Chapter 1: Lucifer

His Eminence Cardinal Armand Jean de Plessis de Richelieu was not having a good day.

When getting dressed that morning, he had wanted to wear his most comfortable pair of shoes, but he found that one of the shoes was missing. Eventually he found the shoe, but when he did there was a mouse in it! Now the cardinal knew he would need to pay someone to come to his home and set up traps again!

Due to the delay getting ready, Cardinal Richelieu was late for a meeting that morning. Even worse, the man he had to meet with was extremely stubborn and with a list of impossible demands. The cardinal had great difficulty getting it through the man's thick skull exactly why his demands were unrealistic.

Later that day, Cardinal Richelieu had to meet with his Majesty King Louis XIII. He had to listen to yet another of the young king's outbursts while keeping on a mask of respect. Really, Richelieu didn't get enough credit for the work he did keeping this country under control and keeping its naïve king under control.

The cardinal was very busy throughout the day. Then, in the afternoon, he received unwelcome news. Some of his guards had gotten into yet another fight with the king's musketeers. Richelieu might not have minded this so much if his guards had actually won the fight, but they had lost, which was embarrassing. He just knew King Louis was going to gloat about the skill of his musketeers! And Treville, the captain of the king's musketeers, might try to act professional, but he would still be annoyingly smug about the situation. Of course, the musketeers involved in the fight were the trio of troublemakers Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. Why was it always those three nuisances who seemed to be around when something unusual happened?

Now Cardinal Richelieu was sitting at his desk in his office. Just looking at the paperwork which he still had to do was making him feel tired. He really was not having a good day.

As he got started, he heard a strange noise like a howl. Not knowing what it was, he decided to ignore it and continued writing. But then he heard another noise. It definitely sounded like a yowl. And there it was again! It also sounded as if it were coming from outside his open window.

Realizing he wasn't going to be able to get any work done while this noise carried on, Cardinal Richelieu got up, stood by the window, and looked out. He noticed two of his guards, Monsieur Bernajoux and Monsieur Lavigne, were standing next to each other and seemed to be bent over something. Another yowl sounded and seemed to be coming from their direction.

The cardinal strode outside to investigate. When Bernajoux and Lavigne saw the cardinal striding toward them, they tried to straighten up and look professional. This was a bit difficult since Bernajoux was clearly trying to hide something behind his back.

"What exactly is going on here?" demanded the cardinal.

The guards shifted uncomfortably.

Cardinal Richelieu signed. "We may as well get this over with. Bernajoux, why don't you show me what you have behind your back?" He phrased it like a request, but it was not really a request and Bernajoux knew it.

Bernajoux showed the cardinal the burlap sack he had been hiding. Something was clearly moving inside the sack. Hissing and yowling sounds came from it.

Richelieu pinched the bridge of his nose. "Dare I ask what is in that sack?"

"A cat, your Eminence," said Bernajoux.

"A cat!"

"Yes, your Eminence."

"And why exactly do you have a cat in a sack?"

"We found it in the garden, your Eminence," said Lavigne.

"That does not answer my question. Why did you put a cat in a sack?"

"We were going to burn it, your Eminence."

"BURN IT!"

"Yes, your Eminence." The two guards looked nervous but also confused. Did they truly not understand why this was a problem?

Richelieu momentarily closed his eyes, fighting off the urge to scream in frustration. He knew that many superstitious people believed that cats were demons or the familiars of witches. He also knew about "cat burnings," when people caught cats and set them on fire in an attempt to get rid of the "evil spirits." He, personally, found the practice barbaric. As a cardinal of the Catholic church, he had been taught that demons and witches did indeed exist. He had been taught that a witch's familiar could take the form of a cat. But that did not mean that every cat must automatically be a witch's familiar. And it certainly did not mean that cats should be slaughtered without a very good reason. Many cats were just normal animals created by God as other animals had been. Really, this cat burning nonsense had very little to do with Christianity and a great deal to do with superstition and stupidity.

"And why pray tell, were you going to burn the cat?"

"We think it might be a witch's familiar, your Eminence," answered Lavigne.

The cardinal raised his eyebrows. "And how exactly did you come to that conclusion?"

Bernajoux replied, "Well, it's a black cat, your Eminence. And they are bad luck."

"You want to burn it because it's a black cat," Richelieu took a deep breath. "Now, listen to me very, very carefully. You two are not children. You are not country peasants. You are not bumbling musketeers under Captain Treville. You are the cardinal's guards. And I will not have my guards embarrassing me by buying into such foolish, ignorant, provincial superstitions! Do I make myself clear?"

The two guards nodded vigorously. Their expressions made them look like schoolboys who had just been scolded by their teacher.

But Richelieu wasn't finished. "Have the two of you somehow stumbled through life without picking up on the fact that cats catch mice and rats? This keeps the rodents from decimating our food stores-food which keeps you two alive! Is this how you show gratitude? By trying to burn a cat because it is black? You do realize that cat had no more choice in the color of its fur than either of you did in the color of your unkempt mops of hair! For your information, our fair city of Paris already has a considerable problem with rats. If too many cats are killed, the rat and mouse populations will explode out of control. They will eat our harvests and we will starve. Is any of what I'm saying penetrating your skulls?"

The two guards nodded, looking terrified. "Yes, your Eminence."

"Now hand me that sack."

"But your Eminence," of the two guards Bernajoux was slightly thicker. "What if it turns out that the cat actually is a witch's familiar?"

Richelieu gave Bernajoux a look that made him feel like an earthworm. "I am a cardinal of the Holy Catholic Church. I am one of God's representatives on earth. If that cat truly is a witch's familiar or a demon it will be able to do no harm while in my keeping. Now hand over the sack."

Bernajoux handed over the sack with the cat still moving inside it.

Richelieu took the writhing sack. He held it slightly away from his body, knowing the cat might manage to scratch him through the bag if he didn't. He held the mouth of the sack open so he could peer down inside and finally get a look at the cat.

It turned out the cat was really no more than a kitten. A very skinny kitten at that, who looked as if it had not been eating properly. Its fur was black, just as the guards had said, and rather untidy. It had a few cuts and scrapes in places. Some were bleeding. Its eyes were bright blue. It was also very clearly not happy about being in the sack. It hissed up at Richelieu, showing tiny sharp white teeth.

Richelieu addressed the two guards: "I will speak to Comte de Rochefort about your punishment later." They both paled. Like many people, Bernajoux and Lavigne were terrified of Rochefort. "Now get out of my sight."

Both guards obeyed.

Richelieu carried the bag, with the kitten still squirming inside it, back into his apartments. Once there, he rang a bell to summon his manservant, Emil.

Emil arrived. "Your Eminence?"

"Bring a plate of chicken cut off the bone."

"For you, your Eminence?"

"No, for the kitten in this bag."

Emil's eyes widened, but unlike the guards, he was smart enough not to question his master's judgement. This was one of the reasons Richelieu kept him around. Emil hurried off to fetch the chicken.

"Bring a bowl of milk too!"

While waiting for Emil's return, Richelieu did not let go of the sack containing the cat. He knew if he were to do so, the cat would run out. Richelieu did not want that to happen until there was food available, which he hoped would calm the animal.

Soon Emil returned with the plate of chicken and the bowl of milk.

"Put them both down on the floor over there," Richelieu instructed. "Then leave and shut the door behind you."

Emil did as he was bid.

Once the door was safely shut, Richelieu very carefully put the sack down on the ground. In a streak of black fur, the kitten shot out of the sack and ran away from Richelieu. It ran around the room, trying to find an exit. It pushed and scratched at the closed door but found it impenetrable. Richelieu quickly took the precaution of closing the open window in order to cut it off as a potential escape route. After tearing around the room a few times, the kitten finally seemed to figure out that at the moment it could not get out of this room. When the creature realized this, it turned on Richelieu and spat at him in indignation.

Richelieu was unphased by this behavior. He'd expected it, knowing the kitten was likely to be angry and frightened after what the guards had put it through. He waited patiently, giving the kitten a few more minutes to wear itself out trying to escape. Then, when the kitten finally took a moment to stand still and catch its breath, he picked up the plate of chicken and put it in front of the animal. He then quickly stepped back, suspecting the kitten might be too frightened to touch the food if a human was standing too close.

The kitten did not approach the food immediately. It merely stared at it for a few minutes, as if it were unsure what it was supposed to do with it. But the chicken was warm and smelled good. Eventually the kitten cautiously approached the plate and sniffed it a few times. Finally, it began eating. The first few bites were eaten slowly and carefully. Then it began to eat ravenously, as if it hadn't had a good meal in a while, which Richelieu suspected was true given how thin it was. From time to time, it looked away from the food to glance at the cardinal, as if worried the food might be taken away. Richelieu sat in a chair some distance away in order to let the kitten eat in peace.

At last, all of the chicken was consumed. Richelieu got up and set the bowl of milk before the cat. The cat performed the same sniff test on the bowl before it began to lap up the milk.

Once the kitten had finished the milk, Richelieu rang the bell for Emil again.

This turned out to be a mistake. As the door was opening, the kitten jolted toward it in a bid for freedom. Richelieu had to lunge forward and grab it to keep it from escaping. When he did, he accidently tripped over the bowl. The kitten had finished the milk so there was nothing to spill, but the bowl did end up breaking into several pieces. Never mind. The maid, Eponine, could clean it up later and Richelieu could afford another one.

When Emil entered, he was slightly shocked to see the esteemed Cardinal Richelieu, Chief Minister to the King of France, lying on the floor, his red robes in disarray, holding a squirming, hissing, black kitten, with bits of broken crockery nearby.

"Your Eminence rang for me?"

"Yes, fetch the ointment I sometimes use for wounds. And close the door behind you."

Emil left and came back with the ointment. "Where is your wound, Eminence?"

"It's not for me. It's for the cat."

"The cat?"

"Yes, the cat. Can't you see it has cuts on its body?"

It took Richelieu holding the wriggling, hissing kitten and Emil applying the ointment to the cuts to get the job done. The kitten did not seem very grateful to have its cuts tended. Both humans got scratched in the process.

When they were done, Richelieu picked up the kitten, who was still squirming and making unhappy noises, and exited the room. He carried it down the hall until he reached the door. He used one hand to open the door, then with the other he put the kitten on the ground.

As he had expected, the kitten ran off like a black shot the minute its paws touched the ground.

Emil approached the cardinal. "Is it gone, your Eminence?"

"Yes," Richelieu sighed. "I knew I could not possibly keep it here. But I wanted to do something for its injuries. And it was so thin I could not bear not to feed it."

Emil looked at his employer in surprise. It was not often he heard the coldly efficient, sometime ruthless cardinal speak in such tenderly concerned tones. The experience was slightly disturbing.

After treating the scratches that the kitten had given him, Richelieu finally got back to his paperwork. But he was distracted. Spending time with the kitten had brought up memories of Minette, a calico cat Richelieu had had when he was a boy. He had loved her dearly and had been devastated when old age eventually claimed her. Even now, years later, he still missed her. But he told himself, there is no point dwelling on that right now. Minette was gone and the black kitten was gone and he still had paperwork to do.

The next day Richelieu got up and went about his duties as usual. What was not usual was that when he came home, he found the same black kitten skulking about nearby.

Richelieu hurried inside. "Emil!"

"Coming, your Eminence."

"Fetch a meal quickly."

"For you, your Eminence?"

"No Emil, for the cat!"

"The cat is back?"

"Would I be telling you to get a meal for it if it wasn't?"

"I beg your pardon, your Eminence. What sort of meal shall I get for it?"

"Fish of course. It's Friday."

Emil scurried off, muttering about how he didn't know that the Catholic prohibition of meat on Fridays extended to cats as well as humans.

"I can hear you, you know! And don't forget a bowl of milk!"

Emil soon came back with a bowl of milk and some plaice fish on a plate. "It's a good thing that plenty of it has been prepared for supper."

Richelieu hurriedly took the plate and bowl and went back outside. He had worried the kitten might go away before he could get back to it and was relieved to find it was still there. He set the plate and bowl on the ground and stepped away.

The kitten stared at the food for a bit. Then it came over and sniffed the fish a few times. Then began eating. It ate the fish and drank the milk. Then, when it was quite certain there was nothing left, it ran away, leaving Richelieu alone again.

The next day was Saturday. The kitten did not show up. Richelieu could not help but feel disappointed.

The next day was Sunday and Richelieu had a plan. He instructed Emil to prepare a dish of roast beef. He then set the dish outside with a bowl of milk. He then went back inside and tried to make some headway on his paperwork. From time to time, he looked out the window. Six times he did this and was disappointed. But the seventh time he looked out the window, he saw what he was hoping for: the black kitten eating the beef. Pleased, he finally buckled down on his work.

The next day was Monday and Richelieu again put out a dish of food and some milk. He did not see the kitten that day, but at the end of the day he found both dishes empty.

On Tuesday he found the kitten already waiting outside. This time he did not even bother to get Emil but fetched a bowl of milk and a plate of herring himself. This time he stood close by while the cat ate. Not right next to the cat, but closer than he had at previous meals.

This pattern continued for the next few days. Eventually the kitten became comfortable enough with Richelieu's presence that he was permitted to pat it. Sometimes it would even purr for him.

Eventually the weather started getting colder. It was about this time that the kitten condescended to come inside to get some warmth. Richelieu's niece, Marie Madeleine, sewed an extra-large cushion for the creature to curl up and sleep on. It was a shade of blue which perfectly matched the kitten's eyes. It was in this manner that the kitten eventually became a permanent member of the cardinal's household.

"What shall I name you?" Richelieu asked the small black kitten, who was currently perched on his lap.

Richelieu had managed to determine that the kitten was male. Now that he knew its gender, Richelieu felt that it was high time the animal was given a proper name.

"How about Fluffy?"

The kitten blinked his bright blue eyes and twitched his black tail.

"No, you're quite right. Fluffy is not dignified enough for a cardinal's cat. How about Francois? It's a fine name for a French feline. It was the name of two of our kings, you know."

The kitten showed no reaction whatsoever to this suggestion.

"No? Alright. What about Euripides?"

The kitten stared up at him as if to say You have got to be kidding me!

"Don't look at me like that! I will have you know that Euripides was a famous Greek playwright, and you would do well to show some respect!"

The kitten did not look even remotely impressed by this.

"Oh well. I suppose I'll think of a suitable name for you eventually."

With the kitten still on his lap, Richelieu turned back to his desk. He dipped his quill in the inkwell and began composing a letter to the Duke of Savoy.

He had written perhaps a quarter of what he wanted to say when it happened. Perhaps Richelieu should have been expecting it. He should have noticed the fact that the kitten's blue eyes were following the movements of his quill feather pen as it scratched across the paper. What happened was that the kitten leapt off of Richelieu's lap and attempted to pounce on the quill. The cardinal quickly pulled the quill out of the cat's reach. The kitten landed on the desk, stood up, and lashed its tail with a surprising amount of force for such a small creature. The lashing tail struck the inkwell and knocked it over, causing ink to pour all over the unfinished letter to the Duke of Savoy.

Richelieu groaned. "You are a little devil!" he told the kitten. "Now I shall have to start the letter to the duke all over again!" Then he clapped his hands. "That's it! Since you are such a little devil, I shall call you Lucifer!"

Lucifer purred.

Emil stared. "You have named the kitten Lucifer, Eminence?"

Emil could admit that he was actually becoming fond of his employer's new pet. But to name him Lucifer? Was his normally sharp Eminence truly unable to see the potential problem with such a name?

"Yes, because he is a cunning little devil."

Emil tried to be tactful. "Your Eminence, do you not think that some people may think it a bit,,,,odd for a cardinal of the Holy Roman Catholic Church to have a cat named after a devil?"

Richelieu shrugged. "They can think what they like. If anything, this way they can know that I, as a cardinal and a man of God am capable of managing a devil."

He paused to look over at the kitten, who was sitting in a corner of the room. "Why Lucifer, you've caught your first mouse! I do believe that's the very mouse that has been getting in my shoes! What a good kitty you are!"

The kitten looked up from where a gray mouse was trapped between its paws. The expression on Lucifer's face could only be described as smug.

Notes:

According to what I've read, Cardinal Richelieu actually did have a black cat named Lucifer.

It is horrible, but cat burning was something that unfortunately did happen in France in the seventeenth century.

Bernajoux is the name of one of the cardinal's guards mentioned in the book version of The Three Musketeers. Lavigne is an OC of mine and a minor character.