"Then I suppose he deserved it."
"Ah, monseigneur, you would make us out as infallible as the pope!"
"He must have committed some cowardly act."
"He is one of the bravest officers in the service."
"Some infamous act then?"
"He is the most honest fellow breathing."
"Then this is an injustice to be repaired."
"Exactly; and that is why I prepared this major"s brevet."
"Give it to me, Dubois, you have some good in you sometimes."
A diabolical smile pa.s.sed over Dubois"s face as he drew from his portfolio a second paper.
The regent watched him uneasily.
"What is that paper?" asked he.
"Monseigneur, you have repaired an act of injustice, now do an act of justice."
"The order to arrest the Chevalier Gaston de Chanlay, and place him in the Bastille," cried the regent. "Ah! I see now why you bribed me with a good action; but stay, this requires reflection."
"Do you think I propose to you an abuse of power, monseigneur?" asked Dubois, laughing.
"No, but yet--"
"Monseigneur," continued Dubois, "when we have in our hands the government of a kingdom, the thing most necessary is, to govern."
"But it seems to me that I am the master."
"To reward, yes; but on condition of punishing--the balance of justice is destroyed, monseigneur, if an eternal and blind mercy weighs down one of the scales. To act as you always wish, and often do, is not good, but weak. What is the reward of virtue, if you do not punish vice?"
"Then," said the regent, the more impatiently that he felt he was defending a bad though generous cause, "if you wished me to be severe, you should not have brought about an interview between me and this young man; you should not have given me the opportunity of appreciating his worth, but have allowed me to suppose him a common conspirator."
"Yes; and now, because he presented himself to your highness under a romantic guise, your artistic imagination runs away with you. Diable!
monseigneur, there is a time for everything; so chemistry with Hubert, engraving with Audran, music with Lafare, make love with the whole world--but politics with me."
"Mon Dieu!" said the regent, "is it worth while to defend a life, watched, tortured, calumniated as mine is?"
"But it is not your life you are defending, monseigneur; consider, among all these calumnies which pursue you, and against which Heaven knows you should be steeled by this time; your most bitter enemies have never accused you of cowardice--as to your life, at Steinkirk, at Nerwinden, and at Lerida, you proved at what rate you valued it. Pardieu! if you were merely a private gentleman, a minister, or a prince of the blood, and you were a.s.sa.s.sinated, a man"s heart would cease to beat, and that would be all; but wrongly or rightly, you coveted a place among the powerful ones of the world; for that end you broke the will of Louis the Fourteenth, you drove the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds from the throne whereon they had already placed their feet, you made yourself regent of France--that is to say, the keystone of the arch of the world. If you die, it is not a man who falls, it is the pillar which supports the European edifice which gives way; thus our four last years of watchfulness and struggles would be lost, and everything around would be shaken. Look at England; the Chevalier de Saint George will renew the mad enterprises of the pretender; look at Holland---Russia, Sweden, and Prussia would hunt her to the death; look at Austria--her two-headed eagle seizes Venice and Milan, as an indemnification for the loss of Spain; cast your eyes on France--no longer France, but Philip the Fifth"s va.s.sal; look, finally, at Louis the Fifteenth, the last descendant of the greatest monarch that ever gave light to the world, and the child whom by watchfulness and care we have saved from the fate of his father, his mother, and his uncles, to place him safe and sound on the throne of his ancestors; this child falls back again into the hands of those whom an adulterous law boldly calls to succeed him; thus, on all sides, murder, desolation, ruin, civil and foreign wars. And why? because it pleases Monsieur Philippe d"Orleans to think himself still major of the king"s troops, or commandant of the army in Spain, and to forget that he ceased to be so from the moment he became regent of France."
"You _will_ have it, then," said the duke.
"Stay, monseigneur," said Dubois, "it shall not be said that in an affair of this importance you gave way to my importunity. I have said what I had to say, now I leave you--do as you please. I leave you the paper; I am going to give some orders, and in a quarter of an hour I will return to fetch it."
And Dubois saluted the regent and went out.
Left alone, the regent became thoughtful--this whole affair, so somber and so tenacious of life, this remains of the former conspiracy, filled the duke"s mind with gloomy thoughts; he had braved death in battle, had laughed at abductions meditated by the Spaniards and by Louis the Fourteenth"s b.a.s.t.a.r.ds; but this time a secret horror oppressed him; he felt an involuntary admiration for the young man whose poniard was raised against him; sometimes he hated him, at others he excused--he almost loved him. Dubois, cowering down over this conspiracy like an infernal ape over some dying prey, and piercing with his ravenous claws to its very heart, seemed to him to possess a sublime intelligence and power; he felt that he, ordinarily so courageous, should have defended his life feebly in this instance, and his eyes involuntarily sought the paper.
"Yes," murmured he, "Dubois is right, my life is no longer my own; yesterday, my mother also told me the same thing. Who knows what might happen if I were to fall? The same as happened at the death of my ancestor Henry the Fourth, perchance. After having reconquered his kingdom step by step, he was about--thanks to ten years of peace, economy, and prosperity--to add Alsace, Lorraine, and perhaps Flanders, to France, while the Duke of Savoy, his son-in-law, descending the Alps, should cut out for himself a kingdom in the Milanais, and with the leavings of that kingdom enrich the kingdom of Venice and strengthen the dukes of Modena, Florence, and Mantua; everything was ready for the immense result, prepared during the whole life of a king who was at once a legislator and a soldier; then the 13th of May arrived; a carriage with the royal livery pa.s.sed the Rue de la Feronniere, and the clock of Les Innocents struck three. In a moment all was destroyed; past prosperity, hopes of the future; it needed a whole century, a minister called Richelieu and a king called Louis the Fourteenth, to cicatrize the wound made in France by Ravaillac"s knife. Yes, Dubois was right,"
cried the duke, "and I must abandon this young man to human justice; besides, it is not I who condemn him; the judges are there to decide; and," added he, with animation, "have I not still the power to pardon."
And quieted by the thought of this royal prerogative, which he exercised in the name of Louis XV., he signed the paper, and left the room to finish dressing.
Ten minutes after the door opened softly, Dubois carefully looked in, saw that the room was empty, approached the table near which the prince had been seated, looked rapidly at the order, smiled on seeing the signature, and folding it in four, placed it in his pocket, and left the room with an air of great satisfaction.
CHAPTER XX.
BLOOD REVEALS ITSELF.
When Gaston returned from the Barriere de la Conference, and left his room, he found La Jonquiere installed by the fireplace, and discussing a bottle of wine which he had just uncorked.
"Well, chevalier," said he, as Gaston entered, "how do you like my room?
it is convenient, is it not? Sit down and taste this wine; it rivals the best Rosseau. Do you drink Rosseau? No, they do not drink wine in Bretagne; they drink cider or beer, I believe. I never could get anything worth drinking there, except brandy."
Gaston did not reply, for he was so occupied that he had not even heard what La Jonquiere said. He threw himself in an easy chair, with his hand in his pocket, holding Helene"s first letter.
"Where is she?" he asked himself; "this immense, unbounded Paris may keep her from me forever. Oh! the difficulty is too great for a man without power or experience!"
"Apropos," said La Jonquiere, who had followed the young man"s ideas easily, "there is a letter for you."
"From Bretagne?" asked the chevalier, trembling.
"No; from Paris. A beautiful writing--evidently a woman"s."
"Where is it?" cried Gaston.
"Ask our host. When I came in he held it in his hands."
"Give it to me," cried Gaston, rushing into the common room.
"What does monsieur want?" asked Tapin, with his usual politeness.
"My letter."
"What letter?"
"The letter you received for me."