THEOLOGY
Gabriel was returning in a state of utter exhaustion from the point
where the assault had taken place, with Gaspard de Coligny, when two
men, passing very near him, mentioned the name of Sister Bénie. He left
the admiral, and running after the men, asked them eagerly if they knew
anything of her whose name they had mentioned.
"Oh, _mon Dieu_! no, Captain, no more than yourself," replied one of
them, who was no other than Jean Peuquoy. "In fact, I was just
expressing some anxiety about her to my companion here; for no one has
seen the lovely brave girl all day long, and I was just saying that
after such a brisk engagement as we have just had, there are many poor
wounded fellows who are much in need of her nursing and her heavenly
smile. But we shall soon know if she is seriously ill; for it will be
her turn to do night duty with the ambulance to-morrow. She has never
missed her turn yet; and there are too few of the nuns, and they relieve
one another too frequently, to be willing or able to get along without
her except in case of absolute necessity. We shall see her to-morrow
evening, then, no doubt; and I shall thank God for one poor invalid's
sake, for she knows how to comfort and encourage them like a real Notre
Dame."
"Thanks, my friend, thanks!" said Gabriel, pressing Jean Peuquoy's hand
warmly, and leaving the good man much surprised at being so honored.
Gaspard de Coligny had heard Jean Peuquoy, and noticed Gabriel's
delight. When they were walking together again, he said nothing to him
on the subject at first; but when they were once in the house and by
themselves in the room where the admiral kept his papers and issued his
orders, he said to Gabriel with his pleasant smile,--
"You take a very lively interest, I see, my friend, in this nun, Sister
Bénie."
"The same interest that Jean Peuquoy takes," replied Gabriel, blushing;
"the same interest that you take yourself, no doubt, Monsieur l'Amiral,
for you must have noticed, as I have, how sorely our wounded need her,
and what a beneficial influence her words and her very presence exert
upon them and upon all the combatants."
"Why do you try to deceive me, my friend?" said the admiral. "You must
have very little confidence in me that you try thus to lie to me."
"What, Monsieur l'Amiral!" responded Gabriel, more and more embarrassed;
"who has been able to make you believe--"
"That Sister Bénie is no other than Madame Diane de Castro, and that
you are deeply in love with her?"
"You know that?" cried Gabriel, amazed beyond measure.
"Why should I not know it?" rejoined the admiral. "Is not Monsieur le
Connétable my uncle! Is there anything at court that he doesn't know
all about? Has not Madame de Poitiers the king's ear, and has not
Monsieur de Montmorency Diane de Poitiers's heart? As very weighty
interests of our family are apparently involved in all this, I was
naturally informed of the whole business, so that I might be on my
guard, and render every aid to forward the schemes of my noble relative.
I had not been a day at my post in St. Quentin, to defend the place or
to die here, when I received an express from my uncle. It was not, as I
supposed at first, to inform me of the movements of the enemy and the
constable's proposed operations. By no means! The messenger had risked a
thousand dangers to notify me that Madame Diane de Castro, the king's
daughter, was at the convent of the Benedictines at St. Quentin under an
assumed name, and that I must keep a strict watch over her movements.
Then again, yesterday a Flemish messenger, bribed by Monsieur de
Montmorency in his captivity, inquired for me at the southern gate. I
fancied that he had come from my uncle to tell me to take courage; that
it was for me to re-establish the glory of the Montmorencys, sullied by
the defeat of St. Laurent; and that the king would infallibly add other
reinforcements to those brought hither by you, Gabriel; and that I must
in any event die in the breach rather than deliver St. Quentin. But no,
no! the purchased messenger came not to bring me any such stirring words
to encourage and sustain me; and I was grievously mistaken. The man was
only instructed to notify me that Vicomte d'Exmès, who had come in the
night before upon the pretence of fighting and dying here, was in love
with Madame de Castro, who is betrothed to my cousin, François de
Montmorency, and that the meeting of the lovers might have a bad effect
upon the vast plans being matured by my uncle; but that luckily I was
governor of St. Quentin, and it was my duty to devote all my energies to
the task of keeping Madame Diane and Gabriel d'Exmès apart; and, above
all, to prevent their having any conversation together, and thus to
contribute to the elevation and power of my house!"
All this was said with a bitterness and melancholy that were very
perceptible; but Gabriel thought of nothing but the blow aimed at his
hopes.
"And so, Monsieur," he said to the admiral, with bitter anger at his
heart, "it was you who denounced me to the superior of the Benedictines,
and who, faithful to your uncle's instructions, count, no doubt, upon
taking from me, one by one, all the chances which I may still have of
finding Diane and seeing her again."
"Hold your peace, young man!" cried the admiral, with an unspeakably
proud expression. "But I forgive you," he added more gently; "for your
passion blinds you, and you have not yet had time to know Gaspard de
Coligny."
There was so much noble and dignified kindness in the tone in which
these words were uttered that all Gabriel's suspicions vanished like
mist, and he was deeply ashamed that he had entertained them for one
moment.
"Pardon me!" he said, stretching out his hand to Gaspard. "How could I
ever have thought that you would allow yourself to be led into such
intrigues? A thousand pardons, Monsieur l'Amiral!"
"Oh, it's all right, Gabriel!" rejoined Coligny; "and I know that your
impulses are youthful and pure. No, indeed, I do not mingle in such
underhand practices; on the contrary, I despise them and those who have
conceived them. In such performances I can see no glory, but only shame
for my family; and far from wishing to profit by them, I blush at them.
If these men, who build up their fortune by such means, scandalous or
not; who, in their haste to gratify their ambition and their greed,
never heed the sorrow and the desolation of those who are as good as
they; who would even, to arrive a little sooner at their goal, pass over
the dead body of their mother-land,--if these men are my kinsmen, it
must be the punishment which God inflicts upon me for my pride, and with
which He recalls me to humility; it is an encouragement to me to show
myself harsh toward myself and just to my neighbors, as a means of
redeeming the sins of my relatives."
"Yes," rejoined Gabriel, "I know that the honor and virtue of the days
of the apostles dwell in your breast, Monsieur l'Amiral; and I beg your
pardon once more for having for one moment spoken to you as to one of
the fine gentlemen without faith or law whom I have learned too well to
despise and detest."
"Alas!" said Coligny, "we should rather pity them,--these poor fools who
are ambitious of nothing, these wretched, blinded Papists. But," he
continued, "I forget that I am not speaking to one of my brothers in
religious matters. Never mind, Gabriel; you are worthy of being one of
us, and you will come to us sooner or later. Yes; God, in whose hands
all means are holy, will lead you to the right, I foresee, through this
very passion; and this unequal conflict in which your love will cause
you to hurl yourself against a corrupt court will end in bringing you
into our ranks some day. I shall be happy to sow in your breast, my
friend, the first seeds of the divine harvest."
"I knew, Monsieur l'Amiral," said Gabriel, "that you were of the
Reformed religion; and that very fact has led me to esteem the
persecuted sect. Nevertheless, you see, I am weak in mind, being feeble
in heart; and I am sure that I shall always profess the same religion
that Diane does."
"Oh, well!" said Gaspard, in whom, as in most of his sect, the fever of
proselytism was at its height,--"oh, well! if Madame de Castro is of the
religion of virtue and truth, she is of our faith, and so will you be,
Gabriel. So will you be, I say again, because that dissolute court, rash
youth, against which you are taking up arms, will overcome you; and you
will burn to be revenged. Do you believe that Monsieur de Montmorency,
who has set his heart upon the king's daughter for his son, will consent
to give up that rich prize to you?"
"Alas! perhaps I shall not dispute it with him," said Gabriel. "Only let
the king remain true to his sworn promise to me--"
"Sworn promise!" exclaimed the admiral. "Do you talk of sworn promises
in connection with the man who, after he had commanded the parliament to
discuss the question of liberty of conscience freely before him, had
Anne Dubourg and Dufaur burned at the stake for having pleaded the cause
of the reform, relying upon the royal word?"
"Oh, don't say so, Monsieur l'Amiral!" cried Gabriel. "Don't tell me
that King Henri will not keep the solemn promise that he has given me;
for in that event not my faith alone would rise in rebellion, but my
sword too, I fear: I would not become a Huguenot, but a murderer."
"Not if you become a Huguenot," rejoined Gaspard. "We may be martyrs,
but shall never be assassins. But your vengeance, though it be not a
bloody one, may be none the less terrible, my friend. You will assist us
with your youthful ardor and your zealous devotion in a work of
renovation which is likely to be more depressing to the king than a
thrust of the sword. Remember, Gabriel, that it is our purpose to wrest
from him his iniquitous and monstrous privileges; remember that it is
not in the Church alone, but in the government that we are striving to
introduce reforms which will be helpful to the worthy, but a menace to
the wicked. You have seen whether I love France and serve her. Well,
then, I am for these reforms partly because I see in them the true
greatness of my country. Oh, Gabriel, Gabriel, if you had but read once
the convincing arguments of our Luther, you would see how soon the
spirit of investigation and liberty which breathes in them would put a
new soul in your body, and open a new life before you."
"My life is my love for Diane," was Gabriel's response; "and my soul is
in the sacred task which God has imposed upon me, and which I trust to
accomplish."
"The love and the task of a man," said Gaspard, "which may surely be
reconciled with the love and the task of a Christian. You are young, and
do not see clearly, my friend; but I foresee only too plainly, and my
heart bleeds to say it to you, that your eyes will be opened by
misfortune. Your generosity and your purity of soul will sooner or later
bring grief upon you in that licentious and scandalous court, just as
tall trees attract the lightning in a storm. Then you will call to mind
what I have said to you to-day. You will learn to know our books,--this
one, for instance;" and the admiral took up a volume that was lying open
on the table. "You will understand these outspoken and stern, but just
and noble words, which are spoken to us by one as young as yourself, a
councillor of the Bordeaux parliament, named Étienne de la Boétie. And
then you will say, Gabriel, in the words of this vigorous work, 'La
Servitude Volontaire': 'What a misfortune, or what a crime it is to see
an infinite number of men not obeying, but servilely following,--not
being governed, but tyrannized over by one individual, and not by a
Hercules or a Samson, but by one little man, generally the most
faint-hearted and effeminate in the whole land.'"
"Those are indeed not only dangerous, but bold words, and stimulating to
the intellect," said Gabriel. "You are quite right, too, Monsieur
l'Amiral; it may be that rage will some day drive me into your ranks,
and that oppression will lead me to espouse the cause of the oppressed.
But until that time comes, you see, my life is too full to admit these
new ideas which you have laid before me; and I have too much to do to
leave me time to read books."
Nevertheless, Gaspard de Coligny continued to urge upon him warmly the
doctrines and ideas which were then fermenting in his mind like new
wine, and the conversation was prolonged to great length between the
passionate young man and his earnest elder,--the one as determined and
impetuous as action, the other grave and serious as thought.
Moreover, the admiral was hardly at fault in his gloomy forebodings; and
misfortune was preparing to fertilize the seeds which this interview had
sown in Gabriel's ardent soul.