Twixt Paris and Choisy there lies but a distance of some two leagues,
which, given a fair horse, one may cover with ease in little more than
half an hour. So that as the twilight was deepening into night we drew
rein before the hostelry of the Connétable, in the only square the
little township boasts, and from the landlord I had that obsequious
reception which is ever accorded to him who travels with a body-servant.
I found Andrea installed in a fair-sized and comfortable apartment, to
the original decoration of which he added not a little by bestowing his
boots in the centre of the floor, his hat, sword, and baldrick on the
table, his cloak on one chair, and his doublet on another. He himself
sat toasting his feet before the blazing logs, which cast a warm,
reddish glow upon his sable hair and dainty shirt of cambric.
He sprang up as I entered, and came towards me with a look of pleasure
on his handsome, high-bred face, that did me good to see.
“So, you have come, De Luynes,” he cried, putting forth his hand. “I did
not dare to hope that you would.”
“No,” I answered. “Truly it was not to be expected that I could be
easily lured from Paris just as my fortunes are nearing a high tide,
and his Eminence proposing to make me a Marshal of France and create me
Duke. As you say, you had scant grounds for hoping that my love for you
would suffice to make me renounce all these fine things for the mere
sake of accompanying you on your jaunt to Blois.”
He laughed, then fell to thanking me for having rid him of Canaples. I
cut him short at last, and in answer to his questions told him what had
passed 'twixt his Eminence and me that afternoon. Then as the waiter
entered to spread our supper, the conversation assumed a less delicate
character, until we were again alone with the table and its steaming
viands between us.
“You have not told me yet, Andrea, what takes you to Blois,” quoth I
then.
“You shall learn. Little do you dream how closely interwoven are our
morning adventures with this journey of mine. To begin with, I go to
Blois to pay my dévoirs to the lady whom his Eminence has selected for
my future wife.”
“You were then right in describing this as a mission of great delicacy.”
“More than you think--I have never seen the lady.”
“Never seen her? And you go a-wooing a woman you have never seen?”
“It is so. I have never seen her; but his Eminence has, and 't is he
who arranges the affair. Ah, the Cardinal is the greatest matchmaker in
France! My cousin Anna Martinozzi is destined for the Prince de Conti,
my sisters Olympia and Marianne he also hopes to marry to princes of the
blood, whilst I dare wager that he has thoughts of seating either Maria
or Hortensia upon the throne of France as the wife of Louis XIV., as
soon as his Majesty shall have reached a marriageable age. You may
laugh, De Luynes, nevertheless all this may come to pass, for my uncle
has great ambitions for his family, and it is even possible that should
that poor, wandering youth, Charles II. of England, ever return to the
throne of his fathers he may also become my brother-in-law. I am likely
to become well connected, De Luynes, so make a friend of me whilst I
am humble. So much for Mazarin's nieces. His nephews are too young for
alliances just yet, saving myself; and for me his Eminence has
chosen one of the greatest heiresses in France--Yvonne St. Albaret de
Canaples.”
“Whom?” I shouted.
He smiled.
“Curious, is it not? She is the sister of the man whom I quarrelled
with this morning, and whom you fought with this afternoon. Now you will
understand my uncle's reasons for so strenuously desiring to prevent the
duel at St. Germain. It appears that the old Chevalier de Canaples is
as eager as the Cardinal to see his daughter wed to me, for his Eminence
has promised to create me Duke for a wedding gift. 'T will cost him
little, and 't will please these Canaples mightily. Naturally, had
Eugène de Canaples and I crossed swords, matters would have been
rendered difficult.”
“When did you learn all this?” I inquired.
“To-day, after the duel, and when it was known what St. Auban and
Montmédy had threatened me with. My uncle thought it well that I should
withdraw from Paris. He sent for me and told me what I have told you,
adding that I had best seize the opportunity, whilst my presence at
Court was undesirable, to repair to Blois and get my wooing done. I in
part agreed with him. The lady is very rich, and I am told that she is
beautiful. I shall see her, and if she pleases me, I'll woo her. If not,
I'll return to Paris.”
“But her brother will oppose you.”
“Her brother? Pooh! If he doesn't die of the sword-thrust you gave him,
which I am told is in the region of the lung and passing dangerous, he
will at least be abed for a couple of months to come.”
“But I, mon cher André? What rôle do you reserve for me, that you have
desired me to go with you?”
“The rôle of Mentor if you will. Methought you would prove a merry
comrade to help one o'er a tedious journey, and knowing that there was
little to hold you to Paris, and probably sound reasons why you should
desire to quit it, meseemed that perhaps you would consent to bear me
company. Who knows, my knight errant, what adventures may await you and
what fortunes? If the heiress displeases me, it may be that she will
please you--or mayhap there is another heiress at Blois who will fall
enamoured of those fierce moustachios.”
I laughed with him at the improbability of such things befalling. I
carried in my bosom too large a heart, and one that was the property of
every wench I met--for just so long as I chanced to be in her company.
It was no more than in harmony with this habit of mine, that when, next
morning in the common-room of the Connétable, I espied Jeanneton, the
landlord's daughter, and remarked that she was winsome and shapely, with
a complexion that would not have dishonoured a rose-petal, I permitted
myself to pinch her dainty cheek. She slapped mine in return, and in
this pleasant manner we became acquainted.
“Sweet Jeanneton,” quoth I with a laugh, “that was mightily ill-done! I
did but pinch your cheek as one may pinch a sweet-smelling bud, so that
the perfume of it may cling to one's fingers.”
“And I, sir,” was the pert rejoinder, “did but slap yours as one may
slap a misbehaving urchin's; so that he may learn better manners.”
Nevertheless she was pleased with my courtly speech, and perchance also
with my moustachios, for a smile took the place of the frown wherewith
she had at first confronted me. Now, if I had uttered glib pleasantries
in answer to her frowns, how many more did not her smiles wring from me!
I discoursed to her in the very courtliest fashion of cows and pullets
and such other matters as interesting to her as they were mysterious
to me. I questioned her in a breath touching her father's pigs and
the swain she loved best in that little township, to all of which she
answered me with a charming wit, which would greatly divert you did I
but recall her words sufficiently to set them down. In five minutes
we had become the best friends in the world, which was attested by the
protecting arm that I slipped around her waist, as I asked her whether
she loved that village swain of hers better than she loved me, and
refused to believe her when she answered that she did.
Outside two men were talking, one calling for a farrier, and when
informed that the only one in the village was absent and not likely to
return till noon, demanding relays of horses. The other--probably the
hostler--answered him that the Connétable was not a post-house and
that no horses were to be had there. Then a woman's voice, sweet yet
commanding, rose above theirs.
“Very well, Guilbert,” it said. “We will await this farrier's return.”
“Let me go, Monsieur!” cried Jeanneton. “Some one comes.”
Now for myself I cared little who might come, but methought that it was
likely to do poor Jeanneton's fair name no benefit, if the arm of
Gaston de Luynes were seen about her waist. And so I obeyed her, but not
quickly enough; for already a shadow lay athwart the threshold, and in
the doorway stood a woman, whose eye took in the situation before we had
altered it sufficiently to avert suspicion. To my amazement I beheld the
lady of the coach--she who had saved me from the mob in Place Vendôme,
and touching whose identity I could have hazarded a shrewd guess.
In her eyes also I saw the light of recognition which swiftly changed to
one of scorn. Then they passed from me to the vanishing Jeanneton, and
methought that she was about to call her back. She paused, however, and,
turning to the lackey who followed at her heels.
“Guilbert,” she said, “be good enough to call the landlord, and bid him
provide me with an apartment for the time that we may be forced to spend
here.”
But at this juncture the host himself came hurrying forward with many
bows and endless rubbing of hands, which argued untold deference. He
regretted that the hostelry of the Connétable, being but a poor inn,
seldom honoured as it was at that moment, possessed but one suite of
private apartments, and that was now occupied by a most noble gentleman.
The lady tapped her foot, and as at that moment her companion (who was
none other than the fair-haired doll I had seen with her on the previous
day) entered the room, she turned to speak with her, whilst I moved away
towards the window.
“Will this gentleman,” she inquired, “lend me one of his rooms, think
you?”
“Hélas, Mademoiselle, he has but two, a bedroom and an ante-chamber, and
he is still abed.”
“Oh!” she cried in pretty anger, “this is insufferable! 'T is your
fault, Guilbert, you fool. Am I, then, to spend the day here in the
common-room?”
“No, no, Mademoiselle,” exclaimed the host in his most soothing accents.
“Only for an hour, or less, perhaps, until this very noble lord is
risen, when assuredly--for he is young and very gallant--he will resign
one or both of his rooms to you.”
More was said between them, but my attention was suddenly drawn
elsewhere. Michelot burst into the room, disaster written on his face.
“Monsieur,” he cried, in great alarm, “the Marquis de St. Auban
is riding down the street with the Vicomte de Vilmorin and another
gentleman.”
I rapped out an oath at the news; they had got scent of Andrea's
whereabouts, and were after him like sleuth-hounds on a trail.
“Remain here, Michelot,” I answered in a low voice. “Tell them that
M. de Mancini is not here, that the only occupant of the inn is your
master, a gentleman from Normandy, or Picardy, or where you will.
See that they do not guess our presence--the landlord fortunately is
ignorant of M. de Mancini's name.”
There was a clatter of horses' hoofs without, and I was barely in time
to escape by the door leading to the staircase, when St. Auban's heavy
voice rang out, calling the landlord.
“I am in search of a gentleman named Andrea de Mancini,” he said. “I am
told that he has journeyed hither, and that he is here at present. Am I
rightly informed?”
I determined to remain where I was, and hear that conversation to the
end.
“There is a gentleman here,” answered the host, “but I am ignorant of
his name. I will inquire.”
“You may spare yourself the trouble,” Michelot interposed. “That is not
the gentleman's name. I am his servant.”
There was a moment's pause, then came Vilmorin's shrill voice.
“You lie, knave! M. de Mancini is here. You are M. de Luynes's lackey,
and where the one is, there shall we find the other.”
“M. de Luynes?” came a voice unknown to me. “That is Mancini's
sword-blade of a friend, is it not? Well, why does he hide himself?
Where is he? Where is your master, rascal?”
“I am here, Messieurs,” I answered, throwing wide the door, and
appearing, grim and arrogant, upon the threshold.
Mort de ma vie! Had they beheld the Devil, St. Auban and Vilmorin could
not have looked less pleased than they did when their eyes lighted upon
me, standing there surveying them with a sardonic grin.
St. Auban muttered an oath, Vilmorin stifled a cry, whilst he who had so
loudly called to know where I hid myself--a frail little fellow, in the
uniform of the gardes du corps--now stood silent and abashed.
The two women, who had withdrawn into a dark and retired corner of the
apartment, stood gazing with interest upon this pretty scene.
“Well, gentlemen?” I asked in a tone of persiflage, as I took a step
towards them. “Have you naught to say to me, now that I have answered
your imperious summons? What! All dumb?”
“Our affair is not with you,” said St. Auban, curtly.
“Pardon! Why, then, did you inquire where I was?”
“Messieurs,” exclaimed Vilmorin, whose face assumed the pallor usual to
it in moments of peril, “meseems we have been misinformed, and that M.
de Mancini is not here. Let us seek elsewhere.”
“Most excellent advice, gentlemen,” I commented,--“seek elsewhere.”
“Monsieur,” cried the little officer, turning purple, “it occurs to me
that you are mocking us.”
“Mocking you! Mocking you? Mocking a gentleman who has been tied to so
huge a sword as yours. Surely--surely, sir, you do not think--”
“I'll not endure it,” he broke in. “You shall answer to me for this.”
“Have a care, sir,” I cried in alarm as he rushed forward. “Have a care,
sir, lest you trip over your sword.”
He halted, drew himself up, and, with a magnificent gesture: “I am
Armand de Malpertuis, lieutenant of his Majesty's guards,” he announced,
“and I shall be grateful if you will do me the honour of taking a turn
with me, outside.”
“I am flattered beyond measure, M. Malappris--”
“Mal-per-tuis,” he corrected furiously.
“Malpertuis,” I echoed. “I am honoured beyond words, but I do not wish
to take a turn.”
“Mille diables, sir! Don't you understand? We must fight.”
“Must we, indeed? Again I am honoured; but, Monsieur, I don't fight
sparrows.”
“Gentlemen! Gentlemen!” cried St. Auban, thrusting himself between us.
“Malpertuis, have the goodness to wait until one affair is concluded
before you create a second one. Now, M. de Luynes, will you tell me
whether M. de Mancini is here or not?”
“What if he should be?”
“You will be wise to withdraw--we shall be three to two.”
“Three to two! Surely, Marquis, your reckoning is at fault. You cannot
count the Vicomte there as one; his knees are knocking together; at best
he is but a woman in man's clothes. As for your other friend, unless his
height misleads me, he is but a boy. Therefore, Monsieur, you see that
the advantage is with us. We are two men opposed to a man, a woman, and
a child, so that--”
“In Heaven's name, sir,” cried St. Auban, again interposing himself
betwixt me and the bellicose Malpertuis, “will you cease this
foolishness? A word with you in private, M. de Luynes.”
I permitted him to take me by the sleeve, and lead me aside, wondering
the while what curb it was that he was setting upon his temper, and what
wily motives he might have for adopting so conciliatory a tone.
With many generations to come, the name of César de St. Auban must
perforce be familiar as that of one of the greatest roysterers and most
courtly libertines of the early days of Louis XIV., as well as that of a
rabid anti-cardinalist and frondeur, and one of the earliest of that new
cabal of nobility known as the petits-maîtres, whose leader the Prince
de Condé was destined to become a few years later. He was a man of about
my own age, that is to say, between thirty-two and thirty-three, and
of my own frame, tall, spare, and active. On his florid, débonnair
countenance was stamped his character of bon-viveur. In dress he
was courtly in the extreme. His doublet and haut-de-chausses were of
wine-coloured velvet, richly laced, and he still affected the hanging
sleeves of a fast-disappearing fashion. Valuable lace filled the tops
of his black boots, a valuable jewel glistened here and there upon
his person, and one must needs have pronounced him a fop but for the
strength and resoluteness of his bearing, and the long rapier that hung
from his gold-embroidered baldrick. Such in brief is a portrait of
the man who now confronted me, his fine blue eyes fixed upon my face,
wherein methinks he read but little, search though he might.
“M. de Luynes,” he murmured at last, “you appear to find entertainment
in making enemies, and you do it wantonly.”
“Have you brought me aside to instruct me in the art of making friends?”
“Possibly, M. de Luynes; and without intending an offence, permit me to
remark that you need them.”
“Mayhap. But I do not seek them.”
“I have it in my heart to wish that you did; for I, M. de Luynes, seek
to make a friend of you. Nay, do not smile in that unbelieving fashion.
I have long esteemed you for those very qualities of dauntlessness and
defiance which have brought you so rich a crop of hatred. If you
doubt my words, perhaps you will recall my attitude towards you in the
horse-market yesterday, and let that speak. Without wishing to remind
you of a service done, I may yet mention that I stood betwixt you and
the mob that sought to avenge my friend Canaples. He was my friend; you
stood there, as indeed you have always stood, in the attitude of a foe.
You wounded Canaples, maltreated Vilmorin, defied me; and yet but for my
intervention, mille diables sir, you had been torn to pieces.”
“All this I grant is very true, Monsieur,” I made reply, with deep
suspicion in my soul. “Yet, pardon me, if I confess that to me it proves
no more than that you acted as a generous enemy. Pardon my bluntness
also--but what profit do you look to make from gaining my friendship?”
“You are frank, Monsieur,” he said, colouring slightly, “I will be none
the less so. I am a frondeur, an anti-cardinalist. In a word, I am
a gentleman and a Frenchman. An interloping foreigner, miserly,
mean-souled, and Jesuitical, springs up, wins himself into the graces
of a foolish, impetuous, wilful queen, and climbs the ladder which she
holds for him to the highest position in France. I allude to Mazarin;
this Cardinal who is not a priest; this minister of France who is not a
Frenchman; this belittler of nobles who is not a gentleman.”
“Mort Dieu, Monsieur--”
“One moment, M. de Luynes. This adventurer, not content with the
millions which his avaricious talons have dragged from the people for
his own benefit, seeks, by means of illustrious alliances, to enrich a
pack of beggarly nieces and nephews that he has rescued from the squalor
of their Sicilian homes to bring hither. His nieces, the Mancinis and
Martinozzis, he is marrying to Dukes and Princes. 'T is not nice to
witness, but 't is the affair of the men who wed them. In seeking,
however, to marry his nephew Andrea to one of the greatest heiresses in
France, he goes too far. Yvonne de Canaples is for some noble countryman
of her own--there are many suitors to her hand--and for no nephew of
Giulio Mazarini. Her brother Eugène, himself, thinks thus, and therein,
M. de Luynes, you have the real motive of the quarrel which he provoked
with Andrea, and which, had you not interfered, could have had but one
ending.”
“Why do you tell me all this, Monsieur?” I inquired coldly, betraying
none of the amazement his last words gave birth to.
“So that you may know the true position of affairs, and, knowing it, see
the course which the name you bear must bid you follow. Because Canaples
failed am I here to-day. I had not counted upon meeting you, but since
I have met you, I have set the truth before you, confident that you
will now withdraw from an affair to which no real interest can bind you,
leaving matters to pursue their course.”
He eyed me, methought, almost anxiously from under his brows, as he
awaited my reply. It was briefer than he looked for.
“You have wasted time, Monsieur.”
“How? You persist?”
“Yes. I persist. Yet for the Cardinal I care nothing. Mazarin has
dismissed me from his service unjustly and unpaid. He has forbidden me
his nephew's company. In fact, did he know of my presence here with M.
de Mancini, he would probably carry out his threat to hang me.”
“Ciel!” cried St. Auban, “you are mad, if that be so. France is divided
into two parties, cardinalists and anti-cardinalists. You, sir, without
belonging to either, stand alone, an enemy to both. Your attitude is
preposterous!”
“Nay, sir, not alone. There is Andrea de Mancini. The boy is my only
friend in a world of enemies. I am growing fond of him, Monsieur, and
I will stand by him, while my arm can wield a sword, in all that may
advance his fortunes and his happiness. That, Monsieur, is my last
word.”
“Do not forget, M. de Luynes,” he said--his suaveness all departed of
a sudden, and his tone full of menace and acidity--“do not forget that
when a wall may not be scaled it may be broken through.”
“Aye, Monsieur, but many of those who break through stand in danger
of being crushed by the falling stones,” I answered, entering into the
spirit of his allegory.
“There are many ways of striking,” he said.
“And many ways of being struck,” I retorted with a sneer.
Our words grew sinister, our eyes waxed fiery, and more might have
followed had not the door leading to the staircase opened at that moment
to admit Andrea himself. He came, elegant in dress and figure, with a
smile upon his handsome young face, whose noble features gave the lie
to St. Auban's assertion that he had been drawn from a squalid Sicilian
home. Such faces are not bred in squalor.
In utter ignorance of the cabal against him, he greeted St. Auban--who
was well known to him--with a graceful bow, and also Vilmorin, who stood
in the doorway with Malpertuis, and who at the sight of Mancini grew
visibly ill at ease. In coming to Choisy, the Vicomte had clearly
expected to do no more than second St. Auban in the duel which he
thought to see forced upon Andrea. He now realised that if a fight there
was, he might, by my presence, be forced into it. Malpertuis looked
fierce and tugged at his moustachios, whilst his companions returned
Andrea's salutation--St. Auban gravely, and Vilmorin hesitatingly.
“Ha, Gaston,” said the boy, advancing towards me, “our host tells me
that two ladies who have been shipwrecked here wish to do me the honour
of occupying my apartments for an hour or so. Ha, there they are,” he
added, as the two girls came suddenly forward. Then bowing--“Mesdames, I
am enchanted to set the poor room at your disposal for as long as it may
please you to honour it.”
As the ladies--of whose presence St. Auban had been unaware--appeared
before us, I shot a glance at the Marquis, and, from the start he gave
upon beholding them, I saw that things were as I had suspected.
Before they could reply to Andrea, St. Auban suddenly advanced:
“Mesdemoiselles,” quoth he, “forgive me if in this miserable light I did
not earlier discover your presence and offer you my services. I do so
now, with the hope that you will honour me by making use of them.”
“Merci, M. de St. Auban,” replied the dark-haired one--whom I guessed
to be none other than Yvonne de Canaples herself--“but, since this
gentleman so gallantly cedes his apartments to us, all our needs are
satisfied. It would be churlish to refuse that which is so graciously
proffered.”
Her tone was cold in the extreme, as also was the inclination of her
head wherewith she favoured the Marquis. In arrant contrast were the
pretty words of thanks she addressed to Andrea, who stood by, blushing
like a girl, and a damnable scowl did this contrast draw from St. Auban,
a scowl that lasted until, escorted by the landlord, the two ladies had
withdrawn.
There was an awkward pause when they were gone, and methought from the
look on St. Auban's face that he was about to provoke a fight after all.
Not so, however, for, after staring at us like a clown whilst one might
tell a dozen, he turned and strode to the door, calling for his horse
and those of his companions.
“Au révoir, M. de Luynes,” he said significantly as he got into the
saddle.
“Au révoir, M. de Luynes,” said also Malpertuis, coming close up to me.
“We shall meet again, believe me.”
“Pray God that we may not, if you would die in your bed,” I answered
mockingly. “Adieu!”