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

by G. P. R. James

"How so? how so?" demanded the Duke of Mayenne. "Crowns are not so rife in our treasury, Aumale."

"Nevertheless you would have given the sum I mention," rejoined the chevalier; "but I will tell you, my lord, how it happened. Maroles and Malivaut met as appointed, and we stood back at a hundred yards on one side, while the enemy remained under the old oak where Malivaut had armed himself. As soon as the two were mounted, and the trumpet sounded, they spurred on, and both charged their lances well: the shock was smart, and Maroles was beat flat back upon his horse's crupper. I thought he was unhorsed; but somehow it had happened that Malivaut's visor had been ill-rivetted, Maroles' lance struck it just at the second bar, drove it in, and entering between the eye and the nose, broke sharp off; leaving the iron in the wound. For a moment we did not see that he was hurt, for he sat his horse stiffly; but the next instant, as he turned to get back to the oak, his strength gave way, and he fell. Maroles instantly sprang to the ground and made him prisoner, and both parties crying truce, ran up. A glance at his face, however, showed us that death would soon take him out of our hands, and, in fact, he spoke but two sentences after. The first was, 'Give me a confessor!' The next, 'I care not to live longer, since my king has been murdered!'"

"What! what!" exclaimed Mayenne, starting and gazing steadfastly on Aumale.

"Ay, my lord, even so!" replied the chevalier. "Murdered was the word; and we heard from the others who stood round, that Henry of Valois died last night of a wound given him by a Jacobin the day before."

Mayenne clasped his hands; and, looking up, exclaimed, "Guise! my brother! at length thou art avenged!" And taking off the black scarf which he had worn ever since the death of his brother, the Duke of Guise, he cast it from him, adding, "So Henry of Valois is dead, the base, effeminate, soulless tyrant! But you have not told me how it happened, D'Aumale. Let me hear the particulars! Who ended the days of the last of those weak brothers? Was it one of his own creatures, unable to support any longer the daily sight of his crimes? or was it some zealot of our party, who ventured the doubtful act for a great object?"

The satisfaction which he derived from the event was so unconcealed, and his surprise at hearing the intelligence so unaffected and natural, that although those were days of suspicion, no one ventured to suspect, for a moment, that Mayenne had any previous knowledge of the intrigues which ended in the death of Henry III.

"Good faith! my lord," replied Aumale, "I can tell you no more than I have already told. The friends of Malivaut let out the secret, that the king had been stabbed by a Jacobin friar, and died of his wounds; but we could not expect them to enter into any minute particulars. I have still more good news, however, my lord. Ere I quitted the ground, a servant of the gay Count d'Aubin came up, and besought me to obtain for his master a pass for the morning, adding, that by noon, D'Aubin, with seven hundred men, horse and foot together, would be at the outposts on the side of St. Denis, with the purpose of joining the Union."

These tidings did not appear to surprise Mayenne so much as the former; but he seemed well pleased, nevertheless. "D'Aubin is better than his word," he said, "both in regard to time and numbers. He fixed three days, but I suppose the death of Henry has hurried his movements. How comes he to enter by St. Denis, though? It is leading his troops a tremendous round! There surely can be no foul play, D'Aumale! Are you sure the servant was his?"

"Quite sure, my lord," replied Aumale, "for the fellow was once my own ecuyer de main; and, besides, he gave a reason for taking that round. 'The Huguenot army,' he said, 'was advanced as far as Meudon, occupying both banks of the river, and the ground as far as Beauregard; D'Aubin was afraid of being stopped, and having to cut his way through, if he did not make a detour.'"

"Nevertheless, Aumale," replied the Duke, "let us be upon our guard. Strengthen the posts towards St. Denis, and bid Nemours take his regiment to meet and do honour to the new comers. D'Aubin I can trust, for he plays for a great stake; but he has not seven hundred men with him; and though he may very likely have brought over some other leader to our cause, yet it is as well to be prepared, and to be able to repel force by force, in case Henry of Navarre should present himself instead of Philip d'Aubin."