CHAPTER XXIV.
What say you to a quick ride and a short chapter, reader? We have stoodwasting our time too long with cardinals and secretaries and courtiers.Let us set out on our journey toward Paris, with three strong horses,each under the saddle, two stout men, and a young lad, who, ride as hardas they will, still keeps ahead of them. They are not troubled with muchbaggage; but they have good long pistols at their saddle-bows, swords bytheir sides, and eke daggers in their belts.
The apparel of the two men had nothing remarkable in it. Each had thecommon slashed and laced pourpoint with the short cloak of the times,and their lower limbs were clad in that very peculiar and ugly garment,between trousers and breeches, which distinguished the epoch of LouisXIII. The boots, like a pair of gigantic funnels, however, covered notonly the foot and ankle, but the whole of the lower part of the leg, andhid in a degree the monstrous _chausses_. The young man was dressed withsomewhat greater taste and richness; and there was something in his airand his wondrous horsemanship which would have distinguished him at oncefrom his two followers without the accessories of dress. In vain hishorse--which he had bought in Nantes for a mere trifle, on account ofits vicious propensities--darted to the right or left at everysuspicious object, reared, plunged, and kicked; not all its effortscould shake him in the saddle for a moment: in vain the brute gallopedat full speed when he was only required to trot; the youth only whippedand spurred him the more, till at length the fierce beast, finding thathe had indeed got his master on his back, yielded with a good grace; andby the time the party reached Ancenis he was as quiet as a lamb.
But, though Ancenis is a pretty little town, and the fare is good andthe wine by no means bad, Edward Langdale was not inclined to lose timeby the way. One hour for refreshment was all that was allowed for man orhorse, and then on again they went toward Angers. It is true that Angersis somewhat more than fifty miles from Nantes, that the road in thosedays was not remarkable for its excellence, and that a broiling July sunhad shone upon the travellers from break of day till night; but Edwardsaw with his own eyes that the horses were well cared for; and all wasprepared for departure early the next morning. Here, however, for thefirst and only time during the journey, the safe-conduct was demanded byan officer of the governor. All was in order, however; no suspicion wasentertained, and on the little party went, to Suette, Duretal, LaFleche. The sweet little valley of the Loire passed with all its beautiesunseen; and, after two hours' repose at La Fleche, Fouletourte,Guecelard, and Le Mans were reached. Nearly one-half of the journeybetween Nantes and the first place to which Edward had been directed wasnow accomplished; but the horses--especially the two ridden by Pierrotand Jacques--showed evident signs of fatigue, and it was found necessaryto have their shoes removed and give them somewhat more time for repose.
Edward could not reach Chartres upon the third night, as he had hoped;but reflecting, with some apprehension, that if one of the horses wereto fall sick he had not funds sufficient to purchase another, heproceeded more quietly to Nogent le Rotrou, where he paused for thenight before the sun had gone down.
Now, the dear but hasty reader has come to a conclusion that I have beenengaged in writing an itinerancy, rather than a romance or a truehistory. But in this he is mistaken; for it was necessary to mention twolittle incidents which befell Lord Montagu's page on his way towardParis; and one of these occurred at Nogent le Rotrou. It was thereforerequisite to show that Edward got there; for an incident cannot happento a man at a place where he is not. It was necessary, also, to explainhow he arrived at that place later by some eight hours than he at firstexpected; for, if he had been able to continue the same galloping pacewith which he set out from Nantes, the incident would not have happenedat all.
At Nogent, the young Englishman--as is the case with mostEnglishmen--had looked to the accommodation of the horses in the firstinstance, and, having seen that they had a good dry stable, that thesaddles were taken off and that they were well rubbed down, he directedthem to be walked up and down before the house for a few minutes; when,to his consternation, he perceived that one of them was going somewhatlame. It was the horse ridden by long Pierrot la Grange, and one of thebest of the three; and a consultation in regard to the poor animal washeld immediately. One proposed one thing, another another; but, nonebeing particularly skilful in the veterinary art, and as Edward did notchoose to trust to a common blacksmith, it was determined to rest uponcold water applied to the lame foot and fetlock, and the horse was ledback to the stable.
The inn was a neat little auberge, and the landlord a fat, well-doing,clean-looking sinner as ever shortened a flagon or lengthened a bill. Hepromised worlds in the way of edible refreshment, trout and crayfishfrom the Huisne, pigeons from his own dove-cot, and capons equal tothose of Maine; and, while all these delicacies were in preparation,Edward took post before the door, standing beside the tall pole with agarland upon it, which in those days appeared at the entrance of many alittle cabaret in France.
As he thus stood, in not a very happy mood, two new travellers onhorseback trotted up. Their dress was coarse, and evidently not thecostume of any part of France that the young gentleman was acquaintedwith; but that which attracted his attention more particularly was thelameness of one of their horses, who limped much after the fashion ofPierrot's beast, but a great deal worse. The riders dismounted, and oneof them, passing him, gave him "_Bong jou_," in a strange sort of_patois_. Edward advanced to the side of the other, who was holding thebeasts, saying, "That horse seems very lame, my good friend."
"Oh, it is nothing," answered the man, in the same sort of jargon asthat of his companion. "He'll be well before morning: we are _marechauxde chevaux_, and will soon set him right. You see us go away to-morrow:he not lame then."
Shortly after the horses were led into the stable, and the younggentleman's dinner was announced; but, before partaking of any of thegood things, he followed the two strangers, and found that they wereprovided with all the tools of the blacksmith and all the oils andessences of the veterinary surgeon of that day. "Let him cool, and thenwe see," said the master, speaking to his companion; and the whole partyadjourned to the _salle-a-manger_. Five more hungry men never sat downto dinner, if they might be judged by their consumption of food; but allthe other guests, and the landlord more particularly, remarked that thetwo last-arrived strangers ate none of the admirable crayfish. Now, whenat a house of public entertainment you eat none of the especial dish ofthe place, it is not only an affront to your host, but an insult to hiscountry. The landlord shook his head and declared the men must be someoutlandish cannibals, for they neither spoke French nor ate crayfish. Inthis conclusion nobody gainsaid him,--not even the two men themselves,who did not seem to understand, but finished their dinner and went toattend to the lame horse.
Now, it may seem very strange in the author to entertain a reader with alame horse, with which, though fully as good as a dead ass, that readerseems to have nothing on earth to do. But I declare it is neither forthe purpose of filling up a vacant chapter, nor in any spirit ofperversity,--such as frequently seizes every writer,--nor from a desireto delay till I have made up my mind how to proceed, nor from anycaprice, that I pause upon that lame horse. On the contrary, it is apiece of genuine, serious history,--in fact, the only pure and dignifiedpiece of history in this whole book,--mentioned by authors of highrepute, and confirmed by a long train of consequences, which involved atleast the three next years of Edward Langdale's life in their network;and so the fate of that lame horse cannot be omitted. With one of thosesympathetic movements of the mind which we can neither direct norrestrain, and which lead us on the course of destiny whether we will ornot, the youth felt a personal interest in that lame horse,--was notone of his own horses lame?--and he went to the stable to see thetreatment the animal was to undergo. Need I pause to tell how one of theuncouth travellers took off the shoe, examined the foot, poured somefluid which he called oil of vipers into the hole left by one of thenails, wrapped an old rag round the hoof
, and did sundry otherbeneficent acts to the affected part? No: suffice it to say that heseemed to treat it so skilfully, and with so much of that decision whichcontinually passes for skill and nine times out of ten has as good aresult, that Edward determined he should try his hand on Pierrot's horsealso.
The immediate result was relief to both the beasts, and when theirseveral riders mounted next morning no sign of lameness was visible.
The score was paid, and Edward with his party rode away first; but theyhad not gone half a mile before they were overtaken by the twoblacksmiths, who seemed to desire company on the way, which theyaccounted for by telling the companions of the young cavalier that theywere wandering Savoyards, who, having some skill in horse-medicine, hadcome to France, made a little money, and were returning to their owncountry to live upon the fruits of their toil.
Now, Savoy is a fine country, and the people are a very good people,very much like other people who live amongst rocks and stones,--notquite so wise as serpents nor so innocent as doves. "Poor, patient,quiet, honest people," says Sterne, "fear not. Your poverty, thetreasury of your simple virtues, will not be envied you by the world,nor will your valleys be invaded by it." Now, why I quoted this authorin regard to Savoy was simply because the most interesting account ofany country is always given by a man who knows nothing about it. He hassuch a wide field to expatiate in! There are exceedingly good people inSavoy, and exceedingly good people come out of it; but there is atolerably large minority as cunning and as selfish as I ever met with.Now, Edward Langdale had few prejudices upon the matter. He had neverseen a Savoyard before, or one who pretended to be so; but he had hearda good deal of their "simple virtues," and, therefore, if the balanceleaned either way it was in their favor. But somehow the faces of histwo new companions did not please him, and he said not a word of theprobability that he would himself be obliged in the end to direct hissteps toward their mountain-land. Indeed, with a remarkable degree ofdiscretion in one so young, he had kept his own two immediate followersin ignorance of that and many other facts, and they went like lambs tothe slaughter with their heads hanging down, and thinking the journeysomewhat long, but without the slightest idea where it was to end. Whenthey had reached Chartres, however, he had to make many inquiries as tohis further course; and, though he conferred with the landlord of theEcu Royal himself, Pierrot la Grange stood provokingly near, and it isprobable--for his ears were long and sharp--he heard every word that wassaid, and drew his own conclusions.
The two Savoyards, or whatever they might be, had adhered to Edward andhis two companions with the tenacity of a bramble-shoot, and Edward hadno objection to their accompanying him a stage or two farther; but, ashe was now coming to one of the dangerous passes of his expedition, hedetermined to cut them loose at the end of the first thirty miles. Thosethirty miles, however, were destined to be performed slowly and withdifficulty.
The morning, when they quitted Chartres, was bright and beautiful; apale pink tint was in the sky, varied by brown clouds with golden edges;but ere they had half crossed the rich plain which lies between Chartresand Maintenon the rain began to fall, and a deluge poured down from thesky, rendering the roads wellnigh impassable. Still Edward rode on,passed Maintenon without stopping, and first drew bridle at Rambouillet.It was then beginning to grow dark, for the progress made had been veryslow, and every man in the party was drenched to the skin. To go fartherimmediately was out of the question and not exactly suited to Edward'splans. Indeed, what between fatigue and a sudden change in the weather,the face of Pierrot la Grange had become very blue, his limbs shivered,and his teeth chattered. Dinner--or rather, as they called it,supper--was soon served, and the young gentleman so far relaxed hisstern rule as to order some bottles of good wine for his drenchedcompanions, bidding Pierrot himself partake. The long man lookedsomewhat doubtfully at his master, but the temptation was too strong,and the fatal cup approached his lips. Edward soon left the party andwent out to make some inquiries. No one attempted to follow him, for theroom was warm and comfortable, and mirth and conviviality reigned.
Pierrot's first cup was the Rubicon. It was but wine, it is true; but hehad drunk nothing but water for wellnigh two months, and the firstdraught made him feel so comfortable that the second, and the third, andthe fourth, and the fifth were added in rapid succession. His tongue,which had been marvellously still for many weeks, was unloosed, and theunruly member did its part in setting free every thing that was asecret, or which he thought was one. In five minutes he was in fullcareer, and by the time that Edward returned--he had not been absenthalf an hour--the two Savoyards were made aware that the young gentlemanhad probably gone to inquire his way minutely to Dampierre, the place ofretreat of the Duchesse de Chevreuse. "For," said Pierrot, "he wasasking about it at Chartres; and the people there could not give himhalf the information he seemed to want."
On their part, too, the Savoyards were wonderfully free andconfidential; and the only one who retained his full discretion wasJacques Beaupre, who was remarkably taciturn, and kicked Pierrot's shinsunder the table,--a hint which he did not choose to take.
The entrance of Edward Langdale instantly silenced Master Pierrot,however, for he was not in the least drunk. In the ladder of inebrietythere are many rounds, and he had only reached the first, which with himwas always talkativeness. But Edward looked grave, for he had heard muchspeaking, with Pierrot's voice predominant; and, when the host enteredto inquire whether the guests would take some more wine, the younggentleman's "No" was uttered in a tone that went home to his follower'sconsciousness.
"What a fool I am!" thought Pierrot. "If it had been brandy, now,instead of wine, I should have been drunk again to a certainty."
The following morning at an early hour the whole party were once more inthe saddle, and the two Savoyards were ready as soon as the rest,seeming to think that they had fixed themselves upon the younggentleman's party. Edward examined the priming of his pistols before heset out, and ordered his followers to do so likewise; but, as the daybefore had been rainy, the precaution excited no remark, and the day'sjourney was begun.
Four or five miles only had passed, however, when, at a spot where aroad branched off through the forest to the left, the young Englishmansuddenly drew in his rein and turned to the Savoyards, saying, "Here, mygood friends, we have to part. That is your road, and this is mine."
The two men seemed much surprised, and even ventured to remonstrate,commending highly the safety and sociability of travelling in company,and magnifying the great advantage it would be to him to have two suchskilful smiths and horse-doctors in his train. They offered even to waitfor him, if he had business on the road, and to attend to his horseswithout pay.
But Edward Langdale was peremptory. "You said you were going to Savoy,"he remarked. "The only way to get there is to follow the road beforeyou. Moreover, it will be safer for you to go in other company thanmine; for I am subject to fits of choler, and apt to shoot people ifthey offend me, as that good gentleman, Monsieur Pierrot la Grange, caninform you."
"Ay, that he is!" exclaimed Pierrot. "I have got the bullet in my legnow."
The two men looked at each other in astonishment, and made someexclamation in a language which Edward did not understand, but which didnot sound like any species of Italian.
"Ah!" said Jacques Beaupre, solemnly, "it is a sad infirmity he has. Ialways ride on the right side of him, for he does not aim so well onthat side as on the left."
The two men smiled; but a slight movement of Edward's hand toward hispistols soon restored their gravity, and he added, "Take my advice. Goon your way, and let me see you go, for I do not choose to be followed."
A shrug of the shoulders and a shake of the rein was their only answer,and they rode away along the highroad before them.
Edward watched them for some distance, and then turned into the smallerpath on the left. "I do not like those men," he said, speaking to hisfollowers. "Both their countenances are bad; and, as for the taller oneof the two, I am cert
ain I have seen him at Nantes. I think it was inthe court of the chateau, the day we set out for Deux Rivieres."
"I think so too," said Jacques Beaupre. "He is too ugly to be forgotteneasily; and, as for their tongue, I think it is Basque. I once heardthat language spoken; and theirs is much more like it than Savoyard."
Poor Pierrot was conscience-stricken, and heartily wished his tongue hadbeen cut out before it had run away from his discretion on the precedingevening; but he kept his own counsel, and Jacques Beaupre had too muchof the laquais' spirit about him to tell of a companion before he wasfound out.
The day was dull and gray, but not actually raining, and the road wasmuddy and heavy to travel; but the forest was soon passed, and at theend of two hours Edward judged, by the descriptions he had received,that he was entering the vale of Chevreuse. Hidden in a dense shroud ofmist, it did not indeed look beautiful to his eyes, as he had been ledto believe; and, in some doubt, he stopped to ask a peasant, whom theyovertook driving an ox-cart, if the Chateau of Dampierre was near.
"Why, there it is, seigneur," said the man. "Dame! don't you see it?"And, looking forward, Edward caught a faint sight of some towers andpinnacles rising over the distant trees.
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