La Dame de Monsoreau (55 page)

" Oh ! only some ? " interrupted Chicot. " Why, you are quite modest, M. de Morvilliers !"

" They were," continued the chancellor, " people of no im-

portance : shopkeepers, mechanics, or junior law-clerks — with here and there a few monks and students."

" Certainly such fellows as those are not very great princes," said Chicot, with the greatest unconcern, setting to work on a new vessel.

The Due d'Anjou tried to force a smile.

" You will see, sire," said the chancellor. " I know that malcontents always find their opportunities in war or religion."

" A very judicious remark," observed the King. " Continue."

The chancellor, delighted at the royal approbation, went on :

" In the army I had officers devoted to your Majesty who informed me of everything; in religion the affair was more difficult; so with regard to the latter I set some of my men on the watch."

" Very judicious, indeed ! " said Chicot.

" In short," continued Morvilliers, " through my agents I persuaded a man connected with the provostship of Paris "

" To do what ? " inquired the King.

" To keep the preachers who excite the people against your Majesty under his eyes."

" Oho ! " thought Chicot, " I wonder is my friend known ? "

" These people received their inspiration, sire, not from God, but from a party hostile to your Majesty, and this party I have studied."

" Very good," said the King.

" Very judicious," said Chicot.

" And I know their purposes," added Morvilliers, triumphantly.

" Splendid ! " cried Chicot.

The King made a sign to the Gascon to be silent.

The Due d'Anjou never took his eyes off the speaker.

" For more than two months," said the chancellor, " I have had in my pay men of much skill, of tried courage, and also, it must be said, insatiable cupidity ; but I have been careful to turn that to the profit of the King, since, though I pay them magnificently, a great deal more is gained than lost. I have just learned that for a good round sum of money I shall be able to learn the chief rendezvous of the conspirators."

" That will be really nice," said Chicot; " pay it, my King, pay it!"

" Oh, there will be no difficulty about the payment," cried

Henri; " but, to come to the main point, chancellor, what is the object of the plot, and what do the conspirators hope for ? "

" Sire, they are thinking of nothing less than of a second Saint-Barthelemy."

" Against whom ? "

" Against the Huguenots."

All the members of the council looked at one another in amazement.

" And about how much did that cost you ? " asked Chicot.

", Seventy-five thousand livres in one direction, and a hundred thousand in the other."

Chicot turned to the King.

" If you like," said he, " I '11 tell you M. de Morvilliers' secret for a thousand crowns."

The chancellor made a gesture of surprise ; the Due d'Anjou bore up better than might have been expected.

" Tell it to me," answered the King.

" It is simply the League which was begun ten years ago," said Chicot. " M. de Morvilliers has discovered what every Parisian knows as well as the Lord's Prayer "

" Monsieur," interrupted the chancellor.

" I am saying the truth — and will prove it," cried Chicot, in a very lawyer-like tone.

" Tell me, then, the place where the Leaguers meet."

" With great pleasure : firstly, the public squares ; secondly, the public squares ; thirdly, the public squares."

" M. Chicot likes to make a joke," said the chancellor, with a grimace ; " and now will he tell us their rallying sign ? "

" They dress like Parisians, and stir their legs when they walk," answered Chicot, gravely.

A burst of laughter received this explanation, in which M. de Morvilliers believed it would be in good taste to join, so he laughed with the others. But he soon became serious and solemn again.

" There is one meeting, however," said he, " which a spy of mine witnessed, and it was held in a place of which M. Chicot is ignorant."

The Due d'Anjou turned pale.

" Where ? " said the King.

" In the Abbey of Sainte Genevieve."

Chicot dropped a paper hen which he was about putting aboard the flagship.

" The Abbey of Sainte Genevieve ! " exclaimed the King.

" It is impossible," murmured the duke.

" It is true," said Morvilliers, well satisfied at the effect produced, and looking triumphantly round the assembly.

" And what did they do, M. le Chancelier ? What decision did they come to ? " asked the King.

" That the Leaguers should choose their leaders, that every one enrolled should arm, that every province should receive an envoy from the rebellious capital, and that all the Huguenots, so dear to his Majesty, — these were their expressions," -

The King smiled.

" — should be massacred on a given day."

" Is that all ? " inquired Henri.

" Odsfish ! " said Ohicot, " it's easy seeing you are a Catholic, Henri."

" Is that really all ? " said the duke.

" Hang it! it can't be all," cried Chicot. « If that 's all we 're to have for our one hundred and seventy-five thousand livres, the King is robbed."

" Speak, chancellor," said the King.

" There are leaders "

Chicot could see how fast the duke's heart must be beating from the rising and sinking of the part of his doublet over it.

". Ah, indeed ! " said the Gascon, " a conspiracy with leaders ! How wonderful! Still I can't help thinking we ought to have something more than that for our one hundred and seventy-five thousand livres."

" But their names ?" asked the King. " How are these leaders called ? "

" First, a preacher, a fanatic, a madman, whose name I got for ten thousand livres."

" And you did well."

" Brother Gorenflot, a monk of Sainte Genevieve."

" Poor devil! " murmured Chicot, with genuine pity. " It was fated that this adventure should not turn out well for him ! "

" Gorenflot! " said the King, writing down the name. " And who is the next ? "

"Next" — said the chancellor, hesitatingly ; "yes, sire — that is all." And Morvilliers cast an inquisitorial and enigmatical look over the assembly, as much as to say :

" If your Majesty and I were alone, you would hear a good deal more."

" Speak," said the King ; " there are none but friends here, speak."

" Oh, sire, he whom I hesitate to name has also powerful friends."

" Are they close to me ? "

" They are everywhere, sire."

" Are they more powerful than I ? " cried Henri, pale with rage and anxiety.

" Sire, a secret is not spoken aloud in public. Excuse me, but I am a statesman."

" You are right."

" And very judicious ! " said Chicot; " but, for that matter, we are all statesmen."

" Monsieur," said the Due d'Anjou, " we beg to present our most humble respects to the King and withdraw, if your communication cannot be made in our presence."

M. Morvilliers hesitated. Chicot watched his slightest gesture, fearing that, artless as the chancellor seemed, he had succeeded in discovering something less commonplace than the matters mentioned in his first revelations.

The King made a sign to the chancellor to come close to him, to the Due d'Anjou to remain in his place, to Chicot to keep still, and to the others to try to avoid hearing the chancellor's report,

M. de Morvilliers bent over the King to whisper in his ear, but had succeeded in making only half the movement required by the rules of etiquette in such cases, when a great clamor was heard in the court-yard of the Louvre. The King sprang to his feet, Quelus and D'Epernon hurried to the window, and the Due d'Anjou grasped the hilt of his sword, as if these threatening shouts were directed against him.

Chicot, rising up to his full length, was able to see into the yard, and called out:

" Why, it is M. de Guise entering the Louvre !"

The King gave a start.

" It is true," said the gentlemen.

" The Due de Guise ! " stammered M. d'Anjou.

" This is very odd, is it not, very odd that M. de Guise should be in Paris ? " slowly observed the King, who had just read in the almost stupefied eyes of Morvilliers the name the latter desired to whisper in his ear.

" Had the communication you were about to make to me anything to do with my cousin Guise ? " he asked the chancellor in a low tone.

" Yes, sire," said the magistrate, in the same tone. " It was he who presided at the meeting."

" And the others ? "

" I do not know the others."

Henri consulted Chicot by a glance.

" Venire de bicke ! " cried the Gascon, taking a regal attitude, " show my cousin of Guise in ! "

And, leaning toward Henri, he whispered:

" You need not write his name on your tablets ; there is no danger of your forgetting it."

The ushers noisily opened the doors.

" Only a single folding-door, gentlemen," said Henri; " only one ! The two are for the King."

The Due de Guise was near enough to hear these words ; but they made no change in the smile with which he had determined to greet the King.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

WHAT M. DE GUISE CAME TO DO IN THE LOUVRE.

BEHIND M. de Guise entered a great number of officers, courtiers, and gentlemen, and behind this brilliant escort was the people, an escort not so brilliant, but more reliable, and, certainly, more formidable.

But the gentlemen entered the palace and the people stayed at the gates.

It was from the ranks of the people that the cries arose a second time, when the duke was lost to their gaze on going into the gallery.

At sight of the kind of army that followed the Parisian hero every time he appeared in the streets, the guards had seized their arms, and, drawn up behind their brave colonel, hurled at the people menacing looks, at the people's triumphant leader a mute defiance.

Guise had noticed the attitude of the soldiers commanded by Crillon ; he made a gracious little salutation to their com-

mander ; but, sword in hand and standing four paces in front of his men, the colonel never abandoned his stiff, impassive attitude of disdainful inattention.

This revolt of a single man and a single regiment against his power, now so generally established, affected the duke strongly. His brow became for a moment clouded, but cleared as he drew near the King, so that, as we have seen, he entered Henri's cabinet with a smile on his lips.

" Ah! it is you, cousin," said the King. " What an uproar you bring in your train ! Was there not a flourish of trumpets ? I thought I heard them."

" Sire," answered the duke, " the trumpets sound in Paris only for the King, in campaigns only for the general, and I am too familiar with both courts and camps to make any mistake with reference to this matter. Here the trumpets would make too much noise for a subject; on the field of battle they would not make enough for a prince."

Henri bit his lips.

" Par la mordieu ! " said he, after a silence, during which he eyed the Lorraine hero intently, " you are very splendidly garbed, cousin. Was it only to-day you arrived from the siege of La Charite ? "

" Only to-day, sire," answered the duke, with a slight blush.

" By my faith, your visit does us much honor, cousin ; much honor, much honor, indeed ! "

Henri III. repeated his words when he had too many ideas to conceal, just as the ranks of soldiers are thickened before a battery not to be unmasked until a fixed moment.

" Much honor," repeated Chicot, in a tone that would lead any one to believe that these last two words had also been spoken by the King.

" Sire," said the duke, u your Majesty is no doubt jesting. How can my visit be an honor to him who is the source of all honor ? "

" I mean, M. de Guise," replied Henri, " that every good Catholic, on returning from a campaign, is accustomed to visit God first in one of his temples ; the King comes after God. Serve God, honor the King, is, you know, cousin, an axiom half religious, half political."

The heightened color on the duke's face now grew more distinct, and the King, who had, so far, kept his eyes riveted on

him, and so had remarked his change of color, happening to turn round, perceived with astonishment that his good brother was as pale as his fair cousin was red.

He was struck by the different effect produced by the emotion by which each was evidently excited, but he affected to turn away his eyes and assumed an air of great affability, the velvet glove under which nobody could hide his royal claws better than Henri.

" In any case, duke," said he, " nothing can equal my joy in seeing that you have escaped all the risks of war, although you sought danger, I have been told, in the rashest manner. But danger knows you, cousin, and avoids you."

The duke acknowledged the compliment by a bow.

" So, cousin, I must really entreat you not to be so eager for deadly perils, for, in truth, you put to shame idlers like us who simply eat and sleep, and hunt, and find our only triumphs in the invention of new fashions and new prayers.' 7

" Yes, sire," said the duke, fastening on the last word. " We know you are an enlightened and pious prince, and that no pleasure can make you lose sight of the glory of God and the interests of the Church. And this is the reason why we approach your Majesty with such confidence."

'•The confidence of your cousin in you must be evident, Henri," said Chicot, pointing to the gentlemen who remained just outside the room through respect; " see, he has left a third of his followers at the door of your cabinet, and the other two-thirds at the doors of the Louvre."