"Good-day to you, little sister," said Cauvignac, offering the young
woman his hand with imperturbable phlegm.
"Good-day! So you recognized me, did you?"
"The instant I laid my eyes on you. It wasn't enough to hide your face;
you should have covered up that charming dimple, and your pearly teeth.
When you wish to disguise yourself, coquette, cover your whole face!
but you were not careful--_et fugit ad salices_--"
"Enough!" said Nanon, imperiously; "let us talk seriously."
"I ask nothing better; only by talking seriously can business be
properly transacted."
"You say that the Vicomtesse de Cambes is here?"
"In person."
"And that Monsieur de Canolles is entering the inn at this moment?"
"Not yet; he dismounts and throws his rein to his servant. Ah! he has
been seen yonder also. See, the window with the yellow curtains opens,
and the viscountess puts out her head. Ah! she gives a little shriek of
delight. Monsieur de Canolles darts into the house; get out of sight,
little sister, or all will be lost."
Nanon threw herself back, convulsively pressing Cauvignac's hand, as he
gazed at her with an air of paternal compassion.
"And I was going to Paris to join him!" cried Nanon. "I risked
everything for the sake of seeing him again!"
"Ah! such a sacrifice, little sister, and for an ingrate, into the
bargain! Upon my word, you might bestow your favors to better purpose."
"What will they say to each other, now they are together? What will
they do?"
"Faith, dear Nanon, you embarrass me sorely by putting such a question
to me; they will--_pardieu!_ they will love each other dearly, I
suppose."
"Oh! that shall not be!" cried Nanon, frantically gnawing at her nails,
which shone like polished ivory.
"On the contrary, I fancy that it will be," rejoined Cauvignac.
"Ferguzon has orders to let no one come out, but not to keep anybody
out. At this moment, in all probability, the viscountess and Baron
de Canolles are exchanging all sorts of endearing terms, each more
charming than the last. _Peste!_ dear Nanon, you are too late."
"Do you think so?" retorted the young woman with an indefinable
expression of irony and malignant cunning; "do you think so? Very good;
just come in and sit beside me, you wretched diplomatist."
Cauvignac obeyed.
"Bertrand," said Nanon to one of her retainers, "tell the coachman to
turn quietly about, and draw up under the clump of trees we left at the
right as we entered the village.--Won't that be a safe place to talk?"
she asked Cauvignac.
"There could be no better. But permit me to take a few precautions on
my own account."
"Go on."
Cauvignac made signs to four of his men, who were strutting about the
inn, buzzing and puffing like hornets in the sun, to follow him.
"You do well to take those men," said Nanon, "and if you follow my
advice you will take six rather than four; there may be work cut out
for them."
"Good!" said Cauvignac; "work of that kind is what I want."
"Then you will be content," said Nanon.
The coachman turned the carriage, and drove away, with Nanon, red with
the flame of her thoughts, and Cauvignac, apparently calm and cold,
but ready, nevertheless, to lend an attentive ear to his sister's
suggestions.
Meanwhile, Canolles, attracted by the joyous cry uttered by Madame de
Cambes when she caught sight of him, had darted into the inn, and to
the viscountess's room, without noticing Ferguzon, whom he passed in
the corridor, but who made no objection to his entering, as he had
received no instructions concerning him.
"Ah! monsieur," cried Madame de Cambes, "come in quickly; I have been
so impatient for you to come!"
"Those words would make me the happiest man in the world, madame, if
your pallor and your evident distress did not tell me as plainly as
words could do that you were not expecting me for myself alone."
"Yes, monsieur, you are right," said Claire with her charming smile,
"and I desire to lay myself under still greater obligation to you."
"How so?"
"By begging you to save me from some peril, I know not what, which
threatens me."
"Peril?"
"Yes. Wait."
She went to the door, and threw the bolt.
"I have been recognized," she said, returning to Canolles.
"By whom?"
"By a man whose name I do not know, but whose face and voice are
familiar to me. It seems as if I heard his voice the evening that you,
in this very room, received the order to repair at once to Mantes. It
seems also as if I had seen his face at the hunting party at Chantilly,
the day that I took Madame de Condé's place."
"Whom do you take the man to be?"
"An agent of Monsieur le Duc d'Épernon, and therefore an enemy."
"The devil!" exclaimed Canolles. "You say that he recognized you?"
"Yes; he called me by name, although he insisted that I was a man.
There are officers of the king's party all over the country hereabout;
I am known to belong to the party of the princes, and it may be that
they proposed to make trouble for me. But you are here, and I no longer
have any fear. You are an officer yourself, and belong to the same
party that they do, so you will be my safeguard."
"Alas!" said Canolles, "I greatly fear that I can offer you no other
defence or protection than that of my sword."
"How is that?"
"Because from this moment I cease to belong to the king's party."
"Do you mean what you say?" cried Claire, delighted beyond measure.
"I promised myself that I would forward my resignation from the place
where I next met you. I have met you, and my resignation will be
forwarded from Jaulnay."
"Oh! free! free! you are free! you can embrace the cause of justice and
loyalty; you can join the party of the princes, that is to say, of all
the nobility. Oh! I knew that you were too noble-hearted not to come to
it at last."
Canolles kissed with transport the hand Claire offered him.
"How did it come about?" she continued. "Tell me every detail."
"Oh! it's not a long story. I wrote Monsieur de Mazarin to inform him
of what had taken place. When I arrived at Mantes, I was ordered to
wait upon him; he called me a poor fool, I called him a poor fool; he
laughed, I lost my temper; he raised his voice, I bade him go to the
devil. I returned to my hôtel; I was waiting until he thought fit to
consign me to the Bastille; he was waiting until prudence should bid me
begone from Mantes. After twenty-four hours prudence bade me take that
course. And even that I owe to you, for I thought of what you promised
me, and that you might be waiting for me. So it was that I threw away
all responsibility, all thought of party, and with my hands free, and
almost without preference, I remembered one thing only, that I loved
you, madame, and that at last I might tell you so, aloud and boldly."
"So you have thrown away your rank for me, you are disgraced, ruined,
all for my sake! Dear Monsieur de Canolles, how can I ever pay my debt?
How can I prove my gratitude to you?"
With a smile and a tear which gave him back a hundred times more than
he had lost, Madame de Cambes brought Canolles to her feet.
"Ah! madame," said he, "from this moment I am rich and happy; for I am
to be always with you, I am never to leave you more, I shall be happy
in the privilege of seeing you, and rich in your love."
"There is no further obstacle, then?"
"No."
"You belong to me absolutely, and, while keeping your heart, I may
offer your arm to Madame la Princesse?"
"You may."
"You have sent your resignation, do you say?"
"Not yet; I wished to see you first; but, as I told you, now that I
have seen you again, I propose to write it here, instantly. I preferred
to wait until I could do it in obedience to your orders."
"Write, then, before anything else! If you do not write, you will be
looked upon as a turncoat; indeed, you must wait, before taking any
decisive step, until your resignation is accepted."
"Dear little diplomatist, have no fear that they will not accept it,
and very gladly. My bungling at Chantilly will spare them any great
regret. Did they not tell me," laughed Canolles, "that I was a poor
fool?"
"Yes; but we will make up to you for any opinion they may entertain,
never fear. Your affair at Chantilly will be more thoroughly
appreciated at Bordeaux than at Paris, I assure you. But write, baron,
write, so that we may leave this place! for I confess that I am not at
ease by any means in this inn."
"Are you speaking of the past; is it the memory of another time that
terrifies you so?" said Canolles, gazing fondly about the room.
"No. I am speaking of the present, and you do not enter into my fears
to-day."
"Whom do you fear, pray? What have you to fear?"
"_Mon Dieu!_ who knows?"
At that moment, as if to justify the viscountess's apprehension, three
blows were struck upon the door with appalling solemnity.
Claire and Canolles ceased their conversation and exchanged an anxious,
questioning glance.
"In the king's name!" said a voice outside. "Open!"
The next moment the fragile door was shattered. Canolles attempted to
seize his sword, but a man had already stepped between his sword and
him.
"What does this mean?" he demanded.
"You are Monsieur le Baron de Canolles, are you not?"
"I am."
"Captain in the Navailles regiment?"
"Yes."
"Sent upon a confidential mission by the Duc d'Épernon?"
Canolles nodded his head.
"In that case, in the names of the king, and her Majesty the Queen
Regent, I arrest you."
"Your warrant?"
"Here it is."
"But, monsieur," said Canolles, handing back the paper after he had
glanced over it rapidly, "it seems to me that I know you."
"Know me! _Parbleu!_ Wasn't it in the same village where I arrest you
to-day, that I brought you an order from Monsieur le Duc d'Épernon to
betake yourself to the court? Your fortune was in that commission, my
young gentleman. You have missed it; so much the worse for you!"
Claire turned pale, and fell weeping upon a chair; she had recognized
the impertinent questioner.
"Monsieur de Mazarin is taking his revenge," muttered Canolles.
"Come, monsieur, we must be off," said Cauvignac.
Claire did not stir. Canolles, undecided as to the course he should
pursue, seemed near going mad. The catastrophe was so overpowering
and unexpected that he bent beneath its weight; he bowed his head and
resigned himself.
Moreover, at that period the words "In the king's name!" had not lost
their magic effect, and no one dared resist them.
"Where are you taking me, monsieur?" he said.
"Are you forbidden to afford me the poor consolation of knowing where I
am going?"
"No, monsieur, I will tell you. We are to escort you to Île-Saint
Georges."
"Adieu, madame," said Canolles, bowing respectfully to Madame de
Cambes; "adieu!"
"Well, well," said Cauvignac to himself, "things aren't so far advanced
as I thought. I will tell Nanon; it will please her immensely."
"Four men to escort the captain!" he cried, stepping to the door.
"Forward, four men!"
"And where am I to be taken?" cried Madame de Cambes, holding out her
arms toward the prisoner. "If the baron is guilty, I am still more
guilty than he."
"You, madame," replied Cauvignac, "are free, and may go where you
choose." And he left the room with the baron.
Madame de Cambes rose, with a gleam of hope, and prepared to leave the
inn at once, before contrary orders should be issued.
"Free!" said she. "In that case I can watch over him; I will go at
once."
Darting to the window, she was in time to see Canolles in the midst of
his escort, and to exchange a farewell wave of the hand with him. Then
she called Pompée, who, hoping for a halt of two or three days, had
established himself in the best room he could find, and bade him make
ready for immediate departure.