Read La Dame de Monsoreau Online

Authors: 1802-1870 Alexandre Dumas

Tags: #France -- History Henry III, 1574-1589 Fiction

La Dame de Monsoreau (4 page)

BOOK: La Dame de Monsoreau
3.51Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

The space on the right between the gate and the Hotel de

Bretagne was wide, dark, and muddy; but this space was little frequented by day and entirely deserted by night, for nocturnal wayfarers seemed to have made for themselves a road quite close to the fortress, in order to place themselves, to some extent, under the protection of the sentry of the keep, at a time when the streets were dens of cut-throats, and watchmen were almost unknown. If the sentry could not come to their assistance, he would, at least, be able to call for help and frighten the malefactors off by his cries.

Of course, on winter nights, travellers were a good deal more timid than on summer ones.

The night during which the events we have already related, or are about to relate, took place, was so chilly and dark, the sky being hidden by black, low-lying clouds, that it was impossible to get a glimpse of the welcome presence of the sentinel behind the battlements of the royal fortress, who would himself have had great difficulty in making out the people who passed beneath him.

Within the city no house rose in front of the Porte Saint-Antoine. Only huge walls could be discerned: the walls of the Church of Saint-Paul, on the right, and those of the Hotel des Tournelles, on the left. At the end of this hotel, in the Eue Saint-Catherine, was the nook of which Saint-Luc had spoken to Bussy.

Then came the block of buildings, situated between the Rue de Jouy and the Rue Saint-Antoine, which, at this period, faced the Rue des Billettes and Sainte Catherine's Church.

Moreover, not a single lantern lit up the part of old Paris which we have just described. On those nights during which the moon took on herself the task of illuminating the earth, the gigantic Bastile arose in all her sombre and motionless majesty, standing out in vigorous relief against the starry vault of heaven. On the other hand, during dark nights, all that could be seen in the place which she occupied was a denser blackness, pierced at intervals by the pale lights of a few windows.

During this night, which had begun with a rather sharp frost, and was to end with a rather heavy snowfall, no sound echoed to the steps of a traveller on the kind of causeway which, as we have mentioned, had been made on the soil by the feet of timid and belated wayfarers, prudently taking a roundabout course for very good reasons.

But, on the other hand, a practised eye would have been able to distinguish in the angle of the wall of Les Tournelles several dark shadows that moved enough to show they belonged to poor devils with human bodies, tasked to their utmost to preserve the natural warmth which their immobility was every moment depriving them of, and yet they seemed to have voluntarily condemned themselves to this same immobility, apparently in expectation of something happening.

The sentry on the tower, who could not see anything in the square ,on account of the darkness, could not hear anything, either, on account of the low tones in which the conversation of these black shadows was conducted. And still the conversation did not lack a certain interest.

" That madman Bussy was right after all," said one of these shadows. " It is just such a night as we used to have at Warsaw, when King Henri was King of Poland; and if it continue, as was predicted, our skins will crack all over."

" Humbug ! Maugiron, you lament like a woman," replied another of the shadows. " It is n't warm, I confess; but draw your cloak over your eyes and stick your hands in your pockets and you won't feel a bit cold."

" Oh, you can speak at your ease, Schomberg," said a third shadow; " it's easy seeing you 're a German. As for myself, my lips are bleeding and my mustache is stiff with icicles."

" It's my hands that's the trouble. I '11 lay a bet with any one I no longer have a hand. Upon my soul, I will."

" Why did n't you bring mamma's muff along with you, my poor Quelus ? " replied Schomberg. " The dear woman would have lent it to you, especially if you had told her that you wanted it for the purpose of ridding her of her dear Bussy, whom she loves as the devil does holy-water."

" Ah, good heaven ! can't you have patience ? " said a fifth voice. "I am pretty sure you '11 soon be complaining that it's too hot you are."

" Heaven grant that your words turn out true, D'Epernon !" said Maugiron, stamping to get his feet warm.

"It wasn't I that spoke," said D'Epernon, "it was D'O. I 'm afraid to utter a word ; it might freeze."

" What were you saying ? " asked Quelus of Maugiron.

" D'O was saying we 'd be soon too warm, and I answered: ' God grant that your words turn out true! J J

" Well, I fancy God must have heard you, for I see something yonder coming along the Eue Saint-Paul."

•" You 're mistaken. Can't be he."

"And why?"

" Because he mentioned another route."

" Would it be so strange if he suspected something and changed it?"

" You don't know Bussy. Where he said he 'd go, he '11 go though the very devil lay in wait to bar his passage."

" Still," answered Quelus, "there are two men coming along."

" Faith, you ? re right," repeated two or three voices, recognizing the truth of the statement.

" In that case, let us charge," said Schomberg.

" A moment," said D'Epernon ; " we don't want to kill honest citizens or virtuous midwives. Stay ! they have stopped."

In fact, at the end of the Rue Saint-Antoine the two persons who had attracted the attention of our five companions had stopped, as if in uncertainty.

" Hah ! " said Quelus, " do you think they saw us ? "

" What nonsense you 're talking ! Whv we can hardly see ourselves."

" You 're right," answered Quelus. " Look ! they 're turning to the left — they 're stopping before a house — they 're searching."

" Faith, there 's no doubt about it."

" It looks as if they wanted to go in," said Schomberg. " Eh! hold on. Would he be trying to escape us ? "

" But it is n't he, since he is to go to the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, while yon fellows, after coming out of the Rue de Saint-Paul, went down the street," answered Maugiron.

" Indeed! " said Schomberg. " And how do you know that your artful friend has n't given you a false route, either casually and carelessly, or maliciously and intentionally ? "

" I don't deny it might be so," said Quelus.

This hypothesis made the whole band of gentlemen bound to their feet like a pack of famished hounds. They abandoned their retreat, and, sword in hand, rushed on the two men standing before the door.

One of them had introduced a key into the lock, the door had yielded and was about to open, when the noise made by their assailants compelled the two mysterious night-walkers to raise their heads.

" What does this mean ? " asked the smaller of the two, turning to his companion. " Do you think it likely, Aurilly, that we are the object of their attack ? "

" I am afraid, monseigneur," answered the person who had just turned the key in the door, " that it looks very much like it. Shall you give your name or keep to your incognito ? "

" Armed men ! An ambush ! "

" Some jealous lover on guard. Vrai Dieu ! monseigneur, I told you the lady was too beautiful not to be courted."

" In, quick, Aurilly ; we can stand a siege better inside than out-of-doors."

" Yes, monseigneur, when there are no enemies in the fortress. But who can tell "

He had no time to finish. The young gentlemen had cleared a space of about a hundred yards with lightning speed. Quelus and Maugiron, who had followed the wall, threw themselves between the door and those who wanted to enter, so as to cut off their retreat, while Schomberg, D'O, and D'Epernon made ready to attack them in front.

" Death ! Death ! " cried Quelus, always the most violent of the five.

Suddenly the person who had been called " monseigneur" and asked whether he would preserve his incognito turned to Quelus, advanced a step, and, folding his arms arrogantly :

" I think you said, ' Death! ' while addressing a son of France, M. de Quelus," said he, in sombre tones and with sinister eyes.

Quelus recoiled, trembling and thunderstruck, his knees bending under him, his eyes haggard.

" Monseigneur the Due d'Anjou ! " he exclaimed.

" Monseigneur the Due d'Anjou ! " repeated the others.

" Well, gentlemen," retorted Franqois, with a menacing air, " do you still cry : < Death ! Death ' ? "

" Monseigneur," stammered D'Epernon, " it was a jest; pardon us."

" Monseigneur," said D'O, in turn, " we could not suspect we should meet your Highness at the end of Paris and in such an out-of-the-way quarter as this."

" A jest," replied Franqois, not even deigning to^ answer D'O ; "you have a singular fashion of jesting, M. d'Epernon. Well, I am curious. Since I was not intended to be your target, at whom was your jest aimed ? "

" Mon seigneur," said Schomberg, respectfully, " we saw Saint-Luc quit the Hotel de Montmorency and proceed in this direction. That struck us as queer, so we wanted to find out why a husband left his wife on their first wedding-night."

The excuse was plausible, for, in all probability, the Due d'Anjou would learn the next day that Saint-Luc had not slept at the Hotel de Montmorency, and this piece of news would coincide with what Schomberg had just said.

« M. de Saint-Luc ? You took me for M. de Saint-Luc ? "

" Yes, inonseigneur," repeated the five companions, in chorus.

" And how long is it since you have been in the habit of mistaking M. de Saint-Luc for me ? He is a head taller than I."

" It is true, monseigneur," said Quelus ; " but he is exactly the height of M. d'Aurilly, who has the honor of attending you."

" And, besides, the night is very dark, monseigneur," said Maugiron.

" And, seeing a man put a key in a lock, we took him for the principal," murmured D'O.

" Finally," continued Quelus, " monseigneur cannot suppose we had the shadow of an evil intention in his regard, not even of interfering with his pleasures."

While speaking thus and apparently attending to the answers, more or less logical, which the fear and astonishment of the five companions permitted them to make, Franqois, by a skilful strategic manoeuvre, had left the threshold of the door, and, followed step by.step by Aurilly, his lute-player and ordinary companion during his nocturnal rambles, had already moved so far from the door that it could not be distinguished from the others on either side of it.

" My pleasures!" said he, sourly ; " and what makes you think I am taking my pleasure here ? "

" Ah, monseigneur, in any case, and no matter what you have come for, pardon us," answered Quelus. "and let us retire."

" Very well; good-by, gentlemen."

" Monseigneur," added D'Epernon, " our well-known discretion will be an assurance to your Highness that "

The Due d'Anjou, who was about to withdraw, stopped, and, frowning,

" Your discretion, M. de Nogaret ? and who, pray, asks you for your discretion ? "

" Monseigneur, we believed that your Highness, alone at this hour and followed by your confidant" —

" You are mistaken. This is what must be believed and what 1 wish to be believed."

The five gentlemen listened in the deepest and most respectful silence.

" I was going," he resumed, in a slow voice and as if he desired to engrave every one of his words on the memory of his hearers, " I was going to consult the Jew Manasses, who knows how to read the future in a glass and in coffee-grounds. He lives, as you are aware, in the Rue de la Tournelle. On the way, Aurilly perceived you and took you for some archers of the watch making their rounds. And so," he added, with a sort of gayety that was appalling to those who knew the prince's character, " like the genuine consulters of sorcerers that we are, we glided along the walls and slipped into doorways to hide ourselves, if it were possible, from your terrible eyes."

While thus speaking the prince had gradually reached the Rue Saint-Paul and had come to a spot from which he could be heard by the sentries of the Bastile in case of an attack, for knowing his brother's secret and inveterate hatred against him, he was not at all reassured by the respectful apologies of Henri III.'s minions.

" And now that you know what you must believe, and particularly what you must say, adieu, gentlemen. It is needless to warn you that I do not wish to be followed."

All bowed and took their leave of the prince, who turned round several times to follow them with his eye, while taking some steps in the opposite direction.

" Monseigneur," said Aurilly, " I would swear that the people we have just encountered had bad intentions. It is now midnight ; we are, as they said, in an out-of-the-way quarter; let us get back immediately to the hotel, monseignenr ; do let us return !"

"No," said the prince, stopping; "let us profit by their departure, on the contrary."

" Your Royal Highness is mistaken," said Aurilly; " they have not departed at all ; they have simply come together again, as your Highness can see for yourself, in the retreat

where they were hidden. Do you not see them, monseigneur, in that nook yonder, in the angle of the Hotel des'Tournelles ? "

Francois looked. Aurilly told only the exact truth. The five gentlemen had, in fact, resumed their position, and it was clear they were discussing a plan interrupted by the prince's arrival; perhaps they had even posted themselves in this position to spy on the prince and his companion and find out if they were really going to the Jew Manasses.

" Well, now, monseigneur," asked Aurilly, " what do you intend doing ? I will do whatever your Highness orders ; but I do not consider it prudent to remain."

" God's death ! " said the prince, " yet it is annoying to have to give up the game."

BOOK: La Dame de Monsoreau
3.51Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Brooks Atkinson, Mary Oliver
Madison's Life Lessons by Gracen Miller
A Tailor-Made Bride by Karen Witemeyer
Taking Faith by Shelby Fallon
Chasing Silver by Jamie Craig
Totlandia: Winter by Josie Brown
What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang