Things came to pass that night as I had planned, and the fates which of
late had smiled upon me were kind unto the end.
Soon after ten, and before the moon had risen, a silent procession
wended its way from the château to the river. First went Montrésor and
two of his men; next came the Chevalier with Mademoiselle, and on either
side of them a trooper; whilst I, in head-piece and back and breast of
steel, went last with Mathurin, the sergeant--who warmly praised the
plan I had devised for the conveyance of M. de Canaples to Paris without
further loss of time.
Two boats which I had caused to be secretly procured were in readiness,
and by these a couple of soldiers awaited us, holding the bridles of
eight horses, one of which was equipped with a lady's saddle. Five of
these belonged--or had belonged--to the Chevalier, whilst the others
were three of those that had brought the troop from Paris, and which I,
in the teeth of all protestations, had adjudged sufficiently recovered
for the return journey.
The embarkation was safely effected, M. de Canaples and Mademoiselle
in one boat with Montrésor, Mathurin, and myself; the sergeant took the
oars; Montrésor and I kept watch over our prisoner. In the other boat
came the four troopers, who were to accompany us, and one other who
was to take the boats, and Montrésor in them, back to Canaples. For the
lieutenant was returning, so that he might, with the remainder of the
troop, follow us to Paris so soon as the condition of the horses would
permit it.
The beasts we took with us were swimming the stream, guided and upheld
by the men in the other boat.
Just as the moon began to show her face our bow grated on the shore at
the very point where I had intended that we should land. I sprang out
and turned to assist Mademoiselle.
But, disdaining my proffered hand, she stepped ashore unaided. The
Chevalier came next, and after him Montrésor and Mathurin.
Awhile we waited until the troopers brought their boat to land, then
when they had got the snorting animals safely ashore, I bade them look
to the prisoner, and requested Montrésor and Mathurin to step aside with
me, as I had something to communicate to them.
Walking between the pair, I drew them some twenty paces away from the
group by the water, towards a certain thicket in which I had bidden
Michelot await me.
“It has occurred to me, Messieurs,” I began, speaking slowly and
deliberately as we paced along,--“it has occurred to me that despite all
the precautions taken to carry out my Lord Cardinal's wishes--a work
at least in which you, yourselves, have evinced a degree of zeal that I
cannot too highly commend to his Eminence--the possibility yet remains
of some mistake of trivial appearance, of some slight flaw that might
yet cause the miscarriage of those wishes.”
They turned towards me, and although I could not make out the
expressions of their faces, in the gloom, yet I doubted not but that
they were puzzled ones at that lengthy and apparently meaningless
harangue.
The sergeant was the first to speak, albeit I am certain that he
understood the less.
“I venture, M. le Capitaine, to think that your fears, though very
natural, are groundless.”
“Say you so?” quoth I, with a backward glance to assure myself that we
were screened by the trees from the eyes of those behind us. “Say you
so? Well, well, mayhap you are right, though you speak of my fears being
groundless. I alluded to some possible mistake of yours--yours and M. de
Montrésor's--not of mine. And, by Heaven, a monstrous flaw there is in
this business, for if either of you so much as whisper I'll blow your
brains out!”
And to emphasise these words, as sinister as they were unlooked-for, I
raised both hands suddenly from beneath my cloak, and clapped the cold
nose of a pistol to the head of each of them.
I was obeyed as men are obeyed who thus uncompromisingly prove the
force of their commands. Seeing them resigned, I whistled softly, and
in answer there was a rustle from among the neighbouring trees, and
presently two shadows emerged from the thicket. In less time than it
takes me to relate it, Montrésor and his sergeant found themselves
gagged, and each securely bound to a tree.
Then, with Michelot and Abdon following a short distance behind me,
I made my way back to the troopers, and, feigning to stumble as I
approached, I hurtled so violently against two of them that I knocked
the pair headlong into the stream.
Scarce was it done, and almost before the remaining three had realised
it, there was a pistol at the head of each of them and sweet promises of
an eternal hereafter being whispered in their ears. They bore themselves
with charming discretion, and like lambs we led them each to a tree
and dealt with them as we had dealt with their officers, whilst the
Chevalier and his daughter watched us, bewildered and dumfounded at what
they saw.
As soon as the other two had crawled--all unconscious of the fates of
their comrades--out of the river, we served them also in a like manner.
Bidding Abdon and Michelot lead the horses, and still speaking in my
assumed voice, I desired Mademoiselle and the Chevalier--who had not
yet sufficiently recovered from his bewilderment to have found his
tongue--to follow me. I led the way up the gentle slope to the spot
where our first victims were pinioned.
Montrésor's comely young face looked monstrous wicked in the moonlight,
and his eyes rolled curiously as he beheld me. Stepping up to him I
freed him of his gag--an act which I had almost regretted a moment
later, for he cleared his throat with so lusty a torrent of profanity
that methought the heavens must have fallen on us. At last when he was
done with that--“Before you leave me in this plight, M. de St. Auban,”
quoth he, “perchance you will satisfy me with an explanation of your
unfathomable deeds and of this violence.”
“St. Auban!” exclaimed the Chevalier.
“St. Auban!” cried Yvonne.
And albeit wonder rang in both their voices, yet their minds I knew went
different ways.
“No, not St. Auban,” I answered with a laugh and putting aside all
counterfeit of speech.
“Par la mort Dieu! I know that voice,” cried Montrésor.
“Mayhap, indeed! And know you not this face?” And as I spoke I whipped
away my wig and mask, and thrust my countenance close up to his.
“Thunder of God!” ejaculated the boy. Then--“Pardieu,” he added, “there
is Michelot! How came I not to recognise him?”
“Since you would not assist me, Montrésor, you see I was forced to do
without you.”
“But St. Auban?” he gasped. “Where is he?”
“In heaven, I hope--but I doubt it sadly.”
“You have killed him?”
There and then, as briefly as I might, I told him, whilst the others
stood by to listen, how I had come upon the Marquis in the château the
night before and what had passed thereafter.
“And now,” I said, as I cut his bonds, “it grieves me to charge you with
an impolite errand to his Eminence, but--”
“I'll not return to him,” he burst out. “I dare not. Mon Dieu, you have
ruined me, Luynes!”
“Then come with me, and I'll build your fortunes anew and on a sounder
foundation. I have an influential letter in my pocket that should
procure us fortune in the service of the King of Spain.”
He needed little pressing to fall in with my invitation, so we set the
sergeant free, and him instead I charged with a message that must have
given Mazarin endless pleasure when it was delivered to him. But he had
the Canaples estates wherewith to console himself and his never-failing
maxim that “chi canta, paga.” Touching the Canaples estates, however, he
did not long enjoy them, for when he went into exile, two years later,
the Parliament returned them to their rightful owner.
The Chevalier de Canaples approached me timidly.
“Monsieur,” quoth he, “I have wronged you very deeply. And this generous
rescue of one who has so little merited your aid truly puts me to so
much shame that I know not what thanks to offer you.”
“Then offer none, Monsieur,” I answered, taking his proffered hand.
“Moreover, time presses and we have a possible pursuit to baffle. So to
horse, Monsieurs.”
I assisted Mademoiselle to mount, and she passively suffered me to do
her this office, having no word for me, and keeping her face averted
from my earnest gaze.
I sighed as I turned to mount the horse Michelot held for me; but
methinks 't was more a sigh of satisfaction than of pain.
. . . . . . . .
All that night we travelled and all next day until Tours was reached
towards evening. There we halted for a sorely needed rest and for fresh
horses.
Three days later we arrived at Nantes, and a week from the night of the
Chevalier's rescue we took ship from that port to Santander.
That same evening, as I leaned upon the taffrail watching the distant
coast line of my beloved France, whose soil meseemed I was not like to
tread again for years, Yvonne came softly up behind me.
“Monsieur,” she said in a voice that trembled somewhat, “I have, indeed,
misjudged you. The shame of it has made me hold aloof from you since we
left Blois. I cannot tell you, Monsieur, how deep that shame has
been, or with what sorrow I have been beset for the words I uttered at
Canaples. Had I but paused to think--”
“Nay, nay, Mademoiselle, 't was all my fault, I swear. I left you
overlong the dupe of appearances.”
“But I should not have believed them so easily. Say that I am forgiven,
Monsieur,” she pleaded; “tell me what reparation I can make.”
“There is one reparation that you can make if you are so minded,” I
answered, “but 'tis a life-long reparation.”
They were bold words, indeed, but my voice played the coward and shook
so vilely that it bereft them of half their boldness. But, ah, Dieu,
what joy, what ecstasy was mine to see how they were read by her; to
remark the rich, warm blood dyeing her cheeks in a bewitching blush; to
behold the sparkle that brightened her matchless eyes as they met mine!
“Yvonne!”
“Gaston!”
She was in my arms at last, and the work of reparation was begun whilst
together we gazed across the sun-gilt sea towards the fading shores of
France.
If you be curious to learn how, guided by the gentle hand of her who
plucked me from the vile ways that in my old life I had trodden, I have
since achieved greatness, honour, and renown, History will tell you.