La Dame de Monsoreau (64 page)

" Well, madame," said he, " I have now become what I was before, a stranger to you."

" Alas ! " said Diane.

" Your silence is enough to tell me so."

" I can only speak by my silence.*

" Your silence, madame, is the continuation of your reception of me at the Louvre. At the Louvre you would not see me; here you will not speak to me."

" At the Louvre I was in the presence of M. de Monsoreau, under the eyes of M. de Monsoreau, and he is jealous."

" Jealous ! Great God ! Whose happiness can he envy, then, when everybody envies his ? "

"I tell you he is jealous, monsieur ; for some few days he has seen a person rambling round our new building."

" Then you have left the little house in the Rue Sainte-Antoine ? "

" What!" cried Diane, carried away by an unguarded impulse, " then it was not you ?"

" Madame, since the announcement of your marriage, since your presentation at the Louvre, in short, ever since you did not deign to honor me with a glance, I have been in bed, devoured by the fever of which I am dying. You must see, therefore, that your husband cannot be jealous of me, since I am not the person he has found prowling about his house."

" Well, monsieur, if it be true, as you have just told me, that you felt some desire to see me again, you may thank this stranger, for, knowing M. de Monsoreau as I know him, this man -frightened me on your account, and I wished to say to you : < Do not expose yourself thus, do not render me even more unhappy than I am already.' "

" You need not be alarmed, madame; I assure you it was not I."

" And now, let me finish all I had to say. From dread of this man whom I do not know, but whom, perhaps, M. de Monsoreau knows, he requires me to leave Paris, so that," added Diane, holding out her hand to Bussy, " you may consider this conversation, M. le Comte, as our last. To-morrow I start for Meridor."

" You start for Meridor, madame ? " cried Bussy.

" It is the only means of reassuring M. de Monsoreau," said Diane; " it is the only means of regaining my tranquillity. Besides, I detest Paris, I detest society, the court, the Louvre. I am glad to have a chance of being alone amid the memories of my girlhood. It seems to me as if, by going back to the thoughts of my early years, a little of my past happiness might drop on my head as a refreshing dew. My father accompanies me, and I shall meet M. and Madame de Saint-Luc yonder; they regret I am not near them. Adieu, M. de Bussy."

Bussy covered his face with his hands.

" So be it! " he murmured, " then all is over for me."

" What is that you say ? " cried Diane, rising.

" I say, madame, that this man who exiles you, who wrests from me my last remaining hope, the hope of breathing the air you breathe, of catching a glimpse of you occasionally, of touching your robe as you pass, in short, of adoring a living being and not a shadow, I say that this man is my mortal enemy, and that, though I were to perish in the attempt, I will destroy this man with my own hands !"

" Oh ! M. le Comte ! "

" The wretch ! " cried Bussy, " what! was it not enough he should have for wife the chastest and loveliest of human beings? No, he must be jealous in addition! He jealous! would this ridiculous and devouring monster want everything ? "

"Ah! be calm, count! be calm! Good heavens! perhaps he is to be excused."

" Excused! do you defend him, madame ? "

" Oh, if you knew! " said Diane, covering her face with her hands, as if, in spite of the darkness, he could see her blushes.

" If I knew ? " repeated Bussy. " Ah, madame, I know only one thing — he who is your husband should think of nothing in the world except you."

" But," said Diane, in a broken voice, " if you were mistaken, M. le Comte, and if lie were not my husband! "

And, after uttering these words, the young woman, lightly touching with her cold hand the burning hand of Bussy, rose and fled, light as a shadow, into one of the sombre pathways of the little garden, seized Gertrude's arm, and disappeared with her, before Bussy, mad, intoxicated, wild with delight, had time even to stretch out his arms and detain her.

He uttered a cry and staggered to his feet.

Remy arrived barely in time to catch him in his arms and place him sitting on the bench which Diane had just left.

CHAPTER XLIV.

HOW D'EPERNON HAD A TORN DOUBLET AND HOW SCHOMBERG WAS DYED BLUE.

WHILE Maitre La Huriere was piling up signatures on top of signatures, while Chicot was entrusting Gorenflot to the safe-keeping of the Come cVAbondance, while Bussy was returning to life in that blessed little garden, so full of perfumes, songs, and love, Henri, depressed by what he had witnessed in the city, angered by the preaching he had heard in the churches, furious at the mysterious compliments paid his brother Anjou, whom he had seen passing before him in the Rue Sainte-Honore, attended by Guise and Mayenne, with a whole suite of gentlemen apparently under the command of M. de Monsoreau, — Henri, we say, was returning to the Louvre in company with Maugiron and Quelus.

The King, as usual, had set out with his four friends; but when within a few yards of the Louvre, Schomberg and D'Epernon, bored by the King's evident ill-humor, and reckoning that on such a turbulent night there must be room for pleasure and adventures, took advantage of the first brawl and disappeared at the corner of the Rue de FAstruce.

So, while the King and his two friends went on their way along the quay, they allowed themselves to be carried along the Rue d'Orleans.

Before they had advanced a hundred steps they^ were in the thick of the adventures they were seeking. D'Epernon had

passed his cane between the legs of a citizen and tripped him up, sending him rolling several yards beyond him, and Schom-berg had snatched off the cap of a woman he thought old, but who turned out to be young and pretty.

Both, however, had selected the wrong day for making an assault on these worthy Parisians, a class ordinarily so patient. The streets were full of that feve.r of revolt that suddenly sweeps on occasions through a great capital; the citizen who had been laid 011 his beam ends was soon on his feet, crying: " Death to the heretic!" He was a zealot, as may easily be imagined, and he rushed on D'Epernon; the woman who had lost her cap cried: " Death to the minion!" a more dangerous cry still; and her husband, who was a dyer, let loose his apprentices on Schomberg.

Schomberg was brave ; he halted, spoke haughtily, and clapped his hand on his sword.

D'Epernon was prudent; he fled.

Henri had not been particularly anxious about his two minions. He knew that both of them generally managed to extricate themselves from any difficulty they tumbled into; the one by the aid of his legs, the other by that of his arms. He had then had his ramble, as we have seen, and again entered the Louvre.

He was in his armory, seated in his huge elbow chair, trembling with impatience, seeking for some good pretext to get into a rage.

Maugiron was playing with Narcisse, the King's big greyhound.

Quelus, with his hands pressed against his cheeks, was squatting on a cushion and gazing up at Henri.

"They are always going on in this way," said the King, " always plotting. At one time tigers, at another, serpents; when they do not bound they creep."

" Hang it, sire!" answered Quelus, " do you not always have plots in a kingdom ? What the devil would kings' sons and kings' brothers and kings' cousins have to do if they couldn't plot?"

" Hold your tongue, Quelus ; what with your absurd maxims and big, puffed cheeks, you are a good deal more like a mountebank at the fair of Saint Laurence than a politician."

Quelus whirled round on the cushion and irreverently turned his back on the King.

" Come, now, Maugiron, am I right or am I wrong ? Do you think it right to cajole me with rigmarole and twaddle as if I were a commonplace king, or a draper, afraid of losing his pet cat ? "

" Zounds ! sire/' answered Maugiron, who was always on the side of Quelus, " if you are not a commonplace king, show it • by proving yourself a great king. What the devil! look at Narcisse there, he's a good dog, a good-natured beast ; but you just pull his ears, and see how he growls; you just tread on his paws, and see how he bites."

" Good! " said Henri, " now the other one compares me to a dog."

" No, sire, not by any manner of means," answered Maugiron, " if my words mean anything, they mean that I place Narcisse far above you, for Narcisse knows how to defend himself and you don't."

And he, too, turned his back on Henri.

" Oh, very well ! " said the King, " so now I am alone. Oh, very well, go on as you are going, my worthy friends, upon whom I am accused of wasting the revenues of my kingdom. Abandon, insult, murder me 5 I have none but murderers around my person, I give you my word of honor. Ah, Chicot! my poor Chicot! where art thou ? "

" Good ! " cried Quelus, " that was all there was wanting ! He's calling for Chicot now!"

u Oh, it's^not surprising," answered Maugiron.

And the insolent fellow mumbled a certain Latin proverb which may be translated : " A man is known by his company "

Henri frowned darkly, a flash of terrible anger illuminated his great black eyes, and, for a moment, the look with which he regarded his indiscreet friends was the look befitting a king.

But exhausted, doubtless, by this passing gleam of anger, the King fell back in his chair, and began rubbing his ear with one of the little puppies out of his basket.

At the same instant a quick step resounded in the antechamber, and D'Epernon appeared, without hat or cloak, and with his doublet all torn.

Quelus and Maugiron turned around, and Narcisse ran up, snapping at the newcomer, as if the only thing he recognized about the King's courtiers was their garb.

" Jesus ! " cried Henri; " what has happened to you? "

" Sire," answered D'fipernon, " look at me. This is the way in which your Majesty's friends are treated."

" And who has treated you thus ? " asked the King.

" Mordieu ! your people, or rather, the Due d'Anjou's people, who cried: ( Long live the League ! long live the Mass ! long live Guise ! long live Francois !' - - long live everybody, in short, except the King ! "

" And what did you do to them to have them treat you in this manner ? "

',' I ? nothing. What do you fancy I should think of doing to a whole people ? They saw I was a friend of your Majesty, and that was enough for them."

" But Schomberg ? "

" What about Schomberg ? "

" Did not Schomberg come to your help ? Did not Schomberg defend you ? "

" Corbcenf! Schomberg had enough to do to defend himself."

" How was that ? "

" I left him in the grip of a dyer, whose wife's cap he had snatched off, and of five or six of his apprentices. I ? m afraid he is going to have a hard time of it."

" Par la mordieu ! " cried Henri; " and where did you leave my poor Schomberg ? I will go myself to his aid," said he, rising. " People may say, and with a good deal of truth," added the King, looking at Maugiron and Quelus, " that my friends forsake me ; but, at least, no one shall ever be able to say that I forsake my friends."

" Thanks, sire," said a voice behind Henri, " thanks, but I am here, Gott verdammv mih, got clear of them without help, but, certainly, not without trouble."

" Schomberg ! it's Schomberg's voice ! " cried the three minions. " But where the devil are you, Schomberg ? "

" Pardieu ! where I am, you can see me easily enough," exclaimed the same voice.

And from the dark corner of the apartment there advanced, not a man, but a shadow.

" Schomberg !" cried the King, " where have you come from, and why are you of that color ? "

In fact, Schomberg, from head to foot, all over, both in every particle of his person and his garments, was of the most beautiful shade of royal blue that can be imagined.

" Der Teufel! " he exclaimed ; " the wretches ! I am no longer surprised every one ran after me."

" But what has happened ?" said Henri ; " if you had turned yellow, I could have explained it ; it might have been the effect of fear; but blue ! "

" They steeped me in a vat, the rascals ! I thought at first they had soaked me in a tub of water, but it was a vat of indigo."

" 07?,, mordieu ! " said Quelus, roaring, " their sin, then, is their punishment. Indigo conies very high, and you must have carried away at least twenty crowns' worth on you ! "

" Oh, yes, it's easy for you to joke. I wish I could have seen you in my place."

" And you have n't ripped up any of them ? " asked Mau-giron.

'•< I left my poniard somewhere, up to the hilt in a scabbard of flesh ; but, in a minute, all was over: I was seized, lifted up, carried off, dipped in the vat, and almost drowned."

" And how did you get out of their hands ? "

" By having the courage to act like a coward, sire."

" And what did you do ? "

" I cried : { Long live the League ! '

"Just like what I did," said D'Epernon, " only I cried: 6 Long live the Due d'Anjou !' '

" And so did I," said Schomberg, biting his lips; " they forced me to shout the very same words. But that is not the worst of it."

" What! " exclaimed the King, " did they make you shout anything else, my poor Schomberg ? "

" No, they didn't make me shout anything else ; it was quite enough as it was, God knows ! But, just as I was crying, 1 Long live the Due d'Anjou''

« Well ? "

" Guess who was passing."

" How could I guess ? "

" Bussy, that damned Bussy of his, and he heard me hurrahing for his master."

" Oh, he could n't have understood what the row was about," said Quelus.