Part 30 (1/2)
Almost at the same moment a cry of rage issued from the window of Mercandon's house, and an old woman, who recognized Coconnas as a Catholic, from his white scarf and cross, hurled a flower-pot at him, which struck him above the knee.
”Capital!” said Coconnas; ”one throws flowers at me and at the other, flower-pots; if this goes on, they'll be tearing houses down!”
”Thanks, mother, thanks!” said the young man.
”Go on, wife, go on,” said old Mercandon; ”but take care of yourself.”
”Wait, Monsieur de Coconnas, wait!” said the young woman of the Hotel de Guise, ”I will have them shoot at the windows!”
”Ah! So it is a h.e.l.l of women, is it?” said Coconnas. ”Some of them for me and the others against me! By Heaven! let us put an end to this!”
The scene in fact was much changed and was evidently approaching its climax. Coconnas, who was wounded to be sure, but who had all the vigor of his four and twenty years, was used to arms, and angered rather than weakened by the three or four scratches he had received, now faced only Mercandon and his son: Mercandon, an aged man between sixty and seventy; his son, a youth of sixteen or eighteen, pale, fair-haired and slender, had flung down his pistol which had been discharged and was therefore useless, and was feebly brandis.h.i.+ng a sword half as long as the Piedmontese's. The father, armed only with an unloaded arquebuse and a poniard, was calling for a.s.sistance. An old woman--the young man's mother--in the opposite window held in her hand a piece of marble which she was preparing to hurl.
Coconnas, excited on the one hand by threats, and on the other by encouragements, proud of his two-fold victory, intoxicated with powder and blood, lighted by the reflection of a burning house, elated by the idea that he was fighting under the eyes of a woman whose beauty was as superior as he was sure her rank was high,--Coconnas, like the last of the Horatii, felt his strength redouble, and seeing the young man falter, rushed on him and crossed his small weapon with his terrible and b.l.o.o.d.y rapier. Two strokes sufficed to drive it out of its owner's hands. Then Mercandon tried to drive Coconnas back, so that the projectiles thrown from the window might be sure to strike him, but Coconnas, to paralyze the double attack of the old man, who tried to stab him with his dagger, and the mother of the young man, who was endeavoring to break his skull with a stone she was ready to throw, seized his adversary by the body, presenting him to all the blows, like a s.h.i.+eld, and well-nigh strangling him in his Herculean grasp.
”Help! help!” cried the young man; ”he is crus.h.i.+ng my chest--help!
help!”
And his voice grew faint in a low and choking groan.
Then Mercandon ceased to attack, and began to entreat.
”Mercy, mercy! Monsieur de Coconnas, have mercy!--he is my only child!”
”He is my son, my son!” cried the mother; ”the hope of our old age! Do not kill him, sir,--do not kill him!”
”Really,” cried Coconnas, bursting into laughter, ”not kill him! What, pray, did he mean to do to me, with his sword and pistol?”
”Sir,” said Mercandon, clasping his hands, ”I have at home your father's note of hand, I will give it back to you--I have ten thousand crowns of gold, I will give them to you--I have our family jewels, they shall be yours; but do not kill him--do not kill him!”
”And I have my love,” said the lady in the Hotel de Guise, in a low tone, ”and I promise it you.”
Coconnas reflected a moment, and said suddenly:
”Are you a Huguenot?”
”Yes, I am,” murmured the youth.
”Then you must die!” replied Coconnas, frowning and putting to his adversary's breast his keen and glittering dagger.
”Die!” cried the old man; ”my poor child die!”
And the mother's shriek resounded so pitifully and loud that for a moment it shook the Piedmontese's firm resolution.
”Oh, Madame la d.u.c.h.esse!” cried the father, turning toward the lady at the Hotel de Guise, ”intercede for us, and every morning and evening you shall be remembered in our prayers.”
”Then let him be a convert,” said the lady.