Raoul smiled bitterly. “Ah! true, true; I was forgetting that; the king is my master.”
“Your liberty, nay, your very life, is in danger.”
A steady, penetrating look informed Madame Henrietta that she was mistaken, and that her last argument was not a likely one to affect the young man. “Take care, Monsieur de Bragelonne,” she said, “for if you do not weigh well all your actions, you might throw into an extravagance of wrath a prince whose passions, once aroused, exceed the bounds of reason, and you would thereby involve your friends and family in the deepest distress; you must bend, you must submit, and you must cure yourself.”
“I thank you, Madame; I appreciate the advice Your Royal Highness is good enough to give me, and I will endeavor to follow it; but one final word, I beg.”
“Name it.”
“Should I be indiscreet in asking you the secret of this staircase, of this trapdoor; a secret, which, it seems, you have discovered?”
“Nothing more simple. For the purpose of exercising a surveillance over the young girls who are attached to my service, I have duplicate keys of their doors. It seemed very strange to me that M. de Saint-Aignan should change his apartments. It seemed very strange that the king should come to see M. de Saint-Aignan every day, and, finally, it seemed very strange that so many things should be done during your absence, that the very habits and customs of the court appeared changed. I do not wish to be trifled with by the king, nor to serve as a cloak for his love affairs; for after La Vallière, who weeps incessantly, he will take a fancy to Montalais, who is always laughing; and then to Tonnay-Charente, who does nothing but sing all day; to act such a part as that would be unworthy of me. I thrust aside the scruples which my friendship for you suggested. I discovered the secret. I have wounded your feelings, I know, and I again entreat you to pardon me; but I had a duty to fulfil. I have discharged it. You are now forewarned; the tempest will soon burst; protect yourself accordingly.”
“You naturally expect, however, that a result of some kind must follow,” replied Bragelonne, with firmness; “for you do not suppose I shall silently accept the shame thus thrust upon me, or the treachery which has been practiced against me?”
“You will take whatever steps in the matter you please, Monsieur Raoul, only do not betray the source whence you derived the truth. That is all I have to ask—the only price I require for the service I have rendered you.”
“Fear nothing, Madame,” said Bragelonne, with a bitter smile.
“I bribed the locksmith, in whom the lovers confided. You can just as well have done so as myself, can you not?”
“Yes, Madame. Your Royal Highness, however, has no other advice or caution to give me, except that of not betraying you?”
“None.”
“I am about, therefore, to beg Your Royal Highness to allow me to remain here for one moment.”
“Without me?”
“Oh! no, Madame. It matters very little; for what I have to do can be done in your presence. I only ask one moment to write a line to someone.”
“It is dangerous, Monsieur de Bragelonne. Take care.”
“No one can possibly know that Your Royal Highness has done me the honor to conduct me here. Besides, I shall sign the letter I am going to write.”
“Do as you please, then.”
Raoul drew out his tablet, and wrote rapidly on one of the leaves the following words:
“Monsieur le Comte—Do not be surprised to find this paper signed by me; the friend I shall very shortly send to call on you will have the honor to explain the object of my visit.
He rolled up the paper, slipped it into the lock of the door which communicated with the room set apart for the two lovers, and satisfied himself that the missive was so apparent that Saint-Aignan could not but see it as he entered; he rejoined the princess, who had already reached the top of the staircase. They then separated, Raoul pretending to thank Her Highness; Henrietta pitying, or seeming to pity, with all her heart, the wretched young man she had just condemned to such fearful torture. “Oh!” she said, as she saw him disappear, pale as death, and his eyes bursting with blood, “if I had foreseen this, I would have hid the truth from that poor gentleman.”
194
Porthos’s Plan of Action
The great number of individuals we have introduced into this long story is the reason why each of them has been forced to appear only in turn, according to the exigencies of the recital. The result is, that our readers have had no opportunity of meeting our friend Porthos since his return from Fontainebleau. The honors which he had received from the king had not changed the easy, affectionate character of that excellent-hearted man; he may, perhaps, have held up his head a little higher than usual, and a majesty of demeanor, as it were, may have betrayed itself since the honor of dining at the king’s table had been accorded him. His Majesty’s banqueting-room had produced a certain effect on Porthos. Le Seigneur de Bracieux et de Pierrefonds delighted to remember that, during that memorable dinner, the numerous array of servants, and the large number of officials in attendance on the guests, gave a certain tone and effect to the repast, and seemed, as it were, to furnish the room. Porthos undertook to confer upon Mouston a position of some kind or other, in order to establish a sort of hierarchy among his other domestics, and to create a military household, which was not unusual among the great captains of the age, since, in the preceding century, this luxury had been greatly encouraged by Messieurs de Tréville, de Schomberg, de la Vieuville, without alluding to M. de Richelieu, M. de Condé, and de Bouillon-Turenne. And, therefore, why should not he,
