style="font-size:15px;"> "Do you never love?"
"Never."
"Have you no passions?"
"One alone, jealousy; but that includes all others to a frightful degree. I adore a woman, as soon as she loves another; I love gold, when another possesses it; – yes, you are right, I am unhappy."
"Have you never tried to become good?"
"Yes, and failed. What does the venomous plant? What do the bear and bird of prey? They destroy, but certain people use them for the chase. So shall I be in the hands of MM. d'Epernon and Loignac, till the day when they shall say, 'This plant is hurtful, let us tear it up; this beast is furious, let us kill him.'"
Ernanton was calmed; St. Maline was no longer an object of anger but of pity.
"Good fortune should cure you," said he; "when you succeed, you should hate less."
"However high I should rise, others would be higher."
They rode on silently for some time. At last Ernanton held out his hand to St. Maline, and said, "Shall I try to cure you?"
"No, do not try that; you would fail. Hate me, on the contrary, and I shall admire you."
An hour after they entered the Louvre; the king had gone out, and would not return until evening.
CHAPTER XXX.
DE LOIGNAC'S INTERVIEW WITH THE FORTY-FIVE
Each of the young men placed himself at a window to watch for the return of the king. Ernanton, however, soon forgot his present situation, and became abstracted in thinking who the woman could be who had entered Paris as his page, and whom he had since seen in such a splendid litter; and with a heart more disposed to love adventure than to make ambitious calculations, he forgot why he was sitting there, till, suddenly raising his head, he saw that St. Maline was no longer there. He understood at once that he had seen the king arrive, and had gone to him. He rose quickly, traversed the gallery, and arrived at the king's room just as St. Maline was coming out.
"Look!" cried he joyfully, "what the king has given me," and he showed a gold chain.
"I congratulate you, monsieur," said Ernanton, quietly, and he entered in his turn.
St. Maline waited impatiently until he came out again, which he did in about ten minutes, although it appeared an hour to St. Maline.
When Ernanton came out, he looked all over him, and seeing nothing, he cried joyfully, "And you, monsieur, what has he given to you?"
"His hand to kiss," replied Ernanton.
St. Maline crushed his chain impatiently in his hands, and they both returned in silence. As they entered the hall, the trumpet sounded, and at this signal all the Forty-five came out of their rooms, wondering what was the matter; while they profited by this reunion to examine each other. Most of them were richly dressed, though generally in bad taste. They all had a military tournour, and long swords, boots and gloves of buckskin or buffalo, all well gilded or well greased, were almost universal.
The most discreet might be known by their quiet colors, the most economical by the substantial character of their equipments, and the most gay by their white or rose-colored satins. Perducas de Pincornay had bought from some Jew a gold chain as thick as a cable; Pertinax de Montcrabeau was all bows and embroidery: he had bought his costume from a merchant who had purchased it of a gentleman who had been wounded by robbers. It was rather stained with blood and dirt, it was true, but he had managed to clean it tolerably. There remained two holes made by the daggers of the robbers, but Pertinax had had them embroidered in gold.
Eustache de Miradoux did not shine; he had had to clothe Lardille, Militor, and the two children. All the gentlemen were there admiring each other, when M. de Loignac entered frowning, and placed himself in front of them, with a countenance anything but agreeable.
"Gentlemen," said he, "are you all here?"
"All!" they replied.
"Gentlemen, you have been summoned to Paris as a special guard to the king; it is an honorable title, but it engages you to much. Some of you seem not to have understood your duties; I will, therefore, recall them to you. If you do not assist at the deliberations of the council, you will constantly be called upon to execute the resolutions passed there; therefore, the responsibility of those secrets rests upon you. Suppose now that one of the officers on whom the safety of the state and the tranquillity of the crown reposes, betray the secrets of the council, or a soldier charged with a commission does not execute it, his life is the forfeit; you know that?"
"Doubtless," replied many voices.
"Well, gentlemen, this very day a measure of his majesty's has been betrayed, and a step which he wished to take rendered, perhaps, impossible."
Terror began to replace pride in the minds of the Forty-five, and they looked at each other with suspicion and disquietude.
"Two of you, gentlemen," continued De Loignac, "have been heard in the open street chattering like a couple of old women, and that about grave things."
St. Maline advanced. "Monsieur," said he, "pray explain at once, that suspicion may not rest on us all."
"That is easy. The king heard to-day that one of his enemies – precisely one of those whom we have been enrolled to guard him against – had arrived in Paris to conspire against him. This name was pronounced quietly, but was overheard by a soldier on guard, that is to say, by a man who should be regarded as a wall – deaf, dumb, and immovable. However, that man repeated this name in the street with a noise and boasting which attracted the attention of the passers-by and raised quite an emotion; I know it, for I was there, and heard and saw all, and had I not placed my hand on his shoulder to stop him, he would have compromised such grave interests, that, had he not been quiet at my touch, I should have been compelled to poniard him on the spot."
Pertinax de Montcrabeau and Perducas de Pincornay turned deadly pale, and Montcrabeau tried to stammer out some excuses. All eyes were turned toward them.
"Nothing can excuse you," said De Loignac; "even if you were drunk you should be punished for that; and you shall be punished."
A terrible silence ensued. Then Pertinax said, "Pardon, monsieur! we are provincials, new to the court, and unaccustomed to politics."
"You should not have accepted your posts without weighing their duties."
"For the future we will be as mute as sepulchers, we swear to you."
"Good; but can you repair the evil you have done to-day?"
"We will try."
"It is impossible, I tell you."
"Then, for this time, pardon us."
"You live," continued De Loignac, "with a sort of license which I must repress. Those who find the terms too hard will return; I can easily replace them; but I warn you that justice will be done among us, secretly and expeditiously. Traitors will be punished with death on the spot."
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