The Vicomte de Bragelonne

  CHAPTER XXVIII.

  M. MALICORNE THE KEEPER OF THE RECORDS OF THE REALM OF FRANCE.

  Two women, whose figures were completely concealed by their mantles, andwhose masks effectually hid the upper portion of their faces, timidlyfollowed Manicamp's steps. On the first floor, behind curtains of reddamask, the soft light of a lamp, placed upon a low table, faintlyillumined the room, at the other extremity of which, on a large bedsteadsupported by spiral columns, around which curtains of the same color asthose which deadened the rays of the lamp had been closely drawn, lay DeGuiche, his head supported by pillows, his eyes looking as if the mistsof death seemed gathering there; his long black hair, scattered over thepillow, set off the young man's hollowed and pale temples to greatadvantage. It could be easily perceived that fever was the principaloccupant of that chamber. Guiche was dreaming. His wandering mind waspursuing, through gloom and mystery, one of those wild creations whichdelirium engenders. Two or three drops of blood, still liquid, stainedthe floor. Manicamp hurriedly ran up the stairs, but paused at thethreshold of the door, looked into the room, and, seeing that everythingwas perfectly quiet, he advanced toward the foot of the large leathernarmchair, a specimen of furniture of the reign of Henry IV., and seeingthat the nurse, as a matter of course, had dropped off to sleep, heawoke her, and begged her to pass into the adjoining room. Then,standing by the side of the bed, he remained for a moment deliberatingwhether it would be better to awaken Guiche, in order to acquaint himwith the good news. But as he began to hear behind the door the rustlingof the silk dresses and the hurried breathing of his two companions,and as he already saw that the curtain which hung before the doorwayseemed on the point of being impatiently drawn aside, he passed roundthe bed and followed the nurse into the next room. As soon as he haddisappeared, the curtain was raised, and his two female companionsentered the room he had just left. The one who entered the first made agesture to her companion which riveted her to the spot where she stood,close to the door, and then resolutely advanced toward the bed, drewback the curtains along the iron rod, and threw them in thick foldsbehind the head of the bed. She gazed upon the comte's pallid face,remarked his right hand enveloped in linen whose dazzling whiteness wasincreased by the counterpane covered with dark leaves which was thrownacross a portion of the sick couch. She shuddered as she saw a spot ofblood becoming larger and larger upon the linen bandages. The youngman's white chest was quite uncovered, as if the cool night air wouldassist his respiration. A small bandage fastened the dressings of thewound, around which a bluish circle of extravasated blood was graduallyincreasing in size. A deep sigh broke from her lips. She leaned againstone of the columns of the bed, and gazed, through the holes in her mask,upon the harrowing spectacle before her. A hoarse harsh sigh passed likea death rattle through the comte's clenched teeth. The masked ladyseized his left hand, which felt as scorching as burning coals. But atthe very moment she placed her icy hand upon it, the action of the coldwas such that De Guiche opened his eyes, and by a look in which revivedintelligence was dawning, seemed as if struggling back again intoexistence. The first thing upon which he fixed his gaze was this phantomstanding erect by his bedside. At that sight his eyes became dilated,but without any appearance of consciousness in them. The lady thereuponmade a sign to her companion, who had remained at the door; and, in allprobability, the latter had already received her lesson, for in a cleartone of voice, and without any hesitation whatever, she pronouncedthese words, "Monsieur le Comte, her royal highness Madame is desirousof knowing how you are able to bear your wound, and to express to you,by my lips, her great regret at seeing you suffer."

  As she pronounced the word Madame, Guiche started; he had not as yetremarked the person to whom the voice belonged, and he naturally turnedtoward the direction whence it proceeded. But, as he felt the cold handstill resting on his own, he again turned toward the motionless figurebeside him. "Was it you who spoke, madame?" he asked, in a weak voice,"or is there another person beside you in the room?"

  "Yes," replied the figure, in an almost unintelligible voice, as shebent down her head.

  "Well!" said the wounded man, with a great effort, "I thank you. TellMadame that I no longer regret dying, since she has remembered me."

  At this word "dying," pronounced by one whose life seemed to hang on athread, the masked lady could not restrain her tears, which flowed underher mask, and which appeared upon her cheeks just where the mask lefther face bare. If Guiche had been in fuller possession of his senses, hewould have seen her tears roll like glistening pearls, and fall upon hisbed. The lady, forgetting that she wore her mask, raised her hand asthough to wipe her eyes, and meeting the rough velvet, she tore away hermask in anger and threw it on the floor. At the unexpected apparitionbefore him, which seemed to issue from a cloud, Guiche uttered a cry andstretched out his arms toward her; but every word perished on his lips,and his strength seemed utterly abandoning him. His right hand, whichhad followed his first impulse, without calculating the amount ofstrength he had left, fell back again upon the bed, and immediatelyafterward the white linen was stained with a larger spot than before. Inthe meantime, the young man's eyes became dim, and closed as if he werealready struggling with the angel of death: and then, after a fewinvoluntary movements, his head fell back motionless on his pillow;from pale he had become livid. The lady was frightened; but on thisoccasion, contrary to what is usually the case, fear became attractive.She leaned over the young man, gazed earnestly, fixedly at his pale andcold face, which she almost touched, then imprinted a rapid kiss upon DeQuiche's left hand, who, trembling as if an electric shock had passedthrough him, awoke a second time, opened his large eyes, incapable ofrecognition, and again fell into a state of complete insensibility."Come," she said to her companion, "we must not remain here any longer;I shall be committing some folly or other."

  "Madame, madame, your highness is forgetting your mask!" said hervigilant companion.

  "Pick it up," replied her mistress, as she tottered almost senselesstoward the staircase, and as the street-door had been left only halfclosed, the two women, light as birds, passed through it, and withhurried steps returned to the palace. One of them ascended towardMadame's apartments, where she disappeared; the other entered the roombelonging to the maids of honor, namely, on the _entresol_, and havingreached her own room, she sat down before a table, and without givingherself time even to breathe, wrote the following letter:

  "This evening Madame has been to see M. de Guiche. Everything is going on well on this side. See that yours is the same, and do not forget to burn this paper."

  She then folded the letter in a long thin form, and leaving her roomwith every possible precaution, crossed a corridor which led to theapartments appropriated to the gentlemen attached to Monsieur's service.She stopped before a door, under which, having previously knocked twicein a short quick manner, she thrust the paper, and fled. Then, returningto her own room, she removed every trace of her having gone out, andalso of having written the letter. Amid the investigations she was sodiligently pursuing she perceived on the table the mask which belongedto Madame, and which, according to her mistress's directions, she hadbrought back, but had forgotten to restore to her. "Oh! oh!" she said,"I must not forget to do to-morrow what I have forgotten to do to-day."

  And she took hold of the velvet mask by that part of it which coveredthe cheeks, and feeling that her thumb was wet, she looked at it. It wasnot only wet, but reddened. The mask had fallen upon one of the spots ofblood which, we have already said, stained the floor, and from the blackvelvet outside, which had accidentally come into contact with it, theblood had passed through to the inside and stained the white cambriclining. "Oh! oh!" said Montalais, for doubtless our readers have alreadyrecognized her by these various maneuvers, "I shall not give her backher mask, it is far too precious now."

  And rising from her seat, she ran toward a box made of maple wood, whichinclosed different articles of toilet and perfumery. "No, not here," shesaid, "such a tre
asure must not be abandoned to the slightest chance ofdetection."

  Then, after a moment's silence, and with a smile which was peculiarlyher own, she added:--"Beautiful mask, stained with the blood of thatbrave knight, you shall go and join that collection of wonders, LaValliere's and Raoul's letters, that loving collection, indeed, whichwill some day or other form part of the history of France and ofroyalty. You shall be taken under M. Malicorne's care," said thelaughing girl, as she began to undress herself, "under the protection ofthat worthy M. Malicorne," she said, blowing out the taper, "who thinkshe was born only to become the chief usher of Monsieur's apartments, andwhom I will make keeper of the records and historiographer of the houseof Bourbon, and of the first houses in the kingdom. Let him grumble now,that discontented Malicorne," she added, as she drew the curtains andfell fast asleep.