The three musketeers
“Yes, yes!” said Felton, “I doubted, but now I believe.”
“You believe, and still you are an accomplice of that child of Belial
who is called Lord de Winter! You believe, and yet you leave me in the
hands of mine enemies, of the enemy of England, of the enemy of God!
You believe, and yet you deliver me up to him who fills and defiles the
world with his heresies and debaucheries—to that infamous Sardanapalus
whom the blind call the Duke of Buckingham, and whom believers name
Antichrist!”
“I deliver you up to Buckingham? I? what mean you by that?”
“They have eyes,” cried Milady, “but they see not; ears have they, but
they hear not.”
“Yes, yes!” said Felton, passing his hands over his brow, covered with
sweat, as if to remove his last doubt. “Yes, I recognize the voice
which speaks to me in my dreams; yes, I recognize the features of the
angel who appears to me every night, crying to my soul, which cannot
sleep: ‘Strike, save England, save thyself—for thou wilt die without
having appeased God!’ Speak, speak!” cried Felton, “I can understand
you now.”
A flash of terrible joy, but rapid as thought, gleamed from the eyes of
Milady.
However fugitive this homicide flash, Felton saw it, and started as if
its light had revealed the abysses of this woman’s heart. He recalled,
all at once, the warnings of Lord de Winter, the seductions of Milady,
her first attempts after her arrival. He drew back a step, and hung
down his head, without, however, ceasing to look at her, as if,
fascinated by this strange creature, he could not detach his eyes from
her eyes.
Milady was not a woman to misunderstand the meaning of this hesitation.
Under her apparent emotions her icy coolness never abandoned her.
Before Felton replied, and before she should be forced to resume this
conversation, so difficult to be sustained in the same exalted tone,
she let her hands fall; and as if the weakness of the woman overpowered
the enthusiasm of the inspired fanatic, she said: “But no, it is not
for me to be the Judith to deliver Bethulia from this Holofernes. The
sword of the eternal is too heavy for my arm. Allow me, then, to avoid
dishonor by death; let me take refuge in martyrdom. I do not ask you
for liberty, as a guilty one would, nor for vengeance, as would a
pagan. Let me die; that is all. I supplicate you, I implore you on my
knees—let me die, and my last sigh shall be a blessing for my
preserver.”
Hearing that voice, so sweet and suppliant, seeing that look, so timid
and downcast, Felton reproached himself. By degrees the enchantress had
clothed herself with that magic adornment which she assumed and threw
aside at will; that is to say, beauty, meekness, and tears—and above
all, the irresistible attraction of mystical voluptuousness, the most
devouring of all voluptuousness.
“Alas!” said Felton, “I can do but one thing, which is to pity you if
you prove to me you are a victim! But Lord de Winter makes cruel
accusations against you. You are a Christian; you are my sister in
religion. I feel myself drawn toward you—I, who have never loved anyone
but my benefactor—I who have met with nothing but traitors and impious
men. But you, madame, so beautiful in reality, you, so pure in
appearance, must have committed great iniquities for Lord de Winter to
pursue you thus.”
“They have eyes,” repeated Milady, with an accent of indescribable
grief, “but they see not; ears have they, but they hear not.”
“But,” cried the young officer, “speak, then, speak!”
“Confide my shame to you,” cried Milady, with the blush of modesty upon
her countenance, “for often the crime of one becomes the shame of
another—confide my shame to you, a man, and I a woman? Oh,” continued
she, placing her hand modestly over her beautiful eyes, “never!
never!—I could not!”
“To me, to a brother?” said Felton.
Milady looked at him for some time with an expression which the young
man took for doubt, but which, however, was nothing but observation, or
rather the wish to fascinate.
Felton, in his turn a suppliant, clasped his hands.
“Well, then,” said Milady, “I confide in my brother; I will dare to—”
At this moment the steps of Lord de Winter were heard; but this time
the terrible brother-in-law of Milady did not content himself, as on
the preceding day, with passing before the door and going away again.
He paused, exchanged two words with the sentinel; then the door opened,
and he appeared.
During the exchange of these two words Felton drew back quickly, and
when Lord de Winter entered, he was several paces from the prisoner.
The baron entered slowly, sending a scrutinizing glance from Milady to
the young officer.
“You have been here a very long time, John,” said he. “Has this woman
been relating her crimes to you? In that case I can comprehend the
length of the conversation.”
Felton started; and Milady felt she was lost if she did not come to the
assistance of the disconcerted Puritan.
“Ah, you fear your prisoner should escape!” said she. “Well, ask your
worthy jailer what favor I this instant solicited of him.”
“You demanded a favor?” said the baron, suspiciously.
“Yes, my Lord,” replied the young man, confused.
“And what favor, pray?” asked Lord de Winter.
“A knife, which she would return to me through the grating of the door
a minute after she had received it,” replied Felton.
“There is someone, then, concealed here whose throat this amiable lady
is desirous of cutting,” said de Winter, in an ironical, contemptuous
tone.
“There is myself,” replied Milady.
“I have given you the choice between America and Tyburn,” replied Lord
de Winter. “Choose Tyburn, madame. Believe me, the cord is more certain
than the knife.”
Felton grew pale, and made a step forward, remembering that at the
moment he entered Milady had a rope in her hand.
“You are right,” said she, “I have often thought of it.” Then she added
in a low voice, “And I will think of it again.”
Felton felt a shudder run to the marrow of his bones; probably Lord de
Winter perceived this emotion.
“Mistrust yourself, John,” said he. “I have placed reliance upon you,
my friend. Beware! I have warned you! But be of good courage, my lad;
in three days we shall be delivered from this creature, and where I
shall send her she can harm nobody.”
“You hear him!” cried Milady, with vehemence, so that the baron might
believe she was addressing heaven, and that Felton might understand she
was addressing him.
Felton lowered his head and reflected.
The baron took the young officer by the arm, and turned his head over
his shoulder, so as not to lose sight of Milady till he was gone out.
“Well,” said the prisoner, when the door was shut, “I am not so far
advanced as I believed. De Winter has changed his usual stupidity into
a strange prudence. It is the desire of vengeance, and how desire molds
a man! As to Felton, he hesitates. Ah, he is not a man like that cursed
D’Artagnan. A Puritan only adores virgins, and he adores them by
clasping his hands. A Musketeer loves women, and he loves them by
clasping his arms round them.”
Milady waited, then, with much impatience, for she feared the day would
pass away without her seeing Felton again. At last, in an hour after
the scene we have just described, she heard someone speaking in a low
voice at the door. Presently the door opened, and she perceived Felton.
The young man advanced rapidly into the chamber, leaving the door open
behind him, and making a sign to Milady to be silent; his face was much
agitated.
“What do you want with me?” said she.
“Listen,” replied Felton, in a low voice. “I have just sent away the
sentinel that I might remain here without anybody knowing it, in order
to speak to you without being overheard. The baron has just related a
frightful story to me.”
Milady assumed her smile of a resigned victim, and shook her head.
“Either you are a demon,” continued Felton, “or the baron—my
benefactor, my father—is a monster. I have known you four days; I have
loved him four years. I therefore may hesitate between you. Be not
alarmed at what I say; I want to be convinced. Tonight, after twelve, I
will come and see you, and you shall convince me.”
“No, Felton, no, my brother,” said she; “the sacrifice is too great,
and I feel what it must cost you. No, I am lost; do not be lost with
me. My death will be much more eloquent than my life, and the silence
of the corpse will convince you much better than the words of the
prisoner.”
“Be silent, madame,” cried Felton, “and do not speak to me thus; I came
to entreat you to promise me upon your honor, to swear to me by what
you hold most sacred, that you will make no attempt upon your life.”
“I will not promise,” said Milady, “for no one has more respect for a
promise or an oath than I have; and if I make a promise I must keep
it.”
“Well,” said Felton, “only promise till you have seen me again. If,
when you have seen me again, you still persist—well, then you shall be
free, and I myself will give you the weapon you desire.”
“Well,” said Milady, “for you I will wait.”
“Swear.”
“I swear it, by our God. Are you satisfied?”
“Well,” said Felton, “till tonight.”
And he darted out of the room, shut the door, and waited in the
corridor, the soldier’s half-pike in his hand, and as if he had mounted
guard in his place.
The soldier returned, and Felton gave him back his weapon.
Then, through the grating to which she had drawn near, Milady saw the
young man make a sign with delirious fervor, and depart in an apparent
transport of joy.
As for her, she returned to her place with a smile of savage contempt
upon her lips, and repeated, blaspheming, that terrible name of God, by
whom she had just sworn without ever having learned to know Him.
“My God,” said she, “what a senseless fanatic! My God, it is I—I—and
this fellow who will help me to avenge myself.”
Chapter LVI.
CAPTIVITY: THE FIFTH DAY
Milady had however achieved a half-triumph, and success doubled her
forces.
It was not difficult to conquer, as she had hitherto done, men prompt
to let themselves be seduced, and whom the gallant education of a court
led quickly into her net. Milady was handsome enough not to find much
resistance on the part of the flesh, and she was sufficiently skillful
to prevail over all the obstacles of the mind.
But this time she had to contend with an unpolished nature,
concentrated and insensible by force of austerity. Religion and its
observances had made Felton a man inaccessible to ordinary seductions.
There fermented in that sublimated brain plans so vast, projects so
tumultuous, that there remained no room for any capricious or material
love—that sentiment which is fed by leisure and grows with corruption.
Milady had, then, made a breach by her false virtue in the opinion of a
man horribly prejudiced against her, and by her beauty in the heart of
a man hitherto chaste and pure. In short, she had taken the measure of
motives hitherto unknown to herself, through this experiment, made upon
the most rebellious subject that nature and religion could submit to
her study.
Many a time, nevertheless, during the evening she despaired of fate and
of herself. She did not invoke God, we very well know, but she had
faith in the genius of evil—that immense sovereignty which reigns in
all the details of human life, and by which, as in the Arabian fable, a
single pomegranate seed is sufficient to reconstruct a ruined world.
Milady, being well prepared for the reception of Felton, was able to
erect her batteries for the next day. She knew she had only two days
left; that when once the order was signed by Buckingham—and Buckingham
would sign it the more readily from its bearing a false name, and he