CHAPTER VIII
WHEREIN MARY STUART'S LOVELINESS FLITS ACROSS THE
COURSE OF THE STORY WITH AS TRANSIENT A GLEAM
AS IT CASTS UPON THE HISTORY OF FRANCE
When Gabriel, accompanied by Coligny, reached the portals of the Louvre, he was overwhelmed by the first words that reached his ears.
The king did not receive that day!
The admiral, notwithstanding he held that high rank and was the nephew of Montmorency, was too gravely suspected of heresy to have much credit at court. As for Gabriel d'Exmès, the captain of the Guards, the ushers of the royal suite had had ample time to forget his face and his name. The two friends were rewarded for their trouble only by being permitted to pass beyond the outer doors.
Within it was still worse. They wasted more than an hour in parleying and bribing and threatening. As rapidly as they succeeded in inducing one halberdier to allow them to pass, another barred their way. All the varieties of dragon, more or less formidable, which watch over the safety of kings seemed to be multiplied tenfold to impede their passage.
But when by sheer persistence they had succeeded in penetrating as far as the great gallery which led to the king's closet, they found it impossible to go farther; the orders were too strict. The king, closeted with the constable and Madame de Poitiers, had given express instructions that he was not to be disturbed on any pretext.
It was necessary that Gabriel should wait till evening if he wished for an audience.
Waiting, weary waiting, when he believed that he was about to reach the goal which he had been striving for through so much difficulty and suffering! The few hours still to be passed seemed to Gabriel more terrible and more to be dreaded than all the perils which he had hitherto defied and overcome.
Without listening to the kind words with which the admiral sought to console him, and to urge patience upon him, he stood at the window looking gloomily at the rain which had begun to fall from the sombre sky, a prey to anger and anguish, restlessly feeling the point of his sword.
How to overturn and pass by the stupid guards who prevented him from making his way to the king's apartment, and perhaps to his father's liberty? Such thoughts filled his brain, when suddenly the curtain before the door of the royal antechamber was lifted, and a fair and blooming figure seemed to the saddened youth to light up the gray, rainy atmosphere.
The little queen-dauphine, Mary Stuart, was passing through the gallery.
Gabriel, as if by instinct, uttered a cry, and stretched out his arms toward her.
"Oh, Madame!" he said, hardly conscious of what he was doing.
Mary Stuart turned, recognized Gabriel and the admiral, and came up to them with her ever-ready smile.
"So you have returned at last, Monsieur le Vicomte d'Exmès," said she. "I am very glad to see you again; I have heard much talk about you of late. But what are you doing at the Louvre at this early hour, and what is your wish?"
"To speak to the king! to speak to the king, Madame!" Gabriel replied in a stifled voice.
"Monsieur d'Exmès," it was the admiral who spoke, "has really much need to speak to the king without delay. It is a very serious matter for him, and for the king as well; but all these guards prevent his entering, and attempt to put him off till this evening."
"As if I could wait till evening!" cried Gabriel.
"I believe," said Mary Stuart, "that his Majesty is just finishing some important despatches. Monsieur le Connétable de Montmorency is still with the king, and really I am afraid—"
A piteous glance from Gabriel prevented Mary from finishing her sentence.
"Well, we will see," she resumed. "I will take the risk."
She made a sign with her little hand. The guards respectfully fell back, and Gabriel and the admiral were at liberty to pass.
"Oh, thanks, Madame!" said the eager youth. "Thank you, who, in every respect like an angel, always appear to comfort or to aid me in my suffering."
"The way is clear," responded Mary Stuart, smiling. "If his Majesty is very angry, do not betray the angel's share in your entrance, except at the last extremity, I beg of you."
She inclined her head graciously to Gabriel and his companion, and was gone.
Gabriel was already at the door of the king's cabinet. There was in the last antechamber one more usher who undertook to oppose their entrance. But just then the door opened; and Henri himself appeared on the threshold, just giving some last instructions to the constable.
The king's distinguishing characteristic was not resolution. At the sudden appearance of Vicomte d'Exmès, he recoiled, and even forgot to be angry.
Gabriel's great virtue was firmness. He bowed low before the king in the first place.
"Sire," said he, "deign to accept my most respectful homage."
Then turning to Monsieur de Coligny, who was following him, and whom he wished to relieve from the embarrassment of speaking first,—
"Come, Monsieur l'Amiral," said he, "and in accordance with the kind promise you made me, be kind enough to remind his Majesty of the part that I took in the defence of St. Quentin."
"What is all this, Monsieur?" cried Henri, beginning to recover his self-control. "How is it that you intrude yourself thus upon us, without authorization or announcement? How do you dare to call upon Monsieur l'Amiral in our presence?"
Gabriel, who was as bold at such momentous crises as he was before the enemy, and who well understood that it was no time to lose his courage, replied in a perfectly respectful but determined tone,—
"I thought, Sire, that your Majesty was always ready when justice was to be done, even to the meanest of your subjects."
He had taken advantage of the king's backward movement to walk boldly into the cabinet, where Diane de Poitiers, pale as death, and half reclining upon her couch of carved oak, watched the actions and words of the audacious young man, without power to speak a word, so great was her anger and surprise.
Coligny had entered also upon the heels of his impetuous friend, and Montmorency, as much stupefied as the others, had followed his example.
There was a moment of silence. Henri turned to his mistress with an inquiring look; but before he had resolved upon any course for himself or she had had time to suggest one to him, Gabriel, who knew well that at that moment he held a very advantageous position, said again to Coligny with an imploring and at the same time dignified accent,—
"I beseech you to speak, Monsieur l'Amiral!" Montmorency quickly shook his head at his nephew, but brave Gaspard took no note of it.
"Indeed I will speak," said he, "for both my duty and my promise require me to do so.
"Sire," he resumed, addressing the king, "I here repeat to you, in brief, and in presence of Monsieur le Vicomte d'Exmès, what I thought it my duty to tell you in greater detail before his return. It is to him, and to him alone, that we owe the prolonged defence of St. Quentin, even beyond the time fixed by your Majesty."
The constable made a meaning movement. But Coligny, looking steadily at him, nevertheless went calmly on,—
"Yes, Sire, three times and more Monsieur d'Exmès saved the town, and had it not been for his courage and energy, France, beyond a doubt, would not have been at this hour on the road to safety, in which we may hope that she may henceforth be able to maintain herself."
"Come, come! you are too modest or too obliging, my nephew!" cried Monsieur de Montmorency, utterly unable to restrain his impatience any longer.
"No, Monsieur, I am just and truthful," said Coligny, "nothing more. I contributed my own share and with all my strength to the defence of the town which was intrusted to me. But Vicomte d'Exmès rekindled the courage of the people, which I looked upon as already dead beyond redemption; he succeeded in throwing into the town reinforcements which I had no idea were in the neighborhood; last of all, he frustrated a surprise attempted by the enemy, which I had not foreseen. I say nothing of the way in which he bore himself in the mêlée; we all did our best. But what he did with his own hand and brain, the enormous share of glory that he won for himself on that occasion, may well lessen or even render vain and illusory all of mine,—that I proclaim aloud."
Turning to Gabriel, the brave admiral added,—
"Is it thus that I ought to speak, my friend? Have I carried out my agreement to your satisfaction? Are you content with me?"
"Oh, I thank and bless you from the bottom of my heart, Monsieur l'Amiral, for your loyalty and virtue," said Gabriel, deeply touched, and pressing Coligny's hands. "I expected no less of you. But look upon me, I beg, as bound to you forever. Yes, from this hour, your creditor has become your debtor, and will remember his debt, I swear to you."
Meanwhile the king, frowning and with downcast eyes, was beating his foot impatiently on the floor, and seemed deeply vexed.
The constable gradually approached Madame de Poitiers, and exchanged a few words with her in an undertone.
They seemed to have come to some decision, for Diane began to smile; and her diabolical and feminine grimace made Gabriel shudder, as he happened to be looking at the beautiful duchess at that moment.
However, Gabriel found strength to add,—
"I will keep you no longer, Monsieur l'Amiral. You have done more than your duty toward me; and if his Majesty will deign now to grant, as my first reward, the favor of a private interview—"
"Later, Monsieur, later; I do not say no," said Henri, quickly, "but just now it is impossible."
"Impossible!" cried Gabriel, sorrowfully.
"Why impossible, Sire?" Diane interrupted pleasantly, to Gabriel's great surprise, and the king's as well.
"What! do you think, Madame—?" stammered Henri.
"I think, Sire, that a king's most pressing duty is to render to each one of his subjects that which is his due. Now, your debt to Monsieur d'Exmès is one of the most well-founded and sacred of all debts in my opinion."
"No doubt, no doubt!" said Henri, who began to read the signals in the favorite's eyes; "and I wish—"
"To hear at once what Monsieur d'Exmès has to say," Diane finished his sentence. "That is right, Sire, and no more than justice."
"But his Majesty knows," said Gabriel, more and more lost in amazement, "that it is essential that I should speak with him alone?"
"Monsieur de Montmorency was just about to retire as you came in, Monsieur," rejoined Madame de Poitiers; "and you have yourself taken the trouble to tell Monsieur l'Amiral that you would detain him no longer. As for myself, as I was a witness of the contract the king made with you, and can even, if need be, remind his Majesty of its exact terms, perhaps you will allow me to remain."
"Most assuredly, Madame; I ask you to do so," murmured Gabriel.
"My nephew and myself will take our leave, then, of his Majesty and of you, Madame," said Montmorency.
He made a sign of encouragement, as he passed, to Diane, of which she seemed in no need, however.
For his part Coligny ventured to press Gabriel's hand; then he followed his uncle from the room.
The king and the favorite remained alone with Gabriel, who was in a state of alarm at the unexpected and mysterious protection accorded to him by Diane de Castro's mother.