Historical Romances: Under the Red Robe, Count Hannibal, A Gentleman of France

by Stanley John Weyman

  CHAPTER XII.

  MAXIMILIAN DE BETHUNE, BARON DE ROSNY.

  I looked to make the journey to Rosny in two days. But the heavinessof the roads and the sorry condition of my hackney hindered me sogreatly that I lay the second night at Dreux, and, hearing the way wasstill worse between that place and my destination, began to think thatI should be fortunate if I reached Rosny by the following noon. Thecountry in this part seemed devoted to the League, the feelingincreasing in violence as I approached the Seine. I heard nothing saveabuse of the King of France and praise of the Guise princes, and hadmuch ado, keeping a still tongue and riding modestly, to pass withoutmolestation or inquiry.

  Drawing near to Rosny, on the third morning, through a low marshycountry covered with woods and alive with game of all kinds, I beganto occupy myself with thoughts of the reception I was likely toencounter; which, I conjectured, would be none of the most pleasant.The daring and vigour of the Baron de Rosny, who had at this time thereputation of being in all parts of France at once, and the familiarterms on which he was known to live with the King of Navarre, gave mesmall reason to hope that he would listen with indulgence to such atale as I had to tell. The nearer I came to the hour of telling it,indeed, the more improbable seemed some of its parts, and the moreglaring my own carelessness in losing the token, and in lettingmademoiselle out of my sight in such a place as Blois. I saw this soclearly now, and more clearly as the morning advanced, that I do notknow that I ever anticipated anything with more fear than thisexplanation; which it yet seemed my duty to offer with all reasonablespeed. The morning was warm, I remember; cloudy, yet not dark; the airnear at hand full of moisture and very clear, with a circle of mistrising some way off, and filling the woods with blue distances. Theroad was deep and foundrous, and as I was obliged to leave it fromtime to time in order to pass the worst places, I presently began tofear that I had strayed into a by-road. After advancing some distance,in doubt whether I should persevere or turn back, I was glad to seebefore me a small house placed at the junction of several woodlandpaths. From the bush which hung over the door, and a water-troughwhich stood beside it, I judged the place to be an inn; anddetermining to get my horse fed before I went farther, I rode up tothe door and rapped on it with my riding-switch.

  The position of the house was so remote that I was surprised to seethree or four heads thrust immediately out of a window. For a moment Ithought I should have done better to have passed by; but the landlordcoming out very civilly, and leading the way to a shed beside thehouse, I reflected that I had little to lose, and followed him. Ifound, as I expected, four horses tied up in the shed, the bitshanging round their necks and their girths loosed; while my surprisewas not lessened by the arrival, before I had fastened up my ownhorse, of a sixth rider, who, seeing us by the shed, rode up to us,and saluted me as he dismounted.

  He was a tall, strong man in the prime of youth, wearing a plain,almost mean suit of dust-coloured leather, and carrying no weaponsexcept a hunting-knife, which hung in a sheath at his girdle. He rodea powerful silver-roan horse, and was splashed to the top of his highuntanned boots, as if he had come by the worst of paths, if by any.

  He cast a shrewd glance at the landlord as he led his horse into theshed; and I judged from his brown complexion and quick eyes that hehad seen much weather and lived an out-of-door life.

  He watched me somewhat curiously while I mixed the fodder for myhorse; and when I went into the house and sat down in the first room Icame to, to eat a little bread-and-cheese which I had in my pouch, hejoined me almost immediately. Apparently he could not stomach my poorfare, however, for after watching me for a time in silence, switchinghis boot with his whip the while, he called the landlord, and askedhim, in a masterful way, what fresh meat he had, and particularly ifhe had any lean collops, or a fowl.

  The fellow answered that there was nothing. His honour could have someLisieux cheese, he added, or some stewed lentils.

  'His honour does not want cheese,' the stranger answered peevishly,'nor lentil porridge. And what is this I smell, my friend?' hecontinued, beginning suddenly to sniff with vigour. 'I swear I smellcooking.'

  'It is the hind-quarter of a buck, which is cooking for the fourgentlemen of the Robe; with a collop or two to follow,' the landlordexplained; and humbly excused himself on the ground that the gentlemenhad strictly engaged it for their own eating.

  'What? A whole quarter! _and_ a collop or two to follow!' the strangerretorted, smacking his lips. 'Who are they?'

  'Two advocates and their clerks from the Parliament of Paris. Theyhave been viewing a boundary near here, and are returning thisafternoon,' the landlord answered.

  'No reason why they should cause a famine!' ejaculated the strangerwith energy. 'Go to them and say a gentleman, who has ridden far, andfasted since seven this morning, requests permission to sit at theirtable. A quarter of venison and a collop or two among four!' hecontinued, in atone of extreme disgust. 'It is intolerable! Andadvocates! Why, at that rate, the King of France should eat a wholebuck, and rise hungry! Don't you agree with me, sir?' he continued,turning on me and putting the question abruptly.

  He was so comically and yet so seriously angry, and looked so closelyat me as he spoke, that I hastened to say I agreed with him perfectly.

  'Yet you eat cheese, sir!' he retorted irritably.

  I saw that, not withstanding the simplicity of his dress, he was agentleman, and so, forbearing to take offence, I told him plainly thatmy purse being light I travelled rather as I could than as I would.

  'Is it so?' he answered hastily. 'Had I known that, I would havejoined you in the cheese! After all, I would rather fast with agentleman, than feast with a churl. But it is too late now. Seeing youmix the fodder, I thought your pockets were full.'

  'The nag is tired, and has done its best,' I answered.

  He looked at me curiously, and as though he would say more. But thelandlord returning at that moment, he turned to him instead.

  'Well!' he said briskly. 'Is it all right?'

  'I am sorry, your honour,' the man answered, reluctantly, and with avery downcast air, 'but the gentlemen beg to be excused.'

  'Zounds!' cried my companion roundly. 'They do, do they?'

  'They say they have no more, sir,' the landlord continued, faltering,'than enough for themselves and a little dog they have with them.'

  A shout of laughter which issued at that moment from the other roomseemed to show that the quartette were making merry over mycompanion's request. I saw his cheek redden, and looked for anexplosion of anger on his part; but instead he stood a moment inthought in the middle of the floor, and then, much to the innkeeper'srelief, pushed a stool towards me, and called for a bottle of the bestwine. He pleasantly begged leave to eat a little of my cheese, whichhe said looked better than the Lisieux, and, filling my glass withwine, fell to as merrily as if he had never heard of the party in theother room.

  I was more than a little surprised, I remember; for I had taken him tobe a passionate man, and not one to sit down under an affront. Still Isaid nothing, and we conversed very well together. I noticed, however,that he stopped speaking more than once, as though to listen; butconceiving that he was merely reverting to the party in the otherroom, who grew each moment more uproarious, I said nothing, and wascompletely taken by surprise when he rose on a sudden, and, going tothe open window, leaned out, shading his eyes with his hand.

  'What is it?' I said, preparing to follow him.

  He answered by a quiet chuckle. 'You shall see,' he added the nextinstant.

  I rose, and going to the window looked out over his shoulder. Threemen were approaching the inn on horseback. The first, a great burly,dark-complexioned man with fierce black eyes and a feathered cap, hadpistols in his holsters and a short sword by his side. The other two,with the air of servants, were stout fellows, wearing green doubletsand leather breeches. All three rode good horses, while a footman ledtwo hounds after them in a leash. On see
ing us they cantered forward,the leader waving his bonnet.

  'Halt, there!' cried my companion, lifting up his voice when they werewithin a stone's throw of us. 'Maignan!'

  'My lord?' answered he of the feather, pulling up on the instant.

  'You will find six horses in the shed there,' the stranger cried in avoice of command. 'Turn out the four to the left as you go in. Giveeach a cut, and send it about its business!'

  The man wheeled his horse before the words were well uttered, andcrying obsequiously 'that it was done,' flung his reins to one of theother riders and disappeared in the shed, as if the order given himwere the most commonplace one in the world.

  The party in the other room, however, by whom, all could be heard,were not slow to take the alarm. They broke into a shout ofremonstrance, and one of their number, leaping from the window, askedwith a very fierce air what the devil we meant. The others thrust outtheir faces, swollen and flushed with the wine they had drunk, andwith many oaths backed up his question. Not feeling myself called uponto interfere, I prepared to see something diverting.

  My companion, whose coolness surprised me, had all the air of being aslittle concerned as myself. He even persisted for a time in ignoringthe angry lawyer, and, turning a deaf ear to all the threats and abusewith which the others assailed him, continued to look calmly at theprospect. Seeing this, and that nothing could move him, the man whohad jumped through the window, and who seemed the most enterprising ofthe party, left us at last and ran towards the stalls. The aspect ofthe two serving-men, however, who rode up grinning, and made as ifthey would ride him down, determined him to return; which he did, palewith fury, as the last of the four horses clattered out, and after apuzzled look round trotted off at its leisure into the forest.

  On this, the man grew more violent, as I have remarked frightened mendo; so that at last the stranger condescended to notice him. 'My goodsir,' he said coolly, looking at him through the window as if he hadnot seen him before, 'you annoy me. What is the matter?'

  The fellow retorted with a vast amount of bluster, asking what thedevil we meant by turning out his horses.

  'Only to give you and the gentlemen with you a little exercise,' mycompanion answered, with grim humour, and in a severe tone strange inone so young--'than which, nothing is more wholesome after a fullmeal. That, and a lesson in good manners. Maignan,' he continued,raising his voice, 'if this person has anything more to say, answerhim. He is nearer your degree than mine.'

  And leaving the man to slink away like a whipped dog--for the mean areever the first to cringe--my friend turned from the window. Meeting myeyes as he went back to his seat, he laughed. 'Well,' he said, 'whatdo you think?'

  'That the ass in the lion's skin is very well till it meets the lion,'I answered.

  He laughed again, and seemed pleased, as I doubt not he was. 'Pooh,pooh!' he said. 'It passed the time, and I think I am quits with mygentlemen now. But I must be riding. Possibly our roads may lie for awhile in the same direction, sir?' And he looked at me irresolutely.

  I answered cautiously that I was going to the town of Rosny.

  'You are not from Paris?' he continued, still looking at me.

  'No,' I answered. 'I am from the south.'

  'From Blois, perhaps?'

  I nodded.

  'Ah!' he said, making no comment, which somewhat surprised me, all menat this time desiring news, and looking to Blois for it. 'I am ridingtowards Rosny also. Let us be going.'

  But I noticed that as we got to horse, the man he called Maignanholding his stirrup with much formality, he turned and looked at memore than once with an expression in his eye which I could notinterpret; so that, being in an enemy's country, where curiosity was athing to be deprecated, I began to feel somewhat uneasy. However, ashe presently gave way to a fit of laughter, and seemed to be digestinghis late diversion at the inn, I thought no more of it, finding himexcellent company and a man of surprising information.

  Notwithstanding this my spirits began to flag as I approached Rosny;and as on such occasions nothing is more trying than the well-meantrallying of a companion ignorant of our trouble, I felt rather reliefthan regret when he drew rein at four cross-roads a mile or so shortof the town, and, announcing that here our paths separated, took acivil leave of me, and went his way with his servants.

  I dismounted at an inn at the extremity of the town, and, stoppingonly to arrange my dress and drink a cup of wine, asked the way to theChateau, which was situate, I learned, no more than a third of a mileaway. I went thither on foot by way of an avenue of trees leading upto a drawbridge and gateway. The former was down, but the gates wereclosed, and all the formalities of a fortress in time of war wereobserved on my admission, though the garrison appeared to consist onlyof two or three serving-men and as many foresters. I had leisure aftersending in my name to observe that the house was old and partlyruinous, but of great strength, covered in places with ivy, andclosely surrounded by woods. A staid-looking page came presently tome, and led me up a narrow staircase to a parlour lighted by twowindows, looking, one into the courtyard, the other towards the town.Here a tall man was waiting to receive me, who rose on my entrance andcame forward. Judge of my surprise when I recognised my acquaintanceof the afternoon! 'M. de Rosny?' I exclaimed, standing still andlooking at him in confusion.

  'The same, sir,' he answered, with a quiet smile. 'You come from theKing of Navarre, I believe, and on an errand to me. You may speakopenly. The king has no secrets from me.'

  There was something in the gravity of his demeanour as he waited forme to speak which strongly impressed me; notwithstanding that he wasten years younger than myself, and I had seen him so lately in alighter mood. I felt that his reputation had not belied him--that herewas a great man; and reflecting with despair on the inadequacy of thetale I had to tell him, I paused to consider in what terms I shouldbegin. He soon put an end to this, however. 'Come, sir,' he said withimpatience. 'I have told you that you may speak out. You should havebeen here four days ago, as I take it. Now you are here, where is thelady?'

  'Mademoiselle de la Vire?' I stammered, rather to gain time than withany other object.

  'Tut, tut!' he rejoined, frowning. 'Is there any other lady in thequestion? Come, sir, speak out. Where have you left her? This is noaffair of gallantry,' he continued, the harshness of his demeanourdisagreeably surprising me, I that you need beat about the bush. Theking entrusted to you a lady, who, I have no hesitation in telling younow, was in possession of certain State secrets. It is known that sheescaped safely from Chize and arrived safely at Blois. Where is she?'

  'I would to Heaven I knew, sir!' I exclaimed in despair, feeling thepainfulness of my position increased a hundredfold by his manner. 'Iwish to God I did.'

  'What is this?' he cried in a raised voice. 'You do not know where sheis? You jest, M. de Marsac.'

  'It were a sorry jest,' I answered, summoning up a rueful smile. Andon that, plunging desperately into the story which I have here setdown, I narrated the difficulties under which I had raised my escort,the manner in which I came to be robbed of the gold token, howmademoiselle was trepanned, the lucky chance by which I found heragain, and the final disappointment. He listened, but listenedthroughout with no word of sympathy--rather with impatience, whichgrew at last into derisive incredulity. When I had done he asked mebluntly what I called myself.

  Scarcely understanding what he meant, I repeated my name.

  He answered, rudely and flatly, that it was impossible. 'I do notbelieve it, sir!' he repeated, his brow dark. 'You are not the man.You bring neither the lady nor the token, nor anything else by which Ican test your story. Nay, sir, do not scowl at me,' he continuedsharply. 'I am the mouthpiece of the King of Navarre, to whom thismatter is of the highest importance. I cannot believe that the manwhom he would choose would act so. This house you prate of in Blois,for instance, and the room with the two doors? What were you doingwhile mademoiselle was being removed?'

  'I was engaged with the men of the hous
e,' I answered, striving toswallow the anger which all but choked me. 'I did what I could. Hadthe door given way, all would have been well.'

  He looked at me darkly. 'That is fine talking!' he said with a sneer.Then he dropped his eyes and seemed for a time to fall into a brownstudy, while I stood before him, confounded by this new view of thecase, furious, yet not knowing how to vent my fury, cut to the heartby his insults, yet without hope or prospect of redress.

  'Come!' he said harshly, after two or three minutes of gloomyreflection on his part and burning humiliation on mine, 'is thereanyone here who can identify you, or in any other way confirm yourstory, sir? Until I know how the matter stands I can do nothing.'

  I shook my head in sullen shame. I might protest against his brutalityand this judgment of me, but to what purpose while he shelteredhimself behind his master?

  'Stay!' he said presently, with an abrupt gesture of remembrance. 'Ihad nearly forgotten. I have some here who have been lately at theKing of Navarre's Court at St. Jean d'Angely. If you still maintainthat you are the M. de Marsac to whom this commission was entrusted,you will doubtless have no objection to seeing them?'

  On this I felt myself placed in a most cruel dilemma. If I refused tosubmit my case to the proposed ordeal, I stood an impostor confessed.If I consented to see these strangers, it was probable they would notrecognise me, and possible that they might deny me in terms calculatedto make my position even worse, if that might be. I hesitated; but,Rosny standing inexorable before me awaiting an answer, I finallyconsented.

  'Good!' he said curtly. 'This way, if you please. They are here. Thelatch is tricky. Nay, sir, it is my house.'

  Obeying the stern motion of his hand, I passed before him into thenext room, feeling myself more humiliated than I can tell by thisreference to strangers. For a moment I could see no one. The day waswaning, the room I entered was long and narrow, and illuminated onlyby a glowing fire. Besides I was myself, perhaps, in someembarrassment. I believed that my conductor had made a mistake, orthat his guests had departed, and I turned towards him to ask for anexplanation. He merely pointed onwards, however, and I advanced;whereupon a young and handsome lady, who had been seated in the shadowof the great fireplace, rose suddenly, as if startled, and stoodlooking at me, the glow of the burning wood falling on one side of herface and turning her hair to gold.

  'Well!' M. de Rosny said, in a voice which sounded a little odd in myears. 'You do not know madame, I think?'

  I saw that she was a complete stranger to me, and bowed to her withoutspeaking. The lady saluted me in turn ceremoniously and in silence.

  'Is there no one else here who should know you?' M. de Rosnycontinued, in a tone almost of persiflage, and with the same change inhis voice which had struck me before; but now it was more marked. 'Ifnot, M. de Marsac, I am afraid---- But first look round, look round,sir; I would not judge any man hastily.'

  He laid his hand on my shoulder as he finished in a manner so familiarand so utterly at variance with his former bearing that I doubted if Iheard or felt aright. Yet I looked mechanically at the lady, andseeing that her eyes glistened in the firelight, and that she gazed atme very kindly, I wondered still more; falling, indeed, into a veryconfusion of amazement. This was not lessened but augmented ahundredfold when, turning in obedience to the pressure of de Rosny'shand, I saw beside me, as if she had risen from the floor, anotherlady--no other than Mademoiselle de la Vire herself! She had thatmoment stepped out of the shadow of the great fireplace, which hadhitherto hidden her, and stood before me curtseying prettily, with thesame look on her face and in her eyes which madame's wore.

  'Mademoiselle!' I muttered, unable to take my eyes from her.

  'Mais oui, monsieur, mademoiselle,' she answered, curtseying lower,with the air of a child rather than a woman.

  'Here?' I stammered, my mouth open, my eyes staring.

  'Here, sir--thanks to the valour of a brave man,' she answered,speaking in a voice so low I scarcely heard her. And then, droppingher eyes, she stepped back into the shadow, as if either she had saidtoo much already, or doubted her composure were she to say more. Shewas so radiantly dressed, she looked in the firelight more like afairy than a woman, being of small and delicate proportions; and sheseemed in my eyes so different a person, particularly in respect ofthe softened expression of her features, from the Mademoiselle de laVire whom I had known and seen plunged in sloughs and bent to thesaddle with fatigue, that I doubted still if I had seen aright, andwas as far from enlightenment as before.

  It was M. de Rosny himself who relieved me from the embarrassment Iwas suffering. He embraced me in the most kind and obliging manner,and this more than once; begging me to pardon the deception he hadpractised upon me, and to which he had been impelled partly by the oddnature of our introduction at the inn, and partly by his desire toenhance the joyful surprise he had in store for me. 'Come,' he saidpresently, drawing me to the window, 'let me show you some more ofyour old friends.'

  I looked out, and saw below me in the courtyard my three horses drawnup in a row, the Cid being bestridden by Simon Fleix, who, seeing me,waved a triumphant greeting. A groom stood at the head of each horse,and on either side was a man with a torch. My companion laughedgleefully. 'It was Maignan's arrangement,' he said. 'He has a quainttaste in such things.'

  After greeting Simon Fleix a hundred times, I turned back into theroom, and, my heart overflowing with gratitude and wonder, I begged M.de Rosny to acquaint me with the details of mademoiselle's escape.

  'It was the most simple thing in the world,' he said, taking me by thehand and leading me back to the hearth. 'While you were engaged withthe rascals, the old woman who daily brought mademoiselle's food grewalarmed at the uproar, and came into the room to learn what it was.Mademoiselle, unable to help you, and uncertain of your success,thought the opportunity too good to be lost. She forced the old womanto show her and her maid the way out through the garden. This done,they ran down a lane, as I understand, and came immediately upon thelad with the horses, who recognised them and helped them to mount.They waited some minutes for you, and then rode off.'

  'But I inquired at the gate,' I said.

  'At which gate?' inquired M. de Rosny, smiling.

  'The North-gate, of course,' I answered.

  'Just so,' he rejoined with a nod. 'But they went out through theWest-gate and made a circuit. He is a strange lad, that of yours belowthere. He has a head on his shoulder, M. de Marsac. Well, two leaguesoutside the town they halted, scarcely knowing how to proceed. By goodfortune, however, a horse-dealer of my acquaintance was at the inn. Heknew Mademoiselle de la Vire, and, hearing whither she was bound,brought her hither without let or hindrance.'

  'Was he a Norman?' I asked.

  M. de Rosny nodded, smiling at me shrewdly. 'Yes,' he said, 'he toldme much about you. And now let me introduce you to my wife, Madame deRosny.'

  He led me up to the lady who had risen at my entrance, and who nowwelcomed me as kindly as she had before looked on me, paying me manypleasant compliments. I gazed at her with interest, having heard muchof her beauty and of the strange manner in which M. de Rosny, beingenamoured of two young ladies, and chancing upon both while lodging indifferent apartments at an inn, had decided which he should visit andmake his wife. He appeared to read what was in my mind, for as I bowedbefore her, thanking her for the obliging things which she haduttered, and which for ever bound me to her service, he gaily pinchedher ear, and said, 'When you want a good wife, M. de Marsac, be sureyou turn to the right.'

  He spoke in jest, and having his own case only in his mind. But I,looking mechanically in the direction he indicated, saw mademoisellestanding a pace or two to my right in the shadow of the greatchimney-piece. I know not whether she frowned more or blushed more;but this for certain, that she answered my look with one of sharpdispleasure, and, turning her back on me, swept quickly from the room,with no trace in her bearing of that late tenderness and gratitudewhich I had remarked.