Queen Jezebel

by Jean Plaidy

  If, thought Catherine, they would only work together, how strong we should be!

  But these children of hers were half Medici; they could not go straight.

  Margot had begged the King to let her join her husband, for, she said, that was a wife’s place. They had, she pointed out, married her to Henry of Navarre against her will; and now. against her will, they kept her from him. It was a favourite fiction of Margot’s that her husband pined for her company; though Catherine guessed that, since he had expressed a desire for it, this must be because he felt it would be as well to keep such a natural trouble-maker under his eye.

  Catherine and the King had decided that it would be folly to let Margot go back to her husband, but they allowed her to accompany the Princess de la Roche-sur-Yonne to Spa, whither that lady was going, to take the waters. Margot had been ill, suffering from erysipelas of the arm, so it was thought that the waters would do her good; and as all she desired was a change, a little excitement, the prospect of the journey through Flanders to Spa pleased her as much as a journey to Béarn would have done.

  Margot was now back at court, but, according to her, she had had many an exciting adventure during her travels. She had renewed her tender friendship with Bussy d’Amboise, whose gallantry had proved a great delight to her; she was never tired of telling how he, the greatest swordsman in France, was continually becoming involved in duels and, when he had disarmed his adversaries would, like a hero in a fairy tale, tell them that their lives would be spared if they would seek the most beautiful Princess and lady in the world, cast themselves at her feet and thank her—for Bussy had granted them the gift of life only for her sake. It was evident that Margot had been delighted to renew her friendship with the dashing Bussy.

  There had been other adventures; these included an exciting meeting with Don John of Austria, the hero of Lepanto and the illegitimate son of Emperor Charles of Spain, and Philip’s half-brother. He had been charming to Margot and she had believed she had made a conquest, for Margot, who had so little difficulty in finding lovers, was apt to imagine that every man who looked her way and smiled on her was on the point of falling in love with her. She had been, enchanted with Don John until her spies informed her that he was a spy of her brother, the King of France, and therefore could be no friend to herself and her other brother, the new Duke of Anjou; she learned too that while she dallied in Flanders, the deceitful Don John was making plans to take her prisoner.

  This was a blow to her esteem, but she quickly forgot that in the excitement of making her way to France; and if Don John was not appreciative, there were plenty of others very ready to be.

  Now another peace had been concluded—the Peace of Bergerac; and Anjou and Margot were back at court. Margot was once more demanding to be allowed to join her husband, and the King was again refusing her request. The old quarrels had broken out in the family; Catherine and the King were in one camp, Margot and Anjou in another. Catherine was the only one of these four who had the good sense to hide her feelings.

  The King’s mignons seemed, for the King’s pleasure, to take a delight in insulting Anjou; and the climax came when the wedding of one of the court noblemen was being celebrated.

  Anjou had honoured the bride by dancing with her, and he was feeling very gratified to note how delighted she was by the honour of being partnered by such an exalted person as himself. She talked with the proper amount of reticence and reverence for his state, and Anjou was happy, feeling himself to be of great importance, the hero of battles, the squire of ladies, the brother of the King, the man who might well one day sit upon the throne of France. But his pleasure was abruptly interrupted as he and his partner passed a group of the King’s darlings.

  Epernon said in a voice which was audible, not only to the little Duke of Anjou and his partner, but to many who happened to be in their vicinity: ‘Poor bride! She is charming to look at, you know. It is merely because she dances with that ape that she appears to be ungainly.’

  Anjou’s pock-marked face went a deep shade of purple.

  To cap the insult, Caylus called to Epernon: ‘You would not think, would you, that he would wear that colour. With his ugly skin he should favour dove grey. Insignificant, I know, but suitable.’

  ‘It is a pity he cannot put on a few inches,’ drawled Joyeuse. ‘He is like a child . . . playing at being a man.’

  Anjou stopped in the dance, his hand on his sword; immediately he was aware of the menacing face of the King, who was ready to arrest anyone who attacked his favourites, and, realizing that if he offended in any way he might be put in prison, there seemed nothing for him to do but to walk, with as much dignity as possible in such circumstances, out of the ballroom.

  As he went, he heard the King say: ‘Dance, my friends. Nothing of importance has happened. No one of importance has left.’

  Anjou paced up and down his apartments, shaking with passion. He would not endure this. He would leave the court; he would show that brother of his that he was not so secure on the throne as he thought himself to be.

  Next morning he arose early and sent a note to the King, asking permission to leave Paris for a few day’s hunting.

  The King did not answer the note, but he thought about his brother with fear and hatred for the rest of the day and, when the palace had retired, his anxiety so increased that he went along to his mother’s bedchamber and sitting on her bed, awakened her to tell her that his fears were so great concerning his brother that he felt it was folly to delay acting against him any longer.

  ‘He is up to mischief; I know it.’

  ‘That, my darling, is hardly a matter to worry about at this hour. He is always up to mischief.’

  ‘He wishes to leave Paris, to go hunting, he says. That is a ruse. You remember how Navarre went to hunt, and we have not seen him since—though we are much aware of him. I wish that we had the fellow under our guard still.’

  ‘I wish that too.’

  ‘I was wise, was I not, to refuse Monsieur permission to hunt?’

  ‘Yes, indeed you were.’

  ‘That, Madame, was the advice of my friends, those who, you think, counsel me ill.’

  Catherine sighed. ‘What is it you wish at this hour, my son?’ To go to his chamber, to catch him unaware, and to look for fresh treachery.’

  ‘I had hoped that relations between you and your brother were improving. But for that ugly scene at the ball last night I feel sure your brother would have been ready to be friends. It was unwise of those young men to taunt him because he is not so handsome as they are.’

  ‘It was not for his ugliness that my friends taunted him; it was for his treachery. Will you come with me, Madame, or shall I take Epernon?’

  ‘I will come.’

  Catherine wrapped a robe about her and together they went to Anjou’s apartments. The King peremptorily dismissed Anjou’s attendants.

  ‘What means this?’ demanded the latter, rising startled from his bed.

  ‘It means that we suspect you of further treachery,’ said the King.

  While he was speaking he began opening the coffer near the bed and scattering its contents about the room. Catherine looked from one to the other. Fools! she thought. Strength was in union.

  There was nothing of importance in the coffer.

  ‘Get up!’ commanded the King. ‘We will search the bed.’ Anjou quickly took a paper from under his bolster and screwed it up in his hand.

  ‘Ah!’ cried the King. ‘This is it. Hand me that paper, Monsieur.’

  ‘I will not!’ cried his brother.

  Anjou tried to reach for his sword, but Catherine cried out in alarm, and before either of them could touch the weapon, she had seized it.

  ‘If you do not hand me that paper at once,’ said the King, ‘I’ll have you taken to the Bastille. Madame, I beg of you, call the guards.’

  Anjou threw the paper on to the floor. The King picked it up and read it while Anjou burst into loud derisive laughter. It was a
love letter to Anjou from Charlotte de Sauves.

  The King, scarlet with mortification, threw the paper at his brother. Catherine picked it up and read it. She smiled; she had read it before.

  But the King was sure there was a plot, even if he had failed to discover it. ‘He shall be kept under lock and key,’ he said fiercely. ‘In his own apartments . . . yes, but under lock and key.’

  He strode out, followed by Catherine; he called the guard and told them that the apartments of Monsieur were to be kept locked, for that gentleman was a prisoner.

  The first thing Anjou did when his brother and mother had left him was to send one of his guards to his sister to beg her to come to him at once.

  Margot came and she and her brother wept in each other’s arms; but there was no sorrow in their tears. They were furiously angry and determined to be avenged on the tyrant.

  The feud had started again in all its old fury.

  This is not the way, Catherine told the King; but his mignons were delighted with the feud. They hated Margot; they feared Anjou; and they enjoyed a quarrel.

  Catherine however decided that there must be a reconciliation, and at length she prevailed on both sides to bring this about. She accordingly staged one of those farces—at a ball, or a banquet—where enemies met, kissed and pretended to be friends, swearing eternal friendship with hatred in their hearts, while the gullible looked on and said ‘All is well’ and the cynics set the smiles of pleasure on their faces and sneered inwardly.

  It was not long before Margot had planned her brother’s escape. The plan was dramatic, since it was Margot’s; and as soon as she had conceived it, she was all impatience to put it into action.

  ‘We must be very careful this time,’ Margot whispered to two of her women. ‘Such plans have a way of reaching my mother’s ears. If she discovered what we have in mind, it would make everything very difficult; but if she discovered the means

  I intend to employ, it would make the plan impossible of achievement’

  Catherine did discover something of the plan, but, fortunately for Margot, neither her method nor the date when she intended to carry it out.

  There were guards posted at all exits from the palace; all staircases were watched.

  Catherine sent for her daughter and questioned her closely.

  ‘You know, my daughter, that I have given my word to the King that Monsieur shall not go away, that there shall be no attempt at escape?’

  ‘Yes, Madame.’

  ‘I am a little perplexed. There seems a certain coming and going between your, brother’s apartments and yours.’

  ‘We love each other, Madame.’

  ‘In a seemly fashion, I hope.’

  Margot looked innocent. ‘Madame, how could love between a brother and sister be unseemly?’

  ‘You know full well how that could be. You know that there are some who say that your love for Anjou is such a love.’

  ‘Madame,’ said Margot maliciously, ‘you have been listening to His Majesty’s mignons.’

  ‘I am rejoiced to hear that it is just wicked gossip, my dear. What plans are being made for Monsieur to leave court?’

  ‘Plans, Madame? Dare I say a second time that you have been listening to gossip?’

  Catherine gripped her daughter’s arm, and Margot flinched with the pain; she now looked like a younger Margot who had been very much in awe of her mother. She has not changed so very much, thought Catherine. She can still be afraid of me.

  ‘You may say that if you will, my daughter; but I think there is often some truth in gossip.’

  ‘Madame, do you not think that if my brother had made a plan for escape he would have confided it to me? I am his greatest friend. He would never do anything without consulting me. Why, if he escaped, I would be ready to answer for it with my life.°

  ‘Consider what you are saying!’ retorted Catherine. ‘You may well answer for it with your life.’

  ‘I should be ready to,’ said Margot with dignity.

  That conversation might have been alarming to some, but not to Margot. She felt that, as her mother suspected a plot, the only safe thing to do was to carry it out as soon as possible. She decided on that very night. As for answering for her part in it with her life; that might be the wish of the King, but Catherine would never allow it to happen. And all because I am the wife of that erring husband of mine! thought Margot with a chuckle. All because I may one day be Queen of France! So, husband, you have some uses!

  She went quietly to her room and her coucher proceeded. Anjou, with two of his friends, was in her ruelle. He was not under strict personal surveillance, as the palace was so well guarded, and was allowed to go from his own to his sister’s apartments, or those of his mistress. It would be supposed that he was with the latter this night, instead of reclining, fully dressed and booted, on the satin-covered couch in Margot’s ruelle.

  Margot lay in bed excitedly waiting for the sounds in the palace to end, and for that silence which would mean that all had retired for the night.

  At length, when all was quiet, she sprang out of her bed, and, whispering instructions to her women, with their help took a long rope from a cupboard. This rope had been smuggled into the palace by a young boy whose duty it was to bring her clean clothes from the washerwoman, and who was ready to die if necessary in ordet to serve the beautiful and romantic Queen of Navarre. To this rope, Margot had already attached a weighty stick, and this was let down from the window.

  Anjou slid down the rope and his two friends followed him. Then Margot and her women drew up the rope.

  Margot was almost choking with the laughter she dared not allow to be heard. Such adventures were the delight of her life. But she reminded her women that they must immediately rid themselves of the rope, for as soon as Anjou’s departure was discovered, her apartments would surely be searched and such a rope would betray not only them but the method of Anjou’s escape.

  ‘Who knows when we may need such a rope again?’ said Margot. ‘But I doubt not that, if I should need one, I should find an adoring young boy to bring me another. Now . . . let us set about destroying the evidence, my friends.’

  To burn the rope was more difficult than Margot had antici- pated. It was so thick that it was impossible to cut it, and it was necessary to put it on to the fire by degrees. This was slow work, and in a burst of impatience, Margot ordered the women to put the entire rope on the fire. ‘The bigger the blaze, the quicker it will be over,’ she said.

  She was right when she said the blaze would be big. The flames roared up the chimney. The ladies tried damping down the fire, but that was of little use; and they stood round watching with apprehension.

  Suddenly there was a loud banging on the door. It was one of the outer guards who had seen smoke and flames coming from the chimney.

  There was temporary panic in the ladies’ apartment; but Margot quickly recovered. ‘Go to the door,’ she commanded, ‘but do not let him in. On no account let him in.’

  ‘Madame, he will awaken the whole palace.’

  ‘Tell him that you made too big a fire. Tell him I am sleeping and that you dare not waken me. Ask him to go away quietly for your sake, and tell him that you have the fire under control.’

  Margot stood listening to the whispering at the door. The man went away and her frightened women returned to her. But Margot sat down, rocking to and fro in an effort to smother her laughter. Nothing was quite so enjoyable as danger.

  They stood round the blazing fire, watching it roar up the chimney.

  ‘Let us pray that that guard does not point out the blaze to others. Let us hope none notices the smoke. If any does and the palace is aroused, depend upon it I shall be a prisoner tomorrow, and my brother will be captured.’

  But luck was with them. The rope had become a charred mass before the chimney was thoroughly alight; and after a few moments of real anxiety, the conspirators knew that they were safe from discovery through a burning chimney.

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p; ‘He will be far away by now,’ said Margot. let us retire to our beds. Remember! We have to pretend this is a normal night.’

  Margot was not, however, left long in peace. Before daylight there was a banging on her door and when, in terror, one of her women opened it, she faced two members of the King’s Guard.

  ‘What do you want?’ she demanded. ‘What do you mean by knocking on the Queen’s door at this hour?’

  ‘The King’s orders,’ was the answer. ‘The Queen of Navarre is to come to His Majesty’s apartments without delay.’

  Margot rose. She noticed that there was just the faintest streak iSf light in the sky. If all had gone well, Anjou would by now have found the spot where Bussy was waiting for him with horses ready, and they would be miles away. She was not afraid. She was beginning more and more to rely on her resourceful mind, her quickness of thought in an emergency.

  Her mother was in her brother’s bedchamber, and they both looked at her malevolently as she entered. The King’s face was livid; he looked old at this hour in the morning when his toilette had been neglected.

  ‘So,’ said Catherine coldly, ‘here is the breaker of promises, the one who aided her brother’s flight.’

  ‘Traitress!’ cried the King, completely lacking his mother’s restraint, and yet not terrifying Margot as Catherine did. ‘I’ll have you imprisoned. You shall not be allowed to go free . . . to flout me . . . to aid my enemies. You shall be whipped. You shall be ‘