WHEREIN MARY STUART'S LOVELINESS FLITS ACROSS THE
COURSE OF THE STORY WITH AS TRANSIENT A GLEAM
AS IT CASTS UPON THE HISTORY OF FRANCE
When Gabriel, accompanied by Coligny, reached the portals of the Louvre,
he was overwhelmed by the first words that reached his ears.
The king did not receive that day!
The admiral, notwithstanding he held that high rank and was the nephew
of Montmorency, was too gravely suspected of heresy to have much credit
at court. As for Gabriel d'Exmès, the captain of the Guards, the ushers
of the royal suite had had ample time to forget his face and his name.
The two friends were rewarded for their trouble only by being permitted
to pass beyond the outer doors.
Within it was still worse. They wasted more than an hour in parleying
and bribing and threatening. As rapidly as they succeeded in inducing
one halberdier to allow them to pass, another barred their way. All the
varieties of dragon, more or less formidable, which watch over the
safety of kings seemed to be multiplied tenfold to impede their passage.
But when by sheer persistence they had succeeded in penetrating as far
as the great gallery which led to the king's closet, they found it
impossible to go farther; the orders were too strict. The king, closeted
with the constable and Madame de Poitiers, had given express
instructions that he was not to be disturbed on any pretext.
It was necessary that Gabriel should wait till evening if he wished for
an audience.
Waiting, weary waiting, when he believed that he was about to reach the
goal which he had been striving for through so much difficulty and
suffering! The few hours still to be passed seemed to Gabriel more
terrible and more to be dreaded than all the perils which he had
hitherto defied and overcome.
Without listening to the kind words with which the admiral sought to
console him, and to urge patience upon him, he stood at the window
looking gloomily at the rain which had begun to fall from the sombre
sky, a prey to anger and anguish, restlessly feeling the point of his
sword.
How to overturn and pass by the stupid guards who prevented him from
making his way to the king's apartment, and perhaps to his father's
liberty? Such thoughts filled his brain, when suddenly the curtain
before the door of the royal antechamber was lifted, and a fair and
blooming figure seemed to the saddened youth to light up the gray, rainy
atmosphere.
The little queen-dauphine, Mary Stuart, was passing through the gallery.
Gabriel, as if by instinct, uttered a cry, and stretched out his arms
toward her.
"Oh, Madame!" he said, hardly conscious of what he was doing.
Mary Stuart turned, recognized Gabriel and the admiral, and came up to
them with her ever-ready smile.
"So you have returned at last, Monsieur le Vicomte d'Exmès," said she.
"I am very glad to see you again; I have heard much talk about you of
late. But what are you doing at the Louvre at this early hour, and what
is your wish?"
"To speak to the king! to speak to the king, Madame!" Gabriel replied in
a stifled voice.
"Monsieur d'Exmès," it was the admiral who spoke, "has really much need
to speak to the king without delay. It is a very serious matter for him,
and for the king as well; but all these guards prevent his entering, and
attempt to put him off till this evening."
"As if I could wait till evening!" cried Gabriel.
"I believe," said Mary Stuart, "that his Majesty is just finishing some
important despatches. Monsieur le Connétable de Montmorency is still
with the king, and really I am afraid--"
A piteous glance from Gabriel prevented Mary from finishing her
sentence.
"Well, we will see," she resumed. "I will take the risk."
She made a sign with her little hand. The guards respectfully fell back,
and Gabriel and the admiral were at liberty to pass.
"Oh, thanks, Madame!" said the eager youth. "Thank you, who, in every
respect like an angel, always appear to comfort or to aid me in my
suffering."
"The way is clear," responded Mary Stuart, smiling. "If his Majesty is
very angry, do not betray the angel's share in your entrance, except at
the last extremity, I beg of you."
She inclined her head graciously to Gabriel and his companion, and was
gone.
Gabriel was already at the door of the king's cabinet. There was in the
last antechamber one more usher who undertook to oppose their entrance.
But just then the door opened; and Henri himself appeared on the
threshold, just giving some last instructions to the constable.
The king's distinguishing characteristic was not resolution. At the
sudden appearance of Vicomte d'Exmès, he recoiled, and even forgot to
be angry.
Gabriel's great virtue was firmness. He bowed low before the king in the
first place.
"Sire," said he, "deign to accept my most respectful homage."
Then turning to Monsieur de Coligny, who was following him, and whom he
wished to relieve from the embarrassment of speaking first,--
"Come, Monsieur l'Amiral," said he, "and in accordance with the kind
promise you made me, be kind enough to remind his Majesty of the part
that I took in the defence of St. Quentin."
"What is all this, Monsieur?" cried Henri, beginning to recover his
self-control. "How is it that you intrude yourself thus upon us, without
authorization or announcement? How do you dare to call upon Monsieur
l'Amiral in our presence?"
Gabriel, who was as bold at such momentous crises as he was before the
enemy, and who well understood that it was no time to lose his courage,
replied in a perfectly respectful but determined tone,--
"I thought, Sire, that your Majesty was always ready when justice was to
be done, even to the meanest of your subjects."
He had taken advantage of the king's backward movement to walk boldly
into the cabinet, where Diane de Poitiers, pale as death, and half
reclining upon her couch of carved oak, watched the actions and words of
the audacious young man, without power to speak a word, so great was her
anger and surprise.
Coligny had entered also upon the heels of his impetuous friend, and
Montmorency, as much stupefied as the others, had followed his example.
There was a moment of silence. Henri turned to his mistress with an
inquiring look; but before he had resolved upon any course for himself
or she had had time to suggest one to him, Gabriel, who knew well that
at that moment he held a very advantageous position, said again to
Coligny with an imploring and at the same time dignified accent,--
"I beseech you to speak, Monsieur l'Amiral!" Montmorency quickly shook
his head at his nephew, but brave Gaspard took no note of it.
"Indeed I will speak," said he, "for both my duty and my promise require
me to do so.
"Sire," he resumed, addressing the king, "I here repeat to you, in
brief, and in presence of Monsieur le Vicomte d'Exmès, what I thought
it my duty to tell you in greater detail before his return. It is to
him, and to him alone, that we owe the prolonged defence of St. Quentin,
even beyond the time fixed by your Majesty."
The constable made a meaning movement. But Coligny, looking steadily at
him, nevertheless went calmly on,--
"Yes, Sire, three times and more Monsieur d'Exmès saved the town, and
had it not been for his courage and energy, France, beyond a doubt,
would not have been at this hour on the road to safety, in which we may
hope that she may henceforth be able to maintain herself."
"Come, come! you are too modest or too obliging, my nephew!" cried
Monsieur de Montmorency, utterly unable to restrain his impatience any
longer.
"No, Monsieur, I am just and truthful," said Coligny, "nothing more. I
contributed my own share and with all my strength to the defence of the
town which was intrusted to me. But Vicomte d'Exmès rekindled the
courage of the people, which I looked upon as already dead beyond
redemption; he succeeded in throwing into the town reinforcements which
I had no idea were in the neighborhood; last of all, he frustrated a
surprise attempted by the enemy, which I had not foreseen. I say nothing
of the way in which he bore himself in the mêlée; we all did our best.
But what he did with his own hand and brain, the enormous share of glory
that he won for himself on that occasion, may well lessen or even render
vain and illusory all of mine,--that I proclaim aloud."
Turning to Gabriel, the brave admiral added,--
"Is it thus that I ought to speak, my friend? Have I carried out my
agreement to your satisfaction? Are you content with me?"
"Oh, I thank and bless you from the bottom of my heart, Monsieur
l'Amiral, for your loyalty and virtue," said Gabriel, deeply touched,
and pressing Coligny's hands. "I expected no less of you. But look upon
me, I beg, as bound to you forever. Yes, from this hour, your creditor
has become your debtor, and will remember his debt, I swear to you."
Meanwhile the king, frowning and with downcast eyes, was beating his
foot impatiently on the floor, and seemed deeply vexed.
The constable gradually approached Madame de Poitiers, and exchanged a
few words with her in an undertone.
They seemed to have come to some decision, for Diane began to smile; and
her diabolical and feminine grimace made Gabriel shudder, as he happened
to be looking at the beautiful duchess at that moment.
However, Gabriel found strength to add,--
"I will keep you no longer, Monsieur l'Amiral. You have done more than
your duty toward me; and if his Majesty will deign now to grant, as my
first reward, the favor of a private interview--"
"Later, Monsieur, later; I do not say no," said Henri, quickly, "but
just now it is impossible."
"Impossible!" cried Gabriel, sorrowfully.
"Why impossible, Sire?" Diane interrupted pleasantly, to Gabriel's great
surprise, and the king's as well.
"What! do you think, Madame--?" stammered Henri.
"I think, Sire, that a king's most pressing duty is to render to each
one of his subjects that which is his due. Now, your debt to Monsieur
d'Exmès is one of the most well-founded and sacred of all debts in my
opinion."
"No doubt, no doubt!" said Henri, who began to read the signals in the
favorite's eyes; "and I wish--"
"To hear at once what Monsieur d'Exmès has to say," Diane finished his
sentence. "That is right, Sire, and no more than justice."
"But his Majesty knows," said Gabriel, more and more lost in amazement,
"that it is essential that I should speak with him alone?"
"Monsieur de Montmorency was just about to retire as you came in,
Monsieur," rejoined Madame de Poitiers; "and you have yourself taken the
trouble to tell Monsieur l'Amiral that you would detain him no longer.
As for myself, as I was a witness of the contract the king made with
you, and can even, if need be, remind his Majesty of its exact terms,
perhaps you will allow me to remain."
"Most assuredly, Madame; I ask you to do so," murmured Gabriel.
"My nephew and myself will take our leave, then, of his Majesty and of
you, Madame," said Montmorency.
He made a sign of encouragement, as he passed, to Diane, of which she
seemed in no need, however.
For his part Coligny ventured to press Gabriel's hand; then he followed
his uncle from the room.
The king and the favorite remained alone with Gabriel, who was in a
state of alarm at the unexpected and mysterious protection accorded to
him by Diane de Castro's mother.