La Dame de Monsoreau (84 page)

" Be it so, then, mother," said Henri ; " you may refuse me your support, you may deprive me of your aid, but in an hour, whatever may be your opinion, — I shall possibly learn it then, — I will have all the Angevines in Paris hanged."

" Have the Angevines hanged ! " cried Catharine, amazed, as are all superior minds when they hear for the first time of some act that is enormously stupid as well as enormously wicked.

" Yes ; hanged, massacred, butchered, burned. At this very moment my friends are running through the city to break the bones of these accursed rebels and bandits ! "

" Let them take good care not to do any such thing, the wretches ! " cried Catharine, aroused by the serious nature of the situation. " They would ruin themselves, which is nothing ; but they would ruin you also."

" How ? "

" Oh, blind ! blind ! " murmured Catharine. " Will kings eternally have eyes, and see not ? "

And she wrung her hands.

" Kings are kings only as long as they avenge the wrongs that are done them, and in the present case my whole realm will rise up to defend me."

" Fool, madman, child," murmured the Florentine.

" Why, and how ? "

" Think you you can hang, and butcher, and burn men like Bussy, and Antraguet, and Ribeirac, and Livarot without causing oceans of blood to flow ? "

" What matter, provided they are killed ? "

" Oh, yes, yes, provided they are killed; show me their dead bodies, and, by our Lady, I will tell you you have done well ! But you will not kill them; you will, on the contrary, supply them with a reason for raising the standard of revolt; you will, with your own hand, place in theirs the naked sword they would of themselves have never dared to unsheathe for such a master as Francois. Your imprudence gives them their opportunity. They will draw it to defend their lives, and your kingdom will rise, not for you, but against you."

" But if I do not avenge my wrongs, I show fear, I seem to recoil," cried Henri.

" Has any one ever said that I showed fear ? " said Catharine, pressing her teeth on her thin, carmine-tinged lips.

"But, if it was the Angevines, they deserve punishment, mother."

" Yes, if it was they ; but it was not."

" Who could it be, if not my brother's friends ? "

" It was not your brother's friends, for your brother has no friends."

" Then who was it ? "

" Your enemies, or, rather, your enemy."

" What enemy ? "

" Ah, my son, you know well that you have never had but one, just as your brother Charles never had but one, and just as I have never had but one, — one who is ever the same persistent foe."

" Do you mean Henri de Navarre ? "

" Yes, Henri de Navarre."

" He is not in Paris ! "

" Ah ! do you know who is in Paris or who is not ? Do you know anything ? Have you eyes and ears ? Do the people around you see and hear ? No, you are all deaf, you are all blind."

" Henri de Navarre ! " repeated the King.

" My son, whenever disappointment is your portion, whenever misfortune is your lot, whenever a catastrophe whose author is unknown to you befalls you, do not search, or conjecture, or inquire, — it is useless. Cry aloud : ' Henri de Navarre ! ' and you will be sure you are speaking the truth. Strike in the quarter where he stands, and you will be sure to strike right. Oh ! that man! that man ! He is the sword of God suspended above the house of Valois! "

" You are of opinion, then, that I should countermand my orders in respect to the Angevines ?"

" At once," cried Catharine, " do not lose a minute, do not lose a second. Hasten, it ma}^ be already too late ; run and revoke your orders; begone, or you are lost."

And seizing her son by the arm she hurried him to the door with a strength and energy that were amazing in a woman of her age.

Henri rushed out of the Louvre in search of his friends.

But he found only Chicot, sitting on a stone and tracing geographical outlines on the sand.

CHAPTER LXIII.

HOW CHICOT AGREED WITH THE QUEEN MOTHER, AND HOW THE KING AGREED WITH BOTH.

HENRI approached and saw that it was, indeed, the Gascon, who, quite as absorbed in his work as was Archimedes once upon a time, seemed determined not to raise his head, though Paris were taken by storm.

" Ha! knave," cried Henri, in a voice of thunder, " this is the way, then, you defend your King ? "

" Yes, I defend him in my own way, and I think it is a good way."

" A good way! " exclaimed Henri, " a good way, you laggard!"

" I maintain and will prove it."

" I am curious to have your proof."

" It is easy to do so : in the first place, we have committed a great folly, my worthy King, an enormous folly."

" By doing what ? "

" By doing what we have done."

" Ah ! " murmured Henri, struck by the harmony between the opinions of two supremely astute minds that had reached the same result and yet had never come in contact.

" Yes," answered Chicot, " by getting our friends to howl : 1 Death to the Angevines ! ' through the city. And, now that I have reflected, I am unable to see that the Angevines had anything to do with the business. Your friends, I repeat, by crying through the city < Death to the Angevines ! ' are simply starting that little civil war which the Guises could not start, but of which they stand in great need. And now, look you, Henri, one of two things has happened: either your friends have come to an untimely end, which would not grieve me

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greatly, I confess, bat which would sadden you excessively, I know ; or they have chased the Angevines out of the city, which would be a great misfortune for you, but, on the other hand, would give boundless satisfaction to that dear friend of ours, Anjou."

" Mordieu ! " cried the King, " do you believe things have gone as far as you say ? "

" Yes, if they have not gone farther."

" But all this does not explain what you are doing on that stone."

" I am engaged on a very urgent task, my son."

"What is it?"

" I am tracing a plan of all the provinces your brother will raise against us, and I am reckoning up the number of men each will contribute to the revolt."

" Chicot! Chicot," cried the King, " am I to have none about me but birds of ill-omen ! "

" The owl hoots by night, my son," answered Chicot, " for it is his hour for hooting. Now this is a gloomy time, my Harry, so gloomy that, in truth, there is very little difference between night and day, and so I indulge in a little hooting that it might be well for you to listen to. Look! "

" Look at what ? "

" Look at my map, and judge. Here is Anjou; is n't it like a little tart ? Do you see ? it's the spot to which your brother has fled; so I have given it the place of honor. Hum ! Anjou, well handled, well worked, as your friend Bussy and your grand huntsman Monsoreau will handle and work it, Anjou, I say, can furnish us — and, when I say < us/ I mean your brother — Anjou can furnish your brother with ten thousand soldiers."

" You think so ? "

" It's the minimum. Let us pass on to Guienne; you see it, don't you ? that figure like a calf limping on one leg. Ah, faith, you need n't be astonished to find a good many discontented people in that same Guienne ! It is an old focus of revolt; why, the English can hardly be said to be yet out of it. Guienne, then, will be tickled to death at the chances of rising, not against you, but against France. We may put down Guienne for eight thousand fighters. It is n't much; but don't be uneas}'', they are inured to war and masters of their trade. Next, here on the left, don't you see them ? We

have Beam and Navarre, two divisions that have some resemblance to a monkey on the back of an elephant. Navarre, I know, has been a good deal mutilated, but, with Beam, it has still a population of three or four hundred thousand men. Suppose, now, that Beam and Navarre, which have been very much squeezed and battered and shattered by my Harry, should furnish five per cent, of their population, or sixteen thousand men to the League — Let us count up: ten thousand for Anjou" —

And Chicot began tracing figures on the sand with his switch —

, r - - "... - .- - .-; -,i;^ - 10,000

Eight thousand for Guienne - . ( >,, - 8,000 Sixteen thousand for Beam and Navarre 16,000

Total ^ 34,000

" You think, then, the King of Navarre will form an alliance With my brother ? " said Henri.

" Well, I should say so ! "

" You think, then, he had something to do with my brother's escape ?"

Chicot stared at the King.

" Harry," said he, " that is not your own idea."

" Why not ? "

" Because it is too sensible, my son."

" No matter whose idea it is ; I am questioning you, it is for you to answer. Do you think that Henri de Navarre had anything to do with the escape of my brother ? "

" Hum ! I remember hearing somewhere in the Rue de la Fer-ronnerie a ' vent re saint-yris,' and, now that I recall it, that seems to me to be rather conclusive."

" You heard a ' venire saint-gris ' / " cried the King.

" Faith, yes," answered Chicot, " I only called it to mind to-day."

" He was in Paris, then ? "

" I believe so."

" And what makes you believe so? "

" My eyes."

" You saw Henri de Navarre ? "

"Yes."

" And you never told me that my enemy had dared to come and brave me even in my capital ? "

" A man is a gentleman or he is n't." answered Chicot.

« What follows ? "

" Well, if a man is a gentleman, he is n't a spy ; does n't that follow ? "

Henri became thoughtful.

" So," said he, " Anjou and Beam ! My brother Francois and my cousin Henri !"

" And, of course, without reckoning the three Guises."

" What! Do you suppose they will all make an alliance together ? "

"Thirty-four thousand men in one quarter," said Chicot, counting on his fingers : ten thousand for Anjou, eight thousand for Guienne, sixteen thousand for Beam, plus twenty or twenty-five thousand under the orders of M. de Guise, as lieutenant-general of your armies ; sum total, fifty-nine thousand men. Suppose we reduce it to fifty thousand, on account of gout, rheumatism, sciatica, and other diseases, we have still, you see, my son, a very pretty sum total."

" But Henri de Navarre and the Due de Guise are enemies ? "

" Which will not prevent them from combining against you : they can exterminate each other when they have exterminated you."

" You are right, Chicot, my mother is right, you are both right ; we must prevent an outbreak ; help me to get the Swiss together."

"Eh ? The Swiss, is it ? Quelus took them with him."

" My guards, then."

" They 're gone with Schoniberg."

" The men of my household, at least."

" Are off with Maugiron."

" What! " cried Henri, " without my orders ! "

" And pray, since when, Henri, have you begun giving orders ? Oh, yes, when it is a question of processions and flagellations you are ready enough with your orders, I admit. You are then allowed to do as you like with your own skin and even with the skins of others. But when it is a question of war, when it is a question of government! — oh, that is for M. de Schoniberg, and M. de Quelus, and M. de Maugiron. As for D'^pernon, he don't count, since he is in hiding."

" Mordieu ! " cried Henri ; " so that is the way things are going on ! "

" Permit me, my son, to observe that it is rather late in the day for you to discover you are only the seventh or eighth king in your kingdom."

Henri bit his lips and stamped on the ground.

" Ah ! " exclaimed Chicot, peering into the darkness.

" What is the matter ? " inquired the King.

" Venire de biche ! there they are, Henri ; yonder are your friends."

And he pointed to three or four cavaliers riding toward them and followed at a distance by some other men on horseback, and a large number on foot.

The cavaliers were just about to enter the Louvre, never noticing the two men standing near the fosse and, indeed, almost invisible in the darkness.

" Schomberg ! " cried the King; " this way, Schomberg ! "

" Hullo ! " said Schomberg; " who calls me ? "

" Come here, my child, come here ! "

Schomberg thought he knew the voice and approached.

" Why," he exclaimed, " God damn me if it is not the King ! "

" Yes, myself; I was going after you, but did not know where you were ; I have been waiting for you impatiently ; what have you been doing ? "

" What have we been doing ? " said a second cavalier, drawing near.

" Ah, come here, Quelus, you, too," said the King, " and never again set out in this fashion without my permission."

" It is no longer necessary," said a third, whom the King recognized to be Maugiron, " for all is over."

" All is over ? " repeated the King.

" God be praised ! " cried D'Epernon, suddenly appearing, without any one knowing where he sprang from.

" Hosanna ! " cried Chicot, raising his hands to heaven.

" Then you have killed them ? " said the King.

And he whispered to himself :

" When all is said and done, the dead never return."

" You have killed them ? " asked Chicot; " ah ! if you killed them, there is nothing more to be said !"

" We did not have that trouble," answered Schomberg ; " the cowards fled like a flock of pigeons ; we have hardly been able to cross swords with them."

Henri turned pale.