september had now arrived; and though the weather was very bad, the duke de champdoce, accompanied by his faithful old servant, jean, left paris on a visit to his training stables. having had a serious difference with diana, he had made up his mind to try whether a long absence on his part would not have the effect of reducing her to submission, and at the same time remembering the proverb, that “absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
he had already been away two whole days, and was growing extremely anxious at not having heard from madame de mussidan, when one evening, as he was returning from a late inspection of his stud, he was informed that there was a man waiting to see him. the man was a poor old fellow belonging to the place, who eked out a wretched subsistence by begging, and executing occasional commissions.
“do you want me?” asked the duke.
with a sly look, the man drew from his pocket a letter.
“this is for you,” muttered he.
“all right; give it to me, then.”
“i was told to give it to you only in private.”
“never mind that; hand it over.”
“well, if i must, i must.”
norbert’s sole thought was that this letter must have come from diana, and throwing the man a coin, hurried to a spot where it was light enough to read the missive. he did not, however, recognize diana’s firm, bold hand on the envelope.
“who the devil can this be from?” thought norbert, as he tore open the outer covering. the paper within was soiled and greasy, and the handwriting was of the vilest description, it was full of bad spelling, and ran thus:—
“sir,—
“i hardly dare tell you the truth, and yet my conscience will give me no relief until i do so. i can no longer bear to see a gentleman such as you are deceived by a woman who has no heart or honorable feeling. your wife is unfaithful to you, and will soon make you a laughing stock to all. you may trust to this being true, for i am a respectable woman, and you can easily find out if i am lying to you. hide yourself this evening, so that you may command a view of the side-door in the wall of your garden, and between half-past ten and eleven you will see your wife’s lover enter. it is a long time since he has been furnished with a key. the hour for the meeting has been judiciously fixed, for all the servants will be out; but i implore you not to be violent, for i would not do your wife any harm, but i feel that you ought to be warned.
“from one
“who knows.”
norbert ran through the contents of this infamous anonymous letter in an instant. the blood surged madly through his brain, and he uttered a howl of fury. his servants ran in to see what was the matter.
“where is the fellow who brought this letter?” said he. “run after him and bring him back to me.”
in a few minutes the sturdy grooms made their appearance, pushing in the messenger, who seemed over-powered with tears.
“i am not a thief,” exclaimed he. “it was given to me, but i will give it back.”
he was alluding to the louis given to him by norbert, for the largeness of the sum made him think that the donor had made a mistake.
“keep the money,” said the duke; “i meant it for you; but tell me who gave this letter to you.”
“i can’t tell you,” answered the man. “if i ever saw him before, may my next glass of wine choke me. he got out of a cab just as i was passing near the bridge, and calling to me, said, ‘look at this letter; at half-past seven take it to the duke de champdoce, who lives by his stables in the road to the forest. do you know the place?’ ‘yes,’ i says, and then he slips the letter and a five-franc piece into my hand, got back into the cab, and off he went.”
“what was the man like?” asked he.
“well, i can hardly say. he wasn’t young or old, or short or tall. i recollect he had a gold watch-chain on, but that was about all i noticed.”
“very well; you can be off.”
at this moment norbert’s anger was turned against the writer of the letter only, for he did not place the smallest credence in the accusations against his wife. if he did not love her, he at any rate respected her. “my wife,” said he to himself, “is an honorable and virtuous woman, and it is some discharged menial who has taken this cowardly mode of revenge.” a closer inspection of the letter seemed to show him that the faults in caligraphy were intentional. the concluding portion of the letter excited his attention, and, calling jean, he asked him if it was true that all the servants would be absent from the house to-day.
“there will be none there this evening; not until late at night,” answered the old man.
“and why, pray?”
“have you forgotten, your grace, that the first coachman is going to be married, and the duchess was good enough to say that all might go to the wedding dinner and ball, as long as some one remained at the porter’s lodge?”
after the first outburst, norbert affected an air of calmness, and laughed at the idea of having permitted himself to be disturbed for so trivial a cause. but this was mere pretence, for doubt and suspicion had entered his soul, and no power on earth could expel them. “why should not my wife be unfaithful to me?” thought norbert. “i give her credit for being honorable and right-minded, but then all deceived husbands have the same idea. why should i not take advantage of this information, and judge for myself? but no. i will not stoop to such an act of baseness. i should be as infamous as the writer of this letter if i was to play the spy, as she recommends me to do.” he glanced round, and perceived that his servants were looking at him with undisguised curiosity.
“go to your work,” said he. “extinguish the lights, and see that all the doors and windows are carefully closed.”
he had made up his mind now, and taking out his watch, saw that it was just eight o’clock. “i have time to reach paris,” muttered he, “by the appointed time.” then he called jean to him again. there was no need to conceal anything from this trusty adherent of the house of champdoce. “i must start for paris,” said the duke, “without an instant’s delay.”
“on account of that letter?” asked the old man with an expression of the deepest sorrow upon his features.
“yes, for that reason only.”
“some one has been making false charges against the duchess.”
“how do you know that?”
“it was easy enough to guess.”
“have the carriage got ready, and tell the coachman to wait for me in front of the club. i myself will go on foot.”
“you must not do that,” answered jean gravely. “the servants may have conceived the same suspicions as i have. you ought to creep away without any one being a bit the wiser. the other domestics need not even suppose that you have left the house. i can get you a horse out of the little stables without any one being the wiser. i will wait for you on the other side of the bridge.”
“good; but remember that i have not a moment to lose.”
jean left the room, and as he reached the passage norbert heard him say to one of the servants, “put some cold supper on the table; the duke says that he is starving.”
norbert went into his bedroom, put on a great coat and a pair of high boots, and slipped into his pocket a revolver, the charges of which he had examined with the greatest care. the night was exceedingly dark, a fine, icy rain was falling, and the roads were very heavy. norbert found jean with the horse at the appointed spot, and as he leaped into the saddle the duke exclaimed, “not a soul saw me leave the house.”
“nor i either,” returned the attached domestic. “i shall go back and act as if you were at supper. at three in the morning i will be in the wine-shop on the left-hand side of the road. when you return, give a gentle tap on the window-pane with the handle of your whip.” norbert sprang into the saddle, and sped away through the darkness like a phantom of the night. jean had made an excellent choice in the horse he had brought for his master’s use, and the animal made its way rapidly through the mud and rain; but norbert by this time was half mad with excitement, and spurred him madly on. as he neared home a new idea crossed his brain. suppose it was a practical joke on the part of some of the members of the club? in that case, they would doubtless be watching for his arrival, and, after talking to him on indifferent subjects, would, when he betrayed any symptoms of impatience, overwhelm him with ridicule. the fear of this made him cautious. what should he do with the horse he was riding? the wine-shops were open, and perhaps he might pick up some man there who would take charge of it for him. as he was debating this point, his eyes fell upon a soldier, probably on his way to barracks.
“my man,” asked the duke, “would you like to earn twenty francs?”
“i should think so, if it is nothing contrary to the rules and regulations of the army.”
“it is only to take my horse and walk him up and down while i pay a visit close by.”
“i can stay out of the barracks a couple of hours longer, but no more,” returned the soldier.
norbert told the soldier where he was to wait for him, and then went on rapidly to his own house, and reached the side street along which ran the garden belonging to his magnificent residence. on the opposite side of the street the houses all had porticoes, and norbert took up his position in one of these, and peered out carefully. he had studied the whole street, which was not a long one, from beginning to end, and was convinced that he was the only person in it. he made up his mind that he would wait until midnight; and if by that time no one appeared, he would feel confident that the duchess was innocent, and return without any one but jean having known of his expedition. from his position he could see that three windows on the second floor of his house were lighted up, and those windows were in his wife’s sleeping apartment. “she is the last woman in the world to permit a lover to visit her,” thought he. “no, no; the whole thing is a hoax.” he began to think of the way in which he had treated his wife. had he nothing to reproach himself with? ten days after their marriage he had deserted her entirely; and if during the last few weeks he had paid her any attention, it was because he was acting in obedience to the whims of another woman. suppose a lover was with her now, what right had he to interfere? the law gave him leave, but what did his conscience say? he leaned against the chill stone until he almost became as cold as it was. it seemed to him at that moment that life and hope were rapidly drifting away from him. he had lost all count of how long he had been on guard. he pulled out his watch, but it was too dark to distinguish the hands or the figures on the dial-plate. a neighboring clock struck the half-hour, but this gave him no clue as to the time. he had almost made up his mind to leave, when he heard the sound of a quick step coming down the street. it was the light, quick step of a sportsman,—of a man more accustomed to the woods and fields than the pavement and asphalt of paris. then a shadow fell upon the opposite wall, and almost immediately disappeared. then norbert knew that the door had opened and closed, and that the man had entered the garden. there could be no doubt upon this point, and yet the duke would have given worlds to be able to disbelieve the evidence of his senses. it might be a burglar, but burglars seldom work alone; or it might be a visitor to one of the servants, but all the servants were absent. he again raised his eyes to the windows of his wife’s room. all of a sudden the light grew brighter; either the lamp had been turned up, or fresh candles lighted. yes, it was a candle, for he saw it borne across the room in the direction of the great staircase, and now he saw that the anonymous letter had spoken the truth, and that he was on the brink of a discovery. a lover had entered the garden, and the lighted candle was a signal to him. norbert shuddered; the blood seemed to course through his veins like streams of molten fire, and the misty atmosphere that surrounded him appeared to stifle him. he ran across the street, forced the lock, and rushed wildly into the garden.
