Quentin Durward
Sir Walter Scott
CHAPTER XXVIII: UNCERTAINTY Page 3
"No, no -- idiot, no," said the King, "in that case, you let him pass free. But if I say, 'There is a heaven above us,' up with him a yard or two nearer the planets he is so conversant with."
"I wish we may have the means here," said the Provost.
"Then up with him, or down with him, it matters not which," answered the King, grimly smiling.
"And the body," said the Provost, "how shall we dispose of it?"
"Let me see an instant," said the King -- "the windows of the hall are too narrow; but that projecting oriel is wide enough. We will over with him into the Somme, and put a paper on his breast, with the legend, 'Let the justice of the King pass toll free.' The Duke's officers may seize it for duties if they dare."
The Provost Marshal left the apartment of Louis, and summoned his two assistants to council in an embrasure in the great hall, where Trois Eschelles stuck a torch against the wall to give them light. They discoursed in whispers, little noticed by Oliver le Dain, who seemed sunk in dejection, and Le Balafre, who was fast asleep.
"Comrades," said the Provost to his executioners, "perhaps you have thought that our vocation was over, or that, at least, we were more likely to be the subjects of the duty of others than to have any more to discharge on our own parts. But courage, my mates! Our gracious master has reserved for us one noble cast of our office, and it must be gallantly executed, as by men who would live in history."
"Ay, I guess how it is," said Trois Eschelles; "our patron is like the old Kaisers of Rome, who, when things came to an extremity, or, as we would say, to the ladder foot with them, were wont to select from their own ministers of justice some experienced person, who might spare their sacred persons from the awkward attempts of a novice, or blunderer in our mystery. It was a pretty custom for Ethnics; but, as a good Catholic, I should make some scruple at laying hands on the Most Christian King."
"Nay, but, brother, you are ever too scrupulous," said Petit Andre. "If he issues word and warrant for his own execution, I see not how we can in duty dispute it. He that dwells at Rome must obey the Pope -- the Marshalsmen, must do their master's bidding, and he the King's."
"Hush, you knaves!" said the Provost Marshal, "there is here no purpose concerning the King's person, but only that of the Greek heretic pagan and Mahomedan wizard, Martius Galeotti."
"Galeotti!" answered Petit-Andre, "that comes quite natural. I never knew one of these legerdemain fellows, who pass their lives, as one may say, in dancing upon a tight rope, but what they came at length to caper at the end of one -- tchick."
"My only concern is," said Trois Eschelles, looking upwards, "that the poor creature must die without confession."
"Tush! tush!" said the Provost Marshal, in reply, "he is a rank heretic and necromancer -- a whole college of priests could not absolve him from the doom he has deserved. Besides, if he hath a fancy that way, thou hast a gift, Trois Eschelles, to serve him for ghostly father thyself. But, what is more material, I fear you most use your poniards, my mates; for you have not here the fitting conveniences for the exercise of your profession."
"Now our Lady of the Isle of Paris forbid," said Trois Eschelles, "that the King's command should find me destitute of my tools! I always wear around my body Saint Francis's cord, doubled four times, with a handsome loop at the farther end of it; for I am of the company of Saint Francis, and may wear his cowl when I am in extremis (at the point of death) -- I thank God and the good fathers of Saumur."
"And for me," said Petit Andre, "I have always in my budget a handy block and sheaf, or a pulley as they call it, with a strong screw for securing it where I list, in case we should travel where trees are scarce, or high branched from the ground. I have found it a great convenience."
"That will suit us well," said the Provost Marshal. "You have but to screw your pulley into yonder beam above the door, and pass the rope over it. I will keep the fellow in some conversation near the spot until you adjust the noose under his chin, and then --"
"And then we run up the rope," said Petit Andre, "and, tchick, our Astrologer is so far in Heaven that he hath not a foot on earth."
"But these gentlemen," said Trois Eschelles, looking towards the chimney, "do not these help, and so take a handsel of our vocation?"
"Hem! no," answered the Provost, "the barber only contrives mischief, which he leaves otmen to execute; and for the Scot, he keeps the door when the deed is a-doing, which he hath not spirit or quickness sufficient to partake in more actively -- every one to his trade."
With infinite dexterity, and even a sort of professional delight which sweetened the sense of their own precarious situation, the worthy executioners of the Provost's mandates adapted their rope and pulley for putting in force the sentence which had been uttered against Galeotti by the captive Monarch -- seeming to rejoice that that last action was to be one so consistent with their past lives. Tristan l'Hermite sat eyeing their proceedings with a species of satisfaction; while Oliver paid no attention to them whatever; and Ludovic Lesly, if, awaked by the bustle, he looked upon them at all, considered them as engaged in matters entirely unconnected with his own duty, and for which he was not to be regarded as responsible in one way or other.