"Some trumpery miracle mystery!" called out a jeering voice.
"Or the martyrdom of some saint!" cried another.
"I don"t know anything about any saint," answered the man, "unless,"--rub-a-dub-dub!--"you mean my lord"s lady!"
And truly the piece, as they were to discover, was quite barren of that antique religious flavor to which they objected and which still pervaded many of the puppet plays of the day. _The Pet.i.t Masque of the Wicked Peasant and the Good n.o.ble_, it was called; an odd designation that at once interested the Lady Elise, bending over the stone bal.u.s.trade the better to see. It interested, also, those official guardians of the peace, a number of soldiers and a few officers from the garrison standing near, who, unmindful of the girl, divided their attention between the pasteboard center of interest and the people gathered around it.
Circ.u.mspectly the little play opened; a scene in which my lord, in a waistcoat somewhat frayed for one of his station, commands the lazy peasant to beat the marsh with a stick that the croaking of the frogs may not disturb at night the rest of his n.o.ble spouse, seemed designed princ.i.p.ally to show that obedience, submission and unquestioning fealty were the great lord"s due. On the one hand, was the patrician born to rule; on the other, the peasant, to serve; and no task, however onerous, but should be gladly welcomed in behalf of the master, or his equally ill.u.s.trious lady. The dialogue, showing the disinclination of the bad peasant for this simple employment and the good lord"s n.o.ble solicitude for the nerves of his high-born spouse, was both nimble and witty; especially those bits punctuated by a cane, and the sentiment: "Thus all bad peasants deserve to fare!" and culminating in an excellent climax to the lesson--a tattoo on the peasant"s head that sent him simultaneously, and felicitously, down with the curtain.
"What think you of it?" At my lady"s elbow one of the officers turned to a companion.
"Amusing, but--" And his glance turned dubiously toward the people.
Certainly they did not now show proper appreciation either for the literary merits of the little piece or the precepts it promulgated in fairly sounding verse.
"The mountebank!" From the crowd a number of discontented voices rose.
"Come out, Monsieur Mountebank!"
"Yes, Monsieur Mountebank, come out; come out!"
With fast-beating heart the Lady Elise gazed; as in a dream had she listened--not to the lines of the puppet play; but to a voice--strangely familiar, yet different--ironical; scoffing; laughing!
She drew her breath quickly; once more studied the head, in its white, close-fitting clown"s covering; the heavy, painted face, with red, gaping mouth. Then, the next moment, as he bowed himself back--apparently unmindful of a missile some one threw and which struck his little theater--the half-closed, dull eyes met hers; pa.s.sed, without sign or expression!--and she gave a nervous little laugh. What a fancy!
"Act second!" the tinkling of a bell prefaced the announcement, and once more was the curtain drawn, this time revealing a marsh and the bad peasant at work, reluctantly beating the water to the _Song of the Stick_.
"Beat! beat!
At his lordship"s command; For if there"s a croak, For you"ll be the stroke, From no gentle hand."
A merry little tune, it threaded the act; it was soon interrupted, however, during a scene where a comical-looking devil on a broomstick, useful both for transportation and persuasion, came for something which he called the peasant"s soul. Again the bad peasant protested; would cheat even the devil of his due, but his satanic Majesty would not be set aside.
"You may rob your master," he said, in effect; "defraud him of _ba.n.a.lite_, _bardage_ and those other few taxes necessary to his dignity and position; but you can"t defraud _Me_!" Whereupon he proceeded to wrest what he wanted from the bad peasant by force--and the aid of the broomstick!--accompanying the rat-a-tat with a well-rhymed homily on what would certainly happen to every peasant who sought to deprive his lord of feudal rights. At this point a growing restiveness on the part of the audience found resentful expression.
"That for your devil"s stick!"
"To the devil with the devil!"
"Down with the devil!"
The cry, once started, was not easy to stop; men in liquor and ripe for mischief repeated it; in vain the mountebank pleaded: "My poor dolls!
My poor theater!" Unceremoniously they tumbled it and him over; a few, who had seen nothing out of the ordinary in the little play took his part; words were exchanged for blows, with many fighting for the sake of fighting, when into the center of this, the real stage, appeared soldiers.
"What does it mean?" Impressive in gold adornment and conscious authority, the commandant himself came down the steps. "Who dares make riot on a day consecrated to the holy relics? But you shall pay!" as the soldiers separated the belligerents. "Take those men into custody and--who is this fellow?" turning to the mountebank, a mournful figure above the wreckage of his theater and poor puppets scattered, haphazard, like victims of some untoward disaster.
"It was his play that started the trouble," said one of the officers.
"_Diable!_" the commandant frowned. "What have you to say for yourself?"
"I," began the mountebank, "I--" he repeated, when courage and words alike seemed to fail him.
The commandant made a gesture. "Up with him! To the top of the Mount!"
"No, no!" At once the fellow"s voice came back to him. "Don"t take me there, into the terrible Mount! Don"t lock me up!"
"Don"t lock him up!" repeated some one in the crowd, moved apparently by the sight of his distress. "It wasn"t his fault!"
"No; it wasn"t his fault!" said others.
"Eh?" Wheeling sharply, the commandant gazed; at the lowering faces that dared question his authority; then at his own soldiers. On the beach he might not have felt so secure, but here, where twenty, well-armed, could defend a pa.s.s and a mob batter their heads in vain against walls, he could well afford a confident front. "Up with you!"
he cried sternly and gave the mountebank a contemptuous thrust.
For the first time the man"s apathy seemed to desert him; his arm shot back like lightning, but almost at once fell to his side, while an expression, apologetically abject, as if to atone for that momentary fierce impulse, overspread his dull visage. "Oh, I"ll go," he said in accents servile. And proceeded hurriedly to gather up the remains of his theater and dolls. "I"m willing to go."
CHAPTER XVII
THE MOUNTEBANK AND THE HUNCHBACK
Up the Mount with shambling step, head down-bent and the same stupid expression on his face, the mountebank went docilely, though not silently. To one of the soldiers at his side he spoke often, voicing that dull apprehension he had manifested when first ordered into custody.
"Do you think they"ll put me in a dungeon?"
"Dungeon, indeed!" the man answered not ill-naturedly. "For such as you! No, no! They"ll keep the oubliettes, calottes, and all the dark holes for people of consequence--traitors, or your fine gentry consigned by _lettres de cachet_."
"Then what do you think they _will_ do with me?"
"Wait, and find out!" returned the soldier roughly, and the mountebank spoke no more for some time; held his head lower, until, regarding him, his guardian must needs laugh. "Here"s a craven-hearted fellow! Well, if you really want to know, they"ll probably lock you up for the night with the rest of rag-tag," indicating the other prisoners, a short distance ahead, "in the cellar, or almonry, or _auberge des voleurs_; and in the morning, if you"re lucky and the Governor has time to attend to such as you, it may be you"ll escape with a few stripes and a warning."
"The _auberge des voleurs_!--the thieves" inn!" said the man. "What is that?"
"Bah! You want to know too much! If now your legs only moved as fast as your tongue--" And the speaker completed the sentence with a significant jog on the other"s shoulder. Whereupon the mountebank quickened his footsteps, once more ceased his questioning. It was the soldier who had not yet spoken, but who had been pondering a good deal on the way up, who next broke the silence.
"How did it end, Monsieur Mountebank?--the scene with the devil, I mean."
The man who had begun to breathe hard, as one not accustomed to climbing, or wearied by a long pilgrimage to the Mount, at the question ventured to stop and rest, with a hand on the granite bal.u.s.trade of the little platform they had just reached. "In the death of the peasant, and a comic chorus of frogs," he answered.
"A comic chorus!" said the soldier. "That must be very amusing."
"It is," the mountebank said, at the same time studying, from where he stood, different parts of the Mount with cautious, sidelong looks; "but my poor frogs!--all torn! trampled!"
"Well, well!" said the other not unkindly. "You can mend them when you get out."
""_When_!" If I only knew when that would be! What if I should have to stay here like some of the others?--_pour etre oublie_!--to be forgotten?"
"If you don"t get on faster," said the soldier who had first spoken, "you won"t be buried alive for some time to come, at least!"
"Pardon!" muttered the mountebank. "The hill--it is very steep."