"Conjecture! What may that mean, monsieur?"
"Very frequently, sire, conjecture with regard to a particular subject implies a want of frankness on the part of the king--"
"Monsieur!"
"And a want of confidence on the part of the subject," pursued Athos, intrepidly.
"You forget yourself," said the king, hurried away by anger in spite of all his self-control.
"Sire, I am obliged to seek elsewhere for what I thought I should find in your majesty. Instead of obtaining a reply from you, I am compelled to make one for myself."
The king rose. "Monsieur le comte," he said, "I have now given you all the time I had at my disposal." This was a dismissal.
"Sire," replied the comte, "I have not yet had time to tell your majesty what I came with the express object of saying, and I so rarely see your majesty that I ought to avail myself of the opportunity."
"Just now you spoke rudely of conjectures; you are now becoming offensive, monsieur."
"Oh, sire! offend your majesty! I?--never! All my life through I have maintained that kings are above all other men, not only from their rank and power, but from their n.o.bleness of heart and their true dignity of mind. I never can bring myself to believe that my sovereign, he who pa.s.sed his word to me, did so with a mental reservation."
"What do you mean? what mental reservation do you allude to?"
"I will explain my meaning," said Athos, coldly. "If, in refusing Mademoiselle de la Valliere to Monsieur de Bragelonne, your majesty had some other object in view than the happiness and fortune of the vicomte--"
"You perceive, monsieur, that you are offending me."
"If, in requiring the vicomte to delay his marriage, your majesty"s only object was to remove the gentleman to whom Mademoiselle de la Valliere was engaged--"
"Monsieur! monsieur!"
"I have heard it said so in every direction, sire. Your majesty"s affection for Mademoiselle de la Valliere is spoken of on all sides."
The king tore his gloves, which he had been biting for some time. "Woe to those," he cried, "who interfere in my affairs. I have made up my mind to take a particular course, and I will break through every obstacle in my way."
"What obstacle?" said Athos.
The king stopped short, like a horse which, having taken the bit between his teeth and run away, finds it has slipped it back again, and that his career is checked. "I love Mademoiselle de la Valliere," he said suddenly, with mingled n.o.bleness of feeling and pa.s.sion.
"But," interrupted Athos, "that does not preclude your majesty from allowing M. de Bragelonne to marry Mademoiselle de la Valliere. The sacrifice is worthy of so great a monarch; it is fully merited by M. de Bragelonne, who has already rendered great service to your majesty, and who may well be regarded as a brave and worthy man. Your majesty, therefore, in renouncing the affection you entertain, offers a proof at once of generosity, grat.i.tude, and good policy."
"Mademoiselle de la Valliere does not love M. de Bragelonne," said the king, hoa.r.s.ely.
"Does your majesty know that to be the case?" remarked Athos, with a searching look.
"I do know it."
"Since a very short time, then; for doubtless, had your majesty known it when I first preferred my request, you would have taken the trouble to inform me of it."
"Since a very short time, it is true, monsieur."
Athos remained silent for a moment, and then resumed: "In that case, I do not understand why your majesty should have sent M. de Bragelonne to London. That exile, and most properly so, too, is a matter of astonishment to every one who regards your majesty"s honor with sincere affection."
"Who presumes to impugn my honor, Monsieur de la Fere?"
"The king"s honor, sire, is made up of the honor of his whole n.o.bility.
Whenever the king offends one of his gentlemen, that is, whenever he deprives him of the smallest particle of his honor, it is from him, from the king himself, that that portion of honor is stolen."
"Monsieur de la Fere!" said the king, haughtily.
"Sire, you sent M. de Bragelonne to London either before you were Mademoiselle de la Valliere"s lover, or since you have become so."
The king, irritated beyond measure, especially because he felt that he was being mastered, endeavored to dismiss Athos by a gesture.
"Sire," replied the comte, "I will tell you all; I will not leave your presence until I have been satisfied by your majesty or by myself; satisfied if you prove to me that you are right,--satisfied if I prove to you that you are wrong. Nay, sire, you can but listen to me. I am old now, and I am attached to everything that is really great and really powerful in your kingdom. I am of those who have shed their blood for your father and for yourself, without ever having asked a single favor either from yourself or from your father. I have never inflicted the slightest wrong or injury on any one in this world, and even kings are still my debtors. You can but listen to me, I repeat. I have come to ask you for an account of the honor of one of your servants whom you have deceived by a falsehood, or betrayed by want of heart of judgment. I know that these words irritate your majesty, but the facts themselves are killing us. I know that you are endeavoring to find some means whereby to chastise me for my frankness; but I know also the chastis.e.m.e.nt I will implore G.o.d to inflict upon you when I relate to Him your perjury and my son"s unhappiness."
The king during these remarks was walking hurriedly to and fro, his hand thrust into the breast of his coat, his head haughtily raised, his eyes blazing with wrath. "Monsieur," he cried, suddenly, "if I acted towards you as a king, you would be already punished; but I am only a man, and I have the right to love in this world every one who loves me,--a happiness which is so rarely found."
"You cannot pretend to such a right as a man any more than as a king, sire; or if you intend to exercise that right in a loyal manner, you should have told M. de Bragelonne so, and not have exiled him."
"It is too great a condescension, monsieur, to discuss these things with you," interrupted Louis XIV., with that majesty of air and manner he alone seemed able to give his look and his voice.
"I was hoping that you would reply to me," said the comte.
"You shall know my reply, monsieur."
"You already know my thoughts on the subject," was the Comte de la Fere"s answer.
"You have forgotten you are speaking to the king, monsieur. It is a crime."
"You have forgotten you are destroying the lives of two men, sire. It is a mortal sin."
"Leave the room!"
"Not until I have said this: "Son of Louis XIII., you begin your reign badly, for you begin it by abduction and disloyalty! My race--myself too--are now freed from all that affection and respect towards you, which I made my son swear to observe in the vaults of Saint-Denis, in the presence of the relics of your n.o.ble forefathers. You are now become our enemy, sire, and henceforth we have nothing to do save with Heaven alone, our sole master. Be warned, be warned, sire.""
"What! do you threaten?"
"Oh, no," said Athos, sadly, "I have as little bravado as fear in my soul. The G.o.d of whom I spoke to you is now listening to me; He knows that for the safety and honor of your crown I would even yet shed every drop of blood twenty years of civil and foreign warfare have left in my veins. I can well say, then, that I threaten the king as little as I threaten the man; but I tell you, sire, you lose two servants; for you have destroyed faith in the heart of the father, and love in the heart of the son; the one ceases to believe in the royal word, the other no longer believes in the loyalty of the man, or the purity of woman: the one is dead to every feeling of respect, the other to obedience. Adieu!"
Thus saying, Athos broke his sword across his knee, slowly placed the two pieces upon the floor, and saluting the king, who was almost choking from rage and shame, he quitted the cabinet. Louis, who sat near the table, completely overwhelmed, was several minutes before he could collect himself; but he suddenly rose and rang the bell violently. "Tell M. d"Artagnan to come here," he said to the terrified ushers.
Chapter LIX. After the Storm.
Our readers will doubtlessly have been asking themselves how it happened that Athos, of whom not a word has been said for some time past, arrived so very opportunely at court. We will, without delay, endeavor to satisfy their curiosity.
Porthos, faithful to his duty as an arranger of affairs, had, immediately after leaving the Palais Royal, set off to join Raoul at the Minimes in the Bois de Vincennes, and had related everything, even to the smallest details, which had pa.s.sed between Saint-Aignan and himself.
He finished by saying that the message which the king had sent to his favorite would probably not occasion more than a short delay, and that Saint-Aignan, as soon as he could leave the king, would not lose a moment in accepting the invitation Raoul had sent him.