TERMS OF SURRENDER.
I still had my hand on the trap when a touch on the shoulder caused me
to turn, and in a moment apprised me of the imminence of a new peril;
a peril of such a kind that, summoning all my resolution, I could
scarcely hope to cope with it. Henry was at my elbow. He had taken off
his mask, and a single glance at his countenance warned me that that
had happened of which I had already felt some fear. The glitter of
intense excitement shone in his eyes. His face, darkly-flushed and wet
with sweat, betrayed overmastering emotion, while his teeth, tight
clenched in the effort to restrain the fit of trembling which
possessed him, showed between his lips like those of a corpse. The
novelty of the danger which menaced him, the absence of his gentlemen,
and of all the familiar faces and surroundings without which he never
moved, the hour, the mean house, and his isolation among strangers,
had proved too much for nerves long weakened by his course of living,
and for a courage, proved indeed in the field, but unequal to a sudden
stress. Though he still strove to preserve his dignity, it was
alarmingly plain to my eyes that he was on the point of losing, if he
had not already lost, all self-command.
'Open!' he muttered between his teeth, pointing impatiently to the
trap with the hand with which he had already touched me. 'Open, I say,
sir!'
I stared at him, startled and confounded. 'But your Majesty,' I
ventured to stammer, 'forgets that I have not yet----'
'Open, I say!' he repeated passionately. 'Do you hear me, sir? I
desire that this door be opened.' His lean hand shook as with the
palsy, so that the gems on it twinkled in the light and rattled as he
spoke.
I looked helplessly from him to the women and back again, seeing in a
flash all the dangers which might follow from the discovery of his
presence there--dangers which I had not before formulated to myself,
but which seemed in a moment to range themselves with the utmost
clearness before my eyes. At the same time I saw what seemed to me to
be a way of escape; and emboldened by the one and the other, I kept my
hand on the trap and strove to parley with him.
'Nay, but, sire,' I said hurriedly, yet still with as much deference
as I could command, 'I beg you to permit me first to repeat what I
have seen. M. de Bruhl is without, and I counted six men whom I
believe to be his following. They are ruffians ripe for any crime; and
I implore your Majesty rather to submit to a short imprisonment----'
I paused struck dumb on that word, confounded by the passion which
lightened in the king's face. My ill-chosen expression had indeed
applied the spark to his wrath. Predisposed to suspicion by a hundred
treacheries, he forgot the perils outside in the one idea which on the
instant possessed his mind; that I would confine his person, and had
brought him hither for no other purpose. He glared round him with eyes
full of rage and fear, and his trembling lips breathed rather than
spoke the word 'Imprison?'
Unluckily, a trifling occurrence added at this moment to his disorder,
and converted it into frenzy. Someone outside fell heavily against the
door; this, causing madame to utter a low shriek, seemed to shatter
the last remnant of the king's self-control. Stamping his foot on the
floor, he cried to me with the utmost wildness to open the door--by
which I had hitherto kept my place.
But, wrongly or rightly, I was still determined to put off opening it;
and I raised my hands with the intention of making a last appeal to
him. He misread the gesture, and retreating a step, with the greatest
suddenness whipped out his sword, and in a moment had the point at my
breast, and his wrist drawn back to thrust.
It has always been my belief that he would not have dealt the blow,
but that the mere touch of the hilt, awaking the courage which he
undoubtedly possessed, and which did not desert him in his last
moments, would have recalled him to himself. But the opportunity was
not given him, for while the blade yet quivered, and I stood
motionless, controlling myself by an effort, my knee half bent and my
eyes on his, Mademoiselle de la Vire sprang forward at his back, and
with a loud scream clutched his elbow. The king, surprised, and
ignorant who held him, flung up his point wildly, and striking the
lamp above his head with his blade, shattered it in an instant,
bringing down the pottery with a crash and reducing the room to
darkness; while the screams of the women, and the knowledge that we
had a madman among us, peopled the blackness with a hundred horrors.
Fearing above all for mademoiselle, I made my way as soon as I could
recover my wits to the embers of the fire, and regardless of the
king's sword, which I had a vague idea was darting about in the
darkness, I searched for and found a half-burnt stick, which I blew
into a blaze. With this, still keeping my back to the room, I
contrived to light a taper that I had noticed standing by the hearth;
and then, and then only, I turned to see what I had to confront.
Mademoiselle de la Vire stood in a corner, half-fierce,
half-terrified, and wholly flushed. She had her hand wrapped up in a
'kerchief already stained with blood; and from this I gathered that
the king in his frenzy had wounded her slightly. Standing before her
mistress, with her hair bristling, like a wild-cat's fur, and her arms
akimbo, was Fanchette, her harsh face and square form instinct with
fury and defiance. Madame de Bruhl and Simon cowered against the wall
not far from them; and in a chair, into which he had apparently just
thrown himself, sat the king, huddled up and collapsed, the point of
his sword trailing on the ground beside him, and his nerveless hand
scarce retaining force to grip the pommel.
In a moment I made up my mind what to do, and going to him in silence,
I laid my pistols, sword, and dagger on a stool by his side. Then I
knelt.
'The door, sire,' I said, 'is there. It is for your Majesty to open it
when you please. Here, too, sire, are my weapons. I am your prisoner,
the Provost-Marshal is outside, and you can at a word deliver me to
him. Only one thing I beg, sire,' I continued earnestly, 'that your
Majesty will treat as a delusion the idea that I meditated for a
moment disrespect or violence to your person.'
He looked at me dully, his face pale, his eyes fish-like. 'Sanctus,
man!' he muttered, 'why did you raise your hand?'
'Only to implore your Majesty to pause a moment,' I answered, watching
the intelligence return slowly to his face. 'If you will deign to
listen I can explain in half a dozen words, sire. M. de Bruhl's men
are six or seven, the Provost has eight or nine; but the former are
the wilder blades, and if M. de Bruhl find your Majesty in my lodging,
and infer his own defeat, he will be capable of any desperate stroke.
Your person would hardly be safe in his company through the streets.
And there is another consideration,' I went on, observing with joy
that the king listened, and was gradually regaining his composure.
'That is, the secrecy you desired to preserve, sire, until this matter
should be well advanced. M. de Rosny laid the strictest injunctions on
me in that respect, fearing an _emeute_ in Blois should your Majesty's
plans become known.'
'You speak fairly,' the king answered with returning energy, though he
avoided looking at the women. 'Bruhl is likely enough to raise one.
But how am I to get out, sir?' he continued, querulously. 'I cannot
remain here. I shall be missed, man! I am not a hedge-captain, neither
sought nor wanted!'
'If your Majesty would trust me?' I said slowly and with hesitation.
'Trust you!' he retorted peevishly, holding up his hands and gazing
intently at his nails, of the shape and whiteness of which he was
prouder than any woman. 'Have I not trusted you? If I had not trusted
you, should I have been here? But that you were a Huguenot--God
forgive me for saying it!--I would have seen you in hell before I
would have come here with you!'
I confess to having heard this testimony to the Religion with a pride
which made me forget for a moment the immediate circumstances--the
peril in which we stood, the gloomy room darkly lighted by a single
candle, the scared faces in the background, even the king's huddled
figure, in which dejection and pride struggled for expression. For a
moment only; then I hastened to reply, saying that I doubted not I
could still extricate his Majesty without discovery.
'In Heaven's name do it, then!' he answered sharply. 'Do what you
like, man! Only get me back into the castle, and it shall not be a
Huguenot will entice me out again. I am over old for these
adventures!'
A fresh attack on the door taking place as he said this induced me to
lose no time in explaining my plan, which he was good enough to
approve, after again upbraiding me for bringing him into such a
dilemma. Fearing lest the door should give way prematurely,
notwithstanding the bars I had provided for it, and goaded on by
Madame de Bruhl's face, which evinced the utmost terror, I took the
candle and attended his Majesty into the inner room; where I placed my
pistols beside him, but silently resumed my sword and dagger. I then
returned for the women, and indicating by signs that they were to
enter, held the door open for them.
Mademoiselle, whose bandaged hand I could not regard without emotion,
though the king's presence and the respect I owed him forbade me to
utter so much as a word, advanced readily until she reached the
doorway abreast of me. There, however, looking back, and seeing Madame
de Bruhl following her, she stopped short, and darting a haughty
glance at me, muttered, 'And--that lady? Are we to be shut up
together, sir?'
'Mademoiselle,' I answered quickly in the low tone she had used
herself, 'have I ever asked anything dishonourable of you?'
She seemed by a slight movement of the head to answer in the negative.
'Nor do I now,' I replied with earnestness. 'I entrust to your care a
lady who has risked great peril for us; and the rest I leave to you.'
She looked me very keenly in the face for a second, and then, without
answering, she passed on, Madame and Fanchette following her in that
order. I closed the door and turned to Simon; who by my direction had
blown the embers of the fire into a blaze so as to partially illumine
the room, in which only he and I now remained. The lad seemed afraid
to meet my eye, and owing to the scene at which he had just assisted,
or to the onslaught on the door, which grew each moment more furious,
betrayed greater restlessness than I had lately observed in him. I did
not doubt his fidelity, however, or his devotion to mademoiselle; and
the orders I had to give him were simple enough.
'This is what you have got to do,' I said, my hand already on the
bars. 'The moment I am outside secure this door. After that, open to
no one except Maignan. When he applies, let him in with caution, and
bid him, as he loves M. de Rosny, take his men as soon as the coast is
clear, and guard the King of France to the castle. Charge him to be
brave and wary, for his life will answer for the king's.'
Twice I repeated this; then fearing lest the Provost-Marshal should
make good his word and apply a ram to the door, I opened the trap. A
dozen angry voices hailed my appearance, and this with so much
violence and impatience that it was some time before I could get a
hearing; the knaves threatening me if I would not instantly open, and
persisting that I should do so without more words. Their leader at
length quieted them, but it was plain that his patience too was worn
out. 'Do you surrender or do you not?' he said. 'I am not going to
stay out of my bed all night for you!'
'I warn you,' I answered, 'that the order you have there has been
cancelled by the king!'
'That is not my business,' he rejoined hardily.
'No, but it will be when the king sends for you to-morrow morning, 'I
retorted; at which he looked somewhat moved. 'However, I will
surrender to you on two conditions,' I continued, keenly observing the
coarse faces of his following. 'First, that you let me keep my arms
until we reach the gate-house, I giving you my parole to come with you
quietly. That is number one.'
'Well,' the Provost-Marshal said more civilly, 'I have no objection to
that.'
'Secondly, that you do not allow your men to break into my lodgings. I
will come out quietly, and so an end. Your order does not direct you
to sack my goods.'
^Tut, tut!' he replied; 'I want you to come out. I do not want to go
in.'
'Then draw your men back to the stairs,' I said. 'And if you keep
terms with me, I will uphold you to-morrow. For your orders will
certainly bring you into trouble. M. de Retz, who procured it this
morning, is away, you know. M. de Villequier may be gone to-morrow.
But depend upon it, M. de Rambouillet will be here!'
The remark was well timed and to the point. It startled the man as
much as I had hoped it would. Without raising any objection he ordered
his men to fall back and guard the stairs; and I on my side began to
undo the fastenings of the door.
The matter was not to be so easily concluded, however; for Bruhl's
rascals, in obedience, no doubt, to a sign given by their leader, who
stood with Fresnoy on the upper flight of stairs, refused to withdraw;
and even hustled the Provost-Marshal's men when the latter would have
obeyed the order. The officer, already heated by delay, replied by
laying about him with his staff, and in a twinkling there seemed to be
every prospect of a very pretty _melee_, the end of which it was
impossible to foresee.
Reflecting, however, that if Bruhl's men routed their opponents our
position might be made worse rather than better, I did not act on my
first impulse, which was to see the matter out where I was. Instead, I
seized the opportunity to let myself out, while Simon fastened the
door behind me. The Provost-Marshal was engaged at the moment in a
wordy dispute with Fresnoy; whose villainous countenance, scarred by
the wound which I had given him at Chize, and flushed with passion,
looked its worst by the light of the single torch which remained. In
one respect the villain had profited by his present patronage, for he
was decked out in a style of tawdry magnificence. But I have always
remarked this about dress, that while a shabby exterior does not
entirely obscure a gentleman, the extreme of fashion is powerless to
gild a knave.
Seeing me on a sudden at the Provost's elbow, he recoiled with a
change of countenance so ludicrous that that officer was himself
startled, and only held his ground on my saluting him civilly and
declaring myself his prisoner. I added a warning that he should look
to the torch which remained; seeing that if it failed we were both
like to have our throats cut in the confusion.
He took the hint promptly, and calling the link-man to his side
prepared to descend, bidding Fresnoy and his men, who remained clumped
at the head of the stairs, make way for us without ado. They seemed
much inclined, however, to dispute our passage, and replying to his
invectives with rough taunts, displayed so hostile a demeanour that
the Provost, between regard for his own importance and respect for
Bruhl, appeared for a moment at a loss what to do; and seemed rather
relieved than annoyed when I begged leave to say a word to M. de
Bruhl.
'If you can bring his men to reason,' he replied testily, 'speak your
fill to him!'
Stepping to the foot of the upper flight, on which Bruhl retained his
position, I saluted him formally. He returned my greeting with a
surly, watchful look only, and drawing his cloak more tightly round
him affected to gaze down at me with disdain; which ill concealed,
however, both the triumph he felt and the hopes of vengeance he
entertained. I was especially anxious to learn whether he had tracked
his wife hither, or was merely here in pursuance of his general
schemes against me, and to this end I asked him with as much irony as
I could compass to what I was to attribute his presence. 'I am afraid
I cannot stay to offer you hospitality,' I continued; 'but for that
you have only your friend M. Villequier to thank!'
'I am greatly obliged to you,' he answered with a devilish smile, 'but
do not let that affect you. When you are gone I propose to help
myself, my friend, to whatever takes my taste.'
'Do you?' I retorted coolly--not that I was unaffected by the threat
and the villainous hint which underlay the words, but that, fully
expecting them, I was ready with my answer. 'We will see about that.'
And therewith I raised my fingers to my lips, and, whistling shrilly,
cried 'Maignan! Maignan!' in a clear voice.
I had no need to cry the name a third time, for before the
Provost-Marshal could do more than start at this unexpected action,
the landing above us rang under a heavy tread, and the man I called,
descending the stairs swiftly, appeared on a sudden within arm's
length of M. de Bruhl; who, turning with an oath, saw him, and
involuntarily recoiled. At all times Maignan's hardy and confident
bearing was of a kind to impress the strong; but on this occasion
there was an added dash of recklessness in his manner which was not
without its effect on the spectators. As he stood there smiling darkly
over Bruhl's head, while his hand toyed carelessly with his dagger,
and the torch shone ruddily on his burly figure, he was so clearly an
antagonist in a thousand that, had I sought through Blois, I might not
have found his fellow for strength and _sang-froid_. He let his black
eyes rove from one to the other, but took heed of me only, saluting me
with effusion and a touch of the Gascon which was in place here, if
ever.
I knew how M. de Rosny dealt with him, and followed the pattern as far
as I could. 'Maignan!' I said curtly, 'I have taken a lodging for
to-night elsewhere. When I am gone you will call out your men and
watch this door. If anyone tries to force an entrance you will do your
duty.'
'You may consider it done,' he replied.
'Even if the person be M. de Bruhl here,' I continued.
'Precisely.'
'You will remain on guard,' I went on, 'until to-morrow morning if M.
de Bruhl remains here; but whenever he leaves you will take your
orders from the persons inside, and follow them implicitly.'
'Your Excellency's mind may be easy,' he answered, handling his
dagger.
Dismissing him with a nod, I turned with a smile to M. de Bruhl, and
saw that between rage at this unexpected check and chagrin at the
insult put upon him, his discomfiture was as complete as I could wish.
As for Fresnoy, if he had seriously intended to dispute our passage,
he was no longer in the mood for the attempt. Yet I did not let his
master off without one more prick. 'That being settled, M. de Bruhl,'
I said pleasantly, 'I may bid you good evening. You will doubtless
honour me at Chaverny tomorrow. But we will first let Maignan look
under the bridge!'