Читать книгу The Greatest Historical Novels - Рафаэль Сабатини - Страница 53

Table of Contents

At long last the great Prussian and Austrian legions, reënforced by the chivalry of France, were moving forward. Longwy was being invested, and the campaign for Throne and Altar was beginning in earnest, just one month later than it should have begun but for the vagaries of the King of Prussia, the Agamemnon of this invading host.

A month ago, when all was ready and the weather fine, this Prussian giant had descended upon Coblentz and upon Charles William of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, who was the real commander-in-chief and a soldier of repute. Suspending all effective movement his Majesty had wasted precious time upon reviews, parades, and fêtes to celebrate a victory which had yet to be won.

The brothers of the King of France, possessing no greater military acumen than his Majesty of Prussia, were content enough to coöperate in these junketings, and to waste upon them large sums of the borrowed money which already was running woefully short. Condé, the only soldier among the Princes, fretted the while in his camp at Worms over a delay that was all in favour of the unready enemy, and grumbled—not without reason—that an invisible hand withheld them perilously from attempting an assured success.

Now, at last, all delays were ended; now that the rains had converted the Rhineland into a world of mud. The Princes were at once to rejoin the army of the émigrés, and make a pretence at least of commanding it, under the mentorship of Condé and the Maréchal de Broglie. Their ladies—that is to say, the wife of one of them and the mistresses of both—were to leave Coblentz at once.

Madame was to repair to her father's court at Turin. But because the King of Sardinia had already experienced the prodigality of his sons-in-law (for each of the sons of France had married a Princess of Savoy), he strictly delimited the suite that was to attend her Highness. Some ladies-in-waiting, however, she must have, and to Madame de Balbi and Madame de Gourbillon, she would have added Mademoiselle de Kercadiou but for certain activities on the part of Madame de Balbi, activities which—so badly do we sometimes blunder when we seek to shape our destinies—were to precipitate in the end the very situation which with such clear reckoning they were calculated to avert.

An Electoral carriage brought Madame de Balbi, in the pursuit of these activities, one afternoon to the door of the Three Crowns.

Now it happened that Monsieur de Kercadiou, complaining of the cold and damp and of a general weariness resulting from his condition, had put himself to bed, and André-Louis was sitting alone over a book when a footman, ushered by a waiting-maid, brought the startling announcement of Madame la Comtesse de Balbi's presence.

In bewildered conjecture André-Louis consented to act as his godfather's deputy, and desired that the Countess be brought up.

She came, throwing back her gossamer light cloak and wimple, and her presence and personality seemed to bring a radiance into that long, low-ceilinged room. Her crisp, melodious tones offered apologies for her intrusion, and regrets for the condition and absence of Monsieur de Kercadiou.

'But the matter is almost more personal to yourself than to your godfather, Monsieur Moreau.'

'I am honoured by your memory, madame,' said André-Louis, surprised to hear his name so glibly from her lips. He bowed as he spoke, and offered her the armchair by the stove which Monsieur de Kercadiou had lately vacated.

She laughed as she advanced to take it, a rich, musical laugh that reminded one of the note of a thrush.

'I suspect you guilty of modesty, Monsieur Moreau.'

'You account it a guilt, madame?'

'Of course, since it fetters expression.' She sat down, and arranged her skirts.

Anne de Caumont-La Force, unhappily married to that eccentric libertine, Count de Balbi, who had brutally ill-treated her before he went mad and fortunately died, might from her appearance have been of any age from twenty-five to thirty-five. In reality she was already forty. She was small and elegantly dainty. Not beautiful, in spite of a pair of superb eyes, alluring in their glances, but endowed with an irresistible witchery to which all her contemporaries bear witness.

The glance of those magnificent dark eyes seemed now to envelop André-Louis, to challenge him, almost to woo him.

'I had remarked you at Schönbornlust, monsieur, on the day of your arrival, and I remarked you, let me say frankly, with admiration for your superb aplomb. I know no quality that better becomes a gentleman.'

He would have answered her, but the sparkling, voluble lady gave him no time. She swept on. 'It is really on your account that I am here, and as a result of the interest you inspire in me. Ah, but reassure yourself, Monsieur Moreau, I am not one of those greedy women who must find their every interest reciprocated and desire in addition to arouse interest which they cannot reciprocate.'

'I should not crave reassurance, madame, from an amiable illusion.'

'You turn a phrase, Monsieur Moreau. But, indeed, it was to be expected in you. You have been an author, I am told.'

'I have been so many things, madame.'

'And now you are the greatest thing of all: a lover. Ah, believe one who knows. No man can aspire to more, for it brings him nearer heaven than is otherwise possible on earth.'

'Your lovers, madame, will have discovered that.'

'My lovers! Ah, that! You speak as if I measured them by the bushel.'

'It will ever rest with you, madame, how you measure them.'

'Oh, I cry you mercy! This is a duel in which I risk defeat.' She was as grave as her roguish eye and the tilt of her nose permitted. 'It is to the lover that I have come to speak. For this is even more his affair than it is an uncle's. Therefore, we may leave Monsieur de Kercadiou in peace. Besides, it is not very easy to say what I have come to say, and it may be less difficult to say it to you alone. You will prove as understanding as I hope you will prove discreet.'

'Discreet as a confessor, be sure of that, madame,' said André-Louis, inwardly a little impatient.

The Countess considered a moment, her perfect hands smoothing her petticoat of striped taffeta the while.

'When I shall have told you my errand, you will be in danger of supposing me just a jealous woman. I warn you against it. I have much for which to answer. But jealousy is a vulgarity which I leave to the vulgar.'

'It is inconceivable, madame, that you should ever have had occasion for it.'

She flashed him a smile. 'That may be the reason. Remember it when you come to judge me. I am to speak, sir, of the lady whom I am told you are to marry. Frankly, it is not on her own account that her fate concerns me, but because of the ... let us say regard ... which you, monsieur, inspire in me.'

André-Louis was stirred. 'Her fate, madame? Is she, then, in danger?'

She shrugged, thrust out a full, sensual nether lip, and showed two dimples in a smile. 'Some would not account it danger. It depends upon the point of view. In your eyes, Monsieur Moreau, she certainly cannot be accounted safe. Do you even suspect at whose desire she was appointed lady-in-waiting to Madame?'

'You will tell me that it was at Monsieur's,' he replied, frowning.

She shook her head. 'It was at the desire of Madame herself.'

He was suddenly at a loss. 'But in that case, madame ...' He broke off.

'In that case you imagine that there is no more to say. You do not think it may be necessary to discover Madame's object. You assume it naturally to be a sympathy for that very charming person, Mademoiselle de Kercadiou. That is because you do not know Madame. Mademoiselle de Kercadiou is singularly attractive. There is about her an air of sweetness, of freshness, of innocence that arouses tenderness even in women. What, then, must it do in men? So far, for instance, as Monsieur is concerned, I have seldom seen his highness in such a state of deliquescence.' There was something contemptuous in her smile, as if she found the susceptible side of Monsieur's nature entirely ridiculous. 'Disabuse your mind of the thought that jealousy makes me see what is not present. The Count of Provence might trail a seraglio at his heels without perturbing me.'

'But you bewilder me, madame. Am I to believe that because Monsieur ... discovered attractions in Mademoiselle de Kercadiou, that is a reason why Madame should appoint her to a position that will throw her in his way? Surely not that?'

'Just that, monsieur. Just that. Madame's nature is peculiar; it is warped, soured, malicious. For the satisfaction of contemplating injury to another, she will endure even injury to herself. It happens with such natures. I have the distinction of being detested by Madame. This is all the more bitter in her because she is constrained to suffer my attendance and to be civil to me. Now do you understand?'

André-Louis was visibly troubled. 'I seem to. And yet ...'

'Madame would give her eyes to see me supplanted in the regard, the affection, of Monsieur. Does that help you?'

'You mean that to achieve this object, although the exchange can nothing profit her, her Highness desires to use Mademoiselle de Kercadiou?'

'That is as concise as it is accurate.'

'It is also infamous.'

The Countess shrugged. 'I should not use so fine a word. It is just the petty malice of a stupid, parasitic woman who is without useful thoughts to engage her.'

'I perceive your good intentions, madame.' André-Louis was very formal. 'You desire to warn me. I am deeply grateful.'

'The warning, my friend, is hardly uttered yet. Madame sets out tomorrow for Turin. I am to accompany her Highness. My position at court demands it. I beg that you will not laugh, Monsieur Moreau.'

'I am not laughing, madame.'

'You have great self-restraint. I had already observed it.' The dimples showed again in her cheeks. Then she swept on: 'Madame's train has been reduced to vanishing-point by the King of Sardinia, who looks upon us as locusts. Her only ladies besides myself were to be the Duchess of Caylus and Madame de Gourbillon. But now, at the last moment, her Highness has insisted that Mademoiselle de Kercadiou be added. Do you perceive the aim, and what must follow? If she leaves Mademoiselle de Kercadiou in Coblentz, that may well be the last that she will ever see of her. You may be married, you two; or other circumstances may arise to prevent her from ever returning to court. But if mademoiselle remains at her side, in a month—in two months at most—when this campaign is ended, we shall be back at Versailles, and your Aline will again be dangled before Monsieur, whose heart may have grown fonder in the absence. You understand me, I think, Monsieur Moreau.'

'Oh, perfectly, madame.' His tone was stern and not without a touch of reproof. 'Even that in your calculations you leave out of all account Mademoiselle de Kercadiou's strength of character and virtue.'

The Countess de Balbi shrugged, pursed her full lips and smiled.

'Yes. You have the fine spirit of a lover: to regard the virtue of his mistress as a rock. But I, who am a mere woman, and who, therefore, know women, who have lived a little longer than you, and who have spent this life of mine in courts, I tell you that it is imprudent to ground your faith on nothing more. Virtue, when all is said, is an idea. And ideas are governed by environment. The environment of a court plays havoc with virtue, my friend. Accept my word for it. You know, at least, that nothing will so quickly wilt a woman's reputation as the attentions of a prince. There is a glamour about the office which no cloddishness in the holder can completely extinguish. Princes in a woman's eyes are heirs to all the romance of the ages even when they are as unromantic in themselves as our poor King Louis.'

'You tell me nothing that I do not know, madame.'

'Ah, true!' her irony flashed out again. 'I had almost forgotten that you are a republican.'

'Not so. I am a constitutional monarchist.'

'Faith, that's accounted even worse here at Coblentz.' She rose abruptly. 'I have said all that I came to say. The rest is for you.'

'And for Mademoiselle de Kercadiou.'

She looked at him, and shook her head. She set a dainty hand upon his arm. Her smile broke dazzlingly upon her roguish face. 'Are you so much the gentle, serving, docile lover? This will not answer. A woman needs to be ordered by the man to whom she has given the right. If you cannot prevent Mademoiselle de Kercadiou from going to Turin, why, faith, you do not deserve to win her, and you were better not to do so.'

André-Louis considered her gravely. 'I do not think that I am very clever with women, madame,' he confessed, and so far as I can discover it is the only lack of cleverness to which he ever did confess.

'You'll lack experience. Indeed, you have the air of it.' She drew still nearer to him. Her superb eyes glowed upon him, magnetically disturbing. 'Do you reserve for men all your audacity? Your enterprise?'

He laughed, ill-at-ease, bewildered, almost struggling with an odd intoxication.

She sighed. 'Why, yes. I fear you do. Well, well! Time may instruct you better. You shall be remembered in my prayers, Monsieur Moreau.'

She held out her hand to him. He took it and bent to kiss it. Almost, he says—which is fantastic—he was conscious of a response in it to the pressure of his lips.

'Madame,' he murmured, 'you leave me conscious of an obligation.'

'Repay me by your friendship, monsieur. Think kindly of Anne de Balbi, if only because she thinks kindly of you.'

She rustled out, flashed him a last smile as he held the door, and was gone, leaving him deeply perturbed and thoughtful.

Her judgment of him had been quite accurate, he knew. Masterful in all else, he had no masterfulness in love. And this because in love he saw no place for mastery. Love was not a thing to be snatched, constrained, compelled. To be worth possessing, it must be freely given.

Intensely practical in all else, in love he was entirely idealistic. How could he assume the master's tone, the overseer's whip, and command where he desired to worship? He could pray and plead. But if Aline should desire to go to Turin—and he could well understand her wish to see the world—upon what grounds was he to plead with her against it? What grounds existed? Had he so little faith in her that he must suppose her unable to withstand temptation? And what, after all, was the temptation? He smiled at the mental picture of the Comte de Provence as a wooer. To Aline in such a guise the Prince could only be ridiculous.

In his utter trust in Aline, André-Louis would have found peace but for another thought that assailed him. However Aline might be proof against temptation, he could not endure the thought of her being subjected to the pain and annoyance of an amorous persecution. Because of this possibility, he must oppose her journey to Turin. Since he could not hope to succeed by prayers and pleas, which would appear to be merely selfish and unreasonable, he would have recourse to Scaramouche's weapons of intrigue.

He sought his godfather, and stood by the bedside.

'You are desperately ill, sir,' he informed him.

The great night-capped head was agitated on its pillows; alarm dawned in the eyes. 'What do you tell me, André?'

'What we must both tell Aline. I have just learnt that it is Madame's intention to bear her off in her train to Turin. I know of no other way to oppose her going save by arousing her concern for you. Therefore, be good enough to become very ill, indeed.'

The greying eyebrows came together. 'To Turin! Ah! And you do not wish her to go?'

'Do you, monsieur?'

Monsieur de Kercadiou hesitated. The notion of parting with Aline was a little desolating. It would leave him very lonely in this exile amid his makeshift surroundings. But Monsieur de Kercadiou's life had been spent in preferring the wishes of others to his own.

'If it should be her desire ... life here would be so dull for the child ...'

'But infinitely healthier, monsieur.' André-Louis spoke of the perilous frivolity of court life. If Madame de Plougastel had also been in Madame's train, things would have been different. But in the circumstances Aline would be utterly alone. Her very inexperience would render her vulnerable to the vexations that lie in wait for a young lady of her attractions. And it was possible that, however eager she might now be at the prospect, once she found herself away from them in distant Savoy, she might be unhappy and they would not be at hand to avail her.

Monsieur de Kercadiou sat up in bed, and gave him reason. Thus it fell out that when Aline arrived a little later, she found two conspirators awaiting her.

André-Louis received her in the living-room. It was their first meeting since that sub-acid parting at Schönbornlust.

'I am so glad you have come, Aline. Monsieur de Kercadiou is not well at all. His condition gives me anxiety. It is fortunate that you are about to be relieved of your duties with Madame, for your uncle requires more attention than can be expected from strangers or than a clumsy fellow like myself is able to supply.'

He saw the dismay that overspread her face, and guessed that it sprang from more than concern for her uncle, however deep this might be in her tender heart. Her resolve to continue on her dignity with André-Louis was blotted out.

'I was to have accompanied Madame to Turin,' she said, in tones of deepest disappointment.

His heart leapt at the tense she already used.

'It's an ill wind that blows no good at all,' said he gently. 'You will be saved the discomforts of a tedious journey.'

'Tedious! Oh, André!'

He feigned astonishment. 'You do not think it would be tedious? Oh, but I assure you that it would be. And then the court of Turin! It is notoriously drab and dull. My dear, you have had a near escape. You are fortunate to be provided with so sound a reason for begging Madame to excuse you. Come and see Monsieur de Kercadiou, and tell me if you think a doctor should be summoned.'

Thus he swept her away, the matter settled without discussion. Monsieur de Kercadiou, a bad actor and a little shamefaced, played his part none too well. He feared unnecessarily to alarm his niece, and she would have departed entirely reassured but for André-Louis.

'It is necessary,' he said when they were outside the invalid's door, 'to persuade him that he is none so ill. He must not be alarmed. I have done my best, as you see. But I certainly think that we must have a doctor to him, and I shall be glad when you are here, Aline. So will he, I know, although he would be last to let you suspect it.'

And so there was no further mention of Turin. In her anxiety on Monsieur de Kercadiou's behalf, Aline did not even await Madame's departure to come and instal herself at the Three Crowns. If Madame did not dissemble her vexation, at least she could not withhold the leave which was sought upon such dutiful grounds.

André-Louis congratulated himself upon a victory cheaply bought. Neither he nor Madame de Balbi who had inspired it was to guess how the battle of Valmy and its sequel were to falsify their every calculation.