He lost his temper at that. "Then why, in the devil"s name, have you troubled me with the matter?" he cried savagely. "G.o.d knows--I don"t--why Rosny employed such a man and such a woman. He might have seen from the cut of your cloak, sir, which is full six months behind the fashion, that you could not manage a woman! Was ever such d.a.m.nable folly heard of in this world? But it is Navarre"s loss, not mine. It is his loss. And I hope to Heaven it may be yours too!" he added fiercely.
There was so much in what he said that I bent before the storm, and accepted with humility blame which was as natural on his part as it was undeserved on mine. Indeed I could not wonder at his Majesty"s anger; nor should I have wondered at it in a greater man. I knew that but for reasons, on which I did not wish to dwell, I should have shared it to the full, and spoken quite as strongly of the caprice which ruined hopes and lives for a whim.
The king continued for some time to say to me all the hard things he could think of. Wearied at last by my patience, he paused, and cried angrily. "Well, have you nothing to say for yourself? Can you suggest nothing?"
"I dare not mention to your Majesty," I said humbly, "what seems to me to be the only alternative."
"You mean that I should go to the wench!" he answered--for he did not lack quickness. ""_Se no va el otero a Mahoma, vaya Mahoma al otero_,"
as Mendoza says. But the saucy quean, to force me to go to her! Did my wife guess--but there, I will go. By G.o.d I will go!" he added abruptly and fiercely. "I will live to ruin Retz yet! Where is your lodging?"
I told him, wondering much at this flash of the old spirit, which twenty years before had won him a reputation his later life did nothing to sustain.
"Do you know," he asked, speaking with sustained energy and clearness, "the door by which M. de Rosny entered to talk with me? Can you find it in the dark?"
"Yes, sire," I answered, my heart beating high.
"Then be in waiting there two hours before midnight," he replied. "Be well armed, but alone. I shall know how to make the girl speak. I can trust you, I suppose?" he added suddenly, stepping nearer to me and looking fixedly into my eyes.
"I will answer for your Majesty"s life with my own," I replied, sinking on one knee.
"I believe you, sir," he answered gravely, giving me his hand to kiss, and then turning away. "So be it. Now leave me. You have been here too long already. Not a word to any one as you value your life."
I made fitting answer and was leaving him; but when I had my hand already on the curtain, he called me back. "In Heaven"s name get a new cloak!" he said peevishly, eyeing me all over with his face puckered up. "Get a new cloak, man, the first thing in the morning. It is worse seen from the side than the front. It would ruin the cleverest courtier of them all!"
CHAPTER XXIV.
A ROYAL PERIL.
The elation with which I had heard the king announce his resolution quickly diminished on cooler reflection. It stood in particular at a very low ebb as I waited, an hour later, at the little north postern of the Castle, and, cowering within the shelter of the arch to escape the wind, debated whether his Majesty"s energy would sustain him to the point of action, or whether he might not, in one of those fits of treacherous vacillation which had again and again marred his plans, send those to keep the appointment who would give a final account of me. The longer I considered his character the more dubious I grew. The loneliness of the situation, the darkness, the black front, unbroken by any glimmer of light, which the Castle presented on this side, and the unusual and gloomy stillness which lay upon the town, all contributed to increase my uneasiness. It was with apprehension as well as relief that I caught at last the sound of footsteps on the stone staircase, and, standing a little to one side, saw a streak of light appear at the foot of the door.
On the latter being partially opened a voice cried my name. I advanced with caution and showed myself. A brief conversation ensued between two or three persons who stood within; but in the end, a masked figure, which I had no difficulty in identifying as the king, stepped briskly out.
"You are armed?" he said, pausing a second opposite me.
I put back my cloak and showed him, by the light which streamed from the doorway, that I carried pistols as well as a sword.
"Good!" he answered briefly; "then let us go. Do you walk on my left hand, my friend. It is a dark night, is it not?"
"Very dark, sire," I said.
He made no answer to this, and we started, proceeding with caution until we had crossed the narrow bridge, and then with greater freedom and at a better pace. The slenderness of the attendance at Court that evening, and the cold wind, which swept even the narrowest streets and drove roisterers indoors, rendered it unlikely that we should be stopped or molested by any except professed thieves; and for these I was prepared. The king showed no inclination to talk; and keeping silence myself out of respect, I had time to calculate the chances and to consider whether his Majesty would succeed where I had failed.
This calculation, which was not inconsistent with the keenest watchfulness on my part whenever we turned a corner or pa.s.sed the mouth of an alley, was brought to an end by our safe arrival at the house. Briefly apologising to the king for the meanness and darkness of the staircase, I begged leave to precede him, and rapidly mounted until I met Maignan. Whispering to him that all was well, I did not wait to hear his answer, but, bidding him be on the watch, I led the king on with as much deference as was possible until we stood at the door of mademoiselle"s apartment, which I have elsewhere stated to consist of an outer and inner room. The door was opened by Simon Fleix, and him I promptly sent out. Then, standing aside and uncovering, I begged the king to enter.
He did so, still wearing his hat and mask, and I followed and secured the door. A lamp hanging from the ceiling diffused an imperfect light through the room, which was smaller but more comfortable in appearance than that which I rented overhead. I observed that Fanchette, whose harsh countenance looked more forbidding than usual, occupied a stool which she had set in a strange fashion against the inner door; but I thought no more of this at the moment, my attention pa.s.sing quickly to mademoiselle, who sat crouching before the fire, enveloped in a large outdoor cloak, as if she felt the cold. Her back was towards us, and she was, or pretended to be, still ignorant of our presence. With a muttered word I pointed her out to the king, and went towards her with him.
"Mademoiselle," I said in a low voice, "Mademoiselle de la Vire! I have the honour----"
She would not turn, and I stopped. Clearly she heard, but she betrayed that she did so only by drawing her cloak more closely round her.
Primed by my respect for the king, I touched her lightly on the shoulder. "Mademoiselle!" I said impatiently, "you are not aware of it, but----"
She shook herself free from my hand with so rude a gesture that I broke off, and stood gaping foolishly at her. The king smiled, and nodding to me to step back a pace, took the task on himself.
"Mademoiselle," he said with dignity, "I am not accustomed----"
His voice had a magical effect. Before he could add another word she sprang up as if she had been struck, and faced us, a cry of alarm on her lips. Simultaneously we both cried out too, for it was not mademoiselle at all. The woman who confronted us, her hand on her mask, her eyes glittering through the slits, was of a taller and fuller figure. We stared at her. Then a lock of bright golden hair which had escaped from the hood of her cloak gave us the clue.
"Madame!" the king cried.
"Madame de Bruhl!" I echoed, my astonishment greater than his.
Seeing herself known, she began with trembling fingers to undo the fastenings of her mask; but the king, who had hitherto displayed a trustfulness I had not expected in him, had taken alarm at sight of her, as at a thing unlocked for, and of which I had not warned him.
"How is this?" he said harshly, drawing back a pace from her and regarding me with anger and distrust. "Is this some pretty arrangement of yours, sir? Am I an intruder at an a.s.signation, or is this a trap with M. de Bruhl in the background? Answer, sirrah!" he continued, working himself rapidly into a pa.s.sion. "Which am I to understand is the case?"
"Neither, sire," I answered with as much dignity as I could a.s.sume, utterly surprised and mystified as I was by Madame"s presence. "Your Majesty wrongs Madame de Bruhl as much by the one suspicion as you injure me by the other. I am equally in the dark with you, sire, and as little expected to see madame here."
"I came, sire," she said proudly, addressing herself to the king, and ignoring me, "out of no love to M. de Marsac, but as any person bearing a message to him might come. Nor can you, sire," she added with spirit, "feel half as much surprise at seeing me here, as I at seeing your Majesty."
"I can believe that," the king answered drily. "I would you had not seen me."
"The King of France is seen only when he chooses," she replied, curtseying to the ground.
"Good," he answered. "Let it be so, and you will oblige the King of France, madame. But enough," he continued, turning from her to me; "since this is not the lady I came to see, M. de Marsac, where is she?"
"In the inner room, sire, I opine," I said, advancing to Fanchette with more misgiving at heart than my manner evinced. "Your mistress is here, is she not?" I continued, addressing the woman sharply.
"Ay, and will not come out," she rejoined, st.u.r.dily keeping her place.
"Nonsense!" I said. "Tell her----"
"You may tell her what you please," she replied, refusing to budge an inch. "She can hear."
"But, woman!" I cried impatiently, "you do not understand. I _must_ speak with her. I must speak with her at once! On business of the highest importance."
"As you please," she said rudely, still keeping her seat. "I have told you you can speak."
Perhaps I felt as foolish on this occasion as ever in my life; and surely never was man placed in a more ridiculous position. After overcoming numberless obstacles, and escaping as many perils, I had brought the king here, a feat beyond my highest hopes--only to be baffled and defeated by a waiting-woman! I stood irresolute; witless and confused; while the king waited half angry and half amused, and madame kept her place by the entrance, to which she had retreated.
I was delivered from my dilemma by the curiosity which is, providentially perhaps, a part of woman"s character, and which led mademoiselle to interfere herself. Keenly on the watch inside, she had heard part of what pa.s.sed between us, and been rendered inquisitive by the sound of a strange man"s voice, and by the deference which she could discern I paid to the visitor. At this moment, she cried out, accordingly, to know who was there; and Fanchette, seeming to take this as a command, rose and dragged her stool aside, saying peevishly and without any increase of respect, "There, I told you she could hear."
"Who is it?" mademoiselle asked again, in a raised voice.
I was about to answer when the king signed to me to stand back, and, advancing himself, knocked gently on the door. "Open, I pray you, mademoiselle," he said courteously.
"Who is there?" she cried again, her voice trembling.
"It is I, the king," he answered softly; but in that tone of majesty which belongs not to the man, but to the descendant, and seems to be the outcome of centuries of command.