One in a Thousand; or, The Days of Henri Quatre

by G. P. R. James

"I came but to ask briefly after your fair friend's health," replied the Duke; "and knew not that I should have to risk with you, gay lady, one of our old encounters of sharp words. I trust, however, your health is better."

"Did you ever see me look more beautiful, Duke of Mayenne?" asked Beatrice, with a gay toss of her head; "and can you ask if I am ill? But as to my friend's health, if you would that she should be well, and keep well, let her go out of Paris, home to her own dwelling; and keep her not here, where one is surrounded, night and day, with the sound of cannon and arquebuses. Do you intend that it should be said, in future, that carrying on the war against women and children was first introduced into modern Europe by the Duke of Mayenne and the Catholic League, that you keep a lady here a close prisoner in your beleaguered capital?"

"Not as a prisoner, fair lady," answered the Duke of Mayenne; "God forbid that either I or she should look upon her situation as one of imprisonment; but, being lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and, consequently, her lawful guardian and protector, till marriage gives her a better, I should be wanting both in duty and in courtesy, were I to leave her in a distant and distracted province, in a time of unfortunate civil war."

"Well explained and justified, my good lord Duke," cried Beatrice, who, both in right of rank and beauty, treated the ambitious leader of the League as equal to equal. "And yet, after all, my lord, has not that same marriage that you mention some small share in your tenacious kindness? Did you ever hear, my lord, of a rat-catcher giving the rats the bait out of his trap, from pure affection for the heretic vermin?"

The Duke of Mayenne first reddened, and then smiled; either more amused than angry at the gay flippancy of his fair opponent, or judging it best, at least, to appear so. "Your similes savour of a profession that I know not, fair lady," he replied; "but if you mean, Lady Beatrice, that hereafter I may dispose of your fair friend's hand in such a manner as seems to me most conducive towards her happiness--if you mean that," he repeated, in a marked tone, "I deny not that you are right. Yet I would fain know who has a better right to do so than the lieutenant-general of the kingdom?"

"Oh! no one, surely!" answered Beatrice, in the same tone of mingled pride and gaiety--"no one, surely, my lord, except the King of that kingdom, or the poor frightened girl herself."

"Come, come, fair lady," cried Mayenne, laughing; "you carry your jest so far, that I will bid you take care what you say farther, lest I should dispose of your hand for you, too, for the purpose of showing you--to use your own figure--that I have more baits than one to my rat-trap."

"Indeed, lord Duke, you count wrongly, if you reckon that I am one," replied Beatrice. "You know too well that the task would neither be a very safe nor very easy one, to try to wed me to any one against my will. You may be lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and I, for one--being not of this kingdom, and thinking much better of you than of the crowned Vice at St. Cloud--will not deny your right; but you are not lieutenant-general of Beatrice of Ferrara; and you might find it more difficult to govern her than half the realm of France; and so, good morrow! Love me, Eugenie; and do not let these men persuade you that they are half such powerful and terrible things as they would make themselves appear. Fare you well!"

Each of the gentlemen in the prince's suite stepped forward to offer his hand to the gay, proud beauty, whose tone of light defiance had something in it more attractive to the general youth of those excited times, than all the retiring graces and gentle modesty of Eugenie de Menancourt. Beatrice scarcely noticed them while her friend took leave of her, but as soon as the embrace was over, she ran her eye over the three or four cavaliers who stood round, and, singling out one, gave him her hand, saying, "My lord of Aumale, I believe you are the only one here present, except my lord Duke, who never whispered that you loved me; and therefore I doubt not that you do love me enough to--hand me to my carriage."

The young noble, to whom she addressed herself, answered with all those professions which the formal gallantry of the day not only permitted, but required, and led her down to the rudely formed, but richly decorated, vehicle, which was the carriage of those days.