登陆注册
5302500000058

第58章 VILAIN HERODES.(1)

All the distaste and misliking I had expressed earlier in the day for the Court of Blois recurred with fresh force in the darkness and gloom;and though,booted and travel-stained as we were,Idid not conceive it likely that we should be obtruded on the circle about the king,I felt none the less an oppressive desire to be through with our adventure,and away from the ill-omened precincts in which I found myself.The darkness prevented me seeing the faces of my companions;but on M.de Rosny,who was not quite free himself,I think,from the influences of the time and place,twitching my sleeve to enforce vigilance,I noted that the lackeys had ceased to follow us,and that we three were beginning to ascend a rough staircase cut in the rock.Igathered,though the darkness limited my view behind as well as in front to a few twinkling lights,that we were mounting the scarp from the moat;to the side wall of the castle;and I was not surprised when the marquis muttered to us to stop,and knocked softly on the wood of a door.

M.de Rosny might have spared the touch he had laid on my sleeve,for by this time I was fully and painfully sensible of the critical position in which we stood,and was very little likely to commit an indiscretion.I trusted he had not done so already!

No doubt--it flashed across me while we waited--he had taken care to safeguard himself.But how often,I reflected,had all safeguards been set aside and all precautions eluded by those to whom he was committing himself!Guise had thought himself secure in this very building,which we were about to enter.Coligny had received the most absolute of safe-conducts from those to whom we were apparently bound.The end in either case had been the same --the confidence of the one proving of no more avail than the wisdom of the other.What if the King of France thought to make his peace with his Catholic subjects--offended by the murder of Guise--by a second murder of one as obnoxious to them as he was precious to their arch-enemy in the South?Rosny was sagacious indeed;but then I reflected with sudden misgiving that he was young,ambitious,and bold.

The opening of the door interrupted without putting an end to this train of apprehension.A faint light shone out;so feebly as to illumine little more than the stairs at our feet.The marquis entered at once,M.de Rosny followed,I brought up the rear;and the door was closed by a man who stood behind it.We found ourselves crowded together at the foot of a very narrow staircase,which the doorkeeper--a stolid pikeman in a grey uniform,with a small lanthorn swinging from the crosspiece of his halberd--signed to us to ascend.I said a word to him,but he only stared in answer,and M.de Rambouillet,looking back and seeing what I was about,called to me that it was useless,as the man was a Swiss and spoke no French.

This did not tend to reassure me;any more than did the chill roughness of the wall which my hand touched as I groped upwards,or the smell of bats which invaded my nostrils and suggested that the staircase was little used and belonged to a part of the castle fitted for dark and secret doings.

We stumbled in the blackness up the steps,passing one door and then a second before M.de Rambouillet whispered to us to stand,and knocked gently at a third.

The secrecy,the darkness,and above all the strange arrangements made to receive us,filled me with the wildest conjectures.But when the door opened and we passed one by one into a bare,unfurnished,draughty gallery,immediately,as I judged,under the tiles,the reality agreed with no one of my anticipations.

The place was a mere garret,without a hearth,without a single stool.Three windows,of which one was roughly glazed,while the others were filled with oiled paper,were set in one wall;the others displaying the stones and mortar without disguise or ornament.Beside the door through which we had entered stood a silent figure in the grey uniform I had seen below,his lanthorn on the floor at his feet.A second door at the farther end of the gallery,which was full twenty paces long,was guarded in like manner.A couple of lanthorns stood in the middle of the floor,and that was all.

Inside the door,M.de Rambouillet with his finger on his lip stopped us,and we stood a little group of three a pace in front of the sentry,and with the empty room before us.I looked at M.

de Rosny,but he was looking at Rambouillet.The marquis had his back towards me,the sentry was gazing into vacancy;so that baffled in my attempt to learn anything from the looks of the other actors in the scene,I fell back on my ears.The rain dripped outside and the moaning wind rattled the casements;but mingled with these melancholy sounds--which gained force,as such things always do,from the circumstances in which we were placed and our own silence--I fancied I caught the distant hum of voices and music and laughter.And that,I know not why,brought M.de Guise again to my mind.

The story of his death,as I had heard it from that accursed monk in the inn on the Claine,rose up in all its freshness,with all its details.I started when M.de Rambouillet coughed.Ishivered when Rosny shifted his feet.The silence grew oppressive.Only the stolid men in grey seemed unmoved,unexpectant;so that I remember wondering whether it was their nightly duty to keep guard over an empty garret,the floor strewn with scraps of mortar and ends of tiles.

The interruption,when it came at last,came suddenly.The sentry at the farther end of the gallery started and fell back a pace.Instantly the door beside him opened and a man came in,and closing it quickly behind him,advanced up the room with an air of dignity,which even his strange appearance and attire could not wholly destroy.

同类推荐
  • 龙门心法

    龙门心法

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 琉球国志略

    琉球国志略

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 洞玄灵宝道要经

    洞玄灵宝道要经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven

    Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说大乘十法经

    佛说大乘十法经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 矜持的女人最好命

    矜持的女人最好命

    《矜持的女人最好命》内容简介:矜持二字包含了太多了关于幸福的信息和暗号——矜持意味着自爱,是一种无形的自我保护。这个世界,因为有了女人才充满生机充满绚丽。著名作家冰心曾说过:“这世界如果少了女性,便会失去十分之五的真,十分之六的善,十分之七的美。”女人给这个世界带来了更多的真善美,却同时也要不可避免地要经历许多坎坷和磨难,还要经历命运的重重波折和幸福的次次考验。因为矜持,女人就避免了许多不必要的伤害,少走了一些不该走的弯路。
  • 哈佛优等生最欣赏的200个人生故事

    哈佛优等生最欣赏的200个人生故事

    这是一本关于哈佛人生智慧的书,从做人、做事、性格、交往和处世等方面遴选了哈佛优等生最欣赏的200个人生故事。阅读这些经典的人生故事,可以从中感触到哈佛精神的精髓所在,能够感受到自己是在与哈佛大师进行深层的沟通。不可否认,这些人生故事就像哈佛给予的人生忠告,品味它们,就好像浸润在智者的思想里……
  • 佛说象腋经

    佛说象腋经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 惊天绑架案

    惊天绑架案

    安徽省最北部的梨乡县城。一处新开发的小区豪宅前。外墙上已装上了四台空调,第五台正在安装中。一名空调安装工站在竹梯上,用冲击钻在往墙上打眼。他西装革履,身高一米七五左右,三十多岁,外表英俊。在小区的道路上,他边走边打量小区内的住户,目光果然落在了这栋最豪华的三层上。他径直奔三层豪宅走了过去,站在附近看了一会儿空调安装工人施工,然后在冲击钻不响时,走过去故意问那名工人:“这是不是什么单位的办公室?”
  • 公子如玉律师也倾城

    公子如玉律师也倾城

    我感谢那次的善良,也感谢那天发生的一切。
  • 匆匆那年旧情重燃:初恋爱

    匆匆那年旧情重燃:初恋爱

    《匆匆那年》旧情重燃,《初恋爱》再度夺目上阵。初恋、暗恋、虐恋……在情感的小径交叉的花园里,当谜底在最后一刻揭开时,永失我爱的绝望,与时光不再的虚妄会让你对现实重生怜情悯意。九夜茴迄今为止最成熟、最催泪、结构最完美的作品。在二十多家影视机构竞争中,最终被神秘买家以过2000万天价购得电影改编权,同名电影2015贺岁档隆重献映。
  • 龙血石的传说

    龙血石的传说

    书杰在日本侵略军的迫胁下进入了一座古代的王陵。本应空无一人的地宫里却杀机重重。书杰在机缘巧合之下得到了一颗龙血宝石,同时发现了墓主的真实身份和中华文明的起源。在宝石魔力的帮助下,书杰挫败了日军的盗墓行动,让侵略者尽数葬身古墓。而书杰本人最后只身逃出生天,而地宫里的宝藏与秘密再次深埋地底。
  • 超神学院之冰雪女神

    超神学院之冰雪女神

    一屌丝变身且穿越到了超神学院的世界,并获得了超能力。“如果给你个拯救世界的机会你干不干?”每个人心里都有一个英雄梦,而我的梦想将在这所超神学院里实现。书群:600922903,喜欢这本书的加。
  • 萌宝贼娘,劫上狼君

    萌宝贼娘,劫上狼君

    “在下没财,姑娘还是劫色吧!”这年头真是坑货一个比一个多。劫回来的没钱,装假狗就算了,这回好好的劫财,却硬硬坑成了劫色!眼前这货长得人模人样,俊美妖孽,居然是头狼!苏渺渺摇头叹息:“你走吧。”这货竟无耻赖上了:“姑娘毁了人家名节,要负责啊——”*苏渺渺痛心疾首:真不该打起了卖儿的主意啊!可她不是为了儿好她好大家好嘛!这回好了,儿子生气了,后果很严重;萌宝一个留书出走,要给自己劫个爹!咦?劫回的这个风度翩翩,俊朗不凡,应该挺靠谱的。谁料,关上门,那货开口了——“渺渺,宝儿已经将我卖给你当相公了,你看是不是应该验一下货?”“验什么货?”那货衣衫一褪,答道:“自然是‘夫’纲。”*艾玛,竟劫上了两个“狼”君!萌宝贼娘齐齐大喊:“坑爹啊!”◇◆◇简介无能,美人们还是看文吧!◇◆◇某女:那个,我可能有了。某男眼睛一亮:是吗,有什么反应啊?某女:肚子大了一点,胀胀的感觉。这时,一旁的某宝冷淡插上一句:明天少吃点就不会有这样的感觉了!(额,这熊孩子……)◇◆◇某日,某男胸膛半露,魅惑众生地一把抱住某女,将她压在身下。某女咽了咽口水:你想干什么?某男眉眼一抛:渺渺,干你想干的事。某女双目放光:真的吗?某男衣衫一褪,性感万分地点了点头。某女二话不说,双手狠狠地一推,翻身起来朝外喊道:宝儿,你爹说我们可以吃臭豆腐了……◇◆◇本文一对一宠文,男主腹黑无下限,女主成长抽风型,儿子傲娇萌黑系。宝儿:大减价,买一送一啰喂!贼娘:来吧,来吧,点击“加入书架”,值得你拥有!
  • 望雁归

    望雁归

    原本是想去地府找阎君讨个说法,一睁眼却发现身处一个凶杀案现场,最要命的是竟然成了一个刚出生不久的婴儿。阴差阳错成了知府外室所出的小小庶女,大妇强势毒辣,便宜爹爹窝囊自私,幸亏小娘亲还有几分智慧,看小小庶女如何混的风生水起。