When Barrabas had gone, Canolles summoned the officer, and requested
him to act as his guide in the inspection he proposed to make of his
new dominions.
The officer at once placed himself at his command.
At the door he found a sort of staff composed of the other principal
functionaries of the citadel. Escorted by them, talking with them,
and listening to descriptions of all the half-moons, casemates,
cellars, and attics, the morning wore away, and about eleven o'clock
he returned to his apartments, having made a thorough inspection. His
escort disappeared, and Canolles was left alone with the officer whose
acquaintance he had first made.
"Now," said that officer, drawing near him with an air of mystery,
"there remains but a single apartment and a single person for Monsieur
le Gouverneur to see."
"I beg your pardon?" said Canolles.
"That person's apartment is yonder," said the officer, pointing to a
door which Canolles had not yet opened.
"Ah! it is yonder, is it?"
"Yes."
"And the person too?
"Yes."
"Very well. Pardon me, I beg, but I am greatly fatigued, having
travelled night and day, and my head's not very clear this morning; so
pray explain your meaning a little more fully."
"Well, Monsieur le Gouverneur," rejoined the officer, with a most
knowing smile, "the apartment--"
"--of the person--" said Canolles.
"--who awaits you, is yonder. You understand now, don't you?"
Canolles started, as if he were returning from the land of dreams.
"Yes, yes. Very good," said he; "and I may go in?"
"To be sure, as you are expected."
"Here goes, then!" said Canolles; and with his heart beating fit
to burst its walls, hardly able to see, his fears and his desires
inextricably confused in his mind, he opened the door and saw behind
the hangings, with laughing face and sparkling eyes, Nanon de
Lartigues, who cried out with joy, as she threw her arms around the
young man's neck.
Canolles stood like a statue, with his arms hanging at his sides, and
lifeless eye.
"You?" he faltered.
"I!" said she, redoubling her smiles and kisses.
The remembrance of the wrong he had done her passed through Canolles'
mind, and as he divined instantly that he owed to this faithful friend
his latest good-fortune, he was utterly crushed by the combined weight
of remorse and gratitude.
"Ah!" said he; "you were at hand to save me while I was throwing myself
away like a madman; you were watching over me; you are my guardian
angel."
"Don't call me your angel, for I am a very devil," said Nanon; "but I
appear only at opportune times, you will admit."
"You are right, dear friend; in good sooth, I believe that you have
saved me from the scaffold."
"I think so too. Ah! baron, how could you, shrewd and far-sighted as
you are, ever allow yourself to be taken in by those conceited jades of
princesses?"
Canolles blushed to the whites of his eyes; but Nanon had adopted the
plan of not noticing his embarrassment.
"In truth," said he, "I don't know. I can't understand myself."
"Oh, they are very cunning! Ah, messieurs, you choose to make war on
women! What's this I have heard? They showed you, in place of the
younger princess, a maid of honor, a chambermaid, a log of wood--what
was it?"
Canolles felt the fever rising from his trembling fingers to his
confused brain.
"I thought it was the princess," he said; "I didn't know her."
"Who was it, pray?"
"A maid of honor, I think."
"Ah, my poor boy! it's that traitor Mazarin's fault. What the devil!
when a man is sent upon a delicate mission like that, they should
give him a portrait. If you had had or seen a portrait of Madame la
Princesse, you would certainly have recognized her. But let us say no
more about it. Do you know that that awful Mazarin, on the pretext that
you had betrayed the king, wanted to throw you to the toads?"
"I suspected as much."
"But I said: 'Let's throw him to the Nanons.' Did I do well? Tell me!"
Preoccupied as he was with the memory of the viscountess, and although
he wore the viscountess's portrait upon his heart, Canolles could not
resist the bewitching tenderness, the charming wit that sparkled in the
loveliest eyes in the world; he stooped and pressed his lips upon the
pretty hand which was offered him.
"And you came here to await me?"
"I went to Paris to find you, and bring you here. I carried your
commission with me. The separation seemed very long and tedious to
me, for Monsieur d'Épernon alone fell with his full weight upon my
monotonous life. I learned of your discomfiture. By the way, I had
forgotten to tell you; you are my brother, you know."
"I thought so from reading your letter."
"Yes, somebody betrayed us. The letter I wrote you fell into bad hands.
The duke arrived in a rage. I told him your name, and that you were my
brother, poor Canolles; and we are now united by the most legitimate
bond. You are almost my husband, my poor boy."
Canolles yielded to her incredible powers of fascination. Having kissed
her white hands he kissed her black eyes. The ghost of Madame de Cambes
should have taken flight, veiling her eyes in sorrow.
"After that," continued Nanon, "I laid my plans, and provided for
everything. I made of Monsieur d'Épernon your patron, or rather your
friend. I turned aside the wrath of Mazarin. Lastly, I selected
Saint-Georges as a place of retirement, because, dear boy, you know,
they are forever wanting to stone me. Dear Canolles, you are the only
soul in the whole world who loves me ever so little. Come, tell me that
you love me!"
And the captivating siren, throwing her arms about the young man's
neck, gazed ardently into his eyes, as if she would read to the very
depths of his heart.
Canolles felt in his heart, which Nanon was seeking to read, that
he could not remain insensible to such boundless devotion. A secret
presentiment told him that there was something more than love in
Nanon's feeling for him, that there was generosity too, and that she
not only loved him, but forgave him.
He made a motion of his head which answered her question; for he would
not have dared to say with his lips that he loved her, although at the
bottom of his heart all his memories pleaded in her favor.
"And so I made choice of Île Saint-Georges," she continued, "as a safe
place for my money, my jewelry, and my person. 'What other than the
man I love,' I said to myself, 'can defend my life? What other than my
master can guard my treasures?' Everything is in your hands, my own
love,--my life and my wealth. Will you keep a jealous watch over it
all? Will you be a faithful friend and faithful guardian?"
At that moment a bugle rang out in the court-yard, and awoke a
sympathetic vibration in Canolles' heart. He had before him love, more
eloquent than it had ever been; a hundred yards away was war,--war,
which inflames and intoxicates the imagination.
"Yes, Nanon, yes!" he cried. "Your person and your treasure are safe in
my hands, and I would die, I swear it, to save you from the slightest
danger."
"Thanks, my noble knight," said she; "I am as sure of your courage as
of your nobleness of heart. Alas!" she added with a smile, "I would I
were as sure of your love."
"Oh!" murmured Canolles, "you may be sure--"
"Very well, very well," said Nanon, "love is proved by deeds, not by
oaths; by what you do, monsieur, we will judge of your love."
Throwing the loveliest arms in the world around Canolles' neck, she
laid her head against his throbbing breast.
"Now, he must forget," she said to herself, "and he will forget--"