Part 56 (1/2)
”Bellenger, you are entrancing,” I said. ”Why did I ever take you seriously? Ste. Pelagie was a grim joke, and tipping in the river merely your playfulness. You had better take yourself off now, and keep on walking until you come to a warmer climate.”
He wrung his hands with a gesture that touched my natural softness to my enemy.
”Talk, then. Talk, man. What have you to say?”
”This, first, sire. That was a splendid dash you made into France!”
”And what a splendid dash I made out of it again, with a gendarme at my coat tails, and you behind the gendarme!”
”But it was the wrong time. If you were there now;--the French people are so changeable--”
”I shall never be there again. His Majesty the eighteenth Louis is welcome. What the blood stirs in me to know is, have I a right to the throne?”
”Sire, the truth as I know it, I will tell you. You were the boy taken from the Temple prison.”
”Who did it?”
”Agents of the royalist party whose names would mean nothing to you if I gave them.”
”I was placed in your hands?”
”You were placed in my hands to be taken to America.”
”I was with you in London, where two royalists who knew me, recognized me?”
”The two De Ferriers.”
”Did a woman named Madame Tank see me?”
Bellenger was startled.
”You were noticed on the s.h.i.+p by a court-lady of Holland; a very clever courtier. I had trouble in evading her. She suspected too much, and asked too many questions; and would have you to play with her baby on the deck, though at that time you noticed nothing.”
”But where does the idiot come into my story?”
”Sire, you have been unfortunate, but I have been a victim. When we landed in New York I went directly and made myself known to the man who was to act as purveyor of your majesty's pension. He astonished me by declaring that the dauphin was already there, and had claimed the pension for that year. The country and the language were unknown to me.
The agent spoke French, it is true, but we hardly understood each other.
I supposed I had nothing to do but present my credentials. Here was another idiot--I crave your majesty's pardon--”
”Quite right--at the time, Bellenger.”
--”drawing the annuity intended for the dauphin. I inquired into his rights. The agent showed me papers like my own. I asked who presented them. He knew no more of the man than he did of me. I demanded to face the man. No such person could be found. I demanded to see the idiot. He was shut in a room and fed by a hired keeper. I sat down and thought much. Clearly it was not the agent's affair. He followed instructions.
Good! I would follow instructions also. Months would have been required to ask and receive explanations from the court of Monsieur. He had a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of Louis XVIII, for the good of the royalist cause, as if there were no prince. I thought I saw what was expected of me.”
”And what did you see, you unspeakable scoundrel?”
”I saw that there was a dauphin too many, hopelessly idiotic. But if he was the one to be guarded, I would guard him.”