"Mon Dieu!yes, madame."
"So the first French blood has already been spilled by Frenchmen!" murmured the viscountess. "And you, Monsieur le Duc, were the one to set the example?"
"I was, madame."
"You, so calm and cool and shrewd!"
"When one upholds an unjust cause against me it sometimes happens that I become very unreasonable because I am so earnest in my support of what is reasonable."
"You are not wounded, I trust?"
"No, I was more fortunate this time than at Lignes and Paris. Indeed, I thought that I had had my fill of civil war, and was done with it forever; but I was mistaken. What would you have? Man always forms his plans without consulting his passions, the true architects of his life, which give an entirely different shape to the structure, when they do not overturn it altogether."
Madame de Cambes smiled, for she remembered thatMonsieur de La Rochefoucauld had said that for Madame de Longueville's lovely eyes he had made war on kings, and would make war on the gods.
This smile did not escape the duke, and he gave the viscountess no time to follow up the thought which gave it birth.
"Allow me to offer you my congratulations, madame," he continued, "for you are, in truth, a very model of valor."
"Why so?"
"Good lack! to travel thus alone, or with a single attendant, like a Clorinda or a Bradamante! Oh! by the way, I have heard of your admirable conduct at Chantilly. They tell me that you fooled a poor devil of a royal officer to perfection. An easy victory, was it not?" added the duke, with the smile and the look which, upon his face, meant so much.
"How so?" Claire asked with emotion.
"I say easy," continued the duke, "because he did not fight on equal terms with you. There was one thing, however, that impressed me particularly in the version that was given me of that episode,"—and the duke fixed his little eyes upon the viscountess more sharply than ever.
There was no way for Madame de Cambes to retreat with honor, so she prepared to make as vigorous a defence as possible.
"Tell me what it was that struck you so forcibly, Monsieur le Duc," said she.
"It was the very great skill, madame, with which you played that little comic part; in fact, if I am to believe what I hear, the officer had already seen your squire and yourself."
These last words, although uttered with the studiedindifference of a man of tact, did not fail to produce a deep impression upon Madame de Cambes.
"He had seen me, monsieur, do you say?"
"One moment, madame; let us understand each other; it's not I who say it, but that indefinite personage called 'they' to whose power kings are as submissive as the lowest of their subjects."
"Where had he seen me, may I ask?"
"They saythat it was on the way from Libourne to Chantilly, at a village called Jaulnay; but the interview was cut short, as the gentleman received an order from Monsieur d'Épernon to start at once for Mantes."
"But if this gentleman had seen me before, Monsieur le Duc, how could he have failed to recognize me?"
"Ah! the famoustheyof whom I spoke just now, and who have an answer for every question, would say that the thing was possible, as the interview took place in the dark."
"Really, Monsieur le Duc," said the viscountess, in dismay, "I am at a loss to understand what you mean by that."
"In that case," rejoined the duke, with assumed good-nature, "I must have been ill-informed; and then, what does a mere momentary encounter amount to, after all? It is true, madame," he added gallantly, "that your face and figure are calculated to leave a deep impression, even after an interview lasting only an instant."
"But that would not be possible," the viscountess retorted, "if, as you yourself say, the interview took place in the dark."
"Very true, and you parry cleverly, madame. I must be the one who is mistaken, then, unless the young man had noticed you even before the interview at Jaulnay, which in that case would not be precisely a meeting."
"What would it be, then? Be careful of your words, Monsieur le Duc."
"As you see, I am hesitating; our dear French language is so poor that I seek in vain for a word to express my thought. It would be what is called, in Italian, anappuntamento; in English, anassignation."
"If I am not mistaken, Monsieur le Duc," said Claire, "those two words are translated in French byrendez-vous?"
"Go to!" exclaimed the duke; "here I have said a foolish thing in two foreign languages, and lo! I stumble upon a person who understands them both! Pardon me, madame; it seems that Italian and English are as poor as French."
Claire pressed her hand to her heart to breathe more freely; she was suffocating. One thing was made clear to her mind which she had always suspected; namely, that Monsieur de La Rochefoucauld had for her been unfaithful to Madame de Longueville, in thought and in desire at least, and that it was a feeling of jealousy which led him to speak as he had been speaking. In fact, two years before, the Prince de Marsillac had paid court to her as assiduously as was consistent with his crafty nature, and his constant indecision and timidity, which made him the most vindictive of foes, when he was not the most grateful of friends. So it was that the viscountess preferred not to break a lance with the man who held public and private affairs in the hollow of his hand.
"Do you know, Monsieur le Duc," said she, "that you are an invaluable man, especially under circumstances like the present; and that Monsieur de Mazarin, much as he prides himself upon his police, is no better served in that regard than yourself?"
"If I knew nothing, madame," retorted Monsieur de la Rochefoucauld, "I should resemble that dear statesman too closely, and should have no reason for making war upon him. And so I try to keep myself posted on everything."
"Even the secrets of your allies, if they have any?"
"You used a word then which might be construed to your disadvantage, if it should be overheard,—'secrets.' So that journey and that meeting were secrets, were they?"
"Let us understand each other, Monsieur le Duc, for you are no more than half right. The meeting was an accident. The journey was a secret, yes, and a woman's secret too, for it was known to none but Madame la Princesse and myself."
The duke smiled. This sturdy defence made him sharpen up his own wits.
"And to Lenet," he said, "and Richon, and Madame de Tourville, to say nothing of a certain Vicomte de Cambes, whose name I heard for the first time in connection with this matter. To be sure, as he is your brother, you might tell me that the secret was all in the family."
Claire began to laugh, to avoid irritating the duke, whose smile was beginning to show signs of vanishing.
"Do you know one thing, duke?" said she.
"No, tell it me; and if it is a secret, madame, I promise to be as discreet as yourself, and tell it to no one but my staff."
"Do as you please about that; I ask nothing better, although I thereby run the risk of making an enemy of a great princess, whose hatred would be no pleasant thing to incur."
The duke blushed imperceptibly.
"Well, what is this secret?" said he.
"Do you know whom Madame la Princesse selected for my companion in the journey I was asked to undertake?"
"No,"
"Yourself."
"Indeed! I remember that Madame la Princesse asked me if I could act as escort to a person returning from Libourne to Paris."
"And you refused?"
"I was unavoidably detained in Poitou by important business."
"Yes, you had to receive couriers from Madame de Longueville."
La Rochefoucauld gazed earnestly at the viscountess, as if to search the lowest depths of her heart before the trace of her words had disappeared, and said, riding closer to her side: "Do you reproach me for it?"
"Not at all; your heart is so well disposed in that place, Monsieur le Duc, that you have a right to expect compliments rather than reproaches."
"Ah!" said the duke, with an involuntary sigh; "would to God I had made that journey with you!"
"Why so?"
"Because then I should not have gone to Saumur," he replied, in a tone which indicated that he had another response ready, which he did not dare, or did not choose, to make.
"Richon must have told him everything," thought Claire.
"However, I do not repine at my private ill-fortune, since it has resulted to the public good."
"What do you mean, monsieur? I do not understand you."
"I mean that if I had been with you, you would nothave fallen in with the officer, who happened, so clear it is that Heaven is on our side, to be the same one sent by Mazarin to Chantilly."
"Ah! Monsieur le Duc," said Claire, in a voice choked by the memory of the harrowing scene so recently enacted, "do not jest concerning that unfortunate officer!"
"Why? Is his person sacred?"
"Now, yes; for to noble hearts great misfortunes are no less sanctified than great good-fortune. That officer may be dead at this hour, monsieur, and he will have paid for his error, or his devotion, with his life."
"Dead with love?" queried the duke.
"Let us speak seriously, monsieur; you are well aware that if I give my heart away it will not be to people whom I meet on the high-road. I tell you that the unhappy man was arrested this very day by order of Monsieur de Mazarin."
"Arrested!" exclaimed the duke. "How do you know that?—still by accident?"
"Mon Dieu, yes! I was passing through Jaulnay—Do you know Jaulnay, monsieur?"
"Perfectly; I received a sword-cut in the shoulder there. You were passing through Jaulnay. Why, wasn't that the village where, as the story goes—?"
"Let us have done with the story, Monsieur le Duc," replied Claire, blushing. "I was passing through Jaulnay, as I tell you, when I saw a party of armed men halting with a prisoner in their midst; the prisoner was he."
"He, do you say? Ah! madame, take care, you saidhe!"
"The officer, I mean.Mon Dieu!Monsieur le Duc, how deep you are! A truce to your subtleties, and if you have no pity for the poor fellow—"
"Pity! I!" cried the duke. "In God's name, madame, have I time to have pity, especially for people I do not know?"
Claire cast a sidelong glance at La Rochefoucauld's pale face, and his thin lips curled by a joyless smile, and she shuddered involuntarily.
"Madame," he continued, "I would be glad to have the honor of escorting you farther; but I must throw a garrison into Montrond, so forgive me if I leave you. Twenty gentlemen, more fortunate than I, will look to your safety until you have joined Madame la Princesse, to whom I beg you to present my respects."
"Are you not going to Bordeaux?" Claire asked.
"No; just now I am on my way to Turenne to join Monsieur de Bouillon. We are engaged in a contest of courtesy to see which shall not be general; he's a doughty antagonist, but I am determined to get the better of him, and remain his lieutenant."
Upon that the duke ceremoniously saluted the viscountess and rode slowly away in the direction taken by his little band of horsemen. Claire followed him with her eyes, murmuring:—
"His pity! I invoked his pity! He spoke the truth; he has no time to feel pity."
A group of horsemen left the main body and came toward her, while the rest rode into the woods near by.
Behind them, with his reins over his horse's neck, La Rochefoucauld rode dreamily along, the man of the false look and the white hands, who wrote at the head of his memoirs this sentence, which sounds strangely enough in the mouth of a moral philosopher:—
"I think that one should content himself with making a show of compassion, but should be careful to have none. It is a passion which serves no useful purpose within awell-constituted mind, which serves only to weaken the heart, and which should be left to the common people, who, as they never do anything by reason, need to have passion in order to do anything."
Two days later Madame de Cambes was in attendance upon Madame la Princesse.
Many, many times had Madame de Cambes instinctively reflected upon what might be the result of a hatred like Monsieur de La Rochefoucauld's; but feeling strong in her youth, her beauty, her wealth, and her high favor, she did not realize that that hatred, supposing it to exist, was likely to have a baleful effect upon her life.
But when Madame de Cambes knew beyond question that she occupied a sufficient place in his thoughts to lead him to take the trouble to find out all that he knew, she lost no time in broaching the subject to Madame la Princesse.
"Madame," said she, in reply to the compliments with which she was overwhelmed, "do not congratulate me overmuch upon the address which I am said to have exhibited upon that occasion; for there are those who claim that the officer, our dupe, knew the real state of the case as to the true and the false Princesse de Condé."
But as this supposition deprived Madame la Princesse of all credit for her part in the execution of the stratagem, she naturally refused to listen to it.
"Yes, yes, my dear Claire," said she; "now that our gentleman finds that we deceived him, he would be glad to pretend that he favored our plans; unfortunately, it's a little late to make that claim, as he has been disgraced for his fiasco.à propos, I am told that you fell in with Monsieur de La Rochefoucauld on your way hither."
"Yes, madame."
"What news did he tell you?"
"That he was going to Turenne, to come to terms with Monsieur de Bouillon."
"There is a struggle between them, I know, as to which of the two shall be generalissimo of our armies, both making a show of declining the honor. The fact is that when we make peace, the man who has made himself most feared as a rebel will have to pay the heaviest price for his return to favor. But I have a plan of Madame de Tourville's to bring them to terms."
"Oho!" said the viscountess, smiling at that name; "your Highness is reconciled, I judge, to your counsellor in ordinary."
"I was driven to it; she joined us at Montrond, carrying her roll of papers with a gravity which made Lenet and myself almost die of laughing.
"'Although your Highness,' she said, 'pays no attention to these reflections of mine, the fruit of many laborious nights' work, I bring my contribution to the general welfare.'"
"Was it a veritable harangue?"
"Under three heads."
"And your Highness replied to it?"
"Not I; I left that to Lenet. 'Madame,' said he, 'we have never doubted your zeal, still less your extensive knowledge; they are both so invaluable to us that Madame la Princesse and I have regretted your absence every day.' In a word, he said a multitude of such pleasant things to her that he won her heart, and she ended by giving him her plan."
"Which is—?"
"To appoint neither Monsieur de Bouillon nor Monsieur de La Rochefoucauld generalissimo, but Monsieur de Turenne."
"Well," said Claire, "it seems to me that the counsellor counselled wisely then, at all events; what do you say to it, Monsieur Lenet?"
"I say that Madame la Vicomtesse is right, and that she brings one more judicious voice to our deliberations," replied Lenet, who entered the room at that moment with a roll of paper, and with as serious an expression as Madame de Tourville's face could have worn. "Unfortunately, Monsieur de Turenne cannot leave the army of the North, and our plan provides for his marching upon Paris when Mazarin and the queen march upon Bordeaux."
"You will notice, my dear girl, that Lenet is the man of impossibilities. In fact, neither Monsieur de Bouillon, nor Monsieur de La Rochefoucauld, nor Monsieur de Turenne is our generalissimo, but Lenet!—What has your Excellency there,—a proclamation?"
"Yes, madame."
"Madame de Tourville's, of course?"
"Of course, madame; except for a few necessary changes, in her own words,—the style of the chancellor's office, you know."
"Nonsense!" said the princess, laughing; "let us not attach too much importance to the letter: if the spirit is there, that is all we need."
"It is there, madame."
"And where is Monsieur de Bouillon to sign?"
"On the same line with Monsieur de La Rochefoucauld."
"But you do not tell me where Monsieur de La Rochefoucauld will sign."
"Immediately below Monsieur le Duc d'Enghien."
"Monsieur le Duc d'Enghien should not sign such a document. A child!—think of it, Lenet."
"I have thought of it, madame. When the king dies,the dauphin succeeds him, though it be but for a single day. Why should it not be with the house of Condé as with the house of France?"
"But what will Monsieur de La Rochefoucauld say? What will Monsieur de Bouillon say?"
"The first has said, madame, and went away after he had said; the second will know nothing about it until it is done, and consequently will say what he pleases; it matters little."
"There is the cause of the duke's coolness to you, Claire."
"Let him be cool, madame," said Lenet; "he will warm up at the first gun Maréchal de la Meilleraie fires upon us. These gentlemen long to fight: very well, let them fight."
"Be careful not to irritate them too far, Lenet," said the princess; "we have only them."
"And they have only your name; just let them try to fight on their own account, and you will see how long they will hold out; give and take."
Madame de Tourville had entered the room a few seconds before, and the radiant expression of her countenance had given place to an anxious expression, which was deepened by the last words of her rival, the councillor.
She stepped forward hastily.
"Is the plan I laid before your Highness," she said, "so unfortunate as not to meet the approval of Monsieur Lenet?"
"On the contrary, madame," Lenet replied with a bow, "I have carefully retained the larger part of your draft; the only difference is that, instead of being signed in chief by the Duc de Bouillon or the Duc de La Rochefoucauld, the proclamation will be signed by Monseigneur le Ducd'Enghien; the names of those gentlemen will come after the prince's name."
"You will compromise the young prince, monsieur."
"It is only just that he should be compromised, madame, since the troops are fighting for him."
"But the Bordelais love the Duc de Bouillon, they adore the Duc de La Rochefoucauld, and they do not know the Duc d'Enghien."
"You are wrong," said Lenet, as usual taking a paper from that pocket whose enormous capacity had amazed Madame la Princesse, "for here is a letter from the President of the Parliament of Bordeaux, in which he begs me to have the young duke sign the proclamation."
"Oh! a fig for the Parliaments, Lenet!" cried the princess; "it's not worth while to escape from the power of Monsieur de Mazarin if we are to fall into the power of the Parliaments."
"Does your Highness wish to enter Bordeaux?"
"To be sure."
"Very good; then that is thesine qua non; they will not burn a match for any other than Monsieur le Duc d'Enghien."
Madame de Tourville bit her lips.
"And so," said the princess, "you induced us to fly from Chantilly, you caused us to travel a hundred and fifty leagues, to expose us at the last to insult from the Bordelais?"
"What you style an insult, madame, is an honor. Indeed, what could be more flattering to Madame la Princesse de Condé than to be assured that it is she who is made welcome at Bordeaux, and not these others?"
"You say that the Bordelais will not receive the two dukes?"
"They will receive your Highness only."
"What can I do alone?"
"What!Mon Dieu!—go in, to be sure; and as you go in leave the gates open so that the others may enter behind you."
"We cannot do without them."
"That is my opinion, and a fortnight hence it will be the opinion of the Parliament. Bordeaux repulses your army, which it fears, and within a fortnight it will call upon it for defence. You will then have the twofold merit of having done twice what the Bordelais requested you to do; and when that is so, have no fear; they will face death for you from the first man to the last."
"Is Bordeaux threatened?" asked Madame de Tourville.
"Very seriously threatened," Lenet replied; "that is why it is of such pressing importance to effect a lodgment there. So long as we are not there, Bordeaux can, without compromising its honor, refuse to open its gates to us; but when we are once there, Bordeaux cannot, without dishonoring itself, drive us outside its walls."
"Who is threatening Bordeaux, pray?"
"The king, the queen, Monsieur de Mazarin. The royal forces are levying recruits; our enemies are getting into position. Île Saint-Georges, which is but three leagues from the city, has received a re-enforcement of troops, a fresh supply of ammunition, and a new governor. The Bordelais propose to try and take the island, and will naturally be beaten back, as they will have to do with the king's best troops. Having been well and duly whipped, as becomes peaceable citizens who undertake to mimic soldiers, they will cry out loudly for the Ducs de Bouillon and de La Rochefoucauld. Then, madame, you, who hold those two dukes in your hand, will make your own terms with the Parliament."
"But would it not be better to try and win this new governor over to our side, before the Bordelais have undergone a defeat, which may discourage them?"
"If you are in Bordeaux when this defeat is sustained, you have nothing to fear. As for winning over the governor, it's an impossibility."
"An impossibility! Why so?"
"Because he is a personal enemy of your Highness."
"A personal enemy?"
"Yes."
"Pray what is the cause of his enmity?"
"He will never forgive your Highness the mystification of which he was the victim at Chantilly. Oh! Monsieur de Mazarin is no such fool as you think him, mesdames, although I wear myself out by constant efforts to convince you of your error! He has proved it by sending to Île Saint-Georges, that is to say, the most advantageous position in the province—whom do you guess?"
"I have already told you that I cannot imagine who it can be."
"Well, it's the officer at whom you laughed so much, and who, with inconceivable stupidity, allowed your Highness to escape from Chantilly."
"Monsieur de Canolles?" cried Claire.
"Yes."
"Monsieur de Canolles governor of Île Saint-Georges?"
"Himself."
"Impossible! He was arrested before my very eyes!"
"True. But he has a powerful protector, no doubt, and his disgrace is changed to favor."
"And you fancied him dead ere this, my poor Claire," said Madame la Princesse, laughingly.
"Are you quite sure?" asked the viscountess, amazed beyond measure.
As usual, Lenet put his hand into the famous pocket and produced a paper.
"Here is a letter from Richon," he said, "giving me all the details of the new governor's installation, and expressing his regret that your Highness did not station him at Île Saint-Georges."
"Madame la Princesse station Monsieur Richon at Île Saint-Georges!" exclaimed Madame de Tourville, with a smile of triumph. "Pray, do we dispose of governor-ships of his Majesty's fortresses?"
"We can dispose of one, madame," Lenet replied, "and that is enough."
"Of what one, I pray to know?"
Madame de Tourville shuddered as she saw Lenet put his hand in his pocket.
"Monsieur d'Épernon's signature in blank!" cried the princess. "True; I had forgotten it."
"Bah! what does that amount to?" said Madame de Tourville, disdainfully. "A scrap of paper, nothing more."
"That scrap of paper, madame," said Lenet, "is the appointment we need as a counterpoise to the one recently made. It is a counterpoise to Île Saint-Georges; in fine, it is our salvation, for it means some place on the Dordogne, as Saint-Georges is on the Garonne."
"You are sure," said Claire, who had heard nothing for the last five minutes, and whose mind had remained stationary at the intelligence announced by Lenet and confirmed by Richon; "you are sure, monsieur, that it is the same Monsieur de Canolles who was arrested at Jaulnay, who is now governor of Île Saint-Georges?"
"I am sure of it, madame."
"Monsieur de Mazarin has a peculiar way," she continued, "of escorting his governors to their governments."
"True," said the princess, "and there certainly is something behind all this."
"To be sure there is," said Lenet; "there is Mademoiselle Nanon de Lartigues."
"Nanon de Lartigues!" cried Claire, stung to the heart by a terrible memory.
"That courtesan!" said the princess, with the utmost contempt.
"Yes, madame," said Lenet, "that courtesan, whom your Highness refused to see, when she solicited the honor of being presented to you, and whom the queen, less punctilious than yourself in matters of etiquette, did receive; which caused her to make answer to your chamberlain that it was possible that Madame la Princesse de Condé was a more exalted personage than Anne of Austria, but that Anne of Austria most assuredly had more prudence than the Princesse de Condé."
"Your memory is failing, Lenet, or else you wish to spare my feelings," cried the princess. "The insolent creature was not content to say 'more prudence,' she said 'more sense,' as well."
"Possibly," said Lenet, with a smile. "I stepped into the antechamber at that moment, and did not hear the end of the sentence."
"But I was listening at the door," said Madame la Princesse, "and I heard the whole of it."
"At all events you understand, madame, that it is a woman who will wage relentless war upon you. The queen would have sent soldiers to fight against you; Nanon will send insidious enemies, whom you must unearth and crush."
"Perhaps," said Madame de Tourville, sourly, to Lenet, "if you had been in her Highness's place you would have received her with reverential awe?"
"No, madame," said Lenet, "I would have received her with a smile, and would have bought her."
"Oh well, if it's a question of buying her, there is still time."
"Certainly there is still time; but at this time she would probably be too dear for our resources."
"How much is she worth?" the princess asked.
"Five hundred thousand livres before the war."
"But to-day?"
"A million."
"Why, for that price I could buy Monsieur de Mazarin!"
"'Tis possible," said Lenet; "things that have already been sold and resold are apt to grow cheaper."
"But, if we can't buy her, we must take her!" said Madame de Tourville, still in favor of violent measures.
"You would render her Highness an inestimable service, madame, could you attain that object; but it would be difficult of attainment, as we have absolutely no idea where she is. But let us leave that for the present; let us first of all effect an entrance into Bordeaux, then we will find a way into Île Saint-Georges."
"No, no!" cried Claire; "no, we will effect an entrance at Île Saint-Georges first!"
This exclamation, evidently from the heart, caused the other women to turn toward the viscountess, while Lenet gazed at her as earnestly as Monsieur de La Rochefoucauld could have done, but with a kindlier interest.
"Why, you are mad!" said the princess; "you have heard Lenet say that the place is impregnable!"
"That may be," said Claire, "but I think that we can take it."
"Have you a plan?" said Madame de Tourville, withthe air of one who fears the erection of an altar in opposition to her own.
"Perhaps," said Claire.
"But," laughed the princess, "if Île Saint-Georges is held at so high a figure as Lenet says, perhaps we are not rich enough to buy it."
"We will not buy it," said Claire, "but we will have it all the same."
"By force, then," said Madame de Tourville; "my dear friend, you are coming around to my plan."
"That's it," said the princess. "We will send Richon to besiege Saint-Georges; he is of the province, he knows the locality, and if any man can take this fortress which you deem of such importance, he is the man."
"Before resorting to that means," said Claire, "let me try the experiment, madame. If I fail, then you can do as you think best."
"What!" said the amazed princess, "you will go to Île Saint-Georges?"
"I will."
"Alone?"
"With Pompée."
"You have no fear?"
"I will go as a flag of truce, if your Highness will deign to intrust me with your instructions."
"Upon my word! this is a novelty!" cried Madame de Tourville; "for my own part I should say that diplomatists do not spring up like this, and that one must have gone through a long course of study of that science, which Monsieur de Tourville, one of the greatest diplomatists, as he was one of the greatest soldiers of his time, declared to be the most difficult of all sciences."
"However ill-informed I may be," said Claire, "I willmake the trial, nevertheless, if Madame la Princesse is pleased to allow me to do so."
"Certainly Madame la Princesse will allow you to do it," said Lenet, with a significant glance at Madame de Condé; "indeed, I am convinced that if there is any person on earth who can succeed in such a negotiation, you are that person."
"Pray what can madame do that another cannot do?"
"She will simply drive a bargain with Monsieur de Canolles, which a man could not do without getting himself thrown out of the window."
"A man if you please!" retorted Madame de Tourville; "but a woman?"
"If a woman is to go to Île Saint-Georges," said Lenet, "it is quite as well, indeed much better, that it should be madame rather than any other, because it is her idea."
At that moment a messenger entered, bringing a letter from the Parliament of Bordeaux.
"Ah!" cried the princess, "the reply to my request, I presume."
The two women drew near, impelled by a common sentiment of curiosity and interest. Lenet remained where he stood, as phlegmatic as always, knowing beforehand, in all probability, what the letter contained.
The princess read it with avidity.
"They ask me to come, they summon me, they expect me!" she cried.
"Ah!" ejaculated Madame de Tourville, triumphantly.
"But the dukes, madame, and the army?" queried Lenet.
"They say nothing of them."
"Then we are left destitute," said Madame de Tourville.
"No," said the princess; "for, thanks to the Duc d'Épernon's blank signature, I shall have Vayres, which commands the Dordogne."
"And I," said Claire, "shall have Saint-Georges, which is the key of the Garonne."
"And I," said Lenet, "shall have the dukes and the army,—that is, if you give me time."