THE SHADOW BEHIND THE THRONE
Within the grim walls of Black Angers Duke John of Brittany and
reigning sovereign of western France was holding his court. The city
and fortress did not properly, of right and parchment holding,
appertain to him. But he had occupied it during the recent troubles
with the English, and his loving cousin and nominal suzerain Charles
the Seventh of France had not yet been strong enough to make him
render it up again.
The Duke sat in the central tower of the fortress of Black Angers,
that which looks between the high flanking turrets of the mighty
enceinte of walls. He wriggled discontentedly in his chair and
grumbled under his breath.
At his shoulder, tall, gaunt, angular, with lantern jaws and a mouth
like a wolf trap, deep-set eyes that flamed under bushy eyebrows,
stood Pierre de l'Hopital, the true master of Brittany.
"I tell you I will go to the tennis-courts--the three Scots must wait
audience till to-morrow. What errand can they have with me--some
rascals whom Charles will not pay now that his job is done? They come
to take service doubtless. A beggarly lot are all such out-land
varlets, but brave--yes, excellent soldiers are the Scots, so long as
they are well fed, that is."
"Nay, my Lord Duke," said Pierre de l'Hopital, standing up tall and
sombre, his long black gown accentuating the peculiarities of his
figure. "It were almost necessary to see these men now and hear what
they have to say. I myself have seen them and judge it to be so."
John of Brittany threw down the little sceptre, fashioned in imitation
of that made for the King of France, with which he had been toying.
The action was that of a pettish child.
"Oh," he cried, "if you have decided, there remains nothing for me but
to obey!"
"I thank your Excellency for your gracious readiness to grant the men
an interview," said Pierre de l'Hopital, having regard to the
essential matter and disregarding the unessential manner.
Duke John sat glooming and kicking his feet to and fro on the raised
dais, while behind his chair, impassive as the Grand Inquisitor
himself, Pierre de l'Hopital, President of Brittany, lifted a hand to
an unseen servitor; and in a few moments the three Scots were ushered
into the ducal presence.
The Lord James in virtue of his quality stood a little in front, not
by his own will or desire, but because Sholto and his father had so
placed themselves that the young noble should have his own rightful
precedence. For as to these things all Scots are careful by nature.
Duke John continued to keep his eyes averted from the men who sought
his presence. He teased a little lop-eared spaniel, and nipped it till
it yelped. But the President of Brittany never took his eyes off the
strangers, examining them with a bold, keen, remorseless glance, in
which, however, there was neither evil nor the tolerance of it. Not a
man to make himself greatly beloved, this Pierre de l'Hopital.
And little he cared whether or no. In Brittany men did his will. That
was enough.
James Douglas was nettled at the inattention of the Duke. He was of
that large and sanguine nature which is at once easily touched by any
discourtesy and very quick to resent it.
"My Lord of Brittany," he began in a loud clear voice, and in his
usual immaculate French, "I claim your attention for a little. I come
to lay before you that which touches your kin and kingdom."
Duke John continued to play with the lap-dog, and in addition he
formed his mouth to whistle. But he never whistled.
"His Grace of Brittany will now give you his undivided attention,"
said the President from behind, without moving a muscle either of his
body or of his face, save those necessary to propel the words from his
vocal cords.
The brow of Duke John flushed with anger, but he did not disobey. He
raised his head and gazed straight at the three men, fixing his eyes,
however, with a studied discourtesy upon Sholto instead of upon their
natural leader and spokesman.
Behind his chair Pierre de l'Hopital let his deep inscrutable eye
droop once upon his master, and his spare and sinewy wrists twitched
as he held his arms by his side. He seemed upon the point of dealing
ducal dignity a box on the ear both sound and improving.
"I am the Lord James of Douglas and Avondale," said the leader of the
Scots with grave dignity, "and I had three years ago the honour of
breaking a lance with you in the tilt-yard of Poitiers, when in that
town your Grace met with the King of France and the Duke of Burgundy."
At this John of Brittany looked up quickly.
"I do not remember you," he said, "and I never forget faces. Even
Pierre will grant me that."
"Your Grace may possibly remember, then, the dint in your shoulder
that you got from the point of a spear, caused by the breaking of the
links of your shoulder-piece."
A light kindled in the Duke's eyes.
"What," he cried, "you are the young Scot who fought so well and kept
his shield up day by day over the door of a common sergeant's tent,
having no pavilion of his own, till it was all over dints like an
alehouse tankard?"
"As were also the knights who dinted it," grimly commented Pierre de
l'Hopital.
The Lord James of Avondale bowed.
"I am that knight," he said quietly and with gravity.
"But," cried the Duke, "I knew not then that you were of Douglas. That
is a great name in Poitiers, and had we known your race and quality we
had not been so ready with our shield-rapping."
"At that time," said James Douglas, "I had not the right to add 'of
Douglas' to my titles. But during this year my father hath succeeded
to the Earldom and estates."
"What--then is your father Duke of Touraine?" cried the Duke of
Brittany, much astonished.
"Nay, my lord," said James Douglas, with some little bitterness. "The
King of France hath caused that to revert to himself by the success
which attended a certain mission executed for him in Scotland by his
Chamberlain, the Marshal de Retz, concerning whom we have come from
far to speak with you."
"Ah, my cousin Gilles!" cried Duke John. "He is not a beauty to look
at, but he is a brave man, our Gilles. I heard he had gone to
Scotland. I wonder if he contrived to make himself as popular in your
land as he has done in ours."
With a certain grave severity to which Pierre de l'Hopital nodded
approval, the Lord James replied: "At the instigation of the King of
France and Louis the Dauphin he succeeded in murdering my two cousins
William and David of Douglas, and in carrying over hither with him to
his own country their only sister, the little Countess of
Galloway--thus rooting out the greatest house in Scotland to the hurt
of the whole realm."
"But to your profit, my Lord James of Avondale," commented the hollow
voice of Pierre de l'Hopital, speaking over his master's head.
The face of James Douglas flushed quickly.
"No, messire," he answered with a swift heat. "Not to my profit--to my
infinite loss. For I loved my cousin. I honoured him, and for his sake
would have fought to the death. For his sake have I renounced my own
father that begat me. And for his sake I stand here to ask for justice
to the little maiden, the last of his race, to whom by right belongs
the fairest province of his dominions. No, messire, you are wrong. In
all this have I had no profit but only infinite hurt."
Pierre de l'Hopital bowed low. There was a pleased look on his face
that almost amounted to a smile.
"I crave your pardon, my lord," he said; "that is well said indeed,
and he is a gentleman who speaks it."
"Aye, it is indeed well said, and he had you shrewdly on the hip that
time, Pierre," cried Duke John. "I wish he could teach me thus
cleverly to answer you when you croak."
"If you had as good a cause, my lord," said the President of Brittany
to the Duke, "it were not difficult to answer me as sharply. But we
are keeping these gentlemen from declaring the purpose of their
journey hither."
The Lord James waited for no further invitation.
"I come," he said boldly, holding a parchment in his hand, the same he
had received from the Lady Sybilla, "to denounce Gilles de Retz and to
accuse him of many cruel and unrighteous acts such as have never been
done in any kingdom. I accuse him of the murder of over four hundred
children of all ages and both sexes in circumstances of unparalleled
barbarity. I am ready to lead you to the places where lie their
bodies, some of them burned and their ashes cast into the ditch,
others charred and thrown into unused towers. I have here names,
instances, evidence enough to taint and condemn a hundred monsters
such as Gilles de Retz."
"Ah, give me the paper," came the raucous voice of the President of
Brittany, as he reached a bony hand over his master's shoulder to
seize it.
The Lord James advanced, and giving it to him said, "Messire, I would
have you know that a copy of this is already in the hands of a trusty
person in each of the towns and villages which are named here, and
from which children have been led to cruel death by him whom I have
accused, Gilles de Retz, Marshal of France."
The President of Brittany nodded as he almost snatched the paper in
his eagerness to peruse it.
"The point is cleverly taken," he said, "as justly indeed as if you
knew my Lord of Brittany as well as, for instance, I know him."
The Duke was obviously discomfited. He shuffled his feet more than
ever on the dais and combed his straggling fair beard with soft,
white, tapering fingers.
"This is wild and wholly absurd," he said, without however looking at
James Douglas; "our cousin Gilles is in ill odour with the commonalty.
He is a philosopher and makes smells with bottles. But there is
neither harm nor witchcraft in it. He is only trying to discover the
elixir of life. So the silly folk think him a wizard. I know him
better. He is a brave soldier and my good cousin. I will not have him
molested."
"My lord speaks of kinship," grated the voice of Pierre de l'Hopital.
"Here are the names of four hundred fathers and mothers who have also
a claim to be heard on that subject, and whose voices, if I judge
right, are being heard at this moment around the Castles of Machecoul,
Tiffauges, Champtocé, and Pouzages. I wot there is now a crowd of a
thousand men pouring through the passages of the Hotel de Suze in your
Grace's own ducal city of Nantes. And if there goes a bruit abroad,
that your Highness is protecting this monster whom the people hate,
and the evidences of whose horrid cruelty are by this time in their
hands--well, your Grace knows the Bretons as well as I. They will
make one end of Gilles de Retz and of his cousin John, Duke of
Brittany."
"Think you so--think you so truly, Pierre?" cried the unhappy reigning
prince; "I would not screen him if this be true. But the King--what of
the King? They say he hath promised him support with arms and men for
recovering to him and to Louis the Dauphin the Duchy of Touraine."
"And think you, my lord, that the Dauphin will keep his promise, if we
show him good cause why he should fare better by breaking it?"
suggested Pierre de l'Hopital, with the grim irony which had become
habitual to him.
John of Brittany paused irresolute.
"Besides which," continued James Douglas, "I may add that this paper
is already in the hands of the Cardinal Bishop of Nantes, and if your
Grace will not move in the matter, his Eminence has promised to see
justice done."
"The hireling--the popular mouther after favour! I know him," cried
Duke John, angrily. "What accursed demon sent you to him? In this, as
in other matters, he will strive to oust me from the hearts of the
folk of Brittany. He will be the people's advocate and will gain great
honour from this trial, will he? We shall see. Ho! guards there! Turn
out. Summon those that are asleep. Let the full muster be called. I
will lead you to Machecoul myself. And these gentlemen shall march
with us. But by Heaven and the bones of Saint Anne of Auray, if in one
jot they shall fail to substantiate against Gilles de Retz those
things which they have testified, they shall die by the rack, and by
the cord, and by disembowelling, and by fire. So swear I, Duke John
of Brittany."
"It is good," said James Douglas. And "It is good," accorded also
Malise and Sholto MacKim.
"But before any dies in Brittany, Gilles de Retz or another, _I_ will
judge the case," commented Pierre de l'Hopital, President of Justice
and Grand Councillor of the reigning sovereign.