d berkeieyN LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Cerise " CARESSING HER HORSE WITH ONE HAND." Cerise.] {Page 35.) lF7-07itispiece Cerise A Tale of the Last Century By G. J. Whyte-Melville Author of " Market Harborough," " Katerfelto," " Satanella," etc., etc. Illustrated by G. P. Jacomb-Hood London Ward, Lock & Co., Limited New York and Melbourne. <%-/ l^H ^ ^'-v CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. The Daisy-Chain 9 II. The Montmirails 17 in. Monsieur I'Abb^ . 25 IV. Tantara! . 34 V. The Usher of the Black Eod 44 VI. A Jesuit's Task 51 vn. St. Mark's Balsam . 59 VIII. The Grey Musketeers 68 IX. Eugene Beaud^sir . 76 X. The Boudoir of Madame 86 XI. What the Serpent Said 94 XII. Out-manoeuvred 105 xni. The Mother of Satan 113 XIV. The D^bonnaire 122 XV. The Masked Ball . 132 XVI. Eaising the Devil . 144 XVII. A Quiet Supper 151 XVIII. Baiting the Trap 160 XIX. Mater Pulchi'a, Filia Pulchrior 167 XX. A General Eendezvous . 177 XXI. The Fox and Fiddle 185 XXII. Three Strands of a Yarn . 193 xxm. The Pai-lour-Lodger 202 xxrv. A Volunteer . 210 XXV. Three Pressed Men . 218 XXVI. *' Yo-heave-yo ! " . 227 XXVII. ' The Bashful Maid ' 235 xxYiii. Dirty Weather 1 244 o ?M 8 CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE XXIX. Port Welcome . . . . . . .250 XXX. Montmirail West . , , . 259 XXXI. Black, but Comely . 272 XXXII. A Wise Child . 277 xxxiii. Jack Aground > . . 286 xxxiv. Jack Afloat . 294 XXXV. Besieged . 301 xxxvi. At Bay . 309 XXXVII. Just in Time . 317 xxxviu. Mt^re avaut tout . 326 xxxTX. All Adrift . . 335 XL. Homeward Bound . . 341 XLi. Lady Hamilton . 351 XLn. The Desire of the Moth . 360 xiiin. For the Star . 370 xiiiv. " Box it About " . 379 XLV. The Little Rift . 389 XL VI. The Music Mute . . 399 XLvn. The " Hamilton Arms " . 408 xLViii. Pressure . 419 XLix. Poor Emerald . 429 L. Captain Bold . 441 LI. Sir Marmaduke . 448 LH. The Bowl on the Bias . 458 Lm. Fair Fighting 466 Lrv. Friends in Need . 475 LV. Forewarned . 486 LVi. Forearmed . . 494 L\^I. An Addled Egg . 503 I. VIII. Horns and Hoofs . . 611 Lix. A Substitute . 518 LX. Solace . 529 CERISE A TALE OF THE LAST CENTURY CHAPTEK I THE DAISY-CHAIN In the gardens of Versailles, as everywhere else within the freezing influence of the Grand Monarque, nature herself seemed to accept the situation, and succumbed inevitably under the chain of order and courtly etiquette. The grass grew, indeed, and the Great Waters played, but the former was rigorously limited to certain mathematical patches, and permitted only to obtain an established length, while the latter threw their diamond showers against the sky with the regular and oppressive monotony of clockwork. The avenues stretched away straight and stiff like rows of lately- built houses ; the shrubs stood hard and defiant as the white statues with which they alternated, and the very sun- shine off the blinding gravel glared and scorched as if its duty were but to mark a march of dazzling hours on square stone dials for the kings of France. Down in Touraine the woods were sleeping, hushed, and peaceful in the glowing summer's day, sighing, as it were, and stirring in their repose, while the breeze crept through their shadows, and quivered in their outskirts, ere it passed on to cool the peasant's brow, toiling contented in his clear- ing, with blue home-spun garb, white teeth, and honest sunburnt face. Far off in Normandy, sleek of skin and rich of colour, cows were ruminating knee-deep in pasturage ; hedges were 10 CERISE loaded with wild flowers, thickets dark with rank liixiiriance of gi'owth, while fresh streams, over which the hlue king- fisher flitted like a dragon-fly, rippled merrily down towards the sea. Through teeming orchards, between waving corn- fields, past convent-walls grown over with woodbine and lilac and laburnum, under stately cliurches, rearing Gothic spires, delicate as needlework, to heaven, and bringing with them a cool current of air, a sense of freedom and refreshment as they hurried past. Nay, even where the ripening sun beat fiercely on the vineyards, terraced tier upon tier, to concentrate his rays — where Macon and Cote-d'Or were already tinged with the first faint biush of their coming vintage, even amidst the gi-ape-rows so orderly planted and so carefully trained, buxom peasant-girls could gather posies of wild flowers for their raven hair, to make their black eyes sparkle with merrier glances, and their dusky cheeks mantle in rich carnation, type of southern blood dancing through their veins. But Versailles was not France, and at Versailles nothing seemed free but the birds and the children. One of the alleys, commanded from the king's private apartments, was thickly crowded with loungers. Courtiers in silk stockings, laced coats, and embroidered waistcoats reaching to their thighs, wearing diamond hilts on their rapiers, and diamond buckles in their shoes, could not move a step without apology for catching in the spreading skirts of magnificent ladies — magnificent, be it understood, in gorgeousness of apparel rather than in beauty of face or sjmimetry of figm-e. The former, indeed, whatever might be its natural advantages, was usually coated with paint and spotted with patches, while the latter was so disguised by voluminous robes, looped-up skirts, falling laces, and such outworks and appendages, not to mention a super- structure of hair, ribbon, and other materials, towering so high above the head as to place a short woman's face some- where about the middle of her whole altitude, that it must have been difficult even for the maid who dressed her to identify, in one of these imposing triumphs of art, the slender and insignificant little framework upon which the whole fabric had been raised. Devotion in woman is never more sublime than when sustaining the torture of dress. THE DAISY-CHAIN 11 It was all artificial together. Not a word was spoken but might have been overheard with entire satisfaction by the unseen sovereign who set the whole pageant in motion. Not a gesture but was restrained by the consciousness of supervision. Not a sentiment broached but had for its object the gi'eater glorification of a little old man, feeble and worn-out, eating iced fruit and sweetmeats in a closet opening from a formal, heavily-furnished, over-gilded saloon, that commanded the broad gravel-walk on which the courtiers passed to and fro in a shifting, sparkling throng. If a com- pliment was paid by grinning gallant to simpering dame, it was ofi'ered and accepted with a sidelong glance from each towards the palace windows. If a countess whispered scandal to a duchess behind her fan, the grateful dish was sauced and flavoured for the master's palate, to whom it would be offered by the listener on the first opportunity. Marshals of a hundred fights tapped their jewelled snufi'-boxes to inhale a pinch of the King's Mixture. Blooming beauties, whose every breath was fragrance, steeped their gossamer handkerchiefs in no other perfume than an extract from orange-flowers, called Bouquet du Roi. For Louis the Fourteenth, if he might believe his house- hold. Time was to stand still, and the Seasons brought no change. " I am the same age as everybody else," said a courtier of seventy to his Majesty at sixty-five. " The rain of Marly does not wet one," urged another, as an excuse for not covering his head in a shower while walking with the king. By such gross flattery was that sovereign to be duped, who believed himself a match for the whole of Europe in perceptive wisdom and diplomatic, /?n<^sse. But though powdered heads were bowing, and laced hats waving, and brocades ruffling in the great walk, swallows skimmed and darted through the shades of a green alley behind the nearest fountain, and a little girl was sitting on the grass, making daisy- chains as busily as if there were no other interest, no other occupation at Court or in the world. Her flapping hat was thrown aside, and her head bent studiously over her work, so that the bro^^^l curls, silken and rich and thick, as a girl's curls should be, hid all of her face but a little soft white brow. Her dimpled arms and hands moved nimbly about her task, and a pair of sturdy, 12 CEBISE well-turned legs were stuck out straight before her, as if she liad cstahlishcd herself in her present position with a resolu- tion not to stir till she had completed the long snowy chain that festooned already for several yards across the turf. She had just glanced in extreme content at its progi-ess without raising her head, when a spaniel scoured by, followed at speed by a young gentleman in a page's dress, who, skimming the level with his toe, in all the impetuous haste of boyhood, caught the gi'eat work round his ankles, and tore it into a dozen fragments as he passed. The little girl looked up in consternation, having duly arranged her face for a howl ; but she controlled her feel- ings, partly in surprise, partly in bashfulness, partly perhaps in gi-atification at the veiy obvious approval with which the aggi'essor regarded that face, while, stopping short, he begged " Mademoiselle's pardon " with all the grand manner of the Comi grafted on the natural politeness of France. It was indeed a veiy pretty, and, more, a very lovable little face, with its large innocent blue eyes, its delicate peach-like cheeks, and a pair of curling ruddy lips, that, combined with her own infantine pronunciation of her bap- tismal name Therese, had already obtained for the child the familiar appellation of " Cerise." "Pardon, mademoiselle ! " repeated the page, colouring boy-like to his temples — '* Pardon ! I was running so fast ; I was in such a hm-ry — I am so awkward. I will pick you a hatful more daisies — and — and I can get you a large slice of cake this evening when the king goes out of the little supper-room to the music-hall." " Mademoiselle " thus adjured, rose to her full stature of some forty inches, and spreading her short stiff skirt around her with gTeat care, replied by a stately reverence that would have done credit to an empress. Notwithstanding her dig- nity, however, she cast a wdstful look at the broken daisy- chain, while her little red lips quivered as if a burst of tears was not far off. The boy was down on his knees in an instant, gathering handfuls of the simple flowers, and flinging them impetu- ously into his hat. It was obvious that this young gentle- man possessed already considerable energy of character, and judging from the flash of his bold dark eyes, a determined THE DAISY-CHAIN 18 will of his own. His figure, though as yet unformed, was lithe, erect, and active, while his noble bearing denoted self-reliance beyond his years, and a reckless, confident disposition, such as a true pedagogue would have longed and failed to check with the high hand of coercion. In a few minutes he had collected daisies enough to fill his laced hat to the rims, and flinging himself on the turf, began stringing them together with his strong, well-shaped, sun- burnt fingers. The little girl, much consoled, had reseated herself as before. It was delightful to see the chain thus lengthening by fathoms at a time, and this new friend seemed to enter heart and soul into the important work. Active sympathy soon finds its way to a child's heart ; she nestled up to his side, and shaking her curls back, looked con- fidingly in his face. " I like you," said the little woman, honestly, and without reserve. " You are good — you are polite — you make daisy- chains as well as mamma. My name's Cerise. What's your name? " The page smiled, and with the smile his whole countenance grew handsome. In repose, his face was simply that of a well-looking youth enough, with a bold, saucy expression and hardy sunburned features ; but when he smiled, a physiognomist watching the change would have pronounced, ** That boy must be like his mother, and his mother must have been beautiful ! " "Cerise," repeated the lad. ''What a pretty name! Mine is not a pretty name. Boys don't have pretty names. My name's George — George Hamilton. You mustn't call me Hamilton. I am never called anything but George at Court. I'm not big enough to be a soldier yet, but I am page to Louis le Grand/'' The child opened her eyes very wide, and stared over her new friend's head at a gentleman who was listening atten- tively to their conversation, with his hat in his hand, and an expression of considerable amusement pervading his old, worn, melancholy face. This gentleman had stolen round the corner of the alley, treading softly on the turf, and might have been watching the children for some minutes unperceived. He was a small, shrunken, but well-made person, with a symmetrical leg 14 CERISE and foot, the arched instep of the latter increased by the high heels of his diamond-buckled shoes. His dress in those days of splendour was plain almost to affectation ; it consisted of a full-skirted, light-brown coat, ornamented only with a few gold buttons ; breeches of the same colom-, and a red satin waistcoat embroidered at the edges, the whole suit relieved by the cordon bleu which was worn outside. The hat he dangled in his pale, thin, unringed hand was trimmed with Spanish point, and had a plume of white feathers. His face was long, and bore a solemn, saddened expression, the more remarkable for the rapidity with which, as at present, it succeeded a transient gleam of mirth. Notwithstanding all its advantages of dress and manner, notwithstanding jewelled buckles, and point lace, and full flowing periwig, the figure now standing over the two children, in sad contrast to their rich flow of youth and health, was that of a worn-out, decrepid old man, fast approaching, though not yet actually touching, the brink of his grave. The smile, however, came over his wrinkled face once more as the child looked shyly up, gathering her daisy-chain distrustfully into her lap. Then he stooped to stroke her brown curls with his white wasted hand. "Your name is Therese," said he gravely. "Mamma calls you Cerise, because you are such a round, ruddy little thing. Mamma is waiting in the painted saloon for the king's dinner. You may look at him eating it, if your bonne takes you home past the square table in the middle window opposite the Great Fountain. She is to come for you in a quarter of an hour. You see I know all about it, little one." Cerise stared in utter consternation, but at the first sound of that voice the boy had started to his feet, blushing fui'iously, and catching up his hat, to upset an avalanche of daisies in the action, stood swinging it in his hand, bolt upright like a soldier who springs to " attention " under the eye of his officer. The old gentleman's face had resumed its sad expression, but he di'ew up his feeble figure with dignity, and motioned the lad, who already nearly equalled him in height, a little further back. George obeyed instinctively, and Cerise, still sitting on the grass, wdth the daisy-chain in her lap, looked fi-om one to the other in a state of utter bewilderment. THE DAISY-CHAIN 15 "Don't be frightoned, little one," continued the old gentle- man, caressingly. " Come and play in these gardens whenever you like. Tell Le Notre to give you prettier flowers than these to make chains of, and when you get older, tiy to leave off turning the heads of my pages with your brown curls and cherry lips. As for you, sir," he added, facing round upon George, " I have seldom seen any of you so innocently employed. Take care of this pretty little girl till her honne comes to fetch her, and show them both the place from whence they can see the king at dinner. How does the king dine to-day, sir? and when ? " he con- cluded, in a sharper and sterner tone. George was ec[ual to the occasion. '^ There is no council to-day, sire," he answered, without hesitation. " His Majesty has ordered * The Little Service '* this morning, and will dine in seventeen minutes exactly, for I hear the Grey Musketeers already relieving guard in the Front Court." '' Go, sir." exclaimed the old gentleman, in great good- humour. '* You have learnt yom* duty better than I expected. I think I may trust you with the care of this pretty child. Few pages know anything of etiquette or the necessary routine of a Court. I am satisfied with you. Do you understand?" The boy's cheeks flushed once more, as he bowed low and stood silent, whilst the old gentleman passed on. The latter, however, had not gone half-a-dozen paces ere he turned back, and again addressed the younger of the children. " Do not forget, little one, to ask Le Notre for any flowers you want, and — and — if you think of it, tell mamma you met the honest bourgeois who owns these gardens, and that he knew you, and knew your name, and knew how old you were, and, I dare say, little one, you are surprised the bourgeois should know so much ! " That Cerise was surprised admitted of small doubt. She had scarcely found her voice ere the old gentleman tm'ned out of the alley and disappeared. Then she looked at her companion, whose cheeks were still glowing with excite- ment, and presently burst into a peal of childish laughter. "What a funny old man!" cried Cerise, clapping her ' Au petit couvert. 16 CEBISE hands ; " and I am to have as many flowers as I like — what a funny old man ! " " Hush, mademoiselle," answered the boy, gi'avely, as though his own dignity had received a hurt, '* you must not speak like that. It is very rude. It is very wrong. If a man were to say such things it should cost him his life." Cerise opened her blue eyes wider than ever. "Wrong!" she repeated, "rude! what have I done? who is it, then? " " It is the King ! " answered the boy, proudly. "It is Louis le Grand/ " CHAPTER II THE MONTMIRAILS Ladies first. Let us identify the pretty little girl in the gardens of Versailles, who answered to the name of Cerise, before we account for the presence of George Hamilton the page. ^ _ It is a thing well understood — it is an arrangement universally conceded in France — that marriages should be contracted on principles of practical utility, rather than on the vague assumption of a romantic and unsuitable prefer- ence. It was therefore with tranquil acquiescence, and feelings perfectly under control, that Therese de la Fierte, daughter of a line of dukes, found herself taken out of a convent and wedded to a chivalrous veteran, who could scarcely stand long enough at the altar, upon his well-shaped but infirm old legs, to make the necessary responses for the conversion of the beautiful hiimette over against him into Madame la Marquise de Montmirail. The bridegi'oom was indeed infinitely more agitated than the bride. He had conducted several campaigns ; he was a Marshal of France ; he had even been married before, to a remarkably plain person, who adored him ; he had undergone the necessary course of gallantry inflicted on men of his station at the Court and in the society to which he belonged ; nevertheless, as he said to himself, he felt like a recruit in his first " afi'air " when he encountered the plunging fire of those black eyes, raking him front, and flanks, and centre, from under the bridal wreath and its di-ooping white lace veil. Therese had indeed, in right of her mother, large black eyes as well as large West Indian possessions ; and her 2 17 18 CERISE liglit-haired rivals were good enough to attribute the rich radiance of her beauty to a stain of negro blood somewhere far back in that mother's race. Nevertheless, the old Marquis de Montmirail was really over head and ears in love with his brilliant bride. That he should have indulged her in every whim and every folly was but reasonably to be expected, but that she should always have shown for liim the warm affection of a wife, tempered by the deference and respect of a daughter, is only another instance, added to the long score on record of woman's sym2)athy and right feeling when treated with gentleness and consideration. Not even at Court did Madame de Montmirail give a single opportunity to the thousand tongues of scandal during her husband's lifetime ; she was indeed notorious for sus- taining the elaborate homage and tedious admiration of majesty itself, without betraying, by the flutter of an eyelash, that ambition was roused or vanity gratified during the ordeal. It seemed that she cared but for three people in the world. The chivalrous old wreck who had married her, and who was soon compelled to move about in a wheeled chair ; the lovely little daughter born of their union, who inherited much of her mother's efiective beauty with the traditional grace and delicate comj^lexion of the handsome Montmirails, a combination that had helped to distinguish her by the appropriate name of Cerise, and the young Abbe Malletort, a distant cousin of her own, as remarkable for shrewd intellect and utter want of sentiment as for symmetry of figure and signal ugliness of face. The Grand Moiiarque was not famous for consideration towards the nobles of his household. Long after the Marquis de Montmirail had com- menced taking exercise on his own account in a chair, the king commanded his attendance at a shooting-party, kept him standing for three-quarters of an hour on damp grass, under heavy rain, and dismissed him with a pompous com- pliment, and an attack of gout driven upwards into the region of the stomach. The old courtier knew he had got his death-blow. The old soldier faced it like an officer of France. He sent for Madame la Marquise, and complimented her on her coiffure before proceeding to business. He apologised for the pains that took ofi" his attention at intervals, and THE MONTMIEAILS 19 bowed her out of the room, more than once, when the paroxysms became unbearable. The Marquise never went further than the door, where she fell on her knees in the passage and wept. He explained clearly enough how he had bequeathed to her all that was left of his dilapidated estates. Then he sent his duty to the king, observing that " He had served his Majesty under fire often, but never under water till now. He feared it was the last occasion of presenting his homage to his sovereign." And so, asking for Cerise, who was brought in by her weeping mother, died brave and tranquil, with his arm round his child and a gold snuff-box in his hand. Ladies cannot be expected to sorrow as inconsolably for a mate of seventy as for one of seven-and-twenty, but the Marquise de Montmirail grieved very honestly, nevertheless, and mourned during the prescribed period, with perhaps even more circumspection than had she lost a lover as well as, or instead of, a husband. Wagers were laid at Court that she would marry again within a year; yet the year passed by and Madame had not so much as seen anybody but her child and its bonne. Even Malletort was excluded from her society, and that versatile ecclesiastic, though pluming himself on his knowledge of human nature, in- cluding its most inexplicable half, was obliged to confess he was at a loss ! " Peste! " he would observe, taking a pinch of snuff, and flicking the particles delicately off his ruffles, '' was not the sphinx a woman? At least down to the waist. So, I perceive, is the Marquise. What would you have ? There is a clue to every labyrinth, but it is not always worth while to puzzle it out ! " After a time, when the established period for seclusion had expired, the widow, more beautiful than ever, made her appearance once more at Court. That she loved admiration there could not now be the slightest doubt, and the self- denial became at length apparent with which she had declined it during her husband's lifetime, that she miglit not wring his kind old heart. So, in all societies — at balls, at promenades, at concerts — at solemn attendances on the king, at tedious receptions of princes and princesses, dukes and duchesses, sons and daughters of majesty, legitimate 20 CERISE or otherwise — she accepted homage with avidity, and re- turned compliment for compliment, and gallantry for gallantry, with a coqueti*y perfectly irresistible. But this was all : the first step was fatal taken by an admirer across that scarce perceptible boundary w^iich divides the gold and silver grounds, the gaudy flower-beds of flattery from the sweet wild violet banks of love. The first tremble of interest in his voice, the first quiver of diffidence in his glance, was the signal for dismissal. Madame de Montmirail knew neither pity nor remorse. She had the softest eyes, the smoothest skin, the sweetest voice in the bounds of France, but her heart was declared by all to be harder than the very diamonds that became her so well. Nor, though she seldom missed a chance of securing smiles and compliments, did she seem inclined to afford opportunity for advances of a more positive kind. Cerise was usually in her arms, or on her lap ; and suitors of every time must have been constrained to admit that there is no duenna like a daughter. Besides, the child's beauty was of a nature so different from her mother's, that the most accomplished coxcomb found it difficult to word his admira- tion of mademoiselle so as to infer a yet stronger approval of madame herself. The slightest blunder, too, was as sm'ely made public as it was quickly detected. The Marquise never denied herself or her friends an opportunity for a laugh, and her sarcasm was appropriate as pitiless ; so to become a declared admirer of Madame de Montmirail required a good deal of that courage w^hich is best conveyed by the word sang-froid. And even for those reckless spirits, who neither feared the mother's wit nor respected the daughter's presence, there was yet another difficulty to encounter in the person of the child's bonne, a middle-aged quadroon to whom Cerise was ardently attached, and who never left her mistress's side when not employed in dressing or undi'essing her charge. This faithful retainer, originally a slave on the La-Fierte estates, had passed — with lands, goods, and chattels — into the possession of the Marquise after the death of her mother, the duchess, who was said to have a black drop of blood in her veins, and immediately transferred her fidelitj^ and affections to her present owner. She was a large, strong THE MONTMIBAILS 21 woman, with the remains of great beauty. Her age might be anything under fifty ; and she was known at Court as " The Mother of Satan," a title she accepted with consider- able gratification, and much preferred to the sweeter- sound- ing name of Celandine, by which she was called on the West Indian estate and in the famil}'' of her proprietors. Notwithstanding her good looks, there was something about Celandine that made her an object of dread to her fellow- servants, whether slaves or free. The woman's manner was scowling and suspicious, she suffered from long fits of despondency ; she muttered and gesticulated to herself ; she walked about during the night, when the rest of the household were in bed. Altogether she gave occasion, by her behaviour, to those detractors who affirmed that, whether his mother or not, there was no doubt she was a faithful worshipper of Satan. In the island whence she came, and among the kindred people who had brought with them from Afi:ica their native barbarism and superstitions, the dark rites of Obi were still sedulously cultivated, as the magic power of its votaries was implicitly believed. The three-fourths of white blood in the veins of Celandine had not prevented her, so they said, fiom becoming a priestess of that foul order ; and the price paid for her impious exaltation was diff'erently estimated, ac- cording to the colour of those who discussed the revolting and mysterious question, even amongst the French domestics of Madame de Montmirail, and in so practical an age as the beginning of the eighteenth century. The quadi'oon, finding herself shunned by her equals, was drawn all the closer to her mistress and her little charge. Such was the woman who pushed her way undaunted through the crowd of courtiers now thronging the Grand Alley at Versailles, eliciting no small share of attention by the gorgeousness of her costume ; the scarlet shawl she had bound like a turban round her head, the profusion of gold ornaments that serpentined about her neck and arms, together with the glaring pattern of white and orange con- spicuous on her dress, till she reached the secluded corner where Cerise was sitting with her broken daisy-chain and her attendant page, as she had been left by the king. The quadroon's whole countenance brightened into beauty 22 CERISE when she approached her darling, and the child bounding up to meet her, ran into her arms with a cry of delight that showed tlieir attachment was mutual. George, extremely proud of his commission, volunteered to guide them to the spot whence, as directed, they could witness the progress of the king's dinner, and the strangely-matched trio proceeded through the now decreasing crowd, to all appearance perfectly satisfied with each other. They had already taken up their position opposite the window which his Majesty had indicated, and were in full enjoyment of the thrilling spectacle he had promised them, namely, a little old man in a wig, served by half-a-dozen servants at once, and eating to repletion, when Cerise, who clung to Celandine's hand, hid her face in the bonne's gown, to avoid the gaze of two gentlemen who were staring at her with every mark of approval. "What is it, my cherished one?" said the quadroon, in tender accents. "Who dares frighten my darling ? " But the fierce voice changed into coaxing tones when the bonne recognised a familiar face in one of her charge's unwelcome admirers. ' ' Why, it's Monsieur VA bbe f Surely you know Monsieur VAbbe ! Come, be a good child, then ; make Monsieur VAbbe a reverence, and wish him good-day ! " But Cerise persistently declined any friendly overtures whatever to Monsieur VAbbe ; hanging her head and turn- ing her toes in most restively ; so the three passed on to witness the process of eating as performed by Louis le Grand ; and Monsieur VAbbe, crumpling his extremely plain features into a sneer, observed his companion, "It is droll enough, Florian, children never take to me, though I make my way as well as another with grown-up people. They seem to mistrust me from the first. Can it be because I am so very ugly ? " The other smiled deprecatingly. " Good looks," said he, "have nothing to do with it. Children are like their elders — they hate intellect because they fear it. Oh, Malletort ! had I the beauty of Absalom, I would give it all willingly to possess your opportunities and your powers of using them ! " " Thank you," replied Malletort, looking gratified in spite of himself at the compliment, but perhaps envying THE M0NTMIBAIL8 23 in his secret heart the outward advantages which his friend seemed so little to appreciate. Florian de St. Croix, just on the verge of manhood, was as handsome a youth as might be met with amongst the thousand candidates for the priesthood, of whom he was one of the most sanguine and enthusiastic. Not even the extreme plainness of his dress, appropriate to the sacred calling he was about to enter — not even his close-cut hair and pallid hue, result of deep thought and severe application — could diminish the beauty of his flashing eyes, his clear- cut features, and high, intellectual forehead, that denoted ideality and self-sacrifice as surely as the sweet womanly mouth betrayed infirmity of purpose and fatal subservience to the afi'ections. His frame, though slender, was extremely wiry and muscular ; cast, too, in the mould of an Apollo. No wonder there was a shadow of something like jealousy on his companion's shrewd, ugly face, while he regarded one so superior in external advantages to himself. The Abbe Malletort was singular in this respect. He possessed the rare faculty of appreciating events and individuals at their real value. He boasted that he had no prejudices, and especially prided himself on the accuracy with which he predicted the actions of his fellow-creatures by the judgment he had formed of their characters. He made no allowance for failure, as he gave no credit to success. Men, with him, were capable or useless only as they con- quered or yielded in the great struggle of life. Systems proved good or bad simply according to their results. The Abbe professed to have no j)artialities, no feelings, no veneration, and no affections. He had entered the Church as a mere matter of calculation and convenience. Its prizes, like those of the army, were open to intellect and courage. If the priest's outward conduct demanded more of modera- tion and self-restraint, on the other hand the fasts and vigils of Rome were less easily enforced than the half-rations of a march or the night-watches of an outpost. Moreover, the tonsure in those days might be clipped (not close enough to draw attention) from a skull that roofed the teeming brain of a politician ; and, indeed, the Church of Rome not only permitted but encouraged the assumption of secular power by her votaries, so that the most important 24 CERISE and lucrative posts of the empire were as open to Abbe and Cardinal as to a Colonel of the Body-guard or a Marshal of France ; while the soldier's traininp^ fitted him far less than the priest's to countermine the subtleties of diplomacy or unravel the intricacies of finance. There remained, then, but the vow of celibacy to swallow, and, in truth, the vow of celibacy suited Malletort admirably well. Notwithstand- ing his ugly face, he was an especial favourite with women, on whom his ready wit, his polished manners, and, above all, his imperturbable coolness, made a pleasing impression. They liked him none the less that his reputed hardness of heart and injustice towards themselves were proverbial. While, as for his plain features, why, to quote the words of Ninon de I'Enclos, who ought to have been a good judge in such matters, " A man's want of beauty is of small account if he be not deficient in other amiable qualities, for there is no conquest without the affections, and what mole can be so blind as a woman in love ? " CHAPTER in MONSIEUR l'aBBE The crowd had passed on to witness the king's dinner, now in full progress, and the two soberly-clad friends found them- selves the only occupants of the gardens. Side by side they took their seats on a bench under a row of lime-trees, and continued the conversation which had originated in little Cerise and her childish beauty. "It is a face as God made it," said Florian, his boyish features lighting up with enthusiasm. " Children are surely nearer Heaven than ourselves. What a pity to think that they should grow into the painted, patched, powdered hypocrites, of whom so many have passed by us even now." "Beautifully dressed, however," answered his worldly senior, placidly indifferent, as usual, to all that did not con- cern his own immediate comfort. " If there were no women, Florian, there would be no children, I conclude. Both seem necessary evils. You, I observe, prefer the lesser. As for being near Heaven, that, I imagine, is a mere question of altitude. The musketeer over there is at least a couple of inches nearer it than either of us. What matter ? It will make little difierence eventually to any one of the three." Florian looked as if he did not understand. Indeed, the Abbe's manner preserved a puzzling uncertainty between jest and earnest. He took a pinch of snuff, too, with the air of a man who had thoroughly exhausted the question. But his companion, still harping on the beauty of the child, continued their conversation. " Is she not a cousin of yours, this little angel ? I know you are akin to that beautiful Marquise, her mother. Oh, 25 26 CERISE Mallctort, what udvantages you possess, and how un- conscious you seem of them ! " ''Advantages!" repeated the Abbe, musing. Well, perhaps you are right. Handsome women are the court- cards of the game, if a man knows how to play them. It is a grand game, too, and the stakes are well worth winning. Yet I sometimes think if I had foreseen in time how entirely you must devote body and soul to play it, I might never have sat do\Mi at all. I could almost envy a boy, like that merry page who passed us with my baby-cousin — a boy, whose only thought or care is to spend the time gaily now, and wear a sword as soon as his beard is grown here- after." " The boy will carry a sword fairly enough," answered Florian ; "for he looks like a little adventurer already. Who is he ? I have remarked him amongst the others for a certain bold bearing, that experience and sorrow alone will, I fear, be able to tame." " It will take a good deal of both to tame any of that family," answered Malletort ; " and this young game-chick will no doubt prove himself of the same feather as the rest of the brood when his spurs are grown. He's a Hamilton, Florian ; a Hamilton fi'om the other side of the water, with a cross of the wildest blood in France or Europe in his veins. You believe the old monkish chronicles — I don't. They will tell you that boy's direct ancestor went up the breach at Acre in front of Cceur de Lion — an Englishman of the true pig-headed type, who had sense enough, how^ever, to hate his vassal ever after for being a bigger fool than him- self. On the mother's side he comes of a race that can boast all its sons brave, and its daughters — well, its daughters — very much the same as other people's daughters. The result of so much fighting and gasconading being, simply, that the elder branch of the family is sadly impover- ished, while the younger is irretrievably ruined." "And this lad?" asked Florian, interested in the boy, perhaps because the page's character was in some respects so completely the reverse of his own. "Is of the younger branch," continued Malletort, "and given over body and soul to the cause of this miserable family, whose head died, not half-a-dozen years ago, under MONSIEVB UABBE 27 the shadow of our grand and gracious monarch, a victim to prejudice and indigestion. Well, these younger Hamiltons have always made it their boast that they grudged neither blood nor treasure for the Stuarts ; and the Stuarts, I need hardly tell you, Florian, for you read your breviary, requited them as men must expect to be requited who put their trust in princes — particularly of that dynasty. The elder branch wisely took the oaths of allegiance, for the ingratitude of a reigning house is less hopeless than that of a dethroned family. I believe any one of them would be glad to accept office under the gracious and extremely ungraceful lady who fills the British throne, established, as I understand she is, on so broad a basis, there is but little room for a consort. They are scarce likely to obtain their wish. The younger branch would scout the idea, enveloped, one and all, in an atmosphere of prejudice truly insular, which ignorant people call loyalty. This boy's great-grandfather died in a battle fought by Charles I., at a place with an unpronounceable name, in the province of ' Yorkshires.' His grandfather was shot by a platoon of musketeers in his own courtyard, under an order signed by the judicious Cromwell ; and his father was drowned here, in the channel, carrying despatches for his king, as he persisted in calling him, under the respectable disguise of a smuggler. I believe this boy was with him at the time. I know when first he came to Court, people pretended that although so young he was an accom- plished sailor; and I remember his hands were hard and dirty, and he always seemed to smell of tar. I will own that now, for a page, he is clean, polished, and well dressed." Florian's dark eyes kindled. " You interest me," said he ; "I love to hear of loyalty. It is the reflection of religion upon earth." "Precisely," replied the other. "A shadow of the unsubstantial. "Well, all his line are loyal enough, and I doubt not the boy has been brought up to believe that in the world there are men, women, and Stuarts. The fact of his being page here, I confess, puzzles me. Lord Stair protested against it, I know, but the Idng would not listen, and used his own wise discretion, consenting, however, that the lad should drop his family name and be called simply — George. So George fulfils the destiny of a page, whatever that may 28 CERISE be — as gaudy, as troublesome, and to all appearance as useless an item in creation as the dragon-fly." " And has the child no relations ? " asked Florian ; *' no friends, nobody to whom he belongs ? What a position ; what a fate ; what a cruel isolation ! " '' He is indeed in that enviable situation which I cannot agree with you in thinking merits one grain of pity. You and I, Florian, with our education and in our career, should, of all people, best appreciate the advantages of perfect freedom from those trammels which old women of both sexes call the domestic affections." " So young, so hopeful, so spirited," continued Florian, speaking rather to himself than his informant, " and to have no mother ! " ''But he had a mother, I tell you," replied Malletort, " only she died of a broken heart, as women always do when a little energy is required to repair their broken fortunes. Our mother, my son," he proceeded, still in the same half-mocking, half- impressive tone, '' our mother is the Church. She provides for us carefully during life, and when we die in her embrace, at least affords us decent burial and prayers for our welfare hereafter. I tell you, Florian, she is the most thoughtful as she is the most indulgent of mothers. She offers us opportunity for distinction, or allows us shelter and repose according as our ambition soars to heaven, or limits itself, as I confess mine does, to the affairs of earth. Who shall be found exalted above their kind in the next world ? (I speak as I am taught) — Priests. Who fill the high places in this ? (I speak as I learn) — Priests. The king's wisest councillors, his ablest financiers, are men of the sober garment and the shaven crown ; nay, judging from the simplicity of his habits, and the austerity of his demeanom*, I cannot but think that the bravest marshal in om' armies is only a priest in disguise." '' There are but two careers worthy of a life -sacrifice," observed Florian, his countenance glowing with enthusiasm, "and glory is the aim of each. But who would compare the soldier of France with the soldier of Rome ? — the banner of the Bourbon with the cross of Calvary ? How much less noble is it to seiTe earth than heaven? " MONSIEUR L'ABBil 29 Malletort looked in his young friend's face as if he thought such exalted sentiments could not possibly be real, and shrewdly suspected him of covert sarcasm or jest ; but Florian's open brow admitted of no misconstruction, and the elder man's features gradually relaxed into the quiet expression of amusement, not devoid of pity, with which a professor in the swimmer's art, for instance, watches the floundering struggles of a neophyte. '' You are right," said he, calmly and after a pause ; ** ours is incomparably the better profession of the two, and the safer. We risk less, no doubt, and gain more. Persecution, in civilised countries at least, is happily all the other way. It is extremely profitable to be saints, and there is no call for us to become martyrs. I think, Florian, we have every reason to be satisfied with our bargain. "Why, the very ties we sever, the earthly affections we resign, are, to my mind, but so many more enforced advantages, for which we cannot be too thankful." " There would be no merit were there no effort," answered the other, "No self-denial were there nothing to give up ; but with us it is different. I am proud to think we do resign, and cheerfully, all that gives warmth and colouring to the hard outlines of an earthly life. Is it nothing to forego the triumphs of the camp, the bright pageantry, the graceful luxuries of the Court ? Is it nothing to place yourself at once above and outside the pale of those sympathies which form the very existence of your fellow-men ? More than all, is it nothing, Malletort," — the young man hesitated, blushed, and cast his eyes down — "is it nothing to trample out of your heart, passions, affections — call them what you will — that seem the very mainspring of your being ? Is it nothing to deny yourself at once and for ever the solace of woman's com- panionship and the rapture of woman's love? " "You declaim well," replied Malletort, not affecting to conceal that he was amused, "and your arguments would have even more weight were it not that you are so palpably in earnest. This of itself infers error. You will observe, my dear Florian, as a general rule, that the reasoner's convictions are strong in direct proportion to the weakness of his arguments. But let us go a little deeper into this 80 CEKISE question of celibacy. Let us strip it of its conventional treatment, its supposed injustice, its apparent romance. To what does it amount? That a priest must not marry — good. I repeat, so much the better for the priest. What is marriage in the abstract ? — The union of persons for the continuation of the species in separate and distinct races. What is it in the ideal ? — The union of souls by an un- philosophical and impossible fusion of identity, which happily the personality of eveiy human being forbids to exist. What is it in reality? — A fetter of oppressive weight and inconvenient fabric, only rendered supportable from the deadening influence of habit, combined with its general adoption by mankind. Look around you into families and observe for yourself how it works. The woman has discovered all her husband's evil qualities, of which she does not fail to remind him ; and were she a reflective being, which admits of argument, would wonder hourly how she could ever have endured such a mass of imperfections. The man bows his head and shrugs his shoulders in callous indifference, scorning to analyse the disagreeable question, but clear only of one thing — that if he were free, no consideration would induce him to place his neck again beneath the same yoke. Another — perhaps ! The same — never ! Both have discovered a dissimilarity in tastes, habits, and opinions, so remarkable that it seems scarcely possible that it should be fortuitous. To neither does it occur that each was once the very reflection of the other, in thought, word, and deed; and that a blessing pronounced by a priest — a few years, nay a few months, of unrestricted companionship — have wrought the miraculous change. Sometimes there are quarrels, scenes, tears, reproaches, recriminations. More often, coldness, self-restraint, inward scorn, and the forbearance of a repressed disgust. Then is the separation most com- plete of all. Their bodies preserve to each other the outward forms of an armed and enforced neutrality, but their souls are so far asunder that perhaps, of all in the universe, this pair alone could, under no circumstances, come together again." "Sacrilege!" broke in Florian, indignantly. "What you say is sacrilege against our very nature ! You speak MONSIEUR L'ABBE 31 of marriage as if it must be the grave of Love. But at least Love has lived. At least the angel has descended and been seen of men, even though he touched the mountain only to spring upward on his flight again towards the skies. He who has really loved, happily or unhappily, married or alone, is for that love ever after a wiser, a nobler, and a better man." "Not if he should happen to love a Frenchwoman," observed the other, taking a pinch of snuiL " Thus much I will not scruple to say for my countrywomen : their coquetries are enough to drive an honest man mad. With regard to less civilised nations (mind, I speak not from personal ex- perience so much as observation of my kind), I admit that for a time, at least, the delusion may possess a charm, though the loss must in all cases far exceed the gain. Set your affections on a German, for instance, and observe carefully, for the experiment is curious, if a dinner with the idol does not so disgust you that not a remnant of worship is left to be swept away by supper-time. A Pole is simply a beautiful barbarian, with more clothing but less manner than an Lidian squaw. An Italian deafens you with her shrill voice, pokes your eye out with her fingers, and betrays your inmost secrets to her director, if indeed she does not prefer him to you in every respect. An English- woman, handsome, blonde, silent, and retiring, keeps you months in uncertainty while you woo, and when won, believes she has a right to possess you body and soul, and becomes, from a sheer sentiment of appropriation, the most exacting of wives and the most disobliging of mistresses. To make love to a Spaniard is a delicate phrase for paying court to a tigress. Beautiful, fierce, impulsive — with one leap she is in your arms — and then for a word, a look, she will stab you, herself, a rival, perhaps all three, without hesitation or remorse. Caramba ! she considers it a compliment no doubt ! Yet I tell you, Florian, were I willing to submit to such weaknesses, I had rather love any one of these, or all of them at once for that matter, than attach myself to a Frenchwoman." Florian opened his dark eyes wide. This was new gi'ound to the young student. These were questions more interesting than the principles of Aristotle or the 82 CERISE experiences of the Saints. He was penetrated, too, with that strange admiration which the young entertain for familiarity with evil in their elders. The other scanned him with half-pitying interest; broke a branch from the fragrant lime-tree under which they sat, and proceeded to elucidate his theory. "With all other women," said Malletort, "j^ou have indeed a thousand rivals to out- do ; still you know their numbers and can calculate their resources ; but with the Frenchwoman, in addition to these, you have yet another, who changes and multiplies himself day by day — who assumes a thousand Protean forms, and against whom you cannot employ the most efficient weapons — such as vanity, gaiety, and love of dissipation, by which the others are to be subdued. This enemy is dress — King Chiffon is the absolute monarch of these realms. Your mistress is gay when you are sad, sarcastic when you are plaintive, reserved when you are adventurous. All this is a matter of course ; but as Monsieur Vauban told the king the other day in these gardens, * no fortress is stronger than its weakest place,' and every citadel may be carried by a coicp de main, or reduced by the slower process of blockade. But here you have a stronghold within a stronghold ; a reserve that can neither be tampered with in secret nor attacked openly ; in brief a rival who owns this incalculable advantage, that in all situations and under all circumstances he occupies the first place in your mistress's thoughts. Bah ! " concluded the Abbe, throwing from him the branch which he had stripped of leaves and blossoms, with a gesture that seemed thus to dismiss the subject once for all; "put a Frenchwoman into what position you will, her sympathies indeed may be with her lover, but her first consideration is for her dress ! " As the Abbe spoke he observed a gi-oup of fom- persons passing the front of the palace, under the windows of the king's dining-saloon. It consisted of little Cerise, her mother, Celandine, and the page. They were laughing and chatting gaily, George apparently taking his leave of the other three. Florian observed a shadow cross the Abbe's face, that disappeared, however, from those obedient features quickly as it came ; and at the same moment the MONSIEUB L'ABBE 83 Marquise passed her hand caressingly over the boy's dark curls, while he bent low before her, and seemed to do homage to her beauty in the act of bidding her a courteous farewell. CHAPTER IV TANTARA ! Year by year a certain stag had been growing fatter and latter in the deep glades and quiet woodlands that sur- rounded Fontainebleau. He was but a pricket when Cerise made her daisy-chain in the gardens of Versailles, but each succeeding summer he had rubbed the velvet off another point on his antlers, and in all the king's chase was no finer head than he carried the day he was to die. Brow, bay, and tray, twelve in all, with three in a cup at the sum- mits, had been the result of some half-score years passed in the security and shelter of a royal forest ; nor was the lapse of time which had thus brought head and haunch to perfection without its effect upon those for whose pastime the noble beast must fall. Imagine, then, a glowing afternoon, the second week in August. Not a cloud in the sky, a sun almost tropical in its power, but a -pure clear air that fanned the brow wherever the forest opened into glades, and filled the broad nostrils of a dozen large, deep-chested, rich-coloured stag-hounds, snuffing and questing busily down a track of arid grass that seemed to have checked their steady, well-considered unre- lenting chase, and brought their wondrous instinct to a fault. One rider alone watched their efforts with a pre- occupied air, yet with the ready glance of an old sportsman. He had apparently reached his point of observation before the hounds themselves, and far in advance of the rest of the chase. His close-fitting blue riding-coat, trimmed with gold-lace and turned back with scarlet facings, called a '\just au corps,'' denoted that he was a courtier ; but the keen eye, the erect figure, the stateliness, even stiffness of 34 TxiNTABA ! 35 his bearing, smacked of the old soldier, more, the old soldier of France, perhaps the most professional veteran in the world. He was not so engrossed with his own thoughts, however, but that his eye gleamed with pleasure when a tan-coloured sage, intent on business, threw a square sagacious head into the air, proclaiming in full deep notes his discovery of the line, and solemn conviction that he was right. The horseman swore a good round garrison oath, and cheered the hound lustily. A cry of tuneful tongues pealed out to swell the harmony. A burst of music from a distant glade announced that the stag had passed yet farther on. A couple of royal foresters, in blue and red, arrived on foot, breathless, with fresh hounds struggling in the leash ; and a lady on a Spanish barb, attended by a plainly- dressed ecclesiastic, came cantering down the glade to rein up at the veteran's side, with a smile of greeting on her face. "Well met, Monsieur le Prince f once more," said she, flashing a look from her dark eyes, under which, old as he was, he lowered his own. '^ Always the same — always successful. In the Court — in the camp — in the ball-room — in the field — if you seek the Prince-Marshal, look in the most forward post, and you will find him." She owed him some reparation for having driven him from her side in a fit of ill-humour half an hour before, and this was her way of making amends. "I have won posts in my time, madame," said the old soldier, an expression of displeasure settling once more on his high worn features, " and held them, too, without dis- honour. It is perhaps no disgrace to be worsted by a woman, but it is humiliating and unpleasant all the same." " Dishonour and disgrace are words thfit can never be coupled with the name of Chateau-Guerrand," returned the lady, smiling sweetly in his face, a process that appeared to mollify him considerably. Then she completed his subjec- tion by caressing her horse with one hand, while she reined him in so sharply with the other, that he rose on his hind- legs as if to rear straight on end. *' You are a hard mistress, madame," said the gentle- man, looking at the beautiful barb chafing and curveting to its bit. 86 CEBISE "It is only to show I am mistress," she answered in a low voice, that seemed to finish the business, for turning to her attendcint cavalier, who had remained discreetly in the background, she signed to him that he might come up and break the tete-a-tete^ while she added gaily — "I am as fond of hunting as you are, prince. Hark! The stag is still forward. Our poor horses are dying with impatience. Let us gallop on together." The Marquise de Montmirail had considerably altered in character since she tended the infii'mities of her poor old husband, or sat in widow's garments with her pretty child on her knee. A few years at the Court of France had brought to the surface all the evil of her character, and seemed to have stifled in her everything that was good. She had lost the advantage of her daughter's companion- ship, for Cerise (and in this perhaps the Marquise was right) had been removed to a distance from the Court and capital, to bloom into womanhood in the healthier atmo- sphere of a provincial convent. She missed her darling sadly, no doubt, and for the first year or two contented her- self \\ith the gaieties and distractions common to her com- panions. She encouraged no lover, properly so called, and had seldom fewer than three admirers at a time. Nor had the king of late taken special notice of her ; so she was only hated by the other Court ladies with the due hatred to which she was entitled from her wealth, beauty, and attractions. After a while, however, she put in for universal dominion, and then of course the outcry raised against her was loud and long sustained. She heeded it little ; nay, she seemed to like it, and bandied sarcasms with her own sex as joy- ously, to all appearance, as she exchanged compliments with the other. She never faltered. She never committed herself. She stood on the brink, and never turned giddy nor lost her presence of mind. What she required, it seemed, what she could not live without, was influence, more or less, but the stronger the better, over every male creatm-e that crossed her path. When this was gained, she had done with them unless they were celebrities, or sufficiently frivolous to be as variable as herself. In either of such cases she took con- siderable pains to secure the empire she had won. What TANTARA ! 37 she liked best was to elicit an offer of marriage. She was supposed to have refused more men, and of more different ranks, than any woman in France. For bachelor or widower who came within the sphere of her influence there was no escape. Sooner or later he must blunder into the net, and the longer he fought the more complete and humiliating was his eventual defeat. *' Nothing," said the Abbe Malle- tort, " nothing but the certainty of the king's unacknow- ledged marriage to Madame de Maintenon prevented his cousin from obtaining and refusing an offer of the crown of France." She was beautiful, too, no doubt, which made it so much worse — beautiful both with the beauty of the intellect and the senses. Not strictly by any rules of art, but from grace of outline, richness of colouring, and glowing radiance of health. She had all the ways, too, of acknowledged beauty; and even people who did not care for her were obliged to admit she possessed that strange, indefinite, inexplicable charm which every man finds in the woman he loves. The poor Prince-Marshal, Hector de Chateau-Guerrand, had undergone the baptism of fire at sixteen, had fought his duels, drank his Burgundy, and lost an estate at lans- quenet in a night before he was twenty. Since then he had commanded the Musketeers of the Guard — divisions of the great king's troops — more than once a French army in the field. It was hard to be a woman's puppet at sixty — with wrinkles and rheumatism, and failing health, with every pleasure palling, and every pain enhanced. Well, as he said himself, " Ze coeur ne vieillit jamais f " There is no fool like an old one. The Prince-Marshal, for that was the title by which he was best known, had never been ardently attached to anybody but himself till now. "We need not envy him his condition. '' Let us gallop on together," said the Marquise ; but ere they could put their horses in motion a yeoman-pricker, armed to the teeth, rode rapidly by, and they waited until his Majesty should have passed. Their patience was not tried for long. While a fi*esh burst of horns annoimced another view of the quarry further on, the king's little caleche turned the corner of the alley at speed, and was pulled up with considerable dexterity, that its occupant might 88 CEBISE listen for a moment to determine on his future course. Louis sat by himself in a light, narrow carriage, constructed to hold hut one person. He was dra\\ii by four cream- coloured horses, small, well-bred, and active. A child of some ten years of age acted postilion to the leaders, but the king's own hand drove the i3air at wheel, and guided them with all the skill and address of his early man- hood. Nevertheless, he looked very old and feeble when he re- turned the obeisance of the Prince-Marshal and his fair companion. Always punctiliously polite, Louis lifted his hat to salute the Marquise, but his chin soon sank back on his chest, and the momentarj^ gleam died out in his dull and weary eyes. It was obvious his health was failing day by day ; he was now nearly seventy-seven years of age, and the end could not be far off. As he passed on, an armed escort followed at a few paces distance. It was headed by a young ofi&cer of the Grey Musketeers, who saluted the Prince-Marshal with considerable deference, and catching the eye of the Marquise, half halted his horse ; and then, as if thinking better of it, urged him on again, the colour rising visibly in his brown handsome face. The phenomenon of a musketeer blushing was not likely to be lost on so keen an observer as Madame de Montmirail, particularly when the musketeer was young, handsome, and an excellent horseman. " Who is that on guard? " said she, carelessly of course, because she really wanted to know. " A captain of the Grey Musketeers evidently. And yet I do not remember to have seen his face at Court before." Now it was not to be expected that a Marshal of France should show interest, at a moment's notice, in so inferior an oJ0&cial as a mere captain of musketeers, more particularly when riding with a " ladye-love " nearly thirty years younger than himself, and of an age far more suitable to the good- looking gentleman about whom she made inquiries. Never- theless, the Prince had no objection to enter on any subject redounding to his own glorification, 2=»articularly in war, and it so happened that the officer in question had served as his aide-de-camp in an aliair that won him a Marshal's baton ; TANTARA ! 39 so he reduced his horse's pace forthwith, and plunged into the tempting subject. "A fine young man, madame," said the Prince-Marshal, like a generous old soldier as he was, " and a promising officer as ever I had the training of. He was with me while a mere cadet in that business when I effected my junction with Vendome at Villa-Viciosa, and I sent him with des- patches from Brighuega right through Starembcrg's uhlans, who ought to have cut him into mince-meat. Even Yen- dome thanked him in person, and told me himself I must apply for the brave child's promotion." Like other ladies, the Marquise suffered her attention to wander considerably from these campaigning reminiscences. She roused herself, however, enough to answer, not very per- tinently — "What an odious man the Duke is, and how hideous. Generally drunk, besides, and always disagreeable ! " The Prince -Marshal looked a little put out, but he did not for this allow himself to be diverted from his subject. "A Yerj fortimate soldier, madame," he replied, pom- pously; "perhaps more fortunate than really deserving. Nevertheless, in war as in love, merit is of less importance than success. His Majesty thought well to place the Duke over the head of officers whose experience was greater, and their services more distinguished. It is not for me to offer an opinion. I serve France, madame, and you," he added, with a smile, not too unguarded, because some of his teeth were gone, " I am proud to offer my homage to both." The Marquise moved her horse impatiently. The subject did not seem to amuse her, but the Prince-Marshal had got on a favomite theme, and was not going to abandon it with- out a struggle. "I do not think, madame," he proceeded, laying his hand confidentially on the barb's crest — "I do not think I have ever explained to you in detail the strategical reasons of my forced march on Villa-Viciosa in order to co-operate mth Vendome. I have been blamed in military circles for eva- cuating Brighuega after taking it, and abandoning the posi- tion I held at the bridge the day before the action, which I had caused to be strengthened during the night. Now there is much to be urged on both sides regarding this movement, 40 CERISE and I will cndeavonr to make clear to you the arguments for and against the tactics I thought it my duty to adopt. In the first place, you must hear in mind that the enemy's change of front on the previous morning, which was un- expected by us, and for which Staremherg had six cogent reasons, being as follows " The Marquise looked round to her other cavalier in des- pair ; but no assistance was to be expected from the cynical Abbe — for it was Malletort in attendance, as usual, on his cousin. The Prince-Marshal was, doubtless, about to recount the dispositions and manoeuvres of three armies seriatim, with his own advice and opinions thereon, when relief came to his listener from a quarter in which she least expected it. She was preparing herself to endure for the hundredth time the oft-told tale, when her horse started, snorted, trembled violently, and attempted to wheel round. In another instant an animal half as big as itself leaped leisurely into the glade, and went lurching down the dry sunny vista as if in utter disregard and contempt of its pm'suers. The stag had been turned back at several points by the horns of the foresters, who thus melodiously greeted every api3earance of their quarry. He was beginning to think some distant refuge would be safer and more agreeable ; also his instinct told him that the scent would improve while he grew warmer, and that his noisy pursuers would track him more and more unerringly as the sun went down. Already he felt the inconvenience of those fat haunches and that broad russet back he carried so magnificently ; already he heard the deep-mouthed chorus chiming nearer and nearer, full, musical, and measured, like a death-bell. ^' En avant! " exclaimed Madame de Montmirail, as the stag, swerving from a stray hound, stretched into an honest, undisguised gallop down the glade, followed by the straggler at its utmost speed, labouring, over-paced, distressed, but rolling on, mute, resolute, and faithful to the line. The love of rapid motion, inseparable from health, energy, and high spirits, was strong in the Marquise. Her barb, in virtue of his blood, possessed pace and endurance ; his mistress called on him to prove both, while she sped along on the line of TANTARA ! 41 chase, accompanied by several of the hounds, as they straggled up in twos and threes, and followed by most of the equestrians. Thus they reached the verge of the forest, and here stood the king's caleche drawn up, his Majesty signing to them feebly yet earnestly that the stag was away over the plain. Great was now the confusion at so exciting and so unex- pected an event. The foresters, with but little breath to spare, managed to raise a final flourish on their horns. The yeoman-prickers spurred their horses with a vigour more energetic than judicious ; the hounds, collecting as it seemed from every quarter of the forest, were already string- ing, one after another, over the dusty plain. The king, too feeble to continue the chase, yet anxious to know its result, whispered a few words to his officer of the guard, and the Musketeer, starting like an arrow from a bow, sped away after the hounds with some half-dozen of the keenest eques- trians, amongst whom were the Marquise and the Prince- Marshal. Many of the courtiers, including the Abbe, seemed to think it disloyal thus to turn their backs on his Majesty, and gathered into a cluster to watch with interjec- tions of interest and delight the pageant of the fast-receding chase. The far horizon was bounded by another range of woods, and that shelter the stag seemed resolved to reach. The intervening ground was a vast undulating plain, crossed apparently by no obstacles to hounds or horsemen, and varied only by a few lines of poplars and a paved high-road to the nearest market-town. The stag then made direct for this road, but long ere he could reach it, the chase had become so severe that many of the hounds droj^ped off one by one ; and of the horses, only those ridden by the Marquise, the Prince-Marshal, and the Grey Musketeer, w^ere able to keep up the appearance of a gallop. Presently these successful riders drew near enough to dis- tinguish clearly the object of their pursuit. The Musketeer was in advance of the others, who galloped on abreast, every nerve at its highest strain, and too preoccupied to speak a syllable. Suddenly a dip in the ground hid the stag fi'om sight ; 42 CERISE then lie appeared again on the opposite rise, looking darker, larger, and fresher than before. The Musketeer turned round and pointed towards the hollow in front. In a few more strides his followers per- ceived a fringe of alders serpentining between the two declivities. Madame de Montmirail's dark eyes flashed, and she urged her barb to yet greater exertions. The Musketeer sat back in his saddle, and seemed to collect his horse's energies for an efi'ort. There was an increase of speed, a spring, a stagger, and he was over the rivulet that stole deep and cool and shining between the alders. The Marquise followed his horse's footmarks to an inch, and though the barb threw his head up wildly, and galloped furiously at it, he too cleared the chasm and reached the other side in safety. The Prince-Marshal's old blood was warmed up now, and he flew along, feeling as he used in the days of the duels, and the Burgundy, and the lansquenet. He shouted and spurred his steed, urging it with hand and voice and leg, but the highly-broken and well-trained animal felt its powers failing, and persistently declined to attempt the feat it had seen the others accomplish ; so the Prince-Marshal was forced to discontinue the chase and remain on the safe side of the rubicon, whence he turned his horse unwillingly homewards, heated, angry, and swearing many strange oaths in diflerent languages. Meanwhile the other two galloped on, the Marquise, though she spared no effort, finding herself unable to over- take the captain of Grey Musketeers. All at once he stopped short at a clump of w^illows, through which the chase had disappeared, and jumping off his horse, left the panting beast to its own devices. Wlien she reached the trees, and looked down into the hollow below, she perceived the stag up to its chest in a bright, shallow pool, at bay, and surrounded by the eager though exhausted hounds. The Musketeer had drawn his couteau de chasse, and was already knee-deep in the water, but hearing her approach, turned back, and, taking his hat ofi", with a low obeisance, offered her the handle of his weapon. T ANT ABA ! 43 It was the customary form when a lady happened to be present on such an occasion, though, as now, the compliment was almost always declined. He had scarcely gone in and given the coup de grace, which he did like an accomplished sportsman, before some of the yeomen-prickers and other attendants came up, so that the disembowelling and other obsequies were performed with proper ceremony. Long, however, ere these had been concluded the Marquise was riding her tired horse slowly homeward through the still, sweet autumn evening, not the least disturbed that she had lost the Abbe and the rest of her escort, but ruminating, pleasantly and languidly, as her blood cooled down, on the excitement of the chase and the events of the day. She watched the sunset reddening and fading on the distant woods ; the haze of twilight gradually softening, and blurring and veiling the surrounding landscape ; the curved edge of the young moon peering over the trees, and the evening-star hanging, like a golden lamp, against the purple curtain of the sky. With head bent down, loose reins, and tired hands rest- ing on her lap, Madame de Montmirail pondered on many matters as the night began to fall. She wondered at the Abbe's want of enterprise, at the Prince-Marshal's activity — if the first could have yet reached home, and whether the second, with his rheumatism, was not likely to spend a night in the v/oods. She wondered at the provoking cynicism of the one and the extraordinaiy depressive powers possessed by the other ; more than all, how she could for so long have supported the attentions of both. She wondered what would have happened if the barb had fallen short at his leaj) ; whether the Musketeer would have stopped in his headlong course to pity and tend her, and rest her head upon his knee, inclining to the belief that he would have been very glad to have the opportunity. Then she wondered what it was about this man's face that haunted her memory, and where she could have seen those bold keen eyes before. CHAPTER V THE USHER OF THE BLACK ROD For the courtiers of Louis le Grand there was no such thing as hunger or thirst, want of appetite, heat, cold, lassitude, depression, or fatigue. If he chose they should accompany him on long journeys, in crowded carriages, over had roads, they were expected, nevertheless, to appear fresh, well-dressed, exuberant in spirits, inclined to eat or content to starve, unconscious of sun and wind ; above all, ready to agree with his Majesty upon every subject at a moment's notice. Ladies enjoyed in this respect no advantage over gentlemen. Though a fair amazon had been hunting the stag all day, she would be required to appear just the same in grand Court toilet at night ; to take her place at lans- quenet ; to be present at the royal concerts, twenty fiddles playing a heavy opera of CavalJi right through ; or, perhaps, only to assist in lining the great gallery, which the king traversed on his way to supper. Eveiything must yield to the lightest whim of royalty, and no more characteristic reply was ever made to the arbitrary descendant of St. Louis than that of the eccentric Cardinal Bonzi, to whom the king complained one day at dinner that he had no teeth. "Teeth, sire!" replied the astute churchman, showing, while he spoke, a strong, even well-polished row of his own. '' Why, who has any teeth? " His Majesty, however, like mortals of inferior rank, did not touch on the accomplishment of his seventy-seventh year without sustaining many of the complaints and incon- veniences of old age. For some time past not only had his teeth failed, but his digestion, despite of the regimen of iced 44 THE USHEE OF THE BLACK BOD 46 fruits and sweetmeats, on which he was put by his physician Fagon, became unequal to its task. Everybody but himself and his doctor perceived the rapidity with which a change was approaching. In vain they swaddled him up in feather- pillows at night, to draw the gout from him through the pores of his skin ; in vain they administered sage, veronica, cassia, and Jesuit-bark between meals, while they limited his potations to a little weak Burgundy and water, thereby affording some amusement to those present from the wry faces made by foreign lords and grandees who were curious to taste the king's beverage. In vain they made him begin dinner with mulberries, and melons, and rotten figs, and strong soups, and salads. There is but one remedy for old age, and it is only to be found in the pharmacopoeia, at the last chapter of the book. To that remedy the king was fast approaching — and yet hunting, fiddling, dining, promenades, concerts, and the whole round of empty Court gaiety went on all the same. The Marquise de Montmirail returned to her apartments at the palace with but little time to spare. It wanted but one hour from the king's supper, and she must attend with the other ladies of the Court, punctual as clockwork, directly the folding-doors opened into the gallery, and his Majesty, in an enormous wig, should totter in at one end to totter out again at the other. Nevertheless, a good deal of decoration can be done in sixty minutes, when a lady, young and beautiful, is assisted by an attendant whose taste becomes chastened and her activity quickened by the superintendence of fom' distinct toilets every day. So the Marquise and Celandine between them had put the finishing touches to their great work within the appointed time. The former was going through a gratifying revision of the whole at her looking-glass, and the latter was applying to her mistress's handkerchief that perfume of orange -flowers which alone his Majesty could endure, when a loud knocking at the outer door of the apartment suspended the operations of each, bringing an additional colour to the Marquise's cheek, and a cloud of displeasure on the quadi'oon's brow. *' See what it is Celandine," said the former, '^almly, wondering in her heart, though it seemed absm-d, whether 46 CEBISE this disturbance could relate in any manner to the previous events of the day. *' It is the Abbe, I'll be bound," muttered Celandine, proceeding to do as she was bid ; adding, sulkily, though below her breath, " He might knock there till his knuckles were sore if I was mistress instead of maid ! It was the Abbe, sure enough, in plain attire, as became his profession ; but with an expression of hope and elation on his brow which even his perfect self-command seemed unable to conceal. *' Pardon, madame ! " said he, standing, hat in hand, on the threshold ; I was in attendance to conduct you to the gallery, as usual, when the intelligence that reached me, and, indeed, the confusion I myself witnessed, induced me to take the liberty of waiting on you at once." " No great liberty," answered the Marquise, smiling, *' seeing that I must have encountered you, at any rate, within three paces of my door. But what is this alarming news, my cousin, that agitates even your imperturbable front? Nothing wrong with the barb, I hope ! " "Not so bad as that, madame," replied the Abbe, who was rapidly recovering his calmness. " It is only a matter affecting his Majesty. I have just learned the king is taken seriously ill. Fagon crossed the courtyard five minutes ago. Worse than that, Pere Tellier has been sent for." ''Pere Tellier!" repeated the Marquise. " The king's confessor ! Then the attack is dangerous ? " '' There is no doubt that his Majesty's state is precarious in the extreme," answered the Abbe, seriously. "It is a severe and exhausting malady from which he suffers, and at his time of life we may anticipate the gravest results. Madame, I must be in Paris by break of day to-morrow, to wait on the Duke of Orleans." She looked at him with a half-contemptuous indulgence, and laughed. " So soon?" said she. "Nay, then, I am satisfied you think the worst. My cousin, you are wise in yom- genera- tion, no doubt ; and it would be a sudden blow, indeed, that should fall and find you unprepared. Nevertheless, is not this haste indecent ? Worse ; is it not ill-judged ? The king has a wonderful constitution ; Fagon is a cautious THE USHER OF THE BLACK BOD 47 physician. His Majesty may recover in spite of the doctor." *'And sin again in spite of his confessor," added the Abbe. *' Nevertheless, I think both have foreseen a crisis for some time past. Fagon has called in Marechal to help him ; and Pere Tellier has been asking for every vacant benefice during the last three weeks." ''It was very polite of you, my cousin," observed the Marquise, after a pause, " to come and toll me at once ; though the only immediate result of all this confusion to me is, that I suppose I may undress and go to bed. I have had a fatiguing day." " Pardon again," answered the Abbe. '' I fear you must attend as usual in the gallery ; and, indeed, it would be a thousand pities that such a toilette should be wasted, for you look beautiful, and are charmingly dressed. You know, besides, that only the king's own order can rescind the daily regulations for the Court." ''We had better proceed, then," said Madame de Montmirail. " Celandine has revised me thoroughly, and the sooner I go the sooner I shall get it over. Believe me, it would require some excitement stronger than common to keep me awake to-night." " One instant, madame," replied the Abbe. " I will not detain you longer ; but at a crisis like the present what I have to say merits your most earnest attention. In the first place, will you permit Celandine to examine if the outer door be shut ? ' ' The scowl on the quadroon's brow grew deeper, while, in obedience to a sign from her mistress, she retired into the outer chamber. The Marquise seated herself on a couch near the toilet-table, spreading her skirts out carefully, lest their freshness might sustain damage in that position, and prepared to receive her cousin's confidences, as he stood near, cool, polished, smiling, but obviously repressing, with an effort, the strong agitation under which he labom-ed. While she sat in that graceful attitude, her head turned up towards his face, one beautifully moulded arm and hand resting in her lap, the other yet ungloved holding a closed fan against her lips, it may have occurred to the Abbe that so many charms of person and manner might be applied to 48 CERISE a worthier purpose than the furtherance of Court intrigues or the advancement of any one man's ambition. It may even have occurred to him, though doubtless if it did so the thought had to be stifled as it rose, that it would be no unpleasant task, however difficult, to woo and win and wear such beauty for himself and his own happiness ; and that to be his cousin's favoured lover was a more enviable position than could be afforded by comptroller's wand, or cardinal's cap, or minister's portfolio. For a moment his rugged features softened like a clearing landscape under a gleam of sun, while he looked on her and basked, as it were, in the radiance of her beauty, ere he turned back to the chill, shadowy labyrinth of deceit in which he spent his life. Madame de Montmirail's exterior was of that sparkling kind which, like the diamond, is enhanced by the richness of its setting. In full Com-t toilette as he saw her now, few women would have cared to enter the lists as her rivals. The di'ess she wore was of pale yellow satin, displaying, indeed, with considerable liberality, her graceful neck and shoulders, glowing in the warm tints of a brunette. It fitted close to her well-turned bust, spreading into an enor- mous volume of skirts below the waist, overlaid by a delicate fabric of black lace, and looped up here and there in strings of pearls. Her waving hair, black and glossy, was turned back from a low, broad forehead, and gathered behind her ears into a shining mass, from which a ringlet or two escaped, smooth and elastic, to coil, snake-like, on her bosom. One row of large pearls encircled her neck, and one bracelet of diamonds and emeralds clung to her ungloved isfm. Other ornaments she had none, though an open dressing-case on the toilet-table flashed and glittered like a jeweller's shop. And now I have only made an inventory of her dress after all. How can I hope to convey an idea of her face ? How is it possible to describe that which constitutes a woman's loveliness ? that subtle influence which, though it generally accompanies harmony of colouring and symmetry of feature, is by no means the result of these advantages ; nay, often exists without them, and seems in all cases independent of their aid. I will only say of her charms, that Madame de Montmirail was already past thirty, and nine men out of THE USHER OF THE BLACK BOD 49 every ten in the circle of her acquaintance were more or less in love with her. She had a beautiful foot, besides. It was peeping out now from beneath her dress. The Abbe's eyes unconsciously fixed themselves on the small white satin shoe, as he pro- ceeded with his confidences. "It is good to be prepared, my cousin," said he, in a low, hurried voice, very different from his usual easy, care- less tone. '* Everything will now be changed, if, as I expect, the indisposition of to-night is but the beginning of the end. You know my situation ; you know my hopes ; you know the difficulties I have had to contend with. The king's suspicions, the courtiers' jealousy, the imprudence of my patron himself ; and you know, too, that through good and evil I have always stood firm by the Duke of Orleans. It is evident that in a few days he will be the most powerful man in France." " Afterwards ? " asked the Marquise, apparently unmoved by the contingency. " Afterwards ! " repeated Malletort, almost with indigna- tion. " Do you not see the career that opens itself before us all? Who is best acquainted with the Duke's early history? — Abbe Malletort. Who is the Duke bound to serve before the whole world ? Not from gratitude — bah ! that is a thing of course — but from motives of the clearest self-interest? — Abbe Malletort. In brief, in whom does he confide? — In Abbe Malletort. And to whom does the Abbe lay bare his hopes, his aspirations, his ambition ? — To whom but to his sweet cousin, Madame de Mont- mirail ?" "And what would you have me do?" asked the Mar- quise, yawning, while she carelessly fastened the bracelet on her arm. " I would have you guard your lips with a clasp of iron," answered the Abbe. " 1 would have you keep watch to- night and to-morrow, and every day till the end comes — on your words, your looks, your gestures — the very trimmings and colour of the dresses you wear. Be polite to all ; but familiar, cordial, even communicative with none. In brief, have no friends, no enemies, no dislikes, no predilections, till the old state of affairs is ended and the new begun." 4 50 CEBISE " I think you can trust me," answered the Marquise. *'My feelings are little likely to betray me into indiscretion; and though I have plenty of lovers at Court, I do not imagine I have many friends." She spoke wearily, and finished with something like a sigh. The Abbe's eyes sparkled. ** I knoiv I can ! " said he. ** My cousin has none of the weaknesses of her sex, and all its beauty for her own share." Then he opened the door and spoke loud enough for Celandine to hear. " We must have mademoiselle back from her pension. She is old enough now to take her place as an ornament to society and the Court." Malletort understood true economy, and he knew that this bribe, while it cost him nothing, would pm'chase favour with the quadroon, whose dislike he had observed and resolved to eflace. Madame de Montmirail bowed and took his arm. It was now high time they were both in attendance on his Majesty, should the concert fixed for that night be permitted to take place. As they walked through the corridor, however, a great confusion was heard in the gallery they were about to enter. There was a scuffling of feet, a murmur of agitated voices suppressed to whispers, and the smothered sobs of women, denoting some sad catastrophe. When the door opened, the musicians crowded hurriedly out, carrying with them their instruments, and tumultuously impeding the progress of a spare grave man in a priest's dress, who pushed his way through, with every appearance of anxiety and disma}^ It was Pere Tellier, the king's confessor, summoned in mortal haste to the bedside of his dying master. The Marquise and the Abbe had that day looked their last upon the face of Louis le Grand. Already, through pale attendants and anxious courtiers, through valets and chamberlains and musketeers of the guard, might be seen approaching the real Usher of the Black Kod. CHAPTER VI A Jesuit's task Op all armies on earth, there is none with a discipline so perfect as exists in the ranks of the Jesuits. No similar brotherhood embraces so extensive a scheme ; no society spreads its ramifications so wide and deep. The soldier who enlists under that black banner abandons at once and for ever his own affections, his own opinions, his own responsibilities ; nay, his very identity becomes fused in the general organisation of his order. Florian de St. Croix, with his warm, impulsive disposition, his tendency to self- sacrifice, and his romantic temperament, had better have hanged round his neck any other millstone than this. As he walked rapidly down a long perspective of paved road, between two lofty rows of poplars, his head bent low, his hands clenched, his lips muttering, and his swift un- equal strides denoting both impetuosity and agitation, he seemed strangely and sadly altered from the bright enthu- siastic youth who sat with Abbe Malletort under the limes at Versailles. His very name had been put oflf, with every other association that could connect the past life of the layman with the future labours of the priest. He was known as Brother Ambrose now in the muster-rolls of the order; though, out of it, he was still addressed as Florian by his former friends. It was supposed, perhaps, in the wisdom of his superiors, that the devoted knight could fight best under a plain shield on which no achievements might ever be emblazoned, but which, in theory at least, was to be preseiwed pure and stainless, until he was carried home on it from his last field. 51 52 CERISE For Florian, indeed, the battle had already commenced. He was fighting it now, fiercely, under that smiling summer sky, between those fragrant meadows, fringed with flower- ing hedges, amongst the clustering orchards and smiling farms, the green nooks, the gleaming waters, and the free, fresh range of wooded hill and dale in pleasant Normandy. Little thought the buxom peasant-woman, with her clean white cap, long earrings, and handsome weather-beaten face, as she crossed herself in passing, and humbly received the muttered benediction — how much of war was in his breast who proffered peace to her and hers ; or the prosperous farmer riding by on his stamping grey stallion, with tail tied up, broad, well-fed back, huge brass-bound saddle, and red-fi'onted bridle — how enviable was his own contented ignorance compared with the learning and imagination and aspirations running riot in the brain of that wan hurrying priest. The fat cure, thinking of his dinner, his duties, and the stone-fruit ripening on his wall, greeted him with professional friendliness, tempered by profound respect ; for in his person he beheld the principle of self-devotion which constitutes the advance, the van- guard, the very forlorn hope of an army in which he felt himself a mere suttler or camp-follower at the best ; but his sleep that afternoon over a bottle of light wine in his leafy arbour would have been none the sounder could he have known the horror of doubt and darkness that weighed like lead on his brother's spirit — the fears, the self- reproaches, the anxieties that tore at his brother's heart. Yet the same sun was shining on them all ; the same glorious landscape of wood and water, waving corn and laughing upland — gold, and silver, and blue, and green, and purple — spread out for their enjoyment ; the same wild-flowers blooming, the same wild-birds carolling, to delight their senses ; the same heaven looking down in tender pity on the wilful blindness and reckless self-torture of mankind. Florian had entered the order, believing that in so doing he adopted the noblest career of chivalry below, to end in the proudest triumph of victory above. Like the crusaders of the Middle Ages, he turned to his pro- fession, and beheld in it a means of ambition, excitement, A JESUIT'S TASK 6B influence over his fellow-men, purchased — not at the sacrifice — but in the salvation of his soul. Like them, he was to have the best of it both for earth and heaven ; like them, he was to submit to labour, privation, all the harassing exigencies of warfare ; but, like them, he was upheld by the consciousness of power which springs from discipline and cohesion, by an unselfish sentiment of pro- fessional pride, not more peculiar to the soldier than the priest. He took the vows of obedience — the blind, unreasoning, unhesitating obedience exacted by the order — with a thrill of exultation. As a Jesuit, he must henceforth know neither friendship nor afi'ection ; neither sentiment, passion, nor self-regard. His brain must be always clear, his eye keen, his hand ready ; but brain must think, eye see, and hand strike only in conformity with the will of a superior. He was to preserve every faculty of nature except volition. He was to become a galvanised corpse rather than a living man. And now these hideous vows, this impossible obedience, must be put to the test. Like the demoniacs of old, he writhed in tortm-e as he walked. It seemed that the evil spirit rent and tore the man because it could not come out of him. He was hurrying on foot to the convent of our Lady of Succour. He knew every stone in that paved road as he knew the fingers on his own hand. His superior had lately installed him confessor to the establishment ; him, young, handsome, impressionable, with his dark eyes and his loving smile. There was another confessor, too, a stout old man, with a rosy face and a kind heart, altogether, as it would seem, a far more judicious appointment; but Florian's duties brought him little in contact with the nuns and lay amongst the young ladies, several of whom were daughters of noble families, receiving their education in a pension attached to the convent. Of these. Brother Ambrose had been specially enjoined to turn his attention to Mademoiselle de Montmirail ; to obtain all the influence in his power over the frank, innocent mind of that engaging girl ; to win her affections as much as possible from earthly vanities, to which, as she was on the 54 CERISE verge of womanhood, it is probable she was not disinclined ; and to lead her gradually into a train of thought that might at last bring her home to the bosom of the Church as a nun. That Church would at the same time protect her fi-om temptation, by relieving her of the earthly dross with which she would be encumbered, and which would pass into its holy keeping the day the heiress should assume the black veil. Besides the reversion of her mother's wealth, she would inherit considerable property of her own when she came of age. Had it been otherwise, it is possible the same interest might not have been shown for the insurance of her salvation, and Brother Ambrose might have been making fires of camel's dung in Tartary, or bearing witness by martyrdom in Morocco, instead of hurrying through the shade of those quivering poplars in homely, happy Normandy. But as he approached the convent of our Lady of Succour, Brother Ambrose — or Florian, as we shall call him for the present — reduced his walk to a much slower step, and became conscious of a hot feeling about his eyes, a cold moisture in the palms of his hands, that had no connection with theology, polemics, or the usual duties of a priest. There are proverbs used in the world, such as *' Tit-for- tat; " *' The biter bit ; " " Go for wool, and come back shorn," which are applicable to ecclesiastics as to laymen. It is no safer to play with edged tools in a convent than in a ball-room, and it is a matter of the merest hazard who shall get the best of an encounter in which the talents and educa- tion of a clever but susceptible man are pitted against the bright looks and fi-esh roses of girlhood at eighteen. Florian had been enjoined to use every effort for the subjugation of Mademoiselle de Montmirail. He was to be restricted by no considerations such as hamper the pro- ceedings of ordinary minds, for was not this one of the fundamental principles of his order — "It is lawful to do evil that good may come " ? He had not, indeed, swallowed this maxim without considerable repulsion, so utterly at variance, as it seemed, not only with reason, but with that instinctive sentiment of right which is often a surer guide than even reason itself ; but he had been con- A JESUITS TASK 55 vinced against his will by those under whose feet he had chosen to pluce his neck, and had at last brought his opinions, if not his feelings, to the necessary state of control. A few interviews with Mademoiselle de Mont- mirail in the cool dark convent parlour — a few calm, still evenings in the quiet convent garden, under the shade of the trellised beeches, amidst the fragrance of the flower- beds and the heavy perfume of the syringa, waiting for ihe rustle of that white dress along the gravel-walk — a few questions and misgivings from the penitent — a few phrases of advice or encouragement from the priest — and Florian found himself wildly, hopelessly, wickedly in love with the girl whom it was his duty, his sacred duty on which his soul's salvation depended, to persuade, or lure, or force into a cloister. These things come by degrees. No man can complain that timely warning is not given him ; yet the steps are so gradual, so easy, so imperceptible, by which he descends into the pleasant flood, that it is only when his footing is lost he becomes really aware of danger, or knows he is sentenced, and must swim about in it till he di'owns. Florian's task was to obtain influence over the girl. Thus he salved his conscience till it was too late, and thus excused himself for the eagerness with which he caught every glance of her eye and drank in every tone of her voice. It was only when his own looks fell before hers, when he trembled and turned pale at the sound of her step — when her image — serene, and fair, and gracious — rose between him and the Cross at which he knelt, that he knew his peril, his weakness and his sin. But it was too late then ; though he wrestled with the phantom, it overcame him time by time. Prostrate, bleeding, vanquished, he would confess with something of the bitterness of spirit and plaintive proud self-sacrifice of a lost angel, that he had given his soul to Cerise and did not grudge her the gift. Not even though she refused to love him in return. Perhaps, after all, this was the poisoned edge of the weapon — the bitter drop in the cup ; and yet had it been otherwise, it may be the young Jesuit could have 66 CEBISE found strength to conquer his infatuation, self-sacrifice, to give up freely that which was freely his own. It was not so, however. The very innocence that guarded the girl, while it lured him irresistibly to destruc- tion, was the most insurmountable barrier in his path ; and so he hovered on, hoping that which he dared not realise — wishing for all he felt he would yet be unwilling to accept ; striving for a prize unspeakably precious, though, perhaps I should say, because impossible of attainment, and which, even if he could win it, he might not wear it so much as an hour. No wonder his heart beat and his breath came quick, while he passed with stealthy gait into the convent garden, a pitfall for the feet that walked in innocence — a black sheep in a stainless flock — a leper where all the rest were clean. But Cerise, radiant in her white dress, crossed the sunny lawn and came down the accustomed path with more than their usual light shining in her blue eyes, with a fresher colour than common on her soft young cheeks. To him she had never looked so beautiful, so womanly, so attractive. The struggle had been very fierce during his solitary walk ; the defeat was flagrant in proportion. He ought to have known a bitter disappointment must be in store to balance the moment of rapture in which he became conscious of her approach. Some emanation seemed to glorify the air all around her, and to warn him of her presence long before she came. To the lady-superior of the convent, to her elders and instructors, Mademoiselle de Montmii-ail was nothing more than a well-grown damsel, with good eyes and hair, neither more nor less fi'ivolous and troublesome than her fellows, with much room for improvement in the matters of education, music, manners, and deportment ; but to the young Jesuit she was simply — an angel. Cerise held both hands out to her director, with a gi'eet- ing so frank and cordial that it should have undeceived him on the spot. The lady-superior, firom her shaded windows, might or might not be a witness to their interview, and there is no retreat perhaps of so much seclusion, yet so little privacy, as a convent garden ; but Cerise did not care though nuns and lay- sisters and all overlooked her every gesture and overheard every word she spoke. A JESUITS TASK 67 "I am so pleased! " she burst out, clapping her hands, as soon as he released them. " Wish me joy, good father ! I have such happy news ! My dear kind mamma ! And she writes to me herself ! I knew the silk that fastened it even before I saw her hand on the cover. Such good news ! Oh, I am so pleased ! so pleased ! " She would have danced for pm^e joy had she not remem- bered she was nearly eighteen. Also perhaps — for a girl's heart is very pitiful — she may have had some faint shado^\7- conception that the news so delightful to herself would be less welcome to her companion. He was looking at her with the admiration in his heart shining out of his deep dark eyes. " You have not told me what your good news is, my daughter," he observed, in a tone that made her glance into and away from his face, but that sobered the effervescence of her gaiety like a charm. " It is a long letter from mamma ! " she said, " and a whole month before I expected one. Judge if that is not charming. But, better still, I am to go back to her very soon. I am to live with her at the Hotel Montmirail. She is fitting up my apartment already. I am to quit the con- vent when my quarter is out ! " He knew it was coming. There is always consciousness of a blow for a moment before it falls. " Then you have but a few more days to remain in Nor- mandy," replied the young priest ; and again the change in his voice arrested her attention. *' My daughter, will you not regret the happy hours you have spent here, the quiet, the repose of the convent, and — and — the loving fi-iends you leave behind ? " He glanced round while he spoke, and thought how different the white walls, the drooping branches, the lawn, the flower-beds, and the walk beneath the beeches would look when she was gone. " Of course I shall never cease to love all those I have known here," she answered ; and her eje met his own fear- lessly, while there was no tinge of sorrow such as he would have liked to detect in her voice. " But I am cfoinsf home, do you see ! home to my dear mamma ; and I shall be in Paris, and assist at operas, and balls, and fetes. My father ! I fear, I shall like it — oh ! so much ! ' ' 58 CERISE There remained little time for further explanations. The refectory hell was rin^^diig, and Cerise must lim-ry in and present herself for her ration of fruit and chocolate ; to which refreshment, indeed, she seemed more than usually inclined. Neither her surprise nor her feelings had taken away her appetite, and she received her director's benediction with a humility respectful, edifying, and filial, as if he had been her grandfather. " I shall perhaps not visit you at the convent again, my daughter," he had said, revolving in his own mind a thousand schemes, a thousand impossibilities, tinged alike with fierce, bitter disappointment ; and to this she had made answer meekly — " But you will think of me very often, my father ; and, oh, remember me, I entreat of you, in your prayers ! " Then Florian knew that the edifice he had taken such pains to rear was crumbling away before his eyes, because, in his anxiety to build it for his own habitation, he had laid its foundations in the sand. CHAPTER VII ST. mark's balsam The death of the great king, and the first transactions of the Eegency, left little leisure to Abbe Malletort for the thou- sand occupations of his every-day life. With the busy churchman, to stagnate was a cessation of existence. As some men study bodily health and vigour, carefully attend- ing to the development of their frames by constant and unremitting exercise, so did the Abbe preserve his intellect in the highest possible training by its varied use, and seemed to grudge the loss of every hour in which he either omitted to learn something new or lay a fresh stepping-stone for the employment of knovdedge previously acquired. Like Juvenal's Greek, he studied all the sciences in turn, but his labour was never without an object, nor had he the slightest scruples in applying its results to his own advantage. Malletort was qualified to deal with the most consum- mate knave, but he might have been unconsciously out- manoeuvred by a really honest man, simply from his own habitual disreirard of the maxim, as true in ethics as in mathematics, which teaches that the shortest way from any one given point to another is a straight line. The Abbe had therefore many irons in his fire, careful, however, so to hold them that he should preserve his o^ti fingers from being burnt ; and amongst others, he often applied his spare hours to the study of chemistry. Now in the time of which I am speaking the tree of knowledge had not been entirely denuded of its parasite credulity. Science and superstition were not yet finally divorced, and the philosopher's stone was still eagerly sought 59 60 CERISE by many an enthusiast who liked to regenerate the world in a process of which the making a colossal fortune for himself should be the first step. Not that the Abbe quite believed in the possibility of creating gold, but that, true to his character, he was prepared to be satisfied with any glitter- ing substitute which the world could be induced to accept in its stead. So he too had his little laboratory, his little forge, his little crucibles, and vials, and acids, and essences, all the rudiments of science, and some faint foreshadowings of her noblest discoveries. If a man goes into his garden, and seeks eagerly on hands and knees, we will suppose, for a four-leaved shamrock, I am not prepared to say that he will succeed in finding that rare and abnormal plant ; but in his search after it, and the close attention thereby entailed, he will doubtless observe many beauties of vegetation, many curious arrangements of nature that have hitherto escaped his notice ; and though he fails to discover the four-leaved shamrock, he makes acquaintance with a hundred no less interesting specimens, and returns home a wiser naturalist than he went out. So was it with the adepts, as they called themselves, who sought diligently after the philosopher's stone. They read, they thought, they fused, they dissolved, they mingled ; they analysed fluids, they separated gases ; they ascertained the combina- tions of which one substance was formed, and the ingredients into which another could be resolved. They missed the object of their search, no doubt, but they lost neither for themselves nor their successors all the result of their labours ; for while the precious elixir itself escaped them, they captured almost everything else that was worth learning for the application of chemistry to the humbler purposes of every-day life. Unfortunately, too, in tampering with so many volatile essences, they became familiar with the subtler kinds of poison. A skilful adept of that school knew how to rid a patron of his enemies in twenty-four hom'S with- out fail, and to use the while no more overt weapon than the grasp of a gloved hand, a pinch of scented snuff, or the poisoned fragrance of a posy of flowers. Such men drove a thriving trade in Paris during the Regency, and our Abbe, himself no mean proficient in the craft, was in the habit of spending many an hour in the ST. MARK'S BALSAM 61 laboratory of one who could boast he was a match for the most skilful of the brotherhood. It was for this purpose that Malletort crossed the Seine, and penetrated into one of the loftiest, gloomiest, and narrowest streets of Old Paris — how different from Imperial Paris of to-day ! — to thread its windings, with his accustomed placid face and jaunty step, ere he stopped at the door of the tallest, most dilapidated, and dirtiest building in the row. The Abbe's face was, if possible, more self-satisfied, his step even lighter than usual. He was in high favour with the Kegent, and the Kegent, at least among the lower classes, was still the most popular man in France. They were aware of his vices, indeed, but passed them over in a spirit of liberality, bordering on want of principle, with which the French, in this respect so unlike ourselves, permit their leading men a latitude of private conduct proportioned to their public utility. Had the Abbe doubted his patron's popularity, he need only have listened to an impudent little urchin, who ran almost between his legs, shouting at the top of his voice a favomite street song of the day called " The Debonnaire." " 'Tis a very fine place to be monarch of France, Most Christian king, and St. Louis's son, When he takes up his fiddle the others must dance. And they durstn't sit down till the music's done. But I'd rather be Regent — eh ! wouldn't you, Pierre ? Such a Regent as ours, so debonnaire. Tra-la-la — tra-la-la — such a mien, such an air I Oh, yes ! our Regent is debonnaire. " A monarch of France, when they bring him to dine, They must hand him a cloth, and a golden bowl ; But the Regent can call for a flagon of wine. And need never sit down till he's emptied the whole. He wouldn't give much for your dry-lipped fare, This Regent of ours, so debonnaire. Tra-la-la — tra-la-la — how he'll stagger and swear, Oh, yes ! our Regent is debonnaire. " A monarch of France has a mate on the throne. And his likings and loves must be under the rose ; But the Regent takes all the sweet flowers for his own. And he pulls them by handfuls wherever he goes. 62 CERISE Of the bright and the fair, the rich and the rare, Our Regent, you see, is so dubonnaire. Tra-la-la — tra-la-la — he puts in for his share, Oh, yes ! our Kegent is d6bonnaire. " A monarch of France has his peers in a row, And they bring him his boots with the morning light ; But our Regent is never caught barefooted so, For his rou6s and he, they sit booted all night ! And they drink and they swear, and they blink and they stare — And never a monarch of France can compare. Neither Lous the Fat, nor yet Philip the Fair, With this Regent of ours, so d^bonnaire. Tra-la-la — tra-la-la — let us drink to him, Pierre ! Oh, yes! our Regent is d6bonnaire." '* Tra-la-la, tra-la-la, he is debonnaire ! " hummed the Abbe, as he mounted the wooden stah'case, and stopped at the first door on the landing. ' ' Monsieur le Due is welcome to make all the music for our puppet dance so long as he leaves it to Monsieur I'Ahbe to pull the strings." Two gaudily dressed footmen answered Malletort's summons and admitted him obsequiously, as being a well- known friend of their master's, before he had time to ask if Signer Bartoletti was within. The Abbe had visited here too often to be surprised at the luxuries of the apartment into which he was ushered, so little in character with the dirt and dilapidation that prevailed outside ; but Signer Bartoletti, alleging in excuse the requirements of his southern blood, indulged in every extravagance to which his means would stretch, was consequently always in difficulties, and therefore ready to assist in any scheme, however nefarious, provided he was well paid. The Signer's tastes were obviously florid. Witness the theatrical appearance of his lackeys, the bright colour of his furniture, the gaudy ornaments on his chimney-piece, the glaring pictures on his walls ; nay, the very style and chasing of a massive flagon of red wine standing on the table by a filagi'ee basket of fi'uit for his refection. The man himself, too, was palpably over-dressed, wearing a sword here in the retirement of his chamber, yet wearing it as one whose hand was little familiar with its guard. Every resource of lace, velvet, satin, and embroidery had been employed in vain to give him an outward semblance ST. MABKS BALSAM 68 of distinction, but there was an expression of intellect and energy in his dark beetle-browed face, with its restless black eyes, that, in spite of low stature and ungainly make, redeemed him from the imputation of utter vulgarity. His hands, too (and there is a good deal of character in the hand), were strong, nervous, and exceedingly well- shaped, though sadly stained and scorched by the acids he made use of in the prosecution of his art. A less keen observer than the Abbe might not have remarked beneath the signer's cordial greeting symptoms of anxiety, and even apprehension, blended with something of the passive defiance which seems to say, " I am in a corner. I have no escape. I don't like it ; but I must make the best of it." A less keen observer, too, might not have detected a ring of bravado in the tone with which he accosted his visitor as a disciple and fellow-labourer in the cause of science. " Welcome, monsieur," said he — " welcome to the teacher who needs the assistance of his pupil every step he travels on the radiant path. Have you made discoveries. Monsieur I'Abbe? Fill your glass, and impart them. Have you encountered difficulties? — Fill your glass, and conquer them. Have you seen the true light glimmering far, far off across the black waters ? — Fill your glass, I say, and let us drink success to our voyage ere we embark once more in search of the Great Secret." *' Faith, I believe we're nearer it than you think for, Bartoletti," answered Malletort, smiling coldly; "though I doubt if you could look to the right point of the compass for it with all your geogi-aphy. What do you think of the Scotchman's banking scheme, my gold-seeking friend ? Is not Monsieur Las * a better alchemist than either of us ? Has he not discovered the Great Arcanum ? And without fire or bellov/s, crucible, alembic, or retort ? Why, the best of us have used up every metal that the earth produces without arriving — though I gi'ant you we have come very near it — yet without arriving at perfection ; and here's an Englishman only asks for a ton or so of paper, a Govern- * A national banking scheme was about this period proposed to the Eegent of France by a financial speculator of Scottish extraction named Law. 64 CEBISE ment stamp, and — presto ! — with a stroke of the pen he turns it all to gold." "Have you, too, bought Mississippi Stock?" asked the Signer, eagerly. " Then the scheme is prospering ; the shares will rise once more. It is good to hold on ! " *' Not quite such a fool!" answered the Abbe; and Bartoletti's swarthy face fell several inches, for he had a high opinion of his visitor's financial perceptions. "And yet the Rue Quincampoix was so thronged yesterday, I was compelled to leave my coach, and bid my lackeys force a passage for me through the crowd," ui'ged the Signer. " Madame was there, and the Due du Maine, and more peers of France than you would see at the council. There must be life in it! All the world cannot be dupes. And yet the shares have fallen even since this morning." " All the world are not likely to be on the winning side," replied the Abbe, quietly, " or who would be left to pay the stakes ? From whom do you suppose Monsieur Las makes his profits ? You know he has bought the Hotel Mazarin. You know he has bought Count de Tesse's house, furniture, pictures, plate, and all, even to the English carriage-horses that his coachman does not know how to di'ive. Where do you suppose the money comes from ? When a society of people are engaged in eating one another, it seems to me that the emptiest stomach has the best chance. His listener looked thoughtfully on his scorched, scarred fingers. It might be that he reflected in how many ways he had burnt them. " Wliat do you advise me to do ? " he asked, after a pause, during which he had filled and emptied a goblet of the red wine that stood at his elbow. " Realise," was the answer. " Realise, and without delay. The game is like tennis, and must be played with the same precision. If your ball be not taken at the first rebound, its force is so deadened that your utmost skill falls short of cutting it over the net." The Abbe's metaphor, di'awn from that fashionable pastime which had been a favourite amusement of the late king, was not without its effect on his listener. Like a skilful practitioner, he suffered his advice to sink into the adept's ST. MARK'S BALSAM 65 mind before he took advantage of its effects. In other sciences besides chemistry and cookery, it is well to let your ingredients simmer undisturbed in the crucible till they are thoroughly fused and amalgamated. He wanted the Signor malleable, and nothing, he knew by experience, rendered Bartoletti so obliging as a con- viction that he lacked means to provide for his self- indulgence. Like the general public, he had been tempted by the great Mississippi scheme, and had invested in its shares the small amount of ready money at his command. It was gradually dawning on him that his speculations would entail considerable loss — that loss he felt, and showed he felt, must be made good. This was the Abbe's opportunity. He could offer his own price now for the co-operation of his fiiend. " We are wasting time sadly," said the visitor, after a pause. *'Let us go to our studies at once," and he led the way to an inner apartment, as though he had been host and teacher rather than visitor and disciple. The Signor followed, obedient though unwilling, like a well-trained dog bid to heel by its master. Malletort turned his cuffs back, seized a small pair of bellows, and blew a heap of powdered coal, mingled with other substances, into a deep violet glow. "By the by," he asked as if suddenly recollecting something of no importance, " have you ever had any dealings with negroes ? Do you know anything of the superstitions of Obi?" '' I know something of every superstition in the world," answered the other, ** Christian as well as pagan, or how could I afford to drink such wine as you tasted in the next room ? " He laughed while he spoke, heartily enough, and so did Malletort, only the mirth of the latter was assumed. He believed in very little, this Abbe, very little indeed, either for good or evil ; but he would have liked, if he could, to believe in the philosopher's stone. " I have made acquaintance with an Obi-woman lately," pursued he ; " she may be useful to us both. I will bring her to see you in a day or two, if you will re- fresh your mind in the meantime with what you can 6 66 CERISE remember of their mysteries, so as to meet her on equal terms." Bartoletti looked much relieved, and indeed gi-atified, when informed that this Obi- woman, instead of being a hideous old ncgi'ess, was a fine-looking quadroon. "Is that all you wanted?" said he, quite briskly; but his countenance fell once more on perceiving that the Abbe made no preparations for departm*e. **Not quite," replied the latter. '* I am hardly perfect yet in the nature of those essences we studied at my last lesson. Let us go over their powers and properties again." The Signor turned a shade paler, but taking down some phials, and two or three papers of powders from a shelf, he did as he was bid, and proceeded systematically enough to explain their contents, gaining confidence, and even growing enthusiastic in his subject as he went on. At the thii'd packet the Abbe stopped him. "It is harmless, you say, as a perfume when sprinkled in the form of a powder ? " The Signor nodded. " But a deadly poison, mixed with three drops of St. Mark's balsam? " " Right ! " assented the Italian. " And combined with any vegetable substance, its very odoui' would be dangerous and even fatal to animal life ? " " You are an apt pupil," said the other, not without approval, though he turned paler still. It took me seven weeks' close study, and a hundred experiments, to find that out." " You worked with the glass mask on, of com'se," con- tinued the Abbe ; what would have been the efi'ect had you inhaled the odom- ? " " I should have come out in red spots at the first inspira- tion, turned black at the second, and at the third Monsieur I'Abbe should have been lost to the world, to science, and to you," was the conclusive reply. " I am not quite satisfied yet," said Malletort. " I will take a packet home with me for fm'ther examination, if you please, and ten drops of St. Mark's balsam as well." "It is worth a thousand fi-ancs a drop," observed the ST. MABKS BALSAM 67 adept, producing at the same time a tiny sealed phial from a drawer under his hand. " Of course you name your own price," replied Malletort, snatching up his purchase with impatience, and leaving in its place a purse through which the gold shone temptingly, and which clanked down on the table as if the weight of its lining was satisfactory enough. The two men seemed to understand each other, for almost before the Signor's grasp was on the purse his visitor had left the house ; but Bartoletti, locking up the drawer, returned to his gaudy sitting-room, with a twitching lip and a cold sweat bursting from his brow. Till the adept had summoned his theatrical footman, and ordered another flagon of the red wine, he gasped and panted like a man awaking from a nightmare ; nor did he recover his equanimity till the flagon was three-parts emptied. By that time, however, he was scarce in a condition to pursue his researches after the philosopher's stone. CHAPTER Vni THE GREY MUSKETEERS A BUGLER, thirteen years of age, and about three feet high, a veritable " Child of the Regiment," was blowing '' The Assembly " for the Grey Musketeers with a vigour that made itself heard through the adjoining Faubourg. The miniature soldier, who had already smelt powder, strutted and swelled like a bantam-cock. His plumage, too, was nearly as gorgeous, and he seemed more than satisfied with himself and his advantages. In no other country, perhaps, could a combination so ridiculous, yet so admirable, have been found as in this union of innocence and precocity ; this simplicity of the child, underlying the bearing of a giant, the courage of a hero, and the coquetry of a girl. Ten minutes precisely were allowed by the regulations of the late king between the mustering call and the " fall-in," or final summons for the men to take their places in the ranks. The Musketeers lounged and straggled over their parade- ground, laughing, chatting, bantering each other ; fastening here a buckle, there a shoulder-strap ; humming snatches of bivouac songs, fixing flints, adjusting belts, and pulling their long moustaches, as they conversed, disrespectfully enough it must be admitted, in hoarse, short murmurs of Vendome, Villeroy, Staremberg, Prince Eugene, Malbrook, the gi'eat military authorities of the day, and how old Turenne would have arranged them one and all. The Grey Musketeers were so called from their uniform, which, except for its sober hue, shone as splendid as was compatible with the possibility of manoeuviing. The men 68 THE GREY MUSKETEEBS 69 were all veterans ; that is to say, had fought through one or more campaigns, so that many a young, delicate face in the ranks was seamed and scarred hy the shot and shell of the enemy. The majority, however, were grim, and gi'cy, and bronzed ; men who could eat ammunition-bread and suttlers' beef without fear of colic ; who could sleep round a bivouac fire, and rise refreshed and ready to be killed ; who had looked death in the face and laughed at him in a score of fields. A large proportion were of noble birth, and all were at home in the drawing-room, the refinements and delicate airs of which it was their affectation to carry with them under fire. They could be rough and outspoken enough, jesting with each other over the wine-cup, or arguing as now while waiting for parade ; but put them before an enemy, the nearer the better, and they became lambs — ladies — perfect dancing-masters in the postures and graces they assumed. If the baggage was not too far in the rear, they dressed and scented themselves for a battle as for a ball. They flourished lace handkerchiefs, wore white gloves, and took snuff from gold boxes in the act of advancing to charge a column or to storm a battery. Marlborough's grenadiers had many a tussle with them, and loved them dearly. " Close in. Jack," these honest fellows would say to each other, when they saw the laced hats, with their jaunty grey cock- ades, advancing through the smoke. " There'll be wigs on the green now — here's the Dandies a-coming ! " And in good truth, ere the Dandies and they parted, many a comely head was down to rise no more. There were several companies of these picked troops, dis- tinguished by the different colours of their uniforms. It was their pride to vie with each other in daring, as in extra- vagance and dissipation. If a post were unusually formid- able, a battery in a peculiarly strong position, one or other of these companies, black, red, or grey, would entreat permission to storm it. The Grey Musketeers had of late esteemed themselves very fortunate in opportunities for leaving half their number dead on the field. They were commanded by the young officer whose acquaint- ance Madame de Montmirail made during the stag-hunt at Fontainebleau. Captain George, as he was called, had 70 CERISE obtained this enviable post, no less by skill and cons2)icuous bravery, than by gi*eat good luck, and perhaps, though last not least, by an affection of coolness and danger, so exag- gerated as to be sublime while it was ridiculous. The little bugler was waiting for him now. When the ten minutes should have elapsed, and the silver lace on the Captain's uniform come gleaming round the corner, he was prepared to blow his heroic soul into the mouthpiece of his instrument. Meanwhile he stood aloof from his comrades. He looked so much taller thus than when oppressed by comparison with those full-gi'own warriors. The men were gi'ouped about in knots, talking idly enough on indifferent subjects. Presently the majority gathered round a fi*esh arrival — a tall, forbidding-looking soldier, with iron-gi'ey moustaches that nearly reached his elbows — who seemed to have some important news to communicate. As the cii'cle of his listeners increased, there was obviously a growing interest and excitement in his intelligence. " Who is it? " panted one, hurrying up. " Killed? " asked another, tightening his sword-belt and twisting his moustaches fiercely to his eyes. " It's a credit to the bom-geois ! " ''It's a disgi*ace to the corps ! " exclaimed a couple in a breath ; while, " Tell us all about it, Bras-de-Fer ! " fi'om half-a-dozen eager voices at once, served to hush the noisy assemblage into comparative silence. Bras-de-Fer was nothing loth. A pompous old soldier, more of a martinet and less of a dandy perhaps than most of his audience, he loved, above all things, to hear himself speak. He was a notorious duellist, moreover, and a for- midable swordsman, whence the nickname by which he was known among his comrades. He entered on his recital with all the zest of a professor. '' I was sitting," said he, with an air of gTave superiority, " immediately in front of the coflee-house, Louis-Quatorze, a little after watch- setting. I was improving my knowledge of my profession by studying the combinations in a game of dominoes. By myself, Adolphe ? Yes — right hand against leit. Yet not altogether by myself, for I had a bottle of great Bordeaux wine — there is nothing to laugh at, gentlemen — on THE GREY MUSKETEERS 71 the table in my front. Flanconnade had just entered, and called for a measure of lemonade, when a street-boy began singing a foolish song about the Regent, with a jingle of * Tra-la-la,' ' Debonnaire,' and some rubbish of that kind. Now this poor Flaconnade, you remember, comrades, never was a gTeat admirer of the Regent. He used to say we Musketeers of the Guard owed allegiance, first to the young king, then to the Due du Maine, lastly to the Marshal de Villeroy, and that we should take our orders only from those three. " So we do ! So we should ! " interrupted a dozen voices. But Bras-de-Fer, raising a brown, sinewy hand, imposed silence by the gesture, and continued. *' Flanconnade, therefore, was displeased at the air of gasconnade with which the urchin sang his song. ' What ! thou, too, art a little breechless roue of the Regent ! ' said he, turning round from his drink, and applying a kick that sent the boy howling across the street. There was an out- cry directly amongst the cuckold citizens in the coffee- house ; half of them, I have no doubt, were gi'ocers and haberdashers in the Regent's employ. ' Shame ! shame ! ' they exclaimed. ' Down with the bully ! ' ' Long live the Grey Musketeers ! ' I was up, and had put on my hat, you may well believe, gentlemen, at the first alarm ; but with their expression of good- will to the corps, I sat down again and uncovered. It was simply a personal matter for Flan- connade, and I knew no man better able to extricate him- self from such an affair. So, leaving the dominoes, I filled my glass and waited for the result. Our fi'iend looked about him fi'om one to the other, like a man who seeks an an- tagonist, but the bourgeoisie avoided his glances, all but one young man, wrapped in a cloak, who had seemed at first to take little part in the disturbance. Flanconnade, seeing this, stared him full in the face, and observed, ' Monsieur made a remark ? Did I understand clearly what it was ? ' '* ' I said shame ! ' replied the other, boldly. * And I repeat, monsieur is in the wrong.' " By this time the bystanders had gathered round, and I heard whispers of — ' Mind what you do ; it's a Grey Muske- teer ; fighting is his trade ; ' and such friendly warnings ; while old Bouchon rushed in with his face as white as his 72 CERISE apron, and taking the youth by the arm, exclaimed in trembling accents, * Do you know what you're about, in Heaven's name? It's Flanconnade, I tell you. It's the fencing-master to the company ! ' *' Om* poor friend appeared so pleased with this homage that I almost thought he would be pacified ; but you re- member his maxim — ' Put yourself in the right first, and then keep your arm bent and your point low.' He acted on it now. " ' Monsieur is prepared for results ? ' he asked, quietly ; an draising the tumbler in his hand, dashed its contents into his antagonist's face." There was a murmur of applause amongst the Muske- teers, for whom such an argument combined all the elements of reasoning, and Bras-de-Fer proceeded. *' I rose now, for I saw the afi'air would march rapidly. * It is good lemonade,' said the young man, licking his lips, while he wiped the liquor from his face. ' Monsieur has given me a lesson in politeness. He will permit me in return to demand five minutes' attention while I teach him to dance.' " The youth's coolness, I could not but admit, was that of a well-bred man, and surprised me the more because, when he opened his cloak to get at his handkerchief, I per- ceived he wore no weapon, and was dressed in plain dark garments like a scholar or a priest. " Flanconnade winked at me. There was plenty of moonlight in the garden behind the cofi'ee-house, but there were two difficulties — the youth had no second and no sword. " By great good fortune, at this moment in stepped young Chateau-Guerrand of the Due du Maine's dragoons, with his arm still in a sling, from the wound he received at Brighuega, when serving on his uncle's stafi". He had been supping with the Prince-Marshal, and of course was in full-dress, with a rapier at his belt. He accepted the duty willingly, and lent our youth the weapon he could not use. We measured their swords. They were right to a hair's-breadth, but that the guard of Chateau- Guerrand's hilt was open ; and as he and I could not possibly exchange a pass or two for love, we set ourselves to watch the afi'air THE OBEY MUSKETEEES 73 with interest, fearing only that Flanconnade's skill would finish it almost ere it had well commenced. " The moon was high, and there was a beautiful fighting- light in the garden. At twenty paces I could see the faces of the guests and servants quite distinctly, as they crowded the back door and windows of the house. " We placed the adversaries at open distance on the level. They saluted and put themselves on guard. " The moment I saw the young man's hand up, I knew there would be a fight for it. I observed that his slight frame was exceedingly muscular, and though he looked very pale, almost white in the moonlight, his eyes glittered and his face lost all its gravity when the blades touched. I was sui*e the rogue loved the steel-clink in his heart. *' Moreover, he must have been there before. He neglected no precaution. He seemed to know the whole game. He bound his handkerchief round his fingers, to make up for Chateau-Guerrand's open sword-hilt, and feel- ing some inequality of ground beneath his feet, he drew his adversary inch by inch, till he got him exactly level with his point. " Flanconnade's face showed me that he was aware of his antagonist's force. After two passes, he tried his own peculiar plunging thrust in tierce (I never was quick enough for it myself, and always broke gi'ound when I saw it coming), but this youth parried it in carte. In carte ! by heavens ! and Flanconnade was too good a fencer to dare try it again." "In carte ! " repeated the listeners, with varied accents of interest and admiration. "It's incredible!" "It's beautiful ! " " That is real fencing, and no sabre-play ! " " Go on ! Flanconnade had met with his match ! " " More than his match," resumed Bras-de-Fer. " In a dozen passes he was out of breath, and this youth had never moved a foot after his first traverse. I tell you his defence was beautiful ; so close you could hardly see his ^mst move, and he never straightened his arm but twice. The first time Flanconnade leaped out of distance, for it was impos- sible to parry the thrust ; although, as far as I could see, he made a simple disengagement and came in outside. But the next time he drew our comrade six inches nearer, and 74 CEBISE I knew by his face he was as certain as I was that he had got him at last. '*Bah ! One — Two ! That simple disengagement — a lunge home ; and I saw six inches of Chateau-Gruerrand's sword through our poor comrade's hack ere he went down. The youth wiped it carefully before he returned it, with a profusion of thanks, and found time, while Bouchon and his people gathered round the fallen man, to express his regrets with a perfect politeness to myself. "'Monsieur,' said he, *I am distressed to think your friend will not profit by the lesson he has had the kindness to accept. I am much afraid he will never dance again.' " •''And where was the thrust ?" asked Adolphe, a i^ro- mising young fencer, who had been listening to the recital of the duel, open-mouthed. '' Through the upper lung," answered Bras-de-Fer. " In five minutes Flanconnade was as dead as Louis Quatorze ! Here comes the Captain, gentlemen. It is time to fall in." While he finished speaking, the little bugler blew an astonishing volume of sound through his instrument. The Musketeers fell into their places. The line was dressed with military accuracy. The standard of France was dis- played ; the ranks were opened, and Captain George walked through them, scanning each individual of that formidable band with a keen, rapid glance that would have detected a speck on steel, a button awiy, a weapon improperly handled, as surely as such breach of discipline could have been summarily visited with a sharp and galling reprimand. Nevertheless, these men were his own associates and equals ; many of them his chosen friends. Hardly one but had interchanged with him acts of courtesy and kindness at the bivouac or on the march. Some had risked life for him ; others he had rescued from death in the field. In half an hour all would be on a footing of perfect equality once more, but now Captain George was here to command and the rest to obey. Such was the discipline of the Grey Musketeers — a discipline they were never tired of extolling, and believed to be unequalled in the whole of the armies of Europe. There was little room for fault-finding in the order or THE GBEY MUSKETEEBS 76 accoutrements of such troops, and in a short space of time — easily calculated by the bystanders outside, from the arrival of sundry riding-horses and carriages of these gentle- men privates to throng the street — their inspection was over — their ranks were closed. The duties for the day, comprising an especial guard for the young king's person were told off — Bras-de-Fer reported the death of the fencing-master — the commandant observed they must appoint another immediately — the parade was dismissed, and Captain George was at liberty to return to his quarters. CHAPTER IX EUGENE BEAUDESIR It was no wonder the Marquise de Montmirail, amid the hurry and excitement of a stag-hunt, failed to recognise the merry page who used to play with her child in that stalwart musketeer whom she pressed her eager barb so hard to overtake. The George Hamilton of royal ante-chambers and palace stairs, with eyes full of mirth and pockets full of bon-bons, laughing, skipping, agile, and mischievous as a monkey, had grown into a strong, fine-looking man, a distinguished soldier, well known in the army and at Court as Captain George of the Grey Musketeers. He had drojDped the surname of Hamilton altogether now, and nothing remained to him of his nationality and family characteristics but a certain depth of chest and squareness of shoulder, accompanied by the bold keen glance that had shone even in the boy's eyes, and was not quenched in the man's, denoting a defiant and reckless disposition which, for a woman like the Marquise, possessed some indescribable charm. As he flung his sword on a couch, and sat down to break- fast in his luxurious quarters — booted, belted, and with his hat on — the man seemed thoroughly in character with the accessories by which he was surrounded. He was the soldier all over — but the soldier adventurer — the soldier of fortune, rather than the soldier of roatine. The room in which he sat was luxurious indeed and highly ornamented, but the luxuries were those of the senses rather than the intellect ; the ornaments consisted chiefly of arms and such implements of warfare. Blades of the finest temper, pistols 76 EUGENE BEAVDjksIR 77 of exquisite workmanship, saddles with velvet housings, and bridle-bits embossed with gold — decked the wall which in more peaceful apartments would have been adorned by pictures, vases, or other works of art. One or two militaiy maps, and a model of some fortified place in Flanders, denoted a tendency to the theoretical as well as practical branches of his profession ; and a second regimental suit of gi'ey velvet, almost covered with silver lace, hanging on a chair, showed that its gaudier exigences, so important in the Musketeers, were not forgotten. There were also two or three somewhat incongruous articles littered about amongst the paraphernalia of the soldier — such as a chart of the Caribbean Sea, another of the Channel, with its various soundings pricked off in red ink, a long nautical telescope, and a model of a brigantine more than half rigged. Captain George was possessed of certain seafaring tastes and habits picked up in early life, and to which he still clung with as much of sentiment as was compatible with his character. He was not an impressionable person, this musketeer ; but if a foreign shoot could once be grafted on his affections, it took root and became gradually a part of the actual tree itself : then it could neither be torn out nor pruned away. Youthful associations, with such a disposi- tion, attained a power hardly credible to those who only knew the external strength and hardness of the man. Captain George's predilections, however, seemed to be at present completely engi*ossed by his breakfast. Venison steaks and a liberal flagon of Medoc stood before him ; he applied himself to each with a vigorous industry that denoted good teeth, good will, and good digestion. He was so intent on business that a knock at his door was twice repeated ere he answered it, and then the " Come in ! " sounded hardly intelligible, hampered as were the syllables by the process of mastication. At the summons, however, Bras-de-Fer entered, and stood opposite his captain. The latter nodded, pointed to a seat, pushed a plate and wine-cup across the table, and continued his repast. Bras-de-Fer had already breakfasted once ; nevertheless he sat doTM.1 and made almost as good play as his entertainer for about ten minutes, when they stopped simultaneously. 78 CERISE Then Captain George threw himself back in his chair, loosened his belt, undid the two lower buttons of his heavily- laced grey just au corps, and passing the Medoc, now at low ebb, to his comrade, asked abruptly — " Have you found him ? " *'And brought him with me, my captain," answered Bras-de-Fer. "He is at this moment waiting outside. 'Tis a queer lad, certainly. He was reading a Latin book when I came upon him. He would have no breakfast, nor even taste a pot of wine with me as we walked along. Bah ! The young ones are not what they used to be in my time." "I shouldn't mind a few recruits of your sort still," answered his captain, good-humouredly. " That thick head of yours is pretty strong, both inside and out ; nevertheless, we must take them as we find them, and I should not like to miss a blade that could out-manoeuvre poor Flanconnade. If he joins, I would give him the appointment. What think j^ou, Bras-de-Fer ? "Would he like to be one of us ? What did he say?" "Say!" repeated the veteran, " I couldn't understand half he said — I can't make him out, my captain. I tell you that I, Bras-de-Fer of the Grey Musketeers, am unable to fathom this smooth-faced stripling. Eyes like a girl's, yet quick and true as a hawk's ; white, delicate hands, but a wrist of steel, that seems to move by machinery. Such science, too ! and such style ! Who taught him ? Then he rambles so in his talk, and wept when I told him our fencing-master never spoke after that disengagement. Only a simple disengageme-nt, my captain ; he makes no secret of it. I asked him myself.And he wouldn't taste wine — not a mouthful — not a drop — though I offered to treat him ! " And Bras-de-Fer shook his head solemnly, with something of a monkey's expression who has got a nut too hard to crack. Captain George cut short his friend's reflections by calling for a servant. " There is a gentleman outside," said he, when the lackey appeared. " Ask his pardon for keeping him waiting, and beg him to step in." The well-drilled lackey, all politeness, threw the door EUGENE BEAUD^SIB 79 open for the visitor, who entered with a diffident bow and a timid, hesitating step. Bras-de-Fer could not heJp remark- ing how much less assured was his manner now than when he crossed swords last night with the best fencer in the company. The Musketeers both rose at his entrance, and all three continued standing during the interview. Captain George scanned the new-comer from head to foot, and from foot to head, as a sergeant inspects a recruit. Its subject blushed painfully during the examination. Then the officer inquired, abruptly — ''You wish to join the Musketeers? As a cadet, of course? " Something stern in the tone recalled the youth's firmness, and he answered, boldly enough — " Under certain circumstances — yes." *' Your name? '' "Eugene Beaudesir." ''Your age?" " More than twenty-five." The Musketeers exchanged looks. He did not appear nearly so much. Captain George continued — " Your certificates of baptism and gentle birth? " Again the young man changed colour. He hesitated — he looked down — he seemed ill at ease. "You need not produce these if other particulars are satisfactory," observed the Captain, with a certain rough sympathy which won him a gratitude he little suspected ; far more, indeed, than it deserved. " Keach me that muster-roll, Bras-de-Fer," continued the officer. "We can put his name down, at least for the present, as a cadet. The rest will come in time. But look you, young sir," he added, turning sharply round on the recruit, " before going through any more formalities, I have still a few questions to ask. Answer them fi'ankly, or decline to answer at all. The visitor bowed and stole another look in his questioner's face. Frank, romantic, impressionable, he had become strangely prepossessed with this manly, soldier-like captain of musketeers — younger in years than himself, yet so many more steps up the social ladder, he thought, than he could now ever hope to reach. 80 CERISE *' I will answer," lie said, with a hesitation and simj)licity almost boyish, yet engaging in its helplessness — "if you will promise not to use my answers to my injury, and to take me all the same." Captain George smiled good-humouredly. " Once on the roll of the King's Musketeers," he replied, "you are amenable to none but his Majesty and your own officers. As we say ourselves, you need fear neither duke nor devil." The other looked somewhat relieved, and glancing at Bras-de-Fer, observed timidly — " I had a misfortune last night. It was a broil I could not avoid without great dishonour. I killed my adversary, I fear — and — and — he belongs to your company." " So it is reported to me," answered the Captain, coolly; "and if you are capable, it may perhaps be your good fortune to find yourself promoted at last into his place." Beaudesir looked as if he scarcely understood, and Bras- de-Fer gladly seized the opportunity to explain. " You do not know us yet, young man. In a short time you will be better acquainted with the constitution and discipline of the Grey Musketeers. It is our study, you will find, to become the best fencers in the French army. To this end we appoint our fencing-master by competition, and he is always liable to be superseded in favour of a successful adversary. It cost Flanconnade twenty-three duels to obtain his grade, and in his last afi'air — (pardon — I should say his last but one) he killed his man. You, monsieur, have disposed of Flanconnade scientifically, I must admit, and our captain here is likely enough to promote you to the vacant post." "Horror!" exclaimed Beaudesir, shuddering. "Like the priests of Aricia ! " It was now Bras-de-Fer's turn to be puzzled, but he rose to the occasion. Quaffing the remains of the Medoc, he nodded approvingly, and repeated — " Like the priests of Aricia. The same system precisely as established by His Holiness the Pope. It works re- markably well in the Grey Musketeers." Beaudesir looked at the Captain, and said in a low, agitated voice — EUGENE BEAUDESIB 81 " I am most anxious to serve under you. I can be faith- ful, attentive — above all, obedient. I have no fi'iends, no resources, nothing to care for. I only wish for an honest livelihood and an honourable death." " We can find you both, I doubt not," answered George, carelessly opening once more the muster-roll of the company. " I have your name do^vn and your age; no fiu-ther par- ticulars. Where were you educated ? " "In a school of silence, vigilance, self-restraint, and implicit obedience," answered the recruit. " Good," observed his captain ; " but wc must put down a name." "At Avi'anches, in Normandy," said the other, after a moment's hesitation. George closed the roll. " Enough for the present," said he; "and now tell me, monsieur, as between fi'iends, where did you learn to fence with so much address? " "Wherever I could find a foil with a button on," was the reply. " I never had a naked sword in my hand till last night." Something in the ready simplicity of such an answer pleased the captain of musketeers, while it interested him still more in his recruit. " You must be careful of your parries amongst your new comrades," said he ; " at least till you have measured the force of each. I warn you fairly, one-half the company will want to try your mettle, and the other half to learn your secret, even at the cost of an awkward thrust or two. In the meantime, let us see what you can do. There are a brace of foils in the cupboard there. Bras-de-Fer, will you give him a benefit ? " But Bras-de-Fer shook his head. What he had seen the night before had inspired him with an extraordinary respect for the youth's prowess, and being justly vain of his own skill, he was averse to expose his inferiority in the science of defence before his captain. He excused himself, therefore, on the ground of rheumatism which had settled in an old wound. Captain George did not press the veteran, but opening the cupboard, pulled out the foils, presented one to his visitor, and put himself in position with the other. 6 82 CEBISE Beaudesir performed an elaborate salute with such gi*ace and precision as showed him a perfect master of his weapon. He then threw his foil in the air, caught it by the blade, and returned it courteously to the captain. But George was not yet satisfied. " One assault at least," said he, stamping his right foot. '' I want to see if I cannot find a parry for this famous thrust of yom'S." The other smiled quietly and took his ground. Though within a few inches of the chamber-door, he seemed to require no more room for his close and quiet evolu- tions. Ere they had exchanged two passes, the captain came over his adversary's point with a rapid flanking movement, like the stroke of a riding- whip, and lending all the strength of his iron wrist to the jerk, broke the opposing foil short ofi" within six inches of the guard. It was the only resource by which he could escape a palpable hit. "Enough!" he exclaimed, laughing. ''There are no more foils in the cupboard, and I honestly confess I should not wish to renew the contest with the real bloodsuckers. You may be perfectly tranquil as regards your comrades, my friend. I do not know a musketeer in the whole guard that would care to take a lesson from you with the buttons off. What say you, Bras-de-Fer? Come, gentlemen, there is no time to be lost. The Marshal de Yilleroy will not yet have left his quarters. Do you, old comrade, take him the fresh appointment for his signature. He never requires to see om' recruits till they can wait on him in uniform ; and you, young man, come with me to the Rue des Qaai/i^es Fripons, where I will myself order yom* accoutrements, and see you measured for a just au corps. Eecollect, sir, next to their discipline on parade, I am most particular about the clothes of those I have the honour to command. Slovenliness in a musketeer is a contradiction as impos- sible as poltroonery ; and it is a tradition in our corps that we never insulted Malbrook's grenadiers by appearing before them in anything but full-di-ess ; or by opening fire until we were close enough for them to mark the embroideiy on our waistcoats. I congratulate you, m.y young fiiend : you are now a soldier in the pick of EUGENE BEAUDESIE 83 that army which is itself the pick of all the armies in the world!" With such encouraging conversation Captain George led his lately-enlisted recruit through a variety of wind- ing streets, thronged at that busy hour with streams of passengers. These, however, for the most part, made way, with many marks of respect, for the officer of Musketeers ; the women especially, looking back with unfeigned admiration and interest at the pair, according as they inclined to the stately symmetry of the one or the graceful and almost feminine beauty of the other. Perhaps, could they have known that the pale, dark-eyed youth following timidly half a pace behind his leader had only last night killed the deadliest fencer in Paris, they would have Avasted no glances even on such a fair specimen of manhood as Captain George, but devoured his comrade with their bold black eyes, in a thrill of mingled horror, interest, and admiration, peculiar to their sex. To reach the Rue des Quatres Fripons, it was necessary to pass a barrier, lately placed by Marshal de Villeroy's directions, to check the tide of traffic on occasion of the young King's transit through his future capital. This barrier was guarded by a post of Grey Musketeers, and at the moment Captain George approached it, one of his handsomest young officers was performing a series of bows by the door of a ponderous, heavily-gilt family coach, and explaining v/ith considerable volubility his own desolation at the orders which compelled him to forbid the advance of this unwieldy vehicle. Six heavy coach-horses, two pos- tilions, a coachman, four footmen, and two outriders, armed to the teeth — all jammed together in a narrow street, with a crowd of bystanders increasing every minute, served to create a sufficient complication, and a very pretty young lady inside, accompanied by one attendant, was already in tears. The attendant, a dark woman with a scarlet turban, scolded and cursed in excellent French, whilst one of the leaders took immediate advantage of the halt to rear on end and seize his comrade by the crest with a savage and discordant scream. In such a turmoil it took George a few moments to recognise Madame de Montmirail's liveries, which he knew 84 CERISE perfectly well. To his companion, of course, fresh from Avranchcs, in Normandy, all liveries in Paris must have heen equally strange. Nevertheless he followed close behind his leader, who pushed authoritatively through the crowd, and demanded what was the matter. The officer of Musketeers, seeing his OAvn captain, fell back from the carriage-door, and Cerise, with her eyes full of tears, found a face she had never forgotten staring in at the window scarcely six inches from her own. They recognised each other in an instant. For the first sentence it was even "Greorge ! " and "Cerise!" Though, of course, it cooled down to " Monsieur " and " Mademoi- selle " as they talked on. She was very little altered, he thought, only taller and much more beautiful ; while for her, it was the same brave brown face and kind eyes that she had known by heart since she was a child, only braver, browner, kinder, nobler, just as she had expected. It was wonderful she could see it so distinctly, with her looks cast down on the pretty gloved hands in her lap. The aifair did not take long. '' You can pass them by my orders, Adolphe," said his captain ; and ere the savage stallion had time for a second attack, the huge vehicle rolled through and lumbered on, leaving handsome Adolphe ejaculating protestations and excuses, believing implicitly that he had won the beautiful mademoiselle's affections at first sight during the process. Except by this voluble young gentleman, very little had been said. People do say very little when they mean a great deal. It seemed to George, mademoiselle had offered no more pertinent remark than that " She had made a long journey, and was going to the Hotel Montmirail to stop J' Whilst Cerise — well, I have no doubt Cerise could have repeated every word of their conversation, yet she did nothing of the kind neither to Celandine then, nor to mamma afterwards ; though by the time she reached home her eyes were quite dry, and no wonder, consider- ing the fire in her cheeks. Altogether, the interview was certainly provocative of silence. Neither Captain George nor Beaudesir uttered a syllable during the remainder of their walk. Only on the threshold of the tailor's shop in the Rue des Quatres EUGENE BEAUDESIB 85 Fripons the latter awoke from a deep fit of musing, and asked, very respectfully — " My captain, do you think I should have got the best of it this morning if we had taken the buttons off the foils?" CHAPTER X THE BOUDOIR OF MADAME There was plenty of room in the Hotel Montmirail when it was opened at night for Maclame's distinguished receptions. Its screen of lights in front, its long rows of windows, shedding lustrous radiance on the ground and second floors, caused it to resemble, fi'om outside, the enchanted palace of the White Cat, in that well-kno^Ti fairy tale which has delighted childhood for so many generations. Within, room after room stretched away in long perspective, one after another, more polished, more decorated, more shining, each than its predecessor. The waiting-room, the gallery, the reception-room, the dining-hall, the two withdrawing-rooms, all Tvdth floors inlaid by the most elaborate and slippery of woodwork, all heavy with crimson velvet and massive gilding in the worst possible taste, all adorned by mytho- logical pictures, bright of colour, cold of tone, and scant of drapery, led the oppressed and dazzled visitor to Madame 's bedchamber, thrown open like every other apartment on the floor for his or her admiration. Here the eye reposed at last, on flowers, satin, ivory, mirrors, crystal, china — every- thing most suggestive of the presence of beauty, its influence and the atmosphere that seems to surround it in its home. The bed, indeed, with lofty canopy, surmounted by ciphers and coronets, was almost solemn in its magnificence ; but the bath of Madame, her wardrobe, above all, her toilet- table, modified with their graceful, glittering elegance the oppressive grandeur of this important article in a sleeping- apartment. At each of the four corners strips of looking-glass reached 86 THE BOUDOIR OF MADAME 87 fi'om ceiling to floor, while opposite the bed the first object on which Madame's eyes rested in waking was a picture that conveyed much delicate and appropriate flattery to her- self. It represented the Judgment of Paris. That dangerous shepherd of Mount Ida was depicted in appropriate costume of brown skin, laughing eyes, a crook, and a pair of sandals, with a golden apple in his hand. Juno stood on one side — Minerva on the other. The ox-eyed goddess, with her rich colouring and radiant form, affording a glowing type of those attractions which are dependent on the senses alone ; while MineiTa's deep grey eyes, serene, majestic air, and noble, thoughtful brow, seemed to promise a triumph, glorious in proportion to the wisdom and intellect to be overcome. Paris stood between them, somewhat in front of the immortal rivals, his right arm skilfully foreshortened, and offering the apple — to whom ? To neither of these, but to the Marquise, as she got out of bed every morning ; thereby inferring that she was the Olympian Venus, the Queen of Love and Beauty both for gods and men ! Malletort, in his many visits to the Hotel Montmirail, never passed this picture without a characteristic grin of intense amusement and delight. Traversing the bedchamber, one arrived at last in a small apartment which concluded the series, and from which there appeared no further egress, though, in truth, a door, con- cealed in the panelling, opened on a narrow staircase which descended to the garden. This room was more plainly furnished than the others, but an air of comfort pervaded it that denoted the owner's favourite retreat. Its tables were littered, its furnitm-e was worn. The pens and portfolio were disordered ; a woman's glove lay near the inkstand ; some half-finished embroidery occupied the sofa ; and a sheet of blotted music had fallen on the floor. There was no kind of mirror in any part of the apartment. It was an affectation of the Marquise, pardonable enough in a hand- some woman, to protest that she hated the reflection of her own features ; and this little chamber was her favourite retreat — her inner citadel, her sanctuary of seclusion — or, as the servants called it, the Boudoir of Madame. It was undoubtedly the quietest room in the house, the 88 CERISE farthest removed fi'om the noise of the courtyard, the domestics, even their p^uests. Profound silence would have reigned in it now, hut for the ring of a hooked hard beak drawn sharply at intervals across a row of gilt wires, and a ghastly muttering, like that of a demoniac, between whisper and croak, for the encouragement of somebody or something named " Pierrot." It was Madame's West Indian parrot, beguiling his solitude by the conscientious study of his part. Presently the bird gave a long shrill whistle, for he heard a well-known step on the garden stair, and his mistress's voice singing — " Non, je te dis Ma soeur, c'est lui, C'est mon Henri, A I'habit gris Des Mousquetaires, des Mousquetaires, Des Mousquetaires Du roi Louis. *' Amant gentil Qui chante, qui rit, Joli, poli, Fidele ? Mais, Oui Comme Mousquetaire, comme Mousquetaire, Comme Mousquetaire, Du roi Louis." At which conclusive j)oint in its argument Pierrot inter- rupted the ballad with a deafening shriek, and Madame, sliding the panel back, passed into the apartment. She was dressed in a simple morning toilet of white, with scarlet breast-knots, and a ribbon of the same colour gathering the shining masses of her black hair. It suited her well. Even Pierrot, gazing at her with head on one side, and uptm-ned eye, seemed to be of this opinion, though bigger and better talkers by rote had probably long ago informed her of the fact. She had a large bouquet of flowers, fresh gathered, in her hand, and she gave the bird a caressing word or two as she moved through her boudoir, disposing of them here and there to the best advantage; then she selected a few of the rarest, and put them carefully in water, telling the parrot "these are for Cerise, Pierrot," and endeavouring to make it repeat her daughter's name. Of course, without success ; though on other occasions this THE BOUDOIE OF MADAME 89 refractory pupil would shriek these well-known syllables, time after time, till the very cook, far off in the basement, was goaded to swear hideously, wishing in good Gascon he had the accursed fowl picked and trussed and garnished with olives in the stew-pan. Cerise had been brought back from her pension in Nor- mandy, as we have seen, partly by Malletort's advice, partly because her mother longed to have the girl by her side once more. They had been inseparable formerly, and it is pos- sible she was conscious, without confessing it, that her whole character deteriorated during her daughter's absence. So the heavy family coach, postilions, outriders, footmen, and all, rolled into the courtyard of the Hotel Montmirail, after a slight delay, as we have seen, at one of the barriers, and deposited its freight to the great jubilation of the whole household. These were never tired of praising mademoiselle's beauty, mademoiselle's grace — her refine- ment, her manners, her acquirements, her goodness of heart, were on every lip. But though she said less about it than the domestics, nobody in her establishment was so alive to the merits of Cerise as her mother. In good truth, the Marquise loved her daughter very dearly. She never thought she could love anything half so much, except — except perhaps, the germ of a new idea that had lately been forming itself in her heart, and of which the vague shadowy uncertainty, the shame, the excuses, the unwillingness with which she acknowledged it, constituted no small portion of the charm. Is it possible that Love is painted blind because, if people could see before them, they would never be induced to move a step along the pleasant path? — the pleasant path that leads through cool shades and clustering roses, down the steep bank where the nettles grow, through briar and bramble, to end at last in a treacherous morass, whence extrication is generally difficult, sometimes impos- sible, and always unpleasant. Nevertheless, to get Cerise back from her pension, to find that she had grown into a woman, yet without losing the child's blue eyes, fond and frank and innocent as ever — to watch her matured intellect, to feel that the plaything was a companion now, though playful and light-hearted still — lastly, to discover that she was a beauty, but a beauty who could never become a rival. 90 CEIUSE because in quite a different style from her mother — all this was very delightful, and the Marquise, seldom low-spirited at any time, had become perfectly sparkling since her daughter came home. So she carolled about the boudoir like a girl, coaxing Pierrot, arranging the flowers, and warning Celandine, between the notes of her foolish love-song, not to let mademoiselle's chocolate get cold. Mademoiselle, you see, was tired and not yet down ; indeed, to tell the truth, not yet up, but pressing a soft flushed cheek against her laced pillow, having just awoke from a dream, in which she was back at the convent in Normandy once more, sauntering down the beech-walk with her director, who somehow, instead of a priest's habit, wore the unifonn of the Grrey Musketeers, an irregularity that roused the wrath of the Lady Superior and made her speak out freely ; whereat the Musketeer took his pupil's part, looking down on her with a brave brown face and kind eyes, while he clasped her hand in fond assurance of his aid. Waking thus, she tried hard to get back to sleep, in hopes of dreaming it all over again. The mother, meanwhile, having disposed her chamber to her liking, sank into the recesses of a deep arm-chair, and began to speculate on her daughter's future. It is not to be supposed that such an important consideration as the child's mamage now occupied her attention for the first time. Indeed her habits, her education, the opinions of that society in which she lived, even her own past, with its vicissitudes and experiences, seemed to urge on her the necessity of taking some step towards an early settlement in life for her attractive girl. Cerise w^as beautiful, no doubt, thought the Marquise ; not indeed in her mother's wicked, provoking style, of which that mother well knew the power, but with the innocent beauty of an angel. At such a Court, it was good she should be provided as soon as possible with a legitimate protector. Of suitors there would be no lack, for two strains of the best blood in France united in the person of this fair damsel, whose wealth, besides, would make her a desirable acquisition to the noblest gentleman in the realm. Then she reviewed in turn all the eligible matches she could think of in the large circle of her acquaintance; scanning them mentally, one THE BOUBOIB OF MADAME 91 after another, with the proverbial fastidiousness that, looking for a perfectly straight stick, traverses the wood from end to end in vain. The first man was too young, the second too old, a third too clever, a fourth too stupid. Count Point d'Appui had been hawked at by all the beauties in Paris, and owned half Picardy; but she was afraid of him. No, she could not trust him with her Cerise. He w^as worn out, debauched, one of the roues, and worse than the Eegent ! Then there was the Marquis de la Force Manquee, he would have been the very thing, but he had sustained a paralytic stroke. Ah ! she knew it. The family might hush it up, talk of a fall in hunting, a shock to the system, a cold bath after exercise, but Fagon had told her what it was. The late king's physician should understand such matters, and she was not to be deceived ! To be sure, there was still the Due de Beaublafard left — noble rank, tolerable possessions, easy temper, and a taste for the fine arts. She wavered a long time, but decided against him at last. "It is a pity ! " said the Marquise, in a half-whisper, shaking her head, and gazing thoughtfully at Pierrot; "a thousand pities! but I dare not risk it. He is too good-looking — even for a lover — decidedly for a husband ! " It was strange that, with her knowledge of human nature, her experience, by observation at least, of human passions, she should so little have considered that person's inclina- tions who ought to have been first consulted in such a matter. She never seemed to contemplate for an instant that Cerise herself might shrink from the character of the Count, appeal against becoming sick-nurse to the Marquis, or incline to the excessive and objectionable beauty of the Duke. It seemed natural the girl should accept her mother's choice just as that mother had herself accepted, without even seeing, the chivalrous old Montmirail whom she had so cherished and respected, whose snuff-box stood there under glass on her writing-table, and for whom, though he had been dead more years than she liked to count, she Fome- tim.es felt as if she could weep even now. Such a train of reflection gi-adually brought the Marquise to her own position in life, and a calculation of the advan- tages and disadvantages attendant on marriage as regarded 92 CEBISE herself. She could not but know she was in the full meridian of her beauty. Her summer, so to speak, was still in its July ; the fruit bright, glowing, and mature ; not a leaf yet changed in colour with forewarning of decay. She might take her choice of a dozen noble names whenever she would, and she felt her heart beat while she w^ondered why this consideration should of late have been so often present to her mind. It could only arise from an anxiety to settle Cerise, she argued with herself; there conld be no other reason. Impossible ! absurd ! No — no — a thousand times —No! She went carefully back over her past life, analysing, with no foolish, romantic, tendencies, but in a keen, impartial spirit, the whole history of her feelings. She acknowledged, with a certain hard triumph, that in her young days she had never loved. Likings, flirtations, passing fancies she had indulged in by hundreds, a dozen at a time, but to true feminine affection her nearest approach had been that sentiment of regard which she entertained for her husband. She did not stop to ask herself if this was love, as women understand the word. And was she to be always invulnerable ? Was she indeed incapable of that abstraction, that self-devotion w^hich made the happiness and the misery of nearly all her sex ? She did ask herself this question, but she did not answer it ; though Pierrot, still watching her out of one eye, must have seen her blush. Certainly, none of her declared suitors had hitherto inspired it. Least of all, he to whom the world had lately given her as his affianced wife. Brave he was, no doubt, chivalrous in thought and action ; stupid enough besides ; yes, quite stupid enough for a husband ! generous too, and considerate — but oh ! not like the kind, unselfish, indulgent old heart she mourned for in widow's weeds all those years ago. She could almost have cried again now, and yet she laughed when she thought of the united ages of her late husband and her present adorer. Was it her destiny, then, thus ever to captivate the affections of old men ? and were their wrongs to be avenged at last by her own infatuation for a lover many years younger than herself? Again the burning blushes rose to her brow, and though Pierrot was THE BOUDOIR OF MADAME 93 the only witness present, she buried her face in her hands. Lifting her eyes once more, they rested on a picture that hekl the place of honour in her boudoir. It was a coloured drawing of considerable spirit, and had been given her by no less a favourite than the Prince-Marshal himself, for whose glorification it had been executed by a rising artist. It represented a battle-field, of which the Prince de Chateau-Guerrand constituted the principal object ; and that officer was portrayed with considerable fidelity, advancing to the succour of the Count de Guiches, who at the head of the Guards was covering Yilleroy's retreat before Marlborough at Kamillies. Two or three broad, honest faces of the English grenadiers came well out from the smoke and confusion in the background, ingeniously increased by a fall of rafters and conflagration of an imaginary farm-house ; but the Count de Guiches himself occupied no prominent place in the composition, dancing about on a little grey horse in one corner, as if studious not to interfere with the dominant figure, who was, indeed, the artist's patron, and who presided over the whole in a full- bottomed wig, with a conceited smile on his face and a laced hat in his hand. There lay, also, a dead Musketeer in the foreground, admirably contrived to impart reality to the scene of conflict ; and it was on this figure that the eyes of the Marquise fixed themselves, devouring it with a passionate gaze, in which admiration, longing, self-scorn, and self-reproach, seemed all combined. For a full minute the wild, pitiful expression never left her face, and dming that minute she tore her handkerchief to the coronet near its hem. Then she rose and paced the room for a couple of turns, restless as a leopard ; but ere she had made a third, footsteps were heard approaching through the bed-chamber. The door opened, and one of her servants announced " Monsieur I'Abbe Malietort ! " CHAPTEE XI WHAT THE SERPENT SAID He came in smiling, of course. When was the Abbe to be caught without his self-possessed smile, his easy manner, and his carefully-arranged dress ? On the present occasion he carried with him some rare flowers as well. The Marquise sprang at them almost before he had time to offer his elaborate homage, while he bent over her extended hand. He snatched the nosegay away, however, with gi*eat quickness, and held it behind his back. *' Pardon, madame," said he, *' this is forbidden fruit. As such I bring it into the garden of Paradise; where my cousin dwells there is Eden, and the resemblance is the more striking that neither here are found mirrors to offend me with the reflection of my own ugly face. Consequently, my attention is concentrated on yourself. I look at you, Marquise, as Adam looked at Eve. Bah ! that father of horticulture was but a husband. I should rather say, as the subtle creature who relieved their domestic tete-a-tete looked at the lady presiding over that charming scene. I look at you, I say, with delight and admiration, for I find you beautiful ! " *' And is it to tell me this important news that you are abroad so early?" asked the Marquise, laughing gaily, while she pointed to the easy-chair she had just left. '' Sit down, Monsiem- I'Abbe, and try to talk sense for five minutes. You can be rational ; none more so, when you choose. I want your opinion — nay, I even think I want your advice. Mind, I don't promise to take it, that of course ! Don't 94 WHAT THE SEBPENT SAID 95 look so interested. It's not about myself. It's about Cerise." "How can I look anything else?" asked tbe Abbe, whose face, to do him justice, never betrayed his thoughts or feelings. " Madame, or Mademoiselle, both are near and dear to me — too much so for my own repose." He sighed, and laid his white hand on his breast. She was so accustomed to his manner that she never troubled herself whether he was in jest or earnest. Moreover, she was at present engrossed with her daughter's future, and proceeded thoughtfully. " Cerise is a woman now, my cousin. Her girlhood is past, and she has arrived at an age when every woman should think of establishing herself in life. Pardon ! that bouquet is in your way ; put it down yonder in the window- sill." The Abbe rose and placed the flowers in the open window, whence a light air from without wafted their sweet and heavy perfume into the apartment. When he reseated himself the Marquise had relapsed into silence. She was thinldng deeply, with her eyes fixed on the dead musketeer in the pictm-e. The Abbe spoke first. He began in a low tone of emotion, that, if fictitious, was admirably assumed. "It is not for me, perhaps, madame, to give an opinion on such matters as concern the affections. For vie, the churchman, the celibate, the man of the world, whose whole utility to those he loves depends on subjection of his love at any cost — at any sacrifice ; who must trample his feelings under foot, lest they rise and vanquish him, putting him to torture, punishment, and shame. My cousin, have not I seemed to you a man of marble rather than a creature of flesh and blood?" The Marquise opened her black eyes wide. He had succeeded at least in rousing her attention, and continued in the same low, hurried voice. " Can you not make allowance for a position so constrained and unnatm-al as mine? Can you not comprehend a devotion that exists out of, and apart fi-om self? Is not the hideous Satyr peering from behind his tree at the nymph whose beauty awes him from approach, an object more touch- 96 CERISE in^::, more to be respected than vain Narcissus languishing, after all, but for the mere reflection of himself? Is not that a true and faithful worship which seeks only the elevation of its idol, though its own cruslied body may be exacted to raise the pedestal, if but by half a foot ? Do you believe — I ask you, my cousin, in the utmost truth and sincerity — do you believe there breathes a man on earth so completely conse- crated to your interests as myself? " '' You have always been a Idnd counsellor — and — and — an affectionate kinsman," answered the Marquise, a little confused ; adding, with an air of frankness that became her well — "Come ! Abbe, you are a good friend, neither more nor less, staunch, honest, constant. You always have been, you always will be. Is it not so ? " His self-command was perfect. His face betrayed neither disappointment, vexation, nor wounded pride. His voice retained just so much of tremor as was compatible with the warm regard of friendship, yet not too little to convey the deeper interest of love. He did not approach his cousin by an inch. He sat back in the arm-chair, outwardly composed and tranquil, yet he made it appear that he was pleading a subject of vital importance both to her welfare and his own. " Pass over me, madame! " he exclaimed, throwing both his white hands u^) with a conclusive gesture. *' Walk over my body without scruple if it will keep you dry-shod. Why am I here ; nay, why do I exist at all but to serve you — and yours ? Nevertheless it is not now a question of the daughter's destiny — that will arrive in course of time — it is of the mother I would speak. For the mother I would plead, even against myself. What temptation is there in the world like ambition ? What has earth to offer compared to its promises? The draught of love may be, nay, I feel too keenly must be, very sweet, but what bitter drops are mingled in the cup ! Surely I know it ; but what matters its taste to me ? the Abbe ! the priest ! Marquise, you have a future before you the proudest woman in Europe might envy. That fair hand might hold a sceptre, that sweet brow be encircled by a crown. Bah ! they are but baubles, of course," continued the Abbe, relapsing without a moment's warning into his usual tone ; " the one would make your arm ache and the other your head ; nevertheless, my cousin, you could endure WHAT THE SEBPENT SAID 97 these inconveniences without complaint, perhaps even with patience and resignation to your fate ? ' ' The Marquise, it must be confessed, was relieved at his change of tone. Her feelings had been stimulated, her sympathies enlisted, and now her curiosity was aroused. This last quality is seldom weak in her sex, and the Abbe, though it is needless to inquire where or how he learned the trade, was far too experienced a practitioner to neglect so powerful an engine as that desire for knowledge which made shipwreck of Eve and is the bane of all her daughters. Madame de Montmirail was proud — most women are. She loved power — most women do. If a thought flashed through her mind that the advancement of her own position might benefit those in whom she felt interest, what was this but a noble instinct, unselfish as are all the instincts of woman- hood? " You speak in parables, my good Abbe," said she, with a laugh that betrayed some anxiety to know more. " You talk of crowns and sceptres as familiarly as I do of fims and bracelets. Y'ou must expound to me what you mean, for I am one of those who find out a riddle admirably when they have been told the answer." " I will instruct you, then," was his reply, '' in the form of a parable. Listen and learn. A certain Sultan had a collection of jewels, and he changed them from time to time — because he could not find a gem that sparkled with equal brilliance by day and by night. So he consulted every jeweller in his dominions, and squandered great sums of money, both in barter and in a search for what he required. Nay, he would trample under foot and defile the treasures he possessed, passionate, languishing, wretched, for want of that he possessed not. So his affairs went to ruin, and his whole counti*y was in want and misery. " Now, a Dervish praying at sunset by a fountain, saw a beautiful bird fly down to the water to drink. Between its eyes grew a jewel that flamed and glittered like the noonday sun on the Sultan's drawn scimitar. And the Dervish bethought him, this jewel would be a rare addition to the collection of his lord ; so he rolled his prayer-carpet into a pillow, and went to sleep by the side of the fountain, under a tree. 7 98 CERISE ** At midnight the Dervish woke up to pray, and on the branch above his head he saw something flash and sparkle like the sun on the Sultan's scimitar at noonday. So he said, ' This is the gem for which my lord pineth. Lo ! I will take the bird captive, and bring it with me to the feet of my lord.' *' Then the Dervish took the bird craftily with his hand, and though the fowl was beautiful, and the gem was precious, he ke})t neither of them for himself, but brought them both for his lord, to be the delight of the Sultan and the salvation of the land." " And su2:>pose the poor bird would rather have had her liberty," replied the Marquise. " It seems to me that in their dealings with men the birds get the worst of it from first to last." " This bird was wise in her generation, as the goose that saved Kome," answered the Abbe ; '^ but the bird I have in my thoughts wants only opportunity to soar her pitch, like the falcon, Queen of Earth and Air. Seriously, madame — look at the condition of our Sultan. I speak not of the young king, a weak and rickety boy, with all respect be it said, ill in bed at this very moment, perhaps never to leave his chamber alive. I mean the Eegent, my kind patron, your devoted admirer — the true ruler of France. And look at the jewels in his casket. Do you think there is one that he prizes at the value of a worn-out glove? " The subject possessed a certain degree of interest, trench- ing though it was upon very delicate gi'ound. " He has plenty to choose fi-om, at any rate," observed the Marquise ; " and I must say I cannot compliment him on the taste he has displayed in these valuables," she added, with a mischievous laugh. " He would throw tliem all willingly into the Seine to- morrow," continued Malletort, " might he but possess the gem he covets, and set it in the Crown-royal of France. Yes, madame, the Crown-royal, I repeat it. Where are the obstacles ? Louis XV. may not, will not, nay, perhaps, shall not live to be a man. Madame d'Orleans inherits the feeble constitution, without the beauty of her mother, Madame de Montespan. Fagon himself will tell you her life is not worth nine months' purchase, and since she has quarrelled WHAT THE SERPENT SAID 99 with her daughter she has less interest with the Regent than one of the pages. Her party is no longer in power, the Comte de Toulouse is in disgrace, the Due du Maine is in disgrace. Illegitimacy is at a discount, though, parhleii, it has no want of propagators in our day. To speak frankly, my cousin, a clever woman who could influence the Regent might sway the destinies of the whole nation in six weeks, — might be Queen of France in six months from this time." The Marquise listened, as Eve may have listened to the serpent when he pressed her to taste the apple. For different palates, the fruit, tempting, because forbidden, assumes different forms. Sometimes it represents power, sometimes pique, sometimes lucre, and sometimes love. According to their various natures, the tempted nibble at it with their pretty teeth, suck it eagerly with clinging lips, or swallow it whole, like a bolus, at a gulp. The Marquise was only nibbling, but her cheek glowed, her eyes shone, and she whispered below her breath, " The Queen of France ; " as if there was music in the very syllables. The Abbe paused to let the charm work, ere he resumed, in his half-jesting way — " The Queen, madame ! Despite the injustice on our Salic law, you may say the King ! Such a woman, and I know well of whom I speak, would little by little obtain all the real power of the crown. She might sway the council — she might rule the parliament — she might control the finances. In and out of the palace she would become the disj)enser of rank, the fountain of honour. Nay," he added, with a laugh, " she might usurp the last privileges of royalty, and command the very Musketeers of the Guard themselves ! " Did he know that he had touched a string to vibrate through his listener's whole being ? She rose and walked to the window, where the flowers were, while at the same moment he prepared to recall her hastily. It was needless, for she started, turning very pale, and came quietly back to her seat. The Abbe's quick ear detected the tramp of a boot crunching the gravel walk outside, but it was impos- sible to gather from his countenance whether he suspected the passer-by to be of more importance than one of the 100 CERISE gardeners. The Marquise, however, had caught a glimpse of a ligure she was hegimiing to know hy heart too well. Captain George had of late, indeed ever since Cerise came home, contracted a habit of traversing the gardens of the Hotel Montmirail to visit a post of his musketeers in the neighbourhood. These guards were permitted to enter everyvN^herc, and Madame de Montmirail was the last person to interfere, in this instance, with their privileges. So little annoyance, indeed, did she seem to experience from the intrusion, that the windows of her boudoir were gene- rally wide open at this hour of the day. Though to visit this post might be a necessary military precaution, it was obviously a duty requiring promptitude less than considera- tion. Captain George usually walked slowly through the garden, and returned in a very short time at the same deliberate pace. The Marquise knew perfectly well that it took him exactly ten minutes by the clock in her boudoir. When she sat down again, Malletort, without noticing her movement or her confusion, proceeded in a sincere and affectionate tone — "I need not explain more clearly, madame; I need not urge my motives nor dwell upon my own self-sacrifice. It is sufficient for the Abbe to see his peerless cousin set out on her journey to fame, and to feel that he has indicated the shortest path. There are obstacles, no doubt ; but for what purpose do obstacles exist save to be sunnounted or swept aw^ay ? Let us take them as they come. I can count them all on the fingers of my hand." The Abbe began systematically at his thumb. '' The young King and Madame d'Orleans are already disposed of, or, at worst, soon will be, in the common course of events. Eemain — the roues — Madame de Sabran, and Madame Parabere. Of these, I can manage the first without assistance. I have influence with the whole gang. Some may be persuaded, others intimidated, all can be bribed. I anticipate no opposition worth speaking of from the male element, fond of pleasure, fond of wine, and embarrassed as they are good for nothing. With the last two it is different. Madame de Sabran is witty, handsome, and well-bred ; but she spares no person, however exalted, in her sarcasm, and the Regent fears her tongue while he is oppressed with her society. WHAT THE SEBPENT SAID 101 One or two more of her cutting sayings, and she will sever the cord, already frayed very thin, hy which she holds on to fortune. Then she becomes but yesterday's bouquet, and we need trouble ourselves no more with her ! Exit Madame de Sabran. Enter — whom shall we name, my beautiful cousin ? Whoever it is will have it in her power to become Queen of France. Now there is only Madame de Parabere left ; but alas ! she is the most dangerous and the most powerful of all. It is against her that I must ask you, madame, to lend me your assistance." " Mine ! " repeated the Marquise, half surprised and half unwilling, though with no especial liking for the lady in question. " Mine ! what can I do ? " '' Much," replied Malletort, earnestly. *' Indeed, every- thing ! Yet, it is very little I will ask you to undertake, though it must eventually lead to the greatest results. Listen. The Regent, while he has confessed to me over and over again that he grows weary of Madame de Para- bere, is yet fascinated by her beauty — the beauty, after all, of a baby-face with a skin like cream. Such beauty as even the devil must have possessed when he was young. She has neither wit, nor grace, nor intellect, nor form, nor even features. But she has her skin, and that I must admit is wonderfully clear and soft. This attraction possesses some incredible fascination for the Duke. If she went out in the sun to-morrow and came home tanned, adieu to her power for ever ! I cannot make her go out in the sun, but I think if you will help me I can arrange that she shall become tanned — aye, worse than tanned, speckled all over like a toad. Do you remember once when they praised your beauty at the late King's dinner, she said, ' Yes, you were very well for a mulatto ? ' " "I have not forgotten it ! " replied the Marquise, and her flashing eye showed that neither had she forgiven the offence. " That little compliment alone would make me her enemy," continued the Abbe, ''if I allowed myself such luxuries as likes and dislikes ; but she is in our way, and that is a far better reason for putting her aside. Now my beautiful cousin has admired those flowers in the window more than once. She thinks they are an ofi'cring from her 102 CERISE fiiiihfnl kinsman. It is not so. I have procured them with no small trouble for Madame de Parabere ! " ''Then why bring them here?" asked the Marquise, with a spice of pardonable pique in her tone. " Because, if I sent them to her with the compliments of Monsieur I'Abbe Malletort, the Swiss would probably not take them in ; because if I offered them to her myself, I, the cynic, the unimpressionable, the man of marble, who has eyes but for his kinswoman, she would suspect a trick, or perhaps some covert insult or irony that would cause her to refuse the gift point-blank. No, my plan is better laid. You go to the masked ball at the opera to-night. She will be there on the Kegent's arm. Jealous, suspicious, domi- neering, she will never leave him. There is not another petal of stephanotis to be procm'ed for love or money within thirty leagues of Paris ; I have assured myself of this. They are her favom'ite flowers. You will appear at the ball with your bouquet; but for the love of heaven, my cousin," and the Abbe's countenance was really in earnest while he thus adjm-ed her, "do not, even with a mask on, put it within six inches of your face ! " "It is poisoned !" exclaimed the Marquise, walking, nevertheless, to the open window where the flowers stood. " Poisoned ! I will have nothing to do with it. If we were men, I would force her to cross swords with me on the turf down there. But poison ! No, my cousin. I tell you no. Never ! " "Poison is entirely a relative term," observed the Abbe, philosophically. "All drugs in excess become poisons. These pretty flowers are not poisoned so much as medicated. There is no danger to life in smelling them — none. But their effect on the skin is cui'ious, really interesting from a scientific point of view. A few hours after inspiration, even of one leaf, the complexion loses its fr-eshness, fades, comes out in spots — turns brown." The Marquise listened attentively. " Brown ! Deep brown ! Browner than any mulatto ! " The Marquise wavered. " It really would not be a bad joke, and I think she deserves it for what she said of you." The Marquise consented. WHAT THE SERPENT SAID 103 '* I will take them to the ball," said she, " and if Madame de Parabere asks for them, why, in common politeness, she must have them. But mask or no mask, I will take care to let her know who I am ! " ''Better not," said the more cautious Abbe, and would have explained why, but the Marquise paid no attention to what he said. She seemed uneasy, and moved behind the window-curtain with a nervous gesture and a rising colour in her cheek. " Another complication," muttered her companion, catching once more the measured boot-tramp on the gravel-walk. "So be it ! The more cards dealt, the better chance for the player who can peep at his adver- sary's hand ! " Looking into the garden, he perceived the Musketeer's tall figure moving leisurely along the walk. His pace became slower and slower, and the Marquise, behind the curtain, blushed deeper and deeper as he came directly below the window, peering up at the house with an air of caution, not lost on Malletort's observation. '' I wdll force one of them to play a court card," thought the Abbe, and muttering something about " stifling heat," pushed the window noisily, as far open as it would go. The Musketeer looked quickly up, and at the same moment something white and buoyant fluttered lightly to the ground at his very feet. The Marquise was trembling and blushing behind her window-curtain. The ruffles at Malletort's wrist had brushed a cluster of blossoms from the stephanotis, and it fell within six inches of Captain George's boot. He picked it up with a murmur of delight. In another moment he would have pressed it to his lips, but the Mar- quise could keep silence no longer. Shrouding herself in the window-curtain, she exclaimed in a hoarse whisper, *' Hold ! Monsieur, in Heaven's name ! It is poisoned ! " He cast a rapid penetrating glance, up, down, all round. His monitress was invisible, and the Abbe had shrunk back into the room. Then he examined the blossoms minutely, though at arm's-length, holding them in his gloved hand, and so twirling them carelessly about, as if to avoid obser- vation, went on a few paces, ere he threw them on the 104 CEBISE walk and crushed them to pieces beneath his heel. For two minutes Madame IMontmirail had been hot and cold by tm-ns, giddy, choking — the Abbe, the room, the gardens, swimming before her eyes — now she drew a long breath of relief and turned to her cousin. ** By my faith. Monsieur TAbbe," said she, ''that soldier down there is a true gentleman ! " And Malletort took his leave, reflecting that in research after general information, his last hour's work had been by no means thrown away. CHAPTER XII OUT-MAN(EUVRED Captain George was not the only soldier of France whom a visit to the Hotel Montmirail affected that morning with the slighter and premonitory symptoms of fever, such as dry mouth, irregular pulse, and a tendency to flush without physical exertion. While the Musketeer was visiting his outposts in anything but a warlike frame of mind, his former general was working his temper up to a state of nervous irritation more trying than usual to the valets and other domestics of his household. The Prince-Marshal busied himself to-day with preparations for his grand attack, and, contrary to the whole practice of his lifetime, in the event of failure, had made no disposition for retreat. He felt, indeed, a good deal more agitated now than when he led a forlorn-hope of Black Musketeers at twenty, an exploit from which he came off with three flesh Avounds and a broken collar-bone, owing to the usual mistake of too short a scaling-ladder ; but he consoled himself by reflect- ing how this very agitation denoted that the fountain of youth was not yet dried up in his heart. He rose early, though he could not decently present himself at the Hotel Montmirail for hours to come. He stormed and swore because his chocolate was not ready, though he hardly tasted it when it was served, and indeed broke his fast on yolk of egg and pounded sugar, mixed up with a small glass of brandy. This stimulating refreshment enabled him to encounter the fatigue of di'essing, and very careful the veteran was to marshal his staunch old forces in their most imposing array. 105 106 CERISE The few teeth he could boast were polished up white and glistening. Their ranks indeed had been sadly thinned, but, like the last survivors of a beleaguered garrison, though shattered and disordered, they mustered bravely to the front. His wTinkled cheeks and pointed chin were shaved trim and smooth, while the moustaches on his upper lip, though nearly white, were carefully clipped and arranged in the prevailing fashion. More than once during the progi'ess of the toilet, before a mirror which he cursed re- peatedly for a dull and unbecoming glass, his heart misgave him, and he treated his valets to a few camp compliments cuiTent amongst the old die-hards of Turenne ; but when at last his cravat was fastened — his frills adjusted, his just au corps fitted on, his delicate ruffles pulled over his wasted hands, with their swollen knuckles and magnificent rings, his diamond-hilted rapier hung exactly at his hip, and his laced hat, cocked jauntily d la Mousquetaire, he took one approving survey in the mirror, unbecoming as it was, and marched forth confident and resolved to conquer. His carriage was waiting for him at the porter's lodge of his hotel. A nobleman of those days seldom walked afoot in the streets, and it took four horses at least, one coachman, one postilion, and two or three footmen in laced coats, to convey a single biped the distance of a couple of hundred metres. As the door of his heraldry- covered coach closed on him Vvdth a bang, quoth Auguste, who had dressed him, to Etienne, who had handed the clothes and shared impartially in his master's maledictions — " Come, that's not so bad, Etienne ! Hein ? What would you have at sixty-three ? And without mc, Bones of St. Martin ! what is he ? A monkey, a skeleton, a heap of rags and refuse ! Ah ! What it is ! the toilet ! — when a man is really master of his work." The Prince-Marshal, you see, like other heroes, was none to his valet de chamhre ; but Auguste, a true artist, having neglected none of the minutics on which success depended, looked to general results, and exulted in the masterpiece that he felt was a creation of his own genius. Now it fell out that the Prince de Chateau- Guerrand, hereditary Grand Chasseur to the King, Master of the OUT-MANCEUVRED 107 Horse to the Dauphin, State Exon to the sons and daughters of France, Marshal of its armies, and chevalier of half-a- dozen orders in his own and other countries, with no decoration on earth left to wish for but the Grolden Fleece of Sixain, which he coveted greedily in consequence, and prized above them all, arrived at the Hotel Montmirail almost in the moment when Abbe Malletort quitted it at the front entrance, and Captain George of the Grey Mus- keteers left it by the garden door. Though the Prince's chance of victory must have been doubtful at any time, I do not think he could have chosen a more unfavourable moment to deploy into line, as it were, and offer battle in the open field. His fair enemy had already been skirmishing with one foe, and caught sight of another, whom she would willingly have engaged. Her trumpets had sounded the Alerte, her colours were displayed, her artillery was in advance, guns unlimbered, matches lighted, front cleared, all her forces ready and quivering for action — woe to the veteran when he should leave his en- trenchments, and sally forth to hazard all his past successes on the rash issue of one stand-up fight ! His instincts told him he was wrong, even while he followed the obsequious lackey, in the Montmirail livery, through the glittering suite of rooms that led him to his fate. Followed, with cold hands and shaking knees, he who had led stormers and commanded armies ! Even to himself there was a something of ridicule in the position ; and he smiled, as a man smiles who is going to the dentist, while he whispered — "Courage, my child! It is but a quarter of an hour, after all ! and yet — I wish I had put that other glass of brandy into my Lait cle Pottle ! " The Marquise received him more gi-aciously than usual, and this, too, had he known it, was an omen of ill-success. But it is strange how little exjierience teaches in the campaigns of Cupid, how completely his guerilla style of warfare foils all regular strategy and established system of tactics. I believe any school-girl in her teens to be a match for the most insidious adversary of the opposite sex ; and I think that the older the male serpent, and the oftener he has cast his skin, the more easily does his subtlety succumb to the voice of the innocent and unconscious charmer. 108 CERISE What chance then had an honest, conceited, thick-headed old soldier, with nothing of the snake about him but his glistening outside, and labouring under the further dis- advantage of being furiously in earnest, against such a proficient as the Marquise — a coquette of a dozen years' standing, rejoicing in battle, accustomed to triumph, witty, scornful, pitiless, and to-day, for the first time, doubtful of her prowess, and dissatisfied with herself? She had never looked better in her life ; the flushed cheeks, the brilliant eyes, the simple white dress, wdth its scarlet breast -knots, these combined to constitute a very seductive whole, and one that, had there been a mirror in which she could see it reflected, might have gone far to strengthen the Abbe's arguments, and to convince her that his schemes, aspiring though they seemed, were founded on a knowledge of human nature, experience, and common sense. Neither, I imagine, does a woman ever believe in her heart that any destiny can be quite beyond her reach. Though fortune may ofi'er man something more than his share of goods and tangible possessions on this material earth, nature has conferred on woman the illimitable in- heritance of the possible ; and no beggar maiden is so lowly but that she may di-eam of King Cophetua and his crown- matrimonial laid at her shoeless feet. To see the chance, vague, yet by no means unreasonable, of becoming Queen of France looming in the future — to entertain a preference, vague, yet by no means doubtful, for a handsome captain of Grey Musketeers — and to be made honourable love to at a little past thirty by a man and a marshal a little past sixty — was not all this enough to impart a yet deeper lustre to the glowing cheeks and the bright eyes, to bid the scarlet breast-knots heave and quiver over that warm, wilful, and impassioned heart ? It was not a fair fight ; far from it. It was Goliath against David, and David, moreover, wdth neither stone nor sling, nor ruddy countenance, nor the mettle of untried courage, nor youthful confidence in his cause. He came up boldly, however, when he confronted his enemy, and Idssed her hand with a ponderous compliment to her good looks, which she cut short rudely enough. Then he took his hat from the floor, and began to smooth OVT -MANGE WEED 109 its lace against his heavy coat-cuff. She knew it was coming, and though it made her nervous, she rather liked it, notwithstanding. " Madame ! " said the Prince-Marshal, and then he stopped, for his voice sounded so strange he thought he had better begin again. " Madame, I have for a long period had the honour and advantage of your friendship. Nay, I hope that I have, in all that time, done nothing to forfeit your good opinion? " She laughed a little unmeaning laugh, and of course avoided a direct answer to the question. "I always stand up for my friends," said he, *' and your- self, monsieur, amongst the number. It is no light task, I can assure you ! " The veteran had opened fire now, and gained confidence every moment. The first step, the first plunge, the first sentence. It is all the same. Fairly in deep water, a brave man finds his courage come back even faster than it failed him. " Madame," he resumed, laying his hat on the floor again, and sitting bolt upright, while his voice, though hoarser than usual, grew very stern, "madame, I am in earnest. Seriously in earnest at present. Listen. I have something of importance to say to you ! " In spite of herself she was a little cowed. " One moment. Prince ! " she exclaimed, rising to shut the door and window of her boudoir, as if against listeners. It was a simple feminine manoeuvre to gain time ; but, looking into the garden, she spied a remnant of the Stephanotis left where George had trodden it, and when she sat down again she was as brave as a lioness once more. Her change of posi- tion rather disordered her suitor's line of battle, and as she had skilfully increased the distance between them, his tactics were still further impeded. In his love affairs the Prince-Marshal's system had always been to come as soon as possible to close quarters ; but it was so long since he had made a regular formal proposal of marriage, that he could not for the life of him remember the precise attitude in which he had advanced. Some vague recollection he entertained, strengthened by what he had seen on the stage, of going down on his knees, but the floor was very slippery. 110 CERISE and he was not quite confident about getting up again. It would be ridiculous, he felt, to urge his suit on all-fours, and he knew the Marquise well enough, besides, to be quite sure her paroxysms of laughter in such a difficulty would render her incapable of returning an intelligible answer. Altogether, he decided on sitting still, and though it was obviously a disadvantage, doing his love-making at arm's length. "Madame!" he repeated for the fom-tli time, I am a soldier ; I am a man of few words ; I am, I hope, a gentle- man, but I am no longer young. I do not dissemble this ; I am even past my prime. Frankly, madame, I am getting an old man." It was incontestable. She smothered a smile as she mentally conceded the position, but in reply she had nothing to say, and she said it. The Prince-Marshal, expecting the disclaimer that per- haps politeness demanded, seemed here a little bothered. He had no doubt gone through many rehearsals of the imaginary scene, and it confused him to lose his anticipated cue. Seeking inspiration once more, then, from his hat, he proceeded rather inconsequently. '' Therefore it is that I feel emboldened in the present instance to lay before you, madame, the thoughts, the intentions, the wishes, in brief — the anticipations that I had formed of my own future, and to ask your opinion, and, indeed, your advice, or perhaps, I should say, your approval of my plans." What a quick ear she had ! Far off, upstairs, she heard the door of her daughter's bedroom shut, and she knew that Cerise, after stopping at every flower- stand in the gallery, would as usual come straight to her mamma's boudoir. Such a diversion would be invaluable, as it must for the present prevent any decided result from her interview with the Prince-Marshal. She had resolved not to accept him for a husband, we know, and sooner or later, she must come to a definite understanding with her faithful old suitor ; but she seemed in this instance strangely given to procrastina- tion, and inclined from time to time to put off the evil day. Why she did not prefer to have done with it once for all, why she could not wait calmly for his proposal and refuse him with a polite reverence, as she had refused a score of OUT-MAN(EUVRED 111 others, it is not for me to explain. Perhaps she would not willingly abdicate a sovereignty that became year by year more precious and more precarious. Perhaps she loved a captive, as a cat loves a mouse, allowing it so much liberty as shall keep it just within reach of the cruel velvet paw. Perhaps she shrunk from any decided step that would force her own heart to confess it was interested elsewhere. A woman's motives may be countless as the waves on the shore, her intention fathomless as mid-ocean by the deep- sea lead. Hearing the march of her auxiliaries, she made light of an engagement at closer quarters now. Looking affec- tionately in the Prince-Marshal's face, she drew her chair a little nearer, and observed in a low voice — ''I am pretty sure to approve of any plan, my Prince, that conduces to your comfort — to your welfare, nay" — for she heard the rustle of her daughter's dress, and the lock of the door move — " to your happiness ! " The tone and accompanying glance were irresistible. Any male creature must have fallen a victim on the spot. The Prince-Marshal, sitting opposite the door, dropped his hat, sprang from his chair a yard at a bound, made a pounce at the white hand of the Marquise, and before he could gi-asp it, stopped midway as if turned to stone, his mouth open, his frame rigid, his very moustaches stiffening, and his eyes staring blankly at the figure of Cerise in the door- way, who, although a good deal discomposed, for she thought to find mamma alone, rose, or rather sank, to the occasion, and bestowed on him the lowest, the most voluminous, and the longest reverence that was ever practised for months together at their pension hy the best brought -up young- ladies in France. The Prince-Marshal was too good a soldier to neglect such an opportunity for retreat, and retired in good order, flattering himself that though he had sufi'ered severely, it might still be considered a drawn battle with the Marquise. When he had made his bow with a profusion of compli- ments to the fresh and beautiful Mademoiselle, whom he wished at a worse place than back in her convent, mother and daughter sat down to spend the morning together. Contrary to custom, the pair were silent and jjreoccupied ; 112 CEEISE each, while she tried to seem at ease, immersed in her own thoughts, and yet, though engrossed with the same subject or meditation, it was strange that neither of them mentioned it to the other. CHAPTER XIII THE MOTHER OF SATAN Malletort, leaving his cousin's house by its principal egress, did not enter his coach at once, but whispering certain directions to the servants, proceeded leisurely down a narrow lane or alley, leading, after a variety of windings, into one of the great thoroughfares of Paris. The street was well adapted for such an interview, either of love or business, as it was desirable to keep secret, consisting, on one side, only of the backs of the houses, in which the windows were built up, and on the other, of the high dead wall that bounded the extensive premises of the Hotel Montmirail. Casting a hasty glance before and behind, to make sm-e he was not watched, the Abbe, when he reached the narrowest part of the narrow passage — for it was hardly more — halted, smiled, and observed to himself: " A man's character must be either very spotless or very good for nothing if he can thus afford to set the decencies of life at defiance. A churchman with an assignation ! and at noon in this quarter of Paris ! My fiiend, it is rather a strong measure, no doubt ! And suppose, nevertheless, she should fail to appear? It would be the worse for her, that's all ! Ah ! the sweet sultana ! There she is ! " While he spoke, a woman, wrapped in a large shawl, with another folded round her head, came swiftly down the alley, and stopped within two paces of him. It was the Quadroon, agitated, hurried, a good deal out of breath, and, perhaps, also a little out of temper. "It's no use, Monsieur I'Abbe ! " were the first words she gasped. ''I cannot, and I dare not, and I ivill not. ft 113 114 CERISE Besides, I have no time, I must be back directly. There's Mademoiselle, most likel}^ wanting me this minute. The idea of such a thing! It's out of the question altogether! " Malletort laughed good-humouredly. He could afford to be good-humoured, for the woman was in his power. '' And the alternative ? " said he. " Not that I want to di'ive you, my Queen of Sheba, but still, a bargain is a bargain. Do you think Mademoiselle would engross your time much longer if the Marquise knew all I know, and, indeed, all that it is my duty to tell her? " Celandine clasped her hands imploringly, and dropped at once into complete submission. " I will go wdth you, Monsieur I'Abbe," said she, humbly. " But you will not forget your promise. If you were to betray me I should die." "And I, too," thought Malletort, who knew the nature with which he had to deal, and treated it as a keeper treats the tigress in her cage. "It is no question of betrayal," he said, aloud. "Follow me. When we reach the carriage, step in. My people know where to drive." He walked on very fast, and she followed him ; her black eyes glancing fierce misgivings, like those of a wild animal that suspects a snare. Two or three more windings with which he seemed thoroughly familiar, a glance around that showed not a passenger visible, nor indeed a living soul, save a poor old rag-picker raking a heap of refuse with her hook, and the Quadroon suddenly emerged in mid-stream, so to speak, surrounded by the life and bustle of one of the main streets in Paris. At a few paces distant stood a plain, well- appointed coach, and the Abbe, pointing to its door, which a servant was holding open. Celandine found herself, ere she could look round, rumbling, she knew not where, over the noisy pavement, completely in that man's power, for whom, perhaps, of all men in the world, she entertained the strongest feelings of terror, stronger even than her aversion. She did not take long, however, to recover herself. The strain of savage blood to which she owed those fierce black eyes and jetty locks gave her also, with considerable physical courage, the insensibility of rude natures to what we may term moral fear. She might shudder at a drawn knife if THE MOTHER OF SATAN 115 she were herself unarmed, or cower before a whip if her hands were tied and her back bared ; but to future evil, to danger, neither visible nor tangible, she was callous as a child. They had not travelled half a mile ere she showed her delight in every feature of her expressive face at the rapid motion and the gay scenes through which she was driven. In a few minutes she smiled pleasantly, and asked their destination as gaily as if they had been going to a ball. Malletort thought it a good opportunity for a few impres- sive words. "Celandine," said he, gravely, ''every one of us has a treasure somewhere hidden up in the heart. What is it that you love better than everything else in the world? " The dark face, tanned by many a year of sun, yet comely still, saddened and softened while he spoke, the black eyes gi'ew deeper and deeper as they seemed to look dreamily into the past. After a pause she drew a sorrowful sigh, and answered, " Mademoiselle ! " "Good," replied the Abbe. "You are bound on an errand now for which Mademoiselle will be gTateful to you till her dying day." She looked curiously in his face. " Cerise is dear to me as my own," said she. " How can I do more for her to- day than yesterday, and to-morrow, and every day of my life?" He answered by another question. "Would you like to see your darling a Princess of France?" The Quadroon's eyes glistened and filled with tears. "I would lay down my life for the child," was all she said in reply. But he had got her malleable now, and he knew it. Those tear-drops showed him she was at the exact temperature for fusion. A little less, she would have remained too cold and hard. A little more, and over- excitement would have produced irritation, anger, defiance : then the whole process must have been begun again. It was a good time to secure her confederacy, and let her see a vague shadowy outline of his plans. In a few short sentences, but glowing and eloquent. 116 CEBISE because of tlie tropical nature to which they were addressed, Malletoi*t sketched out the noble destiny he had in view for her mistress, and the consequent elevation of Cerise to the rank of royalty. He impressed on his listener the necessity of implicit, unquestioning obedience to his commands. Above all, of unbroken silence and un- varied caution till their point was gained. "As in yom* own beautiful island," said the Abbe, soaring for the occasion to the metaphorical ; "if you would pass by night through its luxuriant jungles, you must keep the star that guides you steadily in view, nor lose sight of it for an instant; so in the path I shall indicate, never forget, however distant and impracticable it may seem, the object to which our efforts are directed. In either case, if your attention wanders for a moment, in that moment your feet stray from the path ; you stumble amongst the tangled creepers — you pierce yourself with the cruel cactus — you tread on some venomous reptile that turns and stings you to the bone ; nay, you may topple headlong down a precipice into the deep, dark, silent waters of the lagoon. Once there, I tell you fairly, you might wait for a long w^hile before the Marquise, or Mademoiselle, or myself would wet a finger to pull you out ! ' ' Thus urging on his listener the importance of her task, now in plain direct terms, now in the figurative language of parables, their drive seemed to have lasted but a few minutes, when it was brought to an abrupt termination by the stoppage of the coach before Signer Bartoletti's residence. It appeared that the visitors w^ere expected, for a couple of his heavily-decorated footmen waited on the stairs, and Celandine, following the Abbe with wondering eyes and faltering steps, found herself received with as much pomp and ceremony as if she had been a Princess of the Blood. They were ushered into the room that communicated with his laboratory. It was empty, but wine and fruit stood on the table. Malletort pressed the Quadroon to taste the former in vain. Then he passed without ceremony into the adjoining apartment, assming her of his speedy return. Left to herself. Celandine drank gi-eedily from the water- THE MOTHER OF SATAN 117 jug ere she crossed the floor on tiptoe, stealthy as a wild cat, and pressing her ear to the door, applied all her faculties intently to the one act of listening. She heard the Abbe's greeting distinctly enough, and the sentence immediately following, spoken laughingly, as usual. " The parts are cast," said he, " and the stage prepared. It remains but to dress the principal actress and make her perfect in her cue." ''Have you brought her?" answered an eager voice, hurried, agitated, and scarcely above a whisper. Indistinct as were the syllables, their eftect on the Quadroon was like magic. She started, she passed her hand wildly across her face ; her very lips turned white, and she trembled in every limb. Her attitude was no longer the simple act of listening. In concentrated eagerness it resembled the crouch of a leopard before its spring. The door opened, and she sprang in good earnest. As Bartoletti crossed the threshold she flew at him, and with one pounce had him fast by the throat. "Where is he? " she scream^ed, with foaming lips and flashing eyes. " Where is he? What have you done with him ? I will kill you if you do not tell me. Man ! Beast ! Monster ! Where have you hid my child ? " It took all the Abbe's strength, combined with the Italian's own efi'orts, to untwine those nervous fingers. At last he shook himself free, to stand gasping, panting, raping his face, exhausted, terror-stricken, and unmanned. When her physical powers yielded, her nervous system gave way as well. Sinking into a chair, she sobbed and wept hysterically, rocking herself to and fro, murmuring — " My baby ! My fair-faced baby ! My own ! My only child!" Bartoletti had by this time found his voice, though still husky and unstrung. " Celandine ! " he exclaimed, and the tone denoted fear, anxiety, surprise, even disgust, yet a something of tender- ness and interest ran through it all. Malletort lifted his eyebrows, shrugged his shoulders, and had recourse to his snufi'-box. A few words had settled his 118 CERISE business with the Adept, and his fine perceptions told him that in a scene like the present, however it originated, the interference of a third person would do more harm than good. Had he pei-mitted himself such weaknesses, he felt he could have been astonished ; but the Abbe had long established as an axiom, that " he might be disgusted, but could never be surprised." He had skill to distinguish, moreover, the nice point at which a delicate piece of work- manship may be quite spoiled by one additional touch, and knew the exact moment when it is advisable to leave both well and ill alone ; so he pocketed his snuff-box, and made a bow to the agitated pair. *'An unexpected recognition," said he, politely, "and agitating, I perceive, to both. My introduction is then unnecessary. Pardon ! You will permit me to wish you good-day, and leave you to arrange matters between your- selves ! " Insensibly Bartoletti opened the door for his guest. In- sensibly he returned the parting salutation, and insensibly, like a sleep-walker, he sat down opposite and gazed blankly in the Quadroon's face. She at least was awake, and on the alert. The storm of her emotion had subsided. She summoned all her energies for the object she had in view. " Stefano ! " she said, in a kindly conciliating tone, *' forgive my violence. You and I have been friends for years. You know my quick temper of old. I can trust you. You can never be indifferent to my welfare." He was sufficiently reassured by this time to fill a large goblet of wine, which he half emptied at a gulp. His cheek regained its swarthy bloom, and his little black eye glistened fondly, while he answered — *' Never indifferent. Celandine ! Never false ! Never changed in all these years ! " She was, as we know, one-fourth a negress, and past middle age — of an exterior so wild and weird, that the corn-tiers called her, as we also know, " The Mother of Satan." He was turned fifty, self-indulgent, dishonest, with oily skin and beady eyes ; short, swarthy, thick-set, and altogether not unlike a mole ! Yet was there a spark of true love for his visitor lurking somewhere not entirely THE MOTHER OF SATAN 119 smothered amongst all the mass of impurities with which the man's heart was filled. She was too much a woman to be quite unconscious of her power. She spoke in soft and coaxing accents now, while she replied — "I know it, Stefano. I believe it. I have also a good memory, and am not likely to forget. And, Stefano, you have a kind heart — you will not keep me longer in suspense about the child. He is here? In this house? In the next room ? Oh ! let me see him ! Let me only see him, and I will do anything you ask ! " She had slid from her chair, and knelt before him, hold- ing the Adept's scarred, burned fingers to her lips. His face betrayed the pain he suffered in inflicting pain on her. "What can I tell you? " he answered. *' It is cruel to deceive you. It is cruel to speak the truth. I have never seen the boy since he left me. Do you think I would have kept him from you ? How can I find him ? How can I bring him back? You talk as if I was King of France ! " A horrible fear came across her. She rose to her feet, and shook both fists in his face. "Man!" she exclaimed, "do not tell me he is dead! You shall answer for it, if heaven or hell have any power on earth ! " There were tears in his little beady eyes, unaccustomed tears, that vouched for his truth, even to /icr, while he replied — " You are unjust. Celandine ; and you would see your in- justice if you did but think for a moment. What had I to gain by taking care of the boy ? What had I to gain by ridding myself of him? Had I been to blame, do you suppose I should have sent you the earliest information of his flight ? Have I not felt your sorrows keenly as if they were my own ? Do I not feel for you now ? Listen. I am the same Stefano Bartoletti who told you the secret of his life, the desire of his heart, by the side of that sweet serene lagoon, in the beautiful island which probably neither of us may ever see again. I have learned many strange lessons — I have witnessed many strange scenes since then. Many years have passed over my head, and wisdom has not despised me as the least apt among her pupils. Statesmen, 120 CEEISE nobles, princes themselves have been glad to visit me in person, and reap the fruit of my studies and my experience. But I tell you, Celandine," and here the little man smote his breast, and for the moment looked every inch a cham- pion, ** I am the same Stefano Bartoletti. I swear to you that if you will but join me heart and hand in this, the last and gi'eatest of my schemes, I will never rest till I have found the boy, and brought him back into his mother's arms ! " She gave a wild, fierce cry of joy, and was hugging the brown hand to her bosom once more. ** Money," observed the Signer, walking thoughtfully up and down the room as soon as she had sufficiently composed herself to listen, "money, you perceive, is the one thing we require. Money alone can overcome this, like all other difficulties on earth. Money in sufficient quantity would make me independent, contented, perhaps happy." Here he stole a tender look in the Quadroon's face. " Money would enable me to quit these cold, dull regions ; this con- strained, confined, unnatural life. Money would restore 7ne my liberty, and you your child. Celandine, will you help me to get it? " He had touched the right chord. There was eager hope and wild unscrupulous energy in her face while she answered — "I will ! I swear it ! Heart and hand I go in with you for this object, and neither fire nor water, nor steel nor poison shall turn me now. You know me, Stefano. I will shrink from nothing. But it is — it is not a question of blood?" " No, no ! " he replied, laughing. " You, too, are unchanged, Celandine. Always in extremes. Make your- self easy on that score. It is but a trick of your former trade. None but yourself can do it half so well. I will explain it all in five minutes when I have finished this cup of wine. But, Celandine," and here her old admirer drew closer and whispered in her ear. " I cannot tell," she laughed. '' It is impossible to give an answer yet." " And the price ? " continued he, earnestly. " Surely it must have fallen now, though the Marquise is hard to deal with on such matters." THE MO THE B OF SATAN 121 The Quadroon shook her head archly, indeed, coquettishly for her years and replied — " Certainly not less than a couple of thousand francs? " " But suppose she knew everything ! " urged the lover. ''Then I think she would be so angry, she would have me flogged and give me away for nothing ! " He shook his head, pondering deeply. The flogging was indeed a serious consideration. But then, what a reduction it would make in the price ! There was grave matter, he thought, for reflection in the whole business, and his manner was more sedate than usual, while he instructed Celandine in a certain part that the Abbe and he had agreed she should perform. CHAPTER XIV THE DEBONNAIRE *'It is good to be superior to mortal weakness," said Malletort to himself as he re-entered his coach and drove from Bartoletti's door. ''In the human subject I cannot but observe how few emotions are conducive to happiness. That which touches the heart seems always prejudicial to the stomach. How ridiculous, how derogatory, and how uncomfortable to turn red and pale, to burst into tears, to spring at people's throats, nay, even to feel the pulse beat, the head swim, the voice fail at a word, a look, a presence ! What, then, constitutes the true well-being of man, the sumnuim bonum, the vantage point, the gi'and desideratum to which all philosophy is directed ? Self-command ! But self-command leads to the command of others — to success, to victory, to power ! and power, with none to share it, none to benefit bj^ it, is it worth the labour of attainment ? Can it be that its eminence is but like the crest of a mountain, from which the more extended the horizon the flatter and the more monotonous appears the view. It may, but what matter ? Let me only get to the summit, and I can always come down again at my leisure. Basta! here we are. Now to gain a foothold on the slippery path that leads to the very top ! " The Abbe's carriage was brought to a halt while he spoke by a post of Grey Musketeers stationed in front of the Palais-Royal. The churchman's plain and quiet equipage had no right of entrance, and he alighted to pass through the narrow ingi-ess left unguarded for foot-passengers. Hence he crossed a paved court, turned short into a wing 122 THE DEBONNAIBE 123 of the building with which he seemed well acquainted, and stopped at the foot of a narrow staircase, guarded by one solitary sentry of the corps. It was our acquaintance, Bras-de-Fer, beguiling the tedium of his watch by a mental review of his own adven- tures in love and war. The Abbe knew everybody, and the grim Musketeer saluted his holy friend cordially enough, excusing himself, while he balanced his heavy weapon across his breast, that his orders forbade him to allow any one to pass. "Lay down your arms, my son," said the churchman, good-humouredly. " How your wrists must ache by supper- time ! I have but three words to say to your captain, and if you will bend your tall head lower by a few inches I can give you the countersign." With that he whispered it in his ear, and Bras-de-Fer, again excusing himself, bade him pass on, regaining an attitude of extreme stiffness and martial severity, as if to make amends for past civility somewhat at variance with established discipline. A green-baize door at the head of the staircase swung open to the Abbe's push, admitting him to an ante-room, of which Captain George was the only occupant. He, too, seemed weary of his watch, which was tedious fi'om its dull unvarying routine — void of excitement, yet entailing grave and oppressive responsibilities. His greeting to Malletort, however, was more cordial, so thought that keen observer, than is afforded by a man who merely wearies of his own society ; and the Abbe was right in his general impression, only wrong in detail. Captain George was indeed favom*ably affected to every- body connected, however distantly, with the house of Montmirail. So far the Abbe judged correctly enough, but he missed the true cause by a hair's-breadth, and attributed to the magic of black eyes an effect exclusively owing to blue. There was little leisure, however, for exchange of com- pliments, and the Musketeer's solitude was to be relieved but for a few precious moments at a time. *'His Highness has already twice asked for you," said he, in the tone of an injured man. " You had better go in 124 CERISE at once." So Malletort, leaving the ill-used warrior to his own companionsjiip, passed on to an inner apartment, taking with him a stool in his hand, as was the custom, in case the interview should be protracted, and the Regent require him to sit down. The room he entered was small, gloomy, panelled with a dark-coloured wood, octagonal in shape, relieved by very little furniture, and having another door, opposite that which admitted the visitor, concealed by heavy velvet curtains. At the solitary table, and on the single chair the apartment contained, a man was seated, writing busily, with his back to the Abbe. A general air of litter pervaded the place, and although the table was heaped with papers, several more were scattered in disorder over the floor. The writer continued his occupation for several minutes, as if unconscious of the Abbe's presence. Suddenly he gave a sigh of relief, pushed his chair back from the table, and looked up joyously, like a schoolboy interrupted in his task. "You are welcome, monsieur, you are welcome," said he, rising and pacing to and fro with short, quick steps, while Malletort performed a series of courtly and elaborate bows. " I am about wearied of figures, and I have been saying to myself, with every passing step for the last half-hour, ' Ah ! here comes my little Abbe, who confines himself exclusively to facts — my material and deep-thinking churchman, the best judge in Christendom of wine, pictures, carriages, cutlets, ankles, eyelashes, probabilities, dress, devilry, and deeds of darkness. Here are calculations of Las, to show us all how we need only be able to write our names, and so acquire boundless wealth ; but the miserable Scotchman knows no more than the dead how to spend his millions. Would you believe it, my dear fellow. Vaudeville dined with him last night, and they served olives with the stewed ortolans ? Olives, I tell you, with ortolans ! The man must be a hog! " And the Regent wrinkled up his fore- head while he spoke in a favourite grimace, that he flattered himself resembled the portraits of Henri Quatre. He bore, indeed, a kind of spurious resemblance to that great king and gallant soldier, but the resemblance of the brach to the deer-hound, the palfrey to the war-horse, the THE DJ^BONNAIRE 125 hawk to the eagle. He made the most of it, however, such as it was ; brushed his dark hair into a cluster on the top of his head, contracted the point of his nose, elongated his chin, and elevated his eyebrows, till he almost fancied him- self the first Bourbon who sat on the throne of France. Nay, he even went so far as to wear his stockings and the knees of his breeches extremely tight, while the latter were gathered and puckered loosely about the waist, to approach as nearly as possible the costume in which the hero was usually portrayed. In all the worst points of his paragon's character he copied him to the life, only exaggerating to habitual vice the love of pleasure that was Henry's principal weakness. As the Duke's face was broad, high-coloured, good-humoured, nay, notwithstanding the marks it bore of his excesses, tolerably w^ell -favoured, while his figure, though scarcely tall enough for dignity, was robust and in fair proportion, the imitation seemed, perhaps, not entirely unfaithful to its original. Both possessed in a high degi-ee the charm of an exquisite manner ; but while the King of Navarre combined with a monarch's condescension the frank and simple bear- ing of a soldier, the Duke of Orleans was especially dis- tinguished for the suavity and external ease that mark the addi'ess of an accomplished gentleman. This prince possessed, no doubt, the germ of many good qualities, but how could the most promising seed bear fruit when it was choked up and overgrown by such rank weeds as gluttony, drunkenness, and sensuality ? vices which seem to sap the energy of the mind as surely, if not so rapidly, as they destroy the vigour of the body. Yet the Regent waa gifted with a ceitain persuasive eloquence, a certain facility of speech and gesture, invalu- able to those who have the conduct of public afi'airs. He possessed a faithful memory, ready wit, imperturbable good- humour, and quickness of perception in seizing the salient points of a subject, which made him appear, at least, a capable politician, if not a deep and far-seeing statesman. Neither was he wanting in that firmness which was so much required by the state of parties at the time when he assumed the Regency, and this was the more remarkable, that his nervous system could not but have been much 126 CERISE deteriorated and deranged by the frequency and extrava- gance of his debauches. Meantime, we have left the Abbe bowing and the Duke grimacing at the bare idea of brown game and olives in the same stew-pan, a subject that occu- pied his attention for several minutes. Bousing himself after a while, he began, as usual, to detail the proceedings of the morning's council to Malletort, who had grown by degi'ees, from a mere comrade of his pleasures, into the con- fidential and principal adviser of his schemes. It promised to be a long report, and he motioned the Abbe, who had fortunately prepared himself with a stool, to sit down. There were many complaints to make — many knots to unfasten — many interests to reconcile, but the Abbe listened patiently, and suggested remedies for each in turn. The parliament had been refractory. Nothing could bring them to subjection but a Bed of Justice, or full assemblage of peers and representatives in presence of the young king. The Keeper of the Seals was mireasonable. He must be forced into collision with the parliament, whom he had always held in antagonism, and they might be left to punish each other. The Due du Maine and Marshal de Villeroy, constant thorns in the Begent's side, had applied for more powers, more pomp, and, worse still, more money, on the score of the young king. His Majesty must be set against his governors, and it could best be done by making a festival for him to which these would not trust his person, and from which an enforced restriction would cause the royal pupil to feel himself shamefully aggrieved. In short, conflicting interests were to be reconciled, if their disunion seemed to threaten the Government ; political parties to be dissolved by a judicious apple of discord thrown in their midst at the Abbe's instigation ; and a general balance of power to be established, in which the Begent could always preponderate by lending his own weight to the scale. Altogether a dozen difficulties of statecraft were disposed of in as many minutes, and the Duke, rising from the table, pressed his hand familiarly on the confidant's shoulder, to keep him in his seat, and exclaimed, gaily — " They may well call me the ' Debonnaire,' little Abbe, Hein ! There have been but two Bourbons j^et who ever THE DEBONNAIRE 127 tmderstnod France. One was a king, and the other — well, the other is only a regent. No matter. Cric ! Crac ! Two snaps of the fingers, and everything fits into its place like a game at dominoes. But, little Abbe," added the exulting politician, while his brow clouded and he forgot to look like Henri Quatre, " to govern the nation signifies but ruling men. Such matters arrange themselves. The state machine can go without a push. But I have worse complications than these. Counsel me, my dear Abbe. There is discord dire this morning throughout the women. I tell you the whole heap are at daggers drawn with one another, and my life is hardly safe amongst them all." Malletort smiled and shook his head. The difficulty was natural enough, but the remedy required consideration. So he opened his snuff'-box. " There is a tribe of Arabs," he replied, " Highness, far up in the desert, of whom I have heard that their religion permits each man to marry two wives, but with the stipula- tion, at first sight reasonable enough, that he should live with them both in one tent. The practice of bigamy, I understand, has in that tribe so fallen into disuse as to be completely unknown." The Eegent laughed loudly. *' I believe it," said he, " I believe it implicitly. Powers of strife ! and parts of speech. A man should be blind and deaf also to endure the Parabere and the Sabran in neighbouring faubourgs, not to speak of the same tent ! Ah ! these Orientals understand domestic government thoroughly. The harem is a place for repose, and a noisy woman soon quits it, I believe, by the river- gate. We too have the Seine, but alas ! where is the sack ? I tell you, Malletort, I am tired of them both. I am tired of them all. Madame la Duchesse may be cold, pompous, stiff, contradictory, and, oh ! as wearisome as a funeral ! but at least she remains half the day in her own apartments, and can command herself sufficiently to behave with decency when she leaves them." " Madame la Duchesse," replied the Abbe, bowing reveren- tially, "is an exemplary and adorable princess. She has but one fault, perhaps I should say less her fault than her misfortune — she is your Highness's wife." The Debonnaire laughed again, loud and long. " Well 128 CERISE said, little Abbe ! " he exclaimed. '* My fault, her misfor- tune. Nevertheless the crime is unpardonable — so no more of her. How shall I reconcile Madame de Sabran and Madame de Parabere? I tell you, they sup with us this very night. You make one, Abbe, of course ! " Malletort bowed lower than ever. " But think of these two at enmity across my narrow table ! Why the Centaurs and Lapithae would be a love-feast compared to it. Like my ancestor of Navarre, Monsieur I'Abbe, I fear neither man nor devil, but there are some women, I honestly confess, whose anger I dare not encounter, and that is the truth ! " " I know nothing of women and their ways," answered Malletort, humbly. " It is a science my profession and my inclinations forbid me alike to understand, but I imagine that in gallantry as in chemistry, counteracting influences are most effectual when of a cognate nature to the evil. Similia similihus curantur ; and your Highness can have no difficulty, surely, in applying a thousand smiling soft- spoken antidotes to two scowling women." The Regent shook his head gravely. It was a subject of which he had diligently studied both theory and practice, yet found he knew little more about it than when he began. " They are all so different," he complained, peevishly, *' and yet all so alike in their utter insensibility to reason, their perverted wilfulness in looking on impossibilities as accomplished facts. There is Madame de Sabran wants me to make her a duchess of France ! ' How can I make you a duchess of France, madame ? ' said I. ' Would you have your "mastiff," as you call him, created a duke for your services ? ' ' He would make a better than so and so, and so and so,' she answered, as coolly as possible, naming half- a-dozen, who it must be confessed are not one bit more respectable ! That is another thing about the woman, she always contrives to have a distorted shadow of reason, like a stick in the water, on her side. It was only the other day I made him one of my chamberlains, and now she declares he ought to be given a step of rank to uphold the dignity of the office. How can you reason with such a woman as that? " " Waste of time. Highness ! " answered Malletort, com- posedly. " They are born not to be instructed, but admired ! ' ' THE DJ^BONNAIBE 129 '* I used to admire her more than I do now," observed the Regent, thoughtfully. '' Still the woman is amusing and witty ; there is no denying it. Besides, she speaks her mind freely, and however violent the passions she puts herself in, they are over in five minutes. But what am I to do with the other ? I give you the honour of a Bourbon, my friend, she has not uttered a syllable beyond ' Yes, monsieur,' * No, monsiem*,' since yesterday afternoon, when she dropped at once from the height of good-humour into a fit of impenetrable sulks." "Without the slightest cause, of course ! " observed the Abbe. " Without the slightest cause," repeated the Prince, " at least that I could discover. There was indeed a slight difficulty about some flowers. I had promised her a bouquet of stephanotis for the masked ball to-night. It is rare — its smell is to me overpowering, but it is her favourite perfume. Well, my people scoured the country for half-a-dozen leagues round Paris, and none was to be procured. With you or me. Abbe, the conclusion would seem natural enough, that if the stephanotis has not yet bloomed, the stephanotis cannot yet be in flower. But to a woman — bah — such an argument is no reason at all ! It is quite possible she may even refuse to accompany me to the ball to-night ! " Malletort did not think so, and his hopes, just now so buoyant, lost nothing by a suggestion which only betrayed his patron's ignorance of the female mind. *'Ah, Highness," he exclaimed, throwing a gleam of sympathy into his eyes, which contrasted much with their usual expression, " how completely is your condescension misjudged ! how utterly your kind heart thrown away ! You say truly, women are so difl'erent. These think of their own aggrandisement even while they bask in your affection. Others here at Court would throw themselves body and soul at your feet were you to-morrow changed into a simple page from Duke of Orleans and Master of France ! " "How?" exclaimed the Regent, unable to conceal that his vanity was gratified. " Do you speak from your own knowledge ? Are you laughing at me ? How can you possibly have found this out? " 9 180 CEEISE "It is indeed a matter quite beyond my province," answered the Abbe; *'but circumstances have thrown me so frequently into the society of one of the Ladies in question, that I must indeed have been blind not to perceive the truth. Excuse me, Highness, I had rather not pursue the subject any farther." But the Eegent was not so to be put off. With all his shrewdness, he had considerable personal vanity, and but for liis debaucheries, might perhaps have shown some sensibilitj'^ of heart. In his mind he ran over the leading beauties of the Court, and as he had been little scrupulous in paying them attention, one and all, the riddle was per- haps the less difficult to solve. His eye sparkled, and he clapped his hands like a schoolboy, while he shouted out — " I have it ! I have it ! Little Abbe, you have let the cat out of the bag. Now I know why the proudest names in France have been offered her in vain. Now I understand her defiance, her coldness, her unapproachable dignity. Do you know, my friend, what you tell me is a veritable romance, and, in return, I assure you I have never been insensible to the charms of Madame de Montmirail ! " " You are speaking of my kinswoman. Monsieur le Due," replied the Abbe, haughtily; "and a member of the proudest house in the kingdom. Yom* Highness will be good enough to reflect that I mentioned no names, and I have been too faithful a servant, I think, to deserve a gi-atuitous insult." " Pardon, my dear Abbe ! " exclaimed the Eegent, with an affectation of deep concern, though accepting Malletort's protest, no doubt, at its real value. " None can respect the house of Montmirail more than I do. None can value the friendship of Abbe Malletort so much ; but these women and their whims turn my poor head. What did you advise about the Parabere ? I forget." " Dismiss her! " answered the chm-chman, shortly. " It will be one embarrassment the less in your Highness's career." "But she is so beautiful," whimpered the Regent. " There is not such another complexion in France. If I were to leave her, do you not think half my nobility would be mad to pay their court to her ? She is so white, you THE DtBONNAIBE 131 see — so exceedingly white and soft. Such a skin, my dear Abbe. Such a skin ! " "Skin her then!" replied Malletort, ''and make a covering of her integument for your arm-chair. It is the best advice I can offer your Highness, and what I should do myself in your case." Then they both laughed at the brutal jest. The one because he was in high good-humour with the prospect of his hinted conquest ; the other because he had not forgotten the bouquet, of which a few inhalations could turn the whole face black ; and because, reflecting on the rapid progress of his schemes, he thought it only fair that those should laugh who win. But in order thoroughly to act his part out, he returned to business before he took his leave. '' Those Lettres cle Cachet/ " he exclaimed, as if he had just recollected them. " Did your Highness express your views on the subject to your council ? " "I did indeed," answered the Kegent, significantly; " and the good old custom is revived by an edict. But though he who seeks finds, I think he is more sure to find who hides, and I will take care no man in France shall use them but myself." Then Malletort bowed himself out, well satisfied, and found Captain George in the ante-room, putting on his belts to receive the Black Musketeers, whose band could be heard playing and their arms clashing as they marched into the court to relieve guard. CHAPTER XV THE MASKED BALL That night much noise and confusion reigned outside the Grand Opera House. Torches flared, linknien shouted, horses phmged, backed, and clattered ; oaths flew here and there, whips were plied, carriage-wheels grated, coachmen swore, and, at short intervals, tall figures of the Black Musketeers were called in to keep order, a duty they ful- filled in a summary manner, with little forbearance to the public, dealing kicks, cuffs, and such remonstrances freely around, and clearing a space, wherever space was required, by dropping the butts of their heavy weapons on the feet of the recoiling crowd. With such powerful assistance, coach after coach deposited its load at the grand entrance, around which were congi-egated valets and lackeys wearing the liveries of the noblest families in France. Beautiful and gorgeous were the dresses thus emerging for an instant under the red glare of torchlight, to disappear through the folding-doors within. Shimmering the satin, and sparlding with jewels, the loveliest women of the capital passed in review for three paces before the populace, little loth, perhaps, to submit their toilets to the scientific criticism of a Parisian crowd, a criticism that reached, however, no higher than the chin, for every one of those fair French faces was hidden in a black mask. Their gallants, on the contrary, came unprovided with these defences, and the male bird, indeed, though without question the uglier animal, was on the present occasion equal in brilliancy of plumage to his mate. It is, however, with the interior that we have to do ; 132 THE MASKED BALL 133 behind the folding-doors that swallowed up these radiant visions in succession so gi*eedily. That interior was flooded in a warm yellow light. A hundred glittering lustres shone and twinkled at narrow intervals, to stud the curves of white and gold and crimson that belted the ample circle of the building, while high in the centre of its dome an enor- mous chandelier flashed and gleamed and dazzled, like some gigantic diamond shivered into a thousand prismatic frag- ments. From roof to flooring fresh bright colom-s bloomed in the boxes, as bloom the posies on a flower-stall ; while pit, stagOj and orchestra, boarded to a level, had become a shifting sea of brilliant hues, whirling, coiling, undulating, ebbing, flowing, surging into a foam of light and snowy plumes, bearing in turn each colour of the rainbow to its surface — flashing and glistening through all its waters with a blaze of gems and gold. Captain George was wading about in it, more preoccupied and less inclined to take advantage of its gaieties than a musketeer usually found himself in such a scene of revelry. His distinguished air and manly bearing drew on him, indeed, gibes and taunts, half-raillery, half-compliment, from many a rosy mouth smiling under its black mask ; but to these he answered not a word. He was unlike himself to-night — dull, abstracted, and out of spirits. Even Bras-de-Fer, he felt, would have composed and propounded his heaviest retorts in less time than it took his captain to understand any one of the jests levelled at a taciturnity so out of place. He was in no mood for banter, nor intrigue, nor amusement — not even for supper. He wanted to see Cerise ; he confessed it to himself without reserve, yet he neither expected nor wished to find her in such a scene as this. An attachment between two young persons, if of a nature to arrive at maturity, seems to gain growth and vigour in an inverse proportion to the amount of care bestowed on its cultivation. The plant is by no means an exotic, scarce even a garden-flower. Nay, I think a chance seedling of this tribe comes to fuller perfection than either gi*aft or cutting. It is good for it also to be crushed, mangled, mown over, or trodden down. Storms and snows and bitter frosts bring it rapidly into flower, and it is astonishing, though a 184 CERISE tropical blaze could not satisfy its wants, how little sunshine is required to keep it alive. Captain George's meetings with Cerise were indeed as numerous as five or six in the week ; but they took place at an interval of twenty feet, and consisted of low bows and eager glances from a gentleman on a gravel walk, returned by the formal reverence and deep blush of a young lady in a window-seat. On the principle that half a loaf is better than no bread, I presume crumbs are acceptable when crusts are not to be obtained. So the Musketeer had felt ill at ease all day, and was now in the most unsuitable frame of mind possible for a masquerade, because the girl had been absent from her window when he passed, which was indeed his own fault, since, in his impatience, he had rossed the gardens of the Hotel Montmirail a quarter of an horn* before his usual time, and had thus perhaps inflicted as much disappointment as he sustained. Now people in the irritable frame of mind caused by a little anxiety, a little disappointment, and a good deal of uncertainty, seldom betake themselves to solitude, which is indeed rather the resort of real happiness or the refuge of utter despair. The simply discontented are more prone to rush into a crowd, and Captain George had no idea of abstaining from the Great Masked Ball at the Opera House, but rather made his appearance somewhat earlier than his wont at this festivity, though when there, he roamed about in a desultory and dissatisfied manner, first dreading, then faintly hoping, and lastly ardently desiring to meet Made- moiselle de Montmirail amongst that brilliant, shifting, bantering, and mysterious throng. Disguised indeed ! He would know her, he felt sure, by her pretty feet alone, if she were masked down to her very ankles. He was not so well versed in feminine arts but that he had yet to learn how a lady who really wished to remain unknown at these gatherings would alter her voice, her gestures, her figure, her gait — nay, the very shape of her hands and feet, to deceive those on whom she wished to practise. The majority, on the contrarj^, were most unwilling thus to sink their identity, and only wore masks, I imagine, to hide the absence of blushes at such direct compliments as THE MASKED BALL 135 were sure to be addressed to them, also as an excuse for considerable freedom of speech in return. The orchestra was pealing out a magnificent " Minuet de la Cour," and that stately measure, performed by a few couples of the handsomest gallants and ladies of the Court, was eliciting the applause of a large and critical circle, amongst whom Captain George made one, when a voice thrilled in his ear, the tone of which brought the blood to his cheek, while a masked figure beside him passed her hand lightly through his arm. A tremendous flourish of brass instruments rendered the moment well-chosen for secret communication ; but the mask had apparently nothing more confidential to say than this — *' Qui cherche trouvel You seek something, fair Muske- teer. If you are in earnest, you shall find what you require ! " The voice reminded him almost painfully of Cerise, yet was it deeper and fuller than the girl's in tone. He scanned the figure at his side with a quick penetrating glance; but she was so shrouded in a black satin cloak reaching to the flounces of her ball-dress, that he gathered but little from her inspection. He noted, however, a leaf of the stephanotis, peeping from under the folds that con- cealed her bouquet, and recollecting the events of the morning, made a shrewd guess at his companion. Perhaps she would have thought him very stupid had it been otherwise. All this elaborate artifice of disguise may have been for her own deception, not his. She might talk to him more freely under protest, as it were, that he had no right to know her ; and she was, moreover, so well enveloped and altered, that she could scarcely be identified by passing acquaintances, or, indeed, by any one with whom she refused to converse. " I seek only amusement," answered the Musketeer, with the natural instinct of mankind to disavow sentiment. " I have not yet found much, I confess, though Point d'Appui's airs and graces in the dance there would aiford it to any one who had not seen them as often as I have." She laughed scornfully, leaning on his arm. " And they call that thing a Man ! " said she, with an accent on the substantive extremely uncomplimentary to Count Point d'Appui, who was indeed a handsome, conceited, pleasant. 188 CERISE young fifood-for-nothing enough; " and these are the objects women break their hearts about — dress for them, dance for them, die for them ; nay, even come to masked balls, dis- figured and disguised for their unworthy sakes. What fools you must think us, Captain George ; and what fools we are "You know me, madame," exclaimed the Musketeer, affecting surprise, rather as entering into the spirit of the scene than with any deeper motive. " You must know, then, that I am amongst the most devoted and respectful admirers of your sex." She laughed again the low soft laugh that was one of her greatest charms, and lost, moreover, none of its attraction from her disguise. "Know you!" she repeated, still leaning on his arm perhaps a little heavier than before. " What lady in Paris does not know you as the citadel to resist all her efforts of attack ? — as the Orson, the woman-hater, the man of marble, who has no vanity, no feelings, no heart? — the only creature left in this uninteresting town worth conc[uer- ing ? And all those who have tried it, no small number, vow that victory is impossible." "It shows how little they comprehend me," he replied, in a tone of jest, and still pretending not to recognise his companion, who held her head down and took refuge studiously beneath her mask. " If you, madame, would condescend to become better acquainted with me, you would soon learn the falsehood of these ladies' reports to my discredit! " " Discredit ! " she echoed, and to his surprise, nay, to his dismay, a tear fell on the gloved hand within his arm. What could he do but dry it with a kiss ? " Discredit ! " she said again, in a tone of increasing emotion. "How little you must understand us if you can make use of such a teiTn ! Who would care to possess that which half the town has worn and thrown away ? What is the value of a heart that has been cut into little scraps and shreds, and left in portions at different friends' houses like gifts on New-year's-day? No, monsieur, if I must give all I am worth for a diamond, let it be such a diamond as the Eegent's — large, clear, and entire — not a collection of frag- THE MASKED BALL 137 ments only held together by their golden setting, like a necklace of Madame de Sabran or Madame de Parabere." Captain George did not quite follow out the metaphor, his attention being at this moment somewhat distracted by a figure that reminded him of Cerise, yet that he felt was as unlike Cerise as possible. The Musketeer was also a very moderate proficient in the lighter accomplishments of gallantry, being of a self-contained though energetic nature, that was disposed to do its work thoroughly or not at all. He was one of those men, of vv^hom there are more in the world than ladies suppose, whose respect for the sex restrains them from taking that initiative which they forget the latter are especially privileged to decline. Unless, therefore^ a woman throws herself at their heads, they make no advances at all, and then these wretches are just the sort of characters with which such a course, repugnant to their instinctive sense of fitness, is least likely to succeed, after all. They are consequently very difficult birds to tame, and either escape altogether, or are lured into the cage, accidentally as it were, by a pretty face, a shy manner, and some rare combination of circumstances which nobody on earth could have foreseen. When a lady has fairly started, however, and got warmed to her subject, I imagine little is to be gained by interrupting her, and that no eJfforts of eloquence find so much favour as the forbearance of a good listener. The Marquise thought she had turned her last phrase very prettily, and applied the image of the necklace with considerable art, so she continued, without waiting for an answer, " You do not know me, Captain George, though I know you. Also, I mention no names, therefore I break no confidences. Do you remember the day the late king was taken ill, and brought home, never to recover? " His English blood stirred at the recollection of that gallant stag-hunt, and his eye brightened. She observed it, and not sharing the insular passion for an innocent pursuit, drew her conclusions accordingly. " I have not forgotten it," he replied, calmly, " nor the beautiful Marquise and her barb ! " She trembled with pleasure, but commanded her voice, and repeated indifferently, *' Ah ! the beautiful Marquise ! I fancy she nearly rode the poor barb to death that day. 138 CERISE Wlmt will a woman not do when her heart is interested ? Well, monsieur, have you ever spoken since to the beautiful Marquise, as you call her, doubtless in ridicule? " He began to think he had been somewhat remiss, and that to prosecute his intimacy wdth the mother would have been the easiest way of obtaining access to the daughter. He was not given to self-examination, and did not perceive that his very love for Cerise had prevented him yet entering the house. " Do you know the Marquise de Montmirail?" was all he could find at the moment to say. " A little ! " answered the mask, nodding her head. "But I have an intimate fiiend who is very intimate with her indeed. You think women cannot be friends, monsieur; you think they have no hearts ; you little know the lady of whom we speak. You see her as the world does, and you judge her accordingly. How blind men are ! If your eyes are not dazzled by self-conceit, they are bandaged by an impenetrable and cold egotism. A thing must touch your very noses, close like that," and she thrust her pretty hand up within an inch of his face, '' or you will not believe in its existence. Nevertheless, I could sometimes find it in my heart to envy you your callousness, your stupidity, your indifference, and to wish that I had been born a man." I think at the moment he almost wished it too, for although the voice was very fascinating, and the situation not without its charm, she encumbered him sadly in his search for the young lady whom yet he did not the least expect to find. The Marquise, however, was quite satisfied ^vith her position, and disposed to improve the occasion. *' A woman can have no friends,'" she proceeded, speak- ing in a low tone that the music rendered inaudible to all but her companion. " How I wish she could ! I know the sort of one I should choose — brave, steadfast, constant, self-controlled ; a gallant soldier, a loyal gentleman ; above all, a man uninfluenced by every eye that flashes, eveiy lip that smiles. And yet — and yet," she added, while her soft voice sank to a w^hisper as the music rose and swelled, " such an one would soon cease to be a friend. Because — because " "Because why? " he asked, bending tenderly over her. THE MASKED BALL 139 for it was not in man's nature to remain uninfluenced by such words now spoken. The dark eyes flashed through their mask, and the hand that rested on his arm clenched tight while she replied — " Because I should love him foolishly, madly, if he cared for me ; and if not — I should hate him so fiercely that " "You come with me from here!" said a loud good- humoured voice at this interesting juncture, while a man's hand was laid familiarly on the Musketeer's shoulder. " In a quarter of an hour my coach will be waiting at the stage entrance. Not one of my roues dare face it ! I want a fellow like you, who fears neither man nor devil ! " Captain George bowed low, with the mask, still leaning on his arm curtsied to the ground. *' Highness," said he, I shall have the honour! It is a mere duty to serve under his orders but it becomes a 'pleasure when Monsieur le Due commands in person." "And to supper afterwards, of course," added very graciously a lady who was hanging on the Regent's arm, and who carried her mask in her hand. " Captain George is always welcome, as he knows, and we shall not be more than a half-a-dozen at the outside." Again the Musketeer bowed low, and the Marquise, scanning the last speaker intently, could not but acknowledge that to-night Madame de Parabere looked more than usually beautiful. The brunette, too, probably overrated the charms of the blonde, the exceeding delicacy of complexion, the softness of skin, and the innocent baby face which so fascinated the Regent. Also she thought she detected on that baby face a decided preference for the Musketeer, and Madame de Montmirail was not a woman to entertain the strongest passions of her sex and leave out jealousy. Had it not been for these suspicions, the bouquet of stephanotis might have remained all night innocuous beneath her cloak, to be consumed in the stove that warmed her chocolate when she got home. But the Marquise allowed no one to cross her designs with impunity, and watching her new enemy narrowly, began to handle her weapons and prepare for action. The Regent had been traversing the throng of revellers with Madame de Parabere on his arm ; the latter, proud of 140 CEIilSE her disgrace, and exulting in her infamous position as his acknowledged mistress, had bared her face, in order to receive the full tribute of admiration which her beauty really deserved. Now, while the Duke stood still for a moment, and exchanged a few jesting compliments and well-bred sarcasms with the passing maskers, an encounter in which he acquitted himself with considerable tact and ingenuity, his companion, dearly loving mischief, tm-ned all her batteries on Captain George. The Marquise was, therefore, left planted as one too many ; a situation to which she, the spoiled child of society, was so unaccustomed, that she could have cried with vexa- tion, but for the revenge now literally within her grasp. So she peered, and watched, and waited, like a Grey Musketeer skii-mishing. Madame de Parabere, observing the Regent's attention engaged elsewhere, whispered something to George, looking insolently the while at his companion, and laughed. Then the Marquise primed her weapon, as it were, and shook the powder well up in the pan. A leaf of the rare bouquet peeped fi-om under its covering. Madame de Parabere, flirting and ogling outrageously, as was her custom, whispered again in Captain George's ear, with a little affected laugh. It seemed to the eager watcher that her lips shaped the hated syllables — " Mulatto." It was time to take aim now, sure and deadly, preparatory to giving fire. A cluster of stephanotis showed out like ivory against the smooth black satin. Madame de Parabere clapped her hands, and exclaimed with a child's glee, " But madame, what a bouquet ! Madame is indeed fortunate ! Such flowers are not to be procured within leagues of Paris. How exquisite ! How ravishing! Madame is so good. Madame will permit me to have one little breath of their fi-agrance. Only one ! " The Marquise hesitated. An instinct of womanly for- bearance prompted mercy even to another woman. Vindictive as she felt, and with her finger on the trigger, she would yet spare her, she thought ; but the insolent creature should know her enemy, and should be taught that even the Regent's favourite could not command such bouquets as the acknowledged beauty of the Court. THE MASKED BALL 141 ** They were sent me as a gift, madame," she observed, haughtily, and withholding the flowers. " I value them because ours are not yet blown at the Hotel Montmirail." " Pardon, madame ! " retorted the other, unable, now that she knew her, to forego this opening for a thrust. "Tropical, of course! From an admirer, madame? or perhaps a kinsman ? Very dark, no doubt, and with close curled hair. I offer you my compliments from the bottom of my heart ! " No quarter now. She had rushed upon her fate, and must be shot down without the least compunction. " If madame will deign to accept my bouquet," said the Marquise, " she will do me the highest honour." And she displayed the whole of it, a wonder of nature, brought to perfection by art. Madame de Parabere, giddy, thoughtless, fond of flowers, stretched her hand out eagerly, and Captain George, whose attention the Kegent's conversation had diverted from this passage of arms between the ladies, turned round while she was in the act of putting them enthusiastically to her face. He saw the situation at a glance, and his promptitude served him as usual. " I must be ready for your Highness ! " he exclaimed hurriedly, addressing the Regent, but with his eye fixed on the treacherous flowers. " Madame, I have the honour of wishing you a good-night ! " he added in the same breath ; while with an energetic flourish of his cocked hat he knocked them clean out of the lady's hands to a few paces' distance on the floor, letting the hat follow ; and as he recovered the latter, crushing the bouquet to pieces, as if inadvertently, beneath his foot. It was the second time he had practised this manoeuvre within twelve hours, and he was perfect in his lesson. Rising with an affectation of great confusion, he made his excuses to Madame de Parabere, contriving, amongst a torrent of phrases, to convey, unobserved, the single word " Beware ! " And she understood him, contenting herself with a glance of intense gratitude, and an inward vow she would never rest till she had found opportunity to repay both fi'iend and foe. 142 CERISE The Ecgent laughed heartily at the joke. " You must have supped already, my friend," said he, " and not spared the wineflask. So much the better ; you are all the fitter for your night's work. Come ! let us be moving. It is time we were off ! " Madame de Montmirail stood a while, stupefied, paralysed, as it were, at the failure of an attack thus foiled by the last person in whom she expected to find an opponent. The first instant she could have hated him with all the fierceness of baffled rage. The next, she felt she had never loved him half so well as now. He had thwarted her ; he had tamed her ; he had saved her from crime, from ruin, from herself ! All in one glance of the keen eye, one turn of the ready hand. She acknowledged him for her master, and to her such a sentiment was as fascinating as it was new. She would have liked to burst out crying, and kneel at his feet, imploring to be forgiven, had time and place permitted so romantic an exhibition. At least, she could not let him go without another word, and Captain George, following the Regent through the crowd towards the door, felt a hand laid timidly on his arm, heard a broken voice whispering softly in his ear. She trembled all over. Her very lips shook while she murmured, " Forgive me, monsieur ! I must explain all. I must see jou again. Where do j^ou go to-night ? " " To sup with his Highness," answered the Musketeer, keeping the Duke's figure in sight as it threaded the jostling, shifting throng of noisy revellers. " But that is not till midnight," she urged. " He said something about duty. You are brave ! You are rash ! For heaven's sake, promise you will not rush into needless danger ! " He laughed good-humouredly, and reassured her at once. " Danger ! madame ! Nothing of the kind. I can trust you not to gossip. It is a mere frolic. We are going a league or two out of Paris, to raise the devil!''' And observing the Duke turning back for him, he escaped from her and was lost in the crowd. She looked longingly after him, and sighed. *' To raise the devil!" she repeated, pressing both hands on her heart. '' And not the only one to-night. Alas ! THE MASKED BALL 143 you have raised one here that none but yourself can Then the Marquise, still retaining her disguise, passed hastily through the ball, till she reached the street, and gaining her carriage, was driven straight home to the Hotel Montmirail, weeping, softly and patiently, behind her mask. CHAPTER XVI RAISING THE DEVIL The BLack Musketeers on duty cleared a lane for the Regent at the door, and the lower orders, with whom, despite his bad character, a certain jovialt}^ of manner made him no small fayourito, cheered vociferously as he passed. " The Debonnaire goes home early," said one. " He has a child in the pot for supper," shouted another. " I wish his High- ness would ask me to eat with him! " exclaimed a third. " Or drink with him ! " added a fourth. While a little hunchback, hideous and distorted, observed, in a dry, shrill voice, that made itself heard above all the clamour, *' His Highness has a rendezvous, I tell you ! Lads, w^here are your manners ? Debonnaire ! send me the bones to pick when you've done with them ! " A peal of laughter and a volley of cheers followed his state- coach as it rolled off at a slow, lumbering trot, with which a man on foot could easily keep up. Captain George had been directed to do so, and accompanied it to the entrance of a gloomy narrow street, where the tall cloaked figure of Bras-de-Fer was waiting, according to orders. Here it stopped, the Regent alighted rapidly, and signing to his coachman to drive on, dived into a gulf of darkness, closely attended by the Musketeer and his comrade, A few paces brought them to an open caleche, drawn by a pair of English horses, driven fi'om the saddle, and con- taining one solitary occupant, also enveloped in a cloak, who leaped out when he heard footsteps, and uncovered while he assisted the Regent to his place. He then seated him- self opposite ; Bras-de-Fer followed, his example ; Captain 144 RAISING THE DEVIL 145 George, at a signal from the Duke, placed himself by his Highness ; and in a few minutes the whole party were across the Seine, beyond the barrier, which had been thrown back, and clattering along a paved road at a gallop through the open country. The moon came out as they cleared Paris, and each man looked in the other's ftxce to read, according to their respective temperaments, signs of amusement, self-confidence, anxiety, or alarm. The Duke, though nervous, seemed strung to a certain pitch of resolution. Bras-de-Fer swelled with pride at the royal confidence thus reposed in him ; and Captain George smiled quietly to mark the trepidation of their fourth companion, none other than Signor Stefano Bartoletti — chemist, philosopher, astrologer, professor of medicine, mathematics, and magic — black or white as required. It is strange how the most effective impostors become so saturated, as it were, with their profession, that they cannot resist the influence of a vague enthusiasm which breeds artificial belief, fascinating, though transparently absurd, in the tricks they themselves practise. Perhaps there is something of the true artist in every man who succeeds, whatever be the nature of his enterprise ; and the true artist can never place himself entirely apart from, or outside of, his art. Signor Bartoletti, who had engaged to raise the enemy of mankind for the Kegent's gi-atification, was un- questionably the most nervous of the whole party lest they should be taken at their word. Captain George, to begin with, anticipated nothing but a trick, and took the matter, therefore, as coolly as he did everything else unconnected with Cerise de Montmirail. Bras-de-Fer, on the contrary, was persuaded he should be called on to confront the arch-fiend in person ; but believing himself a good Catholic, while he knew he was an excellent swordsman, his courage rose, and he smiled grimly in his moustache at the thought of so distinguished an adversary. Even the devil, he argued, could not bo much worse than Marlborough's Grenadiers, and he had faced them many a time without getting the worst of the encounter. He even calculated whether he might not bring into play, with con- siderable effect, the thrust lately introduced into the corps by Beaudesir, but postponed further consideration of the 10 146 CERISE point till he should know what kind of weapons were to be used in the field. The Kegent, excited, credulous, impres- sible, loving the marvellous, and inclined to believe anything that was not in the Bible, found his spirits rise with the anticipation of a new distraction ; and being in that exalted state which those experience at rare intervals whose orgies are alternated with strong intellectual labour, found himself actually dreading a disappointment in the vision he antici- pated. Bartoletti felt how uncomfortably it would turn out, if, after all the pains of Malletort and himself to instruct the actress in her part, after all their care in scenery, decorations, and rehearsal, the original should take it into his head to assist at the performance in person ! Ere they were a league out of Paris his teeth began to chatter, though his breath smelt strong of the last suck of brandy that had comforted him before they started. The English horses drew them swift as the wind. It seemed but a short half-hour ere they stopped at a gate opening into a wood, shadowy, dark, and dreadful, after the dusty road and level meadows glistening silver- white in the moonlight. The two Musketeers, accustomed to look about them, perceived at their feet a track of wheels, which had obviously preceded their carriage. Bras-de-Fer felt a little disappointed. " U affaire commence ! " whispered the Kegent, loosening his sword, as he prepared to follow Bartoletti through the wood. *' Keep close to me, gentlemen, and look that we be not taken in rear ! " The path was narrow, winding, and exceedingly dark ; but after a furlong or two the party emerged on an open space, and found their progress stopped by a level wall of rock, hewn perfectly smooth, and several yards in height. Bathed in a strong moonlight, every particle on its gritty surface glistened like crystal, and its crest of stunted trees and thick-growing shrubs cut clear and black against the cloudless sky. Here the adept halted and looked round. *' Highness," he whispered, "we have reached our journey's end; have you courage to enter the cave? " BAISING THE DEVIL 147 The Duke's face was pale, but he glanced at his two Musketeers, and answered, " After you, monsieur ! " Then the four, in Indian file, turned through an opening, or rather a mere hole in the rock, to follow a low, narrow passage, in which, ere they had advanced three paces, the darkness became impenetrable. They groped their way in silence, each listening to the hard breathing of his pre- decessor. Bras-de-Fer, who was last, fervently hoping their ghostly enemy might not attack them until, as he would have expressed it, they could " deploy into line." The corridor, however, as we may call it, grew wider and loftier at every step. Presently they marched upright, and two abreast. There was a constant drip from the damp stone that encircled them, and the hard smooth surface on which they trod felt cool and refreshing to their feet. Bras-de-Fer could not restrain a sneeze. It resounded above their heads, and died away farther and fainter in a hundred whispering echoes. Bartoletti started violently, and the Duke's hand went to his sword. Then the magician halted, pulled a vial from his breast, and dipping a match in it, produced a strong rose-coloured flame, from which he lit the small lamp that hung at his belt. Whilst the match flared and shone, they saw plainly for several yards in every direction. They were in a low vaulted cavern, hewn, to all appearance, by no mortal hands, out of the rock. They stood on a slightly-elevated platform, and at their feet lay a glistening sheet of black that could only be water. It was, however, a hasty examination, for the match soon spent itself, and Bartoletti's lamp gave but light enough, as Bras-de-Fer observed, " to show how dark it was." *' Are we on the banks of the Seine or the Styx ? " asked the Eegent, jestingly, yet with a slight tremor in his voice. " Man knoweth not whither this dark stream may lead," replied Bartoletti, solemnly, lighting at the same time a spare wick of his lamp, to embark it on a morsel of wood which he pushed into the current. For several minutes, as it seemed to their watching eyes, the light floated farther and farther, till swallowed up by degrees in the black distance. 148 CEBISE All were now somewhat impressed with the gloom and mysterious silence of the place. Bartoletti took com*age, and informed the Regent he was about to begin. "Not till you have drawn a pentacle ! " objected the Duke, apprehensively. '' Such a precaution should on no account be neglected." *'It is unnecessary, Highness," answered the other. " Against the lesser fiends, indeed, it forms an impregnable defence ; but he who is approaching now, the very Prince of Darkness himself, cares no more for a pentacle than you do ! " The Regent would not be satisfied, however, till, under Malletort's superintendence, he had drawn with the point of his sword a circle and triangle in magic union on the bare rock. Then he ensconced himself carefully within his lines, and bade the magician " go on." After a considerable display of mummery, and the repeti- tion of many sentences, which, as they were couched in Latin, Bartoletti felt would be liable to little criticism from his listeners, he produced a small bundle of shavings from under his cloak, and piling these on the water's edge, poured over the heap certain essences, ere he set the whole on fire. The cavern now became filled with a thick cloud of smoke, fragrant in smell, and though stupefying to the senses, not suffocating the lungs. Reflected in the black water beneath, as the flames waved and leaped and flickered, the unsteady light produced an efl'ect of vast and shadowy distance on the dim recesses of the cavern, and prepared the minds of the spectators for some vague, uncertain, yet awful result. Plunging it once more into his bundle, Bartoletti spread his hand over the embers. A blue lurid glare, that turned all their faces ashen white, now replaced the shifting wavering light of the flames. "It is the death-fire ! " whispered the Italian ; and touching the Duke's shoulder, he pointed to the roof of the cavern. A gigantic arm and hand, with forefinger pointed down- wards, were shadowed distinctly on its ribbed and slimy surface. The Duke trembled, and sweat stood on his brow; RAISING THE DEVIL 149 Bartoletti, too, shivered, though with less reason. Captain George nodded approvingly, and Bras-de-Fer pulled the buckle of his sword-belt to the front. "You may ask three questions," whispered the shaking Italian. "Not another syllable, if you would leave the cave alive!" The Duke cleared his throat to speak, and his voice came dry and husky, while he formed the words with effort, like a man using a foreign tongue. " I adjure you, tell me truly, who is my chief enemy ? " Not one of them drew breath whilst they waited for the answer ; and the questioner himself looked down to see that his feet were scrupulously within the pentacle. It came sad, solemn, and as if from a distance, chanted in a full, mournful and melodious tone : — " The foes a prince behoves to dread, that turn and tear their lord, Are those that haunt about his bed, and blush beside his board." Then the Eegent, gaining courage, asked in a firmer voice, " Who is my best friend ?" The reply was more distinct, and its clear emphasis seemed to vouch for the speaker's truth, Father of Lies though he might be called : — *' One friend is thine, whose silent kiss clings subtle, sure, and fast ; When all shall fail, yet shall not this, the swiftest, though the last." Thus encouraged, the royal questioner gathered heart with every fi-esh answer, and it was in his customary unre- strained tone that he propounded his last inquiry, " Shall I live to wear the crown of France ? " This time, however, the phantom arm waved backwards and forwards, clenching its gigantic hand, while the demon's voice seemed again to rise from distant and mysterious depths, as it replied : — " When woman's love can trust thy vows, when woman's guileless glance Can thrill thy breast, bind on thy brows the diadem of France ! Enough ! For more I dare not tell. Glad life, and lusty reign ! Predestined Prince, and fare thee well! — till we shall meet again ! " In five minutes all were once more in the open air. The 150 CERISE Regent, gi-ave and preoccupied, spoke not a word while they passed swiftly through the wood to gain their carriage ; but Bras-de-Fer whispered in his comrade's ear, '' It seems the devil is like the rest, and had rather not come to close quarters with the Grey Musketeers." To which professional remark Captain George replied, thoughtfully — " He is an adversary for whom I would choose a weapon that kept me as far off him as possible ! ' ' CHAPTER XYII A QUIET SUPPER In less than an hour, how changed the scene for two of the actors in that mysterious drama — of which Bartoletti was chief manager and Malletort sat in the prompter's box ! The Captain of Musketeers had been invited to sup with the Regent, and found in his prince's private apartments a little party collected, whose mirth and high spirits were well calculated to drive away any remains of superstitious gloom left by the incantations of the cavern and their result. The select suppers of the Duke of Orleans were conducted with an absence of ceremony or restraint that indeed degene- rated on occasion into the grossest license ; but even under the Regency men did not necessarily conclude eveiy night in the week with an orgy, and the mirth of the roues them- selves was not always degraded into drunkenness, nor their wit pushed to profanity and shameless indecency of speech. Captain George found himself seated at a round table in an oval room, of which the only other occupants, besides his royal host, were Madame de Parabere, Madame de Sabran, Malletort, and Count Point d'Appui. The latter, be it observed, excelled (for no one was admitted to these reunions who had not some marked speciality) in the grace with which he danced a minuet and the gravity with which he propounded the emptiest and silliest remarks. Some of the courtiers affected to think this simplicity only masked an intriguing disposition, and that Point d'Appui was, after all "not quite such a fool as he looked." A charitable suggestion, endorsed by Madame de Sabran, with the observa- tion, " The saints forbid he should be ! " 151 152 CERISE Altogether it was generally admitted that the Count's strong point must be sought rather in his heels than his head. He sat directly oj^posite the Musketeer, and next to Abbe Malletort, who was between him and Madame de Sabran. The latter was thus placed opposite the Kegent, at whose right hand Madame de Parabere had taken up her usual post. Captain George found himself accordingly with a lady on either side, and as he was distinguished, manly, quiet in manner, and above all, supposed to be impenetrable of heart, he became an object of interest to both. These hated each other, of course, but in a treacherous, well-bred manner, and not so rancorously as to spoil their appreciation of an excellent repast, served in pleasant com- pany, under all the most promising conditions for success. They were therefore, outwardly, wondrous affectionate, and under protest as it were, with the buttons on their foils, could be good companions enough. The Duke prided himself on his suppers. "Working at state affairs during the day, and with a digestion consider- ably impaired by habitual excess, dinner was a mere matter of form, often restricted indeed to a morsel of bread and a cup of chocolate, served in the cabinet where he wrote. But when the hours of business were past, and his system, too much gorged over-night, had recovered from the fumes of wine and the torpor of repletion, it was his delight to rush once more into those excesses of appetite which unfitted his mornings for exertion, which robbed him of half his existence while he lived, and killed him in the prime of manhood at last. But he understood well how the sacrifice should be offered. The supper-room, we have said, was oval, panelled in a light cheerful wood, highly-varnished, and decorated only by short pithy sentences, inlaid in gaudy colours, of which the pur- port was to crop the flower while it bloomed, to empty the cup while it sparkled, practically, to eat the cutlet while it was hot, and consume as eagerly as possible the good things provided for the senses. No pictures, no vases, no works of art were suffered upon the walls to distract the atten- tion of the guests from their main object. The intellect, as seated at the farthest distance from the stomach, might indeed be gently stimulated with wit, but the imagination, A QUIET SUP PEE 153 the feelings, above all, the emotions that affect the heart, were on no account to be disturbed during the ecstacies of the palate or the pleasing languor and subsequent comfort of digestion. Not a lackey nor servant of any kind entered the room. When one course had been consumed, deli- berately, methodically, and with much practical comment on its merits, the table sank slowly through the floor, to be replaced by another, bearing fresh dishes, fresh flowers, fresh napkins, everything fresh prepared, to the very bills of fare, beautifully emblazoned, that lay beside the cover of each guest. A strong light from above was shaded to throw its rays directly on the board ; but as plenty of this enlivener is conducive to festivity, numerous lamps with bright reflectors flashed at short distances from the walls. No pealing band deafened the ears of the sitters, or drowned their conversation in its overpowering strains ; only ever and anon a faint long-drawn note, like the tone of a far- distant organ, rose and fell and wavered, ere it died sweetly and calmly away. On these occasions. Point d'Appui never failed to pause, even with a tempting morsel on his fork, and intimate to his neighbours that " he was passionately given to music, and it reminded him of heaven ! " The Eegent seemed much impressed with the visit he had made to the cavern before supper, and it was not till he had emptied several goblets of champagne that he regained his usual spirits. With the influence of wine, however, his nerves recovered their tone, his eye brightened, his hand steadied, and he joined in conversation as hereto- fore. By this time a favourite dish had made its appearance, which went by the name of ih.Qi^dte cV Orleans, It consisted of the wings of pheasants and other white game, boned, stufl'ed, and so manipulated as to resemble the limbs of children ; a similarity that gave rise to the most hideous rumours amongst the lower classes. Many a worthy gossip in Paris believed firmly that two or three infants were con- sumed nightly at the Kegent's table, and none seemed to relish the report more than himself. He ate vigorously of the ]jdte, emptied another goblet, and began to talk. Madame de Parabere watched him closely. Something was 164 CERISE going on she had not fathomed, but she resolved to be at the bottom of it. '' Abbe ! " shouted the Duke, " what are you about ? Do you think I woukl suffer little heathens on my table, that you baptize them with water? They are the best of Christians, I tell you, my friend, and should be well soused, like all good Christians, in wine." Malletort, who had been pouring stealthily out of a carafe at his elbow, accepted his host's challenge, and filled up from a flask. *' To your health. Highness ! and confusion to your enemies — Wliite and Eed," said he, pointing to two measui'es of those Burgundies that happened to stand before the ladies. The Duke started. Malletort's observation, simple as it seemed, brought the diabolical prophecy to his mind, and again he sought courage from his glass. *' Do you mean that for its, monsieur? " asked Madame de Sabran ; " since his Highness loves the Burgundy too -well to count it a foe, though it has put him on his back, I doubt not, often enough. *' Nay, madame," answered the Abbe, bowing politely; '" such as you can never be foes, since you are born to be conquerors. If it did come to a fight, I presume you would grant no quarter." **None," said she, laughing. " Church and laymen, we should put you all to the sword." " But the Church are non-combatants," interposed Count Point d'Appui, with perfect sincerity. " You would be excommunicated by our Father the Pope. It is a different species, madame, altogether — a separate race." *'Not a bit of it!" answered the lady. *' Men to the tips of their fingers, every one of them ! Are you not, Abbe ? No ! When all is said and done, there are but two distinct creations, and I never can believe they have a common origin. Men and women I put in the one, princes and lackeys in the other. What say you, madame? " But Madame de Parabere said nothing. She sat in silence, pouting, because it suited the shape of her mouth, and listening, for other reasons of her own. The Regent, who had now drunk wine enough to be both easily offended and appeased, felt that the shaft aimed at A QUIET SUPPER 155 him was not entirely undeserved. So he asked, in anger, "How mean 3^011, madanie ? I see not the drift of your jest. In what are princes and lackeys so alike, and so ditferent from the rest of mankind ? " " Other bipeds " answered the lady, bitterly, "lie from habit, with intention, or on occasion ; but this variety never speaks the truth at all, even by accident." The Duke's face turned purple. Captain George, hoping to divert an explosion, and feeling that he had been invited rather as a compliment than for the sake of his society, rose and took his leave, on the score of military duty; receiving, as he went out, a glance from Madame de Para- bere's beautiful eyes, that assured him of her gratitude, her interest, and her good-will. His departure changed the subject of conversation. In two minutes the Regent forgot he had been offended, and Madame de Sabran was busied in the unworthy task of mystifying Count Point d'Appui, an employment which her rival contemplated with a drowsy, languid air, as if she could hardly keep herself awake. The Abbe had watched her for some time with increasing interest and considerable misgivings ; the poison, he thought, should long ere this have taken effect, and he expected every moment to observe a disturbance of the placid features, a discolom'ation of the beautiful skin. Before supper was over, he concluded that, as far as the flowers were concerned, his plot had failed ; but Malletort did not now need to learn the archer's want of another arrow in the quiver, a spare string for the bow : it behoved him only to make the more use of such implements as he had kept in reserve. All his energy and all his cunning had been brought into play during the night. Without his assistance, he felt sure the mummery of the cavern must have failed, for he could trust neither the shaking nerves of the Italian nor the superstitious self-deception of the quadroon. It was no easy task to return to Paris so swiftly as to change his dress, show himself at a reception in the Faubourg St. Germain, and thence proceed leisurely to sup with the Kegent. Well-bred horses, however, and a well-broke valet, had accomplished this part of the undertaking, with 156 CERISE a few seconds to spare. It now remained to play the last and most difficult strokes of the game. He felt equal to the occasion. Moving round the table with his glass, in unceremonious fashion, he took advantage of George's departure to place himself between Madame de Parabere and her host, whis- pering in that lady's ear, '* I have a favour to ask of the Kegent, in which you, too, are interested!" She made room for him carelessly, listlessly, and her face looked so innocent and unsuspicious as to delude even his acuteness into the belief that the few faculties she could command were engrossed by Point d'Appui and his tormentor. These were in full swing at a game called, in England, Flirtation. It is an elastic process, embracing an extensive area in the Held of gallantry, and so far resembling the tournaments of the Middle Ages, that while its encounters are presumed to be waged with weapons of courtesy, blunted for bloodless use, such fictitious conflicts very frequently bring on the real combat a Voutrance with sharp weapons, and then, as in other death-struggles, vcb victis ! If girth breaks, or foot slips, the fallen fighter must expect no mercy. Pitted against Point d'Appui, Madame de Sabran miglit be likened to an accomplished swordsman practising cut and thrust on a wooden trunk. But the block was good-natured and good-looking. When such is the case, I have observed that a witty woman takes no small delight in the exercise of her talent. There is a generosity about the sex not sufficiently appreciated, and if a man will only keep quiet, silent, receptive, and immoveable, it will pour its treasures at his feet in a stream of lavish and inexhaustible profusion. Point d'Aj^pui contented himself with looking very hand- some and drinking a great deal of Burgundy. His neighbour hacked and hewed him without intermission, and Madame de Parabere 's attention seemed entirely engi'ossed by the pair. Malletort, in possession of the Regent's ear, proceeded diligently with the edifice for which he had so artfully laid the foundations. " I must ask permission to take my leave early to-night, Highness," observed the churchman. "Like our friend A QUIET SUPPER 157 the Musketeer, who has served his purpose, by the way, as I learn, so may I be rubbed out of the calculation ; and I must drink no more of this excellent Burgundy, for I have promised to present myself in a lady's drawing-room, late as it is, before I go to bed." Though somewhat confused by wine, the Regent under- stood his confidant's meaning perfectly well, and his eye kindled as he gathered its purport. " I will accompany you, little Abbe," he whispered with a hiccough, and a furtive glance at the ladies, lest they should overhear. " Too late, my Prince," answered the other, " and useless besides, even for you, since I have not yet obtained per- mission. Oh ! trust me. The fortress is well guarded, and has scarce ever been summoned ; much less has it offered a parley." The Duke looked disappointed, but emptied another bumper. He was rapidly arriving at the state Malletort desired, when a well-turned compliment would have induced him to sign away the crown of France. *' To-morrow then," he grunted, with his hands on the Abbe's shoulder. " The great Henry used to say — what used he to say ? Something about waiting ; you remember, Abbe. Bastaf Reach me the Burgundy." " To-morrow, Highness," answered Malletort, more and more respectfully, as his patron became less able to enforce respect. " At the hour agreed on, I will be at your orders with everything requisite. There is but one more detail, and though indispensable, I fear to press it with your Highness now, for it trenches on business, and your brain, like mine, must be somewhat heated with the Burgundy." Probably no other consideration on earth would have induced the Duke to look at a paper after supper, but this remark about the Burgundy touched him nearly. He took pride in his convivial powers, and remembering that Henri Quatre was said to have drunk a glass of red wine before his infant lips had tasted mother's milk, always vowed that he inherited from that ancestor a constitution with which the juice of the gi'ape assimilated itself harm- lessly as food. *' Burgundy, little Abbe ! " he repeated, staring vacantly at Malletort, who had produced a small packet and an ink- 158 CERISE horn from his pockets. " Burgundy, Beaune, brandy — these do but serve to clear the brains of a Bourbon ! Give me tlie paper ! " **It is only your signature, Highness," said Malletort, sitting completely round, so as to interpose his person between Madame de Parabere and the sheet under his hand. *'I can fill it up afterwards, to save you further trouble." But a drunkard's cunning is the last faculty that forsakes liim. Though the paper danced and wavered beneath his gaze, he detected at once that it was a Lettre de cachet, formidable, henceforth, from the edict issued that day in Council. Without troubling himself to inquire how the document came into Malletort's possession, who had indeed fi-ee access to his bureau, he wagged his head gi'avely, exclaiming, with the good-humoured persistency of inebriety — *' No ! no ! little Abbe. A thousand times no ! I fill in the names myself. Oh ! I am Regent of France. I know what I am doing. Here, give me the pen." He scrawled his signature on the page, and waited for Malletort to speak. The latter glanced furtively round — Madame de Sabran was laughing, the Count listening, Madame de Parabere yawning. No one seemed to pay attention. Nevertheless he was still cautious. Mentioning no names, he looked expressively at the Musketeer's vacant place, while he whispered — "We have done with him. He has fulfilled his task. Let him be well taken care of. He deserves it, and it is indispensable." *' What is indispensable, must be ! " answered the Duke carelessly, and filled in the name of the victim on the blank space left for it. Then he sprinkled some blue sand from the Abbe's port- able writing-case over the characters ; and because they did not dry fast enough, turned the sheet face downwards on the white table-cloth, and passed his wrist once or twice across the back. When he lifted it, the ink had marked the damask, which was of the finest texture and rarest pattern in Europe. Malletort never neglected a precaution. Pieaching his A QUIET SUPPER 169 hand to a flask of wliite Hermitage, and exclaiming, *' We chemists are never without resource," he was about to pour from it on the table, when a soft voice murmured languidly, " Give me a few drops, monsieur, I am thirsty," and Madame de Parabere, half turning round, held her glass out to be helped. He was forced to comply, but in another second had flooded the ink-marks with Hermitage, and blurred the stains on the cloth into one faded shapeless blot. Madame de Parabere's face remained immoveable, and her fine eyes looked sleepy as ever, yet in that second she had read a capital G, with a small r, reversed, and had drawn her own conclusions. There is but one sentiment in a woman's mind stronger than gratitude — its name is Love. Nevertheless, her love for the PiGgent was not so overpowering as to shake her determination that she would save the Captain of Mus- keteers at any sacrifice. Meanwhile, the object of her solicitude returned to his quarters by way of the Hotel Montmirail, coasting the dead wall surrounding that mansion very slowly, and absorbed in his own reflections. To reach it he diverged considerably from his direct road, although the guard posted in its vicinity consisted that night of Black Musketeers, who were not to be relieved till the next afternoon by their comrades of the Grey Company. To prove their vigilance seemed, however, the aim of Captain George's walk, for after a brief reconnoitre, he retired quietly to rest about the time that his royal host, with the assistance of two valets, staggered fi'om banqueting-room to bedchamber. And no wonder, for notwithstanding a liberal consump- tion of champagne, the flasks of red and white Burgundy stood empty on the supper- table. CHAPTER XVIII BAITING THE TRAP In transactions with womankind, the sharpest of men are apt to overlook in their calculations the paramount influence of dress. Malletort had long ago expressed an opinion on the despotism of King Chiffon, but he little expected to be thwarted by that monarch in dealing with one of his most devoted subjects. When Captain George knocked the poisoned bouquet out of Madame de Parabere's hand, with a happy awkwardness seldom displayed in ball-rooms, a cluster of its blossoms caught in the flounces of her dress. Despite languor of manner and immobility of feature, this lady possessed coolness, resolution, and resource in emergency. She concealed the stray cluster in her hand- kerchief, said nothing about it, took it home, put it under glass, and then locked it carefully away in a cabinet. After she had heard mass next morning, she walked quietly off to Bartoletti's house, attended by two armed domestics and accompanied by her maid, as if going to buy cosmetics, and produced the blossoms for that unwilling chemist to analyse. The Signer, to tell the truth, was always averse to tampering with poisons, although in the way of business it was difiicult to keep clear of them. As, on the present occasion, he felt nothing was to be gained by falsehood, as Madame de Parabere was a dangerous enemy to provoke, and above all, as she paid him liberally, he produced his tests without delay, and informed her she had narrowly escaped loss of beauty, if not of life, by the inhalation of a subtle and effectual poison. 160 BAITING THE TBAP 161 The Signer argued in this way. He compromised nobody, neither was it any business of his that certain ingredients, sold to a brother student in separate quantities, had been scientifically mingled and sprinkled over these treacherous exotics. With the sums he had lately received from the Abbe on different accounts — with the liberal reward now brought him by Madame de Parabere — with the proceeds from his shares in Mississippi stock, of a feverish rise in which he had, by his friend's advice, taken immediate advan- tage — with the sale of his wine, pictures, plate, and furnitui-e — lastly, with the firm determination to abscond promptly, leaving his debts unpaid, he should find himself master of so much wealth as would enable him to purchase the free- dom of Celandine (at a damaged valuation), to marry her, and settle down somewhere, perhaps under the glowing sky of the topics, in luxury and scientific indolence for the rest of his life. Sensualist and impostor though he was, the man had yet some glimmering of a better and nobler existence than his necessities had hitherto permitted him to lead. He saw himself basking in the sun, sleeping in the shade, eating luxuriantly, drinking of the best, lying soft, yet devoting his leisure to the interests of science, and, when it did not interfere with his gratifications, giving those who needed help the benefit of his medical experience and advice. There are few but can be pitiful while they want occupa- tion, and generous while it costs them nothing but a word. When Bartoletti attended his visitor to the door, he felt it would be neither wise nor pi*udent to remain longer in Paris. Madame de Parabere did not act without reflection. She possessed in his own handwi'iting, with his own signature attached, the chemist's analysis of the noxious essences that had been off"ered her in a nosegay ; and although Bartoletti extorted the price of a necklace for it, she felt the document was cheap at the money. Instinct told her that in the Marquise de Montmirail she had found a rival ; but reason assured her also that with such proofs as she now possessed she could ruin any rival in the Regent's good gi-aces as soon as he had slept oft' the eft'ects of last night's wine. Though his whole afternoon, as often happened, might be engaged, 11 Idd CEBISB she must meet her royal admirer that evcnin*:; at the opera. He should then be put in possession of the facts, and woe to the traitress when he knew the truth ! "We shall see, madame ! " said the lady, between her small white teeth, under the sweet, calm face, and crossinp^ herself as she passed a crucifix in the street. *' AVe shall see ! A lettre de cachet is a very compromising billet-doux y but it may be sent to a lady quite as appropriately as a gentleman. That reminds me ! Business first — pleasure afterwards ; gi-atitude to-day — vengeance to-night. I will preserve that brave Musketeer, if it costs me my rank and my reputation. Oh ! if men were all prompt, generous, honom-able, like him, how differently we poor women should behave ; I wonder if we should be much better or much worse ? " The maid walking at her side thought she was repeating an " Ave," and appreciating the temptations of her mistress, greatly admired so edifying a display of piety under diffi- culties. Madame de Parabere was perfectly right in believing she would have no opportunity for conversation with the Regent till they met at the opera. The whole of that prince's morning was employed in struggling with the drowsy fiend who on a sensualist's couch represents sleep, and is such a hideous mockery of its original. At these hours the tendency to apoplex}^ which the Dulie strengthened and pampered by indulgence, displayed itself in alarming colours, and none of his attendants could have been surprised when, a few years later, the destroyer swooped down and carried oft' his prey at a stroke. It took him many an hour of heavy, un- healthy, and disturbed slumber to regain sufficient clearness of mind for the duties of the day, but once in exercise, his intellect, which was doubtless above mediocrity, soon re- asserted itself, and the Prince, shaved, bathed, dressed, and seated over a pile of papers in his cabinet, seemed quite capable of grasping the political helm, and guiding with a steady hand the destinies of France. But it was only by a strong mental effort he thus overcame the effects of his pernicious habits ; such an effort as, when often repeated, saps the vital energies beyond the power of nature to restore them, and the wasting effects of which are best convej^ed by BAITING THE TBAP 163 the familiar expression — "burning the candle at both ends." When business was concluded, and the Regent, leaving his cabinet, entered the adjoining dressing-room to prepare for amusement, he was generally much fatigued, but in excellent spirits. A thorough Bourbon, he could work if it was necessary, but his native element was play. When he shut up his portfolio the virtual King of France felt like a boy out of school. It was in such a mood the Abbe Malletort found him the afternoon succeeding his necromantic visit to the cavern. The valets were dismissed, the wardrobe stood open, various suits of clothes hung on chairs or lay scattered about the floor, yet it seemed the visitor was expected ; for no sooner did he enter than the door was locked, and his Highness, taking him by the shoulders, accosted him with a rough, good-humoured welcome. '^ True to time," said he, in a boisterous yet somewhat nervous tone. " True and punctual as a tailor, a confessor, and a creditor should be ! — since for me, little Abbe, you combine these several characters in one ! A tailor, for you must dress me ; a confessor, for you know most of my sins already, and I have no desire to conceal from you the remainder ; and a creditor, because I owe you a heavy debt of gratitude which you need not fear I shall forget to pay ! " " Tailor and confessor as much as your Highness pleases," answered the Abbe, ** but creditor, no ! I had rather possess the free assurance of the Regent's good-will than his name to a blank assignment on the Bank of France ! It is my pride and my pleasure to be at your service, and only when the Duke shall propose a scheme to his o^vn manifest disadvantage will the Abbe find courage to expos- tulate or refuse." "I can trust you, I believe," answered the Regent, " none the less, my friend, that your interests and mine are identical. If d' Orleans were at Dourlens, and Du Maine at the Tuileries, it is just possible Malletort might find himself at Vincennes. What say you, my adventurous Abbe? Such an alerte would call every man to his post ! No ; where I gain an inch I pull you up a metre ; but in return, if I make a false step in the entresol, you tumble down two 164 CEBISE pair of stairs and break your neck in the street ! Yes — I think I can trust you." Malletort laughed pleasantly. "Your Highness's ethics are like my own," said he. " There is no tie so close as self- interest, and it is certainly none the looser when accom- panied by inclination. I trust the events of to-night will render it yet more binding on us both." "Have you prepared everything?" asked the Eegent, with anxiety. " The slightest omission might be not only inconvenient, but dangerous." " I have but a short note to write," answered the Abbe, " and I can accomplish that while yom* Highness finishes dressing. It must be sealed with the arms of the royal Body-guard, and you may believe I have no such uncanoni- cal trinkets in my possession." The Diilve looked in a drawer and shook his head. Then he called a valet, who appeared from the adjoining chamber. " Go to the officer of the guard," said he, " and ask him for the regimental seal. Say it is for me.'' The man returned almost immediately, indeed before the Abbe had finished a note on which he was engaged, writing it slowly and with gi'eat care. "Who is on guard?" he asked, carelessly, while the servant set the massive seal on the table. "Monsieur George," was the answer, "Captain of the Company of Grey Musketeers." The Abbe did not look up, but continued assiduously bent over his task, smiling the while as at some remarkable and whimsical coincidence. When he had folded his letter carefully, and secured it with the military seal, he begged his Highness, in a tone of great simplicity, to lend him an orderly. "As many as you please," answered the Eegent; "but may I ask the nature of a missive that requires so warlike a messenger? " "It is a challenge," answered the Abbe, and they both laughed heartily ; nor was their mirth diminished when the required orderly, standing gaunt and rigid in the doorway, turned out to be the oldest, the fiercest, and the ugliest veteran in the whole Body-guard. The sun was now declining, and it would soon be dusk. BAITING THE TliAP 165 Malletort urged on the Regent to lose no time in preparing for his enterprise. ''And the opera?" observed the latter, suddenly recol- lecting his appointment with Madame de Parabere at that entertainment. "Must be given up for to-night," answered Malletort. " There is no time for your Highness to show yourself in public, and return here for a change of dress. Moreover, your disguis-e cannot be properly accomplished in a hurry, and to be late by five minutes would render all our plans useless. You have promised to trust everything to me, and if your Highness will be guided by my directions, I can insure you an undoubted success. Give me your attention, I entreat, monsieur, whilst once more I recapitulate my plan." " You dismiss, now, on the instant, all your valets, except Robecque, on whom we can depend. With his assistance and mine, you disguise yourself as an officer of Musketeers — Grey, of course, since that comi3any fm*nishes the guard of to-night. Your Highness can thus pass through their posts, without remark, on giving the countersign suj)plied this morning by yourself. An escort will be provided from the barracks, at the last moment, by Marshal de Villeroy's orders, without consulting the officer of the guard. This arrangement is indispensable in case of accidents. Every contingency has been anticipated, yet swords might be drawn, and though your Highness loves the clash of steel, the most valuable life in France must not be risked even for such a prize. Ah ! you may trust us men of peace to take precautions ; and, in our profession, when we act with the strong hand, we think we cannot make the hand too strong. " Nevertheless, I anticipate no difficulties whatever. Your Highness, as a gallant Musketeer, will enter the garden of the Hesperides without opposition. There is no dragon that I know of, though people sometimes pay your humble servant the compliment of believing him to hold that post ; and once within, it wants but a bold hand to pluck the fruit from the bough. Win it then, my Prince, and wear it happily. Nay, forget not hereafter, that many a man less favoured would have bartered life willingly but 166 CERISE to lie prostrate under the tree and look his last on the tempting beauty of the golden apple he might never hope to reach." There was something unusual in the Abbe's tone, and the Duke, glancing in his face, thought he had turned veiy pale ; but in another moment he was smiling pleasantly at his own awkwardness, while he assisted the Regent into the uniform, and fitted on the accoutrements of a Musketeer. It took some little time, and cost many remonstrances from Pvobecque, who was not gifted with a militaiy eye, to complete the transformation. Nevertheless, by dint of persuasion and perseverance, the moustaches were at length blacked and twisted, the belts adjusted, the boots wrinkled, and the hat cocked with that mixture of ease, fierceness, good-humour and assumj^tion, which was indispensable to a proper conception of the character — a true rendering of the part. It was somewhat against the gi'ain to resign for a while the attitudes and gestures of Henri Quatre, but even such a sacrifice was little regretted when the Duke scanned him- self from top to toe in a long mirror, with a smile of undis- guised satisfaction at the result of his toilet. " 'Tis the garrison type to the life ! " said he, exultingly. " Guard-room, parade, and bivouac combined. Abbe ! Abbe ! what a flower of Musketeers she spoiled when blind Fortune made me Regent of France ! ' ' CHAPTER XIX MATKE PULCHRA, FILIA PULCHRIOR Since Horace wrote that musical ode in which he expresses a poet's admiration pretty equally divided between mother and daughter, how many similes have been exhausted, how many images distorted to convey the touching and suggestive resemblance by which nature reproduces in the bud a beauty that has bloomed to maturity in the flower ! Amongst all the peculiarities of race, family likeness is the commonest, the most prized, and the least understood. Perhaps, be- cause the individuality of women is more easily affected by extraneous influences, it seems usually less impressed upon the sons than the daughters of a House. Then a girl often marries so young, that she has scarcely done with her girl's graces, certainly lost none of her woman's charms, ere she finds a copy at her side as tall as herself ; a very counterpart in figure, voice, eyes, hair, complexion ; all the externals in which she takes most pride ; whose similarity and com- panionship are a source of continual happiness, alloyed only by the dread of a contingency that shall make herself a grandmother ! As they sat in the boudoir of the Hotel Montmirail, enjoying the cool evening breeze at an open window, the Marquise and her daughter might have been likened to a goddess and a nymph, a rose and a rosebud — what shall I say ? — a cat and her kitten, or a cow and her calf! But although in voice, manner, gestures, and general effect, this similarity was so remarkable, a closer inspection might have found many points of difference ; and the girl seemed, indeed, an ideal sketch rather than a finished portrait of 167 168 CEEISE the woman, bearing to lier motlier the va«]^ie, spiritualised resemhhiiice that memory bears to presence — yom' dreams to your waking thoughts. Cerise was altogether fau-er in complexion and fainter in colouring, slenderer, and perhaps a little taller, with more of soul in her blue eyes but less of intellect, and a pure, serene face that a poet would have fallen down and wor- shipped, but from which a painter would have turned to study the richer tones of the Marquise. Some women seem to me like statues, and some like j^ictures. The latter fascinate you at once, compelling your admiration even on the first glance, while you pass by the former with a mere cold and critical approval. But every man who cares for art must have experienced how the influence of the model or the marble grows on him day by day. How, time after time, fresh beauties seem to spring beneath his gaze as if his very worship called them into life, and how, when he has got the masterpiece by heart, and sees every curve of the outline, every turn of the chisel in his dreams, he no longer wonders that it was not a painter, but a sculptor, who languished to death in hopeless adoration of his handiwork. These statue-women move, in no majestic march, over the necks of captive thousands to the strains of all kinds of music, but stand in their leafy, shado^vy nooks apart, teaching a man to love them by degrees, and he never forgets the lesson, nor would he if he could. It is scarcely necessary to say that the Marquise loved her daughter very dearly. For years, the child had occupied the first place in her warm impassioned heart. To send Cerise away was the first lesson in self-sacrifice the proud and prosperous lady had ever been forced to learn, and many a tear it used to cost her, when her ball- dress had been folded up and Celandine dismissed for the night. Nor, indeed, was the Quadroon's pillow quite dry when first she lost her nursling ; and long after Cerise slept calmly and peacefully between those quiet convent walls, far off in Normandy, the two women would lie broad awake, calling to remembrance the blue eyes and the brown cvnis and the pretty ways of their darling, till their very hearts ached with longing to look on her once more. Now, since Cerise.'] J LIKE GOING OUT SO MUCH, MAMMA. [Page 169. MATBE PULCHBA, FILIA PULCHBIOB 169 mademoiselle had returned, the Marquise thought she loved her better than ever, and perhaps all the feelings and impulses of a heart not too well disciplined had of late been called into stronger play. Madame de Montmirail threw herself back in her chair with an exclamation of pleasure, for the cool, soft breeze lifted the hair from her temples, and stirred the delicate lace edging on her bosom. *' It is delightful, my child ! " she said, "after the heat of to-day, which was suffocating. And we have nothing for to-night, I thank the saints with my whole heart ! Absolutely nothing ! Neither ball, nor concert, nor opera (for I could not sit out another of Cavalli's), nor even a horrid reception at the Luxembourg. This is what I call veritable repose." Like all people with a tinge of southern blood, the Marquise cried out at the slightest increase of temperature. Like all fashionable ladies, she professed to consider those gaieties without which she could not live, duty, but martyrdom. Mademoiselle, however, loved a ball dearly, and was not ashamed to say so. She entered such gatherings, indeed, with something of the nervousness felt by a recruit in his first engagement. The prospect of triumph was enhanced by the chance of danger ; but the sense of personal appre- hension forcibly overcome, which is, perhaps, the true definition of courage, added elasticity to her spirits, keen- ness to her intellect, and even charms to her person. Beauty, moving gracefully amongst admiring glances, under a warm light in a cloud of muslin, carries, perhaps, as high a heart beneath her bodice as beats behind the steel cuirass of Valour, riding his mailed war-horse in triumph through the shock of opposing squadrons. " And I like going out so much, mamma," said the girl, sitting on a footstool by her chair, and leaning both elbows on her mother's lap. *' With you I mean ; that must, of course, be understood. Alone in a ball-room without the petticoats of Madame la Marquise, behind which to run when the wolf comes, I should be so frightened, I do believe I should begin to cry ! Seriously, mamma, I should not like it at all. Tell me, dear mother, how did you manage at first, when you entered a society by yourself? " 170 CEBISE ** I was never afraid of the wolf," answered the Marquise, laughing, ** and lucky for me I was not, since the late king could not endure shy people, and if you showed the slightest spnptoms of awkwardness or want of tact you were simply not asked again. But you are joking, my darling ; you who need fear no criticism, with your youth, your freshness, the best dressmaker in Paris, and all that brown hair which Celandine talks of till the tears stand in her eyes." " I hate my hair !" interrupted Cerise. "I think it's hideous ! I wish it was black, like yours. A horrid man the other night at 'Madame's'took me for an English- woman ! He did, mamma ! A Prince somebody, all over decorations. I could have run a j^in into the wretch with pleasure. One of the things I like going out for is to watch my beautiful mamma, and the way to flatter me is to start back and hold up both hands, exclaiming, * Ah ! mademoiselle, none but the blind could take you for any- thing but the daughter of Madame la Marquise ! ' The Prince-Marshal does it every time we meet. Dear old man ! that is why I am so fond of him." The young lady illustrated this frank confession by an absurd little pantomime that mimicked her veteran admirer to the life, causing her mother to laugh heartily. " I did not know he was such a favourite," said the Marquise. " You are in luck, my daughter. I expect him to pay us a visit this very evening." Cerise made a comical little face of disgust. *' I shall go to bed before he catches me, then," she answered ; *' not that he is in the least out of favour ; on the contrary, I love him dearly ; but when he has been here five minutes I yawn, in ten I shut my eyes, and long before he gets to that bridge which Monsieur de Vendome ought, or ought not, to have blown up — there — it's no use ! The thing is stronger than I am, and I go fast asleep." " And so my little rake is disappointed," said the elder lady, taking her child's pretty head caressingly between her hands. " She would like to have a ball, or a reception, or something that would make an excuse for a sumptuous toilet, and she finds it very wearisome to sit at home, even for one night, and take care of her old mother ! " "Very!" repeated the girl playfully, while her tone MATBE PULCHBA, FILIA PULCHBIOB 171 made so ungracious an avowal equivalent to the fondest exjDression of attachment. " My old mother is so cross and so tiresome and so very verij old. Now, listen, mamma. Shall I have a dress exactly like yours for the ball at the Tuileries ? The young king is to dance. I know it, for my dear Prince-Marshal told me so while I was still awake. I have never seen a king, only a regent, and I do think Monsieur d'Orleans so ugly. Don't tell him, mamma, but our writing- master at the convent was the image of him, and had the same wrinkles in his forehead. He used to wipe our pens in his wig, and we called him ' Pouf-Pouf ! ' I was the worst writer amongst all the girls, and the best arithmeti- cian. * Pouf-Pouf ' said I had a geometrical head ! Well, mamma, you must order me a dress the exact pattern of yours ; the same flounces, the same trimmings, the same ribbons, and I will present myself before the Prince-Marshal the instant he arrives in the ball-room, to receive his accus- tomed compliment. Perhaps on that occasion he will take me for you/ Would it not be charming? My whole ambition just now is to be exactly like my mother in every respect ! " As she finished, her eyes insensibly wandered to the picture of the Prince de Chateau-Guerrand, which adorned the boudoir, but falling short of its principal figure, rested on the dead musketeer in the foreground. The Marquise also hajDpened to be looking at the same object, so that neither observed how the other's gaze was employed, nor guessed that besides figure, manner, features, voice, and gestures, there was yet a stronger point in which they bore too close and fatal a resemblance. Deep in the heart of each lurked the cherished image of a certain Grey Musketeer. The girl draping her idol, as it were, even to herself, not daring so much as to lift a corner of its veil ; yet rejoicing uncon- sciously in its presence, and trusting with a vague but implicit faith to its protection. The woman alternately prostrating herself at its pedestal, and spurning it beneath her feet, striving, yielding, hesitating, struggling, losing ground inch by inch, and forced against her judgment, against her will, to love him with a fierce, eager, anxious love, embittered by some of the keenest elements of hate. These two hearts were formed in the same mould, were 172 CERISE of the same blood, were knit together by the fondest and closest of ties, and one must necessarily be torn and bruised and pierced by the hap2)iness of the other. It was so far fortunate that neither of them knew the very precarious position in which Captain George found himself placed. Under such a ruler as the Debonnaire, it was no jesting matter for any man that his name should be written in full on a lettre de cachet, formally signed, sealed, and in possession of an ambitious intriguer, who, having no feelings of personal enmity to the victim, would none the less use his power without scruple or remorse. A woman was, of course, at the bottom of the scrape in which Captain George found himself ; but it was also to a woman that he was indebted for timely warning of his danger. Madame de Parabere had not only intimated to him that he must make his escape without delay, but had even offered to sell her jewels that he might be furnished with the means of flight. Such marks of gi-atitude and generosity were none the less touching that the sacrifice proved unnecessary. A Musketeer was seldom overburdened with ready money, but our Captain of the Grey Company not only bore a Scottish surname, he had also a cross of Scottish blood in his veins. The first helped him to get money, the second enabled him to keep it. Monsieur Las, or Law, as he should properly have been called, like his countrymen, " kept a warm side," as he expressed it, towards any one claiming a connection, how- ever remote, with his native land, and had given Captain George so many useful hints regarding the purchase and sale of Mississippi stock, that the latter, who was by no means deficient in acuteness, found himself possessed of a good round sum, in lawful notes of the realm, at the moment when such a store was absolutely necessary to his safety. He laid his plans accordingly with habitual promptitude and caution. He knew enough of these matters to think it improbable he would be publicly arrested while on guard, for in such cases profound secrecy was usually observed, as increasing the suddenness and mystery of the blow. He had, therefore, several hours to make his preparations, and the messenger whom he at once despatched to prepare relays of horses for him the whole way to the coast was several MATBE PULCHBA, FILIA PULCHBIOB 173 leagues on his road long before the sun went down. A valise, well packed, containing a change of raiment, rested on the loins of his best horse, ready saddled, with pistols in holsters and bridle hanging on the stall-post, to be put on directly he was fed. Soon after dark, this trusty animal was to be led to a particular spot, not far from the Hotel Montmirail, and there walked gently to and fro in waiting for his master. By daybreak next morning, the Musketeer hoped to be half-way across Picardy. Having made his dispositions for retreat like a true soldier, he divested his mind of further anxiety as to his own personal safety, and turned all his attention to a subject that was now seldom absent from his thoughts. It weighed on his heart like lead, to reflect how soon he must be parted from Cerise, how remote was the chance of their ever meeting again. In his life of action and adventure he had indeed learned to believe that for a brave man nothing was impossible, but he could not conceal from himself that it might be years before he could return to France, and his ignorance in what manner he could have offended the Regent only made his course the more difficult, his future the more gloomy and uncertain. On one matter he was decided. If it cost him liberty or life he would see the girl he loved once more, assure her of his unalterable affection, and so satisfy the great desire that had grown lately into a neces- sity of his very being. So it fell out that he was thinking of Cerise, while Cerise, with her eyes on the Musketeer in the picture, was thinking of him ; the Marquise believing the while that her child's whole heart was fixed on her ball-dress for the coming gaieties at the Tuileries. With the mother's thoughts we will not interfere, inasmuch as, whatever their nature, the fixed expression of her countenance denoted that she was keeping them down with a strong hand. The two had been silent longer than either of them would have allowed, when Celandine entered with a note — observing, as she presented it to her mistress, " Mademoiselle is pale ; mademoiselle looks fatigued ; madame takes her too much into society for one so young ; she had better go to bed at once, a long sleep will bring back the colour to her cheeks." 174 CEBISE The Marquise laughed at her old servant's carefulness. " You would like to put her to bed as you used when she was a baby. Who brought this? " she added, with a start, as, turning the note in her hand, she observed the royal arms of the Body-guard emblazoned on its seal ; bending her head over it the while to conceal the crimson that rose to her very temples. What a wild gush of happiness filled her heart while she read on — her warm wilful heart, that sent tears of sheer pleasure to her eyes so that she could scarcely decipher the words, and that beat so loud, she hardly heard Celandine's disapproving accents in reply. " The fiercest soldier, and the ugliest I have yet set eyes on. Nine feet high at least, and the rudest manners I ever encountered, even in a Musketeer! " Cerise was no longer to be pitied for want of colour, but Celandine, though she observed the change, took no notice of it, only urging on her young lady the propriety of going immediately to bed. Meanwhile, the Marquise read her note again. It was not (what letter ever was?) so enchanting on the second perusal as the first. It ran thus : — " Madame, " I am distressed beyond measure to trouble a lady with a question of military discipline. I cannot sufficiently regret that my duty compels me to post a sentry in the gi'ounds of the Hotel Montmirail. In order that this incon- venient arrangement may interfere as little as possible with the privacy of Madame, I urgently request, as the greatest favour, that she will indicate by her commands the exact spot on which 'she will permit one of my Musketeers to be stationed, and I will be at Madame' s orders at the usual time of going my rounds to-night. I have the honour to remain, with assurances of the most distinguished considera- tion, the humblest of Madame's humble servants. (Signed) *' George, " Captain, Grey Musketeers of the King." It was a polite document enough, and obviously the merest affair of military arrangement, yet the Marquise, after a MATEE PULCHBA, FILIA PVLCHBIOE 175 third perusal, kept it crumpled up in her hand, and when she thought herself unobserved, hid it away, probably for security, in the bosom of her dress. *' There is no answer, Celandine," said she, with well- acted calmness, belied by the fixed crimson spot in each cheek. ''My darling," she added caressingly, to her daughter, "your old bonne is quite right. The sooner you are in bed the better. Good-night, my child. I shall come and see you as usual after you are asleep. Ah ! Cerise, how I used to miss that nightly visit when you were at the convent. You slept better without it than your mother did, I am sure ! " Then, after her daughter left the room, she moved the lamp far back into a recess, and sat down at the open window, pressing both hands against her bosom, as though to restrain the beating of her heart. How her mind projected itself into the future ! Wliat wild inconceivable, impracticable projects she formed, destroyed, and reconstructed once more! She overleaped probability, possibility, the usages of life, the very lapse of time. At a bound she was walking with him through her woods in Touraine, his own, his very own. They had given up Paris, the Court, ambition, society, everything in the world for each other, and they were so happy ! so happy ! Cerise, herself, and him. Ah ! she felt now the capabilities she had for goodness. She knew what she could be with a man like that — a man whom she could respect as well as love. She almost felt the pressure of his arm, while his kind, brave face looked down into her own, under just such a moon as that rising even now through the trees above the guard-house. Then she came back to her boudoir in the Hotel Montmirail, and the consciousness, the triumphant consciousness that, come what might, she must at least see him and hear his voice within an hour ; but recalling the masked ball at the Opera House the night before, she trembled and turned pale, thinking she would never dare to look him in the face again. There was yet another subject of anxiety. The Prince- Marshal was to come, as he often did of an evening, and pass half-an-hour over a cup of coffee before he retired to rest. It made her angry to think of her old admirer, as if 176 CERISE she did indeed already belong to some one else. How long that some one seemed in coming, and yet she had sat there, hot and cold by turns, for but five minutes, unless her clock had stopped. Suddenly, with a great start, she sprang from her chair, and listened, upright, with parted lips and hair put back. No ! her ear was not deceived ! It had caught the clink of spurs, and a faint measured footfall, outside in the distant street. CHAPTER XX A GENERAL RENDEZVOUS Meanwhile Cerise, not the least sleepy, though sent pre- maturely to hed, dismissed her attendant protesting vehe- mently, and sat herself down also at an open window, to breathe the night air, look at the moon, and dream, wide- awake, on such subjects as arise most readily in young ladies' minds when they find themselves alone with their own thoughts in the summer evening. However exalted these may have been, they can scarcely have soared to the actual romance of which she was an unconscious heroine, or fore- seen the drama of action and sentiment she was about to witness in person. Little did she imagine, while she leaned a sweet face, pale and serene in the moonlight, on an arm half hidden in the wealth of her unbound hair, that two men were watching every movement who could have kissed the very ground she trod on ; for one of whom she was the type of all that seemed best and loveliest in woman, teaching him to look from earth to heaven ; for the other, an angel of light, pure and holy in herself, yet Iming him irresistibly down the path to hell. The latter had been hidden since dusk, that he might but see her shadow cross the windows of the gallery, one by one, when she sought her chamber ; the other was visiting his guard two hours earlier than usual, with a silent caution that seemed mistrustful of their vigilance, in order that he might offer her the heart of an honest man, ere he fled for his life to take refuge in another land. Captain George, entering the garden through a private door, could see plainly enough tlie figure of Mademoiselle de 12 177 178 CEBISE Montmirail brought into relief by the lamp-light in her room. She must have heard his step in the street, he thought, for she had risen and was looking earnestly out into the darkness ; but from some cause or another, at the instant the door in the garden wall closed behind him, she shrank back and disappeared. His heart beat high. Could she have expected him ? Could she know intuitively why he was there to-night ? Was it possible she would run down and grant him a meet- ing in the garden ? The thought was rapture ! Yet perhaps with all its intoxication, he scarcely loved her so dearly as he had done a moment before, as he did a moment after, when he actually distinguished a white dress flitting along the terrace at the farthest corner of the building. Then indeed he forgot duty, danger, exile, uncertainty, the future, the past, everything but the intense happiness of that moment. He was conscious of the massive trees, the deep shadows, the black clusters of shrubs, the dusky outlines of the huge indistinct building traversed here and there by a broad shimmer of light, the stars above his head, the crescent moon, the faint whisper of leaves, the drowsy perfume of flowers, but only because of her presence who tm-ned the whole to a glimpse of fairyland. He stole towards the terrace, treading softly, keeping carefully in the shadow of the trees. So intent was he, and so cautious, that he never observed Cerise return to her post of obser- vation. She had resumed it, however, at the very moment when the Musketeer, having advanced some ten paces with the crouching stealthy gait of a Red Indian drawing on his game, stopped short — like the savage when he has gone a step too far — rigid, motionless, scarcely breathing, every faculty called up to watch. The attention of Mademoiselle de Montmirail was aroused at the same moment by the same cause. It is scarcely necessary to observe that the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France, was no less ambitious of distinction in the fields of love than of war. That in the one, though falling far short of his heroic ancestor, whom he so wished to resemble, his prowess was not below the average, scandal itself must admit ; but that, if experience A GENERAL BENDEZVOUS 179 ought to count for anything, his encounters in the other should have made him the most successful campaigner of his time, history cannot conscientiously deny. Like all such freebooters, however, he met with many a bitter reverse, many a signal defeat never mentioned in despatches. His rebuffs, we may be sure, were written on water, though his triumphs were carved in stone ; and it was for those on whom he could make least impression that he cherished the greatest interest. The way to captivate the Regent was not so much to profess, as to entertain a thorough contempt for his character, an utter disregard of his position. The noble mind, the stout heart, the strong will, the sagacious, deep-thinking, yet open disposition, true type of manhood, is to be won by love ; but the sensualist, the coward, the false, the wicked, and the weak, are all best tamed by scorn. With a new face, the Regent was captivated, as a matter of course, for an hour or two ; seldom during a whole day ; though on occasion, if the face were very beautiful, and strictly guarded, he besieged its owner for a week ; but Madame de Mont- mirail was the only long-established beauty of the Court who had seriously captivated his fancy, and, indeed, what little was left of his miserable self-indulgent heart. This triumph she owed to her perfect unconsciousness of it, and complete disregard for her admirer, therefore it became more firmly established day by day ; and when Malletort, who thoroughly comprehended the nature he wished to rule, hinted that his kinswoman was not insensible to the Prince's merits, he did but blow into flame a fire that had been smouldering longer than even he was aware. Now the Abbe had sufficient confidence in her powers and her attractions to be sure that if Madame de Mont- mirail once obtained an acknowledged and ostensible influence over the Regent she would become the virtual ruler of France ; and the Abbe, in his own way, loved his cousin better than anything but the excitement of ambition and the possession of political power. He believed that her disgrace would be of infinite advantage to herself as well as to him, and thought he could see her way clearly, with his own assistance, to an eventual throne. He was a man without religion, without principle, without honour, 180 CERISE without even the common sympathies of humanity. It is difficult in our days to conceive such a character, though they were common enough in France during the last century ; but in his views for his cousin, evil as they were, he seemed at least honest — more, self-sacrificing, since she was the only creature on earth for whom he cared. With his knowledge of her disposition, he did not con- ceal from himself that great difficulties attended his task. However lightly the cynical Abbe might esteem a woman's virtue, his experience taught him not to underrate the obstinacy of a woman's pride. That his cousin, in common with her family, possessed an abundance of the latter quality, he was well aware, and he played his game accord- ingly. It was his design to compromise her by a cowp-cle- main, after he had sapped her defences to the utmost by the arguments of ambition and self-interest. Like all worldly men in their dealings with women, he undervalued both hei- strength and her weakness — her aversion to the Regent, and her fancy for the Musketeer ; this even while he made use of the latter to overcome the former sentiment. If she could be induced by any means, however fraudulent, to grant the Prince an interview at night in her own gardens, he argued, that first step would have been taken, which it is always so difficult to retract ; and to bring this about, he had forged Captain George's signature to the polite note which had proved so effectual in luring the Mar- quise down the terrace steps, and across the velvet lawn, under the irresistible temptation of a meeting by moonlight with the man she loved. As a measure of mere politeness, connected with certain military precautions, of course ! But under such circumstances it would appear that one Musketeer ought to be company enough for one lady at a time. Cerise, viewing the performances from her window above, might have come to the conclusion, had she not been too anxious, agitated, terrified, to retain full possession of her faculties, that the arrival of a few more of these guards- men on such a scene, at such a crisis, was conducive rather to tumult and bloodshed than appropriate conversation. Captain George, stopping short in his eager though stealthy advance towards the white figure flitting noiselessly A GENERAL RENDEZVOUS 181 across the lawn, first tliouglit he was dreaming ; next, that he beheld a spectral or illusive image of himself, denoting near approach of death ; lastly, that the discipline of the corps had become relaxed to a degree which his military indignation resolved should be severely visited within an hour, though he abandoned his command the next. A Grey Musketeer, hatted, cloaked, booted precisely like himself, was advancing from the direction of the guard- house towards the white figure, that now stopped short as if expecting him. While yet a few feet apart, both stood still, and Captain George, in dark shadow at ten paces' distance, not only recognised the Marquise by her voice, but saw her face distinctly, as she turned it towards the moonlight, framed in its masses of black hair. His heart beat calmly now, and he was the cool resolute man of action once more. She was the first to speak, and though they trembled a little, very soft and musical fell her tones on the listener's ear. "I received monsieur's note. It was most kind and con- siderate on his part. I have been expecting him for this hour past." The cloaked figure uncovered. George, watching Madame de Montmirail, observed her start and raise her head defiantly. ''Madame will forgive the intrusion then," said her companion, " since it is not unexpected. She will consider also the temptation, and the discretion of her visitor." There was no mistaking the tones of the Regent, good- humom-ed, easy, and, though a little husky, pleasant as if mellowed by Bourdeaux. She drew back hastily, but the speaker at the same time possessed himself of her hand, almost by force, and, drawing her towards him, whispered in her ear. The Marquise broke from him furiously. Her eyes glittered like steel, and she stamped upon the turf, while she exclaimed — " What have I ever done that your Highness should offer me this insult? And here, in the midst of my own people! The Montmirails have been always loyal," she added, in a tone of bitter scorn, " and know how to spare a Bourbon! 182 CERISE Quit the giirdcn instantly by that door, and your Highness shall sullur no further humiliation for an act that is at once a folly and an impertinence." She extended her white hand with the gesture of one who orders a disobedient hound to kennel, and Captain George, in his hiding-place, felt the blood mounting to his brain. But the Kegent was not so easily discouraged. Clasp- ing both her hands in his own, he knelt at her feet, and while cloak and hat fell off, proceeded to pour out a stream of professions, promises, and protestations, with a good- humoured carelessness that was in itself an outrage. Nevertheless, though she struggled fiercely to get free, cool, courageous, and self-possessed, she made no outcry ; but in her efforts a bracelet flew from her arm, and the skirt of her muslin dress was torn to its hem. Captain George could stand it no longer. In two strides he was upon him, hovering over the aggressor with his drawn sword. Then the Eegent's nerve failed. Shaken, excited, irritated, he suspected a plot ; he shrank from assassina- tion ; he imagined himself surrounded. *'Help! help!" he shouted loudly, staggering to his feet, and looking wildly about him. " To me ! my Musketeers, to me ! Down with them ! fire on them all ! The traitors ! the assassins ! " Lights twinkled in the hotel, and servants came rushing out in great alarm, but long ere they could reach the scene of action, half-a-dozen Musketeers had arrived, with Bras- de-Fer at their head. " Why, 'tis the Captain ! " exclaimed the latter, stop- ping short with his point lowered, in sheer bewilderment — a lack of promptitude that probably saved his officer's life. "Arrest him, I tell you, idiots! " shrieked the Eegent, with a horrible oath, trembling and glaring about him for a fresh enemy. The Marquise had plenty of courage. Still she was but a woman, and not actually hemmed in a corner ; so, when the Musketeers ran in with levelled weapons, she turned and fled ; only as far as the terrace steps, however, where she took up her post and watched the sequel with a wild fixed face, white and stony as the balustrades themselves. A GENERAL RENDEZVOUS 183 The servants hovered round, chattering, flinching, and doing nothing. Half-a-dozen blades flashed in Captain George's eyes ; as many points were levelled at his heart. His own men had been bid to take him, and they must obey. He knew well they were some of the best swordsmen in the French army ; but his good horse should by this time be waiting in the street beyond, and if he could fight his way to the garden-gate there was yet a chance left. Even in this extremity he was conscious that the light still streamed from Cerise's window. Catching a couple of thrusts in his cloak, and engaged with a third adversary, he was aware of Bras-de-Fer's tall figure advancing upon him. For an instant his heart sank, and he felt he was over-matched. But an unexpected auxiliary, who seemed to have risen out of the very ground, stood at his side. With a thrill of triumph he recognised Beaudesir's voice in his ear. *' Courage, my captain ! " said the professional coolly, as if giving a lesson. *' Carte and counter-carte — carte and counter-carte ! Keep the wrist going like a windmill, and we shall fight through them all." He was yet speaking when Bras-de-Fer went down with an ugly thrust through the lower ribs, exclaiming as he lost his footing — " Peste ! Had I known you were in it, I'd have parried your blade with a pistol-shot ! " A few flashing passes, a clink of rapiers, an oath or two, a shriek from upstairs, shouts, groans, a scuffling of feet, and George was safe through the garden-door and out in the street. He looked for Beaudesir : the youth had dis- appeared. He looked for his horse ; the good beast was walking quietly off in the custody of two Musketeers. A patrole of the same corps were entering the street from the other end. It seemed hard to be taken here after all. But, once more to-night. Captain George found a friend where he least expected one. A coach was di'awn up within six paces. A lackey, with a lighted torch in one hand, held the door open with the other. Old Chateau- Guerrand caught him by the arm. *' You are a brave lad," said he, " and, Eegent or rouGj 184 CERISE I am not going to turn my back on my aide-de-camp ! I watched you fi'om the roof of my coach over the wall. By the cross of St. Louis, I never saw so good a fight, and I have had fifty years of it, my hoy. Here ! take my carriage. They dare not stop tJiat at their barriers. Those English horses can go like the wind : bid them carry you where you will." George pressed his hand and whispered in his ear. " Relays ! " exclaimed the Prince-Marshal. " Then you are safe. Shut him in ! And you, coachman, be ofi" ! Drive as if you had the devil or old Turenue in your rear!" It was about this moment that Celandine, rushing into her young lady's room to comfort her, in the alarm, found Cerise extended, motionless and unconscious, on the floor. CHAPTER XXI THE FOX AND FIDDLE Three dirty children with bkie eyes, fair locks, and round, chubby faces, deepened by a warm peach-like tint beneath the skin, such as are to be seen in plenty along our southern seaboard, were busily engaged building a grotto of shells opposite their home, at the exact spot where its construction was most in the way of pedestrians passing through the narrow ill-paved street. Their shrill cries and blooming looks denoted the salubrious influence of sea air, while their nationality was sufficiently attested by the vigour with which the eldest, a young lady less than ten years of age, called out " Frenchie ! Frenchie ! Froggie ! Froggie ! " after a foreign-looking man with a pale face and dark eyes, who stepped over the low half-door that restrained her infant brothers and sisters from rolling out into the gutter, as if he was habitually a resident in the house. He appeared, indeed, a favourite with the children, for while they recalled him to assist their labours, which he did with a good-nature and address peculiarly winning to architects of that age, they chanted in his praise, and obviously with the intention of doing him high honour, a ditty of no particular tune, detailing the matrimonial adventures of an amphibious animal, supposed in the last century to bear close affinity to all Frenchmen, as related with a remarkable chorus by one Anthony Rowley ; and the obliging foreigner, suspecting neither sarcasm nor insult, but only suffering torture from an utter absence of tune, hummed lustily in accompaniment. Over the heads of these urchins hung their paternal 185 186 CERISE sigii-board, creaking and swin,Q:ing in the breeze now freshening with an incoming tide. Its representation of a fox playing the fiddle was familiar to seafaring men as indicating a favourite house of call for the consumption of beer, tobacco, and that seductive compound known to several generations by the popular name of punch. The cheerful fire, the red curtains, the sanded floor, the wooden chairs, and liberal measures of their jovial haunt, had been present to the mind's eye of many an honest tar clinging wet and cold to a slij^pery yard, reefing topsails in a nor'-Tvester, or eating maggoty biscuit and sipping six- water gi'og, on half rations, homeward bound with a head- wind, but probably none of them had ever speculated on the origin of the sign they knew so well and thought of so often. Why a fox and fiddle should be found together in a seaport town, what a fox had to do with a fiddle, or, how- ever appropriate to their ideas of jollity the instrument might appear, wherefore its player should be represented as the cunning animal whom destiny had already con- demned to be hunted by English country gentlemen, was a speculation on which they had no wish to embark. Neither have I. It is enough to know that the Fox and Fiddle sold loaded beer, strong tobacco, and scalding punch, to an extent not even limited by the consumer's purse ; for when Jack had spent all his rhinOy the landlord's liberality enabled him to run up a score, hereafter to be liquidated from the wages of a future voyage. The infatuated debtor, pacing something like two hundred per cent, on every mouthful for this accommodation, by a farther arrange- ment, that he should engage with any skipper of the land- lord's providing, literally sold himself, body and soul, for a nipperkin of rum and half-a-pound of tobacco. Nevertheless, several score of the boldest hearts and readiest hands in England were to be bought at this low price, and Butter-faced Bob, as his rough-spoken customers called the owner of the Fox and Fiddle, would furnish as many of them at a reasonable tariff, merchant and man-of- war's men, as the captain wanted or the owners could afi'ord to buy. It was no wonder his children had strong lungs, and round, well-fed cheeks. "That's a good chap!" observed a deep hoarse voice. THE FOX AND FIDDLE 187 which made the youngest grotto-buiklcr start and shrink behind its sister, while a broad elderly figure rolled and lurched after the obliging foreigner into the house. It would have been as impossible to mistake the new-comer for a landsman as Butter-faced Bob himself for anything but a publican. His gait on the pavement was that of one who had so thoroughly got his sea-legs that he was, to the last degree, incommoded by the uneven though stable surface of the shore ; and while he trod the passage, as being planked, with more confidence, he nevertheless ran his hand, like a blind man, along tables and other articles of furniture while he passed them, seeming, in every gesture, to be more ready with his arms than his legs. Broad-faced, broad-shouldered, broad-handed, he looked a powerful, and at the same time a strong-constitutioned man, but grizzled hair and shaggy eyebrows denoted he was past his prime ; while a reddened neck and tanned face, with innumerable little wrinkles round the eyes, suggested constant watchfulness and exposure in hard weather afloat, no less than swollen features and marked lines told of deep drinking and riotous living ashore. The seamen of that period, though possessing an un- doubted claim to the title, were far more than to-day a class distinct and apart from their fellow-countrymen. The standing army, an institution of which our parliaments had for generations shown themselves so jealous, could boast, indeed, a consolidation and discipline under Marlborough which made them, as the Musketeers of the French king allowed, second to no troops in Europe. But their triumphs, their organisation, even their existence, was comparatively of recent date. The navy, on the other hand, had been a recognised and constitutional force for more than a centmy, and had enjoyed, from the dispersion of the Spanish Armada downwards, a series of successes almost uninterrupted. It is true that the cannonade of a Dutch fleet had been heard in the Thames, but few of the lowest seamen were so ignorant as to attribute this national disgrace to want of courage in their officers or incapacity in themselves. Their leaders, indeed, were usually more remarkable for valour than discretion, nor was this surprising under the system by which captains were appointed to their ships. 188 CERISE A regiment and a tliree-deckcr were considered by the Government equivalent and convertible commands. The cavahy officer of to-day might find himself directing the manoeuvres of a fleet to-morrow. The relics of so untoward an arrangement may be detected in certain technical phrases not yet out of use. The word *' squadron " is even now applied alike to a handful of horse and a powerful fleet, numbering perha|:)s a dozen sail of the line. Kaleigh, him- self, began his lighting career as a soldier, and Eupert finished his as a sailor. With such want of seamanship, therefore, amongst its commanders, our navy must have possessed in its construc- tion some great preponderating influence to account for its efficiency. This compensating power was to be found in its masters, its petty-officers, and its seamen. The last were thoroughly impregnated with the briny element on which they passed their lives. They boasted themselves a race apart. ** Land-lubber " was for them a term conveying the utmost amount of derision and contempt. To be an "old salt" was the ideal perfection at which alone it was worth while for humanity to aim. The sea- man, exulting in his profession, was never more a seaman than when rolling about on shore, swearing strange oaths, using nautical phrases, consuming vast quantities of beer and tobacco, above all, flinging his money here and there with a profuse and injudicious liberality especially dis- tinctive of his kind. The popularity of such characters amongst the lower classes may be readily imagined ; for, with the uneducated and unreflecting, a reckless bearing very generally passes for courage ; a tendency to dissipation for manliness ; and a boastful expenditm'e for true generosity of heart. Perhaps, to the erroneous impressions thus disseminated amongst the young, should be attributed the inclination shown towards a service of which the duties entailed continual danger, excessive hardship, and daily privation. Certainly at a period when the worst provision was made, both physical and moral, for the welfare of men before the mast, there never seems to have been found a difficulty in keeping up the full complement of the British navy. They were, indeed, a race apart, not only in their THE FOX AND FIDDLE 189 manners, their habits, their quaint expressions, their simple modes of thought, but in their superstitions and even their religious belief. They cultivated a rough, honest kind of piety, well illustrated in later years by Dibdin, himself a landsman, when he sang of " The sweet little cherub that sits up aloft To take care of the life of poor Jack." But it was overloaded and interspersed with a thousand strange fancies not more incongruous than unreasonable and far-fetched. No power would induce them to clear out of port, or, indeed, commence any important undertaking on a Friday. Mother Carey's chickens were implicitly believed to be messengers sent express from another world to warn the mariner of impending storm, and bid him shorten sail ere it began to blow. Carlmilhan, the famous pirate, who, rather than be taken alive, had in default of gunpowder scuttled his own ship and gone down with it, all standing, was still to be heard giving notice in deep unearthly tones fi'om under her very keel when the ship approached shoal water, shifting sands, or treacherous coral reefs in the glittering seas beneath the tropics. That phantom Dutch- man, who had been provoked by baffling winds about the Cape to speak "unadvisedly with his lips," was still to be seen in those tempestuous latitudes careering through the storm- drift under a press of sail, when the best craft that swam hardly dared show a stitch of canvas. The speaking- trumpet was still to be heard from her deck, shouting her captain's despairing request to take his letters home, and the magic ship still disappeared at half-a-cable's length and melted into air, while the wind blew fiercer and the sea rose higher, and sheets of rain came flashing down from the black squall lowering overhead. Nor was it only in the wonders of this world that the tar professed his unaccountable belief. His credulity ran riot in regions beyond the grave, or, to use his own words, after he had ''gone to Davy Jones." A mystical spot which he called Fiddler's Green was for him both the Tartarus and Elysium of the ancients — a land flowing, not indeed with milk and honey, but with rum and limejuice; a land of 190 CERISE perpetual music, mirth, dancing, drinking, and tobacco ; a land in which his weary soul was to find an intervening spell of enjoyment and repose, ere she put out again for her final voyage into eternity. In the meantime, the new arrival at the Fox and Fiddle, seating himself at a small table in the public room, or tap as it would now be called, ordered a quart of ale and half-a- pint of rum. These fluids he mingled with great care, and sipped his beverage in a succession of liberal mouthfuls, dwelling on each with an approving smack as a man drinks a good bottle of claret. Butter-faced Bob, who waited on him, remarked that he pulled out but one gold piece in payment, and knowing the ways of his patrons, concluded it was his last, or he would have selected it from a handful. The landlord remembered he had a customer in the parlour who wanted just such articles as this burly broad-shouldered seaman, with pockets at low water. The man did not, however, count his change when it was brought him, but shovelled it into his seal-skin tobacco pouch, a coin or two short, without looking at it. He then filled carefully, drank, and pondered with an air of grave and imposing reflection. Long before his measure was finished a second guest entered the taproom, whose manners, gait, and gestures were an exact counterpart of the first. He was taller, however, and thinner, altogether less robust and prosperous-looking, showing a sallow face and withered skin, that denoted he had spent much of his life in hot climates. Though he looked younger than the other, his bearing was more staid and solemn, nor did he at once vociferate for something to drink. Beer seemed his weakness less than 'baccy, for he placed a small copper coin on a box ingeniously constructed so that, opening only by such means, it produced exactly the money's worth of the fragrant weed, and loading a pipe with a much-tattooed hand, proceeded to puff volumes of smoke through the apartment. Butter-faced Bob, entering, cheerfully proffered all kinds of liquids as a matter of course, but was received with sm-ly negatives, and retired to speculate on the extreme of wealth or poverty denoted by this abstinence. A man, he thought, to be proof against such temptations must be either so rich, THE FOX AND FIDDLE 191 and consequently so full of liquor that he was unable to drink any more, or so poor that he couldn't afford to be thirsty. So the last comer smoked in silence at a little table of his own, which he had drawn into a corner, and his pre- decessor drank at his table, looking wiser and wiser, while each glanced furtively at the other without opening his lips. Presently the eyes of the elder man twinkled : he had got an idea — nay, he actually launched it. Filling his glass, and politely handing it to the smoker, but reserving the jug to drink from himself, he proposed the following comprehen- sive toast — "All ships at sea ! " They both drank it gravely and without farther comment. It was a social challenge, and felt to be such ; the smoker pondered, put out the glass he had drained to be refilled, and holding it on a level with his eyes, enunciated solemnly — " AU ships in port ! " When equal justice had been done to this kindred senti- ment, and the navies of the world were thus exhausted, they came to a dead-lock and relapsed into silence once more. This calm might have remained unbroken for a consider- able time but for the entrance of a third seaman, much younger than either of the former, whose appearance in the passage had been received by a round of applause from the childi'en, a hearty greeting from the landlady — though that portly woman, with her handsome face, would not have left her arm-chair to welcome an admiral — and a "good- morrow," louder, but not more sincere, from Bob himself. It appeared that this guest was well known and also trusted at the Fox and Fiddle, for, entering the public room with a sea-bow and a scrape of his foot on its sanded floor, he called lustily for a quart of strong ale and a pipe, while he produced an empty purse, and shook it in the landlord's face with a laugh of derision that would have become the wealthiest nobleman in Great Britain. " Ay, lad," said Bob, shaking his head, but setting before 192 CERISE his customer the beer and tobacco as desired. *' 'Tis well enough ro begin a fresh score when the old one's wiped out ; but I saw that purse, with my own eyes, half full of broad pieces at the ebb. See now ; you've gone and cleared it out — not a blessed gi'oat left — and it's scarce high-water yet ! " *' What o' that, old shiney ? " laughed the other. '' Isn't there plenty more to be yarned when them's all gone? Slack water be hanged ! I tell you I'll have a doubloon for every one of these here rain-drops afore a month's out. I Imow where they grows, old man ; I know where they grows. My sarvice to ye, mates ! Here's * Outward bound and an even keel !' " While he spoke he whirled the rain-drops off his shining hat upon the floor, and nodding to the others, took a long pull at his ale, which nearly emptied the jug ; then he filled a pipe, winked at the retiring landlord, and smoked in silence. The others scanned him attentively. He was an active, well-built young fellow of two or three-and-twenty, with foretopman written on every feature of his reckless, saucy, good-looking face — in every gesture of his wiry, loose, athletic limbs. He was very good-looking ; his eyes sparkled with fun and his teeth were as white as a lady's ; his hair too might have been the envy of many a woman, clustering as it did in a profusion of curls over a pair of real gold earrings — a fashion now beginning to find considerable favour amongst the rising generation of seamen, though regarded with horror by their seniors as a new and monstrous affectation, proving, if indeed proof were needed for so self- evident a fact, that, as in all previous and subsequent ages, " the service was going to the devil." Even his joviality, however, seemed damped by the taci- turnity of his comrades. He too smoked in silence and gave himself up to meditation. The rain pattered outside, and gusts of wind dashed it fitfully against the window- pane. The tide moaned sullenly, and a house-dog, chained in the back-yard, lifted up his voice to howl in unison. The three seamen smoked and drank and brooded, each occasionally removing his pipe from his mouth as if about to break the silence, on which the others looked in his face expectant, and for a time this was the whole extent of the conversation. CHAPTER XXII THREE STRANDS OF A YARN As in a council of war, the youngest spoke first. " Mates ! " said he, "here be three of us, all run for the same port, and never a one sported bunting. I ain't a chap, I ain't, as must be brought to afore he'll show his number. When I drinks with a man I likes to fit his name on him ship- shape, so here's my sarvice to you messmates both ! They calls me Slap- Jack. That's about what they calls me both ashore and afloat." It was absolutely necessar}^ after such an exordium that more liquor should be brought in, and a generous contention immediately arose between the three occupants of the tap- room as to who should pay for it ; at once producing increased familiarity, besides a display of liberality on the part of the eldest and first comer, who was indeed the only one possessing ready money. Butter-faced Bob being summoned, the jugs were replenished and Slap-Jack con- tinued his remarks. *' I've been cruising about ashore," said he, between the whifi's of his pipe, " and very bad weather I made on it standing out over them Downs, as they calls 'em, in these here latitudes. Downs, says I, the Downs is mostly smooth water and safe anchorage ; but these here Ups and Downs is a long leg and a short one, a head wind and an ebb tide all the voyage through. I made my port, though, d'ye mind me, my sons, at last, and — and — well, we've all had our sweethearts in our day, so we'll drink her health by your leave. Here's to Alice, mates ! and next round it shall be your call, and thank ye hearty." 13 193 194 CEBISE So gallant a toast could not but be gi-aciously accepted. The second comer, however, shook his head while he did it justice, and drank, so to speak, under protest, thereby in no measure abating the narrator's enthusiasm. '' She's a trim-built craft is my Alice," continued the other reflectively. " On a wind or off a wind, going large or close hauled, moored in dock or standing out in blue water, there's not many of 'em can show alongside of she. And she's w^eatherly besides, uncommon weatherly she is. When I bids her good-bye at last, and gives her a bit of a squeeze, just for a reminder like, she wipes her eyes, and she smiles up in my face, and, ' God bless you, Jack ! ' says she; * you won't forget me,' says she; 'an' you'll think of me sometimes, when it's your watch on deck ; and as for me. Jack, I'll think of you every hour of the day and night till you comes back again ; it won't be so very long first.' She's heart of oak, is that lass, mates, and I wouldn't be here now but that I'm about high and di-y, and that made me feel a bit lubberly, d'ye see, till I got under weigh for the homeward trip ; an' you'll never guess what it was as raised my spirits, beating to windward across them Downs, with a dry mouth and my heart shrunk up to the size of a pea." ''A stiff glass of gi'og nor'-nor'-west ? " suggested the oldest sailor, with a grunt. ' ' Another craft on the same lines, with new sails bent and a lick of fresh paint on," snarled the second, whose opinion of the fair sex, derived chiefly fi'om seaport towns, was none of the highest. " Neither one nor t'other," replied Slap- Jack, trium- phantly. " Scalding punch wouldn't have warmed my heart up just then, and I wasn't a-goin' to clear out from Alice like that, and give chase to a fi'esh sail just because she cut a feather across my fore-foot. It was neither more nor less than a chap swinging in chains ; a chap as had been swinging to all appearance so long he must have got used to it, though I doubt he was very wet up there in nothing but his bones. He might have been a good-looking blade enough when he began, but I can't say much for his figure- head when I passed under it for luck. It wanted painting, mates, let alone varnish, and he gi'inned awful in the teeth of the wind. So I strikes my topmast as I forges ahead, THREE STBAND8 OF A YARN 195 and I makes him a low bow, and, says I, * Thank ye kindly, mate,' says I, ' for putting it in my mind,' says I ; ' you've been *' on the account," in all likelihood, and that's where I'll go myself next trip, see if I won't ; ' and I ask your pardon, by sons, for you're both older men than me by a good spell, if that isn't the trade for a lad as looks to a short voyage and good wages, every man for himself, grab what you see, an' keep all you can? " Thus appealed to, the elder seaman felt bound to give an opinion ; so he cleared his throat and asked huskily — '' Have you tried it, mate ? You seems like a lad as has dipped both hands in the tar-bucket, though you be but young and sarcy. Look ye, now, you hoisted signals first, an' I ain't a-going to show a false ensign, I ain't. You may call me Bottle-Jack ; you won't be the first by a many, and I ain't ashamed o' my name." The next in seniority then removed the pipe from his lips, and smiting the table with a heavy fist, observed, sen- tentiously — *' And me, Smoke-Jack, young man. It's a rum name, ain't it, for as smart a foretopman as ever lay out upon a yard? but I've yarned it, that's what I sticks to. I've yarned it. Here's your health, lad ; I wish ye well." The three having thus gone through all the forms neces- sary to induce a long and staunch friendship amongst men of their class. Slap- Jack made a clean breast of it, as if he had knov/n his companions for years. " I have tried it, mates," said he ; " and a queer game it is ; but I don't care how soon I try it again. I suppose I must have been born a landsman somehow, d'ye see? though I can't make much of that when I come to think it over. It don't seem nat'ral like, but I suppose it was sc. Well, I remember as I runned away from a old bloke wot wanted to make me a sawbones — a sawbones ! and I took and shipped myself, like a young bear, aboard of the ' Sea Swallow,' cabin-boy to Captain Delaval. None o' yom* merchantmen was the * Sea Swallow,' nor yet a man-o'-war, though she carried a royal ensign at the gaff, and six brass carronades on the main-deck. She was a waspish craft as ever you'd wish to see, an' dipped her nose in it as though she loved the taste of blue water, the jade ! — wet, but weatherly, 196 CERISE an' such a picture as you never set eyes on, close-hauled within five points of the wind. First they gammoned me as she was a slaver, and then a sugar-merchant's pleasure- boat, and sometimes they said she was a privateer, with letters of marque from the king; but I didn't want to know much about that ; King George or King Louis, it made no odds, bless ye ; I warn't a goin' to tm-n sawbones, an' Captain Delaval was my master, that was enough for me ! Such a master he was, too ! No seaman — not he. His hands were as white as a lady's, an' I doubt if he knew truck from talBfrail ; but with old Blowhard, the master, to sail her, and do what the skipper called swabbing and dirty work, there wasn't a king's officer as ever I've heard of could touch him. Such a man to fight his ship was Captain Delaval. I've seen him run her in under a Spanish battery, with a table set on deck and a awning spread, and him sitting with a glass of wine in his hand, and give his orders as cool and comfortable as you and me is now. * Easy, Blowhard ! ' he'd sing out, when old ' Blow ' was sweating, and cursing, and stamping about to get the duty done. ' Don't ye speak so sharp to the men,' says he ; ' spoils then- ear for music,' says he. ' We'll be out o' this again afore the breeze falls, and we'll turn the fiddles up and have a dance in the cool of the evening.' Then he'd smile at me, and say, * Slap-Jack, you little blackguard, run below for another pineapple ; not so rotten-ripe as the last ; ' and by the time I was on deck again, he'd be wiping his sword carefully, and drawing on his gloves — that man couldn't so much as whistle a hornpipe without his gloves ; and let who would be second on board the prize, be she bark, schooner, brig, galleon, or square-rigged ship, Captain Delaval he would be first. Look ye here, mates : I made two voyages with Captain Delaval, and when I stepped on the quay at Bristol off the second — there ! I was worth a hundred doubloons, all in gold, besides as much silk as would have lined the fore-sail, and a pair of diamond earrings that I lost the first night I slept ashore. I thought, then, as perhaps I wasn't to see my dandy skipper again, but I was wrong. I've never been in London town but once, an' I don't care if I never goes no more. First man I runs against in Thames Street is Captain Delaval, ridin' THREE STBANDS OF A YABN 197 in a cart with his hands tied ; and old Blowhard beside him, smelling at a nosegay as big as the binnacle. I don't think as old ' Blow ' knowed me again, not in long togs ; but the skipper he smiles, and shows his beautiful white teeth as he was never tired of swabbing and holystoning, and ' There's Slap-Jack ! ' says he ; * Good-bye, Slap-Jack ; I'll be first man over the gunwale in this here scrimmage, too,' says he, * for they'll hang me first, and then Blowhard, when he's done with his nosegay.' I wish I could find such another skipper now; what say ye, mates? " Smoke-Jack, who was sitting next him, did not imme- diately reply. He was obviously of a logical and argumen- tative turn of mind, with a cavilling disposition, somewhat inclined to speculative philosophy; such a character, in short, as naval officers protest against under the title of a lawyer. He turned the matter over deliberately ere he replied, with a voluminous puff of smoke between each sentence — *' Some likes a barky, and some wouldn't touch a rope in any craft but a schooner; and there's others, again, swears a king's cutter will show her heels to the liveliest of 'em, with a stiffish breeze and a bobble of sea on. I ain't a-goin' to dispute it. Square-rigged, or fore-and-aft, if so be she's well-found and answers her helm, I ain't a-goin' to say but what she'll make good weather of it the whole voyage through. Men thinks difi'erent, young chap ; that's where it is. Now you asks me my opinion, and I'll give it you, free. I'm a old man-of-war's man, I am. I've eat the king's biscuit and drank the king's allowance ever since I were able to eat and drink at all. Now I'll tell you, young man, acause you've asked me, free. The king's sarvice is a good sarvice ; I ain't a-goin' to say as it isn't, but for two things : there's too much of one, and too little of the other. The fust is the work, and the second is the pay. If they'd halve the duty, and double the allowance, and send ail the officers before the mast, I ain't goin' to dispute but the king's sarvice would be more to my fancy than I've ever found it yet. You see the difi'erence atwixt one of our lads when he gits ashore and the Dutch ! I won't say as the Dutchman is the better seaman, far from it ; though as long as he's got a plank as'U catch a nail, 198 CERISE an' a rag as'U hold a breeze, he'll weather it soviehotv ; nor I won't say but what Mynheer is as ugly a customer as a king's ship can get alongside of, yard-ann to yard-arm, and let the best man win ! But you see him ashore ! Spree, young man? Why, a Dutchman never has his spree out ! You take and hail a man before the mast, able seaman or what not, when he's paid off of a cruise — and mind ye, he doesn't engage for a long spell, doesn't MjTiheer — and he'll tow you into dry dock, and set you down to your gi'ub, and blow you out with schnaps as if he was a admiral. Such a berth as he keeps ashore ! Pots and pans as bright as the Eddystone ; deck scoured and holystoned, till you'd like to eat your rations off of it. Why, Black Sam, him as was boatswain's mate on board of the ' Mary Rose,' sitting with me in the tap of the Golden Lion, at Amsterdam, he gets uneasy, and he looks here and there an' everywhere, first at the white floor, then at the bright stove, turning his quid about and about, till at last he ups and spits right in the landlord's face. There was a breeze then ! I'm not a-goin' to deny it, but Sam he asks pardon quite gentle and humble-like, ' for what could I do ? ' says he ; 'it was the only dirty place I could find in the house,' says he. Young chap, I'm not a-goin' to say as you should take and ship yourself on board a Dutch- man ; 'cause why — maybe if he struck his colours and you was found atween decks, you'd swing at the yard-arm, but if you be thinking of the king's sarvice, and you asks my advice, says I, think about it a little longer, says I. Young chap, I gives you my opinion, free. Wliat say you, mess- mate ? Bear a hand and lower away, for I've been payin' of it out till my mouth's dry." Bottle-Jack, who did not give his mouth a chance of becoming dry, took a long pull at the beer before he answered ; but as his style was somewhat involved, and obscured besides by the free use of professional metaphors, applied in a sense none but himself could thoroughly appre- ciate, I will not venture to detail in his own words the copious and illustrative exposition on which he embarked. It was obvious, however, that Bottle-Jack's inclinations were adverse to the regular service, and although he would have scouted such a notion, and probably made himself THREE STRANDS OF A YARN 199 extremely disagreeable to the man who broached it, there was no question the old sailor had been a pirate, and deserved hanging as richly as any ghastly skeleton now bleaching in its chains and waving to the gusts of a sou' -wester on the exposed sky-line of the Downs. By his own account he had sailed with the notorious Captain Kidd, in the ' Adventure ' galley, originally fitted out by merchants and traders of London as a scourge for those sea-robbers who infested the Indian Ocean, and whose enormities made honest men shudder at their bare recital. The 'Adventure,' manned by some of the most audacious spirits to be procured from the banks of the Thames and the Hudson, seemed, like her stout commander, especially qualified for such a purpose. She carried heavy guns, was well found in every respect, and possessed the reputation of a fast sailer and capital sea boat. Kidd himself was an experienced ofiicer, and had served with distinction. He was intimately acquainted with the eastern seas, and seemed in all respects adapted for an expedition in which coolness, daring, and unswerving honesty of purpose were indispensable qualifications. Accordingly, Captain Kidd sailed for the Indian coast, and Bottle-Jack, by his own account, was boatswain's mate on board the ' Adventure.' There is an old proverb, recommending the selection of a "thief to catch a thief," which in this instance received a new and singular interpretation. Kidd was probably a thief, or at least a pirate, at heart. No sooner had he reached his destination oft' the coast of Malabar, than he threw off his sheep's clothing, and appeared at once the master-wolf in the predatory pack he was sent to destroy. Probably the temptation proved too much for him. With his seamanship, his weight of metal, and his crew, he could outsail, out -manoeuvre, and outfight friends and foes alike. It soon occurred to him that the former were easy and lucrative prizes, the latter, bad to captm'e, and often not worth the trouble when subdued. It was quicker work to gain possession at first hand of silk and spices, cinnamon and sandal-wood, gold, silver, rum, coffee, and tobacco, than to wait till the plunder had been actually seized by another, and then, after fighting hard to retake it, obtain but a jackal's share from the Home Government. In a short space 200 CEBISE of time there was but one pirate dreaded from the Cape of Good Hope to the Straits of Malacca, and his name was Kidd. From Surat down to the mouth of the Tap-tee, Captain Kidd ruled like a petty sovereign ; Bottle- Jack, if he was to be believed, like a grand vizier. Not only did they take tax and toll from every craft that swam, but they robbed, murdered, and lorded it as unmercifully on dry land. Native merchants, even men of rank and position, were put to torture, for purposes of extortion, by day ; peasants burned alive in their huts to illuminate a seaman's fi'olic by night. Her crew behaved like devils broke loose ashore, and the ' Adventure,' notwithstanding a certain discipline exacted by her commander, was, doubtless, a hell afloat. Money, however, came in rapidly. Eadd, with all his crimes, possessed the elements of success in method, organisation, and power of command. His sailors forgot the horrors they had inflicted and their own degradation when they counted the pile of doubloons that constituted their share of plunder. Amongst the swarm of rovers who then swept the seas. Captain Kidd was considered the most successful, and even in a certain sense, notwithstanding his enormities, the most respectable of all. Bottle-Jack did not appear to think the relation of his adventures in any way derogatory to his own credit. He concluded with the following peroration, establishing his position in the confident tone of a man who is himself con- vinced of its justice : — *' Wot I says, is this here. The sea was made for them as sails upon it, and you ain't a-goin' to tell me as it can be portioned out into gardens an' orchards, and tobacco planta- tions, like the dirt we calls land. Worry well, if the sea be free, them as sails upon it can make free with wot it offers them. If in case now, as I'm look-out man, we'll say, in the maintop, and I makes a galleon of her, for instance, deep in the water under easy sail, you're not to tell me as because she shows Spanish colours I'm not to take w^hat I want out of her. Stow that, mates, for it's clean nonsense ! The way old Kidd acted was this here — First, he got her weather-gage ; then he brought her to with a gun, civil and reasonable ; arter that, whether she showed fight, or whether THBEE STBANDS OF A YABN 201 she showed friendly, he boarded her, and when he'd taken all he wanted, captain, crew, and passengers just walked the plank, easy and quiet, and no words about it." **And the craft?" asked Slap-Jack, breathless with interest in the old pirate's reminiscences. " Scuttled her ! " answered the other, conclusively. *' Talking's dry work. Let's have some more beer." CHAPTER XXIII THE PARLOUR-LODGER There was a tolerably snug parlour under the roof of the Fox and Fiddle, notwithstanding that its dimensions were small, its floor uneven, and its ceiling so low that a solitary- inmate could not but feel enlivened by the company of the landlord's family, who inhabited the rooms overhead. This apartment, which was usually occupied by some skipper fi'om beyond seas, put forward certain claims to magnificence as well as comfort ; and although the vaguest attempts at cleanliness seemed to have been suppressed, there was no little pretension apparent in the furniture, the chimney ornaments, and the " History of the Prodigal Son " on the walls. China shepherdesses stood on the mantelpiece, sur- mounted by the backbone of a shark. Two gilt chairs, with frayed velvet cushions, supported an unframed representation of a three-decker, with every available sail set, and British colours flying at the main, stemming a grass-green sea, under a sky of intense blue. A contracted square of real Turkey carpet covered a few feet in the middle, and the rest of the floor, ornamented at regular intervals by spittoons, stood inch-deep in dust. The hearth could not have been swept for days, nor the smouldering fire raked out for hours ; but on a mahogany sideboard, that had obviously sustained at least one sea-voyage, stood a dozen difi'erent diinking- measures, surrounding a punch-bowl capacious enough to have baptized a full-grown pirate. The occupant of this chamber was sitting at the table engrossed by a task that seemed to tax all his energies and employ his whole attention. He was apparently no adept THE PARLOUJR-LODGER 203 at accounts, and every time he added a column afresh, and found its result differed from his previous calculation, he swore a French oath in a whisper and began again. It was nearly dusk before the landlord came in with the candles, when his guest looked up, as if much relieved at a temporary interruption of work. Butter-faced Bob was a plausible fellow enough, well fitted for the situation he filled, crimp, publican, free-trader, and, on occasion, receiver of stolen goods. From the seaman in the tap, to the skipper in the parlour, he prided himself on his facility in making conversation to his customers, saying the right thing to each ; or, as he expressed it, " oiling the gear so as the crank should work easy." Setting down the candles, therefore, he proceeded to lubrication without delay. "Sorry shall we be to lose ye, Captain! and indeed it will drive me out of the public line at last, to see the way as the best o' friends must part. My dame, she says to me, it was but this blessed day as I set down to my nooning, says she. Bob, says she, whatever we shall do when the Captain's gone foreign, says she, I, for one, can't tell no more than the dead. You step round to the quay, says she, when you've a-taken a drink, and see if ' The Bashful Maid ' ha'n't histed her blue-Peter at the fore, and the Captain he'll make a fair wind o' this here sou'-wester, see if he won't, and maybe weigh at the ebb ; an' it'll break my heart, let alone the chil'en's, to wish him a good voyage, it will. She's about ready for sea. Captain, now ; I see them gettin' the fresh water aboard myself." The Captain, as his host called him, smiled good- humouredly. " Your dame will have many a better lodger than I have been. Bob," said he, fixing his bold eyes on the landlord, which the latter, who never seemed comfortable under an honest man's gaze, avoided by peering into every corner of the room ; " one that will stay longer with you, and enter- tain more friends than I have done. What of that ? The heaviest purse makes the best lodger, and the highest score, the merriest landlord, at every hostelry in Europe. Well, I shall be ready for sea now, when I've got my complement ; but I'm not going to cruise in the " — here the speaker 204 CERISE stopped short and corrected himself— *' not going to cruise aiufivherc, short-handed." Bob's eyes glistened, and he stole a look in the Captain's face. " How many would you be wanting ? " said he, cautiously, " and where would they have to serve ? First-class men is very bad to get here-away, just now." " If I had a gunner, a boatswain' s-mate, and a good captain of the foretop, I'd weigh next tide, and chance it," replied the other, cheerfully, but his chin fell while his eye rested on the pile of accounts, and he wondered how he could ever comb them into shape for inspection. Bob thought of the seamen still drinking in his taproom, and the obviously low state of their finances. It would work he decided, but it must be done under three influences, viz., beer, secrecy, and caution. " Captain," said he, shutting the door carefully, ''I'd rather do you a tmii than any lodger I've had yet. If I can help you to a hand or two, I'm the man as'll do it. You'll be willing to pay the expenses, I suppose ? " The Captain did not appear totally inexperienced in such matters, for, on asking the amount and receiving for answer a sum that would have purchased all the stock of liquors in the house over and over again, he showed neither indignation nor surprise, but observed quietly — ■ " Able seamen, of com-se ? " "Of course!" repeated Bob. ''Honour, you know, Captain, honour ! " If he had added " among thieves," he would none the less clearly have expressed the situation. Reflecting for a moment, he approached his guest and whispered in his ear, "For the account?" " Ask me no questions," answered the Captain, significantly. "You know as well as I do that your price covers everything. Is it a bargain ? " " That would make a difference, you see. Captain," urged Bob, determined to get all he could. " It's not what it used to be, and the Government is uncommon hard upon a look-out man now, if he makes a mistake in the colours of a prize. In King James's time, I've seen the gentlemen- rovers drinking at this very table with the mayor and the magistrates, ay, and sending up their compliments and THE PABLOUB-LODGEB 205 what not, maybe, to the Lord-Lieutenant himself. Why, that very mug as you see there was given me by poor Captain Del aval ; quite the gentleman he was ! An' he made no secret where he took it from, nor how they cut the Portuguese chap's throat as was drinking from it in the after-cabin. And now, it's as likely as not the Whigs would hang a man in chains for such a thing. I tell you, Captain, the hands don't fancy it. They can't cruise a mile along-shore without running foul of a gibbet with a pi — I mean, with a skeleton on it, rattling and grinning as if he was alive. It makes a difference, Captain — it makes a difference ! " " Take iter leave it," replied the other, looking like a man who had made his highest bid, which no consideration would induce him to increase by a shilling. Bob evidently thought so. "A bargain be it," said he, with a villainous smile on his shining face, and muttering something about his wish to oblige a customer and the high respect he entertained for his guest's character, in all its relations, public, private, and nautical, he shambled out of the room, leaving the latter to tackle once more with his accounts. A shade of melancholy crossed the Captain's brow, deeper and darker than was to be attributed to the unwelcome nature of his employment or the sombre surroundings of his position. The light of two tallow-candles, by which he worked was not indeed enlivening, bringing into indistinct relief the unsightly furniture and the gloomy pictures on the walls. The yard-dog, too, behind the house, had not entirely discontinued his lamentations, and the dip and wash of a retiring tide upon the shingle no farther off than the end of the street was like the voice from some unearthly mourner in its solemn and continuous wail. It told of lonely nights far out on the wild dark sea ; of long shifting miles of surf thundering in pitiless succession on the ocean shore ; of mighty cliffs and slabs of dripping rock, flinging back their defiance to the gale in the spray of countless hungry, leap- ing waves, that toss and madden round their prey ere she breaks up and goes to pieces in the stoim. More than all, it told of desolation, and doubt, and danger, and death, and the uncertainty beyond. 206 CEEISE But to him, sitting there hetween the candles, his head bent over his work, it scorned the voice of a counsellor and a friend. Each wave that, fuller than ordinary, circled up with a fiercer lash, to ebb with a louder, angrier, and more protracted hiss, seemed to brighten the man's face, and he listened like a prisoner who knows the step that leads him out to life, and liberty, and love. At such times he would glance round the room, congratulating himself that his charts, his instruments, his telescope, were all safe on board, and perhaps, would rise, take a turn or two, and open the window- shutter for a consoling look at a certain bright speck in the surrounding darkness, which might be either in earth, or sea, or air, and was indeed the anchor-light in the foretop of his ship. Then he would return, refreshed and comforted, to his accounts. He was beginning to hope he had really got the better of these, and had so far succeeded that two consecutive columns permitted themselves to be added up with an appearance of probability, when an unusually long-drawn howl from the house-dog, following the squeak of a fiddle, distracted him from his occupation, and provoked him to swear once more in a foreign tongue. It w^as difiicult to make calculations, involving a thousand probabilities, with that miserable dog howling at regular intervals. It was impossible to speculate calmly on the value of his cargo, the quantity of his powder, and the chances of peace and war. While he sat there he knew well enough that his letters of marque would bear him out in pouncing on any unfortunate merchantman he could come across under Spanish colours, but there had been whispers of peace in London, and the weekly news-letter (substitute for om* daily paper), read aloud that afternoon in the cofi'ee-house round the corner, indorsed the probability of these rumours. By the time he reached his cruising- gi'ound, the treaty might have been signed which would change a privateer into a pirate, and the exploit that would earn a man his knighthood this week might swing him at his own yard-arm the next. In those times, however, con- siderable latitude, if not allowed, was at least claimed by these kindred professions, and the calculator in the parlour of the Fox and Fiddle seemed unlikely to be over-scrupu- THE PABLOUB LODGER 207 lous in the means by which he hoped to attain his end. He had resolved on earning, or winning, or taking, such a sum of money as would render him independent of fortune for life. He had an object in this which he deemed worthy of any sacrifice he could offer. Therefore he had fitted out and fi'eighted his brigantine partly at his own expense, partly at that of certain confiding merchants in Leadenhall Street, so as to combine the certain gains of a peaceful trader with the more hazardous venture of a licensed sea- robber who takes by the strong hand. If the license should expire before his rapacity was satisfied, he would affect ignorance while he could, and when that was no longer practicable, throw off all disguise and hoist the black flag openly at the main. To this end he had armed his brigantine with the heaviest guns she could carry ; had taken in store of pro- visions, water, spare tackle, gunpowder, pistols, cutlasses, and musquetoons ; had manned her with the best seamen and wildest spirits he could lay hands on. These items had run up a considerable bill. He was now preparing a detailed statement of the cost, for the information of his friends in Leadenhall Street. And all this time, had he only known it, fortune was preparing for him, without effort on his part, the indepen- dence he would risk life and character to gain. That very sou' -wester wailing up the narrow street was rattling the windows of a castle on a hill hundreds of miles away, and disturbing the last moments of a dying man in his lordly bedchamber ; was driving before it, over a bleak, barren moor, pelting storms of rain to drench the cloaked and booted heir, riding post to reach that death-bed; sowing in a weak constitution the seeds of an illness that would allow him but a brief enjoyment of his inheritance ; and the next in succession, the far-off cousin, was making up his accounts in the humble parlom* of a seaport pot-house, because he was to sail for the Spanish main with the next tide. "One, two, tree!" — thump — "one, two, tree!" — thump — '' Balancez ! Chassez. Un, deux, trois ! " Thump after thump, louder and heavier than before. The rafters 206 CERISE shook, the ceiling quivered. The Captain rose, irritated and indignant, to call fiercely for the landlord. Butter-faced Bob, anticipating a storm, wisely turned a deaf ear, ensconcing himself in the back kitchen, whence he refused to emerge The Captain shouted again, and receiving no answer walked into the passage. " Stow that noise ! " he halloed from the foot of the half-dozen wooden steps that led to the upper floor. "Who is to get any business done with a row like that going on aloft, as if the devil was dead and the ship gone overboard?" The Captain's voice was powerful and his language plain, but the only reply he received was a squeak from the fiddle, a wail from the dog, and a " One, two, tree " — thump — louder than ever. His patience began to fail. " Zounds ! man," he broke out ; ** will you leave off that cursed noise, or must I come up and make you ? " Then the fiddle stopped, the dog was silent, and children's voices were heard laughing heartily. The last sound would have appeased the Captain had his wrath been ever so high, but a strange, puzzled expression overspread his features while he received the following answer in an accent that denoted the speaker was no Englishman. " You are a rude, gross man. I sail continue my in- structions to my respectable young fi-iends in the dance wizout your permission. Monsieur, you are insolent. Tiens ! The last word carried with it such an amount of anger, defiance, and contempt as can only be conveyed in that monosyllable by a Frenchman. The Captain's fi'own changed to a broad smile, but he afi'ected wrath none the less, while he exclaimed in a coarse, sailor-like voice — *' Insolent ! you dancing dog of a Mounseer ! Insolent ! I'll teach you manners afore I've done with you. If you don't drop it now, this instant, I'll come aloft in a pig's whisper, and pull you down by the ears ! " *' Ears ! Lcs oreilles ! " repeated the voice above stairs, in a tone of repressed passion, that seemed to afford his antagonist intense amusement. ^^ Soyez tranquil, mes THE PARLOUR-LODGEB 209 enfants. My children, do not derange yourselves. Sir, you have insulted me ; you have insulted my society. You shall answer me. Monsieur! vous allez me rendrc raison ! " Thus speaking, the dancing-master, for such was the foreign gentleman whose professional avocations the parlour-lodger had interrupted, made his appearance at the head of the stairs, with a small fiddle under his arm and a sheathed rapier in his hand ; the passage below was quite dark, but the light from an open door behind him brought his figure into relief, whilst the skipper, on the contrary, remained unseen in the gloom. Notwithstanding that the one was in a towering passion, the other shook with suppressed laughter. " Come on," he shouted roughly, though he could scarce command his voice, adding in a more natural tone, and with a perfect French accent — " On pretend, dans les Mousquetaires du JRoi, que Monsieur est de la 'premiere force pour Vepee ! " The effect was instantaneous. With one spring the dancing-master was upon him, kissing both his cheeks, hugging him in his arms, and repeating, with eyes full of tears — " Captain George ! Captain George ! My comrade, my captain, my officer ; and I thought I was without a friend in this miserable country ; without a friend and without a sou ! Now I have found the one, I don't care about the other. Oh, what happiness ! What fortune ! What luck ! " The former Captain of Musketeers seemed equally pleased, if in a less demonstrative manner, at this unexpected meet- ing, though he had been better prepared for so strange a termination of their dispute by his recognition of the other's voice before he caught sight of his figure. Now he pulled him into the parlour, sent for Butter-faced Bob to fill the capacious punch-bowl, pressed him into a chair with both hands on his shoulders, and looked gravely into his face, saying — " Eugene, I owe you my life, and I am a man who never left a debt unpaid." 14 CHAPTER XXIY A VOLUNTEER Beaudesir, by the wretched light of two tallow-candles, looked paler, thinner, more dejected, than even that pale, thin, anxious recruit who had joined the Grey Musketeers with so formidable a character as a master of defence some months before. No wonder. He was an enthusiast at heart, and an enthusiast can seldom withstand the pressure of continuous adversity. A temporary gleam of sunshine, indeed, warms him up to the highest pitch of energy, daring, and intellectual resource ; nay, he will battle nobly against the fiercest storm so long as the winds blow, the thunder peals overhead, and less exalted spirits fly cowering to the nearest shelter ; but it is in a bitter, bleak, protracted frost that he droops and fades away. Give him excitement, even the excitement of pain, and he becomes a hero. Put him to mere drudgery, though it be the honest drudgery of duty, and he almost ceases to be a man. There is, nevertheless, something essentially elastic in the French character, which even in such a disposition as Beaudesir' s preserved him from giving way to utter despair. Though he might well be excused for repining, when thus compelled to gain his bread by teaching the landlord's children to dance at a low pot-house, yet this young man's natural temperament enabled him to take interest even in so unworthy an occupation, and he was jealous enough of their progress to resent that rude interruption he experi- enced from the parlour with a flash of the old spirit cherished in the King's Musketeers. 210 A VOLUNTEER 211 Still he looked jxale and wan, nor was it till George Lad forced on liim a beaker of steaming punch that his eye recovered its brightness and the blood mantled once more in his clear sallow cheek. "And you escaped them?" said the Captain, reverting to the fatal night of their affray in the Montmirail gardens. " Escaped them without a scratch ! Well, it was ten to one against you, and I cursed the Duke with all my heart as I galloped on towards the coast when I thought of your pre- dicament. Guard-room, court-martial, confession, and a firing party was the best I could wish you; for on the reverse of the card I pictured a lettre de cachet, and im- prisonment for life in Vincennes or the Bastile ! But how did you get away? and above all, how did you elude the search afterwards? " Eugene wet his lips with the hot punch, which he seemed to relish less than his more robust comrade, and looked dis- trustfully about him while he replied — " I had little difficulty in extricating myself from the gardens, my Captain, for when I had disposed of Bras-de- Fer, there was no real swordsman left. The Musketeers fight well, no doubt ; but they are yet far fi-om true perfec- tion in tlie art, and their practice is more like our fishermen's cudgel-play than scientific fencing. I wounded two of them slightly, made a spring at the wall, and was in the street at the moment you entered the Prince-Marshal's can-iage. My difiiculty then was, where to conceal myself. I do not know Paris thoroughly, to begin with, and I confess I shuddered at the idea of skulking for weeks in some squalid haunt of vice and misery. I think I had rather have been taken and shot down at once." " You would not have been safe even in dens like those," interrupted the other. " Our Debonnaire is not so refined in his orgies but that I believe every garret in the Faubourgs is frequented by himself and his roues. Bah ! when we drew pay from Louis le Grand at least we served a gentle- man. The Jesuits would have been your best chance. Why did you not take refuge with them ? " Eugene shuddered, and the pale face tmiied paler still, but he did not answer the question. " When we used to hunt the hare in Normandy," he 212 CERISE resumed, " I have observed that, if hard pressed, she would return to her form, and often thus made her escape, whereas the wolf and the stag, flying straight away, were generally run down. Like the hare, then, I doubled back and lay hid in the very house where I habitually lodged. It was the first place they searched, but they never came near it again ; and the second day an old comrade found me out, took me to his own home, and furnished me with a dis- guise." *' An old comrade!" repeated the Captain. *^ Bravo! Ah ! we had always plenty of esprit de corps in the Musketeers. It was Adolphe, I'll wager a crown, or the young Count de Guiches, or Bellegarde ! " "None of these, my Captain," explained Eugene. " It was no Musketeer ; Black, Red, or Grey. When I said comrade, I meant an old college fi'iend. It was an Abbe. I know not why I should keep it secret. Abbe Malletort." The Captain pondered. "Abbe Malletort!" said he. " That is more than strange. The Regent's confidant ; his chief adviser, men said ; his principal favourite ! He must have had some reason — some deep-laid scheme of double treachery. I know the man. A smooth-spoken churchman ; a pleasant fellow to drink with, and a good judge of drill. But if it was his interest to betray the poor thing, I wouldn't trust him with the life of a dog ! " "You little know him," urged the other, eagerly. " Gene- rous, kind, and secret — had it not been for his advice and his exertions I should never have got away alive. He kept me a fortnight in his apartment, till the heat of the pursuit was over and Paris had ceased to talk of our afi'ray, which everj'body believed an organised conspiracy of the Huguenots — of the Jansenists — of the young King's party — of the British Government. What shall I say? — of the Great Mogul. I did not dare show myself, of course. I could only hear the news from my fi'iend, and I saw him but seldom. I was forced to leave Paris at last without know- ing how far the disturbance affected the ladies in whose grounds it took place. I tried hard to find out, but it was impossible." The Captain glanced sharply in his face, and took a strong gulp at the punch. Eugene continued : — A VOLUNTEER 213 " I got through the harrier with an Italian company of jugglers, disguised as a Pantaleone. It was not too amusing to be obliged to perform antics for the amusement of the Guard, fortunately they were of the Prince de Conde's regiment, which had just marched into Paris. But the mountebanks were good people, kindly, and perfectly trust- worthy. They were polite enough to say that I might make an excellent livelihood if I would but take in earnest to the business. I left them at Rouen, and from that place reached the seaboard on foot. My object was to take refuge in England. Here alone I felt I should be safe for a time, and when the storm should blow over I hoped to return again. I little knew what a climate it is ! what a country ! what people ! They are somewhat better when you are used to them, and I own I accustom myself more easily than I could have believed to their beef, their beer, their barbarous language, and their utter want of politeness. But they have been kind to me, these rough islanders. It was an English fishing-boat that landed me from Havre, and the fisherman made me stay a week in his house for nothing because he discovered accidentally that I had exhausted my purse to pay for my passage. Since then, my Captain, I have supported myself by teaching these awkward English to dance. It is a noble exercise after all, were they not so stiff, so ungraceful ! And yet my pupils make progress ! These children above stairs have already begun the minuet. Egotist that I am ! Tell me, my Captain, how you too come to find yourself in this miserable town, without gardens, without barriers, without barracks, without Hotel de Ville, without a church, even without an opera ! " The Captain smiled. " You have a good right to ask," said he, *' since, but for you, I should not have been here at this moment. When I drew on the Eegent that night, as I would have drawn on the young King himself had I seen him guilty of such an outrage, I was, as you know, surrounded and attacked by an escort of my own men. I tell you, Beaudesir, I never expected to leave the gardens alive, and I do not believe there is another fencer in France who could have helped me out of so awkward a scrape. I was sorry to see our old Bras-de-Fer go down, I admit ; but what would you have ? When it's give and take, 214 CERISE thrust and pnrry, ten against two, one cannot stand on these little delicacies of feeling. As I vanished through the garden-gate I looked for you everywhere, but there w^as no time to lose, and I thought we could escape more easily separate than in company. I knew you were neither down nor taken, because there was no shout of triumph from the men to announce the fact. The Prince du Chateau- Guerrand, my old general, w^as standing at the door of his coach when I gained the street. How he came there I am at a loss to guess, for you may believe I asked no questions ; but that you and he should have dropped from the clouds at the Hotel Montmirail, in the moment of my need, is one of those happy strokes of accident by which battles are won, and which we call fortune of war. I thought him a mar- tinet when I was on his staff, with his everlasting parades, and reports, and correspondence, to say nothing of his interminable stories about Turenne, but I always knew his heart was in the right place. ' Jump in ! ' said he, catching me by the arm. ' Drive those English horses to death, and take the coach w^here you will ! ' In five minutes we w^ere out of Paris, and half a league off on our way to the coast. '' I hope the English horses may have survived the journey, but they brought me to my first relay as fast as ever I went in the saddle, and I knew that with half an hour's start of everything I was safe. Who was to question a Captain of King's Musketeers riding post for England on the Eegent's business ? The relays were even so good that I had time to stop and breakfast comfortably, at leisure, and to feed my horse, half-way through the longest stage. " I had little delay when I reached the Channel. The wind was easterly, and before my horse had done shaking himself on the quay, an honest fellow had put his two sons, a spare oar, and a keg of brandy, on board a shallop about as weatherly as an egg-shell, hoisted a sail the size of a pocket-handkerchief, and stood out manfully with a follow- ing wind and an ebb tide. I know the Channel well, and I was as sure as he must have been that the wind would change when the tide turned, and we should be beating about, perhaps in a stiffish breeze, all night. It was not A VOLUNTEEB 215 for me to baulk him, however, and I only stipulated for a loaf or two of bread and a beaker of water in the bows. I tell you before they led my horse to the stable, we were a cable's length off shore. " A fair wind, Eugene, does not always make a short voyage. At sundown it fell to a dead calm. The lads and the old man, and I, who speak to you, took our turns, and pulled like galley-slaves at the oars. With the moon-rise, a light breeze came up from the south-west, and it freshened by degi'ees till at midnight it was blowing half a gale. The egg-shell behaved nobly, and swam like a duck, but it took all the old man's time to steer her, and the sons said as many Aves before dawn as would have lasted a whole convent for a month. " At one time I feared we must put her head about, and run for it, on the chance of making Ambleteuse, or even Calais, but the old fellow who owned her had a conscience, and to give him his due he was a first-rate sailor. The wind moderated at sunrise, drawing round by the south, and at noon we had made Beachy Head, when it fell a dead calm, with a ground swell that was no child's play when we laid out on our oars. By dint of hard pulling we ran her ashore on the English coast about sundown, and my friend put off again with his two sons, none the worse for the voyage, and all the better for some twenty gold pieces with which I paid my passage. He deserved it, for he earned it fairly. She was but an egg-shell, as I said before, but she swam like a duck ; it's only fair to allow that." "And now, my Captain," asked Beaudesir, looking round the strangely-furnished apartment, "you are living here? you are settled ? you are a householder ? Are 3'ou recon- ciled to spend your life in this dirty little town, ill-paved, ill-lighted, smelling of salt water and tar, where it always rains, and they bring you nothing to drink but black beer and hot punch? " Captain George laughed heartily. " Not such a bad thing that hot punch," said he, " when you can get neither Chambertin, Burgundy, nor Bourdeaux. But I understand you nevertheless, comrade. It is not likely that a man who has served Louis le Grand in the Musketeers would be 216 CEBISE content to vegetate here like a wisp of sea-weed left at high-water mark. It was lucky I met you to-night. In twenty-four hours, at most, I hope to be o£f the Needles if the wind holds." Bcaudesir looked interrogatively at the pile of accounts on the table. ''You have turned trader, my Captain?" said he. "You will make a fortune in two voyages. At College they pretended I had some skill in reading characters. You have luck written on your forehead. I wish I was going with you, were it only as a clerk." Captain George pondered for a while before he answered, nay, he filled and emptied his glass, took two or three turns in the narrow apartment, which admitted indeed but of what sailors called '' a fisherman's walk — two steps and overboard," and finally, pulling back the shutter, pointed to the light in the foretop of his brigantine. '' You won't catch me afloat again," said he, " in a craft like a walnut-shell, with a scrap of paper for a sail. No, no. There she rides, my lad, the lady that would take me round the world, and never wet a stitch on my back from head to heel. Why, close-hauled, in a stiff breeze, there's not a King's cutter in the Channel can hold her own with her ; and off a wind, she'd have the whole fleet hull-down in six hours, making such good weather of it, too, all the while ! I wish you could see her by daylight, with her straight run, and her raking masts, and bran new spars, and a fi:esh lick of paint I gave her in dock before we came round. She looks as trim as a pincushion, and as saucy as a dancing-girl. She carries a few popguns too, in case of accidents ; and when she shows her teeth, she means to bite, you may take your oath ! I'll teU you what, Eugene, you must come on board to-morrow before I weigh. I should like to show you over ' The Bashful Maid ' myself, and I hope to get my anchor up and shake out my fore-top- sail with the afternoon tide." Landsman, Frenchman, though he was, Beaudesir's eyes kindled, and he caught his friend's enthusiasm like wild- fire. " I would give my right arm to be going with you," said he. "Excitement, adventure, storms, seamanship, and all A VOLUNTEER 217 the wonders of the tropics ! While for me, muddy beer, gloomy fogs, dirty streets, and clumsy English children learning to dance ! Well ! every man to his trade. Here's a good voyage to you and my best wishes ! " Again he wet his lips with the punch, now grown cold and sticky in his glass. Captain George was so pre- occupied, he forgot to acknowledge the com-tesy. " Can you keep accounts? " he asked abruptly, pointing to the papers on the table. "Any schoolboy might keep such as these," answered Eugene, running his eye over one of the columns, and adding, as he examined it, ''Nevertheless, my Captain, here is an error that will falsify the whole sum." He pointed to a mistake in the numerals that had repeatedly escaped the other's observation, and from which much of his labour had arisen. In a few minutes, he had gone through, and corrected as many pages of calculation. The figures came right now, as if by magic. Captain George had found what he wanted. "Where did you learn all this?" he inquired in astonish- ment. "At Avranches, in Normandy," was the answer. " Where they taught you to fence ? " " Precisely ; and to shoot with musquetoon or pistol. I can pick the ace of diamonds off a card at fifteen paces with either weapon." He spoke modestly, as he always did of his proficiency in such feats of skill. They came so easily to him. " Will you sail with me ? " asked George frankly. "You can help me with my papers, and earn yom* share of the plun 1 should say of the profits. No, my friend! you shall not leap blindfold. Listen. I have letters of marque in my cabin, and I mean them to hold good whether peace be proclaimed or not. It may be, we shall fight with a rope round our necks. The gains are heavy, but the risk is great." " I never count risk ! " was the reply. " Then finish the punch ! " said Captain George ; and thus the bargain was ratified, which added yet one more to the role of characters Beaudesir was destined to enact on the stage of life. CHAPTER XXV THREE PRESSED MEN While the occupants of the parlour were sipping punch those of the taproom had gone systematically through the different stages of inebriety — the friendly, the argumenta- tive, the captious, the communicative, the sentimental, the quarrelsome, the maudlin-affectionate, and the extremely drunk. By nightfall, neither Smoke- Jack, Bottle- Jack, nor Slap-Jack could handle a clay-pipe without breaking it, nor fix their eyes steadily on the candle for five consecutive moments. Notwithstanding, however, the many conflicting opinions that had been broached during their sitting, there were certain points on which they agreed enthusiastically — that they were the three finest fellows under the sun, that there was no calling like seamanship, no element like salt water, and no craft in which any one of them had yet sailed so lively in a sea-way as this, which seemed now to roll and pitch and stagger beneath their besotted senses. With a confirmed impression, varied only by each man's own experience, that they were weathering a gale under con- siderable difficulties, in a low latitude, and that it was their watch on deck, though they kept it somewhat unaccountably below, all three had gone through the abortive ceremony they called "pricking for the softest plank," had pulled their rough sea-coats over their heads, and lain down on the floor among the spittoons, to sleep out the dreamless sleep of intoxication. Long before midnight. Butter-faced Bob, looking in, well satisfied, beheld his customers of the afternoon now transformed into actual goods and chattels, bales of bone 218 THREE PRESSED MEN 219 and sinew and courage, that he could sell, literally by weight, at an enormous price, and for ready money. While he turned the light of his candle from one sleeper to another, he was running over a mental sum comprising all the elementary rules of arithmetic. He added the several prices of the recumbent articles in guineas. He subtracted the few shillings' -worth of liquor they had consumed. He multiplied by five the hush-money he expected, over and above, from the purchaser, and finally, he divided the total, in anticipation, between himself, his wife, the tax-gatherer, and the most pressing of his creditors. When he had finished these calculations, he returned to the parlour, where Captain George sat brooding over the remains of his punch, the late enlisted recruit having retired to pack up his fiddle and the very small stock of clothes he possessed. Their bargain was soon concluded, although there was some little difficulty about delivering the goods. Notwith- standing, perhaps in consequence of, the many cases of oppression that had stained the last half of the preceding century, a strong reaction had set in against anything in the shape of " kidnapping " ; and a press-gang, even for a king's ship, was not likely to meet with toleration in the streets of a seaport town. Moreover, suspicions had already been aroused as to the character of ' The Bashful Maid.' A stricter discipline seemed to be observed on board that wicked-looking craft than was customary even in the regular service, and this unusual rigour was accounted for by the lawless conduct of her " liberty-men " when they did come ashore. Nobody knew better than her Captain that, under the present aspect of political affairs in London, it would be wise to avoid notice by the authorities. The only thing he dreaded on earth and sea was a vision, by which he was haunted daily, till he could get all his stores shipped. It represented a sloop-of-war detached from the neighbouring squadron in the Downs, coming round the Point, dropping her anchor in the harbour, and sending a lieutenant and boat's crew on board to overhaul his papers, and, maybe, summarily prevent his beautiful craft fi-om standing out to sea. Neither was Butter-faced Bob rash or indiscreet where 220 CERISE his own interests were affected. Using a metaphor he had picked up from his customers, it was his boast that he could ** keep a bright look-out, and steer small " with the best of them ; and he now impressed on Captain George, with great earnestness, the necessity of secrecy and caution in getting the three fresh hands down to the quay and tumbling them up the side of the brigantine. Had the Captain known their inclinations, he might have made his own bargain, and saved three-fourths of the expense, but his landlord took care that in such cases the principals should never come together, telling the officers they could make what terms they chose when the men found themselves fairly trapped and powerless in blue water, while he kept the latter in a state of continuous inebriety so long as they dwelt in his house, which rendered them utterly reckless of everything but liquor and tobacco. His shining face wore the well-satisfied expression of a man who has performed a good action, while he motioned with his thumb to the adjoining taproom. *' I've a cart ready in the back yard," said he, " and a few empty casks to tumble in along with our chaps. It will only look like the fresh water going aboard, so as you may weigh with the morning tide. Will they send a boat off if you show a light ? " Captain George nodded. The boatswain whom he had left in charge, and on whom he could rely, had directions for a certain code of signals, amongst which, the waving of a lantern thrice from the end of the quay was to be answered by a boat ashore. " We'd best get them in at once, then," said Bob, only anxious now to be rid of his guests. " I'll go and put the horse to, and perhaps you and me and the French gentle- man, as he seems a Mend of yours, can manage it between us." Accordingly, Bob betook himself to the back yard and the stable, while Beaudesir was summoned to assist the process of embarkation. In ten minutes all was prepared, and it was only necessary to lift the three drunken tars into the carriage provided for them. With the two elder and heavier men there was no diffi- culty. They grunted, indeed, impatiently, though without THREE PBESSED MEN 221 opening their eyes, and seemed to sleep as soundly, while being dragged along a dusty passage and hoisted into a narrow cart amongst empty water-casks, as if they took their rest habitually under such disadvantages ; but Slap- Jack's younger constitution had not been so completely over- come, and it was necessary to soothe him by a fiction which has possessed in all times an indescribable charm for the seafaring imagination. Bob whispered impressively in his ear that he had been sent for, thus in the dead of night, by the Admiral's daughter, who had conceived for him a fatal and consuming passion, having seen him in his " long togs " in the street. Muttering inarticulately about *' Alice," Slap- Jack at once abandoned himself to the illusion, and dropped off to sleep again, with delightful anticipations of the romantic fate in store for him. As the wheels rumbled over the rough streets, through the rainy gusts and the dark night, followed by Captain George and Beaudesir, the latter could not but compare the vehicle to a dead-cart, carrying away its burden through some city stricken with the plague. This pleasing fancy he communicated to his comrade, who made the following inconsequent reply — " I only hope the harbour-watch may be as drunk as they are. It's our best chance to get them aboard without a row. There's her light Eugene. If the sky would lift a little, you might make out her spars, the beauty ! but I'm almost afraid now you'll have to wait for dawn." The harbour-watch was drunk, or at least fast asleep in the sentry-box on wheels that afforded him shelter, and the sky did not lift in the least degree ; so very soon after the waving of the lantern a boat from ' The Bashful Maid ' touched the stone steps of the quay, having been cunningly impelled thither by a screw-driving process, worked with one oar at the stern, and which made far less noise than the more powerful practice of pulling her with even strokes. Two swarthy ill-looking fellows sat in th^ boat, and a scowl passed over their features when they saw their Captain's attitude of precaution, with one hand on the pistol he wore at his belt. Perhaps they were disappointed not to be able to elude his vigilance, and have one more run on shore 222 CERISE before they sailed. It was no use trying to " gammon the skipper," though. They had discovered that ah-eady, and they lent their aid with a will, when they found it must he so, to place their future comrades in the same predicament as themselves. The whole affair was managed so quietly that, even had the harbour-guard, a brandy-faced veteran of sixty, remained wide-awake and perfectly sober, he might have been excused for its escaping his vigilance. Bob himself, standing with his empty cart on the quay, could hardly hear the dip of the oars as his late guests were pulled cautiously away. He did not indeed remain there very long to listen. He had done with them one and all — for was not the score paid ? and it behoved him to retm^n home and prepare for fresh arrivals. He turned, therefore, with a well-satisfied glance towards the light in the foretop of the brigantine, and wished ' The Bashful Maid ' a good voyage, while at the same moment Beaudesir stumbled awkwardly up her side. To the latter this was, indeed, a new and startling phase of life, but it was full of excitement, and consequently very much to his taste. Captain George, taking him below, and pointing out a couch in his cabin on which to pass the rest of the night, though he had seen a good deal of worse material for a privateer' s-man, or even a pirate, than this pale gentle young adventurer, late of the Grey Musketeers. Covered by a boat-cloak, and accommodated with two or three cushions, Eugene's bed was quite as comfortable as that which he occupied at the Fox and Fiddle. It was long past sunrise w^hen he awoke, and realising his position he ran on deck with a landsman's usual conviction that he was already miles out at sea. It was startling, and a little disappointing, to observe the quay, the straggling buildings of the town, the lighthouse, and other well-known objects within musket-shot, and to find that the brigantine, in spite of her lively motions, still rode at anchor, not half a cable's length from a huge, smooth, red buoy, which was dancing and dipping in the morning sun as if it were alive. There was a fresh breeze off shore, and a curl on the gi-een sparkling water that, far away down Channel, beyond the point, swelled into a thousand varying lines of white, while a schooner in the offing might be observed standing out to THREE PRESSED MEN 223 sea with a double reef in her topsails. One of the crew, sluicing the deck with a bucket of water, that eddied round Eugene's feet, pointed her out to his mate with an oath, and the mate, a tall strong negro, grinning hideously, replied *' Iss ! very well ! " * The Bashful Maid ' herself, rising buoyantly to each succeeding wave, ere with a dip and toss of her bows she sent the heavy spray-drops splashing over her like a sea- bird, seemed chafing with eagerness to be off. There was but little of the bustle and confusion on board usually pro- duced by clearing out of port. The deck, though wet and slippery, was as clean as a dinner-plate, the yards were squared, the ropes coiled, new sails had been bent, and the last cask of fresh water was swinging over the hold : trim and taut, every spar and every sheet seemed to express " Outward bound," not to mention a blue-Peter flying at the fore. All this Eugene observing, began to suffer from an un- comfortable sensation in the pit of his stomach, which parched his mouth, depressed his spirits, and destroyed his appetite. He was not, however, so much affected by it but that he could take note of his fellow- voyagers, an occu- pation sufficiently interesting when he reflected on the probable result of their preparations. In his experience of life he had never yet seen such an assemblage. The crew had indeed been got together with considerable care, but with utter disregard to nationality or uniformity of any kind. The majority were Englishmen, but there were also Swedes, Dutch, French, Portuguese, a negro, and even a Spaniard on board. The brigantine was strongly manned for her size, and the hands, with scarcely an exception, were stout daring fellows, capable of any exploit and a good many enormities, but such as a bold commander, cool, judicious, and determined, might bring into a very efficient state of discipline. Eugene could not but remark, however, that on the face of each was expressed impatience of delay, and an ardent desire to bs in blue wator. The liberty to go on shore had been stopped, and indeed the pockets of these gentlemen-adventurers, as the humblest of them called themselves, were completely cleaned out. Obviously, therefore, it would be well to lose no time in refilling them. 224 CERISE Leaning over the side, lazily watching the lap and wash of the leaping water, Eugene was rapidly losing himself in his own thoughts, when, rousing up, he felt the Captain's hand on his shoulder, and heard the Captain's voice whisper in his ear : — " Come below with me ; I shall want your assistance by- and-by, and you have had no breakfast yet." His qualms took flight at the prospect of fresh excite- ment, though the offer of breakfast was received with little enthusiasm, and he followed the Captain into his comfort- able and well-furnished cabin. Here he learned that, while he was sleeping, George had hailed a fishing-boat returning warily into harbour, and, under pretence of buying fresh fish, boarded her with a bottle or two of spirits and a roll of tobacco. In ten minutes he extracted all the fisherman had to tell, and discovered that a large King's ship was cruising in the offing, watching, as his informant opined, the very port in which they lay. Under these circumstances. Captain George considered it would be prudent to wait till midnight, when they might run out of the harbour, with wind and tide in their favour, and so showing the man-of-war a clean pair of heels, be hull-down and out of sight before sunrise. '* There's nothing that swims can touch her in squally weather like this," continued the Captain, "if she can get an hour's start ; and I wouldn't mind running under his very boltsprit, in the dark, if this wind holds. My chief difficulty is about the men. There will be black looks, and something very like mutiny, if I keep them twelve more hours in sight of the beer-shops without liberty for shore. Those drunken rascals too, that we hove aboard last night, will have come to themselves by that time, and we shall perhaps have some trouble in persuading them they are here of their own free will. You must help me, Eugene, all day. Between us we must watch the crew like a cat watches a mouse. Once we're in blue water, you'll have nothing to do but sit in my cabin and amuse yourself." The skipper understood the nature of those with whom he had to deal. When the men saw no disposition to get the anchor up, when noon passed and they went to dinner as usual with the brigantine's head pointing steadily THREE PBESSED MEN 225 to windward, when another tide ebbed and flowed, but failed to waft them away from the temptations of port, they began to growl fi'eely, without however proceeding to any overt acts of insubordination, and towards evening they became pacified with the anticipation of weighing anchor before the following day. The hours passed wearily to all on board, excepting perhaps the three Jacks, who, waking simultaneously at sunrise, turned round, perfectly satisfied, to go to sleep again, and so recovered complete possession of their faculties towards the dusk of the evening. They had been stowed away on some spare bunting out- side the door of the Captain's cabin. Their conversation, therefore, though carried on in a low tone, was distinctly audible both to him and Beaudesir, as they sat waiting for midnight and the turn of the tide. After a few expressions of astonishment, and vague inquiries how they got there, each sailor seemed to realise his position pretty clearly and without much dissatisfaction. Bottle- Jack shrewdly suspected he was once more at the old trade. Smoke-Jack was comforted by the prospect of refilling his empty pockets, and Slap-Jack, whilst vowing eternal fidelity to Alice, seemed impressed with the flattering notion that somehow his own attractions and the good taste of the Admiral's daughter were at the bottom of it all. The craft, they agreed, was a likely one, the fittings ship- shape Bristol-fashion, the cruise promised to be prosperous ; but such an unheard-of solecism as to weigh without one more drinking bout in honour of the expedition, was not to be thought of; therefore Bottle- Jack opined it was indis- pensable they should immediately go ashore. The others agreed without scruple. One difficulty alone presented itself : the quay stood a good quarter of a mile ofi', and even in harbour it was rather a stormy night for a swim. As Slap-Jack observed, " it couldn't be done com- fortable without a plank of some kind ; but most like, if they waited till dark, they might make free with the skipper's dingy hanging over the starn ! " '' 'Tis but totting up another figure or two on the score with old Shiney-face," argued Smoke- Jack, who, consider- ing his profession, was of a frugal turn of mind, and who little knew how completely the purchase-money of his own 15 226 CERISE body and bones had wiped off the chalk behind the door. " Such a voyage as we're a-goin' to make will square longer accounts than ours, though I am uncommon dry, considerin'. Just one more spree on the quiet, you know, my sons, and back to duty again as steady as a sou' -wester. There's no fear they'll weigh without us, a-course ? " " A-course not," grunted old Bottle- Jack, who could scarce have been half sober yet, to hazard such a suggestion. "' The skipper is quite the gentleman, no doubt, and most like when he misses us he'll send the ship's pinnace ashore with his compliments." "Pinnace be blowed ! " retorted Slap-Jack ; "anyway you may be sui-e he won't sail without the dingy ; " and in this more reasonable conclusion the others could not but acquiesce. With a smile on his face, the Captain listened to the further development of their plan. One by one they would creep aft without their shoes, unobserved by the anchor- watch, now sure to be on the forecastle (none of the Jacks had a clear idea of the craft in which they were plotting) ; if any one could put his hand on a bit of grease it would be useful to make the tackle work noiselessly. When they reached the stern, Slap-Jack should seat himself in the dingy, as being the lightest weight ; the others would lower away, and as soon as she touched water, shin down after him, and shove off. There was no time to lose, best set about it at once. Captain George whispered in his companion's ear, " Take my hat and cloak, and go forward to the hold with a lantern in your hand. Make plenty of noise as you pass those lubbers, but do not let them see your face." Eugene obeyed, and Captain George, blowing out the lights, set himself to watch at the stern windows. CHAPTER XXVI *' YO-HEAVE-YO ! " It was pitch dark in the cabin, but although under a cloudy sky there was light enough to discern objects on deck or alongside. As Smoke-Jack observed, stealing aft with bare feet, and in a louder whisper than was prudent, *' A good pair of eyes might see as far as a man could heave a bull by the tail." George had determined to give the crew a lesson, once for all, in the matter of discipline, and felt well pleased to make example of the new-comers, who must be supposed as yet ignorant of his system. So he sat in the dark, pistol in hand, at the stern window, which was open, and watched like the hunter for his prey. He heard the three Jacks creeping along the deck over- head, he heard low whispers and a smothered laugh, followed by a few brief expostulations as to priority of disembarka- tion, the language far less polite than the intention ; lastly, he heard the tackle by which his boat was made fast running gently over its blocks. Then he cocked his pistol without noise, and laughed to himself. Gradually the cabin window was obscured. A dark object passed smoothly down, and revealed in its progress a human figure indistinctly visible above its black horizontal mass, which was indeed the slow-descending boat, contain- ing no less a personage than the adventurous Slap-Jack ; also two lines of tackle were dimly visible supporting that boat's head. A turn of the body, as he covered them steadily with his pistol, enabled the Captain to bring these two lines into one. 227 228 CERISE Hand and eye were equally true. He was sui-e of his mark before he pulled the trigger. With a flash that lighted up the cabin, and an explosion that filled it vrith smoke, the bullet cut clean through the "falls," or ropes, supporting the boat's head, bringing her perpendicularly on end, and shooting every article she contained — planks, bottom-boards, stretchers, oars, boat-hook, an empty hen- coop, and the astonished occupant — plump into seven fathom of water. Nor was the consternation created by this alarming capsize confined to the unfortunate Slap-Jack. His comrades, lowering away industriously from the taffrail, started back in the utmost bewilderment, the anchor-watch rushed aft, persuaded a mutiny had broken out, and in giievous indeci- sion w^hether to take the skipper's part or assist in cutting his throat. The crew tumbled up the hatchway, and blun- dered about the deck, asking each other absurd questions, and offering wild suggestions, if anj^thing were really amiss, as to breaking open the spirit-room. Na}^, the harbour-guard himself awoke from his nap, emerged from his sentry-box, took a turn on the quay, hailing loudly, and receiving no answer, was satisfied he had been dreaming, so swore and turned in again. Captain George reloaded his pistol, and sang out lustily, ''Man overboard! Show a light on the deck there, and heave a rope over the side. Bear a hand to haul him in, the lubber ! I don't much think he'll want to try that game in a hurry again ! " Meanwhile, hapless Slap-Jack was incapacitated for the present from that, or indeed any other game involving phy- sical effort. A plank, falling with him out of the boat, had struck him on the head and stunned him ; seventy fathom of water would have floated him no better than seven, and with the first plunge he went down like a stone. Captain George had intended to give him a fright and a ducking ; but now, while he stretched his body out of the cabin window, peering over the gloomy water and listening eagerly for the snort and gasp of a swimmer who never came up, he wished with all his heart that his hand had been less steady on the pistol. Fortunately, however, Beaudesir, after he had fulfilled the "YO-HEAVE-YO/"' 229 Captain's orders by personating him at the hold, remained studiously on watch. It was a peculiarity of this man that his faculties seemed always on the stretch, as is often to be observed with those over whom some constant dread impends, or who suffer from the tortures of remorse. At the moment he heard the shot, he sprang to the side, threw off hat and cloak, as if anticipating danger, and kept his eyes eagerly fixed on the water, ready, if need be, for a pounce. The tide was still flowing, the brigantine's head lay to seaward, where all was dark, and fortunately the little light on the ruffled surface was towards the shore. Slap-Jack's inani- mate form was carried inwards by the flood, and crossed the moorings of that huge red buoy which Eugene remembered gazing on listlessly in the morning. Either the contact with its rope woke an instinctive consciousness in the drowning man, or some swirl of the water below brought his body to the surface, but for a few seconds Slap- Jack's form became dimly visible, heaving like a wisp of seaweed on a wave. In those few seconds Eugene dashed overboard, cleaving the water to reach him with the long springing strokes of a powerful swimmer. A drowning man is not to be saved but at the imminent risk of his life who goes in for the rescue, and this gallant feat indeed can only be accomplished by a thorough proficient in the art ; so on the present occasion it was well that Beaudesir felt as much at home in the water as on dry land. How the crew cheered the Frenchman while he was hauled on board with his dripping burden ; how the two Jacks who had remained in the brigantine, and were now thoroughly sobered, vowed eternal gratitude to the lands- man who had dived for their messmate ; how the harbour- guard was once more disturbed by the cheering, and cheered lustily in reply ; how Captain George clapped his comrade on the shoulder while he took him below to change his wet garments, and vowed he was fit to be King of France, adding, with a meaning smile, "If ever I go to school again, I'll ask them to give me a berth at Avranches in Normandy!" — all this it is unnecessary to relate; but if the Captain gained the respect of the crew by the prompti- tude with which he resented an attempt at insubordination, the gallant self-devotion of his friend, clerk, supercargo. 230 CERISE cabin-passenger, or whatever he was, won their affection and good-will for the rest of the voyage. This was especially apparent about sunrise, when Captain George beat to quarters and paraded his whole crew on deck, preparatory to weighing anchor and standing out down Channel with a fair wind and a following tide. He calculated that the King's ship, even if on watch, must be still some distance from land, and he had such implicit confidence in the sailing qualities of his brigantine that if he could only get a fair start he feared a chase from no craft that swam. Owing to his early education and the experiences of his boyhood, notwithstanding his late career in the service of King Louis, he was a seaman at heart. In nothing more so than a tendency to idealise the craft he commanded as if it were a living creature, endowed with feelings and even reason. For him ' The Bashful Maid,' with her exquisite trim, her raking masts, her graceful spars, her long fluttering pennon, and her elaborately-carved figure-head, representing a brazen-faced beauty baring her breast boastfully to the breeze, was less a triumph of design and carpentering, of beams, and blocks, and yarn, and varnish, and tar, than a metaphorical mistress, to be cajoled, commanded, humoured, trusted, above all, admired. He spoke of her as possessing afi'ections, caprices, impulses, and self-will. When she answered her helm steadily, and made good weather of it, in a stifi" breeze and a heavy sea, she was " behaving admir- ably " — *' she liked the job" — "a man had only to trust her, and give her a new coat of paint now and then, she'd never fail him — not she ! " While, on the other hand, she might dive and plunge, and dip her boltsprit in the brine, shipping seas that swept her decks fore and aft, and she was " only a trifle saucy, the beauty ! Carried a weather- helm like the rest of her sex, and must be humoured a bit, till she came round ! ' ' As was the skipper, so were the crew. All these different natures, men of various nations, dispositions, and charac- ters, were equally childlike in their infatuation about ' The Bashful Maid.' The densest of them had imagination enough to invest her with a thousand romantic qualities ; even the negi'o would have furiously resented a word in her disparagement — nay, the three newly-shipped Jacks them- ''YO-HEAVE-YOf' 231 selves, men of weighty authority in such matters, caught the infection, and were ready to swear by the brigantine, while it was yet so dark they could scarcely see whether she was a three-masted merchantman or a King's cutter. But when the breeze freshened towards sunrise, and the tide was once more on the turn, the regard thus freely accorded to their ship was largely shared by their new ship- mate. Beaudesir, passing forward in the grey light of morn- ing, truth to tell moved only by the restlessness of a man not yet accustomed to perpetual motion, accompanied by the odours of bilge-water and tar, was greeted with admiring glances and kind words from all alike. Dutchman, Swede, Spaniard, vied with each other in expressions of good-will. Slap- Jack was still below, swaddled in blankets, but his two comrades had tumbled up with the first streaks of dawn, and were loud in their praises, Bottle-Jack vowing Captain Kidd would have made him first-lieutenant on the spot for such a feat, and Smoke-Jack, with more sincerity than politeness, declaring " he couldn't have believed it of a Frenchman ! " Nay, the very negro, showing all his teeth as if he longed to eat him, embarked on an elaborate oration in his honour, couched partly in his native language as spoken on the Gold Coast, partly in a dialect he believed to be English, obscured by metaphor, though sublime doubt- less in conception, and prematurely cut short by the shrill whistle of the boatswain, warning all hands without delay to their quarters. It was an enlivening sight, possessing considerable attractions for such a temperament as Beaudesir's. The clear gap of morning low down on the horizon was widening and spreading every moment over the sky ; the breeze, cold and bracing, not yet tempered by the coming sun, freshened sensibly oif shore, driving out to sea a grand procession of dark rolling clouds, moving steadily and continuously west- ward before the day. The lighthouse ofi" the harbour showed like a column of chalk against the dull background of this embankment, vanishing so imperceptibly into light ; while to landward, far beyond the low level line of coast, a faint quiver of purple already mingled with the dim gi'ey outline of the smooth and swelling downs. In harbour, human life had not yet woke up, but the white 232 CERISE sea-birds were soaring and dipping, and wheeling jo5^ously on the wing. The breeze whistled through the tackle, the waves leaped and lashed merrily against her sides, and the crew of the brigantine took their places, clean, well dressed, brown-faced, and bare-footed, on her deck. While the boatswain, who from sheer habit cast an eye continually aloft, observed her truck catch the first gleams of the morning sun. Captain George, carefully attired, issued from his cabin with a telescope under his arm, and made his first and last oration to the crew. "My lads ! " said he, "I've beat to quarters, this fine morning, before I get my anchor up, because I want to say a few words to you, and the sooner we understand each other the better ! You've heard I'm a soldier. So I am ! That's right enough ; but, mark, you ! I dipped my hand in the tar-bucket before I was old enough to carry a sword ; so don't you ever think to come over me with skulking, for I've seen that game played out before. Mind you, I don't believe I've got a skulker on board ; if I have, let him step forward and show himself. Over the side he goes, and I sail without him ! Now, my lads, I know my duty and I know yours. I'll take care both are done. I'll have no grumbling and no quarrelling. If any man has a complaint to make, let him come to me, and out with it. A quarrel- some chap with his messmates is generally a shy cock when you put him down to fight. I'll have man-of-war's discipline aboard. You all know what that is, and those that don't like it must lump it. Last night there were three of you tried to take French leave and to steal my boat ; I stopped that game with a little fi:iend I keep in my belt. Look ye, my sons, next bout I'll cover the man instead of the tackle ! I know who they are, well enough, but I mean to forget as soon as ever the anchor's up. I'll have a clean bill of health to take out into blue water. Now, my lads, attend to me ! We've a long cruise before us, but we've a craft well-provisioned, well-found, and, I heartily believe, well- manned. Whatever prizes we take, whatever profit we make on the cargo, from skipper to ship's boy, every one shall have his share according to the articles hung up in my cabin. 'We may h.s.\e to fight, and we may not; it's the last job you're likely to shirk ; but mind this — one skipper's ''YO-HEAVE-YO!" 233 enough for one ship. I'll have no laivyer sail with me, and no opinions ' whether or no ' before tiie mast. If you think of disobeying orders, just remember it's a short walk from from my berth to the powder-room, and the clink of a flint will square all accounts between captain and crew. If I'm not to be skipper, nobody else shall, and what I say I mean. Lastly, no man is to get drunk except in port. And now, my lads, here's a fair wind, and a following tide ! Before we get the fiddle up for a ' Stamp and go, cheerily ho ! ' we'll give three cheers for ' The Bashful Maid,' and then shake out every rag of canvas and make a good ran while the breeze holds ! " The men cheered with a will. The Captain's notions of sea-oratory were founded on a knowledge of his audience, and answered his purpose better than the most finished style of rhetoric. As the shouting died out, a strong voice was heard, demanding *' one cheer more for the skipper." It was given enthusiastically — Slap-Jack, who had sneaked on deck with his head bandaged, having taken this sailor- like method of showing he bore no malice for a ducking, and was indeed only desirous that his late prank should be overlooked. Nevertheless, in the hurry and confusion of getting the anchor up, he contrived to place himself at Beaudesir's side and to grasp him cordially by the hand. " You be a good chap," said this honest seaman, with a touch of feeling that he hid under an afi'ectation of exceed- ing roughness; "as good a chap as ever broke a biscuit! Look ye, mate ; my name's Slap-Jack ; so long as I can show my number, when anything' s up, you sings out * Slap- Jack ! ' and if I don't answer ' Slap-Jack it is ! ' why " The imprecation with which this peculiar acknowledgment concluded did not render it one whit more intelligible to Beaudesir, who gathered enough, however, fi*om the speaker's vehemence to feel that he had made at least one stanch friend among the crew. By the time he had realised this consoling fact, the brigantine's head, released from the restraint of her cable, swung round to leeward, her strong new sails filled steadily with the breeze, and while the ripple gurgled louder and louder round her bows, already tossing and plunging through the increasing swell, the quay, the lighthouse, the long low spit of land, the town, the 284 CERISE downs themselves seemed to glide quietly away ; and Beau- d^sir, despite the beauty of the scene and the excitement of his position, became uncomfortably conscious of a strange desire to retire into a corner, lay himself down at full length, and die, if need be, unobserved. A waft of savoury odours from the cook's galley, where the men's breakfasts were prepared, did nothing towards allaying this untimely despondency, and after a short struggle he yielded, as people always do yield in such cases, and staggering into the cabin, pillowed his head on a couch, and gave himself over to despair. Ere he raised it again ' The Bashful Maid,' making an excellent run down Channel in a south-westerly course, was already a dozen leagues out at sea. CHAPTER XXVII *THE BASHFUL MAID If Captain George kept a log, as is probable, or Eugene Beaudesir a diary, as is possible, I have no intention of copying it. In the history of individuals, as of nations, the exception is Stir, the rule Stagnation. There are long links in the Silver Cord, smooth, polished, uniform, one exactly like the other, ere its sameness is varied by the carving of a boss or the flash of a gem. It is only here and there that life-like figures and spirit-stirring scenes start from the dead surface of the Golden Bowl. Perhaps, when both are broken, neither brilliancy nor workmanship, but sterling worth of metal, shall constitute the true value of each. * The Bashful Maid ' found her share of favouring winds and baffling breezes ; trim and weatherly, she made the best of them all. Her crew, as they gained confidence in their skipper and became well acquainted amongst them- selves, worked her to perfection. In squally weather, she had the great advantage of being over-manned, and could therefore carry the broadest surface of canvas it was possible to show. After a few stormy nights all shook into their places, and every man found himself told off to the duty he was best able to perform. The late Captain of Musketeers had the knack of selecting men, and of making them obey him. His last-joined hands were perhaps the best of his whole ship's company. Bottle-Jack became boatswain's mate, Smoke-Jack gunner, and Slap-Jack captain of the foretop. These three were still fast fi-iends and sworn adherents of Beaudesir. The latter, though he 235 236 CERISE had no ostensible rank or office, seemed, next to the skipper himself, the most influential and the most useful person on board. He soon picked up enough knowledge of navigation to bring his mathematical acquirements into play. He kept the accounts of stores and cargo. He possessed a slight knowledge of medicine and surgery. He played the violin with a taste and feeling that enchanted the Spaniard, his only rival in this accomplishment, and caused many a stout heart to thrill with unaccustomed thoughts of gi*een nooks and leafy copses, of laughing children and cottage- gardens, and summer evenings at home ; lastly, the three Jacks, his fast fiiends, found him an apt pupil in lessons relating to sheets and tacks, blocks and braces, yards and spars, in fine, all the practical mysteries of seamanship. During stirring times, such as the first half of the eighteenth century, a brigantine like ' The Bashful Maid,' well-armed, well-manned, commanded by a young adven- turous captain having letters of marque in his cabin, and no certain knowledge that peace had yet been proclaimed with Spain, was not likely long to preserve her sails unbleached by use nor the paint and varnish undimmed on her hull. Not many months elapsed ere she was very different in appearance from the yacht-like craft that ran past the Needles, cariying Eugene Beaudesir prone and helpless as a log in her after-cabin. He could scarcely believe himself the same man when, bronzed, robust, and vigorous, feeling every inch a sailor, he paced her deck under the glowing stars and the mellow moonlight of the tropics. Gales had been weathered since then, shots fired, prizes taken, and that career of adventure embarked on which possesses so strange a fascination for the majority of mankind, partly, I think, from its permanent uncertainty, partly from its pandering to their self-esteem. A few more swoops, another prize or two taken, pillaged, but sufi'ered to proceed if not worth towing into port, and the cruise would have been so successful, that already the men were calculating their share of profit and talldng as if their eventual return to Britain was no longer a wild impossibility. Everything, too, had as yet been done according to fair usage of war. No piracy, no cruelty, nothing that could justify a British three-decker in capturing the brigantine, ' THE BASHFUL MAID ' 237 to impress her crew and hang her captain at his own yard- arm. Eugene's counsels had so far prevailed with George that he had resolved on confining himself to the legitimate profits of a privateer, and not overstepping the narrow line of demarcation that distinguished him from a pirate. While, however, some of her crew had been killed and some wounded, ' The Bashful Maid ' herself had by no means emerged scatheless fi'om her encounters. Eugene was foolish enough to experience a thrill of pride while he marked the grim holes, planked and caulked, in her sides ; the workmanlike splicing of such yards and spars as had not sufi'ered too severely for repair, and the carefully- mended foresail, now white and weather-bleached, save where the breadths of darker, newer canvas betrayed it had been riddled by round-shot. But soon his impressionable temperament, catching the influence of the hour, threw off its warlike thoughts and abandoned itself to those gentler associations that could hardly fail to be in the ascendant. The night was such as is only to be seen in the tropics. Above, like golden lamps, the stars were flaming rather than twinlding in the sky ; while low down on the horizon a broad moon, rising from the sea, spread a lustrous path along the gently-heaving waves to the very ship's side ; a path on which myriads of glittering fairies seem to dance and revel, and disappear in changing sparkles of light. Through all this blaze of beauty, the brigantine glided smoothly and steadily on her course. For several days and nights not a sail had been altered, not a rope shifted, before that soft and balmy breeze. The men had nothing to do but tell each other interminable yarns and smoke. It was the fair side of the medal, the bloom on the fruit, the smooth of the profession, this enchanted voyage over an enchanted sea. Eugene revelled in its charm, but with his enjoyment was mingled that quiet melancholy so intimately associated with all beauty in those hearts (and how many of them are there !) which treasure up an impossible longing, a dream that can never come to pass. It is a morbid sentiment, no doubt, which can thus extract from the loveliest scenes of nature, and even from the brightest triumphs of art, a 238 CEBISE strange wild ecstasy of pain, possessing a fascination of its own ; but it is a sentiment to which the most generous and the most noble minds are peculiarly susceptible ; a senti- ment that in itself denotes excessive capability, for the happiness denied or withheld. Were it better for them to be of duller spirit and coarser fibre, callous to the spur, unequal to the effort? Who knows? I think Beaudesir would not willingly have parted with the sensibility from which he experienced so much pain, from the memories on which, at moments like these, under a moonlit sky, he brooded and dwelt so fondly, yet so despondently, to have obtained in exchange the inexhaustible good-humour of Slap-Jack or the imperturbable self-command of Captain George. Immersed in his own thoughts, he did not observe the latter leave his cabin, walk from sheer habit to the binnacle in order to satisfy himself the brigantine was lying her course, and glance over the side to measure her speed through the water, and he started when the Captain placed his hand familiarly on his shoulder, and jeered him good- humouredly for his preoccupation. These men, whose acquaintance had commenced with important benefits con- ferred and received on both sides, were now thrown together by circumstances which brought out the finer qualities of both. They had learned thoroughly to depend on each other, and had become fast friends. Perhaps their strongest link was the dissimilarity of their characters. To Beau- desir's romantic and impressionable temperament there had been, from the first, something very imposing in the vigorous and manly nature of Captain George, and the influence of the latter became stronger day by day, when he proved himself as calm, courageous, and capable on the deck of a privateer as he had appeared in his quarters at Paris, commanding a company of the Royal Guards. For George, again, with his frank, soldier-like manner and somewhat abrupt address, which seemed impatient of anything like delicacy or over-refinement, there was, never- theless, an unspeakable charm in his friend's half-languid, half-fiery, and wholly romantic disposition, redeemed by a courage no danger could shake, and an address with his weapons few men could withstand. The Captain was not « THE BASHFUL MAID' 239 demonstrative, far from it, and would have been ashamed to confess how much he vahied the society of that pale, studious, effeminate youth, in looks, in manner, in simplicity of thought so much younger than his actual years ; who was so often lost in vague day-dreams, and loved to follow up such wild and speculative trains of thought ; but who could point the brigantine's bow-chasers more accurately than the gunner himself; who had learned how to hand, reef, and steer before he had been six weeks on board. Their alliance was the natural consequence of companion- ship between two natures of the same material, so to speak, but of diflerent fabric. Their respective intellects repre- sented the masculine and feminine types. Each supplying that which the other wanted, they amalgamated accordingly. Beaudesir looked up to the Musketeer as his ideal of per- fection in manhood ; Captain George loved Eugene as a brother, and trusted him without reserve. It was pleasant after the turmoil and excitement of the last few weeks to walk the deck in that balmy region under a serene and moonlit sky, letting their thoughts wander freely to scenes so different on far-distant shores, while they talked of France, and Paris, and Versailles, and a thousand topics all connected with dry land. But Eugene, though he listened with interest, and never seemed tired of confidences relating to his companion's own family and previous life, frankly and freely imparted, refrained from such confessions in return, and Greorge was still as ignorant of his Mend's antecedents as on that memorable day when the pale, dark youth accompanied Bras-de-Fer to their Captain's quarters, to be entered on the roll of the Grey Musketeers, after running poor Flan- connade through the body. That they had once belonged to this famous coyys d' elite neither of them seemed likely to forget. Its merits and its services formed the one staple subject of discourse when all else failed. As in his quarters at Paris he had kept the model of a similar brif^fantine for his own private solace, so now, in the cabin of ' The Bashful Maid,' the skipper treasured up with the greatest care, in a stout sea-chest, a handsome full-dress uniform, covered with velvet and embroidery, flaunting with grey ribbons, and having a coating of thin paper over its silver lace. 240 • CERISE There was one topic of conversation, however, on which these 5'oung men had never yet embarked, and this is the more sur2:>rising, considering their age and the habits of those warriors amongst whom they were so proud to have been numbered. This forbidden subject was the charm of the other sex, and it was perhaps because each felt himself so constituted as to be keenly alive to its power that neither ventured an allusion to the great influence by which, during the first half of life, men's fortunes, characters, happiness, and eventual destiny, are more or less affected. It required a fair breeze, a summer sea, and a moonlight night in the tropics to elicit their opinions on such matters, and the manly, rough-spoken skipper was the first to broach a theme that had been already well-nigh exhausted by the watch on deck — gathered on the forecastle in tranquil enjoyment of a cool, serene air and a welcome interval of repose. Old Turenne's system of tactics had been declared exploded ; the Duke of Marlborough's character criticised ; Cavalli's last opera canvassed and condemned. Captain George took two turns of the deck in silence, stopped short at the tafirail, and looked thoughtfully over the stern — "What is to be the end of it?" he asked abruptly. " More fighting, of course ! More prizes, more doubloons, and then ? After all, I believe there are things to make a man's life happier than even such a brigantine as this." " There is heaven on earth, and there is heaven above," answered the other, in his di'eamy, half-earnest, half-specu- lative way ; " and some men, not always the hardest- hearted nor the most vicious, are to be shut out of both. Calvin is a disheartening casuist, but I believe Calvin is right!" " Steady there ! " replied George. '' Nothing shall make me believe but that a brave man can sail what com-se he will, provided his charts are trustworthy and he steers by them. Nothing is impossible, Eugene. If I had thought that I should have lost heart long ago." '' And then? " asked Beaudesir, sadly. ''And then," repeated the Captain, with a shudder, "I might have become a brute rather than a man. Do you remember the British schooner we retook from those ' THE BASHFUL MAID ' 241 Portuguese rovers, and the mustee * who commanded them? I tell you I hate to think it possible, and yet I believe a man utterly without hope might come to be such a wretch as that!" " You never would," said Beaudesir, " and /never should ; I knoiv it. Even hope may be dispensed with if memory remains. My pity is for those who have neither." ''I could not live without hope," resumed the Captain, cheerily. " I own I do hope most sincerely, at some future time, for a calmer and happier lot than this ; a lot that would also make the happiness of another ; and that other so gentle, so trusting, and so true ! " Eugene looked in his face surprised. Then he smiled brightly, and laid his hand on his friend's shoulder. *'It will come! " he exclaimed; "never doubt it for a moment. It will come ! do you remember what I said to you of my skill in fortune-telling? I repeat, success is written in your face. What you really wish and strive to attain is as sure to arrive at last as a fair wind in the trades or a flood- tide at full moon." "I hope so," returned the Captain; "I believe it. I suppose I am as bold as my neighbours, and luckily it never comes across me when there's anything to do ; but some- times my heart fails when I think, if I should go down and lose my number, how she'll sit and wonder, poor thing, why I never come back ! " " Courage, my Captain ! " said Eugene, cheerily, affecting the tone and manner of their old corps. "Courage. En auant ! a la Mousquetaire ! You will lose nothing, not even the cargo ; we shall return with both pockets full of money. You will buy a chateau. There will be a fete at your wedding : I shall bring there my violin, and, believe me, I shall rejoice in your happiness as if it were my own." " She is so young, so beautiful, so gentle," continued the Captain ; "I could not bear that her life should be darkened, whatever comes of me. If, at last, the great happiness does arrive, Eugene, I shall not forget my friend. Chateau or cottage, you will be welcome with your violin. You would admire her as I do ; we both think alike on so many subjects. * The progeny of a white and a Quadroon, sometimes called an Octoroon. 16 242 CEBISE So young, so fresh, so beautiful ! I wish j^ou could see her. I am not sure but that you have seen her. Do you remember the day ? " What further confidences the skipper was about to impart were here cut short by a round of applause from the fore- castle, apparently arising from some proposal much approved by the whole assemblage. The Captain, with his friend, paused to listen. It was a request that Bottle- Jack would sing, and seemed not unfavourably received by that veteran. After many excuses, and much of a mock modesty to be observed under similar conditions in the most refined societies, he took his quid fi-om his cheek, and cleared his voice with great pomp ere he embarked on a ditty of which the subject conveyed a delicate compliment to the proclivities of his Mend Smoke- Jack, who had originated the call, and which he sang in that flat, monotonous, and dispiriting key, only to be accomplished, I firmly believe, by an able seaman in the daily exercise of his profession. He designated it " The Eeal Trinidado," and it ran as follows : — •' Oh ! when I was a lad, Says my crusty old dad, Says he, — ' Jack ! you must stick to the spade, oh ! " But he grudged me my prog. And he grudged me my grog. And my pipe of the real Trinidado. " Says my Syousan to me, — ' Jack, if you goes to sea, I'll be left but a desolate maid, oh ! ' Then I answers her — ' Sue ! Can't I come back to you When I'm done with the old Trinidado ? " " So to sea we clears out. And the ship's head, no doubt, Sou'-west and by sou' it was laid, oh ! For the isles of the sun. Where there's fiddlers and fun. And no end of the real Trinidado. ** Says our skipper, says he, ' Be she close-hauled or free, She'd behave herself in a tornado ! ' So he handles the ship With a canful of flip, And a pipe of the real Trinidado. * THE BASHFUL MAID ' 243 " She's a weatherly craft, Werry wet, fore-and-aft, And she rolls like a liquorish jade, oh ! But she steers werry kind, On a course to her mind, When she's bound for the isle Trinidado. " Soon a sail we espies, Says the skipper — ' My eyes ! That's the stuff for us lads of the trade, oh ! Bales of silk in his hold. Casks of rum — maybe gold — Not forgetting the real Trinidado ! ' " Then it's ' Stand by ! My sons ! Steady ! Eun out your guns — We've the Don's weather-gage. Who's afraid, oh ! ' So we takes him aback, He is ours in a crack. And we scuttles him off Trinidado ! " Now, here's to the crew ! And the skipper ! and Sue ! And here's ' Luck to the boys of the blade, oh ! May they ne'er want a glass, A fair wind, a fair lass ! Nor a pipe of the real Trinidado ! ' " The applause elicited by this effort was loud and long. Ere it subsided, George looked more than once anxiously to windward. Then he went to his cabin and consulted the barometer, after which he reappeared on deck and whispered in Eugene's ear — *' I am going to caulk it for an hour or two. Hold on, unless there's any change in the weather, and be sm-e you come below and rouse me out at eight bells." CHAPTER XXVIII DIRTY WEATHER At eight bells the Captain came on deck again, glancing once more somewhat anxiously astern. Not a cloud was to be seen in the moonlit id^.J, and the breeze that had blown so steadily, though so softly, for weeks, was sinking gradually, dying out, as it were, in a succession of gentle, peaceful sighs. Eugene, with the weather- wisdom of a man who had been but a few months at sea, rather inclined to think they might be becalmed. The crew did not trouble them- selves about the matter. Every rag the brigantine could show was already set, and if a sail flapped idly against the mast, it soon drew again as before, to propel them smoothly on their course. Moreover, a topic had been lately broached on the fore- castle, of engrossing interest to every man before the mast. It afiected no less delicate a subject than the beauty of 'The Bashful Maid' herself, as typified by her figure-head. This work of art had unfortunately suffered a slight deface- ment in one of their late exploits, nearly the whole of its nose having been carried away by an untoward musket-shot. Such a loss had been replaced forthwith by the ship's car- penter, who supplied his idol with a far straighter, severer, and more classical feature than was ever yet beheld on the human countenance. Its proportions were proclaimed perfect by the whole crew; but though the artist's execution was universally approved, his florid style of colouring originated many conflicting opinions and much loud discussion on the first principles of imitative art. The carpenter was a man of decided ideas, and made large use of a certain red paint 244 DIRTY WEATHER 245 nearly approaching vermilion in his flesh tints. ' The Bashful Maid's ' nose, therefore, bloomed with a hue as rosy as her cheeks, and these, until toned down by wind and weather, had been an honest scarlet. None of the critics ventured to dispute the position that the carpenter's theory was sound. Slap-Jack, indeed, with a lively recollection of her wan face when he took leave of his Alice, suggested that for his part he liked them ' ' a little less gaudy about the gills" ; but this heresy was ignominiously coughed down at once. It was merely a question as to whether the paint was, or was not, laid on a trifle too thick, and each man argued according to his own experience of the real human subject. AH the older hands (particularly Bottle-Jack, who pro- tested vehemently that the figure-head of * The Bashful Maid,' so far from being a representation of feminine beauty, was in fact an elevated ideal of that seductive quality, a very model to be imitated, though hardly possible to be approached) were in favour of red noses, as adding warmth and expression to the female face. Their wives, their sweet- hearts, their sisters, their mothers, their grandmothers, all had red noses, and were careful to keep up the colouring by the use of comforting stimulants. '' What," said the principal speaker, " was the pints of a figur'-head, as laid down in the song? and no man on this deck was a-goin' to set up his opinion again that, he should think ! Wasn't 'em this here ? — 'Eyes as black as sloes, Cheeks like any rose.' And if the song was played out further, which it might or it might notf d'ye see, wouldn't the poet have naturally added — * With a corresponding nose ? ' " It was a telling argument, and although two or three of the foretop-men, smart young fellows, whose sweethearts had not yet taken to drinking, seemed disinclined to side with Slap-Jack, it insured a triumphant majority, which ought to have set the question at rest, even without the conclusive opinion delivered by the negTO. " Snowball," said Bottle-Jack, "you've not told us your 246 CEBISE taste. Now you're impartial, you arc, a-cause you can't belong to either side. What say ye, man ? Red or white ? Sing out and hoist your ensign ! " The black nodded, gi'inned, and voted — *' Iss ! berry well," said he ; '* like 'em white berry well ; like 'em red beriy better ! " At this interesting juncture the men were a good deal surprised by an order from the Captain to " turn all hands up and shorten sail." They rose from the deck, wondering and gi'umbling. Two or three, who had been sleeping below, came tumbling up with astonished faces and less willing steps than usual. All seemed more or less discontented, and muttered to each other that " the skipper must be mad to shorten sail at midnight with a bright moon, and in a light breeze, falling eveiy moment to a calm ! " They went about the job somewhat unwillingly, and indeed were so much less ready than usual as to di'aw a good deal of animadversion from the deck, something in this style — "Now, my lads, bear a hand, and look smart. Foretop there ! What are you about with that foretopsail ? Lower away on your after-haulyards ! Easy ! Hoist on those forehaulyards, ye lubbers ! Away with it, men ! Altogether, and ivith a will ! Wliy, you are going to sleep over it ! I'd have done it smarter with the crew of a collier ! " To all which remonstrances, it is needless to say, the well-disciplined Slap- Jack made no re23ly ; only once, finding a moment to look to windward from his elevated position as captain of the foretop, and observing a white mist-like scud low down on the horizon, he whispered quietly to his mate, then busied wdth a reef-knot — "Blowed if he hain't right, arter all, Jem! We'll be under courses afore the sun's up. If we don't strike topmasts, they'll be struck for us, I shouldn't wonder. I see him once afore," explained Slap- Jack, jerking his head in the direction of the coming squall ; " and he's a snorter, mate, that's about wot he is ! " The Captain's precautions were not taken too soon. The topsails were hardly close reefed, all the canvas not abso- lutely required to steer the brigantine had been hardly taken in, ere the sky was darkened as if the moon had been DIBTY WEATHER 247 suddenly snuffed out, and the squall was upon them. * The Bashful Maid ' lay over, gunwale under, driving fiercely through the seething water, which had not yet risen to the heavy sea that was too surely coming. She plunged, she dived, she strained, she quivered like some living thing striving earnestly and patiently for its life. The rain hissed down in sheets, the lightning lit up the slippery deck, the dripping pale-faced men, the bending spars, the straining tackle, and the few feet of canvas that must be carried at any price. In the quick-succeeding flashes every man on board could see that the others did their duty. From the Captain, holding on by one hand, composed and cheerful, with his speaking-trumpet in the other, to the ship's boy, with his little bare feet and curling yellow hair, there was not a skulker amongst them ! They remembered it long afterwards with honest pride, and ' The Bashful Maid ' behaved beautifully ! Yes, in defiance of the tempestuous squall, blowing as it seemed from all points of the compass at once ; in defiance of crackling lightning, and thunder crashing overhead ere it rolled away all round the horizon, reverberating over the ocean for miles ; in defiance of black darkness and lurid gleams, and drenching rain, and the cruel raging sea rising every moment and running like a mill-race. Captain and crew were alike confident they would weather it, and they did. But it was a sadly worn, and strained, and shattered craft that lay upon the fast subsiding water, some six hours after the squall, under the glowing sun of a morning in the tropics ; a sun that glinted on the sea till its heaving sur- face looked all one sheet of burnished gold ; a sun that was truly comforting to the drenched and wearied crew, although its glare exposed pitilessly the whole amount of damage the brigantine had sustained. That poor * Bashful Maid ' was as different now from the trim yacht-like craft that sailed past the Needles, gaudy with paint and gleaming with varnish, as is the dead seabird, lying helpless and draggled on the wave, from the same creature soaring white and beautiful, in all its pride of power and plumage, against the summer sky. There was but one opinion, however, amongst the crew as to the merits of the craft, and the way she had been 248 CEBISE handled. Not one of tliem, and it was a gi-eat acknowledg- ment for sailors to make, who never think their present berth the best — not one of them had ever before sailed in any description of vessel which answered her helm so readily or could lay her head so near the wind's eye — not one of them had ever seen a furious tropical squall weathered so scientifically and so successfully, nor could call to mind a captain who seemed so completely master of his trade. The three Jacks compared notes on the subject before turning in about sunrise, when the worst was indeed over, but the situation, to a landsman at least, would have yet appeared sufficiently precarious: The brigantine was still driving before a heavy sea, showing just so much canvas as should save her fi'om being becalmed in its trough, overtaken and buried under the pursuing enemy. The gale was still blowing with a fury that ofi'ered the best chance of its force soon becoming exhausted, and two men were at the helm under the immediate surpervision of the skipper himself. Nevertheless, the three stout tars betook themselves to their berth without the slightest anxiety, well aware that each would be sleeping like a child almost before he could clamber into his hammock. But while he took off and wrung his dripping sea-coat, Bottle-Jack observed sententiously to his mates — " Captain Kidd could fight a ship, my sons, and Captain Kidd could sail a ship. Now if you asks my opinion, it's this here — In such a squall as we've a-weathered, or pretty nigh a-weathered. Captain Kidd, he'd a-run afore it at once, an' he'd a bin in it now. This here young skipper, he laid to, so long as she coidd lay to, an' he never run till he couldn't fight no more. That's why he'll be out on it afore the middle watch. Belay now, I'm a-goin' to caulk it for a spell." Neither Smoke-Jack nor Slap-Jack were in a humoui* for discussion, and each cheerfully conceded the Captain's judicious seamanship. The former expressing his opinion that nothing in the King's navy could touch the brigantine, and the latter, recurring to his previous experience, rejoicing that he no longer sailed under the gallant but unseamanlike Captain Delaval. The honest fellows, thoroughly wearied, were soon in the DIBTY WEATHEB 249 land of dreams. Haunted no more by visions of dancing spars, wet slippery ropes, yards dripping in the waves, and flapping sails struggling wildly for the freedom that must be their own destruction, and the whole ship's company's doom. No, their thoughts were of warm sanded parlours, cheerful coal-fires, endless pipes of tobacco, messmates singing, women dancing, the unrestrained festivities and flowing ale-jugs of the Fox and Fiddle. Perhaps, to the imagina- tion of the youngest, a fair pale face, loving and tearful, stood out from all these jovial surroundings, and Slap- Jack felt a purer and a better man while, though but in imagina- tion, he clasped his true and tender Alice to his heart once more. CHAPTER XXIX PORT WELCOME It was a refreshing sight to behold Slap- Jack, " rigged," as he was pleased to term it, "to the nines," in the extreme of sea-dandyism, enacting the favourite part of a " liberty- man " ashore. Nothing had been left undone for the brilliancy of his exterior that could be achieved by scrubbing, white linen, and robust health. Tlie smart young captain of the foretop seemed to glow and sparkle in the vertical sun, as he stood on the quay of Port Welcome, and cast a final glance of professional approval on the yards he had lately squared to a nicety and the trim of such gear and tackle aloft as seemed his own especial pride and care. ' The Bashful Maid,' after all the buffetings she had sustained, particularly fi-om the late squall, having made her port in one of the smallest and most beautiful of the West India islands, now lay at anchor, fair and motionless, like a living thing sleeping on the glistening sea. It yet wanted some hours of noon, nevertheless the sun had attained a power that seemed to bake the very stones on the quay, and warmed the clear limpid water fathom deep. Even Slap-Jack protested against the heat, as he lounged and rolled into the town, to find it swarming with negroes of both sexes, sparingly clothed, but with such garments as they did wear glowing in the gaudiest colours, and carrying on their hard, woolly heads baskets containing egg^, kids, poultry, fruit, vegetables, and every kind of market produce in the island. That island was indeed one of those jewels of the Caribbean Sea to which no description can do justice. PORT WELCOME 251 For the men left on board ' The Bashful Maid,' now heaving drowsily at her anchor, it realised, with its vivid and varied hues, its fantastic outlines, its massive brakes, its feathery palms, its luxuriant redundancy of vegetation, trailing and drooping to the sparkling water's-edge, a sailor's idea of Paradise ; while for the three Jacks rolling into the little town of Port Welcome, with its white houses, straggling streets, fi-equent drinking-shops, and swarming population — black, white, and coloured, it represented the desirable haven of Fiddler's Green, where they felt, no doubt, they had arrived before their time. Slap-Jack made a remark to that effect, which was cordially endorsed by his comrades as they turned into the main thoroughfare of the town, and agreed that, in order to enjoy their holiday to the utmost, it was essential to commence with something to drink all round. Now, ' The Bashful Maid ' having been already a few days in port, had in that time disposed of a considerable portion of her cargo, and such an event as the arrival of a saucy brigantine, combining the attractions of a man-of-war with the advantages of a free-trader, not being an every-day occurrence among the population of Port Welcome, much stir, excitement, and increase of business was the result. The French storekeepers bid eagerly for wares of European manufacture, the French planters sent their slaves down in dozens to purchase luxuries only attainable from beyond sea, while the negroes, grinning from ear to ear, jostled and scolded each other in their desire to barter yams, plantains, fruit, poultry, and even, on occasion, pieces of actual money, for scarfs, gloves, perfumes, and ornaments — the tawdrier the better, which they thought might add to the gloss of their black skins, and set off their quaint, honest, ugly, black faces to advantage. Here and there, too, a Carib, one of the aboriginal lords of the island, distinguished by his bronze colour, his grave demeanour — so unlike the African, and his disfigured nose, artificially flattened from infancy, would stalk solemnly away, rich in the possession of a few glass beads or a bit of tinsel, for which he had bartered all his worldly wealth, and which, like more civilised people, he valued, not at its intrinsic worth, but at its cost price. The three Jacks 262 CEBI8E observed the novelties which surrounded them from different points of view according to their different characters, yet with a cool imperturbable demeanour essentially profes- sional. To men of their calling, nothing ever appears extraordinary. They see so many strange sights in dif- ferent countries, and have so little time to become acquainted with the wonders they behold, that they soon acquire a profound and philosophical indifference to ever3i}hing beyond their ordinary range of experience, persuaded that the astonishment of to-day is pretty sure to be exceeded by the astonishment of to-morrow. Neither can they easily discover anything perfectly and entirely new, having usually witnessed something of the same kind before, or heard it circumstantially described at considerable length by a messmate ; so that a seaman is but little impressed with the sight of a foreign town, of which, indeed, he acquires in an hour or two a knowledge not much more superficial than he has of his native village. Bottle-Jack was in the habit of giving his opinion, as he expressed it, "free." That it was complimentary to Port Welcome, his comrades gathered from the following senti- ment : — "I'm a gettin' strained and weather-worn," observed the old seaman, impressively, " and uncommon dry besides. Tell ye what it is, mates — one more cruise, and blowed if I w^on't just drop my anchor here, and ride out the rest of my time all snug at my moorings." Smoke- Jack turned his quid with an expression of intense disgust. " And get spliced to a nigger, old man ! " said he, argumentatively. " Never go for to say it ! I'm not a-goin' to dispute as this here's a tidy bit of a island enough, and safe anchorage. Likewise, as I've been told by them as tried it, plenty to drink, and good. Nor I won't say but what a craft might put in here for a spell to refit, do a bit of caulking, and what not. But for dry-dock, mate, never go for to say it. Why you couldn't get any- thing like a decent missis, man, hereaway; an' think o' the price o' beer ! " " Kegardin' a missis," returned the other, reflectively, PORT WELCOME 253 ** 'tain't the craft wot crowds the most canvas as makes the best weather, mate, and at my years a man looks less to raking masts an' a gay figur'-head than to good tonnage and wholesome breadth of beam. Now, look ye here, mates — wot say ye to this here craft ? — her with the red ensign at the main, as is layin' to, like, with her fore-sheet to windward and her helm one tm-n down? " While he spoke, he pointed to oiir old acquaintance, Celandine, who was cheapening fancy articles at a store that spread its goods out under an awning far into the middle of the modest street. The Quadroon was, as usual, gorgeously dressed, wearing the scarlet turban that covered her still black hair majestically, as a queen carries her diadem. Like the coloured race in general, she seemed to have renewed her youth under a tropical sun, and at a short distance, particularly in the eyes of Bottle-Jack, appeared a fine-looking woman, with pretensions to the remains of beauty still. The three seamen, of course, ranged up alongside for careful criticism, but Celandine's attention was by no means to be distracted from the delightful business of shopping she had on hand. Shawls, scarfs, fans, gloves, tawdry jewels, and perfumery, lay heaped in dazzling pro- fusion on a shelf before her, and the African blood danced in her veins with childish glee at the tempting sight. The storekeeper, a French Creole, with sharp features, sallow complexion, and restless, down-looking black eyes, taking advantage of her eagerness, asked three times its value for every article he pointed out; but Celandine, though profuse, was not inexperienced, and dearly loved, moreover, the feminine amusement of driving a bargain. Much ex- postulation therefore, contradiction, wrangling, and con- fusion of tongues was the result. The encounter seemed at the warmest, and the French Creole, notwithstanding his villainous countenance and unscrupulous assertions, was decidedly getting the worst of it, when Slap- Jack's quick eye detected amongst the wares exposed for sale certain silks and other stuffs v/hich had formed part of ' The Bashful Maid's ' cargo, and had, indeed, been wrested by the strong hand from a Portuguese trader, after a brisk chase and a running fight, which cost 254 CERISE the brigaiitiiie a portion of licr boltsprit and two of her smartest hands. The chest containing these articles had been started in unloading, so that its contents had sus- tained much damage from sea-water. It was a breadth of stained satin out of this very consignment that the Creole storekeeper now endeavom-ed to persuade Celan- dine she would do well to purchase at an exorbitant valuation. Slap-Jack, like many of his calling, had picked up a smattering of negro-French, and could understand the subject of dispute sufficiently to interfere, a course from which he was not to be dissuaded by his less impression- able companions. "Let her be !" growled Smoke- Jack. *' Wot call have you now to come athwart-hawse of that there jabbering mounseer, as a man might say, dredging in his own fishing-ground ? It's no use hailing her, I tell ye, mate, I knows the trim on 'em ; maybe she'll lay her foresail aback, and stand off-and-on till sun-down, then just when a man least expects it, she'll up stick, shake out every rag of canvas, and run for poit. Bless ye, young and old, fair and foul, black, white, and coloured, nigger, quadroon, and mustce — I knows 'em all, and not one on 'em but carries a weather-helm in a fresh breeze, and steers wild and wilful in a sea-way," But Slap-Jack was not to be diverted from his purpose. With considerable impudence, and an impressive sea-bow, he walked up to Celandine under the eyes of his admiring shipmates, and, mustering the best negro-French at his command, warned her in somewhat incomprehensibe jargon of the imposition intended to be practised. Now it hap- pened that Port Welcome, and the island in which it was situated, had been occupied in its varying fortunes by French, Spaniards, and English so equally, that these languages, much corrupted by negi'O pronunciation, were spoken indiscriminately, and often altogether. It was a great relief, therefore, to Slap-Jack that Celandine thanked him politely for his interposition in his native tongue, and when she looked into the young foretopman's comely brown face, she found herself so fascinated with something she detected there as to continue the conversation in tolerably PORT WELCOME 255 correct English, for the purpose of improving their acquaint- ance. The seaman congratulated himself on having made so happy a discovery, while his friends looked on in mute admiration of the celerity with which he had completed his conquest. "He's a smart chap, mate," enunciated Bottle-Jack, with a glance of intense approval at the two figures receding up the sunny street, as Celandine marched their companion off, avowedly for the purpose of refreshing him with cooling drinks in return for his good-nature — '' a smart young chap, and can hold his own with the best of 'em as ever hoisted a petticoat, silk or dowlas. See now, that's the way to do it in these here latitudes ! First he hails 'em, speaking up like a man, then he ranges alongside, and gets the grapplers out, and so tows his prize into port in a pig's whisper. He's a smart young chap, I tell ye, and a match for the sauciest craft as ever sailed under false colours, and hoisted a red pennant at the main." But Smoke-Jack shook his head, and led his shipmate, nothing loth, into a tempting store-house, redolent with the fragrance of limes, tobacco, decaying melons, and Jamaica rum. He said nothing, however, until he had quenched his thirst ; then after a vigorous pull at a tall beaker, filled with a fragrant compound in which neither ice nor alcohol had been forgotten, observed, as if the subject still occupied his thoughts — " I knows the trim on 'em, I tell ye ; I knows the trim on 'em. As I says to the young chap now, I never found one yet as would steer kind in a sea-way." Meanwhile, Celandine, moved by an impulse for which she could not account, or perhaps dreading to analyse a sentiment that might after all be founded on a fallacy, led the young seaman into a cool, quiet room in a wooden house, on the shady side of the street, of which the apparent mistress was a large bustling negress, with a numerous family of jet-black childi'en, swarming and crawling about the floor like garden-snails after a shower. This pro- prietress seemed to hold the Quadroon in considerable awe, and was delighted to bring the best her house afforded for the entertainment of such visitors. Slap-Jack, accommo- 266 CERISE dated with a deep measure of iced rum-and-water, lit his pipe, played with the children, stared at his black hostess in unmitigated astonishment, and prepared himself to answer the questions it was obvious the Quadroon was burning to put. Celandine hovered restlessly about the room, fixing her bright black eyes upon the seaman with an eager, inquiring glance, that she withdrew hastily when she thought herself observed, and thereby driving into a state of abject terror the large sable hostess, whose pity for the victim, as she believed him, at last overcame her fear of the Quadroon, and impelled her to whisper in Slap-Jack's ear — " Obi-woman ! hruxa* buckra-massa, hruxa! Mejiez- vous f — Ojo-malo.\ No drinkee for drunkee ! Lookout! Gave / " A warning utterly incomprehensible to its object, who winked at her calmly over his tumbler, while he drank with exceeding relish the fi*iendly mother's health, and that of her thriving black progeny. There is nothing like a woman's tact to wind the secrets out of a man's bosom, gradually, insensibly, and by much the same smooth, delicate process as the spinning of flax off a distaff. With a few observations rather than questions, a few allusions artfully put. Celandine drew from Slap-Jack an account of his early years, and an explanation, offered with a certain pride, of the manner in which he became a seaman. When he told her how he had made his escape while a mere child from his protector, whom he described as " the chap wot wanted to bind him 'prentice to a saw- bones," he was startled to see the Quadroon's shining black eyes ftill of tears. He consoled her in his own rough, good- humom-ed way. '' What odds did it make after all," argued Slap-Jack, helping himself liberally to the rum-and-water, " when I was out of my bed by sunrise and down to the waterside to get aboard- ship in the British Channel, hours afore he was up, and so Westward-ho ! and away ? Don't ye take on about it. A sailor I looiild be, and a sailor I am. You ask the skipper if I'm not. He knows my rating I should think, and whether I'm worth my salt or no. Don't ye take on so, mother, I say ! " * A witch. t Evil eye. POBT WELCOME 257 But the Quadroon was weeping without concealment now. " Call me that again ! " she exclaimed, sohbing convul- sively. " Call me that again ! I have not been called mother for so long. Hush ! " she added, starting up, and laying her hand forcibly on his lips. " Not another word. Fool ! Idiot that I am ! Not another word. She can hear us. She can understand;" and Celandine darted a furious glance at the busy negress, which caused that poor woman to shake like a jelly down to her mis- shapen black heels. Slap- Jack felt considerably puzzled. His private opinion, as he afterwards confided to his messmates, was, that the old lady not being drunk, must be mad — a cheerful view, which was indeed confirmed by what occurred immediately afterwards. In struggling to keep her hand upon his mouth, she had turned back the deep, open collar of his blue shirt till his brawny neck was exposed nearly to the shoulder. Espying on that neck a certain white mark, contrasting with the ruddy weather-browned skin, she gave a half-stified shriek, like that with which a dumb animal expresses its raptm-e of recognition ; and taking the man's head in her arms, pressed it to her bosom, rocking herself to and fro, while she wept and murmured over him with an inexplicable tenderness, by which he was at once astonished and alarmed. For a few moments, and while the negress's back was tm-ned, she held him tight, but released him when the other re-entered the room, exacting from him a solemn promise that he would meet her again at an indicated place, and adding that she would then confide to him matters in which, like herself, he was deeply interested, but which must be kept religiously secret so long as he remained in the island. Slap-Jack, after he had finished his rum-and-water, rejoined his comrades, a more thoughtful man than he had left them. To their jests and inquiries he returned vague and inconclusive answers, causing Bottle-Jack to stare at him in solemn wonder, and afiording Smoke-Jack another illustration of his theory as to the wilfulness of feminine steerage in a sea-way. 17 258 CERISE C^laiuline, on the contrary, walked through the town with the jaunty step and hright vigilant eye of one who has discovered some treasure that must be guarded with a care proportioned to its value. She bought no more trinkets from the storekeepers now, she loitered no more to gossip with sallow white, or shining negro, or dandy coloured man. At intervals her brow indeed clouded over, and the scowl of which it was so capable deepened ominously, while she clenched her hands and set her teeth ; but the frown soon cleared away, and she smiled bright and comely once more. She had found her boy at last. Her first-bom, the image of her first love. Her heart warmed to him from the vei-y moment he came near her at the store. She was sm-e of it long before she recognised the mark on his neck — the same white mark she had kissed a thousand times, when he danced and crowed on her knees. It was joy, it was triumph. But she must be very silent, very cautious. If it was hard that a mother might not openly claim her son, it would be harder still that such acknowledgment should rivet on him the yoke of a slavery to which he was born by that mother, herself a slave. CHAPTER XXX MONTIMRAIL WEST At a distance of less than a league from Port Welcome stood the large and flourishing plantation of Cash-a-crou, known to the European population, and, indeed, to many of the negroes, by the more civilised appellation of Mont- mirail West. It was the richest and most important establishment on the island, covering a large extent of cultivation, reclaimed at no small cost of labour from the bush, and worked by a numerous gang of slaves. Not a negi'o was purchased for these grounds till he had under- gone a close inspection by the shrewd and pitiless overseer, who never missed a good investment, be it Coromantee, Guinea-man, or Congo, and never bought a hand, of how- ever plausible an appearance, in whom his quick eye could detect a flaw ; consequently, no such cheerful faces, fresh lips, sound teeth, strong necks, open chests, sinewy arms, dry, large hands, flat stomachs, powerful loins, round thighs, muscular calves, lean ankles, high feet, and similar physical points of servile symmetry, were to be found in any other gang as in that which worked the wide clearings on the Cash-a-crou estate, which, for convenience, we will call by its more civilised name. It was said, however, that in the purchase of female negroes this overseer was not so particular ; that a saucy eye, a nimble tongue, and such an amount of good looks as is compatible with African colour- ing and features, found more favour in his judgment than size, strength, substance, vigorous health, or the prolific qualities so desirable in these investments. The overseer, indeed, was a married man, living, it was thought, in 259 2G0 CERISE wholesome dread of his Quadroon wife, and so completely did he identify himself with the new character he had assumed, that even Celandine could hardly believe her present husband was the same Stefano Bartoletti who had wooed her unsuccessfully in her girlhood, had met her again under such strange circumstances in France, even- tually to follow her fortunes, and those of her mistress, the Marquise, and obtain fi'om the latter the supervision of her negi'oes on the estate she had inherited by her mother's will, which she chose to call Montmirail West. Bartoletti had intended to settle down for the rest of his life in a state of dignified indolence with Celandine. He had even ofifered to purchase the Quadroon's fi-eedom, which was generously given to her by the Marquise with that view ; but he had accustomed himself through the w^hole of his early life to the engi'ossing occupation of money- making, and like many others he found it impossible to leave off. He and his wife now devoted themselves entirely to the acquisition of wealth ; she with the object of discover- ing her long-lost son, he, partly from inborn covetousness, and yet more from force of habit. Quick, shrewd, and indeed enterprising, where there was no personal risk, he had been but a short time in the service of the Marquise ere he became an excellent overseer, by no means neglecting her interests, w^hile he was scrupulously attentive to his own. The large dealings in human merchandise which now occupied his attention afforded scope for his peculiar qualities, and Signer Bartoletti found few competitors in the slave-market who, in caution, cupidity, and knowledge of business, could pretend to be his equals. Moreover, he dearly loved the constant speculation, amounting to actual gambling, inseparable fi'om such transactions, nor was he averse, besides, to that pleasing sensation of superiority experienced by all but the noblest natures from absolute authority, however unjustifiable, over their fellow-creatures. The Signer was a gi*eat man in the plantation, a great man in Port Welcome, a great man on the deck of a trader just arrived with her swarthy cargo from the Bight of Benin or the Gold Coast ; but his proportions seemed to shrink and his step to falter when he crossed the threshold of his o-vvn home. The older negroes, who knew he had married an MONTMIRAIL WEST 261 Obi-woman, and respected him for his daring, were per- suaded that he had been quelled and brought into subjection through some charm put upon him by Celandine. To the same magical influence they attributed the Quadroon's favour with her mistress, and this superstitious dread had indeed been of service to both ; for a strong feeling of dis- satisfaction was gaining ground rapidly amongst the blacks, and then, as now, notwithstanding all that has been said and written in their favour, they were less easily ruled by love than fear. It is not that they are naturally savage, inhuman, brutal. Centuries of Christianity and cultivation might probably have done for the black man what they have done for the white ; but those centuries have been denied him ; and if he is to be taken at once from a state of utter ignorance and degradation to be placed on a footing of social equality with those who have hitherto been his masters — a race that has passed gradually through the successive stages he is expected to compass in one stride — surely it must be necessary to restrain him from the excesses peculiar to the lusty ado- lescence of nations, as of individuals, by some stronger repressive influence than need be applied to the staid and sober demeanour of a people arrived long ago at maturity, if not already past their prime. Signer Bartoletti did not trouble himself with such specu- lations. Intimidation he found answered his purpose tolerably, corporal punishment extremely well. Passing from the supervision of some five-score hoes, picking their labour out with great deliberation amongst the clefts and ridges of a half-cleared mountain, clothed to its summit in a tangle of luxuriant beauty, he threaded a line of wattled mud cottages, cool with thick heavy thatch, dazzling in whitewash, and interspersed with fragrant almond-trees, breaking the scorching sunlight into a thousand shimmering rays, as they rustled and quivered to the whisper of the land-breeze, not yet exhausted by the heat. At the door of one of these huts he spied a comely negro girl, whose duties should have kept her in the kitchen of the gi-eat house. He also observed that she concealed some- thing bulky under her snowy apron, and looked stealthily about as if afraid of being seen. 262 CERISE He had a step noiseless and sure as a cat ; she never heard him coming, but started with a load scream when she felt his hand on her shoulder, and incontinently began to cry. ** What have you got there, Fleurette? " asked the over- seer, sternly. " Bring it out at once, and show it up ! " " Nothing, Massa," answered Fleurette, of course, though she was sobbing all the time. ** It only Aunt Rosalie's piccaninny, I take him in please, just now, to his mammy, out of the wind." There was but such a light breath of air as kept the temperature below actual sujQfocation. *'Wind! nonsense!" exclaimed Bartoletti, perspiring and exasperated. ** Aunt Rosalie's child was in the baby- yard half an hour ago ; here, let me look at him ! " and the overseer snatched up Fleurette's apron to discover a pair of plump black hands, clasped over a well-fattened turkey, cleaned, plucked, and ready for the pot. The girl laughed through her tears. " You funny man, Signor ! " said she, archly, yet with a gleam of alarm in her wild black eyes; ''you no believe only when you see. Piccaninny gone in w^ash-tub long since ; Fleurette talkee trash, trash ; dis lilly tm'key fed on plantation at Maria Galante ; good father give um to Flem*ette a-cause dis nigger say ' Ave ' right through, and spit so at Mumbo- Jumbo." This story was less credible than the last, inasmuch as the adjoining plantation of Maria Galante, cultivated by a few Jesuit priests, although in a thriving condition, and capable of producing the finest poultry reared, was more than an home's walk from where they stood, and it was impossible that Fleurette could have been absent so long from her duties at that period of the day. So Bartoletti, placing his hand in his Avaistcoat, pulled out a certain roll, which the slaves called his "black book," and inserted Fleurette's name therein for corporal punishment to the amount of stripes awarded for the crime of theft. It was a common action enough; scarce a day passed, scarce even an hour, without the production of this black book by the overseer, and a torrent of entreaties, couched in the mingled jargon of French, Spanish, and British, I have endeavoured to render through the conventional negi'o- MONTMIBAIL WEST 263 English, which, indeed, formed its basis, from the unfortu- nate culprit whose name was thus inscribed ; but on this occasion Fleurette seemed to entertain a morbid terror of the ordeal quite out of proportion to its frequency, and, indeed, its severity — for though sufficiently brutal, the lash was not dangerous to life or limb. She screamed, she wept, she prayed, she caught the overseer by his knees and clasped them to her bosom, entreating him, with a frantic earnest- ness that became almost sublime, to spare her this degradation ! to forgive her only this once ! to bid her work night and day till crop-time, and then to send her into the field-gang for the hardest labour they could devise — nay, to sell her to the first trader that touched at Port Welcome, never to look on her home at Cash-a-crou again — anything, anything, rather than tie her to a stake and flog her like a disobedient hound ! But Bartoletti was far too practised an overseer to be in the slightest degree moved by such entreaties. Eeplacing the black book in his waistcoat, he walked coolly away, without deigning to look back at his despairing suppliant, writhing under such a mixture of giief and shame as soon maddened into rage. Perhaps, had he done so, he would have been frightened into mercy, for a bolder man than the Italian might have been cowed by the glare of that girl's eyes, when she drew up her slender figure, and clenching her hands till the nails pierced them, spat after him with an intensity of hatred that wanted only opportunity to slake its fierce desire in blood. The Signer, however, wiping his brow, unconscious, passed quietly on, to report his morning's work to the Marquise, and obtain her sanction for Fleurette' s punishment, because the mistress never permitted any slave on her estate to be chastised but by her own express command. Long years ago, when his heart was fresh and high, the Italian had spent a few months in this very island, a period to which he still looked back as to the one bright ray that gilded his dreary, wandering, selfish life. It was here he met Celandine while both were young, and wooed her with little encouragement indeed, for she confessed honestly enough that he was too late, yet not entirely without hope. And now in gleams between the cane-pieces he could catch 264 CEBISE a glimpse of that silver-spread lagoon by which they had walked more than once in the glowing evenings, till darkness, closing without warning like a curtain, found them together still. He had conceived for himself then an ideal of Paradise, which had never in after years faded completely away. To win the Quadi-oon for his own — to make himself a peaceful home in easy circumstances, somewhere amidst this tangled wilderness of beauty from which Port Welcome peeped out on the Caribbean Sea — to sit in his own porch and watch the tropical sunset dying off through its blended hues of gold, and crimson, and orange, into the pale, serene depths of opal, lost ere he could look again, amongst the gathering shades of night — such were his dreams, and at last he had realised them to the letter ; but he never watched the sunset now, nor walked by the cool glistening lagoon with the woman whom in his own selfish way he had loved for half a lifetime. She was his wife, you see, and a very imperious wife she proved. "When he had leisure to speculate on such matters, which was seldom, he could not but allow that he was disappointed ; that the ideal was a fallacy, the romance a fiction, the investment a failure ; practically, the home was dull, the lagoon damp, and the sunset moonshine ! Therefore, as he walked on, though the material Paradise was there, as it had always been, he never wasted a look or thought on its glowing beauties, intent only on the dust that covered his shoes, the thirst that fired his throat, and the perspiration that streamed from his brow. Yet palm, cocoa, orange, and lime tree were waving overhead ; while the wild vine, pink, purple, and delicate creamy-white, winding here about his path, ran fifty feet aloft round some bare stem to which it clung in a succession of convolvulus-like blossoms from the same plant he trod beneath his very feet. Birds of gaudy feather — purple, green, and flaming scarlet, flashed from tree to tree with harsh, discordant cries, and a Louis d'or flitted round him in its bright, golden plumage, looking, as its name implies, like a guinea upon wings. The grass-grown road he followed was indeed an avenue to the great house, and as he neared his destination he passed another glimpse of tropical scenery without a glance. It was the same view that delighted the eyes of the Mar- MONTMIEAIL WEST 265 qiiise daily from her sitting-room, and that Cerise would look at in quiet enjoyment for hours. A slope of vivid green, dotted with almond- trees, stretched away from the long, low, white building to a broad, clear river, shining between the plantains and bananas that clothed its banks ; beyond these, cattle pasture and cane- pieces shot upward in variegated stripes through the tangled jungle of the steep ascent, while at short intervals hog-plum, or other tall trees of the forest, reared their heads against the cloudless sky, to break the dark thick mass that clothed the mountain to its very summit — save where some open, natural savannah, with its crop of tall, rank, feathering grass, relieved the eye from the vivid colouring and gaudy exuberance of beauty in which nature dresses these West Indian islands. Bartoletti knew well that he should find the Marquise in her sitting-room, for the sun was still high and the heat intense ; none therefore but slaves, slave-drivers, or over- seers would be abroad for hours. The Signor had however been reduced to such proper subjection by Celandine that he never ventured to approach the Marquise without making a previous report to his wife, and as the Quadroon had not yet returned from the visit to Port Welcome, in which she made acquaintance with Slap-Jack, some considerable delay took place before the enormity of Fleurette's peculations could be communicated to her mistress. Mother and daughter were inseparable here, in the glowing tropical heat, as under the cool breezes and smiling skies of their own beautiful France, a land to which they constantly reverted with a longing that seemed only to grow more and more intense as every hour of their unwelcome banishment dragged by. They were sitting in a large low room, with the smallest possible amount of furniture and the greatest attainable of air. To insure a thorough draught, the apartment occupied the whole breadth of the house, and the windows, scarcely closed from year's-end to year's-end, were placed opposite each other, so that there was free ingress on all sides for the breeze that, notwithstanding the burning heat of the climate, blows pretty regularly in these islands from 266 CERISE morning till niglit and from night till morning. It wafted throiigli the whole ajiartment the fragrance of a large gi'anadilla, cut in half for the purpose, that stood surrounded by a few shaddocks, limes, and pomegranates, heaped together like a cornucopia on a small table in the corner ; it fluttered the leaves of a book that lay on Mademoiselle de Montmirail's knee, who was pretending to read, with her eyes resting wearily on a streak of blue sea, far off between the mountains ; and it lifted the dark hair from the temples of the Marquise, fanning with grateful breath, yet scarce cooling, the rich crimson of her cheek. The resemblance between these two grew closer day by day. While the mother remained stationary at that point of womanly beauty to which the daughter was approaching, figure and face, in each, became more and more alike ; and though the type of the elder was still the richer and more glowing, of the younger, the more delicate and classical. Cerise seemed unaccountably to have gained some of that spirit and vitality which the Marquise seemed as unaccount- ably to have lost. x4.1so on the countenance of each might be traced the same expression — the longing, wistful look of those who live in some world of their own, out of and far beyond the present, saddened in the woman's face with memory as it was brightened in the girl's by hope. *' It is suffocating!" exclaimed the former, rising restlessly from her seat, and pushing the hair off her temples with a gesture of impatience. *' Cerise, my darling, are you made of stone that you do not cry out at this insupportable heat? It irritates me to see you sit reading there as calmly as if you could feel the wind blowing off the heights of Montmartre in January. It seems as if the sun would never go down in this oven that they call an island." Cerise shut her book and collected her scattered ideas with an obvious effort. " I read, mamma," she answered smiling, " because it is less fatiguing than to think, but I obtain as little result from the one process as the other. Do you know, I begin to believe the stories we used to hear in Paris about the West Indies, and I am persuaded that we shall not only be shrivelled up to mummies in a few more weeks, but that our tongues will be so dry and cracked as MONTMIBAIL WEST 267 to be incapable of expressing our thoughts, even if our poor addled brains could form them. Look at Pierrot even, v/ho is a native ; he has not said a syllable since breakfast." Pierrot, however, like the historical parrot of all ages, though silent on the present occasion, doubtless thought the more, for the attitude in which he held his head on one side, peering at his young mistress with shrewd unwinking eye, implied perceptions more than human, nay, even diabolical in their malignant sagacity. ** What can I do ? " said the Marquise, vehemently, pacing the long room with quick steps ill suited to the temperature and the occasion. '* While the Regent lives I can never return to Paris. For myself, I sometimes fancy I could risk it ; but when I think of you. Cerise — I dare not — I dare not ; that's the truth. An insult, an injury, he might forgive, or at least forget ; but a scene in which he enacted the part of the Pantaleone, whom everybody kicks and cuffs ; in which he was discovered as a coxcomb, an intruder, and a j^olisson, and through the whole of which he is conscious, moreover, that he was intensely ridiculous — I protest to you I cannot conceive any outrage so horrible as to satisfy his revenge. No, my child, for generations my family have served the Bourbons, and we should know what they are : with all their good qualities there are certain offences they can never forgive, and this Regent is the worst of the line." " Then, mamma," observed Cerise cheerfully, though she smothered a sigh, " we must have patience and live where we are. It might be worse," she added, pointing to the streak of deep-blue sea that belted the horizon. " This is a wider view and a fairer than the dead wall of Vincennes or the gratings of the Bastile, and some day, perhaps, some of our friends from France may drop in quite unexpectedly to offer their homage to Madame la Marquise. How the dear old Prince-Marshal would gasp in this climate, and how dreadfully he would swear at the lizards, centipedes, galley-wasps, red ants, and cockroaches ! He who, brave as he is, never dared face a spider or an earwig ! Mamma, I think if I could see his face over a borer-worm, I should have one more good laugh, even in such a heat as this." ** You might laugh, my dear," answered her mother, 268 CElilSE " but I think I should be more inclined to cry — yes, to cry for sheer joy at secinpj him again. I gi*ant you he was a little ridiculous ; but wliat courage ! what sincerity ! what a true gentleman ! I hear that he too is out of favour at the Palais Royal, and has returned to his estates at Chateau- Guerrand. His coach was seen near the Hotel Montmirail the night of Monsieur le Due's creditable escapade, and that is crime enough, I conclude, to balance a dozen battles and forty years of loyal service to the throne. No, Cerise, I tell you while the monster lives we must remain exiled in this purgatory of fire. But my friends keep me well informed of passing events. I hear his health is failing. They tell me his face is purple now in the mornings when he comes to Council, and he drinks harder than ever with his roues at night. Of course, my child, it would be wicked to wish for the death of a fellow- creature, but while there is a Regent in France you and I must be content with the lizards and the cockroaches for society, and for amusement, the supervision of these miserable, brutalised negi'o slaves." **Poor things !" said the younger lady, tenderly. "I am sm'e they have kind hearts under their black skins. I cannot but think that if they were taught and encouraged, and treated less like beasts of burden, they would show as much intelligence as our own peasants at La Fierte or the real Montmirail. Why, Fleurette brought me a bouquet of jessamines and tuberoses yesterday, with a compliment to the paleness of my complexion that could not have been outdone by Count Point-d'Appui himself. Oh ! mamma, I wish you would let me establish my civil code for the municipal government of the blacks." " You had better let it alone, my child," answered the Marquise, gravely. " Wiser brains than yours have puzzled over the problem, and failed to solve it. I have obtained all the infonnation in my power fi'om those whose ex^^erience is reliable, and considered it for myself besides, till my head ached. It seems to me that young colonists, and all who know nothing about negroes, are for encouragement and indulgence; old planters, and those who are well acquainted with their nature, for severity and repression. I would not be cruel ; far from it ; but as for treating them like white people. Cerise, in my opinion all such liberality MONTMIRAIL WEST 269 is sheer nonsense. Jaques and Pierre, at home, are ill-fed, ill-clothed (I wish it were not so), up early, down late, and working often without intermission from sunrise till sunset ; nevertheless, Jaques or Pierre will doff his red cap, tuck up his blouse, and run a league bareheaded, after a hard day's work, if you or I lift up a finger ; and why ? — because we are La Fiertes or Montmirails. But Hippolyte or Achille, fat, strong, lazy, well-fed, grumbles if he is bid to carry a message to the boiling-house after his eight hours' labour, and only obeys because he knows that Bartoletti can order him a hundred lashes by my authority at his discretion." '' I do not like the Italian, mamma ! I am sure that man is not to be trusted," observed Cerise, inconsequently, being a young lady. " What could make my dear old honne marry him, I have never been able to discover. He is an alchemist, you know, and a conjuror, and worse. I shudder to think of the stories they told about him at home, and I believe he bewitched her ! " Here Mademoiselle de Montmirail crossed herself devoutly, and her mother laughed. " He is a very good overseer," said she, " and as for his necromancy, even if he learned it from the Prince of Darkness, which you seem to believe, I fancy Celandine would prove a match for his master. Between them, the Signer, as he calls himself, and his wife, manage my people wonderfully well, and this is no easy matter at present, for I am sorry to say they show a good deal of insubordination and ill-will. There is a spirit of disaffection amongst them," added the Marquise, setting her red lips firmly together, "that must be kept down with the strong hand. I do not mind your going about amongst the house negi'oes, Cerise, or noticing the little children, though taking any- thing black on your lap is, in my opinion, an injudicious piece of condescension ; but I would not have you be seen near the field-gang at present, men or women, and above all, never trust them. Not one is to be depended on except Celandine, for I believe they hate her as much as her husband, and fear her a gi-eat deal more." The Marquise had indeed cause for uneasiness as to the condition of her plantation, although she had never before hinted so much to her daughter, and indeed, like the gene- 270 CEBISE rality of people who live on the crust of a volcano, she forced herself to ignore the danger of which she was yet uncomfortably conscious. For some time, perhaps ever since the arrival of the Italian overseer, there had been symptoms of discontent and disaffection among the slaves. The work indeed went on as usual, for Bartoletti was un- sparing of the lash, but scarce a week passed without a runaway betaking himself to the bush, and vague threats, forerunners of some serious outbreak, had been heard from the idlest and most mutinous of the gang when under punishment. It would not have been well in such difficulties to relax the bonds of discipline, yet it was scarcely wise to draw them tighter than before. The Marquise, however, came of a race that had never yet learned to yield, and to which, for generations, the assertion of his rights by an inferior had seemed an intolerable presumption that must be resisted to the death. As her slaves, therefore, grew more defiant she became more severe, and of late the slightest offences had been visited with the utmost rigour, and under no circumstances passed over without punishment. It was an unfortunate time therefore that poor Fleurette had chosen to be detected in the abstraction of a turkey ready plucked for cooking, and she could not have fallen into worse hands than those of the pitiless Italian overseer. The Marquise had scarce concluded her warning, ere Bartoletti entered the sitting-room with his daily report. His manner was extremely obsequious to Madame de Montmirail, and polite beyond expression to Mademoiselle. The former scarcely noticed his demeanour at any time ; the latter observed him narrowly, with the air of a child who watches a toad or any such object for which it feels an unaccountable dislike. Cerise usually left the room soon after the Signer entered it, but something in her mother's face on the present occasion, as she ran her eye over the black book, induced her to remain. The Marquise read the punishment list twice ; frowned, hesitated, and looked discomposed. " It is her first offence? " said she, inquiringly. " And the girl is generally active and well-behaved enough." ''Pardon, Madame la Marquise," answered Bartoletti. MONTMIBAIL WEST 271 " Madame forgave her only last week when she lost half-a- dozen of Mademoiselle's handkerchiefs, that she had taken to wash ; or said she lost them," he added pointedly. " Oh, mamma ! " interposed Cerise, but the Mr.rquise checked her with a sign, and Bartoletti proceeded. " One of her brothers is at the head of a gang of Maroons,* who infest the very mountains above our cane- pieces, and another ran away to join him last week. They say at the Plantation we dare not punish any of the family, and I am pledged to make an example of the first that comes into my hands." *' Very well," said the Marquise, decidedly, returning his black book to her overseer, and observing to Cerise, who was by this time in tears, '' A case, my dear, that it would be most injudicious to pardon. After all, the pain is not much, and the disgrace, you know, to these sort of people is nothing ! " * Kunaway negroes who join in bands and live by plunder in the woods. CHAPTER XXXI BLACK, BUT COMELY Transplanted, like some delicate flower from her native soil, to this glowing West Indian Island, Mademoiselle de Montmirail had lost but little of the freshness that bloomed in the Norman convent, and had gained a more decided colouring and a deeper expression, which added the one womanly grace hitherto wanting in her beauty. Even the negoes, chattering to one another as they hoed between the cane-rows, giinned out thefr approval of her beauty, and Hippolyte, a gigantic and hideous Coromantee, imported from Africa, had been good enough to express his opinion that she only wanted a little more colour, as he called it, meaning a shade of yellow in her skin, to be handsome enough for his wife ; whereat his audience shouted and showed their white teeth, wagging their woolly heads applauding, while the savage shook his great black shoulders, and looked as if he thought more unlikely events might come to pass. Had it not been for these very slaves, who gave their opinions so freely on her personal appearance. Cerise would have been tolerably happy. She was, indeed, far from the scenes that were most endeared to her by memory and association. She was very uncertain when or how she should return to France, and until she returned, there was apparently no hope, however remote, that she could realise a certain dream which now constituted the charm of her whole life. Still the dream had been dreamed, vague, romantic, wild, and visionary; yet the girl dwelt upon it day by day, with a tenderness and a constancy the deeper BLACK, BUT COMELY 273 and the more enduring that they seemed so hopeless and so thrown away. I would not have it supposed, however, that Mademoiselle de Montmirail was a foolish love- sick maiden, who allow^ed her fancies to become the daily business of her life. On the contrary, she went through her duties scrupulously, making for herself occupation where she did not find it, helping her mother, working, reading, playing, improving her mind, and doing all she could for the negi'oes on the estate, but tinging everything unconsciously, whether of joy or sorrow, trouble or pleasure, with the rosy light of a love she had conceived without reason, cherished without reflec- tion, and now brooded over without hope, in the depths of her own heart. But although the welfare of the slaves afforded her con- tinual occupation, and probably prevented her becoming utterly wearied and overpowered by the sameness of her daily life, their wilfulness, their obstinacy, their petulant opposition to every experiment she was disposed to try for their moral and physical benefit, occasioned her many an hour of vexation and depression. Above all, the frequency of corporal punishment, a necessity of which she was dimly conscious, but would by no means permit herself to acknow- ledge, cut her to the heart. Silently and earnestly she would think over the problem, to leave it unsolved at last, because she could not but admit that the dictates of her feelings were opposed to the conclusions of her reason. Then she would wish she had absolute power on the planta- tion, would form vague schemes for the enlightenment of their own people and the enfranchisement of every negro as he landed, till, having once entered on the region of romance, she would pursue her journey to its usual termination, and see herself making the happiness of every one about her, none the less earnestly that the desire of her own heart was granted, her schemes, her labours, all her thoughts and feelings shared by the Grey Musketeer, whom yet it seemed so improbable she was ever to see again. It wanted an hour of sunset. The evening breeze had set in with a refreshing breath that fluttered the skirt of her white muslin dress and the pink ribbons on her wide straw hat, as Mademoiselle de Montmirail strolled towards the 18 274 CEBI8E iiegi'O-houses, carrying a tisane she had herself prepared for Aunt Rosalie's sick child. The slaves were already down from the cane-pieces, laughing, jesting, singing, carrying their tools over their shoulders and their baskets or cala- bashes on their heads. A fat little negro of some eight years old, who reminded Cerise of certain bronze casts that held wax-lights in the Hotel Montmirail, and who was indeed little less sparingly clad than those works of art, came running by, his saucy features shining with a merry excitement, in such haste that he could only pull himself up to make her a droll little reverence when he was almost under her feet. She recognised him as an elder brother of the very infant she was about to visit, and asked if baby was any better, but the child seemed so intent on some proceeding of his own that she could not extort an answer. " What is it, Hercule ? " said she, laying her white hand on the little knotted woolly head. *' Where are you off to in such a hurry ? Is it a dance at the negro-houses, or a merry-making in the Square ? " The Square was a clear space, outside the huts of the field negroes, devoted to occasions of unusual display, and Hercule's thoughts were as obviously turned in that direction as his corpulent little person. " Better bobbery nor dance," answered the imp, looking up earnestly in her face. "M'amselle Fleurette tied safe to howling-tree ! Massa Hippolyte, him tall black nigger, floggee criss-cross. So ! Make dis good little nigger laugh, why for, I go see ! " and away scampered Hercule as fast as his short legs would carry him, followed by Cerise, who felt her cheek paling and her blood tingling to her fingers'-ends. But Aunt Rosalie's baby never got the tisane ^ for Made- moiselle de Montmirail spilt it all as she hurried on. Coming beyond the rows of negro-houses, she found a large assemblage of slaves, both men and women, ranged in a circle, many of the latter being seated on the ground, with their children crawling about their feet, while the fathers looked over the heads of their families, grinning in curiosity and delight. They were all eager to enjoy one of those spectacles to " CERISE BURST THROUGH LIKE A FLASH. Cerise ] IPage 275. BLACK BUT COMELY 275 which the Square, as they chose to call it, was especiallj^ devoted. In the centre of this open space, with the saffron light of a setting sun full upon her closed eyes and contracted features, cowered poor Fleurette, naked to the waist, secured hand and foot to a strong upright post which pre- vented her fi'om falling, with her wrists tied together and drawn to a level somewhat higher than her head, so that she was unable even to contract her shoulders for protection from the lash. Though her shapely dark form and bosom were thus exposed, she seemed to feel less shame than fear ; but the reason was now obvious why she had shrunk with such unusual terror from her odious and degrading punish- ment. Looking on with callous indifference, and holding his black book in his hand, stood Bartoletti, austerely satisfied with this public recognition of his authority, but little interested in the result, save as it affected the length of time, more or less, during which the victim would be incapacitated from service. Behind the girl, and careful to remain at such a distance as allowed room for the sweep of his right arm, was stationed the most hideous figure in the scene : a tall powerful Coromantee negro, African-born, with all his savage propensities intensified by food, servitude, and the love of rum. He brandished a long-lashed, knotted whip in his broad hand, and eyeing the pliant shrinking figure before him, grinned like a demon in sheer desire of blood. He was to take his cue from the overseer. At the moment Cerise rounded the last of the negro-houses and came into full view of this revolting spectacle, Bartoletti's harsh Italian voice grated on the silence — " One ! " Hippolyte, such was the Coromantee' s inappropriate name, drew himself back, raised his brawny arm, and the lash fell with a dull jerk, deadened by the flesh into which it cut. There was a faint moan, and the poor back quivered in helpless agony. Cerise, in her white dress, burst through the sable circle like a flash. "Two! " grated that harsh voice, and again the cruel 276 CEBISE lash came down, but it was dripping]; now with blood, and a long wailing shriek arose that would not be suppressed. *' JIaltc Id / " exclaimed Mademoiselle de Montmirail, standing in the midst, pale, trembling, dilated, and with fire flashing from her blue eyes. " Take that girl down ! this instant ! I command it ! Let me see who will dare to disobey ! " Even Hippolyte shrunk back, like some gi'otesque fiend rebuked. Bartoletti strove to expostulate, but somehow he was awed by the beauty of that holy wrath, so j^oung, so fair, so terrible, and he dared not lift his eyes to meet those scorching looks. He cowered, he trembled, he signed to two negro women to obey Mademoiselle, and then slunk doggedly away. Cerise passed her arm caressingly round Fleurette's neck, she wiped the poor torn shoulders with her own laced hand- kerchief, she rested the dark woolly head on her bosom, and lifting the slave's face to her own, kissed her, once, twice, tenderly and pitifully on the lips. Then Fleurette's tears gushed out : she sank to her j'Oung mistress's knees, she gi'ovelled at her very feet, she kissed them, she hugged them, she pressed them to her eyes and mouth ; she vowed, she sobbed, she protested, and, at least while her passion of gi-atitude and affection lasted, she spoke no more than the truth when she declared that she asked no better than to consecrate every drop of blood in her body, her life, her heart, her soul, to the seiTice of Mademoiselle de Montmirail. CHAPTER XXXII A WISE CHILD ' The Bashful Maid ' was still lying peacefully at anchor in the harbour of Port Welcome, yards squared, sails furled, decks polished to a dazzling white, every article of gear and tackle denoting profound repose, even the very pennon from her truck drooping motionless in the heat. Captain George spent much of his time below, making up his accounts, with the invaluable assistance of Beaudesir, who, having landed soon after their arrival, remained an hour or two in the town, and returned to the brigantine, expressing no desire for further communication with the shore. George himself postponed his visit to the island until he had completed the task on which he was engaged. In the meantime he gave plenty of liberty to the crew, an indul- gence of which none availed themselves more fi'eely than Slap-Jack and his two friends. These last indeed seldom stirred beyond the town. Here they found all they wanted in the shape of luxury or amusement : strong tobacco, new rum, an occasional scrape of a fiddle with a thrumming accompaniment on the banjo, nothing to do, plenty to drink, and a large room to smoke in. But the foretop-man was not so easily satisfied. Much to the disgust of his comrades, he seemed to weary of their society, to have lost his relish for fiery drinks and sea stories ; nay, to have acquired diverse tastes and habits foreign to his nature and derogatory to his profession. " Gone cruisin' thereaway," observed Bottle- Jack, vaguely waving his pipe in the direction of the mountains. *' Never 277 278 CEBISE taken no soundings, nor kept no dead reckoning, nor signalled for a pilot, but just up foresail, drive-a-head, stem on, happy-go-lucky, an' who cares ! " While Smoke- Jack, puffing out solemn clouds of fragrant Trinidado, enunciated sententiously that he " Warn't a-goin' to dispute but what eveiy craft should hoist her own ensign, an' lay her ovm course ; but when he see a able seaman clearing out from such a berth as this here, leaving the stiffest of grog and the strongest of * bacca ' a-cause of a old yaller woman with a red burgee ; why, he knowed the trim on 'em, that was where it was. See if it wasn't. Here's my service to you, mate — All ships at sea ! " Long ere the two stanch friends, however, had arrived at this intelligible conclusion, the object of their anxiety was half-way up the mountain, in fulfilment of the promise he had made Celandine to meet her at an appointed place. In justice to Slap-Jack, it is but fair to admit that his sentiments in regard to the Quadi'oon were those of keen curiosity mingled with pity for the obvious agitation under which she seemed to labour in his presence. Fair Alice herself, far off in her humble home among the downs, need not have grudged the elder woman an hour of her young seaman's society, although every minute of it seemed so strangely prized by this wild, energetic, and mysterious person, with her swarthy face, her scarlet head-dress, and her flashing eyes, gleaming with the fierce anxious tender- ness of a leopardess separated from her whelps. Slap- Jack's sea legs had hardly time to become fatigued, ere at a turn in the mountain-path he found Celandine waiting for him, and somewhat to his disgust, peering about in every direction, as if loth to be observed ; a clandestine interpretation of their harmless meeting which roused the young seaman's ire, and against which he would have vehemently protested, had she not placed her hand over his mouth and implored him urgently, though in a whisper, to keep silence. Then she bade him follow, still below her breath, and so preceded him up the steep ascent wdth cautious, stealthy steps, but at a pace that made the foretop-man's unaccustomed knees shake and his breath come quick. The sun was hot, the mountain high, the path overgi'own A WISE CHILD 279 with cactus and other prickly plants, tangled with creepers and not devoid of snakes. Monkeys chattered, parrots screamed, glittering insects quivered like tinsel in the sun, or darted like flashes of coloured light across the forest- shade. Vistas of beauty, such as he had never dreamed of, opened out on either side, and looking back more than once to take breath while he ascended, the deep blue sea lay spread out beneath him, rising broader and broader to meet the blue transparent sky. But Slap-Jack, truth to tell, was sadly indifferent to it all. Uneasiness of the legs sadly counteracted pleasure of the eye. It was with considerable gratification that he observed his leader diverge from the upward path, and rounding the shoulder of the hill, take a direction somewhat on the downward slope. Then he wiped his brows, with a sigh of relief, and asked audibly enough for something to drink. She seemed less afraid of observation now, although she did not comply with his request, but pointed downward to a dark hollow, from which ascended a thin, white, spiral line of smoke, the only sign denoting human habitation in the midst of this luxuriant wilderness of tropical gi'owth and fragrance. Then, parting the branches with both hands, she dived into the thicket, to stop at the door of a hut, so artfully concealed amongst the dense luxuriant foliage that a man might have passed within five yards and never known it was there but for the smoke. Celandine closed the door cautiously behind her visitor, handed him a calabash of water, into which she pom-ed some rum from a goodly stone jar — holding at least a gallon — watched him eagerly while he drank, and when he set the measure down, flung both arms round his neck, and kissing him all over the eyes and face, murmured in fondest accents — " Do you not know why I have brought you here ? Do you not know who and what you are ? " *'I could have told you half an hour back," answered Slap-Jack, with a puzzled air, " but so many queer starts happen hereaway, mother, that I'm blessed if I can tell you now." Tears shone in the fierce black eyes that never left his 280 CERISE face, but seemed to feast on its comeliness with the desire of a famished appetite for food. ''Call me mother again!" exclaimed the Quadroon. " You called me mother down yonder at the store, and my heart leaped to hear the word. Sit ye down, my darling, there in the light, where I can see your innocent face. How like you are to your father, my boy. You've got his own bold eyes, and broad shoulders, and large, strong hands. I could not be deceived. I knew you from the first. Tell me true ; you guessed who I was. You would never have gone up to a stranger as you did to me ! " Slap- Jack looked completely mystified. Wisely reflecting, however, that if a woman be left uninterrupted she will never "belay," as he subsequently observed, " till she has payed-out the whole of her yarn," he took another pull at the rmn-and-water, and held his peace. " Look about you, boy," continued Celandine, " and mark the wild, mysterious retreat I have made myself, on your account alone. No other white man has ever entered the Obi-woman's hut. Not a negro in the island but shakes with fear when he approaches that low doorway ; not one but leaves a gift behind w^hen he departs. And now, chance has done for the Obi-woman that which all her perseverance and all her cunning has failed to effect. Influence I have always had amongst the blacks, for I am of their kindred, and they believe that I possess super- natural powers. You need not smile, boy. I can some- times foretell the future so far as it affects others, though blindly ignorant where it regards myself; just as a man reads his neighbour's face clearly, though he cannot see his own. All my influence I have devoted to the one great object of making money. For that, I left my sunny home to live years in the bleak, cold plains of France ; for that, I sold myself in my old age to one whom I could not care for, even in my youth ; for that I have been tampering of late with the most desperate and dangerous characters in the island; and money I only valued because, without it, I feared I could never find my boy. Listen, my darling, and learn how a mother's love outlives the fancy of youth, the devotion of womanhood, and the covetousness of old age. Look at me now, child. It is not so long since men have A WISE CHILD 281 told me — even in France, where they profess to understand such matters — that I retained my attractions still. You may believe that thirty years ago the Quadroon of Cash-a- crou, as they called her, had suitors, lovers, and admirers by the score. Somehow, I laughed at them all. It seemed to me that a man's aifection for a girl only lasted while she despised him, and I resolved that no weakness of my own should ever bring me down a single step from the vantage-ground I held. Planters, overseers, councillors, judges, all were at my feet ; not a white man in the island but would have given three months' pay for a smile from the yellow girl at Cash-a-crou ; and the yellow girl — slave though she was — carried her head high above them all. *' Well, one bright morning, a week before crop-time, a fine large ship, twice the size of that brigantine in the harbour, came and dropped her anchor off the town. The same night her sailors gave a dance at one of the negi'o- houses in Port Welcome. I never hear a banjo in the still, calm evenings but it thrills to my very marrow still, though it will be five -and- twenty long years, when the canes are cut, since I went into that dancing-room a haughty, wilful beauty, and came out a humble, love-stricken maid. Turn a bit more to the light, my boy, that I may look into your blue eyes ; they shine like his, when he came across the floor and asked me to dance. I've heard the Frenchwoman say that it takes a long time for a man to win his way into a girl's heart. Theirs is a cold country, and they have no African blood in their veins. All I know is, that your father had not spoken half-a-dozen words ere I felt for him as I never felt for any creature on earth before. I'd have jumped off the Sulphur Mountain, and never thought twice about it, if he had asked me. "When we walked home to- gether in the moonlight — for he begged hard to see me safe to my own door, and you may think I wasn't very difficult to persuade — I told him honestly that I had never loved any man but him, and never would love another, come what might. He looked down into my eyes for a moment astonished, just as you look now, and then he smiled — no face ever I saw had such a smile as your father's — and wound his great strong arm round my waist, and pressed me to his heart. I was happy then. If I might live over 282 CEBISE just one minute of my life again, it should be that first minute when I felt I belonged no more to myself, but to him. '^ So we were man-ied by an old Spanish priest in the little white chapel between the lighthouse and the to'wn — yes, married right enough, my boy, never doubt it, though I was but a slave. " I do not know how a great lady like our Marquise feels who can give herself and all her possessions, proudly and in public, to the man she loves, but she ought to be very happy. I was very happy, though I might only meet your father by stealth, and with the fear of a punishment I shuddered to think of before my eyes. I thought of it very often, too, yet not without pride and pleasure, to risk it all for his sake. Wliat I dreaded far worse than punishment — worse than death, was the day his ship would sail, and though she lay weeks and months refitting in the harbour, that day arrived too soon. Never tell me people die of grief, my boy, since I came ofi" the hill alive w^hen I had seen the last of those white sails. I could have cursed the ship for taking him away, and yet I blessed her for his sake. ** There was consolation for me too. I had his solemn promise to come back again, and I'll never believe but he would have kept it had he been alive. Nothing shall per- suade me that my brave, blue-eyed Englishman has not been sleeping many a year, rolled in his hammock, under the deep, dark sea. It was well the conviction came on me by degrees that I was never to see him again. I should have gone mad if I had known it that last night when he bade me keep my heart up, and trust him to the end. After a while I fretted less, for my time was near, and my beautiful boy was born. Such an angel never lay on a mother's knees. My son, my son, 3^ou have the same eyes, and the same sweet smile still. I knew you that day in the street, long before I turned your collar down, and saw the little white mark like an anchor on your neck. How proud I was of you, and how I longed to show my sturdy, blue-eyed boy, who began to speak at eleven months, to every mother in the island, but I dared not — I dared not, for your sake more than for my own. I was cunning then — ay, cunning, and brave, and enduring as a panther. They never found me A WISE CHILD 283 out — they never so much as suspected inc. I had money, plenty of it, and influence too, with one man at least, who would have put his hand in the fire, coward as I think he is, if I had only made him a sign. With his help, I concealed the existence of my boy from every creature on the planta- tion — black or white. In his house I used to come and nurse you, dear, and play with you by the hour together. That man is my husband now, and I think he deserves a better fate. " At last he was forced to leave the island, and then came another parting, worse than the first. It was only for myself I grieved when I lost your father, but when I was forced to trust my beautiful boy to the care of another, to cross the sea, to sleep in strange beds, to be washed and dressed by other hands, perhaps to meet with hard words and angi-y looks, or worse still, to clasp his pretty arms about a nurse's neck, and to forget the mother that bore him, I thought my heart would break. My boy, there is no such thing — I tell you again, these are fables — grief does not kill. ^' For a long time I heard regularly of your welfare, and paid liberally for the good news. I was sure the man to whom I had entrusted you looked upon me as his future wife, and though I hated him for the thought, I — who loved that bold, strong, outspoken sailor — I permitted it, I encou- raged it, for I believed it would make him kinder to my boy. When you were a little older, I meant to buy my own freedom, and take you with me to live in Europe — wherever you could be safe. *' At last a ship sailed into Port Welcome, and brought no letter for me, no news of my child. Another, and yet another, till months of longing, sickening anxiety had grown to years, and I was nearly mad with fear and pain. The father I had long despaired of, but I thought I was never to be used so hardly as to lose the child. " I tell you again, my boy, grief docs not kill. I lived on, but I was a difierent creature now. My youth was gone, my beauty became terrible rather than attractive. I pos- sessed certain powers that rendered me an object of dread more than love, and here, in this very hut, I devoted myself to the practice of Obi, and the study of that magic which has 284 CEBISE made the name of Celandine a word of fear to every negro in the ishmd. " One only aim, one only hope, kept me from going mad. Money I was resolved to possess, the more the better, for by the help of money alone, I thought, could I ever gain tidings of my boy. The slaves paid well in produce for the amulets and charms I sold them. That produce I converted into coin, but it came in too slow. In Europe I might calculate on better opportunities for gain, and to Europe I took the first opportunity of sailing, that I might join the mistress I had never seen, as attendant on her and her child. In their service I have remained to this day. The mother I have always respected for her indomitable courage ; the daughter I loved from the first for her blue eyes, that reminded me of my boy. " And now look at me once more, my child — my darling. I have found you when I had almost left off hoping ; I have got you when I never expected to see you again ; and I am rewarded at last ! " Slap-jack, whose sentiments of filial affection came out the mellower for rum-and-water, accepted the Quadroon's endearments with sufficient affability, and being naturally a good-hearted, easy-going fellow, gladly enacted the part of dutiful son to a mother who had suffered such long anxiety on his account. *' A-com'se," said he, returning her embrace, " now you've got a son, you ain't a-goin' to keep him in this here round- house, laid up in lavender like, as precious as a Blue Moun- tain monkey pickled in rum. We'll just wait here a bit, you and me, safe and snug, while the land-breeze holds, and then drop easily down into the town, rouse out my ship- mates, able seamen every man of them, and go in for a regular spree. 'Tain't every day as a chap finds his mother, you know, and such a start as this here didn't ought to be passed over without a bobbery." She listened to him delighted. His queer phrases were sweet in her ears ; to her they were no vulgar sea-slang, but the echo of a love-music that had charmed her heart, and drowned her senses half a lifetime ago ; that rang with something of the old thrilling vibration still ; but the wild look of terror that had scared him more than once gleamed A WISE CHILD 285 again in her eyes, and she laid her hand on his shoulder as if to keep him down by force, while she whisjDcred — ''My child, not so ! How rash, how reckless ! Just like your father ; but he, at least, had not your fate to fear. Do you not see your danger ? Can you not guess why I concealed your birth, hid you up in your babyhood, and smuggled you out of the island as soon as you could run? Born of a slave, on a slave estate, do you not know, my boy, that you, too, are a slave ? " ''Gammon! mother," exclaimed Slap-Jack, nothing daunted. " What me .^—captain of the fore-top on board ' The Bashful Maid,'— six guns on the main-deck, besides carronades — master and owner. Captain George ! and talk to me as if I was one of them darkies what does mule's work with monkey's allowance ! Who's to come and take me, I should like to know? Let 'em heave a-head an' do it, that's all — a score at a spell if they can muster 'em. I'll show 'em pretty quick what sort of a slave they can make out of an able seaman ! ' ' " Hush, hush ! " she exclaimed, listening earnestly, and with an expression of intense fear contracting her worn features ; " I can hear them coming — negroes by the foot- fall, and a dozen at least. They will be at the door in five minutes. They have turned by the old hog-plum now. As you love your life, my boy ; nay, as you love your mother, who has pined and longed for you all these yeai-s, let me hide you away in there. You will be safe. Trust me, you will be safe enough ; they will never think of looking for you there ! " So speaking, and notwithstanding much good-humoured expostulation and resistance from Slap-Jack, who, treating the whole affair as a jest, was yet inclined to fight it out all the same. Celandine succeeded in pushing her son into an inner division of the hut, containing only a bed-place, shut ofi" by a strong wooden door. This she closed hurriedly, at the very moment a dozen pattering footsteps halted outside, and a rough negi'o voice, in accents more imperative than respectful, demanded instant admission. CHAPTER XXXIII JACK AGROUND Opening the door with a yawn, and stretching her arms like one lately roused from sleep, the Quadroon found her- self face to face with the Coromantee, backed by nearly a score of negroes, the idlest and most dissolute slaves on the estate. All seemed more or less intoxicated, and Celandine, who knew the Afi-ican character thoroughly, by no means liked their looks. She was aware that much disaffection existed in the plantation, and the absence of this disorderly gang from their work at so early an hour in the afternoon argued something like open revolt. It would have been madness, however, to show fear, and the Obi-woman pos- sessed, moreover, a larger share of physical courage than is usual with her sex ; assuming, therefore, an air of extreme dignity, she stationed herself in the doorway and demanded sternly what they wanted. Hippolyte, who seemed to be leader of the party, doffed his cabbage-tree hat with ironical politeness, and pointing over his shoulder at two grinning negroes laden with plantains and other garden produce, came to business at once. " We buy, — you sell, Missee Celandine. Same as store- keeper down Port Welcome. Fust ask gentlemen step in, sit down, take something to drink." There was that in his manner which made her afraid to refuse, and inviting the whole party to enter, she accom- modated them with difficulty in the hut. Reviewing her assembled guests, the Quadroon's heart sank within her; but she was conscious of possessing cunning and courage, so summoned both to her aid. 286 JACK AGROUND 287 A negi'O, under excitement, from whatever cause, is a formidable-looking companion. Those animal points of head and countenance, by which he is distinguished from the white man, then assume an unseemly prominence. The lips thicken, the temples swell, the eyes roll, the brow seems to recede, and the whole face alters for the worse, like that of a vicious horse, when he lays his ears back, prepared to kick. Celandine's visitors displayed all these alarming signs, and several other disagreeable peculiarities, the result of partial intoxication. Some of them carried axes, she observed, and all had knives. Their attire too, though of the gaudiest colours, was extremely scanty, ragged, and unwashed. They jested with one another freely enough, as they sat huddled together on the floor of the hut, but showed little of the childish good-humour common among pros- perous and well-ordered slaves ; while she augured the worst from the absence of that politeness which, to do him justice, is a prominent characteristic of the negro. Nevertheless, she dissembled her misgivings, affected an air of dignified welcome, handed round the calabash, with its accom- panying stone bottle, to all in turn, and felt but little reassm-ed to find that the rum was nearly exhausted when it had completed the circle. " Thirteen gentlemen, Missee Celandine," observed the Coromantee, tossing off his measure of raw spirits with exceeding relish; "thirteen charms, best Obi- woman can furnish for the price, 'gainst evil eye, snake-bite, jumbo- stroke, fire, water, and cold steel, all 'counted for, honour- able, in dem plantain baskets. Hi ! you lazy nigger, pay out. Say, again, missee, what day this of the mouth ? " Celandine affected to consider. ''The thirteenth," she answered gravely; "the most unlucky day in the whole year." Hippolyte's black face fell. " Golly ? " said he. " Un- lucky ! for why? for what? Dis nigger laugh at luck," he added, brightening up and turning what liquor was left in the stone bottle down his o^vn throat. " Lookee here, missee ; you Obi-woman, right enough ; you nigger too, yaller all same as black : you go pray Jumbo for luck. All paid for in dat basket. Pray Jumbo no rain to-night. 288 CERISE put um fire out. Our work, make bobbery ; your work, stay up mountain where spirit can hear, and j^i'^y Jumbo till monkeys wake." A suspicion that had already dawned on the Quadroon's mind was now growing horribly distinct. It was obvious some important movement must be intended by the gang that filled her hut, and there was every fear a general rising might take place of all the slaves on the plantation, if indeed the insurrection spread no further than the Montmirail estate. She knew, none better, the nature of the half- reclaimed savage. She thought of her courageous, high- souled mistress, of her delicate, beautiful nursling, and shivered while she pictured them in the power of this huge black monster who sat gi'inning at her over the empty calabash. She even forgot for the moment her own long- lost son, hidden up within six feet of her, and the double danger he would run in the event of detection. She could only turn her mind in one direction, and that was, where Madame and Mademoiselle were sitting, placid and unconscious, in the rich white dresses her own fingers had helped to make. Their possible fate was too horrible to contemplate. She forced it fi'om her thoughts, and with all her power of self- concentration, addressed herself to the means of saving them at any cost. In such an emergency as the present, surrounded, and perhaps suspected, by the mutineers, dis- simulation seemed her only weapon left, and to dissimula- tion she betook herself without delay. ** Hippol3i;e," said she, *' you are a good soldier. You command all these black fellows ; I can see it in your walk. I always said you had the air of an officer of France." The Coromantee seemed not insensible to flattery. He grinned, wagged his head, rolled his eyes, and was obviously well pleased. ** Dese niggers make me deir colonel," said he, springing from the floor to an attitude of military attention. " Hab words of command like buckra musketeer. Par file cb droite — Marche ! Volte-face ! Run for your lives ! " " I knew it," she replied, " and you ought to have learned already to trust your comrades. Are we not in the same ranks? You say yourself, yellow and black are all one. JACK AOBOUND 289 You and I are near akin ; your people are the people of my mother's mother ; whom you trust, I trust ; whom you hate, I hate, but far more bitterly, because my injuries are older and deeper than yours." Ho opened his eyes wondering, but the rum had taken effect, and nothing, not even the Quadroon's disloyalty to her mistress, seemed improbable now. An Obi-woman too, if really in earnest, he considered a valuable auxiliary ; so signed his approval by another grin and a grunt of acquies- cence. ** I live but for one object now," continued Celandine, in a tone of repressed fury that did credit to her power of acting. "I have been waiting all my life for my revenge, and it seems to have come at last. The Marquise should have given me my freedom long ago if she wished me to forgive. Ay, they may call me Mustee, but I am black, black as yourself, my brave Hippolyte, at heart. She struck me once, — I tell you, struck me with her riding- whip, far away yonder in France, and I will have her blood." It is needless to observe this imputed violence was a fabrication for the especial benefit of Hippolyte, and the energy with which he pronounced the ejaculation, ** Golly ! " denoted that he placed implicit reliance on its truth. ** You are brave," continued Celandine ; " you are strong; you are the fine tall negro whom we call the Pride of the Plantation. You do not know what it is to hate like a poor weak woman. I would have no scruple, no mercy ; I would spare none, neither Madame nor Mademoiselle." *'Ma'amselle come into woods with me," interrupted Hippolyte, with a horrible leer. " Good enough wife for Pride of Plantation. Lilly-face look best by um side of black man. Ma'amselle guess me come for marry her. "When fioggee Fleurette, look at me so, afore all de niggers, sweet as molasses ! " Again Celandine shivered. The wretch's vanity would have been ludicrous, had he not been so formidable from his recklessness, and the authority he seemed to hold over his comrades. She prepared to learn the worst. ** They will both be in our power to-night, I .suppose," 19 '290 CERISE said she, repressing with a strong effort her disgust and fierce desire to snatch his long knife and stab him where he stood. "' Tell me your plan of attack, my brave colonel, and trust me to help you to the utmost." The Coromantee looked about him suspiciously, rolling his eyes in obvious perplexity. The superstition inherent in his nature made him desirous of obtaining her assist- ance, while the Quadroon's antecedents, and particularly her marriage with the overseer, seemed to infer that she would prove less zealous than she affected to be in the cause of insurrection. He made up his mind therefore to bind her by an oath, which he himself dictated, and made her swear by the mysterious power she served, and from which she derived her influence, to be true, silent, and merciless, till the great event had been accomplished, all the w^hites in authority massacred, and the whole estate in the power of the slaves. Every penalty, both horrible and ludicrous, that the grotesque imagination of a savage could devise, was called down upon her head in the event of treachery ; and Celandine, who was a sufficiently good Catholic at heart, swallowed all these imprecations imperturbably enough, pledging herself, without the slightest hesita- tion, to the conspiracy. Then Hippolyte was satisfied and unfolded his plans, while the others gathered round with fearful interest, wagging their heads, rolling their eyes, grinning, stamping, and ejaculating deep gutturals of applause. His scheme was feasible enough ; nor to one who knew no scruples of gratitude, no instincts of compassion, did it present any important obstacles. He was at the head of an organised body, comprising nearly all the male slaves on the plantation ; a body prepared to rise at a moment's notice, if only assured of success. The dozen negroes who accompanied him had constituted themselves his guards, and were pledged to strike the first blow, at his command. They were strong, able-bodied, sensual, idle, dissolute, un- scrupulous, and well enough fitted for their enterprise, but that they were arrant cowards, one and all. As, however, little resistance could be anticipated, this poltroonery was the more to be dreaded by their victims, that in the hour of triumph it would surely turn to cruelty and excess. JACK AGROUND 291 Hippolyte, who was not deficient in energy, had also been in communication with the disaffected slaves on the adjoining estates ; these too were sworn to rise at a given signal, and the Coromantee, feeling that his own enterprise could scarcely fail, entertained a fervent hope that in a few hours the whole of the little island, from sea to sea, would be in possession of the negroes, and he himself chosen as their chief. The sack and burning of Port Welcome, the massacre of the planters and abduction of their families, were exciting little incidents of the future, on which he could hardly trust himself to dwell ; but the first step in the great enterprise was to be taken at Montmirail West, and to its details Celandine now listened with a horror that, while it curdled her blood, she was forced to veil under a pretence of zeal and enthusiasm in the cause. Her only hope was in the brigantine. Her early associa- tions had taught her to place implicit reliance on a boat's crew of English sailors, and if she could but delay the attack until she had communicated with the privateer, Mademoiselle, for it was of Mademoiselle she chiefly thought, might be rescued even yet. If she could but speak to her son, lying within three feet of her ! If she could but make him understand the emergency ! How she trusted he overheard their conversation ! How she prayed he might not have been asleep the whole time ! Hippolyte's plan of attack was simple enough. It would be dark in a couple of hours. Long before then, he and his little band meant to advance as far as the skirts of the bush, from whence they could reconnoitre the house. Doors and windows would all be open. There was but one white man in the place, and he unarmed. Nothing could be easier than to overpower the overseer, and perhaps, for Celandine's sake, his life might be spared. Then, it was the Coromantee's intention to secure the Marquise and her daughter, which he opined might be done with little risk, and at the expense of a shriek or two ; to collect in the store-room any of the domestic slaves, male or female, who showed signs of resistance, and there lock them up ; to break open the cellar, serve out a plentiful allowance of wine to his guards, and then, setting fire to the house, carry the Marquise and her daughter into the mountains. The 292 CEBISE former, to be kept as a hostage, slain, or otherwise disposed of, according to circumstances ; the hitter, as the African expressed it with liideous glee, " for make lilly-facc chief wife to dis here handsome nigger ! " Celandine affected to accept his views with great enthusiasm, but objected to the time appointed. "The moon," said she gi-avely, *' is yet in her first quarter. Her spirit is gone a journey to the mountains of Afiica to bless the bones of our forefathers. It will be back to-morrow. Jumbo has not been sufficiently propitiated. Let us sacrifice to him for one night more with jar and calabash. I will send down for rum to the stores. Brave colonel, you and your guards shall bivouac here outside her hut, while the Obi-woman remains within to spend the night in singing and making charms. Jumbo will thus be pleased, and to-morrow the whole island may be ours with- out opposition." But Hij)polyte was not to be deceived so easily. His plans admitted of no delay, and the flames ascending fi'om the roof of Montmirail West, that same night, were to be the signal for a general rising from sea to sea. His short period of influence had already taught him that such a blow as he meditated, to be effectual, must be struck at once. Moreover, the quality of cunning in the savage seems strong in proportion to his degi'adation ; the Coromantee was a very fox for vigilance and suspicion, nor did he fail to attribute Celandine's desire for procrastination to its true motive. " To-night, Obi-woman ! " said he resolutely. ** To- night, or no night at all. Dis nigger no leave yaller woman here, fear of accidents. Perhaps to-morrow fi'ee blacks kill you same as white. You come with us down mountain- side into clearing. We keep you safe. You make prayer and sing whole time." With a mischievous leer at a couple of his stalwart followers, he pointed to the Quadroon. They sprang from the gi'ound and secured her, one on each side. The unfortunate Obi-woman strove hard to disarm suspicion by an afiectation of ready compliance, but it was obvious they mistrusted her fidelity and had no intention of letting her out of their sight. It was with difficulty that she obtained JACK AGROUND 293 a few moments' respite, on the plea that night was about to fall, for the purpose of winding her shawl more carefully round her head, and in that brief space she endeavoured to warn her son of the coming outbreak, with a maddening doubt the while that he might not understand their purport, even if he could hear her words. Turning towards the door, behind which he was concealed, under pretence of arranging her head-gear at a bit of broken looking-glass against the panel, she sang, with as marked an emphasis as she dared, a scrap of some doggrel sea-ditty, which she had picked up from her first love in the old hapj)y days, long ago:— " The boatswain looked upon the land, And shrill his whistle blew, The oars were out, the boat was manned, Says he, ' My gallant crew, " ' Our captain in a dungeon lies, The sharks have got him flat, But if we fire the town, my boys, We'll have him out of that ! *' * We'll stop their jaw, we'll spike their guns! We'll larn 'em what they're at — You bend your backs, and pull, my sons, We'll have him out of that ! ' " This she sang twice, and then professed her readiness to accompany Hippolyte and his band down the mountain, delaying their departure, however, by all the means she could think of, including profuse offers of hospitality, which had but little effect, possibly because the guests were per- sonally satisfied that there was nothing left to drink. Nay, even on the very threshold of the hut she turned back once more, affecting to have forgotten the most im- portant of the amulets she carried about her person, and, crossing the floor with a step that must have awakened the soundest sleeper, repeated, in clear loud tones, the boat- swain's injunction to his men — " You bend your backs, and pull, my sons, We'll have him out of that ! " CHAPTER XXXIV JACK AFLOAT But Slap-jack was not asleep ; far from it. His narrow hiding-place offered but little temj^tation to repose, and almost the first sentence uttered by Hippolyte aroused the suspicions of a man accustomed to anticipate, without fear- ing, danger, or, as he expressed it, " to look out for squalls." He listened therefore intently the whole time, and although the Coromantee's jargon was often unintelligible, managed to gather quite enough of its meaning to assure him that some gi'oss outrage was in jDreparation, of which a white lady and her daughter were to be the victims. Now it is not only on the boards of a seaport theatre that the British sailor vindicates his character for generous courage on behalf of the conventional "female in distress." The stage is, after all, a representation, however extravagant, of real life, and the caricature must not be exaggerated out of all like- ness to its original. Coarse in his language, rough in his bearing, reckless and riotous from the very nature of his calling, there is yet in the thorough -going English seaman a leavening of tenderness, simplicity, and self-sacrifice, which, combined with his dauntless bravery, affords no ignoble type of manhood. He is a child in his fancies, his credulity, his affections ; a lion in his defiance of peril and his sovereign contempt for pain. With regard to women, whatever may be his practice, his creed is pure, exalted, and utterly opposed to his own experience ; while his instincts prompt him on all occasions, and against any odds, to take part with the weaker side. Compared with the landsman, he is always a little behind 294 JACK AFLOAT 296 the times in worldly knowledge, possessing the faults and virtues of an earlier age. With both of these in some excess, his chivalry is unimpeachable, and a sense of honour that would not disgi'ace the noblest chapters of knighthood is to be found nerving the blue-streaked arms and swelling the brawny chests that man the forecastle. Slap- Jack knew enough of his late-discovered mother's position to be familiar with the name of the Marquise and the situation of Montmirail West. As he was the only seaman belonging to ' The Bashful Maid ' who had been tempted beyond the precincts of the port, this knowledge was shared by none of his shipmates. Captain George himself, postponing his shore-going from hour to horn-, while he had work in hand, little dreamed he was within two leagues of Cerise. Beaudesir had never repeated his visit to the town ; and every other man in the brisfantine was too much occupied by duty or pleasure — meaning anchor- watch on board, alternated by rum and fiddlers ashore — to think of extending his cruise a yard further inland than the nearest drinking-house. On Slap-Jack, therefore, devolved the task of rescuing the Marquise and her daughter from the gi*asp of " that big black swab," as the foretop-man mentally denominated him, whom he longed ardently to *' pitch into" on the spot. He understood the position. His mother's sea-song was addressed to no inattentive nor unwilling ears. He saw the difficulties and, indeed, the dangers of his undertaking ; but the latter he despised, while the former he resolved to overcome ; and he never lay out upon a yard to reef topsails in the fiercest squall with a clearer brain or a stouter heart than he now summoned to his aid on behalf of the ladies whom his mother loved so well. Creeping from his hiding-place, he listened anxiously to the retreating foot-fall of the blacks, and even waited several minutes after it had died away to assure himself the coast was clear. Discovery would have been fatal ; for armed though he was with a cutlass and pistols, thirteen to one, as he sagely reflected, was long odds ; and " if I should be scuttled," thought he, *' before I can make signals, why, what's to become of the whole convoy?" Therefore he was very cautious and reflective. He pondered, he calculated. 296 CEBISE he reckoned his time, he enumerated his obstacles, he laid out his plans before he proceeded to action. His only chance was to reach the brigantine without delay, and report the whole matter to the skipper forthwith, who he was convinced would at once furnish a boat's crew to defend the ladies, and probably put himself at their head. Emerging from the hut, he observed to his consternation that it was already dusk. There is but a short twilight in these low latitudes, where the evening horn- — sweetest of the whole twenty-four — is gone almost as soon as it arrives — " The sun's rim dips, The stars rush out, At one stride comes the dark." And that dark, in the jungle of a West Indian island, is black as midnight. It was well for Slap-Jack that a seaman's instinct had prompted him to take his bearings before he came up the mountain. These, from time to time, he corrected during his ascent, at the many places w^iere he paused for breath. He knew, therefore, the exact direction of the towTi and harbour. Steering by the stars, he was under no apprehen- sion of losing his way, and could make for the brigantine where she lay. Tightening his belt, then, he commenced the descent at a run, resolving to keep the path as long as he could see it, and when it was lost in the bush at last, to plunge boldly through till he reached the shore. The misadventure he foresaw soon came to pass. A path which he could hardly have followed by daylight, with- out Celandine to pilot him, soon disappeared from beneath his feet in the deepening gloom. He had not left the hut many minutes ere he was struggling, breast-high, amongst the wild vines and other creepers that twined and festooned in a tangle of vegetable network from tree to tree. The scene was novel and picturesque, yet I am afraid he cursed and swore a good deal, less impressed with its beauty than alive to its inconveniences. Overhead, indeed, he caught a glimpse of the stars, by which he guided his course through the interlacing boughs of the tall forest trees, and underfoot, the steady lamp of the glow-worm, JACK AFLOAT 297 and the sparks of a thousand wheeling fire-flies shed a light about his path ; but these advantages only served to point out the dangers and difficulties of his progi'ess. With their dubious help, every creeper thicker than ordinaiy assumed the appearance of some glistening snake, swinging from the branch in a grim, repose that it was death to disturb ; every rotten stump leaning forward in its decay, draped with its garment of trailing parasites, took the form of a watchful savage, poising his gigantic form in act to strike ; while a wild boar, disturbed from his lair between the roots of an enormous gum-tree, to shamble off at a jog-trot, gi'umbling, in search of thicker covert, with burning eye, gnashing tusks, and most discordant grunt, swelled to the size of a rhinoceros. Slap-Jack's instincts prompted him to salute the monster with a shot from one of the pistols that hung at his belt, but reflecting on the necessity of caution, he refrained with difficulty, consoling himself by the anticipation of several days' leave ashore, and a regular shooting party with his mates, in consideration of his services to-night. Thus he struggled on, breathless, exhausted, indefatigable — now losing himself altogether, till a more open space in the branches, through which he could see the stars, assured him that he was in a right direction — now obtaining a glimpse of some cane-piece, or other clearing, white in the tender light of the young moon, which had already risen, and thus satisfying himself that he was gradually emerging from the bush, and consequently nearing the shore — now tripping over a fallen tree — now held fast in a knot of creepers — now pierced to the bone by a prickly cactus, torn, bleeding, tired, sore, and drenched with perspiration, but never losing heart for a moment, nor deviating, notwith- standing his enforced windings, one cable's length from the direct way. Thus at last he emerged on a clearing already trenched and hoed for the reception of sugar-canes, and, to his infinite joy, beheld his own shadow, black and distinct, in the trembling moonlight. The bush was now behind him, the slope of the hill in his favour, and he could run down, uninterrupted, towards the pale sea lying spread out like a sheet of silver at his feet. He crossed a road here that he 298 CEIilSE knew must lead him into the town, but it would have taken him somewhat out of his course for the bris^antine, and he had resolved to lose no time, even for the chance of obtain- ing a boat. He made, therefore, direct for the shore, and in a few minutes he was standing on a strip of sand, with the retiring tide plashing gi-atefully on his ear, while his eyes were fixed on the tapering spars of * The Bashful Maid,' and the light glimmering in her foretop. He stepped back a few paces to lay his arms and some of his garments behind a rock, a little above high-water mark. There was small chance he would ever find them again, but he belonged to a profession of which the science is essentially precautionary, and the habit of foresight was a second nature to Slap-Jack. In a few more seconds he was up to his Imees, his middle, his breast-bone, in the cooling waters, till a receding wave lifted him off his feet, and he struck out boldly for the brigantine. How delightful to his heated skin was the contact of the pure, fresh, buoyant element ! Notwithstanding his fatigue, his hurry, his anxiety, he could have shouted aloud in joy and triumph, as he felt himself wafted on those long, regular, and powerful strokes nearer and nearer to his object. It was the exultation of human strength and skill and daring, dominant over nature, unassisted by mechanical art. Yet was there one frightful drawback, a contingency which had been present to his mind from the very beginning, even while he was beating laboriously through the jungle, but which he had never permitted himself to realise, and on which it would now be maddening to dwell : Port Welcome was infested with sharks ! He forced himself to ignore the danger, and swam gallantly on, till the wash and ripple of the tide upon the shore was far behind him, and he heard only his own deep measured breathing, and the monotonous plash of those springing, regulated strokes that drove him steadily out to sea. He was already tired, and had tm'ned on his back more than once for relief, ere the hull of the brigan- tine rose black and steep out of the water half a cable's length ahead. He counted that after fifty more strokes he would summon breath to hail the watch on deck. He had scarce completed them ere a chill went curdling through his veins JACK AFLOAT 299 from head to heel, and if ever Shii)-Jack lost heart it was then. The water surged beneath him, and lifted his whole body, like a wave, though the surrounding surface was smooth as a mill-pond. One desperate kick, that shot him two fathoms at a stroke, and his passing foot gi'azed some slimy, scaly substance, while from the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse the moment after of the back-fin of a shark. Then he hailed in good earnest, swimming his wickedest the while, and ere the voracious sea-scourge, or its consort, could turn over for a leisurely snap at him. Slap- jack was safe in the bight of a rope, and the anchor-watch, not a little astonished, were hauling their exhausted ship- mate over the side. "Come on board, sir!" exclaimed the new arrival, scrambling breathless to his feet, after tumbling head-fore- most over the gunwale, and pulling with ludicrous courtesy at his wet hair. *' Come on board, sir. Hands wanted immediate. Ax your honour's pardon. So blown I can hardly speak. First-class row among the niggers. Bobbery all over the island. Devil to pay, and no pitch hot ! " Captain George was on deck, which perhaps accounted for the rapidity of the foretop-man's rescue, and although justly affronted by so unceremonious a return on the part of a liberty-man who had out-stayed his leave, he saw at a glance that some great emergency was imminent, and pre- pared to meet it with habitual coolness. *' Silence, you fool ! " said he, pointing to a negro amongst the crew. "Lend him a jacket, some of you. Come below at once to my cabin, and make your report. You can be punished afterwards." Slap- Jack followed his commander nothing loth. The after-punishment, as being postponed for twenty-four hours at least, was a matter of no moment, but a visit to the Captain's cabin entailed, according to the etiquette of the service, a measure of grog, mixed on certain liberal prin- ciples, that from time immemorial have regulated the strength of that complimentary refreshment. In all such interviews it is customary for the skipper to produce his spirit-case, a tumbler, and a jug of water. The visitor helps himself from the former, and esteems it only good breeding that he should charge his glass to the depth 300 CEBISE of three fingers with alcohol, filling it up with the weaker fluid. Wlien the thickness of a seaman's fingers is con- sidered, and the breadth to which he can S2:>read them out on such occasions, it is easy to conceive how little space is left near the rim of the vessel for that insipid element, every additional drop of which is considered by competent judges to spoil the beverage. Slap-Jack mixed as liberally as another. Ere his draught, however, was half-finished, or his report nearly concluded, the Captain had turned the hands up, and ordered a boat to be manned forthwith, leaving Beaudesir to command in his absence ; but true to his usual system, informing no one, not even the latter, of his intentions, or his destination. CHAPTER XXXV BESIEGED In the meantime poor Celandine found herself hm-ried down the momitain by Hippolyte and his band, in a state of anxiety and alarm that would have paralysed the energies of most women, but that roused all the savage qualities dormant in the character of the Quadroon. Not a word of her captors, not a look escaped her ; and she soon dis- covered, gi'eatly to her dismay, that she was regarded less as an auxiliary than a hostage. She was placed in the centre of the band, unbound indeed, and apparently at liberty ; but no sooner did she betray, by the slightest independence of movement, that she considered herself a free agent, than four stalwart blacks closed in on her with brutal glee, attempting no concealment of a determination to retain her in their power till they had completed their merciless design. *' Once gone," said Hippolyte, politely affecting gi-eat reverence for the Obi-woman's supernatural powers, ''never catchee no more ! — Jumbo fly away with yaller woman, same as black. Dis nigger no 'fraid of Jumbo, so long as Missee Celandine at um back. Soon dark now. March on, you black villains, and keep your ranks, same as buckra musketeer ! " With such exhortations to discipline, and an occasional compliment to his own military talents, Hippolyte beguiled their journey down the mountain. It seemed to Celandine that far too short a space of time had elapsed ere they reached the skirts of the forest, and even in the deepening twilight could perceive clearly enough the long low building of Cash-a-crou, now called Montmirail West. 301 802 CERISE The lamps were already lit in the sitting-room on the ground floor. From where she stood, in the midst of the band, outwardly stern and collected, quivering with rage and fear within, the Quadroon could distinguish the figures of Madame la Marquise and her daughter, moving here and there in the apartment, or leaning out at window for a breath of the cool, refreshing evening air. Their commander kept his men under covert of the woods, waiting till it should be quite dark. There was little to fear from a garrison consisting of but two ladies, backed by Fleurette and Bartoletti, for the other domestic slaves were either involved in the conspiracy or had been inveigled out of the way by its chief promoters ; yet not- withstanding the weakness of the besieged, some dread of their ascendancy made the negroes loth to encounter by daylight even such weak champions of the white race as two helpless women and a cowardly Italian overseer. Nevertheless, every moment gained was worth a pui-se of gold. Celandine, affecting to identify herself with the conspirators, urged on them the prudence of delay. Hippolyte, somewhat deceived by her enthusiasm, offered an additional reason for postponing the attack, in the brilliancy of a conflagration under a night sky. He in- tended, he said, to begin by setting fire to the house — there could then be no resistance from within. There would be plenty of time, he opined, for drink and plunder before the flames gained a complete ascendancy, and he seemed to cherish some vague half-formed notion that it would be a fine thing to appear before Cerise in the character of a hero, who should rescue her from a frightful death. A happy thought struck the Quadroon. ''It was lucky you brought me with you," said she earnestly. '' Brave as you are, I fancy you would have been scared had you acted on your own plan. You talk of firing Cash-a-crou, as you would of roasting a turtle in its shell. Do you know that madame keeps a dozen barrels of gunpowder stowed away about the house — nobody knows where but herself. You would have looked a little foolish, I think, my brave colonel, to find your long body blown clean over the Sulphur Mountain into the sea on the other BESIEGED 303 side of the island. You and your guard here are as hand- some a set of blacks as a yellow woman need wish to look on. Not a morsel would have been left of any one of you the size of my hand ! " " Golly ! " exclaimed Hippolyte in consternation. " Missee Celandine, you go free for tanks, when this job clean done. Hi ! you black fellows, keep under shadow of gum-tree dere — change um plan now," he added, thoughtfully ; and without taking his keen eyes off Celandine, walked from one to the other of his band, whispering fresh instructions to each. The Quadroon counted the time by the beating of her heart. ''Now," she thought, *' my boy must have gained the edge of the forest — ten minutes more to cross the new cane-pieces — another ten to reach the shore. He can swim of course — his father swam like a pilot-fish. In forty minutes he might be on board. Five to man a boat — and ten more to pull her in against the ebb. Then they have fully a league to march, and sailors are such bad walkers." At this stage of her reflections something went through her heart like a knife. She thought of the gi'im gi'ound- sharks, heaving and gaping in the warm translucent depths of the harbour at Port Welcome. But meanwhile Hippolyte had gathered confidence from the bearing of his comrades. Their numbers and fierceness inspired him with courage, and he resolved to enter the house at the head of his chosen body-guard, whilst he sur- rounded it with a score of additional mutineers who had joined him according to previous agreement at the head of the forest. These, too, had brought with them a fresh supply of rum, and Celandine observed with horror its stimulating effects on the evil propensities of the band. While he made his further dispositions, she found herself left for a few seconds comparatively unwatched, and at once stole into the open moonlight, where her white dress could be discerned plainly from the house. She knew her husband would be smoking his evening tobacco, according to custom, in the verandah. At little more than a hundred paces he could hardly fail to see her; and in an instant she had unbound the red turban and waved it round her head, in the desperate hope that he might accept that warning for a 804 CERISE danger signal. The quick-witted Italian seemed to com- prehend at once that something was wrong. He imitated her gestm'e, retired into the house, and the next minute his figure was seen in the sitting-room with the Marquise and her daughter. By this time Hippolyte had returned to her side, and she could only watch in agony for the result. Completely surrounded by the intoxicated and infuriated negroes, there seemed to be no escape for the besieged, while the looks and gestures of their leader, closely copied by his chosen band, denoted how little of courtesy or common humanity was to be expected from the Coro- mantec, excited to madness by all the worst passions of his savage nature bm-sting from the enforced restraints that had so long kept them down. A bolder spirit than the Signer's might have been excused for betraying considerable apprehension in such a crisis, and in good truth Bartoletti was fairly frightened out of his wits. In common with the rest of the whites on the island, he had long suspected a conspiracy amongst the negroes, and feared that such an insurrection would take place ; but no great social misfortune is ever really believed in till it comes, and he had neither taken measures for its prevention, nor thoroughly realised the magnitude of the evil. Now that he felt it was upon him he knew not where to turn for aid. There was no time to make phrases or to stand on ceremony. He rushed into the sitting-room with a blanched cheek and a wild eye, that caused each of the ladies to drop her work on her lap, and gaze at him in consternation. '* Madame ! " he exclaimed, and his jaw shook so that he could hardly form the syllables, '* we must leave the house at once — we must save ourselves. There is an emeute, a revolt, a rebellion among the slaves. I know them — the monsters ! They will not be appeased till they have drunk our blood. Oh! why did I ever come to this accursed country? " Cerise turned as white as a sheet — her blue eyes were fixed, her lips apart. Even the Marquise gi-ew pale, though her colour came back, and she held her head the more erect a moment afterwards. " Sit down," she said, imperiously, yet kindly enough. '' Take breath, my good man, and take courage also. Tell me exactly what you have seen ; " and BESIEGED 305 added, tui'iiing to Cerise, " don't be frightened, child — these overseers are sad alarmists. I daresay it is only what the negroes call a ' bobbery,' after all ! " Then Bartoletti explained that he had seen his wife waving a red shawl from the edge of the jungle ; that this was a preconcerted signal by which they had agreed to warn each other of imminent danger ; that it was never to be used except on great emergencies ; and that he was quite sure it was intended to convey to him that she was in the power of the slaves, and that the rising they had so often talked about had taken place at last. The Marquise thought for a moment. She seemed to have no fear now that she realised her danger. Only once, when her eye rested on her daughter, she shuddered visibly. Otherwise, her bearing was less that of a tender woman in peril of her life, than of some wise commander, foiled and beset by the enemy, yet not altogether without hope of securing his retreat. So might have looked one of her warlike ancestors when the besiegers set fire to his castle by the Garonne, and he resolved to betake himself, with his stout veterans, to the square stone keep where the well was dug — a maiden fortress, that had never yet succumbed to famine nor been forced by escalade. " Is there any one in the house whom we can trust ? " said the Marquise ; and even while she spoke a comely black girl came crawling to her feet, and seized her hand to cover it with tears and kisses. *' Iss, missis! " exclaimed Fleurette, for Fleurette it was, who had indeed been listening at the door for the last five minutes. " You trust me ! Life for life ! Blood for blood ! No fear Jumbo, so lilly ma'amselle go out safe. Trust Fleurette, missis. Trust Fleurette, ma'amselle. Fleurette die at um house-door, so ! better than ugly black floggee- man come in." The Marquise listened calmly. *' Attend to me, Fleurette," said she, with an authorita- tive gesture. "Go at once through the kitchen into the dark path that leads to the old summer-house. See if the road to Port Welcome is clear. There is no bush on that side mthin five hundred paces, and if they mean to stop us, they must post a guard between the house and the gum- 20 806 CEBISE trees. Do not show yourself, girl, but if they take you, say Celandine sent you down to the negro-houses for eggs. Quick, and come back here like lightning. Bartoletti — have you any fire-arms ? Do not be afraid, my darling," she repeated, turning to her daughter, *'I know these wretched people well. You need but show a bold front, and they would turn away from a lady's fan if you only shook it hard at them." '*I am not afraid, mamma," answered Cerise, valiantly, though her face was very pale, and her knees shook. " I — I don't like it, of course, but I can do anything you tell me. Oh, mamma ! do you — do you think they will kill us ? " she added, with rather a sudden breakdown of the courage she tried so gallantly to rally. " Kill us, mademoiselle ! " exclaimed the overseer, quaking in every limb. '' Oh, no ! never ! They cannot be so bad as that. We will temporise, we will supplicate, we will make terms with them ; we will offer freedom, and rum, and plunder ; we will go on our knees to their chief, and entreat his mercy ! " The girl looked at him contemptuously. Strange to say, her courage rose as his fell, and she seemed to gather strength and energy from the abject selfishness of his despair. The Marquise did not heed him, for she heard Fleurette's footsteps returning, and was herself busied with an oblong wooden case, brass-bound, and carefully locked up, that she lifted fi'om the recess of a cupboard in the room. Fleurette's black feet could carry her swiftly and lightly as a bird. She had followed her instructions implicitly, had crept noiselessly through the kitchen, and advanced unseen to the old summer-house. Peering from that concealment on the moonlit surface of the lawn, she was horrorstruck to observe nearly a score of slaves intently watching the house. She hurried back panting to her mistress's presence, and made her discouraging report. Madame de Montmirail was very grave now. The affair had become more than serious. It was, in truth, desperate. Once again, as she looked at her daughter, came that strange quiver over her featm^es, that shudder of repressed horror rather than pain. It was succeeded, as before, by a moment BESIEGED 307 of deep reflection, and then her eye kindled, her lips tightened, and all her soft voluptuous beauty hardened into the obstinate courage of despair. Cerise sank on her knees to pray, and rose with a pale, serene, undaunted face. Hers was the passive endurance of the martyr. Her mother's the tameless valour of the champion, inherited through a long line of the turbulent La Fiertes, not one of whom had ever blenched fi'om death nor yielded an inch before the face of man. " Bartoletti ! " said the Marquise. '* Bar the doors and windows ; they can be forced with half-a-dozen strokes, but in war every minute is of value. Hold this rabble in parley as long as you can. I dare not trust you with my pistols, for a weak heart makes a shaking hand, and I think fight- ing seems less yom' trade than mine. When you can delay them no longer, arrange your own terms with the villains. It is possible they may spare you for your wife's sake. Quick, man ! I hear them coming now. Cerise, our bed- room has a strong oaken door, and they cannot reach the window without a ladder, which leaves us but one enemy to deal with at a time. Coui-age, my darling ! Kiss me ! Again, again ! my own ! And now. A woman dies but once ! Here goes for France, and the lilies on the White Flag!" Thus encouraging her child, the Marquise led the way to the bedchamber they jointly occupied, a plainly-furnished room, of which the only ornament was the Prince-Marshal's portrait, already mentioned as having occupied the place of honour in Madame' s boudoir at the Hotel Montmirail. Both women glanced at it as they entered the apartment. Then the Marquise, laying down the oblong box she carried, carefully shaded the night-lamp that burned by her bedside, and peered stealthily from the window to reconnoitre. " Four, six, ten," said she, calmly, " besides their leader, a tall, big negro, very like Hippolyte. It is Hippoljiie. You at least, my friend, will not leave this house alive ! I can hardly miss so fair a mark as those broad black shoulders. This of course is the corps d'elite. Those at the back of the house I do not regard so much. The kitchen door is strong, and they will do nothing if their champions are repulsed. Courage again, my child ! All is 308 CERISE not lost yet. Open that box and help me to load my pistols. Strange, that I should have practised with them for years, only to beat Madame de Sabran, and now to-night we must both trust our safety to a true eye and a steady hand!" Pale, tearless, and collected. Cerise obeyed. Her mother, drawing the weapons from their case, wiped them with her delicate handkerchief, and proceeded to charge them care- fully, and with a preoccupied air, like a mother preparing medicine for a child. Holding the ramrod between her beautiful white teeth, while her delicate and jewelled fingers shook the powder into the pan, she explained to Cerise the whole mystery of loading and priming the deadly weapons. She would thus, as she observed, always have one barrel in reserve. The younger woman listened attentively. Her lip was steady, though her hand shook, and now that the worst was come she showed that peculiar quality of race which is superior to the common fighting courage possessed indiscriminately by all classes — the passive concentrated firmness, which can take every advantage so long as a chance is left, and die without a word at last, when hope gives place to the resignation of despair. She even pointed out to her mother, that by half closing the shutter, the Marquise, herself unseen, could command the approach to the front door. Then taking a crucifix from her bosom, she pressed it to her lips, and said, " I am ready now, mamma. I am calm. I can do anything you tell me. Kiss me once more, dear, as you used when I was a child. And if we must die, it will not seem so hard to die together." The Marquise answered by a long clinging embrace, and then the tw^o women sat them down in the gloomy shadows of their chamber, haggard, tearless, silent, watching for the near approach of a merciless enemy armed with horrors worse than death. CHAPTER XXXVI AT BAY In obedience to his mistress, Bartoletti had endeavoured to secure the few weak fastenings of the house, but his hands shook so, that without Fleurette's aid not a bolt would have been pushed nor a key turned. The black girl, however, seconded his efforts with skill and coolness, so that Hippo- lyte's summons to surrender was addressed to locked doors and closed windows. The Coromantee was now so inflamed with rum as to be capable of any outrage, and since neither his band nor himself were possessed of firearms, nothing but Celandine's happy suggestion about the concealed powder restrained him from ordering a few faggots to be cut, and the building set in a blaze. Advancing with an air of dignity, that would at any other time have been ludicrous, and which he would certainly have abandoned had he known that the Marquise covered his body with her pistol the while, he thumped the door angrily, and demanded to know why "dis here gentleman comin' to pay compliment to buckra miss," was not immediately admitted; but receiving no answer, proceeded at once to batter the panels with an iron crowbar, undeterred by the expostulations of Fleurette, who protested vehemently, first, that her mistress was engaged with a large party of French oflicers ; secondly, that she lay sick in bed, on no account to be disturbed ; and lastly, that neither she nor ma'amselle were in the house at all. The Coromantee of course knew better. Shouting a horrible oath, and a yet more hideous threat, he applied his burly shoulders to the entrance, and the whole wood- 309 310 CERISE work givincf waj^ with a crash, precipitated himself into the passage, followed by the rest of the hand, to be confronted hy Flcurctte alone, Bartoletti having fled ignominiously to the kitchen. *' I could have hit him through the neck," observed the Marquise, withdrawing from her post behind the shutter, '* but I was too directly above him to make sure, and every charge is so valuable I would not waste one on a mere wound. My darling, I still hope that two or three deadly shots may intimidate them, and we shall escape after all." Cerise answered nothing, though her lips moved. The two ladies listened, with every faculty sharpened, every nerve strung to the utmost. A scream fi'om Fleurette thrilled through them like a blow. Hippolyte, though willing enough to dally with the comely black girl for a minute or two, lost patience with her pertinacity in clinging about him to delay his entrance, and struck her brutally to the ground. Turning fiercely on him where she lay, she made her sharp teeth meet in the fleshy part of his leg, an injuiy the savage returned with a kick, that after the first shriek it elicited left poor Fleurette stunned and moaning in the corner of the passage, to be crushed and trampled by the blacks, who now poured in behind their leader, elated with the success of this, their first step in open rebellion. Presently, loud shouts, or rather howls of triumph, announced that the overseer's place of concealment was discovered. Bartoletti, pale or rather yellow, limp, stam- mering, and beside himself with terror, was dragged out of the house and consigned to sundry ferocious-looking negroes, who proceeded to amuse themselves by alternately kicking, cuffing, and threatening him with instantaneous death. The Marquise listened eagerly ; horror, pity, and disgust succeeding each other on her haughty, resolute face. Once, something like contempt swept over it, while she caught the tone of Bartoletti's abject entreaties for mercy. He only asked for life — bare life, nothing more ; they might make a slave of him then and there. He was their property, he and his wife, and all that he had, to do what they liked with. Only let him live, he said, and he would join them heart and hand ; show them where the rum was kept, the AT BAY 311 money, the jewels ; nay, help them cheerfully to cut every white throat on the island. The man was convulsed with terror, and the negroes danced round like fiends, mocking, jeering, flouting him, exulting in the spectacle of a huckra overseer brought so low. " There is something in race after all," observed the Marquise, as if discussing an abstract proposition. '' I suppose it is only the canaille that can thus degrade them- selves from mere dread of death. Though our families have not always lived very decently, I am glad to think that there was never yet a Montmirail or La Fierte who did not know how to die. My child, it is the pure old blood that carries us through such moments as these ; neither of us are likely to disgrace it now." Again her daughter's lips moved, although no sound escaped them. Cerise was prepared to die, but she could not bring herself to reason on the advantages of noble birth at such a moment, like the Marquise ; and indeed the girl's weaker frame and softer heart quailed in terror at the pros- pect of the ordeal they had to go through. From their chamber of refuge the two ladies could hear the insulting jests and ribald gibberish of the slaves, now bursting into the sitting-room, breaking the ftu*niture, shivering the mirrors, and wantonly destro}dng all the delicate articles of use and ornament, of which they could neither understand the pm-pose nor appreciate the value. Presently a discordant scream from Pierrot announced that the parrot had protested against the intrusion of these riotous visitors, while a shout of pain, followed by loud bursts of laughter, proclaimed the manner in which he had resented the familiarity of one more daring than the rest. Taking the bird roughly off its perch, a stout young negi'o named Achille had been bitten to the bone, and the cross- cut wound inflicted by the parrot's beak so roused his savage nature, that twisting its neck round with a vindictive howl, he slew poor Pierrot on the spot. The Marquise in her chamber above could hear the brutal acclamations that greeted this exploit, and distin- guished the smothered thump of her favourite's feathered body as it was dashed into a corner of the room. Then her lips set tight, her brows knit, and the white 312 CEIilSE hand clenched itself round her pistol, firm, rigid, and piti- less as marble. Heavy footsteps were now heard hurrying on the stairs, and whispered voices urging contrary directions, but all with the same purj^ort. There seemed to be no thought of compassion, no talk of mercy. Even while hearing their victims, Hippolyte and Achille, who was his second in command, scrupled not to discuss the fate of the ladies when they should have gained possession of their persons — a fate which turned the daughter's blood to ice, the mother's to fire. It was no time now to think of com- promise or capitulation, or aught but selling life at the dearest, and gaining every moment possible by the sacrifice of an enemy. Even in the last extremity, however, the genius of system, so remarkable in all French minds, did not desert the Marquise. She counted the charges in her pistol- case, and calculated the resom'cec of her foes with a cool, methodical appreciation of the chances for and against her, totally unafi'ected by the enormous disproportion of the odds. She was good, she argued, for a dozen shots in all. She would allow for two misses ; sagely reflecting that in a chance medley like the present she could hardly preserve a steadiness of hand and eye that had heretofore so dis- comfited Madame de Sabran in the shooting galleries of Marly and Versailles. Eight shots would then be left, exclusive of two that she determined at all risks to reserve for the last. The dead bodies of eight negi'oes she con- sidered, slain by the hand of one white woman, ought to put the whole black population of the island to the rout; but supposing that the rum they had drunk should have rendered them so reckless as to disregard even such a warning, and that, with her defences broke down, she found herself and daughter at their mercy, then — and while the Marquise reasoned thus, the blood mounted to her eyes, and a hand of ice seemed to close round her heart — the two reserve shots should be directed with unerring hand, the one into her daughter's bosom, the other through her own. And Cerise, now that the crisis had arrived at last, in so far as they were to be substantiated by the enforced com- posure of a passive endurance, fully vindicated her claims AT BAY 313 to noble blood. She muttered many a prayer indeed, that arose straight from her heart, but her eyes were fixed on her mother the while, and she had disposed the ammunition on a chair beside her in such a manner as to reload for the Marquise with rapidity and precision. " We are like a front and rear rank of the Grey Musketeers," said the latter, with a wild attempt at hilarity, in which a strong hysterical tendency, born of over- wrought feelings, was with difficulty kept down. " The affair will soon commence now, and, my child, if worst comes to worst, remember there is no sur- render. I hear them advancing to the assault. Courage ! my darling. Steady ! and Vive la France ! " The words were still upon her lips, when a swarm of negroes, crowding and shouldering up the narrow passage, halted at her door. Hippolyte commenced his summons to the besieged by a smashing blow with the crowbar, that splintered one of the panels and set the whole wood-work quivering to its hinges. Then he applied his thick lips to the keyhole, and shouted in brutal glee — ** Time to wake up now, missee ! You play 'possum no longer, else cut down gum-tree at one stroke. Wot you say to dis nigger for buckra bridegi-oom ? Time to come out now and dance jigs at um wedding." There was not a quiver in her voice while the Marquise answered in cold imperious tones — " You are running up a heavy reckoning for this night's work. I know your ringleaders, and refuse to treat with them. Nevertheless, I am not a severe mistress. If the rest of the negroes will go quietly home, and resume their duties with to-morrow's sunrise, I will not be hard upon them. You know me, and can trust my word." Cheers of derision answered this haughty appeal, and loud suggestions for every kind of cruelty and insult, to be inflicted on the two ladies, were heard bandied about amongst the slaves. Hippolyte replied fiercely — " Give in at once ! Open this minute, or neither of you shall leave the house alive 1 For the Marquise — Achille ! I give her to you ! For lilly ma'amselle — I marry her this very night. See ! before the moon goes down ! " Cerise raised her head in scornful defiance. Her face was livid, but it was stamped with the same expression as 814 CERISE her mother's now. There could be no question both were prepared to die ^^me> to the last. The blows of Hippolyte's crowbar resounded against the strong oaken panels of the door, but the massive wood-work, though it shook and groaned, resisted stoutly for a time. It was well for the inmates that Celandine's imaginative powers had suggested the concealed gunpowder. Had it not been for their fears of an explosion the negroes would ere this have set fire to the building, when no amount of resistance could have longer delayed the fate of the two ladies. Bartoletti, intimidated by the threats of his captors, and preoccupied only with the preservation of his own life, had shown the insurgents where the rum was kept, and many of these were rapidly passing from the reckless to the stupefied stage of intoxication. The Italian, who was not deficient in cunning, encouraged their potations with all his might. He thus hoped to elude them before morning, and leaving his employers to their fate, reach Port Welcome in safety ; where he doubted not he should be met by Celandine, whose influence as an Obi-woman, he rightly conjectured, would be sufficient to insure her safety. A coward rarely meets with the fate he deserves, and Bartoletti did indeed make his eventual escape in the manner he had proposed. Plying his crowbar with vigorous strokes, Hippolyte suc- ceeded at length in breaking through one of the door panels, a measm-e to be succeeded by the insertion of hand and arm for withdrawal of the bolts fastened on the inside. The Coromantee possessed, however, a considerable share of cunning mixed with the fierce cruelty of a savage. When he had torn away enough woodwork to make a considerable aperture, he turned to his lieutenant and desired him to introduce his body and unbar the door from within. It is difficult to say what he feared, since even had he been aware that his mistress possessed firearms, he could not have conceived the possibility of her using them so recklessly in a house that he had reason to believe was stored with powder. It was probably some latent dread of the white race that prompted his command to his subordinate. " You peep in, you black nigger. Ladies all in full dress now. Bow- 'ticks rosined and fiddlers dry. Open um door, and ask polite company to walk in." AT BAY 816 Thus adjured, Achille thrust his woolly head and half his shining black body through the aperture. Madame de Montmirail, standing before her daughter, was not five paces off. She raised her white arm slowly, and covered him with steady aim. Ere his large thick hand had closed round the bolt for which it groped, there was a flash, a loud report, a cloud of smoke curling round the toilet accessories of a lady's bed-chamber, and Achille, shot through the brain, fell back stone dead into the passage. *' A little lighter charge of powder, my dear," said the Marquise, giving the smoking weapon to her daughter to be reloaded, while she poised its fellow carefully in her hand. " I sighted him very fine, and was a trifle over my mark even then. These pistols always throw high at so short a distance." Then she placed herself in readiness for another enemy, and during a short space waited in vain. The report of her pistol had been followed by a general scramble of the negroes, who tumbled precipitately down- stairs, and in some cases even out of the house, under the impression that every succeeding moment might find them all blown into the air. But the very cause of the besiegers' panic proved, when their alarm subsided, of the utmost detriment to the garrison. Hippolyte, finding himself still in possession of his limbs and faculties, on the same side of the Sulphur Mountain as before, argued, reasonably enough, that the concealed powder was a delusion, and with considerable promptitude at once set fire to the lower part of the house ; after which, once more mustering his fol- lowers, and encouraging them by his example, he ascended the staircase, and betaking himself to the crowbar with a will, soon battered in the weak defence that alone stood between the ladies and their savage enemies. Cerise had loaded her mother's pistol to perfection ; that mother, roused out of all thought of self by her child's danger, was even now reckoning the last frail chance by which her daughter might escape. Dm-ing the short respite afforded by the panic of the negi'oes, they had dragged with desperate strength a heavy chest of drawers, and placed it across the doorway. Even when the latter was forced, this slight breast-work afforded an additional impediment to the assailants. 316 CERISE ** You must di'op from the window, my child," whispered the Marquise, wlieii the shattered door fell in at length across this last obstruction, revealing a hideous confusion of black forms, and rolling eyes, and grinning fiendish faces. "It is not a dozen feet, but mind you turn round so as to light on your hands and knees. Celandine must be outside. If you can reach her you are safe. Adieu, darling ! I can keep the two foremost from following you, still ! " The Marquise grasped a pistol in each hand, but she bent her brow — the haughty white brow that had never been carried more proudly than now — towards her child, and the girl's pale lips clung to it lovingly, while she vowed that neither life nor death should part her from her mother. "It is all over, dear," she said, calmly. " We can but die together as we have lived." Their case was indeed desperate. The room was already darkening with smoke, and the woodwork on the floor below crackling in the flames that began to light up the lawn out- side, and tip with saffron the sleeping woods beyond. The door was broken in ; the chest of drawers gave way with a loud crash, and brandishing his crowbar, Hippolyte leaped into the apartment like a fiend, but stood for an instant aghast, rigid, like that fiend turned to bronze, because the wiite lady, shielding her daughter with her body, neither quailed nor flinched. Her eye was bright, her colour raised, her lips set, her hand steady, her whole attitude resolute and defiant. All this he took in at a glance, and the Coromantee felt his craven heart shrink up to nothing in his breast, thus covered by the deadly pistol of the Marquise. CHAPTER XXXVII JUST IN TIME Moments are precious at such a time. The negro, goaded by shame, rage, and alcohol, had drawn his breath for a spring, when a loud cheer was heard outside, followed by two or three dropping shots, and the ring of a hearty English voice exclaiming — "Hold on, mates! Don't ye shoot wild a-cause of the ladies. It's yardarm to yardarm, this spell, and we'll give these here black devils a taste of the naked steel! " In another moment Slap- Jack was in the passage, leaving a couple of wounded ruffians on the stairs to be finished by his comrades, and cutting another down across the very door- sill of the Marquise's bed-chamber. Ere he could enter it, however, his captain had dashed past him, leaping like a panther over the dead negroes under foot, and flashing his glittering rapier in the astonished eyes of the Coromantee, who turned round bewildered from his prey to fight with the mad energy of despair. In vain. Of what avail was the massive iron crowbar, wielded even by the strength of a Hercules, against the deadliest blade but one in the Great Monarch's body-guard? A couple of dazzling passes, that seemed to go over, under, all round the clumsier weapon — a stamp — a muttered oath, shut in by clenched, determined teeth, and the elastic steel shot through Hippolyte's very heart, and out on the other side. Spurning the huge black body with his foot. Captain George withdrew his sword, wiped it gi'imly on the dead man's woolly head, and, uncovering, turned to the ladies 317 818 CERISE with a polite apology for thus intruding under the pressure of so disagi'eeable a necessity. He had scarcely framed a sentence ere he became deadly pale, and began to stammer, as if he, too, was under the influence of some engrossing and incontrollable emotion. The two women had shrunk into the farthest corner of the room. With the prospect of a rescue, Madame de Montmirail's nerves, strung to their utmost tension, had completely given way. In a state of mental and bodily pros- tration, she had laid her head in the lap of Cerise, whose corn-age, being of a more passive nature, did not now fail her so entirely. The girl, indeed, pushing her hair back from her temples, looked wildly in George's face for an instant, like one who wakes from a dream ; but the next, her whole countenance lit up with delight, and holding out both hands to him, she exclaimed, in accents of irrepressible tenderness and self- abandonment, " C'est toil" then the pale face flushed crimson, and the loving eyes drooped beneath his own. To him she had always been beautiful — most beautiful, perhaps, in his dreams — but never in dreams nor in waking reality so beautiful as now. He gazed on her entranced, motionless, forgetful of every- thing in the world but that one loved being restored, as it seemed, by a miracle, at the very time when she had been most lost to him. His stout heart, thrilling to its core from her glance, quailed to think of what must have befallen had he arrived a minute too late, and a prayer went up from it of hearty humble thanksgiving that he was in time. He saw nothing but that drooping form in its delicate white dress, with its gentle feminine gestures and rich dishevelled hair ; heard nothing but the accents of that well-remembered voice vibrating with the love that he felt was deep and tender as his own. He was unconscious of the cheers of his victorious boat's crew, of the groans and shrieks uttered by wounded or routed negroes, of the dead beneath his feet, the blazing rafters overhead, the showers of sparks and rolling clouds of smoke that already filled the house ; un- conscious even of Madame de Montmirail's recovery from her stupor, as she too recognised him, and raising herself JUST IN TIME 819 with an effort from her daughter's embrace, muttered in deep passionate tones, " C'est lui ! " But it was no time for the exchanges of ceremonious politeness, or the indulgence of softer emotions. The house was fairly on fire, the negroes were up in arms all over the island. A boat's crew, however sturdy, is but a handful of men, and courage becomes foolhardy when it opposes itself voluntarily at odds of one against a score. Slap- Jack was the first to speak. '' Askin' yow pardon, ladies," said he, with seamanlike deference to the sex; " the sooner we can clear out of this here the better. If you'll have the kindness to point out your sea-chests, and possibles, and such like, Bottle-Jack here, he'll be answerable for their safety, and me an' my mates we'll run you both down to the beach and have you aboard in a pig's whisper. The island's getting hot, miss," he added confidentially to Cerise, who did not the least understand him. "In these low latitudes, a house afire and a hundred of blacks means a bobbery, just as sure as at home four old women and a goose makes a market ! " " He is right," observed the Captain, who had now recovered his presence of mind. " From what I saw as I came along, I fear there is a general rising of the slaves through the whole island. My brigantine, I need not say, is at the disposal of madame and mademoiselle (Cerise thanked him with a look), and I believe that for a time at least it will be the only safe place of refuge." Thus speaking, he offered his hand to conduct the Marquise from the apartment, with as much courtliness and ceremony as though they had been about to dance a minuet at Versailles, under the critical eye of the late king. Hers trembled violently as she yielded it. That hand, so steady but a few minutes ago, while levelling its deadly weapon against the leader of a hundred enemies, now shook as if palsied. How little men understand women. He attributed her discomposure entirely to fright. There is a second nature, an acquired instinct in the habits of good-breeding, irrepressible even by the gravest emergency. Captain George, conducting Madame de Mont- mirail down her own blazing staircase, behaved with as ceremonious a politeness as if they had been descending in 320 CERISE accordance with etiquette to a formal dinner-party. Cerise, following close, hung no doubt on every word that came from his lips, but it must be confessed the conversation was some- what frivolous for so important a juncture. '' I little thought," said the Captain, performing another courtly bow, " that it was Madame la Marquise whom I should have the honour of escorting to-night out of this unpleasant little /racas. Had I known madame was on the island, she mil believe that I should have come ashore and paid my respects to her much sooner." " You could not have arrived at a more opportune moment, monsieur," answered the lady, whose strong physical energy and habitual presence of mind were now rapidly reasserting themselves. *'You have always been welcome to my receptions ; never more so than to-night. You found it a little hot, I fear, and a good deal crowded. The latter disadvantage I was remedying, to the best of my abilities, when you announced yourself. The society, too, was hardly so polite as I could have wished. Oh, monsieur ! " she added, in a changed and trembling voice, suddenly discard- ing the tone of banter she had assumed, " where should we have been now, and what must have become of us, but for you ? You, to whom we had rather owe our lives than to any man in the world ! " He was thinking of Cerise. He accepted the kind words gratefully, happily ; but, like all generous minds, he made light of the service he had rendered. " You are too good to say so, madame," was his answer. " It seemed to me you were making a gallant defence enough when I came in. One man had already fallen before your aim, and I would not have given much for the life of that ugly giant whom I took the liberty of running through the body without asking permission, although he is probably, like myself, a slave of your own." The Marquise laughed. " Confess, monsieur," said she, " that I have a steady hand on the pistol. Do you know, I never shot at anything but a playing-card till to-night. It is horrible to kill a man, too. It makes me shudder when I think of it. And yet, at the moment, I had no pity, no scruples — I can even imagine that I experienced some- thing of the wild excitement which makes a soldier's trade JUST IN TIME 321 SO fascinating. I hope it is not so ; I trust I may not be so cruel — so unwomanly. But you talk of slaves. Are we not yom's ? Yours by every right of conquest ; to serve and tend you, and follow you all over the world. Ah ! it would be a happy lot for her who knew its value ! " The last sentence she spoke in a low whisper and an altered tone, as if to herself. It either escaped him or he affected not to hear. By this time they were out of the house, and standing on the lawn to windward of the flames, which leaped and flickered from every quarter of the building ; nor, in escaping from the conflagi-ation, had they by any means yet placed themselves in safety. Captain George and the three trusty Jacks, with half-a-dozen more stout seamen, constituting a boat's crew, had indeed rescued the ladies, for the moment, from a hideous alternative ; but it was more than doubtful, if even protected by so brave an escort, they could reach the shore unmolested. Bands of negroes, ready to commit every enormity, were ere now patrolling all parts of the island. It was too probable that the few white inhabitants had been already massacred, or, if still alive, would have enough to do to make terms for themselves with the in- furiated slaves. A slender garrison occupied a solitary fort on the other side of the mountains, but so small a force might easily be overmastered, and even if they had started on the march it was impossible they could arrive for several hours in the vicinity of Port Welcome. By that time the town might well be burned to the ground, and George, who was accustomed to reason with rapidity on the chances and combinations of warfare, thought it by no means unlikely that the ruddy glare, fleeting and wavering on the night- sky over the blazing roof of Montmirail West, might be accepted as a signal for immediate action by the whole of the insurgents. Hippolyte had laid his plans with considerable forethought, the result, perhaps, of many a crafty war-path — many a savage foray in his own wild home. He had so disposed the negroes under his immediate orders, that Madame de Montmirail' s house was completely surrounded in every dii'ection by which escape seemed possible. The diflcrent '21 822 . CERISE egi*esses leading to the huts, the mills, the cane-pieces, were all occupied, and a strong force was posted on the high road to Port Welcome, chiefly with a view to prevent the arrival of assistance from that quarter. One only path was left unguarded ; it was narrow, tangled, difficult to find, and wound up through the jungle, across the wildest part of the mountain. By this route he had probably intended to can-y off INIademoiselle de Montmirail to some secure fastness of his own. Not satisfied with the personal arrangements he had made for burning the house and capturing the inmates, he had also warned his confederates, men equally fierce and turbulent, if of less intelligence than his own, that they should hold themselves in readiness to take up arms the instant they beheld a glare upon the sky above Cash-a- crou ; that each should then despatch a chosen band of twenty stout negroes to himself for orders ; and that the rest of their forces should at once commence the work of devastation on their own account, burning, plundering, rioting, and cutting all white throats, without distinction of age or sex. That this wholesale butchery failed in its details was owing to no fault of conception, no scruples of humanity on the part of its organiser. The execution fell short of the original design simply because confided to several different heads, acted on by various interests, and all more or less bemused with rum. The ringleader had every reason to believe that if his directions were carried out he would find himself, ere sunrise, at tho head of a general and successful revolt — a black emperor, perhaps, with a black population offering him a crown. But this delusion had been dispelled by one thrust of Captain George's rapier, and the Coromantee's dark body lay charring amongst the glowing timbers of Madame de Montmirail' s bed-chamber. The dispositions that he had made, however, accounted for the large force of negroes now converging on the bm-ning house. Their shouts might be heard echoing through the woods in all directions. When George had collected his men, sm-rounded the two ladies by a trusty escort of blue- jackets, and withdrawn his little company, consisting but JUST IN TIME 823 of a dozen persons, under cover of the trees, he held a council of war as to the best means of securing a rapid retreat. Truth to tell, the skipper would willingly have given the whole worth of her cargo to be once more on her deck, or even under the guns of ' The Bashful Maid.' Slap-Jack gave his opinion unasked. *' Up foresail," said he, with a characteristic impetuosity: " run out the guns — double- shotted and depressed ; sport every rag of bunting ; close in round the convoy ; get plenty of way on, and run clean through, exchanging broadsides as we go ahead ! " But Smoke-Jack treated the suggestion with contempt. " That's wot I call rough-and-tumble fighting, your honour," he grumbled, with a sheepish glance at the ladies ; for with all his boasted knowledge of their sex, he was unaccustomed to such specimens as these, and discom- fited, as he admitted to himself, by the " trim on 'em." " Them's not games as is fitted for such a company as this here, if I may make so bold. No, no, your honour, it's good advice to keep to windward of a nigger, and it's my opinion as we should weather them on this here tack ; get down to the beach with a long leg and a short one — half- a - mile and more below the town — fire three shots, as agi'eed on, for the boat, and so pull the ladies aboard on the quiet. After that, we might come ashore again, d'ye see, and have it out comfortable. What say you, Bottle- Jack ? " That worthy turned his quid, and looked preternaturally wise ; the more so that the question was somewhat unexpected. He was all for keeping the ladies safe, he decided, now they had got them. Captain Kidd always did so, he remembered, and Captain Kidd could sail a ship and fight a ship, &c. ; but Bottle-Jack was more incoherent than usual — utterly adrift under the novelty of his situation, and gasping like a gudgeon at the Marquise and her daughter, whose beauty seemed literally to take away his breath. George soon made up his mind. " Is there any way to the beach," said he, addressing himself rather to Cerise than her mother, "without touching the road to Port Welcome? It seemed to me, as we marched up, that the high road made a considerable 324 CEBISE bend. If we could take the string instead of the bow we might save a good deal of time, and perhaps escape observation altogether." The Marquise and her daughter looked at each other helplessly. Had they been Englishwomen, indeed, even in that hot climate, they would probably have known every by-road and mountain path within three leagues of their home ; but the ladies of France, though they dance ex- quisitely, are not strong walkers, and neither of these, during the months they had spent at Cash-a-crou, had yet acquired such a knowledge of the locality as might now have proved the salvation of the whole party. In this extremity a groan was heard to proceed out of the darkness at a few paces' distance. Slap-Jack, guided by the sound, and parting some shrubs that concealed her, discovered poor Flem-ette, more dead than alive, bruised, exhausted, terrified, scarcely able to stand, and shot through the ankle by a chance bullet from the blue-jackets, yet conscious enough still to drag herself to the feet of Cerise and cover them with kisses, forgetting everything else in her joy to find her young mistress still alive. *' You would serve me, Fleurette, I know," said Made- moiselle de Montmirail, in a cautious whisper ; for, to her excited imagination, every shrub that glistened in the moonlight held a savage. "I can trust you; I feel it. Tell me, is there no way to the sea but through our enemies ? Must we witness more cruelties — more blood- shed ? Oh ! have we not had fighting and horrors enough ? " The black girl twined herself upwards, like a creeper, till her head was laid against the other's bosom ; then she wept in silence for a few seconds ere she could command her voice to reply. ** Trust me, lilly ma'amselle," said she, in a tone of intense feeling that vouched for her truth. " Trust poor Fleurette, give last drop of blood to help young missee safe. Go to Jumbo for lilly ma'amselle now. Show um path safe across Sulphur Mountain down to sea-shore. Fleurette walk pretty well tank you, now, if only buckra blue-jacket offer um hand. Not so, sar! Impudent tief ! " she added, indignantly, as Slap-Jack, thoroughly equal to the occasion, JUST IN TIME 325 at once put his arm round her waist. "Keep your distance, sar ! You only poor foretopman. Dis good daddy help me along fust." Thus speaking, she clung stoutly to Bottle-Jack, and proceeded to guide the party up the mountain along a path that she assured them was known but to few of the negroes themselves, and avoided even by these, as being the resort of Jumbo and several other evil spirits much dreaded by the slaves. Of such supernatural terrors, she was good enough to inform them, they need have no fear, for that Jumbo and his satellites were fully occupied to-night in assisting the ''bobbery" taking place all over the island ; and that even were they at leisure they would never approach a party in the centre of which was walking such an angel of light as Ma'amselle Cerise. CHAPTEK XXXVIII MijRE AVANT TOUT The path was steep and narrow, leading them, moreover, through the most tangled and inaccessible parts of the jungle. Their progi'ess was necessarily tardy and laborious. Fleurette took the lead, supported by Bottle-Jack, whose sea-legs seemed to carry him up-hill with difficulty, and who stopped to take breath more than once. The black girl's wound was painful enough, but she possessed that savage spirit of endurance which successfully resists mere bodily suffering, and walked with an active and elastic, though limping step. Blood, however, was still oozing from her wound, and a sense of faintness, resisted by sheer force of will, threatened at every moment to overpower her. She might just reach the crest of the hill, she thought, and then it would be all over with poor Fleurette ; but the rest would need no guide after that point was gained, and the faithful girl struggled on. Next came Smoke-Jack, in attendance on the ladies, much exhilarated by the dignity of his position, yet ludicrously on his good behaviour, and afraid of com- mitting himself, on the score of manners, by word or deed. The Marquise and her daughter walked hand in hand, wasting few words, and busied each with her own thoughts. They seemed to have exchanged characters with the events of the last few hours. Cerise, ever since her rescue, had displayed an amount of energy and resolu- tion scarcely to be expected from her usual demeanour, making light of present fatigue and coming peril in a true military spirit of gaiety and good-humour ; while her mother, 326 MERE AVANT TOUT 327 on the contrary, betrayed in every word and gesture the languor of subdued emotion, and a certain softened, saddened preoccupation of manner, seldom to be remarked in the self-possessed and brilliant Marquise. Captain George, with Slap- Jack and the rest of the blue- jackets, brought up the rear. His fighting experience warned him that in no previous campaign had he ever found himself in so critical a position as at present. He was completely surrounded by the enemy. His own force, though well-armed and full of confidence, was ridiculously weak in numbers. He was encumbered with baggage (not to speak it disrespectfully) that must be protected at any sacrifice, and he had to make a forced march, through ground of which he was ignorant, dependent on the guidance of a half- savage girl, who might after all turn out to be a traitress. Under so many disadvantages, the former captain of musketeers showed that he had not forgotten his early training. All eyes and ears, he seemed to be everjsvhere at once, anticipating emergencies, multiplying precautions, yet finding a moment every now and then for a word of politeness and encouragement to the ladies, to regi-et the roughness of the path, to excuse the prospective discom- forts of the brigantine, or to assure them of their speedy arrival in a place of safety. On these occasions he invariably directed his speech to the Marquise and his looks to her daughter. Presently, as they continued to wind up the hill, the ascent gi'ew more precipitous. At length, having crossed the bed of a rivulet that they could hear tumbling into a cascade many hundred feet below, they reached a pass on the mountain side where the path became level, but seemed so narrow as to preclude farther progress. It turned at a sharp angle round the bare face of a cliff, which rose on one side sheer and perpendicular several fathoms above their heads, and on the other shelved as abruptly into a dark abyss, the depth of which, not even one of the seamen, accustomed as they were to giddy heights, dared measure with his eye. Fleurette alone, standing on the brink, peered into it without wavering, and pointing downwards, looked back on the little party with triumph. 328 CERISE ** See down there," said she, in a voice that grew fainter with every syllable. "No road round up above; no road round down below. Once past here all safe, same as in bed at home. Come by, you ! take hands one by one — so — small piece more — tind white lagoon. All done then. Good-night ! " Holding each other by the hand, the whole party, to use Slap-Jack's expression, "rounded the point" in safety. They now found themselves in an open and nearly flat space, encircled but unshadowed by the jungle. Below them, over a level of black tree tops, the friendly sea was shining in the moonlight ; and nearer yet, a gleam through the dark mass of forest denoted that white lagoon of which Fleurette had spoken. On any other night it would have been a peaceful and a lovely sight ; but now a flickering glare on the sky showed them where the roof-tree of Montmirail West was burning into ashes, and the yells of the rioters could be heard, plainer and plainer, as they scom-ed the mountain in pur- suit of the fugitives, encouraging each other in their search. Some of these shouts sounded so near in the clear still night, that Captain George was of opinion their track had been already discovered and followed up. If this were indeed the case, no stand could be made so eff'ectually as at the defile they had lately threaded, and he determined to defend it to the last. For this purpose he halted his party and gave them their directions. " Slap- Jack," said he, " I've got a bit of soldier's work for you to do. It's play to a sailor, but you attend to my orders all the same. If these black devils overhaul us, they can only round that corner one at a time. I'll leave you with a couple of your own foretopmen here to stop tliat game. But we soldiers never want to fight without a sup- port. Smoke-Jack and the rest of the boat's crew will remain at your back. What say ye, my lads ? It will be something queer if you can't hold a hundred darkies and more in such a post as this, say, for three-quarters of an hour. I don't ask ye for a minute longer ; but mind ye, I expect that, if not a man of you ever comes on board again. When you've killed all the niggers, make sail straight away to the beach, fire three shots, and I'll send a boat ofi*. ME BE AVANT TOUT 329 You won't want to break your leave after to-night's work. At all events, I wouldn't advise you to try, and I shall get the anchor up soon after sunrise. Bottle- Jack comes with me, in case the ladies should want more assistance, and this dark girl — what d'ye call her ? — Fleurette, to show us the way. God bless ye, my lads ! Keep steady, level low, and don't pull till you see the whites of their eyes ! " Bottle- Jack, slewing his body about with more than cus- tomary oscillation, declared his willingness to accompany the Captain, but pointing to Fleurette, expressed a fear that ''this hero gal had got a megrim or something, and wanted caulkin' very bad, if not relittin' altogether in dry dock." The moon shed a strong light upon the little party, and it was obvious that Fleurette, who had now sunk to the ground, with her head supported by Bottle- Jack as tenderly and carefully as if the honest tar had been an experienced nurse of her own sex, was seriously, if not mortally wounded, and certainly unable to proceed. The Marquise and her daughter were at her side in an instant, but she took no heed of the former, fixing her filmy eyes on Cerise, and pressing her young mistress's hand to her heart. " You kiss me once again," said she, faintly, and with a sad smile on her swarthy face, now turning to that wan leaden hue w^hich makes a pale negro so ghastly an object. " Once again, so sweet ! ma'amselle, same as before. You go straight on to white lagoon — see ! Find canoe tied up. Stop here berry well, missee — Fleurette camp out all night. No fear Jumbo now. Sleep on long after monkeys wake ! Good-night ! " It was with difficulty that Cerise could be prevailed on to leave the faithful girl who had sacrificed herself so will- ingly, and whom, indeed, she could hardly expect to see again ; but the emergency admitted of no delay, even on the score of gratitude and womanly compassion. George hurried the ladies forward in the direction of the lagoon, leaving Fleurette, now prostrate and unconscious, to the care of Slap- Jack, who pitied her from the depths of his honest heart. "It's a bad job," said he, taking off" his jacket and fold- ing it into a pillow for the poor girl's head, with as much 330 CEBISE tender care as if she had been his own Alice, of whom, indeed, he was thinking at the moment. " A real bad job, if ever there was one. Such a heart of oak as this here ; an' a likely lass too, though as black as a nor'-easter. Well, some'hody'W have to pay for this night's work, that's sartin. Ay ! yell away, you black beggars. We'll give you something to sing out for presently — an' you shall have it hot and heavy when you do get it, as sure as my name's Slap-Jack!" Captain George, in the meantime, led the two ladies swiftly down the open space before them, in the direction of the lagoon, wliich was now in sight. They had but to thread one more belt of lofty forest-trees, from which the wild vines hung in a profusion of gi'aceful festoons, and they were on the brink of the cool, peaceful water, spread like a sheet of silver at their feet. " Five minutes more," said he, ** and we are safe. Once across, and if that girl speaks truth, less than a quarter of a leagTie will bring us to the beach. All seems quiet, too, on this side, and there is little chance of our being inter- cepted fi*om the to\^al. The boat will be in waiting within a cable's length off shore, and my signal will bring her in at once. Then I shall hope to conduct you safe on board, but both madame and mademoiselle must excuse a sailor's rough accommodation and a sailor's unceremonious wel- come." The Marquise did not immediately answer. She was looking far ahead into the distance, as though she heard not, or at least heeded not, and yet every tone of his voice was music to her ears, every syllable he spoke curdled like some sweet and subtle poison in her blood. Notwithstand- ing the severe fatigue and fierce excitement of the night, she walked with head erect, and proud imperious step, like a queen amongst her courtiers, or an enchantress in the circle she has drawn. There was a wild brilliancy in her eyes, there was a fixed red spot on either cheek ; but for all her assumption of pride, for all her courage and all her self-command, her hand trembled, her breath came quick, and the Marquise knew that she had never yet felt so thoroughly a weak and dependent woman as now, when she tm-ned at last to thank her preserver for his noble ME BE AVANT TOUT 331 efforts, and dared not even raise her eyes to meet his own. " You have saved us, monsieur," was all she could stammer out, " and how can we show our gratitude enough? We shall never forget the moment of supreme danger, nor the brave man who came between those ruffians and their prey. Shall we. Cerise ? " But Cerise made no answer, though she managed to convey her thanks in some hidden manner that afforded Captain George a satisfaction quite out of proportion to their value. They had now reached the edge of the lagoon, to find, as Fleurette had indicated, a shallow rickety canoe, moored to a post half-buried in the water, worm-eaten, rotten, and crumbling to decay. The bark itself was in little better preservation, and on a near inspection they discovered, much to their discomfiture, that it would hold at best but one passenger at a time. It had evidently not been used for a considerable period, and after months of exposure and ill-usage, without repair, was indeed, as a means of crossing the lagoon, little better than so much brown paper. George's heart sank while he inspected it. There was no paddle, and although such a want might easily be remedied with a knife and the branch of a tree, every moment of delay seemed so dangerous, that the Captain made up his mind to use another mode of propul- sion, and cross over at once. '* Madame," said he to the Marquise, " our only safety is on the other side of this lagoon. Fifty strokes of a strong swimmer would take him there. No paddle has been left in that rickety little craft, nor dare I w^aste the few minutes it would take to fashion one. Moreover, neither mademoiselle nor yourself could use it, and you need only look at your shallop to be sure that it would never carry two. This, then, is what I propose. I will place one of you in the canoe, and swim across, pushing it before me. Bottle-Jack will remain here to guard the other. For that purpose I will leave him my pistols in addition to his own. When my first trip is safely accomplished, I will return with the canoe and repeat the experiment. The whole can be done in a short quarter of an hour. Excuse me, madame, but for 332 CERISE this work I must divest myself of coat, cravat, and waist- coat." Thus speaking. Captain George disencumbered himself rapidly of these garments, and assisted by Bottle-Jack, tilted the light vessel on its side, to get rid of its superfluous weight of water. Then standing waist-deep in the lagoon, he prepared it for the reception of its freight ; no easy matter with a craft of this description, little more roomy and substantial than a cockle-shell, without the advantage of being water-tight. Spreading his laced coat along the bottom of the canoe, he steadied it carefully against the bank, and signed to the ladies that all was now in readiness for embarkation. They exchanged wistful looks. Neither seemed disposed to gi-asp at her own safety and leave the other in danger. Bottle-Jack, leaning over the canoe, continued bailing the water out with his hand. Notwithstanding the Captain's precautions it leaked fast, and seemed even now little cal- culated to land a passenger dry on the farther shore. " Mamma, I luill not leave you," said Cerise, " you shall go first with George. With monsiem', I mean." She cor- rected herself, blushing violently. "Monsieur can then return for me, and I shall be quite safe with this good old man, who is, you perceive, armed to the teeth, and as brave as a lion besides." " That is why I do not fear to remain," returned the Marquise. " Child, I could not bear to see this sheet of water between us, and you on the dangerous side. We can neither fly nor swim, alas ! though the latter art we might have learned long ago. Cerise, I insist on your crossing first. It may be the last command I shall ever lay upon yo"-" But Cerise was still obstinate, and the canoe meanwhile filled fast, in spite of Bottle- Jack's exertions. That worthy, whose very nose was growing pale, though not with fear, took no heed of their dilemma, but continued his task with a mechanical, half-stupefied persistency, like a man under the influence of opium. The quick eye of the Marquise had detected this peculiarity of manner, and it made her the more determined not to leave her daughter under the old seaman's charge. Their dispute might have been protracted MERE AVANT TOUT 333 till even Captain George's courtesy would have given way ; but a loud yell from the defile they had lately quitted, fol- lowed by a couple of shots and a round of British cheers, warned them all that not a moment was to be lost, for that their retreat was even now dependent on the handful of brave men left behind to guard the pass. " My daughter shall go first, monsieur? Is it not so ? " exclaimed the Marquise, with an eagerness of eye and excitement of manner she had not betrayed in all the previous horrors of the night. *' It is better," answered George. "Mademoiselle is perhaps somewhat the lightest." And although he strove to make his voice utterly unmoved and indifferent, there was in its tone a something of intense relief, of deep, heart- felt joy, that told its own tale. The Marquise knew it all at last. She saw the past now, not piece by piece, in broken detail as it had gone by, but all at once, as the mariner, sailing out of a fogbank, beholds the sunny sky, and the blue sea, and the purple outlines of the shore. It came upon her as a shot goes through a wild deer. The creature turns sick and faint, and knowing all is over, yet would fain ignore its hurt and keep its place, erect, stately, and uncomplaining, amongst the herd ; not the less surely has it got its death-wound. How carefully he placed Cerise in the frail bark of which she was to be the sole occupant. How tenderly he drew the laced coat between the skirt of her delicate white dress and the flimsy shattered wood- work, worn, splintered, and drip- ping wet even now. Notwithstanding the haste required, notwithstanding that every moment was of such importance in this life and death voyage, how he seemed to linger over the preparations that brought him into contact with his precious freight. At last they were ready. A farewell embrace between mother and daughter ; a husky cheer delivered in a whisper from Bottle- Jack ; a hurried thanks- giving for perils left behind ; an anxious glance at the opposite shore, and the canoe floated off with its burden, guided by George, who in a few yards was out of his depth and swimming onward in long measured strokes that pushed it steadily before him. The Marquise, watching their progress with eager restless 334 CERISE glance, that betrayed strong passions and feelings kept down by a stronger will, observed that when ^vithin a pistol-shot of the opposite shore the bark was propelled swiftly through the water, as if the swimmer exerted himself to the utmost — so much so as to drive it violently against the bank. George's voice, while his di'ipping figm-e emerged into sight, warned her that all was well ; but straining her eyes in the uncertain light, the Marquise, though she discerned her daughter's white dress plainly enough, could see nothing of the boat. Again George shouted, but she failed to make out the purport of what he said ; though a gleam of intelli- gence on the old seaman's face made her turn to Bottle- Jack. '' What is it ? " she asked anxiously. *' Why does he not come back to us with the canoe ? " " The canoe will make no more voyages, my lady," answered the old man, with a giim leer that had in it less of mirth than pain. " She's foundered, that's wot she's been an' done. They'll send back for us, never fear ; so yow. an' me will keep watch and watch till they come ; an' if you please, my lady, askin' your pardon, I'll keep my watch first." CHAPTER XXXIX ALL ADEIFT The Marquise scarcely heard him. She was intent on those two figures scramhling up the opposite shore, and fast dis- appearing into the darkness beyond. It seemed that the darkness was closing in around herself, never again to be dispelled. When those were gone what was there left on earth for her ? She had lost Cerise, she told herself, the treasure she had guarded so carefully ; the darling for whom she would have sacrificed her life a thousand times, as the events of the last few hours proved ; the one aim and object of her whole existence, without which she was alone in the world. And now this man had come and taken her child away, and it would never be the same thing again. Cerise loved him, she was sure of that. Ah ! they could not deceive her ; and he loved Cerise. She knew it by his voice in those few words when he suggested that the girl should cross the water first. The Marquise twined her fingers together, as if she were in pain. They must be safe now. Walking side by side on the peaceful beach, waiting for the boat that should bear them away, would they forget all about her in the selfishness of their new-found happiness, and leave her to perish here ? She wished they would. She wished the rioters, coming on in overwhelming numbers, might force the pass and di"ive these honest blue-jackets in before them to make a last des- perate stand at the water's edge. She could welcome death then, ofi'ering herself willingly to ensure the safety of those two. And what was this man to her that she should give him 335 U