Author: Alexandre Dumas
Category: Adventure
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CHAPTER IX.
HOW THE ANGEL MADE A MISTAKE AND SPOKE TO CHICOT, THINKING ITWAS THE KING.
The king and Chicot remained thus for some time. All at once theking jumped up in his bed. Chicot woke at the noise.
"What is it?" asked he in a low voice.
"The breath on my face."
As he spoke, one of the wax lights went out, then the other,and the rest followed. Then the lamp also went out, and the roomwas lighted only by the rays of the moon. At the same momentthey heard a hollow voice, saying, apparently from the end ofthe room,--
"Hardened sinner, art thou there?"
"Yes," said Henri, with chattering teeth.
"Oh!" thought Chicot, "that is a very hoarse voice to come fromheaven; nevertheless, it is dreadful."
"Do you hear?" asked the voice.
"Yes, and I am bowed down to the earth."
"Do you believe you obeyed me by all the exterior mummeries whichyou performed yesterday, without your heart being touched?"
"Very well said," thought Chicot. He approached the king softly.
"Do you believe now?" asked the king, with clasped hands.
"Wait."
"What for?"
"Hush! leave your bed quietly, and let me get in."
"Why?"
"That the anger of the Lord may fall first on me."
"Do you think He will spare me for that?"
"Let us try," and he pushed the king gently out and got into hisplace.
"Now, go to my chair, and leave all to me."
Henri obeyed; he began to understand.
"You do not reply," said the voice; "you are hardened in sin."
"Oh! pardon! pardon!" cried Chicot, imitating the king's voice.Then he whispered to Henri, "It is droll that the angel doesnot know me."
"What can it mean?"
"Wait."
"Wretch!" said the voice.
"Yes, I confess," said Chicot; "I am a hardened sinner, a dreadfulsinner."
"Then acknowledge your crimes, and repent."
"I acknowledge to have been a great traitor to my cousin Conde,whose wife I seduced."
"Oh! hush," said the king, "that is so long ago."
"I acknowledge," continued Chicot, "to have been a great rogueto the Poles, who chose me for king, and whom I abandoned onenight, carrying away the crown jewels. I repent of this."
"Ah!" whispered Henri again: "that is all forgotten."
"Hush! let me speak."
"Go on," said the voice.
"I acknowledge having stolen the crown from my brother D'Alencon,to whom it belonged of right, as I had formerly renounced it onaccepting the crown of Poland."
"Knave!" said the king.
"Go on," said the voice.
"I acknowledge having joined my mother, to chase from Francemy brother-in-law, the King of Navarre, after having destroyedall his friends."
"Ah!" whispered the king, angrily.
"Sire, do not let us offend God, by trying to hide what He knowsas well as we do."
"Leave politics," said the voice.
"Ah!" cried Chicot, with a doleful voice, "is it my private lifeI am to speak of?"
"Yes."
"I acknowledge, then, that I am effeminate, idle, and hypocritical."
"It is true."
"I have ill-treated my wife--such a worthy woman."
"One ought to love one's wife as one's self, and prefer her toall things," said the voice, angrily.
"Ah!" cried Chicot, "then I have sinned deeply."
"And you have made others sin by your example."
"It is true."
"Especially that poor St. Luc; and if you do not send him hometo-morrow to his wife, there will be no pardon for you."
"Ah!" said Chicot to the king, "the voice seems to be friendlyto the house of Cosse."
"And you must make him a duke, to recompense him for his forcedstay."
"Peste!" said Chicot; "the angel is much interested for M. deSt. Luc."
"Oh!" cried the king, without listening, "this voice from on highwill kill me."
"Voice from the side, you mean," said Chicot.
"How! a voice from the side?"
"Yes; can you not hear that the voice comes from that wall,Henri?--the angel lodges in the Louvre."
"Blasphemer!"
"Why, it is honorable for you; but you do not seem to recognizeit. Go and visit him; he is only separated from you by thatpartition."
A ray of the moon falling on Chicot's face, showed it to theking so laughing and amused, that he said, "What! you dare tolaugh?"
"Yes, and so will you in a minute. Be reasonable, and do as Itell you. Go and see if the angel be not in the next room."
"But if he speak again?"
"Well, I am here to answer. He is vastly credulous. For the lastquarter of an hour I have been talking, and he has not recognizedme. It is not clever!"
Henri frowned. "I begin to believe you are right, Chicot," saidhe.
"Go, then."
Henri opened softly the door which led into the corridor. Hehad scarcely entered it, when he heard the voice redoubling itsreproaches, and Chicot replying.
"Yes," said the voice, "you are as inconstant as a woman, as softas a Sybarite, as irreligious as a heathen."
"Oh!" whined Chicot, "is it my fault if I have such a soft skin--suchwhite hands--such a changeable mind? But from to-day I will alter--Iwill wear coarse linen----"
However, as Henri advanced, he found that Chicot's voice grewfainter, and the other louder, and that it seemed to come fromSt. Luc's room, in which he could see a light. He stooped downand peeped through the keyhole, and immediately grew pale withanger.
"Par la mordieu!" murmured he, "is it possible that they havedared to play such a trick?"
This is what he saw through the keyhole. St. Luc, in a dressing-gown,was roaring through a tube the words which he had found so dreadful,and beside him, leaning on his shoulder, was a lady in white, whoevery now and then took the tube from him, and called throughsomething herself, while stifled bursts of laughter accompaniedeach sentence of Chicot's, who continued to answer in a dolefultone.
"Jeanne de Cosse in St. Luc's room! A hole in the wall! sucha trick on me! Oh! they shall pay dearly for it!". And with avigorous kick he burst open the door.
Jeanne rushed behind the curtains to hide herself, while St.Luc, his face full of terror, fell on his knees before the king,who was pale with rage.
"Ah!" cried Chicot, from the bed, "Ah! mercy!--Holy Virgin! Iam dying!"
Henri, seizing, in a transport of rage, the trumpet from thehands of St. Luc, raised it as if to strike. But St. Luc jumpedup and cried--
"Sire, I am a gentleman; you have no right to strike me!"
Henri dashed the trumpet violently on the ground. Some one pickedit up; it was Chicot, who, hearing the noise, judged that hispresence was necessary as a mediator. He ran to the curtain,and, drawing out poor Jeanne, all trembling--
"Oh!" said he, "Adam and Eve after the Fall. You send them away,Henri, do you not?"
"Yes."
"Then I will be the exterminating angel."
And throwing himself between, the king and St. Luc, and wavingthe trumpet over the heads of the guilty couple, said--
"This is my Paradise, which you have lost by your disobedience;I forbid you to return to it."
Then he whispered to St. Luc, who had his arm round his wife--
"If you have a good horse, kill it, but be twenty leagues fromhere before to-morrow."