Scaramouche (17 page)

CHAPTER XVIII

LANGÉAC'S REPORT

It may be that as a consequence of the terms on which they parted Langéac permitted no hopefulness to mitigate the pessimism of the report he presented to d'Entragues at Hamm a week later.

And d'Entragues actually did rub his hands as de Batz had foretold.

"That boastful Gascon's failure was foregone," he commented with his crooked smile. "Nothing else ever attends his rhodomontades. This would be a dark moment if our hopes had rested upon his success. Fortunately her majesty's deliverance is as good as assured by my own measures at Vienna. The Maréchal de Coburg has received instructions to propose an exchange of prisoners. The members of the Convention whom Dumouriez delivered to Austria against the imprisoned members of the royal family. I hear from Monsieur de Trauttmansdorff that the proposal has been well received, and there is now little doubt that the exchange will be effected. So that the failure of Monsieur de Batz finds me without tears." He paused. "What gentleman did you say his rashness has lost to us?"

"The Chevalier de Larnache and André-Louis Moreau."

"Moreau?" D'Entragues searched his memory a moment. "Oh, yes! That other Rhodomont whom de Batz enlisted here. Why..." He checked on a sudden thought. The expression of his dark, lean face was very odd, thought Monsieur de Langéac as he watched it. Abruptly the Count asked him: "Was Monsieur Moreau killed, do you say?"

"If he was not killed on the spot, which he may well have been, he will certainly be dead by now. The Revolutionary Tribunal would not be likely to spare a man arraigned on his indictment."

D'Entragues was plunged in thought. At last, "Well, well!" he said. "You had better come with your tale to Monsieur. I think it will interest him."

Within an hour or two of hearing Monsieur de Langéac's report, the Comte de Provence paid a visit to the Lord of Gavrillac at his lodging at the Bear Inn.

In a prince so rigid in the observance of forms, this was an overwhelming condescension. But it was no longer a novelty where Monsieur de Kercadiou and his niece were concerned. It was become a habit on the part of his highness to drop in upon them in informal, unceremonious fashion, and to sit in that room of theirs, his mantle of rank if not entirely discarded at least so far loosened on these occasions that he would discuss with them almost on terms of equality the news of the day and the hopes and fears which he built upon it.

Aline's preconceptions on the score of birth and rank discovered for her in this, in the earnestness with which Monsieur would canvass her opinions and in the attention with which he would listen to them when expressed, a very subtle flattery. The regard which he invariably showed her served to increase her regard both for him and for herself. His patience in straitened circumstances, his fortitude in the face of adversity, brought her to perceive in him a personal nobility which gratified her every expectation, lent a romantic glamour to his clumsy, almost plebeian exterior. In the background, to confirm her perception in him of these truly princely qualities and to quicken her admiration of them, stood that born intriguer, the Mephistophelian d'Entragues with dark ends of his own to serve.

The ambitions of the Comte d'Entragues aimed high, as we know. He had known how to render himself indispensable to the Regent. It was for him to maintain himself in this position, to the end that when the restoration came he should be the first man in the State. D'Avaray's high favour with Monsieur offered the only possible obstacle to the ultimate full achievement of that ambition. The Comte d'Avaray owed his position in the first instance to Madame de Balbi. It was she who had placed him at Monsieur's side and between them d'Avaray and de Balbi ruled his highness. Let Madame de Balbi be thrust from her high place as maîtresse-en-titre and d'Avaray's security would be shaken at the same time. Therefore, it was against her that d'Entragues directed his underground attack. Several already had been the ladies who had aroused his hopes. But the Regent in these affairs was just a callow, ostentatious boaster Not only must he kiss and tell; but to him kissing without felling would scarcely be worth the trouble. Through all his infidelities, Monsieur had continued, after his fashion, faithful to Madame de Balbi. But now at last d'Entragues foresaw an affair of quite another order. Ever on the alert, he had observed in Monsieur's eyes when they dwelt upon the delicate Mademoiselle de Kercadiou, something upon which solidly to build his hopes. And the study of Aline, herself, had confirmed him. Here, either his highness would never prevail, or else, if he prevailed, Mademoiselle de Kercadiou's rule would be absolute. Thus had d'Entragues come to regard her as the one person who might achieve the complete and permanent eclipse of the Balbi.

But like all truly efficient and dangerous intriguers, d'Entragues never hurried matters; as long as he beheld them travelling, however slowly, in the desired direction, he practised patience. He had perceived the obstacle to his aims in Mademoiselle de Kercadiou's attachment to André-Louis Moreau. So whilst on the one hand he was irritated by the intervention of de Batz in a province which he regarded as his own, he found compensation in the fact that de Batz was removing Moreau for the time being from Mademoiselle de Kercadiou's neighbourhood. His satisfaction in this had been immeasurably increased by the perception that Monsieur himself had welcomed this removal. To this and to this only, had d'Entragues assigned the sudden volte-face, the sudden assumption of graciousness towards those two adventurers, in defiance even of Monsieur d'Artois, by which the Regent had made sure that André-Louis Moreau should accompany the Baron de Batz to France.

You conceive, therefore, the secret satisfaction with which d'Entragues ushered Monsieur de Langéac and the story of Moreau's end to his highness. And he fancied that the Regent's glance had brightened even whilst he expressed grief at that young adventurer's untoward death encountered in the service of the House of Bourbon.

There was, however, no suspicion of brightness in the Regent's glance when he went to pay his visit that afternoon to Monsieur de Kercadiou. His gloom was so marked that as uncle and niece rose to receive him Aline cried out at once with sincere solicitude.

"Monseigneur! You have had bad news."

He stared at them lugubriously from the doorway. He fetched a heavy sigh, half raised his right hand, then let it fall again. "How quick, mademoiselle, are your perceptions! How very quick!"

"Ah, monseigneur, who is not quick to perceive the signs of distress in those we love and honour?"

He moved forward with that ponderous, jerky gait of his to the chair which Monsieur de Kercadiou made haste to set for him. The Comte d'Entragues, who was in attendance, paused to close the door.

Some roses culled by Aline that morning stood in a bowl of green ware upon the table, their presence lending a grace to the modest chamber, their fragrance sweetening the air of it.

His highness settled himself in the chair. He yielded to the habit of thrusting the ferrule of his cane into the side of his shoe. His glance was upon the ground.

"My heart is heavy, indeed," he said. "The attempt to save her majesty has failed, and failed in such circumstances that no renewal of the attempt would appear possible."

There was a silence. The Regent fidgeted with his cane. Aline's countenance betrayed her sincere distress. It was Monsieur de Kercadiou at last who spoke.

"And Monsieur de Batz? Monsieur de Batz and those who were with him?"

Monsieur avoided the straining eyes of Aline. His voice came huskily. His tone suggested reservations. "Monsieur de Batz is safe."

D'Entragues did not miss the shiver that ran through Mademoiselle, or the sudden pallor that made her staring eyes look black.

"And...and the others?" she asked in a dry, unsteady voice. "The others? Monsieur Moreau? What of Monsieur Moreau, monseigneur?"

There was silence. Monsieur's glance continued intent upon the waxed floor. It was clear that he could not bear to look at her. He moved his shoulders a little. He sighed and his plump hand was raised and lowered again in a gesture of helplessness. Gently d'Entragues answered for him.

"We have cause to fear the worst, mademoiselle."

"You have cause...What cause? Tell me, monsieur."

"In God's name, monsieur!" cried Kercadiou.

Monsieur d'Entragues found it easier to address himself to the Lord of Gavrillac. "There is room for no hope at all touching Monsieur Moreau."

"You mean that he is...dead?"

"Alas, monsieur."

Kercadiou made an inarticulate noise, and put tip his hands as if to ward a blow. Mademoiselle, ashen-faced, staggered back to a chair, and sat down abruptly, her hands limp in her lap, her eyes staring straight before her.

The room and its tenants dissolved out of her vision. In its place came a scene of crisp snow under sunshine dappled with the shadows of snow-clad branches beside a dark-flowing stream; and there keeping step with her strode André-Louis, straight, slim, masterful, alert and intensely alive. That was her last, dearest memory of her vivid lover as he had walked with her on a morning half a year ago.

And then she grew conscious once more of the room in which she sat. She found the Regent standing over her, his hand upon her shoulder. It seemed to her that it was his touch which had pulled her back into the hideous present. He was uttering a protest, in his thick, purring voice.

"D'Entragues, you were too abrupt. You should have used more care, you fool."

Next she heard her own voice, oddly level and controlled. "Do not blame Monsieur d'Entragues, monseigneur. Such news is best given quickly and plainly."

"My poor child!" The purring note in his voice grew deeper. His hand pressed more heavily upon her shoulder. "My poor child!" He stood over her, portly, dull-eyed and silent for a long moment, until he found the words he needed. "Of all the sacrifices made in the sacred cause of Throne and Altar, I count none more heavy than this." It might have seemed a startling exaggeration until he explained it. "For, believe me, Mademoiselle, I would suffer anything rather than that pain and sorrow should touch you."

"Monseigneur, you are good. You are very good." She spoke mechanically. A moment later, looking at Monsieur d'Entragues, she asked: "How did it happen?"

"Fetch Langéac," his highness commanded.

Langéac, who had been left waiting below, was brought up. Nervously he stood before this sorrow, to tell the tale of those events in the Rue Charlot.

Aline had no tears. Even now she could scarcely realize this thing. Her senses were in rebellion against belief. It seemed so impossible that André—her André, so quick, so vital, so mercurial in mind and body—should be dead.

Gradually, as Langéac unfolded his tale, conviction was borne in upon her. His story was that Moreau had been killed on the spot. The probability was converted into certainty out of charitable motives. It had been suggested by d'Entragues, and the Regent had approved it, that thus she would suffer less than if she were tortured by doubts of his possible survival merely that he might perish on the guillotine.

"There I recognize him," she said quietly, when the tale was done. "He gave himself to save another. That is the story of all his life."

Still she had no tears. These were not to come until later, not until she and Madame de Plougastel were in each other's arms, seeking in each other strength to bear this common sorrow.

The Countess had heard the news from her husband. In his ignorance of the relationship in which she stood to André-Louis he had conveyed it to her with a brutal lack of mitigation.

"That boastful fool, de Batz, has failed again, as all might have known he would. And his failure has cost some lives. All that has been accomplished is to save Aline de Kercadiou from the preposterous mésalliance she contemplated. Moreau has been killed."

Receiving no answer, he turned to question her, and found that she had fainted. Amazed, his amazement blent with a certain unreasoned indignation, he stood frowning over her before making any attempt to summon assistance.

When at last she was restored, he pompously demanded explanations. She offered the best she could. She had known André-Louis from his childhood; and then there was her sorrow on behalf of Aline, whose heart would be broken by this dreadful thing. On that she had gone in quest of Mademoiselle de Kercadiou, at once to bear consolation and to seek it, whilst the Lord of Gavrillac, himself deeply afflicted, vainly sought to comfort both.

Monsieur had departed in a gloom deeper than that in which he had come. This was perhaps explained by his first words as they walked in the bright sunshine towards the chalet.

"She would seem to have held that rascal in very deep affection."

Monsieur d'Entragues, tall and elegant at his side, barely repressed a smile.

"All things considered, it is perhaps as well that Monsieur Moreau is out of the way."

"Eh? What?" The Regent stood still, a startled man. Had he heard in the words of the Count an echo of his own thoughts.