A Gentleman of France

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A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE

BEING THE MEMOIRS OF GASTON DE BONNE SIEUR DE MARSAC

by STANLEY WEYMAN

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. THE SPORT OF FOOLS
CHAPTER II. THE KING OF NAVARRE
CHAPTER III. BOOT AND SADDLE
CHAPTER IV. MADEMOISELLE DE LA VIRE
CHAPTER V. THE ROAD TO BLOIS
CHAPTER VI. MY MOTHER'S LODGING
CHAPTER VII. SIMON FLEIX
CHAPTER VIII. AN EMPTY ROOM
CHAPTER IX. THE HOUSE IN THE RUELLE D'ARCY
CHAPTER X. THE FIGHT ON THE STAIRS
CHAPTER XI. THE MAN AT THE DOOR
CHAPTER XII. MAXIMILIAN DE BETHUNE, BARON DE ROSNY
CHAPTER XIII. AT ROSNY
CHAPTER XIV. M. DE RAMBOUILLET
CHAPTER XV. VILAIN HERODES
CHAPTER XVI. IN THE KING'S CHAMBER
CHAPTER XVII. THE JACOBIN MONK
CHAPTER XVIII. THE OFFER OF THE LEAGUE
CHAPTER XIX. MEN CALL IT CHANCE
CHAPTER XX. THE KING'S FACE
CHAPTER XXI. TWO WOMEN
CHAPTER XXII. 'LA FEMME DISPOSE'
CHAPTER XXIII. THE LAST VALOIS
CHAPTER XXIV. A ROYAL PERIL
CHAPTER XXV. TERMS OF SURRENDER
CHAPTER XXVI. MEDITATIONS
CHAPTER XXVII. TO ME, MY FRIENDS!
CHAPTER XXVIII. THE CASTLE ON THE HILL
CHAPTER XXIX. PESTILENCE AND FAMINE
CHAPTER XXX. STRICKEN
CHAPTER XXXI. UNDER THE GREENWOOD
CHAPTER XXXII. A TAVERN BRAWL
CHAPTER XXXIII. AT MEUDON
CHAPTER XXXIV. ''TIS AN ILL WIND'
CHAPTER XXXV. 'LE ROI EST MORT'
CHAPTER XXXVI. 'VIVE LE ROI!'

A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE.

CHAPTER I.

THE SPORT OF FOOLS.

The death of the Prince of Conde, which occurred in the spring of
1588, by depriving me of my only patron, reduced me to such
straits that the winter of that year, which saw the King of
Navarre come to spend his Christmas at St. Jean d'Angely, saw
also the nadir of my fortunes. I did not know at this time--I
may confess it to-day without shame--wither to turn for a gold
crown or a new scabbard, and neither had nor discerned any hope
of employment. The peace lately patched up at Blois between the
King of France and the League persuaded many of the Huguenots
that their final ruin was at hand; but it could not fill their
exhausted treasury or enable them to put fresh troops into the
field.

The death of the Prince had left the King of Navarre without a
rival in the affections of the Huguenots; the Vicomte de Turenne,
whose turbulent; ambition already began to make itself felt, and
M. de Chatillon, ranking next to him. It was my ill-fortune,
however, to be equally unknown to all three leaders, and as the
month of December which saw me thus miserably straitened saw me
reach the age of forty, which I regard, differing in that from
many, as the grand climacteric of a man's life, it will be
believed that I had need of all the courage which religion and a
campaigner's life could supply.

I had been compelled some time before to sell all my horses
except the black Sardinian with the white spot on its forehead;
and I now found myself obliged to part also with my valet de
chambre and groom, whom I dismissed on the same day, paying them
their wages with the last links of gold chain left to me. It was
not without grief and dismay that I saw myself thus stripped of
the appurtenances of a man of birth, and driven to groom my own
horse under cover of night. But this was not the worst. My
dress, which suffered inevitably from this menial employment,
began in no long time to bear witness to the change in my
circumstances; so that on the day of the King of Navarre's
entrance into St. Jean I dared not face the crowd, always quick
to remark the poverty of those above them, but was fain to keep
within doors and wear out my patience in the garret of the
cutler's house in the Rue de la Coutellerie, which was all the
lodging I could now afford.

Pardieu, 'tis a strange world! Strange that time seems to me;
more strange compared with this. My reflections on that day, I
remember, were of the most melancholy. Look at it how I would, I
could not but see that my life's spring was over. The crows'
feet were gathering about my eyes, and my moustachios, which
seemed with each day of ill-fortune to stand out more fiercely
in proportion as my face grew leaner, were already grey. I was
out at elbows, with empty pockets, and a sword which peered
through the sheath. The meanest ruffler who, with broken feather
and tarnished lace, swaggered at the heels of Turenne, was
scarcely to be distinguished from me. I had still, it is true, a
rock and a few barren acres in Brittany, the last remains of the
family property; but the small small sums which the peasants
could afford to pay were sent annually to Paris, to my mother,
who had no other dower. And this I would not touch, being minded
to die a gentleman, even if I could not live in that estate.

Small as were my expectations of success, since I had no one at
the king's side to push my business, nor any friend at Court, I
nevertheless did all I could, in the only way that occurred to
me. I drew up a petition, and lying in wait one day for M.
Forget, the King of Navarre's secretary, placed it in his hand,
begging him to lay it before that prince. He took it, and
promised to do so, smoothly, and with as much lip-civility as I
had a right to expect. But the careless manner in which he
doubled up and thrust away the paper on which I had spent so much
labour, no less than the covert sneer of his valet, who ran after
me to get the customary present--and ran, as I still blush to
remember, in vain--warned me to refrain from hope.

In this, however, having little save hope left, I failed so
signally as to spend the next day and the day after in a fever of
alternate confidence and despair, the cold fit following the hot
with perfect regularity. At length, on the morning of the third
day--I remember it lacked but three of Christmas--I heard a step
on the stairs. My landlord living in his shop, and the two
intervening floors being empty, I had no doubt the message was
for me, and went outside the door to receive it, my first glance
at the messenger confirming me in my highest hopes, as well as in
all I had ever heard of the generosity of the King of Navarre.
For by chance I knew the youth to be one of the royal pages; a
saucy fellow who had a day or two before cried 'Old Clothes'
after me in the street. I was very far from resenting this now,
however, nor did he appear to recall it; so that I drew the
happiest augury as to the contents of the note he bore from the
politeness with which he presented it to me.

I would not, however, run the risk of a mistake, and before
holding out my hand, I asked him directly and with formality if
it was for me.

He answered, with the utmost respect, that it was for the Sieur
de Marsac, and for me if I were he.

'There is an answer, perhaps?' I said, seeing that he lingered.

'The King of Navarre, sir,' he replied, with a low bow, 'will
receive your answer in person, I believe.' And with that,
replacing the hat which he had doffed out of respect to me, he
turned and went down the stairs.

Returning to my room, and locking the door, I hastily opened the
missive, which was sealed with a large seal, and wore every
appearance of importance. I found its contents to exceed all my
expectations. The King of Navarre desired me to wait on him at
noon on the following day, and the letter concluded with such
expressions of kindness and goodwill as left me in no doubt of
the Prince's intentions. I read it, I confess, with emotions of
joy and gratitude which would better have become a younger man,
and then cheerfully sat down to spend the rest of the day in
making such improvements in my dress as seemed possible. With a
thankful heart I concluded that I had now escaped from poverty,
at any rate from such poverty as is disgraceful to a gentleman;
and consoled myself for the meanness of the appearance I must
make at Court with the reflection that a day or two would mend
both habit and fortune.

Accordingly, it was with a stout heart that I left my lodgings a
few minutes before noon next morning, and walked towards the
castle. It was some time since I had made so public an
appearance in the streets, which the visit of the King of
Navarre's Court; had filled with an unusual crowd, and I could
not help fancying as I passed that some of the loiterers eyed me
with a covert smile; and, indeed, I was shabby enough. But
finding that a frown more than sufficed to restore the gravity of
these gentry, I set down the appearance to my own self-
consciousness, and, stroking my moustachios, strode along boldly
until I saw before me, and coming to meet me, the same page who
had delivered the note.

He stopped in front of me with an air of consequence, and making
me a low bow--whereat I saw the bystanders stare, for he was as
gay a young spark as maid-of-honour could desire--he begged me to
hasten, as the king awaited me in his closet.

'He has asked for you twice, sir,' he continued importantly, the
feather of his cap almost sweeping the ground.

'I think,' I answered, quickening my steps, 'that the king's
letter says noon, young sir. If I am late on such an occasion,
he has indeed cause to complain of me.'

'Tut, tut!' he rejoined waving his hand with a dandified 'It is
no matter. One man may steal a horse when another may not look
over the wall, you know.'

A man may be gray-haired, he may be sad-complexioned, and yet he
may retain some of the freshness of youth. On receiving this
indication of a favour exceeding all expectation, I remember I
felt the blood rise to my face, and experienced the most lively
gratitude. I wondered who had spoken in my behalf, who had
befriended me; and concluding at last that my part in the affair
at Brouage had come to the king's ears, though I could not
conceive through whom, I passed through the castle gates with an
air of confidence and elation which was not unnatural, I think,
under the circumstances. Thence, following my guide, I mounted
the ramp and entered the courtyard.

A number of grooms and valets were lounging here, some leading
horses to and fro, others exchanging jokes with the wenches who
leaned from the windows, while their fellows again stamped up and
down to keep their feet warm, or played ball against the wall in
imitation of their masters. Such knaves are ever more insolent
than their betters; but I remarked that they made way for me with
respect, and with rising spirits, yet a little irony, I reminded
myself as I mounted the stairs of the words, 'whom the king
delighteth to honour!'

Reaching the head of the flight, where was a soldier on guard,
the page opened the door of the antechamber, and standing aside
bade me enter. I did so, and heard the door close behind me.

For a moment I stood still, bashful and confused. It seemed to
me that there were a hundred people in the room, and that half
the eyes which met mine were women's, Though I was not altogether
a stranger to such state as the Prince of Conde had maintained,
this crowded anteroom filled me with surprise, and even with a
degree of awe, of which I was the next moment ashamed. True, the
flutter of silk and gleam of jewels surpassed anything I had then
seen, for my fortunes had never led me to the king's Court; but
an instant's reflection reminded me that my fathers had held
their own in such scenes, and with a bow regulated rather by this
thought than by the shabbiness of my dress, I advanced amid a
sudden silence.

'M. de Marsac!' the page announced, in a tone which sounded a
little odd in my ears; so much so, that I turned quickly to look
at him. He was gone, however, and when I turned again the eyes
which met mine were full of smiles. A young girl who stood near
me tittered. Put out of countenance by this, I looked round in
embarrassment to find someone to whom I might apply.

The room was long and narrow, panelled in chestnut, with a row of
windows on the one hand, and two fireplaces, now heaped with
glowing logs, on the other. Between the fireplaces stood a rack
of arms. Round the nearer hearth lounged a group of pages, the
exact counterparts of the young blade who had brought me hither;
and talking with these were as many young gentlewomen. Two great
hounds lay basking in the heat, and coiled between them, with her
head on the back of the larger, was a figure so strange that at
another time I should have doubted my eyes. It wore the fool's
motley and cap and bells, but a second glance showed me the
features were a woman's. A torrent of black hair flowed loose
about her neck, her eyes shone with wild merriment, and her face,
keen, thin, and hectic, glared at me from the dog's back. Beyond
her, round the farther fireplace, clustered more than a score of
gallants and ladies, of whom one presently advanced to me.

'Sir,' he said politely--and I wished I could match his bow--'you
wished to see--?'

'The King of Navarre,' I answered, doing my best.

He turned to the group behind him, and said, in a peculiarly
even, placid tone, 'He wishes to see the King of Navarre.' Then
in solemn silence he bowed to me again and went back to his
fellows.

Upon the instant, and before I could make up my mind how to take
this, a second tripped forward, and saluting me, said, 'M. de
Marsac, I think?'

'At your service, sir,' I rejoined. In my eagerness to escape
the gaze of all those eyes, and the tittering which was audible
behind me, I took a step forward to be in readiness to follow
him. But he gave no sign. 'M. de Marsac to see the King of
Navarre' was all he said, speaking as the other had close to
those behind. And with that he too wheeled round and went back.
to the fire.

I stared, a first faint suspicion of the truth aroused in my
mind. Before I could act upon it, however--in such a situation
it was no easy task to decide how to act--a third advanced with
the same measured steps. 'By appointment I think, sir?' he
said, bowing lower than the others.

'Yes,' I replied sharply, beginning to grow warm, 'by appointment
at noon.'

'M. de Marsac,' he announced in a sing-song tone to those behind
him, 'to see the King of Navarre by appointment at noon.' And
with a second bow--while I grew scarlet with mortification he too
wheeled gravely round and returned to the fireplace.

I saw another preparing to advance, but he came too late.
Whether my face of anger and bewilderment was too much for them,
or some among them lacked patience to see the end, a sudden
uncontrollable shout of laughter, in which all the room joined,
cut short the farce. God knows it hurt me: I winced, I looked
this way and that, hoping here or there to find sympathy and
help. But it seemed to me that the place rang with gibes, that
every panel framed, however I turned myself, a cruel, sneering
face. One behind me cried 'Old Clothes,' and when I turned the
other hearth whispered the taunt. It added a thousandfold to my
embarrassment that there was in all a certain orderliness, so
that while no one moved, and none, while I looked at them, raised
their voices, I seemed the more singled out, and placed as a butt
in the midst.

One face amid the pyramid of countenances which hid the farther
fireplace so burned itself into my recollection in that miserable
moment, that I never thereafter forgot it; a small, delicate
woman's face, belonging to a young girl who stood boldly in front
of her companions. It was a face full of pride, and, as I saw it
then, of scorn--scorn that scarcely deigned to laugh; while the
girl's graceful figure, slight and maidenly, yet perfectly
proportioned, seemed instinct with the same feeling of
contemptuous amusement.

The play, which seemed long enough to me, might have lasted
longer, seeing that no one there had pity on me, had I not, in my
desperation, espied a door at the farther end of the room, and
concluded, seeing no other, that it was the door of the king's
bedchamber. The mortification I was suffering was so great that
I did not hesitate, but advanced with boldness towards it. On
the instant there was a lull in the laughter round me, and half a
dozen voices called on me to stop.

'I have come to see the king,' I answered, turning on them
fiercely, for I was by this time in no mood for browbeating, 'and
I will see him!'

'He is out hunting,' cried all with one accord; and they signed
imperiously to me to go back the way I had come.

But having the king's appointment safe in my pouch, I thought I
had good reason to disbelieve them; and taking advantage of their
surprise--for they had not expected so bold a step on my part--I
was at the door before they could prevent me. I heard Mathurine,
the fool, who had sprung to her feet, cry 'Pardieu! he will take
the Kingdom of Heaven by force!' and those were the last words I
heard; for, as I lifted the latch--there was no one on guard
there--a sudden swift silence fell upon the room behind me.

I pushed the door gently open and went in. There were two men
sitting in one of the windows, who turned and looked angrily
towards me. For the rest the room was empty. The king's
walking-shoes lay by his chair, and beside them the boot-hooks
and jack. A dog before the fire got up slowly and growled, and
one of the men, rising from the trunk on which he had been
sitting, came towards me and asked me, with every sign of
irritation, what I wanted there, and who had given me leave to
enter.

I was beginning to explain, with some diffidence the stillness of
the room sobering me--that I wished to see the king, when he who
had advanced took me up sharply with, 'The king? the king? He
is not here, man. He is hunting at St. Valery. Did they not
tell you so outside?'

I thought I recognised the speaker, than whom I have seldom seen
a man more grave and thoughtful for his years, which were
something less than mine, more striking in presence, or more
soberly dressed. And being desirous to evade his question, I
asked him if I had not the honour to address M. du Plessis
Mornay; for that wise and courtly statesman, now a pillar of
Henry's counsels, it was.

'The same, sir,' he replied, abruptly, and without taking his
eyes from me. 'I am Mornay. What of that?'

'I am M. de Marsac,' I explained. And there I stopped, supposing
that, as he was in the king's confidence, this would make my
errand clear to him.

But I was disappointed. 'Well, sir?' he said, and waited
impatiently.

So cold a reception, following such treatment as I had suffered
outside, would have sufficed to have dashed my spirits utterly
had I not felt the king's letter in my pocket. Being pretty
confident, however, that a single glance at this would alter M.
du Mornay's bearing for the better, I hastened, looking on it as
a kind of talisman, to draw it out and present it to him.

He took it, and looked at it, and opened it, but with so cold and
immovable an aspect as made my heart sink more than all that had
gone before. 'What is amiss?' I cried, unable to keep silence.
''Tis from the king, sir.'

'A king in motley!' he answered, his lip curling.

The sense of his words did not at once strike home to me, and I
murmured, in great disorder, that the king had sent for me.

'The king knows nothing of it,' was his blunt answer, bluntly
given. And he thrust the paper back into my hands. 'It is a
trick,' he continued, speaking with the same abruptness, 'for
which you have doubtless to thank some of those idle young
rascals without. You had sent an application to the king, I
suppose? Just so. No doubt they got hold of it, and this is the
result. They ought to be whipped.'

It was not possible for me to doubt any longer that what he said
was true. I saw in a moment all my hopes vanish, all my plans
flung to the winds; and in the first shock of the discovery I
could neither find voice to answer him nor strength to withdraw.
In a kind of vision I seemed to see my own lean, haggard face
looking at me as in a glass, and, reading despair in my eyes,
could have pitied myself.

My disorder was so great that M. du Mornay observed it. Looking
more closely at me, he two or three times muttered my name, and
at last said, 'M. de Marsac? Ha! I remember. You were in the
affair of Brouage, were you not?'

I nodded my head in token of assent, being unable at the moment
to speak, and so shaken that perforce I leaned against the wall,
my head sunk on my breast. The memory of my age, my forty years,
and my poverty, pressed hard upon me, filling me with despair and
bitterness. I could have wept, but no tears came.

M. du Mornay, averting his eyes from me, took two or three short,
impatient turns up and down the chamber. When he addressed me
again his tone was full of respect, mingled with such petulance
as one brave man might feel, seeing another so hard pressed. 'M.
de Marsac,' he said, 'you have my sympathy. It is a shame that
men who have served the cause should be reduced to such.
straits. Were it, possible for me, to increase my own train at
present, I should consider it an honour to have you with me. But
I am hard put to it myself, and so are we all, and the King of
Navarre not least among us. He has lived for a month upon a wood
which M. de Rosny has cut down. I will mention your name to him,
but I should be cruel rather than kind were I not to warn you
that nothing can come of it.'

With that he offered me his hand, and, cheered as much by this
mark of consideration as by the kindness of his expressions, I
rallied my spirits. True, I wanted comfort more substantial, but
it was not to be had. I thanked him therefore as becomingly as I
could, and seeing there was no help for it, took my leave of him,
and slowly and sorrowfully withdrew from the room.

Alas! to escape I had to face the outside world, for which his
kind words were an ill preparation. I had to run the gauntlet of
the antechamber. The moment I appeared, or rather the moment the
door closed behind me, I was hailed with a shout of derision.
While one cried, 'Way! way for the gentleman who has seen the
king!' another hailed me uproariously as Governor of Guyenne,
and a third requested a commission in my regiment.

I heard these taunts with a heart full almost to bursting. It
seemed to me an unworthy thing that, merely by reason of my
poverty, I should be derided by youths who had still all their
battles before them; but to stop or reproach them would only, as
I well knew, make matters worse, and, moreover, I was so sore
stricken that I had little spirit left even to speak.
Accordingly, I made my way through them with what speed I might,
my head bent, and my countenance heavy with shame and depression.
In this way--I wonder there were not among them some generous
enough to pity me--I had nearly gained the door, and was
beginning to breathe, when I found my path stopped by that
particular young lady of the Court whom I have described above.
Something had for the moment diverted her attention from me, and
it required a word from her companions to apprise her of my near
neighbourhood. She turned then, as one taken by surprise, and
finding me so close to her that my feet all but touched her gown,
she stepped quickly aside, and with a glance as cruel as her act,
drew her skirts away from contact with me.

The insult stung me, I know not why, more than all the gibes
which were being flung at me from every side, and moved by a
sudden impulse I stopped, and in the bitterness of my heart spoke
to her. 'Mademoiselle,' I said, bowing low--for, as I have
stated, she was small, and more like a fairy than a woman, though
her face expressed both pride and self-will--'Mademoiselle,' I
said sternly, 'such as I am, I have fought for France! Some day
you may learn that there are viler things in the world--and have
to bear them--than a poor gentleman!'

The words were scarcely out of my mouth before I repented of
them, for Mathurine, the fool, who was at my elbow, was quick to
turn them into ridicule. Raising her hands above our heads, as
in act to bless us, she cried out that Monsieur, having gained so
rich an office, desired a bride to grace it; and this, bringing
down upon us a coarse shout of laughter and some coarser gibes, I
saw the young girl's face flush hotly.

The next moment a voice in the crowd cried roughly 'Out upon his
wedding suit!' and with that a sweetmeat struck me in the face.
Another and another followed, covering me with flour and comfits.
This was the last straw. For a moment, forgetting where I was, I
turned upon them, red and furious, every hair in my moustachios
bristling. The next, the full sense of my impotence and of the
folly of resentment prevailed with me, and, dropping my head upon
my breast, I rushed from the room.

I believe that the younger among them followed me, and that the
cry of 'Old Clothes!' pursued me even to the door of my lodgings
in the Rue de la Coutellerie. But in the misery of the moment,
and my strong desire to be within doors and alone, I barely
noticed this, and am not certain whether it was so or not.

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