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THE

WAR OF WOMEN.

BY

ALEXANDRE DUMAS.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

BOSTON:

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.

1903.




THE WAR OF WOMEN.




THE VICOMTESSE DE CAMBES.



I.


Two days later they came in sight of Bordeaux, and it became necessary
to decide at once how they should enter the city. The dukes, with their
army, were no more than ten leagues away, so that they were at liberty
to choose between a peaceable and a forcible entry. The important
question to be decided was whether it was better to have immediate
possession of Bordeaux at all hazards, or to comply with the wishes
of the Parliament. Madame la Princesse summoned her council of war,
which consisted of Madame de Tourville, Claire, Lenet, and her maids of
honor. Madame de Tourville knew her arch antagonist so well that she
had persistently opposed his admission to the council, upon the ground
that the war was a war of women, in which men were to be used only to
do the fighting. But Madame la Princesse declared that as Lenet was
saddled upon her by her husband, she could not exclude him from the
deliberative chamber, where, after all, his presence would amount to
nothing, as it was agreed beforehand that he might talk all he chose,
but that they would not listen to him.

Madame de Tourville's precautions were by no means uncalled-for; she
had employed the two days that had just passed in bringing Madame la
Princesse around to the bellicose ideas which she was only too anxious
to adopt, and she feared that Lenet would destroy the whole structure
that she had erected with such infinite pains.

When the council was assembled, Madame de Tourville set forth her plan.
She proposed that the dukes should come up secretly with their army,
that they should procure, by force or by persuasion, a goodly number of
boats, and go down the river into Bordeaux, shouting: "Vive Condé! Down
with Mazarin!"

In this way Madame la Princesse's entry would assume the proportions
of a veritable triumph, and Madame de Tourville, by a détour, would
accomplish her famous project of taking forcible possession of
Bordeaux, and thus inspiring the queen with a wholesome terror of an
army whose opening move resulted so brilliantly.

Lenet nodded approval of everything, interrupting Madame de Tourville
with admiring exclamations. When she had completed the exposition of
her plan, he said:--

"Magnificent, madame! be good enough now to sum up your conclusions."

"That I can do very easily, in two words," said the good woman,
triumphantly, warming up at the sound of her own voice. "Amid the
hail-storm of bullets, the clanging of bells, and the cries, whether of
rage or affection, of the people, a handful of weak women will be seen,
intrepidly fulfilling their noble mission; a child in its mother's arms
will appeal to the Parliament for protection. This touching spectacle
cannot fail to move the most savage hearts. Thus we shall conquer,
partly by force, partly by the justice of our cause; and that, I think,
is Madame la Princesse's object."

The summing up aroused even more enthusiasm than the original speech.
Madame la Princesse applauded; Claire, whose desire to be sent with
a flag of truce to Île Saint-Georges became more and more earnest,
applauded; the captain of the guards, whose business it was to thirst
for battle, applauded; and Lenet did more than applaud; he took Madame
de Tourville's hand, and pressed it with no less respect than emotion.

"Madame," he cried, "even if I had not known how great is your
prudence, and how thoroughly you are acquainted, both by intuition
and study, with the great civil and military question which engages
our attention, I should assuredly be convinced of it now, and should
prostrate myself before the most useful adviser that her Highness could
hope to find."

"Is she not?" said the princess; "isn't it a fine scheme, Lenet? I
agree with her entirely. Come, Vialas, give Monsieur le Duc d'Enghien
the little sword I had made for him, and his helmet and coat of mail."

"Yes! do so, Vialas. But a single word first, by your leave, madame,"
said Lenet; while Madame de Tourville, who was all swollen up with
pride, began to lose confidence, in view of her vivid remembrance of
the subtle arguments with which Lenet was accustomed to combat her
plans.

"Well," said the princess, "what is it now?"

"Nothing, madame, nothing at all; for no plan could be proposed more in
harmony with the character of an august princess like yourself, and it
could only emanate from your household."

These words caused Madame de Tourville to puff out anew, and brought
back the smile to the lips of Madame la Princesse, who was beginning to
frown.

"But, madame," pursued Lenet, watching the effect of this terrible
_but_ upon the face of his sworn foe, "while I adopt, I will not say
simply without repugnance, but with enthusiasm, this plan, which seems
to me the only available one, I will venture to propose a slight
modification."

Madame de Tourville stiffened up, and prepared for defence. Madame la
Princesse's smile disappeared.

Lenet bowed and made a motion with his hand as if asking permission to
continue.

"My heart is filled with a joy I cannot express," he said, "in
anticipation of the clanging of the bells, and the joyous acclamations
of the people. But I haven't the confidence I would like to have in the
hail-storm of bullets to which Madame has referred."

Madame de Tourville assumed a martial air. Lenet bowed even lower than
before, and continued, lowering his voice a half-tone:--

"Assuredly it would be a grand spectacle to see a woman and her child
walking calmly along in the midst of a tempest which would terrify
most men. But I should fear that one of those same bullets, following
a blind impulse, as brutal, unintelligent things are wont to do,
might give Monsieur de Mazarin the advantage over us, and spoil our
plan, which is so magnificent in other respects. I am of the opinion,
expressed so eloquently by Madame de Tourville, that the young prince
and his august mother should open up the way to the Parliament-house
for us,--but by petition, not by arms. I think, in short, that it will
be much better to move in that way the most savage hearts, than to
conquer by other means the most valiant. I think that the former of
these methods presents infinitely more chances of success, and that the
object of Madame la Princesse is, before all else, to gain admission
to Bordeaux. Now, I say that nothing is less sure than our success in
gaining admission to Bordeaux, if we take the chances of a battle."

"You see," said Madame de Tourville, sourly, "that monsieur proposes,
as usual, to demolish my plan, bit by bit, and quietly substitute a
plan of his own therefor."

"I!" cried Lenet, while the princess reassured Madame de Tourville with
a smile and a glance,--"I, the most enthusiastic of your admirers! no,
a thousand times no! But I say that an officer in his Majesty's service
named Dalvimar has arrived in the city from Blaye, whose mission is to
arouse the officials and the people against her Highness. And I say
that if Monsieur de Mazarin can put an end to the war at a single blow
he will do it; that is why I fear Madame de Tourville's hail-storm of
bullets, the more intelligent ones even more perhaps than the brutal,
unreasoning ones."

This last argument seemed to make Madame la Princesse reflect.

"You always know everything, Monsieur Lenet," retorted Madame de
Tourville, in a voice trembling with wrath.

"A good hot action would be a fine thing, however," said the captain of
the guards, drawing himself up and marking time with his foot as if he
were on the parade ground; he was an old soldier, whose sole reliance
was upon force, and who would have shone in action.

Lenet trod upon his foot, looking at him the while with a most amiable
smile.

"Yes, captain," said he; "but do you not think also that Monsieur le
Duc d'Enghien is necessary to our cause, and that with him dead or a
prisoner we are deprived of the real generalissimo of our armies?"

The captain of the guards, who knew that to bestow this pompous title
of generalissimo upon a prince of seven years made himself, in reality,
the commander-in-chief of the army, realized what a fool he had made of
himself, and warmly supported Lenet's opinion.

Meanwhile Madame de Tourville had gone to the princess's side and was
talking with her in an undertone. Lenet saw that the battle was not
yet won; indeed, the next moment her Highness turned to him and said,
testily:--

"It is very strange that you should be so bent upon demolishing what
was so well constructed."

"Your Highness is in error," said Lenet. "I have never been persistent
in offering such advice as I have had the honor to give you, and, if I
demolish, it is with the intention of rebuilding. If, notwithstanding
the arguments I have had the honor to submit to you, your Highness
still desires to seek death with your son, you are at liberty to do so,
and we will face death at your side; that is a very simple thing to
do, and the first footman in your retinue, or the meanest scoundrel in
the city will do as much. But if we wish to succeed, despite Mazarin,
despite the queen, despite the Parliament, despite Mademoiselle Nanon
de Lartigues, despite all the disadvantages inseparable from the feeble
state to which we are reduced, this, in my opinion, is what we must do."

"Monsieur," cried Madame de Tourville, impetuously, catching Lenet's
last sentence on the rebound, "there is no such thing as weakness,
where we have on the one hand the name of Condé, and on the other two
thousand of the men of Rocroy, Nordlingen, and Lens; and if we are weak
under such circumstances, why, we are lost in any event, and no plan of
yours, however magnificent it may be, will save us."

"I have read, madame," rejoined Lenet, calmly, enjoying in anticipation
the effect of what he was about to say upon the princess, who was
listening attentively in spite of herself,--"I have read that, in the
reign of Tiberius, the widow of one of the most illustrious Romans, the
noble-hearted Agrippina, who had been bereft of her husband Germanicus
by persecution, a princess who could at will arouse to frenzy a whole
army devoted to the memory of their dead general, preferred to enter
Brundisium alone, to traverse Puglia and Campania clad in mourning,
holding a child by each hand, pale-cheeked, eyes red with tears and
bent upon the ground, while the children sobbed and gazed imploringly
around; whereat all who saw--and from Brundisium to Rome there were
above two million people--burst into tears, broke forth in threats and
imprecations, and her cause was won, not at Rome alone, but before all
Italy; not only in the judgment of her contemporaries, but in that of
posterity; for she met with no shadow of resistance to her tears and
lamentations, while lances would have been met with pikes, and swords
with swords. To my mind there is a very strong resemblance between her
Highness and Agrippina, between Monsieur le Prince and Germanicus,
between Piso, the persecuting minister and poisoner, and Monsieur de
Mazarin. With this strong resemblance between the personages concerned,
the situation being almost identical, I ask that the same line of
conduct be adopted; for, in my opinion, it is impossible that what
succeeded so perfectly at one time could fail at another."

An approving smile played about Madame la Princesse's lips, and assured
Lenet that his discourse had turned the tide of battle in his favor.
Madame de Tourville took refuge in a corner of the room, veiling
herself like an antique statue. Madame de Cambes,