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The Duchesse of Langeais
In two hours the bars were sawn through. Three men stood on guard outside, and two inside the parlour. The rest, barefooted, took up their posts along the corridor. Young Henri de Marsay, the most dexterous man among them, disguised by way of precaution in a Carmelite’s robe, exactly like the costume of the convent, led the way, and Montriveau came immediately behind him. The clock struck three just as the two men reached the dormitory cells. They soon saw the position. Everything was perfectly quiet. With the help of a dark lantern they read the names luckily written on every door, together with the picture of a saint or saints and the mystical words which every nun takes as a kind of motto for the beginning of her new life and the revelation of her last thought. Montriveau reached Sister Theresa’s door and read the inscription, Sub invocatione sanctae matris Theresae, and her motto, Adoremus in aeternum. Suddenly his companion laid a hand on his shoulder. A bright light was streaming through the chinks of the door. M. de Ronquerolles came up at that moment.
“All the nuns are in the church,” he said; “they are beginning the Office for the Dead.”
“I will stay here,” said Montriveau. “Go back into the parlour, and shut the door at the end of the passage.”
He threw open the door and rushed in, preceded by his disguised companion, who let down the veil over his face.
There before them lay the dead Duchess; her plank bed had been laid on the floor of the outer room of her cell, between two lighted candles. Neither Montriveau nor de Marsay spoke a word or uttered a cry; but they looked into each other’s faces. The General’s dumb gesture tried to say, “Let us carry her away!”
“Quickly” shouted Ronquerolles, “the procession of nuns is leaving the church. You will be caught!”
With magical swiftness of movement, prompted by an intense desire, the dead woman was carried into the convent parlour, passed through the window, and lowered from the walls before the Abbess, followed by the nuns, returned to take up Sister Theresa’s body. The sister left in charge had imprudently left her post; there were secrets that she longed to know; and so busy was she ransacking the inner room, that she heard nothing, and was horrified when she came back to find that the body was gone. Before the women, in their blank amazement, could think of making a search, the Duchess had been lowered by a cord to the foot of the crags, and Montriveau’s companions had destroyed all traces of their work. By nine o’clock that morning there was not a sign to show that either staircase or wire-cables had ever existed, and Sister Theresa’s body had been taken on board. The brig came into the port to ship her crew, and sailed that day.
Montriveau, down in the cabin, was left alone with Antoinette de Navarreins. For some hours it seemed as if her dead face was transfigured for him by that unearthly beauty which the calm of death gives to the body before it perishes.
“Look here,” said Ronquerolles when Montriveau reappeared on deck, “that was a woman once, now it is nothing. Let us tie a cannon ball to both feet and throw the body overboard; and if ever you think of her again, think of her as of some book that you read as a boy.”
“Yes,” assented Montriveau, “it is nothing now but a dream.”
“That is sensible of you. Now, after this, have passions; but as for love, a man ought to know how to place it wisely; it is only a woman’s last love that can satisfy a man’s first love.”
ADDENDUM
Note: The Duchesse de Langeais is the second part of a trilogy. Part one is entitled Ferragus and part three is The Girl with the Golden Eyes. In other addendum references all three stories are usually combined under the title The Thirteen.
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Blamont-Chauvry, Princesse de
Madame Firmiani
The Lily of the Valley
Grandlieu, Duc Ferdinand de
The Gondreville Mystery
A Bachelor’s Establishment
Modeste Mignon
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Granville, Comtesse Angelique de
A Second Home
A Daughter of Eve
Keller, Madame Francois
Domestic Peace
The Member for Arcis
Langeais, Duc de
An Episode under the Terror
Langeais, Duchesse Antoinette de
Father Goriot
Ferragus
Marsay, Henri de
Ferragus
The Girl with the Golden Eyes
The Unconscious Humorists
Another Study of Woman
The Lily of the Valley
Father Goriot
Jealousies of a Country Town
Ursule Mirouet
A Marriage Settlement
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Letters of Two Brides
The Ball at Sceaux
Modeste Mignon
The Secrets of a Princess
The Gondreville Mystery
A Daughter of Eve
Montriveau, General Marquis Armand de
Father Goriot
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Another Study of Woman
Pierrette
The Member for Arcis
Navarreins, Duc de
A Bachelor’s Establishment
Colonel Chabert
The Muse of the Department
Jealousies of a Country Town
The Peasantry
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Country Parson
The Magic Skin
The Gondreville Mystery
The Secrets of a Princess
Cousin Betty
Pamiers, Vidame de
Ferragus
Jealousies of a Country Town
Ronquerolles, Marquis de
The Imaginary Mistress
The Peasantry
Ursule Mirouet
A Woman of Thirty
Another Study of Woman
Ferragus
The Girl with the Golden Eyes
The Member for Arcis
Serizy, Comtesse de
A Start in Life
Ferragus
Ursule Mirouet
A Woman of Thirty
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Another Study of Woman
The Imaginary Mistress
Soulanges, Comtesse Hortense de
Domestic Peace
The Peasantry
Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles-Maurice de
The Chouans
The Gondreville Mystery
Letters of Two Brides
Gaudissart II