The Bath Keepers Volume I Part 45

"The fact is that I am quite as willing to sit down as to stumble at every step on these horrible roads.--What an infernal way for Leodgard to make us take!--I say, Comte de Marvejols, where are you? I want to congratulate you!--Where in the devil is my valet Bruno? Let him bring a torch here, and we will have another game."

"Your esquire is ahead; he walked on."

"I must call him.--Messieurs, messieurs, you fellows who are still on your legs, have the kindness to call my esquire, my page, my varlet--that rascal who is going off with the lanterns yonder, without taking the trouble to see if his master is following him."

These words were addressed to three other young gentlemen who had halted a few yards away. Among them was Leodgard de Marvejols, whose features were far from denoting hilarity, and who did not seem, like some of his friends, to have left his reason at the bottom of his gla.s.s.

The servant, being recalled, came back and placed a lighted lantern on the ground, near the two gentlemen who were already seated on the gra.s.s.

The others decided to join them; but Leodgard remained a little behind, leaning thoughtfully against a solitary tree.

"Do you propose to stay here, my fine fellows?" he asked.

"Yes; the fresh air has finished us, we cannot stand on our legs any longer."

"It is a fact that the supper was delicious and the wines exquisite.

Montrevert did things very handsomely; his _pet.i.te maison_ is a delightful place."

"Speaking of Montrevert, did he not say that he was coming with us?"

"Yes; he said: 'Go on, and I will overtake you.'"

"Well, he does not seem to have overtaken us, and we are a good quarter of a league from his house."

"That is true, and it is an additional reason why we should rest here and wait for him."

"Bah! he won't come; he has probably remained with his infanta. She is a very pretty girl, that Herminie!"

"But I tell you, messieurs, that Montrevert will come; he cannot stay at his _pet.i.te maison_, for he must be in Paris to-morrow for the king's _lever_. He has hopes of being admitted to the company of Gray Mousquetaires, which his majesty has just organized; it is a bodyguard that is to attend him everywhere, even to the hunt.--Vive Dieu!

messieurs, but it is a fine corps! Such a coquettish uniform--red, trimmed with gold. Ah! what conquests those fellows will make with that uniform!"

"Look you, I too have some hope of entering this corps of mousquetaires," said the young Marquis de Senange, trying to straighten up and maintain a sitting posture on the gra.s.s. "I too ought to be at the king's _lever_ to-morrow--or rather, this morning. But I think that I shall not be there! I am too dizzy--deuce take it! Youth is the age of folly and pleasure.--Ah! I wish I could find someone who would sit back to back with me; we would support each other.--Monclair, sit behind me."

"No; I am very comfortable, I refuse to stir."

"What a selfish beast that little Monclair is!--Come, La Valteline, and you, Beausseilly--come and sit down with us."

The two young men who were still standing decided to seat themselves on the gra.s.s near their companions. But he who was called La Valteline turned toward Leodgard and shouted:

"Well! Comte de Marvejols, aren't you going to join us? What the deuce are you doing there, all alone, with your eyes fixed on the sky? are you going into astrology? Beware! you know that a commission is sitting at the a.r.s.enal, in the Poison Chamber, for the express purpose of trying persons accused of magic! And astrologers are very closely related to sorcerers!"

"Messieurs," said the Sire de Beausseilly, lowering his voice, "poor Leodgard is in no laughing mood, and you must understand why: he was very unlucky at cards to-night, he lost all that he possessed to Montrevert, and, I believe, a hundred pistoles more on credit."

"He is always unlucky with Montrevert, he ought never to play with him; for that charming _pet.i.te maison_ where we supped, which is decorated so suggestively, used to belong to Marvejols; he staked it against heaven knows what sum with Montrevert! And now that delicious resort no longer belongs to him! To be sure, Montrevert often invites him there."

"If he does it in order to win his money, as he has done to-night, it is not very amusing for Leodgard. I have noticed that fortune has been very adverse to him for some time past. He always loses, poor fellow!"

"And I believe he is in debt; he owes everybody!"

"Vive Dieu! messieurs, should a man torment himself because he is in debt? As for myself, I have creditors, and plenty of them--I am proud of the fact! But when the knaves have the impudence to ask me for money, then I draw my sword and shout and curse and excite myself to such a frenzy that they run away as if the devil was at their heels! That is the way to arrange one's affairs!"

Leodgard had not heard La Valteline's call, for he was still looking at the stars.

"Stay, messieurs; I will wager that I will make him come; I know the way.--Hola! Bruno! come here, knave! Have you the dice and diceboxes in your pocket?"

"Yes, seigneur."

"Give them to me."

The valet handed to his master, the Marquis de Senange, two ivory diceboxes and the dice; the young man placed the dice in one of the boxes and shook them a long while, then began to exclaim:

"Seven--eleven--twelve! I have won! I have won!"

The rattling of the dice produced the effect which Senange antic.i.p.ated: Leodgard, roused from his reverie, left his place and drew near the gentlemen who were seated about the torch.

"What, messieurs! are you shaking dice on the gra.s.s?" he asked.

"Senange is shaking all by himself at this moment."

"I heard him say that he had won."

"Pardieu! yes, for I have won; I bet that with my dice I would draw the Comte de Marvejols. .h.i.ther.--Tell me, my masters, did I succeed?--Come, Leodgard, sit down and laugh a bit with us! What is the use of losing your temper with Fortune? What good does it do? She's a woman; what she will not grant to-day, she will grant to-morrow."

"Moreover, Comte Leodgard cannot accuse Fortune with a good grace; for if she is adverse to him at play, with the fair she seems to treat him like a spoiled child."

"There is a report of a certain _bonne fortune_ with a damsel on Rue Dauphine; and I hear that the little one is as beautiful as Cupid. She was kept carefully concealed, but that devil of a Leodgard would discover her kind at the bottom of a well or on top of the steepest cliffs!"

"Come, Leodgard, tell us about this intrigue."

"Yes, yes! tell us about this bourgeois _bonne fortune_. It will help us to pa.s.s the time until Montrevert comes; he must have fallen into some hole in the road."

Leodgard stretched himself out carelessly on the gra.s.s and looked at his companions, saying:

"Has anyone anything to drink? I am extremely thirsty, and I can't tell my story unless I have something to drink."

"By Saint Jacques! I would like a drink, too!" muttered young Monclair, making vain efforts to sit up.

"What! not a drop? and no wine shops near by!"

"A cheerful spot, the neighborhood of this horrible Pont-aux-Choux!--There is not a house in sight--not even a hovel!"

"Wait, my friends, wait.--Hola! Bruno!"

The Marquis de Senange's valet approached the group.

"Bruno, do you not always carry a gourd, like the pilgrims when they set out on a long journey?"

"Yes, seigneur, I do."