第102章 MEDITATIONS.(1)

Either the small respect I had paid M.de Bruhl,or the words Ihad let fall respecting the possible disappearance of M.

Villequier,had had so admirable an effect on the Provost-Marshal's mind that from the moment of leaving my lodgings he treated me with the utmost civility;permitting me even to retain my sword,and assigning me a sleeping-place for the night in his own apartments at the gate-house.

Late as it was,I could not allow so much politeness to pass unacknowledged.I begged leave,therefore,to distribute a small gratuity among his attendants,and requested him to do me the honour of drinking a bottle of wine with me.This being speedily procured,at such an expense as is usual in these places,where prisoners pay,according as they are rich or poor,in purse or person,kept;us sitting for an hour,and finally sent us to our pallets perfectly satisfied with one another.

The events of the day,however,and particularly one matter,on which I have not dwelt at length,proved as effectual to prevent my sleeping as if I had been placed in the dampest cell below the castle.So much had been crowded into a time so short that it seemed as if I had had until now no opportunity of considering whither I was being hurried,or what fortune awaited me at the end of this turmoil.From the first appearance of M.d'Agen in the morning,with the startling news that the Provost-Marshal was seeking me,to my final surrender and encounter with Bruhl on the stairs,the chain of events had run out so swiftly that I had scarcely had time at any particular period to consider how Istood,or the full import of the latest check or victory.Now that I had leisure I lived the day over again,and,recalling its dangers and disappointments,felt thankful that all had ended so fairly.

I had the most perfect confidence in Maignan,and did not doubt that Bruhl would soon weary,if he had not already wearied,of a profitless siege.In an hour at most--and it was not yet midnight--the king would be free to go home;and with that would end,as far as he was concerned,the mission with which M.de Rosny had honoured me.The task of communicating his Majesty's decision to the King of Navarre would doubtless be entrusted to M.de Rambouillet,or some person of similar position and influence;and in the same hands would rest the honour and responsibility of the treaty which,as we all know now,gave after a brief interval and some bloodshed,and one great providence,a lasting peace to France.But it must ever be--and I recognised this that night with a bounding heart,which told of some store of youth yet unexhausted--a matter of lasting pride to me that I,whose career but now seemed closed in failure,had proved the means of conferring so especial a benefit on my country and religion.

Remembering,however,the King of Navarre's warning that I must not look to him for reward,I felt greatly doubtful in what direction the scene would next open to me;my main dependence being upon M.de Rosny's promise that he would make my fortune his own care.Tired of the Court at Blois,and the atmosphere of intrigue and treachery which pervaded it,and with which I hoped I had now done,I was still at a loss to see how I could recross the Loire in face of the Vicomte de Turenne's enmity.I might have troubled myself much more with speculating upon this point had I not found--in close connection with it--other and more engrossing food for thought in the capricious behaviour of Mademoiselle de la Vire.

To that behaviour it seemed to me that I now held the clue.Isuspected with as much surprise as pleasure that only one construction could be placed upon it--a construction which had strongly occurred to me on catching sight of her face when she intervened between me and the king.

Tracing the matter back to the moment of our meeting in the antechamber at St.Jean d'Angely,I remembered the jest which Mathurine had uttered at our joint expense.Doubtless it had dwelt in mademoiselle's mind,and exciting her animosity against me had prepared her to treat me with contumely when,contrary to all probability,we met again,and she found herself placed in a manner in my hands.It had inspired her harsh words and harsher looks on our journey northwards,and contributed with her native pride to the low opinion I had formed of her when Icontrasted her with my honoured mother.

But I began to think it possible that the jest had worked in another way as well,by keeping me before her mind and impressing upon her the idea--after my re-appearance at Chize more particularly--that our fates were in some way linked.Assuming this,it was not hard to understand her manner at Rosny when,apprised that I was no impostor,and regretting her former treatment of me,she still recoiled from the feelings which she began to recognise in her own breast.From that time,and with this clue,I had no difficulty in tracing her motives,always supposing that this suspicion,upon which I dwelt with feelings of wonder and delight,were well founded.

Middle-aged and grizzled,with the best of my life behind me Ihad never dared to think of her in this way before.Poor and comparatively obscure,I had never raised my eyes to the wide possessions said to be hers.Even now I felt myself dazzled and bewildered by the prospect so suddenly unveiled.I could scarcely,without vertigo,recall her as I had last seen her,with her hand wounded in my defence;nor,without emotions painful in their intensity,fancy myself restored to the youth of which I had taken leave,and to the rosy hopes and plannings which visit most men once only,and then in early years.

Hitherto I had deemed such things the lot of others.