He returned my look with a stupidity which I knew was assumed. "Yes,
your excellency. The young lady who came this morning," he said.
Then I knew that I had been betrayed, and had given my enemies such a
handle as they would not be slow to seize; and I stood in the middle of
the room in the utmost grief and consternation. At last, "Stay here,"
I said to the man, as soon as I could speak. "Do not move from the spot
where you stand until I come back!"
It was my almost invariable custom to be announced when I visited my
wife's closet; but I had no mind now for such formalities, and swiftly
passing two or three scared servants on the stairs, I made straight for
her room, tapped and entered. Abrupt as were my movements, however,
someone had contrived to warn her; for though two of her women sat
working on stools near her, I heard a hasty foot flying, and caught the
last flutter of a skirt as it disappeared through a second door. My
wife rose from her seat, and looked at me guiltily.
"Madame," I said, "send these women away. Now," I continued when they
had gone, "who was that with you?" She looked away dumbly.
"You do well not to try to deceive me, Madame," I continued severely.
"It was Mademoiselle D'Oyley."
She muttered, not daring to meet my eye, that it was.
"Who has absented herself from the Queen's service," I answered
bitterly, "and chosen to hide herself here of all places! Madame," I
continued, with a severity which the sense of my false position amply
justified, "are you aware that you have made me dishonour myself? That
you have made me lie; not once, but three times? That you have made me
deceive my master?"
She cried out at that, being frightened, that "she had meant no harm;
that the girl coming to her in great grief and trouble--"
"Because the Queen had scolded her for breaking a china jar!" I said,
contemptuously.
"No, Monsieur; her trouble was of quite another kind," my wife answered
with more spirit than I had expected.
"Pshaw!" I exclaimed.
"It is plain that you do not yet understand the case," Madame
persisted, facing me with trembling hardihood. "Mademoiselle D'Oyley
has been persecuted for some time by the suit of a man for whom I know
you, Monsieur, have no respect: a man whom no Frenchwoman of family
should be forced to marry."
"Who is it?" I said curtly.
"M. Pimentel."
"Ah! And the Queen?"
"Has made his suit her own. Doubtless her Majesty," Madame de Sully
continued with grimness, "who plays with him so much, is under
obligations to him, and has her reasons. The King, too, is on his
side, so that Mademoiselle--"
"Who has another lover, I suppose?" I said harshly.
My wife looked at me in trepidation. "It may be so, Monsieur," she
said hesitating.
"It is so, Madame; and you know it," I answered in the same tone. "M.
Vallon is the man."
"Oh!" she exclaimed with a gesture of alarm. "You know!"
"I know, Madame," I replied, with vigour, "that to please this
love-sick girl you have placed me in a position of the utmost
difficulty; that you have jeopardised the confidence which my master,
whom I have never willingly deceived, places in me; and that out of all
this I see only one way of escape, and that is by a full and frank
confession, which you must make to the Queen."
"Oh, Monsieur," she said faintly.
"The girl, of course, must be immediately given up."
My wife began to sob at that, as women will; but I had too keen a sense
of the difficulties into which she had plunged me by her deceit, to
pity her over much. And, doubtless, I should have continued in the
resolution I had formed, and which appeared to hold out the only hope
of avoiding the malice of those enemies whom every man in power
possesses--and none can afford to despise--if La Trape's words, when he
betrayed the secret to me, had not recurred to my mind and suggested
other reflections.
Doubtless, Mademoiselle had been watched into my house, and my
ill-wishers would take the earliest opportunity of bringing the lie
home to me. My wife's confession, under such circumstances, would have
but a simple air, and believed by some would be ridiculed by more. It
might, and probably would, save my credit with the King; but it would
not exalt me in others' eyes, or increase my reputation as a manager.
If there were any other way--and so reflecting, I thought of La Trape
and his story.
Still I was half way to the door when I paused, and turned. My wife
was still weeping. "It is no good crying over spilled milk, Madame," I
said severely. "If the girl were not a fool, she would have gone to
the Ursulines. The abbess has a stiff neck, and is as big a simpleton
to boot as you are. It is only a step, too, from here to the
Ursulines, if she had had the sense to go on."
My wife lifted her head, and looked at me eagerly; but I avoided her
gaze and went out without more, and downstairs to my study, where I
found La Trape awaiting me. "Go to Madame la Duchesse," I said to him.
"When you have done what she needs, come to me in my closet."
He obeyed, and after an interval of about half an hour, during which I
had time to mature my plan, presented himself again before me.
"Pimentel had a notion that the young lady was here then?" I said
carelessly.
"Yes, your excellency."
"Some of his people fancied that they saw her enter, perhaps?"
"Yes, your excellency."
"They were mistaken, of course?"
"Of course," he answered, dutifully.
"Or she may have come to the door and gone again?" I suggested.
"Possibly, your excellency."
"Gone on without being seen, I mean?"
"If she went in the direction of the Rue St. Marcel," he answered
stolidly, "she would not be seen."
The convent of the Ursulines is in the Rue St. Marcel. I knew,
therefore, that Madame had had the sense to act on my hint; and after
reflecting a moment I continued, "So Pimentel wished to know where she
was lodged?"
"That, and to have the key, your excellency."
"To-night?"
"Yes, your excellency."
"Well, you are at liberty to accept the offer," I answered carelessly.
"It will not clash with my service." And then, as he stood staring in
astonishment, striving to read the riddle, I continued, "By the way,
are the rooms in the little Garden Pavilion aired? They may be needed
next week; see that one of the women sleeps there to-night; a woman you
can depend on."
"Ah, Monsieur!"
He said no more, but I saw that he understood; and bidding him be
careful in following my instructions, I dismissed him. The line I had
determined to take was attended by many uncertainties, however; and
more than once I repented that I had not followed my first; instinct,
and avowed the truth. A hundred things might fall out to frustrate my
scheme and place me in a false position; from which--since the
confidence of his sovereign is the breath of a minister, and as easily
destroyed as a woman's reputation--I might find it impossible to
extricate myself with credit.
I slept, therefore, but ill that night; and in conjunctures apparently
more serious have felt less trepidation. But experience has long ago
taught me that trifles, not great events, unseat the statesman, and
that of all intrigues those which revolve round a woman are the most
dangerous. I rose early, therefore, and repaired to Court before my
usual hour, it being the essence of my plan to attack, instead of
waiting to be attacked. Doubtless my early appearance was taken to
corroborate the rumour that I had made a false step, and was in
difficulties; for scarcely had I crossed the threshold of the
ante-chamber before the attitude of the courtiers caught my attention.
Some who twenty-four hours earlier would have been only too glad to
meet my eye and obtain a word of recognition, appeared to be absorbed
in conversation. Others, less transparent or better inclined to me,
greeted me with unnatural effusion. One who bore a grudge against me,
but had never before dared to do more than grin, now scowled openly;
while a second, perhaps the most foolish of all, came to me with
advice, drew me with insistency into a niche near the door, and adjured
me to be cautious.
"You are too bold," he said; "and that way your enemies find their
opening. Do not go to the King now. He is incensed against you. But
we all know that he loves you; wait, therefore, my friend, until he has
had his day's hunting--he is just now booting himself and see him when
he has ridden off his annoyance."
"And when my friends, my dear Marquis, have had time to poison his mind
against me? No, no," I answered, wondering much whether he were as
simple as he looked.
"But the Queen is with him now," he persisted, seizing the lappel of my
coat to stay me, "and she will be sure to put in a word against you."
"Therefore," I answered drily, "I had better see his Majesty before the
one word becomes two."
"Be persuaded," he entreated me. "See him now, and nothing but ill
will come of it."
"Nothing but ill for some," I retorted, looking so keenly at him that
his visage fell. And with that he let me go, and with a smile I passed
through the door. The rumour had not yet gained such substance that
the crowd had lost all respect for me; it rolled back, and I passed
through it towards the end of the chamber, where the King was stooping
to draw on one of his boots. The Queen stood not far from him, gazing
into the fire with an air of ill-temper which the circle, serious and
silent, seemed to reflect, I looked everywhere for the Portuguese, but
he was not to be seen.
For a moment the King affected to be unaware of my presence, and even
turned his shoulder to me; but I observed that he reddened, and
fidgeted nervously with the boot which he was drawing on. Nothing
daunted, therefore, I waited until he perforce discovered me, and was
obliged to greet me. "You are early this morning," he said, at last,
with a grudging air.
"For the best of reasons, sire," I answered hardily. "I am ill placed
at home, and come to you for justice."
"What is it?" he said churlishly and unwillingly.
I was about to answer, when the Queen interposed with a sneer. "I think
that I can tell you, sire," she said. "M. de Sully is old enough to
know the adage, 'Bite before you are bitten.'"
"Madame," I said, respectfully but with firmness. "I know this only,
that my house was last night the scene of a gross outrage; and by all I
can learn it was perpetrated by one who is under your Majesty's
protection."
"His name?" she said, with a haughty gesture.
"M. Pimentel."
The Queen began to smile. "What was this gross outrage?" she asked
drily.
"In the course of last night he broke into my house with a gang of
wretches, and bore off one of the inmates."
The Queen's smile grew broader; the King began to grin. Some of the
circle, watching them closely, ventured to smile also. "Come, my
friend," Henry said, almost with good humour, "this is all very well.
But this inmate of yours--was a very recent one."
"Was, in fact, I suppose, the rebellious little wench of whom you knew
nothing yesterday!" the Queen cried harshly, and with an air of open
triumph. "There can be no stealing of stolen goods, sir; and if M.
Pimentel, who had at least as much right as you to the girl--and more,
for I am her guardian--has carried her off, you have small ground to
complain."
"But, Madame," I said, with an air of bewilderment, "I really do
not--it must be my fault, but I do not understand."
Two or three sniggered, seeing me apparently checkmated and at the end
of my resources. And the King laughed out with kindly malice. "Come,
Grand Master," he said, "I think that you do. However, if Pimentel has
carried off the damsel, there, it seems to me, is an end of the matter."
"But, sire," I answered, looking sternly round the grinning circle, "am
I mad, or is there some mystery here? I assured your Majesty yesterday
that Mademoiselle D'Oyley was not in my house. I say the same to-day.
She is not; your officers may search every room and closet. And for
the woman whom M. Pimentel has carried off, she is no more Mademoiselle
D'Oyley than I am; she is one of my wife's waiting-maids. If you doubt
me," I continued, "you have only to send and ask. Ask the Portuguese
himself."
The King stared at me. "Nonsense!" he said, sharply. "If Pimentel
has carried off anyone, it must be Mademoiselle D'Oyley."
"But it is not, sire," I answered with persistence. "He has broken
into my house, and abducted my servant. For Mademoiselle, she is not
there to be stolen."
"Let some one go for Pimentel," the King said curtly.
But the Portuguese, as it happened, was at the door even then, and
being called, had no alternative but to come forward. His face and
mien as he entered and reluctantly showed himself were more than enough
to dissipate any doubts which the courtiers had hitherto entertained;
the former being as gloomy and downcast as the latter was timid and
cringing. It is true he made some attempt at first, and for a time, to
face the matter out; stammering and stuttering, and looking piteously
to the Queen for help. But he could not long delay the crisis, nor
deny that the person he had so cunningly abducted was one of my
waiting-women; and the moment that this confession was made his case
was at an end, the statement being received with so universal a peal of
laughter, the King leading, as at one and the same time discomfited
him, and must have persuaded any indifferent listener that all, from
the first, had been in the secret.
After that he would have spent himself in vain, had he contended that
Mademoiselle D'Oyley was at my house; and so clear was this that he
made no second attempt to do so, but at once admitting that his people
had made a mistake, he proffered me a handsome apology, and desired the
King to speak to me in his behalf.
This I, on my side, was pleased to take in good part; and having let
him off easily with a mild rebuke, turned from him to the Queen, and
informed her with much respect that I had learned at length where
Mademoiselle D'Oyley had taken refuge.
"Where, sir?" she asked, eyeing me suspiciously and with no little
disfavour.
"At the Ursulines, Madame," I answered,
She winced, for she had already quarrelled with the abbess without
advantage. And there for the moment the matter ended. At a later
period I took care to confess all to the King, and he did not fail to
laugh heartily at the clever manner in which I had outwitted Pimentel.
But this was not until the Portuguese had left the country and gone to
Italy, the affair between him and Mademoiselle D'Oyley (which resolved
itself into a contest between the Queen and the Ursulines) having come
to a close under circumstances which it may be my duty to relate in
another place.