"Ah! To-night, I have a rendezvous in a mysterious house of the Faubourg St. Antoine."
"Ah! ah!" said D"Epernon, "is the Queen Margot here, incognito, M. de Bussy?"
"No, it is some one else."
"Who expects you in the Faubourg St. Antoine?"
"Just so, indeed I will ask your advice, M. de Quelus."
"Do so, although I am not a lawyer, I give very good advice."
"They say the streets of Paris are unsafe, and that is a lonely place. Which way do you counsel me to take?"
"Why, I advise you to take the ferry-boat at the Pre-aux-Clercs, get out at the corner, and follow the quay until you arrive at the great Chatelet, and then go through the Rue de la Tixanderie, until you reach the faubourg. Once at the corner of the Rue St.
Antoine, if you pa.s.s the Hotel des Tournelles without accident, it is probable you will arrive safe and sound at your mysterious house."
"Thanks for your route, M. de Quelus, I shall be sure to follow it." And saluting the five friends, he went away.
As Bussy was crossing the last saloon where Madame de St. Luc was, her husband made a sign to her. She understood at once, and going up, stopped him.
"Oh! M. de Bussy," said she, "everyone is talking of a sonnet you have made."
"Against the king, madame?"
"No, in honor of the queen; do tell it to me."
"Willingly, madame," and, offering his arm to her, he went off, repeating it.
During this time, St. Luc drew softly near his friends, and heard Quelus say:
"The animal will not be difficult to follow; thus then, at the corner of the Hotel des Tournelles, opposite the Hotel St. Pol."
"With each a lackey?" asked D"Epernon.
"No, no, Nogaret, let us be alone, and keep our own secret, and do our own work. I hate him, but he is too much a gentleman for a lackey to touch."
"Shall we go out all six together?"
"All five if you please," said St. Luc.
"Ah! it is true, we forgot your wife."
They heard the king"s voice calling St. Luc.
"Gentlemen," said he, "the king calls me. Good sport, au revoir."
And he left them, but instead of going straight to the king, he ran to where Bussy stood with his wife.
"Ah! monsieur, how hurried you seem," said Bussy. "Are you going also to join the chase; it would be a proof of your courage, but not of your gallantry."
"Monsieur, I was seeking you."
"Really."
"And I was afraid you were gone. Dear Jeanne, tell your father to try and stop the king, whilst I say a few words tete-a-tete to M. Bussy." Jeanne went.
"I wish to say to you, monsieur," continued St. Luc, "that if you have any rendezvous to-night, you would do well to put it off, for the streets are not safe, and, above all, to avoid the Hotel des Tournelles, where there is a place where several men could hide. This is what I wished to say; I know you fear nothing, but reflect."
At this moment they heard Chicot"s voice crying, "St. Luc, St.
Luc, do not hide yourself, I am waiting for you to return to the Louvre."
"Here I am, sire," cried St. Luc, rushing forward. Near Chicot stood the king, to whom one page was giving his ermine mantle, and another a velvet mask lined with satin.
"Sire," said St. Luc, "I will have the honor of lighting your majesties to your litters."
"No," said Henri, "Chicot goes one way, and I another. My friends are good-for-nothings, who have run away and left me to return alone to the Louvre. I had counted on them, and you cannot let me go alone. You are a grave married man, and must take me back to the queen. Come, my friend, my litter is large enough for two."
Madame de St. Luc, who had heard this, tried to speak, and to tell her father that the king was carrying away her husband, but he, placing his fingers on his month, motioned her to be silent.
"I am ready, sire," said he, "to follow you."
When the king took leave, the others followed, and Jeanne was left alone. She entered her room, and knelt down before the image of a saint to pray, then sat down to wait for her husband"s return.
M. de Brissac sent six men to the Louvre to attend him back. But two hours after one of them returned, saying, that the Louvre was closed and that before closing, the captain of the watch had said, "It is useless to wait longer, no one will leave the Louvre to-night; his majesty is in bed."
The marshal carried this news to his daughter.
CHAPTER II.
HOW IT IS NOT ALWAYS HE WHO OPENS THE DOOR, WHO ENTERS THE HOUSE.
The Porte St. Antoine was a kind of vault in stone, similar to our present Porte St. Denis, only it was attached by its left side to buildings adjacent to the Bastile. The s.p.a.ce at the right, between the gate and the Hotel des Tournelles, was large and dark, little frequented by day, and quite solitary at night, for all pa.s.sers-by took the side next to the fortress, so as to be in some degree under the protection of the sentinel. Of course, winter nights were still more feared than summer ones.
That on which the events which we have recounted, and are about to recount took place, was cold and black. Before the gate on the side of the city, was no house, but only high walls, those of the church of St. Paul, and of the Hotel des Tournelles. At the end of this wall was the niche of which St. Luc had spoken to Bussy. No lamps lighted this part of Paris at that epoch.
In the nights when the moon charged herself with the lighting of the earth, the Bastile rose somber and majestic against the starry blue of the skies, but on dark nights, there seemed only a thickening of the shadows where it stood. On the night in question, a practised eye might have detected in the angle of the wall of the Tournelles several black shades, which moved enough to show that they belonged to poor devils of human bodies, who seemed to find it difficult to preserve their natural warmth as they.
stood there. The sentinel from the Bastile; who could not see them on account of the darkness, could not hear them either, for they talked almost in whispers. However, the conversation did not want interest.
"This Bussy was right," said one; "it is a night such as we had at Warsaw, when Henri was King of Poland, and if this continues we shall freeze."
"Come, Maugiron, you complain like a woman," replied another: "it is not warm, I confess; but draw your mantle over your eyes, and put your hands in your pockets, and you will not feel it."
"Really, Schomberg," said a third, "it is easy to see you are German. As for me, my lips bleed, and my mustachios are stiff with ice."
"It is my hands," said a fourth; "on my honor, I would not swear I had any."
"You should have taken your mamma"s m.u.f.f, poor Quelus," said Schomberg.