If this had happened in the world I think it likely that I should have suffered in silence. But here, under the greenwood, in common enjoyment of G.o.d"s air and earth, we seemed more nearly equal. She was scarce better dressed than a sutler"s wife; while recollections of her wealth and station, though they a.s.sailed me nightly, lost much of their point in presence of her youth and of that fair and patient gentleness which forest life and the duties of a nurse had fostered.
So it happened that one day, when she had been absent longer than usual, I took my courage in my hand and went to meet her as far as the stream which ran through the bottom by the redthorn. Here, at a place where there were three stepping-stones, I waited for her; first taking away the stepping-stones, that she might have to pause, and, being at a loss, might be glad to see me.
She came presently, tripping through an alley in the low wood, with her eyes on the ground, and her whole carriage full of a sweet pensiveness which it did me good to see. I turned my back on the stream before she saw me, and made a pretence of being taken up with something in another direction. Doubtless she espied me soon, and before she came very near; but she made no sign until she reached the brink, and found the stepping-stones were gone.
Then, whether she suspected me or not, she called out to me, not once, but several times. For, partly to tantalise her, as lovers will, and partly because it charmed me to hear her use my name, I would not turn at once.
When I did, and discovered her standing with one small foot dallying with the water, I cried out with well-affected concern; and in a great hurry ran towards her, paying no attention to her chiding or the pettish haughtiness with which she spoke to me.
"The stepping-stones are all on your side," she said imperiously. "Who has moved them?"
I looked about without answering, and at last pretended to find them; while she stood watching me, tapping the ground with one foot the while. Despite her impatience, the stone which was nearest to her I took care to bring last--that she might not cross without my a.s.sistance. But after all she stepped over so lightly and quickly that the hand she placed in mine seemed scarcely to rest there a second.
Yet when she was over I managed to retain it; nor did she resist, though her cheek, which had been red before, turned crimson and her eyes fell, and bound to me by the link of her little hand, she stood beside me with her whole figure drooping.
"Mademoiselle," I said gravely, summoning all my resolution to my aid, "do you know of what that stream with its stepping-stones reminds me?"
She shook her head but did not answer.
"Of the stream which has flowed between us from the day when I first saw you at St. Jean," I said in a low voice. "It has flowed between us, and it still does--separating us."
"What stream?" she murmured, with her eyes cast down, and her foot playing with the moss. "You speak in riddles, sir."
"You understand this one only too well, mademoiselle," I answered.
"Are you not young and gay and beautiful, while I am old, or almost old, and dull and grave? You are rich and well-thought-of at Court, and I a soldier of fortune, not too successful. What did you think of me when you first saw me at St. Jean? What when I came to Rosny? That, mademoiselle," I continued with fervour, "is the stream which flows between us and separates us; and I know of but one stepping-stone that can bridge it."
She looked aside, toying with a piece of thorn-blossom she had picked.
It was not redder than her cheeks.
"That one stepping-stone," I said, after waiting vainly for any word or sign from her, "is Love. Many weeks ago, mademoiselle, when I had little cause to like you, I loved you; I loved you whether I would or not, and without thought or hope of return. I should have been mad had I spoken to you then. Mad, and worse than mad. But now, now that I owe you my life, now that I have drunk from your hand in fever, and, awaking early and late, have found you by my pillow--now that, seeing you come in and out in the midst of fear and hardship, I have learned to regard you as a woman kind and gentle as my mother--now that I love you, so that to be with you is joy, and away from you grief, is it presumption in me now, mademoiselle, to think that that stream may be bridged?"
I stopped, out of breath, and saw that she was trembling. But she spoke presently. "You said one stepping-stone?" she murmured.
"Yes," I answered hoa.r.s.ely, trying in vain to look at her face, which she kept averted from me.
"There should be two," she said, almost in a whisper. "Your love, sir, and--and mine. You have said much of the one, and nothing of the other. In that you are wrong, for I am proud still. And I would not cross the stream you speak of for any love of yours!"
"Ah!" I cried in sharpest pain.
"But," she continued, looking up at me on a sudden with eyes that told me all, "because I love you I am willing to cross it--to cross it once for ever, and live beyond it all my life--if I may live my life with you."
I fell on my knee and kissed her hand again and again in a rapture of joy and grat.i.tude. By-and-by she pulled it from me. "If you will, sir," she said, "you may kiss my lips. If you do not, no man ever will."
After that, as may be guessed, we walked every day in the forest, making longer and longer excursions as my strength came back to me, and the nearer parts grew familiar. From early dawn, when I brought my love a posy of flowers, to late evening, when Fanchette hurried her from me, our days were pa.s.sed in a long round of delight; being filled full of all beautiful things--love, and sunshine, and rippling streams, and green banks, on which we sat together under scented limes, telling one another all we had ever thought, and especially all we had ever thought of one another. Sometimes--when the light was low in the evening--we spoke of my mother; and once--but that was in the sunshine, when the bees were humming and my blood had begun to run strongly in my veins--I spoke of my great and distant kinsman, Rohan.
But mademoiselle would hear nothing of him, murmuring again and again in my ear, "I have crossed, my love, I have crossed."
Truly the sands of that hour-gla.s.s were of gold. But in time they ran out. First M. Francois, spurred by the restlessness of youth, and convinced that madame would for a while yield no farther, left us, and went back to the world. Then news came of great events that could not fail to move us. The King of France and the King of Navarre had met at Tours, and embracing in the sight of an immense mult.i.tude, had repulsed the League with slaughter in the suburb of St. Symphorien.
Fast on this followed the tidings of their march northwards with an overwhelming army of fifty-thousand men of both religions, bent, rumour had it, on the signal punishment of Paris.
I grew--shame that I should say it--to think more and more of these things; until mademoiselle, reading the signs, told me one day that we must go. "Though never again," she added with a sigh, "shall we be so happy."
"Then why go?" I asked foolishly.
"Because you are a man," she answered with a wise smile, "as I would have you be, and you need something besides love. To-morrow we will go."
"Whither?" I said in amazement.
"To the camp before Paris," she answered. "We will go back in the light of day--seeing that we have done nothing of which to be ashamed--and throw ourselves on the justice of the King of Navarre.
You shall place me with Madame Catherine, who will not refuse to protect me; and so, sweet, you will have only yourself to think of.
Come, sir," she continued, laying her little hand in mine, and looking into my eyes, "you are not afraid?"
"I am more afraid than ever I used to be," I said trembling.
"So I would have it," she whispered, hiding her face on my shoulder.
"Nevertheless we will go."
And go we did. The audacity of such a return in the face of Turenne, who was doubtless in the King of Navarre"s suite, almost took my breath away; nevertheless, I saw that it possessed one advantage which no other course promised--that, I mean, of setting us right in the eyes of the world, and enabling me to meet in a straightforward manner such as maligned us. After some consideration I gave my a.s.sent, merely conditioning that until we reached the Court we should ride masked, and shun as far as possible encounters by the road.
CHAPTER x.x.xII.
A TAVERN BRAWL.
On the following day, accordingly, we started. But the news of the two kings" successes, and particularly the certainty which these had bred in many minds that nothing short of a miracle could save Paris, had moved so many gentlemen to take the road that we found the inns crowded beyond example, and were frequently forced into meetings which made the task of concealing our ident.i.ty more difficult and hazardous than I had expected. Sometimes shelter was not to be obtained on any terms, and then we had to lie in the fields or in any convenient shed.
Moreover, the pa.s.sage of the army had swept the country so bare both of food and forage, that these commanded astonishing prices; and a long day"s ride more than once brought us to our destination without securing for us the ample meal we had earned, and required.
Under these circ.u.mstances, it was with joy little short of transport that I recognised the marvellous change which had come over my mistress. Bearing all without a murmur, or a frown, or so much as one complaining word, she acted on numberless occasions so as to convince me that she spoke truly--albeit I scarcely dared to believe it--when she said that she had but one trouble in the world, and that was the prospect of our coming separation.
For my part, and despite some gloomy moments, when fear of the future overcame me, I rode in Paradise riding by my mistress. It was her presence which glorified alike the first freshness of the morning, when we started with all the day before us, and the coolness of the late evening, when we rode hand-in-hand. Nor could I believe without an effort that I was the same Gaston de Marsac whom she had once spurned and disdained. G.o.d knows I was thankful for her love. A thousand times, thinking of my grey hairs, I asked her if she did not repent; and a thousand times she answered No, with so much happiness in her eyes that I was fain to thank G.o.d again and believe her.
Notwithstanding the inconvenience of the practice, we made it a rule to wear our masks whenever we appeared in public; and this rule we kept more strictly as we approached Paris. It exposed us to some comment and more curiosity, but led to no serious trouble until we reached Etampes, twelve leagues from the capital; where we found the princ.i.p.al inn so noisy and crowded, and so much disturbed by the constant coming and going of couriers, that it required no experience to predicate the neighbourhood of the army. The great courtyard seemed to be choked with a confused ma.s.s of men and horses, through which we made our way with difficulty. The windows of the house were all open, and offered us a view of tables surrounded by men eating and drinking hastily, as the manner of travellers is. The gateway and the steps of the house were lined with troopers and servants and st.u.r.dy rogues; who scanned all who pa.s.sed in or out, and not unfrequently followed them with ribald jests and nicknames. Songs and oaths, brawling and laughter, with the neighing of horses and the huzzas of the beggars, who shouted whenever a fresh party arrived, rose above all, and increased the reluctance with which I a.s.sisted madame and mademoiselle to dismount.
Simon was no match for such an occasion as this; but the stalwart aspect of the three men whom Maignan had left with me commanded respect, and attended by two of these I made a way for the ladies--not without some opposition and a few oaths--to enter the house. The landlord, whom we found crushed into a corner inside, and entirely overborne by the crowd which had invaded his dwelling, a.s.sured me that he had not the smallest garret he could place at my disposal; but I presently succeeded in finding a small room at the top, which I purchased from the four men who had taken possession of it. As it was impossible to get anything to eat there, I left a man on guard, and myself descended with madame and mademoiselle to the eating-room, a large chamber set with long boards, and filled with a rough and noisy crew. Under a running fire of observations we entered, and found with difficulty three seats in an inner corner of the room.
I ran my eye over the company, and noticed among them, besides a dozen travelling parties like our own, specimens of all those cla.s.ses which are to be found in the rear of an army. There were some officers and more horse-dealers; half a dozen forage-agents and a few priests; with a large sprinkling of adventurers, bravos, and led-captains, and here and there two or three whose dress and the deference paid to them by their neighbours seemed to indicate a higher rank. Conspicuous among these last were a party of four who occupied a small table by the door. An attempt had been made to secure some degree of privacy for them by interposing a settle between them and the room; and their attendants, who seemed to be numerous, did what they could to add to this by filling the gap with their persons. One of the four, a man of handsome dress and bearing, who sat in the place of honour, was masked, as we were. The gentleman at his right hand I could not see.
The others, whom I could see, were strangers to me.
Some time elapsed before our people succeeded in procuring us any food, and during the interval we were exposed to an amount of comment on the part of those round us which I found very little to my liking.
There were not half a dozen women present, and this and our masks rendered my companions unpleasantly conspicuous. Aware, however, of the importance of avoiding an altercation which might possibly detain us, and would be certain to add to our notoriety, I remained quiet; and presently the entrance of a tall, dark-complexioned man, who carried himself with a peculiar swagger, and seemed to be famous for something or other, diverted the attention of the company from us.
The new-comer was somewhat of Maignan"s figure. He wore a back and breast over a green doublet, and had an orange feather in his cap and an orange-lined cloak on his shoulder. On entering he stood a moment in the doorway, letting his bold black eyes rove round the room, the while he talked in a loud braggart fashion to his companions. There was a lack of breeding in the man"s air, and something offensive in his look; which I noticed produced wherever it rested a momentary silence and constraint. When he moved farther into the room I saw that he wore a very long sword, the point of which trailed a foot behind him.
He chose out for his first attentions the party of four whom I have mentioned; going up to them and accosting them with a ruffling air, directed especially to the gentleman in the mask. The latter lifted his head haughtily on finding himself addressed by a stranger, but did not offer to answer. Someone else did, however, for a sudden bellow like that of an enraged bull proceeded from behind the settle. The words were lost in noise, the unseen speaker"s anger seeming so overpowering that he could not articulate; but the tone and voice, which were in some way familiar to me, proved enough for the bully, who, covering his retreat with a profound bow, backed out rapidly, muttering what was doubtless an apology. c.o.c.king his hat more fiercely to make up for this repulse, he next proceeded to patrol the room, scowling from side to side as he went, with the evident intention of picking a quarrel with someone less formidable.
By ill-chance his eye lit, as he turned, on our masks. He said something to his companions; and encouraged, no doubt, by the position of our seats at the board, which led him to think us people of small consequence, he came to a stop opposite us.