La Dame de Monsoreau (17 page)

" Next I asked a woodcutter who was the gentleman on the black horse that was kidnapping a woman ? and he answered : 1 M. de Monsoreau.' '

" Well," said Antraguet, " it is not so unusual a thing to carry off women, is it, Bussy ? "

" Yes ; but, at least, the women are allowed to scream."

" And who was the woman ? " asked Antraguet.

" That is a thing I could never learn."

" I tell you," said Bussy, " this man is decidedly remarkable, and he interests me."

" However, this precious nobleman enjoys an abominable reputation," said Livarot.

" You have some other facts ? "

" No, none. He never does evil openly, and is even rather kind to his tenants ; but with all that, the dwellers in the district that has the good fortune to own him fear him like hell-fire ; still, as he is a hunter like Nimrod, not before the Lord, perhaps, but before the devil, the King will never have a better grand huntsman ; a far better one than Saint-Luc, for whom the post was first intended until the Due d'Anjou interfered and choused him out of it."

" Do you know the Due d'Anjou is still calling for you ? " said Antraguet to Bussy.

" Good ! let him go on calling; and, by the way, do you know what is being said about Saint-Luc ? "

" No; is he still the King's prisoner ? " asked Livarot, laughing.

"I suppose he must be," said Antraguet, " as he is not here."

" Quite wrong, my dear fellow ; he started at one, last night, to visit his wife's estates."

« Exiled ? "

" It looks that way."

" Saint-Luc exiled ? Impossible."

" My dear, it's as true as the Gospel."

" According to Saint Luke ? "

" No, according to Marechal de Brissac, who told it me this morning with his own lips."

" Ah ! that is a novel and interesting bit of news; F m pretty sure this will do harm to our Monsoreau."

" I have it! " said Bussy.

" Have what ? "

" I have hit on it."

" Hit on what ? "

" The service he rendered M. d'Anjou."

" Saint-Luc ? "

" No, Monsoreau."

" Really ? "

" Yes, devil take me if I have n't! You ? 11 see, you fellows ; come along with me."

WAS ABLE TO DISTINGUISH IN FRONT OF HIS SADDLE THE FORM OF A WOMAN, AND HIS HAND PRESSED OVER HER MOUTH."

And Bussy, followed by Livarot and Antraguet, set his horse to a gallop and came up with the Due d'Anjou, who, tired of making signs to him, was now a considerable distance away.

" Ah ! monseigneur," he cried, " what a valuable man that M. de Monsoreau is ! "

" You think so, do you ? "

" I am amazed ! "

" Then you spoke to him ? " said the prince, with a sneer.

" Certainly, and I found him quite a refined person."

" And you asked him what he had done for me ? " inquired the prince, with the same sneering laugh.

" Of course ; it was for that purpose I accosted him/'

" And he answered you ? " said the prince, apparently gayer than ever.

" At once, and with a politeness for which I am infinitely obliged to him."

" And now let us hear his reply, iny doughty braggadocio," said the Due d'Anjou.

" He confessed, with all possible courtesy, that he was your Highness' purveyor."

" Purveyor of game ? "

" No, purveyor of women."

" What do you mean ? " said the prince, his face becoming dark as midnight in a moment. " What does this jesting signify, Bussy ? "

" It means, monseigneur, that he kidnaps women for you on his big black steed, and that, as they are doubtless ignorant of the honor intended them, he claps his hand over their mouths to prevent them from screaming."

The prince frowned, wrung his hands convulsively in his rage, turned pale, and set his horse to so furious a gallop that Bussy and his comrades were soon left far behind.

" Aha ! it seems to me the joke told," said Antraguet.

"And all the better because everybody does not seem to regard it as a joke," continued Livarot.

" The devil! " exclaimed Bussy; " it looks as if I had touched our good prince on the raw."

A moment later M. d'Anjou was heard shouting:

" I say, Bussy ! Where are you ? Come here, I say."

" Here I am, monseigneur," answered Bussy, drawing nigh.

The prince was in a fit of laughter.

" Upon my word, monseigneur," said Bussy, " what I have been telling you must have been awfully droll."

" No, Bussy, I am not laughing at what you told me."

" So much the worse ; I should have been well pleased were that the case; it would be a great merit in me to make a prince laugh who laughs so seldom."

'• I laugh, my poor Bussy, because you have invented a false story to hnd out the true one."

" No, monseigneur; devil take me if I have not told you the truth."

" Well, then, now that we are by ourselves, tell me your little story. Where did all that happen ? "

" In the forest of Meridor, monseigneur."

This time the prince turned pale again, but he said nothing.

" Beyond a doubt/' thought Bussy, " he has had some connection or other with the ravisher on the black horse and the woman to whom the white nag must have belonged."

" Come, monseigneur," added Bussy, laughing in his turn, now that the prince laughed no longer, " if there is a way of pleasing you better than any we have adopted hitherto, tell us about it; we '11 have no scruple in choosing it, though we may have to enter into competition with M. de Monsoreau."

" Yes, by heavens, Bussy," said the Due d'Anjou, " there is one, and I '11 point it out to you ! "

The prince led Bussy aside.

" Listen,'' said he. " I met a charming woman lately at church. Although she was veiled, certain features in her face reminded me of a woman with whom I was once in love ; I followed her, found out where she lived, bribed her maid, and have a key of the house."

"Well, monseigneur, as far as I can see, everything is in your favor."

" But she is said to be a prude, although free, young, and beautiful."

" Oh ! that staggers belief. Is not your Highness romancing ?"

" Listen! You are brave and you love me, or, at least, say you do."

" I have my days."

" For being brave ? "

" No, for loving you."

" Good ! Is this one of your days ? "

" I will try to make it one, if I can thereby serve your Highness."

" Well, then, I want you to do for me what most people do only for themselves."

" Indeed ! " said Bussy; " perhaps your Highness wishes me to pay my court to your mistress in order to discover if she is as virtuous as she is beautiful? I have no objection."

" No, but to find out if some one else is not paying court to her."

" Ah} the thing is getting complicated ; let us have an explana--tion, monseigneur."

" I would have you watch and find out who is the man that visits her."

" There is a man, then ? "

" I 'in afraid so."

" A lover, or a husband ? "

" A jealous man, anyway."

" So much the better, monseigneur."

" Why so much the better ? "

" It doubles your chances."

" You are very kind ! In the meantime I should like to find out who the man is."

" And you would have me undertake the duty of informing you?"

" Yes, and if you consent to render me this service "

" You '11 make me the next chief huntsman when the post is vacant ? "

" I assure you, Bussy, I should be the more inclined to do so from the fact that I have never really done anything for you."

" Ah ! so monseigneur has discovered that at last! "

" I pledge you my word I have been saying it to myself ever so long."

" In a whisper, as princes are in the habit of saying this sort of things."

" And now ? "

" What, monseigneur ? " " Do you consent ? " " To spy on a lady ? " "Yes."

" Monseigneur, I do not, I confess, feel at all flattered by such a commission. I should prefer another."

" You offered to do me a service, Bussy, and you are drawing back already."

" Zounds, monseigneur, you are asking me to be a spy ! " " No! to be a friend. Besides, don't fancy I am offering you a sinecure; you may have to draw your sword." Bussy shook his head.

" Monseigneur," said he, " there are certain things a person only does well when he does them himself; this is a case where even a prince must act on his own account." " Then you refuse ? " "Most assuredly I do, monseigneur." The prince frowned.

" I will follow your counsel, then," said he. " I will go myself, and if I am killed or wounded, I shall say that I begged my friend Bussy to venture on receiving or returning a sword-thrust for my sake, and that, for the first time in his life, he was prudent."

" Monseigneur," answered Bussy, " you said yesterday evening : ' Bussy, I hate all those minions of the King's chamber, who never lose a chance of insulting and gibing at us; now I want you to go to Saint-Luc's wedding, pick a quarrel with them, and make short work of them, if you can.' Monseigneur, I went, and went alone ; there were five of them ; I challenged them; they lay in wait for me, attacked me in a body, killed my horse, yet I wounded two and knocked a third senseless. To-day you ask me to wrong a woman. Excuse me, monseigneur ; that is not one of the services an honorable man can render his prince, and I refuse."

" Just as you like," said the prince. " I will watch myself, or in company with Aurilly, as I have done before."

" I beg your pardon," said Bussy, through whose mind a light was breaking. « Why ? "

" May I ask you were you watching also the other day when you saw the minions lying in wait for me ? " " Undoiibtedly."

" Then the fair unknown lives near the Bastile ? " " Yes, opposite the Rue Sainte-Catherine." " You 're sure ? "

" Yes, and also that it is a cut-throat quarter, a fact of which you have had some experience yourself."

" And has your Highness been there since that evening ? "

" Yes, yesterday."

" And you saw ? "

" A man hiding in corners, doubtless to see if any one was spying on him. He afterward kept obstinately in front of the door, because he perceived me> I imagine."

" And was this man alone, monseigneur ? "

" Yes, for nearly half an hour."

" And then ? "

" Another man joined him, with a lantern."

"Ah, indeed !"

" After this, the man in the cloak " — continued the prince.

" So the first man had a cloak ? " interrupted Bussy.

" Yes. Then the man in the cloak and the man with the lantern talked together, and as they seemed inclined to remain there the whole night, I left them and returned."

" Disgusted with your second experiment ? "

" Faith, yes, I confess it — so that, before poking my head into a house that may be a den of murderers "

" You would not object to have one of your friends murdered there ? "

" Nay, not so — but rather that a friend who does not happen to be a prince and has not the same enemies I have, especially if he is accustomed to adventures of the kind, should take note of the sort of danger I am likely to run and inform me of it."

" In your place, monseigneur, I should give the woman up."

" No."

« Why ? "

" She'is too beautiful."

" You say yourself you have scarcely seen her."

" I saw enough to remark she had magnificent fair hair."

« Ah! "

" Two glorious eyes."

" Ah ! Ah ! "

" A complexion the like of which I have never seen; and her shape is a marvel."

"Ah! Ah! Ah!"

" You understand it is rather hard to give up such a woman."

" Yes, monseigneur, I understand ; and so your position gives me real pain."

" You are jesting."

" No, and the proof of it is that, if your Highness give me your instructions and point out the door to me, I will watch it."

" You have changed your mind, then ? "

" Egad ! monseigneur, the only person who is infallible is our Holy Father Gregory XIII.; only tell me what is to be done ? "'

" You must hide some distance from the door I '11 show you, and, if a man enter, follow him until you ascertain who he is."

" Yes, but what if he shut the door on me when he enters ? "

" I told you I had a key."

" Ah, true; the only thing to be feared is that I might follow the wrong man and the key belong to another door."

" No danger of a mistake ; this door leads into an alley ; at the end of the alley, on the left, is a staircase; you go up twelve steps, and then you're in the corridor."

" How can you know that, monseigneur, since you were never in the house ? "