CHAPTER XII.
When my worthy acquaintance Hubert and his companions had departed inthe manner I have described in the last chapter, I had time to lookround me, and consider both my own situation and theirs who had justleft me.
From everything I had seen I could not doubt that the encounter withthe courier and his escort had taken place, and that the robbers hadproved successful. It was evident, however, that the struggle had beensevere; and from the slaughter of three of their horses, as well asfrom their leaving a fourth for myself, I was led to conclude thatfour of the gang had perished in the affray. At all events, no doubtcould exist as to their having left their late dwelling for ever; andI certainly was not a little obliged to them for the care which theyhad taken to provide me with the means of pursuing my journey.
Nevertheless, I judged that it might be expedient to examine theirhabitation and its vicinity thoroughly before I quitted it; and, ondoing so, I found that in the hurry of their departure they had leftbehind them my own saddle and accoutrements, which I instantly placedupon the horse instead of those with which they had furnished him, notknowing how far the fact of sitting in a thief's saddle might notcompromise me with those who might chance to be in pursuit of thethief. Having added my own peculiar saddlebags to the load of mycharger, I took such a general survey of the ground and the road whichled to it as might be useful afterwards, and, bidding farewell to theold mill, made the best of my way back to the high road. As I neverforgot a path that I had once travelled, I had no difficulty inretracing my steps to the exact point at which I had fallen into thehands of the robbers, and gladly found myself once more on the roadtowards St. Malo, free from any apprehension of fresh interruption.
The affray, however, with the courier and his escort, must have takenplace farther up the road, for it could not have failed to have leftbloody traces wherever it occurred; and I met with none such in myonward journey, which I now pursued in the same direction that I hadbeen following when I was interrupted. To tell the truth, I was not atall sorry to have no direct knowledge of the affair, for in thesecases concealment is almost as bad as the crime itself, and it must beremembered that I was not in a situation to put my head willingly intothe jaws of justice. I was, therefore, well contented that the robberyof the courier, and the murder of his escort, had passed totallywithout my personal cognisance, although I had no doubt whatever ofthe facts. To put myself as far, too, from the scene as possible, Igalloped on pretty quickly till I came to a carrefour, where the roadI was pursuing was crossed by that from St. Aubin to Rennes. It was atthe distance of at least ten miles from the scene of my lateadventures; and as I came up to it I perceived, seated on the littlemound of earth at the foot of the guide-post, a man in the dress of apedlar, with his box of wares laid down by his side. At first he wasturned in such a manner as to prevent me from seeing his face; but thesound of my horses' feet causing him to look round, he displayed acountenance garnished with a long black beard, an ornament which atthat time was beginning to fall into great disrepute throughout allcivilized Europe--so much so, indeed, that no such thing was to beseen in all France, except perhaps on the faces of Jews and Capuchins,and a few which had descended from the reign of Henri Quatre, andwere, I suppose, valued by their owners on the score of theirantiquity.
The one before me at present was voluminous and massy; but,nevertheless, it did not serve to conceal from me the identity of thewearer with an acquaintance whose face had boasted no such appendage afortnight before. I affected not to recognise him, however, and,dismounting from my horse--which instantly betrayed its ancient habitsby browsing the roadside--I sat down on the same mound with the othertraveller, and began conversing with him as a peddling Jew. He spokelearnedly and lamentably upon the evils and inconveniences of his ownprofession, and ended by moralising so sagely upon the necessity ofbearing our own portion of ills with constancy and calmness, that Icould not help exclaiming, "Ah! my dear philosopher, you are now quitecomplete: when I knew you on the Quai des Orf?vres you wanted nothingof Socrates but the beard."
Jacques Marlot shook his head. "Can your eyes see through stone walls,little serpent," he cried; "but remark what your good crowns have donefor me; procured me this box of trumpery, and a beard that is worthhalf the money."
"I am heartily glad to see you so well equipped," replied I; "althoughyour imprudence, joined to my own, had very nearly procured me ajourney to the Bastile, and has actually caused me to be stripped of athousand crowns." I then related to the ci-devant printer all that hadoccurred to me since we last met, and I was glad to find that hesincerely felt for all the inconveniences I had suffered, and pressedme to take back again the sum of five crowns, which was all that hehad remaining of the thirty I had given him. He declared at the sametime that he himself could do very well without, for that the contentsof his box, assisted by a fluent tongue and the gullibility of thepeasantry, had proved quite sufficient, since he began his new trade,to maintain him as well as he could desire, though, to say the truth,his taste for the good things of life was not the most moderate.
I refused to accept his offer, of course, telling him that money wasquite unnecessary to me, as I counted upon reaching the castle ofMonsieur de Villardin in less than an hour.
"You are quite mistaken, my son," he replied; "whether you mean hiscastle of the Pr?s Vall?e, or that of Dumont; the first being at thedistance of at least twenty, and the latter nearly forty miles fromthe place where we now stand."
This intelligence surprised me a good deal, as I found that I hadentirely miscalculated my situation, and had mistaken my road. JacquesMarlot, however, who, as well as his uncle, good Jerome Laborde, was anative of the country, and acquainted with every rood of ground roundabout, undertook to guide me on my way, and, walking my horse by hisside as he trudged on, we arrived within a few miles of Rennes thatnight. The next morning, after sleeping in one of the neighbouringvillages, we separated, he intending to proceed to St. Malo, to carryon his traffic with any of the seamen arriving from foreign ports, andI turned my steps in the direction of the Pr?s Vall?e, to which hepointed out the road.
No farther accident or adventure occurred to delay my arrival, and,about ten o'clock in the morning, I reached the place of mydestination. Here I was received with all due deference by thedomestics who tenanted the house, and delivered all the letters whichI bore to the farmers and receivers of Monsieur de Villardin.
Nothing could be more beautiful, though nothing could be more solemn,than the aspect of the castle, and the scene that surrounded it. Itwas a fortified house, of no great military strength, situated on aslight eminence, rising above the vast rich meadows that stretch formany miles along the borders of the Vilaine. These meadows werebroken--for I cannot call it separated--by large belts of magnificentforest trees, which seemed to owe their planting to the hand of naturerather than to that of man, but which, nevertheless, had been soskilfully thinned, that the boughs of one never interfered with theboughs of another; and each grew up in liberty, protecting, as itwere, under its branches, its own particular domain, withoutinfringing upon the bounds of its neighbour. Each of these beltsvaried in shape and distribution; but each left from fifty to sixtyacres of pasture ground clear and open within its circuit, with theriver generally forming the boundary on one side, and the treessweeping round on every other, so that each meadow seemed to be a spotof rich ground which had been cleared and cultivated ages ago, in themidst of a vast forest, the trees of which were still standing around.In fact, a person placed in the centre of any of these open spaces,saw nothing but wood beyond the meadow that surrounded him, till,walking on for a minute or two, under the shade of gigantic elms andoaks, he entered another wide pasture field like that he had justleft.
The effect of the whole would have been gloomy, had it not beenenlivened by the frequent turns of the river, and the sight of cattleand sheep feeding in the various savannahs, under the charge of theirseveral herds, who most frequently were found cheering the
iroccupation with a song. There was something calm, and simple, andpatriarchal in the whole scene, which struck me greatly as I passedthrough it; and I could have fancied myself removed by thousands ofyears and thousands of miles from the countries and the times throughwhich I had lately been moving.
The castle itself, built of cold grey stone, and covered in severalparts with ivy, was in perfect harmony with everything around it; andthe good taste of Monsieur de Villardin, who entered fully into thepeculiar character of the scene, had left all the furniture anddecorations of the house--which were rich and good, though in antiquestyle and form--exactly as they had come into his possession.
As I propose to write down in this book the changes of my dispositionand character as I advanced through life, as well as the various turnsof fortune that attended me in my progress through the world, I mustpause for a moment to speak of that which was passing within my ownheart, while the events which I have described were working out mygeneral fate.
A new spirit was about this time beginning to spring up in my bosom,and a taste for things that I never before enjoyed was every daydeveloping itself more and more. Whether it was that Lord Mastertonhad first called my attention to the beauties of nature, or whether itwas that before my acquaintance with him I never had time to think ofthem, I cannot tell; but certainly I began to feel a delight in theaspect of such scenes as the Pr?s Vall?e, which formerly I had neverexperienced; and during the first two or three days, I fancied that Icould remain there alone for ever.
I had not yet learned, it is true, to examine very closely what Ifelt, but I remember at the time thinking it strange, that whereas nottwo years before I could have passed through the fairest scenes innature without giving them any particular attention, unless they werelighted up by pike and gun, I now stopped to gaze, without wellknowing why, whenever anything that was fair or sweet met my eye. Imight not, indeed, look at Nature's face with the feelings of apainter or of a poet; but I certainly did begin to experience greatpleasure in the contemplation of a beautiful prospect, and would turnaway when I had done so, pleased, but thoughtful,--I might almost say,sad.
I felt this more than I had ever felt it before in the solitude of mynew dwelling, and many an hour I passed away in various sylvan sports,which, while they gave me active employment, still led me into thefairest scenes in the country round.
Nevertheless, I found myself bound in duty to Monsieur de Villardin tomake him acquainted with all the incidents of my journey; and thoughat that time I loved not sitting at a desk, even as long as wasrequired to write a short letter, yet, forcing myself to the task witha great effort, I detailed everything that had occurred to me, anddespatched the epistle to St. Aubin,--for I would not trust it atRennes--to go by the next ordinary courier to Paris. Nothing happenedto disturb my tranquillity for the ten days that followed, and Iremained fishing in the streams, or shooting the wolves and the boars,with very little intermission. On one occasion, indeed, having aletter to deliver from the Duke to his intendant at his other estateof Dumont, I rode over thither, and found a very different scene fromthat presented by the Pr?s Vall?e--rocks and mountains, and streamsand waterfalls, with a modern house, modern alleys, modern bridges,and modern furniture. In the mood which then possessed me, however, thePr?s Vall?e was more to my taste, and I returned to its calm shades assoon as possible, leaving the letter to be delivered to the intendant,who was absent at the time of my arrival.
At the end of ten days a courier reached the Pr?s Vall?e from Paris,bringing a large packet addressed to myself, on opening which I founda short letter from Monsieur de Villardin, directing me to wait for afortnight longer in Brittany for the purpose of bringing up the rentsof several of his farms, and referring to another more voluminouspaper contained in the same packet, which, as I soon perceived,expressed the will and pleasure of the King that no proceedings shouldtake place against John Marston Hall, for the rescue of a prisonerfrom the hands of the criminal lieutenant, and authorized him to pleadthe royal grace and pardon in all matters referring thereto.
This, as may well be supposed, afforded a great relief to my mind, forit was by no means pleasant to go about the world with the fear of theBastile hanging about the neck of one's imagination. Although I hadnow no apprehensions from the pursuit of justice, I soon began to feelthe solitude of the Pr?s Vall?e less delightful than it had seemed atfirst; and though, had there been any one to share my sports, or tooccupy my time, I should still have enjoyed it much; yet the hoursgradually became somewhat tiresome, shut up in an old castle, withnothing but solemn woods around one, and a library of old books for mysole companions. I now, however, found the Latin with which LordMasterton had furnished me turn to some account; and after having readOvid two or three times through, I dipped into Lucan, and pored overseveral other books, in order to while away the evenings.
At length, with infinite joy, I heard that the rents were all paidinto the hands of the intendant, with the exception of a small sum,which was expected the next day; and I directed the courier, who hadremained for the purpose of returning with me to Paris, to prepare forour journey on the third day. Scarcely had I given the order, however,when a letter reached me, brought by the King's ordinary to Rennes. Itwas in the hand-writing of Monsieur de Villardin, and contained but afew words, which were evidently written under feelings of agitation orhaste. In this billet, for letter I can scarcely call it, he directedme to forbear my journey, as he himself and his whole household wouldbe at the Pr?s Vall?e in six days from the date of his letter; and hethen went on to bid me communicate this fact to the various domesticsin the ch?teau, in order that it might be prepared, as usual, for hisreception.
This change of destination was not unpleasant to me, for all I nowwanted was society and occupation; and, prevented as I had been, by myyouth and my English birth, from entering into the debaucheries orfactions of Paris, its routine had become wearisome to me even beforeI quitted it. All was now bustle in the ch?teau. As the autumn wascoming on, fires were lighted in every apartment, and busy hands wereengaged in removing the dust which, during the last two years, hadaccumulated in the untenanted rooms. My solitary residence of a monthin the midst of such scenes as those around me had, I believe, donemore to call forth whatever portion of imagination entered into thecomposition of John Marston Hall than all the events of his formerlife. Lord Masterton, as I had before said, had done a good deal, itis true; but even when I quitted him, my great thirst was for action,not for thought. Now a new ingredient seemed mingling with my nature:I began to view the things around me in a different light; and thoughI would fain have had some one to converse with, yet I could dreameven alone. Thus, during the next two or three days, when the eveninghad closed in, and I was left in the old library by myself, afterreading for an hour or two, I would rise, and without a candle, wanderthrough all the dim vast halls and gloomy chambers of the Pr?s Vall?e,watching the flickering light of the fires, kindled in each chamber toscare away the damp, as the flame flashed faintly from time to timeupon the rich arras and dark hangings, and dreaming all the time ofheaven knows what compound of scenes and adventures which thosechambers might have witnessed in times past.
My conduct in these respects, indeed, was somewhat strangelymisconstrued by an old female domestic who always remained in thehouse; but as the misconstruction was all to my advantage, I had noreason to complain. By a little civility and kindness, I hadestablished with her the character of a complete ph[oe]nix of pages;and I afterwards found that old Marguerite assured Madame deVillardin, on her arrival, that I had every night made a complete tourof the ch?teau to see that the fires were burning, and the roomsproperly aired. At length, after waiting two days in hourlyexpectation of the coming of Monsieur de Villardin, an avant-courierarrived, and in about two hours more the cavalcade appeared in theavenue. In Paris, where one never saw the whole household of the Dukecollected, one was not aware of the numbers it contained; but now,when two carriages, each containing eight people, and drawn by sixhorses, were followed up
to the gates by twenty-four horsemen, onebegun to have a much more respectful idea of Monsieur de Villardin'sestablishment than one had formerly entertained. The Duke himself wason horseback; and, springing to the ground the first, he gave his handto the Duchess, who appeared to me pale and languid. Both spoke kindlyto me: but I could clearly perceive that something was wrong in thedomestic comfort of the family; and I soon found that the defects ofMonsieur de Villardin's temper and character had not been greatlyimproved since I had left Paris. Old Jerome Laborde was my principaloracle in these matters, and from him I learned, that for some weeksthe Duchess had been very gay in the capital; had been outcontinually, except when she received company at home, and had beenuniversally admired and praised. All this had been less agreeable toMonsieur de Villardin than it might have been to a man of a more happydisposition; and after becoming irritable and morose in a considerabledegree, he had suddenly announced his determination of retiring toBrittany.
Madame de Villardin, unconscious of offence herself, and, as mostwomen do, mistaking her husband's character, endeavoured to argue himout of his resolution. A discussion ensued, the particulars of whichdid not transpire, even to the all inquiring ears of soubrettes andvalets de chambre; but the whole household perceived that it must havebeen bitter and severe, for when it was over, Madame de Villardin wasfound fainting, and bathed in tears. The arrangements for departurewere hurried from that moment: and before three days were over, thewhole party were on their way to the Pr?s Vall?e.
As the old man told me this story spontaneously, I thought I might, atleast, venture to ask whether he believed the Duke to have any realcause for the jealousy that he evidently felt.
"None on earth," replied the major-domo. "My lady is gay and lively,and loves well enough to be admired: but she loves my lord dearly, weare all convinced; and, depend upon it, no woman ever went astray yetwithout the servants finding it out."
The Little Ball O' Fire; or, the Life and Adventures of John Marston Hall Page 12