CHAPTER X.
THE AGREEMENT.
The chevalier extended his hand to Roquefinette, saying:
"Yes, you are a man of your word, but enter quickly; it is importantthat my neighbors should not notice you."
"In that case I am as dumb as a log," answered the captain; "besides,"added he, pointing to the pate and the bottles which covered the table,"you have found the true way of shutting my mouth."
The chevalier shut the door behind the captain and pushed the bolt.
"Ah! ah! mystery--so much the better, I am fond of mystery. There isalmost always something to be gained when people begin by saying 'hush.'In any case you cannot do better than address yourself to your servant,"continued the captain, resuming his mythological language. "You see inme the grandson of Hippocrates, the god of silence. So do not beuneasy."
"That is well, captain," answered D'Harmental, "for I confess that whatI have to say to you is of sufficient importance for me to claim yourdiscretion beforehand."
"It is granted, chevalier. While I was giving a lesson to littleRavanne, I saw, out of a corner of my eye, that you were a skillfulswordsman, and I love brave men. Then, in return for a little service,only worth a fillip, you made me a present of a horse which was worth ahundred louis, and I love generous men. Thus you are twice my man, whyshould I not be yours once?"
"Well," said the chevalier, "I see that we understand each other."
"Speak, and I will listen," answered the captain, assuming his gravestair.
"You will listen better seated, my dear guest. Let us go to breakfast."
"You preach like St. John with the golden mouth, chevalier," said thecaptain, taking off his sword and placing that and his hat on theharpsichord; "so that," continued he, sitting down opposite D'Harmental,"one cannot differ from you in opinion. I am here; command the maneuver,and I will execute it."
"Taste that wine while I cut the pate."
"That is right," said the captain, "let us divide our forces, and fightthe enemy separately, then let us re-unite to exterminate what remains."
And joining practice to theory, the captain seized the first bottle bythe neck, drew the cork, and having filled a bumper, drank it off withsuch ease that one would have said that nature had gifted him with anespecial method of deglutition; but, to do him justice, scarcely had hedrunk it than he perceived that the liquor, which he had disposed of socavalierly, merited a more particular attention than he had given it.
"Oh!" said he, putting down his glass with a respectful slowness, "whathave I done, unworthy that I am? I drink nectar as if it were trash, andthat at the beginning of the feast! Ah!" continued he, shaking his head,"Roquefinette, my friend, you are getting old. Ten years ago you wouldhave known what it was at the first drop that touched your palate, whilenow you want many trials to know the worth of things. To your health,chevalier."
And this time the captain, more circumspect, drank the second glassslowly, and set it down three times before he finished it, winking hiseyes in sign of satisfaction. Then, when he had finished--
"This is hermitage of 1702, the year of the battle of Friedlingen. Ifyour wine-merchant has much like that, and if he will give credit, letme have his address. I promise him a good customer."
"Captain," answered the chevalier, slipping an enormous slice of pate onto the plate of his guest, "my wine-merchant not only gives credit, butto my friends he gives altogether."
"Oh, the honest man!" cried the captain. Then, after a minute's silence,during which a superficial observer would have thought him absorbed inthe appreciation of the pate, as he had been an instant before in thatof the wine, he leaned his two elbows on the table, and looking atD'Harmental with a penetrating glance between his knife and fork--
"So, my dear chevalier," said he, "we conspire, it seems, and in orderto succeed we have need of poor Captain Roquefinette."
"And who told you that, captain?" broke in the chevalier, trembling inspite of himself.
"Who told me that, pardieu! It is an easy riddle to answer. A man whogives away horses worth a hundred louis, who drinks wine at a pistolethe bottle, and who lodges in a garret in the Rue du Temps Perdu, whatshould he be doing if not conspiring?"
"Well, captain," said D'Harmental, laughing, "I shall never be discreet;you have divined the truth. Does a conspiracy frighten you?" continuedhe, filling his guest's glass.
"Frighten _me_! Who says that anything on earth can frighten CaptainRoquefinette?"
"Not I, captain; for at the first glance, at the first word, I fixed onyou as my second."
"Ah! that is to say, that if you are hung on a scaffold twenty feethigh, I shall be hung on one ten feet high, that's all!"
"Peste! captain," said D'Harmental, "if one always began by seeing thingin their worst light, one would never attempt anything."
"Because I have spoken of the gallows?" answered the captain. "Thatproves nothing. What is the gallows in the eyes of a philosopher? One ofthe thousand ways of parting from life, and certainly one of the leastdisagreeable. One can see that you have never looked the thing in theface, since you have such an aversion to it. Besides, on proving ournoble descent, we shall have our heads cut off, like Monsieur de Rohan.Did you see Monsieur de Rohan's head cut off?" continued the captain,looking at D'Harmental. "He was a handsome young man, like you, andabout your age. He conspired, but the thing failed. What would you have?Everybody may be deceived. They built him a beautiful black scaffold;they allowed him to turn toward the window where his mistress was; theycut the neck of his shirt with scissors, but the executioner was abungler, accustomed to hang, and not to decapitate, so that he wasobliged to strike three or four times to cut the head off, and at lasthe only managed by the aid of a knife which he drew from his girdle, andwith which he chopped so well that he got the neck in half. Bravo! youare brave!" continued the captain, seeing that the chevalier hadlistened without frowning to all the details of this horrible execution."That will do--I am your man. Against whom are we conspiring? Let ussee. Is it against Monsieur le Duc de Maine? Is it against Monsieur leDuc d'Orleans? Must we break the lame one's other leg? Must we cut outthe blind one's other eye? I am ready."
"Nothing of all that, captain; and if it pleases God there will be noblood spilled."
"What is going on then?"
"Have you ever heard of the abduction of the Duke of Mantua'ssecretary?"
"Of Matthioli?"----"Yes."
"Pardieu! I know the affair better than any one, for I saw them pass asthey were conducting him to Pignerol. It was the Chevalier deSaint-Martin and Monsieur de Villebois who did it; and by this tokenthey each had three thousand livres for themselves and their men."
"That was only middling pay," said D'Harmental, with a disdainful air.
"You think so, chevalier? Nevertheless three thousand livres is a nicelittle sum."
"Then for three thousand livres you would have undertaken it?"
"I would have undertaken it," answered the captain.
"But if instead of carrying off a secretary it had been proposed to youto carry off a duke?"
"That would have been dearer."
"But you would have undertaken it all the same?"
"Why not? I should have asked double--that is all."
"And if, in giving you double, a man like myself had said to you,'Captain, it is not an obscure danger that I plunge you into; it is astruggle in which I am myself engaged, like you, and in which I venturemy name, my future, and my head:' what would you have answered?"
"I would have given him my hand, as I now give it you. Now what is thebusiness?"
The chevalier filled his own glass and that of the captain.
"To the health of the regent," said he, "and may he arrive withoutaccident at the Spanish frontier, as Matthioli arrived at Pignerol."
"Ah! ah!" said the captain, raising his glass. Then, after a pause, "Andwhy not?" continued he, "the regent is but a man after all. Only weshall neither be hanged nor decapitated; we shall be broken on th
ewheel. To any one else I should say that a regent would be dearer, butto you, chevalier, I have only one price. Give me six thousand livres,and I will find a dozen determined men."
"But those twelve men, do you think that you may trust them?"
"What need for their knowing what they are doing? They shall think theyare only carrying out a wager."
"And I," answered D'Harmental, "will show you that I do not haggle withmy friends. Here are two thousand crowns in gold, take them on accountif we succeed; if we fail we will cry quits."
"Chevalier," answered the captain, taking the bag of money and poisingit on his hand with an indescribable air of satisfaction, "I will not doyou the injustice of counting after you. When is the affair to be?"
"I do not know yet, captain; but if you find the pate to your taste, andthe wine good, and if you will do me the pleasure of breakfasting withme every day as you have done to-day, I will keep you informed ofeverything."
"That would not do, chevalier," said the captain. "I should not havecome to you three mornings before the police of that cursed Argensonwould have found us out. Luckily he has found some one as clever ashimself, and it will be some time before we are at the bar together. No,no, chevalier, from now till the moment for action, the less we see ofone another the better; or rather, we must not see each other at all.Your street is not a long one, and as it opens at one end on the Rue duGros-Chenet, and at the other on the Rue Montmartre, I shall have noreason for coming through it. Here," continued he, detaching hisshoulder-knot, "take this ribbon. The day that you want me, tie it to anail outside your window. I shall understand it, and I will come toyou."
"How, captain!" said D'Harmental, seeing that his companion wasfastening on his sword. "Are you going without finishing the bottle?What has the wine, which you appeared to appreciate so much a littlewhile ago, done to you, that you despise it so now?"
"It is just because I appreciate it still that I separate myself fromit; and the proof that I do not despise it," said the captain, fillinghis glass, "is that I am going to take an adieu of it. To your health,chevalier; you may boast of having good wine. Hum! And now, n--o, no,that is all. I shall take to water till I see the ribbon flutter fromyour window. Try to let it be as soon as possible, for water is a liquidthat does not suit my constitution."
"But why do you go so soon?"
"Because I know Captain Roquefinette. He is a good fellow; but when hesits down before a bottle he must drink, and when he has drunk he musttalk; and, however well one talks, remember that those who talk muchalways finish by making some blunder. Adieu, chevalier. Do not forgetthe crimson ribbon; I go to look after our business."
"Adieu, captain," said D'Harmental, "I am pleased to see that I have noneed to preach discretion to you."
The captain made the sign of the cross on his mouth with his rightthumb, placed his hat straight on his head, raised his sword for fear ofits making a noise or beating against the wall, and went downstairs assilently as if he had feared that every step would echo in the Hoteld'Argenson.