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Chapter L
Chapter L
Chat Between Brother And Sister
During the time that Lord de Winter took to shut the door, close a
shutter, and draw a chair near his sister-in-law`s fauteuil, milady,
anxiously thoughtful, plunged her glance into the depths of possibility, and
discovered all the plan, of which she could not even get a glance as long as
she was ignorant into whose hands she had fallen. She knew her brother to
be a worthy gentleman, a bold hunter, and intrepid player, enterprising with
women, but by no means remarkable for his skill in the business of intrigues.
How had he discovered her arrival? caused her to be seized? Why did he
detain her?
Athos had dropped some words which proved that the conversation she had
had with the cardinal had fallen into strange ears; but she could not suppose
that he had dug a counter mine so promptly and so boldly. She rather feared
that her preceding operations in England might have been discovered.
Buckingham might have guessed that it was she who had cut off the two studs,
and avenged himself for that little treachery; but Buckingham was incapable
of going to any excess against a woman, particularly if that woman was
supposed to have acted from a feeling of jealousy.
This supposition appeared to her the most reasonable; it seemed that
they wanted to revenge the past, and not to go to meet the future. At all
events, she congratulated herself upon having fallen into the hands of her
brother-in-law, with whom she reckoned she could deal very easily, rather
than into the hands of a direct and intelligent enemy.
"Yes, let us chat, brother," said she, with a kind of cheerfulness,
decided as she was to draw from the conversation, in spite of all the
dissimulation Lord de Winter could bring to it, the information of which she
stood in need to regulate her future conduct.
"You were, then, determined to come to England again," said Lord de
Winter, "in spite of the resolutions you so often manifested in Paris never
to set your foot more on British ground?"
Milady replied to this question by another question.
"Before everything," said she, "how happen you to have watched me so
closely, as to be beforehand aware, not only of my arrival, but still more,
of the day, the hour, and the port, at which I should arrive?"
Lord de Winter adopted the same tactics as milady, thinking that as his
sister-in-law employed them they must be the best.
"But tell me, my dear sister," replied he, "what are you come to do in
England?"
"Come for! why to see you," replied milady, without knowing how much
she aggravated, by this reply, the suspicions which D`Artagnan`s letter had
given birth to in the mind of her brother-in-law, and only desiring to gain
the good will of her auditor by a falsehood.
"Humph! to see me?" said De Winter, as if doubtingly.
"To be sure, to see you. What is there astonishing in that?"
"And you had no other object in coming to England but to see me?"
"No."
"So it was for my sake alone you have taken the trouble to cross the
channel?"
"For your sake only."
"The deuce! what tenderness, my sister!"
"Why, am I not your nearest relation?" demanded milady, with a tone of
the most touching ingenuousness.
"And my only heir, are you not?" said Lord de Winter in his turn, fixing
his eyes on those of milady.
Whatever command she had over herself, milady could not help starting,
and as, in pronouncing the last words, Lord de Winter placed his hand upon
the arm of his sister, this start did not escape him.
In fact, the blow was direct and severe. The first idea that occurred
to milady`s mind was that she had been betrayed by Kitty, and that she had
described to the baron the interested aversion of which she had imprudently
allowed some marks to escape her before her servant; she also recollected the
furious and imprudent attack she had made upon D`Artagnan when he spared the
life of her brother.
"I do not comprehend, my lord," said she, to gain time and make her
adversary speak out. "What do you mean to say? Is there any secret meaning
concealed beneath your words?"
"Oh! good lord! no," said Lord de Winter, with an apparent bonhomie,
"you wish to see me, and you come to England. I learn this desire, or rather
I suspect that you feel it, and, in order to spare you all the annoyances of
a nocturnal arrival in a port, and all the fatigues of landing, I send one
of my officers to meet you, I place a carriage at his orders, and he brings
you hither to this castle, of which I am governor, whither I come every day,
and where, in order to satisfy our mutual desire of seeing each other, I have
prepared you a chamber. What is there more astonishing in all that I have
said to you, than in that which you have told me?"
"No, all that I think astonishing is that you should be aware of my
coming."
"And yet that is the most simple thing in the world, my dear sister:
have you not observed that the captain of your little vessel, on entering the
road, sent forward, to obtain permission to enter the port, a little boat
bearing his log-book and the register of his crew? I am commandant of the
port; they brought me that book. I recognized your name in it. My heart
told me what your mouth has just confirmed, that is to say, with what views
you have exposed yourself to the dangers of so perilous a sea, or at least,
so troublesome at this moment, and I sent my cutter to meet you. You know
the rest."
Milady comprehended that Lord de Winter lied, and was only the more
alarmed.
"Brother," continued she, "was not that Milord Buckingham whom I saw on
the jetty, this evening, as we entered the port?"
"Himself. Ah! I can understand how the sight of him struck you,"
replied Lord de Winter: "you came from a country where he must be very much
talked of, and I know that his armaments against France greatly engaged the
attention of your friend the cardinal."
"My friend the cardinal!" cried milady, seeing that, upon this point as
upon the other, Lord de Winter seemed perfectly well informed.
"Is he not your friend?" replied the baron negligently; "ah! I crave
your pardon, I thought he was; but we will return to my lord duke presently,
let us not depart from the sentimental turn our conversation had taken: you
came, you say, to see me?"
"Yes."
"Well! I reply to you that you shall be attended to to the height of
your wishes, and that we shall see each other every day."
"Am I then to remain here eternally?" demanded milady with terror.
"Do you find yourself ill-lodged, sister? Ask for anything you want,
and I will hasten to have you furnished with it."
"But I have neither my women, nor my servants."
"You shall have all that, madame. Tell me on what footing your
household was established by your first husband, and, although I am only your
brother-in-law, I will arrange it upon a similar one."
"My first husband!" cried milady, looking at Lord de Winter, with eyes
almost starting from their sockets.
"Yes, your French husband; I don`t speak of my brother. If you have
forgotten, as he is still living, I can write to him, and he will send me
information on the subject."
A cold sweat burst from the brow of milady.
"You are joking!" said she in a hollow, broken voice.
"Do I look as if I were?" asked the baron, rising and going a step
backward.
"Or rather you insult me," continued she, pressing with her stiffened
hands the two arms of her chair, and raising herself up upon her wrists.
"I insult you!" said Lord de Winter with contempt; "in truth, madam, do
you think that can be possible?"
"In truth, sir," said milady, "you must be either drunk or mad: leave
the room, sir, and send me a woman."
"Women are very indiscreet, sister! cannot I serve you as a waiting
maid? by that means, all our secrets would be kept in the family."
"Insolent wretch!" cried milady, and, as if acted upon by a spring, she
rushed toward the baron, who awaited her attack with his arms crossed, but
one hand upon the hilt of his sword.
"Come! come!" said he, "I know you are accustomed to assassinate
people, but I shall defend myself, I give you notice, even against you."
"No doubt you would!" said she; "you have all the appearance of being
coward enough to lift your hand against a woman."
"Perhaps I have, and I have an excuse, for mine would not be the first
man`s hand that has been placed upon you, I imagine."
And the baron pointed with a slow accusing gesture to the left shoulder
of milady, which he almost touched with his finger.
Milady uttered a deep inward shriek, and retreated to a corner of the
room, like a panther which draws back to take its spring.
"Oh! groan and shriek as much as you please," cried Lord de Winter,
"but don`t try to bite, for I warn you the thing would be to your prejudice;
there are here no procureurs who regulate successions beforehand; there is
no knight-errant to come and seek a quarrel with me, on account of the fair
lady I detain a prisoner; but I have judges quite ready, who will quickly
dispose of a woman so shameless, as, although already married, to come and
steal, a bigamist, into the bed of my brother, and these judges, I warn you,
will soon pass you over to a hangman that will make both your shoulders
alike."
The eyes of milady darted such flashes, that although he was a man, and
armed, before an unarmed woman, he felt the chill of fear glide through his
whole frame; he, however, not the less continued, but with increasing warmth:
"Yes, I can very well understand that after having inherited the fortune
of my brother, it would be very agreeable to you to be my heir likewise; but
know, beforehand, if you kill me, or cause me to be killed, my precautions
are taken: not a penny of what I posses will pass into your hands. Were you
not already rich enough, you who possess nearly a million? and could you not
stop your fatal career, if you did not do evil for the supreme delight of
doing it? Oh! be assured, if the memory of my brother were not sacred to
me, you should rot in a state dungeon, or satisfy the curiosity of sailors
at Tyburn: I will be silent, but you must endure your captivity quietly: in
fifteen or twenty days I shall set out for La Rochelle, with the army; but
before my departure, a vessel which I will see sail, will take you hence and
convey you to our colonies of the south; and be assured that you shall be
accompanied by one who will blow your brains out at the first attempt you may
make to return to England or to the continent."
Milady listened with an attention that dilated her inflamed eyes.
"Yes, at present," continued Lord de Winter, "you will remain in this
castle: the walls of it are thick, the doors strong, and the bars solid;
besides which your window opens immediately over the sea: the men of my crew,
who are devoted to me for life and death, mount guard around this apartment,
and watch all the passages that lead to the castle-yard; and even if you
gained the yard, there would still be three iron gates for you to pass
through. The word given is positive; a step, a gesture, a word, on your
part, denoting an effort to escape, and you are to be fired upon; if they
kill you, English justice will be under an obligation to me for having saved
it trouble. Ah! I see your features are resuming their calmness, your
countenance is recovering its assurance: fifteen days, twenty days, say you,
bah! I have an inventive mind, before that is expired some idea will occur
to me; I have an infernal spirit, I shall meet with a victim. Before fifteen
days are gone by, you say to yourself, I shall be away, from here! Well
try!"
Milady, finding her thoughts betrayed, dug her nails into her flesh to
subdue every emotion that might give to her physiognomy any expression beyond
that of pain.
Lord de Winter continued:
"The officer who commands here in my absence you have already seen, and
therefore know him; he knows how, as you must have observed, to obey an
order, for you did not, I am sure, come from Portsmouth hither without
endeavoring to make him speak. What did you say to him? Could a statue of
marble have been more impassable and more mute? You have already tried the
power of your seductions upon many men, and, unfortunately, you have always
succeeded; but I give you leave to try them upon this one: pardieu! if you
succeed with him, I pronounce you the demon himself."
He went toward the door and opened it hastily.
"Call Master Felton," said he. "Wait a minute longer, and I will
introduce him to you."
There followed between these two personages a strange silence, during
which the sound of a slow and regular step was heard approaching; shortly a
human form appeared in the shade of the corridor, and the young lieutenant,
with whom we are already acquainted, stopped at the door, to receive the
orders of the baron.
"Come in, my dear John," said Lord de Winter, "come in, and shut the
door."
The young officer entered.
"Now," said the baron, "look at this woman: she is young, she is
beautiful, she possesses all earthly seductions. Well, she is a monster,
who, at twenty-five years of age, has been guilty of as many crimes as you
could read of in a year in the archives of our tribunals: her voice
prejudices her hearers in her favor, her beauty serves as a bait to her
victims, her body even pays what she promises - I must do her that justice:
she will endeavor to seduce you, perhaps she will endeavor to kill you. I
have extricated you from misery, Felton, I have caused you to be named
lieutenant, I once saved your life, you know on what occasion; I am for you
not only a protector, but a friend; not only a benefactor, but a father; this
woman is come back again into England for the purpose of conspiring against
my life; I hold this serpent in my power; well! I call upon you, and say to
you: Friend Felton, John, my child, guard me, and more particularly guard
yourself against this woman: swear by your hopes of salvation to keep her
safely for the chastisement she has merited. John Felton, I trust in thy
word! John Felton, I put faith in thy loyalty!"
"My lord," said the young officer, summoning to his mild countenance all
the hatred he could find in his heart; "my lord, I swear all shall be done
as you desire."
Milady received this look like a resigned victim: it was impossible to
imagine a more submissive or a more mild expression than that which prevailed
on her beautiful countenance. Lord de Winter himself could scarcely
recognize the tigress who, a minute before, appeared preparing for fight.
"She is not to leave this chamber, understand, John; she is not to
correspond with any one, she is to speak to no one but you - if you will do
her the honor to address a word to her."
"That is quite sufficient, my lord! I have sworn."
"And now madame, try to make your peace with God, for you are adjudged
by men!"
Milady let her head sink, as if crushed by this sentence. Lord de
Winter went out, making a sign to Felton, who followed him, shutting the door
after him.
One instant after, the heavy step of a marine was heard in the corridor;
his axe in his girdle and his musket on his shoulder, he commenced his watch.
Milady remained for some minutes in the same position, for she thought
they might perhaps be examining her through the keyhole; she then slowly
raised her head, which had resumed its formidable expression of menace and
defiance, ran to the door to listen, looked out of her window, and, returning
to bury herself again in her large fauteuil -
She reflected.
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