"I am a gentleman."
"Well, then! look at this bracelet."
"I see it--perfectly--what then?"
"It is fastened by a key--the key which opens it is attached to a ring, and with that ring, I pledged my word that I would not be released from a promise I had made, until the ring should be brought back and returned to me."
"And he who has the key of it?"
"Thanks to you, and to my mother, Emanuel, he is too far from us to ask it of him. He is at Cayenne."
"Before you are married two months," replied Emanuel, with an ironical smile, "that bracelet will be so irksome to you, that you will be the first to get rid of it."
"I thought that I had told you it is locked upon my arm."
"You know what people do when they have lost the key and cannot get into their house--they send for a locksmith."
"Well! in my case, Emanuel," replied Marguerite, rasing her voice, and extending her arm with a solemn gesture, "they must send for the executioner then, for this hand shall be cut off before I give it to another."
"Silence! silence!" cried Emanuel, rising hastily, and looking anxiously towards the door of the inner room.
"And now I have said all I had to say," rejoined Marguerite: "my only hope was in you, Emanuel; for although you cannot comprehend any deep-seated feeling, you are not cruel. I came to you in tears, look at me and you will see that it is true--I came to you to say, "Brother, this marriage is the misfortune, is the misery of my life--I would prefer a convent--I would prefer death to it--and you have not listened to me, or if you have listened, you have not understood me. Well, then, I will address myself to this man--I will appeal to his honor, to his delicacy; if that should not be sufficient, I will tell him all; my love for another, my weakness, my fault, my crime! I will tell him that I have a child; that although he was torn from me, although I have never since seen him, although I am ignorant of his abode, still my child exists. A child cannot die, without his death striking some chord within its mother"s heart. In short I will tell him, should it be necessary, that I still love another, that I cannot love him, and that I never will."
"Well! tell him all this," cried Emanuel, irritated by her persistence, "and that evening we will sign the contract, and the next day you will be Baroness de Lectoure."
"And then," replied Marguerite, "then, I shall be truly the most miserable woman in existence, for I should then have a brother whom I should no longer love, and a husband for whom I should have no esteem.
Farewell, Emanuel; believe me this contract is not yet signed."
And after saying these words, Marguerite withdrew with that deep and settled despair upon her features, which could not for a moment be mistaken. And Emanuel, convinced that he had not, as he had antic.i.p.ated, obtained a victory, but that the struggle was still to be continued, gazed after her with an anxiety which was not devoid of tenderness.
After a few moments of silence, in which he sat pensive and motionless, he turned round and saw Captain Paul, whom he had completely forgotten, standing at the door of the study, and then considering the vital importance it was to him to get possession of the papers, which the captain had offered him, he hurriedly sat down at the table, took a pen and paper, and turning towards him, said--
"And now, sir, we are again alone, and there is nothing to prevent our at once concluding this affair. In what terms do you wish the promise to be drawn up? Dictate them, I am ready to write them down."
"It is now useless," coldly replied the captain.
"And why so?"
"I have changed my mind."
"How is that?" said Emanuel, rising, alarmed at the consequences which he perceived might arise from words which he was far from expecting.
"I will give," replied Paul, with the calmness of a fixed determination, "the hundred thousand livres to the child, and I will find a husband for your sister."
"Who are you, then," said Emanuel, advancing a step towards him, "who are you, sir, who thus disposes of a young girl who is my sister, who has never seen you, and who does not even know that you exist?"
"Who am I!" replied Paul, smiling; "upon my honor, I know no more upon that subject than you do, for my birth is a secret which is only to be revealed to me when I have attained my twenty-fifth year."
"And you will attain that age?"----
"This evening, sir. I place myself at your disposal from to-morrow morning, to give you all the information you may require of me," and saying these words, Paul bowed.
"I allow you to depart, sir, but you will understand it is upon the condition that we meet again."
"I was about to propose that condition, count, and I thank you for having antic.i.p.ated me."
He then bowed to Emanuel a second time, and left the room. At the castle gate, Paul found his horse and servant, and resumed the route to Port Louis. When he had got out of sight of the castle, he alighted from his horse, and directed his steps towards a fisherman"s hut, built upon the beach. At the door of this house, seated upon a bench, and in a sailor"s" dress, was a young man so deeply absorbed in thought, that he did not observe Paul"s approach. The captain placed his hand upon the young man"s shoulder, the other started, looked at him, and became frightfully pale, although the open and joyful countenance of Paul, indicated that he was far from being the bearer of bad news.
"Well!" said Paul to him, "I have seen her."
"Who?" demanded the young man.
"Marguerite, by heaven!"
"And----"
"She is charming."
"I did not ask you that."
"She loves you still."
"Gracious heaven!" exclaimed the young man, throwing himself into Paul"s arms, and bursting into tears.
CHAPTER VII.--THE FAITHFUL SERVANT.
O good old man; how well in thee appears The constant service of the antique world When service sweat for duty, not for need!
Thou art not for the fashion of these times Where none will sweat but for promotion; And having that, do choice their service up Even with the having: it is not so with thee.
Shakespeare.
Although our readers must readily comprehend, after that which we have just related to them, all that had pa.s.sed in the six months during which we had lost sight of our heroes, some details are, however, necessary, in order that they should fully understand the new events about to be accomplished.
On the evening after the combat between the _Indienne_ and the Drake, and which, notwithstanding our ignorance in naval matters, we have attempted to describe to our readers, Lusignan had related to Paul the history of his whole life. It was a very simple one, and contained but few incidents. Love had formed the princ.i.p.al event in it, and after having been its only joy, it had become its greatest grief. The adventurous and independent life of Paul, his station, which had placed him beyond the trammels of society, his caprice which was superior to all laws, his habit of supreme command on board his own ship, had inspired him with too just a sense of natural rights to obey the order he had received with regard to Lusignan. Moreover, although he had anch.o.r.ed under the French flag, Paul, as we have seen, belonged to the navy of America, whose cause he had enthusiastically espoused.
He continued, therefore, his cruise along the sh.o.r.es of England; but finding there was nothing to be done on the sea he landed at Whitehaven, a small port in c.u.mberland, at the head of twenty men, among whom was Lusignan, took the fort, spiked the guns, and put to sea again, after having burnt the merchant vessels in the roads. Thence he sailed for the coast of Scotland, with the intention of carrying off the Earl of Selkirk and taking him as a hostage to the United States; but this project had miscarried from an unforeseen circ.u.mstance, that n.o.bleman having unexpectedly gone to London. In this enterprise, as in the other, Lusignan had seconded him with the courage we have seen him exhibit in the battle between the _Indienne_ and the Drake; so that Paul congratulated himself more than ever upon the chance which had enabled him to oppose an injustice. But it was not enough that he had saved Lusignan from transportation, it was necessary to restore his honor, and to our young adventurer, in whom our readers will doubtless have recognised the celebrated privateersman, Paul Jones, it was a more easy matter than to any other person; for having letters of marque from Louis XVI., against the English, he had to repair to Versailles to give an account of his cruize.
Paul determined upon running into Lorient, and for the second time cast anchor there, that he might be within a short distance of the Chateau d"Auray. The first answer which the young men received to their enquiries regarding that family, was that Marguerite d"Auray was about to be married to M. do Lectoure. Lusignan thought himself" forgotten, and in the first paroxysm of his despair, insisted, even at the risk of falling into the hands of his former persecutors, on once more seeing Marguerite, if it were only to reproach her for infidelity; but Paul, more calm and less credulous, made him pledge his word that he would not land until he had heard from him; then, being a.s.sured that the marriage would not take place in less than fifteen days, he set out for Paris, and was received by the king, who presented him with a sword, the hilt of which was of gold, and decorated him with the order of military merit. Paul had availed himself of the kindness of the king towards him to relate to him Lusignan"s adventures, and had obtained not only his pardon, but also as a reward for his late services, the appointment of Governor of Guadaloupe. All these cares had not prevented him from keeping sight of Emanuel. Being informed of the count"s intended departure, he left Paris, and having written to Lusignan, appointing a place of meeting, he arrived at Auray an hour after the young count.
After their joyful meeting, Paul and Lusignan remained together until nearly twilight. Then Paul, who, as he had told Emanuel, had a personal revelation to receive, left his friend and again took the road to Auray.
But this time he was on foot, and did not enter the castle, but going along the park wall, he directed his steps toward an iron gate which opened into a wood belonging to the domains of Auray.
About an hour before Paul left the fisherman"s hut, where he had found Lusignan, a person had preceded him on the road toward the cottage at which he was to ask the revelation of the secret of his birth; that person was the Marchioness d"Auray, the haughty heiress of the name of Sable. She was attired in her usual mourning garments with the addition of a long black veil, which enveloped her from head to foot. Moreover, the habitation which our young adventurer, with the hesitation of ignorance, was seeking for, was to her familiar. It was a sort of keeper"s house, situated at a few paces from the entrance to the park, and inhabited by an old man, in whose behalf the Marchioness d"Auray had for twenty years fulfilled one of those acts of sedulous benevolence which had gained for her in that part of Lower Brittany, the reputation of rigid holiness which she enjoyed. These attentions to age were given, it is true, with the same gloomy and solemn face which we have observed in her, and which the tender emotions of pity never softened; but they were nevertheless afforded, and all knew it, with careful punctuality.
The face of the Marchioness d"Auray was even more grave than it was wont to be, while she crossed the park to repair to the dwelling of a man who was said to be an old servant of the family. The door was standing open as if to allow the last rays of the setting sun to penetrate into the house, so sweet and balmy to old people in the month of May. The house was however empty. The Marchioness d"Auray entered it, looked around her, and then as if certain that the person she was in search of would not be long absent, she resolved to await his return. She sat down. She had remained there about half an hour, motionless and absorbed in her reflections, when she saw, between her and the declining daylight, a shadow cast before the door. She slowly raised her eyes and recognised the person she had been expecting. They both started as though they had met by chance, and were not in the habit of seeing each other every day.