Part 42 (1/2)
”Bravery is in the blood of the Croustillacs, sir; as to being excellent, I do not know about that; if such be the case, it is not my fault; it is your wife's work, who has aroused in me the desire to be better that I really am. Ah, well, prince, time is precious; everything is in train to raise a county of England in your favor; Louis the XIV.
will support this insurrection. There is offered you the viceroys.h.i.+p of Ireland and Scotland, and all kinds of other favors.”
”Never will I consent to profit by these offers. Civil wars have cost me too dear,” cried Monmouth; ”and”--looking at Angela, ”I no longer have ambitions.”
”Your highness! reflect well! If your heart counsels remove the bronze color from your face, and say to De Chemerant that reasons known only to yourself obliged you to guard your secret until now. You will prove to him who you are; I will return your duchy to you, and ask your permission to go and fight at your side in Cornwall, or elsewhere, in order to serve you, as they say, as a living armor. I am sure this will please the d.u.c.h.ess.”
”And we have suspected him,” said Angela, looking at her husband.
”He must forgive us,” said the duke. ”Men like him are so rare that it is not unnatural to doubt them when one encounters them.”
”Hold on, my lord, you embarra.s.s me. Let us speak of other matters. Do you, or do you not, accept the viceroys.h.i.+p? After that, do not think I shall press you to speak in order to relieve me from your role; it pleases me, it amuses me. I have become quite accustomed to it.
Nevertheless, it will be somewhat unpleasant to no longer hear myself addressed as 'my lord duke,' to say nothing of my laughing in my sleeve when I think of all the absurdities which I have made that good De Chemerant, with his important air, swallow. If I persist, your highness, in praying that you resume your rank, as it seems they are terribly in need of you in England in order to secure the happiness of the people in general and that of Cornwall in particular; you must know that better than I do----”
”Ah! I know only too well the vain pretexts that one offers to ambition.”
”But, your highness, all appears to be perfectly prepared. The frigate which has brought the good De Chemerant is filled with arms and ammunition; there is in it enough to arm and revolutionize all the Cornishmen in the world; moreover, you can count on a dozen of your partisans.”
”Of my partisans! and where, then?” cried Monmouth.
”On board Chemerant's frigate. These brave men are waiting for me, that is to say, waiting for you, your highness, with great impatience. There is above all a madman named Mortimer, whom De Chemerant had the greatest difficulty in the world to keep on board, so much was he possessed with the desire to embrace me--I would say embrace you, for I confound us all the time.”
Angela, seeing the troubled manner of her husband, said to him, ”My G.o.d!
what ails you?”
”I can no longer hesitate,” replied Monmouth, ”I must tell De Chemerant the whole truth.”
”Heavens, James! what are you saying?”
”You wish to be viceroy, your highness?” interposed Croustillac.
”No, sir, I desire to prevent your ruining yourself on my account. My grat.i.tude will be no less lasting for the service that you wished to do me.”
”How, your highness? Is it not, then, to become viceroy that you would dispossess me of my princ.i.p.ality?”
”My partisans are on board the frigate; if I should accept your generous offer, sir, to-morrow you would be known--lost.”
”But, your highness----”
”Except for this circ.u.mstance which, I repeat, would cause your discovery in a moment, I would, perhaps, have excepted your generous devotion, the mistake of De Chemerant might have continued for a few days, and I could have put you beyond the reach of his resentment; but to accept your offer, sir, knowing the presence of my friends on board the frigate, would be to expose you to certain danger. I can never consent to do that.”
”Your highness forgets that it means perpetual imprisonment for you if you do not place yourself at the head of this movement?”
”It is because it means for me the escape from a danger that I do not choose to sacrifice you, sir. When I learned that you were taken prisoner by Rutler I was going to rush to your a.s.sistance in order to release you.”
”My G.o.d, James! think of the prison! of eternal confinement! but it is not possible! and what will become of me, if I should be forbidden to accompany you? No, no! you will not reject the sacrifice which this generous man offers to make!”
”Angela!” said the duke, in a tone of reproach; ”Angela! and this generous man, shall we abandon him shamefully when he is devoted to us--to escape imprisonment, shall we condemn him to an eternal captivity?”