'He see,' said Ercole, 'a gentleman touching the lute, seated in a bedroom, where lies, on a rich pillow, another gentleman,'-and as the boy stroked his face, and pointed to his hands-'wearing a mask and gloves. It is, he says, in my own land, in Italy,' and as the boy made the action of rowing, 'in the territory of Venice.'
'It is well,' said Madame de Selinville, who knew that nothing was more probable than that her brother should be playing the King to his sleep in the medicated mask and gloves that cherished the royal complexion, and, moreover, that Henry was lingering to take his pastime in Italy to the great inconvenience of his kingdom.
Her next question came nearer her heat-'You saw the gentleman with a scar. Will he leave this castle?'
The boy gazed, then made gestures of throwing his arms wide, and of passing out; and as he added his few words, the master explained:
'He sees the gentleman leaving the castle, through open gate, in full day, on horseback; and-and it is Madame who is with them,' he added, as the lad pointed decidedly to her, 'it is Madame who opens their prison.'
Diane's face lighted with gladness for a moment; then she said, faltering (most women of her day would not have been even thus reserved), 'Then I shall marry again?'
The boy gazed and knitted his brow; then, without any pantomime, looked up and spoke. 'The Eccellentissima shall be a bride once more, he says,' explained the man, 'but after a sort he cannot understand. It is exhausting, lady, thus to gaze into the invisible future; the boy becomes confused and exhausted ere long.'
'Once more-I will only ask of the past. My cousin, is he married or a widower?'
The boy clasped his hands and looked imploringly, shaking his head at the dark pool, as he murmured an entreating word to his master.
'Ah! Madame,' said the Italian, 'that question hath already been demanded by the young Inglese. The poor child has been so terrified by the scene it called up, that he implored he may not see it again. A sacked and burning town, a lady in a flaming house--'
'Enough, enough,' said de; 'I could as little bear to hear as he to see. It is what we have ever known and feared. And now'-she blushed as she spoke-'sir, you will leave me one of those potions that Signor Renato is wont to compound.'
'Capisco!' said Ercole; 'but the Eccellentissima shall he obeyed if she will supply the means, for the expense will be heavy.'
The bargain was agreed upon, and a considerable sum advanced for a philtre, compounded of strange Eastern plants and mystic jewels; and then Diane, with a shudder of relief, passed into the full light of the hall, bade her father good night, and was handed by him into the litter that had long been awaiting her at the door.
The Chevalier, then, with care on his brow, bent his steps towards the apartment where the Italian still remained counting the money he had received.
'So!' he said as he entered, 'so, fellow, I have not hindered your gains, and you have been true to your agreement?'
'Illustrissimo, yes. The pool of vision mirrored the flames, but nothing beyond-nothing-nothing.'
'They asked you then no more of those words you threw out of Esperance?'
'Only the English youth, sir; and there were plenty of other hopes to dance before the eyes of such a lad! With M. le Baron it will be needful to be more guarded.'
'M. le Baron shall not have the opportunity,' said the Chevalier. 'He may abide by his decision, and what the younger one may tell him. Fear not, good man, it shall be made good to you, if you obey my commands. I have other work for you. But first repeat to me more fully what you told me before. Where was it that you saw this unhappy girl under the name of Esperance?'
'At a hostel, sir, at Charente, where she was attending on an old heretic teacher of the name of Gardon, who had fallen sick there, being pinched by the fiend with rheumatic pains after his deserts. She bore the name of Esperance Gardon, and passed for his son's widow.'
'And by what means did you know her not to be the mean creature she pretended?' said the Chevalier, with a gesture of scornful horror.
'Illustrissimo, I never forget a face. I had seen this lady with M. le Baron when they made purchases of various trinkets at Montpipeau; and I saw her full again. I had the honour to purchase from her certain jewels, that the Eccellenza will probably redeem; and even-pardon, sir-I cut off and bought of her, her hair.'
'Her hair!' exclaimed the Chevalier, in horror. 'The miserable girl to have fallen so low! Is it with you, fellow?'
'Surely, Illustrissimo. Such tresses-so shining, so silky, so well kept,-I reserved to adorn the heads of Signor Renato's most princely customers', said the man, unpacking from the inmost recesses of one of his most ingeniously arranged packages, a parcel which contained the rich mass of beautiful black tresses. 'Ah! her head looked so noble,' he added, 'that I felt it profane to let my scissors touch those locks; but she said that she could never wear them openly more, and that they did but take up her time, and were useless to her child and her father-as she called him; and she much needed the medicaments for the old man that I gave her in exchange.'
'Heavens! A daughter of Ribaumont!' sighed the Chevalier, clenching his hand. 'And now, man, let me see the jewels with which the besotted child parted.'
The jewels were not many, nor remarkable. No one but a member of the family would have identified them, and not one of the pearls was there; and the Chevalier refrained from inquiring after them, lest, by putting the Italian on the scent of anything so exceptionally valuable, he should defeat his own object, and lead to the man's securing the pearls and running away with them. But Ercole understood his glance, with the quickness of a man whose trade forced him to read countenances. 'The Eccellenza is looking for the pearls of Ribaumont? The lady made no offer of them to me.'
'Do you believe that she has them still?'
'I am certain of it, sir. I know that she has jewels-though she said not what they were-which she preserved at the expense of her hair. It was thus. The old man had, it seems, been for weeks on the rack with pains caught by a chill when they fled from La Sablerie, and, though the fever had left him, he was still so stiff in the joints as to be unable to move. I prescribed for him unguents of balm and Indian spice, which, as the Eccellenza knows, are worth far more than their weight in gold; nor did these jewels make up the cost of these, together with the warm cloak for him, and the linen for her child that she had been purchasing. I tell you, sir, the babe must have no linen but the finest fabric of Cambrai-yes, and even carnation-coloured ribbons-though, for herself, I saw the homespun she was sewing. As she mused over what she could throw back, I asked if she had no other gauds to make up the price, and she said, almost within herself, "They are my child's, not mine." Then remembering that I had been buying the hair of the peasant maidens, she suddenly offered me her tresses. But I could yet secure the pearls, if Eccellenza would.'
'Do you then believe her to be in any positive want or distress?' said the Chevalier.
'Signor, no. The heretical households among whom she travels gladly support the families of their teachers, and at Catholic inns they pay their way. I understood them to be on their way to a synod of Satan at the nest of heretics, Montauban, where doubtless the old miscreant would obtain an appointment to some village.'
'When did you thus full in with them?'
'It was on one of the days of the week of Pentecost,' said Ercole. 'It is at that time I frequent fairs in those parts, to gather my little harvest on the maidens' heads.'
'Parbleu! class not my niece with those sordid beings, man,' said the Chevalier, angrily. 'Here is your price'-tossing a heavy purse on the table-'and as much more shall await you when you bring me sure intelligence where to find my niece. You understand; and mark, not one word of the gentleman you saw here. You say she believes him dead?'