Chicot the Jester

  CHAPTER LXXXVII.

  THE PROCESSION.

  As soon as the collation was over, the king had entered his roomwith Chicot, to put on his penitent's robe and had come out aninstant after, with bare feet, a cord round his waist, and his hoodover his face; the courtiers had made the same toilet. The weatherwas magnificent, and the pavements were strewn with flowers; animmense crowd lined the roads to the four places where the kingwas to stop. The clergy of St. Germain led the procession, andthe Archbishop of Paris followed, carrying the holy sacrament;between them walked young boys, shaking censers, and young girlsscattering roses. Then came the king, followed by his four friends,barefooted and frocked like himself.

  The Duc d'Anjou followed in his ordinary dress, accompanied byhis Angevins. Next came the principal courtiers, and then thebourgeois. It was one o'clock when they left the Louvre. Crillonand the French guards were about to follow, but the king signedto them to remain. It was near six in the evening before theyarrived before the old abbey, where they saw the prior and themonks drawn up on the threshold to wait for his majesty. TheDuc d'Anjou, a little before, had pleaded great fatigue, andhad asked leave to retire to his hotel, which had been grantedto him. His gentlemen had retired with him, as if to proclaimthat they followed the duke and not the king, besides which,they did not wish to fatigue themselves before the morrow. Atthe door of the abbey the king dismissed his four favorites,that they also might take some repose. The archbishop also, whohad eaten nothing since morning, was dropping with fatigue, sothe king took pity on him and on the other priests and dismissedthem all. Then, turning to the prior, Joseph Foulon, "Here I am,my father," said he; "I come, sinner as I am, to seek repose inyour solitude."

  The prior bowed, and the royal penitent mounted the steps ofthe abbey, striking his breast at each step, and the door wasimmediately closed behind him.

  "We will first," said the prior, "conduct your majesty into thecrypt, which we have ornamented in our best manner to do honorto the King of heaven and earth."

  No sooner had the king passed through the somber arcade, linedwith monks, and turned the corner which led to the chapel, thantwenty hoods were thrown into the air, and eyes were seen brilliantwith joy and triumph. Certainly, they were not monkish or peacefulfaces displayed, but bristling mustaches and embrowned skins, manyscarred by wounds, and by the side of the proudest of all, whodisplayed the most celebrated scar, stood a woman covered witha frock, and looking triumphant and happy. This woman, shakinga pair of golden scissors which hung by her side, cried:

  "Ah! my brothers, at last we have the Valois!"

  "Ma foi, sister, I believe so."

  "Not yet," murmured the cardinal.

  "How so?"

  "Shall we have enough bourgeois guards to make head against Crillonand his guards?"

  "We have better than bourgeois guards; and, believe me, therewill not be a musket-shot exchanged."

  "How so?" said the duchess. "I should have liked a littledisturbance."

  "Well, sister, you will be deprived of it. When the king is takenhe will cry out, but no one will answer; then, by persuasion orby violence, but without showing ourselves, we shall make himsign his abdication. The news will soon spread through the city,and dispose in our favor both the bourgeois and the troops."

  "The plan is good, and cannot fail," said the duchess. "It israther brutal," said the Duc de Guise; "besides which, the kingwill refuse to sign the abdication. He is brave, and will ratherdie."

  "Let him die, then."

  "Not so," replied the duke, firmly. "I will mount the throne ofa prince who abdicates and is despised, but not of an assassinatedman who is pitied. Besides, in your plans you forget M. le Ducd'Anjou, who will claim the crown."

  "Let him claim, mordieu!" said Mayenne; "he shall be comprisedin his brother's act of abdication. He is in connection withthe Huguenots, and is unworthy to reign."

  "Are you sure of that?"

  "Pardieu! did he not escape from the Louvre by the aid of theKing of Navarre?"

  "Well?"

  "Then another clause in favor of our house shall follow; thisclause shall make you lieutenant-general of the kingdom, fromwhich to the throne is only a step."

  "Yes, yes," said the cardinal, "all that is settled; but it isprobable that the French guards, to make sure that the abdicationis a genuine one, and above all, a voluntary one, will insistupon seeing the king, and will force the gates of the abbey ifthey are not admitted. Crillon does not understand joking, andhe is just the man to say to the king, 'Sire, your life is indanger; but, before everything, let us save our honor.'"

  "The general has taken his precautions. If it be necessary tosustain a siege, we have here eighty gentlemen, and I havedistributed arms to a hundred monks. We could hold out for amonth against the army; besides, in case of danger, we have thecave to fly to with our prey."

  "What is the Duc d'Anjou doing?"

  "In the hour of danger he has failed, as usual. He has gone home,no doubt, waiting for news of us, through Bussy or Monsoreau."

  "Mon Dieu! he should have been here; not at home."

  "You are wrong, brother," said the cardinal; "the people andthe nobles would have seen in it a snare to entrap the family.As you said just now, we must, above all things, avoid playingthe part of usurper. We must inherit. By leaving the Duc d'Anjoufree, and the queen-mother independent, no one will have anythingto accuse us of. If we acted otherwise, we should have againstus Bussy, and a hundred other dangerous swords."

  "Bah! Bussy is going to fight against the king's minions."

  "Pardieu! he will kill them, and then he will join us," saidthe Duc de Guise; "he is a superior man, and one whom I muchesteem, and I will make him general of the army in Italy, wherewar is sure to break out."

  "And I," said the duchess, "if I become a widow, will marry him."

  "Who is near the king?" asked the duke.

  "The prior and Brother Gorenflot."

  "Is he in the cell?"

  "Oh no! he will look first at the crypt and the relics."

  At this moment a bell sounded.

  "The king is returning," said the Duc de Guise; "let us becomemonks again." And immediately the hoods covered ardent eyes andspeaking scars, and twenty or thirty monks, conducted by thethree brothers, went towards the crypt.