Part 22 (2/2)
Look on my countenance.”
And she discovered a face of perfect beauty. Black and very regular eyes gave life to it; but in their absence one might have thought her features were those of a phantom, she was so pale. Her lips were blue and quivering; and a strong shudder made her teeth chatter.
”You are ill, my sister,” said the minister, touched, taking her hand, which he felt to be burning hot. A sort of habit of inquiring concerning his own health, and that of others, made him touch the pulse of her emaciated arm; he felt that the arteries were swollen by the beatings of a terrible fever.
”Alas!” he continued, with more of interest, ”you have killed yourself with rigors beyond human strength! I have always blamed them, and especially at a tender age. What, then, has induced you to do this? Is it to confide it to me that you are come? Speak calmly, and be sure of succor.”
”Confide in men!” answered the young woman; ”oh, no, never! All have deceived me. I will confide myself to no one, not even to Monsieur Cinq-Mars, although he must soon die.”
”What!” said Richelieu, contracting his brows, but with a bitter laugh,--”what! do you know this young man? Has he been the cause of your misfortune?”
”Oh, no! He is very good, and hates wickedness; that is what will ruin him. Besides,” said she, suddenly a.s.suming a harsh and savage air, ”men are weak, and there are things which women must accomplish. When there were no more valiant men in Israel, Deborah arose.”
”Ah! how came you with all this fine learning?” continued the Cardinal, still holding her hand.
”Oh, I can't explain that!” answered she, with a touching air of naivete and a very gentle voice; ”you would not understand me. It is the Devil who has taught me all, and who has destroyed me.”
”Ah, my child! it is always he who destroys us; but he instructs us ill,” said Richelieu, with an air of paternal protection and an increasing pity. ”What have been your faults? Tell them to me; I am very powerful.”
”Ah,” said she, with a look of doubt, ”you have much influence over warriors, brave men and generals! Beneath your cuira.s.s must beat a n.o.ble heart; you are an old General who knows nothing of the tricks of crime.”
Richelieu smiled; this mistake flattered him.
”I heard you ask for the Cardinal; do you desire to see him? Did you come here to seek him?”
The girl drew back and placed a finger upon her forehead.
”I had forgotten it,” said she; ”you have talked to me too much. I had overlooked this idea, and yet it is an important one; it is for that that I have condemned myself to the hunger which is killing me. I must accomplish it, or I shall die first. Ah,” said she, putting her hand beneath her robe in her bosom, whence she appeared to take something, ”behold it! this idea--”
She suddenly blushed, and her eyes widened extraordinarily. She continued, bending to the ear of the Cardinal:
”I will tell you; listen! Urbain Grandier, my lover Urbain, told me this night that it was Richelieu who had been the cause of his death. I took a knife from an inn, and I come here to kill him; tell me where he is.”
The Cardinal, surprised and terrified, recoiled with horror. He dared not call his guards, fearing the cries of this woman and her accusations; nevertheless, a transport of this madness might be fatal to him.
”This frightful history will pursue me everywhere!” cried he, looking fixedly at her, and thinking within himself of the course he should take.
They remained in silence, face to face, in the same att.i.tude, like two wrestlers who contemplate before attacking each other, or like the pointer and his victim petrified by the power of a look.
In the mean time, Laubardemont and Joseph had gone forth together; and ere separating they talked for a moment before the tent of the Cardinal, because they were eager mutually to deceive each other. Their hatred had acquired new force by their recent quarrel; and each had resolved to ruin his rival in the mind of his master. The judge then began the dialogue, which each of them had prepared, taking the arm of the other as by one and the same movement.
”Ah, reverend father! how you have afflicted me by seeming to take in ill part the trifling pleasantries which I said to you just now.”
”Heavens, no! my dear Monsieur, I am far from that. Charity, where would be charity? I have sometimes a holy warmth in conversation, for the good of the State and of Monseigneur, to whom I am entirely devoted.”
”Ah, who knows it better than I, reverend father? But render me justice; you also know how completely I am attached to his Eminence the Cardinal, to whom I owe all. Alas! I have employed too much zeal in serving him, since he reproaches me with it.”
”Rea.s.sure yourself,” said Joseph; ”he bears no ill-will toward you. I know him well; he can appreciate one's actions in favor of one's family.
He, too, is a very good relative.”
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