"By the Lord, you might have done worse!" cried Martigue. "If Montluc had got hold of you, he would have given you a pistol-shot for your pains. By-the-way, it was shrewd of you, Monsieur de Montpensier, to send Montluc away towards Cognac; for, by Heavens! if he had been at the ear of monseigneur to-night, instead of quiet people like ourselves, there is no knowing what would have come of it."
"The streets of Jarnac would have flowed with blood," replied the duke; "however, Monsieur de Cerons, you are now safe, and I have to inform you that Monsieur de Martigue consents to receive your ransom from me, so that you are now my prisoner. I trust I may add, also, that you are my son's friend, and therefore will beg you to remain with us some few weeks, as I have every reason to believe that, ere long, matters will assume a more pacific aspect, and the contentions which now desolate France be brought to an end without your taking any farther share therein."
I had no choice but to obey; for, of course, I could not compel them to set me at liberty before they thought fit. I knew also that, for the time, I was unable to do any effectual service in the field, and therefore I regretted less to be thus detained a prisoner.
When all this was settled, the duke informed me that he intended to send a flag the next morning to the admiral, and that, if I chose it, I could communicate at the same time with any of my friends in the camp, and give any orders concerning my baggage and attendants that I might think fit. This information was gratifying to me in several respects, but in none more than inasmuch as it showed me that the admiral had been enabled to save a large portion of the Huguenot army and all the baggage. I took advantage of the duke's offer, then, to send word to Moric Endem to take the command of my troop till my return, and to send me three horses and two horse-boys; to carry the small chest, in which I had placed the ransom of Monsieur de Jersay, with other money, to the admiral, and desire him to open it, with a request that he would divide a thousand crowns among the men of my troop, and, sending me a thousand crowns, would put the rest in safety for me till the Catholics admitted me to ransom. I wrote these directions down at once by the duke's desire, as the messenger was to set off early on the following morning; and, ere I had done, for it took me some time to write with my left hand, one of the servers announced to the duke that supper was upon the table.
"You look pale and worn, Monsieur de Cerons," said the duke. "My principal officers sup with me to-night; pray come and take some refreshment, after which you shall retire to a chamber prepared for you, and I will send my own surgeon to attend you, for I see you are somewhat hurt."
Thus saying, he left me; and, finishing what I was writing, I directed it to Moric Endem, with a note stating that, if he was not to be found, it was to be given to the admiral. I then followed to the supper-table, which I found surrounded by a number of distinguished men, but with a seat reserved for me among them; and I must say that I never in my life met with more kindness and courtesy than greeted me there, while a prisoner, at the Duke of Montpensier's table.
The duke and the prince both pressed me to eat, but the wound in my arm had given me excessive pain during the whole evening; my shoulder was burning and inflamed; I felt bruised, feverish, sick, and weary; and before my eyes, as I sat at the table, were floating continually vague images of all the terrible scenes and events that I had been witness of during that day. It may well be conceived, therefore, that I loathed the very sight of food, and yet every moment I felt myself becoming more and more faint. I saw the eyes of the Prince d'Auvergne upon me from time to time, and at length he sent round one of the attendants, who was pouring out for him some choice wine, to carry the flagon to me. I held the cup for him, thinking that the wine might revive me; but, as I did so, and turned my head somewhat suddenly, all the objects in the room seemed to swim around me, and I fell back senseless upon the floor of the hall.
When I recovered in some degree, I found myself in bed in a very comfortable room, with a gentleman in the dress of a surgeon beside me, and two or three attendants around. I have only a vague recollection, however, of what passed on that occasion, for I was during the whole night in a state approaching delirium, with wild images of the battle and its consequences rising up before my mind the moment I closed my eyes to sleep. Now I was in the midst of the enemy, again fighting hand to hand with Martigue; then he suddenly changed to the Prince de Condé, and by some strange process of the imagination I became Montesquieu, and was about to shoot him under the bank, hating myself all the time for what I was doing, yet hurried on irresistibly to accomplish it. Then suddenly a strong hand seemed to seize me, and I found myself a prisoner; and at other times I beheld the gallant prince who had fallen, as he sat before the last fatal charge, raising his hand towards the white banner above his head, and addressing those last, terrible, memorable words to us who surrounded him.
In such wild visions passed the whole night; but an hour or two before daybreak I fell into a somewhat sounder sleep, and when I woke, just after dawn, I found the Prince d'Auvergne sitting beside me, and speaking to one of the attendants.
"Oh, is that you, monseigneur," I said, turning partly towards him.