John of Brittany threw down the little sceptre, fashioned in imitation of that made for the King of France, with which he had been toying.
The action was that of a pettish child.
"Oh," he cried, "if you have decided, there remains nothing for me but to obey!"
"I thank your Excellency for your gracious readiness to grant the men an interview," said Pierre de l"Hopital, having regard to the essential matter and disregarding the unessential manner.
Duke John sat glooming and kicking his feet to and fro on the raised dais, while behind his chair, impa.s.sive as the Grand Inquisitor himself, Pierre de l"Hopital, President of Brittany, lifted a hand to an unseen servitor; and in a few moments the three Scots were ushered into the ducal presence.
The Lord James in virtue of his quality stood a little in front, not by his own will or desire, but because Sholto and his father had so placed themselves that the young n.o.ble should have his own rightful precedence. For as to these things all Scots are careful by nature.
Duke John continued to keep his eyes averted from the men who sought his presence. He teased a little lop-eared spaniel, and nipped it till it yelped. But the President of Brittany never took his eyes off the strangers, examining them with a bold, keen, remorseless glance, in which, however, there was neither evil nor the tolerance of it. Not a man to make himself greatly beloved, this Pierre de l"Hopital.
And little he cared whether or no. In Brittany men did his will. That was enough.
James Douglas was nettled at the inattention of the Duke. He was of that large and sanguine nature which is at once easily touched by any discourtesy and very quick to resent it.
"My Lord of Brittany," he began in a loud clear voice, and in his usual immaculate French, "I claim your attention for a little. I come to lay before you that which touches your kin and kingdom."
Duke John continued to play with the lap-dog, and in addition he formed his mouth to whistle. But he never whistled.
"His Grace of Brittany will now give you his undivided attention,"
said the President from behind, without moving a muscle either of his body or of his face, save those necessary to propel the words from his vocal cords.
The brow of Duke John flushed with anger, but he did not disobey. He raised his head and gazed straight at the three men, fixing his eyes, however, with a studied discourtesy upon Sholto instead of upon their natural leader and spokesman.
Behind his chair Pierre de l"Hopital let his deep inscrutable eye droop once upon his master, and his spare and sinewy wrists twitched as he held his arms by his side. He seemed upon the point of dealing ducal dignity a box on the ear both sound and improving.
"I am the Lord James of Douglas and Avondale," said the leader of the Scots with grave dignity, "and I had three years ago the honour of breaking a lance with you in the tilt-yard of Poitiers, when in that town your Grace met with the King of France and the Duke of Burgundy."
At this John of Brittany looked up quickly.
"I do not remember you," he said, "and I never forget faces. Even Pierre will grant me that."
"Your Grace may possibly remember, then, the dint in your shoulder that you got from the point of a spear, caused by the breaking of the links of your shoulder-piece."
A light kindled in the Duke"s eyes.
"What," he cried, "you are the young Scot who fought so well and kept his shield up day by day over the door of a common sergeant"s tent, having no pavilion of his own, till it was all over dints like an alehouse tankard?"
"As were also the knights who dinted it," grimly commented Pierre de l"Hopital.
The Lord James of Avondale bowed.
"I am that knight," he said quietly and with gravity.
"But," cried the Duke, "I knew not then that you were of Douglas. That is a great name in Poitiers, and had we known your race and quality we had not been so ready with our shield-rapping."
"At that time," said James Douglas, "I had not the right to add "of Douglas" to my t.i.tles. But during this year my father hath succeeded to the Earldom and estates."
"What--then is your father Duke of Touraine?" cried the Duke of Brittany, much astonished.
"Nay, my lord," said James Douglas, with some little bitterness. "The King of France hath caused that to revert to himself by the success which attended a certain mission executed for him in Scotland by his Chamberlain, the Marshal de Retz, concerning whom we have come from far to speak with you."
"Ah, my cousin Gilles!" cried Duke John. "He is not a beauty to look at, but he is a brave man, our Gilles. I heard he had gone to Scotland. I wonder if he contrived to make himself as popular in your land as he has done in ours."
With a certain grave severity to which Pierre de l"Hopital nodded approval, the Lord James replied: "At the instigation of the King of France and Louis the Dauphin he succeeded in murdering my two cousins William and David of Douglas, and in carrying over hither with him to his own country their only sister, the little Countess of Galloway--thus rooting out the greatest house in Scotland to the hurt of the whole realm."
"But to your profit, my Lord James of Avondale," commented the hollow voice of Pierre de l"Hopital, speaking over his master"s head.
The face of James Douglas flushed quickly.
"No, messire," he answered with a swift heat. "Not to my profit--to my infinite loss. For I loved my cousin. I honoured him, and for his sake would have fought to the death. For his sake have I renounced my own father that begat me. And for his sake I stand here to ask for justice to the little maiden, the last of his race, to whom by right belongs the fairest province of his dominions. No, messire, you are wrong. In all this have I had no profit but only infinite hurt."
Pierre de l"Hopital bowed low. There was a pleased look on his face that almost amounted to a smile.
"I crave your pardon, my lord," he said; "that is well said indeed, and he is a gentleman who speaks it."
"Aye, it is indeed well said, and he had you shrewdly on the hip that time, Pierre," cried Duke John. "I wish he could teach me thus cleverly to answer you when you croak."
"If you had as good a cause, my lord," said the President of Brittany to the Duke, "it were not difficult to answer me as sharply. But we are keeping these gentlemen from declaring the purpose of their journey hither."
The Lord James waited for no further invitation.
"I come," he said boldly, holding a parchment in his hand, the same he had received from the Lady Sybilla, "to denounce Gilles de Retz and to accuse him of many cruel and unrighteous acts such as have never been done in any kingdom. I accuse him of the murder of over four hundred children of all ages and both s.e.xes in circ.u.mstances of unparalleled barbarity. I am ready to lead you to the places where lie their bodies, some of them burned and their ashes cast into the ditch, others charred and thrown into unused towers. I have here names, instances, evidence enough to taint and condemn a hundred monsters such as Gilles de Retz."
"Ah, give me the paper," came the raucous voice of the President of Brittany, as he reached a bony hand over his master"s shoulder to seize it.
The Lord James advanced, and giving it to him said, "Messire, I would have you know that a copy of this is already in the hands of a trusty person in each of the towns and villages which are named here, and from which children have been led to cruel death by him whom I have accused, Gilles de Retz, Marshal of France."
The President of Brittany nodded as he almost s.n.a.t.c.hed the paper in his eagerness to peruse it.
"The point is cleverly taken," he said, "as justly indeed as if you knew my Lord of Brittany as well as, for instance, I know him."
The Duke was obviously discomfited. He shuffled his feet more than ever on the dais and combed his straggling fair beard with soft, white, tapering fingers.
"This is wild and wholly absurd," he said, without however looking at James Douglas; "our cousin Gilles is in ill odour with the commonalty.
He is a philosopher and makes smells with bottles. But there is neither harm nor witchcraft in it. He is only trying to discover the elixir of life. So the silly folk think him a wizard. I know him better. He is a brave soldier and my good cousin. I will not have him molested."
"My lord speaks of kinship," grated the voice of Pierre de l"Hopital.
"Here are the names of four hundred fathers and mothers who have also a claim to be heard on that subject, and whose voices, if I judge right, are being heard at this moment around the Castles of Machecoul, Tiffauges, Champtoce, and Pouzages. I wot there is now a crowd of a thousand men pouring through the pa.s.sages of the Hotel de Suze in your Grace"s own ducal city of Nantes. And if there goes a bruit abroad, that your Highness is protecting this monster whom the people hate, and the evidences of whose horrid cruelty are by this time in their hands--well, your Grace knows the Bretons as well as I. They will make one end of Gilles de Retz and of his cousin John, Duke of Brittany."
"Think you so--think you so truly, Pierre?" cried the unhappy reigning prince; "I would not screen him if this be true. But the King--what of the King? They say he hath promised him support with arms and men for recovering to him and to Louis the Dauphin the Duchy of Touraine."
"And think you, my lord, that the Dauphin will keep his promise, if we show him good cause why he should fare better by breaking it?"
suggested Pierre de l"Hopital, with the grim irony which had become habitual to him.
John of Brittany paused irresolute.
"Besides which," continued James Douglas, "I may add that this paper is already in the hands of the Cardinal Bishop of Nantes, and if your Grace will not move in the matter, his Eminence has promised to see justice done."