by Mór Jókai
PART V
ANGE BARTHELMY
CHAPTER I
So far as Marie's safety from robbers was concerned, Count Vavel mightnow rest content. Satan Laczi's advice had been obeyed to the letter.But how about Baroness Landsknechtsschild? Danger still threatened her.
Count Vavel was seriously concerned about his fair neighbor, andwondered how he might communicate his extraordinary discovery to her.What could he do to warn her of the danger which still threatened her?Should he call in person at the manor, and tell her of his interviewwith Satan Laczi?
A propitious chance came to Count Vavel's aid in his perplexity.
One afternoon the sound of a trumpet drew him to his window. On lookingout, he beheld a division of cavalry riding along the highway toward thevillage. They were dragoons, as their glistening helmets indicated.
When the troop drew near to the village, the band struck up a livelymazurka, and to this spirited march the soldiers made their entry intoFertoeszeg. Ludwig could see through his telescope how the men werequartered in the houses in the village; and in the evening, after theretreat had been sounded, he also saw that the windows of the hithertounused wing of the manor were brilliantly illuminated. Evidently theofficers in command of the troop had taken up their quarters there,which was proper. The armed guard on duty at the manor gates verifiedthis supposition.
Count Vavel might now feel perfectly sure that no robbers would attemptto break into the manor; they were too cunning to come prowling about aplace where cavalry officers were quartered.
And with the arrival of the troop another danger had been averted. NowBaroness Katharina would not break into the Nameless Castle and despoilCount Vavel of something which Satan Laczi could not, with all hiscunning, have restored to him--his heart!
Count Ludwig did not trouble himself further about the manor. He wasconvinced that enough gallant cavalrymen were over yonder to entertainthe fair mistress, so that she would no longer wait for any moretiresome philosophizing from him.
Every evening he could hear the band playing on the veranda of themanor, and very often, too, the merry dance-music, which floated fromthe open windows until a late hour of the night. They were enjoyingthemselves over yonder, and they were right in so doing.
How did all this concern him?
In one respect, however, the soldiers taking up their quarters inFertoeszeg concerned him: they exercised daily on the same road overwhich it was his custom to take his daily drive with Marie. In order toavoid meeting them, he was obliged to change the hour to noon, when thesoldiers would be at dinner.
Several days after the arrival of the troop at Fertoeszeg, the officer incommand paid a visit at the Nameless Castle--a courtesy required fromone who was familiar with the usages of good society. At the door,however, he was told by the groom that Count Vavel was not at home. Heleft his card, which Henry at once delivered to his master, who was inhis study.
The card bore the name:
"Vicomte Leon Barthelmy, K. K., Colonel of Cavalry."
Count Vavel tried to remember where he had heard the name before, butwithout success. He quieted his dread which this act of ceremony hadaroused in him by the thought that it contained no further significancethan the conventional courtesy which a stranger felt himself called uponto pay to a resident.
The call would, of course, have to be returned. From his observatoryCount Vavel informed himself at what hour the colonel betook himself tothe exercise-ground, and chose that time to make his visit. Naturally hefound the colonel absent, and left a card for him. A few days afterwardColonel Barthelmy again alighted from his horse at the door of theNameless Castle, and again met with a disappointment--the Herr Count wasnot at home to visitors; he was engaged, and had given orders not to bedisturbed.
Again the troop's commander left his card, determining to remain indoorsat the manor until the return visit had been paid, which would have tobe done within twenty-four hours if no rudeness were intended.
He was not a little astonished to find, on returning to the manor, thatCount Vavel had left a card for him with the porter. Such promptnessperplexed the colonel. How had the count managed to reach the manorbefore he did? The porter informed him that the gentleman from theNameless Castle had rowed across the cove, which was a much shorter waythan by the carriage-road around the shore.
The colonel now determined to prove that he was an obstinate andpersistent admirer of the occupant of the Nameless Castle. He paid athird visit at eight o'clock the next evening. This time Henry informedthe visitor that the count had gone to bed.
"Is he ill?" inquired the colonel.
"No; this is his usual hour for retiring."
"But how can a man who is not ill go to bed at eight o'clock?"
And again he handed Henry a card.
This visit Count Vavel returned the next morning at three o'clock. Atthis hour, as may be supposed, every soul in the manor was still soundasleep. Only the guards on watch at the gate demanded: "Halt! Who comesthere?"
On learning that the intruder was a "friend," they allowed him to wakenthe porter, who thrust his frowzy head from the half-open door to ask,in surprise, what was wanted.
"Is the Herr Colonel at home?" inquired Count Vavel.
"Yes, your lordship; but he is in bed."
"Is he ill?"
"No, your lordship; but he is in bed, of course, at this hour."
"Why, how can a man who is not ill stay in bed until three o'clock?"
The count turned over a corner of his card, and handed it to the porter.
This, at last, the colonel understood, and left no more cards at theNameless Castle.
* * * * *
The officers quartered at the manor were agreeable companions. VicomteLeon Barthelmy was a true courtier, a brave soldier, an entertainingcomrade, and a generous master. Even his enemies would have admittedthat his manners were irresistible in the salon, as well as on thebattle-field. Every one knew that Colonel Barthelmy was a marriedman--that he had a wife with whom, however, he did not live, but fromwhom he had not been divorced.
Susceptible feminine hearts did not risk a flirtation with thefascinating soldier, being forewarned by the canonical laws of thechurch, which forbade more intimate relations. There was no need to fearfor so prudent and discreet a woman as the Baroness KatharinaLandsknechtsschild. Her principles were very sound, and firmly grounded.She permitted no familiarities beyond a certain limit, but made no coypretence of avoiding innocent amusements. Her affable treatment of theofficers was easily explained. She had not received the gentlemenresiding in the neighborhood, because they would very soon have visitedthe manor with a special object--they would have come as suitors for herhand. She would have been compelled to reject such offers, and wouldhave given rise to all sorts of gossip. Moreover, these country magnateswere tiresome persons; for, when they were once gathered about agaming-table, the four ladies in a pack of cards engrossed so much oftheir attention that they had no thought for any of the living womenabout them.
The sons of Mars, on the contrary, were devoted entirely to the serviceof the fair sex. Many of the officers' wives accompanied the regiment,and these helped to make up the quadrille, the mazurka, the redowa,--atthat time the latest dance,--and every day saw a merry gathering ofrevelers.
One day there would be a series of entertaining games; another day therewould be a play on a hastily improvised stage, in which the baronessherself would take a part, and win well-deserved applause by hergraceful and artistic acting.
There were several skilled amateur jugglers among the merry company, whowould give performances _a la_ Bosko and Philadelphia; and others woulddelight the audience with the wonderful scenes of a magic lantern.
Once the baroness arranged a chase, and herself joined in the hunt afterthe pheasants and deer on her estate, proving herself a skilled Amazonin the saddle and in the management of her rifle. Then, the officersimprovised a horse-race; and once they even got up a circus, in whi
chall look part.
Count Vavel, in his tower, was an interested spectator of many of theseamusements. There had been a time when he, too, had taken part in andenjoyed just such sports. He was a lover of the chase and ofhorse-racing. No one knew better than he the keen delights of a cleanvault over ditches and hedges. If only he might join the merry companydown yonder, _he_ could show them some riding!
And as for hunting? He could spend whole days on the mountains,clambering after the fleet-footed chamois, following the larger gamethrough morass and forest. He had grown up amid exhilarating sports suchas these.
And the dance-music! How alluring were the strains! and how oftenthrough the day he found himself humming the melodies which had floatedto him from the open windows of the manor! Once he, too, had takenpleasure in jesting with fair women until their white shoulders wouldshake with merry laughter. And all this he must look upon and hear at adistance, since he had made himself his own jailer!
* * * * *
During these weeks Marie was very restless. The sound of the trumpetsstartled her; the unusual noises terrified her. She whose nightlyslumbers had been guarded from the barking of dogs and the crowing offowls now was obliged to listen half the night to clarionet, horn, andpiccolo, and to wonder what these people could be doing that they kepttheir music going until such late hours.
One circumstance, however, reconciled Marie to the excitement of thesedays: Ludwig spent more time with her; and though his face was as sternas ever, she could not detect in it the melancholy which cannot beconcealed from the eyes of the woman who can look into the depths, ofthe soul.