A Gentleman of France

S >> Stanley Weyman >> A Gentleman of France

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32

'Nay, but, sire,' I said hurriedly, yet still with as much
deference as I could command, 'I beg you to permit me first to
repeat what I have seen. M. de Bruhl is without, and I counted
six men whom I believe to be his following. They are ruffians
ripe for any crime; and I implore your Majesty rather to submit
to a short imprisonment--'

I paused struck dumb on that word, confounded by the passion
which lightened in the king's face. My ill-chosen expression had
indeed applied the spark to his wrath. Predisposed to suspicion
by a hundred treacheries, he forgot the perils outside in the one
idea which on the instant possessed his mind; that I would
confine his person, and had brought him hither for no other
purpose. He glared round him with eyes full of rage and fear,
and his trembling lips breathed rather than spoke the word
'Imprison?'

Unluckily, a trifling occurrence added at this moment to his
disorder, and converted it into frenzy. Someone outside fell
heavily against the door; this, causing madame to utter a low
shriek, seemed to shatter the last remnant of the king's self-
control. Stamping his foot on the floor, he cried to me with the
utmost wildness to open the door--by which I had hitherto kept my
place.

But, wrongly or rightly, I was still determined to put off
opening it; and I raised my hands with the intention of making a
last appeal to him. He misread the gesture, and retreating a
step, with the greatest suddenness whipped out his sword, and in
a moment had the point at my breast, and his wrist drawn back to
thrust.

It has always been my belief that he would not have dealt the
blow, but that the mere touch of the hilt, awaking the courage
which he undoubtedly possessed, and which did not desert him in
his last moments, would have recalled him to himself. But the
opportunity was not given him, for while the blade yet quivered,
and I stood motionless, controlling myself by an effort, my knee
half bent and my eyes on his, Mademoiselle de la Vire sprang
forward at his back, and with a loud scream clutched his elbow.
The king, surprised, and ignorant who held him, flung up his
point wildly, and striking the lamp above his head with his
blade, shattered it in an instant, bringing down the pottery with
a crash and reducing the room to darkness; while the screams of
the women, and the knowledge that we had a madman among us,
peopled, the blackness with a hundred horrors.

Fearing above all for mademoiselle, I made my way as soon as I
could recover my wits to the embers of the fire, and regardless
of the king's sword, which I had a vague idea was darting about
in the darkness, I searched for and found a half-burnt stick,
which I blew into a blaze. With this, still keeping my back to
the room, I contrived to light a taper that I had noticed
standing by the hearth; and then, and then only, I turned to see
what I had to confront.

Mademoiselle de la Vire stood in a corner, half-fierce, half-
terrified, and wholly flushed. She had her hand wrapped up in a
'kerchief already stained with blood; and from this I gathered
that the king in his frenzy had wounded her slightly. Standing
before her mistress, with her hair bristling, like a wild-cat's
fur, and her arms akimbo, was Fanchette, her harsh face and
square form instinct with fury and defiance. Madame de Bruhl and
Simon cowered against the wall not far from them; and in a chair,
into which he had apparently just thrown himself, sat the king,
huddled up and collapsed, the point of his sword trailing on the
ground beside him, and his nerveless hand scarce retaining force
to grip the pommel.

In a moment I made up my mind what to do, and going to him in
silence, I laid my pistols, sword, and dagger on a stool by his
side. Then I knelt.

'The door, sire,' I said, 'is there. It is for your Majesty to
open it when you please. Here, too, sire, are my weapons. I am
your prisoner, the Provost-Marshal is outside, and you can at a
word deliver me to him. Only one thing I beg, sire,' I continued
earnestly, 'that your Majesty will treat; as a delusion the idea
that I meditated for a moment disrespect or violence to your
person.'

He looked at me dully, his face pale, his eyes fish-like.
'Sanctus, man!' he muttered, 'why did you raise your hand?'

'Only to implore your Majesty to pause a moment,' I answered,
watching the intelligence return slowly to his face. 'If you
will deign to listen I can explain in half a dozen words, sire.
M. de Bruhl's men are six or seven, the Provost has eight or
nine; but the former are the wilder blades, and if M. de Bruhl
find your Majesty in my lodging, and infer his own defeat, he
will be capable of any desperate stroke. Your person would
hardly be safe in his company through the streets. And there is
another consideration,' I went on, observing with joy that the
king listened, and was gradually regaining his composure. 'That
is, the secrecy you desired to preserve, sire, until this matter
should be well advanced. M. de Rosny laid the strictest
injunctions on me in that respect, fearing an EMEUTE in Blois
should your Majesty's plans become known.'

'You speak fairly,' the king answered with returning energy,
though he avoided looking at the women. 'Bruhl is likely enough
to raise one. But how am I to get out, sir?' he continued,
querulously. 'I cannot remain here. I shall be missed, man! I
am not a hedge-captain, neither sought nor wanted!'

'If your Majesty would trust me?' I said slowly and with
hesitation.

'Trust you!' he retorted peevishly, holding up his hands and
gazing intently at his nails, of the shape and whiteness of which
he was prouder than any woman. 'Have I not trusted you? If I had
not trusted you, should I have been here? But that you were a
Huguenot--God forgive me for saying it!--I would have seen you in
hell before I would have come here with you!'

I confess to having heard this testimony to the Religion with a
pride which made me forget for a moment the immediate
circumstances--the peril in which we stood, the gloomy room
darkly lighted by a single candle, the scared faces in the
background, even the king's huddled figure, in which dejection
and pride struggled for expression. For a moment only; then I
hastened to reply, saying that I doubted not I could still
extricate his Majesty without discovery.

'In Heaven's name do it, then!' he answered sharply. 'Do what
you like, man! Only get me back into the castle, and it shall
not be a Huguenot will entice me out again. I am over old for
these adventures!'

A fresh attack on the door taking place as he said this induced
me to lose no time in explaining my plan, which he was good
enough to approve, after again upbraiding me for bringing him
into such a dilemma. Fearing lest the door should give way
prematurely, notwithstanding the bars I had provided for it, and
goaded on by Madame de Bruhl's face, which evinced the utmost
terror, I took the candle and attended his Majesty into the inner
room; where I placed my pistols beside him, but silently resumed
my sword and dagger. I then returned for the women, and
indicating by signs that they were to enter, held the door open
for them.

Mademoiselle, whose bandaged hand I could not regard without
emotion, though the king's presence and the respect I owed him
forbade me to utter so much as a word, advanced readily until she
reached the doorway abreast of me. There, however, looking back,
and seeing Madame de Bruhl following her, she stopped short, and
darting a haughty glance at me, muttered, 'And--that lady? Are
we to be shut up together, sir?'

'Mademoiselle,' I answered quickly in the low tone she had used
herself, 'have I ever asked anything dishonourable of you?'

She seemed by a slight movement of the head to answer in the
negative.

'Nor do I now,' I replied with earnestness. 'I entrust to your
care a lady who has risked great peril for US; and the rest I
leave to you.'

She looked me very keenly in the face for a second, and then,
without answering, she passed on, Madame and Fanchette following
her in that order. I closed the door and turned to Simon; who by
my direction had blown the embers of the fire into a blaze so as
to partially illumine the room, in which only he and I now
remained. The lad seemed afraid to meet my eye, and owing to the
scene at which he had just assisted, or to the onslaught on the
door, which grew each moment more furious, betrayed greater
restlessness than I had lately observed in him. I did not doubt
his fidelity, however, or his devotion to mademoiselle; and the
orders I had to give him were simple enough.

'This is what you have got to do,' I said, my hand already on the
bars. 'The moment I am outside secure this door. After that,
open to no one except Maignan. When he applies, let him in with
caution, and bid him, as he loves M. de Rosny, take his men as
soon as the coast is clear, and guard the King of France to the
castle. Charge him to be brave and wary, for his life will
answer for the king's.'

Twice I repeated this; then fearing lest the Provost-Marshal
should make good his word and apply a ram to the door, I opened
the trap. A dozen angry voices hailed my appearance, and this
with so much violence and impatience that it was some time before
I could get a hearing; the knaves threatening me if I would not
instantly open, and persisting that I should do so without more
words. Their leader at length quieted them, but it was plain
that his patience too was worn out. 'Do you surrender or do you
not?' he said. 'I am not going to stay out of my bed all night
for you!'

'I warn you,' I answered, 'that the order you have there has been
cancelled by the king!'

'That is not my business,' he rejoined hardily.

'No, but it will be when the king sends for you to-morrow
morning,' I retorted; at which he looked somewhat moved.
'However, I will surrender to you on two conditions,' I
continued, keenly observing the coarse faces of his following.
'First, that you let me keep my arms until we reach the gate-
house, I giving you my parole to come with you quietly. That is
number one.'

'Well,' the Provost-Marshal said more civilly, 'I have no
objection to that.'

'Secondly, that you do not allow your men to break into my
lodgings. I will come out quietly, and so an end. Your order
does not direct you to sack my goods.'

'Tut, tut!' he replied; 'I want, you to come out. I do not want
to go in.'

'Then draw your men back to the stairs,' I said. 'And if you
keep terms with me, I will uphold you to-morrow, For your orders
will certainly bring you into trouble. M. de Retz, who procured
it this morning, is away, you know. M. de Villequier may be gone
to-morrow. But depend upon it, M. de Rambouillet will be here!'

The remark was well timed and to the point. It startled the man
as much as I had hoped it would. Without raising any objection
he ordered his men to fall back and guard the stairs; and I on my
side began to undo the fastenings of the door.

The matter was not to be so easily concluded, however; for
Bruhl's rascals, in obedience, no doubt, to a sign given by their
leader, who stood with Fresnoy on the upper flight of stairs,
refused to withdraw; and even hustled the Provost-Marshal's men
when the latter would have obeyed the order. The officer,
already heated by delay, replied by laying about him with his
staff, and in a twinkling there seemed to be every prospect of a
very pretty MELEE, the end of which it was impossible to foresee.

Reflecting, however, that if Bruhl's men routed their opponents
our position might be made worse rather than better, I did not
act on my first impulse, which was to see the matter out where I
was. Instead, I seized the opportunity to let myself out, while
Simon fastened the door behind me. The Provost-Marshal was
engaged at the moment in a wordy dispute with Fresnoy; whose
villainous countenance, scarred by the wound which I had given
him at Chize, and flushed with passion, looked its worst by the
light of the single torch which remained. In one respect the
villain had profited by his present patronage, for he was decked
out in a style of tawdry magnificence. But I have always
remarked this about dress, that while a shabby exterior does not
entirely obscure a gentleman, the extreme of fashion is powerless
to gild a knave.

Seeing me on a sudden at the Provost's elbow, he recoiled with a
change of countenance so ludicrous that that officer was himself
startled, and only held his ground on my saluting him civilly and
declaring myself his prisoner I added a warning that he should
look to the torch which remained; seeing that if it failed we
were both like to have our throats cut in the confusion.

He took the hint promptly, and calling the link-man to his side
prepared to descend, bidding Fresnoy and his men, who remained
clumped at the head of the stairs, make way for us without ado.
They seemed much inclined, however, to dispute our passage, and
replying to his invectives with rough taunts, displayed so
hostile a demeanour that the Provost, between regard for his own
importance and respect for Bruhl, appeared for a moment at a loss
what to do; and seemed rather relieved than annoyed when I begged
leave to say a word to M. de Bruhl.

'If you can bring his men to reason,' he replied testily, 'speak
your fill to him!'

Stepping to the foot of the upper flight, on which Bruhl retained
his position, I saluted him formally. He returned my greeting
with a surly, watchful look only, and drawing his cloak more
tightly round him affected to gaze down at me with disdain; which
ill concealed, however, both the triumph he felt and the hopes of
vengeance he entertained. I was especially anxious to learn
whether he had tracked his wife hither, or was merely here in
pursuance of his general schemes against me, and to this end. I
asked him with as much irony as I could compass to what I was to
attribute his presence. 'I am afraid I cannot stay to offer you
hospitality,' I continued; 'but for that you have only your
friend M. Villequier to thank!'

'I am greatly obliged to you,' he answered with a devilish smile,
'but do not let that affect you. When you are gone I propose to
help myself, my friend, to whatever takes my taste.'

'Do you?' I retorted coolly--not that I was unaffected by the
threat and the villainous hint which underlay the words, but
that, fully expecting them, I was ready with my answer. 'We will
see about that.' And therewith I raised my fingers to my lips,
and, whistling shrilly, cried 'Maignan! Maignan!' in a clear
voice.

I had no need to cry the name a third time, for before the
Provost-Marshal could do more than start at this unexpected
action, the landing above us rang under a heavy tread, and the
man I called, descending the stairs swiftly, appeared on a sudden
within arm's length of M. de Bruhl; who, turning with an oath,
saw him, and involuntarily recoiled. At all times Maignan's
hardy and confident bearing was of a kind to impress the strong;
but on this occasion there was an added dash of recklessness in
his manner which was not without its effect on the spectators.
As he stood there smiling darkly over Bruhl's head, while his
hand toyed carelessly with his dagger, and the torch shone
ruddily on his burly figure, he was so clearly an antagonist in a
thousand that, had I sought through Blois, I might not have found
his fellow for strength and SANG-FROID. He let his black eyes
rove from one to the other, but took heed of me only, saluting me
with effusion and a touch of the Gascon which was in place here,
if ever.

I knew how M. de Rosny dealt with him, and followed the pattern
as far as I could. 'Maignan!' I said curtly, 'I have taken a
lodging for to-night elsewhere. Then I am gone you will call out
your men and watch this door. If anyone tries to force an
entrance you will do your duty.'

'You may consider it done,' he replied.

'Even if the person be M. de Bruhl here,' I continued.

'Precisely.'

'You will remain on guard,' I went on, 'until to-morrow morning
if M. de Bruhl remains here; but whenever he leaves you will take
your orders from the persons inside, and follow them implicitly.'

'Your Excellency's mind may be easy,' he answered, handling his
dagger.

Dismissing him with a nod, I turned with a smile to M. de Bruhl,
and saw that between rage at this unexpected check and chagrin at
the insult put upon him, his discomfiture was as complete as I
could wish. As for Fresnoy, if he had seriously intended to
dispute our passage, he was no longer in the mood for the
attempt. Yet I did not let his master off without one more
prick. 'That being settled, M. de Bruhl,' I said pleasantly, 'I
may bid you good evening. You will doubtless honour me at
Chaverny tomorrow. But we will first let Maignan look under the
bridge!'

CHAPTER XXVI.

MEDITATIONS.

Either the small respect I had paid M. de Bruhl, or the words I
had let fall respecting the possible disappearance of M.
Villequier, had had so admirable an effect on the Provost-
Marshal's mind that from the moment of leaving my lodgings he
treated me with the utmost civility; permitting me even to retain
my sword, and assigning me a sleeping-place for the night in his
own apartments at the gate-house.

Late as it was, I could not allow so much politeness to pass
unacknowledged. I begged leave, therefore, to distribute a small
gratuity among his attendants, and requested him to do me the
honour of drinking a bottle of wine with me. This being speedily
procured, at such an expense as is usual in these places, where
prisoners pay, according as they are rich or poor, in purse or
person, kept; us sitting for an hour, and finally sent us to our
pallets perfectly satisfied with one another.

The events of the day, however, and particularly one matter, on
which I have not dwelt at length, proved as effectual to prevent
my sleeping as if I had been placed in the dampest cell below the
castle. So much had been crowded into a time so short that it
seemed as if I had had until now no opportunity of considering
whither I was being hurried, or what fortune awaited me at the
end of this turmoil. From the first appearance of M. d'Agen in
the morning, with the startling news that the Provost-Marshal was
seeking me, to my final surrender and encounter with Bruhl on the
stairs, the chain of events had run out so swiftly that I had
scarcely had time at any particular period to consider how I
stood, or the full import of the latest check or victory. Now
that I had leisure I lived the day over again, and, recalling its
dangers and disappointments, felt thankful that all had ended so
fairly.

I had the most perfect confidence in Maignan, and did not doubt
that Bruhl would soon weary, if he had not already wearied, of a
profitless siege. In an hour at most--and it was not yet
midnight--the king would be free to go home; and with that would
end, as far as he was concerned, the mission with which M. de
Rosny had honoured me. The task of communicating his Majesty's
decision to the King of Navarre would doubtless be entrusted to
M. de Rambouillet, or some person of similar position and
influence; and in the same hands would rest the honour and
responsibility of the treaty which, as we all know now, gave
after a brief interval and some bloodshed, and one great
providence, a lasting peace to France. But it must ever be--and
I recognised this that night with a bounding heart, which told of
some store of youth yet unexhausted--a matter of lasting pride to
me that I, whose career but now seemed closed in failure, had
proved the means of conferring so especial a benefit on my
country and religion.

Remembering, however, the King of Navarre's warning that I must
not look to him for reward, I felt greatly doubtful in what
direction the scene would next open to me; my main dependence
being upon M. de Rosny's promise that he would make my fortune
his own care. Tired of the Court at Blois, and the atmosphere of
intrigue and treachery which pervaded it, and with which I hoped
I had now done, I was still at a loss to see how I could recross
the Loire in face of the Vicomte de Turenne's enmity. I might
have troubled myself much more with speculating upon this point
had I not found--in close connection with it--other and more
engrossing food for thought in the capricious behaviour of
Mademoiselle de la Vire.

To that behaviour it seemed to me that I now held the clue. I
suspected with as much surprise as pleasure that only one
construction could be placed upon it--a construction which had
strongly occurred to me on catching sight of her face when she
intervened between me and the king.

Tracing the matter back to the moment of our meeting in the
antechamber at St. Jean d'Angely, I remembered the jest which
Mathurine had uttered at our joint expense. Doubtless it had
dwelt in mademoiselle's mind, and exciting her animosity against
me had prepared her to treat me with contumely when, contrary to
all probability, we met again, and she found herself placed in a
manner in my hands. It had inspired her harsh words and harsher
looks on our journey northwards, and contributed with her
native pride to the low opinion I had formed of her when I
contrasted her with my honoured mother.

But I began to think it possible that the jest had worked in
another way as well, by keeping me before her mind and impressing
upon her the idea--after my re-appearance at Chize more
particularly--that our fates were in some way linked. Assuming
this, it was not hard to understand her manner at Rosny when,
apprised that I was no impostor, and regretting her former
treatment of me, she still recoiled from the feelings which she
began to recognise in her own breast. From that time, and with
this clue, I had no difficulty in tracing her motives, always
supposing that this suspicion, upon which I dwelt with feelings
of wonder and delight, were well founded.

Middle-aged and grizzled, with the best of my life behind me I
had never dared to think of her in this way before. Poor and
comparatively obscure, I had never raised my eyes to the wide
possessions said to be hers. Even now I felt myself dazzled and
bewildered by the prospect so suddenly unveiled. I could
scarcely, without vertigo, recall her as I had last seen her,
with her hand wounded in my defence; nor, without emotions
painful in their intensity, fancy myself restored to the youth of
which I had taken leave, and to the rosy hopes and plannings
which visit most men once only, and then in early years.
Hitherto I had deemed such things the lot of others.

Daylight found me--and no wonder--still diverting myself with
these charming speculations; which had for me, be it remembered,
all the force of novelty. The sun chanced to rise that morning
in a clear sky, and brilliantly for the time of year; and words
fail me when I look back, and try to describe how delicately this
single fact enhanced my pleasure! I sunned myself in the beams,
which penetrated my barred window; and tasting the early
freshness with a keen and insatiable appetite, I experienced to
the full that peculiar aspiration after goodness which Providence
allows such moments to awaken in us in youth; but rarely when
time and the camp have blunted the sensibilities.

I had not yet arrived at the stage at which difficulties have to
be reckoned up, and the chief drawback to the tumult of joy I
felt took the shape of regret that my mother no longer lived to
feel the emotions proper to the time, and to share in the
prosperity which she had so often and so fondly imagined.
Nevertheless, I felt myself drawn closer to her. I recalled with
the most tender feelings, and at greater leisure than had before
been the case, her last days and words, and particularly the
appeal she had uttered on mademoiselle's behalf. And I vowed, if
it were possible, to pay a visit to her grave before leaving the
neighbourhood, that I might there devote a few moments to the
thought of the affection which had consecrated all women in my
eyes.

I was presently interrupted in these reflections by a
circumstance which proved in the end diverting enough, though far
from reassuring at the first blush. It began in a dismal
rattling of chains in the passage below and on the stairs outside
my room; which were paved, like the rest of the building, with
stone. I waited with impatience and some uneasiness to see what
would come of this; and my surprise may be imagined when, the
door being unlocked, gave entrance to a man in whom I recognised
on the instant deaf Mathew--the villain whom I had last seen with
Fresnoy in the house in the Rue Valois. Amazed at seeing him
here, I sprang to my feet in fear of some treachery, and for a
moment apprehended that the Provost-Marshal had basely given me
over to Bruhl's custody. But a second glance informing me that
the man was in irons--hence the noise I had heard--I sat down
again to see what would happen.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32