La Dame de Monsoreau (110 page)

" Ah ! wretch that I am ! " cried Gorenflot. " Oh ! my dear M. Chicot, forgive me ! forgive me!"

How was it that the monk, who had been the first to fly, was here alone when he ought to have been so far away ?

This was the question that quite reasonably occurred to the mind of Chicot.

" Oh, my good M. Chicot, my dear master, help ! help ! " Gorenflot howled; " pardon your unworthy friend, who repents and does penance even at your very knees."

" But," inquired Chicot, " how is it you did not manage to escape with the other rascals ? "

" Because I could not go where the others went; because the Lord in his anger made me pot-bellied. Oh ! miserable paunch ! Oh ! most luckless of stomachs ! " cried Gorenflot, striking with both his clenched hands the article thus apostrophized. " Oh ! why am I not slim and genteel like you, M. Chicot! What a beautiful thing, and, oh ! above all, what a lucky thing it is to be slim ! "

Chicot was absolutely a stranger to the cause of Gorenflot's lamentations.

" Then the others are getting through, somewhere or other ? The others are escaping ? " he cried, in a voice of thunder.

" Well, of course they are ! What would you have them do ? Wait to be hanged ? Oh, my unfortunate belly ! "

" Silence ! " cried Chicot, "and answer."

Gorenflot raised himself on his knees.

" Question me, M. Chicot," he said, " you have certainly the right to do so."

" How are the others escaping ? "

" As fast as their legs can carry them."

" I understand ; but in what direction ? "

" Through the air-hole ? "

" Mordieu ! what air-hole ? "

" The air-hole opening into the*burial vault in the cemetery."

" Do you enter it by the tunnel which you call the underground passage ? "

" No, dear M. Chicot. The door of the underground passage was guarded on the outside. Just as the great Cardinal de Guise was going to open it, he heard a Swiss saying: ' Mick durstet; which means, it would seem, < I am thirsty: "

" Venire de biche ! " exclaimed Chicot, "I know what this means, too ; so the fugitives took another road ? "

" Yes, dear M. Chicot, they are escaping by the vault in the cemetery."

" What does it open into ?'"

" On one side, into the crypt; on the other, it runs under the Porte Saint-Jacques."

« You lie."

" ,1, my dear protector ! "

"If they had escaped by the vault that opens into the crypt, they must have passed by your cell, and I should have seen them."

" Perfectly correct, dear M. Chicot. But they thought there was no time for such a roundabout journey, and so they are passing out through the air-hole."

« What air-hole ? "

" An air-hole opening into the garden and giving some light to the passage."

" So that you "

" So that, as I am too fat"

« Well ? "

" I could n't get through, and they pulled me back by the legs, because I was in the way of the others."

" But," cried Chicot, his face lighting up with strange and joyous elation, " if you could not get through "

" I could n't, and yet I did my best. But look at my shoulders, look at my chest."

" Then as he is stouter than you "

« Who is < he ' ? "

" God of heaven !" said Chicot, " if thou dost favor my cause, and he be unable to pass through, I promise thee the largest candle ever made ! "

« M. Chicot."

" Get up, you knave."

The monk rose up as fast as he was able.

" Now bring me at once to the air-hole."

" Wherever you wish, my dear friend."

"Walk in front, you rascal, in front."

Gorenflot trotted on as quickly as he could, now and then raising his arms to heaven in protest, for Chicot was stimulating his celerity by frequent applications of the cord he held in his hand.

Both followed the corridor and descended into the garden.

" This way," said Gorenflot, " this way."

" Say nothing, but go on, you varlet."

With a last vigorous effort, the monk reached a clump of trees from the depths of which groans seemed to issue.

" There," said he, " there."

And entirely out of breath, he fell back on the grass.

Chicot advanced three steps and perceived something in motion a little above the ground.

Beside this something, which resembled the hind quarters of the animal styled by Diogenes " a featherless cock with only two feet," lay a sword and monk's robe.

It was evident that the individual who found himself caught in this unfortunate pass had doffed in succession all the objects that could increase his rotundity; so that, being for the nonce deprived of his sword arid divested of his frock, he might be said to have been reduced to his simplest expression.

And yet, like Gorenflot, he made useless efforts to disappear completely.

" Mordieu ! venire bleu ! sang dieu ! '* the fugitive cried, in a choking voice, "I would rather pass through the midst of the entire guards. A -a-a-h! do not pull so hard, my friends; I shall slip through gradually. I feel I 'm advancing — not quickly, but advancing all the same."

" Venire de biche ! M. de Mayenne !" murmured Chicot, in ecstasy. " 0 good and gracious Lord, thou hast won thy candle! "

" I have n't been surnamed Hercule for nothing," continued Mayenne, in the same stifled voice. " I '11 raise this stone. Ugh ! "

And the effort he made was so violent that the stone really trembled.

" Wait," said Chicot, in an undertone, and he tramped on the ground like a person who was running up and making a great noise.

" They are coming," said several voices from the inside.

" Ah ! " cried Chicot, as if he were only just arrived and out of breath.

" Ah ! it is you, you abominable monk ! "

" Say nothing, monseigneur," murmured severa/ voices, " he takes you for Gorenflot."

" Ah ! it's you, at last! you lump of obesity, pondus immobile, take that! and that! and that ! Aha ! so it 's really you, indisgesta moles, take that again, I say, and that !"

And at each apostrophe, Chicot, whose long unslaked thirst for vengeance was now to be amply gratified, lashed repeatedly all the fleshy parts of his victim that were exposed, with the same cord with which he had already flagellated Gorenflot.

" Silence ! " the same voices could be heard whispering, " he takes you for the monk."

And, in fact, Mayenne uttered only a few repressed groans, while making increased efforts to raise the stone.

" Ah, conspirator ! " Chicot went on again ; " ah, unworthy monk ! take this, it is for drunkenness ; and this, it is for anger ; and this, it is for gluttony; and this, it is for sloth. I regret there are only seven deadly sins. Hold on there ! hold on ! these are for all the other vices you have."

" M. Chicot! " cried Gorenflot, covered with perspiration ; " M. Chicot, have mercy on me."

" Ha! traitor ! " continued Chicot, plying the cord faster than ever, " do you feel them ? these are for your treason."

" Mercy ! mercy !" murmured Gorenflot, who really was under the impression that the strokes were falling on himself and not on Mayenne, " mercy ! dear M. Chicot."

But Chicot, instead of stopping, became actually drunk with the spirit of revenge and redoubled his blows.

Mayenne was a man of powerful self-control, but he could no longer refrain from groaning aloud.

" Ah! " Chicot resumed. " Why did it not please God to substitute for thy base-born body, for thy plebeian carcass, the most high and most puissant shoulders of the Due de Mayenne, to whom I owe ever so many cudgel strokes, for the interest has been accumulating for seven years! Meanwhile, take that, and that, and that."

Gorenflot heaved a sigh and again fell flat on his back.

" Chicot ! " shouted the duke.

" Yes, Chicot, I am Chicot; yes, an unworthy servant of the King ; Chicot, who has but two weak arms, but would wish he had the hundred arms of Briareus on such a grand occasion."

And Chicot, growing more frenzied every moment, used the cord with such savage violence that the sufferer, collecting all his strength, and stimulated to a tremendous effort by his very agony, lifted the stone, and fell mangled and bleeding into the arms of his friends.

Chicot's last blow struck the empty air.

Then he turned round. The real Gorenflot was in a swoon, the effect of terror, not of pain.

CHAPTER XCI.

WHAT HAPPENED NEAR THE BASTILE WHILE CHICOT WAS PAYING HIS DEBTS IN THE ABBEY OF SAINTE GENEVIEVE.

IT was eleven at night ; the Due d'Anjou, in consequence of the weakness that had seized him in the Kue Saint-Jacques, had retired to his cabinet and was anxiously waiting for a messenger from the Due de Guise announcing the abdication of the King.

He was walking restlessly backward and forward, going from the door to the window, then entering the antechamber and looking out through the windows there, then turning his eyes on the great clock, the seconds of which made a dismal tinkling in their sheath of gilded wood.

Suddenly he heard a horse pawing the ground in the courtyard ; he thought this horse might be that of the messenger, and ran out to the balcony; but the horse he saw was held in check by a groom, who was evidently waiting for his master.

The master soon appeared, coming out from one of the inner apartments; it was Bussy, who, as captain of the prince's guards, had returned to give the password for the night before keeping his appointment.

The duke, on seeing this brave and handsome young man, with whom he had never had any reason to find fault, felt a touch of remorse ; but when Bussy came close to a lighted torch held by one of his servants and Francois perceived that his face was radiant with joy, hope, and happiness, his jealousy revived in all its strength.

Meanwhile, Bussy, ignorant that the duke was watching intently every emotion betrayed by his changing features, after giving the password, wrapped his cloak about his shoulders, leaped into the saddle, clapped spurs to his steed and swept along under the vault, which echoed loudly to his horse's hoofs.

For a moment the prince, uneasy at seeing that the messenger did not arrive, again entertained the idea of sending for him, for he suspected that Bussy, before going in the direction of the Bastile, would stop at his hotel ; but then he had a vision of the young man laughing with Diane over his disappointed love, putting him, the Due d'Anjou, on a level

with the despised husband, and again his evil instincts got the better of his good ones.

Happiness had lit up Bussy's face with a smile as he was departing ; this smile was an insult in the eyes of the prince; he let him go; if he had looked sad and gloomy, he would, perhaps, have retained him.

However, as soon as Bussy was outside the precincts of the Hotel d'Anjou he slackened his thunderous pace, as if he feared the noise he himself had made. He passed into his hotel, as the duke had anticipated, and gave his horse over to a groom, who was listening with great respect to a veterinary lecture by Remy.

" Ah ! " said Bussy, recognizing the young doctor; " so it ? s you, Reniy ? "

" Yes, monseigneur, myself in person."

" And not yet gone to bed ? "

" It wants ten minutes of my time for going. I have only just come in, monseigneur. In fact, since I have my patient no longer, the days seem to me to have forty-eight hours."

" There 's nothing preying on your mind, I hope ? "

" 1 7 m afraid there is."

" Is it love ? "

" Ah, how often have I told you I have no faith in love, and I use it in general only as material for scientific study."

" Then Gertrude is forsaken ? "

" Entirely."

" So you have grown tired ? "

" Of being beaten — for that was the direction in which the love of my Amazon had its most significant manifestations — yes, though she is an excellent girl, as girls go."

"And your heart says nothing to you in her favor tonight ? "

" Why to-night, monseigneur ? "

" Because I would have taken you with me

" To the Bastile quarter ? "

"Yes."

" Then you 're going there ? "

" Undoubtedly."

" And Monsoreau ? "

" At Compiegne, my dear, getting up a hunt for his Majesty."

" Are you sure, monseigneur ? "

>" He was ordered to do so publicly this morning."

« Ah !"

Remy remained thoughtful a moment.

" Then ? " he asked, after a pause.

" Then I spent the day in thanking God for the happiness he has sent me for to-night, and I intend to spend the night in the enjoyment of that happiness."

" Very well; Jourdain, my sword," said Remy.

The groom went immediately into the house.

" You have changed your mind, then ? " asked Bussy.

"In what respect?"

" Why, you have sent for your sword."

" Yes, I will go with you as far as the door for two reasons."

« What are they ? "

" The first is because I fear you may encounter enemies in the streets."

Bussy smiled.

" Oh, yes, laugh away, monseigneur. I know you are n't afraid of enemies, and, in any case, Doctor Re"my would n't be much of an ally. Still, two men are not so much exposed to attack as one. My second reason is that I have a lot of good advice to give you."

" Come along, then, my dear Remy, come along. We will speak of her; next to the pleasure of seeing the woman you love, I know none greater than that of talking about her."