From the Memoirs of a Minister of France
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Stanley Weyman >> From the Memoirs of a Minister of France
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But discerning that he was little more than a youth, and could
not; restrain a smile, I broke off discreetly, and contented
myself with asking if there was reason to suppose that there was
more than appeared in the girl's absence.
"Her Majesty thinks so," he answered.
"Well, in any case, I know nothing about it," I replied. "I am
not hiding her. You may tell his Majesty that, with my service.
Or I will write it."
He answered me, eagerly, that that was not necessary, and that
the King had desired merely a word from me; and with that and
many other expressions of regret, he went away and left me at
leisure to go to the riding-school, where at this time of the
year it was my wont to see the young men practise those manly
arts, which, so far as I can judge, are at a lower ebb in these
modern days of quips and quodlibets than in the stirring times of
my youth. Then, thank God, it was held more necessary for a page
to know his seven points of horsemanship than how to tie a
ribbon, or prank a gown, or read a primer.
But the first day of this year was destined to be a day of
vexation. I had scarcely entered the school, when M. de Varennes
was announced. Instead of going to meet him I bade them bring
him to me, and, on seeing him, bade him welcome to the sports.
"Though," I said, politely overlooking his past history and his
origin, "we did better in our times; yet the young fellows should
be encouraged."
"Very true," he answered, suavely. "And I wish I could stay with
you. But it was not for pleasure I came. The King sent me. He
desires to know--"
"What?" I said.
"If you know anything of Mademoiselle D'Oyley. Between
ourselves, M. le Duc--"
I looked at him in amazement. "Why," I said, "what on earth has
the girl done now?"
"Disappeared," he answered.
"But she had done that before."
"Yes," he said, "and the King had your message. But--"
"But what?" I said sternly.
"He thought that you might wish to supplement it for his private
use."
"To supplement it?"
"Yes. The truth is," Varennes continued, looking at me
doubtfully, "the King has information which leads him to suppose
that she may be here."
"She may be anywhere," I answered in a tone that closed his
mouth, "but she is not here. And you may tell the King so from
me!"
Though he had begun life as a cook, few could be more arrogant
than Varennes on occasion; but he possessed the valuable knack of
knowing with whom he could presume, and never attempted to impose
on me. Apologising with the easy grace of a man who had risen in
life by pleasing, he sat with me awhile, recalling old days and
feats, and then left, giving me to understand that I might depend
on him to disabuse the King's mind.
As a fact, Henry visited me that evening without raising the
subject; nor had I any reason to complain of his generosity,
albeit he took care to exact from the Superintendent of the
Finances more than he gave his servant, and for one gift to Peter
got two Pauls satisfied. To obtain the money he needed in the
most commodious manner, I spent the greater part of two days in
accounts, and had not yet settled the warrants to my liking, when
La Trape coming in with candles on the second evening disturbed
my secretaries. The men yawned discreetly; and reflecting that
we had had a long day I dismissed them, and stayed myself only
for the purpose of securing one or two papers of a private
nature. Then I bade La Trape light me to my closet.
Instead, he stood and craved leave to speak to me. "About what,
sirrah?" I said.
"I have received an offer, your excellency," he answered with a
crafty look.
"What! To leave my service?" I exclaimed, in surprise.
"No, your excellency," he answered. "To do a service for
another--M. Pimentel. The Portuguese gentleman stopped me in the
street to-day, and offered me fifty crowns."
"To do what?" I asked.
"To tell him where the young lady with Madame lies; and lend him
the key of the garden gate to-night."
I stared at the fellow. "The young lady with Madame?" I said.
He returned my look with a stupidity which I knew was assumed.
"Yes, your excellency. The young lady who came this morning," he
said.
Then I knew that I had been betrayed, and had given my enemies
such a handle as they would not be slow to seize; and I stood in
the middle of the room in the utmost grief and consternation. At
last, "Stay here," I said to the man, as soon as I could speak.
"no not move from the spot where you stand until I come back!"
It was my almost invariable custom to be announced when I visited
my wife's closet; but I had no mind now for such formalities, and
swiftly passing two or three scared servants on the stairs, I
made straight for her room, tapped and entered. Abrupt as were
my movements, however, someone had contrived to warn her; for
though two of her women sat working on stools near her, I heard a
hasty foot flying, and caught the last flutter of a skirt as it
disappeared through a second door. My wife rose from her seat,
and looked at me guiltily.
"Madame," I said, "send these women away. Now," I continued when
they had gone, "who was that with you?" She looked away dumbly.
"You do well not to try to deceive me, Madame," I continued
severely. "It was Mademoiselle D'Oyley."
She muttered, not daring to meet my eye, that it was.
"Who has absented herself from the Queen's service," I answered
bitterly, "and chosen to hide herself here of all places!
Madame," I continued, with a severity which the sense of my false
position amply justified, "are you aware that you have made me
dishonour myself? That you have made me lie; not once, but three
times? That you have made me deceive my master?"
She cried out at that, being frightened, that "she had meant no
harm; that the girl coming to her in great grief and trouble--"
"Because the Queen had scolded her for breaking a china jar!" I
said, contemptuously.
"No, Monsieur; her trouble was of quite another kind," my wife
answered with more spirit than I had expected.
"Pshaw! "I exclaimed.
"It is plain that you do not yet understand the case," Madame
persisted, facing me with trembling hardihood. "Mademoiselle
D'Oyley has been persecuted for some time by the suit of a man
for whom I know you, Monsieur, have no respect: a man whom no
Frenchwoman of family should be forced to marry."
"Who is it?" I said curtly.
"M. Pimentel."
"Ah! And the Queen?"
"Has made his suit her own. Doubtless her Majesty," Madame de
Sully continued with grimness, "who plays with him so much, is
under obligations to him, and has her reasons. The King, too, is
on his side, so that Mademoiselle--"
"Who has another lover, I suppose?" I said harshly.
My wife looked at me in trepidation. "It may be so, Monsieur,"
she said hesitating
"It is so, Madame; and you know it," I answered in the same tone.
"M. Vallon is the man."
"Oh!" she exclaimed with a gesture of alarm. "You know!"
"I know, Madame," I replied, with vigour, "that to please this
love-sick girl you have placed me in a position of the utmost
difficulty; that you have jeopardised the confidence which my
master, whom I have never willingly deceived, places in me; and
that out of all this I see only one way of escape, and that is by
a full and frank confession, which you must make to the Queen."
"Oh, Monsieur," she said faintly.
"The girl, of course, must be immediately given up."
My wife began to sob at that, as women will; but I had too keen a
sense of the difficulties into which she had plunged me by her
deceit, to pity her over much. And, doubtless, I should have
continued in the resolution I had formed, and which appeared to
hold out the only hope of avoiding the malice of those enemies
whom every man in power possesses--and none can afford to
despise--if La Trape's words, when he betrayed the secret to me,
had not recurred to my mind and suggested other reflections.
Doubtless, Mademoiselle had been watched into my house, and my
ill-wishers would take the earliest opportunity of bringing the
lie home to me. My wife's confession, under such circumstances,
would have but a simple air, and believed by some would be
ridiculed by more. It might, and probably would, save my credit
with the King; but it would not exalt me in others' eyes, or
increase my reputation as a manager. If there were any other
way--and so reflecting, I thought of La Trape and his story.
Still I was half way to the door when I paused, and turned. My
wife was still weeping. "It is no good crying over spilled milk,
Madame," I said severely. "If the girl were not a fool, she
would have gone to the Ursulines. The abbess has a stiff neck,
and is as big a simpleton to boot as you are. It is only a step,
too, from here to the Ursulines, if she had had the sense to go
on."
My wife lifted her head, and looked at me eagerly; but I avoided
her gaze and went out without more, and downstairs to my study,
where I found La Trape awaiting me. "Go to Madame la Duchesse,"
I said to him. "When you have done what she needs, come to me in
my closet."
He obeyed, and after an interval of about half an hour, during
which I had time to mature my plan, presented himself again
before me. "Pimentel had a notion that the young lady was here
then?" I said carelessly.
"Yes, your excellency."
"Some of his people fancied that they saw her enter, perhaps?"
"Yes, your excellency."
"They were mistaken, of course?"
"Of course," he answered, dutifully.
"Or she may have come to the door and gone again?" I suggested.
"Possibly, your excellency."
"Gone on without being seen, I mean?"
"If she went in the direction of the Rue St. Marcel," he answered
stolidly, "she would not be seen."
The convent of the Ursulines is in the Rue St. Marcel. I knew,
therefore, that Madame had had the sense to act on my hint; and
after reflecting a moment I continued, "So Pimentel wished to
know where she was lodged?"
"That, and to have the key, your excellency."
"To-night?"
"Yes, your excellency."
"Well, you are at liberty to accept the offer," I answered
carelessly. "It will not clash with my service." And then, as
he stood staring in astonishment, striving to read the riddle, I
continued, "By the way, are the rooms in the little Garden
Pavilion aired? They may be needed next week; see that one of
the women sleeps there to-night; a woman you can depend on."
"Ah, Monsieur!"
He said no more, but I saw that he understood; and bidding him be
careful in following my instructions, I dismissed him. The line
I had determined to take was attended by many uncertainties,
however; and more than once I repented that I had not followed my
first; instinct, and avowed the truth. A hundred things might
fall out to frustrate my scheme and place me in a false position;
from which--since the confidence of his sovereign is the breath
of a minister, and as easily destroyed as a woman's reputation--
I might find it impossible to extricate myself with credit.
I slept, therefore, but ill that night; and in conjunctures
apparently more serious have felt less trepidation. But
experience has long ago taught me that trifles, not great events,
unseat the statesman, and that of all intrigues those which
revolve round a woman are the most dangerous. I rose early,
therefore, and repaired to Court before my usual hour, it being
the essence of my plan to attack, instead of waiting to be
attacked. Doubtless my early appearance was taken to corroborate
the rumour that I had made a false step, and was in difficulties;
for scarcely had I crossed the threshold of the ante-chamber
before the attitude of the courtiers caught my attention. Some
who twenty-four hours earlier would have been only too glad to
meet my eye and obtain a word of recognition, appeared to be
absorbed in conversation. Others, less transparent or better
inclined to me, greeted me with unnatural effusion. One who bore
a grudge against me, but had never before dared to do more than
grin, now scowled openly; while a second, perhaps the most
foolish of all, came to me with advice, drew me with insistency
into a niche near the door, and adjured me to be cautious.
"You are too bold," he said; "and that way your enemies find
their opening. Do not go to the King now. He is incensed
against you. But we all know that he loves you; wait, therefore,
my friend, until he has had his day's hunting--he is just now
booting himself and see him when he has ridden off his
annoyance."
"And when my friends, my dear Marquis, have had time to poison
his mind against me? No, no," I answered, wondering much whether
he were as simple as he looked.
"But the Queen is with him now," he persisted, seizing the lappel
of my coat to stay me, "and she will be sure to put in a word
against you."
"Therefore," I answered drily, "I had better see his Majesty
before the one word becomes two."
"Be persuaded," he entreated me. "See him now, and nothing but
ill will come of it."
"Nothing but ill for some," I retorted, looking so keenly at him
that his visage fell. And with that he let me go, and with a
smile I passed through the door. The rumour had not yet gained
such substance that the crowd had lost all respect for me; it
rolled back, and I passed through it towards the end of the
chamber, where the King was stooping to draw on one of his boots.
The Queen stood not far from him, gazing into the fire with an
air of ill-temper which the circle, serious and silent, seemed to
reflect, I looked everywhere for the Portuguese, but he was not
to be seen.
For a moment the King affected to be unaware of my presence, and
even turned his shoulder to me; but I observed that he reddened,
and fidgeted nervously with the boot which he was drawing on.
Nothing daunted, therefore, I waited until he perforce discovered
me, and was obliged to greet me. "You are early this morning,"
he said, at last, with a grudging air.
"For the best of reasons, sire," I answered hardily. "I am ill
placed at home, and come to you for justice."
"What is it?" he said churlishly and unwillingly.
I was about to answer, when the Queen interposed with a sneer.
"I think that I can tell you, sire," she said. "M. de Sully is
old enough to know the adage, 'Bite before you are bitten.'"
"Madame," I said, respectfully but with firmness. "I know this
only, that my house was last night the scene of a gross outrage;
and by all I can learn it was perpetrated by one who is under
your Majesty's protection."
"His name?" she said, with a haughty gesture.
"M. Pimentel."
The Queen began to smile. "What was this gross outrage?" she
asked drily.
"In the course of last night he broke into my house with a gang
of wretches, and bore off one of the inmates."
The Queen's smile grew broader; the King began to grin. Some of
the circle, watching them closely, ventured to smile also.
"Come, my friend," Henry said, almost with good humour, "this is
all very well. But this inmate of yours--was a very recent one."
"Was, in fact, I suppose, the rebellious little wench of whom you
knew nothing yesterday!" the Queen cried harshly, and with an
air of open triumph. "There can be no stealing of stolen goods,
sir; and if M. Pimentel, who had at least as much right as you to
the girl--and more, for I am her guardian--has carried her off,
you have small ground to complain,"
"But, Madame," I said, with an air of bewilderment, "I really do
not--it must be my fault, but I do not understand."
Two or three sniggered, seeing me apparently checkmated and at
the end of my resources. And the King laughed out with kindly
malice. "Come, Grand Master," he said, "I think that you do.
However, if Pimentel has carried off the damsel, there, it seems
to me, is an end of the matter."
"But, sire," I answered, looking sternly round the grinning
circle, "am I mad, or is there some mystery here? I assured your
Majesty yesterday that Mademoiselle D'Oyley was not in my house.
I say the same to-day. She is not; your officers may search
every room and closet. And for the woman whom M. Pimentel has
carried off, she is no more Mademoiselle D'Oyley than I am; she
is one of my wife's waiting-maids. If you doubt me," I
continued, "you have only to send and ask. Ask the Portuguese
himself."
The King stared at me. "Nonsense!" he said, sharply. "If
Pimentel has carried off anyone, it must be Mademoiselle
D'Oyley."
"But it is not, sire," I answered with persistence. "He has
broken into my house, and abducted my servant. For Mademoiselle,
she is not there to be stolen."
"Let some one go for Pimentel," the King said curtly.
But the Portuguese, as it happened, was at the door even then,
and being called, had no alternative but to come forward. His
face and mien as he entered and reluctantly showed himself were
more than enough to dissipate any doubts which the courtiers had
hitherto entertained; the former being as gloomy and downcast as
the latter was timid and cringing. It is true he made some
attempt at first, and for a time, to face the matter out;
stammering and stuttering, and looking piteously to the Queen for
help. But he could not long delay the crisis, nor deny that the
person he had so cunningly abducted was one of my waiting-women;
and the moment that this confession was made his case was at an
end, the statement being received with so universal a peal of
laughter, the King leading, as at one and the same time
discomfited him, and must have persuaded any indifferent listener
that all, from the first, had been in the secret.
After that he would have spent himself in vain, had he contended
that Mademoiselle D'Oyley was at my house; and so clear was this
that he made no second attempt to do so, but at once admitting
that his people had made a mistake, he proffered me a handsome
apology, and desired the King to speak to me in his behalf.
This I, on my side, was pleased to take in good part; and having
let him off easily with a mild rebuke, turned from him to the
Queen, and informed her with much respect that I had learned at
length where Mademoiselle D'Oyley had taken refuge.
"Where, sir?" she asked, eyeing me suspiciously and with no
little disfavour.
"At the Ursulines, Madame," I answered,
She winced, for she had already quarrelled with the abbess
without advantage. And there for the moment the matter ended.
At a later period I took care to confess all to the King, and he
did not fail to laugh heartily at the clever manner in which I
had outwitted Pimentel. But this was not until the Portuguese
had left the country and gone to Italy, the affair between him
and Mademoiselle D'Oyley (which resolved itself into a contest
between the Queen and the Ursulines) having come to a close under
circumstances which it may be my duty to relate in another place.
X. FARMING THE TAXES.
In the summer of the year 1608, determining to take up my abode,
when not in Paris, at Villebon, where I had lately enlarged my
property, I went thither from Rouen with my wife, to superintend
the building and mark out certain plantations which I projected.
As the heat that month was great, and the dust of the train
annoying, I made each stage in the evening and on horseback,
leaving my wife to proceed at her leisure. In this way I was
able, by taking rough paths, to do in two or three hours a
distance which her coaches had scarcely covered in the day; but
on the third evening, intending to make a short cut by a ford on
the Vaucouleurs, I found, to my chagrin, the advantage on the
other side, the ford, when I reached it at sunset, proving
impracticable. As there was every prospect, however, that the
water would fall within a few hours, I determined not to retrace
my steps; but to wait where I was until morning, and complete my
journey to Houdan in the early hours.
There was a poor inn near the ford, a mere hovel of wood on a
brick foundation, yet with two storeys. I made my way to this
with Maignan and La Trape, who formed, with two grooms, my only
attendance; but on coming near the house, and looking about with
a curious eye, I remarked something which fixed my attention,
and, for the moment, brought me to a halt. This was the
spectacle of three horses, of fair quality, feeding in a field of
growing corn, which was the only enclosure near the inn. They
were trampling and spoiling more than they ate; and, supposing
that they had strayed into the place, and the house showing no
signs of life, I bade my grooms fetch them out. The sun was
about setting, and I stood a moment watching the long shadows of
the men as they plodded through the corn, and the attitudes of
the horses as, with heads raised, they looked doubtfully at the
newcomers.
Suddenly a man came round the corner of the house, and seeing us,
and what my men were doing, began to gesticulate violently, but
without sound. The grooms saw him too, and stood; and he ran up
to my stirrup, his face flushed and sullen.
"Do you want to see us all ruined?" he muttered. And he begged
me to call my men out of the corn.
"You are more likely to be ruined that way," I answered, looking
down at him. "Why, man, is it the custom in your country to turn
horses into the half-ripe corn?"
He shook his fist stealthily. "God forbid!" he said. "But the
devil is within doors, and we must do his bidding."
"Ah!" I replied, my curiosity aroused "I should like to see
him."
The boor shaded his eyes, and looked at me sulkily from under his
matted and tangled hair. "You are not of his company?" he said
with suspicion.
"I hope not," I answered, smiling at his simplicity. "But your
corn is your own. I will call the men out." On which I made a
sign to them to return. "Now," I said, as I walked my horse
slowly towards the house, while he tramped along beside me, "who
is within?"
"M. Gringuet," he said, with another stealthy gesture.
"Ah!" I said, "I am afraid that I am no wiser."
"The tax-gatherer."
"Oh! And those are his horses?" He nodded.
"Still, I do not see why they are in the corn?"
"I have no hay."
"But there is grass."
"Ay," the inn-keeper answered bitterly.
"And he said that I might eat it. It was not good enough for his
horses. They must have hay or corn; and if I had none, so much
the worse for me."
Full of indignation, I made in my mind a note of M. Gringuet's
name; but at the moment I said no more, and we proceeded to the
house, the exterior of which, though meagre, and even miserable,
gave me an impression of neatness. From the inside, however, a
hoarse, continuous noise was issuing, which resolved itself as we
crossed the threshold into a man's voice. The speaker was out of
sight, in an upper room to which a ladder gave access, but his
oaths, complaints, and imprecations almost shook the house. A
middle-aged woman, scantily dressed, was busy on the hearth; but
perhaps that which, next to the perpetual scolding that was going
on above, most took my attention was a great lump of salt that
stood on the table at the woman's elbow, and seemed to be
evidence of greater luxury--for the GABELLE had not at that time
been reduced--than I could easily associate with the place.
The roaring and blustering continuing upstairs, I stood a moment
in sheer astonishment. "Is that M. Gringuet?" I said at last.
The inn-keeper nodded sullenly, while his wife stared at me.
"But what; is the matter with him?" I said.
"The gout. But for that he would have been gone these two days
to collect at Le Mesnil."
"Ah!" I answered, beginning to understand. "And the salt is for
a bath for his feet, is it?"
The woman nodded.
"Well," I said, as Maignan came in with my saddlebags and laid
them on the floor, "he will swear still louder when he gets the
bill, I should think."
"Bill?" the housewife answered bitterly, looking up again from
her pots. "A tax-gatherer's bill? Go to the dead man and ask
for the price of his coffin; or to the babe for a nurse-fee! You
will get paid as soon. A tax-gatherer's bill? Be thankful if he
does not take the dish with the sop!"
She spoke plainly; yet I found a clearer proof of the slavery in
which the man held them in the perfect indifference with which
they regarded my arrival--though a guest with two servants must
have been a rarity in such a place--and the listless way in which
they set about attending to my wants. Keenly remembering that
not long before this my enemies had striven to prejudice me in
the King's eyes by alleging that, though I filled his coffers, I
was grinding the poor into the dust--and even, by my exactions,
provoking a rebellion I was in no mood to look with an indulgent
eye on those who furnished such calumnies with a show of reason.
But it has never been my wont to act hastily; and while I stood
in the middle of the kitchen, debating whether I should order the
servants to fling the fellow out, and bid him appear before me at
Villebon, or should instead have him brought up there and then,
the man's coarse voice, which had never ceased to growl and snarl
above us, rose on a sudden still louder. Something fell on the
floor over our heads and rolled across it; and immediately a
young girl, barefoot and short-skirted, scrambled hurriedly and
blindly down the ladder and landed among us.
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