"/Che bestia/! I swear to you there is not the slightest danger for either of us in remaining at court. If there were, do you think Iwould go away? I should stay by the side of our kind mistress.""Kind!" exclaimed the Grand-master; "she is a woman to drop all her instruments the moment she finds them heavy.""/O coglione/! you pretend to be a soldier, and you fear death! Every business has its duties, and we have ours in making our fortune. By attaching ourselves to kings, the source of all temporal power which protects, elevates, and enriches families, we are forced to give them as devoted a love as that which burns in the hearts of martyrs toward heaven. We must suffer in their cause; when they sacrifice us to the interests of their throne we may perish, for we die as much for ourselves as for them, but our name and our families perish not.
/Ecco/!"
"You are right as to yourself, Albert; for they have given you the ancient title and duchy of de Retz.""Now listen to me," replied his brother. "The queen hopes much from the cleverness of the Ruggieri; she expects them to bring the king once more under her control. When Charles refused to use Rene's perfumes any longer the wary woman knew at once on whom his suspicions really rested. But who can tell the schemes that are in his mind?
Perhaps he is only hesitating as to what fate he shall give his mother; he hates her, you know. He said a few words about it to his wife; she repeated them to Madame de Fiesque, and Madame de Fiesque told the queen-mother. Since then the king has kept away from his wife.""The time has come," said Charles de Gondi.
"To do what?" asked the marechal.
"To lay hold of the king's mind," replied the Grand-master, who, if he was not so much in the queen's confidence as his brother, was by no means less clear-sighted.
"Charles, I have opened a great career to you," said his brother gravely. "If you wish to be a duke also, be, as I am, the accomplice and cat's-paw of our mistress; she is the strongest here, and she will continue in power. Madame de Sauves is on her side, and the king of Navarre and the Duc d'Alencon are still for Madame de Sauves.
Catherine holds the pair in a leash under Charles IX., and she will hold them in future under Henri III. God grant that Henri may not prove ungrateful.""How so?"
"His mother is doing too much for him."
"Hush! what noise is that I hear in the rue Saint-Honore?" cried the Grand-master. "Listen! there is some one at Rene's door! Don't you hear the footsteps of many men. Can they have arrested the Ruggieri?""Ah, /diavolo/! this is prudence indeed. The king has not shown his usual impetuosity. But where will they imprison them? Let us go down into the street and see."The two brothers reached the corner of the rue de l'Autruche just as the king was entering the house of his mistress, Marie Touchet. By the light of the torches which the concierge carried, they distinguished Tavannes and the two Ruggieri.
"Hey, Tavannes!" cried the grand-master, running after the king's companion, who had turned and was making his way back to the Louvre, "What happened to you?""We fell into a nest of sorcerers and arrested two, compatriots of yours, who may perhaps be able to explain to the minds of French gentlemen how you, who are not Frenchmen, have managed to lay hands on two of the chief offices of the Crown," replied Tavannes, half jesting, half in earnest.
"But the king?" inquired the Grand-master, who cared little for Tavanne's enmity.
"He stays with his mistress."
"We reached our present distinction through an absolute devotion to our masters,--a noble course, my dear Tavannes, which I see that you also have adopted," replied Albert de Gondi.
The three courtiers walked on in silence. At the moment when they parted, on meeting their servants who then escorted them, two men glided swiftly along the walls of the rue de l'Autruche. These men were the king and the Comte de Solern, who soon reached the banks of the Seine, at a point where a boat and two rowers, carefully selected by de Solern, awaited them. In a very few moments they reached the other shore.
"My mother has not gone to bed," cried the king. "She will see us; we chose a bad place for the interview.""She will think it a duel," replied Solern; "and she cannot possibly distinguish who we are at this distance.""Well, let her see me!" exclaimed Charles IX. "I am resolved now!"The king and his confidant sprang ashore and walked quickly in the direction of the Pre-aux-Clercs. When they reached it the Comte de Solern, preceding the king, met a man who was evidently on the watch, and with whom he exchanged a few words; the man then retired to a distance. Presently two other men, who seemed to be princes by the marks of respect which the first man paid to them, left the place where they were evidently hiding behind the broken fence of a field, and approached the king, to whom they bent the knee. But Charles IX.
raised them before they touched the ground, saying:--"No ceremony, we are all gentlemen here."
A venerable old man, who might have been taken for the Chancelier de l'Hopital, had the latter not died in the preceding year, now joined the three gentlemen, all four walking rapidly so as to reach a spot where their conference could not be overheard by their attendants. The Comte de Solern followed at a slight distance to keep watch over the king. That faithful servant was filled with a distrust not shared by Charles IX., a man to whom life was now a burden. He was the only person on the king's side who witnessed this mysterious conference, which presently became animated.
"Sire," said one of the new-comers, "the Connetable de Montmorency, the closest friend of the king your father, agreed with the Marechal de Saint-Andre in declaring that Madame Catherine ought to be sewn up in a sack and flung into the river. If that had been done then, many worthy persons would still be alive.""I have enough executions on my conscience, monsieur," replied the king.
