The War of Women. Volume 2. Dumas Alexandre
you there, Nanon?" Canolles asked.
A stifled "Yes" reached his ears.
At that moment he heard steps in the corridor. The sentinel presented arms; the messenger entered and followed his introducer with his eyes, until he was, or thought he was, alone with Canolles. Then he removed his hat and threw back his cloak; immediately a mass of blond locks fell down over a pair of shapely shoulders, the graceful, willowy form of a woman appeared under the gold baldric, and Canolles, by the sad, sweet expression of her face, recognized the Vicomtesse de Cambes.
"I told you that I would seek you," she said, "and I keep my word; here I am."
Canolles clasped his hands and fell upon a chair in speechless amazement, and an agony of fear.
"You! you!" he muttered. "Mon Dieu! why are you here; what seek you here?"
"I have come to ask you, monsieur, if you still remember me."
Canolles heaved a heart-breaking sigh, and put his hands before his eyes, seeking to banish the ravishing but fatal apparition.
Everything was made clear to him in an instant; Nanon's alarm, her pallor, her trembling, and, above all, her desire to be present at the interview. Nanon, with the keen eyes of jealousy, had detected a woman in the flag of truce.
"I have come to ask you," continued Claire, "if you are ready to carry out the engagement you entered into with me in the little room at Jaulnay, – to send your resignation to the queen, and enter the service of the princes."
"Oh! silence! silence!" cried Canolles.
Claire shuddered at the accent of utter dismay in the commandant's voice, and glanced uneasily about the room.
"Are we not alone here?" she asked.
"We are, madame; but may not some one hear us through the walls?"
"I thought that the walls of Fort Saint-Georges were more solid than that," said Claire with a smile.
Canolles made no reply.
"I have come to ask you," Claire resumed, "how it happens that I have heard nothing of you during the eight or ten days you have been here, – so that I should still know nothing as to who is governor of Île Saint-Georges, had not chance, or public rumor, informed me that it is the man who swore to me, barely twelve days since, that his disgrace was the best of good fortune, since it enabled him to devote his arm, his courage, his life, to the party to which I belong."
Nanon could not repress a movement, which made Canolles jump and Madame de Cambes turn her head.
"Pray, what was that?" she demanded.
"Nothing," Canolles replied; "one of the regular noises of this old room. There is no end to the dismal creaking and groaning here."
"If it is anything else," said Claire, laying her hand upon Canolles' arm, "be frank with me, baron, for you must realize the importance of this interview between us, when I decided to come myself to seek you."
Canolles wiped the perspiration from his brow, and tried to smile.
"Say on," said he.
"I reminded you a moment since of your promise, and asked you if you were ready to keep it."
"Alas, madame," said Canolles, "it has become impossible."
"Why so?"
"Because since that time many unforeseen events have happened, many ties which I thought broken forever have been formed anew; for the punishment which I knew I had merited, the queen has substituted a recompense of which I am unworthy; to-day I am united to her Majesty's party by – gratitude."
A sigh floated out upon the air. Poor Nanon doubtless was expecting a different word from the one that ended the sentence.
"Say by ambition, Monsieur de Canolles, and I can understand it. You are nobly born; at twenty-eight you are made lieutenant-colonel, and governor of a fortress; it's all very fine, I know; but it is no more than the fitting reward of your merit, and Monsieur de Mazarin is not the only one who appreciates it."
"Madame," said Canolles, "not another word, I beg."
"Pardon, monsieur," returned Claire, "but on this occasion it is not the Vicomtesse de Cambes who speaks to you, but the envoy of Madame la Princesse, who is intrusted with a mission to you, – a mission which she must now fulfil."
"Speak, madame," said Canolles, with a sigh which was much like a groan.
"Very well! Madame la Princesse, being aware of the sentiments which you expressed, in the first place at Chantilly, and afterwards at Jaulnay, and being anxious to know to what party you really belong, determined to send you a flag of truce to make an attempt to secure the fortress; this attempt, which another messenger might have made with much less ceremony, perhaps, I undertook to make, thinking that I should have more chance of success, knowing, as I do, your secret thoughts on the subject."
"Thanks, madame," said Canolles, tearing his hair; for, during the short pauses in the dialogue, he could hear Nanon's heavy breathing.
"This is what I have to propose to you, monsieur, in the name of Madame la Princesse, let me add; for if it had been in my own name," continued Claire, with her charming smile, "I should have reversed the order of the propositions."
"I am listening," said Canolles, in a dull voice.
"I propose that you surrender Île Saint-Georges on one of the three conditions which I submit to your choice. The first is this, – and pray remember that it does not come from me: the sum of two hundred thousand livres – "
"Oh, madame, go no further," said Canolles, trying to break off the interview at that point. "I have been intrusted by the queen with the post of commandant at Île Saint-Georges, and I will defend it to the death."
"Remember the past, monsieur," said Claire, sadly; "that is not what you said to me at our last interview, when you proposed to abandon everything to follow me, when you had the pen already in your hand to offer your resignation to the persons for whom you propose to sacrifice your life to-day."
"I might have had that purpose, madame, when I was free to choose my own road; but to-day I am no longer free – "
"You are no longer free!" cried Claire, turning pale as death; "how am I to understand that? What do you mean?"
"I mean that I am in honor bound."
"Very well! then listen to my second proposition."
"To what end?" said Canolles; "have I not told you often enough, madame, that my resolution is immovable? So do not tempt me; you would do so to no purpose."
"Forgive me, monsieur," said Claire, "but I, too, am intrusted with a mission, and I must go through with it to the end."
"Go on," murmured Canolles; "but you are very cruel."
"Resign your command, and we will work upon your successor more effectively than upon you. In a year, in two years, you can take service under Monsieur le Prince with the rank of brigadier."
Canolles sadly shook his head.
"Alas! madame," said he, "why do you ask nothing of me but impossibilities?"
"Do you make that answer to me?" said Claire. "Upon my soul, monsieur, I do not understand you. Weren't you on the point of signing your resignation once? Did you not say to her who was beside you at that time, listening to you with such delight, that you did it freely and from the bottom of your heart? Why, I pray to know, will you not do here, when I ask you, when I beg you to do it, the very thing that you proposed to do at Jaulnay?"
Every word entered poor Nanon's heart like a dagger-thrust, and Canolles seemed to share her agony.
"That which at that time was an act of trifling importance would to-day be treachery, infamous treachery!" said Canolles, gloomily. "I will never surrender Île Saint-Georges, I will never resign my post!"
"Stay, stay," said Claire in her sweetest voice, but looking about uneasily all the while; for Canolles' resistance, and, above all, the constraint under which he was evidently laboring seemed very strange to her. "Listen now to my last