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[Transcriber's Note: This text is taken from a nine-volume edition of
the works of Alexandre Dumas, published in 1893 by Peter Fenelon
Collier. _The Conspirators_ was published in volume 6, along with _The
Forty-Five Guardsmen_ and _The Regent's Daughter_, both of which are
also available from Project Gutenberg. The translator of these texts is
unknown.
The use of accents in the original text was erratic, and some names
appear with more than one spelling. Except where one version was clearly
predominant, all spellings are left as they appear in the original
text.]
THE WORKS OF ALEXANDRE DUMAS
THE CONSPIRATORS
OR _THE CHEVALIER D'HARMENTAL_
Copiously Illustrated with elegant Pen and Ink and Wood Engravings,
specially drawn for this edition by eminent French and American Artists
COMPLETE IN NINE VOLUMES
VOLUME SIX
NEW YORK
PETER FENELON COLLIER, PUBLISHER
1893
THE CONSPIRATORS.
1. Captain Roquefinette 240
2. The Meeting 243
3. The Chevalier 247
4. A Bal-Masque of the Period.--The Bat 251
5. The Arsenal 257
6. The Prince de Cellamare 261
7. Alberoni 264
8. The Garret 269
9. A Citizen of the Rue du Temps-Perdu 272
10. The Agreement 276
11. Pros and Cons 279
12. The Denis Family 285
13. The Crimson Ribbon 290
14. The Rue des bons Enfants 295
15. Jean Buvat 301
16. Bathilde 310
17. First Love 319
18. The Consul Duilius 325
19. The Abbe Dubois 331
20. The Conspiracy 335
21. The Order of the Honey Bee 338
22. The Queen of the Greenlanders 340
23. The Duc de Richelieu 344
24. Jealousy 348
25. A Pretext 352
26. Counterplots 355
27. The Seventh Heaven 360
28. Fenelon's Successor 363
29. The Prince de Listhnay's Accomplice 368
30. The Fox and Goose 372
31. A Chapter of Saint-Simon 376
32. A Snare 378
33. The Beginning of the End 382
34. Parliamentary Justice 387
35. Man Proposes 391
36. David and Goliath 395
37. The Savior of France 400
38. God Disposes 408
39. A Prime Minister's Memory 412
40. Boniface 416
41. The Three Visits 420
42. The Closet 424
43. The Marriage in Extremis 427
Postscriptum 429
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
7.--He attacked the captain with such fury that their swords engaged at
the hilt.
8.--D'Harmental.
9.--He then returned to his work with all the eagerness of an artist.
10.--The chevalier set Mirza to eat sugar.
11.--Buvat found himself in a sort of laboratory, situated on the
ground-floor.
12.--The body of the captain lay stretched on the floor, swimming in a
sea of blood.
THE CONSPIRATORS;
OR, THE CHEVALIER D'HARMENTAL.
CHAPTER I.
CAPTAIN ROQUEFINETTE.
On the 22d of March, in the year of our Lord 1718, a young cavalier of
high bearing, about twenty-six or twenty-eight years of age, mounted on
a pure-bred Spanish charger, was waiting, toward eight o'clock in the
morning, at that end of the Pont Neuf which abuts on the Quai de
l'Ecole.
He was so upright and firm in his saddle, that one might have imagined
him to be placed there as a sentinel by the Lieutenant-General of
Police, Messire Voyer d'Argenson. After waiting about half an hour,
during which time he impatiently examined the clock of the Samaritaine,
his glance, wandering till then, appeared to rest with satisfaction on
an individual who, coming from the Place Dauphine, turned to the right,
and advanced toward him.
The man who thus attracted the attention of the young chevalier was a
powerfully-built fellow of five feet ten, wearing, instead of a peruke,
a forest of his own black hair, slightly grizzled, dressed in a manner
half-bourgeois, half-military, ornamented with a shoulder-knot which had
once been crimson, but from exposure to sun and rain had become a dirty
orange. He was armed with a long sword slung in a belt, and which bumped
ceaselessly against the calves of his legs. Finally, he wore a hat once
furnished with a plume and lace, and which--in remembrance, no doubt, of
its past splendor--its owner had stuck so much over his left ear, that
it seemed as if only a miracle of equilibrium could keep it in its
place. There was altogether in the countenance and in the carriage and
bearing of the man (who seemed from forty to forty-five years of age,
and who advanced swaggering and keeping the middle of the road, curling
his mustache with one hand, and with the other signing to the carriages
to give place), such a character of insolent carelessness, that the
cavalier who watched him smiled involuntarily, as he murmured to
himself, "I believe this is my man."
In consequence of this probability, he walked straight up to the
new-comer, with the evident intention of speaking to him. The latter,
though he evidently did not know the cavalier, seeing that he was going
to address him, placed himself in the third position, and waited, one
hand on his sword and the other on his mustache, to hear what the person
who was coming up had to say to him. Indeed, as the man with the orange
ribbon had foreseen, the young cavalier stopped his horse by him, and
touching his hat--"Sir," said he, "I think I may conclude, from your
appearance and manner, that you are a gentleman; am I mistaken?"
"No, palsam-bleu!" replied he to whom this strange question was
addressed, touching his hat in his turn. "I am delighted that my
appearance speaks so well for me, for, however little you would think
that you were giving me my proper title, you may call me captain."
"I am enchanted that you are a soldier; it is an additional security to
me that you are incapable of leaving a brave man in distress."
"Welcome, provided always the brave man has no need of my purse, for I
confess, freely, that I have just left my last crown in a cabaret on the
Port de la Tonnelle."
"Nobody wants your purse, captain; on the contrary, I beg you to believe
that mine is at your disposal."
"To whom have I the honor to speak?" asked the captain, visibly touched
by this reply, "and in what can I oblige you?"
"I am the Baron Rene de Valef," replied the cavalier.
"I think," interrupted the captain, "that I knew, in the Flemish wars, a
family of that name."
"It was mine, since we are from Liege." The two speakers exchanged bows.
"You must know then," continued the Baron de Valef, "that the Chevalier
Raoul d'Harmental, one of my most intimate friends, last night, in my
company, picked up a quarrel, which will finish this morning by a
meeting. Our adversaries were three, and we but two. I went this morning
to the houses of the Marquis de Gace and Comte de Sourgis, but
unfortunately neither the one nor the other had passed the night in his
bed; so, as the affair could not wait, as I must set out in two hours
for Spain, and that we absolutely require a second, or rather a third, I
installed myself on the Pont Neuf with the intention of addressing the
first gentleman who passed. You passed, and I addressed myself to you."
"And you have done right, pardieu! rest satisfied, baron, I am your man.
What hour is fixed for the meeting?"
"Half-past nine this morning."
"Where will it take place?"
"At the Port Maillot."
"Diable! there is no time to lose; but you are on horseback and I am on
foot; how shall we manage that?"
"There is a way, captain."
"What is it?"
"It is that you should do me the honor of mounting behind me."
"Willingly, baron."
"I warn you, however," added the young cavalier, with a slight smile,
"that my horse is rather spirited."
"Oh, I know him!" said the captain, drawing back a step, and looking at
the beautiful animal with the eye of a connoisseur; "if I am not
mistaken, he was bred between the mountains of Grenada and the Sierra
Morena. I rode such a one at Almanza, and I have often made him lie down
like a sheep when he wanted to carry me off at a gallop, only by
pressing him with my knees."
"You reassure me. To horse then, captain."----"Here I am, baron."
And without using the stirrup, which the young cavalier left free for
him, with a single bound the captain sprang on to the croup.
The baron had spoken truly; his horse was not accustomed to so heavy a
load, therefore he attempted to get rid of it. Neither had the captain
exaggerated, and the animal soon felt that he had found his master; so
that, after a few attempts, which had no other effect than to show to
the passers-by the address of the two cavaliers, he became obedient, and
went at a swinging trot down the Quai de l'Ecole, which at that time was
nothing but a wharf, crossed at the same pace the Quai du Louvre and the
Quai des Tuileries, through the gate of the Conference, and leaving on
the left the road to Versailles, threaded the great avenue of the
Champs-Elysees, which now leads to the triumphal Arc de l'Etoile.
Arrived at the Pont d'Antin, the Baron de Valef slackened his horse's
pace a little, for he found that he had ample time to arrive at the Port
Maillot at the hour fixed.
The captain profited by this respite.
"May I, without indiscretion, ask why we are going to fight? I wish, you
understand, to know that, in order to regulate my conduct toward my
adversary, and to know whether it is worth killing him."
"That is only fair," answered the baron; "I will tell you everything as
it passed. We were supping last night at La Fillon's. Of course you know
La Fillon, captain?"
[Illustration: HE ATTACKED THE CAPTAIN WITH SUCH FURY THAT THEIR SWORDS
ENGAGED AT THE HILT.--Page 244.]
"Pardieu! it was I who started her in the world, in 1705, before my
Italian campaign."
"Well," replied the baron, laughing, "you may boast of a pupil who does
you honor. Briefly, I supped there tete-a-tete with D'Harmental."
"Without any one of the fair sex?"
"Oh, mon Dieu, yes! I must tell you that D'Harmental is a kind of
Trappist, only going to La Fillon's for fear of the reputation of not
going there; only loving one woman at a time, and in love for the moment
with the little D'Averne, the wife of the lieutenant of the guards."
"Very good!"
"We were there, chatting, when we heard a merry party enter the room
next to ours. As our conversation did not concern anybody else, we kept
silence, and, without intending it, heard the conversation of our
neighbors. See what chance is. Our neighbors talked of the only thing
which we ought not to have heard."
"Of the chevalier's mistress, perhaps?"
"Exactly. At the first words of their discourse which reached me, I
rose, and tried to get Raoul away, but instead of following me, he put
his hand on my shoulder, and made me sit down again. 'Then Philippe is
making love to the little D'Averne?' said one. 'Since the fete of the
Marechal d'Estree, where she gave him a sword-belt with some verses, in
which she compared him to Mars,' replied another voice. 'That is eight
days ago,' said a third. 'Yes,' replied the first. 'Oh! she made a kind
of resistance, either that she really held by poor D'Harmental, or that
she knew that the regent only likes those who resist him. At last this
morning, in exchange for a basketful of flowers and jewels, she has
consented to receive his highness.'"
"Ah!" said the captain, "I begin to understand; the chevalier got
angry."
"Exactly. Instead of laughing, as you or I would have done, and
profiting by this circumstance to get back his brevet of colonel, which
was taken from him under pretext of economy, D'Harmental became so pale
that I thought he was going to faint; then, approaching the partition,
and striking with his fist, to insure silence, 'Gentlemen,' said he, 'I
am sorry to contradict you, but the one who said that Madame d'Averne
had granted a rendezvous to the regent, or to any other, has told a
lie.'
"'It was I who said it, and who repeat it, and if it displeases you, my
name is Lafare, captain of the guards.' 'And mine, Fargy,' said a second
voice. 'And mine, Ravanne,' said the third. 'Very well, gentlemen,'
replied D'Harmental, 'to-morrow, from nine to half-past, at the Port
Maillot.' And he sat down again opposite me. They talked of something
else, and we finished our supper. That is the whole affair, captain, and
you now know as much as I."
The captain gave vent to a kind of exclamation which seemed to say,
"This is not very serious;" but in spite of this semi-disapprobation, he
resolved none the less to support, to the best of his power, the cause
of which he had so unexpectedly been made the champion, however
defective that cause might appear to him in principle; besides, even had
he wished it, he had gone too far to draw back. They had now arrived at
the Port Maillot, and a young cavalier, who appeared to be waiting, and
who had from a distance perceived the baron and the captain, put his
horse to the gallop, and approached rapidly; this was the Chevalier
d'Harmental.
"My dear chevalier," said the Baron de Valef, grasping his hand, "permit
me, in default of an old friend, to present to you a new one. Neither
Sourgis nor Gace were at home. I met this gentleman on the Pont Neuf,
and told him our embarrassment, and he offered himself to free us from
it, with the greatest good will."
"I am doubly grateful to you then, my dear Valef," replied the
chevalier, casting on the captain a look which betrayed a slight
astonishment. "And to you, monsieur," continued he. "I must excuse
myself for making your acquaintance by mixing you up thus with an
unpleasant affair. But you will afford me one day or another an
opportunity to return your kindness, and I hope and beg that, an
opportunity arising, you would dispose of me as I have of you."
"Well said, chevalier," replied the captain, leaping to the ground; "and
in speaking thus you might lead me to the end of the world. The proverb
is right: 'It is only mountains that don't meet.'"
"Who is this original?" asked D'Harmental of Valef, while the captain
stamped the calls with his right foot, to stretch his legs.
"Ma foi! I do not know," said Valef, "but I do know that we should be in
a great difficulty without him. Some poor officer of fortune, without
doubt, whom the peace has thrown abroad like so many others; but we will
judge him by-and-by, by his works."
"Well!" said the captain, becoming animated with the exercise he was
taking, "where are our adversaries?"
"When I came up to you," replied D'Harmental, "they had not arrived, but
I perceived at the end of the avenue a kind of hired carriage, which
will serve as an excuse if they are late; and indeed," added the
chevalier, pulling out a beautiful watch set with diamonds, "they are
not behind time, for it is hardly half-past nine."
"Let us go," said Valef, dismounting and throwing the reins to
D'Harmental's valet, "for if they arrive at the rendezvous while we
stand gossiping here, it will appear as though we had kept them
waiting."
"You are right," said D'Harmental; and, dismounting, he advanced toward
the entrance of the wood, followed by his two companions.----"Will you
not take anything, gentlemen," said the landlord of the restaurant, who
was standing at his door, waiting for custom.
"Yes, Maitre Durand," replied D'Harmental, who wished, in order that
they might not be disturbed, to make it appear as if they had come from
an ordinary walk, "breakfast for three. We are going to take a turn in
the avenue, and then we shall come back." And he let three louis fall
into the hands of the inn-keeper.
The captain saw the shine of the three gold pieces one after another,
and quickly reckoned up what might be had at the "Bois de Boulogne" for
seventy-two francs; but as he knew whom he had to deal with, he judged
that a little advice from him would not be useless; consequently, in his
turn approaching the maitre d'hotel--
"Listen, my friend," said he; "you know that I understand the price of
things, and that no one can deceive me about the amount of a tavern
bill. Let the wines be good and varied, and let the breakfast be
copious, or I will break your head! Do you understand?"
"Be easy, captain," answered Durand, "it is not a customer like you whom
I would deceive."
"All right; I have eaten nothing for twelve hours. Arrange accordingly."
The hotel-keeper bowed, as knowing what that meant, and went back to his
kitchen, beginning to think that he had made a worse bargain than he had
hoped.
As to the captain, after having made a last sign of recognition, half
amicable, half threatening, he quickened his pace, and rejoined the
chevalier and the baron, who had stopped to wait for him.
The chevalier was not wrong as to the situation of the hired carriage.
At the turn of the first alley he saw his three adversaries getting out
of it. They were, as we have already said, the Marquis de Lafare, the
Comte de Fargy, and the Chevalier de Ravanne.
Our readers will now permit us to give them some short details of these
three personages, who will often reappear in the course of this history.
Lafare, the best known of the three, thanks to the poetry which he has
left behind him, was a man of about thirty-six or thirty-eight years, of
a frank and open countenance, and of an inexhaustible gayety and good
humor. Always ready to engage with all comers, at table, at play, or at
arms, and that without malice or bitterness; much run after by the fair
sex, and much beloved by the regent, who had named him his captain of
the guards, and who, during the ten years in which he had admitted him
into his intimacy, had found him his rival sometimes, but his faithful
servant always. Thus the prince, who had the habit of giving nicknames
to all his boon companions, as well as to his mistresses, never called
him any other than "bon enfant." Nevertheless, for some time the
popularity of Lafare, established as it was by agreeable antecedents,
was fast lowering among the ladies of the court and the girls of the
opera. There was a report current that he was going to be so ridiculous
as to become a well-behaved man. It is true that some people, in order
to preserve his reputation for him, whispered that this apparent
conversion had no other cause than the jealousy of Mademoiselle de
Conti, daughter of the duchess, and granddaughter of the great Conde,
who it was said honored the regent's captain of the guards with a
particular affection. His alliance with the Duc de Richelieu, who on his
side was supposed to be the lover of Mademoiselle de Charolais, gave
consistency to this report.
The Comte de Fargy, generally called "Le Beau Fargy," thus substituting
the title which he had received from nature for that which his fathers
had left him was cited, as his name indicates, as the handsomest man of
his time, which in that age of gallantry imposed obligations from which
he had never recoiled, and from which he had always come with honor.
Indeed, it was impossible to be a more perfect figure than he was. At
once strong and graceful, supple and active, he seemed to unite all the
different perfections of a hero of romance of that time. Add to this a
charming head, uniting the most opposite styles of beauty; that is to
say, black hair and blue eyes, strongly-marked features, and a
complexion like a woman. Unite with all these, wit, loyalty, the
greatest courage, and you will have an idea of the high consideration
which Le Fargy must have enjoyed from the society of that mad period.
As to the Chevalier de Ravanne, who has left us such strange memoirs of
his early life, that, in spite of their authenticity, one is tempted to
believe them apocryphal, he was still but a youth, rich and of noble
birth, who entered into life by a golden door, and ran into all its
pleasures with the fiery imprudence and eagerness of his age. He carried
to excess, as so many do at eighteen, all the vices and all the virtues
of his day. It will be easily understood how proud he was to serve as
second to men like Lafare and Fargy in a meeting which was likely to
"make a noise."