'The Bastille—diable!'
'I expected that exclamation; the prince of darkness being the potentate usually applied to by such wild gallants as you.'
'But let me hear all about this; for even at this distance from Paris, the Bastille has a very alarming sound.'
I told him my story, at least so much of it as I deemed prudent to reveal; and contrived to lay all the blame of my captivity to the score of De Brissac's jealousy.
'So when you reach Paris, M. le Marquis,' said I, in conclusion, 'do me the favour to rip up a little of M. de Brissac's skin. I owe him a peculiar grudge for the part he played in my affair, and especially for his manner of playing it. Do this for me; I shall follow suit if he escapes you, and if I live to see the old towers of Notre Dame again. I had no time to give him an airing on the Boulevards, or at Montmartre, before leaving Paris, being ordered off on such short notice—moreover, he never leaves the side of Marion de l'Orme.'
'Mort de ma vie! then I am wholly at your service,' said the Marquis, whose eyes sparkled with anger at this information.
'Believe me, I shall be ready to do so much for you again.'
'I always deemed De Brissac to be an unsophisticated country Benedick, who luxuriated at his petit château near Versailles, and was actually in love with his own wife. So, so—he has been at the Rue de St. Jacques. Peste! I shall give him a wholesome horror of that locality after I reach Paris.'
On this matter these sparks really fought near the ferry of the Nesle. De Brissac afterwards became involved in the plots formed by the King's dissolute and libertine favourite, Henri de Cinq-Mars against Richelieu in 1642; but the Cardinal played his cards with his usual skill and subtlety, for Cinq-Mars perished on the scaffold at Lyons, and De Brissac was broken on the wheel in the Place de la Grève at Paris. But I am anticipating.
'This is the finest wine I have tasted since I crossed the Rhine,' said the Marquis, setting down his cup and gathering up his reins; 'ere long I shall be in my native province of Champagne, and then I shall have such wine as hath never been pressed in Germany since Father Noah planted the grape and conferred on mankind the benefit of getting drunk. And now farewell; I am bound to Paris, with despatches from the Marechal-Duke, my father. In a week I shall have kissed Marion, thrown myself at the feet of Charost, run De Brissac through the body, danced with the girls at the Hotel d'Argent, and given a benefit to those at the Hotel de Bourgogne. I shall have coquetted with all the fleuristes on Pont aux Colombes; got drunk at the Fleur-de-lis; rattled the bones of Beelzebub in a dice-box with Ferte Imbault, and Heaven knows all what more. 'Tis said this war will soon be over, for Richelieu has discovered and sent to the Bastille, Mademoiselle de Lorraine, whom he will probably marry perforce to some French peer. Thus Louis XIII. will easily bring the Duke her father to terms, it is thought. But, apropos, before we part, let me warn you to beware how you venture near Nanci.'