CHAPTER XVII. THE JACOBIN MONK.
Had I needed any reminder of the uncertainty of Court favour, or aninstance whence I might learn the lesson of modesty, and so stand inless danger of presuming on my new and precarious prosperity, I had itin this episode, and in the demeanour of the company round me. On thecircle breaking up in confusion, I found myself the centre of generalregard, but regard of so dubious a character, the persons who would havebeen the first to compliment me had the king retired earlier, standingfarthest aloof now, that I felt myself rather insulted than honoured byit. One or two, indeed, of the more cautious spirits did approach me;but it was with the air of men providing against a danger particularlyremote, their half-hearted speeches serving only to fix them in mymemory as belonging to a class, especially abhorrent to me--the class, Imean, of those who would run at once with the hare and the hounds.
I was rejoiced to find that on one person, and that the one whosedisposition towards me was, next to the king's, of first importance,this episode had produced a different impression, Feeling, as I made forthe door, a touch on my arm, I turned to find M. de Rambouillet at myelbow, regarding me with a glance of mingled esteem and amusement; infine, with a very different look from that which had been my welcomeearlier in the evening. I was driven to suppose that he was too great aman, or too sure of his favour with the king, to be swayed by thepetty motives which actuated the Court generally, for he laid his handfamiliarly on my shoulder, and walked on beside me.
'Well my friend,' he said,' you have distinguished yourself finely! Ido not know that I ever remember a pretty woman making more stir in oneevening. But if you are wise you will not go home alone to-night.'
'I have my sword, M. le Marquis,' I answered, somewhat proudly. 'Whichwill avail you little against a knife in the back!' he retorted drily.'What attendance have you?'
'My equerry, Simon Fleix, is on the stairs.'
'Good, so far, but not enough,' he replied, as we reached the head ofthe staircase. 'You had better come home with me now, and two or threeof my fellows shall go on to your lodging with you. Do you know, myfriend,' he continued, looking at me keenly, 'you are either a veryclever or a very foolish man?'
I made answer modestly. 'Neither the one, I fear, nor the other, I hopesir,' I said.
'Well, you have done a very pertinent thing,' he replied, 'for good orevil. You have let the enemy know what he has to expect, and he is notone, I warn you, to be despised. But whether you have been very wise orvery foolish in declaring open war remains to be seen.'
'A week will show,' I answered.
He turned and looked at me. 'You take it coolly,' he said.
'I have been knocking about the world for forty years, marquis,' Irejoined.
He muttered something about Rosny having a good eye, and then stopped toadjust his cloak. We were by this time in the street. Making me go handin hand with him, he requested the other gentlemen to draw their swords;and the servants being likewise armed and numbering half a score ormore, with pikes and torches, we made up a very formidable party,and caused, I think, more alarm as we passed through the streets toRambouillet's lodging than we had any reason to feel. Not that we had itall to ourselves, for the attendance at Court that evening being large,and the circle breaking up as I have described more abruptly than usual,the vicinity of the castle was in a ferment, and the streets leadingfrom it were alive with the lights and laughter of parties similar toour own.
At the door of the marquis's lodging I prepared to take leave of himwith many expressions of gratitude, but he would have me enter andsit down with him to a light refection, which it was his habit to takebefore retiring. Two of his gentlemen sat down with us, and a valet, whowas in his confidence, waiting on us, we made very merry over the scenein the presence. I learned that M. de Bruhl was far from popular atCourt; but being known to possess some kind of hold over the king, andenjoying besides a great reputation for recklessness and skill with thesword, he had played a high part for a length of time, and attached tohimself, especially since the death of Guise, a considerable number offollowers.
'The truth is,' one of the marquis's gentlemen, who was a little heatedwith wine, observed, 'there is nothing at this moment which a bold andunscrupulous man may not win in France!'
'Nor a bold and Christian gentleman for France!' replied M. deRambouillet with, some asperity. 'By the way,' he continued, turningabruptly to the servant, 'where is M. Francois?'
The valet answered that he had not returned with us from the castle. TheMarquis expressed himself annoyed at this, and I gathered, firstly, thatthe missing man was his near kinsman, and, secondly, that he was alsothe young spark who had been so forward to quarrel with me earlier inthe evening. Determining to refer the matter, should it become pressing,to Rambouillet for adjustment, I took leave of him, and attended bytwo of his servants, whom he kindly transferred to my service for thepresent, I started towards my lodging a little before midnight.
The moon had risen while we were at supper, and its light, whichwhitened the gables on one side of the street, diffused a glimmer belowsufficient to enable us to avoid the kennel. Seeing this, I bade themen put out our torch. Frost had set in, and a keen wind was blowing,so that we were glad to hurry on at a good pace; and the streets beingquite deserted at this late hour, or haunted only by those who had cometo dread the town marshal, we met no one and saw no lights. I fell tothinking, for my part, of the evening I had spent searching Blois forMademoiselle, and of the difference between then and now. Nor did I failwhile on this track to retrace it still farther to the evening of ourarrival at my mother's; whence, as a source, such kindly and gentlethoughts welled up in my mind as were natural, and the unfailingaffection of that gracious woman required. These, taking the place forthe moment of the anxious calculations and stern purposes which had oflate engrossed me, were only ousted by something which, happening undermy eyes, brought me violently and abruptly to myself.
This was the sudden appearance of three men, who issued one by one froman alley a score of yards in front of us, and after pausing a secondto look back the way they had come, flitted on in single file alongthe street, disappearing, as far as the darkness permitted me to judge,round a second corner. I by no means liked their appearance, and, as ascream and the clash of arms rang out next moment from the direction inwhich they had gone, I cried lustily to Simon Fleix to follow, and ranon, believing from the rascals' movements that they were after no good,but that rather some honest man was like to be sore beset.
On reaching the lane down which they had plunged, however, I paused amoment, considering not so much its black-ness, which was intense,the eaves nearly meeting overhead, as the small chance I had ofdistinguishing between attackers and attacked. But Simon and the menovertaking me, and the sounds of a sharp tussle still continuing,I decided to venture, and plunged into the alley, my left arm welladvanced, with the skirt of my cloak thrown over it, and my sword drawnback. I shouted as I ran, thinking that the knaves might desist onhearing me; and this was what happened, for as I arrived on the scene ofaction--the farther end of the alley--two men took to their heels, whileof two who remained, one lay at length in the kennel, and another roseslowly from his knees.
'You are just in time, sir,' the latter said, breathing hard, butspeaking with a preciseness which sounded familiar. 'I am obliged toyou, sir, whoever you are. The villains had got me down, and in a fewminutes more would have made my mother childless. By the way, you haveno light, have you?' he continued, lisping like a woman.
One of M. de Rambouillet's men, who had by this time come up, cried outthat it was Monsieur Francois.
'Yes, blockhead!' the young gentleman answered with the utmost coolness.'But I asked for a light, not for my name.
'I trust you are not hurt, sir?' I said, putting up my sword.
'Scratched only,' he answered, betraying no surprise on learning who itwas had come up so opportunely; as he no doubt did learn from my voice,for he continued with a bow, a slight price to pay for th
e knowledgethat M. de Marsac is as forward on the field as on the stairs.'
I bowed my acknowledgments.
'This fellow,' I said, 'is he much hurt?'
'Tut, tut! I thought I had saved the marshal all trouble, M. Francoisreplied. 'Is he not dead, Gil?'
The poor wretch made answer for himself, crying out piteously, and ina choking voice, for a priest to shrive him. At that moment SimonFleix returned with our torch, which he had lighted at the nearestcross-streets, where there was a brazier, and we saw by this light thatthe man was coughing up blood, and might live perhaps half an hour.
'Mordieu! That comes of thrusting too high!' M. Francois muttered,regretfully. An inch lower, and there would have been none of thistrouble! I suppose somebody must fetch one. Gil,' he continued, 'run,man, to the sacristy in the Rue St. Denys, and get a Father. Or--stay!Help to lift him under the lee of the wall there. The wind cuts like aknife here.'
The street being on the slope of the hill, the lower part of the housenearest us stood a few feet from the ground, on wooden piles, and thespace underneath it, being enclosed at the back and sides, was used as acart-house. The servants moved the dying man into this rude shelter, andI accompanied them, being unwilling to leave the young gentleman alone.Not wishing, however, to seem to interfere, I walked to the farther end,and sat down on the shaft of a cart, whence I idly admired the strangeaspect of the group I had left, as the glare of the torch brought nowone and now another into prominence, and sometimes shone on M. Francois'jewelled fingers toying with his tiny moustache, and sometimes on thewrithing features of the man at his feet.
On a sudden, and before Gil had started on his errand, I saw there wasa priest among them. I had not seen him enter, nor had I any idea whencehe came. My first impression was only that here was a priest, and thathe was looking at me--not at the man craving his assistance on thefloor, or at those who stood round him, but at me, who sat away in theshadow beyond the ring of light!
This was surprising; but a second glance explained it, for then I sawthat he was the Jacobin monk who had haunted my mother's dying hours.And, amazed as much at this strange RENCONTRE as at the man's boldness,I sprang up and strode forwards, forgetting, in an impulse of righteousanger, the office he came to do. And this the more as his face, stillturned to me, seemed instinct to my eyes with triumphant malice. As Imoved towards him, however, with a fierce exclamation on my lips, hesuddenly dropped his eyes and knelt. Immediately M. Francois cried'Hush!' and the men turned to me with scandalised faces. I fell back.Yet even then, whispering on his knees by the dying man, the knave wasthinking, I felt sure, of me, glorying at once in his immunity and thepower it gave him to tantalise me without fear.
I determined, whatever the result, to intercept him when all was over;and on the man dying a few minutes later, I walked resolutely to theopen side of the shed, thinking it likely he might try to slip away asmysteriously as he had come. He stood a moment speaking to M. Francois,however, and then, accompanied by him, advanced boldly to meet me, alean smile on his face.
'Father Antoine,' M. d'Agen said politely,' tells me that he knowsyou, M. de Marsac, and desires to speak to you, MAL-A-PROPOS as is theoccasion.'
'And I to him,' I answered, trembling with rage, and only restrainingby an effort the impulse which would have had me dash my hand in thepriest's pale, smirking face. 'I have waited long for this moment,' Icontinued, eyeing him steadily, as M. Francois withdrew out of hearing,'and had you tried to avoid me, I would have dragged you back, thoughall your tribe were here to protect you.'
His presence so maddened me that I scarcely knew what I said. I felt mybreath come quickly, I felt the blood surge to my head, and it waswith difficulty I restrained myself when he answered with well-affectedsanctity, 'Like mother, like son, I fear, sir. Huguenots both.'
I choked with rage. What!' I said, 'you dare to threaten me as youthreatened my mother? Fool! know that only to-day for the purpose ofdiscovering and punishing you I took the rooms in which my mother died.'
'I know it,' he answered quietly. And then in a second, as by magic, healtered his demeanour completely, raising his head and looking me in theface. 'That, and so much besides, I know,' he continued, giving me, tomy astonishment, frown for frown, 'that if you will listen to me for amoment, M. de Marsac, and listen quietly, I will convince you that thefolly is not on my side.'
Amazed at his new manner, in which there was none of the madness thathad marked him at our first meeting, but a strange air of authority,unlike anything I had associated with him before, I signed to him toproceed.
'You think that I am in your power?' he said, smiling.
'I think,' I retorted swiftly, 'that, escaping me now, you will have atyour heels henceforth a worse enemy than even your own sins.'
'Just so,' he answered, nodding. 'Well, I am going to show you thatthe reverse is the case; and that you are as completely in my hands, tospare or to break, as this straw. In the first place, you are here inBlois, a Huguenot!'
'Chut!' I exclaimed contemptuously, affecting a confidence I was farfrom feeling. 'A little while back that might have availed you. But weare in Blois, not Paris. It is not far to the Loire, and you have todeal with a man now, not with a woman. It is you who have cause totremble, not I.'
'You think to be protected,' he answered with a sour smile, 'even onthis side of the Loire, I see. But one word to the Pope's Legate, or tothe Duke of Nevers, and you would see the inside of a dungeon, if notworse. For the king--'
'King or no king!' I answered, interrupting him with more assurance thanI felt, seeing that I remembered only too well Henry's remark that Rosnymust not look to him for protection, 'I fear you not a whit! And thatreminds me. I have heard you talk treason--rank, black treason, priest,as ever sent man to rope, and I will give you up. By heaven I will!' Icried, my rage increasing, as I discerned, more and more clearly, thedangerous hold he had over me. 'You have threatened me! One word, and Iwill send you to the gallows!'
'Sh!' he answered, indicating M. Francois by, a gesture of the hand.'For your own sake, not mine. This is fine talking, but you have notyet heard all I know. Would you like to hear how you have spent the lastmonth? Two days after Christmas, M. de Marsac, you left Chize with ayoung lady--I can give you her name, if you please. Four days afterwardsyou reached Blois, and took her to your mother's lodging. Next morningshe left you for M. de Bruhl. Two days later you tracked her to a housein the Ruelle d'Arcy, and freed her, but lost her in the moment ofvictory. Then you stayed in Blois until your mother's death, going a dayor two later to M. de Rosny's house by Mantes, where mademoiselle stillis. Yesterday you arrived in Blois with M. de Rosny; you went to hislodging; you--'
'Proceed, I muttered, leaning forward. Under cover of my cloak I drew mydagger half-way from its sheath. 'Proceed, sir, I pray,' I repeated withdry lips.
'You slept there,' he continued, holding his ground, but shudderingslightly, either from cold or because he perceived my movement and readmy design in my eyes.
'This morning you remained here in attendance on M. de Rambouillet.'
For the moment I breathed freely again, perceiving that though he knewmuch, the one thing on which M. de Rosny's design turned had escapedhim. The secret interview with the king, which compromised alike Henryhimself and M. de Rambouillet, had apparently passed unnoticed andunsuspected. With a sigh of intense relief I slid back the dagger, whichI had fully made up my mind to use had he known all, and drew my cloakround me with a shrug of feigned indifference. I sweated to think whathe did know, but our interview with the king having escaped him, Ibreathed again.
'Well, sir,' I said curtly, 'I have listened. And now, what is thepurpose of all this?'
'My purpose?' he answered, his eyes glittering. 'To show you that youare in my power. You are the agent of M. de Rosny. I, the agent, howeverhumble, of the Holy Catholic League. Of your movements I know all. Whatdo you know of mine?'
'Knowledge,' I made grim answer, 'is not everything, sir priest.'
&
nbsp; 'It is more than it was,' he said, smiling his thin-lipped smile. 'It isgoing to be more than it is. And I know much--about you, M. de Marsac.'
'You know too much!' I retorted, feeling his covert threats close roundme like the folds of some great serpent. 'But you are imprudent, Ithink. Will you tell me what is to prevent me striking you through whereyou stand, and ridding myself at a blow of so much knowledge?'
'The presence of three men, M. de Marsac,' he answered lightly, wavinghis hand towards M. Francois and the others, 'every one of whom wouldgive you up to justice. You forget that you are north of the Loire,and that priests are not to be massacred here with impunity, as in yourlawless south-country. However, enough. The night is cold, and M. d'Agengrows suspicious as well as impatient. We have, perhaps, spoken toolong already. Permit me--he bowed and drew back a step--'to resume thisdiscussion to-morrow.'
Despite his politeness and the hollow civility with which he thussought; to close the interview, the light of triumph which shone inhis eyes, as the glare of the torch fell athwart them, no less than theassured tone of his voice, told me clearly that he knew his power.He seemed, indeed, transformed: no longer a slinking, peaceful clerk,preying on a woman's fears, but a bold and crafty schemer, skilled andunscrupulous, possessed of hidden knowledge and hidden resources; thepersonification of evil intellect. For a moment, knowing all I knew, andparticularly the responsibilities which lay before me, and the interestscommitted to my hands, I quailed, confessing myself unequal to him.I forgot the righteous vengeance I owed him; I cried out helplesslyagainst the ill-fortune which had brought him across my path. I sawmyself enmeshed and fettered beyond hope of escape, and by an effortonly controlled the despair I felt.
'To-morrow?' I muttered hoarsely. 'At what time?'
He shook his head with a cunning smile. 'A thousand thanks, but I willsettle that myself!' he answered. 'Au revoir!' and uttering a word ofleave-taking to M. Francois d'Agen, he blessed the two servants, andwent out into the night.