CHAPTER XII.
THE ABBE'S RETURN.--A SWORD, AND A SOLILOQUY.
THE next evening, when I was sitting alone in my room, the AbbeMontreuil suddenly entered. "Ah, is it you? welcome!" cried I. Thepriest held out his arms, and embraced me in the most paternal manner.
"It is your friend," said he, "returned at last to bless andcongratulate you. Behold my success in your service," and the Abbeproduced a long leather case richly inlaid with gold.
"Faith, Abbe," said I, "am I to understand that this is a present foryour eldest pupil?"
"You are," said Montreuil, opening the case, and producing a sword. Thelight fell upon the hilt, and I drew back, dazzled with its lustre; itwas covered with stones, apparently of the most costly value. Attachedto the hilt was a label of purple velvet, on which, in letters of gold,was inscribed, "To the son of Marshal Devereux, the soldier of France,and the friend of Louis XIV."
Before I recovered my surprise at this sight, the Abbe said: "Itwas from the King's own hand that I received this sword, and I haveauthority to inform you that if ever you wield it in the service ofFrance it will be accompanied by a post worthy of your name."
"The service of France!" I repeated; "why, at present that is theservice of an enemy."
"An enemy only to a _part_ of England!" said the Abbe, emphatically;"perhaps I have overtures to you from other monarchs, and the friendshipof the court of France may be synonymous with the friendship of the truesovereign of England."
There was no mistaking the purport of this speech, and even in the midstof my gratified vanity I drew back alarmed.
The Abbe noted the changed expression of my countenance, and artfullyturned the subject to comments on the sword, on which I still gazed witha lover's ardour. Thence he veered to a description of the grace andgreatness of the royal donor: he dwelt at length upon the flatteringterms in which Louis had spoken of my father, and had inquiredconcerning myself; he enumerated all the hopes that the illustrioushouse into which my father had first married expressed for a speedyintroduction to his son; he lingered with an eloquence more savouring ofthe court than of the cloister on the dazzling circle which surroundedthe French throne; and when my vanity, my curiosity, my love ofpleasure, my ambition, all that are most susceptible in young minds,were fully aroused, he suddenly ceased, and wished me a good night.
"Stay," said I; and looking at him more attentively than I had hithertodone, I perceived a change in his external appearance which somewhatstartled and surprised me. Montreuil had always hitherto been remarkablyplain in his dress; but he was now richly attired, and by his side hunga rapier, which had never adorned it before. Something in his aspectseemed to suit the alteration in his garb: and whether it was that longabsence had effaced enough of the familiarity of his features to allowme to be more alive than formerly to the real impression they werecalculated to produce, or whether a commune with kings and nobles had oflate dignified their old expression, as power was said to have clothedthe soldier-mien of Cromwell with a monarch's bearing,--I do not affectto decide; but I thought that, in his high brow and Roman features,the compression of his lip, and his calm but haughty air, there was anobleness, which I acknowledged for the first time. "Stay, my father,"said I, surveying him, "and tell me, if there be no irreverence in thequestion, whether brocade and a sword are compatible with the laws ofthe Order of Jesus?"
"Policy, Morton," answered Montreuil, "often dispenses with custom; andthe declarations of the Institute provide, with their usual wisdom, forworldly and temporary occasions. Even while the constitution ordains usto discard habits repugnant to our professions of poverty, the followingexception is made: 'Si in occurrenti aliqua occasione, vel necessitate,quis vestibus melioribus, honestis tamen, indueretur.'"*
* "But should there chance any occasion or necessity, one may wearbetter though still decorous garments."
"There is now, then, some occasion for a more glittering display thanordinary?" said I.
"There is, my pupil," answered Montreuil; "and whenever you embrace theoffer of my friendship made to you more than two years ago,--whenever,too, your ambition points to a lofty and sublime career,--whenever tomake and unmake kings, and in the noblest sphere to execute the willof God, indemnifies you for a sacrifice of petty wishes and momentarypassions,--I will confide to you schemes worthy of your ancestors andyourself."
With this the priest departed. Left to myself, I revolved his hints, andmarvelled at the power he seemed to possess. "Closeted with kings,"said I, soliloquizing,--"bearing their presents through armed menand military espionage; speaking of empires and their overthrow as ofordinary objects of ambition; and he himself a low-born and undignifiedpriest, of a poor though a wise order,--well, there is more in this thanI can fathom: but I will hesitate before I embark in his dangerous andconcealed intrigues; above all, I will look well ere I hazard my safeheritage of these broad lands in the service of that House which isreported to be ungrateful, and which is certainly exiled."
After this prudent and notable resolution, I took up the sword,re-examined it, kissed the hilt once and the blade twice, put it undermy pillow, sent for my valet, undressed, went to bed, fell asleep,and dreamed that I was teaching the Marechal de Villars the thrust _enseconde_.
But Fate, that arch-gossip, who, like her prototypes on earth, settlesall our affairs for us without our knowledge of the matter, had decreedthat my friendship with the Abbe Montreuil should be of very shortcontinuance, and that my adventures on earth should flow through adifferent channel than, in all probability, they would have done underhis spiritual direction.