Under the Red Robe

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'DIABLE! but who are you, first?' the lanthorn-bearer retorted
bluntly. He was a tall, lanky sergeant, with a sinister face.

'Well, I am not M. de Cocheforet,' I replied; 'and that must
satisfy you, my man. For the rest, if you do not fetch Captain
Larolle at once and admit me, you will find the consequences
inconvenient.'

'Ho! ho!' he said with a sneer. 'You can crow, it seems.
Well, come in.'

They made way, and I walked into the hall keeping my hat on. On
the great hearth a fire had been kindled, but it had gone out.
Three or four carbines stood against one wall, and beside them
lay a heap of haversacks and some straw. A shattered stool,
broken in a frolic, and half a dozen empty wine-skins strewed the
floor, and helped to give the place an air of untidiness and
disorder. I looked round with eyes of disgust, and my gorge
rose. They had spilled oil, and the place reeked foully.

'VENTRE BLEU!' I said. 'Is this conduct in a gentleman's house,
you rascals? MA VIE! If I had you I would send half of you to
the wooden horse!'

They gazed at me open-mouthed; my arrogance startled them. The
sergeant alone scowled. When he could find his voice for rage--

'This way!' he said. 'We did not know that a general officer
was coming, or we would have been better prepared!' And
muttering oaths under his breath, he led me down the well-known
passage. At the door of the parlour he stopped. 'Introduce
yourself!' he said rudely. 'And if you find the air warm, don't
blame me!'

I raised the latch and went in. At a table in front of the
hearth, half covered with glasses and bottles, sat two men
playing hazard. The dice rang sharply as I entered, and he who
had just thrown kept the box over them while he turned, scowling,
to see who came in. He was a fair-haired, blonde man, large-
framed and florid. He had put off his cuirass and boots, and his
doublet showed frayed and stained where the armour had pressed on
it. Otherwise he was in the extreme of last year's fashion. His
deep cravat, folded over so that the laced ends drooped a little
in front, was of the finest; his great sash of blue and silver
was a foot wide. He had a little jewel in one ear, and his tiny
beard was peaked A L'ESPAGNOLE. Probably when he turned he
expected to see the sergeant, for at the sight of me he rose
slowly, leaving the dice still covered.

'What folly is this?' he cried, wrathfully. Here, sergeant!
Sergeant!--without there! What the--! Who are you, sir?'

'Captain Larolle,' I said uncovering politely, 'I believe?'

'Yes, I am Captain Larolle,' he retorted. 'But who, in the
fiend's name, are you?' You are not the man we are after!'

'I am not M. Cocheforet,' I said coolly. 'I am merely a guest in
the house, M. le Capitaine. I have been enjoying Madame de
Cocheforet's hospitality for some time, but by an evil chance I
was away when you arrived.' And with that I walked to the
hearth, and, gently pushing aside his great boots which stood
there drying, I kicked the logs into a blaze.

'MILLE DIABLES!' he whispered. And never did I see a man more
confounded. But I affected to be taken up with his companion, a
sturdy, white-moustachioed old veteran, who sat back in his
chair, eyeing me with swollen cheeks and eyes surcharged with
surprise.

'Good evening, M. le Lieutenant,' I said, bowing gravely. 'It is
a fine night.'

Then the storm burst.

'Fine night!' the Captain shrieked, finding his voice at last.
'MILLE DIABLES! Are you aware, sir, that I am in possession of
this house, and that no one harbours here without my permission?
Guest? Hospitality? Bundle of fiddle-faddle! Lieutenant, call
the guard! Call the guard!' he continued passionately. 'Where
is that ape of a sergeant?'

The Lieutenant rose to obey, but I lifted my hand.

'Gently, gently, Captain,' I said. 'Not so fast. You seem
surprised to see me here. Believe me, I am much more surprised
to see you.'

'SACRE!' he cried, recoiling at this fresh impertinence, while
the Lieutenant's eyes almost jumped out of his head.

But nothing moved me.

'Is the door closed?' I said sweetly. 'Thank you; it is, I see.
Then permit me to say again, gentlemen, that I am much more
surprised to see you than you can be to see me. For when
Monseigneur the Cardinal honoured me by sending me from Paris to
conduct this matter, he gave me the fullest--the fullest powers,
M. le Capitaine--to see the affair to an end. I was not led to
expect that my plans would be spoiled on the eve of success by
the intrusion of half the garrison from Auch.'

'Oh, ho!' the Captain said softly--in a very different tone, and
with a very different face. 'So you are the gentleman I heard of
at Auch?'

'Very likely,' I said drily. 'But I am from Paris, not from
Auch.'

'To be sure,' he answered thoughtfully. 'Eh, Lieutenant?'

'Yes, M. le Capitaine, no doubt,' the inferior replied. And they
both looked at one another, and then at me, in a way I did not
understand.

'I think,' said I, to clinch the matter, 'that you have made a
mistake, Captain; or the Commandant has. And it occurs to me
that the Cardinal will not be best pleased.'

'I hold the King's commission,' he answered rather stiffly.

'To be sure,' I replied. 'But, you see, the Cardinal--'

'Ay, but the Cardinal--' he rejoined quickly; and then he stopped
and shrugged his shoulders. And they both looked at me.

'Well?' I said.

'The King,' he answered slowly.

'Tut-tut!' I exclaimed, spreading out my hands. 'The Cardinal.
Let us stick to him. You were saying?'

'Well, the Cardinal, you see--' And then again, after the same
words, he stopped--stopped abruptly, and shrugged his shoulders.

I began to suspect something.

'If you have anything to say against Monseigneur,' I answered,
watching him narrowly, 'say it. But take a word of advice.
Don't let it go beyond the door of this room, my friend, and it
will do you no harm.'

'Neither here nor outside,' he retorted, looking for a moment at
his comrade. 'Only I hold the King's commission. That is all,
and, I think, enough.'

'Well--for the rest, will you throw a main?' he answered
evasively. 'Good! Lieutenant, find a glass, and the gentleman a
seat. And here, for my part, I will give you a toast The
Cardinal--whatever betide!'

I drank it, and sat down to play with him; I had not heard the
music of the dice for a month, and the temptation was
irresistible. But I was not satisfied. I called the mains and
won his crowns--he was a mere baby at the game--but half my mind
was elsewhere. There was something here that I did not
understand; some influence at work on which I had not counted;
something moving under the surface as unintelligible to me as the
soldiers' presence. Had the Captain repudiated my commission
altogether, and put me to the door or sent me to the guard-house,
I could have followed that. But these dubious hints, this
passive resistance, puzzled me. Had they news from Paris, I
wondered? Was the King dead? Or the Cardinal ill? I asked
them, but they said no, no, no to all, and gave me guarded
answers. And midnight found us still playing; and still fencing.

CHAPTER IX

THE QUESTION

Sweep the room, Monsieur? And remove this medley? But M. le
Capitaine--'

'The Captain is in the village,' I replied Sternly. 'And do you
move. Move, man, and the thing will be done while you are
talking about it. Set the door into the garden open--so.'

'Certainly, it is a fine morning. And the tobacco of M. le
Lieutenant--But M. le Capitaine did not--'

'Give orders? Well, I give them,' I answered. 'First of all,
remove these beds. And bustle, man, bustle, or I will find
something to quicken you!'

In a moment--'And M. le Capitaine's riding-boots?'

'Place them in the passage,' I replied.

'Oh! in the passage?' He paused, looking at them in doubt.

'Yes, booby; in the passage.'

'And the cloaks, Monsieur?'

'There is a bush handy outside the window. Let them air.'

'Ohe, the bush? Well, to be sure they are damp. But--yes, yes,
Monsieur, it is done. And the bolsters?'

'There also,' I said harshly. 'Throw them out. Faugh! The
place reeks of leather. Now, a clean hearth. And set the table
before the open door, so that we may see the garden--so. And
tell the cook that we dine at eleven, and that Madame and
Mademoiselle will descend.'

'Ohe! But M. le Capitaine ordered the dinner for half-past
eleven.'

'It must be advanced, then; and, mark you, my friend, if it is
not ready when Madame comes down, you will suffer, and the cook
too.'

When he was gone on his errand, I looked round. What else was
lacking? The sun shone cheerily on the polished floor; the air,
freshened by the rain which had fallen in the night, entered
freely through the open doorway. A few bees lingering with the
summer hummed outside. The fire crackled bravely; an old hound,
blind and past work, lay warming its hide on the hearth. I could
think of nothing more, and I stood and stood and watched the man
set out the table and spread the cloth.

'For how many, Monsieur?' he asked in a scared tone.

'For five,' I answered; and I could not help smiling at myself.

For what would Zaton's say could it see Berault turned housewife?
There was a white glazed cup, an old-fashioned piece of the
second Henry's time, standing on a shelf. I took it down and put
some late flowers in it, and set it in the middle of the table,
and stood off myself to look at it. But a moment later, thinking
I heard them coming, I hurried it away in a kind of panic,
feeling on a sudden ashamed of the thing. The alarm proved to be
false, however; and then again, taking another turn, I set the
piece back. I had done nothing so foolish for--for more years
than I like to count.

But when Madame and Mademoiselle came down, they had eyes neither
for the flowers nor the room. They had heard that the Captain
was out beating the village and the woods for the fugitive, and
where I had looked for a comedy I found a tragedy. Madame's face
was so red with weeping that all her beauty was gone. She
started and shook at the slightest sound, and, unable to find any
words to answer my greeting, could only sink into a chair and sit
crying silently.

Mademoiselle was in a mood scarcely more cheerful. She did not
weep, but her manner was hard and fierce. She spoke absently,
and answered fretfully. Her eyes glittered, and she had the air
of straining her ears continually to catch some dreaded sound.

'There is no news, Monsieur?' she said as she took her seat.
And she shot a swift look at me.

'None, Mademoiselle.'

'They are searching the village?'

'I believe so.'

'Where is Clon?' This in a lower voice, and with a kind of
shrinking in her face.

I shook my head. 'I believe that they have him confined
somewhere. And Louis, too,' I said. 'But I have not seen either
of them.'

'And where are--I thought these people would be here,' she
muttered. And she glanced askance at the two vacant places. The
servant had brought in the meal.

'They will be here presently,' I said coolly. Let us make the
most of the time. A little wine and food will do Madame good.'

She smiled rather sadly.

'I think that we have changed places,' she said. 'And that you
have turned host and we guests.'

'Let it be so,' I said cheerfully. 'I recommend some of this
ragout. Come, Mademoiselle, fasting can aid no one. A full meal
has saved many a man's life.'

It was clumsily said, perhaps; for she shuddered and looked at me
with a ghastly smile. But she persuaded her sister to take
something; and she took something on her own plate and raised her
fork to her lips. But in a moment she laid it down again.

'I cannot,' she murmured. 'I cannot swallow. Oh, my God, at
this moment they may be taking him.'

I thought that she was about to burst into a passion of tears,
and I repented that I had induced her to descend. But her self-
control was not yet exhausted. By an effort, painful to see, she
recovered her composure. She took up her fork, and ate a few
mouthfuls. Then she looked at me with a fierce under-look.

'I want to see Clon,' she whispered feverishly. The man who
waited on us had left the room.

'He knows?' I said.

She nodded, her beautiful face strangely disfigured. Her closed
teeth showed between her lips. Two red spots burned in her white
cheeks, and she breathed quickly. I felt, as I looked at her, a
sudden pain at my heart, and a shuddering fear, such as a man,
awaking to find himself falling over a precipice, might feel.
How these women loved the man!

For a moment I could not speak. When I found my voice it sounded
dry and husky.

'He is a safe confidant,' I muttered. 'He can neither read nor
write, Mademoiselle.'

'No, but--' and then her face became fixed. 'They are coming,'
she whispered. 'Hush!' She rose stiffly, and stood supporting
herself by the table. 'Have they--have they--found him?' she
muttered. The woman by her side wept on, unconscious of what was
impending.

I heard the Captain stumble far down the passage, and swear
loudly; and I touched Mademoiselle's hand.

'They have not!' I whispered. 'All is well, Mademoiselle.
Pray, pray calm yourself. Sit down and meet them as if nothing
were the matter. And your sister! Madame, Madame,' I cried,
almost harshly, 'compose yourself. Remember that you have a part
to play.'

My appeal did something. Madame stifled her sobs. Mademoiselle
drew a deep breath and sat down; and though she was still pale
and still trembled, the worst was past.

And only just in time. The door flew open with a crash. The
Captain stumbled into the room, swearing afresh.

'SACRE NOM DU DIABLE!' he cried, his face crimson with rage.
'What fool placed these things here? My boots? My--'

His jaw fell. He stopped on the word, stricken silent by the new
aspect of the room, by the sight of the little party at the
table, by all the changes I had worked.

'SAINT SIEGE!' he muttered. 'What is this?' The Lieutenant's
grizzled face peering over his shoulder completed the picture.

'You are rather late, M. le Capitaine,' I said cheerfully.
'Madame's hour is eleven. But, come here are your seats waiting
for you.'

'MILLE TONNERRES!' he muttered, advancing into the room, and
glaring at us.

'I am afraid that the ragout is cold,' I continued, peering into
the dish and affecting to see nothing. 'The soup, however, has
been kept hot by the fire. But I think that you do not see
Madame.'

He opened his mouth to swear, but for the moment he thought
better of it.

'Who--who put my boots in the passage?' he asked, his voice
thick with rage. He did not bow to the ladies, or take any
notice of their presence.

'One of the men, I suppose,' I said indifferently. 'Is anything
missing?'

He glared at me. Then his cloak, spread outside, caught his eye.
He strode through the door, saw his holsters lying on the grass,
and other things strewn about. He came back.

'Whose monkey game is this?' he snarled, and his face was very
ugly. 'Who is at the bottom of this? Speak, sir, or I--'

'Tut-tut,--the ladies!' I said. 'You forget yourself,
Monsieur.'

'Forget myself?' he hissed, and this time he did not check his
oath. 'Don't talk to me of the ladies! Madame? Bah! Do you
think, fool, that we are put into rebel's houses to how and smile
and take dancing lessons?'

'In this case a lesson in politeness were more to the point,
Monsieur,' I said sternly. And I rose.

'Was it by your orders that this was done?' he retorted, his
brow black with passion. Answer, will you?'

'It was!' I replied outright.

'Then take that!' he cried, dashing his hat violently in my
face, 'and come outside.'

'With pleasure, Monsieur,' I answered, bowing; 'in one moment.
Permit me to find my sword. I think that it is in the passage.'

I went thither to get it.

When I returned, I found that the two men were waiting for me in
the garden, while the ladies had risen from the table, and were
standing near it with blanched faces.

'You had better take your sister upstairs, Mademoiselle,' I said
gently, pausing a moment beside them. 'Have no fear. All will
be well.'

But what is it?' she answered, looking troubled. 'It was so
sudden. I am--I did not understand. You quarrelled so quickly.'

'It is very simple,' I answered, smiling. 'M. le Capitaine
insulted you yesterday; he will pay for it to-day. That is all.
Or, not quite all,' I continued, dropping my voice and speaking
in a different tone. 'His removal may help you, Mademoiselle.
Do you understand? I think that there will be no more searching
to-day.' She uttered an exclamation, grasping my arm and peering
into my face.

'You will kill him?' she muttered.

I nodded.

'Why not?' I said.

She caught her breath, and stood with one hand clasped to her
bosom, gazing at me with parted lips, the blood mounting to her
checks. Gradually the flush melted into a fierce smile.

'Yes, yes, why not?' she repeated between her teeth. 'Why not?'
She had her hand on my arm, and I felt her fingers tighten until
I could have winced. 'Why not? So you planned this--for us,
Monsieur?'

I nodded.

'But can you?'

'Safely,' I said; then, muttering to her to take her sister
upstairs, I turned towards the garden. My foot was already on
the threshold, and I was composing my face to meet the enemy,
when I heard a movement behind me. The next moment her hand was
on my arm.

'Wait! Wait a moment! Come back!' she panted. I turned. The
smile and flush had vanished; her face was pale. 'No!' she said
abruptly. 'I was wrong! I, will not have it. I will have no
part in it! You planned it last night, M. de Barthe. It is
murder.'

'Mademoiselle!' I exclaimed, wondering. 'Murder? Why? It is a
duel.'

'It is murder,' she answered persistently. 'You planned it last
night. You said so.'

'But I risk my own life,' I replied sharply.

'Nevertheless--I will have no part in it,' she answered more
faintly. She was trembling with agitation. Her eyes avoided
mine.

'On my shoulders be it then!' I replied stoutly. 'It is too
late, Mademoiselle, to go back. They are waiting for me. Only,
before I go, let me beg of you to retire.'

And I turned from her, and went out, wondering and thinking.
First, that women were strange things. Secondly--MURDER? Merely
because I had planned the duel and provoked the quarrel! Never
had I heard anything so preposterous. Grant it, and dub every
man who kept his honour with his hands a Cain--and a good many
branded faces would be seen in some streets. I laughed at the
fancy, as I strode down the garden walk.

And yet, perhaps, I was going to do a foolish thing. The
Lieutenant would still be here: a hard-bitten man, of stiffer
stuff than his Captain. And the troopers. What if, when I had
killed their leader, they made the place too hot for me,
Monseigneur's commission notwithstanding? I should look silly,
indeed, if on the eve of success I were driven from the place by
a parcel of jack-boots.

I liked the thought so little that I hesitated. Yet it seemed
too late to retreat. The Captain and the Lieutenant were waiting
for me in a little open space fifty yards from the house, where a
narrower path crossed the broad walk, down which I had first seen
Mademoiselle and her sister pacing. The Captain had removed his
doublet, and stood in his shirt leaning against the sundial, his
head bare and his sinewy throat uncovered. He had drawn his
rapier and stood pricking the ground impatiently. I marked his
strong and nervous frame and his sanguine air: and twenty years
earlier the sight might have damped me. But no thought of the
kind entered my head now, and though I felt with each moment
greater reluctance to engage, doubt of the issue had no place in
my calculations.

I made ready slowly, and would gladly, to gain time, have found
some fault with the place. But the sun was sufficiently high to
give no advantage to either. The ground was good, the spot well
chosen. I could find no excuse to put off the man, and I was
about to salute him and fall to work when a thought crossed my
mind.

'One moment!' I said. 'Supposing I kill you, M. le Capitaine,
what becomes of your errand here?'

'Don't trouble yourself;' he answered with a sneer he had misread
my slowness and hesitation. 'It will not happen, Monsieur. And
in any case the thought need not harass you. I have a
Lieutenant.'

'Yes, but what of my mission?' I replied bluntly. 'I have no
lieutenant.'

'You should have thought of that before you interfered with my
boots,' he retorted with contempt.

'True,' I said overlooking his manner. 'But better late than
never. I am not sure, now I think of it, that my duty to
Monseigneur will let me fight.'

'You will swallow the blow?' he cried, spitting on the ground
offensively. 'DIABLE!' And the Lieutenant, standing on one side
with his hands behind him and his shoulders squared, laughed
grimly.

'I have not made up my mind,' I answered irresolutely.

'Well, NOM DE DIEU! make it up,' the Captain replied, with an
ugly sneer. He took a swaggering step this way and that, playing
his weapon. 'I am afraid, Lieutenant, that there will be no
sport to-day,' he continued in a loud aside. 'Our cock has but a
chicken heart.'

'Well, I said coolly,'I do not know what to do. Certainly it is
a fine day, and a fair piece of ground. And the sun stands well.
But I have not much to gain by killing you, M. le Capitaine, and
it might get me into an awkward fix. On the other hand, it would
not hurt me to let you go.'

'Indeed!' he said contemptuously, looking at me as I should look
at a lackey.

'No!' I replied. 'For if you were to say that you had struck
Gil de Berault and left the ground with a whole skin, no one
would believe you.'

'Gil de Berault!' he exclaimed frowning.

'Yes, Monsieur,' I replied suavely. 'At your service. You did
not know my name?'

'I thought that your name was De Barthe,' he said. His voice
sounded queerly; and he waited for the answer with parted lips,
and a shadow in his eyes which I had seen in men's eyes before.

'No,' I said; 'that was my mother's name. I took it for this
occasion only.'

His florid cheek lost a shade of its colour, and he bit his lips
as he glanced at the Lieutenant, trouble in his eyes. I had seen
these signs before, and knew them, and I might have cried
'Chicken-heart!' in my turn; but I had not made a way of escape
for him--before I declared myself--for nothing, and I held to my
purpose.

'I think you will allow now,' I said grimly, 'that it will not
harm me even if I put up with a blow!'

'M. de Berault's courage is known,' he muttered.

'And with reason,' I said. 'That being so suppose that we say
this day three months, M. le Capitaine? The postponement to be
for my convenience.'

He caught the Lieutenant's eye and looked down sullenly, the
conflict in his mind as plain as daylight. He had only to insist
that I must fight; and if by luck or skill he could master me his
fame as a duellist would run, like a ripple over water, through
every garrison town in France and make him a name even in Paris.
On the other side were the imminent peril of death, the gleam of
cold steel already in fancy at his breast, the loss of life and
sunshine, and the possibility of a retreat with honour, if
without glory. I read his face, and knew before he spoke what he
would do.

'It appears to me that the burden is with you,' he said huskily;
'but for my part I am satisfied.'

'Very well,' I said, 'I take the burden. Permit me to apologise
for having caused you to strip unnecessarily. Fortunately the
sun is shining.'

'Yes,' he said gloomily. And he took his clothes from the
sundial and began to put them on. He had expressed himself
satisfied, but I knew that he was feeling very ill-satisfied,
indeed, with himself; and I was not surprised when he presently
said abruptly and almost rudely, 'There is one thing that I think
we must settle here.'

'Yes?' I said. 'What is that?'

'Our positions,' he blurted out, 'Or we shall cross one another
again within the hour.'

'Umph! I am not quite sure that I understand,' I said.

'That is precisely what I don't do--understand!' he retorted, in
a tone of surly triumph. 'Before I came on this duty, I was told
that there was a gentleman here, bearing sealed orders from the
Cardinal to arrest M. de Cocheforet; and I was instructed to
avoid collision with him so far as might be possible. At first I
took you for the gentleman. But the plague take me if I
understand the matter now.'

'Why not?' I said coldly.

'Because--well, the question is in a nutshell!' he answered
impetuously. 'Are you here on behalf of Madame de Cocheforet, to
shield her husband? Or are you here to arrest him? That is what
I do not understand, M. de Berault.'

'If you mean, am I the Cardinal's agent--I am!' I answered
sternly.

'To arrest M. de Cocheforet?'

'To arrest M. de Cocheforet.'

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