Angelique - Part 4. The Doomed Man of Notre Dame Chapter 5 - Read online

A FEW DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS snow began to fall. The city donned festive garb. In the churches, creches were being set up. The banners of the brotherhoods led long, chanting processions through the narrow streets filled with snow and slush.
In accordance with custom, the Augustinian friars of the Hotel-Dieu hospital began to produce thousands of fritters, sprinkled with lemon- juice, which children sold throughout Paris. One was allowed to break the fast only with these fritters. The money derived from their sale would help to provide a Christmas celebration for the needy and sick.
At this time Angelique, caught up in the lugubrious complications of the dreadful trial, hardly realised that she was living through the blessed hours of Christmas and the first days of the New Year. To begin with, Desgrez came to see her in the Temple one morning and brought her the information he had been able to obtain about the nomination of the sworn judges for the trial.
“The designation of the judges was preceded by a long investigation. We mustn’t harbour any illusions, for it seems that they were chosen not at all for their spirit of justice, but according to their degree of attachment to the royal cause. Moreover, certain magistrates, though devoted to the King, were discarded if known to be brave enough possibly to oppose royal pressure. MaJtre Gallemand, for instance, is one of the most famous advocates of our time. He is very much in favour, for during the civil war he openly took the King’s side, even to the point of risking im¬prisonment. But he is a fighter who is not afraid of anybody, and his unexpected sallies make the Palace tremble. I had been hoping all along that he would be chosen, but they definitely want only safe people.”
“That was to be foreseen from all I recently heard,” said Angilique courageously. “Do you know the names of those who’ve already been appointed?”
“Seguier, the chief President of the Court, will personally conduct the formal examination of the defendant in order to give the case the lustre it deserves as an example and as publicity.”
“President Seguier! That’s more than I dared hope for!”
“Let’s not be carried away,” said the lawyer. “President Siguier is paying the price of his moral independence for his lofty position. I’ve also heard that he’s supposed to have visited the prisoner and that the interview was stormy. The Comte refused to take the oath, for the Chamber of Justice, he said, was incompetent in his eyes to try a member of the Parliament of Toulouse, the Grand Chamber of the Paris Parliament being the only court entitled to try a former maitre des requites, or Special Magistrate, of a provincial parliament.”
“Didn’t you say that a parliamentary trial was not to be desired on account of the members* subservience to Monsieur Fouquet?”
“Quite so, Madame, and I tried to warn your husband accordingly. But either the warning did not reach him, or else his pride refuses to take advice; at any rate I can only report to you the answer he gave to the Grand Master of the King’s justice.”
“And what’s the upshot of it?” the young woman asked anxiously.
“I suppose the King decided to ignore custom and that your husband will be tried, if necessary, ‘mute of malice’.”
“Which means?”
The lawyer explained that this consisted of trying the accused as if in his absence, which would jeopardise the Comte’s chances. In France an accused was always presumed guilty, whereas in England, for instance, it was the task of the prosecution to prove the guilt of an arrested person, who, in the absence of a written charge, was released within twenty-four hours.
“And do you know who will be the prosecutor at the trial?”
“There will be two of them. First, there is Denis Talon, who is the King’s own Attorney-General, and then, as I foresaw, there is your brother-in-law Fallot de Sance, who’s been designated as a judge. The latter made a show of withdrawing on the grounds of his family links with you, but Talon and the others must have persuaded him, for they now say in the lobbies of the Palace of Justice that it was very shrewd of him to have made his choice between his family duties and his loyalty to the King, to whom he owes everything.”
Angelique swallowed and her face contracted. But she controlled herself.
“There is also Massenau, a member of the Toulouse Parliament. With the Attorney-General, Massenau is the only one specifically designated by name. The others are chosen by Scguier, or by Talon himself.”
“So there will be other sworn judges?”
“There’ll be the president of the jury. President Mesmon has been mentioned, and that surprises me. He’s an old man, with hardly a breath of life left in him. I can’t see him presiding over a hearing that has every chance of being stormy. Perhaps he’s been chosen only on account of his physical weakness, for he is known to be an upright and conscientious man. If he can muster up some strength for this trial, he is one of those whom we can hope to convince. Further, there’ll be Bourie, secretary of the Council of Justice, who has the reputation of being a legal forger, and a certain Delmas, a very obscure lawyer, chosen perhaps because he is an uncle of Colbert, who is himself an agent of Mazarin’s, or perhaps merely because he is a Protestant and because the King wants to give his justice every appearance of legality and thereby maintain his reputation for giving the reformed religion an equal share in the performance of the kingdom’s secular justice.”
“I suppose,” said Angclique, “that this Huguenot will be much sur¬prised to find himself involved in a trial for witchcraft where exorcisms and possession by demons will be debated. Actually, though, it may profit us to have someone a little more open-minded among the jury, one who’ll reject superstition on principle. Don’t you think so?”
“No doubt,” said the lawyer, nodding his head with a worried ex¬pression. “By the way, speaking of exorcism and possession, tell me if you know a monk by the name of Conan Becher, and a nun who, before taking the veil, was called Carmencita de Merecourt?”
“Do I know them!” exclaimed Angclique. “That Friar Becher is a half- crazed alchemist who swore he’d wrest the secret of the Philosopher’s Stone from my husband. As for Carmencita de Merecourt, she is a volcanic person who was at one time . . . Joffrey’s mistress and who won’t forgive him for not letting her remain so. But what are they doing in this affair?”
“There’s talk of a performance of exorcism which was presided over by Becher and in which that lady is said to have taken part. It’s all very vague. The relevant document has only just been added to the case for the prosecution and is supposed to constitute evidence of capital import¬ance.
“You haven’t read it?”
“I’ve read nothing of the enormous file which Councillor Bourie is busily compiling. To my mind, he’ll make free use of his gifts as a forger.” “But surely, since the case is going to be heard, you, as counsel for the defence, must have cognizance of the details of the bills of indictment?” “Unfortunately not. I have already been told several times that your husband will be refused legal assistance. So at the moment I am making every effort to obtain a statement of this refusal in writing.”
“Butthat’s mad!”
“Not at all. Judicial custom says that a lawyer’s assistance can only be denied to a man who is accused of the crime of high treason. Such a charge is, after all, difficult to uphold in the present case. So by obtaining a written declaration of such a refusal of legal assistance, I shall be able to show that the procedure is improper, which will put me in a strong moral position. In the end, by this stratagem, I think I shall compel them to name me defending counsel.”
When Desgrez returned two days later, he looked satisfied and Angelique s heart jumped with hopefulness.
“The trick’s come off!” he cried exultantly. “The chief President of the Chamber of Justice, Seguier, has just appointed me as counsel for the defence of Monsieur de Pcyrac, accused of witchcraft. It’s a victory won thanks to the tangle of procedure. Despite their overwhelming desire to please the King, those haughty flunkeys of justice found themselves too much at loggerheads with their own principles. In short, they found themselves compelled to appoint an advocate. However, I want to point out to you, Madame, that there is still time for you to choose a more famous lawyer to whom to entrust your husband’s case.”
Angelique was gazing out of the window. The enclosure of the Temple was almost empty and seemed to be slumbering under its quilt of snow. Madame Scarron passed, wrapped in her shabby coat, on her way to Mass in the Grand Prior’s chapel. The tinkling of a little bell was muted under the grey sky.
Near the front of the house, Sorbonne was dolefully padding round in circles as he waited for his master. Angelique glanced sideways at her lawyer, who was affecting an air of gravity and composure.
“I really can’t imagine a more qualified man to whom I could entrust this case,” she said. “You fulfil all the desirable conditions. Indeed, when my brother-in-law Fallot recommended you to me, he told me: ‘He is one of the cleverest minds in the profession and, moreover, he won’t cost you much.’ ”
“I thank you, Madame, for holding such a good opinion of me,” said Desgrez, who did not seem at all displeased.
The young woman drew patterns mechanically on the blurred window- pane with her fingers. ‘When I’m back in Toulouse with Joffrey,’ she thought, ‘shall I still remember Desgrez? Sometimes it’ll come back to me that we were together at the bath-house and it will seem to me incredible!’
Suddenly she veered round, transfigured.
“If I’m not mistaken, you’ll be able to sec my husband every day. Couldn’t you take me with you?”
But Desgrez dissuaded her from attempting to break the very strict orders of complete confinement that applied to the prisoner. He himself was not yet certain of being allowed to see him, but he was determined to fight for this right through the intermediary of the Bar Council. He explained that he might have a greater chance to obtain his ends than a lawyer of great renown, of whom the powers that be would have mis¬givings. Quick action was now essential, for, since his appointment had been wrested from the royal justice only by a ruse, there was every reason to expect that the case for the prosecution would be communicated to him only very shortly before the hearing, and even then perhaps only in part.
“In this kind of case, I know that the documents frequently are just loose sheets, and the Lord Privy Seal, the Cardinal Mazarin or the King reserves the right to examine or remove or add to them at any time. Of course, this isn’t common, but since this case is somewhat special..
Angelique was humming that night as she cooked Florimond’s por¬ridge, and she even found Widow Cordeau’s perpetual whale-stew tasty. The children from the Hotel-Dieu hospital had passed through the Temple that day. She had bought some excellent fritters from them, and her full stomach helped her to see the future in rosier colours.
Her confidence was rewarded. The following evening, the lawyer returned with two pieces of extraordinary news: some of the documents had been shown to him, and he had obtained permission to see the prisoner. When she heard this, Angelique rushed towards Desgrez, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him fervently. For a moment she felt the clasp of two vigorous arms and she experienced a brief, intense pleasure. But she immediately shrank back in confusion and, wiping her eyes, in which tears were welling, she stammered that she no longer knew what she was doing.
Desgrez, very tactfully, did not seem to attribute any importance to the incident. He said that his visit to the Bastille would take place at noon the next day. He would be able to talk to the prisoner only in the Governor’s presence, but he was hoping that later on he could manage to see the Comte de Peyrac alone.
“I shall go with you,” Angelique decided. “I shall wait outside the prison.”
The lawyer then pulled from a worn plush bag a few sheets on which he had jotted down the principal counts of the indictment.
“He is charged, in the main, with witchcraft and sorcery. Stated to be an artist in making poisons and distilling drugs. Convicted of feats of magic such as seeing into the future and warding off evil spells to avoid the threat of poison. Alleged to have, by sorcery, discovered the art of be¬witching many people reputed to be of sound mind and to have sent out diabolic and ludicrous invocations. He is also said to teach the use of powders and flowers to inspire love and so forth. The prosecution further asserts that one of his former . . . mistresses died, and that when her body was exhumed it was discovered that she had in her mouth a talisman-portrait of the Comte dePeyrac. . . .”
“What a collection of arrant nonsense!” Angelique exclaimed, dumb-founded. “You surely don’t mean to say that respectable judges can possibly admit such stuff as evidence at a trial?”
“They probably will and, personally, I am delighted at this very surfeit of stupidities, which I shall be able to demolish with ease. The rest of the indictment comprises the crime of alchemy, the quest for treasures, the transmutation of gold and—mark this!—‘the heretical presumption of having created life’. Can you enlighten me, Madame, on this last point?”
Completely at a loss, Angelique pondered for a long while and even¬tually placed a hand over her womb, where her second child was stirring. “Do you think they could be referring to this?” she said laughingly.
The lawyer gave a resigned and dubious gesture. He went on reading: “ ‘. . . has increased his fortune by means of witchcraft, not over¬looking transmutation, etc.* And quite at the end I see this: ‘Demanded rights that were not his due. Openly boasted of being independent of the King and Princes. Received heretical and suspect foreigners and made use of prohibited books of foreign origins.’ Now,” continued Dcsgrez with some hesitation, “I come to what seems to me the most disturbing and astonishing point in the file. It deals with the minutes of an exorcism practised on the person of your husband by three ecclesiastics, who have declared that he was proved to be possessed and to have had dealings with the devil.”
“But this is inconceivable!” cried Angelique, who felt cold sweat at her temples. “Who arc these priests?”
“One of them is Friar Bechcr. I don’t know how he was able to get into the Bastille as an official representative. But what is certain is that this ceremony actually took place and that the witnesses assert that all the Comte’s reactions convincingly prove his intercourse with Satan.”
“That’s impossible!” repeated Angelique. “You at least don’t believe it, do vou?”
“I, Madame, am a libertine. I believe neither in God nor the devil.”
“Be quiet,” she stammered, quickly crossing herself.
She ran over to Florimond and clasped him to her bosom.
“Don’t listen to what he’s saying, my angel!” she murmured. “Oh! men are crazy.”
After a moment’s silence, Desgrez went over to the young woman. “Don’t alarm yourself,” he said, “there’s certainly something wrong here. But I emphasise the fact that this piece of evidence is very disquiet¬ing, for it’s the one that may most impress the judges. The exorcism was practised in accordance with the rites of Rome. The accused’s reactions are most damning. I specially noted the reaction to diabolic spots and the casting of spells on others.”
“What exactly docs that refer to?”
“As for the diabolic spots, demonologists point out that certain places on the body of a possessed man are rendered sensitive to the touch of a silver probe which has been exorcised. Now, in the course of that test the witnesses ascertained that the accused at certain moments uttered dreadful and ‘truly infernal’ shrieks, when an ordinary man would have in no way been inconvenienced by the light touch of this inoffensive instrument. As for the spellbinding of others, a person was brought into his presence and manifested all the familiar signs of possession.”
“If Carmencita was the person concerned, I am sure she play-acted the part to perfection,” said Angelique sarcastically.
“She is probably the nun referred to, but her name isn’t mentioned. At any rate, I repeat that there’s some detail here that rings false. However, as I foresee that the sworn judges will allude to it at every turn, I must be in a position to knock the bottom out of this argument. Unfortunately, I do not see anything for the moment that might render it illegal.”
“My husband himself may perhaps be able to enlighten you.”
“Let’s hope so,” sighed the lawyer.