La Dame de Monsoreau (80 page)

" Monseigneur, your thoughts exhibit such profundity and wisdom to-day that really — but get up and let us visit the castle."

The prince summoned his servants, and this gave Bussy an opportunity to slip out for a moment.

He found Le Haudouin in one of the apartments. He was the man he wanted to see.

He took him into the duke's cabinet, wrote a few lines, passed into the conservatory, gathered a bunch of roses, rolled the note about the stems, went to the stable, saddled Roland, gave the roses to Remy, and ordered him to get into the saddle at once. Then, leading him outside the city, as Haman did Mordecai, he turned the horse into a lane.

" Now," said he, " give Roland free rein ; at the end of this lane you will find the forest, in the forest a park, round the park a wall, and at that part of the wall where Roland halts, you will throw over it the bunch of flowers."

These were the words of the note :

" He whom you expected will not come, because he whom neither of us expected has come, and is more dangerous than ever, for he still loves. Seize with your lips and heart whatever is invisible to your eyes on this paper."

Remy obeyed Bussy's directions with regard to Roland, who at once broke into a gallop in the direction of Meridor.

Bussy returned to the ducal palace and found the prince dressed.

As for Remy, he did his work in half an hour. Borne along like a cloud by the wind, and having the most perfect trust in his master's words, he dashed through meadow and fields and streams and woods, until he came to the bottom of a somewhat damaged wall, whose summit was clothed with ivy and shaded by the branches of tall oaks.

Then Reiny stood up in his stirrups, tied the paper about the stems of the roses more solidly than it had been done before, and, uttering a loud " hem !" flung the bouquet over the wall.

A little cry from the other side of the wall told him the message had arrived safely.

Remy had nothing further to do there, for he had not been told to wait for a reply.

So he turned the head of the horse in the direction from which he had come, much to the disgust of Eoland, who gave practical evidence of his disappointment at being deprived of the feast of acorns he had enjoyed during his previous visits. But Remy made such a vigorous use of whip and spur that the animal, although not forgetting his wrongs, started into the usual gallop.

Forty minutes later Roland was in his new stable and making up for his disappointment at Meridor by a plenteous repast at a rack filled with hay and a manger overflowing with oats.

Bussy was with the prince, inspecting the castle.

Remy came up with him at the moment when he was examining a subterranean passage leading to a postern.

"Well!" the count asked his messenger, "what have you seen ? what have you heard ? what have you done ? "

" A wall; a cry; twenty-one miles," answered Remy, with the brevity of one of those Spartan youths who used to allow their entrails to be devoured by foxes for the greater glory of the laws of Lycurgus.

CHAPTEE LIX.

THE FLIGHT OF THE ANGEVINES.

BUSSY succeeded so well in interesting the Due d'Anjou in his warlike preparations that for two whole days his highness had not time either to think of going to Meridor or of bringing the baron to Angers.

Occasionally, however, the duke recurred to the idea of paying His intended visit.

But when he did so, Bussy's activity assumed portentous proportions; he examined the muskets of the entire guard, had the horses put through their exercises, the cannon roaring and the gun-carriages rattling, as if there was question of conquering the fifth part of the world.

When Remy saw this condition of things, he set about making lint, sharpening his tools, and concocting his salves, as if, in his opinion, there was question of patching up the half of the human race.

The enormous nature of the work going on engrossed the duke's mind wholly for the time.

It is scarcely necessary to say that Bussy, under the pretext of inspecting the outer fortifications, jumped now and then on Eoland, and, in less than forty minutes, arrived at a certain wall which he climbed the more easily that, at every previous ascent, he had tipped over a stone or two, so that by this time he had almost made a breach in the enclosure.

As for Eoland, he did not require any one to tell him where he was going. All Bussy had to do was to drop the reins and shut his eyes.

" Well, I have gained two days," thought Bussy ; " the very devil 's in it if the next two don't bring me a little good luck."

Bussy was not quite wrong in counting on his luck.

Toward the evening of the third day, as an enormous convoy of provisions was entering the city, the result of an assessment levied by the duke on his leal and trusty Angevines, and just as M. d'Anjou, to show what an amiable prince they had, was munching the black bread of his soldiers and soiling his beautiful teeth with their salt herrings and dried cod, toward the evening of the third day, we repeat, a terrible uproar was heard at the gates of the city.

M. d'Anjou inquired the cause of this uproar, but nobody could tell him.

At the spot from which the noise proceeded, there was quite a commotion, and the handles of halberds and butt ends of muskets were plied freely, some of the good citizens, attracted thither by curiosity, coming in for their share of the blows.

This was the cause of the excitement.

A man, mounted on a white horse streaming with perspiration, had appeared at the barrier of the Porte de Paris.

Now Bussy, as a result of his system of browbeating, had compelled his prince to appoint him captain-general of Anjou and grand master of the fortresses. He had established the severest discipline everywhere, but especially in Angers; no one could leave or enter the city unless he knew the watchword.

The real object of all this strict discipline was to prevent the duke from sending any person to Diane without his knowledge, and to make sure that, if Diane entered the city, he should be the first to learn of her arrival.

Bussy's conduct may, perhaps, appear a little extravagant; but fifty years later Buckingham committed follies quite as extravagant for the sake of Anne of Austria.

The man on the white horse had, then, as we have said already, arrived at a furious gallop and ridden straight up to the post.

But the captain of the post had his orders.

These orders had been transmitted to the sentry, who barred the way with his partisan ; as the cavalier had shown but little respect for the action of the sentry, the latter had cried:

" To arms ! "

Thereupon the post had turned out and its captain had demanded an explanation.

" I am Antraguet," said the cavalier, " and I wish to speak with the Due d'Anjou."

" We are not acquainted with any Antraguet," the captain had answered ; "but your wish to speak shall be gratified, for we are going to arrest you and bring you before his highness."

" Arrest me! " the cavalier had cried ; " you must be a saucy knave to think of arresting Charles de Balzac d'Entragues, Baron de Cuneo and Comte de Graville."

" But it 's the very thing we are going to do," said the worthy citizen, adjusting his gorget, and feeling that he had a score of men behind him and only one before him.

" Wait a moment, my good friends," said Antraguet. " You don't know the Parisians yet, do you ? Well I am going to show you a sample of what they can do."

" Arrest him ! Bring him before monseigneur ! " cried the furious citizen-soldiers.

" Softly, my little Angevine lambs," said Antraguet, " I am going to have the pleasure of showing you something."

" What 's that he says ? " cried several voices.

" He says his horse has only travelled thirty miles and will ride, over you all if you don't step aside. Step aside, then, or ventre-bceuf ! "

And as the good tradesmen of Angers had evidently had but slight acquaintance with Parisian oaths, Antraguet had drawn his sword and, with one stupendous sweep, had cut off the blades of the nearest halberds, whose points were presented at him; in less than ten minutes, fifteen or twenty halberds were changed into broom-handles.

The enraged citizens aimed their blows at the newcomer, who parried them with prodigious dexterity, now in front, now behind, now on the right hand, now on the left, laughing boisterously all the time.

" Ah! what a glorious entry I'm making ! " said he, almost convulsed, " what polite creatures are the townsfolk of Angers ! Morbleu, what an entertainment they have provided for rne ! It was a lucky thought of the prince to come here, and of myself to follow him! "

And Antraguet not only kept on parrying, but, now and then, when he was too closely pressed, he cut through the hat of one, the sallet of another, occasionally stunning with the flat of his sword some imprudent warrior who rushed into tlu j thick of the fight with no better protection for his head than his simple cap of Angevine wool.

The maddened townsfolk fought on, maiming one another in their zeal to get in a stroke, and when beaten back, returning to the charge ; like the soldiers of Cadmus, it might have been said of them that they sprang from the ground.

Antraguet was beginning to feel that he could not stand it much longer.

" Come, now," said he, when he saw that the ranks of his enemies were growing thicker; " we have had enough of this. You are as brave as lions, and I am ready to bear testimony to the fact. But you see you have nothing left but the handles of

your halberds and you don't know how to load your muskets. I was determined on entering the city, but I was not aware it was defended by an army of Caesars. I renounce the task of trying to conquer you. Good day, adieu, I am leaving you ; but tell the prince I came from Paris expressly to see him."

Meanwhile the captain had succeeded in lighting the match of his musket, but just as he was about to take aim, Antraguet struck him so violently on the fingers with his flexible cane that he dropped the weapon and began hopping alternately on his right foot and his left.

" Kill him ! Kill him ! " cried the bruised and furious warriors, " don't let him get away ! Don't let him escape ! "

" Oh, indeed ! " cried Antraguet, " you would n't let me in a few minutes ago, and now you won't let me out. Then take care of yourselves ! You force me to change my tactics and use the point of my sword instead of the flat ; now it 's wrists that I'll have to cut off, not halberd blades. Come, now, my lambs of Anjou, won't you let me leave you?"

" No, kill him ! Kill! He's tired out! Knock him off his horse! "

" Very well 5 so the game is to be played in good earnest, is it?"

" Yes ! yes ! "

" Then look out for your fingers, for you '11 soon be without hands ! "

Scarcely had he finished and made ready to put his threat into execution, when another cavalier appeared above the horizon, galloped to the barrier at the same frantic pace, and fell like a thunderbolt among the combatants, now engaged in a real conflict.

" Antraguet! " cried the stranger, " Antraguet, I say ! What the devil are you doing in the midst of these townspeople ? "

" Livarot! 'I cried Antraguet, turning round, " ah, mordieu ! you come in the nick of time; Montjoie et Saint-Denis, to the rescue ! "

" I knew well I should overtake you ; I heard, four hours ago, that you had gone before me, and I have been following you ever since. But how the devil did you get mixed up with this rabble ? Do they want to massacre you ? "

" Yes; these are our An gevine friends, if you please, and they will neither let me come in nor go out."

" Gentlemen," said Livarot, taking off his hat, " be so kind as to step aside and let us pass."

" They are insulting us," cried the townsfolk. " Kill them ! Kill them both !"

" Ah, these are the sort of people that live in Angers," said Livarot, putting his hat on his head with one hand, and drawing his sword with the other.

" You see what they are," answered Antraguet. " Unluckily, there are so many of them."

" Bah! we three will soon make short work of them."

" We might if we were three ; but we are only two."

"Kibeirac is behind us."

« He, too ? "

" Do you not hear him ? "

" I see him. Hollo, Ribeirac! Hollo ! Come here ! "

In fact, at that very moment Bibeirac was making the same headlong dash into the city of Angers that his companions had made before him.

" Oho ! so there 's a fight on hand ! That 's what I call a godsend ! Good day, Antraguet; good day, Livarot."

" Let us charge them," answered Antraguet.

The citizen soldiers stared in bewilderment at this new auxiliary of their two opponents, who were now about to pass from the condition of the assailed to that of assailants.

" Mercy on us ! " said the captain, " there must be a regiment of them ! " Then to his soldiers : " Gentlemen, our order of battle is evidently faulty, and I propose that we wheel to the left."

The worthy tradesmen, with the skill that ordinarily characterizes the military movements of their class, at once began to wheel to the right.

Moreover, apart from the suggestion to act prudently contained in the invitation of their captain, the martial air of the three cavaliers in front of them was calculated to confuse the most intrepid.

" It is their vanguard ! " cried such of the citizens as wished to have an excuse for running away. " The enemy ! The enemy!"

" Fire ! " shouted others, « fire ! fire ! "

" We are fathers of families, and our lives belong to our wives and children. Fly !" exclaimed the captain.