La Dame de Monsoreau (67 page)

" Yes, and let us return to Madame de Monsoreau, or rather, to Diane de Meridor, for you know " —

" Oh, yes, of course, I know."

" Rerny, when do we start ? "

" Ah! just what I expected ; as late as possible, M. le Comte."

« Why so ? "

" In the first place, because we have in Paris our dear friend „ M. d'Anjou, the chief of our society, and who has got into such a mess yesterday evening that he will evidently need our help."

" And in the second? "

" In the second, because M. de Monsoreau, through a special benediction you have received from Heaven, suspects nothing, at least, as far as you are concerned, and would, perhaps, suspect something if he learned of your disappearance from Paris at the same time as his wife who is not his wife."

" Oh, what need I care what he suspects ? "

" Yes, but I must care, my dear monseigneur. I feel a certain satisfaction in healing the wounds you receive in your duels ; you have such consummate skill that you never receive any very serious ones. But when it comes to stabs given treacherously, especially by the daggers of jealous husbands, it is quite a different affair ; they usually hit hard. You remember poor M. de Saint-Megrin, so foully done to death by our friend M. de Guise."

" But what is the use of talking, my friend ? Suppose it is my fate to be killed by M. de Monsoreau ? "

« Well ? "

« Well! he will kill me."

" And then, in a week, or a month, or a year after, Madame de Monsoreau will marry her husband ; this will be a source of terrible anger to your poor soul, which will look down at it from above, or up at it from below, but cannot in either case do anything to hinder it, for you see it will have no body."

" You are right, Remy ; I will live."

" Well and good, but to live is not everything. Believe me, you must also follow my advice and be as polite to M. de Monsoreau as you can be. He is at present frightfully jealous of the Due d'Anjou, who, at the very time you were shivering with fever in your bed, was promenading under the lady's windows with all the air of a successful Spanish gallant. Aurilly was with him ; so of course it was the duke. Do you, then, make every sort of advances to this charming husband who is not a husband; do not even have the air of wanting to know what has become of his wife ; there is no reason why you should, since you know all about her already. Act in this way, and he will spread your fame abroad as that of a young gentleman possessing the virtues of Scipio : sobriety and chastity.

" I believe you are right," said Bussy. " Now that I am no longer jealous of the bear, I should like to tame him ; there would be something awfully comical in the process ! Well, Reiny, you can now ask me for anything you like, there is nothing I am not ready to do for you. I am happy."

At this moment some one knocked at the door. Both stopped speaking.

" Who is there ? " asked Bussy.

" Monseigneur," said a page, " there is a gentleman below who wishes to speak to you."

" To speak to me so early ? — who is he ? "

" A tall gentleman, in green velvet, with rose-colored stockings ; he has a rather funny face, but he looks like an honest man."

" Ah! " said Bussy, " I wonder would it be Schomberg."

" He said a tall gentleman."

" Yes ; it would n't be Monsoreau ? " %

" He said ( looks like an honest man/ >;

" You are right, Remy, it can be neither ; show him in."

In less than an instant the man announced stood on the threshold.

" Good heavens ! " cried Bussy, rising hastily as soon as he saw his visitor, while Remy, like a discreet friend, withdrew into a closet.

" M. Chicot! " exclaimed Bussy.

" Himself, M. le Comte," answered the Gascon.

The air of astonishment with which Bussy stared at him meant more clearly than words could have expressed it:

" Monsieur, what have you come to do here ? "

And without waiting for further questions, Chicot answered, in a tone of great seriousness:

" Monsieur, I have come to propose a little bargain to you."

" Speak, monsieur," answered Bussy, in amazement.

" What would you promise me if I rendered you a great service."

" That would depend 011 the service," said Bussy, a little disdainfully.

The Gascon pretended not to notice the disdain.

" Monsieur," said Chicot, sitting down and crossing his legs, " I have noticed that you did not ask me to be seated."

Bussy's face flushed.

" It will be so much," said Chicot, " to be added to my recompense when I have done you the service in question."

Bussy did not answer.

" Monsieur," continued Chicot, not put out in the slightest, " are you acquainted with the League ? "

" I have heard of it," answered Bussy, beginning to pay some attention to the Gascon's words.

" Well, monsieur," said Chicot, " you must know that it is an association of honest Christians united for the object of massacring their neighbors, the Huguenots, from purely religious motives. Do you belong to the League, monsieur? I know I do."

" But, monsieur "-

" Answer yes or no."

" Will you allow me to express my astonishment" —

" I did myself the honor to ask you if you belong to the League ; did you understand me ? "

" M. Chicot," said Bussy, " as I do not like questions the meaning of which I do not understand, I must request you to change the conversation, and I will wait a few minutes, for courtesy's sake, before repeating that I object to questioners quite as much as to questions."

" Very well, courtesy is courteous, as my dear friend M. de Monsoreau says when he is in good humor."

At the name of Monsoreau, which the Gascon uttered without apparent intention, Bussy began to listen with some show of interest.

" Aha ! " he said to himself. " Does he suspect something, and has he sent this Chicot to play the spy on me ? "

Then aloud :

" Come, M. Chicot," said he, " to the point! You know we have only a few minutes left."

" Optime! " said Chicot; " a few minutes may often be a good deal; in a few minutes a great many things may be said. I may as well tell you, however, that there is very little reason for me questioning you, since, if you do not belong to the League now, you will soon belong to it, beyond any doubt, for M. d'Anjou belongs to it."

" M. d'Anjou ! who told you that ? "

" Himself, addressing my own personality, as say, or rather,' write, the gentlemen of the law, as used to write, for example, my worthy and dear friend M. Nicolas David, that naming light of the for inn Parisiense before its extinguishment without ever a one knowing who blew it out. Now, you understand clearly that if M. d'Anjou belong to the League, you cannot help belonging to it also, you who are his right arm. The League knows too well what it is about to accept a one-armed chieftain."

" Well, M. Chicot, what follows from all that ? " said Bussy, more politely than he had spoken so far.

"What follows ? " rejoined Chicot. " Well, this follows : if you belong to the League, or if it is even supposed you belong to it, — and, certainly, it will be supposed, — the same thing will happen to you that has happened to his royal highness."

" What has happened to his royal highness ? "

" Monsieur," said Chicot, rising and imitating the attitude assumed by Bussy a moment before, " monsieur, if you will allow me to say so, I object to questioners quite as much as to questions. I am, therefore, strongly inclined to let you meet with the same fate your master has met with to-night."

" M. Chicot," said Bussy, with a smile that contained all the excuses one gentleman could be expected to make to another, " speak, I beseech you ; where is the duke ? "

"In prison."

" And where ? "

" In his own room. Four of my good friends guard him : M. de Schomberg, who was dyed blue, as you know, for you passed him during the operation ; M. d'Epernon, who turned yellow from the fright he got; M. de Quelus, who is red from anger; and M. de Maugiron, who is pale from ennui. It is a sight well worth seeing, especially as M. d'Anjou is beginning to turn green from terror, so that we privileged folk of the Louvre are about to enjoy the spectacle of a perfect rainbow."

" So, monsieur," said Bussy, " you believe my liberty in danger ? "

" Danger, monsieur ? I believe that at this very moment people are on the way to arrest you, or will be shortly."

Bussy started,

" Do you like the Bastile, M. de Bussy ? It is a capital place for those fond of meditation, and M. Laurent Testu, the governor, sets a rather good table for his captive pigeons."

"You think they would put me in the Bastile?" cried Bussy.

" Faith, I think there must be something very like an order in my pocket to take you there, M. de Bussy. Would you like to see it ? "

And Chicot thereupon drew from a pocket in his breeches — which were wide enough to accommodate thighs thrice the size of his — a royal order in due form, ordering the body of M. Louis de Clermont, Seigneur de Bussy d'Amboise, to be seized, wherever the said body might be.

" Drawn up by M. de Quelus," said Chicot, " and it is remarkably well written, too."

" Then, monsieur," cried Bussy, somewhat moved by this friendly act of Chicot, " you are really rendering me a service ? "

" Well, I rather think so," said the Gascon ; " do you share my opinion, monsieur ? "

" Monsieur," said Bussy, " I beg of you to treat me as an honest man. Are you saving me to-day for the purpose of exposing me to peril on some other occasion ? You love the King, and the King, certainly, does not love me."

" M. le Comte," said Chicot, rising and bowing, " I am saving you solely for the purpose of saving you ; and now you may think whatever you like of my action."

" But to what am I to attribute such great kindness ? "

" Do you forget that I am to ask you for a recompense ? "

« It is true."

« Well ? "

" It is granted, monsieur, with all my heart.*'

" Then, some day or other you will do what I ask you ? "

<( Upon Bussy's honor, if it be anything that can be done."

" Oh, that is quite enough for me," said Chicot, rising; " and now, monsieur, get your horse and vanish; I '11 take the order for your arrest to the persons employed on such occasions."

", You were not thinking, then, of arresting me yourself ? "

" Nonsense ! what do you take me for ? I am a gentleman, monsieur."

" But I am forsaking my master."

"You need not feel any remorse about that, for he has already forsaken you.'*

" You are a worthy gentleman, M. Chicot," said Bussy to the Gascon.

" Parbleu, I know it," answered the latter.

Le Haudouin, who, we must render him justice, was listening at the door, entered immediately.

" Remy ! " cried Bussy ; " Remy, Remy, our horses ! "

" They are saddled, monseigneur," answered Remy, tranquilly.

" Monsieur," said Chicot, " that young man of yours has a great deal of sense." . " Faith," said Remy, " you never said anything truer."

And Chicot bowed to Remy, and Remy bowed to Chicot, in the style adopted by Guillaume Gorin and Gauthier Gargouille fifty years later.

Bussy collected a few heaps of crowns, which he stuffed into his own pockets and into those of Le Haudouin.

After this he saluted Chicot, thanked him a second time, and prepared to go downstairs.

" Excuse me, monsieur," said Chicot, " but you will allow me to be present at your departure."

And Chicot followed Bussy and Le Haudouin to the little stable-yard, where a page was waiting for them with two horses, ready saddled.

" And where are we going ? " asked Remy, carelessly taking the reins of his horse in his hand.

" Why " — answered Bussy, hesitating or seeming to hesitate.

" What do you say to Normandy, monsieur ? " said Chicot, who was looking on and examining the horses with the air of a connoisseur.

" No," replied Bussy, " it is too near."

" What do you think of Flanders ? " continued Chicot.

" It is too far."

" I think," said Remy, " you might as well decide in favor of Anjou, which is at a favorable distance, is it not, M. le Cornte ? "

" Then let it be Anjou," said Bussy, blushing.

" Monsieur," said Chicot, " as you have made your choice and are going to start"-

" This very moment even."

" I have the honor to wish you good-by. Think of me in your prayers."

And the excellent gentleman went away gravely and majestically, his immense rapier clinking against the projections of the houses.

" It is fate, monsieur," said Kemy.

" Let us push on," cried Bussy, " and perhaps we may come up with her."

"Ah, monsieur," said Le Haudouin, "if you try to assist Fate you will take from her all her merit."

And they started.

CHAPTER XLVII.

CHICOT'S CHESS, QUELUS' CUP-TOSSING, AND SCHOMBERG'S PEA-SHOOTER.

WE may as well state that Chicot, in spite of his apparent coolness, returned to the Louvre in a state of exuberant joy. He had the triple satisfaction of rendering a service to a hero like Bussy, of having taken a prominent part in an intrigue, and of having rendered it possible for the King to strike the very blow which the interests of the state demanded.

In fact, what with Bussy's head, and especially with his heart, with which we are already well acquainted, and with the organizing talent of the Guises, with which we are equally well acquainted, there was great danger that a very stormy day would burst over the good city of Paris.

All that the King had feared, all that Chicot had foreseen, happened exactly as might have been anticipated.

M. de Guise, after receiving in the morning the principal Leaguers, who had come, all with their several registers covered with signatures, — those registers which, as we saw, were kept open in the principal thoroughfares, at the doors of the chief inns, and even on the altars of the churches, — M. de Guise, after promising a chief to the League and exacting an oath from every one to recognize as chief whoever should be named by the King; M. de Guise, after holding a final conference with the cardinal and M. de Mayenne, had set out to pay a visit to the Due d'Anjou, whom he had lost sight of at ten o'clock the night before.