Complete Works of Stanley J Weyman

by Stanley J Weyman

  It did not lessen my annoyance, that I had, after my usual fashion, furnished the Queen with a purse for her sport; and in this way found myself reduced to stand by and see my good money pass into the clutches of this knave. Under the circumstances, and in my own house, I could do nothing; nevertheless, the table at which they sat possessed so strong a fascination for me that I several times caught myself staring at it more closely than was polite; and as to disgust at the unseemliness of such companionship was added vexation at my own loss, I might have gone farther towards betraying my feelings if a casual glance aside had not disclosed to me the fact that I did not stand alone in my dissatisfaction; but that, frivolous as the majority of the courtiers were, there was one at least among those present who viewed this particular game with distaste.

  This person stood near the door, and fancying himself secured from observation, either by his position or his insignificance, was glowering on the pair in a manner that at another time must have cost him a rebuke. As it was, I found something friendly, as well as curious, in his fixed frown; and ignorant of his name, though I knew him by sight, wondered both who he was and what was the cause of his preoccupation.

  On the one point I had no difficulty in satisfying myself. Boisrueil, who presently passed, told me that his name was Vallon; that he belonged to a poor but old family in the Cotentin, and that he had been only three months at court.

  “Making his fortune, I suppose?” I said grimly. “He games?”

  “No, your excellency.”

  “Is in debt?”

  “Not to my knowledge.”

  “To whom does he pay his court, then?”

  “To the King.”

  “And the Queen?”

  “Not particularly — as far as I know, at least. But if you wish to know more, M. le Duc,” Boisrueil continued, “I will—”

  “No, no,” I said peevishly. The Queen had just handed her last rouleau across the table, and was still playing. “Go, man, about your business; I don’t want to spend the evening gossiping with you.”

  He went, and I dismissed the young fellow from my mind; only to find him five minutes later at my elbow. To youth and good looks he added a modest bearing that did not fail to enhance them and commend him to me; the majority of the young sparks of the day being wiser than their fathers. But I confess that I was not prepared for the stammering embarrassment with which he addressed me — nor, indeed, to be addressed by him at all.

  “M. de Sully,” he said, in a tone of emotion, “I beg you to pardon me. I am in great trouble, and I think that perhaps, stranger as I am, you may condescend to do me a service.”

  So many men appeal to a minister with some such formula on their lips, and at times with a calculated timidity, that at the first blush of his request I was inclined to bid him come to me at the proper time; and to remove to another part of the room. But curiosity, playing the part of his advocate, found so much that was candid in his manner that I hesitated. “What is it?” I said stiffly.

  “A very slight, if a very unusual, one,” he muttered. “M. le Duc, I only want you to—”

  “To?” for he stopped and seemed unable to go on.

  “To supplement the present you have given to the Queen with this,” he blurted out, his face pale with emotion; and he stealthily held out to me a green silk purse, through the meshes of which I saw the glint of gold. “M. de Sully,” he continued, observing my hasty movement, “do not be offended! I know that you have done all that hospitality required. But I see that the Queen has already lost your gift, and that—”

  “She is playing on credit?”

  “Yes, Monsieur.”

  He said it simply, and as he spoke, he again pressed on me the purse. I took and weighed it, and calculated at a guess that it held fifty crowns. The sum astonished me. “Why, man,” I said, “you are not mad enough to be in love with her Majesty?”

  “No!” he cried, vehemently, yet with a gleam of humour in his eye. “I swear that it is not so. If you will do me this favour—”

  It was a mad impulse that took me, but I nodded, and resolving to make good the money out of my own pocket should the case, when all was clear, seem to demand it, I went straight from him, and, crossing the floor, laid the purse near her Majesty’s hand, with a polite word of regret that fortune had used her so ill, and a hope that this might be the means of recruiting her forces.

  It would not have surprised me had she shown some signs of consciousness, and perhaps betrayed that she recognised the purse. But she contented herself with thanking me prettily, and almost before I had done speaking had her slender fingers among the coins. Turning, I found that Vallon had disappeared; so that all came to a sudden stop; and with the one and the other, I retired completely puzzled, and less able than before to make even a guess at the secret of the young man’s generosity.

  However, the King summoning me to him, there, for the time, was an end of the matter: and between fatigue and the duties of my position, I did not give a second thought to it that evening. Next morning, too, I was taken up with the gifts which it was my privilege as Master of the Mint to present to the King on New Year’s Day, and which consisted this year of medals of gold, silver, and copper, bearing inscriptions of my own composition, together with small bags of new coins for the King, the Queen, and their attendants.

  These I always made it a point to offer before the King rose; nor was this year an exception, for I found his Majesty still in bed, the Queen occupying a couch in the same chamber. But whereas it generally fell to me to arouse them from sleep, and be the first to offer those compliments which befitted the day, I found them on this occasion fully roused, the King lazily toying with his watch, the Queen talking fast and angrily, and at the edge of the carpet beside her bed Mademoiselle D’Oyley in deep disgrace. The Queen, indeed, was so taken up with scolding her that she had forgotten what day it was; and even after my entrance, continued to rate the poor girl so fiercely that I thought her present violence little less unseemly than her condescension of the night before.

  Perhaps some trace of this feeling appeared in my countenance; for, presently, the King, who seldom failed to read my thoughts, tried to check her in a good-natured fashion. “Come, my dear,” he said; “let that trembling mouse go. And do you hear what our good friend Sully has brought you? I’ll be bound—”

  “How your Majesty talks!” the Queen answered, pettishly. “As if a few paltry coins could make up for my jar! I’ll be bound, for my part, that this idle wench was romping and playing with—”

  “Come, come; you have made her cry enough!” the King interrupted — and, indeed, the girl was sobbing so passionately that a man could not listen without pain. “Let her go, I say, and do you attend to Sully. You have forgotten that it is New Year’s Day—”

  “A jar of majolica,” the Queen cried, Utterly disregarding him, “worth your body and soul, you little slut!”

  “Pooh! pooh!” the King said.

  “Do you think that I brought it from Florence, all the way in my own—”

  “Nightcap,” the King muttered. “There, there, sweetheart,” he continued, aloud, “let the girl go!”

  “Of course! She is a girl,” the Queen cried, with a sneer. “That is enough for you!”

  “Well, madam, she is not the only one in the room,” I ventured.

  “Oh, of course, you are the King’s echo!”

  “Run away, little one,” Henry said, winking to me to be silent.

  “And consider yourself lucky,” the Queen cried, venomously. “You ought to be whipped; and if I had you in my country, I would have you whipped for all your airs! San Giacomo, if you cross me, I will see to it!”

  This was a parting thrust; for the girl, catching at the King’s permission, had turned and was hurrying in a passion of tears to the door. Still, the Queen had not done. Mademoiselle had broken a jar; and there were other misdemeanours which her Majesty continued to expound. But in the end I had my say, and presented the meda
ls, which were accepted by the King with his usual kindness, and by the Queen, when her feelings had found expression, with sufficient complaisance. Both were good enough to compliment me on my entertainment; but observing that the Queen quickly buried herself again in her pillows and was inclined to be peevish, I cut short my attendance on the plea of fatigue, and left them at liberty to receive the very numerous company who on this day pay their court.

  Of these, the greater number came on afterwards, to wait on me; so that for some hours the large hall at the Arsenal was thronged with my friends, or those who called themselves by that name. But towards noon the stream began to fail; and when I sat down to dinner at that hour, I had reason to suppose that I should be left at peace. I had not more than begun my meal, however, when I was called from table by a messenger from the Queen.

  “What is it?” I said, when I had gone to him. Had he come from the King, I could have understood it more easily.

  “Her Majesty desires to know, your excellency, whether you have seen anything of Mademoiselle D’Oyley.”

  “I?”

  “Yes, M. le Duc.”

  “No, certainly not. How should I?” I replied.

  “And she is not here?” the man persisted.

  “No!” I answered, angrily. “God bless the Queen, I know nothing of her. I am sitting at meat, and—”

  The man interrupted me with protestations of regret, and, hastening to express himself thoroughly satisfied, retired with a crestfallen air. I wondered what the message meant, and what had come over the Queen, and whither the girl had gone. But as I made it a rule throughout my term of office to avoid, as far as possible, all participation in bed-chamber intrigues, I wasted little time on the matter, but returning to my dinner, took up the conversation where I had left it. Before I rose, however, La Trape came to me and again interrupted me. He announced that a messenger from his Majesty was waiting in the hall.

  I went out, thinking it very probable that Henry had sent me a present; though it was his more usual custom on this day to honour me with a visit, and declare his generous intentions by word of mouth, when we had both retired to my library and the door was closed. Still, on one or two occasions he had sent me a horse from his stables, a brace of Indian fowl, a melon or the like, as a foretaste; and this I supposed to be the errand on which the man had come.

  His first words disabused me. “May it please your excellency,” he said, very civilly, “the King desires to be remembered to you as usual, and would learn whether you know anything of Mademoiselle D’Oyley.”

  “Of whom?” I cried, astonished.

  “Of Mademoiselle D’Oyley, her Majesty’s maid of honour.”

  “Not I, i’faith!” I said, drily. “I am no squire of dames, to say nothing of maids!”

  “But his Majesty—”

  “If he has sent that message,” I replied, “has yet something to learn — that I do not interest myself in maids of honour or such frailties.”

  The man smiled. “I do not think,” he began, “that it was his Majesty—”

  “Sent the message?” I said. “No, but the Queen, I suppose.”

  On this he gave me to understand, in the sly, secretive manner such men affect, that it was so. I asked him then what all this ferment was about. “Has Mademoiselle D’Oyley disappeared?” I said, peevishly.

  “Yes, your excellency. She was with the Queen at eight o’clock. At noon her Majesty desired her services, and she was not to be found.”

  “What?” I exclaimed. “A maid of honour is missing for three hours in the morning, and there is all this travelling! Why, in my young days, three nights might have—”

  But discerning that he was little more than a youth, and could not; restrain a smile, I broke off discreetly, and contented myself with asking if there was reason to suppose that there was more than appeared in the girl’s absence.

  “Her Majesty thinks so,” he answered.

  “Well, in any case, I know nothing about it,” I replied. “I am not hiding her. You may tell his Majesty that, with my service. Or I will write it.”

  He answered me, eagerly, that that was not necessary, and that the King had desired merely a word from me; and with that and many other expressions of regret, he went away and left me at leisure to go to the riding-school, where at this time of the year it was my wont to see the young men practise those manly arts, which, so far as I can judge, are at a lower ebb in these modern days of quips and quodlibets than in the stirring times of my youth. Then, thank God, it was held more necessary for a page to know his seven points of horsemanship than how to tie a ribbon, or prank a gown, or read a primer.

  But the first day of this year was destined to be a day of vexation. I had scarcely entered the school, when M. de Varennes was announced. Instead of going to meet him I bade them bring him to me, and, on seeing him, bade him welcome to the sports. “Though,” I said, politely overlooking his past history and his origin, “we did better in our times; yet the young fellows should be encouraged.”

  “Very true,” he answered, suavely. “And I wish I could stay with you. But it was not for pleasure I came. The King sent me. He desires to know—”

  “What?” I said.

  “If you know anything of Mademoiselle D’Oyley. Between ourselves, M. le Duc—”

  I looked at him in amazement. “Why,” I said, “what on earth has the girl done now?”

  “Disappeared,” he answered.

  “But she had done that before.”

  “Yes,” he said, “and the King had your message. But—”

  “But what?” I said sternly.

  “He thought that you might wish to supplement it for his private use.”

  “To supplement it?”

  “Yes. The truth is,” Varennes continued, looking at me doubtfully, “the King has information which leads him to suppose that she may be here.”

  “She may be anywhere,” I answered in a tone that closed his mouth, “but she is not here. And you may tell the King so from me!”

  Though he had begun life as a cook, few could be more arrogant than Varennes on occasion; but he possessed the valuable knack of knowing with whom he could presume, and never attempted to impose on me. Apologising with the easy grace of a man who had risen in life by pleasing, he sat with me awhile, recalling old days and feats, and then left, giving me to understand that I might depend on him to disabuse the King’s mind.

  As a fact, Henry visited me that evening without raising the subject; nor had I any reason to complain of his generosity, albeit he took care to exact from the Superintendent of the Finances more than he gave his servant, and for one gift to Peter got two Pauls satisfied. To obtain the money he needed in the most commodious manner, I spent the greater part of two days in accounts, and had not yet settled the warrants to my liking, when La Trape coming in with candles on the second evening disturbed my secretaries. The men yawned discreetly; and reflecting that we had had a long day I dismissed them, and stayed myself only for the purpose of securing one or two papers of a private nature. Then I bade La Trape light me to my closet.

  Instead, he stood and craved leave to speak to me. “About what, sirrah?” I said.

  “I have received an offer, your excellency,” he answered with a crafty look.

  “What! To leave my service?” I exclaimed, in surprise.

  “No, your excellency,” he answered. “To do a service for another — M. Pimentel. The Portuguese gentleman stopped me in the street to-day, and offered me fifty crowns.”

  “To do what?” I asked.

  “To tell him where the young lady with Madame lies; and lend him the key of the garden gate to-night.”

  I stared at the fellow. “The young lady with Madame?” I said.

  He returned my look with a stupidity which I knew was assumed. “Yes, your excellency. The young lady who came this morning,” he said.

  Then I knew that I had been betrayed, and had given my enemies such a handle as they would not be slow to
seize; and I stood in the middle of the room in the utmost grief and consternation. At last, “Stay here,” I said to the man, as soon as I could speak. “Do not move from the spot where you stand until I come back!”

  It was my almost invariable custom to be announced when I visited my wife’s closet; but I had no mind now for such formalities, and swiftly passing two or three scared servants on the stairs, I made straight for her room, tapped and entered. Abrupt as were my movements, however, someone had contrived to warn her; for though two of her women sat working on stools near her, I heard a hasty foot flying, and caught the last flutter of a skirt as it disappeared through a second door. My wife rose from her seat, and looked at me guiltily.

  “Madame,” I said, “send these women away. Now,” I continued when they had gone, “who was that with you?” She looked away dumbly.

  “You do well not to try to deceive me, Madame,” I continued severely. “It was Mademoiselle D’Oyley.”

  She muttered, not daring to meet my eye, that it was.

  “Who has absented herself from the Queen’s service,” I answered bitterly, “and chosen to hide herself here of all places! Madame,” I continued, with a severity which the sense of my false position amply justified, “are you aware that you have made me dishonour myself? That you have made me lie; not once, but three times? That you have made me deceive my master?”

  She cried out at that, being frightened, that “she had meant no harm; that the girl coming to her in great grief and trouble—”

  “Because the Queen had scolded her for breaking a china jar!” I said, contemptuously.

  “No, Monsieur; her trouble was of quite another kind,” my wife answered with more spirit than I had expected.

  “Pshaw!” I exclaimed.

  “It is plain that you do not yet understand the case,” Madame persisted, facing me with trembling hardihood. “Mademoiselle D’Oyley has been persecuted for some time by the suit of a man for whom I know you, Monsieur, have no respect: a man whom no Frenchwoman of family should be forced to marry.”