This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
By ALFRED DE VIGNY
There are moments in our life when we long ardently for strong excitementto drown our petty griefs—times when the soul, like the lion in thefable, wearied with the continual attacks of the gnat, earnestly desiresa mightier enemy and real danger. Cinq-Mars found himself in thiscondition of mind, which always results from a morbid sensibility in theorganic constitution and a perpetual agitation of the heart. Weary ofcontinually turning over in his mind a combination of the events which hedesired, and of those which he dreaded; weary of calculating his chancesto the best of his power; of summoning to his assistance all that hiseducation had taught him concerning the lives of illustrious men, inorder to compare it with his present situation; oppressed by his regrets,his dreams, predictions, fancies, and all that imaginary world in whichhe had lived during his solitary journey-he breathed freely upon findinghimself thrown into a real world almost as full of agitation; and therealizing of two actual dangers restored circulation to his blood, andyouth to his whole being.
Since the nocturnal scene at the inn near Loudun, he had not been able toresume sufficient empire over his mind to occupy himself with anythingsave his cherished though sad reflections; and consumption was alreadythreatening him, when happily he arrived at the camp of Perpignan, andhappily also had the opportunity of accepting the proposition of the Abbede Gondi—for the reader has no doubt recognized Cinq-Mars in the personof that young stranger in mourning, so careless and so melancholy, whomthe duellist in the cassock invited to be his second.
He had ordered his tent to be pitched as a volunteer in the street of thecamp assigned to the young noblemen who were to be presented to the Kingand were to serve as aides-de-camp to the Generals; he soon repairedthither, and was quickly armed, horsed, and cuirassed, according to thecustom of the time, and set out alone for the Spanish bastion, the placeof rendezvous. He was the first arrival, and found that a small plot ofturf, hidden among the works of the besieged place, had been well chosenby the little Abbe for his homicidal purposes; for besides theprobability that no one would have suspected officers of engaging in aduel immediately beneath the town which they were attacking, the body ofthe bastion separated them from the French camp, and would conceal themlike an immense screen. It was wise to take these precautions, for atthat time it cost a man his head to give himself the satisfaction ofrisking his body.
While waiting for his friends and his adversaries, Cinq-Mars had time toexamine the southern side of Perpignan, before which he stood. He hadheard that these works were not those which were to be attacked, and hetried in vain to account for the besieger's projects. Between thissouthern face of the town, the mountains of Albere, and the Col duPerthus, there might have been advantageous lines of attack, and redoubtsagainst the accessible point; but not a single soldier was stationedthere. All the forces seemed directed upon the north of Perpignan, uponthe most difficult side, against a brick fort called the Castillet, whichsurmounted the gate of Notre-Dame. He discovered that a pie