It was in the spring of the year 1609 that at the King's instance I had
a suite of apartments fitted up for him at the Arsenal, that he might
visit me, whenever it pleased him, without putting my family to
inconvenience; in another place will be found an account of the six
thousand crowns a year which he was so obliging as to allow me for this
purpose. He honoured me by using these rooms, which consisted of a
hall, a chamber, a wardrobe, and a closet, two or three times in the
course of that year, availing himself of my attendants and cook; and
the free opportunities of consulting me on the Great Undertaking, which
this plan afforded, led me to hope that notwithstanding the envy of my
detractors, he would continue to adopt it. That he did not do so, nor
ever visited me after the close of that year, was due not so much to
the lamentable event, soon to be related, which within a few months
deprived France of her greatest sovereign, as to a strange matter that
attended his last stay with me. I have since had cause to think that
this did not receive at the time as much attention as it deserved; and
have even imagined that had I groped a little deeper into the mystery I
might have found a clue to the future as well as the past, and averted
one more, and the last, danger from my beloved master. But Providence
would not have it so; a slight indisposition under which I was
suffering at the time rendered me less able, both in mind and body; the
result being that Henry, who was always averse to the publication of
these ominous episodes, and held that being known they bred the like in
mischievous minds, had his way, the case ending in no more than the
punishment of a careless rascal.
On the occasion of this last visit--the third, I think, that he paid
me--the King, who had been staying at Chantilly, came to me from
Lusarche, where he lay the intervening night. My coaches went to meet
him at the gates a little before noon, but he did not immediately
arrive, and being at leisure and having assured myself that the dinner
of twelve covers, which he had directed to be ready, was in course of
preparation, I went with my wife to inspect his rooms and satisfy
myself that everything was in order.
They were in charge of La Trape, a man of address and intelligence,
whom I have had cause to mention more than once in the course of these
memoirs. He met me at the door and conducted us through the rooms with
an air of satisfaction; nor could I find the slightest fault, until my
wife, looking about her with a woman's eye for minute things, paused by
the bed in the chamber, and directed my attention to something on the
floor.
She stooped over it. "What is this?" she asked. "Has something
been--"
"Upset here?" I said, looking also. There was a little pool of white
liquid on the floor beside the bed.
La Trape uttered an exclamation of annoyance, and explained that he had
not seen it before; that it had not been there five minutes earlier;
and that he did not know how it came to be there now.
"What is it?" I said, looking about for some pitcher that might; have
overflowed; but finding none. "Is it milk?"
"I don't know, your excellency," he answered. "But it shall be removed
at once."
"See that it is," I said. "Are the boughs in the fire-place fresh?"
For the weather was still warm and we had not lit a fire.
"Yes, your excellency; quite fresh."
"Well, see to that, and remove it," I said, pointing to the mess. "It
looks ill."
And with that the matter passed from my mind; the more completely as I
heard at that moment the sound of the King's approach, and went into
the court-yard to receive him. He brought with him Roquelaure, de Vic,
Erard the engineer, and some others, but none whom he did not know that
I should be glad to receive. He dined well, and after dinner amused
himself with seeing the young men ride at the ring, and even rode a
course himself with his usual skill; that being, if I remember rightly,
the last occasion on which I ever saw him take a lance. Before supper
he walked for a time in the hall, with Sillery, for whom he had sent;
and after supper, pronouncing himself tired, he dismissed all, and
retired with me to his chamber. Here we had some talk on a subject
that I greatly dreaded--I mean his infatuation for Madame de Conde; but
about eleven o'clock he yawned, and, after thanking me for a reception
which he said was quite to his mind, he bade me go to bed.
I was half way to the door when he called me back. "Why, Grand
Master," he said, pointing to the little table by the head of the bed
on which his night drinks stood, "you might be going to drown me. Do
you expect me to drink all these in the night?"
"I think that there is only your posset, sire," I said, "and the
lemon-water which you generally drink."
"And two or three other things?"
"Perhaps they have given your majesty some of the Arbois wine that you
were good enough to--"
"Tut-tut!" he said, lifting the cover of one of the cups. "This is not
wine. It may be a milk-posset."
"Yes, sire; very likely," I said drowsily.
"But it is not!" he answered, when he had smelled it. "It is plain
milk! Come, my friend," he continued, looking drolly at me, "have you
turned leech, or I babe is arms that you put such strong liquors before
me? However, to show you that I have some childish tastes left, and am
not so depraved as you have been trying to make me out for the last
hour--I will drink your health in it. It would serve you right if I
made you pledge me in the same liquor!"
The cup was at his lips when I sprang forward and, heedless of
ceremony, caught his arm. "Pardon, sire!" I cried, in sudden
agitation. "If that is milk, I gave no order that it should be placed
here; and I know nothing of its origin. I beg that you will not drink
it, until I have made some inquiry."
"They have all been tasted?" he asked, still holding the cup in his
hand with the lid raised, but looking at it gravely.
"They should have been!" I answered. "But La Trape, whom I made
answerable for that, is outside. I will go and question him. If you
will wait, sire, a moment--"
"No," Henry said. "Have him here."
I gave the order to the pages who were waiting outside, and in a moment
La Trape appeared, looking startled and uncomfortable. Naturally, his
first glance was given to the King, who had taken his seat on the edge
of the bed, but still held the cup in his hand. After asking the
King's permission, I said, "What drinks did you place on the table,
here, sirrah?"
He looked more uncomfortable at this, but he answered boldly enough
that he had served a posset, some lemon water, and some milk.
"But orders were given only for the lemon-water and the posset," I said.
"True, your excellency," he answered. "But when I went to the pantry
hatch, to see the under-butler carry up the tray, I found that the milk
was on the tray; and I supposed that you had given another order."
"Possibly Madame de Sully," the King said, looking at me, "gave the
order to add it?"
"She would not presume to do so, sire," I answered, sternly. "Nor do I
in the least understand the matter. But at one thing we can easily
arrive. You tasted all of these, man?"
La Trape said he had.
"You drank a quantity, a substantial quantity of each--according to the
orders given to you? I persisted.
"Yes, your excellency."
But I caught a guilty look in his eyes, and in a gust of rage I cried
out that he lied. "The truth!" I thundered, in a terrible voice. "The
truth, you villain; you did not taste all?"
"I did, your excellency; as God is above, I did!" he answered. But he
had grown pale, and he looked at the King in a terrified way.
"You did?"
"Yes!"
Yet I did not believe him, and I was about to give him the lie again,
when the King intervened. "Quite so," he said to La Trape with a
smile. "You drank, my good fellow, of the posset and the lemon water,
and you tasted the milk, but you did not drink of it. Is not that the
whole truth?"
"Yes, sire," he whimpered, breaking down. "But I--I gave some to a
cat."
"And the cat is no worse?"
"No, sire."
"There, Grand Master," the King said, turning to me, "that is the
truth, I think. What do you say to it?"
"That the rest is simple," I answered, grimly. "He did not drink it
before; but he will drink it now, sire."
The King, sitting on the bed, laughed and looked at La Trape; as if his
good-nature almost led him to interpose. But after a moment's
hesitation he thought better of it, and handed me the cup. "Very
well," he said; "he is your man. Have your way with him. After all,
he should have drunk it."
"He shall drink it now, or be broken on the wheel!" I said. "Do you
hear, you?" I continued, turning to him in a white heat of rage at the
thought of his negligence, and the price it might have cost me. "Take
it, and beware that you do not drop or spill it. For I swear that that
shall not save you!"
He took the cup with a pale face, and hands that shook so much that he
needed both to support the vessel. He hesitated, too, so long that,
had I not possessed the best of reasons for believing in his fidelity,
I should have suspected him of more than negligence. The shadow of his
tall figure seemed to waver on the tapestry behind him; and with a
little imagination I might have thought that the lights in the room had
sunk. The soft whispering of the pages outside could be heard, and a
stifled laugh; but inside there was not a sound. He carried the cup to
his lips; then he lowered it again.