The Mesmerist's Victim

CHAPTER XXIV
THE RICHELIEU ELIXIR

ALWAYS bearer of good news, the Duke of Richelieu called on the Taverneys to announce that the King found a regiment for Captain Philip, not a company.

The conversation was the same as usual among the three at dinner; the duke spoke of his King, the baron of his daughter and Andrea of her brother. Richelieu preached on the same text as the baron, and enunciated his doctrine, so pagan, Parisian and courtier-like, that the girl had to confess that her kind of virtue could not be the true one if the nobles were to be the left-handed queens of the French monarchs whom the two tempters did not hesitate to cite.

At seven, the duke rose from the table as he had an appointment at Versailles, he said.

In going into the anteroom for his hat, he met Nicole who always had something to do there when the duke called.

“I wish you would come along with me, little lass,” he said; “I should like you to take a bouquet the Duchess of Noailles is getting ready for my daughter the Countess of Egmont.”

Nicole courtseyed as the shepherdesses did in Rousseau’s comic operas. Leaning on Nicole’s shoulder, he went down stairs, and when out on the lawn with her, said:

“Little maid, can you tell me the name of the sweetheart Nicole Legay has found – a well-turned gallant whom she used to welcome in Coq Heron Street, and receives here in Versailles. He is a French Guards corporal called – what do you say the name is?”

The girl was in hopes that the marshal did not know the name if he knew everything else.

“Faith, tell me, my lord, since you know so much,” she said saucily.

“Beausire,” said the marshal: “and he is a beau already; whether he will ever be a sire, I cannot say.”

Nicole clasped her hands in prudery which did not baffle the marshal.

“Pest take us!” he said: “making love appointments under the eaves of Trianon: if Lady Noailles catches a whiff of this she will have Nicole Legay sent to the Salpetriere House of Correction and Corporal Beausire will have a row in the royal galleys.”

“Not if I have your grace’s protection.”

“Oh, that is granted. You will not be imprisoned and driven from the place, but left free and enriched.”

“Oh, what must I do, my lord, tell me quick.”

“Mere child’s play.”

“Whom am I to do it for – my own good or your grace’s?”

“Zounds,” said the duke, eyeing her sharply, “what a sly puss you are!”

“Pray have done.”

“It is for your good,” he said plumply. “When Corporal Beausire comes to keep his tryst – ”

“At seven o’clock – ”

“Exactly. Say to him: We are discovered; but I have a patron who will save us both: you from the galleys, me from the jail. Let us be off.”

“Be off?”

“Since you love him, you will marry and be off,” said the duke.

“Love him, yes: but marry him? ha, ha, ha!” and the duke was stupefied by the laugh.

Even at court he had not met many hussies as shameless as this. Understanding the sly glance, he replied:

“In any case I will pay the expenses of this double journey.”

Nicole asked no more: as long as the excursion was paid for the rest mattered not a jot.

“Do you know what you are thinking of,” said he quickly, for he was beaten and he did not like to dwell at that point.

“Faith, I do not.”

“Why, the thought strikes you that your young mistress may wake up in the night and call you. This would raise the alarm before you got well away.”

“I never thought of that, but I do now, and that I had better stay.”

“Then Beausire will be caught and will expose you.”

“Never mind: Mdlle. Andrea is kind and will speak to the King, in whose good graces she is, and he will pardon me my offense.”

The marshal bit his lip.

“I tell you that Nicole is a fool. Mdlle. Andrea is not in the King’s good graces as deeply as you may suppose and I will have you locked up where good graces have no effect in softening the straw bed or shortening the whiplash.”

“Stay – How can my mistress be prevented from rising and ringing in the night for Nicole? She might be up a dozen times.”

“Oh, troubled with my complaint, insomnia. She ought to take the remedy I do: and if she would not, you could make her do it.”

“How could I make my mistress do anything, my lord?” inquired Nicole.

“It is the fashion to have an evening’s drink – orangeade or licorice water – ”

“My young lady has a glass of water by her bedside, sometimes with a lump of sugar in it, or perfumed with orangewater, if her nerves are out of order.”

“Wonderful, just like me,” said Richelieu, taking out a handful of Exchequer notes. “If you were to put a couple of drops from my own bottle which I hand you, the young lady would sleep all the night.”

“Good: and I will lock her in so that nobody can disturb her till the morning.”

“No,” said Richelieu, quickly. “That is just what you must not do. Leave the door ajar.”

He understood that the girl saw all the plot.

“Money for the flight – the phial for the sleep – but they lock the gates and I have no key.”

“But I am a First Gentleman in Attendance on the King and have my master-key.”

“How timely all falls in,” said Nicole; “it seems a whole calendar of miracles. Adieu, my lord.”

Laughing in her sleeve, the traitress glided away in the dark.

“Again I succeed,” thought Richelieu: “but I must be getting old to be rebuffed by this little imp. Never mind, if I come out the winner.”

CHAPTER XXV
SECOND SIGHT

FROM his garret, Gilbert was watching, or rather devouring Andrea’s room. It would be hard to tell whether his eyes now gazed with love or hatred. But the curtains were drawn and he could see nothing in that quarter; he turned to another.

Here he espied the plume of Corporal Beausire, as the soldier to beguile his waiting, whistled a tune. It was not till ten minutes had elapsed that Nicole appeared. She made her lover a sign which he understood, for he nodded and went towards a walk in a cutting leading to the Little Trianon.

Nicole ran back as lightly as a bird.

“Ha, ha,” thought Gilbert, “Nicole and her trooper have something to say to each other which will not bear witnesses. Good!”

He was no longer curious about Nicole’s flirtations, but he regarded her as a natural enemy and it was wise to know all her doings. In her immorality he wanted to find the weapon with which he might victoriously meet her in case she should attack him. He did not doubt that the campaign would open and he meant to have a good supply of weapons, like a true warrior.

So he nimbly came down from his loft, and reached the gardens by the chapel side-door. He had nothing to fear now as he knew all the coverts of the place like a fox at home. Thus he was able to reach the clump where he heard a strange sound for the woods – the chink of coin on a stone. Gliding like a serpent up to the terrace wall, hedged with lilacs, he saw Nicole at the grating, emptying a purse on a stone out of Beausire’s reach by being on her side of the railing. It was the purse given by Richelieu, or strictly speaking the cash for the Treasury notes which she had converted. The fat gold pieces clinked down, glittering, while the corporal, with kindled eye and trembling hand, attentively looked at Nicole and them without comprehending how they came into company.

“My dear Beausire, more than once you have wanted me to elope,” began Nicole.

“And to marry you,” added the soldier, quite enthusiastically.

“We will argue that point hereafter,” replied the girl; “at present, the main thing is to get away. Can we be off in a couple of hours?”

“In ten minutes, if you like.”

“No; I have some work to do first and a couple of hours will suit me. Take these fifty louis,” and she passed the amount between the bars; he pocketed them without counting, “and in an hour and a half be here with a coach.”

“I do not shrink: but I am fearful about you – when the money is spent you will regret the palace and – ”

“Oh, how thoughtful you are! do not be alarmed: I am not one of the sort to become unfortunate. Have no scruples. We shall see what comes next after the fifty louis.”

She counted another fifty louis into her own purse: Beausire’s eyes became phosphorescent.

“I would jump into a blazing furnace for you,” he said.

“You are not asked to do so much,” she returned: “get the coach and in two hours we are off.”

“Agreed,” and he drew her to the rails to kiss her. “Oh, how are you going to get through the railings?”

“Stupid, I have the pass-key.”

Beausire uttered an Ah! full of admiration, and fled.

With brisk feet and thoughtful head, Nicole returned to her mistress, leaving Gilbert alone, to cogitate the questions which this interview excited. All he could guess of the puzzles was how the girl had obtained the money. This negation of his perspicacity was so goading to his natural curiosity or his acquired mistrust – have it either way – that he decided to pass the night in the open air, cold though it was, under the damp trees, to await the sequel to this scene.

A huge black cloud, coming out of the south, covered all the sky, so that beyond Versailles the sombre pall gradually lapped up all the stars which had been gleaming a while before in their azure canopy.

Nicole feared that some whim of her mistress would contravene her plan, and with that air of interest which the artful cat knew so well how to take, she said:

“I am afraid that you are not very well to-night; your eyes are red and swollen; I should think repose would do you good.”

“Do you think so? perhaps it would,” answered Andrea, without paying much heed, but extending her feet on a rug as she sat.

The girl accepted this reclining pose as a signal for her to take down her mistress’s headdress for the night; the unbuilding of a structure of ribbons, flowers and wire, which the most skillful “house-breaker” could not have demolished in an hour. Nicole was not a quarter of that time doing it.

The toilet for the night being completed, Andrea gave her orders for the coming day. The tuner was to come for her harpsichord and some books which Philip had sent to Versailles were to be fetched. Nicole tranquilly answered that if she were not roused in the night she would be up early, and would do everything before her mistress rose.

As Andrea, in her long night wrapper, was dreaming in her chair, Nicole put two drops of the draught Richelieu had given her, into the glass of drink on the night-table. Turbid for a moment, the water took an opal tint which faded away gradually.

“Your night-drink is set out,” said the maid: “your dresses folded up and the night-light lit. As I must be up early, can I go to bed now?”

“Yes,” replied Andrea, absently.

Nicole went out and glided into the garden.

Gilbert was looking out for her as he promised himself he would do, and saw her go up to the gates where she passed the master key to Beausire, who was ready. The gate was opened and the girl slipped through. The gate was locked again and the key thrown over, where Gilbert noticed its place of falling on the sward.

He drew a long breath in relief for he was quit of Nicole, an enemy. Andrea was left alone, and he might penetrate to her room.

This idea set his blood boiling with all the fury of fear and disquiet, curiosity and desire.

But, as he placed his foot on the lowest stairs of the flight leading to Andrea’s corridor, he beheld her, garbed in white, at the top step, coming down.

So white and solemn was she that he recoiled, and buried himself in a copse.

Once before, at Taverney, he had seen her thus walking in her sleep, when she was, without his suspecting it, under the mesmeric influence of Balsamo, the Magician.

Andrea passed Gilbert, almost touched him but did not see him.

Bewildered and overwhelmed, he felt his knees crook beneath him: he was frightened.

Not knowing to what errand to ascribe this night roaming, he watched her: but his reason was confounded, and his blood beat with impetuosity in his temples, being nearer folly than the coolness which a good observer ought to possess. He viewed her as he had always done since this fatal passion had entered his heart.

All of a sudden he thought the mystery was revealed: Andrea was not wandering out of her mind, but going to keep an appointment, albeit her step was slow and sepulchral.

A lightning flash illumined the sky. By its bluish glare Gilbert caught sight of a man, hiding in the linden walk, with pale visage and clothes in disorder. He stretched out one hand towards the girl as though to beckon her to him.

Something like pincers nipped Gilbert’s heart and he half rose to see the better.

Another lightning stroke streaked the sky.

He recognized Baron Balsamo, covered with dust, who had by the aid of mysterious intelligence, entered the locked-up Trianon, and was as invincibly and fatally drawing Andrea to him as a snake may a bird. Not till within two steps of him did she stop, when he took her hand and she quivered all over her body.

“Do you see?” he asked.

“Yes,” was her reply, “but you have nearly been the death of me in bringing me out like this.”

“It cannot be helped,” returned Balsamo: “I am in a whirl, and am ready to die with the craze upon me.”

“You do indeed suffer,” said she, informed of his state by the contact of his hand alone.

“Yes, and I come to you for consolation. You alone can save me. Can you follow me – ”

“Yes, if you conduct me with your mind.”

“Come!”

“Ah,” said Andrea, “we are in Paris – a street lit by a single lamp – we enter a house – we go up to the wall which opens to let us pass through. We are in so strange a chamber, with no doors and the windows are barred. How greatly in disorder is everything!”

“But it is empty? where is the person who was there last?”

“Give me some object of hers that I may be in touch.”

“This is a lock of her hair.”

Andrea laid the hair on her bosom.

“Oh, I know this woman, whom I have seen before – she is fleeing into the city.”

“Yes; but what was she doing these two hours before? Trace back.”

“Wait: she is lying on a sofa with a cut in the breast. She wakes from a sleep, and seeks round her. Taking a handkerchief she ties it to the window bars. Come down, poor woman! She weeps, she is in distress, she wrings her arms – ah! she is looking for a corner of the wall on which to dash out her brains. She springs towards the chimney-place where two lion heads in marble are embossed. On one of them she would beat out her brains when she sees a spot of blood on the lion’s eye. Blood, and yet she had not struck it?”

“It is mine,” said the mesmerist.

“Yes, yours. You cut your fingers with a dagger, the dagger with which she stabbed herself and you tried to get it away from her. Your bleeding fingers pressed the lion’s head.”

“It is true: how did she get out?”

“I see her examine the blood, reflect, and then lay her finger where yours was pressed. Oh, the lion’s head gives way – it is a spring which works: the chimney-plate opens.”

“Cursed imprudence of mine,” groaned the conspirator: “unhappy madman! I have betrayed myself through love. But she has gone out and flees?”

“The poor thing must be pardoned, she is so distressed.”

“Whither goes she, Andrea? follow, follow, I will it!”

“She stops in a room where are armor and furs: a safe is open but a casket usually kept in it is now on a table: she knows it again. She takes it.”

“What is in it?”

“Your papers. It is covered with blue velvet and studded with silver, the lock and bands are of the same metal.”

“Ha! was it she took the casket?” cried Balsamo, stamping his foot.

“Yes, she. Going down the stairs to the anteroom, she opens the door, draws the chain undoing the street door and is out in the street.”

“It is late?”

“It is nighttime. Once out, she runs like a mad thing up on the main street towards the Bastile. She knocks up against passengers and questions.”

“Lose not a word – what does she say?”

“She asks a man clad in black where she can find the Chief of Police.”

“So it was not a vain threat of hers. What does she do?”

“Having the address, she retraces her steps to cross a large square – ”

“Royale Place – it is the right road. Read her intention.”

“Run, run quick! she is going to denounce you – if she arrives at Criminal Lieutenant Sartine’ before you, you are lost!”

Balsamo uttered a terrible yell, sprang into the hedges, burst a small door, and got upon the open ground. There an Arab horse was waiting, on which he leaped at a bound. It started off like an arrow towards Paris.

Andrea stood mute, pale, and cold. But as though the magnetiser carried life away with him, she collapsed and fell. In his eagerness to overtake Lorenza, Balsamo had forgotten to arouse Andrea from the mesmeric sleep.

She had barely touched the ground before Gilbert leaped out with the vigor and agility of the tiger. He seized her in his arms and without feeling what a burden he had undertaken, he carried her back to the room which she had left on the call of Balsamo.

All the doors had been left open by the girl, and the candle was still burning.

As he stumbled against the sofa when he blundered in, he naturally placed her upon it. All became enfevered in him, though the lifeless body was cold. His nerves shivered and his blood burned.

Yet his first idea was pure and chaste: it was to restore consciousness to this beautiful statue. He sprinkled her face with water from the decanter.

But at this period, as his trembling hand was encircling the narrow neck of the crystal bottle, he heard a firm but light step make the stairs of wood and brick squeak on the way to the chamber.

It could not be Nicole who was on the way with Beausire or Balsamo who was galloping to Paris.

Whoever it was, Gilbert would be caught and expelled from the palace.

He fully comprehended that he was out of his place here. He blew out the candle and dashed into Nicole’s room, timing his movement as the thunder boomed in the heavens.

Through its glazed door he could see into the room he quitted and the anteroom.

In this latter burnt a night-light on a small table. Gilbert would have put that out also if he had time, but the steps creaked now on the landing. A man appeared on the sill, timidly glided through the antechamber, and shut the door which he bolted.

Gilbert held his breath, glued his face to the glass and listened with all his might.

The storm growled solemnly in the skies, large raindrops spattered on the windows, and in the corridor, an unfastened shutter banged sinisterly against the wall from time to time.

But the tumult of nature, these exterior sounds, however alarming, were nothing to Gilbert: all his thought, mind and being were concentrated in his gaze, fastened on this man.

Passing within two paces, this intruder walked into the other room. Gilbert saw him grope his way up to the bed, and make a gesture of surprise at finding it untenanted. He almost knocked the candle off the table with his elbow; but it fell on the table where the glass save-all jingled on the marble top.

“Nicole,” the stranger called twice, in a guarded voice.

“Why, Nicole?” muttered Gilbert. “Why does this man call on Nicole when he ought to address her mistress?”

No voice replying, the man picked up the candle and went on tiptoe to light it at the night-lamp.

Then it was that Gilbert’s attention was so concentrated on this strange night visitor that his eyes would have pierced a wall.

Suddenly he started and drew back a step although he was in concealment.

By the light of the two flames he had recognized in the man holding the candle – the King! All was clear to him: the flight of Nicole, the money counted down between her and Beausire, and all the dark plot of Richelieu and Taverney of which Andrea was the object.

He understood why the King should call upon Nicole, the complaisant female Judas who had sold her mistress.

At the thought of what the royal villain had come to commit in this room, the blood rushing to the young man’s head blinded him.

He meant to call out; but the reflection that this was the Lord’s anointed, the being still full of awe as the King of France – that froze the tongue of Gilbert to his mouth-roof.

Meanwhile, Louis XV. entered the room once more, bearing the light. He perceived Andrea, in the white muslin wrapper, with her head thrown back on the sofa pillow, with one foot on another cushion and the other, cold and stiff, out of the slipper, on the carpet.

At this sight the King smiled. The candle lit up this evil smile; but almost instantly a smile as sinister lighted up Andrea’s face.

Louis uttered some words, probably of love; and placing the light on the table, he cast a glance out at the enflamed sky, before kneeling to the girl, whose hand he kissed.

This was so chilly that he took it between both his to warm it, and with his other arm enclasping the soft and so beautiful body, he bent over to murmur some of the loving nonsense fitted for sleeping maids. His face was so close to hers that it touched it.

Gilbert felt in his pocket for a knife with a long blade which he used in pruning trees.

The face was as cold as the hand, which made the royal lover rise; his eyes wandered to the Cinderella foot, which he took hold of – it was as cold as the hand and the cheek. He shuddered for all seemed a marble statue.

Gilbert gritted his teeth and opened the knife, as he beheld so much beauty and regarded the royal threat as a robbery intended on him.

But the King dropped the foot as he had the hand. Surprised at the sleep which he had thought to be feigned in prudery by a coquet, he prepared to learn the nature of this insensibility.

Gilbert crept half way out of the doorway, with set teeth, glittering eye and the knife bared in his grip to stab the King.

Suddenly a frightful flash of lightning lit up Andrea’s face with a vivid glare of violet and sulphur light while the thunder made every article of furniture dance in the room. Frightened by her pallor, immobility and silence, Louis XV. recoiled, muttering:

“Truly the girl is dead!”

The idea of having wooed a corpse sent a shudder through his veins. He took up the candle and looked at Andrea by its flickering flame. Seeing the brown-circled eyes, the violet lips, the disheveled tresses, the throat which no breath raised, he uttered a shriek, let the candlestick fall, and staggered out through the antechamber like a drunken man, knocking against the wainscotting in his alarm.

Knife still in hand, Gilbert came out of his covert. He advanced to the room door and for a space contemplated the lovely young maid still in the profound sleep.

The candle smouldering on the floor lit up the delicate foot and the pure lines above it of the adorable creature.

Gilbert trod on the wick and in sudden obscurity was blotted out the dreadful smile which was curling his lips.

“Andrea,” he muttered, “I swore that you should not escape me the third time that you fell into my hands as you did the other two. Andrea, a terrible end was needed to the romance which you mocked at me for composing!”

With extended arms he walked towards the sofa where the girl was still cold, motionless and deprived of all feeling.