THE PARDON.
"Rise, monsieur," said the regent.
"No, monseigneur," cried Gaston, bowing his forehead to the ground,
"oh, no, it is at your feet that I should die."
"Die! Gaston! you see that you are pardoned."
"Oh, monseigneur, punish me, in Heaven's name; for you must indeed
despise me if you pardon me."
"But have you not guessed?" asked the regent.
"What?"
"The reason why I pardon you."
Gaston cast a retrospective glance upon the past, his sad and solitary
youth, his brother's despairing death, his love for Helene, those days
that seemed so long away from her, those nights that passed so quickly
beneath the convent window, his journey to Paris, the duke's kindness to
the young girl, and last, this unexpected clemency; but in all this he
beheld nothing, he divined nothing.
"Thank Helene," said the duke, who saw that Gaston vainly sought the
cause of what had happened; "thank Helene, for it is she who saves your
life."
"Helene! monseigneur."
"I cannot punish my daughter's affianced husband."
"Helene, your daughter! oh, monseigneur, and I would have killed you!"
"Yes, remember what you said just now. We set out the chosen one, we
return the murderer. And sometimes you see more than a murderer--a
parricide--for I am almost your father," said the duke, holding out his
hand to Gaston.
"Monseigneur, have mercy on me."
"You have a noble heart, Gaston."
"And you, monseigneur, are a noble prince. Henceforth, I am yours body
and soul. Every drop of my blood for one tear of Helene's, for one wish
of your highness's."
"Thanks, Gaston," said the duke, smiling, "I will repay your devotion by
your happiness."
"I, happy, through your highness! Ah! monseigneur, God revenges himself
in permitting you to return me so much good for the evil I intended
you."
The regent smiled at this effusion of simple joy, when the door opened
and gave entrance to a green domino.
"Captain la Jonquiere!" cried Gaston.
"Dubois!" murmured the duke, frowning.
"Monseigneur," said Gaston, hiding his face in his hands, pale with
affright; "monseigneur, I am lost. It is no longer I who must be saved.
I forgot my honor, I forgot my friends."
"Your friends, monsieur?" said the duke, coldly. "I thought you no
longer made common cause with such men."
"Monseigneur, you said I had a noble heart; believe me when I say that
Pontcalec, Montlouis, Du Couedic, and Talhouet have hearts as noble as
my own."
"Noble!" repeated the duke, contemptuously.
"Yes, monseigneur, I repeat what I said."
"And do you know what they would have done, my poor child? you, who were
their blind tool, the arm that they placed at the end of their thoughts.
These noble hearts would have delivered their country to the stranger,
they would have erased the name of France from the list of sovereign
nations. Nobles, they were bound to set an example of courage and
loyalty--they have given that of perfidy and cowardice; well, you do not
reply--you lower your eyes; if it be your poniard you seek, it is at
your feet; take it up, there is yet time."
"Monsieur," said Gaston, clasping his hands, "I renounce my ideas of
assassination, I detest them, and I ask your pardon for having
entertained them; but if you will not save my friends, I beg of you at
least to let me perish with them. If I live when they die, my honor dies
with them; think of it, monseigneur, the honor of the name your daughter
is to bear."
The regent bent his head as he replied:
"It is impossible, monsieur; they have betrayed France; and they must
die."
"Then I die with them!" said Gaston, "for I also have betrayed France,
and, moreover, would have murdered your highness."
The regent looked at Dubois; the glance they exchanged did not escape
Gaston. He understood that he had dealt with a false La Jonquiere as
well as a false Duc d'Olivares.
"No," said Dubois, addressing Gaston, "you shall not die for that,
monsieur; but you must understand that there are crimes which the regent
has neither the power nor the right to pardon."
"But he pardoned me!" exclaimed Gaston.----"You are Helene's husband,"
said the duke.
"You mistake, monseigneur; I am not; and I shall never be; and as such a
sacrifice involves the death of him who makes it, I shall die,
monseigneur."
"Bah!" said Dubois, "no one dies of love nowadays; it was very well in
the time of M. d'Urfe and Mademoiselle de Scuderi."
"Perhaps you are right, monsieur; but in all times men die by the
dagger;" and Gaston stopped and picked up the knife with an expression
which was not to be mistaken. Dubois did not move.
The regent made a step.
"Throw down that weapon, monsieur," said he, with hauteur.
Gaston placed the point against his breast.
"Throw it down, I say," repeated the regent.
"The life of my friends, monseigneur," said Gaston.
The regent turned again to Dubois, who smiled a sardonic smile.
"'Tis well," said the regent, "they shall live."
"Ah! monsieur," said Gaston, seizing the duke's hand, and trying to
raise it to his lips, "you are the image of God on earth."
"Monseigneur, you commit an irreparable fault," said Dubois.
"What!" cried Gaston, astonished, "you are then--"
"The Abbe Dubois, at your service," said the false La Jonquiere, bowing.
"Oh! monseigneur, listen only to your own heart--I implore."
"Monseigneur, sign nothing," said Dubois.
"Sign! monseigneur, sign!" repeated Gaston, "you promised they should
live; and I know your promise is sacred."
"Dubois, I shall sign," said the duke.
"Has your highness decided?"
"I have given my word."
"Very well; as you please."
"At once, monseigneur, at once; I know not why, but I am alarmed in
spite of myself; monseigneur, their pardon, I implore you."
"Eh! monsieur," said Dubois, "since his highness has promised, what
signify five minutes more or less?"
The regent looked uneasily at Dubois.
"Yes, you are right," said he, "this very moment; your portfolio, abbe,
and quick, the young man is impatient."
Dubois bowed assent, called a servant, got his portfolio, and presented
to the regent a sheet of paper, who wrote an order on it and signed it.
"Now a courier."
"Oh, no! monseigneur, it is useless."
"Why so?"
"A courier would never go quickly enough. I will go myself, if your
highness will permit me; every moment I gain will save those unhappy men
an age of torture."
Dubois frowned.
"Yes! yes! you are right," said the regent, "go yourself;" and he added
in a low voice, "and do not let the order leave your hands."
"But, monseigneur," said Dubois, "you are more impatient than the young
man himself; you forget that if he goes thus there is some one in Paris
who will think he is dead."
These words struck Gaston, and recalled to him Helene, whom he had left,
expecting him from one moment to another, in the fear of some great
event, and who would never forgive him should he leave Paris without
seeing her. In an instant his resolution was taken; he kissed the duke's
hand, took the order, and was going, when the regent said--
"Not a word to Helene of what I told you; the only recompense I ask of
you is to leave me the pleasure of telling her she is my child."
"Your highness shall be obeyed," said Gaston, moved to tears, and again
bowing, he hastily went out.
"This way," said Dubois; "really, you look as if you had assassinated
some one, and you will be arrested; cross this grove, at the end is a
path which will lead you to the street."
"Oh, thank you; you understand that delay--"
"Might be fatal. That is why," added he to himself, "I have shown you
the longest way--go."
When Gaston had disappeared, Dubois returned to the regent.
"What is the matter, monseigneur?" asked he; "you seem uneasy."
"I am."
"And why?"
"You made no resistance to my performing a good action--this frightened
me." Dubois smiled.
"Dubois," said the duke, "you are plotting something."
"No, monseigneur, it is all arranged."
"What have you done?"
"Monseigneur, I know you."
"Well."
"I knew what would happen. That you would never be satisfied till you
had signed the pardon of all these fellows."
"Go on."
"Well, I also have sent a courier."
"You!"
"Yes, I; have I not the right to send couriers?"
"Yes; but, in Heaven's name, tell me what order your courier carried."
"An order for their execution."
"And he is gone?"
Dubois took out his watch.
"Two hours ago," said he.
"Wretch!"
"Ah, monseigneur! always big words. Every man to his trade, save M. de
Chanlay, if you like; he is your son-in-law; as for me, I save you."
"Yes; but I know De Chanlay. He will arrive before the courier."
"No, monseigneur."
"Two hours are nothing to a man like him; he will soon have made them
up."
"Were my courier only two hours in advance," said Dubois, "De Chanlay
might overtake him, but he will be three."
"How so?"
"Because the worthy young man is in love; and if I reckon an hour for
taking leave of your daughter, I am sure it is not too much."
"Serpent! I understand the meaning of what you said just now."
"He was in an excess of enthusiasm--he might have forgotten his love.
You know my principle, monseigneur: distrust first impulses, they are
always good."
"It is an infamous principle."
"Monseigneur, either one is a diplomatist or one is not."
"Well," said the regent, stepping toward the door, "I shall go and warn
him."
"Monseigneur," said Dubois, stopping the duke with an accent of extreme
resolution, and taking a paper out of his portfolio, already prepared,
"if you do so, have the kindness in that case to accept my resignation
at once. Joke, if you will, but, as Horace said, 'est modus in rebus.'
He was a great as well as a courteous man. Come, come, monseigneur, a
truce to politics for this evening--go back to the ball, and to-morrow
evening all will be settled--France will be rid of four of her worst
enemies, and you will retain a son-in-law whom I greatly prefer to M. de
Riom, I assure you."
And with these words they returned to the ballroom, Dubois joyous and
triumphant, the duke sad and thoughtful, but convinced that his minister
was right.