Francezka Part 3

The children were in a row, all shivering and trembling, except Francezka Capello, who stood with the pale beauty and virginal majesty of a Joan of Arc at the stake.

Jacques Haret--commend me to the Jacques Harets of this world for knowing all their rights!--seeing what a muddlehead Mirepoix was, cried stoutly:

"I demand to see the governor of the prison, the Grand Prieur de Vendome."

Now, this was his right--but Mirepoix proceeded to argue the point with him. The Grand Prieur was having a supper party. The Grand Prieur must not be disturbed--and much else to the same purpose. But all he could get out of Jacques Haret was:

"I demand to see the Grand Prieur. My great grandfather and his ancestor, Henri Quatre, were boon companions. My ancestor fought at Ivry under his ancestor, and my family now possesses a letter from Henri Quatre to Jacques Haret, asking the loan of fifty crowns and a pair of breeches!"

I could have wrung Jacques Haret's neck for his persistence, but I could do nothing but stand and watch and fume, with the young girl's tragic face before me, and old Peter breaking his heart in the courtyard.

A messenger was sent for the Grand Prieur, and Jacques Haret consumed the intervening time in a wordy war with Mirepoix and Lafarge, and he got the better of both of them.

I scarce thought the messenger had got the length of the prison, when the door opened, and the Grand Prieur appeared. He was a very old man, but still handsome and black-browed, very like his brother Marshal, the Duc de Vendome--but not so dirty, nor did he sleep with dogs in his bed. On the contrary, he was given to luxury, made excellent verses, and was of polished manners.

When he entered the hall I saw that he looked anxious, and peered eagerly into the half darkness that surrounded the company gathered there. Mirepoix plunged into the story, and to justify himself for interrupting the Grand Prieur's supper party, one would have thought the twenty or so children were twenty malefactors and giving a theatrical performance without a license was the unpardonable sin.

The Grand Prieur heard him through and then cried:

"Good G.o.d! I thought it was an attempt on the king's life! And for these brats you took me away from the supper table!"

Jacques Haret now came to the front, gravely reminding the Grand Prieur of the connection between their ancestors and the loan of the breeches. The Grand Prieur tried to scowl, but instead, burst out laughing. Jacques Haret then proceeded to give his account of the affair, including his preliminary interview with Madame Riano--or Peggy Kirkpatrick, as he called her--and he acted Peggy to the life so that even the frightened children laughed without understanding it; all laughed, in fact, except Mademoiselle Capello, who scowled tragically at the game made of her aunt. And not being deficient in sense, Jacques Haret took pretty good care not to hint that his star actress was Madame Riano's niece. The climax came, however, when he apostrophized Lafarge as being the self-const.i.tuted protector of Madame Riano's property. This brought down the house, and Lafarge stuttered:

"I--I was not thinking of protecting Madame Riano--it was the majesty of the law that was being outraged--the king--"

"Ah! You were protecting the king, then," cried the Grand Prieur.

"Well, I dare say the court and the army and the people and the church, among them, can do that without your help, Lafarge--and Jacques Haret--suppose, since you have spoiled my supper, you recompense me with a performance by this army of young criminals?"

"With the greatest pleasure, Monsieur."

"And by that time, their parents will all be howling in the courtyard, and we can give the criminals each a coin, and let them go."

Some of the parents had indeed already arrived, and word was sent to them that the children would be released as soon as they had given their play.

There were some benches and tables against the walls--for here it was that the guard dined and supped--and these were hauled forth, some scenery was improvised with stools and sheets, and torches were procured to light up the vast dark place. The Grand Prieur had gone back to fetch his guests.

"Come, Mademoiselle," said Jacques Haret to Mademoiselle Capello, "you must act your best, and get us all out of this sc.r.a.pe."

For the first time I saw a look on Mademoiselle Capello's face, indicating shame and humiliation at her position. She had not so far spoken a word that I knew of. She glanced toward me as much as to ask if she should agree--and I nodded. My one idea was to prevent a catastrophe before getting her into old Peter's hands, and I dared not make any disturbance on her account.

"But, Monsieur," she said to Jacques Haret, "you must let Peter, my servant, come to me--he followed me on foot all the distance from the garden."

"I will! I will!"

Jacques Haret ran out and fetched Peter, who was outside the door.

Peter dashed in, ran up to Francezka and began to cry:

"Oh, my darling little mistress! Oh, what will madame say to you? What will she do to you?"

I gave him a look of warning, which checked his lamentations. He squeezed himself into a little place back of the improvised stage, and from there I watched his anxious face during what followed.

Jacques Haret mustered the children on the stage, gave them such directions as were necessary, and then the sound of voices and laughter was heard, the door opened, and in came the Grand Prieur and his company of guests. There were thirty or forty of them, all gentlemen of the first quality, wearing their swords, and many of them showed their wine. A crowd of servants bearing candles came after them. These, Jacques Haret ranged as torch-bearers in front of the improvised stage. The guests were provided with benches, and the performance began. It was _Madame Mariamne and Monsieur Herod_.

And then a new and terrible danger presented itself. It was quite possible that among these bewigged and bepowdered gentlemen, with their velvet coats and silk stockings, might be some frequenters of Madame Riano's saloons--and then!

I watched their faces closely, and soon satisfied myself that none of them recognized Mademoiselle Capello, unless it were a young gentleman, Gaston Cheverny by name, who stood near the stage, close to old Peter. Fate delights in mountebank tricks. On the same day, I saw for the first time those two persons with whose lives my life was henceforth bound--Francezka Capello and Gaston Cheverny.

I noticed that this Cheverny was not more than twenty, and was not regularly handsome, although extremely well built and graceful. I took it that he was a youth of parts, or he would not be found, at his age, in the company of the Grand Prieur, who hated dullards. And as fate would have it, I loved Gaston Cheverny the first instant my eyes rested on him.

The performance began, and Mademoiselle Capello came upon the stage, and acted as if inspired. Circ.u.mstanced as she was, she was bound to act her best or her worst--and it was her best. She soon had her audience in convulsions of laughter; and when, with ready wit, she took off Lafarge, interjecting some of his foolish remarks into the farcical _Mariamne_, I thought the floor would have come through with the stamping of feet and pounding of jeweled-headed canes, while the laughter became a veritable tempest. And Francezka enjoyed it; that was plain in her kindling eye, and the color that flooded her late pale cheeks and lips.

Through it all, Gaston Cheverny smiled but little, and his face, which was the most expressive I ever saw, not excepting Monsieur Voltaire's, showed pity for this young girl. I felt sure he recognized her.

When the part in the little play came of _Mariamne's_ farewell, Mademoiselle Capello changed it to the real _Mariamne_, as subtly as she had done in the afternoon in the garden. Her present audience, far more intelligent than any she had ever played to, instantly caught the beauty, the wit, the art, of what she was doing. A deathlike silence fell when Francezka, in her sweet, penetrating voice, was bidding the cobbler's boy a last, despairing farewell. The Grand Prieur, leaning forward, put his hand to his ear--he was slightly deaf--and I felt my eyes grow hot with tears, when suddenly Mademoiselle Capello caught Gaston Cheverny's eyes fixed on her. It was as if he had laid a compelling hand upon her. She stopped, hesitated, and walked a few steps toward him. Her rosy face grew pale; she opened her mouth, but was unable to speak a word. Jacques Haret, standing close to her, gave her the cue once--twice--very audibly. Mademoiselle Capello, without heeding him, and moving like a sleep-walker, went still farther toward the edge of the stage where Gaston Cheverny stood--and then covering her face with her mantle she burst into a pa.s.sion of tears and sobbing.

There was a movement of compa.s.sion for her; old Peter on the edge of the crowd was begging,

"For G.o.d's sake, gentlemen, let me go to my child--she is my daughter--I am but a serving-man--" but no one moved to let him through.

The children on the stage were in confusion--Jacques Haret was in despair. Mademoiselle Capello, with her face still wrapped in her mantle, continued her convulsive sobbing. Gaston Cheverny made a lane with his strong arm through the crowd and called to Peter.

"This way, my man. Come and fetch your daughter."

Peter got through at last, lifted the weeping Francezka down in his arms, and started for the door with her.

I left the hall quickly, in which there was much confusion--the Grand Prieur calling out that the children should have a livre each, except the cobbler's boy and Francezka, who were to have a gold crown.

Outside in the courtyard under the dark, starlit sky, I found Peter with Mademoiselle Capello and Gaston Cheverny. The young girl had regained her composure, and stood silent, pale as death and like a criminal, before Gaston Cheverny. Like most very young men, he liked to reprove, and to a.s.sume authority over others but little younger than himself.

"Mademoiselle," he was saying, "you have, perhaps, forgotten me and my brother, Monsieur Regnard Cheverny--you were too young to remember us. But we had the honor of knowing you in Brabant when you were little more than an infant--and our houses have always been friendly. For that, as well as other reasons, I must exact a promise of you. Never repeat this performance. You are but a child yet, and this indiscretion may well be forgotten. But Mademoiselle, you will soon be a woman--and a woman's indiscretions are not forgotten."

All of which would have been very well from a man of forty, but was slightly ridiculous in this peach-faced youth of twenty.

A gleam of spirit--of Madame Riano's spirit--flashed into Mademoiselle Capello's face at this a.s.sumption on Gaston Cheverny's part.

"Monsieur Cheverny," she said, "I remember you perfectly well--also, your brother, Monsieur Regnard Cheverny. I am older than you think, perhaps. I even remember that I hated one of you--I can not now recall which one--except that he or you annoyed me, when I was a child in Brabant, at my chateau of Capello"--oh, the grand air with which she brought out "my chateau of Capello!"--"and--and--if I act--it is none of your business."

"It will be Madame Riano's business, though," darkly hinted Gaston Cheverny.

At this veiled threat to tell her aunt, Mademoiselle Capello showed she was but a child after all, for she broke down, crying:

"I will promise, Monsieur."

There was but a single coach in sight, and while Gaston Cheverny was haranguing Mademoiselle Capello, I had engaged it to take her home.

The coachman drove up, I opened the door and invited mademoiselle to enter. She recognized me at once, and curtsied deeply.

"Thank you, Monsieur," she said with the greatest sweetness in the world. It was the first time she ever spoke to me--and can I ever forget it?

"Thank you, Monsieur; I do not know your name, but I know you followed me to this dreadful place to take care of me--and you have treated me with the utmost respect, Monsieur, and have not dared to reprove or threaten me, and I thank you for that, too!"