CHAPTER LIV.
THE FOREST OF VINCENNES.
According to the order given by Charles IX., Henry was conducted thatsame evening to Vincennes. Such was the name given at that time to thefamous castle of which to-day only a fragment remains, colossal enough,however, to give an idea of its past grandeur.
The trip was made in a litter, on either side of which walked fourguards.
Monsieur de Nancey, bearing the order which was to open to Henry thedoor of the protecting abode, walked first.
At the postern of the prison they stopped. Monsieur de Nancey dismountedfrom his horse, opened the gate, which was closed with a padlock, andrespectfully asked the king to follow.
Henry obeyed without uttering a word. Any dwelling seemed to him saferthan the Louvre, and ten doors closed on him were at the same time tendoors shut between him and Catharine de Medicis.
The royal prisoner crossed the drawbridge between two soldiers, passedthrough the three doors on the ground floor and the three at the foot ofthe staircase; then, still preceded by Monsieur de Nancey, he ascendedone flight. Arrived there, the captain of the guards, seeing that theking was about to mount another flight, said to him:
"My lord, you are to stop here."
"Ah!" said Henry, pausing, "it seems that I am given the honors of thefirst floor."
"Sire," replied Monsieur de Nancey, "you are treated like a crownedhead."
"The devil! the devil!" said Henry to himself, "two or three floors morewould in no way have humiliated me. I shall be too comfortable here; Isuspect something."
"Will your majesty follow me?" asked Monsieur de Nancey.
"_Ventre saint gris!_" said the King of Navarre, "you know very well,monsieur, that it is not a question of what I will or will not do, butof what my brother Charles orders. Did he command that I should followyou?"
"Yes, sire."
"Then I will do so, monsieur."
They reached a sort of corridor at the end of which they came to agood-sized room, with dark and gloomy looking walls. Henry gazed aroundhim with a glance not wholly free from anxiety.
"Where are we?" he asked.
"In the chamber of torture, my lord."
"Ah!" replied the king, looking at it more closely.
There was something of everything in this chamber--pitchers and woodenhorses for the torture by water; wedges and mallets for the torture ofthe boot; besides stone benches nearly all around the room for thewretches who awaited the torture. Above these benches, at the seatsthemselves, and at their feet, were iron rings fastened into the walls,without other symmetry than that of the torturing art. But theirproximity to the seats sufficiently indicated that they were there inorder to await the limbs of those who were to occupy them.
Henry walked on without a word, but not a single detail of all thehideous apparatus which, so to speak, had stamped the history ofsuffering on the walls escaped him.
The king was so taken up with the objects about him that he forgot tolook where he was going, and came to a sudden standstill.
"Ah!" said he, "what is that?"
And he pointed to a kind of ditch dug in the damp pavement which formedthe floor.
"That is the gutter, sire."
"Does it rain here, then?"
"Yes, sire, blood."
"Ah!" said Henry, "very good. Shall we not soon reach my apartment?"
"Yes, my lord, here it is," said a figure in the dark, which, as it drewnearer, became clearer and more distinguishable.
Henry thought he recognized the voice, and advanced towards the figure.
"So it is you, Beaulieu," said he. "What the devil are you doing here?"
"Sire, I have just received my appointment as governor of the fortressof Vincennes."
"Well, my dear friend, your initiation does you honor. A king for aprisoner is not bad."
"Pardon me, sire," said Beaulieu, "but I have already had twogentlemen."
"Who are they? But, pardon me, perhaps I am indiscreet. If so, assumethat I have said nothing."
"My lord, I have not been ordered to keep it secret. They are Monsieurde la Mole and Monsieur de Coconnas."
"Ah! that is true. I saw them arrested. Poor gentlemen, and how do theybear this misfortune?"
"Differently. One is gay, the other sad; one sings, the other groans."
"Which one groans?"
"Monsieur de la Mole, sire."
"Faith," said Henry, "I can understand more easily the one who groansthan the one who sings. After what I have seen the prison is not a verylively place. On what floor are they?"
"High up; on the fourth."
Henry heaved a sigh. It was there that he wished to be.
"Come, Monsieur de Beaulieu," said he, "be good enough to show me myroom. I am in haste to see it, as I am greatly fatigued from the journeywe have just made."
"This is it, my lord," said Beaulieu, pointing to an open door.
"Number two," said Henry; "why not number one?"
"Because that is reserved, my lord."
"Ah! it seems, then, that you expect a prisoner of higher rank than I."
"I did not say, my lord, that it was a prisoner."
"Who is it, then?"
"I beg my lord not to insist, for by refusing to answer I should fail inthe obedience due him."
"Ah! that is another thing," said Henry.
And he became more pensive than before. Number one perplexed him,apparently. The governor was assiduous in his attentions. With athousand apologies he installed Henry in his apartment, made everyexcuse for the comforts he might lack, stationed two soldiers at thedoor, and withdrew.
"Now," said the governor, addressing the turnkey, "let us go to theothers."
The turnkey walked ahead. They took the same road by which they hadcome, passed through the chamber of torture, crossed the corridor, andreached the stairway. Then, still following his guide, Monsieur deBeaulieu ascended three flights. On reaching the fourth floor theturnkey opened successively three doors, each ornamented with two locksand three enormous bolts. He had scarcely touched the third door beforethey heard a joyous voice exclaiming:
"By Heaven! open; if only to give us some air. Your stove is so warmthat I am stifled here."
And Coconnas, whom the reader has no doubt already recognized from hisfavorite exclamation, bounded from where he stood to the door.
"One instant, my gentleman," said the turnkey, "I have not come to letyou out, but to let myself in, and the governor is with me."
"The governor!" said Coconnas, "what does he want?"
"To pay you a visit."
"He does me great honor," said Coconnas; "and he is welcome."
Monsieur de Beaulieu entered and at once dispelled the cordial smile ofCoconnas by one of those icy looks which belong to governors offortresses, to jailers, and to hangmen.
"Have you any money, monsieur?" he asked of the prisoner.
"I?" said Coconnas; "not a crown."
"Jewels?"
"I have a ring."
"Will you allow me to search you?"
"By Heaven!" cried Coconnas, reddening with anger, "you take much onyourself, being in prison, and having me there also."
"We must suffer everything for the service of the King."
"So," said the Piedmontese, "those good fellows who rob on the Pont Neufare like you, then, in the service of the King. By Heavens! I was veryunjust, monsieur, for until now I have taken them for thieves."
"Good evening, monsieur," said Beaulieu. "Jailer, lock the door."
The governor went away, taking with him the ring, which was a beautifulsapphire, given him by Madame de Nevers to remind him of the color ofher eyes.
"Now for the other," he said as he went out.
They crossed an empty chamber, and the game of three doors, six locks,and nine bolts began anew.
The last door open, a sigh was the first sound that greeted thevisitors.
The apartment was more gloomy looking than the one Monsieur de Beaulieuha
d just left. Four long narrow windows admitted a feeble light intothis mournful abode. Before these, iron bars were crossed in such a waythat the eye of the prisoner was arrested by a dark line and preventedfrom catching even a glimpse of the sky. From each corner of the roompointed arches met in the middle of the ceiling, where they spread outin Gothic fashion.
La Mole was seated in a corner, and, in spite of the entrance of thevisitors, appeared to have heard nothing.
The governor paused on the threshold and looked for an instant at theprisoner, who sat motionless, his head in his hands.
"Good evening, Monsieur de la Mole," said Beaulieu.
The young man slowly raised his head.
"Good evening, monsieur," said he.
"Monsieur," continued the governor, "I have come to search you."
"That is useless," said La Mole. "I will give you all I have."
"What have you?"
"About three hundred crowns, these jewels, and rings."
"Give them to me, monsieur," said the governor.
"Here they are."
La Mole turned out his pockets, took the rings from his finger, and theclasp from his hat.
"Have you nothing more?"
"Not that I know of."
"And that silk cord around your neck, what may that be?" asked thegovernor.
"Monsieur, that is not a jewel, but a relic."
"Give it to me."
"What! you demand it?"
"I am ordered to leave you only your clothes, and a relic is not anarticle of clothing."
La Mole made a gesture of anger, which, in the midst of the dignifiedand pained calm which distinguished him, seemed to impress the menaccustomed to stormy emotions.
But he immediately recovered his self-possession.
"Very well, monsieur," said he, "you shall see what you ask for."
Then, turning as if to approach the light, he unfastened the pretendedrelic, which was none other than a medallion containing a portrait,which he drew out and raised to his lips. Having kissed it severaltimes, he suddenly pretended to drop it as by accident, and placing theheel of his boot on it he crushed it into a thousand pieces.
"Monsieur!" said the governor.
And he stooped down to see if he could not save the unknown object whichLa Mole wished to hide from him; but the miniature was literally groundto powder.
"The King wished for this jewel," said La Mole, "but he had no right tothe portrait it contained. Now, here is the medallion; you may take it."
"Monsieur," said Beaulieu, "I shall complain of you to the King."
And without taking leave of his prisoner by a single word he went out,so angry that without waiting to preside over the task, he left to theturnkey the care of closing the doors.
The jailer turned to leave, but seeing that Monsieur de Beaulieu hadalready started down the stairs:
"Faith! monsieur," said he, turning back, "I did well to ask you to giveme the hundred crowns at once for which I am to allow you to speak toyour companion; for had you not done so the governor would have takenthem from you with the three hundred others, and my conscience would nothave allowed me to do anything for you; but as I was paid in advance, Ipromised that you should see your friend. So come. An honest man keepshis word. Only, if it is possible, for your sake as much as for mine, donot talk politics."
La Mole left his apartment and found himself face to face with Coconnas,who was walking up and down the flags of the intermediate room.
The two friends rushed into each other's arms.
The jailer pretended to wipe the corner of his eye, and then withdrew towatch that the prisoners were not surprised, or rather that he himselfwas not caught.
"Ah! here you are!" said Coconnas. "Well, has that dreadful governorpaid his visit to you?"
"Yes, as he did to you, I presume?"
"Did he remove everything?"
"And from you, too?"
"Ah! I had not much; only a ring from Henrietta, that was all."
"And money?"
"I gave all I had to the good jailer, so that he would arrange thisinterview for us."
"Ah!" said La Mole, "it seems that he had something from both of us."
"Did you pay him too?"
"I gave him a hundred crowns."
"So much the better."
"One can do everything with money, and I trust that we shall not lackfor it."
"Do you know what has happened to us?"
"Perfectly; we have been betrayed."
"By that scoundrelly Duc d'Alencon. I should have been right to twisthis neck."
"Do you think our position serious?"
"I fear so."
"Then there is likelihood of the torture?"
"I will not hide from you the fact that I have already thought of it."
"What should you do in that case?"
"And you?"
"I should be silent," replied La Mole, with a feverish flush.
"Silent?" cried Coconnas.
"Yes, if I had the strength."
"Well," said Coconnas, "if they insult me in any such way I promise youI will tell them a few things."
"What things?" asked La Mole, quickly.
"Oh, be easy--things which will prevent Monsieur d'Alencon from sleepingfor some time."
La Mole was about to reply when the jailer, who no doubt had heard somenoise, appeared, and pushing each prisoner into his respective cell,locked the doors again.