CHAPTER XXIV
PEACE BEFORE STORM
The 18th of March dawned clear and bright, the wind still a littlechill, but the whole land, as we looked down upon it from our Gobeletwatch-tower on the front of St. Andre's hill, tinted white and pink withblossom, almond, peach, pear, plum, and cherry. It was wonderful to seethem running up, as it were scrambling over fence and rock scarp, tillthey broke in a sunshiny spray of hawthorn blossom against the greywalls of the _lycee_ of St. Andre.
Never was there a quieter day nor one that seemed filled with more happypromise. For the first time Linn and Alida had resumed their oldunderstanding. For there is no doubt that Linn had been somewhat jealousof the absorbing commerce between the house of Deventer and the cottagein the laurel bushes beyond the garden of Gobelet.
Keller had gone to Aramon, Linn said. He might be away all night, for hehad it in his mind to push as far as Marseilles. I knew of the Bey'sabsences from Autun, and so thought no more of the matter. Linn, put ingood humour by having Alida to herself (for me she did not count),talked freely of the beauties of their installation. The Basse Cour andthe poultry especially delighted her, and she had already prepared aruled book which was to show in parallel columns the cost of feeding ascompared with the result in chickens and eggs.
All that day no one crossed over the bridge from Chateau Schneider andthe time was blessed for Linn. She knew very well that it was for justsuch companionship that Alida had come to Aramon. She had herselfsupported the necessity for change, even against her husband. But allthe same, now when she got her Princess a day to herself she made themost of it, falling back into her old caressing habits and ready totreat Alida as the little girl who long ago had been put in her handswith all a queen's habits of command and the sweet waywardness of achild.
I helped when I could and fetched huge stuffed buffets and cushions, sothat Alida could install herself beside my father at the fishpond, andthen I left him to make his usual conquest. He was smiling and tranquilas I remember, but with an unwonted eagerness in his eye, which did notby any means come from the anticipation of a morning with Alida. Iremembered afterwards that he had had an interview the night before withKeller Bey in which they had talked much Arabic, and early this morninghe had dispatched Saunders McKie over the water with a letter to DennisDeventer. But these things did not fall into place in my mind, at leastnot till long afterwards.
We had a happy day among the sunflecked glades of Gobelet--that is,Alida, my father and I. When they two were alone, they talked Arabic,but ceased as soon as I joined them.
Conscious of the awkwardness Alida renewed her offer to teach mecolloquially if my father would put me in the way of learning thegrammar, while I regretted bitterly having wasted my time at St. Andre.Finally to change the subject we fell to talking over the Montmorenciesand their _Tour Carree_ on the heights of Aramon le Vieux. Here at hand,where the Tessiers slept at the far side of Dennis Deventer's flyingbridge of steel, was their gateway tower, still pitted by the balls ofMazarin's troops. For a Montmorency of those days, probably held inleash by his wife, had taken the popular side in the wars of the Fronde.
Down there on that islet in the reign of Louis XII (said my father) agreat tournament was held in which the knights of France, light andlissom, overwhelmed the weightier champions of Burgundy.
If we had been more watchful as we talked, we might have seen the smokedie out of the tall chimneys of Aramon-les-Ateliers, the blast furnaceswithdraw their crowns of pale flame, and an unnatural quiet settle downupon the busy city.
But our minds were bent wholly on giving pleasure to Alida. She must betaken through this glade, climb this steep path, and see the marvellousspectacle of the Rhone delta with its wide wastes wandered over byfierce cattle, its sinuous waterways blocked by the only beaversremaining in Europe, and far away beyond it the violet-blue bar of theMidland Sea.
We did indeed conduct Alida from admiration to admiration, and she hadwhat I fear Rhoda Polly would have called "the time of her life." It didstrike me several times how strange it was that since my father had senthis morning message to Dennis Deventer, we had had no news of thehousehold at Chateau Schneider.
I sounded Saunders on the subject, but he knew nothing, or at leastwould tell nothing.
"The letter? Oh, Maister Dennis just read it and put it in his waistcoatpooch. Syne, says he, 'Saunders, will ye drink?' 'No,' says I; for if Idid, when I gaed hame I micht smell! So he gied me yin o' thae Frenchsovereigns as easy as puttin' a penny in the plate. Oh, a grand man isMaister Deventer when ye get the richt side o' him, but as they tell methe very deevil and a' when his monkey is up. Do you ken, MaisterAaengus, he was just trying me on, by asking me to drink? For if I hadta'en as muckle as a sup frae his hand, I micht hae whistled for the weeFrench sovereign--whilk is only barely worth saxteen shillings when a'is said and done!"
Nevertheless in the full bliss of ignorance we idled away the day whileabout us the flowers grew as we looked at them, so keen an edge was onthat spring day. Linn ranged her napery cupboards to her most perfectcontent, not that she could do it better than Mrs. Deventer had done,but simply for the satisfaction of, as it were, expressing her mind anddoing it differently.
The shadows passed steadily across the sundial. The underneathinscription became more strongly incised as the sun dipped westward. Therock plants on the little island in the pond fell into shadow and someclosed up their petals for the night. And still in the midst of a greatsilence we moved and smiled and were happy. Aramon le Vieux drowsedbeneath us. The good wives at their doors were out gossiping theirhardest, but in undertones which must not pass from one group toanother. Cats sunned themselves in window sills beyond the reach of theprowling cur, and the majestic river, so soon to be split and worriedinto a hundred waterways, _etangs_ and backwaters, passed noiselessly infront of us in one noble rush, level, calm, and swift.
I think it was about three o'clock in the afternoon when ProfessorRenard, coming from the post office, where the telegraph had beenrecently installed, brought tidings.
"There is a revolt in Paris," he said, "the soldiers and the NationalGuard have expelled the Government. That is the news they have received,but no one knows whether it is false or true."
Nor in the midst of our quiet park with the fruit trees in blossomeverywhere could we have any guess at the turmoil, the riding oforderlies, and the hasty ordering of official carriages in Paris.
Indeed, the talk passed to other matter and on the surface, and thetidings seemed to affect us little. So having left Linn still busy withher linen, Alida and I took our way to the look-out summer-house abovethe aerial swing of the suspension bridge, leaving the elders talkingvery soberly together.
"Surely there is no danger here?" the girl asked when we had seatedourselves. She spoke not from any fear but that she might contrive meansof helping her friends the Deventers if they needed it.
"Not that I know of," I answered, "but the workmen of Aramon are alwaysfiery and hard to handle. We _have_ had battles and sieges, yet thingswere smoothed over and the works went on as before--the men who had beenbusily shooting each other down talking over details of work and takingorders from one another as if nothing had happened."
"How long ago was that?"
"Only about two months," I explained, "but you need expect nothing ofthat kind on this side. The workmen never cross the bridge save when onpleasure bent, or when our July fair-time fills the green yonder withthe din of booths, circuses, and penny theatres."
Nevertheless, Alida's face continued to express trouble.
"But Rhoda Polly, her mother, and the others--are they in danger?"
"Not, I think, for the moment. The more serious the news from Paris, theless will the men think of their grievances against the Company and theCompany's manager. Last time the siege was bitter and determined on bothsides. Many were killed. Yet it was no more than a trade dispute whichMr. Deventer could have settled in half an hour if the men had broughttheir grievances directly to
him, instead of trying to wreck the worksfor the safety of which he is responsible."
"We must go and see for ourselves," said Alida imperiously. "If there isdanger for my friends, I must be there to share it."
"You must not do anything of the kind," I cried, "you do not understandthe fierce blindness which comes upon men at such times. I shall go, ifnecessary, and you shall stay with my father and Linn in the refugewhich those who love you have chosen for you."
"Then if I let you go, you will come back and tell me all--remember, donot put me off with lies such as they tell to ordinary women."
I promised, and as we stood looking across the glistening waters I sawfor the second time in my life the tricolour flutter down from itsstaff, and after a pause the shining "Tatter of Scarlet" of the redrevolution blow out on the valley wind.
A Tatter of Scarlet: Adventurous Episodes of the Commune in the Midi 1871 Page 25