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"Certainly not!" was the emphatic answer. "The fight was about a woman, was it not?" "A woman was the cause of it," I answered, with a heavy sigh. "But how do you know?" "To tell the truth," he said, "many people have been amused to see you make soft eyes at a certain lady, and to see De Noyard do likewise. Neither young men like you, nor older men like him, can conceal these things."
As De Noyard passed out, he saw me. His face showed that he recognized me, and that he wondered what I was doing in the palace. There was nothing of offence in his look, only a slight curiosity. De Rilly now expressed an intention of going out to take the air, but I preferred to stay where I was; for Mile. d'Arency had remained in the gallery, with some other of Catherine's ladies.
But I observed it, although not till long afterward did I see its significance. It was a mere exchange of glances, and little did I read in it the secret which was destined to have so vast an effect on my own life, to give my whole career its course. It was no more than this: Catherine turned her glance, quickly, from De Noyard to Mlle. d'Arency, who had already been observing her.
I sprang back in horror, crying out his name: "De Noyard! My God, it is you!" "Yes, monsieur," he gasped, "it is De Noyard. I have been trapped. I ought to have suspected." "But I do not understand, monsieur. Surely you could not have attacked Mlle, d'Arency?" "Attacked her! I came here by her appointment!" "But her cry for help?" "It took me by complete surprise. There was a knock on the door "
As for me, I have more important matters in view than interfering with the quarrels of young hot-heads; but I think that there is yet time for Bussy d'Amboise to be warned, before he starts to return from the Tuileries." "M. de Noyard, I thank you," I said, with a bow of genuine respect, and in a moment I was hastening along the Rue St. Honore.
I asked, still deprived of thought by the horror of having killed so honorable a gentleman, who had not harmed me. "Because he can let the Duke of Guise know exactly on whom to seek vengeance for the death of De Noyard." "The Duke of Guise will seek vengeance?" I asked, mechanically, as we emerged from that fatal house, and turned our backs upon it. "Assuredly.
I grated my teeth together as I recalled how even circumstance itself had aided her. She could have had no assurance that in the combat planned by her I should kill De Noyard, or that he would not kill me, and yet what she had desired had occurred. When the troop had passed, I arose and started for La Tournoire.
Going, one evening in February, to take up my post opposite the Louvre, I suddenly encountered a gentleman attended by two valets with torches. I recognized him as De Noyard, who had twice or thrice seen me about the palaces, but had never spoken to me.
De Noyard, grave and reserved, stood a little apart from the others. For an instant, a look of profound displeasure, a deeply sinister look, interrupted the composure of Catherine's features. "You see that M. de Noyard does not have the effect on the Queen-mother that a rose in her path would have," remarked De Rilly. He did not notice what followed.
"I am no friend of his," continued M. de Noyard, in his cold, dispassionate tone, "but he is a brave man, who fights openly, and, so far, he is to be commended. I believe he will soon return from the Tuileries, where he has been exercising one of the horses of the Duke of Anjou. I have just come from there myself.
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