CHAPTER XX.
THE BLACK HENS.
It was time the two couples disappeared! Catharine was putting the keyin the lock of the second door just as Coconnas and Madame de Neversstepped out of the house by the lower entrance, and Catharine as sheentered could hear the steps of the fugitives on the stairs.
She cast a searching glance around, and then fixing her suspicious eyeson Rene, who stood motionless, bowing before her, said:
"Who was that?"
"Some lovers, who are satisfied with the assurance I gave them that theyare really in love."
"Never mind them," said Catharine, shrugging her shoulders; "is there noone else here?"
"No one but your majesty and myself."
"Have you done what I ordered you?"
"About the two black hens?"
"Yes!"
"They are ready, madame."
"Ah," muttered Catharine, "if you were a Jew!"
"Why a Jew, madame?"
"Because you could then read the precious treatises which the Hebrewshave written about sacrifices. I have had one of them translated, and Ifound that the Hebrews did not look for omens in the heart or liver asthe Romans did, but in the configuration of the brain, and in the shapeof the letters traced there by the all-powerful hand of destiny."
"Yes, madame; so I have heard from an old rabbi."
"There are," said Catharine, "characters thus marked that reveal all thefuture. Only the Chaldean seers recommend"--
"Recommend--what?" asked Rene, seeing the queen hesitate.
"That the experiment shall be tried on the human brain, as moredeveloped and more nearly sympathizing with the wishes of theconsulter."
"Alas!" said Rene, "your majesty knows it is impossible."
"Difficult, at least," said Catharine; "if we had known this at SaintBartholomew's, what a rich harvest we might have had--The firstconvict--but I will think of it. Meantime, let us do what we can. Is thechamber of sacrifice prepared?"
"Yes, madame."
"Let us go there."
Rene lighted a taper made of strange substances, the odor of which, bothinsidious and penetrating as well as nauseating and stupefying,betokened the introduction of many elements; holding this taper up, hepreceded Catharine into the cell.
Catharine selected from amongst the sacrificial instruments a knife ofblue steel, while Rene took up one of the two fowls that were huddlingin one corner, with anxious, golden eyes.
"How shall we proceed?"
"We will examine the liver of the one and the brain of the other. Ifthese two experiments lead to the same result we must be convinced,especially if these results coincide with those we got before."
"Which shall we begin with?"
"With the liver."
"Very well," said Rene, and he fastened the bird down to two ringsattached to the little altar, so that the creature, turned on its back,could only struggle, without stirring from the spot.
Catharine opened its breast with a single stroke of her knife; the fowluttered three cries, and, after some convulsions, expired.
"Always three cries!" said Catharine; "three signs of death."
She then opened the body.
"And the liver inclining to the left, always to the left,--a tripledeath, followed by a downfall. 'T is terrible, Rene."
"We must see, madame, whether the presages from the second willcorrespond with those of the first."
Rene unfastened the body of the fowl from the altar and tossed it into acorner; then he went to the other, which, foreseeing what its fate wouldbe by its companion's, tried to escape by running round the cell, andfinding itself pent up in a corner flew over Rene's head, and in itsflight extinguished the magic taper Catharine held.
"You see, Rene, thus shall our race be extinguished," said the queen;"death shall breathe upon it, and destroy it from the face of the earth!Yet three sons! three sons!" she murmured, sorrowfully.
Rene took from her the extinguished taper, and went into the adjoiningroom to relight it.
On his return he saw the hen hiding its head in the tunnel.
"This time," said Catharine, "I will prevent the cries, for I will cutoff the head at once."
And accordingly, as soon as the hen was bound, Catharine, as she hadsaid, severed the head at a single blow; but in the last agony the beakopened three times, and then closed forever.
"Do you see," said Catharine, terrified, "instead of three cries, threesighs? Always three!--they will all three die. All these spirits beforethey depart count and call three. Let us now see the prognostications inthe head."
She severed the bloodless comb from the head, carefully opened theskull, and laying bare the lobes of the brain endeavored to trace aletter formed in the bloody sinuosities made by the division of thecentral pulp.
"Always so!" cried she, clasping her hands; "and this time clearer thanever; see here!"
Rene approached.
"What is the letter?" asked Catharine.
"An H," replied Rene.
"How many times repeated?"
Rene counted.
"Four," said he.
"Ay, ay! I see it! that is to say, HENRY IV. Oh," she cried, flingingthe knife from her, "I am accursed in my posterity!"
She was terrible, that woman, pale as a corpse, lighted by the dismaltaper, and clasping her bloody hands.
"He will reign!" she exclaimed with a sigh of despair; "he will reign!"
"He will reign!" repeated Rene, plunged in meditation.
Nevertheless, the gloomy expression of Catharine's face soon disappearedunder the light of a thought which unfolded in the depths of her mind.
"Rene," said she, stretching out her hand toward the perfumer withoutlifting her head from her breast, "Rene, is there not a terrible historyof a doctor at Perugia, who killed at once, by the aid of a pomade,[7]his daughter and his daughter's lover?"
"Yes, madame."
"And this lover was"--
"Was King Ladislas, madame."
"Ah, yes!" murmured she; "have you any of the details of this story?"
"I have an old book which mentions it," replied Rene.
"Well, let us go into the other room, and you can show it me."
They left the cell, the door of which Rene closed after him.
"Has your majesty any other orders to give me concerning thesacrifices?"
"No, Rene, I am for the present sufficiently convinced. We will waittill we can secure the head of some criminal, and on the day of theexecution you must arrange with the hangman."
Rene bowed in token of obedience, then holding his candle up he let thelight fall on the shelves where his books stood, climbed on a chair,took one down, and handed it to the queen.
Catharine opened it.
"What is this?" she asked; "'On the Method of Raising and TrainingTercels, Falcons, and Gerfalcons to be Courageous, Valiant, and alwaysready for Flight.'"
"Ah! pardon me, madame, I made a mistake. That is a treatise on venerywritten by a scientific man of Lucca for the famous CastruccioCastracani. It stood next the other and was bound exactly like it. Itook down the wrong one. However, it is a very precious volume; thereare only three copies extant--one belongs to the library at Venice, theother was bought by your grandfather Lorenzo and was offered by Pietrode Medicis to King Charles VIII., when he visited Florence, and thethird you have in your hands."
"I venerate it," said Catharine, "because of its rarity, but as I do notneed it, I return it to you."
And she held out her right hand to Rene to receive the book which shewished, while with her left hand she returned to him the one which shehad first taken.
This time Rene was not mistaken; it was the volume she wished. Hestepped down, turned the leaves for a moment, and gave it to her open.
Catharine went and sat down at a table. Rene placed the magic taper nearher and by the light of its bluish flame she read a few lines in anundertone:
"Good!" said she, shutting the book; "that is all I wanted to kno
w."
She rose from her seat, leaving the book on the table, but bearing awaythe idea which had germinated in her mind and would ripen there.
Rene waited respectfully, taper in hand, until the queen, who seemedabout to retire, should give him fresh orders or ask fresh questions.
Catharine, with her head bent and her finger on her mouth, walked up anddown several times without speaking.
Then suddenly stopping before Rene, and fixing on him her eyes, roundand piercing like a hawk's:
"Confess you have made for her some love-philter," said she.
"For whom?" asked Rene, starting.
"La Sauve."
"I, madame?" said Rene; "never!"
"Never?"
"I swear it on my soul."
"There must be some magic in it, however, for he is desperately in lovewith her, though he is not famous for his constancy."
"Who, madame?"
"He, Henry, the accursed,--he who is to succeed my three sons,--he whoshall one day be called Henry IV., and is yet the son of Jeanned'Albret."
And Catharine accompanied these words with a sigh which made Reneshudder, for he thought of the famous gloves he had prepared byCatharine's order for the Queen of Navarre.
"So he still runs after her, does he?" said Rene.
"He does," replied the queen.
"I thought that the King of Navarre was quite in love with his wifenow."
"A farce, Rene, a farce! I know not why, but every one is seeking todeceive me. My daughter Marguerite is leagued against me; perhaps she,too, is looking forward to the death of her brothers; perhaps she, too,hopes to be Queen of France."
"Perhaps so," re-echoed Rene, falling back into his own reverie andechoing Catharine's terrible suspicion.
"Ha! we shall see," said Catharine, going to the main door, for shedoubtless judged it useless to descend the secret stair, now that shewas sure that they were alone.
Rene preceded her, and in a few minutes they stood in the perfumer'sshop.
"You promised me some new kind of cosmetic for my hands and lips, Rene;the winter is at hand and you know how sensitive my skin is to thecold."
"I have already provided for this, madame; and I shall bring you someto-morrow."
"You would not find me in before nine o'clock to-morrow evening; I shallbe occupied with my devotions during the day."
"I will be at the Louvre at nine o'clock, then, madame."
"Madame de Sauve has beautiful hands and beautiful lips," said Catharinein a careless tone. "What pomade does she use?"
"For her hands?"
"Yes, for her hands first."
"Heliotrope."
"What for her lips?"
"She is going to try a new opiate of my invention. I was going to bringyour majesty a box of it at the same time."
Catharine mused an instant.
"She is certainly a very beautiful creature," said she, pursuing hersecret thoughts; "and the passion of the Bearnais for her is not strangeat all."
"And she is so devoted to your majesty," said Rene. "At least I shouldthink so."
Catharine smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
"When a woman loves, is she faithful to any one but her lover? You musthave given her some philter, Rene."
"I swear I have not, madame."
"Well, well; we'll say no more about it. Show me this new opiate youspoke of, that is to make her lips fresher and rosier than ever."
Rene approached a shelf and showed Catharine six small boxes of the sameshape, _i.e._, round silver boxes ranged side by side.
"This is the only philter she ever asked me for," observed Rene; "it istrue, as your majesty says, I composed it expressly for her, for herlips are so tender that the sun and wind affect them equally."
Catharine opened one of the boxes; it contained a most fascinatingcarmine paste.
"Give me some paste for my hands, Rene," said she; "I will take it awaywith me."
Rene took the taper, and went to seek, in a private compartment, whatthe queen asked for. As he turned, he fancied that he saw the queenquickly conceal a box under her mantle; he was, however, too familiarwith these little thefts of the queen mother to have the rudeness toseem to perceive the movement; so wrapping the cosmetic she demanded ina paper bag, ornamented with fleurs-de-lis:
"Here it is, madame," he said.
"Thanks, Rene," returned the queen; then, after a moment's silence: "Donot give Madame de Sauve that paste for a week or ten days; I wish tomake the first trial of it myself."
And she prepared to go.
"Your majesty, do you desire me to accompany you?" asked Rene.
"Only to the end of the bridge," replied Catharine; "my gentlemen and mylitter wait for me there."
They left the house, and at the end of the Rue de la Barillerie fourgentlemen on horseback and a plain litter were waiting.
On his return Rene's first care was to count his boxes of opiates. Onewas wanting.