact with the roof +inside, and could be pushed no farther until it was inclined +downward. Now, the only possible way to accomplish this was by +raising the other end. + +It occurred to him that he might, by so attaching the rope as to +bring the ladder across the window frame, lower himself hand over +hand to the floor of the attic. But in so doing he must have left +the ladder there to show their pursuers in the morning, not merely +the way they had gone, but for all he knew at this stage, the place +where they might then be still in hiding. Having come so far, at +so much risk and labour, he was determined to leave nothing to +chance. To accomplish his object then, he made his way down to the +very edge of the roof, sliding carefully on his stomach until his +feet found support against the marble gutter, the ladder meanwhile +remaining hooked by one of its rungs to the sill of the dormer. + +In that perilous position he lifted his end of the ladder a few +inches, and so contrived to thrust it another foot or so through +the window, whereby its weight was considerably diminished. If he +could but get it another couple of feet farther in he was sure that +by returning to the dormer he would have been able to complete the +job. In his anxiety to do this and to obtain the necessary +elevation, he raised himself upon his knees. + +But in the very act of making the thrust he slipped, and, clutching +wildly as he went, he shot over the edge of the roof. He found +himself hanging there, suspended above that terrific abyss by his +hands and his elbows, which had convulsively hooked themselves on +to the edge of the gutter, so that he had it on a level with his +breast. + +It was a moment of dread the like of which he was never likely to +endure again in a life that was to know many perils and many +hairbreadth escapes. He could not write of it nearly half a +century later without shuddering and growing sick with horror. + +A moment he hung there gasping, then almost mechanically, guided +by the sheer instinct of self-preservation, he not merely attempted, +but actually succeeded in raising himself so as to bring his side +against the gutter. Then continuing gradually to raise himself +until his waist was on a level with the edge, he threw the weight +of his trunk forward upon the roof, and slowly brought his right +leg up until he had obtained with his knee a further grip of the +gutter. The rest was easy, and you may conceive him as he lay +there on the roof's edge, panting and shuddering for a moment to +regain his breath and nerve. + +Meanwhile, the ladder, driven forward by the thrust that had so +nearly cost him his life, had penetrated another three feet +through the window, and hung there immovable. Recovered, he +took up his spontoon, which he had placed in the gutter, and, +assisted by it, he climbed back to the dormer. Almost without +further difficulty, he succeeded now in introducing the ladder +until, of its own weight, it swung down into position. + +A moment later he had joined Balbi in the attic, and together +they groped about in it the dark, until finding presently a door, +they passed into another chamber, where they discovered furniture +by hurtling against it. Guided by a faint glimmer of light, +Casanova made his way to one of the windows and opened it. He +looked out upon a black abyss, and, having no knowledge of the +locality, and no inclination to adventure himself into unknown +regions, he immediately abandoned all idea of attempting to climb +down. He closed the window again, and going back to the other +room, he lay down on the floor, with the bundle of ropes for a +pillow, to wait for dawn. + +And so exhausted was he, not only by the efforts of the past +hours, and the terrible experience in which they had culminated, +but also because in the last two days he had scarcely eaten or +slept, that straightway, and greatly to Balbi's indignation and +disgust, he fell into a profound sleep. + +He was aroused three and a half hours later by the clamours and +shakings of the exasperated monk. Protesting that such a sleep at +such a time was a thing inconceivable, Balbi informed him that it +had just struck five. + +It was still dark, but already there was a dim grey glimmer of +dawn by which objects could be faintly discerned. Searching, +Casanova found another door opposite that of the chamber which +they had entered earlier. It was locked, but the lock was a poor +one that yielded to half a dozen blows of the spontoon, and they +passed into a little room beyond which by an open door they came +into a long gallery lined with pigeon-holes stuffed with +parchments, which they conceived to be the archives. At the end +of this gallery they found a short flight of stairs, and below +that yet another, which brought them to a glass door. Opening +this, they entered a room which Casanova immediately identified +as the ducal chancellery. Descent from one of its windows would +have been easy, but they would have found themselves in the +labyrinth of courts and alleys behind Saint Mark's, which would +not have suited them at all. + +On a table Casanova found a stout bodkin with a long wooden handle, +the implement used by the secretaries for piercing parchments that +were to be joined by a cord bearing the leaden seals of the Republic. +He opened a desk, and rummaging in it, found a letter addressed to +the Proveditor of Corfu, advising a remittance of three thousand +sequins for the repair of the fortress. He rummaged further, +seeking the three thousand sequins, which he would have appropriated +without the least scruple. Unfortunately they were not there. + +Quitting the desk, he crossed to the door, not merely to find it +locked, but to discover that it was not the kind of lock that would +yield to blows. There was no way out but by battering away one of +the panels, and to this he addressed himself without hesitation, +assisted by Balbi, who had armed himself with the bodkin, but who +trembled fearfully at the noise of Casanova's blows. There was +danger in this, but the danger must be braved, for time was slipping +away. In half an hour they had broken down all the panel it was +possible to remove without the help of a saw. The opening they +had made was at a height of five feet from the ground, and the +splintered woodwork armed it with a fearful array of jagged teeth. + +They dragged a couple of stools to the door, and getting on to +these, Casanova bade Balbi go first. The long, lean monk folded +his arms, and thrust head and shoulders through the hole; then +Casanova lifted him, first by the waist, then by the legs, and so +helped him through into the room beyond. Casanova threw their +bundles after him, and then placing a third stool on top of the +other two, climbed on to it, and, being almost on a level with +the opening, was able to get through as far as his waist, when +Balbi took him in his arms and proceeded to drag him out. But it +was done at the cost of torn breeches and lacerated legs, and +when he stood up in the room beyond he was bleeding freely from +the wounds which the jagged edges of the wood had dealt him. + +After that they went down two staircases, and came out at last in +the gallery leading to the great doors at the head of that +magnificent flight of steps known as the Giant's Staircase. But +these doors - the main entrance of the palace - were locked, and, +at a glance, Casanova saw that nothing short of a hatchet would +serve to open them. There was no more to be done. + +With a resignation that seemed to Balbi entirely cynical, Casanova +sat down on the floor. + +"My task is ended," he announced. "It is now for Heaven or Chance +to do the rest. I don't know whether the palace cleaners will come +here to-day as it is All Saints', or to-morrow, which will be All +Souls'. Should any one come, I shall run for it the moment the +door is opened, and you had best follow me. If no one comes, I +shall not move from here, and if I die of hunger, so much the worse." + +It was a speech that flung the monk into a passion. In burning +terms he reviled Casanova, calling him a madman, a seducer, a +deceiver, a liar. Casanova let him rave. It was just striking six. +Precisely an hour had elapsed since they had left the attic. + +Balbi, in his red flannel waistcoat and his puce-coloured leather +breeches, might have passed for a peasant; but Casanova, in torn +garments that were soaked in blood, presented an appearance that +was terrifying and suspicious. This he proceeded to repair. +Tearing a handkerchief, he made shift to bandage his wounds, and +then from his bundle he took his fine taffeta summer suit, which +on a winter's day must render him ridiculous. + +He dressed his thick, dark brown hair as best he could, drew on a +pair of white stockings, and donned three lace shirts one over +another. His fine cloak of floss silk he gave to Balbi, who looked +for all the world as if he had stolen it. + +Thus dressed, his fine hat laced with point of Spain on his head, +Casanova opened a window and looked out. At once he was seen by +some idlers in the courtyard, who, amazed at his appearance there, +and conceiving that he must have been locked in by mistake on the +previous day, went off at once to advise the porter. Meanwhile, +Casanova, vexed at having shown himself where he had not expected +any one, and little guessing how excellently this was to serve his +ends, left the window and went to sit beside the angry friar, who +greeted him with fresh revilings. + +A sound of steps and a rattle of keys stemmed Balbi's reproaches +in full flow. The lock groaned. + +"Not a word," said Casanova to the monk, "but follow me." + +Holding his spontoon ready., but concealed under his coat, he +stepped to the side of the door. It opened, and the porter, who +had come alone and bareheaded, stared in stupefaction at the +strange apparition of Casanova. + +Casanova took advantage of that paralyzing amazement. Without +uttering a word, he stepped quickly across the threshold, and with +Balbi close upon his heels, he went down the Giant's Staircase in +a flash, crossed the little square, reached the canal, bundled Balbi +into the first gondola he found there, and jumped in after him. + +"I want to go to Fusine, and quickly," he announced. "Call another +oarsman." + +All was ready, and in a moment the gondola was skimming the canal. +Dressed in his unseasonable suit, and accompanied by the still +more ridiculous figure of Balbi in his gaudy cloak and without a +hat, he imagined he would be taken for a charlatan or an astrologer. + +The gondola slipped past the custom-house, and took the canal of +the Giudecca. Halfway down this, Casanova put his head out of the +little cabin to address the gondolier in the poop. + +"Do you think we shall reach Mestre in an hour?" + +"Mestre?" quoth the gondolier. "But you said Fusine." + +"No, no, I said Mestre - at least, I intended to say Mestre." + +And so the gondola was headed for Mestre by a gondolier who professed +himself ready to convey his excellency to England if he desired it. + +The sun was rising, and the water assumed an opalescent hue. It was +a delicious morning, Casanova tells us, and I suspect that never had +any morning seemed to that audacious, amiable rascal as delicious as +this upon which he regained his liberty, which no man ever valued +more highly. + +In spirit he was already safely over the frontiers of the Most +Serene Republic, impatient to transfer his body thither, as he +shortly did, through vicissitudes that are a narrative in themselves, +and no part of this story of his escape from the Piombi and the +Venetian Inquisitors of State. + + + + +XIII. THE NIGHT OF MASQUERADE + +THE ASSASSINATION OF GUSTAVUS III OF SWEDEN + + +Baron Bjelke sprang from his carriage almost before it had come to +a standstill and without waiting for the footman to let down the +steps. With a haste entirely foreign to a person of his station +and importance, he swept into the great vestibule of the palace, +and in a quivering voice flung a question at the first lackey he +encountered: + +"Has His Majesty started yet?" + +"Not yet, my lord." + +The answer lessened his haste, but not his agitation. He cast off +the heavy wolfskin pelisse in which he had been wrapped, and, +leaving it in the hands of the servant, went briskly up the grand +staircase, a tall, youthful figure, very graceful in the suit of +black he wore. + +As he passed through a succession of ante-rooms on his way to the +private apartments of the King, those present observed the pallor +of his clean-cut face under the auburn tie-wig he affected, and the +feverish glow of eyes that took account of no one. They could not +guess that Baron Bjelke, the King's secretary and favourite, +carried in his hands the life of his royal master, or its equivalent +in the shape of the secret of the plot to assassinate him. + +In many ways Bjelke was no better than the other profligate minions +of the profligate Gustavus of Sweden. But he had this advantage over +them, that his intellect was above their average. He had detected +the first signs of the approach of that storm which the King himself +had so heedlessly provoked. He knew, as much by reason as by +intuition, that, in these days when the neighbouring State of France +writhed in the throes of a terrific revolution against monarchic and +aristocratic tyranny, it was not safe for a king to persist in the +abuse of his parasitic power. New ideas of socialism were in the +air. They were spreading through Europe, and it was not only in +France that men accounted it an infamous anachronism that the great +mass of a community should toil and sweat and suffer for the benefit +of an insolent minority. + +Already had there been trouble with the peasantry in Sweden, and +Bjelke had endangered his position as a royal favourite by presuming +to warn his master. Gustavus III desired amusement, not wisdom, +from those about him. He could not be brought to realize the +responsibilities which kingship imposes upon a man. It has been +pretended that he was endowed with great gifts of mind. He may have +been, though the thing has been pretended of so many princes that +one may be sceptical where evidence is lacking. If he possessed +those gifts, he succeeded wonderfully in concealing them under a +nature that was frivolously gay, dissolute, and extravagant. + +His extravagance forced him into monstrous extortions when only a +madman would have wasted in profligacy the wealth so cruelly wrung +from long-suffering subjects. From extortion he was driven by his +desperate need of money into flagrant dishonesty. At a stroke of +the pen he had reduced the value of the paper currency by one-third + - a reduction so violent and sudden that, whilst it impoverished +many, it involved some in absolute ruin - and this that he might +gratify his appetite for magnificence and enrich the rapacious +favourites who shared his profligacy. + +The unrest in the kingdom spread. It was no longer a question of +the resentment of a more or less docile peasantry whose first +stirrings of revolt were easily quelled. The lesser nobility of +Sweden were angered by a measure - following upon so many others + - that bore peculiarly heavily upon themselves; and out of that +anger, fanned by one man - John Jacob Ankarstrom - who had felt the +vindictive spirit of royal injustice, flamed in secret the +conspiracy against the King's life which Bjelke had discovered. + +He had discovered it by the perilous course of joining the +conspirators. He had won their confidence, and they recognized that +his collaboration was rendered invaluable by the position he held +so near the King. And in his subtle wisdom, at considerable danger +to himself, Bjelke had kept his counsel. He had waited until now, +until the moment when the blow was about to fall, before making the +disclosure which should not only save Gustavus, but enable him to +cast a net in which all the plotters must be caught. And he hoped +that when Gustavus perceived the narrowness of his escape, and the +reality of the dangers amid which he walked, he would consider the +wisdom of taking another course in future. + +He had reached the door of the last ante-chamber, when a detaining +hand was laid upon his arm. He found himself accosted by a page + - the offspring of one of the noblest families in Sweden, and the +son of one of Bjelke's closest friends, a fair-haired, impudent boy +to whom the secretary permitted a certain familiarity. + +"Are you on your way to the King, Baron?" the lad inquired. + +"I am, Carl. What is it?" + +"A letter for His Majesty - a note fragrant as a midsummer rose - +which a servant has just delivered to me. Will you take it?" + +"Give it to me, impudence," said Bjelke, the ghost of a smile +lighting for a moment his white face. + +He took the letter and passed on into the last antechamber, which +was empty of all but a single chamberlain-in-waiting. This +chamberlain bowed respectfully to the Baron. + +"His Majesty?" said Bjelke. + +"He is dressing. Shall I announce Your Excellency?" + +"Pray do." + +The chamberlain vanished, and Bjelke was left alone. Waiting, he +stood there, idly fingering the scented note he had received from +the page. As he turned it in his fingers the superscription came +uppermost, and he turned it no more. His eyes lost their absorbed +look, their glance quickened into attention, a frown shaped itself +between them like a scar; his breathing, suspended a moment, was +renewed with a gasp. He stepped aside to a table bearing a score +of candles clustered in a massive silver branch, and held the note +so that the light fell full upon the writing. + +Standing thus, he passed a hand over his eyes and stared again, two +hectic spots burning now in his white cheeks. Abruptly, disregarding +the superscription, his trembling fingers snapped the blank seal and +unfolded the letter addressed to his royal master. He was still +reading when the chamberlain returned to announce that the King was +pleased to see the Baron at once. He did not seem to hear the +announcement. His attention was all upon the letter, his lips drawn +back from his teeth in a grin, and beads of perspiration glistening +upon his brow. + +"His Majesty - " the chamberlain was beginning to repeat, when he +broke off suddenly. "Your Excellency is ill?" + +"Ill?" + +Bjelke stared at him with glassy eyes. He crumpled the letter in +his hand and stuffed one and the other into the pocket of his black +satin coat. He attempted to laugh to reassure the startled +chamberlain, and achieved a ghastly grimace. + +"I must not keep His Majesty waiting," he said thickly, and stumbled +on, leaving in the chamberlain's mind a suspicion that His Majesty's +secretary was not quite sober. + +But Bjelke so far conquered his emotion that he was almost his usual +imperturbable self when he reached the royal dressing-room; indeed, +he no longer displayed even the agitation that had possessed him +when first he entered the palace. + +Gustavus, a slight, handsome man of a good height, was standing +before a cheval-glass when Bjelke came in. Francois, the priceless +valet His Majesty had brought back from his last pleasure-seeking +visit to pre-revolutionary Paris some five years ago, was standing +back judicially to consider the domino he had just placed upon the +royal shoulders. Baron Armfelt whom the conspirators accused of +wielding the most sinister of all the sinister influences that +perverted the King's mind - dressed from head to foot in shimmering +white satin, lounged on a divan with all the easy familiarity +permitted to this most intimate of courtiers, the associate of all +royal follies. + +Gustavus looked over his shoulder as he entered. + +"Why, Bjelke," he exclaimed, "I thought you had gone into the +country!" + +"I am at a loss," replied Bjelke, "to imagine what should have given +Your Majesty so mistaken an impression." And he might have smiled +inwardly to observe how his words seemed to put Gustavus out of +countenance. + +The King laughed, nevertheless, with an affectation of ease. + +"I inferred it from your absence from Court on such a night. What +has been keeping you?" But, without waiting for an answer, he +fired another question. "What do you say to my domino, Bjelke?" + +It was a garment embroidered upon a black satin ground with tongues +of flame so cunningly wrought in mingling threads of scarlet and +gold that as he turned about now they flashed in the candlelight, +and seemed to leap like tongues of living fire. + +"Your Majesty will have a great success," said Bjelke, and to +himself relished the full grimness of his joke. For a terrible +joke it was, seeing that he no longer intended to discharge the +errand which had brought him in such haste to the palace. + +"Faith, I deserve it!" was the flippant answer, and he turned again +to the mirror to adjust a patch on the left side of his chin. +"There is genius in this domino, and it is not the genius of +Francois, for the scheme of flames is my very own, the fruit of a +deal of thought and study." + +There Gustavus uttered his whole character. As a master of the +revels, or an opera impresario, this royal rake would have been a +complete success in life. The pity of it was that the accident of +birth should have robed him in the royal purple. Like many another +prince who has come to a violent end, he was born to the wrong +metier. + +"I derived the notion," he continued, "from a sanbenito in a Goya +picture." + +"An ominous garb," said Bjelke, smiling curiously. "The garment of +the sinner on his way to penitential doom." + +Armfelt cried out in a protest of mock horror, but Gustavus laughed +cynically. + +"Oh, I confess that it would be most apt. I had not thought of it." + +His fingers sought a pomatum box, and in doing so displaced a +toilet-case of red morocco. An oblong paper package fell from the +top of this and arrested the King's attention. + +"Why, what is this?" He took it up - a letter bearing the +superscription: + +To His MAJESTY THE KING +SECRET AND IMPORTANT + +"What is this, Francois?" The royal voice was suddenly sharp. + +The valet glided forward, whilst Armfelt rose from the divan and, +like Bjelke, attracted by the sudden change in the King's tone and +manner, drew near his master. + +"How comes this letter here?" + +The valet's face expressed complete amazement. It must have been +placed there in his absence an hour ago, after he had made all +preparations for the royal toilette. It was certainly not there +at the time, or he must have seen it. + +With impatient fingers Gustavus snapped the seal and unfolded the +letter. Awhile he stood reading, very still, his brows knit. + +Then, with a contemptuous "Poof!" he handed it to his secretary. + +At a glance Bjelke recognized the hand for that of Colonel Lillehorn, +one of the conspirators, whose courage had evidently failed him in +the eleventh hour. He read: + +SIRE, - Deign to heed the warning of one who, not being in your +service, nor solicitous of your favours, flatters not your crimes, +and yet desires to avert the danger threatening you. There is a +plot to assassinate you which would by now have been executed but +for the countermanding of the ball at the opera last week. What +was not done then will certainly be done to-night if you afford +the opportunity. Remain at home and avoid balls and public +gatherings for the rest of the year; thus the fanaticism which +aims at your life will evaporate. + +"Do you know the writing?" Gustavus asked. + +Bjelke shrugged. "The hand will be disguised, no doubt," he +evaded. + +"But you will heed the warning, Sire?" exclaimed, Armfelt, who had +read over the secretary's shoulder, and whose face had paled in +reading. + +Gustavus laughed contemptuously. "Faith, if I were to heed every +scaremonger, I should get but little amusement out of life." + +Yet he was angry, as his shifting colour showed. The disrespectful +tone of the anonymous communication moved him more deeply than its +actual message. He toyed a moment with a hair-ribbon, his nether +lip thrust out in thought. At last he rapped out an oath of +vexation, and proffered the ribbon to his valet. + +"My hair, Francois," said he, "and then we will be going." + +"Going!" + +It was an ejaculation of horror from Armfelt, whose face was now as +white as the ivory-coloured suit he wore. + +"What else? Am I to be intimidated out of my pleasures?" Yet that +his heart was less stout than his words his very next question +showed. "Apropos, Bjelke, what was the reason why you countermanded +the ball last week?" + +"The councillors from Gefle claimed Your Majesty's immediate +attention," Bjelke reminded him. + +"So you said at the time. But the business seemed none so urgent +when we came to it. There was no other reason in your mind - no +suspicion?" + +His keen, dark blue eyes were fixed upon the pale masklike face of +the secretary. + +That grave, almost stern countenance relaxed into a smile. + +"I suspected no more than I suspect now," was his easy equivocation. +"And all that I suspect now is that some petty enemy is attempting +to scare Your Majesty." + +"To scare me?" Gustavus flushed to the temples. "Am I a man to be +scared?" + +"Ah, but consider, Sire, and you, Bjelke," Armfelt was bleating. +"This may be a friendly warning. In all humility, Sire, let me +suggest that you incur no risk; that you countermand the masquerade." + +"And permit the insolent writer to boast that he frightened the King?" +sneered Bjelke. + +"Faith, Baron, you are right. The thing is written with intent to +make a mock of me." + +"But if it were not so, Sire?" persisted the distressed Armfelt. +And volubly he argued now to impose caution, reminding the King of +his enemies, who might, indeed, be tempted to go the lengths of +which the anonymous writer spoke. Gustavus listened, and was +impressed. + +"If I took heed of every admonition," he said, "I might as well +become a monk at once. And yet - " He took his chin in his hand, +and stood thoughtful, obviously hesitating, his head bowed, his +straight, graceful figure motionless. + +Thus until Bjelke, who now desired above all else the very thing he +had come hot-foot to avert, broke the silence to undo what Armfelt +had done. + +"Sire," he said, "you may avoid both mockery and danger, and yet +attend the masquerade. Be sure, if there is indeed a plot, the +assassins will be informed of the disguise you are to wear. Give +me your flame-studded domino, and take a plain black one for +yourself." + +Armfelt gasped at the audacity of the proposal, + +but Gustavus gave no sign that he had heard. He continued standing +in that tense attitude, his eyes vague and dreamy. And as if to +show along what roads of thought his mind was travelling, he uttered +a single word a name - in a questioning voice scarce louder than a +whisper. + +Ankarstrom? + +Later again he was to think of Ankarstrom, to make inquiries +concerning him, which justifies us here in attempting to follow +those thoughts of his. They took the road down which his conscience +pointed. Above all Swedes he had cause to fear John Jacobi +Ankarstrom, for, foully as he had wronged many men in his time, he +had wronged none more deeply than that proud, high-minded nobleman. +He hated Ankarstrom as we must always hate those whom we have +wronged, and he hated him the more because he knew himself despised +by Ankarstrom with a cold and deadly contempt that at every turn +proclaimed itself. + +That hatred was more than twenty years old. It dated back to the +time when Gustavus had been a vicious youth, and Ankarstrom himself +a boy. They were much of an age. Gustavus had put upon his young +companion an infamous insult, which had been answered by a blow. +His youth and the admitted provocation alone had saved Ankarstrom +from the dread consequence of striking a Prince of the Royal Blood. +But they had not saved him from the vindictiveness of Gustavus. +He had kept his lust of vengeance warm, and very patiently had he +watched and waited for his opportunity to destroy the man, who had +struck him. + +That chance had come four years ago - in 1788 - during the war with +Russia. Ankarstrom commanded the forces defending the island of +Gothland. These forces were inadequate for the task, nor was the +island in a proper state of defence, being destitute of forts. To +have persevered in resistance might have been heroic, but it would +have been worse than futile, for not only would it have entailed +the massacre of the garrison, but it must have further subjected +the inhabitants to all the horrors of sack and pillage. + +In the circumstances, Ankarstrom had conceived it his duty to +surrender to the superior force of Russia, thereby securing immunity +for the persons and property of the inhabitants. In this the King +perceived his chance to indulge his hatred. He caused Ankarstrom +to be arrested and accused of high treason, it being alleged against +him that he had advised the people of Gothland not to take up arms +against the Russians. The royal agents found witnesses to bear +false evidence against Ankarstrom, with the result that he was +sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment in a fortress. But the +sentence was never carried out. Gustavus had gone too far, as he +was soon made aware. The feelings against him which hitherto had +smouldered flamed out at this crowning act of injustice, and to +repair his error Gustavus made haste, not, indeed, to exonerate +Ankarstrom from the charges brought against him, but to pardon him +for his alleged offences. + +When the Swedish nobleman was brought to Court to receive this +pardon, he used it as a weapon against the King whom he despised. + +"My unjust judges," he announced in a ringing voice, the echoes of +which were carried to the ends of Sweden, "have never doubted in +their hearts my innocence of the charges brought against me, and +established by means of false witnesses. The judgment pronounced +against me was unrighteous. This exemption from it is my proper +due. Yet I would rather perish through the enmity of the King than +live dishonoured by his clemency." + +Gustavus had set his teeth in rage when those fierce words were +reported to him, and his rage had been increased when he was +informed of the cordial reception which everywhere awaited Ankarstrom +on his release. He perceived how far he had overshot his mark, and +how, in seeking treacherously to hurt Ankarstrom, he had succeeded +only in hurting himself. Nor had he appeased the general indignation +by his pardon. True, the flame of revolt had been quelled. But he had +no lack of evidence that the fire continued to burn steadily in secret, +and to eat its way further and further into the ranks of noble and +simple alike. + +It is little wonder, then, that in this moment, with that warning +lying there before him, the name of Ankarstrom should be on his lips, +the thought of Ankarstrom, the fear of Ankarstrom, looming big in +his mind. It was big enough to make him heed the warning. He +dropped into a chair. + +"I will not go," he said, and Bjelke saw that his face was white, +his hands shaking. + +But when the secretary had repeated the proposal which had earlier +gone unheard, Gustavus caught at it with sudden avidity, and with +but little concern for the danger that Bjelke might be running. He +sprang up, applauding it. If a conspiracy there was, the +conspirators would thus be trapped; if there were no conspiracy, +then this attempt to frighten him should come to nothing; thus he +would be as safe from the mockery of his enemies as from their +knives. Nor did Armfelt protest or make further attempts to +dissuade him from going. In the circumstances proposed by Bjelke, +the risk would be Bjelke's, a matter which troubled Armfelt not at +all; indeed, he had no cause to love Bjelke, in whom he beheld a +formidable rival, and it would be to him no cause for tears if the +knife intended for the royal vitals should find its way into +Bjelke's instead. + +So Baron Bjelke, arrayed in the domino copied from the penitential +sack, departed for the Opera House, leaving Gustavus to follow. +Yet, despite the measure of precaution, no sooner had the masked +King himself entered the crowded theatre, leaning upon the arm of +the Count of Essen, than he conceived that he beheld confirmation +of the warning, and regretted that he had not heeded it to the +extent of remaining absent. For one of the first faces he beheld, +one of the few unmasked faces in that brilliantly lit salon, was +the face of Ankarstrom, and Ankarstrom appeared to be watching the +entrance. + +Gustavus checked in his stride, a tremor ran through him, and he +stiffened in his sudden apprehension, for the sight of the tall +figure and haughty, resolute face of the nobleman he had wronged +was of more significance than at first might seem. Ever since his +infamous trial Ankarstrom had been at pains to seize every occasion +of marking his contempt for his Prince. Never did he fail upon the +King's appearance in any gathering of which he was a member to +withdraw immediately; and never once had he been known deliberately +to attend any function which was to be graced by the presence of +Gustavus. How, then, came he here to this ball given by the King's +own command unless he came for the fell purpose of which the letter +had given warning? + +The King's impulse was to withdraw immediately. He was taken by a +curious, an almost unreasoning, fear that was quite foreign to him, +who, for all his faults, had never yet lacked courage. But, even +as he hesitated, a figure swept past him in a domino flecked with +flames, surrounded by revellers of both sexes, and he remembered +that if Ankarstrom were bent on evil his attention would be held by +that figure before which the crowd fell back, and opened out +respectfully, believing it to be the King's. Yet none the less it +was Gustavus himself that Ankarstrom continued to regard in such a +ay that the King had a feeling that his mask was made of glass. + +And then quite suddenly, even as he was on the point of turning, +another wave of revellers swept frantically up, and in a moment +Gustavus and the Count of Essen were surrounded. Another moment +and the buffeting crowd had separated him from his grand equerry. +He found himself alone in the centre of this knot of wild fellows +who, seeming to mistake him for one of themselves, forced him +onward with them in their career. For a moment he attempted to +resist. But as well might he have resisted a torrent. Their rush +was not to be stemmed. It almost swept him from his feet, and to +save himself he must perforce abandon himself to the impetus. Thus +he was swirled away across the floor of the amphitheatre, helpless +as a swimmer in strong waters, and with the fear of the drowning +clutching now at his heart. + +He had an impulse to unmask, proclaim himself, and compel the +respect that was his due. But to do so might be to expose himself +to the very danger of whose presence he was now convinced. His +only hope must lie in allowing himself to be borne passively along +until a chance opening allowed him to escape from these madmen. + +The stage had been connected with the floor of the theatre by a +broad flight of wooden steps. Up this flight he was carried by that +human wave. But on the stage itself he found an anchorage at last +against one of the wings. Breathing hard, he set his back to it, +waiting for the wave to sweep on and leave him. Instead, it paused +and came to rest with him, and in that moment some one touched him +on the shoulder. He turned his head, and looked into the set face +of Ankarstrom, who was close behind him. Then a burning, rending +pain took him in his side, and he grew sick and dizzy. The uproar +of voices became muffled; the lights were merged into a luminous +billow that swelled and shrank and then went out altogether. + +The report of the pistol had been lost in the general din to all but +those who stood near the spot where it had been fired. And these +found themselves suddenly borne backwards by the little crowd of +maskers that fell away from the figure lying prone and bleeding on +the stage. + +Voices were raised, shouting "Fire! Fire!" Thus the conspirators +sought to create confusion, that they might disperse and lose +themselves in the general crowd. That confusion, however, was very +brief. It was stemmed almost immediately by the Count of Essen, +who leapt up the steps to the stage with a premonition of what had +happened. He stooped to rip away the mask from the face of the +victim, and, beholding, as he had feared, the livid countenance of +his King, he stood up, himself almost as pale. + +"Murder has been done!" he roared. "Let the doors be closed and +guarded, and let no one leave the theatre." Instantly was his +bidding done by the officers of the guard. + +Those of the King's household who were in attendance came forward +now to raise Gustavus, and help to bear him to a couch. There +presently he recovered consciousness, whilst a physician was seeing +to his hurt, and as soon as he realized his condition his manner +became so calm that, himself, he took command of the situation. He +issued orders that the gates of the city should be closed against +everybody, whilst himself apologizing to the Prussian minister who +was near him for issuing that inconvenient but necessary order. + +"The gates shall remain closed for three days, sir," he announced. +"During that time you will not be able to correspond with your Court; +but your intelligence, when it goes, will be more certain, since by +that time it should be known whether I can survive or not." + +His next order, delivered in a voice that was broken by his intense +suffering, was to the chamberlain Benzelstjerna, commanding that +all present should unmask and sign their names in a book before +being suffered to depart. That done, he bade them bear him home on +the couch on which he had been placed that he might be spared the +agony of more movement than was necessary. + +Thus his grenadiers bore him on their shoulders, lighted by torches, +through the streets that were now thronged, for the rumour had now +gone forth that the King was dead, and troops had been called out +to keep order. Beside him walked Armfelt in his suit of shimmering +white satin, weeping at once for his King and for himself, for he +knew that he was of those who must fall with Gustavus. And, knowing +this, there was bitter rage in his heart against the men who had +wrought this havoc, a rage that sharpened his wits to an unusual +acuteness. + +At last the King was once more in his apartments awaiting the +physicians who were to pronounce his fate, and Armfelt kept him +company among others, revolving in his mind the terrible suspicion +he had formed. + +Presently came Duke Charles, the King's brother, and Benzelstjerna +with the list of those who had been present at the ball. + +"Tell me," he asked, before the list was read to him, "is the name +of Ankarstrom included in it?" + +"He was the last to sign, Sire," replied the chamberlain. + +The King smiled grimly. "Tell Lillesparre to have him arrested and +questioned." + +Armfelt flung forward. "There is another who should be arrested, +too!" he cried fiercely. And added, "Bjelke!" + +"Bjelke?" + +The King echoed the name almost in anger at the imputation. Armfelt +spoke torrentially. "It was he persuaded you to go against your own +judgment when you had the warning, and at last induced you to it by +offering to assume your own domino. If the assassins sought the +King, how came they to pass over one who wore the King's domino, and +to penetrate your own disguise that was like a dozen others? +Because they were informed of the change. But by whom - by whom? +Who was it knew?" + +"My God!" groaned the unfortunate King, who had in his time broken +faith with so many, and was now to suffer the knowledge of this +broken faith in one whom he had trusted above all others. + +Baron Bjelke was arrested an hour later, arrested in the very act +of entering his own home. The men of Lillesparre's police had +preceded him thither to await his return. He was quite calm when +they surged suddenly about him, laid hands upon him, and formally +pronounced him their prisoner. + +"I suppose," he said, "it was to have been inferred. Allow me to +take my leave of the Baroness, and I shall be at your disposal." + +"My orders, Baron, are explicit," he was answered by the officer in +charge. "I am not to suffer you out of my sight." + +"How? Am I to be denied so ordinary a boon?" His voice quivered +with sudden anger and something else. + +"Such are my orders, Baron." + +Bjelke pleaded for five minutes' grace for that leavetaking. But +the officer had his orders. He was no more than a machine. The +Baron raised his clenched hands in mute protest to the heavens, +then let them fall heavily. + +"Very well," he said, and suffered them to thrust him back into his +carriage and carry him away to the waiting Lillesparre. + +He found Armfelt in the office of the chief of the police, haranguing +Ankarstrom, who was already there under arrest. The favourite broke +off as Bjelke was brought in. + +"You were privy to this infamy, Bjelke," he cried. "If the King +does not recover - " + +"He will not recover." It was the cold, passionless voice of +Ankarstrom that spoke. "My pistol was loaded with rusty nails. I +intended to make quite sure of ridding my country of that perjured +tyrant." + +Armfelt stared at the prisoner a moment with furious, bloodshot eyes. +Then he broke into imprecations, stemmed only when Lillesparre +ordered Ankarstrom to be removed. When he was gone, the chief of +police turned to Bjelke. + +"It grieves me, Baron, that we should meet thus, and it is with +difficulty that I can believe what is alleged against you. Baron +Armfelt is perhaps rendered hasty by his grief and righteous anger. +But I hope that you will be able to explain - at least to deny your +concern in this horrible deed." + +Very tense and white stood Bjelke. + +"I have an explanation that should satisfy you as a man of honour," +he said quietly, "but not as chief of the police. I joined this +conspiracy that I might master its scope and learn the intentions +of the plotters. It was a desperate thing I did out of love and +loyalty to the King, and I succeeded. I came to-night to the +palace with information which should not only have saved the King's +life, but would have enabled him to smother the conspiracy for all +time. On the threshold of his room this letter for the King was +delivered into my hands. Read it, Lillesparre, that you may know +precisely what manner of master you serve, that you may understand +how Gustavus of Sweden recompenses love and loyalty. Read it, and +tell me how you would have acted in my place!" + +And he flung the letter on to the writing-table at which sat +Lillesparre. + +The chief of police took it up, began to read, turned back to the +superscription, then resumed his reading, a dull flush overspreading +his face. Over his shoulder Armfelt, too, was reading. But Bjelke +cared not. Let all the world behold that advertisement of royal +infamy, that incriminating love-letter from Bjelke's wife to the +King who had dishonoured him. + +Lillesparre was stricken dumb. He dared not raise his eyes to meet +the glance of the prisoner. But the shameless Armfelt sucked in a +breath of understanding. + +"You admit your guilt, then?" he snarled. + +"That I sent the monster to the masquerade, knowing that there the +blessed hand of Ankarstrom would give him his passport out of a +world he had befouled - yes." + +"The rack shall make you yield the name of every one of the +conspirators." + +"The rack!" Bjelke smiled disdainfully, and shrugged. "Your men, +Lillesparre, were very prompt and very obdurate. They would not +allow me to take leave of the Baroness, so that she has escaped me. +But I am not sure that it is not a fitter vengeance to let her live +and remember. That letter may now be delivered to the King, for +whom it is intended. Its fond messages may lighten the misery of +his remaining hours." + +His face was contorted, with rage, thought Armfelt, who watched him, +but in reality with pain caused by the poison that was corroding +his vitals. He had drained a little phial just before stepping into +the presence of Lillesparre, as they discovered upon inquiries made +after he had collapsed dead at their feet. + +This caused them to bring back Ankarstrom, that he might be searched, +lest he, too, should take some similar way of escaping them. When +he search was done, having discovered nothing, Lillesparre commanded +that he should not have knife or fork or metal comb, or anything +with which he might take his life. + +"You need not fear that I shall seek to evade the sacrifice," he +assured them, his demeanour haughty, his eyes aglow with fanatic +zeal. "It is the price I pay for having rid Nature of a monster +and my country of a false, perjured tyrant, and I pay it gladly." +As he ceased he smiled, and drew from the gold lace of his sleeve +a surgeon's lancet. "This was supplied me against my need to open +a vein. But the laws of God and man may require my death upon the +scaffold." + +And, smiling, he placed the lancet on Lillesparre's table. + +Upon his conviction execution followed, and it lasted three days - +from April 19th to 21 st - being attended by all the horrible and +gradual torturings reserved for regicides. Yet possibly he did +not suffer more than his victim, whose agony had lasted for +thirteen days, and who perished miserably in the consciousness that +he deserved his fate, whilst Ankarstrom was uplifted and fortified +by his fanaticism. + +The scaffold was erected on the Stora Torget, facing the Opera House +of Stockholm, where the assassination had taken place. Thence the +dismembered remains of Ankarstrom were conveyed to the ordinary +gallows in the suburb of Sodermalm to be exhibited, the right hand +being nailed below the head. Under this hand on the morrow was +found a tablet bearing the legend: + + Blessed the hand + That saved the Fatherland. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Historical Nights' Entertainment, by Sabatini + diff --git a/old/hnits10.zip b/old/hnits10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..30387f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/hnits10.zip |