La Dame de Monsoreau (70 page)

" Last night," replied the King.

" The duke has left, the duke has left," murmured Monsoreau, wan and trembling. " Ah ! great God ! great God! What is this you tell me, sire ? "

" I do not say," rejoined the King, " that my brother has left; all I say is that he disappeared last night, and even his best friends do not know what has become of him."

" Oh! " exclaimed the count, wild with rage, " if I believed that"-

" And supposing you did, what could you do ? " said Chicot. " And where would be the great harm, even if he did pay a few tender compliments to Madame de Monsoreau. Our gentle friend Francois is the gallant of the family; he was so during King Charles IX.'s reign, as long as that monarch reigned, and he is so now during the reign of Henri III., a prince who is kept far too busy to have time for gallantry himself. Hang it, man ! don't you know that there should be at least one prince at court capable of representing the French spirit ? "

" The duke, the duke left! " repeated Monsoreau, " are you quite sure of this, monsieur ? "

" Are you ? " asked Chicot.

" The count again turned his eyes to the place ordinarily occupied by the prince, next his brother, but which continued vacant.

" I am ruined," he murmured, making a movement so indicative of his intention to flee that Chicot detained him.

" Will you keep quiet, man, mordieu ? You do nothing but jump and fidget, and that harms the King, whose heart is weak. Mort de ma vie ! should n't I like to be in your wife's place, even if for nothing else than the pleasure of seeing every day a prince with a double nose, and of hearing M. Aurilly, who plays the lute as well as the late lamented Orpheus ! What luck your wife has ! What luck, by Jupiter ! "

Monsoreau actually shivered with fury.

" Take it quietly, though, M. le Comte," continued Chicot; " try to conceal your delight ; you see the session is just opening. It is highly unbecoming for any one to reveal his feelings as you are doing ; pray, attend to the discourse of the King."

There was nothing left the grand huntsman but to remain where he was standing, for, in fact, the grand hall of the Louvre was now gradually filling, and soon became thronged. He, therefore, kept quiet during the rest of the ceremony, to which he had the appearance of paying close attention.

When the whole assembly had taken their seats, M. de Guise entered and knelt on one knee before the King, not without also casting a glance of surprise and uneasiness at the empty seat of the Due d'Anjou.

The King rose. The heralds commanded silence.

CHAPTER XLIX.

HOW THE KING NAMED A CHIEF WHO WAS NEITHER THE DUG DE GUISE NOB THE DUC D'ANJOU.

"GENTLEMEN," said the^King, amid the profoundes-t silence and after seeing that D'Epernon, Maugiron, Schomberg, and Quelus, replaced in their guardianship of the Due d'Anjou by ten Swiss, had entered and taken a position behind him, " gentlemen, a king, placed as he is, so to speak, between earth and heaven, hears equally the voices that come from above and the voices that come from below, namely, what God commands and what his people command. I understand perfectly that the association of all classes in one body for the defence of the. Catholic faith is a powerful guarantee of protection for my subjects. Consequently I have received, with much pleasure, the advice given me by my cousin of Guise, I de-

clare, therefore, the holy League well and duly sanctioned and instituted; and, as so great a body should have a worthy and powerful head, and as the chief whose function it will be to uphold the Church should be one of the most zealous sons of that Church, one whose zeal is naturally quickened by the very nature of the office he holds, I select a Christian prince for the leadership of this League, and I declare that henceforth this chief shall be "

Henri paused designedly.

The buzzing of a fly could have been distinctly heard, so deep was the general silence.

Henri repeated :

« And I declare that this chief shall be Henri de Valois, King of France and Poland."

Henri, in uttering these words, had raised his voice in a somewhat affected manner, partly to mark his triumph, partly • to inflame the enthusiasm of his friends, who were wild with delight, and partly to complete the dismay of the Leaguers, whose sullen murmurs revealed their discontent, surprise, and terror.

As for the Due de Guise, he was simply panic-struck; large drops of perspiration stood on his forehead. He exchanged looks with the Due de Mayerme and his brother, the cardinal, who were each standing in the midst of a group of leaders, the one on his right, the other on his left.

Monsoreau, more astonished .than ever at the absence of the Due d'Anjou, began, notwithstanding, to feel somewhat reassured in recalling the words of Henri III.

In fact, the prince might have disappeared and yet not have started for Anjou.

The cardinal, without showing alarm or surprise, left the Leaguers among whom he was standing and stole up to his brother.

" Franqois," he whispered in his ear, " unless I am very much mistaken, we are no longer safe here. Let us hasten to take our leave, for the populace is very uncertain, and the King, whom they execrated yesterday, will be their idol for some days."

" Yes," answered Mayenne, " let us start. Do you wait here for our brother; I am going to take measures for our safe departure." « Go, then."

During this time the King had been the first to sign the document prepared beforehand and laid on the table by M. de Morvilliers, the only person in the secret except the queen mother. Then, in that jeering tone which he adopted occasionally with so much success, he said to M. de Guise, exaggerating his ordinary nasal twang :

" Sign, pray, fair cousin."

And he passed him his pen.

Then, pointing out the place with the tip of his finger:

tf There, there," said he, " beneath me always. Now hand the pen to M. le Cardinal and M. de Mayenne."

But the Due de Mayenne was already outside the door, and the cardinal was in another apartment.

The King remarked on their absence.

" Then pass it to our grand huntsman," said he.

The duke signed, handed the pen to the grand huntsman, and was about to retire.

« Wait," said the King.

And while Quelus was taking the pen from M. de Monso-reau, with his most contemptuous air, and while not only the noblemen present, but all the chief men of the guilds, brought hither for this great event, were making haste to sign their names below that of the King, on register lists which were to form the continuation of the register lists signed the evening before by noble and clown, great and small, on terms of perfect equality, the King was saying to the Due de Guise :

" Fair cousin, it was, if I mistake not, your opinion that our capital should be guarded by a good army composed of all the forces of the League ? The army is now formed and completed in the most proper fashion, for the natural general of the Parisians is, of course, the King."

" Assuredly, sire," answered the duke, who did not very well know what he was saying.

" But I do not forget I have another army to command, and the generalship of this army belongs of right to the first warrior of my realm. While I take the command of the League, you will go, then, and take the command of the army, cousin."

" And when am I to start ? " inquired the duke.

" Immediately," replied the King.

" Henri, Henri! " muttered Chicot, who had a strong desire to interrupt the King, but knew his doing so would be too great a breach of etiquette to be allowed, even in his case.

But as the King either had not heard him, or, if he had, had not understood him, the Gascon advanced with an air of great reverence, holding an enormous pen in his hand and elbowing every one aside, until he was close to the King.

" Will you hold your tongue, you double-dyed booby ? " said he in a whisper ; " at least, if you have an atom of sense left, you will.' 7

But Chicot was too late.

The King, as we have seen, had already announced to the duke his nomination and was now handing him his commission, signed some time before, in spite of all the gestures and grimaces of the jester.

The Due de Guise took the commission and retired.

The cardinal was waiting for him outside the hall, and the Due de Mayenne was waiting for both at the gate of the Louvre.

They mounted their horses that instant, and before very many minutes had passed, all three were outside Paris.

The rest of the assembly withdrew gradually, some crying, " Long live the King !" and others, " Long live the League ! "

" At least," said Henri, laughing, " I have solved a great problem."

" Oh, yes," murmured Chicot, " you are a grand mathematician, you are! "

" I think I am, really," returned the King. " You see I have forced all these rascals, whose watchwords were two entirely antagonistic cries, to have but one cry, to shout the same thing."

" Sta bene ! " said the queen mother, grasping her son's hand.

" If you pin your faith on that, you are nicely sold," said the Gascon to himself. "The woman is simply driven crazy with joy; she thinks she has got rid of her Guises forever."

" Oh, sire," cried the favorites, noisily approaching the King, " what a sublime idea you have had !"

"They believe now that gold is going to rain on them like manna," whispered Chicot into the other ear of the King.

Henri was led in triumph back to his private apartments. In the midst of the procession that attended and followed the King, Chicot played the part of the slave in ancient times who accompanied the triumphant general in his chariot, ridiculing and reviling him.

The obstinacy of Chicot in reminding the demi-god of the day that he was but a man had, at last, such an effect on the King that he dismissed everybody but the Gascon.

" Well, now," said Henri, turning toward him, " do you know it is impossible to content you, Maitre Chicot ? And do you know, too, that this gets to be a bore, in the long run ? Confound it, man, I do not ask you to speak to me with ordinary politeness, but I do ask you, when you speak to me, to talk common sense."

" You are right, Henri," answered Chicot, " for that is the thing of which you stand most in need."

" You will agree, at least, that the game was cleverly played?"

" The very thing to which I have n't the slightest intention of agreeing."

" Ah, King of France, your Majesty is jealous 1 "

"Jealous ! God forbid ! Whenever I am jealous, I '11 select some one more worthy of exciting that feeling than you."

" Corbleu, Master Fault-finder, you are coming out rather strong ! "

" Your self-love and vanity make one sick, Henri."

" Come, now, will you deny that I am King of the League ? "

" Most undoubtedly — I do not — Have I denied it ? But"

" But what ? "

" You are no longer King of France."

" And who, pray, is King of France ? "

" Every one except you, Henri ; first, your brother."

" My brother ! Of whom are you speaking ? "

" Of M. d'Anjou, and no one else, by my faith !"

" Who is my prisoner."

" Yes, for prisoner though he be, he has been crowned, and you have not been."

" By whom was he crowned ? "

" By the Cardinal de Guise. In good sooth, Henri, you do well to praise up your police ; a king is crowned in Paris, in presence of thirty-three persons, in the church of Sainte Gene-vieve even, and you never heard a word about it."

" While you, of course, — Heaven save the mark ! — know all about it! "

" Certainly, I know all about it."

" And how can you know what I do not know ? "

" Oh, because you do your police work through M. de Mor-villiers, while I do mine on my own hook.' 7

The King frowned.

" We have, then, without counting Henri de Valois, a King of France called Francois d'Anjou, and we have also — let me see" — said Chicot, with the air of a, man cudgelling his brains; " oh, yes, we have also the Due de Guise."

" The Due de Guise ? "

" The Due de Guise, Henri de Guise, Henri the Balafre. I repeat, then : we have also the Due de Guise."

" A fine king, really ! a king I exile, send to the army."

" Good ! as if you had not been exiled to Poland ; as if La Charite were not nearer to the Louvre than Cracow was to Paris ! Oh, yes, you are right, you send him to the army; no one but you could plan such a deep-laid scheme; sharp as a needle you are, Henri; you send him to the army! That means you place thirty thousand men at his beck and call. Ventre de bicke ! and what an army ! a true army, that — not like your army of the League — no, indeed! An army of grocers and haberdashers is good enough for Henri de Valois, King of the minions. Henri de Guise must have an army of soldiers, and what soldiers ! — men inured to battle, scorched by cannon, men who would make a mouthful of twenty of your armies of the League; so that if Henri de Guise, no longer satisfied with being king de facto, should take the idiotic fancy into his head to become king in name also, he would only have to turn his trumpets in the direction of the capital and say: ' Forward! let us make a clean sweep of Paris and of Henri de Valois and of the Louvre along with him.' They would do it, the wretches ; I know what stuff they 're made of."

" You forget only one thing in your argument, illustrious statesman," retorted the King.

" Oh, that's quite possible ; perhaps I am forgetting a fourth king."

" No, you forget," said Henri, with supreme scorn, " that the aspirant to the sovereignty of France, especially when the reigning sovereign is a Valois,' must go back a little and count his ancestors. That such an idea should come into the head of M. d'Anjou is not improbable ; he belongs to a race any member of which might have such an ambition ; his ancestors are mine; the only question that could create a struggle between us is the question of primogeniture. It is primogeni-