Part 19 (1/2)
”Nor I either. But I expect to have one soon. Thank G.o.d! we are not cut out to want one long!”
”Undoubtedly, as you say, you will have your wish, Monsieur de Coconnas, but as I have not the same confidence in my love-star, I feel that it would be robbery, I to pit my fortune against yours. But, if you will, let us play until your six crowns be lost or doubled, and if lost, and you desire to continue the game, you are a gentleman, and your word is as good as gold.”
”Well and good!” cried Coconnas, ”that's the talk! You are right, sir, a gentleman's word is as good as gold, especially when he has credit at court. Thus, believe me, I did not risk too much when I proposed to play for the first favor we might receive.”
”Doubtless, and you might lose it, but I could not gain it; for, as I am with the King of Navarre, I could not receive anything from the Duc de Guise.”
”Ah, the heretic!” muttered the landlord as he was at work polis.h.i.+ng up his old helmet, ”I got on the right scent, did I?” And he stopped his work long enough to cross himself piously.
”Well, then,” continued Coconnas, shuffling the cards which the waiter had just brought him, ”you are of the”--
”Of the what?”
”Of the new religion.”
”I?”
”Yes, you.”
”Well, say that I am,” said La Mole, with a smile, ”have you anything against us?”
”Oh! thank G.o.d, no! It is all the same to me. I hate Huguenotry with all my heart, but I do not hate the Huguenots; besides, they are in fas.h.i.+on just now.”
”Yes,” replied La Mole, smiling; ”to wit, the shooting at the admiral with an arquebuse; but supposing we have a game of arquebusades.”
”Anything you please,” said Coconnas, ”provided I get to playing, it is all the same to me.”
”Well, let us play, then,” said La Mole, picking up his cards and arranging them in his hand.
”Yes, play ahead and with all confidence, for even if I were to lose a hundred crowns of gold against yours I shall have the wherewithal to pay you to-morrow morning.”
”Then your fortune will come while you are asleep.”
”No; I am going to find it.”
”Where? Tell me and I'll go with you.”
”At the Louvre.”
”Are you going back there to-night?”
”Yes; to-night I have a private audience with the great Duc de Guise.”
As soon as Coconnas began to speak about going to seek his fortune at the Louvre, La Huriere stopped polis.h.i.+ng his sallet and went and stood behind La Mole's chair, so that Coconnas alone could see him, and made signs to him, which the Piedmontese, absorbed in his game and the conversation, did not notice.
”Well, it is miraculous,” remarked La Mole; ”and you were right when you said that we were born under the same star. I have also an appointment at the Louvre to-night, but not with the Duc de Guise; mine is with the King of Navarre.”
”Have you a pa.s.s-word?”
”Yes.”