"Gabrielle, Gabrielle Diane de Brissac, Montbazon that was, it has been a long chase. Offer me your congratulations. "Twas I who made you so charming a widow. That grey cloak! It has played the very devil with us all. The tailor who made it must have sprinkled it with the devil"s holy water. I wanted only that paper, but the old fool made me fight for it. Monsieur, but for me you would still have lorded it in France.
"Twas the cloak that brought you to Roch.e.l.le, induced your paternal parent to declare your illegitimacy, made you wind up the night by flaunting abroad your spotted ticket."
"I am waiting for you," suggested the Chevalier.
"Presently. But what a fine comedy it has been! My faith, it was your poet who had the instinct. Somehow he saw vaguely through the screen, but he could not join the separate parts. It was all droll, my word for it, when I paid you those fifty pistoles that night. But see!
those who stand in my path go out of it one by one; De Brissac, D"Herouville, and now comes your turn. D"Herouville planned it well; but it is the old story of the monkey and the cat and the chestnuts in the fire. You shall wear a crown of agony, Chevalier. The waiting has been worth while. We shall not kill you; we shall only crucify your heart . . . by the way of possessing madame."
"Over my body!" The Chevalier cared nothing for these vile insults.
He knew the history of his birth; he knew that he was Madame la Marquise"s son. He refused to allow these taunts to affect his calm as the vicomte had hoped they would. If he pa.s.sed through this crisis, he would tell madame the truth. . . . De Brissac! A blur swept across his eyes, and for a moment his hand shook. De Brissac, De Montbazon!
It came to him now, the truth of all this coquetry, this fast and loose, this dangling of promises: the vengeance of a woman"s vanity.
The irony of this moment, the stinging, bitter irony!
The vicomte never knew how close victory was to him in that moment.
"Monsieur le Comte," said madame, "fight bravely, and G.o.d be with you.
As for me, be easy; Monsieur le Vicomte will not so much as put a finger on me while I live." She drew a knife from the bosom of her blouse and held it in her hand significantly.
"Half the victory gone already, Vicomte!" cried the Chevalier. Madame had addressed him as "Monsieur le Comte."
"Do not disfigure your beauty, Madame; I desire that," was the vicomte"s mocking retort. "Now, my friends, if you all would see _la belle France_ again! But mind; the man who strikes the Chevalier a fatal blow shall by my own hand peg out."
In a twinkling of an eye the bright tongues of steel met, flashed, sparkled, ground upon each other, pressed and beat down. As the full horror of the situation came to her, madame saw the figures reel, and there were strangling sensations in her throat and bubbling noises in her ears. The knife slipped from her fingers. She rocked on her knees, sobbing. The power to pray had gone; she could only watch, watch, watch. Ah G.o.d! if he should die before her eyes! Her hands rose from her bosom and pressed against her cheeks. Dimly she could hear the gonk-gonk of flying water-fowl: that murder should be done in so fair a place!
The unequal duel went on. Presently The Fox stepped back, his arm gashed. He cursed and took up his sword with his left hand. They tried to lure the Chevalier from his vantage point; but he took no step, forward or backward. He was like a wall. The old song of battle hummed in his ears. Would that Victor were here. It would be a good fight.
"These Perignys are living sword blades," murmured the vicomte. "Come, come; this must end."
They were all hardy men, the blood was rich, the eye keen, the wrist sure; but they could not break down the Chevalier"s guard. They knew that in time they must wear him out, but time was very precious to the vicomte. The Chevalier"s point laid open the rascal"s cheek, it ripped open Fremin"s forehead, it slid along Pauquet"s hand. A cold smile grew upon the Chevalier"s lips and remained there. They could not reach him. There was no room for four blades, and soon the vicomte realized this.
"Satan of h.e.l.l, back, three of you! We can gain nothing this way. Let me have him alone for a while."
The vicomte"s allies drew away, not unreluctantly; and the two engaged.
Back a little, then forward a little, lunging, parrying, always that strange, nerve-racking noise of grating steel. It seemed to madame that she must eventually go mad. The vicomte tried all the tricks at his command, but to no avail; he could make no impression on the man in the doorway. Indeed, the vicomte narrowly escaped death three or four different times. The corporal, alive to the shade of advantage which the Chevalier was gaining and to the disaster which would result from the vicomte"s defeat, crept slowly up from the side. Madame saw him; but her cry of warning turned into a moan of horror. It was all over.
The Chevalier lay motionless on the ground, the blood trickling from a ragged cut above the temple. The corporal had used the hilt of his heavy sword, and no small power had forced the blow.
The vicomte sprang forward just as madame was groping for the knife.
He put his foot on it, laughing.
"Not at present, Madame; later, if you are inclined that way. That was well done, Corporal."
The vicomte bound the Chevalier"s hands and ankles securely and took the dripping hat from Pauquet, dashing the contents into the Chevalier"s face.
"Help me set him up against the wall."
The Chevalier shuddered, and by and by opened his eyes. The world came back to him. He looked at his enemies calmly.
"Well?" he said. He would waste no breath asking for mercy. There was no mercy here.
"You shall be left where you are, Monsieur," replied the vicomte, "while I hold converse with madame inside. You are where you can hear but not see. Corporal, take the men to the canoe and wait for me.
Warn me if there is any danger. I shall be along presently.
Chevalier, I compliment you upon your fight. I know but a dozen men in all France who are your match."
"What are you going to do?" The Chevalier felt his heart swell with agony.
"What am I going to do? Listen. You shall hear even if you can not see." The vicomte entered the hut.
Madame was standing in a corner. . . . The Chevalier lived. If she could but hold the vicomte at arm"s length for a s.p.a.ce!
"Well, Madame, have you no friendly welcome for one who loves you fondly? I offered to make you my wife; but now! What was it that Monsieur Shakspere says? . . . "Sit you down, sweet, till I wring your heart"? Was that it?"
All her courage returned at the sound of his voice. Her tongue spoke not, but the hate in her eyes was a language he read well enough.
"Mine! . . . For a day, or a week, or for life! Has it not occurred to you, sweet? You are mine. Here we are, alone together, you and I; and I am a man in all things, and you are a beautiful woman." His glance, critical and admiring, ran over her face and form. "You would look better in silks. Well, you shall have them. You stood at the door of a convent; why did you not enter? You love the world too well; eh? . . . Like your mother."
Her eyes were steady.
"In my father"s orchards there used to be a peach-tree. It had the whimsical habit of bearing one large peach each season. When it ripened I used to stand under it and gloat over it for hours, to fill my senses with its perfect beauty. At length I plucked it. I never regretted the waiting; the fruit tasted only the sweeter. . . . You are like that peach, Madame. By the Cross, over which these Jesuits mumble, but you are worth a dance with death!"
"Had you a mother, Monsieur?"
This unexpected question made him widen his eyes. "Truly, else I had not been here."
"Did she die in peace?"
He frowned. "It matters not how she died." He sat on the edge of the table and swung one leg to and fro. "Some men would give their chance of heaven for a taste of those lips."
"Your chance of heaven, Monsieur, is remote." The setting sun came in through the door and filled her eyes with a golden haze. If there was any fear, the pride on her face hid it.
"Ye G.o.ds, but you are a beauty! I can wait no longer for that kiss."
His leg slid from the table. He walked toward her, and she shrank back till she met with the wall. He sprang forward, laughing. She struggled in his strong arms, uselessly. With one hand he pressed up her chin and kissed her squarely on the lips. Then he let her go. She drew her hand across her mouth and spat upon the floor.
"What! So soon, Madame?"
Her bosom rose and fell quickly, as much from rage and hate as from the exertion of the struggle.
"G.o.d will punish you, Monsieur, as he punishes all men who abuse their strength as you have done,--punish you for the misery you have brought upon me."
"What! and I bring you love?"
She wiped her lips again, this time on her sleeve.
"Does it burn like that, then?" laughing.
"It is poison," simply.
Outside the Chevalier writhed and twisted and strained. The agony!
She was alone in there, helpless. To be free, free! He wept, strove vainly to loose his bonds. He cried aloud in his anguish. And the vicomte heard him. He came to the door where he could see his enemy in torture and at the same time prevent madame"s escape.