The gentleman whom Canolles greeted by the name of Richon, went up to
the first floor of the Golden Calf, and was taking supper there with
the viscount.
He was the person whose coming the viscount was impatiently awaiting
when chance made him a witness of Monsieur d'Épernon's hostile
preparations, and made it possible for him to render Baron de Canolles
the important service we have described.
He had left Paris a week before, and Bordeaux the same day, and was
therefore the bearer of recent news concerning the somewhat disturbed
state of affairs, and the disquieting plots which were brewing all the
way from Paris to Bordeaux. As he spoke, now of the imprisonment of the
princes, which was the sensation of the day, again of the Parliament
of Bordeaux, which was the ruling power of the neighborhood, and still
again of Monsieur de Mazarin, who was the king of the moment, the young
man silently watched his strong, bronzed face, his piercing, confident
eye, his sharp, white teeth, which showed beneath his long, black
moustache,--details which made Richon the perfect type of the true
soldier of fortune.
"And so," said the viscount, after his companion had told what he had
to tell, "Madame la Princesse is now at Chantilly?"
As is well known, both Duchesses de Condé were so called, but the
additional title of Dowager was bestowed upon the elder of the two.
"Yes, and they look for you there at the earliest possible moment,"
said Richon.
"What is her situation?"
"She is practically in exile; her movements as well as her
mother-in-law's are watched with the utmost care, for there is a shrewd
suspicion at court that they do not mean to confine themselves to
petitions to parliament, and that they are concocting something for the
benefit of the princes more likely to prove efficacious. Unfortunately,
as always, money--Speaking of money, have you received what was due
you? That is a question I was strongly urged to ask you."
"I have succeeded with great difficulty in collecting about twenty
thousand livres, and I have it with me in gold; that's all."
"All! _Peste!_ viscount, it's easy to see that you are a millionnaire.
To talk so contemptuously of such a sum at such a time! Twenty thousand
francs! We shall be poorer than Monsieur de Mazarin, but richer than
the king."
"Then you think that Madame la Princesse will accept my humble
offering, Richon?"
"Most gratefully; it is enough to pay an army."
"Do you think that we shall need it?"
"Need what? an army? Most assuredly; and we are busily at work levying
one. Monsieur de La Rochefoucauld has enlisted four hundred gentlemen
on the pretext that he wishes them to be present at the obsequies of
his father. Monsieur le Duc de Bouillon is about starting for Guyenne
with an equal number. Monsieur de Turenne promises to make a descent
upon Paris in the hope of surprising Vincennes, and carrying off the
princes by a _coup de main_; he will have thirty thousand men,--his
whole army of the North, whom he has seduced from the king's service.
Oh! everything is going along well," Richon continued, "never fear; I
don't know if we shall perform any great deeds, but at all events we
shall make a great noise."
"Did you not fall in with the Duc d'Épernon?" interposed the young
man, whose eyes sparkled with joy at this enumeration of forces, which
augured well for the triumph of the party to which he was attached.
"The Duc d'Épernon?" repeated Richon, opening his eyes; "where do you
suppose I fell in with him, I pray to know? I come from Agen, not from
Bordeaux."
"You might have fallen in with him within a few steps of this place,"
replied the viscount, smiling.
"Ah! yes, of course, the lovely Nanon de Lartigues lives in the
neighborhood, does she not?"
"Within two musket-shots of the inn."
"The deuce! that explains the Baron de Canolles' presence at the Golden
Calf."
"Do you know him?"
"Whom? the baron? Yes. I might almost say that I am his friend, if
Monsieur de Canolles were not of the oldest nobility, while I am only a
poor _roturier._"
"_Roturiers_ like yourself, Richon, are quite as valuable as princes in
our present plight. Do you know, by the way, that I saved your friend,
Baron de Canolles, from a thrashing, if not from something much worse."
"Yes; he said something of that to me, but I hardly listened to him, I
was in such haste to join you. Are you sure that he didn't recognize
you?"
"He could hardly recognize a person he had never seen."
"I should have asked if he did not guess who you are."
"Indeed," replied the viscount, "he looked at me very hard."
Richon smiled.
"I can well believe it," he said; "one doesn't meet young gentlemen of
your type every day."
"He seemed to me a jovial sort of fellow," said the viscount, after a
brief pause.
"A jovial fellow and a good fellow, too; he has a charming wit and a
great heart. The Gascon, you know, is never mediocre in anything; he
is in the front rank or is good for nothing. This one is made of good
stuff. In love, as in war, he is at once a dandy and a gallant officer;
I am sorry that he is against us. Indeed, as chance brought you in
contact with him, you should have seized the opportunity to win him
over to our side."
A fugitive blush passed like a flash over the viscount's pale cheeks.
"_Mon Dieu!_" continued Richon, with that melancholy philosophy which
is sometimes found in men of the most vigorous temper, "are we so
sober-minded and reasonable, pray, that we manage the torch of civil
war in our adventurous hands as if it were an altar light? Is Monsieur
le Coadjuteur, who, with a word, tranquillizes or arouses Paris, a very
serious-minded man? Is Monsieur de Beaufort, whose influence in the
capital is so great that he is called '_le roi des halles_' (King of
the Markets), a very serious-minded man? Is Madame de Chevreuse, who
makes and unmakes ministers at pleasure, a very serious-minded woman?
or Madame de Longueville, who nevertheless sat on the throne at the
Hôtel de Ville for three months? or Madame la Princesse de Condé, who,
no longer ago than yesterday, was engrossed with dresses and jewels and
diamonds? Lastly, is Monsieur le Duc d'Enghien, who is still playing
with his jumping-jacks, in charge of women, and who will don his
first breeches, perhaps, to turn all France topsy-turvy--is he a very
serious-minded leader of a party? And myself, if you will allow me to
mention my own name after so many illustrious ones, am I a very serious
personage,--I, the son of a miller of Angoulème, and once a retainer of
Monsieur de La Rochefoucauld,--I, to whom my master one day, instead
of a cloak to brush, gave a sword, which I gallantly buckled on at my
side, an embryo warrior? And yet the son of the miller of Angoulème,
Monsieur de La Rochefoucauld's former _valet-de-chambre_, has risen to
be a captain; he is levying a company, bringing together four or five
hundred men, with whose lives he is about to play, as if God himself
had given him the right; he is marching along on the road to greatness,
some day to be colonel, or governor of a fortress--who knows? it may
perhaps be his lot to hold for ten minutes, an hour, or a day, the
destiny of a kingdom in his hands. This much resembles a dream, as you
see, and yet I shall consider it a reality until the day when some
great disaster awakens me--"
"And on that day," the viscount broke in, "woe to those who awaken you,
Richon; for you will be a hero."
"A hero or a traitor, according as we are the strongest or the weakest.
Under the other cardinal I should have looked twice, for I should have
risked my head."
"Go to, Richon; do not try to make me believe that such considerations
can influence a man like you, who are pointed to as one of the bravest
soldiers in the whole army!"
"Oh! of course," said Richon, with an indescribable motion of his
shoulders, "I was brave when King Louis XIII., with his pale face,
his blue ribbon, and his eye gleaming like a carbuncle, cried in his
strident voice, biting the ends of his moustache, 'The king is looking
at you; forward, messieurs!' But when I am obliged to look at the same
blue ribbon on the son's breast, which I can still see on the father's,
and no longer behind me, but before my face; when I am obliged to shout
to my soldiers, 'Fire on the King of France!'--on that day," continued
Richon, shaking his head, "on that day, viscount, I fear that I shall
be afraid, and aim badly--"
"What snake have you trodden on to-day, that you persist in putting
things in the worst light, my dear Richon?" the young man asked. "Civil
war is a deplorable thing, I know, but sometimes necessary."
"Yes, like the plague, the yellow fever, the black fever, fever of
all colors. Do you think, for instance, Monsieur le Vicomte, that it
is absolutely necessary that I, who have been so glad to grasp my
good friend Canolles' hand this evening, should run my sword through
his body to-morrow, because I serve Madame la Princesse de Condé, who
laughs at me, and he Monsieur de Mazarin, at whom he laughs? Yet it may
fall out so."
The viscount made a horrified gesture.
"Unless," pursued Richon, "I am out in my reckoning, and he makes a
hole in me in one way or another. Ah! you people have no appreciation
of what war is; you see nothing but a sea of intrigue, and plunge into
it as if it were your natural element; as I said the other day to her
Highness, and she agreed with me, 'You live in a sphere wherein the
artillery fire which mows you down seems to you simple fireworks.'"
"In sooth, Richon, you frighten me," said the viscount, "and if I were
not sure of having you at hand to protect me, I should not dare to
start; but under your escort," he continued, holding out his little
hand to the partisan, "I have no fear."
"My escort?" said Richon. "Oh, yes, you remind me of something I had
forgotten; you will have to do without my escort, Monsieur le Vicomte;
that arrangement has fallen through."
"Why, are you not to return to Chantilly with me?"
"I was to do so, in the event that my presence was not necessary here;
but, as I was saying, my importance has increased to such a point that
I received a positive command from Madame la Princesse not to leave the
vicinity of the fort, upon which there are designs, it seems."
The viscount uttered an exclamation of dismay.
"What! I am to go without you?" he cried; "to go with no one but honest
Pompée, who is a hundred times more a coward than I am myself? to
travel half-way across France alone, or nearly so? Oh, no! I will not
go, I swear it! I should die of fear before I arrived."
"Oh, Monsieur le Vicomte," rejoined Richon, laughing aloud, "do you
forget the sword hanging by your side, pray?"
"Laugh if you please, but I will not budge. Madame la Princesse
promised me that you should go with me, and I agreed to make the
journey only on that condition."
"That's as you please, viscount," said Richon, with assumed gravity.
"However, they count upon you at Chantilly; and have a care, for
princes soon lose patience, especially when they expect money."
"To cap the climax," said the viscount, "I must start during the
night--"
"So much the better," laughed Richon; "no one will see that you are
afraid, and you will encounter greater cowards than yourself, who will
run away from you."
"You think so?" said the viscount, by no means at ease, despite this
reassuring suggestion.
"But there's another way of arranging the matter," said Richon; "your
fear is for the money, is it not? Very well, leave the money with me,
and I will send it by three or four trustworthy men. But, believe
me, the best way to make sure that it arrives safely is to carry it
yourself."
"You are right, and I will go, Richon; as my bravery must go all
lengths, I will keep the money. I fancy that her Highness, judging by
what you tell me, is even more in need of the money than of myself; so
perhaps I should not be welcome if I arrived empty-handed."
"I told you, when I first came, that you have a very martial air;
moreover, the king's soldiers are everywhere, and there is no war as
yet; however, don't trust to them too much, but bid Pompée load his
pistols."
"Do you say that simply to encourage me?"
"Of course; he who realizes his danger doesn't allow himself to be
taken by surprise. You had best go now," continued Richon, rising; "the
night will be fine, and you can be at Monlieu before morning."
"Will our friend, the baron, play the spy when we go?"
"Oh! at this moment he is doing what we have just done,--eating his
supper, that is to say; and although his supper may not have been as
good as ours, he is too much of a _bon-vivant_ to leave the table
without a weighty reason. But I will go down and keep his attention
diverted."
"Apologize to him for me for my rudeness. I don't choose that he shall
pick a quarrel with me, if we meet some day when he is less generously
disposed than to-day; for your baron must be a very punctilious sort of
fellow."
"You have hit the right word; he would be just the man to follow you to
the ends of the world simply to cross swords with you; but I will make
your excuses, never fear."
"Do so by all means; but wait till I am gone."
"You may be very sure that I will."
"Have you no message for her Highness?"
"Indeed I have; you remind me of the most important thing of all."
"Have you written to her?"
"No; there are but two words to say to her."
"What are they?"
"_Bordeaux.--Yes._"
"She will know what they mean?"
"Perfectly; and on the faith of those two words she may set out in full
confidence; you may say to her that I will answer for everything."
"Come, Pompée," said the viscount to the old squire, who just then
partly opened the door, and showed his head in the opening; "come, my
friend, we must be off."
"Oh!" exclaimed Pompée; "can it be that Monsieur le Vicomte thinks of
starting now. There is going to be a frightful storm."
"What's that you say, Pompée?" rejoined Richon. "There's not a cloud in
the sky."
"But we may lose our way in the dark."
"That would be a difficult thing to do; you have simply to follow the
high-road. Besides, it's a superb moonlight night."
"Moonlight! moonlight!" muttered Pompée; "you understand, of course,
that what I say is not on my own account, Monsieur Richon."
"Of course not," said Richon; "an old soldier!"
"When one has fought against the Spaniards, and been wounded at the
battle of Corbie--" pursued Pompée, swelling up.
"One doesn't know what fear is, eh? Oh, well, that is most fortunate,
for Monsieur le Vicomte is by no means at ease, I warn you."
"Oh!" exclaimed Pompée, turning pale, "are you afraid?"
"Not with you, my good Pompée," said the viscount. "I know you, and
I know that you would sacrifice your own life before anything should
happen to me."
"To be sure, to be sure," rejoined Pompée; "but if you are too much
afraid, we might wait until to-morrow."
"Impossible, my good Pompée. So take the gold and put it in your
saddle-bags; I will join you in a moment."
"It's a large sum to expose to the risks of a journey at night," said
Pompée, lifting the bag.
"There's no risk; at all events, Richon says so. Are the pistols in the
holsters, the sword in the scabbard, and the musket slung on its hook?"
"You forget," replied the old squire, drawing himself up, "that when
a man has been a soldier all his life, he doesn't allow himself to be
caught napping. Yes, Monsieur le Vicomte, everything is in its place."
"The idea," observed Richon, "that any one could be afraid with such a
companion! A pleasant journey to you, viscount!"
"Thanks for the wish; but it's a long way," replied the viscount,
with a residuum of distress which Pompée's martial bearing could not
dissipate.
"Nonsense!" said Richon; "every road has a beginning and an end. My
respectful homage to Madame la Princesse; tell her that I am at her
service and Monsieur de La Rochefoucauld's while I live, and do not
forget the two words,--_Bordeaux, Yes._ I will go and join Monsieur de
Canolles."
"Look you, Richon," said the viscount, laying his hand upon his
companion's arm as he put his foot on the first stair, "if this
Canolles is such a gallant officer and honorable gentleman as you say,
why should not you make some attempt to win him over to our side? He
might overtake us at Chantilly, or even on the way thither; as I have
some slight acquaintance with him, I would present him."
Richon looked at the viscount with such a strange smile that he,
reading upon the partisan's face what was passing through his mind,
made haste to add,--
"Consider that I said nothing, Richon, and act as you think you ought
to act in the premises. Adieu!"
He gave him his hand and hastily returned to his room, whether in dread
that Richon would see the sudden blush that overspread his face, or
that Canolles, whose noisy laughter they could plainly hear, would hear
their voices.
He therefore left the partisan to descend the stairs, followed by
Pompée, who carried the valise with an air of studied indifference, so
that no one might suspect the nature of its contents; having waited a
few moments, he cast his eye around the room to make sure that he had
forgotten nothing, extinguished the candles, stole cautiously down to
the ground-floor, venturing a timid glance through the half-open door
of a brilliantly lighted room on that floor, and, wrapping himself
closely in a heavy cloak, which Pompée handed him, placed his foot in
the squire's hand, leaped lightly into the saddle, scolded the old
soldier good-naturedly for his moderation, and disappeared in the
darkness.
As Richon entered the room occupied by Canolles, whom he had undertaken
to entertain while the little viscount was making his preparations for
departure, a joyful shout issuing from the baron's mouth, as he sat
uncertainly upon his chair, proved that he bore no ill-will.
Upon the table, between two transparent bodies which had once been
full bottles, stood a thick-set wicker-covered vessel, proud of its
rotundity, through the interstices of which the bright light of four
candles caused a sparkling as of rubies and topazes. It was a flask
of the old Collioure vintage, whose honeyed flavor is so delicious
to the overheated palate. Appetizing dried figs, biscuit, almonds,
and high-flavored cheeses bore witness to the shrewdness of the
inn-keeper's reckoning, as the two empty bottles and a third but half
filled demonstrated its exactitude. Indeed, it was certain that whoever
should partake of that tempting dessert would necessarily, however
sober he might ordinarily be, consume a great quantity of liquid food.
Now Canolles did not plume himself upon being an anchorite. Perhaps,
indeed, being a Huguenot (Canolles was of a Protestant family, and
mildly professed the religion of his fathers),--perhaps, we say, being
a Huguenot, Canolles did not believe in canonizing the pious hermits
who had won a dwelling in heaven by drinking water and eating dried
roots. And so, melancholy as he was, or in love if you please, Canolles
was never insensible to the fumes of a good dinner, or to the sight
of those bottles of peculiar shape, with red, yellow, or green seals,
which confine, with the assistance of a trusty cork, the purest blood
of Gascony, Champagne, or Burgundy. Under the present circumstances,
therefore, Canolles had, as usual, yielded to the fascinations of that
sight; from the sight he had passed to the smell, from the smell to the
taste, and, three out of the five senses with which our kindly common
mother, whom we call Dame Nature, has endowed her children, being
fully satisfied, the two others awaited their turn patiently, and with
beatific resignation.
It was at this juncture that Richon entered and found Canolles rocking
on his chair.
"Ah I my dear Richon, you come in good time," he cried. "I was in great
need of somebody to whom to sing Master Biscarros' praises, and I was
almost reduced to the point of doing it to this idiot of a Castorin,
who only knows how to drink, and whom I have never been able to teach
to eat. Just look at that sideboard, my friend, and cast your eye over
this table, at which I invite you to take a seat. Is not mine host of
the Golden Calf a veritable artist, a man whom I can safely recommend
to my friend the Duc d'Épernon? Listen to the details of this menu, and
judge for yourself, Richon, for you know how to appreciate such things:
_Potage de bisques; hors-d'œuvres_, pickled oysters, anchovies, small
fowl; _capon aux olives_, with a bottle of Médoc, of which you see the
corpse here; a partridge stuffed with truffles, peas _au caramel_,
wild-cherry ice, irrigated by a bottle of Chambertin, here lying dead;
furthermore, this dessert and this bottle of Collioure, which is trying
hard to defend itself, but will soon go to join the others, especially
if we join forces against it. _Sarpejeu!_ I am in the best of humor,
and Biscarros is a past master. Sit you down, Richon; you have supped,
but what's the odds? I have supped, too, but that makes no difference,
we will begin again."
"Thanks, baron," said Richon, with a laugh, "but I am not hungry."
"I grant you that; one may have ceased to be hungry, and still be
athirst; taste this Collioure."
Richon held out his glass. "And so you have supped," continued
Canolles,--"supped with your little rascal of a viscount? Oh! I beg
your pardon, Richon, I am wrong; a charming boy, I mean, to whom I owe
my present pleasure of looking at life on its beautiful side, instead
of giving up the ghost through three or four holes, which the gallant
Duc d'Épernon had it in contemplation to make in my skin. I am very
grateful therefore to the charming viscount, the fascinating Ganymede.
Ah! Richon, you have every appearance of being just what you are said
to be,--a devoted servant of Monsieur de Condé."
"A truce to your pleasantry, baron," cried Richon, laughing
uproariously; "don't say such things as that, or you will kill me with
laughter."
"Kill you with laughter! Go to, my dear fellow! not you.
'Igne tantum perituri
Quia estes--
Landeriri.'
You know the lament, do you not? It's a Christmas carol, written
by your patron upon the German river _Rhenus_, one morning when he
was consoling one of his followers, who dreaded death by drowning.
Oh! you devil of a Richon! No matter; I am shocked at your little
gentleman,--to take so deep an interest in the first well-favored
cavalier who passes!"
As he finished, Canolles fairly rolled off his chair, shrieking with
laughter, and pulling at his moustache in a paroxysm of merriment, in
which Richon could not help joining.
"Seriously, my dear Richon," Canolles resumed, "you are conspiring,
aren't you?"
Richon continued to laugh, but somewhat less frankly.
"Do you know that I had a great mind to have you and your little
gentleman arrested? _Corbleu!_ that would have been amusing, and
very easy too. I had the staff-bearers of my good gossip d'Épernon
at hand. Ah! Richon to the guard-house and the little gentleman too!
_landeriri!_"
At that moment they heard two horses galloping away from the inn.
"Oho!" said Canolles; "what might that be, Richon? Do you know?"
"I have a shrewd suspicion."
"Tell me, then."
"It's the little gentleman going away."
"Without bidding me adieu!" cried Canolles. "He is a consummate boor."
"Oh no, my dear baron; he's a man in a hurry, that's all."
Canolles frowned.
"What extraordinary manners!" said he. "Where was the fellow brought
up? Richon, my friend, I tell you frankly that he does you no credit.
That's not the way gentlemen should treat one another. _Corbleu!_ if I
had him here, I believe I would box his ears. The devil fly away with
his father, who, from stinginess, I doubt not, gave him no governor."
"Don't lose your temper, baron," said Richon, with a laugh; "the
viscount isn't so ill-bred as you think; for, as he went away, he bade
me express to you his deep regret, and to say a thousand complimentary
things to you."
"Nonsense! nonsense!" said Canolles; "court holy water, which
transforms a piece of arrant impudence into a trifling rudeness; that's
all of that. _Corbleu!_ I'm in a ferocious humor! Pick a quarrel with
me, Richon! You refuse? Wait a moment. _Sarpejeu!_ Richon, my friend, I
consider you an ill-favored villain!"
Richon began to laugh.
"In this mood, baron," said he, "you would be quite capable of winning
a hundred pistoles from me this evening, if we should play. Luck, you
know, always favors the disappointed."
Richon knew Canolles, and designedly opened this vent for his ill-humor.
"Ah! _pardieu!_" he cried; "let us play. You are right, my friend, and
the suggestion reconciles me to your company. Richon, you are a very
agreeable fellow; you are as handsome as Adonis, Richon, and I forgive
Monsieur de Cambes.--Cards, Castorin!"
Castorin hurried in, accompanied by Biscarros; together they prepared
a table, and the two guests began to play. Castorin, who had been
dreaming for ten years of a martingale at _trente-et-quarante_,
and Biscarros, whose eye gleamed covetously at the sight of money,
stood on either side of the table looking on. In less than an hour,
notwithstanding his prediction, Richon had won forty pistoles from his
opponent, whereupon Canolles, who had no more money about him, bade
Castorin bring him a further supply from his valise.
"It's not worth while," said Richon, who overheard the order; "I
haven't time to give you your revenge."
"What's that? you haven't time?" exclaimed Canolles.
"No; it is eleven o'clock," said Richon, "and at midnight I must be at
my post."
"Nonsense! you are joking!" rejoined Canolles.
"Monsieur le Baron," observed Richon, gravely, "you are a soldier, and
consequently you know the rigorous rules of the service."
"Then why didn't you go before you won my money?" retorted Canolles,
half-smiling, half-angry.
"Do you mean to reproach me for calling upon you?"
"God forbid! But consider; I haven't the slightest inclination to
sleep, and I shall be frightfully bored here. Suppose I should propose
to bear you company, Richon?"
"I should decline the honor, baron. Affairs of the nature of that upon
which I am engaged are transacted without witnesses."
"Very good! You are going--in what direction?"
"I was about to beg you not to ask me that question."
"In what direction has the viscount gone?"
"I am obliged to tell you that I have no idea."
Canolles looked at Richon to make sure that there was no raillery in
his disobliging answers; but the kindly eye and frank smile of the
governor of Vayres disarmed his curiosity, if not his impatience.
"Well, well, you are a perfect treasure-house of mysteries, my dear
Richon; but no compulsion. I should have been disgusted enough if any
one had followed me three hours ago, although, after all, the man who
followed me would have been as disappointed as I was myself. So one
last glass of Callioure and good luck to you!"
With that, Canolles refilled the glasses, and Richon, having emptied
his to the baron's health, took his leave; nor did it once occur to
the baron to watch to see in which direction he went. Left to his own
resources, amid the half-burned candles, empty bottles, and scattered
cards, he fell a prey to one of those fits of depression which no
one can understand without experiencing them, for his jovial humor
throughout the evening had its origin in a disappointment which he had
labored to forget, with but partial success.
He dragged his feet along toward his bedroom, casting a sidelong
glance, half regretful, half-angry, through the window in the hall
toward the isolated house, where a single window, through which a
reddish light shone, intercepted from time to time by more than one
shadow, proved with sufficient certainty that Mademoiselle de Lartigues
was passing a less lonely evening than himself.
On the first stair, the toe of Canolles' boot came in contact with
some object; he stooped and picked up one of the viscount's diminutive
pearl-gray gloves, which he had dropped in his haste to leave Master
Biscarros' hostelry, and which he probably did not consider of
sufficient value to waste his time in searching for it.
Whatever may have been Canolles' reflections in a moment of misanthropy
not to be wondered at in an offended lover, there was not at the
isolated house a whit more real satisfaction than at the Golden Calf.
Nanon was restless and anxious throughout the night, revolving in
her mind a thousand schemes to warn Canolles, and she resorted to
every device that a well-developed female brain could suggest in the
way of cunning and trickery to extricate herself from her precarious
situation. Her only object was to steal one minute from the duke to
speak to Francinette, or two minutes to write a line to Canolles upon
a scrap of paper.
But you would have said that the duke, suspecting all that was
passing through her mind, and reading her anxiety through the mask of
cheerfulness which her face wore, had sworn to himself that he would
not vouchsafe to her one moment of that liberty which was so essential
to her peace of mind.
Nanon had a sick-headache; Monsieur d'Épernon would not hear of her
rising to get her bottle of salts, but went to look for it himself.
Nanon pricked herself with a pin, and a ruby drop appeared at the end
of her taper finger; she essayed to go to her toilet-case for a piece
of the famous rose-taffeta, which was just coming into favor, but
Monsieur d'Épernon, with indefatigable devotion to her comfort, rose,
prepared the rose-taffeta with disheartening dexterity, and locked the
toilet-case.
Nanon thereupon pretended to be sleeping soundly; almost immediately
the duke began to snore. At that, Nanon opened her eyes, and by the
glimmer of the night-light in its alabaster vessel on a table by the
bed, she tried to take the duke's own tablets from his doublet, which
was within her reach; but just as she had the pencil in her hand, and
was about tearing off a leaf of paper, the duke opened one eye.
"What are you doing, my love?" he asked.
"I was looking to see if there isn't a calendar in your tablets."
"For what purpose?"
"To see when your birthday comes."
"My name is Louis, and my birthday falls on August 25th, as you know;
so you have abundant time to prepare for it, dear heart."
And he took the tablets from her hands and replaced them in his doublet.
By this last manœuvre, Nanon had at all events secured pencil and
paper. She stowed them away under her bolster, and very adroitly
overturned the night-light, hoping to be able to write in the dark; but
the duke immediately rang for Francinette, and loudly demanded a light,
declaring that he could not sleep unless he could see. Francinette came
running in before Nanon had had time to write half of her sentence,
and the duke, to avoid another similar mishap, bade the maid place two
candles on the chimney-piece. Thereupon Nanon declared that she could
not sleep with so much light, and resolutely turned her face to the
wall, awaiting the dawn in feverish impatience and anxiety easy to
understand.
The dreaded day broke at last, and bedimmed the light of the two
candles. Monsieur le Duc d'Épernon, who prided himself upon his strict
adherence to a military mode of life, rose as the first ray of dawn
stole in through the jalousies, dressed without assistance, in order
not to leave his little Nanon for an instant, donned his _robe de
chambre_, and rang to ask if there were any news.
Francinette replied by handing him a bundle of despatches which
Courtauvaux, his favorite outrider, had brought during the night.
The duke began to unseal them and to read with one eye; the other eye,
to which he sought to impart the most affectionate expression he could
command, he did not once remove from Nanon.
Nanon would have torn him in pieces if she could.
"Do you know what you ought to do, my dear?" said he, after he had read
a portion of the despatches.
"No, monseigneur; but if you will give your orders, they shall be
obeyed."
"You should send for your brother," said the duke. "I have here a
letter from Bordeaux containing the information I desired, and he might
start instantly, so that when he returned, I should have an excuse for
giving him the promotion you suggest."
The duke's face was a picture of open-hearted benevolence.
"Courage!" said Nanon to herself; "there is a possibility that Canolles
will read in my eyes what I want to say, or will understand a hint.
Send yourself, my dear duke," she said aloud, for she suspected that if
she undertook to do the errand herself, he would not allow her.
D'Épernon called Francinette, and despatched her to the inn with no
other instructions than these,--
"Say to Monsieur le Baron de Canolles that Mademoiselle de Lartigues
expects him to breakfast."
Nanon darted a meaning glance at Francinette, but, eloquent as it was,
Francinette could not read in it, "Tell Monsieur le Baron de Canolles
that I am his sister."
Francinette departed on her errand, satisfied that there was a needle
under the rock, and that the needle might prove to be a good, healthy
serpent.
Meanwhile Nanon rose, and took up a position behind the duke, so that
she might be able, at the first glance she exchanged with Canolles, to
warn him to be on his guard; and she busied herself in constructing a
sentence by means of which she might at the outset convey to the baron
all that he ought to know, in order that he might not sing false in the
family trio about to be performed.
Out of the corner of her eye she could see the whole of the road as far
as the turn where Monsieur d'Épernon and his men had lain in ambush the
night before.
"Ah!" exclaimed the duke, "Francinette is returning." And he fixed his
eyes upon Nanon's, who was compelled to look away from the road to meet
his gaze.
Nanon's heart was beating as if it would burst through her breast; she
had seen no one but Francinette, and it was Canolles whom she hoped to
see, and to read in his face some comforting assurance.
Steps were heard upon the stairs; the duke prepared a smile which was
at once condescending and affable; Nanon forced back the flush which
mounted to her cheeks, and summoned all her strength for the conflict.
Francinette tapped gently at the door.
"Come in!" said the duke.
Nanon conned the famous sentence with which she proposed to greet
Canolles.
The door opened; Francinette was alone. Nanon gazed eagerly into the
reception-room; there was no one there.
"Madame," said Francinette, with the imperturbable self-possession of
a comedy soubrette, "Monsieur le Baron de Canolles has left the Golden
Calf."
The duke stared, and his face grew dark.
Nanon threw back her head and drew a long breath.
"What!" exclaimed the duke; "Monsieur de Canolles is not at the Golden
Calf."
"You are surely mistaken, Francinette," chimed in Nanon.
"Madame," said Francinette, "I tell you what Monsieur Biscarros himself
told me."
"He must have guessed the whole truth," murmured Nanon. "Dear
Canolles! as quick-witted and clever as he is gallant and handsome!"
"Go at once to Master Biscarros," said the duke, with a face like a
thundercloud, "and--"
"Oh! I fancy," said Nanon, hastily, "that he knew you were here, and
disliked to disturb you. Poor Canolles is so timid!"
"Timid!" echoed the duke; "that isn't the reputation he bears, unless I
am much mistaken."
"No, madame," said Francinette; "Monsieur le Baron has really gone."
"How does it happen, madame, I pray to know, that the baron is afraid
of me, when Francinette was instructed to invite him in your name? Did
you tell him I was here, Francinette? Answer!"
"I could not tell him, Monsieur le Duc, as he was not there."
Notwithstanding this rejoinder, which was uttered with an absence of
hesitation that betokened sincerity, the duke seemed to have become as
suspicious as ever. Nanon, in her joy at the turn the affair had taken,
could not find strength to say a word.
"Must I return and summon Master Biscarros?" queried Francinette.
"Most assuredly," said the duke, in his harshest voice; "but no; wait
a moment. Remain here; your mistress may need you, and I will send
Courtauvaux."
Francinette vanished. Five minutes later, Courtauvaux knocked at the
door.
"Go and bid the landlord of the Golden Calf come hither, and bring with
him a breakfast menu! Give him these ten louis, so that the breakfast
may be a good one!" said the duke.
Courtauvaux received the money on the skirt of his coat, and took
himself off at once to execute his master's orders.
He was a servant of good family, and knowing enough at his trade to
give lessons to all the Crispins and Mascarillos of the day. He found
Biscarros, and said to him,--
"I have induced monsieur to order a good breakfast; and he gave me
eight louis. I keep two, of course, for my commission, and here are six
for you. Come at once."
Biscarros, tremulous with joy, tied a white apron around his loins,
pocketed the six louis, and pressing Courtauvaux's hand, followed close
upon his heels as he trotted away toward the little house.