CHAPTER XIX. PUT MONEY IN THY PURSE.
The Chevalier des Meloises, quite out of humor with the merry Louises,picked his way with quick, dainty steps down the Rue du Palais. Thegay Louises, before returning to the Convent, resolved to make ahasty promenade to the walls to see the people at work upon them. Theyreceived with great contentment the military salutes of the officersof their acquaintance, which they acknowledged with the courtesy ofwell-trained internes, slightly exaggerated by provoking smilesand mischievous glances which had formed no part of the lessons inpoliteness taught them by the nuns.
In justice be it said, however, the girls were actuated by a noblerfeeling than the mere spirit of amusement--a sentiment of loyalty toFrance, a warm enthusiasm for their country, drew them to the walls:they wanted to see the defenders of Quebec, to show their sympathy andsmile approval upon them.
"Would to heaven I were a man," exclaimed Louise de Brouague, "that Imight wield a sword, a spade, anything of use, to serve my country! Ishame to do nothing but talk, pray, and suffer for it, while every oneelse is working or fighting."
Poor girl! she did not foresee a day when the women of New France wouldundergo trials compared with which the sword stroke that kills thestrong man is as the touch of mercy,--when the batteries of Wolfe wouldfor sixty-five days shower shot and shell upon Quebec, and the Southshore for a hundred miles together be blazing with the fires ofdevastation. Such things were mercifully withheld from their foresight,and the light-hearted girls went the round of the works as gaily as theywould have tripped in a ballroom.
The Chevalier des Meloises, passing through the Porte du Palais, washailed by two or three young officers of the Regiment of Bearn,who invited him into the Guard House to take a glass of wine beforedescending the steep hill. The Chevalier stopped willingly, and enteredthe well-furnished quarters of the officers of the guard, where a coolflask of Burgundy presently restored him to good humor with himself, andconsequently with the world.
"What is up to-day at the Palace?" asked Captain Monredin, a vivaciousNavarrois. "All the Gros Bonnets of the Grand Company have gone downthis afternoon! I suppose you are going too, Des Meloises?"
"Yes! They have sent for me, you see, on affairs of State--whatPenisault calls 'business.' Not a drop of wine on the board! Nothing butbooks and papers, bills and shipments, money paid, money received! Doitet avoir and all the cursed lingo of the Friponne! I damn the Friponne,but bless her money! It pays, Monredin! It pays better than fur-tradingat a lonely outpost in the northwest." The Chevalier jingled a handfulof coin in his pocket. The sound was a sedative to his disgust at theidea of trade, and quite reconciled him to the Friponne.
"You are a lucky dog nevertheless, to be able to make it jingle!" saidMonredin, "not one of us Bearnois can play an accompaniment to your airof money in both pockets. Here is our famous Regiment of Bearn, secondto none in the King's service, a whole year in arrears without pay! Gad!I wish I could go into 'business,' as you call it, and woo that jollydame, La Friponne!
"For six months we have lived on trust. Those leeches of Jews, who callthemselves Christians, down in the Sault au Matelot, won't cash the bestorders in the regiment for less than forty per cent. discount!"
"That is true!" broke in another officer, whose rather rubicund facetold of credit somewhere, and the product of credit,--good wine andgood dinners generally. "That is true, Monredin! The old curmudgeon of abroker at the corner of the Cul de Sac had the impudence to ask mefifty per cent. discount upon my drafts on Bourdeaux! I agree with DesMeloises there: business may be a good thing for those who handle it,but devil touch their dirty fingers for me!"
"Don't condemn all of them, Emeric," said Captain Poulariez, a quiet,resolute-looking officer. "There is one merchant in the city who carriesthe principles of a gentleman into the usages of commerce. The BourgeoisPhilibert gives cent. per cent. for good orders of the King's officers,just to show his sympathy with the army and his love for France."
"Well, I wish he were paymaster of the forces, that is all, and then Icould go to him if I wanted to," replied Monredin.
"Why do you not go to him?" asked Poulariez.
"Why, for the same reason, I suppose, so many others of us do not,"replied Monredin. "Colonel Dalquier endorses my orders, and he hates theBourgeois cordially, as a hot friend of the Intendant ought to do. Soyou see I have to submit to be plucked of my best pen-feathers by thatold fesse-mathieu Penisault at the Friponne!"
"How many of yours have gone out to the great spread at Belmont?" askedDes Meloises, quite weary of commercial topics.
"Par Dieu!" replied Monredin, "except the colonel and adjutant, whostayed away on principle, I think every officer in the regiment, presentcompany excepted--who being on duty could not go, much to their chagrin.Such a glorious crush of handsome girls has not been seen, they say,since our regiment came to Quebec."
"And not likely to have been seen before your distinguished arrival--eh,Monredin?" ejaculated Des Meloises, holding his glass to be refilled."That is delicious Burgundy," added he, "I did not think any one besidethe Intendant had wine like that."
"That is some of La Martiniere's cargo," replied Poulariex. "It was kindof him, was it not, to remember us poor Bearnois here on the wrong sideof the Atlantic?"
"And how earnestly we were praying for that same Burgundy," ejaculatedMonredin, "when it came, as if dropped upon us by Providence! Health andwealth to Captain La Martiniere and the good frigate Fleur-de-Lis!"
Another round followed.
"They talk about those Jansenist convulsionnaires at the tomb of MasterParis, which are setting all France by the ears," exclaimed Monredin,"but I say there is nothing so contagious as the drinking of a glass ofwine like that."
"And the glass gives us convulsions too, Monredin, if we try it toooften, and no miracle about it either," remarked Poulariez.
Monredin looked up, red and puffy, as if needing a bridle to check hisfast gait.
"But they say we are to have peace soon. Is that true, Des Meloises?"asked Poulariez. "You ought to know what is under the cards before theyare played."
"No, I don't know; and I hope the report is not true. Who wants peaceyet? It would ruin the King's friends in the Colony." Des Meloiseslooked as statesmanlike as he could when delivering this dictum.
"Ruin the King's friends! Who are they, Des Meloises?" asked Poulariez,with a look of well-assumed surprise.
"Why, the associates of the Grand Company, to be sure! What otherfriends has the King got in New France?"
"Really! I thought he had the Regiment of Bearn for a number of them--tosay nothing of the honest people of the Colony," replied Poulariez,impatiently.
"The Honnetes Gens, you mean!" exclaimed Des Meloises. "Well, Poulariez,all I have to say is that if this Colony is to be kept up for the sakeof a lot of shopkeepers, wood-choppers, cobblers, and farmers, thesooner the King hands it over to the devil or the English the better!"
Poulariex looked indignant enough; but from the others a loud laughfollowed this sally.
The Chevalier des Meloises pulled out his watch. "I must be gone tothe Palace," said he. "I dare say Cadet, Varin, and Penisault will havebalanced the ledgers by this time, and the Intendant, who is the devilfor business on such occasions, will have settled the dividends for thequarter--the only part of the business I care about."
"But don't you help them with the work a little?" asked Poulariez.
"Not I; I leave business to them that have a vocation for it. Besides,I think Cadet, Vargin, and Penisault like to keep the inner ring of thecompany to themselves." He turned to Emeric: "I hope there will be agood dividend to-night, Emeric," said he. "I owe you some revenge atpiquet, do I not?"
"You capoted me last night at the Taverne de Menut, and I had three acesand three kings."
"But I had a quatorze, and took the fishes," replied Des Meloises.
"Well, Chevalier, I shall win them back to-night. I hope the dividendwill be good: in that way I too may share in the 'busines
s' of the GrandCompany."
"Good-by, Chevalier; remember me to St. Blague!" (This was a familiarsobriquet of Bigot.) "Tis the best name going. If I had an heir for theold chateau on the Adour, I would christen him Bigot for luck."
The Chevalier des Meloises left the officers and proceeded down thesteep road that led to the Palace. The gardens were quiet to-day--a fewloungers might be seen in the magnificent alleys, pleached walks, andterraces; beyond these gardens, however, stretched the King's wharvesand the magazines of the Friponne. These fairly swarmed with men loadingand unloading ships and bateaux, and piling and unpiling goods.
The Chevalier glanced with disdain at the magazines, and flourishing hiscane, mounted leisurely the broad steps of the Palace, and was at onceadmitted to the council-room.
"Better late than never, Chevalier des Meloises!" exclaimed Bigot,carelessly glancing at him as he took a seat at the board, where satCadet, Varin, Penisault, and the leading spirits of the Grand Company."You are in double luck to-day. The business is over, and Dame Friponnehas laid a golden egg worth a Jew's tooth for each partner of theCompany."
The Chevalier did not notice, or did not care for, the slight touch ofsarcasm in the Intendant's tone. "Thanks, Bigot!" drawled he. "My eggsshall be hatched to-night down at Menut's. I expect to have little moreleft than the shell of it to-morrow."
"Well, never mind! We have considered all that, Chevalier. What oneloses another gets. It is all in the family. Look here," continued he,laying his finger upon a page of the ledger that lay open before him,"Mademoiselle Angelique des Meloises is now a shareholder in the GrandCompany. The list of high, fair, and noble ladies of the Court who aremembers of the Company will be honored by the addition of the name ofyour charming sister."
The Chevalier's eyes sparkled with delight as he read Angelique's nameon the book. A handsome sum of five digits stood to her credit. He bowedhis thanks with many warm expressions of his sense of the honor done hissister by "placing her name on the roll of the ladies of the Court whohonor the Company by accepting a share of its dividends."
"I hope Mademoiselle des Meloises will not refuse this small mark of ourrespect," observed Bigot, feeling well assured she would not deem it asmall one.
"Little fear of that!" muttered Cadet, whose bad opinion of the sex wasincorrigible. "The game fowls of Versailles scratch jewels out of everydung-hill, and Angelique des Meloises has longer claws than any ofthem!"
Cadet's ill-natured remark was either unheard or unheeded; besides,he was privileged to say anything. Des Meloises bowed with an air ofperfect complaisance to the Intendant as he answered,--"I guarantee theperfect satisfaction of Angelique with this marked compliment of theGrand Company. She will, I am sure, appreciate the kindness of theIntendant as it deserves."
Cadet and Varin exchanged smiles, not unnoticed by Bigot, who smiledtoo. "Yes, Chevalier," said he, "the Company gives this token of itsadmiration for the fairest lady in New France. We have bestowed premiumsupon fine flax and fat cattle: why not upon beauty, grace, and witembodied in handsome women?"
"Angelique will be highly flattered, Chevalier," replied he, "at thedistinction. She must thank you herself, as I am sure she will."
"I am happy to try to deserve her thanks," replied Bigot; and, notcaring to talk further on the subject,--"what news in the city thisafternoon, Chevalier?" asked he; "how does that affair at Belmont gooff?"
"Don't know. Half the city has gone, I think. At the Church door,however, the talk among the merchants is that peace is going to be madesoon. Is it so very threatening, Bigot?"
"If the King wills it, it is." Bigot spoke carelessly.
"But your own opinion, Chevalier Bigot; what think you of it?"
"Amen! amen! Quod fiat fiatur! Seigny John, the fool of Paris, couldenlighten you as well as I could as to what the women at Versailles maydecide to do," replied Bigot in a tone of impatience.
"I fear peace will be made. What will you do in that case, Bigot?" askedDes Meloises, not noticing Bigot's aversion to the topic.
"If the King makes it, invitus amabo! as the man said who married theshrew." Bigot laughed mockingly. "We must make the best of it, DesMeloises! and let me tell you privately, I mean to make a good thing ofit for ourselves whichever way it turns."
"But what will become of the Company should the war expenditure stop?"The Chevalier was thinking of his dividend of five figures.
"Oh! you should have been here sooner, Des Meloises: you would haveheard our grand settlement of the question in every contingency of peaceor war."
"Be sure of one thing," continued Bigot, "the Grand Company will not,like the eels of Melun, cry out before they are skinned. What says theproverb, 'Mieux vaut engin que force' (craft beats strength)? The GrandCompany must prosper as the first condition of life in New France.Perhaps a year or two of repose may not be amiss, to revictual andreinforce the Colony; and by that time we shall be ready to pick thelock of Bellona's temple again and cry Vive la guerre! Vive la GrandeCompagnie! more merrily than ever!"
Bigot's far-reaching intellect forecast the course of events, whichremained so much subject to his own direction after the peace of Aix laChapelle--a peace which in America was never a peace at all, but onlyan armed and troubled truce between the clashing interests and rivalambitions of the French and English in the New World.
The meeting of the Board of Managers of the Grand Company broke up,and--a circumstance that rarely happened--without the customary debauch.Bigot, preoccupied with his own projects, which reached far beyond themere interests of the Company, retired to his couch. Cadet, Varin,and Penisault, forming an interior circle of the Friponne, had certainmatters to shape for the Company's eye. The rings of corruption in theGrand Company descended, narrower and more black and precipitous, downto the bottom where Bigot sat, the Demiurgos of all.
The Chevalier des Meloises was rather proud of his sister's beauty andcleverness, and in truth a little afraid of her. They lived togetherharmoniously enough, so long as each allowed the other his or herown way. Both took it, and followed their own pleasures, and were notusually disagreeable to one another, except when Angelique commented onwhat she called his penuriousness, and he upon her extravagance, in thefinancial administration of the family of the Des Meloises.
The Chevalier was highly delighted to-day to be able to inform Angeliqueof her good fortune in becoming a partner of the Friponne and thattoo by grace of his Excellency the Intendant. The information filledAngelique with delight, not only because it made her independent of herbrother's mismanagement of money, but it opened a door to her wildesthopes. In that gift her ambition found a potent ally to enable her toresist the appeal to her heart which she knew would be made to-night byLe Gardeur de Repentigny.
The Chevalier des Meloises had no idea of his sister's own aims. He hadlong nourished a foolish fancy that, if he had not obtained the hand ofthe wealthy and beautiful heiress of Repentigny, it was because he hadnot proposed. Something to-day had suggested the thought that unless hedid propose soon his chances would be nil, and another might secure theprize which he had in his vain fancy set down as his own.
He hinted to Angelique to-day that he had almost resolved to marry, andthat his projected alliance with the noble and wealthy house of Tillycould be easily accomplished if Angelique would only do her share, as asister ought, in securing her brother's fortune and happiness.
"How?" asked she, looking up savagely, for she knew well at what herbrother was driving.
"By your accepting Le Gardeur without more delay! All the city knows heis mad in love, and would marry you any day you choose if you wore onlythe hair on your head. He would ask no better fortune!"
"It is useless to advise me, Renaud!" said she, "and whether I take LeGardeur or no it would not help your chance with Amelie! I am sorry forit, for Amelie is a prize, Renaud! but not for you at any price. Letme tell you, that desirable young lady will become the bride of PierrePhilibert, and the bride of no other man living."
"You giv
e one cold encouragement, sister! But I am sure, if you wouldonly marry Le Gardeur, you could easily, with your tact and cleverness,induce Amelie to let me share the Tilly fortune. There are chests fullof gold in the old Manor House, and a crow could hardly fly in a dayover their broad lands!"
"Perfectly useless, brother! Amelie is not like most girls. She wouldrefuse the hand of a king for the sake of the man she loves, and sheloves Pierre Philibert to his finger-ends. She has married him in herheart a thousand times. I hate paragons of women, and would scorn tobe one, but I tell you, brother, Amelie is a paragon of a girl, withoutknowing it!"
"Hum, I never tried my hand on a paragon: I should like to do so,"replied he, with a smile of decided confidence in his powers. "I fancythey are just like other women when you can catch them with their armoroff."
"Yes, but women like Amelie never lay off their armor! They seem born init, like Minerva. But your vanity will not let you believe me, Renaud!So go try her, and tell me your luck! She won't scratch you, nor scold.Amelie is a lady, and will talk to you like a queen. But she will giveyou a polite reply to your proposal that will improve your opinions ofour sex."
"You are mocking me, Angelique, as you always do! One never knows whenyou are in jest or when in earnest. Even when you get angry, it is oftenunreal and for a purpose! I want you to be serious for once. The fortuneof the Tillys and De Repentignys is the best in New France, and we canmake it ours if you will help me."
"I am serious enough in wishing you those chests full of gold, and thosebroad lands that a crow cannot fly over in a day; but I must forego myshare of them, and so must you yours, brother!" Angelique leaned backin her chair, desiring to stop further discussion of a topic she did notlike to hear.
"Why must you forego your share of the De Repentigny fortune, Angelique?You could call it your own any day you chose by giving your littlefinger to Le Gardeur! you do really puzzle me."
The Chevalier did look perplexed at his inscrutable sister, who onlysmiled over the table at him, as she nonchalantly cracked nuts andsipped her wine by drops.
"Of course I puzzle you, Renaud!" said she at last. "I am a puzzle tomyself sometimes. But you see there are so many men in the world,--poorones are so plenty, rich ones so scarce, and sensible ones hardly to befound at all,--that a woman may be excused for selling herself to thehighest bidder. Love is a commodity only spoken of in romances or in thepatois of milkmaids now-a-days!"
"Zounds, Angelique! you would try the patience of all the saints inthe calendar! I shall pity the fellow you take in! Here is thefairest fortune in the Colony about to fall into the hands of PierrePhilibert--whom Satan confound for his assurance! A fortune which Ialways regarded as my own!"
"It shows the folly and vanity of your sex! You never spoke a word toAmelie de Repentigny in the way of wooing in your life! Girls like herdon't drop into men's arms just for the asking."
"Pshaw! as if she would refuse me if you only acted a sister's part! Butyou are impenetrable as a rock, and the whole of your fickle sex couldnot match your vanity and caprice, Angelique."
She rose quickly with a provoked air.
"You are getting so complimentary to my poor sex, Renaud," said she,"that I must really leave you to yourself, and I could scarcely leaveyou in worse company."
"You are so bitter and sarcastic upon one!" replied he, tartly; "my onlydesire was to secure a good fortune for you, and another for myself.I don't see, for my part, what women are made for, except to mareverything a man wants to do for himself and for them!"
"Certainly everything should be done for us, brother; but I have nodefence to make for my sex, none! I dare say we women deserve all thatmen think of us, but then it is impolite to tell us so to our faces.Now, as I advised you, Renaud, I would counsel you to study gardening,and you may one day arrive at as great distinction as the Marquis deVandriere--you may cultivate chou chou if you cannot raise a bride likeAmelie de Repentigny."
Angelique knew her brother's genius was not penetrating, or shewould scarcely have ventured this broad allusion to the brother of LaPompadour, who, by virtue of his relationship to the Court favorite,had recently been created Director of the Royal Gardens. What fancy wasworking in the brain of Angelique when she alluded to him may be onlysurmised.
The Chevalier was indignant, however, at an implied comparison betweenhimself and the plebeian Marquis de Vandriere. He replied, with someheat,--
"The Marquis de Vandriere! How dare you mention him and me together!There's not an officer's mess in the army that receives the son ofthe fishmonger! Why do you mention him, Angelique? You are a perfectriddle!"
"I only thought something might happen, brother, if I should ever go toParis! I was acting a charade in my fancy, and that was the solution ofit!"
"What was? You would drive the whole Sorbonne mad with your charades andfancies! But I must leave you."
"Good-by, brother,--if you will go. Think of it!--if you want to risein the world you may yet become a royal gardener like the Marquis deVandriere!" Her silvery laugh rang out good-humoredly as he descendedthe stairs and passed out of the house.
She sat down in her fauteuil. "Pity Renaud is such a fool!" said she;"yet I am not sure but he is wiser in his folly than I with all my tactand cleverness, which I suspect are going to make a greater fool of methan ever he is!"
She leaned back in her chair in a deep thinking mood. "It is growingdark," murmured she. "Le Gardeur will assuredly be here soon, in spiteof all the attractions of Belmont. How to deal with him when he comes ismore than I know: he will renew his suit, I am sure."
For a moment the heart of Angelique softened in her bosom. "Accept himI must not!" said she; "affront him I will not! cease to love him isout of my power as much as is my ability to love the Intendant, whom Icordially detest, and shall marry all the same!" She pressed her handsover her eyes, and sat silent for a few minutes. "But I am not sure ofit! That woman remains still at Beaumanoir! Will my scheming to removeher be all in vain or no?" Angelique recollected with a shudder athought that had leaped in her bosom, like a young Satan, engendered ofevil desires. "I dare hardly look in the honest eyes of Le Gardeur afternursing such a monstrous fancy as that," said she; "but my fate is fixedall the same. Le Gardeur will vainly try to undo this knot in my life,but he must leave me to my own devices." To what devices she left himwas a thought that sprang not up in her purely selfish nature.
In her perplexity Angelique tied knot upon knot hard as pebbles in herhandkerchief. Those knots of her destiny, as she regarded them, she leftuntied, and they remain untied to this day--a memento of her characterand of those knots in her life which posterity has puzzled itself overto no purpose to explain.