CHAPTER XXIV.
THE RUE TIZON AND THE RUE CLOCHE PERCEE.
La Mole hurriedly left the Louvre, and set out to search Paris for poorCoconnas.
His first move was to repair to the Rue de l'Arbre Sec and to enterMaitre La Huriere's, for La Mole remembered that he had often repeatedto the Piedmontese a certain Latin motto which was meant to prove thatLove, Bacchus, and Ceres are gods absolutely necessary to us, and hehoped that Coconnas, to follow up the Roman aphorism, had gone to the_Belle Etoile_ after a night which must have been as full for his friendas it had been for himself.
La Mole found nothing at La Huriere's except the reminder of the assumedobligation. A breakfast which was offered with good grace was eagerlyaccepted by our gentleman, in spite of his anxiety. His stomach calmedin default of his mind, La Mole resumed his walk, ascending the bank ofthe Seine like a husband searching for his drowned wife. On reaching thequay of the Greve, he recognized the place where, as he had said toMonsieur d'Alencon, he had been stopped during his nocturnal tramp threeor four hours before. This was no unusual thing in Paris, older by ahundred years than that in which Boileau was awakened at the sound of aball piercing his window shutter. A bit of the plume from his hatremained on the battle-field. The sentiment of possession is innate inman. La Mole had ten plumes each more beautiful than the last, and yethe stopped to pick up that one, or, rather, the sole fragment of whatremained of it, and was contemplating it with a pitiful air when heheard the sound of heavy steps approaching, and rough voices orderinghim to stand aside. La Mole raised his head and perceived a litterpreceded by two pages and accompanied by an outrider. La Mole thought herecognized the litter, and quickly stepped aside.
The young man was not mistaken.
"Monsieur de la Mole!" exclaimed a sweet voice from the litter, while ahand as white and as smooth as satin drew back the curtains.
"Yes, madame, in person," replied La Mole bowing.
"Monsieur de la Mole with a plume in his hand," continued the lady inthe litter. "Are you in love, my dear monsieur, and are you recoveringlost traces?"
"Yes, madame," replied La Mole, "I am in love, and very much so. Butjust now these are my own traces that I have found, although they arenot those for which I am searching. But will your majesty permit me toinquire after your health?"
"It is excellent, monsieur; it seems to me that I have never beenbetter. This probably comes from the fact of my having spent the nightin retreat."
"Ah! in retreat!" said La Mole, looking at Marguerite strangely.
"Well, yes; what is there surprising in that?"
"May I, without indiscretion, ask you in what convent?"
"Certainly, monsieur, I make no mystery of it; in the convent of the_Annonciade_. But what are you doing here with this startled air?"
"Madame, I too passed the night in retreat, and in the vicinity of thesame convent. This morning I am looking for my friend who hasdisappeared, and in seeking him I came upon this plume."
"Whom does it belong to? Really, you frighten me about him; the place isa bad one."
"Your majesty may be reassured; the plume belongs to me. I lost it hereabout half-past five, as I was escaping from the hands of four banditswho tried with all their might to murder me, or at least I think theydid."
Marguerite repressed a quick gesture of terror.
"Oh! tell me about it!" said she.
"Nothing is easier, madame. It was, as I have had the honor to tell yourmajesty, about five o'clock in the morning."
"And you were already out at five o'clock in the morning?" interruptedMarguerite.
"Your majesty will excuse me," said La Mole, "I had not yet returned."
"Ah! Monsieur de la Mole! you returned at five o'clock in the morning!"said Marguerite with a smile which was fatal for every one, and which LaMole was unfortunate enough to find adorable; "you returned so late, youmerited this punishment!"
"Therefore I do not complain, madame," said La Mole, bowingrespectfully, "and I should have been cut to pieces had I not consideredmyself a hundred times more fortunate than I deserve to be. But I wasreturning late, or early, as your majesty pleases, from that fortunatehouse in which I had spent the night in retreat, when four cut-throatsrushed from the Rue de la Mortellerie and pursued me with indescribablylong knives. It is grotesque, is it not, madame? but it is true--I hadto run away, for I had forgotten my sword."
"Oh! I understand," said Marguerite, with an admirably naive manner,"and you have come back to find your sword?"
La Mole looked at Marguerite as though a suspicion flashed through hismind.
"Madame, I would return to some place and very willingly too, since mysword is an excellent blade, but I do not know where the house is."
"What, monsieur?" exclaimed Marguerite. "You do not know where the houseis in which you passed the night?"
"No, madame, and may Satan exterminate me if I have any idea!"
"Well this is strange! your story, then, is a romance?"
"A true romance, as you say, madame."
"Tell it to me."
"It is somewhat long."
"Never mind, I have time."
"And, above all, it is improbable."
"Never mind, no one could be more credulous than I."
"Does your majesty command me?"
"Why, yes; if necessary."
"In that case I obey. Last evening, having left two adorable women withwhom we had spent the evening on the Saint Michel bridge, we took supperat Maitre La Huriere's."
"In the first place," said Marguerite, perfectly naturally, "who isMaitre La Huriere?"
"Maitre La Huriere, madame," said La Mole, again glancing at Margueritewith the suspicion he had already felt, "Maitre La Huriere is the hostof the inn of the _Belle Etoile_ in the Rue de l'Arbre Sec."
"Yes, I can see it from here. You were supping, then, at Maitre LaHuriere's with your friend Coconnas, no doubt?"
"Yes, madame, with my friend Coconnas, when a man entered and handed useach a note."
"Were they alike?" asked Marguerite.
"Exactly alike. They contained only a single line:
"'_You are awaited in the Rue Saint Antoine, opposite the Rue SaintJouy_.'"
"And had the note no signature?" asked Marguerite.
"No; only three words--three charming words which three times promisedthe same thing, that is to say, a three-fold happiness."
"And what were these three words?"
"_Eros, Cupido, Amor_."
"In short, three sweet words; and did they fulfil what they promised?"
"Oh! more, madame, a hundred times more!" cried La Mole with enthusiasm.
"Continue. I am curious to know who was waiting for you in the Rue SaintAntoine, opposite the Rue de Jouy."
"Two duennas, each with a handkerchief in her hand. They said we mustlet them bandage our eyes. Your majesty may imagine that it was not adifficult thing to have done. We bravely extended our necks. My guideturned me to the left, my friend's guide turned him to the right, and wewere separated."
"And then?" continued Marguerite, who seemed determined to carry out theinvestigation to the end.
"I do not know," said La Mole, "where his guide led my friend. To hell,perhaps. As to myself, all I know is that mine led me to a place Iconsider paradise."
"And whence, no doubt, your too great curiosity drove you?"
"Exactly, madame; you have the gift of divination. I waited,impatiently, for daylight, that I might see where I was, when athalf-past four the same duenna returned, again bandaged my eyes, made mepromise not to try to raise my bandage, led me outside, accompanied mefor a hundred feet, made me again swear not to remove my bandage until Ihad counted fifty more. I counted fifty, and found myself in the RueSaint Antoine, opposite the Rue de Jouy."
"And then"--
"Then, madame, I returned so happy that I paid no attention to the fourwretches, from whose clutches I had such difficulty in escaping. Now,madame," continued La Mole, "in finding a pie
ce of my plume here, myheart trembled with joy, and I picked it up, promising myself to keep itas a souvenir of this glad night. But in the midst of my happiness, onething troubles me; that is, what may have become of my companion."
"Has he not returned to the Louvre?"
"Alas! no, madame! I have searched everywhere, in the _Etoile d'Or_, onthe tennis courts, and in many other respectable places; but no Annibal,and no Coconnas"--
As La Mole uttered these words he accompanied them with a gesture ofhopelessness, extended his arms and opened his cloak, underneath whichat various points his doublet was seen, the lining of which showedthrough the rents like so many elegant slashes.
"Why, you were riddled through and through!" exclaimed Marguerite.
"Riddled is the word!" said La Mole, who was not sorry to turn to hisaccount the danger he had run. "See, madame, see!"
"Why did you not change your doublet at the Louvre, since you returnedthere?" asked the queen.
"Ah!" said La Mole, "because some one was in my room."
"Some one in your room?" said Marguerite, whose eyes expressed thegreatest astonishment; "who was in your room?"
"His highness."
"Hush!" interrupted Marguerite.
The young man obeyed.
"_Qui ad lecticam meam stant?_" she asked La Mole.
"_Duo pueri et unus eques_."
"_Optime, barbari!_" said she. "_Dic, Moles, quem inveneris in biculotuo?_"
"_Franciscum ducem_."
"_Agentem?_"
"_Nescio quid_."
"_Quocum?_"
"_Cum ignoto._"[8]
"That is strange," said Marguerite. "So you were unable to findCoconnas?" she continued, without evidently thinking of what she wassaying.
"So, madame, as I have had the honor of telling you, I am really dyingof anxiety."
"Well," said Marguerite, sighing, "I do not wish to detain you longer inyour search for him; I do not know why I think so, but he will findhimself! Never mind, however, go, in spite of this."
The queen laid a finger on her lips. But as beautiful Marguerite hadconfided no secret, had made no avowal to La Mole, the young manunderstood that this charming gesture, meaning only to impose silence onhim, must have another significance.
The procession resumed its march, and La Mole, intent on following outhis investigation, continued to ascend the quay as far as the Rue LongPont which led him to the Rue Saint Antoine.
Opposite the Rue Jouy he stopped. It was there that the previous eveningthe two duennas had bandaged his eyes and those of Coconnas. He hadturned to the left, then he had counted twenty steps. He repeated thisand found himself opposite a house, or rather a wall, behind which rosea house; in this wall was a door with a shed over it ornamented withlarge nails and loop-holes.
The house was in the Rue Cloche Percee, a small narrow street beginningin the Rue Saint Antoine and ending in the Rue Roi de Sicile.
"By Heaven!" cried La Mole, "it was here--I would swear to it--inextending my hand, as I came out, I felt the nails in the door, then Idescended two steps. The man who ran by crying 'Help!' who was killed inthe Rue Roi de Sicile, passed just as I reached the first. Let us see,now."
La Mole went to the door and knocked. The door opened and a mustachedjanitor appeared.
"_Was ist das?_" (Who is that?) asked the janitor.
"Ah! ah!" said La Mole, "we are Swiss, apparently." "My friend," hecontinued, assuming the most charming manner, "I want my sword which Ileft in this house in which I spent the night."
"_Ich verstehe nicht_," (I do not understand,) replied the janitor.
"My sword," went on La Mole.
"_Ich verstehe nicht_," repeated the janitor.
"--which I left--my sword which I left"--
"_Ich verstehe nicht._"
"--in this house, in which I spent the night."
"_Gehe zum Teufel!_" (Go to the devil!) And he slammed the door in LaMole's face.
"By Heaven!" cried La Mole, "if I had this sword I have just asked for,I would gladly put it through that fellow's body. But I have not, andthis must wait for another day."
Thereupon La Mole continued his way to the Rue Roi de Sicile, took aboutfifty steps to the right, then to the left again, and came to the RueTizon, a little street running parallel with the Rue Cloche Percee, andlike it in every way. More than this, scarcely had he gone thirty stepsbefore he came upon the door with the large nails, with its shed andloop-holes, the two steps and the wall. One would have said that the RueCloche Percee had returned to see him pass by.
La Mole then reflected that he might have mistaken his right for hisleft, and he knocked at this door, to make the same demand he had madeat the other. But this time he knocked in vain. The door was not opened.
Two or three times La Mole made the same trip, which naturally led himto the idea that the house had two entrances, one on the Rue ClochePercee, the other on the Rue Tizon.
But this conclusion, logical as it was, did not bring him back hissword, and did not tell him where his friend was. For an instant heconceived the idea of buying another sword and cutting to pieces thewretched janitor who so persistently refused to speak anything butGerman, but he thought this porter belonged to Marguerite, and that ifMarguerite had chosen thus, it was because she had her reasons, and thatit might be disagreeable for her to be deprived of him.
Now La Mole would not have done anything disagreeable to Marguerite foranything in the world.
Fearing to yield to this temptation he returned about two o'clock in theafternoon to the Louvre.
As his room was not occupied this time he could enter it. The matter wasurgent enough as far as his doublet was concerned, which, as the queenhad already remarked to him, was considerably torn.
He therefore at once approached his bed to substitute the beautifulpearl-gray doublet for the one he wore, when to his great surprise thefirst thing he perceived near the pearl-gray doublet was the famoussword which he had left in the Rue Cloche Percee.
La Mole took it and turned it over and over.
It was really his.
"Ah! ah!" said he, "is there some magic under all this?" Then with asigh, "Ah! if poor Coconnas could be found like my sword!"
Two or three hours after La Mole had ceased his circular tramp aroundthe small double house, the door on the Rue Tizon had opened. It wasabout five o'clock in the evening, consequently night had closed in.
A woman wrapped in a long cloak trimmed with fur, accompanied by anattendant, came out of the door which was held open by a duenna offorty, and hurrying rapidly along to the Rue Roi de Sicile, knocked at asmall door of the Hotel Argenson, which opened for her; she then left bythe main entrance of the same hotel which opened on to the Vieille Ruedu Temple, went toward a small postern in the Hotel de Guise, unlockedit with a key which she carried in her pocket, and disappeared.
Half an hour later a young man with bandaged eyes left by the same doorof the small house, guided by a woman who led him to the corner of theRue Geoffroy Lasnier and La Mortellerie. There she asked him to countfifty steps and then remove his bandage.
The young man carefully obeyed the order, and when he had counted fifty,removed the handkerchief from his eyes.
"By Heaven!" cried he, looking around. "I'll be hanged if I know where Iam! Six o'clock!" he cried, as the clock of Notre-Dame struck, "and poorLa Mole, what can have become of him? Let us run to the Louvre, perhapsthey may have news of him there."
Coconnas hurriedly descended the Rue La Mortellerie, and reached thegates of the Louvre in less time than it would have taken an ordinaryhorse. As he went he jostled and knocked down the moving hedge of bravebourgeois who were walking peacefully about the shops of the Place deBaudoyer, and entered the palace.
There he questioned the Swiss and the sentinel. The former thought theyhad seen Monsieur de la Mole enter that morning, but had not seen him goout.
The sentinel had been there only an hour and a half and had seennothing.
He ran to
his room and hastily threw open the door; but he found onlythe torn doublet of La Mole on the bed, which increased his fears stillmore.
Then he thought of La Huriere and hastened to the worthy inn of the_Belle Etoile_. La Huriere had seen La Mole; La Mole had breakfastedthere. Coconnas was thus wholly reassured, and as he was very hungry heordered supper.
Coconnas was in the two moods necessary for a good supper--his mind wasrelieved and his stomach was empty; therefore he supped so well that themeal lasted till eight o'clock. Then strengthened by two bottles oflight wine from Anjou, of which he was very fond and which he tossed offwith a sensual enjoyment shown by winks of his eyes and repeatedsmacking of his lips, he set out again in his search for La Mole,accompanying it through the crowd by kicks and knocks of his feet inproportion to the increasing friendship inspired in him by the comfortwhich always follows a good meal.
That lasted one hour, during which time Coconnas searched every streetin the vicinity of the Quay of the Greve, the Port au Charbon, the RueSaint Antoine, and the Rues Tizon and Cloche Percee, to which he thoughthis friend might have returned. Finally he bethought himself that therewas a place through which he had to pass, the gate of the Louvre, and heresolved to wait at this gate until his return.
He was not more than a hundred steps from the Louvre, and had just puton her feet a woman whose husband he had already overturned on the PlaceSaint Germain l'Auxerrois, when in the distance he perceived before himin the doubtful light of a great lantern near the drawbridge of theLouvre the cherry-colored velvet cloak and the white plume of hisfriend, who like a shadow was disappearing under the gate and returningthe sentinel's greeting.
The famous cherry-colored cloak was so well known to every one that hecould not be mistaken in it.
"Well! by Heaven!" cried Coconnas; "it is really he this time, and he isreturning. Well! well! La Mole, my friend! Plague it! Yet I have a goodvoice. How does it happen that he does not hear me? Fortunately I haveas good legs as I have voice, so I will join him."
In this hope Coconnas set out as fast as he could, and reached theLouvre in an instant, but, fast as he was, just as he stepped into thecourt the red cloak, which seemed in haste also, disappeared in thevestibule.
"Hi there! La Mole!" cried Coconnas, still hastening. "Wait for me. Itis I, Coconnas. What in the devil are you hurrying so for? Are yourunning away?"
In fact the red cloak, as though it had wings, scaled the stairs ratherthan mounted them.
"Ah! you will not hear me!" cried Coconnas. "I am angry with you! Areyou sorry? Well, the devil! I can run no further." It was from the footof the staircase that Coconnas hurled this final apostrophe to thefugitive whom he gave up following with his feet, but whom he stillfollowed with his eyes through the screw of the stairway, and who hadreached Marguerite's chamber. Suddenly a woman came out of this room andtook the arm of the man Coconnas was following.
"Oh! oh!" said Coconnas, "that looked very much like Queen Marguerite.He was expected. In that case it is different. I understand why he didnot answer me."
Crouching down by the banister he looked through the opening of thestairway. Then after a few words in a low voice he saw the red cloakfollow the queen to her apartments.
"Good! good!" said Coconnas, "that is it. I was not mistaken. There aremoments when the presence of our best friend is necessary to us, anddear La Mole has one of those moments."
And Coconnas ascending the stairs softly sat down on a velvet benchwhich ornamented the landing place, and said to himself:
"Very well, instead of joining him I will wait--yes; but," he added, "Ithink as he is with the Queen of Navarre I may have to wait long--it iscold, by Heaven! Well! well! I can wait just as well in my room. He willhave to come there sometime."
Scarcely had he finished speaking, and started to carry out hisresolution, when a quick light step sounded above him, accompanied by asnatch of song so familiar that Coconnas at once turned his head in thedirection of the step and the song. It was La Mole descending from theupper story, where his room was. When he perceived Coconnas, he began todescend the stairs four steps at a time, and this done he threw himselfinto his arms.
"Oh, Heavens! is it you?" said Coconnas. "How the devil did you getout?"
"By the Rue Cloche Percee, by Heavens!"
"No, I do not mean that house."
"What then?"
"The queen's apartment."
"The queen's apartment?"
"The Queen of Navarre."
"I have not been there."
"Come now!"
"My dear Annibal," said La Mole, "you are out of your head. I have comefrom my room where I have been waiting for you for two hours."
"You have come from your room?"
"Yes."
"Was it not you I followed from the Place du Louvre?"
"When?"
"Just now."
"No."
"It was not you who disappeared under the gate ten minutes ago?"
"No."
"It was not you who just ascended the stairs as if you were pursued by alegion of devils?"
"No."
"By Heaven!" cried Coconnas, "the wine of the _Belle Etoile_ is not poorenough to have so completely turned my head. I tell you that I have justseen your cherry-colored cloak and your white plume under the gate ofthe Louvre, that I followed both to the foot of the stairway, and thatyour cloak, your plume, everything, to your swinging arm, was expectedhere by a lady whom I greatly suspect to be the Queen of Navarre, andwho led you through that door, which, unless I am mistaken, is that ofthe beautiful Marguerite."
"By Heaven!" cried La Mole, growing pale, "could there be treason?"
"Very good!" said Coconnas, "swear as much as you please, but do nottell me I am mistaken."
La Mole hesitated an instant, pressing his head between his hands,deterred by respect and jealousy. His jealousy conquered him, however,and he hastened to the door, at which he knocked with all his might.This caused a somewhat unusual hubbub considering the dignity of theplace in which it occurred.
"We shall be arrested," said Coconnas, "but no matter, it is very funny.Tell me, La Mole, are there ghosts in the Louvre?"
"I know nothing about it," said the young man as pale as the plume whichshaded his brow; "but I have always wanted to see one, and as theopportunity presents itself I shall do my best to come face to face withthis one."
"I shall not prevent you," said Coconnas, "only knock a little lessfiercely if you do not wish to frighten it away."
La Mole, exasperated as he was, felt the justice of the remark, andbegan to knock more gently.