Avoiding the
ante-room, where no doubt waited pages, users, and attendants, Pare
presently knocked at a small door, so hidden in the wain-scoting of
the passage that only a habitue could have found it without
strict search. It was at once opened, and the withered, motherly
face of an old woman, with keen black eyes under a formal tight
white cap, looked out.
'Eh! Maitre Pare,' she said, 'you have brought the poor young
gentleman? On my faith, he looks scarcely able to walk! Come in,
sir, and rest a while in my chamber while Maitre Ambroise goes on
to announce you to the King. He is more at ease to-day, the poor
child, and will relish some fresh talk.
Berenger knew this to be Philippe, the old Huguenot nurse, whom
Charles IX. loved most fondly, and in whom he found his greatest
comfort. He was very glad to sink into the seat she placed for
him, the only one is her small, bare room and recover breath there
while Pare passed on to the King, and she talked as one delighted
to have a hearer.
'Ah, yes, rest yourself--stay; I will give you a few spoonfuls of
the cordial potage I have here for the King; it will comfort your
heart. Ah! you have been cruelly mauled--but he would have saved
you if he could.
'Yes, good mother, I know that; the King has been my very good
lord.
'Ah! blessings on you if you say so from your heart, Monsieur; you
know me for one of your poor Reformed. And I tell you--I who saw
him born, who nursed him from his birth--that, suffer as you may,
you can never suffer as he does. Maitre Ambroise may talk of his
illness coming from blowing too much on his horn; I know better.
But, ah! to be here at night would make a stone shed tears of
blood. The Queen and I know it; but we say nothing, we only pray.
The sight of a Huguenot was so great a treat to the old woman in
her isolated life, that her tongue ran thus freely while Berenger
sat, scarce daring to speak or breathe in the strange boding
atmosphere of the palace, where the nurse and surgeon moved as
tolerated, privileged persons, in virtue of the necessity of the
one to the King--of the other to all the world. After all brief
interval Pare returned and beckoned to Berenger, who followed him
across a large state-bedroom to a much smaller one, which he
entered from under a heavy blue velvet curtain, and found himself
in an atmosphere heavy with warmth and perfume, and strangely
oppressed besides. On one side of the large fire sat the young
Queen, faded, wan, and with all animation or energy departed, only
gazing with a silent, wistful intentness at her husband. he was
opposite to her in a pillowed chair, his feet on a stool, with a
deadly white, padded, puffy cheek, and his great black eyes, always
prominent, now with a glassy look, and strained wide, as though
always gazing after some horrible sight. 'Madame la Comtesse
stood in her old, wooden, automaton fashion behind the Queen;
otherwise, no one was present save Pare, who, as he held up the
curtain, stood back to let M. de Ribaumont advance. He stood
still, however, merely bowing low, awaiting an invitation to come
forward, and trying to repress the startled tear called up by the
very shock of pity at the mournful aspect of the young King and
Queen.
Elisabeth, absorbed in her husband, and indifferent to all besides,
did not even turn her head as he entered; but Charles signed to him
to approach, holding out a yellow, dropsical-looking hand; and as
he dropped on one knew and kissed it fervently, the King said,
'Here he is, Madame, the Baron de Ribaumont, the same whose little
pleasure-boat was sucked down in our whirlpool.
All Elisabeth's memories seemed to have been blotted out in that
whirlpool, for she only bowed her head formally, and gave no look
of recognition, though she, too, allowed Berenger to salute her
listless, dejected hand. 'One would hardly have known him again,
continued the King, in a low husky voice; 'but I hope, sir, I see
you recovering.
'Thanks, Sire, to Heaven's goodness, and to your goodness in
sparing to me the services of Maitre Pare.
'Ah! there is none like Pare for curing a wound OUTSIDE,' said
Charles, then leant back silent; and Berenger, still kneeling, was
considering whether he ought to proffer his petition, when the King
continued, 'How fares your friend Sidney, M. le Baron?
'Right well, Sire. The Queen has made him one of her gentlemen.
'Not after this fashion,' said Charles, as with his finger he
traced the long scar on Berenger's face. 'Our sister of England
has different badges of merit from ours for her good subjects. Ha!
what say they of us in England, Baron?
'I have lain sick at home, Sire, and have neither seen nor heard,
said Berenger.
'Ah! one day more at Montpipeau had served your turn,' said the
King; 'but you are one who has floated up again. One--one at least
whose blood is not on my head.
The Queen looked up uneasy and imploring, as Charles continued:
'Would that more of you would come in this way! They have scored
you deep, but know you what is gashed deeper still? Your King's
heart! Ah! you will not come, as Coligny does, from his gibbet,
with his two bleeding hands. My father was haunted to his dying
day by the face of one Huguenot tailor. Why, I see a score, night
by night! You are solid; let me feel you, man.
'M. Pare,' exclaimed the poor Queen, 'take him away.
'No, Madame,' said the King, holding tight in his hot grasp
Berenger's hand, which was as pale as his own, long, thin, and
wasted, but cold from strong emotion; 'take not away the only
welcome sight I have seen for well-nigh two years.' He coughed,
and the handkerchief he put to his lips had blood on it; but he did
not quit his hold of his visitor, and presently said in a feeble
whisper, 'Tell me, how did you escape?
Pare, over the King's head, signed to him to make his narrative
take time; and indeed his speech was of necessity so slow, that by
the time he had related how Osbert had brought him safely to
England, the King had recovered himself so as to say, 'See what it
is to have a faithful servant. Which of those they have left me
would do as much for me? And now, being once away with your life,
what brings you back to this realm of ours, after your last
welcome?
'I left my wife here, Sire.
'Ha! and the cousin would have married her--obtained permission to
call himself Nid de Merle--but she slipped through his clumsy
fingers; did she not? Did you know anything of her, Madame?
'No,' said the Queen, looking up. 'She wrote to me once from her
convent; but I knew I could do nothing for her but bring her
enemies' notice on her; so I made no answer.
Berenger could hardly conceal his start of indignation--less at the
absolute omission, than at the weary indifference of the Queen's
confession. Perhaps the King saw it, for he added, 'So it is,
Ribaumont; the kindest service we can do our friends is to let them
alone; and, after all, it was not the worse for her. She did evade
her enemies?
'Yes, Sire,' said Berenger, commanding and steadying his voice with
great difficulty, 'she escaped in time to give birth to our child
in the ruined loft of an old grange of the Templars, under the care
of a Huguenot farmer, and a pastor who had known my father. Then
she took refuge in La Sablerie, and wrote to my mother, deeming me
dead. I was just well enough to go in quest of her. I came--ah!
Sire, I found only charred ruins. Your Majesty knows how Huguenot
bourgs are dealt with.
'And she---?
Berenger answered but by a look.
'Why did you come to tell me this?' said the King, passionately.
'Do you not know that they have killed me already? I thought you
came because there was still some one I could aid.
'There is, there is, Sire,' said Berenger, for once interrupting
royalty. 'None save you can give me my child. It is almost
certain that a good priest saved it; but it is in a convent, and
only with a royal order can one of my religion either obtain it, or
even have my questions answered.
'Nor with one in Paris,' said the King dryly; 'but in the country
the good mothers may still honour their King's hand. Here,
Ambroise, take pen and ink, and write the order. To whom?
'To the Mother Prioress of the Ursulines at Lucon, so please our
Majesty,' said Berenger, 'to let me have possession of my
daughter.
'Eh! is it only a little girl?
'Yes, Sire; but my heart yearns for her all the more,' said
Berenger, with glistening eyes.
'You are right,' said the poor King. 'Mine, too, is a little girl;
and I bless God daily that she is no son--to be the most wretched
thing the France. Let her come in, Madame. She is little older
than my friend's daughter. I would show her to him.
The Queen signed to Madame la Comtesse to fetch the child, and
Berenger added, 'Sire, you could do a further benefit to my poor
little one. One more signature of yours would attest that
ratification of my marriage which took place in your Majesty's
presence.
'Ah! I remember,' said Charles. 'You may have any name of mine
that can help you to oust that villain Narcisse; only wait to use
it--spare me any more storms. It will serve your turn as well when
I am beyond they, and you will make your claim good. What,' seeing
Berenger's interrogative look, 'do you not know that by the
marriage-contract the lands of each were settled on the survivor?
'No, Sire; I have never seen the marriage-contract.
'Your kinsman knew it well,' said Charles.
Just then, Madame la Comtesse returned, leading the little Princess
by the long ribbons at her waist; Charles bent forward, calling,
'Here, ma petite, come here. Here is one who loves thy father.
Look well at him, that thou mayest know him.
The little Madame Elisabeth so far understood, that, with a certain
lofty condescension, she extended her hand for the stranger to
kiss, and thus drew from the King the first smile that Berenger had
seen. She was more than half a year older than the Berangere on
whom his hopes were set, and whom he trusted to find not such a
pale, feeble, tottering little creature as this poor young daughter
of France, whose round black eyes gazed wonderingly at his scar;
but she was very precocious, and even already too much of a royal
lady to indulge in any awkward personal observation.
By the time she had been rewarded for her good behaviour by one of
the dried plums in her father's comfit-box, the order had been
written by Pare, and Berenger had prepared the certificate for the
King's signature, according to the form given him by his
grandfather.
'Your writing shakes nearly as much as mine,' said the poor King,
as he wrote his name to this latter. 'Now, Madame, you had better
sign it also; and tell this gentleman where to find Father Meinhard
in Austria. He was a little too true for us, do you see--would not
give thanks for shedding innocent blood. Ah!'--and with a gasp of
mournful longing, the King sank back, while Elisabeth, at his
bidding, added her name to the certificate, and murmured the name
of a convent in Vienna, where her late confessor could be found.
'I cannot thank you Majesty enough,' said Berenger; 'My child's
rights are now secure in England at least, and this'--as he held
the other paper for the King--'will give her to me.
'Ah! take it for what it is worth,' said the King, as he scrawled
his 'CHARLES' upon it. 'This order must be used promptly, or it
will avail you nothing. Write to Ambroise how you speed; that is,
if it will bring me one breath of good news.' And as Berenger
kissed his hand with tearful, inarticulate thanks, he proceeded,
'Save for that cause, I would ask you to come to me again. It does
me good. It is like a breath from Montpipeau--the last days of
hope--before the frenzy--the misery.
'Whenever your Majesty does me the honour---' began Berenger,
forgetting all except the dying man.
'I am not so senseless,' interrupted the King sharply; 'it would be
losing the only chance of undoing one wrong. Only, Ribaumont,' he
added fervently, 'for once let me hear that one man has pardoned
me.
'Sire, Sire,' sobbed Berenger, totally overcome, 'how can I speak
the word? How feel aught but love, loyalty, gratitude?
Charles half smiled again as he said in sad meditation--'Ah! it was
in me to have been a good king if they had let me. Think of me,
bid your friend Sidney think of me, as I would have been--not as I
have been--and pray, pray for me.' Then hiding his face in his
handkerchief, in a paroxysm of grief and horror, he murmured in a
stifled tone, 'Blood, blood, deliver me, good Lord!
In effect, there was so sudden a gush of blood from mouth and nose
that Berenger sprang to his feet in dismay, and was bona fide
performing the part of assistant to the surgeon, when, at the
Queen's cry, not only the nurse Philippe hurried in, but with her a
very dark, keen-looking man, who at once began applying strong
essences to the King's face, as Berenger supported his head. In a
few moments Pare looked up at Berenger, and setting him free,
intimated to him, between sign and whisper, to go into Philippe's
room and wait there; and it was high time, for though the youth had
felt nothing in the stress of the moment, he was almost swooning
when he reached the little chamber, and lay back in the nurse's
chair, with closed eyes, scarcely conscious how time went, or even
where he was, till he was partly aroused by hearing steps
returning.
'The poor young man,' said Philippe's kind voice, 'he is fainting.
Ah! no wonder it overcame any kind heart.
'How is the King?' Berenger tried to say, but his own voice still
sounded unnatural and far away.
'He is better for the time, and will sleep,' said Pare,
administering to his other patient some cordial drops as he spoke.
'There, sir; you will soon be able to return to the carriage. This
has been a sore trial to your strength.
'But I have gained all--all I could hope,' said Berenger, looking
at his precious papers. 'But, alas! the poor King!
'You will never, never let a word of blame pass against him,' cried
Philippe earnestly. 'It is well that one of our people should have
seen how it really is with him. All I regret is that Maitre Rene
thrust himself in and saw you.
'Who?' said Berenger, who had been too much engrossed to perceive
any one.
'Maitre Rene of Milan, the Queen-mother's perfume. He came with
some plea of bringing a pouncet-box from her, but I wager it was as
a spy. I was doing my best to walk him gently off, when the
Queen's cry called me, and he must needs come in after me.
'I saw him not,' said Berenger; 'perhaps he marked not me in the
confusion.
'I fear,' said Pare gravely, 'he was more likely to have his senses
about him than you. M. le Baron; these bleedings of the King's are
not so new to us familiars to the palace. The best thing now to be
done is to have you to the carriage, if you can move.
Berenger, now quite recovered, stood up, and gave his warm thanks
to the old nurse for her kindness to him.
'Ah! sir,' she said, 'you are one of us. Pray, pray that God will
have mercy on my poor child! He has the truth in his heart. Pray
that it may save him at the last.
Ambroise, knowing that she would never cease speaking while there
was any one to hear her, almost dragged Berenger out at the little
secret door, conveyed him safely down the stairs, and placed him
again in the carriage. Neither spoke till the surgeon said, 'You
have seen a sad sight, Monsieur le Baron: I need not bid you be
discreet.
'There are some things that go too deep for speech,' sighed the
almost English Berenger; then, after a pause, 'Is there no hope for
him? Is he indeed dying?
'Without a miracle, he cannot live a month. He is as truly slain
by the St. Bartholomew as ever its martyrs were,' said Pare, moved
out of his usual cautious reserve towards one who had seen so much
and felt so truly. 'I tell you, sir, that his mother hath as truly
slain her sons, as if she had sent Rene there to them with his
drugs. According as they have consciences and hearts, so they pine
and perish under her rule.
Berenger shuddered, and almost sobbed, 'And hath he no better hope,
no comforter?' he asked.
'None save good old Flipote. As you heard, the Queen-mother will
not suffer his own Church to speak to him in her true voice. No
confessor but one chosen by the Cardinal of Lorraine may come near
him; and with him all is mere ceremony. But if at the last he
opens his ear and heart to take in the true hope of salvation, it
will be from the voice of poor old Philippe.
And so it was! It was Philippe, who heard him in the night sobbing
over the piteous words, 'My God, what horrors, what blood!' and, as
she took from his tear-drenched handkerchief, spoke to him of the
Blood that speakth better things than the blood of Abel; and it was
she who, in the final agony, heard and treasured these last words,
'If the Lord Jesus will indeed receive me into the company of the
blest!' Surely, never was repentance deeper than that of Charles
IX.--and these, his parting words, were such as to inspire the
trust that it was not remorse.
All-important as Berenger's expedition had been, he still could
think of little but the poor King; and, wearied out as he was, he
made very little reply to the astonished friends who gathered round
him on his return. He merely told Philip that he had succeeded,
and then lay almost without speaking on his bed till the Ambassador
made his evening visit, when he showed him the two papers. Sir
Francis could hardly believe his good fortune in having obtained
this full attestation of the marriage, and promised to send to the
English Ambassador in Germany, to obtain the like from Father
Meinhard. The document itself he advised Berenger not to expose to
the dangers of the French journey, but to leave it with him to be
forwarded direct to Lord Walwyn. It was most important, both as
obviating any dispute on the legitimacy of the child, if she lived;
or, if not, it would establish those rights of Berenger to the Nid
de Merle estates, of which he had heard from the King. This
information explained what were the claims that the Chevalier was
so anxious to hush up by a marriage with Madame de Selinville.
Berenger, as his wife's heir, was by this contract the true owner
of the estates seized by the Chevalier and his son, and could only
be ousted, either by his enemies proving his contract to Eustacie
invalid and to be unfulfilled, or by his own voluntary resignation.
The whole scheme was clear to Walsingham, and he wasted advice upon
unheeding ears, as to how Berenger should act to obtain restitution
so soon as he should be of age, and how he should try to find out
the notary who had drawn up the contract. If Berenger cared at
all, it was rather for the sake of punishing and balking Narcisse,
than with any desire of the inheritance; and even for righteous
indignation he was just now too weary and too sad. He could not
discuss his rights to Nid de Merle, if they passed over the rights
of Eustacie's child, round whom his affection were winding
themselves as his sole hope.
The next evening Pare came in quest of Berenger, and after a calm,
refreshing, hopeful Ascension-day, which had been a real balm to
the weary spirit, found him enjoying the sweet May sunshine under a
tree in the garden. 'I am glad to find you out of doors,' he said;
'I fear I must hasten your departure.
'I burn to lose no time,' cried Berenger. 'Prithee tell them I may
safely go! They all call it madness to think of setting out.
'Ordinarily it would be,' said Pare; 'but Rene of Milan has sent
his underlings to see who is my new, tall assistant. He will
report all to the Queen-mother; and though in this house you could
scarcely suffer personal harm, yet the purpose of your journey
might be frustrated, and the King might have to undergo another of
those bourrasques which he may well dread.
'I will go this very night,' said Berenger, starting up; 'where is
Philip?--where is Sir Francis?
Even that very night Pare thought not too soon, and the Ascension-
tide illuminations brought so many persons abroad that it would be
easy to go unnoticed; and in the general festivity, when every one
was coming and going from the country to gaze or worship at the
shrines and the images decked in every church, it would be easy for
the barriers to be passed without observation. Then the brothers
would sleep at a large hostel, the first on the road to England,
where Walsingham's couriers and guest always baited, and the next
morning he would send out to them their attendants, with houses for
their further journey back into Anjou. If any enemies were on the
watch, this would probably put them off the scent, and it only
remained further to be debated, whether the Norman Guibert had
better be dismissed at once or taken with them. There was always
soft place in Berenger's heart for a Norman, and the man was really
useful; moreover, he would certainly be safer employed and in their
company, than turned loose to tell the Chevalier all he might have
picked up in the Hotel d'Angleterre. It was therefore decided that
he should be the attendant of the two young men, and he received
immediate orders that night to pack up their garments, and hold
himself ready.
Nevertheless, before the hour of departure, Guibert had stolen out,
had an interview with the Chevalier de Ribaumont at the Hotel de
Selinville, and came back with more than one good French crown in
his pocket, and hopes of more.