Chapter 10 The Gamester by Rafael Sabatini
THE PLOTTERS
The Duke of Noailles' lean, dark face was flushed with interest, his normal forbidding haughtiness relaxed as he listened to the Count of Horn. The tale was none too clear in detail, but in general it ran that the scoundrelly Scot had tricked the Count by deliberate falsehood into the investment of a million, and that of this he had cold-bloodedly swindled him, so that the Count was now facing ruin.
There were several things that a man less passionately prejudiced than Noailles might have required to know. As it happened, the Duke's eagerness to believe in Mr Law's turpitude left him without even the curiosity to learn how a man so notoriously in everybody's debt as Horn had come to be possessed of so much money.
Having told his muddled tale, the Count raved on. "This foreign adventurer, this cursed thief has become a danger to us all. The Regent is so bewitched and bedevilled by him that he dances to any tune the scoundrel pipes. Your Grace knows how from the wings he directs the Council of Finance, until dignity would no longer permit a noble of your rank to continue as its president.
"It was the intriguing of this spawn of Satan that sent d'Aguesseau into exile. It was at his rascally prompting that d'Argenson was made chancellor. And every day he wins some fresh concession from the infatuated Duke of Orléans. The town is full of rumours of what he is about to do, as if he were already Comptroller-General."
Noailles exploded. "Ah, that no, my God!" He had listened with swelling anger to each of Horn's denunciations, each of which confirmed his own convictions. The assumption on which Horn ended provided so natural a climax to them that the Duke's feelings amounted to panic. "That never, by God!"
"It should not be," Horn agreed. "But...How to prevent it? What law in France could be invoked against him? What court?"
"Court?" Noailles echoed, and stared at him with dull eyes. Suddenly the light of inspiration flashed from them. "There is the Parliament. It has always resented him, ever since Argenson the Damned was made Chancellor by his offices. It would ask nothing better than to bring him down."
For a moment Horn was uplifted. Then he shrugged. "To bring him down! I dare say. But what can the Parliament do against the Regent. This is France, not England."
"Do you say so?" The tone rebuked him. "As for what it can do, that is to be studied. Certainly it is far from impotent.
"You'll remember that no royal edict--that is, no edict of the Regent's--is good until the Parliament has registered it. You'll remember also that the Parliament is the supreme court of justice in France, with power to move directly against any malefactor. Let us take counsel with the President de Mesmes. Something will be decided."
De Mesmes proved but too willing to consider what might be done. Not only was he, too, filled with rancour of Mr Law, but, a vain man, he had been drawn by his gallantry into participation in the Duchess of Maine's plots for the overthrow of the Regent.
If he welcomed the chance to strike at Law, he welcomed it the more joyously in that it enabled him to strike through him at the Duke of Orléans. He did not hesitate to reveal to Noailles that there were no lengths in reason, or even out of reason, to which he was not prepared to go. Of course for the good of France.
He took some days to consider and to consult a few of his colleagues, all of whom were in sympathy with his views, and then came bearing the considerable fruits of it, to a little gathering at the Hôtel de Noailles. To meet him the Duke had summoned his coadjutor Rouillé du Coudray, whilst the Count of Horn was present as the interested originator of the movement.
De Mesmes, a large, portly, pock-marked man, rather priestly of manner, soft-voiced and with a slight lisp, expounded at length the rascally plan with which rancour and treason inspired him. It was elaborate and yet simple.
"Against the Banque Générale as originally constituted no complaint is possible, no case could be made. For we are agreed, of course, that we must proceed strictly within the framework, not necessarily of existing laws, but at least of incontestable legality.
"Having carefully examined all the transactions by Monsieur Lass, I am of the opinion that the surest ground upon which to assail him would be that of probity."
Horn struck the table vehemently. "I'll pledge my honour for his dishonesty."
"Your honour!" sneered Coudray, with his usual sourness. "We want evidence, not pledges; and Lass is not the fool to leave evidence strewn about."
"We may dig some up," said the President with an oily smile, "however carefully he may have buried it. For instance, we may reasonably require to know what has become of the State bonds the bank received against shares in the Mississippi Company. Parliament will appoint a commission to investigate. The slightest irregularity there, would be a criminal matter, and Lass would be lost."
"Don't build on it," growled Coudray. "Lass is a gamester who boasts that he wins because he understands why men lose. He has the type of mind any chess player might envy. He can see a dozen moves ahead in every direction. Not the sort of man to leave traces of any malversations."
Noailles shrugged impatiently. "Non semper arcus..." He murmured, and left the quotation there.
"Precisely, Your Grace," lisped de Mesmes. "And, anyway, we need not depend upon that alone. If no irregularity should be discovered, we pass on to examine one by one the transactions between Monsieur Lass and His Highness, and we discover that the last money edict is illegal because the Bank usurps some of the functions of the royal accountants in the administration of national finances."
"Illegal, is it?" wondered du Coudray with scepticism.
De Mesmes became prim. "It represents a startling departure from all that is by law established. If there is no actual law against it, there is certainly no law to sanction it."
"There are no laws to sanction anything," growled du Coudray. "Laws are made only to prohibit. As a lawyer, Monsieur le President, you should know that. I'll observe only that if you make your laws as you proceed, you'll have no difficulty in convicting Lass of anything you choose. But you may have considerable difficulty in persuading the Attorney-General to take the responsibility of being your mouthpiece in this ad hoc legislation to serve your ends."
De Mesmes' ready answer showed how well considered was the plan. "The Attorney-General will not be concerned or necessary. His place will be taken by the commissioners. It will be their business to recommend a decree rescinding the offending edict. They will declare it illegal, and--another thing which has just occurred to me--on the authority of His late Majesty, they will declare it illicit and illegal for any foreigner or huguenot to concern himself directly or indirectly in the administration of the national finances, and discover crime where this has occurred. The Regent being inviolate, it becomes necessary to provide a deputy."
The President displayed his teeth in a grin at this conceit. "For that office we have under our hand this man Lass, guilty, if not of malversation, as may well be, at least of having seduced the Regent into taking these illegal courses."
Noailles shook his head. "You don't conceive that His Highness will permit any measures against Lass."
"Of course not," grumbled Horn.
Again that oily smile overspread the President's big face, and he showed how completely the plan had shaped itself from their talk. "Knowledge of our measures will reach His Highness too late. The commission will act in secret, and in secret the Parliament will issue a writ of prise-de-corps. Once Lass is brought to the Palace, he need never leave it again. He can be tried, sentenced and even hanged within its precincts."
Horn was breathless, Noailles aghast, and Coudray sardonically amused. It was the Duke who spoke, his tone irritably dubious. "These are extreme measures."
"But effective," chuckled Horn, now flushed with evil satisfaction. "Nothing less will serve than to present His Highness with an accomplished fact."
"But not necessarily with a corpse. Surely, Monsieur le President, it should suffice to banish him."
De Mesmes shook his head. "You are reckoning without His Highness."
"So are you," du Coudray mocked him. "He'll certainly require an account of you. He may even require your head."
"There are a hundred and thirty of us." The President was scornful. "What satisfaction can he demand?"
Coudray laughed. "It certainly may be difficult to hang the lot of you, as you'll deserve."
"Therefore he can't hang a single one of us, for if there's guilt we shall all be equally guilty. You may safely leave it in my hands, Monsieur le Duc. All I ask of you is the utmost secrecy. This foreign adventurer has too long been a thorn in our flesh. It is time to make an end."
But Noailles was sombre. "I don't like it," he said. "Much as I detest Monsieur Lass and his ways, I'll have no part in this."
"It is not necessary that you should, Monsieur le Duc. The Parliament will bear the burden lightly in the service of France. As I have said, it will possess the authority of Louis XIV, who expelled this same Monsieur Lass from the Kingdom."