Show II THE OPEN SHUTTE J A Story from the Memoirs of a Minister of France By Stanley J Weyman Copyrighted 1893 by Stanley J Wey 1k man For one utnan who in these days recalls th > thousand great and wise deeds of the I Jate king a thousand remember his occas ional freaks the duel he would have 1 > fought or Jus habit of visiting the streets of Paris by night and in disguise That this last has been much exaggerated I can I myself bear witness for though arenne or Coquet the master of the household were his usual companions on these occasions he seldom failed to con fess to me after the event and more than once I acccmpanied him If I remember rightly it was in April or May of the year 1C06 that he surprised me one night as I sat at supper and ro questing me to dismiss the servants let me know that he was in a flighty mood I and that nothing would content him but to play the Caliph In my company I was not too willing for I did not fail to recog nize the risk to which these exhibitions exposed hfs person but in the end I consented making only the condition that Maignanjhoald follow us at a distance This he consented and I sent for two plain suits and we drespod in my closet The Idl1g delighted with the frolic was l in his wildest mood He uttered n in finity of jests and cuta thousand absurd antics and rallying me dn my gravity soon cam cama near to making me j repent I of the easiness which had led me to fall I in with his humor r I in However it was too late to retreat and j a moment we were standing in the treet It would not have 1 surprised me if he had celebrated his freedom by some j r fljy I I y extravagance there but he re frained and contented himself while I 1 3Taignan locked the postern behind us i with cooking his hat and lugging for ward his sword and assuming an air of o whimsical recklessness as if an ad venture were to be instantly expected But the moon had not yet risen the right wis dark and for one time we met with nothing more diverting than with a stumble over a dead dog a word with a forward wench or a narrow es I cape from one of those liquid douches I that render the streets perilous for com I mon folk and do tsp the greatest Katurallr I began to tire and wished myself with all my heart back at the arsenal but Henry whose spirits a spice of danger never failed to raise found a hundred things to be merry over and some of which he made a great tale after wads HO would go on and presently in the Rue de la Pourpolnterle which we entered as the clocks struck the hour bo fore midnight his persistence was re warded By that time the moon had risen but naturally few were abroad so late and such as were to be seen belonged to a class among whom even Henry did not arc to seek adventures Our astonish ment was great therefore when half way down the street a street of tall mean houses neither better nor much worse than others in that quarter we saw standing in the moonlight at an open door a boy about seven year old The king saw him first and pressing my arm stood still On the Inpicnt the child who had pojably seen us before we saw him advanced into the road to us Messieurs he said standing up boldly before us and looking at us with out fear my father is ill and I cannot close the shutter The bOYs manner full of selfposses ion and his tone remarkable at his age took us so completely by Fur c to say nothing of the late hour and in deserted street which gave these things full effectthat for a moment neither of vs answered Then the king spoke In S deed M la Eirnereur he said gravely and where Is the shutter The boy pointed to an P Gn shutter at the top of thehouse behind him Ah Henry said and you wish us to close it If you please meisseurs We do please Henry replied saluting him with mock reverence You may consider the shutter closed Lead on Monsieur we follow For the first time the boy looked doubtful but he turned without saying nnthing and passin7 through the door way was in an instant lost in the pitchy darkness of the entry I laid my hand rin the kings arm and tried to induce him not to follow fearing much that this might be sons new thieves trap leading nowhither save to the poire dean goissc and the noniard But the attemot was hopeless from the first he broke frou me and entered and I followed hirVo Vo groped for the balustrade and found ir and began to ascend gded by the boys voice who kept a little before us Baying continually This way meis stems this way His words had = 0 much the sound of a signal and the staircase stair-case was so dark and illsmelling that expecting even moment to be seized or to have a knife in my back I found it almost interminable At last however a gleam of light appeared aboe us the boy opened a door and we found our Bfl es standing on a mean narrow land ing the walls of which had once been whitewashed The child signaled to us to enter and we followed him into a ba attic where our heads nearly touched the ceilling Mel slours the air is keen he said in a curiously formal tone Will you please to close the shutter The king amused and full of wonder looked around The room contained little besides a taMc a stool and a lamp standing in a basin on the floor but I the alcove curtained with black dingy j hangings broke one wall Your father I lies there Henry said pointing to it i Yes Monsieur KV feels the cold i i Yes Monseiiir Will you please to i cose the shutter I went to it and leaning out managed r with a littl difficulty to comply Mean whi the king gazing curiously at the cv i gradually approached the alcove IIu itated long he told me afterwards Ly before he touched the hangings but at leigth feeling sure that there was something some-thing more in the business than appeared lie did so Drawing one gently aside as I i turned from the window he peered In and saw just what ho had been led to expect a huddled form covered with dinfiv bed clothes and a grey head lying on 1 ragged yellow pillow Tho mans j face was turned to the wall but as the light feil 01 him he sighed and with a e shiver began to move The king dropped the curtain t The adventure had not turned out ns well as he had hoped snd with a whim sical look at mo he laid a crown cl the IJ taHe iid a kind word to the boy and we Went out In a moment we were in t the street l > It iTs im trn now to rally him and T did ib without mercy asking if lIe knew of any oJer beauteous msel who wonted her shutter closed anu whether this was tho usual end of his adventures L He took the jest In good part laughing fully as loudly at himself as I laughed b u and in this way we had gone a hundred or so very merrily when on a p A1uCden paces he stopped 0 I v What is n sre7 I asked CI Halo he said The boy was clean It i Gean1 Yes hands face clothes Ml clean m Well slrc if t HV W could lo be His father In bed C ii no one even to closo the shutter How cculd he ba clean But if he was sire SD For anS7er Henoy seIzed me by the t r turne < l mo round without a word b I I = Q u QH Go > J u 0 J and in ia moment was hurrying back to the house I thought that he was goIng Uiththri again and followed re luctantly but twenty paces shor of the door he crossed the street and drew me Into a Doorway Can you see the shutter he said Yes Then watch it my frIend I Iud no option but to resign myself and I nodded A moist and chilly wind i ictblew through the street and pen I etrating our cloaks made us shiver did not tend to increase my enthusiasm but the king was proof even against this as well as againstthe kennel smells and the tedium of waiting and presently his per sistence was rewarded The shutter I swung slowly open the noise made by its I collision with the wall coming clearly to I I my ears A minute later the boy ap I peared in the doorway > and stood looking up and down I Yell the king whispered in my ear I What do you make of that my friend I I trick I muttered that it must be a beggars trickThey would not earn a t tbwn in a I month he answered Tffere must be something more than that at the bottom OI lu I Beginning to share his curiosity I was about to propose that we > should sally out and see if the Toy would repeat his overture to us when Jcaught the sound of footsteps coming along the street Is it Maignan the king whispered looking out cautiously I Xo sire Isaidt He is in yonder doorway Before Henry could answer the appear ance of the two strangers coming along the roadway confirmed my statement They paused opposite the boy and he ad vanced to them Too far off to hear precisely pre-cisely what passed we were near enough to be sure mat the dialogue was in the main the same as that in which we had taken part The men were cloaked too as were we and presently they went in as we had gone in All in fact hap pened as it happened to us and after the necessary interval we saw and heard the shutter closed Well the king said what do you make of that j The shutter is the catchword sire i Ay but what is coiner on un there he asked And he rubbed his hands I had no explanation to give however and shook my head and we stood awhile watching silently At the end of five minutes the two men came out again and walked off the way they had come but more briskly Henry moreover whose observation was all his life most acute remarked that whatever they had been doing they carried away lighter hearts than they had brought And I thought the same Indeed r was beginning to take my full share of interest In the adventure and in place of wondering as before at Hen rys persistence found It more natural to admire the keenness which he had dis played in scenting a mystery I was not surprised therefore when he gripped my arm to gain my attention and as the window fell slowly open again drew me quickly into the street and hurried me across it and through the doorway of the house Up he muttered in my car Quickly and quietly man If there are to be other visitors we will play the spy But softly softly here is the boy We stood aside against the wall scarcely daring to breathe and the child guiding himself by the handrail passed us In the dark without suspicion and pattered on down the staircase We remained as we were until we heard him cross the threshold and then we crept up not to the uppermost landing where the light when the door was opened must betray us but to that immediately below it There we took our stand in the angle of the stairs and waited the king between amusement at the absurdity of our position and anxiety lest we should betray ourselves going off now and again Into stifled laughter from which he vain ly strove to restrain himself by pinching me meI however I was nt tei responsibility so gay a mood of his myself safety lying heavy upon me while the possibil ity that the adventure might prove no less tragical in the sequel than it now ap peared comical did not fail to present It self to my eyes in the darkest colors When we had watched therefore five minutes or morewhich eemdc to me en hourI began to lost faith and I was on I the point of undertaking to persuade Henry to withdraw when the voices of men speaking at the door below reached us and told me that it was too late The I next moment their steps crossed the threshold and they began to ascend the I boy saying continually This way Messieurs Mes-sieurs this way and preceding them as I he bad preceded us We heard them an proach breathing heavily and but for the balustrade by which I felt sure that they I would guide themselves and which stood some feet from our corner I should have been in a panic lest they should blunder 1 against us But they passed safely and a moment later the boy opened the door II of the room above We heard them go in and without a seconds hesitation we crept up after them following them so closely that the door was scarcely shut before we were at it We heard there I fore what passed from the first the childs request that they would close the shutter their hast compliance and the I silence strange and pregnant which fol lowed and whiCh was broken at last by i a solemn voice We have closed one I sbutter it said but the shutter of Gods mercy is never closed Amen a second person answered in a tone so distant and muffled that it needed no great wit to guess whence it came or that the speaker was behind the curtains of the alcove Who are you The cure of St Marceau the first speaker replied i WS 3OJy tlff f1 rirfv t a el r hr I I f1 I I I i I S 5 i I THE KlC AXI THE rIXISTER AWAITn flEVELoPliittrs I And whom do you bring to me 5 A sinner What has he done He will tell you I I am listening There was a pause on this a long pause which was broken at length by j a third speaker in a tone half sullen I half miserable I have robbed my master he said I Of how much I Fifty livres I Why I lost it at play And you are sorry I must be sorry the man panted with sudden fierceness or hang Hidden though he was from us there was a tremor in his voice that told a talc of pallid cheeks and shaking knees and a I terror fast rising to madness Ho makes up his accounts tomorrow Yes Someone in the room groaned it I should have been the culprit but unless I was mistaken the sound came through the curtains A long pause followed I Then And if I help you the muffled voice resumed wil you swear to lead an honest life II But the answer may be guessed I need not repeat the assurances the pro testations and vows of repentance the J cries and tears of gratitude which en sued and to which the poor wretch stripped of his sullen indifference com pletely abandoned himself Suffice it that we presently heard the clinking of coins a word or two of solemn advice from the cure and a mans painful sobbing then the king touched my arm and we crept down the stairs I was for stopping on the landing where we had hidden our u i I selves before but Henry drew me on to I the foot of the stairs and into the street I He turned towards home and for some time did not speak At length he asked me what I thought of it In what way sire Do you not thidk he said in a voice of much emotion that if we could do what he does and save a man instead of hanging him it would be better For the man sire doubUess I answered an-swered dryly but for the state it might not be so well if mercy became the rule and justice the exceptionthere would be fewer bodies and Montfaucon and more in the streets at daylight I feel much greater doubt on another point Shaking off the moodiness that had for a moment overcame him Henry asked with vivacity what that was Who is he and what is his motive why the king replied in some sur prise he was ever of so kind a nature that an appeal to his feelings displaced his jUdgment What should he be but what he seems Benevolence itself Yes Well sire I grant that he may be M de Joyeuse who has spent his life in passing in and out of monasteries and has performed so many tricks of the kind that I could believe anything of him But if it be not he It was not his voice Henry said Then there is something here I an swered still unexplained Consider the oddity of the conception sire the serre cy of the performance the hour the mode all the surrounding circumstances I can imagine a man currying favor with the basest and most dangerous class by such means I can imagine a conspiracy recruited by such means I can imagine this shibboleth of the shutter grown to a watchword as deadly as the Tuez of 12 I can imagine all that but I cannot im agine a man acting thus out of pure benevolence < < Vo Henry said thoughtfully Well I I think that I agree wIh t10ughtful And far I 1 from being displeased with my warmth I as is the manner of some sovereigns I when their best friends differ from them I ho came over to my opinion so complete I ly as to halt and express his intention of returning and probing the matter to the I I bottom Midnight had gone however It would take some little time to retrace tme retrce our steps and with difficulty I succeed i difculy i ed in dissuading him promising Instead i i to make inquiries on the morrow and i having learned who lived in the house to turn the whole affair Into a report which should be submitted to him I I This amused and satisfied him and ex pressing himself well content with the wel wih evenings diversionthough we had done nothing unworthy either of a king or a minister he parted from ea diint7e ar senal and went home with his suite It did not occur to me at the timejhat I had promised to do anything difficult f but the news which my agents brought me next day that the uppermost floor of the house in the Rue Pourpointerle was empty put another face upon the mat ter The landlord declarer that he knew nothing of the aeClred who had rented the rooms ready furnished by the week and as I had not seen the mans fare there remained only two sources whence I could get the information I needed informaton nldpd the child and the cure of St Marceau I did not know where to took for the former however and I hadto depend on the cure But here I came to an obstacle I might easily have foreseen I obs1dp him though an honest man obdurate in upholding his priests privileges to all I my inquiries ho replied that the matter 1 touched the confessional and was matCr in his vows and that he neither could i nor daredto please anyone or for any i cause HOWever plausible divulge the slightest detail of the affair I had him summoned to the arsenal and question que I ed him myself and closely but ston armor that of the Roman priesthood is the most difficult to penetrte priesthoo I quickly gave up the attempt Baffled in the only direction in which I could hope for success I had to confess my defeat to the king whose curiosltv was only piqued the more by the rebuff He adjured me not to let the matter drop and suggesting a number mat < sons among whom I might possibly find the unknown proposed also softie theo ries Of these one that the benevolent was a disguised lady who contrived in this way to give the rein at once to gal lantry and charity pleased him most while I favored that which had first nc I curreu to me on the night of our sally and held the unknown to be a clever ras cal who to serve his ends political or criminal was corrupting the commonalty and drawing people into his commonal Things remained in this state some weeks and growing no wiser I was beginning to think less of the wa which of itself and anart from n triiim sical Interest which the king took n in it I tle was unimportantwhen one day stopping in the Quarter du Mantis to view the I works at the new Palace Royal I saw the boy He was in charge of a decent I looking servant whose hand he was hold lag and the two were gazing at a horse that alarmed oy the heaps of stone and I mortar was rearing an trying to un seat its rider The child did not see me and I bade Maignan follow hn home i and learn where he lived and who he was I In f > n hour iy wtt rrv returned with the information I desired The child vas the only son of Frauchel chid I the receiversgeneral of the revenue a man who kept great state in the largest of the oldfashioned I i houses in the Rue do i Ttel V dh8UI Tiethisy where he 8UI lately entertained I the king I could not imagine anyone less likely to be concerned in treasonable I practices and certain that I had made I no mistake in the boy I was driven for a while to believe that some servant I ltd perverted the child to his use Pres ently however second thoughts and the position of the father taken perhaps with suspicions that I had for a long time entertained of FauchetIn common with most of his kind suggested an explanat hitherto unconsidered I was not an explanation very probable at first sight not one that would have commended jL i self to those who divide all men by hard and fast rules and assort them like lke sheep But I had seen too muCh of the world to fall into this mistake and it satisfied me I began by weighing i carefully I procured evidence I had Fouchet watched and at length one ore evening in August I went to the Louvre The king was dicing with Fernandez I the Portuguese banker but I ventured to interrupt the game and draw him aside He might not have taken this well but that mv first word caught his attention j SIre I said the shutter is nnnn He understood in a l lom mUSt I Gris he exclaimed with animation Where At the same hous No sir in the Rue Cloitre Notre I Dame You have got him then I know who he is and shy he Is doing this Why the king cried eagerly Well I was going to ask for your majestys company to the place I answered an-swered smiling I will undertake that yoU shall be amused at Jeast as well as I here and at a cheaper rate He shrugged his shoulders That may cry well be he said vith a grimacr That rogue Pimentel has stripped me of 2 < XXi crowns since supper He is plucking Bafscompierre now Remembering that only that morning I had to stop some necessary work through lack of means I could scarcely restrain my indignation But it was not the time to speak and I contented myself my-self with repeating my reduest Ashamed of himself he consented with a good grnce and bidding me to go to his closet followed a few minutes later He found me cloked to the eyes and with a soutane end priests hat on my arm Are those for me he said Yes sire Who am I then The cure of St Germain He made a wry fare Come grandmaster grand-master he said who died yesterday Is not the jest rather grim In a good cause I said equably He Hashed a roguish look at me Ah IP said I thought that that was a wicked rule which only we Romanists avowed But there dont be angry I am ready I Coquet the master of the household let us out by one of the river gates and ive went by the new bridge and the Pont St MichM By the way I taught I the klncr the role f wished him to play but without explaining the mystery the opportune apnearance of one of my ngens who was watching the ned of the s reet bringing Henrys remonstrance to a close T is still open I said Yes your excellency Then come sir I said I sec the boy yonder Let us ascend and I will undertake that before vou reach the street again you shall be not only a wiser but n richer sovereIgn St iris he answered with alacrity Why did you not say that before and I I should have asked no questions On on in Gods name and the devil take Pimen tel t I I restrained the caustic 5st that rose to my lips and we proceeded In sMe c down the street Thin boy whom T had I copied loitering In a donrwiv a little way ahead as i the ereat bell above us I which had just tolled 11 had drawn him out peered at us a moment askance and then coming forward aco < tel us But I need not detail the particulars pfaI p3rtCularR of a conversation which was almost word for i word the same a that which had rnscspri j in the Rue de In Pourpoint pnflce it that no made the same roonest with thl same frank audacity and HIf f rfuiH cT i we were in a moment following him I up i similar staircase Hiis way messieurs this way he said as he hd on that oth < night I while we grope our wav upwards in the dirk Ho opened a door and a lllhl shone out and we entered a rom that seemed with its bare walls ned rafters rafrrs its scanty stool and table and lamp the I < 1i i 1 very counterpart of that other room In lone wall appeared the dingy curtains of an alcove closely drawn and the shutter shut-ter stood open until at the childs request re-quest expressed in the same words I went to it and closed it i We were aggtlil so well muffled up and i disguised and the light of the lamp shining upwards so completely distorted I tho features that I had no fear of recognition i recog-nition unless the kings voice betrayed I him But when he spoke breaking the I oppressive silence of the room his tone was as strange and hbllow as I could wish I wishThe shutter Is closed he said but i i the shutter of Gods mercy is never closed I Still knowing that this was the crucial I moment and that we should be detected i now if at all I found i an age before the voice behind the curtains answered Amen And yet another age before the hidden ou speaker continued Who are ouThe cure of St Gerjnairi i Henry responded re-sponded fij The man behind thejScurtalns gasped gsped t and they were for a moment violently agitated a if a hand had seized them i I aiid let them go again But I had reck i ered that the unknown after a pause of horror would suppose that he had heard amiss and continue his usual catechism And so I proved In a voice that shok I a little he asked Whom do you bring to meA me-A sinner the king answered What has he done I He will tell you I am listening the unknown said I The light in the basin tlared up a I little casting dark shadows on the cell lag and at the same moment the shutter I shut-ter which I had failed to fasten securely secure-ly fell open with a grinding sound One of the curtains swayed a little in tho breeze I have robbed my master I I said slowly Of how much A hundred and twenty thousand I I I crowns The bed shook until the boards creaked I I under i but this time no hapd grasped I I the curtains Instead strained voiCc I thick and coarse yet differing from that I muffled tone which we had hear before I asked Whip are you Jules Fauchet I I waited The king who understood I nothing but had listened to my answers with eager attention and marked no less closely the agitation which they caused in the unknown leant forward to listen l I But the bed Creaked no more the curtain hung still even the voice which at last issued from the curtains was no more I like the orciniry accent of I men thin i sire those which he utters in the paroxy I sms of epilepsy Are you sorry the I unknown muttered involuntarily I think hoping against hope not daring to depart from a formula which had become second I sec-ond nature But I could fancy him claw Inc as he spoke at his choking throat France however had suffered too long I at the hands of that race of men and I hind been too lately vilified bv them to I feel much pity and for answer I lifted a voice that to the quailing wretch must I have been the lolce of doom Sorry I T said grimly i must beor han for tomorrow the kingexamines his books and the next day I hang The kings hand was onTmine to stop me before the last wordiwa out but his touch came too lute As it rang before through us the was room twitched one aside of the and curtains n face I glared out so ghastly and drawn aid hor I rorstrloken that few would have known It fpr that of the wealthy fcrmier who I had grown sleek and fat dn the kinds revenues I do not l ol whether he knew us or whetJier on the contra lie I found this accusation so precise so accurate ac-curate coming from an xmknown source still moro terrible than if he hid known us but on the instant he fell forward in a swoon r St Gris Henry cried looking on the body with a shudder you have killed him grand master I vas true was I Yes sire I answered But he is not I dead I think And going to the window I whistled for Margnan who Inti minute came to us He was not very willing to touch the man but I bade him lay him on the bed and loosen his clothes and throw water on his face and presently 1 Fauchet began to recover I stepped a little aside that he might not see me and accordingly the first person on whom his eyes lighted was the king who had laid aside his hat and cloak and taken the terrified and weep ing child on his lap M Fauchet stared at him awhile before he recognized him but at last the trembling man knew him and tottering to his feet threW himself on his knees looking years older than when we had last seen him in the street Sire he said firmly I will make restitution resttuton Henry looked at him gravely and nodded I is well he said You are fortunate M Fauchet for had this come Li11t1fl Js i i I 4 I ii < This IviiiK and theMinister Interviewing this iIiiu Behind the Curtain i to my ears in any other way I could not i have spared you You will render your I accounts and papers to M de Sully tomorrow I I to-morrow and accordingly as you are frank I with him you will be treated i FauChet thanked him with abject tears j and the king rose and prepared to leave j but at the door a thought struck him and I I he turned How long have you done i this he said indicating the room by a I gesture and speaking in a gentler tone Three years sire the wretched man answered I And how much have you distributed I i Fifteen hundred crowns sire The king cast an indescribable look at I i I me wherein amusement scorn and astonishment I as-tonishment were all blended St iris i man1 he said shrugging his shoulders i and drawing in his breath sharply l you I think God is I as easily duped as the king I1 I wish I could think so t He did not speak again until we were I half way back to the Louvre when he ouened his mouth to announce his intention inten-tion of rewarding with a tithe of the money recovered T t was duly najd to me and di bought wJth it part of the outl3lng lands of Villebo those I mean which r extend towards Chartres The rest of the money notwithstanding all my efforts was wasted hero and there Pimenlel winning win-ning 30000 crowns of the king that year But the discovery led to others of a simIlar simi-lar character and eventually set me on the track of a greater offender M PAr I gentler months later whom I brought to justice a few |