The Greatest Historical Novels. Rafael Sabatini
He is lost. Irrevocably.'
De Batz swore viciously. 'If he's not dead,' he added, 'I'll get him out of their hands somehow.'
'If you try,' said Devaux, 'you will merely thrust your own head through the window of the guillotine, and you owe it to us all and to the cause not to do that. Come to your senses, man. This is not a matter in which you can interfere. Not all the influence you can command—not if you had twenty times the influence you have—could you do anything. If you attempt it, you'll doom yourself by betraying your share in last night's events, which rests at present on the word of only one man who could easily be shown to have been mistaken in the dark. Resign yourself, my friend. There are no battles without casualties.'
De Batz sat down and took his head in his hands. There was a lugubrious silence. Devaux, himself a member of a government department, spoke with authority. Moreover, he was known for a man of calm, clear judgment. Boissancourt and Roussel confirmed his words. The Marquis de la Guiche, however, was more of the temper of de Batz.
'If we knew at least how this thing happened,' he exclaimed. 'Was it just blundering Fate that intervened, or was there betrayal?' He turned to Langéac. 'You did not think of seeking news of Michonis at his house?'
'You may call me a coward for that,' the young man answered. 'But, frankly, I dared not. If there was betrayal, the house of Michonis would be a trap for any of us.'
The Baron's face remained sternly inscrutable.
'You have not yet told us what actually you did in Paris.'
'I went to the Rue de Ménars, and I saw Tissot. There had been no domiciliary visit there, which at least is hopeful; for in the event of betrayal that is where investigations must have begun.'
The Baron nodded. 'Yes. Well? After that?'
'After that I sought Pomelles.'
La Guiche flung him a fresh sneer.
'Oh, of course you must report our failure to d'Entragues's committee.'
'You will remember, Monsieur le Marquis, that, after all, I am d'Entragues's man.'
'I should like you better if I could forget it, Langéac,' said de Batz. 'What had Pomelles to say?'
'I am required to start for Hamm at once, to report the event.'
At this the Baron's barely suppressed fury burst forth again.
'Ah, that, for instance! To be sure he'll be in haste to have my failure reported, and your friend d'Entragues will rub his hands over it. When do you start?'
'Tonight, if you offer no objection.'
'I? Offer objection? To your departure? My good Langéac, I have never yet discovered a use for you. I thought I had last night. But you have shown me how ridiculous was the assumption. Oh, you may go to Hamm or to Hell when you please.'
Langéac got up. 'De Batz, you are intolerable.'
'Report it with the rest.'
Langéac was shaking with indignation. 'You make me glad that our association is at an end.'
'Then we are both pleased, Langéac. A safe journey to you.'
CHAPTER XVIII
LANGÉAC'S REPORT
It may be that as a consequence of the terms on which they parted, Langéac permitted no hopefulness to mitigate the pessimism of the report he presented to d'Entragues at Hamm a week later.
And d'Entragues actually did rub his hands as de Batz had foretold.
'That boastful Gascon's failure was foregone,' he commented with his crooked smile. 'Nothing else ever attends his rhodomontades. This would be a dark moment if our hopes had rested upon his success. Fortunately her Majesty's deliverance is as good as assured by my own measures at Vienna. The Maréchal de Coburg has received instructions to propose an exchange of prisoners—the members of the Convention whom Dumouriez delivered to Austria against the imprisoned members of the royal family. I hear from Monsieur de Trauttmansdorff that the proposal has been well received, and there is now little doubt that the exchange will be effected. So that the failure of Monsieur de Batz finds me without tears.' He paused. 'What gentlemen did you say his rashness has lost to us?'
'The Chevalier de Larnache and André-Louis Moreau.'
'Moreau?' D'Entragues searched his memory a moment. 'Oh, yes! That other Rhodomont whom de Batz enlisted here. Why ...' He checked on a sudden thought. The expression of his dark, lean face was very odd, thought Monsieur de Langéac as he watched it. Abruptly the Count asked him, 'Was Monsieur Moreau killed, do you say?'
'If he was not killed on the spot, which he may well have been, he will certainly be dead by now. The Revolutionary Tribunal would not be likely to spare a man arraigned on his indictment.'
D'Entragues was plunged in thought. At last, 'Well, well!' he said. 'You had better come with your tale to Monsieur. I think it will interest him.'
Within an hour or two of hearing Monsieur de Langéac's report, the Comte de Provence paid a visit to the Lord of Gavrillac at his lodging at the Bear Inn.
In a prince so rigid in the observance of forms, this was an overwhelming condescension. But it was no longer a novelty where Monsieur de Kercadiou and his niece were concerned. It was become a habit on the part of his Highness to drop in upon them in informal, unceremonious fashion, and to sit in that room of theirs, his mantle of rank if not entirely discarded at least so far loosened on these occasions that he would discuss with them almost on terms of equality the news of the day and the hopes and fears which he built upon it.
Aline's preconceptions on the score of birth and rank discovered for her in this, in the earnestness with which Monsieur would canvass her opinions and in the attention with which he would listen to them when expressed, a very subtle flattery. The regard which he invariably showed her served to increase her regard both for him and for herself. His patience in straitened circumstances, his fortitude in the face of adversity, brought her to perceive in him a personal nobility which gratified her every expectation, lent a romantic glamour to his clumsy, almost plebeian exterior. In the background, to confirm her perception in him of these truly princely qualities and to quicken her admiration of them, stood that born intriguer, the Mephistophelian d'Entragues, with dark ends of his own to serve.
The ambitions of the Comte d'Entragues aimed high, as we know. He had known how to render himself indispensable to the Regent. It was for him to maintain himself in this position, to the end that, when the restoration came, he should be the first man in the State. D'Avaray's high favour with Monsieur offered the only possible obstacle to the ultimate full achievement of that ambition. The Comte d'Avaray owed his position in the first instance to Madame de Balbi. It was she who had placed him at Monsieur's side, and between them d'Avaray and de Balbi ruled his Highness. Let Madame de Balbi be thrust from her high place as maîtresse-en-titre, and d'Avaray's security would be shaken at the same time. Therefore, it was against her that d'Entragues directed his underground attack. Several already had been the ladies who had aroused his hopes. But the Regent in these affairs was just a callow, ostentatious boaster. Not only must he kiss and tell; but to him kissing without telling would scarcely be worth the trouble. Through all his infidelities, Monsieur had continued, after his fashion, faithful to Madame de Balbi. But now, at last, d'Entragues foresaw an affair of quite another order. Ever on the alert, he had observed in Monsieur's eyes, when they dwelt upon the delicate Mademoiselle de Kercadiou, something upon which solidly to build his hopes. And the study of Aline, herself, had confirmed him. Here, either his Highness would never prevail, or else, if he prevailed, Mademoiselle de Kercadiou's rule would be absolute. Thus had d'Entragues come to regard her as the one person who might achieve the complete and permanent eclipse of the Balbi. But like all truly efficient and dangerous intriguers, d'Entragues never hurried matters; as long as he beheld them travelling, however slowly, in the desired direction,