Part 36 (1/2)

However profoundly the Duc de Puysange now approved of the universe and of its management, it is not to be supposed that in consequence he intended to overlook de Soyecourt's perfidy. De Puysange bore his kinsman no malice; indeed, he was sincerely fond of the Marquis, sympathized with him at bottom, and heartily regretted that the excellence of poor Louis'

taste should be thus demonstrably counterbalanced by the frailty of his friends.h.i.+p. Still, one cannot entirely disregard the conventions: Louis had betrayed him, had before the eyes of de Puysange made love to de Puysange's wife. A duel was the inevitable consequence, though of course the Duke did not intend to kill poor Louis, who might before long be very useful to French statesmans.h.i.+p. So the Duke sent Ormskirk to arrange a meeting.

A floridly handsome man in black was descending the stairway of the Hotel de Soyecourt at the moment the Duke of Ormskirk stepped cheerily from his coach. This person saluted the plump n.o.bleman with due deference, and was accorded in return a little whistling sound of amazement.

”Mr. Vanringham, as I live--and in Paris! Man, will you hare-brained Jacobites never have done with these idiotic intrigues? Nay, in sincerity, Mr. Vanringham, this is annoying.”

”My Lord Duke,” said the other, ”I venture to suggest that you forget I dare no longer meddle with politics, in light of my recent mishap at Tunbridge. Something of the truth leaked out, you comprehend--nothing provable, thank G.o.d!--but while I lay abed Captain Audaine was calling daily to inquire when would my wound be healed sufficiently for me to have my throat cut. I found England unsalubrious, and vanished.”

Ormskirk nodded his approval. ”I have always esteemed your common-sense.

Now, let us consider--yes, I might use you here in Paris, I believe. And the work is light and safe,--a trifle of sedition, of stirring up a street riot or two.”

Vanringham laughed. ”I might have recognized your hand in the late disturbances, sir. As matters stand, I can only thank your Grace and regret that I have earlier secured employment. I've been, since April, valet to the old Prince de Gatinais, Monsieur de Soyecourt's father.”

”Yet lackeys.h.i.+p smacks, however vaguely, of an honest livelihood. You disappoint me, Mr. Vanringham.”

”Nay, believe me, I yet pilfer a cuff-b.u.t.ton or perhaps a jewel, when occasion offers, lest any of my talents rust. For we reside at Beaujolais yonder, my Lord Duke, where we live in retirement and give over our old age to curious chemistries. It suits me well enough. I find the air of Beaujolais excellent, my duties none too arduous, and the girls of the country-side neither hideous nor obdurate. Oho, I'm tolerably content at Beaujolais--the more for that 'tis expedient just now to go more softly than ever Ahab did of old.”

”Lest your late a.s.sociates get wind of your whereabouts? In that I don't question your discretion, Mr. Vanringham. And out of pure friendliness I warn you Paris is a very hotbed of hot-headed Jacobites who would derive unmerited pleasure from getting a knife into your ribs.”

”Yet on an occasion of such importance--” Vanringham began; then marvelled in reply to the Duke's look of courteous curiosity: ”You han't heard, sir, that my master's son is unexpectedly become the next Grand Duke of Noumaria!”

”Zounds!” said his Grace of Ormskirk, all alert, ”is old Ludwig dead at last? Why, then, the d.a.m.ned must be holding a notable carnival by this, in honor of his arrival. Hey, but there was a merry rascal, a thorough-paced--” He broke off short. He laughed. ”What the devil, man!

Monsieur de Soyecourt is Ludwig's nephew, I grant you, on the maternal side, but Ludwig left a son. De Soyecourt remains de Soyecourt so long as Prince Rudolph lives,--and Prince Rudolph is to marry the Elector of Badenburg's daughter this autumn, so that we may presently look for any number of von Freistadts to perpetuate the older branch. Faith, you should study your _Genealogischer Hofkalender_ more closely, Mr. Vanringham.”

”Oh, but very plainly your Grace has heard no word of the appalling tragedy that hath made our little Louis a reigning monarch--”

With gusto Francis Vanringham narrated the details of Duke Ludwig's last mad freak [Footnote: In his _Journal_ Horace Calverley gives a long and curious account of the disastrous masque at Breschau of which he, then on the Grand Tour, had the luck to be an eye-witness. His hints as to the part played in the affair by Kaunitz are now, of course, largely discredited by the later confessions of de Puysange.] which, as the world knows, resulted in the death of both Ludwig and his son, as well as that of their five companions in the escapade,--with gusto, for in progress the soul of the former actor warmed to his subject. But Ormskirk was sensibly displeased.

”Behold what is termed a pretty kettle of fis.h.!.+” said the Duke, in meditation, when Vanringham had made an end. ”Plainly, Gaston cannot fight the rascal, since Hop-o'-my-thumb is now, most vexatiously, transformed into a quasi-Royal Personage, a.s.sa.s.sination, I fear, is out of the question. So all our English plans will go to pot. A Frenchman will reign in Noumaria,--after we had not only bought old Ludwig, but had paid for him, too! Why, I suppose he gave that d.a.m.nable masquerade on the strength of having our money,--good English money, mark you, Mr. Vanringham, that we have to squeeze out of honest tax-payers to bribe such, rascals with, only to have them, cheat us by cooking themselves to a crisp! This is annoying, Mr. Vanringham.”

”I don't entirely follow your Grace--”

”It is not perhaps desirable you should. Yet I give you a key. It is profoundly to be deplored that little Louis de Soyecourt, who cannot draw a contented breath outside of his beloved Paris, should be forced to marry Victoria von Uhm, in his cousin's place,--yes, for Gaston will arrange that, of course,--and afterward be exiled to a semi-barbarous Noumaria, where he must devote the rest of his existence to heading processions and reviewing troops, and signing proclamations and guzzling beer and sauerkraut. Nay, beyond doubt, Mr. Vanringham, this is deplorable. 'Tis an appalling condition of affairs: it reminds me of Ovid among the Goths, Mr.

Vanringham!”

”I'm to understand, then--?” the valet stammered.

”You are to understand that I am more deeply your debtor than I could desire you to believe; that I am going to tell the Marquis de Soyecourt all which I have told you, though I must reword it for him, as eloquently as may be possible; and that I even now feel myself to be Ciceronic.” The Duke of Ormskirk pa.s.sed on with a polite nod.

Next day they gossiped busily at Versailles over the sudden disappearance of Louis de Soyecourt. No more was heard of him for months. The mystery was discussed, and by the wits embroidered, and by the imaginative annotated, but it was never solved until the following September.

I

For it was in September that, upon the threshold of the _Golden Pomegranate_, at Manneville in Poictesme, Monsieur Louis Quillan paused, and gave the contented little laugh which had of late become habitual with him. ”We are en fete to-night, it appears. Has the King, then, by any chance dropped in to supper with us, Nelchen?”

Silently the girl bestowed a provisional pat upon one fold of the white table-cloth and regarded the result with critical approval. All being in blameless order, she moved one of the candlesticks the width of a needle. The table was now garnished to the last resource of the _Golden Pomegranate_: the napery was snow, the gla.s.sware and the cutlery shone with a frosty glitter, and the great bowl of crimson roses afforded the exact splurge of vainglorious color and glow she had designed. Accordingly, being now at leisure, Nelchen now came toward Monsieur Quillan, lifting her lips to his precisely as a child might have done.

”Not quite the King, my Louis. None the less I am sure that Monseigneur is an ill.u.s.trious person. He arrived not two hours ago--” She told how Monseigneur had come in a coach, very splendid; even his lackeys were resplendent. Monseigneur would stay overnight and would to-morrow push on, to Beauseant. He had talked with her,--a kindly old gentleman, but so stately that all the while she had been the tiniest thought afraid of him.