The War of Women. Volume 1
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Whatever may have been Canolles' reflections in a moment of misanthropy not to be wondered at in an offended lover, there was not at the isolated house a whit more real satisfaction than at the Golden Calf.
Nanon was restless and anxious throughout the night, revolving in her mind a thousand schemes to warn Canolles, and she resorted to every device that a well-developed female brain could suggest in the way of cunning and trickery to extricate herself from her precarious situation. Her only object was to steal one minute from the duke to speak to Francinette, or two minutes to write a line to Canolles upon a scrap of paper.
But you would have said that the duke, suspecting all that was passing through her mind, and reading her anxiety through the mask of cheerfulness which her face wore, had sworn to himself that he would not vouchsafe to her one moment of that liberty which was so essential to her peace of mind.
Nanon had a sick-headache; Monsieur d'Épernon would not hear of her rising to get her bottle of salts, but went to look for it himself.
Nanon pricked herself with a pin, and a ruby drop appeared at the end of her taper finger; she essayed to go to her toilet-case for a piece of the famous rose-taffeta, which was just coming into favor, but Monsieur d'Épernon, with indefatigable devotion to her comfort, rose, prepared the rose-taffeta with disheartening dexterity, and locked the toilet-case.
Nanon thereupon pretended to be sleeping soundly; almost immediately the duke began to snore. At that, Nanon opened her eyes, and by the glimmer of the night-light in its alabaster vessel on a table by the bed, she tried to take the duke's own tablets from his doublet, which was within her reach; but just as she had the pencil in her hand, and was about tearing off a leaf of paper, the duke opened one eye.
"What are you doing, my love?" he asked.
"I was looking to see if there isn't a calendar in your tablets."
"For what purpose?"
"To see when your birthday comes."
"My name is Louis, and my birthday falls on August 25th, as you know; so you have abundant time to prepare for it, dear heart."
And he took the tablets from her hands and replaced them in his doublet.
By this last manœuvre, Nanon had at all events secured pencil and paper. She stowed them away under her bolster, and very adroitly overturned the night-light, hoping to be able to write in the dark; but the duke immediately rang for Francinette, and loudly demanded a light, declaring that he could not sleep unless he could see. Francinette came running in before Nanon had had time to write half of her sentence, and the duke, to avoid another similar mishap, bade the maid place two candles on the chimney-piece. Thereupon Nanon declared that she could not sleep with so much light, and resolutely turned her face to the wall, awaiting the dawn in feverish impatience and anxiety easy to understand.
The dreaded day broke at last, and bedimmed the light of the two candles. Monsieur le Duc d'Épernon, who prided himself upon his strict adherence to a military mode of life, rose as the first ray of dawn stole in through the jalousies, dressed without assistance, in order not to leave his little Nanon for an instant, donned his robe de chambre, and rang to ask if there were any news.
Francinette replied by handing him a bundle of despatches which Courtauvaux, his favorite outrider, had brought during the night.
The duke began to unseal them and to read with one eye; the other eye, to which he sought to impart the most affectionate expression he could command, he did not once remove from Nanon.
Nanon would have torn him in pieces if she could.
"Do you know what you ought to do, my dear?" said he, after he had read a portion of the despatches.
"No, monseigneur; but if you will give your orders, they shall be obeyed."
"You should send for your brother," said the duke. "I have here a letter from Bordeaux containing the information I desired, and he might start instantly, so that when he returned, I should have an excuse for giving him the promotion you suggest."
The duke's face was a picture of open-hearted benevolence.
"Courage!" said Nanon to herself; "there is a possibility that Canolles will read in my eyes what I want to say, or will understand a hint. Send yourself, my dear duke," she said aloud, for she suspected that if she undertook to do the errand herself, he would not allow her.
D'Épernon called Francinette, and despatched her to the inn with no other instructions than these, —
"Say to Monsieur le Baron de Canolles that Mademoiselle de Lartigues expects him to breakfast."
Nanon darted a meaning glance at Francinette, but, eloquent as it was, Francinette could not read in it, "Tell Monsieur le Baron de Canolles that I am his sister."
Francinette departed on her errand, satisfied that there was a needle under the rock, and that the needle might prove to be a good, healthy serpent.
Meanwhile Nanon rose, and took up a position behind the duke, so that she might be able, at the first glance she exchanged with Canolles, to warn him to be on his guard; and she busied herself in constructing a sentence by means of which she might at the outset convey to the baron all that he ought to know, in order that he might not sing false in the family trio about to be performed.
Out of the corner of her eye she could see the whole of the road as far as the turn where Monsieur d'Épernon and his men had lain in ambush the night before.
"Ah!" exclaimed the duke, "Francinette is returning." And he fixed his eyes upon Nanon's, who was compelled to look away from the road to meet his gaze.
Nanon's heart was beating as if it would burst through her breast; she had seen no one but Francinette, and it was Canolles whom she hoped to see, and to read in his face some comforting assurance.
Steps were heard upon the stairs; the duke prepared a smile which was at once condescending and affable; Nanon forced back the flush which mounted to her cheeks, and summoned all her strength for the conflict.
Francinette tapped gently at the door.
"Come in!" said the duke.
Nanon conned the famous sentence with which she proposed to greet Canolles.
The door opened; Francinette was alone. Nanon gazed eagerly into the reception-room; there was no one there.
"Madame," said Francinette, with the imperturbable self-possession of a comedy soubrette, "Monsieur le Baron de Canolles has left the Golden Calf."
The duke stared, and his face grew dark.
Nanon threw back her head and drew a long breath.
"What!" exclaimed the duke; "Monsieur de Canolles is not at the Golden Calf."
"You are surely mistaken, Francinette," chimed in Nanon.
"Madame," said Francinette, "I tell you what Monsieur Biscarros himself told me."
"He must have guessed the whole truth," murmured Nanon. "Dear Canolles! as quick-witted and clever as he is gallant and handsome!"
"Go at once to Master Biscarros," said the duke, with a face like a thundercloud, "and – "
"Oh! I fancy," said Nanon, hastily, "that he knew you were here, and disliked to disturb you. Poor Canolles is so timid!"
"Timid!" echoed the duke; "that isn't the reputation he bears, unless I am much mistaken."
"No, madame," said Francinette; "Monsieur le Baron has really gone."
"How does it happen, madame, I pray to know, that the baron is afraid of me, when Francinette was instructed to invite him in your name? Did you tell him I was here, Francinette? Answer!"
"I could not tell him, Monsieur le Duc, as he was not there."
Notwithstanding this rejoinder, which was uttered with an absence of hesitation that betokened sincerity, the duke seemed to have become as suspicious as ever. Nanon, in her joy at the turn the affair had taken, could not find strength to say a word.
"Must I return and summon Master Biscarros?" queried Francinette.
"Most assuredly," said the duke, in his harshest voice; "but no; wait a moment. Remain here; your mistress may need you, and I will send Courtauvaux."
Francinette vanished. Five minutes later, Courtauvaux knocked at the door.
"Go and bid the landlord of the Golden Calf come hither, and bring with him a breakfast menu! Give him these ten louis, so that the breakfast may be a good one!" said the duke.
Courtauvaux received the money on the skirt of his coat, and took himself off at once to execute his master's orders.
He was a servant of good family, and knowing enough at his trade to give lessons to all the Crispins and Mascarillos of the day. He found Biscarros, and said to him, —
"I have induced monsieur to order a good breakfast; and he gave me eight louis. I keep two, of course, for my commission, and here are six for you. Come at once."
Biscarros, tremulous with joy, tied a white apron around his loins, pocketed the six louis, and pressing Courtauvaux's hand, followed close upon his heels as he trotted away toward the little house.
VIII
This time Nanon was without apprehension; Francinette's intelligence had reassured her completely, and she was even very anxious to talk with Biscarros. He was ushered in, therefore, immediately upon his arrival.
Biscarros entered the room with his apron politely tucked in his belt, and cap in hand.
"You had at your house yesterday a young gentleman, Monsieur le Baron de Canolles, did you not?" said Nanon.
"What has become of him?" added the duke.
Biscarros, somewhat ill at ease, for the outrider and the six louis made him more than suspect the great personage under the robe de chambre, replied evasively:
"He has gone, monsieur."
"Gone?" said the duke; "really gone?"
"Really."
"Where has he gone?" Nanon asked.
"That I cannot tell you; for, in very truth, I do not know, madame."
"You know at least in which direction he went?"
"He took the Paris road."
"At what hour did he take that road?" asked the duke.
"About midnight."
"And without saying anything?" queried Nanon, timidly.
"Without saying anything; he simply left a letter, and bade me hand it to Mademoiselle Francinette."
"Well, why haven't you handed it to her, knave?" said the duke; "is that all the respect you have for a nobleman's command?"
"I did hand it to her, monsieur; I did indeed!"
"Francinette!" roared the duke.
Francinette, who was listening at the door, made but one bound from the reception-room into the bedroom.
"Why didn't you give your mistress the letter Monsieur de Canolles left for her?"
"Why, monseigneur – " murmured the maid, in deadly terror.
"Monseigneur!" thought the amazed Biscarros, shrinking into the most remote corner of the room; "Monseigneur! it must be some prince in disguise."
"I had not asked her for it," Nanon, pale as a ghost, hastened to say.
"Give it me," said the duke, extending his hand.
Poor Francinette slowly held out the letter, turning to her mistress with a look which seemed to say, —
"You see that it's no fault of mine; that imbecile of a Biscarros has ruined everything."
Two fierce gleams shot from Nanon's eyes, and pierced Biscarros in his corner. The sweat stood in great drops on the poor wretch's brow, and he would have given the six louis he had in his pocket to be standing in front of his oven with the handle of a saucepan in his hand.
Meanwhile the duke had taken the letter and opened it, and was reading. As he read, Nanon stood beside him, paler and colder than a statue, feeling as if no part of her were alive save her heart.
"What does all this mean?" queried the duke.
Nanon knew by that question that the letter did not compromise her.
"Read it aloud, and I can explain it perhaps," said she.
"'Dear Nanon,'" the duke began.
He turned to his companion, who became more composed with every second, and bore his gaze with admirable self-possession.
"'Dear Nanon,'" the duke resumed: —
"'I am availing myself of the leave of absence I owe to your good offices, and to divert my mind, I am going for a short gallop on the Paris road. Au revoir; I commend my fortune to your attention.'
"Ah ça! why, this Canolles is mad!"
"Mad? Why so?" rejoined Nanon.
"Does a sane man start off in this way at midnight, without a reason for so doing?"
"I should say as much," said Nanon to herself.
"Come, explain his departure to me."
"Eh! mon Dieu! monseigneur," said Nanon, with a charming smile, "nothing can be easier than that."
"She, too, calls him monseigneur," muttered Biscarros. "He is a prince, beyond question."
"Well, tell me."
"What! can you not guess which way the wind blows?"
"Not in the least."
"Canolles is twenty-seven years old; he is young, handsome, thoughtless. What particular form of madness do you suppose he prefers? Love. He must have seen some fair traveller pass Master Biscarros' door, and have followed her."
"He's in love, you think?" cried the duke, smiling at the very natural reflection that, if Canolles was in love with any traveller whatsoever, he was not in love with Nanon.
"Why, yes, of course he's in love. Isn't that it, Master Biscarros?" said Nanon, enchanted to see that the duke accepted her suggestion. "Come, answer freely; have I not guessed aright?"
Biscarros thought that the moment had come to reestablish himself in the young woman's good graces by assenting freely to whatever she might say, and with a smile about four inches wide blooming upon his lips, he said, —
"In very truth, madame may be right."
Nanon stepped toward him, shuddering in spite of herself.
"It is so; is it not?" she said.
"I think so, madame," replied Biscarros, with a knowing air.
"You think so?"
"Yes; wait a moment; indeed, you open my eyes."
"Ah! tell us about it, Master Biscarros," rejoined Nanon, beginning to feel the first pricks of jealousy; "come, tell us what fair travellers tarried at your hostelry last night."
"Yes, tell us," said Monsieur d'Épernon, stretching out his legs, and making himself comfortable in an easy chair.
"There were no lady travellers," said Biscarros.
Nanon breathed again.
"But," continued the inn-keeper, not suspecting that every word he uttered made Nanon's heart leap, "there was a little fair-haired gentleman, very plump and dainty, who didn't eat or drink, and who was afraid to resume his journey after dark. A young gentleman who was afraid," repeated Biscarros, with an extremely-cunning nod; "you understand, do you not?"
"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the duke, condescendingly, biting freely at the hook.
Nanon answered his laughter with something very like gnashing of the teeth.
"Go on!" said she; "it's a charming story! Of course the little gentleman was awaiting Monsieur de Canolles."
"No, no; he was waiting for a tall, moustachioed gentleman to sup with him, and was even somewhat uncivil to Monsieur de Canolles when he proposed that they should sup together. But that worthy gentleman was not discouraged by so small a matter. He's an enterprising young man, apparently, and 'faith, after the departure of the tall man, who turned to the right, he rode after the short one, who turned to the left."
With this Rabelaisian conclusion, Biscarros, observing the duke's expansive features, thought that he might indulge in an ascending scale of roars of laughter, of so stentorian quality that the windows rattled.
The duke, whose mind was entirely relieved from a great weight, would have embraced Biscarros if the least drop of noble blood had flowed in his veins. As for Nanon, with pallid cheeks, and a convulsive smile frozen upon her lips, she listened to every word that fell from the inn-keeper's lips, with that devouring faith which leads the jealous to drink freely to the dregs the poison which destroys their lives.
"What leads you to think," said she, "that your little gentleman is a woman, and that Monsieur de Canolles is in love with her, rather than that he is riding about the country because he is bored, or to gratify a whim?"
"What makes me think so?" replied Biscarros, determined to bring conviction home to the minds of his hearers. "Wait, and I will tell you."
"Yes, tell us, my good friend," said the duke. "Egad! you are an amusing fellow."
"Monseigneur is too kind," said Biscarros. "It was like this."
The duke became all ears, and Nanon listened with clenched fists.
"I suspected nothing, and had taken the little fair-haired cavalier for a man readily enough, when I met Monsieur de Canolles half-way upstairs, with a candle in his left hand, and in his right a small glove, which he was examining, and passionately smelling – "
"Ho! ho! ho!" roared the duke, whose spleen vanished with amazing rapidity, as soon as he ceased to have any apprehension on his own account.
"A glove!" exclaimed Nanon, trying to remember if she had not left such a pledge in the possession of her knight; "a glove like this?"
As she spoke, she handed the inn-keeper one of her own gloves.
"No," said Biscarros, "a man's glove."
"A man's glove? Monsieur de Canolles staring at a man's glove, and passionately smelling it? You are mad!"
"No; for it belonged to the little gentleman, the pretty little blond cavalier, who neither ate nor drank, and was afraid of the dark, – a tiny glove, in which madame could hardly put her hand, although madame certainly has a pretty hand – "
Nanon gave a sharp little cry, as if she had been struck by an invisible arrow.
"I trust," said she, with a mighty effort, "that you have all the information you desire, monseigneur; that you know all you wished to know."
With trembling lips, clenched teeth, and gleaming eyes, she pointed with outstretched finger to the door, while Biscarros, noticing these indications of wrath upon the young woman's face, was altogether non-plussed, and stood with mouth and eyes wide open.
"If the young gentleman's absence is such a calamity," he thought, "his return would be a blessed thing. I will flatter this worthy nobleman with a hopeful suggestion, that he may have a hearty appetite."
In pursuance of this determination, Biscarros assumed his most gracious expression, gracefully put his right leg forward, and remarked, —
"After all, though the gentleman has gone, he may return at any moment."
The duke smiled at this beginning.
"True," he said; "why should he not return? Perhaps, indeed, he has returned already. Go and ascertain, Monsieur Biscarros, and let me know."
"But the breakfast?" said Nanon, hastily; "I am dying of hunger."
"To be sure," said the duke; "Courtauvaux will go. Come here, Courtauvaux; go to Master Biscarros' inn, and see if Monsieur le Baron de Canolles has returned. If he is not there, ask questions, find out what you can, look for him in the neighborhood. I am anxious to breakfast with him. Go!"
Courtauvaux left the room, and Biscarros, noticing the embarrassed silence of the others, prepared to put forth a new expedient.
"Don't you see that madame is motioning you to retire?" said Francinette.
"One moment! one moment!" cried the duke; "deuce take me! but you're losing your head now, my dear Nanon. What about the menu, pray? I am like you; I am half famished. Here, Master Biscarros, put these six louis with the others: they are to pay for the diverting tale you have been telling us."
Thereupon he bade the historian give place to the cook, and we hasten to say that Master Biscarros shone no less brilliantly in the second rôle than the first.
Meanwhile Nanon had reflected and realized at a glance the situation in which she was placed if Master Biscarros' supposition were well-founded. In the first place, was it well-founded? and, after all, even if it were, was not Canolles excusable? For what a cruel thing for a gallant fellow like him was this broken appointment! How insulting the espionage of the Duc d'Épernon, and the necessity imposed upon him, Canolles, of looking on, so to speak, at his rival's triumph! Nanon was so deeply in love herself that, attributing this prank to a paroxysm of jealousy, she not only forgave Canolles, but pitied him, and congratulated herself, perhaps, on being loved so well as to have incited him to take this petty revenge upon her. But the evil must be cut off at its root, and the progress of this incipient passion must be checked at all hazards.
At that point, a terrifying thought passed through Nanon's mind, and well-nigh struck her dumb.
Suppose that this meeting between Canolles and the little gentleman was by appointment.
But no; she was mad to think of it, for the little fellow awaited the arrival of a man with moustaches, and was rude to Canolles; perhaps Canolles did not himself detect the stranger's sex until he happened upon the little glove.
No matter! Canolles must be thwarted.
Summoning all her energy, she returned to the duke, who had just dismissed Biscarros, laden with compliments and instructions.
"What a misfortune, monsieur," said she, "that that madcap's folly deprives him of an honor like that you were about to bestow upon him! If he had been here, his future was assured; his absence may ruin everything."
"But," said the duke, "if we find him – "
"No danger of that," rejoined Nanon; "if there's a woman in the case, he will not have returned."
"What would you have me do, my love? Youth is the age of pleasure; he is young, and is amusing himself."
"But," said Nanon, "I am more sensible than he, and it's my opinion that we should interfere a little with his unseasonable amusement."
"Ah! scolding sister!" cried the duke.
"He will take it ill of me at the moment, perhaps; but he will unquestionably thank me for it later."
"Very well; have you a plan? I ask nothing better than to adopt it if you have."
"I have one."
"Tell it me."
"Do you not wish to send him to the queen with urgent intelligence?"
"To be sure; but if he has not returned – "
"Send a messenger after him; and as he is on the road to Paris, it will be so much time gained."
"Pardieu! you are right."
"Leave it to me, and Canolles shall have the order to-night or to-morrow morning. I will answer for it."
"Whom will you send?"
"Do you need Courtauvaux?"
"Not in the least."
"Give him to me, then, and I will send him with my instructions."
"Oh! what a head for a diplomatist! you have a future before you, Nanon."
"May I remain forever under so good a master! that is the height of my ambition," said Nanon, throwing her arm around the old duke's neck, whereat he trembled with delight.
"What a delightful joke to play upon our Celadon!" said she.
"It will be a charming story to tell, my love."
"Upon my word! I should like to go in chase of him myself, to see how he'll receive the messenger."
"Unhappily, or rather happily, that is out of the question, and you must needs remain with me."
"True; but let us lose no time. Write your order, duke, and place Courtauvaux at my disposal."
The duke took a pen and wrote upon a bit of paper these two words: —
"Bordeaux. – No,"
and signed his name.
He then enclosed this laconic despatch in an envelope, on which he wrote the following address: —
"To her Majesty, Queen Anne of Austria, Regent of France."
Nanon meanwhile wrote a few lines, which she placed with the other, after showing them to the duke: —
My Dear Baron, – The accompanying despatch is for her Majesty the queen, as you see. On your life, carry it to her instantly; the welfare of the kingdom is at stake!
Your loving sister,Nanon.Nanon had hardly finished the letter, when they heard hurried footsteps at the foot of the stairs, and Courtauvaux ran up quickly and opened the door, with the expansive expression of a bearer of news which he knows to be awaited with impatience.
"Here is Monsieur de Canolles, whom I met within a hundred yards of the house," he said.
The duke uttered an exclamation of good-humored surprise. Nanon turned pale, and darted to the door, muttering, —
"It is written that I shall not escape the meeting."
At that moment a new personage appeared in the doorway, arrayed in a magnificent costume, holding his hat in his hand, and with a most gracious smile upon his lips.