In silence we rode back to Blois. Not that I lacked matter for
conversation. Anger and chagrin at the thought that I had come upon this
journey to earn naught but an insult and to have a door slammed in my
face made my gorge rise until it went near to choking me. I burned to
revile Canaples aloud, but Abdon's was not the ear into which I might
pour the hot words that welled up to my lips.
Yet if silent, the curses that I heaped upon the Chevalier's crassness
were none the less fervent, and to myself I thought with grim relish of
how soon and how dearly he would pay for the affront he had put upon me.
That satisfaction, however, endured not long; for presently I bethought
me of how heavily the punishment would fall upon Yvonne--and yet, of how
she would be left to the mercy of St. Auban, whose warrant from Mazarin
would invest with almost any and every power at Canaples.
I ground my teeth at the sudden thought, and for a moment I was on the
point of going back and forcing my way into the château at the sword
point if necessary, to warn and save the Chevalier in spite of himself
and unthanked.
It was not in such a fashion that I had thought to see my mission to
Canaples accomplished; I had dreamt of gratitude, and gratitude unbars
the door to much. Nevertheless, whether or not I earned it, I must
return, and succeed where for want of insistence I had failed awhile
ago.
Of a certainty I should have acted thus, but that at the very moment
upon which I formed the resolution Abdon drew my attention to a dark
shadow by the roadside not twenty paces in front of us. This proved to
be the motionless figure of a horseman.
As soon as I was assured of it, I reined in my horse, and taking a
pistol from the holster, I levelled it at the shadow, accompanying the
act by a sonorous--
“Who goes there?”
The shadow stirred, and Michelot's voice answered me:
“'T is I, Monsieur. They have arrived. I came to warn you.”
“Who has arrived?” I shouted.
“The soldiers. They are lodged at the Lys de France.”
An oath was the only comment I made as I turned the news over in my
mind. I must return to Canaples.
Then another thought occurred to me. The Chevalier was capable of going
to extremes to keep me from entering his house; he might for instance
greet me with a blunderbuss. It was not the fear of that that deterred
me, but the fear that did a charge of lead get mixed with my poor brains
before I had said what I went to say, matters would be no better, and
there would be one poor knave the less to adorn the world.
“What shall we do, Michelot?” I groaned, appealing in my despair to my
henchman.
“Might it not be well to seek speech with M. de Montrésor?” quoth he.
I shrugged my shoulders. Nevertheless, after a moment's deliberation I
determined to make the attempt; if I succeeded something might come of
it.
And so I pushed on to Blois with my knaves close at my heels.
Up the Rue Vieille we proceeded with caution, for the hostelry of the
Vigne d'Or, where Michelot had hired me a room, fortunately overlooking
the street, fronted the Lys de France, where St. Auban and his men were
housed.
I gained that room of mine without mishap, and my first action was to
deal summarily with a fat and well-roasted capon which the landlord
set before me--for an empty stomach is a poor comrade in a desperate
situation. That meal, washed down with the best part of a bottle of red
Anjou, did much to restore me alike in body and in mind.
From my open window I gazed across the street at the Lys de France.
The door of the common-room, opening upon the street, was set wide, and
across the threshold came a flood of light in which there flitted the
black figures of maybe a dozen amazed rustics, drawn thither for all the
world as bats are drawn to a glare.
And there they hovered with open mouths and stupid eyes, hearkening to
the din of voices that floated out on the tranquil air, the snatches of
ribald songs, the raucous bursts of laughter, the clink of glasses, the
clank of steel, the rattle of dice, and the strange soldier oaths that
fell with every throw, and which to them must have sounded almost as
words of some foreign tongue.
Whilst I stood by my window, the landlord entered my room, and coming up
to me--
“Thank Heaven they are not housed at the Vigne d'Or,” he said. “It will
take Maître Bernard a week to rid his house of the stench of leather.
They are part of a stray company that is on its way to fight the
Spaniards,” he informed me. “But methinks they will be forced to spend
two or three days at Blois; their horses are sadly jaded and will need
that rest before they can take the road again, thanks to the pace at
which their boy of an officer must have led them. There is a gentleman
with them who wears a mask. 'T is whispered that he is a prince of
the blood who has made a vow not to uncover his face until this war be
ended, in expiation of some sin committed in mad Paris.”
I heard him in silence, and when he had done I thanked him for his
information. So! This was the story that the crafty St. Auban had spread
abroad to lull suspicion touching the real nature of their presence
until their horses should be fit to undertake the return journey to
Paris, or until he should have secured the person of M. de Canaples.
Towards eleven o'clock, as the lights in the hostelry opposite were
burning low, I descended, and made my way out into the now deserted
street. The troopers had apparently seen fit--or else been ordered--to
seek their beds, for the place had grown silent, and a servant was in
the act of making fast the door for the night. The porte-cochère was
half closed, and a man carrying a lantern was making fast the bolt,
whistling aimlessly to himself. Through the half of the door that was
yet open, I beheld a window from which the light fell upon a distant
corner of the courtyard.
I drew near the fellow with the lantern, in whom I recognised René, the
hostler, and as I approached he flashed the light upon my face; then
with a gasp--“M. de Luynes,” he exclaimed, remembering me from the time
when I had lodged at the Lys de France, three months ago.
“Sh!” I whispered, pressing a louis d'or into his hand. “Whose window is
that, René?” And I pointed towards the light.
“That,” he replied, “is the room of the lieutenant and the gentleman in
the mask.”
“I must take a look at them, René, and whilst I am looking I shall
search my pocket for another louis. Now let me in.”
“I dare not, Monsieur. Maître Bernard may call me, and if the doors are
not closed--”
“Dame!” I broke in. “I shall stay but a moment.”
“But--”
“And you will have easily earned a louis d'or. If Bernard calls
you--peste, tell him that you have let fall something, and that you are
seeking it. There, let me pass.”
I got past him at last, and made my way swiftly towards the other end of
the quadrangle.
As I approached, the sound of voices smote my ear, for the lighted
window stood open. I stopped within half a dozen paces of it, and
climbed on to the step of a coach that stood there. Thence I could look
straight into the room, whilst the darkness hid me from the eyes of
those I watched.
Three men there were; Montrésor, the sergeant of his troop, and a tall
man dressed in black, and wearing a black silk mask. This I concluded
to be St. Auban, despite the profusion of fair locks that fell upon his
shoulders, concealing--I rightly guessed--his natural hair, which was as
black as my own. It was a cunning addition to his disguise, and one well
calculated to lead people on to the wrong scent hereafter.
Presently, as I watched them, St. Auban spoke, and his voice was that
of a man whose gums are toothless, or else whose nether lip is drawn
in over his teeth whilst he speaks. Here again the dissimulation was as
effective as it was simple.
“So; that is concluded,” were the words that reached me. “To-morrow
we will install our men at the château, for while we remain here it is
preposterous to lodge them at an inn. On the following day I hope that
we may be able to set out again.”
“If we could obtain fresh horses--” began the sergeant, when he of the
mask interrupted him.
“Sangdieu! Think you my purse is bottomless? We return as we came, with
the Cardinal's horses. What signify a day or two, after all? Come--call
the landlord to light me to my room.”
I had heard enough. But more than that, whilst I listened, an idea had
of a sudden sprung up in my mind which did away with the necessity
of gaining speech with Montresor--a contingency, moreover, that now
presented insuperable difficulties.
So I got down softly from my perch and made my way out of the yard, and,
after fulfilling my part of the bargain with René, across to the Vigne
d'Or and to my room, there to sit and mature the plan that of a sudden I
had conceived.