"It is true," D'Aligre said to the others seated with him, "that he overheard the plot discussed at Basle. But all that he heard is nothing in comparison with what we now know to have taken place in Brussels, in Normandy, and elsewhere. He has endured enough. We may absolve2 him from further suffering."
"To which has to be added," remarked Laisné de la Marguerie, another of the Judges, a bitter, sarcastic3 man, "the fact that the young man stands high in the graces of his Majesty4 and is like to stand still higher ere long."
"While," said Quintin de Richebourg, ma?tre de requêtes, a kindly5 hearted lawyer, "he was once a friend of, and befriended by, De Beaurepaire. No need to force him to speak against one who, at least, never harmed him."
Therefore, Humphrey was released from what would have been a hateful task and left the Arsenal6 directly he was informed that such was the case, while the Commission at once proceeded to examine the prisoners, beginning with De Beaurepaire.
The answers to the questions put to him were, however, a total denial of any knowledge of the plot. He had never, he said, dreamed of any such conspiracy7; he loved the King and always had loved him since they were boys and playmates together. La Truaumont was his factotum8 and he regretted his death, but while acknowledging that he had employed the man in that capacity, he had never heard him breathe a word of any such a scheme. Had such been the case he would have slain9 him at his feet. With Van den Enden he had had little correspondence and that only on the subject of raising private loans. No one had the slightest right or justification10 to use his name in connection with any plot against the King, and Van den Enden and La Truaumont had done so for their own purposes, if they had done so at all.
"That they did so," La Reynie said, "is undoubted, since La Truaumont met his death in endeavouring to slay11 those who went to arrest him on account of his connection with this sinful plot for which you were yourself arrested on the morning of the previous day." After which he continued gravely: "It is strange that, if your Highness was unaware12 of this plot, you should have been surrounded by so many persons of Norman birth and extraction who were all interested in it. La Truaumont was one of these persons."
"He was equally well known to me ten years ago and more when I first gave him employment. Was the plot hatched so long ago as that?"
"The so-called Chevalier la Preaux is another; the man who is sometimes known as Fleur de Mai."
"He was as much in the pay of La Truaumont as La Truaumont was in mine. And he is of the canaille. I could have no intercourse13 with him. Had I required a tool I should not have taken a dirty one."
"Dirty tools, or weapons, can be used as well as clean ones. And--in conspiracies--the tools are never clean. But there is still another Norman. The woman by your side, near you. She calls herself the Marquise de Villiers-Bordéville. She is known to be deeply involved in this vile14 plot. She was arrested in the lodge15 you had lent her and which was in your possession as Grand Veneur. She went to Basle at your bidding to meet Van den Enden on the subject of that plot. She is your accomplice16. Yet you learnt nothing of it from her. Surely that is strange!"
"She is," De Beaurepaire said, while as he did so he turned towards where Emérance sat separated from him by only a little space, and looked her full in the face, "a woman whom I love. One whom, when we escape from this accursed net you are endeavouring to fling around us, I will love and cherish till my last hour."
"Mon amour!" Emérance breathed rather than murmured between her parted lips.
And the man heard that breath, as perhaps did some of the judges sitting near the prisoner.
"Yet," La Reynie said, "loving her thus, you tell us you know not of what she was vowed17 to, namely the destruction of the King, of his throne, of France. You did not know the secret of this woman whom you love, the woman who, you think, loves you!"
"Think!" again whispered Emérance, her eyes on La Reynie now. "Think!"
While De Beaurepaire, speaking at the same time, used the same word.
"Think!" he said. "Think that she loves me! La Reynie, do you think there is any man who does not know when a woman truly loves him? If so, then it is you who have never loved or been loved."
As he spoke18, D'Aligre shot a glance at Laisné de la Marguerie. "The riposte is deadly," the latter scrawled19 on a paper in front of him, a paper which the President could see. For La Reynie's wife was a shrew who was reported to have married him for anything rather than love.
"You know who and what she is?" La Reynie continued savagely20. "You know her past?"
"No, only her present. Her past is nothing to me. I had no share in it."
"You should have informed yourself of it ere you allowed yourself to love her. You could have learnt that she was, with La Truaumont, the heart and soul of this conspiracy. A woman ruined by extravagant21 living and willing to make money by any means."
"'Tis false," Emérance exclaimed, looking up at the Judges for the first time and also speaking aloud for the first time. "My husband left me with some small means. But--because after treating me cruelly for months, he was found dead in his bed, for which I was tried at Rouen for having poisoned him and was at once acquitted22 and absolved--not one sol or denier have I ever been able to obtain from his kinsmen23. Extravagant living! I have never yet known what it was to have a handful of gold pistoles to spend, or fling into the river, if it pleased me so to do."
"Madame," La Reynie said quietly, "this is not your final interrogatory. Later I will deal with you."
After which he again addressed De Beaurepaire, saying: "Monsieur le Prince, the man, Van den Enden, states that you have often said in his presence, and that of others, when speaking of his Majesty the King: 'We shall have him yet. We shall hold him.'"
"He lies," De Beaurepaire said, shrugging his shoulders with superbly assumed disdain25. "As for the others, who are they and where are they? Produce them."
"Also," La Reynie continued, ignoring this challenge, "he states that you threatened to kill him if he did not act entirely26 as you bade him."
"Pah!" exclaimed De Beaurepaire, with another contemptuous shrug24 which, with the exclamation27 itself, spoke volumes. "If you choose to believe such babble28 as this, uttered by such a creature as that, you may do so," was what the shrug and the word conveyed.
"Do you deny, monsieur," La Reynie continued, "that you ever uttered the expression, 'I would die content if I could once draw my sword against the King in a strong revolution'?"
"When," exclaimed De Beaurepaire, "you can put me face to face with a credible29 witness who can testify to having ever heard me utter any such expression, I will answer you before him. But not till then."
"Madame," La Reynie said now to Emérance, while intimating by a look towards the Prince that he had done with him, for the present at least, "Madame, give me your attention. What is your relationship with the last witness?"
"I love him," Emérance answered, lifting her eyes slowly towards her questioner. "No more nor less than that."
"You misapprehend me. I mean as regards his, and your, participation30 in this plot?"
"There was no plot," Emérance replied again, this time with a cynical31 look upon her face; "or, at least, none against France or the King of France. Yet, it is true, there was a plot."
"You admit that?" D'Aligre exclaimed, bending forward over his cushions. "You admit it?"
As he asked the question he was not the only one in that Court who turned their eyes on the unhappy woman. In solemn truth, there were no eyes in that Court which did not rest on her now. The eyes of the Judges and the Procureur-Général, as well as those of her fellow prisoners.
"What is she about to say?" the man who loved her asked himself, while knowing full well that whatever she might say would not be aught that could harm him, though fearing at the same time that she might say something which would sacrifice her while shielding him. "What story, what scheme has she devised?"
"The she-cat, the tigress!" Van den Enden groaned32 inwardly. "She will save him and herself--curse her!--by sacrificing me. Yet, how? How?"
But still there was another prisoner who heard those words--Fleur de Mai. But he said nothing to himself and indulged in no speculation33 as to what the woman might be about to state. He was doomed34, he knew: nothing could save him. There was for him but one hope left in this world; the hope that since, vagabond as he was, he was the off-shoot of an honourable35 family, he might perish by the axe36 and not the wheel, or that still deeper degradation37, the rope.
"You acknowledge that there was a plot?" La Reynie exclaimed, echoing the President's question.
"I have said," Emérance replied. "Yet no plot against France or the King."
"Explain."
"He," her eyes turned softly towards her lover and then re-turned swiftly toward the Judges, "wanted money. His charges and expenses were great, as you all know. No need to say more of that. As for myself, I was poor, horribly, bitterly poor, almost at starvation's door, for the reason I have but now told you. That one," her eyes looking from underneath38 their lids at Van den Enden, "would do aught for money; would betray, steal, murder for the money he always wanted. La Truaumont--well! he is dead. Of him I will but say that he was ambitious. He had been a good soldier yet, like many another soldier as good as he, he had been forgotten, passed over, set aside. We all wanted money. The others--that assassin, or would be assassin, there," looking at Fleur de Mai, "was but a hireling, a varlet, to any who could pay him."
"It was my mind, mine alone," she continued, "which conceived the plot. Mine," and Emérance smote39 her breast as she spoke, as though to force conviction into the minds of those who heard her. "Mine! Spain hates the King, France, you, I, all of us in whose veins40 French blood runs--you well know why. So, too, does Holland, for baser, meaner reasons; she hates us because she goes down before us as autumn leaves go down before the storm. Because her Stadtholder, William, can do naught41 against France. Therefore, since France could not be conquered, defeated, humiliated42 in the field, other ways were thought of. Shot and steel were useless. It remained to try gold."
That Emérance had aroused the interest of her audience, of the Judges, she knew by now. She had touched that chord, which, as she was well aware, never fails to respond in the hearts of her countrymen to the praise of their country. She knew this, she saw it in their proud, self-satisfied glances as she dwelt on the inferiority of Spain and Holland before France. Only--she asked herself--would they believe? Would this attempt, this last chance, enable the man she loved--of herself she did not think!--to obtain earthly salvation43.
"The scheme was tried," she continued. "Learning as I did through La Truaumont that there was a large sum of Spanish money ready for those who would betray France to them, I conceived the idea, not of betraying, but of pretending to betray, France. I was, as I have been termed, une fine Normande; the Normans were embittered44 against the King for his treatment of the province. The instruments were ready to my hand; the faggots were laid; the spark to ignite them alone was needed. You know the rest, or almost know it. But some part you do not know. His, De Beaurepaire's name was used without his knowledge, the money was obtained from De Montérey, yet not one sol ever reached the Prince's hands. We hoped that, when the enemies of France learnt that we had tricked them, robbed them if you will, the plot would be abandoned without De Beaurepaire ever knowing of the use we had made of him."
"The love for him does not appear in this," sneered45 Laisné de la Marguerie. "The Prince's name was used unrighteously, judging by your own story, while even the money you say you received was not shared by him."
"Where therefore did it go?" D'Aligre asked, grasping the point which his more astute46 brother judge had made. "It was a large sum?"
"It went to Normandy if it ever came into France," Van den Enden exclaimed, tottering47 to his feet in his desire to be listened to by the Judges. "But it never came. Never. This woman, this adventuress, has lied to save her lover and herself. There was no plot to either overthrow48 France or hoodwink Spain and Holland. There was no money whatever forthcoming.
"Nevertheless she was superb. Splendide mendax!" murmured Laisné de la Marguerie. "Yet unavailing."
While, as he did so, La Reynie was heard addressing Van den Enden in quiet, impressive tones.
"You forget," he said, "your interview with this woman in her rooms at Basle. You forget that the young man whom you sought to have murdered overheard your conversation with her and La Truaumont. The conversation in which you stated that you had received a million livres from the Comte de Montérey. Also you forget, or, perhaps, you do not know, that that young man's interrogatory is here before us." While, as the Procureur-Général spoke, he laid his hand on a packet of papers lying amongst some others.
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1
den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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absolve
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| v.赦免，解除（责任等） | |
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sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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arsenal
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| n.兵工厂，军械库 | |
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conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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factotum
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| n.杂役；听差 | |
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slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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justification
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| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
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slay
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| v.杀死，宰杀，杀戮 | |
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unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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accomplice
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| n.从犯，帮凶，同谋 | |
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vowed
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| 起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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scrawled
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| 乱涂，潦草地写( scrawl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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acquitted
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| 宣判…无罪( acquit的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（自己）作出某种表现 | |
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kinsmen
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| n.家属，亲属( kinsman的名词复数 ) | |
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shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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28
babble
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| v.含糊不清地说，胡言乱语地说，儿语 | |
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credible
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| adj.可信任的，可靠的 | |
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participation
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| n.参与，参加，分享 | |
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cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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40
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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41
naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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humiliated
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| 感到羞愧的 | |
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43
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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44
embittered
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| v.使怨恨，激怒( embitter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46
astute
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| adj.机敏的，精明的 | |
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47
tottering
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| adj.蹒跚的，动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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48
overthrow
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| v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆 | |
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