Well, perhaps he was busy, but I felt my apprehension deepen as I left the palace and returned slowly to the Hotel de Richelieu. There was nothing more to be done, at least for that day, but perhaps the morrow would bring some hope with it. One glance at my face told Jacques of the ill success of my efforts, but he bravely concealed his disappointment. He told me that Richelieu had sent for certain articles of clothing and furniture, from which he argued that his imprisonment could not be very rigorous. I had not the heart to tell him of my grave fears and the reasons for them, and ate my dinner in silence.
I spent the half-hour following before the fire reviewing the situation, but look at it how I might, I could find little of comfort in it. If the conspiracy succeeded, everything would be well, but a haunting fear possessed me, a belief that the regent knew of it, and that, to use Hérault’s words of the day before, he was playing with us as a cat plays with a mouse, only to crush us more completely in the end.
Eight o’clock sounded as I sat there musing, and I remembered with a start that I had promised Madame du Maine to be present at her salon that evening. I had little desire to mix in that gay company, but a promise was a promise, and I sprang from my chair, added a few touches to my toilet, and, leaving the house, was soon at the Tuileries.
CHAPTER XVII
THE REGENT SHOWS HIS HAND
The place was more brilliant than I had ever seen it. The room was crowded from end to end by a throng of richly dressed people, from whom every instant came bursts of laughter, following some witty sally,—only to me, whose ears were perhaps unduly critical, the laughter sounded forced and unnatural, sometimes almost hysterical. Mlle. de Launay appeared to be everywhere at once, and left smiles behind her wherever she went. Truly, a wonderful woman, but to me her activity seemed feverish. The duchess, as usual, held her court at the farther end of the room, and the crowd about her was so dense that I despaired of getting to her, and paused to look about me. I saw that all of her political satellites were present. Polignac was the centre of one interested group, Chancel was declaiming his latest satire to another, Malesieu was explaining the meaning of a Greek phrase to a third. There were many persons present whom I had never seen before, notably a number of gentlemen elegantly dressed but not in the latest Paris mode, whom I immediately set down as provincial. The duchess and her maid withdrew before I could get a word with either of them, and I joined the group about Chancel. But I found his satire little to my liking, for it was merely a brutal tirade against the regent, and contained accusations which I felt certain even Chancel himself knew to be untrue.
As the moments passed I noticed that the provincial gentlemen, as well as the other important personages present, were approached by a page and taken one by one to the room into which Madame du Maine had retired, and that when they came out again there was fire in their eyes and a new intelligence in their faces. Only once was there any break in this stream of persons entering and leaving the cabinet. The page appeared to be seeking some one whom he could not find.
“Have you seen the Abbé Brigaut this evening, monsieur?” I heard him inquire of the gentleman at my elbow, and the latter replied in the negative. He took this answer back to the duchess, and a moment later reappeared to conduct others of those present to that mysterious door. I was racking my brain to find an explanation of this proceeding, when the page approached me.
“Madame du Maine wishes to speak to you a moment, M. de Brancas,” he said, and without waiting for a reply, he led the way to the door through which I had already seen so many enter. I followed him, and in a moment the door closed behind me. The duchess and Mlle. de Launay were sitting at a large table littered with papers.
“Ah, M. de Brancas,” cried the former as I entered, and I saw that her eyes were bright and her face flushed with excitement, “it is, as you see, a gathering of the clans. To-night we are all assembled, each to learn his part in the drama we are about to play. You have perhaps noticed that there are many strangers present?”
“I have indeed noticed it, madame,” I answered.