The burly rascal saluted the mounted gentleman, saying, in a coa.r.s.e, strident voice:
"At your service, M. le Vicomte de Berquin."
"Know your place, Barbemouche!" was the quick reply. "I am talking with a gentleman."
Then I remembered the morning after my flight from Paris, seven years before. Montignac"s reckless-looking companion had been the gay gentleman going north, at whom I had looked from an inn shed. The other was the man who had afterwards chased me southward at the behest of the Duke of Guise. But he no longer wore on his hat the white cross of Lorraine, and the Vicomte de Berquin"s apparel was no longer gay and spotless. The two had doubtless fallen on hard ways. Both showed the marks of reverses and hard drinking. Barbemouche"s sword was, manifestly, no longer in the pay of the Duke of Guise, but was ready to serve the first bidder.
Barbemouche shrugged his shoulders at De Berquin"s reproof, and led his three sorry-looking companions to a bench in front of the inn, where they searched their pockets for coin before venturing to cross the threshold.
Montignac now pointed to the inn, spoke a few last earnest words to Berquin, handed the latter a few gold pieces, cast at him a threatening look at parting, and galloped off to rejoin M. de la Chatre, whose cavalcade was now out of our sight. De Berquin gave him an ironical bow, kissed the gold pieces before pocketing them, dismounted, and entered the inn, replying only with a laugh to the supplicating looks of the moneyless Barbemouche and his hungry-looking comrades on the bench.
"Now I wonder what in the devil"s name the governor"s secretary was saying to that man?" growled Blaise Tripault.
For reply, I gave a look which reflected the surmise that I saw in Blaise"s own eyes.
"Well," I said, "if it be that, the Vicomte de Berquin will be a vastly ingenious gentleman if he can either find our hiding-place, or delude me away from my men. To think that they should have chosen the first mercenary wretch they met on their way! Yet doubtless the perspicacious Montignac knows his man."
"The secretary pointed to this inn as if he were telling him that you were here," observed Blaise, meditatively.
"But inasmuch as the secretary does not know that I am here," said I, "his pointing to the inn could not have accompanied that information. He was doubtless advising his friend to begin his enterprise with a hearty meal, which was very good advice. And now, as this Vicomte de Berquin does not know me by sight, let us go down and make his acquaintance.
Remember that you are the master, and make a better pretence of it than you have usually made."
"I pretend the master no worse than you pretend the servant," muttered Blaise, while I opened the door of our chamber. A moment later we were descending the stairs leading to the kitchen.
An unexpected sight met our eyes. M. de Berquin stood with his back to a rear door, his arms extended, as if to prevent the departure of the lady, who stood facing him, in the att.i.tude of shrinking back from him. She still wore her mask. Beside her stood her maid, who darted looks of indignation at the smiling De Berquin. These three were the only ones in the kitchen.
"I do not know you, monsieur!" the lady was saying, in a low voice of great beauty.
"Death of my life! But you shall know me, mademoiselle," replied De Berquin, who had not noticed the entrance of myself and Blaise; "for I intend to guard you from harm on the rest of your journey, whether you will or not!"
Blaise shot at me a glance of interrogation. To keep up our a.s.sumed characters, it was for him, not me, to interfere in behalf of this lady; yet he dared not act without secret direction from me. But I forgot our pretence and hastened forward, my hand on my sword-hilt.
"I fear monsieur is annoying mademoiselle," I said, gently, a.s.suming that De Berquin had been correct in addressing her as mademoiselle.
Startled at the voice of a newcomer, the three turned and looked at me in surprise. Blaise, at a loss as to what he ought to do, remained in the background.
"But," I added, "monsieur will not do so again for the present."
De Berquin took me in at a glance, and, deceived by my dress, said carelessly, "Go to the devil!" Then, turning from me to Blaise, as one turns from an inferior to an equal, he remarked:
"You have a most impudent servant, monsieur!"
Blaise, embarra.s.sed by the situation, and conscious that the curious eyes of the lady and the maid were upon him, could only shrug his shoulders in reply. The maid, whom he had so much admired, turned to her mistress with a look of astonishment at his seeming indifference. Seeing this, Blaise became very red in the face.
It was I who answered De Berquin, and with the words:
"And your servant, if you have one, has a most impudent master."
De Berquin turned pale with rage at the insulting allusion to his somewhat indigent appearance.
"Your master shall answer for your impertinence!" he cried, drawing his sword and making for Blaise.
In an instant my own sword was out, and I was barring his way.
"Let _us_ argue the matter, monsieur!" said I.
"_Peste_!" he hissed. "I fight not lackeys!"
"You will fight _me_," I said, "or leave the presence of this lady at once!"
Impelled by uncontrollable wrath, he thrust at me furiously. With a timely twist, I sent his sword flying from his hand to the door. I motioned him to follow it.
Completely astonished, he obeyed my gesture, went and picked up his sword, opened the door, and then turned to Blaise and spoke these words, in a voice that trembled with rage:
"Monsieur, since you let your menial handle your sword for you, I cannot hope for satisfaction. But though I am no great prophet, I can predict that both you and your cur shall yet feel the foot of _my_ lackey on your necks. And, mademoiselle," he added, removing his look to the lady, "this is not the end of it with you!"
With which parting threats, he strode out of the inn, closing the door after him.
Blaise, deprived by his false position of the power of speech, stood with frowning brow and puffed-out cheeks, nervously clutching at his sword-hilt. The lady and her maid looked at him with curiosity, as if a gentleman who would stand idly and speechlessly by, while his servant resented an insult to a lady, was a strange being, to be viewed with wonder.
"Mademoiselle," said I, laying my sword on a table, "heaven is kind to me in having led me where I might have the joy of serving you."
The lady, whose musical voice had the sound of sadness in it, answered with the graciousness warranted by the occasion:
"My good man, your sword lifts you above your degree, even," and here she glanced at Blaise, and continued in a tone of irrepressible contempt, "as the tameness of some gentlemen lowers them beneath theirs."
Blaise, from whose nature tameness was the attribute farthest removed, looked first at the lady, in helpless bewilderment, then at me, with mute reproach for having placed him in his ridiculous position, and lastly at the maid, who regarded him with open derision. To be laughed at by this piquant creature, to whose charms he had been so speedily susceptible, was the crowning misery. His expression of woe was such that I could not easily retain my own serious and respectful countenance.
Having to make some answer to the lady, I said:
"An opportunity to defend so fair a lady would elevate the most ign.o.ble."
The lady, not being accustomed to exchanging compliments with a man-servant, went to her maid and talked with her in whispers, the two both gazing at Blaise with expressions of mirth.
Blaise strode to my side with an awkwardness quite new to him. His face was in a violent perspiration.
"The devil!" he whispered. "How they laugh at me! Won"t you explain?"
"Impossible!"
"I object to being taken for a calf," said Blaise, ready to burst with anger. Then, suddenly reaching the limit of his endurance, he faced the lady and blurted out:
"Mademoiselle, I would have run your pursuer through quickly enough, but I dared not rob my master--"
I coughed a warning against his betraying us. He hesitated, then despairingly added, in a voice of resignation:
"--my master, the King, of a single stroke of this sword, which I have devoted entirely to his service."
"I do not doubt," said the lady, with cold irony, "that your sword is active enough when drawn in the service of your King."