ruin him in saying so."
"Why?"
"Because he may be tried for it."
"Ah! absurd! they don't burn sorcerers nowadays."
"No? 'Tis not a long time since the late cardinal burnt
Urban Grandier, though."
"My friend, Urban Grandier wasn't a sorcerer, he was a
learned man. He didn't predict the future, he knew the past
-- often a more dangerous thing."
Mazarin nodded an assent, but wishing to know what this
prediction was, about which they disputed, he remained in
the same place.
"I don't say," resumed the guard, "that Coysel is not a
sorcerer, but I say that if his prophecy gets wind, it's a
sure way to prevent it's coming true."
"How so?"
"Why, in this way: if Coysel says loud enough for the
cardinal to hear him, on such or such a day such a prisoner
will escape, 'tis plain that the cardinal will take measures
of precaution and that the prisoner will not escape."
"Good Lord!" said another guard, who might have been thought
asleep on a bench, but who had lost not a syllable of the
conversation, "do you suppose that men can escape their
destiny? If it is written yonder, in Heaven, that the Duc de
Beaufort is to escape, he will escape; and all the
precautions of the cardinal will not prevent it."
Mazarin started. He was an Italian and therefore
superstitious. He walked straight into the midst of the
guards, who on seeing him were silent.
"What were you saying?" he asked with his flattering manner;
"that Monsieur de Beaufort had escaped, were you not?"
"Oh, no, my lord!" said the incredulous soldier. "He's well
guarded now; we only said he would escape."
"Who said so?"
"Repeat your story, Saint Laurent," replied the man, turning
to the originator of the tale.
"My lord," said the guard, "I have simply mentioned the
prophecy I heard from a man named Coysel, who believes that,
be he ever so closely watched and guarded, the Duke of
Beaufort will escape before Whitsuntide."
"Coysel is a madman!" returned the cardinal.
"No," replied the soldier, tenacious in his credulity; "he
has foretold many things which have come to pass; for
instance, that the queen would have a son; that Monsieur
Coligny would be killed in a duel with the Duc de Guise; and
finally, that the coadjutor would be made cardinal. Well!
the queen has not only one son, but two; then, Monsieur de
Coligny was killed, and ---- "
"Yes," said Mazarin, "but the coadjutor is not yet made
cardinal!"
"No, my lord, but he will be," answered the guard.
Mazarin made a grimace, as if he meant to say, "But he does
not wear the cardinal's cap;" then he added:
"So, my friend, it's your opinion that Monsieur de Beaufort
will escape?"
"That's my idea, my lord; and if your eminence were to offer
to make me at this moment governor of the castle of
Vincennes, I should refuse it. After Whitsuntide it would be
another thing."
There is nothing so convincing as a firm conviction. It has
its own effect upon the most incredulous; and far from being
incredulous, Mazarin was superstitious. He went away
thoughtful and anxious and returned to his own room, where
he summoned Bernouin and desired him to fetch thither in the
morning the special guard he had placed over Monsieur de
Beaufort and to awaken him whenever he should arrive.
The guard had, in fact, touched the cardinal in the
tenderest point. During the whole five years in which the
Duc de Beaufort had been in prison not a day had passed in
which the cardinal had not felt a secret dread of his
escape. It was not possible, as he knew well, to confine for
the whole of his life the grandson of Henry IV., especially
when this young prince was scarcely thirty years of age. But
however and whensoever he did escape, what hatred he must
cherish against him to whom he owed his long imprisonment;
who had taken him, rich, brave, glorious, beloved by women,
feared by men, to cut off his life's best, happiest years;
for it is not life, it is merely existence, in prison!
Meantime, Mazarin redoubled his surveillance over the duke.
But like the miser in the fable, he could not sleep for
thinking of his treasure. Often he awoke in the night,
suddenly, dreaming that he had been robbed of Monsieur de
Beaufort. Then he inquired about him and had the vexation of
hearing that the prisoner played, drank, sang, but that
whilst playing, drinking, singing, he often stopped short to
vow that Mazarin should pay dear for all the amusements he
had forced him to enter into at Vincennes.
So much did this one idea haunt the cardinal even in his
sleep, that when at seven in the morning Bernouin came to
arouse him, his first words were: "Well, what's the matter?
Has Monsieur de Beaufort escaped from Vincennes?"
"I do not think so, my lord," said Bernouin; "but you will
hear about him, for La Ramee is here and awaits the commands
of your eminence."
"Tell him to come in," said Mazarin, arranging his pillows,
so that he might receive the visitor sitting up in bed.
The officer entered, a large fat man, with an open
physiognomy. His air of perfect serenity made Mazarin
uneasy.
"Approach, sir," said the cardinal.
The officer obeyed.
"Do you know what they are saying here?"
"No, your eminence."
"Well, they say that Monsieur de Beaufort is going to escape
from Vincennes, if he has not done so already."
The officer's face expressed complete stupefaction. He
opened at once his little eyes and his great mouth, to
inhale better the joke his eminence deigned to address to
him, and ended by a burst of laughter, so violent that his
great limbs shook in hilarity as they would have done in an
ague.
"Escape! my lord -- escape! Your eminence does not then know
where Monsieur de Beaufort is?"
"Yes, I do, sir; in the donjon of Vincennes."
"Yes, sir; in a room, the walls of which are seven feet
thick, with grated windows, each bar as thick as my arm."
"Sir," replied Mazarin, "with perseverance one may penetrate
through a wall; with a watch-spring one may saw through an
iron bar."
"Then my lord does not know that there are eight guards
about him, four in his chamber, four in the antechamber, and
that they never leave him."
"But he leaves his room, he plays at tennis at the Mall?"
"Sir, those amusements are allowed; but if your eminence
wishes it, we will discontinue the permission."
"No, no!" cried Mazarin, fearing that should his prisoner
ever leave his prison he would be the more exasperated
against him if he thus retrenched his amusement. He then
asked with whom he played.
"My lord, either with the officers of the guard, with the
other prisoners, or with me."
"But does he not approach the walls while playing?"
"Your eminence doesn't know those walls; they are sixty feet
high and I doubt if Monsieur de Beaufort is sufficiently
weary of life to risk his neck by jumping off."
"Hum!" said the cardinal, beginning to feel more
comfortable. "You mean to say, then, my dear Monsieur la
Ramee ---- "
"That unless Monsieur de Beaufort can contrive to
metamorphose himself into a little bird, I will continue
answerable for him."
"Take care! you assert a great deal," said Mazarin.
"Monsieur de Beaufort told the guards who took him to
Vincennes that he had often thought what he should do in
case he were put into prison, and that he had found out
forty ways of escaping."
"My lord, if among these forty there had been one good way
he would have been out long ago."
"Come, come; not such a fool as I fancied!" thought Mazarin.
"Besides, my lord must remember that Monsieur de Chavigny is
governor of Vincennes," continued La Ramee, "and that
Monsieur de Chavigny is not friendly to Monsieur de
Beaufort."
"Yes, but Monsieur de Chavigny is sometimes absent."
"When he is absent I am there."
"But when you leave him, for instance?"
"Oh! when I leave him, I place in my stead a bold fellow who
aspires to be his majesty's special guard. I promise you he
keeps a good watch over the prisoner. During the three weeks
that he has been with me, I have only had to reproach him
with one thing -- being too severe with the prisoners."
"And who is this Cerberus?"
"A certain Monsieur Grimaud, my lord."
"And what was he before he went to Vincennes?"
"He was in the country, as I was told by the person who
recommended him to me."
"And who recommended this man to you?"
"The steward of the Duc de Grammont."
"He is not a gossip, I hope?"
"Lord a mercy, my lord! I thought for a long time that he
was dumb; he answers only by signs. It seems his former
master accustomed him to that."
"Well, dear Monsieur la Ramee," replied the cardinal "let
him prove a true and thankful keeper and we will shut our
eyes upon his rural misdeeds and put on his back a uniform
to make him respectable, and in the pockets of that uniform
some pistoles to drink to the king's health."
Mazarin was large in promises, -- quite unlike the virtuous
Monsieur Grimaud so bepraised by La Ramee; for he said
nothing and did much.
It was now nine o'clock. The cardinal, therefore, got up,
perfumed himself, dressed, and went to the queen to tell her
what had detained him. The queen, who was scarcely less
afraid of Monsieur de Beaufort than the cardinal himself,
and who was almost as superstitious as he was, made him
repeat word for word all La Ramee's praises of his deputy.
Then, when the cardinal had ended:
"Alas, sir! why have we not a Grimaud near every prince?"
"Patience!" replied Mazarin, with his Italian smile; "that
may happen one day; but in the meantime ---- "
"Well, in the meantime?"
"I shall still take precautions."
And he wrote to D'Artagnan to hasten his return.
17
Describes how the Duc de Beaufort amused his Leisure Hours
in the Donjon of Vincennes.
The captive who was the source of so much alarm to the
cardinal and whose means of escape disturbed the repose of
the whole court, was wholly unconscious of the terror he
caused at the Palais Royal.
He had found himself so strictly guarded that he soon
perceived the fruitlessness of any attempt at escape. His
vengeance, therefore, consisted in coining curses on the
head of Mazarin; he even tried to make some verses on him,
but soon gave up the attempt, for Monsieur de Beaufort had
not only not received from Heaven the gift of versifying, he
had the greatest difficulty in expressing himself in prose.
The duke was the grandson of Henry VI. and Gabrielle
d'Estrees -- as good-natured, as brave, as proud, and above
all, as Gascon as his ancestor, but less elaborately
educated. After having been for some time after the death of
Louis XIII. the favorite, the confidant, the first man, in
short, at the court, he had been obliged to yield his place
to Mazarin and so became the second in influence and favor;
and eventually, as he was stupid enough to be vexed at this
change of position, the queen had had him arrested and sent
to Vincennes in charge of Guitant, who made his appearance
in these pages in the beginning of this history and whom we
shall see again. It is understood, of course, that when we
say "the queen," Mazarin is meant.
During the five years of this seclusion, which would have
improved and matured the intellect of any other man, M. de
Beaufort, had he not affected to brave the cardinal, despise
princes, and walk alone without adherents or disciples,
would either have regained his liberty or made partisans.
But these considerations never occurred to the duke and
every day the cardinal received fresh accounts of him which
were as unpleasant as possible to the minister.
After having failed in poetry, Monsieur de Beaufort tried
drawing. He drew portraits, with a piece of coal, of the
cardinal; and as his talents did not enable him to produce a
very good likeness, he wrote under the picture that there
might be little doubt regarding the original: "Portrait of
the Illustrious Coxcomb, Mazarin." Monsieur de Chavigny, the
governor of Vincennes, waited upon the duke to request that
he would amuse himself in some other way, or that at all
events, if he drew likenesses, he would not put mottoes
underneath them. The next day the prisoner's room was full
of pictures and mottoes. Monsieur de Beaufort, in common
with many other prisoners, was bent upon doing things that
were prohibited; and the only resource the governor had was,
one day when the duke was playing at tennis, to efface all
these drawings, consisting chiefly of profiles. M. de
Beaufort did not venture to draw the cardinal's fat face.
The duke thanked Monsieur de Chavigny for having, as he
said, cleaned his drawing-paper for him; he then divided the
walls of his room into compartments and dedicated each of
these compartments to some incident in Mazarin's life. In
one was depicted the "Illustrious Coxcomb" receiving a
shower of blows from Cardinal Bentivoglio, whose servant he
had been; another, the "Illustrious Mazarin" acting the part
of Ignatius Loyola in a tragedy of that name; a third, the
"Illustrious Mazarin" stealing the portfolio of prime
minister from Monsieur de Chavigny, who had expected to have
it; a fourth, the "Illustrious Coxcomb Mazarin" refusing to
