"Their presence has been called for."

This curious exchange made Marciac smile with nostalgia.

"Perhaps we should change the pa.s.swords," murmured Marciac to Almades. "It's been five years, after all...."

The other made a face: right now, all that mattered was whether the door would open for them. And it did.

La Fargue going first, they pa.s.sed through the small door one by one, leading their mounts by their bits to make them lower their heads. As soon as they crossed the threshold the horses' shoes clattered loudly against the paving stones, filling the courtyard into which they emerged with echoes.

It was a ma.s.sive old residence built in a severe architectural style, entirely out of grey stone, which a strict Huguenot had commissioned according to his specifications, following the ma.s.sacre on the feast day of Saint-Barthelemy in 1572. It evoked the ancient fortified manors which still survive in some parts of the French countryside, whose walls are veritable ramparts and whose windows can be used as embrasures. A high wall separated the courtyard from the street. To the right, as one entered, rose the scabby, windowless wall of the neighbouring building. Opposite the gates were two coach doors leading into the stables, which were topped by a hay loft. Finally, to the left, the main building stood at an angle. Flanked by a turret and a dovecote, it comprised a tier of tiny attic windows embedded in its slate rooftop, two rows of stone-mullioned windows looking on to the courtyard, a protruding study, and a ground floor which could be reached by a short flight of steps.

Abandoning his horse Marciac climbed these steps, turned toward his companions who had remained behind, and declared with affected pomposity: "And so we have returned to Hotel de l'epervier, the House of the Sparrowhawk, which, as you can see, has lost none of its charms.... d.a.m.n!" he added in a lower tone. "This place is even more sinister than I recalled, which I hardly believed possible...."

"This house has served us well in the past," declared the captain. "And it will serve again. Besides, we are all familiar with it."

Having closed the pedestrian door again, the person who had granted them admission now came to join them.

The old man limped on a wooden leg. Small, skinny, dishevelled, he had bushy eyebrows and his bald head was surrounded with a crown of long thin yellowish white hair.

"Good evening, monsieur," he said to La Fargue, holding a large bunch of keys out to him.

"Good evening, Guibot. Thank you."

"Monsieur Guibot?" interrupted Marciac, coming closer. "Monsieur Guibot, is it really you?"

"Indeed, monsieur, it's me."

"I thought I recognised your voice but ... have you really been guarding these sorry stones for the past five years?"

The man reacted as though someone had insulted his family: "Sorry stones, monsieur? Perhaps this house is not very cheerful and no doubt you will find, here and there, a few cobwebs and some dust, but I a.s.sure you that her roof, her structure, her walls, and her floors are solid. Her chimneys draw well. Her cellars and stables are vast. And of course, there is always the small door at the bottom of the garden which leads to a dead-end alley which-"

"And her?" Almades interrupted. "Who is she?"

A young woman in an ap.r.o.n and white bonnet hovered on the threshold to the main building. Plump and blonde, with blue eyes, she smiled timidly while wringing her hands.

"This is Nais," Guibot explained. "Your cook."

"What about madame Lourdin?" inquired Marciac.

"She pa.s.sed away last year, monsieur. Nais is her niece."

"Is she a good cook?"

"Yes, monsieur."

"Can she hold her tongue?" asked La Fargue, who had his own sense of priorities.

"She is, so to speak, mute, captain."

"What do you mean, 'so to speak'?"

"She is so timid and bashful that she almost never utters a word."

"That's not exactly the same thing...."

Nais hesitated to approach, and La Fargue was about to beckon her closer when the knocker on the carriage gate was heard again. It took everyone by surprise and even made the young girl jump.

"It's him," Guibot announced with a hint of worry in his voice.

The captain nodded, his silver hair touching the collar of his grey doublet.

"Let him in, monsieur Guibot."

"'Him'?" asked the Gascon while the porter obeyed. "Who is 'he'?"

"Him," said the captain lifted his chin toward the gentleman who entered the courtyard leading a bay horse by the bridle.

Somewhere between forty-five and fifty years old, he was tall, thin, and pale, patently smug and self-a.s.sured, dressed in a crimson doublet and black breeches.

Marciac recognised him even before he caught sight of the man's well-groomed moustache and the scar on his temple.

"Rochefort."

28.

As was his habit, the young marquis de Gagniere dined at home, early and alone. An immutable ritual governed even the tiniest details of the meal, from the perfect presentation of the table to the silence imposed on the servants, as they presented a series of dishes prepared by a famous and talented rotisseur who was accustomed to the tastes of the most demanding of his customers. The crockery laid out on the immaculate linen tablecloth was all made of vermeil, the gla.s.ses and decanters were all crystal, the cutlery silver. So luxuriously dressed that he would dazzle at court, Gagniere ate with a fork according to an Italian fashion which had not yet become commonplace in France. He cut small, equal pieces which he chewed slowly, emotionless and stiff, his gaze always directed straight ahead, and pausing between each dish he placed his hands flat to either side of the plate. When he drank he took care to wipe his mouth and moustache in order to avoid dirtying the edge of the gla.s.s.

He had finished a slice of pheasant pie when a lackey, taking advantage of one of the pauses between dishes, murmured a few words into his ear. The marquis listened without betraying any emotion or moving a muscle. Then he nodded.

A little later, Malencontre entered.

His manner was defeated; he was filthy and bedraggled, stank like a stable, had his hair stuck to his face and his left hand trussed up in a grimy bandage.

Gagniere accorded him one clinical glance.

"I gather," he said, "that all did not go according to plan."

A stuffed quail was placed before him, which he proceeded to meticulously carve up.

"Your men?" he asked him.

"Dead. All of them. Killed to a man."

"By one man?"

"Not just any man! It was Leprat. I recognised his rapier."

Gagniere lifted a morsel of quail to his mouth, chewed, and swallowed.

"Monsieur Leprat," he said to himself. "Monsieur Leprat and his famous ivory rapier ..."

"A musketeer!" insisted Malencontre as though that justified his failure. "And one of the best!"

"Did you think the king would entrust his secret dispatches to comical lackeys ... ?"

"No, but-"

"The letter?"

"He still has it."

The marquis finished his quail while Malencontre watched his expressionless young face in silence. Then, having crossed his fork and spoon on his plate, he rang a small bell and said: "You can go, Malencontre. And take proper care of your hand; you'll be less useful to me without it."

A lackey entered to serve him, and the a.s.sa.s.sin, in leaving, pa.s.sed a servant who carried a sealed missive on a plate. He presented it to Gagniere, who carefully unsealed and opened it.

It was written in the vicomtesse de Malicorne's hand.

Your man has failed. The courier will arrive at the Saint-Denis gate before midnight. The letter must not reach the Louvre.

The marquis refolded the paper and allowed himself one last mouthful of wine.

At the same moment Leprat, travelling alone, was riding into the sunset on a dusty and empty road.

Lying against his heart, in the folds of his shirt, beneath his dust, sweat, and dried bloodstained doublet, he carried a secret piece of diplomatic mail which he had sworn to defend even at the cost of his life. Exhausted and wounded, weakened by the illness which patiently ate away at him, he galloped toward Paris and nightfall, unaware of the dangers which awaited him.

THE SPANISH CHEVALIER

1.

Huge torches lit the Saint-Denis gate when the chevalier Leprat d'Orgueil arrived there an hour after nightfall. Tired, grimy, his shoulders slumped and his back in torment, he was scarcely in a better state than his horse. As for that poor beast, its head drooped, it was struggling to put one foot in front of the other, and was in danger of stumbling with every step.

"We're here, my friend," said Leprat. "You've certainly earned the right to a week's rest in the stable."

Despite his own fatigue he held his pa.s.s out with a firm hand, without removing his plumed felt hat or dismounting. Distrustful, the city militia officer first lifted his lantern to take a better look at this armed horseman with a disturbing, dangerous air: unshaven cheeks, drawn features, and a hard gaze. Then he studied the paper and upon seeing the prestigious signature at the bottom, he displayed a sudden deference, saluted, and ordered the gate opened.

Leprat thanked him with a nod of the head.

The Saint-Denis gate was a privileged point of access to the city of Paris. Pressed up against the new rampart and fortifications to the west that now encircled the older faubourgs, it led into rue Saint-Denis which crossed the entire width of the city's Right Bank from north to south, stretching as far as Le Chatelet and the Pont au Change bridge. During the day this almost straight arterial road teemed with turbulent, noisy life. Once twilight fell, however, it became a narrow trench that was quickly filled with mute, menacing shadows. Indeed, all of Paris offered this dangerous visage to the night.

Leprat soon realised that he was being watched.

His instincts warned him first. Then the peculiar quality of an expectant silence. And, finally, a furtive movement on a rooftop. But it was only when he drew level with La Trinite hospital that he saw the barrel of a pistol poking out between two chimneys and he suddenly dug his heels into his mount.

"Yah!"

Startled, his horse found a last reserve of energy to surge forward.

Gun shots rang out.

The b.a.l.l.s whistled past, missing their targets.

But after a few strides at full gallop, the horse ran straight into an obstacle which slammed into its forelegs. Neighing in pain the animal fell heavily, never to rise again.

Leprat freed himself from the stirrups. The shock of impact was hard, and a sharp pain tore at his wounded arm. Grimacing, he got to his knees- -and saw the chain.

Parisian streets had capstans at either end which made it possible to stretch a chain across the roadway-an old mediaeval device designed to obstruct the pa.s.sage of the rabble in the event of a riot. These chains, which could not be unwound without a key, were the responsibility of officers of the militia. They were big and solid, too low to stop a rider but high enough to oblige the horse to jump. And in the darkness, they had been turned into a diabolical trap.

Leprat realised then that the gunmen's main objective had not been to shoot him, and that this was the true ambush, on the corner of rue Ours, not far from one of the rare hanging lanterns lit by the city authorities at twilight, which burned until their fat tallow candles were extinguished.

Three men emerged in the pale glow and more were arriving. Gloved and booted, armed with swords, they wore hats, long dark cloaks, and black scarves to hide their faces.

Leprat got to his feet with difficulty, unsheathed his ivory rapier, and turned to face the first of the men charging toward him. He dodged one and let him pa.s.s, carried on by his momentum. He blocked the second's attack and shoved the third with his shoulder. He struck, pierced a throat, and recoiled in extremis in extremis to avoid a blade. Two more masked killers presented themselves. The chevalier d'Orgueil broke away and counterattacked at once. He seized one of his new a.s.sailants by the collar and threw him against a wall while continuing to defend himself with his sword. He parried, riposted, and parried again, endeavouring to set the rhythm of the engagement, to repulse or elude one adversary in time to take on the next. Although being left-handed gave him a small advantage, the reopened wound on his arm handicapped him and his adversaries had the advantage of greater numbers: when one faltered, another took his place. Finally, he skewered the shoulder of one and, with a violent blow of his pommel, smashed in the temple of another. This attack earned him a vicious cut to his thigh, but he was able to step back as the combatant with the wounded shoulder fled and his partner fell dead on the muddy pavement. to avoid a blade. Two more masked killers presented themselves. The chevalier d'Orgueil broke away and counterattacked at once. He seized one of his new a.s.sailants by the collar and threw him against a wall while continuing to defend himself with his sword. He parried, riposted, and parried again, endeavouring to set the rhythm of the engagement, to repulse or elude one adversary in time to take on the next. Although being left-handed gave him a small advantage, the reopened wound on his arm handicapped him and his adversaries had the advantage of greater numbers: when one faltered, another took his place. Finally, he skewered the shoulder of one and, with a violent blow of his pommel, smashed in the temple of another. This attack earned him a vicious cut to his thigh, but he was able to step back as the combatant with the wounded shoulder fled and his partner fell dead on the muddy pavement.

The two remaining a.s.sa.s.sins paused for a moment. They moved prudently, with slow gliding steps, to corner the chevalier. He placed himself en garde en garde, his back to the wall, careful to keep both of them in his field of vision. His arm and thigh were giving him pain. Sweat p.r.i.c.kled in his eyes. As the a.s.sa.s.sins seemed unwilling to take the initiative, Leprat guessed that they were expecting reinforcements, which were not long in arriving: three men were coming down rue Saint-Denis at a run. No doubt the same men who had fired on him from the rooftops.

Leprat could not afford to wait for them.

He altered his guard slightly, pretending to attack the adversary to his left and thereby offering an opening to the one on the right, only to abruptly change his target. The ivory caught a ray of moonlight before slicing cleanly through a fist which remained clenched around a sword hilt. The amputee screamed and beat an immediate retreat, clutching his stump which was bleeding in vigorous spurts. Leprat promptly forgot him and pivoted in time to deflect a sword thrust aimed at his face. Parrying twice, he seized an over-extended arm, pulled the man toward him, and head b.u.t.ted him full in the mouth, then followed it with a blow of the knee to his crotch and finally delivered a reverse cut with his sword that slit the man's throat.

Letting the body fall into the blood-soaked mud, the chevalier s.n.a.t.c.hed a dagger from its belt and made ready to face the three latecomers. He deflected the first thrust with his white rapier, the second with the dagger, and dodged the third which, rather than slicing through his eye as far as his brain, merely left a scratch across his cheek. Then he shoved one brawler away with a blow from his boot, succeeded in stopping the blades of the two others with a high parry, and with the ivory grating beneath the double bite of steel, heaved them both back and to the side, forcing their blades downward. His dagger was free: he stabbed it into one a.s.sailant's exposed flank three times. Pressing his advantage, Leprat planted a foot firmly on a boundary stone and, spinning into the air, decapitated the man he had just kicked away before the latter managed to fully recover his balance. A b.l.o.o.d.y scarlet spray fell in a sticky rain over the chevalier d'Orgueil and his third, final opponent. They exchanged a number of attacks, parries, and ripostes, each advancing and retreating along an imaginary line, mouths drawn into grimaces and exchanging furious glares. At last the a.s.sa.s.sin made a fatal error and his life came to a swift end when the slender ivory blade slid beneath his chin and its stained point exploded from the back of his head.

Drunk from exhaustion and combat, weakened by his wounds, Leprat staggered and knew he was in a bad way. A violent retch doubled him over and forced him to lean against a door as he vomited up long strands of black ranse phlegm.

He believed the fight was over, until he heard a horse approaching at a slow walk.

Keeping one hand against the wall at whose foot he had vomited, Leprat peered to one side, his tired eyes straining to make out the rider advancing toward him.

He was a very young and very elegant gentleman with a blond moustache, mounted on a lavishly harnessed horse.