‘This means, dear Nanon, that the gentlemen of Bordeaux either wish to frighten me or to seduce me.’
‘And what have you decided?’
‘To receive him.’
‘Can’t you avoid it?’
‘Impossible: there are some formalities that cannot be avoided.’
‘Oh, my God!’
‘What is it, Nanon?’
‘I am afraid…’
‘Of what?’
‘Didn’t you say that this emissary has come to frighten you or to seduce you?’
‘Of course: an envoy is only good for one or other of those two functions… Are you afraid that he will frighten me?’
‘Oh, no! But he might seduce you…’
‘You are insulting me, Nanon.’
‘Alas, my friend, I am telling you what I’m afraid of…’
‘Do you doubt me so much? What do you take me for, then?’
‘For the person you are, Canolles, that is to say for a generous, but tender heart.’
‘Huh!’ said Canolles, laughing. ‘But what negotiator are they sending me? Cupid himself?’
‘Perhaps.’
‘Have you seen him?’
‘No, I haven’t seen him, but I have heard his voice. It is very soft, for an emissary’s voice.’
‘Nanon, you’re mad! Let me carry out my duties. You made me governor…’
‘To defend me, my friend.’
‘So do you think I’m cowardly enough to betray you? Honestly, Nanon, you insult me with your lack of faith.’
‘So, are you really determined to see this young man?’
‘I must, and I should really resent it were you to stand any longer in the way of my carrying out this duty.’
‘You are free, my friend,’ said Nanon, sadly. ‘Just one word more…’
‘Say it.’
‘Where will you receive him?’
‘In my study.’
‘Canolles, one favour…’
‘Which is?’
‘Instead of receiving him in your study, do so in your bedroom.’
‘What are you thinking of?’
‘Can’t you see?’
‘No.’
‘My room opens on to your alcove…’
‘So you will listen?’
‘Behind the curtains, if you will let me.’
‘Nanon!’
‘Let me stay close to you, my dear. I have faith in my destiny, I’ll bring you luck.’
‘But, Nanon, suppose this negotiator…’
‘Well, what?’
‘… has come to entrust some state secret…’
‘Can’t you entrust a state secret to the woman who has entrusted her life and her fortune to you?’
‘Well, then, Nanon, listen to us if you absolutely insist, but don’t keep me any longer: the envoy is waiting.’
‘Go on, Canolles, go on. But first, let me bless you for the favour you are doing me.’
And the young woman made to kiss her lover’s hand.
‘You are crazy!’ said Canolles, drawing her to his breast and kissing her forehead. ‘So, you will be…’
‘Behind the curtains on your bed. From there, I can see and hear.’
‘At least, don’t laugh, Nanon. These are serious matters.’
‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I won’t laugh.’
Canolles gave orders for the messenger to be brought in and went through to his room, a huge chamber furnished in the reign of Charles IX and austere in appearance. Two candlesticks were burning on the mantelpiece but only gave a weak light in the vast apartment. The alcove, at the far end, was entirely in the dark.
‘Are you there, Nanon?’ Canolles asked.
He heard a stifled, breathless ‘yes’.
At that moment there was the sound of footsteps, and the sentry presented arms. The messenger came in and kept watching the person who had introduced him until he was – or thought he was – alone with Canolles. It was then that he raised his hat and tossed back his cloak – and at once a mass of blonde hair fell across those charming shoulders, while the fine, shapely form of a woman appeared beneath the gold baldric, and, from her soft, sad eyes, Canolles recognized the Viscountess de Cambes.
‘I told you that I should find you, and I am keeping my word,’ she said. ‘Here I am!’
Canolles, with a start of amazement and anguish, clapped his hands and slumped down into a chair.
‘You!’ he murmured. ‘You! Oh, my God! Why have you come here? What do you want?’
‘I want to know, Monsieur, if you still remember me.’
Canolles gave a deep sigh and put both hands in front of his eyes to shield them from this alluring and, at the same time, disastrous apparition. Now he understood everything. Nanon’s uneasiness, her pallor and her trembling… and most of all her desire to be present at this interview. Nanon, with the eyes of jealousy, had recognized a woman behind the envoy.
‘I have come to ask you,’ Claire continued, ‘whether you are ready to abide by the undertaking you made to me in that little room in Jaulnay, to give your resignation to the queen and join the princes.’
‘Oh! Silence, silence!’ Canolles cried.
Claire shuddered at the tone of alarm in the young man’s trembling voice and looked around her uneasily.
‘Are we not alone here?’ she asked.
‘We are, Madame,’ said Canolles. ‘But might not someone hear us through these walls?’
‘I thought that the walls of the fort of Saint-Georges were more solid than that,’ said Claire, with a smile.
Canolles did not answer.
‘So I have come to ask you how it is,’ Claire went on, ‘that in the eight or ten days that you have been here, I have not heard a word about you. So much so that I should still not have known who was in command of the Ile Saint-Georges, were it not that fate, or rather rumour, had informed me that it was the man who swore to me, barely a dozen days ago, that his fall from grace was a blessing, because it would allow him to devote his sword, his courage and his life to the party to which I belong.’
Nanon could not contain a movement that made Canolles shudder and Madame de Cambes turn round.
‘What’s that?’ she asked.
‘Nothing,’ Canolles replied. ‘One of the usual noises in this old room, which is full of gloomy creaking sounds.’
‘If it is anything else,’ Claire said, putting a hand on Canolles’s arm, ‘don’t conceal it from me, Baron, because you must realize the importance of the discussion that we are about to have, since I have come here in person to see you.’
Canolles wiped the sweat off his brow and tried to smile as he said: ‘Speak, then.’
‘I have come to remind you of your promise and to ask if you are prepared to keep it.’
‘Alas, Madame!’ Canolles replied. ‘That has become impossible.’
‘Why?’
‘Because since that time some unexpected events have occurred, and some ties that I thought were broken have been restored. In place of the punishment I thought I deserved, the queen has seen fit to give me a reward of which I was unworthy. I am now attached to Her Majesty’s party by… gratitude.’
A sigh: poor Nanon had no doubt been expecting another word than the one that had been spoken.
‘Say “by ambition”, Monsieur de Canolles, and I will understand you. You are noble, of high birth; at twenty-eight you are made lieutenant-colonel and governor of a fortress. That’s fine, I admit, but it is not the natural reward for your fine qualities, and Monsieur de Mazarin is not the only one to appreciate them.’
‘Madame, not another word, I pray you,’ said Canolles.
‘Forgive me, Monsieur,’ said Claire, ‘but now it is not the Viscountess de Cambes who is speaking, but the envoy of the princess who has a mission to accomplish here… and this she must fulfil.’
‘Speak, then, Madame,’ Canolles replied, with a sigh that was like a groan.
‘Very well! The princess,
knowing the feelings that you displayed first of all in Chantilly and then in Jaulnay, and eager to discover which party you will finally support, had resolved to send you a negotiator in order to appeal to you. I took on this mission, which someone other than myself might perhaps have carried out well enough… I took it on myself, thinking that, since I am privy to your secret thoughts on the matter, I could accomplish it better than anyone.’
‘Thank you, Madame,’ said Canolles, tearing at his breast with his hand, because, in the brief pauses in the dialogue, he could hear Nanon’s rapid breathing.
‘So this is what I am suggesting to you, Monsieur… in the name of the princess, you understand, because if it were in my own name,’ Claire continued, with her charming smile, ‘I should have reversed the order of the proposals.’
‘I am listening,’ said Canolles in a dull voice.
‘You will hand over the Ile Saint-Georges on one of the three conditions that I am about to suggest, as you wish. The first is this – and remember, I am not the one who is speaking – the sum of two hundred thousand livres.’
‘Oh, Madame! Say no more,’ said Canolles, trying to break off the conversation. ‘The queen has entrusted me with a command, the command of the Ile Saint-Georges, which I shall defend to the death.’
‘Remember the past, Monsieur,’ Claire exclaimed, with sadness. ‘That is not what you told me in our previous conversation, when you offered to leave everything to follow me and were already holding the quill in your hand to offer your resignation to those for whom you now wish to sacrifice your life.’
‘I may have offered you that, Madame, when I was free to choose my path. But today I am no longer free…’
‘You are no longer free!’ Claire exclaimed, going pale. ‘What do you imply by that, Monsieur? What do you mean?’
‘I mean that I have a debt of honour.’
‘Very well. Then hear my next proposal.’
‘What is the use?’ Canolles said. ‘Have I not told you often enough that I am firmly resolved? So do not try to tempt me; it would be pointless.’
‘Forgive me, Monsieur,’ Claire replied, ‘but I too have a duty to perform, and I must do so to the end.’
‘Go on,’ Canolles murmured. ‘But you are truly very cruel.’
‘Tender your resignation, and we shall then act more effectively on your successor than on you. In a year, or in two years, you will resume your service under the prince, with the rank of brigadier.’
Canolles sadly shook his head.
‘Alas, Madame, why do you ask the impossible of me?’
‘Is it to me that you are saying this?’ said Claire. ‘Frankly, Monsieur, I fail to understand you. Weren’t you on the point of signing that very resignation? Did you not say at that time to the person who was then close to you, and whom you listened to with such joy, that you were resigning of your own free will and from the bottom of your heart? So why will you not do here, when I am asking you… imploring you… what you intended to do in Jaulnay?’
Each of these words entered like a dagger into the heart of Nanon, and Canolles felt them enter.
‘What at that time was an action of no significance would today be an act of treachery, of infamous treachery!’ Canolles said, in a low voice. ‘Never shall I give up the Ile Saint-Georges! Never shall I tender my resignation!’
‘Wait, wait,’ said Claire, in her softest voice, while looking anxiously around her, because Canolles’s resistance, and in particular the inhibition that he seemed to be feeling, appeared peculiar to her. ‘Listen to this last proposal, the one with which I should have wished to begin, since I knew in advance that you would refuse the first two. Material benefits, as I am pleased to have guessed, are not the things that tempt a heart such as yours. What you need are other expectations than those of ambition or fortune: noble instincts require noble rewards. So listen…’
‘In the name of heaven, Madame,’ Canolles said. ‘Have pity on me!’ And he made as though to leave.
Claire thought that his resolve had been shaken and was convinced that what she was about to say would complete her victory, so she held him back and continued: ‘If instead of base rewards we were to offer you a pure and honourable reward… Suppose we were to pay for your resignation – this resignation that you can tender without disgrace, since hostilities have not yet begun, this resignation that is neither a defection nor an act of perfidy, but a pure and simple choice… If, I say, this resignation were to be rewarded with an alliance… If a woman whom you have told that you love her, to whom you have sworn to love her for ever, and who, despite these professions of love, has never responded to your passion… suppose this woman were to tell you: “Monsieur de Canolles, I am free, I am rich, I love you, become my husband, let us leave together… Go wherever you wish, far from all civil strife, outside France…” Well, Monsieur, this time would you not accept?’
Despite Claire’s blushes and despite her charming hesitations, despite the memory of the pretty little Château de Cambes which he could have seen from his window, if, during the progress of the scene which we have just described, night had not fallen, Canolles remained unwavering and firm in his resolve, because from afar he could see emerging between the Gothic curtains and pale in the shadows, the dishevelled head of Nanon, trembling with anxiety.
‘Why, answer me, in heaven’s name!’ the viscountess went on. ‘I cannot understand your silence. Was I mistaken? Are you not the Baron de Canolles? Are you not the same man who told me in Chantilly that you loved me, who repeated it to me in Jaulnay, who swore that you loved only me in the world and that you were prepared to sacrifice every other love to me? Say, say something! For heaven’s sake, answer me! Answer me!’
A groan was heard, this time so unambiguous and so clear that Madame de Cambes could not doubt that a third person was present in the discussion. Her eyes, appalled, followed the direction in which Canolles was looking, and he could not turn away quickly enough to prevent the viscountess’s eyes, guided by his, from observing the pale, motionless head, like that of a ghost, and the breathless figure of the woman who was following every stage of the conversation.
In the darkness, the two women exchanged a burning look, and both of them gave a cry.
Nanon vanished.
As for Madame de Cambes, she quickly seized her hat and her cloak and turned towards Canolles, saying: ‘Monsieur, now I understand what you call duty and gratitude. I understand the nature of the duty that you refuse to abandon or to betray. I understand at last that there are feelings that cannot be seduced by any blandishments. I leave you entirely to these feelings, to that power, to that gratitude. Farewell, Baron, farewell!’
She made as if to leave, while Canolles did not try to restrain her; then a painful memory held her back.
‘One last thing, Monsieur,’ she said. ‘In the name of the friendship that I owe you for the service that you did me, in the name of the friendship that you owe me for the service that I, too, have done you, and in the name of all those who love you and whom you love – and I make no exception – do not engage in battle. Tomorrow, or perhaps the next day, you will be attacked in Saint-Georges: do not cause me the pain of knowing that you are either defeated or dead.’
At these words, the young man started and came back to his senses.
‘Madame,’ he said, ‘I thank you on my knees for the assurance that you have given me of a friendship that is more dear to me than I can say. Ah, let them attack me, let them attack me, by God! I appeal to the enemy with more ardour than he will ever devote to opposing me. I need to fight, I need danger to raise myself in my own estimation. So let battle come, let danger come, let even death come, and it will be welcome, since I know that I shall die, rich in your friendship, strengthened by your compassion and honoured by your esteem.’
‘Farewell,’ said Claire, going to the door.
Canolles followed her. When they came to the middle of the dark corridor, he grasped her hand and said in a voice so
low that even he could barely hear the words that he uttered: ‘Claire, I love you more than I have ever loved you, but misfortune has decreed that I can only prove this love by dying far from you.’
For the moment, Madame de Cambes’s only reply was an ironic little laugh. But hardly had she left the fort than a painful sob rose in her throat, and she wrung her hands, crying: ‘Oh, he does not love me! Oh, God, he does not love me! And I, wretch that I am, I love him…’
IV
When he left Madame de Cambes, Canolles went back to his room. Nanon was standing there, pale and still, in the middle of the room. Canolles went over to her with a sad smile. As he approached, Nanon’s knee bent, he held out his hand to her, and she fell at his feet.
‘Forgive me, Canolles,’ she said. ‘Forgive me. I am the one who brought you here, I am the one who obtained this difficult and dangerous post for you. If you should be killed, I shall be the cause of your death. I am an egotist who thought only of her own happiness. Abandon me! Leave!’
Canolles gently raised her up.
‘I – abandon you!’ he said. ‘Never, Nanon, never! You are sacred to me. I have sworn to protect and defend you, to save you – and I shall save you or die!’
‘Do you say this from your heart, Canolles, unhesitatingly, with no regrets?’
‘Yes,’ Canolles said, smiling.
‘Thank you, worthy, noble friend, thank you. You see, this life that was so dear to me, I would sacrifice for you today without complaint, because only today do I know what you have done for me. You were offered money: are my treasures not yours? You were offered love: but will there ever be, in the world, a woman who loves you as I do? You were offered promotion… Listen, they are going to attack you. Well, let us buy soldiers, gather weapons and munitions. Let’s double our forces and defend ourselves. I shall fight for my love, you for your honour. You will defeat them, my brave Canolles, and the queen will say that she has no finer captain than you. Then I shall take care of your promotion, no? And when you are rich, laden with glory and honour, then you can abandon me if you wish. I shall have my memories to console me.’