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And thus, through the crowd, waving like the sea, leaving here a piece of a cloak, and there a fragment of a doublet, they arrived with the horses at a few steps from the scaffold. "Have we arrived?" asked the young man, panting. "Yes, happily!" answered Ernanton, "for I am exhausted." "I cannot see." "Come before me." "Oh, no! not yet. What are they doing?"
"Very good!" said De Loignac, "only I do not see where firing is to come from." "At the priory of the Jacobins, monsieur, they must draw close." This dialogue was interrupted by the king, who descended the staircase, followed by several gentlemen, among whom St. Maline, with rage in his heart, recognized Ernanton. "Gentlemen," said the king, "are my brave Forty-five all here?"
"So be it," said he, smiling; "it seems I have gained two friends." "Do not despise them; one has never too many." "That is true," said Ernanton; and he left them. Ernanton arrived at Paris on the third day. At three in the afternoon he entered the Louvre, among his comrades.
"What do you want?" said she to him. "Were not three whistles given from one of those windows just now?" "Yes." "Well, they were to summon me." "You?" "Yes." "On your honor?" "As a gentleman, Dame Fournichon." "Enter, then, monsieur, enter." And happy at having a client after her own heart, fit for the "Rose-tree of love," the hostess conducted Ernanton up the stairs herself.
Both the young men held out their hands. The king was embarrassed. "What is your name?" said he. "Ernanton de Carmainges, sire." "And yours?" "Rene de St. Maline." "M. de Carmainges, you shall carry the letter, and you, M. de St. Maline, shall deliver it." Ernanton took the precious deposit, and was going to place it in his doublet, when St.
Maline looked at each other. "Speak, monsieur, if you wish," said Ernanton to his adversary. St. Maline was suffocated by this courtesy, he could not speak, he could only bend his head; then Ernanton, advancing said, to Chicot "Monsieur, would it be indiscreet to inquire your name?" "I am called 'the Shade." "Do you expect anything?" "Yes, monsieur." "Will you be good enough to tell us what?"
A profound joy filled the heart of St. Maline, and a smile played on his lips, a rare thing with this somber and envious man. The forty-four therefore set off on their different routes. It is needless to say that Ernanton, whom St. Maline thought ruined, was, on the contrary, pursuing the course of his unexpected and ascending fortunes. He had, of course, gone first to the Hotel Guise.
Indeed, a noise of spurs, of voices, of doors shutting, and joyous exclamations, came from the room below, like the echo of an invasion. Ernanton looked out. "It is my companions," said he, "who have come here to spend their holiday." "But by what chance? just where we are."
"No; a man's." "What do you mean?" "What I say. I have an invitation to a rendezvous with a woman, written by a man; it seems she has a secretary." "Ah! go on, monsieur." "I cannot refuse you, monsieur. I will tell you the tenor of the note." "I listen." "You will see if it is like yours." "Oh! monsieur, I have no rendezvous no note." Ernanton then drew out a little paper.
The four bodies remained. "Monsieur," said the peasant, "were they Catholics or Huguenots?" "Huguenots," said Ernanton, who had seen the peasant cross himself in his first terror. "In that case there will be no harm in my searching them, will there?" "None," replied Ernanton, who thought it as well that the peasant should do it, as the first passer-by.
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