The Duke's Motto: A Melodrama Page 16

  XV

  THE KING'S WORD

  In a moment Lagardere enveloped himself in his gypsy's cloak and flunghimself on one of the benches of the Inn, where he lay as if wrapped inthe heavy sleep which is the privilege of those that live in the open airand follow the stars with their feet. When the king, accompanied byChavernay and followed by Bonnivet, crossed the bridge and paused beforethe Inn, nothing was to be noticed save the huddle of gray cloth whichrepresented some tired wayfarer.

  Louis of France looked about him curiously. "Is this the Inn of the ThreeGraces?" he asked.

  He even allowed himself to laugh a small laugh.

  The Marquis of Chavernay smiled a faint smile. "Yes, your majesty, andsince I have been privileged to behold two of its three attendant gracesin the flesh, and found them most commendable girls and goddesses, Ithink, without indiscretion, I could hazard a guess as to your reason forthis visit."

  The king looked at his impudent companion with the complaisant good-humorwhich, since his much-talked-of bereavement, he was prepared to extendto those most fortunate among his courtiers who could succeed indiverting his melancholy. He was familiar with Chavernay's impertinences,for Chavernay had soon discovered that the witticisms which would havegained the frown of the cardinal earned the smiles of the king. "Truly,"he said--"truly, I do come for an assignation, but it is with no woman.You boys think of nothing in the world but women."

  Chavernay made the king a most sweeping reverence. "Your majesty would,if your majesty deigned to condescend so far, prove the most fatal rivalof your most amorous subject."

  Since the death of the cardinal, Louis liked it to be hinted that he wasstill the man of gallantry, irresistible when he pleased. So he smiled ashe caught Chavernay's ear and pinched it. "Imp, do you think you lads arethe only gallants, and that we old soldiers must give way to you?"

  Chavernay saluted him again. "You are our general, your majesty--we winour battles in your name."

  Louis laughed and then looked grave, smiled again and then sighed. "Mydear Chavernay, when you are my age you will think that one pretty womanis very like another pretty woman. But there is no pretty woman in thiscase."

  Chavernay made a still more ironical bow. "Your majesty!" he said, withan air that implied: "Of course I must appear to believe you, but inreality I do not believe you at all." Chavernay was thinking to himselfof the adorable creatures whom he had seen disappear within the walls ofthe Inn and the walls of the caravan, and he drew his conclusionsaccordingly, and drew them wrong. When the king answered him, heanswered, gravely, as one who objects to have his word questioned even bya frivolous spirit like Chavernay.

  "I come here," he said, "in reply to a letter I received two days ago--aletter which appeals to me by a name which compels me to consider theappeal. That is why I come here to-day. My correspondent makes it acondition that I come alone. Take Bonnivet with you. Keep within call,but out of sight."

  Chavernay bowed very respectfully this time. The newest friends of Louisof France knew that they best pleased him by appearing to presume on hisgood-nature, but even the lightest and liveliest of them felt that therewas a point beyond which he must not venture to presume. Chavernay feltinstinctively that he had reached that point now, and his manner was apattern to presentable courtiers.

  "Yes, your majesty," he said, and turned to Bonnivet, and Bonnivet and hewent over the bridge and out of sight among a little clump of trees onthe roadside. From here they could see the king plainly enough, and hearhim if he chose to raise his voice loud enough to call them, but herethey were out of ear-shot of any private conversation. That theirpresence in the neighborhood was scarcely necessary they were both wellaware, for there were few conspiracies against the king's authority andno plots against the king's life, and if Louis of France had chosen to gounattended his pompous, melancholy person would have been in no danger.

  Louis walked slowly to the little table in the arbor, and, seatinghimself, took out a letter from his pocket and read it thoughtfully over.Then he drew a watch looped in diamonds from his pocket and looked at thehour. As he did so the huddled, seeming sleeping figure on the benchstiffened itself, sat up erect, and cast off its cloak.

  Lagardere rose and advanced towards the king. "I am here," he said, in afirm, respectful voice.

  Louis turned round and looked with curiosity but without apprehension atthe man who addressed him, the man who was dressed like a gypsy, but whoclearly was no gypsy. "Are you the writer of this letter?" he asked.

  Lagardere saluted him with a graceful reverence. "Yes, your Majesty. Iknow that you are the King of France."

  Louis slightly inclined his head. "I could not refuse a summons thatpromised to tell me of Louis de Nevers. Are you Lagardere?"

  Lagardere made a gesture as of protest. "I am his ambassador. Have I theprivilege of an ambassador?"

  The king frowned slightly. "What privilege?"

  "Immunity if my mission displeases you," Lagardere answered.

  The king looked steadily at the seeming gypsy, who returned his glance assteadily. "You are bold, sir," he said.

  Lagardere answered him, with composure. "I am bold because I addressLouis of France, who never broke his word--Louis of France, who stillholds dear the memory of Louis of Nevers."

  The king signed to him to continue. "Speak freely. What do you know ofLouis of Nevers?"

  Lagardere went on: "Lagardere knows much. He knows who killed Nevers. Heknows where Nevers's child is. He can produce the child. He can denouncethe murderer."

  "When?" asked the king, eagerly.

  "To-morrow," Lagardere answered. Then he hastened to add: "But he makeshis conditions."

  Louis frowned as Lagardere mentioned the word "conditions," and asked:"What reward does he want?"

  Lagardere smiled at the question. "You do not know Lagardere. He asks fora safe-conduct for himself."

  The king agreed. "He shall have it."

  But Lagardere had more to ask. "He also wants four invitations for theball your majesty gives at the Palais Royal to-morrow night."

  Perhaps Lagardere showed himself something of a courtier in this speech.The great Richelieu had bequeathed to the little Louis his splendiddwelling-house, and Louis was indeed giving a stately entertainmentthere, avowedly in order to do honor to the memory of him who had madeso munificent a gift, but in reality to prove to himself that he wasmaster where he had been slave, and that he could, if he pleased, amusehimself to his heart's content in the house that had been the dwelling ofhis tyrant. What Louis, always dissimulative, feigned to be an act ofgracious homage to dead generosity was in truth an act of defiant andsafe self-assertion. Perhaps Lagardere guessed as much. Certainly heplayed agreeably upon the king's susceptibilities when he gave toRichelieu's bequest the name of Palais Royal, which was still quiteunfamiliar, instead of the name of Palais Cardinal, which it had worn solong and by which name almost every one still called it. Certainly theking's pale cheeks reddened with satisfaction at the phrase; it assuredhim soothingly of what he was pleased to consider his triumph. But heallowed a slight expression of surprise to mingle with his air ofcomplacency, and Lagardere hastened to give the reason for what was onthe face of it a sufficiently strange request.

  "There, before the flower of the nobility of France, Lagardere willdenounce Nevers's assassin and produce Nevers's child."

  The king agreed again. "He shall have his wish. Where shall theinvitations be sent?"

  Lagardere bowed low in acknowledgment of the promise. "Sire," he said,"an emissary from Lagardere will wait upon your secretary to-morrowmorning He will say that he has come for four invitations promised byyour majesty for to-morrow night, and he will back his demand with thepassword 'Nevers.'"

  The king bowed his head. "It shall be done as you wish," he answered. "Isthere anything more?" he asked, and Lagardere replied: "This much more:that your majesty speak nothing of this to any one till midnightto-morrow."

  The king agreed a third time. "Lagardere has my wo
rd."

  "Then," said Lagardere, "Lagardere will keep his word."

  Louis rose to his feet, and signed that the interview was ended. "If hedoes, I am his friend for life. But if he fail, let him never enterFrance again, for on my word as a gentleman I will have his head."

  He saluted Lagardere slightly, and turned and crossed the bridge. A fewpaces beyond it he was joined by Chavernay and Bonnivet. The three stoodtogether for a few moments; then the king and Bonnivet continued theirjourney towards Neuilly, leaving Chavernay behind them, lingering in theshade of the trees.