Quentin Durward Part 44

"I were no brave soldier, if it please your Majesty," said Balafre, "if I dared not face a better man than he. A fine thing it would be for me, who can neither read nor write, to be afraid of a fat lurdane, who has done little else all his Life!"

"Nevertheless," said the King, "it is not our pleasure so to put thee in venture, Balafre. This traitor comes. .h.i.ther, summoned by our command. We would have thee, so soon as thou canst find occasion, close up with him, and smite him under the fifth rib.--Dost thou understand me?"

"Truly I do," answered Le Balafre, "but, if it please your Majesty, this is a matter entirely out of my course of practice. I could not kill you a dog unless it were in hot a.s.sault, or pursuit, or upon defiance given, or such like."

"Why, sure, thou dost not pretend to tenderness of heart," said the King; "thou who hast been first in storm and siege, and most eager, as men tell me, on the pleasures and advantages which are gained on such occasions by the rough heart and the b.l.o.o.d.y hand?"

"My lord," answered Le Balafre, "I have neither feared nor spared your enemies, sword in hand. And an a.s.sault is a desperate matter, under risks which raise a man's blood so that, by Saint Andrew, it will not settle for an hour or two--which I call a fair license for plundering after a storm. And G.o.d pity us poor soldiers, who are first driven mad with danger, and then madder with victory. I have heard of a legion consisting entirely of saints; and methinks it would take them all to pray and intercede for the rest of the army, and for all who wear plumes and corselets, buff coats and broadswords. But what your Majesty purposes is out of my course of practice, though I will never deny that it has been wide enough. As for the Astrologer, if he be a traitor, let him e'en die a traitor's death--I will neither meddle nor make with it.

Your Majesty has your Provost and two of his Marshals men without, who are more fit for dealing with him than a Scottish gentleman of my family and standing in the service."

"You say well," said the King; "but, at least, it belongs to thy duty to prevent interruption, and to guard the execution of my most just sentence."

"I will do so against all Peronne," said Le Balafre. "Your Majesty need not doubt my fealty in that which I can reconcile to my conscience, which, for mine own convenience and the service of your royal Majesty, I can vouch to be a pretty large one--at least, I know I have done some deeds for your Majesty, which I would rather have eaten a handful of my own dagger than I would have done for any one else."

"Let that rest," said the King, "and hear you--when Galeotti is admitted, and the door shut on him, do you stand to your weapon, and guard the entrance on the inside of the apartment. Let no one intrude--that is all I require of you. Go hence, and send the Provost Marshal to me."

Balafre left the apartment accordingly, and in a minute afterwards Tristan l'Hermite entered from the hall.

"Welcome, gossip," said the King; "what thinkest thou of our situation?"

"As of men sentenced to death," said the Provost Marshal, "unless there come a reprieve from the Duke."'

"Reprieved or not, he that decoyed us into this snare shalt go our fourrier to the next world, to take up lodgings for us," said the King, with a grisly and ferocious smile. "Tristan, thou hast done many an act of brave justice--finis--I should have said funis coronat opus [the end--I should have said the rope--crowns the work]--thou must stand by me to the end."

"I will, my Liege," said Tristan, "I am but a plain fellow, but I am grateful. I will do my duty within these walls, or elsewhere; and while I live, your Majesty's breath shall pour as potential a note of condemnation, and your sentence be as literally executed, as when you sat on your own throne. They may deal with me the next hour for it if they will--I care not."

"It is even what I expected of thee, my loving gossip," said Louis; "but hast thou good a.s.sistance?--The traitor is strong and able bodied, and will doubtless be clamorous for aid. The Scot will do naught but keep the door, and well that he can be brought to that by flattery and humouring. Then Oliver is good for nothing but lying, flattering, and suggesting dangerous counsels; and, Ventre Saint Dieu! I think is more like one day to deserve the halter himself than to use it to another.

Have you men, think you, and means, to make sharp and sure work?"

"I have Trois Esch.e.l.les and Pet.i.t Andre with me," said he, "men so expert in their office that, out of three men, they would hang up one ere his two companions were aware. And we have all resolved to live or die with your Majesty, knowing we shall have as short breath to draw when you are gone, as ever fell to the lot of any of our patients.--But what is to be our present subject, an it please your Majesty? I love to be sure of my man; for, as your Majesty is pleased sometimes to remind me, I have now and then mistaken the criminal, and strung up in his place an honest labourer, who had given your Majesty no offence."

"Most true," said the other. "Know then, Tristan, that the condemned person is Martius Galeotti.--You start, but it is even as I say.

The villain hath trained us all hither by false and treacherous representations, that he might put us into the hands of the Duke of Burgundy without defence."

"But not without vengeance!" said Tristan, "were it the last act of my life, I would sting him home like an expiring wasp, should I be crushed to pieces on the next instant!"

"I know thy trusty spirit," said the King, "and the pleasure which, like other good men, thou dost find in the discharge of thy duty, since virtue, as the schoolmen say, is its own reward. But away and prepare the priests, for the victim approaches."

"Would you have it done in your own presence, my gracious Liege?" said Tristan.

Louis declined this offer; but charged the Provost Marshal to have everything ready for the punctual execution of his commands the moment the Astrologer left his apartment.

"For," said the King, "I will see the villain once more, just to observe how he bears himself towards the master whom he has led into the toils.

I shall love to see the sense of approaching death strike the colour from that ruddy cheek, and dim that eye which laughed as it lied.--Oh, that there were but another with him, whose counsels aided his prognostications! But if I survive this--look to your scarlet, my Lord Cardinal! for Rome shall scarce protect you--be it spoken under favour of Saint Peter and the blessed Lady of Clery, who is all over mercy.--Why do you tarry? Go get your rooms ready. I expect the villain instantly. I pray to Heaven he take not fear and come not!--that were indeed a balk.--Begone, Tristan--thou wert not wont to be so slow when business was to be done."

"On the contrary, an it like your Majesty, you were ever wont to say that I was too fast, and mistook your purpose, and did the job on the wrong subject. Now, please your Majesty to give me a sign, just when you part with Galeotti for the night, whether the business goes on or no. I have known your Majesty once or twice change your mind, and blame me for over dispatch."

[The Provost Marshal was often so precipitate in execution as to slay another person instead of him whom the King had indicated. This always occasioned a double execution, for the wrath or revenge of Louis was never satisfied with a vicarious punishment. S.]

"Thou suspicious creature," answered King Louis, "I tell thee I will not change my mind--but to silence thy remonstrances, observe, if I say to the knave at parting, 'There is a Heaven above us!' then let the business go on; but if I say 'Go in peace,' you will understand that my purpose is altered."

"My head is somewhat of the dullest out of my own department," said Tristan l'Hermite. "Stay, let me rehea.r.s.e.--If you bid him depart in peace, I am to have him dealt upon?"

"No, no--idiot, no," said the King, "in that case, you let him pa.s.s free. But if I say, 'There is a heaven above us,' up with him a yard or two nearer the planets he is so conversant with."

"I wish we may have the means here," said the Provost.

"Then up with him, or down with him, it matters not which," answered the King, grimly smiling.

"And the body," said the Provost, "how shall we dispose of it?"

"Let me see an instant," said the King--"the windows of the hall are too narrow; but that projecting oriel is wide enough. We will over with him into the Somme, and put a paper on his breast, with the legend, 'Let the justice of the King pa.s.s toll free.' The Duke's officers may seize it for duties if they dare."

The Provost Marshal left the apartment of Louis, and summoned his two a.s.sistants to council in an embrasure in the great hall, where Trois Esch.e.l.les stuck a torch against the wall to give them light. They discoursed in whispers, little noticed by Oliver le Dain, who seemed sunk in dejection, and Le Balafre, who was fast asleep.

"Comrades," said the Provost to his executioners, "perhaps you have thought that our vocation was over, or that, at least, we were more likely to be the subjects of the duty of others than to have any more to discharge on our own parts. But courage, my mates! Our gracious master has reserved for us one n.o.ble cast of our office, and it must be gallantly executed, as by men who would live in history."

"Ay, I guess how it is," said Trois Esch.e.l.les; "our patron is like the old Kaisers of Rome, who, when things came to an extremity, or, as we would say, to the ladder foot with them, were wont to select from their own ministers of justice some experienced person, who might spare their sacred persons from the awkward attempts of a novice, or blunderer in our mystery. It was a pretty custom for Ethnics; but, as a good Catholic, I should make some scruple at laying hands on the Most Christian King."

"Nay, but, brother, you are ever too scrupulous," said Pet.i.t Andre. "If he issues word and warrant for his own execution, I see not how we can in duty dispute it. He that dwells at Rome must obey the Pope--the Marshalsmen, must do their master's bidding, and he the King's."

"Hush, you knaves!" said the Provost Marshal, "there is here no purpose concerning the King's person, but only that of the Greek heretic pagan and Mahomedan wizard, Martius Galeotti."

"Galeotti!" answered Pet.i.t-Andre, "that comes quite natural. I never knew one of these legerdemain fellows, who pa.s.s their lives, as one may say, in dancing upon a tight rope, but what they came at length to caper at the end of one--tchick."

"My only concern is," said Trois Esch.e.l.les, looking upwards, "that the poor creature must die without confession."

"Tus.h.!.+ tus.h.!.+" said the Provost Marshal, in reply, "he is a rank heretic and necromancer--a whole college of priests could not absolve him from the doom he has deserved. Besides, if he hath a fancy that way, thou hast a gift, Trois Esch.e.l.les, to serve him for ghostly father thyself.

But, what is more material, I fear you most use your poniards, my mates; for you have not here the fitting conveniences for the exercise of your profession."

"Now our Lady of the Isle of Paris forbid," said Trois Esch.e.l.les, "that the King's command should find me dest.i.tute of my tools! I always wear around my body Saint Francis's cord, doubled four times, with a handsome loop at the farther end of it; for I am of the company of Saint Francis, and may wear his cowl when I am in extremis [at the point of death]--I thank G.o.d and the good fathers of Saumur."

"And for me," said Pet.i.t Andre, "I have always in my budget a handy block and sheaf, or a pulley as they call it, with a strong screw for securing it where I list, in case we should travel where trees are scarce, or high branched from the ground. I have found it a great convenience."

"That will suit us well," said the Provost Marshal. "You have but to screw your pulley into yonder beam above the door, and pa.s.s the rope over it. I will keep the fellow in some conversation near the spot until you adjust the noose under his chin, and then--"

"And then we run up the rope," said Pet.i.t Andre, "and, tchick, our Astrologer is so far in Heaven that he hath not a foot on earth."

"But these gentlemen," said Trois Esch.e.l.les, looking towards the chimney, "do not these help, and so take a handsel of our vocation?"

"Hem! no," answered the Provost, "the barber only contrives mischief, which he leaves other men to execute; and for the Scot, he keeps the door when the deed is a-doing, which he hath not spirit or quickness sufficient to partake in more actively--every one to his trade."

[The author has endeavoured to give to the odious Tristan l'Hermite a species of dogged and brutal fidelity to Louis, similar to the attachment of a bulldog to his master. With all the atrocity of his execrable character, he was certainly a man of courage, and was in his youth made knight in the breach of Fronsac, with a great number of other young n.o.bles, by the honour giving hand of the elder Dunois, the celebrated hero of Charles the Fifth's reign. S.]

With infinite dexterity, and even a sort of professional delight which sweetened the sense of their own precarious situation, the worthy executioners of the Provost's mandates adapted their rope and pulley for putting in force the sentence which had been uttered against Galeotti by the captive Monarch--seeming to rejoice that that last action was to be one so consistent with their past lives. Tristan l'Hermite sat eyeing their proceedings with a species of satisfaction; while Oliver paid no attention to them whatever; and Ludovic Lesly, if, awaked by the bustle, he looked upon them at all, considered them as engaged in matters entirely unconnected with his own duty, and for which he was not to be regarded as responsible in one way or other.