The Suitors of Yvonne | Page 7

ask you to be my second. I don't deserve it, perhaps. In my folly last night I did you an ill turn. I unwittingly caused you to be stripped of your commission. But if I were on my death-bed now, and begged a favour of you, you would not refuse it. And what difference is there 'twixt me and one who is on his death-bed? Am I not about to die?"
"Peste! I hope not," I made answer with more lightness than I felt. "But I'll stand by you with all my heart, Andrea."
"And you'll avenge me?" he cried savagely, his Southern blood a-boiling. "You'll not let him leave the ground alive?"
"Not unless my opponent commits the indiscretion of killing me first. Who seconds M. de Canaples?"
"The Marquis de St. Auban and M. de Montm��dy."
"And who is the third in our party?"
"I have none. I thought that perhaps you had a friend."
"I! A friend?" I laughed bitterly. "Pshaw, Andrea! beggars have no friends. But stay; find Stanislas de Gouville. There is no better blade in Paris. If he will join us in this frolic, and you can hold off Canaples until either St. Auban or Montm��dy is disposed of, we may yet leave the three of them on the field of battle. Courage, Andrea! Dum spiramus, speramus."
My words seemed to cheer him, and when presently he left me to seek out the redoubtable Gouville, the poor lad's face was brighter by far than when he had entered my room.
Down in my heart, however, I was less hopeful than I had led him to believe, and as I dressed after he had gone, 't was not without some uneasiness that I turned the matter over in my mind. I had, during the short period of our association, grown fond of Andrea de Mancini. Indeed the wonted sweetness of the lad's temper, and the gentleness of his disposition, were such as to breed affection in all who came in contact with him. In a way, too, methought he had grown fond of me, and I had known so few friends in life,--truth to tell I fear me that I had few of the qualities that engender friendship,--that I was naturally prone to appreciate a gift that from its rareness became doubly valuable.
Hence was it that I trembled for the boy. He had shown aptitude with the foils, and derived great profit from my tuition, yet he was too raw by far to be pitted against so cunning a swordsman as Canaples.
I had but finished dressing when a coach rumbled down the street and halted by my door. Naturally I supposed that someone came to visit Coupri, the apothecary,--to whom belonged this house in which I had my lodging,--and did not give the matter a second thought until Michelot rushed in, with eyes wide open, to announce that his Eminence, Cardinal Mazarin, commanded my presence in the adjoining room.
Amazed and deeply marvelling what so extraordinary a visit might portend, I hastened to wait upon his Eminence.
I found him standing by the window, and received from him a greeting that was passing curt and cavalier.
"Has M. de Mancini been here?" he inquired peremptorily, disregarding the chair I offered him.
"He has but left me, Monseigneur."
"Then you know, sir, of the harvest which he has already reaped from the indiscretion into which you led him last night?"
"If Monseigneur alludes to the affront put upon M. de Mancini touching his last night's indiscretion, by a bully of the Court, I am informed of it."
"Pish, Monsieur! I do not follow your fine distinctions--possibly this is due to my imperfect knowledge of the language of France, possibly to your own imperfect acquaintance with the language of truth."
"Monseigneur!"
"Faugh!" he cried, half scornfully, half peevishly. "I came not here to talk of you, but of my nephew. Why did he visit you?"
"To do me the honour of asking me to second him at St. Germain this evening."
"And so you think that this duel is to be fought?--that my nephew is to be murdered?"
"We will endeavour to prevent his being--as your Eminence daintily puts it--murdered. But for the rest, the duel, methinks, cannot be avoided."
"Cannot!" he blazed. "Do you say cannot, M. de Luynes? Mark me well, sir: I will use no dissimulation with you. My position in France is already a sufficiently difficult one. Already we are threatened with a second Fronde. It needs but such events as these to bring my family into prominence and make it the butt for the ridicule that malcontents but wait an opportunity to slur it with. This affair of Andrea's will lend itself to a score or so of lampoons and pasquinades, all of which will cast an injurious reflection upon my person and position. That, Monsieur, is, methinks, sufficient evil to suffer at your