diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:22:38 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:22:38 -0700 |
| commit | d291b90accd677f72a683f78f313922850eb1483 (patch) | |
| tree | 07cde11ee2e47be62b9833d61dd179e3afcc2d72 | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3952.txt | 3934 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3952.zip | bin | 0 -> 77561 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
5 files changed, 3950 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3952.txt b/3952.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8353c6b --- /dev/null +++ b/3952.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3934 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Cinq Mars, by Alfred de Vigny, v6 +#39 in our series The French Immortals Crowned by the French Academy +#6 in our series by Octave Feuillet + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. The words +are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they +need about what they can legally do with the texts. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These Etexts Are Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below, including for donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 + + + +Title: Cinq Mars, v6 + +Author: Alfred de Vigny + +Release Date: April, 2003 [Etext #3952] +[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule] +[The actual date this file first posted = 09/12/01] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Cinq Mars, by Alfred de Vigny, v6 +******This file should be named 3952.txt or 3952.zip****** + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any +of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our books one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to send us error messages even years after +the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our sites at: +https://gutenberg.org +http://promo.net/pg + + +Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement +can surf to them as follows, and just download by date; this is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 +or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release fifty new Etext +files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 3000+ +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 4,000 Etexts unless we +manage to get some real funding. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of July 12, 2001 contributions are only being solicited from people in: +Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, +Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, +Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North +Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, +Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, +Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in about 45 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, +additions to this list will be made and fund raising +will begin in the additional states. Please feel +free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork +to legally request donations in all 50 states. If +your state is not listed and you would like to know +if we have added it since the list you have, just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in +states where we are not yet registered, we know +of no prohibition against accepting donations +from donors in these states who approach us with +an offer to donate. + + +International donations are accepted, +but we don't know ANYTHING about how +to make them tax-deductible, or +even if they CAN be made deductible, +and don't have the staff to handle it +even if there are ways. + +All donations should be made to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541, +and has been approved as a 501(c)(3) organization by the US Internal +Revenue Service (IRS). Donations are tax-deductible to the maximum +extent permitted by law. As the requirements for other states are met, +additions to this list will be made and fund raising will begin in the +additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org +if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if +it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . . + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +*** + + +Example command-line FTP session: + +ftp ftp.ibiblio.org +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg +cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext02, etc. +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99] +GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books] + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this etext, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.07/27/01*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +CINQ MARS + +By ALFRED DE VIGNY + + + +BOOK 6 + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE STORM + + 'Blow, blow, thou winter wind; + Thou art not so unkind + As man's ingratitude. + Thy tooth is not so keen, + Because thou art not seen, + Although thy breath be rude. + Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly. + Most friendship is feigning; most loving mere folly.' + + SHAKESPEARE. + +Amid that long and superb chain of the Pyrenees which forms the embattled +isthmus of the peninsula, in the centre of those blue pyramids, covered +in gradation with snow, forests, and downs, there opens a narrow defile, +a path cut in the dried-up bed of a perpendicular torrent; it circulates +among rocks, glides under bridges of frozen snow, twines along the edges +of inundated precipices to scale the adjacent mountains of Urdoz and +Oleron, and at last rising over their unequal ridges, turns their +nebulous peak into a new country which has also its mountains and its +depths, and, quitting France, descends into Spain. Never has the hoof of +the mule left its trace in these windings; man himself can with +difficulty stand upright there, even with the hempen boots which can not +slip, and the hook of the pikestaff to force into the crevices of the +rocks. + +In the fine summer months the 'pastour', in his brown cape, and his black +long-bearded ram lead hither flocks, whose flowing wool sweeps the turf. +Nothing is heard in these rugged places but the sound of the large bells +which the sheep carry, and whose irregular tinklings produce unexpected +harmonies, casual gamuts, which astonish the traveller and delight the +savage and silent shepherd. But when the long month of September comes, +a shroud of snow spreads itself from the peak of the mountains down to +their base, respecting only this deeply excavated path, a few gorges open +by torrents, and some rocks of granite, which stretch out their +fantastical forms, like the bones of a buried world. + +It is then that light troops of chamois make their appearance, with their +twisted horns extending over their backs, spring from rock to rock as if +driven before the wind, and take possession of their aerial desert. +Flights of ravens and crows incessantly wheel round and round in the +gulfs and natural wells which they transform into dark dovecots, while +the brown bear, followed by her shaggy family, who sport and tumble +around her in the snow, slowly descends from their retreat invaded by the +frost. But these are neither the most savage nor the most cruel +inhabitants that winter brings into these mountains; the daring smuggler +raises for himself a dwelling of wood on the very boundary of nature and +of politics. There unknown treaties, secret exchanges, are made between +the two Navarres, amid fogs and winds. + +It was in this narrow path on the frontiers of France that, about two +months after the scenes we have witnessed in Paris, two travellers, +coming from Spain, stopped at midnight, fatigued and dismayed. They +heard musket-shots in the mountain. + +"The scoundrels! how they have pursued us!" said one of them. "I can +go no farther; but for you I should have been taken." + +"And you will be taken still, as well as that infernal paper, if you lose +your time in words; there is another volley on the rock of Saint Pierre- +de-L'Aigle. Up there, they suppose we have gone in the direction of the +Limacon; but, below, they will see the contrary. Descend; it is +doubtless a patrol hunting smugglers. Descend." + +"But how? I can not see." + +"Never mind, descend. Take my arm." + +"Hold me; my boots slip," said the first traveller, stamping on the edge +of the rock to make sure of the solidity of the ground before trusting +himself upon it. + +"Go on; go on!" said the other, pushing him. "There's one of the +rascals passing over our heads." + +And, in fact, the shadow of a man, armed with a long gun, was reflected +on the snow. The two adventurers stood motionless. The man passed on. +They continued their descent. + +"They will take us," said the one who was supporting the other. "They +have turned us. Give me your confounded parchment. I wear the dress of +a smuggler, and I can pass for one seeking an asylum among them; but you +would have no resource with your laced dress." + +"You are right," said his companion; and, resting his foot against the +edge of the rock, and reclining on the slope, he gave him a roll of +hollow wood. + +A gun was fired, and a ball buried itself, hissing, in the snow at their +feet. + +"Marked!" said the first. "Roll down. If you are not dead when you get +to the bottom, take the road you see before you. On the left of the +hollow is Santa Maria. But turn to the right; cross Oleron; and you are +on the road to Pau and are saved. Go; roll down." + +As he spoke, he pushed his comrade, and without condescending to look +after him, and himself neither ascending nor descending, followed the +flank of the mountain horizontally, hanging on by rocks, branches, and +even by plants, with the strength and energy of a wild-cat, and soon +found himself on firm ground before a small wooden hut, through which a +light was visible. The adventurer went all around it, like a hungry wolf +round a sheepfold, and, applying his eye to one of the openings, +apparently saw what determined him, for without further hesitation he +pushed the tottering door, which was not even fastened by a latch. The +whole but shook with the blow he had given it. He then saw that it was +divided into two cabins by a partition. A large flambeau of yellow wax +lighted the first. There, a young girl, pale and fearfully thin, was +crouched in a corner on the damp floor, just where the melted snow ran +under the planks of the cottage. Very long black hair, entangled and +covered with dust, fell in disorder over her coarse brown dress; the red +hood of the Pyrenees covered her head and shoulders. Her eyes were cast +down; and she was spinning with a small distaff attached to her waist. +The entry of a man did not appear to move her in the least. + +"Ha! La moza,--[girl]-- get up and give me something to drink. I am +tired and thirsty." + +The young girl did not answer, and, without raising her eyes, continued +to spin assiduously. + +"Dost hear?" said the stranger, thrusting her with his foot. "Go and +tell thy master that a friend wishes to see him; but first give me some +drink. I shall sleep here." + +She answered, in a hoarse voice, still spinning: + +"I drink the snow that melts on the rock, or the green scum that floats +on the water of the swamp. But when I have spun well, they give me water +from the iron spring. When I sleep, the cold lizards crawl over my face; +but when I have well cleaned a mule, they throw me hay. The hay is warm; +the hay is good and warm. I put it under my marble feet." + +"What tale art thou telling me?" said Jacques. "I spoke not of thee." + +She continued: + +"They make me hold a man while they kill him. Oh, what blood I have had +on my hands! God forgive them!--if that be possible. They make me hold +his head, and the bucket filled with crimson water. O Heaven!--I, who +was the bride of God! They throw their bodies into the abyss of snow; +but the vulture finds them; he lines his nest with their hair. I now see +thee full of life; I shall see thee bloody, pale, and dead." + +The adventurer, shrugging his shoulders, began to whistle as he passed +the second door. Within he found the man he had seen through the chinks +of the cabin. He wore the blue berret cap of the Basques on one side, +and, enveloped in an ample cloak, seated on the pack-saddle of a mule, +and bending over a large brazier, smoked a cigar, and from time to time +drank from a leather bottle at his side. The light of the brazier showed +his full yellow face, as well as the chamber, in which mule-saddles were +ranged round the byasero as seats. He raised his head without altering +his position. + +"Oh, oh! is it thou, Jacques?" he said. "Is it thou? Although 'tis +four years since I saw thee, I recognize thee. Thou art not changed, +brigand! There 'tis still, thy great knave's face. Sit down there, and +take a drink." + +"Yes, here I am. But how the devil camest thou here? I thought thou +wert a judge, Houmain!" + +"And I thought thou wert a Spanish captain, Jacques!" + +"Ah! I was so for a time, and then a prisoner. But I got out of the +thing very snugly, and have taken again to the old trade, the free life, +the good smuggling work." + +"Viva! viva! Jaleo!"--[A common Spanish oath.]-- cried Houmain. "We +brave fellows can turn our hands to everything. Thou camest by the other +passes, I suppose, for I have not seen thee since I returned to the +trade." + +"Yes, yes; I have passed where thou wilt never pass," said Jacques. + +"And what hast got?" + +"A new merchandise. My mules will come tomorrow." + +"Silk sashes, cigars, or linen?" + +"Thou wilt know in time, amigo," said the ruffian. "Give me the skin. +I'm thirsty." + +"Here, drink. It's true Valdepenas! We're so jolly here, we bandoleros! +Ay! jaleo! jaleo! come, drink; our friends are coming." + +"What friends?" said Jacques, dropping the horn. + +"Don't be uneasy, but drink. I'll tell thee all about it presently, and +then we'll sing the Andalusian Tirana."--[A kind of ballad.] + +The adventurer took the horn, and assumed an appearance of ease. + +"And who's that great she-devil I saw out there?" he said. "She seems +half dead." + +"Oh, no! she's only mad. Drink; I'll tell thee all about her." + +And taking from his red sash a long poniard denticulated on each side +like a saw, Houmain used it to stir up the fire, and said with vast +gravity: + +"Thou must know first, if thou dost not know it already, that down below +there [he pointed toward France] the old wolf Richelieu carries all +before him." + +"Ah, ah!" said Jacques. + +"Yes; they call him the king of the King. Thou knowest? There is, +however, a young man almost as strong as he, and whom they call Monsieur +le Grand. This young fellow commands almost the whole army of Perpignan +at this moment. He arrived there a month ago; but the old fox is still +at Narbonne--a very cunning fox, indeed. As to the King, he is sometimes +this, sometimes that [as he spoke, Houmain turned his hand outward and +inward], between zist and zest; but while he is determining, I am for +zist--that is to say, I'm a Cardinalist. I've been regularly doing +business for my lord since the first job he gave me, three years ago. +I'll tell thee about it. He wanted some men of firmness and spirit for a +little expedition, and sent for me to be judge-Advocate." + +"Ah! a very pretty post, I've heard." + +"Yes, 'tis a trade like ours, where they sell cord instead of thread; but +it is less honest, for they kill men oftener. But 'tis also more +profitable; everything has its price." + +"Very properly so," said Jacques. + +"Behold me, then, in a red robe. I helped to give a yellow one and +brimstone to a fine fellow, who was cure at Loudun, and who had got into +a convent of nuns, like a wolf in a fold; and a fine thing he made of +it." + +"Ha, ha, ha! That's very droll!" laughed Jacques. "Drink," said +Houmain. "Yes, Jago, I saw him after the affair, reduced to a little +black heap like this charcoal. See, this charcoal at the end of my +poniard. What things we are! That's just what we shall all come to when +we go to the Devil." + +"Oh, none of these pleasantries!" said the other, very gravely. "You +know that I am religious." + +"Well, I don't say no; it may be so," said Houmain, in the same tone. +"There's Richelieu, a Cardinal! But, no matter. Thou must know, then, +as I was Advocate-General, I advocated--" + +"Ah, thou art quite a wit!" + +"Yes, a little. But, as I was saying, I advocated into my own pocket +five hundred piastres, for Armand Duplessis pays his people well, and +there's nothing to be said against that, except that the money's not his +own; but that's the way with us all. I determined to invest this money +in our old trade; and I returned here. Business goes on well. There is +sentence of death out against us; and our goods, of course, sell for half +as much again as before." + +"What's that?" exclaimed Jacques; "lightning at this time of year?" + +"Yes, the storms are beginning; we've had two already. We are in the +clouds. Dost hear the roll of the thunder? But this is nothing; come, +drink. 'Tis almost one in the morning; we'll finish the skin and the +night together. As I was telling thee, I made acquaintance with our +president--a great scoundrel called Laubardemont. Dost know him?" + +"Yes, a little," said Jacques; "he's a regular miser. But never mind +that; go on." + +"Well, as we had nothing to conceal from one another, I told him of my +little commercial plans, and asked him, when any good jobs presented +themselves, to think of his judicial comrade; and I've had no cause to +complain of him." + +"Ah!" said Jacques, "and what has he done?" + +"Why, first, two years ago, he himself brought, me, on horseback behind +him, his niece that thou'st seen out there." + +"His niece!" cried Jacques, rising; "and thou treat'st her like a slave! +Demonio!" + +"Drink," said Houmain, quietly stirring the brazier with his poniard; "he +himself desired it should be so. Sit down." + +Jacques did so. + +"I don't think," continued the smuggler, "that he'd even be sorry to know +that she was--dost understand?--to hear she was under the snow rather +than above it; but he would not put her there himself, because he's a +good relative, as he himself said." + +"And as I know," said Jacques; "but go on." + +"Thou mayst suppose that a man like him, who lives at court, does not +like to have a mad niece in his house. The thing is self-evident; if I'd +continued to play my part of the man of the robe, I should have done the +same in a similar case. But here, as you perceive, we don't care much +for appearances; and I've taken her for a servant. She has shown more +good sense than I expected, although she has rarely ever spoken more than +a single word, and at first came the delicate over us. Now she rubs down +a mule like a groom. She has had a slight fever for the last few days; +but 'twill pass off one way or the other. But, I say, don't tell +Laubardemont that she still lives; he'd think 'twas for the sake of +economy I've kept her for a servant." + +"How! is he here?" cried Jacques. + +"Drink!" replied the phlegmatic Houmain, who himself set the example +most assiduously, and began to half shut his eyes with a languishing air. +"'Tis the second transaction I've had with this Laubardemont--or demon, +or whatever the name is; but 'tis a good devil of a demon, at all events. +I love him as I do my eyes; and I will drink his health out of this +bottle of Jurangon here. 'Tis the wine of a jolly fellow, the late King +Henry. How happy we are here!--Spain on the right hand, France on the +left; the wine-skin on one side, the bottle on the other! The bottle! +I've left all for the bottle!" + +As he spoke, he knocked off the neck of a bottle of white wine. After +taking a long draught, he continued, while the stranger closely watched +him: + +"Yes, he's here; and his feet must be rather cold, for he's been waiting +about the mountains ever since sunset, with his guards and our comrades. +Thou knowest our bandoleros, the true contrabandistas?" + +"Ah! and what do they hunt?" said Jacques. + +"Ah, that's the joke!" answered the drunkard. "'Tis to arrest two +rascals, who want to bring here sixty thousand Spanish soldiers in paper +in their pocket. You don't, perhaps, quite understand me, 'croquant'. +Well, 'tis as I tell thee--in their own pockets." + +"Ay, ay! I understand," said Jacques, loosening his poniard in his sash, +and looking at the door. + +"Very well, devil's-skin, let's sing the Tirana. Take the bottle, throw +away the cigar, and sing." + +With these words the drunken host began to sing in Spanish, interrupting +his song with bumpers, which he threw down his throat, leaning back for +the greater ease, while Jacques, still seated, looked at him gloomily by +the light of the brazier, and meditated what he should do. + +A flash of lightning entered the small window, and filled the room with a +sulphurous odor. A fearful clap immediately followed; the cabin shook; +and a beam fell outside. + +"Hallo, the house!" cried the drunken man; "the Devil's among us; and +our friends are not come!" + +"Sing!" said Jacques, drawing the pack upon which he was close to that +of Houmain. + +The latter drank to encourage himself, and then continued to sing. + +As he ended, he felt his seat totter, and fell backward; Jacques, thus +freed from him, sprang toward the door, when it opened, and his head +struck against the cold, pale face of the mad-woman. He recoiled. + +"The judge!" she said, as she entered; and she fell prostrate on the +cold ground. + +Jacques had already passed one foot over her; but another face appeared, +livid and surprised-that of a very tall man, enveloped in a cloak covered +with snow. He again recoiled, and laughed a laugh of terror and rage. +It was Laubardemont, followed by armed men; they looked at one another. + +"Ah, com-r-a-d-e, yo-a ra-a-scal!" hiccuped Houmain, rising with +difficulty; "thou'rt a Royalist." + +But when he saw these two men, who seemed petrified by each other, he +became silent, as conscious of his intoxication; and he reeled forward to +raise up the madwoman, who was still lying between the judge and the +Captain. The former spoke first. + +"Are you not he we have been pursuing?" + +"It is he!" said the armed men, with one voice; "the other has escaped." + +Jacques receded to the split planks that formed the tottering wall of the +hut; enveloping himself in his cloak, like a bear forced against a tree +by the hounds, and, wishing to gain a moment's respite for reflection, he +said, firmly: + +"The first who passes that brazier and the body of that girl is a dead +man." + +And he drew a long poniard from his cloak. At this moment Houmain, +kneeling, turned the head of the girl. Her eyes were closed; he drew her +toward the brazier, which lighted up her face. + +"Ah, heavens!" cried Laubardemont, forgetting himself in his fright; " +Jeanne again!" + +"Be calm, my lo-lord," said Houmain, trying to open the eyelids, which +closed again, and to raise her head, which fell back again like wet +linen; "be, be--calm! Do-n't ex-cite yourself; she's dead, decidedly." + +Jacques put his foot on the body as on a barrier, and, looking with a +ferocious laugh in the face of Laubardemont, said to him in a low voice: + +"Let me pass, and I will not compromise thee, courtier; I will not tell +that she was thy niece, and that I am thy son." + +Laubardemont collected himself, looked at his men, who pressed around him +with advanced carabines; and, signing them to retire a few steps, he +answered in a very low voice: + +"Give me the treaty, and thou shalt pass." + +"Here it is, in my girdle; touch it, and I will call you my father aloud. +What will thy master say?" + +"Give it me, and I will spare thy life." + +"Let me pass, and I will pardon thy having given me that life." + +"Still the same, brigand?" + +"Ay, assassin." + +"What matters to thee that boy conspirator?" asked the judge. + +"What matters to thee that old man who reigns?" answered the other. + +"Give me that paper; I've sworn to have it." + +"Leave it with me; I've sworn to carry it back." + +"What can be thy oath and thy God?" demanded Laubardemont. + +"And thine?" replied Jacques. "Is't the crucifix of red-hot iron?" + +Here Houmain, rising between them, laughing and staggering, said to the +judge, slapping him on the shoulder. + +"You are a long time coming to an understanding, friend; do-on't you know +him of old? He's a very good fellow." + +"I? no!" cried Laubardemont, aloud; "I never saw him before." + +At this moment, Jacques, who was protected by the drunkard and the +smallness of the crowded chamber, sprang violently against the weak +planks that formed the wall, and by a blow of his heel knocked two of +them out, and passed through the space thus created. The whole side of +the cabin was broken; it tottered, and the wind rushed in. + +"Hallo! Demonio! Santo Demonio! where art going?" cried the smuggler; +"thou art breaking my house down, and on the side of the ravine, too." + +All cautiously approached, tore away the planks that remained, and leaned +over the abyss. They contemplated a strange spectacle. The storm raged +in all its fury; and it was a storm of the Pyrenees. Enormous flashes of +lightning came all at once from all parts of the horizon, and their fires +succeeded so quickly that there seemed no interval; they appeared to be a +continuous flash. It was but rarely the flaming vault would suddenly +become obscure; and it then instantly resumed its glare. It was not the +light that seemed strange on this night, but the darkness. + +The tall thin peaks and whitened rocks stood out from the red background +like blocks of marble on a cupola of burning brass, and resembled, amid +the snows, the wonders of a volcano; the waters gushed from them like +flames; the snow poured down like dazzling lava. + +In this moving mass a man was seen struggling, whose efforts only +involved him deeper and deeper in the whirling and liquid gulf; his knees +were already buried. In vain he clasped his arms round an enormous +pyramidal and transparent icicle, which reflected the lightning like a +rock of crystal; the icicle itself was melting at its base, and slowly +bending over the declivity of the rock. Under the covering of snow, +masses of granite were heard striking against each other, as they +descended into the vast depths below. Yet they could still save him; +a space of scarcely four feet separated him from Laubardemont. + +"I sink!" he cried; "hold out to me something, and thou shalt have the +treaty." + +"Give it me, and I will reach thee this musket," said the judge. + +"There it is," replied the ruffian, "since the Devil is for Richelieu!" +and taking one hand from the hold of his slippery support, he threw a +roll of wood into the cabin. Laubardemont rushed back upon the treaty +like a wolf on his prey. Jacques in vain held out his arm; he slowly +glided away with the enormous thawing block turned upon him, and was +silently buried in the snow. + +"Ah, villain," were his last words, "thou hast deceived me! but thou +didst not take the treaty from me. I gave it thee, Father!" and he +disappeared wholly under the thick white bed of snow. Nothing was seen +in his place but the glittering flakes which the lightning had ploughed +up, as it became extinguished in them; nothing was--heard but the rolling +of the thunder and the dash of the water against the rocks, for the men +in the half-ruined cabin, grouped round a corpse and a villain, were +silent, tongue-tied with horror, and fearing lest God himself should send +a thunderbolt upon them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +ABSENCE + + L'absence est le plus grand des maux, + Non pas pour vous, cruelle ! + + LA FONTAINE. + +Who has not found a charm in watching the clouds of heaven as they float +along? Who has not envied them the freedom of their journeyings through +the air, whether rolled in great masses by the wind, and colored by the +sun, they advance peacefully, like fleets of dark ships with gilt prows, +or sprinkled in light groups, they glide quickly on, airy and elongated, +like birds of passage, transparent as vast opals detached from the +treasury of the heavens, or glittering with whiteness, like snows from +the mountains carried on the wings of the winds? Man is a slow traveller +who envies those rapid journeyers; less rapid than his imagination, they +have yet seen in a single day all the places he loves, in remembrance or +in hope,--those that have witnessed his happiness or his misery, and +those so beautiful countries unknown to us, where we expect to find +everything at once. Doubtless there is not a spot on the whole earth, a +wild rock, an arid plain, over which we pass with indifference, that has +not been consecrated in the life of some man, and is not painted in his +remembrance; for, like battered vessels, before meeting inevitable wreck, +we leave some fragment of ourselves on every rock. + +Whither go the dark-blue clouds of that storm of the Pyrenees? It is the +wind of Africa which drives them before it with a fiery breath. They +fly; they roll over one another, growlingly throwing out lightning before +them, as their torches, and leaving suspended behind them a long train of +rain, like a vaporous robe. Freed by an effort from the rocky defiles +that for a moment had arrested their course, they irrigate, in Bearn, the +picturesque patrimony of Henri IV; in Guienne, the conquests of Charles +VII; in Saintogne, Poitou, and Touraine, those of Charles V and of Philip +Augustus; and at last, slackening their pace above the old domain of Hugh +Capet, halt murmuring on the towers of St. Germain. + +"O Madame!" exclaimed Marie de Mantua to the Queen, "do you see this +storm coming up from the south?" + +"You often look in that direction, 'ma chere'," answered Anne of Austria, +leaning on the balcony. + +"It is the direction of the sun, Madame." + +"And of tempests, you see," said the Queen. "Trust in my friendship, my +child; these clouds can bring no happiness to you. I would rather see +you turn your eyes toward Poland. See the fine people you might +command." + +At this moment, to avoid the rain, which began to fall, the Prince- +Palatine passed rapidly under the windows of the Queen, with a numerous +suite of young Poles on horseback. Their Turkish vests, with buttons of +diamonds, emeralds, and rubies; their green and gray cloaks; the lofty +plumes of their horses, and their adventurous air-gave them a singular +eclat to which the court had easily become accustomed. They paused for a +moment, and the Prince made two salutes, while the light animal he rode +passed gracefully sideways, keeping his front toward the princesses; +prancing and snorting, he shook his mane, and seemed to salute by putting +his head between his legs. The whole suite repeated the evolution as +they passed. The Princesse Marie had at first shrunk back, lest they +should see her tears; but the brilliant and flattering spectacle made her +return to the balcony, and she could not help exclaiming: + +"How gracefully the Palatine rides that beautiful horse! he seems scarce +conscious of it." + +The Queen smiled, and said: + +"He is conscious about her who might be his queen tomorrow, if she would +but make a sign of the head, and let but one glance from her great black +almond-shaped eyes be turned on that throne, instead of always receiving +these poor foreigners with poutings, as now." + +And Anne of Austria kissed the cheek of Marie, who could not refrain from +smiling also; but she instantly sunk her head, reproaching herself, and +resumed her sadness, which seemed gliding from her. She even needed once +more to contemplate the great clouds that hung over the chateau. + +"Poor child," continued the Queen, "thou dost all thou canst to be very +faithful, and to keep thyself in the melancholy of thy romance. Thou art +making thyself ill with weeping when thou shouldst be asleep, and with +not eating. Thou passest the night in revery and in writing; but I warn +thee, thou wilt get nothing by it, except making thyself thin and less +beautiful, and the not being a queen. Thy Cinq-Mars is an ambitious +youth, who has lost himself." + +Seeing Marie conceal her head in her handkerchief to weep, Anne of +Austria for a moment reentered her chamber, leaving Marie in the balcony, +and feigned to be looking for some jewels at her toilet-table; she soon +returned, slowly and gravely, to the window. Marie was more calm, and +was gazing sorrowfully at the landscape before her, the hills in the +distance, and the storm gradually spreading itself. + +The Queen resumed in a more serious tone: + +"God has been more merciful to you than your imprudence perhaps deserved, +Marie. He has saved you from great danger. You were willing to make +great sacrifices, but fortunately they have not been accomplished as you +expected. Innocence has saved you from love. You are as one who, +thinking she has swallowed a deadly poison, has in reality drunk only +pure and harmless water." + +"Ah, Madame, what mean you? Am I not unhappy enough already?" + +"Do not interrupt me," said the Queen; "you will, ere long, see your +present position with different eyes. I will not accuse you of +ingratitude toward the Cardinal; I have too many reasons for not liking +him. I myself witnessed the rise of the conspiracy. Still, you should +remember, 'ma chere', that he was the only person in France who, against +the opinion of the Queen-mother and of the court, insisted upon war with +the duchy of Mantua, which he recovered from the empire and from Spain, +and returned to the Duc de Nevers, your father. Here, in this very +chateau of Saint-Germain, was signed the treaty which deposed the Duke of +Guastalla.--[The 19th of May, 1632.]-- You were then very young; they +must, however, have told you of it. Yet here, through love alone (I am +willing to believe, with yourself, that it is so), a young man of two- +and-twenty is ready to get him assassinated." + +"O Madame, he is incapable of such a deed. I swear to you that he has +refused to adopt it." + +"I have begged you, Marie, to let me speak. I know that he is generous +and loyal. I am willing to believe that, contrary to the custom of our +times, he would not go so far as to kill an old man, as did the Chevalier +de Guise. But can he prevent his assassination, if his troops make him +prisoner? This we can not say, any more than he. God alone knows the +future. It is, at all events, certain that it is for you he attacks him, +and, to overthrow him, is preparing civil war, which perhaps is bursting +forth at the very moment that we speak--a war without success. Whichever +way it turns, it can only effect evil, for Monsieur is going to abandon +the conspiracy." + +"How, Madame?" + +"Listen to me. I tell you I am certain of it; I need not explain myself +further. What will the grand ecuyer do? The King, as he rightly +anticipated, has gone to consult the Cardinal. To consult him is to +yield to him; but the treaty of Spain is signed. If it be discovered, +what can Monsieur de Cinq-Mars do? Do not tremble thus. We will save +him; we will save his life, I promise you. There is yet time, I hope." + +"Ah, Madame, you hope! I am lost!" cried Marie, half fainting. + +"Let us sit down," said the Queen; and, placing herself near Marie, at +the entrance to the chamber, she continued: + +"Doubtless Monsieur will treat for all the conspirators in treating for +himself; but exile will be the least punishment, perpetual exile. +Behold, then, the Duchesse de Nevers and Mantua, the Princesse Marie de +Gonzaga, the wife of Monsieur Henri d'Effiat, Marquis de Cinq-Mars, +exiled!" + +"Well, Madame, I will follow him into exile. It is my duty; I am his +wife!" exclaimed Marie, sobbing. "I would I knew he were already +banished and in safety." + +"Dreams of eighteen!" said the Queen, supporting Marie. "Awake, child, +awake! you must. I deny not the good qualities of Monsieur de Cinq- +Mars. He has a lofty character, a vast mind, and great courage; but he +may no longer be aught for you, and, fortunately, you are not his wife, +or even his betrothed." + +"I am his, Madame-his alone." + +"But without the benediction," replied Anne of Austria; "in a word, +without marriage. No priest would have dared--not even your own; he told +me so. Be silent!" she added, putting her two beautiful hands on +Marie's lips. "Be silent! You would say that God heard your vow; that +you can not live without him; that your destinies are inseparable from +his; that death alone can break your union? The phrases of your age, +delicious chimeras of a moment, at which one day you will smile, happy at +not having to lament them all your life. Of the many and brilliant women +you see around me at court, there is not one but at your age had some +beautiful dream of love, like this of yours, who did not form those ties, +which they believed indissoluble, and who did not in secret take eternal +oaths. Well, these dreams are vanished, these knots broken, these oaths +forgotten; and yet you see them happy women and mothers. Surrounded by +the honors of their rank, they laugh and dance every night. I again +divine what you would say--they loved not as you love, eh? You deceive +yourself, my dear child; they loved as much, and wept no less. + +"And here I must make you acquainted with that great mystery which +constitutes your despair, since you are ignorant of the malady that +devours you. We have a twofold existence, 'm'amie': our internal life, +that of our feelings powerfully works within us, while the external life +dominates despite ourselves. We are never independent of men, more +especially in an elevated condition. Alone, we think ourselves +mistresses of our destiny; but the entrance of two or three people +fastens on all our chains, by recalling our rank and our retinue. Nay; +shut yourself up and abandon yourself to all the daring and extraordinary +resolutions that the passions may raise up in you, to the marvellous +sacrifices they may suggest to you. A lackey coming and asking your +orders will at once break the charm and bring you back to your real life. +It is this contest between your projects and your position which destroys +you. You are invariably angry with yourself; you bitterly reproach +yourself." + +Marie turned away her head. + +"Yes, you believe yourself criminal. Pardon yourself, Marie; all men are +beings so relative and so dependent one upon another that I know not +whether the great retreats of the world that we sometimes see are not +made for the world itself. Despair has its pursuits, and solitude its +coquetry. It is said that the gloomiest hermits can not refrain from +inquiring what men say of them. This need of public opinion is +beneficial, in that it combats, almost always victoriously, that which is +irregular in our imagination, and comes to the aid of duties which we too +easily forget. One experiences (you will feel it, I hope) in returning +to one's proper lot, after the sacrifice of that which had diverted the +reason, the satisfaction of an exile returning to his family, of a sick +person at sight of the sun after a night afflicted with frightful dreams. + +"It is this feeling of a being returned, as it were, to its natural state +that creates the calm which you see in many eyes that have also had their +tears-for there are few women who have not known tears such as yours. +You would think yourself perjured if you renounced Cinq-Mars! But +nothing binds you; you have more than acquitted yourself toward him by +refusing for more than two years past the royal hands offered you. And, +after all, what has he done, this impassioned lover? He has elevated +himself to reach you; but may not the ambition which here seems to you to +have aided love have made use of that love? This young man seems to me +too profound, too calm in his political stratagems, too independent in +his vast resolutions, in his colossal enterprises, for me to believe him +solely occupied by his tenderness. If you have been but a means instead +of an end, what would you say?" + +"I would still love him," answered Marie. "While he lives, I am his." + +"And while I live," said the Queen, with firmness, "I will oppose the +alliance." + +At these last words the rain and hail fell violently on the balcony. +The Queen took advantage of the circumstance abruptly to leave the room +and pass into that where the Duchesse de Chevreuse, Mazarin, Madame de +Guemenee, and the Prince-Palatine had been awaiting her for a short time. +The Queen walked up to them. Marie placed herself in the shade of a +curtain in order to conceal the redness of her eyes. She was at first +unwilling to take part in the sprightly conversation; but some words of +it attracted her attention. The Queen was showing to the Princesse de +Guemenee diamonds she had just received from Paris. + +"As for this crown, it does not belong to me. The King had it prepared +for the future Queen of Poland. Who that is to be, we know not." Then +turning toward the Prince-Palatine, "We saw you pass, Prince. Whom were +you going to visit?" + +"Mademoiselle la Duchesse de Rohan," answered the Pole. + +The insinuating Mazarin, who availed himself of every opportunity to worm +out secrets, and to make himself necessary by forced confidences, said, +approaching the Queen: + +"That comes very apropos, just as we were speaking of the crown of +Poland." + +Marie, who was listening, could not hear this, and said to Madame de +Guemenee, who was at her side: + +"Is Monsieur de Chabot, then, King of Poland?" + +The Queen heard that, and was delighted at this touch of pride. In order +to develop its germ, she affected an approving attention to the +conversation that ensued. + +The Princesse de Guemenee exclaimed: + +"Can you conceive such a marriage? We really can't get it out of our +heads. This same Mademoiselle de Rohan, whom we have seen so haughty, +after having refused the Comte de Soissons, the Duc de Weimar, and the +Duc de Nemours, to marry Monsieur de Chabot, a simple gentleman! 'Tis +really a sad pity! What are we coming to? 'Tis impossible to say what +it will all end in." + +"What! can it be true? Love at court! a real love affair! Can it be +believed?" + +All this time the Queen continued opening and shutting and playing with +the new crown. + +"Diamonds suit only black hair," she said. "Let us see. Let me put it +on you, Marie. Why, it suits her to admiration!" + +"One would suppose it had been made for Madame la Princesse," said the +Cardinal. + +"I would give the last drop of my blood for it to remain on that brow," +said the Prince-Palatine. + +Marie, through the tears that were still on her cheek, gave an infantine +and involuntary smile, like a ray of sunshine through rain. Then, +suddenly blushing deeply, she hastily took refuge in her apartments. + +All present laughed. The Queen followed her with her eyes, smiled, +presented her hand for the Polish ambassador to kiss, and retired to +write a letter. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE WORK + +One night, before Perpignan, a very unusual event took place. It was ten +o'clock; and all were asleep. The slow and almost suspended operations +of the siege had rendered the camp and the town inactive. The Spaniards +troubled themselves little about the French, all communication toward +Catalonia being open as in time of peace; and in the French army men's +minds were agitated with that secret anxiety which precedes great events. + +Yet all was calm; no sound was heard but that of the measured tread of +the sentries. Nothing was seen in the dark night but the red light of +the matches of their guns, always smoking, when suddenly the trumpets of +the musketeers, of the light-horse, and of the men-at-arms sounded almost +simultaneously, "boot and saddle," and "to horse." All the sentinels +cried to arms; and the sergeants, with flambeaux, went from tent to tent, +along pike in their hands, to waken the soldiers, range them in lines, +and count them. Some files marched in gloomy silence along the streets +of the camp, and took their position in battle array. The sound of the +mounted squadrons announced that the heavy cavalry were making the same +dispositions. After half an hour of movement the noise ceased, the +torches were extinguished, and all again became calm, but the army was on +foot. + +One of the last tents of the camp shone within as a star with flambeaux. +On approaching this little white and transparent pyramid, we might have +distinguished the shadows of two men reflected on the canvas as they +walked to and fro within. Outside several men on horseback were in +attendance; inside were De Thou and Cinq-Mars. + +To see the pious and wise De Thou thus up and armed at this hour, you +might have taken him for one of the chiefs of the revolt. But a closer +examination of his serious countenance and mournful expression +immediately showed that he blamed it, and allowed himself to be led into +it and endangered by it from an extraordinary resolution which aided him +to surmount the horror he had of the enterprise itself. From the day +when Henri d'Effiat had opened his heart and confided to him its whole +secret, he had seen clearly that all remonstrance was vain with a young +man so powerfully resolved. + +De Thou had even understood what M. de Cinq-Mars had not told him, +and had seen in the secret union of his friend with the Princesse Marie, +one of those ties of love whose mysterious and frequent faults, +voluptuous and involuntary derelictions, could not be too soon purified +by public benediction. He had comprehended that punishment, impossible +to be supported long by a lover, the adored master of that young girl, +and who was condemned daily to appear before her as a stranger, to +receive political disclosures of marriages they were preparing for her. +The day when he received his entire confession, he had done all in his +power to prevent Cinq-Mars going so far in his projects as the foreign +alliance. He had evoked the gravest recollections and the best feelings, +without any other result than rendering the invincible resolution of his +friend more rude toward him. Cinq-Mars, it will be recollected, had said +to him harshly, "Well, did I ask you to take part in this conspiracy?" +And he had desired only to promise not to denounce it; and he had +collected all his power against friendship to say, "Expect nothing +further from me if you sign this treaty." Yet Cinq-Mars had signed the +treaty; and De Thou was still there with him. + +The habit of familiarly discussing the projects of his friend had perhaps +rendered them less odious to him. His contempt for the vices of the +Prime-Minister; his indignation at the servitude of the parliaments to +which his family belonged, and at the corruption of justice; the powerful +names, and more especially the noble characters of the men who directed +the enterprise--all had contributed to soften down his first painful +impression. Having once promised secrecy to M. de Cinq-Mars, he +considered himself as in a position to accept in detail all the secondary +disclosures; and since the fortuitous event which had compromised him +with the conspirators at the house of Marion de Lorme, he considered +himself united to them by honor, and engaged to an inviolable secrecy. +Since that time he had seen Monsieur, the Duc de Bouillon, and +Fontrailles; they had become accustomed to speak before him without +constraint, and he to hear them. + +The dangers which threatened his friend now drew him into their vortex +like an invincible magnet. His conscience accused him; but he followed +Cinq-Mars wherever he went without even, from excess of delicacy, +hazarding a single expression which might resemble a personal fear. He +had tacitly given up his life, and would have deemed it unworthy of both +to manifest a desire to regain it. + +The master of the horse was in his cuirass; he was armed, and wore large +boots. An enormous pistol, with a lighted match, was placed upon his +table between two flambeaux. A heavy watch in a brass case lay near the +pistol. De Thou, wrapped in a black cloak, sat motionless with folded +arms. Cinq-Mars paced backward and forward, his arms crossed behind his +back, from time to time looking at the hand of the watch, too sluggish in +his eyes. He opened the tent, looked up to the heavens, and returned. + +"I do not see my star there," said he; "but no matter. She is here in my +heart." + +"The night is dark," said De Thou. + +"Say rather that the time draws nigh. It advances, my friend; it +advances. Twenty minutes more, and all will be accomplished. The army +only waits the report of this pistol to begin." + +De Thou held in his hand an ivory crucifix, and looking first at the +cross, and then toward heaven, "Now," said he, "is the hour to complete +the sacrifice. I repent not; but oh, how bitter is the cup of sin to my +lips! I had vowed my days to innocence and to the works of the soul, +and here I am about to commit a crime, and to draw the sword." + +But forcibly seizing the hand of Cinq-Mars, "It is for you, for you!" +he added with the enthusiasm of a blindly devoted heart. "I rejoice in +my errors if they turn to your glory. I see but your happiness in my +fault. Forgive me if I have returned for a moment to the habitual +thought of my whole life." + +Cinq-Mars looked steadfastly at him; and a tear stole slowly down his +cheek. + +"Virtuous friend," said he, "may your fault fall only on my head! But +let us hope that God, who pardons those who love, will be for us; for we +are criminal--I through love, you through friendship." + +Then suddenly looking at the watch, he took the long pistol in his hand, +and gazed at the smoking match with a fierce air. His long hair fell +over his face like the mane of a young lion. + +"Do not consume," said he; "burn slowly. Thou art about to light a flame +which the waves of ocean can not extinguish. The flame will soon light +half Europe; it may perhaps reach the wood of thrones. Burn slowly, +precious flame! The winds which fan thee are violent and fearful; they +are love and hatred. Reserve thyself! Thy explosion will be heard afar, +and will find echoes in the peasant's but and the king's palace. + +Burn, burn, poor flame! Thou art to me a sceptre and a thunderbolt!" + +De Thou, still holding his ivory crucifix in his hand, said in a low +voice: + +"Lord, pardon us the blood that will be shed! We combat the wicked and +the impious." Then, raising his voice, "My friend, the cause of virtue +will triumph," he said; "it alone will triumph. God has ordained that +the guilty treaty should not reach us; that which constituted the crime +is no doubt destroyed. We shall fight without the foreigners, and +perhaps we shall not fight at all. God will change the heart of the +king." + +"'Tis the hour! 'tis the hour!" exclaimed Cinq-Mars, his eyes fixed upon +the watch with a kind of savage joy; "four minutes more, and the +Cardinalists in the camp will be crushed! We shall march upon Narbonne! +He is there! Give me the pistol!" + +At these words he hastily opened the tent, and took up the match. + +"A courier from Paris! an express from court!" cried a voice outside, +as a man, heated with hard riding and overcome with fatigue, threw +himself from his horse, entered, and presented a letter to Cinq-Mars. + +"From the Queen, Monseigneur," he said. Cinq-Mars turned pale, and read +as follows: + + M. DE CINQ-MARS: I write this letter to entreat and conjure you to + restore to her duties our well-beloved adopted daughter and friend, + the Princesse Marie de Gonzaga, whom your affection alone turns from + the throne of Poland, which has been offered to her. I have sounded + her heart. She is very young, and I have good reason to believe + that she would accept the crown with less effort and less grief than + you may perhaps imagine. + + It is for her you have undertaken a war which will put to fire and + sword my beautiful and beloved France. I supplicate and implore you + to act as a gentleman, and nobly to release the Duchesse de Mantua + from the promises she may have made you. Thus restore repose to her + soul, and peace to our beloved country. + + The Queen, who will throw herself at your feet if need be, + + ANNE. + +Cinq-Mars calmly replaced the pistol upon the table; his first impulse +had been to turn its muzzle upon himself. However, he laid it down, and +snatching a pencil, wrote on the back of the letter; + + MADAME: Marie de Gonzaga, being my wife, can not be Queen of Poland + until after my death. I die. + + CINQ-MARS. + +Then, as if he would not allow himself time for a moment's reflection, he +forced the letter into the hands of the courier. + +"To horse! to horse!" cried he, in a furious tone. "If you remain +another instant, you are a dead man!" + +He saw him gallop off, and reentered the tent. Alone with his friend, he +remained an instant standing, but pale, his eyes fixed, and looking on +the ground like a madman. He felt himself totter. + +"De Thou!" he cried. + +"What would you, my friend, my dear friend? I am with you. You have +acted grandly, most grandly, sublimely!" + +"De Thou!" he cried again, in a hollow voice, and fell with his face to +the ground, like an uprooted tree. + +Violent tempests assume different aspects, according to the climates in +which they take place. Those which have spread over a terrible space in +northern countries assemble into one single cloud under the torrid zone-- +the more formidable, that they leave the horizon in all its purity, and +that the furious waves still reflect the azure of heaven while tinged +with the blood of man. It is the same with great passions. They assume +strange aspects according to our characters; but how terrible are they in +vigorous hearts, which have preserved their force under the veil of +social forms? When youth and despair embrace, we know not to what fury +they may rise, or what may be their sudden resignation; we know not +whether the volcano will burst the mountain or become suddenly +extinguished within its entrails. + +De Thou, in alarm, raised his friend. The blood gushed from his nostrils +and ears; he would have thought him dead, but .for the torrents of tears +which flowed from his eyes. They were the only sign of life. Suddenly +he opened his lids, looked around him, and by an extraordinary energy +resumed his senses and the power of his will. + +"I am in the presence of men," said he; "I must finish with them. My +friend, it is half-past eleven; the hour for the signal has passed. +Give, in my name, the order to return to quarters. It was a false alarm, +which I will myself explain this evening." + +De Thou had already perceived the importance of this order; he went out +and returned immediately. + +He found Cinq-Mars seated, calm, and endeavoring to cleanse the blood +from his face. + +"De Thou," said he, looking fixedly at him, "retire; you disturb me." + +"I leave you not," answered the latter. + +"Fly, I tell you! the Pyrenees are not far distant. I can not speak +much longer, even to you; but if you remain with me, you will die. I +give you warning." + +"I remain," repeated De Thou. + +"May God preserve you, then!" answered Cinq-Mars, "for I can do nothing +more; the moment has passed. I leave you here. Call Fontrailles and all +the confederates: distribute these passports among them. Let them fly +immediately; tell them all has failed, but that I thank them. For you, +once again I say, fly with them, I entreat you; but whatever you do, +follow me not--follow me not, for your life! I swear to you not to do +violence to myself!" + +With these words, shaking his friend's hand without looking at him, he +rushed from the tent. + +Meantime, some leagues thence another conversation was taking place. At +Narbonne, in the same cabinet in which we formerly beheld Richelieu +regulating with Joseph the interests of the State, were still seated the +same men, nearly as we have described them. The minister, however, had +grown much older in three years of suffering; and the Capuchin was as +much terrified with the result of his expedition as his master appeared +tranquil. + +The Cardinal, seated in his armchair, his legs bound and encased with +furs and warm clothing, had upon his knees three kittens, which gambolled +upon his scarlet robe. Every now and then he took one of them and placed +it upon the others, to continue their sport. He smiled as he watched +them. On his feet lay their mother, looking like an enormous animated +muff. + +Joseph, seated near him, was going over the account of all he had heard +in the confessional. Pale even now, at the danger he had run of being +discovered, or of being murdered by Jacques, he concluded thus: + +"In short, your Eminence, I can not help feeling agitated to my heart's +core when I reflect upon the dangers which have, and still do, threaten +you. Assassins offer themselves to poniard you. I beheld in France the +whole court against you, one half of the army, and two provinces. +Abroad, Spain and Portugal are ready to furnish troops. Everywhere there +are snares or battles, poniards or cannon." + +The Cardinal yawned three times, without discontinuing his amusement, and +then said: + +"A cat is a very fine animal. It is a drawing-room tiger. What +suppleness, what extraordinary finesse! Here is this little yellow one +pretending to sleep, in order that the tortoise-shell one may not notice +it, but fall upon its brother; and this one, how it tears the other! See +how it sticks its claws into its side! It would kill and eat it, I fully +believe, if it were the stronger. It is very amusing. What pretty +animals!" + +He coughed and sneezed for some time; then he continued: + +"Messire Joseph, I sent word to you not to speak to me of business until +after my supper. . . I have an appetite now, and it is not yet my hour. +Chicot, my doctor, recommends regularity, and I feel my usual pain in my +side. This is how I shall spend the evening," he added, looking at the +clock. "At nine, we will settle the affairs of Monsieur le Grand. At +ten, I shall be carried round the garden to take the air by moonlight. +Then I shall sleep for an hour or two. At midnight the King will be +here; and at four o'clock you may return to receive the various orders +for arrests, condemnations, or any others I may have to give you, for the +provinces, Paris, or the armies of his Majesty." + +Richelieu said all this in the same tone of voice, with a uniform +enunciation, affected only by the weakness of his chest and the loss of +several teeth. + +It was seven in the evening. The Capuchin withdrew. The Cardinal supped +with the greatest tranquillity; and when the clock struck half-past +eight, he sent for Joseph, and said to him, when he was seated: + +"This, then, is all they have been able to do against me during more than +two years. They are poor creatures, truly! The Duc de Bouillon, whom I +thought possessed some ability, has forfeited all claim to my opinion. +I have watched him closely; and I ask you, has he taken one step worthy +of a true statesman? The King, Monsieur, and the rest, have only shown +their teeth against me, and without depriving me of one single man. The +young Cinq-Mars is the only man among them who has any consecutiveness of +ideas. All that he has done has been done surprisingly well. I must do +him justice; he had good qualities. I should have made him my pupil, had +it not been for his obstinate character. But he has here charged me +'a l'outrance, and must take the consequences. I am sorry for him. +I have left them to float about in open water for the last two years. +I shall now draw the net." + +"It is time, Monseigneur," said Joseph, who often trembled involuntarily +as he spoke. "Do you bear in mind that from Perpignan to Narbonne the +way is short? Do you know that if your army here is powerful, your own +troops are weak and uncertain; that the young nobles are furious; and +that the King is not sure?" + +The Cardinal looked at the clock. + +"It is only half-past eight, Joseph. I have already told you that I will +not talk about this affair until nine. Meantime, as justice must be +done, you will write what I shall dictate, for my memory serves me well. +There are still some objectionable persons left, I see by my notes--four +of the judges of Urbain Grandier. He was a rare genius, that Urbain +Grandier," he added, with a malicious expression. Joseph bit his lips. +"All the other judges have died miserably. As to Houmain, he shall be +hanged as a smuggler by and by. We may leave him alone for the present. +But there is that horrible Lactantius, who lives peacefully, Barre, and +Mignon. Take a pen, and write to the Bishop of Poitiers, + + "MONSEIGNEUR: It is his Majesty's pleasure that Fathers Mignon and + Barre be superseded in their cures, and sent with the shortest + possible delay to the town of Lyons, with Father Lactantius, + Capuchin, to be tried before a special tribunal, charged with + criminal intentions against the State." + +Joseph wrote as coolly as a Turk strikes off a head at a sign from his +master. The Cardinal said to him, while signing the letter: + +"I will let you know how I wish them to disappear, for it is important to +efface all traces of that affair. Providence has served me well. In +removing these men, I complete its work. That is all that posterity +shall know of the affair." + +And he read to the Capuchin that page of his memoirs in which he recounts +the possession and sorceries of the magician.--[Collect. des Memoires +xxviii. 189.]--During this slow process, Joseph could not help looking +at the clock. + +"You are anxious to come to Monsieur le Grand," said the Cardinal at +last. "Well, then, to please you, let us begin." + +"Do you think I have not my reasons for being tranquil? You think that I +have allowed these poor conspirators to go too far. No, no! Here are +some little papers that would reassure you, did you know their contents. +First, in this hollow stick is the treaty with Spain, seized at Oleron. +I am well satisfied with Laubardemont; he is an able man." + +The fire of ferocious jealousy sparkled under the thick eyebrows of the +monk. + +"Ah, Monseigneur," said he, "you know not from whom he seized it. He +certainly suffered him to die, and in that respect we can not complain, +for he was the agent of the conspiracy; but it was his son." + +"Say you the truth?" cried the Cardinal, in a severe tone. "Yes, for +you dare not lie to me. How knew you this?" + +"From his attendants, Monsiegneur. Here are their reports. They will +testify to them." + +The Cardinal having examined these papers, said: + +"We will employ him once more to try our conspirators, and then you shall +do as you like with him. I give him to you." + +Joseph joyfully pocketed his precious denunciations, and continued: + +"Your Eminence speaks of trying men who are still armed and on +horseback." + +"They are not all so. Read this letter from Monsieur to Chavigny. He +asks for pardon. He dared not address me the first day, and his prayers +rose no higher than the knees of one of my servants. + + To M. de Chavigny: + + M. DE CHAVIGNY: Although I believe that you are little satisfied + with me (and in truth you have reason to be dissatisfied), I do not + the less entreat you to endeavor my reconciliation with his + Eminence, and rely for this upon the true love you bear me, and + which, I believe, is greater than your anger. You know how much I + require to be relieved from the danger I am in. You have already + twice stood my friend with his Eminence. I swear to you this shall + be the last time I give you such an employment. + GASTON D'ORLEANS. + + +"But the next day he took courage, and sent this to myself, + + To his Excellency the Cardinal-Duc: + + MY COUSIN: This ungrateful M. le Grand is the most guilty man in the + world to have displeased you. The favors he received from his + Majesty have always made me doubtful of him and his artifices. For + you, my cousin, I retain my whole esteem. I am truly repentant at + having again been wanting in the fidelity I owe to my Lord the King, + and I call God to witness the sincerity with which I shall be for + the rest of my life your most faithful friend, with the same + devotion that I am, my cousin, your affectionate cousin, + GASTON. + +and the third to the King. His project choked him; he could not keep it +down. But I am not so easily satisfied. I must have a free and full +confession, or I will expel him from the kingdom. I have written to him +this morning. + + [MONSIEUR: Since God wills that men should have recourse to a frank + and entire confession to be absolved of their faults in this world, + I indicate to you the steps you must take to be delivered from this + danger. Your Highness has commenced well; you must continue. This + is all I can say to you.] + +"As to the magnificent and powerful Due de Bouillon, sovereign lord of +Sedan and general-in-chief of the armies in Italy, he has just been +arrested by his officers in the midst of his soldiers, concealed in a +truss of straw. There remain, therefore, only our two young neighbors. +They imagine they have the camp wholly at their orders, while they really +have only the red troops. All the rest, being Monsieur's men, will not +act, and my troops will arrest them. However, I have permitted them to +appear to obey. If they give the signal at half-past eleven, they will +be arrested at the first step. If not, the King will give them up to me +this evening. Do not open your eyes so wide. He will give them up to +me, I repeat, this night, between midnight and one o'clock. You see that +all has been done without you, Joseph. We can dispense with you very +well; and truly, all this time, I do not see that we have received any +great service from you. You grow negligent." + +"Ah, Monseigneur! did you but know the trouble I have had to discover +the route of the bearers of the treaty! I only learned it by risking my +life between these young people." + +The Cardinal laughed contemptuously, leaning back in his chair. + +"Thou must have been very ridiculous and very fearful in that box, +Joseph; I dare say it was the first time in thy life thou ever heardst +love spoken of. Dost thou like the language, Father Joseph? Tell me, +dost thou clearly understand it? I doubt whether thou hast formed a very +refined idea of it." + +Richelieu, his arms crossed, looked at his discomfited Capuchin with +infinite delight, and continued in the scornfully familiar tone of a +grand seigneur, which he sometimes assumed, pleasing himself with putting +forth the noblest expressions through the most impure lips: + +"Come, now, Joseph, give me a definition of love according to thy idea. +What can it be--for thou seest it exists out of romances. This worthy +youngster undertook these little conspiracies through love. Thou heardst +it thyself with throe unworthy ears. Come, what is love? For my part, +I know nothing about it." + +The monk was astounded, and looked upon the ground with the stupid eye of +some base animal. After long consideration, he replied in a drawling and +nasal voice: + +"It must be a kind of malignant fever which leads the brain astray; but +in truth, Monseigneur, I have never reflected on it until this moment. +I have always been embarrassed in speaking to a woman. I wish women +could be omitted from society altogether; for I do not see what use they +are, unless it be to disclose secrets, like the little Duchess or Marion +de Lorme, whom I can not too strongly recommend to your Eminence. She +thought of everything, and herself threw our little prophecy among the +conspirators with great address. We have not been without the marvellous +this time. As in the siege of Hesdin, all we have to do is to find a +window through which you may pass on the day of the execution." + + [In 1638, Prince Thomas having raised the siege of Hesdin, the + Cardinal was much vexed at it. A nun of the convent of Mount + Calvary had said that the victory would be to the King and Father + Joseph, thus wishing it to be believed that Heaven protected the + minister. --Memoires pour l'histoire du Cardinal de Richelieu.] + +"This is another of your absurdities, sir," said the Cardinal; "you will +make me as ridiculous as yourself, if you go on so; I am too powerful to +need the assistance of Heaven. Do not let that happen again. Occupy +yourself only with the people I consign to you. I traced your part +before. When the master of the horse is taken, you will see him tried +and executed at Lyons. I will not be known in this. This affair is +beneath me; it is a stone under my feet, upon which I ought not to have +bestowed so much attention." + +Joseph was silent; he could not understand this man, who, surrounded on +every side by armed enemies, spoke of the future as of a present over +which he had the entire control, and of the present as a past which he no +longer feared. He knew not whether to look upon him as a madman or a +prophet, above or below the standard of human nature. + +His astonishment was redoubled when Chavigny hastily entered, and nearly +falling, in his heavy boots, over the Cardinal's footstool, exclaimed in +great agitation: + +"Sir, one of your servants has just arrived from Perpignan; and he has +beheld the camp in an uproar, and your enemies in the saddle." + +"They will soon dismount, sir," replied Richelieu, replacing his +footstool. "You appear to have lost your equanimity." + +"But--but, Monseigneur, must we not warn Monsieur de Fabert?" + +"Let him sleep, and go to bed yourself; and you also, Joseph." + +"Monseigneur, another strange event has occurred--the King has arrived." + +"Indeed, that is extraordinary," said the minister, looking at his watch. +"I did not expect him these two hours. Retire, both of you." + +A heavy trampling and the clattering of arms announced the arrival of the +Prince; the folding-doors were thrown open; the guards in the Cardinal's +service struck the ground thrice with their pikes; and the King appeared. + +He entered, supporting himself with a cane on one side, and on the other +leaning upon the shoulder of his confessor, Father Sirmond, who withdrew, +and left him with the Cardinal; the latter rose with difficulty, but +could not advance a step to meet the King, because his legs were bandaged +and enveloped. He made a sign that they should assist the King to a seat +near the fire, facing himself. Louis XIII fell into an armchair +furnished with pillows, asked for and drank a glass of cordial, prepared +to strengthen him against the frequent fainting-fits caused by his malady +of languor, signed to all to leave the room, and, alone with Richelieu, +he said in a languid voice: + +"I am departing, my dear Cardinal; I feel that I shall soon return to +God. I become weaker from day to day; neither the summer nor the +southern air has restored my strength." + +"I shall precede your Majesty," replied the minister. "You see that +death has already conquered my limbs; but while I have a head to think +and a hand to write, I shall be at the service of your Majesty." + +"And I am sure it was your intention to add, 'a heart to love me.'" + +"Can your Majesty doubt it?" answered the Cardinal, frowning, and biting +his lips impatiently at this speech. + +"Sometimes I doubt it," replied the King. "Listen: I wish to speak +openly to you, and to complain of you to yourself. There are two things +which have been upon my conscience these three years. I have never +mentioned them to you; but I reproached you secretly; and could anything +have induced me to consent to any proposals contrary to your interest, +it would be this recollection." + +There was in this speech that frankness natural to weak minds, who seek +by thus making their ruler uneasy, to compensate for the harm they dare +not do him, and revenge their subjection by a childish controversy. + +Richelieu perceived by these words that he had run a great risk; but he +saw at the same time the necessity of venting all his spleen, and, to +facilitate the explosion of these important avowals, he accumulated all +the professions he thought most calculated to provoke the King. + +"No, no!" his Majesty at length exclaimed, "I shall believe nothing +until you have explained those two things, which are always in my +thoughts, which were lately mentioned to me, and which I can justify by +no reasoning. I mean the trial of Urbain Grandier, of which I was never +well informed, and the reason for the hatred you bore to my unfortunate +mother, even to her very ashes." + +"Is this all, Sire?" said Richelieu. "Are these my only faults? +They are easily explained. The first it was necessary to conceal from +your Majesty because of its horrible and disgusting details of scandal. +There was certainly an art employed, which can not be looked upon as +guilty, in concealing, under the title of 'magic,' crimes the very names +of which are revolting to modesty, the recital of which would have +revealed dangerous mysteries to the innocent; this was a holy deceit +practised to hide these impurities from the eyes of the people." + +"Enough, enough, Cardinal," said Louis XIII, turning away his head, and +looking downward, while a blush covered his face; "I can not hear more. +I understand you; these explanations would disgust me. I approve your +motives; 'tis well. I had not been told that; they had concealed these +dreadful vices from me. Are you assured of the proofs of these crimes?" + +"I have them all in my possession, Sire; and as to the glorious Queen, +Marie de Medicis, I am surprised that your Majesty can forget how much I +was attached to her. Yes, I do not fear to acknowledge it; it is to her +I owe my elevation. She was the first who deigned to notice the Bishop +of Luton, then only twenty-two years of age, to place me near her. What +have I not suffered when she compelled me to oppose her in your Majesty's +interest! But this sacrifice was made for you. I never had, and never +shall have, to regret it." + +"'Tis well for you, but for me!" said the King, bitterly. + +"Ah, Sire," exclaimed the Cardinal, "did not the Son of God himself set +you an example? It is by the model of every perfection that we regulate +our counsels; and if the monument due to the precious remains of your +mother is not yet raised, Heaven is my witness that the works were +retarded through the fear of afflicting your heart by bringing back the +recollection of her death. But blessed be the day in which I have been +permitted to speak to you on the subject! I myself shall say the first +mass at Saint-Denis, when we shall see her deposited there, if Providence +allows me the strength." + +The countenance of the King assumed a more affable yet still cold +expression; and the Cardinal, thinking that he could go no farther that +evening in persuasion, suddenly resolved to make a more powerful move, +and to attack the enemy in front. Still keeping his eyes firmly fixed +upon the King, he said, coldly: + +"And was it for this you consented to my death?" + +"Me!" said the King. "You have been deceived; I have indeed heard of a +conspiracy, and I wished to speak to you about it; but I have commanded +nothing against you." + +"'The conspirators do not say so, Sire; but I am bound to believe your +Majesty, and I am glad for your sake that men were deceived. But what +advice were you about to condescend to give me?" + +"I--I wished to tell you frankly, and between ourselves, that you will do +well to beware of Monsieur--" + +"Ah, Sire, I can not now heed it; for here is a letter which he has just +sent to me for you. He seems to have been guilty even toward your +Majesty." + +The King read in astonishment: + + MONSEIGNEUR: I am much grieved at having once more failed in the + fidelity which I owe to your Majesty. I humbly entreat you to allow + me to ask a thousand pardons, with the assurances of my submission + and repentance. + Your very humble servant, + GASTON. + +"What does this mean?" cried Louis; "dare they arm against me also?" + +"Also!" muttered the Cardinal, biting his lips; "yes, Sire, also; and +this makes me believe, to a certain degree, this little packet of +papers." + +While speaking, he drew a roll of parchment from a piece of hollowed +elder, and opened it before the eyes of the King. + +"This is simply a treaty with Spain, which I think does not bear the +signature of your Majesty. You may see the twenty articles all in due +form. Everything is here arranged--the place of safety, the number of +troops, the supplies of men and money." + +"The traitors!" cried the King, in great agitation; "they must be +seized. My brother renounces them and repents; but do not fail to arrest +the Duc de Bouillon." + +"It shall be done, Sire." + +"That will be difficult, in the middle of the army in Italy." + +"I will answer with my head for his arrest, Sire; but is there not +another name to be added?" + +"Who--what--Cinq-Mars?" inquired the King, hesitating. + +"Exactly so, Sire," answered the Cardinal. + +"I see--but--I think--we might--" + +"Hear me!" exclaimed Richelieu, in a voice of thunder; "all must be +settled to-day. Your favorite is mounted at the head of his party; +choose between him and me. Yield up the boy to the man, or the man to +the boy; there is no alternative." + +"And what will you do if I consent?" said the King. + +"I will have his head and that of his friend." + +"Never! it is impossible!" replied the King, with horror, as he +relapsed into the same state of irresolution he evinced when with Cinq- +Mars against Richelieu. "He is my friend as well as you; my heart bleeds +at the idea of his death. Why can you not both agree? Why this +division? It is that which has led him to this. You have between you +brought me to the brink of despair; you have made me the most miserable +of men." + +Louis hid his head in his hands while speaking, and perhaps he shed +tears; but the inflexible minister kept his eyes upon him as if watching +his prey, and without remorse, without giving the King time for +reflection--on the contrary, profiting by this emotion to speak yet +longer. + +"And is it thus," he continued, in a harsh and cold voice, "that you +remember the commandments of God communicated to you by the mouth of your +confessor? You told me one day that the Church expressly commanded you +to reveal to your prime minister all that you might hear against him; +yet I have never heard from you of my intended death! It was necessary +that more faithful friends should apprise me of this conspiracy; that the +guilty themselves through the mercy of Providence should themselves make +the avowal of their fault. One only, the most guilty, yet the least of +all, still resists, and it is he who has conducted the whole; it is he +who would deliver France into the power of the foreigner, who would +overthrow in one single day my labors of twenty years. He would call up +the Huguenots of the south, invite to arms all orders of the State, +revive crushed pretensions, and, in fact, renew the League which was put +down by your father. It is that--do not deceive yourself--it is that +which raises so many heads against you. Are you prepared for the combat? +If so, where are your arms?" + +The King, quite overwhelmed, made no reply; he still covered his face +with his hands. The stony-hearted Cardinal crossed his arms and +continued: + +"I fear that you imagine it is for myself I speak. Do you really think +that I do not know my own powers, and that I fear such an adversary? +Really, I know not what prevents me from letting you act for yourself-- +from transferring the immense burden of State affairs to the shoulders of +this youth. You may imagine that during the twenty years I have been +acquainted with your court, I have not forgotten to assure myself a +retreat where, in spite of you, I could now go to live the six months +which perhaps remain to me of life. It would be a curious employment for +me to watch the progress of such a reign. What answer would you return, +for instance, when all the inferior potentates, regaining their station, +no longer kept in subjection by me, shall come in your brother's name to +say to you, as they dared to say to Henri IV on his throne: 'Divide with +us all the hereditary governments and sovereignties, and we shall be +content.'--[Memoires de Sully, 1595.]-- You will doubtless accede to +their request; and it is the least you can do for those who will have +delivered you from Richelieu. It will, perhaps, be fortunate, for to +govern the Ile-de-France, which they will no doubt allow you as the +original domain, your new minister will not require many secretaries." + +While speaking thus, he furiously pushed the huge table, which nearly +filled the room, and was laden with papers and numerous portfolios. + +Louis was aroused from his apathetic meditation by the excessive audacity +of this discourse. He raised his head, and seemed to have instantly +formed one resolution for fear he should adopt another. + +"Well, sir," said he, "my answer is that I will reign alone." + +"Be it so!" replied Richelieu. "But I ought to give you notice that +affairs are at present somewhat complicated. This is the hour when I +generally commence my ordinary avocations." + +"I will act in your place," said Louis. "I will open the portfolios and +issue my commands." + +"Try, then," said Richelieu. "I shall retire; and if anything causes you +to hesitate, you can send for me." + +He rang a bell. In the same instant, and as if they had awaited the +signal, four vigorous footmen entered, and carried him and his chair into +another apartment, for we have before remarked that he was unable to +walk. While passing through the chambers where the secretaries were at +work, he called out in a loud voice: + +"You will receive his Majesty's commands." + +The King remained alone, strong in his new resolution, and, proud in +having once resisted, he became anxious immediately to plunge into +political business. He walked around the immense table, and beheld as +many portfolios as they then counted empires, kingdoms, and States in +Europe. He opened one and found it divided into sections equalling in +number the subdivisions of the country to which it related. All was in +order, but in alarming order for him, because each note only referred to +the very essence of the business it alluded to, and related only to the +exact point of its then relations with France. These laconic notes +proved as enigmatic to Louis, as did the letters in cipher which covered +the table. Here all was confusion. An edict of banishment and +expropriation of the Huguenots of La Rochelle was mingled with treaties +with Gustavus Adolphus and the Huguenots of the north against the empire. +Notes on General Bannier and Wallenstein, the Duc de Weimar, and Jean de +Witt were mingled with extracts from letters taken from the casket of the +Queen, the list of the necklaces and jewels they contained, and the +double interpretation which might be put upon every phrase of her notes. +Upon the margin of one of these letters was written: "For four lines in a +man's handwriting he might be criminally tried." Farther on were +scattered denunciations against the Huguenots; the republican plans they +had drawn up; the division of France into departments under the annual +dictatorship of a chief. The seal of this projected State was affixed to +it, representing an angel leaning upon a cross, and holding in his hand a +Bible, which he raised to his forehead. By the side was a document which +contained a list of those cardinals the pope had selected the same day as +the Bishop of Lurgon (Richelieu). Among them was to be found the Marquis +de Bedemar, ambassador and conspirator at Venice. + +Louis XIII exhausted his powers in vain over the details of another +period, seeking unsuccessfully for any documents which might allude to +the present conspiracy, to enable him to perceive its true meaning, and +all that had been attempted against him, when a diminutive man, of an +olive complexion, who stooped much, entered the cabinet with a measured +step. This was a Secretary of State named Desnoyers. He advanced, +bowing. + +"May I be permitted to address your Majesty on the affairs of Portugal?" +said he. + +"And consequently of Spain?" said Louis. "Portugal is a province of +Spain." + +"Of Portugal," reiterated Desnoyers. "Here is the manifesto we have this +moment received." And he read, "Don John, by the grace of God, King of +Portugal and of Algarves, kingdoms on this side of Africa, lord over +Guinea, by conquest, navigation, and trade with Arabia, Persia, and the +Indies--" + +"What is all that?" said the King. "Who talks in this manner?" + +"The Duke of Braganza, King of Portugal, crowned already some time by a +man whom they call Pinto. Scarcely has he ascended the throne than he +offers assistance to the revolted Catalonians." + +"Has Catalonia also revolted? The King, Philip IV, no longer has the +Count-Duke for his Prime-Minister?" + +"Just the contrary, Sire. It is on this very account. Here is the +declaration of the States-General of Catalonia to his Catholic Majesty, +signifying that the whole country will take up arms against his +sacrilegious and excommunicated troops. The King of Portugal--" + +"Say the Duke of Braganza!" replied Louis. "I recognize no rebels." + +"The Duke of Braganza, then," coldly repeated the Secretary of State, +"sends his nephew, Don Ignacio de Mascarenas, to the principality of +Catalonia, to seize the protection (and it may be the sovereignty) of +that country, which he would add to that he has just reconquered. Your +Majesty's troops are before Perpignan--" + +"Well, and what of that?" said Louis. + +"The Catalonians are more disposed toward France than toward Portugal, +and there is still time to deprive the King of-the Duke of Portugal, I +should say--of this protectorship." + +"What! I assist rebels! You dare--" + +"Such was the intention of his Eminence," continued the Secretary of +State. "Spain and France are nearly at open war, and Monsieur d'Olivares +has not hesitated to offer the assistance of his Catholic Majesty to the +Huguenots." + +"Very good. I will consider it," said the King. "Leave me." + +"Sire, the States-General of Catalonia are in a dilemma. The troops from +Aragon march against them." + +"We shall see. I will come to a decision in a quarter of an hour," +answered Louis XIII. + +The little Secretary of State left the apartment discontented and +discouraged. In his place Chavigny immediately appeared, holding a +portfolio, on which were emblazoned the arms of England. "Sire," said +he, "I have to request your Majesty's commands upon the affairs of +England. The Parliamentarians, commanded by the Earl of Essex, have +raised the siege of Gloucester. Prince Rupert has at Newbury fought a +disastrous battle, and of little profit to his Britannic Majesty. The +Parliament is prolonged. All the principal cities take part with it, +together with all the seaports and the Presbyterian population. King +Charles I implores assistance, which the Queen can no longer obtain from +Holland." + +"Troops must be sent to my brother of England," said Louis; but he wanted +to look over the preceding papers, and casting his eyes over the notes of +the Cardinal, he found that under a former request of the King of England +he had written with his own hand: + +"We must consider some time and wait. The Commons are strong. King +Charles reckons upon the Scots; they will sell him. + +"We must be cautious. A warlike man has been over to see Vincennes, and +he has said that 'princes ought never to be struck, except on the head.'" + +The Cardinal had added "remarkable," but he had erased this word and +substituted "formidable." Again, beneath: + +"This man rules Fairfax. He plays an inspired part. He will be a great +man--assistance refused--money lost." + +The King then said, "No, no! do nothing hastily. I shall wait." + +"But, Sire," said Chavigny, "events pass rapidly. If the courier be +delayed, the King's destruction may happen a year sooner." + +"Have they advanced so far?" asked Louis. + +"In the camp of the Independents they preach up the republic with the +Bible in their hands. In that of the Royalists, they dispute for +precedency, and amuse themselves." + +"But one turn of good fortune may save everything?" + +"The Stuarts are not fortunate, Sire," answered Chavigny, respectfully, +but in a tone which left ample room for consideration. + +"Leave me," said the King, with some displeasure. + +The State-Secretary slowly retired. + +It was then that Louis XIII beheld himself as he really was, and was +terrified at the nothingness he found in himself. He at first stared at +the mass of papers which surrounded him, passing from one to the other, +finding dangers on every side, and finding them still greater with the +remedies he invented. He rose; and changing his place, he bent over, or +rather threw himself upon, a geographical map of Europe. There he found +all his fears concentrated. In the north, the south, the very centre of +the kingdom, revolutions appeared to him like so many Eumenides. In +every country he thought he saw a volcano ready to burst forth. He +imagined he heard cries of distress from kings, who appealed to him for +help, and the furious shouts of the populace. He fancied he felt the +territory of France trembling and crumbling beneath his feet. His feeble +and fatigued sight failed him. His weak head was attacked by vertigo, +which threw all his blood back upon his heart. + +"Richelieu!" he cried, in a stifled voice, while he rang a bell; "summon +the Cardinal immediately." + +And he swooned in an armchair. + +When the King opened his eyes, revived by salts and potent essences which +had been applied to his lips and temples, he for one instant beheld +himself surrounded by pages, who withdrew as soon as he opened his eyes, +and he was once more left alone with the Cardinal. The impassible +minister had had his chair placed by that of the King, as a physician +would seat himself by the bedside of his patient, and fixed his sparkling +and scrutinizing eyes upon the pale countenance of Louis. As soon as his +victim could hear him, he renewed his fearful discourse in a hollow +voice: + +"You have recalled me. What would you with me?" + +Louis, who was reclining on the pillow, half opened his eyes, fixed them +upon Richelieu, and hastily closed them again. That bony head, armed +with two flaming eyes, and terminating in a pointed and grizzly beard, +the cap and vestments of the color of blood and flames,--all appeared +to him like an infernal spirit. + +"You must reign," he said, in a languid voice. + +"But will you give me up Cinq-Mars and De Thou?" again urged the +implacable minister, bending forward to read in the dull eyes of the +Prince, as an avaricious heir follows up, even to the tomb, the last +glimpses of the will of a dying relative. + +"You must reign," repeated the King, turning away his head. + +"Sign then," said Richelieu; "the contents of this are, 'This is my +command--to take them, dead or alive.'" + +Louis, whose head still reclined on the raised back of the chair, +suffered his hand to fall upon the fatal paper, and signed it. "For +pity's sake, leave me; I am dying!" he said. + +"That is not yet all," continued he whom men call the great politician. +"I place no reliance on you; I must first have some guarantee and +assurance. Sign this paper, and I will leave you: + + "When the King shall go to visit the Cardinal, the guards of the + latter shall remain under arms; and when the Cardinal shall visit + the King, the guards of the Cardinal shall share the same post with + those of his Majesty. + +"Again: + + "His Majesty undertakes to place the two princes, his sons, in the + Cardinal's hands, as hostages of the good faith of his attachment." + +"My children!" exclaimed Louis, raising his head, "dare you?" + +"Would you rather that I should retire?" said Richelieu. + +The King again signed. + +"Is all finished now?" he inquired, with a deep sigh. + +All was not finished; one other grief was still in reserve for him. The +door was suddenly opened, and Cinq-Mars entered. It was the Cardinal who +trembled now. + +"What would you here, sir?" said he, seizing the bell to ring for +assistance. + +The master of the horse was as pale as the King, and without +condescending to answer Richelieu, he advanced steadily toward Louis +XIII, who looked at him with the air of a man who has just received a +sentence of death. + +"You would, Sire, find it difficult to have me arrested, for I have +twenty thousand men under my command," said Henri d'Effiat, in a sweet +and subdued voice. + +"Alas, Cinq-Mars!" replied the King, sadly; "is it thou who hast been +guilty of these crimes?" + +"Yes, Sire; and I also bring you my sword, for no doubt you came here to +surrender me," said he, unbuckling his sword, and laying it at the feet +of the King, who fixed his eyes upon the floor without making any reply. + +Cinq-Mars smiled sadly, but not bitterly, for he no longer belonged to +this earth. Then, looking contemptuously at Richelieu, "I surrender +because I wish to die, but I am not conquered." + +The Cardinal clenched his fist with passion; but he restrained his fury. +"Who are your accomplices?" he demanded. Cinq-Mars looked steadfastly +at Louis, and half opened his lips to speak. The King bent down his +head, and felt at that moment a torture unknown to all other men. + +"I have none," said Cinq-Mars, pitying the King; and he slowly left the +apartment. He stopped in the first gallery. Fabert and all the +gentlemen rose on seeing him. He walked up to the commander, and said: + +"Sir, order these gentlemen to arrest me!" + +They looked at each other, without daring to approach him. + +"Yes, sir, I am your prisoner; yes, gentlemen, I am without my sword, and +I repeat to you that I am the King's prisoner." + +"I do not understand what I see," said the General; "there are two of you +who surrender, and I have no instruction to arrest any one." + +"Two!" said Cinq-Mars; "the other is doubtless De Thou. Alas! I +recognize him by this devotion." + +"And had I not also guessed your intention?" exclaimed the latter, +coming forward, and throwing himself into his arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE PRISONERS + +Amoung those old chateaux of which France is every year deprived +regretfully, as of flowers from her, crown, there was one of a grim and +savage appearance upon the left bank of the Saline. It looked like a +formidable sentinel placed at one of the gates of Lyons, and derived its +name from an enormous rock, known as Pierre-Encise, which terminates in a +peak--a sort of natural pyramid, the summit of which overhanging the +river in former times, they say, joined the rocks which may still be seen +on the opposite bank, forming the natural arch of a bridge; but time, the +waters, and the hand of man have left nothing standing but the ancient +mass of granite which formed the pedestal of the now destroyed fortress. + +The archbishops of Lyons, as the temporal lords of the city, had built +and formerly resided in this castle. It afterward became a fortress, +and during the reign of Louis XIII a State prison. One colossal tower, +where the daylight could only penetrate through three long loopholes, +commanded the edifice, and some irregular buildings surrounded it with +their massive walls, whose lines and angles followed the form of the +immense and perpendicular rock. + +It was here that the Cardinal, jealous of his prey, determined to +imprison his young enemies, and to conduct them himself. + +Allowing Louis to precede him to Paris, he removed his captives from +Narbonne, dragging them in his train to ornament his last triumph, and +embarking on the Rhone at Tarascon, nearly, at the mouth of the river, as +if to prolong the pleasure of revenge which men have dared to call that +of the gods, displayed to the eyes of the spectators on both sides of the +river the luxury of his hatred; he slowly proceeded on his course up the +river in barges with gilded oars and emblazoned with his armorial +bearings, reclining in the first and followed by his two victims in the +second, which was fastened to his own by a long chain. + +Often in the evening, when the heat of the day was passed, the awnings of +the two boats were removed, and in the one Richelieu might be seen, pale, +and seated in the stern; in that which followed, the two young prisoners, +calm and collected, supported each other, watching the passage of the +rapid stream. Formerly the soldiers of Caesar, who encamped on the same +shores, would have thought they beheld the inflexible boatman of the +infernal regions conducting the friendly shades of Castor and Pollux. +Christians dared not even reflect, or see a priest leading his two +enemies to the scaffold; it was the first minister who passed. + +Thus he went on his way until he left his victims under guard at the +identical city in which the late conspirators had doomed him to perish. +Thus he loved to defy Fate herself, and to plant a trophy on the very +spot which had been selected for his tomb. + + "He was borne," says an ancient manuscript journal of this year, + "along the river Rhone in a boat in which a wooden chamber had been + constructed, lined with crimson fluted velvet, the flooring of which + was of gold. The same boat contained an antechamber decorated in + the same manner. The prow and stern of the boat were occupied by + soldiers and guards, wearing scarlet coats embroidered with gold, + silver, and silk; and many lords of note. His Eminence occupied a + bed hung with purple taffetas. Monseigneur the Cardinal Bigni, and + Messeigneurs the Bishops of Nantes and Chartres, were there, with + many abbes and gentlemen in other boats. Preceding his vessel, a + boat sounded the passages, and another boat followed, filled with + arquebusiers and officers to command them. When they approached any + isle, they sent soldiers to inspect it, to discover whether it was + occupied by any suspicious persons; and, not meeting any, they + guarded the shore until two boats which followed had passed. They + were filled with the nobility and well-armed soldiers. + + "Afterward came the boat of his Eminence, to the stern of which was + attached a little boat, which conveyed MM. de Thou and Cinq-Mars, + guarded by an officer of the King's guard and twelve guards from the + regiment of his Eminence. Three vessels, containing the clothes and + plate of his Eminence, with several gentlemen and soldiers, followed + the boats. + + "Two companies of light-horsemen followed the banks of the Rhone in + Dauphin, and as many on the Languedoc and Vivarais side, and a noble + regiment of foot, who preceded his Eminence in the towns which he + was to enter, or in which he was to sleep. It was pleasant to + listen to the trumpets, which, played in Dauphine, were answered by + those in Vivarais, and repeated by the echoes of our rocks. It + seemed as if all were trying which could play best."--[See Notes.] + +In the middle of a night of the month of September, while everything +appeared to slumber in the impregnable tower which contained the +prisoners, the door of their outer chamber turned noiselessly on its +hinges, and a man appeared on the threshold, clad in a brown robe +confined round his waist by a cord. His feet were encased in sandals, +and his hand grasped a large bunch of keys; it was Joseph. He looked +cautiously round without advancing, and contemplated in silence the +apartment occupied by the master of the horse. Thick carpets covered the +floor, and large and splendid hangings concealed the walls of the prison; +a bed hung with red damask was prepared, but it was unoccupied. Seated +near a high chimney in a large armchair, attired in a long gray robe, +similar in form to that of a priest, his head bent down, and his eyes +fixed upon a little cross of gold by the flickering light of a lamp, he +was absorbed in so deep a meditation that the Capuchin had leisure to +approach him closely, and confront the prisoner before he perceived him. +Suddenly, however, Cinq-Mars raised his head and exclaimed, "Wretch, what +do you here?" + +"Young man, you are violent," answered the mysterious intruder, in a low +voice. "Two months' imprisonment ought to have been enough to calm you. +I come to tell you things of great importance. Listen to me! I have +thought much of you; and I do not hate you so much as you imagine. The +moments are precious. I will tell you all in a few words: in two hours +you will be interrogated, tried, and condemned to death with your friend. +It can not be otherwise, for all will be finished the same day." + +"I know it," answered Cinq-Mars; "and I am prepared." + +"Well, then, I can still release you from this affair. I have reflected +deeply, as I told you; and I am here to make a proposal which can but +give you satisfaction. The Cardinal has but six months to live. Let us +not be mysterious; we must speak openly. You see where I have brought +you to serve him; and you can judge by that the point to which I would +conduct him to serve you. If you wish it, we can cut short the six +months of his life which still remain. The King loves you, and will +recall you with joy when he finds you still live. You may long live, +and be powerful and happy, if you will protect me, and make me cardinal." + +Astonishment deprived the young prisoner of speech. He could not +understand such language, and seemed to be unable to descend to it from +his higher meditations. All that he could say was: + +"Your benefactor, Richelieu?" + +The Capuchin smiled, and, drawing nearer, continued in an undertone: + +"Policy admits of no benefits; it contains nothing but interest. A man +employed by a minister is no more bound to be grateful than a horse whose +rider prefers him to others. My pace has been convenient to him; so much +the better. Now it is my interest to throw him from the saddle. Yes, +this man loves none but himself. I now see that he has deceived me by +continually retarding my elevation; but once again, I possess the sure +means for your escape in silence. I am the master here. I will remove +the men in whom he trusts, and replace them by others whom he has +condemned to die, and who are near at hand confined in the northern +tower--the Tour des Oubliettes, which overhangs the river. His creatures +will occupy their places. I will recommend a physician--an empyric who +is devoted to me--to the illustrious Cardinal, who has been given over by +the most scientific in Paris. If you will unite with me, he shall convey +to him a universal and eternal remedy." + +"Away!" exclaimed Cinq-Mars. "Leave me, thou infernal monk! No, thou +art like no other man! Thou glidest with a noiseless and furtive step +through the darkness; thou traversest the walls to preside at secret +crimes; thou placest thyself between the hearts of lovers to separate +them eternally. Who art thou? Thou resemblest a tormented spirit of the +damned!" + +"Romantic boy!" answered Joseph; "you would have possessed high +attainments had it not been for your false notions. There is perhaps +neither damnation nor soul. If the dead returned to complain of their +fate, I should have a thousand around me; and I have never seen any, +even in my dreams." + +"Monster!" muttered Cinq-Mars. + +"Words again!" said Joseph; "there is neither monster nor virtuous man. +You and De Thou, who pride yourselves on what you call virtue--you have +failed in causing the death of perhaps a hundred thousand men--at once +and in the broad daylight--for no end, while Richelieu and I have caused +the death of far fewer, one by one, and by night, to found a great power. +Would you remain pure and virtuous, you must not interfere with other +men; or, rather, it is more reasonable to see that which is, and to say +with me, it is possible that there is no such thing as a soul. We are +the sons of chance; but relative to other men, we have passions which we +must satisfy." + +"I breathe again!" exclaimed Cinq-Mars; "he believes not in God!" + +Joseph continued: + +"Richelieu, you, and I were born ambitious; it followed, then, that +everything must be sacrificed to this idea." + +"Wretched man, do not compare me to thyself!" + +"It is the plain truth, nevertheless," replied the Capuchin'; "only you +now see that our system was better than yours." + +"Miserable wretch, it was for love--" + +"No, no! it was not that; here are mere words again. You have perhaps +imagined it was so; but it was for your own advancement. I have heard +you speak to the young girl. You thought but of yourselves; you do not +love each other. She thought but of her rank, and you of your ambition. +One loves in order to hear one's self called perfect, and to be adored; +it is still the same egoism." + +"Cruel serpent!" cried Cinq-Mars; "is it not enough that thou hast +caused our deaths? Why dost thou come here to cast thy venom upon the +life thou hast taken from us? What demon has suggested to thee thy +horrible analysis of hearts?" + +"Hatred of everything which is superior to myself," replied Joseph, with +a low and hollow laugh, "and the desire to crush those I hate under my +feet, have made me ambitious and ingenious in finding the weakness of +your dreams." + +"Just Heaven, dost thou hear him?" exclaimed Cinq-Mars, rising and +extending his arms upward. + +The solitude of his prison; the pious conversations of his friend; and, +above all, the presence of death, which, like the light of an unknown +star, paints in other colors the objects we are accustomed to see; +meditations on eternity; and (shall we say it?) the great efforts he had +made to change his heartrending regrets into immortal hopes, and to +direct to God all that power of love which had led him astray upon earth- +all this combined had worked a strange revolution in him; and like those +ears of corn which ripen suddenly on receiving one ray from the sun, his +soul had acquired light, exalted by the mysterious influence of death. + +"Just Heaven!" he repeated, "if this wretch and his master are human, +can I also be a man? Behold, O God, behold two distinct ambitions--the +one egoistical and bloody, the other devoted and unstained; theirs roused +by hatred, and ours inspired by love. Look down, O Lord, judge, and +pardon! Pardon, for we have greatly erred in walking but for a single +day in the same paths which, on earth, possess but one name to whatever +end it may tend!" + +Joseph interrupted him harshly, stamping his foot on the ground: + +"When you have finished your prayer," said he, "you will perhaps inform +me whether you will assist me; and I will instantly--" + +"Never, impure wretch, never!" said Henri d'Effiat. "I will never unite +with you in an assassination. I refused to do so when powerful, and upon +yourself." + +"You were wrong; you would have been master now." + +"And what happiness should I find in my power when shared as it must be +by a woman who does not understand me; who loved me feebly, and prefers a +crown?" + +"Inconceivable folly!" said the Capuchin, laughing. + +"All with her; nothing without her--that was my desire." + +"It is from obstinacy and vanity that you persist; it is impossible," +replied Joseph. "It is not in nature." + +"Thou who wouldst deny the spirit of self-sacrifice," answered Cinq-Mars; +"dost thou understand that of my friend?" + +"It does not exist; he follows you because--" + +Here the Capuchin, slightly embarrassed, reflected an instant. + +"Because--because--he has formed you; you are his work; he is attached to +you by the self-love of an author. He was accustomed to lecture you; and +he felt that he should not find another pupil so docile to listen to and +applaud him. Constant habit has persuaded him that his life was bound to +yours; it is something of that kind. He will accompany you mechanically. +Besides, all is not yet finished; we shall see the end and the +examination. He will certainly deny all knowledge of the conspiracy." + +"He will not deny it!" exclaimed Cinq-Mars, impetuously. + +"He knew it, then? You confess it," said Joseph, triumphantly; "you have +not said as much before." + +"O Heaven, what have I done!" gasped Cinq-Mars, hiding his face. + +"Calm yourself; he is saved, notwithstanding this avowal, if you accept +my offer." + +D'Effiat remained silent for a short time. + +The Capuchin continued: + +"Save your friend. The King's favor awaits you, and perhaps the love +which has erred for a moment." + +"Man, or whatever else thou art, if thou hast in thee anything resembling +a heart," answered the prisoner, "save him! He is the purest of created +beings; but convey him far away while yet he sleeps, for should he awake, +thy endeavors would be vain." + +"What good will that do me?" said the Capuchin, laughing. "It is you +and your favor that I want." + + +The impetuous Cinq-Mars rose, and, seizing Joseph by the arm, eying him +with a terrible look, said: + +"I degraded him in interceding with thee for him." He continued, raising +the tapestry which separated his apartment from that of his friend, +"Come, and doubt, if thou canst, devotion and the immortality of the +soul. Compare the uneasiness and misery of thy triumph with the calmness +of our defeat, the meanness of thy reign with the grandeur of our +captivity, thy sanguinary vigils to the slumbers of the just." + +A solitary lamp threw its light on De Thou. The young man was kneeling +on a cushion, surmounted by a large ebony crucifix. He seemed to have +fallen asleep while praying. His head, inclining backward, was still +raised toward the cross. His pale lips wore a calm and divine smile. + +"Holy Father, how he sleeps!" exclaimed the astonished Capuchin, +thoughtlessly uniting to his frightful discourse the sacred name he every +day pronounced. He suddenly retired some paces, as if dazzled by a +heavenly vision. + +"Nonsense, nonsense!" he said, shaking his head, and passing his hand +rapidly over his face. "All this is childishness. It would overcome me +if I reflected on it. These ideas may serve as opium to produce a calm. +But that is not the question; say yes or no." + +"No," said Cinq-Mars, pushing him to the door by the shoulder. "I will +not accept life; and I do not regret having compromised De Thou, for he +would not have bought his life at the price of an assassination. And +when he yielded at Narbonne, it was not that he might escape at Lyons." + +"Then wake him, for here come the judges," said the furious Capuchin, in +a sharp, piercing voice. + +Lighted by flambeaux, and preceded by a detachment of the Scotch guards, +fourteen judges entered, wrapped in long robes, and whose features were +not easily distinguished. They seated themselves in silence on the right +and left of the huge chamber. They were the judges delegated by the +Cardinal to judge this sad and solemn affair--all true men to the +Cardinal Richelieu, and in his confidence, who from Tarascon had chosen +and instructed them. He had the Chancellor Seguier brought to Lyons, to +avoid, as he stated in the instructions he sent by Chavigny to the King +Louis XIII--"to avoid all the delays which would take place if he were +not present. M. de Mayillac," he adds, "was at Nantes for the trial of +Chulais, M. de Chateau-Neuf at Toulouse, superintending the death of M. +de Montmorency, and M. de Bellievre at Paris, conducting the trial of M. +de Biron. The authority and intelligence of these gentlemen in forms of +justice are indispensable." + +The Chancellor arrived with all speed. But at this moment he was +informed that he was not to appear, for fear that he might be influenced +by the memory of his ancient friendship for the prisoner, whom he only +saw tete-a-tete. The commissioners and himself had previously and +rapidly received the cowardly depositions of the Duc d'Orleans, at +Villefranche, in Beaujolais, and then at Vivey,--[House which belonged to +an Abbe d'Esnay, brother of M. de Villeroy, called Montresor.] two miles +from Lyons, where this wretched prince had received orders to go, begging +forgiveness, and trembling, although surrounded by his followers, whom +from very pity he had been allowed to retain, carefully watched, however, +by the French and Swiss guards. The Cardinal had dictated to him his +part and answers word for word; and in consideration of this docility, +they had exempted him in form from the painful task of confronting MM. de +Cinq-Mars and De Thou. The chancellor and commissioners had also +prepared M. de Bouillon, and, strong with their preliminary work, they +visited in all their strength the two young criminals whom they had +determined not to save. + +History has only handed down to us the names of the State counsellors who +accompanied Pierre Seguier, but not those of the other commissioners, of +whom it is only mentioned that there were six from the parliament of +Grenoble, and two presidents. The counsellor, or reporter of the State, +Laubardemont, who had directed them in all, was at their head. Joseph +often whispered to them with the most studied politeness, glancing at +Laubardemont with a ferocious sneer. + +It was arranged that an armchair should serve as a bar; and all were +silent in expectation of the prisoner's answer. + +He spoke in a soft and clear voice: + +"Say to Monsieur le Chancelier that I have the right of appeal to the +parliament of Paris, and to object to my judges, because two of them are +my declared enemies, and at their head one of my friends, Monsieur de +Seguier himself, whom I maintained in his charge. + +"But I will spare you much trouble, gentlemen, by pleading guilty to the +whole charge of conspiracy, arranged and conducted by myself alone. It +is my wish to die. I have nothing to add for myself; but if you would be +just, you will not harm the life of him whom the King has pronounced to +be the most honest man in France, and who dies for my sake alone." + +"Summon him," said Laubardemont. + +Two guards entered the apartment of De Thou, and led him forth. He +advanced, and bowed gravely, while an angelical smile played upon his +lips. Embracing Cinq-Mars, "Here at last is our day of glory," said he. +"We are about to gain heaven and eternal happiness." + +"We understand," said Laubardemont, "we have been given to understand by +Monsieur de Cinq-Mars himself, that you were acquainted with this +conspiracy?" + +De Thou answered instantly, and without hesitation. A half-smile was +still on his lips, and his eyes cast down. + +"Gentlemen, I have passed my life in studying human laws, and I know that +the testimony of one accused person can not condemn another. I can also +repeat what I said before, that I should not have been believed had I +denounced the King's brother without proof. You perceive, then, that my +life and death entirely rest with myself. I have, however, well weighed +the one and the other. I have clearly foreseen that whatever life I may +hereafter lead, it could not but be most unhappy after the loss of +Monsieur de Cinq-Mars. I therefore acknowledge and confess that I was +aware of his conspiracy. I did my utmost to prevent it, to deter him +from it. He believed me to be his only and faithful friend, and I would +not betray him. Therefore, I condemn myself by the very laws which were +set forth by my father, who, I ho +pe, forgives me." + +At these words, the two friends precipitated themselves into each other's +arms. + +Cinq-Mars exclaimed: + +"My friend, my friend, how bitterly I regret that I have caused your +death! Twice I have betrayed you; but you shall know in what manner." + +But De Thou, embracing and consoling his friend, answered, raising his +eyes from the ground: + +"Ah, happy are we to end our days in this manner! Humanly speaking, I +might complain of you; but God knows how much I love you. What have we +done to merit the grace of martyrdom, and the happiness of dying +together?" + +The judges were not prepared for this mildness, and looked at each other +with surprise. + +"If they would only give me a good partisan," muttered a hoarse voice (it +was Grandchamp, who had crept into the room, and whose eyes were red with +fury), "I would soon rid Monseigneur of all these black-looking fellows." +Two men with halberds immediately placed themselves silently at his side. +He said no more, and to compose himself retired to a window which +overlooked the river, whose tranquil waters the sun had not yet lighted +with its beams, and appeared to pay no attention to what was passing in +the room. + +However, Laubardemont, fearing that the judges might be touched with +compassion, said in a loud voice: + +"In pursuance of the order of Monseigneur the Cardinal, these two men +will be put to the rack; that is to say, to the ordinary and +extraordinary question." + +Indignation forced Cinq-Mars again to assume his natural character; +crossing his arms, he made two steps toward Laubardemont and Joseph, +which alarmed them. The former involuntarily placed his hand to his +forehead. + +"Are we at Loudun?" exclaimed the prisoner; but De Thou, advancing, took +his hand and held it. Cinq-Mars was silent, then continued in a calm +voice, looking steadfastly at the judges: + +"Messieurs, this measure appears to me rather harsh; a man of my age and +rank ought not to be subjected to these formalities. I have confessed +all, and I will confess it all again. I willingly and gladly accept +death; it is not from souls like ours that secrets can be wrung by bodily +suffering. We are prisoners by our own free will, and at the time chosen +by us. We have confessed enough for you to condemn us to death; you +shall know nothing more. We have obtained what we wanted." + +"What are you doing, my friend?" interrupted De Thou. "He is mistaken, +gentlemen, we do not refuse this martyrdom which God offers us; we demand +it." + +"But," said Cinq-Mars, "do you need such infamous tortures to obtain +salvation--you who are already a martyr, a voluntary martyr to +friendship? Gentlemen, it is I alone who possess important secrets; it +is the chief of a conspiracy who knows all. Put me alone to the torture +if we must be treated like the worst of malefactors." + +"For the sake of charity," added De Thou, "deprive me not of equal +suffering with my friend; I have not followed him so far, to abandon him +at this dreadful moment, and not to use every effort to accompany him to +heaven." + +During this debate, another was going forward between Laubardemont and +Joseph. The latter, fearing that torments would induce him to disclose +the secret of his recent proposition, advised that they should not be +resorted to; the other, not thinking his triumph complete by death alone, +absolutely insisted on their being applied. The judges surrounded and +listened to these secret agents of the Prime-Minister; however, many +circumstances having caused them to suspect that the influence of the +Capuchin was more powerful than that of the judge, they took part with +him, and decided for mercy, when he finished by these words uttered in a +low voice: + +"I know their secrets. There is no necessity to force them from their +lips, because they are useless, and relate to too high circumstances. +Monsieur le Grand has no one to denounce but the King, and the other the +Queen. It is better that we should remain ignorant. Besides, they will +not confess. I know them; they will be silent--the one from pride, the +other through piety. Let them alone. The torture will wound them; they +will be disfigured and unable to walk. That will spoil the whole +ceremony; they must be kept to appear." + +This last observation prevailed. The judges retired to deliberate with +the chancellor. While departing, Joseph whispered to Laubardemont: + +"I have provided you with enough pleasure here; you will still have that +of deliberating, and then you shall go and examine three men who are +confined in the northern tower." + +These were the three judges who had condemned Urbain Grandier. + +As he spoke, he laughed heartily, and was the last to leave the room, +pushing the astonished master of requests before him. + +The sombre tribunal had scarcely disappeared when Grandchamp, relieved +from his two guards, hastened toward his master, and, seizing his hand, +said: + +"In the name of Heaven, come to the terrace, Monseigneur! I have +something to show you; in the name of your mother, come!" + +But at that moment the chamber door was opened, and the old Abbe Quillet +appeared. + +"My children! my dear children!" exclaimed the old man, weeping +bitterly. "Alas! why was I only permitted to enter to-day? Dear Henri, +your mother, your brother, your sister, are concealed here." + +"Be quiet, Monsieur l'Abbe!" said Grandchamp; "do come to the terrace, +Monseigneur." + +But the old priest still detained and embraced his pupil. + +"We hope," said he; "we hope for mercy." + +"I shall refuse it," said Cinq-Mars. + +"We hope for nothing but the mercy of God," added De Thou. + +"Silence!" said Grandchamp, "the judges are returning." + +And the door opened again to admit the dismal procession, from which +Joseph and Laubardemont were missing. + +"Gentlemen," exclaimed the good Abbe, addressing the commissioners, "I am +happy to tell you that I have just arrived from Paris, and that no one +doubts but that all the conspirators will be pardoned. I have had an +interview at her Majesty's apartments with Monsieur himself; and as to +the Duc de Bouillon, his examination is not unfav--" + +"Silence!" cried M. de Seyton, the lieutenant of the Scotch guards; and +the commissioners entered and again arranged themselves in the apartment. + +M. de Thou, hearing them summon the criminal recorder of the presidial +of Lyons to pronounce the sentence, involuntarily launched out in one of +those transports of religious joy which are never displayed but by the +martyrs and saints at the approach of death; and, advancing toward this +man, he exclaimed: + +"Quam speciosi pedes evangelizantium pacem, evangelizantium bona!" + +Then, taking the hand of Cinq-Mars, he knelt down bareheaded to receive +the sentence, as was the custom. D'Effiat remained standing; and they +dared not compel him to kneel. The sentence was pronounced in these +words: + + "The Attorney-General, prosecutor on the part of the State, on a + charge of high treason; and Messire Henri d'Effiat de Cinq-Mars, + master of the horse, aged twenty-two, and Francois Auguste de Thou, + aged thirty-five, of the King's privy council, prisoners in the + chateau of Pierre-Encise, at Lyons, accused and defendants on the + other part: + + "Considered, the special trial commenced by the aforesaid attorney- + general against the said D'Efiiat and De Thou; informations, + interrogations, confessions, denegations, and confrontations, and + authenticated copies of the treaty with Spain, it is considered in + the delegated chamber: + + "That he who conspires against the person of the ministers of + princes is considered by the ancient laws and constitutions of the + emperors to be guilty of high treason; (2) that the third ordinance + of the King Louis XI renders any one liable to the punishment of + death who does not reveal a conspiracy against the State. + + "The commissioners deputed by his Majesty have declared the said + D'Effiat and De Thou guilty and convicted of the crime of high + treason: + + "The said D'Effiat, for the conspiracies and enterprises, league, + and treaties, formed by him with the foreigner against the State; + + "And the said De Thou, for having a thorough knowledge of this + conspiracy. + + "In reparation of which crimes they have deprived them of all honors + and dignities, and condemned them to be deprived of their heads on a + scaffold, which is for this purpose erected in the Place des + Terreaux, in this city. + + "It is further declared that all and each of their possessions, real + and personal, be confiscated to the King, and that those which they + hold from the crown do pass immediately to it again of the aforesaid + goods, sixty thousand livres being devoted to pious uses." + +After the sentence was pronounced, M. de Thou exclaimed in a loud voice: + +"God be blessed! God be praised!" + +"I have never feared death," said Cinq-Mars, coldly. + +Then, according to the forms prescribed, M. Seyton, the lieutenant of the +Scotch guards, an old man upward of sixty years of age, declared with +emotion that he placed the prisoners in the hands of the Sieur Thome, +provost of the merchants of Lyons; he then took leave of them, followed +by the whole of the body-guard, silently, and in tears. + +"Weep not," said Cinq-Mars; "tears are useless. Rather pray for us; and +be assured that I do not fear death." + +He shook them by the hand, and De Thou embraced them; after which they +left the apartment, their eyes filled with tears, and hiding their faces +in their cloaks. + +"Barbarians!" exclaimed the Abbe Quillet; "to find arms against them, +one must search the whole arsenal of tyrants. Why did they admit me at +this moment?" + +"As a confessor, Monsieur," whispered one of the commissioners; "for no +stranger has entered this place these two months." + +As soon as the huge gates of the prison were closed, and the outside +gratings lowered, "To the terrace, in the name of Heaven!" again +exclaimed Grandchamp. And he drew his master and De Thou thither. + +The old preceptor followed them, weeping. + +"What do you want with us in a moment like this?" said Cinq-Mars, with +indulgent gravity. + +"Look at the chains of the town," said the faithful servant. + +The rising sun had hardly tinged the sky. In the horizon a line of vivid +yellow was visible, upon which the mountain's rough blue outlines were +boldly traced; the waves of the Saline, and the chains of the town +hanging from one bank to the other, were still veiled by a light vapor, +which also rose from Lyons and concealed the roofs of the houses from the +eye of the spectator. The first tints of the morning light had as yet +colored only the most elevated points of the magnificent landscape. In +the city the steeples of the Hotel de Ville and St. Nizier, and on the +surrounding hills the monasteries of the Carmelites and Ste.-Marie, and +the entire fortress of Pierre-Encise were gilded with the fires of the +coming day. The joyful peals from the churches were heard, the peaceful +matins from the convent and village bells. The walls of the prison were +alone silent. + +"Well," said Cinq-Mars, "what are we to see the beauty of the plains, the +richness of the city, or the calm peacefulness of these villages? Ah, my +friend, in every place there are to be found passions and griefs, like +those which have brought us here." + +The old Abbe and Grandchamp leaned over the parapet, watching the bank of +the river. + +"The fog is so thick, we can see nothing yet," said the Abbe. + +"How slowly our last sun appears!" said De Thou. + +"Do you not see low down there, at the foot of the rocks, on the opposite +bank, a small white house, between the Halincourt gate and the Boulevard +Saint Jean?" asked the Abbe. + +"I see nothing," answered Cinq-Mars, "but a mass of dreary wall." + +"Hark!" said the Abbe; "some one speaks near us!" + +In fact, a confused, low, and inexplicable murmur was heard in a little +turret, the back of which rested upon the platform of the terrace. As it +was scarcely larger than a pigeon-house, the prisoners had not until now +observed it. + +"Are they already coming to fetch us?" said Cinq-Mars. + +"Bah! bah!" answered Grandchamp, "do not make yourself uneasy; it is +the Tour des Oubliettes. I have prowled round the fort for two months, +and I have seen men fall from there into the water at least once a week. +Let us think of our affair. I see a light down there." + +An invincible curiosity, however, led the two prisoners to look at the +turret, in spite of the horror of their own situation. It advanced to +the extremity of the rock, over a gulf of foaming green water of great +depth. A wheel of a mill long deserted was seen turning with great +rapidity. Three distinct sounds were now heard, like those of a +drawbridge suddenly lowered and raised to its former position by a recoil +or spring striking against the stone walls; and three times a black +substance was seen to fall into the water with a splash. + +"Mercy! can these be men?" exclaimed the Abbe, crossing himself. + +"I thought I saw brown robes turning in the air," said Grandchamp; "they +are the Cardinal's friends." + +A horrible cry was heard from the tower, accompanied by an impious oath. +The heavy trap groaned for the fourth time. The green water received +with a loud noise a burden which cracked the enormous wheel of the mill; +one of its large spokes was torn away, and a man entangled in its beams +appeared above the foam, which he colored with his blood. He rose twice, +and sank beneath the waters, shrieking violently; it was Laubardemont. + +Cinq-Mars drew back in horror. + +"There is a Providence," said Grandchamp; "Urbain Grandier summoned him +in three years. But come, come! the time is precious! Do not remain +motionless. Be it he, I am not surprised, for those wretches devour each +other. But let us endeavor to deprive them of their choicest morsel. +Vive Dieu! I see the signal! We are saved! All is ready; run to this +side, Monsieur l'Abbe! See the white handkerchief at the window! our +friends are prepared." + +The Abbe seized the hands of both his friends, and drew them to that side +of the terrace toward which they had at first looked. "Listen to me, +both of you," said he. "You must know that none of the conspirators has +profited by the retreat you secured for them. They have all hastened to +Lyons, disguised, and in great number; they have distributed sufficient +gold in the city to secure them from being betrayed; they are resolved to +make an attempt to deliver you. The time chosen is that when they are +conducting you to the scaffold; the signal is your hat, which you will +place on your head when they are to commence." + +The worthy Abbe, half weeping, half smiling hopefully, related that upon +the arrest of his pupil he had hastened to Paris; that such secrecy +enveloped all the Cardinal's actions that none there knew the place in +which the master of the horse was detained. Many said that he was +banished; and when the reconciliation between Monsieur and the Duc de +Bouillon and the King was known, men no longer doubted that the life of +the other was assured, and ceased to speak of this affair, which, not +having been executed, compromised few persons. They had even in some +measure rejoiced in Paris to see the town of Sedan and its territory +added to the kingdom in exchange for the letters of abolition granted to +the Duke, acknowledged innocent in common with Monsieur; so that the +result of all the arrangements had been to excite admiration of the +Cardinal's ability, and of his clemency toward the conspirators, who, it +was said, had contemplated his death. They even spread the report that +he had facilitated the escape of Cinq-Mars and De Thou, occupying himself +generously with their retreat to a foreign land, after having bravely +caused them to be arrested in the midst of the camp of Perpignan. + +At this part of the narrative, Cinq-Mars could not avoid forgetting his +resignation, and clasping his friend's hand, "Arrested!" he exclaimed. +"Must we renounce even the honor of having voluntarily surrendered +ourselves? Must we sacrifice all, even the opinion of posterity?" + +"There is vanity again," replied De Thou, placing his fingers on his +lips. "But hush! let us hear the Abbe to the end." + +The tutor, not doubting that the calmness which these two young men +exhibited arose from the joy they felt in finding their escape assured, +and seeing that the sun had hardly yet dispersed the morning mists, +yielded himself without restraint to the involuntary pleasure which old +men always feel in recounting new events, even though they afflict the +hearers. He related all his fruitless endeavors to discover his pupil's +retreat, unknown to the court and the town, where none, indeed, dared to +pronounce the name of Cinq-Mars in the most secret asylums. He had only +heard of the imprisonment at Pierre-Encise from the Queen herself, who +had deigned to send for him, and charge him to inform the Marechale +d'Effiat and all the conspirators that they might make a desperate effort +to deliver their young chief. Anne of Austria had even ventured to send +many of the gentlemen of Auvergne and Touraine to Lyons to assist in +their last attempt. + +"The good Queen!" said he; "she wept greatly when I saw her, and said +that she would give all she possessed to save you. She reproached +herself deeply for some letter, I know not what. She spoke of the +welfare of France, but did not explain herself. She said that she +admired you, and conjured you to save yourself, if it were only through +pity for her, whom you would otherwise consign to everlasting remorse." + +"Said she nothing else?" interrupted De Thou, supporting Cinq-Mars, who +grew visibly paler. + +"Nothing more," said the old man. + +"And no one else spoke of me?" inquired the master of the horse. + +"No one," said the Abbe. + +"If she had but written to me!" murmured Henri. + +"Remember, my father, that you were sent here as a confessor," said De +Thou. + +Here old Grandchamp, who had been kneeling before Cinq-Mars, and dragging +him by his clothes to the other side of the terrace, exclaimed in a +broken voice: + +"Monseigneur--my master--my good master--do you see them? Look there-- +'tis they! 'tis they--all of them!" + +"Who, my old friend?" asked his master. + +"Who? Great Heaven! look at that window! Do you not recognize them? +Your mother, your sisters, and your brother." + +And the day, now fairly broken, showed him in the distance several women +waving their handkerchiefs; and there, dressed all in black, stretching +out her arms toward the prison, sustained by those about her, Cinq-Mars +recognized his mother, with his family, and his strength failed him for a +moment. He leaned his head upon his friend's breast and wept. + +"How many times must I, then, die?" he murmured; then, with a gesture, +returning from the top of the tower the salutations of his family, "Let +us descend quickly, my father!" he said to the old Abbe. "You will tell +me at the tribunal of penitence, and before God, whether the remainder of +my life is worth my shedding more blood to preserve it." + +It was there that Cinq-Mars confessed to God what he alone and Marie de +Mantua knew of their secret and unfortunate love. "He gave to his +confessor," says Father Daniel, "a portrait of a noble lady, set in +diamonds, which were to be sold, and the money employed in pious works." + +M. de Thou, after having confessed, wrote a letter;--[See the copy of +this letter to Madame la Princesse de Guemenee, in the notes at the end +of the volume.]--after which (according to the account given by his +confessor) he said, "This is the last thought I will bestow upon this +world; let us depart for heaven!" and walking up and down the room with +long strides, he recited aloud the psalm, 'Miserere mei, Deus', with an +incredible ardor of spirit, his whole frame trembling so violently it +seemed as if he did not touch the earth, and that the soul was about to +make its exit from his body. The guards were mute at this spectacle, +which made them all shudder with respect and horror. + +Meanwhile, all was calm in the city of Lyons, when to the great +astonishment of its inhabitants, they beheld the entrance through all its +gates of troops of infantry and cavalry, which they knew were encamped at +a great distance. The French and the Swiss guards, the regiment of +Pompadours, the men-at-arms of Maurevert, and the carabineers of La +Roque, all defiled in silence. The cavalry, with their muskets on the +pommel of the saddle, silently drew up round the chateau of Pierre- +Encise; the infantry formed a line upon the banks of the Saone from the +gate of the fortress to the Place des Terreaux. It was the usual spot +for execution. + + "Four companies of the bourgeois of Lyons, called 'pennonage', of + which about eleven or twelve hundred men, were ranged [says the + journal of Montresor] in the midst of the Place des Terreaux, so as + to enclose a space of about eighty paces each way, into which they + admitted no one but those who were absolutely necessary. + + "In the centre of this space was raised a scaffold about seven feet + high and nine feet square, in the midst of which, somewhat forward, + was placed a stake three feet in height, in front of which was a + block half a foot high, so that the principal face of the scaffold + looked toward the shambles of the Terreaux, by the side of the + Saone. Against the scaffold was placed a short ladder of eight + rounds, in the direction of the Dames de St. Pierre." + +Nothing had transpired in the town as to the name of the prisoners. The +inaccessible walls of the fortress let none enter or leave but at night, +and the deep dungeons had sometimes confined father and son for years +together, four feet apart from each other, without their even being +aware of the vicinity. The surprise was extreme at these striking +preparations, and the crowd collected, not knowing whether for a fete +or for an execution. + +This same secrecy which the agents of the minister had strictly preserved +was also carefully adhered to by the conspirators, for their heads +depended on it. + +Montresor, Fontrailles, the Baron de Beauvau, Olivier d'Entraigues, +Gondi, the Comte du Lude, and the Advocate Fournier, disguised as +soldiers, workmen, and morris-dancers, armed with poniards under their +clothes, had dispersed amid the crowd more than five hundred gentlemen +and domestics, disguised like themselves. Horses were ready on the road +to Italy, and boats upon the Rhone had been previously engaged. The +young Marquis d'Effiat, elder brother of Cinq-Mars, dressed as a +Carthusian, traversed the crowd, without ceasing, between the Place des +Terreaux and the little house in which his mother and sister were +concealed with the Presidente de Pontac, the sister of the unfortunate +De Thou. He reassured them, gave them from time to time a ray of hope, +and returned to the conspirators to satisfy himself that each was +prepared for action. + +Each soldier forming the line had at his side a man ready to poniard him. + +The vast crowd, heaped together behind the line of guards, pushed them +forward, passed their lines, and made them lose ground. Ambrosio, the +Spanish servant whom Cinq-Mars had saved, had taken charge of the captain +of the pikemen, and, disguised as a Catalonian musician, had commenced a +dispute with him, pretending to be determined not to cease playing the +hurdy-gurdy. + +Every one was at his post. + +The Abbe de Gondi, Olivier d'Entraigues, and the Marquis d'Effiat were in +the midst of a group of fish-women and oyster-wenches, who were disputing +and bawling, abusing one of their number younger and more timid than her +masculine companions. The brother of Cinq-Mars approached to listen to +their quarrel. + +"And why," said she to the others, "would you have Jean le Roux, who is +an honest man, cut off the heads of two Christians, because he is a +butcher by trade? So long as I am his wife, I'll not allow it. I'd +rather--" + +"Well, you are wrong!" replied her companions. "What is't to thee +whether the meat he cuts is eaten or not eaten? Why, thou'lt have a +hundred crowns to dress thy three children all in new clothes. Thou'rt +lucky to be the wife of a butcher. Profit, then, 'ma mignonne', by what +God sends thee by the favor of his Eminence." + +"Let me alone!" answered the first speaker. "I'll not accept it. I've +seen these fine young gentlemen at the windows. They look as mild as +lambs." + +"Well! and are not thy lambs and calves killed?" said Femme le Bon. +"What fortune falls to this little woman! What a pity! especially when +it is from the reverend Capuchin!" + +"How horrible is the gayety of the people!" said Olivier d'Entraigues, +unguardedly. All the women heard him, and began to murmur against him. + +"Of the people!" said they; "and whence comes this little bricklayer +with his plastered clothes?" + +"Ah!" interrupted another, "dost not see that 'tis some gentleman in +disguise? Look at his white hands! He never worked a square; 'tis some +little dandy conspirator. I've a great mind to go and fetch the captain +of the watch to arrest him." + +The Abbe de Gondi felt all the danger of this situation, and throwing +himself with an air of anger upon Olivier, and assuming the manners of a +joiner, whose costume and apron he had adopted, he exclaimed, seizing him +by the collar: + +"You're just right. 'Tis a little rascal that never works! These two +years that my father's apprenticed him, he has done nothing but comb his +hair to please the girls. Come, get home with you!" + +And, striking him with his rule, he drove him through the crowd, and +returned to place himself on another part of the line. After having well +reprimanded the thoughtless page, he asked him for the letter which he +said he had to give to M. de Cinq-Mars when he should have escaped. +Olivier had carried it in his pocket for two months. He gave it him. +"It is from one prisoner to another," said he, "for the Chevalier de +jars, on leaving the Bastille, sent it me from one of his companions in +captivity." + +"Ma foi!" said Gondi, "there may be some important secret in it for our +friends. I'll open it. You ought to have thought of it before. Ah, +bah! it is from old Bassompierre. Let us read it. + + MY DEAR CHILD: I learn from the depths of the Bastille, where I + still remain, that you are conspiring against the tyrant Richelieu, + who does not cease to humiliate our good old nobility and the + parliaments, and to sap the foundations of the edifice upon which + the State reposes. I hear that the nobles are taxed and condemned + by petty judges, contrary to the privileges of their condition, + forced to the arriere-ban, despite the ancient customs." + +"Ah! the old dotard!" interrupted the page, laughing immoderately. + +"Not so foolish as you imagine, only he is a little behindhand for our +affair." + + "I can not but approve this generous project, and I pray you give me + to wot all your proceedings--" + +"Ah! the old language of the last reign!" said Olivier. "He can't say +'Make me acquainted with your proceedings,' as we now say." + +"Let me read, for Heaven's sake!" said the Abbe; "a hundred years hence +they'll laugh at our phrases." He continued: + + "I can counsel you, notwithstanding my great age, in relating to you + what happened to me in 1560." + +"Ah, faith! I've not time to waste in reading it all. Let us see the +end. + + "When I remember my dining at the house of Madame la Marechale + d'Effiat, your mother, and ask myself what has become of all the + guests, I am really afflicted. My poor Puy-Laurens has died at + Vincennes, of grief at being forgotten by Monsieur in his prison; + De Launay killed in a duel, and I am grieved at it, for although I + was little satisfied with my arrest, he did it with courtesy, and I + have always thought him a gentleman. As for me, I am under lock and + key until the death of M. le Cardinal. Ah, my child! we were + thirteen at table. We must not laugh at old superstitions. Thank + God that you are the only one to whom evil has not arrived!" + +"There again!" said Olivier, laughing heartily; and this time the Abbe +de Gondi could not maintain his gravity, despite all his efforts. + +They tore the useless letter to pieces, that it might not prolong the +detention of the old marechal, should it be found, and drew near the +Place des Terreaux and the line of guards, whom they were to attack when +the signal of the hat should be given by the young prisoner. + +They beheld with satisfaction all their friends at their posts, and ready +"to play with their knives," to use their own expression. The people, +pressing around them, favored them without being aware of it. There came +near the Abbe a troop of young ladies dressed in white and veiled. They +were going to church to communicate; and the nuns who conducted them, +thinking, like most of the people, that the preparations were intended to +do honor to some great personage, allowed them to mount upon some large +hewn stones, collected behind the soldiers. There they grouped +themselves with the grace natural to their age, like twenty beautiful +statues upon a single pedestal. One would have taken them for those +vestals whom antiquity invited to the sanguinary shows of the gladiators. +They whispered to each other, looking around them, laughing and blushing +together like children. + +The Abbe de Gondi saw with impatience that Olivier was again forgetting +his character of conspirator and his costume of a bricklayer in ogling +these girls, and assuming a mien too elegant, an attitude too refined, +for the position in life he was supposed to occupy. He already began to +approach them, turning his hair with his fingers, when Fontrailles and +Montresor fortunately arrived in the dress of Swiss soldiers. A group of +gentlemen, disguised as sailors, followed them with iron-shod staves in +their hands. There was a paleness on their faces which announced no +good. + +"Stop here!" said one of them to his suite; "this is the place." + +The sombre air and the silence of these spectators contrasted with the +gay and anxious looks of the girls, and their childish exclamations. + +"Ah, the fine procession!" they cried; "there are at least five hundred +men with cuirasses and red uniforms, upon fine horses. They've got +yellow feathers in their large hats." + +"They are strangers--Catalonians," said a French guard. + +"Whom are they conducting here? Ah, here is a fine gilt coach! but +there's no one in it." + +"Ah! I see three men on foot; where are they going?" + +"To death!" said Fontrailles, in a deep, stern voice which silenced all +around. Nothing was heard but the slow tramp of the horses, which +suddenly stopped, from one of those delays that happen in all +processions. They then beheld a painful and singular spectacle. An old +man with a tonsured head walked with difficulty, sobbing violently, +supported by two young men of interesting and engaging appearance, who +held one of each other's hands behind his bent shoulders, while with the +other each held one of his arms. The one on the left was dressed in +black; he was grave, and his eyes were cast down. The other, much +younger, was attired in a striking dress. A pourpoint of Holland cloth, +adorned with broad gold lace, and with large embroidered sleeves, covered +him from the neck to the waist, somewhat in the fashion of a woman's +corset; the rest of his vestments were in black velvet, embroidered with +silver palms. Gray boots with red heels, to which were attached golden +spurs; a scarlet cloak with gold buttons--all set off to advantage his +elegant and graceful figure. He bowed right and left with a melancholy +smile. + +An old servant, with white moustache, and beard, followed with his head +bent down, leading two chargers, richly comparisoned. The young ladies +were silent; but they could not restrain their sobs. + +"It is, then, that poor old man whom they are leading to the scaffold," +they exclaimed; "and his children are supporting him." + +"Upon your knees, ladies," said a man, "and pray for him!" + +"On your knees," cried Gondi, "and let us pray that God will deliver +him!" + +All the conspirators repeated, "On your knees! on your knees!" and set +the example to the people, who imitated them in silence. + +"We can see his movements better now," said Gondi, in a whisper to +Montresor. "Stand up; what is he doing?" + +"He has stopped, and is speaking on our side, saluting us; I think he has +recognized us." + +Every house, window, wall, roof, and raised platform that looked upon the +place was filled with persons of every age and condition. + +The most profound silence prevailed throughout the immense multitude. +One might have heard the wings of a gnat, the breath of the slightest +wind, the passage of the grains of dust which it raised; yet the air was +calm, the sun brilliant, the sky blue. The people listened attentively. +They were close to the Place des Terreaux; they heard the blows of the +hammer upon the planks, then the voice of Cinq-Mars. + +A young Carthusian thrust his pale face between two guards. All the +conspirators rose above the kneeling people. Every one put his hand to +his belt or in his bosom, approaching close to the soldier whom he was to +poniard. + +"What is he doing?" asked the Carthusian. "Has he his hat upon his +head?" + +"He throws his hat upon the ground far from him," calmly answered the +arquebusier. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE FETE + + "Mon Dieu! quest-ce que ce monde!" + + Dernieres paroles de M. Cinq-Mars + +The same day that the melancholy procession took place at Lyons, and +during the scenes we have just witnessed, a magnificent fete was given at +Paris with all the luxury and bad taste of the time. The powerful +Cardinal had determined to fill the first two towns in France with his +pomp. The Cardinal's return was the occasion on which this fete was +announced, as given to the King and all his court. + +Master of the French empire by force, the Cardinal desired to be master +of French opinion by seduction; and, weary of dominating, hoped to +please. The tragedy of "Mirame" was to be represented in a hall +constructed expressly for this great day, which raised the expenses of +this entertainment, says Pelisson, to three hundred thousand crowns. + +The entire guard of the Prime-Minister were under arms; his four +companies of musketeers and gens d'armes were ranged in a line upon the +vast staircases and at the entrance of the long galleries of the Palais- +Cardinal. This brilliant pandemonium, where the mortal sins have a +temple on each floor, belonged that day to pride alone, which occupied it +from top to bottom. Upon each step was placed one of the arquebusiers of +the Cardinal's guard, holding a torch in one hand and a long carbine in +the other. The crowd of his gentlemen circulated between these living +candelabra, while in the large garden, surrounded by huge chestnut-trees, +now replaced by a range of archers, two companies of mounted light-horse, +their muskets in their hands, were ready to obey the first order or the +first fear of their master. + +The Cardinal, carried and followed by his thirty-eight pages, took his +seat in his box hung with purple, facing that in which the King was half +reclining behind the green curtains which preserved him from the glare of +the flambeaux. The whole court filled the boxes, and rose when the King +appeared. The orchestra commenced a brilliant overture, and the pit was +thrown open to all the men of the town and the army who presented +themselves. Three impetuous waves of spectators rushed in and filled it +in an instant. They were standing, and so thickly pressed together that +the movement of a single arm sufficed to cause in the crowd a movement +similar to the waving of a field of corn. There was one man whose head +thus described a large circle, as that of a compass, without his feet +quitting the spot to which they were fixed; and some young men were +carried out fainting. + +The minister, contrary to custom, advanced his skeleton head out of his +box, and saluted the assembly with an air which was meant to be gracious. +This grimace obtained an acknowledgment only from the boxes; the pit was +silent. Richelieu had wished to show that he did not fear the public +judgment upon his work, and had given orders to admit without distinction +all who should present themselves. He began to repent of this, but too +late. The impartial assembly was as cold at the tragedie-pastorale +itself. In vain did the theatrical bergeres, covered with jewels, raised +upon red heels, with crooks ornamented with ribbons and garlands of +flowers upon their robes, which were stuck out with farthingale's, die of +love in tirades of two hundred verses; in vain did the 'amants parfaits' +starve themselves in solitary caves, deploring their death in emphatic +tones, and fastening to their hair ribbons of the favorite color of their +mistress; in vain did the ladies of the court exhibit signs of perfect +ecstasy, leaning over the edges of their boxes, and even attempt a few +fainting-fits--the silent pit gave no other sign of life than the +perpetual shaking of black heads with long hair. + +The Cardinal bit his lips and played the abstracted during the first and +second acts; the silence in which the third and fourth passed off so +wounded his paternal heart that he had himself raised half out of the +balcony, and in this uncomfortable and ridiculous position signed to the +court to remark the finest passages, and himself gave the signal for +applause. It was acted upon from some of the boxes, but the impassible +pit was more silent than ever; leaving the affair entirely between the +stage and the upper regions, they obstinately remained neuter. The +master of Europe and France then cast a furious look at this handful of +men who dared not to admire his work, feeling in his heart the wish of +Nero, and thought for a moment how happy he should be if all those men +had but one head. + +Suddenly this black and before silent mass became animated, and endless +rounds of applause burst forth, to the great astonishment of the boxes, +and above all, of the minister. He bent forward and bowed gratefully, +but drew back on perceiving that the clapping of hands interrupted the +actors every time they wished to proceed. The King had the curtains of +his box, until then closed, opened, to see what excited so much +enthusiasm. The whole court leaned forward from their boxes, and +perceived among the spectators on the stage a young man, humbly dressed, +who had just seated himself there with difficulty. Every look was fixed +upon him. He appeared utterly embarrassed by this, and sought to cover +himself with his little black cloak-far too short for the purpose. "Le +Cid! le Cid!" cried the pit, incessantly applauding. + +"Terrified, Corneille escaped behind the scenes, and all was again +silent. The Cardinal, beside himself with fury, had his curtain closed, +and was carried into his galleries, where was performed another scene, +prepared long before by the care of Joseph, who had tutored the +attendants upon the point before quitting Paris. Cardinal Mazarin +exclaimed that it would be quicker to pass his Eminence through a long +glazed window, which was only two feet from the ground, and led from his +box to the apartments; and it opened and the page passed his armchair +through it. Hereupon a hundred voices rose to proclaim the +accomplishment of the grand prophecy of Nostradamus. They said: + +"The bonnet rouge!-that's Monseigneur; 'quarante onces!'--that's Cinq- +Mars; 'tout finira!'--that's De Thou. What a providential incident! His +Eminence reigns over the future as over the present." + +He advanced thus upon his ambulatory throne through the long and splendid +galleries, listening to this delicious murmur of a new flattery; but +insensible to the hum of voices which deified his genius, he would have +given all their praises for one word, one single gesture of that +immovable and inflexible public, even had that word been a cry of hatred; +for clamor can be stifled, but how avenge one's self on silence? The +people can be prevented from striking, but who can prevent their waiting? +Pursued by the troublesome phantom of public opinion, the gloomy minister +only thought himself in safety when he reached the interior of his palace +amid his flattering courtiers, whose adorations soon made him forget that +a miserable pit had dared not to admire him. He had himself placed like +a king in the midst of his vast apartments, and, looking around him, +attentively counted the powerful and submissive men who surrounded him. + +Counting them, he admired himself. The chiefs of the great families, the +princes of the Church, the presidents of all the parliaments, the +governors of the provinces, the marshals and generals-in-chief of the +armies, the nuncio, the ambassadors of all the kingdoms, the deputies and +senators of the republics, were motionless, submissive, and ranged around +him, as if awaiting his orders. There was no longer a look to brave his +look, no longer a word to raise itself against his will, not a project +that men dared to form in the most secret recesses of the heart, not a +thought which did not proceed from his. Mute Europe listened to him by +its representatives. From time to time he raise an imperious voice, and +threw a self-satisfied word to this pompous circle, as a man who throws a +copper coin among a crowd of beggars. Then might be distinguished, by +the pride which lit up his looks and the joy visible in his countenance, +the prince who had received such a favor. + +Transformed into another man, he seemed to have made a step in the +hierarchy of power, so surrounded with unlooked-for adorations and sudden +caresses was the fortunate courtier, whose obscure happiness the Cardinal +did not even perceive. The King's brother and the Duc de Bouillon stood +in the crowd, whence the minister did not deign to withdraw them. Only +he ostentatiously said that it would be well to dismantle a few +fortresses, spoke at length of the necessity of pavements and quays at +Paris, and said in two words to Turenne that he might perhaps be sent to +the army in Italy, to seek his baton as marechal from Prince Thomas. + +While Richelieu thus played with the great and small things of Europe, +amid his noisy fete, the Queen was informed at the Louvre that the time +was come for her to proceed to the Cardinal's palace, where the King +awaited her after the tragedy. The serious Anne of Austria did not +witness any play; but she could not refuse her presence at the fete of +the Prime-Minister. She was in her oratory, ready to depart, and covered +with pearls, her favorite ornament; standing opposite a large glass with +Marie de Mantua, she was arranging more to her satisfaction one or two +details of the young Duchess's toilette, who, dressed in a long pink +robe, was herself contemplating with attention, though with somewhat of +ennui and a little sullenness, the ensemble of her appearance. + +She saw her own work in Marie, and, more troubled, thought with deep +apprehension of the moment when this transient calm would cease, despite +the profound knowledge she had of the feeling but frivolous character of +Marie. Since the conversation at St.-Germain (the fatal letter), she had +not quitted the young Princess, and had bestowed all her care to lead her +mind to the path which she had traced out for her, for the most decided +feature in the character of Anne of Austria was an invincible obstinacy +in her calculations, to which she would fain have subjected all events +and all passions with a geometrical exactitude. There is no doubt that +to this positive and immovable mind we must attribute all the misfortunes +of her regency. The sombre reply of Cinq-Mars; his arrest; his trial-- +all had been concealed from the Princesse Marie, whose first fault, it is +true, had been a movement of self-love and a momentary forgetfulness. + +However, the Queen by nature was good-hearted, and had bitterly repented +her precipitation in writing words so decisive, and whose consequences +had been so serious; and all her endeavors had been applied to mitigate +the results. In reflecting upon her conduct in reference to the +happiness of France, she applauded herself for having thus, at one +stroke, stifled the germ of a civil war which would have shaken the State +to its very foundations. But when she approached her young friend and +gazed on that charming being whose happiness she was thus destroying in +its bloom, and reflected that an old man upon a throne, even, would not +recompense her for the eternal loss she was about to sustain; when she +thought of the entire devotion, the total abnegation of himself, she had +witnessed in a young man of twenty-two, of so lofty a character, and +almost master of the kingdom--she pitied Marie, and admired from her very +soul the man whom she had judged so ill. + +She would at least have desired to explain his worth to her whom he had +loved so deeply, and who as yet knew him not; but she still hoped that +the conspirators assembled at Lyons would be able to save him, and once +knowing him to be in a foreign land she could tell all to her dear Marie. + +As to the latter, she had at first feared war. But surrounded by the +Queen's people, who had let nothing reach her ear but news dictated by +this Princess, she knew, or thought she knew, that the conspiracy had not +taken place; that the King and the Cardinal had returned to Paris nearly +at the same time; that Monsieur, relapsed for a while, had reappeared at +court; that the Duc de Bouillon, on ceding Sedan, had also been restored +to favor; and that if the 'grand ecuyer' had not yet appeared, the reason +was the more decided animosity of the Cardinal toward him, and the +greater part he had taken in the conspiracy. But common sense and +natural justice clearly said that having acted under the order of the +King's brother, his pardon ought to follow that of this Prince. + +All then, had calmed the first uneasiness of her heart, while nothing +had softened the kind of proud resentment she felt against Cinq-Mars, +so indifferent as not to inform her of the place of his retreat, known to +the Queen and the whole court, while, she said to herself, she had +thought but of him. Besides, for two months the balls and fetes had so +rapidly succeeded each other, and so many mysterious duties had commanded +her presence, that she had for reflection and regret scarce more than the +time of her toilette, at which she was generally almost alone. Every +evening she regularly commenced the general reflection upon the +ingratitude and inconstancy of men--a profound and novel thought, which +never fails to occupy the head of a young person in the time of first +love--but sleep never permitted her to finish the reflection; and the +fatigue of dancing closed her large black eyes ere her ideas had found +time to classify themselves in her memory, or to present her with any +distinct images of the past. + +In the morning she was always surrounded by the young princesses of the +court, and ere she well had time to dress had to present herself in the +Queen's apartment, where awaited her the eternal, but now less +disagreeable homage of the Prince-Palatine. The Poles had had time to +learn at the court of France that mysterious reserve, that eloquent +silence which so pleases the women, because it enhances the importance of +things always secret, and elevates those whom they respect, so as to +preclude the idea of exhibiting suffering in their presence. Marie was +regarded as promised to King Uladislas; and she herself--we must confess +it--had so well accustomed herself to this idea that the throne of Poland +occupied by another queen would have appeared to her a monstrous thing. +She did not look forward with pleasure to the period of ascending it, +but had, however, taken possession of the homage which was rendered her +beforehand. Thus, without avowing it even to herself, she greatly +exaggerated the supposed offences of Cinq-Mars, which the Queen had +expounded to her at St. Germain. + +"You are as fresh as the roses in this bouquet," said the Queen. "Come, +'ma chere', are you ready? What means this pouting air? Come, let me +fasten this earring. Do you not like these toys, eh? Will you have +another set of ornaments?" + +"Oh, no, Madame. I think that I ought not to decorate myself at all, for +no one knows better than yourself how unhappy I am. Men are very cruel +toward us! + +"I have reflected on what you said, and all is now clear to me. +Yes, it is quite true that he did not love me, for had he loved me +he would have renounced an enterprise that gave me so much uneasiness. +I told him, I remember, indeed, which was very decided," she added, with +an important and even solemn air, "that he would be a rebel--yes, Madame, +a rebel. I told him so at Saint-Eustache. But I see that your Majesty +was right. I am very unfortunate! He had more ambition than love." +Here a tear of pique escaped from her eyes, and rolled quickly down her +cheek, as a pearl upon a rose. + +"Yes, it is certain," she continued, fastening her bracelets; "and the +greatest proof is that in the two months he has renounced his enterprise +--you told me that you had saved him--he has not let me know the place of +his retreat, while I during that time have been weeping, have been +imploring all your power in his favor; have sought but a word that might +inform me of his proceedings. I have thought but of him; and even now I +refuse every day the throne of Poland, because I wish to prove to the end +that I am constant, that you yourself can not make me disloyal to my +attachment, far more serious than his, and that we are of higher worth +than the men. But, however, I think I may attend this fete, since it is +not a ball." + +"Yes, yes, my dear child! come, come!" said the Queen, desirous of +putting an end to this childish talk, which afflicted her all the more +that it was herself who had encouraged it. "Come, you will see the union +that prevails between the princes and the Cardinal, and we shall perhaps +hear some good news." They departed. + +When the two princesses entered the long galleries of the Palais- +Cardinal, they were received and coldly saluted by the King and the +minister, who, closely surrounded by silent courtiers, were playing at +chess upon a small low table. All the ladies who entered with the Queen +or followed her, spread through the apartments; and soon soft music +sounded in one of the saloons--a gentle accompaniment to the thousand +private conversations carried on round the play tables. + +Near the Queen passed, saluting her, a young newly married couple--the +happy Chabot and the beautiful Duchesse de Rohan. They seemed to shun +the crowd, and to seek apart a moment to speak to each other of +themselves. Every one received them with a smile and looked after them +with envy. Their happiness was expressed as strongly in the countenances +of others as in their own. + +Marie followed them with her eyes. "Still they are happy," she whispered +to the Queen, remembering the censure which in her hearing had been +thrown upon the match. + +But without answering, Anne of Austria, fearful that in the crowd some +inconsiderate expression might inform her young friend of the mournful +event so interesting to her, placed herself with Marie behind the King. +Monsieur, the Prince-Palatine, and the Duc de Bouillon came to speak to +her with a gay and lively air. The second, however, casting upon Marie a +severe and scrutinizing glance, said to her: + +"Madame la Princesse, you are most surprisingly beautiful and gay this +evening." + +She was confused at these words, and at seeing the speaker walk away with +a sombre air. She addressed herself to the Duc d'Orleans, who did not +answer, and seemed not to hear her. Marie looked at the Queen, and +thought she remarked paleness and disquiet on her features. Meantime, +no one ventured to approach the minister, who was deliberately meditating +his moves. Mazarin alone, leaning over his chair, followed all the +strokes with a servile attention, giving gestures of admiration every +time that the Cardinal played. Application to the game seemed to have +dissipated for a moment the cloud that usually shaded the minister's +brow. He had just advanced a tower, which placed Louis's king in that +false position which is called "stalemate,"--a situation in which the +ebony king, without being personally attacked, can neither advance nor +retire in any direction. The Cardinal, raising his eyes, looked at his +adversary and smiled with one corner of his mouth, not being able to +avoid a secret analogy. Then, observing the dim eyes and dying +countenance of the Prince, he whispered to Mazarin: + +"Faith, I think he'll go before me. He is greatly changed." + +At the same time he himself was seized with a long and violent cough, +accompanied internally with the sharp, deep pain he so often felt in the +side. At the sinister warning he put a handkerchief to his mouth, which +he withdrew covered with blood. To hide it, he threw it under the table, +and looked around him with a stern smile, as if to forbid observation. +Louis XIII, perfectly insensible, did not make the least movement, beyond +arranging his men for another game with a skeleton and trembling hand. +There two dying men seemed to be throwing lots which should depart first. + +At this moment a clock struck the hour of midnight. The King raised his +head. + +"Ah, ah!" he said; "this morning at twelve Monsieur le Grand had a +disagreeable time of it." + +A piercing shriek was uttered behind him. He shuddered, and threw +himself forward, upsetting the table. Marie de Mantua lay senseless in +the arms of the Queen, who, weeping bitterly, said in the King's ear: + +"Ah, Sire, your axe has a double edge." + +She then bestowed all her cares and maternal kisses upon the young +Princess, who, surrounded by all the ladies of the court, only came to +herself to burst into a torrent of tears. As soon as she opened her +eyes, "Alas! yes, my child," said Anne of Austria. "My poor girl, you +are Queen of Poland." + +It has often happened that the same event which causes tears to flow in +the palace of kings has spread joy without, for the people ever suppose +that happiness reigns at festivals. There were five days' rejoicings for +the return of the minister, and every evening under the windows of the +Palais-Cardinal and those of the Louvre pressed the people of Paris. The +late disturbances had given them a taste for public movements. They +rushed from one street to another with a curiosity at times insulting and +hostile, sometimes walking in silent procession, sometimes sending forth +loud peals of laughter or prolonged yells, of which no one understood the +meaning. Bands of young men fought in the streets and danced in rounds +in the squares, as if manifesting some secret hope of pleasure and some +insensate joy, grievous to the upright heart. + +It was remarkable that profound silence prevailed exactly in those places +where the minister had ordered rejoicings, and that the people passed +disdainfully before the illuminated facade of his palace. If some voices +were raised, it was to read aloud in a sneering tone the legends and +inscriptions with which the idiot flattery of some obscure writers had +surrounded the portraits of the minister. One of these pictures was +guarded by arquebusiers, who, however, could not preserve it from the +stones which were thrown at it from a distance by unseen hands. It +represented the Cardinal-Generalissimo wearing a casque surrounded by +laurels. Above it was inscribed: + + "Grand Duc: c'est justement que la France t'honore; + Ainsi que le dieu Mars dans Paris on t'adore." + +These fine phrases did not persuade the people that they were happy. +They no more adored the Cardinal than they did the god Mars, but they +accepted his fetes because they served as a covering for disorder. All +Paris was in an uproar. Men with long beards, carrying torches, measures +of wine, and two drinking-cups, which they knocked together with a great +noise, went along, arm in arm, shouting in chorus with rude voices an old +round of the League:. + + + "Reprenons la danse; + Allons, c'est assez. + Le printemps commence; + Les rois sont passes. + + "Prenons quelque treve; + Nous sommes lasses. + Les rois de la feve + Nous ont harasses. + + "Allons, Jean du Mayne, + Les rois sont passes. + + "Les rois de la feve + Nous ont harasses. + Allons, Jean du Mayne, + Les rois sont passes." + +The frightful bands who howled forth these words traversed the Quais and +the Pont-Neuf, squeezing against the high houses, which then covered the +latter, the peaceful citizens who were led there by simple curiosity. +Two young men, wrapped in cloaks, thus thrown one against the other, +recognized each other by the light of a torch placed at the foot of the +statue of Henri IV, which had been lately raised. + +"What! still at Paris?" said Corneille to Milton. "I thought you were +in London." + +"Hear you the people, Monsieur? Do you hear them? What is this ominous +chorus, + +'Les rois sont passes'?" + +"That is nothing, Monsieur. Listen to their conversation." + +"The parliament is dead," said one of the men; "the nobles are dead. +Let us dance; we are the masters. The old Cardinal is dying. There is +no longer any but the King and ourselves." + +"Do you hear that drunken wretch, Monsieur?" asked Corneille. "All our +epoch is in those words of his." + +"What! is this the work of the minister who is called great among you, +and even by other nations? I do not understand him." + +"I will explain the matter to you presently," answered Corneille. "But +first listen to the concluding part of this letter, which I received to- +day. Draw near this light under the statue of the late King. We are +alone. The crowd has passed. Listen! + + "It was by one of those unforeseen circumstances which prevent the + accomplishment of the noblest enterprises that we were not able to + save MM. de Cinq-Mars and De Thou. We might have foreseen that, + prepared for death by long meditation, they would themselves refuse + our aid; but this idea did not occur to any of us. In the + precipitation of our measures, we also committed the fault of + dispersing ourselves too much in the crowd, so that we could not + take a sudden resolution. I was unfortunately stationed near the + scaffold; and I saw our unfortunate friends advance to the foot of + it, supporting the poor Abbe Quillet, who was destined to behold the + death of the pupil whose birth he had witnessed. He sobbed aloud, + and had strength enough only to kiss the hands of the two friends. + We all advanced, ready to throw ourselves upon the guards at the + announced signal; but I saw with grief M. de Cinq-Mars cast his hat + from him with an air of disdain. Our movement had been observed, + and the Catalonian guard was doubled round the scaffold. I could + see no more; but I heard much weeping around me. After the three + usual blasts of the trumpet, the recorder of Lyons, on horseback at + a little distance from the scaffold, read the sentence of death, to + which neither of the prisoners listened. M. de Thou said to M. de + Cinq-Mars: + + "'Well, dear friend, which shall die first? Do you remember Saint- + Gervais and Saint-Protais?' + + "'Which you think best,' answered Cinq-Mars. + + "The second confessor, addressing M. de Thou, said, 'You are the + elder.' + + "'True,' said M. de Thou; and, turning to M. le Grand, 'You are the + most generous; you will show me the way to the glory of heaven.' + + "'Alas!' said Cinq-Mars; 'I have opened to you that of the + precipice; but let us meet death nobly, and we shall revel in the + glory and happiness of heaven!' + + "Hereupon he embraced him, and ascended the scaffold with surprising + address and agility. He walked round the scaffold, and contemplated + the whole of the great assembly with a calm countenance, which + betrayed no sign of fear, and a serious and graceful manner. He + then went round once more, saluting the people on every side, + without appearing to recognize any of us, with a majestic and + charming expression of face; he then knelt down, raising his eyes to + heaven, adoring God, and recommending himself to Him. As he + embraced the crucifix, the father confessor called to the people to + pray for him; and M. le Grand, opening his arms, still holding his + crucifix, made the same request to the people. Then he readily + knelt before the block, holding the stake, placed his neck upon it, + and asked the confessor, 'Father, is this right?' Then, while they + were cutting off his hair, he raised his eyes to heaven, and said, + sighing: + + "'My God, what is this world? My God, I offer thee my death as a + satisfaction for my sins!' + + "'What are you waiting for? What are you doing there?' he said to + the executioner, who had not yet taken his axe from an old bag he + had brought with him. His confessor, approaching, gave him a + medallion; and he, with an incredible tranquillity of mind, begged + the father to hold the crucifix before his eyes, which he would not + allow to be bound. I saw the two trembling hands of the Abbe + Quillet, who raised the crucifix. At this moment a voice, as clear + and pure as that of an angel, commenced the 'Ave, maris stella'. + In the universal silence I recognized the voice of M. de Thou, who + was at the foot of the scaffold; the people repeated the sacred + strain. M. de Cinq-Mars clung more tightly to the stake; and I saw + a raised axe, made like the English axes. A terrible cry of the + people from the Place, the windows, and the towers told me that it + had fallen, and that the head had rolled to the ground. I had + happily strength enough left to think of his soul, and to commence a + prayer for him. + + "I mingled it with that which I heard pronounced aloud by our + unfortunate and pious friend De Thou. I rose and saw him spring + upon the scaffold with such promptitude that he might almost have + been said to fly. The father and he recited a psalm; he uttered it + with the ardor of a seraphim, as if his soul had borne his body to + heaven. Then, kneeling down, he kissed the blood of Cinq-Mars as + that of a martyr, and became himself a greater martyr. I do not + know whether God was pleased to grant him this last favor; but I saw + with horror that the executioner, terrified no doubt at the first + blow he had given, struck him upon the top of his head, whither the + unfortunate young man raised his hand; the people sent forth a long + groan, and advanced against the executioner. The poor wretch, + terrified still more, struck him another blow, which only cut the + skin and threw him upon the scaffold, where the executioner rolled + upon him to despatch him. A strange event terrified the people as + much as the horrible spectacle. M. de Cinq-Mars' old servant held + his horse as at a military funeral; he had stopped at the foot of + the scaffold, and like a man paralyzed, watched his master to the + end, then suddenly, as if struck by the same axe, fell dead under + the blow which had taken off his master's head. + + "I write these sad details in haste, on board a Genoese galley, into + which Fontrailles, Gondi, Entraigues, Beauvau, Du Lude, myself, and + others of the chief conspirators have retired. We are going to + England to await until time shall deliver France from the tyrant + whom we could not destroy. I abandon forever the service of the + base Prince who betrayed us. + + "MONTRESOR" + +"Such," continued Corneille, "has been the fate of these two young men +whom you lately saw so powerful. Their last sigh was that of the ancient +monarchy. Nothing more than a court can reign here henceforth; the +nobles and the senates are destroyed." + +"And this is your pretended great man!" said Milton. "What has he +sought to do? He would, then, create republics for future ages, since he +destroys the basis of your monarchy?" + +"Look not so far," answered Corneille; "he only seeks to reign until the +end of his life. He has worked for the present and not for the future; +he has continued the work of Louis XI; and neither one nor the other knew +what they were doing." + +The Englishman smiled. + +"I thought," he said, "that true genius followed another path. This man +has shaken all that he ought to have supported, and they admire him! +I pity your nation." + +"Pity it not!" exclaimed Corneille, warmly; "a man passes away, but a +people is renewed. This people, Monsieur, is gifted with an immortal +energy, which nothing can destroy; its imagination often leads it astray, +but superior reason will ever ultimately master its disorders." + +The two young and already great men walked, as they conversed, upon the +space which separates the statue of Henri IV from the Place Dauphine; +they stopped a moment in the centre of this Place. + +"Yes, Monsieur," continued Corneille, "I see every evening with what +rapidity a noble thought finds its echo in French hearts; and every +evening I retire happy at the sight. Gratitude prostrates the poor +people before this statue of a good king! Who knows what other monument +another passion may raise near this? Who can say how far the love of +glory will lead our people? Who knows that in the place where we now +are, there may not be raised a pyramid taken from the East?" + +"These are the secrets of the future," said Milton. "I, like yourself, +admire your impassioned nation; but I fear them for themselves. I do not +well understand them; and I do not recognize their wisdom when I see them +lavishing their admiration upon men such as he who now rules you. The +love of power is very puerile; and this man is devoured by it, without +having force enough to seize it wholly. By an utter absurdity, he is a +tyrant under a master. Thus has this colossus, never firmly balanced, +been all but overthrown by the finger of a boy. Does that indicate +genius? No, no! when genius condescends to quit the lofty regions of +its true home for a human passion, at least, it should grasp that passion +in its entirety. Since Richelieu only aimed at power, why did he not, +if he was a genius, make himself absolute master of power? I am going to +see a man who is not yet known, and whom I see swayed by this miserable +ambition; but I think that he will go farther. His name is Cromwell!" + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A cat is a very fine animal. It is a drawing-room tiger +But how avenge one's self on silence? +Deny the spirit of self-sacrifice +Hatred of everything which is superior to myself +Hermits can not refrain from inquiring what men say of them +Princes ought never to be struck, except on the head +These ideas may serve as opium to produce a calm +They loved not as you love, eh? + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Cinq Mars, v6 +by Alfred de Vigny + diff --git a/3952.zip b/3952.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab3b219 --- /dev/null +++ b/3952.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dacf543 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #3952 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3952) |