“If obligingness is the vocation of financiers, charity is the virtue of the clergy. Only, on this occasion, do you act, monsieur. You are not yet sufficiently reduced, and at the last moment we will see what is to be done.”
“We shall see, then, in a very short time.”
“Very well. However, permit me to tell you that, personally, I regret exceedingly that you are at present so short of money, because I myself was about to ask you for some.”
“For yourself?”
“For myself, or some of my people, for mine or for ours.”
“How much do you want?”
“Be easy on that score; a roundish sum, it is true, but not too exorbitant.”
“Tell me the amount.”
“Fifty thousand francs.”
“Oh! a mere nothing. Of course one has always fifty thousand francs. Why the deuce cannot that knave Colbert be as easily satisfied as you are – and I should give myself far less trouble than I do. When do you need this sum?”
“To-morrow morning; but you wish to know its destination?”
“Nay, nay, chevalier, I need no explanation.”
“To-morrow is the first of June.”
“Well?”
“One of our bonds becomes due.”
“I did not know we had any bonds.”
“Certainly, to-morrow we pay our last third instalment.”
“What third?”
“Of the one hundred and fifty thousand francs to Baisemeaux.”
“Baisemeaux? Who is he?”
“The governor of the Bastile.”
“Yes, I remember. On what grounds am I to pay one hundred and fifty thousand francs for that man.”
“On account of the appointment which he, or rather we, purchased from Louviere and Tremblay.”
“I have a very vague recollection of the matter.”
“That is likely enough, for you have so many affairs to attend to. However, I do not believe you have any affair in the world of greater importance than this one.”
“Tell me, then, why we purchased this appointment.”
“Why, in order to render him a service in the first place, and afterwards ourselves.”
“Ourselves? You are joking.”
“Monseigneur, the time may come when the governor of the Bastile may prove a very excellent acquaintance.”
“I have not the good fortune to understand you, D’Herblay.”
“Monseigneur, we had our own poets, our own engineer, our own architect, our own musicians, our own printer, and our own painters; we needed our own governor of the Bastile.”
“Do you think so?”
“Let us not deceive ourselves, monseigneur; we are very much opposed to paying the Bastile a visit,” added the prelate, displaying, beneath his pale lips, teeth which were still the same beautiful teeth so much admired thirty years previously by Marie Michon.
“And you think it is not too much to pay one hundred and fifty thousand francs for that? I thought you generally put out money at better interest than that.”
“The day will come when you will admit your mistake.”
“My dear D’Herblay, the very day on which a man enters the Bastile, he is no longer protected by his past.”
“Yes, he is, if the bonds are perfectly regular; besides, that good fellow Baisemeaux has not a courtier’s heart. I am certain, my lord, that he will not remain ungrateful for that money, without taking into account, I repeat, that I retain the acknowledgements.”
“It is a strange affair! usury in a matter of benevolence.”
“Do not mix yourself up with it, monseigneur; if there be usury, it is I who practice it, and both of us reap the advantage from it – that is all.”
“Some intrigue, D’Herblay?”
“I do not deny it.”
“And Baisemeaux an accomplice in it?”
“Why not? – there are worse accomplices than he. May I depend, then, upon the five thousand pistoles to-morrow?”
“Do you want them this evening?”
“It would be better, for I wish to start early; poor Baisemeaux will not be able to imagine what has be become of me, and must be upon thorns.”
“You shall have the amount in an hour. Ah, D’Herblay, the interest of your one hundred and fifty thousand francs will never pay my four millions for me.”
“Why not, monseigneur?”
“Good-night, I have business to transact with my clerks before I retire.”
“A good night’s rest, monseigneur.”
“D’Herblay, you wish things that are impossible.”
“Shall I have my fifty thousand francs this evening?”
“Yes.”
“Go to sleep, then, in perfect safety – it is I who tell you to do so.”
Notwithstanding this assurance, and the tone in which it was given, Fouquet left the room shaking his head, and heaving a sigh.
Chapter XXIII:
M. Baisemeaux de Montlezun’s Accounts.
The clock of St. Paul was striking seven as Aramis, on horseback, dressed as a simple citizen, that is to say, in colored suit, with no distinctive mark about him, except a kind of hunting-knife by his side, passed before the Rue du Petit-Musc, and stopped opposite the Rue des Tournelles, at the gate of the Bastile. Two sentinels were on duty at the gate; they made no difficulty about admitting Aramis, who entered without dismounting, and they pointed out the way he was to go by a long passage with buildings on both sides. This passage led to the drawbridge, or, in other words, to the real entrance. The drawbridge was down, and the duty of the day was about being entered upon. The sentinel at the outer guardhouse stopped Aramis’s further progress, asking him, in a rough tone of voice, what had brought him there. Aramis explained, with his usual politeness, that a wish to speak to M. Baisemeaux de Montlezun had occasioned his visit. The first sentinel then summoned a second sentinel, stationed within an inner lodge, who showed his face at the grating, and inspected the new arrival most attentively. Aramis reiterated the expression of his wish to see the governor; whereupon the sentinel called to an officer of lower grade, who was walking about in a tolerably spacious courtyard and who, in turn, on being informed of his object, ran to seek one of the officers of the governor’s staff. The latter, after having listened to Aramis’s request, begged him to wait a moment, then went away a short distance, but returned to ask his name. “I cannot tell it you, monsieur,” said Aramis; “I need only mention that I have matters of such importance to communicate to the governor, that I can only rely beforehand upon one thing, that M. de Baisemeaux will be delighted to see me; nay, more than that, when you have told him that it is the person whom he expected on the first of June, I am convinced he will hasten here himself.” The officer could not possibly believe that a man of the governor’s importance should put himself out for a person of so little importance as the citizen-looking visitor on horseback. “It happens most fortunately, monsieur,” he said, “that the governor is just going out, and you can perceive his carriage with the horses already harnessed, in the courtyard yonder; there will be no occasion for him to come to meet you, as he will see you as he passes by.” Aramis bowed to signify his assent; he did not wish to inspire others with too exalted an opinion of himself, and therefore waited patiently and in silence, leaning upon the saddle-bow of his horse. Ten minutes had hardly elapsed when the governor’s carriage was observed to move. The governor appeared at the door, and got into the carriage, which immediately prepared to start. The same ceremony was observed for the governor himself as with a suspected stranger; the sentinel at the lodge advanced as the carriage was about to pass under the arch, and the governor opened the carriage- door, himself setting the example of obedience to orders; so that, in this way, the sentinel could convince himself that no one quitted the Bastile improperly. The carriage rolled along under the archway, but at the moment the iron-gate was opened, the officer approached the carriage, which had again been stopped, and said something to the governor, who immediately put his head out of the door-way, and perceived Aramis on horseback at the end of the drawbridge. He immediately uttered almost a shout of delight, and got out, or rather darted out of his carriage, running towards Aramis, whose hands he seized, making a thousand apologies. He almost embraced him. “What a difficult matter to enter the Bastile!” said Aramis. “Is it the same for those who are sent here against their wills, as for those who come of their own accord?”
“A thousand pardons, my lord. How delighted I am to see your Grace!”
“Hush! What are you thinking of, my dear M. Baisemeaux? What do you suppose would be thought of a bishop in my present costume?”
“Pray, excuse me, I had forgotten. Take this gentleman’s horse to the stables,” cried Baisemeaux.
“No, no,” said Aramis; “I have five thousand pistoles in the saddle-bags.”
The governor’s countenance became so radiant, that if the prisoners had seen him they would have imagined some prince of the royal blood had arrived. “Yes, you are right, the horse shall be taken to the government house. Will you get into the carriage, my dear M. d’Herblay? and it shall take us back to my house.”
“Get into a carriage to cross a courtyard! do you believe I am so great an invalid? No, no, we will go on foot.”
Baisemeaux then offered his arm as a support, but the prelate did not accept it. They arrived in this manner at the government house, Baisemeaux rubbing his hands and glancing at the horse from time to time, while Aramis was looking at the bleak bare walls. A tolerably handsome vestibule and a staircase of white stone led to the governor’s apartments, who crossed the ante-chamber, the dining-room, where breakfast was being prepared, opened a small side door, and closeted himself with his guest in a large cabinet, the windows of which opened obliquely upon the courtyard and the stables. Baisemeaux installed the prelate with that all-inclusive politeness of which a good man, or a grateful man, alone possesses the secret. An arm-chair, a footstool, a small table beside him, on which to rest his hand, everything was prepared by the governor himself. With his own hands, too, he placed upon the table, with much solicitude, the bag containing the gold, which one of the soldiers had brought up with the most respectful devotion; and the soldier having left the room, Baisemeaux himself closed the door after him, drew aside one of the window-curtains, and looked steadfastly at Aramis to see if the prelate required anything further.
“Well, my lord,” he said, still standing up, “of all men of their word, you still continue to be the most punctual.”
“In matters of business, dear M. de Baisemeaux, exactitude is not a virtue only, it is a duty as well.”
“Yes, in matters of business, certainly; but what you have with me is not of that character; it is a service you are rendering me.”
“Come, confess, dear M. de Baisemeaux, that, notwithstanding this exactitude, you have not been without a little uneasiness.”
“About your health, I certainly have,” stammered out Baisemeaux.
“I wished to come here yesterday, but I was not able, as I was too fatigued,” continued Aramis. Baisemeaux anxiously slipped another cushion behind his guest’s back. “But,” continued Aramis, “I promised myself to come and pay you a visit to-day, early in the morning.”
“You are really very kind, my lord.”
“And it was a good thing for me I was punctual, I think.”
“What do you mean?”
“Yes, you were going out.” At which latter remark Baisemeaux colored and said, “It is true I was going out.”
“Then I prevent you,” said Aramis; whereupon the embarrassment of Baisemeaux became visibly greater. “I am putting you to inconvenience,” he continued, fixing a keen glace upon the poor governor; “if I had known that, I should not have come.”
“How can your lordship imagine that you could ever inconvenience me?”
“Confess you were going in search of money.”
“No,” stammered out Baisemeaux, “no! I assure you I was going to – “
“Does the governor still intend to go to M. Fouquet?” suddenly called out the major from below. Baisemeaux ran to the window like a madman. “No, no,” he exclaimed in a state of desperation, “who the deuce is speaking of M. Fouquet? are you drunk below there? why am I interrupted when I am engaged on business?”
“You were going to M. Fouquet’s,” said Aramis, biting his lips, “to M. Fouquet, the abbe, or the superintendent?”
Baisemeaux almost made up his mind to tell an untruth, but he could not summon courage to do so. “To the superintendent,” he said.
“It is true, then, that you were in want of money, since you were going to a person who gives it away!”
“I assure you, my lord – “
“You were afraid?”
“My dear lord, it was the uncertainty and ignorance in which I was as to where you were to be found.”
“You would have found the money you require at M. Fouquet’s, for he is a man whose hand is always open.”
“I swear that I should never have ventured to ask M. Fouquet for money. I only wished to ask him for your address.”
“To ask M. Fouquet for my address?” exclaimed Aramis, opening his eyes in real astonishment.
“Yes,” said Baisemeaux, greatly disturbed by the glance which the prelate fixed upon him, – “at M. Fouquet’s certainly.”
“There is no harm in that, dear M. Baisemeaux, only I would ask, why ask my address of M. Fouquet?”
“That I might write to you.”
“I understand,” said Aramis smiling, “but that is not what I meant; I do not ask you what you required my address for: I only ask why you should go to M. Fouquet for it?”
“Oh!” said Baisemeaux, “as Belle-Isle is the property of M. Fouquet, and as Belle-Isle is in the diocese of Vannes, and as you are bishop of Vannes – “
“But, my dear Baisemeaux, since you knew I was bishop of Vannes, you had no occasion to ask M. Fouquet for my address.”
“Well, monsieur,” said Baisemeaux, completely at bay, “if I have acted indiscreetly, I beg your pardon most sincerely.”
“Nonsense,” observed Aramis calmly: “how can you possibly have acted indiscreetly?” And while he composed his face, and continued to smile cheerfully on the governor, he was considering how Baisemeaux, who was not aware of his address, knew, however, that Vannes was his residence. “I shall clear all this up,” he said to himself; and then speaking aloud, added, – “Well, my dear governor shall we now arrange our little accounts?”
“I am at your orders, my lord; but tell me beforehand, my lord, whether you will do me the honor to breakfast with me as usual?”
“Very willingly, indeed.”
“That’s well,” said Baisemeaux, as he struck the bell before him three times.
“What does that mean?” inquired Aramis.
“That I have some one to breakfast with me, and that preparations are to be made accordingly.”
“And you rang thrice. Really, my dear governor, I begin to think you are acting ceremoniously with me.”
“No, indeed. Besides, the least I can do is to receive you in the best way I can.”
“But why so?”
“Because not even a prince could have done what you have done for me.”
“Nonsense! nonsense!”
“Nay, I assure you – “
“Let us speak of other matters,” said Aramis. “Or rather, tell me how your affairs here are getting on.”
“Not over well.”
“The deuce!”
“M. de Mazarin was not hard enough.”
“Yes, I see; you require a government full of suspicion – like that of the old cardinal, for instance.”
“Yes; matters went on better under him. The brother of his ‘gray eminence’ made his fortune here.”
“Believe me, my dear governor,” said Aramis, drawing closer to Baisemeaux, “a young king is well worth an old cardinal. Youth has its suspicions, its fits of anger, its prejudices, as old age has its hatreds, its precautions, and its fears. Have you paid your three years’ profits to Louvidre and Tremblay?”
“Most certainly I have.”
“So that you have nothing more to give them than the fifty thousand francs I have brought with me?”
“Nothing.”
“Have you not saved anything, then?”
“My lord, in giving the fifty thousand francs of my own to these gentlemen, I assure you that I gave them everything I gain. I told M. d’Artagnan so yesterday evening.”
“Ah!” said Aramis, whose eyes sparkled for a moment, but became immediately afterwards as unmoved as before; “so you have been to see my old friend D’Artagnan; how was he?”
“Wonderfully well.”
“And what did you say to him, M. de Baisemeaux?”
“I told him,” continued the governor, not perceiving his own thoughtlessness; “I told him that I fed my prisoners too well.”
“How many have you?” inquired Aramis, in an indifferent tone of voice.
“Sixty.”
“Well, that is a tolerably round number.”
“In former times, my lord, there were, during certain years, as many as two hundred.”
“Still a minimum of sixty is not to be grumbled at.”
“Perhaps not; for, to anybody but myself, each prisoner would bring in two hundred and fifty pistoles; for instance, for a prince of the blood I have fifty francs a day.”
“Only you have no prince of the blood; at least, I suppose so,” said Aramis, with a slight tremor in his voice.
“No, thank heaven! – I mean, no, unfortunately.”
“What do you mean by unfortunately?”
“Because my appointment would be improved by it. So fifty francs per day for a prince of the blood, thirty-six for a marechal of France – “
“But you have as many marechals of France, I suppose, as you have princes of the blood?”
“Alas! no more. It is true lieutenant-generals and brigadiers pay twenty- six francs, and I have two of them. After that, come councilors of parliament, who bring me fifteen francs, and I have six of them.”
“I did not know,” said Aramis, “that councilors were so productive.”
“Yes; but from fifteen francs I sink at once to ten francs; namely, for an ordinary judge, and for an ecclesiastic.”
“And you have seven, you say; an excellent affair.”
“Nay, a bad one, and for this reason. How can I possibly treat these poor fellows, who are of some good, at all events, otherwise than as a councilor of parliament?”
“Yes, you are right; I do not see five francs difference between them.”
“You understand; if I have a fine fish, I pay four or five francs for it; if I get a fine fowl, it cost me a franc and a half. I fatten a good deal of poultry, but I have to buy grain, and you cannot imagine the army of rats that infest this place.”
“Why not get half a dozen cats to deal with them?”
“Cats, indeed; yes, they eat them, but I was obliged to give up the idea because of the way in which they treated my grain. I have been obliged to have some terrier dogs sent me from England to kill the rats. These dogs, unfortunately, have tremendous appetites; they eat as much as a prisoner of the fifth order, without taking into account the rabbits and fowls they kill.”
Was Aramis really listening or not? No one could have told; his downcast eyes showed the attentive man, but the restless hand betrayed the man absorbed in thought – Aramis was meditating.
“I was saying,” continued Baisemeaux, “that a good-sized fowl costs me a franc and a half, and that a fine fish costs me four or five francs. Three meals are served at the Bastile, and, as the prisoners, having nothing to do, are always eating, a ten-franc man costs me seven francs and a half.”
“But did you not say that you treated those at ten francs like those at fifteen?”
“Yes, certainly.”
“Very well! Then you gain seven francs and a half upon those who pay you fifteen francs.”
“I _must_ compensate myself somehow,” said Baisemeaux, who saw how he had been snapped up.
“You are quite right, my dear governor; but have you no prisoners below ten francs?”
“Oh, yes! we have citizens and barristers at five francs.”
“And do they eat, too?”
“Not a doubt about it; only you understand that they do not get fish or poultry, nor rich wines at every meal; but at all events thrice a week they have a good dish at their dinner.”
“Really, you are quite a philanthropist, my dear governor, and you will ruin yourself.”
“No; understand me; when the fifteen-franc has not eaten his fowl, or the ten-franc has left his dish unfinished, I send it to the five-franc prisoner; it is a feast for the poor devil, and one must be charitable, you know.”
“And what do you make out of your five-franc prisoners?”
“A franc and a half.”
“Baisemeaux, you’re an honest fellow; in honest truth I say so.”
“Thank you, my lord. But I feel most for the small tradesmen and bailiffs’ clerks, who are rated at three francs. They do not often see Rhine carp or Channel sturgeon.”
“But do not the five-franc gentlemen sometimes leave some scraps?”
“Oh! my lord, do not believe I am so stingy as that; I delight the heart of some poor little tradesman or clerk by sending him a wing of a red partridge, a slice of venison, or a slice of a truffled pasty, dishes which he never tasted except in his dreams; these are the leavings of the twenty-four-franc prisoners; and as he eats and drinks, at dessert he cries ‘Long live the King,’ and blesses the Bastile; with a couple bottles of champagne, which cost me five sous, I make him tipsy every Sunday. That class of people call down blessings upon me, and are sorry to leave the prison. Do you know that I have remarked, and it does me infinite honor, that certain prisoners, who have been set at liberty, have, almost immediately afterwards, got imprisoned again? Why should this be the case, unless it be to enjoy the pleasures of my kitchen? It is really the fact.”
Aramis smiled with an expression of incredulity.
“You smile,” said Baisemeaux.
“I do,” returned Aramis.
“I tell you that we have names which have been inscribed on our books thrice in the space of two years.”
“I must see it before I believe it,” said Aramis.
“Well, I can show it to you, although it is prohibited to communicate the registers to strangers; and if you really wish to see it with your own eyes – “
“I should be delighted, I confess.”
“Very well,” said Baisemeaux, and he took out of a cupboard a large register. Aramis followed him most anxiously with his eyes, and Baisemeaux returned, placed the register upon the table, and turned over the leaves for a minute, and stayed at the letter M.
“Look here,” said he, “Martinier, January, 1659; Martinier, June, 1660; Martinier, March, 1661. Mazarinades, etc.; you understand it was only a pretext; people were not sent to the Bastile for jokes against M. Mazarin; the fellow denounced himself in order to get imprisoned here.”
“And what was his object?”
“None other than to return to my kitchen at three francs a day.”
“Three francs – poor devil!”
“The poet, my lord, belongs to the lowest scale, the same style of board as the small tradesman and bailiff’s clerk; but I repeat, it is to those people that I give these little surprises.”
Aramis mechanically turned over the leaves of the register, continuing to read the names, but without appearing to take any interest in the names he read.
“In 1661, you perceive,” said Baisemeaux, “eighty entries; and in 1659, eighty also.”
“Ah!” said Aramis. “Seldon; I seem to know that name. Was it not you who spoke to me about a certain young man?”
“Yes, a poor devil of a student, who made – What do you call that where two Latin verses rhyme together?”
“A distich.”
“Yes; that is it.”
“Poor fellow; for a distich.”
“Do you know that he made this distich against the Jesuits?”
“That makes no difference; the punishment seems very severe. Do not pity him; last year you seemed to interest yourself in him.”
“Yes, I did so.”
“Well, as your interest is all-powerful here, my lord, I have treated him since that time as a prisoner at fifteen francs.”
“The same as this one, then,” said Aramis, who had continued turning over the leaves, and who had stopped at one of the names which followed Martinier.
“Yes, the same as that one.”
“Is that Marchiali an Italian?” said Aramis, pointing with his finger to the name which had attracted his attention.
“Hush!” said Baisemeaux.
“Why hush?” said Aramis, involuntarily clenching his white hand.
“I thought I had already spoken to you about that Marchiali.”
“No, it is the first time I ever heard his name pronounced.”
“That may be, but perhaps I have spoken to you about him without naming him.”
“Is he an old offender?” asked Aramis, attempting to smile.
“On the contrary, he is quite young.”
“Is his crime, then, very heinous?”
“Unpardonable.”
“Has he assassinated any one?”
“Bah!”
“An incendiary, then?”
“Bah!”
“Has he slandered any one?”
“No, no! It is he who – ” and Baisemeaux approached Aramis’s ear, making a sort of ear-trumpet of his hands, and whispered: “It is he who presumes to resemble the – “
“Yes, yes,” said Aramis; “I now remember you already spoke about it last year to me; but the crime appeared to me so slight.”
“Slight, do you say?”
“Or rather, so involuntary.”
“My lord, it is not involuntarily that such a resemblance is detected.”
“Well, the fact is, I had forgotten it. But, my dear host,” said Aramis, closing the register, “if I am not mistaken, we are summoned.”
Baisemeaux took the register, hastily restored it to its place in the closet, which he locked, and put the key in his pocket. “Will it be agreeable to your lordship to breakfast now?” said he; “for you are right in supposing that breakfast was announced.”
“Assuredly, my dear governor,” and they passed into the dining-room.
Chapter XXIV:
The Breakfast at Monsieur de Baisemeaux’s.
Aramis was generally temperate; but on this occasion, while taking every care of his constitution, he did ample justice to Baisemeaux’s breakfast, which, in all respects, was most excellent. The latter on his side, was animated with the wildest gayety; the sight of the five thousand pistoles, which he glanced at from time to time, seemed to open his heart. Every now and then he looked at Aramis with an expression of the deepest gratitude; while the latter, leaning back in his chair, took a few sips of wine from his glass, with the air of a connoisseur. “Let me never hear any ill words against the fare of the Bastile,” said he, half closing his eyes; “happy are the prisoners who can get only half a bottle of such Burgundy every day.”
“All those at fifteen francs drink it,” said Baisemeaux. “It is very old Volnay.”
“Does that poor student, Seldon, drink such good wine?”
“Oh, no!”
“I thought I heard you say he was boarded at fifteen francs.”
“He! no, indeed; a man who makes districts – distichs I mean – at fifteen francs! No, no! it is his neighbor who is at fifteen francs.”
“Which neighbor?”
“The other, second Bertaudiere.”
“Excuse me, my dear governor; but you speak a language which requires quite an apprenticeship to understand.”
“Very true,” said the governor. “Allow me to explain: second Bertaudiere is the person who occupies the second floor of the tower of the Bertaudiere.”
“So that Bertaudiere is the name of one of the towers of the Bastile? The fact is, I think I recollect hearing that each tower has a name of its own. Whereabouts is the one you are speaking of?”
“Look,” said Baisemeaux, going to the window. “It is that tower to the left – the second one.”
“Is the prisoner at fifteen francs there?”
“Yes.”
“Since when?”
“Seven or eight years, nearly.”
“What do you mean by nearly? Do you not know the dates more precisely?”
“It was not in my time, M. d’Herblay.”
“But I should have thought that Louviere or Tremblay would have told you.”
“The secrets of the Bastile are never handed over with the keys of the governorship.”
“Indeed! Then the cause of his imprisonment is a mystery – a state secret.”
“Oh, no! I do not suppose it is a state secret, but a secret – like everything that happens at the Bastile.”
“But,” said Aramis, “why do you speak more freely of Seldon than of second Bertaudiere?”
“Because, in my opinion, the crime of the man who writes a distich is not so great as that of the man who resembles – “
“Yes, yes; I understand you. Still, do not the turnkeys talk with your prisoners?”
“Of course.”
“The prisoners, I suppose, tell them they are not guilty?”
“They are _always_ telling them that; it is a matter of course; the same song over and over again.”
“But does not the resemblance you were speaking about just now strike the turnkeys?”
“My dear M. d’Herblay, it is only for men attached to the court, as you are, to take trouble about such matters.”
“You’re right, you’re right, my dear M. Baisemeaux. Let me give you another taste of this Volnay.”
“Not a taste merely, a full glass; fill yours too.”
“Nay, nay! You are a musketeer still, to the very tips of your fingers, while I have become a bishop. A taste for me; a glass for yourself.”
“As you please.” And Aramis and the governor nodded to each other, as they drank their wine. “But,” said Aramis, looking with fixed attention at the ruby-colored wine he had raised to the level of his eyes, as if he wished to enjoy it with all his senses at the same moment, “but what you might call a resemblance, another would not, perhaps, take any notice of.”
“Most certainly he would, though, if it were any one who knew the person he resembles.”
“I really think, dear M. Baisemeaux, that it can be nothing more than a resemblance of your own creation.”
“Upon my honor, it is not so.”
“Stay,” continued Aramis. “I have seen many persons very like the one we are speaking of; but, out of respect, no one ever said anything about it.”
“Very likely; because there is resemblance and resemblance. This is a striking one, and, if you were to see him, you would admit it to be so.”
“If I were to see him, indeed,” said Aramis, in an indifferent tone; “but in all probability I never shall.”
“Why not?”
“Because if I were even to put my foot inside one of those horrible dungeons, I should fancy I was buried there forever.”
“No, no; the cells are very good places to live in.”
“I really do not, and cannot believe it, and that is a fact.”
“Pray do not speak ill of second Bertaudiere. It is really a good room, very nicely furnished and carpeted. The young fellow has by no means been unhappy there; the best lodging the Bastile affords has been his. There is a chance for you.”
“Nay, nay,” said Aramis, coldly; “you will never make me believe there are any good rooms in the Bastile; and, as for your carpets, they exist only in your imagination. I should find nothing but spiders, rats, and perhaps toads, too.”
“Toads?” cried Baisemeaux.
“Yes, in the dungeons.”
“Ah! I don’t say there are not toads in the dungeons,” replied Baisemeaux. “But – will you be convinced by your own eyes?” he continued, with a sudden impulse.
“No, certainly not.”
“Not even to satisfy yourself of the resemblance which you deny, as you do the carpets?”
“Some spectral-looking person, a mere shadow; an unhappy, dying man.”
“Nothing of the kind – as brisk and vigorous a young fellow as ever lived.”
“Melancholy and ill-tempered, then?”
“Not at all; very gay and lively.”
“Nonsense; you are joking.”
“Will you follow me?” said Baisemeaux.
“What for?”
“To go the round of the Bastile.”
“Why?”
“You will then see for yourself – see with your own eyes.”
“But the regulations?”
“Never mind them. To-day my major has leave of absence; the lieutenant is visiting the post on the bastions; we are sole masters of the situation.”
“No, no, my dear governor; why, the very idea of the sound of the bolts makes me shudder. You will only have to forget me in second or fourth Bertaudiere, and then – “
“You are refusing an opportunity that may never present itself again. Do you know that, to obtain the favor I propose to you gratis, some of the princes of the blood have offered me as much as fifty thousand francs.”
“Really! he must be worth seeing, then?”
“Forbidden fruit, my lord; forbidden fruit. You who belong to the church ought to know that.”
“Well, if had any curiosity, it would be to see the poor author of the distich.”
“Very well, we will see him, too; but if I were at all curious, it would be about the beautiful carpeted room and its lodger.”
“Furniture is very commonplace; and a face with no expression in it offers little or no interest.”
“But a boarder at fifteen francs is always interesting.”
“By the by, I forgot to ask you about that. Why fifteen francs for him, and only three francs for poor Seldon?”
“The distinction made in that instance was a truly noble act, and one which displayed the king’s goodness of heart to great advantage.”
“The king’s, you say.”
“The cardinal’s, I mean. ‘This unhappy man,’ said M. Mazarin, ‘is destined to remain in prison forever.'”
“Why so?”
“Why, it seems that his crime is a lasting one; and, consequently, his punishment ought to be so, too.”
“Lasting?”
“No doubt of it, unless he is fortunate enough to catch the small-pox, and even that is difficult, for we never get any impure air here.”
“Nothing can be more ingenious than your train of reasoning, my dear M. Baisemeaux. Do you, however, mean to say that this unfortunate man must suffer without interruption or termination?”
“I did not say he was to suffer, my lord; a fifteen-franc boarder does not suffer.”
“He suffers imprisonment, at all events.”
“No doubt; there is no help for that, but this suffering is sweetened for him. You must admit that this young fellow was not born to eat all the good things he does eat; for instance, such things as we have on the table now; this pasty that has not been touched, these crawfish from the River Marne, of which we have hardly taken any, and which are almost as large as lobsters; all these things will at once be taken to second Bertaudiere, with a bottle of that Volnay which you think so excellent. After you have seen it you will believe it, I hope.”
“Yes, my dear governor, certainly; but all this time you are thinking only of your very happy fifteen-franc prisoner, and you forget poor Seldon, my _protege_.”
“Well, out of consideration for you, it shall be a gala day for him; he shall have some biscuits and preserves with this small bottle of port.”
“You are a good-hearted fellow; I have said so already, and I repeat it, my dear Baisemeaux.”
“Well, let us set off, then,” said the governor, a little bewildered, partly from the wine he had drunk, and partly from Aramis’s praises.
“Do not forget that I only go to oblige you,” said the prelate.
“Very well; but you will thank me when you get there.”
“Let us go, then.”
“Wait until I have summoned the jailer,” said Baisemeaux, as he struck the bell twice; at which summons a man appeared. “I am going to visit the towers,” said the governor. “No guards, no drums, no noise at all.”
“If I were not to leave my cloak here,” said Aramis, pretending to be alarmed, “I should really think I was going to prison on my own account.”
The jailer preceded the governor, Aramis walking on his right hand; some of the soldiers who happened to be in the courtyard drew themselves up in a line, as stiff as posts, as the governor passed along. Baisemeaux led the way down several steps which conducted to a sort of esplanade; thence they arrived at the drawbridge, where the sentinels on duty received the governor with the proper honors. The governor turned toward Aramis, and, speaking in such a tone that the sentinels could not lose a word, he observed, – “I hope you have a good memory, monsieur?”
“Why?” inquired Aramis.
“On account of your plans and your measurements, for you know that no one is allowed, not architects even, to enter where the prisoners are, with paper, pens or pencil.”
“Good,” said Aramis to himself, “it seems I am an architect, then. It sounds like one of D’Artagnan’s jokes, who perceived in me the engineer of Belle-Isle.” Then he added aloud: “Be easy on that score, monsieur; in our profession, a mere glance and a good memory are quite sufficient.”
Baisemeaux did not change countenance, and the soldiers took Aramis for what he seemed to be. “Very well; we will first visit la Bertaudiere,” said Baisemeaux, still intending the sentinels to hear him. Then, turning to the jailer, he added: “You will take the opportunity of carrying to No. 2 the few dainties I pointed out.”
“Dear M. de Baisemeaux,” said Aramis, “you are always forgetting No. 3.”
“So I am,” said the governor; and upon that, they began to ascend. The number of bolts, gratings, and locks for this single courtyard would have sufficed for the safety of an entire city. Aramis was neither an imaginative nor a sensitive man; he had been somewhat of a poet in his youth, but his heart was hard and indifferent, as the heart of every man of fifty-five years of age is, who has been frequently and passionately attached to women in his lifetime, or rather who has been passionately loved by them. But when he placed his foot upon the worn stone steps, along which so many unhappy wretches had passed, when he felt himself impregnated, as it were, with the atmosphere of those gloomy dungeons, moistened with tears, there could be but little doubt he was overcome by his feelings, for his head was bowed and his eyes became dim, as he followed Baisemeaux without a syllable.
Chapter XXV:
The Second Floor of la Bertaudiere.
On the second flight of stairs, whether from fatigue or emotion, the breathing of the visitor began to fail him, and he leaned against the wall. “Will you begin with this one?” said Baisemeaux; “for since we are going to both, it matters very little whether we ascend from the second to the third story, or descend from the third to the second.”
“No, no,” exclaimed Aramis, eagerly, “higher, if you please; the one above is the more urgent.” They continued their ascent. “Ask the jailer for the keys,” whispered Aramis. Baisemeaux did so, took the keys, and, himself, opened the door of the third room. The jailer was the first to enter; he placed upon the table the provisions, which the kind-hearted governor called dainties, and then left the room. The prisoner had not stirred; Baisemeaux then entered, while Aramis remained at the threshold, from which place he saw a youth about eighteen years of age, who, raising his head at the unusual noise, jumped off the bed, as he perceived the governor, and clasping his hands together, began to cry out, “My mother, my mother,” in tones which betrayed such deep distress that Aramis, despite his command over himself, felt a shudder pass through his frame. “My dear boy,” said Baisemeaux, endeavoring to smile, “I have brought you a diversion and an extra, – the one for the mind, the other for the body; this gentleman has come to take your measure, and here are some preserves for your dessert.”
“Oh, monsieur” exclaimed the young man, “keep me in solitude for a year, let me have nothing but bread and water for a year, but tell me that at the end of a year I shall leave this place, tell me that at the end of a year I shall see my mother again.”
“But I have heard you say that your mother was very poor, and that you were very badly lodged when you were living with her, while here – upon my word!”
“If she were poor, monsieur, the greater reason to restore her only means of support to her. Badly lodged with her! Oh, monsieur, every one is always well lodged when he is free.”
“At all events, since you yourself admit you have done nothing but write that unhappy distich – “
“But without any intention, I swear. Let me be punished – cut off the hand which wrote it, I will work with the other – but restore my mother to me.”
“My boy,” said Baisemeaux, “you know very well that it does not depend upon me; all I can do for you is to increase your rations, give you a glass of port wine now and then, slip in a biscuit for you between a couple of plates.”
“Great heaven!” exclaimed the young man, falling backward and rolling on the ground.
Aramis, unable to bear this scene any longer, withdrew as far as the landing. “Unhappy, wretched man,” he murmured.
“Yes, monsieur, he is indeed very wretched,” said the jailer; “but it is his parents’ fault.”
“In what way?”
“No doubt. Why did they let him learn Latin? Too much knowledge, you see; it is that which does harm. Now I, for instance, can’t read or write, and therefore I am not in prison.” Aramis looked at the man, who seemed to think that being a jailer in the Bastile was not being in prison. As for Baisemeaux, noticing the little effect produced by his advice and his port wine, he left the dungeon quite upset. “You have forgotten to close the door,” said the jailer.
“So I have,” said Baisemeaux; “there are the keys, do you do it.”
“I will solicit the pardon of that poor boy,” said Aramis.
“And if you do not succeed,” said Baisemeaux, “at least beg that he may be transferred to the ten-franc list, by which both he and I shall be gainers.”
“If the other prisoner calls out for his mother in a similar manner,” said Aramis, “I prefer not to enter at all, but will take my measure from outside.”
“No fear of that, monsieur architect, the one we are now going to see is as gentle as a lamb; before he could call after his mother he must open his lips, and he never says a word.”
“Let us go in, then,” said Aramis, gloomily.
“Are you the architect of the prisons, monsieur?” said the jailer.
“I am.”
“It is odd, then, that you are not more accustomed to all this.”
Aramis perceived that, to avoid giving rise to any suspicions, he must summon all his strength of mind to his assistance. Baisemeaux, who carried the keys, opened the door. “Stay outside,” he said to the jailer, “and wait for us at the bottom of the steps.” The jailer obeyed and withdrew.
Baisemeaux entered first, and opened the second door himself. By the light which filtered through the iron-barred window, could be seen a handsome young man, short in stature, with closely cut hair, and a beard beginning to grow; he was sitting on a stool, his elbow resting on an armchair, and with all the upper part of his body reclining against it. His dress, thrown upon the bed, was of rich black velvet, and he inhaled the fresh air which blew in upon his breast through a shirt of the very finest cambric. As the governor entered, the young man turned his head with a look full of indifference; and on recognizing Baisemeaux, he arose and saluted him courteously. But when his eyes fell upon Aramis, who remained in the background, the latter trembled, turned pale, and his hat, which he held in his hand, fell upon the ground, as if all his muscles had become relaxed at once. Baisemeaux, habituated to the presence of his prisoner, did not seem to share any of the sensations which Aramis experienced, but, with all the zeal of a good servant, he busied himself in arranging on the table the pasty and crawfish he had brought with him. Occupied in this manner, he did not remark how disturbed his guest had become. When he had finished, however, he turned to the young prisoner and said: “You are looking very well, – are you so?”
“Quite well, I thank you, monsieur,” replied the young man.
The effect of the voice was such as almost to overpower Aramis, and notwithstanding his control over himself, he advanced a few steps towards him, with his eyes wide open and his lips trembling. The movement he made was so marked that Baisemeaux, notwithstanding his preoccupation, observed it. “This gentleman is an architect who has come to examine your chimney,” said Baisemeaux; “does it smoke?”
“Never, monsieur.”
“You were saying just now,” said the governor, rubbing his hands together, “that it was not possible for a man to be happy in prison; here, however, is one who is so. You have nothing to complain of, I hope?”
“Nothing.”
“Do you ever feel weary?” said Aramis.
“Never.”
“Ha, ha,” said Baisemeaux, in a low tone of voice; “was I right?”
“Well, my dear governor, it is impossible not to yield to evidence. Is it allowed to put any question to him?”
“As many as you like.”
“Very well; be good enough to ask him if he knows why he is here.”
“This gentleman requests me to ask you,” said Baisemeaux, “if you are aware of the cause of your imprisonment?”
“No, monsieur,” said the young man, unaffectedly, “I am not.”
“That is hardly possible,” said Aramis, carried away by his feelings in spite of himself; “if you were really ignorant of the cause of your detention, you would be furious.”
“I was so during the early days of my imprisonment.”
“Why are you not so now?”
“Because I have reflected.”
“That is strange,” said Aramis.
“Is it not odd?” said Baisemeaux.
“May one venture to ask you, monsieur, on what you have reflected?”
“I felt that as I had committed no crime, Heaven could not punish me.”
“What is a prison, then,” inquired Aramis, “if it be not a punishment.”
“Alas! I cannot tell,” said the young man; “all that I can tell you now is the very opposite of what I felt seven years ago.”
“To hear you converse, to witness your resignation, one might almost believe that you liked your imprisonment?”
“I endure it.”
“In the certainty of recovering your freedom some day, I suppose?”
“I have no certainty; hope, I have, and that is all; and yet I acknowledge that this hope becomes less every day.”
“Still, why should you not again be free, since you have already been so?”
“That is precisely the reason,” replied the young man, “which prevents me from expecting liberty; why should I have been imprisoned at all if it had been intended to release me afterwards?”
“How old are you?”
“I do not know.”
“What is your name?”
“I have forgotten the name by which I was called.”
“Who are your parents?”
“I never knew them.”
“But those who brought you up?”
“They did not call me their son.”
“Did you ever love any one before coming here?”
“I loved my nurse, and my flowers.”
“Was that all?”
“I also loved my valet.”
“Do you regret your nurse and your valet?”
“I wept very much when they died.”
“Did they die since you have been here, or before you came?”
“They died the evening before I was carried off.”
“Both at the same time?”
“Yes, both at the same time.”
“In what manner were you carried off?”
“A man came for me, directed me to get into a carriage, which was closed and locked, and brought me here.”
“Would you be able to recognize that man again?”
“He was masked.”
“Is this not an extraordinary tale?” said Baisemeaux, in a low tone of voice, to Aramis, who could hardly breathe.
“It is indeed extraordinary,” he murmured.
“But what is still more extraordinary is, that he has never told me so much as he has just told you.”
“Perhaps the reason may be that you have never questioned him,” said Aramis.
“It’s possible,” replied Baisemeaux; “I have no curiosity. Have you looked at the room? it’s a fine one, is it not?”
“Very much so.”
“A carpet – “
“Beautiful.”
“I’ll wager he had nothing like it before he came here.”
“I think so, too.” And then again turning towards the young man, he said, “Do you not remember to have been visited at some time or another by a strange lady or gentleman?”
“Yes, indeed; thrice by a woman, who each time came to the door in a carriage, and entered covered with a veil, which she raised when we were together and alone.”
“Do you remember that woman?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say to you?”
The young man smiled mournfully, and then replied, “She inquired, as you have just done, if I were happy, and if I were getting weary.”
“What did she do on arriving, and on leaving you?”
“She pressed me in her arms, held me in her embrace, and kissed me.”
“Do you remember her?”
“Perfectly.”
“Do you recall her features distinctly?”
“Yes.”
“You would recognize her, then, if accident brought her before you, or led you into her person?”
“Most certainly.”
A flush of fleeting satisfaction passed across Aramis’s face. At this moment Baisemeaux heard the jailer approaching. “Shall we leave?” he said, hastily, to Aramis.
Aramis, who probably had learnt all that he cared to know, replied, “When you like.”
The young man saw them prepare to leave, and saluted them politely. Baisemeaux replied merely by a nod of the head, while Aramis, with a respect, arising perhaps from the sight of such misfortune, saluted the prisoner profoundly. They left the room, Baisemeaux closing the door behind them.
“Well,” said Baisemeaux, as they descended the staircase, “what do you think of it all?”
“I have discovered the secret, my dear governor,” he said.
“Bah! what is the secret, then?”
“A murder was committed in that house.”
“Nonsense.”
“But attend; the valet and nurse died the same day.”
“Well.”
“And by poison. What do you think?”
“That is very likely to be true.”
“What! that that young man is an assassin?”
“Who said that? What makes you think that poor young fellow could be an assassin?”
“The very thing I was saying. A crime was committed in his house,” said Aramis, “and that was quite sufficient; perhaps he saw the criminals, and it was feared that he might say something.”
“The deuce! if I only thought that – “
“Well?”
“I would redouble the surveillance.”
“Oh, he does not seem to wish to escape.”
“You do not know what prisoners are.”
“Has he any books?”
“None; they are strictly prohibited, and under M. de Mazarin’s own hand.”
“Have you the writing still?”
“Yes, my lord; would you like to look at it as you return to take your cloak?”
“I should, for I like to look at autographs.”
“Well, then, this one is of the most unquestionable authenticity; there is only one erasure.”
“Ah, ah! an erasure; and in what respect?”
“With respect to a figure. At first there was written: ‘To be boarded at fifty francs.'”
“As princes of the blood, in fact?”
“But the cardinal must have seen his mistake, you understand; for he canceled the zero, and has added a one before the five. But, by the by – “
“What?”
“You do not speak of the resemblance.”
“I do not speak of it, dear M. de Baisemeaux, for a very simple reason because it does not exist.”
“The deuce it doesn’t.”
“Or, if it does exist, it is only in your own imagination; but, supposing it were to exist elsewhere, I think it would be better for you not to speak of about it.”
“Really.”
“The king, Louis XIV. – you understand – would be excessively angry with you, if he were to learn that you contributed in any way to spread the report that one of his subjects has the effrontery to resemble him.”
“It is true, quite true,” said Baisemeaux, thoroughly alarmed; “but I have not spoken of the circumstance to any one but yourself, and you understand, monseigneur, that I perfectly rely on your discretion.”
“Oh, be easy.”
“Do you still wish to see the note?”
“Certainly.”
While engaged in this manner in conversation, they had returned to the governor’s apartments; Baisemeaux took from the cupboard a private register, like the one he had already shown Aramis, but fastened by a lock, the key which opened it being one of a small bunch which Baisemeaux always carried with him. Then placing the book upon the table, he opened it at the letter “M,” and showed Aramis the following note in the column of observations: “No books at any time; all linen and clothes of the finest and best quality to be procured; no exercise; always the same jailer; no communications with any one. Musical instruments; every liberty and every indulgence which his welfare may require; to be boarded at fifteen francs. M. de Baisemeaux can claim more if the fifteen francs be not sufficient.”
“Ah,” said Baisemeaux, “now I think of it, I shall claim it.”
Aramis shut the book. “Yes,” he said, “it is indeed M. de Mazarin’s handwriting; I recognize it well. Now, my dear governor,” he continued, as if this last communication had exhausted his interest, “let us now turn over to our own little affairs.”
“Well, what time for repayment do you wish me to take? Fix it yourself.”
“There need not be any particular period fixed; give me a simple acknowledgement for one hundred and fifty thousand francs.”
“When to be made payable?”
“When I require it; but, you understand, I shall only wish it when you yourself do.”
“Oh, I am quite easy on that score,” said Baisemeaux, smiling; “but I have already given you two receipts.”
“Which I now destroy,” said Aramis; and after having shown the two receipts to Baisemeaux, he destroyed them. Overcome by so great a mark of confidence, Baisemeaux unhesitatingly wrote out an acknowledgement of a debt of one hundred and fifty thousand francs, payable at the pleasure of the prelate. Aramis, who had, by glancing over the governor’s shoulder, followed the pen as he wrote, put the acknowledgement into his pocket without seeming to have read it, which made Baisemeaux perfectly easy. “Now,” said Aramis, “you will not be angry with me if I were to carry off one of your prisoners?”
“What do you mean?”
“By obtaining his pardon, of course. Have I not already told you that I took a great interest in poor Seldon?”
“Yes, quite true, you did so.”
“Well?”
“That is your affair; do as you think proper. I see you have an open hand, and an arm that can reach a great way.”
“Adieu, adieu.” And Aramis left, carrying with him the governor’s best wishes.
Chapter XXVI:
The Two Friends.
At the very time M. de Baisemeaux was showing Aramis the prisoners in the Bastile, a carriage drew up at Madame de Belliere’s door, and, at that still early hour, a young woman alighted, her head muffled in a silk hood. When the servants announced Madame Vanel to Madame de Belliere, the latter was engaged, or rather was absorbed, in reading a letter, which she hurriedly concealed. She had hardly finished her morning toilette, her maid being still in the next room. At the name – at the footsteps of Marguerite Vanel, Madame de Belliere ran to meet her. She fancied she could detect in her friend’s eyes a brightness which was neither that of health nor of pleasure. Marguerite embraced her, pressed her hands, and hardly allowed her time to speak. “Dearest,” she said, “have you forgotten me? Have you quite given yourself up to the pleasures of the court?”
“I have not even seen the marriage _fetes_.”
“What are you doing with yourself, then?”
“I am getting ready to leave for Belliere.”
“For Belliere?”
“Yes.”
“You are becoming rustic in your tastes, then; I delight to see you so disposed. But you are pale.”
“No, I am perfectly well.”
“So much the better; I was becoming uneasy about you. You do not know what I have been told.”
“People say so many things.”
“Yes, but this is very singular.”
“How well you know how to excite curiosity, Marguerite.”
“Well, I was afraid of vexing you.”
“Never; you have yourself always admired me for my evenness of temper.”
“Well, then, it is said that – no, I shall never be able to tell you.”
“Do not let us talk about it, then,” said Madame de Belliere, who detected the ill-nature that was concealed by all these prefaces, yet felt the most anxious curiosity on the subject.
“Well, then, my dear marquise, it is said, for some time past, you no longer continue to regret Monsieur de Belliere as you used to.”
“It is an ill-natured report, Marguerite. I do regret, and shall always regret, my husband; but it is now two years since he died. I am only twenty-eight years old, and my grief at his loss ought not always to control every action and thought of my life. You, Marguerite, who are the model of a wife, would not believe me if I were to say so.”
“Why not? Your heart is so soft and yielding,” she said, spitefully.
“Yours is so, too, Marguerite, and yet I did not perceive that you allowed yourself to be overcome by grief when your heart was wounded.” These words were in direct allusion to Marguerite’s rupture with the superintendent, and were also a veiled but direct reproach made against her friend’s heart.
As if she only awaited this signal to discharge her shaft, Marguerite exclaimed, “Well, Elise, it is said you are in love.” And she looked fixedly at Madame de Belliere, who blushed against her will.
“Women can never escape slander,” replied the marquise, after a moment’s pause.
“No one slanders you, Elise.”
“What! – people say that I am in love, and yet they do not slander me!”
“In the first place, if it be true, it is no slander, but simply a scandal-loving report. In the next place – for you did not allow me to finish what I was saying – the public does not assert that you have abandoned yourself to this passion. It represents you, on the contrary, as a virtuous but loving woman, defending yourself with claws and teeth, shutting yourself up in your own house as in a fortress; in other respects, as impenetrable as that of Danae, notwithstanding Danae’s tower was made of brass.”
“You are witty, Marguerite,” said Madame de Belliere, angrily.
“You always flatter me, Elise. In short, however, you are reported to be incorruptible and unapproachable. You cannot decide whether the world is calumniating you or not; but what is it you are musing about while I am speaking to you?”
“I?”
“Yes; you are blushing and do not answer me.”
“I was trying,” said the marquise, raising her beautiful eyes brightened with an indication of growing temper, “I was trying to discover to what you could possibly have alluded, you who are so learned in mythological subjects, in comparing me to Danae.”
“You were trying to guess that?” said Marguerite, laughing.
“Yes; do you not remember that at the convent, when we were solving our problems in arithmetic – ah! what I have to tell you is learned also, but it is my turn – do you not remember, that if one of the terms were given, we were to find the other? Therefore do _you_ guess now?”
“I cannot conjecture what you mean.”
“And yet nothing is more simple. You pretend that I am in love, do you not?”
“So it is said.”
“Very well; it is not said, I suppose, that I am in love with an abstraction. There must surely be a name mentioned in this report.”
“Certainly, a name is mentioned.”
“Very well; it is not surprising, then, that I should try to guess this name, since you do not tell it.”
“My dear marquise, when I saw you blush, I did not think you would have to spend much time in conjectures.”
“It was the word Danae which you used that surprised me. Danae means a shower of gold, does it not?”
“That is to say that the Jupiter of Danae changed himself into a shower of gold for her.”
“My lover, then, he whom you assign me – “
“I beg your pardon; I am your friend, and assign you no one.”
“That may be; but those who are ill disposed towards me.”
“Do you wish to hear the name?”
“I have been waiting this half hour for it.”
“Well, then, you shall hear it. Do not be shocked; he is a man high in power.”
“Good,” said the marquise, as she clenched her hands like a patient at the approach of the knife.
“He is a very wealthy man,” continued Marguerite; “the wealthiest, it may be. In a word, it is – “
The marquise closed her eyes for a moment.
“It is the Duke of Buckingham,” said Marguerite, bursting into laughter. This perfidy had been calculated with extreme ability; the name that was pronounced, instead of the name which the marquise awaited, had precisely the same effect upon her as the badly sharpened axes, that had hacked, without destroying, Messieurs de Chalais and de Thou upon the scaffold. She recovered herself, however, and said, “I was perfectly right in saying you were a witty woman, for you are making the time pass away most agreeably. This joke is a most amusing one, for I have never seen the Duke of Buckingham.”
“Never?” said Marguerite, restraining her laughter.
“I have never even left my own house since the duke has been at Paris.”
“Oh!” resumed Madame Vanel, stretching out her foot towards a paper which was lying on the carpet near the window; “it is not necessary for people to see each other, since they can write.” The marquise trembled, for this paper was the envelope of the letter she was reading as her friend had entered, and was sealed with the superintendent’s arms. As she leaned back on the sofa on which she was sitting, Madame de Belliere covered the paper with the thick folds of her large silk dress, and so concealed it.
“Come, Marguerite, tell me, is it to tell me all these foolish reports that you have come to see me so early in the day?”
“No; I came to see you, in the first place, and to remind you of those habits of our earlier days, so delightful to remember, when we used to wander about together at Vincennes, and, sitting beneath an oak, or in some sylvan shade, used to talk of those we loved, and who loved us.”
“Do you propose that we should go out together now?”
“My carriage is here, and I have three hours at my disposal.”
“I am not dressed yet, Marguerite; but if you wish that we should talk together, we can, without going to the woods of Vincennes, find in my own garden here, beautiful trees, shady groves, a green sward covered with daisies and violets, the perfume of which can be perceived from where we are sitting.”
“I regret your refusal, my dear marquise, for I wanted to pour out my whole heart into yours.”
“I repeat again, Marguerite, my heart is yours just as much in this room, or beneath the lime-trees in the garden here, as it would be under the oaks in the woods yonder.”
“It is not the same thing for me. In approaching Vincennes, marquise, my ardent aspirations approach nearer to that object towards which they have for some days past been directed.” The marquise suddenly raised her head. “Are you surprised, then, that I am still thinking of Saint-Mande?”
“Of Saint-Mande?” exclaimed Madame de Belliere; and the looks of both women met each other like two resistless swords.
“You, so proud!” said the marquise, disdainfully.
“I, so proud!” replied Madame Vanel. “Such is my nature. I do not forgive neglect – I cannot endure infidelity. When I leave any one who weeps at my abandonment, I feel induced still to love him; but when others forsake me and laugh at their infidelity, I love distractedly.”
Madame de Belliere could not restrain an involuntary movement.
“She is jealous,” said Marguerite to herself.
“Then,” continued the marquise, “you are quite enamored of the Duke of Buckingham – I mean of M. Fouquet?” Elise felt the allusion, and her blood seemed to congeal in her heart. “And you wished to go to Vincennes, – to Saint-Mande, even?”
“I hardly know what I wished: you would have advised me perhaps.”
“In what respect?”
“You have often done so.”
“Most certainly I should not have done so in the present instance, for I do not forgive as you do. I am less loving, perhaps; when my heart has been once wounded, it remains so always.”
“But M. Fouquet has not wounded you,” said Marguerite Vanel, with the most perfect simplicity.
“You perfectly understand what I mean. M. Fouquet has not wounded me; I do not know of either obligation or injury received at his hands, but you have reason to complain of him. You are my friend, and I am afraid I should not advise you as you would like.”
“Ah! you are prejudging the case.”
“The sighs you spoke of just now are more than indications.”
“You overwhelm me,” said the young woman suddenly, as if collecting her whole strength, like a wrestler preparing for a last struggle; “you take only my evil dispositions and my weaknesses into calculation, and do not speak of my pure and generous feelings. If, at this moment, I feel instinctively attracted towards the superintendent, if I even make an advance to him, which, I confess, is very probable, my motive for it is, that M. Fouquet’s fate deeply affects me, and because he is, in my opinion, one of the most unfortunate men living.”
“Ah!” said the marquise, placing her hand upon her heart, “something new, then, has occurred?”
“Do you not know it?”
“I am utterly ignorant of everything about him,” said Madame de Belliere, with the poignant anguish that suspends thought and speech, and even life itself.
“In the first place, then, the king’s favor is entirely withdrawn from M. Fouquet, and conferred on M. Colbert.”
“So it is stated.”
“It is very clear, since the discovery of the plot of Belle-Isle.”
“I was told that the discovery of the fortifications there had turned out to M. Fouquet’s honor.”
Marguerite began to laugh in so cruel a manner that Madame de Belliere could at that moment have delightedly plunged a dagger in her bosom. “Dearest,” continued Marguerite, “there is no longer any question of M. Fouquet’s honor; his safety is concerned. Before three days are passed the ruin of the superintendent will be complete.”
“Stay,” said the marquise, in her turn smiling, “that is going a little fast.”
“I said three days, because I wish to deceive myself with a hope; but probably the catastrophe will be complete within twenty-four hours.”
“Why so?”
“For the simplest of all reasons, – that M. Fouquet has no more money.”
“In matters of finance, my dear Marguerite, some are without money to- day, who to-morrow can procure millions.”
“That might be M. Fouquet’s case when he had two wealthy and clever friends who amassed money for him, and wrung it from every possible or impossible source; but those friends are dead.”
“Money does not die, Marguerite; it may be concealed, but it can be looked for, bought and found.”
“You see things on the bright side, and so much the better for your. It is really very unfortunate that you are not the Egeria of M. Fouquet; you might now show him the source whence he could obtain the millions which the king asked him for yesterday.”
“Millions!” said the marquise, in terror.
“Four – an even number.”
“Infamous!” murmured Madame de Belliere, tortured by her friend’s merciless delight.
“M. Fouquet, I should think, must certainly have four millions,” she replied, courageously.
“If he has those which the king requires to-day,” said Marguerite, “he will not, perhaps, possess those which the king will demand in a month or so.”
“The king will exact money from him again, then?”
“No doubt; and that is my reason for saying that the ruin of poor M. Fouquet is inevitable. Pride will induce him to furnish the money, and when he has no more, he will fall.”
“It is true,” said the marquise, trembling; “the plan is a bold one; but tell me, does M. Colbert hate M. Fouquet so very much?”
“I think he does not like him. M. Colbert is powerful; he improves on close acquaintance; he has gigantic ideas, a strong will, and discretion; he will rise.”
“He will be superintendent?”
“It is probable. Such is the reason, my dear marquise, why I felt myself impressed in favor of that poor man, who once loved, and even adored me; and why, when I see him so unfortunate, I forgive his infidelity, which I have reason to believe he also regrets; and why, moreover, I should not have been disinclined to afford him some consolation, or some good advice; he would have understood the step I had taken, and would have thought kindly of me for it. It is gratifying to be loved, you know. Men value love more highly when they are no longer blinded by its influence.”
The marquise, bewildered and overcome by these cruel attacks, which had been calculated with the greatest nicety and precision, hardly knew what to answer in return; she even seemed to have lost all power of thought. Her perfidious friend’s voice had assumed the most affectionate tone; she spoke as a woman, but concealed the instincts of a wolf.
“Well,” said Madame de Belliere, who had a vague hope that Marguerite would cease to overwhelm a vanquished enemy, “why do you not go and see M. Fouquet?”
“Decidedly, marquise, you have made me reflect. No, it would be unbecoming for me to make the first advance. M. Fouquet no doubt loves me, but he is too proud. I cannot expose myself to an affront…. besides, I have my husband to consider. You tell me nothing? Very well, I shall consult M. Colbert on the subject.” Marguerite rose smilingly, as though to take leave, but the marquise had not the strength to imitate her. Marguerite advanced a few paces, in order that she might continue to enjoy the humiliating grief in which her rival was plunged, and then said, suddenly, – “You do not accompany me to the door, then?” The marquise rose, pale and almost lifeless, without thinking of the envelope, which had occupied her attention so greatly at the commencement of the conversation, and which was revealed at the first step she took. She then opened the door of her oratory, and without even turning her head towards Marguerite Vanel, entered it, closing the door after her. Marguerite said, or rather muttered a few words, which Madame de Belliere did not even hear. As soon, however, as the marquise had disappeared, her envious enemy, not being able to resist the desire to satisfy herself that her suspicions were well founded, advanced stealthily like a panther, and seized the envelope. “Ah!” she said, gnashing her teeth, “it was indeed a letter from M. Fouquet she was reading when I arrived,” and then darted out of the room. During this interval, the marquise, having arrived behind the rampart, as it were, of her door, felt that her strength was failing her; for a moment she remained rigid, pale and motionless as a statue, and then, like a statue shaken on its base by an earthquake, tottered and fell inanimate on the carpet. The noise of the fall resounded at the same moment as the rolling of Marguerite’s carriage leaving the hotel.
Chapter XXVII:
Madame de Belliere’s Plate.
The blow had been the more painful on account of its being unexpected. It was some time before the marquise recovered herself; but once recovered, she began to reflect upon the events so heartlessly announced to her. She therefore returned, at the risk even of losing her life in the way, to that train of ideas which her relentless friend had forced her to pursue. Treason, then – deep menaces, concealed under the semblance of public interest – such were Colbert’s maneuvers. A detestable delight at an approaching downfall, untiring efforts to attain this object, means of seduction no less wicked than the crime itself such were the weapons Marguerite employed. The crooked atoms of Descartes triumphed; to the man without compassion was united a woman without heart. The marquise perceived, with sorrow rather than indignation, that the king was an accomplice in the plot which betrayed the duplicity of Louis XIII. in his advanced age, and the avarice of Mazarin at a period of life when he had not had the opportunity of gorging himself with French gold. The spirit of this courageous woman soon resumed its energy, no longer overwhelmed by indulgence in compassionate lamentations. The marquise was not one to weep when action was necessary, nor to waste time in bewailing a misfortune as long as means still existed of relieving it. For some minutes she buried her face in her cold fingers, and then, raising her head, rang for her attendants with a steady hand, and with a gesture betraying a fixed determination of purpose. Her resolution was taken.
“Is everything prepared for my departure?” she inquired of one of her female attendants who entered.
“Yes, madame; but it was not expected that your ladyship would leave for Belliere for the next few days.”
“All my jewels and articles of value, then, are packed up?”
“Yes, madame; but hitherto we have been in the habit of leaving them in Paris. Your ladyship does not generally take your jewels with you into the country.”
“But they are all in order, you say?”
“Yes, in your ladyship’s own room.”
“The gold plate?”
“In the chest.”
“And the silver plate?”
“In the great oak closet.”
The marquise remained silent for a few moments, and then said calmly, “Let my goldsmith be sent for.”
Her attendants quitted the room to execute the order. The marquise, however, had entered her own room, and was inspecting her casket of jewels with the greatest attention. Never, until now, had she bestowed such close attention upon riches in which women take so much pride; never, until now, had she looked at her jewels, except for the purpose of making a selection according to their settings or their colors. On this occasion, however, she admired the size of the rubies and the brilliancy of the diamonds; she grieved over every blemish and every defect; she thought the gold light, and the stones wretched. The goldsmith, as he entered, found her thus occupied. “M. Faucheux,” she said, “I believe you supplied me with my gold service?”
“I did, your ladyship.”
“I do not now remember the amount of the account.”
“Of the new service, madame, or of that which M. de Belliere presented to you on your marriage? for I have furnished both.”
“First of all, the new one.”
“The covers, the goblets, and the dishes, with their covers, the _eau- epergne_, the ice-pails, the dishes for the preserves, and the tea and coffee urns, cost your ladyship sixty thousand francs.”
“No more?”
“Your ladyship thought the account very high.”
“Yes, yes; I remember, in fact, that it was dear; but it was the workmanship, I suppose?”
“Yes, madame; the designs, the chasings – all new patterns.”
“What proportion of the cost does the workmanship form? Do not hesitate to tell me.”
“A third of its value, madame.”
“There is the other service, the old one, that which belonged to my husband?”
“Yes, madame; there is less workmanship in that than in the other. Its intrinsic value does not exceed thirty thousand francs.”
“Thirty thousand,” murmured the marquise. “But, M. Faucheux, there is also the service which belonged to my mother; all that massive plate which I did not wish to part with, on account of the associations connected with it.”
“Ah! madame, that would indeed be an excellent resource for those who, unlike your ladyship, might not be in position to keep their plate. In chasing that they worked in solid metal. But that service is no longer in fashion. Its weight is its only advantage.”
“That is all I care about. How much does it weigh?”
“Fifty thousand livres at the very least. I do not allude to the enormous vases for the buffet, which alone weigh five thousand livres, or ten thousand the pair.”
“One hundred and thirty,” murmured the marquise. “You are quite sure of your figures, M. Faucheux?”
“The amount is entered in my books. Your ladyship is extremely methodical, I am aware.”
“Let us now turn to another subject,” said Madame de Belliere; and she opened one of her jewel-boxes.
“I recognize these emeralds,” said M. Faucheux; “for it was I who had the setting of them. They are the most beautiful in the whole court. No, I am mistaken; Madame de Chatillon has the most beautiful set; she had them from Messieurs de Guise; but your set, madame, comes next.”
“What are they worth?”
“Mounted?”
“No; supposing I wished to sell them.”
“I know very well who would buy them,” exclaimed M. Faucheux.
“That is the very thing I ask. They could be sold, then?”
“All your jewels could be sold, madame. It is well known that you possess the most beautiful jewels in Paris. You are not changeable in your tastes; when you make a purchase it is of the very best; and what you purchase you do not part with.”
“What could these emeralds be sold for, then?”
“A hundred and thirty thousand francs.”
The marquise wrote down upon her tablets the amount which the jeweler mentioned. “The ruby necklace?” she said.
“Are they balas-rubies, madame?”
“Here they are.”
“They are beautiful – magnificent. I did not know your ladyship had these stones.”
“What is their value?”
“Two hundred thousand francs. The center one is alone worth a hundred thousand.”
“I thought so,” said the marquise. “As for diamonds, I have them in numbers; rings, necklaces, sprigs, ear-rings, clasps. Tell me their value, M. Faucheux.”
The jeweler took his magnifying-glass and scales, weighed and inspected them, and silently made his calculations. “These stones,” he said, “must have cost your ladyship an income of forty thousand francs.”
“You value them at eight hundred thousand francs?”
“Nearly so.”
“It is about what I imagined – but the settings are not included?”