The Suitors of Yvonne: being a portion of the memoirs of the Sieur Gaston de Luynes
CHAPTER XXI. OF THE BARGAIN THAT ST. AUBAN DROVE WITH MY LORD CARDINAL
From the wounded man's bedside I wended my steps back to the Rue St.Antoine, resolved to start for Blois that very night; and beside mewalked Montresor, with bent head, like a man deep in thought.
At my door I paused to take my leave of the lieutenant, for I wasin haste to have my preparations made, and to be gone. But Montresorappeared not minded to be dismissed thus easily.
"What plan have you formed?" he asked.
"The only plan there is to form--to set out for Canaples at once."
"Hum!" he grunted, and again was silent. Then, suddenly throwing backhis head, "Par la mort Dieu!" he cried, "I care not what comes of it;I'll tell you what I know. Lead the way to your chamber, M. de Luynes,and delay your departure until you have heard me."
Surprised as much by his words as by the tone in which he uttered them,which was that of a man who is angry with himself, I passively did as Iwas bidden.
Once within my little ante-chamber, he turned the key with his ownhands, and pointing to the door of my bedroom--"In there, Monsieur,"quoth he, "we shall be safe from listeners."
Deeper grew my astonishment at all this mystery, as we passed into theroom beyond.
"Now, M. de Luynes," he cried, flinging down his hat, "for no apparentreason I am about to commit treason; I am about to betray the hand thatpays me."
"If no reason exists, why do so evil a deed?" I inquired calmly. "I havelearnt during our association to wish you well, Montresor; if by tellingme that which your tongue burns to tell, you shall have cause for shame,the door is yonder. Go before harm is done, and leave me alone to fightmy battle out."
He stood up, and for a moment he seemed to waver, then dismissing hisdoubts with an abrupt gesture, he sat down again.
"There is no wrong in what I do. Right is with you, M. de Luynes, andif I break faith with the might I serve, it is because that might isan unjust one; I do but betray the false to the true, and there can belittle shame in such an act. Moreover, I have a reason--but let thatbe."
He was silent for a moment, then he resumed:
"Most of that which you have learnt from Malpertuis to-night, I myselfcould have told you. Yes; St. Auban has carried Canaples's letter to theCardinal already. I heard from his lips to-day--for I was present at theinterview--how the document had been wrested from Malpertuis. For yoursake, so that you might learn all he knew, I sought the fellow out, andhaving found him in the Rue des Tournelles, I took you thither."
In a very fever of excitement I listened.
"To take up the thread of the story where Malpertuis left off, let metell you that St. Auban sought an audience with Mazarin this morning,and by virtue of a note which he desired an usher to deliver to hisEminence, he was admitted, the first of all the clients that for hourshad thronged the ante-room. As in the instance of the audience to Eugenede Canaples, so upon this occasion did it chance that the Cardinal'sfears touching St. Auban's purpose had been roused, for he bade me standbehind the curtains in his cabinet.
"The Marquis spoke bluntly enough, and with rude candour he stated thatsince Mazarin had failed to bring the Canaples estates into his familyby marriage, he came to set before his Eminence a proof so utter ofCanaples's treason that it would enable him to snatch the estatesby confiscation. The Cardinal may have been staggered by St. Auban'sbluntness, but his avaricious instincts led him to stifle his feelingsand bid the Marquis to set this proof before him. But St. Auban hada bargain to drive--a preposterous one methought. He demanded that inreturn for his delivering into the hands of Mazarin the person of Armandde Canaples together with an incontestable proof that the Chevalier wasin league with the frondeurs, and had offered to place a large sum ofmoney at their disposal, he was to receive as recompense the demesneof Canaples on the outskirts of Blois, together with one third of theconfiscated estates. At first Mazarin gasped at his audacity, thenlaughed at him, whereupon St. Auban politely craved his Eminence'spermission to withdraw. This the Cardinal, however, refused him, andbidding him remain, he sought to bargain with him. But the Marquisreplied that he was unversed in the ways of trade and barter, and thathe had no mind to enter into them. From bargaining the Cardinal passedon to threatening and from threatening to whining, and so on until theend--St. Auban preserving a firm demeanour--the comedy was played outand Mazarin fell in with his proposal and his terms.
"Mille diables!" I cried. "And has St. Auban set out?"
"He starts to-morrow, and I go with him. When finally the Cardinalhad consented, the Marquis demanded and obtained from him a promise inwriting, signed and sealed by Mazarin, that he should receive a thirdof the Canaples estates and the demesne on the outskirts of Blois, inexchange for the body of Armand de Canaples, dead or alive, and a proofof treason sufficient to warrant his arrest and the confiscation of hisestates. Next, seeing in what regard the Seigneur is held by the peopleof Blois, and fearing that his arrest might be opposed by many of hisadherents, the Marquis has demanded a troop of twenty men. This Mazarinhas also granted him, entrusting the command of the troop to me, underSt. Auban. Further, the Marquis has stipulated that the greatest secrecyis to be observed, and has expressed his purpose of going upon thisenterprise disguised and masked, for--as he rightly opines--when monthshence he enters into possession of the demesne of Canaples in thecharacter of purchaser, did the Blaisois recognise in him the man whosold the Chevalier, his life would stand in hourly peril."
I heard him through patiently enough; yet when he stopped, my pent-upfeelings burst all bonds, and I resolved there and then to go in questof that Judas, St. Auban, and make an end of his plotting, for all time.But Montresor restrained me, showing me how futile such a course mustprove, and how I risked losing all chance of aiding those at Canaples.
He was right. First I must warn the Chevalier--afterwards I would dealwith St. Auban.
Someone knocked at that moment, and with the entrance of Michelot, mytalk with Montresor came perforce to an end. For Michelot brought me thenews that for days I had been awaiting; Madame de Chevreuse had returnedto Paris at last.
But for Montresor's remonstrances it is likely that I should have setout forthwith to wait upon her. I permitted myself, however, to bepersuaded that the lateness of the hour would render my visit unwelcome,and so I determined in the end--albeit grudgingly--to put off mydeparture for Blois until the morrow.
Noon had but struck from Notre Dame, next day, as I mounted the stepsof the Hotel de Luynes. My swagger, and that brave suit of pearl greyvelvet with its silver lace, bore me unchallenged past the gorgeoussuisse, who stood, majestic, in the doorway.
But, for the first mincing lackey I chanced upon, more was needed togain me an audience. And so, as I did not choose to speak my name, Idrew a ring from my finger and bade him bear it to the Duchesse.
He obeyed me in this, and presently returning, he bowed low and beggedof me to follow him, for, as I had thought, albeit Madame de Chevreusemight not know to whom that ring belonged, yet the arms of Luynes carvedupon the stone had sufficed to ensure an interview.
I was ushered into a pretty boudoir, hung in blue and gold, whichoverlooked the garden, and wherein, reclining upon a couch, with abook of Bois Robert's verses in her white and slender hand, I found mybeautiful aunt.
Of this famous lady, who was the cherished friend and more than sisterof Anne of Austria, much has been written; much that is good, andmore--far more--that is ill, for those who have a queen for friend shallnever lack for enemies. But those who have praised and those who havecensured have at least been at one touching her marvellous beauty. Atthe time whereof I write it is not possible that she could be less thanforty-six, and yet her figure was slender and shapely and still endowedwith the grace of girlhood; her face delicate of tint, and little markedby time--or even by the sufferings to which, in the late king's reign,Cardinal de Richelieu had subjected her; her eyes were blue and peacefulas a summer sky; her hair was the colour of ripe corn. He would be ahardy g
uesser who set her age at so much as thirty.
My appearance she greeted by letting fall her book, and lifting up herhands--the loveliest in France--she uttered a little cry of surprise.
"Is it really you, Gaston?" she asked.
Albeit it was growing wearisome to be thus greeted by all to whom Ishowed myself, yet I studied courtesy in my reply, and then, 'neaththe suasion of her kindliness, I related all that had befallen mesince first I had journeyed to Blois, in Andrea de Mancini's company,withholding, however, all allusions to my feelings towards Yvonne. Whybetray them when they were doomed to be stifled in the breast that begatthem? But Madame de Chevreuse had not been born a woman and lived sixand forty years to no purpose.
"And this maid with as many suitors as Penelope, is she very beautiful?"she inquired slyly.
"France does not hold her equal," I answered, falling like a simpletoninto the trap she had set me.
"This to me?" quoth she archly. "Fi donc, Gaston! Your evil ways havetaught you as little gallantry as dissimulation." And her merry rippleof laughter showed me how in six words I had betrayed that which I hadbeen at such pains to hide.
But before I could, by protestations, plunge deeper than I stoodalready, the Duchesse turned the conversation adroitly to the matter ofthat letter of hers, wherein she had bidden me wait upon her.
A cousin of mine--one Marion de Luynes, who, like myself, had, throughthe evil of his ways, become an outcast from his family--was latelydead. Unlike me, however, he was no adventurous soldier of fortune, buta man of peace, with an estate in Provence that had a rent-roll of fivethousand livres a year. On his death-bed he had cast about him for anheir, unwilling that his estate should swell the fortunes of the familythat in life had disowned him. Into his ear some kindly angel hadwhispered my name, and the memory that I shared with him the frowns ofour house, and that my plight must be passing pitiful, had set up a bondof sympathy between us, which had led him to will his lands to me. OfMadame de Chevreuse--who clearly was the patron saint of those of herfirst husband's nephews who chanced to tread ungodly ways--my cousinMarion had besought that she should see to the fulfilment of his lastwishes.
My brain reeled beneath the first shock of that unlooked-for news.Already I saw myself transformed from a needy adventurer into agentleman of fortune, and methought my road to Yvonne lay open, allobstacles removed. But swiftly there followed the thought of my ownposition, and truly it seemed that a cruel irony lay in the mannerwherein things had fallen out, since did I declare myself to be aliveand claim the Provence estates, the Cardinal's claws would be quick toseize me.
Thus much I told Madame de Chevreuse, but her answer cheered me, andsaid much for my late cousin's prudence.
"Nay," she cried. "Marion was ever shrewd. Knowing that men who live bythe sword, as you have lived, are often wont to die by the sword,--andthat suddenly at times,--he has made provision that in the event ofyour being dead his estates shall come to me, who have been the mostindulgent of his relatives. This, my dear Gaston, has already takenplace, for we believed you dead; and therein fortune has been kind toyou, for now, while receiving the revenues of your lands--which theworld will look upon as mine--I shall contrive that they reach youwherever you may be, until such a time as you may elect to come to lifeagain."
Now but for the respect in which I held her, I could have taken thepretty Duchesse in my arms and kissed her.
Restraining myself, however, I contented myself by kissing her hand, andtold her of the journey I was going, then craved another boon of her.No matter what the issue of that journey, and whether I went alone oraccompanied, I was determined to quit France and repair to Spain. ThereI would abide until the Parliament, the Court, or the knife of somechance assassin, or even Nature herself should strip Mazarin of hispower.
Now, at the Court of Spain it was well known that my aunt's influencewas vast, and so, the boon I craved was that she should aid me to aposition in the Spanish service that would allow me during my exile tofind occupation and perchance renown. To this my aunt most graciouslyacceded, and when at length I took my leave--with such gratitude in myheart that what words I could think of seemed but clumsily to expressit--I bore in the breast of my doublet a letter to Don Juan deCordova--a noble of great prominence at the Spanish Court--and in thepocket of my haut-de-chausses a rouleau of two hundred gold pistoles, aswelcome as they were heavy.