Pierre Pevel - By The Alchemist in the Shadows Page 0,126
way of the foundations of the ancient tower. They emerged from the covered pit and remained for a moment, tottering but nevertheless standing, beneath the great starry sky, enjoying the cool air and the quiet of the night. Then Mirebeau, who was having more and more difficulty breathing, coughing up the blood filling his lungs, pointed to the outer wall of one of the pavilions under construction.
'Over there,' he said. 'That would be . . . good.'
Leprat helped the gentleman walk to the spot he had chosen. He installed him against the wall, facing east, and sat down next to him.
'And now,' said Mirebeau. 'We only need . . . We only need to wait for the sun . . .'
He died a short while later.
Leprat still hadn't moved when dawn broke.
3
A few days passed before La Fargue, for the second time in less than a fortnight, paid a visit to the Grand Chatelet. Accompanied by Almades, as always, he arrived by way of the Pont au Change, whose houses aligned on either side com-pletely hid the Seine from view and gave one the impression of travelling down an ordinary street. The two men rode at a walk, side by side, in silence. It was late morning, on a sunny day, and Paris stank more than ever.
Nothing had filtered out concerning the plot that the Blades had thwarted and — it was hoped —
nothing ever would. The scandal would be enormous. Although she had obviously been unaware that she was delivering herself into the hands of the Black Claw, Anne d'Autriche was nonetheless guilty of having wanted to subject herself, unbeknownst to the king and contrary to the laws of the kingdom, to a ritual involving draconic magic. Besides, like the duchesse de Chevreuse, most of those implicated in this affair believed they were doing no evil, having persuaded themselves — out of loyalty, affection or naivety — that they were secretly helping an unhappy and humiliated sovereign conceive an heir to the throne. Within the queen's entourage, no one knew what would have really happened if the queen had been successfully abducted by the alchemist ...
L.a Fargue and Almades exchanged a look before they passed through Le Chatelet's dark archway.
La Fargue guessed what the Spaniard was thinking and waited for him to say it out loud.
Although planned for some tunc, the wave of arrests ordered by the king on the day following that famous night
had very opportunely dominated public attention ever since. The gazettes and the gossipmongers had discussed nothing else, in Paris, in France and in the other princely courts throughout Europe.
The arrest that caused the most astonishment was that of the marquis de Chateauneuf, who was third personage of the State in his role as Keeper of the Seals. He was firstly reproached for being too eager to succeed Richelieu in the post of chief minister to His Majesty, which was often the first step on the path leading to treasonous plots. But more to the point, he was accused of confiding State secrets to his mistress, the highly suspect duchesse de Chevreuse. Some of those secrets concerned the citadels France was occupying in Lorraine. And there was also the matter of a French officer, an intimate friend of the marquis, who had been arrested recently, just before he could divulge information about the army the king was presently mustering. Thanks to the confessions of this officer, a trap had been set at an inn near Neuilly, but unfortunately it had not led to the arrest of any accomplices. Chateauneuf s guilt, however, had clearly been brought to light. He had been thrown into a prison from which he would not emerge for a long time, while others were also being dealt with by the king's justice. Convicted of having communicated State secrets, confided to her by the besotted marquis, to the duc de Lorraine, the duchesse de Chevreuse was of course one of them.
But her rank still seemed to protect her, even if in truth she was skilfully negotiating the terms of her silence about what threatened to become the affair of the Dampierre ritual.
The two Blades dismounted in the courtyard of Le Chatelet and again La Fargue's eye met Almades's. This time, however, the fencing master asked:
'What do you expect from this meeting, captain?'
'I don't know,' the old gentleman admitted. 'Answers, I think.'
'Answers to which questions?'
He fell silent and the two men let themselves be led into the imposing lower that housed the prison.