"You say well," said the King; "but, at least, it belongs to thy duty to prevent interruption, and to guard the execution of my most just sentence."
"I will do so against all Peronne," said Le Balafré. "Your Majesty need not doubt my fealty in that which I can reconcile to my conscience, which, for mine own convenience and the service of your royal Majesty, I can vouch to be a pretty large one – at least, I know I have done some deeds for your Majesty, which I would rather have eaten a handful of my own dagger than I would have done for any else."
"Let that rest," said the King; "and hear you – when Galeotti is admitted, and the door shut on him, do you stand to your weapon, and guard the entrance on the inside of the apartment. Let no one intrude – that is all I require of you. Go hence, and send the Provost-Marshal to me."
Balafré left the apartment accordingly, and in a minute afterwards Tristan l'Hermite entered from the hall.
"Welcome, gossip," said the King; "what thinkest thou of our situation?"
"As of men sentenced to death," said the Provost-Marshal, "unless there come a reprieve from the Duke."
"Reprieved or not, he that decoyed us into this snare shall go our fourrier to the next world, to take up lodgings for us," said the King, with a grisly and ferocious smile. "Tristan, thou hast done many an act of brave justice – finis – I should have said funis – coronat opus. Thou must stand by me to the end."
"I will, my liege," said Tristan; "I am but a plain fellow, but I am grateful. I will do my duty within these walls, or elsewhere; and while I live, your Majesty's breath shall pour as potential a note of condemnation, and your sentence be as literally executed, as when you sat on your own throne. They may deal with me the next hour for it if they will – I care not."
"It is even what I expected of thee, my loving gossip," said Louis; "but hast thou good assistance? – the traitor is strong and able-bodied, and will doubtless be clamorous for aid. The Scot will do nought but keep the door; and well that he can be brought to that, by flattery and humouring. Then Oliver is good for nothing but lying, flattering, and suggesting dangerous counsels; and, Ventre Saint-dieu! I think is more like one day to deserve the halter himself, than to use it to another. Have you men, think you, and means, to make sharp and sure work?"
"I have Trois-Eschelles and Petit-André with me," said he – "men so expert in their office, that out of three men, they would hang up one ere his two companions were aware. And we have all resolved to live or die with your Majesty, knowing we shall have as short breath to draw when you are gone, as ever fell to the lot of any of our patients. – But what is to be our present subject, an it please your Majesty? I love to be sure of my man; for, as your Majesty is pleased sometimes to remind me, I have now and then mistaken the criminal, and strung up in his place an honest labourer, who had given your Majesty no offence."
"Most true," said the other. "Know then, Tristan, that the condemned person is Martius Galeotti. – You start, but it is even as I say. The villain hath trained us all hither by false and treacherous representations, that he might put us into the hands of the Duke of Burgundy without defence."
"But not without vengeance!" said Tristan; "were it the last act of my life, I would sting him home like an expiring wasp, should I be crushed to pieces on the next instant!"
"I know thy trusty spirit," said the King, "and the pleasure which, like other good men, thou dost find in the discharge of thy duty, since virtue, as the schoolmen say, is its own reward. But away, and prepare the priests, for the victim approaches."
"Would you have it done in your own presence, my gracious liege?" said Tristan.
Louis declined this offer; but charged the Provost-Marshal to have every thing ready for the punctual execution of his commands the moment the Astrologer left his apartment; "for," said the King, "I will see the villain once more, just to observe how he bears himself towards the master whom he has led into the toils. I shall love to see the sense of approaching death strike the colour from that ruddy cheek, and dim that eye which laughed as it lied. – O, that there were but another with him, whose counsels aided his prognostications! But if I survive this – look to your scarlet, my Lord Cardinal! for Rome shall scarce protect you – be it spoken under favour of Saint Peter and the blessed Lady of Clery, who is all over mercy. – Why do you tarry? Go get your grooms ready. I expect the villain instantly. I pray to Heaven he take not fear and come not! – that were indeed a baulk. Begone, Tristan – thou wert not wont to be so slow when business was to be done."
"On the contrary, an it like your Majesty, you were ever wont to say that I was too fast, and mistook your purpose, and did the job on the wrong subject. Now, please your Majesty to give me a sign, just when you part with Galeotti for the night, whether the business goes on or no. I have known your Majesty once or twice change your mind, and blame me for over-dispatch.[51]"
"Thou suspicious creature," answered King Louis, "I tell thee I will not change my mind; – but to silence thy remonstrances, observe, if I say to the knave at parting, 'There is a Heaven above us!' then let the business go on; but if I say, 'Go in peace,' you will understand that my purpose is altered."
"My head is somewhat of the dullest out of my own department," said Tristan' l'Hermite. "Stay, let me rehearse – If you bid him depart in peace, I am to have him dealt upon?"
"No, no – idiot, no!" said the King; "in that case you let him pass free. But if I say, 'There is a Heaven above us!' up with him a yard or two nearer the planets he is so conversant with."
"I wish we may have the means here," said the Provost.
"Then up with him or down with him, it matters not which," answered the King, grimly smiling.
"And the body," said the Provost, "how shall we dispose of it?"
"Let me see an instant," said the King – "the windows of the hall are too narrow; but that projecting oriel is wide enough. We will over with him into the Somme, and put a paper on his breast, with the legend, 'Let the justice of the King pass toll-free.' The Duke's officers may seize it for duties if they dare."
The Provost-Marshal left the apartment of Louis, and summoned his two assistants to council in an embrasure in the great hall, where Trois-Eschelles stuck a torch against the wall to give them light. They discoursed in whispers, little noticed by Oliver le Dain, who seemed sunk in dejection, and Le Balafré, who was fast asleep.
"Comrades," said the Provost to his executioners, "perhaps you have thought that our vocation was over, or that, at least, we were more likely to be the subjects of the duty of others, than to have any more to discharge on our own parts. But courage, my mates! our gracious master has reserved for us one noble cast of our office, and it must be gallantly executed, as by men who would live in history."
"Ay, I guess how it is," said Trois-Eschelles; "our patron is like the old Kaisars of Rome, who, when things came to an extremity, or, as we would say, to the ladder foot with them, were wont to select from their own ministers of justice some experienced person, who might spare their sacred persons from the awkward attempts of a novice or blunderer in our mystery. It was a pretty custom for Ethnics; but, as a good catholic, I should make some scruple at laying hands on the Most Christian King."
Note 51
Varillas, in a history of Louis XI., observes, that his Provost-Marshal was often so precipitate in execution as to slay another person instead of him whom the King had indicated. This always occasioned a double execution, for the wrath or revenge of Louis was never satisfied with a vicarious punishment.