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CINQ MARS - V3
CINQ MARS - V3 ALFRED DE VIGNY BOOK 3.
CHAPTER IX
THE SIEGE
There are moments in our life when we long ardently for strong excitement
to drown our petty griefs--times when the soul like the lion in the
fable wearied with the continual attacks of the gnat earnestly desires
a mightier enemy and real danger. Cinq-Mars found himself in this
condition of mind which always results from a morbid sensibility in the
organic constitution and a perpetual agitation of the heart. Weary of
continually turning over in his mind a combination of the events which he
desired and of those which he dreaded; weary of calculating his chances
to the best of his power; of summoning to his assistance all that his
education had taught him concerning the lives of illustrious men in
order to compare it with his present situation; oppressed by his regrets
his dreams predictions fancies and all that imaginary world in which
he had lived during his solitary journey-he breathed freely upon finding
himself thrown into a real world almost as full of agitation; and the
realizing of two actual dangers restored circulation to his blood and
youth to his whole being.
Since the nocturnal scene at the inn near Loudun he had not been able to
resume sufficient empire over his mind to occupy himself with anything
save his cherished though sad reflections; and consumption was already
threatening him when happily he arrived at the camp of Perpignan and
happily also had the opportunity of accepting the proposition of the Abbe
de Gondi--for the reader has no doubt recognized Cinq-Mars in the person
of that young stranger in mourning so careless and so melancholy whom
the duellist in the cassock invited to be his second.
He had ordered his tent to be pitched as a volunteer in the street of the
camp assigned to the young noblemen who were to be presented to the King
and were to serve as aides-de-camp to the Generals; he soon repaired
thither and was quickly armed horsed and cuirassed according to the
custom of the time and set out alone for the Spanish bastion the place
of rendezvous. He was the first arrival and found that a small plot of
turf hidden among the works of the besieged place had been well chosen
by the little Abbe for his homicidal purposes; for besides the
probability that no one would have suspected officers of engaging in a
duel immediately beneath the town which they were attacking the body of
the bastion separated them from the French camp and would conceal them
like an immense screen. It was wise to take these precautions for at
that time it cost a man his head to give himself the satisfaction of
risking his body.
While waiting for his friends and his adversaries Cinq-Mars had time to
examine the southern side of Perpignan before which he stood. He had
heard that these works were not those which were to be attacked and he
tried in vain to account for the besieger's projects. Between this
southern face of the town the mountains of Albere and the Col du
Perthus there might have been advantageous lines of attack and redoubts
against the accessible point; but not a single soldier was stationed
there. All the forces seemed directed upon the north of Perpignan upon
the most difficult side against a brick fort called the Castillet which
surmounted the gate of Notre-Dame. He discovered that a piece of ground
apparently marshy but in reality very solid led up to the very foot of
the Spanish bastion; that this post was guarded with true Castilian
negligence although its sole strength lay entirely in its defenders;
for its battlements almost in ruin were furnished with four pieces of
cannon of enormous calibre embedded in the turf and thus rendered
immovable and impossible to be directed against a troop advancing
rapidly to the foot of the wall.
It was easy to see that these enormous pieces had discouraged the
besiegers from attacking this point and had kept the besieged from any
idea of addition to its means of defence. Thus on the one side the
vedettes and advanced posts were at a distance and on the other the
sentinels were few and ill supported. A young Spaniard carrying a long
gun with its rest suspended at his side and the burning match in his
right hand who was walking with nonchalance upon the rampart stopped to
look at Cinq-Mars who was riding about the ditches and moats.
"Senor caballero" he cried "are you going to take the bastion by
yourself on horseback like Don Quixote--Quixada de la Mancha?"
At the same time he detached from his side the iron rest planted it in
the ground and supported upon it the barrel of his gun in order to take
aim when a grave and older Spaniard enveloped in a dirty brown cloak
said to him in his own tongue:
"'Ambrosio de demonio' do you not know that it is forbidden to throw
away powder uselessly before sallies or attacks are made merely to have
the pleasure of killing a boy not worth your match? It was in this very
place that Charles the Fifth threw the sleeping sentinel into the ditch
and drowned him. Do your duty or I shall follow his example."
Ambrosio replaced the gun upon his shoulder the rest at his side and
continued his walk upon the rampart.
Cinq-Mars had been little alarmed at this menacing gesture contenting
himself with tightening the reins of his horse and bringing the spurs
close to his sides knowing that with a single leap of the nimble animal
he should be carried behind the wall of a hut which stood near by and
should thus be sheltered from the Spanish fusil before the operation of
the fork and match could be completed. He knew too that a tacit
convention between the two armies prohibited marksmen from firing upon
the sentinels; each party would have regarded it as assassination. The
soldier who had thus prepared to attack Cinq-Mars must have been ignorant
of this understanding. Young D'Effiat therefore made no visible
movement; and when the sentinel had resumed his walk upon the rampart
he again betook himself to his ride upon the turf and presently saw five
cavaliers directing their course toward him. The first two who came on
at full gallop did not salute him but stopping close to him leaped to
the ground and he found himself in the arms of the Counsellor de Thou
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Unpublished Work 
