Stanley J. Weyman

“ To the Châtelet!" cried the crowd, siding with the stronger party. He was my lord of Beauvais' steward; I was a gutter-snipe and dangerous. A dozen hands held me tightly, yet not so tightly but that a coach passing at that moment and driving us all to the wall. I managed by a jerk—I was desperate by this time, and fierce as a wild cat—to snatch myself loose and in a second was speeding down St. Antoine with the hue and cry behind me. ”

“ I had scarcely reached the end of the lane, and was still hesitating there, uncertain which way to turn for the shortest course, when a babel of voices broke on my ear, lights swept round a distant corner, and I found myself threatened with a new danger, I did not wait to consider whether this band, with their torches and weapons, had aught to do with me—my nerves were shaken, the streets of Paris were full of terrors, every corner had a gallows for me—but I turned and, fleeing back the way I had come, made a hurried effort to find the house which had sheltered me. ”

“ Monseigneur clapped his hands and swore freely, "Dieu bénisse!" he cried, "It is the dog, sure enough! Here, Flore! Flore!" Then, as the dog jumped on us and licked his hand, he turned to me, "Lucky for you, rascal!" he cried in good humour, "There shall be fifty crowns in your pocket, and your desk again!"
I gasped. "But the reward, Monseigneur?" I stammered.
He bent his black brows. "Reward! You villain!" he thundered, "Is it not enough that I spare you the gallows? Reward? For what do I pay you wages, do you think, except to do my work? And you ask rewards besides? Go and hang yourself! ”

“ Suddenly, the dog whined again, close to me, and that decided me. I had found the latch already, and now I warily drew the door open and in a moment was in the lane, looking up and down. I saw nothing to alarm me; darkness had completely fallen, no one was moving, the neighbourhood seemed to be of the quietest, I made up my mind to take the bold course: to return at all hazards to St. Antoine, seek my father-in-law at the gate of the Palais Royal—where he had the night turn—and throw the child and myself on his protection. ”

“ I reached the door in safety, and even the head of the stairs, but there a hand gripped my shoulder, and the steward thrust his face, white with rage, into mine. "Not so fast, Master Plotter," he hissed in my ear. "If your hide does not pay for this—if you are not lashed liked a dog until life is out of your body; if for this I do not——"
"By the Queen's command," said a quiet voice in my other ear, and a hand fell also on that shoulder.
The steward glanced at his rival. "He is the Bishop's man!" he cried, throwing out his chest, and he gripped me again. ”

“ High! how high might not a man climb who had married the daughter of the Queen's under-porter, and had sometimes the ear of my lord, the Queen's Minister—my lord of Beauvais, in whom all men saw the coming Master of France—my lord, whose stately presence beamed on a world still chilled by the dead hand of Richelieu. ”

“ The Bishop let drop a smothered oath. "It is the dog!" he cried passionately.
But the Queen turned to him sharply, her face crimson. "I do not agree with you," she replied. "And more, my lord," she continued with vehemence, "I should be glad if you would explain how you came into possession of this dog. A dog so nearly resembling my dog—and yet not my dog—could not be found in a moment, nor without some foul contrivance." ”

“ In one corner was a group of tradesmen bearing plate for the queen's inspection; in another stood a knot of suitors with petitions; while everywhere, men whose eager faces and expectant eyes were their best petitions, watched the farther door with quivering lips, and sighed whenever it opened and emitted merely a councillor or a marquis. From time to time a masked lady flitted through the crowd, with a bow here and the honour of her taper fingers there. ”

“ Through the doorway I looked on grass and trees, and heard sparrows twitter, and the chirp of a cricket; and found all so peaceful that my mind went no farther; and it was only after some minutes that I recognised, with a sharp return of terror that shook me to the soul that I was still in the hall of the empty house. That brought back other things; and with a shudder I carried my hand to my throat and tried to rise. A hand put me back, and a dry voice said in my ear: "Be easy, M. Prosper, I am afraid that we put you to some inconvenience." ”

“ For answer a dog whined behind a door, and scratched the panels, and whined again.
The stranger nodded, as well pleased. "There," he said, "you have it. It is there, and will be there. And I think that is all. Only keep two things in mind, my friend. For the first, a person will claim our share of the reward at the proper time; for the second, I would be careful not to tell Monseigneur, the President of the Council"—again I caught a faint note of irony—"the true story, lest a worse thing happen." And the stranger with a very ugly smile touched his throat. ”

“ Oyez!" he cried. "Whereas some evil person, having no fear of God or of the law before his eyes, has impudently, feloniously, and treasonably stolen from the Palais Royal a spaniel, the property of the Queen Regent's most excellent Majesty, this is to say, that anyone—rumble—rumble—rumble—" here a passing coach drowned some sentences, and then I caught, "five hundred crowns, the same to be paid by Monseigneur the Bishop of Beauvais, President of the Council." ”

“ A few old men who stood nearest the wall and farthest from the Queen raised their eyebrows, and the officers standing with the colours by the door, wore fallen faces: but nine-tenths of the crowd seemed to be fairly carried away by the Queen's delight, and congratulated one another as if ten Rocroys had been won. ”

“ At the usual hour Monseigneur left, attended, for the Council; presently all the house was in an uproar. My lord had returned, and called for Prosper. I fancied that I caught even then something ominous in the sound of my name as it passed from lip to lip, and I hastened, scared, to the chamber. But fast as I went I did not go fast enough; one thrust me on this side, another on that. The steward cursed me, the head clerk stormed at me, the secretary waited for me at the door, and seizing me by the neck ran me into the room. ”

“ Two men were talking at a window above my head.
"Yet it is a high price for a dog," the other sneered.
"But low for a Queen. Still it buys her. And this is Richelieu's France."
"Was!" the other said pithily. "Well, you know the proverb, 'a living dog is better than a dead lion.'"
"Ay," his companion rejoined; "but I have a fancy that that dog's name is spelt neither with an F for Flore—which was the whelp's name, was it not?—nor a B for Beauvais, nor a C for Condé, but with an M——"
"For Mazarin!" the other answered sharply. "Yes, if he find the dog. ”

“ Failing, in one or two trials, and seeing that the lights were really coming that way, and that in a moment I must be discovered, I sprang across the lane, and dived into the alley by which the child-stealer had vanished.
I had not taken ten steps before something unseen in the darkness tripped me up, and I fell sprawling in the mud. In the fall, my burden roiled from my arms, and was instantly snatched up by a dark figure, which, rising as by magic beside me, was gone into the gloom almost as quickly, I got up, limping, and flung a curse after both ”

“ The courtyard confirmed this, for in the open part of it, and much pressed on by the curious who thronged the arcades, we found a troop of horse, plumed and mud-stained, fresh from the Flanders road. The officers who bore the trophies we overtook on the stairs near the door of the antechamber. Burning with rage as I was, and strung to the last pitch of excitement, I yet remember that I thought it an odd time to push in with a dog. But Monseigneur did not seem to see this. ”

“ If ever man was near dying from blood in the head, it was that man! But in a moment he drew a long breath, and got the better of it, nodded to me, and turned away. I marked, however—for I stood a moment watching—that he did not go back to the door at which I had left him, but, after looking round once and espying me, took a lane on the right and disappeared. ”

“ But this—though I detected no smack of irony in the tone—did not seem to please the Queen. "The Bishop has done me a great service. He has recovered my dog," she said tartly.
"He is a happy man, and the happy must look to be envied," the Cardinal answered gaily. "Your Majesty's dog——"
"Your Eminence never liked Flore!" the Queen exclaimed.
"You never made a greater mistake, Madam!" the Cardinal answered with unusual emphasis. "Flore—but the dog is not here, I think." ”

“ That dazzled me, and the presence of the dog perplexed me, and I continued to watch. Presently the great man again raised his hand, and this time it seemed to me that an order was given, for the lame man started into action, and moved briskly towards the wall which bordered the alley—and consequently towards the house in which I stood. ”

“ And that, I think, is what the ordinary man, however brave, would have done. But for one thing, I was desperate, I knew not, when outside, whither to go or where to save myself; and for another, my clerk's wits were already busy showing me how, with luck, I might use the occasion and avoid the risk, might discover the parents, and without suffering for the theft, restore the child. ”

“ However, when we had crossed St, Antoine, and entered a lane leading to the river, he halted, and turned to me
"There are twenty crowns' he said, abruptly, and he placed a purse in my hand. "Take them, and do exactly as I bid you, and all will be well. At the Quai de Nôtre Dame you will find a market boat starting for Rouen. Go by it, and at the 'Ecce Homo' in that city you will find your wife and a hundred crowns. Live there quietly, and in a month apply for work at the Chancery; it will be given you. The rest lies with you. ”