La Dame de Monsoreau (14 page)

" On the whole," said he to himself when, after paying many compliments to the Due d'Anjou on the energy he had displayed, he started for his hotel, " on the whole, there is one thing of which I cannot have any doubt: it is that I have been attacked, have fought, was wounded, for I feel the wound in my right side, and a ve-ry painful one it is. Now, when I was fighting, I saw, as plainly as I now see the cross of Les Petits-Champs, the wall of the Hotel des Tournelles and the battlements of the Bastile. It was in the Place de la Bastille, nearly opposite the Hotel des Tournelles, between the Eue Sainte-Catherine and the Rue Saint-Paul, that I was attacked, for I was going along the Faubourg Saint-Antoine for Queen Marguerite's letter. It was there, then, that I was attacked, near a door having a barbican, through which, when the door was shut on me, I saw the pale cheeks and flaming eyes of Quelus. I was in an alley; at the end of the alley was a staircase. I tripped over the first step of this staircase. Then I fainted ; then began my dream; and then I awoke on the slope of one of the ditches of the Temple, surrounded by a butcher, a monk, and an old woman.

" Now, how comes it that my other dreams have dropped so quickly and completely from my memory, while this one has only been the more firmly fixed on it by the lapse of time ? Ah ! " exclaimed Bussy, " that is where the mystery comes in."

And he halted, at this very moment, in front of the door of his hotel, which he had just reached, and, leaning against the wall, he closed his eyes.

" Morbleu ! " said he, " no dream could leave on the mind such an impression as that. I see the chamber with its figured tapestry ; I see the painted ceiling-; I see my carved wooden

bed with its damask and gold curtains ; I see the portrait, and I see the blonde woman ; and finally, I see the merry, kindly face of the young doctor who was brought to my bed with his eyes bandaged ; surely, proofs sufficiently conclusive. Let me go over them again : a tapestry, a ceiling, a carved bed, curtains of white damask and gold, a woman, and a doctor. Forward, Bussy ! you must set to work to discover all this, and, except you are the stupidest brute in creation, you will find it.

" And, in the first place,'' continued Bussy, " in order to enter upon my task in a promising manner, I ought to adopt the costume most befitting a night-prowler ; then — Hey for the Bastile !"

In virtue of this resolution, not at all a reasonable one in the case of a man who, having narrowly missed being slaughtered at a certain spot in the evening, yet would go on the next day, at very nearly the same hour, and explore the selfsame spot, Bussy went upstairs, had a valet, who was somewhat of a surgeon, attend to his wound, put on long boots which came up to the middle of his thighs, took his stoutest sword, wrapped his cloak about him, got into his litter, stopped at the end of the Rue du Roi-de-Sicile, got out, ordered his people to wait for him, and, after reaching the Rue Saint-Antoine, made his way to the Place de la Bastille.

It was nine in the evening, or thereabouts; the curfew had rung ; Paris was becoming a desert. Thanks to a thaw, which a little sunlight and a somewhat warmer atmosphere had brought about during the day, the frozen swamps and mud-holes in the Place de la Bastille had given way to a number of little lakes and precipices through which the much-trodden road, of which we have already spoken, threaded its way.

Bussy made every exertion to find the spot where his horse had fallen, and came to the conclusion that he knew it; he advanced, retreated, made the same movements he remembered having made at the time; he stepped back to the wall; then examined the doors to discover the corner against which he had leaned and the wicket through which he had looked at Quelus. But all the doors had corners, and almost all had wickets, and every one had an alley. By a fatality which will seem less extraordinary if it be considered that, at that period, such a person as a concierge was unknown in citizens' houses, three-fourths of the doors had alleys.

" Pardieu ! " thought Bussy, in anything but an easy frame of mind, "though I have to knock at every door of them, question every one of the lodgers, spend a thousand crowns in getting old women and servants to talk, I '11 find out what I want to find out. There are fifty houses: taking ten houses a night, it will be a job of five nights ; all right, but I think I '11 wait for drier weather."

When Bussy had finished his monologue, he perceived a small, pale, tremulous light approaching; it glistened on the puddles of water as it advanced, just as might have glistened the light of a beacon on the sea. Its progress in his direction was slow and unequal, now halting, now making a bend to the left, now to the right, sometimes suddenly stumbling, then dancing like a will-'o-the-wisp, again marching on steadily, and again indulging in fresh capers.

" Decidedly," said Bussy, " one of the queerest spots in the city is the Place de la Bastille ; but no matter, I '11 wait and see."

And Bussy, to wait and see more at his ease, wrapped himself in his cloak and entered a doorway. The night was as dark as could be, and it was impossible to distinguish anything at the distance of a few feet.

The lantern continued to advance, making the wildest zigzags. But as Bussy was not superstitious, he was convinced the light he saw was not one of those wandering Jack-o'-lanterns that were such a terror to mediaeval travellers, but purely and simply a cresset suspended from a hand, said hand being itself connected .with some body or other.

And, in fact, after the lapse of a few minutes, this conjecture was found to be perfectly correct. About thirty paces or so from him, Bussy perceived a dark form, long and slender as a whipping-post, which form gradually assumed the shape of a human being with a lantern in his left hand; the hand was now stretched out in front, now sideways, now fell quietly along the hip. For a time it looked as if this individual belonged to the honorable confraternity of drunkards, for to drunkenness only could be attributed the strange gyrations in which he turned and the sort of philosophic serenity wherewith he stumbled into mud-holes and floundered through puddles.

Once he happened to slip on a sheet of half-thawed ice, and the hollow echo, brought to Bussy's ears, as well as the

involuntary movement of the lantern, which apparently had taken a sudden leap over a precipice, proved that the nocturnal promenader, with but little confidence in the steadiness of his legs, had sought a more assured centre of gravity.

From that moment Bussy began to feel the respect with which all noble hearts are imbued for belated drunkards, and was advancing to the aid of this " curate of Bacchus," as Master Ronsard would call him, when he saw the lantern rise again with a quickness that indicated its bearer was more solid 011 his feet than his first appearance evidenced.

" I 'ni in for another adventure, as far as I can see," murmured Bussy ; " better stay quiet awhile."

And as the lantern resumed its progress in his direction, he drew farther back than before into the doorway.

The lantern advanced about ten paces, and then Bussy took note of a circumstance that appeared rather strange : the man who carried the lantern had a bandage over his eyes.

" Pardieu ! " said he, " a queer fancy that ! playing blind-man's-buff with a lantern, particularly in such weather and on such ground as this ! Am I, perchance, beginning to dream again ? "

Bussy still waited, and the man with the lantern advanced five or six steps more.

" God forgive me," said Bussy, " if I don't believe he 's talking to himself. I have it ! he 's neither a drunkard nor a lunatic: he 's simply a mathematician solving a problem."

The last words were suggested to our observer by the last words of the man with the lantern, and which Bussy had heard.

" Four hundred and eighty-eight, four hundred and eighty-nine, four hundred and ninety," murmured the man with the lantern ; " it must be close to here."

And thereupon this mysterious personage raised the bandage, and, when he came in front of the house, approached the door, scrutinizing it carefully.

" No," said he, " that is n't it."

Then he lowered his bandage and went on, calculating and walking as before.

" Four hundred and ninety-one, four hundred and ninety-two, four hundred and ninety-three, four hundred and ninety-four -1 ought to be right plump on it now," said he.

And he lifted the bandage a second time, and, drawing nigh

the door next to the one where Bussy was hidden, he examined it with no less attention than he had done the first.

" Hem ! hem," said he, " that might really be it. Why, it is ! no, it is n't. Confound those doors, they 're all alike."

" The very reflection I had made myself ! " thought Bussy, " which leads me to believe my mathematician is a decidedly clever fellow."

The mathematician put on the bandage again, and resumed his peregrinations.

" Four hundred and ninety-five, four hundred and ninety-six, four hundred and ninety-seven, four hundred and ninety-eight, four hundred and ninety-nine. If there's a door in front of me," said the searcher, "this must be it."

In fact, there was a door, and it was the very one in which Bussy was concealed; the consequence was that when the supposed mathematician raised his bandage he found that he and Bussy were face to face.

" How now ? " said Bussy.

" Oh ! " returned the promenader, recoiling a step.

" Hullo ! " cried Bussy.

" But it is n't possible ! " exclaimed the unknown.

" Yes, it is, only it is extraordinary. Why, you are the very same doctor! "

" And you are the very same gentleman !"

« Not a doubt of it."

t( Jesus ! What an odd meeting ! "

" The very same doctor," continued Bussy, " who dressed a wound in the side of a gentleman last night."

" Correct."

" Of course it is. I recognized you at once ; you had a light and gentle hand, and a skilful one, too."

" Thanks, monsieur, but I had no notion of finding you here."

" What were you looking for, then ? "

« The house."

" Ha! " said Bussy, " you were looking for the house ? "

« Yes."

" Then you are not acquainted with it ? "

" How could I be ? " answered the young man. " I had my eyes bandaged the whole road to it."

" Your eyes bandaged ? "

" Undoubtedly."

" Then you were really in this house ? "

" In this one or in one beside it, I cannot say which, and so I am trying to find " —

" Good ! " interrupted Bussy; " then it was not a dream."

" What do you mean ? a dream ! "

" It is as well to tell you, my dear friend, that I was under the impression the entire adventure, except the sword-thrust, as you can easily understand, was a dream."

" Well," answered the young doctor, " I must say you don't astonish me at all."

« Why ? "

" I suspected there was a mystery under the affair."

" Yes, my friend, and a mystery I 'm determined to clear up ; you '11 help me, will you not ? "

" With the greatest pleasure."

" Good ; and now two words,"

" Say them."

" Your name ? "

" Monsieur," said the young doctor, " I '11 make no bones about answering you. I know well that at such a question I should, to be in the fashion, plant myself fiercely on one leg, and, with hand on hip, say : ' What is yours, monsieur, if you please ? ' But you have a long sword and I have only a lancet; you look like a gentleman and I must seem to you a scamp, for I am wet to the skin and my back is all covered with mud. Therefore, I will answer you frankly. My name is liemy le Haudouin."

"Thank you, monsieur, a thousand thanks. I am Count Louis de Clermont, Seigneuu de Bussy."

" Bussy d'Amboise ! the hero Bussy ! " cried the young doctor, evidently delighted. " What, monsieur, you are the famous Bussy, the colonel who — who — oh ! "

" The same, monsieur," answered the nobleman, modestly. "And now that we know each other, be good enough to satisfy my curiosity, even though you are wet and dirty."

" The fact is," said the young man, glancing down at his belongings, all spotted with mud, — " the fact is, like Epaminon-das the Theban, I shall have to remain three days at home, seeing that I have but one pair of breeches and one doublet. But pardon me — you were about to do me the honor of questioning me, I believe ? "

" Yes, monsieur, I wished to ask you how you happened to enter that house."

" The answer will be at once very simple and very complex, as you are going to see," said the young man.

" To the point, then."

" M. le Comte, pray excuse me, until now I have been so embarrassed that I forgot to give you your title."

" Oh, that 's of no consequence ; continue."

" This, then, is what happened, M. le Comte. I live in the Eue Beautreillis, about five hundred yards from here. I am but a poor surgeon's apprentice, though not an unskilful one, I assure you."

" I know something about that," said Bussy.

" And I have studied very hard, but that has not brought me patients. My name, as I have told you, is Kemy le Haudouin : Remy, my Christian name; and Le Haudouin because I was born at Nanteuil le Haudouin. Now, about a week ago, a man was brought to me who had had his belly cut open by a knife, just behind the Arsenal. I put back the intestines, which protruded, in their place, and sewed up the skin so neatly that I won a certain reputation in the neighborhood, to which I attribute my good fortune in being awakened last night by a thin, musical voice."