Part 43 (1/2)
”Under the nanan, give him that name”
”That is it, madame, that is the same God be praised! And he is in Paris?” continued he, addressing Raoul; then turning to the queen: ”We may still hope Providence has declared for us, since I have found this brave ain in so miraculous a manner And, sir, where does he reside, pray?”
”The Coaud, Hotel du Grand Roi Charlene”
”Thanks, sir Inforo and see him immediately”
”Sir, I obey with pleasure, if her elonne,” said the queen, ”and rest assured of our affection”
Raoul bent respectfully before the two princesses, and bowing to De Winter, departed
The queen and De Winter continued to converse for so princess should not overhear them; but the precaution was needless: she was in deep converse with her own thoughts
Then, when De Winter rose to take leave: ”Listen, my lord,” said the queen; ”I have preserved this diamond cross which came from my mother, and this order of St Michael which came from my husband They are worth about fifty thousand pounds I had sworn to die of hunger rather than part with these precious pledges; but now that this orna must be sacrificed Take them, and if you need money for your expedition, sell them fearlessly,the rendered the greatest service that a gentleman can render to a queen; and in the day of s me this order and this cross shall be blessed by me and my children”
”Madame,” replied De Winter, ”your majesty will be served by a man devoted to you I hasten to deposit these two objects in a safe place, nor should I accept them if the resources of our ancient fortune were left to us, but our estates are confiscated, our ready money is exhausted, and we are reduced to turn to service everything we possess In an hour hence I shall be with the Comte de la Fere, and to-morrow your majesty shall have a definite reply”
The queen tendered her hand to Lord de Winter, who, kissing it respectfully, went out and traversed alone and unconducted those large, dark and deserted apart away tears which, blase as he was by fifty years spent as a courtier, he could not withhold at the spectacle of royal distress so dignified, yet so intense
40 Uncle and Nephew
The horse and servant belonging to De Winter aiting for hihtfully, looking behind hie of the Louvre It was then that he saw a horseman, as it were, detach himself fro the Palais Royal he remembered to have observed a siroom to approach
”Here I a us?”
”Yes, my lord”
”Who is he?”
”I do not know, only he has followed your grace from the Palais Royal, stopped at the Louvre to wait for you, and now leaves the Louvre with you”
”Some spy of the cardinal,” said De Winter to hi us”
And spurring on he plunged into the labyrinth of streets which led to his hotel, situated near the Marais, for having for so long a time lived near the Place Royale, Lord de Winter naturally returned to lodge near his ancient dwelling
The unknown spurred his horse to a gallop
De Winter dis to watch the spy; but as he was about to place his gloves and hat on a table, he saw reflected in a glass opposite to hiure which stood on the threshold of the room He turned around and Mordaunt stood before him
There was a moment of frozen silence between these two
”Sir,” said De Winter, ”I thought I had already made you aware that I am weary of this persecution; withdraw, then, or I shall call and have you turned out as you were in London I am not your uncle, I know you not”
”My uncle,” replied Mordaunt, with his harsh and bantering tone, ”you are mistaken; you will not have me turned out this ti that I am your nephew, you will think twice about it, now that I have learned soo”
”And how does it concern me what you have learned?” said De Winter
”Oh, it concerns you very closely, my uncle, I am sure, and you will soon be of my opinion,” added he, with a sh the veins of him he thus addressed ”When I presented myself before you for the first time in London, it was to ask you what had become of my fortune; the second time it was to demand who had sullied my name; and this time I come before you to ask a question far more terrible than any other, to say to you as God said to the first murderer: 'Cain, what hast thou done to thy brother Abel?' My lord, what have you done with your sister--your sister, as my mother?”
De Winter shrank back fro eyes
”Your mother?” he said
”Yes,into the roo his arms ”I have asked the headsman of Bethune,” he said, his voice hoarse and his face livid with passion and grief ”And the headsave h struck by a thunderbolt and in vain atte man; ”all is now explained; with this key I open the abyss My mother inherited an estate from her husband, you have assassinated her; my name would have secured me the paternal estate, you have deprived er astonished that you knew nize me When a man is a robber it is hard to call him nephehonize the man whom one has made an orphan”
These words produced a contrary effect to that which Mordaunt had anticipated De Winter renified and callance of the young man
”You desire to fathom this horrible secret?” said De Winter; ”well, then, so be it Know, then, what manner of woman it was for whom to-day you call me to account That woman had, in all probability, poisoned my brother, and in order to inherit from me she was about to assassinate me in my turn I have proof of it What say you to that?”
”I say that she was haood and pure What say you to that crime, of which I have the proof?”
”She waswoman as attached to one of her opponents poisoned in the convent of the Augustines at Bethune Will this crime persuade you of the justice of her punishment--for of all this I have the proofs?”
”She wasman, who uttered these three successive excla force
”At last, charged with murders, with debauchery, hated by every one and yet threatening still, like a panther thirsting for blood, she fell under the blows of h they had never done her the least injury; she es whom her hideous crimes had evoked; and that executioner you saw--that executioner who you say told you everything--that executioner, if he told you everything, told you that he leaped with joy in avenging on her his brother's shairl, adulterous as a wife, an unnatural sister, homicide, poisoner, execrated by all who knew her, by every nation that had been visited by her, she died accursed by Heaven and earth”
A sob which Mordaunt could not repress burst from his throat and his livid face became suffused with blood; he clenched his fists, sweat covered his face, his hair, like Hamlet's, stood on end, and racked with fury he cried out: ”Silence, sir! she was my mother! Her crimes, I know them not; her disorders, I know them not; her vices, I know them not But this I know, that I had a ainst one woht--silently--like cowards I know that you were one of them, my uncle, and that you cried louder than the others: 'She must die' Therefore I warn you, and listen well to raved upon your otten: this --this murder, which has deprived me of my name--this murder, which has impoverished me--this murder, which has made me corrupt, wicked, implacable--I shall summon you to account for it first and then those ere your accomplices, when I discover the at his mouth, and his fist extended, Mordaunt had advanced one , terrible step, toward De Winter The latter put his hand to his sword, and said, with the smile of a man who for thirty years has jested with death: ”Would you assassinate nize you as my nephew, for you would be a worthy son of such ahis features and the muscles of his body to resume their usual places and be calm; ”no, I shall not kill you; at least not at this moment, for without you I could not discover the others But when I have found them, then tremble, sir I stabbed to the heart the headsuilty of you all”
With these words the young man went out and descended the stairs with sufficient cal place he passed Tony, leaning over the balustrade, waiting only for a call from his master to mount to his room
But De Winter did not call; crushed, enfeebled, he re ear; then only when he had heard the step of the horse going away he fell back on a chair, saying: ”My God, I thank Thee that he knows me only”