La Dame de Monsoreau (35 page)

"Good!" murmured the Gascon, "the party was not complete without you, Maitre Nicolas. I sought thee long, and now that I have found thee, lo ! meseemeth I care not for thy company, Maitre Nicolas ! "

" You have seen and heard . everything, have you not ? " asked the Due de Guise.

" I have not lost a word of what occurred, and you may rest assured, monseigneur, I shall not forget a single detail."

" Then you will be able to relate everything to the envoj^ of his Holiness Gregory XIII. ? " inquired the Balafre.

" Without omitting a particle."

" By the way, my brother Mayenne tells me you have done wonders for us. Would you mind saying what you have done ? »

The cardinal and the duchess, moved by curiosity, drew near, so that the three princes and their sister formed one group.

Nicolas David was three feet from them, in the full light of the lamp.

" I have done what I promised, monseigneur," answered Nicolas David, " and that means I have found a way of proving your undoubted right to sit on the throne of France."

" They, too! " thought Chicot; " why, it looks as if every one was going to be king of France ! Well, let the best man win."

It will be seen that our brave Chicot was recovering his gayety. This was due to the following circumstances :

In the first place, he had a fair prospect of escaping from an

imminent peril in a very unexpected fashion ; secondly, he was on the point of discovering a nice conspiracy ; and lastly, said conspiracy would supply him with the means of destroying his two great enemies, Mayenne and David.

" Dear Gorenflot," he murmured, when all these ideas had found a lodging in his brain, " what a stunning supper I '11 give you to-morrow for the loan of your frock ! You wait and see."

" But if the usurpation is too evident, we must give it up," said Henri de Guise. " I cannot have all the kings in Christendom' who reign by right divine snarling at my heels."

" I have anticipated this scruple, inonseigneur," said the lawyer, bow r ing to the duke and meeting the eyes of the triumvirate confidently. " I am something more than a skilful fencer, although my enemies, to deprive me of your favor, may have reported to the contrary. Being versed in theological and legal studies, I have naturally, as a good casuist and legist is bound to do, examined the annals and decrees which support my statements as to the customs regulating the succession to the throne. Legitimacy is the main factor in this succession, and I have discovered that you are the legitimate heirs, and the Valois but a parasitic and usurping branch."

The assurance with which Nicolas David uttered this exordium elated Madame de Montpensier, quickened the curiosity of the cardinal and Mayenne, and almost smoothed away the wrinkles on the austere brow of the Due de Guise.

" Still, it is difficult to believe," said he, " that the house of Lorraine, illustrious as it most assuredly is, can claim precedence over that of Valois."

" And yet it is proved, monseigneur," said Maitre Nicolas, lifting his frock and drawing a parchment from his voluminous breeches, not without disclosing by this movement the hilt of a long rapier.

The duke took the parchment from the hands of Nicolas David.

" What is this ? " asked he.

" The genealogical tree of the house of Lorraine."

" The trunk of which is ? "

" Charlemagne, monseigneur."

" Charlemagne ? " cried the three brothers, with an air of incredulity, which was, nevertheless, not unmixed with satisfaction.

" It is impossible," said the Due de Guise. " The first Due de Lorraine was a contemporary of Charlemagne, but his name was Kanier, and he was in no way related to that great emperor."

" Stay a moment, monseigneur," said Nicolas. " You must surely understand that I have not been dealing with one of those questions which are answered by a simple contradiction, and which any court of heraldry would set at nought. What you need is a protracted lawsuit which will occupy the attention of the Parliament and of the people, and which will give you time to influence, not the people, — they are yours already, — but the Parliament. And now, monseigneur, this is your true pedigree :

" R-anier, first Due de Lorraine, contemporary of Charlemagne ;

" Guibert, his son, contemporary of Louis le Debonnaire ;

" Henri, son of Guibert, contemporary of Charles the Bald"-

" But," said the Duke de Guise.

" A little patience, monseigneur. We are getting on ; pray, pay close attention — Bonne."

" Yes," interrupted the Duke, " daughter of Bicin, second son of Kanier."

" Well," returned the lawyer, " whom did she marry ? "

" Bonne ? "

« Yes."

" Charles de Lorraine, son of Louis IV., King of France."

" Charles de Lorraine, son of Louis IV., King of France," repeated David. " Now add: brother of Lothaire, and deprived of the crown of France by Hugues Capet, who usurped it after the death of Louis V."

" Oh, oh !" exclaimed the Due de Mayenne and the cardinal.

" Go on," said the Balafre, " I am beginning to get a glimpse of your meaning."

"Now, Charles de Lorraine was the heir of his brother when the race of the latter became extinct. Now, the race of Lothaire is extinct; consequently, gentlemen, you are the true and sole heirs of the crown of France."

" Mordieu ! " thought Chicot; " he 's even a more venomous beast than I had supposed."

" What do you say to this, brother ?" asked the Due de Mayenne and the cardinal in unison.

" I say," answered the Balafre, " that there exists, unfortunately, a law in France which is called the Salic law, and which utterly destroys our claims."

" Just what I expected you to say, monseigneur," cried David, with the pride.born of self-esteem : "what is the first example of the Salic law ? "

" The accession of Philippe de Valois to the prejudice of Edward of England."

" What is the date of that accession ? "

Tfye Balafre tried to recollect.

" 1328," said the cardinal, without hesitation.

" That is to say, three hundred and forty-one years after the usurpation of Hugues Capet, two hundred and forty years after the extinction of the race of Lothaire. Then, for two hundred and forty years before the Salic law was invented, your ancestors had a right to the throne. Now, every one knows that no law has a retroactive effect."

" You are an able man, Maitre Nicolas David," said the Balafre, regarding him with a mixture of admiration and contempt.

" It is exceedingly ingenious," added the cardinal.

" And exceedingly fine," said Mayenne.

" It is admirable," continued the duchess ; " so I am princess royal; I will have no one • less than the Emperor of Germany for a husband now."

" 0 Lord God!" murmured Chicot, " thou knowest I have never offered thee but one prayer: ' Ne nos inducas in tenta-tionem, et libera nos ab advocatis.' "

The Due de Guise alone remained grave and thoughtful amid the general enthusiasm.

" And to say that such subterfuges are needed in the case of a man of my height," he murmured. " To think that the people will base their obedience on parchments like that, instead of reading a man's title to nobility in the flash of his eyes or of his sword ! "

" You are right, Henri," said the cardinal, " right a thousand times. And if men were content to judge by the face, you would be a king among kings, since other princes appear common by your side. But, to mount the throne, a protracted lawsuit is, as Maitre Nicolas David has said, absolutely essential ; and when you are seated on it, it will be important, as you have admitted yourself, that the escutcheon of our house

should not seem inferior to the escutcheons suspended above the other royal thrones of Europe."

" Then I presume this genealogy is a good one," said Henri de Guise, with a sigh, " and here are the two hundred gold crowns promised you in my name by my brother Mayenne, Maitre Nicolas David."

" And here are another two hundred," said the cardinal to the lawyer, whose eyes sparkled with delight as he stuffed them into his capacious breeches; "they are for the new mission which we are going to give you."

" Speak, monseigneur, I am entirely- at the orders of your Eminence."

"We cannot empower you to bear yourself to the Holy Father Gregory XIII. this genealogy, which requires his approval. Your rank would hardly entitle you to admission to the Vatican."

" Alas ! yes," said Nicolas David, " I have high aspirations, but I am of humble birth. Ah ! if only I had been born a simple private gentleman ! "

"Can't you keep your mouth shut, you vagabond!" said Chicot.

" But you are not," continued the cardinal, " and it is unfortunate. We are therefore compelled to entrust Pierre de Gondy with this "mission."

" Excuse me, brother," said the duchess, now quite serious; " the Gondys are, of course, exceedingly clever, but they are people over whom we have no hold. Their ambition is their only guarantee, and they may conclude that their ambition will receive as much satisfaction from King Henri as from the House of Guise."

" My sister is right, Louis," said the Due de Mayenne, with his customary roughness, " and we cannot trust Pierre de Gondy as we trust Nicolas David, who is our man and whom we can have hanged whenever we choose."

This brutal hint, aimed point-blank at the face of the lawyer, had the most unfortunate effect on Maitre David. He broke into a convulsive fit of laughter that betrayed the most excessive terror.

" Our brother Charles is jesting," said Henri de Guise to the trembling jurist. "We all recognize you as our trusty follower ; you have proved that you are so in many cases."

"And notably in mine," thought Chicot, shaking his fist at his enemy, or rather, at his two enemies.

" You need not be alarmed, Charles," said the cardinal, " nor need you be, either, Catharine ; all my measures have been taken in advance. Pierre de Gondy will carry this genealogy to Eome, but mixed with other papers, without knowing what he is carrying. The Pope will approve or disapprove, without Gondy knowing anything of his approval or disapproval, and, finally, Gondy will return to France, still ignorant of what he carries, bringing us back the genealogy, whether it be approved or disapproved. You, Nicolas David, must start at the same hour he does, and you must wait for him at Chalons or Lyons or Avignon, according as the despatches you will receive from us direct you to stop in one of these three cities. Thus, the true secret of the enterprise will be in your possession and in yours only. You see clearly, then, that we regard you as our confidential agent."

David bowed.

" Thou knowest on what condition, dear friend." murmured Chicot: " to be hanged if thou committest a blunder ; but rest easy, I swear by Sainte Genevieve. here present in plaster or marble or wood, or perhaps even in bone, that thou 'rt stationed at this moment between two gibbets, but the one nearest thee, dear friend, is the one I am building."

The three brothers shook hands and kissed their sister the duchess, who had come to them with the three robes left behind in the sacristy. Then, after aiding them to don these garments of safety, she drew down her cowl over her eyes, and preceded them to the porch, where the brother porter awaited them. Then all four disappeared, followed by Nicolas David, whose gold crowns clinked at every step.

The brother porter barred the door behind them, then returned to the church and extinguished the lamp in the choir. Immediately the chapel was enshrouded in thickest darkness, and Chicot felt a revival of that mysterious horror which had already more than once raised every single hair on his skull.

After this, the sound of the monk's sandals on the pavement became fainter and still fainter until it died away in the distance.

Then five minutes passed, and a very long five minutes they seemed to Chicot, without anything occurring to trouble the silence and the darkness.

i

" Good," said the Gascon, " this time everything is apparently finished. The three acts are played and the actors have departed. I must try to follow their example: I have had enough of that sort of comedy for a single night."

And Chicot, who, since he had seen tombs moving and confessionals with tenants in them, was no longer inclined to stay in the church till daybreak, softly raised the latch, pushed the door open cautiously, and stepped out of his box.

While observing the goings and comings of the chorister, Chicot had noticed in a corner a ladder intended for use in cleaning the stained-glass windows. He lost no time. Groping with his hands, and stepping carefully, he reached the corner without making any noise, laid his hand on the ladder, and, finding his way as best he could, placed the ladder at a window.

By the light of the moon, Chicot saw that he had not been deceived in his anticipations: the window opened on the graveyard of the convent, and the graveyard was divided from the Rue Bordelle.

Chicot opened the window, threw a leg over the sill, and, drawing the ladder to him with that energy and dexterity which fear or joy always gives, he passed it from the inside to the outside.

As soon as he was on the ground, he hid the ladder in a clump of yew-trees at the foot of the wall, stole from tomb to tomb to the last fence between him and the street, and clambered over this obstacle, not without bringing some stones down along with him into the street on the other side.

Once there, he breathed long and heavily.

He had escaped with a few scratches from a wasp's nest where he had felt more than once that his life was at stake. •