A B E N I K I CALDWELL BT CAROLYN WELLS LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS Abeniki Caldwell 1 1 3? A b e n i k i Caldwell A Burlefque Hiftorical Novel By CAROLYN WELLS Illuftrated with numerous engravings printed from the original wood blocks New York , 1$. ftuffrfl, Publifher 1902 LIBKA'RY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS Copyright, 1902, by ROBERT HOWARD RUSSELL First Impression October, 1902 UNIVERSITY PRESS JOHN WILSON AND SON CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A TO LAURA FITHIAN JONES CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE NAPOLEON FEATHER 1 II. THE POISONED HANDKERCHIEF 23 III. D'ORSAY'S LEFT FOOT 46 IV. THE POT OF PAINTED BUTTER 65 V. AN EASTER GREETING 87 VI. THE BRASS ANDIRONS 107 VII. THE LOYALTY OF LORRAINE 122 VIII. THE SIX-SIDED SQUARE 143 IX. THE COUNTERFEIT TICKET 162 X. THE ISABEL SCARF . 183 XL THE IDES OF MARCH 197 XII. THE RED ROSETTE 215 XIII. THE CONFESSION OF CALLIMACHUS 233 XIV. THE TRICOLOR OF LORRAINE 252 XV. THE SOMNAMBULIST OF THE MONASTERY . . . 268 CHAPTER I THE NAPOLEON FEATHER WOE betide us, all is lost ! " These words, uttered in an ominous, despairing shriek, pierced on mine ear with prophetic force, and I knew my glorious hopes were doomed to disappointment. " Ha ! " I thought silently to myself ; " who hath spoken ? Who, with a bold disregard of time and place, hath dared *thus to utter his fateful conviction ? " I glanced cautiously about me. The scene was a dazzling one, and right merry withal. The spacious ball-room, hung with posy garlands and twinkling with a myriad wax- lights, formed a fitting field for many a gay bud and blade who danced away the hours all unwit ting of their approaching doom. Ah, thus had there been a sound of revelry by night when the Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, and sic semper tyrannis. I hesitated for the millionth part of a second, and then, for I was ever impetuous, I dashed [ i ] [ 1 ] across ABENIKI CALDWELL across the room and seated myself in a red velvet armchair. Red velvet, did I say ? Red ! nay, by my troth, 't was blue, blue as the violets nodding by the mere ; blue as the noble blood that coursed through the royal veins of Francis, England's greatest king. It was foolhardy, that mad dash across the apartment ; but as I had foreseen, the manoeu vre outwitted my enemies, and, all aglow with satisfaction, I addressed myself to Lady Alys Allardyce, who gazed at me over her peacock- feather fan with eyes of not unfathomable meaning. " Hist ! " said she, lifting a warning forefinger, " listen thou, but speak no word." "Aye, madam," I murmured in return, for I was ever obedient ; " I am dumb before thee ; thine shall be the discourse, thine the explanation. Mine is it silently and humbly to obey thy orders, even though they lead through Danger to Death. At thy bidding I embrace the direst Danger ; at thy behest I rush eagerly to darkest Death. [ 2 ] Queen ABENIKI CALDWELL Queen of my heart, accept the proffered aid of thine humblest servant and give me the straight tip." " 'T is well said," quoth Lady Alys Allardyce ; and in silence I proceeded to adjust my purple velvet cloak, which hung in graceful folds over my white satin doublet slashed with cloth-of- gold. " But," said my ill-fated companion, and her clarion-like voice sank to a faint falsetto, "the time is ripe; yet 'tis an evil hour when I, a daughter of the House of Harlech, shall be tray such gruesome secrets to an alien ear." "And shall the vaulted chamber remain for ever locked?" I cried. " Alas, no," she answered, " the Curse of the Clurichaune must fall must fall!" She spoke the last words with a Cassandra- like look that sent shivers to my spine, but I replied, " The Curse of the Clurichaune will fall, but only after the Cyprian scorpion shall have strewn [ 4 ] the THE NAPOLEON FEATHER the desert with the bones of his traitorous- hearted victims." This moved her, and I looked up to see the " The sound of wheels and the clatter of horses' hoofs " Lady Alys smiling at me from the other side of the room. Shivering with cold, I drew my plaid more closely about me and strode onward across the [ 5 ] Scottish ABENIKI CALDWELL Scottish moor. The night was dark, and the storm came in fitful gusts, bending the old sycamores until they snapped from their stems and lay prone in the dense shadows of the forest. My heart was filled with a black bitterness of woe, and ever in my ear a demon seemed re lentlessly to hiss, " Revenge ! Revenge ! " I had traversed perhaps a dozen leagues of misty moorland when I heard a sound behind me. Grasping my rapier, I looked back, but I saw nothing, so dark was the night. 'T was only by listening intently I heard the sound of wheels and the clatter of horses' hoofs on the asphalt. " Who comes ? " I cried, as I valiantly drew sword, and prepared to defend my life against hostile attack. A piercing shriek was the only answer. But such a shriek ! It made my very heart stand still with mingled joy and grief. For it was a noble, educated, aristocratic shriek; a polished, cultured shriek; a gentle, [ 6 ] refined, THE NAPOLEON FEATHER refined, musical, and altogether-to-be-admired shriek. Such a shriek, in fact, as could proceed only from the ruby lips and pearly teeth of a fair damsel in distress. Surely some beauteous maid of noble birth had exercised her patrician lungs in bewailing some troubles of her own. ** Phrased in that staccato accent " And, again, her mishap or misfortune, if mis hap or misfortune it were, was dire, sudden, and unexpected. For the shriek, though of enchanting sweet ness of tone, was pitched in that high key, and phrased in that staccato accent which always betokens fear, terror, or distress. By a series of swift mental computations relating to the square of the sound plus the [ 7 ] distance, ABENIK1 CALDWELL distance, I arrived at the conclusion that the beautiful unfortunate must be exactly two miles ** The cattle-yard at Coningsburgh " and a half away from me in a northeasterly direction. " By the helmet of St. Swibert I " I exclaimed, " the prowess of this single arm shall serve to rescue suffering Beauty from aught that may [ 8 ] assail," THE NAPOLEON FEATHER assail," and in tones of hope and reassurance I called to the unknown Fair One : " Fear not ; a sword and lance are at thy service, O Damsel in distress ! I will protect thee." I paused only to gird my gabardine more closely round me, and then set off hot-foot for the- scene of carnage. There are few more imposing bits of scenery in all France than the castle-yard at Conings- burgh, where, well defended by walls and ditches, rises the ancient edifice, which was, previous to the Conquest, a residence for the royal kings of England. Eagerness and excitement acted as wings to my feet, and I fairly flew across the moor, and arrived on the spot just in time to see a coach and four come tearing madly round a turn in the road. The horses galloped at such a pace that the coach rocked from side to side ; the postillions, pale with fright, shook in their saddles, while [ 9 ] the ABENIKI CALDWELL the outriders clapped spurs to their horses and disappeared round the edge of the cliff. The coach was a brave one, gilded and painted in the style of Louis XIV., and the servants' liveries betokened a house of rank. But ere I could more than glance at the fair, frightened face in the coach window, I perceived the cause of the hubbub to be a dozen or more attacking brigands, who on coal-black stallions pursued the fleeing coach. " Halt ! " I cried in stentorian tones, and held up my right hand with a menacing gesture. The chief of the brigands advanced with a bold front, but I thought I detected a quiver of his left eyelash. "Varlet! who art thou?" he cried, and lunged at me with his naked sword. " I am Claude Kildare," I replied, " and right dearly shalt thou pay for daring to attack a Kildare of Kildare." So saying, I dashed at him, and ere he might so much as wink an eye, I sent my sword [ 10 ] through The coach was a brave one ABENIKI CALDWELL through his heart, and drew back the flashing weapon dripping with the fiend's gore. A yell of rage broke from his companions. Roused to fury by the death of their chief, they attacked me with cries of vengeance and I had great to-do to parry all their thrusts at once. But by a clever bit of sword-play I killed two of the brutes and struck the swords from the hands of three others. Then with my left hand I fired my revolver six times in quick succession. This did for six more, after which I had only four to contend with. Infuriated to the verge of frenzy, these demons in human shape flew at me. One clutched my throat, but with a swift, clean cut I severed his arm, and then turned sharply on the others who were attacking me from behind. "Come on ! " I cried, for my spirit was roused, and another glimpse of the fair face at the coach window urged me on to grand-stand play. [ 12 ] They ' So saying, I dashed at him ' ABEN1KI CALDWELL They came on, since I insisted, and one be hind another approached me with fell intent. " Dogs ! " I cried, and with a blood-curdling yell of triumph, I ran my trusty sword straight through the five, aye, spitted the rogues as a cook runs a skewer through reed-birds. They fell, weltering in their own gore, and then, resuming my courtly air, I turned to the damsel in the coach. I bowed before her, sweep ing the ground with my plumed chapeau, and said simply : " Lady of the Starry Hair, Glory of Three Realms, if that my trifling aid hath shown thee aught of my devotion, grant me but one glance of thy Heaven-beaming eye, that the memory may be to my future life a fountain of exhaustless joy." " Nay, bold cavalier," said the lady, "though in no wise do I underrate the assistance thy good sword hath rendered me, yet I am the Princess Berenice of Bois-Bracy, and the daughters of my house may not so much as glance upon one of lower birth and less boodle." * [ 14 ] Chagrined '* / had great to-do to parry all their thrusts at once " ABENIKI CALDWELL Chagrined and humiliated beyond words, I exclaimed : " Ha ! how report hath lied ! Full oft have I heard of the beauty of the Princesses of Bois-Bracy, but even through thy thick veil of black bombazine can I see thy hard-featured and ill-favored countenance." The ruse was successful. With a slow sud den gesture, the Lady Berenice flung aside the bamboozling bombazine and disclosed such mar vellous beauty as was never seen, save and except in advertisements of certain soaps and dentifrices. Oh, that face ! that face that gazed out from the coach window as from a frame of gold ! Heaven forfend that I should attempt to de scribe its glorious beauty ! The pen of a Wat- teau were all too poor to give even a faint inkling of those angelic features. The pure Greek profile outlined a classic brow and a nose which Mr. Micawber might have waited for ; while the fair cheeks were like new pink satin pincushions. [ 16 ] Masses " They came on, since I insisted " ABENIKI CALDWELL Masses of golden hair rose from the ivory temples like clouds of incense, and the lips of carven coral might well have served as a model for Cupid's bow. All this I saw ere the downcast eyes were raised, but when the dark-fringed eyelids lifted and the Orient orbs of Lady Berenice thrilled to mine own, I knew that my life had at last begun. For love is life, and they be not alive who be not alove. Still 'neath the spell of that glistening glance, I opened the coach door and my lady stepped forth. Till then I had seen but her face ; now I per ceived that her form was equally fair and noble. Tall as an Amazonian goddess, yet not too tall to be called petite, her straight, arrow-like figure was full of graceful curves. Her robe was of orange wool, with a kirtle of pale crimson silk looped at the side. Her outer garment, or toga, was of maroon mohair with gilt fringe. Bracelets of beaten gold adorned her [ 18 ] beautiful The pure Greek profile " ABENIKI CALDWELL beautiful arms, which were bare to the shoulder, and on her feet were sandal- wood sandals. " Most Radiant Blossom from the Garden of Paradise," I began, for I was ever plain and simple of speech, " behold before thee thy humble grovelling slave, whose only greatness is his un bounded devotion to thee and to thy service. Goddess, accept my homage ; grant only that I may bow in the dust before thee, and when thou liftest thy dainty foot, oh, graciously permit that I may get it in the neck." The Lady Berenice was touched, but bravely concealing her agitation, she whispered, - " An thou lovest me, drive me post-haste to the Inn of the Royal Rogue, over Borneilshire way." " Pride of the Universe, I live but to obey," quoth I, as I handed Milady into her coach, touching her fingers awesomely, for who was I that this great honor should come to me ? But as the Lady Berenice glided into her cushioned nest, something fell to the ground from the folds of her garments. [ 20 ] Only " * Goddess, accept my homage ' ABENIKI CALDWELL Only two or three tiny, almost imperceptible fragments, yet as I saw them, my heart stood still in my breast, and then beat fiercely with a mad passion which I could not quell. Anger, wrath, indignation, resentment, bitter ness, animosity, exasperation, rage, fury, pique, umbrage, dudgeon, acerbity, virulence, and spleen strove for mastery in my infuriated brain. Not for me this fair Marvel of Maidenliness, not for me this Miracle of Magnificence ; and with a horrisonous groan, wrung from the very subway of my aching, breaking heart, I forcefully brought down my heavy heel and ground deep in the dust those three grains of rice. CHAPTER II THE POISONED HANDKERCHIEF XXIGH toward the blue- vaulted heavens waved the silvery branches of the cypress-trees. Drift ing blossoms fell from the brambles, and, blown by the west wind, scampered across the heath toward the setting sun. The frowning Palisades, crowned with their Autumn foliage as with a wreath, looked down upon the peaceful Hudson with an air of mingled protection and superiority. Far to the south, the magnolia groves nestled among the hills of the Carolinas, and their waxen blossoms flashed in the pale moonlight with an eerie beauty all their own. The reapers paused, and as the morning broke in unclouded splendor o'er the peaks of Darien, the mist of a dismal February evening was spreading its humid veil over the line of low sandhills between Lochaber and Liddesdale. The verdure fairly rioted in the wild exuber ance of early Springtime, and the freshly washed [ 23 ] Day ABENIKI CALDWELL Day seemed to break forth in a glad, sweet smile that had been ripening for years. But the gayety of Nature struck no answering chord in the sooty heart of Claude Kildare. " The frowning Palisades " Slamming the door of Lady Berenice's coach until it seemed as if she must needs lose her balance, her angry cavalier sprang with one bound to the coachman's box, and gathering up the ribbons started the six startled steeds off at a mad gallop. [ 24 ] By ABENIKI CALDWELL By the bones of St. Dunstan, what a ride it was ! The horses scarce touched ground at all between their pounding jumps, and the foam fairly flew from their fangs. On, on, across the miry dunes, on, Claude Kildare ! spur thy horses through brake and brush, lash them o'er ditch and gorge ; bravely balance the reeling vehicle, now on one wheel, now on another, and, by the Pibroch of St. Winibald, thou shalt outstrip the pursuing hordes and win fair fame, forsooth, by thy high venture. Within the coach the Lady Berenice lolled indolently on her satin cushions. " Ha ! " she said to herself, " methinks peril attendeth," With a faint interest manifest in their dark depths, the lovely eyes turned a glance of mild inquiry upon her new-found charioteer. " Now, marry beshrew me!" cried the daughter of a hundred earls, " but the knight hath a mar vellous skill. An a man can drive eight prancing steeds while he beareth his shield on his left arm, [ 26 ] and Joseph McCann ABENIKI CALDWELL and holdeth a cocked revolver in his right, I need fear me no fears." And so, content of her safety, the beautiful Lady Berenice sank into a gentle slumber, little dreaming of the dark and deadly plots that seethed in the throbbing brain of Claude Kildare. Thus they rode on, and as the sun's dazzling disc dropped darkling into the horizon, they ar rived at the postern gate of the Golden Grass hopper. "Alight, O, Fair but False," quoth Claude Kildare, throwing open the coach door ; and with a firm, haughty step the Lady Berenice alit. From the Inn, behold advancing, with a fat, unctuous waddle, Joseph McCann, this twelve years Keeper of the Golden Grasshopper. His hostelry was marked by the rude simplicity of its period, and its faade of white marble rose unostentatiously toward the blue heavens to the height of twenty-two stories. A simple flight of white marble steps, carpeted with plain red velvet, led to the main entrance. [ 28 ] Herr 1 ABENIKI CALDWELL Herr McCann, though now in his thirty- seventh year come Michaelmas, had a hasty and choleric temper and was greatly slow-witted withal. His long yellow hair was parted amidships, and fell on either side his head down to his shoulders, while a steely glitter was in his either eye. His dress was very sumptuous and magnificent. A scarlet tunic hung from his left shoulder, dis closing a green doublet edged with ermine. " Odsbodikins, fair strangers," he cried, " come in, and right welcome be. How are ye named ? " "I am Gaston K. Waldemar," said Claude Kildare, "and this lady is my mother, Mrs. Waldemar." This statement was a lying falsehood, and Lady Berenice knew it, but awed by Kildare's men acing glance, she said no word. " Give this lady a suite of rooms," continued Claude, " the finest your house affords, or, by the hammer of St. Dubric, I '11 break every skull of your head. Where is the lift ? " [ 30 ] "This ABENIKI CALDWELL " This way, my lord," replied the Innkeeper, trembling like an aspic leaf, and he preceded his guests along the electric-lighted palm-corridor. Claude Kildare strode in the direction indicated and Lady Berenice glode silently by his side. He clasped her fair hand at parting. " I will await thee," he murmured, and his voice was as the cooing ring-dove's, " at nine o' the clock, by the moon-dial in the rose-garden." The Lady Berenice uttered no word, but she flashed on Kildare an eloquent glance which seemed to say, " Naught shall keep me from the tryst ; I will be there unless perchance it should rain." Ah, little thought the fair Lady Berenice that already the knell of her happiness had tolled, already the memory of her future was menaced by poisoned shafts fired from the guns of envy, hatred, and malice. Claude Kildare raised his head, and with a smile that dispelled the lowering clouds from [ 32 ] his THE POISONED HANDKERCHIEF his brow said gently : " Gramercy, good yeo man, and now hast ale in thy vaults ? " " Aye, my lord," quoth the Innkeeper, "prime ale and wine of the best, long kept in store for such as thou. Ho, Varlets, a stoup of Malvoisie ! " His command was obeyed by a passing lackey, and our hero entered the Gothic grill-room and flung himself at table. The crowd of merry roysterers carousing there paid no heed to his entrance, but continued bois terously to brawl a roundelay. " Here 's to Hilarity, Jolly good fellows we. Fill up your stein with Rhenish wine And drink with me. " Drink to the death of care, Drudgery, and despair ; Drink to a life with Laughter rife And free as air.