第76章 MEN CALL IT CHANCE.(2)

I reflected,and the longer I did so the more feasible seemed the suggestion.A single word,and I might sweep from my path the man whose existence threatened mine;who would not meet me fairly,but,working against me darkly and treacherously,deserved no better treatment at my hands than that which a detected spy receives.He had wronged my mother;he would fain destroy my friends!

And,doubtless,I shall be blamed by some and ridiculed by more for indulging in scruples at such a time.But I have all my life long been prejudiced against that form of underhand violence which I have heard old men contend came into fashion in our country in modern times,and which certainly seems to be alien from the French character.Without judging others too harshly,or saying that the poniard is never excusable--for then might some wrongs done to women and the helpless go without remedy--Ihave set my face against its use as unworthy of a soldier.At the time,moreover,of which I am now writing the extent to which our enemies had lately resorted to it tended to fix this feeling with peculiar firmness in my mind;and,but for the very desperate dilemma in which I stood at the moment--and not Ialone--I do not think that I should have entertained Simon's proposal for a minute.

As it was,I presently answered him in a way which left him in no doubt of my sentiments.'Simon,my friend,'I said--and Iremember I was a little moved--'you have something still to learn,both as a soldier and a Huguenot.Neither the one nor the other strikes at the back.'

'But if he will not fight?'the lad retorted rebelliously.

'What then?'

It was so clear that our adversary gained an unfair advantage in this way that I could not answer the question.I let it pass,therefore,and merely repeating my former injunction,bade Simon think out another way.

He promised reluctantly to do so,and,after spending some moments in thought,went out to learn whether the house was being watched.

When he returned,his countenance wore so new an expression that I saw at once that something had happened.He did not meet my eye,however,and did not explain,but made as if he would go out again,with something of confusion in his manner.Before finally disappearing,however,he seemed to change his mind once more;for,marching up to me where I stood eyeing him with the utmost astonishment,he stopped before me,and suddenly drawing out his hand,thrust something into mine.

'What is it,man?'I said mechanically.

'Look!'he answered rudely,breaking silence for the first time.

'You should know.Why ask me?What have I to do with it?'

I looked then,and saw that he had given me a knot of velvet precisely similar is shape,size,and material to that well-remembered one which had aided me so opportunely in my search for mademoiselle.This differed from that a little in colour,but in nothing else,the fashion of the bow being the same,and one lappet hearing the initials 'C.d.l.V.,'while the other had the words,'A moi.'I gazed at it in wonder.'But,Simon,'Isaid,'what does it mean?Where did you get it?'

'Where should I get it?'he answered jealously.Then,seeming to recollect himself,he changed his tone.'A woman gave it to me in the street,'he said.

I asked him what woman.

'How should I know?'he answered,his eyes gleaming with anger.

'It was a woman in a mask.'

'Was it Fanchette?'I said sternly.

'It might have been.I do not know,'he responded.

I concluded at first that mademoiselle and her escort had arrived in the outskirts of the city,and that Maignan had justified his reputation for discretion by sending in to learn from me whether the way was clear before he entered.In this notion I was partly confirmed and partly shaken by the accompanying message;which Simon,from whom every scrap of information had to be dragged as blood from a stone,presently delivered.

'You are to meet the sender half an hour after sunset to-morrow evening,'he said,'on the Parvis at the north-east corner of the cathedral.'

'To-morrow evening?'

'Yes,when else?'the lad answered ungraciously.'I said to-morrow evening.'

I thought this strange.I could understand why Maignan should prefer to keep his charge outside the walls until he heard from me,but not why he should postpone a meeting so long.The message,too,seemed unnecessarily meagre,and I began to think Simon was still withholding something.

'Was that all?'I asked him.

'Yes,all,'he answered,'except--'

'Except what?'I said sternly.

'Except that the woman showed me the gold token Mademoiselle de la Vire used to carry,'he answered reluctantly,'and said,if you wanted further assurance that would satisfy you.'

'Did you see the coin?'I cried eagerly.

'To be sure,'he answered.

'Then,mon dieu!'I retorted,'either you are deceiving me,or the woman you saw deceived you.For mademoiselle has not got the token!I have it here,in my possession!Now,do you still say yon saw it,man?'

'I saw one like it,'he answered,trembling,his face damp.

'That I will swear.And the woman told me what I have told you.

And no more.'

'Then it is clear,'I answered,'that mademoiselle has nothing to do with this,and is doubtless many a league away.This is one of M.de Bruhl's tricks.Fresnoy gave him the token he stole from me.And I told him the story of the velvet knot myself.

This is a trap;and had I fallen into it,and gone to the Parvis to-morrow evening,I had never kept another assignation,my lad.'

Simon looked thoughtful.Presently he said,with a crestfallen air,'You were to go alone.The woman said that.'

Though I knew well why he had suppressed this item,I forbore to blame him.'What was the woman like?'I said.

'She had very much of Franchette's figure,'he answered.He could not go beyond that.Blinded by the idea that the woman was mademoiselle's attendant,and no one else,he had taken little heed of her,and could not even say for certain that she was not a man in woman's clothes.