Bardelys the Magnificent

by Rafael Sabatini

  CHAPTER XII. THE TRIBUNAL OF TOULOUSE

  I had hoped to lie some days in prison before being brought totrial, and that during those days Castelroux might have succeeded indiscovering those who could witness to my identity. Conceive, therefore,something of my dismay when on the morrow I was summoned an hour beforenoon to go present myself to my judges.

  From the prison to the Palace I was taken in chains like any thief--forthe law demanded this indignity to be borne by one charged with thecrimes they imputed to me. The distance was but short, yet I found itover-long, which is not wonderful considering that the people stoppedto line up as I went by and to cast upon me a shower of opprobriousderision--for Toulouse was a very faithful and loyal city. It was withinsome two hundred yards of the Palace steps that I suddenly beheld a facein the crowd, at the sight of which I stood still in my amazement. Thisearned me a stab in the back from the butt-end of the pike of one of myguards.

  "What ails you now?" quoth the man irritably. "Forward, Monsieur letraite!"

  I moved on, scarce remarking the fellow's roughness; my eyes werestill upon that face--the white, piteous face of Roxalanne. I smiledreassurance and encouragement, but even as I smiled the horror in hercountenance seemed to increase. Then, as I passed on, she vanished frommy sight, and I was left to conjecture the motives that had occasionedher return to Toulouse. Had the message that Marsac would yesterday haveconveyed to her caused her to retrace her steps that she might be nearme in my extremity; or had some weightier reason influenced her return?Did she hope to undo some of the evil she had done? Alas, poor child! Ifsuch were her hopes, I sorely feared me they would prove very idle.

  Of my trial I should say but little did not the exigencies of my storyrender it necessary to say much. Even now, across the gap of years, mygorge rises at the mockery which, in the King's name, those gentlemenmade of justice. I can allow for the troubled conditions of the times,and I can realize how in cases of civil disturbances and rebellionit may be expedient to deal summarily with traitors, yet not all theallowances that I can think of would suffice to condone the methods ofthat tribunal.

  The trial was conducted in private by the Keeper of the Seals--alean, wizened individual, with an air as musty and dry as that of theparchments among which he had spent his days. He was supported bysix judges, and on his right sat the King's Commissioner, Monsieurde Chatellerault--the bruised condition of whose countenance stilladvertised the fact that we had met but yesterday.

  Upon being asked my name and place of abode, I created some commotionby answering boldly "I am the Sieur Marcel de Saint-Pol, Marquis ofBardelys, of Bardelys in Picardy."

  The President--that is to say, the Keeper of the Seals--turnedinquiringly to Chatellerault. The Count, however, did no more thansmile and point to something written on a paper that lay spread upon thetable. The President nodded.

  "Monsieur Rene de Lesperon," said he, "the Court may perhaps not be ableto discriminate whether this statement of yours is a deliberate attemptto misguide or frustrate the ends of justice, or whether, either inconsequence of your wounds or as a visitation of God for your treason,you are the victim of a deplorable hallucination. But the Court wishesyou to understand that it is satisfied of your identity. The papersfound upon your person at the time of your arrest, besides otherevidence in our power, remove all possibility of doubt in thatconnection. Therefore, in your own interests, we implore you to abandonthese false statements, if so be that you are master of your wits. Youronly hope of saving your head must lie in your truthfully answering ourquestions, and even then, Monsieur de Lesperon, the hope that we holdout to you is so slight as to be no hope at all."

  There was a pause, during which the other judges nodded their heads insage approval of their President's words. For myself, I kept silent,perceiving how little it could avail me to continue to protest, andawaited his next question.

  "You were arrested, monsieur, at the Chateau de Lavedan two nights agoby a company of dragoons under the command of Captain de Castelroux. Isthat so?"

  "It is so, monsieur."

  "And at the time of your arrest, upon being apprehended as Rene deLesperon, you offered no repudiation of the identity; on the contrary,when Monsieur de Castelroux called for Monsieur de Lesperon, you steppedforward and acknowledged that you were he."

  "Pardon, monsieur. What I acknowledged was that I was known by thatname."

  The President chuckled evilly, and his satellites smiled in politereflection of his mood.

  "This acute differentiating is peculiar, Monsieur de Lesperon, topersons of unsound mental condition," said he. "I am afraid that it willserve little purpose. A man is generally known by his name, is he not?"I did not answer him. "Shall we call Monsieur de Castelroux to confirmwhat I have said?"

  "It is not necessary. Since you allow that I may have said I was knownby the name, but refuse to recognize the distinction between that anda statement that 'Lesperon' is my name, it would serve no purpose tosummon the Captain."

  The President nodded, and with that the point was dismissed, and heproceeded as calmly as though there never had been any question of myidentity.

  "You are charged, Monsieur de Lesperon, with high treason in its mostvirulent and malignant form. You are accused of having borne armsagainst His Majesty. Have you anything to say?"

  "I have to say that it is false, monsieur; that His Majesty has no morefaithful or loving subject than am I."

  The President shrugged his shoulders, and a shade of annoyance crossedhis face.

  "If you are come here for no other purpose than to deny the statementsthat I make, I am afraid that we are but wasting time," he criedtestily. "If you desire it, I can summon Monsieur de Castelroux to swearthat at the time of your arrest and upon being charged with the crimeyou made no repudiation of that charge."

  "Naturally not, monsieur," I cried, somewhat heated by this seeminglystudied ignoring of important facts, "because I realized that it wasMonsieur de Castelroux's mission to arrest and not to judge me. Monsieurde Castelroux was an officer, not a Tribunal, and to have denied this orthat to him would have been so much waste of breath."

  "Ah! Very nimble; very nimble, in truth, Monsieur de Lesperon, butscarcely convincing. We will proceed. You are charged with having takenpart in several of the skirmishes against the armies of Marshalsde Schomberg and La Force, and finally, with having been in closeattendance upon Monsieur de Montmorency at the battle of Castelnaudary.What have you to say?"

  "That it is utterly untrue."

  "Yet your name, monsieur, is on a list found among the papers in thecaptured baggage of Monsieur le Duc de Montmorency."

  "No, monsieur," I denied stoutly, "it is not."

  The President smote the table a blow that scattered a flight of papers.

  "Par la mort Dieu!" he roared, with a most indecent exhibition of temperin one so placed. "I have had enough of your contradictions. You forget,monsieur, your position--"

  "At least," I broke in harshly, "no less than you forget yours."

  The Keeper of the Seals gasped for breath at that, and his fellowjudges murmured angrily amongst themselves. Chatellerault maintained hissardonic smile, but permitted himself to utter no word.

  "I would, gentlemen," I cried, addressing them all, "that His Majestywere here to see how you conduct your trials and defile his Courts. Asfor you, Monsieur le President, you violate the sanctity of your officein giving way to anger; it is a thing unpardonable in a judge. I havetold you in plain terms, gentlemen, that I am not this Rene de Lesperonwith whose crimes you charge me. Yet, in spite of my denials, ignoringthem, or setting them down either to a futile attempt at defence or toan hallucination of which you suppose me the victim, you proceed to laythose crimes to my charge, and when I deny your charges you speak ofproofs that can only apply to another.

  "How shall the name of Lesperon having been found among the Duke ofMontmorency's papers convict me of treason, since I tell you that I amnot Lesperon? Had you the slightest, the remotest sense of yo
ur highduty, messieurs, you would ask me rather to explain how, if what Istate be true, I come to be confounded with Lesperon and arrested inhis place. Then, messieurs, you might seek to test the accuracy of whatstatements I may make; but to proceed as you are proceeding is not tojudge but to murder. Justice is represented as a virtuous woman withbandaged eyes, holding impartial scales; in your hands, gentlemen, by mysoul, she is become a very harlot clutching a veil."

  Chatellerault's cynical smile grew broader as my speech proceeded andstirred up the rancour in the hearts of those august gentlemen. TheKeeper of the Seals went white and red by turns, and when I paused therewas an impressive silence that lasted for some moments. At last thePresident leant over to confer in a whisper with Chatellerault. Then,in a voice forcedly calm--like the calm of Nature when thunder isbrewing--he asked me, "Who do you insist that you are, monsieur?"

  "Once already have I told you, and I venture to think that mine is aname not easily forgotten. I am the Sieur Marcel de Saint-Pol, Marquisof Bardelys, of Bardelys in Picardy."

  A cunning grin parted his thin lips.

  "Have you any witnesses to identify you?"

  "Hundreds, monsieur!" I answered eagerly, seeing salvation alreadywithin my grasp.

  "Name some of them."

  "I will name one--one whose word you will not dare to doubt."

  "That is?"

  "His Majesty the King. I am told that he is on his way to Toulouse, andI but ask, messieurs, that you await his arrival before going furtherwith my trial."

  "Is there no other witness of whom you can think, monsieur? Some witnessthat might be produced more readily. For if you can, indeed, establishthe identity you claim, why should you languish in prison for someweeks?"

  His voice was soft and oily. The anger had all departed out of it, whichI--like a fool--imagined to be due to my mention of the King.

  "My friends, Monsieur le Garde des Sceaux, are all either in Paris or inHis Majesty's train, and so not likely to be here before him. Thereis my intendant, Rodenard, and there are my servants--some twentyof them--who may perhaps be still in Languedoc, and for whom I wouldentreat you to seek. Them you might succeed in finding within a few daysif they have not yet determined to return to Paris in the belief that Iam dead."

  He stroked his chin meditatively, his eyes raised to the sunlit dome ofglass overhead.

  "Ah-h!" he gasped. It was a long-drawn sigh of regret, of conclusion, orof weary impatience. "There is no one in Toulouse who will swear to youridentity monsieur?" he asked.

  "I am afraid there is not," I replied. "I know of no one."

  As I uttered those words the President's countenance changed as abruptlyas if he had flung off a mask. From soft and cat-like that he had beenduring the past few moments, he grew of a sudden savage as a tiger. Heleapt to his feet, his face crimson, his eyes seeming to blaze, andthe words he spoke came now in a hot, confused, and almost incoherenttorrent.

  "Miserable!" he roared, "out of your own mouth have you convictedyourself. And to think that you should have stood there and wasted thetime of this Court--His Majesty's time--with your damnable falsehoods!What purpose did you think to serve by delaying your doom? Did youimagine that haply, whilst we sent to Paris for your witnesses, theKing might grow weary of justice, and in some fit of clemency announce ageneral pardon? Such things have been known, and it may be that in yourcunning you played for such a gain based upon such a hope. But justice,fool, is not to be cozened. Had you, indeed, been Bardelys, you had seenthat here in this court sits a gentleman who is very intimate with him.He is there, monsieur; that is Monsieur le Comte de Chatellerault, ofwhom perhaps you may have heard. Yet, when I ask you whether in Toulousethere is any one who can bear witness to your identity, you answer methat you know of no one. I will waste no more time with you, I promiseyou."

  He flung himself back into his chair like a man exhausted, and moppedhis brow with a great kerchief which he had drawn from his robes. Hisfellow judges laid their heads together, and with smiles and nods, winksand leers, they discussed and admired the miraculous subtlety and acumenof this Solomon. Chatellerault sat, calmly smiling, in solemn mockery.

  For a spell I was too thunderstruck to speak, aghast at thiscatastrophe. Like a fool, indeed, I had tumbled into the pit that hadbeen dug for me by Chatellerault for I never doubted that it was of hiscontriving. At last, "My masters," said I, "these conclusions mayappear to you most plausible, but, believe me, they are fallacious. I amperfectly acquainted with Monsieur de Chatellerault, and he with me,and if he were to speak the truth and play the man and the gentlemanfor once, he would tell you that I am, indeed, Bardelys. But Monsieur leComte has ends of his own to serve in sending me to my doom. It is in asense through his agency that I am at present in this position, and thatI have been confounded with Lesperon. What, then, could it have availedme to have made appeal to him? And yet, Monsieur le President, he wasborn a gentleman, and he may still retain some notion of honour. Askhim, sir--ask him point-blank, whether I am or not Marcel de Bardelys."

  The firmness of my tones created some impression upon those feebleminds. Indeed, the President went so far as to turn an interrogativeglance upon the Count. But Chatellerault, supremely master of thesituation, shrugged his shoulders, and smiled a pitying, long-sufferingsmile.

  "Must I really answer such a question, Monsieur le President?" heinquired in a voice and with a manner that clearly implied how low wouldbe his estimate of the President's intelligence if he were, indeed,constrained to do so.

  "But no, Monsieur le Comte," replied the President with sudden haste,and in scornful rejection of the idea. "There is no necessity that youshould answer."

  "But the question, Monsieur le President!" I thundered, my handoutstretched towards Chatellerault. "Ask him--if you have any sense ofyour duty--ask him am I not Marcel de Bardelys."

  "Silence!" blazed the President back at me. "You shall not fool us anylonger, you nimble-witted liar!"

  My head drooped. This coward had, indeed, shattered my last hope.

  "Some day, monsieur," I said very quietly, "I promise you that yourbehaviour and these gratuitous insults shall cost you your position.Pray God they do not cost you also your head!"

  My words they treated as one might treat the threats of a child. ThatI should have had the temerity to utter them did but serve finally todecide my doom, if, indeed, anything had been wanting.

  With many epithets of opprobrium, such as are applied to malefactorsof the lowest degree, they passed sentence of death upon me, and withdrooping spirits, giving myself up for lost and assured that I shouldbe led to the block before many hours were sped, I permitted them toreconduct me through the streets of Toulouse to my prison.

  I could entertain you at length upon my sensations as I walked betweenmy guards, a man on the threshold of eternity, with hundreds of men andwomen gaping at me--men and women who would live for years to gape uponmany another wretch in my position. The sun shone with a brilliance thatto such eyes as mine was a very mockery. Thus would it shine on throughcenturies, and light many another unfortunate to the scaffold. The verysky seemed pitiless in the intensity of its cobalt. Unfeeling I deemedthe note that everywhere was struck by man and Nature, so discordant wasit with my gloomy outlook. If you would have food for reflection uponthe evanescent quality of life, upon the nothingness of man, uponthe empty, heartless egoism implicit in human nature, get yourselvessentenced to death, and then look around you. With such a force was allthis borne in upon me, and with such sufficiency, that after the firstpang was spent I went near to rejoicing that things were as they were,and that I was to die, haply before sunset. It was become such a worldas did not seem worth a man's while to live in: a world of vainness, ofhollowness, of meanness, of nothing but illusions. The knowledge that Iwas about to die, that I was about to quit all this, seemed to havetorn some veil from my eyes, and to have permitted me to recognize theworthless quality of what I left. Well may it be that such are but thethoughts of a man's dying moments, whispe
red into his soul by a mercifulGod to predispose him for the wrench and agony of his passing.

  I had been a half-hour in my cell when the door was opened to admitCastelroux, whom I had not seen since the night before. He came tocondole with me in my extremity, and yet to bid me not utterly losehope.

  "It is too late to-day to carry out the sentence," said he, "and asto-morrow will be Sunday, you will have until the day after. By thenmuch may betide, monsieur. My agents are everywhere scouring theprovince for your servants, and let us pray Heaven that they may succeedin their search."

  "It is a forlorn hope, Monsieur de Castelroux," I sighed, "and I willpin no faith to it lest I suffer a disappointment that will embitter mylast moments, and perhaps rob me of some of the fortitude I shall haveneed of."

  He answered me, nevertheless, with words of encouragement. No effort wasbeing spared, and if Rodenard and my men were still in Languedoc thenwas every likelihood that they would be brought to Toulouse in time.Then he added that that, however, was not the sole object of his visit.A lady had obtained permission of the Keeper of the Seals to visit me,and she was waiting to be admitted.

  "A lady?" I exclaimed, and the thought of Roxalanne flitted through mymind. "Mademoiselle de Lavedan?" I inquired.

  He nodded. "Yes," said he; then added, "She seems in sore affliction,monsieur."

  I besought him to admit her forthwith, and presently she came.Castelroux closed the door as he withdrew, and we were left alonetogether. As she put aside her cloak, and disclosed to me the pallor ofher face and the disfiguring red about her gentle eyes, telling oftears and sleeplessness, all my own trouble seemed to vanish in thecontemplation of her affliction.

  We stood a moment confronting each other with no word spoken. Then,dropping her glance, and advancing a step, in a faltering, hesitatingmanner "Monsieur, monsieur," she murmured in a suffocating voice.

  In a bound I was beside her, and I had gathered her in my arms, herlittle brown head against my shoulder.

  "Roxalanne!" I whispered as soothingly as I might--"Roxalanne!"

  But she struggled to be free of my embrace.

  "Let me go, monsieur," she pleaded, a curious shrinking in her veryvoice. "Do not touch me, monsieur. You do not know--you do not know."

  For answer, I enfolded her more tightly still.

  "But I do know, little one," I whispered; "and I even understand."

  At that, her struggles ceased upon the instant, and she seemed to lielimp and helpless in my arms.

  "You know, monsieur," she questioned me--"you know that I betrayed you?"

  "Yes," I answered simply.

  "And you can forgive me? I am sending you to your death and you have noreproaches for me! Oh, monsieur, it will kill me!"

  "Hush, child!" I whispered. "What reproaches can I have for you? I knowthe motives that impelled you."

  "Not altogether, monsieur; you cannot know them. I loved you, monsieur.I do love you, monsieur. Oh! this is not a time to consider words. If Iam bold and unmaidenly, I--I--"

  "Neither bold nor unmaidenly, but--oh, the sweetest damsel in allFrance, my Roxalanne!" I broke in, coming to her aid. "Mine was aleprous, sinful soul, child, when I came into Languedoc. I had nofaith in any human good, and I looked as little for an honest man or avirtuous woman as one looks for honey in a nettle. I was soured, and mylife had hardly been such a life as it was meet to bring into contactwith your own. Then, among the roses at Lavedan, in your dear company,Roxalanne, it seemed that some of the good, some of the sweetness, someof the purity about you were infused anew into my heart. I became youngagain, and I seemed oddly cleansed. In that hour of my rejuvenation Iloved you, Roxalanne."

  Her face had been raised to mine as I spoke. There came now a flutter ofthe eyelids, a curious smile about the lips. Then her head drooped againand was laid against my breast; a sigh escaped her, and she began toweep softly.

  "Nay, Roxalanne, do not fret. Come, child, it is not your way to beweak."

  "I have betrayed you!" she moaned. "I am sending you to your death!"

  "I understand, I understand," I answered, smoothing her brown hair.

  "Not quite, monsieur. I loved you so, monsieur, that you can have nothought of how I suffered that morning when Mademoiselle de Marsac cameto Lavedan.

  "At first it was but the pain of thinking that--that I was about to loseyou; that you were to go out of my life, and that I should see you nomore--you whom I had enshrined so in my heart.

  "I called myself a little fool that morning for having dreamed thatyou had come to care for me; my vanity I thought had deluded me intoimagining that your manner towards me had a tenderness that spoke ofaffection. I was bitter with myself, and I suffered oh, so much! Thenlater, when I was in the rose garden, you came to me.

  "You remember how you seized me, and how by your manner you showedme that it was not vanity alone had misled me. You had fooled me, Ithought; even in that hour I imagined you were fooling me; you madelight of me; and my sufferings were naught to you so that I might giveyou some amusement to pass the leisure and monotony of your sojourn withus."

  "Roxalanne--my poor Roxalanne!" I whispered.

  "Then my bitterness and sorrow all turned to anger against you. You hadbroken my heart, and I thought that you had done it wantonly. For that Iburned to punish you. Ah! and not only that, perhaps. I think, too, thatsome jealousy drove me on. You had wooed and slighted me, yet you hadmade me love you, and if you were not for me I swore you should befor no other. And so, while my madness endured, I quitted Lavedan, andtelling my father that I was going to Auch, to his sister's house, Icame to Toulouse and betrayed you to the Keeper of the Seals.

  "Scarce was the thing done than I beheld the horror of it, and I hatedmyself. In my despair, I abandoned all idea of pursuing the journeyto Auch, but turned and made my way back in haste, hoping that I mightstill come to warn you. But at Grenade I met you already in charge ofthe soldiers. At Grenade, too I learnt the truth--that you were notLesperon. Can you not guess something of my anguish then? Alreadyloathing my act, and beside myself for having betrayed you, think intowhat despair I was plunged by Monsieur de Marsac's intimation.

  "Then I understood that for reasons of your own you had concealed youridentity. You were not perhaps, betrothed; indeed, I remembered thenhow, solemnly you had sworn that you were not; and so I bethought methat your vows to me may have been sincere and such as a maid mighthonourably listen to."

  "They were, Roxalanne! they were!" I cried.

  But she continued "That you had Mademoiselle de Marsac's portrait wassomething that I could not explain; but then I hear that you had alsoLesperon's papers upon you; so that you may have become possessed of theone with the others. And now, monsieur--"

  She ceased, and there against my breast she lay weeping and weepingin her bitter passion of regret, until it seemed to me she would neverregain her self-control.

  "It has been all my fault, Roxalanne," said I, "and if I am to pay theprice they are exacting, it will be none too high. I embarked upon adastardly business; which brought me to Languedoc under false colours.I wish, indeed, that I had told you when first the impulse to tell youcame upon me. Afterwards it grew impossible."

  "Tell me now," she begged. "Tell me who you are."

  Sorely was I tempted to respond. Almost was I on the point of doing so,when suddenly the thought of how she might shrink from me, of how, eventhen, she might come to think that I had but simulated love for her forinfamous purposes of gain, restrained and silenced me. During the fewhours of life that might be left me I would at least be lord and masterof her heart. When I was dead--for I had little hope of Castelroux'sefforts--it would matter less, and perhaps because I was dead she wouldbe merciful.

  "I cannot, Roxalanne. Not even now. It is too vile! If--if they carryout the sentence on Monday, I shall leave a letter for you, telling youeverything."

  She shuddered, and a sob escaped her. From my identity her mind fledback to the more important matter of my fate.

>   "They will not carry it out, monsieur! Oh, they till not! Say that youcan defend yourself, that you are not the man they believe you to be!"

  "We are in God's hands, child. It may be that I shall save myself yet.If I do, I shall come straight to you, and you shall know all that thereis to know. But, remember, child"--and raising her face in my hands, Ilooked down into the blue of her tearful eyes--"remember, little one,that in one thing I have been true and honourable, and influenced bynothing but my heart--in my wooing of you. I love you, Roxalanne, withall my soul, and if I should die you are the only thing in all thisworld that I experience a regret at leaving."

  "I do believe it; I do, indeed. Nothing can ever alter my belief again.Will you not, then, tell me who you are, and what is this thing, whichyou call dishonourable, that brought you into Languedoc?"

  A moment again I pondered. Then I shook my head.

  "Wait, child," said I; and she, obedient to my wishes, asked no more.

  It was the second time that I neglected a favourable opportunity ofmaking that confession, and as I had regretted having allowed the firstoccasion to pass unprofited, so was I, and still more poignantly, toregret this second silence.

  A little while she stayed with me yet, and I sought to instil somemeasure of comfort into her soul. I spoke of the hopes that I based uponCastelroux's finding friends to recognize me--hopes that were passingslender. And she, poor child, sought also to cheer me and give mecourage.

  "If only the King were here!" she sighed. "I would go to him, and on myknees I would plead for your enlargement. But they say he is no nearerthan Lyons; and I could not hope to get there and back by Monday. I willgo to the Keeper of the Seals again, monsieur, and I will beg him to bemerciful, and at least to delay the sentence."

  I did not discourage her; I did not speak of the futility of such astep. But I begged her to remain in Toulouse until Monday, thatshe might visit me again before the end, if the end were to becomeinevitable.

  Then Castelroux came to reconduct her, and we parted. But she left mea great consolation, a great strengthening comfort. If I were destined,indeed, to walk to the scaffold, it seemed that I could do it with abetter grace and a gladder courage now.