Claude Louis Hector de Villars de Tavannes

“ Morvilliers, Bishop of Orleans, and keeper of the seals until Birague's appointment in January, 1571, was requested by the king to prepare the answer of the opposite party in the royal council—a task which he discharged with great ability. Summary in De Thou, iv. (liv. li.) 555-563, and Agrippa d'Aubigné, ii. 9, 10. Jean de Tavannes's memoirs of his father contain arguments of Marshal Tavannes and of the Duke of Anjou. dictated by the marshal, against undertaking the Flemish war, as both unjust and impolitic. ”

“ He was a man more highly named for address than courage; and, like most men skilled in finesse, he was prone to suspect a trap. “You jest, surely, Monsieur! Men do not lose his Majesty’s letters, by the way.”
“When they contain his Majesty’s will, no,” Tavannes answered, with a peculiar smile. ”

“ Tavannes answered scornfully. "Let him stand out, and if he will serve his Church as I will serve my King----
"Blaspheme not!" cried the priest.
"Chatter not!" Tavannes retorted hardily, "but do! Better is he," he continued, "who takes a city than he who slays women! Nay, sire," he went on hurriedly, seeing the King start, "be not angry, but hear me! You would send to Biron, to the Arsenal? You seek a messenger, sire? Then let the good father be the man. Let him take your Majesty's will to Biron, and let him see the Grand Master face to face, and bring him to reason. ”

“ There is nothing he has not dared!” the priest answered vehemently, the recollection of the scene in the great guard-room of the Louvre, when Tavannes had so skilfully turned the tables on him, instilling venom into his tone. “She who lives with him is the devil’s. ”

“ Fourteen companies of gens-d'armes and as many ensigns of infantry stood under his orders, and Noyers was closely beset on all sides. [576] It was at this moment, when secrecy was all important to the success of the plot, that the tidings of the threatening storm reached its destined victims. It has long been believed and reported that Tavannes, unwilling to lend himself to unworthy machinations whose execution would have wounded his soldierly pride, took measures to warn Condé and Coligny of their danger. ”

“ Biron asked with sarcasm. But his passion had died down. He was grown thoughtful, suspicious; he eyed the other intently as if he would read his heart.
“The offer is his, and the reflections are mine,” Tavannes answered dryly. “Let me add one more. The Admiral is dead. The King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé are prisoners. Who is now to balance the Italians and the Guises? The Grand Master—if he be wise and content to give the law to France from the citadel of Rochelle.”
Biron stared at the speaker in astonishment at his frankness.
“You are a bold man,” he cried at last. ”

“ That is your business."
"I understand, sire," Tavannes answered coolly. And after a moment's silence, seeing that the King had done with him, he bowed low and withdrew; watched by the circle, as all about a King were watched in the days when a King's breath meant life or death, and his smile made the fortunes of men. As he passed Rochefoucauld, the latter looked up and nodded.
"What keeps brother Charles?" he muttered. "He's madder than ever to-night. Is it a masque or a murder he is planning?"
"The vapours," Tavannes answered with a sneer. "Old tales his old nurse has stuffed him withal. ”

“ The stairs shook beneath the sudden trampling of feet, a voice cried “De par le Roi! De par le Roi!” and the babel of the room died down. The throng swayed and fell back on either hand, and Marshal Tavannes entered, wearing half armour, with a white sash; he was followed by six or eight gentlemen in like guise. Amid cries of “Jarnac! Jarnac!”—for to him the credit of that famous fight, nominally won by the King’s brother, was popularly given—he advanced up the room, met the Provost of the merchants, and began to confer with him. ”

“ Tavannes answered--but his words were barely audible above the deafening uproar. "Can you fight a thousand? Look! Look!" and seizing the other's wrist he pointed to the window. The street glowed like a furnace in the red light of torches, raised on poles above a sea of heads; an endless sea of heads, and gaping faces, and tossing arms which swept on and on, and on and by. ”

“ Death; and over death--death in its most cruel aspect--a cloud of buzzing, whirling flies, and the smell, never to be forgotten, of much spilled blood. From a doorway hard by came shrill bursts of hysterical laughter; and with the laughter plumped out, even as Tavannes crossed the court, a young girl, thrust forth it seemed by her fellows, for she turned about and struggled as she came. Once outside she hung back, giggling and protesting, half willing, half unwilling; and meeting Tavannes' eye thrust her way in again with a whirl of her petticoats, and a shriek. ”

“ In either case, there was a chance that he might retire after the same fashion; and he had actually raised the latch, and was drawing the door to him with infinite precaution, when Tavannes' voice struck him, as it were, in the face.
"Pray do not admit the draught, M. de Tignonville," he said, without looking round. "In your cowl you do not feel it, but it is otherwise with me." ”

“ The splint he was fashioning had fallen on his knees, and his eyes were fixed on the distance of his youth. “For me, my lord, I am tired, and I go with you. I go with you. It is a good death to die biting before the strength be quite gone. Have the dagger too, if you please, and I’ll fit it within the splint right neatly. But I shall be there——”
“And you’ll strike home?” Tavannes cried eagerly. He raised himself on his elbow, a gleam of joy in his gloomy eyes.
“Have no fear, my lord. See, does it tremble?” He held out his hand. ”

“ She's shown me that a hundred times. But look you, it is as easy to lower the one as the other," with a cunning glance at Tavannes' face, "or to cut off the right as the left. And--and the Admiral's an old man and will pass; and for the matter of that I like to hear him talk. He talks well. While the others, Guise and his kind, are young, and I've thought, oh, yes, I've thought--but there," with a sudden harsh laugh, "my lady mother will have it her own way. ”

“ And Tavannes, seeing them talking together, and noting her look and the fervour of her gesture, formed the same opinion, and retired more darkly into himself. The downfall of his plan for dazzling her by a magnanimity unparalleled and beyond compare, a plan dependent on the submission of Angers--his disappointment in this might have roused the worst passions of a better man. ”

“ Where are they, and how have they fared, that you dare appeal to the law of nations, or he to the loyalty of Biron? And for you to beard me, whose brother to-day hounded the dogs of this vile city on the noblest in France, who have leagued yourself with a crew of foreigners to do a deed which will make our country stink in the nostrils of the world when we are dust! You, to come here and talk of peace and safety! M. de Tavannes”—and he struck his hand on the table—“you are a bold man. ”

“ The movement carried Tavannes himself--even while his victim's scream rang through the chamber--into the embrasure. An instant he hung on the verge; then, as the men, a moment thunderstruck, sprang forward to avenge their comrade, he leapt out, jumping for the struggling body that had struck the mud, and now lay in it face downwards.
He alighted on it, and drove it deep into the quaking slime; but he himself bounded off right-handed. The peril was appalling, the possibility untried, the chance one which only a doomed man would have taken. ”

“ Tavannes answered; while, partly urged by the King's hand, and partly anxious to escape, the others slipped into the closet and left them together.
"I sent for you? I called your brother, the Marshal!"
"He is within, sire," Tavannes answered, indicating the closet. "A moment ago I heard his voice."
Charles passed his shaking hand across his eyes. "Is he?" he muttered. "So he is! I heard it too. And--and a man cannot be in two places at once!" Then while his haggard gaze, passing by Tavannes, roved round the Chamber, he laid his hand on Count Hannibal's breast. ”

“ As Tavannes, after leaving Mademoiselle, rode through the paved lanes, beneath the gabled houses, and under the shadow of the Gothic spires of his day, he saw a score of sights, moving to pity, or wrath, or wonder. He saw Paris as a city sacked; a slaughter-house, where for a week a masque had moved to stately music; blood on the nailed doors and the close-set window bars; and at the corners of the ways strewn garments, broken weapons, the livid dead in heaps. But he saw all with eyes which in all and everywhere, among living and dead, sought only Tignonville ”

“ The shoot of new life which had raised its head after those dreadful days in Paris, and—for she was young—had supported her under the weight which the peril of Angers had cast on her shoulders, died, withered under the heel of his brutality. The pride which had supported her, which had won Tavannes’ admiration and exacted his respect, sank, as she sank herself, bowed to her horse’s neck, weeping bitter tears before him. She abandoned herself to her misery, as she had once abandoned herself in the upper room in Paris. ”

“ If blows will not tame you, I will try that will suit you less. Ay, you wince, madame! You had done well had you thought twice before you threatened, and thrice before you took in hand to scare Tavannes with a parcel of clowns and fisherfolk. Tomorrow, to Vrillac and your duty! And one word more, madame," he continued, turning back to her truculently when he had gone some paces from her. "If I find you plotting with your lover by the way I will hang not you, but him. I have spared him a score of times ”

“ Tavannes retorted, in a tone so sharp and incisive that Tignonville started, and a faint touch of colour crept into the wan cheek of the girl, who sat between them, the prize of the contest. “What is she more to you than other women? ”

“ She took up an infinitesimal pink velvet fist and smoothed Taunton's cheek with it. "We know our friends, don't we, little blessed? He loves his own Carina! Isn't he cunning?"
"He's not so bad," said Taunton soberly, looking down into the tiny rounded face in its white worsted nest. ”

“ All the illusion vanishes, and Tannhäuser finds himself in a cross-way of the forest, where is a Crucifix. He is kneeling at the foot, amazed, as one awakening from a dream, or from a vision of mysterious power. ”

“ This evening the Guisard strove to make me believe that Marshal Tavannes, the commandant of the army of my son of Anjou, was treating secretly with Coligny. According to the Cardinal, the plot is to offer my son the sovereignty of the Low Countries, besides Guyenne and other provinces, upon condition that he embrace the Reformed religion. Have you received any inkling of these projects through your spies? Unless your own interests render it necessary for you to deceive me on this head, answer me truthfully. I know how to hear and bear the full truth on all matters. ”

“ Tavannes cried after him in fury. “See you my answer to that!” And turning on the threshold, “Within there!” he cried. “Open the shutters and set lights, and the table! Light, I say; light! And lay on quickly, if you value your lives! And throw open, for I sup with your mistress to-night, if it rain blood without! Do you hear me, rogues? Set on!”
He flung the last word at the quaking servants; then he turned again to the street. He saw that the crowd was melting, and, looking in Tignonville’s face, he laughed aloud. ”

“ But one of the mounted archers took up the matter.
“Nay, but, my lord,” he said—he knew Tavannes—“it is the King’s will there be no favour shown to-night to any, small or great. And this house is registered, and is full of heretics.”
“And has no cross!” the rabble urged in chorus. And they leapt up and down in their impatience, and to see the better. “And has no cross!” they persisted. They could understand that. Of what use crosses, if they were not to kill where there was no cross? Daylight was not plainer. Tavannes’ face grew dark, and he shook his finger at the archer who had spoken. ”

“ Big Tannhauser had been one of those who were most anxious to sail. He used to grin and say, “France is the only climate that’s healthy for a man with a name like mine.” He had waved his good-bye to the image in the New York harbour with the rest, believed in her like the rest. He only wanted to serve. It seemed hard.
When Tannhauser first came to camp he was confused all the time, and couldn’t remember instructions. Claude had once stepped him out in front of the line and reprimanded him for not knowing his right side from his left. ”

“ He therefore retired in disgust to his estates, but it was not long before he was summoned to take command of the army of Philip in Spain, and there he won his last victories, crowning his work with the battle of Villaviciosa. Before the end of the war he died suddenly at Vinaros on the 11th of June 1712. Vendôme was one of the most remarkable soldiers in the history of the French army, and second only to Villars amongst the generals of France of the 18th century. He had, besides the skill and the fertile imagination of the true army leader, the brilliant courage of a soldier. ”

“ Twenty years later, sitting as Chief Justice, Taney acknowledged that 'further and more mature reflection' had made clear to him the wisdom of the principles laid down by his predecessor. 'Indeed,' said Mr. ”

“ No; for as Tavannes followed the others, he hung an instant on his heel, their eyes met again, and once more he smiled. In the next breath he was gone through the doorway, his spurs rang on the stairs; and the babel of the crowd, checked by the great man’s presence, broke out anew, and louder.
Tignonville shuddered. He was saved as by a miracle; saved, he did not know how. But the respite, though its strangeness diverted his thoughts for a while, brought short relief. The horrors which impended over others surged afresh into his mind, and filled him with a maddening sense of impotence. ”