CHAPTER XXVII.
TO ME, MY FRIENDS!
I was impatient to learn who had come, and what was their errand withme; and being still in that state of exaltation in which we seem tohear and see more than at other times, I remarked a peculiar laggingin the ascending footsteps, and a lack of buoyancy, which was quick tocommunicate itself to my mind. A vague dread fell upon me as I stoodlistening. Before the door opened I had already conceived a score ofdisasters. I wondered that I had not inquired earlier concerning theking's safety, and in fine I experienced in a moment that completereaction of the spirits which is too frequently consequent upon anexcessive flow of gaiety.
I was prepared, therefore, for heavy looks, but not for the personswho wore them nor the strange bearing the latter displayed onentering. My visitors proved to be M. d'Agen and Simon Fleix. And sofar well. But the former, instead of coming forward to greet me withthe punctilious politeness which always characterised him, and which Ihad thought to be proof against every kind of surprise and peril, metme with downcast eyes and a countenance so gloomy as to augment myfears a hundredfold; since it suggested all those vague and formidablepains which M. de Rambouillet had hinted might await me in a prison. Ithought nothing more probable than the entrance after them of a gaolerladen with gyves and handcuffs; and saluting M. Francois with a facewhich, do what I would, fashioned itself upon his, I had scarcecomposure sufficient to place the poor accommodation of my room at hisdisposal.
He thanked me; but he did it with so much gloom and so littlenaturalness that I grew more impatient with each laboured syllable.Simon Fleix had slunk to the window and turned his back on us. Neitherseemed to have anything to say. But a state of suspense was one whichI could least endure to suffer; and impatient of the constraint whichmy friend's manner was fast imparting to mine, I asked him at once andabruptly if his uncle had returned.
'He rode in about midnight,' he answered, tracing a pattern on thefloor with the point of his riding-switch.
I felt some surprise on hearing this, since d'Agen was still dressedand armed for the road, and was without all those prettinesses whichcommonly marked his attire. But as he volunteered no furtherinformation, and did not even refer to the place in which he found me,or question me as to the adventures which had lodged me there, I letit pass, and asked him if his party had overtaken the deserters.
'Yes,' he answered, 'with no result.'
'And the king?'
'M. de Rambouillet is with him now,' he rejoined, still bending overhis tracing.
This answer relieved the worst of my anxieties, but the manner of thespeaker was so distrait and so much at variance with the studied_insouciance_ which he usually affected, that I only grew morealarmed. I glanced at Simon Fleix, but he kept his face averted, and Icould gather nothing from it; though I observed that he, too, wasdressed for the road, and wore his arms. I listened, but I could hearno sounds which indicated that the Provost-Marshal was approaching.Then on a sudden I thought of Mademoiselle de la Vire. Could it bethat Maignan had proved unequal to his task?
I started impetuously from my stool under the influence of the emotionwhich this thought naturally aroused, and seized M. d'Agen by the arm.'What has happened?' I exclaimed. 'Is it Bruhl? Did he break into mylodgings last night? What!' I continued, staggering back as I read theconfirmation of my fears in his face. 'He did?'
M. d'Agen, who had risen also, pressed my hand with convulsive energy.Gazing into my face, he held me a moment thus embraced, his manner astrange mixture of fierceness and emotion. 'Alas, yes,' he answered,'he did, and took away those whom he found there! Those whom he foundthere, you understand! But M. de Rambouillet is on his way here, andin a few minutes you will be free. We will follow together. If weovertake them--well. If not, it will be time to talk.'
He broke off, and I stood looking at him, stunned by the blow, yet inthe midst of my own horror and surprise retaining sense enough towonder at the gloom on his brow and the passion which trembled in hiswords. What had this to do with him? 'But Bruhl?' I said at last,recovering myself with an effort--'how did he gain access to the room?I left it guarded.'
'By a ruse, while Maignan and his men were away,' was the answer.'Only this lad of yours was there. Bruhl's men overpowered him.'
'Which way has Bruhl gone?' I muttered, my throat dry, my heartbeating wildly.
He shook his head. 'All we know is that he passed through the southgate with eleven horsemen, two women, and six led horses, at daybreakthis morning,' he answered. 'Maignan came to my uncle with the news,and M. de Rambouillet went at once, early as it was, to the king toprocure your release. He should be here now.'
I looked at the barred window, the most horrible fears at my heart;from it to Simon Fleix, who stood beside it, his attitude expressingthe utmost dejection. I went towards him. 'You hound!' I said in a lowvoice, 'how did it happen?'
To my surprise he fell in a moment on his knees, and raised his arm asthough to ward off a blow. 'They imitated Maignan's voice,' hemuttered hoarsely. 'We opened.'
'And you dare to come here and tell me!' I cried, scarcely restrainingmy passion. 'You, to whom I. entrusted her. You, whom I thoughtdevoted to her. You have destroyed her, man!'
He rose as suddenly as he had cowered down. His thin, nervous faceunderwent a startling change; growing on a sudden hard and rigid,while his eyes began to glitter with excitement. 'I--I have destroyedher? Ay, mon dieu! I _have_,' he cried, speaking to my face, and nolonger flinching or avoiding my eye. 'You may kill me, if you like.You do not know all. It was I who stole the favour she gave you fromyour doublet, and then said M. de Rosny had taken it! It was I whotold her you had given it away! It was I who brought her to the LittleSisters', that she might see you with Madame de Bruhl! It was I whodid all, and destroyed her! Now you know! Do with me what you like!'
He opened his arms as though to receive a blow, while I stood beforehim astounded beyond measure by a disclosure so unexpected; full ofrighteous wrath and indignation, and yet uncertain what I ought to do.'Did you also let Bruhl into the room on purpose?' I cried at last.
'I?' he exclaimed, with a sudden flash of rage in his eyes. 'I wouldhave died first!'
I do not know how I might have taken this confession; but at themoment there was a trampling of horses outside, and before I couldanswer him I heard M. de Rambouillet speaking in haughty tones, at thedoor below. The Provost-Marshal was with him, but his lower notes werelost in the ring of bridles and the stamping of impatient hoofs. Ilooked towards the door of my room, which stood ajar, and presentlythe two entered, the Marquis listening with an air of contemptuousindifference to the apologies which the other, who attended at hiselbow, was pouring forth. M. de Rambouillet's face reflected none ofthe gloom and despondency which M. d'Agen's exhibited in so marked adegree. He seemed, on the contrary, full of gaiety and good-humour,and, coming forward and seeing me, embraced me with the utmostkindness and condescension.
'Ha! my friend,' he said cheerfully, 'so I find you here after all!But never fear. I am this moment from the king with an order for yourrelease. His Majesty has told me all, making me thereby your lastingfriend and debtor. As for this gentleman,' he continued, turning witha cold smile to the Provost-Marshal, who seemed to be trembling in hisboots, 'he may expect an immediate order also. M. de Villequier haswisely gone a-hunting, and will not be back for a day or two.'
Racked as I was by suspense and anxiety, I could not assail him withimmediate petitions. It behoved me first to thank him for his promptintervention, and this in terms as warm as I could invent. Nor could Iin justice fail to commend the Provost to him, representing theofficer's conduct to me, and lauding his ability. All this, though myheart was sick with thought and fear and disappointment, and everyminute seemed an age.
'Well, well,' the Marquis said with stately good-nature, we will laythe blame on Villequier then. He is an old fox, however, and ten toone he will go scot-free. It is not the first time he has played t
histrick. But I have not yet come to the end of my commission,' hecontinued pleasantly. 'His Majesty sends you this, M. de Marsac, andbade me say that he had loaded it for you.'
He drew from under his cloak as he spoke the pistol which I had leftwith the king, and which happened to be the same M. de Rosny had givenme. I took it, marvelling impatiently at the careful manner in whichhe handled it; but in a moment I understood, for I found it loaded tothe muzzle with gold-pieces, of which two or three fell and rolledupon the floor. Much moved by this substantial mark of the king'sgratitude, I was nevertheless for pocketing them in haste; but theMarquis, to satisfy a little curiosity on his part, would have mecount them, and brought the tale to a little over two thousand livres,without counting a ring set with precious stones which I found amongthem. This handsome present diverted my thoughts from Simon Fleix, butcould not relieve the anxiety I felt on mademoiselle's account. Thethought of her position so tortured me that M. de Rambouillet began toperceive my state of mind, and hastened to assure me that before goingto the Court he had already issued orders calculated to assist me.
'You desire to follow this lady, I understand?' he said. 'What withthe king, who is enraged beyond the ordinary by this outrage, andFrancois there, who seemed beside himself when he heard the news, Ihave not got any very clear idea of the position.'
'She was entrusted to me by--by one, sir, well known to you,' Ianswered hoarsely. 'My honour is engaged to him and to her. If Ifollow on my feet and alone, I must follow. If I cannot save her, Ican at least punish the villains who have wronged her.'
'But the man's wife is with them,' he said in some wonder.
'That goes for nothing,' I answered.
He saw the strong emotion under which I laboured, and which scarcelysuffered me to answer him with patience; and he looked at mecuriously, but not unkindly. 'The sooner you are off, the betterthen,' he said, nodding. 'I gathered as much. The man Maignan willhave his fellows at the south gate an hour before noon, I understand.Francois has two lackeys, and he is wild to go. With yourself and thelad there you will muster nine swords. I will lend you two. I canspare no more, for we may have an _emeute_ at any moment. You willtake the road, therefore, eleven in all, and should overtake them sometime to-night if your horses are in condition.'
I thanked him warmly, without regarding his kindly statement that myconduct on the previous day had laid him under lasting obligations tome. We went down together, and he transferred two of his fellows to methere and then, bidding them change their horses for fresh ones andmeet me at the south gate. He sent also a man to my stable--SimonFleix having disappeared in the confusion--for the Cid, and was in theact of inquiring whether I needed anything else, when a woman slippedthrough the knot of horsemen who surrounded us as we stood in thedoorway of the house, and, throwing herself upon me, grasped me by thearm. It was Fanchette. Her harsh features were distorted with grief,her cheeks were mottled with the violent weeping in which such personsvent their sorrow. Her hair hung in long wisps on her neck. Her dresswas torn and draggled, and there was a great bruise over her eye. Shehad the air of one frantic with despair and misery.
She caught me by the cloak, and shook me so that I staggered. 'I havefound you at last!' she cried joyfully. 'You will take me with you!You will take me to her!'
Though her words tried my composure, and my heart went out to her, Istrove to answer her according to the sense of the matter. 'It isimpossible,' I said sternly. 'This is a man's errand. We shall have toride day and night, my good woman.'
'But I will ride day and night too!' she replied passionately,flinging the hair from her eyes, and looking wildly from me to M. deRambouillet. 'What would I not do for her? I am as strong as a man,and stronger. Take me, take me, I say, and when I meet that villain Iwill tear him limb from limb!'
I shuddered, listening to her; but remembering that, being countrybred, she was really as strong as she said, and that likely enoughsome advantage might accrue to us from her perfect fidelity anddevotion to her mistress, I gave a reluctant consent. I sent one of M.de Rambouillet's men to the stable where the deaf man's bay wasstanding, bidding him pay whatever was due to the dealer, and bringthe horse to the south gate; my intention being to mount one of my menon it, and furnish the woman with a less tricky steed.
The briskness of these and the like preparations, which even for oneof my age and in my state of anxiety were not devoid of pleasure,prevented my thoughts dwelling on the future. Content to have M.Francois' assistance without following up too keenly the train ofideas which his readiness suggested, I was satisfied also to make useof Simon without calling him to instant account for his treachery. Thebustle of the streets, which the confirmation of the king's speedydeparture had filled with surly, murmuring crowds, tended stillfurther to keep my fears at bay; while the contrast between mypresent circumstances, as I rode through them well-appointed andwell-attended, with the Marquis by my side, and the poor appearance Ihad exhibited on my first arrival in Blois, could not fail to inspireme with hope that I might surmount this danger also, and in the eventfind Mademoiselle safe and uninjured. I took leave of M. deRambouillet with many expressions of esteem on both sides, and a fewminutes before eleven reached the rendezvous outside the south gate.
M. d'Agen and Maignan advanced to meet me, the former still presentingan exterior so stern and grave that I wondered to see him, and couldscarcely believe he was the same gay spark whose elegant affectationshad more than once caused me to smile. He saluted me in silence;Maignan with a sheepish air, which ill-concealed the savage temperdefeat had roused in him. Counting my men, I found we mustered tenonly, but the equerry explained that he had despatched a rider aheadto make inquiries and leave word for us at convenient points; to theend that we might follow the trail with as few delays as possible.Highly commending Maignan for his forethought in this, I gave the wordto start, and crossing the river by the St. Gervais Bridge, we tookthe road for Selles at a smart trot.
The weather had changed much in the last twenty-four hours. The sunshone brightly, with a warm west wind, and the country already showedsigns of the early spring which marked that year. If, the first hurryof departure over, I had now leisure to feel the gnawing of anxietyand the tortures inflicted by an imagination which, far outstrippingus, rode with those whom we pursued and shared their perils, I foundtwo sources of comfort still open to me. No man who has seen servicecan look on a little band of well-appointed horsemen without pleasure.I reviewed the stalwart forms and stern faces which moved beside me,and comparing their decent order and sound equipments with the scurvyfoulness of the men who had ridden north with me, thanked God, andceased to wonder at the indignation which Matthew and his fellows hadaroused in mademoiselle's mind. My other source of satisfaction, theregular beat of hoofs and ring of bridles continually augmented. Everystep took us farther from Blois--farther from the close town andreeking streets and the Court; which, if it no longer seemed to me ashambles, befouled by one great deed of blood--experience had removedthat impression--retained an appearance infinitely mean and miserablein my eyes. I hated and loathed its intrigues and its jealousies, thefolly which trifled in a closet while rebellion mastered France, andthe pettiness which recognised no wisdom save that of balancing partyand party. I thanked God that my work there was done, and could havewelcomed any other occasion that forced me to turn my back on it, andsent me at large over the pure heaths, through the woods, and underthe wide heaven, speckled with moving clouds.
But such springs of comfort soon ran dry. M. d'Agen's gloomy rage andthe fiery gleam in Maignan's eye would have reminded me, had I been inany danger of forgetting the errand on which we were bound, and theneed, exceeding all other needs, which compelled us to lose no momentthat might be used. Those whom we followed had five hours' start. Thethought of what might happen in those five hours to the two helplesswomen whom I had sworn to protect burned itself into my mind; so thatto refrain from putting spurs to my horse and riding recklesslyforward taxed at times all my self-control. The horses
seemed tocrawl. The men rising and falling listlessly in their saddles maddenedme. Though I could not hope to come upon any trace of our quarry formany hours, perhaps for days, I scanned the long, flat heathsunceasingly, searched every marshy bottom before we descended into it,and panted for the moment when the next low ridge should expose to ourview a fresh track of wood and waste. The rosy visions of the pastnight, and those fancies in particular which had made the dawnmemorable, recurred to me, as his deeds in the body (so men say) to ahopeless drowning wretch. I grew to think of nothing but Bruhl andrevenge. Even the absurd care with which Simon avoided theneighbourhood of Fanchette, riding anywhere so long as he mightride at a distance from the angry woman's tongue and hand--whichprovoked many a laugh from the men, and came to be the joke of thecompany--failed to draw a smile from me.
We passed through Contres, four leagues from Blois, an hour afternoon, and three hours later crossed the Cher at Selles, where westayed awhile to bait our horses. Here we had news of the party beforeus, and henceforth had little doubt that Bruhl was making for theLimousin; a district in which he might rest secure under theprotection of Turenne, and safely defy alike the King of France andthe King of Navarre. The greater the necessity, it was plain, forspeed; but the roads in that neighbourhood, and forward as far asValancy, proved heavy and foundrous, and it was all we could do toreach Levroux with jaded horses three hours after sunset. Theprobability that Bruhl would lie at Chateauroux, five leagues fartheron--for I could not conceive that under the circumstances he wouldspare the women,--would have led me to push forward had it beenpossible; but the darkness and the difficulty of finding a guide whowould venture deterred me from the hopeless attempt, and we stayed thenight where we were.
Here we first heard of the plague; which was said to be ravagingChateauroux and all the country farther south. The landlord of the innwould have regaled us with many stories of it, and particularly of theswiftness with which men and even cattle succumbed to its attacks. Butwe had other things to think of, and between anxiety and weariness hadclean forgotten the matter when we rose next morning.
We started shortly after daybreak, and for three leagues pressed on attolerable speed. Then, for no reason stated, our guide gave us theslip as we passed through a wood, and was seen no more. We lost theroad, and had to retrace our steps. We strayed into a slough, andextracted ourselves with difficulty. The man who was riding the bay Ihad purchased forgot the secret which I had imparted to him, and gotan ugly fall. In fine, after all these mishaps it wanted little ofnoon, and less to exhaust our patience, when at length we came insight of Chateauroux.
Before entering the town we had still an adventure; for we came at aturn in the road on a scene as surprising as it was at firstinexplicable. A little north of the town, in a coppice of box facingthe south and west, we happed suddenly on a rude encampment,consisting of a dozen huts and booths, set back from the road andformed, some of branches of evergreen trees laid clumsily together,and some of sacking stretched aver poles. A number of men and women ofdecent appearance lay on the short grass before the booths, idlysunning themselves; or moved about, cooking and tending fires, while ascore of children raced to and fro with noisy shouts and laughter. Theappearance of our party on the scene caused an instant panic. Thewomen and children fled screaming into the wood, spreading the soundof breaking branches farther and farther as they retreated; while themen, a miserable pale-faced set, drew together, and seeming halfinclined to fly also, regarded us with glances of fear and suspicion.
Remarking that their appearance and dress were not those of vagrants,while the booths seemed to indicate little skill or experience in thebuilders, I bade my companions halt, and advanced alone.
'What is the meaning of this, my men?' I said, addressing the firstgroup I reached. 'You seem to have come a-Maying before the time.Whence are you?'
'From Chateauroux,' the foremost answered sullenly. His dress, now I:saw him nearer, seemed to be that of a respectable townsman.
'Why?' I replied. 'Have you no homes?'
'Ay we have homes,' he answered with the same brevity.
'Then why, in God's name, are you here?' I retorted, marking thegloomy air and downcast faces of the group. 'Have you been harried?'
'Ay, harried by the Plague!' he answered bitterly. 'Do you mean to sayyou have not heard? In Chateauroux there is one man dead in three.Take my advice, sir--you are a brave company--turn, and go homeagain.'
'Is it as bad as that?' I exclaimed. I had forgotten the landlord'sgossip, and the explanation struck me with the force of surprise.
'Ay, is it! Do you see the blue haze?' he continued, pointing with asudden gesture to the lower ground before us, over which a light pallof summery vapour hung still and motionless. 'Do you see it? Well,under that there is death! You may find food in Chateauroux, andstalls for your horses, and a man to take money; for there are stillmen there. But cross the Indre, and you will see sights worse than abattle-field a week old! You will find no living soul in house orstable or church, but corpses plenty. The land is cursed! cursed forheresy, some say! Half are dead, and half are fled to the woods! Andif you do not die of the plague, you will starve.'
'God forbid!' I muttered, thinking with a shudder of those before us.This led me to ask him if a party resembling ours in number, andincluding two women, had passed that way. He answered, Yes, aftersunset the evening before; that their horses were stumbling withfatigue and the men swearing in pure weariness. He believed that theyhad not entered the town, but had made a rude encampment half a milebeyond it; and had again broken this up, and ridden southwards two orthree hours before our arrival.
'Then we may overtake them to-day?' I said.
'By your leave, sir,' he answered, with grave meaning. 'I think youare more likely to meet them.'
Shrugging my shoulders, I thanked him shortly and left him; the fullimportance of preventing my men hearing what I had heard--lest thepanic which possessed these townspeople should seize on themalso--being already in my mind. Nevertheless the thought came toolate, for on turning my horse I found one of the foremost, a long,solemn-faced man, had already found his way to Maignan's stirrup;where he was dilating so eloquently upon the enemy which awaited ussouthwards that the countenances of half the troopers were as long ashis own, and I saw nothing for it but to interrupt his oration by asmart application of my switch to his shoulders. Having thus stoppedhim, and rated him back to his fellows, I gave the word to march. Themen obeyed mechanically, we swung into a canter, and for a moment thedanger was over.
But I knew that it would recur again and again. Stealthily marking thefaces round me, and listening to the whispered talk which went on, Isaw the terror spread from one to another. Voices which earlier in theday had been raised in song and jest grew silent. Great recklessfellows of Maignan's following, who had an oath and a blow for allcomers, and to whom the deepest ford seemed to be child's play, rodewith drooping heads and knitted brows; or scanned with ill-concealedanxiety the strange haze before us, through which the roofs of thetown, and here and there a low hill or line of poplars, rose toplainer view. Maignan himself, the stoutest of the stout, lookedgrave, and had lost his swaggering air. Only three persons preservedtheir _sang-froid_ entire. Of these, M. d'Agen rode as if he had heardnothing, and Simon Fleix as if he feared nothing; while Fanchette,gazing eagerly forward, saw, it was plain, only one object in themist, and that was her mistress's face.
We found the gates of the town open, and this, which proved to be theherald of stranger sights, daunted the hearts of my men more than themost hostile reception. As we entered, our horses' hoofs, clatteringloudly on the pavement, awoke a hundred echoes in the empty houses toright and left. The main street, flooded with sunshine, which made itsdesolation seem a hundred times more formidable, stretched away beforeus, bare and empty; or haunted only by a few slinking dogs, andprowling wretches, who fled, affrighted at the unaccustomed sounds, orstood and eyed us listlessly as we passed. A bell tolled; in thedistance we heard the wailing of w
omen. The silent ways, the blackcross which marked every second door, the frightful faces which onceor twice looked out from upper windows and blasted our sight, infectedmy men with terror so profound and so ungovernable that at lastdiscipline was forgotten; and one shoving his horse before another innarrow places, there was a scuffle to be first. One, and then asecond, began to trot. The trot grew into a shuffling canter. Thegates of the inn lay open, nay seemed to invite us to enter; but noone turned or halted. Moved by a single-impulse we pushed breathlesslyon and on, until the open country was reached, and we who had enteredthe streets in silent awe, swept out and over the bridge as if thefiend were at our heels.
That I shared in this flight causes me no shame even now, for my menwere at the time ungovernable, as the best-trained troops are whenseized by such panics; and, moreover, I could have done no good byremaining in the town, where the strength of the contagion wasprobably greater and the inn larder like to be as bare as thehillside. Few towns are without a hostelry outside the gates for theconvenience of knights of the road or those who would avoid the dues,and Chateauroux proved no exception to this rule. A short half-milefrom the walls we drew rein before a second encampment raised about awayside house. It scarcely needed the sound of music mingled withbrawling voices to inform us that the wilder spirits of the town hadtaken refuge here, and were seeking to drown in riot and debauchery,as I have seen happen in a besieged place, the remembrance of theenemy which stalked; abroad in the sunshine. Our sudden appearance,while it put a stop to the mimicry of mirth, brought out a score ofmen and women in every stage of drunkenness and dishevelment, of whomsome, with hiccoughs and loose gestures, cried to us to join them,while others swore horridly at being recalled to the present, which,with the future, they were endeavouring to forget.
I cursed them in return for a pack of craven wretches, and threateningto ride down those who obstructed; us, ordered my men forward; haltingeventually a quarter of a mile farther on, where a wood of groundlingoaks which still wore last year's leaves afforded fair shelter. Afraidto leave my men myself, lest some should stray to the inn and othersdesert altogether, I requested M. d'Agen to return thither withMaignan and Simon, and bring us what forage and food we required. Thishe did with perfect success, though not until after a scuffle, inwhich Maignan showed himself a match for a hundred. We watered thehorses at a neighbouring brook, and assigning two hours to rest and:refreshment--a great part of which M. d'Agen and I spent walking upand down in moody silence, each immersed in his own thoughts--wepresently took the road again with renewed spirits.
But a panic is not easily shaken off, nor is any fear so difficult tocombat and defeat as the fear of the invisible. The terrors which foodand drink had for a time thrust out presently returned with sevenfoldforce. Men looked uneasily in one another's faces, and from them tothe haze which veiled all distant objects. They muttered of the heat,which was sudden, strange, and abnormal at that time of the year. Andby-and-by they had other things to speak of. We met a man, who ranbeside us and begged of us, crying out in a dreadful voice that hiswife and four children lay unburied in the house. A little farther on,beside a well, the corpse of a woman with a child at her breast laypoisoning the water; she had crawled to it to appease her thirst, anddied of the draught. Last of all, in a beech-wood near Lotier we cameupon a lady I living in her coach, with one or two panic-strickenwomen for her only attendants. Her husband was in Paris, she told me;half her servants were dead, the rest had fled. Still she retained ina remarkable degree both courage and courtesy, and accepting withfortitude my reasons and excuses for perforce, leaving her in such aplight, gave me a clear account of Bruhl and his party, who had passedher some hours before. The picture of this lady gazing after us withperfect good-breeding, as we rode away at speed, followed by thelamentations of her women, remains with me to this day; filling mymind at once with admiration and melancholy. For, as I learned later,she fell ill of the plague where we left her in the beech-wood, anddied in a night with both her servants.
The intelligence we had from her inspired us to push forward, sparingneither spur nor horseflesh, in the hope that we might overtake Bruhlbefore night should expose his captives to fresh hardships anddangers. But the pitch to which the dismal sights and sounds I havementioned, and a hundred like them, had raised the fears of myfollowing did much to balk my endeavours. For a while, indeed, underthe influence of momentary excitement, they spurred their horses tothe gallop, as if their minds were made up to face the worst; butpresently they checked them despite all my efforts, and, laggingslowly and more slowly, seemed to lose all spirit and energy. Thedesolation which met our eyes on every side, no less than thedeath-like stillness which prevailed, even the birds, as it seemed tous, being silent, chilled the most reckless to the heart. Maignan'sface lost its colour, his voice its ring. As for the rest, starting ata sound and wincing if a leather galled them, they glanced backwardstwice for once they looked forwards, and held themselves ready to taketo their heels and be gone at the least alarm.
Noting these signs, and doubting if I could trust even Maignan, Ithought it prudent to change my place, and falling to the rear, rodethere with a grim face and a pistol ready to my hand. It was not theleast of my annoyances that M. d'Agen appeared to be ignorant of anycause for apprehension save such as lay before us, and riding on inthe same gloomy fit which had possessed him from the moment ofstarting, neither sought my opinion nor gave his own, but seemed tohave undergone so complete and mysterious a change that I could thinkof one thing only that could have power to effect so marvellous atransformation. I felt his presence a trial rather than a help, andreviewing the course of our short friendship, which a day or twobefore had been so great a delight to me--as the friendship of a youngman commonly is to one growing old--I puzzled myself with muchwondering whether there could be rivalry between us.
Sunset, which was welcome to my company, since it removed the haze,which they regarded with superstitious dread, found us still ploddingthrough a country of low ridges and shallow valleys, both clothed inoak-woods. Its short brightness died away, and with it my last hope ofsurprising Bruhl before I slept. Darkness fell upon us as we wendedour way slowly down a steep hillside where the path was so narrow anddifficult as to permit only one to descend at a time. A stream of somesize, if we might judge from the noise it made, poured through theravine below us, and presently, at the point where we believed thecrossing to be, we espied a solitary light shining in the blackness.To proceed farther was impossible, for the ground grew more and moreprecipitous; and, seeing this, I bade Maignan dismount, and leaving uswhere we were, go for a guide to the house from which the lightissued.
He obeyed, and plunging into the night, which in that pit between thehills was of an inky darkness, presently returned with a peasant and alanthorn. I was about to bid the man guide us to the ford, or to somelevel ground where we could picket the horses, when Maignan gleefullycried out that he had news. I asked what news.
'Speak up, _manant!_' he said, holding up his lanthorn so that thelight fell on the man's haggard face and unkempt hair. 'Tell hisExcellency what you have told me, or I will skin you alive, littleman!'
'Your other party came to the ford an hour before sunset,' the peasantanswered, staring dully at us. 'I saw them coming, and hid myself.They quarrelled by the ford. Some were for crossing, and some not.'
'They had ladies with them?' M. d'Agen said suddenly.
'Ay, two, your Excellency,' the clown answered, 'riding like men. Inthe end they did not cross for fear of the plague, but turned up theriver, and rode westwards towards St. Gaultier.'
'St. Gaultier!' I said. 'Where is that? Where does the road to it goto besides?'
But the peasant's knowledge was confined to his own neighbourhood. Heknew no world beyond St. Gaultier, and could not answer my question. Iwas about to bid him show us the way down, when Maignan cried out thathe knew more.
'What?' I asked.
'Arnidieu! he heard them say where they were going to spend thenight!<
br />
'Ha!' I cried. 'Where?'
'In an old ruined castle two leagues from this, and between here andSt. Gaultier,' the equerry answered, forgetting in his triumph bothplague and panic. 'What do you I say to that, your Excellency?' It isso, sirrah, is it not?' he continued; turning to the peasant. 'Speak,Master Jacques, or I will roast you before a slow fire!'
But I did not wait to hear the answer. Leaping to the ground, I tookthe Cid's rein on my arm, and cried impatiently to the man to lead usdown.
Historical Romances: Under the Red Robe, Count Hannibal, A Gentleman of France Page 79