La Dame de Monsoreau (46 page)

" I have the whole story," said he. " And first, do you know where we are ? "

" Oh, morbleu ! we 're on the road to Lyons," said Chicot; "that's the only thing I care to know."

" Indeed ! well, you may care to know something more; at least, I should gather from what you have been telling me that you wanted to know what has become of the mules' owners."

"Yes, go on."

" The one who seems to be a gentleman "

" Good !"

" The one who seems to be a gentleman has taken the road by Chateau-Chinon and Privas, a short cut to Avignon, apparently."

" Alone ? "

" Alone ? how ? "

" I ask you has he taken this road alone ? "

" With a lackey."

" And the other lackey ? "

" Continued on the road to Lyons."

" Who 'd have thought it! And why is the gentleman going to Avignon ? I fancied he was going to Rome. But," continued Chicot, as if speaking to himself, " I am asking you about matters of which you can know nothing."

" Keally, now ? " answered Gorenflot; " and suppose I do know something of them ? Ah ! that astonishes you, does it?"

" What do you know ? "

" He is going to Avignon because our Holy Father Pope Gregory XIII. has sent a legate plenipotentiary to Avignon."

" Good," said Chicot, " I understand — and the mules ? "

" The mules were tired out; they sold them to a horse-dealer, who wants to sell them again to the Franciscans."

" For how much ? "

" Fifteen pistoles apiece."

" Then how were they able to continue their journey ? "

" On horses which they purchased."

" From whom ? "

" A captain of reiters stationed here to buy fresh horses."

" Ventre de biche, comrade," cried Chicot, " you 're a wonder, and I never appreciated you until to-day! "

Gorenflot strutted like a peacock^

"Now," said Chicot, " finish what you have so well begun."

" What am I to do ? "

Chicot jumped off and flung the bridle on the arm of the monk.

" Take the two mules and offer them to the Franciscans for twenty pistoles; they will give you the preference, surely."

" If they don't," said Gorenflot, " I '11 denounce them to their superior."

" Bravo, comrade, you are getting on."

" But," inquired Gorenflot, " how are we to continue our journey ? "

" On horseback, morbleu, on horseback! "

" You don't say so ! " cried the monk, scratching his ear.

" You afraid ? a cavalier like you ? nonsense ! " said Chicot.

" Bah! " answered Gorenflot, " I '11 risk it! But where shall I find you again ? "

".On the Place de la Ville."

" Then go there and wait for me."

And the monk advanced resolutely toward the Franciscans, while Chicot made his way to the chief square of the little town, by a cross-street.

There he found the captain of reiters at the inn known as the Coq-Hardi; he was quaffing a rather nice little wine of Auxerre, which second-class amateurs often mistake for Burgundy ; the Gascon got further information from him which confirmed that which he had received from Gorenflot in every particular.

In a moment he bargained for two horses which figured on the honest reiter's report book as having died on the route ; thanks to this accident, he had to pay only thirty-five pistoles for them.

They were discussing the price of the saddles and bridles when Chicot saw the monk coming through a little side street with two saddles on his head and two bridles in his hands.

" Oho ! what does this mean, comrade ? " said he.

" Why," answered Gorenflot, " these are the saddles and bridles of our mules."

" So you kept a grip on them, you rogue ? " said Chicot, with his broad smile.

" Indeed I did," answered the monk.

" And you sold the mules ? "

" For ten pistoles apiece."

" Which they paid ? "

"Here's the money."

And Gorenflot slapped his pockets, full of all sorts of coins.

" Venire de biche ! " cried Chicot, " you are a great man, comrade."

" I am what I am," answered Gorenflot, with modest pride.

" And now to work," said Chicot.

" Ah ! but I 'm so thirsty ! " said the monk.

"Well, drink while I am saddling the horses, but not too much."

"Just one bottle."

" Oh, I don't mind a bottle."

Gorenflot drank two, and returned to restore the remainder of the money to Chicot.

Chicot for a moment entertained the notion of letting the monk keep the twenty pistoles, diminished by the price of the two bottles; but he reflected that on the day Gorenflot came into possession of even two crowns he would lose all control over him.

He took the money, then, without the monk even noticing he had hesitated, and got on horseback.

The monk did the same, with the assistance of the captain of reiters, a man who feared God, and who, in exchange for his services in holding Gorenflot's foot while the latter mounted, received the monk's benediction.

" Could n't be better," said Chicot, as he set his horse to a gallop ; " that blade got a blessing for which he should bless his stars."

Gorenflot, seeing his supper running before him, kept up with Chicot ; moreover, his equestrian progress was rapid: instead of clutching the mane with one hand and the tail with the other, he now grasped the pommel of the saddle with both hands, and with that single support, went as fast as Chicot could well desire.

In the end he showed more activity than Chicot himself, for whenever his patron changed the gait and moderated the pace of his horse, the monk, who preferred galloping to trotting, kept up the same rattling pace, shouting hurrahs at his steed.

Such noble efforts deserved a reward: the next evening, a little this side of Chalons, Chicot came up with Maitre Nicolas David, still disguised as a lackey, and did not lose sight of him until both reached Lyons, through whose gates the entire three passed on the evening of the eighth day after their departure from Paris.

This occurred at the very moment almost when Bussy, Saint-Luc, and his wife arrived, as we have already said, from an opposite direction, at the Castle of Metidor.

CHAPTER XXX.

HOW CHICOT AND HIS COMPANION BECAME GUESTS AT THE CYGNE DE LA CROIX, AND HOW THEIR HOST RECEIVED THEM.

MA^TRE NICOLAS DAVID, still disguised as a lackey, made his way to the Place des Terreaux and selected the principal hostelry in the square, which was known as the Cygne de la Croix.

Chicot saw him enter and watched until he was sure he was received in the hostelry and would not leave it.

" Have you any objection to the Cygne de la Croix ? " said the Gascon to his travelling companion.

"Not the slightest," was the answer.

" You will go in, then, and bargain for a private and retired room ; you will say you are expecting your brother ; then you will wait for me at the door; meanwhile, I shall take a walk and return at nightfall ; when I do, I expect to find you at your post, and, as you have been acting as sentry and must know the plan of the house, you will conduct me to my chamber without exposing me to the danger of meeting people I don't wish to see. Do you understand ? "

" Perfectly," answered Gorenflot. ." The chamber you select must be spacious, cheerful, easy

of access, and, if possible, next to that of the traveller who has just arrived. Try also to get one with windows looking on the street, so that I may see every one who enters or goes out; do not mention my name on any account, and you can promise mountains of gold to the cook.' 7

Goreiiflot fulfilled his commission to perfection. After the apartment was chosen, night came on, and, after night came on, Gorenflot took his companion by the hand and led him to the room in question. The monk, who, foolish as nature had made him, had some of the churchman's craft, called Chicot's attention to the fact that their room, although situated on another landing, was next to that occupied by Nicolas David, and was separated from it only by a partition, partly of wood and partly of lime, which could be easily bored through by any one who wished.

Chicot listened to-the monk with the greatest attention, and any one who had heard the speaker and seen his hearer would have been able to see how the face of the latter brightened at the words of the former.

Then, when Gorenflot had finished :

"What you have just told me deserves a reward," said Chicot; " you shall have sherry for supper to-night, Gorenflot. Yes, morbleu ! you shall, or I am not your comrade."

" I never got tipsy on that wine," said Gorenflot, " it ought to be pleasant."

" Venire de biche ! " answered Chicot, " you '11 know it in two hours, you may take my word for it."

Chicot sent for the host. .

It may be thought strange, perhaps, that the teller of this story should introduce so many of his characters into so many hostelries: to this he can only reply that it is not his fault if his characters, some in obedience to the wishes of their mistresses, others to avoid the anger of the King, have to travel north or south, as the case may be. Now, placed as the author is between antiquity, when people, owing to the existence of a spirit of fraternal hospitality, could do without inns, and modern life, in which the inn has been transformed into an ordinary, he is forced to stop in hostelries, since all the important scenes in his book have to take place therein. Moreover, the caravansaries of the Occident had at this period a triple form which offers considerable interest and which almost no longer exists. This triple form was the inn, the hostelry, and

the tavern. Note that we do not speak here of those agreeable bathing-houses which have no counterpart at the present day, and which, being legacies bequeathed by the Rome of the emperors to the Paris of our kings, borrowed from antiquity the manifold pleasures of its profane license.

But these latter establishments were still enclosed within the walls of the capital; under the reign of King Henri III. the province had still only its hostelry, its inn, and its tavern.

Well, then, we are in a hostelry, a fact of which the host was proudly conscious, as was proved by his reply to Chicot's request for his presence that his guest must have patience, since he was talking with a traveller who, having arrived before him, had a right to prior service.

Chicot guessed that this traveller was his lawyer.

" What can they be talking about ? " asked Chicot.

" You think, then, that our host and your friend are in collusion ? "

" Zounds, man, you see it yourself ! since the fellow with the malapert face which we got a glimpse of and which, I hope, no doubt belongs to "

" Our host/ 7 said the monk.

" Is holding a conference with another fellow dressed as a lackey."

" But," said Gorenflot, " he has changed his clothes — I noticed that — he is now entirely dressed in black."

" That settles it! the host is engaged in some plot or other, there 's not a doubt of it."

" Shall I try to confess his wife ? " asked Gorenflot.

" No," said Chicot, " you had better go and take a stroll through the city."

" But my supper ? "

" I '11 see it is got ready during your absence. Stay, here's a crown to enable you to get into proper trim for it."

Gorenflot accepted the crown gratefully.

During his travels, the monk had more than once taken a solitary ramble in the evening, a sort of half nocturnal promenade of which he was passionately fond; even in Paris he used to venture on a tramp of this sort, his office of brother collector giving him a certain amount of freedom. But these rambles were dearer than ever to him since he left the convent. Gorenflot's love of freedom now breathed through every pore, and he only remembered his former abode as a prison.

So, with his robe tucked up and his crown in his pocket, he set out on his explorations.

No sooner was he outside the room than Chicot took a gimlet immediately, and bored a hole through the partition, on a level with his eye.

This hole, not as large as that in a pea-shooter, did not allow him, on account of the thickness of the boards, to get a distinct view of the different parts of the room; but, by gluing his ear to it, he could hear the voices easily enough.

However, thanks to his host's position in the apartment, Chicot could see him plainly as he talked with Nicolas David.

Some words escaped him, but those he did catch proved that David was making a great display of his fidelity to the King, speaking even of a mission confided to him by M. de Mor-villiers.

While he was discoursing, the host listened respectfully, but with this respect was mingled a good deal of indifference, to say the very least of it. His answers were few and short, and Chicot noticed the irony in his eyes and in his tones every time he pronounced the King's name.

" Aha!" said Chicot to himself, " would our host be a Leaguer, perad venture ? Mordieu ! I '11 make sure of that."

And as the conversation in Maitre Nicolas' room did not promise anything further of importance, Chicot resolved to wait patiently for his host's visit to himself.

At last the door opened.

The host entered, hat in hand, but with the same jeering expression that had struck Chicot when he saw him talking with the lawyer.

" Be seated, my dear monsieur," said Chicot, " and before we come to any definite arrangement, be pleased to hear my story."

The host seemed anything but pleased with this exordium, and even made a sign with his head that he preferred standing.

" I wish you to feel entirely at your ease, my dear monsieur," resumed Chicot.

The host made a sign that intimated he was in the habit of taking his ease without the permission of anybody.