Under the Red Robe | Page 5

not I should have wasted my money.
Nevertheless, a little later, when I found myself on my way to the Hotel
Richelieu under so close a guard that I could see nothing in the street
except the figures that immediately surrounded me, I wished that I had
given him the money. At such times, when all hangs in the balance and
the sky is overcast, the mind runs on luck and old superstitions, and is
prone to think a crown given here may avail there--though THERE be a
hundred leagues away.
The Palais Richelieu was at this time in building, and we were required
to wait in a long, bare gallery, where the masons were at work. I was
kept a full hour here, pondering uncomfortably on the strange whims
and fancies of the great man who then ruled France as the King's
Lieutenant-General, with all the King's powers, and whose life I had
once been the means of saving by a little timely information. On
occasion he had done something to wipe out the debt; and at other
times he had permitted me to be free with him, and so far we were not
unknown to one another.
Nevertheless, when the doors were at last thrown open, and I was led
into his presence, my confidence underwent a shock. His cold glance,
that, roving over me, regarded me not as a man but an item, the steely

glitter of his southern eyes, chilled me to the bone. The room was bare,
the floor without carpet or covering. Some of the woodwork lay about,
unfinished and in pieces. But the man--this man, needed no
surroundings. His keen pale face, his brilliant eyes, even his
presence--though he was of no great height, and began already to stoop
at the shoulders--were enough to awe the boldest. I recalled, as I looked
at him, a hundred tales of his iron will, his cold heart, his unerring craft.
He had humbled the King's brother, the splendid Duke of Orleans, in
the dust. He had curbed the Queen-mother. A dozen heads, the noblest
in France, had come to the block through him. Only two years before
he had quelled Rochelle; only a few months before he had crushed the
great insurrection in Languedoc: and though the south, stripped of its
old privileges, still seethed with discontent, no one in this year 1630
dared lift a hand against him--openly, at any rate. Under the surface a
hundred plots, a thousand intrigues, sought his life or his power; but
these, I suppose, are the hap of every great man.
No wonder, then, that the courage on which I plumed myself sank low
at sight of him; or that it was as much as I could do to mingle with the
humility of my salute some touch of the SANG FROID of old
acquaintanceship.
And perhaps that had had been better left out. For it seemed that this
man was without bowels. For a moment, while he stood looking at me,
and before he spoke to me, I gave myself up for lost. There was a glint
of cruel satisfaction in his eyes that warned me, before he opened his
mouth, what he was going to say to me.
'I could not have made a better catch, M. de Berault,' he said, smiling
villainously, while he gently smoothed the fur of a cat that had sprung
on the table beside him. 'An old offender, and an excellent example. I
doubt it will not stop with you. But later, we will make you the warrant
for flying at higher game.'
'Monseigneur has handled a sword himself,' I blurted out. The very
room seemed to be growing darker, the air colder. I was never nearer
fear in my life.

'Yes?' he said, smiling delicately. 'And so--?'
'Will not be too hard on the failings of a poor gentleman.'
'He shall suffer no more than a rich one,' he replied suavely as he
stroked the cat. 'Enjoy that satisfaction, M. de Berault. Is that all?'
'Once I was of service to your Eminence,' I said desperately.
'Payment has been made,' he answered, 'more than once. But for that I
should not have seen you.'
'The King's face!' I cried, snatching at the straw he seemed to hold out.
He laughed cynically, smoothly. His thin face, his dark moustache, and
whitening hair, gave him an air of indescribable keenness.
'I am not the King,' he said. 'Besides, I am told that you have killed as
many as six men in duels. You owe the King, therefore, one life at least.
You must pay it. There is no more to be said, M. de Berault,' he
continued coldly, turning away and beginning to collect some papers.
'The law must take its course.'
I thought that