The Three Musketeers (The Modern Library) - Alexandre Dumas [222]
“Frankly and loyally?” Milady repeated with an indescribable expression of duplicity.
“Frankly and loyally,” the Cardinal echoed evenly: “The present negotiation is to be carried on quite openly.”
“I shall follow Monseigneur’s instructions to the letter. I await Your Eminence’s pleasure; pray tell me what I am to do.”
“You will go to Buckingham on my behalf. You will tell him I know of all the preparations that he is making. You will add that I am not uneasy because, at the first move he makes, I shall ruin the Queen.”
“Will he believe that Your Eminence is in a position to carry out this threat?”
“Certainly. I have the necessary proofs in hand.”
“But I must be able to present these proofs.”
“Undoubtedly. Simply tell him that I can publish the reports submitted by Bois-Robert and by the Marquis de Beautru on the Duke’s meeting with the Queen at the house of Madame la Connêtable on the evening of Madame le Connêtable’s masquerade. To convince him, you will tell him that he attended the fête disguised as the Great Mogul in a costume supposed to be worn by the Chevalier de Guise, purchased from the Chevalier for the sum of three thousand pistoles.”
“Very well, Monseigneur.”
“You will tell him that I know every detail of his movements the night he entered the palace disguised as an Italian fortune-teller.” The Cardinal paused, probably to make sure Milady seized each detail she was to communicate to Buckingham. Apparently satisfied, he went on briskly. “To substantiate this, you will remind him that under his cloak he wore a white robe embroidered with black tears, death’s heads and cross-bones.”
(By this disguise Buckingham had hoped, in case of surprise, to pass for the ghost of the White Lady who, according to legend, returns to the Louvre whenever some great event is impending.)
“Is that all, Monseigneur?”
“Tell him that I know every detail of the adventure at Amiens. Tell him that I shall have some writer make a charming little novel out of it, wittily turned, illustrated with a map of the garden and portraits of the principal characters in that nocturnal romance.”
“I will, Monsieur le Cardinal.”
Richelieu further instructed Milady to inform Buckingham that Montagu, the English envoy, was being held in the Bastille . . . that no letters were found upon his person but that torture might easily make him tell what he knew or even what he did not know . . . that Buckingham, in his flight from the Ile de Ré, had neglected to take along a certain letter from Madame de Chevreuse . . . and that this letter thoroughly compromised the Queen, because Her Majesty, beyond loving the King’s enemies, had actually plotted with the enemies of France. . . .
“You recollect all I have said,” the Cardinal concluded.
“Your Eminence will judge of that,” Milady answered. “One, the ball given by Madame la Connêtable; two, the night at the Louvre; three, the evening at Amiens; four, the arrest of Montagu; five, the letter from Madame de Chevreuse.”
“That is correct,” said the Cardinal, “you have an excellent memory, Milady.”
Milady nodded respectfully at the Cardinal’s flattery. But, she inquired, what if in spite of all these reasons, the Duke refused to give in and continued to threaten France?
“The Duke is in love with all the ardor of a madman,” His Eminence countered with great bitterness, “or rather with all the ardor of a fool! Like the paladins of old, he undertook this war solely to win one glance from the woman he worships. If ever he can be made to realize that this war may cost the lady of his thoughts, as he calls her, her honor and perhaps her liberty, I assure you he will think twice.”
“But if he persists?” Milady returned to the charge with a vigor that proved her will to see clearly the end of her mission. “What if he persists?”
“If he persists,” the Cardinal paused, then: “That is not likely!” he concluded.
“Yet it is possible, Monseigneur.”
“Well then, if he persists—” His Eminence paused again. “Well, in that case, I shall hope for one of those