"Come, have you nothing to say to me, M. de Boisrose?" I asked, quietly.
"You are a brave soldier, and have done France service; why then need you fear? The Baron de Rosny is one man, the king"s minister is another.
It is the latter who speaks to you now. The office of lieutenant-general of the ordnance in Normandy is empty. It is worth twelve thousand livres by the year. I appoint you to it."
He answered that I mocked him, and that he was going mad, so that it was long before I could persuade him that I was in earnest. When I at last succeeded, his grat.i.tude knew no bounds, and he thanked me again and again with the tears running down his face.
"What I have done for you," I said, modestly, "is the reward of your bravery. I ask only that you will not another time think that they who rule kingdoms are as those gay popinjays yonder."
In a transport of delight he reiterated his offers of service, and, feeling sure that I had now gained him completely, I asked him on a sudden where he had seen Louis d"Entragues before. In two words the truth came out. He had observed him on the previous day in conference at the forest inn with the three bullies whom I had remarked there. I was not surprised at this; D"Entragues"s near kinship to the Count of Auvergne, and the mingled feelings with which I knew that the family regarded Henry, preparing me to expect treachery in that quarter.
Moreover, the nature of the ambush was proof that its author resided in the neighbourhood and was intimately acquainted with the forest. I should have carried this information at once to my master, but I learned that he had already started, and thus baffled, and believing that his affection for Mademoiselle d"Entragues, if not for her sister, would lead him to act with undue leniency, I conceived and arranged a plan of my own.
About noon, therefore, I set out as if for a ride, attended by La Trape only, but at some distance from the palace we were joined by Boisrose, whom I had bidden to be at that point well armed and mounted. Thus reinforced, for the Gascon was still strong, and in courage a Grillon, I proceeded to Malesherbes by a circuitous route which brought me within sight of the gates about the middle of the afternoon. I then halted under cover of the trees, and waited until I saw the king, attended by several ladies and gentlemen, and followed by eight troopers, issue from the chateau. His Majesty was walking, his horse being led behind him; and seeing this I rode out and approached the party as if I had that moment arrived to meet the king.
It would not ill become me on this occasion to make some reflections on the hollowness of court life, which has seldom been better exemplified than in the scene before me. The sun was low, but its warm beams, falling aslant on the gaily dressed group at the gates and on the flowered terraces and gray walls behind them, seemed to present a picture at once peaceful and joyous. Yet I knew that treachery and death were lurking in the midst, and it was only by an effort that, as I rode up, I could make answer to the thousand obliging things with which I was greeted, and of which not the least polite were said by M. d"Entragues and his son. I took pains to observe Mademoiselle Susette, a beautiful girl not out of her teens, but noways comparable, as it seemed to me, in expression and vivacity, with her famous sister. She was walking beside the king, her hands full of flowers, and her face flushed with excitement and timidity, and I came quickly to the conclusion that she knew nothing of what was intended by her family, who, having made the one sister the means of gratifying their avarice, were now baiting the trap of their revenge with the other.
Henry parted from her at length, and mounted his horse amid a ripple of laughter and compliments, D"Entragues holding the stirrup and his son the cloak. I observed that the latter, as I had expected, was prepared to accompany us, which rendered my plan more feasible. Our road lay for a league in the direction of the Rock of the Serpents, the track which pa.s.sed the latter presently diverging from it. For some distance we rode along in easy talk, but, on approaching the point of separation, the king looked at me with a whimsical air, as though he would lay on me the burden of finding an excuse for avoiding the shorter way home. I had foreseen this, and looked round to ascertain the position of our company. I found that La Varenne and D"Entragues were close behind us, while the troopers, with La Trape and Boisrose, were a hundred paces farther to the rear, and Vitry and Coquet had dropped out of sight. This being so, I suddenly reined in my horse so as to back it into that of D"Entragues, and then wheeled round on the latter, taking care to be between him and the king.
"M. Louis d"Entragues," I said, dropping the mask and addressing him with all the scorn and detestation which I felt, and which he deserved, "your plot is discovered! If you would save your life confess to his Majesty here and now all you know, and throw yourself on his mercy!"
I confess that I had failed to take into account the pitch to which his nerves would be strung at such a time, and had expected to produce a greater effect than followed my words. His hand went indeed to his breast, but it was hard to say which was the more discomposed, La Varenne or he. And the manner in which, with scorn and defiance, he flung back my accusation in my teeth, lacked neither vigour nor the semblance of innocence. While Henry was puzzled, La Varenne was appalled. I saw that I had gone too far, or not far enough, and at once calling into my face and form all the sternness in my power, I bade the traitor remain where he was, then turning to his Majesty I craved leave to speak to him apart.
He hesitated, looking from me to D"Entragues with an air of displeasure which embraced us both, but in the end, without permitting M. Louis to speak, he complied, and, going aside with me, bade me, with coldness, speak out.
As soon, however, as I had repeated to him Boisrose"s words, his face underwent a change, for he, too, had remarked the discomfiture which the latter"s appearance had caused D"Entragues in the morning.
"Ha! the villain!" he said. "I do not now think you precipitate. Arrest him at once, but do him no harm!"
"If he resist, sire?" I asked.
"He will not," the king answered. "And in no case harm him! You understand me?"
I bowed, having my own thoughts on the subject, and the king, without looking again at D"Entragues, rode quickly away. M. Louis tried to follow, and cried loudly after him, but I thrust my horse in the way, and bade him consider himself a prisoner; at the same time requesting La Varenne, with Vitry and Coquet, who had come up and were looking on like men thunderstruck, to take four of the guards and follow the king.
"Then, sir, what do you intend to do with me?" D"Entragues asked, the air of fierceness with which he looked from me to the six men who remained barely disguising his apprehensions.
"That depends, M. Louis," I replied, recurring to my usual tone of politeness, "on your answers to three questions."
He shrugged his shoulders. "Ask them," he said, curtly.
"Do you deny that you have laid an ambush for the king on the road which pa.s.ses the Rock of the Serpents?"
"Absolutely."
"Or that you were yesterday at an inn near here in converse with three men?"
"Absolutely."
"Do you deny that there is such an ambush laid?"
"Absolutely," he repeated, with scorn. "It is an old wives" story. I would stake my life on it."
"Enough," I answered, slowly. "You have been your own judge. The evening grows cold, and as you are my prisoner I must have a care of you.
Kindly put on this cloak and precede me, M. d"Entragues. We return to Fontainebleau by the Rock of the Serpents."
His eyes meeting mine, it seemed to me that for a second he held his breath and hesitated, while a cold shadow fell and dwelt upon his sallow face. But the stern, gloomy countenances of La Trape and Boisrose, who had ridden up to his rein, and were awaiting his answer with their swords drawn, determined him. With a loud laugh he took the cloak. "It is new, I hope?" he said, lightly, as he threw it over his shoulders.
It was not, and I apologised, adding, however, that no one but the king had worn it. On this he settled it about him; and having heard me strictly charge the two guards who followed with their arquebuses ready, to fire on him should he try to escape, he turned his horse"s head into the path and rode slowly along it, while we followed a few paces behind in double file.
The sun had set, and such light as remained fell cold and gray between the trees. The crackling of a stick under a horse"s hoof, or the ring of a spur against a scabbard, were the only sounds which broke the stillness of the wood as we proceeded. We had gone some little way when M. Louis halted, and, turning in his saddle, called to me.
"M. de Rosny," he said,--the light had so far failed that I could scarcely see his face,--"I have a meeting with the Viscount de Caylus on Sat.u.r.day about a little matter of a lady"s glove. Should anything prevent my appearance--"
"I will see that a proper explanation is given," I answered, bowing.
"Or if M. d"Entragues will permit me," eagerly exclaimed the Gascon, who was riding by my side, "M. de Boisrose of St. Palais, gently born, through before unknown to him, I will appear in his place and make the Viscount de Caylus swallow the glove."
"You will?" said M. Louis, with politeness. "You are a gentleman. I am obliged to you."
He waved his hand with a gesture which I afterward well remembered, and, giving his horse the rein, went forward along the path at a brisk walk.
We followed, and I had just remarked that a plant of box was beginning here and there to take the place of the usual undergrowth, when a sheet of flame seemed to leap out through the dusk to meet him, and, his horse rearing wildly, he fell headlong from the saddle without word or cry.
My men would have sprung forward before the noise of the report had died away, and might possibly have overtaken one or more of the a.s.sa.s.sins; but I restrained them. When La Trape dismounted and raised the fallen man, the latter was dead.
Such were the circ.u.mstances, now for the first time made public, which attended the discovery of this, the least known, yet one of the most dangerous, of the many plots which were directed against the life of my master. The course which I adopted may be blamed by some, but it is enough for me that after the lapse of years it is approved by my conscience and by the course of events. For it was ever the misfortune of that great king to treat those with leniency whom no indulgence could win; and I bear with me to this day the bitter a.s.surance that, had the fate which overtook Louis d"Entragues embraced the whole of that family, the blow which ten years later cut short Henry"s career would never have been struck.