Александр Дюма
The Regent's Daughter
CHAPTER XXXI.
STATE AFFAIRS AND FAMILY AFFAIRS
On leaving the Bastille, the duke took Helene home, promising to come and see her as usual in the evening; a promise which Helene would have estimated all the more highly if she had known that his highness had a bal masque at Monceaux.
On re-entering the Palais Royal the duke asked for Dubois, and was told he was in his study, working. The duke entered without allowing himself to be announced. Dubois was so busy that he did not hear the duke, who advanced and looked over his shoulder, to see what was occupying him so intently.
He was writing down names, with notes by the side of each.
"What are you doing there, abbe?" asked the regent.
"Ah! monseigneur, it is you; pardon; I did not hear you."
"I asked what you were doing?"
"Signing the burial tickets for our Breton friends."
"But their fate is not yet decided, and the sentence of the commission – "
"I know it," said Dubois.
"Is it given, then?"
"No, but I dictated it before they went."
"Do you know that your conduct is odious?"
"Truly, monseigneur, you are insupportable. Manage your family affairs, and leave state affairs to me."
"Family affairs!"
"Ah! as to those, I hope you are satisfied with me, or you would indeed be difficult to please. You recommend to me M. de Chanlay, and on your recommendation I make it a rose-water Bastille to him; sumptuous repasts, a charming governor. I let him pierce holes in your floors, and spoil your walls, all which will cost us a great deal to repair. Since his entrance, it is quite a fete. Dumesnil talks all day through his chimney, Mademoiselle de Launay fishes with a line through her window, Pompadour drinks champagne. There is nothing to be said to all this: these are your family affairs; but in Bretagne you have nothing to see, and I forbid you to look, monseigneur, unless you have a few more unknown daughters there, which is possible."
"Dubois! scoundrel!"
"Ah! you think when you have said 'Dubois,' and added 'scoundrel' to my name, you have done everything. Well, scoundrel as much as you please; meanwhile, but for the scoundrel you would have been assassinated."
"Well, what then?"
"What then! Hear the statesman! Well, then, I should be hanged, perhaps, which is a consideration; then Madame de Maintenon would be regent of France! What a joke! What then, indeed! To think that a philosophic prince should utter such naïvetés! Oh, Marcus Aurelius! was it not he who said, 'Populos esse demum felices si reges philosophi forent, aut philosophi reges?' Here is a sample."
Dubois still wrote on.
"Dubois! you do not know this young man."
"What young man?"
"The chevalier."
"Really! you shall present him to me when he is your son-in-law."
"That will be to-morrow, Dubois."
The abbe looked round in astonishment, and looking at the regent, with his little eyes as wide open as possible —
"Ah, monseigneur, are you mad?" he said.
"No, but he is an honorable man, and you know that they are rare."
"Honorable man! Ah, you have a strange idea of honor."
"Yes; I believe that we differ in our ideas of it."
"What has this honorable man done! Has he poisoned the dagger with which he meant to assassinate you? for then he would be more than an honorable man, he would be a saint. We have already St. Jacques Clement, St. Ravaillac; St. Gaston is wanting in the calendar. Quick, quick, monseigneur! you who will not ask the pope to give a cardinal's hat to your minister, ask him to canonize your assassin; and for the first time in your life you would be logical."
"Dubois, I tell you there are few capable of doing what this young man has done."
"Peste! that is lucky; if there were ten in France I should certainly resign."
"I do not speak of what he wished to do, but of what he has done."
"Well, what has he done? I should like to be edified."
"First, he kept his oath to D'Argenson."
"I doubt it not, he is faithful to his word; and but for me would have kept his word also with Pontcalec, Talhouet, etc."
"Yes, but one was more difficult than the other. He had sworn not to mention his sentence to any one, and he did not speak of it to his mistress."
"Nor to you?"
"He spoke of it to me, because I told him that I knew it. He forbade me to ask anything of the regent, desiring, he said, but one favor."
"And that one?"
"To marry Helene, in order to leave her a fortune and a name."
"Good; he wants to leave your daughter a fortune and a name; he is polite, at least."
"Do you forget that this is a secret from him?"
"Who knows?"
"Dubois, I do not know in what your hands were steeped the day you were born, but I know that you sully everything you touch."
"Except conspirators, monseigneur, for it seems to me that there, on the contrary, I purify. Look at those of Cellamare, how all that affair was cleared out; Dubois here, Dubois there, I hope the apothecary has properly purged France from Spain. Well, it shall be the same with Olivares as with Cellamare. There is now only Bretagne congested; a good dose, and all will be right."
"Dubois, you would joke with the Gospel."
"Pardieu! I began by that."
The regent rose.
"Come, monseigneur, I was wrong; I forgot you were fasting; let us hear the end of this story."
"The end is that I promised to ask this favor from the regent, and that the regent will grant it."
"The regent will commit a folly."
"No, he will only repair a fault."
"Ah, now you find you have a reparation to make to M. de Chanlay."
"Not to him, but to his brother."
"Still better. What have you done to his brother?"
"I took from him the woman he loved."
"Who?" – "Helene's mother."
"Well, that time you were wrong; for if you had let her alone we should not have had all this tiresome affair on our hands."
"But we have it, and must now get out of it as well as possible."
"Just what I am working at: and when is the marriage to take place?"
"To-morrow."
"In the chapel of the Palais Royal? You shall dress in the costume of a knight of the order; you shall extend both hands over your son-in-law's head – one more than he meant to have held over you – it will be very affecting."
"No, abbe, it shall not be thus; they shall be married in the Bastille, and I shall be in the chapel where they cannot see me."
"Well, monseigneur, I should like to be with you. I should like to see the ceremony; I believe these kind of things are very touching."
"No, you would be in the way, and your ugly face would betray my incognito."
"Your handsome face is still more easy to recognize, monseigneur," said Dubois, bowing; "there are portraits of Henry the Fourth and Louis the Fourteenth in the Bastille."
"You flatter me."
"Are you going away, monseigneur?"
"Yes, I have an appointment with De Launay."
"The governor of the Bastille?"
"Yes."
"Go, monseigneur, go."
"Shall I see you to-night at Morceaux?"
"Perhaps."
"Have you a disguise?"
"I have La Jonquière's dress."
"Oh! that is only fit for the Rue du Bac."
"Monseigneur forgets the Bastille, where it has had some success."
"Well, adieu, abbe."
"Adieu, monseigneur."
When Dubois was left alone he appeared to take some sudden resolution. He rang the bell, and a servant entered.
"M. de Launay is coming to the regent, watch him, and bring him here afterward."
The servant retired without a reply, and Dubois resumed his work.
Half an hour afterward the door opened, and the servant announced De Launay. Dubois gave him a note.
"Read that," said he; "I give you written instructions, that there may be no pretext for neglecting them."
"Ah, monseigneur," said De Launay, "you would ruin me.".
"How so?"
"To-morrow when it becomes known."
"Who will tell it? will you?"
"No, but monseigneur – "
"Will be enchanted; I answer for him."
"A governor of the Bastille!"
"Do you care to retain the title?"
"Certainly."
"Then do as I tell you."
"'Tis hard, however, to close one's eyes and ears."
"My dear De Launay, go and pay a visit to Dumesnil's chimney and Pompadour's ceiling."
"Is it possible? You tell me of things I was not at all aware of."
"A proof that I know better than you what goes on in the Bastille; and if I were to speak of some things you do know, you would be still more surprised."
"What could you tell me?"
"That a week ago one of the officers of the Bastille, and an important one too, received fifty thousand francs to let two women pass with – "
"Monsieur, they were – "
"I know who they were, what they went for, and what they did. They were Mademoiselle de Valois and Mademoiselle de Charolais; they went to see the Duc de Richelieu, and they eat bon-bons till midnight in the Tour du Coin, where they intend to pay another visit to-morrow, as they have already announced to M. de Richelieu."
De Launay turned pale.
"Well," continued Dubois, "do you think if I told these kind of things to the regent, who is, as you know, greedy of scandal, that a certain M. de Launay would be long governor of the Bastille? But I shall not say a word, for we must help each other."
"I am at your orders, monsieur."
"Then I shall find everything ready?"
"I promise you; but not a word to monseigneur."
"That is right, M. de Launay. Adieu!"
"Good," said Dubois, when he was gone; "and now, monseigneur, when you want to marry your daughter to-morrow there shall be only one thing missing – your son-in-law."
As Gaston passed on the letter to Dumesnil he heard steps in the corridor, and, hastily signing to the chevalier not to speak, he put out the light and began to undress. The governor entered. As it was not his custom to visit his prisoners at this hour, Gaston saw him with alarm, and he noticed that as M. de Launay placed his lamp on the table his hand trembled. The turnkeys withdrew, but the prisoner saw two soldiers at the door.
"Chevalier," said the governor, "you told me to treat you as a man – learn that you were condemned yesterday."
"And you have come to tell me," said Gaston, who always gained courage in the face of danger, "that the hour of my execution is arrived."
"No, monsieur, but it approaches."
"When will it be?"
"May I tell you the truth, chevalier?"
"I shall be most grateful to you."
"To-morrow, at break of day."
"Where?"
"In the yard of the Bastille."
"Thank you; I had hoped, however, that before I died I might have been the husband of the young girl who was here yesterday."
"Did M. d'Argenson promise you this?"
"No, but he promised to ask the king."
"The king may have refused."
"Does he never grant such favors?"
"'Tis rare, monsieur, but not without a precedent."
"I am a Christian," said Gaston; "I hope I shall be allowed a confessor."
"He is here."
"May I see him?"
"Directly; at present he is with your accomplice!"
"My accomplice! who?"
"La Jonquiere, who will be executed with you."
"And I had suspected him!" said Gaston.
"Chevalier, you are young to die," said the governor.
"Death does not count years: God bids it strike and it obeys."
"But if one can avert the blow, it is almost a crime not to do so."
"What do you mean? I do not understand."
"I told you that M. d'Argenson gave hopes."
"Enough, monsieur, I have nothing to confess."
At this moment the major knocked at the door and exchanged some words with the governor.
"Monsieur," said the latter, "Captain la Jonquiere wishes to see you once more."
"And you refuse it?" said Gaston, with a slight ironical smile.
"On the contrary, I grant it, in the hope that he will be more reasonable than you, and that he wishes to consult you as to making confessions."
"If that be his intention, tell him I refuse to come."
"I know nothing of it, monsieur; perhaps he only wishes once again to see his companion in misfortune."
"In that case, monsieur, I consent."
"Follow me, then."
They found the captain lying on the bed with his clothes in rags.
"I thought the almoner of the Bastille was with you?" said M. de Launay.
"He was, but I sent him away."
"Why so?"
"Because I do not like Jesuits; do you think, morbleu, that I cannot die properly without a priest?"
"To die properly, monsieur, is not to die bravely, but as a Christian."
"If I had wanted a sermon, I would have kept the priest, but I wanted M. de Chanlay."
"He is here, monsieur; I refuse nothing to those who have nothing to hope."
"Ah! chevalier, are you there?" said La Jonquiere, turning round; "you are welcome."
"Explain," said Gaston; "I see with sorrow that you refuse the consolations of religion."
"You also! if you say another word, I declare I will turn Huguenot."
"Pardon, captain, but I thought it my duty to advise you to do what I shall do myself."
"I bear you no ill-will, chevalier; if I were a minister, I would proclaim religious liberty. Now, M. de Launay," continued he, "you understand that as the chevalier and I are about to undertake a long tete-à-tete journey, we have some things to talk over together first."
"I will retire. Chevalier, you have an hour to remain here."
"Thank you, monsieur," said Gaston.
"Well?" said the captain, when they were alone.
"Well," said Gaston, "you were right."
"Yes; but I am exactly like the man who went round Jerusalem crying out 'Woe!' for seven days, and the eighth day a stone thrown from the walls struck him and killed him."
"Yes, I know that we are to die together."
"Which annoys you a little; does it not?"
"Very much, for I had reason to cling to life."
"Every one has."
"But I above all."
"Then I only know one way."
"Make revelations! never."
"No, but fly with me."
"How! fly with you?"
"Yes, I escape."
"But do you know that our execution is fixed for to-morrow?"
"Therefore I decamp to-night."
"Escape, do you say?"
"Certainly."
"How? where?"
"Open the window."
"Well."
"Shake the middle bar."
"Great God!"
"Does it resist?"
"No, it yields!"
"Very good, it has given me trouble enough, Heaven knows."
"It seems like a dream."
"Do you remember asking me if I did not make holes in anything, like all the others?"
"Yes, but you replied – "
"That I would tell you another time; was the answer a good one?"
"Excellent; but how to descend?"
"Help me."
"In what?"
"To search my paillasse."
"A ladder of cord!"
"Exactly."
"But how did you get it?"
"I received it with a file in a lark pie the day of my arrival."
"Certainly, you are decidedly a great man."
"I know it; besides that, I am a good man – for I might escape alone."
"And you have thought of me."
"I asked for you, saying that I wished to say adieu to you. I knew I should entice them to do some act of stupidity."
"Let us make haste, captain."
"On the contrary, let us act slowly and prudently; we have an hour before us."
"And the sentinels?"
"Bah! it is dark."
"But the moat, which is full of water?"
"It is frozen."
"But the wall?"
"When we are there, will be time enough to think about that."
"Must we fasten the ladder?"
"I want to try if it be solid; I have an affection for my spine, such as it is, and do not want to break my neck to save it from another fate."
"You are the first captain of the day, La Jonquiere."
"Bah! I have made plenty of others," said La Jonquiere, tying the last knot in the ladder.
"Is it finished?" asked Gaston.
"Yes."
"Shall I pass first?"
"As you like."
"I like it so."
"Go, then."
"Is it high?"
"Fifteen to eighteen feet."
"A trifle."
"Yes, for you who are young, but it is a different affair for me; be prudent, I beg."
"Do not be afraid."
Gaston went first, slowly and prudently, followed by La Jonquiere, who laughed in his sleeve, and grumbled every time he hurt his fingers, or when the wind shook the cords.
"A nice affair for the successor of Richelieu and Mazarin," he growled to himself. "It is true I am not yet a cardinal; that saves me."
Gaston touched the water, or rather ice, of the fosse; a moment after, La Jonquiere was by his side.
"Now follow me," said the latter. On the other side of the moat a ladder awaited them.
"You have accomplices then?"
"Parbleu! do you think the lark paté came by itself?"
"Who says one cannot escape from the Bastille?" said Gaston joyously.
"My young friend," said Dubois, stopping on the third step, "take my advice; don't get in there again without me; you might not be as fortunate the second time as the first."
They continued to mount the wall, on the platform of which a sentinel walked, but instead of opposing them, he held his hand to La Jonquiere to assist him, and in three minutes they were on the platform, had drawn up the ladder, and placed it on the other side of the wall.
The descent was as safely managed, and they found themselves on another frozen moat.
"Now," said the captain, "we must take away the ladder, that we may not compromise the poor devil who helped us."
"We are then free?"
"Nearly so," said La Jonquiere.
Gaston, strengthened by this news, took up the ladder on his shoulder.
"Peste, chevalier! the late Hercules was nothing to you, I think."
"Bah!" said Gaston, "at this moment I could carry the Bastille itself."
They went on in silence to a lane in the Faubourg St. Antoine; the streets were deserted.
"Now, my dear chevalier," said La Jonquiere, "do me the favor to follow me to the corner of the Faubourg."
"I would follow you to – "
"Not so far, if you please; for safety's sake we will each go our own way."
"What carriage is that?"
"Mine."
"How! yours?" – "Yes."
"Peste! my dear captain: four horses! you travel like a prince!"
"Three horses; one is for you."
"How! you consent?"
"Pardieu! that is not all."
"What?"
"You have no money?"
"It was taken away."
"Here are fifty louis."
"But, captain – "
"Come, it is Spanish money; take it."
Gaston took the purse, while a postilion unharnessed a horse and led it to him.
"Now," said Dubois, "where are you going?"
"To Bretagne, to rejoin my companions."
"You are mad, my dear fellow; they are all condemned and may be executed in two or three days."
"You are right," said Gaston.
"Go to Flanders," said La Jonquiere, "it is a pleasant country; in fifteen or eighteen hours you can reach the frontier."
"Yes," said Gaston gloomily; "thank you, I know where I shall go."
"Well, good luck to you," said Dubois, getting into his carriage.
"The same to you," said Gaston.
They grasped each other's hands, and then each went his own way.
CHAPTER XXXII.
SHOWING THAT WE MUST NOT ALWAYS JUDGE OTHERS BY OURSELVES, ABOVE ALL IF WE ARE CALLED DUBOIS
The regent, as usual, passed the evening with Helene. He had not missed for four or five days, and the hours he passed with her were his happy hours, but this time he found her very much shaken by her visit to her lover in the Bastille.
"Come," said the regent, "take courage, Helene; to-morrow you shall be his wife."
"To-morrow is distant," replied she.
"Helene, believe in my word, which has never failed you. I tell you that to-morrow shall dawn happily for you and for him."
Helene sighed deeply.
A servant entered and spoke to the regent.
"What is it?" asked Helene, who was alarmed at the slightest thing.
"Nothing, my child," said the duke; "it is only my secretary, who wishes to see me on some pressing business."
"Shall I leave you?"
"Yes; do me that favor for an instant."
Helene withdrew into her room.
At the same time the door opened and Dubois entered, out of breath.
"Where do you come from in such a state?"
"Parbleu! from the Bastille."
"And our prisoner?"
"Well."
"Is everything arranged for the marriage."
"Yes, everything but the hour, which you did not name."
"Let us say eight in the morning."
"At eight in the morning," said Dubois, calculating.
"Yes, what are you calculating?"
"I am thinking where he will be."
"Who?"
"The prisoner."
"What! the prisoner!"
"Yes; at eight o'clock he will be forty leagues from Paris!"
"From Paris!"
"Yes; if he continues to go at the pace at which I saw him set out."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, monseigneur, that there will be one thing only wanting at the marriage; the husband."
"Gaston?"
"Has escaped from the Bastille half-an-hour ago."
"You lie, abbe; people do not escape from the Bastille."
"I beg your pardon, monseigneur; people escape from any place when they are condemned to death."
"He escaped, knowing that to-morrow he was to wed her whom he loved?"
"Listen, monseigneur, life is a charming thing, and we all cling to it; then your son-in-law has a charming head which he wishes to keep on his shoulders – what more natural?"
"And where is he?"
"Perhaps I may be able to tell you to-morrow evening; at present, all I know is that he is at some distance, and that I will answer for it he will not return."
The regent became deeply thoughtful.
"Really, monseigneur, your naïveté causes me perpetual astonishment; you must be strangely ignorant of the human heart if you suppose that a man condemned to death would remain in prison when he had a chance of escape."
"Oh! Monsieur de Chanlay!" cried the regent.
"Eh, mon Dieu! this chevalier has acted as the commonest workman would have done, and quite right too."
"Dubois! and my daughter?"
"Well, your daughter, monseigneur?"
"It will kill her," said the regent.
"Oh no, monseigneur, not at all; when she finds out what he is, she will be consoled, and you can marry her to some small German or Italian prince – to the Duke of Modena, for instance, whom Mademoiselle de Valois will not have."
"Dubois! and I meant to pardon him."
"He has done it for himself, monseigneur, thinking it safer, and ma foi! I should have done the same."
"Oh you; you are not noble, you had not taken an oath."
"You mistake, monseigneur; I had taken an oath, to prevent your highness from committing a folly, and I have succeeded."
"Well, well, let us speak of it no more, not a word of this before Helene – I will undertake to tell her."
"And I, to get back your son-in-law."
"No, no, he has escaped, let him profit by it."
As the regent spoke these words a noise was heard in the neighboring room, and a servant entering, hurriedly announced —
"Monsieur Gaston de Chanlay."
Dubois turned pale as death, and his face assumed an expression of threatening anger. The regent rose in a transport of joy, which brought a bright color into his face – there was as much pleasure in this face, rendered sublime by confidence, as there was compressed fury in Dubois's sharp and malignant countenance.
"Let him enter," said the regent.
"At least, give me time to go," said Dubois.
"Ah! yes, he would recognize you."
Dubois retired with a growling noise, like a hyena disturbed in its feast, or in its lair; he entered the next room. There he sat down by a table on which was every material for writing, and this seemed to suggest some new and terrible idea, for his face suddenly lighted up.
He rang.
"Send for the portfolio which is in my carriage," said he to the servant who appeared.
This order being executed at once, Dubois seized some papers, wrote on them some words with an expression of sinister joy, then, having ordered his carriage, drove to the Palais Royal.
Meanwhile the chevalier was led to the regent, and walked straight up to him.
"How! you here, monsieur!" said the duke, trying to look surprised.
"Yes, monseigneur, a miracle has been worked in my favor by La Jonquiere; he had prepared all for flight, he asked for me under pretense of consulting me as to confessions; then, when we were alone, he told me all and we escaped together and in safety."
"And instead of flying, monsieur, gaining the frontier, and placing yourself in safety, you are here at the peril of your life."
"Monseigneur," said Gaston, blushing, "I must confess that for a moment liberty seemed to me the most precious and the sweetest thing the world could afford. The first breath of air I drew seemed to intoxicate me, but I soon reflected."
"On one thing, monsieur?"
"On two, monseigneur."
"You thought of Helene, whom you were abandoning."
"And of my companions, whom I left under the ax."
"And then you decided?"
"That I was bound to their cause till our projects were accomplished."
"Our projects!"
"Yes, are they not yours as well as mine?"
"Listen, monsieur," said the regent; "I believe that man must keep within the limits of his strength. There are things which God seems to forbid him to execute; there are warnings which tell him to renounce certain projects. I believe that it is sacrilege to despise these warnings, to remain deaf to this voice; our projects have miscarried, monsieur, let us think no more of them."
"On the contrary, monseigneur," said Gaston, sadly shaking his head, "let us think of them more than ever."
"But you are furious, monsieur," said the regent, "to persist in an undertaking which has now become so difficult that it is almost madness."
"I think, monseigneur, of our friends arrested, tried, condemned; M. d'Argenson told me so; of our friends who are destined to the scaffold, and who can be saved only by the death of the regent; of our friends who would say, if I were to leave France, that I purchased my safety by their ruin, and that the gates of the Bastille were opened by my revelations."
"Then, monsieur, to this point of honor you sacrifice everything, even Helene?"
"Monseigneur, if they be still alive I must save them."
"But if they be dead?"
"Then it is another thing," replied Gaston; "then I must revenge them."
"Really, monsieur," said the duke, "this seems to me a somewhat exaggerated idea of heroism. It seems to me that you have, in your own person, already paid your share. Believe me, take the word of a man who is a good judge in affairs of honor; you are absolved in the eyes of the whole world, my dear Brutus."
"I am not in my own, monseigneur."
"Then you persist?"
"More than ever; the regent must die, and," added he in a hollow voice, "die he shall."
"But do you not first wish to see Mademoiselle de Chaverny?" asked the regent.
"Yes, monseigneur, but first I must have your promise to aid me in my project. Remember, monseigneur; there is not an instant to lose; my companions are condemned, as I was. Tell me at once, before I see Helene, that you will not abandon me. Let me make a new engagement with you – I am a man; I love, and therefore I am weak. I shall have to struggle against her tears and against my own weakness; monseigneur, I will only see Helene under the condition that you will enable me to see the regent."
"And if I refuse that condition?"
"Then, monseigneur, I will not see Helene; I am dead to her; it is useless to renew hope in her which she must lose again, it is enough that she must weep for me once."
"And you would still persist?"
"Yes, but with less chance."
"Then what would you do?"
"Wait for the regent wherever he goes, and strike him whenever I can find him."
"Think once more," said the duke.
"By the honor of my name," replied Gaston, "I once more implore your aid, or I declare that I will find means to dispense with it."
"Well, monsieur, go and see Helene, and you shall have my answer on your return."
"Where?"
"In that room."
"And the answer shall be according to my desire?"
"Yes."
Gaston went into Helene's room; she was kneeling before a crucifix, praying that her lover might be restored to her. At the noise which Gaston made in opening the door she turned round.
Believing that God had worked a miracle, and uttering a cry, she held out her arms toward the chevalier, but without the strength to raise herself.
"Oh, mon Dieu! is it himself? is it his shade?"
"It is myself, Helene," said the young man, darting toward her, and grasping her hands.
"But how? a prisoner this morning – free, this evening?"
"I escaped, Helene."
"And then you thought of me, you ran to me, you would not fly without me. Oh! I recognize my Gaston there. Well – I am ready, take me where you will – I am yours – I am – "
"Helene," said Gaston, "you are not the bride of an ordinary man; if I had been only like all other men you would not have loved me."
"Oh, no!"
"Well, Helene, to superior souls superior duties are allotted, and consequently greater trials; before I can be yours I have to accomplish the mission on which I came to Paris; we have both a fatal destiny to fulfill. Our life or death hangs on a single event which must be accomplished to-night."
"What do you mean?" cried the young girl.
"Listen, Helene," replied Gaston, "if in four hours, that is to say, by daybreak, you have no news of me, do not expect me, believe that all that has passed between us is but a dream – and, if you can obtain permission to do so, come again and see me in the Bastille."
Helene trembled, Gaston took her back to her prie-Dieu, where she knelt.
Then, kissing her on the forehead as a brother might have done – "Pray on, Helene;" said he, "for in praying for me you pray also for Bretagne and for France." Then he rushed out of the room.
"Alas! alas!" murmured Helene, "save him, my God! and what care I for the rest of the world."
Gaston was met by a servant who gave him a note, telling him the duke was gone.
The note was as follows:
"There is a bal masque to-night at Monceaux; the regent will be there. He generally retires toward one o'clock in the morning into a favorite conservatory, which is situated at the end of the gilded gallery. No one enters there ordinarily but himself, because this habit of his is known and respected. The regent will be dressed in a black velvet domino, on the left arm of which is embroidered a golden bee. He hides this sign in a fold when he wishes to remain incognito. The card I inclose is an ambassador's ticket. With this you will be admitted, not only to the ball, but to this conservatory, where you will appear to seek a private interview. Use it for your encounter with the regent. My carriage is below, in which you will find my own domino. The coachman is at your orders."
On reading this note, which, as it were, brought him face to face with the man he meant to assassinate, a cold perspiration passed over Gaston's forehead, and he was obliged for a moment to lean against a chair for support; but suddenly, as if taking a violent resolution, he darted down the staircase, jumped into the carriage, and cried —
"To Monceaux!"
Scarcely had he quitted the room, when a secret door in the woodwork opened, and the duke entered. He went to Helene's door, who uttered a cry of delight at seeing him.
