CHAPTER 7
Parry.
Whilst the unknown was viewing these lights with interest,
and lending an ear to the various noises, Master Cropole
entered his apartment, followed by two attendants, who laid
the cloth for his meal.
The stranger did not pay them the least attention; but
Cropole approaching him respectfully, whispered " Monsieur,
the diamond has been valued."
"Ah!" said the traveler. "Well?"
"Well, monsieur, the jeweler of S. A. R. gives two hundred
and eighty pistoles for it."
"Have you them?"
"I thought it best to take them, monsieur; nevertheless, I
made it a condition of the bargain, that if monsieur wished
to keep his diamond, it should be held till monsieur was
again in funds."
"Oh, no, not at all; I told you to sell it."
"Then I have obeyed, or nearly so, since, without having
definitely sold it, I have touched the money."
"Pay yourself," added the unknown.
"I will do so, monsieur, since you so positively require
it."
A sad smile passed over the lips of the gentleman.
"Place the money on that trunk," said he, turning round and
pointing to the piece of furniture.
Cropole deposited a tolerably large bag as directed, after
having taken from it the amount of his reckoning.
"Now," said he, "I hope monsieur will not give me the pain
of not taking any supper. Dinner has already been refused;
this is affronting to the house of les Medici. Look,
monsieur, the supper is on the table, and I venture to say
that it is not a bad one."
The unknown asked for a glass of wine, broke off a morsel of
bread, and did not stir from the window whilst he ate and
drank.
Shortly after was heard a loud flourish of trumpets; cries
arose in the distance, a confused buzzing filled the lower
part of the city, and the first distinct sound that struck
the ears of the stranger was the tramp of advancing horses.
"The king! the king!" repeated a noisy and eager crowd.
"The king!" cried Cropole, abandoning his guest and his
ideas of delicacy, to satisfy his curiosity.
With Cropole were mingled, and jostled, on the staircase,
Madame Cropole, Pittrino, and the waiters and scullions.
The cortege advanced slowly, lighted by a thousand
flambeaux, in the streets and from the windows.
After a company of musketeers, a closely ranked troop of
gentlemen, came the litter of monsieur le cardinal, drawn
like a carriage by four black horses. The pages and people
of the cardinal marched behind.
Next came the carriage of the queen-mother, with her maids
of honor at the doors, her gentlemen on horseback at both
sides.
The king then appeared, mounted upon a splendid horse of
Saxon breed, with a flowing mane. The young prince
exhibited, when bowing to some windows from which issued the
most animated acclamations, a noble and handsome
countenance, illumined by the flambeaux of his pages.
By the side of the king, though a little in the rear, the
Prince de Conde, M. Dangeau, and twenty other courtiers,
followed by their people and their baggage, closed this
veritably triumphant march. The pomp was of a military
character.
Some of the courtiers -- the elder ones, for instance --
wore traveling dresses; but all the rest were clothed in
warlike panoply. Many wore the gorges and buff coat of the
times of Henry IV. and Louis XIII.
When the king passed before him, the unknown, who had leant
forward over the balcony to obtain a better view, and who
had concealed his face by leaning on his arm, felt his heart
swell and overflow with a bitter jealousy.
The noise of the trumpets excited him -- the popular
acclamations deafened him: for a moment he allowed his
reason to be absorbed in this flood of lights, tumult and
brilliant images.
"He is a king!" murmured he, in an accent of despair.
Then, before he had recovered from his sombre reverie all
the noise, all the splendor, had passed away. At the angle
of the street there remained nothing beneath the stranger
but a few hoarse, discordant voices, shouting at intervals,
"Vive le Roi!"
There remained likewise the six candles held by the
inhabitants of the hostelry des Medici; that is to say, two
for Cropole, two for Pittrino, and one for each scullion.
Cropole never ceased repeating, "How good-looking the king
is! How strongly he resembles his illustrious father!"
"A handsome likeness!" said Pittrino.
"And what a lofty carriage he has!" added Madame Cropole,
already in promiscuous commentary with her neighbors of both
sexes.
Cropole was feeding their gossip with his own personal
remarks, without observing that an old man on foot, but
leading a small Irish horse by the bridle, was endeavoring
to penetrate the crowd of men and women which blocked up the
entrance to the Medici. But at that moment the voice of the
stranger was heard from the window.
"Make way, monsieur l'hotelier, to the entrance of your
house!"
Cropole turned around, and, on seeing the old man, cleared a
passage for him.
The window was instantly closed.
Pittrino pointed out the way to the newly-arrived guest, who
entered without uttering a word.
The stranger waited for him on the landing; he opened his
arms to the old man and led him to a seat.
"Oh, no, no, my lord!" said he. "Sit down in your presence?
-- never!"
"Parry," cried the gentleman, "I beg you will; you come from
England -- you come so far. Ah! it is not for your age to
undergo the fatigues my service requires. Rest yourself."
"I have my reply to give your lordship, in the first place."
"Parry, I conjure you to tell me nothing; for if your news
had been good, you would not have begun in such a manner;
you go about, which proves that the news is bad."
"My lord," said the old man, "do not hasten to alarm
yourself, all is not lost, I hope. You must employ energy,
but more particularly resignation."
"Parry," said the young man, "I have reached this place
through a thousand snares and after a thousand difficulties;
can you doubt my energy? I have meditated this journey ten
years, in spite of all counsels and all obstacles -- have
you faith in my perseverance? I have this evening sold the
last of my father's diamonds; for I had nothing wherewith to
pay for my lodging and my host was about to turn me out."
Parry made a gesture of indignation, to which the young man
replied by a pressure of the hand and a smile.
"I have still two hundred and seventy-four pistoles left,
and I feel myself rich. I do not despair, Parry; have you
faith in my resignation?"
The old man raised his trembling hands towards heaven.
"Let me know," said the stranger, -- "disguise nothing from
me -- what has happened?"
"My recital will be short, my lord, but in the name of
Heaven do not tremble so."
"It is impatience, Parry. Come, what did the general say to
you?"
"At first the general would not receive me."
"He took you for a spy?"
"Yes, my lord, but I wrote him a letter."
"Well?"
"He read it, and received me, my lord."
"Did that letter thoroughly explain my position and my
views?"
"Oh, yes!" said Parry, with a sad smile; "it painted your
very thoughts faithfully."
"Well -- then, Parry?"
"Then the general sent me back the letter by an
aide-de-camp, informing me that if I were found the next day
within the circumscription of his command, he would have me
arrested."
"Arrested!" murmured the young man. "What! arrest you, my
most faithful servant?"
"Yes, my lord."
"And notwithstanding you had signed the name Parry?"
"To all my letters, my lord; and the aide-de-camp had known
me at St. James's and at Whitehall, too," added the old man
with a sigh.
The young man leaned forward, thoughtful and sad.
"Ay, that's what he did before his people," said he,
endeavoring to cheat himself with hopes. "But, privately --
between you and him -- what did he do? Answer!"
"Alas! my lord, he sent to me four cavaliers, who gave me
the horse with which you just now saw me come back. These
cavaliers conducted me, in great haste, to the little port
of Tenby, threw me, rather than embarked me, into a
fishing-boat, about to sail for Brittany, and here I am."
"Oh!" sighed the young man, clasping his neck convulsively
with his hand, and with a sob. "Parry, is that all? -- is
that all?"
"Yes, my lord; that is all."
After this brief reply ensued a long interval of silence,
broken only by the convulsive beating of the heel of the
young man on the floor.
The old man endeavored to change the conversation; it was
leading to thoughts much too sinister.
"My lord," said he, "what is the meaning of all the noise
which preceded me? What are these people crying `Vive le
Roi!' for? What king do they mean? and what are all these
lights for?"
"Ah! Parry," replied the young man ironically, "don't you
know that this is the King of France visiting his good city
of Blois? All those trumpets are his, all those gilded
housings are his, all those gentlemen wear swords that are
his. His mother precedes him in a carriage magnificently
encrusted with silver and gold. Happy mother! His minister
heaps up millions, and conducts him to a rich bride. Then
all these people rejoice, they love their king, they hail
him with their acclamations, and they cry, `Vive le Roi!
Vive le Roi!'"
"Well, well, my lord," said Parry, more uneasy at the turn
the conversation had taken than at the other.
"You know," resumed the unknown, "that my mother and my
sister, whilst all this is going on in honor of the King of
France, have neither money nor bread; you know that I myself
shall be poor and degraded within a fortnight, when all
Europe will become acquainted with what you have told me.
Parry, are there not examples in which a man of my condition
should himself ---- "
"My lord, in the name of Heaven ---- "
"You are right, Parry, I am a coward, and if I do nothing
for myself, what will God do? No, no, I have two arms,
Parry, and I have a sword." And he struck his arm violently
with his hand and took down his sword, which hung against
the wall.
"What are you going to do, my lord?"
"What am I going to do, Parry? What every one in my family
does. My mother lives on public charity, my sister begs for
my mother; I have, somewhere or other, brothers who equally
beg for themselves; and I, the eldest, will go and do as all
the rest do -- I will go and ask charity!"
And at these words, which he finished sharply with a nervous
and terrible laugh, the young man girded on his sword, took
his hat from the trunk, fastened to his shoulder a black
cloak, which he had worn during all his journey, and
pressing the two hands of the old man, who watched his
proceedings with a look of anxiety, --
"My good Parry," said he, "order a fire, drink, eat, sleep,
and be happy; let us both be happy, my faithful friend, my
only friend. We are rich, as rich as kings!"
He struck the bag of pistoles with his clenched hand as he
spoke, and it fell heavily to the ground. He resumed that
dismal laugh that had so alarmed Parry; and whilst the whole
household was screaming, singing, and preparing to install
the travelers who had been preceded by their lackeys, he
glided out by the principal entrance into the street, where
the old man, who had gone to the window, lost sight of him
in a moment.
