Part 17 (1/2)
”Foreseeing the torments I shall go through,” said Christophe, slowly, to gain time and to rest, ”I am summoning all my strength, and trying to reinforce it by remembering the martyrdom endured for the sacred cause of the Reformation by the late King's tailor, who was tortured in the presence of the King and of Madame de Valentinois; I will try to be worthy of him!”
While the physician was advising the hapless man not to drive his torturers to extremities, the Cardinal and the Duke, impatient to know the results of this examination, came in and desired Christophe to reveal the truth at once. The furrier's son repeated the only confession he would allow himself to make, implicating n.o.body but Chaudieu.
The Princes nodded. On this, the executioner and his foreman seized their mallets, each took a wedge and drove it home between the boots, one standing on the right, and the other on the left. The executioner stood at the knees, the a.s.sistant at the ankles, opposite. The eyes of the witnesses of this hideous act were fixed on Christophe's, who, excited no doubt by the presence of these grand personages, flashed such a look at them that his eyes sparkled like flame.
At the two next wedges a horrible groan escaped him. Then when he saw the men take up the wedges for the severer torture, he remained silent; but his gaze a.s.sumed such dreadful fixity, and flashed at the two Princes such a piercing magnetic fluid, that the Duke and the Cardinal were both obliged to look down. Philippe le Bel had experienced the same defeat when he presided at the torture by hammer, inflicted in his presence on the Templars. This consisted in hitting the victim on the chest with one arm of the balanced hammer used to coin money, which was covered with a leather pad. There was one knight whose eyes were so fixed on the King that he was fascinated, and could not take his gaze off the sufferer. At the third blow the King rose and went away, after hearing himself called upon to appear before the judgment of G.o.d within a year--as he did.
At the fifth wedge, the first of the greater torture, Christophe said to the Cardinal:
”Cut my misery short, monseigneur; it is useless.”
The Cardinal and the Duke withdrew, and Christophe could hear from the next room these words, spoken by Queen Catherine:
”Go on, go on; after all, he is only a heretic!”
She thought it prudent to appear more severe to her accomplice than his executioners were.
The sixth and seventh wedges were driven in, and Christophe complained no more, his face shone with a strange radiance, due, no doubt, to the immense strength he derived from fanatical excitement. In what else but in feeling can we hope to find the fulcrum enabling a man to endure such anguish? At last, when the executioner was about to insert the eighth wedge, Christophe smiled. This dreadful torment had lasted one hour.
The clerk went to fetch the leech, to know whether the eighth wedge could be driven in without endangering the sufferer's life. The Duke meanwhile came in again to see Christophe.
”By our Lady! you are a fine fellow,” said he, leaning down to speak in his ear. ”I like a brave man. Enter my service, you shall be happy and rich, my favors will heal your bruised limbs; I will ask you to do nothing cowardly, like rejoining your own party to betray their plans; there are always plenty of traitors, and the proof is to be found in the prisons of Blois.
Only tell me on what terms are the Queen-mother and the Prince de Conde.”
”I know nothing about it, monseigneur,” cried Lecamus.
The doctor came in, examined the victim, and p.r.o.nounced that he could bear the eighth wedge.
”Drive it in,” said the Cardinal. ”After all, as the Queen says, he is only a heretic,” he added, with a hideous smile at Christophe.
Catherine herself slowly came in from the adjoining room, stood in front of Christophe, and gazed at him coldly. She was the object of attentive scrutiny to the two brothers, who looked alternately at the Queen-mother and her accomplice. The whole future life of this ambitious woman depended on this solemn scrutiny; she felt the greatest admiration for Christophe's courage, and she looked at him sternly; she hated the Guises, and she smiled upon them.
”Come,” said she, ”young man, confess that you saw the Prince de Conde; you will be well rewarded.”
”Oh, madame, what a part you are playing!” cried Christophe, in pity for her.
The Queen started.
”He is insulting me! Is he not to be hanged?” said she to the two brothers, who stood lost in thought.
”What a woman!” cried the Grand Master, who was consulting his brother in the window recess.
”I will stay in France and be revenged,” thought the Queen. ”Proceed, he must confess or let him die!” she exclaimed, addressing Monsieur de Montresor.
The provost turned away, the executioners were busy, Catherine had an opportunity of giving the martyr a look, which no one else saw, and which fell like dew on Christophe. The great Queen's eyes seemed to glisten with moisture; they were, in fact, full of tears, two tears at once repressed and dry. The wedge was driven home, one of the boards between which it was inserted split. Christophe uttered a piercing cry; then his face became radiant; he thought he was dying.
”Let him die,” said the Cardinal, echoing Queen Catherine's words with a sort of irony. ”No, no,” he added to the provost, ”do not let us lose this clue.”
The Duke and the Cardinal held a consultation in a low voice.