La Dame de Monsoreau (39 page)

" Who knows ? Justify himself, perhaps."

" And though he could justify himself, monsieur, I should not go to Paris. No, no, it would be going too far from the spot where my child rests in her cold and watery grave."

" M. le Baron," said Bussy, firmly, " you must allow me to insist; it is my duty to conduct you to Paris, and I have come here expressly for that purpose."

" Well, then, I will go to Paris," cried the old man, trembling with anger; " but woe to those who have ruined me ! The King shall hear me, or, if he refuses, I will appeal to all the gentlemen in France. And, by the way," he murmured in a lower tone, " I was forgetting in my sorrow that I have a weapon in my hand I have never had occasion to use until now. Yes, M. de Bussy, I will accompany you."

" And I, M. le Baron," said Bussy, taking his hand, " recommend to you the patience, calmness, and dignity that beseem a Christian nobleman. God is infinitely merciful to righteous hearts, and you know not what he has in store for you. I beg you also, while waiting for the day when his mercy shall be showered on you, not to reckon me among your enemies, for you know not what I am about to do for you. Till to-morrow, then, baron ; and early in the morning we will start on our journey."

" I consent," replied the old nobleman, moved, in spite of himself, by the soft tones in which Bussy spoke; " but, meanwhile, friend or enemy, you are my guest, and I will escort you to your apartments."

And the baron seized a three-branched silver candlestick, and, with a heavy step, preceded Bussy d'Amboise up the principal staircase of the castle.

The dogs wished to follow ; he stopped them with a gesture. Two servants followed Bussy with other candlesticks.

On arriving at the threshold of the room assigned him, the count asked what had become of M. de Saint-Luc and his wife.

"My old Germain has taken care of them," answered the baron. "I trust you will pass a pleasant night, M. le Comte."

CHAPTER XXIV.

HOW REMY LE HAUDOUIN LEARNED WHAT WAS GOING ON IN THE HOUSE IN THE RUE SAINT-ANTOINE DURING BUSSY*S ABSENCE.

MONSIEUR AND MADAME DE SAINT-LUC were astounded. Bussy in the confidence of M. de Meridor ! Bussy leaving for Paris with the old man ! Bussy, in fine, suddenly assuming the direction of those affairs that were at first utterly foreign and strange to him! All this was to these young people an inexplicable phenomenon.

In the case of the baron, the magic power of that title: " Royal Highness," had wrought its ordinary effect; a gentleman of the time of Henry III. could hardly be expected to smile at scutcheons and differences of station.

" Royal Highness " meant for M. de Meridor, as it did, indeed, for every one except the King, something to be reverenced and even feared.

On the appointed morning, the baron took leave of his guests, bidding them to consider the castle theirs. But Saint-Luc and his wife were quite alive to the gravity of the situation and were determined to depart from Meridor whenever they conveniently could. As soon as the timid Marechal de Brissac consented, they would settle down on che Brissac estate, which was but a short distance from Meridor.

As for Bussy, he could have justified his singular conduct in a second; Bussy, master of a secret he could reveal to whomsoever he pleased, resembled one of those Oriental sorcerers, who, with the first wave of their wand draw tears from every eye, and, with the second, convulse their audience with laughter.

The second which, as we have said, would have been all Bussy required to work such wondrous transformations was

utilized by him for the dropping of a few words into the ear which the charming wife of Saint-Luc held greedily to his lips.

These few words uttered, Jeanne's countenance brightened up marvellously; a lovely tint colored her cheeks and brow, and the coral of her lips opened to disclose her little white teeth, which glistened like pearls; her bewildered spouse looked at her inquiringly, but she laid a finger on her mouth and fled, blowing a kiss of gratitude to Bussy on the way.

The old man had seen nothing of this expressive pantomime. With his eyes riveted on his ancestral manor, he caressed in an absent-minded way his two dogs, who could hardly be got to leave him. He gave some directions to his servants, who, with bent heads, awaited his orders and his farewells. Then, mounting with his groom's assistance, and with great difficulty, and old piebald horse of which he was very fond, for it had been his warhorse in the late civil wars, he saluted the castle of Meridor with a gesture, and started without a word.

Bussy, with sparkling eyes, replied to the smiles of Jeanne, and frequently turned round to bid good-by to his friends. As he was quitting the castle, Jeanne had said to him in a whisper:

" What a singular man you are. Seigneur Count! I promised you that you should find happiness in Meridor. And it is you, on the contrary, who are bringing back to Meridor the happiness that had fled from it."

It is a long road from Meridor to Paris, long, especially, to an old man riddled with musket-balls and slashed with sword-cuts in rough conflicts from which no warrior emerged un-wounded. It was a long road also to that dignified piebald who answered to the name of Garnac and proudly raised his head when called by it, with a haughty flash still in his weary eyes.

Once started, Bussy set about capturing the heart of this old man, who had at first hated him, and his filial care and attentions had doubtless some success, for on the morning of the sixth day, just as they were entering Paris, M. de Meridor said to his travelling companion these words, words significant of the change the journey had wrought in his mind :

" It is singular, count; I am nearer than ever to the source of my misfortunes, and yet I feel less anxiety at the end than I did at the beginning of my journey."

" In two hours more, M. le Baron," said Bussy, " you shall have judged me as I would be judged by you."

The travellers entered Paris by the Faubourg Saint-An toine, as did almost every one at the time, because this horrible quarter, the ugliest in the city, seemed the most Parisian of all, on account of its numerous churches, its thousand picturesque houses and its little bridges built over sewers.

" Where are we going ? " asked the baron ; " to the Louvre, I suppose."

" Monsieur," said Bussy, " I must ask you to come first to my hotel. After you have had some refreshment and repose you will be in a better condition to meet in a becoming manner the person I am leading you to."

The baron was patient and submissive, and Bussy brought him to the hotel in the Rue de Grenelle Saint-Honore.

The count's people were not expecting him, or rather, no longer expected him : returning in the night through a little door of which he alone had the key, he had saddled his horse himself and left without seeing any one, except Remy le Haudouin. It can be easily understood, therefore, that his sudden disappearance, the dangers he had encountered during the preceding week, sufficiently evidenced by his wound, and his adventurous disposition, which was incorrigible, had all led many to believe that he had fallen into some trap laid by his enemies, that fortune, so long on his side, had deserted him, and that Bussy had died in silence and loneliness, shot by an arquebuse or pierced by a dagger.

So dubious were his best friends and most faithful servants of his situation that some of them were offering up novenas for his return to the light of day, a return that seemed to them more hazardous than that of Pyrithoiis ; while others, more certain of his fate, and expecting to discover only his dead body, were making the most minute investigations in sewers and suspicious-looking cellars, in the quarries outside the city, in the bed of the Bievre and the ditches of the Bastile.

When inquiries were made at his hotel, a certain person was always ready with this answer:

" M. le Comte is well."

But if the questions were pushed further, this person replied that he had told all he knew, and the questioner had to be content.

Now this person, who had to submit to many insults and

ironical compliments, because of the brevity of his cheerful assurance, was no other than Maitre Remy le Haudouin, who was in and out of the hotel several times a day and several times a night as well, always returning in high spirits and communicating a little of his own gayety to the gloomy mansion.

Le Haudouin, after one of his disappearances, returned to the hotel just at the moment when shouts of joy were resounding from the court of honor, where the lackeys were throwing themselves on Bussy's horse, ready to fight for the privilege of being his groom, for the count, instead of alighting, remained on horseback.

" Oh, I am aware you are glad to see me alive," said Bussy; " thanks. But you are not quite sure it is really I ; well, see, touch, but do so quickly. Good; now help that gentleman from his horse, and be careful about it, for I wish you to know I reverence him more than a prince."

Bussy sounded the praises of the old man just in the nick of time ; the servants at first paid hardly any attention to him ; his modest garb, quite out of the fashion, and his piebald horse could hardly be expected to be looked on with respect by people who put the horses of the magnificent Bussy every day through their paces, and so they were tempted to regard the baron as some retired provincial squire their adventurous lord had brought out of exile as out of another world.

But no sooner had Bussy spoken than all were in a hurry to wait upon the old man. Le Haudouin looked on, laughing in his sleeve according to his custom, and only the gravity of his master could reduce the gay young doctor to a becoming seriousness.

" Quick, a room for monseigneur," said Bussy.

" Which one ? " asked half a dozen voices together.

" The best — my own."

And he offered his arm to the baron as the latter was ascending the staircase, doing his best to show him even more honor than had been shown himself.

M. 4e Meridor found it impossible to resist this winning courtesy, just as we find it impossible to keep from gliding down the slope of certain dreams which conduct us to those fantastic countries, the realms of imagination and night.

The count's golden goblet was set before the baron, and Bussy was about to crown it with the wine of hospitality.

" Thanks, thanks, monsieur," said the old man ; " but are we going soon to the appointed interview ? "

" Yes, soon ; do not be uneasy, M. de Meridor, this meeting will bring happiness not only to you but to me."

" What are you saying, and how is it you are always speaking a language I do not understand ? "

" I say, monseigneur, that I have spoken to you of a Providence that is merciful to noble hearts, and that the moment is drawing nigh when I shall, in your name, appeal to that Providence."

The baron looked at Bussy in bewilderment; but, with a respectful gesture that meant: I return in a moment, Bussy smilingly bowed himself out.

As he expected, Remy was at the door ; he took 'the young man's arm and led him into a study.

" Well, my dear Hippocrates," he inquired, " how do matters stand at present ? "

" Matters where ? "

" Parbleu ! in the Rue Saint-Antoine."

" Monseigneur, we are at a point that, I presume, must have an interest for you ; but otherwise there is nothing new."

Bussy breathed.

" Then the husband has n't returned ? " said he.

" Oil, yes, he has, but met with no success. There is a father in the business, and his appearance, it seems, is expected to clinch the matter; he is the god who is to descend some fine morning in a machine, and this unknown god, in the person of an absent father, is looked forward to impatiently.''

t( Good," said Bussy ; " but how do you know all that ? "

" Well, monseigneur," answered Remy, in his usual frank, lively fashion, " you see your absence turned my position into a sinecure for the time ; I wanted to improve the moments left me for your advantage."

" Tell me what you have done, then, my dear Remy ; I am listening."

" With pleasure. After you left, I got some money, books, and a sword together, and brought them to a little room I had hired in a house at the corner of the Rue Saint-Antoine and the Rue Saint-Catherine."

« Good! "

" From there I had a full view of the house you know of — could see everything from the ventilators to the chimneys."

" Very good, indeed !"

" As soon as I was in my room, I took my post at the window."

« Splendid !"

" Yes ; but the splendidness was marred by a little difficulty.

" I saw that I was seen ; and, on the whole, it was quite natural it should look a little suspicious for a man to be always gazing on the same prospect; such persistence would result in his being taken, at the end of two or three days, for a thief, a lover, a spy, or a madman "

" Admirably reasoned, my dear Kerny; and what did you do then ? "

" Oh, then, M. le Comte, I perceived the time had come for desperate remedies, and, faith " —

"What?"

" I fell in love !"

" You fell in love ? " inquired Bussy, puzzled to know how his falling in love could help him.

" Fell in love," repeated the young doctor, " as I have the honor of telling you ; oh ! deeply in love, madly in love."

" With whom ? "

" With Gertrude."

" Gertrude, Madame de Monsoreau's maid ? "

" Well, yes, no doubt about it,— with Madame de Monsoreau's maid. I am not a gentleman, monseigneur; you don't expect me to fall in love with the mistresses, do you ? I am but a poor little doctor with a single patient, and I hope that patient will need my services only at exceedingly long intervals ; so, whatever experiments I make must be made in anima vili, as we used to say at the Sorbonne."