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diff --git a/39136.txt b/39136.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0477133 --- /dev/null +++ b/39136.txt @@ -0,0 +1,35297 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Historical Romances: Under the Red Robe, +Count Hannibal, A Gentleman of France, by Stanley J. Weyman + +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: Historical Romances: Under the Red Robe, Count Hannibal, A Gentleman of France + +Author: Stanley J. Weyman + +Release Date: March 14, 2012 [EBook #39136] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORICAL ROMANCES *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive + + + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + 1. Page scan source: + http://www.archive.org/details/historicalromanc00weymiala + + 2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe]. + + + + + + HISTORICAL ROMANCES + + _UNDER THE RED ROBE_ + + _COUNT HANNIBAL_ + + _A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE_ + + + + + + + _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ + + THE HOUSE OF THE WOLF + A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE + UNDER THE RED ROBE + SHREWSBURY + SOPHIA + COUNT HANNIBAL + IN KINGS' BYWAYS + STARVECROW FARM + LAID UP IN LAVENDER + OVINGTON'S BANK + THE TRAVELLER IN THE FUR CLOAK + QUEEN'S FOLLY + THE _LIVELY PEGGY_ + + + + + + + HISTORICAL ROMANCES + + _Under The Red Robe_ + + _Count Hannibal_ + + _A Gentleman of France_ + + + + BY + + STANLEY J. WEYMAN + + + + + + LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. + 55 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK + + + + + + + HISTORICAL ROMANCES + + UNDER THE RED ROBE * COUNT HANNIBAL + A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE + + + + COPYRIGHT * 1893 * 1894 * 1900 * 1901 * 1921 + BY STANLEY J. WEYMAN + + + + + + PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + + + UNDER THE RED ROBE + + + + + CONTENTS + + + I. At Zaton's. + + II. At the Green Pillar. + + III. The House in the Wood. + + IV. Madam and Mademoiselle. + + V. Revenge. + + VI. Under the Pic du Midi. + + VII. A Master Stroke. + + VIII. The Question. + + IX. Clon. + + X. The Arrest. + + XI. The Road to Paris. + + XII. At the Finger-Post + + XIII. St. Martin's Eve. + + XIV. St. Martin's Summer. + + + + + + UNDER THE RED ROBE + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + AT ZATON'S + + +"Marked cards!" + +There were a score round us when the fool, little knowing the man with +whom he had to deal, and as little how to lose like a gentleman, flung +the words in my teeth. He thought, I'll be sworn, that I should storm +and swear and ruffle it like any common cock of the hackle. But that +was never Gil de Berault's way. For a few seconds after he had spoken +I did not even look at him. I passed my eye instead--smiling, _bien +entendu_--round the ring of waiting faces, saw that there was no one +except De Pombal I had cause to fear; and then at last I rose and +looked at the fool with the grim face I have known impose on older and +wiser men. + +"Marked cards, M. l'Anglais?" I said, with a chilling sneer. "They are +used, I am told, to trap players--not unbirched schoolboys." + +"Yet I say that they are marked!" he replied hotly, in his queer +foreign jargon. "In my last hand I had nothing. You doubled the +stakes. Bah, Sir, you knew! You have swindled me!" + +"Monsieur is easy to swindle--when he plays with a mirror behind him," +I answered tartly. And at that there was a great roar of laughter, +which might have been heard in the street, and which brought to the +table every one in the eating-house whom his violence had not already +attracted. But I did not relax my face. I waited until all was quiet +again, and then waving aside two or three who stood between us and the +entrance, I pointed gravely to the door. "There is a little space +behind the church of St. Jacques, M. l'Etranger," I said, putting on +my hat and taking my cloak on my arm. "Doubtless you will accompany me +thither?" + +He snatched up his hat, his face burning with shame and rage. "With +pleasure!" he blurted out. "To the devil, if you like!" + +I thought the matter arranged, when the Marquis laid his hand on the +young fellow's arm and checked him. "This must not be," he said, +turning from him to me with his grand fine-gentleman's air. "You know +me, M. de Berault. This matter has gone far enough." + +"Too far, M. de Pombal!" I answered bitterly. "Still, if you wish to +take the gentleman's place, I shall raise no objection." + +"Chut, man!" he retorted, shrugging his shoulders negligently. "I know +you, and I do not fight with men of your stamp. Nor need this +gentleman." + +"Undoubtedly," I replied, bowing low, "if he prefers to be caned in +the streets." + +That stung the Marquis. "Have a care! have a care!" he cried hotly. +"You go too far, M. Berault." + +"De Berault, if you please," I objected, eyeing him sternly. "My +family has borne the _de_ as long as yours, M. de Pombal." + +He could not deny that, and he answered, "As you please"; at the same +time restraining his friend by a gesture. "But none the less, take my +advice," he continued. "The Cardinal has forbidden duelling, and this +time he means it! You have been in trouble once and gone free. A +second time it may fare worse with you. Let this gentleman go, +therefore, M. de Berault. Besides--why, shame upon you, man!" he +exclaimed hotly; "he is but a lad!" + +Two or three who stood behind me applauded that. But I turned and they +met my eye; and they were as mum as mice. "His age is his own +concern," I said grimly. "He was old enough a while ago to insult me." + +"And I will prove my words!" the lad cried, exploding at last. He had +spirit enough, and the Marquis had had hard work to restrain him so +long. "You do me no service, M. de Pombal," he continued, pettishly +shaking off his friend's hand. "By your leave, this gentleman and I +will settle this matter." + +"That is better," I said, nodding drily, while the Marquis stood +aside, frowning and baffled. "Permit me to lead the way." + +Zaton's eating-house stands scarcely a hundred paces from St. Jacques +la Boucherie, and half the company went thither with us. The evening +was wet, the light in the streets was waning, the streets themselves +were dirty and slippery. There were few passers in the Rue St. +Antoine; and our party, which earlier in the day must have attracted +notice and a crowd, crossed unmarked, and entered without interruption +the paved triangle which lies immediately behind the church. I saw in +the distance one of the Cardinal's guard loitering in front of the +scaffolding round the new Hotel Richelieu; and the sight of the +uniform gave me pause for a moment. But it was too late to repent. + +The Englishman began at once to strip off his clothes. I closed mine +to the throat, for the air was chilly. At that moment, while we stood +preparing and most of the company seemed a little inclined to stand +off from me, I felt a hand on my arm, and, turning, saw the dwarfish +tailor at whose house in the Rue Savonnerie I lodged at the time. The +fellow's presence was unwelcome, to say the least of it; and though +for want of better company I had sometimes encouraged him to be free +with me at home, I took that to be no reason why I should be plagued +with him before gentlemen. I shook him off, therefore, hoping by a +frown to silence him. + +He was not to be so easily put down, however. And perforce I had to +speak to him. "Afterwards, afterwards," I said. "I am engaged now." + +"For God's sake, don't, Sir!" was the poor fool's answer. "Don't do +it! You will bring a curse on the house. He is but a lad, and--" + +"You, too!" I exclaimed, losing patience. "Be silent, you scum! What +do you know about gentlemen's quarrels? Leave me; do you hear?" + +"But the Cardinal!" he cried in a quavering voice. "The Cardinal, M. +de Berault? The last man you killed is not forgotten yet. This time he +will be sure to--" + +"Do you hear?" I hissed. The fellow's impudence passed all bounds. It +was as bad as his croaking. "Begone!" I said. "I suppose you are +afraid he will kill me, and you will lose your money?" + +Frison fell back at that almost as if I had struck him, and I turned +to my adversary, who had been awaiting my motions with impatience. God +knows he did look young; as he stood with his head bare and his fair +hair drooping over his smooth woman's forehead--a mere lad fresh from +the College of Burgundy, if they have such a thing in England. I felt +a sudden chill as I looked at him: a qualm, a tremor, a presentiment. +What was it the little tailor had said? That I should--but there, he +did not know. What did he know of such things? If I let this pass I +must kill a man a day, or leave Paris and the eating-house, and +starve. + +"A thousand pardons," I said gravely, as I drew and took my place. "A +dun. I am sorry that the poor devil caught me so inopportunely. Now, +however, I am at your service." + +He saluted, and we crossed swords and began. But from the first I had +no doubt what the result would be. The slippery stones and fading +light gave him, it is true, some chance, some advantage, more than he +deserved; but I had no sooner felt his blade than I knew that he was +no swordsman. Possibly he had taken half-a-dozen lessons in rapier +art, and practised what he learned with an Englishman as heavy and +awkward as himself. But that was all. He made a few wild, clumsy +rushes, parrying widely. When I had foiled these, the danger was over, +and I held him at my mercy. + +I played with him a little while, watching the sweat gather on his +brow, and the shadow of the church-tower fall deeper and darker, like +the shadow of doom, on his face. Not out of cruelty--God knows I have +never erred in that direction!--but because, for the first time in my +life, I felt a strange reluctance to strike the blow. The curls clung +to his forehead; his breath came and went in gasps; I heard the men +behind me murmur, and one or two of them drop an oath; and then I +slipped--slipped, and was down in a moment on my right side, my elbow +striking the pavement so sharply that the arm grew numb to the wrist. + +He held off! I heard a dozen voices cry, "Now! now you have him!" But +he held off. He stood back and waited with his breast heaving and his +point lowered, until I had risen and stood again on my guard. + +"Enough! enough!" a rough voice behind me cried. "Don't hurt the man +after that." + +"On guard, Sir!" I answered coldly--for he seemed to waver. "It was an +accident. It shall not avail you again." + +Several voices cried "Shame!" and one, "You coward!" But the +Englishman stepped forward, a fixed look in his blue eyes. He took his +place without a word. I read in his drawn white face that he had made +up his mind to the worst, and his courage won my admiration. I would +gladly and thankfully have set one of the lookers-on--any of the +lookers-on--in his place; but that could not be. So I thought of +Zaton's closed to me, of Pombal's insult, of the sneers and slights I +had long kept at the sword's point; and, pressing him suddenly in a +heat of affected anger, I thrust strongly over his guard, which had +grown feeble, and ran him through the chest. + +When I saw him lying, laid out on the stones with his eyes half shut, +and his face glimmering white in the dusk--not that I saw him thus +long, for there were a dozen kneeling round him in a twinkling--I felt +an unwonted pang. It passed, however, in a moment. For I found myself +confronted by a ring of angry faces--of men who, keeping at a +distance, hissed and threatened me. + +They were mostly canaille, who had gathered during the fight, and had +viewed all that passed from the farther side of the railings. While +some snarled and raged at me like wolves, calling me "Butcher!" and +"Cut-throat!" and the like, or cried out that Berault was at his trade +again, others threatened me with the vengeance of the Cardinal, flung +the edict in my teeth, and said with glee that the guard were +coming--they would see me hanged yet. + +"His blood is on your head!" one cried furiously. "He will be dead in +an hour. And you will swing for him! Hurrah!" + +"Begone to your kennel!" I answered, with a look which sent him a yard +backwards, though the railings were between us. And I wiped my blade +carefully, standing a little apart. For--well, I could understand +it--it was one of those moments when a man is not popular. Those who +had come with me from the eating-house eyed me askance, and turned +their backs when I drew nearer; and those who had joined us and +obtained admission were scarcely more polite. + +But I was not to be outdone in _sangfroid_. I cocked my hat, and +drawing my cloak over my shoulders, went out with a swagger which +drove the curs from the gate before I came within a dozen paces of it. +The rascals outside fell back as quickly, and in a moment I was in the +street. Another moment and I should have been clear of the place and +free to lie by for a while, when a sudden scurry took place round me. +The crowd fled every way into the gloom, and in a hand-turn a dozen of +the Cardinal's guard closed round me. + +I had some acquaintance with the officer in command, and he saluted me +civilly. "This is a bad business, M. de Berault," he said. "The man is +dead they tell me." + +"Neither dying nor dead," I answered lightly. "If that be all, you may +go home again." + +"With you," he replied, with a grin, "certainly. And as it rains, the +sooner the better. I must ask you for your sword, I am afraid." + +"Take it," I said, with the philosophy which never deserts me. "But +the man will not die." + +"I hope that may avail you," he answered in a tone I did not like. +"Left wheel, my friends! To the Chatelet! March!" + +"There are worse places," I said, and resigned myself to fate. After +all, I had been in prison before, and learned that only one jail lets +no prisoner escape. + +But when I found that my friend's orders were to hand me over to the +watch, and that I was to be confined like any common jail-bird caught +cutting a purse or slitting a throat, I confess my heart sank. If I +could get speech with the Cardinal, all would probably be well; but if +I failed in this, or if the case came before him in strange guise, or +he were in a hard mood himself, then it might go ill with me. The +edict said, death! + +And the lieutenant at the Chatelet did not put himself to much trouble +to hearten me. "What! again, M. de Berault?" he said, raising his +eyebrows as he received me at the gate, and recognized me by the light +of the brazier which his men were just kindling outside. "You are a +very bold man, Sir, or a very foolhardy one, to come here again. The +old business, I suppose?" + +"Yes, but he is not dead," I answered coolly. + +"He has a trifle--a mere scratch. It was behind the church of St. +Jacques." + +"He looked dead enough," my friend the guardsman interposed. He had +not yet gone. + +"Bah!" I answered scornfully. "Have you ever known me make a mistake? +When I kill a man, I kill him. I put myself to pains, I tell you, not +to kill this Englishman. Therefore he will live." + +"I hope so," the lieutenant said, with a dry smile. "And you had +better hope so, too, M. de Berault. For if not--" + +"Well?" I said, somewhat troubled. "If not, what, my friend?" + +"I fear he will be the last man you will fight," he answered. "And +even if he lives, I would not be too sure, my friend. This time the +Cardinal is determined to put it down." + +"He and I are old friends," I said confidently. + +"So I have heard," he answered, with a short laugh. "I think the same +was said of Chalais. I do not remember that it saved his head." + +This was not reassuring. But worse was to come. Early in the morning +orders were received that I should be treated with especial +strictness, and I was given the choice between irons and one of the +cells below the level. Choosing the latter, I was left to reflect upon +many things; among others, on the queer and uncertain nature of the +Cardinal, who loved, I knew, to play with a man as a cat with a mouse; +and on the ill effects which sometimes attend a high chest-thrust, +however carefully delivered. I only rescued myself at last from these +and other unpleasant reflections by obtaining the loan of a pair of +dice; and the light being just enough to enable me to reckon the +throws, I amused myself for hours by casting them on certain +principles of my own. But a long run again and again upset my +calculations; and at last brought me to the conclusion that a run of +bad luck may be so persistent as to see out the most sagacious player. +This was not a reflection very welcome to me at the moment. + +Nevertheless, for three days it was all the company I had. At the end +of that time the knave of a jailer who attended me, and who had never +grown tired of telling me, after the fashion of his kind, that I +should be hanged, came to me with a less assured air. "Perhaps you +would like a little water?" he said civilly. + +"Why, rascal?" I asked. + +"To wash with," he answered. + +"I asked for some yesterday, and you would not bring it," I grumbled. +"However, better late than never. Bring it now. If I must hang, I will +hang like a gentleman. But, depend upon it, the Cardinal will not +serve an old friend so scurvy a trick." + +"You are to go to him," he answered, when he came back with the water. + +"What? To the Cardinal?" I cried. + +"Yes," he answered. + +"Good!" I exclaimed; and in my joy I sprang up at once, and began to +refresh my dress. "So all this time I have been doing him an +injustice. _Vive Monseigneur!_ I might have known it." + +"Don't make too sure!" the man answered spitefully. Then he went on: +"I have something else for you. A friend of yours left it at the +gate," he added. And he handed me a packet. + +"Quite so!" I said, reading his rascally face aright. "And you kept it +as long as you dared--as long as you thought I should hang, you knave! +Was not that so? But there, do not lie to me. Tell me instead which of +my friends left it." For, to confess the truth, I had not so many +friends at this time; and ten good crowns--the packet contained no +less a sum--argued a pretty staunch friend, and one of whom a man +might be proud. + +The knave sniggered maliciously. "A crooked, dwarfish man left it," he +said. "I doubt I might call him a tailor and not be far out." + +"Chut!" I answered; but I was a little out of countenance. "I +understand. An honest fellow enough, and in debt to me! I am glad he +remembered. But when am I to go, friend?" + +"In an hour," he answered sullenly. Doubtless he had looked to get one +of the crowns; but I was too old a hand for that. If I came back I +could buy his services; and if I did not I should have wasted my +money. + +Nevertheless, a little later, when I found myself on my way to the +Hotel Richelieu under so close a guard that I could see nothing except +the figures that immediately surrounded me, I wished I had given him +the money. At such times, when all hangs in the balance and the sky is +overcast, the mind runs on luck and old superstitions, and is prone to +think a crown given here may avail there--though there be a hundred +leagues away. + +The Palais Richelieu was at this time in building, and we were +required to wait in a long, bare gallery, where the masons were at +work. I was kept a full hour here, pondering uncomfortably on the +strange whims and fancies of the great man who then ruled France as +the King's Lieutenant-General, with all the King's powers; and whose +life I had once been the means of saving by a little timely +information. On occasion he had done something to wipe out the debt; +and at other times he had permitted me to be free with him. We were +not unknown to one another, therefore. + +Nevertheless, when the doors were at last thrown open, and I was led +into his presence, my confidence underwent a shock. His cold glance, +that, roving over me, regarded me not as a man but an item, the steely +glitter of his southern eyes, chilled me to the bone. The room was +bare, the floor without carpet or covering. Some of the woodwork lay +about, unfinished and in pieces. But the man--this man, needed no +surroundings. His keen, pale face, his brilliant eyes, even his +presence--though he was of no great height and began already to stoop +at the shoulders--were enough to awe the boldest. I recalled as I +looked at him a hundred tales of his iron will, his cold heart, his +unerring craft. He had humbled the King's brother, the splendid Duke +of Orleans, in the dust. He had curbed the Queen-mother. A dozen +heads, the noblest in France, had come to the block through him. Only +two years before he had quelled Rochelle; only a few months before he +had crushed the great insurrection in Languedoc: and though the south, +stripped of its old privileges, still seethed with discontent, no one +in this year 1630 dared lift a hand against him--openly, at any rate. +Under the surface a hundred plots, a thousand intrigues, sought his +life or his power; but these, I suppose, are the hap of every great +man. + +No wonder, then, that the courage on which I plumed myself sank low at +sight of him; or that it was as much as I could do to mingle with the +humility of my salute some touch of the _sangfroid_ of old +acquaintanceship. + +And perhaps that had been better left out. For this man was without +bowels. For a moment, while he stood looking at me and before he spoke +to me, I gave myself up for lost. There was a glint of cruel +satisfaction in his eyes that warned me, before he spoke, what he was +going to say to me. + +"I could not have made a better catch, M. de Berault," he said, +smiling villainously, while he gently smoothed the fur of a cat that +had sprung on the table beside him. "An old offender and an excellent +example. I doubt it will not stop with you. But later, we will make +you the warrant for flying at higher game." + +"Monseigneur has handled a sword himself," I blurted out. The very +room seemed to be growing darker, the air colder. I was never nearer +fear in my life. + +"Yes?" he said, smiling delicately. "And so?" + +"Will not be too hard on the failings of a poor gentleman." + +"He shall suffer no more than a rich one," he replied suavely, as he +stroked the cat. "Enjoy that satisfaction, M. de Berault. Is that +all?" + +"Once I was of service to your Eminence," I said desperately. + +"Payment has been made," he answered, "more than once. But for that I +should not have seen you, M. de Berault." + +"The King's face!" I cried, snatching at the straw he seemed to hold +out. + +He laughed cynically, smoothly. His thin face, his dark moustache, and +whitening hair, gave him an air of indescribable keenness. "I am not +the King," he said. "Besides, I am told you have killed as many as six +men in duels. You owe the King, therefore, one life at least. You must +pay it. There is no more to be said, M. de Berault," he continued +coldly, turning away and beginning to collect some papers. "The law +must take its course." + +I thought he was about to nod to the lieutenant to withdraw me, and a +chilling sweat broke out down my back. I saw the scaffold, I felt the +cords. A moment, and it would be too late! "I have a favour to ask," I +stammered desperately, "if your Eminence would give me a moment +alone." + +"To what end?" he answered, turning and eyeing me with cold disfavour. +"I know you--your past--all. It can do no good, my friend." + +"Nor harm!" I cried. "And I am a dying man, Monseigneur!" + +"That is true," he said thoughtfully. Still he seemed to hesitate; and +my heart beat fast. At last he looked at the lieutenant. "You may +leave us," he said shortly. "Now," when the officer had withdrawn and +left us alone, "what is it? Say what you have to say quickly. And +above all, do not try to fool me, M. de Berault." + +But his piercing eyes so disconcerted me that now I had my chance I +could not find a word to say, and stood before him mute. I think this +pleased him, for his face relaxed. + +"Well?" he said at last. "Is that all?" + +"The man is not dead," I muttered. + +He shrugged his shoulders contemptuously. "What of that?" he said. +"That was not what you wanted to say to me." + +"Once I saved your Eminence's life," I faltered miserably. + +"Admitted," he answered, in his thin, incisive voice. "You mentioned +the fact before. On the other hand, you have taken six to my +knowledge, M. de Berault. You have lived the life of a bully, a common +bravo, a gamester. You, a man of family! For shame! And it has brought +you to this. Yet on that one point I am willing to hear more," he +added abruptly. + +"I might save your Eminence's life again," I cried. It was a sudden +inspiration. + +"You know something," he said quickly, fixing me with his eyes. "But +no," he continued, shaking his head gently. "Pshaw! the trick is old. +I have better spies than you, M. de Berault." + +"But no better sword," I cried hoarsely. "No, not in all your guard!" + +"That is true," he said. "That is true." To my surprise, he spoke in a +tone of consideration; and he looked down at the floor. "Let me think, +my friend," he continued. + +He walked two or three times up and down the room, while I stood +trembling. I confess it trembling. The man whose pulses danger has no +power to quicken, is seldom proof against suspense; and the sudden +hope his words awakened in me so shook me that his figure, as he trod +lightly to and fro, with the cat rubbing against his robe and turning +time for time with him, wavered before my eyes. I grasped the table to +steady myself. I had not admitted even in my own mind how darkly the +shadow of Montfaucon and the gallows had fallen across me. + +I had leisure to recover myself, for it was some time before he spoke. +When he did, it was in a voice harsh, changed, imperative. "You have +the reputation of a man faithful, at least, to his employer," he said. +"Do not answer me. I say it is so. Well, I will trust you. I will give +you one more chance--though it is a desperate one. Woe to you if you +fail me! Do you know Cocheforet in Bearn? It is not far from Auch." + +"No, your Eminence." + +"Nor M. de Cocheforet?" + +"No, your Eminence." + +"So much the better," he retorted. "But you have heard of him. He has +been engaged in every Gascon plot since the late King's death, and +gave me more trouble last year in the Vivarais than any man twice his +years. At present he is at Bosost in Spain, with other refugees, but I +have learned that at frequent intervals he visits his wife at +Cocheforet, which is six leagues within the border. On one of these +visits he must be arrested." + +"That should be easy," I said. + +The Cardinal looked at me. "Tush, man! what do you know about it?" he +answered bluntly. "It is whispered at Cocheforet if a soldier crosses +the street at Auch. In the house are only two or three servants, but +they have the country-side with them to a man, and they are a +dangerous breed. A spark might kindle a fresh rising. The arrest, +therefore, must be made secretly." + +I bowed. + +"One resolute man inside the house, with the help of two or three +servants whom he could summon to his aid at will, might effect it," +the Cardinal continued, glancing at a paper which lay on the table. +"The question is, will you be the man, my friend?" + +I hesitated; then I bowed. What choice had I? + +"Nay, nay, speak out!" he said sharply. "Yes or no, M. de Berault?" + +"Yes, your Eminence," I said reluctantly. Again, I say, what choice +had I? + +"You will bring him to Paris, and alive. He knows things, and that is +why I want him. You understand?" + +"I understand, Monseigneur," I answered. + +"You will get into the house as you can," he continued. "For that you +will need strategy, and good strategy. They suspect everybody. You +must deceive them. If you fail to deceive them, or, deceiving them, +are found out later, M. de Berault--I do not think you will trouble me +again, or break the edict a second time. On the other hand, should you +deceive _me_"--he smiled still more subtly, but his voice sank to a +purring note--"I will break you on the wheel like the ruined gamester +you are!" + +I met his look without quailing. "So be it!" I said recklessly. "If I +do not bring M. de Cocheforet to Paris, you may do that to me, and +more also!" + +"It is a bargain!" he answered slowly. "I think you will be faithful. +For money, here are a hundred crowns. That sum should suffice; but if +you succeed you shall have twice as much more. Well, that is all, I +think. You understand?" + +"Yes, Monseigneur." + +"Then why do you wait?" + +"The lieutenant?" I said modestly. + +Monseigneur laughed to himself, and sitting down wrote a word or two +on a slip of paper. "Give him that," he said, in high good-humour. "I +fear, M. de Berault, you will never get your deserts--in this world!" + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + AT THE GREEN PILLAR. + + +Cocheforet lies in a billowy land of oak and beech and chestnut--a +land of deep, leafy bottoms, and hills clothed with forest. Ridge and +valley, glen and knoll, the woodland, sparsely peopled and more +sparsely tilled, stretches away to the great snow mountains that here +limit France. It swarms with game--with wolves and bears, deer and +boars. To the end of his life I have heard that the great King loved +this district, and would sigh, when years and State fell heavily on +him, for the beech-groves and box-covered hills of South Bearn. From +the terraced steps of Auch you can see the forest roll away in light +and shadow, vale and upland, to the base of the snow-peaks; and, +though I come from Brittany and love the smell of the salt wind, I +have seen few sights that outdo this. + +It was the second week in October when I came to Cocheforet, and, +dropping down from the last wooded brow, rode quietly into the place +at evening. I was alone, and had ridden all day in a glory of ruddy +beech-leaves, through the silence of forest roads, across clear brooks +and glades still green. I had seen more of the quiet and peace of the +country than had been my share since boyhood, and I felt a little +melancholy; it might be for that reason, or because I had no great +taste for the task before me--the task now so imminent. In good faith, +it was not a gentleman's work, look at it how you might. + +But beggars must not be choosers, and I knew that this feeling would +pass away. At the inn, in the presence of others, under the spur of +necessity, or in the excitement of the chase, were that once begun, I +should lose the feeling. When a man is young, he seeks solitude: when +he is middle-aged he flies it and his thoughts. I made without ado for +the Green Pillar, a little inn in the village street, to which I had +been directed at Auch, and, thundering on the door with the knob of my +riding-switch, railed at the man for keeping me waiting. + +Here and there at hovel doors in the street--which was a mean, poor +place, not worthy of the name--men and women looked out at me +suspiciously. But I affected to ignore them; and at last the host +came. He was a fair-haired man, half Basque, half Frenchman, and had +scanned me well, I was sure, through some window or peephole; for, +when he came out, he betrayed no surprise at the sight of a +well-dressed stranger--a portent in that out-of-the-way village--but +eyed me with a kind of sullen reserve. + +"I can lie here to-night, I suppose?" I said, dropping the reins on +the sorrel's neck. The horse hung its head. + +"I don't know," he answered stupidly. + +I pointed to the green bough which topped a post that stood opposite +the door. + +"This is an inn, is it not?" I said. + +"Yes," he answered slowly; "it is an inn. But--" + +"But you are full, or you are out of food, or your wife is ill, or +something else is amiss," I answered peevishly. "All the same, I am +going to lie here. So you must make the best of it, and your wife, +too--if you have one." + +He scratched his head, looking at me with an ugly glitter in his eyes. +But he said nothing, and I dismounted. + +"Where can I stable my horse?" I asked. + +"I'll put it up," he answered sullenly, stepping forward and taking +the reins in his hands. + +"Very well," I said; "but I go with you. A merciful man is merciful to +his beast, and where-ever I go I see my horse fed." + +"It will be fed," he said shortly. And then he waited for me to go +into the house. "The wife is in there," he continued, looking at me +stubbornly. + +"_Imprimis_--if you understand Latin, my friend," I answered, "the +horse in the stall." + +As if he saw it was no good, he turned the sorrel slowly round, and +began to lead it across the village street. There was a shed behind +the inn, which I had already marked and taken for the stable, and I +was surprised when I found he was not going there. But I made no +remark, and in a few minutes saw the horse well stabled in a hovel +which seemed to belong to a neighbour. + +This done, the man led the way back to the inn, carrying my valise. + +"You have no other guests?" I said, with a casual air. I knew he was +watching me closely. + +"No," he answered. + +"This is not much in the way to anywhere, I suppose?" + +"No." + +That was evident; a more retired place I never saw. The hanging woods, +rising steeply to a great height, so shut the valley in that I was +puzzled to think how a man could leave it save by the road I had come. +The cottages, which were no more than mean, small huts, ran in a +straggling double line, with many gaps--through fallen trees and +ill-cleared meadows. Among them a noisy brook ran in and out. And the +inhabitants--charcoal-burners, or swineherds, or poor people of the +like class, were no better than their dwellings. I looked in vain for +the Chateau. It was not to be seen, and I dared not ask for it. + +The man led me into the common room of the tavern--a low-roofed, poor +place, lacking a chimney or glazed windows, and grimy with smoke and +use. The fire--a great half-burned tree--smouldered on a stone hearth, +raised a foot from the floor. A huge black pot simmered over it, and +beside one window lounged a country fellow talking with the goodwife. +In the dusk I could not see his face, but I gave the woman a word, and +sat down to wait for my supper. + +She seemed more silent than the common run of women; but this might be +because her husband was present. While she moved about, getting my +meal, he took his place against the doorpost and fell to staring at me +so persistently that I felt by no means at my ease. He was a tall, +strong fellow, with a rough moustache and brown beard, cut in the mode +Henri Quatre; and on the subject of that king--a safe one, I knew, +with a Bearnais--and on that alone, I found it possible to make him +talk. Even then there was a suspicious gleam in his eyes that bade me +abstain from questions; and as the darkness deepened behind him, and +the firelight played more and more strongly on his features, and I +thought of the leagues of woodland that lay between this remote valley +and Auch. I recalled the Cardinal's warning that if I failed in my +attempt I should be little likely to trouble Paris again. + +The lout by the window paid no attention to me; nor I to him, when I +had once satisfied myself that he was really what he seemed to be. But +by and by two or three men--rough, uncouth fellows--dropped in to +reinforce the landlord, and they, too, seemed to have no other +business than to sit in silence looking at me, or now and again to +exchange a word in a _patois_ of their own. By the time my supper was +ready, the knaves numbered six in all; and, as they were armed to a +man with huge Spanish knives, and evidently resented my presence in +their dull rustic fashion--every rustic is suspicious--I began to +think that, unwittingly, I had put my head into a wasp's nest. + +Nevertheless, I ate and drank with apparent appetite; but little that +passed within the circle of light cast by the smoky lamp escaped me. I +watched the men's looks and gestures at least as sharply as they +watched mine; and all the time I was racking my wits for some mode of +disarming their suspicions--or failing that, of learning something +more of the position, which, it was clear, far exceeded in difficulty +and danger anything I had expected. The whole valley, it would seem, +was on the lookout to protect my man! + +I had purposely brought with me from Auch a couple of bottles of +choice Armagnac; and these had been carried into the house with my +saddlebags. I took one out now and opened it, and carelessly offered a +dram of the spirit to the landlord. He took it. As he drank it, I saw +his face flush; he handed back the cup reluctantly, and on that hint I +offered him another. The strong spirit was already beginning to work. +He accepted, and in a few minutes began to talk more freely and with +less of the constraint which had marked us. Still, his tongue ran +chiefly on questions--he would know this, he would learn that; but +even this was a welcome change. I told him openly whence I had come, +by what road, how long I had stayed in Auch, and where; and so far I +satisfied his curiosity. Only when I came to the subject of my visit +to Cocheforet I kept a mysterious silence, hinting darkly at business +in Spain and friends across the border, and this and that, and giving +the peasants to understand, if they pleased, that I was in the same +interest as their exiled master. + +They took the bait, winked at one another, and began to look at me in +a more friendly way--the landlord foremost. But when I had led them so +far, I dared go no farther, lest I should commit myself and be found +out. I stopped, therefore, and, harking back to general subjects, +chanced to compare my province with theirs. The landlord, now become +almost talkative, was not slow to take up this challenge; and it +presently led to my acquiring a curious piece of knowledge. He was +boasting of his great snow mountains, the forests that propped them, +the bears that roamed in them, the izards that loved the ice, and the +boars that fed on the oak mast. + +"Well," I said, quite by chance, "we have not these things, it is +true. But we have things in the north you have not. We have tens of +thousands of good horses--not such ponies as you breed here. At the +horse fair at Fecamp my sorrel would be lost in the crowd. Here in the +south you will not meet his match in a long day's journey." + +"Do not make too sure of that!" the man replied, his eyes bright with +triumph and the dram. "What would you say if I showed you a better--in +my own stable?" + +I saw that his words sent a kind of thrill through his other hearers, +and that such of them as understood--for two or three of them talked +their _patois_ only--looked at him angrily; and in a twinkling I began +to comprehend. But I affected dulness, and laughed scornfully. + +"Seeing is believing," I said. "I doubt if you know a good horse here +when you see one, my friend." + +"Oh, don't I?" he said, winking. "Indeed!" + +"I doubt it," I answered stubbornly. + +"Then come with me, and I will show you one," he retorted, discretion +giving way to vainglory. His wife and the others, I saw, looked at him +dumbfounded; but, without paying any heed to them, he took up a +lanthorn, and, assuming an air of peculiar wisdom, opened the door. +"Come with me," he continued. "I don't know a good horse when I see +one, don't I? I know a better than yours, at any rate!" + +I should not have been surprised if the other men had interfered; +but--I suppose he was a leader among them, and they did not, and in a +moment we were outside. Three paces through the darkness took us to +the stable, an offset at the back of the inn. My man twirled the pin, +and, leading the way in, raised his lanthorn. A horse whinnied softly, +and turned its bright, soft eyes on us--a baldfaced chestnut, with +white hairs in its tail and one white stocking. + +"There!" my guide exclaimed, waving the lanthorn to and fro +boastfully, that I might see its points. "What do you say to that? Is +that an undersized pony?" + +"No," I answered, purposely stinting my praise. "It is pretty +fair--for this country." + +"Or any country," he answered wrathfully. "Any country, I say--I don't +care where it is! And I have reason to know! Why, man, that horse +is-- But there, that is a good horse, if ever you saw one!" And with +that he ended abruptly and lamely, lowering the lanthorn with a sudden +gesture, and turning to the door. He was on the instant in such hurry, +that he almost shouldered me out. + +But I understood. I knew that he had nearly betrayed all--that he had +been on the point of blurting out that that was M. de Cocheforet's +horse! M. de Cocheforet's, _comprenez bien!_ And while I turned away +my face in the darkness, that he might not see me smile, I was not +surprised to find the man in a moment changed, and become, in the +closing of the door, as sober and suspicious as before, ashamed of +himself and enraged with me, and in a mood to cut my throat for a +trifle. + +It was not my cue to quarrel, however--anything but that. I made, +therefore, as if I had seen nothing, and when we were back in the inn +praised the horse grudgingly, and like a man but half convinced. The +ugly looks and ugly weapons I saw around me were fine incentives to +caution; and no Italian, I flatter myself, could have played his part +more nicely than I did. But I was heartily glad when it was over, +and I found myself, at last, left alone for the night in a little +garret--a mere fowl-house--upstairs, formed by the roof and gable +walls, and hung with strings of apples and chestnuts. It was a poor +sleeping-place--rough, chilly, and unclean. I ascended to it by a +ladder; my cloak and a little fern formed my only bed. But I was glad +to accept it. It enabled me to be alone and to think out the position +unwatched. + +Of course M. de Cocheforet was at the Chateau. He had left his horse +here, and gone up on foot: probably that was his usual plan. He was +therefore within my reach, in one sense--I could not have come at a +better time--but in another he was as much beyond it as if I were +still in Paris. So far was I from being able to seize him that I dared +not ask a question or let fall a rash word, or even look about me +freely. I saw I dared not. The slightest hint of my mission, the +faintest breath of distrust, would lead to throat-cutting--and the +throat would be mine; while the longer I lay in the village, the +greater suspicion I should incur, and the closer would be the watch +kept over me. + +In such a position some men might have given up the attempt and saved +themselves across the border. But I have always valued myself on my +fidelity, and I did not shrink. If not to-day, to-morrow; if not this +time, next time. The dice do not always turn up aces. Bracing myself, +therefore, to the occasion, I crept, as soon as the house was quiet, +to the window, a small, square, open lattice, much cobwebbed, and +partly stuffed with hay. I looked out. The village seemed to be +asleep. The dark branches of trees hung a few feet away, and almost +obscured a grey, cloudy sky, through which a wet moon sailed drearily. +Looking downwards, I could at first see nothing; but as my eyes grew +used to the darkness--I had only just put out my rushlight--I made out +the stable-door and the shadowy outlines of the lean-to roof. + +I had hoped for this. I could now keep watch, and learn at least +whether Cocheforet left before morning. If he did not I should know he +was still here. If he did, I should be the better for seeing his +features, and learning, perhaps, other things that might be of use. + +Making up my mind to be uncomfortable, I sat down on the floor by the +lattice, and began a vigil that might last, I knew, until morning. It +did last about an hour. At the end of that time I heard whispering +below, then footsteps; then, as some persons turned a corner, a voice +speaking aloud and carelessly. I could not catch the words spoken; but +the voice was a gentleman's, and its bold accents and masterful tone +left me in no doubt that the speaker was M. de Cocheforet himself. +Hoping to learn more, I pressed my face nearer to the opening, and I +had just made out through the gloom two figures--one that of a tall, +slight man, wearing a cloak, the other, I thought, a woman's, in a +sheeny white dress--when a thundering rap on the door of my garret +made me spring back a yard from the lattice, and lie down hurriedly on +my couch. The noise was repeated. + +"Well?" I cried, cursing the untimely interruption. I was burning with +anxiety to see more. "What is it? What is the matter?" + +The trapdoor was lifted a foot or more. The landlord thrust up his +head. + +"You called, did you not?" he asked. He held up a rushlight, which +illumined half the room and lit up his grinning face. + +"Called--at this hour of the night, you fool?" I answered angrily. +"No! I did not call. Go to bed, man!" + +But he remained on the ladder, gaping stupidly. + +"I heard you," he said. + +"Go to bed! You are drunk!" I answered, sitting up. "I tell you I did +not call." + +"Oh, very well," he answered slowly. "And you do not want anything?" + +"Nothing--except to be left alone!" I replied sourly. + +"Umph!" he said. "Good-night!" + +"Good-night! Good-night!" I answered, with what patience I might. The +tramp of the horse's hoofs as it was led out of the stable was in my +ear at the moment. "Good-night!" I continued feverishly, hoping he +would still retire in time, and I have a chance to look out. "I want +to sleep." + +"Good," he said, with a broad grin. "But it is early yet, and you have +plenty of time." And then, at last, he slowly let down the trapdoor, +and I heard him chuckle as he went down the ladder. + +Before he reached the bottom I was at the window. The woman whom I had +seen still stood below, in the same place; and beside her a man in a +peasant's dress, holding a lanthorn, But the man, the man I wanted to +see was no longer there. And it was evident that he was gone; it was +evident that the others no longer feared me, for while I gazed the +landlord came out to them with another lanthorn, and said something to +the lady, and she looked up at my window and laughed. + +It was a warm night, and she wore nothing over her white dress. I +could see her tall, shapely figure and shining eyes, and the firm +contour of her beautiful face; which, if any fault might be found with +it, erred in being too regular. She looked like a woman formed by +nature to meet dangers and difficulties; and even here, at midnight, +in the midst of these desperate men, she seemed in place. It was +possible that under her queenly exterior, and behind the contemptuous +laugh with which she heard the land lord's story, there lurked a +woman's soul capable of folly and tenderness. But no outward sign +betrayed its presence. + +I scanned her very carefully; and secretly, if the truth be told, I +was glad to find Madame de Cocheforet such a woman. I was glad that +she had laughed as she had--that she was not a little, tender, +child-like woman, to be crushed by the first pinch of trouble. For if +I succeeded in my task, if I--but, pish! Women, I said, were all +alike. She would find consolation quickly enough. + +I watched until the group broke up, and Madame, with one of the men, +went her way round the corner of the inn, and out of my sight. Then I +retired to bed again, feeling more than ever perplexed what course I +should adopt. It was clear that, to succeed, I must obtain admission +to the house. This was garrisoned, unless my instructions erred, by +two or three old men-servants only, and as many women; since Madame, +to disguise her husband's visits the more easily, lived, and gave out +that she lived, in great retirement. To seize her husband at home, +therefore, might be no impossible task; though here, in the heart of +the village, a troop of horse might make the attempt, and fail. + +But how was I to gain admission to the house--a house guarded by +quick-witted women, and hedged in with all the precautions love could +devise? That was the question; and dawn found me still debating it, +still as far as ever from an answer. With the first light I was glad +to get up. I thought that the fresh air might inspire me, and I was +tired, besides, of my stuffy closet. I crept stealthily down the +ladder, and managed to pass unseen through the lower room, in which +several persons were snoring heavily. The outer door was not fastened, +and in a hand-turn I stood in the street. + +It was still so early that the trees stood up black against the +reddening sky, but the bough upon the post before the door was growing +green, and in a few minutes the grey light would be everywhere. +Already even in the road way there was a glimmering of it; and as +I stood at the corner of the house--where I could command both the +front and the side on which the stable opened--looking greedily for +any trace of the midnight departure, my eyes detected something +light-coloured lying on the ground. It was not more than two or +three paces from me, and I stepped to it and picked it up curiously, +hoping it might be a note. It was not a note, however, but a tiny +orange-coloured sachet, such as women carry in the bosom. It was full +of some faintly scented powder, and bore on one side the initial "E," +worked in white silk; and was altogether a dainty little toy, such as +women love. + +Doubtless Madame de Cocheforet had dropped it in the night. I turned +it over and over; and then I put it away with a smile, thinking it +might be useful some time, and in some way. I had scarcely done this, +and turned with the intention of exploring the street, when the door +behind me creaked on its leather hinges, and in a moment my host stood +at my elbow. + +Evidently his suspicions were again aroused, for from that time he +managed to be with me, on one pretence or another, until noon. +Moreover, his manner grew each moment more churlish, his hints +plainer; until I could scarcely avoid noticing the one or the other. +About midday, having followed me for the twentieth time into the +street, he came at last to the point, by asking me rudely if I did not +need my horse. + +"No," I said. "Why do you ask?" + +"Because," he answered, with an ugly smile, "this is not a very +healthy place for strangers." + +"Ah!" I retorted. "But the border air suits me, you see." + +It was a lucky answer; for, taken with my talk of the night before, it +puzzled him, by again suggesting that I was on the losing side, and +had my reasons for lying near Spain. Before he had done scratching his +head over it, the clatter of hoofs broke the sleepy quiet of the +village street, and the lady I had seen the night before rode quickly +round the corner, and drew her horse on to its haunches. Without +looking at me, she called to the innkeeper to come to her stirrup. + +He went. The moment his back was turned, I slipped away, and in a +twinkling was hidden by a house. Two or three glum-looking fellows +stared at me as I passed, but no one moved; and in two minutes I was +clear of the village, and in a half-worn track which ran through the +wood, and led--if my ideas were right--to the Chateau. To discover the +house and learn all that was to be learned about its situation was my +most pressing need: even at the risk of a knife-thrust, I was +determined to satisfy it. + +I had not gone two hundred paces along the path before I heard the +tread of a horse behind me, and I had just time to hide myself before +Madame came up and rode by me, sitting her horse gracefully, and with +all the courage of a northern woman. I watched her pass, and then, +assured by her presence that I was in the right road, I hurried after +her. Two minutes' walking at speed brought me to a light wooden bridge +spanning a stream. I crossed this, and, the wood opening, saw before +me first a wide, pleasant meadow, and beyond this a terrace. On the +terrace, pressed upon on three sides by thick woods, stood a grey +mansion, with the corner tourelles, steep, high roofs, and round +balconies that men loved and built in the days of the first Francis. + +It was of good size, but wore, I fancied, a gloomy aspect. A great yew +hedge, which seemed to enclose a walk or bowling-green, hid the ground +floor of the east wing from view, while a formal rose garden, stiff +even in neglect, lay in front of the main building. The west wing, +whose lower roofs fell gradually away to the woods, probably contained +the stables and granaries. + +I stood a moment only, but I marked all, and noted how the road +reached the house, and which windows were open to attack; then I +turned and hastened back. Fortunately, I met no one between the house +and the village, and was able to enter the inn with an air of the most +complete innocence. + +Short as had been my absence, I found things altered there. Round the +door loitered and chattered three strangers--stout, well-armed +fellows, whose bearing suggested a curious mixture of smugness and +independence. Half-a-dozen pack-horses stood tethered to the post in +front of the house; and the landlord's manner, from being rude and +churlish only, had grown perplexed and almost timid. One of the +strangers, I soon found, supplied him with wine; the others were +travelling merchants, who rode in the first one's company for the sake +of safety. All were substantial men from Tarbes--solid burgesses; and +I was not long in guessing that my host, fearing what might leak out +before them, and particularly that I might refer to the previous +night's disturbance, was on tenterhooks while they remained. + +For a time this did not suggest anything to me. But when we had all +taken our seats for supper there came an addition to the party. The +door opened, and the fellow whom I had seen the night before with +Madame de Cocheforet entered, and took a stool by the fire. I felt +sure that he was one of the servants at the Chateau; and in a flash +his presence inspired me with the most feasible plan for obtaining +admission which I had yet hit upon. I felt myself growing hot at the +thought--it seemed so full of promise and of danger--and on the +instant, without giving myself time to think too much, I began to +carry it into effect. + +I called for two or three bottles of better wine, and, assuming a +jovial air, passed it round the table. When we had drunk a few +glasses, I fell to talking, and, choosing politics, took the side of +the Languedoc party and the malcontents, in so reckless a fashion that +the innkeeper was beside himself at my imprudence. The merchants, who +belonged to the class with whom the Cardinal was always most popular, +looked first astonished and then enraged. But I was not to be checked. +Hints and sour looks were lost upon me. I grew more outspoken with +every glass, I drank to the Rochellois, I swore it would not be long +before they raised their heads again; and at last, while the innkeeper +and his wife were engaged lighting the lamp, I passed round the bottle +and called on all for a toast. + +"I'll give you one to begin," I bragged noisily. "A gentleman's toast! +A southern toast! Here is confusion to the Cardinal, and a health to +all who hate him!" + +"Mon Dieu!" one of the strangers cried, springing from his seat in a +rage. "I am not going to stomach that! Is your house a common +treason-hole," he continued, turning furiously on the landlord, "that +you suffer this?" + +"Hoity-toity!" I answered, coolly keeping my seat. "What is all this? +Don't you relish my toast, little man?" + +"No--nor you!" he retorted hotly, "whoever you may be!" + +"Then I will give you another," I answered, with a hiccough. "Perhaps +it will be more to your taste. Here is the Duke of Orleans, and may he +soon be King!" + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + THE HOUSE IN THE WOOD. + + +MY words fairly startled the three men out of their anger. For a +moment they glared at me as if they had seen a ghost. Then the +wine-merchant clapped his hand on the table. "That is enough!" he +said, with a look at his companions. "I think there can be no mistake +about that. As damnable treason as ever I heard whispered! I +congratulate you, Sir, on your boldness. As for you," he continued, +turning with an ugly sneer to the landlord, "I shall know now the +company you keep! I was not aware that my wine wet whistles to such a +tune!" + +But if he was startled, the innkeeper was furious, seeing his +character thus taken away; and, being at no time a man of many words, +he vented his rage exactly in the way I wished. In a twinkling he +raised such an uproar as can scarcely be conceived. With a roar like a +bull's he ran headlong at the table, and overturned it on the top of +me. The woman saved the lamp and fled with it into a corner, whence +she and the man from the Chateau watched the skirmish in silence; but +the pewter cups and platters flew spinning across the floor, while the +table pinned me to the ground among the ruins of my stool. Having me +at this disadvantage--for at first I made no resistance--the landlord +began to belabour me with the first thing he snatched up, and when I +tried to defend myself cursed me with each blow for a treacherous +rogue and a vagrant. Meanwhile, the three merchants, delighted with +the turn things had taken, skipped round us laughing; and now hounded +him on, now bantered me with "How is that for the Duke of Orleans?" +and "How now, traitor?" + +When I thought this had lasted long enough--or, to speak more plainly, +when I could stand the innkeeper's drubbing no longer--I threw him off +by a great effort, and struggled to my feet. But still, though the +blood was trickling down my face, I refrained from drawing my sword. I +caught up instead a leg of the stool which lay handy, and, watching my +opportunity, dealt the landlord a shrewd blow under the ear, which +laid him out in a moment on the wreck of his own table. + +"Now!" I cried, brandishing my new weapon, which fitted the hand to a +nicety, "come on! Come on, if you dare to strike a blow, you peddling, +truckling, huckstering knaves! A fig for you and your shaveling +Cardinal!" + +The red-faced wine-merchant drew his sword in a one-two. "Why, you +drunken fool," he said wrathfully, "put that stick down, or I will +spit you like a lark!" + +"Lark in your teeth!" I cried, staggering as if the wine were in my +head. "Another word, and I--" + +He made a couple of savage passes at me, but in a twinkling his sword +flew across the room. + +"_Voila!_" I shouted, lurching forward, as if I had luck and not skill +to thank for it. "Now the next! Come on, come on--you white-livered +knaves!" And, pretending a drunken frenzy, I flung my weapon bodily +amongst them, and seizing the nearest, began to wrestle with him. + +In a moment they all threw themselves upon me, and, swearing +copiously, bore me back to the door. The wine-merchant cried +breathlessly to the woman to open it, and in a twinkling they had me +through it and half way across the road. The one thing I feared was a +knife-thrust in the melee; but I had to run that risk, and the men +were honest enough and, thinking me drunk, indulgent. In a trice I +found myself on my back in the dirt, with my head humming; and heard +the bars of the door fall noisily into their places. + +I got up and went to the door, and, to play out my part, hammered on +it frantically, crying out to them to let me in. But the three +travellers only jeered at me, and the landlord, coming to the window, +with his head bleeding, shook his fist at me and cursed me for a +mischief-maker. + +Baffled in this I retired to a log which lay in the road a few paces +from the house, and sat down on it to await events. With torn clothes +and bleeding face, hatless and covered with dirt, I was in scarcely +better case than my opponent. It was raining, too, and the dripping +branches swayed over my head. The wind was in the south--the coldest +quarter. I began to feel chilled and dispirited. If my scheme failed, +I had forfeited roof and bed to no purpose, and placed future progress +out of the question. It was a critical moment. + +But at last that happened for which I had been looking. The door swung +open a few inches, and a man came noiselessly out; the door was +quickly barred behind him. He stood a moment, waiting on the threshold +and peering into the gloom; and seemed to expect to be attacked. +Finding himself unmolested, however, and all quiet, he went off +steadily down the street--towards the Chateau. + +I let a couple of minutes go by and then I followed. I had no +difficulty in hitting on the track at the end of the street, but when +I had once plunged into the wood, I found myself in darkness so +intense that I soon strayed from the path, and fell over roots, and +tore my clothes with thorns, and lost my temper twenty times before I +found the path again. However, I gained the bridge at last, and caught +sight of a light twinkling before me. To make for it across the meadow +and terrace was an easy task; yet when I had reached the door and had +hammered upon it, I was in so sorry a plight that I sank down, and had +no need to play a part or pretend to be worse than I was. + +For a long time no one answered. The dark house towering above me +remained silent. I could hear, mingled with the throbbings of my +heart, the steady croaking of the frogs in a pond near the stables; +but no other sound. In a frenzy of impatience and disgust I stood up +again and hammered, kicking with my heels on the nail-studded door, +and crying out desperately, "_A moi_! _A moi!_" + +Then, or a moment later, I heard a remote door opened; footsteps as of +more than one person drew near. I raised my voice and cried again, "_A +moi!_" + +"Who is there?" a voice asked. + +"A gentleman in distress," I answered piteously, moving my hands +across the door. "For God's sake open and let me in. I am hurt, and +dying of cold." + +"What brings you here?" the voice asked sharply. Despite its tartness, +I fancied it was a woman's. + +"Heaven knows!" I answered desperately. "I cannot tell. They +maltreated me at the inn, and threw me into the street. I crawled +away, and have been wandering in the wood for hours. Then I saw a +light here." + +Thereon, some muttering took place on the other side of the door, to +which I had my ear. It ended in the bars being lowered. The door swung +partly open and a light shone out, dazzling me. I tried to shade my +eyes with my fingers, and as I did so fancied I heard a murmur of +pity. But when I looked in under screen of my hand I saw only one +person--the man who held the light, and his aspect was so strange, so +terrifying, that, shaken as I was by fatigue, I recoiled a step. + +He was a tall and very thin man, meanly dressed in a short scanty +jacket and well-darned hose. Unable, for some reason, to bend his +neck, he carried his head with a strange stiffness. + +And that head! Never did living man show a face so like death. His +forehead was bald and white, his cheek-bones stood out under the +strained skin, all the lower part of his face fell in, his jaws +receded, his cheeks were hollow, his lips and chin were thin and +fleshless. He seemed to have only one expression--a fixed grin. + +While I stood looking at this formidable creature he made a quick +motion to shut the door again, smiling more widely. I had the presence +of mind to thrust in my foot, and, before he could resent the act, a +voice in the background cried: "For shame, Clon! Stand back. Stand +back, do you hear? I am afraid, Monsieur, that you are hurt." + +The last words were my welcome to that house; and, spoken at an hour +and in circumstances so gloomy, they made a lasting impression. Round +the hall ran a gallery, and this, the height of the apartment, and the +dark panelling seemed to swallow up the light. I stood within the +entrance (as it seemed to me) of a huge cave; the skull-headed porter +had the air of an ogre. Only the voice which greeted me dispelled the +illusion. I turned trembling towards the quarter whence it came, and, +shading my eyes, made out a woman's form standing in a doorway under +the gallery. A second figure, which I took to be that of the servant I +had seen at the inn, loomed uncertainly beside her. + +I bowed in silence. My teeth were chattering I was faint without +feigning, and felt a kind of terror, hard to explain, at the sound of +this woman's voice. + +"One of our people has told me about you," she continued, speaking out +of the darkness. "I am sorry that this has happened to you here, but I +am afraid that you were indiscreet." + +"I take all the blame, Madame," I answered humbly. "I ask only shelter +for the night." + +"The time has not yet come when we cannot give our friends that!" she +answered, with noble courtesy. "When it does, Monsieur, we shall be +homeless ourselves." + +I shivered, looking anywhere but at her; for I had not sufficiently +pictured this scene of my arrival--I had not foreseen its details; and +now I took part in it I felt a miserable meanness weigh me down. I had +never from the first liked the work! But, I had had no choice. And I +had no choice now. Luckily, the guise in which I came, my fatigue, and +wound were a sufficient mark, or I should have incurred suspicion at +once. For I am sure that if ever in this world a brave man wore a +hang-dog air, or Gil de Berault fell below himself, it was then and +there--on Madame de Cocheforet's threshold, with her welcome sounding +in my ears. + +One, I think, did suspect me. Clon, the porter, continued to hold the +door obstinately ajar and to eye me with grinning spite, until his +mistress, with some sharpness, bade him drop the bars, and conduct me +to a room. + +"Do you go also, Louis," she continued, speaking to the man beside +her, "and see this gentleman comfortably disposed. I am sorry," she +added, addressing me in the graceful tone she had before used, and I +thought I could see her head bend in the darkness, "that our present +circumstances do not permit us to welcome you more fitly, Monsieur. +But the troubles of the times--however, you will excuse what is +lacking. Until to-morrow, I have the honour to bid you goodnight." + +"Good-night, Madame," I stammered, trembling. I had not been able to +distinguish her face in the gloom of the doorway, but her voice, her +greeting, her presence, unmanned me. I was troubled and perplexed; I +had not spirit to kick a dog. I followed the two servants from the +hall without heeding how we went; nor was it until we came to a full +stop at a door in a whitewashed corridor, and it was forced upon me +that something was in question between my two conductors, that I began +to take notice. + +Then I saw that one of them, Louis, wished to lodge me here where we +stood. The porter, on the other hand, who held the keys, would not. He +did not speak a word, nor did the other--and this gave a queer ominous +character to the debate; but he continued to jerk his head towards the +farther end of the corridor, and, at last, he carried his point. Louis +shrugged his shoulders, and moved on, glancing askance at me; and I, +not understanding the matter in debate, followed the pair in silence. + +We reached the end of the corridor, and there, for an instant, the +monster with the keys paused and grinned at me. Then he turned into a +narrow passage on the left, and after following it for some paces, +halted before a small, strong door. His key jarred in the lock, but he +forced it shrieking round, and with a savage flourish threw the door +open. + +I walked in and saw a mean, bare chamber with barred windows. The +floor was indifferently clean, there was no furniture. The yellow +light of the lanthorn falling on the stained walls gave the place the +look of a dungeon. I turned to the two men. "This is not a very good +room," I said. "And it feels damp. Have you no other?" + +Louis looked doubtfully at his companion. But the porter shook his +head stubbornly. + +"Why does he not speak?" I asked with impatience. + +"He is dumb," Louis answered. + +"Dumb!" I exclaimed. "But he hears." + +"He has ears," the servant answered drily. "But he has no tongue, +Monsieur." + +I shuddered. "How did he lose it?" I asked. + +"At Rochelle. He was a spy, and the King's people took him the day the +town surrendered. They spared his life, but cut out his tongue." + +"Ah!" I said. I wished to say more, to be natural, to show myself at +my ease. But the porter's eyes seemed to burn into me, and my own +tongue clove to the roof of my mouth. He opened his lips and pointed +to his throat with a horrid gesture, and I shook my head and turned +from him-- "You can let me have some bedding?" I murmured hastily, for +the sake of saying something, and to escape. + +"Of course, Monsieur," Louis answered. "I will fetch some." + +He went away, thinking doubtless that Clon would stay with me. But +after waiting a minute the porter strode off also with the lanthorn, +leaving me to stand in the middle of the damp, dark room, and reflect +on the position. It was plain that Clon suspected me. This prison-like +room, with its barred window at the back of the house, and in the wing +farthest from the stables, proved so much. Clearly, he was a dangerous +fellow, of whom I must beware. I had just begun to wonder how Madame +could keep such a monster in her house, when I heard his step +returning. He came in, lighting Louis, who carried a small pallet and +a bundle of coverings. + +The dumb man had, besides the lanthorn, a bowl of water and a piece of +rag in his hand. He set them down, and going out again, fetched in a +stool. Then he hung up the lanthorn on a nail, took the bowl and rag, +and invited me to sit down. + +I was loth to let him touch me; but he continued to stand over me, +pointing and grinning with dark persistence, and, rather than stand on +a trifle, I sat down at last, and gave him his way. He bathed my head +carefully enough, and I dare say did it good; but I understood. I knew +that his only desire was to learn whether the cut was real or a +pretence. I began to fear him more and more, and, until he was gone +from the room, dared scarcely lift my face, lest he should read too +much in it. + +Alone, even, I felt uncomfortable. This seemed so sinister a business, +and so ill begun. I was in the house. But Madame's frank voice haunted +me, and the dumb man's eyes, full of suspicion and menace. When I +presently got up and tried my door, I found it locked. The room +smelled dank and close--like a vault. I could not see through the +barred window; but I could hear the boughs sweep it in ghostly +fashion; and I guessed that it looked out where the wood grew close to +the walls of the house; and that even in the day the sun never peeped +through it. + +Nevertheless, tired and worn out, I slept at last. When I awoke the +room was full of grey light, the door stood open, and Louis, looking +ashamed of himself, waited by my pallet with a cup of wine in his +hand, and some bread and fruit on a platter. + +"Will Monsieur be good enough to rise?" he said. "It is eight +o'clock." + +"Willingly," I answered tartly. "Now that the door is unlocked." + +He turned red. "It was an oversight," he stammered. "Clon is +accustomed to lock the door, and he did it inadvertently, forgetting +that there was any one--" + +"Inside!" I said drily. + +"Precisely, Monsieur." + +"Ah!" I replied. "Well, I do not think the oversight would please +Madame de Cocheforet, if she heard of it?" + +"If Monsieur would have the kindness not to--" + +"Mention it, my good fellow?" I answered, looking at him with meaning, +as I rose. "No; but it must not occur again." + +I saw that this man was not like Clon. He had the instincts of the +family servant, and freed from the influences of darkness, felt +ashamed of his conduct. While he arranged my clothes, he looked round +the room with an air of distaste, and muttered once or twice that the +furniture of the principal chambers was packed away. + +"M. de Cocheforet is abroad, I think?" I said, as I dressed. + +"And likely to remain there," the man answered carelessly, shrugging +his shoulders. "Monsieur will doubtless have heard that he is in +trouble. In the meantime, the house is triste, and Monsieur must +overlook much, if he stays. Madame lives retired, and the roads are +ill-made and visitors few." + +"When the lion was ill the jackals left him," I said. + +Louis nodded. "It is true," he answered simply. He made no boast or +brag on his own account, I noticed; and it came home to me that he was +a faithful fellow, such as I love. I questioned him discreetly, and +learned that he and Clon and an older man who lived over the stables +were the only male servants left of a great household. Madame, her +sister-in-law, and three women completed the family. + +It took me some time to repair my wardrobe, so that I dare say it was +nearly ten when I left my dismal little room. I found Louis waiting in +the corridor, and he told me that Madame de Cocheforet and +Mademoiselle were in the rose-garden, and would be pleased to receive +me. I nodded, and he guided me through several dim passages to a +parlour with an open door, through which the sun shone in gaily. +Cheered by the morning air and this sudden change to pleasantness and +life, I stepped lightly out. + +The two ladies were walking up and down a wide path which bisected the +garden. The weeds grew rankly in the gravel underfoot, the rose-bushes +which bordered the walk thrust their branches here and there in +untrained freedom, a dark yew hedge which formed the background +bristled with rough shoots and sadly needed trimming. But I did not +see any of these things then. The grace, the noble air, the +distinction of the two women who paced slowly to meet me--and who +shared all these qualities greatly as they differed in others--left me +no power to notice trifles. + +Mademoiselle was a head shorter than her _belle s[oe]ur_--a slender +woman and petite, with a beautiful face and a fair complexion. She +walked with dignity, but beside Madame's stately figure she seemed +almost childish. And it was characteristic of the two that +Mademoiselle as they drew near to me regarded me with sorrowful +attention, Madame with a grave smile. + +I bowed low. They returned the salute. "This is my sister," Madame de +Cocheforet said, with a slight, a very slight air of condescension. +"Will you please to tell me your name, Monsieur?" + +"I am M. de Barthe, a gentleman of Normandy," I said, taking the name +of my mother. My own, by a possibility, might be known. + +Madame's face wore a puzzled look. "I do not know your name, I think," +she said thoughtfully. Doubtless she was going over in her mind all +the names with which conspiracy had made her familiar. + +"That is my misfortune, Madame," I said humbly. + +"Nevertheless I am going to scold you," she rejoined, still eyeing me +with some keenness. "I am glad to see that you are none the worse for +your adventure--but others may be. And you should have borne that in +mind." + +"I do not think that I hurt the man seriously," I stammered. + +"I do not refer to that," she answered coldly. "You know, or should +know, that we are in disgrace here; that the Government regards us +already with an evil eye, and that a very small thing would lead them +to garrison the village and perhaps oust us from the little the wars +have left us. You should have known this and considered it," she +continued. "Whereas--I do not say that you are a braggart, M. de +Barthe. But on this one occasion you seem to have played the part of +one." + +"Madame, I did not think," I stammered. + +"Want of thought causes much evil," she answered, smiling. "However, I +have spoken, and we trust that while you stay with us you will be more +careful. For the rest, Monsieur," she continued graciously, raising +her hand to prevent me speaking, "we do not know why you are here, or +what plans you are pursuing. And we do not wish to know. It is enough +that you are of our side. This house is at your service as long as you +please to use it. And if we can aid you in any other way we will do +so." + +"Madame!" I exclaimed; and there I stopped. I could not say any more. +The rose-garden, with its air of neglect, the shadow of the quiet +house that fell across it, the great yew hedge which backed it, and +was the pattern of one under which I had played in childhood--all had +points that pricked me. But the women's kindness, their unquestioning +confidence, the noble air of hospitality which moved them! Against +these and their placid beauty in its peaceful frame I had no shield. I +turned away, and feigned to be overcome by gratitude. "I have no +words--to thank you!" I muttered presently. "I am a little shaken this +morning. I--pardon me." + +"We will leave you for a while," Mademoiselle de Cocheforet said, in +gentle, pitying tones. "The air will revive you. Louis shall call you +when we go to dinner, M. de Barthe. Come, Elise." + +I bowed low to hide my face, and they nodded pleasantly--not looking +closely at me--as they walked by me to the house. I watched the two +gracious, pale-robed figures until the doorway swallowed them, and +then I walked away to a quiet corner where the shrubs grew highest and +the yew hedge threw its deepest shadow, and I stood to think. + +They were strange thoughts, I remember. If the oak can think at the +moment the wind uproots it, or the gnarled thorn-bush when the +landslip tears it from the slope, they may have such thoughts. I +stared at the leaves, at the rotting blossoms, into the dark cavities +of the hedge; I stared mechanically, dazed and wondering. What was the +purpose for which I was here? What was the work I had come to do? +Above all, how--my God! how was I to do it in the face of these +helpless women, who trusted me--who opened their house to me? Clon had +not frightened me, nor the loneliness of the leagued village, nor the +remoteness of this corner where the dread Cardinal seemed a name, and +the King's writ ran slowly, and the rebellion, long quenched +elsewhere, still smouldered. But Madame's pure faith, the younger +woman's tenderness--how was I to face these? + +I cursed the Cardinal, I cursed the English fool who had brought me to +this, I cursed the years of plenty and scarceness and the Quartier +Marais, and Zaton's, where I had lived like a pig, and-- + +A touch fell on my arm. I turned. It was Clon. How he had stolen up so +quietly, how long he had been at my elbow, I could not tell. But his +eyes gleamed spitefully in their deep sockets, and he laughed with his +fleshless lips; and I hated him. In the daylight the man looked more +like a death's-head than ever. I fancied I read in his face that he +knew my secret, and I flashed into rage at sight of him. + +"What is it?" I cried, with another oath. "Don't lay your corpse-claws +on me!" + +He mowed at me, and, bowing with ironical politeness, pointed to the +house. "Is Madame served?" I said impatiently, crushing down my anger. +"Is that what you mean, fool?" + +He nodded. + +"Very well," I retorted. "I can find my way, then. You may go!" + +He fell behind, and I strode back through the sunshine and flowers, +and along the grass-grown paths, to the door by which I had come. I +walked fast, but his shadow kept pace with me, driving out the strange +thoughts in which I had been indulging. Slowly but surely it darkened +my mood. After all, this was a little, little place; the people who +lived here--I shrugged my shoulders. France, power, pleasure, life lay +yonder in the great city. A boy might wreck himself here for a fancy; +a man of the world, never. When I entered the room, where the two +ladies stood waiting for me by the table, I was myself again. + +"Clon made you understand, then?" the younger woman said kindly. + +"Yes, Mademoiselle," I answered. On which I saw the two smile at one +another, and I added: "He is a strange creature. I wonder you can bear +to have him near you." + +"Poor man! You do not know his story?" Madame said. + +"I have heard something of it," I answered. "Louis told me." + +"Well, I do shudder at him, sometimes," she replied, in a low voice. +"He has suffered--and horribly, and for us. But I wish it had been on +any other service. Spies are necessary things, but one does not wish +to have to do with them! Anything in the nature of treachery is so +horrible." + +"Quick, Louis! the cognac, if you have any there!" Mademoiselle +exclaimed. "I am sure you are--still feeling ill, Monsieur." + +"No, I thank you," I muttered hoarsely, making an effort to recover +myself. "I am quite well. It was an old wound that sometimes touches +me." + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + MADAME AND MADEMOISELLE. + + +To be frank, however, it was not the old wound that touched me so +nearly, but Madame's words; which, finishing what Clon's sudden +appearance in the garden had begun, went a long way towards hardening +me and throwing me back into myself. I saw with bitterness--what I had +perhaps forgotten for a moment--how great was the chasm which +separated me from these women; how impossible it was we could long +think alike; how far apart in views, in experience, in aims we were. +And while I made a mock in my heart of their high-flown sentiments--or +thought I did--I laughed no less at the folly which had led me to +dream, even for a moment, that I could, at my age, go back--go back +and risk all for a whim, a scruple, the fancy of a lonely hour. + +I dare say something of this showed in my face: for Madame's eyes +mirrored a dim reflection of trouble as she looked at me, and +Mademoiselle ate nervously and at random. At any rate, I fancied so, +and I hastened to compose myself; and the two, in pressing upon me the +simple dainties of the table, soon forgot, or appeared to forget, the +incident. + +Yet in spite of this _contretemps_, that first meal had a strange +charm for me. The round table whereat we dined was spread inside the +open door which led to the garden, so that the October sunshine fell +full on the spotless linen and quaint old plate, and the fresh balmy +air filled the room with the scent of sweet herbs. Louis served us +with the mien of major-domo, and set on each dish as though it had +been a peacock or a mess of ortolans. The woods provided the larger +portion of our meal; the garden did its part; the confections +Mademoiselle had cooked with her own hand. + +By-and-bye, as the meal went on, as Louis trod to and fro across the +polished floor, and the last insects of summer hummed sleepily +outside, and the two gracious faces continued to smile at me out of +the gloom--for the ladies sat with their backs to the door--I began to +dream again. I began to sink again into folly--that was half pleasure, +half pain. The fury of the gaming-house and the riot of Zaton's seemed +far away. The triumphs of the fencing-room--even they grew cheap and +tawdry. I thought of existence as one outside it. I balanced this +against that, and wondered whether, after all, the red soutane were so +much better than the homely jerkin, or the fame of a day than ease and +safety. + +And life at Cocheforet was all after the pattern of this dinner. Each +day, I might almost say each meal, gave rise to the same sequence of +thoughts. In Clon's presence, or when some word of Madame's, +unconsciously harsh, reminded me of the distance between us, I was +myself. At other times, in face of this peaceful and intimate life, +which was only rendered possible by the remoteness of the place and +the peculiar circumstances in which the ladies stood, I felt a strange +weakness. The loneliness of the woods that encircled the house, and +here and there afforded a distant glimpse of snow-clad peaks; the +absence of any link to bind me to the old life, so that at intervals +it seemed unreal; the remoteness of the great world, all tended to sap +my will and weaken the purpose which had brought me to this place. + +On the fourth day after my coming, however, something happened to +break the spell. It chanced that I came late to dinner, and entered +the room hastily and without ceremony, expecting to find Madame and +her sister already seated. Instead, I found them talking in a low tone +by the open door, with every mark of disorder in their appearance; +while Clon and Louis stood at a little distance with downcast faces +and perplexed looks. + +I had tune to see all this, and then my entrance wrought a sudden +change. Clon and Louis sprang to attention; Madame and her sister came +to the table and sat down, and made a shallow pretence of being at +their ease. But Mademoiselle's face was pale, her hand trembled; and +though Madame's greater self-command enabled her to carry off the +matter better, I saw that she was not herself. Once or twice she spoke +harshly to Louis; she fell at other times into a brown study; and when +she thought I was not watching her, her face wore a look of deep +anxiety. + +I wondered what all this meant; and I wondered more when, after the +meal, the two walked in the garden for an hour with Clon. Mademoiselle +came from this interview alone, and I was sure that she had been +weeping. Madame and the dark porter stayed outside some time longer; +then she, too, came in, and disappeared. + +Clon did not return with her, and when I went into the garden five +minutes later Louis also had vanished. Save for two women who sat +sewing at an upper window, the house seemed to be deserted. Not a +sound broke the afternoon stillness of room or garden, and yet I felt +that more was happening in this silence than appeared on the surface. +I began to grow curious--suspicious; and presently slipped out myself +by way of the stables, and, skirting the wood at the back of the +house, gained with a little trouble the bridge which crossed the +stream and led to the village. + +Turning round at this point, I could see the house, and I moved a +little aside into the underwood, and stood gazing at the windows, +trying to unriddle the matter. It was not likely that M. de Cocheforet +would repeat his visit so soon; and, besides, the women's emotions had +been those of pure dismay and grief, unmixed with any of the +satisfaction to which such a meeting, though snatched by stealth, +would give rise. I discarded my first thought, therefore--that he had +returned unexpectedly--and I sought for another solution. + +But none was on the instant forthcoming. The windows remained +obstinately blind, no figures appeared on the terrace, the garden lay +deserted, and without life. My departure had not, as I half expected +it would, drawn the secret into light. + +I watched a while, at times cursing my own meanness; but the +excitement of the moment and the quest tided me over that. Then I +determined to go down into the village and see whether anything was +moving there. I had been down to the inn once, and had been received +half sulkily, half courteously, as a person privileged at the great +house, and therefore to be accepted. It would not be thought odd if I +went again; and after a moment's thought, I started down the track. + +This, where it ran through the wood, was so densely shaded that the +sun penetrated to it little, and in patches only. A squirrel stirred +at times, sliding round a trunk, or scampering across the dry leaves. +Occasionally a pig grunted and moved farther into the wood. But the +place was very quiet, and I do not know how it was that I surprised +Clon instead of being surprised by him. + +He was walking along the path before me with his eyes on the +ground--walking so slowly, and with his lean frame so bent that I +might have supposed him ill if I had not remarked the steady movement +of his head from right to left, and the alert touch with which he now +and again displaced a clod of earth or a cluster of leaves. By-and-bye +he rose stiffly, and looked round him suspiciously; but by that time I +had slipped behind a trunk, and was not to be seen; and after a brief +interval he went back to his task, stooping over it more closely, if +possible, than before, and applying himself with even greater care. + +By that time I had made up my mind that he was tracking some one. But +whom? I could not make a guess at that. I only knew that the plot was +thickening, and began to feel the eagerness of the chase. Of course, +if the matter had not to do with Cocheforet, it was no affair of mine; +but though it seemed unlikely that anything could bring him back so +soon, he might still be at the bottom of this. And, besides, I felt a +natural curiosity. When Clon at last improved his pace, and went on to +the village, I took up his task. I called to mind all the wood-lore I +had ever known, and scanned trodden mould and crushed leaves with +eager eyes. But in vain. I could make nothing of it at all, and rose +at last with an aching back and no advantage. + +I did not go on to the village after that, but returned to the house, +where I found Madame pacing the garden. She looked up eagerly on +hearing my step; and I was mistaken if she was not disappointed--if +she had not been expecting some one else. She hid the feeling bravely, +however, and met me with a careless word; but she turned to the house +more than once while we talked, and she seemed to be all the while on +the watch, and uneasy. I was not surprised when Clon's figure +presently appeared in the doorway, and she left me abruptly, and went +to him. I only felt more certain than before that there was something +strange on foot. What it was, and whether it had to do with M. de +Cocheforet, I could not tell. But there it was, and I grew more +curious the longer I remained alone. + +She came back to me presently, looking thoughtful and a trifle +downcast. "That was Clon, was it not?" I said, studying her face. + +"Yes," she answered. She spoke absently, and did not look at me. + +"How does he talk to you?" I asked, speaking a trifle curtly. + +As I intended, my tone roused her. "By signs," she said. + +"Is he--is he not a little mad?" I ventured. I wanted to make her talk +and forget herself. + +She looked at me with sudden keenness, then dropped her eyes. + +"You do not like him?" she said, a note of challenge in her voice. "I +have noticed that, Monsieur." + +"I think he does not like me," I replied. + +"He is less trustful than we are," she answered naively. "It is +natural that he should be. He has seen more of the world." + +That silenced me for a moment, but she did not seem to notice it. "I +was looking for him a little while ago, and I could not find him," I +said, after a pause. + +"He has been into the village," she answered. + +I longed to pursue the matter farther; but though she seemed to +entertain no suspicion of me, I dared not run the risk. I tried her, +instead, on another tack. "Mademoiselle de Cocheforet does not seem +very well to-day?" I said. + +"No?" she answered carelessly. "Well, now you speak of it, I do not +think she is. She is often anxious about--my husband." + +She uttered the last two words with a little hesitation, and looked at +me quickly when she had spoken them. We were sitting at the moment on +a stone seat which had the wall of the house for a back; and, +fortunately, I was toying with the branch of a creeping plant that +hung over it, so that she could not see more than the side of my face. +For I knew that it altered. Over my voice, however, I had more +control, and I hastened to answer, "Yes, I suppose so," as innocently +as possible. + +"He is at Bosost--in Spain. You knew that, I conclude?" she said, with +a certain sharpness. And she looked me in the face again very +directly. + +"Yes," I answered, beginning to tremble. + +"I suppose you have heard, too, that he--that he sometimes crosses the +border?" she continued, in a low voice, but with a certain ring of +insistence in her tone. "Or, if you have not heard it, you guess it?" + +I was in a quandary, and grew, in one second, hot all over. Uncertain +what amount of knowledge I ought to admit, I took refuge in gallantry. +"I should be surprised if he did not," I answered, with a bow, "being, +as he is, so close, and having such an inducement to return, Madame." + +She drew a long, shivering sigh--at the thought of his peril, I +fancied, and sat back against the wall. Nor did she say any more, +though I heard her sigh again. In a moment she rose. "The afternoons +are growing chilly," she said; "I will go in and see how Mademoiselle +is. Sometimes she does not come to supper. If she cannot descend this +evening, I am afraid you must excuse me too, Monsieur." + +I said what was right, and watched her go in; and, as I did so, I +loathed my errand, and the mean contemptible curiosity which it had +planted in my mind, more than at any former time. These women--I could +find it in my heart to hate them for their frankness, for their +foolish confidence, and the silly trustfulness that made them so easy +a prey! + +_Nom de Dieu!_ What did the woman mean by telling me all this? To meet +me in such a way, to disarm one by such methods, was to take an unfair +advantage. It put a vile--ay, the vilest--aspect, on the work I had to +do. + +Yet it was very odd! What could M. de Cocheforet mean by returning so +soon, if M. de Cocheforet was here? And, on the other hand, if it was +not his unexpected presence that had so upset the house, what was the +secret? Whom had Clon been tracking? And what was the cause of +Madame's anxiety? In a few minutes I began to grow curious again; and, +as the ladies did not appear at supper, I had leisure to give my brain +full license, and in the course of an hour thought of a hundred keys +to the mystery. But none exactly fitted the lock, or laid open the +secret. + +A false alarm that evening helped to puzzle me still more. I was +sitting, about an hour after supper, on the same seat in the garden--I +had my cloak and was smoking--when Madame came out like a ghost, and, +without seeing me, flitted away through the darkness toward the +stables. For a moment I hesitated, then I followed her. She went down +the path and round the stables, and so far I understood; but when she +had in this way gained the rear of the west wing, she took a track +through the thicket to the east of the house again, and so came back +to the garden. This gained, she came up the path and went in through +the parlour door, and disappeared--after making a clear circuit of the +house, and not once pausing or looking to right or left! I confess I +was fairly baffled. I sank back on the seat I had left, and said to +myself that this was the lamest of all conclusions. I was sure that +she had exchanged no word with any one. I was equally sure that she +had not detected my presence behind her. Why, then, had she made this +strange promenade, alone, unprotected, an hour after nightfall? No dog +had bayed, no one had moved, she had not once paused, or listened, +like a person expecting a rencontre. I could not make it out. And I +came no nearer to solving it, though I lay awake an hour beyond my +usual time. + +In the morning neither of the ladies descended to dinner, and I heard +that Mademoiselle was not so well. After a lonely meal, therefore--I +missed them more than I should have supposed--I retired to my +favourite seat, and fell to meditating. + +The day was fine, and the garden pleasant. Sitting there with my eyes +on the old-fashioned herb-beds, with the old-fashioned scents in the +air, and the dark belt of trees bounding the view on either side, I +could believe that I had been out of Paris not three weeks, but three +months. The quiet lapped me round. I could fancy that I had never +loved anything else. The wood-doves cooed in the stillness; +occasionally the harsh cry of a jay jarred the silence. It was an hour +after noon, and hot. I think I nodded. + +On a sudden, as if in a dream, I saw Clon's face peering at me round +the angle of the parlour door. He looked, and in a moment withdrew, +and I heard whispering. The door was gently closed. Then all was still +again. + +But I was wide awake now, and thinking hard. Clearly the people of the +house wished to assure themselves that I was asleep and safely out of +the way. As clearly, it was to my interest to know what was passing. +Giving way to the temptation, I rose quietly, and, stooping below the +level of the windows, slipped round the east end of the house, passing +between it and the great yew hedge. Here I found all still, and no +one stirring. So, keeping a wary eye about me, I went on round +the house--reversing the route which Madame had taken the night +before--until I gained the rear of the stables. Here I had scarcely +paused a second to scan the ground before two persons came out of the +stable-court They were Madame and the porter. + +They stood a brief while outside, and looked up and down. Then Madame +said something to the man, and he nodded. Leaving him standing where +he was, she crossed the grass with a quick, light step, and vanished +among the trees. + +In a moment my mind was made up to follow; and, as Clon turned at once +and went in, I was able to do so before it was too late. Bending low +among the shrubs, I ran hot-foot to the point where Madame had entered +the wood. Here I found a narrow path, and ran nimbly along it, and +presently saw her grey robe fluttering among the trees before me. It +only remained to keep out of her sight and give her no chance of +discovering that she was followed; and this I set myself to do. Once +or twice she glanced round, but the wood was of beech, the light which +passed between the leaves was mere twilight, and my clothes were +dark-coloured. I had every advantage, therefore, and little to fear as +long as I could keep her in view and still remain myself at such a +distance that the rustle of my tread would not disturb her. + +Assured that she was on her way to meet her husband, whom my presence +kept from the house, I felt that the crisis had come at last; and I +grew more excited with each step I took. True, I detested the task of +watching her: it filled me with peevish disgust. But in proportion as +I hated it I was eager to have it done and be done with it, and +succeed, and stuff my ears and begone from the scene. When she +presently came to the verge of the beech wood, and, entering a little +open clearing, seemed to loiter, I went cautiously. This, I thought, +must be the rendezvous; and I held back warily, looking to see him +step out of the thicket. + +But he did not, and by-and-bye she quickened her pace. She crossed the +open and entered a wide ride cut through a low, dense wood of alder +and dwarf oak--a wood so closely planted, and so intertwined with +hazel and elder and box that the branches rose like a solid wall, +twelve feet high, on either side of the track. + +Down this she passed, and I stood and watched her go; for I dared not +follow. The ride stretched away as straight as a line for four or five +hundred yards, a green path between green walls. To enter it was to be +immediately detected, if she turned; while the thicket itself +permitted no passage. I stood baffled and raging, and watched her pass +along. It seemed an age before she at last reached the end, and, +turning sharply to the right, was in an instant gone from sight. + +I waited then no longer. I started off, and, running as lightly and +quietly as I could, I sped down the green alley. The sun shone into +it, the trees kept off the wind, and between heat and haste, I sweated +finely. But the turf was soft, and the ground fell slightly, and in +little more than a minute I gained the end. Fifty yards short of the +turning I stayed myself, and, stealing on, looked cautiously the way +she had gone. + +I saw before me a second ride, the twin of the other, and a hundred +and fifty paces down it her grey figure tripping on between the green +hedges. I stood and took breath, and cursed the wood and the heat and +Madame's wariness. We must have come a league or two-thirds of a +league, at least. How far did the man expect her to plod to meet him? +I began to grow angry. There is moderation even in the cooking of +eggs, and this wood might stretch into Spain, for all I knew! + +Presently she turned the corner and was gone again, and I had to +repeat my man[oe]uvre. This time, surely, I should find a change. But +no! Another green ride stretched away into the depths of the forest, +with hedges of varying shades--here light and there dark, as hazel and +elder, or thorn, and yew and box prevailed--but always high and stiff +and impervious. Half-way down the ride Madame's figure tripped +steadily on, the only moving thing in sight. I wondered, stood, and, +when she vanished, followed--only to find that she had entered another +track, a little narrower, but in every other respect alike. + +And so it went on for quite half an hour. Sometimes Madame turned to +the right, sometimes to the left. The maze seemed to be endless. Once +or twice I wondered whether she had lost her way, and was merely +seeking to return. But her steady, purposeful gait, her measured pace, +forbade the idea. I noticed, too, that she seldom looked behind +her--rarely to right or left. Once the ride down which she passed was +carpeted not with green, but with the silvery, sheeny leaves of some +creeping plant that in the distance had a shimmer like that of water +at evening. As she trod this, with her face to the low sun, her tall +grey figure had a pure air that for the moment startled me--she looked +unearthly. Then I swore in scorn of myself, and at the next corner I +had my reward. She was no longer walking on. She had stopped, I found, +and seated herself on a fallen tree that lay in the ride. + +For some time I stood in ambush watching her, and with each minute I +grew more impatient. At last I began to doubt--to have strange +thoughts. The green walls were growing dark. The sun was sinking; a +sharp, white peak, miles and miles away, which closed the vista of the +ride began to flush and colour rosily. Finally, but not before I had +had leisure to grow uneasy, she stood up and walked on more slowly. I +waited, as usual, until the next turning hid her. Then I hastened +after her, and, warily passing round the corner--came face to face +with her! + +I knew all in a moment--that she had fooled me, tricked me, lured me +away. Her face was white with scorn, her eyes blazed; her figure, as +she confronted me, trembled with anger and infinite contempt. + +"You spy!" she cried. "You hound! You--gentleman! Oh, _mon Dieu!_ if +you are one of us--if you are really not _canaille_--we shall pay for +this some day! We shall pay a heavy reckoning in the time to come! I +did not think," she continued--her every syllable like the lash of a +whip--"that there was anything so vile as you in this world!" + +I stammered something--I do not know what. Her words burned into +me--into my heart! Had she been a man, I would have struck her dead! + +"You thought you deceived me yesterday," she continued, lowering her +tone, but with no lessening of the passion and contempt which curled +her lip and gave fulness to her voice. "You plotter! You surface +trickster! You thought it an easy task to delude a woman--you find +yourself deluded. God give you shame that you may suffer!" she +continued mercilessly. "You talked of Clon, but Clon beside you is the +most honourable of men!" + +"Madame," I said hoarsely--and I know my face was grey as ashes--"let +us understand one another." + +"God forbid!" she cried, on the instant. "I would not soil myself!" + +"Fie! Madame," I said, trembling. "But then, you are a woman. That +should cost a man his life!" + +She laughed bitterly. + +"You say well," she retorted. "I am not a man. Neither am I Madame. +Madame de Cocheforet has spent this afternoon--thanks to your absence +and your imbecility--with her husband. Yes, I hope that hurts you!" +she went on, savagely snapping her little white teeth together. "To +spy and do vile work, and do it ill, Monsieur Mouchard--Monsieur de +Mouchard, I should say--I congratulate you!" + +"You are not Madame de Cocheforet!" I cried, stunned--even in the +midst of my shame and rage--by this blow. + +"No, Monsieur!" she answered grimly. "I am not! And permit me to point +out--for we do not all lie easily--that I never said I was. You +deceived yourself so skilfully that we had no need to trick you." + +"Mademoiselle, then?" I muttered. + +"Is Madame!" she cried. "Yes, and I am Mademoiselle de Cocheforet. And +in that character, and in all others, I beg from this moment to close +our acquaintance, Sir. When we meet again--if we ever do meet--which +God forbid!" she cried, her eyes sparkling, "do not presume to speak +to me, or I will have you flogged by the grooms. And do not stain our +roof by sleeping under it again. You may lie to-night in the inn. It +shall not be said that Cocheforet," she continued proudly, "returned +even treachery with inhospitality; and I will give orders to that end. +To-morrow begone back to your master, like the whipped cur you are! +Spy and coward!" + +With the last fierce words she moved away. I would have said +something, I could almost have found it in my heart to stop her and +make her hear. Nay, I had dreadful thoughts; for I was the stronger, +and I might have done with her as I pleased. But she swept by me so +fearlessly--as I might pass some loathsome cripple in the road--that I +stood turned to stone. Without looking at me--without turning her head +to see whether I followed or remained, or what I did--she went +steadily down the track until the trees and the shadow and the growing +darkness hid her grey figure from me; and I found myself alone. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + REVENGE. + + +And full of black rage! Had she only reproached me, or, turning on me +in the hour of _my_ victory, said all she had now said in the moment +of her own, I could have borne it. She might have shamed me then, and +I might have taken the shame to myself, and forgiven her. But, as it +was, I stood there in the gathering dusk, between the darkening +hedges, baffled, tricked, defeated! And by a woman! She had pitted her +wits against mine, her woman's will against my experience, and she had +come off the victor. And then she had reviled me. As I took it all in, +and began to comprehend, also, the more remote results, and how +completely her move had made further progress on my part impossible, +I hated her. She had tricked me with her gracious ways and her +slow-coming smile. And, after all--for what she had said--it was this +man's life or mine. What had I done that another man would not do? +_Mon Dieu!_ In the future there was nothing I would not do. I would +make her smart for those words of hers! I would bring her to her +knees! + +Still, hot as I was, an hour might have restored me to coolness. But +when I started to return, I fell into a fresh rage, for I remembered +that I did not know my way out of the maze of rides and paths into +which she had drawn me; and this and the mishaps which followed kept +my rage hot. For a full hour I wandered in the wood, unable, though I +knew where the village lay, to find any track which led continuously +in one direction. Whenever, at the end of each attempt, the thicket +brought me up short, I fancied I heard her laughing on the farther +side of the brake; and the ignominy of this chance punishment, the +check which the confinement placed on my rage, almost maddened me. In +the darkness, I fell, and rose cursing; I tore my hands with thorns; I +stained my suit, which had suffered sadly once before. At length, when +I had almost resigned myself to lie in the wood, I caught sight of the +lights of the village, and trembling between haste and anger, pressed +towards them. In a few minutes I stood in the little street. + +The lights of the inn shone only fifty yards away; but before I could +show myself even there pride suggested that I should do something to +repair my clothes. I stopped, and scraped and brushed them; and, at +the same time, did what I could to compose my features. Then I +advanced to the door and knocked. Almost on the instant the landlord's +voice cried from the inside, "Enter, Monsieur!" + +I raised the latch and went in. The man was alone, squatting over the +fire, warming his hands A black pot simmered on the ashes: as I +entered, he raised the lid and peeped inside. Then he glanced over his +shoulder. + +"You expected me?" I said defiantly, walking to the hearth, and +setting one of my damp boots on the logs. + +"Yes," he answered, nodding curtly. "Your supper is just ready. I +thought you would be in about this time." + +He grinned as he spoke, and it was with difficulty I suppressed my +wrath "Mademoiselle de Cocheforet told you," I said, affecting +indifference, "where I was?" + +"Ay, Mademoiselle--or Madame," he replied, grinning afresh. + +So she had told him where she had left me, and how she had tricked me! +She had made me the village laughing-stock! My rage flashed out afresh +at the thought, and, at the sight of his mocking face, I raised my +fist. + +But he read the threat in my eyes, and was up in a moment, snarling, +with his hand on his knife. "Not again, Monsieur!" he cried, in his +vile _patois_, "My head is sore still. Raise your hand, and I will rip +you up as I would a pig!" + +"Sit down, fool," I said. "I am not going to harm you. Where is your +wife?" + +"About her business." + +"Which should be getting my supper," I retorted sharply. + +He rose sullenly, and, fetching a platter, poured the mess of broth +and vegetables into it. Then he went to a cupboard and brought out a +loaf of black bread and a measure of wine, and set them also on the +table. "You see it," he said laconically. + +"And a poor welcome!" I exclaimed. + +He flamed into sudden passion at that. Leaning with both his hands on +the table, he thrust his rugged face and blood-shot eyes close to +mine. His mustachios bristled; his beard trembled. "Hark ye, Sirrah!" +he muttered, with sullen emphasis--"be content! I have my suspicions. +And if it were not for my lady's orders I would put a knife into you, +fair or foul, this very night. You would lie snug outside, instead of +inside, and I do not think any one would be the worse. But, as it is, +be content. Keep a still tongue; and when you turn your back on +Cocheforet to-morrow keep it turned." + +"Tut! tut!" I said--but I confess I was a little out of countenance. +"Threatened men live long, you rascal!" + +"In Paris!" he answered significantly. "Not here, Monsieur." + +He straightened himself with that, nodded once, and went back to the +fire, and I shrugged my shoulders and began to eat, affecting to +forget his presence. The logs on the hearth burned sullenly, and gave +no light. The poor oil-lump, casting weird shadows from wall to wall, +served only to discover the darkness. The room, with its low roof and +earthen floor, and foul clothes flung here and there, reeked of stale +meals and garlic and vile cooking. I thought of the parlour at +Cocheforet, and the dainty table, and the stillness, and the scented +pot-herbs; and, though I was too old a soldier to eat the worse +because my spoon lacked washing, I felt the change, and laid it +savagely at Mademoiselle's door. + +The landlord, watching me stealthily from his place by the hearth, +read my thoughts, and chuckled aloud. "Palace fare, palace manners!" +he muttered scornfully. "Set a beggar on horseback, and he will +ride--back to the inn!" + +"Keep a civil tongue, will you!" I answered, scowling at him. + +"Have you finished?" he retorted. + +I rose, without deigning to reply, and, going to the fire, drew off my +boots, which were wet through. He, on the instant, swept off the wine +and loaf to the cupboard, and then, coming back for the platter I had +used, took it, opened the back door, and went out, leaving the door +ajar. The draught which came in beat the flame of the lamp this way +and that, and gave the dingy, gloomy room an air still more miserable. +I rose angrily from the fire, and went to the door, intending to close +it with a bang. + +But when I reached it, I saw something, between door and jamb, which +stayed my hand. The door led to a shed in which the housewife washed +pots and the like. I felt some surprise, therefore, when I found a +light there at this time of night; still more surprise when I saw what +she was doing. + +She was seated on the mud floor, with a rushlight before her, and on +either side of her a high-piled heap of refuse and rubbish. From one +of these, at the moment I caught sight of her, she was sorting +things--horrible, filthy sweepings of road or floor--to the other; +shaking and sifting each article as she passed it across, and then +taking up another and repeating the action with it, and so on: all +minutely, warily, with an air of so much patience and persistence that +I stood wondering. Some things--rags--she held up between her eyes and +the light, some she passed through her fingers, some she fairly tore +in pieces. And all the time her husband stood watching her greedily, +my platter still in his hand, as if her strange occupation fascinated +him. + +I stood looking, also, for half a minute, perhaps; then the man's eye, +raised for a single second to the doorway, met mine. He started, +muttered something to his wife, and, quick as thought, kicked the +light out, leaving the shed in darkness. Cursing him for an +ill-conditioned fellow, I walked back to the fire, laughing. In a +twinkling he followed me, his face dark with rage. + +"_Ventre saint gris!_" he exclaimed, thrusting it close to mine. "Is +not a man's house his own?" + +"It is, for me," I answered coolly, shrugging my shoulders. "And his +wife: if she likes to pick dirty rags at this hour, that is your +affair." + +"Pig of a spy!" he cried, foaming with rage. + +I was angry enough at bottom, but I had nothing to gain by quarrelling +with the fellow; and I curtly bade him remember himself. "Your +mistress gave you your orders," I said contemptuously. "Obey them!" + +He spat on the floor, but at the same time he grew calmer. "You are +right there," he answered spitefully. "What matter, after all, since +you leave to-morrow at six? Your horse has been sent down, and your +baggage is above." + +"I will go to it," I retorted. "I want none of your company. Give me a +light, fellow!" + +He obeyed reluctantly, and, glad to turn my back on him, I went up the +ladder, still wondering faintly, in the midst of my annoyance, what +his wife was about that my chance detection of her had so enraged him. +Even now he was not quite himself. He followed me with abuse, and, +deprived by my departure of any other means of showing his spite, fell +to shouting through the floor, bidding me remember six o'clock, and be +stirring; with other taunts, which did not cease until he had tired +himself out. + +The sight of my belongings--which I had left a few hours before at the +Chateau--strewn about the floor of this garret, went some way towards +firing me again. But I was worn out. The indignities and mishaps of +the evening had, for once, crushed my spirit, and after swearing an +oath or two I began to pack my bags. Vengeance I would have; but the +time and manner I left for daylight thought. Beyond six o'clock in the +morning I did not look forward; and if I longed for anything it was +for a little of the good Armagnac I had wasted on those louts of +merchants in the kitchen below. It might have done me good now. + +I had wearily strapped up one bag, and nearly filled the other, when I +came upon something which did, for the moment, rouse the devil in me. +This was the tiny orange-coloured sachet which Mademoiselle had +dropped the night I first saw her at the inn, and which, it will be +remembered, I picked up. Since that night I had not seen it, and had +as good as forgotten it. Now, as I folded up my other doublet, the one +I had then been wearing, it dropped from the pocket. + +The sight of it recalled all--that night, and Mademoiselle's face in +the lanthorn light, and my fine plans, and the end of them; and, in a +fit of childish fury, the outcome of long suppressed passion, I +snatched up the sachet from the floor and tore it across and across, +and flung the pieces down. As they fell, a cloud of fine pungent dust +burst from them, and with the dust something heavier, which tinkled +sharply on the boards. I looked down to see what this was--perhaps I +already repented of my act--but for the moment I could see nothing. +The floor was grimy and uninviting, and the light bad. + +In certain moods, however, a man is obstinate about small things, and +I moved the taper nearer. As I did so, a point of light, a flashing +sparkle that shone for a second among the dirt and refuse on the +floor, caught my eye. It was gone in a moment, but I had seen it. I +stared, and moved the light again, and the spark flashed out afresh, +this time in a different place. Much puzzled, I knelt, and, in a +twinkling, found a tiny crystal. Hard by lay another--and another; +each as large as a fair-sized pea. I took up the three, and rose to my +feet again, the light in one hand, the crystals in the palm of the +other. + +They were diamonds!--diamonds of price! I knew it in a moment. As I +moved the taper to and fro above them, and watched the fire glow and +tremble in their depths, I knew that I held that which would buy the +crazy inn and all its contents a dozen times over. They were diamonds! +Gems so fine, and of so rare a water--or I had never seen gems--that +my hand trembled as I held them, and my head grew hot, and my heart +beat furiously. For a moment I thought I dreamed, that my fancy played +me some trick; and I closed my eyes and did not open them again for a +minute. But when I did, there they were, hard, real, and angular. +Convinced at last, in a maze of joy and fear, I closed my hand upon +them, and, stealing on tip-toe to the trapdoor, laid first my saddle +on it, and then my bags, and over all my cloak, breathing fast the +while. + +Then I stole back; and, taking up the light again, began to search the +floor, patiently, inch by inch, with naked feet, every sound making me +tremble as I crept hither and thither over the creaking boards. And +never was search more successful or better paid. In the fragments of +the sachet I found six smaller diamonds and a pair of rubies. Eight +large diamonds I found on the floor. One, the largest and last-found, +had bounded away, and lay against the wall in the farthest corner. It +took me an hour to run that one to earth; but afterwards I spent +another hour on my hands and knees before I gave up the search, and, +satisfied at last that I had collected all, sat down on my saddle on +the trap-door, and, by the last flickering light of a candle which I +had taken from my bag, gloated over my treasure--a treasure worthy of +fabled Golconda. + +Hardly could I believe in its reality, even now. Recalling the jewels +which the English Duke of Buckingham wore on the occasion of his visit +to Paris in 1625, and of which there was so much talk, I took these to +be as fine, though less in number. They should be worth fifteen +thousand crowns, more or less. Fifteen thousand crowns! And I held +them in the hollow of my hand--I who was scarcely worth ten thousand +sous. + +The candle going out cut short my admiration. Left in the dark with +these precious atoms, my first thought was how I might dispose of them +safely; which I did, for the time, by secreting them in the lining of +my boot. My second thought turned on the question how they had come +where I had found them, among the powdered spice and perfumes in +Mademoiselle de Cocheforet's sachet. + +A minute's reflection enabled me to come very near the secret, and at +the same time shed a flood of light on several dark places. What Clon +had been seeking on the path between the house and the village, what +the goodwife of the inn had sought among the sweepings of yard and +floor, I knew now,--the sachet. I knew, too, what had caused the +marked and sudden anxiety I had noticed at the Chateau--the loss of +this sachet. + +And there for a while I came to a check. But one step more up the +ladder of thought brought all in view. In a flash I guessed how the +jewels had come to be in the sachet; and that it was not Mademoiselle +but M. de Cocheforet who had mislaid them. And I thought the discovery +so important that I began to pace the room softly, unable, in my +excitement, to remain still. + +Doubtless he had dropped the jewels in the hurry of his start from the +inn that night! Doubtless, too, he had carried them in that bizarre +hiding-place for the sake of safety, considering it unlikely that +robbers, if he fell into their hands, would take the sachet from him; +as still less likely that they would suspect it to contain anything of +value. Everywhere it would pass for a love-gift, the work of his +mistress. + +Nor did my penetration stop there. Ten to one the gems were family +property, the last treasure of the house; and M. de Cocheforet, when I +saw him at the inn, was on his way to convey them out of the country; +either to secure them from seizure by the Government, or to raise +money by selling them--money to be spent in some last desperate +enterprise. For a day or two, perhaps, after leaving Cocheforet, while +the mountain road and its chances occupied his thoughts, he had not +discovered his loss. Then he had searched for the precious sachet, +missed it, and returned hot-foot on his tracks. + +I was certain that I had hit on the true solution; and all that night +I sat wakeful in the darkness, pondering what I should do. The stones, +unset as they were, could never be identified, never be claimed. The +channel by which they had come to my hands could never be traced. To +all intents they were mine--mine, to do with as I pleased! Fifteen +thousand crowns!--perhaps twenty thousand crowns!--and I to leave at +six in the morning, whether I would or no! I might leave for Spain +with the jewels in my pocket. + +I confess I was tempted. The gems were so fine that I doubt not some +indifferently honest men would have sold salvation for them. But a +Berault his honour? No! I was tempted, but not for long. Thank God, a +man may be reduced to living by the fortunes of the dice, and may even +be called by a woman spy and coward without becoming a thief. The +temptation soon left me--I take credit for it--and I fell to thinking +of this and that plan for making use of them. Once it occurred to me +to take the jewels to the Cardinal and buy my pardon with them; again, +to use them as a trap to capture Cocheforet; again to--and then about +five in the morning, as I sat up on my wretched pallet, while the +first light stole slowly in through the cobwebbed, hay-stuffed +lattice, there came to me the real plan, the plan of plans, on which I +acted. + +It charmed me. I smacked my lips over it, and hugged myself, and felt +my eyes dilate in the darkness, as I conned it. It seemed cruel, it +seemed mean; I cared nothing. Mademoiselle had boasted of her victory +over me, of her woman's wits and her acuteness; and of my dulness. She +had said her grooms should flog me, she had rated me as if I had been +a dog. Very well; we would see now whose brains were the better, whose +was the master mind, whose should be the whipping. + +The one thing required by my plan was that I should get speech with +her; that done, I could trust myself, and my new-found weapon, for the +rest. But that was absolutely necessary; and seeing that there might +be some difficulty about it, I determined to descend as if my mind +were made up to go; then, on pretence of saddling my horse, I would +slip away on foot, and lie in wait near the Chateau until I saw her +come out. Or if I could not effect my purpose in that way--either by +reason of the landlord's vigilance, or for any other cause--my course +was still easy. I would ride away, and when I had proceeded a mile or +so, tie up my horse in the forest and return to the wooden bridge. +Thence I could watch the garden and front of the Chateau until time +and chance gave me the opportunity I sought. + +So I saw my way quite clearly; and when the fellow below called me, +reminding me rudely that I must be going, and that it was six o'clock, +I was ready with my answer. I shouted sulkily that I was coming, and, +after a decent delay, I took up my saddle and bags and went down. + +Viewed by the cold morning light, the inn room looked more smoky, more +grimy, more wretched than when I had last seen it. The goodwife was +not visible. The fire was not lighted. No provision, not so much as a +stirrup-cup or bowl of porridge cheered the heart. I looked round, +sniffing the stale smell of last night's lamp, and grunted. "Are you +going to send me out fasting?" I said, affecting a worse humour than I +felt. + +The landlord was standing by the window, stooping over a great pair of +frayed and furrowed thigh-boots, which he was labouring to soften with +copious grease. "Mademoiselle ordered no breakfast," he answered, with +a malicious grin. + +"Well, it does not much matter," I replied grandly. "I shall be at +Auch by noon." + +"That is as may be," he answered, with another grin. I did not +understand him, but I had something else to think about, and I opened +the door and stepped out, intending to go to the stable. Then in a +second I comprehended. The cold air laden with woodland moisture met +me and went to my bones; but it was not that which made me shiver. +Outside the door, in the road, sitting on horseback in silence, were +two men. One was Clon. The other, who held a spare horse by the +rein--my horse--was a man I had seen at the inn, a rough, +shock-headed, hard-bitten fellow. Both were armed, and Clon was +booted. His mate rode barefoot, with a rusty spur strapped to one +heel. + +The moment I saw them a sure and certain fear crept into my mind: it +was that made me shiver. But I did not speak to them. I went in again, +and closed the door behind me. The landlord was putting on the boots. +"What does this mean?" I said hoarsely. I had a clear prescience of +what was coming. "Why are these men here?" + +"Orders," he answered laconically. + +"Whose orders?" I retorted. + +"Whose?" he answered bluntly. "Well, Monsieur, that is my business. +Enough that we mean to see you out of the country, and out of harm's +way." + +"But if I will not go?" I cried. + +"Monsieur will go," he answered coolly. "There are no strangers in the +village to-day," he added, with a significant smile. + +"Do you mean to kidnap me?" I replied, in a rage. Behind the rage +was something--I will not call it terror, for the brave feel no +terror--but it was near akin to it. I had had to do with rough men all +my life, but there was a grimness and truculence in the aspect of +these three that shook me. When I thought of the dark paths and narrow +lanes and cliff-sides we must traverse, whichever road we took, I +trembled. + +"Kidnap you, Monsieur?" he answered, with an everyday air. "That is as +you please to call it. One thing is certain, however," he continued, +maliciously touching an arquebuss which he had produced and set +upright against a chair while I was at the door; "if you attempt the +slightest resistance, we shall know how to put an end to it, either +here or on the road." + +I drew a deep breath. The very imminence of the danger restored me to +the use of my faculties I changed my tone and laughed aloud. "So that +is your plan, is it?" I said. "The sooner we start the better, then. +And the sooner I see Auch and your back turned, the more I shall be +pleased." + +He rose. "After you, Monsieur," he said. + +I could not restrain a slight shiver. His newborn politeness alarmed +me more than his threats. I knew the man and his ways, and I was sure +that it boded ill for me. + +But I had no pistols, and only my sword and knife, and I knew that +resistance at this point must be worse than vain. I went out jauntily, +therefore, the landlord coming after me with my saddle and bags. + +The street was empty, save for the two waiting horsemen who sat in +their saddles looking doggedly before them. The sun had not yet risen, +the air was raw. The sky was grey, cloudy, and cold. My thoughts flew +back to the morning on which I had found the sachet--at that very +spot, almost at that very hour; and for a moment I grew warm again at +the thought of the little packet I carried in my boot. But the +landlord's dry manner, the sullen silence of his two companions, whose +eyes steadily refused to meet mine, chilled me again. For an instant +the impulse to refuse to mount, to refuse to go, was almost +irresistible; then, knowing the madness of such a course, which might, +and probably would, give the men the chance they desired, I crushed it +down and went slowly to my stirrup. + +"I wonder you do not want my sword," I said by way of sarcasm, as I +swung myself up. + +"We are not afraid of it," the innkeeper answered gravely. "You may +keep it--for the present." + +I made no answer--what answer had I to make?--and we rode at a +foot-pace down the street; he and I leading, Clon and the shock-headed +man bringing up the rear. The leisurely mode of our departure, the +absence of hurry or even haste, the men's indifference whether they +were seen, or what was thought, all served to sink my spirits, and +deepen my sense of peril. I felt that they suspected me, that they +more than half guessed the nature of my errand at Cocheforet, and that +they were not minded to be bound by Mademoiselle's orders. In +particular I augured the worst from Clon's appearance. His lean +malevolent face and sunken eyes, his very dumbness chilled me. Mercy +had no place there. + +We rode soberly, so that nearly half an hour elapsed before we gained +the brow from which I had taken my first look at Cocheforet. Among the +dwarf oaks whence I had viewed the valley we paused to breathe our +horses, and the strange feelings with which I looked back on the scene +may be imagined. But I had short time for indulging in sentiment or +recollections. A curt word, and we were moving again. + +A quarter of a mile farther on the road to Auch dipped into the +valley. When we were already half-way down this descent the innkeeper +suddenly stretched out his hand and caught my rein. "This way!" he +said. + +I saw he would have me turn into a by-path leading south-westwards--a +mere track, faint and little trodden and encroached on by trees, which +led I knew not whither. I checked my horse. "Why?" I said +rebelliously. "Do you think I do not know the road? This is the way to +Auch." + +"To Auch--yes," he answered bluntly. "But we are not going to Auch." + +"Whither then?" I said angrily. + +"You will see presently," he replied, with an ugly smile. + +"Yes, but I will know now!" I retorted, passion getting the better of +me. "I have come so far with you. You will find it more easy to take +me farther, if you tell me your plans." + +"You are a fool!" he cried, with a snarl. + +"Not so," I answered. "I ask only to know whither I am going." + +"Into Spain," he said. "Will that satisfy you?" + +"And what will you do with me there?" I asked, my heart giving a great +bound. + +"Hand you over to some friends of ours," he answered curtly, "if you +behave yourself. If not, there is a shorter way, and one that will +save us some travelling. Make up your mind. Monsieur. Which shall it +be?" + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + UNDER THE PIC DU MIDI. + + +So that was their plan. Two or three hours to the southward, the long +white glittering wall stretched east and west above the brown woods. +Beyond that lay Spain. Once across the border, I might be detained, if +no worse happened to me, as a prisoner of war; for we were then at war +with Spain on the Italian side. Or I might be handed over to one of +the savage bands, half smugglers, half brigands, that held the passes; +or be delivered--worst fate of all--into the power of the French +exiles, of whom some would be likely to recognize me and cut my +throat. + +"It is a long way into Spain," I muttered, watching in a kind of +fascination Clon handling his pistols. + +"I think you will find the other road longer still!" the landlord +answered grimly. "But choose, and be quick about it." + +They were three to one, and they had firearms. In effect I had no +choice. "Well, if I must I must!" I cried, making up my mind with +seeming recklessness. "_Vogue la galere!_ Spain be it. It will not be +the first time I have heard the dons talk." + +The men nodded, as much as to say that they had known what the end +would be; the landlord released my rein; and in a trice we were riding +down the narrow track, with our faces set towards the mountains. + +On one point my mind was now more easy. The men meant fairly by me; +and I had no longer to fear, as I had feared, a pistol shot in the +back at the first convenient ravine. As far as that went, I might ride +in peace. On the other hand, if I let them carry me across the border +my fate was sealed. A man set down without credentials or guards among +the wild desperadoes who swarmed in war time in the Asturian passes +might consider himself fortunate if an easy death fell to his lot. In +my case I could make a shrewd guess what would happen. A single nod of +meaning, one muttered word, dropped among the savage men with whom I +should be left, and the diamonds hidden in my boot would go neither to +the Cardinal nor back to Mademoiselle--nor would it matter to me +whither they went. + +So while the others talked in their taciturn fashion, or sometimes +grinned at my gloomy face, I looked out over the brown woods with eyes +that saw, yet did not see. The red squirrel swarming up the trunk, the +startled pigs that rushed away grunting from their feast of mast, the +solitary rider who met us, armed to the teeth, and passed northwards +after whispering with the landlord--all these I saw. But my mind was +not with them. It was groping and feeling about like a hunted mole for +some way of escape. For time pressed. The slope we were on was growing +steeper. By-and-bye we fell into a southward valley, and began to +follow it steadily upwards, crossing and recrossing a swiftly rushing +stream. The snow-peaks began to be hidden behind the rising bulk of +hills that overhung us; and sometimes we could see nothing before or +behind but the wooded walls of our valley rising sheer and green a +thousand paces on either hand, with grey rocks half masked by fern and +ivy getting here and there through the firs and alders. + +It was a wild and sombre scene even at that hour, with the midday sun +shining on the rushing water and drawing the scent out of the pines; +but I knew that there was worse to come, and sought desperately for +some ruse by which I might at least separate the men. Three were too +many; with one I might deal. At last, when I had cudgelled my brain +for an hour, and almost resigned myself to a sudden charge on the men +single-handed--a last desperate resort--I thought of a plan, +dangerous, too, and almost desperate, but which still seemed to +promise something. It came of my fingers resting in my pocket on the +fragments of the orange sachet, which, without having any particular +design in my mind, I had taken care to bring with me. I had torn the +sachet into four pieces--four corners. As I played mechanically with +them, one of my fingers fitted into one, as into a glove; a second +finger into another. And the plan came. + +Still, before I could move in it, I had to wait until we stopped to +bait the flagging horses, which we did about noon at the head of the +valley. Then, pretending to drink from the stream, I managed to secure +unseen a handful of pebbles, slipping them into the same pocket with +the morsels of stuff. On getting to horse again, I carefully fitted a +pebble, not too tightly, into the largest scrap, and made ready for +the attempt. + +The landlord rode on my left, abreast of me; the other two knaves +behind. The road at this stage favoured me, for the valley, which +drained the bare uplands that lay between the lower spurs and the base +of the real mountains, had become wide and shallow. Here were no +trees, and the path was a mere sheep-track covered with short crisp +grass, and running sometimes on this bank of the stream and sometimes +on that. + +I waited until the ruffian beside me turned to speak to the men +behind. The moment he did so and his eyes were averted, I slipped out +the scrap of satin in which I had placed the pebble, and balancing it +carefully on my right thigh as I rode, I flipped it forward with all +the strength of my thumb and finger. I meant it to fall a few paces +before us in the path, where it could be seen. But alas for my hopes! +At the critical moment my horse started, my finger struck the scrap +aslant, the pebble flew out, and the bit of stuff fluttered into a +whin-bush close to my stirrup--and was lost! + +I was bitterly disappointed, for the same thing might happen again, +and I had now only three scraps left. But fortune favoured me, by +putting it into my neighbour's head to plunge into a hot debate with +the shock-headed man on the nature of some animals seen on a distant +brow; which he said were izards, while the other maintained that they +were common goats. He continued, on this account, to ride with his +face turned the other way. I had time to fit another pebble into the +second piece of stuff, and sliding it on to my thigh, poised it, and +flipped it. + +This time my finger struck the tiny missile fairly in the middle, and +shot it so far and so truly that it dropped exactly in the path ten +paces in front of us. The moment I saw it fall I kicked my neighbour's +nag in the ribs; it started, and he, turning in a rage, hit it. The +next instant he pulled it almost on to its haunches. + +"Saint Gris!" he cried; and sat glaring at the bit of yellow satin, +with his face turned purple and his jaw fallen. + +"What is it?" I said, staring at him in turn. "What is the matter, +fool?" + +"Matter?" he blurted out. "_Mon Dieu!_" + +But Clon's excitement surpassed even his. The dumb man no sooner saw +what had attracted his comrade's attention, than he uttered an +inarticulate and horrible noise, and tumbling off his horse, more like +a beast than a man, threw himself bodily on the precious morsel. + +The innkeeper was not far behind him. An instant and he was down, too, +peering at the thing; and for an instant I thought that they would +fight over it. However, though their jealousy was evident, their +excitement cooled a little when they discovered that the scrap of +stuff was empty; for, fortunately, the pebble had fallen out of it. +Still, it threw them into such a fever of eagerness as it was +wonderful to witness. They nosed the ground where it had lain, they +plucked up the grass and turf, and passed it through their fingers, +they ran to and fro like dogs on a trail; and, glancing askance at one +another, came back always together to the point of departure. Neither +in his jealousy would suffer the other to be there alone. + +The shock-headed man and I sat our horses and looked on; he +marvelling, and I pretending to marvel. As the two searched up and +down the path, we moved a little out of it to give them space; and +presently, when all their heads were turned from me, I let a second +morsel drop under a gorse-bush. The shock-headed man, by-and-bye, +found this, and gave it to Clon; and, as from the circumstances of the +first discovery no suspicion attached to me, I ventured to find the +third and last scrap myself. I did not pick it up, but I called the +innkeeper, and he pounced on it as I have seen a hawk pounce on a +chicken. + +They hunted for the fourth morsel, but, of course, in vain, and in the +end they desisted, and fitted the three they had together; but neither +would let his own portion out of his hands, and each looked at the +other across the spoil with eyes of suspicion. It was strange to see +them in that wide-stretching valley, whence grey boar-backs of hills +swelled up into the silence of the snow--it was strange, I say, in +that vast solitude to see these two, mere dots on its bosom, circling +round one another in fierce forgetfulness of the outside world, +glaring and shifting their ground like cocks about to engage, and +wholly engrossed--by three scraps of orange-colour, invisible at fifty +paces! + +At last the innkeeper cried with an oath: "I am going back. This must +be known down yonder. Give me your pieces, man, and do you go with +Antoine. It will be all right." + +But Clon, waving a scrap in either hand and thrusting his ghastly mask +into the other's face, shook his head in passionate denial. He could +not speak, but he made it clear that if any one went back with the +news he was the man to go. + +"Nonsense!" the landlord retorted fiercely. "We cannot leave Antoine +to go on alone with him. Give me the stuff." + +But Clon would not. He had no thought of resigning the credit of the +discovery, and I began to think that the two would really come to +blows. But there was an alternative, and first one and then the other +looked at me. It was a moment of peril, and I knew it. My stratagem +might react on myself, and the two, to put an end to this difficulty, +agree to put an end to me. But I faced them so coolly and showed so +bold a front, and the ground was so open, that the idea took no root. +They fell to wrangling again more viciously than before. One tapped +his gun and the other his pistols. The landlord scolded, the dumb man +gurgled. At last their difference ended as I had hoped it would. + +"Very well then, we will both go back!" the innkeeper cried in a rage. +"And Antoine must see him on. But the blame be on your head. Do you +give the lad your pistols." + +Clon took one pistol and gave it to the shock-headed man. + +"The other!" the innkeeper said impatiently. + +But Clon shook his head with a grim smile, and pointed to the +arquebuss. + +By a sudden movement the landlord snatched the pistol, and averted +Clon's vengeance by placing both it and the gun in the shock-headed +man's hands. "There!" he said, addressing the latter, "now can you do? +If Monsieur tries to escape or turn back, shoot him! But four hours' +riding should bring you to the Roca Blanca. You will find the men +there, and will have no more to do with it." + +Antoine did not see things quite in that light, however. He looked at +me, and then at the wild track in front of us; and he muttered an oath +and said he would die if he would. But the landlord, who was in a +frenzy of impatience, drew him aside and talked to him, and in the end +seemed to persuade him; for in a few minutes the matter was settled. +Antoine came back and said sullenly, "Forward, Monsieur," the two +others stood on one side, I shrugged my shoulders and kicked up my +horse, and in a twinkling we two were riding on together--man to man. +I turned once or twice to see what those we had left behind were +doing, and always found them standing in apparent debate; but my guard +showed so much jealousy of these movements that I presently shrugged +my shoulders again and desisted. + +I had racked my brains to bring about this state of things. But, +strange to say, now I had succeeded, I found it less satisfactory than +I had hoped. I had reduced the odds and got rid of my most dangerous +antagonists; but Antoine, left to himself, proved to be as full of +suspicion as an egg of meat. He rode a little behind me with his gun +across his saddle-bow, and a pistol near his hand, and at the +slightest pause on my part, or if I turned to look at him, he muttered +his constant "Forward, Monsieur!" in a tone that warned me that his +finger was on the trigger. At such a distance he could not miss; and I +saw nothing for it but to go on meekly before him--to the Roca Blanca +and my fate. + +What was to be done? The road presently reached the end of the valley +and entered a narrow pine-clad defile, strewn with rocks and boulders, +over which the torrent plunged and eddied with a deafening roar. In +front the white gleam of waterfalls broke the sombre ranks of climbing +trunks. The snow-line lay less than half a mile away on either hand; +and crowning all--at the end of the pass, as it seemed to the +eye--rose the pure white pillar of the Pic du Midi shooting up six +thousand feet into the blue of heaven. Such a scene, so suddenly +disclosed, was enough to drive the sense of danger from my mind; and +for a moment I reined in my horse. But "Forward, Monsieur!" came the +grating order. I fell to earth again, and went on. What was to be +done? + +I was at my wit's end to know. The man refused to talk, refused to +ride abreast of me, would have no dismounting, no halting, no +communication; at all. He would have nothing but this silent, lonely +procession of two, with the muzzle of his gun at my back. And +meanwhile we were fast climbing the pass. We had left the others an +hour--nearly two. The sun was declining; the time, I supposed, about +half-past three. + +If he would only let me come within reach of him! Or if anything would +fall out to take his attention! When the pass presently widened into a +bare and dreary valley, strewn with huge boulders, and with snow lying +here and there in the hollows, I looked desperately before me, and +scanned even the vast snow-fields that overhung us and stretched away +to the base of the ice-peak. But I saw nothing. No bear swung across +the path, no izard showed itself on the cliffs. The keen sharp air cut +our cheeks and warned me that we were approaching the summit of the +ridge. On all sides were silence and desolation. + +_Mon Dieu!_ And the ruffians on whose tender mercies I was to be +thrown might come to meet us! They might appear at any moment. In my +despair I loosened my hat on my head, and let the first gust carry it +to the ground, and then with an oath of annoyance tossed my feet loose +to go after it. But the rascal roared to me to keep my seat. + +"Forward, Monsieur!" he shouted brutally. "Go on!" + +"But my hat!" I cried. "_Mille tonnerres_, man! I must--" + +"Forward, Monsieur, or I shoot!" he replied inexorably, raising his +gun. "One--two--" + +And I went on. But, oh, I was wrathful! That I, Gil de Berault, should +be outwitted and led by the nose, like a ringed bull, by this Gascon +lout! That I, whom all Paris knew and feared--if it did not love--the +terror of Zaton's, should come to my end in this dismal waste of snow +and rock, done to death by some pitiful smuggler or thief! It must not +be! Surely in the last resort I could give an account of one man, +though his belt were stuffed with pistols! + +But how? Only, it seemed, by open force. My heart began to flutter as +I planned it; and then grew steady again. A hundred paces before us a +gully or ravine on the left ran up into the snow-field. Opposite its +mouth a jumble of stones and broken rocks covered the path. I marked +this for the place. The knave would need both his hands to hold up his +nag over the stones, and, if I turned on him suddenly enough, he might +either drop his gun, or fire it harmlessly. + +But, in the meantime, something happened; as, at the last moment, +things do happen. While we were still fifty yards short of the place, +I found his horse's nose creeping forward on a level with my crupper; +and, still advancing, until I could see it out of the tail of my eye, +and my heart gave a great bound. He was coming abreast of me: he was +going to deliver himself into my hands! To cover my excitement, I +began to whistle. + +"Hush!" he muttered fiercely: his voice sounding strange and +unnatural. My first thought was that he was ill, and I turned to him. +But he only said again, "Hush! Pass by here quietly, Monsieur." + +"Why?" I asked mutinously, curiosity getting the better of me. For had +I been wise I had taken no notice; every second his horse was coming +up with mine. Its nose was level with my stirrup already. + +"Hush, man!" he said again. This time there was no mistake about the +panic in his voice. "They call this the Devil's Chapel. God send us +safe by it! It is late to be here. Look at those!" he continued, +pointing with a finger which visibly shook. + +I looked. At the mouth of the gully, in a small space partly cleared +of stones stood three broken shafts, raised on rude pedestals. "Well?" +I said in a low voice. The sun which was near setting flushed the +great peak above to the colour of blood; but the valley was growing +grey and each moment more dreary. "Well, what of those?" I said. In +spite of my peril and the excitement of the coming struggle I felt the +chill of his fear. Never had I seen so grim, so desolate, so +Godforsaken a place! Involuntarily I shivered. + +"They were crosses," he muttered, in a voice little above a whisper, +while his eyes roved this way and that in terror. "The Cure of Gabas +blessed the place, and set them up. But next morning they were as you +see them now. Come on, Monsieur, come on!" he continued, plucking at +my arm. "It is not safe here after sunset. Pray God, Satan be not at +home!" + +He had completely forgotten in his panic that he had anything to fear +from me. His gun dropped loosely across his saddle, his leg rubbed +mine. I saw this, and I changed my plan of action. As our horses +reached the stones I stooped, as if to encourage mine, and by a sudden +clutch snatched the gun bodily from his hand; at the same time I +backed my horse with all my strength. It was done in a moment! A +second and I had him at the end of the gun, and my finger was on the +trigger. Never was victory more easily gained. + +He looked at me between rage and terror, his jaw fallen. "Are you +mad?" he cried, his teeth chattering as he spoke. Even in this strait +his eyes left me and wandered round in alarm. + +"No, sane!" I retorted fiercely. "But I do not like this place any +better than you do!" Which was true enough, if not quite true. "So, by +your right, quick march!" I continued imperatively. "Turn your horse, +my friend, or take the consequences." + +He turned like a lamb, and headed down the valley again, without +giving a thought to his pistols. I kept close to him, and in less than +a minute we had left the Devil's Chapel well behind us, and were +moving down again as we had come up. Only now I held the gun. + +When we had gone half a mile or so--until then I did not feel +comfortable myself, and though I thanked Heaven the place existed, +thanked Heaven also that I was out of it--I bade him halt. "Take off +your belt!" I said curtly, "and throw it down. But, mark me, if you +turn, I fire!" + +The spirit was quite gone out of him. He obeyed mechanically. I jumped +down, still covering him with the gun, and picked up the belt, pistols +and all. Then I remounted, and we went on. By-and-bye he asked me +sullenly what I was going to do. + +"Go back," I said, "and take the road to Auch when I come to it." + +"It will be dark in an hour," he answered sulkily. + +"I know that," I retorted. "We must camp and do the best we can." + +And as I said, we did. The daylight held until we gained the skirts of +the pine-wood at the head of the pass. Here I chose a corner a little +off the track, and well-sheltered from the wind, and bade him light a +fire. I tethered the horses near this and within sight. It remained +only to sup. I had a piece of bread; he had another and an onion. We +ate in silence, sitting on opposite sides of the fire. + +But after supper I found myself in a dilemma; I did not see how I was +to sleep. The ruddy light which gleamed on the knave's swart face and +sinewy hands showed also his eyes, black, sullen, and watchful. I knew +that the man was plotting revenge; that he would not hesitate to plant +his knife between my ribs should I give him a chance. I could find +only one alternative to remaining awake. Had I been bloody-minded, I +should have chosen it and solved the question at once and in my favour +by shooting him as he sat. + +But I have never been a cruel man, and I could not find it in my heart +to do this. The silence of the mountain and the sky--which seemed a +thing apart from the roar of the torrent and not to be broken by +it--awed me. The vastness of the solitude in which we sat, the dark +void above through which the stars kept shooting, the black gulf below +in which the unseen waters boiled and surged, the absence of other +human company or other signs of human existence put such a face upon +the deed that I gave up the thought of it with a shudder, and resigned +myself, instead, to watch through the night--the long, cold, Pyrenean +night. Presently he curled himself up like a dog and slept in the +blaze, and then for a couple of hours I sat opposite him, thinking. It +seemed years since I had seen Zaton's or thrown the dice. The old +life, the old employments--should I ever go back to them?--seemed dim +and distant. Would Cocheforet, the forest and the mountain, the grey +Chateau and its mistresses, seem one day as dim! And if one bit of +life could fade so quickly at the unrolling of another, and seem in a +moment pale and colourless, would all life some day and somewhere, and +all the things we--But faugh! I was growing foolish. I sprang up and +kicked the wood together, and, taking up the gun, began to pace to and +fro under the cliff. Strange that a little moonlight, a few stars, a +breath of solitude should carry a man back to childhood and childish +things! + + + * * * * * + + +It was three in the afternoon of the next day, and the sun lay hot on +the oak groves, and the air was full of warmth as we began to climb +the slope, on which the road to Auch shoots out of the track. The +yellow bracken and the fallen leaves underfoot seemed to throw up +light of themselves, and here and there a patch of ruddy beech lay +like a bloodstain on the hillside. In front a herd of pigs routed +among the mast, and grunted lazily; and high above us a boy lay +watching them. "We part here," I said to my companion. It was my plan +to ride a little way on the road to Auch so as to blind his eyes; +then, leaving my horse in the forest, I would go on foot to the +Chateau. + +"The sooner the better!" he answered, with a snarl. "And I hope I may +never see your face again, Monsieur!" + +But when we came to the wooden cross at the fork of the roads, and +were about to part, the boy we had seen leapt out of the fern and came +to meet us. "Hollo!" he cried, in a sing-song tone. + +"Well!" my companion answered, drawing rein impatiently. "What is it?" + +"There are soldiers in the village." + +"Soldiers?" Antoine cried incredulously. + +"Ay, devils on horseback!" the lad answered, spitting on the ground. +"Three score of them! From Auch!" + +Antoine turned to me, his face transformed with fury. "Curse you!" he +cried. "This is some of your work! Now we are all undone! And my +mistresses! _Sacre!_ if I had that gun I would shoot you like a rat!" + +"Steady, fool!" I answered roughly. "I know no more of this than you +do!" + +This was so true that my surprise was as great as his. The Cardinal, +who rarely made a change of front, had sent me hither that he might +not be forced to send soldiers, and run the risk of all that might +arise from such a movement. What of this invasion, then, than which +nothing could be less consistent with his plans? I wondered. It was +possible, of course, that the travelling merchants, before whom I had +played at treason, had reported the facts; and that on this the +Commandant at Auch had acted. But it seemed unlikely. He had had his +orders, too; and, under the Cardinal's rule, there was small place for +individual enterprise. I could not understand it. + +One thing was clear, however. I might now enter the village as I +pleased. "I am going on to look into this," I said to Antoine. "Come, +my man." + +He shrugged his shoulders, and stood still. "Not I!" he answered, with +an oath. "No soldiers for me! I have lain out one night, and I can lie +out another!" + +I nodded indifferently, for I no longer wanted him; and we parted. +After this, twenty minutes' riding brought me to the entrance of the +village; and here the change was great indeed. Not one of the ordinary +dwellers in the place was to be seen: either they had shut themselves +up in their hovels, or, like Antoine, they had fled to the woods. +Their doors were closed, their windows shuttered. But lounging about +the street were a score of dragoons, in boots and breastplates, whose +short-barrelled muskets, with pouches and bandoliers attached, were +piled near the inn door. In an open space where there was a gap in the +street, a long row of horses, linked head to head, stood bending their +muzzles over bundles of rough forage, and on all sides the cheerful +jingle of chains and bridles and the sound of coarse jokes and +laughter filled the air. + +As I rode up to the inn door an old sergeant, with squinting eyes and +his tongue in his cheeks, eyed me inquisitively, and started to cross +the street to challenge me. Fortunately, at that moment the two knaves +whom I had brought from Paris with me, and whom I had left at Auch to +await my orders, came up. I made them a sign not to speak to me, and +they passed on; but I suppose that they told the sergeant that I was +not the man he wanted, for I saw no more of him. + +After picketing my horse behind the inn--I could find no better +stable, every place being full--I pushed my way through the group at +the door, and entered. The old room, with the low grimy roof and the +reeking floor, was half full of strange figures, and for a few minutes +I stood unseen in the smoke and confusion. Then the landlord came my +way, and as he passed me I caught his eye. He uttered a low curse, +dropped the pitcher he was carrying, and stood glaring at me, like a +man possessed. + +The soldier whose wine he was carrying flung a crust in his face, +with, "Now, greasy fingers! What are you staring at?" + +"The devil!" the landlord muttered, beginning to tremble. + +"Then let me look at him!" the man retorted and he turned on his +stool. + +He started, finding me standing over him. "At your service!" I said +grimly. "A little time and it will be the other way, my friend." + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + A MASTER STROKE. + + +I HAVE a way with me which commonly commands respect; and when the +landlord's first terror was over and he would serve me, I managed to +get my supper--the first good meal I had had in two days--pretty +comfortably in spite of the soldiers' presence. The crowd, too, which +filled the room, soon began to melt. The men strayed off in groups to +water their horses, or went to hunt up their quarters, until only two +or three were left. Dusk had fallen outside; the noise in the street +grew less. The firelight began to glow and flicker on the walls, +and the wretched room to look as homely as it was in its nature to +look. I was pondering for the twentieth time what step I should take +next--under these new circumstances--and why the soldiers were here, +and whether I should let the night pass before I moved, when the door, +which had been turning on its hinges almost without pause for an hour, +opened again, and a woman came in. + +She paused a moment on the threshold looking round, and I saw that she +had a shawl on her head and a milk-pitcher in her hand, and that her +feet and ankles were bare. There was a great rent in her coarse stuff +petticoat, and the hand which held the shawl together was brown and +dirty. More I did not see; supposing her to be a neighbour stolen in +now that the house was quiet to get some milk for her child or the +like, I took no further heed of her. I turned to the fire again and +plunged into my thoughts. + +But to get to the hearth where the goodwife was fidgeting, the woman +had to pass in front of me; and as she passed I suppose she stole a +look at me from under her shawl. For just when she came between me and +the blaze she uttered a low cry and shrank aside--so quickly that she +almost stepped on the hearth. The next moment she turned her back to +me and was stooping, whispering in the housewife's ear. A stranger +might have thought that she had merely trodden on a hot ember. + +But another idea, and a very sharp one, came into my mind; and I stood +up silently. The woman's back was towards me, but something in her +height, her shape, the pose of her head, hidden as it was by her +shawl, seemed familiar. I waited while she hung over the fire +whispering, and while the goodwife slowly filled her pitcher out of +the great black pot. But when she turned to go, I took a step forward +so as to bar her way. And our eyes met. + +I could not see her features; they were lost in the shadow of the +hood. But I saw a shiver run through her from head to foot. And I knew +then that I had made no mistake. + +"That is too heavy for you, my girl," I said familiarly, as I might +have spoken to a village wench. "I will carry it for you." + +One of the men, who remained lolling at the table, laughed, and the +other began to sing a low song. The woman trembled in rage or fear, +but she kept silence and let me take the jug from her hands. And when +I went to the door and opened it, she followed mechanically. An +instant, and the door fell to behind us, shutting off the light and +glow, and we two stood together in the growing dusk. + +"It is late for you to be out, Mademoiselle," I said politely. "You +might meet with some rudeness, dressed as you are. Permit me to see +you home." + +She shuddered, and I thought I heard her sob, but she did not answer. +Instead, she turned and walked quickly through the village in the +direction of the Chateau, keeping in the shadow of the houses. I +carried the pitcher and walked beside her; and in the dark I smiled. I +knew how shame and impotent rage were working in her. This was +something like revenge! + +Presently I spoke. "Well, Mademoiselle," I said. "Where are your +grooms?" + +She gave me one look, her eyes blazing with anger, her face like hate +itself; and after that I said no more, but left her in peace, and +contented myself with walking at her shoulder until we came to the end +of the village, where the track to the great house plunged into the +wood. There she stopped, and turned on me like a wild creature at bay. +"What do you want?" she cried hoarsely, breathing as if she had been +running. + +"To see you safe to the house," I answered coolly. + +"And if I will not?" she retorted. + +"The choice does not lie with you, Mademoiselle," I answered sternly. +"You will go to the house with me, and on the way you will give me an +interview; but not here. Here we are not private enough. We may be +interrupted at any moment, and I wish to speak to you at length." + +I saw her shiver. "What if I will not?" she said again. + +"I might call to the nearest soldiers and tell them who you are," I +answered coolly. "I might, but I should not. That were a clumsy way of +punishing you, and I know a better way. I should go to the captain, +Mademoiselle, and tell him whose horse is locked up in the inn stable. +A trooper told me--as some one had told him--that it belonged to one +of his officers; but I looked through the crack, and I knew the horse +again." + +She could not repress a groan. I waited. Still she did not speak. +"Shall I go to the captain?" I said ruthlessly. + +She shook the hood back from her face, and looked at me. "Oh, you +coward! you coward!" she hissed through her teeth. "If I had a knife!" + +"But you have not, Mademoiselle," I answered, unmoved. "Be good +enough, therefore, to make up your mind which it is to be. Am I to go +with my news to the captain, or am I to come with you?" + +"Give me the pitcher!" she said harshly. + +I did so, wondering. In a moment she flung it with a savage gesture +far into the bushes. "Come!" she said, "if you will. But some day God +will punish you!" + +Without another word she turned and entered the path through the +trees, and I followed her. I suppose every turn in its course, every +hollow and broken place in it had been known to her from childhood, +for she followed it swiftly and unerringly, barefoot as she was. I had +to walk fast through the darkness to keep up with her. The wood was +quiet, but the frogs were beginning to croak in the pool, and their +persistent chorus reminded me of the night when I had come to the +house-door hurt and worn out, and Clon had admitted me, and she had +stood under the gallery in the hall. Things had looked dark then. I +had seen but a very little way ahead. Now all was plain. The +Commandant might be here with all his soldiers, but it was I who held +the strings. + +We came to the little wooden bridge and saw beyond the dark meadows +the lights of the house. All the windows were bright. Doubtless the +troopers were making merry. "Now, Mademoiselle," I said quietly. "I +must trouble you to stop here, and give me your attention for a few +minutes. Afterwards you may go your way." + +"Speak!" she said defiantly. "And be quick! I cannot breathe the air +where you are! It poisons me!" + +"Ah!" I said slowly. "Do you think you make things better by such +speeches as those?" + +"Oh!" she cried--and I heard her teeth click together. "Would you have +me fawn on you?" + +"Perhaps not," I answered. "Still you make one mistake." + +"What is it?" she panted. + +"You forget that I am to be feared as well as--loathed!" I answered +grimly. "Ay, Mademoiselle, to be feared!" I continued. "Do you think +that I do not know why you are here in this guise? Do you think that I +do not know for whom that pitcher of broth was intended? Or who will +now have to fast to-night? I tell you I know all these things. Your +house is full of soldiers; your servants were watched and could not +leave. You had to come yourself and get food for him!" + +She clutched at the hand-rail of the bridge, and for an instant clung +to it for support. Her face, from which the shawl had fallen, +glimmered white in the shadow of the trees. At last I had shaken her +pride. At last! "What is your price?" she murmured faintly. + +"I am going to tell you," I replied, speaking so that every word might +fall distinctly on her ears, and sating my eyes on her proud face. I +had never dreamed of such revenge as this! "About a fortnight ago, M. +de Cocheforet left here at night with a little orange-coloured sachet +in his possession." + +She uttered a stifled cry, and drew herself stiffly erect. + +"It contained--but there, Mademoiselle, you know its contents," I went +on. "Whatever they were, M. de Cocheforet lost it and them at +starting. A week ago he came back--unfortunately for himself--to seek +them." + +She was looking full in my face now. She seemed scarcely to breathe in +the intensity of her surprise and expectation. "You had a search made, +Mademoiselle," I continued quietly. "Your servants left no place +unexplored. The paths, the roads, the very woods were ransacked. But +in vain, because all the while the orange sachet lay whole and +unopened in my pocket." + +"No!" she cried impetuously. "You lie, Sir! The sachet was found, torn +open, many leagues from this place!" + +"Where I threw it, Mademoiselle," I replied, "that I might mislead +your rascals and be free to return. Oh! believe me," I continued, +letting something of myself, something of my triumph, appear at last +in my voice. "You have made a mistake! You would have done better had +you trusted me. I am no bundle of sawdust, Mademoiselle, but a man: a +man with an arm to shield and a brain to serve, and--as I am going to +teach you--a heart also!" + +She shivered. + +"In the orange-coloured sachet that you lost I believe there were +eighteen stones of great value?" + +She made no answer, but she looked at me as if I fascinated her. Her +very breath seemed to pause and wait on my words. She was so little +conscious of anything else, of anything outside ourselves, that a +score of men might have come up behind her unseen and unnoticed. + +I took from my breast a little packet wrapped in soft leather, and +held it towards her. "Will you open this?" I said. "I believe it +contains what you lost. That it contains all I will not answer, +Mademoiselle, because I spilled the stones on the floor of my room, +and I may have failed to find some. But the others can be recovered--I +know where they are." + +She took the packet slowly and began to unroll it, her fingers +shaking. A few turns and the mild lustre of the stones made a kind of +moonlight in her hands--such a shimmering glory of imprisoned light as +has ruined many a woman and robbed many a man of his honour. +_Morbleu!_ as I looked at them--and as she stood looking at them in +dull, entranced perplexity--I wondered how I had come to resist the +temptation. + +While I gazed her hands began to waver. "I cannot count," she muttered +helplessly. "How many are there?" + +"In all, eighteen.' + +"They should be eighteen," she said. + +She closed her hand on them with that, and opened it again, and did so +twice, as if to reassure herself that the stones were real and that +she was not dreaming. Then she turned to me with sudden fierceness, +and I saw that her beautiful face, sharpened by the greed of +possession, was grown as keen and vicious as before. "Well?" she +muttered between her teeth. "Your price, man? Your price?" + +"I am coming to it now, Mademoiselle," I said gravely. "It is a simple +matter. You remember the afternoon when I followed you--clumsily and +thoughtlessly perhaps--through the wood to restore these things? It +seems about a month ago. I believe it happened the day before +yesterday. You called me then some very harsh names, which I will not +hurt you by repeating. The only price I ask for restoring your jewels +is that you recall those names. + +"How?" she muttered. "I do not understand." + +I repeated my words very slowly. "The only price or reward I ask, +Mademoiselle, is that you take back those names, and say that they +were not deserved." + +"And the jewels?" she exclaimed hoarsely. + +"They are yours. They are nothing to me. Take them, and say that you +do not think of me-- Nay, I cannot say the words, Mademoiselle." + +"But there is something--else! What else?" she cried, her head thrown +back, her eyes, bright as any wild animal's, searching mine. "Ha! my +brother? What of him? What of him, Sir?" + +"For him, Mademoiselle--I would prefer that you should tell me no more +than I know already," I answered in a low voice. "I do not wish to be +in that affair. But yes, there is one thing I have not mentioned. You +are right." + +She sighed so deeply that I caught the sound. + +"It is," I continued slowly, "that you will permit me to remain at +Cocheforet for a few days, while the soldiers are here. I am told that +there are twenty men and two officers quartered in your house. Your +brother is away. I ask to be permitted, Mademoiselle, to take his +place for the time, and to be privileged to protect your sister and +yourself from insult. That is all." + +She raised her hand to her head. After a long pause: "The frogs!" she +muttered, "they croak! I cannot hear." + +And then, to my surprise, she turned suddenly on her heel, and walked +over the bridge, leaving me there. For a moment I stood aghast, +peering after her shadowy figure, and wondering what had taken her. +Then, in a minute or less, she came quickly back to me, and I +understood. She was crying. + +"M. de Barthe," she said, in a trembling voice, which told me that the +victory was won. "Is there nothing else? Have you no other penance for +me?" + +"None, Mademoiselle." + +She had drawn the shawl over her head, and I no longer saw her face. +"That is all you ask?" she murmured. + +"That is all I ask--now," I answered. + +"It is granted," she said slowly and firmly. "Forgive me if I seem to +speak lightly--if I seem to make little of your generosity or my +shame; but I can say no more now. I am so deep in trouble and so +gnawed by terror that--I cannot feel anything much to-night, either +shame or gratitude. I am in a dream; God grant it may pass as a dream! +We are sunk in trouble. But for you and what you have done, M. de +Barthe--I--" she paused and I heard her fighting with the sobs which +choked her--"forgive me.... I am overwrought. And my--my feet are +cold," she added suddenly and irrelevantly. "Will you take me home?" + +"Ah, Mademoiselle," I cried remorsefully, "I have been a beast! You +are barefoot, and I have kept you here." + +"It is nothing," she said in a voice which thrilled me. "My heart is +warm, Monsieur--thanks to you. It is many hours since it has been as +warm." + +She stepped out of the shadow as she spoke--and there, the thing was +done. As I had planned, so it had come about. Once more I was crossing +the meadow in the dark to be received at Cocheforet a welcome guest. +The frogs croaked in the pool and a bat swooped round us in circles; +and surely never--never, I thought, with a kind of exultation in my +breast--had man been placed in a stranger position. + +Somewhere in the black wood behind us--probably in the outskirts of +the village--lurked M. de Cocheforet. In the great house before us, +outlined by a score of lighted windows, were the soldiers come from +Auch to take him. Between the two, moving side by side in the +darkness, in a silence which each found to be eloquent, were +Mademoiselle and I: she who knew so much, I who knew all--all but one +little thing! + +We reached the house, and I suggested that she should steal in first +by the way she had come out, and that I should wait a little and knock +at the door when she had had time to explain matters to Clon. + +"They do not let me see Clon," she answered slowly. + +"Then your woman must tell him," I rejoined. "Or he may say something +and betray me." + +"They will not let our woman come to us." + +"What?" I cried, astonished. "But this is infamous. You are not +prisoners!" + +Mademoiselle laughed harshly. "Are we not? Well, I suppose not; for if +we wanted company, Captain Larolle said he would be delighted to see +us--in the parlour." + +"He has taken your parlour?" I said. + +"He and his lieutenant sit there. But I suppose we should be +thankful," she added bitterly. "We have still our bed-rooms left to +us." + +"Very well," I said. "Then I must deal with Clon as I can. But I have +still a favour to ask, Mademoiselle. It is only that you and your +sister will descend to-morrow at your usual time. I shall be in the +parlour." + +"I would rather not," she said, pausing and speaking in a troubled +voice. + +"Are you afraid?" + +"No, Monsieur; I am not afraid," she answered proudly. "But--" + +"You will come?" I said. + +She sighed before she spoke. At length, "Yes, I will come--if you wish +it," she answered; and the next moment she was gone round the corner +of the house, while I laughed to think of the excellent watch these +gallant gentlemen were keeping. M. de Cocheforet might have been with +her in the garden, might have talked with her as I had talked, might +have entered the house even, and passed under their noses scot-free. +But that is the way of soldiers. They are always ready for the enemy, +with drums beating and flags flying--at ten o'clock in the morning. +But he does not always come at that hour. + +I waited a little, and then I groped my way to the door, and knocked +on it with the hilt of my sword. The dogs began to bark at the back, +and the chorus of a drinking-song, which came fitfully from the east +wing, ceased altogether. An inner door opened, and an angry voice, +apparently an officer's, began to rate some one for not coming. +Another moment, and a clamour of voices and footsteps seemed to pour +into the hall, and fill it. I heard the bar jerked away, the door was +flung open, and in a twinkling a lanthorn, behind which a dozen +flushed visages were dimly seen, was thrust into my face. + +"Why, who the fiend is this?" cried one, glaring at me in +astonishment. + +"_Morbleu!_ It is the man!" another shrieked. "Seize him!" + +In a moment half a dozen hands were laid on my shoulders, but I only +bowed politely. "The officer, my friends," I said, "M. le Capitaine +Larolle. Where is he?" + +"_Diable!_ but who are you, first?" the lanthorn-bearer retorted +bluntly. He was a tall, lanky sergeant, with a sinister face. + +"Well, I am not M. de Cocheforet," I replied; "and that must satisfy +you, my man. For the rest, if you do not fetch Captain Larolle at once +and admit me, you will find the consequences inconvenient." + +"Ho! ho!" he said, with a sneer. "You can crow, it seems. Well, come +in." + +They made way, and I walked into the hall, keeping my hat on. On the +great hearth a fire had been kindled, but it had gone out. Three or +four carbines stood against one wall, and beside them lay a heap of +haversacks and some straw. A shattered stool, broken in a frolic, and +half a dozen empty wine-skins strewed the floor, and helped to give +the place an air of untidiness and disorder. I looked round with eyes +of disgust, and my gorge rose. They had spilled oil, and the place +reeked foully. + +"_Ventre bleu!_" I said. "Is this conduct in a gentleman's house, you +rascals? _Ma vie!_ If I had you, I would send half of you to the +wooden horse!" + +They gazed at me open-mouthed. My arrogance startled them. The +sergeant alone scowled. When he could find his voice for rage-- + +"This way!" he said. "We did not know a general officer was coming, or +we would have been better prepared!" And muttering oaths under his +breath, he led me down the well-known passage. At the door of the +parlour he stopped. "Introduce yourself!" he said rudely. "And if you +find the air warm, don't blame me!" + +I raised the latch and went in. At a table in front of the hearth, +half covered with glasses and bottles, sat two men playing hazard. The +dice rang sharply as I entered, and he who had just thrown kept the +box over them while he turned, scowling, to see who came in. He was a +fair-haired, blonde man, large-framed and florid. He had put off his +cuirass and boots, and his doublet showed frayed and stained where the +armour had pressed on it. But otherwise he was in the extreme of last +year's fashion. His deep cravat, folded over so that the laced ends +drooped a little in front, was of the finest; his great sash of blue +and silver was a foot wide. He had a little jewel in one ear, and his +tiny beard was peaked _a l'Espagnole_. Probably when he turned he +expected to see the sergeant, for at sight of me he rose slowly, +leaving the dice still covered. + +"What folly is this?" he cried wrathfully. "Here, Sergeant! +Sergeant!--without there! What the--! Who are you, Sir?" + +"Captain Larolle," I said, uncovering politely, "I believe?" + +"Yes, I am Captain Larolle," he retorted. "But who, in the fiend's +name, are you? You are not the man we are after!" + +"I am not M. Cocheforet," I said coolly. "I am merely a guest in the +house, M. le Capitaine. I have been enjoying Madame de Cocheforet's +hospitality for some time, but by an evil chance I was away when you +arrived." And with that I walked to the hearth, and, gently pushing +aside his great boots which stood there drying, kicked the logs into a +blaze. + +"_Mille diables!_" he whispered. And never did I see a man more +confounded. But I affected to be taken up with his companion, a +sturdy, white-mustachioed old veteran, who sat back in his chair, +eyeing me, with swollen cheeks and eyes surcharged with surprise. + +"Good evening, M. le Lieutenant," I said, bowing gravely. "It is a +fine night." + +Then the storm burst. + +"Fine night!" the captain shrieked, finding his voice again. "_Mille +diables!_ Are you aware, Sir, that I am in possession of this house, +and that no one harbours here without my permission? Guest! +Hospitality! Lieutenant--call the guard! Call the guard!" he continued +passionately. "Where is that ape of a sergeant?" + +The lieutenant rose to obey, but I lifted my hand. + +"Gently, gently, Captain," I said. "Not so fast! You seem surprised to +see me here. Believe me, I am much more surprised to see you." + +"_Sacre!_" he cried, recoiling at this fresh impertinence, while the +lieutenant's eyes almost jumped out of his head. + +But nothing moved me. + +"Is the door closed?" I said sweetly. "Thank you; it is, I see. Then +permit me to say again, gentlemen, that I am much more surprised to +see you than you can be to see me. When Monseigneur the Cardinal +honoured me by sending me from Paris to conduct this matter, he gave +me the fullest--the fullest powers, M. le Capitaine--to see the affair +to an end. I was not led to expect that my plans would be spoiled on +the eve of success by the intrusion of half the garrison from Auch!" + +"O ho!" the captain said softly--in a very different tone and with a +very different face. "So you are the gentleman I heard of at Auch?" + +"Very likely," I said drily. "But I am from Paris, not Auch." + +"To be sure," he answered thoughtfully. "Eh, Lieutenant?" + +"Yes, M. le Capitaine, no doubt," the inferior replied. And they both +looked at one another, and then at me, in a way I did not understand. + +"I think," said I, to clinch the matter, "that you have made a +mistake, Captain; or the Commandant has. And it occurs to me that the +Cardinal will not be best pleased." + +"I hold the King's commission," he answered rather stiffly. + +"To be sure," I replied. "But you see the Cardinal--" + +"Ah, but the Cardinal--" he rejoined quickly; and then he stopped and +shrugged his shoulders. And they both looked at me. + +"Well?" I said. + +"The King," he answered slowly. + +"Tut-tut!" I exclaimed, spreading out my hands. "The Cardinal. Let us +stick to him. You were saying?" + +"Well, the Cardinal, you see--" And then again, after the same words, +he stopped--stopped abruptly and shrugged his shoulders. + +I began to suspect something. "If you have anything to say against +Monseigneur," I answered, watching him narrowly, "say it. But take a +word of advice. Don't let it go beyond the door of this room, my +friend, and it will do you no harm." + +"Neither here nor outside," he retorted, looking for a moment at his +comrade. "Only I hold the King's commission. That is all. And I think +enough. For the rest, will you throw a main? Good! Lieutenant, find a +glass, and the gentleman a seat. And here, for my part, I will give +you a toast. The Cardinal--whatever betide!" + +I drank it, and sat down to play with him; I had not heard the music +of the dice for a month, and the temptation was irresistible. But I +was not satisfied. I called the mains and won his crowns,--he was a +mere baby at the game,--but half my mind was elsewhere. There was +something here I did not understand; some influence at work on which I +had not counted; something moving under the surface as unintelligible +to me as the soldiers' presence. Had the captain repudiated my +commission altogether, and put me to the door or sent me to the +guard-house, I could have followed that. But these dubious hints, this +passive resistance, puzzled me. Had they news from Paris, I wondered. +Was the King dead? or the Cardinal ill? I asked them. But they said +no, no, no to all, and gave me guarded answers. And midnight found us +still playing; and still fencing. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + THE QUESTION. + + +"Sweep the room, Monsieur? And remove this medley? But, M. le +Capitaine--" + +"The captain is at the village," I replied sternly. "And do you move! +move, man, and the thing will be done while you are talking about it. +Set the door into the garden open--so!" + +"Certainly, it is a fine morning. And the tobacco of M. le +Lieutenant--But M. le Capitaine did not--" + +"Give orders? Well, I give them!" I answered. "First of all, remove +these beds. And bustle, man, bustle, or I will find something to +quicken you." + +In a moment-- "And M. le Capitaine's riding-boots?" + +"Place them in the passage," I replied. + +"_Ohe!_ In the passage?" He paused, looking at them in doubt. + +"Yes, booby; in the passage." + +"And the cloaks, Monsieur?" + +"There is a bush handy outside the window. Let them air." + +"_Ohe_, the bush? Well, to be sure they are damp. But--yes, yes, +Monsieur, it is done. And the holsters?" + +"There also!" I said harshly. "Throw them out. Faugh! The place reeks +of leather. Now, a clean hearth. And set the table before the open +door, so that we may see the garden. So. And tell the cook that we +shall dine at eleven, and that Madame and Mademoiselle will descend." + +"_Ohe!_ But M. le Capitaine ordered the dinner for half past eleven?" + +"It must be advanced, then; and, mark you, my friend, if it is not +ready when Madame comes down, you will suffer, and the cook too." + +When he was gone on his errand, I looked round. What else was lacking? +The sun shone cheerily on the polished floor; the air, freshened by +the rain which had fallen in the night, entered freely through the +open doorway. A few bees lingering with the summer hummed outside. The +fire crackled bravely; an old hound, blind and past work, lay warming +its hide on the hearth. I could think of nothing more, and I stood and +watched the man set out the table and spread the cloth. "For how many, +Monsieur?" he asked, in a scared tone. + +"For five," I answered; and I could not help smiling at myself. What +would Zaton's say could it see Berault turned housewife? There was +a white glazed cup--an old-fashioned piece of the second Henry's +time--standing on a shelf. I took it down and put some late flowers in +it, and set it in the middle of the table, and stood off myself to +look at it. But a moment later, thinking I heard them coming, I +hurried it away in a kind of panic, feeling on a sudden ashamed of the +thing. The alarm proved to be false, however; and then again, taking +another turn, I set the piece back. I had done nothing so foolish +for--for more years than I liked to count. + +But when Madame and Mademoiselle came, they had eyes neither for the +flowers nor the room. They had heard that the captain was out beating +the village and the woods for the fugitive, and where I had looked for +a comedy I found a tragedy. Madame's face was so red with weeping that +all her beauty was gone. She started and shook at the slightest sound, +and, unable to find any words to answer my greeting, could only sink +into a chair and sit crying silently. + +Mademoiselle was in a mood scarcely more cheerful. She did not weep, +but her manner was hard and fierce. She spoke absently and answered +fretfully. Her eyes glittered, and she had the air of straining her +ears continually to catch some dreaded sound. "There is no news, +Monsieur?" she said, as she took her seat. And she shot a swift look +at me. + +"None, Mademoiselle." + +"They are searching the village?" + +"I believe so." + +"Where is Clon?" This in a lower voice, and with a kind of shrinking +in her face. + +I shook my head. "I believe they have him confined somewhere. And +Louis, too," I said, "But I have not seen either of them." + +"And where are--? I thought these people would be here," she muttered. +And she glanced askance at the two vacant places. The servant had +brought in the meal. + +"They will be here presently," I said coolly. "Let us make the most of +the time. A little wine and food will do Madame good." + +She smiled rather sadly. "I think we have changed places," she said; +"and that you have turned host, and we guests." + +"Let it be so," I said cheerfully. "I recommend some of this ragout. +Come, Mademoiselle; fasting can aid no one. A full meal has saved many +a man's life." + +It was clumsily said perhaps, for she shuddered and looked at me with +a ghastly smile. But she persuaded her sister to taste something; and +she took something on her own plate and raised her fork to her lips. +But in a moment she laid it down again. "I cannot," she murmured. "I +cannot swallow. Oh, my God, at this moment they may be taking him!" + +I thought that she was about to burst into a passion of tears, and I +repented that I had induced her to descend. But her self-control was +not yet exhausted. By an effort painful to see, she recovered her +composure. She took up her fork, and ate a few mouthfuls. Then she +looked at me with a fierce under-look. "I want to see Clon," she +whispered feverishly. The man who waited on us had left the room. + +"He knows?" I said. + +She nodded, her beautiful face strangely disfigured. Her closed teeth +showed between her lips. Two red spots burned in her white cheeks, and +she breathed quickly. I felt, as I looked at her, a sudden pain at my +heart; and a shuddering fear, such as a man awaking to find himself +falling over a precipice, might feel. How these women loved the man! + +For a moment I could not speak. When I found my voice it sounded dry +and husky. "He is a safe confidant," I muttered. "He can neither speak +nor write, Mademoiselle." + +"No, but--" and then her face became fixed. "They are coming," she +whispered. "Hush!" She rose stiffly, and stood supporting herself by +the table. "Have they--have they--found him?" she muttered. The woman +by her side wept on, unconscious what was impending. + +I heard the captain stumble far down the passage, and swear loudly; +and I touched Mademoiselle's hand. "They have not!" I whispered. "All +is well, Mademoiselle. Pray, pray calm yourself. Sit down, and meet +them as if nothing were the matter. And your sister! Madame, Madame," +I cried, almost harshly, "compose yourself. Remember that you have a +part to play." + +My appeal did something. Madame stifled her sobs. Mademoiselle drew a +deep breath and sat down; and though she was still pale and still +trembled, the worst was past. + +And just in time. The door flew open with a crash. The captain +stumbled into the room, swearing afresh. "_Sacre nom du Diable!_" he +cried, his face crimson with rage. "What fool placed these things +here? My boots? My--" + +His jaw fell. He stopped on the word, stricken silent by the new +aspect of the room, by the sight of the little party at the table, by +all the changes I had worked. "_Saint Siege!_" I he muttered. "What is +this?" The lieutenant's grizzled face peering over his shoulder +completed the picture. + +"You are rather late, M. le Capitaine," I said cheerfully. "Madame's +hour is eleven. But come, here are your seats waiting for you." + +"_Mille tonnerres!_" he muttered, advancing into the room, and glaring +at us. + +"I am afraid the ragout is cold," I continued, peering into the dish +and affecting to see nothing. "The soup, however, has been kept hot by +the fire. But I think you do not see Madame." + +He opened his mouth to swear, but for the moment thought better of it. +"Who--who put my boots in the passage?" he asked, his voice thick with +rage. He did not bow to the ladies, or take any notice of their +presence. + +"One of the men, I suppose," I said indifferently. "Is anything +missing?" + +He glared at me. Then his cloak, spread outside, caught his eye. He +strode through the door, saw his holsters lying on the grass, and +other things strewn about. He came back. "Whose monkey game is this?" +he snarled, and his face was very ugly. "Who is at the bottom of this? +Speak, Sir, or I--" + +"Tut-tut! the ladies!" I said. "You forget yourself, Monsieur." + +"Forget myself?" he hissed, and this time he did not check his oath. +"Don't talk to me of the ladies! Madame? Bah! Do you think, fool, that +we are put into rebels' houses to bow and smile and take dancing +lessons?" + +"In this case a lesson in politeness were more to the point, +Monsieur," I said sternly. And I rose. + +"Was it by your orders that this was done?" he retorted, his brow +black with passion. "Answer, will you?" + +"It was!" I replied outright. + +"Then take that!" he cried, dashing his hat violently in my face. "And +come outside." + +"With pleasure, Monsieur," I answered, bowing. "In one moment. Permit +me to find my sword. I think it is in the passage." + +I went thither to get it. When I returned I found that the two men +were waiting for me in the garden, while the ladies had risen from the +table and were standing near it with blanched faces. "You had better +take your sister upstairs, Mademoiselle," I said gently, pausing a +moment beside them. "Have no fear. All will be well." + +"But what is it?" she answered, looking troubled. "It was so sudden. I +am--I did not understand. You quarrelled so quickly." + +"It is very simple," I answered, smiling. "M. le Capitaine insulted +you yesterday; he will pay for it to-day. That is all. Or, not quite +all," I continued, dropping my voice and speaking in a different tone. +"His removal may help you, Mademoiselle. Do you understand? I think +that there will be no more searching to-day." + +She uttered an exclamation, grasping my arm and peering into my face. +"You will kill him?" she muttered. + +I nodded. "Why not?" I said. + +She caught her breath and stood with one hand clasped to her bosom, +gazing at me with parted lips, the blood mounting to her cheeks. +Gradually the flush melted into a fierce smile. "Yes, yes, why not?" +she repeated, between her teeth. "Why not?" She had her hand on my +arm, and I felt her fingers tighten until I could have winced. "Why +not? So you planned this--for us, Monsieur?" + +I nodded. + +"But can you?" + +"Safely," I said; then, muttering to her to take her sister upstairs, +I turned towards the garden. My foot was already on the threshold, and +I was composing my face to meet the enemy, when I heard a movement +behind me. The next moment her hand was on my arm. "Wait! Wait a +moment! Come back!" she panted. I turned. The smile and flush had +vanished; her face was pale. "No!" she said abruptly. "I was wrong! I +will not have it. I will have no part in it! You planned it last +night, M. de Barthe. It is murder." + +"Mademoiselle!" I exclaimed, wondering. "Murder? Why? It is a duel." + +"It is murder," she answered persistently. "You planned it last night. +You said so." + +"But I risk my own life," I replied sharply. + +"Nevertheless--I will have no part in it," she answered more faintly. +"It will bring no good." She was trembling with agitation. Her eyes +avoided mine. + +"On my shoulders be it then!" I replied stoutly. "It is too late, +Mademoiselle, to go back. They are waiting for me. Only, before I go, +let me beg of you to retire." + +And I turned from her, and went out, wondering and thinking. First, +that women were strange things. Secondly--_murder?_ Merely because I +had planned the duel and provoked the quarrel! Never had I heard +anything so preposterous. Grant it, and dub every man who kept his +honour with his hands a Cain--and a good many branded faces would be +seen in some streets. I laughed at the fancy, as I strode down the +garden walk. + +And yet, perhaps, I was going to do a foolish thing. The lieutenant +would still be here: a hard, bitter man, of stiffer stuff than his +captain. And the troopers. What if, when I had killed their leader, +they made the place too hot for me, Monseigneur's commission +notwithstanding? I should look silly, indeed, if on the eve of success +I were driven from the place by a parcel of jack-boots. + +I liked the thought so little that I hesitated Yet it seemed too late +to retreat. The captain and the lieutenant were waiting in a little +open space fifty yards from the house, where a narrower path crossed +the broad walk, down which I had first seen Mademoiselle and her +sister pacing. The captain had removed his doublet, and stood in his +shirt leaning against the sundial, his head bare and his sinewy throat +uncovered. He had drawn his rapier and stood pricking the ground +impatiently. I marked his strong and nervous frame and his sanguine +air: and twenty years earlier the sight might have damped me. But no +thought of the kind entered my head now, and though I felt with each +moment greater reluctance to engage, doubt of the issue had no place +in my calculations. + +I made ready slowly, and would gladly, to gain time, have found some +fault with the place. But the sun was sufficiently high to give no +advantage to either. The ground was good, the spot well chosen. I +could find no excuse to put off the man, and I was about to salute him +and fall to work, when a thought crossed my mind. + +"One moment!" I said. "Supposing I kill you, M. le Capitaine, what +becomes of your errand here?" + +"Don't trouble yourself," he answered, with a sneer--he had misread my +slowness and hesitation. "It will not happen, Monsieur. And in any +case the thought need not harass you. I have a lieutenant." + +"Yes, but what of my mission?" I replied bluntly. "I have no +lieutenant." + +"You should have thought of that before you interfered with my boots," +he retorted, with contempt. + +"True," I said, overlooking his manner. "But better late than never. I +am not sure, now I think of it, that my duty to Monseigneur will let +me fight." + +"You will swallow the blow?" he cried, spitting on the ground +offensively. "_Diable!_" And the lieutenant, standing on one side with +his hands behind him and his shoulders squared, laughed grimly. + +"I have not made up my mind," I answered irresolutely. + +"Well, _nom de Dieu!_ make it up," the captain replied, with an ugly +sneer. He took a swaggering step this way and that, playing his +weapon. "I am afraid, Lieutenant, there will be no sport to-day," he +continued, in a loud aside. "Our cock has but a chicken heart." + +"Well!" I said coolly, "I do not know what to do. Certainly it is a +fine day, and a fair piece of ground. And the sun stands well. But I +have not much to gain by killing you, M. le Capitaine, and it might +get me into an awkward fix. On the other hand, it would not hurt me to +let you go." + +"Indeed?" he said contemptuously, looking at me as I should look at a +lacquey. + +"No!" I replied. "For if you were to say that you had struck Gil de +Berault, and left the ground with a whole skin, no one would believe +you." + +"Gil de Berault!" he exclaimed, frowning. + +"Yes, Monsieur," I replied suavely. "At your service. You did not know +my name?" + +"I thought your name was De Barthe," he said. His voice sounded +queerly; and he waited for the answer with parted lips, and a shadow +in his eyes which I had seen in men's eyes before. + +"No," I said. "That was my mother's name, I took it for this occasion +only." + +His florid cheek lost a shade of its colour, and he bit his lips as he +glanced at the lieutenant, trouble in his eyes. I had seen these signs +before, and knew them, and I might have cried "Chicken-heart!" in my +turn; but I had not made a way of escape for him--before I declared +myself--for nothing, and I held to my purpose. "I think you will allow +now," I said grimly, "that it will not harm me even if I put up with a +blow!" + +"M. de Berault's courage is known," he muttered. + +"And with reason," I said. "That being so, suppose we say this day +three months, M. le Capitaine? The postponement to be for my +convenience." + +He caught the lieutenant's eye, and looked down sullenly, the conflict +in his mind as plain as daylight. He had only to insist, and I must +fight; and if by luck or skill he could master me, his fame as a +duellist would run, like a ripple over water, through every garrison +town in France and make him a name even in Paris. On the other side +were the imminent peril of death, the gleam of cold steel already in +fancy at his breast, the loss of life and sunshine, and the +possibility of a retreat with honour, if without glory. I read his +face, and knew before he spoke what he would do. + +"It appears to me that the burden is with you," he said huskily; "but +for my part, I am satisfied." + +"Very well," I said, "I take the burden. Permit me to apologize for +having caused you to strip unnecessarily. Fortunately the sun is +shining." + +"Yes," he said gloomily. And he took his clothes from the sundial, and +began to put them on. He had expressed himself satisfied; but I knew +that he was feeling very ill-satisfied with himself, and I was not +surprised when he presently said abruptly and almost rudely, "There is +one thing I think we must settle here." + +"What is that?" I asked. + +"Our positions," he blurted out. "Or we shall cross one another again +within the hour." + +"Umph! I am not quite sure that I understand," I said. + +"That is precisely what I don't do--understand!" he retorted, in a +tone of surly triumph. "Before I came on this duty, I was told that +there was a gentleman here, bearing sealed orders from the Cardinal to +arrest M. de Cocheforet; and I was instructed to avoid collision with +him so far as might be possible. At first I took you for the +gentleman. But the plague take me if I understand the matter now." + +"Why not?" I said coldly. + +"Because--well, the matter is in a nutshell!" he answered impetuously. +"Are you here on behalf of Madame de Cocheforet to shield her husband? +Or are you here to arrest him? That is what I don't understand, M. de +Berault." + +"If you mean, am I the Cardinal's agent--I am!" I answered sternly. + +"To arrest M. de Cocheforet?" + +"To arrest M. de Cocheforet." + +"Well--you surprise me," he said. + +Only that; but he spoke so drily that I felt the blood rush to my +face. "Take care, Monsieur," I said severely. "Do not presume too far +on the inconvenience to which your death might put me." + +He shrugged his shoulders. "No offence!" he said. "But you do not +seem, M. de Berault, to comprehend the difficulty. If we do not settle +things now, we shall be bickering twenty times a day!" + +"Well, what do you want?" I asked impatiently. + +"Simply to know how you are going to proceed. So that our plans may +not clash." + +"But surely, M. le Capitaine, that is my affair!" I replied. + +"The clashing?" he answered bitterly. Then he waved aside my wrath. +"Pardon," he said, "the point is simply this: How do you propose to +find him if he is here?" + +"That again is my affair," I answered. + +He threw up his hands in despair; but in a moment his place was taken +by an unexpected disputant. The lieutenant, who had stood by all the +time, listening and tugging at his grey moustache, suddenly spoke. +"Look here, M. de Berault," he said, confronting me roughly, "I do not +fight duels. I am from the ranks. I proved my courage at Montauban in +'21, and my honour is good enough to take care of itself. So I say +what I like, and I ask you plainly what M. le Capitaine doubtless has +in his mind but does not ask: Are you running with the hare and +hunting with the hounds in this matter? In other words, have you +thrown up Monseigneur's commission in all but name and become Madame's +ally; or--it is the only other alternative--are you getting at the man +through the women?" + +"You villain!" I cried, glaring at him in such a rage and fury I could +scarcely get the words out. This was plain speaking with a vengeance! +"How dare you! How dare you say that I am false to the hand that pays +me?" + +I thought he would blench, but he did not. He stood up stiff as a +poker. "I do not say; I ask!" he replied, facing me squarely, and +slapping his fist into his open hand to drive home his words the +better. "I ask you whether you are playing the traitor to the +Cardinal? Or to these two women? It is a simple question." + +I fairly choked. "You impudent scoundrel," I said. + +"Steady, steady!" he replied. "Pitch sticks where it belongs. But that +is enough. I see which it is, M. le Capitaine; this way a moment, by +your leave." + +And in a very cavalier way he took his officer by the arm, and drew +him into a side-walk, leaving me to stand in the sun, bursting with +anger and spleen. The gutter-bred rascal! That such a man should +insult me, and with impunity! In Paris I might have made him fight, +but here it was impossible. I was still foaming with rage when they +returned. + +"We have come to a determination," the lieutenant said, tugging his +grey mustachios and standing like a ramrod. "We shall leave you the +house and Madame, and you can take your line to find the man. For +ourselves, we shall draw off our men to the village, and we shall take +our line. That is all, M. le Capitaine, is it not?" + +"I think so," the captain muttered, looking anywhere but at me. + +"Then we bid you good-day, Monsieur," the lieutenant added. And in a +moment he turned his companion round, and the two retired up the walk +to the house, leaving me to look after them in a black fit of rage and +incredulity. At the first flush there was something so offensive in +the manner of their going that anger had the upper hand. I thought of +the lieutenant's words, and I cursed him to hell with a sickening +consciousness that I should not forget them in a hurry: "Was I playing +the traitor to the Cardinal or to these women--which?" _Mon Dieu!_ if +ever question--but there! some day I would punish him. And the +captain? I could put an end to his amusement, at any rate; and I +would. Doubtless among the country bucks of Auch he lorded it as a +chief provincial bully, but I would cut his comb for him some fine +morning behind the barracks. + +And then, as I grew cooler I began to wonder why they were going, and +what they were going to do. They might be already on the track, or +have the information they required under hand; in that case I could +understand the movement. But if they were still searching vaguely, +uncertain whether their quarry were in the neighbourhood or not, and +uncertain how long they might have to stay, it seemed incredible that +soldiers should move from good quarters to bad without motive. + +I wandered down the garden thinking sullenly of this, and pettishly +cutting off the heads of the flowers with my sheathed sword. After +all, if they found and arrested the man, what then? I should have to +make my peace with the Cardinal as I best might. He would have gained +his point, but not through me, and I should have to look to myself. On +the other hand, if I anticipated them--and, as a fact, I felt that I +could lay my hand on the fugitive within a few hours--there would come +a time when I must face Mademoiselle. + +A little while back that had not seemed so difficult a thing. From the +day of our first meeting--and in a higher degree since that afternoon +when she had lashed me with her scorn--my views of her, and my +feelings towards her, had been strangely made up of antagonism and +sympathy; of repulsion, because in her past and present she was so +different from me; of yearning, because she was a woman and +friendless. Then I had duped her and bought her confidence by +returning the jewels, and in a measure I had sated my vengeance; and +then, as a consequence, sympathy had again begun to get the better, +until now I hardly knew my own mind or what I intended. _I did not +know_, in fact, what I intended. I stood there in the garden with that +conviction suddenly new-born in my mind; and then, in a moment, I +heard her step and turned to find her behind me. + +Her face was like April, smiles breaking through her tears. As she +stood with a tall hedge of sunflowers behind her, I started to see how +beautiful she was. "I am here in search of you, M. de Barthe," she +said, colouring slightly, perhaps because my eyes betrayed my thought, +"to thank you. You have not fought, and yet you have conquered. My +woman has just been with me, and she tells me that they are going!" + +"Going?" I said. "Yes, Mademoiselle, they are leaving the house." + +She did not understand my reservation. "What magic have you used?" she +said, almost gaily--it was wonderful how hope had changed her. +"Moreover, I am curious to learn how you managed to avoid fighting." + +"After taking a blow?" I said bitterly. + +"Monsieur, I did not mean that," she said reproachfully. But her face +clouded. I saw that, viewed in this light--in which I suppose she had +not seen it--the matter perplexed her still more. + +I took a sudden resolution. "Have you ever heard, Mademoiselle," I +said gravely, plucking off while I spoke the dead leaves from a plant +beside me, "of a gentleman by name De Berault? Known in Paris, so I +have heard, by the sobriquet of the Black Death?" + +"The duellist?" she answered, in wonder. "Yes, I have heard of him. He +killed a young gentleman of this province at Nancy two years back. It +was a sad story," she continued, shuddering, "of a dreadful man. God +keep our friends from such!" + +"Amen!" I said quietly. But, in spite of myself, I could not meet her +eyes. + +"Why?" she answered, quickly taking alarm at my silence. "What of him, +M. de Barthe? Why have you mentioned him?" + +"Because he is here, Mademoiselle." + +"Here?" she exclaimed. + +"Yes, Mademoiselle," I answered soberly. "I am he." + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + CLON. + + +"You!" she cried, in a voice which pierced me, "You--M. de Berault? +Impossible!" But, glancing askance at her.--I could not face her,--I +saw that the blood had left her cheeks. + +"Yes, Mademoiselle," I answered, in a low voice. "De Barthe was my +mother's name. When I came here, a stranger, I took it that I might +not be known; that I might again speak to a good woman and not see her +shrink. That--but why trouble you with all this?" I continued proudly, +rebelling against her silence, her turned shoulder, her averted face. +"You asked me, Mademoiselle, how I could take a blow and let the +striker go. I have answered. It is the one privilege M. de Berault +possesses." + +"Then," she replied quickly, but almost in a whisper, "if I were M. de +Berault, I would use it, and never fight again." + +"In that event, Mademoiselle," I answered cynically, "I should lose my +men friends as well as my women friends. Like Monseigneur, the +Cardinal, I rule by fear." + +She shuddered, either at the name or at the idea my words called up, +and, for a moment, we stood awkwardly silent. The shadow of the +sundial fell between us; the garden was still; here and there a leaf +fluttered slowly down, or a seed fell. With each instant of silence I +felt the gulf between us growing wider, I felt myself growing harder; +I mocked at her past, which was so unlike mine; I mocked at mine, and +called it fate. I was on the point of turning from her with a bow--and +a furnace in my breast--when she spoke. + +"There is a late rose lingering there," she said, a slight tremor in +her voice. "I cannot reach it. Will you pluck it for me, M. de +Berault?" + +I obeyed her, my hand trembling, my face on fire. She took the rose +from me, and placed it in the bosom of her dress. And I saw that her +hand trembled too, and that her cheek was dark with blushes. + +She turned at once, and began to walk towards the house. Presently she +spoke. "Heaven forbid that I should misjudge you a second time!" she +said, in a low voice. "And, after all, who am I that I should judge +you at all? An hour ago, I would have killed that man had I possessed +the power." + +"You repented, Mademoiselle," I said huskily. I could scarcely speak. + +"Do you never repent?" + +"Yes. But too late, Mademoiselle." + +"Perhaps it is never too late," she answered softly. + +"Alas, when a man is dead--" + +"You may rob a man of more than life!" she replied with energy, +stopping me by a gesture. "If you have never robbed a man--or a +woman--of honour! If you have never ruined boy or girl, M. de Berault! +If you have never pushed another into the pit and gone by it yourself! +If--but for murder? Listen. You may be a Romanist, but I am a +Huguenot, and have read. 'Thou shalt not kill!' it is written; and +the penalty, 'By man shall thy blood be shed!' But, 'If you cause +one of these little ones to offend, it were _better_ for you that a +mill-stone were hanged about your neck, and that you were cast into +the depths of the sea." + +"Mademoiselle, you are too merciful," I muttered. + +"I need mercy myself," she answered, sighing. "And I have had few +temptations. How do I know what you have suffered?" + +"Or done!" I said, almost rudely. + +"Where a man has not lied, nor betrayed, nor sold himself or others," +she answered firmly, but in a low tone, "I think I can forgive all +else. I can better put up with force," she added, smiling sadly, "than +with fraud." + +Ah, Dieu! I turned away my face that she might not see how it paled, +how I winced; that she might not guess how her words, meant in mercy, +stabbed me to the heart. And yet, then, for the first time, while +viewing in all its depth and width the gulf which separated us, I was +not hardened; I was not cast back on myself. Her gentleness, her pity, +her humility, softened me, while they convicted me. My God! How could +I do that which I had come to do? How could I stab her in the +tenderest part, how could I inflict on her that rending pang, how +could I meet her eyes, and stand before her, a Caliban, a Judas, the +vilest, lowest, basest thing she could conceive? + +I stood, a moment, speechless and disordered; stunned by her words, by +my thoughts--as I have seen a man stand when he has lost his all, his +last, at the tables. Then I turned to her; and for an instant I +thought that my tale was told already. I thought that she had pierced +my disguise, for her face was aghast, stricken with sudden fear. Then +I saw that she was not looking at me, but beyond me, and I turned +quickly and saw a servant hurrying from the house to us. It was Louis. +His face, it was, had frightened her. His eyes were staring, his hair +waved, his cheeks were flabby with dismay. He breathed as if he had +been running. + +"What is it?" Mademoiselle cried, while he was still some way off. +"Speak, man. My sister? Is she--" + +"Clon," he gasped. + +The name changed her to stone. "Clon?" she muttered. "What of him?" + +"In the village!" Louis panted, his tongue stuttering with terror. +"They are flogging him! They are killing him, Mademoiselle! To make +him tell!" + +Mademoiselle grasped the sundial and leant against it, her face +colourless, and, for an instant, I thought that she was fainting. +"Tell?" I said mechanically. "But he cannot tell. He is dumb, man." + +"They will make him guide them," Louis groaned, covering his ears with +his shaking hands, his face like paper. "And his cries! Oh, Monsieur, +go!" he continued, suddenly appealing to me, in a thrilling tone. +"Save him. All through the wood I heard them. It was horrible! +horrible!" + +Mademoiselle uttered a low moan, and I turned to support her, thinking +each second to see her fall. But with a sudden movement she +straightened herself, and, slipping by me, with eyes which seemed to +see nothing, she started swiftly down the walk towards the meadow +gate. + +I ran after her, but, taken by surprise as I was, it was only by a +great effort I reached the gate before her, and, thrusting myself in +the road, barred the way. "Let me pass!" she panted fiercely, striving +to thrust me on one side. "Out of my way, Sir! I am going to the +village." + +"You are not going to the village," I said sternly. "Go back to the +house, Mademoiselle, and at once." + +"My servant!" she wailed. "Let me go! Oh, let me go! Do you +think I can rest here while they torture him? He cannot speak, and +they--they--" + +"Go back, Mademoiselle," I said, cutting her short, with decision. +"You would only make matters worse! I will go myself, and what one man +can do against many, I will! Louis, give your mistress your arm and +take her to the house. Take her to Madame." + +"But you will go?" she cried. Before I could stay her--I swear I would +have done so if I could--she raised my hand and carried it to her +trembling lips. "You will go! Go and stop them! Stop them," she +continued, in a tone which stirred my heart, "and Heaven reward you, +Monsieur!" + +I did not answer; nor did I once look back, as I crossed the meadow; +but I did not look forward either. Doubtless it was grass I trod; +doubtless the wood was before me with the sun shining aslant on it, +and behind me the house with a flame here and there on the windows. +But I went in a dream, among shadows; with a racing pulse, in a glow +from head to heel; conscious of nothing but the touch of +Mademoiselle's warm lips, seeing neither meadows nor house, nor even +the dark fringe of wood before me, but only Mademoiselle's passionate +face. For the moment I was drunk: drunk with that to which I had been +so long a stranger, with that which a man may scorn for years, to find +it at last beyond his reach--drunk with the touch of a good woman's +lips. + +I passed the bridge in this state; and my feet were among the +brushwood before the heat and fervour in which I moved found on a +sudden their direction. Something began to penetrate to my veiled +senses--a hoarse inarticulate cry, now deep, now shrilling horribly, +which seemed to fill the wood. It came at intervals of half a minute +or so, and made the flesh creep, it was so full of dumb pain, of +impotent wrestling, of unspeakable agony. I am a man and have seen +things. I saw the Concini beheaded, and Chalais ten years later--they +gave him thirty-four blows; and when I was a boy I escaped from +the college and viewed from a great distance Ravaillac torn by +horses--that was in the year ten. But the horrible cries I now heard +filled me, perhaps because I was alone and fresh from the sight of +Mademoiselle, with loathing that was intense. The very wood, though +the sun wanted an hour of setting, seemed to grow dark. I ran on +through it, cursing, until the hovels of the village at length came in +sight. Again the shriek rose, a pulsing horror, and this time I could +hear the lash fall on the sodden flesh, I could see in fancy the +strong man, trembling, quivering, straining against his bonds. And +then, in a moment, I was in the street, and, as the scream once more +tore the air, I dashed round the corner by the inn, and came upon +them. + +I did not look at _him_. I saw Captain Larolle and the lieutenant, and +a ring of troopers, and one man, bare-armed, teasing out with his +fingers the thongs of a whip. The thongs dripped blood, and the sight +fired the mine. The rage I had suppressed when the lieutenant bearded +me earlier in the afternoon, the passion with which Mademoiselle's +distress had filled my breast, at last found vent. I sprang through +the line of soldiers, and striking the man with the whip a buffet +between the shoulders, which hurled him breathless to the ground, I +turned on the leaders. "You devils!" I cried. "Shame on you! The man +is dumb! I tell you, if I had ten men with me, I would sweep you and +your scum out of the village with broomsticks. Lay on another lash," I +continued recklessly, "and I will see if you or the Cardinal be the +stronger." + +The lieutenant glared at me, his grey moustache bristling, his eyes +almost starting from his head. Some of the troopers laid their hands +on their swords, but no one moved, and only the captain spoke. "_Mille +diables!_" he swore. "What is all this about? Are you mad, Sir?" + +"Mad or sane!" I cried, still in a fury. "Lay on another lash, and you +shall repent it." + +"I?" + +"Yes, you!" + +For an instant there was a pause of astonishment. Then to my surprise +the captain laughed--laughed loudly. "Very heroic!" he said. "Quite +magnificent, M. le Chevalier-errant. But you see, unfortunately, you +come too late!" + +"Too late!" I said incredulously. + +"Yes, too late," he replied, with a mocking smile. And the lieutenant +grinned too. "You see the man has just confessed. We have only been +giving him an extra touch or two, to impress his memory, and save us +the trouble of tying him up again." + +"I don't believe it," I said bluntly--but I felt the check, and fell +to earth. "The man cannot speak." + +"No, but he has managed to tell us that he will guide us to the place +we want," the captain answered drily. "The whip, if it cannot find a +man a tongue, can find him wits. What is more, I think, he will keep +his word," he continued, with a hideous smile. "For I warn him that if +he does not, all your heroics shall not save him! He is a rebel dog, +and known to us of old, and I will flay his back to the bones--ay, +until we can see his heart beating through his ribs--but I will have +what I want--in your teeth, too, you d--d meddler." + +"Steady, steady!" I said, somewhat sobered. I saw that he was +telling me the truth. "He is going to take you to M. de Cocheforet's +hiding-place, is he?" + +"Yes, he is!" the captain retorted offensively. "Have you any +objection to make to that, Master Spy?" + +"None," I replied. "But I shall go with you. And if you live three +months, I shall kill you for that name--behind the barracks at Auch, +M. le Capitaine." + +He changed colour, but he answered me boldly enough. "I don't know +that you will go with us. That is as we please," he continued, with a +snarl. + +"I have the Cardinal's orders," I said sternly. + +"The Cardinal?" he exclaimed, stung to fury by this repetition of the +name. "The Cardinal be--" + +But the lieutenant laid his hands on his lips, and stopped him. +"Hush!" he said. Then more quietly, "Your pardon, M. le Capitaine. +Shall I give orders to the men to fall in?" + +The captain nodded sullenly. + +"Take him down!" the lieutenant ordered, in his harsh, monotonous +voice. "Throw his blouse over him, and tie his hands. And do you two, +Paul and Lebrun, guard him. Michel, bring the whip, or he may forget +how it tastes. Sergeant, choose four good men and dismiss the rest to +their quarters." + +"Shall we need the horses?" the sergeant asked. + +"I don't know," the captain answered peevishly. "What does the rogue +say?" + +The lieutenant stepped up to him. "Listen!" he said grimly. "Nod if +you mean yes, and shake your head if you mean no. And have a care you +answer truly. Is it more than a mile to this place? The place you know +of?" + +They had loosened the poor wretch's fastenings, and covered his back. +He stood leaning against the wall, his mouth still panting, the sweat +running down his hollow cheeks; his sunken eyes were closed; a quiver +now and again ran through his frame. The lieutenant repeated his +question, and, getting no answer, looked round for orders. The captain +met the look, and crying savagely, "Answer, will you, you mute!" +struck the half-swooning miserable across the back with his switch. +The effect was magical. Covered, as his shoulders were, the man sprang +erect with a shriek of pain, raising his chin, and hollowing his back; +and in that attitude stood an instant with starting eyes, gasping for +breath. Then he sank back against the wall, moving his mouth +spasmodically. His face was the colour of lead. + +"_Diable!_ I think we have gone too far with him!" the captain +muttered. + +"Bring some wine!" the lieutenant replied. "Quick with it!" + +I looked on, burning with indignation, and wondering besides what +would come of this. If the man took them to the place, and they +succeeded in seizing, Cocheforet, there was an end of the matter as +far as I was concerned. It was off my shoulders, and I might leave the +village when I pleased; nor was it likely--since he would have his +man, though not through me--that the Cardinal would refuse me an +amnesty. On the whole, I thought that I would prefer that things +should take that course; and assuming the issue, I began to wonder +whether in that event it would be necessary that Madame should know +the truth. I had a kind of a vision of a reformed Berault, dead to +play and purging himself at a distance from Zaton's, winning, perhaps, +a name In the Italian war, and finally--but, pshaw! I was a fool. + +However, be that as it might, it was essential that I should see the +arrest made; and I waited patiently while they revived the tortured +man, and made their dispositions. These took some time; so that the +sun was down, and it was growing dusk, when we marched out, Clon +going first, supported by his two guards, the captain and I +following,--abreast, and eyeing one another suspiciously,--the +lieutenant, with the sergeant and five troopers, bringing up the rear. +Clon moved slowly, moaning from time to time, and but for the aid +given him by the two men with him, must have sunk down again and +again. + +He went out between two houses close to the inn, and struck a narrow +track, scarcely discernible, which ran behind other houses, and then +plunged into the thickest part of the wood. A single person, +traversing the covert, might have made such a track; or pigs, or +children. But it was the first idea that occurred to us, and it put us +all on the alert. The captain carried a cocked pistol, I held my sword +drawn, and kept a watchful eye on him; and the deeper the dusk fell in +the wood, the more cautiously we went, until at last we came out with +a sort of jump into a wider and lighter path. + +I looked up and down it, and saw before me a wooden bridge, and an +open meadow, lying cold and grey in the twilight; and I stood in +astonishment. It was the old path to the Chateau! I shivered at the +thought that he was going to take us there, to the house--to +Mademoiselle! + +The captain also recognised the place, and swore aloud. But the dumb +man went on unheeding, until he reached the wooden bridge. There he +paused as if in doubt, and looked towards the dark outline of the +building, which was just visible, one faint light twinkling sadly in +the west wing. As the captain and I pressed up behind him, he raised +his hands and seemed to wring them towards the house. + +"Have a care!" the captain growled. "Play me no tricks, or--" But he +did not finish the sentence; for Clon turned back from the bridge, +and, entering the wood on the left hand, began to ascend the bank of +the stream. We had not gone a hundred yards before the ground grew +rough, and the undergrowth thick; and yet through all ran a kind of +path which enabled us to advance, dark as it was growing. Very soon +the bank on which we moved began to rise above the water, and grew +steep and rugged. We turned a shoulder, where the stream swept round a +curve, and saw we were in the mouth of a small ravine, dark and +steep-walled. The water brawled along the bottom, over boulders and +through chasms. In front, the slope on which we stood shaped itself +into a low cliff; but half-way between its summit and the water, a +ledge, or narrow terrace, running along the face, was dimly visible. + +"Ten to one, a cave!" the captain muttered. "It is a likely place." + +"And an ugly one!" I sneered. "Which one to ten might safely hold for +hours!" + +"If the ten had no pistols--yes!" he answered viciously. "But you see +we have. Is he going that way?" + +He was. "Lieutenant," Larolle said, turning and speaking in a low +voice, though the chafing of the stream below us covered ordinary +sounds, "shall we light the lanthorns, or press on while there is +still a glimmering of day?" + +"On, I should say, M. le Capitaine," the lieutenant answered. "Prick +him in the back if he falters. I will warrant he has a tender place or +two!" the brute added, with a chuckle. + +The captain gave the word, and we moved forward; it being very evident +now that the cliff-path was our destination. It was possible for the +eye to follow the track all the way to it through rough stones and +brushwood; and though Clon climbed feebly and with many groans, two +minutes saw us step on to it. It did not turn out to be the perilous +place it looked at a distance. The ledge, grassy and terrace-like, +sloped slightly downwards and outwards, and in parts was slippery; but +it was as wide as a highway, and the fall to the water did not exceed +thirty feet. Even in such a dim light as now displayed it to us, and +by increasing the depth and unseen dangers of the gorge, gave a kind +of impressiveness to our movements, a nervous woman need not have +feared to breast it. I wondered how often Mademoiselle had passed +along it with her milk-pitcher. + +"I think we have him now!" Captain Larolle muttered, twisting his +mustachios, and looking round to make his last dispositions. "Paul and +Lebrun, see that your man makes no noise. Sergeant, come forward with +your carbine, but do not fire without orders. Now, silence, all, and +close up, Lieutenant. Forward!" + +We advanced about a hundred paces, keeping the cliff on our left, then +turned a shoulder, and saw, a few paces in front of us, a black blotch +standing out from the grey duskiness of the cliff-side. The prisoner +stopped, and raising his bound hands pointed to it. + +"There?" the captain whispered, pressing forward. "Is that the place?" + +Clon nodded. The captain's voice shook with excitement. "You two +remain here with him!" he muttered, in a low tone. "Sergeant, come +forward with me. Now, are you ready? Forward!" + +He and the sergeant passed quickly, one on either side of Clon and his +guards. The path was narrow here, and the captain passed outside. The +eyes of all but one were on the black blotch, the hollow in the +cliff-side, and no one saw exactly what happened. But somehow, as the +captain passed abreast of him, the prisoner thrust back his guards, +and springing sideways, flung his unbound arms round Larolle's body, +and in an instant swept him, shouting, to the verge of the precipice. + +It was done in a moment. By the time the lieutenant's startled wits +and eyes were back, the two were already tottering on the edge, +looking in the gloom like one dark form. The sergeant, who was the +first to find his head, levelled his carbine; but as the wrestlers +twirled and twisted, the captain shrieking out oaths and threats, the +mute silent as death, it was impossible to see which was which; and +the sergeant lowered his gun again, while the men held back nervously. +The ledge sloped steeply there; the edge was vague; already the two +seemed to be wrestling in mid-air,--and the mute was a man beyond hope +or fear. + +That moment of hesitation was fatal. Clon's long arms were round the +other's arms, crushing them into his ribs; Clon's skull-like face +grinned hate into the other's eyes; his long limbs curled round him +like the folds of a snake. Suddenly Larolle's strength gave way. "Damn +you all! Why don't you--Mercy! mercy!" came in a last scream from his +lips; and then, as the lieutenant, taken aback before, sprang forward +to his aid, the two toppled over the edge, and in a second hurtled out +of sight. + +"_Mon Dieu!_" the lieutenant cried, in horror. The answer was a dull +splash in the depths below. + +He flung up his arms. "Water!" he said. "Quick, men, get down! We may +save him yet! They have fallen into water!" + +But there was no path, and night was come, and the men's nerves were +shaken. The lanthorns had to be lit, and the way to be retraced; and +by the time we reached the dark pool which lay below, the last bubbles +were gone from the surface, the last ripples had beaten themselves out +against the banks. True, the pool still rocked sullenly, and the +yellow light showed a man's hat floating, and near it a glove three +parts submerged. But that was all. The mute's dying grip had known no +loosening, nor his hate any fear. Later, I heard that when they +dragged the two out next day, his fingers were in the other's +eye-sockets, his teeth in his throat. If ever man found death sweet, +it was he. + +As we turned slowly from the black water, some shuddering, some +crossing themselves, the lieutenant looked vengefully at me. "Curse +you!" he said, in sudden fury. "I believe you are glad!" + +"He deserved his fate," I answered coldly. "Why should I pretend to be +sorry? It was now or in three months. And for the other poor devil's +sake I am glad." + +He glared at me a moment, in speechless anger. At last, "I should like +to have you tied up!" he said, between his teeth. + +"I should have thought that you had had enough of tying up for one +day!" I retorted. "But there; it comes of making officers out of the +canaille. Dogs love blood. The teamster must still lash something, if +he can no longer lash his horses." + +We were back, a sombre little procession, at the wooden bridge, when I +said this. He stopped suddenly. "Very well," he replied, nodding +viciously, "That decides me. Sergeant, light me this way with a +lanthorn. The rest of you to the village. Now, Master Spy," he +continued, glancing at me with gloomy spite, "your road is my road. I +think I know how to cook your goose." + +I shrugged my shoulders in disdain, and together, the sergeant leading +the way with the light, we crossed the meadow, and passed through the +gate where Mademoiselle had kissed my hand, and up the ghostly walk +between the rosebushes. I wondered uneasily what the lieutenant would +be at, and what he intended; but the lanthorn light which now fell +on the ground at our feet, and now showed one of us to the other, +high-lit in a frame of blackness, discovered nothing in his grizzled +face but settled hostility. He wheeled at the end of the walk to go +to the main door; but as he did so, I saw the flutter of a white +skirt by the stone seat against the house, and I stepped that way. +"Mademoiselle," I said softly, "is it you?" + +"Clon?" she muttered, her voice quivering. "What of him?" + +"He is past pain," I answered gently. "He is dead, but in his own way. +Take comfort, Mademoiselle." And then before I could say more, the +lieutenant with his sergeant and light were at my elbow. He saluted +Mademoiselle roughly. She looked at him with shuddering abhorrence. + +"Are you come to flog me, Sir?" she said icily. "Is it not enough that +you have murdered my servant?" + +"On the contrary, it was he killed my captain," the lieutenant +answered, in another tone than I had expected. "If your servant is +dead, so is my comrade." + +She looked with startled eyes, not at him, but at me. "What! Captain +Larolle?" she muttered. + +I nodded. + +"How?" she asked. + +"Clon flung the captain and himself into the river-pool," I explained, +in a low voice. "The pool above the bridge." + +She uttered an exclamation of awe, and stood silent. But her lips +moved; I think she was praying for Clon, though she was a Huguenot. +Meanwhile I had a fright. The lanthorn, swinging in the sergeant's +hand, and now throwing its smoky light on the stone seat, now on the +rough wall above it, showed me something else. On the seat, doubtless +where Mademoiselle's hand had lain, as she sat in the dark, listening +and watching, stood a pitcher of food. Beside her, in that place, it +was damning evidence. I trembled lest the lieutenant's eye should fall +upon it, lest the sergeant should see it; I thought what I could do to +hide it; and then in a moment I forgot all about it. The lieutenant +was speaking, and his voice was like doom. My throat grew dry as I +listened. My tongue stuck to my mouth; I tried to look at +Mademoiselle, but I could not. + +"It is true, the captain is gone," he said stiffly. "But others are +alive, and about one of them, a word with you,--by your leave, +Mademoiselle. I have listened to a good deal of talk from this fine +gentleman friend of yours. He has spent the last twenty-four hours +saying, 'You shall!' and 'You shall not!' He came from you, and took a +very high tone because we laid a little whip-lash about that dumb +devil of yours. He called us brutes and beasts, and but for him I am +not sure that my friend would not be alive. But when he said a few +minutes ago that he was glad,--glad of it, damn him!--then I fixed it +in my mind that I would be even with him. And I am going to be!" + +"What do you mean?" Mademoiselle asked, wearily interrupting him. "If +you think you can prejudice me against that gentleman--" + +"That is precisely what I do think! And I am going to do it. And a +little more than that!" + +"You will be only wasting your breath!" she answered proudly. + +"Wait! wait, Mademoiselle, until you have heard!" he said. "If ever a +black-hearted scoundrel, a dastardly, sneaking spy, trod the earth, it +is this fellow! This friend of yours! And I am going to expose him. +Your own eyes and your own ears shall persuade you. Why, I would not +eat, I would not drink, I would not sit down with him! I would not! I +would rather be beholden to the meanest trooper in my squadron than to +him! Ay, I would, so help me Heaven!" And the lieutenant, turning +squarely on his heels, spat on the ground. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + THE ARREST. + + +So it had come! And come in such a fashion that I saw no way of +escape. The sergeant was between us, and I could not strike him. And I +found no words. A score of times I had thought with shrinking how I +should reveal my secret to Mademoiselle, what I should say, and how +she would take it. But in my mind it had always been a voluntary act, +this disclosure. It had been always I who had unmasked myself, and she +who listened--alone; and in this voluntariness and this privacy there +had been something which seemed to take from the shame of +anticipation. But here--here was no voluntary act on my part, no +privacy, nothing but shame. I stood mute, convicted, speechless--like +the thing I was. + +Yet if anything could have braced me, it was Mademoiselle's voice, +when she answered him. "Go on, Monsieur," she said, with the perfect +calmness of scorn. "You will have done the sooner." + +"You do not believe me?" he replied hotly. "Then, I say, look at him! +Look at him! If ever shame--" + +"Monsieur!" she said abruptly--she did not look at me. "I am ashamed +myself!" + +"Why, his very name is not his own!" the lieutenant rejoined jerkily. +"He is no Barthe at all. He is Berault the gambler, the duellist, the +bully--" + +Again she interrupted him. "I know it," she said coldly. "I know it +all. And if you have nothing more to tell me, go, Monsieur. Go!" she +continued, in a tone of infinite scorn. "Enough that you have earned +my contempt as well as my abhorrence!" + +He looked for a moment taken aback. Then, "Ay, but I _have_ more!" he +cried, his voice stubbornly triumphant. "I forgot that you would think +little of that! I forgot that a swordsman has always the ladies' +hearts. But I have more. Do you know, too, that he is in the +Cardinal's pay? Do you know that he is here on the same errand which +brings us here,--to arrest M. de Cocheforet? Do you know that while we +go about the business openly and in soldier fashion, it is his part to +worm himself into your confidence, to sneak into Madame's intimacy, to +listen at your door, to follow your footsteps, to hang on your +lips, to track you--track you until you betray yourselves and +the man? Do you know this, and that all his sympathy is a lie, +Mademoiselle? His help, so much bait to catch the secret? His aim, +blood-money--blood-money? Why, _morbleu!_" the lieutenant continued, +pointing his finger at me, and so carried away by passion, so lifted +out of himself by wrath and indignation, that in spite of myself I +shrank before him,--"you talk, lady, of contempt and abhorrence in the +same breath with me! But what have you for him? What have you for him, +the spy, the informer, the hired traitor? And if you doubt, if you +want evidence, look at him. Only look at him, I say!" + +And he might well say it! For I stood silent still; cowering and +despairing, white with rage and hate. But Mademoiselle did not look. +She gazed straight at the lieutenant. "Have you done?" she said. + +"Done?" he stammered. Her words, her air, brought him to earth again. +"Done? Yes, if you believe me." + +"I do not," she answered proudly. "If that be all, be satisfied, +Monsieur. I do not believe you." + +"Then tell me," he retorted, after a moment of stunned surprise, "why, +if he was not on our side, do you think we let him remain here? Why +did we suffer him to stay in a suspected house bullying us, and taking +your part from hour to hour?" + +"He has a sword, Monsieur," she answered, with fine contempt. + +"_Mille diables!_" he cried, snapping his fingers in a rage. "That for +his sword! No. It was because he held the Cardinal's commission; +because he had equal authority with us; because we had no choice." + +"And that being so, Monsieur, why are you now betraying him?" she +asked keenly. + +He swore at that, feeling the stroke go home. "You must be mad," he +said, glaring at her. "Mad, if you cannot see that the man is what I +tell you he is. Look at him! Listen to him! Has he a word to say for +himself?" + +Still she did not look. "It is late," she replied, coldly and +irrelevantly. "And I am not very well. If you have quite done, perhaps +you will leave me, Monsieur." + +"_Mon Dieu!_" he exclaimed, shrugging his shoulders; "you are mad! I +have told you the truth, and you will not believe it. Well, on your +head be it then, Mademoiselle. I have no more to say. But you will +see." + +He looked at her for a moment as if he thought that she might still +give way; then he saluted her roughly, gave the word to the sergeant, +turned, and went down the path. The sergeant went after him, the +lanthorn swaying in his hand. We two were left alone in the gloom. The +frogs were croaking in the pool; the house, the garden, the wood,--all +lay quiet under the darkness, as on the night when I first came to the +Chateau. + +And would to Heaven I had never come! That was the cry in my heart. +Would to Heaven I had never seen this woman, whose nobility and faith +and singleness were a continual shame to me; a reproach, branding me +every hour I stood in her presence, with all vile and hateful names. +The man just gone, coarse, low-bred, brutal soldier as he was, +man-flogger, and drilling-block, had yet found heart to feel my +baseness, and words in which to denounce it. What, then, would she say +when the truth some day came home to her? What shape should I take in +her eyes then? How should I be remembered through all the years--then? + +Then? But now? What was she thinking, now, as she stood, silent and +absorbed, by the stone seat, a shadowy figure with face turned from +me? Was she recalling the man's words, fitting them to the facts and +the past, adding this and that circumstance? Was she, though she had +rebuffed him in the body, collating, now he was gone, all he had said, +and out of these scraps piecing together the damning truth? The +thought tortured me. I could brook uncertainty no longer. I went +nearer to her and touched her sleeve. "Mademoiselle," I said, in a +voice which sounded hoarse and forced even in my own ears, "do you +believe this of me?" + +She started violently and turned. "Pardon, Monsieur," she answered. "I +had forgotten that you were here. Do I believe--what?" + +"What that man said of me," I muttered. + +"That!" she exclaimed; and she stood a moment gazing at me in a +strange fashion. "Do I believe what he said, Monsieur! But come, +come," she continued, "and I will show you if I believe it. But not +here." + +She led the way on the instant into the house, going in through the +parlour door, which stood half open. The room inside was pitch dark, +but she took me fearlessly by the hand, and led me quickly through it, +and along the passage, until we came to the cheerful lighted hall, +where a great fire burned on the hearth. All traces of the soldiers' +occupation had been swept away. But the room was empty. + +She led me to the fire, and there, in the full light, no longer a +shadowy creature, but red-lipped, brilliant, throbbing with life, she +stood opposite me, her eyes shining, her colour high, her breast +heaving. "Do I believe it?" she said. "I will tell you. M. de +Cocheforet's hiding-place is in the hut behind the fern-stack, two +furlongs beyond the village, on the road to Auch. You know now what no +one else knows, he and I and Madame excepted. You hold in your hands +his life and my honour; and you know also, M. de Berault, whether I +believed that tale." + +"My God!" I cried. And I stood looking at her, until something of the +horror in my eyes crept into hers, and she shuddered and stepped back. + +"What is it? What is it?" she whispered, clasping her hands. And with +all the colour gone from her cheeks she peered trembling into the +corners and towards the door. "There is no one here. Is there any +one--listening?" + +I forced myself to speak, though I shook all over, like a man in an +ague. "No, Mademoiselle, there is no one here," I muttered. And then I +let my head fall on my breast, and I stood before her, the statue of +despair. Had she felt a grain of suspicion, a grain of doubt, my +bearing must have opened her eyes. But her mind was cast in so noble a +mould, that having once thought ill of me and been converted, she +could feel no doubt again. It was her nature to trust all in all. So, +a little recovered from her fright, she stood looking at me in great +wonder; and at last she had a thought. + +"You are not well?" she said suddenly. "It is your old wound, +Monsieur." + +"Yes, Mademoiselle," I muttered faintly. "It is my old wound." + +"I will call Clon!" she cried impetuously. And then, with a sob, "Ah! +poor Clon! He is gone. But there is Louis. I will call him, and he +will get you something." + +She was gone from the room before I could stop her; and I was left +leaning against the table, possessor at last of the great secret which +I had come so far to win. Possessor of that secret, and able in a +moment to open the door, and go out into the night, and make use of +it--and yet the most unhappy of men. The sweat stood on my brow, my +eyes wandered round the room; I even turned towards the door, with +some mad thought of flight--flight from her, from the house, from +everything. And God knows if I might not have chosen that course; for +I still stood doubting, when on the door, that door, there came a +sudden hurried knocking which jarred every nerve in my body. I +started. I stood in the middle of the floor, gazing at the door, as at +a ghost. Then glad of action, glad of anything that might relieve the +tension of my feelings, I strode to it, and pulled it sharply open. + +On the threshold, his flushed face lit up by the light behind me, +stood one of the knaves I had brought with me to Auch. He had been +running, and panted heavily, but he had kept his wits. He grasped my +sleeve instantly. "Ah! Monsieur, the very man!" he cried, tugging at +me. "Quick! come this instant, and you may yet be first. They have the +secret. They have found Monsieur." + +"Found whom?" I echoed. "M. de Cocheforet?" + +"No; but the place where he lies. It was found by accident. The +lieutenant was gathering his men to go to it when I came away. If we +are quick, we may be there first." + +"But the place?" I said. + +"I could not hear where it was," he answered bluntly. "We can hang on +their skirts, and at the last moment strike in." + +The pair of pistols I had taken from the shock-headed man lay on a +chest by the door. I snatched them up, and my hat, and joined him +without another word; and in a moment we were running down the garden. +I looked back once before we passed the gate, and I saw the light +streaming out through the door which I had left open; and I fancied +that for an instant a figure darkened the gap. But the fancy only +strengthened the one single iron purpose which had taken possession of +me and all my thoughts. I must be first. I must anticipate the +lieutenant, and make the arrest myself. I ran on only the faster. + +We seemed to be across the meadow and in the wood in a moment. There, +instead of keeping along the common path, I boldly singled out--my +senses seemed preternaturally keen--the smaller track by which Clon +had brought us, and ran unfaltering along it, avoiding logs and +pitfalls as by instinct, and following all its turns and twists, until +it brought us to the back of the inn, and we could hear the murmur of +subdued voices in the village street, the sharp low words of command, +and even the clink of weapons; and could see, above and between the +houses, the dull glare of lanthorns and torches. + +I grasped my man's arm and crouched down, listening. "Where is your +mate?" I said, in his ear. + +"With them," he muttered. + +"Then come," I whispered, rising. "I have seen enough. Let us go." + +But he caught me by the arm and detained me. "You don't know the way!" +he hissed. "Steady, steady, Monsieur. You go too fast. They are just +moving. Let us join them, and strike in when the time comes. We must +let them guide us." + +"Fool!" I said, shaking off his hand. "I tell you, I know where he is! +I know where they are going. Come; lose not a moment, and we will +pluck the fruit while they are on the road to it." + +His only answer was an exclamation of surprise; at that moment the +lights began to move. The lieutenant was starting. The moon was not +yet up; the sky was grey and cloudy; to advance where we were was to +step into a wall of blackness. But we had lost too much time already, +and I did not hesitate. Bidding my companion follow me, and use his +legs, I sprang through a low fence which rose before us, and stumbling +blindly over some broken ground in the rear of the houses, came, with +a fall or two, to a little watercourse with steep sides. Through this +I plunged recklessly, and up the farther side, and, breathless and +panting, gained the road just beyond the village, and fifty yards in +advance of the lieutenant's troop. + +They had only two lanthorns burning now, and we were beyond the circle +of light these cast; while the steady tramp of so many footsteps +covered the noise we made. We were unnoticed. In a twinkling we turned +our backs, and as fast as we could ran down the road. Fortunately, +they were thinking more of secrecy than speed, and in a minute we had +doubled the distance between us; in two minutes their lights were mere +sparks shining in the gloom behind us. We lost, at last, even the +tramp of their feet. Then I began to look out and go more slowly; +peering into the shadows on either side for the fern-stack. + +On one hand the hill rose steeply; on the other it fell away to the +stream. On neither side was close wood,--or my difficulties had been +immensely increased,--but scattered oak-trees stood here and there +among gorse and bracken. This helped me, and in a moment, on the upper +side, I came upon the dense substance of the stack looming black +against the lighter hill. + +My heart beat fast, but it was no time for thought. Bidding the man in +a whisper to follow me and be ready to back me up, I climbed the bank +softly, and with a pistol in my hand, felt my way to the rear of the +stack; thinking to find a hut there, set against the fern, and M. de +Cocheforet in it. But I found no hut. There was none; and all was so +dark that it came upon me suddenly as I stood between the hill and the +stack that I had undertaken a very difficult thing. The hut behind the +fern-stack? But how far behind? How far from it? The dark slope +stretched above us, infinite, immeasurable, shrouded in night. To +begin to climb it in search of a tiny hut, probably well-hidden and +hard to find in daylight, seemed a task as impossible as to meet with +the needle in the hay! And now, while I stood, chilled and doubting, +the steps of the troop in the road began to grow audible, began to +come nearer. + +"Well, M. le Capitaine?" the man beside me muttered--in wonder why I +stood. "Which way? Or they will be before us yet." + +I tried to think, to reason it out; to consider where the hut would +be; while the wind sighed through the oaks, and here and there I could +hear an acorn fall. But the thing pressed too close on me: my thoughts +would not be hurried, and at last I said at a venture, "Up the hill! +Straight from the stack." + +He did not demur, and we plunged at the ascent, knee deep in bracken +and furze, sweating at every pore with our exertions, and hearing the +troop come every moment nearer on the road below. Doubtless _they_ +knew exactly whither to go! Forced to stop and take breath when we had +scrambled up fifty yards or so, I saw their lanthorns shining like +moving glow-worms; and could even hear the clink of steel. For all I +could tell, the hut might be down there, and we two be moving from it! +But it was too late to go back now; they were close to the fern-stack: +and in despair I turned to the hill again. A dozen steps, and I +stumbled. I rose and plunged on again; again I stumbled. Then I found +that I was no longer ascending. I was treading level earth. And--was +it water I saw before me, below me, a little in front of my feet, or +some mirage of the sky? + +Neither; and I gripped my fellow's arm, as he came abreast of me, and +stopped him sharply. Below us, in the centre of a steep hollow, a pit +in the hill-side, a light shone out through some aperture and quivered +on the mist, like the pale lamp of a moorland hobgoblin. It made +itself visible, displaying nothing else; a wisp of light in the bottom +of a black bowl. + +Yet my spirits rose with a great bound at sight of it, for I knew that +I had stumbled on the place I sought. In the common run of things I +should have weighed my next step carefully, and gone about it slowly. +But here was no place for thought, nor room for delay, and I slid down +the side of the hollow, and the moment my feet touched the bottom, +sprang to the door of the little hut whence the light issued. A stone +turned under my foot in my rush, and I fell on my knees on the +threshold; but the fall only brought my face to a level with the +startled eyes of the man who lay inside on a bed of fern. He had been +reading. At the sound I made he dropped his book, and stretched out +his hand for a weapon. But the muzzle of my pistol covered him before +he could reach his; he was not in a posture from which he could +spring, and at a sharp word from me he dropped his hand. The tigerish +glare which had flickered for an instant in his eyes, gave place to a +languid smile; and he shrugged his shoulders. "_Eh, bien?_" he said, +with marvellous composure. "Taken at last! Well, I was tired of it." + +"You are my prisoner, M. de Cocheforet," I answered. + +"It seems so," he said. + +"Move a hand, and I kill you," I answered. "But you have still a +choice." + +"Truly?" he said, raising his eyebrows. + +"Yes. My orders are to take you to Paris alive or dead. Give me your +parole that you will make no attempt to escape, and you shall go +thither at your ease and as a gentleman. Refuse, and I shall disarm +and bind you, and you will go as a prisoner." + +"What force have you?" he asked curtly. He had not moved. He still lay +on his elbow, his cloak covering him, the little Marot in which he had +been reading close to his hand. But his quick, black eyes, which +looked the keener for the pallor and thinness of his face, roved +ceaselessly over me, probed the darkness behind me, took note of +everything. + +"Enough to compel you, Monsieur," I replied sternly. "But that is not +all. There are thirty dragoons coming up the hill to secure you, and +they will make you no such offer. Surrender to me before they come and +give me your parole, and I will do all for your comfort. Delay, and +you will fall into their hands. There can be no escape." + +"You will take my word," he said slowly. + +"Give it, and you may keep your pistols, M. de Cocheforet," I replied. + +"Tell me at least that you are not alone." + +"I am not alone." + +"Then I give it," he said, with a sigh. "And for Heaven's sake get me +something to eat and a bed. I am tired of this pig-sty--and this life +_Arnidieu!_ it is a fortnight since I slept between sheets." + +"You shall sleep to-night in your own house if you please," I answered +hurriedly. "But here they come. Be good enough to stay where you are a +moment, and I will meet them." + +I stepped out into the darkness, in the nick of time. The lieutenant, +after posting his men round the hollow, had just slid down with a +couple of sergeants to make the arrest. The place round the open door +was pitch dark. He had not espied my knave, who had lodged himself in +the deepest shadow of the hut; and when he saw me come out across the +light, he took me for Cocheforet. In a twinkling he thrust a pistol +into my face, and cried triumphantly, "You are my prisoner!" At the +same instant one of the sergeants raised a lanthorn and threw its +light into my eyes. + +"What folly is this?" I said savagely. + +The lieutenant's jaw fell, and he stood for half a minute, paralyzed +with astonishment. Less than an hour before he had left me at the +Chateau. Thence he had come hither with the briefest delay; and yet he +found me here before him! He swore fearfully, his face dark, his +mustachios stiff with rage. "What is this? What is it?" he cried at +last. "Where is the man?" + +"What man?" I said. + +"This Cocheforet!" he roared, carried away by his passion. "Don't lie +to me! He is here, and I will have him!" + +"You will not. You are too late!" I said, watching him heedfully. "M. +de Cocheforet is here, but he has already surrendered to me, and he is +my prisoner." + +"Your prisoner?" + +"Yes, my prisoner!" I answered facing the man with all the harshness I +could muster. "I have arrested him by virtue of the Cardinal's special +commission granted to me. And by virtue of the same I shall keep him!" + +He glared at me for a moment in utter rage and perplexity. Then on a +sudden I saw his face lighten. "It is a d--d ruse!" he shouted, +brandishing his pistol like a madman. "It is a cheat and a fraud! And +by G--d you have no commission! I see through it! I see through it +all! You have come here, and you have hocussed us! You are of their +side, and this is your last shift to save him!" + +"What folly is this?" I exclaimed. + +"No folly at all!" he answered, conviction in his tone. "You have +played upon us! You have fooled us! But I see through it now! An hour +ago I exposed you to that fine Madame at the house there, and I +thought it a marvel that she did not believe me. I thought it a marvel +that she did not see through you, when you stood there before her, +confounded, tongue-tied, a rogue convicted! But I understand it now. +She knew you! By----, she knew you! She was in the plot, and you were +in the plot; and I, who thought I was opening her eyes, was the only +one fooled! But it is my turn now. You have played a bold part, and a +clever one, and I congratulate you! But," he continued, a sinister +light in his little eyes, "it is at an end now, Monsieur! You took us +in finely with your tale of Monseigneur, and his commission, and your +commission, and the rest. But I am not to be blinded any longer, or +bullied! You have arrested him, have you? _You_ have arrested him! +Well, by G--d, I shall arrest him, and I shall arrest you too!" + +"You are mad!" I said, staggered as much by this new view of the +matter as by his perfect conviction of its truth. "Mad, Lieutenant!" + +"I was!" he snarled drily. "But I am sane now. I was mad when you +imposed upon us; when you persuaded me that you were fooling the women +to get the secret out of them, while all the time you were sheltering +them, protecting them, aiding them, and hiding him--then I was mad! +But not now. However, I ask your pardon, M. de Barthe, or M. de +Berault, or whatever your name really is. I ask your pardon. I thought +you the cleverest sneak and the dirtiest hound heaven ever made, or +hell refused! I find that you were cleverer than I thought, and an +honest traitor. Your pardon." + +One of the men who stood about the rim of the bowl above us laughed. I +looked at the lieutenant, and could willingly have killed him. "_Mon +Dieu!_" I said, so furious in my turn that I could scarcely speak. "Do +you say that I am an impostor--that I do not hold the Cardinal's +commission?" + +"I do say that!" he answered coolly. "And shall abide by it." + +"And that I belong to the rebel party?" + +"I do," he replied, in the same tone. "In fact," with a grin, "I say +that you are an honest man on the wrong side, M. de Berault. And you +say that you are a scoundrel on the right. The advantage, however, is +with me, and I shall back my opinion by arresting you." + +A ripple of coarse laughter ran round the hollow. The sergeant who +held the lanthorn grinned, and a trooper at a distance called out of +the darkness, "_A bon chat bon rat!_" This brought a fresh burst of +laughter, while I stood speechless, confounded by the stubbornness, +the crassness, the insolence, of the man. "You fool!" I cried at last, +"you fool!" And then M. de Cocheforet, who had come out of the hut, +and taken his stand at my elbow, interrupted me. + +"Pardon me one moment," he said airily, looking at the lieutenant, +with raised eyebrows, and pointing to me with his thumb. "But I am +puzzled between you. This gentleman's name? Is it de Berault or de +Barthe?" + +"I am M. de Berault," I said brusquely, answering for myself. + +"Of Paris?" + +"Yes, Monsieur, of Paris." + +"You are not then the gentleman who has been honouring my poor house +with his presence?" + +"Oh, yes!" the lieutenant struck in, grinning. "He is that gentleman, +too!" + +"But I thought--I understood that that was M. de Barthe." + +"I am M. de Barthe, also," I retorted impatiently. "What of that, +Monsieur? It was my mother's name. I took it when I came down here." + +"To--er, to arrest me, may I ask?" + +"Yes," I answered doggedly. "To arrest you. What of that?" + +"Nothing," he replied slowly and with a steady look at me, a look I +could not meet. "Except that, had I known this before, M. de Berault, +I should have thought long before I surrendered to you." + +The lieutenant laughed, and I felt my cheek burn. But I affected to +see nothing, and turned to him again. "Now, Monsieur," I said sternly, +"are you satisfied?" + +"No!" he answered point blank. "I am not. You two gentlemen may have +rehearsed this pretty scene a dozen times. The only word it seems to +me, is, Quick March, back to Quarters." + +I found myself driven to play my last card--much against my will. "Not +so," I said; "I have my commission." + +"Produce it!" he replied brusquely. + +"Do you think that I carry it with me?" I said, in scorn. "Do you +think that when I came here, alone, and not with fifty dragoons at my +back, I carried the Cardinal's seal in my pocket for the first lackey +to find? But you shall have it. Where is that knave of mine?" + +The words were scarcely out of my mouth before his ready hand thrust a +paper into my fingers. I opened it slowly, glanced at it, and amid a +pause of surprise gave it to the lieutenant. He looked for a moment +confounded. He stared at it, with his jaw fallen. Then with a last +instinct of suspicion he bade the sergeant hold up the lanthorn, and +by its light proceeded to spell out the document. + +"Umph!" he ejaculated, after a moment's silence; and he cast an ugly +look at me. "I see." And he read it aloud. + + +"_By these presents I command and empower Gilles de Berault, sieur de +Berault, to seek for, hold, arrest, and deliver to the Governor of the +Bastile the body of Henri de Cocheforet, and to do all such acts and +things as shall be necessary to effect such arrest and delivery, for +which these shall be his warrant_. + + "(_Signed_) _RICHELIEU, Lieut.-Gen_." + + +When he had done,--and he read the signature with a peculiar +intonation,--some one said softly, "_Vive le roi!_" and there was a +moment's silence. The sergeant lowered his lanthorn. "Is it enough?" I +said hoarsely, glaring from face to face. + +The lieutenant bowed stiffly. "For me?" he said. "Quite, Monsieur. I +beg your pardon again. I find that my first impressions were +the-correct ones. Sergeant, give the gentleman his paper." And turning +his shoulder rudely, he tossed the commission towards the sergeant, +who picked it up, and gave it to me, grinning. + +I knew that the clown would not fight, and he had his men round him; +and I had no choice but to swallow the insult. As I put the paper in +my breast, with as much indifference as I could assume, he gave a +sharp order. The troopers began to form on the edge above, the men who +had descended, to climb the bank. As the group behind him began to +open and melt away, I caught sight of a white robe in the middle of +it. The next moment, appearing with a suddenness which was like a blow +on the cheek to me, Mademoiselle de Cocheforet glided forward, and +came towards me. She had a hood on her head, drawn low; and for a +moment I could not see her face. I forgot her brother's presence at my +elbow; from habit and impulse rather than calculation, I took a step +forward to meet her---though my tongue cleaved to the roof of my +mouth, and I was dumb and trembling. + +But she recoiled with such a look of white hate, of staring, +frozen-eyed loathing, that I stepped back as if she had indeed struck +me. It did not need the words which accompanied the look, the "_Do not +touch me!_" which she hissed at me as she drew her skirts together, to +drive me to the farther edge of the hollow; there to stand with +clenched teeth and nails driven into the flesh while she hung, sobbing +tearless sobs, on her brother's neck. + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + THE ROAD TO PARIS. + + +I remember hearing Marshal Bassompierre, who, of all men within my +knowledge, had the widest experience, say that not dangers, but +discomforts, prove a man, and show what he is; and that the worst +sores in life are caused by crumpled rose-leaves and not by thorns. + +I am inclined to agree with this. For I remember that when I came from +my room on the morning after the arrest, and found hall and parlour +and passage empty, and all the common rooms of the house deserted, and +no meal laid, and when I divined anew from this discovery the feeling +of the house towards me,--however natural and to be expected,--I felt +as sharp a pang as when, the night before, I had had to face discovery +and open rage and scorn. I stood in the silent, empty parlour, and +looked round me with a sense of desolation; of something lost and +gone, which I could not replace. The morning was grey and cloudy, the +air sharp; a shower was falling. The rose-bushes at the window swayed +in the wind, and where I could remember the hot sunshine lying on +floor and table, the rain beat in and stained the boards. The main +door flapped and creaked to and fro. I thought of other days and meals +I had taken there, and of the scent of flowers, and I fled to the hall +in despair. + +But here, too, was no sign of life or company, no comfort, no +attendance. The ashes of the logs, by whose blaze Mademoiselle had +told me the secret, lay on the hearth white and cold; and now and then +a drop of moisture, sliding down the great chimney, pattered among +them. The great door stood open as if the house had no longer anything +to guard. The only living thing to be seen was a hound which roamed +about restlessly, now gazing at the empty hearth, now lying down with +pricked ears and watchful eyes. Some leaves which had been blown in +rustled in a corner. + +I went out moodily into the garden, and wandered down one path, and +up another, looking at the dripping woods and remembering things, +until I came to the stone seat. On it, against the wall, trickling +with rain-drops, and with a dead leaf half filling its narrow neck, +stood the pitcher of food. I thought how much had happened since +Mademoiselle took her hand off it and the sergeant's lanthorn +disclosed it to me. And sighing grimly, I went in again through the +parlour door. + +A woman was on her knees, kindling the belated fire. I stood a moment, +looking at her doubtfully, wondering how she would bear herself, and +what she would say to me: and then she turned, and I cried out her +name in horror; for it was Madame! + +She was very plainly dressed; her childish face was wan, and piteous +with weeping. But either the night had worn out her passion and +drained her tears, or this great exigency gave her temporary calmness; +for she was perfectly composed. She shivered as her eyes met mine, and +she blinked as if a light had been suddenly thrust before her. But she +turned again to her task, without speaking. + +"Madame! Madame!" I cried, in a frenzy of distress. "What is this?" + +"The servants would not do it," she answered, in a low but steady +voice. "You are still our guest, Monsieur, and it must be done." + +"But--I cannot suffer it!" I cried, in misery. "Madame de Cocheforet, +I will--I would rather do it myself!" + +She raised her hand, with a strange, patient expression on her face. +"Hush, please," she said. "Hush! you trouble me." + +The fire took light and blazed up as she spoke, and she rose slowly +from it, and, with a lingering look at it, went out; leaving me to +stand and stare and listen in the middle of the floor. Presently I +heard her coming back along the passage, and she entered, bearing a +tray with wine and meat and bread. She set it down on the table, and +with the same wan face, trembling always on the verge of tears, she +began to lay out the things. The glasses clinked pitifully against the +plates as she handled them; the knives jarred with one another; and I +stood by, trembling myself, and endured this strange, this awful +penance. + +She signed to me at last to sit down and eat; and she went herself, +and stood in the garden doorway, with her back to me. I obeyed. I sat +down; but though I had eaten nothing since the afternoon of the day +before, and a little earlier had had appetite enough, I could not +swallow. I fumbled with my knife, and munched and drank; and grew hot +and angry at this farce; and then looked through the window at the +dripping bushes, and the rain, and the distant sundial, and grew cold +again. + +Suddenly she turned round and came to my side. "You do not eat," she +said. + +I threw down my knife, and sprang up in a frenzy of passion. "_Mon +Dieu!_ Madame!" I cried. "Do you think I have _no_ heart?" + +And then in a moment I knew what I had done. In a moment she was on +her knees on the floor, clasping my knees, pressing her wet cheeks to +my rough clothes, crying to me for mercy--for life! life! life! his +life! Oh, it was horrible! It was horrible to see her fair hair +falling over my mud-stained boots, to see her slender little form +convulsed with sobs, to feel that this was a woman, a gentlewoman, who +thus abased herself at my feet. + +"Oh, Madame! Madame!" I cried, in my agony. "I beg you to rise. Rise, +or I must go! You will drive me out!" + +"Grant me his life!" she moaned passionately. "Only his life! What had +he done to you, that you should hunt him down? What had we done to +you, that you should slay us? Ah, Sir, have mercy! Let him go, and we +will pray for you; I and my sister will pray for you every morning and +night of our lives." + +I was in terror lest some one should come and see her lying there, and +I stooped and tried to raise her. But she would not rise; she only +sank the lower until her tender hands clasped my spurs, and I dared +not move. Then I took a sudden resolution. "Listen then, Madame," I +said, almost sternly, "if you will not rise. When you ask what you do, +you forget how I stand, and how small my power is! You forget that +were I to release your husband to-day, he would be seized within the +hour by those who are still in the village, and who are watching every +road--who have not ceased to suspect my movements and my intentions. +You forget, I say, my circumstances--" + +She cut me short on that word. She sprang abruptly to her feet and +faced me. One moment, and I should have said something to the purpose. +But at that word she was before me, white, breathless, dishevelled, +struggling for speech. "Oh yes, yes," she panted eagerly, "I know! I +understand!" And she thrust her hand into her bosom and plucked +something out and gave it to me--forced it upon me into my hands. "I +know! I know!" she said again. "Take it, and God reward you, Monsieur! +We give it freely--freely and thankfully! And may God bless you!" + +I stood and looked at her, and looked at it, and slowly froze. She had +given me the packet--the packet I had restored to Mademoiselle, the +parcel of jewels. I weighed it in my hands, and my heart grew hard +again, for I knew that this was Mademoiselle's doing; that it was she +who, mistrusting the effect of Madame's tears and prayers, had armed +her with this last weapon--this dirty bribe, I flung it down on the +table among the plates, all my pity changed to anger. "Madame," I +cried ruthlessly, "you mistake me altogether. I have heard hard words +enough in the last twenty-four hours, and I know what you think of me! +But you have yet to learn that I have never turned traitor to the hand +that employed me, nor sold my own side! When I do so for a treasure +ten times the worth of that, may my hand rot off!" + +She sank into a seat, with a moan of despair, and at that moment the +door opened, and M. de Cocheforet came in. Over his shoulder I had a +glimpse of Mademoiselle's proud face, a little whiter to-day, with +dark marks under the eyes, but still firm and cold. "What is this?" he +said, frowning and stopping short as his eyes lighted on Madame. + +"It is--that we start at eleven o'clock, Monsieur," I answered, bowing +curtly. "Those, I fancy, are your property." And pointing to the +jewels, I went out by the other door. + + + * * * * * + + +That I might not be present at their parting, I remained in the garden +until the hour I had appointed was well passed; then without entering +the house I went to the stable entrance. Here I found all ready, the +two troopers (whose company I had requisitioned as far as Auch) +already in the saddle, my own two knaves waiting with my sorrel and M. +de Cocheforet's chestnut. Another horse was being led up and down by +Louis, and, alas, my heart winced at the sight. For it bore a lady's +saddle, and I saw that we were to have company. Was it Madame who +meant to come with us? or Mademoiselle? And how far? To Auch? or +farther? + +I suppose that they had set some kind of a watch on me; for, as I +walked up, M. de Cocheforet and his sister came out of the house,--he +looking white, with bright eyes and a twitching in his cheek, though +through all he affected a jaunty bearing; she wearing a black mask. + +"Mademoiselle accompanies us?" I said formally. + +"With your permission, Monsieur," he answered, with grim politeness. +But I saw that he was choking with emotion. I guessed that he had just +parted from his wife, and I turned away. + +When we were all mounted, he looked at me. "Perhaps, as you have my +parole, you will permit me to ride alone," he said, with a little +hesitation, "and--" + +"Without me!" I rejoined keenly. "Assuredly, so far as is possible." I +directed the troopers to ride in front and keep out of ear-shot; my +two men followed the prisoner at a like distance, with their carbines +on their knees. Last of all I rode myself, with my eyes open and a +pistol loose in my holster. M. de Cocheforet, I saw, was inclined to +sneer at so many precautions, and the mountain made of his request; +but I had not done so much and come so far, I had not faced scorn and +insults, to be cheated of my prize at last. Aware that until we were +beyond Auch there must be hourly and pressing danger of a rescue, I +was determined that he who would wrest my prisoner from me should pay +dearly for it. Only pride, and, perhaps, in a degree also, appetite +for a fight, had prevented me borrowing ten troopers instead of two. + +We started, and I looked with a lingering eye and many memories at the +little bridge, the narrow woodland path, the first roofs of the +village; all now familiar, all seen for the last time. Up the brook a +party of soldiers were dragging for the captain's body. A furlong +farther on, a cottage, burned by some carelessness in the night, lay a +heap of black ashes. Louis ran beside us, weeping; the last brown +leaves fluttered down in showers. And between my eyes and all, the +slow, steady rain fell and fell and fell. And so I left Cocheforet. + +Louis went with us to a point a mile beyond the village, and there +stood and saw us go, cursing me furiously as I passed. Looking back +when we had ridden on, I still saw him standing; and after a moment's +hesitation I rode back to him. "Listen, fool," I said, cutting him +short in the midst of his mowing and snarling, "and give this message +to your mistress. Tell her from me that it will be with her husband +as it was with M. de Regnier, when he fell into the hands of his +enemy--no better and no worse." + +"You want to kill her, too, I suppose?" he answered, glowering at me. + +"No, fool! I want to save her!" I retorted wrathfully. "Tell her that, +just that and no more, and you will see the result." + +"I shall not," he said sullenly. "I shall not tell her. A message from +you, indeed!" And he spat on the ground. + +"Then on your head be it!" I answered solemnly. And I turned my +horse's head and galloped fast after the others. For, in spite of his +refusal, I felt sure that he would report what I had said--if it were +only out of curiosity; and it would be strange if Madame did not +understand the reference. + +And so we began our journey; sadly, under dripping trees and a leaden +sky. The country we had to traverse was the same I had trodden on the +last day of my march southwards, but the passage of a month had +changed the face of everything. Green dells, where springs welling out +of the chalk had made of the leafy bottom a fairies' home, strewn with +delicate ferns and hung with mosses--these were now swamps into which +our horses sank to the fetlock. Sunny brows, whence I had viewed the +champaign and traced my forward path, had become bare, windswept +ridges. The beech woods, which had glowed with ruddy light, were naked +now; mere black trunks and rigid arms pointing to heaven. An earthy +smell filled the air; a hundred paces away a wall of mist closed the +view. We plodded on sadly, up hill and down hill; now fording brooks +already stained with flood-water, now crossing barren heaths. + +But up hill or down hill, whatever the outlook, I was never permitted +to forget that I was the jailer, the ogre, the villain; that I, riding +behind in my loneliness, was the blight on all, the death-spot. True, +I was behind the others; I escaped their eyes. But there was not a +line of Mademoiselle's drooping figure that did not speak scorn to me, +not a turn of her head that did not seem to say, "Oh God, that such a +thing should breathe!" + +I had only speech with her once during the day, and that was on the +last ridge before we went down into the valley to climb up again to +Auch. The rain had ceased; the sun, near its setting, shone faintly; +and for a few moments we stood on the brow and looked southwards while +we breathed the horses. The mist lay like a pall on all the country we +had traversed; but beyond it and above it, gleaming pearl-like in the +level rays, the line of the mountains stood up like a land of +enchantment, soft, radiant, wonderful, or like one of those castles on +the Hill of Glass of which the old romances tell us. I forgot, for an +instant, how we were placed, and I cried to my neighbour that it was +the fairest pageant I had ever seen. + +She--it was Mademoiselle, and she had taken off her mask--cast one +look at me; only one, but it conveyed disgust and loathing so +unspeakable that scorn beside them would have been a gift. I reined in +my horse as if she had struck me, and felt myself go first hot and +then cold under her eyes. Then she looked another way. + +I did not forget the lesson; after that I avoided her more sedulously +than before. We lay that night at Auch, and I gave M. de Cocheforet +the utmost liberty; even permitting him to go out and return at his +will. In the morning, believing that on the farther side of Auch we +ran less risk of attack, I dismissed the two dragoons, and an hour +after sunrise we set out again. The day was dry and cold, the weather +more promising. I planned to go by way of Lectoure, crossing the +Garonne at Agen; and I thought with roads continually improving as we +moved northwards, we should be able to make good progress before +night. My two men rode first; I came last by myself. + +Our way lay for some hours down the valley of the Gers, under poplars +and by long rows of willows; and presently the sun came out and warmed +us. Unfortunately, the rain of the day before had swollen the brooks +which crossed our path, and we more than once had a difficulty in +fording them. Noon, therefore, found us little more than half-way to +Lectoure, and I was growing each minute more impatient, when our road, +which had for a little while left the river bank, dropped down to it +again, and I saw before us another crossing, half ford, half slough. +My men tried it gingerly, and gave back, and tried it again in another +place and finally, just as Mademoiselle and Monsieur came up to them, +floundered through and sprang slantwise up the farther bank. + +The delay had been long enough to bring me, with no good will of my +own, close up to the Cocheforets. Mademoiselle's horse made a little +business of the place; this delayed them still longer, and in the +result, we entered the water almost together, and I crossed close on +her heels. The bank on either side was steep; while crossing we could +see neither before nor behind. At the moment, however, I thought +nothing of this, nor of her delay, and I was following her quite at my +leisure, when the sudden report of a carbine, a second report, and a +yell of alarm in front, thrilled me through. + +On the instant, while the sound was still in my ears, I saw it all. +Like a hot iron piercing my brain, the truth flashed into my mind. We +were attacked! We were attacked, and I was here helpless in this pit, +this trap! The loss of a second while I fumbled here, Mademoiselle's +horse barring the way, might be fatal. + +There was but one way. I turned my horse straight at the steep bank, +and he breasted it. One moment he hung as if he must fall back. Then, +with a snort of terror and a desperate bound, he topped it, and gained +the level, trembling and snorting. + +It was as I had guessed. Seventy paces away on the road lay one of my +men. He had fallen, horse and man, and lay still. Near him, with his +back against a bank, stood his fellow, on foot, pressed by four +horsemen, and shouting. As my eye lighted on the scene, he let fly +with a carbine and dropped one. + +I snatched a pistol from my holster, cocked it, and seized my horse by +the head--I might save the man yet. I shouted to encourage him, and in +another second should have charged into the fight, when a sudden +vicious blow, swift and unexpected, struck the pistol from my hand. + +I made a snatch at it as it fell, but missed it; and before I could +recover myself, Mademoiselle thrust her horse furiously against mine, +and with her riding-whip, lashed the sorrel across the ears. As my +horse reared madly up, I had a glimpse of her eyes flashing hate +through her mask; of her hand again uplifted; the next moment, I was +down in the road, ingloriously unhorsed, the sorrel was galloping +away, and her horse, scared in its turn, was plunging unmanageably a +score of paces from me. + +I don't doubt that but for that she would have trampled on me. As it +was, I was free to draw; and in a twinkling I was running towards the +fighters. All I have described had happened in a few seconds. My man +was still defending himself; the smoke of the carbine had scarcely +risen. I sprang with a shout across a fallen tree that intervened; at +the same moment, two of the men detached themselves, and rode to meet +me. One, whom I took to be the leader, was masked. He came furiously +at me, trying to ride me down; but I leaped aside nimbly, and evading +him, rushed at the other, and scaring his horse, so that he dropped +his point, cut him across the shoulder before he could guard himself. +He plunged away, cursing, and trying to hold in his horse, and I +turned to meet the masked man. + +"You double-dyed villain!" he cried, riding al. me again. And this +time he man[oe]uvred his horse so skilfully that I was hard put to it +to prevent him knocking me down; and could not with all my efforts +reach him to hurt him. "Surrender, will you!" he continued, "you +bloodhound!" + +I wounded him slightly in the knee for answer; but before I could do +more his companion came back, and the two set upon me with a will, +slashing at my head so furiously and towering above me with so +great an advantage that it was all I could do to guard myself. +I was soon glad to fall back against the bank--as my man had done +before me. In such a conflict my rapier would have been of little +use, but fortunately I had armed myself before I left Paris with a +cut-and-thrust sword for the road; and though my mastery of the weapon +was not on a par with my rapier-play, I was able to fend off their +cuts, and by an occasional prick keep the horses at a distance. Still +they swore and cut at me, trying to wear me out; and it was trying +work. A little delay, the least accident, might enable the other man +to come to their help, or Mademoiselle, for all I knew, might shoot me +with my own pistol; and I confess, I was unfeignedly glad when a lucky +parade sent the masked man's sword flying across the road. He was no +coward; for unarmed as he was, he pushed his horse at me, spurring it +recklessly; but the animal, which I had several times touched, reared +up instead and threw him at the very moment that I wounded his +companion a second time in the arm, and made him give back. + +This quite changed the scene. The man in the mask staggered to his +feet, and felt stupidly for a pistol. But he could not find one, and +was, I saw, in no state to use it if he had. He reeled helplessly to +the bank, and leaned against it. He would give no further trouble. The +man I had wounded was in scarcely better condition. He retreated +before me for some paces, but then losing courage, he dropped his +sword, and, wheeling round, cantered off down the road, clinging to +his pommel. There remained only the fellow engaged with my man, and I +turned to see how they were getting on. They were standing to take +breath, so I ran towards them; but, seeing me coming, this rascal, +too, whipped round his horse, and disappeared in the wood, and left us +masters of the field. The first thing I did--and I remember it to this +day with pleasure--was to plunge my hand into my pocket, take out half +the money I had in the world, and press it on the man who had fought +for me so stoutly, and who had certainly saved me from disaster. In my +joy I could have kissed him! It was not only that I had escaped defeat +by the skin of my teeth,--and his good sword,--but I knew, and +thrilled with the knowledge, that the fight had altered the whole +position. He was wounded in two places, and I had a scratch or two, +and had lost my horse; and my other poor fellow was dead as a herring. +But speaking for myself, I would have spent half the blood in my body +to purchase the feeling with which I turned back to speak to M. de +Cocheforet and his sister. _I had fought before them_. + +Mademoiselle had dismounted, and with her face averted and her mask +pushed on one side, was openly weeping. Her brother, who had +scrupulously kept his place by the ford from the beginning of the +fight to the end, met me with raised eyebrows and a peculiar +smile. "Acknowledge my virtue," he said airily. "I am here, M. de +Berault--which is more than can be said of the two gentlemen who have +just ridden off." + +"Yes," I answered, with a touch of bitterness. "I wish they had not +shot my poor man before they went." + +He shrugged his shoulders. "They were my friends," he said. "You must +not expect me to blame them. But that is not all." + +"No," I said, wiping my sword. "There is this gentleman in the mask." +And I turned to go towards him. + +"M. de Berault!" There was something abrupt in the way in which +Cocheforet called my name after me. + +I stood. "Pardon?" I said, turning. + +"That gentleman?" he answered, hesitating, and looking at me +doubtfully. "Have you considered--what will happen to him, if you give +him up to the authorities?" + +"Who is he?" I said sharply. + +"That is rather a delicate question," he answered, frowning, and still +looking at me fixedly. + +"Not from me," I replied brutally, "since he is in my power. If he +will take off his mask, I shall know better what I intend to do with +him." + +The stranger had lost his hat in his fall, and his fair hair, stained +with dust, hung in curls on his shoulders. He was a tall man, of a +slender, handsome presence, and though his dress was plain and almost +rough, I espied a splendid jewel on his hand, and fancied I detected +other signs of high quality. He still lay against the bank in a +half-swooning condition, and seemed unconscious of my scrutiny. +"Should I know him if he unmasked?" I said suddenly, a new idea in my +head. + +"You would," M. de Cocheforet answered simply. + +"And?" + +"It would be bad for every one." + +"Ho, ho!" I said softly, looking hard, first at my old prisoner, and +then at my new one. "Then, what do you wish me to do?" + +"Leave him here," M. de Cocheforet answered glibly, his face flushed, +the pulse in his cheek beating. I had known him for a man of perfect +honour before, and trusted him. But this evident earnest anxiety on +behalf of his friend touched me. Besides, I knew that I was treading +on slippery ground; that it behoved me to be careful. "I will do it," +I said, after a moment's reflection. "He will play me no tricks, I +suppose? A letter of--" + +"_Mon Dieu_, no! He will understand," Cocheforet answered eagerly. +"You will not repent it, I swear. Let us be going." + +"Well,--but my horse?" I said, somewhat taken aback by this extreme +haste. + +"We shall overtake it," he replied urgently. "It will have kept to the +road. Lectoure is no more than a league from here, and we can give +orders there to have these two fetched in and buried." + +I had nothing to gain by demurring, and so it was arranged. After that +we did not linger. We picked up what we had dropped, M. de Cocheforet +mounted his sister, and within five minutes we were gone. Casting a +glance back from the skirts of the wood, as we entered it, I fancied +that I saw the masked man straighten himself and turn to look after +us; but the leaves were beginning to intervene, the distance was great +and perhaps cheated me. And yet I was not disinclined to think the +unknown a little less severely injured and a trifle more observant +than he seemed. + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + AT THE FINGER-POST. + + +Through all, it will have been noticed, Mademoiselle had not spoken to +me, nor said one word, good or bad. She had played her part grimly; +had taken her defeat in silence, if with tears; had tried neither +prayer, nor defence, nor apology. And the fact that the fight was now +over, the scene left behind, made no difference in her conduct--to my +surprise and discomfiture. She kept her face averted from me; she rode +as before; she affected to ignore my presence. I caught my horse +feeding by the road-side, a furlong forward, and mounted, and fell +into place behind the two, as in the morning. And just as we had +plodded on then in silence, we plodded on now, while I wondered at the +unfathomable ways of women, and knowing that I had borne myself well, +marvelled that she could take part in such an incident and remain +unchanged. + +Yet it had made a change in her. Though her mask screened her well, it +could not entirely hide her emotions, and by-and-bye I marked that her +head drooped, that she rode sadly and listlessly, that the lines of +her figure were altered. I noticed that she had flung away, or +furtively dropped, her riding-whip, and I understood that to the old +hatred of me were now added shame and vexation; shame that she had so +lowered herself, even to save her brother, vexation that defeat had +been her only reward. + +Of this I saw a sign at Lectoure, where the inn had but one common +room, and we must all dine in company. I secured for them a table by +the fire, and leaving them standing by it, retired myself to a smaller +one, near the door. There were no other guests, and this made the +separation between us more marked. M. de Cocheforet seemed to feel +this. He shrugged his shoulders and looked at me with a smile half +sad, half comical. But Mademoiselle was implacable. She had taken off +her mask, and her face was like stone. Once, only once, during the +meal I saw a change come over her. She coloured, I suppose at her +thoughts, until her face flamed from brow to chin. I watched the blush +spread and spread, and then she slowly and proudly turned her shoulder +to me, and looked through the window at the shabby street. + +I suppose that she and her brother had both built on this attempt, +Which must have been arranged at Auch. For when we went on in the +afternoon, I saw a more marked change. They rode now like people +resigned to the worst. The grey realities of the brother's position, +the dreary, hopeless future, began to hang like a mist before their +eyes; began to tinge the landscape with sadness; robbed even the +sunset of its colours. With each hour their spirits flagged and their +speech became less frequent, until presently, when the light was +nearly gone and the dusk was round us, the brother and sister rode +hand in hand, silent, gloomy, one at least of them weeping. The cold +shadow of the Cardinal, of Paris, of the scaffold, was beginning to +make itself felt; was beginning to chill them. As the mountains which +they had known all their lives sank and faded behind us, and we +entered on the wide, low valley of the Garonne, their hopes sank and +faded also--sank to the dead-level of despair. Surrounded by guards, a +mark for curious glances, with pride for a companion, M. de Cocheforet +could doubtless have borne himself bravely; doubtless he would bear +himself bravely still when the end came. But almost alone, moving +forward through the grey evening to a prison, with so many measured +days before him, and nothing to exhilarate or anger,--in this +condition it was little wonder if he felt, and betrayed that he felt, +the blood run slow in his veins; if he thought more of the weeping +wife and ruined home, which he left behind him, than of the cause in +which he had spent himself. + +But God knows, they had no monopoly of gloom. I felt almost as sad +myself. Long before sunset the flush of triumph, the heat of the +battle, which had warmed my heart at noon, were gone; giving place to +a chill dissatisfaction, a nausea, a despondency, such as I have known +follow a long night at the tables. Hitherto there had been +difficulties to be overcome, risks to be run, doubts about the end. +Now the end was certain, and very near; so near that it filled all the +prospect. One hour of triumph I might still have; I hugged the thought +of it as a gambler hugs his last stake. I planned the place and time +and mode, and tried to occupy myself wholly with it. But the price? +Alas, that would intrude too, and more as the evening waned; so that +as I passed this or that thing by the road, which I could recall +passing on my journey south,--with thoughts so different, with plans +that now seemed so very, very old,--I asked myself grimly if this were +really I, if this were Gil de Berault, known as Zaton's _premier +joueur_; or some Don Quichotte from Castile, tilting at windmills, and +taking barbers' bowls for gold. + +We reached Agen very late in the evening, after groping through a +by-way near the river, set with holes and willow-stools and +frog-spawns--a place no better than a slough. After it the great fire +and the lights at the Blue Maid seemed like a glimpse of a new world, +and in a twinkling put something of life and spirits into two at least +of us. There was queer talk round the hearth here of doings in +Paris,--of a stir against the Cardinal, with the Queen-mother at +bottom, and of grounded expectations that something might this time +come of it. But the landlord pooh-poohed the idea, and I more than +agreed with him. Even M. de Cocheforet, who was for a moment inclined +to build on it, gave up hope when he heard that it came only by way of +Montauban; whence, since its reduction the year before, all sorts of +_canards_ against the Cardinal were always on the wing. + +"They kill him about once a month," our host said, with a grin. +"Sometimes it is _Monsieur_ who is to prove a match for him, sometimes +_Cesar Monsieur_--the Duke of Vendome, you understand,--and sometimes +the Queen-mother. But since M. de Chalais and the Marshal made a mess +of it, and paid forfeit, I pin my faith to His Eminence--that is his +new title, they tell me." + +"Things are quiet round here?" I asked. + +"Perfectly. Since the Languedoc business came to an end, all goes +well," he answered. + +Mademoiselle had retired on our arrival, so that her brother and I +were for an hour or two thrown together. I left him at liberty to +separate himself if he pleased, but he did not use the opportunity. A +kind of comradeship, rendered piquant by our peculiar relations, had +begun to spring up between us. He seemed to take pleasure in my +company, more than once rallied me on my post of jailer, would ask +humorously if he might do this or that, and once even inquired what I +should do if he broke his parole. + +"Or take it this way," he continued flippantly "Suppose I had stuck +you in the back this evening, in that cursed swamp by the river, M. de +Berault? What then? _Pardieu!_ I am astonished at myself that I did +not do it. I could have been in Montauban within twenty-four hours, +and found fifty hiding-places, and no one the wiser." + +"Except your sister," I said quietly. + +He laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "Yes," he said, "I am afraid I +must have put her out of the way too, to preserve my self-respect. You +are right." And on that he fell into a reverie which held him for a +few minutes. Then I found him looking at me with a kind of frank +perplexity that invited question. + +"What is it?" I said. + +"You have fought a great many duels?" + +"Yes," I said. + +"Did you never strike a foul blow in one of them?" + +"Never. Why do you ask?" + +"Well,--I wanted to confirm an impression," he said. "To be frank, M. +de Berault, I seem to see in you two men." + +"Two men?" + +"Yes, two men," he answered. "One, the man who captured me; the other, +the man who let my friend go free to-day." + +"It surprised you that I let him go? That was prudence, M. de +Cocheforet," I replied, "nothing more. I am an old gambler--I know +when the stakes are too high for me. The man who caught a lion in his +wolf-pit had no great catch." + +"No, that is true," he answered, smiling. "And yet--I find two men in +your skin." + +"I dare say that there are two in most men's skins," I answered, with +a sigh, "but not always together. Sometimes one is there, and +sometimes the other." + +"How does the one like taking up the other's work?" he asked keenly. + +I shrugged my shoulders. "That is as may be," I said. "You do not take +an estate without the debts." + +He did not answer for a moment, and I fancied that his thoughts had +reverted to his own case. But on a sudden he looked at me again. "Will +you answer me a question, M. de Berault?" he said, with a winning +smile. + +"Perhaps," I said. + +"Then tell me--it is a tale that is, I am sure, worth the telling. +What was it that, in a very evil hour for me, sent you in search of +me?" + +"The Cardinal," I answered. + +"I did not ask who," he replied drily. "I asked, what. You had no +grudge against me?" + +"No." + +"No knowledge of me?" + +"No." + +"Then what on earth induced you to do it? Heavens, man," he continued +bluntly, rising and speaking with greater freedom than he had before +used, "nature never intended you for a tip staff! What was it, then?" + +I rose too. It was very late, and the room was empty, the fire low. "I +will tell you--tomorrow!" I said. "I shall have something to say to +you then, of which that will be part." + +He looked at me in great astonishment; with a little suspicion, too. +But I put him off, and called for a light, and by going at once to +bed, cut short his questions. + +Those who know the great south road to Agen, and how the vineyards +rise in terraces north of the town, one level of red earth above +another, green in summer, but in late autumn bare and stony, will +remember a particular place where the road two leagues from the town +runs up a long hill. At the top of the hill four ways meet; and there, +plain to be seen against the sky is a finger-post, indicating which +way leads to Bordeaux, and which to Montauban, and which to Perigueux. + +This hill had impressed me on my journey down; perhaps, because I had +from it my first view of the Garonne valley, and there felt myself on +the verge of the south country where my mission lay. It had taken root +in my memory; I had come to look upon its bare, bleak brow, with the +finger-post and the four roads, as the first outpost of Paris, as the +first sign of return to the old life. + +Now for two days I had been looking forward to seeing it again. That +long stretch of road would do admirably for something I had in my +mind. That sign-post, with the roads pointing north, south, east, and +west, could there be a better place for meetings and partings? + +We came to the bottom of the ascent about an hour before noon--M. de +Cocheforet, Mademoiselle, and I. We had reversed the order of +yesterday, and I rode ahead. They came after me at their leisure. At +the foot of the hill, however, I stopped and, letting Mademoiselle +pass on, detained M. de Cocheforet by a gesture. "Pardon me, one +moment," I said. "I want to ask a favour." + +He looked at me somewhat fretfully, with a gleam of wildness in his +eyes that betrayed how the iron was eating into his heart. He had +started after breakfast as gaily as a bridegroom, but gradually he had +sunk below himself; and now he had much ado to curb his impatience. +The _bonhomie_ of last night was quite gone. "Of me?" he said. "What +is it?" + +"I wish to have a few words with Mademoiselle--alone," I explained. + +"Alone?" he answered, frowning. + +"Yes," I replied, without blenching, though his face grew dark. "For +the matter of that, you can be within call all the time, if you +please. But I have a reason for wishing to ride a little way with +her." + +"To tell her something?" + +"Yes." + +"Then you can tell it to me," he retorted suspiciously. "Mademoiselle, +I will answer for it, has no desire to--" + +"See me, or speak to me!" I said, taking him up. "I can understand +that. Yet I want to speak to her." + +"Very well, you can speak to her before me," he answered rudely. "Let +us ride on and join her." And he made a movement as if to do so. + +"That will not do, M. de Cocheforet," I said firmly, stopping him with +my hand. "Let me beg you to be more complaisant. It is a small thing I +ask; but I swear to you, if Mademoiselle does not grant it, she will +repent it all her life." + +He looked at me, his face growing darker and darker. "Fine words!" he +said presently, with a sneer. "Yet I fancy I understand them." Then +with a passionate oath he broke out in a fresh tone. "But I will not +have it. I have not been blind, M. de Berault, and I understand. But I +will not have it! I will have no such Judas bargain made. _Pardieu!_ +do you think I could suffer it and show my face again?" + +"I don't know what you mean!" I said, restraining myself with +difficulty. I could have struck the fool. + +"But I know what you mean," he replied, in a tone of repressed rage. +"You would have her sell herself: sell herself body and soul to you to +save me! And you would have me stand by and see the thing done! Well, +my answer is--never! though I go to the wheel! I will die a gentleman, +if I have lived a fool!" + +"I think you will do the one as certainly as you have done the other," +I retorted, in my exasperation. And yet I admired him. + +"Oh, I am not such a fool," he cried, scowling at me, "as you have +perhaps thought. I have used my eyes." + +"Then be good enough now to favour me with your ears," I answered +drily. "And listen when I say that no such bargain has ever crossed my +mind. You were kind enough to think well of me last night, M. de +Cocheforet. Why should the mention of Mademoiselle in a moment change +your opinion? I wish simply to speak to her. I have nothing to ask +from her; neither favour nor anything else. And what I say she will +doubtless tell you afterwards. _Ciel_, man!" I continued angrily, +"what harm can I do to her, in the road, in your sight?" + +He looked at me sullenly, his face still flushed, his eyes suspicious. +"What do you want to say to her?" he asked jealously. He was quite +unlike himself. His airy nonchalance, his careless gaiety, were gone. + +"You know what I do _not_ want to say to her, M. de Cocheforet," I +answered. "That should be enough." + +He glowered at me for a moment, still ill content. Then, without a +word, he made me a gesture to go to her. + +She had halted a score of paces away, wondering doubtless what was on +foot. I rode towards her. She wore her mask, so that I lost the +expression of her face as I approached, but the manner in which she +turned her horse's head uncompromisingly towards her brother, and +looked past me--as if I were merely a log in the road--was full of +meaning. I felt the ground suddenly cut from under me. I saluted her, +trembling. "Mademoiselle," I said, "will you grant me the privilege of +your company for a few minutes, as we ride." + +"To what purpose, Sir?" she answered, in the coldest voice in which I +think a woman ever spoke to a man. + +"That I may explain to you a great many things you do not understand," +I murmured. + +"I prefer to be in the dark," she replied. And her manner said more +than her words. + +"But, Mademoiselle," I pleaded,--I would not be discouraged,--"you +told me one day that you would never judge me hastily again." + +"Facts judge you, not I, Sir," she answered icily. "I am not +sufficiently on a level with you to be able to judge you--I thank +God." + +I shivered though the sun was on me, and the hollow where we stood was +warm. "Still--once before you thought the same!" I exclaimed. +"Afterwards you found that you had been wrong. It may be so again, +Mademoiselle." + +"Impossible," she said. + +That stung me. "No!" I said fiercely. "It is not impossible. It is you +who are impossible! It is you who are heartless, Mademoiselle. I have +done much, very much, in the last three days to make things lighter +for you. I ask you now to do something for me which can cost you +nothing." + +"Nothing?" she answered slowly; and her scornful voice cut me as if it +had been a knife. "Do you think, Monsieur, it costs me nothing to lose +my self-respect, as I do with every word I speak to you? Do you think +it costs me nothing to be here, where I feel every look you cast on me +an insult, every breath I take in your presence a contamination. +Nothing, Monsieur?" She laughed in bitter irony. "Oh, be sure, +something! But something which I despair of making clear to you." + +I sat for a moment in my saddle, shaken and quivering with pain. It +had been one thing to feel that she hated and scorned me, to know that +the trust and confidence which she had begun to place in me were +changed to loathing. It was another to listen to her hard, pitiless +words, to change colour under the lash of her gibing tongue. For a +moment I could not find voice to answer her. Then I pointed to M. de +Cocheforet. "Do you love him?" I said, hoarsely, roughly. The gibing +tone had passed from her voice to mine. + +She did not answer. + +"Because, if you do," I continued, "you will let me tell my tale. Say +no but once more, Mademoiselle,--I am only human,--and I go. And you +will repent it all your life." + +I had done better had I taken that tone from the beginning. She +winced, her head drooped, she seemed to grow smaller. All in a moment, +as it were, her pride collapsed. "I will hear you," she answered +feebly. + +"Then we will ride on, if you please," I said, keeping the advantage I +had gained. "You need not fear. Your brother will follow." + +I caught hold of her rein and turned her horse, and she suffered it +without demur. In a moment we were pacing side by side, the long, +straight road before us. At the end where it topped the hill, I could +see the finger-post,--two faint black lines against the sky. When we +reached that, involuntarily I checked my horse and made it move more +slowly. + +"Well, Sir," she said impatiently. And her figure shook as if with +cold. + +"It is a tale I desire to tell you, Mademoiselle," I answered, +speaking with effort. "Perhaps I may seem to begin a long way off, but +before I end, I promise to interest you. Two months ago there was +living in Paris a man, perhaps a bad man, at any rate, by common +report, a hard man." + +She turned to me suddenly, her eyes gleaming through her mask. "Oh, +Monsieur, spare me this!" she said, quietly scornful. "I will take it +for granted." + +"Very well," I replied steadfastly. "Good or bad, this man, one day, +in defiance of the Cardinal's edict against duelling, fought with a +young Englishman behind St. Jacques Church. The Englishman had +influence, the person of whom I speak had none, and an indifferent +name; he was arrested, thrown into the Chatelet, cast for death, left +for days to face death. At the last an offer was made to him. If he +would seek out and deliver up another man, an outlaw with a price upon +his head, he should himself go free." + +I paused and drew a deep breath. Then I continued, looking not at her, +but into the distance: "Mademoiselle, it seems easy now to say what +course he should have chosen. It seems hard now to find excuses for +him. But there was one thing which I plead for him. The task he was +asked to undertake was a dangerous one. He risked, he knew he must +risk, and the event proved him right, his life against the life of +this unknown man. And--one thing more--there was time before him. +The outlaw might be taken by another, might be killed, might die, +might--. But there, Mademoiselle, we know what answer this person +made. He took the baser course, and on his honour, on his parole, with +money supplied to him, went free,--free on the condition that he +delivered up this other man." + +I paused again, but I did not dare to look at her, and after a moment +of silence I resumed. "Some portion of the second half of this story +you know, Mademoiselle; but not all. Suffice it that this man came +down to a remote village, and there at a risk, but Heaven knows, +basely enough, found his way into his victim's home. Once there, his +heart began to fail him. Had he found the house garrisoned by men, he +might have pressed on to his end with little remorse. But he found +there only two helpless, loyal women; and I say again that from the +first hour of his entrance he sickened of the work he had in hand. +Still he pursued it. He had given his word, and if there was one +tradition of his race which this man had never broken, it was that of +fidelity to his side; to the man that paid him. But he pursued it with +only half his mind, in great misery sometimes, if you will believe me, +in agonies of shame. Gradually, however, almost against his will, the +drama worked itself out before him, until he needed only one thing." + +I looked at Mademoiselle. But her head was averted; I could gather +nothing from the outlines of her form. And I went on. "Do not +misunderstand me," I said, in a lower voice. "Do not misunderstand +what I am going to say next. This is no love story, and can have no +ending such as romancers love to set to their tales. But I am bound to +mention, Mademoiselle, that this man, who had lived about inns and +eating-houses, and at the gaming-tables almost all his days, met here +for the first time for years a good woman; and learned by the light of +her loyalty and devotion to see what his life had been, and what was +the real nature of the work he was doing. I think,--nay, I know--that +it added a hundredfold to his misery, that when he learned at last the +secret he had come to surprise, he learned it from her lips, and in +such a way that had he felt no shame, hell could have been no place +for him. But in one thing she misjudged him. She thought, and had +reason to think, that the moment he knew her secret he went out, not +even closing the door, and used it. But the truth was that, while her +words were still in his ears, news came to him that others had the +secret; and had he not gone out on the instant, and done what he did, +and forestalled them, M. de Cocheforet would have been taken, but by +others." + +Mademoiselle broke her long silence so suddenly that her horse sprang +forward. "Would to Heaven he had!" she wailed. + +"Been taken by others?" I exclaimed, startled out of my false +composure. + +"Oh, yes, yes!" she answered passionately. "Why did you not tell me? +Why did you not confess to me even then? I--oh, no more! No more!" she +continued, in a piteous voice. "I have heard enough. You are racking +my heart, M. de Berault. Some day I will ask God to give me strength +to forgive you." + +"But you have not heard me out," I replied. + +"I want to hear no more," she answered, in a voice she vainly strove +to render steady. "To what end? Can I say more than I have said? Did +you think I could forgive you now--with him behind us going to his +death? Oh, no, no!" she continued. "Leave me! I implore you to leave +me. I am not well." + +She drooped over her horse's neck as she spoke and began to weep so +passionately that the tears ran down her cheeks under her mask, and +fell and sparkled like dew on the mane before her; while her sobs +shook her so painfully that I thought she must fall. I stretched out +my hand instinctively to give her help; but she shrank from me. "No!" +she gasped, between her sobs. "Do not touch me. There is too much +between us." + +"Yet there must be one thing more between us," I answered firmly. "You +must listen to me a little longer, whether you will or no, +Mademoiselle, for the love you bear to your brother. There is one +course still open to me by which I may redeem my honour; it has been +in my mind for some time back to take that course. To-day, I am +thankful to say, I can take it cheerfully, if not without regret; with +a steadfast heart, if with no light one. Mademoiselle," I continued +earnestly, feeling none of the triumph, none of the vanity, I had +foreseen, but only joy in the joy I could give her, "I thank God that +it is still in my power to undo what I have done; that it is still in +my power to go back to him who sent me, and telling him that I have +changed my mind and will bear my own burdens, to pay the penalty." + +We were within a hundred paces of the brow of the hill and the +finger-post now. She cried out wildly that she did not understand. +"What is it you have just said?" she murmured. "I cannot hear." And +she began to fumble with the ribbon of her mask. + +"Only this, Mademoiselle," I answered gently. "I give back to your +brother his word and his parole. From this moment he is free to go +whither he pleases. You shall tell him so from me. Here, where we +stand, four roads meet. That to the right goes to Montauban, where you +have doubtless friends, and can lie hid for a time; or that to the +left leads to Bordeaux, where you can take ship if you please. And in +a word Mademoiselle," I continued, ending a little feebly, "I hope +that your troubles are now over." + +She turned her face to me--we had both come to a standstill--and +plucked at the fastenings of her mask. But her trembling fingers had +knotted the string, and in a moment she dropped her hands with a cry +of despair. "And you? You?" she said, in a voice so changed I should +not have known it for hers. "What will you do? I do not understand. +This mask! I cannot hear." + +"There is a third road," I answered. "It leads to Paris. That is my +road, Mademoiselle. We part here." + +"But why? Why?" she cried wildly. + +"Because from to-day I would fain begin to be honourable," I answered, +in a low voice. "Because I dare not be generous at another's cost I +must go back to the Chatelet." + +She tried feverishly to raise her mask with her hand. "I am--not +well," she stammered. "I cannot breathe." + +She swayed so violently in her saddle as she spoke, that I sprang +down, and running round her horse's head, was just in time to catch +her as she fell. She was not quite unconscious then, for, as I +supported her, she murmured, "Leave me! Leave me! I am not worthy that +you should touch me." + +Those words made me happy. I carried her to the bank, my heart on +fire, and laid her against it just as M. de Cocheforet rode up. He +sprang from his horse, his eyes blazing with anger. "What is this?" he +cried harshly. "What have you been saying to her, man?" + +"She will tell you," I answered drily, my composure returning under +his eye,--"amongst other things, that you are free. From this moment, +M. de Cocheforet, I give you back your parole, and I take my own +honour. Farewell." + +He cried out something as I mounted, but I did not stay to hear or +answer. I dashed the spurs into my horse, and rode away past the +crossroads, past the finger-post; away with the level upland +stretching before me, dry, bare, almost treeless--and behind me all I +loved. Once, when I had gone a hundred yards, I looked back and saw +him standing upright against the sky, staring after me across her +body. And again I looked back. This time I saw only the slender wooden +cross, and below it a dark blurred mass. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + ST. MARTIN'S EVE. + + +It was late evening on the last day but one of November, when I rode +into Paris through the Orleans gate. The wind was in the northeast, +and a great cloud of vapour hung in the eye of an angry sunset. The +air seemed to be full of wood smoke, the kennels reeked, my gorge rose +at the city's smell; and with all my heart I envied the man who had +gone out of it by the same gate nearly two months before, with his +face to the south, and the prospect of riding day after day across +heath and moor and pasture. At least he had had some weeks of life +before him, and freedom, and the open air, and hope and uncertainty, +while I came back under doom; and in the pall of smoke that hung over +the huddle of innumerable roofs, saw a gloomy shadowing of my own +fate. + +For make no mistake. A man in middle life does not strip himself of +the worldly habit with which experience has clothed him, does not run +counter to all the cynical saws and instances by which he has governed +his course so long, without shiverings and doubts and horrible +misgivings and struggles of heart. At least a dozen times between the +Loire and Paris, I asked myself what honour was; and what good it +would do me when I lay rotting and forgotten; if I was not a fool +following a Jack-o'-lanthorn; and whether, of all the men in the +world, the relentless man to whom I was returning, would not be the +first to gibe at my folly. + +However, shame kept me straight; shame and the memory of +Mademoiselle's looks and words. I dared not be false to her +again; I could not, after speaking so loftily, fall so low. And +therefore--though not without many a secret struggle and quaking--I +came, on this last evening but one of November, to the Orleans gate, +and rode slowly and sadly through the streets by the Luxembourg, on my +way to the Pont au Change. + +The struggle had sapped my last strength, however; and with the first +whiff of the gutters, the first rush of barefooted _gamins_ under my +horse's hoofs, the first babel of street cries, the first breath, in a +word, of Paris, there came a new temptation--to go for one last night +to Zaton's to see the tables again and the faces of surprise; to be, +for an hour or two, the old Berault. That could be no breach of +honour; for in any case I could not reach the Cardinal before +tomorrow. And it could do no harm. It could make no change in +anything. It would not have been a thing worth struggling about--only +I had in my inmost heart suspicions that the stoutest resolutions +might lose their force in that atmosphere; that even such a talisman +as the memory of a woman's looks and words might lose its virtue +there. + +Still I think I should have succumbed in the end, if I had not +received at the corner of the Luxembourg a shock which sobered me +effectually. As I passed the gates, a coach followed by two outriders +swept out of the palace courtyard; it was going at a great pace, and I +reined my jaded horse on one side to give it room. As it whirled by +me, one of the leather curtains flapped back, and I saw for a second, +by the waning light,--the nearer wheels were no more than two feet +from my boot,--a face inside. + +A face, and no more, and that only for a second! But it froze me. It +was Richelieu's, the Cardinal's; but not as I had been wont to see it, +keen, cold, acute, with intellect and indomitable will in every +feature. This face was distorted with rage and impatience; with the +fever of haste and the fear of death. The eyes burned under the pale +brow, the mustachios bristled, the teeth showed through the beard; I +could fancy the man crying "Faster! Faster!" and gnawing his nails in +the impatience of passion; and I shrank back as if I had been struck. +The next moment the galloping outriders splashed me, the coach was a +hundred paces ahead, and I was left chilled and wondering, foreseeing +the worst, and no longer in any mood for the gaming-table. + +Such a revelation of such a man was enough to appall me. Conscience +cried out that he must have heard that Cocheforet had escaped, and +through me! But I dismissed the idea as soon as formed. + +In the vast meshes of the Cardinal's schemes, Cocheforet could be only +a small fish; and to account for the face in the coach I needed a +cataclysm, a catastrophe, a misfortune, as far above ordinary mishaps, +as this man's intellect rose above the common run of minds. + +It was almost dark when I crossed the bridges, and crept despondently +to the Rue Savonnerie. After stabling my horse, I took my bag and +holsters, and climbing the stairs to my old landlord's,--the place +seemed to have grown strangely mean and small and ill-smelling in my +absence,--I knocked at the door. It was opened by the little tailor +himself, who threw up his arms at the sight of me. "By St. Genevieve!" +he said. "If it is not M. de Berault!" + +"No other," I said. It touched me a little, after my lonely journey, +to find him so glad to see me--though I had never done him a greater +benefit than sometimes to unbend with him and borrow his money. "You +look surprised, little man!" I continued, as he made way for me to +enter. "I'll be sworn you have been pawning my goods and letting my +room, you knave!" + +"Never, your excellency!" he answered, beaming on me. "On the +contrary, I have been expecting you." + +"How?" I said. "To-day?" + +"To-day or to-morrow," he answered, following me in and closing the +door. "The first thing I said, when I heard the news this morning, +was, Now we shall have M. de Berault back again. Your excellency will +pardon the children," he continued, as I took the old seat on the +three-legged stool before the hearth. "The night is cold, and there is +no fire in your room." + +While he ran to and fro with my cloak and bags, little Gil, to whom I +had stood at St. Sulpice's--borrowing ten crowns the same day, I +remember--came shyly to play with my sword-hilt "So you expected me +back when you heard the news, Frison, did you?" I said, taking the lad +on my knee. + +"To be sure, your excellency," he answered, peeping into the black pot +before he lifted it to the hook. + +"Very good. Then, now, let us hear what the news was," I said drily. + +"Of the Cardinal, M. de Berault." + +"Ah? And what?" + +He looked at me, holding the heavy pot suspended in his hands. "You +have not heard?" he exclaimed, his jaw falling. + +"Not a tittle. Tell it me, my good fellow." + +"You have not heard that His Eminence is disgraced?" + +I stared at him. "Not a word," I said. + +He set down the pot. "Your excellency must have made a very long +journey indeed, then," he said, with conviction. "For it has been in +the air a week or more, and I thought it had brought you back. A week? +A month, I dare say. They whisper that it is the old Queen's doing. At +any rate, it is certain that they have cancelled his commissions and +displaced his officers. There are rumours of immediate peace with +Spain. His enemies are lifting up their heads, and I hear that he has +relays of horses set all the way to the coast, that he may fly at any +moment For what I know he may be gone already." + +"But, man," I said--"the King! You forget the King. Let the Cardinal +once pipe to him, and he will dance. And they will dance, too!" I +added grimly. + +"Yes," Frison answered eagerly. "True, your excellency, but the King +will not see him. Three times to-day, as I am told, the Cardinal has +driven to the Luxembourg, and stood like any common man in the +ante-chamber, so that I hear it was pitiful to see him. But His +Majesty would not admit him. And when he went away the last time, I am +told that his face was like death! Well, he was a great man, and we +may be worse ruled, M. de Berault, saving your presence. If the nobles +did not like him, he was good to the traders, and the _bourgeoisie_, +and equal to all." + +"Silence, man! Silence, and let me think," I said, much excited. And +while he bustled to and fro, getting my supper, and the firelight +played about the snug, sorry little room, and the child toyed with his +plaything, I fell to digesting this great news, and pondering how I +stood now and what I ought to do. At first sight, I know, it seemed +that I had nothing to do but sit still. In a few hours the man who +held my bond would be powerless, and I should be free. In a few hours +I might smile at him. To all appearance, the dice had fallen well for +me. I had done a great thing, run a great risk, won a woman's love, +and after all was not to pay the penalty! + +But a word which fell from Frison as he fluttered round me, pouring +out the broth, and cutting the bread, dropped into my mind and spoiled +my satisfaction. "Yes, your excellency," he exclaimed, confirming +something he had said before, and which I had missed, "and I am told +that the last time he came into the gallery, there was not a man of +all the scores who attended his _levee_ last Monday would speak to +him. They fell off like rats,--just like rats,--until he was left +standing all alone. And I have seen him!" Frison lifted up his eyes +and his hands and drew in his breath. "Ah, I have seen the King look +shabby beside him! And his eye! I would not like to meet it now." + +"Pish!" I growled. "Some one has fooled you. Men are wiser than that." + +"So? Well, your excellency understands. But--there are no cats on a +cold hearth." + +I told him again that he was a fool. But withal I felt uncomfortable. +This was a great man if ever a great man lived, and they were all +leaving him; and I--well, I had no cause to love him. But I had taken +his money, I had accepted his commission, and I had betrayed him. +Those three things being so, if he fell before I could--with the best +will in the world--set myself right with him, so much the better for +me. That was my gain, the fortune of war. But if I lay hid, and took +time for my ally, and being here while he stood still,--though +tottering,--waited until he fell, what of my honour then? What of the +grand words I had said to Mademoiselle at Agen? I should be like the +recreant in the old romance, who, lying in the ditch while the battle +raged, came out afterwards and boasted of his courage. And yet the +flesh was weak. A day, twenty-four hours, two days, might make the +difference between life and death. At last I settled what I would do. +At noon the next day, the time at which I should have presented +myself, if I had not heard this news, at that time I would still +present myself. Not earlier; I owed myself the chance. Not later; that +was due to him. + +Having so settled it, I thought to rest in peace. But with the first +light I was awake; and it was all I could do to keep myself quiet +until I heard Frison stirring. I called to him then to know if there +was any news, and lay waiting and listening while he went down to the +street to learn. It seemed an endless time before he came back; an +age, after he came back, before he spoke. + +"Well, he has not set off?" I cried at last, unable to control my +eagerness. + +Of course he had not. At nine o'clock I sent Frison out again; and at +ten, and at eleven--always with the same result. I was like a man +waiting, and looking, and, above all, listening for a reprieve, and as +sick as any craven. But when he came back at eleven, I gave up hope, +and dressed myself carefully. I suppose I still had an odd look, +however; for Frison stopped me at the door and asked me, with evident +alarm, whither I was going. + +I put the little man aside gently. "To the tables," I said. "To make a +big throw, my friend." + +It was a fine morning; sunny, keen, pleasant. Even the streets smelled +fresh. But I scarcely noticed it. All my thoughts were where I was +going. It seemed but a step from my threshold to the Hotel Richelieu. +I was no sooner gone from the one than I found myself at the other. As +on the memorable evening, when I had crossed the street in a drizzling +rain, and looked that way with foreboding, there were two or three +guards in the Cardinal's livery, loitering before the gates. But this +was not all. Coming nearer, I found the opposite pavement under the +Louvre thronged with people; not moving about their business, but +standing all silent, all looking across furtively, all with the air of +persons who wished to be thought passing by. Their silence and their +keen looks had in some way an air of menace. Looking back after I had +turned in towards the gates, I found them devouring me with their +eyes. + +Certainly they had little else to look at. In the courtyard, where +some mornings when the court was in Paris I had seen a score of +coaches waiting and thrice as many servants, were now emptiness and +sunshine and stillness. The officer, who stood twisting his +mustachios, on guard, looked at me in wonder as I passed. The lackeys +lounging in the portico, and all too much taken up with whispering to +make a pretence of being of service, grinned at my appearance. But +that which happened when I had mounted the stairs, and come to the +door of the ante-chamber, outdid all. The man on guard there would +have opened the door; but when I went to take advantage of the offer, +and enter, a major-domo, who was standing near, muttering with two or +three of his kind, hastened forward and stopped me. + +"Your business, Monsieur, if you please?" he said inquisitively. And I +wondered why the others looked at me so strangely. + +"I am M. de Berault," I answered sharply. "I have the _entree_." + +He bowed politely enough. "Yes, M. de Berault, I have the honour to +know your face," he said. "But pardon me. Have you business with His +Eminence?" + +"I have the common business," I answered bluntly, "by which many of us +live, sirrah!--to wait on him." + +"But--by appointment, Monsieur?" he persisted. + +"No," I said, astonished. "It is the usual hour. For the matter of +that, however, I have business with him." + +The man looked at me for a moment, in apparent embarrassment. Then he +stood reluctantly aside, and signed to the door-keeper to open the +door. I passed in, uncovering, with an assured face, ready to meet all +eyes. Then in a moment, on the threshold, the mystery was explained. + +The room was empty. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + ST. MARTIN'S SUMMER. + + +Yes, at the great Cardinal's _levee_ I was the only client. I stared +round the room, a long narrow gallery, through which it was his custom +to walk every morning, after receiving his more important visitors. I +stared, I say, round this room, in a state of stupefaction. The seats +against either wall were empty, the recesses of the windows empty too. +The hat, sculptured and painted here and there, the staring R, the +blazoned arms, looked down on a vacant floor. Only, on a little stool +by the main door, sat a quiet-faced man in black, who read, or +pretended to read, in a little book, and never looked up. One of those +men, blind, deaf, secretive, who fatten in the shadow of the great. + +At length, while I stood confounded and full of shamed thought,--for I +had seen the ante-chamber of Richelieu's old hotel so crowded that he +could not walk through it,--this man closed his book, rose, and came +noiselessly towards me. "M. de Berault?" he said. + +"Yes," I answered. + +"His Eminence awaits you. Be good enough to follow me." + +I did so, in a deeper stupor than before. For how could the Cardinal +know that I was here? How could he have known when he gave the order? +But I had short time to think of these things. We passed through two +rooms, in one of which some secretaries were writing; we stopped at a +third door. Over all brooded a silence which could be felt. The usher +knocked, opened, and with his finger on his lip, pushed aside a +curtain, and signed to me to enter. I did so, and found myself +standing behind a screen. + +"Is that M. de Berault?" asked a thin, high-pitched voice. + +"Yes, Monseigneur," I answered, trembling. + +"Then come, my friend, and talk to me." + +I went round the screen; and I know not how it was, the watching crowd +outside, the vacant antechamber in which I had stood, the +stillness,--all seemed concentrated here, and gave to the man I saw +before me, a dignity which he had never possessed for me when the world +passed through his doors, and the proudest fawned on him for a smile. +He sat in a great chair on the farther side of the hearth, a little red +skull-cap on his head, his fine hands lying motionless in his lap. The +collar of lawn which fell over his red cape was quite plain, but the +skirts of his red robe were covered with rich lace, and the order of +the Holy Ghost shone on his breast. Among the multitudinous papers on +the great table near him I saw a sword and pistols lying; and some +tapestry that covered a little table behind him failed to hide a pair +of spurred riding-boots. But he--in spite of these signs of +trouble--looked towards me as I advanced, with a face mild and almost +benign; a face in which I strove in vain to find traces of last +night's passion. So that it flashed across me that if this man really +stood--and afterwards I knew he did--on the thin razor-edge between +life and death, between the supreme of earthly power, lord of France, +and arbiter of Europe, and the nothingness of the clod, he justified +his fame. He gave weaker natures no room for triumph. + +The thought was no sooner entertained than it was gone. "And so you +are back at last, M. de Berault?" he said, gently. "I have been +expecting to see you since nine this morning." + +"Your Eminence knew then--" I muttered. + +"That you returned to Paris by the Orleans gate last evening, alone?" +He fitted together the ends of his fingers, and looked at me over them +with inscrutable eyes. "Yes, I knew all that last night. And now of +your mission? You have been faithful, and diligent, I am sure. Where +is he?" + +I stared at him, and was dumb. Somehow the strange things I had seen +since I left my lodging, the surprises I had found awaiting me here, +had driven my own fortunes, my own peril, out of my head, until this +moment. Now, at his question, all returned with a rush. My heart +heaved suddenly in my breast. I strove for a savour of the old +hardihood; but for the moment I could not find a word. + +"Well?" he said lightly, a faint smile lifting his mustache. "You do +not speak. You left Auch with him on the twenty-fourth, M. de Berault. +So much I know. And you reached Paris without him last night. He has +not given you the slip?" with sudden animation. + +"No, Monseigneur," I muttered. + +"Ha! That is good," he answered, sinking back again in his chair. "For +the moment--but I knew I could depend on you. And now where is he?" he +continued. "What have you done with him? He knows much, and the sooner +I know it, the better. Are your people bringing him, M. de Berault?" + +"No, Monseigneur," I stammered, with dry lips. His very good humour, +his benignity, appalled me. I knew how terrible would be the change, +how fearful his rage, when I should tell him the truth. And yet that +I, Gil de Berault, should tremble before any man! I spurred myself, as +it were, to the task. "No, Your Eminence," I said, with the courage of +despair. "I have not brought him, because I have set him free." + +"Because you have--_what?_" he exclaimed. He leaned forward, his hands +on the arm of his chair; and his glittering eyes, growing each instant +smaller, seemed to read my soul. + +"Because I have let him go," I repeated. + +"And why?" he said, in a voice like the rasping of a file. + +"Because I took him unfairly," I answered desperately. "Because, +Monseigneur, I am a gentleman, and this task should have been given to +one who was not. I took him, if you must know," I continued +impatiently,--the fence once crossed, I was growing bolder,--"by +dogging a woman's steps, and winning her confidence, and betraying it. +And, whatever I have done ill in my life,--of which you were good +enough to throw something in my teeth when I was last here,--I have +never done that, and I will not!" + +"And so you set him free?" + +"Yes." + +"After you had brought him to Auch?" + +"Yes." + +"And in point of fact saved him from falling into the hands of the +commandant at Auch?" + +"Yes," I answered desperately. + +"Then what of the trust I placed in you, sirrah?" he rejoined, in a +terrible voice; and stooping still farther forward, he probed me with +his eyes. "You who prate of trust and confidence, who received your +life on parole, and but for your promise to me would have been carrion +this month past, answer me that! What of the trust I placed in you?" + +"The answer is simple," I said, shrugging my shoulders with a touch of +my old self. "I am here to pay the penalty." + +"And do you think that I do not know why?" he retorted, striking his +one hand on the arm of the chair with a force which startled me. +"Because you have heard, Sir, that my power is gone! That I, who was +yesterday the King's right hand, am to-day dried up, withered, and +paralyzed! Because--but have a care! Have a care!" he continued not +loudly, but in a voice like a dog's snarl. "You, and those others! +Have a care I say, or you may find yourselves mistaken yet!" + +"As Heaven shall judge me," I answered solemnly, "that is not true. +Until I reached Paris last night I knew nothing of this report. I came +here with a single mind, to redeem my honour by placing again in Your +Eminence's hands that which you gave me on trust." + +For a moment he remained in the same attitude, staring at me fixedly. +Then his face somewhat relaxed. "Be good enough to ring that bell," he +said. + +It stood on a table near me. I rang it, and a velvet-footed man in +black came in, and gliding up to the Cardinal placed a paper in his +hand. The Cardinal looked at it while the man stood with his head +obsequiously bent; my heart beat furiously. "Very good," the Cardinal +said, after a pause, which seemed to me to be endless. "Let the doors +be thrown open." + +The man bowed low, and retired behind the screen. I heard a little +bell ring, somewhere in the silence, and in a moment the Cardinal +stood up. "Follow me!" he said, with a strange flash of his keen eyes. + +Astonished, I stood aside while he passed to the screen; then I +followed him. Outside the first door, which stood open, we found eight +or nine persons,--pages, a monk, the major-domo, and several guards +waiting like mutes. These signed to me to precede them, and fell in +behind us, and in that order we passed through the first room and the +second, where the clerks stood with bent heads to receive us. The last +door, the door of the ante-chamber, flew open as we approached; a +score of voices cried, "Place! Place for His Eminence!" We passed +without pause through two lines of bowing lackeys, and entered--an +empty room! + +The ushers did not know how to look at one another. The lackeys +trembled in their shoes. But the Cardinal walked on, apparently +unmoved, until he had passed slowly half the length of the chamber. +Then he turned himself about, looking first to one side; and then to +another, with a low laugh of derision. "Father," he said, in his thin +voice, "what does the psalmist say? 'I am become like a pelican in the +wilderness, and like an owl that is in the desert!'" + +The monk mumbled assent. + +"And later, in the same psalm is it not written, 'They shall perish, +but thou shalt endure!'" + +"It is so," the father answered. "Amen." + +"Doubtless that refers to another life," the Cardinal continued, with +his slow, wintry smile. "In the meantime we will go back to our book? +and our prayers, and serve God and the King in small things, if not in +great. Come, father, this is no longer a place for us. _Vanitas +vanitatum; omnia vanitas!_ We will retire." + +So, as solemnly as we had come, we marched back through the first and +second and third doors, until we stood again in the silence of the +Cardinal's chamber; he and I and the velvet-footed man in black. For a +while Richelieu seemed to forget me. He stood brooding on the hearth, +with his eye's on the embers. Once I heard him laugh; and twice he +uttered in a tone of bitter mockery, the words, "Fools! Fools! Fools!" + +At last he looked up, saw me, and started. "Ah!" he said. "I had +forgotten you. Well, you are fortunate, M. de Berault. Yesterday I had +a hundred clients. To-day I have only one, and I cannot afford to hang +him. But for your liberty--that is another matter." + +I would have said something, but he turned abruptly to the table, and +sitting down wrote a few lines on a piece of paper. Then he rang his +bell, while I stood waiting and confounded. + +The man in black came from behind the screen. "Take that letter and +this gentleman to the upper guard-room," His Eminence said sharply. "I +can hear no more," he continued wearily, raising his hand to forbid +interruption. "The matter is ended, M. de Berault. Be thankful." + +And in a moment I was outside the door, my head in a whirl, my heart +divided between gratitude and resentment. Along several passages I +followed my guide; everywhere finding the same silence, the same +monastic stillness. At length, when I had begun to consider whether +the Bastile or the Chatelet would be my fate, he stopped at a door, +gave me the letter, and, lifting the latch, signed to me to enter. + +I went in in amazement, and stopped in confusion. Before me, alone, +just risen from a chair, with her face one moment pale, the next red +with blushes, stood Mademoiselle de Cocheforet. I cried out her name. + +"M. de Berault!" she said, visibly trembling. "You did not expect to +see me?" + +"I expected to see no one so little, Mademoiselle," I answered, +striving to recover my composure. + +"Yet you might have thought that we should not utterly desert you," +she replied, with a reproachful humility which went to my heart. "We +should have been base indeed, if we had not made some attempt to save +you. I thank Heaven that it has so far succeeded that that strange man +has promised me your life. You have seen him?" she continued eagerly, +and in another tone, while her eyes grew suddenly large with fear. + +"Yes, Mademoiselle, I have seen him," I said. "And he has given me my +life." + +"And?" + +"And sent me to imprisonment." + +"For how long?" she whispered. + +"I do not know," I answered. "I expect, during the King's pleasure." + +She shuddered. "I may have done more harm than good," she murmured, +looking at me piteously. "But I did it for the best. I told him all, +and--yes, perhaps I did harm." + +But to hear her accuse herself thus, when she had made this long and +lonely journey to save me; when she had forced herself into her +enemy's presence, and had, as I was sure she had, abased herself for +me, was more than I could bear. "Hush, Mademoiselle, hush!" I said, +almost roughly. "You hurt me. You have made me happy: and yet I wish +that you were not here, where I fear you have few friends, but back at +Cocheforet. You have done more than I expected, and a hundred times +more than I deserved. But I was a ruined man before this happened. I +am no more now, but I am still that; and I would not have your name +pinned to mine on Paris lips. Therefore, good-bye. God forbid I should +say more to you, or let you stay where foul tongues would soon malign +you." + +She looked at me in a kind of wonder; then with a growing smile, "It +is too late," she said gently. + +"Too late?" I exclaimed. "How, Mademoiselle?" + +"Because--do you remember, M. de Berault, what you told me of your +love story, by Agen? That it could have no happy ending? For the same +reason I was not ashamed to tell mine to the Cardinal. By this time it +is common property." + +I looked at her as she stood facing me. Her eyes shone, but they were +downcast. Her figure drooped, and yet a smile trembled on her lips. +"What did you tell him, Mademoiselle?" I whispered, my breath coming +quickly. + +"That I loved," she answered boldly, raising her clear eyes to mine. +"And therefore that I was not ashamed to beg, even on my knees. Nor +ashamed to be with my lover, even in prison." + +I fell on my knees, and caught her hand before the last word passed +her lips. For the moment I forgot King and Cardinal, prison and the +future, all--all except that this woman, so pure and so beautiful, so +far above me in all things, loved me. For the moment, I say. Then I +remembered myself. I stood up and thrust her from me, in a sudden +revulsion of feeling. "You do not know me," I said. "You do not know +me. You do not know what I have done." + +"That is what I do know," she answered, looking at me with a wondrous +smile. + +"Ah, but you do not," I cried. "And besides, there is this--this +between us." And I picked up the Cardinal's letter. It had fallen on +the floor. + +She turned a shade paler. Then she said, "Open it! Open it! It is not +sealed, nor closed." + +I obeyed mechanically, dreading what I might see. Even when I had it +open I looked at the finely scrawled characters with eyes askance. But +at last I made it out. It ran thus:-- + + +"The King's pleasure is, that M. de Berault, having mixed himself up +with affairs of state, retire forthwith to the manor of Cocheforet, +and confine himself within its limits, until the King's pleasure be +further known. + + "Richelieu." + + +On the next day we were married. The same evening we left Paris, and I +retraced, in her company, the road which I had twice traversed alone +and in heaviness. + +A fortnight later we were at Cocheforet, in the brown woods under the +southern mountains; and the great Cardinal, once more triumphant over +his enemies, saw, with cold, smiling eyes, the world pass through his +chamber. The flood-tide, which then set in, lasted thirteen years; in +brief, until his death. For the world had learned its lesson, and was +not to be deceived a second time. To this hour they call that day, +which saw me stand for all his friends, "The day of Dupes." + + + + THE END + + + + + + COUNT HANNIBAL + + + + + SORORI + SUA CAUSSA CARAE + PIO ERGA MATREM AMORE + ETIAM CARIORI + HOC FRATER + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER + I. CRIMSON FAVOURS. + + II. HANNIBAL DE SAULX, COMTE DE TAVANNES. + + III. THE HOUSE NEXT THE GOLDEN MAID. + + IV. THE EVE OF THE FEAST. + + V. A ROUGH WOOING. + + VI. "WHO TOUCHES TAVANNES?" + + VII. IN THE AMPHITHEATRE. + + VIII. TWO HENS AND AN EGG. + + IX. UNSTABLE. + + X. MADAME ST. LO. + + XI. A BARGAIN. + + XII. IN THE HALL OF THE LOUVRE. + + XIII. DIPLOMACY. + + XIV. TOO SHORT A SPOON. + + XV. THE BROTHER OF ST. MAGLOIRE. + + XVI. AT CLOSE QUARTERS. + + XVII. THE DUEL. + + XVIII. ANDROMEDA, PERSEUS BEING ABSENT. + + XIX. IN THE ORLEANNAIS. + + XX. ON THE CASTLE HILL. + + XXI. SHE WOULD, AND WOULD NOT. + + XXII. PLAYING WITH FIRE. + + XXIII. A MIND, AND NOT A MIND. + + XXIV. AT THE KING'S INN. + + XXV. THE COMPANY OF THE BLEEDING HEART. + + XXVI. TEMPER. + + XXVII. THE BLACK TOWN. + + XXVIII. IN THE LITTLE CHAPTER HOUSE. + + XXIX. THE ESCAPE. + + XXX. SACRILEGE! + + XXXI. THE FLIGHT FROM ANGERS. + + XXXII. THE ORDEAL BY STEEL. + + XXXIII. THE AMBUSH. + + XXXIV. "WHICH WILL YOU, MADAME?" + + XXXV. AGAINST THE WALL. + + XXXVI. HIS KINGDOM. + + + + + + COUNT HANNIBAL. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + CRIMSON FAVOURS. + + +M. de Tavannes smiled. Mademoiselle averted her eyes, and shivered; +as if the air, even of that close summer night, entering by the door +at her elbow, chilled her. And then came a welcome interruption. + +"Tavannes!" + +"Sire!" + +Count Hannibal rose slowly. The King had called, and he had no choice +but to obey and go. Yet he hung a last moment over his companion, his +hateful breath stirring her hair. "Our pleasure is cut short too soon, +Mademoiselle," he said, in the tone and with the look she loathed. +"But for a few hours only. We shall meet to-morrow. Or, it may +be--earlier." + +She did not answer, and "Tavannes!" the King repeated with violence. +"Tavannes! Mordieu!" his Majesty continued, looking round furiously. +"Will no one fetch him? Sacre nom, am I King, or a dog of a----" + +"I come, sire!" Count Hannibal cried in haste. For Charles, King of +France, Ninth of the name, was none of the most patient; and scarce +another in the Court would have ventured to keep him waiting so long. +"I come, sire; I come!" Tavannes repeated, as he moved from her side. + +He shouldered his way through the circle of courtiers, who barred the +road to the presence, and in part hid Mademoiselle from observation. +He pushed past the table at which Charles and the Comte de +Rochefoucauld had been playing primero, and at which the latter still +sat, trifling idly with the cards. Three more paces, and he reached +the King, who stood in the _ruelle_ with Rambouillet and the Italian +Marshal. It was the latter who, a moment before, had summoned his +Majesty from his game. + +Mademoiselle, watching him go, saw so much; so much, and the King's +roving eyes and haggard face, and the four figures, posed apart in the +fuller light of the upper half of the Chamber. Then the circle of +courtiers came together before her, and she sat back on her stool. A +fluttering, long-drawn sigh escaped her. Now, if she could slip out +and make her escape! Now--she looked round. She was not far from the +door; to withdraw seemed easy. But a staring, whispering knot of +gentlemen and pages blocked the way; and the girl, ignorant of the +etiquette of the Court and with no more than a week's experience of +Paris, had not the courage to rise and pass alone through the group. + +She had come to the Louvre this Saturday evening under the wing of +Madame d'Yverne, her _fiance's_ cousin. By ill hap Madame had been +summoned to the Princess Dowager's closet, and perforce had left her. +Still, Mademoiselle had her betrothed, and in his charge had sat +herself down to wait, nothing loth, in the great gallery, where all +was bustle and gaiety and entertainment. For this, the seventh day of +the fetes, held to celebrate the marriage of the King of Navarre and +Charles's sister--a marriage which was to reconcile the two factions +of the Huguenots and the Catholics, so long at war--saw the Louvre as +gay, as full, and as lively as the first of the fete days had found +it; and in the humours of the throng, in the ceaseless passage of +masks and maids of honour, guards and bishops, Swiss in the black, +white and green of Anjou, and Huguenot nobles in more sombre habits, +the country-bred girl had found recreation and to spare. Until +gradually the evening had worn away and she had begun to feel nervous; +and M. de Tignonville, her betrothed, placing her in the embrasure of +a window, had gone to seek Madame. + +She had waited for a time without much misgiving; expecting each +moment to see him return. He would be back before she could count a +hundred; he would be back before she could number the leagues that +separated her from her beloved province, and the home by the Biscay +Sea, to which even in that brilliant scene her thoughts turned fondly. +But the minutes had passed, and passed, and he had not returned. +Worse, in his place Tavannes--not the Marshal, but his brother Count +Hannibal--had found her; he, whose odious court, at once a menace and +an insult, had subtly enveloped her for a week past. He had sat down +beside her, he had taken possession of her, and, profiting by her +inexperience, had played on her fears and smiled at her dislike. +Finally, whether she would or no, he had swept her with him into the +Chamber. The rest had been an obsession, a nightmare, from which only +the King's voice summoning Tavannes to his side had relieved her. + +Her aim now was to escape before he returned, and before another, +seeing her alone, adopted his _role_ and was rude to her. Already the +courtiers about her were beginning to stare, the pages to turn and +titter and whisper. Direct her gaze as she might, she met some eye +watching her, some couple enjoying her confusion. To make matters +worse, she presently discovered that she was the only woman in the +Chamber; and she conceived the notion that she had no right to be +there at that hour. At the thought her cheeks burned, her eyes +dropped; the room seemed to buzz with her name, with gross words and +jests, and gibes at her expense. + +At last, when the situation had grown nearly unbearable, the group +before the door parted, and Tignonville appeared. The girl rose with a +cry of relief, and he came to her. The courtiers glanced at the two +and smiled. + +He did not conceal his astonishment at finding her there. "But, +Mademoiselle, how is this?" he asked in a low voice. He was as +conscious of the attention they attracted as she was, and as uncertain +on the point of her right to be there. "I left you in the gallery. I +came back, missed you, and----" + +She stopped him by a gesture. "Not here!" she muttered, with +suppressed impatience. "I will tell you outside. Take me--take me out, +if you please, Monsieur, at once!" + +He was as glad to be gone as she was to go. The group by the doorway +parted; she passed through it, he followed. In a moment the two stood +in the great gallery, above the Salle des Caryatides. The crowd which +had paraded here an hour before was gone, and the vast echoing +apartment, used at that date as a guard-room, was well-nigh empty. +Only at rare intervals, in the embrasure of a window or the recess of +a door, a couple talked softly. At the farther end, near the head of +the staircase which led to the hall below, and the courtyard, a group +of armed Swiss lounged on guard. Mademoiselle shot a keen glance up +and down, then she turned to her lover, her face hot with indignation. + +"Why did you leave me?" she asked. "Why did you leave me, if you could +not come back at once? Do you understand, sir," she continued, "that +it was at your instance I came to Paris, that I came to this Court, +and that I look to you for protection?" + +"Surely," he said. "And----" + +"And do you think Carlat and his wife fit guardians for me? Should I +have come or thought of coming to this wedding, but for your promise, +and Madame your cousin's? If I had not deemed myself almost your +wife," she continued warmly, "and secure of your protection, should I +have come within a hundred miles of this dreadful city? To which, had +I my will, none of our people should have come." + +"Dreadful? Pardieu, not so dreadful," he answered, smiling, and +striving to give the dispute a playful turn. "You have seen more in a +week than you would have seen at Vrillac in a lifetime, Mademoiselle." + +"And I choke!" she retorted; "I choke! Do you not see how they look at +us, at us Huguenots, in the street? How they, who live here, point at +us and curse us? How the very dogs scent us out and snarl at our +heels, and the babes cross themselves when we go by? Can you see the +Place des Gastines and not think what stood there? Can you pass the +Greve at night and not fill the air above the river with screams and +wailings and horrible cries--the cries of our people murdered on that +spot?" She paused for breath, recovered herself a little, and in a +lower tone, "For me," she said, "I think of Philippine de Luns by day +and by night! The eaves are a threat to me; the tiles would fall on us +had they their will; the houses nod to--to----" + +"To what, Mademoiselle?" he asked, shrugging his shoulders and +assuming a tone of cynicism. + +"To crush us! Yes, Monsieur, to crush us!" + +"And all this because I left you for a moment?" + +"For an hour--or well-nigh an hour," she answered more soberly. + +"But if I could not help it?" + +"You should have thought of that--before you brought me to Paris, +Monsieur. In these troublous times." + +He coloured warmly. "You are unjust, Mademoiselle," he said. "There +are things you forget; in a Court one is not always master of +oneself." + +"I know it," she answered drily, thinking of that through which she +had gone. + +"But you do not know what happened!" he returned with impatience. "You +do not understand that I am not to blame. Madame d'Yverne, when I +reached the Princess Dowager's closet, had left to go to the Queen of +Navarre. I hurried after her, and found a score of gentlemen in the +King of Navarre's chamber. They were holding a council, and they +begged, nay, they compelled me to remain." + +"And it was that which detained you so long?" + +"To be sure, Mademoiselle." + +"And not--Madame St. Lo?" + +M. de Tignonville's face turned scarlet. The thrust in tierce was +unexpected. This then was the key to Mademoiselle's spirt of temper. +"I do not understand you," he stammered. + +"How long were you in the King of Navarre's chamber, and how long with +Madame St. Lo?" she asked with fine irony. "Or no, I will not tempt +you," she went on quickly, seeing him hesitate. "I heard you talking +to Madame St. Lo in the gallery while I sat within. And I know how +long you were with her." + +"I met Madame as I returned," he stammered, his face still hot, "and I +asked her where you were. I did not know, Mademoiselle, that I was, +not to speak to ladies of my acquaintance." + +"I was alone, and I was waiting." + +"I could not know that--for certain," he answered, making the best of +it. "You were not where I left you. I thought, I confess--that you had +gone. That you had gone home." + +"With whom? With whom?" she repeated pitilessly. "Was it likely? With +whom was I to go? And yet it is true, I might have gone home had I +pleased--with M. de Tavannes! Yes," she continued, in a tone of keen +reproach and with the blood mounting to her forehead, "it is to that, +Monsieur, you expose me! To be pursued, molested, harassed by a man +whose look terrifies me, and whose touch I--I detest! To be addressed +wherever I go by a man whose every word proves that he thinks me game +for the hunter, and you a thing he may neglect. You are a man and you +do not know, you cannot know what I suffer! What I have suffered this +week past whenever you have left my side!" + +Tignonville looked gloomy. "What has he said to you?" he asked, +between his teeth. + +"Nothing I can tell you," she answered with a shudder. "It was he who +took me into the Chamber." + +"Why did you go?" + +"Wait until he bids you do something," she answered. "His manner, his +smile, his tone, all frighten me. And to-night, in all these there was +a something worse, a hundred times worse than when I saw him last--on +Thursday! He seemed to--to gloat on me," the girl stammered, with a +flush of shame, "as if I were his! Oh, Monsieur, I wish we had not +left our Poitou! Shall we ever see Vrillac again, and the fishers' +huts about the port, and the sea beating blue against the long brown +causeway?" + +He had listened darkly, almost sullenly; but at this, seeing the tears +gather in her eyes, he forced a laugh. "Why, you are as bad as M. de +Rosny and the Vidame!" he said. "And they are as full of fears as an +egg is of meat! Since the Admiral was wounded by that scoundrel on +Friday, they think all Paris is in a league against us." + +"And why not!" she asked, her cheek grown pale, her eyes reading his +eyes. + +"Why not? Why, because it is a monstrous thing even to think of!" +Tignonville answered, with the confidence of one who did not use the +argument for the first time. "Could they insult the King more deeply +than by such a suspicion? A Borgia may kill his guests, but it was +never a practice of the Kings of France! Pardieu, I have no patience +with them! They may lodge where they please, across the river, or +without the walls if they choose, the Rue de l'Arbre Sec is good +enough for me, and the King's name sufficient surety!" + +"I know you are not apt to be fearful," she answered, smiling; and she +looked at him with a woman's pride in her lover. "All the same, you +will not desert me again, sir, will you?" + +He vowed he would not, kissed her hand, looked into her eyes; then +melting to her, stammering, blundering, he named Madame St. Lo. She +stopped him. + +"There is no need," she said, answering his look with kind eyes, and +refusing to hear his protestations. "In a fortnight will you not be my +husband? How should I distrust you? It was only that while she talked, +I waited--I waited; and--and that Madame St. Lo is Count Hannibal's +cousin. For a moment I was mad enough to dream that she held you on +purpose. You do not think it was so?" + +"She!" he cried sharply; and he winced, as if the thought hurt him. +"Absurd! The truth is, Mademoiselle," he continued with a little heat, +"you are like so many of our people! You think a Catholic capable of +the worst." + +"We have long thought so at Vrillac," she answered gravely. + +"That's over now, if people would only understand. This wedding has +put an end to all that. But I'm harking back," he continued awkwardly; +and he stopped. "Instead, let me take you home." + +"If you please. Carlat and the servants should be below." + +He took her left hand in his right after the wont of the day, and with +his other hand touching his sword-hilt, he led her down the staircase, +that by a single turn reached the courtyard of the palace. Here a mob +of armed servants, of lacqueys, and foot-boys, some bearing torches, +and some carrying their masters' cloaks and _galoshes_, loitered to +and fro. Had M. de Tignonville been a little more observant, or a +trifle less occupied with his own importance, he might have noted more +than one face which looked darkly on him; he might have caught more +than one overt sneer at his expense. But in the business of summoning +Carlat--Mademoiselle de Vrillac's steward and major-domo--he lost the +contemptuous "Christaudins!" that hissed from a footboy's lips, and +the "Southern dogs!" that died in the moustachios of a bully in the +livery of the King's brother. He was engaged in finding the steward, +and in aiding him to cloak his mistress; then with a ruffling air, a +new acquirement, which he had picked up since he came to Paris, he +made a way for her through the crowd. A moment, and the three, +followed by half a dozen armed servants, bearing pikes and torches, +detached themselves from the throng, and crossing the courtyard, with +its rows of lighted windows, passed out by the gate between the Tennis +Courts, and so into the Rue des Fosses de St. Germain. + +Before them, against a sky in which the last faint glow of evening +still contended with the stars, the spire and pointed arches of the +church of St. Germain rose darkly graceful. It was something after +nine; the heat of the August day brooded over the crowded city, and +dulled the faint distant ring of arms and armour that yet would make +itself heard above the hush; a hush which was not silence so much as a +subdued hum. As Mademoiselle passed the closed house beside the +Cloister of St. Germain where only the day before Admiral Coligny, the +leader of the Huguenots, had been wounded, she pressed her escort's +hand, and involuntarily drew nearer to him. But he laughed at her. + +"It was a private blow," he said, answering her unspoken thought. "It +is like enough the Guises sped it. But they know now what is the +King's will, and they have taken the hint and withdrawn themselves. It +will not happen again, Mademoiselle. For proof, see the guards"--they +were passing the end of the Rue Bethizy, in the corner house of which, +abutting on the Rue de l'Arbre Sec, Coligny had his lodgings--"whom +the King has placed for his security. Fifty pikes under Cosseins." + +"Cosseins?" she repeated. "But I thought Cosseins----" + +"Was not wont to love us!" Tignonville answered with a confident +chuckle. "He was not. But the dogs lick where the master wills, +Mademoiselle. He was not, but he does. This marriage has altered all." + +"I hope it may not prove an unlucky one!" she murmured. She felt +impelled to say it. + +"Not it!" he answered confidently. "Why should it?" + +They stopped, as he spoke, before the last house, at the corner of the +Rue St. Honore opposite the Croix du Tiroir; which rose shadowy in the +middle of the four ways. He hammered on the door. + +"But," she said softly, looking in his face, "the change is sudden, is +it not? The King was not wont to be so good to us!" + +"The King was not King until now," he answered "That is what I am +trying to persuade our people. Believe me, Mademoiselle, you may sleep +without fear; and early in the morning I will be with you. Carlat, +have a care of your mistress until morning, and let Madame lie in her +chamber. She is nervous to-night. There, sweet, until morning! God +keep you, and pleasant dreams!" + +He uncovered, and bowing over her hand, kissed it; and the door being +open he would have turned away. But she lingered as if unwilling to +enter. "There is--do you hear it--a stir in _that_ quarter?" she said, +pointing across the Rue St. Honore. "What lies there?" + +"Northward? The markets," he answered. "'Tis nothing. They say, you +know, that Paris never sleeps. Good-night, sweet, and a fair +awakening!" + +She shivered as she had shivered under Tavannes' eye. And still she +lingered, keeping him. "Are you going to your lodging at once?" she +asked--for the sake, it seemed, of saying something. + +"I?" he answered a little hurriedly. "No, I was thinking of paying +Rochefoucauld the compliment of seeing him home. He has taken a new +lodging to be near the Admiral; a horrid bare place in the Rue +Bethizy, without furniture, but he would go into it to-day. And he has +a sort of claim on my family, you know." + +"Yes," she said simply. "Of course. Then I must not detain you. God +keep you safe," she continued, with a faint quiver in her tone; and +her lip trembled. "Good-night, and fair dreams, Monsieur." + +He echoed the words gallantly. "Of you, sweet!" he cried; and turning +away with a gesture of farewell, he set off on his return. + +He walked briskly, nor did he look back, though she stood awhile +gazing after him. She was not aware that she gave thought to this; nor +that it hurt her. Yet when bolt and bar had shot behind her, and she +had mounted the cold, bare staircase of that day--when she had heard +the dull echoing footsteps of her attendants as they withdrew to their +lairs and sleeping-places, and still more when she had crossed the +threshold of her chamber, and signed to Madame Carlat and her woman to +listen--it is certain she felt a lack of something. + +Perhaps the chill that possessed her came of that lack, which she +neither defined nor acknowledged. Or possibly it came of the night +air, August though it was; or of sheer nervousness, or of the +remembrance of Count Hannibal's smile. Whatever its origin, she took +it to bed with her; and long after the house slept round her, long +after the crowded quarter of the Halles had begun to heave and the +Sorbonne to vomit a black-frocked band, long after the tall houses in +the gabled streets, from St. Antoine to Montmartre and from St. Denis +on the north to St. Jacques on the south, had burst into rows of +twinkling lights--nay, long after the Quarter of the Louvre alone +remained dark, girdled by this strange midnight brightness--she lay +awake. At length she too slept, and dreamed of home and the wide skies +of Poitou, and her castle of Vrillac washed day and night by the +Biscay tides. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + HANNIBAL DE SAULX, COMTE DE TAVANNES. + + +"Tavannes!" + +"Sire." + +Tavannes, we know, had been slow to obey the summons. Emerging from +the crowd he found that the King, with Retz and Rambouillet, his +Marshal des Logis, had retired to the farther end of the Chamber; +apparently Charles had forgotten that he had called. His head a little +bent--he was tall and had a natural stoop--the King seemed to be +listening to a low but continuous murmur of voices which proceeded +from the door of his closet. One voice frequently raised was beyond +doubt a woman's; a foreign accent, smooth and silky, marked another; a +third, that from time to time broke in, wilful and impetuous, was the +voice of Monsieur, the King's brother, Catherine de Medicis' favourite +son. Tavannes, waiting respectfully two paces behind the King, could +catch little that was said; but Charles, something more, it seemed, +for on a sudden he laughed, a violent, mirthless laugh. And he clapped +Rambouillet on the shoulder. + +"There!" he said, with one of his horrible oaths, "'tis settled! 'Tis +settled! Go, man, and take your orders! And you, M. de Retz," he +continued, in a tone of savage mockery, "go, my lord, and give them!" + +"I, sire?" the Italian Marshal answered in accents of deprecation. +There were times when the young King would show his impatience of the +Italian ring, the Retzs and Biragues, the Strozzis and Gondys, with +whom his mother surrounded him. + +"Yes, you!" Charles answered. "You and my lady mother! And in God's +name answer for it at the day!" he continued vehemently. "You will +have it! You will not let me rest till you have it! Then have it, only +see to it, it be done thoroughly! There shall not be one left to cast +it in the King's teeth and cry, 'Et tu, Carole!' Swim, swim in blood +if you will," he continued with growing wildness. "Oh, 'twill be a +merry night! And it's true so far, you may kill fleas all day, but +burn the coat, and there's an end. So burn it, burn it, and----" He +broke off with a start as he discovered Tavannes at his elbow. "God's +death, man!" he cried roughly, "who sent for you?" + +"Your Majesty called me," Tavannes answered; while, partly urged by +the King's hand, and partly anxious to escape, the others slipped into +the closet and left them together. + +"I sent for you? I called your brother, the Marshal!" + +"He is within, sire," Tavannes answered, indicating the closet. "A +moment ago I heard his voice." + +Charles passed his shaking hand across his eyes. "Is he?" he muttered. +"So he is! I heard it too. And--and a man cannot be in two places at +once!" Then while his haggard gaze, passing by Tavannes, roved round +the Chamber, he laid his hand on Count Hannibal's breast. "They give +me no peace, Madame and the Guises," he whispered, his face hectic +with excitement. "They will have it. They say that Coligny--they say +that he beards me in my own palace. And--and, _mordieu_," with sudden +violence, "it's true! It's true enough! It was but to-day he was for +making terms with me! With me, the King! Making terms! So it shall be, +by God and Devil, it shall! But not six or seven! No, no. All! All! +There shall not be one left to say to me, 'You did it!'" + +"Softly, sire," Tavannes answered; for Charles had gradually raised +his voice. "You will be observed." + +For the first time the young King--he was but twenty-two years old, +God pity him!--looked at his companion. "To be sure," he whispered; +and his eyes grew cunning. "Besides, and after all, there's another +way, if I choose. Oh, I've thought and thought, I'd have you know." +And shrugging his shoulders, almost to his ears, he raised and lowered +his open hands alternately, while his back hid the movement from the +Chamber. "See-saw! See-saw!" he muttered. "And the King between the +two, you see. That's Madame's king-craft. She's shown me that a +hundred times. But look you, it is as easy to lower the one as the +other," with a cunning glance at Tavannes' face, "or to cut off the +right as the left. And--and the Admiral's an old man and will pass; +and for the matter of that I like to hear him talk. He talks well. +While the others, Guise and his kind, are young, and I've thought, +oh, yes, I've thought--but there," with a sudden harsh laugh, "my lady +mother will have it her own way. And for this time she shall, but, +All! All! Even Foucauld, there! Do you mark him? He's sorting the +cards. Do you see him--as he will be to-morrow, with the slit in his +throat and his teeth showing? Why, God!" his voice rising almost to a +scream, "the candles by him are burning blue!" And with a shaking +hand, his face convulsed, the young King clutched his companion's arm, +and pinched it. + +Count Hannibal shrugged his shoulders, but answered nothing. + +"D'you think we shall see them afterwards?" Charles resumed, in a +sharp, eager whisper. "In our dreams, man? Or when the watchman cries, +and we awake, and the monks are singing lauds at St. Germain, and--and +the taper is low?" + +Tavannes' lip curled. "I don't dream, sire," he answered coldly, "and +I seldom wake. For the rest, I fear my enemies neither alive nor +dead." + +"Don't you? By G--d, I wish I didn't," the young man exclaimed. His +brow was wet with sweat. "I wish I didn't. But there, it's settled. +They've settled it, and I would it were done! What do you think of--of +it, man? What do you think of it, yourself?" + +Count Hannibal's face was inscrutable. "I think nothing, sire," he +said drily. "It is for your Majesty and your council to think. It is +enough for me that it is the King's will." + +"But you'll not flinch?" Charles muttered, with a quick look of +suspicion. "But there," with a monstrous oath, "I know you'll not! I +believe you'd as soon kill a monk--though, thank God," and he crossed +himself devoutly, "there is no question of that--as a man. And sooner +than a maiden." + +"Much sooner, sire," Tavannes answered grimly. "If you have any orders +in the monkish direction--no? Then your Majesty must not talk to me +longer. M. de Rochefoucauld is beginning to wonder what is keeping +your Majesty from your game. And others are marking you, sire." + +"By the Lord!" Charles exclaimed, a ring of wonder mingled with horror +in his tone, "if they knew what was in our minds they'd mark us more! +Yet, see Nancay there beside the door? He is unmoved. He looks to-day +as he looked yesterday. Yet he has charge of the work in the +palace----" + +For the first time Tavannes allowed a movement of surprise to escape +him. "In the palace?" he muttered. "Is it to be done here, too, sire?" + +"Would you let some escape, to return by-and-by and cut our throats?" +the King retorted with a strange spirt of fury; an incapacity to +maintain the same attitude of mind for two minutes together was the +most fatal weakness of his ill-balanced nature. "No. All! All!" he +repeated with vehemence. "Didn't Noah people the earth with eight? But +I'll not leave eight! My cousins, for they are blood-royal, shall live +if they will recant. And my old nurse whether or no. And Pare, for no +one else understands my complexion. And----" + +"And Rochefoucauld, doubtless, sire?" + +The King, whose eye had sought his favourite companion, withdrew it. +He darted a glance at Tavannes. "Foucauld? Who said so?" he muttered +jealously. "Not I! But we shall see. We shall see! And do you see that +you spare no one, M. le Comte, without an order. That is your +business." + +"I understand, sire," Tavannes answered coolly. And after a moment's +silence, seeing that the King had done with him, he bowed low and +withdrew; watched by the circle, as all about a King were watched in +the days when a King's breath meant life or death, and his smile made +the fortunes of men. As he passed Rochefoucauld, the latter looked up +and nodded. + +"What keeps brother Charles?" he muttered. "He's madder than ever +to-night. Is it a masque or a murder he is planning?" + +"The vapours," Tavannes answered with a sneer. "Old tales his old +nurse has stuffed him withal. He'll come by-and-by, and 'twill be well +if you can divert him." + +"I will if he come," Rochefoucauld answered, shuffling the cards. "If +not 'tis Chicot's business and he should attend to it. I'm tired and +shall to bed." + +"He will come," Tavannes answered, and moved, as if to go on. Then he +paused for a last word. "He will come," he muttered, stooping and +speaking under his breath, his eyes on the other's face. "But play him +lightly. He is in an ugly mood. Please him, if you can, and it may +serve." + +The eyes of the two met an instant, and those of Foucauld--so the King +called his Huguenot favourite--betrayed some surprise; for Count +Hannibal and he were not intimate. But seeing that the other was in +earnest, he raised his brows in acknowledgment. Tavannes nodded +carelessly in return, looked an instant at the cards on the table, and +passed on, pushed his way through the circle, and reached the door. He +was lifting the curtain to go out, when Naucay, the Captain of the +Guard, plucked his sleeve. + +"What have you been saying to Foucauld, M. de Tavannes?" he muttered. + +"I?" + +"Yes," with a jealous glance, "you, M. le Comte." Count Hannibal +looked at him with the sudden ferocity that made the man a proverb at +Court. "What I chose, M. le Capitaine des Suisses!" he hissed. And his +hand closed like a vice on the other's wrist. "What I chose, look you! +And remember, another time, that I am not a Huguenot, and say what I +please." + +"But there is great need of care," Nancay protested, stammering and +flinching. "And--and I have orders, M. le Comte." + +"Your orders are not for me," Tavannes answered, releasing his arm +with a contemptuous gesture. "And look you, man, do not cross my path +to-night. You know our motto? Who touches my brother, touches +Tavannes! Be warned by it." + +Nancay scowled. "But the priests say, 'If your hand offend you, cut it +off!'" he muttered. + +Tavannes laughed, a sinister laugh. "If you offend me I'll cut your +throat," he said; and with no ceremony he went out, and dropped the +curtain behind him. + +Nancay looked after him, his face pale with rage. "Curse him!" he +whispered, rubbing his wrist. "If he were anyone else I would teach +him! But he would as soon run you through in the presence as in the +Pre aux Clercs! And his brother, the Marshal, has the King's ear! And +Madame Catherine's too, which is worse!" + +He was still fuming when an officer in the colours of Monsieur, the +King's brother, entered hurriedly, and keeping his hand on the +curtain, looked anxiously round the Chamber. As soon as his eye found +Nancay, his face cleared. "Have you the reckoning?" he muttered. + +"There are seventeen Huguenots in the palace besides their +Highnesses," Nancay replied, in the same cautious tone. "Not counting +two or three who are neither the one thing nor the other. In addition, +there are the two Montmorencies; but they are to go safe for fear of +their brother, who is not in the trap. He is too like his father, the +old Bench-burner, to be lightly wronged! And besides, there is Pare, +who is to go to his Majesty's closet as soon as the gates are shut. If +the King decides to save anyone else, he will send him to his closet. +So 'tis all clear and arranged here. If you are as forward outside, it +will be well! Who deals with the gentleman with the toothpick?" + +"The Admiral? Monsieur, Guise, and the Grand Prior; Cosseins and Besme +have charge. 'Tis to be done first. Then the Provost will raise the +town. He will have a body of stout fellows ready at three or four +rendezvous, so that the fire may blaze up everywhere at once. Marcel, +the ex-provost, has the same commission south of the river. Orders to +light the town as for a frolic have been given, and the Halles will be +ready." + +Nancay nodded, reflected a moment, and then with an involuntary +shudder, "God!" he exclaimed, "it will shake the world!" + +"You think so?" + +"Ay, will it not!" His next words showed that he bore Tavannes' +warning in mind. "For me, my friend, I go in mail to-night," he said. +"There will be many a score paid before morning, besides his +Majesty's. And many a left-handed blow will be struck in the _melee!_" + +The other crossed himself. "Grant none light here!" he said devoutly. +And with a last look he nodded and went out. + +In the doorway he jostled a person who was in the act of entering. It +was M. de Tignonville, who, seeing Nancay at his elbow, saluted him, +and stood looking round. The young man's face was flushed, his eyes +were bright with unwonted excitement. "M. de Rochefoucauld?" he asked +eagerly. "He has not left yet?" + +Nancay caught the thrill in his voice, and marked the young man's +flushed face, and altered bearing. He noted, too, the crumpled paper +he carried half-hidden in his hand; and the Captain's countenance grew +dark. He drew a step nearer and his hand reached softly for his +dagger. But his voice when he spoke was smooth as the surface of the +pleasure-loving Court, smooth as the externals of all things in Paris +that summer evening. "He is here still," he said. "Have you news, M. +de Tignonville?" + +"News?" + +"For M. de Rochefoucauld?" + +Tignonville laughed. "No," he said. "I am here to see him to his +lodging, that is all. News, Captain? What made you think so?" + +"That which you have in your hand," Nancay answered, his fears +relieved. + +The young man blushed to the roots of his hail "It is not for him," he +said. + +"I can see that, Monsieur," Nancay answered politely. "He has his +successes, but all the billets-doux do not go one way." + +The young man laughed, a conscious, flattered laugh. He was handsome, +with such a face as women love, but there was a lack of ease in the +way he wore his Court suit. It was a trifle finer, too, than accorded +with Huguenot taste; or it looked the finer for the way he wore it, +even as Teliguy's and Foucauld's velvet capes and stiff brocades lost +their richness and became but the adjuncts, fitting and graceful, of +the men. Odder still, as Tignonville laughed, half hiding and half +revealing the dainty, scented paper in his hand, his clothes seemed +smarter and he more awkward than usual. "It is from a lady," he +admitted. "But a bit of badinage, I assure you, nothing more." + +"Understood!" M. de Nancay murmured politely. "I congratulate you." + +"But----" + +"I say I congratulate you!" + +"But it is nothing." + +"Oh, I understand. And see, the King is about to rise. Go forward, +Monsieur," he continued benevolently. "A young man should show +himself. Besides his Majesty likes you well," he added with a leer. He +had an unpleasant sense of humour, had his Majesty's Captain of the +Guard; and this evening somewhat more than ordinary on which to +exercise it. + +Tignonville held too good an opinion of himself to suspect the other +of badinage; and thus encouraged he pushed his way to the front of the +circle. During his absence with his betrothed, the crowd in the +Chamber had grown thin, the candles had burned an inch shorter in the +sconces. But though many who had been there, had left, the more select +remained, and the King's return to his seat had given the company a +fillip. An air of feverish gaiety, common in the unhealthy life of the +Court, prevailed. At a table abreast of the King, Montpensier and +Marshal Cosse were dicing and disputing, with now a yell of glee, +and now an oath, that betrayed which way fortune inclined. At the +back of the King's chair, Chicot, his gentleman-jester, hung over +Charles's shoulder, now scanning his cards, and now making hideous +faces that threw the onlookers into fits of laughter. Farther up the +Chamber, at the end of the alcove, Marshal Tavannes--our Hannibal's +brother--occupied a low stool, which was set opposite the open door of +the closet. Through this doorway a slender foot, silk-clad, shot now +and again into sight; it came, it vanished, it came again, the gallant +Marshal striving at each appearance to rob it of its slipper, a dainty +jewelled thing of crimson velvet. He failed thrice, a peal of laughter +greeting each failure. At the fourth essay, he upset his stool and +fell to the floor, but held the slipper. And not the slipper only, but +the foot. Amid a flutter of silken skirts and dainty laces--while the +hidden beauty shrilly protested--he dragged first the ankle, and then +a shapely leg into sight. The circle applauded; the lady, feeling +herself still drawn on, screamed loudly and more loudly. All save the +King and his opponent turned to look. And then the sport came to a +sudden end. A sinewy hand appeared, interposed, released; for an +instant the dark, handsome face of Guise looked through the doorway. +It was gone as soon as seen; it was there a second only. But more than +one recognised it, and wondered. For was not the young Duke in evil +odour with the King by reason of the attack on the Admiral? And had he +not been chased from Paris only that morning and forbidden to return? + +They were still wondering, still gazing, when abruptly--as he did all +things--Charles thrust back his chair. "Foucauld, you owe me ten +pieces!" he cried with glee, and he slapped the table. "Pay, my +friend; pay!" + +"To-morrow, little master; to-morrow!" Rochefoucauld answered in the +same tone. And he rose to his feet. + +"To-morrow!" Charles repeated. "To-morrow?" And on the word his jaw +fell. He looked wildly round. His face was ghastly. + +"Well, sire, and why not?" Rochefoucauld answered in astonishment. And +in his turn he looked round, wondering; and a chill fell on him. "Why +not?" he repeated. + +For a moment no one answered him: the silence in the Chamber was +intense. Where he looked, wherever he looked, he met solemn, wondering +eyes, such eyes as gaze on men in their coffins. "What has come to you +all?" he cried with an effort. "What is the jest, for faith, sire, I +don't see it?" + +The King seemed incapable of speech, and it was Chicot who filled the +gap. "It is pretty apparent," he said with a rude laugh. "The cock +will lay and Foucauld will pay--to-morrow!" + +The young nobleman's colour rose; between him and the Gascon gentleman +was no love lost. "There are some debts I pay to-day," he cried +haughtily. "For the rest, farewell my little master! When one does not +understand the jest it is time to be gone." + +He was half-way to the door, watched by all, when the King spoke. +"Foucauld!" he cried in an odd, strangled voice. "Foucauld!" And the +Huguenot favourite turned back, wondering. + +"One minute!" the King continued in the same forced voice. "Stay till +morning--in my closet. It is late now. We'll play away the rest of the +night!" + +"Your Majesty must excuse me," Rochefoucauld answered frankly. "I am +dead asleep." + +"You can sleep in the Garde-Robe," the King persisted. + +"Thank you for nothing, sire!" was the gay answer. "I know that bed! I +shall sleep longer and better in my own." + +The King shuddered, but strove to hide the movement under a shrug of +his shoulders. He turned away. "It is God's will!" he muttered. He was +white to the lips. + +Rochefoucauld did not catch the words. "Good night, sire," he cried. +"Farewell, little master." And with a nod here and there, he passed to +the door, followed by Mergey and Chamont, two gentlemen of his suite. + +Nancay raised the curtain with an obsequious gesture. "Pardon me, M. +le Comte," he said, "do you go to his Highness's?" + +"For a few minutes, Nancay." + +"Permit me to go with you. The guards may be set." + +"Do so, my friend," Rochefoucauld answered. "Ah, Tignonville, is it +you!" + +"I am come to attend you to your lodging," the young man said. And he +ranged up beside the other, as, the curtain fallen behind them, they +walked along the gallery. + +Rochefoucauld stopped and laid his hand on Tignonville's sleeve. +"Thanks, dear lad," he said, "but I am going to the Princess +Dowager's. Afterwards to his Highness's. I may be detained an hour or +more. You will not like to wait so long." + +M. de Tignonville's face fell ludicrously. "Well, no," he said. "I--I +don't think I could wait so long--to-night." + +"Then come to-morrow night," Rochefoucauld answered with good nature. + +"With pleasure," the other cried heartily, his relief evident. +"Certainly. With pleasure." And, nodding good-night, they parted. +While Rochefoucauld, with Nancay at his side and his gentlemen +attending him, passed along the echoing and now empty gallery, the +younger man bounded down the stairs to the great hall of the +Caryatides, his face radiant. He for one was not sleepy. + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + THE HOUSE NEXT THE "GOLDEN MAID." + + +We have it on record that before the Comte de la Rochefoucauld left +the Louvre that night he received the strongest hints of the peril +which threatened him; and at least one written warning was handed to +him by a stranger in black, and by him in turn was communicated to the +King of Navarre. We are told further that when he took his final +leave, about the hour of eleven, he found the courtyard brilliantly +lighted, and the three companies of guards--Swiss, Scotch, and +French--drawn up in ranked array from the door of the great hall to +the gate which opened on the street. But, the chronicler adds, neither +this precaution, sinister as it appeared to some of his suite, nor the +grave farewell which Rambouillet, from his post at the gate, took of +one of his gentlemen, shook that chivalrous soul or sapped its +generous confidence. M. de Tignonville was young and less versed in +danger than the Governor of Rochelle; with him, had he seen so much, +it might have been different. But he left the Louvre an hour +earlier--at a time when the precincts of the palace, gloomy-seeming to +us in the light cast by coming events, wore their wonted aspect. His +thoughts, moreover, as he crossed the courtyard, were otherwise +employed. So much so, indeed, that though he signed to his two +servants to follow him, he seemed barely conscious what he was doing; +nor did he shake off his reverie until he reached the corner of the +Rue Baillet. Here the voices of the Swiss who stood on guard opposite +Coligny's lodgings, at the end of the Rue Bethizy, could be plainly +heard. They had kindled a fire in an iron basket set in the middle of +the road, and knots of them were visible in the distance, moving to +and fro about their piled arms. + +Tignonville paused before he came within the radius of the firelight, +and turning, bade his servants take their way home. "I shall follow, +but I have business first," he added curtly. + +The elder of the two demurred. "The streets are not too safe," he +said. "In two hours or less, my lord, it will be midnight. And +then----" + +"Go, booby; do you think I am a child?" his master retorted angrily. +"I've my sword and can use it. I shall not be long. And do you hear, +men, keep a still tongue, will you?" + +The men, country fellows, obeyed reluctantly, and with a full +intention of sneaking after him the moment he had turned his back. But +he suspected them of this, and stood where he was until they had +passed the fire, and could no longer detect his movements. Then he +plunged quickly into the Rue Baillet, gained through it the Rue du +Roule, and traversing that also turned to the right into the Rue +Ferronerie, the main thoroughfare, east and west, of Paris. Here he +halted in front of the long, dark outer wall of the Cemetery of the +Innocents, in which, across the tombstones and among the sepulchres of +dead Paris, the living Paris of that day, bought and sold, walked, +gossiped, and made love. + +About him things were to be seen that would have seemed stranger to +him had he been less strange to the city. From the quarter of the +markets north of him, a quarter which fenced in the cemetery on two +sides, the same dull murmur proceeded, which Mademoiselle de Vrillac +had remarked an hour earlier. The sky above the cemetery glowed with +reflected light, the cause of which was not far to seek, for every +window of the tall houses that overlooked it, and the huddle of booths +about it, contributed a share of the illumination. At an hour late +even for Paris, an hour when honest men should have been sunk in +slumber, this strange brilliance did for a moment perplex him; but the +past week had been so full of fetes, of masques and frolics, often +devised on the moment and dependent on the King's whim, that he set +this also down to such a cause, and wondered and no more. + +The lights in the houses flung their radiance high, and did not serve +his purpose; but beside the closed gate of the cemetery, between two +stalls, was a votive lamp burning before an image of the Mother and +Child. He crossed to this, and assuring himself by a glance to right +and left that he stood in no danger from prowlers, he drew a note from +his breast. It had been slipped into his hand in the gallery before he +saw Mademoiselle to her lodging; it had been in his possession barely +an hour. But brief as its contents were, and easily committed to +memory, he had perused it thrice already. + +"At the house next the 'Golden Maid,' Rue Cinq Diamants, an hour +before midnight, you may find the door open should you desire to talk +farther with C. St. L." + +As he read it for the fourth time the light of the lamp fell athwart +his face; and even as his fine clothes had never seemed to fit him +worse than when he faintly denied the imputations of gallantry +launched at him by Nancay, so his features had never looked less +handsome than they did now. The glow of vanity which warmed his cheek +as he read the message, the smile of conceit which wreathed his lips, +bespoke a nature not of the most noble; or the lamp did him less than +justice. Presently he kissed the note, and hid it. He waited until the +clock of St. Jacques struck the hour before midnight; and then moving +forward he turned to the right by way of the narrow neck leading to +the Rue Lombard. He walked in the kennel here, his sword in his hand +and his eyes looking to right and left; for the place was notorious +for robberies. But though he saw more than one figure lurking in a +doorway or under the arch that led to a passage, it vanished on his +nearer approach. In less than a minute he reached the southern end of +the street that bore the odd title of the Five Diamonds. + +Situate in the crowded quarter of the butchers, and almost in the +shadow of their famous church, this street--which farther north was +continued in the Rue Quimcampoix--presented in those days a not +uncommon mingling of poverty and wealth. On one side of the street a +row of lofty gabled houses built under Francis the First, sheltered +persons of good condition; on the other, divided from these by the +width of the road and a reeking kennel, a row of pent-houses, the +hovels of cobblers and sausage-makers, leaned against shapeless timber +houses which tottered upwards in a medley of sagging roofs and bulging +gutters. Tignonville was strange to the place, and nine nights out of +ten he would have been at a disadvantage. But, thanks to the tapers +that to-night shone in many windows, he made out enough to see that he +need search only the one side; and with a beating heart he passed +along the row of newer houses, looking eagerly for the sign of the +"Golden Maid." + +He found it at last; and then for a moment he stood puzzled. The note +said, next door to the "Golden Maid," but it did not say on which +side. He scrutinised the nearer house, but he saw nothing to determine +him; and he was proceeding to the farther, when he caught sight of two +men, who, ambushed behind a horse-block on the opposite side of the +roadway, seemed to be watching his movements. Their presence flurried +him; but much to his relief his next glance at the houses showed him +that the door of the farther one was unlatched. It stood slightly +ajar, permitting a beam of light to escape into the street. + +He stepped quickly to it--the sooner he was within the house the +better--pushed the door open and entered. As soon as he was inside he +tried to close the entrance behind him, but he found he could not; the +door would not shut. After a brief trial he abandoned the attempt and +passed quickly on, through a bare lighted passage which led to the +foot of a staircase, equally bare. He stood at this point an instant +and listened, in the hope that Madame's maid would come to him. At +first he heard nothing save his own breathing; then a gruff voice from +above startled him, "This way, Monsieur," it said. "You are early, but +not too soon!" + +So Madame trusted her footman! M. de Tignonville shrugged his +shoulders; but after all, it was no affair of his, and he went up. +Half-way to the top, however, he stood, an oath on his lips. Two men +had entered by the open door below--even as he had entered! And as +quietly! + +The imprudence of it! The imprudence of leaving the door so that it +could not be closed! He turned and descended to meet them, his teeth +set, his hand on his sword, one conjecture after another whirling in +his brain. Was he beset? Was it a trap? Was it a rival? Was it chance? +Two steps he descended; and then the voice he had heard before cried +again, but more imperatively, "No, Monsieur, this way! Did you not +hear me? This way and be quick, if you please. By-and-by there will be +a crowd, and then the more we have dealt with the better!" + +He knew now that he had made a mistake, that he had entered the wrong +house; and naturally his impulse was to continue his descent and +secure his retreat. But the pause had brought the two men who had +entered face to face with him, and they showed no signs of giving way. +On the contrary. + +"The room is above, Monsieur," the foremost said, in a matter-of-fact +tone, and with a slight salutation. "After you, if you please," and he +signed to him to return. + +He was a burly man, grim and truculent in appearance, and his follower +was like him. Tignonville hesitated, then turned and ascended. But as +soon as he had reached the landing where they could pass him, he +turned again. + +"I have made a mistake, I think," he said. "I have entered the wrong +house." + +"Are you for the house next the 'Golden Maid,' Monsieur?" + +"Yes." + +"Rue Cinq Diamants, Quarter of the Boucherie?" + +"Yes." + +"No mistake then," the stout man replied firmly. "You are early, that +is all. You have arms, I see. Maillard!"--to the person whose voice +Tignonville had heard at the head of the stairs--"A white sleeve, and +a cross for Monsieur's hat, and his name on the register. Come, make a +beginning! Make a beginning, man." + +"To be sure, Monsieur. All is ready." + +"Then lose no time, I say. Here are others, also early in the good +cause. Gentlemen, welcome! Welcome all who are for the true faith! +Death to the heretics! 'Kill, and no quarter!' is the word to-night!" + +"Death to the heretics!" the last comers cried in chorus. "Kill and no +quarter! At what hour, M. le Prevot?" + +"At day-break," the Provost answered importantly. "But have no fear, +the tocsin will sound. The King and our good man M. de Guise have all +in hand. A white sleeve, a white cross, and a sharp knife shall rid +Paris of the vermin! Gentlemen of the quarter, the word of the night +is 'Kill, and no quarter! Death to the Huguenots!'" + +"Death! Death to the Huguenots! Kill, and no quarter!" A dozen--the +room was beginning to fill--waved their weapons and echoed the cry. + +Tignonville had been fortunate enough to apprehend the position--and +the peril in which he stood--before Maillard advanced to him bearing a +white linen sleeve. In the instant of discovery his heart had stood a +moment, the blood had left his cheeks; but with some faults, he was no +coward, and he managed to hide his emotion. He held out his left arm, +and suffered the beadle to pass the sleeve over it and to secure the +white linen above the elbow. Then at a gesture he gave up his velvet +cap, and saw it decorated with a white cross of the same material. +"Now the register, Monsieur," Maillard continued briskly; and waving +him in the direction of a clerk, who sat at the end of the long table, +having a book and an ink-horn before him, he turned to the next comer. + +Tignonville would fain have avoided the ordeal of the register, but +the clerk's eye was on him. He had been fortunate so far, but he knew +that the least breath of suspicion would destroy him, and summoning +his wits together he gave his name in a steady voice. "Anne +Desmartins." It was his mother's maiden name, and the first that came +into his mind. + +"Of Paris?" + +"Recently; by birth, of the Limousin." + +"Good, Monsieur," the clerk answered, writing in the name. And he +turned to the next. "And you, my friend?" + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + THE EVE OF THE FEAST. + + +IT was Tignonville's salvation that the men who crowded the long +white-walled room, and exchanged vile boasts under the naked flaring +lights, were of all classes. There were butchers, natives of the +surrounding quarter whom the scent of blood had drawn from their +lairs; and there were priests with hatchet faces, who whispered in the +butchers' ears. There were gentlemen of the robe, and plain mechanics, +rich merchants in their gowns, and bare-armed ragpickers, sleek +choristers, and shabby led-captains; but differ as they might in other +points, in one thing all were alike. From all, gentle or simple, rose +the same cry for blood, the same aspiration to be first equipped for +the fray. In one corner a man of rank stood silent and apart, his hand +on his sword, the working of his face alone betraying the storm that +reigned within. In another, a Norman horse-dealer talked in low +whispers with two thieves. In a third, a gold-wire drawer addressed an +admiring group from the Sorbonne; and meantime the middle of the floor +grew into a seething mass of muttering, scowling men, through whom the +last comers, thrust as they might, had much ado to force their way. + +And from all under the low ceiling rose a ceaseless hum, though none +spoke loud. "Kill! kill! kill!" was the burden; the accompaniment such +profanities and blasphemies as had long disgraced the Paris pulpits, +and day by day had fanned the bigotry--already at a white heat--of the +Parisian populace. Tignonville turned sick as he listened, and would +fain have closed his ears. But for his life he dared not. And +presently a cripple in a beggar's garb, a dwarfish, filthy creature +with matted hair, twitched his sleeve, and offered him a whetstone. + +"Are you sharp, noble sir?" he asked with a leer. "Are you sharp? It's +surprising how the edge goes on the bone. A cut and thrust? Well, +every man to his taste. But give me a broad butcher's knife and I'll +ask no help, be it man, woman, or child!" + +A bystander, a lean man in rusty black, chuckled as he listened. "But +the woman or the child for choice, eh, Jehan?" he said. And he looked +to Tignonville to join in the jest. + +"Ay, give me a white throat for choice!" the cripple answered, with +horrible zest. "And there'll be delicate necks to prick to-night! +Lord, I think I hear them squeal! You don't need it, sir?" he +continued, again proffering the whetstone. "No? Then I'll give my +blade another whet, in the name of our Lady, the Saints, and good +Father Pezelay!" + +"Ay, and give me a turn!" the lean man cried, proffering his weapon. +"May I die if I do not kill one of the accursed for every finger of my +hands!" + +"And toe of my feet!" the cripple answered, not to be outdone. "And +toe of my feet! A full score!" + +"'Tis according to your sins!" the other, who had something of the air +of a Churchman, answered. "The more heretics killed, the more sins +forgiven. Remember that, brother, and spare not if your soul be +burdened! They blaspheme God and call Him paste! In the paste of their +own blood," he continued ferociously, "I will knead them and roll them +out, saith the good Father Pezelay, my master!" + +The cripple crossed himself. "Whom God keep," he said. "He is a good +man. But you are looking ill, noble sir?" he continued, peering +curiously at the young Huguenot. + +"'Tis the heat," Tignonville muttered. "The night is stifling, and the +lights make it worse. I will go nearer the door." + +He hoped to escape them; he had some hope even of escaping from the +room and giving the alarm. But when he had forced his way to the +threshold, he found it guarded by two pikemen; and glancing back to +see if his movements were observed--for he knew that his agitation +might have awakened suspicion--he found that the taller of the two +whom he had left, the black-garbed man with the hungry face, was +watching him a-tiptoe, over the shoulders of the crowd. + +With that, and the sense of his impotence, the lights began to swim +before his eyes. The catastrophe that overhung his party, the fate so +treacherously prepared for all whom he loved and all with whom his +fortunes were bound up, confused his brain almost to delirium. He +strove to think, to calculate chances, to imagine some way in which he +might escape from the room, or from a window might cry the alarm. But +he could not bring his mind to a point. Instead, in lightning flashes +he foresaw what must happen: his betrothed in the hands of the +murderers, the fair face that had smiled on him frozen with terror; +brave men, the fighters of Montauban, the defenders of Angely, strewn +dead through the dark lanes of the city. And now a gust of passion, +and now a shudder of fear, seized him; and in any other assembly his +agitation must have led to detection. But in that room were many +twitching faces and trembling hands. Murder, cruel, midnight, and most +foul, wrung even from the murderers her toll of horror. While some, to +hide the nervousness they felt, babbled of what they would do, others +betrayed by the intentness with which they awaited the signal, the +dreadful anticipations that possessed their souls. + +Before he had formed any plan, a movement took place near the door. +The stairs shook beneath the sudden trampling of feet, a voice +cried "De par le Roi! De par le Roi!" and the babel of the room died +down. The throng swayed and fell back on either hand, and Marshal +Tavannes entered, wearing half armour, with a white sash; he was +followed by six or eight gentlemen in like guise. Amid cries of +"Jarnac! Jarnac!"--for to him the credit of that famous fight, +nominally won by the King's brother, was popularly given--he advanced +up the room, met the Provost of the merchants, and began to confer +with him. Apparently he asked the latter to select some men who could +be trusted on a special mission, for the Provost looked round and +beckoned to his side one or two of higher rank than the herd, and then +one or two of the most truculent aspect. + +Tignonville trembled lest he should be singled out. He had hidden +himself as well as he could at the rear of the crowd by the door; but +his dress, so much above the common, rendered him conspicuous. He +fancied that the Provost's eye ranged the crowd for him; and to avoid +it and efface himself he moved a pace to his left. + +The step was fatal. It saved him from the Provost, but it brought him +face to face and eye to eye with Count Hannibal, who stood in the +first rank at his brother's elbow. Tavannes stared an instant as if he +doubted his eyesight. Then, as doubt gave slow place to certainty, and +surprise to amazement, he smiled. And after a moment he looked another +way. + +Tignonville's heart gave a great bump and seemed to stand still. The +lights whirled before his eyes, there was a roaring in his ears. He +waited for the word that should denounce him. It did not come. And +still it did not come; and Marshal Tavannes was turning. Yes, turning, +and going; the Provost, bowing low, was attending him to the door; his +suite were opening on either side to let him pass. And Count Hannibal? +Count Hannibal was following also, as if nothing had occurred. As if +he had seen nothing! + +The young man caught his breath. Was it possible that he had imagined +the start of recognition, the steady scrutiny, the sinister smile? No; +for as Tavannes followed the others, he hung an instant on his heel, +their eyes met again, and once more he smiled. In the next breath he +was gone through the doorway, his spurs rang on the stairs; and the +babel of the crowd, unchecked by the great man's presence, broke out +anew, and louder. + +Tignonville shuddered. He was saved as by a miracle, saved he did not +know how. But the respite, though its strangeness diverted his +thoughts for a while, brought short relief. The horrors which impended +over others surged afresh into his mind, and filled him with a +maddening sense of impotence. To be one hour, only one short half-hour +without! To run through the sleeping streets, and scream in the dull +ears which a King's flatteries had stopped as with wool! To go up and +down and shake into life the guests whose royal lodgings daybreak +would turn to a shambles reeking with their blood! They slept, the +gentle Teligny, the brave Pardaillan, the gallant Rochefoucauld, Piles +the hero of St. Jean, while the cruel city stirred rustling about +them, and doom crept whispering to the door. They slept, they and a +thousand others, gentle and simple, young and old; while the half-mad +Valois shifted between two opinions, and the Italian woman, accursed +daughter of an accursed race, cried "Hark!" at her window, and looked +eastwards for the dawn. + +And the women? The woman he was to marry? And the others? In an access +of passion he thrust aside those who stood between, he pushed his way, +disregarding complaints, disregarding opposition, to the door. But the +pikes lay across it, and he could not utter a syllable to save his +life. He would have flung himself on the door-keepers, for he was +losing control of himself; but as he drew back for the spring, a hand +clutched his sleeve, and a voice he loathed hummed in his ear. + +"No, fair play, noble sir; fair play!" the cripple Jehan muttered, +forcibly drawing him aside. "All start together, and it's no man's +loss. But if there is any little business," he continued, lowering his +tone and peering with a cunning look into the other's face, "of your +own, noble sir, or your friends', anything or anybody you want +despatched, count on me. It were better, perhaps, you didn't appear in +it yourself, and a man you can trust----" + +"What do you mean?" the young man cried, recoiling from him. + +"No need to look surprised, noble sir," the lean man, who had joined +them, answered in a soothing tone. "Who kills to-night does God +service, and who serves God much may serve himself a little. 'Thou +shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn,' says good Father +Pezelay." + +"Hear, hear!" the cripple chimed in eagerly, his impatience such that +he danced on his toes. "He preaches as well as the good father his +master! So frankly, noble sir, what is it? What is it? A woman grown +ugly? A rich man grown old, with perchance a will in his chest? Or a +young heir that stands in my lord's way? Whichever it be, or whatever +it be, trust me and our friend here, and my butcher's gully shall cut +the knot." + +Tignonville shook his head. + +"But something there is," the lean man persisted obstinately; and he +cast a suspicious glance at Tignonville's clothes. It was evident that +the two had discussed him, and the motives of his presence there. +"Have the dice proved fickle, my lord, and are you for the jewellers' +shops on the bridge to fill your purse again? If so, take my word, it +were better to go three than one, and we'll enlist." + +"Ay, we know shops on the bridge where you can plunge your arm +elbow-deep in gold," the cripple muttered, his eyes sparkling +greedily. "There's Baillet's, noble sir! There's a shop for you! And +there's the man's shop who works for the King. He's lame like me. And +I know the way to all. Oh, it will be a merry night if they ring +before the dawn. It must be near daybreak now. And what's that?" + +Ay, what was it? A score of voices called for silence; a breathless +hush fell on the crowd. A moment the fiercest listened, with parted +lips and starting eyes. Then, "It was the bell!" cried one, "let us +out!" "It was not!" cried, another. "It was a pistol shot!" "Anyhow +let us out!" the crowd roared in chorus; "let us out!" And they +pressed in a furious mass towards the door, as if they would force it, +signal or no signal. + +But the pikemen stood fast, and the throng, checked in their first +rush, turned on one another, and broke into wrangling and disputing; +boasting, and calling Heaven and the saints to witness how thoroughly, +how pitilessly, how remorselessly they would purge Paris of this +leprosy when the signal did sound. Until again above the babel a man +cried "Silence!" and again they listened. And this time, dulled by +walls and distance, but unmistakable by the ears of fear or hate, the +heavy note of a bell came to them on the hot night-air. It was the +boom, sullen and menacing, of the death signal. + +The door-keepers lowered their pikes, and with a wild rush as of +wolves swarming on their prey, the band stormed the door, and thrust +and struggled and battled a way down the narrow staircase, and along +the narrow passage. "A bas les Huguenots! Mort aux Huguenots!" they +shouted; and shrieking, sweating, spurning with vile hands viler +faces, they poured pell-mell into the street, and added their clamour +to the boom of the tocsin that, as by magic and in a moment, turned +the streets of Paris into a hell of blood and cruelty. For as it was +here, so it was in a dozen other quarters. + +Quickly as they streamed out--and to have issued more quickly would +have been impossible--fiercely as they pushed and fought and clove +their way, Tignonville was of the foremost. And for a moment, seeing +the street clear before him and almost empty, the Huguenot thought +that he might do something. He might outstrip the stream of rapine, he +might carry the alarm; at worst he might reach his betrothed before +harm befel her. But when he had sped fifty yards, his heart sank. +True, none passed him; but under the spell of the alarm-bell the +stones themselves seemed to turn to men. Houses, courts, alleys, the +very churches vomited men. In a twinkling the street was alive with +men, roared with them as with a rushing tide, gleamed with their +lights and weapons, thundered with the volume of their thousand +voices. He was no longer ahead, men were running before him, behind +him, on his right hand and on his left. In every side-street, every +passage, men were running; and not men only, but women, children, +furious creatures without age or sex. And all the time the bell tolled +overhead, tolled faster and faster, and louder and louder; and shots +and screams, and the clash of arms, and the fall of strong doors began +to swell the maelstrom of sound. + +He was in the Rue St. Honore now, and speeding westward. But the flood +still rose with him, and roared abreast of him. Nay, it outstripped +him. When he came, panting, within sight of his goal, and lacked but a +hundred paces of it, he found his passage barred by a dense mass of +people moving slowly to meet him. In the heart of the press the light +of a dozen torches shone on half as many riders mailed and armed; +whose eyes, as they moved on, and the furious gleaming eyes of the +rabble about them, never left the gabled roofs on their right. On +these from time to time a white-clad figure showed itself, and passed +from chimney-stack to chimney-stack, or, stooping low, ran along the +parapet. Every time that this happened, the men on horseback pointed +upwards and the mob foamed with rage. + +Tignonville groaned, but he could not help. Unable to go forward, he +turned, and with others hurrying, shouting, and brandishing weapons, +he pressed into the Rue du Roule, passed through it, and gained the +Bethizy. But here, as he might have foreseen, all passage was barred +at the Hotel Pouthieu by a horde of savages, who danced and yelled and +sang songs round the Admiral's body, which lay in the middle of the +way; while to right and left men were bursting into houses and forcing +new victims into the street. The worst had happened there, and he +turned panting, regained the Rue St. Honore and, crossing it and +turning left-handed, darted through side streets until he came again +into the main thoroughfare a little beyond the Croix du Tiroir, that +marked the corner of Mademoiselle's house. + +Here his last hope left him. The street swarmed with bands of men +hurrying to and fro as in a sacked city. The scum of the Halles, the +rabble of the quarter poured this way and that, here at random, there +swayed and directed by a few knots of men-at-arms, whose corselets +reflected the glare of a hundred torches. At one time and within +sight, three or four houses were being stormed. On every side rose +heartrending cries, mingled with brutal laughter, with savage jests, +with cries of "To the river!" The most cruel of cities had burst its +bounds and was not to be stayed; nor would be stayed until the Seine +ran red to the sea, and leagues below, in pleasant Normandy hamlets, +men, for fear of the pestilence, pushed the corpses from the bridges +with poles and boat-hooks. + +All this Tignonville saw, though his eyes, leaping the turmoil, looked +only to the door at which he had left Mademoiselle a few hours +earlier. There a crowd of men pressed and struggled; but from the spot +where he stood he could see no more. That was enough, however. Rage +nerved him, and despair; his world was dying round him. If he could +not save her he would avenge her. Recklessly he plunged into the +tumult; blade in hand, with vigorous blows he thrust his way through, +his white sleeve and the white cross in his hat gaining him passage +until he reached the fringe of the band who beset the door. Here his +first attempt to pass failed; and he might have remained hampered by +the crowd if a squad of archers had not ridden up. As they spurred to +the spot, heedless over whom they rode, he clutched a stirrup, and was +borne with them into the heart of the crowd. In a twinkling he stood +on the threshold of the house, face to face and foot to foot with +Count Hannibal, who stood also on the threshold, but with his back to +the door, which, unbarred and unbolted, gaped open behind him. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + A ROUGH WOOING. + + +The young man had caught the delirium that was abroad that night. The +rage of the trapped beast was in his heart, his hand held a sword. To +strike blindly, to strike without question the first who withstood him +was the wild-beast instinct; and if Count Hannibal had not spoken on +the instant, the Marshal's brother had said his last word in the +world. + +Yet as he stood there, a head above the crowd, he seemed unconscious +alike of Tignonville and the point that all but pricked his breast. +Swart and grim-visaged, his harsh features distorted by the glare +which shone upon him, he looked beyond the Huguenot to the sea of +tossing arms and raging faces that surged about the saddles of the +horsemen. It was to these he spoke. + +"Begone, dogs!" he cried, in a voice that startled the nearest, "or I +will whip you away with my stirrup-leathers! Do you hear? Begone! This +house is not for you! Burn, kill, plunder where you will, but go +hence!" + +"But 'tis on the list!" one of the wretches yelled. "'Tis on the +list!" And he pushed forward until he stood at Tignonville's elbow. + +"And has no cross!" shrieked another, thrusting himself forward in his +turn. "See you, let us by, whoever you are! In the King's name, kill! +It has no cross!" + +"Then," Tavannes thundered, "will I nail you for a cross to the front +of it! No cross, say you? I will make one of you, foul crow!" + +And as he spoke, his arm shot out; the man recoiled, his fellow +likewise. But one of the mounted archers took up the matter. + +"Nay, but, my lord," he said--he knew Tavannes--"it is the King's will +there be no favour shown to-night to any, small or great. And this +house is registered, and is full of heretics." + +"And has no cross!" the rabble urged in chorus. And they leapt up and +down in their impatience, and to see the better. "And has no cross!" +they persisted. They could understand that. Of what use crosses, if +they were not to kill where there was no cross? Daylight was not +plainer. + +Tavannes' face grew dark, and he shook his finger at the archer who +had spoken. "Rogue," he cried, "does the King's will run here only? +Are there no other houses to sack or men to kill, that you must beard +me? And favour? You will have little of mine, if you do not budge and +take your vile tail with you! Off! Or must I cry 'Tavannes!' and bid +my people sweep you from the streets?" + +The foremost rank hesitated, awed by his manner and his name; while +the rearmost, attracted by the prospect of easier pillage, had gone +off already. The rest wavered; and another and another broke away. The +archer who had put himself forward saw which way the wind was blowing, +and he shrugged his shoulders. "Well, my lord, as you will," he said +sullenly. "All the same I would advise you to close the door and bolt +and bar. We shall not be the last to call to-day." And he turned his +horse in ill-humour, and forced it, snorting and plunging, through the +crowd. + +"Bolt and bar?" Tavannes cried after him in fury. "See you my answer +to that!" And turning on the threshold, "Within there!" he cried. +"Open the shutters and set lights, and the table! Light, I say; light! +And lay on quickly, if you value your lives! And throw open, for I sup +with your mistress tonight, if it rain blood without! Do you hear me, +rogues? Set on!" + +He flung the last word at the quaking servants; then he turned again +to the street. He saw that the crowd was melting, and, looking in +Tignonville's face, he laughed aloud. "Does Monsieur sup with us?" he +said. "To complete the party? Or will he choose to sup with our +friends yonder? It is for him to say. I confess, for my part," with an +awful smile, "their hospitality seems a trifle crude, and boisterous." + +Tignonville looked behind him and shuddered. The same horde which had +so lately pressed about the door had found a victim lower down the +street, and, as Tavannes spoke, came driving back along the roadway, a +mass of tossing lights and leaping, running figures, from the heart of +which rose the screams of a creature in torture. So terrible were the +sounds that Tignonville leant half swooning against the door-post; and +even the iron heart of Tavannes seemed moved for a moment. + +For a moment only: then he looked at his companion, and his lip +curled. "You'll join us, I think?" he said with an undisguised sneer. +"Then, after you, Monsieur. They are opening the shutters. Doubtless +the table is laid, and Mademoiselle is expecting us. After you, +Monsieur, if you please. A few hours ago I should have gone first, for +you, in this house"--with a sinister smile--"were at home! Now, we +have changed places." + +Whatever he meant by the gibe--and some smack of an evil jest lurked +in his tone--he played the host so far as to urge his bewildered +companion along the passage and into the living-chamber on the left, +where he had seen from without that his orders to light and lay were +being executed. A dozen candles shone on the board, and lit up the +apartment. What the house contained of food and wine had been +got together and set on the table; from the low, wide window, +beetle-browed and diamond-paned, which extended the whole length of +the room and looked on the street at the height of a man's head above +the roadway, the shutters had been removed--doubtless by trembling and +reluctant fingers. To such eyes of passers-by as looked in, from the +inferno of driving crowds and gleaming weapons which prevailed +outside--and not outside only, but throughout Paris--the brilliant +room and the laid table must have seemed strange indeed! + +To Tignonville, all that had happened, all that was happening, seemed +a dream: a dream his entrance under the gentle impulsion of this man +who dominated him; a dream Mademoiselle standing behind the table with +blanched face and stony eyes; a dream the cowering servants huddled in +a corner beyond her; a dream his silence, her silence, the moment of +waiting before Count Hannibal spoke. + +When he did speak it was to count the servants. "One, two, three, +four, five," he said. "And two of them women. Mademoiselle is but +poorly attended. Are there not"--and he turned to her--"some lacking?" + +The girl opened her lips twice, but no sound issued. The third time, +"Two went out," she muttered in a hoarse, strangled voice, "and have +not returned." + +"And have not returned?" he answered, raising his eyebrows. "Then I +fear we must not wait for them. We might wait long!" And turning +sharply to the panic-stricken servants, "Go you to your places! Do you +not see that Mademoiselle waits to be served?" + +The girl shuddered and spoke. + +"Do you wish me," she muttered, in the same strangled tone, "to play +this farce--to the end?" + +"The end may be better, Mademoiselle, than you think," he answered, +bowing. And then to the miserable servants, who hung back afraid to +leave the shelter of their mistress's skirts, "To your places!" he +cried. "Set Mademoiselle's chair. Are you so remiss on other days? If +so," with a look of terrible meaning, "you will be the less loss! Now, +Mademoiselle, may I have the honour? And when we are at table we can +talk." + +He extended his hand, and, obedient to his gesture, she moved to the +place at the head of the table, but without letting her fingers come +into contact with his. He gave no sign that he noticed this, but he +strode to the place on her right, and signed to Tignonville to take +that on her left. "Will you not be seated?" he continued. For she kept +her feet. + +She turned her head stiffly, until for the first time her eyes looked +into his. A shudder more violent than the last shook her. "Had you not +better--kill us at once?" she whispered. The blood had forsaken even +her lips. Her face was the face of a statue--white, beautiful, +lifeless. + +"I think not," he said gravely. "Be seated, and let us hope for the +best. And you, sir," he continued, turning to Carlat, "serve your +mistress with wine. She needs it." + +The steward filled for her, and then for each of the men, his shaking +hand spilling as much as it poured. Nor was this strange. Above the +din and uproar of the street, above the crash of distant doors, above +the tocsin that still rang from the reeling steeple of St. Germain's, +the great bell of the Palais on the island had just begun to hurl its +note of doom upon the town. A woman crouching at the end of the +chamber burst into hysterical weeping, but, at a glance from Tavannes' +terrible eye, was mute again. + +Tignonville found voice at last. "Have they--killed the Admiral?" he +muttered, his eyes on the table. + +"M. Coligny! An hour ago." + +"And Teligny?" + +"Him also." + +"M. de Rochefoucauld?" + +"They are dealing with M. le Comte now, I believe," Tavannes answered. +"He had his chance, and cast it away." And he began to eat. + +The man at the table shuddered. The woman continued to look before +her, but her lips moved as if she prayed. Suddenly a rush of feet, a +roar of voices surged past the window; for a moment the glare of the +torches which danced ruddily on the walls of the room, showed a +severed head borne above the multitude on a pike. Mademoiselle, with a +low cry, made an effort to rise, but Count Hannibal grasped her wrist +and she sank back half fainting. Then the nearer clamour sank a +little, and the bells, unchallenged, flung their iron tongues above +the maddened city. In the east the dawn was growing; soon its grey +light would fall on cold hearths, on battered doors and shattered +weapons, on hordes of wretches drunk with greed and hate. + +When he could be heard, "What are you going to do with us?" the man +asked hoarsely. + +"That depends," Count Hannibal replied after a moment's thought. + +"On what?" + +"On Mademoiselle de Vrillac." + +The other's eyes gleamed with passion. He leaned forward. "What has +she to do with it?" he cried. And he stood up and sat down again in a +breath. + +Tavannes raised his eyebrows with a blandness that seemed at odds with +his harsh visage. "I will answer that question by another question," +he replied. "How many are there in the house, my friend?" + +"You can count." + +Tavannes counted again. "Seven?" he said. + +Tignonville nodded impatiently. + +"Seven lives?" + +"Well?" + +"Well, Monsieur, you know the King's will?" + +"I can guess it," the other replied furiously. And he cursed the King, +and the King's mother, calling her Jezebel. + +"You can guess it?" Tavannes answered; and then with sudden heat, as +if that which he had to say could not be said even by him in cold +blood, "Nay, you know it! You heard it from the archer at the door. +You heard him say, 'No favour, no quarter for man, for woman, or for +child. So says the King.' You heard it, but you fence with me. +Foucauld, with whom his Majesty played to-night, hand to hand and face +to face--Foucauld is dead! And you think to live? You?" he continued, +lashing himself into passion. "I know not by what chance you came +where I saw you an hour gone, nor by what chance you came by that and +that"--pointing with accusing finger to the badges the Huguenot wore. +"But this I know! I have but to cry your name from yonder casement, +nay, Monsieur, I have but to stand aside when the mob go their rounds +from house to house, as they will go presently, and you will perish as +certainly as you have hitherto escaped!" + +For the second time Mademoiselle turned and looked at him. "Then," she +whispered, with white lips, "to what end this--mockery?" + +"To the end that seven lives may be saved, Mademoiselle," he answered, +bowing. + +"At a price?" she muttered. + +"At a price," he answered. "A price which women do not find it hard to +pay--at Court. 'Tis paid every day for pleasure or a whim, for rank or +the _entree_, for robes and gewgaws. Few, Mademoiselle, are privileged +to buy a life; still fewer, seven!" + +She began to tremble. "I would rather die--seven times!" she cried, +her voice quivering. And she tried to rise, but sat down again. + +"And these?" he said, indicating the servants. + +"Far, far rather!" she repeated passionately. + +"And Monsieur? And Monsieur!" he urged with stern persistence, while +his eyes passed lightly from her to Tignonville and back to her again, +their depths inscrutable. "If you love Monsieur, Mademoiselle, and I +believe you do----" + +"I can die with him!" she cried. + +"And he with you!" + +She writhed in her chair. + +"And he with you?" Count Hannibal repeated, with emphasis; and he +thrust forward his head. "For that is the question. Think, think, +Mademoiselle. It is in my power to save from death him whom you love; +to save you; to save this _canaille_, if it so please you. It is in my +power to save him, to save you, to save all; and I will save all--at a +price! If, on the other hand, you deny me that price, I will as +certainly leave all to perish, as perish they will, before the sun +that is now rising sets to-night!" + +Mademoiselle looked straight before her, the flicker of a dreadful +prescience in her eyes. "And the price?" she muttered. "The price?" + +"You, Mademoiselle." + +"Yes, you! Nay, why fence with me?" he continued gently. "You knew it, +you have said it. You have read it in my eyes these seven days." + +She did not speak, move, or seem to breathe. As he said, she had +foreseen, she had known the answer. But Tignonville, it seemed, had +not. He sprang to his feet. "M. de Tavannes," he cried, "you are a +villain!" + +"Monsieur?" + +"You are a villain! But you shall pay for this!" the young man +continued vehemently. "You shall not leave this room alive! You shall +pay for this insult!" + +"Insult?" Tavannes answered in apparent surprise; and then, as if +comprehension broke upon him, "Ah! Monsieur mistakes me," he said, +with a generous sweep of his hand. "And Mademoiselle also, perhaps? +Oh! be content, she shall have bell, book, and candle; she shall be +tied as tight as Holy Church can tie her! Or, if she please, and one +survive, she shall have a priest of her own church--you call it a +church? She shall have whichever of the two will serve her better. +'Tis one to me! But for paying me, Monsieur," he continued with irony +in voice and manner; "when, I pray you? In Eternity! For if you refuse +my offer, you have done with time. Now? I have but to sound this +whistle"--he touched a silver whistle which hung at his breast--"and +there are those within hearing will do your business before you make +two passes. Dismiss the notion, sir, and understand. You are in my +power. Paris runs with blood, as noble as yours, as innocent as hers. +If you would not perish with the rest, decide! And quickly! For what +you have seen are but the forerunners, what you have heard are but the +gentle whispers that predict the gale. Do not parley too long; so long +that even I may no longer save you." + +"I would rather die!" Mademoiselle moaned, her face covered. "I would +rather die!" + +"And see him die?" he answered quietly. "And see these die? Think, +think, child!" + +"You will not do it!" she gasped. She shook from head to foot. + +"I shall do nothing," he answered firmly. "I shall but leave you to +your fate, and these to theirs. In the King's teeth I dare save my +wife and her people; but no others. You must choose--and quickly." + +One of the frightened women--it was Mademoiselle's tiring-maid, a girl +called Javette--made a movement, as if to throw herself at her +mistress's feet. Tignonville drove her to her place with a word. He +turned to Count Hannibal. "But, M. le Comte," he said, "you must be +mad! Mad, to wish to marry her in this way! You do not love her. You +do not want her. What is she to you more than other women?" + +"What is she to you more than other women?" Tavannes retorted in a +tone so sharp and incisive that Tignonville started, and a faint touch +of colour crept into the wan cheek of the girl, who sat between them, +the prize of the contest. "What is she more to you than other women? +Is she more? And yet--you want her!" + +"She is more to me," Tignonville answered. + +"Is she?" the other retorted, with a ring of keen meaning. "Is she? +But we bandy words and the storm is rising, as I warned you it would +rise. Enough for you that I _do_ want her. Enough for you that I will +have her. She shall be the wife, the willing wife, of Hannibal de +Tavannes--or I leave her to her fate, and you to yours!" + +"Ah, God!" she moaned. "The willing wife!" + +"Ay, Mademoiselle, the willing wife," he answered sternly. "Or no +man's wife!" + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + WHO TOUCHES TAVANNES? + + +In saying that the storm was rising Count Hannibal had said no more +than the truth. A new mob had a minute before burst from the eastward +into the Rue St. Honore; and the roar of its thousand voices swelled +louder than the importunate clangour of the bells. Behind its moving +masses the dawn of a new day--Sunday, the 24th of August, the feast of +St. Bartholomew--was breaking over the Bastille, as if to aid the +crowd in its cruel work. The gabled streets, the lanes, and gothic +courts, the stifling wynds, where the work awaited the workers, still +lay in twilight; still the gleam of the torches, falling on the +house-fronts, heralded the coming of the crowd. But the dawn was +growing, the sun was about to rise. Soon the day would be here, giving +up the lurking fugitive whom darkness, more pitiful, had spared, and +stamping with legality the horrors that night had striven to hide. + +And with day, with the full light, killing would grow more easy, +escape more hard. Already they were killing on the bridge where the +rich goldsmiths lived, on the wharves, on the river. They were killing +at the Louvre, in the courtyard under the King's eyes, and below the +windows of the Medicis. They were killing in St. Martin and St. Denis +and St. Antoine; wherever hate, or bigotry, or private malice impelled +the hand. From the whole city went up a din of lamentation, and wrath, +and foreboding. From the Cour des Miracles, from the markets, from the +Boucherie, from every haunt of crime and misery, hordes of wretched +creatures poured forth; some to rob on their own account, and where +they listed, none gainsaying; more to join themselves to one of the +armed bands whose business it was to go from street to street, and +house to house, quelling resistance, and executing through Paris the +high justice of the King. + +It was one of these swollen bands which had entered the street while +Tavannes spoke; nor could he have called to his aid a more powerful +advocate. As the deep "A bas! A bas!" rolled like thunder along the +fronts of the houses, as the more strident "Tuez! Tuez!" drew nearer +and nearer, and the lights of the oncoming multitude began to flicker +on the shuttered gables, the fortitude of the servants gave way. +Madame Carlat, shivering in every limb, burst into moaning; the +tiring-maid, Javette, flung herself in terror at Mademoiselle's knees, +and, writhing herself about them, shrieked to her to save her, only to +save her! One of the men moved forward on impulse, as if he would +close the shutters; and only old Carlat remained silent, praying +mutely with moving lips and a stern, set face. + +And Count Hannibal? As the glare of the links in the street grew +brighter, and ousted the sickly daylight, his form seemed to dilate. +He stilled the shrieking woman by a glance. "Choose! Mademoiselle, and +quickly!" he said. "For I can only save my wife and her people! Quick, +for the pinch is coming, and 'twill be no boy's play." + +A shot, a scream from the street, a rush of racing feet before the +window seconded his words. + +"Quick, Mademoiselle!" he cried. And his breath came a little faster. +"Quick, before it be too late! Will you save life, or will you kill!" + +She looked at her lover with eyes of agony, dumbly questioning him. +But he made no sign, and only Tavannes marked the look. "Monsieur has +done what he can to save himself," he said with a sneer. "He has +donned the livery of the King's servants; he has said, 'Whoever +perishes, I will live!' But--" + +"Curse you!" the young man cried, and, stung to madness, he tore the +cross from his cap and flung it on the ground. He seized his white +sleeve and ripped it from shoulder to elbow. Then, when it hung by the +string only, he held his hand. + +"Curse you!" he cried furiously. "I will not at your bidding! I may +save her yet! I will save her!" + +"Fool!" Tavannes answered--but his words were barely audible above the +deafening uproar. "Can you fight a thousand? Look! Look!" and seizing +the other's wrist he pointed to the window. The street glowed like a +furnace in the red light of torches, raised on poles above a sea of +heads; an endless sea of heads, and gaping faces, and tossing arms +which swept on and on, and on and by. For a while it seemed that the +torrent would flow past them and would leave them safe. Then came a +check, a confused outcry, a surging this way and that; the torches +reeled to and fro, and finally with a dull roar of "Open! Open!" the +mob faced about to the house and the lighted window. + +For a second it seemed that even Count Hannibal's iron nerves shook a +little. He stood between the sullen group that surrounded the +disordered table and the maddened rabble, that gloated on the victims +before they tore them to pieces. "Open! Open!" the mob howled: and a +man dashed in the window with his pike. + +In that crisis Mademoiselle's eyes met Tavannes' for the fraction of a +second. She did not speak; nor, had she retained the power to frame +the words, would they have been audible. But something she must have +looked, and something of import, though no other than he marked or +understood it. For in a flash he was at the window and his hand was +raised for silence. + +"Back!" he thundered. "Back, knaves!" And he whistled shrilly. "Do +what you will," he continued in the same tone, "but not here! Pass on! +Pass on!--do you hear?" + +But the crowd were not to be lightly diverted. With a persistence +brutal and unquestioning they continued to howl "Open! Open!" while +the man who had broken the window the moment before, Jehan, the +cripple with the hideous face, seized the lead-work, and tore away a +great piece of it. Then laying hold of a bar, he tried to drag it out, +setting one foot against the wall below. + +Tavannes saw what he did, and his frame seemed to dilate with the fury +and violence of his character. "Dogs!" he shouted, "must I call out my +riders and scatter you? Must I flog you through the streets with +stirrup-leathers? I am Tavannes, beware of me! I have claws and teeth +and I bite!" he continued, the scorn in his words exceeding even the +rage of the crowd, at which he flung them. "Kill where you please, rob +where you please, but not where I am! Or I will hang you by the heels +on Montfaucon, man by man! I will flay your backs. Go! go! I am +Tavannes!" + +But the mob, cowed for a moment by the thunder of his voice, by his +arrogance and recklessness, showed at this that their patience was +exhausted. With a yell which drowned his tones they swayed forward; a +dozen thundered on the door, crying, "In the King's name!" As many +more tore out the remainder of the casement, seized the bars of the +window, and strove to pull them out or to climb between them. Jehan, +the cripple, with whom Tignonville had rubbed elbows at the +rendezvous, led the way. + +Count Hannibal watched them a moment, his harsh face bent down to +them, his features plain in the glare of the torches. But when the +cripple, raised on the others' shoulders, and emboldened by his +adversary's inactivity, began to squeeze himself through the bars, +Tavannes raised a pistol, which he had held unseen behind him, cocked +it at leisure, and levelled it at the foul face which leered close to +his. The dwarf saw the weapon and tried to retreat; but it was too +late. A flash, a scream, and the wretch, shot through the throat, +flung up his hands, and fell back into the arms of a lean man in black +who had lent him his shoulder to ascend. + +For a few seconds the smoke of the pistol filled the window and the +room. There was a cry that the Huguenots were escaping, that the +Huguenots were resisting, that it was a plot; and some shouted to +guard the back and some to watch the roof, and some to be gone. But +when the fumes cleared away, the mob saw, with stupor, that all was as +it had been. Count Hannibal stood where he had stood before, a grim +smile on his lips. + +"Who comes next!" he cried in a tone of mockery. "I have more +pistols!" And then with a sudden change to ferocity, "You dogs!" he +went on. "You scum of a filthy city, sweepings of the Halles! Do you +think to beard me? Do you think to frighten me or murder me? I am +Tavannes, and this is my house, and were there a score of Huguenots in +it, you should not touch one, nor harm a hair of his head! Begone, I +say again, while you may! Seek women and children, and kill them. But +not here!" + +For an instant the mingled scorn and brutality of his words silenced +them. Then from the rear of the crowd came an answer--the roar of an +arquebuse. The ball whizzed past Count Hannibal's head, and, splashing +the plaster from the wall within a pace of Tignonville, dropped to the +ground. + +Tavannes laughed. "Bungler!" he cried. "Were you in my troop I would +dip your trigger-finger in boiling oil to teach you to shoot! But you +weary me, dogs. I must teach you a lesson, must I?" And he lifted a +pistol and levelled it. The crowd did not know whether it was the one +he had discharged or another, but they gave back with a sharp gasp. "I +must teach you, must I?" he continued with scorn. "Here Bigot, +Badelon, drive me these blusterers! Rid the street of them! A +Tavannes! A Tavannes!" + +Not by word or look had he before this betrayed that he had supports. +But as he cried the name, a dozen men armed to the teeth, who had +stood motionless under the Croix du Tiroir, fell in a line on the +right flank of the crowd. The surprise for those nearest them was +complete. With the flash of the pikes before their eyes, with the cold +steel in fancy between their ribs, they fled every way, uncertain how +many pursued, or if any pursuit there was. For a moment the mob, which +a few minutes before had seemed so formidable that a regiment might +have quailed before it, bade fair to be routed by a dozen pikes. + +And so, had all in the crowd been what he termed them, the rabble and +sweepings of the streets, it would have been. But in the heart of it, +and felt rather than seen, were a handful of another kidney; Sorbonne +students and fierce-eyed priests, with three or four mounted archers, +the nucleus that, moving through the streets, had drawn together this +concourse. And these with threats and curses and gleaming eyes stood +fast, even Tavannes' dare-devils recoiling before the tonsure. The +check thus caused allowed those who had budged a breathing space. They +rallied behind the black robes, and began to stone the pikes; who in +their turn withdrew until they formed two groups, standing on their +defence, the one before the window the other before the door. + +Count Hannibal had watched the attack and the check, as a man watches +a play; with smiling interest. In the panic, the torches had been +dropped or extinguished, and now between the house and the sullen +crowd which hung back, yet grew moment by moment more dangerous, the +daylight fell cold on the littered street and the cripple's huddled +form prone in the gutter. A priest raised on the shoulders of the lean +man in black began to harangue the mob, and the dull roar of assent, +the brandished arms which greeted his appeal, had their effect on +Tavannes' men. They looked to the window, and muttered among +themselves. It was plain that they had no stomach for a fight with the +Church, and were anxious for the order to withdraw. + +But Count Hannibal gave no order, and, much as his people feared the +cowls, they feared him more. Meanwhile the speaker's eloquence rose +higher; he pointed with frenzied gestures to the house. The mob +groaned, and suddenly a volley of stones fell among the pikemen, whose +corselets rattled under the shower. The priest seized that moment. He +sprang to the ground, and to the front. He caught up his robe and +waved his hand, and the rabble, as if impelled by a single will, +rolled forward in a huge one-fronted thundering wave, before which the +two handfuls of pikemen--afraid to strike, yet afraid to fly--were +swept away like straws upon the tide. + +But against the solid walls and oak-barred door of the house the wave +beat, only to fall back again, a broken, seething mass of brandished +arms and ravening faces. One point alone was vulnerable, the window, +and there in the gap stood Tavannes. Quick as thought he fired two +pistols into the crowd; then, while the smoke for a moment hid all, he +whistled. + +Whether the signal was a summons to his men to fight their way +back--as they were doing to the best of their power--or he had +resources still unseen, was not to be known. For as the smoke began to +rise, and while the rabble before the window, cowed by the fall of two +of their number, were still pushing backward instead of forward, there +rose behind them strange sounds--yells, and the clatter of hoofs, +mingled with screams of alarm. A second, and into the loose skirts of +the crowd came charging helter-skelter, pell-mell, a score of +galloping, shrieking, cursing horsemen, attended by twice as many +footmen, who clung to their stirrups or to the tails of the horses, +and yelled and whooped, and struck in unison with the maddened riders. + +"On! on!" the foremost shrieked, rolling in his saddle, and foaming at +the mouth. "Bleed in August, bleed in May! Kill!" And he fired a +pistol among the rabble, who fled every way to escape his rearing, +plunging charger. + +"Kill! Kill!" cried his followers, cutting the air with their swords, +and rolling to and fro on their horses in drunken emulation. "Bleed in +August, bleed in May!" + +"On! On!" cried the leader, as the crowd which beset the house fled +every way before his reckless onset. "Bleed in August, bleed in May!" + +The rabble fled, but not so quickly but that one or two were ridden +down, and this for an instant checked the riders. Before they could +pass on, "Ohe!" cried Count Hannibal from his window. "Ohe!" with a +shout of laughter, "ride over them, dear brother! Make me a clean +street for my wedding!" + +Marshal Tavannes--for he, the hero of Jarnac, was the leader of this +wild orgy--turned that way, and strove to rein in his horse. "What +ails them?" he cried, as the maddened animal reared upright, its iron +hoofs striking fire from the slippery pavement. + +"They are rearing like thy Bayard!" Count Hannibal answered. "Whip +them, whip them for me! Tavannes! Tavannes!" + +"What? This canaille!" + +"Ay, that canaille!" + +"Who touches my brother, touches Tavannes!" the Marshal replied, and +spurred his horse among the rabble, who had fled to the sides of the +street and now strove hard to efface themselves against the walls. +"Begone, dogs; begone!" he cried, still hunting them. And then, "You +would bite, would you?" And snatching another pistol from his boot, he +fired it among them, careless whom he hit. "Ha! ha! That stirs you, +does it!" he continued as the wretches fled headlong. "Who touches my +brother, touches Tavannes! On! On!" + +Suddenly, from a doorway near at hand, a sombre figure darted into the +roadway, caught the Marshal's rein, and for a second checked his +course. The priest--for a priest it was, Father Pezelay, the same who +had addressed the mob--held up a warning hand. "Halt!" he cried, with +burning eyes. "Halt, my lord! It is written, thou shalt not spare the +Canaanitish woman. 'Tis not to spare the King has given command and a +sword, but to kill! 'Tis not to harbour, but to smite! To smite!" + +"Then smite I will!" the Marshal retorted, and with the butt of his +pistol struck the zealot down. Then, with as much indifference as he +would have treated a Huguenot, he spurred his horse over him, with a +mad laugh at his jest. "Who touches my brother, touches Tavannes!" he +yelled. "Touches Tavannes! On! On! Bleed in August, bleed in May!" + +"On!" shouted his followers, striking about them in the same desperate +fashion. They were young nobles who had spent the night feasting at +the Palace, and, drunk with wine and mad with excitement, had left the +Louvre at daybreak to rouse the city. "A Jarnac! A Jarnac!" they +cried, and some saluted Count Hannibal as they passed. And so, +shouting and spurring and following their leader, they swept away down +the now empty street, carrying terror and a flame wherever their +horses bore them that morning. + +Tavannes, his hands on the ledge of the shattered window, leaned out +laughing, and followed them with his eyes. A moment, and the mob was +gone, the street was empty; and one by one, with sheepish faces, his +pikemen emerged from the doorways and alleys in which they had taken +refuge. They gathered about the three huddled forms which lay prone +and still in the gutter: or, not three--two. For even as they +approached them, one, the priest, rose slowly and giddily to his feet. +He turned a face bleeding, lean, and relentless towards the window at +which Tavannes stood. Solemnly, with the sign of the cross, and with +uplifted hands, he cursed him in bed and at board, by day and by +night, in walking, in riding, in standing, in the day of battle, and +at the hour of death. The pikemen fell back appalled, and hid their +eyes; and those who were of the north crossed themselves, and those +who came from the south bent two fingers horse-shoe fashion. But +Hannibal de Tavannes laughed; laughed in his moustache, his teeth +showing, and bade them move that carrion to a distance, for it would +smell when the sun was high. Then he turned his back on the street, +and looked into the room. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + IN THE AMPHITHEATRE. + + +The movements of the women had overturned two of the candles; a third +had guttered out. The three which still burned, contending pallidly +with the daylight that each moment grew stronger, imparted to the +scene the air of a debauch too long sustained. The disordered board, +the wan faces of the servants cowering in their corner, Mademoiselle's +frozen look of misery, all increased the likeness; which a common +exhaustion so far strengthened that when Tavannes turned from the +window, and, flushed with his triumph, met the others' eyes, his +seemed the only vigour, and he the only man in the company. True, +beneath the exhaustion, beneath the collapse of his victims, there +burned passions, hatreds, repulsions, as fierce as the hidden fires of +the volcano; but for the time they smouldered ash-choked and inert. + +He flung the discharged pistols on the table. "If yonder raven speak +truth," he said, "I am like to pay dearly for my wife, and have short +time to call her wife. The more need, Mademoiselle, for speed, +therefore. You know the old saying, 'Short signing, long seisin? Shall +it be my priest, or your minister?" + +M. de Tignonville started forward. "She promised nothing!" he cried. +And he struck his hand on the table. + +Count Hannibal smiled, his lip curling. "That," he replied, "is for +Mademoiselle to say." + +"But if she says it? If she says it, Monsieur? What then?" + +Tavannes drew forth a comfit-box, such as it was the fashion of the +day to carry, as men of a later time carried a snuff-box. He slowly +chose a prune. "If she says it?" he answered. "Then M. de Tignonville +has regained his sweetheart. And M. de Tavannes has lost his bride." + +"You say so!" + +"Yes. But----" + +"But what?" + +"But she will not say it," Tavannes replied coolly. + +"Why not?" + +"Why not?" + +"Yes, Monsieur, why not?" the younger man repeated trembling. + +"Because, M. de Tignonville, it is not true." + +"But she did not speak!" Tignonville retorted, with passion--the +futile passion of the bird which beats its wings against a cage. "She +did not speak. She could not promise, therefore." + +Tavannes ate the prune slowly, seemed to give a little thought to its +flavour, approved it a true Agen plum, and at last spoke. "It is not +for you to say whether she promised," he returned drily, "nor for me. +It is for Mademoiselle." + +"You leave it to her?" + +"I leave it to her to say whether she promised." + +"Then she must say No!" Tignonville cried in a tone of triumph and +relief. "For she did not speak. Mademoiselle, listen!" he continued, +turning with outstretched hands and appealing to her with passion. "Do +you hear? Do you understand? You have but to speak to be free! You +have but to say the word, and Monsieur lets you go! In God's name, +speak! Speak then, Clotilde! Oh!" with a gesture of despair, as she +did not answer, but continued to sit stony and hopeless, looking +straight before her, her hands picking convulsively at the fringe of +her girdle. "She does not understand! Fright has stunned her! Be +merciful, Monsieur. Give her time to recover, to know what she does. +Fright has turned her brain." + +Count Hannibal smiled. "I knew her father and her uncle," he said, +"and in their time the Vrillacs were not wont to be cowards. Monsieur +forgets, too," he continued with fine irony, "that he speaks of my +betrothed." + +"It is a lie!" + +Tavannes raised his eyebrows. "You are in my power," he said. "For the +rest, if it be a lie, Mademoiselle has but to say so." + +"You hear him?" Tignonville cried. "Then speak, Mademoiselle! +Clotilde, speak! Say you never spoke, you never promised him!" + +The young man's voice quivered with indignation, with rage, with pain; +but most, if the truth be told, with shame--the shame of a position +strange and unparalleled. For in proportion as the fear of death +instant and violent was lifted from him, reflection awoke, and the +situation in which he stood took uglier shape. It was not so much love +that cried to her, love that suffered, anguished by the prospect of +love lost; as in the highest natures it might have been. Rather it was +the man's pride which suffered; the pride of a high spirit which found +itself helpless between the hammer and the anvil, in a position so +false that hereafter men might say of the unfortunate that he had +bartered his mistress for his life. He had not! But he had perforce to +stand by; he had to be passive under stress of circumstances, and by +the sacrifice, if she consummated it, he would in fact be saved. + +There was the pinch. No wonder that he cried to her in a voice which +roused even the servants from their lethargy of fear. "Say it!" he +cried. "Say it, before it be too late. Say you did not promise!" + +Slowly she turned her face to him. "I cannot," she whispered; "I +cannot. Go," she continued, a spasm distorting her features. "Go, +Monsieur. Leave me. It is over." + +"What?" he exclaimed. "You promised him?" + +She bowed her head. + +"Then," the young man cried, in a transport of resentment, "I will be +no part of the price. See! There! And there!" He tore the white sleeve +wholly from his arm, and, rending it in twain, flung it on the floor +and trampled on it. "It shall never be said that I stood by and let +you buy my life! I go into the street and I take my chance." And he +turned to the door. + +But Tavannes was before him. "No!" he said; "you will stay here, M. de +Tignonville!" And he set his back against the door. + +The young man looked at him, his face convulsed with passion. "I shall +stay here?" he cried. "And why, Monsieur? What is it to you if I +choose to perish?" + +"Only this," Tavannes retorted. "I am answerable to Mademoiselle now, +in an hour I shall be answerable to my wife--for your life. Live, +then, Monsieur; you have no choice. In a month you will thank me--and +her." + +"I am your prisoner?" + +"Precisely." + +"And I must stay here--to be tortured?" Tignonville cried. + +Count Hannibal's eyes sparkled. Sudden stormy changes, from +indifference to ferocity, from irony to invective, were characteristic +of the man. "Tortured!" he repeated grimly. "You talk of torture while +Piles and Pardaillan, Teligny and Rochefoucauld lie dead in the +street! While your cause sinks withered in a night, like a gourd! +While your servants fall butchered, and France rises round you in a +tide of blood! Bah!"--with a gesture of disdain--"you make me also +talk, and I have no love for talk, and small time. Mademoiselle, you +at least act and do not talk. By your leave I return in an hour, and I +bring with me--shall it be my priest, or your minister?" + +She looked at him with the face of one who awakes slowly to the full +horror, the full dread, of her position. For a moment she did not +answer. Then, "A minister," she murmured, her voice scarcely audible. + +He nodded. "A minister?" he said lightly. "Very well, if I can find +one." And walking to the shattered, gaping casement--through which the +cool morning air blew into the room and gently stirred the hair of the +unhappy girl--he said some words to the man on guard outside. Then he +turned to the door, but on the threshold he paused, looked with a +strange expression at the pair, and signed to Carlat and the servants +to go out before him. + +"Up, and lie close above!" he growled. "Open a window or look out, +and you will pay dearly for it! Do you hear? Up! Up! You, too, old +crop-ears. What! would you?"--with a sudden glare as Carlat +hesitated--"that is better! Mademoiselle, until my return." + +He saw them all out, followed them, and closed the door on the two; +who, left together, alone with the gaping window and the disordered +feast, maintained a strange silence. The girl, gripping one hand in +the other as if to quell her rising horror, sat looking before her, +and seemed barely to breathe. The man, leaning against the wall at a +little distance, bent his eyes not on her, but on the floor, his face +gloomy and distorted. + +His first thought should have been of her and for her; his first +impulse to console, if he could not save her. His it should have been +to soften, were that possible, the fate before her; to prove to her by +words of farewell, the purest and most sacred, that the sacrifice she +was making, not to save her own life but the lives of others, was +appreciated by him who paid with her the price. + +And all these things, and more, may have been in M. de Tignonville's +mind; they may even have been uppermost in it, but they found no +expression. The man remained sunk in a sombre reverie. He had the +appearance of thinking of himself, not of her; of his own position, +not of hers. Otherwise he must have looked at her, he must have turned +to her; he must have owned the subtle attraction of her unspoken +appeal when she drew a deep breath and slowly turned her eyes on him, +mute, asking, waiting what he should offer. + +Surely he should have! Yet it was long before he responded. He sat +buried in thought of himself, and his position, the vile, the unworthy +position in which her act had placed him. At length the constraint of +her gaze wrought on him, or his thoughts became unbearable, and he +looked up and met her eyes, and with an oath he sprang to his feet. + +"It shall not be!" he cried, in a tone low, but full of fury. "You +shall not do it! I will kill him first! I will kill him with this +hand! Or----" a step took him to the window, a step brought him +back--ay, brought him back exultant, and with a changed face. "Or +better, we will thwart him yet. See, Mademoiselle, do you see? Heaven +is merciful! For a moment the cage is open!" His eyes shone with +excitement, the sweat of sudden hope stood on his brow as he pointed +to the unguarded casement. "Come! it is our one chance!" And he caught +her by her arm, and strove to draw her to the window. + +But she hung back, staring at him. "Oh, no, no!" she cried. + +"Yes, yes! I say!" he responded. "You do not understand. The way is +open! We can escape, Clotilde, we can escape!" + +"I cannot! I cannot!" she wailed, still resisting him. + +"You are afraid?" + +"Afraid?" she repeated the word in a tone of wonder. "No, but I +cannot. I promised him. I cannot. And, O God!" she continued, in a +sudden outburst of grief, as the sense of general loss, of the great +common tragedy broke on her and whelmed for the moment her private +misery. "Why should we think of ourselves? They are dead, they are +dying, who were ours, whom we loved! Why should we think to live? What +does it matter how it fares with us? We cannot be happy. Happy?" she +continued wildly. "Are any happy now? Or is the world all changed in a +night? No, we could not be happy. And at least you will live, +Tignonville. I have that to console me." + +"Live!" he responded vehemently. "I live? I would rather die a +thousand times. A thousand times rather than live shamed! Than see you +sacrificed to that devil! Than go out with a brand on my brow, for +every man to point at me! I would rather die a thousand times!" + +"And do you think that I would not?" she answered, shivering. "Better, +far better die than--than live with him!" + +"Then why not die?" + +She stared at him, wide-eyed, and a sudden stillness possessed her. +"How?" she whispered. "What do you mean?" + +"That!" he said. As he spoke, he raised his hand and signed to her to +listen. A sullen murmur, distant as yet, but borne to the ear on the +fresh morning air, foretold the rising of another storm. The sound +grew in intensity, even while she listened; and yet for a moment she +misunderstood him. "O God!" she cried, out of the agony of nerves +overwrought, "will that bell never stop? Will it never stop? Will no +one stop it?" + +"'Tis not the bell!" he cried, seizing her hand as if to focus her +attention. "It is the mob you hear. They are returning. We have but to +stand a moment at this open window, we have but to show ourselves to +them, and we need live no longer! Mademoiselle! Clotilde!--if you mean +what you say, if you are in earnest, the way is open!" + +"And we shall die--together!" + +"Yes, together. But have you the courage?" + +"The courage!" she cried, a brave smile lighting the whiteness of her +face. "The courage were needed to live. The courage were needed to do +that. I am ready, quite ready. It can be no sin! To live with that in +front of me were the sin! Come!" For the moment she had forgotten her +people, her promise, all! It seemed to her that death would absolve +her from all. "Come!" + +He moved with her under the impulse of her hand until they stood at +the gaping window. The murmur, which he had heard indistinctly a +moment before, had grown to a roar of voices. The mob, on its return +eastward along the Rue St. Honore, was nearing the house. He stood, +his arm supporting her, and they waited, a little within the window. +Suddenly he stooped, his face hardly less white than hers; their eyes +met, and he would have kissed her. + +She did not withdraw from his arm, but she drew back her face, her +eyes half shut. "No!" she murmured. "No! While I live I am his. But we +die together, Tignonville! We die together. It will not last long, +will it? And afterwards----" + +She did not finish the sentence, but her lips moved in prayer, and +over her features came a far-away look; such a look as that which on +the face of another Huguenot lady, Philippine de Luns--vilely done to +death in the Place Maubert fourteen years before--silenced the ribald +jests of the lowest rabble in the world. An hour or two earlier, awed +by the abruptness of the outburst, Mademoiselle had shrunk from her +fate; she had known fear. Now that she stood out voluntarily to meet +it, she, like many a woman before and since, feared no longer. She was +lifted out of and above herself. + +But death was long in coming. Some cause beyond their knowledge stayed +the onrush of the mob along the street. The din, indeed, persisted, +deafened, shook them; but the crowd seemed to be at a stand a few +doors down the Rue St. Honore. For a half-minute, a long half-minute, +which appeared an age, it drew no nearer. Would it draw nearer? Would +it come on? Or would it turn again? + +The doubt, so much worse than despair, began to sap that courage of +the man which is always better fitted to do than to suffer. The sweat +rose on Tignonville's brow as he stood listening, his arm round the +girl--as he stood listening and waiting. It is possible that when he +had said a minute or two earlier that he would rather die a thousand +times than live thus shamed, he had spoken beyond the mark. Or it is +possible that he had meant his words to the full. But in this case he +had not pictured what was to come, he had not gauged correctly his +power of passive endurance. He was as brave as the ordinary man, as +the ordinary soldier; but martyrdom, the apotheosis of resignation, +comes more naturally to women than to men, more hardly to men than to +women. Yet had the crisis come quickly he might have met it. But he +had to wait, and to wait with that howling of wild beasts in his ears; +and for this he was not prepared. A woman might be content to die +after this fashion; but a man? His colour went and came, his eyes +began to rove hither and thither. Was it even now too late to escape? +Too late to avoid the consequences of the girl's silly persistence? +Too late to----? Her eyes were closed, she hung half lifeless on his +arm. She would not know, she need not know until afterwards. And +afterwards she would thank him! Afterwards--meantime the window was +open, the street was empty, and still the crowd hung back and did not +come. + +He remembered that two doors away was a narrow passage, which leaving +the Rue St. Honore turned at right angles under a beetling archway, to +emerge in the Rue du Roule. If he could gain that passage unseen by +the mob! He would gain it. With a swift movement, his mind made up, he +took a step forward. He tightened his grasp of the girl's waist, and, +seizing with his left hand the end of the bar which the assailants had +torn from its setting in the window jamb, he turned to lower himself. +One long step would land him in the street. + +At that moment she awoke from the stupor of exaltation. She opened her +eyes with a startled movement; and her eyes met his. + +He was in the act of stepping backwards and downwards, dragging her +after him. But it was not this betrayed him. It was his face, which in +an instant told her all, and that he sought not death, but life! She +struggled upright and strove to free herself. But he had the purchase +of the bar, and by this time he was furious as well as determined. +Whether she would or no, he would save her, he would drag her out. +Then, as consciousness fully returned, she, too, took fire. "No!" she +cried, "I will not!" and she struggled more violently. + +"You shall!" he retorted between his teeth. "You shall not perish +here." + +But she had her hands free, and as he spoke she thrust him from her +passionately, desperately, with all her strength. He had his one foot +in the air at the moment, and in a flash it was done. With a cry of +rage he lost his balance, and, still holding the bar, reeled backwards +through the window; while Mademoiselle, panting and half fainting, +recoiled--recoiled into the arms of Hannibal de Tavannes, who, unseen +by either, had entered the room a long minute before. From the +threshold, and with a smile, all his own, he had watched the contest +and the result. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + TWO HENS AND AN EGG. + + +M. de Tignonville was shaken by the fall, and in the usual course of +things he would have lain where he was, and groaned. But when a man +has once turned his back on death he is apt to fancy it at his +shoulder. He has small stomach for surprises, and is in haste to set +as great a distance as possible between the ugly thing and himself. So +it was with the Huguenot. Shot suddenly into the full publicity of the +street, he knew that at any instant danger might take him by the nape; +and he was on his legs and glancing up and down before the clatter of +his fall had travelled the length of three houses. + +The rabble were still a hundred paces away, piled up and pressed about +a house where men were being hunted as men hunt rats. He saw that he +was unnoted, and apprehension gave place to rage. His thoughts turned +back hissing hot to the thing that had happened, and in a paroxysm of +shame he shook his fist at the gaping casement and the sneering face +of his rival, dimly seen in the background. If a look would have +killed Tavannes--and her--it had not been wanting. + +For it was not only the man M. de Tignonville hated at this moment; he +hated Mademoiselle also, the unwitting agent of the other's triumph. +She had thrust him from her; she had refused to be guided by him; she +had resisted, thwarted, shamed him. Then let her take the +consequences. She willed to perish: let her perish! + +He did not acknowledge even to himself the real cause of offence, the +proof to which she had put his courage, and the failure of that +courage to stand the test. Yet it was this, though he had himself +provoked the trial, which burned up his chivalry, as the smuggler's +fire burns up the dwarf heath upon the Landes. It was the discovery +that in an heroic hour he was no hero that gave force to his +passionate gesture, and next moment sent him storming down the +beetling passage to the Rue du Roule, his heart a maelstrom of fierce +vows and fiercer menaces. + +He had reached the further end of the alley and was on the point of +entering the street before he remembered that he had nowhere to go. +His lodgings were no longer his, since his landlord knew him to be a +Huguenot, and would doubtless betray him. To approach those of his +faith whom he had frequented was to expose them to danger; and, beyond +the religion, he had few acquaintances and those of the newest. Yet +the streets were impossible. He walked them on the utmost edge of +peril; he lurked in them under the blade of an impending axe. And, +whether he walked or lurked, he went at the mercy of the first comers +bold enough to take his life. + +The sweat stood on his brow as he paused under the low arch of the +alley-end, tasting the bitter forlornness of the dog banned and set +for death in that sunlit city. In every window of the gable end which +faced his hiding-place he fancied an eye watching his movements; in +every distant step he heard the footfall of doom coming that way to +his discovery. And while he trembled, he had to reflect, to think, to +form some plan. + +In the town was no place for him, and short of the open country no +safety. And how could he gain the open country? If he succeeded in +reaching one of the gates--St. Antoine, or St. Denis, in itself a task +of difficulty--it would only be to find the gate closed, and the guard +on the alert. At last it flashed on him that he might cross the river; +and at the notion hope awoke. It was possible that the massacre had +not extended to the southern suburb; possible, that if it had, the +Huguenots who lay there--Frontenay, and Montgomery, and Chartres, with +the men of the North--might be strong enough to check it, and even to +turn the tables on the Parisians. + +His colour returned. He was no coward, as soldiers go; if it came to +fighting he had courage enough. He could not hope to cross the river +by the bridge, for there, where the goldsmiths lived, the mob were +like to be most busy. But if he could reach the bank he might procure +a boat at some deserted point, or, at the worst, he might swim across. + +From the Louvre at his back came the sound of gun-shots; from every +quarter the murmur of distant crowds, or the faint lamentable cries of +victims. But the empty street before him promised an easy passage, and +he ventured into it and passed quickly through it. He met no one, and +no one molested him; but as he went he had glimpses of pale faces that +from behind the casements watched him come and turned to watch him go; +and so heavy on his nerves was the pressure of this silent ominous +attention, that he blundered at the end of the street. He should have +taken the southerly turning; instead he held on, found himself in the +Rue Ferronerie, and a moment later was all but in the arms of a band +of city guards, who were making a house-to-house visitation. + +He owed his safety rather to the condition of the street than to his +presence of mind. The Rue Ferronerie, narrow in itself, was so choked +at this date by stalls and bulkheads, that an edict directing the +removal of those which abutted on the cemetery had been issued a +little before. Nothing had been done on it, however, and this neck of +Paris, this main thoroughfare between the east and the west, between +the fashionable quarter of the Marais and the fashionable quarter of +the Louvre, was still a devious huddle of sheds and pent-houses. +Tignonville slid behind one of these, found that it masked the mouth +of an alley, and, heedless whither the passage led, ran hurriedly +along it. Every instant he expected to hear the hue and cry behind +him, and he did not halt or draw breath until he had left the soldiers +far in the rear, and found himself astray at the junction of four +noisome lanes, over two of which the projecting gables fairly met. +Above the two others a scrap of sky appeared, but this was too small +to indicate in which direction the river lay. + +Tignonville hesitated, but not for long; a burst of voices heralded a +new danger, and he shrank into a doorway. Along one of the lanes a +troop of children, the biggest not twelve years old, came dancing and +leaping round something which they dragged by a string. Now one of the +hindmost would hurl it onward with a kick, now another, amid screams +of childish laughter, tripped headlong over the cord; now at the +crossways they stopped to wrangle and question which way they should +go, or whose turn it was to pull and whose to follow. At last they +started afresh with a whoop, the leader singing and all plucking the +string to the cadence of the air. Their plaything leapt and dropped, +sprang forward, and lingered like a thing of life. But it was no thing +of life, as Tignonville saw with a shudder when they passed him. The +object of their sport was the naked body of a child, an infant! + +His gorge rose at the sight. Fear such as he had not before +experienced chilled his marrow. This was hate indeed, a hate before +which the strong man quailed; the hate of which Mademoiselle had +spoken when she said that the babes crossed themselves, at her +passing, and the houses tottered to fall upon her! + +He paused a minute to recover himself, so deeply had the sight moved +him; and as he stood, he wondered if that hate already had its cold +eye fixed on him. Instinctively his gaze searched the opposite +wall, but save for two small double-grated windows it was blind; +time-stained and stone-built, dark with the ordure of the city lane, +it seemed but the back of a house, which looked another way. The outer +gates of an arched doorway were open, and a loaded hay-cart, touching +either side and brushing the arch above, blocked the passage. His +gaze, leaving the windows, dropped to this, he scanned it a moment; +and on a sudden he stiffened. Between the hay and the arch a hand +flickered an instant, then vanished. + +Tignonville stared. At first he thought his eyes had tricked him. Then +the hand appeared again, and this time it conveyed an unmistakable +invitation. It is not from the unknown or the hidden that the fugitive +has aught to fear, and Tignonville, after casting a glance down the +lane--which revealed a single man standing with his face the other +way--slipped across and pushed between the hay and the wall. He +coughed. + +A voice whispered to him to climb up; a friendly hand clutched him in +the act, and aided him. In a second he was lying on his face, tight +squeezed between the hay and the roof of the arch. Beside him lay a +man whose features his eyes, unaccustomed to the gloom, could not +discern. But the man knew him and whispered his name. + +"You know me?" Tignonville muttered in astonishment. + +"I marked you, M. de Tignonville, at the preaching last Sunday," the +stranger answered placidly. + +"You were there?" + +"I preached." + +"Then you are M. la Tribe!" + +"I am," the clergyman answered quietly. "They seized me on my +threshold, but I left my cloak in their hands and fled. One tore my +stocking with his point, another my doublet, but not a hair of my head +was injured. They hunted me to the end of the next street, but I lived +and still live, and shall live to lift up my voice against this wicked +city." + +The sympathy between the Huguenot by faith and the Huguenot by +politics was imperfect. Tignonville, like most men of rank of the +younger generation, was a Huguenot by politics; and he was in a bitter +humour. He felt, perhaps, that it was men such as this who had driven +the other side to excesses such as these; and he hardly repressed a +sneer. "I wish I felt as sure!" he muttered bluntly. "You know that +all our people are dead?" + +"He can save by few or by many," the preacher answered devoutly. "We +are of the few, blessed be God, and shall see Israel victorious, and +our people as a flock of sheep!" + +"I see small chance of it," Tignonville answered contemptuously. + +"I know it as certainly as I knew before you came, M. de Tignonville, +that you would come!" + +"That I should come?" + +"That some one would come," La Tribe answered, correcting himself. "I +knew not who it would be until you appeared and placed yourself in the +doorway over against me, even as Obadiah in the Holy Book passed +before the hiding-place of Elijah." + +The two lay on their faces side by side, the rafters of the archway +low on their heads. Tignonville lifted himself a little, and peered +anew at the other. He fancied that La Tribe's mind, shaken by the +horrors of the morning and his narrow escape, had given way. "You +rave, man," he said. "This is no time for visions." + +"I said naught of visions," the other answered. + +"Then why so sure that we shall escape?" + +"I am certified of it," La Tribe replied. "And more than that, I know +that we shall lie here some days. The time has not been revealed to +me, but it will be days and a day. Then we shall leave this place +unharmed, as we entered it, and, whatever betide others, we shall +live." + +Tignonville shrugged his shoulders. "I tell you, you rave, M. la +Tribe," he said petulantly. "At any moment we may be discovered. Even +now I hear footsteps." + +"They tracked me well-nigh to this place," the minister answered +placidly. + +"The deuce they did!" Tignonville muttered, with irritation. He dared +not raise his voice. "I would you had told me that before I joined +you, Monsieur, and I had found some safer hiding-place! When we are +discovered----" + +"Then," the other continued calmly, "you will see." + +"In any case we shall be better farther back," Tignonville retorted. +"Here, we are within an ace of being seen from the lane." And he began +to wriggle himself backwards. + +The minister laid his hand on him. "Have a care!" he muttered. "And do +not move, but listen. And you will understand. When I reached this +place--it would be about five o'clock this morning--breathless, and +expecting each minute to be dragged forth to make my confession before +men, I despaired as you despair now. Like Elijah under the juniper +tree, I said 'It is enough, O Lord! Take my soul also, for I am no +better than my fellows!' All the sky was black before my eyes, and my +ears were filled with the wailings of the little ones and the +lamentations of women. 'O Lord, it is enough,' I prayed. 'Take my +soul, or, if it be Thy will, then, as the angel was sent to take the +cakes to Elijah, give me also a sign that I shall live.'" + +For a moment he paused, struggling with overpowering emotion. Even his +impatient listener, hitherto incredulous, caught the infection, and in +a tone of awe murmured, "Yes? And then, M. la Tribe!" + +"The sign was given me. The words were scarcely out of my mouth when a +hen flew up, and, scratching a nest in the hay at my feet, presently +laid an egg." + +Tignonville stared. "It was timely, I admit," he said. "But it is no +uncommon thing. Probably it has its nest here and lays daily." + +"Young man, this is new-mown hay," the minister answered solemnly. +"This cart was brought here no further back than yesterday. It smells +of the meadow, and the flowers hold their colour. No, the fowl was +sent. To-morrow it will return, and the next, and the next, until the +plague be stayed and I go hence. But that is not all. A while later a +second hen appeared, and I thought it would lay in the same nest. But +it made a new one, on the side on which you lie and not far from your +foot. Then I knew that I was to have a companion, and that God had +laid also for him a table in the wilderness." + +"It did lay, then?" + +"It is still on the nest, beside your foot." + +Tignonville was about to reply when the preacher grasped his arm and +by a sign enjoined silence. He did so not a moment too soon. +Preoccupied by the story, narrator and listener had paid no heed to +what was passing in the lane, and the voices of men speaking close at +hand took them by surprise. From the first words which reached them, +it was clear that the speakers were the same who had chased La Tribe +as far as the meeting of the four ways, and, losing him there, had +spent the morning in other business. Now they had returned to hunt him +down, and but for a wrangle which arose among them and detained them, +they had stolen on their quarry before their coming was suspected. + +"'Twas this way he ran!" "No, 'twas the other!" they contended; and +their words, winged with vile threats and oaths, grew noisy and hot. +The two listeners dared scarcely to breathe. The danger was so near, +it was so certain that if the men came three paces farther, they would +observe and search the hay-cart, that Tignonville fancied the steel +already at his throat. He felt the hay rustle under his slightest +movement, and gripped one hand with the other to restrain the tremor +of overpowering excitement. Yet when he glanced at the minister he +found him unmoved, a smile on his face. And M. de Tignonville could +have cursed him for his folly. + +For the men were coming on! An instant, and they perceived the cart, +and the ruffian who had advised this route pounced on it in triumph. +"There! Did I not say so?" he cried. "He is curled up in that hay, for +the Satan's grub he is! That is where he is, see you!" + +"Maybe," another answered grudgingly, as they gathered before it. "And +maybe not, Simon!" + +"To hell with your maybe not!" the first replied. And he drove his +pike deep into the hay and turned it viciously. + +The two on the top controlled themselves. Tignonville's face was +livid; of himself he would have slid down amongst them and taken his +chance, preferring to die fighting, to die in the open, rather than to +perish like a rat in a stack. But La Tribe had gripped his arm and +held him fast. + +The man whom the others called Simon thrust again, but too low and +without result. He was for trying a third time, when one of his +comrades who had gone to the other side of the lane announced that the +men were on the top of the hay. + +"Can you see them!" + +"No, but there's room and to spare." + +"Oh, a curse on your room!" Simon retorted. + +"Well, you can look." + +"If that's all, I'll soon look!" was the answer. And the rogue, +forcing himself between the hay and the side of the gateway, found the +wheel of the cart, and began to raise himself on it. Tignonville, who +lay on that hand, heard, though he could not see his movements. He +knew what they meant, he knew that in a twinkling he must be +discovered; and with a last prayer he gathered himself for a spring. + +It seemed an age before the intruder's head appeared on a level with +the hay; and then the alarm came from another quarter. The hen which +had made its nest at Tignonville's feet, disturbed by the movement or +by the newcomer's hand, flew out with a rush and flutter as of a great +firework. Upsetting the startled Simon, who slipped swearing to the +ground, it swooped scolding and clucking over the heads of the other +men, and reaching the street in safety scuttled off at speed, its +outspread wings sweeping the earth in its rage. + +They laughed uproariously as Simon emerged, rubbing his elbow. +"There's for you! There's your preacher!" his opponent jeered. + +"D----n her! she gives tongue as fast as any of them!" gibed a second. +"Will you try again, Simon? You may find another love-letter there!" + +"Have done!" a third cried impatiently. "He'll not be where the hen +is! Let's back! Let's back! I said before that it wasn't this way he +turned! He's made for the river." + +"The plague in his vitals!" Simon replied furiously. "Wherever he is, +I'll find him!" And reluctant to confess himself wrong, he lingered, +casting vengeful glances at the hay. But one of the other men cursed +him for a fool; and presently, forced to accept his defeat or be left +alone, he rejoined his fellows. Slowly the footsteps and voices +receded along the lane; slowly, until silence swallowed them, and on +the quivering strained senses of the two who remained behind, +descended the gentle influence of twilight and the sweet scent of the +new-mown hay on which they lay. + +La Tribe turned to his companion, his eyes shining. "Our soul is +escaped," he murmured, "even as a bird out of the snare of the fowler. +The snare is broken and we are delivered!" His voice shook as he +whispered the ancient words of triumph. + +But when they came to look in the nest at Tignonville's feet there was +no egg! + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + UNSTABLE. + + +And that troubled M. la Tribe no little, although he did not impart +his thoughts to his companion. Instead they talked in whispers of the +things which had happened; of the Admiral, of Teligny, whom all loved, +of Rochefoucauld the accomplished, the King's friend; of the princes +in the Louvre whom they gave up for lost, and of the Huguenot nobles +on the farther side of the river, of whose safety there seemed some +hope. Tignonville--he best knew why--said nothing of the fate of his +betrothed, or of his own adventures in that connection. But each told +the other how the alarm had reached him, and painted in broken words +his reluctance to believe in treachery so black. Thence they passed to +the future of the cause, and of that took views as opposite as light +and darkness, as Papegot and Huguenot. The one was confident, the +other in despair. And some time in the afternoon, worn out by the +awful experiences of the last twelve hours, they fell asleep, their +heads on their arms, the hay tickling their faces; and, with death +stalking the lane beside them, slept soundly until after sundown. + +When they awoke hunger awoke with them, and urged on La Tribe's mind +the question of the missing egg. It was not altogether the prick of +appetite which troubled him, but regarding the hiding-place in which +they lay as an ark of refuge providentially supplied, protected and +victualled, he could not refrain from asking reverently what the +deficiency meant. It was not as if one hen only had appeared; as if no +farther prospect had been extended. But up to a certain point the +message was clear. Then when the Hand of Providence had shown itself +most plainly, and in a manner to melt the heart with awe and +thankfulness, the message had been blurred. Seriously the Huguenot +asked himself what it portended. + +To Tignonville, if he thought of it at all, the matter was the matter +of an egg, and stopped there. An egg might alleviate the growing pangs +of hunger; its non-appearance was a disappointment, but he traced the +matter no farther. It must be confessed that the hay-cart was to him +only a hay-cart--and not an ark; and the sooner he was safely away +from it the better he would be pleased. While La Tribe, lying snug and +warm beside him, thanked God for a lot so different from that of such +of his fellows as had escaped--whom he pictured crouching in dank +cellars, or on roof-trees exposed to the heat by day and the dews by +night--the young man grew more and more restive. + +Hunger pricked him, and the meanness of the part he had played moved +him to action. About midnight, resisting the dissuasions of his +companion, he would have sallied out in search of food if the passage +of a turbulent crowd had not warned him that the work of murder was +still proceeding. He curbed himself after that and lay until daylight. +But, ill content with his own conduct, on fire when he thought of his +betrothed, he was in no temper to bear hardship cheerfully or long; +and gradually there rose before his mind the picture of Madame St. +Lo's smiling face, and the fair hair which curled low on the white of +her neck. + +He would, and he would not. Death that had stalked so near him +preached its solemn sermon. But death and pleasure are never far +apart; and at no time and nowhere have they jostled one another more +familiarly than in that age, wherever the influence of Italy and +Italian art and Italian hopelessness extended. Again, on the one side, +La Tribe's example went for something with his comrade in misfortune; +but in the other scale hung relief from discomfort, with the prospect +of a woman's smiles and a woman's flatteries, of dainty dishes, +luxury, and passion. If he went now, he went to her from the jaws of +death, with the glamour of adventure and peril about him; and the very +going into her presence was a lure. Moreover, if he had been willing +while his betrothed was still his, why not now when he had lost her? + +It was this last reflection--and one other thing which came on a +sudden into his mind--which turned the scale. About noon he sat up in +the hay, and, abruptly and sullenly, "I'll lie here no longer," he +said; and he dropped his legs over the side. "I shall go." + +The movement was so unexpected that La Tribe stared at him in silence. +Then, "You will run a great risk, M. de Tignonville," he said gravely, +"if you do. You may go as far under cover of night as the river, or +you may reach one of the gates. But as to crossing the one or passing +the other, I reckon it a thing impossible." + +"I shall not wait until night," Tignonville answered curtly, a ring of +defiance in his tone. "I shall go now! I'll lie here no longer!" + +"Now?" + +"Yes, now." + +"You will be mad if you do," the other replied. He thought it the +petulant outcry of youth tired of inaction; a protest, and nothing +more. + +He was speedily undeceived. "Mad or not, I am going!" Tignonville +retorted. And he slid to the ground, and from the covert of the +hanging fringe of hay looked warily up and down the lane. "It is +clear, I think," he said. "Good-bye." And with no more, without one +upward glance or a gesture of the hand, with no further adieu or word +of gratitude, he walked out into the lane, turned briskly to the left, +and vanished. + +The minister uttered a cry of astonishment, and made as if he would +descend also. "Come back, sir!" he called, as loudly as he dared. "M. +de Tignonville, come back! This is folly or worse!" + +But M. de Tignonville was gone. + +La Tribe listened a while, unable to believe it, and still expecting +his return. At last, hearing nothing, he slid, greatly excited, to the +ground and looked out. It was not until he had peered up and down the +lane and made sure that it was empty that he could persuade himself +that the other had gone for good. Then he climbed slowly and seriously +to his place again, and sighed as he settled himself. "Unstable as +water thou shalt not excel!" he muttered. "Now I know why there was +only one egg." + +Meanwhile Tignonville, after putting a hundred yards between himself +and his bedfellow, plunged into the first dark entry which presented +itself. Hurriedly, and with a frowning face, he cut off his left +sleeve from shoulder to wrist; and this act, by disclosing his linen, +put him in possession of the white sleeve which he had once +involuntarily donned, and once discarded. The white cross on the cap +he could not assume, for he was bareheaded. But he had little doubt +that the sleeve would suffice, and with a bold demeanour he made his +way northward until he reached again the Rue Ferronerie. + +Excited groups were wandering up and down the street, and, fearing to +traverse its crowded narrows, he went by lanes parallel with it as far +as the Rue St. Denis, which he crossed. Everywhere he saw houses +gutted and doors burst in, and traces of a cruelty and a fanaticism +almost incredible. Near the Rue des Lombards he saw a dead child, +stripped stark and hanged on the hook of a cobbler's shutter. A +little further on in the same street he stepped over the body of a +handsome young woman, distinguished by the length and beauty of her +hair. To obtain her bracelets, her captors had cut off her hands; +afterwards--but God knows how long afterwards--a passer-by, more +pitiful than his fellows, had put her out of her misery with a spit, +which still remained plunged in her body. + +M. de Tignonville shuddered at the sight, and at others like it. He +loathed the symbol he wore, and himself for wearing it; and more than +once his better nature bade him return and play the nobler part. Once +he did turn with that intention. But he had set his mind on comfort +and pleasure, and the value of these things is raised, not lowered, by +danger and uncertainty. Quickly his stoicism oozed away; he turned +again. Barely avoiding the rush of a crowd of wretches who were +bearing a swooning victim to the river, he hurried through the Rue des +Lombards and reached in safety the house beside the "Golden Maid." + +He had no doubt now on which side of the "Maid" Madame St. Lo lived; +the house was plain before him. He had only to knock. But in +proportion as he approached his haven, his anxiety grew. To lose all, +with all in his grasp, to fail upon the threshold, was a thing which +bore no looking at; and it was with a nervous hand and eyes cast +fearfully behind him that he plied the heavy iron knocker which +adorned the door. + +He could not turn his gaze from a knot of ruffians, who were gathered +under one of the tottering gables on the farther side of the street. +They seemed to be watching him, and he fancied--though the distance +rendered this impossible--that he could see suspicion growing in their +eyes. At any moment they might cross the roadway, they might approach, +they might challenge him. And at the thought he knocked and knocked +again. Why did not the porter come? + +Ay, why? For now a score of contingencies came into the young man's +mind and tortured him. Had Madame St. Lo withdrawn to safer quarters +and closed the house? Or, good Catholic as she was, had she given way +to panic, and determined to open to no one? Or was she ill? Or had she +perished in the general disorder? Or---- + +And then, even as the men began to slink towards him, his heart leapt. +He heard a footstep heavy and slow move through the house. It came +nearer and nearer. A moment, and an iron-grated Judas-hole in the door +slid open, and a servant, an elderly man, sleek and respectable, +looked out at him. + +Tignonville could scarcely speak for excitement. "Madame St. Lo?" he +muttered tremulously. "I come to her from her cousin the Comte de +Tavannes. Quick! quick! if you please. Open to me!" + +"Monsieur is alone?" + +"Yes! Yes!" + +The man nodded gravely and slid back the bolts. He allowed M. de +Tignonville to enter, then with care he secured the door, and led the +way across a small square court, paved with red tiles and enclosed by +the house, but open above to the sunshine and the blue sky. A gallery +which ran round the upper floor looked on this court, in which a great +quiet reigned, broken only by the music of a fountain. A vine climbed +on the wooden pillars which supported the gallery, and, aspiring +higher, embraced the wide carved eaves, and even tapestried with green +the three gables that on each side of the court broke the sky-line. +The grapes hung nearly ripe, and amid their clusters and the green +lattice of their foliage Tignonville's gaze sought eagerly but in vain +the laughing eyes and piquant face of his new mistress. For with the +closing of the door, and the passing from him of the horrors of the +streets, he had entered, as by magic, a new and smiling world; a world +of tennis and roses, of tinkling voices and women's wiles, a world +which smacked of Florence and the South, and love and life; a world +which his late experiences had set so far away from him, his memory of +it seemed a dream. Now, as he drank in its stillness and its +fragrance, as he felt its safety and its luxury lap him round once +more, he sighed. And with that breath he rid himself of much. + +The servant led him to a parlour, a cool shady room on the farther +side of the tiny quadrangle, and, muttering something inaudible, +withdrew. A moment later a frolicsome laugh, and the light flutter of +a woman's skirt as she tripped across the court, brought the blood to +his cheeks. He went a step nearer to the door, and his eyes grew +bright. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + MADAME ST. LO. + + +So far excitement had supported Tignonville in his escape. It was only +when he knew himself safe, when he heard Madame St. Lo's footstep in +the courtyard and knew that in a moment he would see her, that he knew +also that he was failing for want of food. The room seemed to go round +with him; the window to shift, the light to flicker. And then again, +with equal abruptness, he grew strong and steady and perfectly master +of himself. Nay, never had he felt a confidence in himself so +overwhelming or a capacity so complete. The triumph of that which he +had done, the knowledge that of so many he, almost alone, had escaped, +filled his brain with a delicious and intoxicating vanity. When the +door opened, and Madame St. Lo appeared on the threshold, he advanced +holding out his arms. He expected that she would fall into them. + +But Madame only backed and curtseyed, a mischievous light in her eyes. +"A thousand thanks, Monsieur!" she said, "but you are more ready than +I!" And she remained by the door. + +"I have come to you through all!" he cried, speaking loudly because of +a humming in his ears. "They are lying in the streets! They are dying, +are dead, are hunted, are pursued, are perishing! But I have come +through all to you!" + +She curtseyed anew. "So I see, Monsieur!" she answered. "I am +nattered!" But she did not advance, and gradually, light-headed as he +was, he began to see that she looked at him with an odd closeness. And +he took offence. + +"I say, Madame, I have come to you!" he repeated. "And you do not seem +pleased!" + +She came forward a step and looked at him still more oddly. "Oh, yes," +she said. "I am pleased, M. de Tignonville. It is what I intended. But +tell me how you have fared. You are not hurt?" + +"Not a hair!" he cried boastfully. And he told her in a dozen windy +sentences of the adventure of the hay-cart and his narrow escape. He +wound up with a foolish meaningless laugh. + +"Then you have not eaten for thirty-six hours?" she said. And when he +did not answer, "I understand," she continued, nodding and speaking as +to a child. And she rang a silver handbell and gave an order. She +addressed the servant in her usual tone, but to Tignonville's ear her +voice seemed to fall to a whisper. Her figure--she was small and +fairy-like--began to sway before him; and then in a moment, as it +seemed to him, she was gone, and he was seated at a table, his +trembling fingers grasping a cup of wine which the elderly servant who +had admitted him was holding to his lips. On the table before him were +a spit of partridges and a cake of white bread. When he had swallowed +a second mouthful of wine--which cleared his eyes as by magic--the man +urged him to eat. And he fell to with an appetite that grew as he ate. + +By and by, feeling himself again, he became aware that two of Madame's +women were peering at him through the open doorway. He looked that way +and they fled giggling into the court; but in a moment they were back +again, and the sound of their tittering drew his eyes anew to the +door. It was the custom of the day for ladies of rank to wait on their +favourites at table; and he wondered if Madame were with them, and why +she did not come and serve him herself. + +But for a while longer the savour of the roasted game took up the +major part of his thoughts; and when prudence warned him to desist, +and he sat back, satisfied after his long fast, he was in no mood +to be critical. Perhaps--for somewhere in the house he heard a +lute--Madame was entertaining those whom she could not leave? Or +deluding some who might betray him if they discovered him? + +From that his mind turned back to the streets and the horrors through +which he had passed; but for a moment and no more. A shudder, an +emotion of prayerful pity, and he recalled his thoughts. In the quiet +of the cool room, looking on the sunny, vine-clad court, with the +tinkle of the lute and the murmurous sound of women's voices in his +ears, it was hard to believe that the things from which he had emerged +were real. It was still more unpleasant, and as futile, to dwell on +them. A day of reckoning would come, and, if La Tribe were right, the +cause would rally, bristling with pikes and snorting with war-horses, +and the blood spilled in this wicked city would cry aloud for +vengeance. But the hour was not yet. He had lost his mistress, and for +that atonement must be exacted. But in the present another mistress +awaited him, and as a man could only die once, and might die at any +minute, so he could only live once and in the present. Then _vogue la +galere!_ + +As he roused himself from this brief reverie and fell to wondering how +long he was to be left to himself, a rosebud tossed by an unseen hand +struck him on the breast and dropped to his knees. To seize it and +kiss it gallantly, to spring to his feet and look about him were +instinctive movements. But he could see no one; and, in the hope of +surprising the giver, he stole to the window. The sound of the lute +and the distant tinkle of laughter persisted. The court, save for a +page, who lay asleep on a bench in the gallery, was empty. Tignonville +scanned the boy suspiciously; a male disguise was often adopted by the +court ladies, and if Madame would play a prank on him, this was a +thing to be reckoned with. But a boy it seemed to be, and after a +while the young man went back to his seat. + +Even as he sat down, a second flower struck him more sharply in the +face, and this time he darted not to the window but to the door. He +opened it quickly and looked out, but again he was too late. + +"I shall catch you presently, _ma reine!_" he murmured tenderly, with +intent to be heard. And he closed the door. But, wiser this time, he +waited with his hand on the latch until he heard the rustling of a +skirt, and saw the line of light at the foot of the door darkened by a +shadow. That moment he flung the door wide, and, clasping the wearer +of the skirt in his arms, kissed her lips before she had time to +resist. + +Then he fell back as if he had been shot! For the wearer of the skirt, +she whom he had kissed, was Madame St. Lo's woman, and behind her +stood Madame herself, laughing, laughing, laughing with all the gay +abandonment of her light little heart. "Oh, the gallant gentleman!" +she cried, and clapped her hands effusively. "Was ever recovery so +rapid? Or triumph so speedy? Suzanne, my child, you surpass Venus. +Your charms conquer before they are seen!" + +M. de Tignonville had put poor Suzanne from him as if she burned; and +hot and embarrassed, cursing his haste, he stood looking awkwardly at +them. "Madame," he stammered at last, "you know quite well that I----" + +"Seeing is believing!" + +"That I thought it was you!" + +"Oh, what I have lost!" she replied. And she looked archly at Suzanne, +who giggled and tossed her head. + +He was growing angry. "But, Madame," he protested, "you know----" + +"I know what I know, and I have seen what I have seen!" Madame +answered merrily. And she hummed, + + + "Ce fut le plus grand jour d'este + Que m'embrassa la belle Suzanne! + + +"Oh, yes, I know what I know!" she repeated. And she fell again to +laughing immoderately; while the pretty piece of mischief beside her +hung her head, and, putting a finger in her mouth, mocked him with an +affectation of modesty. + +The young man glowered at them between rage and embarrassment. This +was not the reception, nor this the hero's return to which he had +looked forward. And a doubt began to take form in his mind. The +mistress he had pictured would not laugh at kisses given to another; +nor forget in a twinkling the straits through which he had come to +her, the hell from which he had plucked himself! Possibly the court +ladies held love as cheap as this, and lovers but as playthings, butts +for their wit, and pegs on which to hang their laughter. But--but he +began to doubt, and, perplexed and irritated, he showed his feelings. + +"Madame," he said stiffly, "a jest is an excellent thing. But pardon +me if I say that it is ill played on a fasting man." + +Madame desisted from laughter that she might speak. "A fasting man?" +she cried. "And he has eaten two partridges!" + +"Fasting from love, Madame." + +Madame St. Lo held up her hands. "And it's not two minutes since he +took a kiss!" + +He winced, was silent a moment, and then seeing that he got nothing by +the tone he had adopted he cried for quarter. "A little mercy, Madame, +as you are beautiful," he said, wooing her with his eyes. "Do not +plague me beyond what a man can bear. Dismiss, I pray you, this good +creature--whose charms do but set off yours as the star leads the eye +to the moon--and make me the happiest man in the world by so much of +your company as you will vouchsafe to give me." + +"That may be but a very little," she answered, letting her eyes fall +coyly, and affecting to handle the tucker of her low ruff. But he saw +that her lip twitched; and he could have sworn that she mocked him to +Suzanne, for the girl giggled. + +Still by an effort he controlled his feelings. "Why so cruel?" he +murmured, in a tone meant for her alone, and with a look to match. +"You were not so hard when I spoke with you in the gallery, two +evenings ago, Madame." + +"Was I not?" she asked. "Did I look like this? And this?" And, +languishing, she looked at him very sweetly after two fashions. + +"Something." + +"Oh, then I meant nothing!" she retorted with sudden vivacity. And she +made a face at him, laughing under his nose. "I do that when I mean +nothing, Monsieur! Do you see? But you are Gascon, and given, I fear, +to flatter yourself." + +Then he saw clearly that she played with him: and resentment, chagrin, +pique got the better of his courtesy. "I flatter myself?" he cried, +his voice choked with rage. "It may be I do now, Madame, but did I +flatter myself when you wrote me this note?" And he drew it out and +flourished it in her face. "Did I imagine when I read this? Or is it +not in your hand? It is a forgery, perhaps," he continued bitterly. +"Or it means nothing? Nothing, this note bidding me be at Madame St. +Lo's at an hour before midnight--it means nothing? At an hour before +midnight, Madame!" + +"On Saturday night? The night before last night?" + +"On Saturday night, the night before last night! But Madame knows +nothing of it? Nothing, I suppose?" + +She shrugged her shoulders and smiled cheerfully on him. "Oh, yes, I +wrote it," she said. "But what of that, M. de Tignonville?" + +"What of that?" + +"Yes, Monsieur, what of that? Did you think it was written out of love +for you?" + +He was staggered for the moment by her coolness. "Out of what, then?" +he cried hoarsely. "Out of what, then, if not out of love?" + +"Why, out of pity, my little gentleman!" she answered sharply. "And +trouble thrown away it seems. Love!" And she laughed so merrily and +spontaneously it cut him to the heart. "No; but you said a dainty +thing or two, and smiled a smile; and like a fool, and like a woman, I +was sorry for the innocent calf that bleated so prettily on its way to +the butcher's! And I would lock you up and save your life, I thought, +until the blood-letting was over. Now you have it, M. de Tignonville, +and I hope you like it." + +Like it, when every word she uttered stripped him of the selfish +illusions in which he had wrapped himself against the blasts of +ill-fortune? Like it, when the prospect of her charms had bribed him +from the path of fortitude, when for her sake he had been false to his +mistress, to his friends, to his faith, to his cause? Like it, when he +knew as he listened that all was lost, and nothing gained--not even +this poor, unworthy, shameful compensation? Like it? No wonder that +words failed him, and he glared at her in rage, in misery, in shame. + +"Oh, if you don't like it," she continued, tossing her head after a +momentary pause, "then you should not have come! It is of no profit to +glower at me, Monsieur. You do not frighten me." + +"I would--I would to God I had not come!" he groaned. + +"And, I dare say, that you had never seen me--since you cannot win +me!" + +"That too," he exclaimed. + +She was of an extraordinary levity, and at that after staring at him a +moment she broke into shrill laughter. "A little more, and I'll send +you to my cousin Hannibal!" she said. "You do not know how anxious he +is to see you. Have you a mind," with a waggish look, "to play bride's +man, M. de Tignonville? Or will you give away the bride? It is not too +late, though soon it will be!" + +He winced, and from red grew pale. "What do you mean?" he stammered. +And, averting his eyes in shame, seeing now all the littleness, all +the baseness of his position, "Has he--married her?" he continued. + +"Ho, ho!" she cried in triumph. "I've hit you now, have I, Monsieur? +I've hit you!" And mocking him, "Has he--married her?" she lisped. +"No; but he will marry her, have no fear of that! He will marry her. +He waits but to get a priest. Would you like to see what he says?" she +continued, playing with him as a cat plays with a mouse. "I had a note +from him yesterday. Would you like to see how welcome you'll be at the +wedding?" And she flaunted a piece of paper before his eyes. + +"Give it me," he said. + +She let him seize it the while she shrugged her shoulders. "It's your +affair, not mine," she said. "See it if you like, and keep it if you +like. Cousin Hannibal wastes few words." + +That was true, for the paper contained but a dozen or fifteen words, +and an initial by way of signature. "I may need your shoveling +to-morrow afternoon. Send him, and Tignonville in safeguard if he +come.--H." + +"I can guess what use he has for a priest," she said. "It is not to +confess him, I warrant. It's long, I fear, since Hannibal told his +beads." + +M. de Tignonville swore. "I would I had the confessing of him!" he +said between his teeth. + +She clapped her hands in glee. "Why should you not?" she cried. "Why +should you not? 'Tis time yet, since I am to send to-day and have not +sent. Will you be the shaveling to go confess or marry him?" And she +laughed recklessly. "Will you, M. de Tignonville? The cowl will mask +you as well as another, and pass you through the streets better than a +cut sleeve. He will have both his wishes, lover and clerk in one then. +And it will be pull monk, pull Hannibal with a vengeance." + +Tignonville gazed at her, and as he gazed courage and hope awoke in +his eyes. What if, after all, he could undo the past? What if, after +all, he could retrace the false step he had taken, and place himself +again where he had been--by her side? "If you meant it!" he exclaimed, +his breath coming fast. "If you only meant what you say, Madame." + +"If?" she answered, opening her eyes. "And why should I not mean it?" + +"Because," he replied slowly, "cowl or no cowl, when I meet your +cousin----" + +"'Twill go hard with him?" she cried, with a mocking laugh. "And you +think I fear for him. That is it, is it?" + +He nodded. + +"I fear just _so much_ for him!" she retorted with contempt. "Just so +much!" And coming a step nearer to Tignonville she snapped her small +white fingers under his nose. "Do you see? No, M. de Tignonville," she +continued, "you do not know Count Hannibal if you think that he fears, +or that any fear for him. If you will beard the lion in his den, the +risk will be yours, not his!" + +The young man's face glowed. "I take the risk!" he cried. "And I thank +you for the chance; that, Madame, whatever betide. But----" + +"But what?" she asked, seeing that he hesitated and that his face +fell. + +"If he afterwards learn that you have played him a trick," he said, +"will he not punish you?" + +"Punish me?" + +He nodded. + +Madame laughed her high disdain. "You do not yet know Hannibal de +Tavannes," she said. "He does not war with women." + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + A BARGAIN. + + +It is the wont of the sex to snatch at an ell where an inch is +offered, and to press an advantage in circumstances in which a man, +acknowledging the claims of generosity, scruples to ask for more. The +habit, now ingrained, may have sprung from long dependence on the +male, and is one which a hundred instances, from the time of Judith +downward, prove to be at its strongest where the need is greatest. + +When Mademoiselle de Vrillac came out of the hour-long swoon into +which her lover's defection had cast her, the expectation of the worst +was so strong upon her that she could not at once credit the respite +which Madame Carlat hastened to announce. She could not believe that +she still lay safe, in her own room above stairs; that she was in the +care of her own servants, and that the chamber held no presence more +hateful than that of the good woman who sat weeping beside her. + +As was to be expected, she came to herself sighing and shuddering, +trembling with nervous exhaustion. She looked for _him_, as soon as +she looked for any; and even when she had seen the door locked and +double-locked, she doubted--doubted, and shook and hid herself in the +hangings of the bed. The noise of the riot and rapine which prevailed +in the city, and which reached the ear even in that locked room--and +although the window, of paper, with an upper pane of glass, looked +into a courtyard--was enough to drive the blood from a woman's cheeks. +But it was fear of the house, not of the street, fear from within, not +from without, which impelled the girl into the darkest corner and +shook her wits. She could not believe that even this short respite was +hers, until she had repeatedly heard the fact confirmed at Madame +Carlat's mouth. + +"You are deceiving me!" she cried more than once. And each time she +started up in fresh terror. "He never said that he would not return +until to-morrow!" + +"He did, my lamb, he did!" the old woman answered with tears. "Would I +deceive you?" + +"He said he would not return?" + +"He said he would not return until to-morrow. You had until to-morrow, +he said." + +"And then?" + +"He would come and bring the priest with him," Madame Carlat replied +sorrowfully. + +"The priest? To-morrow!" Mademoiselle cried. "The priest!" and she +crouched anew with hot eyes behind the hangings of the bed, and, +shivering, hid her face. + +But this for a time only. As soon as she had made certain of the +respite, and that she had until the morrow, her courage rose, and with +it the instinct of which mention has been made. Count Hannibal had +granted a respite; short as it was, and no more than the barest +humanity required, to grant one at all was not the act of the mere +butcher who holds the trembling lamb, unresisting, in his hands. It +was an act--no more, again be it said, than humanity required--and yet +an act which bespoke an expectation of some return, of some +correlative advantage. It was not in the part of the mere brigand. +Something had been granted. Something short of the utmost in the +captor's power had been exacted. He had shown that there were things +he would not do. + +Then might not something more be won from him? A further delay, +another point; something, no matter what, which could be turned to +advantage. With the brigand it is not possible to bargain. But who +gives a little may give more; who gives a day may give a week; who +gives a week may give a month. And a month? Her heart leapt up. A +month seemed a lifetime, an eternity, to her who had but until +to-morrow! + +Yet there was one consideration which might have daunted a spirit +less brave. To obtain aught from Tavannes it was needful to ask him, +and to ask him it was needful to see him; and to see him _before_ that +to-morrow which meant so much to her. It was necessary, in a word, to +run some risk; but without risk the card could not be played, and she +did not hesitate. It might turn out that she was wrong, that the man +was not only pitiless and without bowels of mercy, but lacked also the +shred of decency for which she gave him credit, and on which she +counted. In that case, if she sent for him--but she would not consider +that case. + +The position of the window, while it increased the women's safety, +debarred them from all knowledge of what was going forward, except +that which their ears afforded them. They had no means of judging +whether Tavannes remained in the house or had sallied forth to +play his part in the work of murder. Madame Carlat, indeed, had no +desire to know anything. In that room above stairs, with the door +double-locked, lay a hope of safety in the present, and of ultimate +deliverance; there she had a respite from terror, as long as she kept +the world outside. To her, therefore, the notion of sending for +Tavannes, or communicating with him, came as a thunderbolt. Was her +mistress mad? Did she wish to court her fate? To reach Tavannes they +must apply to his riders, for Carlat and the men-servants were +confined above. Those riders were grim, brutal men, who might resort +to rudeness on their own account. And Madame, clinging in a paroxysm +of terror to her mistress, suggested all manner of horrors, one on top +of the other, until she increased her own terror tenfold. And yet, to +do her justice, nothing that even her frenzied imagination suggested +exceeded the things which the streets of Paris, fruitful mother of +horrors, were witnessing at that very hour. As we now know. + +For it was noon--or a little more--of Sunday, August the twenty-fourth, +"a holiday, and therefore the people could more conveniently find +leisure to kill and plunder." From the bridges, and particularly +from the stone bridge of Notre Dame--while they lay safe in that +locked room, and Tignonville crouched in his haymow--Huguenots less +fortunate were being cast, bound hand and foot, into the Seine. On the +river bank Spire Niquet, the bookman, was being burnt over a slow +fire, fed with his own books. In their houses, Ramus the scholar and +Goujon the sculptor--than whom Paris has neither seen nor deserved a +greater--were being butchered like sheep; and in the Valley of Misery, +now the Quai de la Megisserie, seven hundred persons who had sought +refuge in the prisons were being beaten to death with bludgeons. Nay, +at this hour--a little sooner or a little later, what matters it?--M. +Tignonville's own cousin, Madame d'Yverne, the darling of the Louvre +the day before, perished in the hands of the mob; and the sister of M. +de Taverny, equally ill-fated, died in the same fashion, after being +dragged through the streets. + +Madame Carlat, then, went not a whit beyond the mark in her argument. +But Mademoiselle had made up her mind, and was not to be dissuaded. + +"If I am to be Monsieur's wife," she said with quivering nostrils, +"shall I fear his servants?" + +And opening the door herself, for the others would not, she called. +The man who answered was a Norman; and short of stature, and wrinkled +and low-browed of feature, with a thatch of hair and a full beard, he +seemed the embodiment of the women's apprehensions. Moreover, his +_patois_ of the cider-land was little better than German to them; +their southern, softer tongue was sheer Italian to him. But he seemed +not ill-disposed, or Mademoiselle's air overawed him; and presently +she made him understand, and with a nod he descended to carry her +message. + +Then Mademoiselle's heart began to beat; and beat more quickly when +she heard _his_ step--alas! she knew it already, knew it from all +others--on the stairs. The table was set, the card must be played, to +win or lose. It might be that with the low, opinion he held of women +he would think her reconciled to her lot; he would think this an +overture, a step towards kinder treatment, one more proof of the +inconstancy of the lower and the weaker sex, made to be men's +playthings. And at that thought her eyes grew hot with rage. But if it +were so, she must still put up with it. She must still put up with it! +She had sent for him, and he was coming--he was at the door! + +He entered, and she breathed more freely. For once his face lacked the +sneer, the look of smiling possession, which she had come to know and +hate. It was grave, expectant, even suspicious; still harsh and dark, +akin, as she now observed, to the low-browed, furrowed face of the +rider who had summoned him. But the offensive look was gone, and she +could breathe. + +He closed the door behind him, but he did not advance into the room. +"At your pleasure, Mademoiselle?" he said simply. "You sent for me, I +think." + +She was on her feet, standing before him with something of the +submissiveness of Roxana before her conqueror. "I did," she said; and +stopped at that, her hand to her side as if she could not continue. +But presently in a low voice, "I have heard," she went on, "what you +said, Monsieur, after I lost consciousness." + +"Yes?" he said; and was silent. Nor did he lose his watchful look. + +"I am obliged to you for your thought of me," she continued in a faint +voice, "and I shall be still further obliged--I speak to you thus +quickly and thus early--if you will grant me a somewhat longer time." + +"Do you mean--if I will postpone our marriage?" + +"Yes, Monsieur." + +"It is impossible!" + +"Do not say that," she cried, raising her voice impulsively. "I appeal +to your generosity. And for a short, a very short, time only." + +"It is impossible," he answered quietly. "And for reasons, +Mademoiselle. In the first place I can more easily protect my wife. In +the second, I am even now summoned to the Louvre, and should be on my +way thither. By to-morrow evening, unless I am mistaken in the +business on which I am required, I shall be on my way to a distant +province with royal letters. It is essential that our marriage take +place before I go." + +"Why?" she asked stubbornly. + +He shrugged his shoulders. "Why?" he repeated. "Can you ask, +Mademoiselle, after the events of last night? Because, if you please, +I do not wish to share the fate of M. de Tignonville. Because in these +days life is uncertain, and death too certain. Because it was our turn +last night, and it may be the turn of your friends--to-morrow night!" + +"Then some have escaped?" she cried. + +He smiled. "I am glad to find you so shrewd," he replied. "In an +honest wife it is an excellent quality. Yes, Mademoiselle; one or +two." + +"Who? Who? I pray you tell me." + +"M. de Montgomery, who slept beyond the river, for one; and the +Vidame, and some with him. M. de Biron, whom I count a Huguenot, and +who holds the Arsenal in the King's teeth, for another. And a few +more. Enough, in a word, Mademoiselle, to keep us wakeful. It is +impossible, therefore, for me to postpone the fulfilment of your +promise." + +"A promise on conditions!" she retorted, in rage that she could win no +more. And every line of her splendid figure, every tone of her voice +flamed sudden, hot rebellion. "I do not go for nothing! You gave me +the lives of all in the house, Monsieur! Of all!" she repeated with +passion. "And all are not here! Before I marry you, you must show me +M. de Tignonville alive and safe!" + +He shrugged his shoulders. "He has taken himself off," he said. "It is +naught to me what happens to him now." + +"It is all to me!" she retorted. + +At that he glared at her, the veins of his forehead swelling suddenly. +But after a seeming struggle with himself he put the insult by, +perhaps for future reckoning and account. "I did what I could," he +said sullenly. "Had I willed it he had died there and then in the room +below. I gave him his life. If he has risked it anew and lost it, it +is naught to me." + +"It was his life you gave me," she repeated stubbornly. "His life--and +the others. But that is not all," she continued; "you promised me a +minister." + +He nodded, smiling sourly to himself, as if this confirmed a suspicion +he had entertained. "Or a priest," he said. + +"No, a minister." + +"If one could be obtained. If not, a priest." + +"No, it was to be at my will; and I will a minister! I will a +minister!" she cried passionately. "Show me M. Tignonville alive, and +bring me a minister of my faith, and I will keep my promise, M. de +Tavannes. Have no fear of that. But otherwise, I will not." + +"You will not?" he cried. "You will not?" + +"No!" + +"You will not marry me?" + +"No!" + +The moment she had said it fear seized her, and she could have fled +from him, screaming. The flash of his eyes, the sudden passion of his +face, burned themselves into her memory. She thought for a second that +he would spring on her and strike her down. Yet though the women +behind her held their breath, she faced him, and did not quail; and to +that, she fancied, she owed it that he controlled himself. "You will +not?" he repeated, as if he could not understand such resistance to +his will--as if he could not credit his ears. "You will not?" But +after that, when he had said it three times, he laughed; a laugh, +however, with a snarl in it that chilled her blood. + +"You bargain, do you?" he said. "You will have the last tittle of the +price, will you? And have thought of this and that to put me off, and +to gain time until your lover, who is all to you, come to save you? +Oh, clever girl! clever! But have you thought where you stand--woman? +Do you know that if I gave the word to my people they would treat you +as the commonest baggage that tramps the Froidmantel? Do you know that +it rests with me to save you, or to throw you to the wolves whose +ravening you hear?" And he pointed to the window. "Minister? Priest?" +he continued. "_Mon Dieu_, Mademoiselle, I stand astonished at my +moderation. You chatter to me of ministers and priests, and the one or +the other, when it might be neither! When you are as much and as +hopelessly in my power to-day as the wench in my kitchen! You! You +flout me, and make terms with me! You!" + +And he came so near her with his dark harsh face, his tone rose so +menacing on the last word, that her nerves, shattered before, gave +way, and, unable to control herself, she flinched with a low cry, +thinking he would strike her. + +He did not follow, nor move to follow; but he laughed a low laugh of +content. And his eyes devoured her. "Ho! ho!" he said. "We are not so +brave as we pretend to be, it seems. And yet you dared to chaffer with +me? You thought to thwart me--Tavannes! _Mon Dieu_, Mademoiselle, to +what did you trust? To what did you trust? Ay, and to what do you +trust?" + +She knew that by the movement, which fear had forced from her, she had +jeopardised everything. That she stood to lose all and more than all +which she had thought to win by a bold front. A woman less brave, of a +spirit less firm, would have given up the contest, and have been glad +to escape so. But this woman, though her bloodless face showed that +she knew what cause she had for fear, and though her heart was, +indeed, sick with sheer terror, held her ground at the point to which +she had retreated. She played her last card. "To what do I trust?" she +muttered with trembling lips. + +"Yes, Mademoiselle," he answered, between his teeth. "To what do you +trust--that you play with Tavannes?" + +"To his honour, Monsieur," she answered faintly. "And to your +promise." + +He looked at her with his mocking smile. "And yet," he sneered, "you +thought a moment ago that I was going to strike you. You thought that +I should beat you! And now it is my honour and my promise! Oh, clever, +clever, Mademoiselle! 'Tis so that women make fools of men. I knew +that something of this kind was on foot when you sent for me, for I +know women and their ways. But, let me tell you, it is an ill time to +speak of honour when the streets are red! And of promises when the +King's word is 'No faith with a heretic!'" + +"Yet you will keep yours," she said bravely. + +He did not answer at once, and hope which was almost dead in her +breast began to recover; nay, presently sprang up erect. For the man +hesitated, it was evident; he brooded with a puckered brow and gloomy +eyes; an observer might have fancied that he traced pain as well as +doubt in his face. At last: "There is a thing," he said slowly and +with a sort of glare at her, "which, it may be, you have not reckoned. +You press me now, and will stand on your terms and your conditions, +your _ifs_ and your _unlesses!_ You will have the most from me, and +the bargain and a little beside the bargain! But I would have you +think if you are wise. Bethink you how it will be between us when you +are my wife--if you press me so now, Mademoiselle. How will it sweeten +things then? How will it soften them? And to what, I pray you, will +you trust for fair treatment then, if you will be so against me now?" + +She shuddered. "To the mercy of my husband," she said in a low voice. +And her chin sank on her breast. + +"You will be content to trust to that?" he answered grimly. And his +tone and the lifting of his brow promised little clemency. "Bethink +you! 'Tis your rights now, and your terms, Mademoiselle! And then it +will be only my mercy--Madame." + +"I am content," she muttered faintly. + +"And the Lord have mercy on my soul, is what you would add," he +retorted, "so much trust have you in my mercy! And you are right! You +are right, since you have played this trick on me. But as you will. If +you will have it so, have it so! You shall stand on your conditions +now; you shall have your pennyweight and full advantage, and the +rigour of the pact. But afterwards--afterwards, Madame de +Tavannes----" + +He did not finish his sentence, for at the first word which granted +her petition, Mademoiselle had sunk down on the low wooden window-seat +beside which she stood, and, cowering into its farthest corner, her +face hidden on her arms, had burst into violent weeping. Her hair, +hastily knotted up in the hurry of the previous night, hung in a thick +plait to the curve of her waist; the nape of her neck showed beside it +milk-white. The man stood awhile contemplating her in silence, his +gloomy eyes watching the pitiful movement of her shoulders, the +convulsive heaving of her figure. But he did not offer to touch her, +and at length he turned about. First one and then the other of her +women quailed and shrank under his gaze; he seemed about to add +something. But he did not speak. The sentence he had left unfinished, +the long look he bent on the weeping girl as he turned from her, spoke +more eloquently of the future than a score of orations. + +"_Afterwards, Madame de Tavannes!_" + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + IN THE HALL OF THE LOUVRE. + + +It is a strange thing that love--or passion, if the sudden fancy for +Mademoiselle which had seized Count Hannibal be deemed unworthy of the +higher name--should so entirely possess the souls of those who harbour +it that the greatest events and the most astounding catastrophes, even +measures which set their mark for all time on a nation, are to them of +importance only so far as they affect the pursuit of the fair one. + +As Tavannes, after leaving Mademoiselle, rode through the paved lanes, +beneath the gabled houses, and under the shadow of the Gothic spires +of his day, he saw a score of sights, moving to pity, or wrath, or +wonder. He saw Paris as a city sacked; a slaughterhouse, where for a +week a masque had moved to stately music; blood on the nailed doors +and the close-set window bars; and at the corners of the ways strewn +garments, broken weapons, the livid dead in heaps. But he saw all with +eyes which in all and everywhere, among living and dead, sought only +Tignonville; Tignonville first, and next a heretic minister, with +enough of life in him to do his office. + +Probably it was to this that one man hunted through Paris owed his +escape that day. He sprang from a narrow passage full in Tavannes' +view, and, hair on end, his eyes starting from his head, ran +blindly--as a hare will run when chased--along the street to meet +Count Hannibal's company. The man's face was wet with the dews of +death, his lungs seemed cracking, his breath hissed from him as he +ran. His pursuers were hard on him, and, seeing him headed by Count +Hannibal's party, yelled in triumph, holding him for dead. And dead he +would have been within thirty seconds had Tavannes played his part. +But his thoughts were elsewhere. Either he took the poor wretch for +Tignonville, or for the minister on whom his mind was running; at any +rate he suffered him to slip under the belly of his horse; then, to +make matters worse, he wheeled to follow him in so untimely and clumsy +a fashion that his horse blocked the way and stopped the pursuers in +their tracks. The quarry slipped into an alley and vanished. The +hunters stood and blasphemed, and even for a moment seemed inclined to +resent the mistake. But Tavannes smiled; a broader smile lightened the +faces of the six iron-clad men behind him; and for some reason the +gang of ruffians thought better of it and slunk aside. + +There are hard men, who feel scorn of the things which in the breasts +of others excite pity. Tavannes' lip curled as he rode on through the +streets, looking this way and that, and seeing what a King twenty-two +years old had made of his capital. His lip curled most of all when he +came, passing between the two tennis-courts, to the east gate of the +Louvre, and found the entrance locked and guarded, and all +communication between city and palace cut off. Such a proof of +unkingly panic, in a crisis wrought by the King himself, astonished +him less a few minutes later, when, the keys having been brought and +the door opened, he entered the courtyard of the fortress. + +Within and about the door of the gatehouse some three-score archers +and arquebusiers stood to their arms; not in array, but in disorderly +groups, from which the babble of voices, of feverish laughter, and +strained jests rose without ceasing. The westering sun, of which the +beams just topped the farther side of the quadrangle, fell slantwise +on their armour, and heightened their exaggerated and restless +movements. To a calm eye they seemed like men acting in a nightmare. +Their fitful talk and disjointed gestures, their sweating brows and +damp hair, no less than the sullen, brooding silence of one here and +there, bespoke the abnormal and the terrible. There were livid faces +among them, and twitching cheeks, and some who swallowed much; and +some again who bared their crimson arms and bragged insanely of the +part they had played. But perhaps the most striking thing was the +thirst, the desire, the demand for news, and for fresh excitement. In +the space of time it took him to pass through them, Count Hannibal +heard a dozen rumours of what was passing in the city; that Montgomery +and the gentlemen who had slept beyond the river had escaped on +horseback in their shirts; that Guise had been shot in the pursuit; +that he had captured the Vidame de Chartres and all the fugitives; +that he had never left the city; that he was even then entering by the +Porte de Bucy. Again that Biron had surrendered the Arsenal, that he +had threatened to fire on the city, that he was dead, that with the +Huguenots who had escaped he was marching on the Louvre, that---- + +And then Tavannes passed out of the blinding sunshine, and out of +earshot of their babble, and had plain in his sight across the +quadrangle, the new facade, Italian, graceful, of the Renaissance; +which rose in smiling contrast with the three dark Gothic sides that +now, the central tower removed, frowned unimpeded at one another. But +what was this which lay along the foot of the new Italian wall? This, +round which some stood, gazing curiously, while others strewed fresh +sand about it, or after long downward-looking glanced up to answer the +question of a person at a window? + +Death; and over death--death in its most cruel aspect--a cloud of +buzzing, whirling flies, and the smell, never to be forgotten, of much +spilled blood. From a doorway hard by came shrill bursts of hysterical +laughter; and with the laughter plumped out, even as Tavannes crossed +the court, a young girl, thrust forth it seemed by her fellows, for +she turned about and struggled as she came. Once outside she hung +back, giggling and protesting, half willing, half unwilling; and +meeting Tavannes' eye thrust her way in again with a whirl of her +petticoats, and a shriek. But before he had taken four paces she was +out again. + +He paused to see who she was, and his thoughts involuntarily went back +to the woman he had left weeping in the upper room. Then he turned +about again and stood to count the dead. He identified Piles, +identified Pardaillan, identified Soubise--whose corpse the murderers +had robbed of the last rag--and Touchet and St. Galais. He made his +reckoning with an unmoved face, and with the same face stopped and +stared, and moved from one to another; had he not seen the slaughter +about "_le petit home_" at Jarnac, and the dead of three pitched +fields? But when a bystander, smirking obsequiously, passed him a jest +on Soubise, and with his finger pointed the jest, he had the same hard +unmoved face for the gibe as for the dead. And the jester shrank away, +abashed and perplexed by his stare and his reticence. + +Half way up the staircase to the great gallery or guardroom above, +Count Hannibal found his brother, the Marshal, huddled together in +drunken slumber on a seat in a recess. In the gallery to which he +passed on without awakening him, a crowd of courtiers and ladies, with +arquebusiers and captains of the quarters, walked to and fro, talking +in whispers; or peeped over shoulders towards the inner end of the +hall, where the querulous voice of the King rose now and again above +the hum. As Tavannes moved that way, Nancay, in the act of passing +out, booted and armed for the road, met him and almost jostled him. + +"Ah, well met, M. le Comte," he sneered, with as much hostility as he +dared betray. "The King has asked for you twice." + +"I am going to him. And you? Whither in such a hurry, M. Nancay?" + +"To Chatillon." + +"On pleasant business?" + +"Enough that it is on the King's!" Nancay replied with unexpected +temper. "I hope that you may find yours as pleasant!" he added with a +grin. And he went on. + +The gleam of malice in the man's eye warned Tavannes to pause. He +looked round for someone who might be in the secret, saw the Provost +of the Merchants and approached him. "What's amiss, M. le Charron?" he +asked. "Is not the affair going as it should?" + +"'Tis about the Arsenal, M. le Comte," the Provost answered busily. +"M. de Biron is harbouring the vermin there. He has lowered the +portcullis and pointed his culverins over the gate and will not yield +it or listen to reason. The King would bring him to terms, but no one +will venture himself inside with the message. Rats in a trap, you +know, bite hard, and care little whom they bite." + +"I begin to understand." + +"Precisely, M. le Comte. His Majesty would have sent M. de Nancay. But +he elected to go to Chatillon, to seize the young brood there. The +Admiral's children, you comprehend." + +"Whose teeth are not yet grown! He was wise." + +"To be sure, M. de Tavannes, to be sure. But the King was annoyed, and +on top of that came a priest with complaints, and if I may make so +bold as to advise you, you will not----" + +But Tavannes fancied that he had caught the gist of the difficulty, +and with a nod he moved on; and so he missed the point of the warning +which the other had it in his mind to give. A moment and he reached +the inner circle, and there halted, disconcerted, nay, taken aback. +For as soon as he showed his face, the King, who was pacing to and fro +like a caged beast, before a table at which three clerks knelt on +cushions, espied him and stood still. With a glare of something like +madness in his eyes, Charles raised his hand with a shaking finger and +singled him out. + +"So, by G--d, you are there!" he cried, with a volley of blasphemy. +And he signed to those about Count Hannibal to stand away from him. +"You are there, are you? And you are not afraid to show your face? I +tell you, it's you and such as you bring us into contempt! so that it +is said everywhere Guise does all and serves God, and we follow +because we must! It's you, and such as you, are stumbling-blocks to +our good folk of Paris! Are you traitor, sirrah?" he continued with +passion, "or are you of our brother Alencon's opinions, that you +traverse our orders to the damnation of your soul and our discredit? +Are you traitor? Or are you heretic? Or what are you? God in heaven, +will you answer me, man, or shall I send you where you will find your +tongue?" + +"I know not of what your Majesty accuses me," Count Hannibal answered, +with a scarcely perceptible shrug of the shoulders. + +"I? 'Tis not I," the King retorted. His hair hung damp on his brow, +and he dried his hands continually; while his gestures had the +ill-measured and eccentric violence of an epileptic. "Here, you! +Speak, father, and confound him!" + +Then Tavannes discovered on the farther side of the circle the priest +whom his brother had ridden down that morning. Father Pezelay's pale +hatchet-face gleamed paler than ordinary; and a great bandage hid one +temple and part of his face. But, below the bandage, the flame of his +eyes was not lessened, nor the venom of his tongue. To the King he had +come--for no other would deal with his violent opponent; to the King's +presence! and, as he prepared to blast his adversary, now his chance +was come, his long lean frame, in its narrow black cassock, seemed to +grow longer, leaner, more baleful, more snake-like. He stood there a +fitting representative of the dark fanaticism of Paris, which Charles +and his successor--the last of a doomed line--alternately used as tool +or feared as master; and to which the most debased and the most +immoral of courts paid, in its sober hours, a vile and slavish homage. +Even in the midst of the drunken, shameless courtiers--who stood, if +they stood for anything, for that other influence of the day, the +Renaissance--he was to be reckoned with; and Count Hannibal knew it. +He knew that in the eyes not of Charles only, but of nine out of ten +who listened to him, a priest was more sacred than a virgin, and a +tonsure than all the virtues of spotless innocence. + +"Shall the King give with one hand and withdraw with the other?" the +priest began, in a voice hoarse yet strident, a voice borne high above +the crowd on the wings of passion. "Shall he spare of the best of the +men and the maidens whom God hath doomed, whom the Church hath +devoted, whom the King hath given? Is the King's hand shortened or his +word annulled that a man does as he forbiddeth and leaves undone what +he commandeth? Is God mocked? Woe, woe unto you," he continued, +turning swiftly, arms uplifted, towards Tavannes, "who please yourself +with the red and white of their maidens and take of the best of the +spoil, sparing where the King's word is 'Spare not!' Who strike at +Holy Church with the sword! Who----" + +"Answer, sirrah!" Charles cried, spurning the floor in his fury. He +could not listen long to any man. "Is it so? Is it so? Do you do these +things?" + +Count Hannibal shrugged his shoulders and was about to answer, when a +thick, drunken voice rose from the crowd behind him. "Is it what? Eh! +Is it what?" it droned. And a figure with bloodshot eyes, disordered +beard, and rich clothes awry, forced its way through the obsequious +circle. It was Marshal Tavannes. "Eh, what? You'd beard the King, +would you?" he hiccoughed truculently, his eyes on Father Pezelay, his +hand on his sword. "Were you a priest ten times-- + +"Silence!" Charles cried, almost foaming with rage at this fresh +interruption. "It's not he, fool! 'Tis your pestilent brother." + +"Who touches my brother touches Tavannes!" the Marshal answered with a +menacing gesture. He was sober enough, it appeared, to hear what was +said, but not to comprehend its drift; and this caused a titter, which +immediately excited his rage. He turned and seized the nearest laugher +by the ear. "Insolent!" he cried. "I will teach you to laugh when the +King speaks! Puppy! Who laughs at his Majesty or touches my brother +has to do with Tavannes!" + +The King, in a rage that almost deprived him of speech, stamped the +floor twice. "Idiot!" he cried. "Imbecile! Let the man go! 'Tis not +he! 'Tis your heretic brother, I tell you! By all the Saints! By the +body of----" and he poured forth a flood of oaths. "Will you listen to +me and be silent! Will you--your brother----" + +"If he be not your Majesty's servant, I will kill him with this +sword!" the irrepressible Marshal struck in. "As I have killed ten +to-day! Ten!" And, staggering back, he only saved himself from falling +by clutching Chicot about the neck. + +"Steady, my pretty Marechale!" the jester cried, chucking him under +the chin with one hand, while with some difficulty he supported him +with the other--for he, too, was far from sober-- + + + "Pretty Margot, toy with me, + Maiden bashful----" + + +"Silence!" Charles cried, darting forth his long arms in a fury of +impatience. "God, have I killed every man of sense? Are you all gone +mad? Silence! Do you hear? Silence! And let me hear what he has to +say," with a movement towards Count Hannibal. "And look you, sirrah," +he continued with a curse, "see that it be to the purpose!" + +"If it be a question of your Majesty's service," Tavannes answered. +"And obedience to your Majesty's orders, I am deeper in it than he who +stands there!" with a sign towards the priest. "I give my word for +that. And I will prove it." + +"How, sir?" Charles cried. "How, how, how? How will you prove it?" + +"By doing for you, sire, what he will not do!" Tavannes answered +scornfully. "Let him stand out, and if he will serve his Church as I +will serve my King---- + +"Blaspheme not!" cried the priest. + +"Chatter not!" Tavannes retorted hardily, "but do! Better is he," he +continued, "who takes a city than he who slays women! Nay, sire," he +went on hurriedly, seeing the King start, "be not angry, but hear me! +You would send to Biron, to the Arsenal? You seek a messenger, sire? +Then let the good father be the man. Let him take your Majesty's will +to Biron, and let him see the Grand Master face to face, and bring him +to reason. Or, if he will not, I will! Let that be the test!" + +"Ay, ay!" cried Marshal de Tavannes, "you say well, brother! Let him!" + +"And if he will not, I will!" Tavannes repeated. "Let that be the +test, sire." + +The King wheeled suddenly to Father Pezelay. + +"You hear, father?" he said. "What say you!" + +The priest's face grew sallow, and more sallow. He knew that the walls +of the Arsenal sheltered men whose hands no convention and no order of +Biron's would keep from his throat, were the grim gate and frowning +culverins once passed; men who had seen their women and children, +their wives and sisters immolated at his word, and now asked naught +but to stand face to face and eye to eye with him and tear him limb +from limb before they died! The challenge, therefore, was one-sided +and unfair; but for that very reason it shook him. The astuteness of +the man who, taken by surprise, had conceived this snare filled him +with dread. He dared not accept, and he scarcely dared to refuse the +offer. And meantime the eyes of the courtiers, who grinned in their +beards, were on him. At length he spoke, but it was in a voice which +had lost its boldness and assurance. + +"It is not for me to clear myself," he cried, shrill and violent, "but +for those who are accused, for those who have belied the King's word, +and set at naught his Christian orders. For you, Count Hannibal, +heretic, or no better than heretic, it is easy to say 'I go.' For you +go but to your own, and your own will receive you!" + +"Then you will not go?" with a jeer. + +"At your command? No!" the priest shrieked with passion. "His Majesty +knows whether I serve him." + +"I know," Charles cried, stamping his foot in a fury, "that you all +serve me when it pleases you! That you are all sticks of the same +faggot, wood of the same bundle, hell-babes in your own business, and +sluggards in mine! You kill to-day and you'll lay it to me to-morrow! +Ay, you will! you will!" he repeated frantically, and drove home the +asseveration with a fearful oath. "The dead are as good servants as +you! Foucauld was better! Foucauld? Foucauld? Ah, my God!" + +And abruptly in presence of them all, with the sacred name, which he +so often defiled, on his lips, Charles turned, and covering his face +burst into childish weeping; while a great silence fell on all--on +Bussy with the blood of his cousin Resnel on his point, on Fervacques, +the betrayer of his friend, on Chicot, the slayer of his rival, on +Cocconnas the cruel--on men with hands unwashed from the slaughter, +and on the shameless women who lined the walls; on all who used this +sobbing man for their stepping-stone, and, to attain their ends and +gain their purposes, trampled his dull soul in blood and mire. + +One looked at another in consternation. Fear grew in eyes that a +moment before were bold; cheeks turned pale that a moment before were +hectic. If he changed as rapidly as this, if so little dependence +could be placed on his moods or his resolutions, who was safe? Whose +turn might it not be to-morrow? Or who might not be held accountable +for the deeds done this day? Many, from whom remorse had seemed far +distant a while before, shuddered and glanced behind them. It was as +if the dead who lay stark without the doors, ay, and the countless +dead of Paris, with whose shrieks the air was laden, had flocked in +shadowy shape into the hall; and there, standing beside their +murderers, had whispered with their cold breath in the living ears, "A +reckoning! A reckoning! As I am, thou shalt be!" + +It was Count Hannibal who broke the spell and the silence, and with +his hand on his brother's shoulder stood forward. "Nay, sire," he +cried, in a voice which rang defiant in the roof, and seemed to +challenge alike the living and the dead, "if all deny the deed, yet +will not I! What we have done we have done! So be it! The dead are +dead! So be it! For the rest, your Majesty has still one servant who +will do your will, one soldier whose life is at your disposition! I +have said I will go, and I go, sire. And you, churchman," he +continued, turning in bitter scorn to the priest, "do you go too--to +church! To church, shaveling! Go, watch and pray for us! Fast and flog +for us! Whip those shoulders, whip them till the blood runs down! For +it is all, it seems, you will do for your King!" + +Charles turned. "Silence, railer!" he said in a broken voice. "Sow no +more troubles! Already," a shudder shook his tall ungainly form, "I +see blood, blood, blood everywhere! Blood! Ah, God, shall I from this +time see anything else? But there is no turning back. There is no +undoing. So, do you go to Biron. And do you," he went on, sullenly +addressing Marshal Tavannes, "take him and tell him what it is needful +he should know." + +"'Tis done, sire!" the Marshal cried with a hiccough. "Come, brother!" + +But when the two, the courtiers making quick way for them, had passed +down the hall to the door, the Marshal tapped Hannibal's sleeve. "It +was touch and go," he muttered; it was plain he had been more sober +than he seemed. "Mind you, it does not do to thwart our little master +in his fits! Remember that another time, or worse will come of it, +brother. As it is, you came out of it finely and tripped that black +devil's heels to a marvel! But you won't be so mad as to go to Biron?" + +"Yes," Count Hannibal answered coldly. "I shall go." + +"Better not! Better not!" the Marshal answered. "'Twill be easier to +go in than to come out--with a whole throat! Have you taken wild cats +in the hollow of a tree? The young first, and then the she-cat? Well, +it will be that! Take my advice, brother. Have after Montgomery, if +you please, ride with Nancay to Chatillon--he is mounting now--go +where you please out of Paris, but don't go there! Biron hates us, +hates me. And for the King, if he do not see you for a few days, +'twill blow over in a week." + +Count Hannibal shrugged his shoulders. "No," he said, "I shall go." + +The Marshal stared a moment. "Morbleu!" he said, "why? 'Tis not to +please the King, I know. What do you think to find there, brother?" + +"A minister," Hannibal answered gently. "I want one with life in him, +and they are scarce in the open. So I must to covert after him." And, +twitching his sword-belt a little nearer to his hand, he passed across +the court to the gate, and to his horses. The Marshal went back +laughing, and, slapping his thigh as he entered the hall, jostled by +accident a gentleman who was passing out. + +"What is it?" the Gascon cried hotly; for it was Chicot he had +jostled. + +"Who touches my brother touches Tavannes!" the Marshal hiccoughed. +And, smiting his thigh anew, he went off into another fit of laughter. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + DIPLOMACY. + + +Where the old wall of Paris, of which no vestige remains, ran down on +the east to the north bank of the river, the space in the angle +between the Seine and the ramparts beyond the Rue St. Pol wore at this +date an aspect typical of the troubles of the time. Along the +waterside the gloomy old Palace of St. Pol, once the residence of the +mad King Charles the Sixth--and his wife, the abandoned Isabeau de +Baviere--sprawled its maze of mouldering courts and ruined galleries, +a dreary monument of the Gothic days which were passing from France. +Its spacious curtilage and dark pleasaunces covered all the ground +between the river and the Rue St. Antoine; and north of this, under +the shadow of the eight great towers of the Bastille, which looked, +four outward to check the stranger, four inward to bridle the town, a +second palace, beginning where St. Pol ended, carried the realm of +decay to the city wall. + +This second palace was the Hotel des Tournelles, a fantastic medley of +turrets, spires, and gables, that equally with its neighbour recalled +the days of the English domination; it had been the abode of the +Regent Bedford. From his time it had remained for a hundred years the +town residence of the kings of France; but the death of Henry II., +slain in its lists by the lance of the same Montgomery who was this +day fleeing for his life before Guise, had given his widow a distaste +for it. Catherine de Medicis, her sons, and the Court had abandoned +it; already its gardens lay a tangled wilderness, its roofs let in the +rain, rats played where kings had slept; and in "our palace of the +Tournelles" reigned only silence and decay. Unless, indeed, as was +whispered abroad, the grim shade of the eleventh Louis sometimes +walked in its desolate precincts. + +In the innermost angle between the ramparts and the river, shut off +from the rest of Paris by the decaying courts and enceintes of these +forsaken palaces, stood the Arsenal. Destroyed in great part by the +explosion of a powder-mill a few years earlier, it was in the main +new; and by reason of its river frontage, which terminated at the +ruined tower of Billy, and its proximity to the Bastille, it was +esteemed one of the keys of Paris. It was the appanage of the Master +of the Ordnance, and within its walls M. de Biron, a Huguenot in +politics, if not in creed, who held the office at this time, had +secured himself on the first alarm. During the day he had admitted a +number of refugees, whose courage or good luck had led them to his +gate; and as night fell--on such a carnage as the hapless city had not +beheld since the great slaughter of the Armagnacs, one hundred and +fifty-four years earlier--the glow of his matches through the dusk, +and the sullen tramp of his watchmen as they paced the walls, +indicated that there was still one place in Paris where the King's +will did not run. + +In comparison of the disorder which prevailed in the city, a deadly +quiet reigned here; a stillness so chill that a timid man must have +stood and hesitated to approach. But a stranger who about nightfall +rode down the street towards the entrance, a single footman running at +his stirrup, only nodded a stern approval of the preparations. As he +drew nearer he cast an attentive eye this way and that; nor stayed +until a hoarse challenge brought him up when he had come within six +horses' lengths of the Arsenal gate. He reined up then, and raising +his voice, asked in clear tones for M. de Biron. + +"Go," he continued boldly, "tell the Grand Master that one from the +King is here, and would speak with him." + +"From the King of France?" the officer on the gate asked. + +"Surely! Is there more than one King in France?" + +A curse and a bitter cry of "King? King Herod!" were followed by a +muttered discussion that, in the ears of one of the two who waited in +the gloom below, boded little good. The two could descry figures +moving to and fro before the faint red light of the smouldering +matches; and presently a man on the gate kindled a torch, and held it +so as to fling its light downward. The stranger's attendant cowered +behind the horse. "Have a care, my lord!" he whispered. "They are +aiming at us!" + +If so the rider's bold front and unmoved demeanour gave them pause. +Presently, "I will send for the Grand Master" the man who had spoken +before announced. "In whose name, monsieur?" + +"No matter," the stranger answered. "Say, one from the King." + +"You are alone?" + +"I shall enter alone." + +The assurance seemed to be satisfactory, for the man answered "Good!" +and after a brief delay a wicket in the gate was opened, the +portcullis creaked upward, and a plank was thrust across the ditch. +The horseman waited until the preparations were complete; then he slid +to the ground, threw his rein to the servant, and boldly walked +across. In an instant he left behind him the dark street, the river, +and the sounds of outrage, which the night breeze bore from the +farther bank, and found himself within the vaulted gateway, in a +bright glare of light, the centre of a ring of gleaming eyes and angry +faces. + +The light blinded him for a few seconds; but the guards, on their +side, were in no better case. For the stranger was masked; and in +their ignorance who it was looked at them through the slits in the +black velvet they stared, disconcerted, and at a loss. There were some +there with naked weapons in their hands who would have struck him +through had they known who he was; and more who would have stood aside +while the deed was done. But the uncertainty--that and the masked +man's tone paralysed them. For they reflected that he might be any +one. Conde, indeed, stood too small, but Navarre, if he lived, might +fill that cloak; or Guise, or Anjou, or the King himself. And while +some would not have scrupled to strike the blood royal, more would +have been quick to protect and avenge it. And so before the dark +uncertainty of the mask, before the riddle of the smiling eyes which +glittered through the slits, they stared irresolute; until a hand, the +hand of one bolder than his fellows, was raised to pluck away the +screen. + +The unknown dealt the fellow a buffet with his fist. "Down, rascal!" +he said hoarsely. "And you"--to the officer--"show me instantly to M. +de Biron!" + +But the lieutenant, who stood in fear of his men, looked at him +doubtfully. "Nay," he said, "not so fast!" And one of the others, +taking the lead, cried, "No! We may have no need of M. de Biron. Your +name, monsieur, first." + +With a quick movement the stranger gripped the officer's wrist. "Tell +your master," he said, "that he who clasped his wrist _thus_ on the +night of Pentecost is here, and would speak with him! And say, mark +you, that I will come to him, not he to me!" + +The sign and the tone imposed upon the boldest. Two-thirds of the +watch were Huguenots, who burned to avenge the blood of their fellows; +and these, overriding their officer, had agreed to deal with the +intruder, if a Papegot, without recourse to the Grand Master, whose +moderation they dreaded. A knife-thrust in the ribs, and another body +in the ditch--why not, when such things were done outside? But even +these doubted now; and M. Peridol, the lieutenant, reading in the eyes +of his men the suspicions which he had himself conceived, was only +anxious to obey, if they would let him. So gravely was he impressed, +indeed, by the bearing of the unknown that he turned when he had +withdrawn, and came back to assure himself that the men meditated no +harm in his absence; nor until he had exchanged a whisper with one of +them would he leave them and go. + +While he was gone on his errand the envoy leaned against the wall of +the gateway, and, with his chin sunk on his breast and his mind fallen +into reverie, seemed unconscious of the dark glances of which he was +the target. He remained in this position until the officer came back, +followed by a man with a lantern. Their coming roused the unknown, +who, invited to follow Peridol, traversed two courts without remark, +and in the same silence entered a building in the extreme eastern +corner of the enceinte abutting on the ruined Tour de Billy. Here, in +an upper floor, the Governor of the Arsenal had established his +temporary lodging. + +The chamber into which the stranger was introduced betrayed the haste +in which it had been prepared for its occupant. Two silver lamps which +hung from the beams of the unceiled roof shed light on a medley of +arms and inlaid armour, of parchments, books, and steel caskets, which +encumbered not the tables only, but the stools and chests that, after +the fashion of that day, stood formally along the arras. In the midst +of the disorder, on the bare floor, walked the man who, more than any +other, had been instrumental in drawing the Huguenots to Paris--and to +their doom. It was not wonderful that the events of the day, the +surprise and horror still rode his mind; nor that even he who passed +for a model of stiffness and reticence betrayed for once the +indignation which filled his breast. Until the officer had withdrawn +and closed the door he did, indeed, keep silence; standing beside the +table and eyeing his visitor with a lofty port and a stern glance. But +the moment he was assured that they were alone he spoke. + +"Your Highness may unmask now," he said, making no effort to hide his +contempt. "Yet were you well advised to take the precaution, since you +had hardly come at me in safety without it. Had those who keep the +gate seen you, I would not have answered for your Highness's life! The +more shame," he continued vehemently, "on the deeds of this day which +have compelled the brother of a King of France to hide his face in his +own capital and in his own fortress. For I dare to say, Monsieur, what +no other will say, now the Admiral is dead. You have brought back the +days of the Armagnacs. You have brought bloody days and an evil name +on France, and I pray God that you may not pay in your turn what you +have exacted. But if you continue to be advised by M. de Guise, this I +will say, Monsieur"--and his voice fell low and stern. "Burgundy slew +Orleans, indeed; but he came in his turn to the Bridge of Montereau." + +"You take me for Monsieur?" the unknown asked. And it was plain that +he smiled under his mask. + +Biron's face altered. "I take you," he answered sharply, "for him +whose sign you sent me." + +"The wisest are sometimes astray," the other answered with a low +laugh. And he took off his mask. + +The Grand Master started back, his eyes sparkling with anger. "M. de +Tavannes?" he cried, and for a moment he was silent in sheer +astonishment. Then, striking his hand on the table, "What means this +trickery!" he asked. + +"It is of the simplest," Tavannes answered coolly. "And yet, as you +just now said, I had hardly come at you without it. And I had to come +at you. No, M. de Biron," he added quickly, as Biron in a rage laid +his hand on a bell which stood beside him on the table, "you cannot +that way undo what is done." + +"I can at least deliver you," the Grand Master answered, in heat, "to +those who will deal with you as you have dealt with us and ours." + +"It will avail you nothing," Count Hannibal replied soberly. "For see +here, Grand Master, I come from the King. If you are at war with him, +and hold his fortress in his teeth, I am his ambassador and +sacrosanct. If you are at peace with him and hold it at his will, I +am his servant, and safe also." + +"At peace and safe?" Biron cried, his voice trembling with +indignation. "And are those safe or at peace who came here trusting to +_his_ word, who lay in his palace and slept in his beds? Where are +they, and how have they fared, that you dare appeal to the law of +nations, or he to the loyalty of Biron? And for you to beard me, whose +brother to-day hounded the dogs of this vile city on the noblest in +France, who have leagued yourself with a crew of foreigners to do a +deed which will make our country stink in the nostrils of the world +when we are dust! You, to come here and talk of peace and safety! M. +de Tavannes"--and he struck his hand on the table--"you are a bold +man. I know why the King had a will to send you, but I know not why +you had the will to come." + +"That I will tell you later," Count Hannibal answered coolly. "For the +King, first. My message is brief, M. de Biron. Have you a mind to hold +the scales in France?" + +"Between?" Biron asked contemptuously. + +"Between the Lorrainers and the Huguenots." + +The Grand Master scowled fiercely. "I have played the go-between once +too often," he growled. + +"It is no question of going between, it is a question of holding +between," Tavannes answered coolly. "It is a question--but, in a word, +have you a mind, M. de Biron, to be Governor of Rochelle? The King, +having dealt the blow that has been struck to-day, looks to follow up +severity, as a wise ruler should, with indulgence. And to quiet the +minds of the Rochellois he would set over them a ruler at once +acceptable to them--or war must come of it--and faithful to his +Majesty. Such a man, M. de Biron, will in such a post be Master of the +Kingdom; for he will hold the doors of Janus, and as he bridles his +sea-dogs, or unchains them, there will be peace or war in France." + +"Is all that from the King's mouth?" Biron asked with sarcasm. But his +passion had died down. He was grown thoughtful, suspicious; he eyed +the other intently as if he would read his heart. + +"The offer is his, and the reflections are mine," Tavannes answered +drily. "Let me add one more. The Admiral is dead. The King of Navarre +and the Prince of Conde are prisoners. Who is now to balance the +Italians and the Guises? The Grand Master--if he be wise and content +to give the law to France from the citadel of Rochelle." + +Biron stared at the speaker in astonishment at his frankness. "You are +a bold man," he cried at last. "But _timeo Danaos et dona ferentes_," +he continued bitterly. "You offer, sir, too much." + +"The offer is the King's." + +"And the conditions? The price?" + +"That you remain quiet, M. de Biron." + +"In the Arsenal?" + +"In the Arsenal. And do not too openly counteract the King's will. +That is all." + +The Grand Master looked puzzled. "I will give up no one," he said. "No +one! Let that be understood." + +"The King requires no one." + +A pause. Then, "Does M. de Guise know of the offer?" Biron inquired; +and his eye grew bright. He hated the Guises and was hated by them. It +was _there_ he was a Huguenot. + +"He has gone far to-day," Count Hannibal answered drily. "And if no +worse come of it should be content. Madame Catherine knows of it." + +The Grand Master was aware that Marshal Tavannes depended on the +Queen-mother; and he shrugged his shoulders. "Ay, 'tis like her +policy," he muttered. "'Tis like her!" And pointing his guest to a +cushioned chest which stood against the wall, he sat down in a chair +beside the table and thought awhile, his brow wrinkled, his eyes +dreaming. By-and-by he laughed sourly. "You have lighted the fire," he +said, "and would fain I put it out." + +"We would have you hinder it spreading." + +"You have done the deed and are loth to pay the blood-money. That is +it, is it?" + +"We prefer to pay it to M. de Biron," Count Hannibal answered civilly. + +Again the Grand Master was silent awhile. At length he looked up and +fixed Tavannes with eyes keen as steel. "What is behind?" he growled. +"Say, man, what is it? What is behind?" + +"If there be aught behind, I do not know it," Tavannes answered +steadfastly. + +M. de Biron relaxed the fixity of his gaze. "But you said that you had +an object?" he returned. + +"I had--in being the bearer of the message." + +"What was it?" + +"My object? To learn two things." + +"The first, if it please you?" The Grand Master's chin stuck out a +little, as he spoke. + +"Have you in the Arsenal a M. de Tignonville, a gentleman of Poitou?" + +"I have not," Biron answered curtly. "The second?" + +"Have you here a Huguenot minister?" + +"I have not. And if I had I should not give him up," he added firmly. + +Tavannes shrugged his shoulders. "I have a use for one," he said +carelessly. "But it need not harm him." + +"For what, then, do you need him?" + +"To marry me." + +The other stared. "But you are a Catholic," he said. + +"But she is a Huguenot," Tavannes answered. + +The Grand Master did not attempt to hide his astonishment. "And she +sticks on that?" he exclaimed. "To-day?" + +"She sticks on that. To-day." + +"To-day? _Nom de Dieu!_ To-day! Well," brushing the matter aside after +a pause of bewilderment, "any way, I cannot help her. I have no +minister here. If there be aught else I can do for her----" + +"Nothing, I thank you," Tavannes answered. "Then it only remains for +me to take your answer to the King?" And he rose politely, and taking +his mask from the table prepared to assume it. + +M. de Biron gazed at him a moment without speaking, as if he pondered +on the answer he should give. At length he nodded, and rang the bell +which stood beside him. + +"The mask!" he muttered in a low voice as footsteps sounded without. +And, obedient to the hint, Tavannes disguised himself. A second later +the officer who had introduced him opened the door and entered. + +"Peridol," M. de Biron said--he had risen to his feet--"I have +received a message which needs confirmation; and to obtain this I must +leave the Arsenal. I am going to the house--you will remember this--of +Marshal Tavannes, who will be responsible for my person; in the +meantime this gentleman will remain under strict guard in the south +chamber upstairs. You will treat him as a hostage, with all respect, +and will allow him to preserve his _incognito_. But if I do not return +by noon to-morrow, you will deliver him to the men below, who will +know how to deal with him." + +Count Hannibal made no attempt to interrupt him, nor did he betray the +discomfiture which he undoubtedly felt. But as the Grand Master +paused, "M. de Biron," he said, in a voice harsh and low, "you will +answer to me for this!" And his eyes glittered through the slits in +the mask. + +"Possibly, but not to-day or to-morrow!" Biron replied, shrugging his +shoulders contemptuously. "Peridol! see the gentleman bestowed as I +have ordered, and then return to me. Monsieur," with a bow, half +courteous, half ironical, "let me commend to you the advantages of +silence and your mask." And he waved his hand in the direction of the +door. + +A moment Count Hannibal hesitated. He was in the heart of a hostile +fortress where the resistance of a single man armed to the teeth must +have been futile; and he was unarmed, save for a poniard. +Nevertheless, for a moment the impulse to spring on Biron, and with +the dagger at his throat to make his life the price of a safe passage, +was strong. Then--for with the warp of a harsh and passionate +character were interwrought an odd shrewdness and some things little +suspected--he resigned himself. Bowing gravely, he turned with +dignity, and in silence followed the officer from the room. + +Peridol had two men with lanterns in waiting at the door. From one of +these the lieutenant took the light, and, with an air at once sullen +and deferential, led the way up the stone staircase to the floor over +that in which M. de Biron had his lodging. Tavannes followed; the two +guards came last, carrying the second lantern. At the head of the +staircase, whence a bare passage ran north and south, the procession +turned right-handed, and, passing two doors, halted before the third +and last, which faced them at the end of the passage. The lieutenant +unlocked it with a key which he took from a hook beside the doorpost. +Then, holding up his light, he invited his charge to enter. + +The room was not small, but it was low in the roof, and prison-like, +it had bare walls and smoke-marks on the ceiling. The window, set in a +deep recess, the floor of which rose a foot above that of the room, +was unglazed; and through the gloomy orifice the night wind blew in, +laden even on that August evening with the dank mist of the river +flats. A table, two stools, and a truckle bed without straw or +covering made up the furniture; but Peridol, after glancing round, +ordered one of the men to fetch a truss of straw and the other to +bring up a pitcher of wine. While they were gone Tavannes and he stood +silently waiting, until, observing that the captive's eyes sought the +window, the lieutenant laughed. + +"No bars?" he said. "No, monsieur, and no need of them. You will not +go by that road, bars or no bars." + +"What is below?" Count Hannibal asked carelessly. "The river?" + +"Yes, monsieur," with a grin, "but not water. Mud, and six feet of it, +soft as Christmas porridge, but not so sweet. I've known two puppies +thrown in under this window that did not weigh more than a fat pullet +apiece. One was gone before you could count fifty, and the other did +not live thrice as long--nor would have lasted that time, but that it +fell on the first and clung to it." + +Tavannes dismissed the matter with a shrug, and, drawing his cloak +about him, set a stool against the wall and sat down. The men who +brought in the wine and the bundle of straw were inquisitive, and +would have loitered, scanning him stealthily; but Peridol hurried them +away. The lieutenant himself stayed only to cast a glance round the +room and to mutter that he would return when his lord returned; then, +with a "Good night" which said more for his manners than his good +will, he followed them out. A moment later the grating of the key in +the lock and the sound of the bolts as they sped home told Tavannes +that he was a prisoner. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + TOO SHORT A SPOON. + + +Count Hannibal remained seated, his chin sunk on his breast, until his +ear assured him that the three men had descended the stairs to the +floor below. Then he rose, and, taking the lantern from the table, on +which Peridol had placed it, he went softly to the door, which, like +the window, stood in a recess--in this case the prolongation of the +passage. A brief scrutiny satisfied him that escape that way was +impossible, and he turned, after a cursory glance at the floor and +ceiling, to the dark, windy aperture which yawned at the end of the +apartment. Placing the lantern on the table, and covering it with his +cloak, he mounted the window recess, and, stepping to the unguarded +edge, looked out. + +He knew, rather than saw, that Peridol had told the truth. The smell +of the aguish flats which fringed that part of Paris rose strong in +his nostrils. He guessed that the sluggish arm of the Seine which +divided the Arsenal from the Ile des Louviers crawled below; but the +night was dark, and it was impossible to discern land from water. He +fancied that he could trace the outline of the island--an uninhabited +place, given up to wood piles; but the lights of the college quarter +beyond it, which rose feebly twinkling, to the crown of St. Genevieve, +confused his sight and rendered the nearer gloom more opaque. From +that direction and from the Cite to his right came sounds which told +of a city still heaving in its blood-stained sleep, and even in its +dreams planning further excesses. Now a distant shot, and now a faint +murmur on one of the bridges, or a far-off cry, raucous, sudden, +curdled the blood. But even of what was passing under cover of the +darkness, he could learn little; and after standing awhile with a hand +on either side of the window he found the night air chill. He stepped +back, and, descending to the floor, uncovered the lantern and set it +on the table. His thoughts travelled back to the preparations he had +made the night before with a view to securing Mademoiselle's person, +and he considered, with a grim smile, how little he had foreseen that +within twenty-four hours he would himself be a prisoner. Presently, +finding his mask oppressive, he removed it, and, laying it on the +table before him, sat scowling at the light. + +Biron had jockeyed him cleverly. Well, the worse for Armand de Gontaut +de Biron if after this adventure the luck went against him! But in the +meantime? In the meantime his fate was sealed if harm befell Biron. +And what the King's real mind in Biron's case was, and what the +Queen-Mother's, he could not say; just as it was impossible to predict +how far, when they had the Grand Master at their mercy, they would +resist the temptation to add him to the victims. If Biron placed +himself at once in Marshal Tavannes' hands, all might be well. But if +he ventured within the long arm of the Guises, or went directly to the +Louvre, the fact that with the Grand Master's fate Count Hannibal's +was bound up, would not weigh a straw. In such crises the great +sacrificed the less great, the less great the small, without a +scruple. And the Guises did not love Count Hannibal; he was not loved +by many. Even the strength of his brother the Marshal stood rather in +the favour of the King's heir, for whom he had won the battle of +Jarnac, than intrinsically; and, durable in ordinary times, might snap +in the clash of forces and interests which the desperate madness of +this day had let loose on Paris. + +It was not the peril in which he stood, however--though, with the cold +clear eye of the man who had often faced peril, he appreciated it to a +nicety--that Count Hannibal found least bearable, but his enforced +inactivity. He had thought to ride the whirlwind and direct the storm, +and out of the danger of others to compact his own success. Instead he +lay here, not only powerless to guide his destiny, which hung on the +discretion of another, but unable to stretch forth a finger to further +his plans. + +As he sat looking darkly at the lantern, his mind followed Biron and +his riders through the midnight streets: along St. Antoine and La +Verrerie, through the gloomy narrows of the Rue la Ferronerie, and so +past the house in the Rue St. Honore where Mademoiselle sat awaiting +the morrow--sat awaiting Tignonville, the minister, the marriage! +Doubtless there were still bands of plunderers roaming to and fro; at +the barriers troops of archers stopping the suspected; at the windows +pale faces gazing down; at the gates of the Temple, and of the walled +enclosures which largely made up the city, strong guards set to +prevent invasion. Biron would go with sufficient to secure himself; +and unless he encountered with the bodyguard of Guise his passage +would quiet the town. But was it so certain that _she_ was safe? He +knew his men, and while he had been free he had not hesitated to leave +her in their care. But now that he could not go, now that he could not +raise a hand to help, the confidence which had not failed him in +straits more dangerous grew weak. He pictured the things which might +happen, at which, in his normal frame of mind, he would have laughed. +Now they troubled him so that he started at a shadow, so that he +quailed at a thought. He, who last night, when free to act, had timed +his coming and her rescue to a minute! Who had rejoiced in the peril, +since with the glamour of such things foolish women were taken! Who +had not flinched when the crowd roared most fiercely for her blood! + +Why had he suffered himself to be trapped! Why indeed? And thrice in +passion he paced the room. Long ago the famous Nostradamus had told +him that he would live to be a king, but of the smallest kingdom in +the world. "Every man is a king in his coffin," he had answered. "The +grave is cold and your kingdom shall be warm," the wizard had +rejoined. On which the courtiers had laughed, promising him a Moorish +island and a black queen. And he had gibed with the rest, but secretly +had taken note of the sovereign counties of France, their rulers and +their heirs. Now he held the thought in horror, foreseeing no county, +but the cage under the stifling tiles at Loches, in which Cardinal +Balue and many another had worn out their hearts. + +He came to that thought not by way of his own peril, but of +Mademoiselle's; which affected him in so novel a fashion that he +wondered at his folly. At last, tired of watching the shadows which +the draught set dancing on the wall, he drew his cloak about him and +lay down on the straw. He had kept vigil the previous night, and in a +few minutes, with a campaigner's ease, he was asleep. + +Midnight had struck. About two the light in the lantern burned low in +the socket, and with a soft sputtering went out. For an hour after +that the room lay still, silent, dark; then slowly the grey dawn, the +greyer for the river mist which wrapped the neighbourhood in a clammy +shroud, began to creep into the room and discover the vague shapes of +things. Again an hour passed, and the sun was rising above Montreuil, +and here and there the river began to shimmer through the fog. But in +the room it was barely daylight when the sleeper awoke, and sat up, +his face expectant. Something had roused him. He listened. + +His ear, and the habit of vigilance which a life of danger instils, +had not deceived him. There were men moving in the passage; men who +shuffled their feet impatiently. Had Biron returned! Or had aught +happened to him, and were these men come to avenge him? Count Hannibal +rose and stole across the boards to the door, and, setting his ear to +it, listened. + +He listened while a man might count a hundred and fifty, counting +slowly. Then, for the third part of a second, he turned his head, and +his eyes travelled the room. He stooped again and listened more +closely, scarcely breathing. There were voices as well as feet to be +heard now; one voice--he thought it was Peridol's--which held on long, +now low, now rising into violence. Others were audible at intervals, +but only in a growl or a bitter exclamation, that told of minds made +up and hands which would not be restrained. He caught his own name, +Tavannes--the mask was useless then! And once a noisy movement which +came to nothing, foiled, he fancied, by Peridol. + +He knew enough. He rose to his full height, and his eyes seemed a +little closer together; an ugly smile curved his lips. His gaze +travelled over the objects in the room, the bare stools and table, the +lantern, the wine pitcher; beyond these, in a corner, the cloak and +straw on the low bed. The light, cold and grey, fell cheerlessly on +the dull chamber, and showed it in harmony with the ominous whisper +which grew in the gallery; with the stern-faced listener who stood, +his one hand on the door. He looked, but he found nothing to his +purpose, nothing to serve his end, whatever his end was; and with a +quick light step he left the door, mounted the window recess, and, +poised on the very edge, looked down. + +If he thought to escape that way his hope was desperate. The depth to +the water-level was not, he judged, twelve feet. But Peridol had told +the truth. Below lay not water, but a smooth surface of viscid slime, +here luminous with the florescence of rottenness, there furrowed by a +tiny runnel of moisture which sluggishly crept across it to the slow +stream beyond. This quicksand, vile and treacherous, lapped the wall +below the window, and more than accounted for the absence of bars or +fastenings. But, leaning far out, he saw that it ended at the angle of +the building, at a point twenty feet or so to the right of his +position. + +He sprang to the floor again, and listened an instant; then, with +guarded movements--for there was fear in the air, fear in the silent +room, and at any moment the rush might be made, the door burst in--he +set the lantern and wine pitcher on the floor, and took up the table +in his arms. He began to carry it to the window, but, halfway thither, +his eye told him that it would not pass through the opening, and he +set it down again and glided to the bed. Again he was thwarted; the +bed was screwed to the floor. Another might have despaired at that, +but he rose with no sign of dismay, and listening, always listening, +he spread his cloak on the floor, and deftly, with as little noise and +rustling as might be, he piled the straw in it, compressed the bundle, +and, cutting the bed-cords with his dagger, bound all together with +them. In three steps he was in the embrasure of the window, and, even +as the men in the passage thrust the lieutenant aside and with a +sudden uproar came down to the door, he flung the bundle lightly and +carefully to the right--so lightly and carefully, and with so nice and +deliberate a calculation, that it seemed odd it fell beyond the reach +of an ordinary leap. + +An instant and he was on the floor again. The men had to unlock, to +draw back the bolts, to draw back the door which opened outwards; +their numbers, as well as their savage haste, impeded them. When they +burst in at last, with a roar of "To the river! To the river!"--burst +in a rush of struggling shoulders and lowered pikes, they found him +standing, a solitary figure, on the further side of the table, his +arms folded. And the sight of the passive figure for a moment stayed +them. + +"Say your prayers, child of Satan!" cried the leader, waving his +weapon. "We give you one minute!" + +"Ay, one minute!" his followers chimed in. "Be ready!" + +"You would murder me?" he said with dignity. And when they shouted +assent, "Good!" he answered. "It is between you and M. de Biron, whose +guest I am. But"--with a glance which passed round the ring of glaring +eyes and working features--"I would leave a last word for some one. Is +there any one here who values a safe-conduct from the King? 'Tis for +two men coming and going for a fortnight." And he held up a slip of +paper. + +The leader cried "To hell with his safe-conduct! Say your prayers!" + +But all were not of his mind; on one or two of the crimson savage +faces--the faces, for the most part, of honest men maddened by their +wrongs--flashed an avaricious gleam. A safe-conduct? To avenge, to +slay, to kill--and to go safe! For some minds such a thing has an +invincible fascination. A man thrust himself forward. "Ay, I'll have +it!" he cried. "Give it here!" + +"It is yours," Count Hannibal answered, "if you will carry ten words +to Marshal Tavannes--when I am gone." + +The man's neighbour laid a restraining hand on his shoulder. "And +Marshal Tavannes will pay you finely," he said. + +But Maudron, the man who had offered, shook off the hand. "If I take +the message!" he muttered in a grim aside. "Do you think me mad?" And +then aloud he cried, "Ay, I'll take your message! Give me the paper." + +"You swear you will take it?" + +The man had no intention of taking it, but he perjured himself and +went forward. The others would have pressed round too, half in envy, +half in scorn; but Tavannes by a gesture stayed them. "Gentlemen, I +ask a minute only," he said. "A minute for a dying man is not much. +Your friends had as much." And the fellows, acknowledging the claim +and assured that their victim could not escape, let Maudron go round +the table to him. + +The man was in haste and ill at ease, conscious of his evil intentions +and the fraud he was practising; and at once greedy to have, yet +ashamed of the bargain he was making. His attention was divided +between the slip of paper, on which his eyes fixed themselves, and the +attitude of his comrades; he paid little heed to Count Hannibal, whom +he knew to be unarmed. Only when Tavannes seemed to ponder on his +message, and to be fain to delay, "Go on," he muttered with brutal +frankness; "your time is up!" + +Tavannes started, the paper slipped from his fingers. Maudron saw a +chance of getting it without committing himself, and quick as the +thought leapt up in his mind he stooped, and grasped the paper, and +would have leapt back with it! But quick as he, and quicker, Tavannes +too stooped, gripped him by the waist, and with a prodigious effort, +and a yell in which all the man's stormy nature, restrained to a part +during the last few minutes, broke forth, he flung the ill-fated +wretch head first through the window. + +The movement carried Tavannes himself--even while his victim's scream +rang through the chamber--into the embrasure. An instant he hung on +the verge; then, as the men, a moment thunderstruck, sprang forward to +avenge their comrade, he leapt out, jumping for the struggling body +that had struck the mud, and now lay in it face downwards. + +He alighted on it, and drove it deep into the quaking slime; but he +himself bounded off right-handed. The peril was appalling, the +possibility untried, the chance one which only a doomed man would have +taken. But he reached the straw-bale, and it gave him a momentary, a +precarious footing. He could not regain his balance, he could not even +for an instant stand upright on it. But from its support he leapt on +convulsively, and as a pike, flung from above, wounded him in the +shoulder, he fell his length in the slough--but forward, with his +outstretched hands resting on soil of a harder nature. They sank, it +is true, to the elbow, but he dragged his body forward on them, and +forward, and freeing one by a last effort of strength--he could not +free both, and, as it was, half his face was submerged--he reached out +another yard, and gripped a balk of wood, which projected from the +corner of the building for the purpose of fending off the stream in +flood-time. + +The men at the window shrieked with rage as he slowly drew himself +from the slough, and stood from head to foot a pillar of mud. Shout as +they might, they had no firearms, and, crowded together in the narrow +embrasure, they could take no aim with their pikes. They could only +look on in furious impotence, flinging curses at him until he passed +from their view, behind the angle of the building. + +Here for a score of yards a strip of hard foreshore ran between mud +and wall. He struggled along it until he reached the end of the wall; +then with a shuddering glance at the black heaving pit from which he +had escaped, and which yet gurgled above the body of the hapless +Maudron--a tribute to horror which even his fierce nature could not +withhold--he turned and painfully climbed the river-bank. The +pike-wound in his shoulder was slight, but the effort had been +supreme; the sweat poured from his brow, his visage was grey and +drawn. Nevertheless, when he had put fifty paces between himself and +the buildings of the Arsenal he paused, and turned. He saw that the +men had run to other windows which looked that way; and his face +lightened and his form dilated with triumph. + +He shook his fist at them. "Ho, fools!" he cried, "you kill not +Tavannes so! Till our next meeting at Montfaucon, fare you well!" + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + THE BROTHER OF ST. MAGLOIRE. + + +As the exertion of power is for the most part pleasing, so the +exercise of that which a woman possesses over a man is especially +pleasant. When in addition a risk of no ordinary kind has been run, +and the happy issue has been barely expected--above all when the +momentary gain seems an augury of final victory--it is impossible that +a feeling akin to exultation should not arise in the mind, however +black the horizon, and however distant the fair haven. + +The situation in which Count Hannibal left Mademoiselle de Vrillac +will be remembered. She had prevailed on him; but in return he had +bowed her to the earth, partly by subtle threats, and partly by sheer +savagery. He had left her weeping, with the words "Madame de Tavannes" +ringing doom in her ears, and the dark phantom of his will pointing +onward to an inevitable future. Had she abandoned hope, it would have +been natural. + +But the girl was of a spirit not long nor easily cowed; and Tavannes +had not left her half an hour before the reflection, that so far the +honours of the day were hers, rose up to console her. In spite of his +power and her impotence, she had imposed her will upon his; she had +established an influence over him, she had discovered a scruple which +stayed him, and a limit beyond which he would not pass. In the result +she might escape; for the conditions which he had accepted with an ill +grace, might prove beyond his fulfilling. She might escape! True, many +in her place would have feared a worse fate and harsher handling. But +there lay half the merit of her victory. It had left her not only in a +better position, but with a new confidence in her power over her +adversary. He would insist on the bargain struck between them; within +its four corners she could look for no indulgence. But if the +conditions proved to be beyond his power, she believed that he would +spare her: with an ill grace, indeed, with such ferocity and coarse +reviling as her woman's pride might scarcely support. But he would +spare her. + +And if the worst befell her? She would still have the consolation of +knowing that from the cataclysm which had overwhelmed her friends she +had ransomed those most dear to her. Owing to the position of her +chamber, she saw nothing of the excesses to which Paris gave itself up +during the remainder of that day, and to which it returned with +unabated zest on the following morning. But the Carlats and her women +learned from the guards below what was passing; and quaking and +cowering in their corners fixed frightened eyes on her, who was their +stay and hope. How could she prove false to them? How doom them to +perish, had there been no question of her lover? + +Of him she sat thinking by the hour together. She recalled with solemn +tenderness the moment in which he had devoted himself to the death +which came but halfway to seize them; nor was she slow to forgive his +subsequent withdrawal, and his attempt to rescue her in spite of +herself. She found the impulse to die glorious; the withdrawal--for +the actor was her lover--a thing done for her, which he would not have +done for himself, and which she quickly forgave him. The revulsion of +feeling which had conquered her at the time, and led her to tear +herself from him, no longer moved her much; while all in his action +that might have seemed in other eyes less than heroic, all in his +conduct--in a crisis demanding the highest--that smacked of common or +mean, vanished, for she still clung to him. Clung to him, not so much +with the passion of the mature woman, as with the maiden and +sentimental affection of one who has now no hope of possessing, and +for whom love no longer spells life but sacrifice. + +She had leisure for these musings, for she was left to herself all +that day, and until late on the following day. Her own servants waited +on her, and it was known that below stairs Count Hannibal's riders +kept sullen ward behind barred doors and shuttered windows, refusing +admission to all who came. Now and again echoes of the riot which +filled the streets with bloodshed reached her ears: or word of the +more striking occurrences was brought to her by Madame Carlat. And +early on this second day, Monday, it was whispered that M. de Tavannes +had not returned, and that the men below were growing uneasy. + +At last, when the suspense below and above was growing tense, it was +broken. Footsteps and voices were heard ascending the stairs, the +trampling and hubbub were followed by a heavy knock; perforce the door +was opened. While Mademoiselle, who had risen, awaited with a beating +heart she knew not what, a cowled father, in the dress of the monks of +St. Magloire, stood on the threshold, and, crossing himself, muttered +the words of benediction. He entered slowly. + +No sight could have been more dreadful to Mademoiselle; for it set at +naught the conditions which she had so hardly exacted. What if Count +Hannibal were behind, were even now mounting the stairs, prepared to +force her to a marriage before this shaveling? Or ready to proceed, if +she refused, to the last extremity? Sudden terror taking her by the +throat choked her; her colour fled, her hand flew to her breast. Yet, +before the door had closed on Bigot, she had recovered herself. + +"This intrusion is not by M. de Tavannes' orders!" she cried, stepping +forward haughtily. "This person has no business here. How dare you +admit him?" + +The Norman showed his bearded visage a moment at the door. "My lord's +orders," he muttered sullenly. And he closed the door on them. + +She had a Huguenot's hatred of a cowl; and, in this crisis, her +reasons for fearing it. Her eyes blazed with indignation. "Enough!" +she cried, pointing with a gesture of dismissal to the door. "Go back +to him who sent you! If he will insult me, let him do it to my face! +If he will perjure himself, let him forswear himself in person. Or, if +you come on your own account," she continued, flinging prudence to the +winds, "as your brethren came to Philippa de Luns, to offer me the +choice you offered her, I give you her answer! If I had thought of +myself only, I had not lived so long! And rather than bear your +presence or hear your arguments----" + +She came to a sudden, odd, quavering pause on the word; her lips +remained parted, she swayed an instant on her feet. The next moment +Madame Carlat, to whom the visitor had turned his shoulder, doubted +her eyes, for Mademoiselle was in the monk's arms! + +"Clotilde! Clotilde!" he cried, and held her to him. + +For the monk was M. de Tignonville! Under the cowl was the lover with +whom Mademoiselle's thoughts had been engaged. In this disguise, and +armed with Tavannes' note to Madame St. Lo--which the guards below +knew for Count Hannibal's hand, though they were unable to decipher +the contents--he had found no difficulty in making his way to her. + +He had learned before he entered that Tavannes was abroad, and was +aware therefore that he ran little risk. His betrothed, on the other +hand, who knew nothing of his adventures in the interval, saw in him +one who came to her at the greatest risk, across unnumbered perils, +through streets swimming with blood. And though she had never embraced +him save in the crisis of the massacre, though she had never called +him by his Christian name, in the joy of this meeting she abandoned +herself to him, she clung to him weeping, she forgot for the time his +defection, and thought only of him who had returned to her so +gallantly, who brought into the room a breath of Poitou, and the sea, +and the old days, and the old life; and at the sight of whom the +horrors of the last two days fell from her--for the moment. + +And Madame Carlat wept also, and in the room was a sound of weeping. +The least moved was, for a certainty, M. de Tignonville himself, who, +as we know, had gone through much that day. But even his heart +swelled, partly with pride, partly with thankfulness that he had +returned to one who loved him so well. Fate had been kinder to him +than he deserved; but he need not confess that now. When he had +brought off the _coup_ which he had in his mind, he would hasten to +forget that he had entertained other ideas. + +Mademoiselle had been the first to be carried away; she was also the +first to recover herself. "I had forgotten," she cried suddenly. "I +had forgotten," and she wrested herself from his embrace with +violence, and stood panting, her face white, her eyes affrighted. "I +must not! And you--I had forgotten that too! To be here, monsieur, is +the worst office you can do me. You must go! Go, monsieur, in mercy I +beg of you, while it is possible. Every moment you are here, every +moment you spend in this house, I shudder." + +"You need not fear for me," he said, in a tone of bravado. He did not +understand. + +"I fear for myself!" she answered. And then, wringing her hands, +divided between her love for him and her fear for herself, "Oh, +forgive me!" she said. "You do not know that he has promised to spare +me, if he cannot produce you, and--and--a minister! He has granted me +that; but I thought when you entered that he had gone back on his +word, and sent a priest, and it maddened me! I could not bear to think +that I had gained nothing. Now you understand, and you will pardon me, +monsieur? If he cannot produce you I am saved. Go then, leave me, I +beg, without a moment's delay." + +He laughed derisively as he turned back his cowl and squared his +shoulders. "All that is over!" he said, "over and done with, sweet! M. +de Tavannes is at this moment a prisoner in the Arsenal. On my way +hither I fell in with M. de Biron, and he told me. The Grand Master, +who would have had me join his company, had been all night at Marshal +Tavannes' hotel, where he had been detained longer than he expected. +He stood pledged to release Count Hannibal on his return, but at my +request he consented to hold him one hour, and to do also a little +thing for me." + +The glow of hope which had transfigured her face faded slowly. "It +will not help," she said, "if he find you here." + +"He will not! Nor you!" + +"How, monsieur?" + +"In a few minutes," he explained--he could not hide his exultation, "a +message will come from the Arsenal in the name of Tavannes, bidding +the monk he sent to you bring you to him. A spoken message, +corroborated by my presence, should suffice: '_Bid the monk who is now +with Mademoiselle_,' it will run, '_bring her to me at the Arsenal, +and let four pikes guard them hither_.' When I begged M. de Biron to +do this, he laughed. 'I can do better,' he said. 'They shall bring one +of Count Hannibal's gloves, which he left on my table. Always +supposing my rascals have done him no harm, which God forbid, for I am +answerable.'" + +Tignonville, delighted with the stratagem which the meeting with Biron +had suggested, could see no flaw in it. She could, and though she +heard him to the end, no second glow of hope softened the lines of her +features. With a gesture full of dignity, which took in not only +Madame Carlat and the waiting-woman who stood at the door but the +absent servants, "And what of these?" she said. "What of these? You +forgot them, monsieur. You do not think, you cannot have thought, that +I would abandon them? That I would leave them to such mercy as he, +defeated, might extend to them? No, you forgot them." + +He did not know what to answer, for the jealous eyes of the frightened +waiting-woman, fierce with the fierceness of a hunted animal, were on +him. The Carlat and she had heard, could hear. At last, "Better one +than none!" he muttered, in a voice so low that if the servants caught +his meaning it was but indistinctly. "I have to think of you." + +"And I of them," she answered firmly. "Nor is that all. Were they not +here, it could not be. My word is passed--though a moment ago, +monsieur, in the joy of seeing you I forgot it. And how," she +continued, "if I keep not my word, can I expect him to keep his? Or +how, if I am ready to break the bond, on this happening which I never +expected, can I hold him to conditions which he loves as little--as +little as I love him?" + +Her voice dropped piteously on the last words; her eyes, craving her +lover's pardon, sought his. But rage, not pity or admiration, was the +feeling roused in Tignonville's breast. He stood staring at her, +struck dumb by folly so immense. At last, "You cannot mean this," he +blurted out. "You cannot mean, Mademoiselle, that you intend to stand +on that! To keep a promise wrung from you by force, by treachery, in +the midst of such horrors as he and his have brought upon us! It is +inconceivable!" + +She shook her head. "I promised," she said. + +"You were forced to it." + +"But the promise saved our lives." + +"From murderers! From assassins!" he protested. + +She shook her head. "I cannot go back," she said firmly; "I cannot." + +"Then you are willing to marry him," he cried in ignoble anger. "That +is it! Nay, you must wish to marry him! For, as for his conditions, +Mademoiselle," the young man continued, with an insulting laugh, "you +cannot think seriously of them. _He_ keep conditions and you in his +power! He, Count Hannibal! But for the matter of that, and were he in +the mind to keep them, what are they? There are plenty of ministers. I +left one only this morning. I could lay my hand on one in five +minutes. He has only to find one therefore--and to find me!" + +"Yes, monsieur," she cried, trembling with wounded pride, "it is for +that reason I implore you to go. The sooner you leave me, the sooner +you place yourself in a position of security, the happier for me! +Every moment that you spend here, you endanger both yourself and me!" + +"If you will not be persuaded----" + +"I shall not be persuaded," she answered firmly, "and you do +but"--alas! her pride began to break down, her voice to quiver, she +looked piteously at him--"by staying here make it harder for me +to--to----" + +"Hush!" cried Madame Carlat, "Hush!" And as they started and turned +towards her--she was at the end of the chamber by the door, almost out +of earshot--she raised a warning hand. "Listen!" she muttered, "some +one has entered the house." + +"'Tis my messenger from Biron," Tignonville answered sullenly. And he +drew his cowl over his face, and, hiding his hands in his sleeves, +moved towards the door. But on the threshold he turned and held out +his arms. He could not go thus. "Mademoiselle! Clotilde!" he cried +with passion, "for the last time, listen to me, come with me. Be +persuaded!" + +"Hush!" Madame Carlat interposed again, and turned a scared face on +them. "It is no messenger! It is Tavannes himself: I know his voice." +And she wrung her hands. "_Oh, mon Dieu, mon Dieu_, what are we to +do?" she continued, panic-stricken. And she looked all ways about the +room. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + AT CLOSE QUARTERS. + + +Fear leapt into Mademoiselle's eyes, but she commanded herself. She +signed to Madame Carlat to be silent, and they listened, gazing at one +another, hoping against hope that the woman was mistaken. A long +moment they waited, and some were beginning to breathe again, when the +strident tones of Count Hannibal's voice rolled up the staircase, and +put an end to doubt. Mademoiselle grasped the table and stood +supporting herself by it. "What are we to do?" she muttered. "What are +we to do?" and she turned distractedly towards the women. The courage +which had supported her in her lover's absence had abandoned her now. +"If he finds him here I am lost! I am lost!" + +"He will not know me," Tignonville muttered. But he spoke uncertainly; +and his gaze, shifting hither and thither, belied the boldness of his +words. + +Madame Carlat's eyes flew round the room; on her for once the burden +seemed to rest. Alas! the room had no second door, and the windows +looked on a courtyard guarded by Tavannes' people. And even now Count +Hannibal's step rang on the stair! his hand was almost on the latch. +The woman wrung her hands; then, a thought striking her, she darted to +a corner where Mademoiselle's robes hung on pegs against the wall. + +"Here!" she cried, raising them. "Behind these! He may not be seen +here! Quick, monsieur, quick! Hide yourself!" + +It was a forlorn hope--the suggestion of one who had not thought out +the position; and, whatever its promise, Mademoiselle's pride revolted +against it. + +"No," she cried. "Not there!" while Tignonville, who knew that the +step was useless, since Count Hannibal must have learned that a monk +had entered, held his ground. + +"You could not deny yourself!" he muttered hurriedly. + +"And a priest with me?" she answered; and she shook her head. + +There was no time for more, and even as Mademoiselle spoke Count +Hannibal's knuckles tapped the door. She cast a last look at her +lover. He had turned his back on the window; the light no longer fell +on his face. It was possible that he might pass unrecognised, if +Tavannes' stay was brief; at any rate the risk must be run. In a +half-stifled voice she bade her woman, Javette, open the door. + +Count Hannibal bowed low as he entered; and he deceived the others. +But he did not deceive her. He had not crossed the threshold before +she repented that she had not acted on Tignonville's suggestion, and +denied herself. For what could escape those hard keen eyes, which +swept the room, saw all, and seemed to see nothing--those eyes in +which there dwelt even now a glint of cruel humour? He might deceive +others, but she who panted within his grasp, as the wild bird +palpitates in the hand of the fowler, was not deceived! He saw, he +knew! although, as he bowed, and smiling, stood upright, he looked +only at her. + +"I expected to be with you before this," he said courteously, "but I +have been detained. First, Mademoiselle, by some of your friends, who +were reluctant to part with me; then by some of your enemies, who, +finding me in no handsome case, took me for a Huguenot escaped from +the river, and drove me to shifts to get clear of them. However, now I +am come, I have news." + +"News?" she muttered with dry lips. It could hardly be good news. + +"Yes, Mademoiselle, of M. de Tignonville," he answered. "I have little +doubt that I shall be able to produce him this evening, and so to +satisfy one of your scruples. And as I trust that this good father," +he went on, turning to the ecclesiastic, and speaking with the sneer +from which he seldom refrained, Catholic as he was, when he mentioned +a priest, "has by this time succeeded in removing the other, and +persuading you to accept his ministrations----" + +"No!" she cried impulsively. + +"No?" with a dubious smile, and a glance from one to the other. "Oh, I +had hoped better things. But he still may? He still may. I am sure he +may. In which case, Mademoiselle, your modesty must pardon me if I +plead urgency, and fix the hour after supper this evening for the +fulfilment of your promise." + +She turned white to the lips. "After supper?" she gasped. + +"Yes, Mademoiselle, this evening. Shall I say--at eight o'clock?" + +In horror of the thing which menaced her, of the thing from which only +two hours separated her, she could find no words but those which she +had already used. The worst was upon her; worse than the worst could +not befall her. "But he has not persuaded me!" she cried, clenching +her hands in passion. "He has not persuaded me!" + +"Still he may, Mademoiselle." + +"He will not!" she cried wildly. "He will not!" + +The room was going round with her. The precipice yawned at her feet; +its naked terrors turned her brain. She had been pushed nearer, and +nearer, and nearer; struggle as she might she was on the verge. A mist +rose before her eyes, and though they thought she listened she +understood nothing of what was passing. When she came to herself after +the lapse of a minute, Count Hannibal was speaking. + +"Permit him another trial," he was saying in a tone of bland irony. "A +short time longer, Mademoiselle! One more assault, father! The weapons +of the Church could not be better directed or to a more worthy object; +and, successful, shall not fail of due recognition and an earthly +reward." + +And while she listened, half fainting, with a humming in her ears, he +was gone. The door closed on him, and the three--Mademoiselle's woman +had withdrawn when she opened to him--looked at one another. The girl +parted her lips to speak, but she only smiled piteously; and it was M. +de Tignonville who broke the silence, in a tone which betrayed rather +relief than any other feeling. + +"Come, all is not lost yet," he said briskly. "If I can escape from +the house----" + +"He knows you," she answered. + +"What?" + +"He knows you," Mademoiselle repeated in a tone almost apathetic. "I +read it in his eyes. He knew you at once: and knew, too," she added +bitterly, "that he had here under his hand one of the two things he +required." + +"Then why did he hide his knowledge?" the young man retorted sharply. + +"Why?" she answered. "To induce me to waive the other condition in the +hope of saving you. Oh!" she continued in a tone of bitter raillery, +"he has the cunning of hell, of the priests! You are no match for him, +monsieur. Nor I; nor any of us. And"--with a gesture of despair--"he +will be my master! He will break me to his will and to his hand! I +shall be his! His, body and soul, body and soul!" she continued +drearily, as she sank into a chair and, rocking herself to and fro, +covered her face. "I shall be his! His till I die!" + +The man's eyes burned, and the pulse in his temples beat wildly. "But +you shall not," he exclaimed. "I may be no match for him in cunning, +you say well. But I can kill him. And I will!" He paced up and down. +"I will!" + +"You should have done it when he was here," she answered, half in +scorn, half in earnest. + +"It is not too late," he cried; and then he stopped, silenced by the +opening door. It was Javette who entered. + +They looked at her, and before she spoke were on their feet. Her face, +white and eager, marking something besides fear, announced that she +brought news. She closed the door behind her, and in a moment it was +told. + +"Monsieur can escape, if he is quick," she cried in a low tone; and +they saw that she trembled with excitement. "They are at supper. But +he must be quick! He must be quick!" + +"Is not the door guarded!" + +"It is, but----" + +"And he knows! Your mistress says that he knows that I am here." + +For a moment Javette looked startled. "It is possible," she muttered. +"But he has gone out." + +Madame Carlat clapped her hands. "I heard the door close," she said, +"three minutes ago." + +"And if monsieur can reach the room in which he supped last night, the +window that was broken is only blocked"--she swallowed once or twice +in her excitement--"with something he can move. And then monsieur is +in the street, where his cowl will protect him." + +"But Count Hannibal's men?" he asked eagerly. + +"They are eating in the lodge by the door." + +"Ha! And they cannot see the other room from there?" + +Javette nodded. Her tale told, she seemed to be unable to add a word. +Mademoiselle, who knew her for a craven, wondered that she had found +courage either to note what she had or to bring the news. But as +Providence had been so good to them as to put it into this woman's +head to act as she had, it behoved them to use the opportunity--the +last, the very last opportunity they might have. + +She turned to Tignonville. "Oh, go!" she cried feverishly. "Go, I beg! +Go now, monsieur! The greatest kindness you can do me is to place +yourself as quickly as possible beyond his reach." A faint colour, the +flush of hope, had returned to her cheeks. Her eyes glittered. + +"Right, Mademoiselle!" he cried, obedient for once. "I go! And do you +be of good courage." He held her hand an instant, then, moving to the +door, he opened it and listened. They all pressed behind him to hear. +A murmur of voices, low and distant, mounted the staircase and bore +out the girl's tale; apart from this the house was silent. Tignonville +cast a last look at Mademoiselle, and, with a gesture of farewell, +glided a-tiptoe to the stairs and began to descend, his face hidden in +his cowl. They watched him reach the angle of the staircase, they +watched him vanish beyond it; and still they listened, looking at one +another when a board creaked or the voices below were hushed for a +moment. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + THE DUEL. + + +At the foot of the staircase Tignonville paused. The droning Norman +voices of the men on guard issued from an open door a few paces before +him on the left. He caught a jest, the coarse chuckling laughter which +attended it, and the gurgle of applause which followed; and he knew +that at any moment one of the men might step out and discover him. +Fortunately the door of the room with the shattered window was almost +within reach of his hand on the right side of the passage, and he +stepped softly to it. He stood an instant hesitating, his hand on the +latch; then, alarmed by a movement in the guard-room, as if some were +rising, he pushed the door in a panic, slid into the room, and shut +the door behind him. He was safe, and he had made no noise; but at the +table, at supper, with his back to him and his face to the partly +closed window, sat Count Hannibal! + +The young man's heart stood still. For a long minute he gazed at the +Count's back, spellbound and unable to stir. Then, as Tavannes ate on +without looking round, he began to take courage. Possibly he had +entered so quietly that he had not been heard, or possibly his +entrance was taken for that of a servant. In either case, there was a +chance that he might retire after the same fashion; and he had +actually raised the latch, and was drawing the door to him with +infinite precaution, when Tavannes' voice struck him, as it were, in +the face. + +"Pray do not admit the draught, M. de Tignonville," he said, without +looking round. "In your cowl you do not feel it, but it is otherwise +with me." + +The unfortunate Tignonville stood transfixed, glaring at the back of +the other's head. For an instant he could not find his voice. At last +"Curse you!" he hissed in a transport of rage. "Curse you! You did +know, then? And she was right." + +"If you mean that I expected you, to be sure, monsieur," Count +Hannibal answered. "See, your place is laid. You will not feel the air +from without there. The very becoming dress which you have adopted +secures you from cold. But--do you not find it somewhat oppressive +this summer weather?" + +"Curse you!" the young man cried, trembling. + +Tavannes turned and looked at him with a dark smile. "The curse may +fall," he said, "but I fancy it will not be in consequence of your +petitions, monsieur. And now, were it not better you played the man?" + +"If I were armed," the other cried passionately, "you would not insult +me!" + +"Sit down, sir, sit down," Count Hannibal answered sternly. "We will +talk of that presently. In the meantime I have something to say to +you. Will you not eat?" + +But Tignonville would not. + +"Very well," Count Hannibal answered; and he went on with his supper, +"I am indifferent whether you eat or not. It is enough for me that you +are one of the two things I lacked an hour ago; and that I have you, +M. de Tignonville. And through you I look to obtain the other." + +"What other?" Tignonville cried. + +"A minister," Tavannes answered, smiling. "A minister. There are not +many left in Paris--of your faith. But you met one this morning, I +know!" + +"I? I met one?" + +"Yes, monsieur, you! And can lay your hand on him in five minutes, you +know." + +M. de Tignonville gasped. His face turned a shade paler. "You have a +spy," he cried. "You have a spy upstairs!" + +Tavannes raised his cup to his lips, and drank. When he had set it +down, "It may be," he said, and he shrugged his shoulders. "I know, it +boots not how I know. It is my business to make the most of my +knowledge--and of yours!" + +M. de Tignonville laughed rudely. "Make the most of your own," he +said; "you will have none of mine." + +"That remains to be seen," Count Hannibal answered. "Carry your mind +back two days, M. de Tignonville. Had I gone to Mademoiselle de +Vrillac last Saturday and said to her 'Marry me, or promise to marry +me,' what answer would she have given?" + +"She would have called you an insolent!" the young man replied hotly. +"And I----" + +"No matter what you would have done!" Tavannes said. "Suffice it that +she would have answered as you suggest. Yet to-day she has given me +her promise." + +"Yes," the young man retorted, "in circumstances in which no man of +honour----" + +"Let us say in peculiar circumstances." + +"Well?" + +"Which still exist! Mark me, M. de Tignonville," Count Hannibal +continued, leaning forward and eyeing the young man with meaning, +"_which still exist!_ And may have the same effect on another's will +as on hers! Listen! Do you hear?" And rising from his seat with a +darkening face, he pointed to the partly shuttered window, through +which the measured tramp of a body of men came heavily to the ear. "Do +you hear, monsieur? Do you understand? As it was yesterday it is +to-day! They killed the President La Place this morning! And they are +searching! They are still searching! The river is not yet full, nor +the gibbet glutted! I have but to open that window and denounce you, +and your life would hang by no stronger thread than the life of a mad +dog which they chase through the streets!" + +The younger man had risen also. He stood confronting Tavannes, the +cowl fallen back from his face, his eyes dilated. "You think to +frighten me!" he cried. "You think that I am craven enough to +sacrifice her to save myself. You----" + +"You were craven enough to draw back yesterday, when you stood at this +window and waited for death!" Count Hannibal answered brutally. "You +flinched then, and may flinch again!" + +"Try me!" Tignonville retorted, trembling with passion. "Try me!" And +then, as the other stared at him and made no movement, "But you dare +not!" he cried. "You dare not!" + +"No?" + +"No! For if I die you lose her!" Tignonville replied in a voice of +triumph. "Ha, ha! I touch you there!" he continued. "You dare not, for +my safety is part of the price, and is more to you than it is to +myself! You may threaten, M. de Tavannes, you may bluster, and shout +and point to the window"--and he mocked, with a disdainful mimicry, +the other's gesture--"but my safety is more to you than to me! And +'twill end there!" + +"You believe that?" + +"I know it!" + +In two strides Count Hannibal was at the window. He seized a great +piece of the boarding which closed one half of the opening; he +wrenched it away. A flood of evening light burst in through the +aperture, and fell on and heightened the flushed passion of his +features, as he turned again to his opponent. "Then if you know it," +he cried vehemently, "in God's name act upon it!" And he pointed to +the window. + +"Act upon it?" + +"Ay, act upon it!" Tavannes repeated, with a glance of flame. "The +road is open! If you would save your mistress, behold the way! If you +would save her from the embrace she abhors, from the eyes under which +she trembles, from the hand of a master, there lies the way! And it is +not her glove only you will save, but herself, her soul, her body! +So," he continued with a certain wildness and in a tone wherein +contempt and bitterness were mingled, "to the lions, brave lover! Will +you your life for her honour? Will you death that she may live a maid? +Will you your head to save her finger? Then, leap down! leap down! The +lists are open, the sand is strewed! Out of your own mouth I have it +that if you perish she is saved! Then out, monsieur! Cry 'I am a +Huguenot!' And God's will be done!" + +Tignonville was livid. "Rather, your will!" he panted. "Your will, you +devil! Nevertheless----" + +"You will go! Ha! ha! You will go!" + +For an instant it seemed that he would go. Stung by the challenge, +wrought on by the contempt in which Tavannes held him, he shot a look +of hate at the tempter; he caught his breath, and laid his hand on the +edge of the shuttering as if he would leap out. + +But it goes hard with him who has once turned back from the foe. The +evening light, glancing cold on the burnished pike-points of a group +of archers who stood near, caught his eye and went chill to his heart. +Death, not in the arena, not in the sight of shouting thousands, but +in this darkening street, with an enemy laughing from the window, +death with no revenge to follow, with no certainty that after all she +would be safe, such a death could be compassed only by pure love--the +love of a child for a parent, of a parent for a child, of a man for +the one woman in the world! + +He recoiled. "You would not spare her!" he cried, his face damp with +sweat--for he knew now that he would not go. "You want to be rid of +me! You would fool me, and then----" + +"Out of your own mouth you are convict!" Count Hannibal retorted +gravely. "It was you who said it! But still I swear it! Shall I swear +it to you?" + +But Tignonville recoiled another step and was silent. + +"No? O _preux chevalier_, O gallant knight! I knew it! Do you think +that I did not know with whom I had to deal?" And Count Hannibal burst +into harsh laughter, turning his back on the other, as if he no longer +counted. "You will neither die with her nor for her! You were better +in her petticoats and she in your breeches! Or no, you are best as you +are, good father! Take my advice, M. de Tignonville, have done with +arms; and with a string of beads, and soft words, and talk of Holy +Mother Church, you will fool the women as surely as the best of them! +They are not all like my cousin, a flouting, gibing, jeering +woman--you had poor fortune there, I fear?" + +"If I had a sword!" Tignonville hissed, his face livid with rage. "You +call me coward, because I will not die to please you. But give me a +sword, and I will show you if I am a coward!" + +Tavannes stood still. "You are there, are you?" he said in an altered +tone. "I----" + +"Give me a sword," Tignonville repeated, holding out his open +trembling hands. "A sword! A sword! 'Tis easy taunting an unarmed man, +but----" + +"You wish to fight?" + +"I ask no more! No more! Give me a sword," he urged, his voice +quivering with eagerness. "It is you who are the coward!" + +Count Hannibal stared at him. "And what am I to get by fighting you?" +he reasoned slowly. "You are in my power. I can do with you as I +please. I can call from this window and denounce you, or I can summon +my men----" + +"Coward! Coward!" + +"Ay? Well, I will tell you what I will do," with a subtle smile. "I +will give you a sword, M. de Tignonville, and I will meet you foot to +foot here, in this room, on a condition." + +"What is it? What is it?" the young man cried with incredible +eagerness. "Name your condition!" + +"That if I get the better of you, you find me a minister." + +"I find you a----" + +"A minister. Yes, that is it. Or tell me where I can find one." + +The young man recoiled. "Never!" he said. + +"You know where to find one." + +"Never! Never!" + +"You can lay your hand on one in five minutes, you know." + +"I will not." + +"Then I shall not fight you!" Count Hannibal answered coolly; and he +turned from him, and back again. "You will pardon me if I say, M. de +Tignonville, that you are in as many minds about fighting as about +dying! I do not think that you would have made your fortune at Court. +Moreover, there is a thing which I fancy you have not considered. If +we fight you may kill me, in which case the condition will not help me +much. Or I--which is more likely--" he added with a harsh smile, "may +kill you, and again I am no better placed." + +The young man's, pallid features betrayed the conflict in his breast. +To do him justice, his hand itched for the sword-hilt--he was brave +enough for that; he hated, and only so could he avenge himself. But +the penalty if he had the worse! And yet what of it? He was in hell +now, in a hell of humiliation, shame, defeat, tormented by this fiend! +'Twas only to risk a lower hell. + +At last, "I will do it!" he cried hoarsely. "Give me a sword and look +to yourself." + +"You promise?" + +"Yes, yes, I promise!" + +"Good," Count Hannibal answered suavely; "but we cannot fight so, we +must have more light," and striding to the door he opened it, and +calling the Norman bade him move the table and bring caudles--a dozen +candles; for in the narrow streets the light was waning, and in the +half-shuttered room it was growing dusk. Tignonville, listening with a +throbbing brain, wondered that the attendant expressed no surprise and +said no word--until Tavannes added to his orders one for a pair of +swords. + +Then, "Monsieur's sword is here," Bigot answered in his +half-intelligible patois. "He left it here yester morning." + +"You are a good fellow, Bigot," Tavannes answered, with a gaiety and +good-humour which astonished Tignonville. "And one of these days you +shall marry Suzanne." + +The Norman smiled sourly and went in search of the weapon. + +"You have a poniard?" Count Hannibal continued in the same tone of +unusual good temper, which had already struck Tignonville. "Excellent! +Will you strip, then, or--as we are? Very good, monsieur; in the +unlikely event of fortune declaring for you, you will be in a better +condition to take care of yourself. A man running through the streets +in his shirt is exposed to inconveniences!" And he laughed gaily. + +While he laughed the other listened; and his rage began to give place +to wonder. A man who regarded as a pastime a sword and dagger conflict +between four walls, who, having his adversary in his power, was ready +to discard the advantage, to descend into the lists, and to risk life +for a whim, a fancy--such a man was outside his experience, though in +Poitou in those days of war were men reckoned brave. For what, he +asked himself as he waited, had Tavannes to gain by fighting? The +possession of Mademoiselle? But Mademoiselle, if his passion for +her overwhelmed him, was in his power; and if his promise were +a barrier--which seemed inconceivable in the light of his +reputation--he had only to wait, and to-morrow, or the next day, or +the next, a minister would be found, and without risk he could gain +that for which he was now risking all. + +Tignonville did not know that it was in the other's nature to find +pleasure in such utmost ventures. Nevertheless the recklessness to +which Tavannes' action bore witness had its effect upon him. By the +time the young man's sword arrived something of his passion for the +conflict had evaporated; and though the touch of the hilt restored his +determination, the locked door, the confined space, and the +unaccustomed light went a certain distance towards substituting +despair for courage. + +The use of the dagger in the duels of that day, however, rendered +despair itself formidable. And Tignonville, when he took his place, +appeared anything but a mean antagonist. He had removed his robe and +cowl, and lithe and active as a cat he stood as it were on springs, +throwing his weight now on this foot and now on that, and was +continually in motion. The table bearing the candles had been pushed +against the window, the boarding of which had been replaced by Bigot +before he left the room. Tignonville had this, and consequently the +lights, on his dagger hand; and he plumed himself on the advantage, +considering his point the more difficult to follow. + +Count Hannibal did not seem to notice this, however. "Are you ready?" +he asked. And then, + +"On guard!" he cried, and he stamped the echo to the word. But, that +done, instead of bearing the other down with a headlong rush +characteristic of the man--as Tignonville feared--he held off warily, +stooping low; and when his slow opening was met by one as cautious, he +began to taunt his antagonist. + +"Come!" he cried, and feinted half-heartedly. "Come, monsieur, are we +going to fight, or play at fighting?" + +"Fight yourself, then!" Tignonville answered, his breath quickened by +excitement and growing hope. "'Tis not I hold back!" And he lunged, +but was put aside. + +"Ca! ca!" Tavannes retorted; and he lunged and parried in his turn, +but loosely and at a distance. After which the two moved nearer the +door, their eyes glittering as they watched one another, their knees +bent, the sinews of their backs straining for the leap. Suddenly +Tavannes thrust, and leapt away, and as his antagonist thrust in +return the Count swept the blade aside with a strong parry, and for a +moment seemed to be on the point of falling on Tignonville with the +poniard. But Tignonville retired his right foot nimbly, which brought +them front to front again. And the younger man laughed. + +"Try again, M. le Comte!" he said. And, with the word, he dashed in +himself quick as light; for a second the blades ground on one another, +the daggers hovered, the two suffused faces glared into one another; +then the pair disengaged again. The blood trickled from a scratch on +Count Hannibal's neck; half an inch to the right and the point had +found his throat. And Tignonville, elated, laughed anew, and swaying +from side to side on his hips, watched with growing confidence for a +second chance. Lithe as one of the leopards Charles kept at the +Louvre, he stooped lower and lower, and more and more with each moment +took the attitude of the assailant, watching for an opening; while +Count Hannibal, his face dark and his eyes vigilant, stood +increasingly on the defence. The light was waning a little, the wicks +of the caudles were burning long; but neither noticed it or dared to +remove his eyes from the other's. Their laboured breathing found an +echo on the farther side of the door, but this again neither observed. + +"Well?" Count Hannibal said at last. "Are you coming?" + +"When I please," Tignonville answered; and he feinted but drew back. +The other did the same, and again they watched one another, their +eyes seeming to grow smaller and smaller. Gradually a smile had +birth on Tignonville's lips. He thrust! It was parried! He thrust +again--parried! Tavannes, grown still more cautious, gave a yard. +Tignonville pushed on, but did not allow confidence to master caution. +He began, indeed, to taunt his adversary; to flout and jeer him. But +it was with a motive. + +For suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he repeated the peculiar +thrust which had been successful before. This time, however, Tavannes +was ready. He put aside the blade with a quick parade, and instead of +making a riposte sprang within the other's guard. The two came face to +face and breast to shoulder, and struck furiously with their daggers. +Count Hannibal was outside his opponent's sword and had the advantage. +Tignonville's dagger fell, but glanced off the metalwork of the +other's hilt; Tavannes' fell swift and hard between the young man's +eyes. The Huguenot flung up his hands and staggered back, falling his +length on the floor. + +In an instant Count Hannibal was on his breast, and had knocked away +his dagger. Then, "You own yourself vanquished?" he cried. + +The young man, blinded by the blood which trickled down his face, made +a sign with his hands. Count Hannibal rose to his feet again, and +stood a moment looking at his foe without speaking. Presently he +seemed to be satisfied. He nodded, and going to the table dipped a +napkin in water. He brought it, and carefully supporting Tignonville's +head, laved his brow. "It is as I thought," he said, when he had +stanched the blood. "You are not hurt, man. You are stunned. It is no +more than a bruise." + +The young man was coming to himself. "But I thought----" he muttered, +and broke off to pass his hand over his face. Then he got up slowly, +reeling a little, "I thought it was the point," he muttered. + +"No, it was the pommel," Tavannes answered drily. "It would not have +served me to kill you. I could have done that ten times." + +Tignonville groaned, and, sitting down at the table, held the napkin +to his aching head. One of the candles had been overturned in the +struggle and lay on the floor, flaring in a little pool of grease. +Tavannes set his heel upon it; then, striding to the farther end of +the room, he picked up Tignonville's dagger and placed it beside his +sword on the table. He looked about to see if aught else remained to +do, and, finding nothing, he returned to Tignonville's side. + +"Now, monsieur," he said in a voice hard and constrained, "I must ask +you to perform your part of the bargain." + +A groan of anguish broke from the unhappy man. And yet he had set his +life on the cast; what more could he have done? "You will not harm +him?" he muttered. + +"He shall go safe," Count Hannibal replied gravely. + +"And----" he fought a moment with his pride, then blurted out the +words, "you will not tell her--that it was through me--you found him?" + +"I will not," Tavannes answered in the same tone. He stooped and +picked up the other's robe and cowl, which had fallen from a chair--so +that as he spoke his eyes were averted. "She shall never know through +me," he said. + +And Tignonville, his face hidden in his hands, told him. + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + ANDROMEDA, PERSEUS BEING ABSENT. + + +Little by little--while they fought below--the gloom had thickened, +and night had fallen in the room above. But Mademoiselle would not +have candles brought. Seated in the darkness, on the uppermost step of +the stairs, her hands clasped about her knees, she listened and +listened, as if by that action she could avert misfortune; or as if, +by going so far forward to meet it, she could turn aside the worst. +The women shivering in the darkness about her would fain have struck a +light and drawn her back into the room, for they felt safer there. But +she was not to be moved. The laughter and chatter of the men in the +guard-room, the coming and going of Bigot as he passed, below but out +of sight, had no terrors for her; nay, she breathed more freely on the +bare open landing of the staircase than in the close confines of a +room which her fears made hateful to her. Here at least she could +listen, her face unseen; and listening she bore the suspense more +easily. + +A turn in the staircase, with the noise which proceeded from the +guard-room, rendered it difficult to hear what happened in the closed +room below. But she thought that if an alarm were raised there she +must hear it; and as the moments passed and nothing happened, she +began to feel confident that her lover had made good his escape by the +window. + +Presently she got a fright. Three or four men came from the guard-room +and went, as it seemed to her, to the door of the room with the +shattered casement. She told herself that she had rejoiced too soon, +and her heart stood still. She waited for a rush of feet, a cry, a +struggle. But except an uncertain muffled sound which lasted for some +minutes, and was followed by a dull shock, she heard nothing more. And +presently the men went back whispering, the noise in the guard-room +which had been partially hushed broke forth anew, and perplexed but +relieved she breathed again. Surely he had escaped by this time. +Surely by this time he was far away, in the Arsenal, or in some place +of refuge! And she might take courage, and feel that for this day the +peril was overpast. + +"Mademoiselle will have the lights now?" one of the women ventured. + +"No! no!" she answered feverishly, and she continued to crouch where +she was on the stairs, bathing herself and her burning face in the +darkness and coolness of the stairway. The air entered freely through +a window at her elbow and the place was fresher, were that all, than +the room she had left. Javette began to whimper, but she paid no heed +to her; a man came and went along the passage below, and she heard the +outer door unbarred, and the jarring tread of three or four men who +passed through it. But all without disturbance; and afterwards the +house was quiet again. And as on this Monday evening the prime +virulence of the massacre had begun to abate--though it held after a +fashion to the end of the week--Paris without was quiet also. The +sounds which had chilled her heart at intervals during two days were +no longer heard. A feeling almost of peace, almost of comfort--a +drowsy feeling, that was three parts a reaction from excitement--took +possession of her. In the darkness her head sank lower and lower on +her knees. And half an hour passed, while Javette whimpered, and +Madame Carlat slumbered, her broad back propped against the wall. + +Suddenly Mademoiselle opened her eyes, and saw, three steps below her, +a strange man whose upward way she barred. Behind him came Carlat, and +behind him Bigot, lighting both; and in the confusion of her thoughts +as she rose to her feet the three, all staring at her in a common +amazement, seemed a company. The air entering through the open window +beside her blew the flame of the candle this way and that, and added +to the nightmare character of the scene; for by the shifting light the +men seemed to laugh one moment and scowl the next, and their shadows +were now high and now low on the wall. In truth they were as much +amazed at coming on her in that place as she at their appearance; but +they were awake, and she newly roused from sleep; and the advantage +was with them. + +"What is it?" she cried in a panic. "What is it?" + +"If Mademoiselle will return to her room?" one of the men said +courteously. + +"But--what is it?" She was frightened. + +"If Mademoiselle----" + +Then she turned without more and went back into the room, and the +three followed, and her woman and Madame Carlat. She stood resting one +hand on the table while Javette with shaking fingers lighted the +candles. Then, "Now, monsieur," she said in a hard voice, "if you will +tell me your business?" + +"You do not know me?" The stranger's eyes dwelt kindly and pitifully +on her. + +She looked at him steadily, crushing down the fears which knocked at +her heart. "No," she said. "And yet I think I have seen you." + +"You saw me a week last Sunday," the stranger answered sorrowfully. +"My name is La Tribe. I preached that day, Mademoiselle, before the +King of Navarre. I believe that you were there." + +For a moment she stared at him in silence, her lips parted. Then she +laughed, a laugh which set the teeth on edge. "Oh, he is clever!" she +cried. "He has the wit of the priests! Or the devil! But you come too +late, monsieur! You come too late! The bird has flown." + +"Mademoiselle----" + +"I tell you the bird has flown!" she repeated vehemently. And her +laugh of joyless triumph rang through the room. "He is clever, but I +have outwitted him! I have----" + +She paused and stared about her wildly, struck by the silence; struck, +too, by something solemn, something pitiful in the faces that were +turned on her. And her lip began to quiver. "What?" she muttered. "Why +do you look at me so? He has not"--she turned from one to another--"he +has not been taken?" + +"M. Tignonville?" + +She nodded. + +"He is below." + +"Ah!" she said. + +They expected to see her break down, perhaps to see her fall. But she +only groped blindly for a chair and sat. And for a moment there was +silence in the room. It was the Huguenot minister who broke it in a +tone formal and solemn. + +"Listen, all present!" he said slowly. "The ways of God are past +finding out. For two days in the midst of great perils I have been +preserved by His hand and fed by His bounty, and I am told that I +shall live if, in this matter, I do the will of those who hold me in +their power. But be assured--and hearken all," he continued, lowering +his voice to a sterner note. "Rather than marry this woman to this man +against her will--if indeed in His sight such marriage can be--rather +than save my life by such base compliance, I will die not once but ten +times! See. I am ready! I will make no defence!" And he opened his +arms as if to welcome the stroke. "If there be trickery here, if there +has been practising below, where they told me this and that, it shall +not avail! Until I hear from Mademoiselle's own lips that she is +willing, I will not say over her so much as Yea, yea, or Nay, nay!" + +"She is willing!" + +La Tribe turned sharply, and beheld the speaker. It was Count +Hannibal, who had entered a few seconds earlier, and had taken his +stand within the door. + +"She is willing!" Tavannes repeated quietly. And if, in this moment of +the fruition of his schemes, he felt his triumph, he masked it under a +face of sombre purpose. "Do you doubt me, man?" + +"From her own lips!" the other replied, undaunted--and few could say +as much--by that harsh presence. "From no other's!" + +"Sirrah, you----" + +"I can die. And you can no more, my lord!" the minister answered +bravely. "You have no threat can move me." + +"I am not sure of that," Tavannes answered, more blandly. "But had you +listened to me and been less anxious to be brave, M. La Tribe, where +no danger is, you had learned that here is no call for heroics! +Mademoiselle is willing, and will tell you so." + +"With her own lips?" + +Count Hannibal raised his eyebrows. "With her own lips, if you will," +he said. And then, advancing a step and addressing her, with unusual +gravity, "Mademoiselle de Vrillac," he said, "you hear what this +gentleman requires. Will you be pleased to confirm what I have said?" + +She did not answer, and in the intense silence which held the room in +its freezing grasp a woman choked, another broke into weeping. The +colour ebbed from the cheeks of more than one; the men fidgeted on +their feet. + +Count Hannibal looked round, his head high. "There is no call for +tears," he said; and whether he spoke in irony or in a strange +obtuseness was known only to himself. "Mademoiselle is in no +hurry--and rightly--to answer a question so momentous. Under the +pressure of utmost peril, she passed her word; the more reason that, +now the time has come to redeem it, she should do so at leisure and +after thought. Since she gave her promise, monsieur, she has had more +than one opportunity of evading its fulfilment. But she is a Vrillac, +and I know that nothing is farther from her thoughts." + +He was silent a moment; and then "Mademoiselle," he said, "I would not +hurry you." + +Her eyes were closed, but at that her lips moved. + +"I am--willing," she whispered. And a fluttering sigh, of relief, of +pity, of God knows what, filled the room. + +"You are satisfied, M. La Tribe?" + +"I do not----" + +"Man!" With a growl as of a tiger, Count Hannibal dropped the mask. In +two strides he was at the minister's side, his hand gripped his +shoulder; his face, flushed with passion, glared into his. "Will you +play with lives!" he hissed. "If you do not value your own, have you +no thought of others? Of these? Look and count! Have you no bowels? If +she will save them, will not you?" + +"My own I do not value." + +"Curse your own!" Tavannes cried in furious scorn. And he shook the +other to and fro. "Who thought of your life? Will you doom these? Will +you give them to the butcher?" + +"My lord," La Tribe answered, shaken in spite of himself, "if she be +willing----" + +"She is willing." + +"I have nought to say. But I caught her words indistinctly. And +without her consent---- + +"She shall speak more plainly. Mademoiselle----" + +She anticipated him. She had risen, and stood looking straight before +her, seeing nothing. "I am willing," she muttered with a strange +gesture, "if it must be." + +He did not answer. + +"If it must be," she repeated slowly, and with a heavy sigh. And her +chin dropped on her breast. Then, abruptly, suddenly--it was a strange +thing to see--she looked up. A change as complete as the change which +had come over Count Hannibal a minute before came over her. She sprang +to his side; she clutched his arm and devoured his face with her eyes. +"You are not deceiving me?" she cried. "You have Tignonville below? +You--oh, no, no!" And she fell back from him, her eyes distended, her +voice grown suddenly shrill and defiant, "You have not! You are +deceiving me! He has escaped, and you have lied to me!" + +"I?" + +"Yes, you have lied to me!" It was the last fierce flicker of hope +when hope seemed dead: the last clutch of the drowning at the straw +that floated before the eyes. + +He laughed harshly. "You will be my wife in five minutes," he said, +"and you give me the lie? A week, and you will know me better! A +month, and--but we will talk of that another time. For the present," +he continued, turning to La Tribe, "do you, sir, tell her that the +gentleman is below. Perhaps she will believe you. For you know him." + +La Tribe looked at her sorrowfully; his heart bled for her. "I have +seen M. de Tignonville," he said. "And M. le Comte says truly. He is +in the same case with ourselves, a prisoner." + +"You have seen him?" she wailed. + +"I left him in the room below, when I mounted the stairs." + +Count Hannibal laughed, the grim mocking laugh which seemed to revel +in the pain it inflicted. "Will you have him for a witness?" he cried. +"There could not be a better, for he will not forget. Shall I fetch +him?" + +She bowed her head, shivering. "Spare me that," she said. And she +pressed her hands to her eyes while an uncontrollable shudder passed +over her frame. Then she stepped forward: "I am ready," she whispered. +"Do with me as you will!" + + + * * * * * + + +When they had all gone out and closed the door behind them, and the +two whom the minister had joined were left together, Count Hannibal +continued for a time to pace the room, his hands clasped at his back, +and his head sunk somewhat on his chest. His thoughts appeared to run +in a new channel, and one, strange to say, widely diverted from his +bride and from that which he had just done. For he did not look her +way, or, for a time, speak to her. He stood once to snuff a candle, +doing it with an absent face; and once to look, but still absently, as +if he read no word of it, at the marriage writing which lay, the ink +still wet, upon the table. After each of these interruptions he +resumed his steady pacing to and fro, to and fro, nor did his eye +wander once in the direction of her chair. + +And she waited. The conflict of emotions, the strife between hope and +fear, the final defeat had stunned her; had left her exhausted, almost +apathetic. Yet not quite, nor wholly. For when in his walk he came a +little nearer to her, a chill perspiration broke out on her brow, and +shudderings crept over her; and when he passed farther from her--and +then only, it seemed--she breathed again. But the change lay beneath +the surface, and cheated the eye. Into her attitude, as she sat, her +hands clasped on her lap, her eyes fixed, came no apparent change or +shadow of movement. + +Suddenly, with a dull shock, she became aware that he was speaking. + +"There was need of haste," he said, his tone strangely low and free +from emotion, "for I am under bond to leave Paris to-morrow for +Angers, whither I bear letters from the King. And as matters stood, +there was no one with whom I could leave you. I trust Bigot; he is +faithful, and you may trust him, Madame, fair or foul! But he is not +quick-witted. Badelon also you may trust. Bear it in mind. Your woman +Javette is not faithful; but as her life is guaranteed she must stay +with us until she can be securely placed. Indeed, I must take all with +me--with one exception--for the priests and monks rule Paris, and they +do not love me, nor would spare aught at my word." + +He was silent a few moments. Then he resumed in the same tone, "You +ought to know how we, Tavannes, stand. It is by Monsieur and the +Queen-Mother; and _contra_ the Guises. We have all been in this +matter; but the latter push and we are pushed, and the old crack will +reopen. As it is, I cannot answer for much beyond the reach of my arm. +Therefore, we take all with us except M. Tignonville, who desires to +be conducted to the Arsenal." + +She had begun to listen with averted eyes. But as he continued +to speak surprise awoke in her, and something stronger than +surprise--amazement, stupefaction. Slowly her eyes came to him, and +when he ceased to speak, "Why do you tell me these things!" she +muttered, her dry lips framing the words with difficulty. + +"Because it behoves you to know them," he answered, thoughtfully +tapping the table. "I have no one, save my brother, whom I can trust." + +She would not ask him why he trusted her, nor why he thought he could +trust her. For a moment or two she watched him, while he, with his +eyes lowered, stood in deep thought. At last he looked up and his eyes +met hers. "Come!" he said abruptly and in a different tone, "we must +end this! Is it to be a kiss or a blow between us?" + +She rose, though her knees shook under her; and they stood face to +face, her face white as paper. "What--do you mean?" she whispered. + +"Is it to be a kiss or a blow?" he repeated. "A husband must be a +lover, Madame, or a master, or both! I am content to be the one or the +other, or both, as it shall please you. But the one I will be." + +"Then, a thousand times, a blow," she cried, her eyes flaming, "from +you!" + +He wondered at her courage, but he hid his wonder. "So be it!" he +answered. And before she knew what he would be at, he struck her +sharply across the cheek with the glove which he held in his hand. She +recoiled with a low cry, and her cheek blazed scarlet where he had +struck it. "So be it!" he continued sombrely. "The choice shall be +yours, but you will come to me daily for the one or the other. If I +cannot be lover, Madame, I will be master. And by this sign I will +have you know it, daily, and daily remember it." + +She stared at him, her bosom rising and falling, in an astonishment +too deep for words. But he did not heed her. He did not look at her +again. He had already turned to the door, and while she looked he +passed through it, he closed it behind him. And she was alone. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + IN THE ORLEANNAIS. + + +"But you fear him?" + +"Fear him?" Madame St. Lo answered; and, to the surprise of the +Countess, she made a little face of contempt. "No; why should I fear +him? I fear him no more than the puppy leaping at old Sancho's bridle +fears his tall playfellow! Or than the cloud you see above us fears +the wind before which it flies!" She pointed to a white patch, the +size of a man's hand, which hung above the hill on their left hand and +formed the only speck in the blue summer sky. "Fear him! Not I!" And, +laughing gaily, she put her horse at a narrow rivulet which crossed +the grassy track on which they rode. + +"But he is hard!" the Countess murmured in a low voice, as she +regained her companion's side. + +"Hard!" Madame St. Lo rejoined with a gesture of pride. "Ay, hard as +the stones in my jewelled ring! Hard as flint, or the nether +millstone--to his enemies! But to women! Bah! Who ever heard that he +hurt a woman!" + +"Why then is he so feared!" the Countess asked, her eyes on the +subject of their discussion; a solitary figure, riding some fifty +paces in front of them. + +"Because he counts no cost!" her companion answered. "Because he +killed Savillon in the court of the Louvre, though he knew his life +the forfeit. He would have paid the forfeit too, or lost his right +hand, if Monsieur, for his brother the Marshal's sake, had not +intervened. But Savillon had whipped his dog, you see. Then he killed +the Chevalier de Millaud, but 'twas in fair fight, in the snow, in +their shirts. For that, Millaud's son lay in wait for him with two, in +the passage under the Chatelet; but Hannibal wounded one, and the +others saved themselves. Undoubtedly he is feared!" she added with the +same note of pride in her voice. + +The two, who talked, rode at the rear of the little company +which had left Paris at daybreak two days before, by the Porte St. +Jacques. Moving steadily south-westward by the lesser roads and +bridle-tracks--for Count Hannibal seemed averse from the great +road--they had lain the second night in a village three leagues from +Bonneval. A journey of two days on fresh horses is apt to change +scenery and eye alike; but seldom has an alteration--in themselves and +all about them--as great as that which blessed this little company, +been wrought in so short a time. From the stifling wynds and +evil-smelling lanes of Paris, they had passed to the green uplands, +the breezy woods and babbling streams of the upper Orleannais; from +sights and sounds the most appalling, to the solitude of the sandy +heath, haunt of the great bustard, or the sunshine of the hillside, +vibrating with the songs of larks; from an atmosphere of terror and +gloom to the freedom of God's earth and sky. Numerous enough--they +numbered a score of armed men--to defy the lawless bands which had +their lairs in the huge forest of Orleans, they halted where they +pleased: at mid-day under a grove of chestnut-trees, or among the +willows beside a brook; at night, if they willed it, under God's +heaven. Far, not only from Paris, but from the great road, with its +gibbets and pillories--the great road which at that date ran through a +waste, no peasant living willingly within sight of it--they rode in +the morning and in the evening, resting in the heat of the day. And +though they had left Paris with much talk of haste, they rode more at +leisure with every league. + +For whatever Tavannes' motive, it was plain that he was in no hurry to +reach his destination. Nor for that matter were any of his company. +Madame St. Lo, who had seized the opportunity of escaping from the +capital under her cousin's escort, was in an ill-humour with cities, +and declaimed much on the joys of a cell in the woods. For the time +the coarsest nature and the dullest rider had had enough of alarums +and conflicts. + +The whole company, indeed, though it moved in some fashion of array +with an avant and a rearguard, the ladies riding together, and Count +Hannibal proceeding solitary in the midst, formed as peaceful a band, +and one as innocently diverted, as if no man of them had ever grasped +pike or blown a match. There was an old rider among them who had seen +the sack of Rome, and the dead face of the great Constable, the idol +of the Free Companies. But he had a taste for simples and much skill +in them; and when Madame had once seen Badelon on his knees in the +grass searching for plants, she lost her fear of him. Bigot, with his +low brow and matted hair, was the abject slave of Suzanne, Madame St. +Lo's woman, who twitted him mercilessly on his Norman _patois_, and +poured the vials of her scorn on him a dozen times a day. In all, with +La Tribe and the Carlats, Madame St. Lo's servants, and the Countess's +following, they numbered not far short of two score; and when they +halted at noon, and under the shadow of some leafy tree, ate their +mid-day meal, or drowsed to the tinkle of Madame St. Lo's lute, it was +difficult to believe that Paris existed, or that these same people had +so lately left its blood-stained pavements. + +They halted this morning a little earlier than usual. Madame St. Lo +had barely answered her companion's question before the subject of +their discussion swung himself from old Sancho's back, and stood +waiting to assist them to dismount. Behind him, where the green valley +through which the road passed narrowed to a rocky gate, an old mill +stood among willows at the foot of a mound. On the mound behind it a +ruined castle which had stood siege in the Hundred Years' War raised +its grey walls; and beyond this the stream which turned the mill +poured over rocks with a cool rushing sound that proved irresistible. +The men, their horses watered and hobbled, went off, shouting like +boys, to bathe below the falls; and after a moment's hesitation Count +Hannibal rose from the grass on which he had flung himself. + +"Guard that for me, Madame," he said. And he dropped a packet, bravely +sealed and tied with a silk thread, into the Countess's lap. "'Twill +be safer than leaving it in my clothes. Ohe!" And he turned to Madame +St. Lo. "Would you fancy a life that was all gipsying, cousin?" And if +there was irony in his voice, there was desire in his eyes. + +"There is only one happy man in the world," she answered, with +conviction. + +"By name?" + +"The hermit of Compiegne." + +"And in a week you would be wild for a masque!" he said cynically. And +turning on his heel he followed the men. + +Madame St. Lo sighed complacently. "Heigho!" she said. "He's right! We +are never content, _ma mie!_ When I am trifling in the Gallery my +heart is in the greenwood. And when I have eaten black bread and drunk +spring water for a fortnight I do nothing but dream of Zamet's, and +white mulberry tarts! And you are in the same case. You have saved +your round white neck, or it has been saved for you, by not so much as +the thickness of Zamet's pie-crust--I declare my mouth is beginning to +water for it!--and instead of being thankful and making the best of +things, you are thinking of poor Madame d'Yverne, or dreaming of your +calf-love!" + +The girl's face--for a girl she was, though they called her +Madame--began to work. She struggled a moment with her emotion, and +then broke down, and fell to weeping silently. For two days she had +sat in public and not given way. But the reference to her lover was +too much for her strength. + +Madame St. Lo looked at her with eyes which were not unkindly. "Sits +the wind in that quarter!" she murmured. "I thought so! But there, my +dear, if you don't put that packet in your gown you'll wash out the +address! Moreover, if you ask me, I don't think the young man is worth +it. It is only that which we have not got--we want!" + +But the young Countess had borne to the limit of her powers. With an +incoherent word she rose to her feet, and walked hurriedly away. The +thought of what was and of what might have been, the thought of the +lover who still--though he no longer seemed, even to her, the perfect +hero--held a place in her heart, filled her breast to overflowing. She +longed for some spot where she could weep unseen, where the sunshine +and the blue sky would not mock her grief; and seeing in front of her +a little clump of alders, which grew beside the stream, in a bend that +in winter was marshy, she hastened towards it. + +Madame St. Lo saw her figure blend with the shadow of the +trees--"Quite _a la_ Ronsard, I give my word!" she murmured. "And now +she is out of sight! _La, la!_ I could play at the game myself, and +carve sweet sorrow on the barks of trees, if it were not so lonesome! +And if I had a man!" + +And gazing pensively at the stream and the willows, my lady tried to +work herself into a proper frame of mind; now murmuring the name of +one gallant, and now, finding it unsuited, the name of another. But +the soft inflection would break into a giggle, and finally into a +yawn; and, tired of the attempt, she began to pluck grass and throw it +from her. By-and-by she discovered that Madame Carlat and the women, +who had their place a little apart, had disappeared; and affrighted by +the solitude and silence--for neither of which she was made--she +sprang up and stared about her, hoping to discern them. Right and +left, however, the sweep of hillside curved upward to the skyline, +lonely and untenanted; behind her the castled rock frowned down on the +rugged gorge and filled it with dispiriting shadow. Madame St. Lo +stamped her foot on the turf. + +"The little fool!" she murmured, pettishly. "Does she think that I am +to be murdered that she may fatten on sighs? Oh, come up, Madame, you +must be dragged out of this!" And she started briskly towards the +alders, intent on gaining company as quickly as possible. + +She had gone about fifty yards, and had as many more to traverse when +she halted. A man, bent double, was moving stealthily along the +farther side of the brook a little in front of him. Now she saw him, +now she lost him; now she caught a glimpse of him again, through a +screen of willow branches. He moved with the utmost caution, as a man +moves who is pursued or in danger; and for a moment she deemed him a +peasant whom the bathers had disturbed and who was bent on escaping. +But when he came opposite to the alder-bed she saw that that was his +point, for he crouched down, sheltered by a willow, and gazed eagerly +among the trees, always with his back to her; and then he waved his +hand to someone in the wood. + +Madame St. Lo drew in her breath. As if he had heard the sound--which +was impossible--the man dropped down where he stood, crawled a yard or +two on his face, and disappeared. + +Madame stared a moment, expecting to see him or hear him. Then, as +nothing happened, she screamed. She was a woman of quick impulses, +essentially feminine; and she screamed three or four times, standing +where she was, her eyes on the edge of the wood. "If that does not +bring her out, nothing will!" she thought. + +It brought her. An instant, and the Countess appeared, and hurried in +dismay to her side. "What is it?" the younger woman asked, glancing +over her shoulder; for all the valley, all the hills were peaceful, +and behind Madame St. Lo--but the lady had not discovered it--the +servants who had returned were laying the meal. "What is it?" she +repeated anxiously. + +"Who was it?" Madame St. Lo asked curtly. She was quite calm now. + +"Who was--who?" + +"The man in the wood?" + +The Countess stared a moment, then laughed. "Only the old soldier they +call Badelon, gathering simples. Did you think that he would harm me?" + +"It was not old Badelon whom I saw!" Madame St. Lo retorted. "It was a +younger man, who crept along the other side of the brook, keeping +under cover. When I first saw him he was there," she continued, +pointing to the place. "And he crept on and on until he came opposite +to you. Then he waved his hand." + +"To me!" + +Madame nodded. + +"But if you saw him, who was he?" the Countess asked. + +"I did not see his face," Madame St. Lo answered. "But he waved to +you. That I saw." + +The Countess had a thought which slowly flooded her face with crimson. +Madame St. Lo saw the change, saw the tender light which on a sudden +softened the other's eyes; and the same thought occurred to her. And +having a mind to punish her companion for her reticence--for she did +not doubt that the girl knew more than she acknowledged--she proposed +that they should return and find Badelon, and learn if he had seen the +man. + +"Why?" Madame Tavannes asked. And she stood stubbornly, her head high. +"Why should we?" + +"To clear it up," the elder woman answered mischievously. "But +perhaps, it were better to tell your husband and let his men search +the coppice." + +The colour left the Countess's face as quickly as it had come. For a +moment she was tongue-tied. Then, "Have we not had enough of seeking +and being sought?" she cried; more bitterly than befitted the +occasion. "Why should we hunt him? I am not timid, and he did me no +harm. I beg, Madame, that you will do me the favour of being silent on +the matter." + +"Oh, if you insist? But what a pother--" + +"I did not see him, and he did not see me," Madame de Tavannes +answered vehemently. "I fail, therefore, to understand why we should +harass him, whoever he be. Besides, M. de Tavannes is waiting for us." + +"And M. de Tignonville--is following us!" Madame St. Lo +muttered--under her breath. And she made a face at the other's back. + +She was silent, however; they returned to the others; and nothing of +import, it would seem, had happened. The soft summer air played on the +meal laid under the willows as it had played on the meal of yesterday +laid under the chestnut-trees. The horses grazed within sight, moving +now and again, with a jingle of trappings or a jealous neigh; the +women's chatter vied with the unceasing sound of the mill-stream. +After dinner, Madame St. Lo touched the lute, and Badelon--Badelon who +had seen the sack of the Colonna's Palace, and been served by +cardinals on the knee--fed a water-rat, which had its home in one of +the willow-stumps, with carrot-parings. One by one the men laid +themselves to sleep with their faces on their arms; and to the eyes +all was as all had been yesterday in this camp of armed men living +peacefully. + +But not to the Countess! She had accepted her life, she had resigned +herself, she had marvelled that it was no worse. After the horrors of +Paris the calm of the last two days had fallen on her as balm on a +wound. Worn out in body and mind, she had rested, and only rested; +without thought, almost without emotion, save for the feeling, half +fear, half curiosity, which stirred her in regard to the strange man, +her husband. Who on his side left her alone. + +But the last hour had wrought a change. Her eyes were grown restless, +her colour came and went. The past stirred in its shallow--ah, so +shallow--grave; and dead hopes and dead forebodings, strive as she +might, thrust out hands to plague and torment her. If the man who +sought to speak with her by stealth, who dogged her footsteps and hung +on the skirts of her party, were Tignonville--her lover, who at his +own request had been escorted to the Arsenal before their departure +from Paris--then her plight was a sorry one. For what woman, wedded as +she had been wedded, could think otherwise than indulgently of his +persistence? And yet, lover and husband! What peril, what shame the +words had often spelled! At the thought only she trembled and her +colour ebbed. She saw, as one who stands on the brink of a precipice, +the depth which yawned before her. She asked herself, shivering, if +she would ever sink to that. + +All the loyalty of a strong nature, all the virtue of a good woman +revolted against the thought. True, her husband--husband she must call +him--had not deserved her love; but his bizarre magnanimity, the +gloomy, disdainful kindness with which he had crowned possession, even +the unity of their interests, which he had impressed upon her in so +strange a fashion, claimed a return in honour. + +To be paid--how? how? That was the crux which perplexed, which +frightened, which harassed her. For, if she told her suspicions, she +exposed her lover to capture by one who had no longer a reason to be +merciful. And if she sought occasion to see Tignonville and so to +dissuade him, she did it at deadly risk to herself. Yet what other +course lay open to her if she would not stand by? If she would not +play the traitor? If she---- + +"Madame,"--it was her husband, and he spoke to her suddenly,--"are you +not well?" And, looking up guiltily, she found his eyes fixed +curiously on hers. + +Her face turned red and white and red again, and she faltered +something and looked from him, but only to meet Madame St. Lo's eyes. +My lady laughed softly in sheer mischief. + +"What is it?" Count Hannibal asked sharply. + +But Madame St. Lo's answer was a line of Ronsard. + + + + + CHAPTER XX. + + ON THE CASTLE HILL. + + +Thrice she hummed it, bland and smiling. Then from the neighbouring +group came an interruption. The wine he had drunk had put it into +Bigot's head to snatch a kiss from Suzanne; and Suzanne's modesty, +which was very nice in company, obliged her to squeal. The uproar +which ensued, the men backing the man and the women the woman, brought +Tavannes to his feet. He did not speak, but a glance from his eyes was +enough. There was not one who failed to see that something was amiss +with him, and a sudden silence fell on the party. + +He turned to the Countess. "You wished to see the castle?" he said. +"You had better go now, but not alone." He cast his eyes over the +company, and summoned La Tribe, who was seated with the Carlats. "Go +with Madame," he said curtly. "She has a mind to climb the hill. Bear +in mind, we start at three, and do not venture out of hearing." + +"I understand, M. le Comte," the minister answered. He spoke quietly, +but there was a strange light in his face as he turned to go with her. + +None the less he was silent until Madame's lagging feet--for all her +interest in the expedition was gone--had borne her a hundred paces +from the company. Then, "Who knoweth our thoughts and forerunneth all +our desires," he murmured. And when she turned to him, astonished, +"Madame," he continued, "I have prayed, ah, how I have prayed, for +this opportunity of speaking to you! And it has come. I would it had +come this morning, but it has come. Do not start or look round; many +eyes are on us, and alas! I have that to say to you which it will move +you to hear, and that to ask of you which it must task your courage to +perform." + +She began to tremble, and stood, looking up the green slope to the +broken grey wall which crowned its summit. "What is it?" she +whispered, commanding herself with an effort. "What is it? If it have +aught to do with M. Tignonville----" + +"It has not!" + +In her surprise--for although she had put the question she had felt no +doubt of the answer--she started and turned to him. "It has not?" she +exclaimed almost incredulously. + +"No." + +"Then what is it, monsieur?" she replied, a little haughtily. "What +can there be that should move me so?" + +"Life or death, Madame," he answered solemnly. "Nay, more; for since +Providence has given me this chance of speaking to you, a thing of +which, I despaired, I know that the burden is laid on us, and that it +is guilt or it is innocence, according as we refuse the burden or bear +it." + +"What is it then?" she cried impatiently. "What is it?" + +"I tried to speak to you this morning." + +"Was it you then, whom Madame St. Lo saw stalking me before dinner?" + +"It was." + +She clasped her hands and heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank God, +monsieur!" she replied. "You have lifted a weight from me. I fear +nothing in comparison of that. Nothing!" + +"Alas," he answered sombrely, "there is much to fear, for others if +not for ourselves! Do you know what that is which M. de Tavannes bears +always in his belt? What it is he carries with such care? What it was +he handed to you to keep while he bathed to-day?" + +"Letters from the King." + +"Yes, but the import of those letters?" + +"No." + +"And yet should they be written in letters of blood!" the minister +exclaimed, his face kindling. "They should scorch the hands that hold +them and blister the eyes that read them. They are the fire and the +sword! They are the King's order to do at Angers as they have done in +Paris. To slay all of the religion who are found there--and they are +many! To spare none, to have mercy neither on the old man nor the +unborn child! See yonder hawk!" he continued, pointing with a shaking +hand to a falcon which hung light and graceful above the valley, the +movement of its wings invisible. "How it disports itself in the face +of the sun! How easy its way, how smooth its flight! But see, it drops +upon its prey in the rushes beside the brook, and the end of its +beauty is slaughter! So is it with yonder company!" His finger sank +until it indicated the little camp seated toy-like in the green meadow +four hundred feet below them, with every man and horse, and the very +camp-kettle, clear-cut and visible, though diminished by distance to +fairy-like proportions. "So it is with yonder company!" he repeated +sternly. "They play and are merry, and one fishes and another sleeps! +But at the end of the journey is death. Death for their victims, and +for them the judgment!" + +She stood, as he spoke, in the ruined gateway, a walled grass-plot +behind her and at her feet the stream, the smiling valley, the alders, +and the little camp. The sky was cloudless, the scene drowsy with the +stillness of an August afternoon. But his words went home so truly +that the sunlit landscape before the eyes added one more horror to the +picture he called up before the mind. + +The Countess turned white and sick. "Are you sure?" she whispered at +last. + +"Quite sure." + +"Ah, God!" she cried, "are we never to have peace?" And turning from +the valley, she walked some distance into the grass court, and stood. +After a time, she turned to him; he had followed her doggedly, pace +for pace. "What do you want me to do?" she cried, despair in her +voice. "What can I do?" + +"Were the letters he bears destroyed----" + +"The letters?" + +"Yes, were the letters destroyed," La Tribe answered relentlessly, "he +could do nothing! Nothing! Without that authority the magistrates of +Angers would not move. He could do nothing. And men and women and +children--men and women and children whose blood will otherwise cry +for vengeance, perhaps for vengeance on us who might have saved +them--will live! Will live!" he repeated with a softening eye. And +with an all-embracing gesture he seemed to call to witness the open +heavens, the sunshine and the summer breeze which wrapped them round. +"Will live!" + +She drew a deep breath. "And you have brought me here," she said, "to +ask me to do this?" + +"I was sent here to ask you to do this." + +"Why me? Why me!" she wailed, and she held out her open hands to him, +her face wan and colourless. "You come to me, a woman! Why to me?" + +"You are his wife!" + +"And he is my husband!" + +"Therefore he trusts you," was the unyielding, the pitiless answer. +"You, and you alone, have the opportunity of doing this." + +She gazed at him in astonishment. "And it is you who say that?" she +faltered, after a pause. "You who made us one, who now bid me betray +him, whom I have sworn to love? To ruin him whom I have sworn to +honour?" + +"I do!" he answered solemnly. "On my head be the guilt, and on yours +the merit." + +"Nay, but--" she cried quickly, and her eyes glittered with +passion--"do you take both guilt and merit! You are a man," she +continued, her words coming quickly in her excitement, "he is but a +man! Why do you not call him aside, trick him apart on some pretence +or other, and when there are but you two, man to man, wrench the +warrant from him? Staking your life against his, with all those lives +for prize? And save them or perish? Why I, even I, a woman, could find +it in my heart to do that, were he not my husband! Surely you, you who +are a man, and young----" + +"Am no match for him in strength or arms," the minister answered +sadly. "Else would I do it." + +"Else would I stake my life, Heaven knows, as gladly to save their +lives as I sit down to meat! But I should fail, and if I failed all +were lost. Moreover," he continued solemnly, "I am certified that this +task has been set for you. It was not for nothing, Madame, nor to save +one poor household that you were joined to this man; but to ransom all +these lives and this great city. To be the Judith of our faith, the +saviour of Angers, the----" + +"Fool! Fool!" she cried. "Will you be silent?" And she stamped the +turf passionately, while her eyes blazed in her white face. "I am no +Judith, and no madwoman as you are fain to make me. Mad?" she +continued, overwhelmed with agitation. "My God, I would I were, and I +should be free from this!" And, turning, she walked a little way from +him with the gesture of one under a crushing burden. + +He waited a minute, two minutes, three minutes, and still she did not +return. At length she came back, her bearing more composed; she looked +at him and her eyes seized his and seemed as if they would read his +soul. "Are you sure," she said, "of what you have told me? Will you +swear that the contents of these letters are as you say?" + +"As I live," he answered gravely. "As God lives." + +"And you know--of no other way, monsieur? Of no other way?" she +repeated slowly and piteously. + +"Of none, Madame, of none, I swear." + +She sighed deeply, and stood sunk in thought. Then, "When do we reach +Angers?" she asked heavily. + +"The day after to-morrow." + +"I have--until the day after to-morrow?" + +"Yes. To-night we lie near Vendome." + +"And to-morrow night?" + +"Near a place called La Fleche. It is possible," he went on with +hesitation--for he did not understand her--"that he may bathe +to-morrow, and may hand the packet to you, as he did to-day when I +vainly sought speech with you. If he does that----" + +"Yes?" she said, her eyes on his face. + +"The taking will be easy. But when he finds you have it not--" he +faltered anew--"it may go hard with you." + +She did not speak. + +"And there, I think, I can help you. If you will stray from the party, +I will meet you and destroy the letter. That done--and would God it +were done already--I will take to flight as best I can, and you will +raise the alarm and say that I robbed you of it! And if you tear your +dress----" + +"No," she said. + +He looked a question. + +"No!" she repeated in a low voice. "If I betray him I will not lie to +him! And no other shall pay the price! If I ruin him it shall be +between him and me, and no other shall have part in it!" + +He shook his head. "I do not know," he murmured, "what he may do to +you!" + +"Nor I," she said proudly. "That will be for him." + + + * * * * * + + +Curious eyes had watched the two as they climbed the hill. For the +path ran up the slope to the gap which served for gate, much as the +path leads up to the Castle Beautiful in old prints of the Pilgrim's +journey; and Madame St. Lo had marked the first halt and the second, +and, noting every gesture, had lost nothing of the interview save the +words. But until the two, after pausing a moment, passed out of sight +she made no sign. Then she laughed. And as Count Hannibal, at whom the +laugh was aimed, did not heed her, she laughed again. And she hummed +the line of Ronsard. + +Still he would not be roused, and, piqued, she had recourse to words. +"I wonder what you would do," she said, "if the old lover followed us, +and she went off with him!" + +"She would not go," he answered coldly, and without looking up. + +"But if he rode off with her?" + +"She would come back on her feet!" + +Madame St. Lo's prudence was not proof against that. She had the +woman's inclination to hide a woman's secret; and she had not +intended, when she laughed, to do more than play with the formidable +man with whom so few dared to play. Now, stung by his tone and his +assurance, she must needs show him that his trustfulness had no base. +And, as so often happens in the circumstances, she went a little +farther than the facts bore her. "Any way, he has followed us so far!" +she cried viciously. + +"M. de Tignonville?" + +"Yes. I saw him this morning while you were bathing. She left me and +went into the little coppice. He came down the other side of the +brook, stooping and running, and went to join her." + +"How did he cross the brook?" + +Madame St. Lo blushed. "Old Badelon was there, gathering simples," she +said. "He scared him. And he crawled away." + +"Then he did not cross?" + +"No. I did not say he did!" + +"Nor speak to her?" + +"No. But if you think it will pass so next time--you do not know much +of women!" + +"Of women generally, not much," he answered, grimly polite. "Of this +woman a great deal!" + +"You looked in her big eyes, I suppose!" Madame St. Lo cried with +heat. "And straightway fell down and worshipped her!" She liked rather +than disliked the Countess; but she was of the lightest, and the least +opposition drove her out of her course. "And you think you know her! +And she, if she could save you from death by opening an eye, would go +with a patch on it till her dying day! Take my word for it, monsieur, +between her and her lover you will come to harm." + +Count Hannibal's swarthy face darkened a tone, and his eyes grew a +very little smaller. "I fancy that he runs the greater risk," he +muttered. + +"You may deal with him, but, for her----" + +"I can deal with her. You deal with some women with a whip" + +"You would whip me, I suppose?" + +"Yes," he said quietly. "It would do you good, Madame. And with other +women otherwise. There are women who, if they are well frightened, +will not deceive you. And there are others who will not deceive you +though they are frightened. Madame de Tavannes is of the latter kind." + +"Wait! Wait and see!" Madame cried in scorn. + +"I am waiting." + +"Yes! And whereas if you had come to me I could have told her that +about M. Tignonville which would have surprised her, you will go on +waiting and waiting and waiting until one fine day you'll wake up and +find Madame gone, and----" + +"Then I'll take a wife I can whip!" he answered, with a look which +apprised her how far she had carried it. "But it will not be you, +sweet cousin. For I have no whip heavy enough for your case." + + + + + CHAPTER XXI. + + SHE WOULD, AND WOULD NOT. + + +We noted some way back the ease with which women use one concession as +a stepping-stone to a second; and the lack of magnanimity, amounting +almost to unscrupulousness, which the best display in their dealings +with a retiring foe. But there are concessions which touch even a good +woman's conscience; and Madame de Tavannes, free by the tenure of a +blow, and with that exception treated from hour to hour with rugged +courtesy, shrank appalled before the task which confronted her. + +To ignore what La Tribe had told her, to remain passive when a +movement on her part might save men, women, and children from death, +and a whole city from massacre--this was a line of conduct so craven, +so selfish that from the first she knew herself incapable of it. But +to take the only other course open to her, to betray her husband and +rob him of that, the loss of which might ruin him, this needed not +courage only, not devotion only, but a hardness proof against +reproaches as well as against punishment. And the Countess was no +fanatic. No haze of bigotry glorified the thing she contemplated, or +dressed it in colours other than its own. Even while she acknowledged +the necessity of the act and its ultimate righteousness, even while +she owned the obligation which lay upon her to perform it, she saw it +as he would see it, and saw herself as he would see her. + +True, he had done her a great wrong; and this in the eyes of some +might pass for punishment. But he had saved her life where many had +perished; and, the wrong done, he had behaved to her with fantastic +generosity. In return for which she was to ruin him! It was not hard +to imagine what he would say of her, and of the reward with which she +had requited him. + +She pondered over it as they rode that evening, with the westering sun +in their eyes and the lengthening shadows of the oaks falling athwart +the bracken which fringed the track. Across breezy heaths and over +downs, through green bottoms and by hamlets, from which every human +creature fled at their approach, they ambled on by twos and threes; +riding in a world of their own, so remote, so different from the real +world--from which they came and to which they must return--that she +could have wept in anguish, cursing God for the wickedness of man +which lay so heavy on creation. The gaunt troopers riding at ease with +swinging legs and swaying stirrups--and singing now a refrain from +Ronsard, and now one of those verses of Marot's psalms which all the +world had sung three decades before--wore their most lamblike aspect. +Behind them Madame St. Lo chattered to Suzanne of a riding mask which +had not been brought, or planned expedients, if nothing sufficiently +in the mode could be found at Angers. And the other women talked and +giggled, screamed when they came to fords, and made much of steep +places, where the men must help them. In time of war death's shadow +covers but a day, and sorrow out of sight is out of mind. Of all the +troop whom the sinking sun left within sight of the lofty towers and +vine-clad hills of Vendome, three only wore faces attuned to the cruel +August week just ending; three only, like dark beads strung far apart +on a gay nun's rosary, rode, brooding and silent, in their places. The +Countess was one; the others were the two men whose thoughts she +filled, and whose eyes now and again sought her, La Tribe's with +sombre fire in their depths, Count Hannibal's fraught with a gloomy +speculation, which belied his brave words to Madame St. Lo. + +He, moreover, as he rode, had other thoughts; dark ones, which did not +touch her. And she, too, had other thoughts at times, dreams of her +young lover, spasms of regret, a wild revolt of heart, a cry out of +the darkness which had suddenly whelmed her. So that of the three only +La Tribe was single-minded. + +This day they rode a long league after sunset, through a scattered +oak-wood, where the rabbits sprang up under their horses' heads and +the squirrels made angry faces at them from the lower branches. Night +was hard upon them when they reached the southern edge of the forest, +and looked across the dusky open slopes to a distant light or two +which marked where Vendome stood. "Another league," Count Hannibal +muttered; and he bade the men light fires where they were, and unload +the packhorses. "'Tis pure and dry here," he said. "Set a watch, +Bigot, and let two men go down for water. I hear frogs below. You do +not fear to be moonstruck, Madame!" + +"I prefer this," she answered in a low voice. + +"Houses are for monks and nuns!" he rejoined heartily. "Give me God's +heaven." + +"The earth is His, but we deface it," she murmured, reverting to her +thoughts, and unconscious that it was to him she spoke. + +He looked at her sharply, but the fire was not yet kindled; and in the +gloaming her face was a pale blot undecipherable. He stood a moment, +but she did not speak again; and Madame St. Lo bustling up, he moved +away to give an order. By-and-by the fires burned up, and showed the +pillared aisle in which, they sat, small groups dotted here and there +on the floor of Nature's cathedral. Through the shadowy Gothic +vaulting, the groining of many boughs which met overhead, a rare star +twinkled, as through some clerestory window; and from the dell below +rose in the night, now the monotonous chanting of the frogs, and now, +as some great bull-frog took the note, a diapason worthy of a Brescian +organ. The darkness walled all in; the night was still; a falling +caterpillar sounded. Even the rude men at the farthest fire stilled +their voices at times; awed, they knew not why, by the silence and +vastness of the night. + +The Countess long remembered that vigil--for she lay late awake; the +cool gloom, the faint wood-rustlings, the distant cry of fox or wolf, +the soft glow of the expiring fires that at last left the world to +darkness and the stars; above all, the silent wheeling of the planets, +which spoke indeed of a supreme Ruler, but crushed the heart under a +sense of its insignificance, and of the insignificance of all human +revolutions. "Yet, I believe!" she cried, wrestling upwards, wrestling +with herself. "Though I have seen what I have seen, yet I believe!" + +And though she had to bear what she had to bear, and do that from +which her soul shrank! The woman, indeed, within her continued to cry +out against this tragedy ever renewed in her path, against this +necessity for choosing evil or good, ease for herself or life for +others. But the moving heavens, pointing onward to a time when good +and evil alike should be past, strengthened a nature essentially +noble; and before she slept no shame and no suffering seemed--for the +moment at least--too great a price to pay for the lives of little +children. Love had been taken from her life; the pride which would +fain answer generosity with generosity--that must go, too! + +She felt no otherwise when the day came, and the bustle of the start +and the common round of the journey put to flight the ideals of the +night. But things fell out in a manner she had not pictured. They +halted before noon on the north bank of the Loir, in a level meadow +with lines of poplars running this way and that, and filling all the +place with the soft shimmer of leaves. Blue succory, tiny mirrors of +the summer sky, flecked the long grass, and the women picked bunches +of them, or, Italian fashion, twined the blossoms in their hair. A +road ran across the meadow to a ferry, but the ferryman, alarmed by +the aspect of the party, had conveyed his boat to the other side and +hidden himself. + +Presently Madame St. Lo espied the boat, clapped her hands and must +have it. The poplars threw no shade, the flies teased her, the life of +a hermit--in a meadow--was no longer to her taste. "Let us go on the +water!" she cried. "Presently you will go to bathe, monsieur, and +leave us to grill!" + +"Two livres to the man who will fetch the boat!" Count Hannibal cried. +In less than half a minute three men had thrown off their boots, and +were swimming across, amid the laughter and shouts of their fellows. +In five minutes the boat was brought. + +It was not large and would hold no more than four. Tavannes' eye fell +on Carlat. "You understand a boat," he said. "Go with Madame St. Lo. +And you, M. La Tribe." + +"But you are coming?" Madame St. Lo cried, turning to the Countess. +"Oh, Madame," with a curtsey, "you are not? You----" + +"Yes, I will come," the Countess answered. + +"I shall bathe a short distance up the stream," Count Hannibal said. +He took from his belt the packet of letters, and as Carlat held the +boat for Madame St. Lo to enter, he gave it to the Countess, as he had +given it to her yesterday. "Have a care of it, Madame," he said in a +low voice, "and do not let it pass out of your hands. To lose it may +be to lose my head." + +The colour ebbed from her cheeks. In spite of herself her shaking hand +put back the packet. "Had you not better then--give it to Bigot?" she +faltered. + +"He is bathing." + +"Let him bathe afterwards." + +"No," he answered almost harshly; he found a species of pleasure in +showing her that, strange as their relations were, he trusted her. +"No; take it, Madame. Only have a care of it." + +She took it then, hid it in her dress, and he turned away; and she +turned towards the boat. La Tribe stood beside the stern, holding it +for her to enter, and as her fingers rested an instant on his arm +their eyes met. His were alight, his arm even quivered; and she +shuddered. + +She avoided looking at him a second time, and this was easy, since he +took his seat in the bows beyond Carlat, who handled the oars. +Silently the boat glided out on the surface of the stream, and floated +downwards, Carlat now and again touching an oar, and Madame St. Lo +chattering gaily in a voice which carried far on the water. Now it was +a flowering rush she must have, now a green bough to shield her face +from the sun's reflection; and now they must lie in some cool, shadowy +pool under fern-clad banks, where the fish rose heavily, and the +trickle of a rivulet fell down over stones. + +It was idyllic. But not to the Countess. Her face burned, her temples +throbbed, her fingers gripped the side of the boat in the vain attempt +to steady her pulses. The packet within her dress scorched her. The +great city and its danger, Tavannes and his faith in her, the need of +action, the irrevocableness of action hurried through her brain. The +knowledge that she must act now--or never--pressed upon her with +distracting force. Her hand felt the packet, and fell again nerveless. + +"The sun has caught you, _ma mie_," Madame St. Lo said. "You should +ride in a mask as I do." + +"I have not one with me," she muttered, her eyes on the water. + +"And I but an old one. But at Angers----" + +The Countess heard no more; on that word she caught La Tribe's eye. He +was beckoning to her behind Carlat's back, pointing imperiously to the +water, making signs to her to drop the packet over the side. When she +did not obey--she felt sick and faint--she saw through a mist his brow +grow dark. He menaced her secretly. And still the packet scorched her; +and twice her hand went to it, and dropped again empty. + +On a sudden Madame St. Lo cried out. The bank on one side of the +stream was beginning to rise more boldly above the water, and at the +head of the steep thus formed she had espied a late rose-bush in +bloom; nothing would now serve but she must land at once and plunder +it. The boat was put in therefore, she jumped ashore, and began to +scale the bank. + +"Go with Madame!" La Tribe cried, roughly nudging Carlat in the back. +"Do you not see that she cannot climb the bank! Up, man, up!" + +The Countess opened her mouth to cry "No!" but the word died +half-born on her lips; and when the steward looked at her, uncertain +what she had said, she nodded. "Yes, go!" she muttered. She was pale. + +"Yes, man, go!" cried the minister, his eyes burning. And he almost +pushed the other out of the boat. + +The next second the craft floated from the bank, and began to drift +downwards. La Tribe waited until a tree interposed and hid them from +the two whom they had left; then he leaned forward. "Now, Madame!" he +cried imperiously. "In God's name, now!" + +"Oh!" she cried. "Wait! Wait! I want to think." + +"To think?" + +"He trusted me!" she wailed. "He trusted me! How can I do it?" +Nevertheless, and even while she spoke, she drew forth the packet. + +"Heaven has given you the opportunity!" + +"If I could have stolen it!" she answered. + +"Fool!" he returned rocking himself to and fro and fairly beside +himself with impatience. "Why steal it? It is in your hands! You have +it! It is Heaven's own opportunity, it is God's opportunity given to +you!" + +For he could not read her mind nor comprehend the scruple which held +her hand. He was single-minded. He had but one aim, one object. He saw +the haggard faces of brave men hopeless; he heard the dying cries of +women and children. Such an opportunity of saving God's elect, of +redeeming the innocent, was in his eyes a gift from Heaven. And having +these thoughts and seeing her hesitate--hesitate when every movement +caused him agony, so imperative was haste, so precious the +opportunity--he could bear the suspense no longer. When she did not +answer he stooped forward, until his knees touched the thwart on which +Carlat had sat; then without a word he flung himself forward, and, +with one hand far extended, grasped the packet. + +Had he not moved, she would have done his will; almost certainly she +would have done it. But, thus attacked, she resisted instinctively; +she clung to the letters. "No!" she cried. "No! Let go, monsieur!" And +she tried to drag the packet from him. + +"Give it me!" + +"Let go, monsieur! Do you hear!" she repeated. And with a vigorous +jerk she forced it from him--he had caught it by the edge only--and +held it behind her. "Go back, and----" + +"Give it me!" he panted. + +"I will not!" + +"Then throw it overboard!" + +"I will not!" she cried again, though his face, dark with passion, +glared into hers, and it was clear that the man, possessed by one idea +only, was no longer master of himself. "Go back to your place!" + +"Give it me," he gasped, "or I will upset the boat!" And seizing her +by the shoulder he reached over her, striving to take hold of the +packet which she held behind her. The boat rocked; and as much in rage +as fear she screamed. + +A cry uttered wholly in rage answered hers; it came from Carlat. La +Tribe, however, whose whole mind was fixed on the packet, did not +heed, nor would have heeded, the steward. But the next moment a second +cry, fierce as that of a wild beast, clove the air from the lower and +farther bank; and the Huguenot, recognising Count Hannibal's voice, +involuntarily desisted and stood erect. A moment the boat rocked +perilously under him; then--for unheeded it had been drifting that +way--it softly touched the bank on which Carlat stood staring and +aghast. + +La Tribe's chance was gone; he saw that the steward must reach him +before he could succeed in a second attempt. On the other hand, the +undergrowth on the bank was thick, he could touch it with his hand, +and if he fled at once he might escape. + +He hung an instant irresolute; then, with a look which went to the +Countess's heart, he sprang ashore, plunged among the alders, and in a +moment was gone. + +"After him! After him!" thundered Count Hannibal. "After him, man!" +and Carlat, stumbling down the steep slope and through the rough +briars, did his best to obey. But in vain. Before he reached the +water's edge, the noise of the fugitive's retreat had grown faint. A +few seconds and it died away. + + + + + CHAPTER XXII. + + PLAYING WITH FIRE. + + +The impulse of La Tribe's foot as he landed had driven the boat into +the stream. It drifted slowly downward, and if naught intervened would +take the ground on Count Hannibal's side, a hundred and fifty yards +below him. He saw this, and walked along the bank, keeping pace with +it, while the Countess sat motionless, crouching in the stern of the +craft, her fingers strained about the fatal packet. The slow glide of +the boat, as almost imperceptibly it approached the low bank; the +stillness of the mirror-like surface on which it moved, leaving only +the faintest ripple behind it; the silence--for under the influence of +emotion Count Hannibal too was mute--all were in tremendous contrast +with the storm which raged in her breast. + +Should she--should she even now, with his eyes on her, drop the +letters over the side? It needed but a movement. She had only to +extend her hand, to relax the tension of her fingers, and the deed was +done. It needed only that; but the golden sands of opportunity were +running out--were running out fast. Slowly and more slowly, silently +and more silently, the boat slid in towards the bank on which he +stood, and still she hesitated. The stillness, and the waiting figure, +and the watching eyes now but a few feet distant, weighed on her and +seemed to paralyse her will. A foot, another foot! A moment and it +would be too late, the last of the sands would have run out. The bow +of the boat rustled softly through the rushes; it kissed the bank. And +her hand still held the letters. + +"You are not hurt?" he asked curtly. + +"No." + +"The scoundrel might have drowned you. Was he mad?" + +She was silent. He held out his hand, and she gave him the packet. "I +owe you much," he said, a ring of gaiety, almost of triumph, in his +tone. "More than you guess, Madame. God made you for a soldier's wife, +and a mother of soldiers. What? You are not well, I am afraid?" + +"If I could sit down a minute," she faltered. She was swaying on her +feet. + +He supported her across the belt of meadow which fringed the bank, and +made her recline against a tree. Then as his men began to come up--for +the alarm had reached them--he would have sent two of them in the boat +to fetch Madame St. Lo to her. But she would not let him. "Your maid, +then?" he said. + +"No, monsieur, I need only to be alone a little! Only to be alone," +she repeated, her face averted; and believing this he sent the men +away, and, taking the boat himself, he crossed over, took in Madame +St. Lo and Carlat, and rowed them to the ferry. Here the wildest +rumours were current. One held that the Huguenot had gone out of his +senses; another, that he had watched for this opportunity of avenging +his brethren; a third, that his intention had been to carry off the +Countess and hold her to ransom. Only Tavannes himself, from his +position on the farther bank, had seen the packet of letters, and the +hand which withheld them; and he said nothing. Nay, when some of the +men would have crossed to search for the fugitive, he forbade them, he +scarcely knew why, save that it might please her; and when the women +would have hurried to join her and hear the tale from her lips he +forbade them also. + +"She wishes to be alone," he said curtly. + +"Alone?" Madame St. Lo cried, in a fever of curiosity. "You'll find +her dead, or worse! What? Leave a woman alone after such a fright as +that!" + +"She wishes it." + +Madame laughed cynically; and the laugh brought a tinge of colour to +his brow. "Oh, does she?" she sneered. "Then I understand! Have a +care, have a care, or one of these days, monsieur, when you leave her +alone, you'll find them together!" + +"Be silent!" + +"With pleasure," she returned. "Only when it happens don't say that +you were not warned. You think that she does not hear from him----" + +"How can she hear?" The words were wrung from him. + +Madame St. Lo's contempt passed all limits. "How can she!" she +retorted. "You trail a woman across France, and let her sit by +herself, and lie by herself, and all but drown by herself, and you ask +how she hears from her lover? You leave her old servants about her, +and you ask how she communicates with him?" + +"You know nothing!" he snarled. + +"I know this," she retorted. "I saw her sitting this morning, and +smiling and weeping at the same time! Was she thinking of you, +monsieur? Or of him? She was looking at the hills through tears; a +blue mist hung over them, and I'll wager she saw some one's eyes +gazing and some one's hand beckoning out of the blue!" + +"Curse you!" he cried, tormented in spite of himself. "You love to +make mischief!" + +"No!" she answered swiftly. "For 'twas not I made the match. But go +your way, go your way, monsieur, and see what kind of a welcome you'll +get!" + +"I will," Count Hannibal growled. And he started along the bank to +rejoin his wife. + +The light in his eyes had died down. Yet would they have been more +sombre, and his face more harsh, had he known the mind of the woman to +whom he was hastening. The Countess had begged to be left alone; +alone, she found the solitude she had craved a cruel gift. She had +saved the packet. She had fulfilled her trust. But only to experience, +the moment it was too late, the full poignancy of remorse. Before the +act, while the choice had lain with her, the betrayal of her husband +had loomed large; now she saw that to treat him as she had treated him +was the true betrayal, and that even for his own sake, and to save him +from a fearful sin, it had become her to destroy the letters. + +Now, it was no longer her duty to him which loomed large, but her duty +to the innocent, to the victims of the massacre which she might have +stayed, to the people of her faith whom she had abandoned, to the +women and children whose death-warrant she had preserved. Now, she +perceived that a part more divine had never fallen to woman, nor a +responsibility so heavy been laid upon woman. Nor guilt more dread! + +She writhed in misery, thinking of it. What had she done? She could +hear afar off the sounds of the camp; an occasional outcry, a snatch +of laughter. And the cry and the laughter rang in her ears, a bitter +mockery. This summer camp, to what was it the prelude? This +forbearance on her husband's part, in what would it end? Were not the +one and the other cruel make-believes? Two days, and the men who +laughed beside the water would slay and torture with equal zest. A +little, and the husband who now chose to be generous would show +himself in his true colours. And it was for the sake of such as these +that she had played the coward. That she had laid up for herself +endless remorse. That henceforth the cries of the innocent would haunt +her dreams. + +Racked by such thoughts she did not hear his step, and it was his +shadow falling across her feet which first warned her of his presence. +She looked up, saw him, and involuntarily recoiled. Then, seeing the +change in his face, "Oh! monsieur," she stammered affrighted, her hand +pressed to her side, "I ask your pardon! You startled me!" + +"So it seems," he answered. And he stood over her regarding her drily. + +"I am not quite--myself yet," she murmured. His look told her that her +start had betrayed her feelings. + +Alas, the plan of taking a woman by force has drawbacks, and among +others this one: that he must be a sanguine husband who deems her +heart his, and a husband without jealousy, whose suspicions are not +aroused by the faintest flush or the lightest word. He knows that she +is his unwillingly, a victim, not a mistress; and behind every bush +beside the road and behind every mask in the crowd be espies a rival. + +Moreover, where women are in question, who is always strong? Or who +can say how long he will pursue this plan or that? A man of sternest +temper, Count Hannibal had set out on a path of conduct carefully and +deliberately chosen; knowing--and he still knew--that if he abandoned +it he had little to hope, if the less to fear. But the proof of +fidelity which the Countess had just given him had blown to a white +heat the smouldering flame in his heart, and Madame St. Lo's gibes, +which should have fallen as cold water alike on his hopes and his +passion, had but fed the desire to know the best. For all that, he +might not have spoken now, if he had not caught her look of affright; +strange as it sounds, that look, which of all things should have +silenced him and warned him that the time was not yet, stung him out +of patience. Suddenly the man in him carried him away. + +"You still fear me, then!" he said, in a voice hoarse and unnatural. +"Is it for what I do or for what I leave undone that you hate me, +Madame? Tell me, I beg, for----" + +"For neither!" she said, trembling. His eyes, hot and passionate, were +on her, and the blood had mounted to his brow. "For neither! I do not +hate you, monsieur!" + +"You fear me then! I am right in that." + +"I fear--that which you carry with you," she stammered, speaking on +impulse and scarcely knowing what she said. + +He started, and his expression changed. "So?" he exclaimed. "So? You +know what I carry, do you? And from whom? From whom?" he continued in +a tone of menace, "if you please, did you get that knowledge?" + +"From M. La Tribe," she muttered. She had not meant to tell him. Why +had she told him? + +He nodded. "I might have known it," he said. "I more than suspected +it. Therefore I should be the more beholden to you for saving the +letters. But"--he paused and laughed harshly--"it was out of no love +for me you saved them. That, too, I know." + +She did not answer or protest; and when he had waited a moment in vain +expectation of her protest, a cruel look crept into his eyes. +"Madame," he said slowly, "do you never reflect that you may push the +part you play too far? That the patience, even of the worst of men, +does not endure for ever?" + +"I have your word!" she answered. + +"And you do not fear?" + +"I have your word," she repeated. And now she looked him bravely in +the face, her eyes full of the courage of her race. + +The lines of his mouth hardened as he met her look. "And what have I +of yours?" he said in a low voice. "What have I of yours?" + +Her face began to burn at that, her eyes fell and she faltered. "My +gratitude," she murmured, with an upward look that craved for pity. +"God knows, monsieur, you have that!" + +"God knows I do not want it!" he answered. And he laughed derisively. +"Your gratitude!" And he mocked her tone rudely and coarsely. "Your +gratitude?" Then for a minute--for so long a time that she began to +wonder and to quake--he was silent. At last, "A fig for your +gratitude," he said. "I want your love! I suppose--cold as you are, +and a Huguenot--you can love like other women!" + +It was the first, the very first time he had used the word to her; and +though it fell from his lips like a threat, though he used it as a man +presents a pistol, she flushed anew from throat to brow. But she did +not quail. "It is not mine to give," she said. + +"It is his!" + +"Yes, monsieur," she answered, wondering at her courage, at her +audacity, her madness. "It is his." + +"And it cannot be mine--at any time?" + +She shook her head, trembling. + +"Never?" And, suddenly reaching forward, he gripped her wrist in an +iron grasp. There was passion in his tone. His eyes burned her. + +Whether it was that set her on another track, or pure despair, or the +cry in her ears of little children and of helpless women, something in +a moment inspired her, flashed in her eyes and altered her voice. She +raised her head and looked him firmly in the face. "What," she said, +"do you mean by love?" + +"You!" he answered brutally. + +"Then--it may be, monsieur," she returned. "There is a way if you +will." + +"Away!" + +"If you will!" As she spoke she rose slowly to her feet; for in his +surprise he had released her wrist. He rose with her, and they stood +confronting one another on the strip of grass between the river and +the poplars. + +"If I will?" His form seemed to dilate, his eyes devoured her. "If I +will?" + +"Yes," she replied. "If you will give me the letters that are in your +belt, the packet which I saved to-day--that I may destroy them--I will +be yours freely and willingly." + +He drew a deep breath, still devouring her with his eyes. "You mean +it?" he said at last. + +"I do." She looked him in the face as she spoke, and her cheeks were +white, not red. "Only--the letters! Give me the letters." + +"And for them you will give me your love?" + +Her eyes flickered, and involuntarily she shivered. A faint blush rose +and dyed her cheeks. "Only God can give love," she said, her tone +lower. + +"And yours is given?" + +"Yes." + +"To another?" + +"I have said it." + +"It is his. And yet for these letters----" + +"For these lives!" she cried proudly. + +"You will give yourself?" + +"I swear it," she answered, "if you will give them to me! If you will +give them to me," she repeated. And she held out her hands; her face, +full of passion, was bright with a strange light. A close observer +might have thought her distraught; still excited by the struggle in +the boat, and barely mistress of herself. + +But the man whom she tempted, the man who held her price at his belt, +after one searching look at her turned from her; perhaps because he +could not trust himself to gaze on her. Count Hannibal walked a dozen +paces from her and returned, and again a dozen paces and returned; and +again a third time, with something fierce and passionate in his gait. +At last he stopped before her. + +"You have nothing to offer for them," he said, in a cold, hard tone. +"Nothing that is not mine already, nothing that is not my right, +nothing that I cannot take at my will. My word?" he continued, seeing +her about to interrupt him. "True, Madame, you have it, you had it. +But why need I keep my word to you, who tempt me to break my word to +the King?" + +She made a weak gesture with her hands. Her head had sunk on her +breast--she seemed dazed by the shock of his contempt, dazed by his +reception of her offer. + +"You saved the letters?" he continued, interpreting her action. "True, +but the letters are mine, and that which you offer for them is mine +also. You have nothing to offer. For the rest, Madame," he went on, +eyeing her cynically, "you surprise me! You, whose modesty and virtue +are so great, would corrupt your husband, would sell yourself, would +dishonour the love of which you boast so loudly, the love that only +God gives!" He laughed derisively as he quoted her words. "Ay, and, +after showing at how low a price you hold yourself, you still look, I +doubt not, to me to respect you, and to keep my word. Madame!" in a +terrible voice, "do not play with fire! You saved my letters, it is +true! And for that, for this time, you shall go free, if God will help +me to let you go! But tempt me not! Tempt me not!" he repeated, +turning from her and turning back again with a gesture of despair, as +if he mistrusted the strength of the restraint which he put upon +himself. "I am no more than other men! Perhaps I am less. And you--you +who prate of love, and know not what love is--could love! could love!" + +He stopped on that word as if the word choked him--stopped, struggling +with his passion. At last, with a half-stifled oath, he flung away +from her, halted and hung a moment, then, with a swing of rage, went +off again violently. His feet as he strode along the river-bank +trampled the flowers, and slew the pale water forget-me-not, which +grew among the grasses. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII. + + A MIND, AND NOT A MIND. + + +La Tribe tore through the thicket, imagining Carlat and Count Hannibal +hot on his heels. He dared not pause even to listen. The underwood +tripped him, the lissom branches of the alders whipped his face and +blinded him; once he fell headlong over a moss-grown stone, and picked +himself up groaning. But the hare hard-pushed takes no account of the +briars, nor does the fox heed the mud through which it draws itself +into covert. And for the time he was naught but a hunted beast. With +elbows pinned to his sides, or with hands extended to ward off the +boughs, with bursting lungs and crimson face, he plunged through the +tangle, now slipping downwards, now leaping upwards, now all but +prostrate, now breasting a mass of thorns. On and on he ran, until he +came to the verge of the wood, saw before him an open meadow devoid of +shelter or hiding-place, and with a groan of despair cast himself +flat. He listened. How far were they behind him? + +He heard nothing. Nothing, save the common noises of the wood, the +angry chatter of a disturbed blackbird as it flew low into hiding, or +the harsh notes of a flock of starlings as they rose from the meadow. +The hum of bees filled the air, and the August flies buzzed about his +sweating brow, for he had lost his cap. But behind him--nothing. +Already the stillness of the wood had closed upon his track. + +He was not the less panic-stricken. He supposed that Tavannes' people +were getting to horse, and calculated that if they surrounded and beat +the wood, he must be taken. At the thought, though he had barely got +his breath, he rose, and keeping within the coppice crawled down the +slope towards the river. Gently, when he reached it, he slipped into +the water, and stooping below the level of the bank, his head and +shoulders hidden by the bushes, he waded down stream until he had put +another hundred and fifty yards between himself and pursuit. Then he +paused and listened. Still he heard nothing, and he waded on again, +until the water grew deep. At this point he marked a little below +him a clump of trees on the farther side; and reflecting that that +side--if he could reach it unseen--would be less suspect, he swam +across, aiming for a thorn bush which grew low to the water. Under its +shelter he crawled out, and, worming himself like a snake across the +few yards of grass which intervened, he stood at length within the +shadow of the trees. A moment he paused to shake himself, and then, +remembering that he was still within a mile of the camp, he set off, +now walking, and now running in the direction of the hills which his +party had crossed that morning. + +For a time he hurried on, thinking only of escape. But when he had +covered a mile or two, and escape seemed probable, there began to +mingle with his thankfulness a bitter--a something which grew more +bitter with each moment. Why had he fled and left the work undone? Why +had he given way to unworthy fear, when the letters were within his +grasp? True, if he had lingered a few seconds longer, he would have +failed to make good his escape; but what of that if in those seconds +he had destroyed the letters, he had saved Angers, he had saved his +brethren? Alas! he had played the coward. The terror of Tavannes' +voice had unmanned him. He had saved himself and left the flock to +perish; he, whom God had set apart by many and great signs for this +work! + +He had commonly courage enough. He could have died at the stake for +his convictions. But he had not the presence of mind which is proof +against a shock, nor the cool judgment which, in the face of death, +sees to the end of two roads. He was no coward, but now he deemed +himself one, and in an agony of remorse he flung himself on his face +in the long grass. He had known trials and temptations, but hitherto +he had held himself erect; now, like Peter, he had betrayed his Lord. + +He lay an hour groaning in the misery of his heart, and then he fell +on the text "Thou art Peter, and on this rock----" and he sat up. Peter +had betrayed his trust through cowardice--as he had. But Peter had not +been held unworthy. Might it not be so with him? He rose to his feet, +a new light in his eyes. He would return! He would return, and at all +costs, even at the cost of surrendering himself, he would obtain +access to the letters. And then--not the fear of Count Hannibal, not +the fear of instant death, should turn him from his duty. + +He had cast himself down in a woodland glade which lay near the path +along which he had ridden that morning. But the mental conflict from +which he rose had shaken him so violently that he could not recall the +side on which he had entered the clearing, and he turned himself +about, endeavouring to remember. At that moment the light jingle of a +bridle struck his ear; he caught through the green bushes the flash +and sparkle of harness. They had tracked him then, they were here! So +had he clear proof that this second chance was to be his. In a happy +fervour he stood forward where the pursuers could not fail to see him. + +Or so he thought. Yet the first horseman, riding carelessly with his +face averted and his feet dangling, would have gone by and seen +nothing if his horse, more watchful, had not shied. The man turned +then; and for a moment the two stared at one another between the +pricked ears of the horse. At last, + +"M. de Tignonville!" the minister ejaculated. + +"La Tribe!" + +"It is truly you?" + +"Well--I think so," the young man answered. + +The minister lifted up his eyes and seemed to call the trees and the +clouds and the birds to witness. "Now," he cried, "I know that I am +chosen! And that we were instruments to do this thing from the day +when the hen saved us in the hay-cart in Paris! Now I know that all is +forgiven and all is ordained, and that the faithful of Angers shall +to-morrow live and not die!" And with a face radiant, yet solemn, he +walked to the young man's stirrup. + +An instant Tignonville looked sharply before him. "How far ahead are +they?" he asked. His tone, hard and matter-of-fact, was little in +harmony with the other's enthusiasm. + +"They are resting a league before you, at the ferry. You are in +pursuit of them?" + +"Yes." + +"Not alone?" + +"No." The young man's look as he spoke was grim. "I have five behind +me--of your kidney, M. La Tribe. They are from the Arsenal. They have +lost one his wife, and one his son. The three others----" + +"Yes?" + +"Sweethearts," Tignonville answered drily. And he cast a singular look +at the minister. + +But La Tribe's mind was so full of one matter, he could think only of +that. "How did you hear of the letters?" he asked. + +"The letters?" + +"Yes." + +"I do not know what you mean." + +La Tribe stared. "Then why are you following him?" he asked. + +"Why?" Tignonville echoed, a look of hate darkening his face. "Do you +ask why we follow----" But on the name he seemed to choke and was +silent. + +By this time his men had come up, and one answered for him. "Why are +we following Hannibal de Tavannes?" he said sternly. "To do to him as +he has done to us! To rob him as he has robbed us--of more than gold! +To kill him as he has killed ours, foully and by surprise! In his bed +if we can! In the arms of his wife if God wills it!" + +The speaker's face was haggard from brooding and lack of sleep, but +his eyes glowed and burned, as his fellows growled assent. + +"'Tis simple why we follow," a second put in. "Is there a man of our +faith who will not, when he hears the tale, rise up and stab the +nearest of this black brood--though it be his brother? If so, God's +curse on him!" + +"Amen! Amen!" + +"So, and so only," cried the first, "shall there be faith in our land! +And our children, our little maids, shall lie safe in their beds!" + +"Amen! Amen!" + +The speaker's chin sank on his breast, and with his last word the +light died out of his eyes. La Tribe looked at him curiously, then at +the others. Last of all at Tignonville, on whose face he fancied that +he surprised a faint smile. Yet Tignonville's tone when he spoke was +grave enough. "You have heard," he said. "Do you blame us?" + +"I cannot," the minister answered, shivering. "I can not." He had been +for a while beyond the range of these feelings; and in the greenwood, +under God's heaven, with the sunshine about him, they jarred on him. +Yet he could not blame men who had suffered as these had suffered; who +were maddened, as these were maddened, by the gravest wrongs which it +is possible for one man to inflict on another. "I dare not," he +continued sorrowfully. "But in God's name I offer you a higher and a +nobler errand." + +"We need none," Tignonville muttered impatiently. + +"Yet may others need you," La Tribe answered in a tone of rebuke. "You +are not aware that the man you follow bears a packet from the King for +the hands of the magistrates of Angers?" + +"Ha! Does he?" + +"Bidding them do at Angers as his Majesty has done in Paris?" + +The men broke into cries of execration. "But he shall not see Angers!" +they swore. "The blood that he has shed shall choke him by the way! +And as he would do to others it shall be done to him." + +La Tribe shuddered as he listened, as he looked. Try as he would, the +thirst of these men for vengeance appalled him. "How?" he said. "He +has a score and more with him: and you are only six." + +"Seven now," Tignonville answered with a smile. + +"True, but----" + +"And he lies to-night at La Fleche? That is so!" + +"It was his intention this morning." + +"At the old King's Inn at the meeting of the great roads?" + +"It was mentioned," La Tribe admitted, with a reluctance he did not +comprehend. "But if the night be fair he is as like as not to lie in +the fields." + +One of the men pointed to the sky. A dark bank of cloud fresh risen +from the ocean, and big with tempest, hung low in the west. "See! God +will deliver him into our hands!" he cried. + +Tignonville nodded. "If he lie there," he said, "He will." And then to +one of his followers, as he dismounted, "Do you ride on," he said, +"and stand guard that we be not surprised. And do you, Perrot, tell +monsieur. Perrot here, as God wills it," he added with a faint smile +which did not escape the minister's eye, "married his wife from the +great inn at La Fleche, and he knows the place." + +"None better," the man growled. He was a sullen, brooding knave, whose +eyes when he looked up surprised by their savage fire. + +La Tribe shook his head. "I know it, too," he said. "'Tis strong as a +fortress, with a walled court, and all the windows look inwards. The +gates are closed an hour after sunset, no matter who is without. If +you think, M. de Tignonville, to take him there----" + +"Patience, monsieur, you have not heard me," Perrot interposed. "I +know it after another fashion. Do you remember a rill of water which +runs through the great yard and the stables?" + +La Tribe nodded. + +"Grated with iron at either end, and no passage for so much as a dog? +You do? Well, monsieur, I have hunted rats there, and where the water +passes under the wall is a culvert, a man's height in length. In it is +a stone, one of those which frame the grating at the entrance, which a +strong man can remove--and the man is in!" + +"Ay, in! But where!" La Tribe asked, his eyebrows drawn together. + +"Well said, monsieur, where?" Perrot rejoined in a tone of triumph. +"There lies the point. In the stables, where will be sleeping men, and +a snorer on every truss? No, but in a fairway between two stables +where the water at its entrance runs clear in a stone channel; a +channel deepened in one place that they may draw for the chambers +above with a rope and a bucket. The rooms above are the best in the +house, four in one row, opening all on the gallery; which was +uncovered, in the common fashion, until Queen-Mother Jezebel, passing +that way to Nantes, two years back, found the chambers draughty; and +that end of the gallery was closed in against her return. Now, +monsieur, he and his madame will lie there; and he will feel safe, for +there is but one way to those four rooms---through the door which +shuts off the covered gallery from the open part. But----" he glanced +up an instant and La Tribe caught the smouldering fire in his +eyes--"we shall not go in by the door." + +"The bucket rises through a trap?" + +"In the gallery? To be sure, monsieur. In the corner beyond the fourth +door. There shall he fall into the pit which he dug for others, and +the evil that he planned rebound on his own head!" + +La Tribe was silent. "What think you of it?" Tignonville asked. + +"That it is cleverly planned," the minister answered. + +"No more than that!" + +"No more until I have eaten." + +"Get him something!" Tignonville replied in a surly tone. "And we may +as well eat, ourselves. Lead the horses into the wood. And do you, +Perrot, call Tuez-les-Moines, who is forward. Two hours' riding should +bring us to La Fleche. We need not leave here, therefore, until the +sun is low. To dinner! To dinner!" + +Probably he did not feel the indifference he affected, for his face as +he ate grew darker, and from time to time he shot a glance, barbed +with suspicion, at the minister. La Tribe on his side remained silent, +although the men ate apart. He was in doubt, indeed, as to his own +feelings. His instinct and his reason were at odds. Through all, +however, a single purpose, the rescue of Angers, held good, and +gradually other things fell into their places. When the meal was at an +end, and Tignonville challenged him, he was ready. + +"Your enthusiasm seems to have waned," the younger man said with a +sneer, "since we met, monsieur! May I ask now if you find any fault +with the plan?" + +"With the plan, none." + +"If it was Providence brought us together, was it not Providence +furnished me with Perrot who knows La Fleche? If it was Providence +brought the danger of the faithful in Angers to your knowledge, was it +not Providence set us on the road--without whom you had been +powerless?" + +"I believe it!" + +"Then, in His name, what is the matter?" Tignonville rejoined with a +passion of which the other's manner seemed an inadequate cause. "What +will you? What is it?" + +"I would take your place," La Tribe answered quietly. + +"My place?" + +"Yes." + +"What, are we too many?" + +"We are enough without you, M. Tignonville," the minister answered. +"These men, who have wrongs to avenge, God will justify them." + +Tignonville's eyes sparkled with anger. "And have I no wrongs to +avenge?" he cried. "Is it nothing to lose my mistress, to be robbed of +my wife, to see the woman I love dragged off to be a slave and a toy? +Are these no wrongs?" + +"He spared your life, if he did not save it," the minister said +solemnly. "And hers. And her servants." + +"To suit himself." + +La Tribe spread out his hands. + +"To suit himself! And for that you wish him to go free?" Tignonville +cried in a voice half-choked with rage. "Do you know that this man, +and this man alone, stood forth in the great Hall of the Louvre, and +when even the King flinched, justified the murder of our people? After +that is he to go free?" + +"At your hands," La Tribe answered quietly. "You alone of our people +must not pursue him." He would have added more, but Tignonville would +not listen. + +Brooding on his wrongs behind the wall of the Arsenal, he had let +hatred eat away his more generous instincts. Vain and conceited, he +fancied that the world laughed at the poor figure he had cut; and the +wound in his vanity festered until nothing would serve but to see the +downfall of his enemy. Instant pursuit, instant vengeance--only these, +he fancied, could restore him in his fellows' eyes. + +In his heart he knew what would become him better. But vanity is a +potent motive: and his conscience, even when supported by La Tribe, +struggled but weakly. From neither would he hear more. "You have +travelled with him, until you side with him!" he cried violently. +"Have a care, monsieur, have a care lest we think you papist!" And +walking over to the men he bade them saddle; adding a sour word which +turned their eyes, in no friendly gaze, on the minister. + +After that La Tribe said no more. Of what use would it have been? + +But as darkness came on and cloaked the little troop, and the storm +which the men had foreseen began to rumble in the west, his distaste +for the business waxed. The summer lightning which presently began to +play across the sky revealed not only the broad gleaming stream, +between which and a wooded hill their road ran, but the faces of his +companions; and these in their turn shed a grisly light on the bloody +enterprise towards which they were set. Nervous and ill at ease, the +minister's mind dwelt on the stages of that enterprise; the stealthy +entrance through the waterway, the ascent through the trap, the +surprise, the slaughter in the sleeping-chamber. And either because he +had lived for days in the victim's company, or was swayed by the +arguments he had addressed to another, the prospect shook his soul. + +In vain he told himself that this was the oppressor; he saw only the +man, fresh roused from sleep, with the horror of impending dissolution +in his eyes. And when the rider, behind whom he sat, pointed to a +faint spark of light, at no great distance before them, and whispered +that it was St. Agnes 's Chapel, hard by the inn, he could have cried +with the best Catholic of them all, "Inter pontem et fontem, Domine!" +Nay, some such words did pass his lips. + +For the man before him turned half-way in his saddle. "What?" he +asked. + +But the Huguenot did not explain. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIV. + + AT THE KING'S INN. + + +The Countess sat up in the darkness of the chamber. She had writhed +since noon under the stings of remorse; she could bear them no longer. +The slow declension of the day, the evening light, the signs of coming +tempest which had driven her company to the shelter of the inn at the +cross-roads, all had racked her, by reminding her that the hours were +flying, and that soon the fault she had committed would be +irreparable. One impulsive attempt to redeem it she had made, we know; +but it had failed, and, by rendering her suspect, had made reparation +more difficult. Still, by daylight it had seemed possible to rest +content with the trial made; not so now, when night had fallen, and +the cries of little children and the haggard eyes of mothers peopled +the darkness of her chamber. She sat up, and listened with throbbing +temples. + +To shut out the lightning which played at intervals across the +heavens, Madame St. Lo, who shared the room, had covered the window +with a cloak; and the place was dark. To exclude the dull roll of the +thunder was less easy, for the night was oppressively hot, and behind +the cloak the casement was open. Gradually, too, another sound, the +hissing fall of heavy rain, began to make itself heard, and to mingle +with the regular breathing which proved that Madame St. Lo slept. + +Assured of this fact, the Countess presently heaved a sigh, and +slipped from the bed. She groped in the darkness for her cloak, found +it, and donned it over her night-gear. Then, taking her bearings by +her bed, which stood with its head to the window and its foot to the +entrance, she felt her way across the floor to the door, and after +passing her hands a dozen times over every part of it, she found the +latch, and raised it. The door creaked, as she pulled it open, and she +stood arrested; but the sound went no farther, for the roofed gallery +outside, which looked by two windows on the courtyard, was full of +outdoor noises, the rushing of rain and the running of spouts and +eaves. One of the windows stood wide, admitting the rain and wind, and +as she paused, holding the door open, the draught blew the cloak from +her. She stepped out quickly and shut the door behind her. On her left +was the blind end of the passage; she turned to the right. She took +one step into the darkness and stood motionless. Beside her, within a +few feet of her, some one had moved, with a dull sound as of a boot on +wood; a sound so near her that she held her breath, and pressed +herself against the wall. + +She listened. Perhaps some of the servants--it was a common usage--had +made their beds on the floor. Perhaps one of the women had stirred in +the room against the wall of which she crouched. Perhaps--but, even +while she reassured herself, the sound rose anew at her feet. + +Fortunately at the same instant the glare of the lightning flooded +all, and showed the passage, and showed it empty. It lit up the row of +doors on her right and the small windows on her left; and discovered +facing her, the door which shut off the rest of the house. She could +have thanked--nay, she did thank God for that light. If the sound she +had heard recurred she did not hear it; for, as the thunder which +followed hard on the flash, crashed overhead and rolled heavily +eastwards, she felt her way boldly along the passage, touching first +one door, and then a second, and then a third. + +She groped for the latch of the last, and found it, but, with her hand +on it, paused. In order to summon up her courage, she strove to hear +again the cries of misery and to see again the haggard eyes which had +driven her hither. And if she did not wholly succeed, other +reflections came to her aid. This storm, which covered all smaller +noises, and opened, now and again, God's lantern for her use, did it +not prove that He was on her side, and that she might count on His +protection? The thought at least was timely, and with a better heart +she gathered her wits. Waiting until the thunder burst over her head, +she opened the door, slid within it, and closed it. She would fain +have left it ajar, that in case of need she might escape the more +easily. But the wind, which beat into the passage through the open +window, rendered the precaution too perilous. + +She went forward two paces into the room, and as the roll of the +thunder died away she stooped forward and listened with painful +intensity for the sound of Count Hannibal's breathing. But the window +was open, and the hiss of the rain persisted; she could hear nothing +through it, and fearfully she took another step forward. The window +should be before her; the bed in the corner to the left. But nothing +of either could she make out. She must wait for the lightning. + +It came, and for a second or more the room shone. The window, the low +truckle-bed, the sleeper, she saw all with dazzling clearness, and +before the flash had well passed she was crouching low, with the hood +of her cloak dragged about her face. For the glare had revealed Count +Hannibal; but not asleep! He lay on his side, his face towards her; +lay with open eyes, staring at her. + +Or had the light tricked her? The light must have tricked her, for in +the interval between the flash and the thunder, while she crouched +quaking, he did not move or call. The light must have deceived her. +She felt so certain of it that she found courage to remain where she +was until another flash came and showed him sleeping with closed eyes. + +She drew a breath of relief at that, and rose slowly to her feet. But +she dared not go forward until a third flash had confirmed the second. +Then, while the thunder burst overhead and rolled away, she crept on +until she stood beside the pillow, and stooping, could hear the +sleeper's breathing. + +Alas! the worst remained to be done. The packet, she was sure of it, +lay under his pillow. How was she to find it, how remove it without +rousing him? A touch might awaken him. And yet, if she would not +return empty-handed, if she would not go back to the harrowing +thoughts which had tortured her through the long hours of the day, it +must be done, and done now. + +She knew this, yet she hung irresolute a while, blenching before the +manual act, listening to the persistent rush and downpour of the rain. +Then a second time she drew courage from the storm. How timely had it +broken! How signally had it aided her! How slight had been her chance +without it! And so at last, resolutely but with a deft touch, she slid +her fingers between the pillow and the bed, slightly pressing down the +latter with her other hand. For an instant she fancied that the +sleeper's breathing stopped, and her heart gave a great bound. But the +breathing went on the next instant--if it had stopped--and dreading +the return of the lightning, shrinking from being revealed so near +him, and in that act--for which the darkness seemed more fitting--she +groped farther, and touched something. And then, as her fingers closed +upon it and grasped it, and his breath rose hot to her burning cheek, +she knew that the real danger lay in the withdrawal. + +At the first attempt he uttered a kind of grunt and moved, throwing +out his hand. She thought that he was going to awake, and had hard +work to keep herself where she was; but he did not move, and she began +again with so infinite a precaution that the perspiration ran down her +face and her hair within the hood hung dank on her neck. Slowly, oh so +slowly, she drew back the hand, and with it the packet; so slowly, and +yet so resolutely, being put to it, that when the dreaded flash +surprised her, and she saw his harsh swarthy face, steeped in the +mysterious aloofness of sleep, within a hand's breadth of hers, not a +muscle of her arm moved, nor did her hand quiver. + +It was done--at last! With a burst of gratitude, of triumph, of +exultation, she stood erect. She realised that it was done, and that +here in her hand she held the packet. A deep gasp of relief, of joy, +of thankfulness, and she glided towards the door. + +She groped for the latch, and in the act fancied his breathing was +changed. She paused and bent her head to listen. But the patter of the +rain, drowning all sounds save those of the nearest origin, persuaded +her that she was mistaken, and, finding the latch, she raised it, +slipped like a shadow into the passage, and closed the door behind +her. + +That done she stood arrested, all the blood in her body running to her +heart. She must be dreaming! The passage in which she stood--the +passage which she had left in black darkness--was alight; was so far +lighted, at least, that to eyes fresh from the night, the figures of +three men, grouped at the farther end, stood out against the glow of +the lantern which they appeared to be trimming--for the two nearest +were stooping over it. These two had their backs to her, the third his +face; and it was the sight of this third man which had driven the +blood to her heart. He ended at the waist! It was only after a few +seconds, it was only when she had gazed at him awhile in speechless +horror, that he rose another foot from the floor, and she saw that he +had paused in the act of ascending through a trapdoor. What the scene +meant, who these men were, or what their entrance portended, with +these questions her brain refused at the moment to grapple. It was +much that--still remembering who might hear her, and what she +held--she did not shriek aloud. + +Instead, she stood in the gloom at her end of the passage, gazing with +all her eyes until she had seen the third man step clear of the trap. +She could see him; but the light intervened and blurred his view of +her. He stooped, almost as soon as he had cleared himself, to help up +a fourth man, who rose with a naked knife between his teeth. She saw +then that all were armed, and something stealthy in their bearing, +something cruel in their eyes as the light of the lantern fell now on +one dark face and now on another, went to her heart and chilled it. +Who were they, and why were they here? What was their purpose? As her +reason awoke, as she asked herself these questions, the fourth man +stooped in his turn, and gave his hand to a fifth. And on that she +lost her self-control and cried out. For the last man to ascend was La +Tribe! La Tribe, from whom she had parted that morning! + +The sound she uttered was low, but it reached the men's ears, and the +two whose backs were towards her turned as if they had been pricked. +He who held the lantern raised it, and the five glared at her and she +at them. Then a second cry, louder and more full of surprise, burst +from her lips. The nearest man, he who held the lantern high that he +might view her, was Tignonville, was her lover! + +"_Mon Dieu!_" she whispered. "What is it? What is it?" + +Then, not till then, did he know her. Until then the light of the +lantern had revealed only a cloaked and cowled figure, a gloomy +phantom which shook the heart of more than one with superstitious +terror. But they knew her now--two of them; and slowly, as in a dream, +Tignonville came forward. + +The mind has its moments of crisis, in which it acts upon instinct +rather than upon reason. The girl never knew why she acted as she did; +why she asked no questions, why she uttered no exclamations, no +remonstrances. Why, with a finger on her lips and her eyes on his, she +put the packet into his hands. + +He took it from her, too, as mechanically as she gave it--with the +hand which held his bare blade. That done, silent as she, with his +eyes set hard, he would have gone by her. The sight of her there, +guarding the door of him who had stolen her from him, exasperated his +worst passions. + +But she moved to hinder him, and barred the way. With her hand raised +she pointed to the trapdoor. "Go now!" she whispered, her tone stern +and low, "you have what you want! Go!" + +"No!" And he tried to pass her. + +"Go!" she repeated in the same tone. "You have what you need." And +still she held her hand extended; still without faltering she faced +the five men, while the thunder, growing more distant, rolled sullenly +eastward, and the midnight rain, pouring from every spout and dripping +eave about the house, wrapped the passage in its sibilant hush. +Gradually her eyes dominated his, gradually her nobler nature and +nobler aim subdued his weaker parts. For she understood now; and he +saw that she did, and had he been alone he would have slunk away, and +said no word in his defence. + +But one of the men, savage and out of patience, thrust himself between +them. "Where is he?" he muttered. "What is the use of this? Where is +he?" And his bloodshot eyes--it was Tuez-les-Moines--questioned the +doors, while his hand, trembling and shaking on the haft of his knife, +bespoke his eagerness. "Where is he? Where is he, woman? Quick, +or----" + +"I shall not tell you," she answered. + +"You lie," he cried, grinning like a dog. "You will tell us! Or we +will kill you, too! Where is he? Where is he?" + +"I shall not tell you," she repeated, standing before him in the +fearlessness of scorn. "Another step and I rouse the house! M. de +Tignonville, to you who know me, I swear that if this man does not +retire----" + +"He is in one of these rooms?" was Tignonville's answer. "In which? In +which?" + +"Search them!" she answered, her voice low, but biting in its +contempt. "Try them. Rouse my women, alarm the house! And when you +have his people at your throats--five as they will be to one of +you--thank your own mad folly!" + +Tuez-les-Moines' eyes glittered. "You will not tell us?" he cried. + +"No!" + +"Then----" + +But as the fanatic sprang on her, La Tribe flung his arms round him +and dragged him back. "It would be madness," he cried. "Are you mad, +fool? Have done!" he panted, struggling with him. "If madame gives the +alarm--and he may be in any one of these four rooms, you cannot be +sure which--we are undone." He looked for support to Tignonville, +whose movement to protect the girl he had anticipated, and who had +since listened sullenly. "We have obtained what we need. Will you +requite madame, who has gained it for us at her own risk----" + +"It is monsieur I would requite," Tignonville muttered grimly. + +"By using violence to her?" the minister retorted passionately. He and +Tuez were still gripping one another. "I tell you, to go on is to risk +what we have got! And I for one----" + +"Am chicken-hearted!" the young man sneered. "Madame--" he seemed to +choke on the word. "Will you swear that he is not here?" + +"I swear that if you do not go I will raise the alarm!" she +hissed--all their words were sunk to that stealthy note. "Go! if you +have not stayed too long already. Go! Or see!" And she pointed to the +trapdoor, from which the face and arms of a sixth man had that moment +risen--the face dark with perturbation, so that her woman's wit told +her at once that something was amiss. "See what has come of your delay +already!" + +"The water is rising," the man muttered earnestly. "In God's name +come, whether you have done it or not, or we cannot pass out again. It +is within a foot of the crown of the culvert now, and it is rising." + +"Curse on the water!" Tuez-les-Moines answered in a frenzied whisper. +"And on this Jezebel. Let us kill her and him! What matter +afterwards?" And he tried to shake off La Tribe's grasp. + +But the minister held him desperately. "Are you mad? Are you mad?" he +answered. "What can we do against thirty? Let us be gone while we can. +Let us be gone! Come." + +"Ay, come," Perrot cried, assenting reluctantly. He had taken no side +hitherto. "The luck is against us! 'Tis no use to-night, man!" And he +turned with an air of sullen resignation. Letting his legs drop +through the trap he followed the bearer of the tidings out of sight. +Another made up his mind to go, and went. Then only Tignonville +holding the lantern, and La Tribe, who feared to release +Tuez-les-Moines, remained with the fanatic. + +The Countess's eyes met her old lover's, and whether old memories +overcame her, or, now that the danger was nearly past, she began to +give way, she swayed a little on her feet. But he did not notice it. +He was sunk in black rage: rage against her, rage against himself. +"Take the light," she muttered unsteadily. "And--and he must follow!" + +"And you?" + +But she could bear it no longer. "Oh, go," she wailed. "Go! Will you +never go? If you love me, if you ever loved me, I implore you to go." + +He had betrayed little of a lover's feeling. But he could not resist +that appeal, and he turned silently. Seizing Tuez-les-Moines by the +other arm, he drew him by force to the trap. "Quiet, fool," he +muttered savagely when the man would have resisted, "and go down! If +we stay to kill him, we shall have no way of escape, and his life will +be dearly bought. Down, man, down!" And between them, in a struggling +silence, with now and then an audible rap, or a ring of metal, the two +forced the desperado to descend. + +La Tribe followed hastily. Tignonville was the last to go. In the act +of disappearing he raised his lantern for a last glimpse of the +Countess. To his astonishment the passage was empty; she was gone. +Hard by him a door stood an inch or two ajar, and he guessed that it +was hers, and swore under his breath, hating her at that moment. But +he did not guess how nicely she had calculated her strength; how +nearly exhaustion had overcome her; or that even while he paused--a +fatal pause had he known it--eyeing the dark opening of the door, she +lay as one dead, on the bed within. She had fallen in a swoon, from +which she did not recover until the sun had risen, and marched across +one quarter of the heavens. + +Nor did he see another thing, or he might have hastened his steps. +Before the yellow light of his lantern faded from the ceiling of the +passage, the door of the room farthest from the trap slid open. A man, +whose eyes, until darkness swallowed him, shone strangely in a face +extraordinarily softened, came out on tip-toe. This man stood awhile, +listening. At length, hearing those below utter a cry of dismay, he +awoke to sudden activity. He opened with a turn of the key the door +which stood at his elbow, the door which led to the other part of the +house. He vanished through it. A second later a sharp whistle pierced +the darkness of the courtyard and brought a dozen sleepers to their +senses and their feet. A moment, and the courtyard hummed with voices, +above which one voice rang clear and insistent. With a startled cry +the inn awoke. + + + + + CHAPTER XXV. + + THE COMPANY OF THE BLEEDING HEART. + + +"But why," Madame. St. Lo asked, sticking her arms akimbo, "why stay +in this forsaken place a day and a night, when six hours in the saddle +would set us in Angers?" + +"Because," Tavannes replied coldly--he and his cousin were walking +before the gateway of the inn--"the Countess is not well, and will be +the better, I think, for staying a day." + +"She slept soundly enough! I'll answer for that!" + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +"She never raised her head this morning, though my women were +shrieking 'Murder!' next door, and----Name of Heaven!" madame resumed, +after breaking off abruptly, and shading her eyes with her hand, "what +comes here? Is it a funeral? Or a pilgrimage? If all the priests about +here are as black, no wonder M. Rabelais fell out with them!" + +The inn stood without the walls for the convenience of those who +wished to take the road early: a little also, perhaps, because food +and forage were cheaper, and the wine paid no town-dues. Four great +roads met before the house, along the most easterly of which the +sombre company which had caught Madame St. Lo's attention could be +seen approaching. At first Count Hannibal supposed with his companion +that the travellers were conveying to the grave the corpse of some +person of distinction; for the _cortege_ consisted mainly of priests +and the like mounted on mules, and clothed for the most part in black. +Black also was the small banner which waved above them, and bore in +place of arms the emblem of the Bleeding Heart. But a second glance +failed to discover either litter or bier; and a nearer approach showed +that the travellers, whether they wore the tonsure or not, bore +weapons of one kind or another about them. + +Suddenly Madame St. Lo clapped her hands, and proclaimed in great +astonishment that she knew them. "Why, there is Father Boucher, the +Cure of St.-Benoist!" she said, "and Father Pezelay of St. Magloire. +And there is another I know, though I cannot remember his name! They +are preachers from Paris! That is who they are! But what can they be +doing here? Is it a pilgrimage, think you?" + +"Ay, a pilgrimage of Blood!" Count Hannibal answered between his +teeth. And, turning to him to learn what moved him, she saw the look +in his eyes which portended a storm. Before she could ask a question, +however, the gloomy company, which had first appeared in the distance, +moving, an inky blot, through the hot sunshine of the summer morning, +had drawn near and was almost abreast of them. Stepping from her side, +he raised his hand and arrested the march. + +"Who is master here?" he asked haughtily. + +"I am the leader," answered a stout pompous Churchman, whose small +malevolent eyes belied the sallow fatuity of his face. "I, M. de +Tavannes, by your leave." + +"And you, by your leave," Tavannes sneered, "are----" + +"Archdeacon and Vicar of the Bishop of Angers and Prior of the Lesser +Brethren of St. Germain, M. le Comte. Visitor also of the Diocese of +Angers," the dignitary continued, puffing out his cheeks, "and +Chaplain to the Lieutenant-Governor of Saumur, whose unworthy brother +I am." + +"A handsome glove, and well embroidered!" Tavannes retorted in a tone +of disdain. "The hand I see yonder!" He pointed to the lean parchment +mask of Father Pezelay, who coloured ever so faintly, but held his +peace under the sneer. "You are bound for Angers!" Count Hannibal +continued. "For what purpose, Sir Prior!" + +"His Grace the Bishop is absent, and in his absence----" + +"You go to fill his city with strife! I know you! Not you!" he +continued, contemptuously turning from the Prior, and regarding the +third of the principal figures of the party. "But you! You were the +Cure who got the mob together last All Souls'." + +"I speak the words of Him Who sent me!" answered the third Churchman, +whose brooding face and dull curtained eyes gave no promise of the +fits of frenzied eloquence which had made his pulpit famous in Paris. + +"Then Kill and Burn are His alphabet!" Tavannes retorted, and heedless +of the start of horror which a saying so near blasphemy excited among +the Churchmen, he turned to Father Pezelay. "And you! You, too, I +know!" he continued. "And you know me! And take this from me. Turn, +father! Turn! Or worse than a broken head--you bear the scar I +see--will befall you. These good persons, whom you have moved, unless +I am in error, to take this journey, may not know me; but you do, and +can tell them. If they will to Angers, they must to Angers. But if I +find trouble in Angers when I come, I will hang some one high. Don't +scowl at me, man!"--in truth, the look of hate in Father Pezelay's +eyes was enough to provoke the exclamation. "Some one, and it shall +not be a bare patch on the crown will save his windpipe from +squeezing!" + +A murmur of indignation broke from the preachers' attendants; one or +two made a show of drawing their weapons. But Count Hannibal paid no +heed to them, and had already turned on his heel when Father Pezelay +spurred his mule a pace or two forward. Snatching a heavy brass cross +from one of the acolytes, he raised it aloft, and in the voice which +had often thrilled the heated congregation of St. Magloire, he called +on Tavannes to pause. + +"Stand, my lord!" he cried. "And take warning! Stand, reckless and +profane, whose face is set hard as a stone, and his heart as a flint, +against High Heaven and Holy Church! Stand and hear! Behold the word +of the Lord is gone out against this city, even against Angers, for +the unbelief thereof! Her place shall be left unto her desolate, and +her children shall be dashed against the stones! Woe unto you, +therefore, if you gainsay it, or fall short of that which is +commanded! You shall perish as Achan, the son of Charmi, and as Saul! +The curse that has gone out against you shall not tarry, nor your days +continue! For the Canaanitish woman that is in your house, and for the +thought that is in your heart, the place that was yours is given to +another! Yea, the sword is even now drawn that shall pierce your +side!" + +"You are more like to split my ears!" Count Hannibal answered sternly. +"And now mark me! Preach as you please here. But a word in Angers, and +though you be shaven twice over, I will have you silenced after a +fashion which will not please you! If you value your tongue therefore, +father----oh, you shake off the dust, do you? Well, pass on! 'Tis +wise, perhaps." + +And undismayed by the scowling brows, and the cross ostentatiously +lifted to heaven, he gazed after the procession as it moved on under +its swaying banner, now one and now another of the acolytes looking +back and raising his hands to invoke the bolt of Heaven on the +blasphemer. As the _cortege_ passed the huge watering-troughs, and the +open gateway of the inn, the knot of persons congregated there fell on +their knees. In answer the Churchmen raised their banner higher, and +began to sing the _Eripe me, Domine!_ and to its strains, now +vengeful, now despairing, now rising on a wave of menace, they passed +slowly into the distance, slowly towards Angers and the Loire. + +Suddenly Madame St. Lo twitched his sleeve. "Enough for me!" she cried +passionately. "I go no farther with you!" + +"Ah?" + +"No farther!" she repeated. She was pale, she shivered. "Many thanks, +my cousin, but we part company here. I do not go to Angers. I have +seen horrors enough. I will take my people, and go to my aunt by Tours +and the east road. For you, I foresee what will happen. You will +perish between the hammer and the anvil." + +"Ah?" + +"You play too fine a game," she continued, her face quivering. "Give +over the girl to her lover, and send away her people with her. And +wash your hands of her and hers. Or you will see her fall, and fall +beside her! Give her to him, I say--give her to him!" + +"My wife?" + +"Wife?" she echoed, for, fickle, and at all times swept away by the +emotions of the moment, she was in earnest now. "Is there a tie," and +she pointed after the vanishing procession, "that they cannot unloose? +That they will not unloose? Is there a life which escapes if they doom +it? Did the Admiral escape? Or Rochefoucauld? Or Madame de Luns in old +days? I tell you they go to rouse Angers against you, and I see +beforehand what will happen. She will perish, and you with her. Wife? +A pretty wife, at whose door you took her lover last night." + +"And at your door!" he answered quietly, unmoved by the gibe. + +But she did not heed. "I warned you of that!" she cried. "And you +would not believe me. I told you he was following. And I warn you of +this. You are between the hammer and the anvil, M. le Comte! If +Tignonville does not murder you in your bed----" + +"'Tis not likely while I hold him in my power." + +"Then Holy Church will fall on you and crush you. For me, I have seen +enough and more than enough. I go to Tours by the east road." + +He shrugged his shoulders. "As you please," he said. + +She flung away in disgust with him. She could not understand a man who +played fast and loose at such a time. The game was too fine for her, +its danger too apparent, the gain too small. She had, too, a woman's +dread of the Church, a woman's belief in the power of the dead hand to +punish. And in half an hour her orders were given. In two hours her +people were gathered, and she departed by the eastward road, three of +Tavannes' riders reinforcing her servants for a part of the way. Count +Hannibal stood to watch them start, and noticed Bigot riding by the +side of Suzanne's mule. He smiled; and presently, as he turned away, +he did a thing rare with him--he laughed outright. + +A laugh which reflected a mood rare as itself. Few had seen Count +Hannibal's eye sparkle as it sparkled now; few had seen him laugh as +he laughed, walking to and fro in the sunshine before the inn. His men +watched him, and wondered, and liked it little, for one or two who had +overheard his altercation with the Churchmen had reported it, and +there was shaking of heads over it. The man who had singed the Pope's +beard and chucked Cardinals under the chin was growing old, and the +most daring of the others had no mind to fight with foes whose weapons +were not of this world. + +Count Hannibal's gaiety, however, was well grounded, had they known +it. He was gay, not because he foresaw peril, and it was his nature to +love peril; nor--in the main, though a little, perhaps--because he +knew that the woman whose heart he desired to win had that night stood +between him and death; nor, though again a little, perhaps, because +she had confirmed his choice by conduct which a small man might have +deprecated, but which a great man loved; but chiefly, because the +events of the night had placed in his grasp two weapons by the aid of +which he looked to recover all the ground he had lost--lost by his +impulsive departure from the path of conduct on which he had started. + +Those weapons were Tignonville, taken like a rat in a trap by the +rising of the water; and the knowledge that the Countess had stolen +the precious packet from his pillow. The knowledge--for he had lain +and felt her breath upon his cheek, he had lain and felt her hand +beneath his pillow, he had lain while the impulse to fling his arms +about her had been almost more than he could tame! He had lain and +suffered her to go, to pass out safely as she had passed in. And then +he had received his reward in the knowledge that, if she robbed him, +she robbed him not for herself; and that where it was a question of +his life she did not fear to risk her own. + +When he came, indeed, to that point, he trembled. How narrowly had he +been saved from misjudging her! Had he not lain and waited, had he not +possessed himself in patience, he might have been led to think her in +collusion with the old lover whom he found at her door, and with those +who came to slay him. Either he might have perished unwarned; or +escaping that danger, he might have detected her with Tignonville and +lost for all time the ideal of a noble woman. + +He had escaped that peril. More, he had gained the weapons we have +indicated; and the sense of power, in regard to her, almost +intoxicated him. Surely if he wielded those weapons to the best +advantage, if he strained generosity to the uttermost, the citadel of +her heart must yield at last. + +He had the defect of his courage and his nature, a tendency to do +things after a flamboyant fashion. He knew that her act would plunge +him in perils which he had not foreseen. If the preachers roused the +Papists of Angers, if he arrived to find men's swords whetted for the +massacre and the men themselves awaiting the signal, then if he did +not give that signal there would be trouble. There would be trouble of +the kind in which the soul of Hannibal de Tavannes revelled, trouble +about the ancient cathedral and under the black walls of the Angevin +castle, trouble amid which the hearts of common men would be as water. + +Then, when things seemed at their worst, he would reveal his +knowledge. Then, when forgiveness must seem impossible, he would +forgive. With the flood of peril which she had unloosed rising round +them, he would say, "Go!" to the man who had aimed at his life; he +would say to her, "I know, and I forgive!" That, that only, would +fitly crown the policy on which he had decided from the first, though +he had not hoped to conduct it on lines so splendid as those which now +dazzled him. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVI. + + TEMPER. + + +It was his gaiety, that strange unusual gaiety, still continuing, +which on the following day began by perplexing and ended by terrifying +the Countess. She could not doubt that he had missed the packet on +which so much hung and of which he had indicated the importance. But +if he had missed it, why, she asked herself, did he not speak? Why did +he not cry the alarm, search and question and pursue? Why did he not +give her the opening to tell the truth, without which even her courage +failed, her resolution died within her? + +Above all, what was the secret of his strange merriment? Of the +snatches of song which broke from him, only to be hushed by her look +of astonishment? Of the parades which his horse, catching the +infection, made under him, as he tossed his riding-cane high in the +air and caught it? + +Ay, what? Why, when he had suffered so great a loss, when he had been +robbed of that of which he must give account--why did he cast off his +melancholy and ride like the youngest? She wondered what the men +thought, and looking, saw them stare, saw that they watched him +stealthily, saw that they laid their heads together. What were they +thinking of it? She could not tell; and slowly a terror, more +insistent than any to which the extremity of violence would have +reduced her, began to grip her heart. + +Twenty hours of rest had lifted her from the state of collapse into +which the events of the night had cast her; still her limbs at +starting had shaken under her. But the cool freshness of the early +summer morning, and the sight of the green landscape and the winding +Loir, beside which their road ran, had not failed to revive her +spirits; and if he had shown himself merely gloomy, merely sunk in +revengeful thoughts, or darting hither and thither the glance of +suspicion, she felt that she could have faced him, and on the first +opportunity could have told him the truth. + +But this strange mood veiled she knew not what. It seemed, if she +comprehended it at all, the herald of some bizarre, some dreadful +vengeance, in harmony with his fierce and mocking spirit. Before it +her heart became as water. Even her colour little by little left her +cheeks. She knew that he had only to look at her now to read the +truth; that it was written in her face, in her shrinking figure, in +the eyes which now guiltily sought and now avoided his. And feeling +sure that he did read it and know it, she fancied that he licked his +lips, as the cat which plays with the mouse; she fancied that he +gloated on her terror and her perplexity. + +This, though the day and the road were warrants for all cheerful +thoughts. On one side vineyards clothed the warm red slopes, and rose +in steps from the river to the white buildings of a convent. On the +other the stream wound through green flats where the black cattle +stood knee-deep in grass, watched by wild-eyed and half-naked youths. +Again the travellers lost sight of the Loir, and crossing a shoulder, +rode through the dim aisles of a beech-forest, through deep rustling +drifts of last year's leaves. And out again and down again they +passed, and turning aside from the gateway, trailed along beneath the +brown machicolated wall of an old town, from the crumbling battlements +of which faces half-sleepy, half-suspicious, watched them as they +moved below through the glare and heat. Down to the river-level again, +where a squalid anchorite, seated at the mouth of a cave dug in the +bank, begged of them, and the bell of a monastery on the farther bank +tolled slumberously the hour of Nones. + +And still he said nothing, and she, cowed by his mysterious gaiety, +yet spurning herself for her cowardice, was silent also. He hoped to +arrive at Angers before nightfall. What, she wondered, shivering, +would happen there? What was he planning to do to her? How would he +punish her? Brave as she was, she was a woman, with a woman's nerves; +and fear and anticipation got upon them; and his silence--his silence +which must mean a thing worse than words! + +And then on a sudden, piercing all, a new thought. Was it possible +that he had other letters? If his bearing were consistent with +anything, it was consistent with that. Had he other genuine letters, +or had he duplicate letters, so that he had lost nothing, but instead +had gained the right to rack and torture her, to taunt and despise +her? + +That thought stung her into sudden self-betrayal. They were riding +along a broad dusty track which bordered a stone causey raised above +the level of winter floods; impulsively she turned to him. "You +have other letters!" she cried. "You have other letters!" And freed +for the moment from her terror, she fixed her eyes on his and strove +to read his face. + +He looked at her, his mouth grown hard. "What do you mean, madame?" he +asked. + +"You have other letters?" + +"For whom?" + +"From the King, for Angers!" + +He saw that she was going to confess, that she was going to derange +his cherished plan; and unreasonable anger awoke in the man who had +been more than willing to forgive a real injury. "Will you explain?" +he said between his teeth. And his eyes glittered unpleasantly. "What +do you mean?" + +"You have other letters," she persisted, "besides those which I +stole." + +"Which you stole?" He repeated the words without passion. Enraged by +this unexpected turn, he hardly knew how to take it. + +"Yes, I!" she cried. "I! I took them from under your pillow!" + +He was silent a minute. Then he laughed and shook his head. "It will +not do, madame," he said, his lip curling. "You are clever, but you do +not deceive me." + +"Deceive you?" + +"Yes." + +"You do not believe that I took the letters?" she cried in great +amazement. + +"No," he answered; "and for a good reason." He had hardened his heart +now. He had chosen his line, and he would not spare her. + +"Why, then?" she cried. "Why?" + +"For the best of all reasons," he answered. "Because the person who +stole the letters was seized in the act of making his escape, and is +now in my power." + +"The person--who stole the letters?" she faltered. + +"Yes, madame." + +"Do you mean M. de Tignonville?" + +"You have said it." + +She turned white to the lips, and trembling could with difficulty sit +her horse. With an effort she pulled it up, and he stopped also. Their +attendants were some way ahead. "And you have the letters?" she +whispered, her eyes meeting his. "You have the letters?" + +"No, but I have the thief!" Count Hannibal answered with sinister +meaning. "As I think you knew, madame," he continued ironically, "a +while back before you spoke." + +"I? Oh, no, no!" and she swayed in her saddle. "What--what are +you--going to do?" she muttered after a moment's stricken silence. + +"To him?" + +"Yes." + +"The magistrates will decide, at Angers." + +"But he did not do it! I swear he did not." + +Count Hannibal shook his head coldly. + +"I swear, monsieur, I took the letters!" she repeated piteously. +"Punish me!" Her figure, bowed like an old woman's over the neck of +her horse, seemed to crave his mercy. + +Count Hannibal smiled. + +"You do not believe me?" + +"No," he said. And then, in a tone which chilled her, "If I did +believe you," he continued, "I should still punish him!" She was +broken; but he would see if he could not break her further. He would +try if there were no weak spot in her armour. He would rack her now, +since in the end she must go free. "Understand, madame," he continued +in his harshest tone, "I have had enough of your lover. He has crossed +my path too often. You are my wife, I am your husband. In a day or two +there shall be an end of this farce and of him." + +"He did not take them!" she wailed, her face sinking lower on her +breast. "He did not take them! Have mercy!" + +"Any way, madame, they are gone!" Tavannes answered. "You have taken +them between you; and as I do not choose that you should pay, he will +pay the price." + +If the discovery that Tignonville had fallen into her husband's hands +had not sufficed to crush her, Count Hannibal's tone must have done +so. The shoot of new life which had raised its head after those +dreadful days in Paris, and--for she was young--had supported her +under the weight which the peril of Angers had cast on her shoulders, +died, bruised under the heel of his brutality. The pride which had +supported her, which had won Tavannes' admiration and exacted his +respect, sank, as she sank herself, bowed to her horse's neck, weeping +bitter tears before him. She abandoned herself to her misery, as she +had once abandoned herself in the upper room in Paris. + +And he looked at her. He had willed to crush her; he had his will, and +he was not satisfied. He had bowed her so low that his magnanimity +would now have its full effect, would shine as the sun into a dark +world; and yet he was not happy. He could look forward to the morrow, +and say, "She will understand me, she will know me!" and lo, the +thought that she wept for her lover stabbed him, and stabbed him anew; +and he thought, "Rather would she death from him, than life from me! +Though I give her creation, it will not alter her! Though I strike the +stars with my head, it is he who fills her world." + +The thought spurred him to farther cruelty, impelled him to try if, +prostrate as she was, he could not draw a prayer from her? "You don't +ask after him?" he scoffed. "He may be before or behind? Or wounded or +well? Would you not know, madame? And what message he sent you? And +what he fears, and what hope he has? And his last wishes? And--for +while there is life there is hope--would you not learn where the key +of his prison lies to-night? How much for the key to-night, madame?" + +Each question fell on her like the lash of a whip; but as one who has +been flogged into insensibility, she did not wince. That drove him on: +he felt a mad desire to hear her prayers, to force her lower, to bring +her to her knees. And he sought about for a keener taunt. Their +attendants were almost out of sight before them; the sun, declining +apace, was in their eyes. "In two hours we shall be in Angers," he +said. "Mon Dieu, madame, it was a pity, when you two were taking +letters, you did not go a step farther. You were surprised, or I doubt +if I should be alive to-day!" + +Then she did look up. She raised her head and met his gaze with such +wonder in her eyes, such reproach in her tear-stained face, that his +voice sank on the last word. "You mean--that I would have murdered +you?" she said. "I would have cut off my hand first. What I did"--and +now her voice was as firm as it was low--"what I did, I did to save my +people. And if it were to be done again, I would do it again!" + +"You dare to tell me that to my face?" he cried, hiding feelings which +almost choked him. "You would do it again, would you? Mon Dieu, +madame, you need to be taught a lesson!" + +And by chance, meaning only to make the horses move on again, he +raised his whip. She thought that he was going to strike her, and she +flinched at last. The whip fell smartly on her horse's quarters, and +it sprang forward. Count Hannibal swore between his teeth. + +He had turned pale, she red as fire. "Get on! Get on!" he cried +harshly. "We are falling behind!" And riding at her heels, flipping +her horse now and then, he forced her to trot on until they overtook +the servants. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVII. + + THE BLACK TOWN. + + +It was late evening when, riding wearily on jaded horses, they came to +the outskirts of Angers, and saw before them the term of their +journey. The glow of sunset had faded, but the sky was still warm with +the last hues of day; and against its opal light the huge mass of the +Angevin castle, which even in sunshine rises dark and forbidding above +the Mayenne, stood up black and sharply defined. Below it, on both +banks of the river, the towers and spires of the city soared up from a +sombre huddle of ridge-roofs, broken here by a round-headed gateway, +crumbling and pigeon-haunted, that dated from St. Louis, and there by +the gaunt arms of a windmill. + +The city lay dark under a light sky, keeping well its secrets. +Thousands were out of doors enjoying the evening coolness in alley and +court, yet it betrayed the life which pulsed in its arteries only by +the low murmur which rose from it. Nevertheless, the Countess at sight +of its roofs tasted the first moment of happiness which had been hers +that day. She might suffer, but she had saved. Those roofs would thank +her! In that murmur were the voices of women and children she had +redeemed! At the sight and at the thought a wave of love and +tenderness swept all bitterness from her breast. A profound humility, +a boundless thankfulness took possession of her. Her head sank lower +above her horse's mane; but it sank in reverence, not in shame. + +Could she have known what was passing beneath those roofs which night +was blending in a common gloom--could she have read the thoughts which +at that moment paled the cheeks of many a stout burgher, whose gabled +house looked on the great square, she had been still more thankful. +For in attics and back rooms women were on their knees at that hour, +praying with feverish eyes; and in the streets men--on whom their +fellows, seeing the winding-sheet already at the chin, gazed +askance--smiled, and showed brave looks abroad, while their hearts +were sick with fear. + +For darkly, no man knew how, the news had come to Angers. It had been +known, more or less, for three days. Men had read it in other men's +eyes. The tongue of a scold, the sneer of an injured woman had spread +it, the birds of the air had carried it. From garret window to garret +window across the narrow lanes of the old town it had been whispered +at dead of night; at convent grilles, and in the timber-yards beside +the river. Ten thousand, fifty thousand, a hundred thousand, it was +rumoured, had perished in Paris. In Orleans, all. In Tours this man's +sister; at Saumur that man's son. Through France the word had gone +forth that the Huguenots must die; and in the busy town the same +roof-tree sheltered fear and hate, rage and cupidity. On one side of +the party-wall murder lurked fierce-eyed; on the other, the victim lay +watching the latch, and shaking at a step. Strong men tasted the +bitterness of death, and women clasping their babes to their breasts +smiled sickly into children's eyes. + +The signal only was lacking. It would come, said some, from Saumur, +where Montsoreau, the Duke of Anjou's Lieutenant-Governor and a +Papist, had his quarters. From Paris, said others, directly from the +King. It might come at any hour now, in the day or in the night; the +magistrates, it was whispered, were in continuous session, awaiting +its coming. No wonder that from, lofty gable windows, and from dormers +set high above the tiles, haggard faces looked northward and eastward, +and ears sharpened by fear imagined above the noises of the city the +ring of the iron shoes that carried doom. + +Doubtless the majority desired--as the majority in France have always +desired--peace. But in the purlieus about the cathedral and in the +lanes where the sacristans lived, in convent parlours and college +courts, among all whose livelihood the new faith threatened, was a +stir as of a hive deranged. Here was grumbling against the +magistrates--why wait? There, stealthy plannings and arrangements; +everywhere a grinding of weapons and casting of slugs. Old grudges, +new rivalries, a scholar's venom, a priest's dislike, here was final +vent for all. None need leave this feast unsated! + +It was a man of this class, sent out for the purpose, who first espied +Count Hannibal's company approaching. He bore the news into the town, +and by the time the travellers reached the city gate, the dusky street +within, on which lights were beginning to twinkle from booths and +casements, was alive with figures running to meet them and crying the +news as they ran. The travellers, weary and road-stained, had no +sooner passed under the arch than they found themselves the core of a +great crowd which moved with them and pressed about them; now +unbonneting, and now calling out questions, and now shouting "Vive le +Roi! Vive le Roi!" Above the press, windows burst into light; and over +all, the quaint leaning gables of the old timbered houses looked down +on the hurry and tumult. + +They passed along a narrow street in which the rabble, hurrying at +Count Hannibal's bridle, and often looking back to read his face, had +much ado to escape harm; along this street and before the yawning +doors of a great church, whence a hot breath heavy with incense and +burning wax issued to meet them. A portion of the congregation had +heard the tumult and struggled out, and now stood close-packed on the +steps under the double vault of the portal. Among them the Countess's +eyes, as she rode by, a sturdy man-at-arms on either hand, caught and +held one face. It was the face of a tall, lean man in dusty black; and +though she did not know him she seemed to have an equal attraction for +him; for as their eyes met he seized the shoulder of the man next him +and pointed her out. And something in the energy of the gesture, or in +the thin lips and malevolent eyes of the man who pointed, chilled the +Countess's blood and shook her, she knew not why. + +Until then, she had known no fear save of her husband. But at that a +sense of the force and pressure of the crowd--as well as of the fierce +passions, straining about her, which a word might unloose--broke upon +her; and looking to the stern men on either side she fancied that she +read anxiety in their faces. + +She glanced behind. Bridle to bridle the Count's men came on, pressing +round her women and shielding them from the exuberance of the throng. +In their faces too she thought that she traced uneasiness. + +What wonder if the scenes through which she had passed in Paris began +to recur to her mind, and shook nerves already overwrought? + +She began to tremble. "Is there--danger?" she muttered, speaking in a +low voice to Bigot, who rode on her right hand. "Will they do +anything?" + +The Norman snorted. "Not while he is in the saddle," he said, nodding +towards his master, who rode a pace in front of them, his reins loose. +"There be some here know him!" Bigot continued, in his drawling tone. +"And more will know him if they break line. Have no fear, madame, he +will bring you safe to the inn. Down with the Huguenots?" he +continued, turning from her and addressing a rogue who, holding his +stirrup, was shouting the cry till he was crimson. "Then why not away, +and----" + +"The King! The King's word and leave!" the man answered. + +"Ay, tell us!" shrieked another, looking upward, while he waved his +cap; "have we the King's leave?" + +"You'll bide _his_ leave!" the Norman retorted, indicating the Count +with his thumb. "Or 'twill be up with you--on the three-legged horse!" + +"But he comes from the King!" the man panted. + +"To be sure. To be sure!" + +"Then----" + +"You'll bide his time! That's all!" Bigot answered, rather it seemed +for his own satisfaction than the other's enlightenment. "You'll all +bide it, you dogs!" he continued in his beard, as he cast his eye over +the weltering crowd. "Ha! so we are here, are we? And not too soon, +either." + +He fell silent as they entered an open space, overlooked on one side +by the dark facade of the cathedral, on the other three sides by +houses more or less illumined. The rabble swept into this open space +with them and before them, filled much of it in an instant, and for a +while eddied and swirled this way and that, thrust onward by the +worshippers who had issued from the church and backwards by those who +had been first in the square, and had no mind to be hustled out of +hearing. A stranger, confused by the sea of excited faces, and +deafened by the clamour of "Vive le Roi!" "Vive Anjou!" mingled with +cries against the Huguenots, might have fancied that the whole city +was arrayed before him. But he would have been wide of the mark. The +scum, indeed--and a dangerous scum--frothed and foamed and spat under +Tavannes' bridle-hand; and here and there among them, but not of them, +the dark-robed figure of a priest moved to and fro; or a Benedictine, +or some smooth-faced acolyte egged on to the work he dared not do. But +the decent burghers were not there. They lay bolted in their houses; +while the magistrates, with little heart to do aught except bow to the +mob--or other their masters for the time being--shook in their council +chamber. + +There is not a city of France which has not seen it; which has not +known the moment when the mass impended, and it lay with one man to +start it or stay its course. Angers within its houses heard the +clamour, and from the child, clinging to its mother's skirt, and +wondering why she wept, to the Provost, trembled, believing that the +hour had come. The Countess heard it too, and understood it. She +caught the savage note in the voice of the mob--that note which means +danger--and her heart beating wildly she looked to her husband. Then, +fortunately for her, fortunately for Angers, it was given to all to +see that in Count Hannibal's saddle sat a man. + +He raised his hand for silence, and in a minute or two--not at once, +for the square was dusky--it was obtained. He rose in his stirrups, +and bared his head. + +"I am from the King!" he cried, throwing his voice to all parts of the +crowd. "And this is his Majesty's pleasure and good will! That every +man hold his hand until to-morrow on pain of death, or worse! And at +noon his further pleasure will be known! Vive le Roi!" + +And he covered his head again. + +"Vive le Roi!" cried a number of the foremost. But their shouts were +feeble and half-hearted, and were quickly drowned in a rising murmur +of discontent and ill-humour, which, mingled with cries of "Is that +all? Is there no more? Down with the Huguenots!" rose from all parts. +Presently these cries became merged in a persistent call, which had +its origin, as far as could be discovered, in the darkest corner of +the square. A call for "Montsoreau! Montsoreau! Give us Montsoreau!" + +With another man, or had Tavannes turned or withdrawn, or betrayed the +least anxiety, words had become actions, disorder a riot; and that in +the twinkling of an eye. But Count Hannibal, sitting his horse, with +his handful of riders behind him, watched the crowd, as little moved +by it as the Armed Knight of Notre Dame. Only once did he say a word. +Then, raising his hand as before to gain a hearing, "You ask for +Montsoreau?" he thundered. "You will have Montfaucon if you do not +quickly go to your homes!" + +At which, and at the glare of his eye, the more timid took fright. +Feeling his gaze upon them, seeing that he had no intention of +withdrawing, they began to sneak away by ones and twos. Soon others +missed them and took the alarm, and followed. A moment and scores were +streaming away through lanes and alleys and along the main street. At +last the bolder and more turbulent found themselves a remnant. They +glanced uneasily at one another and at Tavannes, took fright in their +turn, and plunging into the current hastened away, raising now and +then as they passed through the streets a cry of "Vive Montsoreau! +Montsoreau!"--which was not without its menace for the morrow. + +Count Hannibal waited motionless until no more than half a dozen +groups remained in the open. Then he gave the word to dismount; so +far, even the Countess and her women had kept their saddles, lest the +movement which their retreat into the inn must have caused should be +misread by the mob. Last of all he dismounted himself, and with lights +going before him and behind, and preceded by Bigot, bearing his cloak +and pistols, he escorted the Countess into the house. Not many minutes +had elapsed since he called for silence; but long before he reached +the chamber looking over the square from the first floor, in which +supper was being set for them, the news had flown through the length +and breadth of Angers that for this night the danger was past. The +hawk had come to Angers, and lo! it was a dove. + +Count Hannibal strode to one of the open windows and looked out. In +the room, which was well lighted, were people of the house, going to +and fro, setting out the table; to Madame, standing beside the +hearth--which held its summer dressing of green boughs--while her +woman held water for her to wash, the scene recalled with painful +vividness the meal at which she had been present on the morning of the +St. Bartholomew--the meal which had ushered in her troubles. Naturally +her eyes went to her husband, her mind to the horror in which she had +held him then; and with a kind of shock, perhaps because the last few +minutes had shown him in a new light, she compared her old opinion of +him with that which, much as she feared him, she now entertained. + +This afternoon, if ever, within the last few hours, if at all, he had +acted in a way to justify that horror and that opinion. He had treated +her--brutally; he had insulted and threatened her, had almost struck +her. And yet--and yet Madame felt that she had moved so far from the +point which she had once occupied that the old attitude was hard to +understand. Hardly could she believe that it was on this man, much as +she still dreaded him, that she had looked with those feelings of +repulsion. + +She was still gazing at him with eyes which strove to see two men in +one, when he turned from the window. Absorbed in thought she had +forgotten her occupation, and stood, the towel suspended in her +half-dried hands. Before she knew what he was doing he was at her +side; he bade the woman hold the bowl, and he rinsed his hands. Then +he turned, and without looking at the Countess, he dried his hands on +the farther end of the towel which she was still using. + +She blushed faintly. A something in the act, more intimate and more +familiar than had ever marked their intercourse, set her blood +running strangely. When he turned away and bade Bigot unbuckle his +spur-leathers, she stepped forward. + +"I will do it!" she murmured, acting on a sudden and unaccountable +impulse. And as she knelt, she shook her hair about her face to hide +its colour. + +"Nay, madame, but you will soil your fingers!" he said coldly. + +"Permit me," she muttered half coherently. And though her fingers +shook, she pursued and performed her task. + +When she rose he thanked her; and then the devil in the man, or the +Nemesis he had provoked when he took her by force from another--the +Nemesis of jealousy, drove him to spoil all. "And for whose sake, +madame?" he added with a jeer--"mine or M. de Tignonville's?" And with +a glance between jest and earnest, he tried to read her thoughts. + +She winced as if he had indeed struck her, and the hot colour fled her +cheeks. "For his sake!" she said, with a shiver of pain. "That his +life may be spared!" And she stood back humbly, like a beaten dog. +Though, indeed, it was for the sake of Angers, in thankfulness for the +past rather than in any desperate hope of propitiating her husband, +that she had done it! + +Perhaps he would have withdrawn his words. But before he could answer, +the host, bowing to the floor, came to announce that all was ready, +and that the Provost of the City, for whom M. le Comte had sent, was +in waiting below. "Let him come up!" Tavannes answered, grave and +frowning. "And see you, close the room, sirrah! My people will wait on +us. Ah!" as the Provost, a burly man with a face framed for jollity, +but now pale and long, entered and approached him with many +salutations. "How comes it, M. le Prevot--you are the Prevot, are you +not?" + +"Yes, M. le Comte." + +"How comes it that so great a crowd is permitted to meet in the +streets? And that at my entrance, though I come unannounced, I find +half of the city gathered together?" + +The Provost stared. "Respect, M. le Comte," he said, "for His +Majesty's letters, of which you are the bearer, no doubt induced some +to come together----" + +"Who said I brought letters?" + +"Who----" + +"Who said I brought letters?" Count Hannibal repeated in a strenuous +voice. And he ground his chair half about and faced the astonished +magistrate. "Who said I brought letters?" + +"Why, my lord," the Provost stammered, "it was everywhere +yesterday----" + +"Yesterday?" + +"Last night, at latest--that letters were coming from the King." + +"By my hand?" + +"By your lordship's hand--whose name is so well known here," the +magistrate added, in the hope of clearing the great man's brow. + +Count Hannibal laughed darkly. "My hand will be better known +by-and-by," he said. "See you, sirrah, there is some practice here. +What is this cry of Montsoreau that I hear?" + +"Your lordship knows that he is His Grace's Lieutenant-Governor in +Saumur." + +"I know that, man. But is he here?" + +"He was at Saumur yesterday, and 'twas rumoured three days back that +he was coming here to extirpate the Huguenots. Then word came of your +lordship and of His Majesty's letters, and 'twas thought that M. de +Montsoreau would not come, his authority being superseded." + +"I see. And now your rabble think that they would prefer M. +Montsoreau. That is it, is it?" + +The magistrate shrugged his shoulders and opened his hands. "Pigs!" he +said. And having spat on the floor he looked apologetically at the +lady. "True pigs!" + +"What connections has he here?" Tavannes asked. + +"He is a brother of my lord the Bishop's Vicar, who arrived +yesterday." + +"With a rout of shaven heads who have been preaching and stirring up +the town!" Count Hannibal cried, his face growing red. "Speak, man, is +it so? But I'll be sworn it is!" + +"There has been preaching," the Provost answered reluctantly. + +"Montsoreau may count his brother, then, for one. He is a fool, but +with a knave behind him, and a knave who has no cause to love us! And +the Castle? 'Tis held by one of M. de Montsoreau's creatures, I take +it?" + +"Yes, my lord." + +"With what force?" + +The magistrate shrugged his shoulders, and looked doubtfully at +Badelon, who was keeping the door. + +Tavannes followed the glance with his usual impatience. "Mon Dieu, you +need not look at him!" he cried. "He has sacked St. Peter's and singed +the Pope's beard with a holy candle! He has been served on the knee by +Cardinals; and is Turk or Jew, or monk or Huguenot as I please. And +madame"--for the Provost's astonished eyes, after resting awhile on +the old soldier's iron visage, had passed to her--"is Huguenot, so you +need have no fear of her! There, speak, man," with impatience, "and +cease to think of your own skin!" + +The Provost drew a deep breath, and fixed his small eyes on Count +Hannibal. + +"If I knew, my lord, what you--why, my own sister's son"--he paused, +his face began to work, his voice shook--"is a Huguenot! Ay, my lord, +a Huguenot! And they know it!" he continued, a flush of rage +augmenting the emotion which his countenance betrayed. "Ay, they know +it! And they push me on at the Council, and grin behind my back; +Lescot, who was Provost two years back and would match his son with my +daughter; and Thuriot who prints for the University! They nudge one +another, and egg me on, till half the city thinks it is I who would +kill the Huguenots! I!" Again his voice broke. "And my own sister's +son a Huguenot! And my girl at home white-faced for--for his sake." + +Tavannes scanned the man shrewdly. "Perhaps she is of the same way of +thinking?" he said. + +The Provost started, and lost one-half of his colour. "God forbid!" he +cried, "saving madame's presence! Who says so, my lord, lies!" + +"Ay, lies not far from the truth." + +"My lord!" + +"Pish, man, Lescot has said it and will act on it. And Thuriot, who +prints for the University! Would you 'scape them? You would? Then +listen to me. I want but two things. First, how many men has +Montsoreau's fellow in the Castle? Few, I know, for he is a niggard, +and if he spends, he spends the Duke's pay." + +"Twelve. But five can hold it." + +"Ay, but twelve dare not leave it! Let them stew in their own broth! +And now for the other matter. See, man, that before daybreak three +gibbets, with a ladder and two ropes apiece, are set up in the square. +And let one be before this door. You understand? Then let it be done! +The rest," he added with a ferocious smile, "you may leave to me." + +The magistrate nodded rather feebly. "Doubtless," he said, his eye +wandering here and there, "there are rogues in Angers. And for rogues +the gibbet! But saving your presence, my lord, it is a question +whether----" + +But M. de Tavannes' patience was exhausted. "Will you do it?" he +roared. "That is the question. And the only question." + +The Provost jumped, he was so startled. "Certainly, my lord, +certainly!" he muttered humbly. "Certainly, I will!" And bowing +frequently, but saying no more, he backed himself out of the room. + +Count Hannibal laughed grimly after his fashion, and doubtless thought +that he had seen the last of the magistrate for that night. Great was +his wrath therefore, when, less than a minute later--and before Bigot +had carved for him--the door opened and the Provost appeared again. He +slid in, and without giving the courage he had gained on the stairs +time to cool, plunged into his trouble. + +"It stands this way, M. le Comte," he bleated. "If I put up the +gibbets and a man is hanged, and you have letters from the King, 'tis +a rogue the less and no harm done. But if you have no letters from His +Majesty, then it is on my shoulders they will put it, and 'twill be +odd if they do not find a way to hang me to right him." + +Count Hannibal smiled grimly. "And your sister's son?" he sneered. +"And your girl who is white-faced for his sake, and may burn on the +same bonfire with him? And----" + +"Mercy! Mercy!" the wretched Provost cried. And he wrung his hands. +"Lescot and Thuriot----" + +"Perhaps we may hang Lescot and Thuriot----" + +"But I see no way out," the Provost babbled. "No way! No way!" + +"I am going to show you one," Tavannes retorted. "If the gibbets are +not in place by sunrise, I shall hang you from this window. That is +one way out; and you'll be wise to take the other! For the rest and +for your comfort, if I have no letters, it is not always to paper that +the King commits his inmost heart." + +The magistrate bowed. He quaked, he doubted, but he had no choice. "My +lord," he said, "I put myself in your hands. It shall be done, +certainly it shall be done. But, but----" and shaking his head in +foreboding he turned to the door. + +At the last moment, when he was within a pace of it, the Countess rose +impulsively to her feet. She called to him. "M. le Prevot, a minute, +if you please," she said. "There may be trouble to morrow; your +daughter may be in some peril. You will do well to send her to me. +My lord"--and on the word her voice, timid before, grew full and +steady--"will see that I am safe. And she will be safe with me." + +The Provost saw before him only a gracious lady, moved by a +thoughtfulness unusual in persons of her rank. He was at no pains to +explain the flame in her cheek, or the soft light which glowed in her +eyes, as she looked at him, across her formidable husband. He was only +profoundly grateful--moved even to tears. Humbly thanking her he +accepted her offer for his child, and withdrew wiping his eyes. + +When he was gone, and the door had closed behind him, Tavannes turned +to the Countess, who still kept her feet. "You are very confident this +evening," he sneered. "Gibbets do not frighten you, it seems, madame. +Perhaps if you knew for whom the one before the door is intended?" + +She met his look with a searching gaze, and spoke with a ring of +defiance in her tone. "I do not believe it!" she said. "I do not +believe it! You who save Angers will not destroy him!" And then her +woman's mood changing, with courage and colour ebbing together, "Oh, +no, you will not! You will not!" she wailed. And she dropped on her +knees before him, and holding up her clasped hands, "God will put it +in your heart to spare him--and me!" + +He rose with a stifled oath, took two steps from her, and in a tone +hoarse and constrained, "Go!" he said. "Go, or sit! Do you hear, +madame? You try my patience too far!" + +But when she had gone his face was radiant. He had brought her, he had +brought all, to the point at which he aimed. To-morrow his triumph +awaited him. To-morrow he who had cast her down would raise her up. + +He did not foresee what a day would bring forth. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVIII. + + IN THE LITTLE CHAPTER-HOUSE. + + +The sun was an hour high, and in Angers the shops and booths, after +the early fashion of the day, were open or opening. Through all the +gates country folk were pressing into the gloomy streets of the Black +Town with milk and fruit; and at doors and windows housewives +cheapened fish, or chaffered over the fowl for the pot. For men must +eat, though there be gibbets in the Place Ste.-Croix: gaunt gibbets, +high and black and twofold, each, with its dangling ropes, like a +double note of interrogation. + +But gibbets must eat also; and between ground and noose was so small a +space in those days that a man dangled almost before he knew it. The +sooner, then, the paniers were empty, and the clown, who pays for all, +was beyond the gates, the better he, for one, would be pleased. In the +market, therefore, was hurrying. Men cried their wares in lowered +voices, and tarried but a little for the oldest customer. The bargain +struck, the more timid among the buyers hastened to shut themselves +into their houses again; the bolder, who ventured to the Place to +confirm the rumour with their eyes, talked in corners and in lanes, +avoided the open, and eyed the sinister preparations from afar. The +shadow of the things which stood before the cathedral affronting the +sunlight with their gaunt black shapes lay across the length and +breadth of Angers. Even in the corners where men whispered, even in +the cloisters where men bit their nails in impotent auger, the +stillness of fear ruled all. Whatever Count Hannibal had it in his +mind to tell the city, it seemed unlikely--and hour by hour it seemed +less likely--that any would contradict him. + +He knew this as he walked in the sunlight before the inn, his spurs +ringing on the stones as he made each turn, his movements watched by a +hundred peering eyes. After all, it was not hard to rule, nor to have +one's way in this world. But then, he went on to remember, not +everyone had his self-control, or that contempt for the weak and +unsuccessful which lightly took the form of mercy. He held Angers +safe, curbed by his gibbets. With M. de Montsoreau he might have +trouble; but the trouble would be slight, for he knew Montsoreau, and +what it was the Lieutenant-Governor valued above profitless bloodshed. + +He might have felt less confident had he known what was passing at +that moment in a room off the small cloister of the Abbey of St. +Aubin, a room known at Angers as the Little Chapter-House. It was a +long chamber with a groined roof and stone walls, panelled as high as +a tall man might reach with dark chestnut wood. Gloomily lighted by +three grated windows, which looked on a small inner green, the last +resting-place of the Benedictines, the room itself seemed at first +sight no more than the last resting-place of worn-out odds and ends. +Piles of thin sheepskin folios, dog's-eared and dirty, the rejected of +the choir, stood against the walls; here and there among them lay a +large brass-bound tome on which the chains that had fettered it to +desk or lectern still rusted. A broken altar cumbered one corner: a +stand bearing a curious--and rotting--map filled another. In the other +two corners a medley of faded scutcheons and banners, which had seen +their last Toussaint procession, mouldered slowly into dust--into much +dust. The air of the room was full of it. + +In spite of which the long oak table that filled the middle of the +chamber shone with use: so did the great metal standish which it bore. +And though the seven men who sat about the table seemed, at a first +glance and in that gloomy light, as rusty and faded as the rubbish +behind them, it needed but a second look at their lean jaws and hungry +eyes to be sure of their vitality. + +He who sat in the great chair at the end of the table was indeed +rather plump than thin. His white hands, gay with rings, were well +cared for; his peevish chin rested on a falling-collar of lace worthy +of a Cardinal. But though the Bishop's Vicar was heard with deference, +it was noticeable that when he had ceased to speak his hearers looked +to the priest on his left, to Father Pezelay, and waited to hear his +opinion before they gave their own. The Father's energy, indeed, had +dominated the Angevins, clerks and townsfolk alike, as it had +dominated the Parisian _devotes_ who knew him well. The vigour which +hate inspires passes often for solid strength; and he who had seen +with his own eyes the things done in Paris spoke with an authority to +which the more timid quickly and easily succumbed. + +Yet gibbets are ugly things; and Thuriot, the printer, whose pride had +been tickled by a summons to the conclave, began to wonder if he had +done wisely in coming. Lescot, too, who presently ventured a word. +"But if M. de Tavannes' order be to do nothing," he began doubtfully, +"you would not, reverend Father, have us resist His Majesty's will?" + +"God forbid, my friend!" Father Pezelay answered with unction. "But +His Majesty's will is to do--to do for the glory of God and the saints +and His Holy Church! How? Is that which was lawful at Saumur unlawful +here? Is that which was lawful at Tours unlawful here? Is that which +the King did in Paris--to the utter extermination of the unbelieving +and the purging of that Sacred City--against his will here? Nay, his +will is to do--to do as they have done in Paris and in Tours and in +Saumur! But his Minister is unfaithful! The woman whom he has taken to +his bosom has bewildered him with her charms and her sorceries, and +put it in his mind to deny the mission he bears." + +"You are sure, beyond chance of error, that he bears letters to that +effect, good Father?" the printer ventured. + +"Ask my lord's Vicar! He knows the letters and the import of them!" + +"They are to that effect," the Archdeacon answered, drumming on the +table with his fingers and speaking somewhat sullenly. "I was in the +Chancellery and I saw them. They are duplicates of those sent to +Bordeaux." + +"Then the preparations he has made must be against the Huguenots," +Lescot, the ex-Provost, said with a sigh of relief. And Thuriot's face +lightened also. "He must intend to hang one or two of the ringleaders, +before he deals with the herd." + +"Think it not!" Father Pezelay cried in his high shrill voice. "I tell +you the woman has bewitched him, and he will deny his letters!" + +For a moment there was silence. Then, "But dare he do that, reverend +Father?" Lescot asked slowly and incredulously. "What? Suppress the +King's letters?" + +"There is nothing he will not dare! There is nothing he has not +dared!" the priest answered vehemently; the recollection of the scene +in the great guard-room of the Louvre, when Tavannes had so skilfully +turned the tables on him, instilling venom into his tone. "She who +lives with him is the devil's. She has bewitched him with her spells +and her Sabbaths! She bears the mark of the Beast on her bosom, and +for her the fire is even now kindling!" + +The laymen who were present shuddered. The two canons who faced them +crossed themselves, muttering "Avaunt, Satan!" + +"It is for you to decide," the priest continued, gazing on them +passionately, "whether you will side with him or with the Angel of +God! For I tell you it was none other executed the divine judgments at +Paris! It was none other but the Angel of God held the sword at Tours! +It is none other holds the sword here! Are you for him or against him? +Are you for him, or for the woman with the mark of the Beast? Are you +for God or against God? For the hour draws near! The time is at hand! +You must choose! You must choose!" And, striking the table with his +hand, he leaned forward, and with glittering eyes fixed each of them +in turn, as he cried, "You must choose! You must choose!" He came to +the Archdeacon last. + +The Bishop's Vicar fidgeted in his chair, his face a shade more +sallow, his cheeks hanging a trifle more loosely, than ordinary. "If +my brother were here!" he muttered. "If M. de Montsoreau had arrived!" + +But Father Pezelay knew whose will would prevail if Montsoreau met +Tavannes at his leisure. To force Montsoreau's hand, to surround him +on his first entrance with a howling mob already committed to +violence, to set him at their head and pledge him before he knew with +whom he had to do--this had been, this still was, the priest's design. + +But how was he to pursue it while those gibbets stood? While their +shadows lay even on the chapter table, and darkened the faces of his +most forward associates? That for a moment staggered the priest; and +had not private hatred, ever renewed by the touch of the scar on his +brow, fed the fire of bigotry he had yielded, as the rabble of Angers +were yielding, reluctant and scowling, to the hand which held the city +in its grip. But to have come so far on the wings of hate, and to do +nothing! To have come avowedly to preach a crusade, and to sneak away +cowed! To have dragged the Bishop's Vicar hither, and fawned and +cajoled and threatened by turns--and for nothing! These things were +passing bitter--passing bitter, when the morsel of vengeance he had +foreseen smacked so sweet on the tongue. + +For it was no common vengeance, no layman's vengeance, coarse and +clumsy, which the priest had imagined in the dark hours of the night, +when his feverish brain kept him wakeful. To see Count Hannibal roll +in the dust had gone but a little way towards satisfying him. No! But +to drag from his arms the woman for whom he had sinned, to subject her +to shame and torture in the depths of some convent, and finally to +burn her as a witch--it was that which had seemed to the priest in the +night hours a vengeance sweet in the mouth. + +But the thing seemed unattainable in the circumstances. The city was +cowed; the priest knew that no dependence was to be placed on +Montsoreau, whose vice was avarice and whose object was plunder. To +the Archdeacon's feeble words, therefore, "We must look," the priest +retorted sternly, "not to M. de Montsoreau, reverend Father, but to +the pious of Angers! We must cry in the streets, 'They do violence to +God! They wound God and His Mother!' And so, and so only, shall the +unholy thing be rooted out!" + +"Amen!" the Cure of St.-Benoist muttered, lifting his head; and his +dull eyes glowed awhile. "Amen! Amen!" Then his chin sank again upon +his breast. + +But the canons of Angers looked doubtfully at one another, and timidly +at the speakers; the meat was too strong for them. And Lescot and +Thuriot shuffled in their seats. At length, "I do not know," Lescot +muttered timidly. + +"You do not know?" + +"What can be done!" + +"The people will know!" Father Pezelay retorted. "Trust them!" + +"But the people will not rise without a leader." + +"Then will I lead them!" + +"Even so, reverend Father--I doubt," Lescot faltered. And Thuriot +nodded assent. Gibbets were erected in those days rather for laymen +than for the Church. + +"You doubt!" the priest cried. "You doubt!" His baleful eyes passed +from one to the other; from them to the rest of the company. He saw +that with the exception of the Cure of St.-Benoist all were of a mind. +"You doubt! Nay, but I see what it is! It is this," he continued +slowly and in a different tone, "the King's will goes for nothing in +Angers! His writ runs not here. And Holy Church cries in vain for help +against the oppressor. I tell you, the sorceress who has bewitched him +has bewitched you also. Beware! beware, therefore, lest it be with you +as with him! And the fire that shall consume her, spare not your +houses!" + +The two citizens crossed themselves, grew pale and shuddered. The fear +of witchcraft was great in Angers, the peril, if accused of it, +enormous. Even the canons looked startled. "If--if my brother were +here," the Archdeacon repeated feebly, "something might be done!" + +"Vain is the help of man!" the priest retorted sternly, and with a +gesture of sublime dismissal. "I turn from you to a mightier than +you!" And, leaning his head on his hands, he covered his face. + +The Archdeacon and the churchmen looked at him, and from him their +scared eyes passed to one another. Their one desire now was to be quit +of the matter, to have done with it, to escape; and one by one with +the air of whipped curs they rose to their feet, and in a hurry to be +gone muttered a word of excuse shamefacedly and got themselves out of +the room. Lescot and the printer were not slow to follow, and in less +than a minute the two strange preachers, the men from Paris, remained +the only occupants of the chamber; save, to be precise, a lean +official in rusty black, who throughout the conference had sat by the +door. + +Until the last shuffling footstep had ceased to sound in the still +cloister no one spoke. Then Father Pezelay looked up, and the eyes of +the two priests met in a long gaze. "What think you?" Pezelay muttered +at last. + +"Wet hay," the other answered dreamily, "is slow to kindle, yet burns +if the fire be big enough. At what hour does he state his will?" + +"At noon." + +"In the Council Chamber!" + +"It is so given out." + +"It is three hundred yards from the Place Ste.-Croix and he must go +guarded," the Cure of St.-Benoist continued in the same dull fashion. +"He cannot leave many in the house with the woman. If it were attacked +in his absence----" + +"He would return, and----" Father Pezelay shook his head, his cheek +turned a shade paler. Clearly, he saw with his mind's eye more than he +expressed. + +"_Hoc est corpus_," the other muttered, his dreamy gaze on the table. +"If he met us then, on his way to the house, and we had bell, book, +and candle, would he stop?" + +"He would not stop!" Father Pezelay rejoined. + +"He would not?" + +"I know the man!" + +"Then----" but the rest St.-Beuoist whispered, his head drooping +forward; whispered so low that even the lean man behind him, listening +with greedy ears, failed to follow the meaning of his superior's +words. But that he spoke plainly enough for his hearer Father +Pezelay's face was witness. Astonishment, fear, hope, triumph, the +lean pale face reflected all in turn; and, underlying all, a subtle +malignant mischief, as if a devil's eyes peeped through the holes in +an opera mask. + +When the other was at last silent Pezelay drew a deep breath. "'Tis +bold! Bold! Bold!" he muttered. "But have you thought? He who bears +the----" + +"Brunt?" the other whispered with a chuckle. "He may suffer? Yes, but +it will not be you or I! No, he who was last here shall be first +there! The Archdeacon-Vicar--if we can persuade him--who knows but +that even for him the crown of martyrdom is reserved?" The dull eyes +flickered with unholy amusement. + +"And the alarm that brings him from the Council Chamber?" + +"Need not of necessity be real. The pinch will be to make use of it. +Make use of it--and the hay will burn!" + +"You think it will?" + +"What can one man do against a thousand? His own people dare not +support him." + +Father Pezelay turned to the lean man who kept the door, and, +beckoning to him, conferred a while with him in a low voice. + +"A score or so I might get," the man answered presently after some +debate. "And well posted, something might be done. But we are not +in Paris, good father, where the Quarter of the Butchers is to be +counted on, and men know that to kill Huguenots is to do God service! +Here"--he shrugged his shoulders contemptuously--"they are sheep." + +"It is the King's will," the priest answered, frowning on him darkly. + +"Ay, but it is not Tavannes," the man in black answered with a +grimace. "And he rules here today." + +"Fool!" Pezelay retorted. "He has not twenty with him. Do you do as I +say, and leave the rest to heaven!" + +"And to you, good master?" the other answered. "For it is not all you +are going to do," he continued with a grin, "that you have told me. +Well, so be it! I'll do my part, but I wish we were in Paris. Ste. +Genevieve is ever kind to her servants." + + + + + CHAPTER XXIX. + + THE ESCAPE. + + +In a small back room on the second floor of the inn at Angers, a mean, +dingy room which looked into a narrow lane, and commanded no prospect +more informing than a blind wall, two men sat, fretting; or, rather, +one man sat, his chin resting on his hand, while his companion, less +patient or more sanguine, strode ceaselessly to and fro. In the first +despair of capture--for they were prisoners--they had made up their +minds to the worst, and the slow hours of two days had passed over +their heads without kindling more than a faint spark of hope in their +breasts. But when they had been taken out and forced to mount and +ride--at first with feet tied to the horses' girths--they had let the +change, the movement, and the open air fan the flame. They had +muttered a word to one another, they had wondered, they had reasoned. +And though the silence of their guards--from whose sour vigilance the +keenest question drew no response--seemed of ill-omen, and, taken with +their knowledge of the man into whose hands they had fallen, should +have quenched the spark, these two, having special reasons, the one +the buoyancy of youth, the other the faith of an enthusiast, cherished +the flame. In the breast of one indeed it had blazed into a confidence +so arrogant that he now took all for granted, and was not content. + +"It is easy for you to say, 'Patience!'" he cried, as he walked the +floor in a fever. "You stand to lose no more than your life, and if +you escape go free at all points! But he has robbed me of more than +life! Of my love, and my self-respect, curse him! He has worsted me +not once, but twice and thrice! And if he lets me go now, dismissing +me with my life, I shall--I shall kill him!" he concluded, through his +teeth. + +"You are hard to please!" + +"I shall kill him!" + +"That were to fall still lower!" the minister answered, gravely +regarding him. "I would, M. de Tignonville, you remembered that you +are not yet out of jeopardy. Such a frame of mind as yours is no good +preparation for death, let me tell you!" + +"He will not kill us!" Tignonville cried. "He knows better than most +men how to avenge himself!" + +"Then he is above most!" La Tribe retorted. "For my part I wish I were +sure of the fact, and I should sit here more at ease." + +"If we could escape, now, of ourselves!" Tignonville cried. "Then we +should save not only life, but honour! Man, think of it! If we could +escape, not by his leave but against it! Are you sure that this is +Angers!" + +"As sure as a man can be who has only seen the Black Town once or +twice!" La Tribe answered, moving to the casement--which was not +glazed--and peering through the rough wooden lattice. "But if we could +escape we are strangers here. We know not which way to go, nor where +to find shelter. And for the matter of that," he continued, turning +from the window with a shrug of resignation, "'tis no use to talk of +it while yonder foot goes up and down the passage, and its owner bears +the key in his pocket." + +"If we could get out of his power as we came into it!" Tignonville +cried. + +"Ay, if! But it is not every floor has a trap!" + +"We could take up a board." + +The minister raised his eyebrows. + +"We could take up a board!" the younger man repeated; and he stepped +the mean chamber from end to end, his eyes on the floor. "Or--yes, +_mon Dieu!_" with a change of attitude, "we might break through the +roof!" And, throwing back his head, he scanned the cobwebbed surface +of laths which rested on the unceiled joists. + +"Umph!" + +"Well, why not, monsieur? Why not break through the ceiling?" +Tignonville repeated, and in a fit of energy he seized his companion's +shoulder and shook him. "Stand on the bed, and you can reach it." + +"And the floor which rests on it!" + +"_Par Dieu_, there is no floor! 'Tis a cockloft above us! See there! +And there!" And the young man sprang on the bed, and thrust the rowel +of a spur through the laths. + +La Tribe's expression changed. He rose slowly to his feet. "Try +again!" he said. + +Tignonville, his face red, drove the spur again between the laths, and +worked it to and fro until he could pass his fingers into the hole he +had made. Then he gripped and bent down a length of one of the laths, +and, passing his arm as far as the elbow through the hole, moved it +this way and that. His eyes, as he looked down at his companion +through the lolling rubbish, gleamed with triumph. "Where is your +floor now?" he asked. + +"You can touch nothing?" + +"Nothing. It's open. A little more and I might touch the tiles." And +he strove to reach higher. + +For answer La Tribe gripped him. "Down! Down, monsieur," he muttered. +"They are bringing our dinner." + +Tignonville thrust back the lath as well as he could, and slipped to +the floor; and hastily the two swept the rubbish from the bed. When +Badelon, attended by two men, came in with the meal he found La Tribe +at the window blocking much of the light, and Tignonville laid +sullenly on the bed. Even a suspicious eye must have failed to detect +what had been done; the three who looked in suspected nothing and saw +nothing. They went out, the key was turned again on the prisoners, and +the footsteps of two of the men were heard descending the stairs. + +"We have an hour, now!" Tignonville cried; and leaping, with flaming +eyes, on the bed, he fell to hacking and jabbing and tearing at +the laths amid a rain of dust and rubbish. Fortunately the stuff, +falling on the bed, made little noise; and in five minutes, working +half-choked and in a frenzy of impatience, he had made a hole through +which he could thrust his arms, a hole which extended almost from one +joist to its neighbour. By this time the air was thick with floating +lime; the two could scarcely breathe, yet they dared not pause. +Mounting on La Tribe's shoulders--who took his stand on the bed--the +young man thrust his head and arms through the hole, and, resting his +elbows on the joists, dragged himself up, and with a final effort of +strength landed nose and knees on the timbers, which formed his +supports. A moment to take breath, and press his torn and bleeding +fingers to his lips; then, reaching down, he gave a hand to his +companion and dragged him to the same place of vantage. + +They found themselves in a long narrow cockloft, not more than six +feet high at the highest, and insufferably hot. Between the tiles, +which sloped steeply on either hand, a faint light filtered in, +disclosing the giant rooftree running the length of the house, and at +the farther end of the loft the main tie-beam, from which a network of +knees and struts rose to the rooftree. + +Tignonville, who seemed possessed by unnatural energy, stayed only to +put off his boots. Then "Courage!" he panted, "all goes well!" and, +carrying his boots in his hands, he led the way, stepping gingerly +from joist to joist until he reached the tie-beam. He climbed on it, +and, squeezing himself between the struts, entered a second loft +similar to the first. At the farther end of this a rough wall of +bricks in a timber-frame lowered his hopes; but as he approached it, +joy! Low down in the corner where the roof descended, a small door, +square, and not more than two feet high, disclosed itself. + +The two crept to it on hands and knees and listened. "It will lead to +the leads, I doubt?" La Tribe whispered. They dared not raise their +voices. + +"As well that way as another!" Tignonville answered recklessly. He was +the more eager, for there is a fear which transcends the fear of +death. His eyes shone through the mask of dust, the sweat ran down to +his chin, his breath came and went noisily. "Naught matters if we can +escape him!" he panted. And he pushed the door recklessly. It flew +open, the two drew back their faces with a cry of alarm. + +They were looking, not into the sunlight, but into a grey dingy +garret open to the roof, and occupying the upper part of a gable-end +somewhat higher than the wing in which they had been confined. Filthy +truckle-beds and ragged pallets covered the floor, and, eked out by +old saddles and threadbare horse-rugs, marked the sleeping quarters +either of the servants or of travellers of the meaner sort. But the +dinginess was naught to the two who knelt looking into it, afraid to +move. Was the place empty? That was the point; the question which had +first stayed, and then set their pulses at the gallop. + +Painfully their eyes searched each huddle of clothing, scanned each +dubious shape. And slowly, as the silence persisted, their heads came +forward until the whole floor lay within the field of sight. And still +no sound! At last Tignonville stirred, crept through the doorway, and +rose up, peering round him. He nodded, and, satisfied that all was +safe, the minister followed him. + +They found themselves a pace or so from the head of a narrow +staircase, leading downwards. Without moving they could see the door +which closed it below. Tignonville signed to La Tribe to wait, and +himself crept down the stairs. He reached the door, and, stooping, set +his eye to the hole through which the string of the latch passed. A +moment he looked, and then, turning on tiptoe, he stole up again, his +face fallen. + +"You may throw the handle after the hatchet!" he muttered. "The man on +guard is within four yards of the door." And in the rage of +disappointment he struck the air with his hand. + +"Is he looking this way?" + +"No. He is looking down the passage towards our room. But it is +impossible to pass him." + +La Tribe nodded, and moved softly to one of the lattices which lighted +the room. It might be possible to escape that way, by the parapet and +the tiles. But he found that the casement was set high in the roof, +which sloped steeply from its sill to the eaves. He passed to the +other window, in which a little wicket in the lattice stood open. He +looked through it. In the giddy void white pigeons were wheeling in +the dazzling sunshine, and gazing down he saw far below him, in the +hot square, a row of booths, and troops of people moving to and fro +like pigmies; and--and a strange thing, in the middle of all! +Involuntarily, as if the persons below could have seen his face at the +tiny dormer, he drew back. + +He beckoned to M. Tignonville to come to him; and when the young man +complied, he bade him in a whisper look down. "See!" he muttered. +"There!" + +The younger man saw and drew in his breath. Even under the coating of +dust his face turned a shade greyer. + +"You had no need to fear that he would let us go!" the minister +muttered, with half-conscious irony. + +"No." + +"Nor I! There are two ropes." And La Tribe breathed a few words of +prayer. The object which had fixed his gaze was a gibbet: the only one +of the three which could be seen from their eyrie. + +Tignonville, on the other hand, turned sharply away, and with haggard +eyes stared about the room. "We might defend the staircase," he +muttered. "Two men might hold it for a time." + +"We have no food." + +"No." And then he gripped La Tribe's arm. "I have it!" he cried. "And +it may do! It must do!" he continued, his face working. "See!" And +lifting from the floor one of the ragged pallets, from which the straw +protruded in a dozen places, he set it flat on his head. It drooped at +each corner--it had seen much wear--and while it almost hid his face, +it revealed his grimy chin and mortar-stained shoulders. He turned to +his companion. + +La Tribe's face glowed as he looked. "It may do!" he cried. "It's a +chance! But you are right! It may do!" + +Tignonville dropped the ragged mattress, and tore off his coat; then +he rent his breeches at the knee, so that they hung loose about his +calves. "Do you the same!" he cried. "And quick, man, quick! Leave +your boots! Once outside we must pass through the streets under +these"--he took up his burden again and set it on his head--"until we +reach a quiet part, and there we----" + +"Can hide! Or swim the river!" the minister said. He had followed his +companion's example, and now stood under a similar burden. With +breeches rent and whitened, and his upper garments in no better case, +he looked a sorry figure. + +Tignonville eyed him with satisfaction, and turned to the staircase. +"Come," he cried, "there is not a moment to be lost. At any minute +they may enter our room and find it empty! You are ready? Then, not +too softly, or it may rouse suspicion! And mumble something at the +door." + +He began himself to scold, and, muttering incoherently, stumbled down +the staircase, the pallet on his head rustling against the wall on +each side. Arrived at the door he fumbled clumsily with the latch, +and, when the door gave way, plumped out with an oath--as if the +awkward burden he bore were the only thing on his mind. Badelon--he +was on duty--stared at the apparition; but the next moment he sniffed +the pallet, which was none of the freshest, and, turning up his nose, +he retreated a pace. He had no suspicion; the men did not come from +the part of the house where the prisoners lay, and he stood aside to +let them pass. In a moment, staggering, and going a little unsteadily, +as if they scarcely saw their way, they had passed by him, and were +descending the staircase. + +So far well! Unfortunately, when they reached the foot of that flight +they came on the main passage of the first-floor. It ran right and +left, and Tignonville did not know which way he must turn to reach the +lower staircase. Yet he dared not hesitate; in the passage, waiting +about the doors, were four or five servants, and in the distance he +caught sight of three men belonging to Tavannes' company. At any +moment, too, an upper servant might meet them, ask what they were +doing, and detect the fraud. He turned at random, therefore--to the +left as it chanced--and marched along bravely, until the very thing +happened which he had feared. A man came from a room plump upon them, +saw them, and held up his hands in horror. + +"What are you doing!" he cried in a rage and with an oath. "Who set +you on this?" + +Tignonville's tongue clave to the roof of his mouth. La Tribe from +behind muttered something about the stable. + +"And time too!" the man said. "Faugh! But how come you this way! Are +you drunk? Here!" He opened the door of a musty closet beside him, +"Pitch them in here, do you hear! And take them down when it is dark! +Faugh! I wonder you did not carry the things through her ladyship's +room at once! If my lord had been in and met you! Now then, do as I +tell you! Are you drunk!" + +With a sullen air Tignonville threw in his mattress. La Tribe did the +same. Fortunately the passage was ill-lighted, and there were many +helpers and strange servants in the inn. The butler only thought them +ill-looking fellows who knew no better. "Now be off!" he continued +irascibly, "This is no place for your sort. Be off!" And, as they +moved, "Coming! Coming!" he cried in answer to a distant summons; and +he hurried away on the errand which their appearance had interrupted. + +Tignonville would have gone to work to recover the pallets, for the +man had left the key in the door. But as he went to do so the butler +looked back, and the two were obliged to make a pretence of following +him. A moment, however, and he was gone; and Tignonville turned anew +to regain them. A second time fortune was adverse; a door within a +pace of him opened, a woman came out. She recoiled from the strange +figure; her eyes met his. Unluckily the light from the room behind her +fell on his face, and with a shrill cry she named him. + +One second and all had been lost, for the crowd of idlers at the other +end of the passage had caught her cry, and were looking that way. With +presence of mind Tignonville clapped his hand on her mouth, and, +huddling her by force into the room, followed her, with La Tribe at +his heels. + +It was a large room, in which seven or eight people, who had been at +prayers when the cry startled them, were rising from their knees. The +first thing they saw was Javette on the threshold, struggling in the +grasp of a wild man, ragged and begrimed; they deemed the city risen +and the massacre upon them. Carlat threw himself before his mistress, +the Countess in her turn sheltered a young girl, who stood beside her +and from whose face the last trace of colour had fled. Madame Carlat +and a waiting-woman ran shrieking to the window; another instant and +the alarm would have gone abroad. + +Tignonville's voice stopped it. "Don't you know me?" he cried. +"Madame! you at least! Carlat! Are you all mad?" + +The words stayed them where they stood in an astonishment scarce less +than their alarm. The Countess tried twice to speak; the third time, +"Have you escaped?" she muttered. + +Tignonville nodded, his eyes bright with triumph. "So far," he said. +"But they may be on our heels at any moment! Where can we hide?" + +The Countess, her hand pressed to her side, looked at Javette. "The +door, girl!" she whispered. "Lock it!" + +"Ay, lock it! And they can go by the backstairs," Madame Carlat +answered, awaking suddenly to the situation. "Through my closet! Once +in the yard they may pass out through the stables." + +"Which way?" Tignonville asked impatiently. "Don't stand looking at +me, but----" + +"Through this door!" Madame Carlat answered, hurrying to it. + +He was following when the Countess stepped forward and interposed +between him and the door. "Stay!" she cried; and there was not one who +did not notice a new decision in her voice, a new dignity in her +bearing. "Stay, monsieur, we may be going too fast. To go out now and +in that guise--may it not be to incur greater peril than you incur +here? I feel sure that you are in no danger of your life at present. +Therefore, why run the risk----" + +"In no danger, madame!" he cried, interrupting her in astonishment. +"Have you seen the gibbet in the Square? Do you call that no danger?" + +"It is not erected for you." + +"No?" + +"No, monsieur," she answered firmly, "I swear it is not. And I know of +reasons, urgent reasons, why you should not go. M. de Tavannes"--she +named her husband nervously, as conscious of the weak spot--"before he +rode abroad laid strict orders on all to keep within, since the +smallest matter might kindle the city. Therefore, M. de Tignonville, I +request, nay I entreat," she continued with greater urgency, as she +saw his gesture of denial, "you to stay here until he returns." + +"And you, madame, will answer for my life!" + +She faltered. For a moment, a moment only, her colour ebbed. What if +she deceived herself! What if she surrendered her old lover to death? +What if--but the doubt was of a moment only. Her duty was plain. "I +will answer for it," she said, with pale lips, "if you remain here. +And I beg, I implore you--by the love you once had for me, M. +Tignonville," she added desperately, seeing that he was about to +refuse, "to remain here." + +"Once!" he retorted, lashing himself into ignoble rage. "By the +love I once had! Say, rather, the love I have, madame--for I am no +woman-weathercock to wed the winner, and hold or not hold, stay or go, +as he commands! You, it seems," he continued with a sneer, "have +learned the wife's lesson well! You would practise on me now, as you +practised on me the other night when you stood between him and me! I +yielded then, I spared him. And what did I get by it? Bonds and a +prison! And what shall I get now! The same! No, madame," he continued +bitterly, addressing himself as much to the Carlats and the others as +to his old mistress. "I do not change! I loved! I love! I was going +and I go! If death lay beyond that door"--and he pointed to it--"and +life at his will were certain here, I would pass the threshold rather +than take my life of him!" And, dragging La Tribe with him, with a +passionate gesture he rushed by her, opened the door, and disappeared +in the next room. + +The Countess took one pace forward, as if she would have followed him, +as if she would have tried farther persuasion. But as she moved a cry +rooted her to the spot. A rush of feet and the babel of many voices +filled the passage with a tide of sound, which drew rapidly nearer. +The escape was known! Would the fugitives have time to slip out +below? + +Someone knocked at the door, tried it, pushed and beat on it. But the +Countess and all in the room had run to the windows and were looking +out. + +If the two had not yet made their escape they must be taken. Yet no; +as the Countess leaned from the window, first one dusty figure and +then a second darted from a door below, and made for the nearest +turning out of the Place Ste.-Croix. Before they gained it, four men, +of whom Badelon, his grey locks flying, was first, dashed out in +pursuit, and the street rang with cries of "Stop him! Seize him! Seize +him!" Someone--one of the pursuers or another--to add to the alarm let +off a musket, and in a moment, as if the report had been a signal, the +Place was in a hubbub, people flocked into it with mysterious +quickness, and from a neighbouring roof--whence, precisely, it was +impossible to say--the crackling fire of a dozen arquebuses alarmed +the city far and wide. + +Unfortunately, the fugitives had been baulked at the first turning. +Making for a second, they found it choked, and, swerving, darted +across the Place towards St.-Maurice, seeking to lose themselves in +the gathering crowd. But the pursuers clung desperately to their +skirts, overturning here a man and there a child; and then in a +twinkling, Tignonville, as he ran round a booth, tripped over a peg +and fell, and La Tribe stumbled over him and fell also. The four +riders flung themselves fiercely on their prey, secured them, and +began to drag them with oaths and curses towards the door of the inn. + +The Countess had seen all from her window; had held her breath while +they ran, had drawn it sharply when they fell. Now "They have them!" +she muttered, a sob choking her, "They have them!" And she clasped her +hands. If he had followed her advice! If he had only followed her +advice! + +But the issue proved less certain than she deemed it. The crowd, which +grew each moment, knew nothing of pursuers or pursued. On the +contrary, a cry went up that the riders were Huguenots, and that the +Huguenots were rising and slaying the Catholics; and as no story was +too improbable for those days, and this was one constantly set about, +first one stone flew, and then another, and another. A man with a +staff darted forward and struck Badelon on the shoulder, two or three +others pressed in and jostled the riders; and if three of Tavannes' +following had not run out on the instant and faced the mob with their +pikes, and for a moment forced them to give back, the prisoners would +have been rescued at the very door of the inn. As it was they were +dragged in, and the gates were flung to and barred in the nick of +time. Another moment, almost another second, and the mob had seized +them. As it was, a hail of stones poured on the front of the inn, and +amid the rising yells of the rabble there presently floated heavy and +slow over the city the tolling of the great bell of St. Maurice. + + + + + CHAPTER XXX. + + SACRILEGE! + + +M. de Montsoreau, Lieutenant-Governor of Saumur, almost rose from his +seat in his astonishment. "What! No letters?" he cried, a hand on +either arm of his chair. + +The Magistrates stared, one and all. "No letters?" they muttered. + +And "No letters?" the Provost chimed in more faintly. + +Count Hannibal looked smiling round the Council table. He alone was +unmoved. "No," he said. "I bear none." + +M. de Montsoreau, who, travel-stained and in his corselet, had the +second place of honour at the foot of the table, frowned. "But--but, +M. le Comte," he said, "my instructions from Monsieur were to proceed +to carry out his Majesty's will in co-operation with you, who, I +understood, would bring letters _de par le Roi_." + +"I had letters," Count Hannibal answered, negligently. "But on the way +I mislaid them." + +"Mislaid them?" Montsoreau cried, unable to believe his ears; while +the smaller dignitaries of the city, the magistrates and churchmen, +who sat on either side of the table, gaped open-mouthed. It was +incredible! It was unbelievable! Mislay the King's letters! Who had +ever heard of such a thing? + +"Yes, I mislaid them. Lost them, if you like it better." + +"But you jest!" the Lieutenant-Governor retorted, moving uneasily in +his chair. He was a man more highly named for address than courage; +and, like most men skilled in finesse, he was prone to suspect a trap. +"You jest, surely, monsieur! Men do not lose his Majesty's letters, by +the way." + +"When they contain his Majesty's will, no," Tavannes answered, with a +peculiar smile. + +"You imply, then?" + +Count Hannibal shrugged his shoulders but had not answered when Bigot +entered and handed him his sweetmeat box; he paused to open it and +select a prune. He was long in selecting; but no change of countenance +led any of those at the table to suspect that inside the lid of the +box was a message--a scrap of paper informing him that Montsoreau had +left fifty spears in the suburb without the Saumur gate, besides those +whom he had brought openly into the town. Tavannes read the note +slowly while he seemed to be choosing his fruit. And then, "Imply?" he +answered. "I imply nothing, M. de Montsoreau." + +"But----" + +"But that sometimes his Majesty finds it prudent to give orders which +he does not mean to be carried out. There are things which start up +before the eye," Tavannes continued, negligently tapping the box on +the table, "and there are things which do not; sometimes the latter +are the more important. You, better than I, M. de Montsoreau, know +that the King in the Gallery at the Louvre is one, and in his closet +is another." + +"Yes." + +"And that being so----" + +"You do not mean to carry the letters into effect?" + +"Had I the letters, certainly, my friend. I should be bound by them. +But I took good care to lose them," Tavannes added naively. "I am no +fool." + +"Umph!" + +"However," Count Hannibal continued, with an airy gesture, "that is my +affair. If you, M. de Montsoreau, feel inclined, in spite of the +absence of my letters, to carry yours into effect, by all means do +so--after midnight of to-day." + +M. de Montsoreau breathed hard. "And why," he asked, half sulkily and +half ponderously, "after midnight only, M. le Comte?" + +"Merely that I may be clear of all suspicion of having lot or part in +the matter," Count Hannibal answered pleasantly. "After midnight of +to-night by all means, do as you please. Until midnight, by your +leave, we will be quiet." + +The Lieutenant-Governor moved doubtfully in his chair, the fear--which +Tavannes had shrewdly instilled into his mind--that he might be +disowned if he carried out his instructions, struggling with his +avarice and his self-importance. He was rather crafty than bold; and +such things had been, he knew. Little by little, and while he sat +gloomily debating, the notion of dealing with one or two and holding +the body of the Huguenots to ransom--a notion which, in spite of +everything, was to bear good fruit for Angers--began to form in his +mind. The plan suited him: it left him free to face either way, and it +would fill his pockets more genteelly than would open robbery. On the +other hand, he would offend his brother and the fanatical party, with +whom he commonly acted. They were looking to see him assert himself. +They were looking to hear him declare himself. And---- + +Harshly Count Hannibal's voice broke in on his thoughts; harshly, a +something sinister in its tone. "Where is your brother?" he said. And +it was evident that he had not noted his absence until then. "My +lord's Vicar of all people should be here!" he continued, leaning +forward and looking round the table. His brow was stormy. + +Lescot squirmed under his eye, Thuriot turned pale and trembled. It +was one of the canons of St.-Maurice who at length took on himself to +answer. "His Lordship requested, M. le Comte," he ventured, "that you +would excuse him. His duties----" + +"Is he ill?" + +"He----" + +"Is he ill, sirrah?" Tavannes roared. And while all bowed before the +lightning of his eye, no man at the table knew what had roused the +sudden tempest. But Bigot knew, who stood by the door, and whose ear, +keen as his master's, had caught the distant report of a musket shot. +"If he be not ill," Tavannes continued, rising and looking round the +table in search of signs of guilt, "and there be foul play here, and +he the player, the Bishop's own hand shall not save him! By heaven it +shall not! Nor yours!" he continued, looking fiercely at Montsoreau. +"Nor your master's!" + +The Lieutenant-Governor sprang to his feet. "M. le Comte," he +stammered, "I do not understand this language! Nor this heat, which +may be real or not! All I say is, if there be foul play here----" + +"If!" Tavannes retorted. "At least, if there be, there be gibbets too! +And I see necks!" he added, leaning forward. "Necks!" And then, with a +look of flame, "Let no man leave this table until I return," he cried, +"or he will have to deal with me. Nay," he continued, changing his +tone abruptly, as the prudence which never entirely left him--and +perhaps the remembrance of the other's fifty spearmen--sobered him in +the midst of his rage, "I am hasty. I mean not you, M. de Montsoreau! +Ride where you will, ride with me if you will--and I will thank you. +Only remember, until midnight Angers is mine!" + +He was still speaking when he moved from the table, and, leaving all +staring after him, strode down the room. An instant he paused on the +threshold and looked back; then he passed out, and clattered down the +stone stairs. His horse and riders were waiting, but, his foot in the +stirrup, he stayed for a word with Bigot. "Is it so?" he growled. + +The Norman did not speak, but pointed towards the Place Ste.-Croix, +whence an occasional shot made answer for him. + +In those days the streets of the Black City were narrow and crooked, +overhung by timber houses and hampered by booths; nor could Tavannes +from the old Town Hall--now abandoned--see the Place Ste.-Croix. But +that he could cure. He struck spurs to his horse, and, followed by his +ten horsemen, he clattered noisily down the paved street. A dozen +groups hurrying the same way sprang panic-stricken to the walls, or +saved themselves in doorways. He was up with them, he was beyond them! +Another hundred yards, and he would see the Place. + +And then, with a cry of rage, he drew rein a little, discovering what +was before him. In the narrow gut of the way a great black banner, +borne on two poles, was lurching towards him. It was moving in the van +of a dark procession of priests, who, with their attendants and a +crowd of devout, filled the street from wall to wall. They were +chanting one of the penitential psalms, but not so loudly as to drown +the uproar in the Place beyond them. + +They made no way, and Count Hannibal swore furiously, suspecting +treachery. But he was no madman, and at the moment the least +reflection would have sent him about to seek another road. +Unfortunately, as he hesitated a man sprang with a gesture of warning +to his horse's head and seized it; and Tavannes, mistaking the motive +of the act, lost his self-control. He struck the fellow down, and with +a reckless word rode headlong into the procession, shouting to the +black robes to make way, make way! A cry, nay, a very shriek of +horror, answered him and rent the air. And in a minute the thing was +done. Too late, as the Bishop's Vicar, struck by his horse, fell +screaming under its hoofs--too late, as the consecrated vessels which +he had been bearing rolled in the mud, Tavannes saw that they bore the +canopy and the Host! + +He knew what he had done, then. Before his horse's iron shoes struck +the ground again, his face--even his face--had lost its colour. But he +knew also that to hesitate now, to pause now, was to be torn in +pieces; for his riders, seeing that which the banner had veiled from +him, had not followed him, and he was alone, in the middle of +brandished fists and weapons. He hesitated not a moment. Drawing a +pistol he spurred onwards, his horse plunging wildly among the +shrieking priests; and though a hundred hands, hands of acolytes, +hands of shaven monks, clutched at his bridle or gripped his boot, +he got clear of them. Clear, carrying with him the memory of one +face seen an instant amid the crowd, one face seen, to be ever +remembered--the face of Father Pezelay, white, evil, scarred, +distorted by wicked triumph. + +Behind him, the thunder of "Sacrilege! Sacrilege!" rose to heaven, and +men were gathering. In front the crowd which skirmished about the inn +was less dense, and, ignorant of the thing that had happened in the +narrow street, made ready way for him, the boldest recoiling before +the look on his face. Some who stood nearest to the inn, and had begun +to hurl stones at the window and to beat on the doors--which had only +the minute before closed on Badelon and his prisoners--supposed that +he had his riders behind him; and these fled apace. But he knew better +even than they the value of time; he pushed his horse up to the gates, +and hammered them with his boot while he kept his pistol-hand towards +the Place and the cathedral, watching for the transformation which he +knew would come! + +And come it did; on a sudden, in a twinkling! A white-faced monk, +frenzy in his eyes, appeared in the midst of the crowd. He stood and +tore his garments before the people, and, stooping, threw dust on his +head. A second and a third followed his example; then from a thousand +throats the cry of "Sacrilege! Sacrilege!" rolled up, while clerks +flew wildly hither and thither shrieking the tale, and priests denied +the Sacraments to Angers until it should purge itself of the evil +thing. + +By that time Count Hannibal had saved himself behind the great gates, +by the skin of his teeth. The gates had opened to him in time. But +none knew better than he that Angers had no gates thick enough, nor +walls of a height, to save him for many hours from the storm he had +let loose! + + + + + CHAPTER XXXI. + + THE FLIGHT FROM ANGERS. + + +But that only the more roused the devil in the man; that, and the +knowledge that he had his own headstrong act to thank for the +position. He looked on the panic-stricken people who, scared by the +turmoil without, had come together in the courtyard, wringing their +hands and chattering; and his face was so dark and forbidding that +fear of him took the place of all other fear, and the nearest shrank +from contact with him. On any other entering as he had entered, they +would have hailed questions; they would have asked what was amiss and +if the city were rising, and where were Bigot and his men. But Count +Hannibal's eye struck curiosity dumb. When he cried from his saddle, +"Bring me the landlord!" the trembling man was found, and brought, and +thrust forward almost without a word. + +"You have a back gate?" Tavannes said, while the crowd leaned forward +to catch his words. + +"Yes, my lord," the man faltered. + +"Into the street which leads to the ramparts?" + +"Ye--yes, my lord." + +"Then"--to Badelon--"saddle! You have five minutes. Saddle as you +never saddled before," he continued in a low tone, "or----" His tongue +did not finish the threat, but his hand waved the man away. "For you," +he held Tignonville an instant with his lowering eye, "and the +preaching fool with you, get arms and mount! You have never played +aught but the woman yet; but play me false now, or look aside but a +foot from the path I bid you take, and you thwart me no more, +monsieur! And you, madame," he continued, turning to the Countess, who +stood bewildered at one of the doors, the Provost's daughter clinging +and weeping about her, "you have three minutes to get your women to +horse! See you, if you please, that they take no longer!" + +She found her voice with difficulty. "And this child?" she said. "She +is in my care." + +"Bring her," he muttered with a scowl of impatience. And then, raising +his voice as he turned on the terrified gang of hostlers and inn +servants who stood gaping round him, "Go help!" he thundered. "Go +help! And quickly!" he added, his face growing a shade darker as a +second bell began to toll from a neighbouring tower, and the confused +babel in the Place Ste.-Croix settled into a dull roar of +"_Sacrilege_! _sacrilege!_"--"Hasten!" + +Fortunately it had been his first intention to go to the Council +attended by the whole of his troop; and eight horses stood saddled in +the stalls. Others were hastily pulled out and bridled, and the women +were mounted. La Tribe, at a look from Tavannes, took behind him the +Provost's daughter, who was helpless with terror. Between the +suddenness of the alarm, the uproar without, and the panic within, +none but a man whose people served him at a nod and dreaded his very +gesture could have got his party mounted in time. Javette would fain +have swooned, but she dared not. Tignonville would fain have +questioned, but he shrank from the venture. The Countess would fain +have said something, but she forced herself to obey and no more. Even +so the confusion in the courtyard, the mingling of horses and men and +trappings and saddle-bags, would have made another despair; but +wherever Count Hannibal, seated in his saddle in the middle, turned +his face, chaos settled into a kind of order, servants, ceasing to +listen to the yells and cries outside, ran to fetch, women dropped +cloaks from the gallery, and men loaded muskets and strapped on +bandoliers. + +Until at last--but none knew what those minutes of suspense cost +him--he saw all mounted, and, pistol in hand, shepherded them to the +back gates. As he did so he stooped for a few scowling words with +Badelon, whom he sent to the van of the party: then he gave the word +to open. It was done; and even as Montsoreau's horsemen, borne on the +bosom of a second and more formidable throng, swept raging into the +already crowded square, and the cry went up for "a ram! a ram!" to +batter in the gates, Tavannes, hurling his little party before him, +dashed out at the back, and putting to flight a handful of rascals who +had wandered to that side, cantered unmolested down the lane to the +ramparts. Turning eastward at the foot of the frowning Castle, he +followed the inner side of the wall in the direction of the gate by +which he had entered the preceding evening. + +To gain this his party had to pass the end of the Rue Toussaint, which +issues from the Place Ste.-Croix and runs so straight that the mob +seething in front of the inn had only to turn their heads to see them. +The danger incurred at this point was great; for a party as small as +Tavannes' and encumbered with women would have had no chance if +attacked within the walls. + +Count Hannibal knew it. But he knew also that the act which he had +committed rendered the north bank of the Loire impossible for him. +Neither King nor Marshal, neither Charles of Valois nor Gaspard of +Tavannes, would dare to shield him from an infuriated Church, a Church +too wise to forgive certain offences. His one chance lay in reaching +the southern bank of the Loire--roughly speaking, the Huguenot +bank--and taking refuge in some town, Rochelle or St. Jean d'Angely, +where the Huguenots were strong, and whence he might take steps to set +himself right with his own side. + +But to cross the great river which divides France into two lands +widely differing he must leave the city by the east gate; for the only +bridge over the Loire within forty miles of Angers lay eastward from +the town, at Ponts de Ce, four miles away. To this gate, therefore, +past the Rue Toussaint, he whirled his party daringly; and though the +women grew pale as the sounds of riot broke louder on the ear, and +they discovered that they were approaching instead of leaving the +danger--and though Tignonville for an instant thought him mad, and +snatched at the Countess's rein--his men-at-arms, who knew him, +galloped stolidly on, passed like clockwork the end of the street, +and, reckless of the stream of persons hurrying in the direction of +the alarm, heedless of the fright and anger their passage excited, +pressed steadily on. A moment and the gate through which they had +entered the previous evening appeared before them. And--a sight +welcome to one of them--it was open. + +They were fortunate indeed, for a few seconds later they had been too +late. The alarm had preceded them; as they dashed up, a man ran to the +chains of the portcullis and tried to lower it. He failed to do so at +the first touch, and quailing, fled from Badelon's levelled pistol. A +watchman on one of the bastions of the wall shouted to them to halt or +he would fire: but the riders yelled in derision, and thundering +through the echoing archway, emerged into the open, and saw, extended +before them, in place of the gloomy vistas of the Black Town, the +glory of the open country and the vine-clad hills, and the fields +about the Loire yellow with late harvest. + +The women gasped their relief, and one or two who were most out of +breath would have pulled up their horses and let them trot, thinking +the danger at an end. But a curt savage word from the rear set them +flying again, and down and up and on again they galloped, driven +forward by the iron hand which never relaxed its grip of them. Silent +and pitiless he whirled them before him until they were within a mile +of the long Ponts de Ce--a series of bridges rather than one +bridge--and the broad shallow Loire lay plain before them, its +sandbanks grilling in the sun, and grey lines of willows marking its +eyots. By this time some of the women, white with fatigue, could only +cling to their saddles with their hands; while others were red-hot, +their hair unrolled, and the perspiration mingled with the dust on +their faces. But he who drove them had no pity for weakness in an +emergency. He looked back and saw, a half-mile behind them, the +glitter of steel following hard on their heels: and "Faster! faster!" +he cried, regardless of their prayers: and he beat the rearmost of the +horses with his scabbard. A waiting-woman shrieked that she should +fall, but he answered ruthlessly, "Fall then, fool!" and the instinct +of self-preservation coming to her aid, she clung and bumped and +toiled on with the rest until they reached the first houses of the +town about the bridges, and Badelon raised his hand as a signal that +they might slacken speed. + +The bewilderment of the start had been so great that it was then only, +when they found their feet on the first link of the bridge, that two +of the party, the Countess and Tignonville, awoke to the fact that +their faces were set southwards. To cross the Loire in those days +meant much to all: to a Huguenot very much. It chanced that these two +rode on to the bridge side by side, and the memory of their last +crossing--the remembrance that, on their journey north a month before, +they had crossed it hand-in-hand with the prospect of passing their +lives together, and with no faintest thought of the events which were +to ensue, flashed into the mind of each of them. It deepened the flush +which exertion had brought to the woman's cheek, then left it paler +than before. A minute earlier she had been wroth with her old lover; +she had held him accountable for the outbreak in the town and this +hasty retreat; now her anger died as she looked and she remembered. In +the man, shallower of feeling and more alive to present contingencies, +the uppermost emotion as he trod the bridge was one of surprise and +congratulation. + +He could not at first believe in their good fortune. "_Mon Dieu!_" he +cried, "we are crossing!" And then again in a lower tone, "We are +crossing! We are crossing!" And he looked at her. + +It was impossible that she should not look back; that she who had +ceased to be angry should not feel and remember; impossible that her +answering glance should not speak to his heart. Below them, as on that +day a month earlier, when they had crossed the bridges going +northward, the broad shallow river ran its course in the sunshine, +its turbid currents gleaming and flashing about the sandbanks and +osier-beds. To the eye, the landscape, save that the vintage was +farther advanced and the harvest in part gathered in, was the same. +But how changed were their relations, their prospects, their hopes, +who had then crossed the river hand-in-hand, planning a life to be +passed together. + +The young man's rage boiled up at the thought. Too vividly, too +sharply it showed him the wrongs which he had suffered at the hands of +the man who rode behind him, the man who even now drove him on and +ordered him and insulted him. He forgot that he might have perished in +the general massacre if Count Hannibal had not intervened. He forgot +that Count Hannibal had spared him once and twice. He laid on his +enemy's shoulders the guilt of all, the blood of all: and as, quick on +the thought of his wrongs and his fellows' wrongs followed the +reflection that with every league they rode southwards the chance of +requital grew, he cried again, and this time joyously, "We are +crossing! A little, and we shall be in our own land!" + +The tears filled the Countess's eyes as she looked westwards and +southwards. "Vrillac is there!" she cried; and she pointed. "I smell +the sea!" + +"Ay!" he answered, almost under his breath. "It lies there! And no +more than thirty leagues from us! With fresh horses we might see it in +two days!" + +Badelon's voice broke in on them. "Forward!" he cried as they reached +the southern bank. "_En avant!_" And, obedient to the word, the little +party, refreshed by the short respite, took the road out of Ponts de +Ce at a steady trot. Nor was the Countess the only one whose face +glowed, being set southwards, or whose heart pulsed to the rhythm of +the horses' hoofs that beat out "Home!" Carlat's and Madame Carlat's +also. Javette even, hearing from her neighbour that they were over the +Loire, plucked up courage; while La Tribe, gazing before him with +moistened eyes, cried "Comfort" to the scared and weeping girl who +clung to his belt. It was singular to see how all sniffed the air as +if already it smacked of the sea and of the south; and how they of +Poitou sat their horses as if they asked nothing better than to ride +on and on and on until the scenes of home arose about them. For them +the sky had already a deeper blue, the air a softer fragrance, the +sunshine a purity long unknown! + +Was it wonderful, when they had suffered so much on that northern +bank? When their experience during the month had been comparable only +with the direst nightmare? Yet one among them, after the first impulse +of relief and satisfaction, felt differently. Tignonville's gorge rose +against the sense of compulsion, of inferiority. To be driven forward +after this fashion, whether he would or no, to be placed at the beck +of every base-born man-at-arms, to have no clearer knowledge of what +had happened or of what was passing, or of the peril from which they +fled, than the women among whom he rode--these things kindled anew the +sullen fire of hate. North of the Loire there had been some excuse for +his inaction under insult; he had been in the man's country and power. +But south of the Loire, within forty leagues of Huguenot Niort, must +he still suffer, still be supine? + +His rage was inflamed by a disappointment he presently underwent. +Looking back as they rode clear of the wooden houses of Ponts de Ce, +he missed Tavannes and several of his men; and he wondered if Count +Hannibal had remained on his own side of the river. It seemed +possible; and in that event La Tribe and he and Carlat might deal with +Badelon and the four who still escorted them. But when he looked back +a minute later, Tavannes was within sight, following the party with a +stern face; and not Tavannes only. Bigot, with two of the ten men who +hitherto had been missing, was with him. + +It was clear, however, that they brought no good news, for they had +scarcely ridden up before Count Hannibal cried "Faster! faster!" in +his harshest voice, and Bigot urged the horses to a quicker trot. +Their course lay almost parallel with the Loire in the direction of +Beaupreau; and Tignonville began to fear that Count Hannibal intended +to recross the river at Nantes, where the only bridge below Angers +spanned the stream. With this in view it was easy to comprehend his +wish to distance his pursuers before he recrossed. + +The Countess had no such thought. "They must be close upon us!" she +murmured, as she urged her horse in obedience to the order. + +"Whoever they are!" Tignonville muttered bitterly. "If we knew what +had happened, or who followed, we should know more about it, madame. +For that matter, I know what I wish he would do. And our heads are set +for it." + +"What?" + +"Make for Vrillac!" he answered, a savage gleam in his eyes. + +"For Vrillac?" + +"Yes." + +"Ah, if he would!" she cried, her face turning pale. "If he would. He +would be safe there!" + +"Ay, quite safe!" he answered with a peculiar intonation. And he +looked at her askance. + +He fancied that his thought, the thought which had just flashed into +his brain, was her thought; that she had the same notion in reserve, +and that they were in sympathy. And Tavannes, seeing them talking +together, and noting her look and the fervour of her gesture, formed +the same opinion, and retired more darkly into himself. The downfall +of his plan for dazzling her by a magnanimity unparalleled and beyond +compare, a plan dependent on the submission of Angers--his +disappointment in this might have roused the worst passions of a +better man. But there was in this man a pride on a level at least with +his other passions: and to bear himself in this hour of defeat and +flight so that if she could not love him she must admire him, checked +in a strange degree the current of his rage. When Tignonville +presently looked back he found that Count Hannibal and six of his +riders had pulled up and were walking their horses far in the rear. On +which he would have done the same himself; but Badelon called over his +shoulder the eternal "Forward, monsieur, _en avant!_" and sullenly, +hating the man and his master more deeply every hour, Tignonville was +forced to push on, with thoughts of vengeance in his heart. + +Trot, trot! Trot, trot! Through a country which had lost its smiling +wooded character and grew more sombre and less fertile the farther +they left the Loire behind them. Trot, trot! Trot, trot!--for ever, it +seemed to some. Javette wept with fatigue, and the other women were +little better. The Countess herself spoke seldom except to cheer the +Provost's daughter; who, poor girl, flung suddenly out of the round of +her life and cast among strangers, showed a better spirit than might +have been expected. At length, on the slopes of some low hills, which +they had long seen before them, a cluster of houses and a church +appeared; and Badelon, drawing rein, cried, "Beaupreau, madame! We +stay an hour!" + +It was six o'clock. They had ridden some hours without a break. With +sighs and cries of pain the women dropped from their clumsy saddles, +while the men laid out such food--it was little--as had been brought, +and hobbled the horses that they might feed. The hour passed rapidly, +and when it had passed Badelon was inexorable. There was wailing when +he gave the word to mount again; and Tignonville, fiercely resenting +this dumb, reasonless flight, was at heart one of the mutineers. But +Badelon said grimly that they might go on and live, or stay and die, +as it pleased them; and once more they climbed painfully to their +saddles, and jogged steadily on through the sunset, through the +gloaming, through the darkness, across a weird, mysterious country of +low hills and narrow plains which grew more wild and less cultivated +as they advanced. Fortunately the horses had been well saved during +the long leisurely journey to Angers, and now went well and strongly. +When they at last unsaddled for the night in a little dismal wood +within a mile of Clisson, they had placed some forty miles between +themselves and Angers. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXII. + + THE ORDEAL BY STEEL. + + +The women for the most part fell like sacks and slept where they +alighted, dead weary. The men, when they had cared for the horses, +followed the example; for Badelon would suffer no fire. In less than +half an hour, a sentry who stood on guard at the edge of the wood, and +Tignonville and La Tribe, who talked in low voices with their backs +against a tree, were the only persons who remained awake, with the +exception of the Countess. Carlat had made a couch for her, and +screened it with cloaks from the wind and the eye; for the moon had +risen, and where the trees stood sparsest its light flooded the soil +with pools of white. But Madame had not yet retired to her bed. The +two men, whose voices reached her, saw her from time to time moving +restlessly to and fro between the road and the little encampment. +Presently she came and stood over them. + +"He led His people out of the wilderness," La Tribe was saying; "out +of the trouble of Paris, out of the trouble of Angers, and always, +always southward. If you do not in this, monsieur, see His finger----" + +"And Angers?" Tignonville struck in, with a faint sneer. "Has He led +that out of trouble? A day or two ago you would risk all to save it, +my friend. Now, with your back safely turned on it, you think all for +the best." + +"We did our best," the minister answered humbly. "From the day we met +in Paris we have been but instruments." + +"To save Angers?" + +"To save a remnant." + +On a sudden the Countess raised her hand. "Do you not hear horses, +monsieur?" she cried. She had been listening to the noises of the +night, and had paid little heed to what the two were saying. + +"One of ours moved," Tignonville answered listlessly. "Why do you not +lie down, madame?" + +Instead of answering, "Whither is he going?" she asked. "Do you know?" + +"I wish I did know," the young man answered peevishly. "To Niort, it +may be. Or presently he will double back and recross the Loire." + +"He would have gone by Cholet to Niort," La Tribe said. "The direction +is rather that of Rochelle. God grant we be bound thither!" + +"Or to Vrillac," the Countess cried, clasping her hands in the +darkness. "Can it be to Vrillac he is going?" + +The minister shook his head. + +"Ah, let it be to Vrillac!" she cried, a thrill in her voice. "We +should be safe there. And he would be safe." + +"Safe?" echoed a fourth and deeper voice. And out of the darkness +beside them loomed a tall figure. + +The minister looked and leapt to his feet. Tignonville rose more +slowly. + +The voice was Tavannes' "And where am I to be safe?" he repeated +slowly, a faint ring of saturnine amusement in his tone. + +"At Vrillac," she cried. "In my house, monsieur." + +He was silent a moment. Then, "Your house, madame? In which direction +is it, from here?" + +"Westwards," she answered impulsively, her voice quivering with +eagerness and emotion and hope. "Westwards, monsieur--on the sea. The +causeway from the land is long, and ten can hold it against ten +hundred." + +"Westwards? And how far westwards?" + +Tignonville answered for her; in his tone throbbed the same eagerness, +the same anxiety, which spoke in hers. Nor was Count Hannibal's ear +deaf to it. "Through Challans," he said, "thirteen leagues." + +"From Clisson?" + +"Yes, Monsieur le Comte." + +"And by Commequiers less," the Countess cried. + +"No, it is a worse road," Tignonville answered quickly; "and longer in +time." + +"But we came----" + +"At our leisure, madame. The road is by Challans, if we wish to be +there quickly." + +"Ah!" Count Hannibal said. In the darkness it was impossible to see +his face or mark how he took it. "But being there, I have few men." + +"I have forty will come at call," she cried with pride. "A word to +them, and in four hours or a little more----" + +"They would outnumber mine by four to one," Count Hannibal answered +coldly, drily, in a voice like ice-water flung in their faces. "Thank +you, madame; I understand. To Vrillac is no long ride; but we will not +ride it at present." And he turned sharply on his heel and strode from +them. + +He had not covered thirty paces before she overtook him in the middle +of a broad patch of moonlight and touched his arm. He wheeled swiftly, +his hand half-way to his hilt. Then he saw who it was. "Ah," he said, +"I had forgotten, madame. You have come----" + +"No!" she cried passionately; and standing before him she shook back +the hood of her cloak that he might look into her eyes. "You owe me no +blow to-day. You have paid me, monsieur. You have struck me already, +and foully, like a coward. Do you remember," she continued rapidly, +"the hour after our marriage, and what you said to me? Do you remember +what you told me? And whom to trust and whom to suspect, where lay our +interest and where our foes? You trusted me then! What have I done +that you now dare--ay, dare, monsieur," she repeated fearlessly, her +face pale and her eyes glittering with excitement, "to insult me? That +you treat me as--Javette? That you deem me capable of _that?_ Of +luring you into a trap, and in my own house, or the house that was +mine, of----" + +"Treating me as I have treated others." + +"You have said it!" she cried. She could not herself understand why +his distrust had wounded her so sharply, so home, that all fear of him +was gone. "You have said it, and put that between us which will not be +removed. I could have forgiven blows," she continued, breathless in +her excitement, "so you had thought me what I am. But now you will do +well to watch me! You will do well to leave Vrillac on one side. For +were you there, and raised your hand against me--not that that touches +me, but it will do--and there are those, I tell you, would fling you +from the tower at my word." + +"Indeed?" + +"Ay, indeed! And indeed, monsieur!" + +Her face was in moonlight, his was in shadow. + +"And this is your new tone, madame, is it?" he said, slowly and after +a pregnant pause. "The crossing of a river has wrought so great a +change in you?" + +"No!" she cried. + +"Yes," he said. And despite herself she flinched before the grimness +of his tone. "You have yet to learn one thing, however: that I do not +change. That, north or south, I am the same to those who are the same +to me. That what I have won on the one bank I will hold on the other, +in the teeth of all, and though God's Church be thundering on my +heels! I go to Vrillac----" + +"You--go?" she cried. "You go?" + +"I go," he repeated, "to-morrow. And among your own people I will see +what language you will hold. While you were in my power I spared you. +Now that you are in your own land, now that you lift your hand against +me, I will show you of what make I am. If blows will not tame you, I +will try that will suit you less. Ay, you wince, madame! You had done +well had you thought twice before you threatened, and thrice before +you took in hand to scare Tavannes with a parcel of clowns and +fisherfolk. Tomorrow, to Vrillac and your duty! And one word more, +madame," he continued, turning back to her truculently when he had +gone some paces from her. "If I find you plotting with your lover by +the way I will hang not you, but him. I have spared him a score of +times; but I know him, and I do not trust him." + +"Nor me," she said, and with a white, set face she looked at him in +the moonlight. "Had you not better hang me now?" + +"Why?" + +"Lest I do you an injury!" she cried with passion; and she raised her +hand and pointed northward. "Lest I kill you some night, monsieur! I +tell you, a thousand men on your heels are less dangerous than the +woman at your side--if she hate you." + +"Is it so?" he cried. His hand flew to his hilt; his dagger flashed +out. But she did not move, did not flinch, only she set her teeth; and +her eyes, fascinated by the steel, grew wider. + +His hand sank slowly. He held the weapon to her, hilt foremost; she +took it mechanically. "You think yourself brave enough to kill me, do +you?" he sneered. "Then take this, and strike, if you dare. Take +it--strike, madame! It is sharp, and my arms are open." And he +flung them wide, standing within a pace of her. "Here, above the +collar-bone, is the surest for a weak hand. What, afraid?" he +continued, as, stiffly clutching the weapon which he had put into her +hand, she glared at him, trembling and astonished. "Afraid, and a +Vrillac! Afraid, and 'tis but one blow! See, my arms are open. One +blow home, and you will never lie in them. Think of that. One blow +home, and you may lie in his. Think of that! Strike, then, madame," he +went on, piling taunt on taunt, "if you dare, and if you hate me. +What, still afraid! How shall I give you heart? Shall I strike you? It +will not be the first time by ten. I keep count, you see," he +continued mockingly. "Or shall I kiss you? Ay, that may do. And it +will not be against your will, either, for you have that in your hand +will save you in an instant. Even"--he drew a foot nearer--"now! +Even----" And he stooped until his lips almost touched hers. + +She sprang back. "Oh, do not!" she cried. "Oh, do not!" And, dropping +the dagger, she covered her face with her hands, and burst into +weeping. + +He stooped coolly, and, after groping some time for the poniard, drew +it from the leaves among which it had fallen. He put it into the +sheath, and not until he had done that did he speak. Then it was with +a sneer. "I have no need to fear overmuch," he said. "You are a poor +hater, madame. And poor haters make poor lovers. 'Tis his loss! If you +will not strike a blow for him, there is but one thing left. Go, dream +of him!" + +And shrugging his shoulders contemptuously he turned on his heel. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXIII. + + THE AMBUSH. + + +The start they made at daybreak was gloomy and ill-omened, through one +of those white mists which are blown from the Atlantic over the flat +lands of Western Poitou. The horses, looming gigantic through the fog, +winced as the cold harness was girded on them. The men hurried to and +fro with saddles on their heads, and stumbled over other saddles, and +swore savagely. The women turned mutinous and would not rise; or, +being dragged up by force, shrieked wild unfitting words, as they were +driven to the horses. The Countess looked on and listened, and +shuddered, waiting for Carlat to set her on her horse. She had gone +during the last three weeks through much that was dreary, much that +was hopeless; but the chill discomfort of this forced start, with +tired horses and wailing women, would have darkened the prospect of +home had there been no fear or threat to cloud it. + +He whose will compelled all stood a little apart and watched all, +silent and gloomy. When Badelon, after taking his orders and +distributing some slices of black bread to be eaten in the saddle, +moved off at the head of his troop, Count Hannibal remained behind, +attended by Bigot and the eight riders who had formed the rearguard so +far. He had not approached the Countess since rising, and she had been +thankful for it. But now, as she moved away, she looked back and saw +him still standing; she marked that he wore his corselet, and in one +of those revulsions of feeling--which outrun man's reason--she who had +tossed on her couch through half the night, in passionate revolt +against the fate before her, took fire at his neglect and his silence; +she resented on a sudden the distance he kept, and his scorn of her. +Her breast heaved, her colour came, involuntarily she checked her +horse, as if she would return to him, and speak to him. Then the +Carlats and the others closed up behind her, Badelon's monotonous +"Forward, madame, _en avant!_" proclaimed the day's journey begun, and +she saw him no more. + +Nevertheless, the motionless figure, looming Homeric through the fog, +with gleams of wet light reflected from the steel about it, dwelt long +in her mind. The road which Badelon followed, slowly at first, and +with greater speed as the horses warmed to their work, and the women, +sore and battered, resigned themselves to suffering, wound across a +flat expanse broken by a few hills. These were little more than +mounds, and for the most part were veiled from sight by the low-lying +sea-mist, through which gnarled and stunted oaks rose mysterious, to +fade as strangely. Weird trees they were, with branches unlike those +of this world's trees, rising in a grey land without horizon or limit, +through which our travellers moved, jaded phantoms in a clinging +nightmare. At a walk, at a trot, more often at a weary jog, they +pushed on behind Badelon's humped shoulders. Sometimes the fog hung so +thick about them that they saw only those who rose and fell in the +saddles immediately before them; sometimes the air cleared a little, +the curtain rolled up a space, and for a minute or two they discerned +stretches of unfertile fields, half-tilled and stony, or long tracts +of gorse and broom, with here and there a thicket of dwarf shrubs or a +wood of wind-swept pines. Some looked and saw these things; more rode +on sulky and unseeing, supporting impatiently the toils of a flight +from they knew not what. + +To do Tignonville justice, he was not of these. On the contrary, he +seemed to be in a better temper on this day; and, where so many took +things unheroically, he showed to advantage. Avoiding the Countess and +riding with Carlat, he talked and laughed with marked cheerfulness; +nor did he ever fail, when the mist rose, to note this or that +landmark, and confirm Badelon in the way he was going. + +"We shall be at Lege by noon!" he cried more than once, "and if M. le +Comte persists in his plan, may reach Vrillac by late sunset. By way +of Challans!" + +And always Carlat answered, "Ay, by Challans, monsieur, so be it!" + +He proved, too, so far right in his prediction that noon saw them +drag, a weary train, into the hamlet of Lege, where the road from +Nantes to Olonne runs southward over the level of Poitou. An hour +later Count Hannibal rode in with six of his eight men, and, after a +few minutes' parley with Badelon, who was scanning the horses, he +called Carlat to him. The old man came. + +"Can we reach Vrillac to-night?" Count Hannibal asked curtly. + +"By Challans, my lord," the steward answered, "I think we can. We call +it seven hours' riding from here." + +"And that route is the shortest?" + +"In time, M. le Comte, the road being better." + +Count Hannibal bent his brows. "And the other way?" he said. + +"Is by Commequiers, my lord. It is shorter in distance." + +"By how much!" + +"Two leagues. But there are fordings and a salt marsh; and with Madame +and the women----" + +"It would be longer?" + +The steward hesitated. "I think so," he said slowly, his eyes +wandering to the grey misty landscape, against which the poor hovels +of the village stood out naked and comfortless. A low thicket of oaks +sheltered the place from southwesterly gales. On the other three sides +it lay open. + +"Very good," Tavannes said curtly. "Be ready to start in ten minutes. +You will guide us." + +But when the ten minutes had elapsed and the party were ready to +start, to the astonishment of all the steward was not to be found. To +peremptory calls for him no answer came; and a hurried search through +the hamlet proved equally fruitless. The only person who had seen him +since his interview with Tavannes turned out to be M. de Tignonville; +and he had seen him mount his horse five minutes before, and move +off--as he believed--by the Challans road. + +"Ahead of us!" + +"Yes, M. le Comte," Tignonville answered, shading his eyes and gazing +in the direction of the fringe of trees. "I did not see him take the +road, but he was beside the north end of the wood when I saw him last. +Thereabouts!" and he pointed to a place where the Challans road wound +round the flank of the wood. "When we are beyond that point, I think +we shall see him." + +Count Hannibal growled a word in his beard, and, turning in his +saddle, looked back the way he had come. Half a mile away, two or +three dots could be seen approaching across the plain. He turned +again. "You know the road?" he said, curtly addressing the young man. + +"Perfectly. As well as Carlat." + +"Then lead the way, monsieur, with Badelon. And spare neither whip nor +spur. There will be need of both, if we would lie warm to-night." + +Tignonville nodded assent and, wheeling his horse, rode to the head of +the party, a faint smile playing about his mouth. A moment, and the +main body moved off behind him, leaving Count Hannibal and six men to +cover the rear. The mist, which at noon had risen for an hour or two, +was closing down again, and they had no sooner passed clear of the +wood than the trees faded out of sight behind them. It was not +wonderful that they could not see Carlat. Objects a hundred paces from +them were completely hidden. + +Trot, trot! Trot, trot! through a. grey world so featureless, so +unreal that the riders, now dozing in the saddle, and now awaking, +seemed to themselves to stand still, as in a nightmare. A trot and +then a walk, and then a trot again; and all a dozen times repeated, +while the women bumped along in their wretched saddles, and the horses +stumbled, and the men swore at them. + +Ha! La Garnache at last, and a sharp turn southward to Challans. The +Countess raised her head, and began to look about her. There, should +be a church, she knew; and there, the old ruined tower built by +wizards, or the Carthaginians, so old tradition ran; and there, to the +westward, the great salt marshes towards Noirmoutier. The mist hid +all, but the knowledge that they were there set her heart beating, +brought tears to her eyes, and lightened the long road to Challans. + +At Challans they halted half-an-hour, and washed out the horses' +mouths with water and a little _guignolet_--the spirit of the country. +A dose of the cordial was administered to the women; and a little +after seven they began the last stage of the journey, through a +landscape which even the mist could not veil from the eyes of love. +There rose the windmill of Soullans! There the old dolmen, beneath +which the grey wolf that ate the two children of Tornic had its lair. +For a mile back they had been treading my lady's land; they had only +two more leagues to ride, and one of those was crumbling under each +dogged footfall. The salt flavour, which is new life to the +shore-born, was in the fleecy reek which floated by them, now thinner, +now more opaque; and almost they could hear the dull thunder of the +Biscay waves falling on the rocks. + +Tignonville looked back at her and smiled. She caught the look; she +fancied that she understood it and his thoughts. But her own eyes were +moist at the moment with tears, and what his said, and what there was +of strangeness in his glance, half-warning, half-exultant, escaped +her. For there, not a mile before them, where the low hills about the +fishing village began to rise from the dull inland level--hills green +on the land side, bare and scarped towards the sea and the island--she +espied the wayside chapel at which the nurse of her early childhood +had told her beads. Where it stood, the road from Commequiers and the +road she travelled became one: a short mile thence, after winding +among the hillocks, it ran down to the beach and the causeway--and to +her home. + +At the sight she bethought herself of Carlat, and calling to M. de +Tignonville she asked him what he thought of the steward's continued +absence. + +"He must have outpaced us!" he answered with an odd laugh. + +"But he must have ridden hard to do that." + +He reined back to her. "Say nothing!" he muttered under his breath. +"But look ahead, madame, and see if we are expected!" + +"Expected? How can we be expected?" she cried. The colour rushed into +her face. + +He put his finger to his lip, and looked warningly at Badelon's humped +shoulders, jogging up and down in front of them. Then, stooping +towards her, in a lower tone, "If Carlat has arrived before us, he +will have told them," he said. + +"Have told them!" she exclaimed. + +"He came by the other road, and it is quicker." + +She gazed at him in astonishment, her lips parted; and slowly she +comprehended, and her eyes grew hard. "Then why," she said, "did you +say it was longer? Had we been overtaken, monsieur, we had had you to +thank for it, it seems!" + +He bit his lip. "But we have not been overtaken," he rejoined. "On the +contrary, you have me to thank for something quite different." + +"As unwelcome, perhaps!" she retorted. "For what?" + +"Softly, madame." + +"For what?" she repeated, refusing to lower her voice. "Speak, +monsieur, if you please." He had never seen her look at him in that +way. + +"For the fact," he answered, stung by her look and tone, "that when +you arrive you will find yourself mistress in your own house! Is that +nothing?" + +"You have called in my people?" + +"Carlat has done so, or should have," he answered. "Henceforth," he +continued, a ring of exultation in his voice, "it will go hard with M. +le Comte, if he does not treat you better than he has treated you +hitherto. That is all!" + +"You mean that it will go hard with him in any case?" she cried, her +bosom rising and falling. + +"I mean, madame---- But there they are! Good Carlat! Brave Carlat! He +has done well." + +"Carlat?" + +"Ay, there they are! And you are mistress in your own land! At last +you are mistress, and you have me to thank for it! See!" And heedless +in his exultation whether Badelon understood or not, he pointed to a +place before them where the road wound between two low hills. Over the +green shoulder of one of these, a dozen bright points caught and +reflected the last evening light; while as he spoke a man rose to his +feet on the hill-side above, and began to make signs to persons below. +A pennon, too, showed an instant over the shoulder, fluttered, and was +gone. + +Badelon looked as they looked. The next instant he uttered a low oath, +and dragged his horse across the front of the party. "Pierre!" he +cried to the man on his left, "Ride for your life! To my lord, and +tell him we are ambushed!" And as the trained soldier wheeled about +and spurred away, the sacker of Rome turned a dark scowling face on +Tignonville. "If this be your work," he hissed, "we shall thank you +for it in hell! For it is where most of us will lie to-night! They are +Montsoreau's spears, and they have those with them are worse to deal +with than themselves!" Then in a different tone, and throwing off all +disguise, "Men to the front!" he shouted. "And you, madame, to the +rear quickly, and the women with you! Now, men, forward, and draw! +Steady! Steady! They are coming!" + +There was an instant of confusion, disorder, panic; horses jostling +one another, women screaming and clutching at men, men shaking them +off and forcing their way to the van. Fortunately the enemy did not +fall on at once, as Badelon expected, but after showing themselves in +the mouth of the valley, at a distance of three hundred paces, hung +for some reason irresolute. This gave Badelon time to array his seven +swords in front; but real resistance was out of the question, as he +knew. And to none seemed less in question than to Tignonville. + +When the truth, and what he had done, broke on the young man, he sat a +moment motionless with horror. It was only when Badelon had twice +summoned him with opprobrious words that he awoke to the relief of +action. Even after that he hung an instant trying to meet the +Countess's eyes, despair in his own; but it was not to be. She had +turned her head, and was looking back, as if thence only and not from +him could help come. It was not to him she turned; and he saw it, and +the justice of it. And silent, grim, more formidable even than old +Badelon, the veteran fighter, who knew all the tricks and shifts of +the _melee_, he spurred to the flank of the line. + +"Now, steady!" Badelon cried again, seeing that the enemy were +beginning to move. "Steady! Ha! Thank God, my lord! My lord is coming! +Stand! Stand!" + +The distant sound of galloping hoofs had reached his ear in the nick +of time. He stood in his stirrups and looked back. Yes, Count Hannibal +was coming, riding a dozen paces in front of his men. The odds were +still desperate--for he brought but six--the enemy were still three to +one. But the thunder of his hoofs as he came up checked for a moment +the enemy's onset; and before Montsoreau's people got started again +Count Hannibal had ridden up abreast of the women, and the Countess, +looking at him, knew that, desperate as was their strait, she had not +looked behind in vain. The glow of battle, the stress of the moment, +had displaced the cloud from his face; the joy of the born fighter +lightened in his eye. His voice rang clear and loud above the press. + +"Badelon! wait you and two with madame!" he cried. "Follow at fifty +paces' distance, and, when we have broken them, ride through! The +others with me! Now forward, men, and show your teeth! A Tavannes! A +Tavannes! A Tavannes! We carry it yet!" + +And he dashed forward, leading them on, leaving the women behind; and +down the sward to meet him, thundering in double line, came +Montsoreau's men-at-arms, and with the men-at-arms, a dozen pale, +fierce eyed men in the Church's black, yelling the Church's curses. +Madame's heart grew sick as she heard, as she waited, as she judged +him by the fast-failing light a horse's length before his men--with +only Tignonville beside him. + +She held her breath--would the shock never come? If Badelon had not +seized her rein and forced her forward, she would not have moved. And +then, even as she moved, they met! With yells and wild cries and a +mare's savage scream, the two bands crashed together in a huddle of +fallen or rearing horses, of flickering weapons, of thrusting men, of +grapples hand-to-hand. What happened, what was happening to anyone, +who it was fell, stabbed through and through by four, or who were +those who still fought single combats, twisting round one another's +horses, those on her right and on her left, she could not tell. For +Badelon dragged her on with whip and spur, and two horsemen--who +obscured her view--galloped in front of her, and rode down bodily the +only man who undertook to bar her passage. She had a glimpse of that +man's face, as his horse, struck in the act of turning, fell sideways +on him; and she knew it, in its agony of terror, though she had seen +it but once. It was the face of the man whose eyes had sought hers +from the steps of the church in Angers; the lean man in black, who had +turned soldier of the Church--to his misfortune. + +Through? Yes, through, the way was clear before them! The fight with +its screams and curses died away behind them. The horses swayed and +all but sank under them. But Badelon knew it no time for mercy; +iron-shod hoofs rang on the road behind, and at any moment the +pursuers might be on their heels. He flogged on until the cots of the +hamlet appeared on either side of the way; on, until the road forked +and the Countess with strange readiness cried "The left!" on, until +the beach appeared below them at the foot of a sharp pitch, and beyond +the beach the slow heaving grey of the ocean. + +The tide was high. The causeway ran through it, a mere thread lipped +by the darkling waves, and at the sight a grunt of relief broke from +Badelon. For at the end of the causeway, black against the western +sky, rose the gateway and towers of Vrillac; and he saw that, as the +Countess had said, it was a place ten men could hold against ten +hundred! + +They stumbled down the beach, reached the causeway and trotted along +it; more slowly now, and looking back. The other women had followed by +hook or by crook, some crying hysterically, yet clinging to their +horses and even urging them; and in a medley, the causeway clear +behind them and no one following, they reached the drawbridge, and +passed under the arch of the gate beyond. + +There friendly hands, Carlat's foremost, welcomed them and aided them +to alight, and the Countess saw, as in a dream, the familiar scene, +all unfamiliar: the gate, where she had played, a child, aglow with +lantern-light and arms. Men, whose rugged faces she had known in +infancy, stood at the drawbridge chains and at the winches. Others +blew matches and handled primers, while old servants crowded round +her, and women looked at her, scared and weeping. She saw it all at a +glance--the lights, the black shadows, the sudden glow of a match on +the groining of the arch above. She saw it, and turning swiftly, +looked back the way she had come; along the dusky causeway to the low, +dark shore, which night was stealing quickly from their eyes. She +clasped her hands. + +"Where is Badelon?" she cried. "Where is he? Where is he?" + +One of the men who had ridden before her answered that he had turned +back. + +"Turned back!" she repeated. And then, shading her eyes, "Who is +coming?" she asked, her voice insistent. "There is someone coming. Who +is it? Who is it?" + +Two were coming out of the gloom, travelling slowly and painfully +along the causeway. One was La Tribe, limping; the other a rider, +slashed across the forehead, and sobbing curses. + +"No more!" she muttered. "Are there no more?" + +The minister shook his head. The rider wiped the blood from his eyes, +and turned up his face that he might see the better. But he seemed to +be dazed, and only babbled strange words in a strange _patois_. + +She stamped her foot in passion. "More lights!" she cried. "Lights! +How can they find their way? And let six men go down the _digue_, and +meet them. Will you let them be butchered between the shore and this?" + +But Carlat, who had not been able to collect more than a dozen men, +shook his head; and before she could repeat the order, sounds of +battle, shrill, faint, like cries of hungry seagulls, pierced the +darkness which shrouded the farther end of the causeway. The women +shrank inward over the threshold, while Carlat cried to the men at the +chains to be ready, and to some who stood at loopholes above, to blow +up their matches and let fly at his word. And then they all waited, +the Countess foremost, peering eagerly into the growing darkness. They +could see nothing. + +A distant scuffle, an oath, a cry, silence! The same, a little nearer, +a little louder, followed this time, not by silence, but by the slow +tread of a limping horse. Again a rush of feet, the clash of steel, a +scream, a laugh, all weird and unreal, issuing from the night; then +out of the darkness into the light, stepping slowly with hanging head, +moved a horse, bearing on its back a man--or was it a man!--bending +low in the saddle, his feet swinging loose. For an instant the horse +and the man seemed to be alone, a ghostly pair; then at their heels +came into view two figures, skirmishing this way and that; and now +coming nearer, and now darting back into the gloom. One, a squat +figure, stooping low, wielded a sword with two hands; the other +covered him with a half-pike. And then beyond these--abruptly as it +seemed--the night gave up to sight a swarm of dark figures pressing on +them and after them, driving them before them. + +Carlat had an inspiration. "Fire!" he cried; and four arquebuses +poured a score of slugs into the knot of pursuers. A man fell, another +shrieked and stumbled, the rest gave back. Only the horse came on +spectrally, with hanging head and shining eyeballs, until a man ran +out and seized its head, and dragged it, more by his strength than its +own, over the drawbridge. After it Badelon, with a gaping wound in his +knee, and Bigot, bleeding from a dozen hurts, walked over the bridge, +and stood on either side of the saddle, smiling foolishly at the man +on the horse. + +"Leave me!" he muttered. "Leave me!" He made a feeble movement with +his hand, as if it held a weapon; then his head sank lower. It was +Count Hannibal. His thigh was broken, and there was a lance-head in +his arm. + +The Countess looked at him, then beyond him, past him into the +darkness. "Are there no more?" she whispered tremulously. "No more? +Tignonville--my----" + +Badelon shook his head. The Countess covered her face and wept. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXIV. + + WHICH WILL YOU, MADAME? + + +It was in the grey dawning of the next day, at the hour before the sun +rose, that word of M. de Tignonville's fate came to them in the +castle. The fog which had masked the van and coming of night hung +thick on its retreating skirts, and only reluctantly and little by +little gave up to sight and daylight a certain thing which night had +left at the end of the causeway. The first man to see it was Carlat, +from the roof of the gateway; and he rubbed eyes weary with watching, +and peered anew at it through the mist, fancying himself back in the +Place Ste.-Croix at Angers, supposing for a wild moment the journey a +dream, and the return a nightmare. But rub as he might, and stare as +he might, the ugly outlines of the thing he had seen persisted--nay, +grew sharper as the haze began to lift from the grey, slow-heaving +floor of sea. He called another man and bade him look. "What is it?" +he said. "D'you see, there? Below the village?" + +"'Tis a gibbet," the man answered, with a foolish laugh; they had +watched all night. "God keep us from it." + +"A gibbet?" + +"Ay!" + +"It is there to hang those they have taken, very like," the man +answered, stupidly practical. And then other men came up, and stared +at it and growled in their beards. Presently there were eight or ten +on the roof of the gateway looking towards the land and discussing the +thing; and by-and-by a man was descried approaching along the causeway +with a white flag in his hand. + +At that Carlat bade one fetch the minister. "He understands things," +he muttered, "and I misdoubt this. And see," he cried after the +messenger, "that no word of it come to Mademoiselle!" Instinctively in +the maiden home he reverted to the maiden title. + +The messenger went, and came again bringing La Tribe, whose head rose +above the staircase at the moment the envoy below came to a halt +before the gate. Carlat signed to the minister to come forward; and La +Tribe, after sniffing the salt air, and glancing at the long, low, +misty shore and the stiff ugly shape which stood at the end of the +causeway, looked down and met the envoy's eyes. For a moment no one +spoke. Only the men who had remained on the gateway, and had watched +the stranger's coming, breathed hard. + +At last, "I bear a message," the man announced loudly and clearly, +"for the lady of Vrillac. Is she present?" + +"Give your message!" La Tribe replied. + +"It is for her ears only." + +"Do you want to enter?" + +"No!" The man answered so hurriedly that more than one smiled. He had +the bearing of a lay clerk of some precinct, a verger or sacristan; +and after a fashion the dress of one also, for he was in dusty black +and wore no sword, though he was girded with a belt. "No!" he +repeated, "but if Madame will come to the gate, and speak to me----" + +"Madame has other fish to fry," Carlat blurted out. "Do you think that +she has naught to do but listen to messages from a gang of bandits?" + +"If she does not listen she will repent it all her life!" the fellow +answered hardily. "That is part of my message." + +There was a pause while La Tribe considered the matter. In the end, +"From whom do you come?" he asked. + +"From His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor of Saumur," the envoy +answered glibly, "and from my lord Bishop of Angers, him assisting by +his Vicar; and from others gathered lawfully, who will as lawfully +depart if their terms are accepted. Also from M. de Tignonville, a +gentleman, I am told, of these parts, now in their hands and adjudged +to die at sunset this day if the terms I bring be not accepted." + +There was a long silence on the gate. The men looked down fixedly; not +a feature of one of them moved, for no one was surprised. "Wherefore +is he to die!" La Tribe asked at last. + +"For good cause shown." + +"Wherefore?" + +"He is a Huguenot." + +The minister nodded. "And the terms!" Carlat muttered. + +"Ay, the terms!" La Tribe repeated, nodding afresh. "What are they?" + +"They are for madame's ear only," the messenger made answer. + +"Then they will not reach it!" Carlat broke forth in wrath. "So much +for that! And for yourself, see you go quickly before we make a target +of you!" + +"Very well, I go," the envoy answered sullenly. "But----" + +"But what?" La Tribe cried, gripping Carlat's shoulder to quiet him. +"But what! Say what you have to say, man! Speak out, and have done +with it!" + +"I will say it to her and to no other." + +"Then you will not say it!" Carlat cried again. "For you will not see +her. So you may go. And the black fever in your vitals." + +"Ay, go!" La Tribe added more quietly. + +The man turned away with a shrug of the shoulders, and moved off a +dozen paces, watched by all on the gate with the same fixed attention. +But presently he paused; he returned. "Very well," he said, looking up +with an ill grace. "I will do my office here, if I cannot come to her. +But I hold also a letter from M. de Tignonville, and that I can +deliver to no other hands than hers!" He held it up as he spoke, a +thin scrap of greyish paper, the fly-leaf of a missal perhaps. "See!" +he continued, "and take notice! If she does not get this, and learns +when it is too late that it was offered----" + +"The terms," Carlat growled impatiently. "The terms! Come to them!" + +"You will have them?" the man answered, nervously passing his tongue +over his lips. "You will not let me see her, or speak to her +privately?" + +"No." + +"Then hear them. His Excellency is informed that one Hannibal de +Tavannes, guilty of the detestable crime of sacrilege and of other +gross crimes, has taken refuge here. He requires that the said +Hannibal de Tavannes be handed to him for punishment, and, this being +done before sunset this evening, he will yield to you free and +uninjured the said M. de Tignonville, and will retire from the lands +of Vrillac. But if you refuse"--the man passed his eye along the line +of attentive faces which fringed the battlement--"he will at sunset +hang the said Tignonville on the gallows raised for Tavannes, and will +harry the demesne of Vrillac to its farthest border!" + +There was a long silence on the gate. Some, their gaze still fixed on +him, moved their lips as if they chewed. Others looked aside, met +their fellows' eyes in a pregnant glance, and slowly returned to him. +But no one spoke. At his back the flush of dawn was flooding the east, +and spreading and waxing brighter. The air was growing warm; the shore +below, from grey, was turning green. In a minute or two the sun, whose +glowing marge already peeped above the low hills of France, would top +the horizon. + +The man, getting no answer, shifted his feet uneasily. "Well," he +cried, "what answer am I to take?" + +Still no one moved. + +"I've done my part. Will no one give her the letter?" he cried. And he +held it up. "Give me my answer, for I am going." + +"Take the letter!" The words came from the rear of the group in a +voice that startled all. They turned as though some one had struck +them, and saw the Countess standing beside the wooden hood which +covered the stairs. They guessed that she had heard all or nearly all; +but the glory of the sunrise, shining full on her at that moment, lent +a false warmth to her face, and life to eyes wofully and tragically +set. It was not easy to say whether she had heard or not. "Take the +letter," she repeated. + +Carlat looked helplessly over the parapet. + +"Go down!" + +He cast a glance at La Tribe, but he got none in return, and he was +preparing to do her bidding when a cry of dismay broke from those who +still had their eyes bent downwards. The messenger, waving the letter +in a last appeal, had held it too loosely; a light air, as treacherous +as unexpected, had snatched it from his hand, and bore it--even as the +Countess, drawn by the cry, sprang to the parapet--fifty paces from +him. A moment it floated in the air, eddying, rising, falling; then, +light as thistle-down, it touched the water and began to sink. + +The messenger uttered frantic lamentations, and stamped the causeway +in his rage. The Countess only looked, and looked, until the rippling +crest of a baby wave broke over the tiny venture, and with its freight +of tidings it sank from sight. + +The man, silent now, stared a moment, then shrugged his shoulders. +"Well, 'tis fortunate it was his," he cried brutally, "and not His +Excellency's, or my back had suffered! And now," he added impatiently, +"by your leave, what answer?" + +What answer? Ah, God, what answer? The men who leant on the parapet, +rude and coarse as they were, felt the tragedy of the question and the +dilemma, guessed what they meant to her, and looked everywhere save at +her. What answer? Which of the two was to live? Which die--shamefully! +Which? Which? + +"Tell him--to come back--an hour before sunset," she muttered. + +They told him and he went; and one by one the men began to go too, and +stole from the roof, leaving her standing alone, her face to the +shore, her hands resting on the parapet. The light breeze which blew +off the land stirred loose ringlets of her hair, and flattened the +thin robe against her sunlit figure. So had she stood a thousand +times in old days, in her youth, in her maidenhood. So in her father's +time had she stood to see her lover come riding along the sands to woo +her! So had she stood to welcome him on the eve of that fatal journey +to Paris! Thence had others watched her go with him. The men +remembered--remembered all; and one by one they stole shamefacedly +away, fearing lest she should speak or turn tragic eyes on them. + +True, in their pity for her was no doubt of the end, or thought of the +victim who must suffer--of Tavannes. They, of Poitou, who had not been +with him, knew nothing of him; they cared as little. He was a northern +man, a stranger, a man of the sword, who had seized her--so they +heard--by the sword. But they saw that the burden of choice was laid +on her; there, in her sight and in theirs, rose the gibbet; and, +clowns as they were, they discerned the tragedy of her _role_, play it +as she might, and though her act gave life to her lover. + +When all had retired save three or four, she turned and saw these +gathered at the head of the stairs in a ring about Carlat, who was +addressing them in a low eager voice. She could not catch a syllable, +but a look hard, and almost cruel, flashed into her eyes as she gazed; +and raising her voice she called the steward to her. "The bridge is +up," she said, her tone hard, "but the gates? Are they locked?" + +"Yes, Madame." + +"The wicket?" + +"No, not the wicket." And Carlat looked another way. + +"Then go, lock it, and bring the keys to me!" she replied. "Or stay!" +Her voice grew harder, her eyes spiteful as a cat's. "Stay, and be +warned that you play me no tricks! Do you hear? Do you understand? Or +old as you are, and long as you have served us, I will have you thrown +from this tower, with as little pity as Isabeau flung her gallants to +the fishes. I am still mistress here, never more mistress than this +day. Woe to you if you forget it." + +He blenched and cringed before her, muttering incoherently. + +"I know," she said, "I read you! And now the keys. Go, bring them to +me! And if by chance I find the wicket unlocked when I come down, +pray, Carlat, pray! For you will have need of prayers." + +He slunk away, the men with him; and she fell to pacing the roof +feverishly. Now and then she extended her arms, and low cries broke +from her, as from a dumb creature in pain. Wherever she looked, old +memories rose up to torment her and redouble her misery. A thing she +could have borne in the outer world, a thing which might have seemed +tolerable in the reeking air of Paris or in the gloomy streets of +Angers, wore here its most appalling aspect. Henceforth, whatever +choice she made, this home, where even in those troublous times she +had known naught but peace, must bear a damning stain! Henceforth this +day and this hour must come between her and happiness, must brand her +brow, and fix her with a deed of which men and women would tell while +she lived! Oh, God--pray? Who said, pray? + +"I!" And La Tribe with tears in his eyes held out the keys to her. "I, +madame," he continued solemnly, his voice broken with emotion. "For in +man is no help. The strongest man, he who rode yesterday a master of +men, a very man of war in his pride and his valour--see him now, +and----" + +"Don't!" she cried, sharp pain in her voice. "Don't!" And she stopped +him with her hand, her face averted. After an interval, "You come from +him?" she muttered faintly. + +"Yes." + +"Is he--hurt to death, think you?" She spoke low, and kept her face +hidden from him. + +"Alas, no!" he answered, speaking the thought in his heart. "The men +who are with him seem confident of his recovery." + +"Do they know?" + +"Badelon has had experience." + +"No, no. Do they know of this?" she cried. "Of this!" And she pointed +with a gesture of loathing to the black gibbet on the farther strand. + +He shook his head. "I think not," he muttered. And after a moment, +"God help you!" he added fervently. "God help and guide you, madame!" + +She turned on him suddenly, fiercely. "Is that all you can do?" she +cried. "Is that all the help you can give! You are a man. Go down, +lead them out; drive off these cowards who drain our life's blood, who +trade on a woman's heart! On them! Do something, anything, rather than +lie in safety here--here!" + +The minister shook his head sadly. "Alas, madame!" he said, "to sally +were to waste life. They outnumber us three to one. If Count Hannibal +could do no more than break through last night, with scarce a man +unwounded----" + +"He had the women!" + +"And we have not him!" + +"He would not have left us!" she cried hysterically. + +"I believe it." + +"Had they taken me, do you think he would have lain behind walls? Or +skulked in safety here, while--while----" Her voice failed her. + +He shook his head despondently. + +"And that is all you can do?" she cried, and turned from him, and to +him again, extending her arms, in bitter scorn. "All you will do? Do +you forget that twice he spared your life? That in Paris once, and +once in Angers, he held his hand? That always, whether he stood or +whether he fled, he held himself between us and harm? Ay, always? And +who will now raise a hand for him? Who?" + +"Madame!" + +"Who? Who? Had he died in the field," she continued, her voice shaking +with grief, her hands beating the parapet--for she had turned from +him--"had he fallen where he rode last night, in the front, with his +face to the foe, I had viewed him tearless, I had deemed him happy! I +had prayed dry-eyed for him who--who spared me all these days and +weeks! Whom I robbed and he forgave me! Whom I tempted, and he forbore +me! Ay, and who spared not once or twice him for whom he must now--he +must now----" And unable to finish the sentence she beat her hands +again and passionately on the stones. + +"Heaven knows, madame," the minister cried vehemently, "Heaven knows, +I would advise you if I could." + +"Why did he wear his corselet?" she wailed, as if she had not heard +him. "Was there no spear could reach his breast, that he must come to +this? No foe so gentle he would spare him this? Or why did he not die +with me in Paris when we waited? In another minute death might have +come and saved us this." + +With the tears running down his face he tried to comfort her. "Man +that is a shadow," he said, "passeth away--what matter how? A little +while, a very little while, and we shall pass!" + +"With his curse upon us!" she cried. And, shuddering, she pressed her +hands to her eyes to shut out the sight her fancy pictured. + +He left her for a while, hoping that in solitude she might regain +control of herself. When he returned he found her seated, and +outwardly more composed, her arms resting on the parapet-wall, her +eyes bent steadily on the long stretch of hard sand which ran +northward from the village. By that route her lover had many a time +come to her; there she had ridden with him in the early days; and that +way they had started for Paris on such a morning and at such an hour +as this, with sunshine about them, and larks singing hope above the +sand-dunes, and warm wavelets creaming to the horses' hoofs! + +Of all which, La Tribe, a stranger, knew nothing. The rapt gaze, the +unchanging attitude only confirmed his opinion of the course she would +adopt. He was thankful to find her more composed; and in fear of such +a scene as had already passed between them he stole away again. He +returned by-and-by, but with the greatest reluctance, and only because +Carlat's urgency would take no refusal. + +He came this time to crave the key of the wicket, explaining +that--rather to satisfy his own conscience and the men than with any +hope of success--he proposed to go half-way along the causeway, and +thence by signs invite a conference. "It is just possible," he added, +hesitating--he feared nothing so much as to raise hopes in her--"that +by the offer of a money ransom, Madame----" + +"Go," she said, without turning her head. "Offer what you please. +But"--bitterly--"have a care of them! Montsoreau is very like +Montereau! Beware of the bridge!" + +He went and came again in half-an-hour. Then, indeed, though she had +spoken as if hope was dead in her, she was on her feet at the first +sound of his tread on the stairs; her parted lips and her white face +questioned him. He shook his head. + +"There is a priest," he said in broken tones, "with them, whom God +will judge. It is his plan, and he is without mercy or pity." + +"You bring nothing from--him?" + +"They will not suffer him to write again." + +"You did not see him?" + +"No." + + + + + CHAPTER XXXV. + + AGAINST THE WALL. + + +In a room beside the gateway, into which, as the nearest and most +convenient place, Count Hannibal had been carried from his saddle, a +man sat sideways in the narrow embrasure of a loophole, to which his +eyes seemed glued. The room, which formed part of the oldest block of +the chateau, and was ordinarily the quarters of the Carlats, possessed +two other windows, deep-set indeed, yet superior to that through which +Bigot--for he it was--peered so persistently. But the larger windows +looked southwards, across the bay--at this moment the noon-high sun +was pouring his radiance through them; while the object which held +Bigot's gaze and fixed him to his irksome seat, lay elsewhere. The +loophole commanded the causeway leading shorewards; through it the +Norman could see who came and went, and even the crossbeam of the ugly +object which rose where the causeway touched the land. + +On a flat truckle-bed behind the door lay Count Hannibal, his injured +leg protected from the coverlid by a kind of cage. His eyes were +bright with fever, and his untended beard and straggling hair +heightened the wildness of his aspect. But he was in possession of his +senses; and as his gaze passed from Bigot at the window to the old +Free Companion, who sat on a stool beside him, engaged in shaping a +piece of wood into a splint, an expression almost soft crept into his +harsh face. + +"Old fool!" he said. And his voice, though changed, had not lost all +its strength and harshness. "Did the Constable need a splint when you +laid him under the tower at Gaeta?" + +The old man lifted his eyes from his task, and glanced through the +nearest window. "It is long from noon to night," he said quietly, "and +far from cup to lip, my lord!" + +"It would be if I had two legs," Tavannes answered, with a grimace, +half-snarl, half-smile. "As it is--where is that dagger? It leaves me +every minute." + +It had slipped from the coverlid to the ground. Badelon took it up, +and set it on the bed within reach of his master's hand. + +Bigot swore fiercely. "It would be farther still," he growled, "if you +would be guided by me, my lord. Give me leave to bar the door, and +'twill be long before these fisher clowns force it. Badelon and I----" + +"Being in your full strength," Count Hannibal murmured cynically. + +"Could hold it. We have strength enough for that," the Norman boasted, +though his livid face and his bandages gave the lie to his words. He +could not move without pain; and for Badelon, his knee was as big as +two with plaisters of his own placing. + +Count Hannibal stared at the ceiling. "You could not strike two +blows!" he said. "Don't lie to me! And Badelon cannot walk two yards! +Fine fighters!" he continued with bitterness, not all bitter. "Fine +bars 'twixt a man and death! No, it is time to turn the face to the +wall. And, since go I must, it shall not be said Count Hannibal dared +not go alone! Besides----" + +Bigot stopped him with an oath that was in part a cry of pain. "D--n +her!" he exclaimed in fury, "'tis she is that _besides!_ I know it. +'Tis she has been our ruin from the day we saw her first, ay, to this +day! 'Tis she has bewitched you until your blood, my lord, has turned +to water. Or you would never, to save the hand that betrayed us, never +to save a man----" + +"Silence!" Count Hannibal cried, in a terrible voice. And rising on +his elbow, he poised the dagger as if he would hurl it. "Silence, or I +will spit you like the vermin you are! Silence, and listen! And you, +old ban-dog, listen too, for I know you obstinate! It is not to save +him. It is because I will die as I have lived, fearing nothing and +asking nothing! It were easy to bar the door as you would have me, and +die in the corner here like a wolf at bay, biting to the last. That +were easy, old wolf-hound! Pleasant and good sport!" + +"Ay! That were a death!" the veteran cried, his eyes brightening. "So +I would fain die!" + +"And I!" Count Hannibal returned, showing his teeth in a grim smile. +"I too! Yet I will not! I will not! Because so to die were to die +unwillingly, and give them triumph. Be dragged to death? No, old dog, +if die we must, we will go to death! We will die grandly, highly, as +becomes Tavannes! That when we are gone they may say, 'There died a +man!'" + +"_She_ may say!" Bigot muttered scowling. + +Count Hannibal heard and glared at him, but presently thought better +of it, and after a pause, "Ay, she too!" he said. "Why not? As we have +played the game--for her--so, though we lose, we will play it to the +end; nor because we lose throw down the cards! Besides, man, die in +the corner, die biting, and he dies too!" + +"And why not?" Bigot asked, rising in a fury. "Why not? Whose work is +it we lie here, snared by these clowns of fisherfolk? Who led us wrong +and betrayed us? He die? Would the devil had taken him a year ago! +Would he were within my reach now! I would kill him with my bare +fingers! He die? And why not?" + +"Why, because, fool, his death would not save me!" Count Hannibal +answered coolly. "If it would, he would die! But it will not; and +we must even do again as we have done. I have spared him--he's a +white-livered hound!--both once and twice, and we must go to the end +with it since no better can be! I have thought it out, and it must be. +Only see you, old dog, that I have the dagger hid in the splint where +I can reach it. And then, when the exchange has been made, and my lady +has her silk glove again--to put in her bosom!"--with a grimace and a +sudden reddening of his harsh features--"if master priest come within +reach of my arm, I'll send him before me, where I go." + +"Ay, ay!" said Badelon. "And if you fail of your stroke I will not +fail of mine! I shall be there, and I will see to it he goes! I shall +be there!" + +"You?" + +"Ay, why not?" the old man answered quietly. "I may halt on this leg +for aught I know, and come to starve on crutches like old Claude +Boiteux who was at the taking of Milan and now begs in the passage +under the Chatelet." + +"Bah, man, you will get a new lord!" + +Badelon nodded. "Ay, a new lord with new ways!" he answered slowly and +thoughtfully. "And I am tired. They are of another sort, lords now, +than they were when I was young. It was a word and a blow then. Now I +am old, with most it is--'Old hog, your distance! You scent my lady!' +Then they rode, and hunted, and tilted year in and year out, and +summer or winter heard the lark sing. 'Now they are curled, and paint +themselves, and lie in silk and toy with ladies--who shamed to be seen +at Court or board when I was a boy--and love better to hear the mouse +squeak than the lark sing." + +"Still, if I give you my gold chain," Count Hannibal answered quietly, +"'twill keep you from that." + +"Give it to Bigot," the old man answered. The splint he was fashioning +had fallen on his knees, and his eyes were fixed on the distance of +his youth. "For me, my lord, I am tired, and I go with you. I go with +you. It is a good death to die biting before the strength be quite +gone. Have the dagger too, if you please, and I'll fit it within the +splint right neatly. But I shall be there----" + +"And you'll strike home?" Tavannes cried eagerly. He raised himself on +his elbow, a gleam of joy in his gloomy eyes. + +"Have no fear, my lord. See, does it tremble?" He held out his hand. +"And when you are sped, I will try the Spanish stroke--upwards with a +turn ere you withdraw, that I learned from Ruiz--on the shaven-pate. I +see them about me now!" the old man continued, his face flushing, his +form dilating. + +"It will be odd if I cannot snatch a sword and hew down three to go +with Tavannes! And Bigot, he will see my lord the Marshal by-and-by; +and as I do to the priest, the Marshal will do to Montsoreau. Ho! ho! +He will teach him the _coup de Jarnac_, never fear!" And the old man's +moustaches curled up ferociously. + +Count Hannibal's eyes sparkled with joy. "Old dog!" he cried--and he +held his hand to the veteran, who brushed it reverently with his +lips--"we will go together then! Who touches my brother, touches +Tavannes!" + +"Touches Tavannes!" Badelon cried, the glow of battle lighting his +bloodshot eyes. He rose to his feet. "Touches Tavannes! You mind at +Jarnac----" + +"Ah! At Jarnac!" + +"When we charged their horse, was my boot a foot from yours, my lord?" + +"Not a foot!" + +"And at Dreux," the old man continued with a proud, elated gesture, +"when we rode down the German pikemen--they were grass before us, +leaves on the wind, thistle-down--was it not I who covered your bridle +hand, and swerved not in the _melee?_" + +"It was! It was!" + +"And at St. Quentin, when we fled before the Spaniard--it was his day, +you remember, and cost us dear----" + +"Ay, I was young then," Tavannes cried in turn, his eyes glistening. +"St. Quentin! It was the tenth of August. And you were new with me, +and seized my rein----" + +"And we rode off together, my lord--of the last, of the last, as God +sees me! And striking as we went, so that they left us for easier +game." + +"It was so, good sword! I remember it as if it had been yesterday!" + +"And at Cerisoles, the Battle of the Plain, in the old Spanish wars, +that was most like a joust of all the pitched fields I ever saw--at +Cerisoles, where I caught your horse? You mind me? It was in the shock +when we broke Guasto's line----" + +"At Cerisoles?" Count Hannibal muttered slowly. "Why, man, I----" + +"I caught your horse, and mounted you afresh? You remember, my lord? +And at Landriano, where Leyva turned the tables on us again." + +Count Hannibal stared. "Landriano?" he muttered bluntly. "'Twas in +'29, forty years ago and more! My father, indeed----" + +"And at Rome--at Rome, my lord? _Mon Dieu!_ in the old days at Rome! +When the Spanish company scaled the wall--Ruiz was first, I next--was +it not my foot you held? And was it not I who dragged you up, while +the devils of Swiss pressed us hard? Ah, those were days, my lord! I +was young then, and you, my lord, young too, and handsome as the +morning----" + +"You rave!" Tavannes cried, finding his tongue at last. "Rome? You +rave, old man! Why, I was not born in those days. My father even was a +boy! It was in '27 you sacked it--five-and-forty years ago!" + +The old man passed his hands over his heated face, and, as a man +roused suddenly from sleep looks, he looked round the room. The light +died out of his eyes--as a light blown out in a room; his form seemed +to shrink, even while the others gazed at him, and he sat down. "No, I +remember," he muttered slowly. "It was Prince Philibert of Chalons, my +lord of Orange." + +"Dead these forty years!" + +"Ay, dead these forty years! All dead!" the old man whispered, gazing +at his gnarled hand, and opening and shutting it by turns. "And I grow +childish! 'Tis time, high time, I followed them! It trembles now; but +have no fear, my lord, this hand will not tremble then. All dead! Ay, +all dead!" + +He sank into a mournful silence; and Tavannes, after gazing at him +awhile in rough pity, fell to his own meditations, which were gloomy +enough. The day was beginning to wane, and with the downward turn, +though the sun still shone brightly through the southern windows, a +shadow seemed to fall across his thoughts. They no longer rioted in a +turmoil of defiance as in the forenoon. In its turn, sober reflection +marshalled the past before his eyes. The hopes of a life, the +ambitious of a life, moved in sombre procession, and things done and +things left undone, the sovereignty which Nostradamus had promised, +the faces of men he had spared and of men he had not spared--and the +face of one woman. + +She would not now be his. He had played highly, and he would lose +highly, playing the game to the end, that to-morrow she might think of +him highly. Had she begun to think of him at all? In the chamber of +the inn at Angers he had fancied a change in her, an awakening to life +and warmth, a shadow of turning to him. It had pleased him to think +so, at any rate. It pleased him still to imagine--of this he was more +confident--that in the time to come, when she was Tignonville's, she +would think of him secretly and kindly. She would remember him, and in +her thoughts and in her memory he would grow to the heroic, even as +the man she had chosen would shrink as she learned to know him. + +It pleased him, that. It was almost all that was left to please +him--that, and to die proudly as he had lived. But as the day wore on, +and the room grew hot and close, and the pain in his thigh became more +grievous, the frame of his mind altered. A sombre rage was born and +grew in him, and a passion fierce and ill-suppressed. To end thus, +with nothing done, nothing accomplished of all his hopes and +ambitions! To die thus, crushed in a corner by a mean priest and a +rabble of spearmen, he who had seen Dreux and Jarnac, had defied the +King, and dared to turn the St. Bartholomew to his ends! To die thus, +and leave her to that puppet! Strong man as he was, of a strength of +will surpassed by few, it taxed him to the utmost to lie and make no +sign. Once, indeed, he raised himself on his elbow with something +between an oath and a snarl, and he seemed about to speak. So that +Bigot came hurriedly to him. + +"My lord?" + +"Water!" he said. "Water, fool!" And, having drank, he turned his face +to the wall, lest he should name her or ask for her. For the desire to +see her before he died, to look into her eyes, to touch her hand once, +only once, assailed his mind and all but whelmed his will. She had +been with him, he knew it, in the night; she had left him only at +daybreak. But then, in his state of collapse, he had been hardly +conscious of her presence. Now to ask for her or to see her would +stamp him coward, say what he might to her. The proverb, that the +King's face gives grace, applied to her; and an overture on his side +could mean but one thing, that he sought her grace. And that he would +not do though the cold waters of death covered him more and more, and +the coming of the end--in that quiet chamber, while the September sun +sank to the appointed place--awoke wild longings and a wild rebellion +in his breast. His thoughts were very bitter, as he lay, his +loneliness of the uttermost. He turned his face to the wall. + +In that posture he slept after a time, watched over by Bigot with +looks of rage and pity. And on the room fell a long silence. The sun +had lacked three hours of setting when he fell asleep. When he +reopened his eyes, and, after lying for a few minutes between sleep +and waking, became conscious of his position, of the day, of the +things which had happened, and his helplessness--an awakening which +wrung from him an involuntary groan--the light in the room was still +strong, and even bright. He fancied for a moment that he had merely +dozed off and awaked again; and he continued to lie with his face to +the wall, courting a return of slumber. + +But sleep did not come, and little by little, as he lay listening and +thinking and growing more restless, he got the fancy that he was +alone. The light fell brightly on the wall to which his face was +turned; how could that be if Bigot's broad shoulders still blocked the +loophole? Presently, to assure himself, he called the man by name. + +He got no answer. + +"Badelon!" he muttered. "Badelon!" + +Had he gone, too, the old and faithful? It seemed so, for again no +answer came. + +He had been accustomed all his life to instant service; to see the act +follow the word ere the word ceased to sound. And nothing which had +gone before, nothing which he had suffered since his defeat at Angers, +had brought him to feel his impotence and his position--and that the +end of his power was indeed come--as sharply as this. The blood rushed +to his head; almost the tears to eyes which had not shed them since +boyhood, and would not shed them now, weak as he was! He rose on his +elbow and looked with a full heart; it was as he had fancied. +Badelon's stool was empty; the embrasure--that was empty too. Through +its narrow outlet he had a tiny view of the shore and the low rocky +hill, of which the summit shone warm in the last rays of the setting +sun. + +The setting sun! Ay, for the lower part of the hill was growing cold; +the shore at its foot was grey. Then he had slept long, and the time +was come. He drew a deep breath and listened. But on all within and +without lay silence, a silence marked, rather than broken, by the dull +fall of a wave on the causeway. The day had been calm, but with the +sunset a light breeze was rising. + +He set his teeth hard, and continued to listen. An hour before sunset +was the time they had named for the exchange. What did it mean? In +five minutes the sun would be below the horizon; already the zone of +warmth on the hillside was moving and retreating upwards. And Bigot +and old Badelon? Why had they left him while he slept? An hour before +sunset! Why, the room was growing grey, grey and dark in the corners, +and--what was that? + +He started, so violently that he jarred his leg, and the pain wrung a +groan from him. At the foot of the bed, overlooked until then, a woman +lay prone on the floor, her face resting on her outstretched arms. She +lay without motion, her head and her clasped hands towards the +loophole, her thick, clubbed hair hiding her neck. A woman! Count +Hannibal stared, and, fancying he dreamed, closed his eyes, then +looked again. It was no phantasm. It was the Countess; it was his +wife! + +He drew a deep breath, but he did not speak, though the colour rose +slowly to his cheek. And slowly his eyes devoured her from head to +foot, from the hands lying white in the light below the window to the +shod feet; unchecked he took his fill, of that which he had so much +desired--the seeing her! A woman prone, with all of her hidden but her +hands: a hundred acquainted with her would not have known her. But he +knew her, and would have known her from a hundred, nay from a +thousand, by her hands alone. + +What was she doing here, and in this guise? He pondered; then he +looked from her for an instant and saw that while he had gazed at her +the sun had set, the light had passed from the top of the hill; the +world without and the room within were growing cold. Was that the +cause she no longer lay quiet? He saw a shudder run through her, and a +second; then it seemed to him--or was he going mad?--that she moaned, +and prayed in half-heard words, and, wrestling with herself, beat her +forehead on her arms, and then was still again, as still as death. By +the time the paroxysm had passed, the last flush of sunset had faded +from the sky, and the hills were growing dark. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXVI. + + HIS KINGDOM. + + +Count Hannibal could not have said why he did not speak to her at +once. Warned by an instinct vague and ill-understood, he remained +silent, his eyes riveted on her, until she rose from the floor. A +moment later she met his gaze, and he looked to see her start. Instead +she stood quiet and thoughtful, regarding him with a kind of sad +solemnity, as if she saw not him only, but the dead; while first one +tremor and then a second shook her frame. + +At length, "It is over!" she whispered. "Patience, monsieur; have no +fear, I will be brave. But I must give a little to him." + +"To him!" Count Hannibal muttered, his face extraordinarily pale. + +She smiled with an odd passionateness. "Who was my lover!" she cried, +her voice a-thrill. "Who will ever be my lover, though I have denied +him, though I have left him to die! It was just. He who has so tried +me knows it was just! He whom I have sacrificed--he knows it too, now! +But it is hard to be--just," with a quavering smile. "You who take all +may give him a little, may pardon me a little, may have--patience!" + +Count Hannibal uttered a strangled cry, between a moan and a roar. A +moment he beat the coverlid with his hands in impotence. Then he sank +back on the bed. "Water!" he muttered. "Water!" + +She fetched it hurriedly, and, raising his head on her arm, held it to +his lips. He drank, and lay back again with closed eyes. He lay so +still and so long that she thought that he had fainted; but after a +pause he spoke. "You have done that?" he whispered, "you have done +that?" + +"Yes," she answered, shuddering. "God forgive me! I have done that! I +had to do that, or----" + +"And is it too late--to undo it?" + +"It is too late." A sob choked her voice. + +Tears--tears incredible, unnatural--welled from under Count Hannibal's +closed eyelids, and rolled sluggishly down his harsh cheek to the edge +of his beard. "I would have gone," he muttered. "If you had spoken, I +would have spared you this." + +"I know," she answered unsteadily; "the men told me." + +"And yet----" + +"It was just. And you are my husband," she replied. "More, I am the +captive of your sword, and as you spared me in your strength, my lord, +I spared you in your weakness." + +"Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu, madame!" he cried, "at what a cost!" + +And that arrested, that touched her in the depths of her grief and her +horror; even while the gibbet on the causeway, which had burned itself +into her eyeballs, hung before her. For she knew that it was the cost +to her he was counting. She knew that for himself he had ever held +life cheap, that he could have seen Tignonville suffer without a +qualm. And the thoughtfulness for her, the value he placed on a +thing--even on a rival's life--because it was dear to her, touched her +home, moved her as few things could have moved her at that moment. She +saw it of a piece with all that had gone before, with all that had +passed between them, since that fatal Sunday in Paris. But she made no +sign. More than she had said she would not say; words of love, even of +reconciliation, had no place on her lips while he whom she had +sacrificed awaited his burial. + +And meantime the man beside her lay and found it incredible. "It was +just," she had said. And he knew it; Tignonville's folly--that and +that only had led them into the snare and caused his own capture. But +what had justice to do with the things of this world? In his +experience, the strong hand--that was justice, in France; and +possession--that was law. By the strong hand he had taken her, and by +the strong hand she might have freed herself. + +And she had not. There was the incredible thing. She had chosen +instead to do justice! It passed belief. Opening his eyes on a silence +which had lasted some minutes, a silence rendered more solemn by the +lapping water without, Tavannes saw her kneeling in the dusk of the +chamber, her head bowed over his couch, her face hidden in her hands. +He knew that she prayed, and feebly he deemed the whole a dream. No +scene akin to it had had place in his life; and, weakened and in pain, +he prayed that the vision might last for ever, that he might never +awake. + +But by-and-by, wrestling with the dread thought of what she had done, +and the horror which would return upon her by fits and spasms, she +flung out a hand, and it fell on him. He started, and the movement, +jarring the broken limb, wrung from him a cry of pain. She looked up +and was going to speak, when a scuffling of feet under the gateway +arch, and a confused sound of several voices raised at once, arrested +the words on her lips. She rose to her feet and listened. Dimly he +could see her face through the dusk. Her eyes were on the door, and +she breathed quickly. + +A moment or two passed in this way, and then from the hurly-burly in +the gateway the footsteps of two men--one limped--detached themselves +and came nearer and nearer. They stopped without. A gleam of light +shone under the door, and someone knocked. + +She went to the door, and, withdrawing the bar, stepped quickly back +to the bedside, where for an instant the light borne by those who +entered blinded her. Then, above the lantern, the faces of La Tribe +and Bigot broke upon her, and their shining eyes told her that they +bore good news. It was well, for the men seemed tongue-tied. The +minister's fluency was gone; he was very pale, and it was Bigot who in +the end spoke for both. He stepped forward, and, kneeling, kissed her +cold hand. + +"My lady," he said, "you have gained all, and lost nothing. Blessed be +God!" + +"Blessed be God!" the minister wept. And from the passage without came +the sound of laughter and weeping and many voices, with a flutter of +lights and flying skirts, and women's feet. + +She stared at him wildly, doubtfully, her hand at her throat. "What?" +she said, "he is not dead--M. de Tignonville?" + +"No, he is alive," La Tribe answered, "he is alive." And he lifted up +his hands as if he gave thanks. + +"Alive?" she cried. "Alive! Oh, heaven is merciful! You are sure! You +are sure?" + +"Sure, Madame, sure. He was not in their hands. He was dismounted in +the first shock, it seems, and, coming to himself after a time, crept +away and reached St. Gilles, and came hither in a boat. But the enemy +learned that he had not entered with us, and of this the priest wove +his snare. Blessed be God, who put it into your heart to escape it!" + +The Countess stood motionless and, with closed eyes, pressed her hands +to her temples. Once she swayed as if she would fall her length, and +Bigot sprang forward to support and save her. But she opened her eyes +at that, sighed very deeply, and seemed to recover herself. + +"You are sure?" she said faintly. "It is no trick?" + +"No, madame, it is no trick," La Tribe answered. "M. de Tignonville is +alive, and here." + +"Here!" She started at the word. The colour fluttered in her cheek. +"But the keys," she murmured. And she passed her hand across her brow. +"I thought--that I had them." + +"He has not entered," the minister answered, "for that reason. He is +waiting at the postern, where he landed. He came, hoping to be of use +to you." + +She paused a moment, and when she spoke again her aspect had undergone +a subtle change. Her head was high, a flush had risen to her cheeks, +her eyes were bright. "Then," she said, addressing La Tribe, "do you, +monsieur, go to him, and pray him in my name to retire to St. Gilles, +if he can do so without peril. He has no place here--now; and if he +can go safely to his home it will be well that he do so. Add, if you +please, that Madame de Tavannes thanks him for his offer of aid, but +in her husband's house she needs no other protection." + +Bigot's eyes sparkled with joy. + +The minister hesitated. "No more, madame?" he faltered. He was +tender-hearted, and Tignonville was of his people. + +"No more," she said gravely, bowing her head. "It is not M. de +Tignonville I have to thank, but Heaven's mercy, that I do not stand +here at this moment unhappy as I entered--a woman accursed, to be +pointed at while I live. And the dead"--she pointed solemnly through +the dark casement to the shore--"the dead lie there." + +La Tribe went. + +She stood a moment in thought, and then took the keys from the rough +stone window-ledge on which she had laid them when she entered. As the +cold iron touched her fingers she shuddered. The contact awoke again +the horror and misery in which she had groped, a lost thing, when she +last felt that chill. + +"Take them," she said; and she gave them to Bigot. "Until my lord can +leave his couch they will remain in your charge, and you will answer +for all to him. Go, now, take the light; and in half-an-hour send +Madame Carlat to me." + +A wave broke heavily on the causeway and ran down seething to the sea; +and another and another, filling the room with rhythmical thunders. +But the voice of the sea was no longer the same in the darkness, where +the Countess knelt in silence beside the bed--knelt, her head bowed on +her clasped hands, as she had knelt before, but with a mind how +different, with what different thoughts! Count Hannibal could see her +head but dimly, for the light shed upwards by the spume of the sea +fell only on the rafters. But he knew she was there, and he would +fain, for his heart was full, have laid his hand on her hair. + +And yet he would not. He would not, out of pride. Instead he bit on +his harsh beard, and lay looking upward to the rafters, waiting what +would come. He who had held her at his will now lay at hers, and +waited. He who had spared her life at a price now took his own a gift +at her hands, and bore it. + +"_Afterwards, Madame de Tavannes_----" + +His mind went back by some chance to those words--the words he had +neither meant nor fulfilled. It passed from them to the marriage and +the blow; to the scene in the meadow beside the river; to the last +ride between La Fleche and Angers--the ride during which he had played +with her fears and hugged himself on the figure he would make on the +morrow. The figure! Alas! of all his plans for dazzling her had +come--_this!_ Angers had defeated him, a priest had worsted him. In +place of releasing Tignonville after the fashion of Bayard and the +Paladins, and in the teeth of snarling thousands, he had come near to +releasing him after another fashion and at his own expense. Instead of +dazzling her by his mastery and winning her by his magnanimity, he lay +here, owing her his life, and so weak, so broken, that the tears of +childhood welled up in his eyes. + +Out of the darkness a hand, cool and firm, slid into his, clasped it +tightly, drew it to warm lips, carried it to a woman's bosom. "My +lord," she murmured, "I was the captive of your sword, and you spared +me. Him I loved you took and spared him too--not once or twice. +Angers, also, and my people you would have saved for my sake. And you +thought I could do this! Oh! shame, shame!" But her hand held his +always. + +"You loved him," he muttered. + +"Yes, I loved him," she answered slowly and thoughtfully. "I loved +him." And she fell silent a minute. Then, "And I feared you," she +added, her voice low. "Oh, how I feared you--and hated you!" + +"And now?" + +"I do not fear him," she answered, smiling in the darkness. "Nor hate +him. And for you, my lord, I am your wife and must do your bidding, +whether I will or no. I have no choice." + +He was silent. + +"Is that not so?" she asked. + +He tried weakly to withdraw his hand. + +But she clung to it. "I must bear your blows or your kisses. I must be +as you will and do as you will, and go happy or sad, lonely or with +you, as you will! As you will, my lord! For I am your chattel, your +property, your own. Have you not told me so?" + +"But your heart," he cried fiercely, "is his! Your heart, which you +told me in the meadow could never be mine!" + +"I lied," she murmured, laughing tearfully, and her hands hovered over +him. "It has come back! And it is on my lips." + +And she leant over and kissed him. And Count Hannibal knew that he had +entered into his kingdom, the sovereignty of a woman's heart. + + + * * * * * + + +An hour later there was a stir in the village on the mainland. +Lanterns began to flit to and fro. Sulkily men were saddling and +preparing for the road. It was far to Challans, farther to Lege--more +than one day, and many a weary league to Ponts de Ce and the Loire. +The men who had ridden gaily southwards on the scent of spoil and +revenge turned their backs on the castle with many a sullen oath and +word. They burned a hovel or two, and stripped such as they spared, +after the fashion of the day; and it had gone ill with the peasant +woman who fell into their hands. Fortunately, under cover of the +previous night every soul had escaped from the village, some to sea, +and the rest to take shelter among the sand dunes; and as the troopers +rode up the path from the beach, and through the green valley, where +their horses shied from the bodies of the men they had slain, there +was not an eye to see them go. + +Or to mark the man who rode last, the man of the white face--scarred +on the temple--and the burning eyes, who paused on the brow of the +hill, and, before he passed beyond, cursed with quivering lips the foe +who had escaped him. The words were lost, as soon as spoken, in the +murmur of the sea on the causeway; the sea, fit emblem of the Eternal, +which rolled its tide regardless of blessing or cursing, good or ill +will, nor spared one jot of ebb or flow because a puny creature had +spoken to the night. + + + + THE END. + + + + + + A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE + + + + + CONTENTS. + + CHAPTER + + I. The Sport of Fools. + + II. The King of Navarre. + + III. Boot And Saddle. + + IV. Mademoiselle de la Vire. + + V. The Road to Blois. + + VI. My Mother's Lodging. + + VII. Simon Fleix. + + VIII. An Empty Room. + + IX. The House in the Ruelle d'Arcy. + + X. The Fight on the Stairs. + + XI. The Man at the Door. + + XII. Maximilian de Bethune, Baron de Rosny. + + XIII. At Rosny. + + XIV. M. de Rambouillet. + + XV. Vilain Herodes. + + XVI. In the King's Chamber. + + XVII. The Jacobin Monk. + + XVIII. The Offer of the League. + + XIX. Men call it Chance. + + XX. The King's Face. + + XXI. Two Women. + + XXII. 'La Femme Dispose.' + + XXIII. The Last Valois. + + XXIV. A Royal Peril. + + XXV. Terms of Surrender. + + XXVI. Meditations. + + XXVII. To Me, my Friends! + + XXVIII. The Castle on the Hill. + + XXIX. Pestilence and Famine. + + XXX. Stricken. + + XXXI. Under the Greenwood. + + XXXII. A Tavern Brawl. + + XXXIII. At Meudon. + + XXXIV. ''Tis an Ill Wind.' + + XXXV. 'Le Roi est Mort.' + + XXXVI. 'Vive le Roi!' + + + + + + A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + THE SPORT OF FOOLS. + + +The death of the Prince of Conde, which occurred in the spring of +1588, by depriving me of my only patron, reduced me to such straits +that the winter of that year, which saw the King of Navarre come to +spend his Christmas at St. Jean d'Angely, saw also the nadir of my +fortunes. I did not know at this time--I may confess it to-day without +shame--whither to turn for a gold crown or a new scabbard, and neither +had nor discerned any hope of employment. The peace lately patched up +at Blois between the King of France and the League persuaded many of +the Huguenots that their final ruin was at hand; but it could not fill +their exhausted treasury or enable them to put fresh troops into the +field. + +The death of the Prince had left the King of Navarre without a rival +in the affections of the Huguenots; the Vicomte de Turenne, whose +turbulent ambition already began to make itself felt, and M. de +Chatillon, ranking next to him. It was my ill-fortune, however, to be +equally unknown to all three leaders, and as the month of December +which saw me thus miserably straitened saw me reach the age of forty, +which I regard, differing in that from many, as the grand climacteric +of a man's life, it will be believed that I had need of all the +courage which religion and a campaigner's life could supply. + +I had been compelled some time before to sell all my horses except the +black Sardinian with the white spot on its forehead; and I now found +myself obliged to part also with my valet de chambre and groom, whom I +dismissed on the same day, paying them their wages with the last links +of gold chain left to me. It was not without grief and dismay that I +saw myself thus stripped of the appurtenances of a man of birth, and +driven to groom my own horse under cover of night. But this was not +the worst. My dress, which suffered inevitably from this menial +employment, began in no long time to bear witness to the change in my +circumstances; so that on the day of the King of Navarre's entrance +into St. Jean I dared not face the crowd, always quick to remark the +poverty of those above them, but was fain to keep within doors and +wear out my patience in the garret of the cutler's house in the Rue de +la Coutellerie, which was all the lodging I could now afford. + +Pardieu, 'tis a strange world! Strange that time seems to me; more +strange compared with this. My reflections on that day, I remember, +were of the most melancholy. Look at it how I would, I could not but +see that my life's spring was over. The crows'-feet were gathering +about my eyes, and my moustachios, which seemed with each day of +ill-fortune to stand out more fiercely in proportion as my face grew +leaner, were already grey. I was out at elbows, with empty pockets, +and a sword which peered through the sheath. The meanest ruffler who, +with broken feather and tarnished lace, swaggered at the heels of +Turenne, was scarcely to be distinguished from me. I had still, it is +true, a rock and a few barren acres in Brittany, the last remains of +the family property; but the small sums which the peasants could +afford to pay were sent annually to Paris, to my mother, who had no +other dower. And this I would not touch, being minded to die a +gentleman, even if I could not live in that estate. + +Small as were my expectations of success, since I had no one at the +king's side to push my business, nor any friend at Court, I +nevertheless did all I could, in the only way that occurred to me. I +drew up a petition, and lying in wait one day for M. Forget, the King +of Navarre's secretary, placed it in his hand, begging him to lay it +before that prince. He took it, and promised to do so, smoothly, and +with as much lip-civility as I had a right to expect. But the careless +manner in which he doubled up and thrust away the paper on which I had +spent so much labour, no less than the covert sneer of his valet, who +ran after me to get the customary present--and ran, as I still blush +to remember, in vain--warned me to refrain from hope. + +In this, however, having little save hope left, I failed so signally +as to spend the next day and the day after in a fever of alternate +confidence and despair, the cold fit following the hot with perfect +regularity. At length, on the morning of the third day--I remember it +lacked but three of Christmas--I heard a step on the stairs. My +landlord living in his shop, and the two intervening floors being +empty, I had no doubt the message was for me, and went outside the +door to receive it, my first glance at the messenger confirming me in +my highest hopes, as well as in all I had ever heard of the generosity +of the King of Navarre. For by chance I knew the youth to be one of +the royal pages; a saucy fellow who had a day or two before cried 'Old +Clothes' after me in the street. I was very far from resenting this +now, however, nor did he appear to recall it; so that I drew the +happiest augury as to the contents of the note he bore from the +politeness with which he presented it to me. + +I would not, however, run the risk of a mistake, and before holding +out my hand, I asked him directly and with formality if it was for me. + +He answered, with the utmost respect, that it was for the Sieur de +Marsac, and for me if I were he. + +'There is an answer, perhaps?' I said, seeing that he lingered. + +'The King of Navarre, sir,' he replied, with a low bow, 'will receive +your answer in person, I believe.' And with that, replacing the hat +which he had doffed out of respect to me, he turned and went down the +stairs. + +Returning to my room, and locking the door, I hastily opened the +missive, which was sealed with a large seal, and wore every appearance +of importance. I found its contents to exceed all my expectations. The +King of Navarre desired me to wait on him at noon on the following +day, and the letter concluded with such expressions of kindness and +goodwill as left me in no doubt of the Prince's intentions. I read it, +I confess, with emotions of joy and gratitude which would better have +become a younger man, and then cheerfully sat down to spend the rest +of the day in making such improvements in my dress as seemed possible. +With a thankful heart I concluded that I had now escaped from poverty, +at any rate from such poverty as is disgraceful to a gentleman; and +consoled myself for the meanness of the appearance I must make at +Court with the reflection that a day or two would mend both habit and +fortune. + +Accordingly, it was with a stout heart that I left my lodgings a few +minutes before noon next morning, and walked towards the castle. It +was some time since I had made so public an appearance in the streets, +which the visit of the King of Navarre's Court had filled with an +unusual crowd, and I could not help fancying as I passed that some of +the loiterers eyed me with a covert smile; and, indeed, I was shabby +enough. But finding that a frown more than sufficed to restore the +gravity of these gentry, I set down the appearance to my own +self-consciousness, and, stroking my moustachios, strode along boldly +until I saw before me, and coming to meet me, the same page who had +delivered the note. + +He stopped in front of me with an air of consequence, and making me a +low bow--whereat I saw the bystanders stare, for he was as gay a young +spark as maid-of-honour could desire--he begged me to hasten, as the +king awaited me in his closet. + +'He has asked for you twice, sir,' he continued importantly, the +feather of his cap almost sweeping the ground. + +'I think,' I answered, quickening my steps, 'that the king's letter +says noon, young sir. If I am late on such an occasion, he has indeed +cause to complain of me.' + +'Tut, tut!' he rejoined, waving his hand with a dandified air. 'It is +no matter. One man may steal a horse when another may not look over +the wall, you know.' + +A man may be gray-haired, he may be sad-complexioned, and yet he may +retain some of the freshness of youth. On receiving this indication of +a favour exceeding all expectation, I remember I felt the blood rise +to my face, and experienced the most lively gratitude. I wondered who +had spoken in my behalf, who had befriended me; and concluding at last +that my part in the affair at Brouage had come to the king's ears, +though I could not conceive through whom, I passed through the castle +gates with an air of confidence and elation which was not unnatural, I +think, under the circumstances. Thence, following my guide, I mounted +the ramp and entered the courtyard. + +A number of grooms and valets were lounging here, some leading horses +to and fro, others exchanging jokes with the wenches who leaned from +the windows, while their fellows again stamped up and down to keep +their feet warm, or played ball against the wall in imitation of their +masters. Such knaves are ever more insolent than their betters; but I +remarked that they made way for me with respect, and with rising +spirits, yet a little irony, I reminded myself as I mounted the stairs +of the words, 'whom the king delighteth to honour!' + +Reaching the head of the flight, where was a soldier on guard, the +page opened the door of the ante-chamber, and standing aside bade me +enter. I did so, and heard the door close behind me. + +For a moment I stood still, bashful and confused. It seemed to me that +there were a hundred people in the room, and that half the eyes which +met mine were women's. Though I was not altogether a stranger to such +state as the Prince of Conde had maintained, this crowded anteroom +filled me with surprise, and even with a degree of awe, of which I was +the next moment ashamed. True, the flutter of silk and gleam of jewels +surpassed anything I had then seen, for my fortunes had never led me +to the king's Court; but an instant's reflection reminded me that my +fathers had held their own in such scenes, and with a bow regulated +rather by this thought than by the shabbiness of my dress, I advanced +amid a sudden silence. + +'M. de Marsac!' the page announced, in a tone which sounded a little +odd in my ears; so much so, that I turned quickly to look at him. He +was gone, however, and when I turned again the eyes which met mine +were full of smiles. A young girl who stood near me tittered. Put out +of countenance by this, I looked round in embarrassment to find +someone to whom I might apply. + +The room was long and narrow, panelled in chestnut, with a row of +windows on the one hand, and two fireplaces, now heaped with glowing +logs, on the other. Between the fireplaces stood a rack of arms. Round +the nearer hearth lounged a group of pages, the exact counterparts of +the young blade who had brought me hither; and talking with these were +as many young gentlewomen. Two great hounds lay basking in the heat, +and coiled between them, with her head on the back of the larger, was +a figure so strange that at another time I should have doubted my +eyes. It wore the fool's motley and cap and bells, but a second glance +showed me the features were a woman's. A torrent of black hair flowed +loose about her neck, her eyes shone with wild merriment, and her +face, keen, thin, and hectic, glared at me from the dog's back. Beyond +her, round the farther fireplace, clustered more than a score of +gallants and ladies, of whom one presently advanced to me. + +'Sir,' he said politely--and I wished I could match his bow--'you +wished to see?' + +'The King of Navarre,' I answered, doing my best. + +He turned to the group behind him, and said, in a peculiarly even, +placid tone, 'He wishes to see the King of Navarre.' Then in solemn +silence he bowed to me again and went back to his fellows. + +Upon the instant, and before I could make up my mind how to take this, +a second tripped forward, and saluting me, said, 'M. de Marsac, I +think?' + +'At your service, sir,' I rejoined. In my eagerness to escape the gaze +of all those eyes, and the tittering which was audible behind me, I +took a step forward to be in readiness to follow him. But he gave no +sign. 'M. de Marsac to see the King of Navarre' was all he said, +speaking as the other had done to those behind. And with that he too +wheeled round and went back to the fire. + +I stared, a first faint suspicion of the truth aroused in my mind. +Before I could act upon it, however--in such a situation it was no +easy task to decide how to act--a third advanced with the same +measured steps. 'By appointment I think, sir?' he said, bowing lower +than the others. + +'Yes,' I replied sharply, beginning to grow warm, 'by appointment at +noon.' + +'M. de Marsac,' he announced in a sing-song tone to those behind him, +'to see the King of Navarre by appointment at noon.' And with a second +bow--while I grew scarlet with mortification--he too wheeled gravely +round and returned to the fireplace. + +I saw another preparing to advance, but he came too late. Whether my +face of anger and bewilderment was too much for them, or some among +them lacked patience to see the end, a sudden uncontrollable shout of +laughter, in which all the room joined, cut short the farce. God knows +it hurt me: I winced, I looked this way and that, hoping here or there +to find sympathy and help. But it seemed to me that the place rang +with gibes, that every panel framed, however I turned myself, a cruel, +sneering face. One behind me cried 'Old Clothes,' and when I turned +the other hearth whispered the taunt. It added a thousandfold to my +embarrassment that there was in all a certain orderliness, so that +while no one moved, and none, while I looked at them, raised their +voices, I seemed the more singled out, and placed as a butt in the +midst. + +One face amid the pyramid of countenances which hid the farther +fireplace so burned itself into my recollection in that miserable +moment, that I never thereafter forgot it; a small, delicate woman's +face, belonging to a young girl who stood boldly in front of her +companions. It was a face full of pride, and, as I saw it then, of +scorn--scorn that scarcely deigned to laugh; while the girl's graceful +figure, slight and maidenly, yet perfectly proportioned, seemed +instinct with the same feeling of contemptuous amusement. + +The play, which seemed long enough to me, might have lasted longer, +seeing that no one there had pity on me, had I not, in my desperation, +espied a door at the farther end of the room, and concluded, seeing no +other, that it was the door of the king's bedchamber. The +mortification I was suffering was so great that I did not hesitate, +but advanced with boldness towards it. On the instant there was a lull +in the laughter round me, and half a dozen voices called on me to +stop. + +'I have come to see the king,' I answered, turning on them fiercely, +for I was by this time in no mood for browbeating, 'and I will see +him!' + +'He is out hunting,' cried all with one accord; and they signed +imperiously to me to go back the way I had come. + +But having the king's appointment safe in my pouch, I thought I had +good reason to disbelieve them; and taking advantage of their +surprise--for they had not expected so bold a step on my part--I was +at the door before they could prevent me. I heard Mathurine, the fool, +who had sprung to her feet, cry 'Pardieu! he will take the Kingdom of +Heaven by force!' And those were the last words I heard; for, as I +lifted the latch--there was no one on guard there--a sudden swift +silence fell upon the room behind me. + +I pushed the door gently open and went in. There were two men sitting +in one of the windows, who turned and looked angrily towards me. For +the rest the room was empty. The king's walking-shoes lay by his +chair, and beside them the boot-hooks and jack. A dog before the fire +got up slowly and growled, and one of the men, rising from the trunk +on which he had been sitting, came towards me and asked me, with every +sign of irritation, what I wanted there, and who had given me leave to +enter. + +I was beginning to explain, with some diffidence--the stillness of the +room sobering me--that I wished to see the king, when he who had +advanced took me up sharply with, 'The king? the king? He is not here, +man. He is hunting at St. Valery. Did they not tell you so outside?' + +I thought I recognised the speaker, than whom I have seldom seen a man +more grave and thoughtful for his years, which were something less +than mine, more striking in presence, or more soberly dressed. And +being desirous to evade his question, I asked him if I had not the +honour to address M. du Plessis Mornay; for that wise and courtly +statesman, now a pillar of Henry's counsels, it was. + +'The same, sir,' he replied abruptly, and without taking his eyes from +me. 'I am Mornay. What of that?' + +'I am M. de Marsac,' I explained. And there I stopped, supposing that, +as he was in the king's confidence, this would make my errand clear to +him. + +But I was disappointed. 'Well, sir?' he said, and waited impatiently. + +So cold a reception, following such treatment as I had suffered +outside, would have sufficed to have dashed my spirits utterly had I +not felt the king's letter in my pocket. Being pretty confident, +however, that a single glance at this would alter M. du Mornay's +bearing for the better, I hastened, looking on it as a kind of +talisman, to draw it out and present it to him. + +He took it, and looked at it, and opened it, but with so cold and +immovable an aspect as made my heart sink more than all that had gone +before. 'What is amiss?' I cried, unable to keep silence. ''Tis from +the king, sir.' + +'A king in motley!' he answered, his lip curling. + +The sense of his words did not at once strike home to me, and I +murmured, in great disorder, that the king had sent for me. + +'The king knows nothing of it,' was his blunt answer, bluntly given. +And he thrust the paper back into my hands. 'It is a trick,' he +continued, speaking with the same abruptness, 'for which you have +doubtless to thank some of those idle young rascals without. You had +sent an application to the king, I suppose? Just so. No doubt they got +hold of it, and this is the result. They ought to be whipped.' + +It was not possible for me to doubt any longer that what he said was +true. I saw in a moment all my hopes vanish, all my plans flung to the +winds; and in the first shock of the discovery I could neither find +voice to answer him nor strength to withdraw. In a kind of vision I +seemed to see my own lean, haggard face looking at me as in a glass, +and, reading despair in my eyes, could have pitied myself. + +My disorder was so great that M. du Mornay observed it. Looking more +closely at me, he two or three times muttered my name, and at last +said, 'M. de Marsac? Ha! I remember. You were in the affair of +Brouage, were you not?' + +I nodded my head in token of assent, being unable at the moment to +speak, and so shaken that perforce I leaned against the wall, my head +sunk on my breast. The memory of my age, my forty years, and my +poverty, pressed hard upon me, filling me with despair and bitterness. +I could have wept, but no tears came. + +M. du Mornay, averting his eyes from me, took two or three short, +impatient turns up and down the chamber. When he addressed me again +his tone was full of respect, mingled with such petulance as one brave +man might feel, seeing another so hard pressed. 'M. de Marsac,' he +said, 'you have my sympathy. It is a shame that men who have served +the cause should be reduced to such straits. Were it possible for me +to increase my own train at present, I should consider it an honour to +have you with me. But I am hard put to it myself, and so are we all, +and the King of Navarre not least among us. He has lived for a month +upon a wood which M. de Rosny has cut down. I will mention your name +to him, but I should be cruel rather than kind were I not to warn you +that nothing can come of it.' + +With that he offered me his hand, and, cheered as much by this mark of +consideration as by the kindness of his expressions, I rallied my +spirits. True, I wanted comfort more substantial, but it was not to be +had. I thanked him therefore as becomingly as I could, and seeing +there was no help for it, took my leave of him, and slowly and +sorrowfully withdrew from the room. + +Alas! to escape I had to face the outside world, for which his kind +words were an ill preparation. I had to run the gauntlet of the +ante-chamber. The moment I appeared, or rather the moment the door +closed behind me, I was hailed with a shout of derision. While one +cried, 'Way! way for the gentleman who has seen the king!' another +hailed me uproariously as Governor of Guyenne, and a third requested a +commission in my regiment. + +I heard these taunts with a heart full almost to bursting. It seemed +to me an unworthy thing that, merely by reason of my poverty, I should +be derided by youths who had still all their battles before them; but +to stop or reproach them would only, as I well knew, make matters +worse, and, moreover, I was so sore stricken that I had little spirit +left even to speak. Accordingly, I made my way through them with what +speed I might, my head bent, and my countenance heavy with shame and +depression. In this way--I wonder there were not among them some +generous enough to pity me--I had nearly gained the door, and was +beginning to breathe, when I found my path stopped by that particular +young lady of the Court whom I have described above. Something had for +the moment diverted her attention from me, and it required a word from +her companions to apprise her of my near neighbourhood. She turned +then, as one taken by surprise, and finding me so close to her that my +feet all but touched her gown, she stepped quickly aside, and with a +glance as cruel as her act, drew her skirts away from contact with me. + +The insult stung me, I know not why, more than all the gibes which +were being flung at me from every side, and moved by a sudden impulse +I stopped, and in the bitterness of my heart spoke to her. +'Mademoiselle,' I said, bowing low--for, as I have stated, she was +small, and more like a fairy than a woman, though her face expressed +both pride and self-will--'Mademoiselle,' I said sternly, 'such as I +am, I have fought for France! Some day you may learn that there are +viler things in the world--and have to bear them--than a poor +gentleman!' + +The words were scarcely out of my mouth before I repented of them, for +Mathurine, the fool, who was at my elbow, was quick to turn them into +ridicule. Raising her hands above our heads, as in act to bless us, +she cried out that Monsieur, having gained so rich an office, desired +a bride to grace it; and this, bringing down upon us a coarse shout of +laughter and some coarser gibes, I saw the young girl's face flush +hotly. + +The next moment a voice in the crowd cried roughly, 'Out upon his +wedding suit!' and with that a sweetmeat struck me in the face. +Another and another followed, covering me with flour and comfits. This +was the last straw. For a moment, forgetting where I was, I turned +upon them, red and furious, every hair in my moustachios bristling. +The next, the full sense of my impotence and of the folly of +resentment prevailed with me, and, dropping my head upon my breast, I +rushed from the room. + +I believe that the younger among them followed me, and that the cry of +'Old Clothes!' pursued me even to the door of my lodgings in the Rue +de la Coutellerie. But in the misery of the moment, and my strong +desire to be within doors and alone, I barely noticed this, and am not +certain whether it was so or not. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + THE KING OF NAVARRE. + + +I have already referred to the danger with which the alliance between +Henry the Third and the League menaced us, an alliance whereof the +news, it was said, had blanched the King of Navarre's moustache in a +single night. Notwithstanding this, the Court had never shown itself +more frolicsome or more free from care than at the time of which I am +speaking; even the lack of money seemed for the moment forgotten. One +amusement followed another, and though, without doubt, something was +doing under the surface--for the wiser of his foes held our prince in +particular dread when he seemed most deeply sunk in pleasure--to the +outward eye St. Jean d'Angely appeared to be given over to enjoyment +from one end to the other. + +The stir and bustle of the Court reached me even in my garret, and +contributed to make that Christmas, which fell on a Sunday, a trial +almost beyond sufferance. All day long the rattle of hoofs on the +pavement, and the laughter of riders bent on diversion, came up to me, +making the hard stool seem harder, the bare walls more bare, and +increasing a hundredfold the solitary gloom in which I sat. For as +sunshine deepens the shadows which fall athwart it, and no silence is +like that which follows the explosion of a mine, so sadness and +poverty are never more intolerable than when hope and wealth rub +elbows with them. + +True, the great sermon which M. d'Amours preached in the market-house +on the morning of Christmas-day cheered me, as it cheered all the more +sober spirits. I was present myself, sitting in an obscure corner of +the building, and heard the famous prediction, which was so soon to be +fulfilled. 'Sire,' said the preacher, turning to the King, of Navarre, +and referring, with the boldness that ever characterised that great +man and noble Christian, to the attempt then being made to exclude the +prince from the succession--'Sire, what God at your birth gave you man +cannot take away. A little while, a little patience, and you shall +cause us to preach beyond the Loire! With you for our Joshua we shall +cross the Jordan, and in the Promised Land the Church shall be set +up.' + +Words so brave, and so well adapted to encourage the Huguenots in the +crisis through which their affairs were then passing, charmed all +hearers; save indeed, those--and they were few--who, being devoted to +the Vicomte de Turenne, disliked, though they could not controvert, +this public acknowledgment of the King of Navarre as the Huguenot +leader. The pleasure of those present was evinced in a hundred ways, +and to such an extent that even I returned to my chamber soothed and +exalted, and found, in dreaming of the speedy triumph of the cause, +some compensation for my own ill-fortune. + +As the day wore on, however, and the evening brought no change, but +presented to me the same dreary prospect with which morning had made +me familiar, I confess without shame that my heart sank once more, +particularly as I saw that I should be forced in a day or two to sell +either my remaining horse or some part of my equipment as essential; a +step which I could not contemplate without feelings of the utmost +despair. In this state of mind I was adding up by the light of a +solitary candle the few coins I had left, when I heard footsteps +ascending the stairs. I made them out to be the steps of two persons, +and was still lost in conjectures who they might be, when a hand +knocked gently at my door. + +Fearing another trick, I did not at once open, the more as there was +something stealthy and insinuating in the knock. Thereupon my visitors +held a whispered consultation; then they, knocked again. I asked +loudly who was there, but to this they did not choose to give any +answer, while I, on my part, determined not to open until they did. +The door was strong, and I smiled grimly at the thought that this time +they would have their trouble for their pains. + +To my surprise, however, they did not desist, and go away, as I +expected, but continued to knock at intervals and whisper much between +times. More than once they called me softly by name and bade me open, +but as they steadily refrained from saying who they were, I sat still. +Occasionally I heard them laugh, but under their breath as it were; +and persuaded by this that they were bent on a frolic, I might have +persisted in my silence until midnight, which was not more than two +hours off, had not a slight sound, as of a rat gnawing behind the +wainscot, drawn my attention to the door. Raising my candle and +shading my eyes I espied something small and bright protruding beneath +it, and sprang up, thinking they were about to prise it in. To my +surprise, however, I could discover, on taking the candle to the +threshold, nothing more threatening than a couple of gold livres, +which had been thrust through the crevice between the door and the +floor. + +My astonishment may be conceived. I stood for full a minute staring at +the coins, the candle in my hand. Then, reflecting that the young +sparks at the Court would be very unlikely to spend such a sum on a +jest, I hesitated no longer, but putting down the candle, drew the +bolt of the door, purposing to confer with my visitors outside. In +this, however, I was disappointed, for the moment the door was open +they pushed forcibly past me and, entering the room pell-mell, bade me +by signs to close the door again. + +I did so suspiciously, and without averting my eyes from my visitors. +Great were my embarrassment and confusion, therefore, when, the door +being shut, they dropped their cloaks one after the other, and I saw +before me M. du Mornay and the well-known figure of the King of +Navarre. + +They seemed so much diverted, looking at one another and laughing, +that for a moment I thought some chance resemblance deceived me, and +that here were my jokers again. Hence while a man might count ten I +stood staring; and the king was the first to speak. 'We have made no +mistake, Du Mornay, have we?' he said, casting a laughing glance at +me. + +'No, sire,' Du Mornay answered. 'This is the Sieur de Marsac, the +gentleman whom I mentioned to you.' + +I hastened, confused, wondering, and with a hundred apologies, to pay +my respects to the king. He speedily cut me short, however, saying, +with an air of much kindness, 'Of Marsac, in Brittany, I think, sir?' + +'The same, sire.' + +'Then you are of the family of Bonne?' + +'I am the last survivor of that family, sire,' I answered +respectfully. + +'It has played its part,' he rejoined. And therewith he took his seat +on my stool with an easy grace which charmed me. 'Your motto is +"_Bonne foi_," is it not? And Marsac, if I remember rightly, is not +far from Rennes, on the Vilaine?' + +I answered that it Was, adding, with a full heart, that it grieved me +to be compelled to receive so great a prince in so poor a lodging. + +'Well, I confess,' Du Mornay struck in, looking carelessly round him, +'you have a queer taste, M. de Marsac, in the arrangement of your +furniture. You--' + +'Mornay!' the king cried sharply. + +'Sire?' + +'Chut! your elbow is in the candle. Beware of it!' + +But I well understood him. If my heart had been full before, it +overflowed now. Poverty is not so shameful as the shifts to which it +drives men. I had been compelled some days before, in order to make as +good a show as possible--since it is the undoubted duty of a gentleman +to hide his nakedness from impertinent eyes, and especially from the +eyes of the _canaille_, who are wont to judge from externals--to +remove such of my furniture and equipage as remained to that side of +the room, which was visible from without when the door was open. This +left the farther side of the room vacant and bare. To anyone within +doors the artifice was, of course, apparent, and I am bound to say +that M. du Mornay's words brought the blood to my brow. + +I rejoiced, however, a moment later that he had uttered them; for +without them I might never have known, or known so early, the kindness +of heart and singular quickness of apprehension which ever +distinguished the king, my master. So, in my heart, I began to call +him from that hour. + +The King of Navarre was at this time thirty-five years old, his hair +brown, his complexion ruddy, his moustache, on one side at least, +beginning to turn grey. His features, which Nature had cast in a harsh +and imperious mould, were relieved by a constant sparkle and animation +such as I have never seen in any other man, but in him became ever +more conspicuous in gloomy and perilous times. Inured to danger from +his earliest youth, he had come to enjoy it as others a festival, +hailing its advent with a reckless gaiety which astonished even brave +men, and led others to think him the least prudent of mankind. Yet +such he was not: nay, he was the opposite of this. Never did Marshal +of France make more careful dispositions for a battle--albeit once in +it he bore himself like any captain of horse--nor ever did Du Mornay +himself sit down to a conference with a more accurate knowledge of +affairs. His prodigious wit and the affability of his manners, while +they endeared him to his servants, again and again blinded his +adversaries; who, thinking that so much brilliance could arise only +from a shallow nature, found when it was too late that they had been +outwitted by him whom they contemptuously styled the Prince of Bearn, +a man a hundredfold more astute than themselves, and master alike of +pen and sword. + +Much of this, which all the world now knows, I learned afterwards. At +the moment I could think of little save the king's kindness; to which +he added by insisting that I should sit on the bed while we talked. +'You wonder, M. de Marsac,' he said, 'what brings me here, and why I +have come to you instead of sending for you? Still more, perhaps, why +I have come to you at night and with such precautions? I will tell +you. But first, that my coming may not fill you with false hopes, let +me say frankly, that though I may relieve your present necessities, +whether you fall into the plan I am going to mention, or not, I cannot +take you into my service; wherein, indeed, every post is doubly +filled. Du Mornay mentioned your name to me, but in fairness to others +I had to answer that I could do nothing.' + +I am bound to confess that this strange exordium dashed hopes which +had already risen to a high pitch. Recovering myself as quickly as +possible, however, I murmured that the honour of a visit from the King +of Navarre was sufficient happiness for me. + +'Nay, but that honour I must take from you' he replied, smiling; +'though I see that you would make an excellent courtier--far better +than Du Mornay here, who never in his life made so pretty a speech. +For I must lay my commands on you to keep this visit a secret, M. de +Marsac. Should but the slightest whisper of it get abroad, your +usefulness, as far as I am concerned, would be gone, and gone for +good!' + +So remarkable a statement filled me with wonder I could scarcely +disguise. It was with difficulty I found words to assure the king that +his commands should be faithfully obeyed. + +'Of that I am sure,' he answered with the utmost kindness. 'Were I +not, and sure, too, from what I am told of your gallantry when my +cousin took Brouage, that you are a man of deeds rather than words, I +should not be here with the proposition I am going to lay before you. +It is this. I can give you no hope of public employment, M. de Marsac, +but I can offer you an adventure--if adventures be to your taste--as +dangerous and as thankless as any Amadis ever undertook.' + +'As thankless, sire?' I stammered, doubting if I had heard aright, the +expression was so strange. + +'As thankless,' he answered, his keen eyes seeming to read my soul. 'I +am frank with you, you see, sir,' he continued, carelessly. 'I can +suggest this adventure--it is for the good of the State--I can do no +more. The King of Navarre cannot appear in it, nor can he protect you. +Succeed or fail in it, you stand alone. The only promise I make is, +that if it ever be safe for me to acknowledge the act, I will reward +the doer.' + +He paused, and for a few moments I stared at him in sheer amazement. +What did he mean? Were he and the other real figures, or was I +dreaming? + +'Do you understand?' he asked at length, with a touch of impatience. + +'Yes, sire, I think I do,' I murmured, very certain in truth and +reality that I did not. + +'What do you say, then--yes or no?' he rejoined. 'Will you undertake +the adventure, or would you hear more before you make up your mind?' + +I hesitated. Had I been a younger man by ten years I should doubtless +have cried assent there and then, having been all my life ready enough +to embark on such enterprises as offered a chance of distinction. But +something in the strangeness of the king's preface, although I had it +in my heart to die for him, gave me check, and I answered, with an air +of great humility, 'You will think me but a poor courtier now, sire, +yet he is a fool who jumps into a ditch without measuring the depth. I +would fain, if I may say it without disrespect, hear all that you can +tell me.' + +'Then I fear,' he answered quickly, 'if you would have more light on +the matter, my friend, you must get another candle.' + +I started, he spoke so abruptly; but perceiving that the candle had +indeed burned down to the socket, I rose, with many apologies, and +fetched another from the cupboard. It did not occur to me at the +moment, though it did later, that the king had purposely sought this +opportunity of consulting with his companion. I merely remarked, when +I returned to my place on the bed, that they were sitting a little +nearer one another, and that the king eyed me before he spoke--though +he still swung one foot carelessly in the air--with close attention. + +'I speak to you, of course, sir,' he presently went on, 'in +confidence, believing you to be an honourable as well as a brave man. +That which I wish you to do is briefly, and in a word, to carry off a +lady. Nay,' he added quickly, with a laughing grimace, 'have no fear! +She is no sweetheart of mine, nor should I go to my grave friend here +did I need assistance of that kind. Henry of Bourbon, I pray God, will +always be able to free his own lady-love. This is a State affair, and +a matter of quite another character, though we cannot at present +entrust you with the meaning of it.' + +I bowed in silence, feeling somewhat chilled and perplexed, as who +would not, having such an invitation before him? I had anticipated an +affair with men only--a secret assault or a petard expedition. But +seeing the bareness of my room, and the honour the king was doing me, +I felt I had no choice, and I answered, 'That being the case, sire, I +am wholly at your service.' + +'That is well,' he answered briskly, though methought he looked at Du +Mornay reproachfully, as doubting his commendation of me. 'But will +you say the same,' he continued, removing his eyes to me, and speaking +slowly, as though he would try me, 'when I tell you that the lady to +be carried off is the ward of the Vicomte de Turenne, whose arm is +well-nigh as long as my own, and who would fain make it longer; who +never travels, as he told me yesterday, with less than fifty +gentlemen, and has a thousand arquebusiers in his pay? Is the +adventure still to your liking, M. de Marsac, now that you know that?' + +'It is more to my liking, sire,' I answered stoutly. + +'Understand this too,' he rejoined. 'It is essential that this lady, +who is at present confined in the Vicomte's house at Chize, should be +released; but it is equally essential that there should be no breach +between the Vicomte and myself. Therefore the affair must be the work +of an independent man, who has never been in my service, nor in any +way connected with me. If captured, you pay the penalty without +recourse to me.' + +'I fully understand, sire,' I answered. + +'Ventre Saint Gris!' he cried, breaking into a low laugh. 'I swear the +man is more afraid of the lady than he is of the Vicomte! That is not +the way of most of our Court.' + +Du Mornay, who had been sitting nursing his knee in silence, pursed up +his lips, though it was easy to see that he was well content with the +king's approbation. He now intervened. 'With your permission, sire,' +he said, 'I will let this gentleman know the details.' + +'Do, my friend,' the king answered. 'And be short, for if we are here +much longer I shall be missed, and in a twinkling the Court will have +found me a new mistress.' + +He spoke in jest and with a laugh, but I saw Du Mornay start at the +words, as though they were little to his liking; and I learned +afterwards that the Court was really much exercised at this time with +the question who would be the next favourite, the king's passion for +the Countess de la Guiche being evidently on the wane, and that which +he presently evinced for Madame de Guercheville being as yet a matter +of conjecture. + +Du Mornay took no overt notice of the king's words, however, but +proceeded to give me my directions. 'Chize, which you know by name,' +he said, 'is six leagues from here. Mademoiselle de la Vire is +confined in the northwest room, on the first-floor, overlooking the +park. More I cannot tell you, except that her woman's name is +Fanchette, and that she is to be trusted. The house is well guarded, +and you will need four or five men. There are plenty of cut-throats to +be hired, only see, M. de Marsac, that they are such as you can +manage, and that Mademoiselle takes no hurt among them. Have horses in +waiting, and the moment you have released the lady ride north with her +as fast as her strength will permit. Indeed, you must not spare her, +if Turenne be on your heels. You should be across the Loire in sixty +hours after leaving Chize.' + +'Across the Loire?' I exclaimed in astonishment. + +'Yes, sir, across the Loire,' he replied, with some sternness. 'Your +task, be good enough to understand, is to convoy Mademoiselle de la +Vire with all speed to Blois. There, attracting as little notice as +may be, you will inquire for the Baron de Rosny at the Bleeding Heart, +in the Rue de St. Denys. He will take charge of the lady, or direct +you how to dispose of her, and your task will then be accomplished. +You follow me?' + +'Perfectly,' I answered, speaking in my turn with some dryness. 'But +Mademoiselle I understand is young. What if she will not accompany me, +a stranger, entering her room at night, and by the window?' + +'That has been thought of was the answer. He turned to the King of +Navarre, who, after a moment's search, produced a small object from +his pouch. This he gave to his companion, and the latter transferred +it to me. I took it with curiosity. It was the half of a gold carolus, +the broken edge of the coin being rough and jagged. 'Show that to +Mademoiselle, my friend,' Du Mornay continued, 'and she will accompany +you. She has the other half.' + +'But be careful,' Henry added eagerly, 'to make no mention, even to +her, of the King of Navarre. You mark me, M. de Marsac! If you have at +any time occasion to speak of me, you may have the honour of calling +me _your friend_, and referring to me always in the same manner.' + +This he said with so gracious an air that I was charmed, and thought +myself happy indeed to be addressed in this wise by a prince whose +name was already so glorious. Nor was my satisfaction diminished when +his companion drew out a bag containing, as he told me, three hundred +crowns in gold, and placed it in my hands, bidding me defray therefrom +the cost of the journey. 'Be careful, however,' he added earnestly, +'to avoid, in hiring your men, any appearance of wealth, lest the +adventure seem to be suggested by some outside person; instead of +being dictated by the desperate state of your own fortunes. Promise +rather than give, so far as that will avail. And for what you must +give, let each livre seem to be the last in your pouch.' + +Henry nodded assent. 'Excellent advice!' he muttered, rising and +drawing on his cloak, 'such as you ever give me, Mornay, and I as +seldom take--more's the pity! But, after all, of little avail without +this.' He lifted my sword from the table as he spoke, and weighed it +in his hand. 'A pretty tool,' he continued, turning suddenly and +looking me very closely in the face. 'A very pretty tool. Were I in +your place, M. de Marsac, I would see that it hung loose in the +scabbard. Ay, and more, man, use it!' he added, sinking his voice and +sticking out his chin, while his grey eyes, looking ever closer into +mine, seemed to grow cold and hard as steel. 'Use it to the last, for +if you fall into Turenne's hands, God help you! I cannot!' + +'If I am taken, sire,' I answered, trembling, but not with fear, 'my +fate be on my own head.' + +I saw the king's eyes soften at that, and his face change so swiftly +that I scarce knew him for the same man. He let the weapon drop with a +clash on the table. 'Ventre Saint Gris!' he exclaimed with a strange +thrill of yearning in his tone. 'I swear by God, I would I were in +your shoes, sir. To strike a blow or two with no care what came of it. +To take the road with a good horse and a good sword, and see what +fortune would send. To be rid of all this statecraft and protocolling, +and never to issue another declaration in this world, but just to be +for once a Gentleman of France, with all to win and nothing to lose +save the love of my lady! Ah! Mornay, would it not be sweet to leave +all this fret and fume, and ride away to the green woods by Coarraze?' + +'Certainly, if you prefer them to the Louvre, sire,' Du Mornay +answered drily; while I stood, silent and amazed, before this strange +man, who could so suddenly change from grave to gay, and one moment +spoke so sagely, and the next like any wild lad in his teens. +'Certainly,' he answered, 'if that be your choice, sire; and if you +think that even there the Duke of Guise will leave you in peace. +Turenne, I am sure, will be glad to hear of your decision. Doubtless +he will be elected Protector of the Churches. Nay, sire, for shame!' +Du Mornay continued, almost with sternness. 'Would you leave France, +which at odd times I have heard you say you loved, to shift for +herself? Would you deprive her of the only man who does love her for +her own sake?' + +'Well, well, but she is such a fickle sweetheart, my friend,' the king +answered, laughing, the side glance of his eye on me. 'Never was one +so coy or so hard to clip! And, besides, has not the Pope divorced +us?' + +'The Pope! A fig for the Pope!' Du Mornay rejoined with impatient +heat. 'What has he to do with France? An impertinent meddler, and an +Italian to boot! I would he and all the brood of them were sunk a +hundred fathoms deep in the sea. But, meantime, I would send him a +text to digest.' + +'_Exemplum?_' said the king. + +'Whom God has joined together let no man put asunder.' + +'Amen!' quoth Henry softly. 'And France is a fair and comely bride.' + +After that he kept such a silence, falling as it seemed to me into a +brown study, that he went away without so much as bidding me farewell, +or being conscious, as far as I could tell, of my presence. Du Mornay +exchanged a few words with me, to assure himself that I understood +what I had to do, and then, with many kind expressions, which I did +not fail to treasure up and con over in the times that were coming, +hastened downstairs after his master. + +My joy when I found myself alone may be conceived. Yet was it no +ecstasy, but a sober exhilaration; such as stirred my pulses indeed, +and bade me once more face the world with a firm eye and an assured +brow, but was far from holding out before me a troubadour's palace or +any dazzling prospect. The longer I dwelt on the interview, the more +clearly I saw the truth. As the glamour which Henry's presence and +singular kindness had cast over me began to lose some of its power, I +recognised more and more surely why he had come to me. It was not out +of any special favour for one whom he knew by report only, if at all +by name; but because he had need of a man poor, and therefore +reckless, middle-aged (of which comes discretion), obscure--therefore +a safe instrument; to crown all, a gentleman, seeing that both a +secret and a woman were in question. + +Withal I wondered too. Looking from the bag of money on the table to +the broken coin in my hand, I scarcely knew which to admire more: the +confidence which entrusted the one to a man broken and beggared, or +the courage of the gentlewoman who should accompany me on the faith of +the other. + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + BOOT AND SADDLE. + + +As was natural, I meditated deeply and far into the night on the +difficulties of the task entrusted to me. I saw that it fell into two +parts: the release of the lady, and her safe conduct to Blois, a +distance of sixty leagues. The release I thought it probable I could +effect single-handed, or with one companion only; but in the troubled +condition of the country at this time, more particularly on both sides +of the Loire, I scarcely saw how I could ensure a lady's safety on the +road northwards unless I had with me at least five swords. + +To get these together at a few hours' notice promised to be no easy +task; although the presence of the Court of Navarre had filled St. +Jean with a crowd of adventurers. Yet the king's command was urgent, +and at some sacrifice, even at some risk, must be obeyed. Pressed by +these considerations, I could think of no better man to begin with +than Fresnoy. + +His character was bad, and he had long forfeited such claim as he had +ever possessed--I believe it was a misty one? on the distaff side--to +gentility. But the same cause which had rendered me destitute--I mean +the death of the Prince of Conde--had stripped him to the last rag; +and this, perhaps, inclining me to serve him, I was the more quick to +see his merits. I knew him already for a hardy, reckless man, very +capable of striking a shrewd blow. I gave him credit for being trusty, +as long as his duty jumped with his interest. + +Accordingly, as soon as it was light, having fed and groomed the Cid, +which was always the first employment of my day, I set out in search +of Fresnoy, and was presently lucky enough to find him taking his +morning draught outside the 'Three Pigeons,' a little inn not far from +the north gate. It was more than a fortnight since I had set eyes on +him, and the lapse of time had worked so great a change for the worse +in him that, forgetting my own shabbiness, I looked at him askance, as +doubting the wisdom of enlisting one who bore so plainly the marks of +poverty and dissipation. His great face--he was a large man--had +suffered recent ill-usage, and was swollen and discoloured, one eye +being as good as closed. He was unshaven, his hair was ill-kempt, his +doublet unfastened at the throat, and torn and stained besides. +Despite the cold--for the morning was sharp and frosty, though free +from wind--there were half a dozen packmen drinking and squabbling +before the inn, while the beasts they drove quenched their thirst at +the trough. But these men seemed with one accord to leave him in +possession of the bench at which he sat; nor did I wonder much at this +when I saw the morose and savage glance which he shot at me as I +approached. Whether he read my first impressions in my face, or for +some other reason felt distaste for my company, I could not determine. +But, undeterred by his behaviour, I sat down beside him and called for +wine. + +He nodded sulkily in answer to my greeting, and cast a half-shamed, +half-angry look at me out of the corners of his eyes. 'You need not +look at me as though I were a dog,' he muttered presently. 'You are +not so very spruce yourself, my friend. But I suppose you have grown +proud since you got that fat appointment at Court!' And he laughed out +loud, so that I confess I was in two minds whether I should not force +the jest down his ugly throat. + +However I restrained myself, though my cheeks burned. 'You have heard +about it, then,' I said, striving to speak indifferently. + +'Who has not?' he said, laughing with his lips, though his eyes were +far from merry. 'The Sieur de Marsac's appointment! Ha! ha! Why, +man----' + +'Enough of it now!' I exclaimed. And I dare say I writhed on my seat. +'As far as I am concerned the jest is a stale one, sir, and does not +amuse me.' + +'But it amuses me,' he rejoined with a grin. + +'Let it be, nevertheless,' I said; and I think he read a warning in my +eyes. 'I have come to speak to you upon another matter.' + +He did not refuse to listen, but threw one leg over the other, and +looking up at the inn-sign began to whistle in a rude, offensive +manner. Still, having an object in view, I controlled myself and +continued. 'It is this, my friend: money is not very plentiful at +present with either of us.' + +Before I could say any more he turned on me savagely, and with a loud +oath thrust his bloated face, flushed with passion, close to mine. +'Now look here, M. de Marsac! he cried violently, 'once for all, it is +no good! I have not got the money, and I cannot pay it. I said a +fortnight ago, when you lent it, that you should have it this week. +Well,' slapping his hand on the bench, 'I have not got it, and it is +no good beginning upon me. You cannot have it, and that is flat!' + +'Damn the money!' I cried. + +'What?' he exclaimed, scarcely believing his ears. + +'Let the money be!' I repeated fiercely. 'Do you hear? I have not come +about it. I am here to offer you work--good, well-paid work--if you +will enlist with me and play me fair, Fresnoy.' + +'Play fair!' he cried with an oath. + +'There, there,' I said, 'I am willing to let bygones be bygones if you +are. The point is, that I have an adventure on hand, and, wanting +help, can pay you for it.' + +He looked at me cunningly, his eye travelling over each rent and darn +in my doublet. 'I will help you fast enough,' he said at last. 'But I +should like to see the money first.' + +'You shall,' I answered. + +'Then I am with you, my friend. Count on me till death!' he cried, +rising and laying his hand in mine with a boisterous frankness which +did not deceive me into trusting him far. 'And now, whose is the +affair, and what is it?' + +'The affair is mine,' I said coldly. 'It is to carry off a lady.' + +He whistled and looked me over again, an impudent leer in his eyes. 'A +lady?' he exclaimed. 'Umph! I could understand a young spark going in +for such--but that's your affair. Who is it?' + +'That is my affair, too,' I answered coolly, disgusted by the man's +venality and meanness, and fully persuaded that I must trust him no +farther than the length of my sword. 'All I want you to do, M. +Fresnoy,' I continued stiffly, 'is to place yourself at my disposal +and under my orders for ten days. I will find you a horse and pay +you--the enterprise is a hazardous one, and I take that into +account--two gold crowns a day, and ten more if we succeed in reaching +a place of safety.' + +'Such a place as----' + +'Never mind that,' I replied. 'The question is, do you accept?' + +He looked down sullenly, and I could see he was greatly angered by my +determination to keep the matter to myself. 'Am I to know no more than +that?' he asked, digging the point of his scabbard again and again +into the ground. + +'No more,' I answered firmly. 'I am bent on a desperate attempt to +mend my fortunes before they fall as low as yours; and that is as much +as I mean to tell living man. If you are loth to risk your life with +your eyes shut, say so, and I will go to someone else.' + +But he was not in a position, as I well knew, to refuse such an offer, +and presently he accepted it with a fresh semblance of heartiness. I +told him I should want four troopers to escort us, and these he +offered to procure, saying that he knew just the knaves to suit me. I +bade him hire two only, however, being too wise to put myself +altogether in his hands; and then, having given him money to buy +himself a horse--I made it a term that the men should bring their +own--and named a rendezvous for the first hour after noon, I parted +from him and went rather sadly away. + +For I began to see that the king had not underrated the dangers of an +enterprise on which none but desperate men and such as were down in +the world could be expected to embark. Seeing this, and also a thing +which followed clearly from it--that I should have as much to fear +from my own company as from the enemy--I looked forward with little +hope to a journey during every day and every hour of which I must bear +a growing weight of fear and responsibility. + +It was too late to turn back, however, and I went about my +preparations, if with little cheerfulness, at least with steadfast +purpose. I had my sword ground and my pistols put in order by the +cutler over whom I lodged, and who performed this last office for me +with the same goodwill which had characterised all his dealings with +me. I sought out and hired a couple of stout fellows whom I believed +to be indifferently honest, but who possessed the advantage of having +horses; and besides bought two led horses myself for mademoiselle and +her woman. Such other equipments as were absolutely necessary I +purchased, reducing my stock of money in this way to two hundred and +ten crowns. How to dispose of this sum so that it might be safe and +yet at my command was a question which greatly exercised me. In the +end I had recourse to my friend the cutler, who suggested hiding a +hundred crowns of it in my cap, and deftly contrived a place for the +purpose. This, the cap being lined with steel, was a matter of no +great difficulty. A second hundred I sewed up in the stuffing of my +saddle, placing the remainder in my pouch for present necessities. + +A small rain was falling in the streets when, a little after noon, I +started with my two knaves behind me and made for the north gate. So +many were moving this way and the other that we passed unnoticed, and +might have done so had we numbered six swords instead of three. When +we reached the rendezvous, a mile beyond the gate, we found Fresnoy +already there, taking shelter in the lee of a big holly-tree. He had +four horsemen with him, and on our appearance rode forward to meet us, +crying heartily, 'Welcome, M. le Capitaine!' + +'Welcome, certainly,' I answered, pulling the Cid up sharply, and +holding off from him. 'But who are these, M. Fresnoy?' and I pointed +with my riding-cane to his four companions. + +He tried to pass the matter off with a laugh. 'Oh! these?' he said. +'That is soon explained. The Evangelists would not be divided, so I +brought them all--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John--thinking it likely +you might fail to secure your men. And I will warrant them for four as +gallant boys as you will ever find behind you!' + +They were certainly four as arrant ruffians as I had ever seen before +me, and I saw I must not hesitate. 'Two or none, M. Fresnoy,' I said +firmly. 'I gave you a commission for two, and two I will take--Matthew +and Mark, or Luke and John, as you please.' + +''Tis a pity to break the party,' said he, scowling. + +'If that be all,' I retorted, 'one of my men is called John. And we +will dub the other Luke, if that will mend the matter.' + +'The Prince of Conde,' he muttered sullenly, 'employed these men.' + +'The Prince of Conde employed some queer people sometimes, M. +Fresnoy,' I answered, looking him straight between the eyes, 'as we +all must. A truce to this, if you please. We will take Matthew and +Mark. The other two be good enough to dismiss.' + +He seemed to waver for a moment, as if he had a mind to disobey, but +in the end, thinking better of it, he bade the men return; and as I +complimented each of them with a piece of silver, they went off, after +some swearing, in tolerably good humour. Thereon Fresnoy was for +taking the road at once, but having no mind to be followed, I gave the +word to wait until the two were out of sight. + +I think, as we sat our horses in the rain, the holly-bush not being +large enough to shelter us all, we were as sorry a band as ever set +out to rescue a lady; nor was it without pain that I looked round and +saw myself reduced to command such people. There was scarcely one +whole un-patched garment among us, and three of my squires had but a +spur apiece. To make up for this deficiency we mustered two black +eyes, Fresnoy's included, and a broken nose. Matthew's nag lacked a +tail, and, more remarkable still, its rider, as I presently +discovered, was stone-deaf; while Mark's sword was innocent of a +scabbard, and his bridle was plain rope. One thing, indeed, I observed +with pleasure. The two men who had come with me looked askance at the +two who had come with Fresnoy, and these returned the stare with +interest. On this division and on the length of my sword I based all +my hopes of safety and of something more. On it I was about to stake, +not my own life only--which was no great thing, seeing what my +prospects were--but the life and honour of a woman, young, helpless, +and as yet unknown to me. + +Weighed down as I was by these considerations, I had to bear the +additional burden of hiding my fears and suspicions under a cheerful +demeanour. I made a short speech to my following, who one and all +responded by swearing to stand by me to the death. I then gave the +word, and we started, Fresnoy and I leading the way, Luke and John +with the led horses following, and the other two bringing up the rear. + +The rain continuing to fall and the country in this part being dreary +and monotonous, even in fair weather, I felt my spirits sink still +lower as the day advanced. The responsibility I was going to incur +assumed more serious proportions each time I scanned my following; +while Fresnoy, plying me with perpetual questions respecting my plans, +was as uneasy a companion as my worst enemy could have wished me. + +'Come!' he grumbled presently, when we had covered four leagues or so, +'you have not told me yet, sieur, where we stay to-night. You are +travelling so slowly that----' + +'I am saving the horses,' I answered shortly. 'We shall do a long day +to-morrow.' + +'Yours looks fit for a week of days,' he sneered, with an evil look at +my Sardinian, which was, indeed, in better case than its master. 'It +is sleek enough, any way!' + +'It is as good as it looks,' I answered, a little nettled by his tone. + +'There is a better here,' he responded. + +'I don't see it,' I said. I had already eyed the nags all round, and +assured myself that, ugly and blemished as they were, they were up to +their work. But I had discerned no special merit among them. I looked +them over again now, and came to the same conclusion--that, except the +led horses, which I had chosen with some care, there was nothing among +them to vie with the Cid, either in speed or looks. I told Fresnoy so. + +'Would you like to try?' he said tauntingly. + +I laughed, adding, 'If you think I am going to tire our horses by +racing them, with such work as we have before us, you are mistaken, +Fresnoy. I am not a boy, you know.' + +'There need be no question of racing,' he answered more quietly. 'You +have only to get on that rat-tailed bay of Matthew's to feel its paces +and say I am right.' + +I looked at the bay, a bald-faced, fiddle-headed horse, and saw that, +with no signs of breeding, it was still a big-boned animal with good +shoulders and powerful hips. I thought it possible Fresnoy might be +right, and if so, and the bay's manners were tolerable, it might do +for mademoiselle better than the horse I had chosen. At any rate, if +we had a fast horse among us, it was well to know the fact, so bidding +Matthew change with me, and be careful of the Cid, I mounted the bay, +and soon discovered that its paces were easy and promised speed, while +its manners seemed as good as even a timid rider could desire. + +Our road at the time lay across a flat desolate heath, dotted here and +there with thorn-bushes; the track being broken and stony, extended +more than a score of yards in width, through travellers straying to +this side and that to escape the worst places. Fresnoy and I, in +making the change, had fallen slightly behind the other three, and +were riding abreast of Matthew on the Cid. + +'Well,' he said, 'was I not right?' + +'In part,' I answered. 'The horse is better than its looks.' + +'Like many others,' he rejoined, a spark of resentment in his +tone--'men as well as horses, M. de Marsac. But what do you say? Shall +we canter on a little and overtake the others?' + +Thinking it well to do so, I assented readily, and we started +together. We had ridden, however, no more than a hundred yards, and I +was only beginning to extend the bay, when Fresnoy, slightly drawing +rein, turned in his saddle and looked back. The next moment he cried, +'Hallo! what is this? Those fellows are not following us, are they?' + +I turned sharply to look. At that moment, without falter or warning, +the bay horse went down under me as if shot dead, throwing me half a +dozen yards over its head; and that so suddenly that I had no time to +raise my arms, but, falling heavily on my head and shoulder, lost +consciousness. + +I have had many falls, but no other to vie with that in utter +unexpectedness. When I recovered my senses I found myself leaning, +giddy and sick, against the bole of an old thorn-tree. Fresnoy and +Matthew supported me on either side, and asked me how I found myself; +while the other three men, their forms black against the stormy +evening sky, sat their horses a few paces in front of me. I was too +much dazed at first to see more, and this only in a mechanical +fashion; but gradually, my brain grew clearer, and I advanced from +wondering who the strangers round me were to recognising them, and +finally to remembering what had happened to me. + +'Is the horse hurt?' I muttered as soon as I could speak. + +'Not a whit,' Fresnoy answered, chuckling, or I was much mistaken. 'I +am afraid you came off the worse of the two, captain.' + +He exchanged a look with the men on horseback as he spoke, and in a +dull fashion I fancied I saw them smile. One even laughed, and another +turned in his saddle as if to hide his face. I had a vague general +sense that there was some joke on foot in which I had no part. But I +was too much shaken at the moment to be curious, and gratefully +accepted the offer of one of the men to fetch me a little water. While +he was away the rest stood round me, the same look of ill-concealed +drollery on their faces. Fresnoy alone talked, speaking volubly of the +accident, pouring out expressions of sympathy and cursing the road, +the horse, and the wintry light until the water came; when, much +refreshed by the draught, I managed to climb to the Cid's saddle and +plod slowly onwards with them. + +'A bad beginning,' Fresnoy said presently, stealing a sly glance at me +as we jogged along side by side, Chize half a league before us, and +darkness not far off. + +By this time, however, I was myself again, save for a little humming +in the head, and, shrugging my shoulders, I told him so. 'All's well +that ends well,' I added. 'Not that it was a pleasant fall, or that I +wish to have such another.' + +'No, I should think not,' he answered. His face was turned from me, +but I fancied I heard him snigger. + +Something, which may have been a vague suspicion, led me a moment +later to put my hand into my pouch. Then I understood. I understood +too well. The sharp surprise of the discovery was such that +involuntarily I drove my spurs into the Cid, and the horse sprang +forward. + +'What is the matter?' Fresnoy asked. + +'The matter?' I echoed, my hand still at my belt, feeling--feeling +hopelessly. + +'Yes, what is it?' he asked, a brazen smile on his rascally face. + +I looked at him, my brow as red as fire. 'Oh! nothing--nothing,' I +said. 'Let us trot on.' + +In truth I had discovered that, taking advantage of my helplessness, +the scoundrels had robbed me, while I lay insensible, of every gold +crown in my purse! Nor was this all, or the worst, for I saw at once +that in doing so they had effected something which was a thousandfold +more ominous and formidable--established against me that secret +understanding which it was my especial aim to prevent, and on the +absence of which I had been counting. Nay, I saw that for my very life +I had only my friend the cutler and my own prudence to thank, seeing +that these rogues would certainly have murdered me without scruple had +they succeeded in finding the bulk of my money. Baffled in this, while +still persuaded that I had other resources, they had stopped short of +that villany--or this memoir had never been written. They had kindly +permitted me to live until a more favourable opportunity of enriching +themselves at my expense should put them in possession of my last +crown! + +Though I was sufficiently master of myself to refrain from complaints +which I felt must be useless, and from menaces which it has never been +my habit to utter unless I had also the power to put them into +execution, it must not be imagined that I did not, as I rode on by +Fresnoy's side, feel my position acutely or see how absurd a figure I +cut in my dual character of leader and dupe. Indeed, the reflection +that, being in this perilous position, I was about to stake another's +safety as well as my own, made me feel the need of a few minutes' +thought so urgent that I determined to gain them, even at the risk of +leaving my men at liberty to plot further mischief. Coming almost +immediately afterwards within sight of the turrets of the Chateau of +Chize, I told Fresnoy that we should lie the night at the village; and +bade him take the men on and secure quarters at the inn. Attacked +instantly by suspicion and curiosity, he demurred stoutly to leaving +me, and might have persisted in his refusal had I not pulled up, and +clearly shown him that I would have my own way in this case or come to +an open breach. He shrank, as I expected, from the latter alternative, +and, bidding me a sullen adieu, trotted on with his troop. I waited +until they were out of sight, and then, turning the Cid's head, +crossed a small brook which divided the road from the chase, and +choosing a ride which seemed to pierce the wood in the direction of +the Chateau, proceeded down it, keeping a sharp look-out on either +hand. + +It was then, my thoughts turning to the lady who was now so near, and +who, noble, rich, and a stranger, seemed, as I approached her, not the +least formidable of the embarrassments before me--it was then that I +made a discovery which sent a cold shiver through my frame, and in a +moment swept all memory of my paltry ten crowns from my head. Ten +crowns! Alas! I had lost that which was worth all my crowns put +together--the broken coin which the King of Navarre had entrusted to +me, and which formed my sole credential, my only means of persuading +Mademoiselle de la Vire that I came from him. I had put it in my +pouch, and of course, though the loss of it only came home to my mind +now, it had disappeared with the rest. + +I drew rein and sat for some time motionless, the image of despair. +The wind which stirred the naked boughs overhead, and whirled the dead +leaves in volleys past my feet, and died away at last among the +whispering bracken, met nowhere with wretchedness greater, I believe, +than was mine at that moment. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + MADEMOISELLE DE LA VIRE. + + +My first desperate impulse on discovering the magnitude of my loss was +to ride after the knaves and demand the token at the sword's point. +The certainty, however, of finding them united, and the difficulty of +saying which of the five possessed what I wanted, led me to reject +this plan as I grew cooler; and since I did not dream, even in this +dilemma, of abandoning the expedition, the only alternative seemed to +be to act as if I still had the broken coin, and essay what a frank +explanation might effect when the time came. + +After some wretched, very wretched, moments of debate, I resolved to +adopt this course; and, for the present, thinking I might gain some +knowledge of the surroundings while the light lasted, I pushed +cautiously forward through the trees and came in less than five +minutes within sight of a corner of the chateau, which I found to be a +modern building of the time of Henry II., raised, like the houses of +that time, for pleasure rather than defence, and decorated with many +handsome casements and tourelles. Despite this, it wore, as I saw it, +a grey and desolate air, due in part to the loneliness of the +situation and the lateness of the hour; and in part, I think, to the +smallness of the household maintained, for no one was visible on the +terrace or at the windows. The rain dripped from the trees, which on +two sides pressed so closely on the house as almost to darken the +rooms, and everything I saw encouraged me to hope that mademoiselle's +wishes would second my entreaties, and incline her to lend a ready ear +to my story. + +The appearance of the house, indeed, was a strong inducement to me to +proceed, for it was impossible to believe that a young lady, a +kinswoman of the gay and vivacious Turenne, and already introduced to +the pleasures of the Court, would elect of her own free will to spend +the winter in so dreary a solitude. + +Taking advantage of the last moments of daylight, I rode cautiously +round the house, and, keeping in the shadow of the trees, had no +difficulty in discovering at the north-east corner the balcony of +which I had been told. It was semicircular in shape, with a stone +balustrade, and hung some fifteen feet above a terraced walk which ran +below it, and was separated from the chase by a low sunk fence. + +I was surprised to observe that, notwithstanding the rain and the +coldness of the evening, the window which gave upon this balcony was +open. Nor was this all. Luck was in store for me at last. I had not +gazed at the window more than a minute, calculating its height and +other particulars, when, to my great joy, a female figure, closely +hooded, stepped out and stood looking up at the sky. I was too far off +to be able to discern by that uncertain light whether this was +Mademoiselle de la Vire or her woman; but the attitude was so clearly +one of dejection and despondency, that I felt sure it was either one +or the other. Determined not to let the opportunity slip, I dismounted +hastily and, leaving the Cid loose, advanced on foot until I stood +within half-a-dozen paces of the window. + +At that point the watcher became aware of me. She started back, but +did not withdraw. Still peering down at me, she called softly to some +one inside the chamber, and immediately a second figure, taller and +stouter, appeared. I had already doffed my cap, and I now, in a low +voice, begged to know if I had the honour of speaking to Mademoiselle +de la Vire. In the growing darkness it was impossible to distinguish +faces. + +'Hush!' the stouter figure muttered in a tone of warning. 'Speak +lower. Who are you, and what do you here?' + +'I am here,' I answered respectfully, 'commissioned by a friend of the +lady I have named, to convey her to a place of safety.' + +'Mondieu!' was the sharp answer. 'Now? It is impossible.' + +'No,' I murmured, 'not now, but to-night. The moon rises at half-past +two. My horses need rest and food. At three I will be below this +window with the means of escape, if mademoiselle choose to use them.' + +I felt that they were staring at me through the dusk, as though they +would read my breast. 'Your name, sir?' the shorter figure murmured at +last, after a pause which was full of suspense and excitement. + +'I do not think my name of much import at present, Mademoiselle,' I +answered, reluctant to proclaim myself a stranger. 'When----' + +'Your name, your name, sir!' she repeated imperiously, and I heard her +little heel rap upon the stone floor of the balcony. + +'Gaston de Marsac,' I answered unwillingly. + +They both started, and cried out together. 'Impossible!' the last +speaker exclaimed, amazement and anger in her tone. 'This is a jest, +sir. This----' + +What more she would have said I was left to guess, for at that moment +her attendant--I had no doubt now which was mademoiselle and which +Fanchette--suddenly laid her hand on her mistress's mouth and pointed +to the room behind them. A second's suspense, and with a warning +gesture the two turned and disappeared through the window. + +I lost no time in regaining the shelter of the trees; and concluding, +though I was far from satisfied with the interview, that I could do +nothing more now, but might rather, by loitering in the neighbourhood, +awaken suspicion, I remounted and made for the highway and the +village, where I found my men in noisy occupation of the inn, a poor +place, with unglazed windows, and a fire in the middle of the earthen +floor. My first care was to stable the Cid in a shed at the back, +where I provided for its wants as far as I could with the aid of a +half-naked boy, who seemed to be in hiding there. + +This done, I returned to the front of the house, having pretty well +made up my mind how I would set about the task before me. As I passed +one of the windows, which was partially closed by a rude curtain made +of old sacks, I stopped to look in. Fresnoy and his four rascals were +seated on blocks of wood round the hearth, talking loudly and +fiercely, and ruffling it as if the fire and the room were their own. +A pedlar, seated on his goods in one corner, was eyeing them with +evident fear and suspicion; in another corner two children had taken +refuge under a donkey, which some fowls had chosen as a roosting-pole. +The innkeeper, a sturdy fellow, with a great club in his fist, sat +moodily at the foot of a ladder which led to the loft above, while a +slatternly woman, who was going to and fro getting supper, seemed in +equal terror of her guests and her good man. + +Confirmed by what I saw, and assured that the villains were ripe for +any mischief, and, if not checked, would speedily be beyond my +control, I noisily flung the door open and entered. Fresnoy looked up +with a sneer as I did so, and one of the men laughed. The others +became silent; but no one moved or greeted me. Without a moment's +hesitation I stepped to the nearest fellow and, with a sturdy kick, +sent his log from under him. 'Rise, you rascal, when I enter!' I +cried, giving vent to the anger I had long felt. 'And you, too!' and +with a second kick I sent his neighbour's stool flying also, and +administered a couple of cuts with my riding-cane across the man's +shoulders. 'Have you no manners, sirrah? Across with you, and leave +this side to your betters.' + +The two rose, snarling and feeling for their weapons, and for a moment +stood facing me, looking now at me and now askance at Fresnoy. But as +he gave no sign, and their comrades only laughed, the men's courage +failed them at the pinch, and with a very poor grace they sneaked over +to the other side of the fire and sat there scowling. + +I seated myself beside their leader. 'This gentleman and I will eat +here,' I cried to the man at the foot of the ladder. 'Bid your wife +lay for us, and of the best you have; and do you give those knaves +their provender where the smell of their greasy jackets will not come +between us and our victuals.' + +The man came forward, glad enough, as I saw, to discover any one in +authority, and very civilly began to draw wine and place a board for +us, while his wife filled our platters from the black pot which hung +over the fire. Fresnoy's face meanwhile wore the amused smile of one +who comprehended my motives, but felt sufficiently sure of his +position and influence with his followers to be indifferent to my +proceedings. I presently showed him, however, that I had not yet done +with him. Our table was laid in obedience to my orders at such a +distance from the men that they could not overhear our talk, and +by-and-by I leant over to him. + +'M. Fresnoy,' I said, 'you are in danger of forgetting one thing, I +fancy, which it behoves you to remember.' + +'What?' he muttered, scarcely deigning to look up at me. + +'That you have to do with Gaston de Marsac,' I answered quietly. 'I am +making, as I told you this morning, a last attempt to recruit my +fortunes, and I will let no man--no man, do you understand, M. +Fresnoy?--thwart me and go harmless.' + +'Who wishes to thwart you?' he asked impudently. + +'You,' I answered unmoved, helping myself, as I spoke, from the roll +of black bread which lay beside me. 'You robbed me this afternoon; I +passed it over. You encouraged those men to be insolent; I passed it +over. But let me tell you this. If you fail me to-night, on the honour +of a gentleman, M. Fresnoy, I will run you through as I would spit a +lark.' + +'Will you? But two can play at that game,' he cried, rising nimbly +from his stool. 'Still better six! Don't you think, M. de Marsac, you +had better have waited?' + +'I think you had better hear one word more,' I answered coolly, +keeping my seat, 'before you appeal to your fellows there.' + +'Well,' he said, still standing, 'what is it?' + +'Nay,' I replied, after once more pointing to his stool in vain, 'if +you prefer to take my orders standing, well and good.' + +'Your orders?' he shrieked, growing suddenly excited. + +'Yes, my orders!' I retorted, rising as suddenly to my feet and +hitching forward my sword. 'My orders, sir,' I repeated fiercely, 'or, +if you dispute my right to command as well as to pay this party, let +us decide the question here and now--you and I, foot to foot, M. +Fresnoy.' + +The quarrel flashed up so suddenly, though I had been preparing it all +along, that no one moved. The woman, indeed, fell back to her +children, but the rest looked on open-mouthed. Had they stirred, or +had a moment's hurly-burly heated his blood, I doubt not Fresnoy would +have taken up my challenge, for he did not lack hardihood. But as it +was, face to face with me in the silence, his courage failed him. He +paused, glowering at me uncertainly, and did not speak. + +'Well,' I said, 'don't you think that if I pay I ought to give orders, +sir?' + +'Who wishes to oppose your orders?' he muttered, drinking off a +bumper, and sitting down with an air of impudent bravado, assumed to +hide his discomfiture. + +'If you don't, no one else does,' I answered. 'So that is settled. +Landlord, some more wine.' + +He was very sulky with me for a while, fingering his glass in silence +and scowling at the table. He had enough gentility to feel the +humiliation to which he had exposed himself, and a sufficiency of wit +to understand that that moment's hesitation had cost him the +allegiance of his fellow-ruffians. I hastened, therefore, to set him +at his ease by explaining my plans for the night, and presently +succeeded beyond my hopes; for when he heard who the lady was whom I +proposed to carry off, and that she was lying that evening at the +Chateau de Chize, his surprise swept away the last trace of +resentment. He stared at me as at a maniac. + +'Mon Dieu!' he exclaimed. 'Do you know what you are doing, Sieur?' + +'I think so,' I answered. + +'Do you know to whom the chateau belongs?' + +'To the Vicomte de Turenne.' + +'And that Mademoiselle de la Vire is his relation?' + +'Yes,' I said. + +'Mon Dieu!' he exclaimed again. And he looked at me open-mouthed. + +'What is the matter?' I asked, though I had an uneasy consciousness +that I knew--that I knew very well. + +'Man, he will crush you as I crush this hat!' he answered in great +excitement. 'As easily. Who do you think will protect you from him in +a private quarrel of this kind? Navarre? France? our good man? Not one +of them. You had better steal the king's crown jewels--he is weak; or +Guise's last plot--he is generous at times; or Navarre's last +sweetheart--he is as easy as an old shoe. You had better have to do +with all these together, I tell you, than touch Turenne's ewe-lambs, +unless your aim be to be broken on the wheel! Mon Dieu, yes!' + +'I am much obliged to you for your advice,' I said stiffly, 'but the +die is cast. My mind is made up. On the other hand, if you are afraid, +M. Fresnoy----' + +'I am afraid; very much afraid,' he answered frankly. + +'Still your name need not be brought into the matter,' I replied, 'I +will take the responsibility. I will let them know my name here at the +inn, where, doubtless, inquiries will be made.' + +'To be sure, that is something,' he answered thoughtfully. 'Well, it +is an ugly business, but I am in for it. You want me to go with you a +little after two, do you? and the others to be in the saddle at three? +Is that it?' + +I assented, pleased to find him so far acquiescent; and in this way, +talking the details over more than once, we settled our course, +arranging to fly by way of Poitiers and Tours. Of course I did not +tell him why I selected Blois as our refuge, nor what was my purpose +there; though he pressed me more than once on the point, and grew +thoughtful and somewhat gloomy when I continually evaded it. A little +after eight we retired to the loft to sleep; our men remaining below +round the fire and snoring so merrily as almost to shake the crazy old +building. The host was charged to sit up and call us as soon as the +moon rose, but, as it turned out, I might as well have taken this +office on myself, for between excitement and distrust I slept little, +and was wide awake when I heard his step on the ladder and knew it was +time to rise. + +I was up in a moment, and Fresnoy was little behind me; so that, +losing no time in talk, we were mounted and on the road, each with a +spare horse at his knee, before the moon was well above the trees. +Once in the Chase we found it necessary to proceed on foot, but, the +distance being short, we presently emerged without misadventure and +stood opposite to the chateau, the upper part of which shone cold and +white in the moon's rays. + +There was something so solemn in the aspect of the place, the night +being fine and the sky without a cloud, that I stood for a minute awed +and impressed, the sense of the responsibility I was here to accept +strong upon me. In that short space of time all the dangers before me, +as well the common risks of the road as the vengeance of Turenne and +the turbulence of my own men, presented themselves to my mind, and +made a last appeal to me to turn back from an enterprise so foolhardy. +The blood in a man's veins runs low and slow at that hour, and mine +was chilled by lack of sleep and the wintry air. It needed the +remembrance of my solitary condition, of my past spent in straits and +failure, of the grey hairs which swept my cheek, of the sword which I +had long used honourably, if with little profit to myself; it needed +the thought of all these things to restore me to courage and myself. + +I judged at a later period that my companion was affected in somewhat +the same way; for, as I stooped to press home the pegs which I had +brought to tether the horses, he laid his hand on my arm. Glancing up +to see what he wanted, I was struck by the wild look in his face +(which the moonlight invested with a peculiar mottled pallor), and +particularly in his eyes, which glittered like a madman's. He tried to +speak, but seemed to find a difficulty in doing so; and I had to +question him roughly before he found his tongue. When he did speak, it +was only to implore me in an odd, excited manner to give up the +expedition and return. + +'What, now?' I said, surprised. 'Now we are here, Fresnoy?' + +'Ay, give it up!' he cried, shaking me almost fiercely by the arm. +'Give it up, man! It will end badly, I tell you! In God's name, give +it up, and go home before worse comes of it.' + +'Whatever comes of it,' I answered coldly, shaking his grasp from my +arm, and wondering much at this sudden fit of cowardice, 'I go on. +You, M. Fresnoy, may do as you please!' + +He started and drew back from me; but he did not reply, nor did he +speak again. When I presently went off to fetch a ladder, of the +position of which I had made a note during the afternoon, he +accompanied me, and followed me back in the same dull silence to the +walk below the balcony. I had looked more than once and eagerly at +mademoiselle's window without any light or movement in that quarter +rewarding my vigilance; but, undeterred by this, which might mean +either that my plot was known, or that Mademoiselle de la Vire +distrusted me, I set the ladder softly against the balcony, which was +in deep shadow, and paused only to give Fresnoy his last instructions. +These were simply to stand on guard at the foot of the ladder and +defend it in case of surprise; so that, whatever happened inside the +chateau, my retreat by the window might not be cut off. + +Then I went cautiously up the ladder, and, with my sheathed sword in +my left hand, stepped over the balustrade. Taking one pace forward, +with fingers outstretched, I felt the leaded panes of the window and +tapped softly. + +As softly the casement gave way, and I followed it. A hand which I +could see but not feel was laid on mine. All was darkness in the room, +and before me, but the hand guided me two paces forward, then by a +sudden pressure bade me stand. I heard the sound of a curtain being +drawn behind me, and the next moment the cover of a rushlight was +removed, and a feeble but sufficient light filled the chamber. + +I comprehended that the drawing of that curtain over the window had +cut off my retreat as effectually as if a door had been closed behind +me. But distrust and suspicion gave way the next moment to the natural +embarrassment of the man who finds himself in a false position and +knows he can escape from it only by an awkward explanation. + +The room in which I found myself was long, narrow, and low in the +ceiling; and being hung with some dark stuff which swallowed up the +light, terminated funereally at the farther end in the still deeper +gloom of an alcove. Two or three huge chests, one bearing the remnants +of a meal, stood against the walls. The middle of the floor was +covered with a strip of coarse matting, on which a small table, a +chair and foot-rest, and a couple of stools had place, with some +smaller articles which lay scattered round a pair of half-filled +saddle-bags. The slighter and smaller of the two figures I had seen +stood beside the table, wearing a mask and riding cloak; and by her +silent manner of gazing at me, as well as by a cold, disdainful +bearing, which neither her mask nor cloak could hide, did more to +chill and discomfit me than even my own knowledge that I had lost the +pass-key which should have admitted me to her confidence. + +The stouter figure of the afternoon turned out to be a red-cheeked, +sturdy woman of thirty, with bright black eyes and a manner which lost +nothing of its fierce impatience when she came a little later to +address me. All my ideas of Fanchette were upset by the appearance of +this woman, who, rustic in her speech and ways, seemed more like a +duenna than the waiting-maid of a court beauty, and better fitted to +guard a wayward damsel than to aid her in such an escapade as we had +in hand. + +She stood slightly behind her mistress, her coarse red hand resting on +the back of the chair from which mademoiselle had apparently risen on +my entrance. For a few seconds, which seemed minutes to me, we stood +gazing at one another in silence, mademoiselle acknowledging my bow by +a slight movement of the head. Then, seeing that they waited for me to +speak, I did so. + +'Mademoiselle de la Vire?' I murmured doubtfully. + +She bent her head again; that was all. + +I strove to speak with confidence. 'You will pardon me, mademoiselle,' +I said, 'if I seem to be abrupt, but time is everything. The horses +are standing within a hundred yards of the house, and all the +preparations for your night are made. If we leave now, we can do so +without opposition. The delay even of an hour may lead to discovery.' + +For answer she laughed behind her mask--laughed coldly and ironically. +'You go too fast, sir,' she said, her low clear voice matching the +laugh and rousing a feeling almost of anger in my heart. 'I do not +know you; or, rather, I know nothing of you which should entitle you +to interfere in my affairs. You are too quick to presume, sir. You say +you come from a friend. From whom?' + +'From one whom I am proud to call by that title,' I answered with what +patience I might. + +'His name!' + +I answered firmly that I could not give it. And I eyed her steadily as +I did so. + +This for the moment seemed to baffle and confuse her, but after a +pause she continued: 'Where do you propose to take me, sir?' + +'To Blois; to the lodging of a friend of my friend.' + +'You speak bravely,' she replied with a faint sneer. 'You have made +some great friends lately it seems! But you bring me some letter, no +doubt; at least some sign, some token, some warranty, that you are the +person you pretend to be, M. de Marsac?' + +'The truth is, mademoiselle,' I stammered, 'I must explain. I should +tell you----' + +'Nay, sir,' she cried impetuously, 'there is no need of telling. If +you have what I say, show it me! It is you who lose time. Let us have +no more words!' + +I had used very few words, and, God knows, was not in the mind to use +many; but, being in the wrong, I had no answer to make except the +truth, and that humbly. 'I had such a token as you mention, +mademoiselle,' I said, 'no farther back than this afternoon, in the +shape of half a gold coin, entrusted to me by my friend. But, to my +shame I say it, it was stolen from me a few hours back.' + +'Stolen from you!' she exclaimed. + +'Yes, mademoiselle; and for that reason I cannot show it,' I answered. + +'You cannot show it? And you dare to come to me without it!' she +cried, speaking with a vehemence which fairly startled me, prepared as +I was for reproaches. 'You come to me! You!' she continued. And with +that, scarcely stopping to take breath, she loaded me with abuse; +calling me impertinent, a meddler, and a hundred other things, which I +now blush to recall, and displaying in all a passion which even in her +attendant would have surprised me, but in one so slight and seemingly +delicate, overwhelmed and confounded me. In fault as I was, I could +not understand the peculiar bitterness she displayed, or the +contemptuous force of her language, and I stared at her in silent +wonder until, of her own accord, she supplied the key to her feelings. +In a fresh outburst of rage she snatched off her mask, and to my +astonishment I saw before me the young maid of honour whom I had +encountered in the King of Navarre's ante-chamber, and whom I had been +so unfortunate as to expose to the raillery of Mathurine. + +'Who has paid you, sir,' she continued, clenching her small hands +and speaking with tears of anger in her eyes, 'to make me the +laughing-stock of the Court? It was bad enough when I thought you the +proper agent of those to whom I have a right to look for aid! It was +bad enough when I thought myself forced, through their inconsiderate +choice, to decide between an odious imprisonment and the ridicule to +which your intervention must expose me! But that you should have +dared, of your own notion, to follow me, you, the butt of the +Court----' + +'Mademoiselle!' I cried. + +'A needy, out-at-elbows adventurer!' she persisted, triumphing in her +cruelty. 'It exceeds all bearing! It is not to be suffered! It----' + +'Nay, mademoiselle; you shall hear me!' I cried, with a sternness +which at last stopped her. 'Granted I am poor, I am still a gentleman; +yes, mademoiselle,' I continued, firmly, 'a gentleman, and the last of +a family which has spoken with yours on equal terms. And I claim to be +heard. I swear that when I came here to-night I believed you to be a +perfect stranger! I was unaware that I had ever seen you, unaware that +I had ever met you before.' + +'Then why did you come?' she said viciously. + +'I was engaged to come by those whom you have mentioned, and there, +and there only am I in fault. They entrusted to me a token which I +have lost. For that I crave your pardon.' + +'You have need to,' she answered bitterly, yet with a changed +countenance, or I was mistaken, 'if your story be true, sir.' + +'Ay, that you have!' the woman beside her echoed. 'Hoity toity, +indeed! Here is a fuss about nothing. You call yourself a gentleman, +and wear such a doublet as----' + +'Peace, Fanchette!' mademoiselle said imperiously. And then for a +moment she stood silent, eyeing me intently, her lips trembling with +excitement and two red spots burning in her cheeks. It was clear from +her dress and other things that she had made up her mind to fly had +the token been forthcoming; and seeing this, and knowing how unwilling +a young girl is to forego her own way, I still had some hopes that she +might not persevere in her distrust and refusal. And so it turned out. + +Her manner had changed to one of quiet scorn when she next spoke. 'You +defend yourself skilfully, sir,' she said, drumming with her fingers +on the table and eyeing me steadfastly. 'But can you give me any +reason for the person you name making choice of such a messenger?' + +'Yes,' I answered, boldly. 'That he may not be suspected of conniving +at your escape.' + +'Oh!' she cried, with a spark of her former passion. 'Then it is to be +put about that Mademoiselle de la Vire had fled from Chize with M. de +Marsac, is it? I thought that!' + +'Through the assistance of M. de Marsac,' I retorted, correcting her +coldly. 'It is for you, mademoiselle,' I continued, 'to weigh that +disadvantage against the unpleasantness of remaining here. It only +remains for me to ask you to decide quickly. Time presses, and I have +stayed here too long already.' + +The words had barely passed my lips when they received unwelcome +confirmation in the shape of a distant sound--the noisy closing of a +door, which, clanging through the house at such an hour--I judged it +to be after three o'clock--could scarcely mean anything but mischief. +This noise was followed immediately, even while we stood listening +with raised fingers, by other sounds--a muffled cry, and the tramp of +heavy footsteps in a distant passage. Mademoiselle looked at me, and I +at her woman. 'The door!' I muttered. 'Is it locked?' + +'And bolted!' Fanchette answered; 'and a great chest set against it. +Let them ramp; they will do no harm for a bit.' + +'Then you have still time, mademoiselle,' I whispered, retreating a +step and laying my hand on the curtain before the window. Perhaps I +affected greater coolness than I felt. 'It is not too late. If you +choose to remain, well and good. I cannot help it. If, on the other +hand, you decide to trust yourself to me, I swear, on the honour of a +gentleman, to be worthy of the trust--to serve you truly and protect +you to the last! I can say no more.' + +She trembled, looking from me to the door, on which some one had just +begun to knock loudly. That seemed to decide her. Her lips apart, her +eyes full of excitement, she turned hastily to Fanchette. + +'Ay, go if you like,' the woman answered doggedly, reading the meaning +of her look. 'There cannot be a greater villain than the one we know +of. But once started, heaven help us, for if he overtakes us we'll pay +dearly for it!' + +The girl did not speak herself, but it was enough. The noise at the +door increased each second, and began to be mingled with angry appeals +to Fanchette to open, and with threats in case she delayed. I cut the +matter short by snatching up one of the saddle-bags--the other we left +behind--and flung back the curtain which covered the window. At the +same time the woman dashed out the light--a timely precaution--and +throwing open the casement I stepped on to the balcony, the others +following me closely. + +The moon had risen high, and flooding with light the small open space +about the house enabled me to see clearly all round the foot of the +ladder. To my surprise Fresnoy was not at his post, nor was he to be +seen anywhere; but as, at the moment I observed this, an outcry away +to my left, at the rear of the chateau, came to my ears, and announced +that the danger was no longer confined to the interior of the house, I +concluded that he had gone that way to intercept the attack. Without +more, therefore, I began to descend as quickly as I could, my sword +under one arm and the bag under the other. + +I was half-way down, and mademoiselle was already stepping on to the +ladder to follow, when I heard footsteps below, and saw him run up, +his sword in his hand. + +'Quick, Fresnoy!' I cried. 'To the horses and unfasten them! Quick!' + +I slid down the rest of the way, thinking he had gone to do my +bidding. But my feet were scarcely on the ground when a tremendous +blow in the side sent me staggering three paces from the ladder. The +attack was so sudden, so unexpected, that but for the sight of +Fresnoy's scowling face, wild with rage, at my shoulder, and the sound +of his fierce breathing as he strove to release his sword, which had +passed through my saddle-bag, I might never have known who struck the +blow, or how narrow had been my escape. + +Fortunately the knowledge did come to me in time, and before he freed +his blade; and it nerved my hand. To draw my blade at such close +quarters was impossible, but, dropping the bag which had saved my +life, I dashed my hilt twice in his face with such violence that he +fell backwards and lay on the turf, a dark stain growing and spreading +on his upturned face. + +It was scarcely done before the women reached the foot of the ladder +and stood beside me. 'Quick!' I cried to them, 'or they will be upon +us.' Seizing mademoiselle's hand, just as half-a-dozen men came +running round the corner of the house, I jumped with her down the +haha, and, urging her to her utmost speed, dashed across the open +ground which lay between us and the belt of trees. Once in the shelter +of the latter, where our movements were hidden from view, I had still +to free the horses and mount mademoiselle and her woman, and this in +haste. But my companions' admirable coolness and presence of mind, and +the objection which our pursuers, who did not know our numbers, felt +to leaving the open ground, enabled us to do all with comparative +ease. I sprang on the Cid (it has always been my habit to teach my +horse to stand for me, nor do I know any accomplishment more +serviceable at a pinch), and giving Fresnoy's grey a cut over the +flanks which despatched it ahead, led the way down the ride by which I +had gained the chateau in the afternoon. I knew it to be level and +clear of trees, and the fact that we chose it might throw our pursuers +off the track for a time, by leading them to think we had taken the +south road instead of that through the village. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + THE ROAD TO BLOIS. + + +We gained the road without let or hindrance, whence a sharp burst in +the moonlight soon brought us to the village. Through this we swept on +to the inn, almost running over the four evangelists, whom we found +standing at the door ready for the saddle. I bade them, in a quick +peremptory tone, to get to horse, and was overjoyed to see them obey +without demur or word of Fresnoy. In another minute, with a great +clatter of hoofs, we sprang clear of the hamlet, and were well on the +road to Melle, with Poitiers some thirteen leagues before us. I looked +back, and thought I discerned lights moving in the direction of the +chateau; but the dawn was still two hours off, and the moonlight left +me in doubt whether these were real or the creatures of my own fearful +fancy. + +I remember, three years before this time, on the occasion of the +famous retreat from Angers--when the Prince of Conde had involved his +army beyond the Loire, and saw himself, in the impossibility of +recrossing the river, compelled to take ship for England, leaving +every one to shift for himself--I well remember on that occasion +riding, alone and pistol in hand, through more than thirty miles of +the enemy's country without drawing rein. But my anxieties were then +confined to the four shoes of my horse. The dangers to which I was +exposed at every ford and cross road were such as are inseparable from +a campaign, and breed in generous hearts only a fierce pleasure, +rarely to be otherwise enjoyed. And though I then rode warily, and +where I could not carry terror, had all to fear myself, there was +nothing secret or underhand in my business. + +It was very different now. During the first few hours of our flight +from Chize I experienced a painful excitement, an alarm, a feverish +anxiety to get forward, which was new to me; which oppressed my +spirits to the very ground; which led me to take every sound borne to +us on the wind for the sound of pursuit, transforming the clang of a +hammer on the anvil into the ring of swords, and the voices of my own +men into those of the pursuers. It was in vain mademoiselle rode with +a free hand, and leaping such obstacles as lay in our way, gave +promise of courage and endurance beyond my expectations. I could think +of nothing but the three long days before us, with twenty-four hours +to every day, and each hour fraught with a hundred chances of disaster +and ruin. + +In fact, the longer I considered our position--and as we pounded +along, now splashing through a founderous hollow, now stumbling as we +wound over a stony shoulder, I had ample time to reflect upon it--the +greater seemed the difficulties before us. The loss of Fresnoy, while +it freed me from some embarrassment, meant also the loss of a good +sword, and we had mustered only too few before. The country which lay +between us and the Loire, being the borderland between our party and +the League, had been laid desolate so often as to be abandoned to +pillage and disorder of every kind. The peasants had flocked into the +towns. Their places had been taken by bands of robbers and deserters +from both parties, who haunted the ruined villages about Poitiers, and +preyed upon all who dared to pass. To add to our perils, the royal +army under the Duke of Nevers was reported to be moving slowly +southward, not very far to the left of our road; while a Huguenot +expedition against Niort was also in progress within a few leagues of +us. + +With four staunch and trustworthy comrades at my back, I might have +faced even this situation with a smile and a light heart; but the +knowledge that my four knaves might mutiny at any moment, or, worse +still, rid themselves of me and all restraint by a single treacherous +blow such as Fresnoy had aimed at me, filled me with an ever-present +dread; which it taxed my utmost energies to hide from them, and which +I strove in vain to conceal from mademoiselle's keener vision. + +Whether it was this had an effect upon her, giving her a meaner +opinion of me than that which I had for a while hoped she entertained, +or that she began, now it was too late, to regret her flight and +resent my part in it, I scarcely know; but from daybreak onwards she +assumed an attitude of cold suspicion towards me, which was only less +unpleasant than the scornful distance of her manner when she deigned, +which was seldom, to address me. + +Not once did she allow me to forget that I was in her eyes a needy +adventurer, paid by her friends to escort her to a place of safety, +but without any claim to the smallest privilege of intimacy or +equality. When I would have adjusted her saddle, she bade her woman +come and hold up her skirt, that my hands might not touch its hem even +by accident. And when I would have brought wine to her at Melle, where +we stayed for twenty minutes, she called Fanchette to hand it to her. +She rode for the most part in her mask; and with her woman. One good +effect only her pride and reserve had; they impressed our men with a +strong sense of her importance, and the danger to which any +interference with her might expose them. + +The two men whom Fresnoy had enlisted I directed to ride a score of +paces in advance. Luke and John I placed in the rear. In this manner I +thought to keep them somewhat apart. For myself, I proposed to ride +abreast of mademoiselle, but she made it so clear that my +neighbourhood displeased her that I fell back, leaving her to ride +with Fanchette; and contented myself with plodding at their heels, and +striving to attach the later evangelists to my interests. + +We were so fortunate, despite my fears, as to find the road nearly +deserted--as, alas, was much of the country on either side--and to +meet none but small parties travelling along it; who were glad enough, +seeing the villainous looks of our outriders, to give us a wide berth, +and be quit of us for the fright. We skirted Lusignan, shunning the +streets, but passing near enough for me to point out to mademoiselle +the site of the famous tower built, according to tradition, by the +fairy Melusina, and rased thirteen years back by the Leaguers. She +received my information so frigidly, however, that I offered no more, +but fell back shrugging my shoulders, and rode in silence, until, some +two hours after noon, the city of Poitiers came into sight, lying +within its circle of walls and towers on a low hill in the middle of a +country clothed in summer with rich vineyards, but now brown and bare +and cheerless to the eye. + +Fanchette turned and asked me abruptly if that were Poitiers. + +I answered that it was, but added that for certain reasons I proposed +not to halt, but to lie at a village a league beyond the city, where +there was a tolerable inn. + +'We shall do very well here,' the woman answered rudely. 'Any way, my +lady will go no farther. She is tired and cold, and wet besides, and +has gone far enough.' + +'Still,' I answered, nettled by the woman's familiarity, 'I think +mademoiselle will change her mind when she hears my reasons for going +farther.' + +'Mademoiselle does not wish to hear them, sir,' the lady replied +herself, and very sharply. + +'Nevertheless, I think you had better hear them,' I persisted, turning +to her respectfully. 'You see, mademoiselle----' + +'I see only one thing, sir,' she exclaimed, snatching off her mask and +displaying a countenance beautiful indeed, but flushed for the moment +with anger and impatience, 'that, whatever betides, I stay at Poitiers +to-night.' + +'If it would content you to rest an hour?' I suggested gently. + +'It will not content me!' she rejoined with spirit. 'And let me tell +you, sir,' she went on impetuously, 'once for all, that you take too +much upon yourself. You are here to escort me, and to give orders to +these ragamuffins, for they are nothing better, with whom you have +thought fit to disgrace our company; but not to give orders to me or +to control my movements. Confine yourself for the future, sir, to your +duties, if you please.' + +'I desire only to obey you,' I answered, suppressing the angry +feelings which rose in my breast, and speaking as coolly as lay in my +power. 'But, as the first of my duties is to provide for your safety, +I am determined to omit nothing which can conduce to that end. You +have not considered that, if a party in pursuit of us reaches Poitiers +to-night, search will be made for us in the city, and we shall be +taken. If, on the other hand, we are known to have passed through, the +hunt may go no farther; certainly will go no farther to-night. +Therefore we must not, mademoiselle,' I added firmly, 'lie in Poitiers +to-night.' + +'Sir,' she exclaimed, looking at me, her face crimson with wonder and +indignation, 'do you dare to?' + +'I dare do my duty, mademoiselle,' I answered, plucking up a spirit, +though my heart was sore. 'I am a man old enough to be your father, +and with little to lose, or I had not been here. I care nothing what +you think or what you say of me, provided I can do what I have +undertaken to do and place you safely in the hands of your friends. +But enough, mademoiselle, we are at the gate. If you will permit me, I +will ride through the streets beside you. We shall so attract less +attention.' + +Without waiting for a permission which she was very unlikely to give, +I pushed my horse forward, and took my place beside her, signing to +Fanchette to fall back. The maid obeyed, speechless with indignation; +while mademoiselle flashed a scathing glance at me and looked round in +helpless anger, as though it was in her mind to appeal against me even +to the passers-by. But she thought better of it, and contenting +herself with muttering the word 'Impertinent' put on her mask with +fingers which trembled, I fancy, not a little. + +A small rain was falling and the afternoon was well advanced when we +entered the town, but I noticed that, notwithstanding this, the +streets presented a busy and animated appearance, being full of knots +of people engaged in earnest talk. A bell was tolling somewhere, and +near the cathedral a crowd of no little size was standing, listening +to a man who seemed to be reading a placard or manifesto attached to +the wall. In another place a soldier, wearing the crimson colours of +the League, but splashed and stained as with recent travel, was +holding forth to a breathless circle who seemed to hang upon his lips. +A neighbouring corner sheltered a handful of priests who whispered +together with gloomy faces. Many stared at us as we passed, and some +would have spoken; but I rode steadily on, inviting no converse. +Nevertheless at the north gate I got a rare fright; for, though it +wanted a full half-hour of sunset, the porter was in the act of +closing it. Seeing us, he waited grumbling until we came up, and then +muttered, in answer to my remonstrance, something about queer times +and wilful people having their way. I took little notice of what he +said, however, being anxious only to get through the gate and leave as +few traces of our passage as might be. + +As soon as we were outside the town I fell back, permitting Fanchette +to take my place. For another league, a long and dreary one, we +plodded on in silence, horses and men alike jaded and sullen, and the +women scarcely able to keep their saddles for fatigue. At last, much +to my relief, seeing that I began to fear I had taxed mademoiselle's +strength too far, the long low buildings of the inn at which I +proposed to stay came in sight, at the crossing of the road and river. +The place looked blank and cheerless, for the dusk was thickening; but +as we trailed one by one into the courtyard a stream of firelight +burst on us from doors and windows, and a dozen sounds of life and +comfort greeted our ears. + +Noticing that mademoiselle was benumbed and cramped with long sitting, +I would have helped her to dismount; but she fiercely rejected my aid, +and I had to content myself with requesting the landlord to assign the +best accommodation he had to the lady and her attendant, and secure as +much privacy for them as possible. The man assented very civilly and +said all should be done; but I noticed that his eyes wandered while I +talked, and that he seemed to have something on his mind. When he +returned, after disposing of them, it came out. + +'Did you ever happen to see him, sir?' he asked with a sigh; yet was +there a smug air of pleasure mingled with his melancholy. + +'See whom?' I answered, staring at him, for neither of us had +mentioned any one. + +'The Duke, sir.' + +I stared again between wonder and suspicion. 'The Duke of Nevers is +not in this part, is he?' I said slowly. 'I heard he was on the +Brittany border, away to the westward.' + +'Mon Dieu!' my host exclaimed, raising his hands in astonishment. 'You +have not heard, sir?' + +'I have heard nothing,' I answered impatiently. + +'You have not heard, sir, that the most puissant and illustrious lord +the Duke of Guise is dead?' + +'M. de Guise dead? It is not true!' I cried astonished. + +He nodded, however, several times with an air of great importance, +and seemed as if he would have gone on to give me some particulars. +But, remembering, as I fancied, that he spoke in the hearing of +half-a-dozen guests who sat about the great fire behind me, and had +both eyes and ears open, he contented himself with shifting his towel +to his other arm and adding only, 'Yes, sir, dead as any nail. The +news came through here yesterday, and made a pretty stir. It happened +at Blois the day but one before Christmas, if all be true.' + +I was thunderstruck. This was news which might change the face of +France. 'How did it happen?' I asked. + +My host covered his mouth with his hand and coughed, and, privily +twitching my sleeve, gave me to understand with some shamefacedness +that he could not say more in public. I was about to make some excuse +to retire with him, when a harsh voice, addressed apparently to me, +caused me to turn sharply. I found at my elbow a tall thin-faced monk +in the habit of the Jacobin order. He had risen from his seat beside +the fire, and seemed to be labouring under great excitement. + +'Who asked how it happened?' he cried, rolling his eyes in a kind of +frenzy, while still observant, or I was much mistaken, of his +listeners. Is there a man in France to whom the tale has not been +told? Is there?' + +'I will answer for one,' I replied, regarding him with little favour. +'I have heard nothing.' + +'Then you shall! Listen!' he exclaimed, raising his right hand and +brandishing it as though he denounced a person then present. 'Hear my +accusation, made in the name of Mother Church and the saints against +the arch hypocrite, the perjurer and assassin sitting in high places! +He shall be Anathema Maranatha, for he has shed the blood of the holy +and the pure, the chosen of Heaven! He shall go down to the pit, and +that soon. The blood that he has shed shall be required of him, and +that before he is one year older.' + +'Tut-tut. All that sounds very fine, good father,' I said, waxing +impatient, and a little scornful; for I saw that he was one of those +wandering and often crazy monks in whom the League found their most +useful emissaries. 'But I should profit more by your gentle words, if +I knew whom you were cursing.' + +'The man of blood!' he cried; 'through whom the last but not the least +of God's saints and martyrs entered into glory on the Friday before +Christmas.' + +Moved by such profanity, and judging him, notwithstanding the +extravagance of his words and gestures, to be less mad than he seemed, +and at least as much knave as fool, I bade him sternly have done with +his cursing, and proceed to his story if he had one. + +He glowered at me for a moment, as though he were minded to launch his +spiritual weapons at my head; but as I returned his glare with an +unmoved eye--and my four rascals, who were as impatient as myself to +learn the news, and had scarce more reverence for a shaven crown, +began to murmur--he thought better of it, and cooling as suddenly as +he had flamed up, lost no more time in satisfying our curiosity. + +It would ill become me, however, to set down the extravagant and often +blasphemous harangue in which, styling M. de Guise the martyr of God, +he told the story now so familiar--the story of that dark wintry +morning at Blois, when the king's messenger, knocking early at the +duke's door, bade him hurry, for the king wanted him. The story is +trite enough now. When I heard it first in the inn on the Clain, it +was all new and all marvellous. + +The monk, too, telling the story as if he had seen the events with his +own eyes, omitted nothing which might impress his hearers. He told us +how the duke received warning after warning, and answered in the very +antechamber, 'He dare not!' How his blood, mysteriously advised of +coming dissolution, grew chill, and his eye, wounded at Chateau +Thierry, began to run, so that he had to send for the handkerchief he +had forgotten to bring. He told us, even, how the duke drew his +assassins up and down the chamber, how he cried for mercy, and how he +died at last at the foot of the king's bed, and how the king, who had +never dared to face him living, came and spurned him dead! + +There were pale faces round the fire when he ceased, and bent brows +and lips hard pressed together. When he stood and cursed the King of +France--cursing him openly by the name of Henry of Valois, a thing I +had never looked to hear in France--though no one said 'Amen,' and all +glanced over their shoulders, and our host pattered from the room as +if he had seen a ghost, it seemed to be no man's duty to gainsay him. + +For myself, I was full of thoughts which it would have been unsafe to +utter in that company or so near the Loire. I looked back sixteen +years. Who but Henry of Guise had spurned the corpse of Coligny? And +who but Henry of Valois had backed him in the act? Who but Henry of +Guise had drenched Paris with blood, and who but Henry of Valois had +ridden by his side? One 23rd of the month--a day never to be erased +from France's annals--had purchased for him a term of greatness. A +second 23rd saw him pay the price--saw his ashes cast secretly and by +night no man knows where! + +Moved by such thoughts, and observing that the priest was going the +round of the company collecting money for masses for the duke's soul, +to which object I could neither give with a good conscience nor refuse +without exciting suspicion, I slipped out; and finding a man of decent +appearance talking with the landlord in a small room beside the +kitchen, I called for a flask of the best wine, and by means of that +introduction obtained my supper in their company. + +The stranger was a Norman horsedealer, returning home after disposing +of his string. He seemed to be in a large way of business, and being +of a bluff, independent spirit, as many of those Norman townsmen are, +was inclined at first to treat me with more familiarity than respect; +the fact of my nag, for which he would have chaffered, excelling my +coat in quality, leading him to set me down as a steward or intendant. +The pursuit of his trade, however, had brought him into connection +with all classes of men, and he quickly perceived his mistake; and as +he knew the provinces between the Seine and Loire to perfection, and +made it part of his business to foresee the chances of peace and war, +I obtained a great amount of information from him, and indeed +conceived no little liking for him. He believed that the assassination +of M. de Guise would alienate so much of France from the king that his +majesty would have little left save the towns on the Loire, and some +other places lying within easy reach of his court at Blois. + +'But,' I said, 'things seem quiet now. Here, for instance.' + +'It is the calm before the storm,' he answered. 'There is a monk in +there. Have you heard him?' + +I nodded. + +'He is only one among a hundred--a thousand,' the horsedealer +continued, looking at me and nodding with meaning. He was a +brown-haired man with shrewd grey eyes, such as many Normans have. +'They will get their way too, you will see,' he went on. 'Well, horses +will go up, so I have no cause to grumble; but, if I were on my way to +Blois with women or gear of that kind, I should not choose this time +for picking posies on the road. I should see the inside of the gates +as soon as possible.' + +I thought there was much in what he said; and when he went on to +maintain that the king would find himself between the hammer and the +anvil--between the League holding all the north and the Huguenots +holding all the south--and must needs in time come to terms with the +latter, seeing that the former would rest content with nothing short +of his deposition, I began to agree with him that we should shortly +see great changes and very stirring times. + +'Still if they depose the king,' I said, 'the King of Navarre must +succeed him. He is the heir of France.' + +'Bah!' my companion replied somewhat contemptuously. 'The League will +see to that. He goes with the other.' + +'Then the kings are in one cry, and you are right,' I said with +conviction. 'They must unite.' + +'So they will. It is only a question of time,' he said. + +In the morning, having only one man with him, and, as I guessed, a +considerable sum of money, he volunteered to join our party as far as +Blois. I assented gladly, and he did so, this addition to our numbers +ridding me at once of the greater part of my fears. I did not expect +any opposition on the part of mademoiselle, who would gain in +consequence as well as in safety. Nor did she offer any. She was +content, I think, to welcome any addition to our party which would +save her from the necessity of riding in the company of my old cloak. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + MY MOTHER'S LODGING. + + +Travelling by way of Chatelherault and Tours, we reached the +neighbourhood of Blois a little after noon on the third day without +misadventure or any intimation of pursuit. The Norman proved himself a +cheerful companion on the road, as I already knew him to be a man of +sense and shrewdness; while his presence rendered the task of keeping +my men in order an easy one. I began to consider the adventure as +practically achieved; and regarding Mademoiselle de la Vire as already +in effect transferred to the care of M. de Rosny, I ventured to turn +my thoughts to the development of my own plans and the choice of a +haven in which I might rest secure from the vengeance of M. de +Turenne. + +For the moment I had evaded his pursuit, and, assisted by the +confusion caused everywhere by the death of Guise, had succeeded in +thwarting his plans and affronting his authority with seeming ease. +But I knew too much of his power and had heard too many instances of +his fierce temper and resolute will to presume on short impunity or to +expect the future with anything but diffidence and dismay. + +The exclamations of my companions on coming within sight of Blois +aroused me from these reflections. I joined them, and fully shared +their emotion as I gazed on the stately towers which had witnessed so +many royal festivities, and, alas! one royal tragedy; which had +sheltered Louis the Well-beloved and Francis the Great, and rung with +the laughter of Diana of Poitiers and the second Henry. The play of +fancy wreathed the sombre building with a hundred memories grave and +gay. But, though the rich plain of the Loire still swelled upward as +of old in gentle homage at the feet of the gallant town, the shadow of +crime seemed to darken all, and dim even the glories of the royal +standard which hung idly in the air. + +We had heard so many reports of the fear and suspicion which reigned +in the city and of the strict supervision which was exercised over all +who entered--the king dreading a repetition of the day of the +Barricades--that we halted at a little inn a mile short of the gate +and broke up our company. I parted from my Norman friend with mutual +expressions of esteem, and from my own men, whom I had paid off in the +morning, complimenting each of them with a handsome present, with a +feeling of relief equally sincere. I hoped--but the hope was not fated +to be gratified--that I might never see the knaves again. + +It wanted less than an hour of sunset when I rode up to the gate, a +few paces in front of mademoiselle and her woman; as if I had really +been the intendant for whom the horse-dealer had mistaken me. We found +the guardhouse lined with soldiers, who scanned us very narrowly as we +approached, and whose stern features and ordered weapons showed that +they were not there for mere effect. The fact, however, that we came +from Tours, a city still in the king's hands, served to allay +suspicion, and we passed without accident. + +Once in the streets, and riding in single file between the houses, to +the windows of which the townsfolk seemed to be attracted by the +slightest commotion, so full of terror was the air, I experienced a +moment of huge relief. This was Blois--Blois at last. We were within a +few score yards of the Bleeding Heart. In a few minutes I should +receive a quittance, and be free to think only of myself. Nor was my +pleasure much lessened by the fact that I was so soon to part from +Mademoiselle de la Vire. Frankly, I was far from liking her. Exposure +to the air of a court had spoiled, it seemed to me, whatever graces of +disposition the young lady had ever possessed. She still maintained, +and had maintained throughout the journey, the cold and suspicious +attitude assumed at starting; nor had she ever expressed the least +solicitude on my behalf, or the slightest sense that we were incurring +danger in her service. She had not scrupled constantly to prefer her +whims to the common advantage, and even safety; while her sense of +self-importance had come to be so great, that she seemed to hold +herself exempt from the duty of thanking any human creature. I could +not deny that she was beautiful--indeed, I often thought, when +watching her, of the day when I had seen her in the King of Navarre's +ante-chamber in all the glory of her charms. But I felt none the less +that I could turn my back on her--leaving her in safety--without +regret; and be thankful that her path would never again cross mine. + +With such thoughts in my breast I turned the corner of the Rue de St. +Denys and came at once upon the Bleeding Heart, a small but +decent-looking hostelry situate near the end of the street and +opposite a church. A bluff, grey-haired man, who was standing in the +doorway, came forward as we halted, and looking curiously at +mademoiselle asked what I lacked; adding civilly that the house was +full and they had no sleeping room, the late events having drawn a +great assemblage to Blois. + +'I want only an address,' I answered, leaning from the saddle and +speaking in a low voice that I might not be overheard by the +passers-by. 'The Baron de Rosny is in Blois, is he not?' + +The man started at the name of the Huguenot leader, and looked round +him nervously. But, seeing that no one was very near us, he answered: +'He was, sir; but he left town a week ago and more. There have been +strange doings here, and M. de Rosny thought that the climate suited +him ill.' + +He said this with so much meaning, as well as concern that he should +not be overheard, that, though I was taken aback and bitterly +disappointed, I succeeded in restraining all exclamations and even +show of feeling. After a pause of dismay, I asked whither M. de Rosny +had gone. + +'To Rosny,' was the answer. + +'And Rosny?' + +'Is beyond Chartres, pretty well all the way to Mantes,' the man +answered, stroking my horse's neck. 'Say thirty leagues.' + +I turned my horse, and hurriedly communicated what he said to +mademoiselle, who was waiting a few paces away. Unwelcome to me, the +news was still less welcome to her. Her chagrin and indignation knew +no bounds. For a moment words failed her, but her flashing eyes said +more than her tongue as she cried to me: 'Well, sir, and what now? Is +this the end of your fine promises? Where is your Rosny, if all be not +a lying invention of your own?' + +Feeling that she had some excuse I suppressed my choler, and humbly +repeating that Rosny was at his house, two days farther on, and that I +could see nothing for it but to go to him, I asked the landlord where +we could find a lodging for the night. + +'Indeed, sir, that is more than I can say,' he answered, looking +curiously at us, and thinking, I doubt not, that with my shabby cloak +and fine horse, and mademoiselle's mask and spattered riding-coat, we +were an odd couple. 'There is not an inn which is not full to the +garrets--nay, and the stables; and, what is more, people are chary of +taking strangers in. These are strange times. They say,' he continued +in a lower tone, 'that the old queen is dying up there, and will not +last the night.' + +I nodded. 'We must go somewhere,' I said. + +'I would help you if I could,' he answered, shrugging his shoulders. +'But there it is! Blois is full from the tiles to the cellars.' + +My horse shivered under me, and mademoiselle, whose patience was gone, +cried harshly to me to do something. 'We cannot spend the night in the +streets,' she said fiercely. + +I saw that she was worn out and scarcely mistress of her-self. The +light was falling, and with it some rain. The reek of the kennels and +the close air from the houses seemed to stifle us. The bell at the +church behind us was jangling out vespers. A few people, attracted by +the sight of our horses standing before the inn, had gathered round +and were watching us. + +Something I saw must be done, and done quickly. In despair, and seeing +no other resort, I broached a proposal of which I had not hitherto +even dreamed. 'Mademoiselle,' I said bluntly, 'I must take you to my +mother's.' + +'To your mother's, sir?' she cried, rousing herself. Her voice rang +with haughty surprise. + +'Yes,' I replied brusquely; 'since, as you say, we cannot spend the +night in the streets, and I do not know where else I can dispose of +you. From the last advices I had I believe her to have followed the +court hither. My friend,' I continued, turning to the landlord, 'do +you know by name a Madame de Bonne, who should be in Blois?' + +'A Madame de Bonne?' he muttered, reflecting. 'I have heard the name +lately. Wait a moment.' Disappearing into the house, he returned +almost immediately, followed by a lanky pale-faced youth wearing a +tattered black soutane. 'Yes,' he said nodding, 'there is a worthy +lady of that name lodging in the next street, I am told. As it +happens, this young man lives in the same house, and will guide you, +if you like.' + +I assented, and, thanking him for his information, turned my horse and +requested the youth to lead the way. We had scarcely passed the corner +of the street, however, and entered one somewhat more narrow and less +frequented, when mademoiselle, who was riding behind me, stopped and +called to me. I drew rein, and, turning, asked what it was. + +'I am not coming,' she said, her voice trembling slightly, but whether +with alarm or anger I could not determine. 'I know nothing of you, and +I--I demand to be taken to M. de Rosny.' + +'If you cry that name aloud in the streets of Blois, mademoiselle,' I +retorted, 'you are like enough to be taken whither you will not care +to go! As for M. de Rosny, I have told you that he is not here. He has +gone to his seat at Mantes.' + +'Then take me to him!' + +'At this hour of the night?' I said drily. 'It is two days' journey +from here.' + +'Then I will go to an inn,' she replied sullenly. + +'You have heard that there is no room in the inns,' I rejoined with +what patience I could. 'And to go from inn to inn at this hour might +lead us into trouble. I can assure you that I am as much taken aback +by M. de Rosny's absence as you are. For the present, we are close to +my mother's lodging, and----' + +'I know nothing of your mother!' she exclaimed passionately, her voice +raised. 'You have enticed me hither by false pretences, sir, and I +will endure it no longer. I will----' + +'What you will do, I do not know then, mademoiselle,' I replied, +quite at my wits' end; for what with the rain and the darkness, the +unknown streets--in which our tarrying might at any moment collect a +crowd--and this stubborn girl's opposition, I knew not whither to +turn. 'For my part I can suggest nothing else. It does not become me +to speak of my mother,' I continued, 'or I might say that even +Mademoiselle de la Vire need not be ashamed to accept the hospitality +of Madame de Bonne. Nor are my mother's circumstances,' I added +proudly, 'though narrow, so mean as to deprive her of the privileges +of her birth.' + +My last words appeared to make some impression upon my companion. She +turned and spoke to her woman, who replied in a low voice, tossing her +head the while and glaring at me in speechless indignation. Had there +been anything else for it, they would doubtless have flouted my offer +still; but apparently Fanchette could suggest nothing, and presently +mademoiselle, with a sullen air, bade me lead on. + +Taking this for permission, the lanky youth in the black soutane, who +had remained at my bridle throughout the discussion, now listening and +now staring, nodded and resumed his way; and I followed. After +proceeding a little more than fifty yards he stopped before a +mean-looking doorway, flanked by grated windows, and fronted by a +lofty wall which I took to be the back of some nobleman's garden. The +street at this point was unlighted, and little better than an alley; +nor was the appearance of the house, which was narrow and ill-looking, +though lofty, calculated, as far as I could make it out in the +darkness, to allay mademoiselle's suspicions. Knowing, however, that +people of position are often obliged in towns to lodge in poor houses, +I thought nothing of this, and only strove to get mademoiselle +dismounted as quickly as possible. The lad groped about and found two +rings beside the door, and to these I tied up the horses. Then, +bidding him lead the way, and begging mademoiselle to follow, I +plunged into the darkness of the passage and felt my way to the foot +of the staircase, which was entirely unlighted, and smelled close and +unpleasant. + +'Which floor?' I asked my guide. + +'The fourth,' he answered quietly. + +'Morbleu!' I muttered, as I began to ascend, my hand on the wall. +'What is the meaning of this?' + +For I was perplexed. The revenues of Marsac, though small, should have +kept my mother, whom I had last seen in Paris before the Nemours +edict, in tolerable comfort--such modest comfort, at any rate, as +could scarcely be looked for in such a house as this--obscure, +ill-tended, unlighted. To my perplexity was added, before I reached +the top of the stairs, disquietude--disquietude on her account as well +as on mademoiselle's. I felt that something was wrong, and would have +given much to recall the invitation I had pressed on the latter. + +What the young lady thought herself I could pretty well guess, as I +listened to her hurried breathing at my shoulder. With every step I +expected her to refuse to go farther. But, having once made up her +mind, she followed me stubbornly, though the darkness was such that +involuntarily I loosened my dagger, and prepared to defend myself +should this turn out to be a trap. + +We reached the top, however, without accident. Our guide knocked +softly at a door and immediately opened it without waiting for an +answer. A feeble light shone out on the stair-head, and bending my +head, for the lintel was low, I stepped into the room. + +I advanced two paces and stood looking about me in angry bewilderment. +The bareness of extreme poverty marked everything on which my eyes +rested. A cracked earthenware lamp smoked and sputtered on a stool in +the middle of the rotting floor. An old black cloak nailed to the +wall, and flapping to and fro in the draught like some dead +gallowsbird, hung in front of the unglazed window. A jar in a corner +caught the drippings from a hole in the roof. An iron pot and a second +stool--the latter casting a long shadow across the floor--stood beside +the handful of wood ashes, which smouldered on the hearth. And that +was all the furniture I saw, except a bed which filled the farther end +of the long narrow room, and was curtained off so as to form a kind of +miserable alcove. + +A glance sufficed to show me all this, and that the room was empty, or +apparently empty. Yet I looked again and again, stupefied. At last +finding my voice, I turned to the young man who had brought us hither, +and with a fierce oath demanded of him what he meant. + +He shrank back behind the open door, and yet answered with a kind of +sullen surprise that I had asked for Madame de Bonne's, and this was +it. + +'Madame de Bonne's!' I muttered. 'This Madame de Bonne's!' + +He nodded. + +'Of course it is! And you know it!' mademoiselle hissed in my ear, her +voice, as she interposed, hoarse with passion. 'Don't think that you +can deceive us any longer. We know all! This,' she continued, looking +round, her cheeks scarlet, her eyes ablaze with scorn, 'is your +mother's, is it! Your mother who has followed the court hither--whose +means are narrow, but not so small as to deprive her of the privileges +of her rank! This is your mother's hospitality, is it? You are a +cheat, sir! and a detected cheat! Let us begone! Let me go, sir, I +say!' + +Twice I had tried to stop the current of her words; but in vain. Now +with anger which surpassed hers a hundredfold--for who, being a man, +would hear himself misnamed before his mother?--I succeeded. 'Silence, +mademoiselle!' I cried, my grasp on her wrist. 'Silence, I say! This +_is_ my mother!' + +And running forward to the bed, I fell on my knees beside it. A feeble +hand had half withdrawn the curtain, and through the gap my mother's +stricken face looked out, a great fear stamped upon it. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + SIMON FLEIX. + + +For some minutes I forgot mademoiselle in paying those assiduous +attentions to my mother which her state and my duty demanded; and +which I offered the more anxiously that I recognised, with a sinking +heart, the changes which age and illness had made in her since my last +visit. The shock of mademoiselle's words had thrown her into a +syncope, from which she did not recover for some time; and then rather +through the assistance of our strange guide, who seemed well aware +what to do, than through my efforts. Anxious as I was to learn what +had reduced her to such straits and such a place, this was not the +time to satisfy my curiosity, and I prepared myself instead for the +task of effacing the painful impression which mademoiselle's words had +made on her mind. + +On first coming to herself she did not remember them, but, content to +find me by her side--for there is something so alchemic in a mother's +love that I doubt not my presence changed her garret to a palace--she +spent herself in feeble caresses and broken words. Presently, however, +her eye falling on mademoiselle and her maid, who remained standing by +the hearth, looking darkly at us from time to time, she recalled, +first the shock which had prostrated her, and then its cause, and +raising herself on her elbow, looked about her wildly. 'Gaston!' she +cried, clutching my hand with her thin fingers, 'what was it I heard? +It was of you someone spoke--a woman! She called you--or did I dream +it?--a cheat! You!' + +'Madame, madame,' I said, striving to speak carelessly, though the +sight of her grey hair, straggling and dishevelled, moved me +strangely, 'was it likely? Would anyone dare to use such expressions +of me in your presence? You must indeed have dreamed it!' + +The words, however, returning more and more vividly to her mind, she +looked at me very pitifully, and in great agitation laid her arm on my +neck, as though she would shelter me with the puny strength which just +enabled her to rise in bed. 'But someone,' she muttered, her eyes on +the strangers, 'said it, Gaston? I heard it. What did it mean?' + +'What you heard, madame,' I answered, with an attempt at gaiety, +though the tears stood in my eyes, 'was, doubtless, mademoiselle here +scolding our guide from Tours, who demanded three times the proper +_pourboire_. The impudent rascal deserved all that was said to him, I +assure you.' + +'Was that it?' she murmured doubtfully. + +'That must have been what you heard, madame,' I answered, as if I felt +no doubt. + +She fell back with a sigh of relief, and a little colour came into her +wan face. But her eyes still dwelt curiously, and with apprehension, +on mademoiselle, who stood looking sullenly into the fire; and seeing +this my heart misgave me sorely that I had done a foolish thing in +bringing the girl there. I foresaw a hundred questions which would be +asked, and a hundred complications which must ensue, and felt already +the blush of shame mounting to my cheek. + +'Who is that?' my mother asked softly. 'I am ill. She must excuse me.' +She pointed with her fragile finger to my companions. + +I rose, and still keeping her hand in mine, turned so as to face the +hearth. 'This, madame,' I answered formally, 'is Mademoiselle----, but +her name I will commit to you later, and in private. Suffice it to say +that she is a lady of rank, who has been committed to my charge by a +high personage.' + +'A high personage?' my mother repeated gently, glancing at me with a +smile of gratification. + +'One of the highest,' I said. 'Such a charge being a great honour to +me, I felt that I could not better execute it, madame, since we must +lie in Blois one night, than by requesting your hospitality on her +behalf.' + +I dared mademoiselle as I spoke--I dared her with my eye to contradict +or interrupt me. For answer, she looked at me once, inclining her head +a little, and gazing at us from under her long eyelashes. Then she +turned back to the fire, and her foot resumed its angry tapping on the +floor. + +'I regret that I cannot receive her better,' my mother answered +feebly. 'I have had losses of late. I--but I will speak of that at +another time. Mademoiselle doubtless knows,' she continued with +dignity, 'you and your position in the South too well to think ill of +the momentary straits to which she finds me reduced.' + +I saw mademoiselle start, and I writhed under the glance of covert +scorn, of amazed indignation, which she shot at me. But my mother +gently patting my hand, I answered patiently, 'Mademoiselle will think +only what is kind, madame--of that I am assured. And lodgings are +scarce to-night in Blois.' + +'But tell me of yourself, Gaston,' my mother cried eagerly; and I had +not the heart, with her touch on my hand, her eyes on my face, to tear +myself away, much as I dreaded what was coming, and longed to end the +scene. 'Tell me of yourself. You are still in favour with the king +of---- I will not name him here?' + +'Still, madame,' I answered, looking steadily at mademoiselle, though +my face burned. + +'You are still--he consults you, Gaston?' + +'Still, madame.' + +My mother heaved a happy sigh, and sank lower in the bed. 'And your +employments?' she murmured, her voice trembling with gratification. +'They have not been reduced? You still retain them, Gaston?' + +'Still, madame,' I answered, the perspiration standing on my brow, my +shame almost more than I could bear. + +'Twelve thousand livres a year, I think?' + +'The same, madame.' + +'And your establishment? How many do you keep now? Your valet, of +course? And lackeys--how many at present?' She glanced, with an eye of +pride, while she waited for my answer, first at the two silent figures +by the fire, then at the poverty-stricken room; as if the sight of its +bareness heightened for her the joy of my prosperity. + +She had no suspicion of my trouble, my misery, or that the last +question almost filled the cup too full. Hitherto all had been easy, +but this seemed to choke me. I stammered and lost my voice. +Mademoiselle, her head bowed, was gazing into the fire. Fanchette was +staring at me, her black eyes round as saucers, her mouth half-open. +'Well, madame,' I muttered at length, 'to tell you the truth, at +present, you must understand, I have been forced to----' + +'What, Gaston?' Madame de Bonne half rose in bed. Her voice was sharp +with disappointment and apprehension; the grasp of her fingers on my +hand grew closer. + +I could not resist that appeal. I flung away the last rag of shame. +'To reduce my establishment somewhat,' I answered, looking a miserable +defiance at mademoiselle's averted figure. She had called me a liar +and a cheat--here in the room! I must stand before her a liar and a +cheat confessed. 'I keep but three lackeys now, madame.' + +'Still it is creditable,' my mother muttered thoughtfully, her eyes +shining. 'Your dress, however, Gaston--only my eyes are weak--seems to +me----' + +'Tut, tut! It is but a disguise,' I answered quickly. + +'I might have known that,' she rejoined, sinking back with a smile and +a sigh of content. 'But when I first saw you I was almost afraid that +something had happened to you. And I have been uneasy lately,' she +went on, releasing my hand, and beginning to play with the coverlet, +as though the remembrance troubled her. 'There was a man here a while +ago--a friend of Simon Fleix there--who had been south to Pau and +Nerac, and he said there was no M. de Marsac about the Court.' + +'He probably knew less of the Court than the wine-tavern,' I answered +with a ghastly smile. + +'That was just what I told him,' my mother responded quickly and +eagerly. 'I warrant you I sent him away ill-satisfied.' + +'Of course,' I said; 'there will always be people of that kind. But +now, if you will permit me, madame, I will make such arrangements for +mademoiselle as are necessary.' + +Begging her accordingly to lie down and compose herself--for even so +short a conversation, following on the excitement of our arrival, had +exhausted her to a painful degree--I took the youth, who had just +returned from stabling our horses, a little aside, and learning that +he lodged in a smaller chamber on the farther side of the landing, +secured it for the use of mademoiselle and her woman. In spite of a +certain excitability which marked him at times, he seemed to be a +quick, ready fellow, and he willingly undertook to go out, late as it +was, and procure some provisions and a few other things which were +sadly needed, as well for my mother's comfort as for our own. I +directed Fanchette to aid him in the preparation of the other chamber, +and thus for a while I was left alone with mademoiselle. She had taken +one of the stools, and sat cowering over the fire, the hood of her +cloak drawn about her head; in such a manner that even when she looked +at me, which she did from time to time, I saw little more than her +eyes, bright with contemptuous anger. + +'So, sir,' she presently began, speaking in a low voice, and turning +slightly towards me, 'you practise lying even here?' + +I felt so strongly the futility of denial or explanation that I +shrugged my shoulders and remained silent under the sneer. Two more +days--two more days would take us to Rosny, and my task would be done, +and mademoiselle and I would part for good and all. What would it +matter then what she thought of me? What did it matter now? + +For the first time in our intercourse my silence seemed to disconcert +and displease her. 'Have you nothing to say for yourself?' she +muttered sharply, crushing a fragment of charcoal under her foot, and +stooping to peer at the ashes. 'Have you not another lie in your +quiver, M. de Marsac? De Marsac!' And she repeated the title, with a +scornful laugh, as if she put no faith in my claim to it. + +But I would answer nothing--nothing; and we remained silent until +Fanchette, coming in to say that the chamber was ready, held the light +for her mistress to pass out. I told the woman to come back and fetch +mademoiselle's supper, and then, being left alone with my mother, who +had fallen asleep, with a smile on her thin, worn face, I began to +wonder what had happened to reduce her to such dire poverty. + +I feared to agitate her by referring to it; but later in the +evening, when her curtains were drawn and Simon Fleix and I were left +together, eyeing one another across the embers like dogs of different +breeds--with a certain strangeness and suspicion--my thoughts recurred +to the question; and determining first to learn something about my +companion, whose pale, eager face and tattered, black dress gave him a +certain individuality, I asked him whether he had come from Paris with +Madame de Bonne. + +He nodded without speaking. + +I asked him if he had known her long. + +'Twelve months,' he answered. 'I lodged on the fifth, madame on the +second, floor of the same house in Paris.' + +I leaned forward and plucked the hem of his black robe. 'What is +this?' I said, with a little contempt. 'You are not a priest, man.' + +'No,' he answered, fingering the stuff himself, and gazing at me in a +curious, vacant fashion. 'I am a student of the Sorbonne.' + +I drew off from him with a muttered oath, wondering--while I looked at +him with suspicious eyes--how he came to be here, and particularly how +he came to be in attendance on my mother, who had been educated from +childhood in the Religion, and had professed it in private all her +life. I could think of no one who, in old days, would have been less +welcome in her house than a Sorbonnist, and began to fancy that here +should lie the secret of her miserable condition. + +'You don't like the Sorbonne?' he said, reading my thoughts; which +were, indeed, plain enough. + +'No more than I love the devil!' I said bluntly. + +He leaned forward and, stretching out a thin, nervous hand, laid it on +my knee. 'What if they are right, though?' he muttered, his voice +hoarse. 'What if they are right, M. de Marsac?' + +'Who right?' I asked roughly, drawing back afresh. + +'The Sorbonne,' he repeated, his face red with excitement, his eyes +peering uncannily into mine. 'Don't you see,' he continued, pinching +my knee in his earnestness, and thrusting his face nearer and nearer +to mine, 'it all turns on that? It all turns on that--salvation or +damnation! Are they right? Are you right? You say yes to this, no to +that, you white-coats; and you say it lightly, but are you right? Are +you right? Mon Dieu!' he continued, drawing back abruptly and clawing +the air with impatience, 'I have read, read, read! I have listened to +sermons, theses, disputations, and I know nothing. I know no more than +when I began.' + +He sprang up and began to pace the floor, while I gazed at him with a +feeling of pity. A very learned person once told me that the troubles +of these times bred four kinds of men, who were much to be +compassionated: fanatics on the one side or the other, who lost sight +of all else in the intensity of their faith; men who, like Simon +Fleix, sought desperately after something to believe, and found it +not; and lastly, scoffers, who, believing in nothing, looked on all +religion as a mockery. + +He presently stopped walking--in his utmost excitement I remarked that +he never forgot my mother, but trod more lightly when he drew near the +alcove--and spoke again. + +'You are a Huguenot?' he said. + +'Yes,' I replied. + +'So is she,' he rejoined, pointing towards the bed. 'But do you feel +no doubts?' + +'None,' I said quietly. + +'Nor does she,' he answered again, stopping opposite me. You made up +your mind--how?' + +'I was born in the Religion,' I said. + +'And you have never questioned it?' + +'Never.' + +'Nor thought much about it?' + +'Not a great deal,' I answered. + +'Saint Gris!' he exclaimed in a low tone. 'And do you never think of +hell-fire--of the worm which dieth not, and the fire which shall not +be quenched? Do you never think of that, M. de Marsac?' + +'No, my friend, never!' I answered, rising impatiently; for at that +hour, and in that silent, gloomy room I found his conversation +dispiriting. 'I believe what I was taught to believe, and I strive to +hurt no one but the enemy. I think little; and if I were you I would +think less. I would do something, man--fight, play, work, anything but +think! Leave that to clerks.' + +'I am a clerk,' he answered. + +'A poor one, it seems,' I retorted, with a little scorn in my tone. +'Leave it, man. Work! Fight! Do something!' + +'Fight?' he said, as if the idea were a novel one. 'Fight? But there, +I might be killed; and then hell-fire you see!' + +'Zounds, man!' I cried, out of patience with a folly which, to tell +the truth, the lamp burning low, and the rain pattering on the roof, +made the skin of my back feel cold and creepy. 'Enough of this! Keep +your doubts and your fire to yourself! And answer me,' I continued, +sternly. 'How came Madame de Bonne so poor? How did she come down to +this place?' + +He sat down on his stool, the excitement dying quickly out of his +fare. 'She gave away all her money,' he said slowly and reluctantly. +It may be imagined that this answer surprised me. 'Gave it away?' I +exclaimed. 'To whom? And when?' + +He moved uneasily on his seat and avoided my eye, his altered manner +filling me with suspicions which the insight I had just obtained into +his character did not altogether preclude. At last he said, 'I had +nothing to do with it, if you mean that; nothing. On the contrary, I +have done all I could to make it up to her. I followed her here. I +swear that is so, M. de Marsac.' + +'You have not told me yet to whom she gave it,' I said sternly. + +'She gave it,' he muttered, 'to a priest.' + +'To what priest?' + +'I do not know his name. He is a Jacobin.' + +'And why?' I asked, gazing incredulously at the student. 'Why did she +give it to him? Come, come! have a care. Let me have none of your +Sorbonne inventions!' + +He hesitated a moment, looking at me timidly, and then seemed to make +up his mind to tell me. 'He found out--it was when we lived in Paris, +you understand, last June--that she was a Huguenot. It was about the +time they burned the Foucards, and he frightened her with that, and +made her pay him money, a little at first, and then more and more, to +keep her secret. When the king came to Blois she followed his Majesty, +thinking to be safer here; but the priest came too, and got more +money, and more, until he left her--this.' + +'This!' I said. And I set my teeth together. + +Simon Fleix nodded. + +I looked round the wretched garret to which my mother had been +reduced, and pictured the days and hours of fear and suspense through +which she had lived; through which she must have lived with that +caitiff's threat hanging over her grey head! I thought of her birth +and her humiliation, of her frail form and patient, undying love for +me; and solemnly, and before heaven, I swore that night to punish the +man. My anger was too great for words, and for tears I was too old. I +asked Simon Fleix no more questions, save when the priest might be +looked for again--which he could not tell me--and whether he would +know him again--to which he answered, 'Yes.' But, wrapping myself in +my cloak, I lay down by the fire and pondered long and sadly. + +So, while I had been pinching there, my mother had been starving here. +She had deceived me, and I her. The lamp flickered, throwing uncertain +shadows as the draught tossed the strange window-curtain to and fro. +The leakage from the roof fell drop by drop, and now and again the +wind shook the crazy building, as though it would lift it up bodily +and carry it away. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + AN EMPTY ROOM. + + +Desiring to start as early as possible, that we might reach Rosny on +the second evening, I roused Simon Fleix before it was light, and +learning from him where the horses were stabled, went out to attend to +them; preferring to do this myself, that I might have an opportunity +of seeking out a tailor, and providing myself with clothes better +suited to my rank than those to which I had been reduced of late. I +found that I still had ninety crowns left of the sum which the King of +Navarre had given me, and twelve of these I laid out on a doublet of +black cloth with russet points and ribands, a dark cloak lined with +the same sober colour, and a new cap and feather. The tradesman would +fain have provided me with a new scabbard also, seeing my old one was +worn-out at the heel; but this I declined, having a fancy to go with +my point bare until I should have punished the scoundrel who had made +my mother's failing days a misery to her; a business which, the King +of Navarre's once done, I promised myself to pursue with energy and at +all costs. + +The choice of my clothes, and a few alterations which it was necessary +to make in them, detained me some time, so that it was later than I +could have wished when I turned my face towards the house again, bent +on getting my party to horse as speedily as possible. The morning, I +remember, was bright, frosty, and cold; the kennels were dry, the +streets comparatively clean. Here and there a ray of early sunshine, +darting between the overhanging eaves, gave promise of glorious +travelling-weather. But the faces, I remarked in my walk, did not +reflect the surrounding cheerfulness. Moody looks met me everywhere +and on every side; and while courier after courier galloped by me +bound for the castle, the townsfolk stood aloof in doorways listless +and inactive, or, gathering in groups in corners, talked what I took +to be treason under the breath. The queen-mother still lived, but +Orleans had revolted, and Sens and Mans, Chartres and Melun. Rouen was +said to be wavering, Lyons in arms, while Paris had deposed her king, +and cursed him daily from a hundred altars. In fine, the great +rebellion which followed the death of Guise, and lasted so many years, +was already in progress; so that on this first day of the new year the +king's writ scarce ran farther than he could see, peering anxiously +out from the towers above my head. + +Reaching the house, I climbed the long staircase hastily, abusing its +darkness and foulness, and planning as I went how my mother might most +easily and quickly be moved to a better lodging. Gaining the top of +the last flight, I saw that mademoiselle's door on the left of the +landing was open, and concluding from this that she was up, and ready +to start, I entered my mother's room with a brisk step and spirits +reinforced by the crisp morning air. + +But on the threshold. I stopped, and stood silent and amazed. At first +I thought the room was empty. Then, at a second glance, I saw the +student. He was on his knees beside the bed in the alcove, from which +the curtain had been partially dragged away. The curtain before the +window had been torn down also, and the cold light of day, pouring in +on the unsightly bareness of the room, struck a chill to my heart. A +stool lay overturned by the fire, and above it a grey cat, which I had +not hitherto noticed, crouched on a beam and eyed me with stealthy +fierceness. Mademoiselle was not to be seen, nor was Fanchette, and +Simon Fleix did not hear me. He was doing something at the bed--for my +mother it seemed. + +'What is it, man?' I cried softly, advancing on tiptoe to the bedside. +'Where are the others?' + +The student looked round and saw me. His face was pale and gloomy. His +eyes burned, and yet there were tears in them, and on his cheeks. He +did not speak, but the chilliness, the bareness, the emptiness of the +room spoke for him, and my heart sank. + +I took him by the shoulders. 'Find your tongue, man!' I said angrily. +'Where are they?' + +He rose from his knees and stood staring at me. 'They are gone!' he +said stupidly. + +'Gone?' I exclaimed. 'Impossible! When? Whither?' + +'Half an hour ago. Whither--I do not know.' + +Confounded and amazed, I glared at him between fear and rage. 'You do +not know?' I cried. 'They are gone, and you do not know?' + +He turned suddenly on me and gripped my arm. 'No, I do not know! I do +not know!' he cried, with a complete change of manner and in a tone of +fierce excitement. 'Only, may the fiend go with them! But I do know +this. I know this, M. de Marsac, with whom they went, these friends of +yours! A fop came, a dolt, a fine spark, and gave them fine words and +fine speeches and a gold token, and, hey presto! they went, and forgot +you!' + +'What!' I cried, beginning to understand, and snatching fiercely at +the one clue in his speech. 'A gold token? They have been decoyed away +then! There is no time to be lost. I must follow.' + +'No, for that is not all!' he replied, interrupting me sternly, while +his grasp on my arm grew tighter and his eyes flashed as they looked +into mine. 'You have not heard all. They have gone with one who called +you an impostor, and a thief, and a beggar, and that to your mother's +face--and killed her! Killed her as surely as if he had taken a sword +to her, M. de Marsac! Will you, after that, leave her for them?' + +He spoke plainly. And yet, God forgive me, it was some time before I +understood him: before I took in the meaning of his words, or could +transfer my thoughts from the absent to my mother lying on the bed +before me. When I did do so, and turned to her, and saw her still face +and thin hair straggling over the coarse pillow, then, indeed, the +sight overcame me. I thought no more of others--for I thought her +dead; and with a great and bitter cry I fell on my knees beside her +and hid my face. What, after all, was this headstrong girl to me? what +were even kings and king's commissions to me beside her--beside the +one human being who loved me still, the one being of my blood and name +left, the one ever-patient, ever-constant heart which for years had +beaten only for me? For a while, for a few moments, I was worthy of +her for I forgot all others. + +Simon Fleix roused me at last from my stupor, making me understand +that she was not dead, but in a deep swoon, the result of the shock +she had undergone. A leech, for whom he had despatched a neighbour, +came in as I rose, and taking my place, presently restored her to +consciousness. But her extreme feebleness warned me not to hope for +more than a temporary recovery; nor had I sat by her long before I +discerned that this last blow, following on so many fears and +privations, had reached a vital part, and that she was even now dying. + +She lay for a while with her hand in mine and her eyes closed, but +about noon, the student, contriving to give her some broth, she +revived, and, recognising me, lay for more than an hour gazing at me +with unspeakable content and satisfaction. At the end of that time, +and when I thought she was past speaking, she signed to me to bend +over her, and whispered something, which at first I could not catch. +Presently I made it out to be, 'She is gone--The girl you brought?' + +Much troubled, I answered yes, begging her not to think about the +matter. I need not have feared, however, for when she spoke again she +did so without emotion, and rather as one seeing clearly something +before her. + +'When you find her, Gaston,' she murmured, 'do not be angry with her. +It was not her fault. She--he deceived her. See!' + +I followed the direction rather of her eyes than her hand, and found +beneath the pillow a length of gold chain. 'She left that?' I +murmured, a strange tumult of emotions in my breast. + +'She laid it there,' my mother whispered. 'And she would have stopped +him saying what he did'--a shudder ran through my mother's frame at +the remembrance of the man's words, though her eyes still gazed into +mine with faith and confidence--'she would have stopped him, but she +could not, Gaston. And then he hurried her away.' + +'He showed her a token, madame, did he not?' I could not for my life +repress the question, so much seemed to turn on the point. + +'A bit of gold,' my mother whispered, smiling faintly. 'Now let me +sleep.' And, clinging always to my hand, she closed her eyes. + +The student came back soon afterwards with some comforts for which I +had despatched him, and we sat by her until the evening fell, and far +into the night. It was a relief to me to learn from the leech that she +had been ailing for some time, and that in any case the end must have +come soon. She suffered no pain and felt no fears, but meeting my eyes +whenever she opened her own, or came out of the drowsiness which +possessed her, thanked God, I think, and was content. As for me, I +remember that room became, for the time, the world. Its stillness +swallowed up all the tumults which filled the cities of France, and +its one interest--the coming and going of a feeble breath--eclipsed +the ambitions and hopes of a lifetime. + +Before it grew light Simon Fleix stole out to attend to the horses. +When he returned he came to me and whispered in my ear that he had +something to tell me; and my mother lying in a quiet sleep at the +time, I disengaged my hand, and, rising softly, went with him to the +hearth. + +Instead of speaking, he held his fist before me and suddenly unclosed +the fingers. 'Do you know it?' he said, glancing at me abruptly. + +I took what he held, and looking at it, nodded. It was a knot of +velvet of a peculiar dark red colour, and had formed, as I knew the +moment I set eyes on it, part of the fastening of mademoiselle's mask. +'Where did you find it?' I muttered, supposing that he had picked it +up on the stairs. + +'Look at it!' he answered impatiently. 'You have not looked.' + +I turned it over, and then saw something which had escaped me at +first--that the wider part of the velvet was disfigured by a fantastic +stitching, done very roughly and rudely with a thread of white silk. +The stitches formed letters, the letters words. With a start I read, +'_A moi!_' and saw in a corner, in smaller stitches, the initials 'C. +d. l. V.' + +I looked eagerly at the student. 'Where did you find this?' I said. + +'I picked it up in the street,' he answered quietly, 'not three +hundred paces from here.' + +I thought a moment. 'In the gutter, or near the wall?' I asked. + +'Near the wall, to be sure.' + +'Under a window?' + +'Precisely,' he said. 'You may be easy; I am not a fool. I marked the +place, M. de Marsac, and shall not forget it.' + +Even the sorrow and solicitude I felt on my mother's behalf--feelings +which had seemed a minute before to secure me against all other cares +or anxieties whatever--were not proof against this discovery. For I +found myself placed in a strait so cruel I must suffer either way. On +the one hand, I could not leave my mother; I were a heartless ingrate +to do that. On the other, I could not, without grievous pain, stand +still and inactive while Mademoiselle de la Vire, whom I had sworn to +protect, and who was now suffering through my laches and mischance, +appealed to me for help. For I could not doubt that this was what the +bow of velvet meant; still less that it was intended for me, since few +save myself would be likely to recognise it, and she would naturally +expect me to make some attempt at pursuit. + +And I could not think little of the sign. Remembering mademoiselle's +proud and fearless spirit, and the light in which she had always +regarded me, I augured the worst from it. I felt assured that no +imaginary danger and no emergency save the last would have induced her +to stoop so low; and this consideration, taken with the fear I felt +that she had fallen into the hands of Fresnoy, whom I believed to be +the person who had robbed me of the gold coin, filled me with a +horrible doubt which way my duty lay. I was pulled, as it were, both +ways. I felt my honour engaged both to go and to stay, and while my +hand went to my hilt, and my feet trembled to be gone, my eyes sought +my mother, and my ears listened for her gentle breathing. + +Perplexed and distracted, I looked at the student, and he at me. 'You +saw the man who took her away,' I muttered. Hitherto, in my absorption +on my mother's account, I had put few questions, and let the matter +pass as though it moved me little and concerned me less. 'What was he +like? Was he a big, bloated man, Simon, with his head bandaged, or +perhaps a wound on his face?' + +'The gentleman who went away with mademoiselle, do you mean?' he +asked. + +'Yes, yes, gentleman if you like!' + +'Not at all,' the student answered. 'He was a tall young gallant, very +gaily dressed, dark-haired, and with a rich complexion. I heard him +tell her that he came from a friend of hers too high to be named in +public or in Blois. He added that he brought a token from him; and +when mademoiselle mentioned you--she had just entered madame's room +with her woman when he appeared----' + +'He had watched me out, of course.' + +'Just so. Well, when she mentioned you, he swore you were an +adventurer, and a beggarly impostor, and what not, and bade her say +whether she thought it likely that her friend would have entrusted +such a mission, to such a man.' + +'And then she went with him?' + +The student nodded. + +'Readily? Of her own free-will?' + +'Certainly,' he answered. 'It seemed so to me. She tried to prevent +him speaking before your mother, but that was all.' + +On the impulse of the moment I took a step towards the door; +recollecting my position, I turned back with a groan. Almost beside +myself, and longing for any vent for my feelings, I caught the lad by +the shoulder, where he stood on the hearth, and shook him to and fro. + +'Tell me, man, what am I to do?' I said between my teeth. 'Speak! +think! invent something!' + +But he shook his head. + +I let him go with a muttered oath, and sat down on a stool by the bed +and took my head between my hands. At that very moment, however, +relief came--came from an unexpected quarter. The door opened and the +leech entered. He was a skilful man, and, though much employed about +the Court, a Huguenot--a fact which had emboldened Simon Fleix to +apply to him through the landlord of the 'Bleeding Heart,' the secret +rendezvous of the Religion in Blois. When he had made his examination +he was for leaving, being a grave and silent man, and full of +business, but at the door I stopped him. + +'Well, sir?' I said in a low tone, my hand on his cloak. + +'She has rallied, and may live three days,' he answered quietly. +'Four, it may be, and as many more as God wills.' + +Pressing two crowns into his hand, I begged him to call daily, which +he promised to do; and then he went. My mother was still dozing +peacefully, and I turned to Simon Fleix, my doubts resolved and my +mind made up. + +'Listen,' I said, 'and answer me shortly. We cannot both leave; that +is certain. Yet I must go, and at once, to the place where you found +the velvet knot. Do you describe the spot exactly, so that I may find +it, and make no mistake.' + +He nodded, and after a moment's reflection answered, + +'You know the Rue St. Denys, M. de Marsac? Well, go down it, keeping +the "Bleeding Heart" on your left. Take the second turning on the same +side after passing the inn. The third house from the corner, on the +left again, consists of a gateway leading to the Hospital of the Holy +Cross. Above the gateway are two windows in the lower story, and above +them two more. The knot lay below the first window you come to. Do you +understand?' + +'Perfectly,' I said. 'It is something to be a clerk, Simon.' + +He looked at me thoughtfully, but added nothing; and I was busy +tightening my sword-hilt, and disposing my cloak about the lower part +of my face. When I had arranged this to my satisfaction, I took out +and counted over the sum of thirty-five crowns, which I gave to him, +impressing on him the necessity of staying beside my mother should I +not return; for though I proposed to reconnoitre only, and learn if +possible whether mademoiselle was still in Blois, the future was +uncertain, and whereas I was known to my enemies, they were strangers +to me. + +Having enjoined this duty upon him, I bade my mother a silent +farewell, and, leaving the room, went slowly down the stairs, the +picture of her worn and patient face going with me, and seeming, I +remember, to hallow the purpose I had in my mind. + +The clocks were striking the hour before noon as I stepped from the +doorway, and, standing a moment in the lane, looked this way and that +for any sign of espionage. I could detect none, however. The lane was +deserted; and feeling assured that any attempt to mislead my +opponents, who probably knew Blois better than I did, must fail, I +made none, but deliberately took my way towards the 'Bleeding Heart,' +in the Rue St. Denys. The streets presented the same appearance of +gloomy suspense which I had noticed on the previous day. The same +groups stood about in the same corners, the same suspicious glances +met me in common with all other strangers who showed themselves; the +same listless inaction characterised the townsfolk, the same anxious +hurry those who came and went with news. I saw that even here, under +the walls of the palace, the bonds of law and order were strained +almost to bursting, and judged that if there ever was a time in France +when right counted for little, and the strong hand for much, it was +this. Such a state of things was not unfavourable to my present +design, and caring little for suspicious looks, I went resolutely on +my way. + +I had no difficulty in finding the gateway of which Simon had spoken, +or in identifying the window beneath which he had picked up the velvet +knot. An alley opening almost opposite, I took advantage of this to +examine the house at my leisure, and remarked at once, that whereas +the lower window was guarded only by strong shutters, now open, that +in the story above was heavily barred. Naturally I concentrated my +attention on the latter. The house, an old building of stone, seemed +sufficiently reputable, nor could I discern anything about it which +would have aroused my distrust had the knot been found elsewhere. It +bore the arms of a religious brotherhood, and had probably at one time +formed the principal entrance to the hospital, which still stood +behind it, but it had now come, as I judged, to be used as a dwelling +of the better class. Whether the two floors were separately inhabited +or not I failed to decide. + +After watching it for some time without seeing anyone pass in or out, +or anything occurring to enlighten me one way or the other, I resolved +to venture in, the street being quiet and the house giving no sign of +being strongly garrisoned. The entrance lay under the archway, through +a door on the right side. I judged from what I saw that the porter was +probably absent, busying himself with his gossips in matters of State. + +And this proved to be the case, for when I had made the passage of the +street with success, and slipped quietly in through the half-open +door, I found only his staff and charcoal-pan there to represent him. +A single look satisfied me on that point; forthwith, without +hesitation, I turned to the stairs and began to mount, assured that if +I would effect anything single-handed I must trust to audacity and +surprise rather than to caution or forethought. + +The staircase was poorly lighted by loopholes looking towards the +rear, but it was clean and well-kept. Silence, broken only by the +sound of my footsteps, prevailed throughout the house, and all seemed +so regular and decent and orderly that the higher I rose the lower +fell my hopes of success. Still, I held resolutely on until I reached +the second floor and stood before a closed door. The moment had come +to put all to the touch. I listened for a few seconds, but hearing +nothing, cautiously lifted the latch. Somewhat to my surprise the door +yielded to my hand, and I entered. + +A high settle stood inside, interrupting my view of the room, which +seemed to be spacious and full of rich stuffs and furniture, but low +in the roof, and somewhat dimly lighted by two windows rather wide +than high. The warm glow of a fire shone on the woodwork of the +ceiling, and as I softly closed the door a log on the hearth gave way, +with a crackling of sparks, which pleasantly broke the luxurious +silence. The next moment a low, sweet voice asked, 'Alphonse, is that +you?' + +I walked round the settle and came face to face with a beautiful woman +reclining on a couch. On hearing the door open she had raised herself +on her elbow. Now, seeing a stranger before her, she sprang up with a +low cry, and stood gazing at me, her face expressing both astonishment +and anger. She was of middling height, her features regular though +somewhat childlike, her complexion singularly fair. A profusion of +golden hair hung in disorder about her neck, and matched the deep blue +of her eyes, wherein it seemed to me, there lurked more spirit and +fire than the general cast of her features led one to expect. + +After a moment's silence, during which she scanned me from head to +foot with great haughtiness--and I her with curiosity and wonder--she +spoke, 'Sir!' she said slowly, 'to what am I to attribute +this--visit?' + +For the moment I was so taken aback by her appearance and +extraordinary beauty, as well as by the absence of any sign of those I +sought, that I could not gather my thoughts to reply, but stood +looking vaguely at her. I had expected, when I entered the room, +something so different from this! + +'Well, sir?' she said again, speaking sharply, and tapping her foot on +the floor. + +'This visit, madame?' I stammered. + +'Call it intrusion, sir, if you please!' she cried imperiously. 'Only +explain it, or begone.' + +'I crave leave to do both, madame,' I answered, collecting myself +by an effort. 'I ascended these stairs and opened your door in +error--that is the simple fact--hoping to find a friend of mine here. +I was mistaken, it seems, and it only remains for me to withdraw, +offering at the same time the humblest apologies.' And as I spoke I +bowed low and prepared to retire. + +'One moment, sir!' she said quickly, and in an altered tone. 'You are, +perhaps, a friend of M. de Bruhl--of my husband. In that case, if you +desire to leave any message I will--I shall be glad to deliver it.' + +She looked so charming that, despite the tumult of my feelings, I +could not but regard her with admiration. 'Alas! madame, I cannot +plead that excuse,' I answered. 'I regret that I have not the honour +of his acquaintance.' + +She eyed me with some surprise. 'Yet still, sir,' she answered, +smiling a little, and toying with a gold brooch which clasped her +habit, 'you must have had some ground, some reason, for supposing you +would find a friend here?' + +'True, madame,' I answered, 'but I was mistaken.' + +I saw her colour suddenly. With a smile and a faint twinkle of the eye +she said, 'It is not possible, sir, I suppose--you have not come here, +I mean, out of any reason connected with a--a knot of velvet, for +instance?' + +I started, and involuntarily advanced a step towards her. 'A knot of +velvet!' I exclaimed, with emotion. 'Mon Dieu! Then I was not +mistaken! I have come to the right house, and you--you know something +of this! Madame,' I continued impulsively, 'that knot of velvet? Tell +me what it means, I implore you!' + +She seemed alarmed by my violence, retreating a step or two, and +looking at me haughtily, yet with a kind of shamefacedness. 'Believe +me, it means nothing,' she said hurriedly. 'I beg you to understand +that, sir. It was a foolish jest.' + +'A jest?' I said. 'It fell from this window.' + +'It was a jest, sir,' she answered stubbornly. But I could see that, +with all her pride, she was alarmed; her face was troubled, and there +were tears in her eyes. And this rendered me under the circumstances +only the more persistent. + +'I have the velvet here, madame,' I said. 'You must tell me more about +it.' + +She looked at me with a weightier impulse of anger than she had yet +exhibited. 'I do not think you know to whom you are speaking,' she +said, breathing fast. 'Leave the room, sir, and at once! I have told +you it was a jest. If you are a gentleman you will believe me, and +go.' And she pointed to the door. + +But I held my ground, with an obstinate determination to pierce the +mystery. 'I am a gentleman, madame,' I said, 'and yet I must know +more. Until I know more I cannot go.' + +'Oh, this is insufferable!' she cried, looking round as if for a way +of escape; but; I was between her and the only door. 'This is +unbearable! The knot was never intended for you, sir. And what is +more, if M. de Bruhl come and find you here, you will repent it +bitterly.' + +I saw that she was at least as much concerned on her own account as on +mine, and thought myself justified under the circumstances in taking +advantage of her fears. I deliberately laid my cap on the table which +stood beside me. 'I will go, madame,' I said, looking at her fixedly, +'when I know all that you know about this knot I hold, and not before. +If you are unwilling to tell me, I must wait for M. de Bruhl, and ask +him.' + +She cried out 'Insolent!' and looked at me as if in her rage and +dismay she would gladly have killed me; being, I could see, a +passionate woman. But I held my ground, and after a moment she spoke. +'What do you want to know?' she said, frowning darkly. + +'This knot--how did it come to lie in the street below your window? I +want to know that first.' + +'I dropped it,' she answered sullenly. + +'Why?' I said. + +'Because----' And then she stopped and looked at me, and then again +looked down, her face crimson. 'Because, if you must know,' she +continued hurriedly, tracing a pattern on the table with her finger, +'I saw it bore the words "_A moi_." I have been married only two +months, and I thought my husband might find it--and bring it to me. It +was a silly fancy.' + +'But where did you get it? 'I asked, and I stared at her in growing +wonder and perplexity. For the more questions I put, the further, it +seemed to me, I strayed from my object. + +'I picked it up in the Ruelle d'Arcy,' she answered, tapping her foot +on the floor resentfully. 'It was the silly thing put it into my head +to--to do what I did. And now, have you any more questions, sir?' + +'One only,' I said, seeing it all clearly enough. 'Will you tell me, +please, exactly where you found it?' + +'I have told you. In the Ruelle d'Arcy, ten paces from the Rue de +Valois. Now, sir, will you go?' + +'One word, madame. Did----' + +But she cried, 'Go, sir, go! go!' so violently, that after making one +more attempt to express my thanks, I thought it better to obey her. I +had learned all she knew; I had solved the puzzle. But, solving it, I +found myself no nearer to the end I had in view, no nearer to +mademoiselle. I closed the door with a silent bow, and began to +descend the stairs, my mind full of anxious doubts and calculations. +The velvet knot was the only clue I possessed, but was I right in +placing any dependence on it? I knew now that, wherever it had +originally lain, it had been removed once. If once, why not twice? why +not three times? + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + THE HOUSE IN THE RUELLE D'ARCY. + + +I had not gone down half a dozen steps before I heard a man enter the +staircase from the street, and begin to ascend. It struck me at once +that this might be M. de Bruhl; and I realised that I had not left +madame's apartment a moment too soon. The last thing I desired, having +so much on my hands, was to embroil myself with a stranger, and +accordingly I quickened my pace, hoping to meet him so near the foot +of the stairs as to leave him in doubt whether I had been visiting the +upper or lower part of the house. The staircase was dark, however, and +being familiar with it, he had the advantage over me. He came leaping +up two steps at a time, and turning the angle abruptly, surprised me +before I was clear of the upper flight. + +On seeing me, he stopped short and stared; thinking at first, I fancy, +that he ought to recognise me. When he did not, he stood back a pace. +'Umph!' he said. 'Have you been--have you any message for me, sir?' + +'No,' I said, 'I have not.' + +He frowned. 'I am M. de Bruhl,' he said. + +'Indeed?' I muttered, not knowing what else to say. + +'You have been----' + +'Up your stairs, sir? Yes. In error,' I answered bluntly. + +He gave a kind of grunt at that, and stood aside, incredulous and +dissatisfied, yet uncertain how to proceed. I met his black looks with +a steady countenance, and passed by him, becoming aware, however, as I +went on down the stairs that he had turned and was looking after me. +He was a tall, handsome man, dark, and somewhat ruddy of complexion, +and was dressed in the extreme of Court fashion, in a suit of +myrtle-green trimmed with sable. He carried also a cloak lined with +the same on his arm. Beyond looking back when I reached the street, to +see that he did not follow me, I thought no more of him. But we were +to meet again, and often. Nay, had I then known all that was to be +known I would have gone back and---- But of that in another place. + +The Rue de Valois, to which a tradesman, who was peering cautiously +out of his shop, directed me, proved to be one of the main streets of +the city, narrow and dirty, and darkened by overhanging eaves and +signboards, but full of noise and bustle. One end of it opened on the +_parvis_ of the Cathedral; the other and quieter end appeared to abut +on the west gate of the town. Feeling the importance of avoiding +notice in the neighbourhood of the house I sought, I strolled into the +open space in front of the Cathedral, and accosting two men who stood +talking there, learned that the Ruelle d'Arcy was the third lane on +the right of the Rue de Valois, and some little distance along it. +Armed with this information I left them, and with my head bent down, +and my cloak drawn about the lower part of my face, as if I felt the +east wind, I proceeded down the street until I reached the opening of +the lane. Without looking up I turned briskly into it. + +When I had gone ten paces past the turning, however, I stopped and, +gazing about me, began to take in my surroundings as fast as I could. +The lane, which seemed little frequented, was eight or nine feet wide, +unpaved, and full of ruts. The high blank wall of a garden rose on one +side of it, on the other the still higher wall of a house; and both +were completely devoid of windows, a feature which I recognised with +the utmost dismay. For it completely upset all my calculations. In +vain I measured with my eye the ten paces I had come; in vain I looked +up, looked this way and that. I was nonplussed. No window opened on +the lane at that point, nor, indeed, throughout its length. For it was +bounded to the end, as far as I could see, by dead-walls as of +gardens. + +Recognising, with a sinking heart, what this meant, I saw in a moment +that all the hopes I had raised on Simon Fleix's discovery were +baseless. Mademoiselle had dropped the velvet bow, no doubt, but not +from a window. It was still a clue, but one so slight and vague as to +be virtually useless, proving only that she was in trouble and in need +of help; perhaps that she had passed through this lane on her way from +one place of confinement to another. + +Thoroughly baffled and dispirited, I leant for awhile against the +wall, brooding over the ill-luck which seemed to attend me in this, as +in so many previous adventures. Nor was the low voice of conscience, +suggesting that such failures arose from mismanagement rather than +from ill-luck, slow to make itself heard. I reflected that if I had +not allowed myself to be robbed of the gold token, mademoiselle would +have trusted me; that if I had not brought her to so poor an abode as +my mother's, she would not have been cajoled into following a +stranger; finally, that if I had remained with her, and sent Simon to +attend to the horses in my place, no stranger would have gained access +to her. + +But it has never been my way to accept defeat at the first offer, and +though I felt these self-reproaches to be well deserved, a moment's +reflection persuaded me that in the singular and especial providence +which had brought the velvet knot safe to my hands I ought to find +encouragement. Had Madame de Bruhl not picked it up it would have +continued to lie in this by-path, through which neither I nor Simon +Fleix would have been likely to pass. Again, had madame not dropped it +in her turn, we should have sought in vain for any, even the +slightest, clue to Mademoiselle de la Vire's fate or position. + +Cheered afresh by this thought, I determined to walk to the end of the +lane; and forthwith did so, looking sharply about me as I went, but +meeting no one. The bare upper branches of a tree rose here and there +above the walls, which were pierced at intervals by low, strong doors. +These doors I carefully examined, but without making any discovery; +all were securely fastened, and many seemed to have been rarely +opened. Emerging at last and without result on the inner side of the +city ramparts, I turned, and moodily retraced my steps through the +lane, proceeding more slowly as I drew near to the Rue de Valois. This +time, being a little farther from the street, I made a discovery. + +The corner house, which had its front on the Rue Valois, presented, as +I have said, a dead, windowless wall to the lane; but from my present +standpoint I could see the upper part of the back of this house--that +part of the back, I mean, which rose above the lower garden-wall that +abutted on it--and in this there were several windows. The whole of +two and a part of a third were within the range of my eyes; and +suddenly in one of these I discovered something which made my heart +beat high with hope and expectation. The window in question was +heavily grated; that which I saw was tied to one of the bars. It was a +small knot of some white stuff--linen apparently--and it seemed a +trifle to the eye; but it was looped, as far as I could see from a +distance, after the same fashion as the scrap of velvet I had in my +pouch. + +The conclusion was obvious, at the same time that it inspired me with +the liveliest admiration of mademoiselle's wit and resources. She was +confined in that room; the odds were that she was behind those bars. A +bow dropped thence would fall, the wind being favourable, into the +lane, not ten, but twenty paces from the street. I ought to have been +prepared for a slight inaccuracy in a woman's estimate of distance. + +It may be imagined with what eagerness I now scanned the house, with +what minuteness I sought for a weak place. The longer I looked, +however, the less comfort I derived from my inspection. I saw before +me a gloomy stronghold of brick, four-square, and built in the old +Italian manner, with battlements at the top, and a small +machicolation, little more than a string-course, above each story; +this serving at once to lessen the monotony of the dead-walls, and to +add to the frowning weight of the upper part. The windows were few and +small, and the house looked damp and mouldy; lichens clotted the +bricks, and moss filled the string-courses. A low door opening from +the lane into the garden naturally attracted my attention; but it +proved to be of abnormal strength, and bolted both at the top and +bottom. + +Assured that nothing could be done on that side, and being unwilling +to remain longer in the neighbourhood, lest I should attract +attention, I returned to the street, and twice walked past the front +of the house, seeing all I could with as little appearance of seeing +anything as I could compass. The front retreated, somewhat from the +line of the street, and was flanked on the farther side by stables. +Only one chimney smoked, and that sparely. Three steps led up to +imposing double doors, which stood half open, and afforded a glimpse +of a spacious hall and a state staircase. Two men, apparently +servants, lounged on the steps, eating chestnuts, and jesting with one +another; and above the door were three shields blazoned in colours. I +saw with satisfaction, as I passed the second time, that the middle +coat was that of Turenne impaling one which I could not read--which +thoroughly satisfied me that the bow of velvet had not lied; so that, +without more ado, I turned homewards, formulating my plans as I went. + +I found all as I had left it; and my mother still lying in a +half-conscious state, I was spared the pain of making excuses for past +absence, or explaining that which I designed. I communicated the plan +I had formed to Simon Fleix, who saw no difficulty in procuring a +respectable person to stay with Madame de Bonne. But for some time he +would come no farther into the business. He listened, his mouth open +and his eyes glittering, to my plan until I came to his share in it; +and then he fell into a violent fit of trembling. + +'You want me to fight, monsieur,' he cried reproachfully, shaking all +over like one in the palsy. 'You said so the other night. You want to +get me killed! That's it.' + +'Nonsense!' I answered sharply. 'I want you to hold the horses!' + +He looked at me wildly, with a kind of resentment in his face, and yet +as if he were fascinated. + +'You will drag me into it!' he persisted. 'You will!' + +'I won't,' I said. + +'You will! You will! And the end I know. I shall have no chance. I am +a clerk, and not bred to fighting. You want to be the death of me!' he +cried excitedly. + +'I don't want you to fight,' I answered with some contempt. 'I would +rather that you kept out of it for my mother's sake. I only want you +to stay in the lane and hold the horses. You will run little more risk +than you do sitting by the hearth here.' + +And in the end I persuaded him to do what I wished; though still, +whenever he thought of what was in front of him, he fell a-trembling +again, and many times during the afternoon got up and walked to and +fro between the window and the hearth, his face working and his hands +clenched like those of a man in a fever. I put this down at first to +sheer chicken-heartedness, and thought it augured ill for my +enterprise; but presently remarking that he made no attempt to draw +back, and that though the sweat stood on his brow he set about such +preparations as were necessary--remembering also how long and kindly, +and without pay or guerdon, he had served my mother, I began to see +that here was something phenomenal; a man strange and beyond the +ordinary, of whom it was impossible to predicate what he would do when +he came to be tried. + +For myself, I passed the afternoon in a state almost of apathy. I +thought it my duty to make this attempt to free mademoiselle, and to +make it at once, since it was impossible to say what harm might come +of delay, were she in such hands as Fresnoy's; but I had so little +hope of success that I regarded the enterprise as desperate. The +certain loss of my mother, however, and the low ebb of my fortunes, +with the ever-present sense of failure, contributed to render me +indifferent to risks; and even when we were on our way, through +by-streets known to Simon, to the farther end of the Ruelle d'Arcy, +and the red and frosty sunset shone in our faces, and gilded for a +moment the dull eaves and grey towers above us, I felt no softening. +Whatever the end, there was but one in the world whom I should regret, +or who would regret me; and she hung, herself, on the verge of +eternity. + +So that I was able to give Simon Fleix his last directions with as +much coolness as I ever felt in my life. I stationed him with the +three horses in the lane--which seemed as quiet and little frequented +as in the morning--near the end of it, and about a hundred paces or +more from the house. + +'Turn their heads towards the ramparts,' I said, wheeling them round +myself, 'and then they will be ready to start. They are all quiet +enough. You can let the Cid loose. And now listen to me, Simon,' I +continued. 'Wait here until you see me return, or until you see you +are going to be attacked. In the first case, stay for me, of course; +in the second, save yourself as you please. Lastly, if neither event +occurs before half-past five--you will hear the convent-bell yonder +ring at the half-hour--begone, and take the horses; they are yours. +And one word more,' I added hurriedly. 'If you can only get away with +one horse, Simon, take the Cid. It is worth more than most men, and +will not fail you at a pinch.' + +As I turned away, I gave him one look to see if he understood. It was +not without hesitation that after that look I left him. The lad's face +was flushed, he was breathing hard, his eyes seemed to be almost +starting from his head. He sat his horse shaking in every limb, and +had all the air of a man in a fit. I expected him to call me back; but +he did not, and reflecting that I must trust him, or give up the +attempt, I went up the lane with my sword under my arm, and my cloak +loose on my shoulders. I met a man driving a donkey laden with +faggots. I saw no one else. It was already dusk between the walls, +though light enough in the open country; but that was in my favour, +my only regret being that as the town gates closed shortly after +half-past five, I could not defer my attempt until a still later hour. + +Pausing in the shadow of the house while a man might count ten, I +impressed on my memory the position of the particular window which +bore the knot; then I passed quickly into the street, which was still +full of movement, and for a second, feeling myself safe from +observation in the crowd, I stood looking at the front of the house. +The door was shut. My heart sank when I saw this, for I had looked to +find it still open. + +The feeling, however, that I could not wait, though time might present +more than one opportunity, spurred me on. What I could do I must do +now, at once. The sense that this was so being heavy upon me, I saw +nothing for it but to use the knocker and gain admission, by fraud if +I could, and if not, by force. Accordingly I stepped briskly across +the kennel, and made for the entrance. + +When I was within two paces of the steps, however, someone abruptly +threw the door open and stepped out. The man did not notice me, and I +stood quickly aside, hoping that at the last minute my chance had +come. Two men, who had apparently attended this first person +downstairs, stood respectfully behind him, holding lights. He paused a +moment on the steps to adjust his cloak, and with more than a little +surprise I recognised my acquaintance of the morning, M. de Bruhl. + +I had scarcely time to identify him before he walked down the steps +swinging his cane, brushed carelessly past me, and was gone. The two +men looked after him awhile, shading their lights from the wind, and +one saying something, the other laughed coarsely. The next moment they +threw the door to and went, as I saw by the passage of their light, +into the room on the left of the hall. + +Now was my time. I could have hoped for, prayed for, expected no +better fortune than this. The door had rebounded slightly from the +jamb, and stood open an inch or more. In a second I pushed it from me +gently, slid into the hall, and closed it behind me. + +The door of the room on the left was wide open, and the light which +shone through the doorway--otherwise the hall was dark--as well as the +voices of the two men I had seen, warned me to be careful. I stood, +scarcely daring to breathe, and looked about me. There was no matting +on the floor, no fire on the hearth. The hall felt cold, damp, and +uninhabited. The state staircase rose in front of me, and presently +bifurcating, formed a gallery round the place. I looked up, and up, +and far above me, in the dim heights of the second floor, I espied a +faint light--perhaps, the reflection of a light. + +A movement in the room on my left warned me that I had no time to +lose, if I meant to act. At any minute one of the men might come out +and discover me. With the utmost care I started on my journey. I stole +across the stone floor of the hall easily and quietly enough, but I +found the real difficulty begin when I came to the stairs. They were +of wood, and creaked and groaned under me to such an extent that, with +each step I trod, I expected the men to take the alarm. Fortunately +all went well until I passed the first corner--I chose, of course, the +left-hand flight--then a board jumped under my foot with a crack which +sounded in the empty hall, and to my excited ears, as loud as a +pistol-shot. I was in two minds whether I should not on the instant +make a rush for it, but happily I stood still. One of the men came out +and listened, and I heard the other ask, with an oath, what it was. I +leant against the wall, holding my breath. + +'Only that wench in one of her tantrums!' the man who had come out +answered, applying an epithet to her which I will not set down, but +which I carried to his account in the event of our coming face to face +presently. 'She is quiet now. She may hammer and hammer, but----' + +The rest I lost, as he passed through the doorway and went back to his +place by the fire. But in one way his words were of advantage to me. I +concluded that I need not be so very cautious now, seeing that they +would set down anything they heard to the same cause; and I sped on +more quickly. I had just gained the second floor landing when a loud +noise below--the opening of the street door and the heavy tread of +feet in the hall--brought me to a temporary standstill. I looked +cautiously over the balustrade, and saw two men go across to the room +on the left. One of them spoke as he entered, chiding the other +knaves, I fancied, for leaving the door unbarred; and the tone, though +not the words, echoing sullenly up the staircase, struck a familiar +chord in my memory. The voice was Fresnoy's! + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + THE FIGHT ON THE STAIRS. + + +The certainty, which this sound gave me, that I was in the right +house, and that it held also the villain to whom I owed all my +misfortunes--for who but Fresnoy could have furnished the broken coin +which had deceived mademoiselle?--had a singularly inspiriting effect +upon me. I felt every muscle in my body grow on the instant hard as +steel, my eyes more keen, my ears sharper--all my senses more apt and +vigorous. I stole off like a cat from the balustrade, over which I had +been looking, and without a second's delay began the search for +mademoiselle's room; reflecting that though the garrison now amounted +to four, I had no need to despair. If I could release the prisoners +without noise--which would be easy were the key in the lock--we might +hope to pass through the hall by a _tour de force_ of one kind or +another. And a church-clock at this moment striking Five, and +reminding me that we had only half an hour in which to do all and +reach the horses, I was the more inclined to risk something. + +The light which I had seen from below hung in a flat-bottomed lantern +just beyond the head of the stairs, and outside the entrance to one of +two passages which appeared to lead to the back part of the house. +Suspecting that M. de Bruhl's business had lain with mademoiselle, I +guessed that the light had been placed for his convenience. With this +clue and the position of the window to guide me, I fixed on a door on +the right of this passage, and scarcely four paces from the head of +the stairs. Before I made any sign, however, I knelt down and +ascertained that there was a light in the room, and also that the key +was not in the lock. + +So far satisfied, I scratched on the door with my fingernails, at +first softly, then with greater force, and presently I heard someone +in the room rise. I felt sure that the person, whoever it was, had +taken the alarm and was listening, and putting my lips to the keyhole +I whispered mademoiselle's name. + +A footstep crossed the room sharply, and I heard muttering just within +the door. I thought I detected two voices. But I was impatient, and, +getting no answer, whispered in the same manner as before, +'Mademoiselle de la Vire, are you there?' + +Still no answer. The muttering, too, had stopped, and all was +still--in the room, and in the silent house. I tried again. 'It is I, +Gaston de Marsac,' I said. 'Do you hear? I am come to release you.' I +spoke as loudly as I dared, but most of the sound seemed to come back +on me and wander in suspicious murmurings down the staircase. + +This time, however, an exclamation of surprise rewarded me, and a +voice, which I recognised at once as mademoiselle's, answered softly: + +'What is it? Who is there?' + +'Gaston de Marsac,' I answered. 'Do you need my help?' + +The very brevity of her reply; the joyful sob which accompanied it, +and which I detected even through the door: the wild cry of +thankfulness--almost an oath--of her companion--all these assured me +at once that I was welcome--welcome as I had never been before--and, +so assuring me, braced me to the height of any occasion which might +befall. + +'Can you open the door?' I muttered. All the time I was on my knees, +my attention divided between the inside of the room and the stray +sounds which now and then came up to me from the hall below. 'Have you +the key?' + +'No; we are locked in,' mademoiselle answered. + +I expected this. 'If the door is bolted inside,' I whispered, +'unfasten it, if you please.' + +They answered that it was not, so bidding them stand back a little +from it, I rose and set my shoulder against it. I hoped to be able to +burst it in with only one crash, which by itself, a single sound, +might not alarm the men downstairs. But my weight made no impression +upon the lock, and the opposite wall being too far distant to allow me +to get any purchase for my feet, I presently desisted. The closeness +of the door to the jambs warned me that an attempt to prise it open +would be equally futile; and for a moment I stood gazing in perplexity +at the solid planks, which bid fair to baffle me to the end. + +The position was, indeed, one of great difficulty, nor can I now think +of any way out of it better or other than that which I adopted. +Against the wall near the head of the stairs I had noticed, as I came +up, a stout wooden stool. I stole out and fetched this, and setting it +against the opposite wall, endeavoured in this way to get sufficient +purchase for my feet. The lock still held; but, as I threw my whole +weight on the door, the panel against which I leaned gave way and +broke inwards with a loud, crashing sound, which echoed through the +empty house, and might almost have been heard in the street outside. + +It reached the ears, at any rate, of the men sitting below, and I +heard them troop noisily out and stand in the hall, now talking +loudly, and now listening. A minute of breathless suspense +followed--it seemed a long minute; and then, to my relief, they +tramped back again, and I was free to return to my task. Another +thrust, directed a little lower, would, I hoped, do the business; but +to make this the more certain I knelt down and secured the stool +firmly against the wall. As I rose after settling it, something +else, without sound or warning, rose also, taking me completely by +surprise--a man's head above the top stair, which, as it happened, +faced me. His eyes met mine, and I knew I was discovered. + +He turned and bundled downstairs again with a scared face, going so +quickly that I could not have caught him if I would, or had had the +wit to try. Of silence there was no longer need. In a few seconds the +alarm would be raised. I had small time for thought. Laying myself +bodily against the door, I heaved and pressed with all my strength; +but whether I was careless in my haste, or the cause was other, the +lock did not give. Instead the stool slipped, and I fell with a crash +on the floor at the very moment the alarm reached the men below. + +I remember that the crash of my unlucky fall seemed to release all the +prisoned noises of the house. A faint scream within the room was but a +prelude, lost the next moment in the roar of dismay, the clatter of +weapons, and volley of oaths and cries and curses which, rolling up +from below, echoed hollowly about me, as the startled knaves rushed to +their weapons, and charged across the flags and up the staircase. I +had space for one desperate effort. Picking myself up, I seized the +stool by two of its legs and dashed it twice against the door, driving +in the panel I had before splintered. But that was all. The lock held, +and I had no time for a third blow. The men were already halfway up +the stairs. In a breath almost they would be upon me. I flung down the +useless stool and snatched up my sword, which lay unsheathed beside +me. So far the matter had gone against us, but it was time for a +change of weapons now, and the end was not yet. I sprang to the head +of the stairs and stood there, my arm by my side and my point resting +on the floor, in such an attitude of preparedness as I could compass +at the moment. + +For I had not been in the house all this time, as may well be +supposed, without deciding what I would do in case of surprise, and +exactly where I could best stand on the defensive. The flat bottom of +the lamp which hung outside the passage threw a deep shadow on the +spot immediately below it, while the light fell brightly on the steps +beyond. Standing in the shadow I could reach the edge of the stairs +with my point, and swing the blade freely, without fear of the +balustrade; and here I posted myself with a certain grim satisfaction +as Fresnoy, with his three comrades behind him, came bounding up the +last flight. + +They were four to one, but I laughed to see how, not abruptly, but +shamefacedly and by degrees, they came to a stand halfway up the +flight, and looked at me, measuring the steps and the advantage which +the light shining in their eyes gave me. Fresnoy's ugly face was +rendered uglier by a great strip of plaister which marked the place +where the hilt of my sword had struck him in our last encounter at +Chize; and this and the hatred he bore to me gave a peculiar +malevolence to his look. The deaf man, Matthew, whose savage stolidity +had more than once excited my anger on our journey, came next to him. +the two strangers whom I had seen in the hall bringing up the rear. Of +the four, these last seemed the most anxious to come to blows, and had +Fresnoy not barred the way with his hand we should have crossed swords +without parley. + +'Halt, will you!' he cried, with an oath, thrusting one of them back. +And then to me he said, 'So, so, my friend! It is you, is it?' + +I looked at him in silence, with a scorn which knew no bounds, and did +not so much as honour him by raising my sword, though I watched him +heedfully. + +'What are you doing here?' he continued, with an attempt at bluster. + +Still I would not answer him, or move, but stood looking down at him. +After a moment of this, he grew restive, his temper being churlish and +impatient at the best. Besides, I think he retained just so much of a +gentleman's feelings as enabled him to understand my contempt and +smart under it. He moved a step upward, his brow dark with passion. + +'You beggarly son of a scarecrow!' he broke out on a sudden, adding a +string of foul imprecations, 'will you speak, or are you going to wait +to be spitted where you stand? If we once begin, my bantam, we shall +not stop until we have done your business! If you have anything to +say, say it, and----' But I omit the rest of his speech, which was +foul beyond the ordinary. + +Still I did not move or speak, but looked at him unwavering, though it +pained me to think the women heard. He made a last attempt. 'Come, old +friend,' he said, swallowing his anger again, or pretending to do so, +and speaking with a vile _bonhomie_ which I knew to be treacherous, +'if we come to blows we shall give you no quarter. But one chance you +shall have, for the sake of old days when we followed Conde. Go! Take +the chance, and go. We will let you pass, and that broken door shall +be the worst of it. That is more,' he added with a curse, 'than I +would do for any other man in your place, M. de Marsac.' + +A sudden movement and a low exclamation in the room behind me showed +that his words were heard there; and these sounds being followed +immediately by a noise as of riving wood, mingled with the quick +breathing of someone hard at work, I judged that the women were +striving with the door--enlarging the opening it might be. I dared not +look round, however, to see what progress they made, nor did I answer +Fresnoy, save by the same silent contempt, but stood watching the men +before me with the eye of a fencer about to engage. And I know nothing +more keen, more vigilant, more steadfast than that. + +It was well I did, for without signal or warning the group wavered a +moment, as though retreating, and the next instant precipitated itself +upon me. Fortunately, only two could engage me at once, and Fresnoy, I +noticed, was not of the two who dashed forward up the steps. One of +the strangers forced himself to the front, and, taking the lead, +pressed me briskly, Matthew seconding him in appearance, while really +watching for an opportunity of running in and stabbing me at close +quarters, a man[oe]uvre I was not slow to detect. + +That first bout lasted half a minute only. A fierce exultant joy ran +through me as the steel rang and grated, and I found that I had not +mistaken the strength of wrist or position. The men were mine. They +hampered one another on the stairs, and fought in fetters, being +unable to advance or retreat, to lunge with freedom, or give back +without fear. I apprehended greater danger from Matthew than from my +actual opponent, and presently, watching my opportunity, disarmed the +latter by a strong parade, and sweeping Matthew's sword aside by the +same movement, slashed him across the forehead; then, drawing back a +step, gave my first opponent the point. He fell in a heap on the +floor, as good as dead, and Matthew, dropping his sword, staggered +backwards and downwards into Fresnoy's arms. + +'Bonne Foi! France et Bonne Foi!' It seemed to me that I had not +spoken, that I had plied steel in grimmest silence; and yet the cry +still rang and echoed in the roof as I lowered my point, and stood +looking grimly down at them. Fresnoy's face was disfigured with rage +and chagrin. They were now but two to one, for Matthew, though his +wound was slight, was disabled by the blood which ran down into his +eyes and blinded him. 'France et Bonne Foi!' + +'Bonne Foi and good sword!' cried a voice behind me. And looking +swiftly round, I saw mademoiselle's face thrust through the hole in +the door. Her eyes sparkled with a fierce light, her lips were red +beyond the ordinary, and her hair, loosened and thrown into disorder +by her exertions, fell in thick masses about her white cheeks, and +gave her the aspect of a war-witch, such as they tell of in my country +of Brittany. 'Good sword!' she cried again, and clapped her hands. + +'But better board, mademoiselle!' I answered gaily. Like most of the +men of my province, I am commonly melancholic, but I have the habit of +growing witty at such times as these. 'Now, M. Fresnoy,' I continued,' +I am waiting your convenience. Must I put on my cloak to keep myself +warm?' + +He answered by a curse, and stood looking at me irresolutely. 'If you +will come down,' he said. + +'Send your man away and I will come,' I answered briskly. 'There is +space on the landing, and a moderate light. But I must be quick. +Mademoiselle and I are due elsewhere, and we are late already.' + +Still he hesitated. Still he looked at the man lying at his feet--who +had stretched himself out and passed, quietly enough, a minute +before--and stood dubious, the most pitiable picture of cowardice and +malice--he being ordinarily a stout man--I ever saw. I called him +poltroon and white-feather, and was considering whether I had not +better go down to him, seeing that our time must be up, and Simon +would be quitting his post, when a cry behind me caused me to turn, +and I saw that mademoiselle was no longer looking through the opening +in the door. + +Alarmed on her behalf, as I reflected that there might be other +doors to the room, and the men have other accomplices in the house, I +sprang to the door to see, but had barely time to send a single glance +round the interior--which showed me only that the room was still +occupied--before Fresnoy, taking advantage of my movement and of my +back being turned, dashed up the stairs, with his comrade at his +heels, and succeeded in penning me into the narrow passage where I +stood. + +I had scarcely time, indeed, to turn and put myself on guard before he +thrust at me. Nor was that all. The superiority in position no longer +lay with me. I found myself fighting between walls close to the +opening in the door, through which the light fell athwart my eyes, +baffling and perplexing me. Fresnoy was not slow to see the aid this +gave him, and pressed me hard and desperately; so that we played for a +full minute at close quarters, thrusting and parrying, neither of us +having room to use the edge, or time to utter word or prayer. + +At this game we were so evenly matched that for a time the end was +hard to tell. Presently, however, there came a change. My opponent's +habit of wild living suited ill with a prolonged bout, and as his +strength and breath failed and he began to give ground I discerned I +had only to wear him out to have him at my mercy. He felt this +himself, and even by that light I saw the sweat spring in great drops +to his forehead, saw the terror grow in his eyes. Already I was +counting him a dead man and the victory mine, when something flashed +behind his blade, and his comrade's poniard, whizzing past his +shoulder, struck me fairly on the chin, staggering me and hurling me +back dizzy and half-stunned, uncertain what had happened to me. + +Sped an inch lower it would have done its work and finished mine. Even +as it was, my hand going up as I reeled back gave Fresnoy an opening, +of which he was not slow to avail himself. He sprang forward, lunging +at me furiously, and would have run me through there and then, and +ended the matter, had not his foot, as he advanced, caught in the +stool, which still lay against the wall. He stumbled, his point missed +my hip by a hair's breadth, and he himself fell all his length on the +floor, his rapier breaking off short at the hilt. + +His one remaining backer stayed to cast a look at him, and that was +all. The man fled, and I chased him as far as the head of the stairs; +where I left him, assured by the speed and agility he displayed in +clearing flight after flight that I had nothing to fear from him. +Fresnoy lay, apparently stunned, and completely at my mercy. I stood +an instant looking down at him, in two minds whether I should not run +him through. But the memory of old days, when he had played his part +in more honourable fashion and shown a coarse good-fellowship in the +field, held my hand; and flinging a curse at him, I turned in anxious +haste to the door, the centre of all this bloodshed and commotion. The +light still shone through the breach in the panel, but for some +minutes--since Fresnoy's rush up the stairs, indeed--I had heard no +sound from this quarter. Now, looking in with apprehensions which grew +with the continuing silence, I learned the reason. The room was empty! + +Such a disappointment in the moment of triumph was hard to bear. I saw +myself, after all done and won, on the point of being again outwitted, +distanced, it might be fooled. In frantic haste and excitement I +snatched up the stool beside me, and, dashing it twice against the +lock, forced it at last to yield. The door swung open, and I rushed +into the room, which, abandoned by those who had so lately occupied +it, presented nothing to detain me. I cast a single glance round, saw +that it was squalid, low-roofed, unfurnished, a mere prison; then +swiftly crossing the floor, I made for a door at the farther end, +which my eye had marked from the first. A candle stood flaring and +guttering on a stool, and as I passed I took it up. + +Somewhat to my surprise the door yielded to my touch. In trembling +haste--for what might not befall the women while I fumbled with doors +or wandered in passages?--I flung it wide, and passing through it, +found myself at the head of a narrow, mean staircase, leading, +doubtless, to the servants' offices. At this, and seeing no hindrance +before me, I took heart of grace, reflecting that mademoiselle might +have escaped from the house this way. Though it would now be too late +to quit the city, I might still overtake her, and all end well. +Accordingly I hurried down the stairs, shading my candle as I went +from a cold draught of air which met me, and grew stronger as I +descended; until reaching the bottom at last, I came abruptly upon an +open door, and an old, wrinkled, shrivelled woman. + +The hag screamed at sight of me, and crouched down on the floor; and +doubtless, with my drawn sword, and the blood dripping from my chin +and staining all the front of my doublet, I looked tierce and uncanny +enough. But I felt it was no time for sensibility--I was panting to be +away--and I demanded of her sternly where they were. She seemed to +have lost her voice--through fear, perhaps--and for answer only stared +at me stupidly; but on my handling my weapon with some readiness she +so far recovered her senses as to utter two loud screams, one after +the other, and point to the door beside her. I doubted her; and yet I +thought in her terror she must be telling the truth, the more as I saw +no other door. In any case I must risk it, so, setting the candle down +on the step beside her, I passed out. + +For a moment the darkness was so intense that I felt my way with my +sword before me, in absolute ignorance where I was or on what my foot +might next rest. I was at the mercy of anyone who chanced to be lying +in wait for me; and I shivered as the cold damp wind struck my cheek +and stirred my hair. But by-and-by, when I had taken two or three +steps, my eyes grew accustomed to the gloom, and I made out the naked +boughs of trees between myself and the sky, and guessed that I was in +a garden. My left hand, touching a shrub, confirmed me in this belief, +and in another moment I distinguished something like the outline of a +path stretching away before me. Following it rapidly--as rapidly as I +dared--I came to a corner, as it seemed to me, turned it blindly, and +stopped short, peering into a curtain of solid blackness which barred +my path, and overhead mingled confusedly with the dark shapes of +trees. But this, too, after a brief hesitation, I made out to be a +wall. Advancing to it with outstretched hands, I felt the woodwork of +a door, and, groping about, lit presently on a loop of cord. I pulled +at this, the door yielded, and I went out. + +I found myself in a narrow, dark lane, and looking up and down +discovered, what I might have guessed before, that it was the Ruelle +d'Arcy. But mademoiselle? Fanchette? Simon? Where were they? No one +was to be seen. Tormented by doubts, I lifted up my voice and called +on them in turn; first on mademoiselle, then on Simon Fleix. In vain; +I got no answer. High up above me I saw, as I stood back a little, +lights moving in the house I had left; and the suspicion that, after +all, the enemy had foiled me grew upon me. Somehow they had decoyed +mademoiselle to another part of the house, and then the old woman had +misled me! + +I turned fiercely to the door, which I had left ajar, resolved to +re-enter by the way I had come, and have an explanation whether or no. +To my surprise--for I had not moved six paces from the door nor heard +the slightest sound--I found it not only closed but bolted--bolted +both at top and bottom, as I discovered on trying it. + +I fell on that to kicking it furiously, desperately; partly in a +tempest of rage and chagrin, partly in the hope that I might frighten +the old woman, if it was she who had closed it, into opening it again. +In vain, of course; and presently I saw this and desisted, and, still +in a whirl of haste and excitement, set off running towards the place +where I had left Simon Fleix and the horses. It was fully six o'clock +as I judged; but some faint hope that I might find him there with +mademoiselle and her woman still lingered in my mind. I reached the +end of the lane, I ran to the very foot of the ramparts, I looked +right and left. In vain. The place was dark, silent, deserted. + +I called 'Simon! Simon! Simon Fleix!' but my only answer was the +soughing of the wind in the eaves, and the slow tones of the +convent-bell striking Six. + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + THE MAN AT THE DOOR. + + +There are some things, not shameful in themselves, which it shames one +to remember, and among these I count the succeeding hurry and +perturbation of that night: the vain search, without hope or clue, to +which passion impelled me, and the stubborn persistence with which I +rushed frantically from place to place long after the soberness of +reason would have had me desist. There was not, it seems to me, +looking back now, one street or alley, lane or court, in Blois which I +did not visit again and again in my frantic wanderings; not a beggar +skulking on foot that night whom I did not hunt down and question; not +a wretched woman sleeping in arch or doorway whom I did not see and +scrutinise. I returned to my mother's lodging again and again, always +fruitlessly. I rushed to the stables and rushed away again, or stood +and listened in the dark, empty stalls, wondering what had happened, +and torturing myself with suggestions of this or that. And everywhere, +not only at the North-gate, where I interrogated the porters and found +that no party resembling that which I sought had passed out, but on +the _parvis_ of the Cathedral, where a guard was drawn up, and in the +common streets, where I burst in on one group and another with my +queries, I ran the risk of suspicion and arrest, and all that might +follow thereon. + +It was strange indeed that I escaped arrest. The wound in my chin +still bled at intervals, staining my doublet; and as I was without my +cloak, which I had left in the house in the Rue Valois, I had nothing +to cover my disordered dress. I was keenly, fiercely anxious. Stray +passers meeting me in the glare of a torch, or seeing me hurry by the +great braziers which burned where four streets met, looked askance at +me and gave me the wall; while men in authority cried to me to stay +and answer their questions. I ran from the one and the other with the +same savage impatience, disregarding everything in the feverish +anxiety which spurred me on and impelled me to a hundred imprudences, +such as at my age I should have blushed to commit. Much of this +feeling was due, no doubt, to the glimpse I had had of mademoiselle, +and the fiery words she had spoken; more, I fancy, to chagrin and +anger at the manner in which the cup of success had been dashed at the +last moment from my lips. + +For four hours I wandered through the streets, now hot with purpose, +now seeking aimlessly. It was ten o'clock when at length I gave up the +search, and, worn out both in body and mind, climbed the stairs at my +mother's lodgings and entered her room. An old woman sat by the fire, +crooning softly to herself, while she stirred something in a black +pot. My mother lay in the same heavy, deep sleep in which I had left +her. I sat down opposite the nurse (who cried out at my appearance) +and asked her dully for some food. When I had eaten it, sitting in a +kind of stupor the while, the result partly of my late exertions, and +partly of the silence which prevailed round me, I bade the woman call +me if any change took place; and then going heavily across to the +garret Simon had occupied, I lay down on his pallet, and fell into a +sound, dreamless sleep. + +The next day and the next night I spent beside my mother, watching the +life ebb fast away, and thinking with grave sorrow of her past and my +future. It pained me beyond measure to see her die thus, in a garret, +without proper attendance or any but bare comforts; the existence +which had once been bright and prosperous ending in penury and gloom, +such as my mother's love and hope and self-sacrifice little deserved. +Her state grieved me sharply on my own account too, seeing that I had +formed none of those familiar relations which men of my age have +commonly formed, and which console them for the loss of parents and +forbears; Nature so ordering it, as I have taken note, that men look +forward rather than backward, and find in the ties they form with the +future full compensation for the parting strands behind them. I was +alone, poverty-stricken, and in middle life, seeing nothing before me +except danger and hardship, and these unrelieved by hope or affection. +This last adventure, too, despite all my efforts, had sunk me deeper +in the mire; by increasing my enemies and alienating from me some to +whom I might have turned at the worst. In one other respect also it +had added to my troubles not a little; for the image of mademoiselle +wandering alone and unguarded through the streets, or vainly calling +on me for help, persisted in thrusting itself on my imagination when I +least wanted it, and came even between my mother's patient face and +me. + +I was sitting beside Madame de Bonne a little after sunset on the +second day, the woman who attended her being absent on an errand, when +I remarked that the lamp, which had been recently lit, and stood on a +stool in the middle of the room, was burning low and needed snuffing. +I went to it softly, and while stooping over it, trying to improve the +light, heard a slow, heavy step ascending the stairs. The house was +quiet, and the sound attracted my full attention. I raised myself and +stood listening, hoping that this might be the doctor, who had not +been that day. + +The footsteps passed the landing below, but at the first stair of the +next flight the person, whoever it was, stumbled, and made a +considerable noise. At that, or it might be a moment later, the step +still ascending, I heard a sudden rustling behind me, and, turning +quickly with a start, saw my mother sitting up in bed. Her eyes were +open, and she seemed fully conscious; which she had not been for days, +nor indeed since the last conversation I have recorded. But her face, +though it was now sensible, was pinched and white, and so drawn with +mortal fear that I believed her dying, and sprang to her, unable to +construe otherwise the pitiful look in her straining eyes. + +'Madame,' I said, hastily passing my arm round her, and speaking with +as much encouragement as I could infuse into my voice, 'take comfort. +I am here. Your son.' + +'Hush!' she muttered in answer, laying her feeble hand on my wrist and +continuing to look, not at me, but at the door. 'Listen, Gaston! Don't +you hear? There it is again. Again!' + +For a moment I thought her mind still wandered, and I shivered, having +no fondness for hearing such things. Then I saw she was listening +intently to the sound which had attracted my notice. The step had +reached the landing by this time. The visitor, whoever it was, paused +there a moment, being in darkness, and uncertain, perhaps, of the +position of the door; but in a little while I heard him move forward +again, my mother's fragile form, clasped as it was in my embrace, +quivering with each step he took, as though his weight stirred the +house. He tapped at the door. + +I had thought, while I listened and wondered, of more than one whom +this might be: the leech, Simon Fleix, Madame Bruhl, Fresnoy even. But +as the tap came, and I felt my mother tremble in my arms, +enlightenment came with it, and I pondered no more. I knew as well as +if she had spoken and told me. There could be only one man whose +presence had such power to terrify her, only one whose mere step, +sounding through the veil, could drag her back to consciousness and +fear! And that was the man who had beggared her, who had traded so +long on her terrors. + +I moved a little, intending to cross the floor softly, that when he +opened the door he might find me face to face with him; but she +detected the movement, and, love giving her strength, she clung to my +wrist so fiercely that I had not the heart, knowing how slender was +her hold on life and how near the brink she stood, to break from her. +I constrained myself to stand still, though every muscle grew tense as +a drawn bowstring, and I felt the strong rage rising in my throat and +choking me as I waited for him to enter. + +A log on the hearth gave way with a dull sound startling in the +silence. The man tapped again, and getting no answer, for neither of +us spoke, pushed the door slowly open, uttering before he showed +himself the words, 'Dieu vous benisse!' in a voice so low and smooth I +shuddered at the sound. The next moment he came in and saw me, and, +starting, stood at gaze, his head thrust slightly forward, his +shoulders bent, his hand still on the latch, amazement and frowning +spite in turn distorting his lean face. He had looked to find a weak, +defenceless woman, whom he could torture and rob at his will; he saw +instead a strong man armed, whose righteous anger he must have been +blind indeed had he failed to read. + +Strangest thing of all, we had met before! I knew him at once--he me. +He was the same Jacobin monk whom I had seen at the inn on the Claine, +and who had told me the news of Guise's death! + +I uttered an exclamation of surprise on making this discovery, and my +mother, freed suddenly, as it seemed, from the spell of fear, which +had given her unnatural strength, sank back on the bed. Her grasp +relaxed, and her breath came and went with so loud a rattle that I +removed my gaze from him, and bent over her, full of concern and +solicitude. Our eyes met. She tried to speak, and at last gasped, 'Not +now, Gaston! Let him--let him----' + +Her lips framed the word 'go,' but she could not give it sound. I +understood, however, and in impotent wrath I waved my hand to him to +begone. When I looked up he had already obeyed me. He had seized the +first opportunity to escape. The door was closed, the lamp burned +steadily, and we were alone. + +I gave her a little Armagnac, which stood beside the bed for such an +occasion, and she revived, and presently opened her eyes. But I saw at +once a great change in her. The look of fear had passed altogether +from her face, and one of sorrow, yet content, had taken its place. +She laid her hand in mine, and looked up at me, being too weak, as I +thought, to speak. But by-and-by, when the strong spirit had done its +work, she signed to me to lower my head to her mouth. + +'The King of Navarre,' she murmured--'you are sure, Gaston--he will +retain you in your--employments?' + +Her pleading eyes were so close to mine, I felt no scruples such as +some might have felt, seeing her so near death; but I answered firmly +and cheerfully, 'Madame, I am assured of it. There is no prince in +Europe so trustworthy or so good to his servants.' + +She sighed with infinite content, and blessed him in a feeble whisper. +'And if you live,' she went on, 'you will rebuild the old house, +Gaston. The walls are sound yet. And the oak in the hall was not +burned. There is a chest of linen at Gil's, and a chest with your +father's gold lace--but that is pledged,' she added dreamily. 'I +forgot.' + +'Madame,' I answered solemnly, 'it shall be done--it shall be done as +you wish, if the power lie with me.' + +She lay for some time after that murmuring prayers, her head supported +on my shoulder. I longed impatiently for the nurse to return, that I +might despatch her for the leech; not that I thought anything could be +done, but for my own comfort and greater satisfaction afterwards, and +that my mother might not die without some fitting attendance. The +house remained quiet, however, with that impressive quietness which +sobers the heart at such times, and I could not do this. And about six +o'clock my mother opened her eyes again. + +'This is not Marsac,' she murmured abruptly, her eyes roving from the +ceiling to the wall at the foot of the bed. + +'No, Madame,' I answered, leaning over her, 'you are in Blois. But I +am here--Gaston, your son.' + +She looked at me, a faint smile of pleasure stealing over her pinched +face. 'Twelve thousand livres a year,' she whispered, rather to +herself than to me, 'and an establishment, reduced a little, yet +creditable, very creditable.' For a moment she seemed to be dying in +my arms, but again opened her eyes quickly and looked me in the face. +'Gaston?' she said, suddenly and strangely. 'Who said Gaston? He is +with the King--I have blessed him; and his days shall be long in the +land!' Then, raising herself in my arms with a last effort of +strength, she cried loudly, 'Way there! Way for my son, the Sieur de +Marsac!' + +They were her last words. When I laid her down on the bed a moment +later, she was dead, and I was alone. + +Madame de Bonne, my mother, was seventy at the time of her death, +having survived my father eighteen years. She was Marie de Roche de +Loheac, third daughter of Raoul, Sieur de Loheac, on the Vilaine, and +by her great-grandmother, a daughter of Jean de Laval, was descended +from the ducal family of Rohan, a relationship which in after-times, +and under greatly altered circumstances, Henry Duke of Rohan +condescended to acknowledge, honouring me with his friendship on more +occasions than one. Her death, which I have here recorded, took place +on the fourth of January, the Queen-Mother of France, Catherine de +Medicis, dying a little after noon on the following day. + +In Blois, as in every other town, even Paris itself, the Huguenots +possessed at this time a powerful organisation; and with the aid of +the surgeon, who showed me much respect in my bereavement, and +exercised in my behalf all the influence which skilful and honest men +of his craft invariably possess, I was able to arrange for my mother's +burial in a private ground about a league beyond the walls and near +the village of Chaverny. At the time of her death I had only thirty +crowns in gold remaining, Simon Fleix, to whose fate I could obtain no +clue, having carried off thirty-five with the horses. The whole of +this residue, however, with the exception of a handsome gratuity to +the nurse and a trifle spent on my clothes, I expended on the funeral, +desiring that no stain should rest on my mother's birth or my +affection. Accordingly, though the ceremony was of necessity private, +and indeed secret, and the mourners were few, it lacked nothing, I +think, of the decency and propriety which my mother loved; and which +she preferred, I have often heard her say, to the vulgar show that is +equally at the command of the noble and the farmer of taxes. + +Until she was laid in her quiet resting-place I stood in constant fear +of some interruption on the part either of Bruhl, whose connection +with Fresnoy and the abduction I did not doubt, or of the Jacobin +monk. But none came; and nothing happening to enlighten me as to the +fate of Mademoiselle de la Vire, I saw my duty clear before me. I +disposed of the furniture of my mother's room, and indeed of +everything which was saleable, and raised in this way enough money to +buy myself a new cloak--without which I could not travel in the wintry +weather--and to hire a horse. Sorry as the animal was, the dealer +required security, and I had none to offer. It was only at the last +moment I bethought me of the fragment of gold chain which mademoiselle +had left behind her, and which, as well as my mother's rings and +vinaigrette, I had kept back from the sale. This I was forced to lodge +with him. Having thus, with some pain and more humiliation, provided +means for the journey, I lost not an hour in beginning it. On the +eighth of January I set out for Rosny, to carry the news of my +ill-success and of mademoiselle's position whither I had looked a week +before to carry herself. + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + MAXIMILIAN DE BETHUNE, BARON DE ROSNY. + + +I looked to make the journey to Rosny in two days. But the heaviness +of the roads and the sorry condition of my hackney hindered me so +greatly that I lay the second night at Dreux, and, hearing the way was +still worse between that place and my destination, began to think that +I should be fortunate if I reached Rosny by the following noon. The +country in this part seemed devoted to the League, the feeling +increasing in violence as I approached the Seine. I heard nothing save +abuse of the King of France and praise of the Guise princes, and had +much ado, keeping a still tongue and riding modestly, to pass without +molestation or inquiry. + +Drawing near to Rosny, on the third morning, through a low marshy +country covered with woods and alive with game of all kinds, I began +to occupy myself with thoughts of the reception I was likely to +encounter; which, I conjectured, would be none of the most pleasant. +The daring and vigour of the Baron de Rosny, who had at this time the +reputation of being in all parts of France at once, and the familiar +terms on which he was known to live with the King of Navarre, gave me +small reason to hope that he would listen with indulgence to such a +tale as I had to tell. The nearer I came to the hour of telling it, +indeed, the more improbable seemed some of its parts, and the more +glaring my own carelessness in losing the token, and in letting +mademoiselle out of my sight in such a place as Blois. I saw this so +clearly now, and more clearly as the morning advanced, that I do not +know that I ever anticipated anything with more fear than this +explanation; which it yet seemed my duty to offer with all reasonable +speed. The morning was warm, I remember; cloudy, yet not dark; the air +near at hand full of moisture and very clear, with a circle of mist +rising some way off, and filling the woods with blue distances. The +road was deep and foundrous, and as I was obliged to leave it from +time to time in order to pass the worst places, I presently began to +fear that I had strayed into a by-road. After advancing some distance, +in doubt whether I should persevere or turn back, I was glad to see +before me a small house placed at the junction of several woodland +paths. From the bush which hung over the door, and a water-trough +which stood beside it, I judged the place to be an inn; and +determining to get my horse fed before I went farther, I rode up to +the door and rapped on it with my riding-switch. + +The position of the house was so remote that I was surprised to see +three or four heads thrust immediately out of a window. For a moment I +thought I should have done better to have passed by; but the landlord +coming out very civilly, and leading the way to a shed beside the +house, I reflected that I had little to lose, and followed him. I +found, as I expected, four horses tied up in the shed, the bits +hanging round their necks and their girths loosed; while my surprise +was not lessened by the arrival, before I had fastened up my own +horse, of a sixth rider, who, seeing us by the shed, rode up to us, +and saluted me as he dismounted. + +He was a tall, strong man in the prime of youth, wearing a plain, +almost mean suit of dust-coloured leather, and carrying no weapons +except a hunting-knife, which hung in a sheath at his girdle. He rode +a powerful silver-roan horse, and was splashed to the top of his high +untanned boots, as if he had come by the worst of paths, if by any. + +He cast a shrewd glance at the landlord as he led his horse into the +shed; and I judged from his brown complexion and quick eyes that he +had seen much weather and lived an out-of-door life. + +He watched me somewhat curiously while I mixed the fodder for my +horse; and when I went into the house and sat down in the first room I +came to, to eat a little bread-and-cheese which I had in my pouch, he +joined me almost immediately. Apparently he could not stomach my poor +fare, however, for after watching me for a time in silence, switching +his boot with his whip the while, he called the landlord, and asked +him, in a masterful way, what fresh meat he had, and particularly if +he had any lean collops, or a fowl. + +The fellow answered that there was nothing. His honour could have some +Lisieux cheese, he added, or some stewed lentils. + +'His honour does not want cheese,' the stranger answered peevishly, +'nor lentil porridge. And what is this I smell, my friend?' he +continued, beginning suddenly to sniff with vigour. 'I swear I smell +cooking.' + +'It is the hind-quarter of a buck, which is cooking for the four +gentlemen of the Robe; with a collop or two to follow,' the landlord +explained; and humbly excused himself on the ground that the gentlemen +had strictly engaged it for their own eating. + +'What? A whole quarter! _and_ a collop or two to follow!' the stranger +retorted, smacking his lips. 'Who are they?' + +'Two advocates and their clerks from the Parliament of Paris. They +have been viewing a boundary near here, and are returning this +afternoon,' the landlord answered. + +'No reason why they should cause a famine!' ejaculated the stranger +with energy. 'Go to them and say a gentleman, who has ridden far, and +fasted since seven this morning, requests permission to sit at their +table. A quarter of venison and a collop or two among four!' he +continued, in atone of extreme disgust. 'It is intolerable! And +advocates! Why, at that rate, the King of France should eat a whole +buck, and rise hungry! Don't you agree with me, sir?' he continued, +turning on me and putting the question abruptly. + +He was so comically and yet so seriously angry, and looked so closely +at me as he spoke, that I hastened to say I agreed with him perfectly. + +'Yet you eat cheese, sir!' he retorted irritably. + +I saw that, not withstanding the simplicity of his dress, he was a +gentleman, and so, forbearing to take offence, I told him plainly that +my purse being light I travelled rather as I could than as I would. + +'Is it so?' he answered hastily. 'Had I known that, I would have +joined you in the cheese! After all, I would rather fast with a +gentleman, than feast with a churl. But it is too late now. Seeing you +mix the fodder, I thought your pockets were full.' + +'The nag is tired, and has done its best,' I answered. + +He looked at me curiously, and as though he would say more. But the +landlord returning at that moment, he turned to him instead. + +'Well!' he said briskly. 'Is it all right?' + +'I am sorry, your honour,' the man answered, reluctantly, and with a +very downcast air, 'but the gentlemen beg to be excused.' + +'Zounds!' cried my companion roundly. 'They do, do they?' + +'They say they have no more, sir,' the landlord continued, faltering, +'than enough for themselves and a little dog they have with them.' + +A shout of laughter which issued at that moment from the other room +seemed to show that the quartette were making merry over my +companion's request. I saw his cheek redden, and looked for an +explosion of anger on his part; but instead he stood a moment in +thought in the middle of the floor, and then, much to the innkeeper's +relief, pushed a stool towards me, and called for a bottle of the best +wine. He pleasantly begged leave to eat a little of my cheese, which +he said looked better than the Lisieux, and, filling my glass with +wine, fell to as merrily as if he had never heard of the party in the +other room. + +I was more than a little surprised, I remember; for I had taken him to +be a passionate man, and not one to sit down under an affront. Still I +said nothing, and we conversed very well together. I noticed, however, +that he stopped speaking more than once, as though to listen; but +conceiving that he was merely reverting to the party in the other +room, who grew each moment more uproarious, I said nothing, and was +completely taken by surprise when he rose on a sudden, and, going to +the open window, leaned out, shading his eyes with his hand. + +'What is it?' I said, preparing to follow him. + +He answered by a quiet chuckle. 'You shall see,' he added the next +instant. + +I rose, and going to the window looked out over his shoulder. Three +men were approaching the inn on horseback. The first, a great burly, +dark-complexioned man with fierce black eyes and a feathered cap, had +pistols in his holsters and a short sword by his side. The other two, +with the air of servants, were stout fellows, wearing green doublets +and leather breeches. All three rode good horses, while a footman led +two hounds after them in a leash. On seeing us they cantered forward, +the leader waving his bonnet. + +'Halt, there!' cried my companion, lifting up his voice when they were +within a stone's throw of us. 'Maignan!' + +'My lord?' answered he of the feather, pulling up on the instant. + +'You will find six horses in the shed there,' the stranger cried in a +voice of command. 'Turn out the four to the left as you go in. Give +each a cut, and send it about its business!' + +The man wheeled his horse before the words were well uttered, and +crying obsequiously 'that it was done,' flung his reins to one of the +other riders and disappeared in the shed, as if the order given him +were the most commonplace one in the world. + +The party in the other room, however, by whom, all could be heard, +were not slow to take the alarm. They broke into a shout of +remonstrance, and one of their number, leaping from the window, asked +with a very fierce air what the devil we meant. The others thrust out +their faces, swollen and flushed with the wine they had drunk, and +with many oaths backed up his question. Not feeling myself called upon +to interfere, I prepared to see something diverting. + +My companion, whose coolness surprised me, had all the air of being as +little concerned as myself. He even persisted for a time in ignoring +the angry lawyer, and, turning a deaf ear to all the threats and abuse +with which the others assailed him, continued to look calmly at the +prospect. Seeing this, and that nothing could move him, the man who +had jumped through the window, and who seemed the most enterprising of +the party, left us at last and ran towards the stalls. The aspect of +the two serving-men, however, who rode up grinning, and made as if +they would ride him down, determined him to return; which he did, pale +with fury, as the last of the four horses clattered out, and after a +puzzled look round trotted off at its leisure into the forest. + +On this, the man grew more violent, as I have remarked frightened men +do; so that at last the stranger condescended to notice him. 'My good +sir,' he said coolly, looking at him through the window as if he had +not seen him before, 'you annoy me. What is the matter?' + +The fellow retorted with a vast amount of bluster, asking what the +devil we meant by turning out his horses. + +'Only to give you and the gentlemen with you a little exercise,' my +companion answered, with grim humour, and in a severe tone strange in +one so young--'than which, nothing is more wholesome after a full +meal. That, and a lesson in good manners. Maignan,' he continued, +raising his voice, 'if this person has anything more to say, answer +him. He is nearer your degree than mine.' + +And leaving the man to slink away like a whipped dog--for the mean are +ever the first to cringe--my friend turned from the window. Meeting my +eyes as he went back to his seat, he laughed. 'Well,' he said, 'what +do you think?' + +'That the ass in the lion's skin is very well till it meets the lion,' +I answered. + +He laughed again, and seemed pleased, as I doubt not he was. 'Pooh, +pooh!' he said. 'It passed the time, and I think I am quits with my +gentlemen now. But I must be riding. Possibly our roads may lie for a +while in the same direction, sir?' And he looked at me irresolutely. + +I answered cautiously that I was going to the town of Rosny. + +'You are not from Paris?' he continued, still looking at me. + +'No,' I answered. 'I am from the south.' + +'From Blois, perhaps?' + +I nodded. + +'Ah!' he said, making no comment, which somewhat surprised me, all men +at this time desiring news, and looking to Blois for it. 'I am riding +towards Rosny also. Let us be going.' + +But I noticed that as we got to horse, the man he called Maignan +holding his stirrup with much formality, he turned and looked at me +more than once with an expression in his eye which I could not +interpret; so that, being in an enemy's country, where curiosity was a +thing to be deprecated, I began to feel somewhat uneasy. However, as +he presently gave way to a fit of laughter, and seemed to be digesting +his late diversion at the inn, I thought no more of it, finding him +excellent company and a man of surprising information. + +Notwithstanding this my spirits began to flag as I approached Rosny; +and as on such occasions nothing is more trying than the well-meant +rallying of a companion ignorant of our trouble, I felt rather relief +than regret when he drew rein at four cross-roads a mile or so short +of the town, and, announcing that here our paths separated, took a +civil leave of me, and went his way with his servants. + +I dismounted at an inn at the extremity of the town, and, stopping +only to arrange my dress and drink a cup of wine, asked the way to the +Chateau, which was situate, I learned, no more than a third of a mile +away. I went thither on foot by way of an avenue of trees leading up +to a drawbridge and gateway. The former was down, but the gates were +closed, and all the formalities of a fortress in time of war were +observed on my admission, though the garrison appeared to consist only +of two or three serving-men and as many foresters. I had leisure after +sending in my name to observe that the house was old and partly +ruinous, but of great strength, covered in places with ivy, and +closely surrounded by woods. A staid-looking page came presently to +me, and led me up a narrow staircase to a parlour lighted by two +windows, looking, one into the courtyard, the other towards the town. +Here a tall man was waiting to receive me, who rose on my entrance and +came forward. Judge of my surprise when I recognised my acquaintance +of the afternoon! 'M. de Rosny?' I exclaimed, standing still and +looking at him in confusion. + +'The same, sir,' he answered, with a quiet smile. 'You come from the +King of Navarre, I believe, and on an errand to me. You may speak +openly. The king has no secrets from me.' + +There was something in the gravity of his demeanour as he waited for +me to speak which strongly impressed me; notwithstanding that he was +ten years younger than myself, and I had seen him so lately in a +lighter mood. I felt that his reputation had not belied him--that here +was a great man; and reflecting with despair on the inadequacy of the +tale I had to tell him, I paused to consider in what terms I should +begin. He soon put an end to this, however. 'Come, sir,' he said with +impatience. 'I have told you that you may speak out. You should have +been here four days ago, as I take it. Now you are here, where is the +lady?' + +'Mademoiselle de la Vire?' I stammered, rather to gain time than with +any other object. + +'Tut, tut!' he rejoined, frowning. 'Is there any other lady in the +question? Come, sir, speak out. Where have you left her? This is no +affair of gallantry,' he continued, the harshness of his demeanour +disagreeably surprising me, I that you need beat about the bush. The +king entrusted to you a lady, who, I have no hesitation in telling you +now, was in possession of certain State secrets. It is known that she +escaped safely from Chize and arrived safely at Blois. Where is she?' + +'I would to Heaven I knew, sir!' I exclaimed in despair, feeling the +painfulness of my position increased a hundredfold by his manner. 'I +wish to God I did.' + +'What is this?' he cried in a raised voice. 'You do not know where she +is? You jest, M. de Marsac.' + +'It were a sorry jest,' I answered, summoning up a rueful smile. And +on that, plunging desperately into the story which I have here set +down, I narrated the difficulties under which I had raised my escort, +the manner in which I came to be robbed of the gold token, how +mademoiselle was trepanned, the lucky chance by which I found her +again, and the final disappointment. He listened, but listened +throughout with no word of sympathy--rather with impatience, which +grew at last into derisive incredulity. When I had done he asked me +bluntly what I called myself. + +Scarcely understanding what he meant, I repeated my name. + +He answered, rudely and flatly, that it was impossible. 'I do not +believe it, sir!' he repeated, his brow dark. 'You are not the man. +You bring neither the lady nor the token, nor anything else by which I +can test your story. Nay, sir, do not scowl at me,' he continued +sharply. 'I am the mouthpiece of the King of Navarre, to whom this +matter is of the highest importance. I cannot believe that the man +whom he would choose would act so. This house you prate of in Blois, +for instance, and the room with the two doors? What were you doing +while mademoiselle was being removed?' + +'I was engaged with the men of the house,' I answered, striving to +swallow the anger which all but choked me. 'I did what I could. Had +the door given way, all would have been well.' + +He looked at me darkly. 'That is fine talking!' he said with a sneer. +Then he dropped his eyes and seemed for a time to fall into a brown +study, while I stood before him, confounded by this new view of the +case, furious, yet not knowing how to vent my fury, cut to the heart +by his insults, yet without hope or prospect of redress. + +'Come!' he said harshly, after two or three minutes of gloomy +reflection on his part and burning humiliation on mine, 'is there +anyone here who can identify you, or in any other way confirm your +story, sir? Until I know how the matter stands I can do nothing.' + +I shook my head in sullen shame. I might protest against his brutality +and this judgment of me, but to what purpose while he sheltered +himself behind his master? + +'Stay!' he said presently, with an abrupt gesture of remembrance. 'I +had nearly forgotten. I have some here who have been lately at the +King of Navarre's Court at St. Jean d'Angely. If you still maintain +that you are the M. de Marsac to whom this commission was entrusted, +you will doubtless have no objection to seeing them?' + +On this I felt myself placed in a most cruel dilemma. If I refused to +submit my case to the proposed ordeal, I stood an impostor confessed. +If I consented to see these strangers, it was probable they would not +recognise me, and possible that they might deny me in terms calculated +to make my position even worse, if that might be. I hesitated; but, +Rosny standing inexorable before me awaiting an answer, I finally +consented. + +'Good!' he said curtly. 'This way, if you please. They are here. The +latch is tricky. Nay, sir, it is my house.' + +Obeying the stern motion of his hand, I passed before him into the +next room, feeling myself more humiliated than I can tell by this +reference to strangers. For a moment I could see no one. The day was +waning, the room I entered was long and narrow, and illuminated only +by a glowing fire. Besides I was myself, perhaps, in some +embarrassment. I believed that my conductor had made a mistake, or +that his guests had departed, and I turned towards him to ask for an +explanation. He merely pointed onwards, however, and I advanced; +whereupon a young and handsome lady, who had been seated in the shadow +of the great fireplace, rose suddenly, as if startled, and stood +looking at me, the glow of the burning wood falling on one side of her +face and turning her hair to gold. + +'Well!' M. de Rosny said, in a voice which sounded a little odd in my +ears. 'You do not know madame, I think?' + +I saw that she was a complete stranger to me, and bowed to her without +speaking. The lady saluted me in turn ceremoniously and in silence. + +'Is there no one else here who should know you?' M. de Rosny +continued, in a tone almost of persiflage, and with the same change in +his voice which had struck me before; but now it was more marked. 'If +not, M. de Marsac, I am afraid---- But first look round, look round, +sir; I would not judge any man hastily.' + +He laid his hand on my shoulder as he finished in a manner so familiar +and so utterly at variance with his former bearing that I doubted if I +heard or felt aright. Yet I looked mechanically at the lady, and +seeing that her eyes glistened in the firelight, and that she gazed at +me very kindly, I wondered still more; falling, indeed, into a very +confusion of amazement. This was not lessened but augmented a +hundredfold when, turning in obedience to the pressure of de Rosny's +hand, I saw beside me, as if she had risen from the floor, another +lady--no other than Mademoiselle de la Vire herself! She had that +moment stepped out of the shadow of the great fireplace, which had +hitherto hidden her, and stood before me curtseying prettily, with the +same look on her face and in her eyes which madame's wore. + +'Mademoiselle!' I muttered, unable to take my eyes from her. + +'Mais oui, monsieur, mademoiselle,' she answered, curtseying lower, +with the air of a child rather than a woman. + +'Here?' I stammered, my mouth open, my eyes staring. + +'Here, sir--thanks to the valour of a brave man,' she answered, +speaking in a voice so low I scarcely heard her. And then, dropping +her eyes, she stepped back into the shadow, as if either she had said +too much already, or doubted her composure were she to say more. She +was so radiantly dressed, she looked in the firelight more like a +fairy than a woman, being of small and delicate proportions; and she +seemed in my eyes so different a person, particularly in respect of +the softened expression of her features, from the Mademoiselle de la +Vire whom I had known and seen plunged in sloughs and bent to the +saddle with fatigue, that I doubted still if I had seen aright, and +was as far from enlightenment as before. + +It was M. de Rosny himself who relieved me from the embarrassment I +was suffering. He embraced me in the most kind and obliging manner, +and this more than once; begging me to pardon the deception he had +practised upon me, and to which he had been impelled partly by the odd +nature of our introduction at the inn, and partly by his desire to +enhance the joyful surprise he had in store for me. 'Come,' he said +presently, drawing me to the window, 'let me show you some more of +your old friends.' + +I looked out, and saw below me in the courtyard my three horses drawn +up in a row, the Cid being bestridden by Simon Fleix, who, seeing me, +waved a triumphant greeting. A groom stood at the head of each horse, +and on either side was a man with a torch. My companion laughed +gleefully. 'It was Maignan's arrangement,' he said. 'He has a quaint +taste in such things.' + +After greeting Simon Fleix a hundred times, I turned back into the +room, and, my heart overflowing with gratitude and wonder, I begged M. +de Rosny to acquaint me with the details of mademoiselle's escape. + +'It was the most simple thing in the world,' he said, taking me by the +hand and leading me back to the hearth. 'While you were engaged with +the rascals, the old woman who daily brought mademoiselle's food grew +alarmed at the uproar, and came into the room to learn what it was. +Mademoiselle, unable to help you, and uncertain of your success, +thought the opportunity too good to be lost. She forced the old woman +to show her and her maid the way out through the garden. This done, +they ran down a lane, as I understand, and came immediately upon the +lad with the horses, who recognised them and helped them to mount. +They waited some minutes for you, and then rode off.' + +'But I inquired at the gate,' I said. + +'At which gate?' inquired M. de Rosny, smiling. + +'The North-gate, of course,' I answered. + +'Just so,' he rejoined with a nod. 'But they went out through the +West-gate and made a circuit. He is a strange lad, that of yours below +there. He has a head on his shoulder, M. de Marsac. Well, two leagues +outside the town they halted, scarcely knowing how to proceed. By good +fortune, however, a horse-dealer of my acquaintance was at the inn. He +knew Mademoiselle de la Vire, and, hearing whither she was bound, +brought her hither without let or hindrance.' + +'Was he a Norman?' I asked. + +M. de Rosny nodded, smiling at me shrewdly. 'Yes,' he said, 'he told +me much about you. And now let me introduce you to my wife, Madame de +Rosny.' + +He led me up to the lady who had risen at my entrance, and who now +welcomed me as kindly as she had before looked on me, paying me many +pleasant compliments. I gazed at her with interest, having heard much +of her beauty and of the strange manner in which M. de Rosny, being +enamoured of two young ladies, and chancing upon both while lodging in +different apartments at an inn, had decided which he should visit and +make his wife. He appeared to read what was in my mind, for as I bowed +before her, thanking her for the obliging things which she had +uttered, and which for ever bound me to her service, he gaily pinched +her ear, and said, 'When you want a good wife, M. de Marsac, be sure +you turn to the right.' + +He spoke in jest, and having his own case only in his mind. But I, +looking mechanically in the direction he indicated, saw mademoiselle +standing a pace or two to my right in the shadow of the great +chimney-piece. I know not whether she frowned more or blushed more; +but this for certain, that she answered my look with one of sharp +displeasure, and, turning her back on me, swept quickly from the room, +with no trace in her bearing of that late tenderness and gratitude +which I had remarked. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + AT ROSNY. + + +The morning brought only fresh proofs of the kindness which M. de +Rosny had conceived for me. Awaking early I found on a stool beside my +clothes, a purse of gold containing a hundred crowns; and a youth +presently entering to ask me if I lacked anything, I had at first some +difficulty in recognising Simon Fleix, so sprucely was the lad +dressed, in a mode resembling Maignan's. I looked at the student more +than once before I addressed him by his name; and was as much +surprised by the strange change I observed in him--for it was not +confined to his clothes--as by anything which had happened since I +entered the house. I rubbed my eyes, and asked him what he had done +with his soutane. + +'Burned it, M. de Marsac,' he answered briefly. + +I saw that he had burned much, metaphorically speaking, besides his +soutane. He was less pale, less lank, less wo-begone than formerly, +and went more briskly. He had lost the air of crack-brained disorder +which had distinguished him, and was smart, sedate, and stooped less. +Only the odd sparkle remained in his eyes, and bore witness to the +same nervous, eager spirit within. + +'What are you going to do, then, Simon?' I asked, noting these changes +curiously. + +'I am a soldier,' he answered, 'and follow M. de Marsac.' + +I laughed. 'You have chosen a poor service, I am afraid,' I said, +beginning to rise; 'and one, too, Simon, in which it is possible you +may be killed. I thought that would not suit you,' I continued, to see +what he would say. But he answered nothing, and I looked at him in +great surprise. 'You have made up your mind, then, at last?' I said. + +'Perfectly,' he answered. + +'And solved all your doubts?' + +'I have no doubts.' + +'You are a Huguenot?' + +'That is the only true and pure religion,' he replied gravely. And +with apparent sincerity and devotion he repeated Beza's Confession of +Faith. + +This filled me with profound astonishment, but I said no more at the +time, though I had my doubts. I waited until I was alone with M. de +Rosny, and then I unbosomed myself on the matter; expressing my +surprise at the suddenness of the conversion, and at such a man, as I +had found the student to be, stating his views so firmly and +steadfastly, and with so little excitement. Observing that M. de Rosny +smiled but answered nothing, I explained myself farther. + +'I am surprised,' I said, 'because I have always heard it maintained +that clerkly men, becoming lost in the mazes of theology, seldom find +any sure footing; that not one in a hundred returns to his old faith, +or finds grace to accept a new one. I am speaking only of such, of +course, as I believe this lad to be--eager, excitable brains, learning +much, and without judgment to digest what they learn.' + +'Of such I also believe it to be true,' M. de Rosny answered, still +smiling. 'But even on them a little influence, applied at the right +moment, has much effect, M. de Marsac.' + +'I allow that,' I said. 'But my mother, of whom I have spoken to you, +saw much of this youth. His fidelity to her was beyond praise. Yet her +faith, though grounded on a rock, had no weight with him.' + +M. de Rosny shook his head, still smiling. + +'It is not our mothers who convert us,' he said. + +'What!' I cried, my eyes opened. 'Do you mean--do you mean that +Mademoiselle has done this?' + +'I fancy so,' he answered, nodding. 'I think my lady cast her spell +over him by the way. The lad left Blois with her, if what you say be +true, without faith in the world. He came to my hands two days later +the stoutest of Huguenots. It is not hard to read this riddle.' + +'Such conversions are seldom lasting,' I said. + +He looked at me queerly; and, the smile still hovering about his lips, +answered 'Tush, man! Why so serious? Theodore Beza himself could not +look dryer. The lad is in earnest, and there is no harm done.' + +And, Heaven knows, I was in no mood to suspect harm; nor inclined just +then to look at the dark side of things. It may be conceived how +delightful it was to me to be received as an equal and honoured guest +by a man, even then famous, and now so grown in reputation as to +overshadow all Frenchmen save his master; how pleasant to enjoy the +comforts and amiabilities of home, from which I had been long +estranged; to pour my mother's story into Madame's ears and find +comfort in her sympathy; to feel myself, in fine, once more a +gentleman with an acknowledged place in the world. Our days we spent +in hunting, or excursions of some kind, our evenings in long +conversations, which impressed me with an ever-growing respect for my +lord's powers. + +For there seemed to be no end either to his knowledge of France, or to +the plans for its development, which even then filled his brain, and +have since turned wildernesses into fruitful lands, and squalid towns +into great cities. Grave and formal, he could yet unbend; the most +sagacious of counsellors, he was a soldier also, and loved the +seclusion in which we lived the more that it was not devoid of danger; +the neighbouring towns being devoted to the League, and the general +disorder alone making it possible for him to lie unsuspected in his +own house. + +One thing only rendered my ease and comfort imperfect, and that was +the attitude which Mademoiselle de la Vire assumed towards me. Of her +gratitude in the first blush of the thing I felt no doubt, for not +only had she thanked me very prettily, though with reserve, on the +evening of my arrival, but the warmth of M. de Rosny's kindness left +me no choice, save to believe that she had given him an exaggerated +idea of my merits and services. I asked no more than this. Such good +offices left me nothing to expect or desire; my age and ill-fortune +placing me at so great a disadvantage that, far from dreaming of +friendship or intimacy with her, I did not even assume the equality in +our daily intercourse to which my birth, taken by itself, entitled me. +Knowing that I must appear in her eyes old, poor, and ill-dressed, and +satisfied with having asserted my conduct and honour, I was careful +not to trespass on her gratitude; and while forward in such courtesies +as could not weary her, I avoided with equal care every appearance of +pursuing her, or inflicting my company upon her. I addressed her +formally and upon formal topics only, such, I mean, as we shared with +the rest of our company; and reminded myself often that though we now +met in the same house and at the same table, she was still the +Mademoiselle de la Vire who had borne herself so loftily in the King +of Navarre's ante-chamber. This I did, not out of pique or wounded +pride, which I no more, God knows, harboured against her than against +a bird; but that I might not in my new prosperity forget the light in +which such a woman, young, spoiled, and beautiful, must still regard +me. + +Keeping to this inoffensive posture, I was the more hurt when I found +her gratitude fade with the hour. After the first two days, during +which I remarked that she was very silent, seldom speaking to me or +looking at me, she resumed much of her old air of disdain. For that I +cared little; but she presently went farther, and began to rake up the +incidents which had happened at St. Jean d'Angely, and in which I had +taken part. She continually adverted to my poverty while there, to the +odd figure I had cut, and the many jests her friends had made at my +expense. She seemed to take a pleasure positively savage in these, +gibing at me sometimes so bitterly as to shame and pain me, and bring +the colour to Madame de Rosny's cheeks. + +To the time we had spent together, on the other hand, she never or +rarely referred. One afternoon, however, a week after my arrival at +Rosny, I found her sitting alone in the parlour. I had not known she +was there, and I was for withdrawing at once with a bow and a muttered +apology. But she stopped me with an angry gesture. 'I do not bite,' +she said, rising from her stool and meeting my eyes, a red spot in +each cheek. 'Why do you look at me like that? Do you know, M. de +Marsac, that I have no patience with you.' And she stamped her foot on +the floor. + +'But, mademoiselle,' I stammered humbly, wondering what in the world +she meant, 'what have I done?' + +'Done?' she repeated angrily. 'Done? It is not what you have done, it +is what you are. I have no patience with you. Why are you so dull, +sir? Why are you so dowdy? Why do you go about with your doublet awry, +and your hair lank? Why do you speak to Maignan as if he were a +gentleman? Why do you look always solemn and polite, and as if all the +world were a preche? Why? Why? Why, I say?' + +She stopped from sheer lack of breath, leaving me as much astonished +as ever in my life. She looked so beautiful in her fury and fierceness +too, that I could only stare at her and wonder dumbly what it all +meant. + +'Well!' she cried impatiently, after bearing this as long as she +could, 'have you not a word to say for yourself? Have you no tongue? +Have you no will of your own at all, M. de Marsac?' + +'But, mademoiselle,' I began, trying to explain. + +'Chut!' she exclaimed, cutting me short before I could get farther, as +the way of women is. And then she added, in a changed tone, and very +abruptly, 'You have a velvet knot of mine, sir. Give it me.' + +'It is in my room,' I answered, astonished beyond measure at this +sudden change of subject, and equally sudden demand. + +'Then fetch it, sir, if you please,' she replied, her eyes flashing +afresh. 'Fetch it. Fetch it, I say! It has served its turn, and I +prefer to have it. Who knows but that some day you may be showing it +for a love-knot?' + +'Mademoiselle!' I cried, hotly. And I think that for the moment I was +as angry as she was. + +'Still, I prefer to have it,' she answered sullenly, casting down her +eyes. + +I was so much enraged, I went without a word and fetched it, and, +bringing it to her where she stood, in the same place, put it into her +hands. When she saw it some recollection, I fancy, of the day when she +had traced the cry for help on it, came to her in her anger; for she +took it from me with all her bearing altered. She trembled, and held +it for a moment in her hands, as if she did not know what to do with +it. She was thinking, doubtless, of the house in Blois and the peril +she had run there; and, being for my part quite willing that she +should think and feel how badly she had acted, I stood looking at her, +sparing her no whit of my glance. + +'The gold chain you left on my mother's pillow,' I said coldly, seeing +she continued silent, 'I cannot return to you at once, for I have +pledged it. But I will do so as soon as I can.' + +'You have pledged it?' she muttered, with her eyes averted. + +'Yes, mademoiselle, to procure a horse to bring me here,' I replied +drily. 'However, it shall be redeemed. In return, there is something I +too would ask.' + +'What?' she murmured, recovering herself with an effort, and looking +at me with something of her old pride and defiance. + +'The broken coin you have,' I said. 'The token, I mean. It is of no +use to you, for your enemies hold the other half. It might be of +service to me.' + +'How?' she asked curtly. + +'Because some day I may find its fellow, mademoiselle.' + +'And then?' she cried. She looked at me, her lips parted, her eyes +flashing. 'What then, when you have found its fellow, M. de Marsac?' + +I shrugged my shoulders. + +'Bah!' she exclaimed, clenching her little hand, and stamping her foot +on the floor in a passion I could not understand. 'That is you! That +is M. de Marsac all over. You say nothing, and men think nothing of +you. You go with your hat in your hand, and they tread on you. They +speak, and you are silent! Why, if I could use a sword as you can, I +would keep silence before no man, nor let any man save the King of +France cock his hat in my presence! But you! There! go, leave me. Here +is your coin. Take it and go. Send me that lad of yours to keep me +awake. At any rate he has brains, he is young, he is a man, he has a +soul, he can feel--if he were anything but a clerk.' + +She waved me off in such a wind of passion as might have amused me in +another, but in her smacked so strongly of ingratitude as to pain me +not a little. I went, however, and sent Simon to her; though I liked +the errand very ill, and no better when I saw the lad's face light up +at the mention of her name. But apparently she had not recovered her +temper when he reached her, for he fared no better than I had done; +coming away presently with the air of a whipped dog, as I saw from the +yew-tree walk where I was strolling. + +Still, after that she made it a habit to talk to him more and more; +and, Monsieur and Madame de Rosny being much taken up with one +another, there was no one to check her fancy or speak a word of +advice. Knowing her pride, I had no fears for her; but it grieved me +to think that the lad's head should be turned. A dozen times I made up +my mind to speak to her on his behalf; but for one thing it was not my +business, and for another I soon discovered that she was aware of my +displeasure, and valued it not a jot. For venturing one morning, when +she was in a pleasant humour, to hint that she treated those beneath +her too inhumanly, and with an unkindness as little becoming noble +blood as familiarity, she asked me scornfully if I did not think she +treated Simon Fleix well enough. To which I had nothing to answer. + +I might here remark on the system of secret intelligence by means of +which M. de Rosny, even in this remote place, received news of all +that was passing in France. But it is common fame. There was no coming +or going of messengers, which would quickly have aroused suspicion in +the neighbouring town, nor was it possible even for me to say exactly +by what channels news came. But come it did, and at all hours of the +day. In this way we heard of the danger of La Ganache and of the +effort contemplated by the King of Navarre for its relief. M. de Rosny +not only communicated these matters to me without reserve, but engaged +my affections by farther proofs of confidence such as might well have +flattered a man of greater importance. + +I have said that, as a rule, there was no coming or going of +messengers. But one evening, returning from the chase with one of the +keepers, who had prayed my assistance in hunting down a crippled doe, +I was surprised to find a strange horse, which had evidently been +ridden hard and far, standing smoking in the yard. Inquiring whose it +was, I learned that a man believed by the grooms to be from Blois had +just arrived and was closeted with the baron. An event so far out of +the ordinary course of things naturally aroused my wonder; but +desiring to avoid any appearance of curiosity, which, if indulged, is +apt to become the most vulgar of vices, I refrained from entering the +house, and repaired instead to the yew-walk. I had scarcely, however, +heated my blood, a little chilled with riding, before the page came to +me to fetch me to his master. + +I found M. de Rosny striding up and down his room, his manner so +disordered and his face disfigured by so much grief and horror that I +started on seeing him. My heart sinking in a moment, I did not need to +look at Madame, who sat weeping silently in a chair, to assure myself +that something dreadful had happened. The light was failing, and a +lamp had been brought into the room. M. de Rosny pointed abruptly to a +small piece of paper which lay on the table beside it, and, obeying +his gesture, I took this up and read its contents, which consisted of +less than a score of words. + +'He is ill and like to die,' the message ran, 'twenty leagues south of +La Ganache. Come at all costs. P. M.' + +'Who?' I said stupidly--stupidly, for already I began to understand. +'Who is ill and like to die?' + +M. de Rosny turned to me, and I saw that the tears were trickling +unbidden down his cheeks. 'There is but one he for me,' he cried. 'May +God spare that one! May He spare him to France, which needs him, to +the Church, which hangs on him, and to me, who love him! Let him not +fall in the hour of fruition. O Lord, let him not fall!' And he sank +on to a stool, and remained in that posture with his face in his +hands, his broad shoulders shaken with grief. + +'Come, sir,' I said, after a pause sacred to sorrow and dismay; 'let +me remind you that while there is life there is hope.' + +'Hope?' + +'Yes, M. de Rosny, hope,' I replied more cheerfully. He has work to +do. He is elected, called, and chosen; the Joshua of his people, as M. +d'Amours rightly called him. God will not take him yet. You shall see +him and be embraced by him, as has happened a hundred times. Remember, +sir, the King of Navarre is strong, hardy, and young, and no doubt in +good hands.' + +'Mornay's,' M. de Rosny cried, looking up with contempt in his eye. + +Yet from that moment he rallied, spurred, I think, by the thought that +the King of Navarre's recovery depended under God on M. de Mornay; +whom he was ever inclined to regard as his rival. He began to make +instant preparations for departure from Rosny, and bade me do so also, +telling me, somewhat curtly and without explanation, that he had need +of me. The danger of so speedy a return to the South, where the full +weight of the Vicomte de Turenne's vengeance awaited me, occurred to +me strongly; and I ventured, though with a little shame, to mention +it. But M. de Rosny, after gazing at me a moment in apparent doubt, +put the objection aside with a degree of peevishness unusual in him, +and continued to press on his arrangements as earnestly as though they +did not include separation from a wife equally loving and beloved. + +Having few things to look to myself, I was at leisure, when the hour +of departure came, to observe both the courage with which Madame de +Rosny supported her sorrow, 'for the sake of France,' and the unwonted +tenderness which Mademoiselle de la Vire, lifted for once above +herself, lavished on her. I seemed to stand--happily in one light, and +yet the feeling was fraught with pain--outside their familiar +relations; yet, having made my adieux as short and formal as possible, +that I might not encroach on other and more sacred ones, I found at +the last moment something in waiting for me. I was surprised as I rode +under the gateway a little ahead of the others, by something small and +light falling on the saddle-bow before me. Catching it before it could +slide to the ground, I saw, with infinite astonishment, that I held in +my hand a tiny velvet bow. + +To look up at the window of the parlour, which I have said was over +the archway, was my first impulse. I did so, and met mademoiselle's +eyes for a second, and a second only. The next moment she was gone. M. +de Rosny clattered through the gate at my heels, the servants behind +him. And we were on the road. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + M. DE RAMBOUILLET. + + +For a while we were but a melancholy party. The incident I have last +related--which seemed to admit of more explanations than one--left me +in a state of the greatest perplexity; and this prevailed with me for +a time, and was only dissipated at length by my seeing my own face, as +it were, in a glass. For, chancing presently to look behind me, I +observed that Simon Fleix was riding, notwithstanding his fine hat +and feather and his new sword, in a posture and with an air of +dejection difficult to exaggerate; whereon the reflection that master +and man had the same object in their minds--nay, the thought that +possibly he bore in his bosom a like token to that which lay warm in +mine--occurring to me, I roused myself as from some degrading dream, +and, shaking up the Cid, cantered forward to join Rosny, who, in no +cheerful mood himself, was riding steadily forward, wrapped to his +eyes in his cloak. + +The news of the King of Navarre's illness had fallen on him, indeed, +in the midst of his sanguine scheming with the force of a thunderbolt. +He saw himself in danger of losing at once the master he loved and the +brilliant future to which he looked forward; and amid the imminent +crash of his hopes and the destruction of the system in which he +lived, he had scarcely time to regret the wife he was leaving at Rosny +or the quiet from which he was so suddenly called. His heart was in +the South, at La Ganache, by Henry's couch. His main idea was to get +there quickly at all risks. The name of the King of Navarre's +physician was constantly on his lips. 'Dortoman is a good man. If +anyone can save him, Dortoman will,' was his perpetual cry. And +whenever he met anyone who had the least appearance of bearing news, +he would have me stop and interrogate him, and by no means let the +traveller go until he had given us the last rumour from Blois--the +channel through which all the news from the South reached us. + +An incident which occurred at the inn that evening cheered him +somewhat; the most powerful minds being prone, I have observed, to +snatch at omens in times of uncertainty. An elderly man, of strange +appearance, and dressed in an affected and bizarre fashion, was seated +at table when we arrived. Though I entered first in my assumed +capacity of leader of the party, he let me pass before him without +comment, but rose and solemnly saluted M. de Rosny, albeit the latter +walked behind me and was much more plainly dressed. Rosny returned his +greeting and would have passed on; but the stranger, interposing with +a still lower bow, invited him to take his seat, which was near the +fire and sheltered from the draught, at the same time making as if he +would himself remove to another place. + +'Nay,' said my companion, surprised by such an excess of courtesy, 'I +do not see why I should take your place, sir.' + +'Not mine only,' the old man rejoined, looking at him with a +particularity and speaking with an emphasis which attracted our +attention, 'but those of many others, who I can assure you will very +shortly yield them up to you, whether they will or not.' + +M. de Rosny shrugged his shoulders and passed on, affecting to suppose +the old man wandered. But privately he thought much of his words, and +more when he learned that he was an astrologer from Paris, who had the +name, at any rate in this country, of having studied under +Nostradamus. And whether he drew fresh hopes from this, or turned his +attention more particularly as we approached Blois to present matters, +certainly he grew more cheerful, and began again to discuss the +future, as though assured of his master's recovery. + +'You have never been to the King's Court?' he said presently, +following up, as I judged, a train of thought in his own mind. 'At +Blois, I mean.' + +'No; nor do I feel anxious to visit it,' I answered. 'To tell you the +truth, M. le Baron,' I continued with some warmth, 'the sooner we are +beyond Blois, the better I shall be pleased. I think we run some risk +there, and, besides, I do not fancy a shambles. I do not think I could +see the king without thinking of the Bartholomew, nor his chamber +without thinking of Guise.' + +'Tut, tut!' he said, 'you have killed a man before now.' + +'Many,' I answered. + +'Do they trouble you?' + +'No, but they were killed in fair fight,' I replied. 'That makes a +difference.' + +'To you,' he said drily. 'But you are not the King of France, you see. +Should you ever come across him, he continued, flicking his horse's +ears, a faint smile on his lips, 'I will give you a hint. Talk to him +of the battles at Jarnac and Moncontour, and praise your Conde's +father! As Conde lost the fight and he won it, the compliment comes +home to him. The more hopelessly a man has lost his powers, my friend, +the more fondly he regards them, and the more highly he prizes the +victories he can no longer gain.' + +'Ugh!' I muttered. + +'Of the two parties at Court,' Rosny continued, calmly overlooking my +ill-humour, 'trust D'Aumont and Biron and the French clique. They are +true to France at any rate. But whomsoever you see consort with the +two Retzs--the King of Spain's jackals as men name them--avoid him for +a Spaniard and a traitor.' + +'But the Retzs are Italians,' I objected peevishly. + +'The same thing,' he answered curtly. 'They cry, "Vive le Roi!" but +privately they are for the League, or for Spain, or for whatever may +most hurt us; who are better Frenchmen than themselves, and whose +leader will some day, if God spare his life, be King of France.' + +'Well, the less I have to do with the one or the other of them, save +at the sword's point, the better I shall be pleased,' I rejoined. + +On that he looked at me with a queer smile; as was his way when he had +more in his mind than appeared. And this, and something special in the +tone of his conversation, as well, perhaps, as my own doubts about my +future and his intentions regarding me, gave me an uneasy feeling; +which lasted through the day, and left me only when more immediate +peril presently rose to threaten us. + +It happened in this way. We had reached the outskirts of Blois, and +were just approaching the gate, hoping to pass through it without +attracting attention, when two travellers rode slowly out of a lane, +the mouth of which we were passing. They eyed us closely as they +reined in to let us go by; and M. de Rosny, who was riding with his +horse's head at my stirrup, whispered me to press on. Before I could +comply, however, the strangers cantered by us, and turning in the +saddle when abreast of us looked us in the face. A moment later one of +them cried loudly, 'It is he! and both pulled their horses across the +road, and waited for us to come up. + +Aware that if M. de Rosny were discovered he would be happy if he +escaped with imprisonment, the king being too jealous of his Catholic +reputation to venture to protect a Huguenot, however illustrious, I +saw that the situation was desperate; for, though we were five to +two, the neighbourhood of the city--the gate being scarcely a bow-shot +off--rendered flight or resistance equally hopeless. I could think of +nothing for it save to put a bold face on the matter, and, M. de Rosny +doing the same, we advanced in the most innocent way possible. + +'Halt, there!' cried one of the strangers sharply. 'And let me tell +you, sir, you are known.' + +'What if I am?' I answered impatiently, still pressing on. 'Are you +highwaymen, that you stop the way?' + +The speaker on the other side looked at me keenly, but in a moment +retorted, 'Enough trifling, sir! Who you are I do not know. But the +person riding at your rein is M. de Rosny. Him I do know, and I warn +him to stop.' + +I thought the game was lost, but to my surprise my companion answered +at once and almost in the same words I had used. 'Well, sir, and what +of that?' he said. + +'What of that?' the stranger exclaimed, spurring his horse so as still +to bar the way. 'Why, only this, that you must be a madman to show +yourself on this side of the Loire.' + +'It is long since I have seen the other,' was my companion's unmoved +answer. + +'You are M. de Rosny? You do not deny it?' the man cried in +astonishment. + +'Certainly I do not deny it,' M. de Rosny answered bluntly. 'And more, +the day has been, sir,' he continued with sudden fire, 'when few at +his Majesty's Court would have dared to chop words with Solomon de +Bethune, much less to stop him on the highway within a mile of the +palace. But times are changed with me, sir, and it would seem with +others also, if true men rallying to his Majesty in his need are to be +challenged by every passer on the road.' + +'What! Are you Solomon de Bethune?' the man cried incredulously. +Incredulously, but his countenance fell, and his voice was full of +chagrin and disappointment. + +'Who else, sir?' M. de Rosny replied haughtily. 'I am, and, as far as +I know, I have as much right on this side of the Loire as any other +man.' + +'A thousand pardons.' + +'If you are not satisfied----' + +'Nay, M. de Rosny, I am perfectly satisfied.' + +The stranger repeated this with a very crestfallen air, adding, 'A +thousand pardons'; and fell to making other apologies, doffing his hat +with great respect. 'I took you, if you will pardon me saying so, for +your Huguenot brother, M. Maximilian,' he explained. 'The saying goes +that he is at Rosny.' + +'I can answer for that being false,' M. de Rosny answered +peremptorily, 'for I have just come from there, and I will answer for +it he is not within ten leagues of the place. And now, sir, as we +desire to enter before the gates shut, perhaps you will excuse us.' +With which he bowed, and I bowed, and they bowed, and we separated. +They gave us the road, which M. de Rosny took with a great air, and we +trotted to the gate, and passed through it without misadventure. + +The first street we entered was a wide one, and my companion took +advantage of this to ride up abreast of me. 'That is the kind of +adventure our little prince is fond of,' he muttered. 'But for my +part, M. de Marsac, the sweat is running down my forehead. I have +played the trick more than once before, for my brother and I are as +like as two peas. And yet it would have gone ill with us if the fool +had been one of his friends.' + +'All's well that ends well,' I answered in a low voice, thinking it an +ill time for compliments. As it was, the remark was unfortunate, for +M. de Rosny was still in the act of reining back when Maignan called +out to us to say we were being followed. + +I looked behind, but could see nothing except gloom and rain and +overhanging eaves and a few figures cowering in doorways. The +servants, however, continued to maintain that it was so, and we held, +without actually stopping, a council of war. If detected, we were +caught in a trap, without hope of escape; and for the moment I am sure +M. de Rosny regretted that he had chosen this route by Blois--that he +had thrust himself, in his haste and his desire to take with him the +latest news, into a snare so patent. The castle--huge, dark, and +grim--loomed before us at the end of the street in which we were, and, +chilled as I was myself by the sight, I could imagine how much more +appalling it must appear to him, the chosen counsellor of his master, +and the steadfast opponent of all which it represented. + +Our consultation came to nothing, for no better course suggested +itself than to go as we had intended to the lodging commonly used by +my companion. We did so, looking behind us often, and saying more than +once that Maignan must be mistaken. As soon as we had dismounted, +however, and gone in, he showed us from the window a man loitering +near; and this confirmation of our alarm sending as to our expedients +again, while Maignan remained watching in a room without a light, I +suggested that I might pass myself off, though ten years older, for, +my companion. + +'Alas!' he said, drumming with his fingers on the table, 'there are +too many here who know me to make that possible. I thank you all the +same.' + +'Could you escape on foot? Or pass the wall anywhere, or slip through +the gates early?' I suggested. + +'They might tell us at the Bleeding Heart,' he answered. 'But I doubt +it. I was a fool, sir, to put my neck into Mendoza's halter, and that +is a fact. But here is Maignan. What is it, man?' he continued +eagerly. + +'The watcher is gone, my lord,' the equerry answered. + +'And has left no one?' + +'No one that I can see.' + +We both went into the next room and looked from the windows. The man +was certainly not where we had seen him before. But the rain was +falling heavily, the eaves were dripping, the street was a dark cavern +with only here and there a spark of light, and the fellow might be +lurking elsewhere. Maignan, being questioned, however, believed he had +gone off of set purpose. + +'Which may be read half a dozen ways,' I remarked. + +'At any rate, we are fasting,' M. de Rosny answered. 'Give me a full +man in a fight. Let us sit down and eat. It is no good jumping in the +dark, or meeting troubles half way.' + +We were not through our meal, however, Simon Fleix waiting on us with +a pale face, when Maignan came in again from the dark room. 'My lord,' +he said quietly, 'three men have appeared. Two of them remain twenty +paces away. The third has come to the door.' + +As he spoke we heard a cautious summons below. Maignan was for going +down, but his master bade him stand. 'Let the woman of the house go,' +he said. + +I remarked and long remembered M. de Rosny's _sangfroid_ on this +occasion. His pistols he had already laid on a chair beside him, +throwing his cloak over them; and now, while we waited, listening in +breathless silence, I saw him hand a large slice of bread-and-meat to +his equerry, who, standing behind his chair, began eating it with the +same coolness. Simon Fleix, on the other hand, stood gazing at the +door, trembling in every limb, and with so much of excitement and +surprise in his attitude that I took the precaution of bidding him, in +a low voice, do nothing without orders. At the same moment it occurred +to me to extinguish two of the four candles which had been lighted; +and I did so, M. de Rosny nodding assent, just as the muttered +conversation which was being carried on below ceased, and a man's +tread sounded on the stairs. + +It was followed immediately by a knock on the outside of our door. +Obeying my companion's look, I cried, 'Enter!' + +A slender man of middle height, booted and wrapped up, with his face +almost entirely hidden by a fold of his cloak, came in quickly, and, +closing the door behind him, advanced towards the table. 'Which is M. +de Rosny?' he said. + +Rosny had carefully turned his face from the light, but at the sound +of the other's voice he sprang up with a cry of relief. He was about +to speak, when the new-comer, raising his hand peremptorily, +continued, 'No names, I beg. Yours, I suppose, is known here. Mine is +not, nor do I desire it should be. I want speech of you, that is all.' + +'I am greatly honoured,' M. de Rosny replied, gazing at him eagerly. +'Yet, who told you I was here?' + +'I saw you pass under a lamp in the street,' the stranger answered. 'I +knew your horse first, and you afterwards, and bade a groom follow +you. Believe me,' he added, with a gesture of the hand, 'you have +nothing to fear from me.' + +'I accept the assurance in the spirit in which it is offered,' my +companion answered with a graceful bow, 'and think myself fortunate in +being recognised'--he paused a moment and then continued--'by a +Frenchman and a man of honour.' + +The stranger shrugged his shoulders. 'Your pardon, then,' he said, 'if +I seem abrupt. My time is short. I want to do the best with it I can. +Will you favour me?' + +I was for withdrawing, but M. de Rosny ordered Maignan to place lights +in the next room, and, apologising to me very graciously, retired +thither with the stranger; leaving me relieved indeed by these +peaceful appearances, but full of wonder and conjectures who this +might be, and what the visit portended. At one moment I was inclined +to identify the stranger with M. de Rosny's brother; at another with +the English ambassador; and then, again, a wild idea that he might be +M. de Bruhl occurred to me. The two remained together about a quarter +of an hour and then came out, the stranger leading the way, and +saluting me politely as he passed through the room. At the door he +turned to say, 'At nine o'clock, then?' + +'At nine o'clock,' M. de Rosny replied, holding the door open. 'You +will excuse me if I do not descend, Marquis?' + +'Yes, go back, my friend,' the stranger answered. And, lighted by +Maignan, whose face on such occasions could assume the most stolid air +in the world, he disappeared down the stairs, and I heard him go out. + +M. de Rosny turned to me, his eyes sparkling with joy, his face and +mien full of animation. 'The King of Navarre is better,' he said. 'He +is said to be out of danger. What do you think of that, my friend?' + +'That is the best news I have heard for many a day,' I answered. And I +hastened to add, that France and the Religion had reason to thank God +for His mercy. + +'Amen to that,' my patron replied reverently. 'But that is not +all--that is not all.' And he began to walk up and down the room +humming the 118th Psalm a little above his breath-- + + + La voici l'heureuse journee + Que Dieu a faite a plein desir; + Par nous soit joie demenee, + Et prenons en elle plaisir. + + +He continued, indeed, to walk up and down the floor so long, and with +so joyful a countenance and demeanour, that I ventured at last to +remind him of my presence, which he had clearly forgotten. 'Ha! to +be sure,' he said, stopping short and looking at me with the utmost +good-humour. 'What time is it? Seven. Then until nine o'clock, my +friend, I crave your indulgence. In fine, until that time I must keep +counsel. Come, I am hungry still. Let us sit down, and this time I +hope we may not be interrupted. Simon, set us on a fresh bottle. Ha! +ha! _Vivent le Roi et le Roi de Navarre!_' And again he fell to +humming the same psalm-- + + + O Dieu eternel, je te prie, + Je te prie, ton roi maintiens: + O Dieu, je te prie et reprie, + Sauve ton roi et l'entretiens! + + +doing so with a light in his eyes and a joyous emphasis, which +impressed me the more in a man ordinarily so calm and self-contained. +I saw that something had occurred to gratify him beyond measure, and, +believing his statement that this was not the good news from La +Ganache only, I waited with the utmost interest and anxiety for the +hour of nine, which had no sooner struck than our former visitor +appeared with the same air of mystery and disguise which had attended +him before. + +M. de Rosny, who had risen on hearing his step and had taken up his +cloak, paused with it half on and half off, to cry anxiously, 'All is +well, is it not?' + +'Perfectly,' the stranger replied, with a nod. + +'And my friend?' + +'Yes, on condition that you answer for his discretion and fidelity.' +And the stranger glanced involuntarily at me, who stood uncertain, +whether to hold my ground or retire. + +'Good,' M. de Rosny cried. Then he turned to me with a mingled air of +dignity and kindness, and continued: 'This is the gentleman. M. de +Marsac, I am honoured with permission to present you to the Marquis de +Rambouillet, whose interest and protection I beg you to deserve, for +he is a true Frenchman and a patriot whom I respect.' + +M. de Rambouillet saluted me politely. 'Of a Brittany family, I +think?' he said. + +I assented; and he replied with something complimentary. But +afterwards he continued to look at me in silence with a keenness and +curiosity I did not understand. At last, when M. de Rosny's impatience +had reached a high pitch, the marquis seemed impelled to add +something. 'You quite understand, M. de Rosny?' he said. 'Without +saying anything disparaging of M. de Marsac, who is, no doubt, a man +of honour'--and he bowed to me very low--'this is a delicate matter, +and you will introduce no one into it, I am sure, whom you cannot +trust as yourself.' + +'Precisely,' M. de Rosny replied, speaking drily, yet with a grand air +which fully matched his companion's. 'I am prepared to trust this +gentleman not only with my life but with my honour.' + +'Nothing more remains to be said then,' the marquis rejoined, bowing +to me again. 'I am glad to have been the occasion of a declaration so +flattering to you, sir.' + +I returned his salute in silence, and obeying M. de Rosny's muttered +direction put on my cloak and sword. M. de Rosny took up his pistols. + +'You will have no need of those,' the marquis said with a high glance. + +'Where we are going, no,' my companion answered, calmly continuing to +dispose them about him. 'But the streets are dark and not too safe.' + +M. de Rambouillet laughed. 'That is the worst of you Huguenots,' he +said. 'You never know when to lay suspicion aside.' + +A hundred retorts sprang to my lips. I thought of the Bartholomew, of +the French fury of Antwerp, of half a dozen things which make my blood +boil to this day. But M. de Rosny's answer was the finest of all. +'That is true, I am afraid,' he said quietly. 'On the other hand, you +Catholics--take the late M. de Guise for instance--have the habit of +erring on the other side, I think, and sometimes trust too far.' + +The marquis, without making any answer to this home-thrust, led the +way out, and we followed, being joined at the door of the house by a +couple of armed lackeys, who fell in behind us. We went on foot. The +night was dark, and the prospect out of doors was not cheering. The +streets were wet and dirty, and notwithstanding all our care we fell +continually into pitfalls or over unseen obstacles. Crossing the +_parvis_ of the cathedral, which I remembered, we plunged in silence +into an obscure street near the river, and so narrow that the decrepit +houses shut out almost all view of the sky. The gloom of our +surroundings, no less than my ignorance of the errand on which we were +bound, filled me with anxiety and foreboding. My companions keeping +strict silence, however, and taking every precaution to avoid being +recognised, I had no choice but to do likewise. + +I could think, and no more. I felt myself borne along by an +irresistible current, whither and for what purpose I could not tell; +an experience to an extent strange at my age the influence of the +night and the weather. Twice we stood aside to let a party of +roisterers go by, and the excessive care M. de Rambouillet evinced on +these occasions to avoid recognition did not tend to reassure me or +make me think more lightly of the unknown business on which I was +bound. + +Reaching at last an open space, our leader bade us in a low voice be +careful and follow him closely. We did so, and crossed in this way and +in single file a narrow plank or wooden bridge; but whether water ran +below or a dry ditch only, I could not determine. My mind was taken up +at the moment with the discovery which I had just made, that the dark +building, looming huge and black before us with a single light +twinkling here and there at great heights, was the Castle of Blois. + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + VILAIN HERODES. + + +All the distaste and misliking I had expressed earlier in the day for +the Court of Blois recurred with fresh force in the darkness and +gloom; and though, booted and travel-stained as we were, I did not +conceive it likely that we should be obtruded on the circle about the +king, I felt none the less an oppressive desire to be through with our +adventure, and away from the ill-omened precincts in which I found +myself. The darkness prevented me seeing the faces of my companions; +but on M. de Rosny, who was not quite free himself, I think, from the +influences of the time and place, twitching my sleeve to enforce +vigilance, I noted that the lackeys had ceased to follow us, and that +we three were beginning to ascend a rough staircase cut in the rock. I +gathered, though the darkness limited my view behind as well as in +front to a few twinkling lights, that we were mounting the scarp from +the moat to the side wall of the castle; and I was not surprised when +the marquis muttered to us to stop, and knocked softly on the wood of +a door. + +M. de Rosny might have spared the touch he had laid on my sleeve, for +by this time I was fully and painfully sensible of the critical +position in which we stood, and was very little likely to commit an +indiscretion. I trusted he had not done so already! No doubt--it +flashed across me while we waited--he had taken care to safeguard +himself. But how often, I reflected, had all safeguards been set +aside and all precautions eluded by those to whom he was committing +himself! Guise had thought himself secure in this very building, which +we were about to enter. Coligny had received the most absolute of +safe-conducts from those to whom we were apparently bound. The end in +either case had been the same--the confidence of the one proving of no +more avail than the wisdom of the other. What if the King of France +thought to make his peace with his Catholic subjects--offended by the +murder of Guise--by a second murder of one as obnoxious to them as he +was precious to their arch-enemy in the South? Rosny was sagacious +indeed; but then I reflected with sudden misgiving that he was young, +ambitious, and bold. + +The opening of the door interrupted without putting an end to this +train of apprehension. A faint light shone out; so feebly as to +illumine little more than the stairs at our feet. The marquis +entered at once, M. de Rosny followed, I brought up the rear; and the +door was closed by a man who stood behind it. We found ourselves +crowded together at the foot of a very narrow staircase, which the +doorkeeper--a stolid pikeman in a grey uniform, with a small lanthorn +swinging from the crosspiece of his halberd--signed to us to ascend. I +said a word to him, but he only stared in answer, and M. de +Rambouillet, looking back and seeing what I was about, called to me +that it was useless, as the man was a Swiss and spoke no French. + +'This did not tend to reassure me; any more than did the chill +roughness of the wall which my hand touched as I groped upwards, or +the smell of bats which invaded my nostrils and suggested that the +staircase was little used and belonged to a part of the castle fitted +for dark and secret doings. + +We stumbled in the blackness up the steps, passing one door and then a +second before M. de Rambouillet whispered to us to stand, and knocked +gently at a third. + +The secrecy, the darkness, and above all the strange arrangements made +to receive us, filled me with the wildest conjectures. But when the +door opened and we passed one by one into a bare, unfurnished, +draughty gallery, immediately, as I judged, under the tiles, the +reality agreed with no one of my anticipations. The place was a mere +garret, without a hearth, without a single stool. Three windows, of +which one was roughly glazed, while the others were filled with oiled +paper, were set in one wall; the others displaying the stones and +mortar without disguise or ornament. Beside the door through which we +had entered stood a silent figure in the grey uniform I had seen +below, his lanthorn on the floor at his feet. A second door at the +farther end of the gallery, which was full twenty paces long, was +guarded in like manner. A couple of lanthorns stood in the middle of +the floor, and that was all. + +Inside the door, M. de Rambouillet with his finger on his lip stopped +us, and we stood a little group of three a pace in front of the +sentry, and with the empty room before us. I looked at M. de Rosny, +but he was looking at Rambouillet. The marquis had his back towards +me, the sentry was gazing into vacancy; so that baffled in my attempt +to learn anything from the looks of the other actors in the scene, I +fell back on my ears. The rain dripped outside and the moaning wind +rattled the casements; but mingled with these melancholy sounds--which +gained force, as such things always do, from the circumstances in +which we were placed and our own silence--I fancied I caught the +distant hum of voices and music and laughter. And that, I know not +why, brought M. de Guise again to my mind. + +The story of his death, as I had heard it from that accursed monk in +the inn on the Claine, rose up in all its freshness, with all its +details. I started when M. de Rambouillet coughed. I shivered when +Rosny shifted his feet. The silence grew oppressive. Only the stolid +men in grey seemed unmoved, unexpectant; so that I remember wondering +whether it was their nightly duty to keep guard over an empty garret, +the floor strewn with scraps of mortar and ends of tiles. + +The interruption, when it came at last, came suddenly. The sentry at +the farther end of the gallery started and fell back a pace. Instantly +the door beside him opened and a man came in, and closing it quickly +behind him, advanced up the room with an air of dignity, which even +his strange appearance and attire could not wholly destroy. + +He was of good stature and bearing, about forty years old as I judged, +his wear a dress of violet velvet with black points cut in the extreme +of the fashion. He carried a sword but no ruff, and had a cup and ball +of ivory--a strange toy much in vogue among the idle--suspended from +his wrist by a ribbon. He was lean and somewhat narrow, but so far I +found little fault with him. It was only when my eye reached his face, +and saw it rouged like a woman's and surmounted by a little turban, +that a feeling of scarcely understood disgust seized me, and I said to +myself, 'This is the stuff of which kings' minions are made!' + +To my surprise, however, M. de Rambouillet went to meet him with the +utmost respect, sweeping the dirty floor with his bonnet, and bowing +to the very ground. The newcomer acknowledged his salute with +negligent kindness. Remarking pleasantly 'You have brought a friend, I +think?' he looked towards us with a smile. + +'Yes, sire, he is here,' the marquis answered, stepping aside a +little. And with the word I understood that this was no minion, but +the king himself: Henry, the Third of the name, and the last of the +great House of Valois, which had ruled France by the grace of God for +two centuries and a half! I stared at him, and stared at him, scarcely +believing what I saw. For the first time in my life I was in the +presence of the king! + +Meanwhile M. de Rosny, to whom he was, of course, no marvel, had gone +forward and knelt on one knee. The king raised him graciously, and +with an action which, viewed apart from his woman's face and silly +turban, seemed royal and fitting. 'This is good of you, Rosny,' he +said. 'But it is only what I expected of you.' + +'Sire,' my companion answered, 'your Majesty has no more devoted +servant than myself, unless it be the king my master.' + +'By my faith,' Henry answered with energy--'and if I am not a good +churchman, whatever those rascally Parisians say, I am nothing--by my +faith, I think I believe you!' + +'If your Majesty would believe me in that and in some other things +also,' M. de Rosny answered, 'it would be very well for France.' +Though he spoke courteously, he threw so much weight and independence +into his words that I thought of the old proverb, 'A good master, a +bold servant.' + +'Well, that is what we are here to see,' the king replied. 'But one +tells me one thing,' he went on fretfully, 'and one another, and which +am I to believe?' + +'I know nothing of others, sire,' Rosny answered with the same spirit. +'But my master has every claim to be believed. His interest in the +royalty of France is second only to your Majesty's. He is also a king +and a kinsman, and it irks him to see rebels beard you, as has +happened of late.' + +'Ay, but the chief of them?' Henry exclaimed, giving way to sudden +excitement and stamping furiously on the floor. 'He will trouble me no +more. Has my brother heard of _that?_ Tell me, sir, has that news +reached him?' + +'He has heard it, sire.' + +'And he approved? He approved, of course?' + +'Beyond doubt the man was a traitor,' M. de Rosny answered delicately. +'His life was forfeit, sire. Who can question it?' + +'And he has paid the forfeit,' the king rejoined, looking down at the +floor and immediately falling into a moodiness as sudden as his +excitement. His lips moved. He muttered something inaudible, and began +to play absently with his cup and ball, his mind occupied apparently +with a gloomy retrospect. 'M. de Guise, M. de Guise,' he murmured at +last, with a sneer and an accent of hate which told of old +humiliations long remembered. 'Well, damn him, he is dead now. He is +dead. But being dead he yet troubles us. Is not that the verse, +father? Ha!' with a start, 'I was forgetting. But that is the worst +wrong he has done me,' he continued, looking up and growing excited +again. 'He has cut me off from Mother Church. There is hardly a priest +comes near me now, and presently they will excommunicate me. And, as I +hope for salvation, the Church has no more faithful son than me.' + +I believe he was on the point, forgetting M. de Rosny's presence there +and his errand, of giving way to unmanly tears, when M. de +Rambouillet, as if by accident, let the heel of his scabbard fall +heavily on the floor. The king started, and passing his hand once or +twice across his brow, seemed to recover himself. 'Well,' he said, 'no +doubt we shall find a way out of our difficulties.' + +'If your Majesty,' Rosny answered respectfully, 'would accept the aid +my master proffers, I venture to think that they would vanish the +quicker.' + +'You think so,' Henry rejoined. 'Well, give me your shoulder. Let us +walk a little.' And, signing to Rambouillet to leave him, he began to +walk up and down with M. de Rosny, talking familiarly with him in an +undertone. Only such scraps of the conversation as fell from them when +they turned at my end of the gallery now reached me. Patching these +together, however, I managed to understand somewhat. At one turn I +heard the king say, 'But then Turenne offers----' At the next, 'Trust +him? Well, I do not know why I should not. He promises----' Then 'A +Republic, Rosny? That his plan? Pooh! he dare not. He could not. +France is a kingdom by the ordinance of God in my family.' + +I gathered from these and other chance words, which I have since +forgotten, that M. de Rosny was pressing the king to accept the help +of the King of Navarre, and warning him against the insidious offers +of the Vicomte de Turenne. The mention of a Republic, however, seemed +to excite his Majesty's wrath rather against Rosny for presuming to +refer to such a thing than against Turenne, to whom he refused to +credit it. He paused near my end of the promenade. + +'Prove it!' he said angrily. 'But can you prove it? Can you prove it? +Mind you, I will take no hearsay evidence, sir. Now, there is +Turenne's agent here--you did not know, I dare say, that he had an +agent here?' + +'You refer, sire, to M. de Bruhl,' Rosny answered, without hesitation. +'I know him, sire.' + +'I think you are the devil,' Henry answered, looking curiously at him. +'You seem to know most things. But mind you, my friend, he speaks me +fairly, and I will not take this on hearsay even from your master. +Though,' he added after pausing a moment, 'I love him.' + +'And he, your Majesty. He desires only to prove it.' + +'Yes, I know, I know,' the king answered fretfully. 'I believe he +does. I believe he does wish me well. But there will be a devil of an +outcry among my people. And Turenne gives fair words too. And I do not +know,' he continued, fidgeting with his cup and ball, 'that it might +not suit me better to agree with him, you see.' + +I saw M. de Rosny draw himself up. 'Dare I speak openly to you, sire,' +he said, with less respect and more energy than he had hitherto used. +'As I should to my master?' + +'Ay, say what you like,' Henry answered. But he spoke sullenly, and it +seemed to me that he looked less pleasantly at his companion. + +'Then I will venture to utter what is in your Majesty's mind,' my +patron answered steadfastly. 'You fear, sire, lest, having accepted my +master's offer and conquered your enemies, you should not be easily +rid of him.' + +Henry looked relieved! 'Do you call that diplomacy?' he said with a +smile. 'However, what if it be so? What do you say to it? Methinks I +have heard an idle tale about a horse which would hunt a stag; and for +the purpose set a man upon its back.' + +'This I say, sire, first,' Rosny answered very earnestly. 'That the +King of Navarre is popular only with one-third of the kingdom, and is +only powerful when united with you. Secondly, sire, it is his interest +to support the royal power, to which he is heir. And, thirdly, it must +be more to your Majesty's honour to accept help from a near kinsman +than from an ordinary subject, and one who, I still maintain, sire, +has no good designs in his mind.' + +'The proof?' Henry said sharply. 'Give me that!' + +'I can give it in a week from this day.' + +'It must be no idle tale, mind you,' the king continued suspiciously. + +'You shall have Turenne's designs, sire, from one who had them from +his own mouth.' + +The king looked startled, but after a pause turned and resumed his +walk. 'Well,' he said, 'if you do that, I on my part----' + +The rest I lost, for the two passing to the farther end of the +gallery, came to a standstill there, balking my curiosity and +Rambouillet's also. The marquis, indeed, began to betray his +impatience, and the great clock immediately over our heads presently +striking the half-hour after ten he started and made as if he would +have approached the king. He checked the impulse, however, but still +continued to fidget uneasily, losing his reserve by-and-by so far as +to whisper to me that his Majesty would be missed. + +I had been, up to this point, a silent and inactive spectator of a +scene which appealed to my keenest interests and aroused my most +ardent curiosity. Surprise following surprise, I had begun to doubt my +own identity; so little had I expected to find myself first in the +presence of the Most Christian King--and that under circumstances as +strange and bizarre as could well be imagined--and then an authorised +witness at a negotiation upon which the future of all the great land +of France stretching for so many hundred leagues on every side of us, +depended. I say I could scarcely believe in my own identity; or that I +was the same Gaston de Marsac who had slunk, shabby and out-at-elbows, +about St. Jean d'Angely. I tasted the first sweetness of secret power, +which men say is the sweetest of all and the last relinquished; and, +the hum of distant voices and laughter still reaching me at intervals, +I began to understand why we had been admitted with so much +precaution, and to comprehend the gratification of M. de Rosny when +the promise of this interview first presented to him the hope of +effecting so much for his master and for France. + +Now I was to be drawn into the whirlpool itself. I was still +travelling back over the different stages of the adventure which had +brought me to this point, when I was rudely awakened by M. de Rosny +calling my name in a raised voice. Seeing, somewhat late, that he was +beckoning to me to approach, I went forward in a confused and hasty +fashion; kneeling before the king as I had seen him kneel, and then +rising to give ear to his Majesty's commands. Albeit, having expected +nothing less than to be called upon, I was not in the clearest mood to +receive them. Nor was my bearing such as I could have wished it to be. + +'M. de Rosny tells me that you desire a commission at Court, sir,' the +king said quickly. + +'I, sire?' I stammered, scarcely able to believe my ears. I was so +completely taken aback that I could say no more, and I stopped there +with my mouth open. + +'There are few things I can deny M. de Rosny,' Henry continued, +speaking very rapidly, 'and I am told that you are a gentleman of +birth and ability. Out of kindness to him, therefore, I grant you a +commission to raise twenty men for my service. Rambouillet,' he +continued, raising his voice slightly, 'you will introduce this +gentleman to me publicly to-morrow, that I may carry into effect my +intention on his behalf. You may go now, sir. No thanks. And M. de +Rosny,' he added, turning to my companion and speaking with energy, +'have a care for my sake that you are not recognised as you go. +Rambouillet must contrive something to enable you to leave without +peril. I should be desolated if anything happened to you, my friend, +for I could not protect you. I give you my word if Mendoza or Retz +found you in Blois I could not save you from them unless you +recanted.' + +'I will not trouble either your Majesty or my conscience,' M. de Rosny +replied, bowing low, 'if my wits can help me.' + +'Well, the saints keep you,' the king answered piously, going towards +the door by which he had entered; 'for your master and I have both +need of you. Rambouillet, take care of him as you love me. And come +early in the morning to my closet and tell me how it has fared with +him.' + +We all stood bowing while he withdrew, and only turned to retire when +the door closed behind him. Burning with indignation and chagrin as I +was at finding myself disposed of in the way I have described, and +pitchforked, whether I would or no, into a service I neither fancied +nor desired, I still managed for the present to restrain myself; and, +permitting my companions to precede me, followed in silence, listening +sullenly to their jubilations. The marquis seemed scarcely less +pleased than M. de Rosny; and as the latter evinced a strong desire to +lessen any jealousy the former might feel, and a generous inclination +to attribute to him a full share of the credit gained, I remained the +only person dissatisfied with the evening's events. We retired from +the chateau with the same precautions which had marked our entrance, +and parting with M. de Rambouillet at the door of our lodging--not +without many protestations of esteem on his part and of gratitude on +that of M. de Rosny--mounted to the first-floor in single file and in +silence, which I was determined not to be the first to break. + +Doubtless M. de Rosny knew my thoughts, for, speedily dismissing +Maignan and Simon, who were in waiting, he turned to me without +preface. 'Come, my friend,' he said, laying his hand on my shoulder +and looking me in the face in a way which all but disarmed me at once, +'do not let us misunderstand one another. You think you have cause to +be angry with me. I cannot suffer that, for the King of Navarre had +never greater need of your services than now.' + +'You have played me an unworthy trick, sir,' I answered, thinking he +would cozen me with fair speeches. + +'Tut, tut!' he replied. 'You do not understand.' + +'I understand well enough,' I answered, with bitterness, 'that, having +done the King of Navarre's work, he would now be rid of me.' + +'Have I not told you,' M. de Rosny replied, betraying for the first +time some irritation, 'that he has greater need of your services than +ever? Come, man, be reasonable, or, better still, listen to me.' And +turning from me, he began to walk up and down the room, his hands +behind him. 'The King of France--I want to make it as clear to you as +possible--' he said, 'cannot make head against the League without +help, and, willy-nilly, must look for it to the Huguenots whom he has +so long persecuted. The King of Navarre, their acknowledged leader, +has offered that help; and so, to spite my master, and prevent a +combination so happy for France, has M. de Turenne, who would fain +raise the faction he commands to eminence, and knows well how to make +his profit out of the dissensions of his country. Are you clear so +far, sir?' + +I assented. I was becoming absorbed in spite of myself. + +'Very well,' he resumed. 'This evening--never did anything fall out +more happily than Rambouillet's meeting with me--he is a good man!--I +have brought the king to this: that if proof of the selfish nature of +Turenne's designs be laid before him he will hesitate no longer. That +proof exists. A fortnight ago it was here; but it is not here now.' + +'That is unlucky!' I exclaimed. I was so much interested in his story, +as well as flattered by the confidence he was placing in me, that my +ill-humour vanished. I went and stood with my shoulder against the +mantelpiece, and he, passing to and fro between me and the light, +continued his tale. + +'A word about this proof,' he said. 'It came into the King of +Navarre's hands before its full value was known to us, for that only +accrued to it on M. de Guise's death. A month ago it--this piece of +evidence I mean--was at Chize. A fortnight or so ago it was here in +Blois. It is now, M. de Marsac,' he continued, facing me suddenly as +he came opposite me, 'in my house at Rosny.' + +I started. 'You mean Mademoiselle de la Vire?' I cried. + +'I mean Mademoiselle de la Vire!' he answered, 'who, some month or two +ago, overheard M. de Turenne's plans, and contrived to communicate +with the King of Navarre. Before the latter could arrange a private +interview, however, M. de Turenne got wind of her dangerous knowledge, +and swept her off to Chize. The rest you know, M. de Marsac, if any +man knows it.' + +'But what will you do?' I asked. 'She is at Rosny.' + +'Maignan, whom I trust implicitly, as far as his lights go, will start +to fetch her to-morrow. At the same hour I start southwards. You, M. +de Marsac, will remain here as my agent, to watch over my interests, +to receive Mademoiselle on her arrival, to secure for her a secret +interview with the king, to guard her while she remains here. Do you +understand?' + +Did I understand? I could not find words in which to thank him. My +remorse and gratitude, my sense of the wrong I had done him, and of +the honour he was doing me, were such that I stood mute before him as +I had stood before the king. 'You accept, then?' he said, smiling. +'You do not deem the adventure beneath you, my friend?' + +'I deserve your confidence so little, sir,' I answered, stricken to +the ground, 'that I beg you to speak, while I listen. By attending +exactly to your instructions I may prove worthy of the trust reposed +in me. And only so.' + +He embraced me again and again, with a kindness which moved me almost +to tears. 'You are a man after my own heart,' he said, 'and if God +wills I will make your fortune. Now listen, my friend. To-morrow at +Court, as a stranger and a man introduced by Rambouillet, you will be +the cynosure of all eyes. Bear yourself bravely. Pay court to the +women, but attach yourself to no one in particular. Keep aloof from +Retz and the Spanish faction, but beware especially of Bruhl. He alone +will have your secret, and may suspect your design. Mademoiselle +should be here in a week; while she is with you, and until she has +seen the king, trust no one, suspect everyone, fear all things. +Consider the battle won only when the king says, "I am satisfied."' + +Much more he told me, which served its purpose and has been forgotten. +Finally he honoured me by bidding me share his pallet with him, that +we might talk without restraint, and that if anything occurred to him +in the night he might communicate it to me. + +'But will not Bruhl denounce me as a Huguenot?' I asked him. + +'He will not dare to do so,' M. de Rosny answered, 'both as a Huguenot +himself, and as his master's representative; and, further, because it +would displease the king. No, but whatever secret harm one man can do +another, that you have to fear. Maignan, when he returns with +mademoiselle, will leave two men with you; until they come I should +borrow a couple of stout fellows from Rambouillet, Do not go out alone +after dark, and beware of doorways, especially your own.' + +A little later, when I thought him asleep, I heard him chuckle; and +rising on my elbow I asked him what it was. 'Oh, it is your affair,' +he answered, still laughing silently, so that I felt the mattress +shake under him. 'I don't envy you one part of your task, my friend.' + +'What is that?' I said suspiciously. + +'Mademoiselle,' he answered, stilling with difficulty a burst of +laughter. And after that he would not say another word, bad, good, or +indifferent, though I felt the bed shake more than once, and knew that +he was digesting his pleasantry. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + IN THE KING'S CHAMBER. + + +M. de Rosny had risen from my side and started on his journey when I +opened my eyes in the morning, and awoke to the memory of the task +which had been so strangely imposed upon me; and which might, +according as the events of the next fortnight shaped themselves, raise +me to high position or put an end to my career. He had not forgotten +to leave a souvenir behind him, for I found beside my pillow a +handsome silver-mounted pistol, bearing the letter 'R.' and a coronet; +nor had I more than discovered this instance of his kindness before +Simon Fleix came in to tell me that M. de Rosny had left two hundred +crowns in his hands for me. + +'Any message with it?' I asked the lad. + +'Only that he had taken a keepsake in exchange,' Simon answered, +opening the window as he spoke. + +In some wonder I began to search, but I could not discover that +anything was missing until I came to put on my doublet, when I found +that the knot of ribbon which mademoiselle had flung to me at my +departure from Rosny was gone from the inside of the breast, where I +had pinned it for safety with a long thorn. The discovery that M. de +Rosny had taken this was displeasing to me on more than one account. +In the first place, whether mademoiselle had merely wished to plague +me (as was most probable) or not, I was loth to lose it, my day for +ladies' favours being past and gone; in the second, I misdoubted the +motive which had led him to purloin it, and tormented myself with +thinking of the different constructions he might put upon it, and the +disparaging view of my trustworthiness which it might lead him to +take. I blamed myself much for my carelessness in leaving it where a +chance eye might rest upon it; and more when, questioning Simon +further, I learned that M. de Rosny had added, while mounting at the +door, 'Tell your master, safe bind, safe find; and a careless lover +makes a loose mistress.' + +I felt my cheek burn in a manner unbecoming my years while Simon with +some touch of malice repeated this; and I made a vow on the spot, +which I kept until I was tempted to break it, to have no more to do +with such trifles. Meanwhile, I had to make the best of it; and +brisking up, and bidding Simon, who seemed depressed by the baron's +departure, brisk up also, I set about my preparations for making such +a figure at Court as became me: procuring a black velvet suit, and a +cap and feather to match; item, a jewelled clasp to secure the +feather; with a yard or two of lace and two changes of fine linen. + +Simon had grown sleek at Rosny, and losing something of the wildness +which had marked him, presented in the dress M. de Rosny had given him +a very creditable appearance; being also, I fancy, the only equerry in +Blois who could write. A groom I engaged on the recommendation of M. +de Rambouillet's master of the horse; and I gave out also that I +required a couple of valets. It needed only an hour under the barber's +hands and a set of new trappings for the Cid to enable me to make a +fair show, such as might be taken to indicate a man of ten or twelve +thousand livres a year. + +In this way I expended a hundred and fifteen crowns. Reflecting that +this was a large sum, and that I must keep some money for play, I was +glad to learn that in the crowded state of the city even men with high +rank were putting up with poor lodging; I determined, therefore, to +combine economy with a scheme which I had in my head by taking the +rooms in which my mother died, with one room below them. This I did, +hiring such furniture as I needed, which was not a great deal. To +Simon Fleix, whose assistance in these matters was invaluable, I +passed on much of M. de Rosny's advice, bidding him ruffle it with the +best in his station, and inciting him to labour for my advancement by +promising to make his fortune whenever my own should be assured. I +hoped, indeed, to derive no little advantage from the quickness of wit +which had attracted M. de Rosny's attention; although I did not fail +to take into account at the same time that the lad was wayward and +fitful, prone at one time to depression, and at another to giddiness, +and equally uncertain in either mood. + +M. de Rambouillet being unable to attend the _levee_, had appointed me +to wait upon him at six in the evening; at which hour I presented +myself at his lodgings, attended by Simon Fleix. I found him in the +midst of half a dozen gentlemen whose habit it was to attend him upon +all public occasions; and these gallants, greeting me with the same +curious and suspicious glances which I have seen hounds bestow on a +strange dog introduced into their kennel, I was speedily made to feel +that it is one thing to have business at Court, and another to be well +received there. + +M. de Rambouillet, somewhat to my surprise, did nothing to remove this +impression. On all ordinary occasions a man of stiff and haughty +bearing, and thoroughly disliking, though he could not prevent, the +intrusion of a third party into a transaction which promised an +infinity of credit, he received me so coldly and with so much reserve +as for the moment to dash my spirits and throw me back on myself. + +During the journey to the castle, however, which we performed on foot, +attended by half a dozen armed servants bearing torches, I had time to +recall M. de Rosny's advice, and to bethink me of the intimacy which +that great man had permitted me; with so much effect in the way of +heartening me, that as we crossed the courtyard of the castle I +advanced myself, not without some murmuring on the part of others, to +Rambouillet's elbow, considering that as I was attached to him by the +king's command, this was my proper place. I had no desire to quarrel, +however, and persisted for some time in disregarding the nudges and +muttered words which were exchanged round me, and even the efforts +which were made as we mounted the stairs to oust me from my position. +But a young gentleman, who showed himself very forward in these +attempts, presently stumbling against me, I found it necessary to look +at him. + +'Sir,' he said, in a small and lisping voice, 'you trod on my toe.' + +Though I had not done so, I begged his pardon very politely. But as +his only acknowledgment of this courtesy consisted in an attempt to +get his knee in front of mine--we were mounting very slowly, the +stairs being cumbered with a multitude of servants, who stood on +either hand--I did tread on his toe, with a force and directness which +made him cry out. + +'What is the matter?' Rambouillet asked, looking back hastily. + +'Nothing, M. le Marquis,' I answered, pressing on steadfastly. + +'Sir,' my young friend said again, in the same lisping voice, 'you +trod on my toe.' + +'I believe I did, sir,' I answered. + +'You have not yet apologised,' he murmured gently in my ear. + +'Nay, there you are wrong,' I rejoined bluntly, 'for it is always my +habit to apologise first and tread afterwards.' + +He smiled as at a pleasant joke; and I am bound to say that his +bearing was so admirable that if he had been my son I could have +hugged him. 'Good!' he answered. 'No doubt your sword is as sharp as +your wits, sir. I see,' he continued, glancing naively at my old +scabbard--he was himself the very gem of a courtier, a slender youth +with a pink-and-white complexion, a dark line for a moustache, and a +pearl-drop in his ear--'it is longing to be out. Perhaps you will take +a turn in the tennis-court to-morrow?' + +'With pleasure, sir,' I answered, 'if you have a father, or your elder +brother is grown up.' + +What answer he would have made to this gibe I do not know, for at that +moment we reached the door of the antechamber; and this being narrow, +and a sentry in the grey uniform of the Swiss Guard compelling all to +enter in single file, my young friend was forced to fall back, leaving +me free to enter alone, and admire at my leisure a scene at once +brilliant and sombre. + +The Court being in mourning for the Queen-mother, black predominated +in the dresses of those present, and set off very finely the gleaming +jewels and gemmed sword-hilts which were worn by the more important +personages. The room was spacious and lofty, hung with arras, and lit +by candles burning in silver sconces; it rang as we entered with the +shrill screaming of a parrot, which was being teased by a group +occupying the farther of the two hearths. Near them play was going on +at one table, and primero at a second. In a corner were three or four +ladies, in a circle about a red-faced, plebeian-looking man, who was +playing at forfeits with one of their number; while the middle of the +room seemed dominated by a middle-sized man with a peculiarly inflamed +and passionate countenance, who, seated on a table, was inveighing +against someone or something in the most violent terms, his language +being interlarded with all kinds of strange and forcible oaths. Two or +three gentlemen, who had the air of being his followers, stood about +him, listening between submission and embarrassment; while beside the +nearer fireplace, but at some distance from him, lounged a nobleman, +very richly dressed, and wearing on his breast the Cross of the Holy +Ghost; who seemed to be the object of his invective, but affecting to +ignore it was engaged in conversation with a companion. A bystander +muttering that Crillon had been drinking, I discovered with immense +surprise that the declaimer on the table was that famous soldier; and +I was still looking at him in wonder--for I had been accustomed all my +life to associate courage with modesty---when, the door of the chamber +suddenly opening, a general movement in that direction took place. +Crillon, disregarding all precedency, sprang from his table and +hurried first to the threshold. The Baron de Biron, on the other +hand--for the gentleman by the fire was no other--waited, in apparent +ignorance of the slight which was being put upon him, until M. de +Rambouillet came up; then he went forward with him. Keeping close to +my patron's elbow, I entered the chamber immediately behind him. + +Crillon had already seized upon the king, and, when we entered, was +stating his grievance in a voice not much lower than that which he had +used outside. M. de Biron, seeing this, parted from the marquis, and, +going aside with his former companion, sat down on a trunk against the +wall; while Rambouillet, followed by myself and three or four +gentlemen of his train, advanced to the king, who was standing near +the alcove. His Majesty seeing him, and thankful, I think, for the +excuse, waved Crillon off. 'Tut, tut! You told me all that this +morning,' he said good-naturedly. 'And here is Rambouillet, who has, I +hope, something fresh to tell. Let him speak to me. Sanctus! Don't +look at me as if you would run me through, man. Go and quarrel with +someone of your own size.' + +Crillon at this retired grumbling, and Henry, who had just risen from +primero with the Duke of Nevers, nodded to Rambouillet. 'Well, my +friend, anything fresh?' he cried. He was more at his ease and looked +more cheerful than at our former interview; yet still care and +suspicion lurked about his peevish mouth, and in the hollows under his +gloomy eyes. 'A new guest, a new face, or a new game--which have you +brought?' + +'In a sense, sire, a new face,' the marquis answered, bowing, and +standing somewhat aside that I might have place. + +'Well, I cannot say much for the pretty baggage,' quoth the king +quickly. And amid a general titter he extended his hand to me. 'I'll +be sworn, though,' he continued, as I rose from my knee, 'that you +want something, my friend?' + +'Nay, sire,' I answered, holding up my head boldly--for Cillon's +behaviour had been a further lesson to me--'I have, by your leave, the +advantage. For your Majesty has supplied me with a new jest. I see +many new faces round me, and I have need only of a new game. If your +Majesty would be pleased to grant me----' + +'There! Said I not so?' cried the king, raising his hand with a laugh. +'He does want something. But he seems not undeserving. What does he +pray, Rambouillet?' + +'A small command,' M. de Rambouillet answered, readily playing his +part. 'And your Majesty would oblige me if you could grant the Sieur +de Marsac's petition. I will answer for it he is a man of experience. + +'Chut! A small command?' Henry ejaculated, sitting down suddenly in +apparent ill-humour. 'It is what everyone wants--when they do not want +big ones. Still, I suppose,' he continued, taking up a comfit-box, +which lay beside him, and opening it, 'if you do not get what you want +for him you will sulk like the rest, my friend.' + +'Your Majesty has never had cause to complain of me,' quoth the +marquis, forgetting his _role_, or too proud to play it. + +'Tut, tut, tut, tut! Take it, and trouble me no more,' the king +rejoined. 'Will pay for twenty men do for him? Very well then. There, +M. de Marsac,' he continued, nodding at me and yawning, 'your request +is granted. You will find some other pretty baggages over there. Go to +them. And now, Rambouillet,' he went on, resuming his spirits as he +turned to matters of more importance, 'here is a new sweetmeat Zamet +has sent me. I have made Zizi sick with it. Will you try it? It is +flavoured with white mulberries.' + +Thus dismissed, I fell back; and stood for a moment, at a loss whither +to turn, in the absence of either friends or acquaintances. His +Majesty, it is true, had bidden me go to certain pretty baggages, +meaning, apparently, five ladies who were seated at the farther end of +the room, diverting themselves with as many cavaliers; but the +compactness of this party, the beauty of the ladies, and the merry +peals of laughter which proceeded from them, telling of a wit and +vivacity beyond the ordinary, sapped the resolution which had borne me +well hitherto. I felt that to attack such a phalanx, even with a +king's good will, was beyond the daring of a Crillon, and I looked +round to see whether I could not amuse myself in some more modest +fashion. + +The material was not lacking. Crillon, still mouthing out his anger, +strode up and down in front of the trunk on which M. de Biron was +seated; but the latter was, or affected to be, asleep. 'Crillon is for +ever going into rages now,' a courtier beside me whispered. + +'Yes,' his fellow answered, with a shrug of the shoulder; 'it is a +pity there is no one to tame him. But he has such a long reach, +morbleu!' + +'It is not that so much as the fellow's fury,' the first speaker +rejoined under his breath. 'He fights like a mad thing; fencing is no +use against him.' + +The other nodded. For a moment the wild idea of winning renown by +taming M. de Crillon occurred to me as I stood alone in the middle of +the floor; but it had not more than passed through my brain when I +felt my elbow touched, and turned to find the young gentleman whom I +had encountered on the stairs standing by my side. + +'Sir,' he lisped, in the same small voice, 'I think you trod on my toe +a while ago?' + +I stared at him, wondering what he meant by this absurd repetition. +'Well, sir,' I answered drily, 'and if I did?' + +'Perhaps,' he said, stroking his chin with his jewelled fingers, +'pending our meeting to-morrow, you would allow me to consider it as a +kind of introduction?' + +'If it please you,' I answered, bowing stiffly, and wondering what he +would be at. + +'Thank you,' he answered. 'It does please me, under the circumstances; +for there is a lady here who desires a word with you. I took up her +challenge. Will you follow me?' + +He bowed, and turned in his languid fashion. I, turning too, saw, with +secret dismay, that the five ladies, referred to above, were all now +gazing at me, as expecting my approach; and this with such sportive +glances as told only too certainly of some plot already in progress or +some trick to be presently played me. Yet I could not see that I had +any choice save to obey, and, following my leader with as much dignity +as I could compass, I presently found myself bowing before the lady +who sat nearest, and who seemed to be the leader of these nymphs. + +'Nay, sir,' she said, eyeing me curiously, yet with a merry face, 'I +do not need you; I do not look so high!' + +Turning in confusion to the next, I was surprised to see before me the +lady whose lodging I had invaded in my search for Mademoiselle de la +Vire--she, I mean, who, having picked up the velvet knot, had dropped +it so providentially where Simon Fleix found it. She looked at me, +blushing and laughing, and the young gentleman, who had done her +errand, presenting me by name, she asked me, while the others +listened, whether I had found my mistress. + +Before I could answer, the lady to whom I had first addressed myself +interposed. 'Stop, sir!' she cried. 'What is this--a tale, a jest, a +game, or a forfeit?' + +'An adventure, madam,' I answered, bowing low. + +'Of gallantry, I'll be bound,' she exclaimed. 'Fie, Madame de Bruhl, +and you but six months married!' + +Madame de Bruhl protested, laughing, that she had no more to do with +it than Mercury. 'At the worst,' she said, 'I carried the _poulets!_ +But I can assure you, duchess, this gentleman should be able to tell +us a very fine story, if he would.' + +The duchess and all the other ladies clapping their hands at this, and +crying out that the story must and should be told, I found myself in a +prodigious quandary; and one wherein my wits derived as little +assistance as possible from the bright eyes and saucy looks which +environed me. Moreover, the commotion attracting other listeners, I +found my position, while I tried to extricate myself, growing each +moment worse, so that I began to fear that as I had little imagination +I should perforce have to tell the truth. The mere thought of this +threw me into a cold perspiration, lest I should let slip something of +consequence, and prove myself unworthy of the trust which M. de Rosny +had reposed in me. + +At the moment when, despairing of extricating myself, I was stooping +over Madame de Bruhl begging her to assist me, I heard, amid the babel +of laughter and raillery which surrounded me--certain of the courtiers +having already formed hands in a circle and sworn I should not depart +without satisfying the ladies--a voice which struck a chord in my +memory. I turned to see who the speaker was, and encountered no other +than M. de Bruhl himself; who, with a flushed and angry face, was +listening to the explanation which a friend was pouring into his ear. +Standing at the moment with my knee on Madame de Bruhl's stool, and +remembering very well the meeting on the stairs, I conceived in a +flash that the man was jealous; but whether he had yet heard my name, +or had any clew to link me with the person who had rescued +Mademoiselle de la Vire from his clutches, I could not tell. +Nevertheless his presence led my thoughts into a new channel. The +determination to punish him began to take form in my mind, and very +quickly I regained my composure. Still I was for giving him one +chance. Accordingly I stooped once more to Madame de Bruhl's ear, and +begged her to spare me the embarrassment of telling my tale. But then, +finding her pitiless, as I expected, and the rest of the company +growing more and more insistent, I hardened my heart to go through +with the fantastic notion which had occurred to me. + +Indicating by a gesture that I was prepared to obey, and the duchess +crying for a hearing, this was presently obtained, the sudden silence +adding the king himself to my audience. 'What is it?' he asked, coming +up effusively, with a lap-dog in his arms. 'A new scandal, eh?' + +'No, sire, a new tale-teller,' the duchess answered pertly. 'If your +Majesty will sit, we shall hear him the sooner.' + +He pinched her ear and sat down in the chair which a page presented. +'What? is it Rambouillet's _grison_ again?' he said with some +surprise. 'Well, fire away, man. But who brought you forward as a +Rabelais?' + +There was a general cry of 'Madame de Bruhl!' whereat that lady shook +her fair hair about her face, and cried out for someone to bring her a +mask. + +'Ha, I see!' said the king drily, looking pointedly at M. de Bruhl, +who was as black as thunder. 'But go on, man.' + +The king's advent, by affording me a brief respite, had enabled me to +collect my thoughts, and, disregarding the ribald interruptions, which +at first were frequent, I began as follows: 'I am no Rabelais, sire,' +I said, 'but droll things happen to the most unlikely. Once upon a +time it was the fortune of a certain swain, whom I will call Dromio, +to arrive in a town not a hundred miles from Blois, having in his +company a nymph of great beauty, who had been entrusted to his care by +her parents. He had not more than lodged her in his apartments, +however, before she was decoyed away by a trick, and borne off against +her will by a young gallant, who had seen her and been smitten by her +charms. Dromio, returning, and finding his mistress gone, gave way to +the most poignant grief. He ran up and down the city, seeking her in +every place, and filling all places with his lamentations; but for a +time in vain, until chance led him to a certain street, where, in an +almost incredible manner, he found a clew to her by discovering +underfoot a knot of velvet, bearing Phyllida's name wrought on it in +delicate needlework, with the words, "A moi!"' + +'Sanctus!' cried the king, amid a general murmur of surprise, 'that is +well devised! Proceed, sir. Go on like that, and we will make your +twenty men twenty-five.' + +'Dromio,' I continued, 'at sight of this trifle experienced the most +diverse emotions, for while he possessed in it a clew to his +mistress's fate, he had still to use it so as to discover the place +whither she had been hurried. It occurred to him at last to begin his +search with the house before which the knot had lain. Ascending +accordingly to the second-floor, he found there a fair lady reclining +on a couch, who started up in affright at his appearance. He hastened +to reassure her, and to explain the purpose of his coming, and learned +after a conversation with which I will not trouble your Majesty, +though it was sufficiently diverting, that the lady had found the +velvet knot in another part of the town, and had herself dropped it +again in front of her own house.' + +'Pourquoi?' the king asked, interrupting me. + +'The swain, sire,' I answered, 'was too much taken up with his own +troubles to bear that in mind, even if he learned it. But this +delicacy did not save him from misconception, for as he descended from +the lady's apartment he met her husband on the stairs.' + +'Good!' the king exclaimed, rubbing his hands in glee. 'The husband!' +And under cover of the gibe and the courtly laugh which followed it M. +de Bruhl's start of surprise passed unnoticed save by me. + +'The husband,' I resumed, 'seeing a stranger descending his staircase, +was for stopping him and learning the reason of his presence; but +Dromio, whose mind was with Phyllida, refused to stop, and, evading +his questions, hurried to the part of the town where the lady had told +him she found the velvet knot. Here, sire, at the corner of a lane +running between garden-walls, he found a great house, barred and +gloomy, and well adapted to the abductor's purpose. Moreover, scanning +it on every side, he presently discovered, tied about the bars of an +upper window, a knot of white linen, the very counterpart of that +velvet one which he bore in his breast. Thus he knew that the nymph +was imprisoned in that room!' + +'I will make, it twenty-five, as I am a good Churchman!' his Majesty +exclaimed, dropping the little dog he was nursing into the duchess's +lap, and taking out his comfit-box. 'Rambouillet,' he added languidly, +'your friend is a treasure!' + +I bowed my acknowledgments, and took occasion as I did so to step a +pace aside, so as to command a view of Madame de Bruhl, as well as her +husband. Hitherto madame, willing to be accounted a part in so pretty +a romance, and ready enough also, unless I was mistaken, to cause her +husband a little mild jealousy, had listened to the story with a +certain sly demureness. But this I foresaw would not last long; and I +felt something like compunction as the moment for striking the blow +approached. But I had now no choice. 'The best is yet to come, sire,' +I went on, 'as I think you will acknowledge in a moment. Dromio, +though he had discovered his mistress, was still in the depths of +despair. He wandered round and round the house, seeking ingress and +finding none, until at length, sunset approaching, and darkness +redoubling his fears for the nymph, fortune took pity on him. As he +stood in front of the house he saw the abductor come out, lighted by +two servants. Judge of his surprise, sire,' I continued, looking round +and speaking slowly, to give full effect to my words, 'when he +recognised in him no other than the husband of the lady who, by +picking up and again dropping the velvet knot, had contributed so much +to the success of his search!' + +'Ha! these husbands!' cried the king. And slapping his knee in an +ecstasy at his own acuteness, he laughed in his seat till he rolled +again. 'These husbands! Did I not say so?' + +The whole Court gave way to like applause, and clapped their hands as +well, so that few save those who stood nearest took notice of Madame +de Bruhl's faint cry, and still fewer understood why she rose up +suddenly from her stool and stood gazing at her husband with burning +cheeks and clenched hands. She took no heed of me, much less of the +laughing crowd round her, but looked only at him with her soul in her +eyes. He, after uttering one hoarse curse, seemed to have no thought +for any but me. To have the knowledge that his own wife had baulked +him brought home to him in this mocking fashion, to find how little a +thing had tripped him that day, to learn how blindly he had played +into the hands of fate, above all to be exposed at once to his wife's +resentment and the ridicule of the Court--for he could not be sure +that I should not the next moment disclose his name--all so wrought on +him that for a moment I thought he would strike me in the presence. + +His rage, indeed, did what I had not meant to do. For the king, +catching sight of his face, and remembering that Madame de Bruhl had +elicited the story, screamed suddenly, 'Haro!' and pointed ruthlessly +at him with his finger. After that I had no need to speak, the story +leaping from eye to eye, and every eye settling on Bruhl, who sought +in vain to compose his features. Madame, who surpassed him, as women +commonly do surpass men, in self-control, was the first to recover +herself, and sitting down as quickly as she had risen, confronted +alike her husband and her rivals with a pale smile. + +For a moment curiosity and excitement kept all breathless, the eye +alone busy. Then the king laughed mischievously. 'Come, M. de Bruhl,' +he cried, 'perhaps you will finish the tale for us?' And he threw +himself back in his chair, a sneer on his lips. + +'Or why not Madame de Bruhl?' said the duchess, with her head on one +side and her eyes glittering over her fan. 'Madame would, I am sure, +tell it so well.' + +But madame only shook her head, smiling always that forced smile. For +Bruhl himself, glaring from face to face like a bull about to charge, +I have never seen a man more out of countenance, or more completely +brought to bay. His discomposure, exposed as he was to the ridicule of +all present, was such that the presence in which he stood scarcely +hindered him from some violent attack; and his eyes, which had +wandered from me at the king's word, presently returning to me again, +he so far forgot himself as to raise his hand furiously, uttering at +the same time a savage oath. + +The king cried out angrily, 'Have a care, sir!' But Bruhl only heeded +this so far as to thrust aside those who stood round him and push his +way hurriedly through the circle. + +'Arnidieu!' cried the king, when he was gone. 'This is fine conduct! I +have half a mind to send after him and have him put where his hot +blood would cool a little. Or----' + +He stopped abruptly, his eyes resting on me. The relative positions of +Bruhl and myself as the agents of Rosny and Turenne occurred to him +for the first time, I think, and suggested the idea, perhaps, that I +had laid a trap for him, and that he had fallen into it. At any rate +his face grew darker and darker, and at last, 'A nice kettle of fish +this is you have prepared for us, sir!' he muttered, gazing at me +gloomily. + +The sudden change in his humour took even courtiers by surprise. Faces +a moment before broad with smiles grew long again. The less important +personages looked uncomfortably at one another, and with one accord +frowned on me. 'If your Majesty would please to hear the end of the +story at another time?' I suggested humbly, beginning to wish with all +my heart that I had never said a word. + +'Chut!' he answered, rising, his face still betraying his +perturbation. 'Well, be it so. For the present you may go, sir. +Duchess, give me Zizi, and come to my closet. I want you to see my +puppies. Retz, my good friend, do you come too. I have something to +say to you. Gentlemen, you need not wait. It is likely I shall be +late.' + +And, with the utmost abruptness, he broke up the circle. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + THE JACOBIN MONK. + + +Had I needed any reminder of the uncertainty of Court favour, or an +instance whence I might learn the lesson of modesty, and so stand in +less danger of presuming on my new and precarious prosperity, I had it +in this episode, and in the demeanour of the company round me. On the +circle breaking up in confusion, I found myself the centre of general +regard, but regard of so dubious a character, the persons who would +have been the first to compliment me had the king retired earlier, +standing farthest aloof now, that I felt myself rather insulted than +honoured by it. One or two, indeed, of the more cautious spirits did +approach me; but it was with the air of men providing against a danger +particularly remote, their half-hearted speeches serving only to fix +them in my memory as belonging to a class, especially abhorrent to +me--the class, I mean, of those who would run at once with the hare +and the hounds. + +I was rejoiced to find that on one person, and that the one whose +disposition towards me was, next to the king's, of first importance, +this episode had produced a different impression. Feeling, as I made +for the door, a touch on my arm, I turned to find M. de Rambouillet at +my elbow, regarding me with a glance of mingled esteem and amusement; +in fine, with a very different look from that which had been my +welcome earlier in the evening. I was driven to suppose that he was +too great a man, or too sure of his favour with the king, to be swayed +by the petty motives which actuated the Court generally, for he laid +his hand familiarly on my shoulder, and walked on beside me. + +'Well, my friend,' he said,' you have distinguished yourself finely! I +do not know that I ever remember a pretty woman making more stir in +one evening. But if you are wise you will not go home alone to-night.' + +'I have my sword, M. le Marquis,' I answered, somewhat proudly. + +'Which will avail you little against a knife in the back!' he retorted +drily. 'What attendance have you?' + +'My equerry, Simon Fleix, is on the stairs.' + +'Good, so far, but not enough,' he replied, as we reached the head of +the staircase. 'You had better come home with me now, and two or three +of my fellows shall go on to your lodging with you. Do you know, my +friend,' he continued, looking at me keenly, 'you are either a very +clever or a very foolish man?' + +I made answer modestly. 'Neither the one, I fear, nor the other, I +hope, sir,' I said. + +'Well, you have done a very pertinent thing,' he replied, 'for good or +evil. You have let the enemy know what he has to expect, and he is not +one, I warn you, to be despised. But whether you have been very wise +or very foolish in declaring open war remains to be seen.' + +'A week will show,' I answered. + +He turned and looked at me. 'You take it coolly,' he said. + +'I have been knocking about the world for forty years, marquis,' I +rejoined. + +He muttered something about Rosny having a good eye, and then stopped +to adjust his cloak. We were by this time in the street. Making me go +hand in hand with him, he requested the other gentlemen to draw their +swords; and the servants being likewise armed and numbering half a +score or more, with pikes and torches, we made up a very formidable +party, and caused, I think, more alarm as we passed, through the +streets to Rambouillet's lodging than we had any reason to feel. Not +that we had it all to ourselves, for the attendance at Court that +evening being large, and the circle breaking up as I have described +more abruptly than usual, the vicinity of the castle was in a ferment, +and the streets leading from it were alive with the lights and +laughter of parties similar to our own. + +At the door of the marquis's lodging I prepared to take leave of him +with many expressions of gratitude, but he would have me enter and sit +down with him to a light refection, which it was his habit to take +before retiring. Two of his gentlemen sat down with us, and a valet, +who was in his confidence, waiting on us, we made very merry over the +scene in the presence. I learned that M. de Bruhl was far from popular +at Court; but being known to possess some kind of hold over the king, +and enjoying besides a great reputation for recklessness and skill +with the sword, he had played a high part for a length of time, and +attached to himself, especially since the death of Guise, a +considerable number of followers. + +'The truth is,' one of the marquis's gentlemen, who was a little +heated with wine, observed, 'there is nothing at this moment which a +bold and unscrupulous man may not win in France!' + +'Nor a bold and Christian gentleman for France!' replied M. de +Rambouillet with some asperity. 'By the way,' he continued, turning +abruptly to the servant, 'where is M. Francois?' + +The valet answered that he had not returned with us from the castle. +The Marquis expressed himself annoyed at this, and I gathered, +firstly, that the missing man was his near kinsman, and, secondly, +that he was also the young spark who had been so forward to quarrel +with me earlier in the evening. Determining to refer the matter, +should it become pressing, to Rambouillet for adjustment, I took leave +of him, and attended by two of his servants, whom he kindly +transferred to my service for the present, I started towards my +lodging a little before midnight. + +The moon had risen while we were at supper, and its light, which +whitened the gables on one side of the street, diffused a glimmer +below sufficient to enable us to avoid the kennel. Seeing this, I bade +the men put out our torch. Frost had set in, and a keen wind was +blowing, so that we were glad to hurry on at a good pace; and the +streets being quite deserted at this late hour, or haunted only by +those who had come to dread the town marshal, we met no one and saw no +lights. I fell to thinking, for my part, of the evening I had spent +searching Blois for Mademoiselle, and of the difference between then +and now. Nor did I fail while on this track to retrace it still +farther to the evening of our arrival at my mother's; whence, as a +source, such kindly and gentle thoughts welled up in my mind as were +natural, and the unfailing affection of that gracious woman required. +These, taking the place for the moment of the anxious calculations and +stern purposes which had of late engrossed me, were only ousted by +something which, happening under my eyes, brought me violently and +abruptly to myself. + +This was the sudden appearance of three men, who issued one by one +from an alley a score of yards in front of us, and after pausing a +second to look back the way they had come, flitted on in single file +along the street, disappearing, as far as the darkness permitted me to +judge, round a second corner. I by no means liked their appearance, +and as a scream and the clash of arms rang out next moment from the +direction in which they had gone, I cried lustily to Simon Fleix to +follow, and ran on, believing from the rascals' movements that they +were after no good, but that rather some honest man was like to be +sore beset. + +On reaching the lane down which they had plunged, however, I paused a +moment, considering not so much its blackness, which was intense, the +eaves nearly meeting overhead, as the small chance I had of +distinguishing between attackers and attacked. But Simon and the men +overtaking me, and the sounds of a sharp tussle still continuing, I +decided to venture, and plunged into the alley, my left arm well +advanced, with the skirt of my cloak thrown over it, and my sword +drawn back. I shouted as I ran, thinking that the knaves might desist +on hearing me; and this was what happened, for as I arrived on the +scene of action--the farther end of the alley--two men took to their +heels, while of two who remained, one lay at length in the kennel, and +another rose slowly from his knees. + +'You are just in time, sir,' the latter said, breathing hard, but +speaking with a preciseness which sounded familiar. 'I am obliged to +you, sir, whoever you are. The villains had got me down, and in a few +minutes more would have made my mother childless. By the way, you have +no light, have you?' he continued, lisping like a woman. + +One of M. de Rambouillet's men, who had by this time come up, cried +out that it was Monsieur Francois. + +'Yes, blockhead!' the young gentleman answered with the utmost +coolness. 'But I asked for a light, not for my name.' + +'I trust you are not hurt, sir?' I said, putting up my sword. + +'Scratched only,' he answered, betraying no surprise on learning who +it was had come up so opportunely; as he no doubt did learn from my +voice, for he continued with a bow, 'A slight price to pay for the +knowledge that M. de Marsac is as forward on the field as on the +stairs.' + +I bowed my acknowledgments. + +'This fellow,' I said, 'is he much hurt?' + +'Tut, tut! I thought I had saved the marshal all trouble,' M. Francois +replied. 'Is he not dead, Gil?' + +The poor wretch made answer for himself, crying out piteously and +in a choking voice, for a priest to shrive him. At that moment Simon +Fleix returned with our torch, which he had lighted at the nearest +cross-streets, where there was a brazier, and we saw by this light +that the man was coughing up blood, and might live perhaps half an +hour. + +'Mordieu! That comes of thrusting too high!' M. Francois muttered, +regretfully. 'An inch lower, and there would have been none of this +trouble! I suppose somebody must fetch one. Gil,' he continued, 'run, +man, to the sacristy in the Rue St. Denys, and get a Father. Or--stay! +Help to lift him under the lee of the wall there. The wind cuts like a +knife here.' + +The street being on the slope of the hill, the lower part of the house +nearest us stood a few feet from the ground, on wooden piles, and the +space underneath it, being enclosed at the back and sides, was used as +a cart-house. The servants moved the dying man into this rude shelter, +and I accompanied them, being unwilling to leave the young gentleman +alone. Not wishing, however, to seem to interfere, I walked to the +farther end, and sat down on the shaft of a cart, whence I idly +admired the strange aspect of the group I had left, as the glare of +the torch brought now one and now another into prominence, and +sometimes shone on M. Francois' jewelled fingers toying with his tiny +moustache, and sometimes on the writhing features of the man at his +feet. + +On a sudden, and before Gil had started on his errand, I saw there was +a priest among them. I had not seen him enter, nor had I any idea +whence he came. My first impression was only that here was a priest, +and that he was looking at me--not at the man craving his assistance +on the floor, or at those who stood round him, but at me, who sat away +in the shadow beyond the ring of light! + +This was surprising; but a second glance explained it, for then I saw +that he was the Jacobin monk who had haunted my mother's dying hours. +And, amazed as much at this strange _rencontre_, as at the man's +boldness, I sprang up and strode forwards, forgetting, in an impulse +of righteous anger, the office he came to do. And this the more as his +face, still turned to me, seemed instinct to my eyes with triumphant +malice. As I moved towards him, however, with a fierce exclamation on +my lips, he suddenly dropped his eyes and knelt. Immediately M. +Francois cried 'Hush!' and the men turned to me with scandalised +faces. I fell back. Yet even then, whispering on his knees by the +dying man, the knave was thinking, I felt sure, of me, glorying at +once in his immunity and the power it gave him to tantalise me without +fear. + +I determined, whatever the result, to intercept him when all was over; +and on the man dying a few minutes later, I walked resolutely to the +open side of the shed, thinking it likely he might try to slip away as +mysteriously as he had come. He stood a moment speaking to M. +Francois, however, and then, accompanied by him, advanced boldly to +meet me, a lean smile on his face. + +'Father Antoine,' M. d'Agen said politely, 'tells me that he knows +you, M. de Marsac, and desires to speak to you, _mal-a-propos_ as is +the occasion.' + +'And I to him,' I answered, trembling with rage, and only restraining +by an effort the impulse which would have had me dash my hand in the +priest's pale, smirking face. 'I have waited I long for this moment,' +I continued, eyeing him steadily, as M. Francois withdrew out of +hearing, 'and had you tried to avoid me, I would have dragged you +back, though all your tribe were here to protect you.' + +His presence so maddened me that I scarcely knew what I said. I +felt my breath come quickly, I felt the blood surge to my head, +and it was with difficulty I restrained myself when he answered with +well-affected sanctity, 'Like mother, like son, I fear,' sir. +Huguenots both.' + +I choked with rage. 'What!' I said, 'you dare to threaten me as you +threatened my mother? Fool! know that only to-day for the purpose of +discovering and punishing you I took the rooms in which my mother +died.' + +'I know it,' he answered quietly. And then in a second, as by magic, +he altered his demeanour completely, raising his head and looking me +in the face. 'That, and so much besides, I know,' he continued, giving +me, to my astonishment, frown for frown, 'that if you will listen to +me for a moment, M. de Marsac, and listen quietly, I will convince you +that the folly is not on my side.' + +Amazed at his new manner, in which there was none of the madness that +had marked him at our first meeting, but a strange air of authority, +unlike anything I had associated with him before, I signed to him to +proceed. + +'You think that I am in your power?' he said, smiling. + +'I think,' I retorted swiftly, 'that, escaping me now, you will have +at your heels henceforth a worse enemy than even your own sins.' + +'Just so,' he answered, nodding. 'Well, I am going to show you that +the reverse is the case; and that you are as completely in my hands, +to spare or to break, as this straw. In the first place, you are here +in Blois, a Huguenot!' + +'Chut!' I exclaimed contemptuously, affecting a confidence I was far +from feeling. 'A little while back that might have availed you. But we +are in Blois, not Paris. It is not far to the Loire, and you have to +deal with a man now, not with a woman. It is you who have cause to +tremble, not I.' + +'You think to be protected,' he answered with a sour smile, 'even on +this side of the Loire, I see. But one word to the Pope's Legate, or +to the Duke of Nevers, and you would see the inside of a dungeon, if +not worse. For the king----' + +'King or no king!' I answered, interrupting him with more assurance +than I felt, seeing that I remembered only too well Henry's remark +that Rosny must not look to him for protection, 'I fear you not a +whit! And that reminds me. I have heard you talk treason--rank, black +treason, priest, as ever sent man to rope, and I will give you up. By +heaven I will!' I cried, my rage increasing, as I discerned, more and +more clearly, the dangerous hold he had over me. 'You have threatened +me! One word, and I will send you to the gallows!' + +'Sh!' he answered, indicating M. Francois by a gesture of the hand. +'For your own sake, not mine. This is fine talking, but you have not +yet heard all I know. Would you like to hear how you have spent the +last month? Two days after Christmas, M. de Marsac, you left Chize +with a young lady--I can give you her name, if you please. Four days +afterwards you reached Blois, and took her to your mother's lodging. +Next morning she left you for M. de Bruhl. Two days later you tracked +her to a house in the Ruelle d'Arcy, and freed her, but lost her in +the moment of victory. Then you stayed in Blois until your mother's +death, going a day or two later to M. de Rosny's house by Mantes, +where mademoiselle still is. Yesterday you arrived in Blois with M. de +Rosny; you went to his lodging; you----' + +'Proceed, sir,' I muttered, leaning forward. Under cover of my cloak I +drew my dagger half-way from its sheath. 'Proceed, sir, I pray,' I +repeated with dry lips. + +'You slept there,' he continued, holding his ground, but shuddering +slightly, either from cold or because he perceived my movement and +read my design in my eyes. 'This morning you remained here in +attendance on M. de Rambouillet.' + +For the moment I breathed freely again, perceiving that though he knew +much, the one thing on which M. de Rosny's design turned had escaped +him. The secret interview with the king, which compromised alike Henry +himself and M. de Rambouillet, had apparently passed unnoticed and +unsuspected. With a sigh of intense relief I slid back the dagger, +which I had fully made up my mind to use had he known all, and drew my +cloak round me with a shrug of feigned indifference. I sweated to +think what he did know, but our interview with the king having escaped +him, I breathed again. + +'Well, sir,' I said curtly, 'I have listened. And now, what is the +purpose of all this?' + +'My purpose?' he answered, his eyes glittering. 'To show you that you +are in my power. You are the agent of M. de Rosny. I, the agent, +however humble, of the Holy Catholic League. Of your movements I know +all. What do you know of mine?' + +'Knowledge,' I made grim answer, 'is not everything, sir priest.' + +'It is more than it was,' he said, smiling his thin-lipped smile. 'It +is going to be more than it is. And I know much--about you, M. de +Marsac.' + +'You know too much!' I retorted, feeling his covert threats close +round me like the folds of some great serpent. 'But you are imprudent, +I think. Will you tell me what is to prevent me striking you through +where you stand, and ridding myself at a blow of so much knowledge?' + +'The presence of three men, M. de Marsac,' he answered lightly, waving +his hand towards M. Francois and the others, 'every one of whom would +give you up to justice. You forget that you are north of the Loire, +and that priests are not to be massacred here with impunity, as in +your lawless south-country. However, enough. The night is cold, and M. +d'Agen grows suspicious as well as impatient. We have, perhaps, spoken +too long already. Permit me'--he bowed and drew back a step--'to +resume this discussion to-morrow.' + +Despite his politeness and the hollow civility with which he thus +sought to close the interview, the light of triumph which shone in his +eyes, as the glare of the torch fell athwart them, no less than the +assured tone of his voice, told me clearly that he knew his power. He +seemed, indeed, transformed: no longer a slinking, peaceful clerk, +preying on a woman's fears, but a bold and crafty schemer, skilled and +unscrupulous, possessed of hidden knowledge and hidden resources; the +personification of evil intellect. For a moment, knowing all I knew, +and particularly the responsibilities which lay before me, and the +interests committed to my hands, I quailed, confessing myself unequal +to him. I forgot the righteous vengeance I owed him; I cried out +helplessly against the ill-fortune which had brought him across my +path. I saw myself enmeshed and fettered beyond hope of escape, and by +an effort only controlled the despair I felt. + +'To-morrow?' I muttered hoarsely. 'At what time?' + +He shook his head with a cunning smile. 'A thousand thanks, but I will +settle that myself!' he answered. 'Au revoir!' And muttering a word of +leave-taking to M. Francois d'Agen, he blessed the two servants, and +went out into the night. + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + THE OFFER OF THE LEAGUE. + + +When the last sound of his footsteps died away, I awoke as from an +evil dream, and becoming conscious of the presence of M. Francois and +the servants, recollected mechanically that I owed the former an +apology for my discourtesy in keeping him standing in the cold. I +began to offer it; but my distress and confusion of mind were such +that in the middle of a set phrase I broke off, and stood looking +fixedly at him, my trouble so plain that he asked me civilly if +anything ailed me. + +'No,' I answered, turning from him impatiently; 'nothing, nothing, +sir. Or tell me,' I continued, with an abrupt change of mind, 'who is +that who has just left us?' + +'Father Antoine, do you mean?' + +'Ay, Father Antoine, Father Judas, call him what you like,' I rejoined +bitterly. + +'Then if you leave the choice to me,' M. Francois answered with grave +politeness, 'I would rather call him something more pleasant, M. de +Marsac--James or John, let us say. For there is little said here which +does not come back to him. If walls have ears, the walls of Blois are +in his pay. But I thought you knew him,' he continued. 'He is +secretary, confidant, chaplain, what you will, to Cardinal Retz, and +one of those whom--in your ear--greater men court and more powerful +men lean on. If I had to choose between them, I would rather cross M. +de Crillon.' + +'I am obliged to you,' I muttered, checked as much by his manner as +his words. + +'Not at all,' he answered more lightly. 'Any information I have is at +your disposal.' + +However, I saw the imprudence of venturing farther, and hastened to +take leave of him, persuading him to allow one of M. de Rambouillet's +servants to accompany him home. He said that he should call on me in +the morning; and forcing myself to answer him in a suitable manner, I +saw him depart one way, and myself, accompanied by Simon Fleix, went +off another. My feet were frozen with long standing--I think the +corpse we left was scarce colder--but my head was hot with feverish +doubts and fears. The moon had sunk and the streets were dark. Our +torch had burned out, and we had no light. But where my followers saw +only blackness and vacancy, I saw an evil smile and a lean visage +fraught with menace and exultation. + +For the more closely I directed my mind to the position in which I +stood, the graver it seemed. Pitted against Bruhl alone, amid strange +surroundings and in an atmosphere of Court intrigue, I had thought my +task sufficiently difficult and the disadvantages under which I +laboured sufficiently serious before this interview. Conscious of a +certain rustiness and a distaste for finesse, with resources so +inferior to Bruhl's that even M. de Rosny's liberality had not done +much to make up the difference, I had accepted the post offered me +rather readily than sanguinely; with joy, seeing that it held out the +hope of high reward, but with no certain expectation of success. +Still, matched with a man of violent and headstrong character, I had +seen no reason to despair; nor any why I might not arrange the secret +meeting between the king and mademoiselle with safety, and conduct to +its end an intrigue simple and unsuspected, and requiring for its +execution rather courage and caution than address or experience. + +Now, however, I found that Bruhl was not my only or my most dangerous +antagonist. Another was in the field--or, to speak more correctly, was +waiting outside the arena, ready to snatch the prize when we should +have disabled one another. From a dream of Bruhl and myself as engaged +in a competition for the king's favour, wherein neither could expose +the other nor appeal even in the last resort to the joint-enemies of +his Majesty and ourselves, I awoke to a very different state of +things; I awoke to find those enemies the masters of the situation, +possessed of the clue to our plans, and permitting them only as long +as they seemed to threaten no serious peril to themselves. + +No discovery could be more mortifying or more fraught with terror. The +perspiration stood on my brow as I recalled the warning which M. de +Rosny had uttered against Cardinal Retz, or noted down the various +points of knowledge which were in Father Antoine's possession. He knew +every event of the last month, with one exception, and could tell, I +verily believed, how many crowns I had in my pouch. Conceding this, +and the secret sources of information he must possess, what hope had I +of keeping my future movements from him? Mademoiselle's arrival would +be known to him before she had well passed the gates; nor was it +likely, or even possible, that I should again succeed in reaching the +king's presence untraced and unsuspected. In fine, I saw myself, +equally with Bruhl, a puppet in this man's hands, my goings out and my +comings in watched and reported to him, his mercy the only bar between +myself and destruction. At any moment I might be arrested as a +Huguenot, the enterprise in which I was engaged ruined, and +Mademoiselle de la Vire exposed to the violence of Bruhl or the +equally dangerous intrigues of the League. + +Under these circumstances I fancied sleep impossible; but habit and +weariness are strong persuaders, and when I reached my lodging I slept +long and soundly, as became a man who had looked danger in the face +more than once. The morning light too brought an accession both of +courage and hope. I reflected on the misery of my condition at St. +Jean d'Angely, without friends or resources, and driven to herd with +such a man as Fresnoy. And telling myself that the gold crowns which +M. de Rosny had lavished upon me were not for nothing, nor the more +precious friendship with which he had honoured me a gift that called +for no return, I rose with new spirit and a countenance which threw +Simon Fleix--who had seen me lie down the picture of despair--into the +utmost astonishment. + +'You have had good dreams,' he said, eyeing me jealously and with a +disturbed air. + +'I had a very evil one last night,' I answered lightly, wondering a +little why he looked at me so, and why he seemed to resent my return +to hopefulness and courage. I might have followed this train of +thought farther with advantage, since I possessed a clue to his state +of mind; but at that moment a summons at the door called him away to +it, and he presently ushered in M. d'Agen, who, saluting me with +punctilious politeness, had not said fifty words before he introduced +the subject of his toe--no longer, however, in a hostile spirit, but +as the happy medium which had led him to recognise the worth and +sterling qualities---so he was pleased to say--of his preserver. + +I was delighted to find him in this frame of mind, and told him +frankly that the friendship with which his kinsman, M. de Rambouillet, +honoured me would prevent me giving him satisfaction save in the last +resort. He replied that the service I had done him was such as to +render this immaterial, unless I had myself cause of offence; which I +was forward to deny. + +We were paying one another compliments after this fashion, while I +regarded him with the interest which the middle-aged bestow on the +young and gallant in whom they see their own youth and hopes mirrored, +when the door was again opened, and after a moment's pause admitted, +equally, I think, to the disgust of M. Francois and myself, the form +of Father Antoine. + +Seldom have two men more diverse stood, I believe, in a room together; +seldom has any greater contrast been presented to a man's eyes than +that opened to mine on this occasion. On the one side the gay young +spark, with his short cloak, his fine suit of black-and-silver, his +trim limbs and jewelled hilt and chased comfit-box; on the other, the +tall, stooping monk, lean-jawed and bright-eyed, whose gown hung about +him in coarse, ungainly folds. And M. Francois' sentiment on first +seeing the other was certainly dislike. In spite of this, however, he +bestowed a greeting on the new-comer which evidenced a secret awe, and +in other ways showed so plain a desire to please that I felt my fears +of the priest return in force. I reflected that the talents which in +such a garb could win the respect of M. Francois d'Agen--a brilliant +star among the younger courtiers, and one of a class much given to +thinking scorn of their fathers' roughness--must be both great and +formidable; and, so considering, I received the monk with a distant +courtesy which I had once little thought to extend to him. I put aside +for the moment the private grudge I bore him with so much justice, and +remembered only the burden which lay on me in my contest with him. + +I conjectured without difficulty that he chose to come at this time, +when M. Francois was with me, out of a cunning regard to his own +safety; and I was not surprised when M. Francois, beginning to make +his adieux, Father Antoine begged him to wait below, adding that he +had something of importance to communicate. He advanced his request in +terms of politeness bordering on humility; but I could clearly see +that, in assenting to it, M. d'Agen bowed to a will stronger than his +own, and would, had he dared to follow his own bent, have given a very +different answer. As it was he retired--nominally to give an order to +his lackey--with a species of impatient self-restraint which it was +not difficult to construe. + +Left alone with me, and assured that we had no listeners, the monk was +not slow in coming to the point. + +'You have thought over what I told you last night?' he said brusquely, +dropping in a moment the suave manner which he had maintained in M. +Francois's presence. + +I replied coldly that I had. + +'And you understand the position?' he continued quickly, looking at me +from under his brows as he stood before me, with one clenched fist on +the table. 'Or shall I tell you more? Shall I tell you how poor and +despised you were some weeks ago, M. de Marsac--you who now go in +velvet, and have three men at your back? Or whose gold it is has +brought you here, and made you this? Chut! Do not let us trifle. You +are here as the secret agent of the King of Navarre. It is my business +to learn your plans and his intentions, and I propose to do so.' + +'Well?' I said. + +'I am prepared to buy them,' he answered; and his eyes sparkled as he +spoke, with a greed which set me yet more on my guard. + +'For whom?' I asked. Having made up my mind that I must use the same +weapons as my adversary, I reflected that to express indignation, such +as might become a young man new to the world, could help me not a +whit. 'For whom?' I repeated, seeing that he hesitated. + +'That is my business,' he replied slowly. + +'You want to know too much and tell too little,' I retorted, yawning. + +'And you are playing with me,' he cried, looking at me suddenly, with +so piercing a gaze and so dark a countenance that I checked a shudder +with difficulty. 'So much the worse for you, so much the worse for +you!' he continued fiercely. 'I am here to buy the information you +hold, but if you will not sell, there is another way. At an hour's +notice I can ruin your plans, and send you to a dungeon! You are like +a fish caught in a net not yet drawn. It thrusts its nose this way and +that, and touches the mesh, but is slow to take the alarm until the +net is drawn--and then it is too late. So it is with you, and so it +is,' he added, falling into the ecstatic mood which marked him at +times, and left me in doubt whether he were all knave or in part +enthusiast, 'with all those who set themselves against St. Peter and +his Church!' + +'I have heard you say much the same of the King of France,' I said +derisively. + +'You trust in him?' he retorted, his eyes gleaming. 'You have been up +there, and seen his crowded chamber, and counted his forty-five +gentlemen and his grey-coated Swiss? I tell you the splendour you saw +was a dream, and will vanish as a dream. The man's strength and his +glory shall go from him, and that soon. Have you no eyes to see that +he is beside the question? There are but two powers in France--the +Holy Union, which still prevails, and the accursed Huguenot; and +between them is the battle.' + +'Now you are telling me more,' I said. + +He grew sober in a moment, looking at me with a vicious anger hard to +describe. + +'Tut tut,' he said, showing his yellow teeth, 'the dead tell no tales. +And for Henry of Valois, he so loves a monk that you might better +accuse his mistress. But for you, I have only to cry "Ho! a Huguenot +and a spy!" and though he loved you more than he loved Quelus or +Maugiron, he dare not stretch out a finger to save you!' + +I knew that he spoke the truth, and with difficulty maintained the air +of indifference with which I had entered on the interview. + +'But what if I leave Blois?' I ventured, merely to see what he would +say. + +He laughed. 'You cannot,' he answered. 'The net is round you, M. de +Marsac, and there are those at every gate who know you and have their +instructions. I can destroy you, but I would fain have your +information, and for that I will pay you five hundred crowns and let +you go.' + +'To fall into the hands of the King of Navarre?' + +'He will disown you, in any case,' he answered eagerly. 'He had that +in his mind, my friend, when he selected an agent so obscure. He will +disown you. Ah, mon Dieu! had I been an hour quicker I had caught +Rosny--Rosny himself!' + +'There is one thing lacking still,' I replied. 'How am I to be sure +that, when I have told you what I know, you will pay me the money or +let me go?' + +'I will swear to it!' he answered earnestly, deceived into thinking I +was about to surrender. 'I will give you my oath, M. de Marsac!' + +'I would as soon have your shoe-lace!' I exclaimed, the indignation I +could not entirely repress finding vent in that phrase. 'A Churchman's +vow is worth a candle--or a candle and a half, is it?' I continued +ironically. 'I must have some security a great deal more substantial +than that, father.' + +'What?' he asked, looking at me gloomily. + +Seeing an opening, I cudgelled my brains to think of any condition +which, being fulfilled, might turn the table on him and place him in +my power. But his position was so strong, or my wits so weak, that +nothing occurred to me at the time, and I sat looking at him, my mind +gradually passing from the possibility of escape to the actual danger +in which I stood, and which encompassed also Simon Fleix, and, in a +degree, doubtless, M. de Rambouillet. In four or five days, too, +Mademoiselle de la Vire would arrive. I wondered if I could send any +warning to her; and then, again, I doubted the wisdom of interfering +with M. de Rosny's plans, the more as Maignan, who had gone to fetch +mademoiselle, was of a kind to disregard any orders save his master's. + +'Well!' said the monk, impatiently recalling me to myself, 'what +security do you want?' + +'I am not quite sure at this moment,' I made answer slowly. 'I am in a +difficult position. I must have some time to consider.' + +'And to rid yourself of me, if it be possible,' he said with irony. 'I +quite understand. But I warn you that you are watched; and that +wherever you go and whatever you do, eyes which are mine are upon +you.' + +'I, too, understand,' I said coolly. + +He stood awhile uncertain, regarding me with mingled doubt and +malevolence, tortured on the one hand by fear of losing the prize if +he granted delay, on the other of failing as utterly if he exerted his +power and did not succeed in subduing my resolution. I watched him, +too, and gauging his eagerness and the value of the stake for which he +was striving by the strength of his emotions, drew small comfort from +the sight. More than once it had occurred to me, and now it occurred +to me again, to extricate myself by a blow. But a natural reluctance +to strike an unarmed man, however vile and knavish, and the belief +that he had not trusted himself in my power without taking the fullest +precautions, withheld me. When he grudgingly, and with many dark +threats, proposed to wait three days--and not an hour more--for my +answer, I accepted; for I saw no other alternative open. And on these +terms, but not without some short discussion, we parted, and I heard +his stealthy footstep go sneaking down the stairs. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + MEN CALL IT CHANCE. + + +If I were telling more than the truth, or had it in my mind to +embellish my adventures, I could, doubtless, by the exercise of a +little ingenuity make it appear that I owed my escape from Father +Antoine's meshes to my own craft; and tell, in fine, as pretty a story +of plots and counterplots as M. de Brantome has ever woven. Having no +desire, however, to magnify myself, and, at this time of day, scarcely +any reason, I am fain to confess that the reverse was the case; and +that while no man ever did less to free himself than I did, my +adversary retained his grasp to the end, and had surely, but for a +strange interposition, effected my ruin. How relief came, and from +what quarter, I might defy the most ingenious person, after reading my +memoirs to this point, to say; and this not so much by reason of any +subtle device, as because the hand of Providence was for once directly +manifest. + +The three days of grace which the priest had granted I passed in +anxious but futile search for some means of escape, every plan I +conceived dying stillborn, and not the least of my miseries lying in +the fact that I could discern no better course than still to sit and +think, and seemed doomed to perpetual inaction. M. de Rambouillet +being a strict Catholic, though in all other respects a patriotic man, +I knew better than to have recourse to him; and the priest's influence +over M. d'Agen I had myself witnessed. For similar reasons I rejected +the idea of applying to the king; and this exhausting the list of +those on whom I had any claim, I found myself thrown on my own +resources, which seemed limited--my wits failing me at this pinch--to +my sword and Simon Fleix. + +Assured that I must break out of Blois if I would save, not myself +only, but others more precious because entrusted to my charge, I +thought it no disgrace to appeal to Simon; describing in a lively +fashion the danger which threatened us, and inciting the lad by every +argument which I thought likely to have weight with him to devise some +way of escape. + +'Now is the time, my friend,' I said, 'to show your wits, and prove +that M. de Rosny, who said you had a cunning above the ordinary, was +right. If your brain can ever save your head, now is the time! For I +tell you plainly, if you cannot find some way to outman[oe]uvre this +villain before to-morrow, I am spent. You can judge for yourself what +chance you will have of going free.' + +I paused at that, waiting for him to make some suggestion. To my +chagrin he remained silent, leaning his head on his hand, and studying +the table with his eyes in a sullen fashion; so that I began to regret +the condescension I had evinced in letting him be seated, and found it +necessary to remind him that he had taken service with me, and must do +my bidding. + +'Well,' he said morosely, and without looking up, 'I am ready to do +it. But I do not like priests, and this one least of all. I know him, +and I will not meddle with him!' + +'You will not meddle with him?' I cried, almost beside myself with +dismay. + +'No, I won't,' he replied, retaining his listless attitude. 'I know +him, and I am afraid of him. I am no match for him.' + +'Then M. de Rosny was wrong, was he?' I said, giving way to my anger. + +'If it please you,' he answered pertly. + +This was too much for me. My riding-switch lay handy, and I snatched +it up. Before he knew what I would be at, I fell upon him, and gave +him such a sound wholesome drubbing as speedily brought him to his +senses. When he cried for mercy--which he did not for a good space, +being still possessed by the peevish devil which had ridden him ever +since his departure from Rosny--I put it to him again whether M. de +Rosny was not right. When he at last admitted this, but not till then, +I threw the whip away and let him go, but did not cease to reproach +him as he deserved. + +'Did you think,' I said, 'that I was going to be ruined because you +would not use your lazy brains? That I was going to sit still, and let +you sulk, while mademoiselle walked blindfold into the toils? Not at +all, my friend!' + +'Mademoiselle!' he exclaimed, looking at me with a sudden change of +countenance, and ceasing to rub himself and scowl, as he had been +doing. 'She is not here, and is in no danger.' + +'She will be here to-morrow, or the next day,' I said. + +'You did not tell me that!' he replied, his eyes glittering. 'Does +Father Antoine know it?' + +'He will know it the moment she enters the town,' I answered. + +Noting the change which the introduction of mademoiselle's name into +the affair had wrought in him, I felt something like humiliation. But +at the moment I had no choice; it was my business to use such +instruments as came to my hand, and not, mademoiselle's safety being +at stake, to pick and choose too nicely. In a few minutes our +positions were reversed. The lad had grown as hot as I cold, as keenly +excited as I critical. When he presently came to a stand in front of +me, I saw a strange likeness between his face and the priest's; nor +was I astonished when he presently made just such a proposal as I +should have expected from Father Antoine himself. + +'There is only one thing for it,' he muttered, trembling all over. 'He +must be got rid of!' + +'Fine talking!' I said, contemptuously. 'If he were a soldier he might +be brought to it. But he is a priest, my friend, and does not fight.' + +'Fight? Who wants him to fight?' the lad answered, his face dark, his +hands moving restlessly. 'It is the easier done. A blow in the back, +and he will trouble us no more.' + +'Who is to strike it?' I asked drily. + +Simon trembled and hesitated; but presently, heaving a deep sigh, he +said, 'I will.' + +'It might not be difficult,' I muttered, thinking it over. + +'It would be easy,' he answered under his breath. His eyes shone, his +lips were white, and his long dark hair hung wet over his forehead. + +I reflected; and the longer I did so the more feasible seemed the +suggestion. A single word, and I might sweep from my path the man +whose existence threatened mine; who would not meet me fairly, but, +working against me darkly and treacherously, deserved no better +treatment at my hands than that which a detected spy receives. He had +wronged my mother; he would fain destroy my friends! + +And, doubtless, I shall be blamed by some and ridiculed by more for +indulging in scruples at such a time. But I have all my life long been +prejudiced against that form of underhand violence which I have heard +old men contend came into fashion in our country in modern times, and +which certainly seems to be alien from the French character. Without +judging others too harshly, or saying that the poniard is never +excusable--for then might some wrongs done to women and the helpless +go without remedy--I have set my face against its use as unworthy of a +soldier. At the time, moreover, of which I am now writing the extent +to which our enemies had lately resorted to it tended to fix this +feeling with peculiar firmness in my mind; and, but for the very +desperate dilemma in which I stood at the moment--and not I alone--I +do not think that I should have entertained Simon's proposal for a +minute. + +As it was, I presently answered him in a way which left him in no +doubt of my sentiments. 'Simon, my friend,' I said--and I remember I +was a little moved--'you have something still to learn, both as a +soldier and a Huguenot. Neither the one nor the other strikes at the +back.' + +'But if he will not fight?' the lad retorted rebelliously. 'What +then?' + +It was so clear that our adversary gained an unfair advantage in this +way that I could not answer the question. I let it pass, therefore, +and merely repeating my former injunction, bade Simon think out +another way. + +He promised reluctantly to do so, and, after spending some moments in +thought, went out to learn whether the house was being watched. + +When he returned, his countenance wore so new an expression that I saw +at once that something had happened. He did not meet my eye, however, +and did not explain, but made as if he would go out again, with +something of confusion in his manner. Before finally disappearing, +however, he seemed to change his mind once more; for, marching up to +me where I stood eyeing him with the utmost astonishment, he stopped +before me, and suddenly drawing out his hand, thrust something into +mine. + +'What is it, man?' I said mechanically. + +'Look!' he answered rudely, breaking silence for the first time. 'You +should know. Why ask me? What have I to do with it?' + +I looked then, and saw that he had given me a knot of velvet precisely +similar in shape, size, and material to that well-remembered one which +had aided me so opportunely in my search for mademoiselle. This +differed from that a little in colour, but in nothing else, the +fashion of the bow being the same, and one lappet bearing the initials +'C. d. l. V.,' while the other had the words, 'A moi.' I gazed at it +in wonder. 'But, Simon,' I said, 'what does it mean? Where did you get +it?' + +'Where should I get it?' he answered jealously. Then, seeming to +recollect himself, he changed his tone. 'A woman gave it to me in the +street,' he said. + +I asked him what woman. + +'How should I know?' he answered, his eyes gleaming with anger. 'It +was a woman in a mask.' + +'Was it Fanchette?' I said sternly. + +'It might have been. I do not know,' he responded. + +I concluded at first that mademoiselle and her escort had arrived in +the outskirts of the city, and that Maignan had justified his +reputation for discretion by sending in to learn from me whether the +way was clear before he entered. In this notion I was partly confirmed +and partly shaken by the accompanying message; which Simon, from whom +every scrap of information had to be dragged as blood from a stone, +presently delivered. + +'You are to meet the sender half an hour after sunset to-morrow +evening,' he said, 'on the Parvis at the north-east corner of the +cathedral.' + +'To-morrow evening?' + +'Yes, when else?' the lad answered ungraciously. 'I said to-morrow +evening.' + +I thought this strange. I could understand why Maignan should prefer +to keep his charge outside the walls until he heard from me, but not +why he should postpone a meeting so long. The message, too, seemed +unnecessarily meagre, and I began to think Simon was still withholding +something. + +'Was that all?' I asked him. + +'Yes, all,' he answered, 'except----' + +'Except what?' I said sternly. + +'Except that the woman showed me the gold token Mademoiselle de la +Vire used to carry,' he answered reluctantly, 'and said, if you wanted +further assurance that would satisfy you.' + +'Did you see the coin?' I cried eagerly. + +'To be sure,' he answered. + +'Then, mon dieu!' I retorted, 'either you are deceiving me, or the +woman you saw deceived you. For mademoiselle has not got the token! I +have it; here, in my possession! Now, do you still say you saw it, +man?' + +'I saw one like it,' he answered, trembling, his face damp. 'That I +will swear. And the woman told me what I have told you. And no more.' + +'Then it is clear,' I answered, 'that mademoiselle has nothing to do +with this, and is doubtless many a league away. This is one of M. de +Bruhl's tricks. Fresnoy gave him the token he stole from me. And I +told him the story of the velvet knot myself. This is a trap; and had +I fallen into it, and gone to the Parvis to-morrow evening, I had +never kept another assignation, my lad.' + +Simon looked thoughtful. Presently he said, with a crestfallen air, +'You were to go alone. The woman said that.' + +Though I knew well why he had suppressed this item, I forbore to blame +him. 'What was the woman like?' I said. + +'She had very much of Fanchette's figure,' he answered. He could not +go beyond that. Blinded by the idea that the woman was mademoiselle's +attendant, and no one else, he had taken little heed of her, and could +not even say for certain that she was not a man in woman's clothes. + +I thought the matter over and discussed it with him; and was heartily +minded to punish M. de Bruhl, if I could discover a way of turning his +treacherous plot against himself. But the lack of any precise +knowledge of his plans prevented me stirring in the matter; the more +as I felt no certainty that I should be master of my actions when the +time came. + +Strange to say the discovery of this movement on the part of Bruhl, +who had sedulously kept himself in the background since the scene in +the king's presence, far from increasing my anxieties, had the effect +of administering a fillip to my spirits; which the cold and unyielding +pressure of the Jacobin had reduced to a low point. Here was something +I could understand, resist, and guard against. The feeling that I had +once more to do with a man of like aims and passions with myself +quickly restored me to the use of my faculties; as I have heard that a +swordsman opposed to the powers of evil regains his vigour on finding +himself engaged with a mortal foe. Though I knew that the hours of +grace were fast running to a close, and that on the morrow the priest +would call for an answer, I experienced that evening an unreasonable +lightness and cheerfulness. I retired to rest with confidence, and +slept in comfort, supported in part, perhaps, by the assurance that in +that room where my mother died her persecutor could have no power to +harm me. + +Upon Simon Fleix, on the other hand, the discovery that Bruhl was +moving, and that consequently peril threatened us from a new quarter, +had a different effect. He fell into a state of extreme excitement, +and spent the evening and a great part of the night in walking +restlessly up and down the room, wrestling with the fears and +anxieties which beset us, and now talking fast to himself, now biting +his nails in an agony of impatience. In vain I adjured him not to meet +troubles halfway; or, pointing to the pallet which he occupied at the +foot of my couch, bade him, if he could not devise a way of escape, at +least to let the matter rest until morning. He had no power to obey, +but, tortured by the vivid anticipations which it was his nature to +entertain, he continued to ramble to and fro in a fever of the nerves, +and had no sooner lain down than he was up again. Remembering, +however, how well he had borne himself on the night of mademoiselle's +escape from Blois, I refrained from calling him a coward; and +contented myself instead with the reflection that nothing sits worse +on a fighting-man than too much knowledge--except, perhaps, a lively +imagination. + +I thought it possible that mademoiselle might arrive next day before +Father Antoine called to receive his answer. In this event I hoped to +have the support of Maignan's experience. But the party did not +arrive. I had to rely on myself and my own resources, and, this being +so, determined to refuse the priest's offer, but in all other things +to be guided by circumstances. + +About noon he came, attended, as was his practice, by two friends, +whom he left outside. He looked paler and more shadowy than before, I +thought, his hands thinner, and his cheeks more transparent. I could +draw no good augury, however, from these signs of frailty, for the +brightness of his eyes and the unusual elation of his manner told +plainly of a spirit assured of the mastery. He entered the room with +an air of confidence, and addressed me in a tone of patronage which +left me in no doubt of his intentions; the frankness with which he now +laid bare his plans going far to prove that already he considered me +no better than his tool. + +I did not at once undeceive him, but allowed him to proceed, and even +to bring out the five hundred crowns which he had promised me, and the +sight of which he doubtless supposed would clench the matter. + +Seeing this he became still less reticent, and spoke so largely that I +presently felt myself impelled to ask him if he would answer a +question. + +'That is as may be, M. de Marsac,' he answered lightly. 'You may ask +it.' + +'You hint at great schemes which you have in hand, father,' I said. +'You speak of France and Spain and Navarre, and kings and Leagues and +cardinals! You talk of secret strings, and would have me believe that +if I comply with your wishes I shall find you as powerful a patron as +M. de Rosny. But--one moment, if you please,' I continued hastily, +seeing that he was about to interrupt me with such eager assurances as +I had already heard; 'tell me this. With so many irons in the fire, +why did you interfere with one old gentlewoman--for the sake of a few +crowns?' + +'I will tell you even that,' he answered, his face flushing at my +tone. 'Have you ever heard of an elephant? Yes. Well, it has a trunk, +you know, with which it can either drag an oak from the earth or lift +a groat from the ground. It is so with me. But again you ask,' he +continued with an airy grimace, 'why I wanted a few crowns. Enough +that I did. There are going to be two things in the world, and two +only, M. de Marsac: brains and money. The former I have, and had: the +latter I needed--and took.' + +'Money and brains?' I said, looking at him thoughtfully. + +'Yes,' he answered, his eyes sparkling, his thin nostrils beginning to +dilate. 'Give me these two, and I will rule France!' + +'You will rule France?' I exclaimed, amazed beyond measure by his +audacity. 'You, man?' + +'Yes, I,' he answered, with abominable coolness. 'I, priest, monk, +Churchman, clerk. You look surprised, but mark you, sir, there is a +change going on. Our time is coming, and yours is going. What hampers +our lord the king and shuts him up in Blois, while rebellions stalk +through France? Lack of men? No; but lack of money. Who can get the +money for him--you the soldier, or I the clerk? A thousand times, I! +Therefore, my time is coining, and before you die you will see a +priest rule France.' + +'God forbid it should be you,' I answered scornfully. + +'As you please,' he answered, shrugging his shoulders, and assuming in +a breath a mask of humility which sat as ill on his monstrous conceit +as ever nun's veil on a trooper. 'Yet it may even be I; by the favour +of the Holy Catholic Church, whose humble minister I am.' + +I sprang up with a great oath at that, having no stomach for more of +the strange transformations, in which this man delighted, and whereof +the last had ever the air of being the most hateful. 'You villain!' I +cried, twisting my moustaches, a habit I have when enraged. 'And so +you would make me a stepping-stone to your greatness. You would bribe +me--a soldier and a gentleman. Go, before I do you a mischief. That is +all I have to say to you. Go! You have your answer. I will tell you +nothing--not a jot or a tittle. Begone from my room!' + +He fell back a step in his surprise, and stood against the table +biting his nails and scowling at me, fear and chagrin contending with +half a dozen devils for the possession of his face. 'So you have been +deceiving me,' he said slowly, and at last. + +'I have let you deceive yourself,' I answered, looking at him with +scorn, but with none of the fear with which he had for a while +inspired me. 'Begone, and do your worst.' + +'You know what you are doing,' he said. 'I have that will hang you, M. +de Marsac--or worse.' + +'Go!' I cried. + +'You have thought of your friends,' he continued mockingly. + +'Go!' I said. + +'Of Mademoiselle de la Vire, if by any chance she fall into my hands? +It will not be hanging for her. You remember the two Foucauds?'--and +he laughed. + +The vile threat, which I knew he had used to my mother, so worked upon +me that I strode forward unable to control myself longer. In another +moment I had certainly taken him by the throat and squeezed the life +out of his miserable carcase, had not Providence in its goodness +intervened to save me. The door, on which he had already laid his hand +in terror, opened suddenly. It admitted Simon, who, closing it behind +him, stood looking from one to the other of us in nervous doubt; +divided between that respect for the priest which a training at the +Sorbonne had instilled into him, and the rage which despair arouses in +the weakest. + +His presence, while it checked me in my purpose, seemed to give Father +Antoine courage, for the priest stood his ground, and even turned to +me a second time, his face dark with spite and disappointment. 'Good,' +he said hoarsely. 'Destroy yourself if you will! I advise you to bar +your door, for in an hour the guards will be here to fetch you to the +question.' + +Simon cried out at the threat, so that I turned and looked at the lad. +His knees were shaking, his hair stood on end. + +The priest saw his terror and his own opportunity. 'Ay, in an hour,' +he continued slowly, looking at him with cruel eyes. 'In an hour, lad! +You must be fond of pain to court it, and out of humour with life to +throw it away. Or stay,' he continued abruptly, after considering +Simon's agony for a moment, and doubtless deducing from it a last +hope, 'I will be merciful. I will give you one more chance.' + +'And yourself?' I said with a sneer. + +'As you please,' he answered, declining to be diverted from the +trembling lad, whom his gaze seemed to fascinate. 'I will give you +until half an hour after sunset this evening to reconsider the matter. +If you make up your minds to accept my terms, meet me then. I leave +to-night for Paris, and I will give you until the last moment. But,' +he continued grimly, 'if you do not meet me, or, meeting me, remain +obstinate--God do so to me, and more also, if you see the sun rise +thrice.' + +Some impulse, I know not what, seeing that I had no thought of +accepting his terms or meeting him, led me to ask briefly, 'Where?' + +'On the Parvis of the Cathedral,' he answered after a moment's +calculation. 'At the north-east corner, half an hour after sunset. It +is a quiet spot.' + +Simon uttered a stifled exclamation. And then for a moment there was +silence in the room, while the lad breathed hard and irregularly, and +I stood rooted to the spot, looking so long and so strangely at the +priest that Father Antoine laid his hand again on the door and glanced +uneasily behind him. Nor was he content until he had hit on, as he +fancied, the cause of my strange regard. + +'Ha!' he said, his thin lip curling in conceit at his astuteness, 'I +understand. You think to kill me to-night? Let me tell you, this house +is watched. If you leave here to meet me with any companion--unless it +be M. d'Agen, whom I can trust--I shall be warned, and be gone before +you reach the rendezvous. And gone, mind you,' he added, with a grim +smile, 'to sign your death-warrant.' + +He went out with that, closing the door behind him; and we heard his +step go softly down the staircase. I gazed at Simon, and he at me, +with all the astonishment and awe which it was natural we should feel +in presence of so remarkable a coincidence. + +For by a marvel the priest had named the same spot and the same time +as the sender of the velvet knot! + +'He will go,' Simon said, his face flushed and his voice trembling, +'and they will go.' + +'And in the dark they will not know him,' I muttered. 'He is about my +height. They will take him for me!' + +'And kill him!' Simon cried hysterically. 'They will kill him! He goes +to his death, monsieur. It is the finger of God.' + + + + + CHAPTER XX. + + THE KING'S FACE. + + +It seemed so necessary to bring home the crime to Bruhl should the +priest really perish in the trap laid for me, that I came near to +falling into one of those mistakes to which men of action are prone. +For my first impulse was to follow the priest to the Parvis, closely +enough, if possible, to detect the assassins in the act, and with +sufficient force, if I could muster it, to arrest them. The credit of +dissuading me from this course lies with Simon, who pointed out its +dangers in so convincing a manner that I was brought with little +difficulty to relinquish it. + +Instead, acting on his advice, I sent him to M. d'Agen's lodging, to +beg that young gentleman to call upon me before evening. After +searching the lodging and other places in vain, Simon found M. d'Agen +in the tennis-court at the Castle, and, inventing a crafty excuse, +brought him to my lodging a full hour before the time. + +My visitor was naturally surprised to find that I had nothing +particular to say to him. I dared not tell him what occupied my +thoughts, and for the rest invention failed me. But his gaiety and +those pretty affectations on which he spent an infinity of pains, for +the purpose, apparently, of hiding the sterling worth of a character +deficient neither in courage nor backbone, were united to much good +nature. Believing at last that I had sent for him in a fit of the +vapours, he devoted himself to amusing me and abusing Bruhl--a very +favourite pastime with him. And in this way he made out a call of two +hours. + +I had not long to wait for proof of Simon's wisdom in taking this +precaution. We thought it prudent to keep within doors after our +guest's departure, and so passed the night in ignorance whether +anything had happened or not. But about seven next morning one of the +Marquis's servants, despatched by M. d'Agen, burst in upon us with the +news--which was no news from the moment his hurried footstep sounded +on the stairs--that Father Antoine had been set upon and killed the +previous evening! + +I heard this confirmation of my hopes with grave thankfulness; Simon +with so much emotion that when the messenger was gone he sat down on a +stool and began to sob and tremble as if he had lost his mother, +instead of a mortal foe. I took advantage of the occasion to read him +a sermon on the end of crooked courses; nor could I myself recall +without a shudder the man's last words to me; or the lawless and evil +designs in which he had rejoiced, while standing on the very brink of +the pit which was to swallow up both him and them in everlasting +darkness. + +Naturally, the uppermost feeling in my mind was relief. I was free +once more. In all probability the priest had kept his knowledge to +himself, and without him his agents would be powerless. Simon, it is +true, heard that the town was much excited by the event; and that many +attributed it to the Huguenots. But we did not suffer ourselves to be +depressed by this, nor had I any foreboding until the sound of a +second hurried footstep mounting the stairs reached our ears. + +I knew the step in a moment for M. d'Agen's, and something ominous in +its ring brought me to my feet before he opened the door. Significant +as was his first hasty look round the room, he recovered at sight of +me all his habitual _sang-froid_. He saluted me, and spoke coolly, +though rapidly. But he panted, and I noticed in a moment that he had +lost his lisp. + +'I am happy in finding you,' he said, closing the door carefully +behind him, 'for I am the bearer of ill news, and there is not a +moment to be lost. The king has signed an order for your instant +consignment to prison, M. de Marsac, and, once there, it is difficult +to say what may not happen.' + +'My consignment?' I exclaimed. I may be pardoned if the news for a +moment found me unprepared. + +'Yes,' he replied quickly. 'The king has signed it at the instance of +Marshal Retz.' + +'But for what?' I cried in amazement. + +'The murder of Father Antoine. You will pardon me,' he continued +urgently, 'but this is no time for words. The Provost-Marshal is even +now on his way to arrest you. Your only hope is to evade him, and gain +an audience of the king. I have persuaded my uncle to go with you, and +he is waiting at his lodgings. There is not a moment to be lost, +however, if you would reach the king's presence before you are +arrested.' + +'But I am innocent!' I cried. + +'I know it,' M. d'Agen answered, 'and can prove it. But if you cannot +get speech of the king innocence will avail you nothing. You have +powerful enemies. Come without more ado, M. de Marsac, I pray,' he +added. + +His manner, even more than his words, impressed me with a sense of +urgency; and postponing for a time my own judgment, I hurriedly +thanked him for his friendly offices. Snatching up my sword, which lay +on a chair, I buckled it on; for Simon's fingers trembled so violently +he could give me no help. This done I nodded to M. d'Agen to go first, +and followed him from the room, Simon attending us of his own motion. +It would be then about eleven o'clock in the forenoon. + +My companion ran down the stairs without ceremony, and so quickly it +was all I could do to keep up with him. At the outer door he signed me +to stand, and darting himself into the street, he looked anxiously in +the direction of the Rue St. Denys. Fortunately the coast was still +clear, and he beckoned to me to follow him. I did so and starting to +walk in the opposite direction as fast as we could, in less than a +minute we had put a corner between us and the house. + +Our hopes of escaping unseen, however, were promptly dashed. The +house, I have said, stood in a quiet by-street, which was bounded on +the farther side by a garden-wall buttressed at intervals. We had +scarcely gone a dozen paces from my door when a man slipped from the +shelter of one of these buttresses, and after a single glance at us, +set off to run towards the Rue St. Denys. + +M. d'Agen looked back and nodded. 'There goes the news,' he said. +'They will try to cut us off, but I think we have the start of them.' + +I made no reply, feeling that I had resigned myself entirely into his +hands. But as we passed through the Rue de Valois, in part of which a +market was held at this hour, attracting a considerable concourse of +peasants and others, I fancied I detected signs of unusual bustle and +excitement. It seemed unlikely that news of the priest's murder should +affect so many people and to such a degree, and I asked M. d'Agen what +it meant. + +'There is a rumour abroad,' he answered, without slackening speed, +'that the king intends to move south to Tours at once.' + +I muttered my surprise and satisfaction. 'He will come to terms with +the Huguenots then?' I said. + +'It looks like it,' M. d'Agen rejoined. 'Retz's party are in an +ill-humour on that account, and will wreak it on you if they get a +chance. On guard!' he added abruptly. 'Here are two of them!' + +As he spoke we emerged from the crowd, and I saw, half a dozen paces +in front of us, and coming to meet us, a couple of Court gallants, +attended by as many servants. They espied us at the same moment, and +came across the street, which was tolerably wide at that part, with +the evident intention of stopping us. Simultaneously, however, we +crossed to take their side, and so met them face to face in the middle +of the way. + +'M. d'Agen,' the foremost exclaimed, speaking in a haughty tone, and +with a dark side glance at me, 'I am sorry to see you in such company! +Doubtless you are not aware that this gentleman is the subject of an +order which has even now been issued to the Provost-Marshal.' + +'And if so, sir? What of that?' my companion lisped in his silkiest +tone. + +'What of that?' the other cried, frowning, and pushing slightly +forward. + +'Precisely,' M. d'Agen repeated, laying his hand on his hilt and +declining to give back. 'I am not aware that his Majesty has appointed +you Provost-Marshal, or that you have any warrant, M. Villequier, +empowering you to stop gentlemen in the public streets.' + +M. Villequier reddened with anger. 'You are young, M. d'Agen,' he +said, his voice quivering, 'or I would make you pay dearly for that!' + +'My friend is not young,' M. d'Agen retorted, bowing. He is a +gentleman of birth, M. Villequier; by repute, as I learned yesterday, +one of the best swordsmen in France, and no Gascon. If you feel +inclined to arrest him, do so, I pray. And I will have the honour of +engaging your son.' + +As we had all by this time our hands on our swords, there needed but a +blow to bring about one of those street brawls which were more common +then than now. A number of market-people, drawn to the spot by our +raised voices, had gathered round, and were waiting eagerly to see +what would happen. But Villequier, as my companion perhaps knew, was a +Gascon in heart as well as by birth, and seeing our determined +aspects, thought better of it. Shrugging his shoulders with an +affectation of disdain which imposed on no one, he signalled to his +servants to go on, and himself stood aside. + +'I thank you for your polite offer,' he said with an evil smile, 'and +will remember it. But as you say, sir, I am not the Provost-Marshal.' + +Paying little heed to his words, we bowed, passed him, and hurried on. +But the peril was not over. Not only had the _rencontre_ cost us some +precious minutes, but the Gascon, after letting us proceed a little +way, followed us. And word being passed by his servants, as we +supposed, that one of us was the murderer of Father Antoine, the +rumour spread through the crowd like wildfire, and in a few moments we +found ourselves attended by a troop of _canaille_ who, hanging on our +skirts, caused Simon Fleix no little apprehension. Notwithstanding the +contempt which M. d'Agen, whose bearing throughout was admirable, +expressed for them, we might have found it necessary to turn and teach +them a lesson had we not reached M. de Rambouillet's in the nick of +time; where we found the door surrounded by half a dozen armed +servants, at sight of whom our persecutors fell back with the +cowardice which is usually found in that class. + +If I had been tempted of late to think M. de Rambouillet fickle, I had +no reason to complain now; whether his attitude was due to M. d'Agen's +representations, or to the reflection that without me the plans he had +at heart must miscarry. I found him waiting within, attended by three +gentlemen, all cloaked and ready for the road; while the air of +purpose which sat on his brow indicated that he thought the crisis no +common one. Not a moment was lost, even in explanations. Waving me to +the door again, and exchanging a few sentences with his nephew, he +gave the word to start, and we issued from the house in a body. +Doubtless the fact that those who sought to ruin me were his political +enemies had some weight with him; for I saw his face harden as his +eyes met those of M. de Villequier, who passed slowly before the door +as we came out. The Gascon, however, was not the man to interfere with +so large a party, and dropped back; while M. de Rambouillet, after +exchanging a cold salute with him, led the way towards the Castle at a +round pace. His nephew and I walked one on either side of him, and the +others, to the number of ten or eleven, pressed on behind in a compact +body, our cortege presenting so determined a front that the crowd, +which had remained hanging about the door, fled every way. Even some +peaceable folk who found themselves in our road took the precaution of +slipping into doorways, or stood aside to give us the full width of +the street. + +I remarked--and I think it increased my anxiety--that our leader was +dressed with more than usual care and richness, but, unlike his +attendants, wore no arms. He took occasion, as we hurried along, to +give me a word of advice. 'M. de Marsac,' he said, looking at me +suddenly, 'my nephew has given me to understand that you place +yourself entirely in my hands.' + +I replied that I asked for no better fortune, and, whatever the event, +thanked him from the bottom of my heart. + +'Be pleased then to keep silence until I bid you speak,' he replied +sharply, for he was one of those whom a sudden stress sours and +exacerbates. 'And, above all, no violence without my orders. We are +about to fight a battle, and a critical one, but it must be won with +our heads. If we can we will keep you out of the Provost-Marshal's +hands.' + +And if not? I remembered the threats Father Antoine had used, and in a +moment I lost sight of the street with all its light and life and +movement. I felt no longer the wholesome stinging of the wind. I +tasted instead a fetid air, and saw round me a narrow cell and masked +figures, and in particular a swathy man in a leather apron leaning +over a brazier, from whim came lurid flames. And I was bound. I +experienced that utter helplessness which is the last test of courage. +The man came forward, and then--then, thank God! the vision passed +away. An exclamation to which M. d'Agen gave vent, brought me back to +the present, and to the blessed knowledge that the fight was not yet +over. + +We were within a score of paces, I found, of the Castle gates: but so +were also a second party, who had just debouched from a side-street, +and now hurried on, pace for pace, with us, with the evident intention +of forestalling us. The race ended in both companies reaching the +entrance at the same time, with the consequence of some jostling +taking place amongst the servants. This must have led to blows but for +the strenuous commands which M. de Rambouillet had laid upon his +followers. I found myself in a moment confronted by a row of scowling +faces, while a dozen threatening hands were stretched out towards me, +and as many voices, among which I recognised Fresnoy's, cried out +tumultuously, 'That is he! That is the one!' + +An elderly man in a quaint dress stepped forward, a paper in his hand, +and, backed as he was by half a dozen halberdiers, would in a moment +have laid hands on me if M. de Rambouillet had not intervened with a +negligent air of authority, which sat on him the more gracefully as he +held nothing but a riding-switch in his hands. 'Tut, tut! What is +this?' he said lightly. 'I am not wont to have my people interfered +with, M. Provost, without my leave. You know me, I suppose?' + +'Perfectly, M. le Marquis,' the man answered with dogged respect; 'but +this is by the king's special command.' + +'Very good,' my patron answered, quietly eyeing the faces behind the +Provost-Marshal, as if he were making a note of them; which caused +some of the gentlemen manifest uneasiness. 'That is soon seen, for we +are even now about to seek speech with his Majesty.' + +'Not this gentleman,' the Provost-Marshal answered firmly, raising his +hand again. 'I can not let him pass.' + +'Yes, this gentleman too, by your leave,' the Marquis retorted, +lightly putting the hand aside with his cane. + +'Sir,' said the other, retreating a step and speaking with some heat, +'this is no jest with all respect. I hold the king's own order, and it +may not be resisted.' + +The nobleman tapped his silver comfit-box and smiled. 'I shall be the +last to resist it--if you have it,' he said languidly. + +'You may read it for yourself,' the Provost-Marshal answered, his +patience exhausted. + +M. de Rambouillet took the parchment with the ends of his fingers, +glanced at it, and gave it back. 'As I thought,' he said, 'a manifest +forgery.' + +'A forgery!' cried the officer, crimson with indignation. 'And I had +it from the hands of the king's own secretary!' At this those behind +murmured, some 'shame,' and some one thing, and some another--all with +an air so threatening that the Marquis's gentlemen closed up behind +him, and M. d'Agen laughed rudely. + +But M. de Rambouillet remained unmoved. 'You may have had it from whom +you please, sir,' he said. 'It is a forgery, and I shall resist its +execution. If you choose to await me here, I will give you my word to +render this gentleman to you within an hour, should the order hold +good. If you will not wait, I shall command my servants to clear the +way, and if ill happen, then the responsibility will lie with you.' + +He spoke in so resolute a manner it was not difficult to see that +something more was at stake than the arrest of a single man. This was +so; the real issue was whether the king, with whose instability it was +difficult to cope, should fall back into the hands of his old advisers +or not. My arrest was a move in the game intended as a counterblast to +the victory which M. de Rambouillet had gained when he persuaded the +king to move to Tours; a city in the neighbourhood of the Huguenots, +and a place of arms whence union with them would be easy. + +The Provost-Marshal could, no doubt, make a shrewd guess at these +things. He knew that the order he had would be held valid or not +according as one party or the other gained the mastery; and, seeing M. +de Rambouillet's resolute demeanour, he gave way. Rudely interrupted +more than once by his attendants, among whom were some of Bruhl's men, +he muttered an ungracious assent to our proposal; on which, and +without a moment's delay, the Marquis took me by the arm and hurried +me across the courtyard. + +And so far, well. My heart began to rise. But, for the Marquis, as we +mounted the staircase the anxiety he had dissembled while we faced the +Provost-Marshal, broke out in angry mutterings; from which I gathered +that the crisis was yet to come. I was not surprised, therefore, when +an usher rose on our appearance in the antechamber, and, quickly +crossing the floor, interposed between us and the door of the chamber, +informing the Marquis with a low obeisance that his Majesty was +engaged. + +'He will see me,' M. de Rambouillet cried, looking haughtily round on +the sneering pages and lounging courtiers, who grew civil under his +eye. + +'I have particular orders, sir, to admit no one,' the man answered. + +'Tut, tut, they do not apply to me,' my companion retorted, nothing +daunted. 'I know the business on which the king is engaged, and I am +here to assist him.' And raising his hand he thrust the startled +official aside, and hardily pushed the doors of the chamber open. + +The king, surrounded by half a dozen persons, was in the act of +putting on his riding-boots. On hearing us, he turned his head with a +startled air, and dropped in his confusion one of the ivory cylinders +he was using; while his aspect, and that of the persons who stood +round him, reminded me irresistibly of a party of schoolboys detected +in a fault. + +He recovered himself, it is true, almost immediately; and turning his +back to us, continued to talk to the persons round him on such +trifling subjects as commonly engaged him. He carried on this +conversation in a very free way, studiously ignoring our presence; but +it was plain he remained aware of it, and even that he was uneasy +under the cold and severe gaze which the Marquis, who seemed in nowise +affrighted by his reception, bent upon him. + +I, for my part, had no longer any confidence. Nay, I came near to +regretting that I had persevered in an attempt so useless. The warrant +which awaited me at the gates seemed less formidable than his +Majesty's growing displeasure; which I saw I was incurring by +remaining where I was. It needed not the insolent glance of Marshal +Retz, who lounged smiling by the king's hand, or the laughter of a +couple of pages who stood at the head of the chamber, to deprive me of +my last hope; while some things which might have cheered me--the +uneasiness of some about the king, and the disquietude which underlay +Marshal Retz's manner--escaped my notice altogether. + +What I did see clearly was that the king's embarrassment was fast +changing to anger. The paint which reddened his cheeks prevented any +alteration in his colour being visible, but his frown and the nervous +manner in which he kept taking off and putting on his jewelled cap +betrayed him. At length, signing to one of his companions to follow, +he moved a little aside to a window, whence, after a few moments, the +gentleman came to us. + +'M. de Rambouillet,' he said, speaking coldly and formally, 'his +Majesty is displeased by this gentleman's presence, and requires him +to withdraw forthwith.' + +'His Majesty's word is law,' my patron answered, bowing low, and +speaking in a clear voice audible throughout the chamber, 'but the +matter which brings this gentleman here is of the utmost importance, +and touches his Majesty's person.' + +M. de Retz laughed jeeringly. The other courtiers looked grave. The +king shrugged his shoulders with a peevish gesture, but after a +moment's hesitation, during which he looked first at Retz and then at +M. de Rambouillet, he signed to the Marquis to approach. + +'Why have you brought him here?' he muttered sharply, looking askance +at me. 'He should have been bestowed according to my orders.' + +'He has information for your Majesty's private ear,' Rambouillet +answered. And he looked so meaningly at the king that Henry, I think, +remembered on a sudden his compact with Rosny, and my part in it; for +he started with the air of a man suddenly awakened. 'To prevent that +information reaching you, sire,' my patron continued, 'his enemies +have practised on your Majesty's well-known sense of justice.' + +'Oh, but stay, stay!' the king cried, hitching forward the scanty +cloak he wore, which barely came down to his waist. 'The man has +killed a priest! He has killed a priest, man!' he repeated with +confidence, as if he had now got hold of the right argument. + +'That is not so, sire, craving your Majesty's pardon,' M. de +Rambouillet replied with the utmost coolness. + +'Tut! Tut! The evidence is clear,' the king said peevishly. + +'As to that, sire,' my companion rejoined, 'if it is of the murder of +Father Antoine he is accused, I say boldly that there is none.' + +'Then there you are mistaken!' the king answered. 'I heard it with my +own ears this morning.' + +'Will you deign, sire, to tell me its nature?' M. de Rambouillet +persisted. + +But on that Marshal Retz thought it necessary to intervene. 'Need we +turn his Majesty's chamber into a court of justice?' he said smoothly. +Hitherto he had not spoken; trusting, perhaps, to the impression he +had already made upon the king. + +M. de Rambouillet took no notice of him. + +'But Bruhl,' said the king, 'you see, Bruhl says----' + +'Bruhl!' my companion replied, with so much contempt that Henry +started. 'Surely your Majesty has not taken his word against this +gentleman, of all people?' + +Thus reminded, a second time, of the interests entrusted to me, and of +the advantage which Bruhl would gain by my disappearance, the king +looked first confused, and then angry. He vented his passion in one or +two profane oaths, with the childish addition that we were all a set +of traitors, and that he had no one whom he could trust. But my +companion had touched the right chord at last; for when the king grew +more composed, he waved aside Marshal Retz's protestations, and +sullenly bade Rambouillet say what he had to say. + +'The monk was killed, sire, about sunset,' he answered. 'Now my +nephew, M. d'Agen, is without, and will tell your Majesty that he was +with this gentleman at his lodgings from about an hour before sunset +last evening until a full hour after. Consequently, M. de Marsac can +hardly be the assassin, and M. le Marechal must look elsewhere if he +wants vengeance.' + +'Justice, sir, not vengeance,' Marshal Retz said with a dark glance. +His keen Italian face hid his trouble well, but a little pulse of +passion beating in his olive cheek betrayed the secret to those who +knew him. He had a harder part to play than his opponent; for while +Rambouillet's hands were clean, Retz knew himself a traitor, and +liable at any moment to discovery and punishment. + +'Let M. d'Agen be called,' Henry said curtly. + +'And if your Majesty pleases,' Retz added, 'M. de Bruhl also. If you +really intend, sire, that is, to reopen a matter which I thought had +been settled.' + +The king nodded obstinately, his face furrowed with ill-temper. He +kept his shifty eyes, which seldom met those of the person he +addressed, on the floor; and this accentuated the awkward stooping +carriage which was natural to him. There were seven or eight dogs of +exceeding smallness in the room, and while we waited for the persons +who had been summoned, he kicked, now one and now another of the +baskets which held them, as if he found in this some vent for his +ill-humour. + +The witnesses presently appeared, followed by several persons, among +whom were the Dukes of Nevers and Merc[oe]ur, who came to ride out +with the king, and M. de Crillon; so that the chamber grew passably +full. The two dukes nodded formally to the Marquis, as they passed +him, but entered into a muttered conversation with Retz, who appeared +to be urging them to press his cause. They seemed to decline, however, +shrugging their short cloaks as if the matter were too insignificant. +Crillon on his part cried audibly, and with an oath, to know what the +matter was; and being informed, asked whether all this fuss was being +made about a damned shaveling monk. + +Henry, whose tenderness for the cowl was well known, darted an angry +glance at him, but contented himself with saying sharply to M. d'Agen, +'Now, sir, what do you know about the matter?' + +'One moment, sire,' M. Rambouillet cried, interposing before Francois +could answer. 'Craving your Majesty's pardon, you have heard M. de +Bruhl's account. May I, as a favour to myself, beg you, sire, to +permit us also to hear it?' + +'What?' Marshal Retz exclaimed angrily, 'are we to be the judges, +then, or his Majesty? Arnidieu!' he continued hotly, 'what, in the +fiend's name, have we to do with it? I protest 'fore Heaven----' + +'Ay, sir, and what do you protest?' my champion retorted, turning to +him with stern disdain. + +'Silence!' cried the king, who had listened almost bewildered. +'Silence! By God, gentlemen,' he continued, his eye travelling round +the circle with a sparkle of royal anger in it not unworthy of his +crown, 'you forget yourselves. I will have none of this quarrelling in +my presence or out of it. I lost Quelus and Maugiron that way, and +loss enough, and I will have none of it, I say! M. de Bruhl,' he +added, standing erect, and looking for the moment, with all his paint +and frippery, a king, 'M. de Bruhl, repeat your story.' + +The feelings with which I listened to this controversy may be +imagined. Devoured in turn by hope and fear as now one side and now +the other seemed likely to prevail, I confronted at one moment the +gloom of the dungeon, and at another tasted the air of freedom, which +had never seemed so sweet before. Strong as these feelings were, +however, they gave way to curiosity at this point; when I heard Bruhl +called, and saw him come forward at the king's command. Knowing this +man to be himself guilty, I marvelled with what face he would present +himself before all those eyes, and from what depths of impudence he +could draw supplies in such an emergency. + +I need not have troubled myself, however, for he was fully equal to +the occasion. His high colour and piercing black eyes met the gaze of +friend and foe alike without flinching. Dressed well and elegantly, he +wore his raven hair curled in the mode, and looked alike gay, +handsome, and imperturbable. If there was a suspicion of coarseness +about his bulkier figure, as he stood beside M. d'Agen, who was the +courtier perfect and point devise, it went to the scale of sincerity, +seeing that men naturally associate truth with strength. + +'I know no more than this, sire,' he said easily; 'that, happening to +cross the Parvis at the moment of the murder, I heard Father Antoine +scream. He uttered four words only, in the tone of a man in mortal +peril. They were'--and here the speaker looked for an instant at +me--'Ha! Marsac! A moi!' + +'Indeed!' M. de Rambouillet said, after looking to the king for +permission. 'And that was all? You saw nothing?' + +Bruhl shook his head. 'It was too dark,' he said. + +'And heard no more?' + +'No.' + +'Do I understand, then,' the Marquis continued slowly, 'that M. de +Marsac is arrested because the priest--God rest his soul!--cried to +him for help?' + +'For help?' M. de Retz exclaimed fiercely. + +'For help?' said the king, surprised. And at that the most ludicrous +change fell upon the faces of all. The king looked puzzled, the Duke +of Nevers smiled, the Duke of Merc[oe]ur laughed aloud. Crillon cried +boisterously, 'Good hit!' and the majority, who wished no better than +to divine the winning party, grinned broadly, whether they would or +no. + +To Marshal Retz, however, and Bruhl, that which to everyone else +seemed an amusing retort had a totally different aspect; while the +former turned yellow with chagrin and came near to choking, the latter +looked as chapfallen and startled as if his guilt had been that moment +brought home to him. Assured by the tone of the monk's voice--which +must, indeed, have thundered in his ears--that my name was uttered in +denunciation by one who thought me his assailant, he had chosen to +tell the truth without reflecting that words, so plain to him, might +bear a different construction when repeated. + +'Certainly the words seem ambiguous,' Henry muttered. + +'But it was Marsac killed him,' Retz cried in a rage. + +'It is for some evidence of that we are waiting,' my champion answered +suavely. + +The Marshal looked helplessly at Nevers and Merc[oe]ur, who commonly +took part with him; but apparently those noblemen had not been primed +for this occasion. They merely shook their heads and smiled. In the +momentary silence which followed, while all looked curiously at Bruhl, +who could not conceal his mortification, M. d'Agen stepped forward. + +'If your Majesty will permit me,' he said, a malicious simper crossing +his handsome face--I had often remarked his extreme dislike for Bruhl +without understanding it--'I think I can furnish some evidence more to +the point than that to which M. de Bruhl has with so much fairness +restricted himself.' He then went on to state that he had had the +honour of being in my company at the time of the murder; and he added, +besides, so many details as to exculpate me to the satisfaction of any +candid person. + +The king nodded. 'That settles the matter,' he said, with a sigh of +relief. 'You think so, Merc[oe]ur, do you not? Precisely. Villequier, +see that the order respecting M. de Marsac is cancelled.' + +M. de Retz could not control his wrath on hearing this direction +given. 'At this rate,' he cried recklessly, 'we shall have few priests +left here! We have got a bad name at Blois, as it is!' + +For a moment all in the circle held their breath, while the king's +eyes flashed fire at this daring allusion to the murder of the Duke de +Guise, and his brother the Cardinal. But it was Henry's misfortune to +be ever indulgent in the wrong place, and severe when severity was +either unjust or impolitic. He recovered himself with an effort, and +revenged himself only by omitting to invite the Marshal, who was now +trembling in his shoes, to join his riding-party. + +The circle broke up amid some excitement. I stood on one side with M. +d'Agen, while the king and his immediate following passed out, and, +greatly embarrassed as I was by the civil congratulating of many who +would have seen me hang with equal goodwill, I was sharp enough to see +that something was brewing between Bruhl and Marshal Retz, who stood +back conversing in low tones. I was not surprised, therefore, when the +former made his way towards me through the press which filled the +antechamber, and with a lowering brow requested a word with me. + +'Certainly,' I said, watching him narrowly, for I knew him to be both +treacherous and a bully. 'Speak on, sir.' + +'You have baulked me once and again,' he rejoined, in a voice which +shook a little, as did the fingers with which he stroked his waxed +moustache. 'There is no need of words between us. I, with one sword +besides, will to-morrow at noon keep the bridge at Chaverny, a league +from here. It is an open country. Possibly your pleasure may lead you +to ride that way with a friend?' + +'You may depend upon me, sir,' I answered, bowing low, and feeling +thankful that the matter was at length to be brought to a fair and +open arbitration. 'I will be there--and in person. For my deputy last +night,' I added, searching his face with a steadfast eye, 'seems to +have been somewhat unlucky.' + + + + + CHAPTER XXI. + + TWO WOMEN. + + +Out of compliment, and to show my gratitude, I attended M. de +Rambouillet home to his lodging, and found him as much pleased with +himself, and consequently with me, as I was with him. For the time, +indeed, I came near to loving him; and, certainly, he was a man of +high and patriotic feeling, and of skill and conduct to match. But he +lacked that touch of nature and that power of sympathising with others +which gave to such men as M. de Rosny and the king, my master, their +peculiar charm; though after what I have related of him in the last +chapter it does not lie in my mouth to speak ill of him. And, indeed, +he was a good man. + +When I at last reached my lodging, I found a surprise awaiting me in +the shape of a note which had just arrived no one knew how. If the +manner of its delivery was mysterious, however, its contents were +brief and sufficiently explicit; for it ran thus: '_Sir, by meeting me +three hours after noon in the square before the House of the Little +Sisters you will do a service at once to yourself and to the +undersigned, Marie de Bruhl_.' + +That was all, written in a feminine character, yet it was enough to +perplex me. Simon, who had manifested the liveliest joy at my escape, +would have had me treat it as I had treated the invitation to the +Parvis of the Cathedral; ignore it altogether I mean. But I was of a +different mind, and this for three reasons, among others: that the +request was straightforward, the time early, and the place +sufficiently public to be an unlikely theatre for violence, though +well fitted for an interview to which the world at large was not +invited. Then, too, the square lay little more than a bowshot from my +lodging, though on the farther side of the Rue St. Denys. + +Besides, I could conceive many grounds which Madame de Bruhl might +have for seeing me; of which some touched me nearly. I disregarded +Simon's warnings, therefore, and repaired at the time appointed to the +place--a clean, paved square a little off the Rue St. Denys, and +entered from the latter by a narrow passage. It was a spot pleasantly +convenient for meditation, but overlooked on one side by the House of +the Little Sisters; in which, as I guessed afterwards, madame must +have awaited me, for the square when I entered it was empty, yet in a +moment, though no one came in from the street, she stood beside me. +She wore a mask and long cloak. The beautiful hair and perfect +complexion, which had filled me with so much admiration at our first +meeting in her house, were hidden, but I saw enough of her figure and +carriage to be sure that it was Madame de Bruhl and no other. + +She began by addressing me in a tone of bitterness, for which I was +not altogether unprepared. + +'Well, sir,' she exclaimed, her voice trembling with anger, 'you are +satisfied, I hope, with your work?' + +I expected this and had my answer ready. 'I am not aware, madame,' I +said, 'that I have cause to reproach myself. But, however that may be, +I trust you have summoned me for some better purpose than to chide me +for another's fault; though it was my voice which brought it to +light.' + +'Why did you shame me publicly?' she retorted, thrusting her +handkerchief to her lips and withdrawing it again with a passionate +gesture. + +'Madame,' I answered patiently--I was full of pity for her, 'consider +for a moment the wrong your husband did me, and how small and +inadequate was the thing I did to him in return.' + +'To him!' she ejaculated so fiercely that I started. 'It was to me--to +me you did it! What had I done that you should expose me to the +ridicule of those who know no pity, and the anger of one as merciless? +What had I done, sir?' + +I shook my head sorrowfully. 'So far, madame,' I answered, 'I allow I +owe you reparation, and I will make it should it ever be in my power. +Nay, I will say more,' I continued, for the tone in which she spoke +had wrung my heart. 'In one point I strained the case against your +husband. To the best of my belief he abducted the lady who was in my +charge, not for the love of her, but for political reasons, and as the +agent of another.' + +She gasped. 'What?' she cried. 'Say that again!' + +As I complied she tore off her mask and gazed into my face with +straining eyes and parted lips. I saw then how much she was changed, +even in these few days--how pale and worn were her cheeks, how dark +the circles round her eyes. 'Will you swear to it?' she said at last, +speaking with uncontrollable eagerness, while she laid a hand which +shook with excitement on my arm. 'Will you swear to it, sir?' + +'It is true,' I answered steadfastly. I might have added that after +the event her husband had so treated mademoiselle as to lead her to +fear the worst. But I refrained, feeling that it was no part of my +duty to come between husband and wife. + +She clasped her hands, and for a moment looked passionately upwards, +as though she were giving thanks to Heaven; while the flush of health +and loveliness which I had so much admired returned, and illumined her +face in a wonderful manner. She seemed, in truth and for the moment, +transformed. Her blue eyes filled with tears, her lips moved; nor have +I ever seen anything bear so near a resemblance to those pictures of +the Virgin Mary which Romans worship as madame did then. + +The change, however, was as evanescent as it was admirable. In an +instant she seemed to collapse. She struck her hands to her face and +moaned, and I saw tears, which she vainly strove to restrain, dropping +through her fingers. 'Too late!' she murmured, in a tone of anguish +which wrung my heart. 'Alas, you robbed me of one man, you give me +back another. I know him now for what he is. If he did not love her +then, he does now. It is too late!' + +She seemed so much overcome that I assisted her to reach a bench which +stood against the wall a few paces away; nor, I confess, was it +without difficulty and much self-reproach that I limited myself to +those prudent offices only which her state and my duty required. To +console her on the subject of her husband was impossible; to ignore +him, and so to console her, a task which neither my discretion nor my +sense of honour, though sorely tried, permitted me to undertake. + +She presently recovered and, putting on her mask again, said hurriedly +that she had still a word to say to me. 'You have treated me +honestly,' she continued, 'and, though I have no cause to do anything +but hate you, I say in return, look to yourself! You escaped last +night--I know all, for it was my velvet knot--which I had made +thinking to send it to you to procure this meeting--that he used as a +lure. But he is not yet at the end of his resources. Look to yourself, +therefore.' + +I thought of the appointment I had made with him for the morrow, but I +confined myself to thanking her, merely saying, as I bowed over the +hand she resigned to me in token of farewell, 'Madame, I am grateful. +I am obliged to you both for your warning and your forgiveness.' + +Bending her head coldly she drew away her hand. At that moment, as I +lifted my eyes, I saw something which for an instant rooted me to the +spot with astonishment. In the entrance of the passage which led to +the Rue St. Denys two people were standing, watching us. The one was +Simon Fleix, and the other, a masked woman, a trifle below the middle +height, and clad in a riding-coat, was Mademoiselle de la Vire! + +I knew her in a moment. But the relief I experienced on seeing her +safe and in Blois was not unmixed with annoyance that Simon Fleix +should have been so imprudent as to parade her unnecessarily in the +street. I felt something of confusion also on my own account; for I +could not tell how long she and her escort had been watching me. And +these two feelings were augmented when, after turning to pay a final +salute to Madame de Bruhl, I looked again towards the passage and +discovered that mademoiselle and her squire were gone. + +Impatient as I was, I would not seem to leave madame rudely or without +feeling, after the consideration she had shown me in her own sorrow; +and accordingly I waited uncovered until she disappeared within the +'Little Sisters.' Then I started eagerly towards my lodging, thinking +I might yet overtake mademoiselle before she entered. I was destined +to meet, however, with another though very pertinent hindrance. As I +passed from the Rue St. Denys into the quiet of my street I heard a +voice calling my name, and, looking back, saw M. de Rambouillet's +equerry, a man deep in his confidence, running after me. He brought a +message from his master, which he begged me to consider of the first +importance. + +'The Marquis would not trust it to writing, sir,' he continued, +drawing me aside into a corner where we were conveniently retired, +'but he made me learn it by heart. "Tell M. de Marsac," said he, "that +that which he was left in Blois to do must be done quickly, or not at +all. There is something afoot in the other camp, I am not sure what. +But now is the time to knock in the nail. I know his zeal, and I +depend upon him." + +An hour before I should have listened to this message with serious +doubts and misgivings. Now, acquainted with mademoiselle's arrival, I +returned M. de Rambouillet an answer in the same strain, and parting +civilly from Bertram, who was a man I much esteemed, I hastened on to +my lodgings, exulting in the thought that the hour and the woman were +come at last, and that before the dawn of another day I might hope, +all being well, to accomplish with honour to myself and advantage to +others the commission which M. de Rosny had entrusted to me. + +I must not deny that, mingled with this, was some excitement at the +prospect of seeing mademoiselle again. I strove to conjure up before +me as I mounted the stairs the exact expression of her face as I had +last seen it bending from the window at Rosny; to the end that I might +have some guide for my future conduct, and might be less likely to +fall into the snare of a young girl's coquetry. But I could come now, +as then, to no satisfactory or safe conclusion, and only felt anew the +vexation I had experienced on losing the velvet knot, which she had +given me on that occasion. + +I knocked at the door of the rooms which I had reserved for her, and +which were on the floor below my own; but I got no answer. Supposing +that Simon had taken her upstairs, I mounted quickly, not doubting I +should find her there. Judge of my surprise and dismay when I found +that room also empty, save for the lackey, whom M. de Rambouillet had +lent me! + +'Where are they?' I asked the man, speaking sharply, and standing with +my hand on the door. + +'The lady and her woman, sir?' he answered, coming forward. + +'Yes, yes!' I cried impatiently, a sudden fear at my heart. + +'She went out immediately after her arrival with Simon Fleix, sir, and +has not yet returned,' he answered. + +The words were scarcely out of his mouth before I heard several +persons enter the passage below and begin to ascend the stairs. I did +not doubt that mademoiselle and the lad had come home another way and +been somehow detained; and I turned with a sigh of relief to receive +them. But when the persons whose steps I had heard appeared, they +proved to be only M. de Rosny's equerry, stout, burly, and bright-eyed +as ever, and two armed servants. + + + + + CHAPTER XXII. + + 'LA FEMME DISPOSE.' + + +The moment the equerry's foot touched the uppermost stair I advanced +upon him. 'Where is your mistress, man?' I said. 'Where is +Mademoiselle de la Vire? Be quick, tell me what you have done with +her.' + +His face fell amazingly. 'Where is she?' he answered, faltering +between surprise and alarm at my sudden onslaught. 'Here, she should +be. I left her here not an hour ago. Mon Dieu! Is she not here now?' + +His alarm increased mine tenfold. 'No!' I retorted, 'she is not! She +is gone! And you--what business had you, in the fiend's name, to leave +her here, alone and unprotected? Tell me that!' + +He leaned against the balustrade, making no attempt to defend himself, +and seemed, in his sudden terror, anything but the bold, alert fellow +who had ascended the stairs two minutes before. 'I was a fool,' he +groaned. 'I saw your man Simon here; and Fauchette, who is as good as +a man, was with her mistress. And I went to stable the horses. I +thought no evil. And now--My God!' he added, suddenly straightening +himself, while his face grew hard and grim, 'I am undone! My master +will never forgive me!' + +'Did you come straight here?' I said, considering that, after all, he +was no more in fault than I had been on a former occasion. + +'We went first to M. de Rosny's lodging,' he answered, 'where we found +your message telling us to come here. We came on without dismounting.' + +'Mademoiselle may have gone back, and be there,' I said. 'It is +possible. Do you stay here and keep a good look-out, and I will go and +see. Let one of your men come with me.' + +He uttered a brief assent; being a man as ready to take as to give +orders, and thankful now for any suggestion which held out a hope of +mademoiselle's safety. Followed by the servant he selected, I ran down +the stairs, and in a moment was hurrying along the Rue St. Denys. The +day was waning. The narrow streets and alleys were already dark, but +the air of excitement which I had noticed in the morning still marked +the townsfolk, of whom a great number were strolling abroad, or +standing in doorways talking to their gossips. Feverishly anxious as I +was, I remarked the gloom which dwelt on all faces; but as I set it +down to the king's approaching departure, and besides was intent on +seeing that those we sought did not by any chance pass us in the +crowd, I thought little of it. Five minutes' walking brought us to M. +de Rosny's lodging. There I knocked at the door; impatiently, I +confess, and with little hope of success. But, to my surprise, barely +an instant elapsed before the door opened, and I saw before me Simon +Fleix! + +Discovering who it was, he cowered back, with a terrified face, and +retreated to the wall with his arm raised. + +'You scoundrel!' I exclaimed, restraining myself with difficulty. +'Tell me this moment where Mademoiselle de la Vire is! Or, by Heaven, +I shall forget what my mother owed to you, and do you a mischief!' + +For an instant he glared at me viciously, with all his teeth exposed, +as though he meant to refuse--and more. Then he thought better of it, +and, raising his hand, pointed sulkily upwards. + +'Go before me and knock at the door,' I said, tapping the hilt of my +dagger with meaning. + +Cowed by my manner, he obeyed, and led the way to the room in which M. +de Rambouillet had surprised us on a former occasion. Here he stopped +at the door and knocked gently; on which a sharp voice inside bade us +enter. I raised the latch and did so, closing the door behind me. + +Mademoiselle, still wearing her riding-coat, sat in a chair before the +hearth, on which a newly kindled fire sputtered and smoked. She had +her back to me, and did not turn on my entrance, but continued to toy +in an absent manner with the strings of the mask which lay in her lap. +Fanchette stood bolt upright behind her, with her elbows squared and +her hands clasped; in such an attitude that I guessed the maid had +been expressing her strong dissatisfaction with this latest whim of +her mistress, and particularly with mademoiselle's imprudence in +wantonly exposing herself, with so inadequate a guard as Simon, in a +place where she had already suffered so much. I was confirmed in this +notion on seeing the woman's harsh countenance clear at sight of me; +though the churlish nod, which was all the greeting she bestowed on +me, seemed to betoken anything but favour or good-will. She touched +her mistress on the shoulder, however, and said, 'M. de Marsac is +here.' + +Mademoiselle turned her head and looked at me languidly, without +stirring in her chair or removing the foot she was warming. 'Good +evening,' she said. + +The greeting seemed so brief and so commonplace, ignoring, as it did, +both the pains and anxiety to which she had just put me and the great +purpose for which we were here--to say nothing of that ambiguous +parting which she must surely remember as well as I--that the words I +had prepared died on my lips, and I looked at her in honest confusion. +All her small face was pale except her lips. Her brow was dark, her +eyes were hard as well as weary. And not words only failed me as I +looked at her, but anger; having mounted the stairs hot foot to chide, +I felt on a sudden--despite my new cloak and scabbard, my appointment, +and the name I had made at Court--the same consciousness of age and +shabbiness and poverty which had possessed me in her presence from the +beginning. I muttered, 'Good evening, mademoiselle,' and that was all +I could say--I who had frightened the burly Maignan a few minutes +before! + +Seeing, I have no doubt, the effect she produced on me, she maintained +for some time an embarrassing silence. At length she said, frigidly, +'Perhaps M. de Marsac will sit, Fanchette. Place a chair for him. I am +afraid, however, that after his successes at Court he may find our +reception somewhat cold. But we are only from the country,' she added, +looking at me askance, with a gleam of anger in her eyes. + +I thanked her huskily, saying that I would not sit, as I could not +stay. 'Simon Fleix,' I continued, finding my voice with difficulty, +'has, I am afraid, caused you some trouble by bringing you to this +house instead of telling you that I had made preparation for you at my +lodgings.' + +'It was not Simon Fleix's fault,' she replied curtly. 'I prefer these +rooms. They are more convenient.' + +'They are, perhaps, more convenient,' I rejoined humbly, 'but I have +to think of safety, mademoiselle, as you know. At my house I have a +competent guard, and can answer for your being unmolested.' + +'You can send your guard here,' she said with a royal air. + +'But, mademoiselle----' + +'Is it not enough that I have said that I prefer these rooms?' she +replied sharply, dropping her mask on her lap and looking round at me +in undisguised displeasure. 'Are you deaf, sir? Let me tell you, I am +in no mood for argument. I am tired with riding. I prefer these rooms, +and that is enough!' + +Nothing could exceed the determination with which she said these +words, unless it were the malicious pleasure in thwarting my wishes +which made itself seen through the veil of assumed indifference. I +felt myself brought up with a vengeance, and in a manner the most +provoking that could be conceived. But opposition so childish, so +utterly wanton, by exciting my indignation, had presently the effect +of banishing the peculiar bashfulness I felt in her presence, and +recalling me to my duty. + +'Mademoiselle,' I said firmly, looking at her with a fixed +countenance, 'pardon me if I speak plainly. This is no time for +playing with straws. The men from whom you escaped once are as +determined and more desperate now. By this time they probably know of +your arrival. Do, then, as I ask, I pray and beseech you. Or this time +I may lack the power, though never the will, to save you.' + +Wholly ignoring my appeal, she looked into my face--for by this time I +had advanced to her side--with a whimsical smile. 'You are really much +improved in manner since I last saw you,' she said. + +'Mademoiselle!' I replied, baffled and repelled. 'What do you mean?' + +'What I say,' she answered, flippantly. 'But it was to be expected.' + +'For shame!' I cried, provoked almost beyond bearing by her ill-timed +raillery, 'will you never be serious until you have ruined us and +yourself? I tell you this house is not safe for you! It is not safe +for me! I cannot bring my men to it, for there is not room for them. +If you have any spark of consideration, of gratitude, therefore----' + +'Gratitude!' she exclaimed, swinging her mask slowly to and fro by a +ribbon, while she looked up at me as though my excitement amused her. +'Gratitude--'tis a very pretty phrase, and means much; but it is for +those who serve us faithfully, M. de Marsac, and not for others. You +receive so many favours, I am told, and are so successful at Court, +that I should not be justified in monopolising your services.' + +'But, mademoiselle--' I said in a low tone. And there I stopped. I +dared not proceed. + +'Well, sir,' she answered, looking up at me after a moment's silence, +and ceasing on a sudden to play with her toy, 'what is it?' + +'You spoke of favours,' I continued, with an effort. 'I never received +but one from a lady. That was at Rosny, and from your hand.' + +'From my hand?' she answered, with an air of cold surprise. + +'It was so, mademoiselle.' + +'You have fallen into some strange mistake, sir,' she replied, rousing +herself, and looking at me indifferently. 'I never gave you a favour.' + +I bowed low. 'If you say you did not, mademoiselle, that is enough,' I +answered. + +'Nay, but do not let me do you an injustice, M. de Marsac,' she +rejoined, speaking more quickly and in an altered tone. 'If you can +show me the favour I gave you, I shall, of course, be convinced. +Seeing is believing, you know,' she added, with a light nervous laugh, +and a gesture of something like shyness. + +If I had not sufficiently regretted my carelessness, and loss of the +bow at the time, I did so now. I looked at her in silence, and saw her +face, that had for a moment shown signs of feeling, almost of shame, +grow slowly hard again. + +'Well, sir?' she said impatiently. 'The proof is easy.' + +'It was taken from me; I believe, by M. de Rosny,' I answered lamely, +wondering what ill-luck had led her to put the question and press it +to this point. + +'It was taken from you!' she exclaimed, rising and confronting me with +the utmost suddenness, while her eyes flashed, and her little hand +crumpled the mask beyond future usefulness. 'It was taken from you, +sir!' she repeated, her voice and her whole frame trembling with anger +and disdain. 'Then I thank you, I prefer my version. Yours is +impossible. For let me tell you, when Mademoiselle de la Vire does +confer a favour, it will be on a man with the power and the wit--and +the constancy, to keep it, even from M. de Rosny!' + +Her scorn hurt, though it did not anger me. I felt it to be in a +measure deserved, and raged against myself rather than against her. +But aware through all of the supreme importance of placing her in +safety, I subjected my immediate feelings to the exigencies of the +moment and stooped to an argument which would, I thought, have weight +though private pleading failed. + +'Putting myself aside, mademoiselle,' I said, with more formality than +I had yet used, 'there is one consideration which must weigh with you. +The king----' + +'The king!' she cried, interrupting me violently, her face hot with +passion and her whole person instinct with stubborn self-will. 'I +shall not see the king!' + +'You will not see the king?' I repeated in amazement. + +'No, I will not!' she answered, in a whirl of anger, scorn, and +impetuosity. 'There! I will not! I have been made a toy and a tool +long enough, M. de Marsac,' she continued, 'and I will serve others' +ends no more. I have made up my mind. Do not talk to me; you will do +no good, sir. I would to Heaven,' she added bitterly, 'I had stayed at +Chize and never seen this place!' + +'But, mademoiselle,' I said, 'you have not thought----' + +'Thought!' she exclaimed, shutting her small white teeth so viciously +I all but recoiled. 'I have thought enough. I am sick of thought. I am +going to act now. I will be a puppet no longer. You may take me to the +castle by force if you will; but you cannot make me speak.' + +I looked at her in the utmost dismay and astonishment; being unable at +first to believe that a woman who had gone through so much, had run so +many risks, and ridden so many miles for a purpose, would, when all +was done and the hour come, decline to carry out her plan. I could not +believe it, I say, at first; and I tried arguments and entreaties +without stint, thinking that she only asked to be entreated or coaxed. + +But I found prayers and even threats breath wasted upon her; and +beyond these I would not go. I know I have been blamed by some and +ridiculed by others for not pushing the matter farther; but those who +have stood face to face with a woman of spirit--a woman whose very +frailty and weakness fought for her--will better understand the +difficulties with which I had to contend and the manner in which +conviction was at last borne in on my mind. I had never before +confronted stubbornness of this kind. As mademoiselle said again and +again, I might force her to Court, but I could not make her speak. + +When I had tried every means of persuasion, and still found no way of +overcoming her resolution--the while Fanchette looked on with a face +of wood, neither aiding me nor taking part against me--I lost, I +confess, in the chagrin of the moment that sense of duty which had +hitherto animated me; and though my relation to mademoiselle should +have made me as careful as ever of her safety, even in her own +despite, I left her at last in anger and went out without saying +another word about removing her--a thing which was still in my power. +I believe a very brief reflection would have recalled me to myself and +my duty; but the opportunity was not given me, for I had scarcely +reached the head of the stairs before Fanchette came after me, and +called to me in a whisper to stop. + +She held a taper in her hand, and this she raised to my face, smiling +at the disorder which she doubtless read there. 'Do you say that this +house is not safe?' she asked abruptly, lowering the light as she +spoke. + +'You have tried a house in Blois before?' I replied with the same +bluntness. 'You should know as well as I, woman.' + +'She must be taken from here, then,' she answered, nodding her head, +cunningly. 'I can persuade her. Do you send for your people, and be +here in half an hour. It may take me that time to wheedle her. But I +shall do it.' + +'Then listen,' I said eagerly, seizing the opportunity and her sleeve +and drawing her farther from the door. 'If you can persuade her to +that, you can persuade to all I wish. Listen, my friend,' I continued, +sinking my voice still lower. 'If she will see the king for only ten +minutes, and tell him what she knows, I will give you----' + +'What?' the woman asked suddenly and harshly, drawing at the same time +her sleeve from my hand. + +'Fifty crowns,' I replied, naming in my desperation a sum which would +seem a fortune to a person in her position. 'Fifty crowns down, the +moment the interview is over.' + +'And for that you would have me sell her!' the woman cried with a rude +intensity of passion which struck me like a blow. 'For shame! For +shame, man! You persuaded her to leave her home and her friends, and +the country where she was known; and now you would have me sell her! +Shame on you! Go!' she added scornfully. 'Go this instant and get your +men. The king, say you? The king! I tell you I would not have her +finger ache to save all your kings!' + +She flounced away with that, and I retired crestfallen; wondering much +at the fidelity which Providence, doubtless for the well-being of the +gentle, possibly for the good of all, has implanted in the humble. +Finding Simon, to whom I had scarce patience to speak, waiting on the +stairs below, I despatched him to Maignan, to bid him come to me with +his men. Meanwhile I watched the house myself until their arrival, and +then, going up, found that Fanchette had been as good as her word. +Mademoiselle, with a sullen mien, and a red spot on either cheek, +consented to descend, and, preceded by a couple of links, which +Maignan had thoughtfully provided, was escorted safely to my lodgings; +where I bestowed her in the rooms below my own, which I had designed +for her. + +At the door she turned and bowed to me, her face on fire. + +'So far, sir, you have got your way,' she said, breathing quickly. 'Do +not flatter yourself, however, that you will get it farther--even by +bribing my woman!' + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII. + + THE LAST VALOIS. + + +I stood for a few moments on the stairs, wondering what I should do in +an emergency to which the Marquis's message of the afternoon attached +so pressing a character. Had it not been for that I might have waited +until morning, and felt tolerably certain of finding mademoiselle in a +more reasonable mood then. But as it was I dared not wait. I dared not +risk the delay, and I came quickly to the conclusion that the only +course open to me was to go at once to M. de Rambouillet, and tell him +frankly how the matter stood. + +Maignan had posted one of his men at the open doorway leading into the +street, and fixed his own quarters on the landing at the top, whence +he could overlook an intruder without being seen himself. Satisfied +with the arrangement, I left Rambouillet's man to reinforce him, and +took with me Simon Fleix, of whose conduct in regard to mademoiselle I +entertained the gravest doubts. + +The night, I found on reaching the street, was cold, the sky where it +was visible between the eaves being bright with stars. A sharp wind +was blowing, too, compelling us to wrap our cloaks round us and hurry +on at a pace which agreed well with the excitement of my thoughts. +Assured that had mademoiselle been complaisant I might have seen my +mission accomplished within the hour, it was impossible I should not +feel impatient with one who, to gratify a whim, played with the +secrets of a kingdom as if they were counters, and risked in passing +ill-humour the results of weeks of preparation. And I was impatient, +and with her. But my resentment fell so far short of the occasion that +I wondered uneasily at my own easiness, and felt more annoyed with +myself for failing to be properly annoyed with her, than inclined to +lay the blame where it was due. It was in vain I told myself +contemptuously that she was a woman, and that women were not +accountable. I felt that the real secret and motive of my indulgence +lay, not in this, but in the suspicion, which her reference to the +favour given me on my departure from Rosny had converted almost into a +certainty, that I was myself the cause of her sudden ill-humour. + +I might have followed this train of thought farther, and to very +pertinent conclusions. But on reaching M. de Rambouillet's lodging I +was diverted from it by the abnormally quiet aspect of the house, on +the steps of which half a dozen servants might commonly be seen +lounging. Now the doors were closed, no lights shone through the +windows, and the hall sounded empty and desolate when I knocked. Not a +lackey hurried to receive me even then; but the slipshod tread of the +old porter, as he came with a lantern to open, alone broke the +silence. I waited eagerly wondering what all this could mean; and when +the man at last opened, and, recognising my face, begged my pardon if +he had kept me waiting I asked him impatiently what was the matter. + +'And where is the Marquis?' I added, stepping inside to be out of the +wind, and loosening my cloak. + +'Have you not heard, sir?' the man asked, holding up his lantern to my +face. He was an old, wizened, lean fellow. 'It is a break-up, sir, I +am afraid, this time.' + +'A break-up?' I rejoined, peevishly. 'Speak out, man! What is the +matter? I hate mysteries.' + +'You have not heard the news, sir? That the Duke of Merc[oe]ur and +Marshal Retz, with all their people, left Blois this afternoon?' + +'No?' I answered, somewhat startled. 'Whither are they gone?' + +'To Paris, it is said, sir,--to join the League.' + +'But do you mean that they have deserted the king?' I asked. + +'For certain, sir!' he answered. + +'Not the Duke of Merc[oe]ur?' I exclaimed. 'Why, man, he is the king's +brother-in-law. He owes everything to him.' + +'Well, he is gone, sir,' the old man answered positively. 'The news +was brought to M. le Marquis about four o'clock or a little after. He +got his people together, and started after them to try and persuade +them to return. Or, so it is said.' + +As quickly as I could, I reviewed the situation in my mind. If this +strange news were true, and men like Merc[oe]ur, who had every reason +to stand by the king, as well as men like Retz, who had long been +suspected of disaffection, were abandoning the Court, the danger must +be coming close indeed. The king must feel his throne already +tottering, and be eager to grasp at any means of supporting it. +Under such circumstances it seemed to be my paramount duty to reach +him; to gain his ear if possible, and at all risks; that I and +not Bruhl, Navarre not Turenne, might profit by the first impulse of +self-preservation. + +Bidding the porter shut his door and keep close, I hurried to the +Castle, and was presently more than confirmed in my resolution. For to +my surprise I found the Court in much the same state as M. de +Rambouillet's house. There were double guards indeed at the gates, who +let me pass after scrutinising me narrowly; but the courtyard, which +should have been at this hour ablaze with torches and crowded with +lackeys and grooms, was a dark wilderness, in which half a dozen links +trembled mournfully. Passing through the doors I found things within +in the same state: the hall ill lit and desolate; the staircase manned +only by a few whispering groups, who scanned me as I passed; the +antechambers almost empty, or occupied by the grey uniforms of the +Switzer guards. Where I had looked to see courtiers assembling to meet +their sovereign and assure him of their fidelity, I found only gloomy +faces, watchful eyes, and mouths ominously closed. An air of +constraint and fore, boding rested on all. A single footstep sounded +hollowly. The long corridors, which had so lately rung with laughter +and the rattle of dice, seemed already devoted to the silence and +desolation which awaited them when the Court should depart. Where any +spoke I caught the name of Guise; and I could have fancied that his +mighty shadow lay upon the place and cursed it. + +Entering the chamber, I found matters little better there. His Majesty +was not present, nor were any of the Court ladies; but half a dozen +gentlemen, among whom I recognised Revol, one of the king's +secretaries, stood near the alcove. They looked up on my entrance, as +though expecting news, and then, seeing who it was, looked away again +impatiently. The Duke of Nevers was walking moodily to and fro before +one of the windows, his hands clasped behind his back: while Biron and +Crillon, reconciled by the common peril, talked loudly on the hearth. +I hesitated a moment, uncertain how to proceed, for I was not yet so +old at Court as to feel at home there. But, at last making up my mind, +I walked boldly up to Crillon and requested his good offices to +procure me an immediate audience of the king. + +'An audience? Do you mean you want to see him alone?' he said, raising +his eyebrows and looking whimsically at Biron. + +'That is my petition, M. de Crillon,' I answered firmly, though my +heart sank. 'I am here on M. de Rambouillet's business, and I need to +see his Majesty forthwith.' + +'Well, that is straightforward,' he replied, clapping me on the +shoulder. 'And you shall see him. In coming to Crillon you have come +to the right man. Revol,' he continued, turning to the secretary, +'this gentleman bears a message from M. de Rambouillet to the king. +Take him to the closet without delay, my friend, and announce him. I +will be answerable for him.' + +But the secretary shrugged his shoulders up to his ears. 'It is quite +impossible, M. de Crillon,' he said gravely. 'Quite impossible at +present.' + +'Impossible! Chut! I do not know the word,' Crillon retorted rudely. +'Come, take him at once, and blame me if ill comes of it. Do you +hear?' + +'But his Majesty----' + +'Well?' + +'Is at his devotions,' the secretary said stiffly. + +'His Majesty's devotions be hanged!' Crillon rejoined--so loudly that +there was a general titter, and M. de Nevers laughed grimly. 'Do you +hear?' the Avennais continued, his face growing redder and his voice +higher, 'or must I pull your ears, my friend? Take this gentleman to +the closet, I say, and if his Majesty be angry, tell him it was by my +order. I tell you he comes from Rambouillet.' + +I do not know whether it was the threat, or the mention of M. de +Rambouillet's name, which convinced the secretary. But at any rate, +after a moment's hesitation, he acquiesced. + +He nodded sullenly to me to follow him, and led the way to a curtain +which masked the door of the closet. I followed him across the +chamber, after muttering a hasty word of acknowledgment to Crillon; +and I had as nearly as possible reached the door when the bustle of +some one entering the chamber caught my ear. I had just time to turn +and see that this was Bruhl, just time to intercept the dark look of +chagrin and surprise which he fixed on me, and then Revol, holding up +the curtain, signed to me to enter. + +I expected to pass at once into the presence of the king, and had my +reverence ready. Instead, I found myself to my surprise in a small +chamber, or rather passage, curtained at both ends, and occupied +by a couple of guardsmen--members, doubtless, of the Band of the +Forty-Five--who rose at my entrance and looked at me dubiously. Their +guard-room, dimly illumined by a lamp of red glass, seemed to me, in +spite of its curtains and velvet bench, and the thick tapestry which +kept out every breath of wholesome air, the most sombre I could +imagine. And the most ill-omened. But I had no time to make any long +observation; for Revol, passing me brusquely, raised the curtain at +the other end, and, with his finger on his lip, bade me by signs to +enter. + +I did so as silently, the heavy scent of perfumes striking me in the +face as I raised a second curtain, and stopped short a pace beyond it; +partly in reverence--because kings love their subjects best at a +distance--and partly in surprise. For the room, or rather that portion +of it in which I stood, was in darkness; only the farther end being +illumined by a cold pale flood of moonlight, which, passing through a +high, straight window, lay in a silvery sheet on the floor. For an +instant I thought I was alone; then I saw, resting against this +window, with a hand on either mullion, a tall figure, having something +strange about the head. This peculiarity presently resolved itself +into the turban in which I had once before seen his Majesty. The +king--for he it was--was talking to himself. He had not heard me +enter, and having his back to me remained unconscious of my presence. + +I paused in doubt, afraid to advance, anxious to withdraw; yet +uncertain whether I could move again unheard. At this moment while I +stood hesitating, he raised his voice, and his words, reaching my +ears, riveted my attention, so strange and eerie were both they and +his tone. 'They say there is ill-luck in thirteen,' he muttered. +'Thirteen Valois and last!' He paused to laugh a wicked, mirthless +laugh. 'Ay,--Thirteenth! And it is thirteen years since I entered +Paris, a crowned King! There were Quelus and Maugiron and St. Megrin +and I--and _he_, I remember. Ah, those days, those nights! I would +sell my soul to live them again; had I not sold it long ago in the +living them once! We were young then, and rich, and I was king; +and Quelus was an Apollo! He died calling on me to save him. And +Maugiron died, blaspheming God and the saints. And St. Megrin, he had +thirty-four wounds. And _he_--he is dead too, curse him! They are all +dead, all dead, and it is all over! My God! it is all over, it is all +over, it is all over!' + +He repeated the last four words more than a dozen times, rocking +himself to and fro by his hold on the mullions. I trembled as I +listened, partly through fear on my own account should I be +discovered, and partly by reason of the horror of despair and +remorse--no, not remorse, regret--which spoke in his monotonous voice. +I guessed that some impulse had led him to draw the curtain from the +window and shade the lamp; and that then, as he looked down on the +moonlit country, the contrast between it and the vicious, heated +atmosphere, heavy with intrigue and worse, in which he had spent his +strength, had forced itself upon his mind. For he presently went on. + +'France! There it lies! And what will they do with it? Will they +cut it up into pieces, as it was before old Louis XI.? Will +Merc[oe]ur--curse him!--be the most Christian Duke of Brittany? And +Mayenne, by the grace of God, Prince of Paris and the Upper Seine? Or +will the little Prince of Bearn beat them, and be Henry IV., King of +France and Navarre, Protector of the Churches? Curse him too! He is +thirty-six. He is my age. But he is young and strong, and has all +before him. While I--I--oh, my God, have mercy on me! Have mercy on +me, O God in Heaven!' + +With the last word he fell on his knees on the step before the window, +and burst into such an agony of unmanly tears and sobbings as I had +never dreamed of or imagined, and least of all in the King of France. +Hardly knowing whether to be more ashamed or terrified, I turned at +all risks, and stealthily lifting the curtain, crept out with infinite +care; and happily with so much good fortune as to escape detection. +There was space enough between the two curtains to admit my body and +no more; and here I stood a short while to collect my thoughts. Then, +striking my scabbard against the wall, as though by accident, and +coughing loudly at the same moment, I twitched the curtain aside with +some violence and re-entered, thinking that by these means I had given +him warning enough. + +But I had not reckoned on the darkness in which the room lay, or the +excitable state in which I had left him. He heard me, indeed, but +being able to see only a tall, indistinct figure approaching him, he +took fright, and falling back against the moonlit window, as though he +saw a ghost, thrust out his hand, gasping at the same time two words, +which sounded to me like 'Ha! Guise!' + +The next instant, discerning that I fell on my knee where I stood, and +came no nearer, he recovered himself. With an effort, which his +breathing made very apparent, he asked in an unsteady voice who it +was. + +'One of your Majesty's most faithful servants,' I answered, remaining +on my knee, and affecting to see nothing. + +Keeping his face towards me, he sidled to the lamp and strove to +withdraw the shade. But his fingers trembled so violently that it was +some time before he succeeded, and set free the cheerful beams, which, +suddenly filling the room with radiance, disclosed to my wondering +eyes, instead of darkness and the cold gleam of the moon, a profusion +of riches, of red stuffs and gemmed trifles and gilded arms crowded +together in reckless disorder. A monkey chained in one corner began to +gibber and mow at me. A cloak of strange cut, stretched on a wooden +stand, deceived me for an instant into thinking that there was a third +person present; while the table, heaped with dolls and powder-puffs, +dog-collars and sweet-meats, a mask, a woman's slipper, a pair of +pistols, some potions, a scourge, and an immense quantity of like +litter, had as melancholy an appearance in my eyes as the king +himself, whose disorder the light disclosed without mercy. His turban +was awry, and betrayed the premature baldness of his scalp. The paint +on his cheeks was cracked and stained, and had soiled the gloves he +wore. He looked fifty years old; and in his excitement he had tugged +his sword to the front, whence it refused to be thrust back. + +'Who sent you here?' he asked, when he had so far recovered his senses +as to recognise me, which he did with great surprise. + +'I am here, sire,' I answered evasively, 'to place myself at your +Majesty's service.' + +'Such loyalty is rare,' he answered, with a bitter sneer. 'But stand +up, sir. I suppose I must be thankful for small mercies, and, losing a +Merc[oe]ur, be glad to receive a Marsac.' + +'By your leave, sire,' I rejoined hardily, 'the exchange is not so +adverse. Your Majesty may make another duke when you will. But honest +men are not so easily come by.' + +'So! so!' he answered, looking at me with a fierce light in his eyes. +'You remind me in season. I may still make and unmake! I am still King +of France? That is so, sirrah, is it not?' + +'God forbid that it should be otherwise!' I answered earnestly. 'It is +to lay before your Majesty certain means by which you may give fuller +effect to your wishes that I am here. The King of Navarre desires +only, sire----' + +'Tut, tut!' he exclaimed impatiently, and with some displeasure, 'I +know his will better than you, man. But you see,' he continued +cunningly, forgetting my inferior position as quickly as he had +remembered it, 'Turenne promises well, too. And Turenne--it is true he +may play the Lorrainer. But if I trust Henry of Navarre, and he prove +false to me----' + +He did not complete the sentence, but strode to and fro a time or two, +his mind, which had a natural inclination towards crooked courses, +bent on some scheme by which he might play off the one party against +the other. Apparently he was not very successful in finding one, +however; or else the ill-luck with which he had supported the League +against the Huguenots recurred to his mind. For he presently stopped, +with a sigh, and came back to the point. + +'If I knew that Turenne were lying,' he muttered, 'then indeed----. +But Rosny promised evidence, and he has sent me none.' + +'It is at hand, sire,' I answered, my heart beginning to beat. 'Your +Majesty will remember that M. de Rosny honoured me with the task of +introducing it to you.' + +'To be sure,' he replied, awaking as from a dream, and looking and +speaking eagerly. 'Matters to-day have driven everything out of my +head. Where is your witness, man? Convince me, and we will act +promptly. We will give them Jarnac and Moncontour over again. Is he +outside?' + +'It is a woman, sire,' I made answer, dashed somewhat by his sudden +and feverish alacrity. + +'A woman, eh? You have her here?' + +'No, sire,' I replied, wondering what he would say to my next piece of +information. 'She is in Blois, she has arrived, but the truth is--I +humbly crave your Majesty's indulgence--she refuses to come or speak. +I cannot well bring her here by force, and I have sought you, sire, +for the purpose of taking your commands in the matter.' + +He stared at me in the utmost astonishment. + +'Is she young?' he asked after a long pause. + +'Yes, sire,' I answered. 'She is maid of honour to the Princess of +Navarre, and a ward also of the Vicomte de Turenne.' + +'Gad! then she is worth hearing, the little rebel!' he replied. 'A +ward of Turenne's is she? Ho! ho! And now she will not speak? My +cousin of Navarre now would know how to bring her to her senses, but I +have eschewed these vanities. I might send and have her brought, it is +true; but a very little thing would cause a barricade to-night.' + +'And besides, sire,' I ventured to add, 'she is known to Turenne's +people here, who have once stolen her away. Were she brought to your +Majesty with any degree of openness, they would learn it, and know +that the game was lost.' + +'Which would not suit me,' he answered, nodding and looking at me +gloomily. 'They might anticipate our Jarnac; and until we have settled +matters with one or the other our person is not too secure. You must +go and fetch her. She is at your lodging. She must be brought, man.' + +'I will do what you command, sire,' I answered. 'But I am greatly +afraid that she will not come.' + +He lost his temper at that. 'Then why, in the devil's name, have +you troubled me with the matter?' he cried savagely. 'God knows--I +don't--why Rosny employed such a man and such a woman. He might have +seen from the cut of your cloak, sir, which is full six months behind +the fashion, that you could not manage a woman! Was ever such damnable +folly heard of in this world? But it is Navarre's loss, not mine. It +is his loss. And I hope to Heaven it may be yours too!' he added +fiercely. + +There was so much in what he said that I bent before the storm, and +accepted with humility blame which was as natural on his part as it +was undeserved on mine. Indeed I could not wonder at his Majesty's +anger; nor should I have wondered at it in a greater man. I knew that +but for reasons, on which I did not wish to dwell, I should have +shared it to the full, and spoken quite as strongly of the caprice +which ruined hopes and lives for a whim. + +The king continued for some time to say to me all the hard things he +could think of. Wearied at last by my patience, he paused, and cried +angrily. 'Well, have you nothing to say for yourself? Can you suggest +nothing?' + +'I dare not mention to your Majesty,' I said humbly, 'what seems to me +to be the only alternative.' + +'You mean that I should go to the wench!' he answered--for he did not +lack quickness. '"_Se no va el otero a Mahoma, vaya Mahoma al otero_," +as Mendoza says. But the saucy quean, to force me to go to her! Did my +wife guess--but there, I will go. By God I will go!' he added abruptly +and fiercely. 'I will live to ruin Retz yet! Where is your lodging?' + +I told him, wondering much at this flash of the old spirit, which +twenty years before had won him a reputation his later life did +nothing to sustain. + +'Do you know,' he asked, speaking with sustained energy and clearness, +'the door by which M. de Rosny entered to talk with me? Can you find +it in the dark?' + +'Yes, sire,' I answered, my heart beating high. + +'Then be in waiting there two hours before midnight,' he replied. 'Be +well armed, but alone. I shall know how to make the girl speak. I can +trust you, I suppose?' he added suddenly, stepping nearer to me and +looking fixedly into my eyes. + +'I will answer for your Majesty's life with my own,' I replied, +sinking on one knee. + +'I believe you, sir,' he answered gravely, giving me his hand to kiss, +and then turning away. 'So be it. Now leave me. You have been here too +long already. Not a word to any one as you value your life.' + +I made fitting answer and was leaving him; but when I had my hand +already on the curtain, he called me back. 'In Heaven's name get a new +cloak!' he said peevishly, eyeing me all over with his face puckered +up. 'Get a new cloak, man, the first thing in the morning. It is worse +seen from the side than the front. It would ruin the cleverest +courtier of them all!' + + + + + CHAPTER XXIV. + + A ROYAL PERIL. + + +The elation with which I had heard the king announce his resolution +quickly diminished on cooler reflection. It stood in particular at a +very low ebb as I waited, an hour later, at the little north postern +of the Castle, and, cowering within the shelter of the arch to escape +the wind, debated whether his Majesty's energy would sustain him to +the point of action, or whether he might not, in one of those fits of +treacherous vacillation which had again and again marred his plans, +send those to keep the appointment who would give a final account of +me. The longer I considered his character the more dubious I grew. The +loneliness of the situation, the darkness, the black front, unbroken +by any glimmer of light, which the Castle presented on this side, and +the unusual and gloomy stillness which lay upon the town, all +contributed to increase my uneasiness. It was with apprehension as +well as relief that I caught at last the sound of footsteps on the +stone staircase, and, standing a little to one side, saw a streak of +light appear at the foot of the door. + +On the latter being partially opened a voice cried my name. I advanced +with caution and showed myself. A brief conversation ensued between +two or three persons who stood within; but in the end, a masked +figure, which I had no difficulty in identifying as the king, stepped +briskly out. + +'You are armed?' he said, pausing a second opposite me. + +I put back my cloak and showed him, by the light which streamed from +the doorway, that I carried pistols as well as a sword. + +'Good!' he answered briefly; 'then let us go. Do you walk on my left +hand, my friend. It is a dark night, is it not?' + +'Very dark, sire,' I said. + +He made no answer to this, and we started, proceeding with caution +until we had crossed the narrow bridge, and then with greater freedom +and at a better pace. The slenderness of the attendance at Court that +evening, and the cold wind, which swept even the narrowest streets and +drove roisterers indoors, rendered it unlikely that we should be +stopped or molested by any except professed thieves; and for these I +was prepared. The king showed no inclination to talk; and keeping +silence myself out of respect, I had time to calculate the chances and +to consider whether his Majesty would succeed where I had failed. + +This calculation, which was not inconsistent with the keenest +watchfulness on my part whenever we turned a corner or passed the +mouth of an alley, was brought to an end by our safe arrival at the +house. Briefly apologising to the king for the meanness and darkness +of the staircase, I begged leave to precede him, and rapidly mounted +until I met Maignan. Whispering to him that all was well, I did not +wait to hear his answer, but, bidding him be on the watch, I led the +king on with as much deference as was possible until we stood at the +door of mademoiselle's apartment, which I have elsewhere stated to +consist of an outer and inner room. The door was opened by Simon +Fleix, and him I promptly sent out. Then, standing aside and +uncovering, I begged the king to enter. + +He did so, still wearing his hat and mask, and I followed and secured +the door. A lamp hanging from the ceiling diffused an imperfect light +through the room, which was smaller but more comfortable in appearance +than that which I rented overhead. I observed that Fanchette, whose +harsh countenance looked more forbidding than usual, occupied a stool +which she had set in a strange fashion against the inner door; but I +thought no more of this at the moment, my attention passing quickly to +mademoiselle, who sat crouching before the fire, enveloped in a large +outdoor cloak, as if she felt the cold. Her back was towards us, and +she was, or pretended to be, still ignorant of our presence. With a +muttered word I pointed her out to the king, and went towards her with +him. + +'Mademoiselle,' I said in a low voice, 'Mademoiselle de la Vire! I +have the honour----' + +She would not turn, and I stopped. Clearly she heard, but she betrayed +that she did so only by drawing her cloak more closely round her. +Primed by my respect for the king, I touched her lightly on the +shoulder. 'Mademoiselle!' I said impatiently, 'you are not aware of +it, but----' + +She shook herself free from my hand with so rude a gesture that I +broke off, and stood gaping foolishly at her. The king smiled, and +nodding to me to step back a pace, took the task on himself. +'Mademoiselle,' he said with dignity, 'I am not accustomed----' + +His voice had a magical effect. Before he could add another word she +sprang up as if she had been struck, and faced us, a cry of alarm on +her lips. Simultaneously we both cried out too, for it was not +mademoiselle at all. The woman who confronted us, her hand on her +mask, her eyes glittering through the slits, was of a taller and +fuller figure. We stared at her. Then a lock of bright golden hair +which had escaped from the hood of her cloak gave us the clue. +'Madame!' the king cried. + +'Madame de Bruhl!' I echoed, my astonishment greater than his. + +Seeing herself known, she began with trembling fingers to undo the +fastenings of her mask; but the king, who had hitherto displayed a +trustfulness I had not expected in him, had taken alarm at sight of +her, as at a thing unlocked for, and of which I had not warned him. +'How is this?' he said harshly, drawing back a pace from her and +regarding me with anger and distrust. 'Is this some pretty arrangement +of yours, sir? Am I an intruder at an assignation, or is this a trap +with M. de Bruhl in the background? Answer, sirrah!' he continued, +working himself rapidly into a passion. 'Which am I to understand is +the case?' + +'Neither, sire,' I answered with as much dignity as I could assume, +utterly surprised and mystified as I was by Madame's presence. 'Your +Majesty wrongs Madame de Bruhl as much by the one suspicion as you +injure me by the other. I am equally in the dark with you, sire, and +as little expected to see madame here.' + +'I came, sire,' she said proudly, addressing herself to the king, and +ignoring me, 'out of no love to M. de Marsac, but as any person +bearing a message to him might come. Nor can you, sire,' she added +with spirit, 'feel half as much surprise at seeing me here, as I at +seeing your Majesty.' + +'I can believe that,' the king answered drily. 'I would you had not +seen me.' + +'The King of France is seen only when he chooses,' she replied, +curtseying to the ground. + +'Good,' he answered. 'Let it be so, and you will oblige the King of +France, madame. But enough,' he continued, turning from her to me; +'since this is not the lady I came to see, M. de Marsac, where is +she?' + +'In the inner room, sire, I opine,' I said, advancing to Fanchette +with more misgiving at heart than my manner evinced. 'Your mistress is +here, is she not?' I continued, addressing the woman sharply. + +'Ay, and will not come out,' she rejoined, sturdily keeping her place. + +'Nonsense!' I said. 'Tell her----' + +'You may tell her what you please,' she replied, refusing to budge an +inch. 'She can hear.' + +'But, woman!' I cried impatiently, 'you do not understand. I _must_ +speak with her. I must speak with her at once! On business of the +highest importance.' + +'As you please,' she said rudely, still keeping her seat. 'I have told +you you can speak.' + +Perhaps I felt as foolish on this occasion as ever in my life; and +surely never was man placed in a more ridiculous position. After +overcoming numberless obstacles, and escaping as many perils, I had +brought the king here, a feat beyond my highest hopes--only to be +baffled and defeated by a waiting-woman! I stood irresolute; witless +and confused; while the king waited half angry and half amused, and +madame kept her place by the entrance, to which she had retreated. + +I was delivered from my dilemma by the curiosity which is, +providentially perhaps, a part of woman's character, and which led +mademoiselle to interfere herself. Keenly on the watch inside, she had +heard part of what passed between us, and been rendered inquisitive by +the sound of a strange man's voice, and by the deference which she +could discern I paid to the visitor. At this moment, she cried out, +accordingly, to know who was there; and Fanchette, seeming to take +this as a command, rose and dragged her stool aside, saying peevishly +and without any increase of respect, 'There, I told you she could +hear.' + +'Who is it?' mademoiselle asked again, in a raised voice. + +I was about to answer when the king signed to me to stand back, and, +advancing himself, knocked gently on the door. 'Open, I pray you, +mademoiselle,' he said courteously. + +'Who is there?' she cried again, her voice trembling. + +'It is I, the king,' he answered softly; but in that tone of majesty +which belongs not to the man, but to the descendant, and seems to be +the outcome of centuries of command. + +She uttered an exclamation and slowly, and with seeming reluctance, +turned the key in the lock. It grated, and the door opened. I caught a +glimpse for an instant of her pale face and bright eyes, and then his +Majesty, removing his hat, passed in and closed the door; and I +withdrew to the farther end of the room, where madame continued to +stand by the entrance. + +I entertained a suspicion, I remember, and not unnaturally, that she +had come to my lodging as her husband's spy; but her first words when +I joined her dispelled this. 'Quick!' she said with an imperious +gesture. 'Hear me and let me go! I have waited long enough for you, +and suffered enough through you. As for that woman in there, she is +mad, and her servant too! Now, listen to me. You spoke to me honestly +to-day, and I have come to repay you. You have an appointment with my +husband to-morrow at Chaverny. Is it not so?' she added impatiently. + +I replied that it was so. + +'You are to go with one friend,' she went on, tearing the glove she +had taken off, to strips in her excitement. 'He is to meet you with +one also?' + +'Yes,' I assented reluctantly, 'at the bridge, madame.' + +'Then do not go,' she rejoined emphatically. 'Shame on me that I +should betray my husband; but it were worse to send an innocent man to +his death. He will meet you with one sword only, according to his +challenge, but there will be those under the bridge who will make +certain work. There, I have betrayed him now!' she continued bitterly. +'It is done. Let me go!' + +'Nay, but, madame,' I said, feeling more concerned for her, on whom +from the first moment of meeting her I had brought nothing but +misfortune, than surprised by this new treachery on his part, 'will +you not run some risk in returning to him? Is there nothing I can do +for you--no step I can take for your protection?' + +'None!' she said repellently and almost rudely, 'except to speed my +going.' + +'But you will not pass through the streets alone?' + +She laughed so bitterly my heart ached for her. 'The unhappy are +always safe,' she said. + +Remembering how short a time it was since I had surprised her in the +first happiness of wedded love, I felt for her all the pity it was +natural I should feel. But the responsibility under which his +Majesty's presence and the charge of mademoiselle laid me forbade me +to indulge in the luxury of evincing my gratitude. Gladly would I have +escorted her back to her home--even if I could not make that home +again what it had been, or restore her husband to the pinnacle from +which I had dashed him--but I dared not do this. I was forced to +content myself with less, and was about to offer to send one of my men +with her, when a hurried knocking at the outer door arrested the words +on my lips. + +Signing to her to stand still, I listened. The knocking was repeated, +and grew each moment more urgent. There was a little grille, strongly +wired, in the upper part of the door, and this I was about to open in +order to learn what was amiss, when Simon's voice reached me from the +farther side imploring me to open the door quickly. Doubting the lad's +prudence, yet afraid to refuse lest I should lose some warning he had +to give, I paused a second, and then undid the fastenings. The moment +the door gave way he fell in bodily, crying out to me to bar it behind +him. I caught a glimpse through the gap of a glare as of torches, and +saw by this light half a dozen flushed faces in the act of rising +above the edge of the landing. The men who owned them raised a shout +of triumph at sight of me, and, clearing the upper steps at a bound, +made a rush for the door. But in vain. We had just time to close it +and drop the two stout bars. In a moment, in a second, the fierce +outcry fell to a dull roar; and safe for the time, we had leisure to +look in one another's faces and learn the different aspects of alarm. +Madame was white to the lips, while Simon's eyes seemed starting from +his head, and he shook in every limb with terror. + +At first, on my asking him what it meant, he could not speak. But that +would not do, and I was in the act of seizing him by the collar to +force an answer from him when the inner door opened, and the king came +out, his face wearing an air of so much cheerfulness as proved both +his satisfaction with mademoiselle's story and his ignorance of all we +were about. In a word he had not yet taken the least alarm; but seeing +Simon in my hands, and madame leaning against the wall by the door +like one deprived of life, he stood and cried out in surprise to know +what it was. + +'I fear we are besieged, sire,' I answered desperately, feeling my +anxieties increased a hundredfold by his appearance--'but by whom I +cannot say. This lad knows, however,' I continued, giving Simon a +vicious shake, 'and he shall speak. Now, trembler,' I said to him, +'tell your tale?' + +'The Provost-Marshal!' he stammered, terrified afresh by the king's +presence: for Henry had removed his mask. 'I was on guard below. I had +come up a few steps to be out of the cold, when I heard them enter. +There are a round score of them.' + +I cried out a great oath, asking him why he had not gone up and warned +Maignan, who with his men was now cut off from us in the rooms above. +'You fool!' I continued, almost beside myself with rage, 'if you had +not come to this door they would have mounted to my rooms and beset +them! What is this folly about the Provost-Marshal?' + +'He is there,' Simon answered, cowering away from me, his face +working. + +I thought he was lying, and had merely fancied this in his fright. But +the assailants at this moment began to hail blows on the door, calling +on us to open, and using such volleys of threats as penetrated even +the thickness of the oak; driving the blood from the women's cheeks, +and arresting the king's step in a manner which did not escape me. +Among their cries I could plainly distinguish the words, 'In the +king's name!' which bore out Simon's statement. + +At the moment I drew comfort from this; for if we had merely to deal +with the law we had that on our side which was above it. And I +speedily made up my mind what to do. 'I think the lad speaks the +truth, sire,' I said coolly. 'This is only your Majesty's +Provost-Marshal. The worst to be feared, therefore, is that he may +learn your presence here before you would have it known. It should not +be a matter of great difficulty, however, to bind him to silence, and +if you will please to mask, I will open the grille and speak with +him.' + +The king, who had taken his stand in the middle of the room, and +seemed dazed and confused by the suddenness of the alarm and the +uproar, assented with a brief word. Accordingly I was preparing to +open the grille when Madame de Bruhl seized my arm, and forcibly +pushed me back from it. + +'What would you do?' she cried, her face full of terror. 'Do you not +hear? He is there.' + +'Who is there?' I said, startled more by her manner than her words. + +'Who?' she answered; 'who should be there? My husband! I hear his +voice, I tell you! He has tracked me here! He has found me, and will +kill me!' + +'God forbid!' I said, doubting if she had really heard his voice. To +make sure, I asked Simon if he had seen him; and my heart sank when I +heard from him too that Bruhl was of the party. For the first time I +became fully sensible of the danger which threatened us. For the first +time, looking round the ill-lit room on the women's terrified faces, +and the king's masked figure instinct with ill-repressed nervousness, +I recognised how hopelessly we were enmeshed. Fortune had served Bruhl +so well that, whether he knew it or not, he had us all trapped--alike +the king whom he desired to compromise, and his wife whom he hated, +mademoiselle who had once escaped him, and me who had twice thwarted +him. It was little to be wondered at if my courage sank as I looked +from one to another, and listened to the ominous creaking of the door, +as the stout panels complained under the blows rained upon them. For +my first duty, and that which took the _pas_ of all others, was to the +king--to save him harmless. How, then, was I to be answerable for +mademoiselle, how protect Madame de Bruhl?--how, in a word, redeem all +those pledges in which my honour was concerned? + +It was the thought of the Provost-Marshal which at this moment rallied +my failing spirits. I remembered that until the mystery of his +presence here in alliance with Bruhl was explained there was no need +to despair; and turning briskly to the king I begged him to favour me +by standing with the women in a corner which was not visible from the +door. He complied mechanically, and in a manner which I did not like; +but lacking time to weigh trifles, I turned to the grille and opened +it without more ado. + +The appearance of my face at the trap was greeted with a savage cry of +recognition, which subsided as quickly into silence. It was followed +by a momentary pushing to and fro among the crowd outside, which in +its turn ended in the Provost-Marshal coming to the front. 'In the +king's name!' he said fussily. + +'What is it?' I replied, eyeing rather the flushed, eager faces which +scowled over his shoulders than himself. The light of two links, borne +by some of the party, shone ruddily on the heads of the halberds, and, +flaring up from time to time, filled all the place with wavering, +smoky light. 'What do you want?' I continued, 'rousing my lodging at +this time of night?' + +'I hold a warrant for your arrest,' he replied bluntly. 'Resistance +will be vain. If you do not surrender I shall send for a ram to break +in the door.' + +'Where is your order?' I said sharply. 'The one you held this morning +was cancelled by the king himself.' + +'Suspended only,' he answered. 'Suspended only. It was given out to me +again this evening for instant execution. And I am here in pursuance +of it, and call on you to surrender.' + +'Who delivered it to you?' I retorted. + +'M. de Villequier, 'he answered readily. 'And here it is. Now, come, +sir,' he continued, 'you are only making matters worse. Open to us.' + +'Before I do so,' I said drily, 'I should like to know what part in +the pageant my friend M. de Bruhl, whom I see on the stairs yonder, +proposes to play. And there is my old friend Fresnoy,' I added. 'And I +see one or two others whom I know, M. Provost. Before I surrender I +must know among other things what M. de Bruhl's business is here.' + +'It is the business of every loyal man to execute the king's warrant,' +the Provost answered evasively. 'It is yours to surrender, and mine to +lodge you in the Castle. But I am loth to have a disturbance. I will +give you until that torch goes out, if you like, to make up your mind. +At the end of that time, if you do not surrender, I shall batter down +the door.' + +'You will give the torch fair play?' I said, noting its condition. + +He assented; and thanking him sternly for this indulgence, I closed +the grille. + + + + + CHAPTER XXV. + + TERMS OF SURRENDER. + + +I still had my hand on the trap when a touch on the shoulder caused me +to turn, and in a moment apprised me of the imminence of a new peril; +a peril of such a kind that, summoning all my resolution, I could +scarcely hope to cope with it. Henry was at my elbow. He had taken off +his mask, and a single glance at his countenance warned me that that +had happened of which I had already felt some fear. The glitter of +intense excitement shone in his eyes. His face, darkly-flushed and wet +with sweat, betrayed overmastering emotion, while his teeth, tight +clenched in the effort to restrain the fit of trembling which +possessed him, showed between his lips like those of a corpse. The +novelty of the danger which menaced him, the absence of his gentlemen, +and of all the familiar faces and surroundings without which he never +moved, the hour, the mean house, and his isolation among strangers, +had proved too much for nerves long weakened by his course of living, +and for a courage, proved indeed in the field, but unequal to a sudden +stress. Though he still strove to preserve his dignity, it was +alarmingly plain to my eyes that he was on the point of losing, if he +had not already lost, all self-command. + +'Open!' he muttered between his teeth, pointing impatiently to the +trap with the hand with which he had already touched me. 'Open, I say, +sir!' + +I stared at him, startled and confounded. 'But your Majesty,' I +ventured to stammer, 'forgets that I have not yet----' + +'Open, I say!' he repeated passionately. 'Do you hear me, sir? I +desire that this door be opened.' His lean hand shook as with the +palsy, so that the gems on it twinkled in the light and rattled as he +spoke. + +I looked helplessly from him to the women and back again, seeing in a +flash all the dangers which might follow from the discovery of his +presence there--dangers which I had not before formulated to myself, +but which seemed in a moment to range themselves with the utmost +clearness before my eyes. At the same time I saw what seemed to me to +be a way of escape; and emboldened by the one and the other, I kept my +hand on the trap and strove to parley with him. + +'Nay, but, sire,' I said hurriedly, yet still with as much deference +as I could command, 'I beg you to permit me first to repeat what I +have seen. M. de Bruhl is without, and I counted six men whom I +believe to be his following. They are ruffians ripe for any crime; and +I implore your Majesty rather to submit to a short imprisonment----' + +I paused struck dumb on that word, confounded by the passion which +lightened in the king's face. My ill-chosen expression had indeed +applied the spark to his wrath. Predisposed to suspicion by a hundred +treacheries, he forgot the perils outside in the one idea which on the +instant possessed his mind; that I would confine his person, and had +brought him hither for no other purpose. He glared round him with eyes +full of rage and fear, and his trembling lips breathed rather than +spoke the word 'Imprison?' + +Unluckily, a trifling occurrence added at this moment to his disorder, +and converted it into frenzy. Someone outside fell heavily against the +door; this, causing madame to utter a low shriek, seemed to shatter +the last remnant of the king's self-control. Stamping his foot on the +floor, he cried to me with the utmost wildness to open the door--by +which I had hitherto kept my place. + +But, wrongly or rightly, I was still determined to put off opening it; +and I raised my hands with the intention of making a last appeal to +him. He misread the gesture, and retreating a step, with the greatest +suddenness whipped out his sword, and in a moment had the point at my +breast, and his wrist drawn back to thrust. + +It has always been my belief that he would not have dealt the blow, +but that the mere touch of the hilt, awaking the courage which he +undoubtedly possessed, and which did not desert him in his last +moments, would have recalled him to himself. But the opportunity was +not given him, for while the blade yet quivered, and I stood +motionless, controlling myself by an effort, my knee half bent and my +eyes on his, Mademoiselle de la Vire sprang forward at his back, and +with a loud scream clutched his elbow. The king, surprised, and +ignorant who held him, flung up his point wildly, and striking the +lamp above his head with his blade, shattered it in an instant, +bringing down the pottery with a crash and reducing the room to +darkness; while the screams of the women, and the knowledge that we +had a madman among us, peopled the blackness with a hundred horrors. + +Fearing above all for mademoiselle, I made my way as soon as I could +recover my wits to the embers of the fire, and regardless of the +king's sword, which I had a vague idea was darting about in the +darkness, I searched for and found a half-burnt stick, which I blew +into a blaze. With this, still keeping my back to the room, I +contrived to light a taper that I had noticed standing by the hearth; +and then, and then only, I turned to see what I had to confront. + +Mademoiselle de la Vire stood in a corner, half-fierce, +half-terrified, and wholly flushed. She had her hand wrapped up in a +'kerchief already stained with blood; and from this I gathered that +the king in his frenzy had wounded her slightly. Standing before her +mistress, with her hair bristling, like a wild-cat's fur, and her arms +akimbo, was Fanchette, her harsh face and square form instinct with +fury and defiance. Madame de Bruhl and Simon cowered against the wall +not far from them; and in a chair, into which he had apparently just +thrown himself, sat the king, huddled up and collapsed, the point of +his sword trailing on the ground beside him, and his nerveless hand +scarce retaining force to grip the pommel. + +In a moment I made up my mind what to do, and going to him in silence, +I laid my pistols, sword, and dagger on a stool by his side. Then I +knelt. + +'The door, sire,' I said, 'is there. It is for your Majesty to open it +when you please. Here, too, sire, are my weapons. I am your prisoner, +the Provost-Marshal is outside, and you can at a word deliver me to +him. Only one thing I beg, sire,' I continued earnestly, 'that your +Majesty will treat as a delusion the idea that I meditated for a +moment disrespect or violence to your person.' + +He looked at me dully, his face pale, his eyes fish-like. 'Sanctus, +man!' he muttered, 'why did you raise your hand?' + +'Only to implore your Majesty to pause a moment,' I answered, watching +the intelligence return slowly to his face. 'If you will deign to +listen I can explain in half a dozen words, sire. M. de Bruhl's men +are six or seven, the Provost has eight or nine; but the former are +the wilder blades, and if M. de Bruhl find your Majesty in my lodging, +and infer his own defeat, he will be capable of any desperate stroke. +Your person would hardly be safe in his company through the streets. +And there is another consideration,' I went on, observing with joy +that the king listened, and was gradually regaining his composure. +'That is, the secrecy you desired to preserve, sire, until this matter +should be well advanced. M. de Rosny laid the strictest injunctions on +me in that respect, fearing an _emeute_ in Blois should your Majesty's +plans become known.' + +'You speak fairly,' the king answered with returning energy, though he +avoided looking at the women. 'Bruhl is likely enough to raise one. +But how am I to get out, sir?' he continued, querulously. 'I cannot +remain here. I shall be missed, man! I am not a hedge-captain, neither +sought nor wanted!' + +'If your Majesty would trust me?' I said slowly and with hesitation. + +'Trust you!' he retorted peevishly, holding up his hands and gazing +intently at his nails, of the shape and whiteness of which he was +prouder than any woman. 'Have I not trusted you? If I had not trusted +you, should I have been here? But that you were a Huguenot--God +forgive me for saying it!--I would have seen you in hell before I +would have come here with you!' + +I confess to having heard this testimony to the Religion with a pride +which made me forget for a moment the immediate circumstances--the +peril in which we stood, the gloomy room darkly lighted by a single +candle, the scared faces in the background, even the king's huddled +figure, in which dejection and pride struggled for expression. For a +moment only; then I hastened to reply, saying that I doubted not I +could still extricate his Majesty without discovery. + +'In Heaven's name do it, then!' he answered sharply. 'Do what you +like, man! Only get me back into the castle, and it shall not be a +Huguenot will entice me out again. I am over old for these +adventures!' + +A fresh attack on the door taking place as he said this induced me to +lose no time in explaining my plan, which he was good enough to +approve, after again upbraiding me for bringing him into such a +dilemma. Fearing lest the door should give way prematurely, +notwithstanding the bars I had provided for it, and goaded on by +Madame de Bruhl's face, which evinced the utmost terror, I took the +candle and attended his Majesty into the inner room; where I placed my +pistols beside him, but silently resumed my sword and dagger. I then +returned for the women, and indicating by signs that they were to +enter, held the door open for them. + +Mademoiselle, whose bandaged hand I could not regard without emotion, +though the king's presence and the respect I owed him forbade me to +utter so much as a word, advanced readily until she reached the +doorway abreast of me. There, however, looking back, and seeing Madame +de Bruhl following her, she stopped short, and darting a haughty +glance at me, muttered, 'And--that lady? Are we to be shut up +together, sir?' + +'Mademoiselle,' I answered quickly in the low tone she had used +herself, 'have I ever asked anything dishonourable of you?' + +She seemed by a slight movement of the head to answer in the negative. + +'Nor do I now,' I replied with earnestness. 'I entrust to your care a +lady who has risked great peril for us; and the rest I leave to you.' + +She looked me very keenly in the face for a second, and then, without +answering, she passed on, Madame and Fanchette following her in that +order. I closed the door and turned to Simon; who by my direction had +blown the embers of the fire into a blaze so as to partially illumine +the room, in which only he and I now remained. The lad seemed afraid +to meet my eye, and owing to the scene at which he had just assisted, +or to the onslaught on the door, which grew each moment more furious, +betrayed greater restlessness than I had lately observed in him. I did +not doubt his fidelity, however, or his devotion to mademoiselle; and +the orders I had to give him were simple enough. + +'This is what you have got to do,' I said, my hand already on the +bars. 'The moment I am outside secure this door. After that, open to +no one except Maignan. When he applies, let him in with caution, and +bid him, as he loves M. de Rosny, take his men as soon as the coast is +clear, and guard the King of France to the castle. Charge him to be +brave and wary, for his life will answer for the king's.' + +Twice I repeated this; then fearing lest the Provost-Marshal should +make good his word and apply a ram to the door, I opened the trap. A +dozen angry voices hailed my appearance, and this with so much +violence and impatience that it was some time before I could get a +hearing; the knaves threatening me if I would not instantly open, and +persisting that I should do so without more words. Their leader at +length quieted them, but it was plain that his patience too was worn +out. 'Do you surrender or do you not?' he said. 'I am not going to +stay out of my bed all night for you!' + +'I warn you,' I answered, 'that the order you have there has been +cancelled by the king!' + +'That is not my business,' he rejoined hardily. + +'No, but it will be when the king sends for you to-morrow morning, 'I +retorted; at which he looked somewhat moved. 'However, I will +surrender to you on two conditions,' I continued, keenly observing the +coarse faces of his following. 'First, that you let me keep my arms +until we reach the gate-house, I giving you my parole to come with you +quietly. That is number one.' + +'Well,' the Provost-Marshal said more civilly, 'I have no objection to +that.' + +'Secondly, that you do not allow your men to break into my lodgings. I +will come out quietly, and so an end. Your order does not direct you +to sack my goods.' + +^Tut, tut!' he replied; 'I want you to come out. I do not want to go +in.' + +'Then draw your men back to the stairs,' I said. 'And if you keep +terms with me, I will uphold you to-morrow. For your orders will +certainly bring you into trouble. M. de Retz, who procured it this +morning, is away, you know. M. de Villequier may be gone to-morrow. +But depend upon it, M. de Rambouillet will be here!' + +The remark was well timed and to the point. It startled the man as +much as I had hoped it would. Without raising any objection he ordered +his men to fall back and guard the stairs; and I on my side began to +undo the fastenings of the door. + +The matter was not to be so easily concluded, however; for Bruhl's +rascals, in obedience, no doubt, to a sign given by their leader, who +stood with Fresnoy on the upper flight of stairs, refused to withdraw; +and even hustled the Provost-Marshal's men when the latter would have +obeyed the order. The officer, already heated by delay, replied by +laying about him with his staff, and in a twinkling there seemed to be +every prospect of a very pretty _melee_, the end of which it was +impossible to foresee. + +Reflecting, however, that if Bruhl's men routed their opponents our +position might be made worse rather than better, I did not act on my +first impulse, which was to see the matter out where I was. Instead, I +seized the opportunity to let myself out, while Simon fastened the +door behind me. The Provost-Marshal was engaged at the moment in a +wordy dispute with Fresnoy; whose villainous countenance, scarred by +the wound which I had given him at Chize, and flushed with passion, +looked its worst by the light of the single torch which remained. In +one respect the villain had profited by his present patronage, for he +was decked out in a style of tawdry magnificence. But I have always +remarked this about dress, that while a shabby exterior does not +entirely obscure a gentleman, the extreme of fashion is powerless to +gild a knave. + +Seeing me on a sudden at the Provost's elbow, he recoiled with a +change of countenance so ludicrous that that officer was himself +startled, and only held his ground on my saluting him civilly and +declaring myself his prisoner. I added a warning that he should look +to the torch which remained; seeing that if it failed we were both +like to have our throats cut in the confusion. + +He took the hint promptly, and calling the link-man to his side +prepared to descend, bidding Fresnoy and his men, who remained clumped +at the head of the stairs, make way for us without ado. They seemed +much inclined, however, to dispute our passage, and replying to his +invectives with rough taunts, displayed so hostile a demeanour that +the Provost, between regard for his own importance and respect for +Bruhl, appeared for a moment at a loss what to do; and seemed rather +relieved than annoyed when I begged leave to say a word to M. de +Bruhl. + +'If you can bring his men to reason,' he replied testily, 'speak your +fill to him!' + +Stepping to the foot of the upper flight, on which Bruhl retained his +position, I saluted him formally. He returned my greeting with a +surly, watchful look only, and drawing his cloak more tightly round +him affected to gaze down at me with disdain; which ill concealed, +however, both the triumph he felt and the hopes of vengeance he +entertained. I was especially anxious to learn whether he had tracked +his wife hither, or was merely here in pursuance of his general +schemes against me, and to this end I asked him with as much irony as +I could compass to what I was to attribute his presence. 'I am afraid +I cannot stay to offer you hospitality,' I continued; 'but for that +you have only your friend M. Villequier to thank!' + +'I am greatly obliged to you,' he answered with a devilish smile, 'but +do not let that affect you. When you are gone I propose to help +myself, my friend, to whatever takes my taste.' + +'Do you?' I retorted coolly--not that I was unaffected by the threat +and the villainous hint which underlay the words, but that, fully +expecting them, I was ready with my answer. 'We will see about that.' +And therewith I raised my fingers to my lips, and, whistling shrilly, +cried 'Maignan! Maignan!' in a clear voice. + +I had no need to cry the name a third time, for before the +Provost-Marshal could do more than start at this unexpected action, +the landing above us rang under a heavy tread, and the man I called, +descending the stairs swiftly, appeared on a sudden within arm's +length of M. de Bruhl; who, turning with an oath, saw him, and +involuntarily recoiled. At all times Maignan's hardy and confident +bearing was of a kind to impress the strong; but on this occasion +there was an added dash of recklessness in his manner which was not +without its effect on the spectators. As he stood there smiling darkly +over Bruhl's head, while his hand toyed carelessly with his dagger, +and the torch shone ruddily on his burly figure, he was so clearly an +antagonist in a thousand that, had I sought through Blois, I might not +have found his fellow for strength and _sang-froid_. He let his black +eyes rove from one to the other, but took heed of me only, saluting me +with effusion and a touch of the Gascon which was in place here, if +ever. + +I knew how M. de Rosny dealt with him, and followed the pattern as far +as I could. 'Maignan!' I said curtly, 'I have taken a lodging for +to-night elsewhere. When I am gone you will call out your men and +watch this door. If anyone tries to force an entrance you will do your +duty.' + +'You may consider it done,' he replied. + +'Even if the person be M. de Bruhl here,' I continued. + +'Precisely.' + +'You will remain on guard,' I went on, 'until to-morrow morning if M. +de Bruhl remains here; but whenever he leaves you will take your +orders from the persons inside, and follow them implicitly.' + +'Your Excellency's mind may be easy,' he answered, handling his +dagger. + +Dismissing him with a nod, I turned with a smile to M. de Bruhl, and +saw that between rage at this unexpected check and chagrin at the +insult put upon him, his discomfiture was as complete as I could wish. +As for Fresnoy, if he had seriously intended to dispute our passage, +he was no longer in the mood for the attempt. Yet I did not let his +master off without one more prick. 'That being settled, M. de Bruhl,' +I said pleasantly, 'I may bid you good evening. You will doubtless +honour me at Chaverny tomorrow. But we will first let Maignan look +under the bridge!' + + + + + CHAPTER XXVI. + + MEDITATIONS. + + +Either the small respect I had paid M. de Bruhl, or the words I had +let fall respecting the possible disappearance of M. Villequier, had +had so admirable an effect on the Provost-Marshal's mind that from the +moment of leaving my lodgings he treated me with the utmost civility; +permitting me even to retain my sword, and assigning me a +sleeping-place for the night in his own apartments at the Gate-house. + +Late as it was, I could not allow so much politeness to pass +unacknowledged. I begged leave, therefore, to distribute a small +gratuity among his attendants, and requested him to do me the honour +of drinking a bottle of wine with me. This being speedily procured, at +such an expense as is usual in these places, where prisoners pay, +according as they are rich or poor, in purse or person, kept us +sitting for an hour, and finally sent us to our pallets perfectly +satisfied with one another. + +The events of the day, however, and particularly one matter, on which +I have not dwelt at length, proved as effectual to prevent my sleeping +as if I had been placed in the dampest cell below the castle. So much +had been crowded into a time so short that it seemed as if I had had +until now no opportunity of considering whither I was being hurried, +or what fortune awaited me at the end of this turmoil. From the first +appearance of M. d'Agen in the morning, with the startling news that +the Provost-Marshal was seeking me, to my final surrender and +encounter with Bruhl on the stairs, the chain of events had run out so +swiftly that I had scarcely had time at any particular period to +consider how I stood, or the full import of the latest check or +victory. Now that I had leisure I lived the day over again, and, +recalling its dangers and disappointments, felt thankful that all had +ended so fairly. + +I had the most perfect confidence in Maignan, and did not doubt that +Bruhl would soon weary, if he had not already wearied, of a profitless +siege. In an hour at most--and it was not yet midnight--the king would +be free to go home; and with that would end, as far as he was +concerned, the mission with which M. de Rosny had honoured me. The +task of communicating his Majesty's decision to the King of Navarre +would doubtless be entrusted to M. de Rambouillet, or some person of +similar position and influence; and in the same hands would rest the +honour and responsibility of the treaty which, as we all know now, +gave after a brief interval and some bloodshed, and one great +providence, a lasting peace to France. But it must ever be--and I +recognised this that night with a bounding heart, which told of some +store of youth yet unexhausted--a matter of lasting pride to me that +I, whose career but now seemed closed in failure, had proved the means +of conferring so especial a benefit on my country and religion. + +Remembering, however, the King of Navarre's warning that I must not +look to him for reward, I felt greatly doubtful in what direction the +scene would next open to me; my main dependence being upon M. de +Rosny's promise that he would make my fortune his own care. Tired of +the Court at Blois, and the atmosphere of intrigue and treachery which +pervaded it, and with which I hoped I had now done, I was still at a +loss to see how I could recross the Loire in face of the Vicomte de +Turenne's enmity. I might have troubled myself much more with +speculating upon this point had I not found--in close connection with +it--other and more engrossing food for thought in the capricious +behaviour of Mademoiselle de la Vire. + +To that behaviour it seemed to me that I now held the clue. I +suspected with as much surprise as pleasure that only one construction +could be placed upon it--a construction which had strongly occurred to +me on catching sight of her face when she intervened between me and +the king. + +Tracing the matter back to the moment of our meeting in the +antechamber at St. Jean d'Angely, I remembered the jest which +Mathurine had uttered at our joint expense. Doubtless it had dwelt in +mademoiselle's mind, and exciting her animosity against me had +prepared her to treat me with contumely when, contrary to all +probability, we met again, and she found herself placed in a manner in +my hands. It had inspired her harsh words and harsher looks on our +journey northwards, and contributed with her native pride to the low +opinion I had formed of her when I contrasted her with my honoured +mother. + +But I began to think it possible that the jest had worked in another +way as well, by keeping me before her mind and impressing upon her the +idea--after my re-appearance at Chize more particularly--that our +fates were in some way linked. Assuming this, it was not hard to +understand her manner at Rosny when, apprised that I was no impostor, +and regretting her former treatment of me, she still recoiled from the +feelings which she began to recognise in her own breast. From that +time, and with this clue, I had no difficulty in tracing her motives, +always supposing that this suspicion, upon which I dwelt with feelings +of wonder and delight, were well founded. + +Middle-aged and grizzled, with the best of my life behind me, I had +never dared to think of her in this way before. Poor and comparatively +obscure, I had never raised my eyes to the wide possessions said to be +hers. Even now I felt myself dazzled and bewildered by the prospect so +suddenly unveiled. I could scarcely, without vertigo, recall her as I +had last seen her, with her hand wounded in my defence; nor, without +emotions painful in their intensity, fancy myself restored to the +youth of which I had taken leave, and to the rosy hopes and plannings +which visit most men once only, and then in early years. Hitherto I +had deemed such things the lot of others. + +Daylight found me--and no wonder--still diverting myself with these +charming speculations; which had for me, be it remembered, all the +force of novelty. The sun chanced to rise that morning in a clear sky, +and brilliantly for the time of year; and words fail me when I look +back, and try to describe how delicately this simple fact enhanced my +pleasure! I sunned myself in the beams, which penetrated my barred +window; and tasting the early freshness with a keen and insatiable +appetite, I experienced to the full that peculiar aspiration after +goodness which Providence allows such moments to awaken in us in +youth; but rarely when time and the camp have blunted the +sensibilities. + +I had not yet arrived at the stage at which difficulties have to be +reckoned up, and the chief drawback to the tumult of joy I felt took +the shape of regret that my mother no longer lived to feel the +emotions proper to the time, and to share in the prosperity which she +had so often and so fondly imagined. Nevertheless, I felt myself drawn +closer to her. I recalled with the most tender feelings, and at +greater leisure than had before been the case, her last days and +words, and particularly the appeal she had uttered on mademoiselle's +behalf. And I vowed, if it were possible, to pay a visit to her grave +before leaving the neighbourhood, that I might there devote a few +moments to the thought of the affection which had consecrated all +women in my eyes. + +I was presently interrupted in these reflections by a circumstance +which proved in the end diverting enough, though far from reassuring +at the first blush. It began in a dismal rattling of chains in the +passage below and on the stairs outside my room; which were paved, +like the rest of the building, with stone. I waited with impatience +and some uneasiness to see what would come of this; and my surprise +may be imagined when, the door being unlocked, gave entrance to a man +in whom I recognised on the instant deaf Matthew--the villain whom I +had last seen with Fresnoy in the house in the Rue Valois. Amazed at +seeing him here, I sprang to my feet in fear of some treachery, and +for a moment apprehended that the Provost-Marshal had basely given me +over to Bruhl's custody. But a second glance informing me that the man +was in irons--hence the noise I had heard--I sat down again to see +what would happen. + +It then appeared that he merely brought me my breakfast, and was a +prisoner in less fortunate circumstances than myself; but as he +pretended not to recognise me, and placed the things before me in +obdurate silence, and I had no power to make him hear, I failed to +learn how he came to be in durance. The Provost-Marshal, however, +came presently to visit me, and brought me in token that the +good-fellowship of the evening still existed a pouch of the Queen's +herb; which I accepted for politeness' sake rather than from any +virtue I found in it. And from him I learned how the rascal came to be +in his charge. + +It appeared that Fresnoy, having no mind to be hampered with a wounded +man, had deposited him on the night of our _melee_ at the door of a +hospital attached to a religious house in that part or the town. The +Fathers had opened to him, but before taking him in put, according to +their custom, certain questions. Matthew had been primed with the +right answers to these questions, which were commonly a form; but, +unhappily for him, the Superior by chance or mistake began with the +wrong one. + +'You are not a Huguenot, my son?' he said. + +'In God's name, I am!' Matthew replied with simplicity, believing he +was asked if he was a Catholic. + +'What?' the scandalised Prior ejaculated, crossing himself in doubt, +'are you not a true son of the Church?' + +'Never!' quoth our deaf friend--thinking all went well. + +'A heretic!' cried the monk. + +'Amen to that!' replied Matthew innocently; never doubting but that he +was asked the third question, which was, commonly, whether he needed +aid. + +Naturally after this there was a very pretty commotion, and Matthew, +vainly protesting that he was deaf, was hurried off to the +Provost-Marshal's custody. Asked how he communicated with him, the +Provost answered that he could not, but that his little godchild, a +girl only eight years old, had taken a strange fancy to the rogue, and +was never so happy as when talking to him by means of signs, of which +she had invented a great number. I thought this strange at the time, +but I had proof before the morning was out that it was true enough, +and that the two were seldom apart, the little child governing this +grim cut-throat with unquestioned authority. + +After the Provost was gone I heard the man's fetters clanking again. +This time he entered to remove my cup and plate, and surprised me by +speaking to me. Maintaining his former sullenness, and scarcely +looking at me, he said abruptly: 'You are going out again?' + +I nodded assent. + +'Do you remember a bald-faced bay horse that fell with you?' he +muttered, keeping his dogged glance on the floor. + +I nodded again. + +'I want to sell the horse,' he said. 'There is not such another in +Blois, no, nor in Paris! Touch it on the near hip with the whip and it +will go down as if shot. At other times a child might ride it. It is +in a stable, the third from the Three Pigeons, in the Ruelle Amancy. +Fresnoy does not know where it is. He sent to ask yesterday, but I +would not tell him.' + +Some spark of human feeling which appeared in his lowering, brutal +visage as he spoke of the horse led me to desire further information. +Fortunately the little girl appeared at that moment at the door in +search of her playfellow; and through her I learned that the man's +motive for seeking to sell the horse was fear lest the dealer in whose +charge it stood should dispose of it to repay himself for its keep, +and he, Matthew, lose it without return. + +Still I did not understand why he applied to me, but I was well +pleased when I learned the truth. Base as the knave was, he had an +affection for the bay, which had been his only property for six years. +Having this in his mind, he had conceived the idea that I should treat +it well, and should not, because he was in prison and powerless, cheat +him of the price. + +In the end I agreed to buy the horse for ten crowns, paying as well +what was due at the stable. I had it in my head to do something also +for the man, being moved to this partly by an idea that there was good +in him, and partly by the confidence he had seen fit to place in me, +which seemed to deserve some return. But a noise below stairs diverted +my attention. I heard myself named, and for the moment forgot the +matter. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVII. + + TO ME, MY FRIENDS! + + +I was impatient to learn who had come, and what was their errand with +me; and being still in that state of exaltation in which we seem to +hear and see more than at other times, I remarked a peculiar lagging +in the ascending footsteps, and a lack of buoyancy, which was quick to +communicate itself to my mind. A vague dread fell upon me as I stood +listening. Before the door opened I had already conceived a score of +disasters. I wondered that I had not inquired earlier concerning the +king's safety, and in fine I experienced in a moment that complete +reaction of the spirits which is too frequently consequent upon an +excessive flow of gaiety. + +I was prepared, therefore, for heavy looks, but not for the persons +who wore them nor the strange bearing the latter displayed on +entering. My visitors proved to be M. d'Agen and Simon Fleix. And so +far well. But the former, instead of coming forward to greet me with +the punctilious politeness which always characterised him, and which I +had thought to be proof against every kind of surprise and peril, met +me with downcast eyes and a countenance so gloomy as to augment my +fears a hundredfold; since it suggested all those vague and formidable +pains which M. de Rambouillet had hinted might await me in a prison. I +thought nothing more probable than the entrance after them of a gaoler +laden with gyves and handcuffs; and saluting M. Francois with a face +which, do what I would, fashioned itself upon his, I had scarce +composure sufficient to place the poor accommodation of my room at his +disposal. + +He thanked me; but he did it with so much gloom and so little +naturalness that I grew more impatient with each laboured syllable. +Simon Fleix had slunk to the window and turned his back on us. Neither +seemed to have anything to say. But a state of suspense was one which +I could least endure to suffer; and impatient of the constraint which +my friend's manner was fast imparting to mine, I asked him at once and +abruptly if his uncle had returned. + +'He rode in about midnight,' he answered, tracing a pattern on the +floor with the point of his riding-switch. + +I felt some surprise on hearing this, since d'Agen was still dressed +and armed for the road, and was without all those prettinesses which +commonly marked his attire. But as he volunteered no further +information, and did not even refer to the place in which he found me, +or question me as to the adventures which had lodged me there, I let +it pass, and asked him if his party had overtaken the deserters. + +'Yes,' he answered, 'with no result.' + +'And the king?' + +'M. de Rambouillet is with him now,' he rejoined, still bending over +his tracing. + +This answer relieved the worst of my anxieties, but the manner of the +speaker was so distrait and so much at variance with the studied +_insouciance_ which he usually affected, that I only grew more +alarmed. I glanced at Simon Fleix, but he kept his face averted, and I +could gather nothing from it; though I observed that he, too, was +dressed for the road, and wore his arms. I listened, but I could hear +no sounds which indicated that the Provost-Marshal was approaching. +Then on a sudden I thought of Mademoiselle de la Vire. Could it be +that Maignan had proved unequal to his task? + +I started impetuously from my stool under the influence of the emotion +which this thought naturally aroused, and seized M. d'Agen by the arm. +'What has happened?' I exclaimed. 'Is it Bruhl? Did he break into my +lodgings last night? What!' I continued, staggering back as I read the +confirmation of my fears in his face. 'He did?' + +M. d'Agen, who had risen also, pressed my hand with convulsive energy. +Gazing into my face, he held me a moment thus embraced, his manner a +strange mixture of fierceness and emotion. 'Alas, yes,' he answered, +'he did, and took away those whom he found there! Those whom he found +there, you understand! But M. de Rambouillet is on his way here, and +in a few minutes you will be free. We will follow together. If we +overtake them--well. If not, it will be time to talk.' + +He broke off, and I stood looking at him, stunned by the blow, yet in +the midst of my own horror and surprise retaining sense enough to +wonder at the gloom on his brow and the passion which trembled in his +words. What had this to do with him? 'But Bruhl?' I said at last, +recovering myself with an effort--'how did he gain access to the room? +I left it guarded.' + +'By a ruse, while Maignan and his men were away,' was the answer. +'Only this lad of yours was there. Bruhl's men overpowered him.' + +'Which way has Bruhl gone?' I muttered, my throat dry, my heart +beating wildly. + +He shook his head. 'All we know is that he passed through the south +gate with eleven horsemen, two women, and six led horses, at daybreak +this morning,' he answered. 'Maignan came to my uncle with the news, +and M. de Rambouillet went at once, early as it was, to the king to +procure your release. He should be here now.' + +I looked at the barred window, the most horrible fears at my heart; +from it to Simon Fleix, who stood beside it, his attitude expressing +the utmost dejection. I went towards him. 'You hound!' I said in a low +voice, 'how did it happen?' + +To my surprise he fell in a moment on his knees, and raised his arm as +though to ward off a blow. 'They imitated Maignan's voice,' he +muttered hoarsely. 'We opened.' + +'And you dare to come here and tell me!' I cried, scarcely restraining +my passion. 'You, to whom I. entrusted her. You, whom I thought +devoted to her. You have destroyed her, man!' + +He rose as suddenly as he had cowered down. His thin, nervous face +underwent a startling change; growing on a sudden hard and rigid, +while his eyes began to glitter with excitement. 'I--I have destroyed +her? Ay, mon dieu! I _have_,' he cried, speaking to my face, and no +longer flinching or avoiding my eye. 'You may kill me, if you like. +You do not know all. It was I who stole the favour she gave you from +your doublet, and then said M. de Rosny had taken it! It was I who +told her you had given it away! It was I who brought her to the Little +Sisters', that she might see you with Madame de Bruhl! It was I who +did all, and destroyed her! Now you know! Do with me what you like!' + +He opened his arms as though to receive a blow, while I stood before +him astounded beyond measure by a disclosure so unexpected; full of +righteous wrath and indignation, and yet uncertain what I ought to do. +'Did you also let Bruhl into the room on purpose?' I cried at last. + +'I?' he exclaimed, with a sudden flash of rage in his eyes. 'I would +have died first!' + +I do not know how I might have taken this confession; but at the +moment there was a trampling of horses outside, and before I could +answer him I heard M. de Rambouillet speaking in haughty tones, at the +door below. The Provost-Marshal was with him, but his lower notes were +lost in the ring of bridles and the stamping of impatient hoofs. I +looked towards the door of my room, which stood ajar, and presently +the two entered, the Marquis listening with an air of contemptuous +indifference to the apologies which the other, who attended at his +elbow, was pouring forth. M. de Rambouillet's face reflected none of +the gloom and despondency which M. d'Agen's exhibited in so marked a +degree. He seemed, on the contrary, full of gaiety and good-humour, +and, coming forward and seeing me, embraced me with the utmost +kindness and condescension. + +'Ha! my friend,' he said cheerfully, 'so I find you here after all! +But never fear. I am this moment from the king with an order for your +release. His Majesty has told me all, making me thereby your lasting +friend and debtor. As for this gentleman,' he continued, turning with +a cold smile to the Provost-Marshal, who seemed to be trembling in his +boots, 'he may expect an immediate order also. M. de Villequier has +wisely gone a-hunting, and will not be back for a day or two.' + +Racked as I was by suspense and anxiety, I could not assail him with +immediate petitions. It behoved me first to thank him for his prompt +intervention, and this in terms as warm as I could invent. Nor could I +in justice fail to commend the Provost to him, representing the +officer's conduct to me, and lauding his ability. All this, though my +heart was sick with thought and fear and disappointment, and every +minute seemed an age. + +'Well, well,' the Marquis said with stately good-nature, we will lay +the blame on Villequier then. He is an old fox, however, and ten to +one he will go scot-free. It is not the first time he has played this +trick. But I have not yet come to the end of my commission,' he +continued pleasantly. 'His Majesty sends you this, M. de Marsac, and +bade me say that he had loaded it for you.' + +He drew from under his cloak as he spoke the pistol which I had left +with the king, and which happened to be the same M. de Rosny had given +me. I took it, marvelling impatiently at the careful manner in which +he handled it; but in a moment I understood, for I found it loaded to +the muzzle with gold-pieces, of which two or three fell and rolled +upon the floor. Much moved by this substantial mark of the king's +gratitude, I was nevertheless for pocketing them in haste; but the +Marquis, to satisfy a little curiosity on his part, would have me +count them, and brought the tale to a little over two thousand livres, +without counting a ring set with precious stones which I found among +them. This handsome present diverted my thoughts from Simon Fleix, but +could not relieve the anxiety I felt on mademoiselle's account. The +thought of her position so tortured me that M. de Rambouillet began to +perceive my state of mind, and hastened to assure me that before going +to the Court he had already issued orders calculated to assist me. + +'You desire to follow this lady, I understand?' he said. 'What with +the king, who is enraged beyond the ordinary by this outrage, and +Francois there, who seemed beside himself when he heard the news, I +have not got any very clear idea of the position.' + +'She was entrusted to me by--by one, sir, well known to you,' I +answered hoarsely. 'My honour is engaged to him and to her. If I +follow on my feet and alone, I must follow. If I cannot save her, I +can at least punish the villains who have wronged her.' + +'But the man's wife is with them,' he said in some wonder. + +'That goes for nothing,' I answered. + +He saw the strong emotion under which I laboured, and which scarcely +suffered me to answer him with patience; and he looked at me +curiously, but not unkindly. 'The sooner you are off, the better +then,' he said, nodding. 'I gathered as much. The man Maignan will +have his fellows at the south gate an hour before noon, I understand. +Francois has two lackeys, and he is wild to go. With yourself and the +lad there you will muster nine swords. I will lend you two. I can +spare no more, for we may have an _emeute_ at any moment. You will +take the road, therefore, eleven in all, and should overtake them some +time to-night if your horses are in condition.' + +I thanked him warmly, without regarding his kindly statement that my +conduct on the previous day had laid him under lasting obligations to +me. We went down together, and he transferred two of his fellows to me +there and then, bidding them change their horses for fresh ones and +meet me at the south gate. He sent also a man to my stable--Simon +Fleix having disappeared in the confusion--for the Cid, and was in the +act of inquiring whether I needed anything else, when a woman slipped +through the knot of horsemen who surrounded us as we stood in the +doorway of the house, and, throwing herself upon me, grasped me by the +arm. It was Fanchette. Her harsh features were distorted with grief, +her cheeks were mottled with the violent weeping in which such persons +vent their sorrow. Her hair hung in long wisps on her neck. Her dress +was torn and draggled, and there was a great bruise over her eye. She +had the air of one frantic with despair and misery. + +She caught me by the cloak, and shook me so that I staggered. 'I have +found you at last!' she cried joyfully. 'You will take me with you! +You will take me to her!' + +Though her words tried my composure, and my heart went out to her, I +strove to answer her according to the sense of the matter. 'It is +impossible,' I said sternly. 'This is a man's errand. We shall have to +ride day and night, my good woman.' + +'But I will ride day and night too!' she replied passionately, +flinging the hair from her eyes, and looking wildly from me to M. de +Rambouillet. 'What would I not do for her? I am as strong as a man, +and stronger. Take me, take me, I say, and when I meet that villain I +will tear him limb from limb!' + +I shuddered, listening to her; but remembering that, being country +bred, she was really as strong as she said, and that likely enough +some advantage might accrue to us from her perfect fidelity and +devotion to her mistress, I gave a reluctant consent. I sent one of M. +de Rambouillet's men to the stable where the deaf man's bay was +standing, bidding him pay whatever was due to the dealer, and bring +the horse to the south gate; my intention being to mount one of my men +on it, and furnish the woman with a less tricky steed. + +The briskness of these and the like preparations, which even for one +of my age and in my state of anxiety were not devoid of pleasure, +prevented my thoughts dwelling on the future. Content to have M. +Francois' assistance without following up too keenly the train of +ideas which his readiness suggested, I was satisfied also to make use +of Simon without calling him to instant account for his treachery. The +bustle of the streets, which the confirmation of the king's speedy +departure had filled with surly, murmuring crowds, tended still +further to keep my fears at bay; while the contrast between my +present circumstances, as I rode through them well-appointed and +well-attended, with the Marquis by my side, and the poor appearance I +had exhibited on my first arrival in Blois, could not fail to inspire +me with hope that I might surmount this danger also, and in the event +find Mademoiselle safe and uninjured. I took leave of M. de +Rambouillet with many expressions of esteem on both sides, and a few +minutes before eleven reached the rendezvous outside the south gate. + +M. d'Agen and Maignan advanced to meet me, the former still presenting +an exterior so stern and grave that I wondered to see him, and could +scarcely believe he was the same gay spark whose elegant affectations +had more than once caused me to smile. He saluted me in silence; +Maignan with a sheepish air, which ill-concealed the savage temper +defeat had roused in him. Counting my men, I found we mustered ten +only, but the equerry explained that he had despatched a rider ahead +to make inquiries and leave word for us at convenient points; to the +end that we might follow the trail with as few delays as possible. +Highly commending Maignan for his forethought in this, I gave the word +to start, and crossing the river by the St. Gervais Bridge, we took +the road for Selles at a smart trot. + +The weather had changed much in the last twenty-four hours. The sun +shone brightly, with a warm west wind, and the country already showed +signs of the early spring which marked that year. If, the first hurry +of departure over, I had now leisure to feel the gnawing of anxiety +and the tortures inflicted by an imagination which, far outstripping +us, rode with those whom we pursued and shared their perils, I found +two sources of comfort still open to me. No man who has seen service +can look on a little band of well-appointed horsemen without pleasure. +I reviewed the stalwart forms and stern faces which moved beside me, +and comparing their decent order and sound equipments with the scurvy +foulness of the men who had ridden north with me, thanked God, and +ceased to wonder at the indignation which Matthew and his fellows had +aroused in mademoiselle's mind. My other source of satisfaction, the +regular beat of hoofs and ring of bridles continually augmented. Every +step took us farther from Blois--farther from the close town and +reeking streets and the Court; which, if it no longer seemed to me a +shambles, befouled by one great deed of blood--experience had removed +that impression--retained an appearance infinitely mean and miserable +in my eyes. I hated and loathed its intrigues and its jealousies, the +folly which trifled in a closet while rebellion mastered France, and +the pettiness which recognised no wisdom save that of balancing party +and party. I thanked God that my work there was done, and could have +welcomed any other occasion that forced me to turn my back on it, and +sent me at large over the pure heaths, through the woods, and under +the wide heaven, speckled with moving clouds. + +But such springs of comfort soon ran dry. M. d'Agen's gloomy rage and +the fiery gleam in Maignan's eye would have reminded me, had I been in +any danger of forgetting the errand on which we were bound, and the +need, exceeding all other needs, which compelled us to lose no moment +that might be used. Those whom we followed had five hours' start. The +thought of what might happen in those five hours to the two helpless +women whom I had sworn to protect burned itself into my mind; so that +to refrain from putting spurs to my horse and riding recklessly +forward taxed at times all my self-control. The horses seemed to +crawl. The men rising and falling listlessly in their saddles maddened +me. Though I could not hope to come upon any trace of our quarry for +many hours, perhaps for days, I scanned the long, flat heaths +unceasingly, searched every marshy bottom before we descended into it, +and panted for the moment when the next low ridge should expose to our +view a fresh track of wood and waste. The rosy visions of the past +night, and those fancies in particular which had made the dawn +memorable, recurred to me, as his deeds in the body (so men say) to a +hopeless drowning wretch. I grew to think of nothing but Bruhl and +revenge. Even the absurd care with which Simon avoided the +neighbourhood of Fanchette, riding anywhere so long as he might +ride at a distance from the angry woman's tongue and hand--which +provoked many a laugh from the men, and came to be the joke of the +company--failed to draw a smile from me. + +We passed through Contres, four leagues from Blois, an hour after +noon, and three hours later crossed the Cher at Selles, where we +stayed awhile to bait our horses. Here we had news of the party before +us, and henceforth had little doubt that Bruhl was making for the +Limousin; a district in which he might rest secure under the +protection of Turenne, and safely defy alike the King of France and +the King of Navarre. The greater the necessity, it was plain, for +speed; but the roads in that neighbourhood, and forward as far as +Valancy, proved heavy and foundrous, and it was all we could do to +reach Levroux with jaded horses three hours after sunset. The +probability that Bruhl would lie at Chateauroux, five leagues farther +on--for I could not conceive that under the circumstances he would +spare the women,--would have led me to push forward had it been +possible; but the darkness and the difficulty of finding a guide who +would venture deterred me from the hopeless attempt, and we stayed the +night where we were. + +Here we first heard of the plague; which was said to be ravaging +Chateauroux and all the country farther south. The landlord of the inn +would have regaled us with many stories of it, and particularly of the +swiftness with which men and even cattle succumbed to its attacks. But +we had other things to think of, and between anxiety and weariness had +clean forgotten the matter when we rose next morning. + +We started shortly after daybreak, and for three leagues pressed on at +tolerable speed. Then, for no reason stated, our guide gave us the +slip as we passed through a wood, and was seen no more. We lost the +road, and had to retrace our steps. We strayed into a slough, and +extracted ourselves with difficulty. The man who was riding the bay I +had purchased forgot the secret which I had imparted to him, and got +an ugly fall. In fine, after all these mishaps it wanted little of +noon, and less to exhaust our patience, when at length we came in +sight of Chateauroux. + +Before entering the town we had still an adventure; for we came at a +turn in the road on a scene as surprising as it was at first +inexplicable. A little north of the town, in a coppice of box facing +the south and west, we happed suddenly on a rude encampment, +consisting of a dozen huts and booths, set back from the road and +formed, some of branches of evergreen trees laid clumsily together, +and some of sacking stretched aver poles. A number of men and women of +decent appearance lay on the short grass before the booths, idly +sunning themselves; or moved about, cooking and tending fires, while a +score of children raced to and fro with noisy shouts and laughter. The +appearance of our party on the scene caused an instant panic. The +women and children fled screaming into the wood, spreading the sound +of breaking branches farther and farther as they retreated; while the +men, a miserable pale-faced set, drew together, and seeming half +inclined to fly also, regarded us with glances of fear and suspicion. + +Remarking that their appearance and dress were not those of vagrants, +while the booths seemed to indicate little skill or experience in the +builders, I bade my companions halt, and advanced alone. + +'What is the meaning of this, my men?' I said, addressing the first +group I reached. 'You seem to have come a-Maying before the time. +Whence are you?' + +'From Chateauroux,' the foremost answered sullenly. His dress, now I: +saw him nearer, seemed to be that of a respectable townsman. + +'Why?' I replied. 'Have you no homes?' + +'Ay we have homes,' he answered with the same brevity. + +'Then why, in God's name, are you here?' I retorted, marking the +gloomy air and downcast faces of the group. 'Have you been harried?' + +'Ay, harried by the Plague!' he answered bitterly. 'Do you mean to say +you have not heard? In Chateauroux there is one man dead in three. +Take my advice, sir--you are a brave company--turn, and go home +again.' + +'Is it as bad as that?' I exclaimed. I had forgotten the landlord's +gossip, and the explanation struck me with the force of surprise. + +'Ay, is it! Do you see the blue haze?' he continued, pointing with a +sudden gesture to the lower ground before us, over which a light pall +of summery vapour hung still and motionless. 'Do you see it? Well, +under that there is death! You may find food in Chateauroux, and +stalls for your horses, and a man to take money; for there are still +men there. But cross the Indre, and you will see sights worse than a +battle-field a week old! You will find no living soul in house or +stable or church, but corpses plenty. The land is cursed! cursed for +heresy, some say! Half are dead, and half are fled to the woods! And +if you do not die of the plague, you will starve.' + +'God forbid!' I muttered, thinking with a shudder of those before us. +This led me to ask him if a party resembling ours in number, and +including two women, had passed that way. He answered, Yes, after +sunset the evening before; that their horses were stumbling with +fatigue and the men swearing in pure weariness. He believed that they +had not entered the town, but had made a rude encampment half a mile +beyond it; and had again broken this up, and ridden southwards two or +three hours before our arrival. + +'Then we may overtake them to-day?' I said. + +'By your leave, sir,' he answered, with grave meaning. 'I think you +are more likely to meet them.' + +Shrugging my shoulders, I thanked him shortly and left him; the full +importance of preventing my men hearing what I had heard--lest the +panic which possessed these townspeople should seize on them +also--being already in my mind. Nevertheless the thought came too +late, for on turning my horse I found one of the foremost, a long, +solemn-faced man, had already found his way to Maignan's stirrup; +where he was dilating so eloquently upon the enemy which awaited us +southwards that the countenances of half the troopers were as long as +his own, and I saw nothing for it but to interrupt his oration by a +smart application of my switch to his shoulders. Having thus stopped +him, and rated him back to his fellows, I gave the word to march. The +men obeyed mechanically, we swung into a canter, and for a moment the +danger was over. + +But I knew that it would recur again and again. Stealthily marking the +faces round me, and listening to the whispered talk which went on, I +saw the terror spread from one to another. Voices which earlier in the +day had been raised in song and jest grew silent. Great reckless +fellows of Maignan's following, who had an oath and a blow for all +comers, and to whom the deepest ford seemed to be child's play, rode +with drooping heads and knitted brows; or scanned with ill-concealed +anxiety the strange haze before us, through which the roofs of the +town, and here and there a low hill or line of poplars, rose to +plainer view. Maignan himself, the stoutest of the stout, looked +grave, and had lost his swaggering air. Only three persons preserved +their _sang-froid_ entire. Of these, M. d'Agen rode as if he had heard +nothing, and Simon Fleix as if he feared nothing; while Fanchette, +gazing eagerly forward, saw, it was plain, only one object in the +mist, and that was her mistress's face. + +We found the gates of the town open, and this, which proved to be the +herald of stranger sights, daunted the hearts of my men more than the +most hostile reception. As we entered, our horses' hoofs, clattering +loudly on the pavement, awoke a hundred echoes in the empty houses to +right and left. The main street, flooded with sunshine, which made its +desolation seem a hundred times more formidable, stretched away before +us, bare and empty; or haunted only by a few slinking dogs, and +prowling wretches, who fled, affrighted at the unaccustomed sounds, or +stood and eyed us listlessly as we passed. A bell tolled; in the +distance we heard the wailing of women. The silent ways, the black +cross which marked every second door, the frightful faces which once +or twice looked out from upper windows and blasted our sight, infected +my men with terror so profound and so ungovernable that at last +discipline was forgotten; and one shoving his horse before another in +narrow places, there was a scuffle to be first. One, and then a +second, began to trot. The trot grew into a shuffling canter. The +gates of the inn lay open, nay seemed to invite us to enter; but no +one turned or halted. Moved by a single-impulse we pushed breathlessly +on and on, until the open country was reached, and we who had entered +the streets in silent awe, swept out and over the bridge as if the +fiend were at our heels. + +That I shared in this flight causes me no shame even now, for my men +were at the time ungovernable, as the best-trained troops are when +seized by such panics; and, moreover, I could have done no good by +remaining in the town, where the strength of the contagion was +probably greater and the inn larder like to be as bare as the +hillside. Few towns are without a hostelry outside the gates for the +convenience of knights of the road or those who would avoid the dues, +and Chateauroux proved no exception to this rule. A short half-mile +from the walls we drew rein before a second encampment raised about a +wayside house. It scarcely needed the sound of music mingled with +brawling voices to inform us that the wilder spirits of the town had +taken refuge here, and were seeking to drown in riot and debauchery, +as I have seen happen in a besieged place, the remembrance of the +enemy which stalked; abroad in the sunshine. Our sudden appearance, +while it put a stop to the mimicry of mirth, brought out a score of +men and women in every stage of drunkenness and dishevelment, of whom +some, with hiccoughs and loose gestures, cried to us to join them, +while others swore horridly at being recalled to the present, which, +with the future, they were endeavouring to forget. + +I cursed them in return for a pack of craven wretches, and threatening +to ride down those who obstructed; us, ordered my men forward; halting +eventually a quarter of a mile farther on, where a wood of groundling +oaks which still wore last year's leaves afforded fair shelter. Afraid +to leave my men myself, lest some should stray to the inn and others +desert altogether, I requested M. d'Agen to return thither with +Maignan and Simon, and bring us what forage and food we required. This +he did with perfect success, though not until after a scuffle, in +which Maignan showed himself a match for a hundred. We watered the +horses at a neighbouring brook, and assigning two hours to rest and: +refreshment--a great part of which M. d'Agen and I spent walking up +and down in moody silence, each immersed in his own thoughts--we +presently took the road again with renewed spirits. + +But a panic is not easily shaken off, nor is any fear so difficult to +combat and defeat as the fear of the invisible. The terrors which food +and drink had for a time thrust out presently returned with sevenfold +force. Men looked uneasily in one another's faces, and from them to +the haze which veiled all distant objects. They muttered of the heat, +which was sudden, strange, and abnormal at that time of the year. And +by-and-by they had other things to speak of. We met a man, who ran +beside us and begged of us, crying out in a dreadful voice that his +wife and four children lay unburied in the house. A little farther on, +beside a well, the corpse of a woman with a child at her breast lay +poisoning the water; she had crawled to it to appease her thirst, and +died of the draught. Last of all, in a beech-wood near Lotier we came +upon a lady I living in her coach, with one or two panic-stricken +women for her only attendants. Her husband was in Paris, she told me; +half her servants were dead, the rest had fled. Still she retained in +a remarkable degree both courage and courtesy, and accepting with +fortitude my reasons and excuses for perforce, leaving her in such a +plight, gave me a clear account of Bruhl and his party, who had passed +her some hours before. The picture of this lady gazing after us with +perfect good-breeding, as we rode away at speed, followed by the +lamentations of her women, remains with me to this day; filling my +mind at once with admiration and melancholy. For, as I learned later, +she fell ill of the plague where we left her in the beech-wood, and +died in a night with both her servants. + +The intelligence we had from her inspired us to push forward, sparing +neither spur nor horseflesh, in the hope that we might overtake Bruhl +before night should expose his captives to fresh hardships and +dangers. But the pitch to which the dismal sights and sounds I have +mentioned, and a hundred like them, had raised the fears of my +following did much to balk my endeavours. For a while, indeed, under +the influence of momentary excitement, they spurred their horses to +the gallop, as if their minds were made up to face the worst; but +presently they checked them despite all my efforts, and, lagging +slowly and more slowly, seemed to lose all spirit and energy. The +desolation which met our eyes on every side, no less than the +death-like stillness which prevailed, even the birds, as it seemed to +us, being silent, chilled the most reckless to the heart. Maignan's +face lost its colour, his voice its ring. As for the rest, starting at +a sound and wincing if a leather galled them, they glanced backwards +twice for once they looked forwards, and held themselves ready to take +to their heels and be gone at the least alarm. + +Noting these signs, and doubting if I could trust even Maignan, I +thought it prudent to change my place, and falling to the rear, rode +there with a grim face and a pistol ready to my hand. It was not the +least of my annoyances that M. d'Agen appeared to be ignorant of any +cause for apprehension save such as lay before us, and riding on in +the same gloomy fit which had possessed him from the moment of +starting, neither sought my opinion nor gave his own, but seemed to +have undergone so complete and mysterious a change that I could think +of one thing only that could have power to effect so marvellous a +transformation. I felt his presence a trial rather than a help, and +reviewing the course of our short friendship, which a day or two +before had been so great a delight to me--as the friendship of a young +man commonly is to one growing old--I puzzled myself with much +wondering whether there could be rivalry between us. + +Sunset, which was welcome to my company, since it removed the haze, +which they regarded with superstitious dread, found us still plodding +through a country of low ridges and shallow valleys, both clothed in +oak-woods. Its short brightness died away, and with it my last hope of +surprising Bruhl before I slept. Darkness fell upon us as we wended +our way slowly down a steep hillside where the path was so narrow and +difficult as to permit only one to descend at a time. A stream of some +size, if we might judge from the noise it made, poured through the +ravine below us, and presently, at the point where we believed the +crossing to be, we espied a solitary light shining in the blackness. +To proceed farther was impossible, for the ground grew more and more +precipitous; and, seeing this, I bade Maignan dismount, and leaving us +where we were, go for a guide to the house from which the light +issued. + +He obeyed, and plunging into the night, which in that pit between the +hills was of an inky darkness, presently returned with a peasant and a +lanthorn. I was about to bid the man guide us to the ford, or to some +level ground where we could picket the horses, when Maignan gleefully +cried out that he had news. I asked what news. + +'Speak up, _manant!_' he said, holding up his lanthorn so that the +light fell on the man's haggard face and unkempt hair. 'Tell his +Excellency what you have told me, or I will skin you alive, little +man!' + +'Your other party came to the ford an hour before sunset,' the peasant +answered, staring dully at us. 'I saw them coming, and hid myself. +They quarrelled by the ford. Some were for crossing, and some not.' + +'They had ladies with them?' M. d'Agen said suddenly. + +'Ay, two, your Excellency,' the clown answered, 'riding like men. In +the end they did not cross for fear of the plague, but turned up the +river, and rode westwards towards St. Gaultier.' + +'St. Gaultier!' I said. 'Where is that? Where does the road to it go +to besides?' + +But the peasant's knowledge was confined to his own neighbourhood. He +knew no world beyond St. Gaultier, and could not answer my question. I +was about to bid him show us the way down, when Maignan cried out that +he knew more. + +'What?' I asked. + +'Arnidieu! he heard them say where they were going to spend the +night! + +'Ha!' I cried. 'Where?' + +'In an old ruined castle two leagues from this, and between here and +St. Gaultier,' the equerry answered, forgetting in his triumph both +plague and panic. 'What do you I say to that, your Excellency?' It is +so, sirrah, is it not?' he continued; turning to the peasant. 'Speak, +Master Jacques, or I will roast you before a slow fire!' + +But I did not wait to hear the answer. Leaping to the ground, I took +the Cid's rein on my arm, and cried impatiently to the man to lead us +down. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVIII. + + THE CASTLE ON THE HILL. + + +The certainty that Bruhl and his captives were not far off, and the +likelihood that we might be engaged within the hour, expelled from the +minds of even the most, timorous among us the vapourish fears which +had before haunted them. In the hurried scramble which presently +landed us on the bank of the stream, men who had ridden for hours in +sulky silence found their voices, and from cursing their horses' +blunders soon advanced to swearing and singing after the fashion of +their kind. This change, by relieving me of a great fear, left me at +leisure to consider our position, and estimate more clearly than I +might have done the advantages of hastening, or postponing, an attack. +We numbered eleven; the enemy, to the best of my belief, twelve. Of +this slight superiority I should have recked little in the daytime; +nor, perhaps, counting Maignan as two, have allowed that it existed. +But the result of a night attack is more difficult to forecast; and I +had also to take into account the perils to which the two ladies would +be exposed, between the darkness and tumult, in the event of the issue +remaining for a time in doubt. + +These considerations, and particularly the last, weighed so +powerfully with me, that before I reached the bottom of the gorge I +had decided to postpone I the attack until morning. The answers to +some questions which I put to the inhabitant of the house by the ford +as soon as I reached level ground only confirmed me in this +resolution. The road Bruhl had taken ran for a distance by the +riverside, and along the bottom of the gorge; and, difficult by day, +was repotted to be impracticable for horses by night. The castle he +had mentioned lay full two leagues away, and on the farther edge of a +tract of rough woodland. Finally, I doubted whether, in the absence of +any other reason for delay, I could have marched my men, weary as they +were, to the place before day break. + +When I came to announce this decision, however, and to inquire what +accommodation the peasant could afford us, I found myself in trouble. +Fauchette, mademoiselle's woman, suddenly confronted me, her face +scarlet with rage. Thrusting herself forward into the circle of light +cast by the lanthorn, she assailed me with a virulence and fierceness +which said more for her devotion to her mistress than her respect for +me. Her wild gesticulations, her threats, and the appeals which she +made now to me, and now to the men who stood in a circle round us, +their faces in shadow, discomfited as much as they surprised me. + +'What!' she cried violently, 'you call yourself a gentleman, and lie +here and let my mistress be murdered, or worse, within a league of +you! Two leagues? A groat for your two leagues! I would walk them +barefoot, if that would shame you. And you, you call yourselves men, +and suffer it! It is God's truth you are a set of cravens and +sluggards. Give me as many women, and I would----' + +'Peace, woman!' Maignan said in his deep voice. 'You had your way and +came with us, and you will obey orders as well as another! Be off, and +see to the victuals before worse happen to you!' + +'Ay, see to the victuals!' she retorted. 'See to the victuals, +forsooth! That is all you think of--to lie warm and eat your fill! A +set of dastardly, drinking, droning guzzlers you are! You are!' she +retorted, her voice rising to a shriek. 'May the plague take you!' + +'Silence!' Maignan growled fiercely, 'or have a care to yourself! For +a copper-piece I would send you to cool your heels in the water +below--for that last word! Begone, do you hear,' he continued, seizing +her by the shoulder and thrusting her towards the house, 'or worse may +happen to you. We are rough customers, as you will find if you do not +lock up your tongue!' + +I heard her go wailing into the darkness; and Heaven knows it was not +without compunction I forced myself to remain inactive in the face of +a devotion which seemed so much greater than mine. The men fell away +one by one to look to their horses and choose sleeping-quarters for +the night; and presently M. d'Agen and I were left alone standing +beside the lanthorn, which the man had hung on a bush before his door. +The brawling of the water as it poured between the banks, a score of +paces from us, and the black darkness which hid everything beyond the +little ring of light in which we stood--so that for all we could see +we were in a pit--had the air of isolating us from all the world. + +I looked at the young man, who had not once lisped that day; and I +plainly read in his attitude his disapproval of my caution. Though he +declined to meet my eye, he stood with his arms folded and his head +thrown back, making no attempt to disguise the scorn and ill-temper +which his face expressed. Hurt by the woman's taunts, and possibly +shaken in my opinion, I grew restive under his silence, and unwisely +gave way to my feelings. + +'You do not appear to approve of my decision, M. d'Agen?' I said. + +'It is yours to command, sir,' he answered proudly. + +There are truisms which have more power to annoy than the veriest +reproaches. I should have borne in mind the suspense and anxiety he +was suffering, and which had so changed him that I scarcely knew him +for the gay young spark on whose toe I had trodden. I should have +remembered that he was young and I old, and that it behoved me to be +patient. But on my side also there was anxiety, and responsibility as +well; and, above all, a rankling soreness, to which I refrain from +giving the name of jealousy, though it came as near to that feeling as +the difference in our ages and personal advantages (whereof the +balance was all on his side) would permit. This, no doubt, it was +which impelled me to continue the argument. + +'You would go on?' I said persistently. + +'It is idle to say what I would do,' he answered with a flash of +anger. + +'I asked for your opinion, sir,' I rejoined stiffly. + +'To what purpose?' he retorted, stroking his small moustache +haughtily. 'We look at the thing from opposite points. You are going +about your business, which appears to be the rescuing of ladies who +are--may I venture to say it?--so unfortunate as to entrust themselves +to your charge. I, M. de Marsac, am more deeply interested. More +deeply interested,' he repeated lamely. 'I--in a word, I am prepared, +sir, to do what others only talk of--and if I cannot, follow +otherwise, would follow on my feet!' + +'Whom?' I asked curtly, stung by this repetition of my own words. + +He laughed harshly and bitterly. 'Why explain? or why quarrel?' he +replied cynically. 'God knows, if I could afford to quarrel with you, +I should; have done so fifty hours ago. But I need your help; and, +needing it, I am prepared I to do that which must seem to a person +of your calm passions and perfect judgment alike futile and +incredible--pay the full price for it.' + +'The full price for it!' I muttered, understanding nothing, except +that I did not understand. + +'Ay, the full price for it!' he repeated. And as he spoke he looked at +me with an expression of rage so fierce that I recoiled a step. That +seemed to restore him in some degree to himself, for without giving me +an opportunity of answering he turned hastily from me, and, striding +away, was in a moment lost in the darkness. + +He left me amazed beyond measure. I stood repeating his phrase about +'the full price' a hundred times over, but still found it and his +passion inexplicable. To cut the matter short, I could come to no +other conclusion than that he desired to insult me, and aware of my +poverty and the equivocal position in which I stood towards +mademoiselle, chose his words accordingly. This seemed a thing +unworthy of one of whom I had before thought highly; but calmer +reflection enabling me to see something of youthful bombast in the +tirade he had delivered, I smiled a little sadly, and determined to +think no more of the matter for the present, but to persist firmly in +that which seemed to me to be the right course. + +Having settled this, I was about to enter the house, when Maignan +stopped me, telling me that the plague had killed five people in it, +letting only the man we had seen; who had, indeed, been seized, but +recovered. This ghastly news had scared my company to such a degree +that they had gone as far from the house as the level ground +permitted, and there lighted a fire, round which they were going to +pass the night. Fanchette had taken up her quarters in the stable, and +the equerry announced that he had kept a shed full of sweet, hay for +M. d'Agen and myself. I assented to this arrangement, and after +supping off soup and black bread, which was all we could procure, bade +the peasant rouse us two hours before sunrise; and so, being too weary +and old in service to remain awake thinking, I fell asleep, and slept; +soundly till a little after four. + +My first business on rising was to see that the men before mounting +made a meal, for it is ill work fighting empty. I went round also and +saw that all had their arms, and that such as carried pistols had them +loaded and primed. M. Francois did not put in an appearance until this +work was done, and then showed a very pale and gloomy countenance. I +took no heed of him, however, and with the first streak of daylight we +started in single file and at a snail's pace up the valley, the +peasant, whom I placed in Maignan's charge, going before to guide us, +and M. d'Agen and I riding in the rear. By the time the sun rose and +warmed our chilled and shivering frames we were over the worst of the +ground, and were able to advance at some speed along, a track cut +through a dense forest of oak-trees. + +Though we had now risen out of the valley, the close-set trunks and +the undergrowth round them prevented our seeing in any direction. For +a mile or more we rode on blindly, and presently started on finding +ourselves on the brow of a hill, looking down into a valley, the +nearer end of which was clothed in woods, while the farther widened +into green sloping pastures. From the midst of these a hill or mount +rose sharply up, until it ended in walls of grey stone scarce to be +distinguished at that distance from the native rock on which they +stood. + +'See!' cried our guide. 'There is the castle!' + +Bidding the men dismount in haste, that the chance of our being seen +by the enemy--which was not great--might be farther lessened, I began +to inspect the position at leisure; my first feeling while doing so +being one of thankfulness that I had not attempted a night attack, +which must inevitably have miscarried, possibly with loss to +ourselves, and certainly with the result of informing the enemy of our +presence. The castle, of which we had a tolerable view, was long and +narrow in shape, consisting of two towers connected by walls. The +nearer tower, through which lay the entrance, was roofless, and in +every way seemed to be more ruinous than the inner one, which appeared +to be perfect in both its stories. This defect notwithstanding, the +place was so strong that my heart sank lower the longer I looked; and +a glance at Maignan's face assured me that his experience was also at +fault. For M. d'Agen, I clearly saw, when I turned to him, that he had +never until this moment realised what we had to expect, but, regarding +our pursuit in the light of a hunting-party, had looked to see it end +in like easy fashion. His blank, surprised face, as he stood eyeing +the stout grey walls, said as much as this. + +'Arnidieu!' Maignan muttered, 'give me ten men, and I would hold it +against a hundred!' + +'Tut, man, there is more than one way to Rome!' I answered oracularly, +though I was far from feeling as confident as I seemed. 'Come, let us +descend and view this nut a little nearer.' + +We began to trail downwards in silence, and as the path led us for a +while out of sight of the castle, we were able to proceed with less +caution. We had nearly reached without adventure the farther skirts of +the wood, between which and the ruin lay an interval of open ground, +when we came suddenly, at the edge of a little clearing, on an old +hag; who was so intent upon tying up faggots that she did not see us +until Maignan's hand was on her shoulder. When she did, she screamed +out, and escaping from him with an activity wonderful in a woman of +her age, ran with great swiftness to the side of an old man who lay at +the foot of a tree half a bowshot off; and whom we had not before +seen. Snatching up an axe, she put herself in a posture of defence +before him with gestures and in a manner as touching in the eyes of +some among us as they were ludicrous in those of others; who cried to +Maignan that he had met his match at last, with other gibes of the +kind that pass current in camps. + +I called to him to let her be, and went forward myself to the old man, +who lay on a rude bed of leaves, and seemed unable to rise. Appealing +to me with a face of agony not to hurt his wife, he bade her again and +again lay down her axe; but she would not do this until I had assured +her that we meant him no harm, and that my men should molest neither +the one nor the other. + +'We only want to know this,' I said, speaking slowly, in fear lest my +language should be little more intelligible to them than their +_patois_ to me. 'There are a dozen horsemen in the old castle there, +are there not?' + +The man stilled his wife, who continued to chatter and mow at us, and +answered eagerly that there were; adding, with a trembling oath, that +the robbers had beaten him, robbed him of his small store of meal, and +when he would have protested, thrown him out, breaking his leg. + +'Then how came you here?' I said. + +'She brought me on her back,' he answered feebly. + +Doubtless there were men in my train who would have done all that +these others had done; but hearing the simple story told, they stamped +and swore great oaths of indignation; and one, the roughest of the +party, took out some black bread and gave it to the woman, whom under +other circumstances he would not have hesitated to rob. Maignan, who +knew all arts appertaining to war, examined the man's leg and made a +kind of cradle for it, while I questioned the woman. + +'They are there still?' I said. 'I saw their horses tethered under the +walls.' + +'Yes, God requite them!' she answered, trembling violently. + +'Tell me about the castle, my good woman,' I said. 'How many roads +into it are there?' + +'Only one.' + +'Through the nearer tower?' + +She said yes, and finding that she understood me, and was less dull of +intellect than her wretched appearance led me to expect, I put a +series of questions to her which it would be tedious to detail. +Suffice it that I learned that it was impossible to enter or leave the +ruin except through the nearer tower; that a rickety temporary, gate +barred the entrance, and that from this tower, which was a mere shell +of four walls, a narrow square-headed doorway without a door led into +the court, beyond, which rose the habitable tower of two stories. + +'Do you know if they intend to stay there?' I asked. + +'Oh, ay, they bade me bring them faggots for their fire this morning, +and I should have a handful of my own meal back,' she answered +bitterly; and fell thereon into a passion of impotent rage, shaking +both her clenched hands in the direction of the castle, and screaming +frenzied maledictions in her cracked and quavering voice. + +I pondered awhile over what she had said; liking very little the +thought of that narrow square-headed doorway through which we must +pass before we could effect anything. And the gate, too, troubled me. +It might not be a strong one, but we had neither powder, nor guns, nor +any siege implements, and could not pull down stone walls with our +naked hands. By seizing the horses we could indeed cut off Bruhl's +retreat; but he might still escape in the night; and in any case our +pains would only increase the women's hardships while adding fuel to +his rage. We must have some other plan. + +The sun was high by this time; the edge of the wood scarcely a hundred +paces from us. By advancing a few yards through the trees I could see +the horses feeding peacefully at the foot of the sunny slope, and even +follow with my eyes the faint track which zigzagged up the hill to +the closed gate. No one appeared--doubtless they were sleeping off +the fatigue of the journey--and I drew no inspiration thence; but as +I turned to consult Maignan my eye lit on the faggots, and I saw in a +flash that here was a chance of putting into practice a stratagem as +old as the hills, yet ever fresh, and not seldom successful. + +It was no time for over-refinement. My knaves were beginning to stray +forward out of curiosity, and at any moment one of our horses, +scenting those of the enemy, might neigh and give the alarm. Hastily +calling M. d'Agen and Maignan to me, I laid my plan before them, and +satisfied myself that it had their approval; the fact that I had +reserved a special part for the former serving to thaw the reserve +which had succeeded to his outbreak, of the night before. After some +debate Maignan persuaded me that the old woman had not sufficient +nerve to play the part I proposed for her, and named Fanchette; who +being called into council, did not belie the opinion we had formed of +her courage. In a few moments our preparations were complete: I had +donned the old charcoal-burner's outer rags, Fanchette had assumed +those of the woman, while M. d'Agen, who was for a time at a loss, and +betrayed less taste for this part of the plan than for any other, +ended by putting on the jerkin and hose of the man who had served us +as guide. + +When all was ready I commended the troop to Maignan's discretion, +charging him in the event of anything happening to us to continue the +most persistent efforts for mademoiselle's release, and on no account +to abandon her. Having received his promise to this effect, and being +satisfied that he would keep it, we took up each of us a great faggot, +which being borne on the head and shoulders served to hide the +features very effectually; and thus disguised we boldly left the +shelter of the trees. Fanchette and I went first, tottering in a most +natural fashion under the weight of our burdens, while M. d'Agen +followed a hundred yards behind. I had given Maignan orders to make a +dash for the gate the moment he saw the last named start to run. + +The perfect stillness of the valley, the clearness of the air, and the +absence of any sign of life in the castle before us--which might have +been that of the Sleeping Princess, so fairy-like it looked against +the sky--with the suspense and excitement in our own breasts, which +these peculiarities seemed to increase a hundred-fold, made the time +that followed one of the strangest in my experience. It was nearly ten +o'clock, and the warm sunshine flooding everything about us rendered +the ascent, laden as we were, laborious in the extreme. The crisp, +short turf, which had scarcely got its spring growth, was slippery and +treacherous. We dared not hasten, for we knew not what eyes were upon +us, and we dared as little after we had gone half-way--lay our faggots +down, lest the action should disclose too much of our features. + +When we had reached a point within a hundred paces of the gate, which +still remained obstinately closed, we stood to breathe ourselves, and +balancing my bundle on my head, I turned to make sure that all was +right behind us. I found that M. d'Agen, intent on keeping his +distance, had chosen the same moment for rest, and was sitting in a +very natural manner on his faggot, mopping his face with the sleeve of +his jerkin. I scanned the brown leafless wood, in which we had left +Maignan and our men; but I could detect no glitter among the trees nor +any appearance likely to betray us. Satisfied on these points, I +muttered a few words of encouragement to Fanchette, whose face was +streaming with perspiration; and together we turned and addressed +ourselves to our task, fatigue--for we had had no practice in carrying +burdens on the head--enabling us to counterfeit the decrepitude of age +almost to the life. + +The same silence prevailing as we drew nearer inspired me with not a +few doubts and misgivings. Even the bleat of a sheep would have been +welcome in the midst of a stillness which seemed ominous. But no sheep +bleated, no voice hailed us. The gate, ill-hung and full of fissures, +remained closed. Step by step we staggered up to it, and at length +reached it. Afraid to speak lest my accent should betray me, I struck +the forepart of my faggot against it and waited: doubting whether our +whole stratagem had not been perceived from the beginning, and a +pistol-shot might not be the retort. + +Nothing of the kind happened, however. The sound of the blow, which +echoed dully through the building, died away, and the old silence +resumed its sway. We knocked again, but fully two minutes elapsed +before a grumbling voice, as of a man aroused from sleep, was heard +drawing near, and footsteps came slowly and heavily to the gate. +Probably the fellow inspected us through a loophole, for he paused a +moment, and my heart sank; but the next, seeing nothing suspicious, he +unbarred the gate with a querulous oath, and, pushing it open, bade us +enter and be quick about it. + +I stumbled forward into the cool, dark shadow, and the woman followed +me, while the man, stepping out with a yawn, stood in the entrance, +stretching himself in the sunshine. The roofless tower, which smelled +dank and unwholesome, was empty, or cumbered only with rubbish and +heaps of stones; but looking through the inner door I saw in the +courtyard a smouldering fire and half a dozen men in the act of +rousing themselves from sleep. I stood a second balancing my faggot, +as if in doubt where to lay it down; and then assuring myself by a +swift glance that the man who had let us in still had his back towards +us, I dropped it across the inner doorway. Fanchette, as she had been +instructed, plumped hers upon it, and at the same moment I sprang to +the door, and taking the man there by surprise, dealt him a violent +blow between the shoulders, which sent him headlong down the slope. + +A cry behind me, followed by an oath of alarm, told me that the action +was observed and that now was the pinch. In a second I was back at the +faggots, and drawing a pistol from under my blouse was in time to meet +the rush of the nearest man, who, comprehending all, sprang up, and +made for me, with his sheathed sword. I shot him in the chest as he +cleared the faggots--which, standing nearly as high as a man's waist, +formed a tolerable obstacle--and he pitched forward at my feet. + +This balked his companions, who drew back; but unfortunately it was +necessary for me to stoop to get my sword, which was hidden in the +faggot I had carried. The foremost of the rascals took advantage of +this. Rushing at me with a long knife, he failed to stab me--for I +caught his wrist--but he succeeded in bringing me to the ground. I +thought I was undone. I looked to have the others swarm over upon us; +and so it would doubtless have happened had not Fanchette, with rare +courage, dealt the first who followed a lusty blow on the body with a +great stick she snatched up. The man collapsed on the faggots, and +this hampered the rest. The check was enough. It enabled M. d'Agen to +come up, who, dashing in through the gate, shot down the first he saw +before him, and running at the doorway with his sword with incredible +fury and the courage which I had always known him to possess, cleared +it in a twinkling. The man with whom I was engaged on the ground, +seeing what had happened, wrested himself free with the strength of +despair, and dashing through the outer door, narrowly escaped being +ridden down by my followers as they swept up to the gate at a gallop, +and dismounted amid a whirlwind of cries. + +In a moment they thronged in on us pell-mell, and as soon as I could +lay my hand on my sword I led them through the doorway with a cheer, +hoping to be able to enter the farther tower with the enemy. But the +latter had taken the alarm too early and too thoroughly. The court was +empty. We were barely in time to see the last man dart up a flight of +outside stairs, which led to the first story, and disappear, closing a +heavy door behind him. I rushed to the foot of the steps and would +have ascended also, hoping against hope to find the door unsecured; +but a shot which was fired through a loop hole and narrowly missed my +head, and another which brought down one of my men, made me pause. +Discerning all the advantage to be on Bruhl's side, since he could +shoot us down from his cover, I cried a retreat; the issue of the +matter leaving us masters of the entrance-tower, while they retained +the inner and stronger tower, the narrow court between the two being +neutral ground unsafe for either party. + +Two of their men had fled outwards and were gone, and two lay dead; +while the loss on our side was confined to the man who was shot, and +Fanchette, who had received a blow on the head in the _melee_, and was +found, when we retreated, lying sick and dazed against the wall. + +It surprised me much, when I came to think upon it, that I had seen +nothing of Bruhl, though the skirmish had lasted two or three minutes +from the first outcry, and been attended by an abundance of noise. Of +Fresnoy, too, I now remembered that I had caught a glimpse only. These +two facts seemed so strange that I was beginning to augur the worst, +though I scarcely know why, when my spirits were marvellously raised +and my fears relieved by a thing which Maignan, who was the first to +notice it, pointed out to me. This was the appearance at an upper +window of a white 'kerchief, which was waved several times towards us. +The window was little more than an arrow-slit, and so narrow and high +besides that it was impossible to see who gave the signal; but my +experience of mademoiselle's coolness and resource left me in no doubt +on the point. With high hopes and a lighter heart than I had worn for +some time I bestirred myself to take every precaution, and began by +bidding Maignan select two men and ride round the hill, to make sure +that the enemy had no way of retreat open to him. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIX. + + PESTILENCE AND FAMINE. + + +While Maignan was away about this business I despatched two men to +catch our horses, which were running loose in the valley, and to +remove those of Bruhl's party to a safe distance from the castle. I +also blocked up the lower part of the door leading into the courtyard, +and named four men to remain under arms beside it, that we might not +be taken by surprise; an event of which I had the less fear, however, +since the enemy were now reduced to eight swords, and could only +escape, as we could only enter, through this doorway. I was still +busied with these arrangements when M. d'Agen joined me, and I broke +off to compliment him on his courage, acknowledging in particular the +service he had done me personally. The heat of the conflict had melted +the young man's reserve, and flushed his face with pride; but as he +listened to me he gradually froze again, and when I ended he regarded +me with the same cold hostility. + +'I am obliged to you,' he said, bowing. 'But may I ask what next, M. +de Marsac?' + +'We have no choice,' I answered. 'We can only starve them out.' + +'But the ladies?' he said, starting slightly. 'What of them?' + +'They will suffer less than the men,' I replied. 'Trust me, the latter +will not bear starving long.' + +He seemed surprised, but I explained that with our small numbers we +could not hope to storm the tower, and might think ourselves fortunate +that we now had the enemy cooped up where he could not escape, and +must eventually surrender. + +'Ay, but in the meantime how will you ensure the women against +violence?' he asked, with an air which showed he was far from +satisfied. + +'I will see to that when Maignan comes back,' I answered pretty +confidently. + +The equerry appeared in a moment with the assurance that egress from +the farther side of the tower was impossible. I bade him nevertheless +keep a horseman moving round the hill, that we might have intelligence +of any attempt. The order was scarcely given when a man--one of those +I had left on guard at the door of the courtyard--came to tell me that +Fresnoy desired to speak with me on behalf of M. de Bruhl. + +'Where is he?' I asked. + +'At the inner door with a flag of truce,' was the answer. + +'Tell him, then,' I said, without offering to move, 'that I will +communicate with no one except his leader, M. de Bruhl. And add this, +my friend,' I continued. 'Say it aloud: that if the ladies whom he has +in charge are injured by so much as a hair, I will hang every man +within these walls, from M. de Bruhl to the youngest lackey.' And I +added a solemn oath to that effect. + +The man nodded, and went on his errand, while I and M. d'Agen, with +Maignan, remained standing outside the gate, looking idly over the +valley and the brown woods through which we had ridden in the early +morning. My eyes rested chiefly on the latter, Maignan's as it proved +on the former. Doubtless we all had our own thoughts. Certainly I had, +and for a while, in my satisfaction at the result of the attack and +the manner in which we had Bruhl confined, I did not remark the +gravity which was gradually overspreading the equerry's countenance. +When I did I took the alarm, and asked him sharply what was the +matter. + +'I don't like that, your Excellency,' he answered, pointing into the +valley. + +I looked anxiously, and looked, and saw nothing. + +'What?' I said in astonishment. + +'The blue mist,' he muttered, with a shiver. 'I have been watching it +this half-hour, your Excellency. It is rising fast.' + +I cried out on him for a maudlin fool, and M. d'Agen swore +impatiently; but for all that, and despite the contempt I strove to +exhibit, I felt a sudden chill at my heart as I recognised in the +valley below the same blue haze which had attended us through +yesterday's ride, and left us only at nightfall. Involuntarily we both +fell to watching it as it rose slowly and more slowly, first +enveloping the lower woods, and then spreading itself abroad in the +sunshine. It is hard to witness a bold man's terror and remain +unaffected by it; and I confess I trembled. Here, in the moment of our +seeming success, was something which I had not taken into account, +something against which I could not guard either myself or others! + +'See!' Maignan whispered hoarsely, pointing again with his linger. 'It +is the Angel of Death, your Excellency! Where he kills by ones and +twos, he is invisible. But when he slays by hundreds and by thousands, +men see the shadow of his wings!' + +'Chut, fool!' I retorted with, anger, which was secretly proportioned +to the impression his weird saying made on me. 'You have been in +battles! Did you ever see him there? or at a sack? A truce to this +folly,' I continued. 'And do you go and inquire what food we have with +us. It may be necessary to send for some.' + +I watched him go doggedly off, and knowing the stout nature of the man +and his devotion to his master, I had no fear that he would fail us; +but there were others, almost as necessary to us, in whom I could not +place the same confidence. And these had also taken the alarm. When I +turned I found groups of pale-faced men, standing by twos and threes +at my back; who, pointing and muttering and telling one another what +Maignan had told us, looked where we had looked. As one spoke and +another listened, I saw the old panic revive in their eyes. Men who an +hour or two before had crossed the court under fire with the utmost +resolution, and dared instant death without a thought, grew pale, and +looking from this side of the valley to that; with faltering eyes, +seemed to be seeking, like hunted animals, a place of refuge. Fear, +once aroused, hung is the air. Men talked in whispers of the abnormal +heat, and, gazing at the cloudless sky, fled from the sunshine to the +shadow; or, looking over the expanse of woods, longed to be under +cover and away from this lofty eyrie, which to their morbid eyes +seemed a target for all the shafts of death. + +I was not slow to perceive the peril with which these fears and +apprehensions, which rapidly became general, threatened my plans. I +strove to keep the men employed, and to occupy their thoughts as far +as possible with the enemy and his proceedings; but I soon found that +even here a danger lurked; for Maignan, coming to me by-and-by with a +grave face, told me that one of Bruhl's men had ventured out, and was +parleying with the guard on our side of the court. I went at once and +broke the matter off, threatening to shoot the fellow if he was not +under cover before I counted ten. But the scared, sultry faces he left +behind him told me that the mischief was done, and I could think of no +better remedy for it than to give M. d'Agen a hint, and station him at +the outer gate with his pistols ready. + +The question of provisions, too, threatened to become a serious one; I +dared not leave to procure them myself, nor could I trust any of my +men with the mission. In fact the besiegers were rapidly becoming the +besieged. Intent on the rising haze and their own terrors, they forgot +all else. Vigilance and caution were thrown to the winds. The +stillness of the valley, its isolation, the distant woods that +encircled us and hung quivering in the heated air, all added to the +panic. Despite all my efforts and threats, the men gradually left +their posts, and getting together in little parties at the gate, +worked themselves up to such a pitch of dread that by two hours after +noon they were fit for any folly; and at the mere cry of 'plague!' +would have rushed to their horses and ridden in every direction. + +It was plain that I could depend for useful service on myself and +three others only--of whom, to his credit be it said, Simon Fleix was +one. Seeing this, I was immensely relieved when I presently heard that +Fresnoy was again seeking to speak with me. I was no longer, it will +be believed, for standing on formalities; but glad to waive in silence +the punctilio on which I had before insisted, and anxious to afford +him no opportunity of marking the slackness which prevailed among my +men, I hastened to meet him at the door of the courtyard where Maignan +had detained him. + +I might have spared my pains, however. I had no more than saluted him +and exchanged the merest preliminaries before I saw that he was in a +state of panic far exceeding that of my following. His coarse face, +which had never been prepossessing, was mottled and bedabbled with +sweat; his bloodshot eyes, when they met mine, wore the fierce yet +terrified expression of an animal caught in a trap. Though his first +word was an oath, sworn for the purpose of raising his courage, the +bully's bluster was gone. He spoke in a low voice, and his hands +shook; and for a penny-piece I saw he would have bolted past me and +taken his chance in open flight. + +I needed nothing after this to assure me that he meditated something +of the basest; and I took care how I answered him. 'I have known you +stiff enough upon occasions,' I replied drily. 'And then, again, I +have known you not so stiff, M. Fresnoy.' + +'Only when you were in question,' he muttered with another oath. 'But +flesh and blood cannot stand this. You could not yourself. Between him +and them I am fairly worn out. Give me good terms--good terms, you +understand, M. de Marsac?' he whispered eagerly, sinking his voice +still lower, 'and you shall have all you want.' + +'Your lives, and liberty to go where you please,' I answered coldly. +'The two ladies to be first given up to me uninjured. Those are the +terms.' + +'But for me?' he said anxiously. + +'For you? The same as the others,' I retorted. 'Or I will make a +distinction for old acquaintance sake, M. Fresnoy; and if the ladies +have aught to complain of, I will hang you first.' + +He tried to bluster and hold out for a sum of money, or at least for +his horse to be given up to him. But I had made up my mind to reward +my followers with a present of a horse apiece; and I was besides well +aware that this was only an afterthought on his part, and that he had +fully decided to yield. I stood fast, therefore. The result justified +my firmness, for he presently agreed to surrender on those terms. + +'Ay, but M. de Bruhl?' I said, desiring to learn clearly whether he +had authority to treat for all. 'What of him?' + +He looked at me impatiently. 'Come and see!' he said, with an ugly +sneer. + +'No, no, my friend,' I answered, shaking my head warily. 'That is not +according to rule. You are the surrendering party, and it is for you +to trust us. Bring out the ladies, that I may have speech with them, +and then I will draw off my men.' + +'Nom de Dieu!' he cried hoarsely, with so much fear and rage in his +face that I recoiled from him. 'That is just what I cannot do.' + +'You cannot?' I rejoined with a sudden thrill of horror. 'Why not? why +not, man?' And in the excitement of the moment, conceiving the idea +that the worst had happened to the women, I pushed him back with so +much fury that he laid his hand on his sword. + +'Confound you!' he stuttered, 'stand back! It is not that, I tell you! +Mademoiselle is safe and sound, and madame, if she had her senses, +would be sound too. It is not our fault if she is not. But I have not +got the key of the rooms. It is in Bruhl's pocket, I tell you!' + +'Oh!' I made answer drily. 'And Bruhl?' + +'Hush, man,' Fresnoy replied, wiping the perspiration from his brow, +and bringing his pallid, ugly face, near to mine, 'he has got the +plague!' + +I stared at him for a moment in silence; which he was the first to +break. 'Hush!' he muttered again, laying a trembling hand on my arm, +'if the men knew it--and not seeing him they are beginning to suspect +it--they would rise on us. The devil himself could not keep them here. +Between him and them I am on a razor's edge. Madame is with him, and +the door is locked. Mademoiselle is in a room; upstairs, and the door +is locked. And he has the keys. What can I do? What can I do, man?' he +cried, his voice hoarse with terror and dismay. + +'Get the keys,' I said instinctively. + +'What? From him?' he muttered, with an irrepressible shudder, which +shook his bloated cheeks. 'God forbid I should, see him! It takes +stout men infallibly. I should be dead by night! By God, I should!' he +continued, whining. Now you are not stout, M. de Marsac. If you will +come with me I will draw off the men from that part; and you may go in +and get the key from him.' + +His terror, which surpassed all feigning, and satisfied me without +doubt that he was in earnest, was so intense that it could not fail to +infect me. I felt my face, as I looked into his, grow to the same hue. +I trembled as he did and grew sick. For if there is a word which +blanches the soldier's cheek and tries his heart more than another, it +is the name of the disease which travels in the hot noonday, and, +tainting the strongest as he rides in his pride, leaves him in a few +hours a poor mass of corruption. The stoutest and the most reckless +fear it; nor could I, more than another, boast myself indifferent to +it, or think of its presence without shrinking. But the respect in +which a man of birth holds himself saves him from the unreasoning fear +which masters the vulgar; and in a moment I recovered myself, and made +up my mind what it behoved me to do. + +'Wait awhile,' I said sternly, 'and I will come with you.' + +He waited accordingly, though with manifest impatience, while I sent +for M. d'Agen, and communicated to him what I was about to do. I did +not think it necessary to enter into details, or to mention Bruhl's +state, for some of the men were well in hearing. I observed that the +young gentleman received my directions with a gloomy and dissatisfied +air. But I had become by this time so used to his moods, and found +myself so much mistaken in his character, that I scarcely gave the +matter a second thought. I crossed the court with Fresnoy, and in a +moment had mounted the outside staircase and passed through the heavy +doorway. + +The moment I entered, I was forced to do Fresnoy the justice of +admitting that he had not come to me before he was obliged. The three +men who were on guard inside tossed down their weapons at sight of me, +while a fourth, who was posted at a neighbouring window, hailed me +with a cry of relief. From the moment I crossed the threshold the +defence was practically at an end. I might, had I chosen or found it +consistent with honour, have called in my following and secured the +entrance. Without pausing, however, I passed on to the foot of a +gloomy stone staircase winding up between walls of rough masonry; and +here Fresnoy stood on one side and stopped. He pointed upwards with a +pale face and muttered, 'The door on the left.' + +Leaving him there watching me as I went upwards, I mounted slowly to +the landing, and by the light of an arrow-slit which dimly lit the +ruinous place found the door he had described, and tried it with my +hand. It was locked, but I heard someone moan in the room, and a step +crossed the floor, as if he or another came to the door and listened. +I knocked, hearing my heart beat in the silence. + +At last a voice quite strange to me cried, 'Who is it?' + +'A friend,' I muttered, striving to dull my voice that they might not +hear me below. + +'A friend!' the bitter answer came. 'Go! You have made a mistake! We +have no friends.' + +'It is I, M. de Marsac,' I rejoined, knocking more imperatively. I +would see M. de Bruhl; I must see him.' + +The person inside, at whose identity I could now make a guess, uttered +a low exclamation, and still seemed to hesitate. But on my repeating +my demand I heard a rusty bolt withdrawn, and Madame de Bruhl, opening +the door, a few inches, showed her face in the gap. 'What do you +want?' she murmured jealously. + +Prepared as I was to see her, I was shocked by the change in her +appearance, a change which even that imperfect light failed to hide. +Her blue eyes had grown larger and harder, and there were dark marks +under them. Her face, once so brilliant, was grey and pinched; her +hair had lost its golden lustre. 'What do you want?' she repeated, +eyeing me fiercely. + +'To see him,' I answered. + +'You know?' she muttered. 'You know that he----' + +I nodded. + +'And you still want to come in? My God! Swear you will not hurt him?' + +'Heaven forbid!' I said; and on that she held the door open that I +might enter. But I was not half-way across the room before she had +passed me, and was again between me and the wretched makeshift pallet. +Nay, when I stood and looked down at him, as he moaned and rolled in +senseless agony, with livid face and distorted features (which the +cold grey light of that miserable room rendered doubly appalling), she +hung over him and fenced him from me: so that looking on him and her, +and remembering how he had treated her, and why he came to be in this +place, I felt unmanly tears rise to my eyes. The room was still a +prison, a prison with broken mortar covering the floor and loopholes +for windows; but the captive was held by other chains than those of +force. When she might have gone free, her woman's love surviving all +that he had done to kill it, chained her to his side with fetters +which old wrongs and present danger were powerless to break. + +It was impossible that I could view a scene so strange without +feelings of admiration as well as pity; or without forgetting for a +while, in my respect for Madame de Bruhl's devotion, the risk which +had seemed so great to me on the stairs. I had come simply for a +purpose of my own, and with no thought of aiding him who lay here. But +so great, as I have noticed on other occasions, is the power of a +noble example, that, before I knew it, I found myself wondering what I +could do to help this man, and how I could relieve madame in the +discharge of offices which her husband had as little right to expect +at her hands as at mine. At the mere sound of the word Plague I knew +she would be deserted in this wilderness by all, or nearly all; a +reflection which suggested to me that I should first remove +mademoiselle to a distance, and then consider what help I could afford +here. + +I was about to tell her the purpose with which I had come when a +paroxysm more than ordinarily violent, and induced perhaps by the +excitement of my presence--though he seemed beside himself--seized +him, and threatened to tax her powers to the utmost. I could not look +on and see her spend herself in vain; and almost before I knew what I +was doing I had laid my hands on him and after a brief struggle thrust +him back exhausted on the couch. + +She looked at me so strangely after that that in the half-light which +the loopholes afforded I tried in vain to read her meaning. 'Why did +you come?' she cried at length, breathing quickly. 'You, of all men? +Why did you come? He was no friend of yours, Heaven knows!' + +'No, madame, nor I of his,' I answered bitterly, with a sudden +revulsion of feeling. + +'Then why are you here?' she retorted. + +'I could not send one of my men,' I answered. 'And I want the key of +the room above.' + +At the mention of that--the room above--she flinched as if I had +struck her, and looked as strangely at Bruhl as she had before looked +at me. No doubt the reference to Mademoiselle de la Vire recalled to +her mind her husband's wild passion for the girl, which for the moment +she had forgotten. Nevertheless she did not speak, though her face +turned very pale. She stooped over the couch, such as it was, and +searching his clothes, presently stood up, and held out the key to me. +'Take it, and let her out,' she said with a forced smile. 'Take it up +yourself, and do it. You have done so much for her it is right that +you should do this.' + +I took the key, thanking her with more haste than thought, and turned +towards the door, intending to go straight up to the floor above and +release mademoiselle. My hand was already on the door, which madame, I +found, had left ajar in the excitement of my entrance, when I heard +her step behind me. The next instant she touched me on the shoulder. +'You fool!' she exclaimed, her eyes flashing, 'would you kill her? +Would you go from him to her, and take the plague to her? God forgive +me, it was in my mind to send you. And men are such puppets you would +have gone!' + +I trembled with horror, as much at my stupidity as at her craft. For +she was right: in another moment I should have gone, and comprehension +and remorse would have come too late. As it was, in my longing at once +to reproach her for her wickedness and to thank her for her timely +repentance, I found no words; but I turned away in silence and went +out with a full heart. + + + + + CHAPTER XXX. + + STRICKEN. + + +Outside the door, standing in the dimness of the landing, I found M. +d'Agen. At any other time I should have been the first to ask him why +he had left the post which I had assigned to him. But at the moment I +was off my balance, and his presence suggested nothing more than that +here was the very person who could best execute my wishes. I held out +the key to him at arms length, and bade him release Mademoiselle de la +Vire, who was in the room above, and escort her out of the castle. 'Do +not let her linger here,' I continued urgently. 'Take her to the place +where we found the wood-cutters. You need fear no resistance.' + +'But Bruhl?' he said, as he took the key mechanically from me. + +'He is out of the question,' I answered in a low voice. 'We have done +with him. He has the plague.' + +He uttered a sharp exclamation. 'What of madame, then?' he muttered. + +'She is with him,' I said. + +He cried out suddenly at that, sucking in his breath, as I have known +men do in pain. And but that I drew back he would have laid his hand +on my sleeve. 'With him?' he stammered. 'How is that?' + +'Why, man, where else should she be?' I answered, forgetting that the +sight of those two together had at first surprised me also, as well as +moved me. 'Or who else should be with him? He is her husband.' + +He stared at me for a moment at that, and then he turned slowly away +and began to go up; while I looked after him, gradually thinking out +the clue to his conduct. Could it be that it was not mademoiselle +attracted him, but Madame de Bruhl? + +And with that hint I understood it all. I saw in a moment the +conclusion to which he had come on hearing of the presence of madame +in my room. In my room at night! The change had dated from that time; +instead of a careless, light-spirited youth he had become in a moment +a morose and restive churl, as difficult to manage as an unbroken +colt. Quite clearly I saw now the meaning of the change; why he had +shrunk from me, and why all intercourse between us had been so +difficult and so constrained. + +I laughed to think how he had deceived himself, and how nearly I had +come to deceiving myself also. And what more I might have thought I do +not know, for my meditations were cut short at this point by a loud +outcry below, which, beginning in one or two sharp cries of alarm and +warning, culminated quickly in a roar of anger and dismay. + +Fancying I recognised Maignan's voice, I ran down the stairs, +seeking a loophole whence I could command the scene; but finding +none, and becoming more and more alarmed, I descended to the court, +which I found, to my great surprise, as empty and silent as an old +battle-field. Neither on the enemy's side nor on ours was a single man +to be seen. With growing dismay I sprang across the court and darted +through the outer tower, only to find that and the gateway equally +unguarded. Nor was it until I had passed through the latter, and stood +on the brow of the slope, which we had had to clamber with so much +toil, that I learned what was amiss. + +Far below me a string of men, bounding and running at speed, streamed +down the hill towards the horses. Some were shouting, some running +silently, with their elbows at their sides and their scabbards leaping +against their calves. The horses stood tethered in a ring near the +edge of the wood, and by some oversight had been left unguarded. The +foremost runner I made out to be Fresnoy; but a number of his men were +close upon him, and then after an interval came Maignan, waving his +blade and emitting frantic threats with every stride. Comprehending at +once that Fresnoy and his following, rendered desperate by panic and +the prospective loss of their horses, had taken advantage of my +absence and given Maignan the slip, I saw I could do nothing save +watch the result of the struggle. + +This was not long delayed. Maignan's threats, which seemed to me mere +waste of breath, were not without effect on those he followed. There +is nothing which demoralises men like flight. Troopers who have stood +charge after charge while victory was possible will fly like sheep, +and like sheep allow themselves to be butchered, when they have once +turned the back. So it was here. Many of Fresnoy's men were stout +fellows, but having started to run they had no stomach for fighting. +Their fears caused Maignan to appear near, while the horses seemed +distant; and one after another they turned aside and made like rabbits +for the wood. Only Fresnoy, who had taken care to have the start of +all, kept on, and, reaching the horses, cut the rope which tethered +the nearest, and vaulted nimbly on its back. Safely seated there, he +tried to frighten the others into breaking loose; but not succeeding +at the first attempt, and seeing Maignan, breathing vengeance, coming +up with him, he started his horse, a bright bay, and rode off laughing +along the edge of the wood. + +Fully content with the result--for our carelessness, might have cost +us very dearly--I was about to turn away when I saw that Maignan had +mounted and was preparing to follow. I stayed accordingly to see the +end, and from my elevated position enjoyed a first-rate view of the +race which ensued. Both were heavy weights, and at first Maignan +gained no ground. But when a couple of hundred yards had been covered +Fresnoy had the ill-luck to blunder into some heavy ground, and this +enabling his pursuer, who had time to avoid it, to get within +two-score paces of him, the race became as exciting as I could wish. +Slowly and surely Maignan, who had chosen the Cid, reduced the +distance between them to a score of paces--to fifteen--to ten. Then +Fresnoy, becoming alarmed, began to look over his shoulder and ride in +earnest. He had no whip, and I saw him raise his sheathed sword, and +strike his beast on the flank. It sprang forward, and appeared for a +few strides to be holding its own. Again he repeated the blow--but +this time with a different result. While his hand was still in the +air, his horse stumbled, as it seemed to me, made a desperate effort +to recover itself, fell headlong and rolled over and over. + +Something in the fashion of the fall, which reminded me of the mishap +I had suffered on the way to Chize, led me to look more particularly +at the horse as it rose trembling to its feet, and stood with drooping +head. Sure enough, a careful glance enabled me, even at that distance, +to identify it as Matthew's bay--the trick-horse. Shading my eyes, and +gazing on the scene with increased interest, I saw Maignan, who had +dismounted, stoop over something on the ground, and again after an +interval stand upright. + +But Fresnoy did not rise. Nor was it without awe that, guessing what +had happened to him, I remembered how he had used this very horse to +befool me; how heartlessly he had abandoned Matthew, its owner; and by +what marvellous haps--which men call chances--Providence had brought +it to this place, and put it in his heart to choose it out of a score +which stood ready to his hand! + +I was right. The man's neck was broken. He was quite dead. Maignan +passed the word to one, and he to another, and so it reached me on the +hill. It did not fail to awaken memories both grave and wholesome. I +thought of St. Jean d'Angely, of Chize, of the house in the Ruelle +d'Arcy; then in the midst of these reflections I heard voices, and +turned to find mademoiselle, with M. d'Agen behind me. + +Her hand was still bandaged, and her dress, which she had not changed +since leaving Blois, was torn and stained with mud. Her hair was in +disorder; she walked with a limp. Fatigue and apprehension had stolen +the colour from her cheeks, and in a word she looked, when I turned, +so wan and miserable that for a moment I feared the plague had seized +her. + +The instant, however, that she caught sight of me a wave of colour +invaded, not her cheeks only, but her brow and neck. From her hair to +the collar of her gown she was all crimson. For a second she stood +gazing at me, and then, as I saluted her, she sprang forward. Had I +not stepped back she would have taken my hands. + +My heart so overflowed with joy at this sight, that in the certainty +her blush gave me I was fain to toy with my happiness. All jealousy of +M. d'Agen was forgotten; only I thought it well not to alarm her by +telling her what I knew of the Bruhls. 'Mademoiselle,' I said +earnestly, bowing, but retreating from her, 'I thank God for your +escape. One of your enemies lies helpless here, and another is dead +yonder.' + +'It is not of my enemies I am thinking,' she answered quickly, 'but of +God, of whom you rightly remind me; and then of my friends.' + +'Nevertheless,' I answered as quickly, 'I beg you will not stay to +thank them now, but go down to the wood with M. d'Agen, who will do +all that may be possible to make you comfortable.' + +'And you, sir?' she said, with a charming air of confusion. + +'I must stay here,' I answered, 'for a while.' + +'Why?' she asked with a slight frown. + +I did not know how to tell her, and I began lamely. 'Someone must stop +with madame,' I said without thought. + +'Madame?' she exclaimed. 'Does she require assistance? I will stop.' + +'God forbid!' I cried. + +I do not know how she understood the words, but her face, which had +been full of softness, grew hard. She moved quickly towards me; but, +mindful of the danger I carried about me, I drew farther back. 'No +nearer, mademoiselle,' I murmured, 'if you please.' + +She looked puzzled, and finally angry, turning away with a sarcastic +bow. 'So be it, then, sir,' she said proudly, 'if you desire it. M. +d'Agen, if you are not afraid of me, will you lead me down?' + +I stood and watched them go down the hill, comforting myself with the +reflection that to-morrow, or the next day, or within a few days at +most, all would be well. Scanning her figure as she moved, I fancied +that she went with less spirit as the space increased between us. And +I pleased myself with the notion. A few days, a few hours, I thought, +and all would be well. The sunset which blazed in the west was no more +than a faint reflection of the glow which for a few minutes pervaded +my mind, long accustomed to cold prospects and the chill of neglect. + +A term was put to these pleasant imaginings by the arrival of Maignan; +who, panting: from the ascent of the hill, informed me with a +shamefaced air that the tale of horses was complete, but that four of +our men were missing, and had doubtless gone off with the fugitives. +These proved to be M. d'Agen's two lackeys and the two varlets M. de +Rambouillet had lent us. There remained besides Simon Fleix only +Maignan's three men from Rosny; but the state in which our affairs now +stood enabled us to make light of this. I informed the equerry--who +visibly paled at the news--that M. de Bruhl lay ill of the plague, and +like to die; and I bade him form a camp in the wood below, and, +sending for food to the house where we had slept the night before, +make mademoiselle as comfortable as circumstances permitted. + +He listened with surprise, and when I had done asked with concern what +I intended to do myself. + +'Someone must remain with Madame de Bruhl,' I answered. 'I have +already been to the bedside to procure the key of mademoiselle's room, +and I run no farther risk. All I ask is that you will remain in the +neighbourhood, and furnish us with supplies should it be necessary.' + +He looked at me with emotion, which, strongly in conflict with his +fears as it was, touched me not a little. 'But morbleu! M. de Marsac,' +he said, 'you will take the plague and die.' + +'If God wills,' I answered, very lugubriously I confess, for pale +looks in one commonly so fearless could not but depress me. 'But if +not, I shall escape. Any way, my friend,' I continued, 'I owe you a +quittance. Simon Fleix has an inkhorn and paper. Bid him bring them to +this stone and leave them, and I will write that Maignan, the equerry +of the Baron de Rosny, served me to the end as a brave soldier and an +honest friend. What, _mon ami?_' I continued, for I saw that he was +overcome by this, which was, indeed, a happy thought of mine. 'Why +not? It is true, and will aquit you with the Baron. Do it, and go. +Advise M. d'Agen, and be to him what you have been to me.' + +He swore two or three great oaths, such as men of his kind use to hide +an excess of feeling, and after some further remonstrance went away to +carry out my orders; leaving me to stand on the brow in a strange kind +of solitude, and watch horses and men withdraw to the wood, until the +whole valley seemed left to me and stillness and the grey evening. For +a time I stood in thought. Then reminding myself, for a fillip to my +spirits, that I had been far more alone when I walked the streets of +St. Jean friendless and threadbare (than I was now), I turned, and +swinging my scabbard against my boots for company, stumbled through +the dark, silent courtyard, and mounted as cheerfully as I could to +madame's room. + +To detail all that passed during the next five days would be tedious +and in indifferent taste, seeing that I am writing this memoir for the +perusal of men of honour; for though I consider the offices which the +whole can perform for the sick to be worthy of the attention of every +man, however well born, who proposes to see service, they seem to be +more honourable in the doing than the telling. One episode, however, +which marked those days filled me then, as it does now, with the most +lively pleasure; and that was the unexpected devotion displayed by +Simon Fleix, who, coming to me, refused to leave, and showed himself +at this pinch to be possessed of such sterling qualities that I freely +forgave him the deceit he had formerly practised on me. The fits of +moody silence into which he still fell at times and an occasional +irascibility seemed to show that he had not altogether conquered his +insane fancy; but the mere fact that he had come to me in a situation +of hazard, and voluntarily removed himself from mademoiselle's +neighbourhood, gave me good hope for the future. + +M. de Bruhl died early on the morning of the second day, and Simon and +I buried him at noon. He was a man of courage and address, lacking +only principles. In spite of madame's grief and prostration, which +were as great as though she had lost the best husband in the world, we +removed before night to a separate camp in the woods; and left with +the utmost relief the grey ruin on the hill, in which, it seemed to +me, we had lived an age. In our new bivouac, where, game being +abundant, and the weather warm, we lacked no comfort, except the +society of our friends, we remained four days longer. On the fifth +morning we met the others of our company by appointment on the north +road, and commenced the return journey. + +Thankful that we had escaped contagion, we nevertheless still proposed +to observe for a time such precautions in regard to the others as +seemed necessary; riding in the rear and having no communication with +them, though they showed by signs the pleasure they felt at seeing us. +From the frequency with which mademoiselle turned and looked behind +her, I judged she had overcome her pique at my strange conduct; which +the others should by this time have explained to her. Content, +therefore, with the present, and full of confidence in the future, I +rode along in a rare state of satisfaction; at one moment planning +what I would do, and at another reviewing what I had done. + +The brightness and softness of the day, and the beauty of the woods, +which in some places, I remember, were bursting into leaf, contributed +much to establish me in this frame of mind. The hateful mist, which +had so greatly depressed us, had disappeared; leaving the face of the +country visible in all the brilliance of early spring. The men who +rode before us, cheered by the happy omen, laughed and talked as they +rode, or tried the paces of their horses, where the trees grew +sparsely; and their jests and laughter coming pleasantly to our ears +as we followed, warmed even madame's sad face to a semblance of +happiness. + +I was riding along in this state of contentment when a feeling of +fatigue, which the distance we had come did not seem to justify, led +me to spur the Cid into a brisker pace. The sensation of lassitude +still continued, however, and indeed grew worse; so that I wondered +idly whether I had over-eaten myself at my last meal. Then the thing +passed for a while from, my mind, which the descent of a steep hill +sufficiently occupied. + +But a few minutes later, happening to turn in the saddle, I +experienced a strange and sudden dizziness; so excessive as to force +me to grasp the cantle, and cling to it, while trees and hills +appeared to dance round me. A quick, hot pain in the side followed, +almost before I recovered the power of thought; and this increased so +rapidly, and was from the first so definite, that, with a dreadful +apprehension already formed in my mind, I thrust my hand inside my +clothes, and found that swelling which is the most sure and deadly +symptom of the plague. + +The horror of that moment--in which I saw all those things on the +possession of which I had just been congratulating myself, pass +hopelessly from me, leaving me in dreadful gloom--I will not attempt +to describe in this place. Let it suffice that the world lost in a +moment its joyousness, the sunshine its warmth. The greenness and +beauty round me, which an instant before had filled me with pleasure, +seemed on a sudden no more than a grim and cruel jest at my expense, +and I an atom perishing unmarked and unnoticed. Yes, an atom, a mote; +the bitterness of that feeling I well remember. Then, in no long +time--being a soldier--I recovered my coolness, and, retaining the +power to think, decided what it behoved me to do. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXI. + + UNDER THE GREENWOOD. + + +To escape from my companions on some pretext, which should enable me +to ensure their safety without arousing their fears, was the one +thought which possessed me on the subsidence of my first alarm. +Probably it answered to that instinct in animals which bids them get +away alone when wounded or attacked by disease; and with me it had the +fuller play as the pain prevailed rather by paroxysms than in +permanence, and, coming and going, allowed intervals of ease, in which +I was able to think clearly and consecutively, and even to sit firmly +in the saddle. + +The moment one of these intervals enabled me to control myself, I used +it to think where I might go without danger to others; and at once and +naturally my thoughts turned to the last place we had passed; which +happened to be the house in the gorge where we had received news of +Bruhl's divergence from the road. The man who lived there alone had +had the plague; therefore he did not fear it. The place itself was +solitary, and I could reach it, riding slowly, in half an hour. On the +instant and without more delay I determined on this course. I would +return, and, committing myself to the fellow's good offices, bid him +deny me to others, and especially to my friends--should they seek me. + +Aware that I had no time to lose if I would put this plan into +execution before the pains returned to sap my courage, I drew bridle +at once, and muttered some excuse to madame; if I remember rightly, +that I had dropped my gauntlet. Whatever the pretext--and my dread was +great lest she should observe any strangeness in my manner--it passed +with her; by reason, chiefly, I think, of the grief which monopolised +her. She let me go, and before anyone else could mark or miss me I was +a hundred yards away on the back-track, and already sheltered from +observation by a turn in the road. + +The excitement of my evasion supported me for a while after leaving +her; and then for another while, a paroxysm of pain deprived me of the +power of thought. But when this last was over, leaving me weak and +shaken, yet clear in my mind, the most miserable sadness and +depression that can be conceived came upon me; and, accompanying +me through the wood, filled its avenues (which doubtless were fair +enough to others' eyes) with the blackness of despair. I saw but the +charnel-house, and that everywhere. It was not only that the horrors +of the first discovery returned upon me and almost unmanned me; nor +only that regrets and memories, pictures of the past and plans for the +future, crowded thick upon my mind, so that I could have wept at the +thought of all ending here. But in my weakness mademoiselle's face +shone where the wood was darkest, and, tempting and provoking me to +return--were it only to tell her that, grim and dull as I seemed, I +loved her--tried me with a subtle temptation almost beyond my strength +to resist. All that was mean in me rose in arms, all that was selfish +clamoured to know why I must die in the ditch while others rode in the +sunshine; why I must go to the pit, while others loved and lived! + +And so hard was I pressed that I think I should have given way had the +ride been longer or my horse less smooth and nimble. But in the midst +of my misery, which bodily pain was beginning to augment to such a +degree that I could scarcely see, and had to ride gripping the saddle +with both hands, I reached the mill. My horse stopped of its own +accord. The man we had seen before came out. I had just strength left +to tell him what was the matter, and what I wanted; and then a fresh +attack came on, with sickness, and overcome by vertigo I fell to the +ground. + +I have but an indistinct idea what happened after that; until I found +myself inside the house, clinging to the man's arm. He pointed to a +box-bed in one corner of the room (which was, or seemed to my sick +eyes, gloomy and darksome in the extreme), and would have had me lie +down in it. But something inside me revolted against the bed, and +despite the force he used, I broke away, and threw myself on a heap of +straw which I saw in another corner. + +'Is not the bed good enough for you?' he grumbled. + +I strove to tell him it was not that. + +'It should be good enough to die on,' he continued brutally. 'There's +five have died on that bed, I'd have you know! My wife one, and my son +another, and my daughter another; and then my son again, and a +daughter again. Five! Ay, five in that bed!' + +Brooding in the gloom of the chimney-corner, where he was busied about +a black pot, he continued to mutter and glance at me askance; but +after a while I swooned away with pain. + +When I opened my eyes again the room was darker. The man still sat +where I had last seen him, but a noise, the same, perhaps, which had +roused me, drew him as I looked to the unglazed window. A voice +outside, the tones of which I seemed to know, inquired if he had seen +me; and so carried away was I by the excitement of the moment that I +rose on my elbow to hear the answer. But the man was staunch. I heard +him deny all knowledge of me, and presently the sound of retreating +hoofs and the echo of voices dying in the distance assured me I was +left. + +Then, at that instant, a doubt of the man on whose compassion I had +thrown myself entered my mind. Plague-stricken, hopeless as I was, it +chilled me to the very heart; staying in a moment the feeble tears I +was about to shed, and curing even the vertigo, which forced me to +clutch at the straw on which I lay. Whether the thought arose from a +sickly sense of my own impotence, or was based on the fellow's morose +air and the stealthy glances he continued to cast at me, I am as +unable to say as I am to decide whether it was well-founded, or the +fruit of my own fancy. Possibly the gloom of the room and the man's +surly words inclined me to suspicion; possibly his secret thoughts +portrayed themselves in his hang-dog visage. Afterwards it appeared +that he had stripped me, while I lay, of everything of value; but he +may have done this in the belief that I should die. + +All I know is that I knew nothing certain, because the fear died +almost as soon as it was born. The man had scarcely seated himself +again, or I conceived the thought, when a second alarm outside caused +him to spring to his feet. Scowling and muttering as he went, he +hurried to the window. But before he reached it the door was dashed +violently open, and Simon Fleix stood in the entrance. + +There came in with him so blessed a rush of light and life as in a +moment dispelled the horror of the room, and stripped me at one and +the same time of fear and manhood. For whether I would or no, at sight +of the familiar face, which I had fled so lately, I burst into tears; +and, stretching out my hands to him, as a frightened child might have +done, called on him by name. I suppose the plague was by this time so +plainly written on my face that all who looked might read; for he +stood at gaze, staring at me, and was still so standing when a hand +put him aside and a slighter, smaller figure, pale-faced and hooded, +stood for a moment between me and the sunshine. It was mademoiselle! + +That, I thank God, restored me to myself, or I had been for ever +shamed. I cried to them with all the voice I had left to take her +away; and calling out frantically again and again that I had the +plague and she would die, I bade the man close the door. Nay, +regaining something of strength in my fear for her, I rose up, +half-dressed as I was, and would have fled into some corner to avoid +her, still calling out to them to take her away, to take her away--if +a fresh paroxysm had not seized me, so that I fell blind and helpless +where I was. + +For a time after that I knew nothing; until someone held water to my +lips, and I drank greedily, and presently awoke to the fact that the +entrance was dark with faces and figures all gazing at me as I lay. +But I could not see her; and I had sense enough to know and be +thankful that she was no longer among them. I would fain have bidden +Maignan begone too, for I read the consternation in his face. But I +could not muster strength or voice for the purpose, and when I turned +my head to see who held me--ah me! it comes back to me still in +dreams--it was mademoiselle's hair that swept my forehead and her hand +that ministered to me; while tears she did not try to hide or wipe +away fell on my hot cheek. I could have pushed her away even then, for +she was slight and small; but the pains came upon me, and with a sob +choking my voice I lost all knowledge. + +I am told that I lay for more than a month between life and death, now +burning with fever and now in the cold fit; and that but for the +tendance which never failed nor faltered, nor could have been outdone +had my malady been the least infectious in the world, I must have died +a hundred times, as hundreds round me did die week by week in that +year. From the first they took me out of the house (where I think I +should have perished quickly, so impregnated was it with the plague +poison) and laid me under a screen of boughs in the forest, with a +vast quantity of cloaks and horse-cloths cunningly disposed to +windward. Here I ran some risk from cold and exposure and the fall of +heavy dews; but, on the other hand, had all the airs of heaven to +clear away the humours and expel the fever from my brain. + +Hence it was that when the first feeble beginnings of consciousness +awoke in me again, they and the light stole in on me through green +leaves, and overhanging boughs, and the freshness and verdure of the +spring woods. The sunshine which reached my watery eyes was softened +by its passage through great trees, which grew and expanded as I gazed +up into them, until each became a verdant world, with all a world's +diversity of life. Grown tired of this, I had still long avenues of +shade, carpeted with flowers, to peer into; or a little wooded +bottom--where the ground fell away on one side--that blazed and burned +with red-thorn. Ay, and hence it was that the first sounds I heard, +when the fever left me at last, and I knew morning from evening, and +man from woman, were the songs of birds calling to their mates. + +Mademoiselle and Madame de Bruhl, with Fanchette and Simon Fleix, lay +all this time in such shelter as could be raised for them where I lay; +M. Francois and three stout fellows, whom Maignan left to guard us, +living in a hut within hail. Maignan himself, after seeing out a week +of my illness, had perforce returned to his master, and no news had +since been received from him. Thanks to the timely move into the +woods, no other of the party fell ill, and by the time I was able to +stand and speak the ravages of the disease had so greatly decreased +that fear was at an end. + +I should waste words were I to try to describe how the peace and +quietude of the life we led in the forest during the time of my +recovery sank into my heart; which had known, save by my mother's +bedside, little of such joys. To awake in the morning to sweet sounds +and scents, to eat with reviving appetite and feel the slow growth of +strength, to lie all day in shade or sunshine as it pleased me, and +hear women's voices and tinkling laughter, to have no thought of the +world and no knowledge of it, so that we might have been, for anything +we saw, in another sphere--these things might have sufficed for +happiness without that which added to each and every one of them a +sweeter and deeper and more lasting joy. Of which next. + +I had not begun to take notice long before I saw that M. Francois and +madame had come to an understanding; such an one, at least, as +permitted him to do all for her comfort and entertainment without +committing her to more than was becoming at such a season. Naturally +this left mademoiselle much in my company; a circumstance which would +have ripened into passion the affection I before entertained for her, +had not gratitude and a nearer observance of her merits already +elevated the feeling into the most ardent worship that even the +youngest lover ever felt for his mistress. + +In proportion, however, as I and my love grew stronger, and +mademoiselle's presence grew more necessary to my happiness--so that +were she away but an hour I fell a-moping--she began to draw off from +me, and absenting herself more and more on long walks in the woods, +by-and-by reduced me to such a pitch of misery as bid fair to complete +what the fever had left undone. + +If this had happened in the world I think it likely that I should have +suffered in silence. But here, under the greenwood, in common +enjoyment of God's air and earth, we seemed more nearly equal. She was +scarce better dressed than a sutler's wife; while recollections of her +wealth and station, though they assailed me nightly, lost much of +their point in presence of her youth and of that fair and patient +gentleness which forest life and the duties of a nurse had fostered. + +So it happened that one day, when she had been absent longer than +usual, I took my courage in my hand and went to meet her as far as the +stream which ran through the bottom by the redthorn. Here, at a place +where there were three stepping-stones, I waited for her; first taking +away the stepping-stones, that she might have to pause, and, being at +a loss, might be glad to see me. + +She came presently, tripping through an alley in the low wood, with +her eyes on the ground, and her whole carriage full of a sweet +pensiveness which it did me good to see. I turned my back on the +stream before she saw me, and made a pretence of being taken up with +something in another direction. Doubtless she espied me soon, and +before she came very near; but she made no sign until she reached the +brink, and found the stepping-stones were gone. + +Then, whether she suspected me or not, she called out to me, not once, +but several times. For, partly to tantalise her, as lovers will, and +partly because it charmed me to hear her use my name, I would not turn +at once. + +When I did, and discovered her standing with one small foot dallying +with the water, I cried out with well-affected concern; and in a great +hurry ran towards her, paying no attention to her chiding or the +pettish haughtiness with which she spoke to me. + +'The stepping-stones are all on your side,' she said imperiously. 'Who +has moved them?' + +I looked about without answering, and at last pretended to find them; +while she stood watching me, tapping the ground with one foot the +while. Despite her impatience, the stone which was nearest to her I +took care to bring last--that she might not cross without my +assistance. But after all she stepped over so lightly and quickly that +the hand she placed in mine seemed scarcely to rest there a second. +Yet when she was over I managed to retain it; nor did she resist, +though her cheek, which had been red before, turned crimson and her +eyes fell, and bound to me by the link of her little hand, she stood +beside me with her whole figure drooping. + +'Mademoiselle,' I said gravely, summoning all my resolution to my aid, +'do you know of what that stream with its stepping-stones reminds me?' + +She shook her head but did not answer. + +'Of the stream which has flowed between us from the day when I first +saw you at St. Jean,' I said in a low voice. 'It has flowed between +us, and it still does--separating us.' + +'What stream?' she murmured, with her eyes cast down, and her foot +playing with the moss. 'You speak in riddles, sir.' + +'You understand this one only too well, mademoiselle,' I answered. +'Are you not young and gay and beautiful, while I am old, or almost +old, and dull and grave? You are rich and well-thought-of at Court, +and I a soldier of fortune, not too successful. What did you think of +me when you first saw me at St. Jean? What when I came to Rosny? That, +mademoiselle,' I continued with fervour, 'is the stream which flows +between us and separates us; and I know of but one stepping-stone that +can bridge it.' + +She looked aside, toying with a piece of thorn-blossom she had picked. +It was not redder than her cheeks. + +'That one stepping-stone,' I said, after waiting vainly for any word +or sign from her, 'is Love. Many weeks ago, mademoiselle, when I had +little cause to like you, I loved you; I loved you whether I would or +not, and without thought or hope of return. I should have been mad had +I spoken to you then. Mad, and worse than mad. But now, now that I owe +you my life, now that I have drunk from your hand in fever, and, +awaking early and late, have found you by my pillow--now that, seeing +you come in and out in the midst of fear and hardship, I have learned +to regard you as a woman kind and gentle as my mother--now that I love +you, so that to be with you is joy, and away from you grief, is it +presumption in me now, mademoiselle, to think that that stream may be +bridged?' + +I stopped, out of breath, and saw that she was trembling. But she +spoke presently. 'You said one stepping-stone?' she murmured. + +'Yes,' I answered hoarsely, trying in vain to look at her face, which +she kept averted from me. + +'There should be two,' she said, almost in a whisper. 'Your love, sir, +and--and mine. You have said much of the one, and nothing of the +other. In that you are wrong, for I am proud still. And I would not +cross the stream you speak of for any love of yours!' + +'Ah!' I cried in sharpest pain. + +'But,' she continued, looking up at me on a sudden with eyes that told +me all, 'because I love you I am willing to cross it--to cross it once +for ever, and live beyond it all my life--if I may live my life with +you.' + +I fell on my knee and kissed her hand again and again in a rapture of +joy and gratitude. By-and-by she pulled it from me. 'If you will, +sir,' she said, 'you may kiss my lips. If you do not, no man ever +will.' + +After that, as may be guessed, we walked every day in the forest, +making longer and longer excursions as my strength came back to me, +and the nearer parts grew familiar. From early dawn, when I brought my +love a posy of flowers, to late evening, when Fanchette hurried her +from me, our days were passed in a long round of delight; being filled +full of all beautiful things--love, and sunshine, and rippling +streams, and green banks, on which we sat together under scented +limes, telling one another all we had ever thought, and especially all +we had ever thought of one another. Sometimes--when the light was low +in the evening--we spoke of my mother; and once--but that was in the +sunshine, when the bees were humming and my blood had begun to run +strongly in my veins--I spoke of my great and distant kinsman, Rohan. +But mademoiselle would hear nothing of him, murmuring again and again +in my ear, 'I have crossed, my love, I have crossed.' + +Truly the sands of that hour-glass were of gold. But in time they ran +out. First M. Francois, spurred by the restlessness of youth, and +convinced that madame would for a while yield no farther, left us, and +went back to the world. Then news came of great events that could not +fail to move us. The King of France and the King of Navarre had met at +Tours, and embracing in the sight of an immense multitude, had +repulsed the League with slaughter in the suburb of St. Symphorien. +Fast on this followed the tidings of their march northwards with an +overwhelming army of fifty-thousand men of both religions, bent, +rumour had it, on the signal punishment of Paris. + +I grew--shame that I should say it--to think more and more of these +things; until mademoiselle, reading the signs, told me one day that we +must go. 'Though never again,' she added with a sigh, 'shall we be so +happy.' + +'Then why go?' I asked foolishly. + +'Because you are a man,' she answered with a wise smile, 'as I would +have you be, and you need something besides love. To-morrow we will +go.' + +'Whither?' I said in amazement. + +'To the camp before Paris,' she answered. 'We will go back in the +light of day--seeing that we have done nothing of which to be +ashamed--and throw ourselves on the justice of the King of Navarre. +You shall place me with Madame Catherine, who will not refuse to +protect me; and so, sweet, you will have only yourself to think of. +Come, sir,' she continued, laying her little hand in mine, and looking +into my eyes, 'you are not afraid?' + +'I am more afraid than ever I used to be,' I said trembling. + +'So I would have it,' she whispered, hiding her face on my shoulder. +'Nevertheless we will go.' + +And go we did. The audacity of such a return in the face of Turenne, +who was doubtless in the King of Navarre's suite, almost took my +breath away; nevertheless, I saw that it possessed one advantage which +no other course promised--that, I mean, of setting us right in the +eyes of the world, and enabling me to meet in a straightforward manner +such as maligned us. After some consideration I gave my assent, merely +conditioning that until we reached the Court we should ride masked, +and shun as far as possible encounters by the road. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXII. + + A TAVERN BRAWL. + + +On the following day, accordingly, we started. But the news of the two +kings' successes, and particularly the certainty which these had bred +in many minds that nothing short of a miracle could save Paris, had +moved so many gentlemen to take the road that we found the inns +crowded beyond example, and were frequently forced into meetings which +made the task of concealing our identity more difficult and hazardous +than I had expected. Sometimes shelter was not to be obtained on any +terms, and then we had to lie in the fields or in any convenient shed. +Moreover, the passage of the army had swept the country so bare both +of food and forage, that these commanded astonishing prices; and a +long day's ride more than once brought us to our destination without +securing for us the ample meal we had earned, and required. + +Under these circumstances, it was with joy little short of transport +that I recognised the marvellous change which had come over my +mistress. Bearing all without a murmur, or a frown, or so much as one +complaining word, she acted on numberless occasions so as to convince +me that she spoke truly--albeit I scarcely dared to believe it--when +she said that she had but one trouble in the world, and that was the +prospect of our coming separation. + +For my part, and despite some gloomy moments, when fear of the future +overcame me, I rode in Paradise riding by my mistress. It was her +presence which glorified alike the first freshness of the morning, +when we started with all the day before us, and the coolness of the +late evening, when we rode hand-in-hand. Nor could I believe without +an effort that I was the same Gaston de Marsac whom she had once +spurned and disdained. God knows I was thankful for her love. A +thousand times, thinking of my grey hairs, I asked her if she did not +repent; and a thousand times she answered No, with so much happiness +in her eyes that I was fain to thank God again and believe her. + +Notwithstanding the inconvenience of the practice, we made it a rule +to wear our masks whenever we appeared in public; and this rule we +kept more strictly as we approached Paris. It exposed us to some +comment and more curiosity, but led to no serious trouble until we +reached Etampes, twelve leagues from the capital; where we found the +principal inn so noisy and crowded, and so much disturbed by the +constant coming and going of couriers, that it required no experience +to predicate the neighbourhood of the army. The great courtyard seemed +to be choked with a confused mass of men and horses, through which we +made our way with difficulty. The windows of the house were all open, +and offered us a view of tables surrounded by men eating and drinking +hastily, as the manner of travellers is. The gateway and the steps of +the house were lined with troopers and servants and sturdy rogues; who +scanned all who passed in or out, and not unfrequently followed them +with ribald jests and nicknames. Songs and oaths, brawling and +laughter, with the neighing of horses and the huzzas of the beggars, +who shouted whenever a fresh party arrived, rose above all, and +increased the reluctance with which I assisted madame and mademoiselle +to dismount. + +Simon was no match for such an occasion as this; but the stalwart +aspect of the three men whom Maignan had left with me commanded +respect, and attended by two of these I made a way for the ladies--not +without some opposition and a few oaths--to enter the house. The +landlord, whom we found crushed into a corner inside, and entirely +overborne by the crowd which had invaded his dwelling, assured me that +he had not the smallest garret he could place at my disposal; but I +presently succeeded in finding a small room at the top, which I +purchased from the four men who had taken possession of it. As it was +impossible to get anything to eat there, I left a man on guard, and +myself descended with madame and mademoiselle to the eating-room, a +large chamber set with long boards, and filled with a rough and noisy +crew. Under a running fire of observations we entered, and found with +difficulty three seats in an inner corner of the room. + +I ran my eye over the company, and noticed among them, besides a dozen +travelling parties like our own, specimens of all those classes which +are to be found in the rear of an army. There were some officers and +more horse-dealers; half a dozen forage-agents and a few priests; with +a large sprinkling of adventurers, bravos, and led-captains, and here +and there two or three whose dress and the deference paid to them by +their neighbours seemed to indicate a higher rank. Conspicuous among +these last were a party of four who occupied a small table by the +door. An attempt had been made to secure some degree of privacy for +them by interposing a settle between them and the room; and their +attendants, who seemed to be numerous, did what they could to add to +this by filling the gap with their persons. One of the four, a man of +handsome dress and bearing, who sat in the place of honour, was +masked, as we were. The gentleman at his right hand I could not see. +The others, whom I could see, were strangers to me. + +Some time elapsed before our people succeeded in procuring us any +food, and during the interval we were exposed to an amount of comment +on the part of those round us which I found very little to my liking. +There were not half a dozen women present, and this and our masks +rendered my companions unpleasantly conspicuous. Aware, however, of +the importance of avoiding an altercation which might possibly detain +us, and would be certain to add to our notoriety, I remained quiet; +and presently the entrance of a tall, dark-complexioned man, who +carried himself with a peculiar swagger, and seemed to be famous for +something or other, diverted the attention of the company from us. + +The new-comer was somewhat of Maignan's figure. He wore a back and +breast over a green doublet, and had an orange feather in his cap and +an orange-lined cloak on his shoulder. On entering he stood a moment +in the doorway, letting his bold black eyes rove round the room, the +while he talked in a loud braggart fashion to his companions. There +was a lack of breeding in the man's air, and something offensive in +his look; which I noticed produced wherever it rested a momentary +silence and constraint. When he moved farther into the room I saw that +he wore a very long sword, the point of which trailed a foot behind +him. + +He chose out for his first attentions the party of four whom I have +mentioned; going up to them and accosting them with a ruffling air, +directed especially to the gentleman in the mask. The latter lifted +his head haughtily on finding himself addressed by a stranger, but did +not offer to answer. Someone else did, however, for a sudden bellow +like that of an enraged bull proceeded from behind the settle. The +words were lost in noise, the unseen speaker's anger seeming so +overpowering that he could not articulate; but the tone and voice, +which were in some way familiar to me, proved enough for the bully, +who, covering his retreat with a profound bow, backed out rapidly, +muttering what was doubtless an apology. Cocking his hat more fiercely +to make up for this repulse, he next proceeded to patrol the room, +scowling from side to side as he went, with the evident intention of +picking a quarrel with someone less formidable. + +By ill-chance his eye lit, as he turned, on our masks. He said +something to his companions; and encouraged, no doubt, by the position +of our seats at the board, which led him to think us people of small +consequence, he came to a stop opposite us. + +'What! more dukes here?' he cried scoffingly. 'Hallo, you sir!' he +continued to me, 'will you not unmask and drink a glass with me?' + +I thanked him civilly, but declined. + +His insolent eyes were busy, while I spoke, with madame's fair hair +and handsome figure, which her mask failed to hide. 'Perhaps the +ladies will have better taste, sir,' he said rudely. 'Will they not +honour us with a sight of their pretty faces?' + +Knowing the importance of keeping my temper I put constraint on +myself, and answered, still with civility, that they were greatly +fatigued and were about to retire. + +'Zounds!' he cried, 'that is not to be borne. If we are to lose them +so soon, the more reason we should enjoy their _beaux yeux_ while we +can. A short life and a merry one, sir. This is not a nunnery, nor, I +dare swear, are your fair friends nuns.' + +Though I longed to chastise him for this insult, I feigned deafness, +and went on with my meal as if I had not heard him; and the table +being between us prevented him going beyond words. After he had +uttered one or two coarse jests of a similar character, which cost us +less as we were masked, and our emotions could only be guessed, the +crowd about us, seeing I took the thing quietly, began to applaud him; +but more as it seemed to me out of fear than love. In this opinion I +was presently confirmed on hearing from Simon--who whispered the +information in my ear as he handed a dish--that the fellow was an +Italian captain in the king's pay, famous for his skill with the sword +and the many duels in which he had displayed it. + +Mademoiselle, though she did not know this, bore with his insolence +with a patience which astonished me; while madame appeared unconscious +of it. Nevertheless, I was glad when he retired and left us in peace. +I seized the moment of his absence to escort the ladies through the +room and upstairs to their apartment, the door of which I saw locked +and secured. That done I breathed more freely; and feeling thankful +that I had been able to keep my temper, took the episode to be at an +end. + +But in this I was mistaken, as I found when I returned to the room in +which we had supped, my intention being to go through it to the +stables. I had not taken two paces across the floor before I found my +road blocked by the Italian, and read alike in his eyes and in the +faces of the company--of whom many hastened to climb the tables to see +what passed--that the meeting was premeditated. The man's face was +flushed with wine; proud of his many victories, he eyed me with a +boastful contempt my patience had perhaps given him the right to feel. + +'Ha! well met, sir,' he said, sweeping the floor with his cap in an +exaggeration of respect, 'now, perhaps, your high-mightiness will +condescend to unmask? The table is no longer between us, nor are your +fair friends here to protect their _cher ami!_' + +'If I still refuse, sir,' I said civilly, wavering between anger and +prudence, and hoping still to avoid a quarrel which might endanger us +all, 'be good enough to attribute it to private motives, and to no +desire to disoblige you.' + +'No, I do not think you wish to disoblige me,' he answered, laughing +scornfully--and a dozen voices echoed the gibe. 'But for your private +motives, the devil take them! Is that plain enough, sir?' + +'It is plain enough to show me that you are an ill-bred man!' I +answered, choler getting the better of me. 'Let me pass, sir.' + +'Unmask!' he retorted, moving so as still to detain me, 'or shall I +call in the grooms to perform the office for you?' + +Seeing at last that all my attempts to evade the man only fed his +vanity, and encouraged him to further excesses, and that the motley +crowd, who filled the room and already formed a circle round us, had +made up their minds to see sport, I would no longer balk them; I could +no longer do it, indeed, with honour. I looked round, therefore, for +someone whom I might enlist as my second, but I saw no one with whom I +had the least acquaintance. The room was lined from table to ceiling +with mocking faces and scornful eyes all turned to me. + +My opponent saw the look, and misread it; being much accustomed, I +imagine, to a one-sided battle. He laughed contemptuously. 'No, my +friend, there is no way out of it,' he said. 'Let me see your pretty +face, or fight.' + +'So be it,' I said quietly. 'If I have no other choice, I will fight.' + +'In your mask?' he cried incredulously. + +'Yes,' I said sternly, feeling every nerve tingle with long-suppressed +rage. 'I will fight as I am. Off with your back and breast, if you are +a man. And I will so deal with you that if you see to-morrow's sun you +shall need a mask for the rest of your days!' + +'Ho! ho!' he answered, scowling at me in surprise, 'you sing in a +different key now. But I will put a term to it. There is space enough +between these tables, if you can use your weapon; and much more than +you will need tomorrow.' + +'To-morrow will show,' I retorted. + +Without more ado he unfastened the buckles of his breast-piece, and +relieving himself of it, stepped back a pace. Those of the bystanders +who occupied the part of the room he indicated--a space bounded by +four tables, and not unfit for the purpose, though somewhat +confined--hastened to get out of it, and seize instead upon +neighbouring posts of 'vantage. The man's reputation was such, and his +fame so great, that on all sides I heard naught but wagers offered +against me at odds; but this circumstance, which might have flurried a +younger man and numbed his arm, served only to set me on making the +most of such openings as the fellow's presumption and certainty of +success would be sure to afford. + +The news of the challenge running through the house had brought +together by this time so many people as to fill the room from end to +end, and even to obscure the light, which was beginning to wane. At +the last moment, when we were on the point of engaging, a slight +commotion marked the admission to the front of three or four persons, +whose consequence or attendants gained them this advantage. I believed +them to be the party of four I have mentioned, but at the time I could +not be certain. + +In the few seconds of waiting while this went forward I examined +our relative positions with the fullest intention of killing the +man--whose glittering eyes and fierce smile filled me with a loathing +which was very nearly hatred--if I could. The line of windows lay to +my right and his left. The evening light fell across us, whitening the +row of faces on my left, but leaving those on my right in shadow. It +occurred to me on the instant that my mask was actually an advantage, +seeing that it protected my sight from the side-light, and enabled me +to watch his eyes and point with more concentration. + +'You will be the twenty-third man I have killed!' he said boastfully, +as we crossed swords and stood an instant on guard. + +'Take care!' I answered. 'You have twenty-three against you!' + +A swift lunge was his only answer. I parried it, and thrust, and we +fell to work. We had not exchanged half a dozen blows, however, before +I saw that I should need all the advantage which my mask and greater +caution gave me. I had met my match, and it might be something more; +but that for a time it was impossible to tell. He had the longer +weapon, and I the longer reach. He preferred the point, after the new +Italian fashion, and I the blade. He was somewhat flushed with wine, +while my arm had scarcely recovered the strength of which illness had +deprived me. On the other hand, excited at the first by the cries of +his backers, he played rather wildly; while I held myself prepared, +and keeping up a strong guard, waited cautiously for any opening or +mistake on his part. + +The crowd round us, which had hailed our first passes with noisy cries +of derision and triumph, fell silent after a while, surprised and +taken aback by their champion's failure to spit me at the first +onslaught. My reluctance to engage had led them to predict a short +fight and an easy victory. + +Convinced of the contrary, they began to watch each stroke with bated +breath; or now and again, muttering the name of Jarnac, broke into +brief exclamations as a blow more savage than usual drew sparks from +our blades, and made the rafters ring with the harsh grinding of steel +on steel. + +The surprise of the crowd, however, was a small thing compared with +that of my adversary. Impatience, disgust, rage, and doubt chased one +another in turn across his flushed features. Apprised that he had to +do with a swordsman, he put forth all his power. With spite in his +eyes he laboured blow on blow, he tried one form of attack after +another, he found me equal, if barely equal, to all. And then at last +there came a change. The perspiration gathered on his brow, the +silence disconcerted him; he felt his strength failing under the +strain, and suddenly, I think, the possibility of defeat and death, +unthought of before, burst upon him. I heard him groan, and for a +moment he fenced wildly. Then he again recovered himself. But now I +read terror in his eyes, and knew that the moment of retribution was +at hand. With his back to the table, and my point threatening his +breast, he knew at last what those others had felt! + +He would fain have stopped to breathe, but I would not let him though +my blows also were growing feeble, and my guard weaker; for I knew +that if I gave him time to recover himself he would have recourse to +other tricks, and might out-man[oe]uvre me in the end. As it was, my +black unchanging mask, which always confronted him, which hid all +emotions and veiled even fatigue, had grown to be full of terror to +him--full of blank, passionless menace. He could not tell how I fared, +or what I thought, or how my strength stood. A superstitious dread was +on him, and threatened to overpower him. Ignorant who I was or whence +I came, he feared and doubted, grappling with monstrous suspicions, +which the fading light encouraged. His face broke out in blotches, his +breath came and went in gasps, his eyes began to protrude. Once or +twice they quitted mine for a part of a second to steal a despairing +glance at the rows of onlookers that ran to right and left of us. But +he read no pity there. + +At last the end came--more suddenly than I had looked for it, but I +think he was unnerved. His hand lost its grip of the hilt, and a parry +which I dealt a little more briskly than usual sent the weapon flying +among the crowd, as much to my astonishment as to that of the +spectators. A volley of oaths and exclamations hailed the event; and +for a moment I stood at gaze, eyeing him watchfully. He shrank back; +then he made for a moment as if he would fling himself upon me dagger +in hand. But seeing my point steady, he recoiled a second time, his +face distorted with rage and fear. + +'Go!' I said sternly. 'Begone! Follow your sword! But spare the next +man you conquer.' + +He stared at me, fingering his dagger as if he did not understand, or +as if in the bitterness of his shame at being so defeated even life +were unwelcome. I was about to repeat my words when a heavy hand fell +on my shoulder. + +'Fool!' a harsh growling voice muttered in my ear. 'Do you want him to +serve you as Achon served Matas? This is the way to deal with him.' + +And before I knew who spoke or what to expect a man vaulted over the +table beside me. Seizing the Italian by the neck and waist, he flung +him bodily--without paying the least regard to his dagger--into the +crowd. 'There!' the new-comer cried, stretching his arms as if the +effort had relieved him, 'so much for him! And do you breathe +yourself. Breathe yourself, my friend,' he continued with a +vain-glorious air of generosity. 'When you are rested and ready, you +and I will have a bout. Mon dieu! what a thing it is to see a man! And +by my faith you are a man!' + +'But, sir,' I said, staring at him in the utmost bewilderment, 'we +have no quarrel.' + +'Quarrel?' he cried in his loud, ringing voice. 'Heaven forbid! Why +should we? I love a man, however, and when I see one I say to him, "I +am Crillon! Fight me!" But I see you are not yet rested. Patience! +There is no hurry. Berthon de Crillon is proud to wait your +convenience. In the meantime, gentlemen,' he continued, turning with a +grand air to the spectators, who viewed this sudden _bouleversement_ +with unbounded surprise, 'let us do what we can. Take the word from +me, and cry all, "_Vive le Roi, et vive l'Inconnu!_" + +Like people awaking from a dream--so great was their astonishment--the +company complied and with the utmost heartiness. When the shout died +away, someone cried in turn, 'Vive Crillon!' and this was honoured +with a fervour which brought the tears to the eyes of that remarkable +man, in whom bombast was so strangely combined with the firmest and +most reckless courage. He bowed again and again, turning himself about +in the small space between the tables, while his face shone with +pleasure and enthusiasm. Meanwhile I viewed him with perplexity. I +comprehended that it was his voice I had heard behind the settle; but +I had neither the desire to fight him nor so great a reserve of +strength after my illness as to be able to enter on a fresh contest +with equanimity. When he turned to me, therefore, and again asked, +'Well, sir, are you ready?' I could think of no better answer than +that I had already made to him, 'But, sir, I have no quarrel with +you.' + +'Tut, tut!' he answered querulously, 'if that is all, let us engage.' + +'That is not all, however,' I said, resolutely putting up my sword. 'I +have not only no quarrel with M. de Crillon, but I received at his +hands when I last saw him a considerable service.' + +'Then now is the time to return it,' he answered briskly, and as if +that settled the matter. + +I could not refrain from laughing. 'Nay, but I have still an excuse,' +I said. 'I am barely recovered from an illness, and am weak. Even so, +I should be loth to decline a combat with some; but a better man than +I may give the wall to M. de Crillon and suffer no disgrace.' + +'Oh, if you put it that way--enough said,' he answered in a tone of +disappointment. 'And, to be sure, the light is almost gone. That is a +comfort. But you will not refuse to drink a cup of wine with me? Your +voice I remember, though I cannot say who you are or what service I +did you. For the future, however, count on me. I love a man who is +brave as well as modest, and know no better friend than a stout +swordsman.' + +I was answering him in fitting terms--while the fickle crowd, which a +few minutes earlier had been ready to tear me, viewed us from a +distance with respectful homage--when the masked gentleman who had +before been in his company drew near and saluted me with much +stateliness. + +'I congratulate you, sir,' he said, in the easy tone of a great man +condescending. 'You use the sword as few use it, and fight with your +head as well as your hands. Should you need a friend or employment, +you will honour me by remembering that you are known to the Vicomte de +Turenne.' + +I bowed low to hide the start which the mention of his name caused me. +For had I tried, ay, and possessed to aid me all the wit of M. de +Brantome, I could have imagined nothing more fantastic than this +meeting; or more entertaining than that I, masked, should talk with +the Vicomte de Turenne masked, and hear in place of reproaches and +threats of vengeance a civil offer of protection. Scarcely knowing +whether I should laugh or tremble, or which should occupy me more, the +diverting thing that had happened or the peril we had barely escaped, +I made shift to answer him, craving his indulgence if I still +preserved my incognito. Even while I spoke a fresh fear assailed me: +lest M. de Crillon, recognising my voice or figure, should cry my name +on the spot, and explode in a moment the mine on which we stood. + +This rendered me extremely impatient to be gone. But M. le Vicomte had +still something to say, and I could not withdraw myself without +rudeness. + +'You are travelling north like everyone else?' he said, gazing at me +curiously. 'May I ask whether you are for Meudon, where the King of +Navarre lies, or for the Court at St. Cloud?' + +I muttered, moving restlessly under his keen eyes, that I was for +Meudon. + +'Then, if you care to travel with a larger company,' he rejoined, +bowing with negligent courtesy, 'pray command me. I am for Meudon +also, and shall leave here three hours before noon.' + +Fortunately he took my assent to his gracious invitation for granted, +and turned away before I had well begun to thank him. From Crillon I +found it more difficult to escape. He appeared to have conceived a +great fancy for me, and felt also, I imagine, some curiosity as to my +identity. But I did even this at last, and, evading the obsequious +offers which were made me on all sides, escaped to the stables, where +I sought out the Cid's stall, and lying down in the straw beside him, +began to review the past, and plan the future. Under cover of the +darkness sleep soon came to me; my last waking thoughts being divided +between thankfulness for my escape and a steady purpose to reach +Meudon before the Vicomte, so that I might make good my tale in his +absence. For that seemed to be my only chance of evading the dangers I +had chosen to encounter. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXIII. + + AT MEUDON. + + +Making so early a start from Etampes that the inn, which had continued +in an uproar till long after midnight, lay sunk in sleep when we rode +out of the yard, we reached Meudon about noon next day. I should be +tedious were I to detail what thoughts my mistress and I had during +that day's journey--the last, it might be, which we should take +together; or what assurances we gave one another, or how often we +repented the impatience which had impelled us to put all to the touch. +Madame, with kindly forethought, detached herself from us, and rode +the greater part of the distance with Fanchette; but the opportunities +she gave us went for little; for, to be plain, the separation we +dreaded seemed to overshadow us already. We uttered few words, though +those few were to the purpose, but riding hand-in-hand, with full +hearts, and eyes which seldom quitted one another, looked forward to +Meudon and its perils with such gloomy forebodings as our love and my +precarious position suggested. + +Long before we reached the town, or could see more of it than +the Chateau, over which the Lilies of France and the broad white +banner of the Bourbons floated in company, we found ourselves swept +into the whirlpool which surrounds an army. Crowds stood at all the +cross-roads, wagons and sumpter-mules encumbered the bridges; each +moment a horseman passed us at a gallop, or a troop of disorderly +rogues, soldiers only in name, reeled, shouting and singing, along the +road. Here and there, for a warning to the latter sort, a man dangled +on a rude gallows; under which sportsmen returning from the chase and +ladies who had been for an airing rode laughing on their way. + +Amid the multitude entering the town we passed unnoticed. A little way +within the walls we halted to inquire where the Princess of Navarre +had her lodging. Hearing that she occupied a house in the town, while +her brother had his quarters in the Chateau, and the King of France at +St. Cloud, I stayed my party in a by-road, a hundred paces farther on, +and, springing from the Cid, went to my mistress's knee. + +'Mademoiselle,' I said formally, and so loudly that all my men might +hear, 'the time is come. I dare not go farther with you. I beg you, +therefore, to bear me witness that as I took you so I have brought you +back, and both with your good-will. I beg that you will give me this +quittance, for it may serve me.' + +She bowed her head and laid her ungloved hand on mine, which I had +placed on the pommel of her saddle. 'Sir,' she answered in a broken +voice, 'I will not give you this quittance, nor any quittance from me +while I live.' With that she took off her mask before them all, and I +saw the tears running down her white face. 'May God protect you, M. de +Marsac,' she continued, stooping until her face almost touched mine, +'and bring you to the thing you desire. If not, sir, and you pay too +dearly for what you have done for me, I will live a maiden all my +days. And, if I do not, these men may shame me!' + +My heart was too full for words, but I took the glove she held out to +me, and kissed her hand with my knee bent. Then I waved--for I could +not speak--to madame to proceed; and with Simon Fleix and Maignan's +men to guard them they went on their way. Mademoiselle's white face +looked back to me until a bend in the road hid them, and I saw them no +more. + +I turned when all were gone, and going heavily to where my Sard +stood with his head drooping, I climbed to the saddle, and rode at a +foot-pace towards the Chateau. The way was short and easy, for the +next turning showed me the open gateway and a crowd about it. A vast +number of people were entering and leaving, while others rested in the +shade of the wall, and a dozen grooms led horses up and down. The +sunshine fell hotly on the road and the courtyard, and flashed back by +the cuirasses of the men on guard, seized the eye and dazzled it with +gleams of infinite brightness. I was advancing alone, gazing at all +this with a species of dull indifference which masked for the moment +the suspense I felt at heart, when a man, coming on foot along the +street, crossed quickly to me and looked me in the face. + +I returned his look, and seeing he was a stranger to me, was for +passing on without pausing. But he wheeled beside me and uttered my +name in a low voice. + +I checked the Cid and looked down at him. 'Yes,' I said mechanically, +'I am M. de Marsac. But I do not know you.' + +'Nevertheless I have been watching for you for three days,' he +replied. 'M. de Rosny received your message. This is for you.' + +He handed me a scrap of paper. 'From whom?' I asked. + +'Maignan,' he answered briefly. And with that, and a stealthy look +round, he left me, and went the way he had been going before. + +I tore open the note, and knowing that Maignan could not write, was +not surprised to find that it lacked any signature. The brevity of its +contents vied with the curtness of its bearer. 'In Heaven's name go +back and wait,' it ran. 'Your enemy is here, and those who wish you +well are powerless.' + +A warning so explicit, and delivered under such circumstances, might +have been expected to make me pause even then. But I read the message +with the same dull indifference, the same dogged resolve with which +the sight of the crowded gateway before me had inspired me. I had not +come so far and baffled Turenne by an hour to fail in my purpose at +the last; nor given such pledges to another to prove false to myself. +Moreover, the distant rattle of musketry, which went to show that a +skirmish was taking place on the farther side of the Castle, seemed an +invitation to me to proceed; for now, if ever, my sword might earn +protection and a pardon. Only in regard to M. de Rosny, from whom I +had no doubt that the message came, I resolved to act with prudence; +neither making any appeal to him in public nor mentioning his name to +others in private. + +The Cid had borne me by this time into the middle of the throng about +the gateway, who, wondering to see a stranger of my appearance arrive +without attendants, eyed me with a mixture of civility and +forwardness. I recognised more than one man whom I had seen about the +Court at St. Jean d'Angely six months before; but so great is the +disguising power of handsome clothes and equipments that none of these +knew me. I beckoned to the nearest, and asked him if the King of +Navarre was in the Chateau. + +'He has gone to see the King of France at St. Cloud,' the man +answered, with something of wonder that anyone should be ignorant of +so important a fact. 'He is expected here in an hour.' + +I thanked him, and calculating that I should still have time and to +spare before the arrival of M. de Turenne, I dismounted, and taking +the rein over my arm, began to walk up and down in the shade of the +wall. Meanwhile the loiterers increased in numbers as the minutes +passed. Men of better standing rode up, and, leaving their horses in +charge of their lackeys, went into the Chateau. Officers in shining +corslets, or with boots and scabbards dulled with dust, arrived and +clattered in through the gates. A messenger galloped up with letters, +and was instantly surrounded by a curious throng of questioners; who +left him only to gather about the next comers, a knot of townsfolk, +whose downcast visages and glances of apprehension seemed to betoken +no pleasant or easy mission. + +Watching many of these enter and disappear, while only the humbler +sort remained to swell the crowd at the gate, I began to experience +the discomfort and impatience which are the lot of the man who finds +himself placed in a false position. I foresaw with clearness the +injury I was about to do my cause by presenting myself to the king +among the common herd; and yet I had no choice save to do this, for I +dared not run the risk of entering, lest I should be required to give +my name, and fail to see the King of Navarre at all. + +As it was I came very near to being foiled in this way; for I +presently recognised, and was recognised in turn, by a gentleman who +rode up to the gates and, throwing his reins to a groom, dismounted +with an air of immense gravity. This was M. Forget, the king's +secretary, and the person to whom I had on a former occasion presented +a petition. He looked at me with eyes of profound astonishment, and +saluting me stiffly from a distance, seemed in two minds whether he +should pass in or speak to me. On second thoughts, however, he came +towards me, and again saluted me with a peculiarly dry and austere +aspect. + +'I believe, sir, I am speaking to M. de Marsac?' he said in a low +voice, but not impolitely. + +I replied in the affirmative. + +'And that, I conclude, is your horse?' he continued, raising his cane, +and pointing to the Cid, which I had fastened to a hook in the wall. + +I replied again in the affirmative. + +'Then take a word of advice,' he answered, screwing up his features, +and speaking in a dry sort of way. 'Get upon its back without an +instant's delay, and put as many leagues between yourself and Meudon +as horse and man may.' + +'I am obliged to you,' I said, though I was greatly startled by his +words. 'And what if I do not take your advice?' + +He shrugged his shoulders. 'In that case look to yourself!' he +retorted. 'But you will look in vain!' + +He turned on his heel as he spoke, and in a moment was gone. I watched +him enter the Chateau, and in the uncertainty which possessed me +whether he was not gone--after salving his conscience by giving me +warning--to order my instant arrest, I felt, and I doubt not I looked, +as ill at ease for the time being as the group of trembling townsfolk +who stood near me. Reflecting that he should know his master's mind, I +recalled with depressing clearness the repeated warnings the King of +Navarre had given me that I must not look to him for reward or +protection. I bethought me that I was here against his express orders: +presuming on those very services which he had given me notice he +should repudiate. I remembered that Rosny had always been in the same +tale. And in fine I began to see that mademoiselle and I had together +decided on a step which I should never have presumed to take on my own +motion. + +I had barely arrived at this conclusion when the trampling of hoofs +and a sudden closing in of the crowd round the gate announced the King +of Navarre's approach. With a sick heart I drew nearer, feeling that +the crisis was at hand; and in a moment he came in sight, riding +beside an elderly man, plainly dressed and mounted, with whom he was +carrying on an earnest conversation. A train of nobles and gentlemen, +whose martial air and equipments made up for the absence of the +gewgaws and glitter, to which my eyes had become accustomed at Blois, +followed close on his heels. Henry himself wore a suit of white +velvet, frayed in places and soiled by his armour; but his quick eye +and eager, almost fierce, countenance could not fail to win and keep +the attention of the least observant. He kept glancing from side to +side as he came on; and that with so cheerful an air and a carriage so +full at once of dignity and good-humour that no one could look on him +and fail to see that here was a leader and a prince of men, temperate +in victory and unsurpassed in defeat. + +The crowd raising a cry of '_Vive Navarre!_' as he drew near, he +bowed, with a sparkle in his eye. But when a few by the gate cried +'_Vivent les Rois!_' he held up his hand for silence, and said in a +loud, clear voice, 'Not that, my friends. There is but one king in +France. Let us say instead, "Vive le Roi!"' + +The spokesman of the little group of townsfolk, who, I learned, were +from Arcueil, and had come to complain of the excessive number of +troops quartered upon them, took advantage of the pause to approach +him. Henry received the old man with a kindly look, and bent from his +saddle to hear what he had to say. While they were talking I pressed +forward, the emotion I felt on my own account heightened by my +recognition of the man who rode by the King of Navarre--who was no +other than M. de la Nouee. No Huguenot worthy of the name could look on +the veteran who had done and suffered more for the cause than any +living man without catching something of his stern enthusiasm; and the +sight, while it shamed me, who a moment before had been inclined to +prefer my safety to the assistance I owed my country, gave me courage +to step to the king's rein, so that I heard his last words to the men +of Arcueil. + +'Patience, my friends,' he said kindly. 'The burden is heavy, but the +journey is a short one. The Seine is ours; the circle is complete. In +a week Paris must surrender. The king, my cousin, will enter, and you +will be rid of us. For France's sake one week, my friends.' + +The men fell back with low obeisances, charmed by his good-nature, and +Henry, looking up, saw me before him. On the instant his jaw fell. His +brow, suddenly contracting above eyes, which flashed with surprise and +displeasure, altered in a moment the whole aspect of his face; which +grew dark and stern as night. His first impulse was to pass by me; but +seeing that I held my ground, he hesitated, so completely chagrined by +my appearance that he did not know how to act, or in what way to deal +with me. I seized the occasion, and bending my knee with as much +respect as I had ever used to the King of France, begged to bring +myself to his notice, and to crave his protection and favour. + +'This is no time to trouble me, sir,' he retorted, eyeing me with an +angry side-glance. 'I do not know you. You are unknown to me, sir. You +must go to M. de Rosny.' + +'It would be useless sire,' I answered, in desperate persistence. + +'Then I can do nothing for you,' he rejoined peevishly. 'Stand on one +side, sir.' + +But I was desperate. I knew that I had risked all on the event, and +must establish my footing before M. de Turenne's return, or run the +risk of certain recognition and vengeance. I cried out, caring nothing +who heard, that I was M. de Marsac, that I had come back to meet +whatever my enemies could allege against me. + +'_Ventre Saint Gris!_' Henry exclaimed, starting in his saddle with +well-feigned surprise. 'Are you that man?' + +'I am, sire,' I answered. + +'Then you must be mad!' he retorted, appealing to those behind him. +'Stark, staring mad to show your face here! _Ventre Saint Gris!_ Are +we to have all the ravishers and plunderers in the country come to +us?' + +'I am neither the one nor the other!' I answered, looking with +indignation from him to the gaping train behind him. + +'That you will have to settle with M. de Turenne!' he retorted, +frowning down at me with his whole face turned gloomy and fierce. 'I +know you well, sir, now. Complaint has been made that you abducted a +lady from his Castle of Chize some time back.' + +'The lady, sire, is now in charge of the Princess of Navarre.' + +'She is?' he exclaimed, quite taken aback. + +'And if she has aught of complaint against me,' I continued with +pride, 'I will submit to whatever punishment you order or M. de +Turenne demands. But if she has no complaint to make, and vows that +she accompanied me of her own free-will and accord, and has suffered +neither wrong nor displeasure at my hands, then, sire, I claim that +this is a private matter between myself and M. de Turenne.' + +'Even so I think you will have your hands full,' he answered grimly. +At the same time he stopped by a gesture those who would have cried +out upon me, and looked at me himself with an altered countenance. 'Do +I understand that you assert that the lady went of her own accord?' he +asked. + +'She went and has returned, sire,' I answered. + +'Strange!' he ejaculated. 'Have you married her?' + +'No, sire,' I answered. 'I desire leave to do so.' + +'Mon dieu! she is M. de Turenne's ward,' he rejoined, almost +dumbfounded by my audacity. + +'I do not despair of obtaining his assent, sire,' I said patiently. + +'_Saint Gris!_ the man is mad!' he cried, wheeling his horse and +facing his train with a gesture of the utmost wonder. 'It is the +strangest story I ever heard.' + +'But somewhat more to the gentleman's credit than the lady's!' one +said with a smirk and a smile. + +'A lie!' I cried, springing forward on the instant with a boldness +which astonished myself. 'She is as pure as your Highness's sister! I +swear it. That man lies in his teeth, and I will maintain it.' + +'Sir!' the King of Navarre cried, turning on me with the utmost +sternness, 'you forget yourself in my presence! Silence, and beware +another time how you let your tongue run on those above you. You have +enough trouble, let me tell you, on your hands already.' + +'Yet the man lies!' I answered doggedly, remembering Crillon and his +ways. 'And if he will do me the honour of stepping aside with me, I +will convince him of it!' + +'_Venire Saint Gris!_' Henry replied, frowning, and dwelling on each +syllable of his favourite oath. 'Will you be silent, sir, and let me +think? Or must I order your instant arrest?' + +'Surely that at least, sire,' a suave voice interjected. And with that +a gentleman pressed forward from the rest, and gaining a place of +'vantage by the King's side, shot at me a look of extreme malevolence. +'My lord of Turenne will expect no less at your Highness's hands,' he +continued warmly. 'I beg you will give the order on the spot, and hold +this person to answer for his misdeeds. M. de Turenne returns to-day. +He should be here now. I say again, sire, he will expect no less than +this.' + +The king, gazing at me with gloomy eyes, tugged at his moustaches. +Someone had motioned the common herd to stand back out of hearing; at +the same time the suite had moved up out of curiosity and formed a +half-circle; in the midst of which I stood fronting the king, who had +La Nouee and the last speaker on either hand. Perplexity and annoyance +struggled for the mastery in his face as he looked darkly down at me, +his teeth showing through his beard. Profoundly angered by my +appearance, which he had taken at first to be the prelude to +disclosures which must detach Turenne at a time when union was +all-important, he had now ceased to fear for himself; and perhaps saw +something in the attitude I adopted which appealed to his nature and +sympathies. + +'If the girl is really back,' he said at last, 'M. d'Aremburg, I do +not see any reason why I should interfere. At present, at any rate. + +'I think, sire, M. de Turenne will see reason,' the gentleman answered +drily. + +The king coloured. 'M. de Turenne,' he began, + +'Has made many sacrifices at your request, sire,' the other said with +meaning. 'And buried some wrongs, or fancied wrongs, in connection +with this very matter. This person has outraged him in the grossest +manner, and in M. le Vicomte's name I ask, nay I press upon you, that +he be instantly arrested, and held to answer for it.' + +'I am ready to answer for it now!' I retorted, looking from face to +face for sympathy, and finding none save in M. de la Nouee's, who +appeared to regard me with grave approbation. 'To the Vicomte de +Turenne, or the person he may appoint to represent him.' + +'Enough!' Henry said, raising his hand and speaking in the tone of +authority he knew so well how to adopt. 'For you, M. d'Aremburg, I +thank you. Turenne is happy in his friend. But this gentleman came to +me of his own free will and I do not think it consistent with my +honour to detain him without warning given. I grant him an hour to +remove himself from my neighbourhood. If he be found after that time +has elapsed,' he continued solemnly, 'his fate be on his own head. +Gentlemen, we are late already. Let us on.' + +I looked at him as he pronounced this sentence, and strove to find +words in which to make a final appeal to him. But no words came; and +when he bade me stand aside, I did so mechanically, remaining with my +head bared to the sunshine while the troop rode by. Some looked back +at me with curiosity, as at a man of whom they had heard a tale, and +some with a jeer on their lips; a few with dark looks of menace. When +they were all gone, and the servants who followed them had disappeared +also, and I was left to the inquisitive glances of the rabble who +stood gaping after the sight, I turned and went to the Cid, and loosed +the horse with a feeling of bitter disappointment. + +The plan which mademoiselle had proposed and I had adopted in the +forest by St. Gaultier--when it seemed to us that our long absence and +the great events of which we heard must have changed the world and +opened a path for our return--had failed utterly. Things were as they +had been; the strong were still strong, and friendship under bond to +fear. Plainly we should have shewn ourselves wiser had we taken the +lowlier course, and, obeying the warnings given us, waited the King of +Navarre's pleasure or the tardy recollection of Rosny. I had not then +stood, as I now stood, in instant jeopardy, nor felt the keen, pangs +of a separation which bade fair to be lasting. She was safe, and that +was much; but I, after long service and brief happiness, must go out +again alone, with only memories to comfort me. + +It was Simon Fleix's voice which awakened me from this unworthy +lethargy--as selfish as it was useless--and, recalling me to myself, +reminded me that precious time was passing while I stood inactive. To +get at me he had forced his way through the curious crowd, and his +face was flushed. He plucked me by the sleeve, regarding the varlets +round him with a mixture of anger and fear. + +'Nom de Dieu! do they take you for a rope-dancer?' he muttered in my +ear. 'Mount, sir, and come. There is not a moment to be lost.' + +'You left her at Madame Catherine's?' I said. + +'To be sure,' he answered impatiently. 'Trouble not about her. Save +yourself, M. de Marsac. That is the thing to be done now.' + +I mounted mechanically, and felt my courage return as the horse moved +under me. I trotted through the crowd, and without thought took the +road by which we had come. When we had ridden a hundred yards, +however, I pulled up. 'An hour is a short start,' I said sullenly. +'Whither?' + +'To St. Cloud,' he answered promptly. 'The protection of the King of +France may avail for a day or two. After that, there will still be the +League, if Paris have not fallen.' + +I saw there was nothing else for it, and assented, and we set off. The +distance which separates Meudon from St. Cloud we might have ridden +under the hour, but the direct road runs across the Scholars' Meadow, +a wide plain north of Meudon. This lay exposed to the enemy's fire, +and was, besides, the scene of hourly conflicts between the horse of +both parties, so that to cross it without an adequate force was +impossible. Driven to make a circuit, we took longer to reach our +destination, yet did so without mishap; finding the little town, when +we came in sight of it, given up to all the bustle and commotion which +properly belong to the Court and camp. + +It was, indeed, as full as it could be, for the surrender of Paris +being momentarily expected, St. Cloud had become the rendezvous as +well of the few who had long followed a principle as of the many who +wait upon success. The streets, crowded in every part, shone with +glancing colours, with steel and velvet, the garb of fashion and the +plumes of war. Long lines of flags obscured the eaves and broke the +sunshine, while, above all, the bells of half a dozen churches rang +merry answer to the distant crash of guns. Everywhere on flag and arch +and streamer I read the motto, 'Vive le Roi!'--words written, God knew +then, and we know now, in what a mockery of doom! + + + + + CHAPTER XXXIV. + + ''TIS AN ILL WIND.' + + +We had made our way slowly and with much jostling as far as the +principal street, finding the press increase as we advanced, when I +heard, as I turned a corner, my name called, and, looking up, saw at a +window the face of which I was in search. After that half a minute +sufficed to bring M. d'Agen flying to my side, when nothing, as I had +expected, would do but I must dismount where I was and share his +lodging. He made no secret of his joy and surprise at sight of me, but +pausing only to tell Simon where the stable was, haled me through the +crowd and up his stairs with a fervour and heartiness which brought +the tears to my eyes, and served to impress the company whom I found +above with a more than sufficient sense of my importance. + +Seeing him again in the highest feather and in the full employment of +all those little arts and graces which served as a foil to his real +worth, I took it as a great honour that he laid them aside for the +nonce; and introduced me to the seat of honour and made me known to +his companions with a boyish directness and a simple thought for my +comfort which infinitely pleased me. He bade his landlord, without a +moment's delay, bring wine and meat and everything which could refresh +a traveller, and was himself up and down a hundred times in a minute, +calling to his servants for this or that, or railing at them for their +failure to bring me a score of things I did not need. I hastened to +make my excuses to the company for interrupting them in the midst of +their talk; and these they were kind enough to accept in good part. At +the same time, reading clearly in M. d'Agen's excited face and shining +eyes that he longed to be alone with me, they took the hint, and +presently left us together. + +'Well,' he said, coming back from the door, to which he had conducted +them, 'what have you to tell me, my friend? She is not with you?' + +'She is with Mademoiselle de la Vire at Meudon,' I answered, smiling. +'And for the rest, she is well and in better spirits.' + +'She sent me some message?' he asked. + +I shook my head. 'She did not know I should see you,' I answered. + +'But she--she has spoken of me lately?' he continued, his face +falling. + +'I do not think she has named your name for a fortnight,' I answered, +laughing. 'There's for you! Why, man,' I continued, adopting a +different tone, and laying my hand on his shoulder in a manner which +reassured him at least as much as my words, 'are you so young a lover +as to be ignorant that a woman says least of that of which she thinks +most? Pluck up courage! Unless I am mistaken, you have little to be +afraid of except the past. Only have patience.' + +'You think so?' he said gratefully. + +I assured him that I had no doubt of it; and on that he fell into a +reverie, and I to watching him. Alas for the littleness of our +natures! He had received me with open arms, yet at sight of the +happiness which took possession of his handsome face I gave way to the +pettiest feeling which can harbour in a man's breast. I looked at him +with eyes of envy, bitterly comparing my lot with that which fate had +reserved for him. He had fortune, good looks, and success on his side, +great relations, and high hopes; I stood in instant jeopardy, my +future dark, and every path which presented itself so hazardous that I +knew not which to adopt. He was young, and I past my prime; he in +favour, and I a fugitive. + +To such reflections he put an end in a way which made me blush for my +churlishness. For, suddenly awaking out of his pleasant dream, he +asked me about myself and my fortunes, inquiring eagerly how I came to +be in St. Cloud, and listening to the story of my adventures with a +generous anxiety which endeared him to me more and more. When I had +done--and by that time Simon had joined us, and was waiting at the +lower end of the room--he pronounced that I must see the king. + +'There is nothing else for it,' he said. + +'I have come to see him,' I answered. + +'Mon dieu, yes!' he continued, rising from his seat and looking at me +with a face of concern. 'No one else can help you.' + +I nodded. + +'Turenne has four thousand men here. You can do nothing against so +many?' + +'Nothing,' I said. 'The question is, Will the king protect me?' + +'It is he or no one,' M. d'Agen answered warmly. 'You cannot see him +to-night: he has a Council. To-morrow at daybreak you may. You must +lie here to-night, and I will set my fellows to watch, and I think you +will be safe. I will away now and see if my uncle will help. Can you +think of anyone else who would speak for you?' + +I considered, and was about to answer in the negative, when Simon, who +had listened with a scared face, suggested M. de Crillon. + +'Yes, if he would,' M. d'Agen exclaimed, looking at the lad with +approbation. 'He has weight with the king.' + +'I think he might,' I replied slowly. 'I had a curious encounter with +him last night.' And with that I told M. d'Agen of the duel I fought +at the inn. + +'Good!' he said, his eyes sparkling. 'I wish I had been there to see. +At any rate we will try him. Crillon fears no one, not even the king.' + +So it was settled. For that night I was to keep close in my friend's +lodging, showing not even my nose at the window. + +When he had gone on his errand, and I found myself alone in the room, +I am fain to confess that I fell very low in my spirits. M. d'Agen's +travelling equipment lay about the apartment, but failed to give any +but an untidy air to its roomy bareness. The light was beginning to +wane, the sun was gone. Outside, the ringing of bells and the distant +muttering of guns, with the tumult of sounds which rose from the +crowded street, seemed to tell of joyous life and freedom, and all the +hopes and ambitions from which I was cut off. + +Having no other employment, I watched the street, and keeping myself +well retired from the window, saw knots of gay riders pass this way +and that through the crowd, their corslets shining and their voices +high. Monks and ladies, a cardinal and an ambassador, passed under my +eyes--these and an endless procession of townsmen and beggars, +soldiers and courtiers, Gascons, Normans and Picards. Never had I seen +such a sight or so many people gathered together. It seemed as if half +Paris had come out to make submission, so that while my gorge rose +against my own imprisonment, the sight gradually diverted my mind from +my private distresses, by bidding me find compensation for them in the +speedy and glorious triumph of the cause. + +Even when the light failed the pageant did not cease, but, torches and +lanthorns springing into life, turned night into day. From every side +came sounds of revelry or strife. The crowd continued to perambulate +the streets until a late hour, with cries of '_Vive le Roi!_' and +'_Vive Navarre!_' while now and again the passage of a great noble +with his suite called forth a fresh outburst of enthusiasm. Nothing +seemed more certain, more inevitable, more clearly predestinated than +that twenty-four hours must see the fall of Paris. + +Yet Paris did not fall. + +When M. d'Agen returned a little before midnight, he found me still +sitting in the dark looking from the window. I heard him call roughly +for lights, and apprised by the sound of his voice that something was +wrong, I rose to meet him. He stood silent awhile, twirling his small +moustaches, and then broke into a passionate tirade, from which I was +not slow to gather that M. de Rambouillet declined to serve me. + +'Well,' I said, feeling for the young man's distress and +embarrassment, 'perhaps he is right.' + +'He says that word respecting you came this evening', my friend +answered, his cheeks red with shame, 'and that to countenance you +after that would only be to court certain humiliation. I did not let +him off too easily, I assure you,' M. d'Agen continued, turning away +to evade my gaze; 'but I got no satisfaction. He said you had his +good-will, and that to help you he would risk something, but that to +do so under these circumstances would be only to injure himself.' + +'There is still Crillon,' I said, with as much cheerfulness as I could +assume. 'Pray Heaven he be there early! Did M. de Rambouillet say +anything else?' + +'That your only chance was to fly as quickly and secretly as +possible.' + +'He thought my situation desperate, then?' + +My friend nodded; and scarcely less depressed on my account than +ashamed on his own, evinced so much feeling that it was all I could do +to comfort him; which I succeeded in doing only when I diverted the +conversation to Madame de Bruhl. We passed the short night together, +sharing the same room and the same bed, and talking more than we +slept--of madame and mademoiselle, the castle on the hill, and the +camp in the woods, of all old days in fine, but little of the future. +Soon after dawn Simon, who lay on a pallet across the threshold, +roused me from a fitful sleep into which I had just fallen, and a few +minutes later I stood up dressed and armed, ready to try the last +chance left to me. + +M. d'Agen had dressed stage for stage with me, and I had kept silence. +But when he took up his cap, and showed clearly that he had it in his +mind to go with me, I withstood him. 'No,' I said, 'you can do me +little good, and may do yourself much harm.' + +'You shall not go without one friend,' he cried fiercely. + +'Tut, tut!' I said. 'I shall have Simon.' + +But Simon, when I turned to speak to him, was gone. Few men are at +their bravest in the early hours of the day, and it did not surprise +me that the lad's courage had failed him. The defection only +strengthened, however, the resolution I had formed that I would not +injure M. d'Agen; though it was some time before I could persuade him +that I was in earnest, and would go alone or not at all. In the end he +had to content himself with lending me his back and breast, which I +gladly put on, thinking it likely enough that I might be set upon +before I reached the castle. And then, the time being about seven, I +parted from him with many embraces and kindly words, and went into the +street with my sword under my cloak. + +The town, late in rising after its orgy, lay very still and quiet. The +morning was grey and warm, with a cloudy sky. The flags, which had +made so gay a show yesterday, hung close to the poles, or flapped idly +and fell dead again. I walked slowly along beneath them, keeping a +sharp look-out on every side; but there were few persons moving in the +streets, and I reached the Castle gates without misadventure. Here was +something of life; a bustle of officers and soldiers passing in and +out, of courtiers whose office made their presence necessary, of +beggars who had flocked hither in the night for company. In the middle +of these I recognised on a sudden and with great surprise Simon Fleix +walking my horse up and down. On seeing me he handed it to a boy, and +came up to speak to me with a red face, muttering that four legs were +better than two. I did not say much to him, my heart being full and my +thoughts occupied with the presence chamber and what I should say +there; but I nodded kindly to him, and he fell in behind me as the +sentries challenged me. I answered them that I sought M. de Crillon, +and so getting by, fell into the rear of a party of three who seemed +bent on the same errand as myself. + +One of these was a Jacobin monk, whose black and white robes, by +reminding me of Father Antoine, sent a chill to my heart. The +second, whose eye I avoided, I knew to be M. la Guesle, the king's +Solicitor-General. The third was a stranger to me. Enabled by M. la +Guesle's presence to pass the main guards without challenge, the party +proceeded through a maze of passages and corridors, conversing +together in a low tone; while I, keeping in their train with my face +cunningly muffled, got as far by this means as the antechamber, which +I found almost empty. Here I inquired of the usher for M. de Crillon, +and learned with the utmost consternation that he was not present. + +This blow, which almost stunned me, opened my eyes to the precarious +nature of my position, which only the early hour and small attendance +rendered possible for a moment. At any minute I might be recognised +and questioned, or my name be required; while the guarded doors of the +chamber shut me off as effectually from the king's face and grace as +though I were in Paris, or a hundred leagues away. Endeavouring to the +best of my power to conceal the chagrin and alarm, which possessed me +as this conviction took hold of me, I walked to the window; and to +hide my face more completely and at the same time gain a moment to +collect my thoughts, affected to be engaged in looking through it. + +Nothing which passed in the room, however, escaped me. I marked +everything and everyone, though all my thought was how I might get to +the king. The barber came out of the chamber with a silver basin, and +stood a moment, and went in again with an air of vast importance. The +guards yawned, and an officer entered, looked round, and retired. M. +la Guesle, who had gone in to the presence, came out again and stood +near me talking with the Jacobin, whose pale nervous face and hasty +movements reminded me somehow of Simon Fleix. The monk held a letter +or petition in his hand, and appeared to be getting it by heart, for +his lips moved continually. The light which fell on his face from the +window showed it to be of a peculiar sweaty pallor, and distorted +besides. But supposing him to be devoted, like many of his kind, to an +unwholesome life, I thought nothing of this; though I liked him +little, and would have shifted my place but for the convenience of his +neighbourhood. + +Presently, while I was cudgelling my brains, a person came out and +spoke to La Guesle; who called in his turn to the monk, and started +hastily towards the door. The Jacobin followed. The third person who +had entered in their company had his attention directed elsewhere at +the moment; and though La Guesle called to him, took no heed. On the +instant I grasped the situation. Taking my courage in my hands, I +crossed the floor behind the monk; who, hearing me, or feeling his +robe come in contact with me, presently started and looked round +suspiciously, his face wearing a scowl so black and ugly that I almost +recoiled from him, dreaming for a moment that I saw before me the very +spirit of Father Antoine. But as the man said nothing, and the next +instant averted his gaze, I hardened my heart and pushed on behind +him, and passing the usher, found myself as by magic in the presence +which had seemed a while ago as unattainable by my wits as it was +necessary to my safety. + +It was not this success alone, however, which caused my heart to beat +more hopefully. The king was speaking as I entered, and the gay tones +of his voice seemed to promise a favourable reception. His Majesty sat +half-dressed on a stool at the farther end of the apartment, +surrounded by five or six noblemen, while as many attendants, among +whom I hastened to mingle, waited near the door. + +La Guesle made as if he would advance, and then, seeing the king's +attention was not on him, held back. But in a moment the king saw him +and called to him. 'Ha, Guesle!' he said with good-temper, 'is it you? +Is your friend with you?' + +The Solicitor went forward with the monk at his elbow, and I had +leisure to remark the favourable change which had taken place in the +king, who spoke more strongly and seemed in better health than of old. +His face looked less cadaverous under the paint, his form a trifle +less emaciated. That which struck me more than anything, however, was +the improvement in his spirits. His eyes sparkled from time to time, +and he laughed continually, so that I could scarcely believe that he +was the same man whom I had seen overwhelmed with despair and tortured +by his conscience. + +Letting his attention slip from La Guesle, he began to bandy words +with the nobleman who stood nearest to him; looking up at him with a +roguish eye, and making bets on the fall of Paris. + +'Morbleu!' I heard him cry gaily, 'I would give a thousand pounds to +see the Montpensier this morning! She may keep her third crown for +herself. Or, _peste!_ we might put her in a convent. That would be a +fine vengeance!' + +'The veil for the tonsure,' the nobleman said with a smirk. + +'Ay. Why not? She would have made a monk of me,' the king rejoined +smartly. 'She must be ready to hang herself with her garters this +morning, if she is not dead of spite already. Or, stay, I had +forgotten her golden scissors. Let her open a vein with them. Well, +what does your friend want, La Guesle?' + +I did not hear the answer, but it was apparently satisfactory, for in +a minute all except the Jacobin fell back, leaving the monk standing +before the king; who, stretching out his hand, took from him a letter. +The Jacobin, trembling visibly, seemed scarcely able to support the +honour done him, and the king, seeing this, said in a voice audible to +all, 'Stand up, man. You are welcome. I love a cowl as some love a +lady's hood. And now, what is this?' + +He read a part of the letter and rose. As he did so the monk leaned +forward as though to receive the paper back again, and then so +swiftly, so suddenly, with so unexpected a movement that no one +stirred until all was over, struck the king in the body with a knife! +As the blade flashed and was hidden, and His Majesty with a deep sob +fell back on the stool, then, and not till then, I knew that I had +missed a providential chance of earning pardon and protection. For had +I only marked the Jacobin as we passed the door together, and read his +evil face aright, a word, one word, had done for me more than the +pleading of a score of Crillons! + +Too late a dozen sprang forward to the king's assistance; but before +they reached him he had himself drawn the knife from, the wound and +struck the assassin with it on the head. While some, with cries of +grief, ran to support Henry, from whose body the blood was already +flowing fast, others seized and struck down the wretched monk. As they +gathered round him I saw him raise himself for a moment on his knees +and look upward; the blood which ran down his face, no less than the +mingled triumph and horror of his features, impressed the sight on my +recollection. The next instant three swords were plunged into his +breast, and his writhing body, plucked up from the floor amid a +transport of curses, was forced headlong through the casement and +flung down to make sport for the grooms and scullions who stood below. + +A scene of indescribable confusion followed, some crying that the king +was dead, while others called for a doctor, and some by name for +Dortoman. I expected to see the doors closed and all within secured, +that if the man had confederates they might be taken. But there was no +one to give the order. Instead, many who had neither the _entree_ nor +any business in the chamber forced their way in, and by their cries +and pressure rendered the hub-bub and tumult a hundred times worse. In +the midst of this, while I stood stunned and dumbfounded, my own risks +and concerns forgotten, I felt my sleeve furiously plucked, and, +looking round, found Simon at my elbow. The lad's face was crimson, +his eyes seemed starting from his head. + +'Come,' he muttered, seizing my arm. 'Come!' And without further +ceremony or explanation he dragged me towards the door, while his face +and manner evinced as much heat and impatience as if he had been +himself the assassin. 'Come, there is not a moment to be lost,' he +panted, continuing his exertions without the least intermission. + +'Whither?' I said, in amazement, as I reluctantly permitted him to +force me along the passage and through the gaping crowd on the stairs. +'Whither, man?' + +'Mount and ride!' was the answer he hissed in my ear. 'Ride for your +life to the King of Navarre--to the King of France it may be! Ride as +you have never ridden before, and tell him the news, and bid him look +to himself! Be the first, and, Heaven helping us, Turenne may do his +worst!' + +I felt every nerve in my body tingle as I awoke to his meaning. +Without a word I left his arm, and flung myself into the crowd which +filled the lower passage to suffocation. As I struggled fiercely with +them Simon aided me by crying 'A doctor! a doctor! make way there!' +and this induced many to give place to me under the idea that I was an +accredited messenger. Eventually I succeeded in forcing my way through +and reaching the courtyard; being, as it turned out, the first person +to issue from the Chateau. A dozen people sprang towards me with +anxious eyes and questions on their lips, but I ran past them and, +catching the Cid, which was fortunately at hand, by the rein, bounded +into the saddle. + +As I turned the horse to the gate I heard Simon cry after me, 'The +Scholars' Meadow! Go that way!' and then I heard no more. I was out of +the yard and galloping bareheaded down the pitched street, while women +snatched their infants up and ran aside, and men came startled to the +doors, crying that the League was upon us. As the good horse flung up +his head and bounded forward, hurling the gravel behind him with hoofs +which slid and clattered on the pavement, as the wind began to whistle +by me, and I seized the reins in a shorter grip, I felt my heart bound +with exultation. I experienced such a blessed relief and elation as +the prisoner long fettered and confined feels when restored to the air +of heaven. + +Down one street and through a narrow lane we thundered, until a broken +gateway stopped with fascines--through which the Cid blundered and +stumbled--brought us at a bound into the Scholars' Meadow just as the +tardy sun broke through the clouds and flooded the low, wide plain +with brightness. Half a league in front of us the towers of Meudon +rose to view on a hill. In the distance, to the left, lay the walls of +Paris, and nearer, on the same side, a dozen forts and batteries; +while here and there, in that quarter, a shining clump of spears or a +dense mass of infantry betrayed the enemy's presence. + +I heeded none of these things, however, nor anything except the towers +of Meudon, setting the Cid's head straight for these and riding on at +the top of his speed. Swiftly ditch and dyke came into view before us +and flashed away beneath us. Men lying in pits rose up and aimed at +us; or ran with cries to intercept us. A cannon-shot fired from the +fort by Issy tore up the earth to one side; a knot of lancers sped +from the shelter of an earthwork in the same quarter, and raced us for +half a mile, with frantic shouts and threats of vengeance. But all +such efforts were vanity. The Cid, fired by this sudden call upon his +speed, and feeling himself loosed--rarest of events--to do his best, +shook the foam from his bit, and opening his blood-red nostrils to the +wind, crouched lower and lower: until his long neck, stretched out +before him, seemed, as the sward swept by, like the point of an arrow +speeding resistless to its aim. + +God knows, as the air rushed by me and the sun shone in my face, I +cried aloud like a boy, and though I sat still and stirred neither +hand nor foot, last I should break the good Sard's stride, I prayed +wildly that the horse which I had groomed with my own hands and fed +with my last crown might hold on unfaltering to the end. For I dreamed +that the fate of a nation rode in my saddle; and mindful alike of +Simon's words, 'Bid him look to himself,' and of my own notion that +the League would not be so foolish as to remove one enemy to exalt +another, I thought nothing more likely than that, with all my fury, I +should arrive too late, and find the King of Navarre as I had left the +King of France. + +In this strenuous haste I covered a mile as a mile has seldom been +covered before; and I was growing under the influence of the breeze +which whipped my temples somewhat more cool and hopeful, when I saw on +a sudden right before me, and between me and Meudon, a handful of men +engaged in a _melee_. There were red and white jackets in it--Leaguers +and Huguenots--and the red coats seemed to be having the worst of it. +Still, while I watched, they came off in order, and unfortunately in +such a way and at such a speed that I saw they must meet me face to +face whether I tried to avoid the encounter or not. I had barely time +to take in the danger and its nearness, and discern beyond both +parties the main-guard of the Huguenots, enlivened by a score of +pennons, when the Leaguers were upon me. + +I suppose they knew that no friend would ride for Meudon at that pace, +for they dashed at me six abreast with a shout of triumph; and before +I could count a score we met. The Cid was still running strongly, and +I had not thought to stay him, so that I had no time to use my +pistols. My sword I had out, but the sun dazzled me and the men wore +corslets, and I made but poor play with it; though I struck out +savagely, as we crashed together, in my rage at this sudden crossing +of my hopes when all seemed done and gained. The Cid faced them +bravely--I heard the distant huzza of the Huguenots--and I put aside +one point which threatened my throat. But the sun was in my eyes and +something struck me on the head. Another second, and a blow in the +breast forced me fairly from the saddle. Gripping furiously at the air +I went down, stunned and dizzy, my last thought as I struck the ground +being of mademoiselle, and the little brook with the stepping-stones. + + + + + CHAPTER XXXV. + + 'LE ROI EST MORT!' + + +IT was M. d'Agen's breastpiece saved my life by warding off the point +of the varlet's sword, so that the worst injury I got was the loss of +my breath for five minutes, with a swimming in the head and a kind of +syncope. These being past, I found myself on my back on the ground, +with a man's knee on my breast and a dozen horsemen standing round me. +The sky reeled dizzily before my eyes and the men's figures loomed +gigantic; yet I had sense enough to know what had happened to me, and +that matters might well be worse. + +Resigning myself to the prospect of captivity, I prepared to ask for +quarter; which I did not doubt I should receive, since they had taken +me in an open skirmish, and honestly, and in the daylight. But the man +whose knee already incommoded me sufficiently, seeing me about to +speak, squeezed me on a sudden so fiercely, bidding me at the same +time in a gruff whisper be silent, that I thought I could not do +better than obey. + +Accordingly I lay still, and as in a dream, for my brain was still +clouded, heard someone say, 'Dead! Is he? I hoped we had come in time. +Well, he deserved a better fate. Who is he, Rosny?' + +'Do you know him, Maignan?' said a voice which sounded strangely +familiar. + +The man who knelt upon me answered, 'No, my lord. He is a stranger to +me. He has the look of a Norman.' + +'Like enough!' replied a high-pitched voice I had not heard before. +'For he rode a good horse. Give me a hundred like it, and a hundred +men to ride as straight, and I would not envy the King of France.' + +'Much less his poor cousin of Navarre,' the first speaker rejoined in +a laughing tone, 'without a whole shirt to his back or a doublet that +is decently new. Come, Turenne, acknowledge that you are not so badly +off after all!' + +At that word the cloud which had darkened my faculties swept on a +sudden aside. I saw that the men into whose hands I had fallen wore +white favours, their leader a white plume; and comprehended without +more that the King of Navarre had come to my rescue, and beaten off +the Leaguers who had dismounted me. At the same moment the remembrance +of all that had gone before, and especially of the scene I had +witnessed in the king's chamber, rushed upon my mind with such +overwhelming force that I fell into a fury of impatience at the +thought of the time I had wasted; and rising up suddenly I threw off +Maignan with all my force, crying out that I was alive--that I was +alive, and had news. + +The equerry did his best to restrain me, cursing me under his breath +for a fool, and almost squeezing the life out of me. But in vain, for +the King of Navarre, riding nearer, saw me struggling. 'Hallo! hallo! +'tis a strange dead man,' he cried, interposing. 'What is the meaning +of this? Let him go! Do you hear, sirrah? Let him go!' + +The equerry obeyed and stood back sullenly, and I staggered to my +feet, and looked round with eyes which still swam and watered. On the +instant a cry of recognition greeted me, with a hundred exclamations +of astonishment. While I heard my name uttered on every side in a +dozen different tones, I remarked that M. de Rosny, upon whom my eyes +first fell, alone stood silent, regarding me with a face of sorrowful +surprise. + +'By heavens, sir, I knew nothing of this!' I heard the King of Navarre +declare, addressing himself to the Vicomte de Turenne. 'The man is +here by no connivance of mine. Interrogate him yourself, if you will. +Or I will. Speak, sir,' he continued, turning to me with his +countenance hard and forbidding. 'You heard me yesterday, what I +promised you? Why, in God's name, are you here to-day?' + +I tried to answer, but Maignan had so handled me that I had not breath +enough, and stood panting. + +'Your Highness's clemency in this matter,' M. de Turenne said, with a +sneer, 'has been so great he trusted to its continuance. And doubtless +he thought to find you alone. I fear I am in the way.' + +I knew him by his figure and his grand air, which in any other company +would have marked him for master; and forgetting the impatience which +a moment before had consumed me--doubtless I was still light-headed--I +answered him. 'Yet I had once the promise of your lordship's +protection,' I gasped. + +'My protection, sir?' he exclaimed, his eyes gleaming angrily. + +'Even so,' I answered. 'At the inn at Etampes, where M. de Crillon +would have fought me.' + +He was visibly taken aback. 'Are you that man?' he cried. + +'I am. But I am not here to prate of myself,' I replied. And with +that--the remembrance of my neglected errand flashing on me again--I +staggered to the King of Navarre's side, and, falling on my knees, +seized his stirrup. 'Sire, I bring you news! great news! dreadful +news!' I cried, clinging to it. 'His Majesty was but a quarter of an +hour ago stabbed in the body in his chamber by a villain monk. And is +dying, or, it may be, dead.' + +'Dead? The King!' Turenne cried with an oath. 'Impossible!' + +Vaguely I heard others crying, some this, some that, as surprise and +consternation, or anger, or incredulity moved them. But I did not +answer them, for Henry, remaining silent, held me spellbound and awed +by the marvellous change which I saw fall on his face. His eyes became +on a sudden suffused with blood, and seemed to retreat under his heavy +brows; his cheeks turned of a brick-red colour; his half-open lips +showed his teeth gleaming through his beard; while his great nose, +which seemed to curve and curve until it well-nigh met his chin, gave +to his mobile countenance an aspect as strange as it was terrifying. +Withal he uttered for a time no word, though I saw his hand grip the +riding-whip he held in a convulsive grasp, as though his thought were +''Tis mine! Mine! Wrest it away who dares!' + +'Bethink you, sir,' he said at last, fixing his piercing eyes on me, +and speaking in a harsh, low tone, like the growling of a great dog, +'this is no jesting-time. Nor will you save your skin by a ruse. Tell +me, on your peril, is this a trick?' + +'Heaven forbid, sire!' I answered with passion. 'I was in the chamber, +and saw it with my own eyes. I mounted on the instant, and rode hither +by the shortest route to warn your Highness to look to yourself. Monks +are many, and the Holy Union is not apt to stop half-way.' + +I saw he believed me, for his face relaxed. His breath seemed to come +and go again, and for the tenth part of a second his eyes sought M. de +Rosny's. Then he looked at me again. 'I thank you, sir,' he said, +bowing gravely and courteously, 'for your care for me--not for your +tidings, which are of the sorriest. God grant my good cousin and king +may be hurt only. Now tell us exactly--for these gentlemen are equally +interested with myself--had a surgeon seen him?' + +I replied in the negative, but added that the wound was in the groin, +and bled much. + +'You said a few minutes ago, "dying or already dead!"' the King of +Navarre rejoined. 'Why?' + +'His Majesty's face was sunken,' I stammered. + +He nodded. 'You may be mistaken,' he said. 'I pray that you are. But +here comes Mornay. He may know more.' + +In a moment I was abandoned, even by M. de Turenne, so great was the +anxiety which possessed all to learn the truth. Maignan alone, under +pretence of adjusting a stirrup, remained beside me, and entreated me +in a low voice to begone. 'Take this horse, M. de Marsac, if you +will,' he urged, 'and ride back the way you came. You have done what +you came to do. Go back, and be thankful.' + +'Chut!' I said, 'there is no danger.' + +'You will see,' he replied darkly, 'if you stay here. Come, come, take +my advice and the horse,' he persisted, 'and begone! Believe me, it +will be for the best.' + +I laughed outright at his earnestness and his face of perplexity. 'I +see you have M. de Rosny's orders to get rid of me,' I said. 'But I am +not going, my friend. He must find some other way out of his +embarrassment, for here I stay.' + +'Well, your blood be on your own head,' Maignan retorted, swinging +himself into the saddle with a gloomy face. 'I have done my best to +save you!' + +'And your master!' I answered, laughing. + +For flight was the last thing I had in my mind. I had ridden this ride +with a clear perception that the one thing I needed was a footing at +Court. By the special kindness of Providence I had now gained this; +and I was not the man to resign it because it proved to be scanty and +perilous. It was something that I had spoken to the great Vicomte face +to face and not been consumed, that I had given him look for look and +still survived, that I had put in practice Crillon's lessons and come +to no harm. + +Nor was this all. I had never in the worst times blamed the King of +Navarre for his denial of me. I had been foolish, indeed, seeing that +it was in the bargain, had I done so; nor had I ever doubted his +good-will or his readiness to reward me should occasion arise. Now, I +flattered myself, I had given him that which he needed, and had +hitherto lacked--an excuse, I mean, for interference in my behalf. + +Whether I was right or wrong in this notion I was soon to learn, for +at this moment Henry's cavalcade, which had left me a hundred paces +behind, came to a stop, and while some of the number waved to me to +come on, one spurred back to summon me to the king. I hastened to obey +the order as fast as I could, but I saw on approaching that though all +was at a standstill till I came up, neither the King of Navarre nor M. +de Turenne was thinking principally of me. Every face, from Henry's to +that of his least important courtier, wore an air of grave +preoccupation; which I had no difficulty in ascribing to the doubt +present in every mind, and outweighing every interest, whether the +King of France was dead, or dying, or merely wounded. + +'Quick, sir!' Henry said with impatience, as soon as I came within +hearing. 'Do not detain me with your affairs longer than is necessary. +M. de Turenne presses me to carry into effect the order I gave +yesterday. But as you have placed yourself in jeopardy on my account I +feel that something is due to you. You will be good enough, therefore, +to present yourself at once at M. la Varenne's lodging, and give me +your parole to remain there without stirring abroad until your affair +is concluded.' + +Aware that I owed this respite, which at once secured my present +safety and promised well for the future, to the great event that, even +in M. de Turenne's mind, had overshadowed all others, I bowed in +silence. Henry, however, was not content with this. 'Come, sir,' he +said sharply, and with every appearance of anger, 'do you agree to +that?' + +I replied humbly that I thanked him for his clemency. + +'There is no need of thanks,' he replied coldly. 'What I have done is +without prejudice to M. de Turenne's complaint. He must have justice.' + +I bowed again, and in a moment the troop were gone at a gallop towards +Meudon, whence, as I afterwards learned, the King of Navarre, attended +by a select body of five-and-twenty horsemen, wearing private arms, +rode on at full speed to St. Cloud to present himself at His Majesty's +bedside. A groom who had caught the Cid, which had escaped into the +town with no other injury than a slight wound in the shoulder, +by-and-by met me with the horse; and in this way I was enabled to +render myself with some decency at Varenne's lodging, a small house at +the foot of the hill, not far from the Castle-gate. + +Here I found myself under no greater constraint than that which my own +parole laid upon me; and my room having the conveniency of a window +looking upon the public street, I was enabled from hour to hour to +comprehend and enter into the various alarms and surprises which made +that day remarkable. The manifold reports which flew from mouth to +mouth on the occasion, as well as the overmastering excitement which +seized all, are so well remembered, however, that I forbear to dwell +upon them, though they served to distract my mind from my own +position. Suffice it that at one moment we heard that His Majesty was +dead, at another that the wound was skin deep, and again that we might +expect him at Meudon before sunset. The rumour that the Duchess de +Montpensier had taken poison was no sooner believed than we were asked +to listen to the guns of Paris firing _feux de joie_ in honour of the +King's death. + +The streets were so closely packed with persons telling and hearing +these tales that I seemed from my window to be looking on a fair. Nor +was all my amusement without doors; for a number of the gentlemen of +the Court, hearing that I had been at St. Cloud in the morning, and in +the very chamber, a thing which made me for the moment the most +desirable companion in the world, remembered on a sudden that they had +a slight acquaintance with me, and honoured me by calling upon me and +sitting a great part of the day with me. From which circumstance I +confess I derived as much hope as they diversion; knowing that +courtiers are the best weather-prophets in the world, who hate nothing +so much as to be discovered in the company of those on whom the sun +does not shine. + +The return of the King of Navarre, which happened about the middle of +the afternoon, while it dissipated the fears of some and dashed the +hopes of others, put an end to this state of uncertainty by +confirming, to the surprise of many, that His Majesty was in no +danger. We learned with varying emotions that the first appearances, +which had deceived, not myself only, but experienced leeches, had been +themselves belied by subsequent conditions; and that, in a word, Paris +had as much to fear, and loyal men as much to hope, as before this +wicked and audacious attempt. + +I had no more than stomached this surprising information, which was +less welcome to me, I confess, than it should have been, when the +arrival of M. d'Agen, who greeted me with the affection which he never +failed to show me, distracted my thoughts for a time. Immediately on +learning where I was and the strange adventures which had befallen me +he had ridden off; stopping only once, when he had nearly reached me, +for the purpose of waiting on Madame de Bruhl. I asked him how she had +received him. + +'Like herself,' he replied with an ingenuous blush. 'More kindly than +I had a right to expect, if not as warmly as I had the courage to +hope.' + +'That will come with time,' I said, laughing. 'And Mademoiselle de la +Vire?' + +'I did not see her,' he answered, 'but I heard she was well. And a +hundred fathoms deeper in love,' he added, eyeing me roguishly, 'than +when I saw her last.' + +It was my turn to colour now, and I did so, feeling all the pleasure +and delight such a statement was calculated to afford me. Picturing +mademoiselle as I had seen her last, leaning from her horse with love +written so plainly on her weeping face that all who ran might read, I +sank into so delicious a reverie that M. la Varenne, entering +suddenly, surprised us both before another word passed on either side. + +His look and tone were as abrupt as it was in his nature, which was +soft and compliant, to make them. 'M. de Marsac,' he said, 'I am sorry +to put any constraint upon you, but I am directed to forbid you to +your friends. And I must request this gentleman to withdraw.' + +'But all day my friends have come in and out,' I said with surprise. +'Is this a new order?' + +'A written order, which reached me no farther back than two minutes +ago,' he answered plainly. 'I am also directed to remove you to a room +at the back of the house, that you may not overlook the street.' + +'But my parole was taken,' I cried, with a natural feeling of +indignation. + +He shrugged his shoulders. 'I am sorry to say that I have nothing to +do with that,' he answered. 'I can only obey orders. I must ask this +gentleman, therefore, to withdraw.' + +Of course M. d'Agen had no option but to leave me; which he did, I +could see, notwithstanding his easy and confident expressions, with a +good deal of mistrust and apprehension. When he was gone, La Varenne +lost no time in carrying out the remainder of his orders. As a +consequence I found myself confined to a small and gloomy apartment +which looked, at a distance of three paces, upon the smooth face of +the rock on which the Castle stood. This change, from a window which +commanded all the life of the town, and intercepted every breath of +popular fancy, to a closet whither no sounds penetrated, and where the +very transition from noon to evening scarcely made itself known, could +not fail to depress my spirits sensibly; the more as I took it to be +significant of a change in my fortunes fully as grave. Reflecting that +I must now appear to the King of Navarre in the light of a bearer of +false tidings, I associated the order to confine me more closely with +his return from St. Cloud; and comprehending that M. de Turenne was +once more at liberty to attend to my affairs, I began to look about me +with forebodings which were none the less painful because the parole I +had given debarred me from any attempt to escape. + +Sleep and habit enabled me, nevertheless, to pass the night in +comfort. Very early in the morning a great firing of guns, which made +itself heard even in my quarters, led me to suppose that Paris had +surrendered; but the servant who brought me my breakfast declined in a +surly fashion to give me any information. In the end, I spent the +whole day alone, my thoughts divided between my mistress and my own +prospects, which seemed to grow more and more gloomy as the hours +succeeded one another. No one came near me, no step broke the silence +of the house; and for a while I thought my guardians had forgotten +even that I needed food. This omission, it is true, was made good +about sunset, but still M. la Varenne did not appear, the servant +seemed to be dumb, and I heard no sounds in the house. + +I had finished my meal an hour or more, and the room was growing dark, +when the silence was at last broken by quick steps passing along the +entrance. They paused, and seemed to hesitate at the foot of the +stairs, but the next moment they came on again, and stopped at my +door. I rose from my seat on hearing the key turned in the lock, and +my astonishment may be conceived when I saw no other than M. de +Turenne enter, and close the door behind him. + +He saluted me in a haughty manner as he advanced to the table, raising +his cap for an instant and then replacing it. This done he stood +looking at me, and I at him, in a silence which on my side was the +result of pure astonishment; on his, of contempt and a kind of wonder. +The evening light, which was fast failing, lent a sombre whiteness to +his face, causing it to stand out from the shadows behind him in a way +which was not without its influence on me. + +'Well! 'he said at last, speaking slowly and with unimaginable +insolence, 'I am here to look at you!' + +I felt my anger rise, and gave him back look for look. 'At your will,' +I said, shrugging my shoulders. + +'And to solve a question,' he continued in the same tone. 'To learn +whether the man who was mad enough to insult and defy _me_ was the old +penniless dullard some called him, or the dare-devil others painted +him.' + +'You are satisfied now?' I said. + +He eyed me for a moment closely; then with sudden heat he cried, +'Curse me if I am! Nor whether I have to do with a man very deep or +very shallow, a fool or a knave!' + +'You may say what you please to a prisoner,' I retorted coldly. + +'Turenne commonly does--to whom he pleases!' he answered. The next +moment he made me start by saying, as he drew out a comfit-box and +opened it, 'I am just from the little fool you have bewitched. If she +were in my power I would have her whipped and put on bread and water +till she came to her senses. As she is not, I must take another way. +Have you any idea, may I ask,' he continued in his cynical tone, 'what +is going to become of you, M. de Marsac?' + +I replied, my heart inexpressibly lightened by what he had said of +mademoiselle, that I placed the fullest confidence in the justice of +the King of Navarre. + +He repeated the name in a tone I did not understand. + +'Yes, sir, the King of Navarre,' I answered firmly. + +'Well, I daresay you have good reason to do so,' he rejoined with a +sneer. 'Unless I am mistaken he knew a little more of this affair than +he acknowledges.' + +'Indeed? The King of Navarre?' I said, staring stolidly at him. + +'Yes, indeed, indeed, the King of Navarre!' he retorted, mimicking me, +with a nearer approach to anger than I had yet witnessed in him. 'But +let him be a moment, sirrah!' he continued, 'and do you listen to me. +Or first look at that. Seeing is believing.' + +He drew out as he spoke a paper, or, to speak more correctly, a +parchment, which he thrust with a kind of savage scorn into my hand. +Repressing for the moment the surprise I felt, I took it to the +window, and reading it with difficulty, found it to be a royal patent +drawn, as far as I could judge, in due form, and appointing some +person unknown--for the name was left blank--to the post of +Lieutenant-Governor of the Armagnac, with a salary of twelve thousand +livres a year! + +'Well, sir?' he said impatiently. + +'Well?' I answered mechanically. For my brain reeled; the exhibition +of such a paper in such a way raised extraordinary thoughts in my +mind. + +'Can you read it?' he asked. + +'Certainly,' I answered, telling myself that he would fain play a +trick on me. + +'Very well,' he replied, 'then listen. I am going to condescend; to +make you an offer, M. de Marsac. I will procure you your freedom, and +fill up the blank, which you see there, with your name--upon one +condition.' + +I stared at him with all the astonishment it was natural for me to +feel in the face of such a proposition, 'You will confer this office +on me?' I muttered incredulously. + +'The king having placed it at my disposal,' he answered, 'I will. But +first let me remind you,' he went on proudly, 'that the affair has +another side. On the one hand I offer you such employment, M. de +Marsac, as should satisfy your highest ambition. On the other, I warn +you that my power to avenge myself is no less to-day than it was +yesterday; and that if I condescend to buy you, it is because that +course commends itself to me for reasons, not because it is the only +one open.' + +I bowed, 'The condition, M. le Vicomte?' I said huskily, beginning to +understand him. + +'That you give up all claim and suit to the hand of my kinswoman,' he +answered lightly. 'That is all. It is a simple and easy condition.' + +I looked at him in renewed astonishment, in wonder, in stupefaction; +asking myself a hundred questions. Why did he stoop to bargain, who +could command? Why did he condescend to treat, who held me at his +mercy? Why did he gravely discuss my aspirations, to whom they must +seem the rankest presumption? Why?--but I could not follow it. I stood +looking at him in silence; in perplexity as great as if he had offered +me the Crown of France; in amazement and doubt and suspicion that knew +no bounds. + +'Well!' he said at last, misreading the emotion which appeared in my +face. 'You consent, sir?' + +'Never!' I answered firmly. + +He started. 'I think I cannot have heard you aright,' he said, +speaking slowly and almost courteously. 'I offer you a great place and +my patronage, M. de Marsac. Do I understand that you prefer a prison +and my enmity?' + +'On those conditions,' I answered. + +'Think, think!' he said harshly. + +'I have thought,' I answered. + +'Ay, but have you thought where you are?' he retorted. 'Have you +thought how many obstacles lie between you and this little fool? How +many persons you must win over, how many friends you must gain? Have +you thought what it will be to have me against you in this, or which +of us is more likely to win in the end?' + +'I have thought,' I rejoined. + +But my voice shook, my lips were dry. The room had grown dark. The +rock outside, intercepting the light, gave it already the air of a +dungeon. Though I did not dream of yielding to him, though I even felt +that in this interview he had descended to my level, and I had had the +better of him, I felt my heart sink. For I remembered how men immured +in prisons drag out their lives always petitioning, always forgotten; +how wearily the days go, that to free men are bright with hope and +ambition. And I saw in a flash what it would be to remain here, or in +some such place; never to cross horse again, or breathe the free air +of heaven, never to hear the clink of sword against stirrup, or the +rich tones of M. d'Agen's voice calling for his friend! + +I expected M. de Turenne to go when I had made my answer, or else to +fall into such a rage as opposition is apt to cause in those who +seldom encounter it. To my surprise, however, he restrained himself. +'Come,' he said, with patience which fairly astonished me, and so much +the more as chagrin was clearly marked in his voice, 'I know where you +put your trust. You think the King of Navarre will protect you. Well, +I pledge you the honour of Turenne that he will not; that the King of +Navarre will do nothing to save you. Now, what do you say?' + +'As I said before,' I answered doggedly. + +He took up the parchment from the table with a grim laugh. 'So much +the worse for you then!' he said, shrugging his shoulders. 'So much +the worse for you! I took you for a rogue! It seems you are a fool!' + + + + + CHAPTER XXXVI. + + 'VIVE LE ROI!' + + +He took his leave with those words. But his departure, which I should +have hailed a few minutes before with joy, as a relief from +embarrassment and humiliation, found me indifferent. The statement to +which he had solemnly pledged himself in regard to the King of +Navarre, that I could expect no further help from him, had prostrated +me; dashing my hopes and spirits so completely that I remained rooted +to the spot long after his step had ceased to sound on the stairs. If +what he said was true, in the gloom which darkened alike my room and +my prospects I could descry no glimmer of light. I knew His Majesty's +weakness and vacillation too well to repose any confidence in him; if +the King of Navarre also abandoned me, I was indeed without hope, as +without resource. + +I had stood some time with my mind painfully employed upon this +problem, which my knowledge of M. de Turenne's strict honour in +private matters did not allow me to dismiss lightly, when I heard +another step on the stairs, and in a moment M. la Varenne opened the +door. Finding me in the dark he muttered an apology for the remissness +of the servants; which I accepted, seeing nothing else for it, in good +part. + +'We have been at sixes-and-sevens all day, and you have been +forgotten,' he continued. 'But you will have no reason to complain +now. I am ordered to conduct you to His Majesty without delay.' + +'To St. Cloud!' I exclaimed, greatly astonished. + +'No, the king of France is here,' he answered. + +'At Meudon?' + +'To be sure. Why not?' + +I expressed my wonder at his Majesty's rapid recovery. + +'Pooh!' he answered roughly. 'He is as well as he ever was. I will +leave you my light. Be good enough to descend as soon as you are +ready, for it is ill work keeping kings waiting. Oh! and I had +forgotten one thing,' he continued, returning when he had already +reached the door. 'My orders are to see that you do not hold converse +with anyone until you have seen the king, M. de Marsac. You will +kindly remember this if we are kept waiting in the ante-chamber.' + +'Am I to be transported to--other custody?' I asked, my mind full of +apprehension. + +He shrugged his shoulders. 'Possibly,' he replied. 'I do not know.' + +Of course there was nothing for it but to murmur that I was at the +king's disposition; after which La Varenne retired, leaving me to put +the best face on the matter I could. Naturally I augured anything but +well of an interview weighted with such a condition; and this +contributed still further to depress my spirits, already lowered by +the long solitude in which I had passed the day. Fearing nothing, +however, so much as suspense, I hastened to do what I could to repair +my costume, and then descended to the foot of the stairs, where I +found my custodian awaiting me with a couple of servants, of whom one +bore a link. + +We went out side by side, and having barely a hundred yards to go, +seemed in a moment to be passing through the gate of the Castle. I +noticed that the entrance was very strongly guarded, but an instant's +reflection served to remind me that this was not surprising after what +had happened at St. Cloud. I remarked to M. la Varenne as we crossed +the courtyard that I supposed Paris had surrendered; but he replied in +the negative so curtly, and with so little consideration, that I +forebore to ask any other questions; and the Chateau being small, we +found ourselves almost at once in a long, narrow corridor, which +appeared to serve as the antechamber. + +It was brilliantly lighted and crowded from end to end, and almost +from wall to wall, with a mob of courtiers; whose silence, no less +than their keen and anxious looks, took me by surprise. Here and there +two or three, who had seized upon the embrasure of a window, talked +together in a low tone; or a couple, who thought themselves +sufficiently important to pace the narrow passage between the waiting +lines, conversed in whispers as they walked. But even these were swift +to take alarm, and continually looked askance; while the general +company stood at gaze, starting and looking up eagerly whenever the +door swung open or a newcomer was announced. The strange silence which +prevailed reminded me of nothing so much as of the Court at Blois on +the night of the Duke of Merc[oe]ur's desertion; but that stillness +had brooded over empty chambers, this gave a peculiar air of +strangeness to a room thronged in every part. + +M. la Varenne, who was received by those about the door with silent +politeness, drew me into the recess of a window; whence I was able to +remark, among other things, that the Huguenots present almost +outnumbered the king's immediate following. Still, among those who +were walking up and down, I noticed M. de Rambouillet, to whom at +another time I should have hastened to pay my respects; with Marshal +d'Aumont, Sancy, and Humieres. Nor had I more than noted the presence +of these before the door of the chamber opened and added to their +number Marshal Biron, who came out leaning on the arm of Crillon. The +sight of these old enemies in combination was sufficient of itself to +apprise me that some serious crisis was at hand; particularly as their +progress through the crowd was watched, I observed, by a hundred +curious and attentive eyes. + +They disappeared at last through the outer door, and the assemblage +turned as with one accord to see who came next. But nearly half an +hour elapsed before the Chamber door, which all watched so studiously, +again opened. This time it was to give passage to my late visitor, +Turenne, who came out smiling, and leaning, to my great surprise, on +the arm of M. de Rosny. + +As the two walked down the room, greeting here and there an obsequious +friend, and followed in their progress by all eyes, I felt my heart +sink indeed; both at sight of Turenne's good-humour, and of the +company in which I found him. Aware that in proportion as he was +pleased I was like to meet with displeasure, I still might have had +hope left had I had Rosny left. Losing him, however--and I could not +doubt, seeing him as I saw him, that I had lost him--and counting the +King of Navarre as gone already, I felt such a failure of courage as I +had never known before. I told myself with shame that I was not made +for Courts, or for such scenes as these; and recalling with new and +keen mortification the poor figure I had cut in the King of Navarre's +antechamber at St. Jean, I experienced so strange a gush of pity for +my mistress that nothing could exceed the tenderness I felt for her. I +had won her under false colours, I was not worthy of her. I felt that +my mere presence in her company in such a place as this, and among +these people, must cover her with shame and humiliation. + +To my great relief, since I knew my face was on fire, neither of the +two, as they walked down the passage, looked my way or seemed +conscious of my neighbourhood. At the door they stood a moment talking +earnestly, and it seemed as if M. de Rosny would have accompanied the +Vicomte farther. The latter would not suffer it, however, but took his +leave there; and this with so many polite gestures that my last hope +based on M. de Rosny vanished. + +Nevertheless, that gentleman was not so wholly changed that on his +turning to re-traverse the room I did not see a smile flicker for an +instant on his features as the two lines of bowing courtiers opened +before him. The next moment his look fell on me, and though his face +scarcely altered, he stopped opposite me. + +'M. de Marsac is waiting to see His Majesty?' he asked aloud, speaking +to M. la Varenne. + +My companion remaining silent, I bowed. + +'In five minutes,' M. de Rosny replied quietly, yet with a distant +air, which made me doubt whether I had not dreamed all I remembered of +this man. 'Ah! M. de Paul, what can I do for you?' he continued. And +he bent his head to listen to the application which a gentleman who +stood next me poured into his ear. 'I will see,' I heard him answer. +'In any case you shall know to-morrow.' + +'But you will be my friend?' M. Paul urged, detaining him by the +sleeve. + +'I will put only one before you,' he answered. + +My neighbour seemed to shrink into himself with disappointment. 'Who +is it?' he murmured piteously. + +'The king and his service, my friend,' M. de Rosny replied drily. And +with that he walked away. But half a dozen times at least before he +reached the upper end of the room I saw the scene repeated. + +I looked on at all this in the utmost astonishment, unable to guess or +conceive what had happened to give M. de Rosny so much importance. For +it did not escape me that the few words he had stopped to speak to me +had invested me with interest in the eyes of all who stood near. They +gave me more room and a wider breathing-space, and looking at me +askance, muttered my name in whispers. In my uncertainty, however, +what this portended I drew no comfort from it; and before I had found +time to weigh it thoroughly the door through which Turenne and Rosny +had entered opened again. The pages and gentlemen who stood about it +hastened to range themselves, on either side. An usher carrying a +white wand came rapidly down the room, here and there requesting the +courtiers to stand back where the passage was narrow. Then a loud +voice without cried, 'The King, gentlemen! the King!' and one in every +two of us stood a-tiptoe to see him enter. + +But there came in only Henry of Navarre, wearing a violet cloak and +cap. + +I turned to La Varenne and with my head full of confusion, muttered +impatiently, 'But the king, man! Where is the king?' + +He grinned at me, with his hand before his mouth. 'Hush!' he +whispered. ''Twas a jest we played on you! His late Majesty died at +daybreak this morning. This is the king.' + +'This! the King of Navarre?' I cried; so loudly that some round us +called 'Silence!' + +'No, the King of France, fool!' he replied. 'Your sword must be +sharper than your wits, or I have been told some lies!' + +I let the gibe pass and the jest, for my heart was beating so fast and +painfully that I could scarcely preserve my outward composure. There +was a mist before my eyes, and a darkness which set the lights at +defiance. It was in vain I tried to think what this might mean--to me. +I could not put two thoughts together, and while I still questioned +what reception I might expect, and who in this new state of things +were my friends, the king stopped before me. + +'Ha, M. de Marsac!' he cried cheerfully, signing to those who stood +before me to give place. 'You are the gentleman who rode so fast to +warn me the other morning. I have spoken to M. de Turenne about you, +and he is willing to overlook the complaint he had against you. For +the rest, go to my closet, my friend. Go! Rosny knows my will +respecting you.' + +I had sense enough left to kneel and kiss his hand; but it was in +silence, which he knew how to interpret. He had moved on and was +speaking to another before I recovered the use of my tongue, or the +wits which his gracious words had scattered. When I did so, and got on +my feet again I found myself the centre of so much observation and the +object of so many congratulations that I was glad to act upon the hint +which La Varenne gave me, and hurry away to the closet. + +Here, though I had now an inkling of what I had to expect, I found +myself received with a kindness which bade fair to overwhelm me. Only +M. de Rosny was in the room, and he took me by both hands in a manner +which told me without a word that the Rosny of old days was back, and +that for the embarrassment I had caused him of late I was more than +forgiven. When I tried to thank him for the good offices, which I knew +he had done me with the king he would have none of it; reminding me +with a smile that he had eaten of my cheese when the choice lay +between that and Lisieux. + +'And besides, my friend,' he continued, his eyes twinkling, 'You have +made me richer by five hundred crowns.' + +'How so?' I asked, wondering more and more. + +'I wagered that sum with Turenne that he could not bribe you,' he +answered, smiling. 'And see,' he continued, selecting from some on the +table the same parchment I had seen before, 'here is the bribe. Take +it; it is yours. I have given a score to-day, but none with the same +pleasure. Let me be the first to congratulate the Lieutenant-Governor +of the Armagnac.' + +For a while I could not believe that he was in earnest; which pleased +him mightily, I remember. When I was brought at last to see that the +king had meant this for me from the first, and had merely lent the +patent to Turenne that the latter might make trial of me, my pleasure +and gratification were such that I could no more express them then +than I can now describe them. For they knew no bounds. I stood before +Rosny silent and confused, with long-forgotten tears welling up to my +eyes, and one regret only in my heart--that my dear mother had not +lived to see the fond illusions with which I had so often amused her +turned to sober fact. Not then, but afterwards, I remarked that the +salary of my office amounted to the exact sum which I had been in the +habit of naming to her; and I learned that Rosny had himself fixed it +on information given him by Mademoiselle de la Vire. + +As my transports grew more moderate, and I found voice to thank my +benefactor, he had still an answer. 'Do not deceive yourself, my +friend,' he said gravely, 'or think this an idle reward. My master is +King of France, but he is a king without a kingdom, and a captain +without money. To-day, to gain his rights, he has parted with half his +powers. Before he win all back there will be blows--blows, my friend. +And to that end I have bought your sword.' + +I told him that if no other left its scabbard for the king, mine +should be drawn. + +'I believe you,' he answered kindly, laying his hand on my shoulder. +'Not by reason of your words--Heaven knows I have heard vows enough +to-day!--but because I have proved you. And now,' he continued, +speaking in an altered tone and looking at me with a queer smile, 'now +I suppose you are perfectly satisfied? You have nothing more to wish +for, my friend?' + +I looked aside in a guilty fashion, not daring to prefer on the top of +all his kindness a further petition. Moreover, His Majesty might have +other views; or on this point Turenne might have proved obstinate. In +a word, there was nothing in what had happened, or on M. de Rosny's +communication, to inform me whether the wish of my heart was to be +gratified or not. + +But I should have known that great man better than to suppose that he +was one to promise without performing, or to wound a friend when he +could not salve the hurt. After enjoying my confusion for a time he +burst into a great shout of laughter, and taking me familiarly by the +shoulders, turned me towards the door. 'There, go!' he said. 'Go up +the passage. You will find a door on the right, and a door on the +left. You will know which to open.' + +Forbidding me to utter a syllable, he put me out. In the passage, +where I fain would have stood awhile to collect my thoughts, I was +affrighted by sounds which warned me that the king was returning that +way. Fearing to be surprised by him in such a state of perturbation, I +hurried to the end of the passage, where I discovered, as I had been +told, two doors. + +They were both closed, and there was nothing about either of them to +direct my choice. But M. de Rosny was correct in supposing that I had +not forgotten the advice he had offered me on the day when he gave me +so fine a surprise in his own house--'When you want a good wife, M. de +Marsac, turn to the right!' I remembered the words, and without a +moment's hesitation--for the king and his suite were already entering +the passage--I knocked boldly, and scarcely waiting for an invitation, +went in. + +Fanchette was by the door, but stood aside with a grim smile, which I +was at liberty to accept as a welcome or not. Mademoiselle, who had +been seated on the farther side of the table, rose as I entered, and +we stood looking at one another. Doubtless she waited for me to speak +first; while I on my side was so greatly taken aback by the change +wrought in her by the Court dress she was wearing and the air of +dignity with which she wore it, that I stood gasping. I turned coward +after all that had passed between us. This was not the girl I had +wooed in the greenwoods by St. Gaultier; nor the pale-faced woman I +had lifted to the saddle a score of times in the journey Paris-wards. +The sense of unworthiness which I had experienced a few minutes before +in the crowded antechamber returned in full force in presence of her +grace and beauty, and once more I stood tongue-tied before her, as I +had stood in the lodgings at Blois. All the later time, all that had +passed between us was forgotten. + +She, for her part, looked at me wondering at my silence. Her face, +which had grown rosy red at my entrance, turned pale again. Her eyes +grew large with alarm; she began to beat her foot on the floor in a +manner I knew. 'Is anything the matter, sir?' she muttered at last. + +'On the contrary, mademoiselle,' I answered hoarsely, looking every +way, and grasping at the first thing I could think of, 'I am just from +M. de Rosny.' + +'And he?' + +'He has made me Lieutenant-Governor of the Armagnac.' + +She curtseyed to me in a wonderful fashion. 'It pleases me to +congratulate you, sir,' she said, in a voice between laughing and +crying. 'It is not more than equal to your deserts.' + +I tried to thank her becomingly, feeling at the same time more foolish +than I had ever felt in my life; for I knew that this was neither what +I had come to tell nor she to hear. Yet I could not muster up courage +nor find words to go farther, and stood by the table in a state of +miserable discomposure. + +'Is that all, sir?' she said at last, losing patience. + +Certainly it was now or never, and I knew it. I made the effort. 'No, +mademoiselle,' I said in a low voice, 'Far from it. But I do not see +here the lady to whom I came to address myself, and whom I have seen a +hundred times in far other garb than yours, wet and weary and +dishevelled, in danger and in flight. Her I have served and loved; and +for her I have lived, I have had no thought for months that has not +been hers, nor care save for her. I and all that I have by the king's +bounty are hers, and I came to lay them at her feet. But I do not see +her here.' + +'No, sir? I she answered in a whisper, with her face averted. + +'No, mademoiselle.' + +With a sudden brightness and quickness which set my heart beating she +turned, and looked at me. 'Indeed!' she said. 'I am sorry for that. It +is a pity your love should be given elsewhere, M. de Marsac--since it +is the king's will that you should marry me.' + +'Ah, mademoiselle!' I cried, kneeling before her--for she had come +round the table and stood beside me--'But you?' + +'It is my will too, sir,' she answered, smiling through her tears. + + + * * * * * + + +On the following day Mademoiselle de la Vire became my wife; the +king's retreat from Paris, which was rendered necessary by the +desertion of many who were ill-affected to the Huguenots, compelling +the instant performance of the marriage, if we would have it read by +M. d'Amours. This haste notwithstanding, I was enabled by the kindness +of M. d'Agen to make such an appearance, in respect both of servants +and equipment, as became rather my future prospects than my past +distresses. It is true that His Majesty, out of a desire to do nothing +which might offend Turenne, did not honour us with his presence; but +Madame Catherine attended on his behalf, and herself gave me my bride. +M. de Sully and M. Crillon, with the Marquis de Rambouillet and his +nephew, and my distant connection, the Duke de Rohan, who first +acknowledged me on that day, were among those who earned my gratitude +by attending me upon the occasion. + +The marriage of M. Francois d'Agen with the widow of my old rival and +opponent did not take place until something more than a year later, a +delay which was less displeasing to me than to the bridegroom, +inasmuch as it left madame at liberty to bear my wife company during +my absence on the campaign of Arques and Ivry. In the latter battle, +which added vastly to the renown of M. de Rosny, who captured the +enemy's standard with his own hand, I had the misfortune to be wounded +in the second of the two charges led by the king; and being attacked +by two foot soldiers, as I lay entangled I must inevitably have +perished but for the aid afforded me by Simon Fleix, who flew to the +rescue with the courage of a veteran. His action was observed by the +king, who begged him from me, and attaching him to his own person in +the capacity of clerk, started him so fairly on the road to fortune +that he has since risen beyond hope or expectation. + +The means by which Henry won for a time the support of Turenne (and +incidentally procured his consent to my marriage) are now too +notorious to require explanation. Nevertheless, it was not until the +Vicomte's union a year later with Mademoiselle de la Marck, who +brought him the Duchy of Bouillon, that I thoroughly understood the +matter; or the kindness peculiar to the king, my master, which +impelled that great monarch, in the arrangement of affairs so vast, to +remember the interests of the least of his servants. + + + + + THE END. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Historical Romances: Under the Red +Robe, Count Hannibal, A Gentleman of France, by Stanley J. 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