La Dame de Monsoreau (105 page)

" Sire," said D'Epernon, mincingly, "the matters Quelus is trying to bring before you are very grave, I assure you."

" Grave ? " repeated Henri.

" Undoubtedly," said Quelus. " That is, if the lives of eight brave gentlemen seem to your Majesty a subject worthy of your Majesty's serious attention."

" What does this mean ? " cried the King.

" This means that I am waiting until the King deign to listen to me."

" I am listening, my son, I am listening," answered Henri, laying a hand on Quelus's shoulder.

" Well, sire, I was saying that we talked seriously, and this is the result of our conversation : royalty is imperilled and enfeebled."

" Which is as much as to say that everybody is conspiring against it," cried Henri.

" It resembles," continued Quelus, " those strange gods, who, like the gods of Tiberius and Caligula, sank into old age, but could not die, and in their immortality continued to follow the pathways of human infirmities. When these gods reached the point of utter decrepitude, they could be arrested in their progress only by the beautiful devotion of some worshipper, whose self-sacrifice rejuvenated and renewed them. Then, regenerated by the transfusion of young and generous blood, they lived again, again became strong and powerful. Well, sire, your royalty resembles these gods : it can live only by sacrifices."

" His words are golden," said Chicot. " Quelus, my son, go and preach in the streets of Paris, and I'll bet an ox against an egg that you'll extinguish Lincestre, Cahier, Cotton, and even that thunderbolt of eloquence called Gorenflot."

Henri did not answer; it was evident that a great change was at work in his mind. He had at first showered scornful looks on the minions; now that an idea of the truth was getting hold of him, he became pensive, gloomy, anxious.

" Go on," said he, " you see I am listening, Quelus."

" Sire," he resumed, " you are a very great King, but you have no longer any horizon before your eyes. The nobility have erected barriers beyond which you see nothing, except, perchance, the barriers the people have raised, which are already beginning to tower above them. Well, sire, — you are a valiant soldier, and can tell us what happens in battle when' one battalion is placed, like a menacing wall, within thirty yards of another battalion ? Cowards look behind them, and, seeing an open space, they fly ; the brave lower their heads and rush on.' 7

" Well, then, be it so ; forward ! " cried the King. " God's death! am I not the first gentleman in my kingdom ? Were ever finer battles seen, I ask you, than those in which I was engaged in my youth? Has the century whose end we are nearing ever resounded with names more glorious than those of Jarnac and Monconcour ? Forward, gentlemen, and, as was my custom, I will be the first to dash into the thick of the battle ! "

" Yes, yes, sire/' shouted the young men, electrified by the warlike declaration of the King, " forward ! "

Chicot sat up.

" Peace, there, you fellows," said he ; " let iny orator continue. Go on, Quelus, my son, go on ; you have said some good and fine things already, and you must say some more ; continue, my friend, continue."

" Yes, Chicot, and you are right, too, as you often are. Yes, I will continue and say to his Majesty that the moment has arrived for royalty to accept one of those sacrifices of which I spoke just now. Against all these ramparts, which are insensibly closing in around your Majesty, four men are about to march, sure of being encouraged by you, sire, and of being glorified by posterity."

" What do you say, Quelus ?" asked the King, his eyes gleaming with a joy that was tempered with anxiety; " who are these four men ? "

" I and these gentlemen, sire,'' said the young man, with that sentiment of pride which ennobles every man who stakes his life on a great principle or on a great passion, "devote ourselves."

" For what ? "

" For your safety."

" Against whom ? "

" Against your enemies."

" Private enmities of young men," cried Henri.

"Oh, sire, that is but the expression of vulgar prejudice, as well as of your Majesty's generous concern for our safety, which you try in vain to hide beneath this transparent veil, for we recognize it ; speak like a King, sire, and not like some tradesman of the Rue Saint-Denis. Do not feign to believe that Maugiron detests Antraguet, that Schomberg dislikes Li-varot, that D'Epernon is jealous of Bussy, or that Quelus is embittered against Ribeirac. Oh, no ! They are all young, genial, and debonair; all, friends and enemies, might easily come to love one another. It is not, therefore, a rivalry between man and man that places the swords in our hands. It is the quarrel of France with Anjou ; it is the quarrel of popular right with right divine ; we are marching as champions of royalty into the lists where the champions of the League stand ready to encounter us, and we come to say : < Bless us, my sovereign liege, smile on those about to die for you. With your blessing we may, perhaps, return victors ; with your smile death will not be unwelcome."

Henri, overcome with emotion, opened his arms to Quelus and the others. He clasped them to his heart, and it was not a spectacle without interest, a picture without expression, but a scene in which manly courage was allied to the tenderest emotions and sanctified by real devotion.

Chicot, grave and melancholy, his hand pressed to his forehead, looked on from the back of the alcove, and his face, ordinarily cold and indifferent, or cynical and sarcastic, was not the least noble and eloquent of the six.

" Ah! my heroes," said the King, after a pause, " your self-devotion is sublime, and the task you undertake a glorious one, and I am proud to-day, not of reigning over France, but of being your friend. Still, as I know my own interests better than anybody, I cannot accept a sacrifice, whose results, however magnificent they may seem to' you now, would be to deliver me, if you failed, into the hands of my enemies. Believe me, the power of France suffices for a war with Aiijou ; I know my brother, the Guises, and the League ; often during my life have I tamed horses that were more fiery and refractory."

" But, sire," said Maugiron, " soldiers do not reason thus ; they cannot admit the consideration of possible bad luck into the

examination of a question of this kind, which is a question of honor, a question of sentiment, in which a man acts by conviction rather than by reason/'

"Pardon me, Maugiron," answered the King; "a soldier may act blindly, but the captain reflects."

" Then, sire, do you reflect, and let us, who are only soldiers, act," said Schomberg. " Besides, I am unacquainted with ill-luck ; I have always been fortunate "

" Ah ! my friend ! " interrupted the King, sadly, " I cannot say as much; but then, you are hardly twenty."

" Sire," said Quelus, " your Majesty's gracious words but redouble our ardor. On what day shall we cross swords with MM. de Bussy, Livarot, Antraguet, and Kibeirac ? "

" Never. I forbid it absolutely ; never; do you hear me ? "

" Deign to excuse us, sire," answered Quelus; " but the appointment was made yesterday before dinner, the word has been spoken and we cannot withdraw it."

" Excuse me, monsieur," said Henri; " the King absolves from all oaths and promises by simply saying: 'I will or I will not;' for the King is omnipotence itself. Tell these gentlemen I have threatened you with my anger if you fight, and, that you yourselves may not doubt that such is the case. I swear to banish you if"

" Stop, sire," said Quelus, " for, if you can absolve us in relation to our words, God alone can absolve you in relation to yours. Swear not, then, sire, because, if for such a reason we have deserved your anger, and if the issue of that anger should be our banishment, we will go into exile joyfully ; for, when we are no longer within your Majesty's territories, we can then keep our word and meet our adversaries in a foreign country."

" If these gentlemen approach you within range even of an arquebuse," cried Henri, " I will have the whole four of them thrown into the Bastile."

" Sire," said Quelus, " upon whatever day your Majesty should act thus, we would go barefooted and with ropes about our necks to Maitre Laurent Testu, the governor, and beg him to imprison us along with these gentlemen."

" God's death ! I will have their heads cut off ; I am the King, I presume."

" If our enemies met with such a fate, sire, we would cut our throats at the foot of their scaffold."

Henri kept silent for a long time j then, raising his dark eyes :

" Well and good ! " said he, " if God did not bless a cause defended by such brave and noble persons as I see before me" —

"Be not impious — do not blaspheme!" said Chicot, solemnly, arising from his couch and addressing the King. " Yes, these are noble hearts. Great heavens ! do as they wish ; do you hear me, my master ; come, fix a day for these young gentlemen ; that is your business now, and not to dictate to God his duty."

" 0 God ! 0 God ! " murmured Henri.

" Sire, we beseech you," said the four gentlemen, with bowed heads and bended knees.

"Well, be it so ! God is just, he must grant us the victory. But let us prepare for our task in a Christian and judicious manner. Dear friends, remember that Jarnac punctually performed his devotions before fighting with La Chateigneraie : the latter was a first-rate swordsman ; but he forget his religion in feasting and revelry, visited women, — an abominable sin ! In short, he tempted God, who would, perhaps, have smiled on his youth, beauty, and vigor, and saved his life ; and yet he was hamstrung by Jarnac. Listen ; we will engage in certain devotional exercises. If I had time I would send your swords to Home to be blessed by the Holy Father — But we have the shrine of Sainte Genevieve, the relics in which are equal to the best. Let us fast and punish our bodies, and, above ail, let us sanctify the great festival of Corpus Christi ; then, on the day after"'

" Ah, sire, thanks ! thanks! " cried the four young gentlemen ; " it will be in a week, then."

And they seized the hands of the King, who embraced them all once more ; then he entered his oratory, weeping bitterly.

" Our cartel is drawn up," said Quelus ; " we have but to add the day and the hour to it. Write, Maugiron, on this table with the King's pen ; write : ' The day after Corpus Christi.' "

" It is done," answered Maugiron ; " who is the herald that is to carry the letter ? "

"I, if you have no objection," said Chicot, coming up to them ; " only, I want to give you an advice, my children. His Majesty talks of fasting, punishing the body, etc. Nothing could be better, if you should make a vow to do so after the

victory. But before the combat, I should, I fancy, have more reliance on the efficaciousness of good food, generous wine, and a good eight hours' sleep, taken either by day or by night. Nothing gives such suppleness and strength to the wrist as three hours spent at table, provided, of course, that there is no intoxication. I approve all the King says on the subject of love j it is too soul-subduing, and you want all your courage ; you will do well to wean yourselves from it."

" Bravo, Chicot/' chorused all the young men.

" Adieu, my young lions," answered the Gascon, " I am going to the Hotel de Bussy."

He went three steps and then turned back.

" By the way," said he, " do not leave the King's side during our fine festival of Corpus Christi; and let not a single one of you go into the country ; stay in the Louvre like a little cluster of paladins. You agree, don't you? — eh? yes. Then I'll do your commission."

And Chicot, with the letter in his hand, opened his long legs as if they were a pair of compasses and disappeared.

CHAPTER LXXXVI.

CORPUS CHRISTI.

DURING this week events were gathering as a tempest gathers in the depths of the heavens during the calm and heavy days of summer.

After an attack of fever that lasted twenty-four hours, Mon-soreau rallied and devoted all his energies to the task of watching for the spoiler of his honor ; but as he made no discovery, he became more convinced than ever of the Due d'An-jou's hypocrisy and of his evil designs on Diane.

During the. day Bussy kept up his visits to the house of the grand hunter.

Warned, however, by Kemy that his patient was constantly on the watch, he gave up entering at night through the window.

Chicot divided his time into two parts.

The one was devoted to his beloved master, Henri de Valois, whom he quitted as little as possible and guarded as carefully as a mother does her babe.

The other was for his affectionate friend Gorenflot, whom he had, with great difficulty, persuaded to return to his cell a week before, he himself acting as his guide and receiving the most courteous reception from the abbot, Messire Joseph Foulon.

At this first interview much had been spoken of the King's piety, and the prior seemed in ecstasies of gratitude when he learned of the honor the King was about to do the abbey by visiting it.

The honor was enhanced by the fact that, in compliance with the request of the venerable abbot, Henri was said to have consented to spend the day and the night in retreat in the convent.

Chicot assured the abbot that the expectation, which he hardly ventured to entertain, would be realized, and, as it was known that Chicot had the King's ear, he was invited to return, which Chicot promised to do.

As for Gorenflot, he grew six cubits taller in the estimation of the monks.

And it was really one of Gorenflot's master-strokes to have been so successful in securing Chicot's entire confidence; why, the wily Machiavelli could not have done better !