IN THE KING'S CHAMBER.
M. de Rosny had risen from my side and started on his journey when I
opened my eyes in the morning, and awoke to the memory of the task
which had been so strangely imposed upon me; and which might,
according as the events of the next fortnight shaped themselves, raise
me to high position or put an end to my career. He had not forgotten
to leave a souvenir behind him, for I found beside my pillow a
handsome silver-mounted pistol, bearing the letter 'R.' and a coronet;
nor had I more than discovered this instance of his kindness before
Simon Fleix came in to tell me that M. de Rosny had left two hundred
crowns in his hands for me.
'Any message with it?' I asked the lad.
'Only that he had taken a keepsake in exchange,' Simon answered,
opening the window as he spoke.
In some wonder I began to search, but I could not discover that
anything was missing until I came to put on my doublet, when I found
that the knot of ribbon which mademoiselle had flung to me at my
departure from Rosny was gone from the inside of the breast, where I
had pinned it for safety with a long thorn. The discovery that M. de
Rosny had taken this was displeasing to me on more than one account.
In the first place, whether mademoiselle had merely wished to plague
me (as was most probable) or not, I was loth to lose it, my day for
ladies' favours being past and gone; in the second, I misdoubted the
motive which had led him to purloin it, and tormented myself with
thinking of the different constructions he might put upon it, and the
disparaging view of my trustworthiness which it might lead him to
take. I blamed myself much for my carelessness in leaving it where a
chance eye might rest upon it; and more when, questioning Simon
further, I learned that M. de Rosny had added, while mounting at the
door, 'Tell your master, safe bind, safe find; and a careless lover
makes a loose mistress.'
I felt my cheek burn in a manner unbecoming my years while Simon with
some touch of malice repeated this; and I made a vow on the spot,
which I kept until I was tempted to break it, to have no more to do
with such trifles. Meanwhile, I had to make the best of it; and
brisking up, and bidding Simon, who seemed depressed by the baron's
departure, brisk up also, I set about my preparations for making such
a figure at Court as became me: procuring a black velvet suit, and a
cap and feather to match; item, a jewelled clasp to secure the
feather; with a yard or two of lace and two changes of fine linen.
Simon had grown sleek at Rosny, and losing something of the wildness
which had marked him, presented in the dress M. de Rosny had given him
a very creditable appearance; being also, I fancy, the only equerry in
Blois who could write. A groom I engaged on the recommendation of M.
de Rambouillet's master of the horse; and I gave out also that I
required a couple of valets. It needed only an hour under the barber's
hands and a set of new trappings for the Cid to enable me to make a
fair show, such as might be taken to indicate a man of ten or twelve
thousand livres a year.
In this way I expended a hundred and fifteen crowns. Reflecting that
this was a large sum, and that I must keep some money for play, I was
glad to learn that in the crowded state of the city even men with high
rank were putting up with poor lodging; I determined, therefore, to
combine economy with a scheme which I had in my head by taking the
rooms in which my mother died, with one room below them. This I did,
hiring such furniture as I needed, which was not a great deal. To
Simon Fleix, whose assistance in these matters was invaluable, I
passed on much of M. de Rosny's advice, bidding him ruffle it with the
best in his station, and inciting him to labour for my advancement by
promising to make his fortune whenever my own should be assured. I
hoped, indeed, to derive no little advantage from the quickness of wit
which had attracted M. de Rosny's attention; although I did not fail
to take into account at the same time that the lad was wayward and
fitful, prone at one time to depression, and at another to giddiness,
and equally uncertain in either mood.
M. de Rambouillet being unable to attend the _levee_, had appointed me
to wait upon him at six in the evening; at which hour I presented
myself at his lodgings, attended by Simon Fleix. I found him in the
midst of half a dozen gentlemen whose habit it was to attend him upon
all public occasions; and these gallants, greeting me with the same
curious and suspicious glances which I have seen hounds bestow on a
strange dog introduced into their kennel, I was speedily made to feel
that it is one thing to have business at Court, and another to be well
received there.
M. de Rambouillet, somewhat to my surprise, did nothing to remove this
impression. On all ordinary occasions a man of stiff and haughty
bearing, and thoroughly disliking, though he could not prevent, the
intrusion of a third party into a transaction which promised an
infinity of credit, he received me so coldly and with so much reserve
as for the moment to dash my spirits and throw me back on myself.
During the journey to the castle, however, which we performed on foot,
attended by half a dozen armed servants bearing torches, I had time to
recall M. de Rosny's advice, and to bethink me of the intimacy which
that great man had permitted me; with so much effect in the way of
heartening me, that as we crossed the courtyard of the castle I
advanced myself, not without some murmuring on the part of others, to
Rambouillet's elbow, considering that as I was attached to him by the
king's command, this was my proper place. I had no desire to quarrel,
however, and persisted for some time in disregarding the nudges and
muttered words which were exchanged round me, and even the efforts
which were made as we mounted the stairs to oust me from my position.
But a young gentleman, who showed himself very forward in these
attempts, presently stumbling against me, I found it necessary to look
at him.
'Sir,' he said, in a small and lisping voice, 'you trod on my toe.'
Though I had not done so, I begged his pardon very politely. But as
his only acknowledgment of this courtesy consisted in an attempt to
get his knee in front of mine--we were mounting very slowly, the
stairs being cumbered with a multitude of servants, who stood on
either hand--I did tread on his toe, with a force and directness which
made him cry out.
'What is the matter?' Rambouillet asked, looking back hastily.
'Nothing, M. le Marquis,' I answered, pressing on steadfastly.
'Sir,' my young friend said again, in the same lisping voice, 'you
trod on my toe.'
'I believe I did, sir,' I answered.
'You have not yet apologised,' he murmured gently in my ear.
'Nay, there you are wrong,' I rejoined bluntly, 'for it is always my
habit to apologise first and tread afterwards.'
He smiled as at a pleasant joke; and I am bound to say that his
bearing was so admirable that if he had been my son I could have
hugged him. 'Good!' he answered. 'No doubt your sword is as sharp as
your wits, sir. I see,' he continued, glancing naively at my old
scabbard--he was himself the very gem of a courtier, a slender youth
with a pink-and-white complexion, a dark line for a moustache, and a
pearl-drop in his ear--'it is longing to be out. Perhaps you will take
a turn in the tennis-court to-morrow?'
'With pleasure, sir,' I answered, 'if you have a father, or your elder
brother is grown up.'
What answer he would have made to this gibe I do not know, for at that
moment we reached the door of the antechamber; and this being narrow,
and a sentry in the grey uniform of the Swiss Guard compelling all to
enter in single file, my young friend was forced to fall back, leaving
me free to enter alone, and admire at my leisure a scene at once
brilliant and sombre.
The Court being in mourning for the Queen-mother, black predominated
in the dresses of those present, and set off very finely the gleaming
jewels and gemmed sword-hilts which were worn by the more important
personages. The room was spacious and lofty, hung with arras, and lit
by candles burning in silver sconces; it rang as we entered with the
shrill screaming of a parrot, which was being teased by a group
occupying the farther of the two hearths. Near them play was going on
at one table, and primero at a second. In a corner were three or four
ladies, in a circle about a red-faced, plebeian-looking man, who was
playing at forfeits with one of their number; while the middle of the
room seemed dominated by a middle-sized man with a peculiarly inflamed
and passionate countenance, who, seated on a table, was inveighing
against someone or something in the most violent terms, his language
being interlarded with all kinds of strange and forcible oaths. Two or
three gentlemen, who had the air of being his followers, stood about
him, listening between submission and embarrassment; while beside the
nearer fireplace, but at some distance from him, lounged a nobleman,
very richly dressed, and wearing on his breast the Cross of the Holy
Ghost; who seemed to be the object of his invective, but affecting to
ignore it was engaged in conversation with a companion. A bystander
muttering that Crillon had been drinking, I discovered with immense
surprise that the declaimer on the table was that famous soldier; and
I was still looking at him in wonder--for I had been accustomed all my
life to associate courage with modesty---when, the door of the chamber
suddenly opening, a general movement in that direction took place.
Crillon, disregarding all precedency, sprang from his table and
hurried first to the threshold. The Baron de Biron, on the other
hand--for the gentleman by the fire was no other--waited, in apparent
ignorance of the slight which was being put upon him, until M. de
Rambouillet came up; then he went forward with him. Keeping close to
my patron's elbow, I entered the chamber immediately behind him.
Crillon had already seized upon the king, and, when we entered, was
stating his grievance in a voice not much lower than that which he had
used outside. M. de Biron, seeing this, parted from the marquis, and,
going aside with his former companion, sat down on a trunk against the
wall; while Rambouillet, followed by myself and three or four
gentlemen of his train, advanced to the king, who was standing near
the alcove. His Majesty seeing him, and thankful, I think, for the
excuse, waved Crillon off. 'Tut, tut! You told me all that this
morning,' he said good-naturedly. 'And here is Rambouillet, who has, I
hope, something fresh to tell. Let him speak to me. Sanctus! Don't
look at me as if you would run me through, man. Go and quarrel with
someone of your own size.'
Crillon at this retired grumbling, and Henry, who had just risen from
primero with the Duke of Nevers, nodded to Rambouillet. 'Well, my
friend, anything fresh?' he cried. He was more at his ease and looked
more cheerful than at our former interview; yet still care and
suspicion lurked about his peevish mouth, and in the hollows under his
gloomy eyes. 'A new guest, a new face, or a new game--which have you
brought?'
'In a sense, sire, a new face,' the marquis answered, bowing, and
standing somewhat aside that I might have place.
'Well, I cannot say much for the pretty baggage,' quoth the king
quickly. And amid a general titter he extended his hand to me. 'I'll
be sworn, though,' he continued, as I rose from my knee, 'that you
want something, my friend?'
'Nay, sire,' I answered, holding up my head boldly--for Cillon's
behaviour had been a further lesson to me--'I have, by your leave, the
advantage. For your Majesty has supplied me with a new jest. I see
many new faces round me, and I have need only of a new game. If your
Majesty would be pleased to grant me----'
'There! Said I not so?' cried the king, raising his hand with a laugh.
'He does want something. But he seems not undeserving. What does he
pray, Rambouillet?'
'A small command,' M. de Rambouillet answered, readily playing his
part. 'And your Majesty would oblige me if you could grant the Sieur
de Marsac's petition. I will answer for it he is a man of experience.
'Chut! A small command?' Henry ejaculated, sitting down suddenly in
apparent ill-humour. 'It is what everyone wants--when they do not want
big ones. Still, I suppose,' he continued, taking up a comfit-box,
which lay beside him, and opening it, 'if you do not get what you want
for him you will sulk like the rest, my friend.'
'Your Majesty has never had cause to complain of me,' quoth the
marquis, forgetting his _role_, or too proud to play it.
'Tut, tut, tut, tut! Take it, and trouble me no more,' the king
rejoined. 'Will pay for twenty men do for him? Very well then. There,
M. de Marsac,' he continued, nodding at me and yawning, 'your request
is granted. You will find some other pretty baggages over there. Go to
them. And now, Rambouillet,' he went on, resuming his spirits as he
turned to matters of more importance, 'here is a new sweetmeat Zamet
has sent me. I have made Zizi sick with it. Will you try it? It is
flavoured with white mulberries.'
Thus dismissed, I fell back; and stood for a moment, at a loss whither
to turn, in the absence of either friends or acquaintances. His
Majesty, it is true, had bidden me go to certain pretty baggages,
meaning, apparently, five ladies who were seated at the farther end of
the room, diverting themselves with as many cavaliers; but the
compactness of this party, the beauty of the ladies, and the merry
peals of laughter which proceeded from them, telling of a wit and
vivacity beyond the ordinary, sapped the resolution which had borne me
well hitherto. I felt that to attack such a phalanx, even with a
king's good will, was beyond the daring of a Crillon, and I looked
round to see whether I could not amuse myself in some more modest
fashion.
The material was not lacking. Crillon, still mouthing out his anger,
strode up and down in front of the trunk on which M. de Biron was
seated; but the latter was, or affected to be, asleep. 'Crillon is for
ever going into rages now,' a courtier beside me whispered.
'Yes,' his fellow answered, with a shrug of the shoulder; 'it is a
pity there is no one to tame him. But he has such a long reach,
morbleu!'
'It is not that so much as the fellow's fury,' the first speaker
rejoined under his breath. 'He fights like a mad thing; fencing is no
use against him.'
The other nodded. For a moment the wild idea of winning renown by
taming M. de Crillon occurred to me as I stood alone in the middle of
the floor; but it had not more than passed through my brain when I
felt my elbow touched, and turned to find the young gentleman whom I
had encountered on the stairs standing by my side.
'Sir,' he lisped, in the same small voice, 'I think you trod on my toe
a while ago?'
I stared at him, wondering what he meant by this absurd repetition.
'Well, sir,' I answered drily, 'and if I did?'
'Perhaps,' he said, stroking his chin with his jewelled fingers,
'pending our meeting to-morrow, you would allow me to consider it as a
kind of introduction?'
'If it please you,' I answered, bowing stiffly, and wondering what he
would be at.
'Thank you,' he answered. 'It does please me, under the circumstances;
for there is a lady here who desires a word with you. I took up her
challenge. Will you follow me?'
He bowed, and turned in his languid fashion. I, turning too, saw, with
secret dismay, that the five ladies, referred to above, were all now
gazing at me, as expecting my approach; and this with such sportive
glances as told only too certainly of some plot already in progress or
some trick to be presently played me. Yet I could not see that I had
any choice save to obey, and, following my leader with as much dignity
as I could compass, I presently found myself bowing before the lady
who sat nearest, and who seemed to be the leader of these nymphs.
'Nay, sir,' she said, eyeing me curiously, yet with a merry face, 'I
do not need you; I do not look so high!'
Turning in confusion to the next, I was surprised to see before me the
lady whose lodging I had invaded in my search for Mademoiselle de la
Vire--she, I mean, who, having picked up the velvet knot, had dropped
it so providentially where Simon Fleix found it. She looked at me,
blushing and laughing, and the young gentleman, who had done her
errand, presenting me by name, she asked me, while the others
listened, whether I had found my mistress.
Before I could answer, the lady to whom I had first addressed myself
interposed. 'Stop, sir!' she cried. 'What is this--a tale, a jest, a
game, or a forfeit?'
'An adventure, madam,' I answered, bowing low.
'Of gallantry, I'll be bound,' she exclaimed. 'Fie, Madame de Bruhl,
and you but six months married!'
Madame de Bruhl protested, laughing, that she had no more to do with
it than Mercury. 'At the worst,' she said, 'I carried the _poulets!_
But I can assure you, duchess, this gentleman should be able to tell
us a very fine story, if he would.'
The duchess and all the other ladies clapping their hands at this, and
crying out that the story must and should be told, I found myself in a
prodigious quandary; and one wherein my wits derived as little
assistance as possible from the bright eyes and saucy looks which
environed me. Moreover, the commotion attracting other listeners, I
found my position, while I tried to extricate myself, growing each
moment worse, so that I began to fear that as I had little imagination
I should perforce have to tell the truth. The mere thought of this
threw me into a cold perspiration, lest I should let slip something of
consequence, and prove myself unworthy of the trust which M. de Rosny
had reposed in me.
At the moment when, despairing of extricating myself, I was stooping
over Madame de Bruhl begging her to assist me, I heard, amid the babel
of laughter and raillery which surrounded me--certain of the courtiers
having already formed hands in a circle and sworn I should not depart
without satisfying the ladies--a voice which struck a chord in my
memory. I turned to see who the speaker was, and encountered no other
than M. de Bruhl himself; who, with a flushed and angry face, was
listening to the explanation which a friend was pouring into his ear.
Standing at the moment with my knee on Madame de Bruhl's stool, and
remembering very well the meeting on the stairs, I conceived in a
flash that the man was jealous; but whether he had yet heard my name,
or had any clew to link me with the person who had rescued
Mademoiselle de la Vire from his clutches, I could not tell.
Nevertheless his presence led my thoughts into a new channel. The
determination to punish him began to take form in my mind, and very
quickly I regained my composure. Still I was for giving him one
chance. Accordingly I stooped once more to Madame de Bruhl's ear, and
begged her to spare me the embarrassment of telling my tale. But then,
finding her pitiless, as I expected, and the rest of the company
growing more and more insistent, I hardened my heart to go through
with the fantastic notion which had occurred to me.
Indicating by a gesture that I was prepared to obey, and the duchess
crying for a hearing, this was presently obtained, the sudden silence
adding the king himself to my audience. 'What is it?' he asked, coming
up effusively, with a lap-dog in his arms. 'A new scandal, eh?'
'No, sire, a new tale-teller,' the duchess answered pertly. 'If your
Majesty will sit, we shall hear him the sooner.'
He pinched her ear and sat down in the chair which a page presented.
'What? is it Rambouillet's _grison_ again?' he said with some
surprise. 'Well, fire away, man. But who brought you forward as a
Rabelais?'
There was a general cry of 'Madame de Bruhl!' whereat that lady shook
her fair hair about her face, and cried out for someone to bring her a
mask.
'Ha, I see!' said the king drily, looking pointedly at M. de Bruhl,
who was as black as thunder. 'But go on, man.'
The king's advent, by affording me a brief respite, had enabled me to
collect my thoughts, and, disregarding the ribald interruptions, which
at first were frequent, I began as follows: 'I am no Rabelais, sire,'
I said, 'but droll things happen to the most unlikely. Once upon a
time it was the fortune of a certain swain, whom I will call Dromio,
to arrive in a town not a hundred miles from Blois, having in his
company a nymph of great beauty, who had been entrusted to his care by
her parents. He had not more than lodged her in his apartments,
however, before she was decoyed away by a trick, and borne off against
her will by a young gallant, who had seen her and been smitten by her
charms. Dromio, returning, and finding his mistress gone, gave way to
the most poignant grief. He ran up and down the city, seeking her in
every place, and filling all places with his lamentations; but for a
time in vain, until chance led him to a certain street, where, in an
almost incredible manner, he found a clew to her by discovering
underfoot a knot of velvet, bearing Phyllida's name wrought on it in
delicate needlework, with the words, "A moi!"'
'Sanctus!' cried the king, amid a general murmur of surprise, 'that is
well devised! Proceed, sir. Go on like that, and we will make your
twenty men twenty-five.'
'Dromio,' I continued, 'at sight of this trifle experienced the most
diverse emotions, for while he possessed in it a clew to his
mistress's fate, he had still to use it so as to discover the place
whither she had been hurried. It occurred to him at last to begin his
search with the house before which the knot had lain. Ascending
accordingly to the second-floor, he found there a fair lady reclining
on a couch, who started up in affright at his appearance. He hastened
to reassure her, and to explain the purpose of his coming, and learned
after a conversation with which I will not trouble your Majesty,
though it was sufficiently diverting, that the lady had found the
velvet knot in another part of the town, and had herself dropped it
again in front of her own house.'
'Pourquoi?' the king asked, interrupting me.
'The swain, sire,' I answered, 'was too much taken up with his own
troubles to bear that in mind, even if he learned it. But this
delicacy did not save him from misconception, for as he descended from
the lady's apartment he met her husband on the stairs.'
'Good!' the king exclaimed, rubbing his hands in glee. 'The husband!'
And under cover of the gibe and the courtly laugh which followed it M.
de Bruhl's start of surprise passed unnoticed save by me.
'The husband,' I resumed, 'seeing a stranger descending his staircase,
was for stopping him and learning the reason of his presence; but
Dromio, whose mind was with Phyllida, refused to stop, and, evading
his questions, hurried to the part of the town where the lady had told
him she found the velvet knot. Here, sire, at the corner of a lane
running between garden-walls, he found a great house, barred and
gloomy, and well adapted to the abductor's purpose. Moreover, scanning
it on every side, he presently discovered, tied about the bars of an
upper window, a knot of white linen, the very counterpart of that
velvet one which he bore in his breast. Thus he knew that the nymph
was imprisoned in that room!'
'I will make, it twenty-five, as I am a good Churchman!' his Majesty
exclaimed, dropping the little dog he was nursing into the duchess's
lap, and taking out his comfit-box. 'Rambouillet,' he added languidly,
'your friend is a treasure!'
I bowed my acknowledgments, and took occasion as I did so to step a
pace aside, so as to command a view of Madame de Bruhl, as well as her
husband. Hitherto madame, willing to be accounted a part in so pretty
a romance, and ready enough also, unless I was mistaken, to cause her
husband a little mild jealousy, had listened to the story with a
certain sly demureness. But this I foresaw would not last long; and I
felt something like compunction as the moment for striking the blow
approached. But I had now no choice. 'The best is yet to come, sire,'
I went on, 'as I think you will acknowledge in a moment. Dromio,
though he had discovered his mistress, was still in the depths of
despair. He wandered round and round the house, seeking ingress and
finding none, until at length, sunset approaching, and darkness
redoubling his fears for the nymph, fortune took pity on him. As he
stood in front of the house he saw the abductor come out, lighted by
two servants. Judge of his surprise, sire,' I continued, looking round
and speaking slowly, to give full effect to my words, 'when he
recognised in him no other than the husband of the lady who, by
picking up and again dropping the velvet knot, had contributed so much
to the success of his search!'
'Ha! these husbands!' cried the king. And slapping his knee in an
ecstasy at his own acuteness, he laughed in his seat till he rolled
again. 'These husbands! Did I not say so?'
The whole Court gave way to like applause, and clapped their hands as
well, so that few save those who stood nearest took notice of Madame
de Bruhl's faint cry, and still fewer understood why she rose up
suddenly from her stool and stood gazing at her husband with burning
cheeks and clenched hands. She took no heed of me, much less of the
laughing crowd round her, but looked only at him with her soul in her
eyes. He, after uttering one hoarse curse, seemed to have no thought
for any but me. To have the knowledge that his own wife had baulked
him brought home to him in this mocking fashion, to find how little a
thing had tripped him that day, to learn how blindly he had played
into the hands of fate, above all to be exposed at once to his wife's
resentment and the ridicule of the Court--for he could not be sure
that I should not the next moment disclose his name--all so wrought on
him that for a moment I thought he would strike me in the presence.
His rage, indeed, did what I had not meant to do. For the king,
catching sight of his face, and remembering that Madame de Bruhl had
elicited the story, screamed suddenly, 'Haro!' and pointed ruthlessly
at him with his finger. After that I had no need to speak, the story
leaping from eye to eye, and every eye settling on Bruhl, who sought
in vain to compose his features. Madame, who surpassed him, as women
commonly do surpass men, in self-control, was the first to recover
herself, and sitting down as quickly as she had risen, confronted
alike her husband and her rivals with a pale smile.
For a moment curiosity and excitement kept all breathless, the eye
alone busy. Then the king laughed mischievously. 'Come, M. de Bruhl,'
he cried, 'perhaps you will finish the tale for us?' And he threw
himself back in his chair, a sneer on his lips.
'Or why not Madame de Bruhl?' said the duchess, with her head on one
side and her eyes glittering over her fan. 'Madame would, I am sure,
tell it so well.'
But madame only shook her head, smiling always that forced smile. For
Bruhl himself, glaring from face to face like a bull about to charge,
I have never seen a man more out of countenance, or more completely
brought to bay. His discomposure, exposed as he was to the ridicule of
all present, was such that the presence in which he stood scarcely
hindered him from some violent attack; and his eyes, which had
wandered from me at the king's word, presently returning to me again,
he so far forgot himself as to raise his hand furiously, uttering at
the same time a savage oath.
The king cried out angrily, 'Have a care, sir!' But Bruhl only heeded
this so far as to thrust aside those who stood round him and push his
way hurriedly through the circle.
'Arnidieu!' cried the king, when he was gone. 'This is fine conduct! I
have half a mind to send after him and have him put where his hot
blood would cool a little. Or----'
He stopped abruptly, his eyes resting on me. The relative positions of
Bruhl and myself as the agents of Rosny and Turenne occurred to him
for the first time, I think, and suggested the idea, perhaps, that I
had laid a trap for him, and that he had fallen into it. At any rate
his face grew darker and darker, and at last, 'A nice kettle of fish
this is you have prepared for us, sir!' he muttered, gazing at me
gloomily.
The sudden change in his humour took even courtiers by surprise. Faces
a moment before broad with smiles grew long again. The less important
personages looked uncomfortably at one another, and with one accord
frowned on me. 'If your Majesty would please to hear the end of the
story at another time?' I suggested humbly, beginning to wish with all
my heart that I had never said a word.
'Chut!' he answered, rising, his face still betraying his
perturbation. 'Well, be it so. For the present you may go, sir.
Duchess, give me Zizi, and come to my closet. I want you to see my
puppies. Retz, my good friend, do you come too. I have something to
say to you. Gentlemen, you need not wait. It is likely I shall be
late.'
And, with the utmost abruptness, he broke up the circle.