"Augustus was a lawyer, Rene, and I am not."
"Sire, when my friend confided this secret to me, your majesty still belonged to the Calvinist party, of which you were the chief head, and of which Monsieur de Conde was the second."
"Well?" said Henry.
"This friend hoped that you would use your all-powerful influence over Monsieur de Conde and beg him not to be hostile to him."
"Explain this to me, Rene, if you wish me to understand it," said Henry, without betraying the least change in his face or voice.
"Sire, your majesty will understand at the first word. This friend knows all the particulars of the attempt to poison Monseigneur de Conde."
"There has been an attempt to poison the Prince de Conde?" exclaimed Henry with a well-a.s.sumed astonishment. "Ah, indeed, and when was this?"
Rene looked fixedly at the king, and replied merely by these words:
"A week ago, your majesty."
"Some enemy?" asked the king.
"Yes," replied Rene, "an enemy whom your majesty knows and who knows your majesty."
"As a matter of fact," said Henry, "I think I have heard this mentioned, but I am ignorant of the details which your friend has to reveal. Tell them to me."
"Well, a perfumed apple was offered to the Prince of Conde. Fortunately, however, when it was brought to him his physician was with him. He took it from the hands of the messenger and smelled it to test its odor and soundness. Two days later a gangrene swelling of the face, an extravasation of the blood, a running sore which ate away his face, were the price of his devotion or the result of his imprudence."
"Unfortunately," replied Henry, "being half Catholic already, I have lost all influence over Monsieur de Conde. Your friend was wrong, therefore, in addressing himself to me."
"It was not only in regard to the Prince de Conde that your majesty could be of use to my friend, but in regard to the Prince de Porcian also, the brother of the one who was poisoned."
"Ah!" exclaimed Charlotte, "do you know, Rene, that your stories partake of the gruesome? You plead at a poor time. It is late, your conversation is death-like. Really, your perfumes are worth more." Charlotte again extended her hand towards the opiate box.
"Madame," said Rene, "before testing that, as you are about to do, hear what cruel results wicked men can draw from it."
"Really, Rene," said the baroness, "you are funereal this evening."
Henry frowned, but he understood that Rene wished to reach a goal which he did not yet see, and he resolved to push towards this end the conversation which awakened in him such painful memories.
"And," he continued, "you knew the details of the poisoning of the Prince de Porcian?"
"Yes," said he. "It is known that every night he left a lamp burning near his bed; the oil was poisoned and he was asphyxiated."
Henry clinched his fingers, which were damp with perspiration.
"So," he murmured, "he whom you call your friend knows not only the details of the poisoning, but the author of it?"
"Yes, and it is for this reason that he wished to ask you if you would use over the Prince of Porcian the remains of that influence and have the murderer pardoned for the death of his brother."
"Unfortunately," replied Henry, "still being half Huguenot, I have no influence over Monsieur le Prince de Porcian; your friend therefore would have done wrong in speaking to me."
"But what do you think of the intentions of Monsieur le Prince de Conde and of Monsieur de Porcian?"
"How should I know their intentions, Rene? G.o.d, whom I may know, has not given me the privilege of reading their hearts."
"Your majesty must ask yourself," said the Florentine calmly. "Is there not in the life of your majesty some event so gloomy that it can serve as a test of clemency, so painful that it is a touchstone for generosity?"
These words were uttered in a tone which made Charlotte herself tremble.
It was an allusion so direct, so pointed, that the young woman turned aside to hide her blush, and to avoid meeting Henry"s eyes. Henry made a supreme effort over himself; his forehead, which during the words of the Florentine wore threatening lines, unbent, and he changed the dignified, filial grief which tightened his heart into vague meditation.
"In my life," said he, "a gloomy circ.u.mstance--no, Rene, no; I remember in my youth only folly and carelessness mingled with more or less cruel necessity imposed on every one by the demands of nature and the proofs of G.o.d."
Rene in turn became constrained as he glanced from Henry to Charlotte, as though to rouse the one and hold back the other; for Charlotte had returned to her toilet to hide the anxiety caused by their conversation, and had again extended her hand towards the opiate box.
"But, sire, if you were the brother of the Prince of Porcian or the son of the Prince of Conde, and if they had poisoned your brother or a.s.sa.s.sinated your father"--Charlotte uttered a slight cry and raised the opiate to her lips. Rene saw the gesture, but this time he stopped her neither by word nor gesture; he merely exclaimed:
"In Heaven"s name, sire, answer! Sire, if you were in their place what would you do?"
Henry recovered himself. With trembling hand he wiped his forehead, on which stood drops of cold perspiration, and rising to his full height, replied in the midst of the silence which until then had held Rene and Charlotte:
"If I were in their place, and if I were sure of being king, that is, sure of representing G.o.d on earth, I would act like G.o.d, I should pardon."
"Madame," cried Rene, s.n.a.t.c.hing the opiate from the hands of Madame de Sauve, "madame, give me back this box; my messenger boy, I see, has made a mistake in it. To-morrow I will send you another."
CHAPTER XXIII.
A NEW CONVERT.
The following day there was to be a hunt in the forest of Saint Germain.
Henry had ordered a small Bearnais horse to be made ready for him; that is, to be saddled and bridled at eight o"clock in the morning. He had intended giving this horse to Madame de Sauve, but he wanted to try it first. At a quarter before eight the horse was ready. On the stroke of eight Henry came down to the court-yard. The horse, proud and fiery in spite of its small size, p.r.i.c.ked up its ears and pawed the ground. The weather was cold and a light frost covered the pavement. Henry started to cross the court-yard to the stables where the horse and the groom were waiting, when a Swiss soldier whom he pa.s.sed standing sentinel at the gate presented arms and said:
"G.o.d keep his Majesty the King of Navarre."
At this wish and especially at the tone in which it was uttered the Bearnais started.
He turned and stepped back.
"De Mouy!" he murmured.
"Yes, sire, De Mouy."
"What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you."
"Why are you looking for me?"