The Chevalier d"Auriac.
by S. (Sidney) Levett-Yeats.
PREFACE
This story, like its predecessor, has been written in those rare moments of leisure that an Indian official can afford. Bits of time were s.n.a.t.c.hed here and there, and much, perhaps too much, reliance has had to be placed on memory, for books there were few or none to refer to. Occasionally, too, inspiration was somewhat rudely interrupted.
Notably in one instance, in the Traveller"s Bungalow at Ha.s.san Abdal (Moore"s Lalla Rookh was buried hard by), when a bat, after making an ineffectual swoop at a c.o.c.kroach, fell into the very hungry author"s soup and put an end to dinner and to fancy. There is an anachronism in the tale, in which the writer finds he has sinned with M. C. de Remusat in "Le Saint-Barthelemy." The only excuse the writer has for not making the correction is that his object is simply to enable a reader to pa.s.s away a dull hour.
Umballa Cantonments, March 16, 1896.
PRELUDE
I.
In no secret shrine doth my Lady sleep, But is ever before mine eyes; By well or ill, by wrong or right-- By the burning sun, or the moon"s pale light-- Where the tropics fire or the fulmar flies, In rest or stormful fight.
II.
Good hap with the strong fierce winds that blow; Man holdeth the world in fee.
By the light of her face, by my Lady"s grace, Spread we our sails to the sea.
With G.o.d above and our hearts below, Fight we the fight for weal or woe.
III.
Good hap with the strong fierce winds that blow, G.o.d rest their souls who die!
By my Lady"s grace, by her pure, pale face My pennon flies in its pride of place; Where my pennon flies am I.
IV.
Nor wind nor storm may turn me back, For I see the beacon fire.
And time shall yield a hard fought field, And, with G.o.d"s help, an unstained shield I win my heart"s desire.
S. L. Y.
(_Vanity Fair_.)
THE CHEVALIER D"AURIAC
CHAPTER I
THE JUSTICE OF M. DE RoNE
"_Mille diables!_ Lost again! The devil runs in those dice!" and de Gomeron, with an impatient sweep of his hand, scattered the little spotted cubes on to the floor of the deserted and half-ruined hut, wherein we were beguiling the weariness of our picket duty before La Fere, with a shake of our elbows, and a few flagons of wine, captured from Monsieur the King of Navarre, as we, in our folly, called him still.
A few days before we had cut out a convoy which the Bearnais was sending into the beleaguered town. Some of the good things the convoy bore found their way to the outposts; and on the night I speak of we had made such play with our goblets that it was as if a swarm of bees buzzed in my head. As for de Gomeron, he was in no better case, and his sun-tanned face was burning a purple red with anger at his losses and the strength of the d"Arbois, both of which combined to give a more than usually sinister look to his grim and lowering features. In short, we were each of us in a condition ripe for any mischief: I hot with wine and the fire of five-and-twenty years, and de Gomeron sullenly drunk, a restrained fury smouldering in his eyes.
We had been playing by the light of a horn lantern, and as the flame of it flickered to and fro in the wind, which bustled in unchecked through a wide gap in the wall of the hut, where the remains of a door clung to a bent and twisted hinge, the shadow of de Gomeron on the wall behind him moved its huge outlines uneasily, although the man himself sat silent and still, and there was no word spoken between us.
Hideous and distorted, this phantom on the wall may have been the soul of de Gomeron, stolen out of the man"s body and now hovering behind him, instinct with evil; and this conceit of mine began to appear a reality, when I turned my glance at the still figure of my companion, showing no sign of life, except in the sombre glitter of the eyes that gazed at me steadily.
I knew little of de Gomeron, except that he was of the Camargue, and had followed the fortunes of d"Aumale from Arques to Ivry, from Ivry to the Exile in the Low Countries, and that he held a commission from the duke as captain in his guards. He carried a "de" before his name, but none of us could say where his lands lay, or of what family he came; and it was shrewdly suspected that he was one of those weeds tossed up by the storms of the times from the deep where they should have rotted for ever. There were many such as he, _canaille_ who had risen from the ranks; but none who bore de Gomeron"s reputation for intrepid courage and pitiless cruelty, and even the hardened veterans of Velasco spoke with lower tones when they told of his deeds at the sack of Dourlens and the pillage of Ham. Of our personal relations it is enough to say that we hated each other, and would have crossed swords ere now but for the iron discipline maintained by de Rone--a discipline the bouquet of which I had already scented, having escaped by the skin of my teeth after my affair with de Gonnor, who trod on my toe at the General"s levee, and was run through the ribs at sunrise the next morning, near the pollard elms, hard by the Red Mill on the left bank of the Serre.
Up to the time this occurred I had been attached to de Rone"s staff, with ten or twelve other young gentlemen whose pedigrees were as long as their swords; but after the accident to de Gonnor--my foot slipped and I thrust a half inch too low--I was sent with the stormers to Laon, and then banished to the outposts, thinking myself lucky to escape with that.
At any rate, the outpost was under my command. Imagine, therefore, my disgust when I found that de Gomeron had been detached to examine into and report upon my charge. He did this moreover in so offensive a manner, hectoring here and hectoring there, that I could barely restrain myself from parading him on the stretch of turf behind the thorn hedge that fenced in the enclosure to the hovel. The very sight of that turf used to tempt me. It was so soft and springy, so level and true, with no cross shadows of tree trunks or mottled reflections of foliage to spoil a thrust in tierce.
Our feelings towards each other being as they were, it would seem odd that we should have diced and drunk together; but the situation was one of armed peace; and, besides, time had to be killed, as for the past week M. de Rethelois, formerly as lively as a cricket, had kept himself close as a nun of Port Royal behind the walls of La Fere, and affairs were ineffably dull. I was certain, however, that we should soon break into open quarrel, and on this night, whether it was de Gomeron"s manner of losing or whether it was the d"Arbois I cannot tell, but I felt a mad anger against the man as he sat staring at me, and it was all I could do to restrain myself from flinging the lees of the wine in my gla.s.s in his face and abiding the result. I held myself in with an effort, drumming with my fingers on the table the while, and at last he spoke in an abrupt and jarring voice:
"What says the score?"
I looked at the once blank card on which I had jotted down the points and pa.s.sed it to him with the answer: "One hundred and twenty livres of Paris, M. Gomeron."
"_De_ Gomeron, if you please, M. d"Auriac. Here is your money, see it is not Tournois," and he slid a rouleau across the table towards me. I made no effort to take it; but, looking at the man with a sneer, gave answer: "I was not aware that they used the _de_ in the Camargue, monsieur."
"Young fool!" I heard him mutter between his teeth, and then aloud, "Your education needs extension, Chevalier."
"There is s.p.a.ce enough without." I answered hotly, laying my hand on my sword, "and no time like the present; the moon is at her full and stands perfectly." We sprang to our feet at these words and stood facing each other. All thought of de Rone had flown from my mind, my one desire was to be face to face with the man on that patch of turf.
_Peste!_ I had much to learn in those days!
We stood thus for a second, and then a short mirthless "Ha! ha!" burst from de Gomeron, and he made a turn to the corner of the room where his rapier leaned against the wall. It was at the moment of this action that we heard the quick challenge of the sentry outside, the pa.s.sword as sharply answered, and the tramp of feet.
The same idea flashed through both our minds--it must be the General, and de Gomeron gave expression to the thought.
"_Corbleu!_ de Rone perhaps--the old bat on the wing. We must defer the lesson, Chevalier."
I bowed and bit my lips in silence; there followed a shuffling of feet, and before a man could count two, Nicholas, the sergeant of our picket, with a file of men entered the hut, thrusting a couple of prisoners, a man and a woman, before them.
"Two birds from La Fere, my captain," and Nicholas with a salute to de Gomeron pointed to his prize. "We took them," he ran on, "at the ford near the Red Mill, and but for the moon they would have gone free; spies no doubt. The old one is M. le Mouchard, I swear. There is fox in every line of his face; and as for Madame there--so the old gentleman calls her--in time I warrant she will learn to love the camp of the Holy League," and the sergeant pushed the lantern so that it shone full on the lady"s face. A curious light came into de Gomeron"s eyes as he looked at her, and she shrank back at the sergeant"s words and action, whilst the old man strained at the cords that bound his wrists till the lines of the blue veins stood high out on his forehead. The soldiers had shown Madame this kindness, that she was unbound; but her hood had fallen back, loosening in its fall a ma.s.s of chestnut hair, and from this framework her eyes glanced from one to another of us, half in fear and half in anger.
"Messieurs!" There was a tremble in the sweet voice, and there was light enough to see her colour come and go. "Messieurs! That man," she made a little gesture of infinite disdain towards Nicholas, "is lying.
We are no spies. It is true we are from La Fere, but all that we did was to try and escape thence----"
"To the camp of the Bearnais--eh, madame?" interrupted de Gomeron.
"To the camp of the King of France," she flashed back at him, a red spot rising on each cheek. "Messieurs!" she went on, "you are gentlemen, are you not? You will let us go. Surely the Holy League wars not with women and old men?"
The mention of the League stirred her companion and he gave tongue: