CHAPTER XXXI. THE BALL AT THE INTENDANT'S PALACE.
The bevy of fair girls still surrounded Bigot on the terrace stair.Some of them stood leaning in graceful pose upon the balusters. The wilygirls knew his artistic tastes, and their pretty feet patted time to themusic, while they responded with ready glee to the gossiping of the gayIntendant.
Amid their idle badinage Bigot inserted an artful inquiry forsuggestion, not for information, whether it was true that his friendLe Gardeur de Repentigny, now at the Manor House of Tilly, had becomeaffianced to his cousin, Heloise de Lotbiniere? There was a start ofsurprise and great curiosity at once manifested among the ladies, someof whom protested that it could not be true, for they knew betterin what direction Le Gardeur's inclinations pointed. Others, morecompassionate or more spiteful, with a touch of envy, said they hopedit was true, for he had been "jilted by a young lady in the city!" Whomthey "all knew!" added one sparkling demoiselle, giving herself a twitchand throwing a side glance which mimicked so perfectly the manner ofthe lady hinted at, that all knew in a moment she meant no other thanAngelique des Meloises. They all laughed merrily at the conceit, andagreed that Le Gardeur de Repentigny would only serve the proud flirtright by marrying Heloise, and showing the world how little he cared forAngelique.
"Or how much!" suggested an experienced and lively widow, Madame LaTouche. "I think his marrying Heloise de Lotbiniere will only prove thedesperate condition of his feelings. He will marry her, not because heloves her, but to spite Angelique."
The Intendant had reckoned securely on the success of his ruse: thewords were scarcely spoken before a couple of close friends of Angeliquefound her out, and poured into her ears an exaggerated story of thecoming marriage of Le Gardeur with Heloise de Lotbiniere.
Angelique believed them because it seemed the natural consequence of herown infidelity.
Her friends, who were watching her with all a woman's curiosity andacuteness, were secretly pleased to see that their news had cut her tothe quick. They were not misled by the affected indifference and gaylaughter which veiled the resentment which was plainly visible in heragitated bosom.
Her two friends left her to report back to their companions, withmany exaggerations and much pursing of pretty lips, how Angelique hadreceived their communication. They flattered themselves they had hadthe pleasure of first breaking the bad tidings to her, but they weremistaken! Angelique's far-reaching curiosity had touched Tilly withits antennae, and she had already learned of the visit of Heloise deLotbiniere, an old school companion of her own, to the Manor House ofTilly.
She had scented danger afar off from that visit. She knew that Heloiseworshipped Le Gardeur, and now that Angelique had cast him off, whatmore natural than that he should fall at last into her snares--soAngelique scornfully termed the beauty and amiable character of herrival. She was angry without reason, and she knew it; but that made herstill more angry, and with still less reason.
"Bigot!" said she, impetuously, as the Intendant rejoined her when thehalf-hour had elapsed, "you asked me a question in the Castle of St.Louis, leaning on the high gallery which overlooks the cliffs! Do youremember it?"
"I do: one does not forget easily what one asks of a beautiful woman,and still less the reply she makes to us," replied he, looking at hersharply, for he guessed her drift.
"Yet you seem to have forgotten both the question and the reply, Bigot.Shall I repeat them?" said she, with an air of affected languor.
"Needless, Angelique! and to prove to you the strength of my memory,which is but another name for the strength of my admiration, I willrepeat it: I asked you that night--it was a glorious night, the brightmoon shone full in our faces as we looked over the shining river, butyour eyes eclipsed all the splendor of the heavens--I asked you to giveme your love; I asked for it then, Angelique! I ask for it now."
Angelique was pleased with the flattery, even while she knew how hollowand conventional a thing it was.
"You said all that before, Bigot!" replied she, "and you added a foolishspeech, which I confess pleased me that night better than now. You saidthat in me you had found the fair haven of your desires, where yourbark, long tossing in cross seas, and beating against adverse winds,would cast anchor and be at rest. The phrase sounded poetical ifenigmatical, but it pleased me somehow; what did it mean, Bigot? I havepuzzled over it many times since--pray tell me!"
Angelique turned her eyes like two blazing stars full upon him as if tosearch for every trace of hidden thought that lurked in his countenance.
"I meant what I said, Angelique: that in you I had found the pearl ofprice which I would rather call mine than wear a king's crown."
"You explain one enigma by another. The pearl of price lay there beforeyou and you picked it up! It had been the pride of its former owner, butyou found it ere it was lost. What did you with it, Bigot?"
The Intendant knew as well as she the drift of the angry tide, whichwas again setting in full upon him, but he doubted not his ability toescape. His real contempt for women was the lifeboat he trusted in,which had carried himself and fortunes out of a hundred storms andtempests of feminine wrath.
"I wore the precious pearl next my heart, as any gallant gentlemanshould do," replied he blandly; "I would have worn it inside my heartcould I have shut it up there."
Bigot smiled in complacent self-approval at his own speech. Not soAngelique! She was irritated by his general reference to the duty ofa gallant gentleman to the sex and not to his own special duty as theadmirer of herself.
Angelique was like an angry pantheress at this moment. The darts ofjealousy just planted by her two friends tore her side, and she feltreckless both as to what she said and what she did. With a burst ofpassion not rare in women like her, she turned her wrath full upon himas the nearest object. She struck Bigot with her clenched hand upon thebreast, exclaiming with wild vehemence,--
"You lie! Francois Bigot, you never wore me next your heart, althoughyou said so! You wear the lady of Beaumanoir next your heart. You haveopened your heart to her after pledging it to me! If I was the pearlof price, you have adorned her with it--my abasement is her glory!"Angelique's tall, straight figure stood up, magnified with fury as sheuttered this.
The Intendant stepped back in surprise at the sudden attack. Had theblow fallen upon his face, such is human nature, Bigot would haveregarded it as an unpardonable insult, but falling upon his breast, heburst out in a loud laugh as he caught hold of her quivering hand, whichshe plucked passionately away from him.
The eyes of Angelique looked dangerous and full of mischief, but Bigotwas not afraid or offended. In truth, her jealousy flattered him,applying it wholly to himself. He was, moreover, a connoisseur in femaletemper: he liked to see the storm of jealous rage, to watch the risingof its black clouds, to witness the lightning and the thunder, the gustsand whirlwinds of passion, followed by the rain of angry tears, when thetears were on his account. He thought he had never seen so beautiful afury as Angelique was at that moment.
Her pointed epithet, "You lie!" which would have been death for a manto utter, made no dint on the polished armor of Bigot, although he inlyresolved that she should pay a woman's penalty for it.
He had heard that word from other pretty lips before, but it left nomark upon a conscience that was one stain, upon a life that was onefraud. Still his bold spirit rather liked this bold utterance from anangry woman, when it was in his power by a word to change her rage intothe tender cooing of a dove.
Bigot was by nature a hunter of women, and preferred the excitement of ahard chase, when the deer turns at bay and its capture gave him a trophyto be proud of, to the dull conquest of a tame and easy virtue, such aswere most of those which had fallen in his way.
"Angelique!" said he, "this is perfect madness; what means this burst ofanger? Do you doubt the sincerity of my love for you?"
"I do, Bigot! I doubt it, and I deny it. So long as you keep a mistressconcealed at Beaumanoir, your pledge to me is false and your love aninsult."
"You are too impetuous and too imperious, Angelique! I have promised youshe shall be removed from Beaumanoir, and she shall--"
"Whither, and when?"
"To the city, and in a few days: she can live there in quiet seclusion.I cannot be cruel to her, Angelique."
"But you can be cruel to me, Bigot, and will be, unless you exercise thepower which I know is placed in your hands by the King himself."
"What is that? to confiscate her lands and goods if she had any?"
"No, to confiscate her person! Issue a lettre de cachet and send herover sea to the Bastile."
Bigot was irritated at this suggestion, and his irritation was narrowlywatched by Angelique.
"I would rather go to the Bastile myself!" exclaimed he; "besides, theKing alone issues lettres de cachet: it is a royal prerogative, only tobe used in matters of State."
"And matters of love, Bigot, which are matters of State in France!Pshaw! as if I did not know that the King delegates his authority, andgives lettres de cachet in blank to his trusted courtiers, and evento the ladies of his Court. Did not the Marquise de Pompadour sendMademoiselle Vaubernier to the Bastile for only smiling upon the King?It is a small thing I ask of you, Bigot, to test your fidelity,--youcannot refuse me, come!" added she, with a wondrous transformation oflook and manner from storm and gloom to warmth and sunshine.
"I cannot and will not do it. Hark you, Angelique, I dare not do it!Powerful as I may seem, the family of that lady is too potent to riskthe experiment upon. I would fain oblige you in this matter, but itwould be the height of madness to do so."
"Well, then, Bigot, do this, if you will not do that! Place her in theConvent of the Ursulines: it will suit her and me both,--no better placein the world to tame an unruly spirit. She is one of the pious souls whowill be at home there, with plenty of prayers and penances, and plentyof sins to pray for every day."
"But I cannot force her to enter the Convent, Angelique. She will thinkherself not good enough to go there; besides, the nuns themselves wouldhave scruples to receive her."
"Not if YOU request her admission of Mere de la Nativite: the LadySuperior will refuse no application of yours, Bigot."
"Won't she! but she will! The Mere de la Nativite considers me a sadreprobate, and has already, when I visited her parlor, read me a coupleof sharpest homilies on my evil ways, as she called them. The venerableMere de la Nativite will not carry coals, I assure you, Angelique."
"As if I did not know her!" she replied impatiently. "Why, she screenswith all her authority that wild nephew of hers, the Sieur Varin!Nothing irritates her like hearing a bad report of him, and although sheknows all that is said of him to be true as her breviary, she will notadmit it. The soeurs converses in the laundry were put on bread andwater with prayers for a week, only for repeating some gossip they hadheard concerning him."
"Ay! that is because the venerable Mere Superior is touchy on the pointof family,--but I am not her nephew, voila la differance!" as the songsays.
"Well! but you are her nephew's master and patron," replied Angelique,"and the good Mere will strain many points to oblige the Intendant ofNew France for sake of the Sieur Varin. You do not know her as I do,Bigot."
"What do you advise, Angelique?" asked he, curious to see what wasworking in her brain.
"That if you will not issue a lettre de cachet, you shall place the ladyof Beaumanoir in the hands of the Mere de la Nativite with instructionsto receive her into the community after the shortest probation."
"Very good, Angelique! But if I do not know the Mere Superior, you donot know the lady of Beaumanoir. There are reasons why the nuns wouldnot and could not receive her at all,--even were she willing to go, as Ithink she would be. But I will provide her a home suited to her stationin the city; only you must promise to speak to me no more respectingher."
"I will promise no such thing, Bigot!" said Angelique, firing up againat the failure of her crafty plan for the disposal of Caroline, "to haveher in the city will be worse than to have her at Beaumanoir."
"Are you afraid of the poor girl, Angelique,--you, with your surpassingbeauty, grace, and power over all who approach you? She cannot touchyou."
"She has touched me, and to the quick too, already," she replied,coloring with passion. "You love that girl, Francois Bigot! I am neverdeceived in men. You love her too well to give her up, and still youmake love to me. What am I to think?"
"Think that you women are able to upset any man's reason, and make foolsof us all to your own purposes." Bigot saw the uselessness of argument;but she would not drop the topic.
"So you say, and so I have found it with others," replied she, "but notwith you, Bigot. But I shall have been made the fool of, unless I carrymy point in regard to this lady."
"Well, trust to me, Angelique. Hark you! there are reasons of Stateconnected with her. Her father has powerful friends at Court, and I mustact warily. Give me your hand; we will be friends. I will carry out yourwishes to the farthest possible stretch of my power. I can say no more."
Angelique gave him her hand. She saw she could not carry her point withthe Intendant, and her fertile brain was now scheming another way toaccomplish her ends. She had already undergone a revulsion of feeling,and repented having carried her resentment so far,--not that she feltit less, but she was cunning and artful, although her temper sometimesoverturned her craft, and made wreck of her schemes.
"I am sorry I was so angry, Bigot, as to strike you with this feeblehand." Angelique smiled as she extended her dainty fingers, which,delicate as they were, had the strength and elasticity of steel.
"Not so feeble either, Angelique!" replied he, laughing; "few men couldplant a better blow: you hit me on the heart fairly, Angelique."
He seized her hand and lifted it to his lips. Had Queen Dido possessedthat hand she would have held fast Aeneas himself when he ran away fromhis engagements.
Angelique pressed the Intendant's hand with a grasp that left everyvein bloodless. "As I hold fast to you, Bigot, and hold you to yourengagements, thank God that you are not a woman! If you were, I think Ishould kill you. But as you are a man, I forgive, and take your promiseof amendment. It is what foolish women always do!"
The sound of the music and the measured tread of feet in the livelydances were now plainly heard in the pauses of their conversation.
They rose, and entered the ballroom. The music ceased, and recommenceda new strain for the Intendant and his fair partner, and for a timeAngelique forgot her wrath in the delirious excitement of the dance.
But in the dance her exuberance of spirits overflowed like a fountainof intoxicating wine. She cared not for things past or future in theecstatic joy of the present.
Her voluptuous beauty, lissomeness, and grace of movement enthralled alleyes with admiration, as she danced with the Intendant, who was himselfno mean votary of Terpsichore. A lock of her long golden hair brokeloose and streamed in wanton disorder over her shoulders; but she heededit not,--carried away by the spirit of the dance, and the triumph ofpresent possession of the courtly Intendant. Her dainty feet flashedunder her flying robe and scarcely seemed to touch the floor as theykept time to the swift throbbings of the music.
The Intendant gazed with rapture on his beautiful partner, as she leanedupon his arm in the pauses of the dance, and thought more than oncethat the world would be well lost for sake of such a woman. It was but apassing fancy, however; the serious mood passed away, and he was weary,long before Angelique, of the excitement and breathless heat of a wildPolish dance, recently first heard of in French society. He led her to aseat, and left her in the centre of a swarm of admirers, and passed intoan alcove to cool and rest himself.